The Complete Commentaries: On the Epistles of Saint Paul, the Psalms, and the Lord's Prayer
Date: 2026-08-15T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Biblical commentary; Orthodox commentary on the Psalms; Orthodox Bible commentary; Pauline epistles commentary; Church Fathers on Paul; patristic New Testament commentary; Russian Orthodox spirituality; complete commentaries collection; Religion & Spirituality; Bibles / Bible Study & Reference / Commentaries; Christianity / Orthodox
Description: Saint Theophan the Recluse gave much of his life in seclusion to a single task: opening the Scriptures to ordinary believers. This volume gathers the whole of that labor — his commentaries on all fourteen Pauline letters, from Romans through the Hebrews he did not live to finish, together with his exposition of Psalm 118 — and adds his shorter exegetical works: the expositions of selected psalms, his resolution of the perplexities of the unjust steward and the hundredfold promise, and his interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer gathered from the words of the Holy Fathers. Exact in doctrine and war

The Complete Commentaries

On the Epistles of Saint Paul, the Psalms, and the Lord’s Prayer

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Royal Archives

2026

Copyright

The modern English translation and the cover design are © 2026 Royal Archives. All rights reserved.

The underlying source text is in the public domain.

Published by Royal Archives

First published 2026

Translated by Royal Archives

Source: Творения иже во святых отца нашего Феофана Затворника: Толкования посланий апостола Павла; Псалом сто-осмнадцатый; Избранные псалмы; Псалмы 37-й и 3-й; Разрешение недоумений; Истолкование молитвы Господней словами святых отцов.

Cover: Portrait of Saint Theophan the Recluse (warm-toned) by Unknown (19th-century lithograph), Wikimedia Commons, which is in the public domain.

Edition identifier: urn:royalarchives:complete_commentaries:en:1

Editor’s Introduction

Saint Theophan and the Pauline Commentaries

Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815–1894) was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church who, in 1866, laid down the government of his diocese and withdrew to the Vyshensky Hermitage. There he spent his last decades in prayer and unceasing work, and from that seclusion came the writings for which he is remembered: guides to the spiritual life, his Russian recasting of the Philokalia, a vast pastoral correspondence, and the long series of commentaries on the letters of the Apostle Paul that is gathered in this book.

The commentaries were not composed as a single treatise but written and published over many years, one epistle at a time, each addressed to the believers who wrote to him for guidance. Read together, they form something their author never quite assembled in his own lifetime: a continuous Orthodox reading of nearly the whole Pauline corpus, from the towering argument of Romans to the brief and tender note to Philemon. To set them side by side is to watch one steady mind move through the entire mind of the Apostle.

The Scope of This Volume

The book contains Saint Theophan’s commentaries on all fourteen letters that tradition ascribes to the Apostle Paul, arranged in their customary order: Romans; the two letters to the Corinthians; Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians; the two letters to the Thessalonians; the two to Timothy, then Titus and Philemon; and last of all Hebrews. To these is added his commentary on Psalm 118, the great meditation on the law of God that he loved and expounded in the same spirit. Each work keeps its own introduction, so the reader may take up any single epistle and find it whole.

After Psalm 118 comes a short appendix of Theophan’s other exegetical labors, gathered here so that his commentary on Scripture may be found whole in one place. First are his expositions of selected psalms—Psalms 1, 2, 33, and 51 in the Slavonic numbering, together with two of the psalms sung at Matins, Psalms 37 and 3—read in the same union of close attention and ascetical warmth. Then comes an essay of a different kind: A Resolution of Perplexities, in which he turns from the Apostle to the Gospel and untangles two of its hardest knots—the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16) and the Lord’s promise of a hundredfold reward to those who forsake all (Matthew 19)—showing how even their difficulties open onto the way of salvation. Last of all stands a work Theophan compiled rather than wrote: An Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer in the Words of the Holy Fathers, which carries the reader through the Our Father petition by petition, letting the ancient Fathers expound each clause in their own words. It is a fitting close—a book that has followed Theophan across the whole of Scripture ends with the prayer the Lord Himself gave, opened by the Church he served.

One work stands apart. The commentary on Hebrews is the one Theophan did not live to complete: he left a full introduction to the Epistle and an exposition that breaks off early in the first chapter. It is placed last among the epistles and printed as he left it, with his editor’s note that the work remained unfinished. What survives is still a rich guide, for in the introduction he sets out the whole design of the letter before the close exposition begins.

Theophan’s Method

Throughout, Theophan reads Paul in the company of the Fathers. On almost every page he draws together the great interpreters of the Apostle—above all Saint John Chrysostom, whose homilies he quotes at length, together with Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, Theophylact of Ohrid, Oecumenius, Photius, and the Latin commentator known as Ambrosiaster. In the manner of a patristic catena, a “chain” of excerpts from earlier authorities, he lets each witness speak, weighs them where they differ, and draws their common mind into one continuous reading. His own labor is to bind their comments to the flow of Paul’s reasoning and to make the whole intelligible.

To this inherited learning he adds the distinctive warmth of Russian spiritual writing. He is never content to leave a doctrine in the abstract; he presses it upon the conscience, upon prayer, upon the daily struggle against sin. Grace, faith, justification, and the life in the Spirit are for him not only truths to be defended but powers to be lived. This union of exact exegesis with ascetical earnestness gives the commentaries their particular character, and it is why they have nourished Orthodox readers far beyond the study.

How to Read This Volume

There is no need to read the epistles in order, though the reader who begins with Romans will find in it the fullest statement of the gospel and a key to much that follows. Theophan takes the text in short portions, pausing over a verse or a few verses to open the argument, clear away difficulties, and turn the sense toward the reader’s own soul. It helps to keep a copy of the Epistle itself close at hand and to read his comment only after the Apostle’s own words; the many quotations from the Fathers are not digressions but the substance of the exposition, the Church’s long memory of how these words have been understood.

Above all, the commentaries ask to be read as Theophan wrote them—not merely to master Paul’s teaching but to be changed by it. For him the letters of the Apostle are finally an account of the soul’s passage from the death of sin to peace with God and life in the Spirit. Read in that spirit, this is not a book about the past but a companion for the reader’s own way to salvation.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

Introduction

The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilievich Govorov on 10 January 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Oryol province of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. He was schooled in the seminaries of his region and then at the Kiev Theological Academy, where he was tonsured a monk and given the name Theophan. Ordained in 1841, he taught and led in a succession of theological schools, served for a time with the Russian ecclesiastical mission in the Holy Land and at Constantinople, and in 1859 was consecrated bishop, first of Tambov and then, four years later, of Vladimir. He was, by every account, a capable and beloved shepherd. Yet the labor his heart had long inclined toward was another one. In 1866 he petitioned to be released from the administration of a diocese and withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage, a quiet monastery in the Tambov countryside. Some years into that retirement he entered a strict reclusion, seeing almost no one, keeping a small chapel where he served the Liturgy alone, and giving the whole of his remaining strength to prayer, to an immense correspondence with those who sought his counsel, and to writing. He died there on 6 January 1894, the eve of the feast of Theophany whose name he bore. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints in 1988.

From the seclusion of Vysha came the body of work for which he is now chiefly remembered. He rendered the Philokalia, the great anthology of the Greek ascetic Fathers, into Russian, opening its treasury of prayer to a wide readership. He wrote guides to the spiritual life that are still read wherever Russian is read—books on the path to salvation and on the shape of the interior life—and thousands of letters of direction. Alongside these he undertook a sustained labor of biblical exposition, and above all a commentary running across nearly the whole of the Apostle Paul’s correspondence: Romans, both letters to the Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, both to the Thessalonians, the letters to Timothy and Titus, and Philemon. Among these the commentary on Romans is the largest, and stands as the fullest single expression of his method as an interpreter of Paul.

The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The Epistle to the Romans is the longest and most closely reasoned of Paul’s letters, and from the earliest Christian centuries it has been read as the fullest written statement of his gospel. Its own occasion is unusual among the letters. Paul was writing to a church he had neither founded nor yet seen. As Theophan reconstructs the situation from the letter itself and from the book of Acts, the Christian community at Rome had grown up without an apostle’s founding hand—carried there, most likely, by Jews of the capital who had come to faith on visits to Jerusalem, and by believers scattered from Rome under the emperor Claudius and later returned. It was a congregation drawn from both Jews and Gentiles, and by the time Paul wrote, the Gentile believers had come to predominate. Theophan gives careful attention to the old tradition that the Apostle Peter founded the Roman church, and concludes, from Paul’s own silence about any such foundation, that Peter cannot have been at Rome when the letter was written; the church, he judges, had been established by others invested with apostolic authority, among them the returned exiles Paul greets by name in his final chapter.

Paul wrote, on Theophan’s reckoning, in the year 58 or 59, from Corinth, during the three-month stay recorded in Acts—a dating that falls within the mid-to-late 50s that later scholarship has generally settled on. He was about to carry to Jerusalem a collection gathered in Macedonia and Achaia for the poor of that church, and he hoped afterward to reach Rome at last and press on to the west. The letter was entrusted to Phoebe, a deaconess of the port town of Cenchreae near Corinth, who was traveling to the capital; her journey supplied the immediate occasion, since Paul commends her to the Roman believers and asks their help. But Theophan is careful to distinguish this occasion from the deeper motive. The commendation of Phoebe could have been said in a sentence. What moved Paul to send instead the longest and weightiest of all his letters was an apostolic burden of his own: a desire, which Theophan reads as prompted by the Spirit, to set before a church he had never visited the whole way of salvation he preached, so that his teaching and theirs might be brought into one accord before he came. The hoped-for visit, unknown to Paul, would be delayed for years and would come at last only in chains; the letter, Theophan suggests, was given to stand in its place.

Argument and Structure

Theophan reads Romans in the shape the ancient commentators gave it, and his own exposition follows that shape closely. After his own set of preliminary chapters—on the origin and composition of the Roman church, the time and place of writing, and the occasion and purpose—he treats the letter in four movements. A brief preface covers the opening address and the announcement of the theme (Romans 1:1–17). A long doctrinal part sets forth salvation in Christ (1:18–11:36). A moral part draws out the life that answers to that salvation (12:1–15:13). A warm conclusion of travel plans, greetings, and doxology closes the whole (15:14–16:24). The reader who keeps this frame in view will not lose the thread through Paul’s most demanding passages.

The theme is announced at the very start: the gospel is “the power of God to salvation to every one that believes,” for in it “the righteousness of God” is revealed “from faith to faith” (Romans 1:16–17). The long doctrinal part unfolds that announcement. Paul first shows that the whole race lies under sin—the Gentiles who suppressed the truth they might have known, and the Jews who possessed the law yet broke it—so that no one, on his own account, stands acquitted before God, and the law can only bring sin to knowledge (1:18–3:20). Against this darkness Paul sets God’s own remedy: a righteousness given through faith in Jesus Christ, “set forth as a propitiation” in his blood, offered alike to Jew and Gentile without distinction (3:21–31). This is confirmed from the Scriptures in the example of Abraham, justified by faith before the law and circumcision were given (chapter 4), and its fruits are then unfolded—peace with God, and the sweep of salvation history in which the one man Adam, through whom sin and death entered, is answered by the one man Christ, through whom grace superabounds to life (chapter 5).

From here the argument turns to the new life itself. Baptism unites the believer to the death and resurrection of Christ, that he may walk in newness of life and no longer serve sin (chapter 6). The law, holy in itself, could name sin but not master it, and the divided self of the seventh chapter—willing the good it cannot do—waits for a deliverance the law could not give. That deliverance is the theme of the eighth chapter, the summit of the doctrinal part: life in the Spirit, in which there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, the Spirit bears witness that believers are children and heirs of God, the whole creation groans toward its own redemption, and the chain of God’s purpose runs unbroken from foreknowledge to glory, so that nothing in all creation can separate the believer from the love of Christ. There follows the searching treatment of Israel in chapters nine through eleven, where Paul, in grief over the unbelief of his own people, wrestles with the freedom of God’s election, the remnant preserved by grace, the grafting of the Gentiles into the ancient olive, and the mystery by which God’s mercy is at last shown to all. Theophan places these three chapters, with the tradition, inside the doctrinal part rather than apart from it: they belong to the one account of how God saves.

The moral part turns all of this doctrine into life. It opens with the call to present the body “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God” (12:1), and moves through the gifts that build up the one body of Christ, the marks of unfeigned love, the duties owed to civil authority, the debt of love that fulfills the law, and—at length—the patient bearing of one another between the “strong” and the “weak” in matters of food and observance, that the community might be of one mind to the glory of God. The concluding chapters return to Paul himself: his account of his ministry among the Gentiles, his plans and his request for the Romans’ prayers, a long roll of personal greetings, a final warning against those who cause division, and the closing doxology to the God who is able to establish them.

Theophan’s Method: Reading Romans with the Fathers

Theophan’s exposition is, before anything else, a work of tradition. He does not read Romans alone but in the company of the Church’s great interpreters of Paul, and on nearly every page he gathers, weighs, and weaves together their comments. The presiding voice throughout is that of Saint John Chrysostom, whose homilies on Romans he quotes more than any other source and whose grasp of Paul’s pastoral logic sets the tone of the whole. With Chrysostom he reads, most often and at length, the terse dogmatic commentary of Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus; the exposition of Theophylact, the eleventh-century archbishop of Ohrid, whose gloss of the Greek Fathers Theophan draws on constantly; the catena-commentator Oecumenius; the Latin expositor known as Ambrosiaster; and, more occasionally, Photius of Constantinople, with briefer recourse to Augustine, Origen, and others. The pattern is that of a patristic catena, a “chain” of excerpts from earlier authorities: Theophan lets each witness speak in his own words, sets them side by side, adjudicates where they diverge, and draws their common mind into one continuous reading of the text before him. His originality lies less in novel interpretation than in the sureness with which he binds these voices to the movement of Paul’s argument and makes the whole intelligible.

To this patristic foundation he joins the register of Russian spiritual direction that marks all his work. He is never content to leave a doctrine in the abstract. Having established what a passage means, he presses it upon the conscience, into prayer, into the daily struggle against sin—for he wrote not for scholars but for believers who wished to understand the Apostle and to live by him. Justification, grace, and faith are for him truths to be defended and also powers to be lived. This union of exact, tradition-anchored exegesis with an ascetical warmth turned toward the reader’s own soul is what gives the commentary its particular character, and it is why Theophan’s Romans has nourished readers far beyond the study.

Because the letter is so densely woven of Old Testament citation—nowhere more than in chapters nine through eleven and again in the appeals of the moral part—the Scripture throughout is quoted in the text the Church received: the Slavonic and Synodal Russian Bible, whose Old Testament follows the Greek of the Septuagint in its wording and numbering. Where Paul’s quotations differ from a reader’s familiar Bible, that received text stands behind them, and Theophan expounds them as they came to him.

Theological and Spiritual Significance

At the doctrinal heart of Romans stands the revelation of the righteousness of God, and it is here that Theophan’s reading is most characteristic. He understands justification not as a bare verdict pronounced over a sinner who remains unchanged, but as at once a forgiveness and a real inward renewal. Faith in Christ, he writes, following the mind of the Fathers, is the door through which the believer “receives forgiveness of sins and the grace of the Holy Spirit, which, having entered the heart, casts out sin from it and dwells righteousness within it.” Pardon and power are given together; the one who is accounted righteous is made, over time, actually to become so. Faith, on this reading, is never idle—it binds the believer to holiness and issues necessarily in a changed life. This is the pattern the wider Christian tradition has called synergy, the working together of divine grace and human freedom, and it runs through the whole of Theophan’s teaching. The great themes of the letter are all read in its light: the fall and raising of the race in Adam and Christ, the death and rising with Christ enacted in baptism, the liberation of the captive will into the life of the Spirit, and the final unsearchable mercy of God toward all.

Presented in this way, the doctrine of Romans is framed not as the property of one confession but as the common inheritance of Christians—the account, held across the traditions, of how a sinner is reconciled to God and brought to new life. Theophan writes as a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the settled Eastern reading of grace and freedom is everywhere present in his pages; yet he writes irenically, expounding Paul’s gospel rather than pressing any polemic. For him the letter is finally the map of a single journey, the soul’s passage out of the wrath and death of sin into peace with God and life in the Spirit—and the commentary exists to help the reader make that journey his own.

The Text and This Edition

This edition presents Theophan’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans in a fresh, complete English translation prepared from his Russian original. The text translated is the commentary as published in the collected works issued by the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon on Mount Athos in the pre-revolutionary period—the standard edition of Theophan’s expositions of the Pauline epistles, long in the public domain—as digitized in the Russian source used for this translation. The rendering is into modern, readable English throughout, and the many Scripture quotations are given in a faithful modern register consistent with the Slavonic and Synodal text that Theophan himself cited, preserving the Septuagint basis of his Old Testament references.

In keeping with the conventions of this series, the work is attributed as the Church has always received its author—Saint Theophan the Recluse—and those who carried his Russian into English are credited as translators, never as authors. Chapter and verse citations are set in the modern Arabic style familiar to today’s readers, so that a reference such as Romans 6:22 appears in that form rather than in older Roman-numeral notation. The doctrinally weighted passages of the letter—the revelation of God’s righteousness and justification by faith, the parallel of Adam and Christ, baptism into Christ’s death, the seventh chapter’s account of sin and the law, the eighth chapter’s life in the Spirit, and the treatment of Israel’s election in chapters nine through eleven—were collated against the Russian with particular care, so that Theophan’s precise sense in these places is carried over intact. The commentary is presented as an English edition in its own right, complete and self-standing, for readers who wish to follow the Apostle to the Romans in the company of one of the Russian Church’s most trusted guides.

Suggestions for Reading

Romans rewards patience. Its arguments are tightly linked, and a difficulty in one verse is often resolved a few verses on; Theophan’s practice of taking short passages in order is designed to carry the reader through without haste. It helps to keep the Epistle itself close at hand and to turn to Theophan’s comment only after reading the Apostle’s own words for a given passage. The many quotations from Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, and the rest are not digressions but the substance of the exposition—the Church’s long memory of how these words have been understood. Above all, the commentary asks to be read as it was written: not merely to master Paul’s teaching, but to be changed by it.

Introduction

The Illumination of the Romans by Faith

The Apostle Paul writes to the Romans without having seen them. For it was not he who illuminated them by faith: faith came to them by another means, – it came and formed from them a glorious Christian fellowship, the fame of which, at the time the Epistle was written, was proclaimed “throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8). But how did this come to pass?

How this came to pass is not explicitly indicated. But we can construct concerning this very plausible conjectures.

In Clement’s Recognitions (Clemens Romanus. Recognitiones. 1:6) it is said that, even during the visible presence of the Lord on earth, tidings of Him and His works reached the Romans and awakened not only wonder at Him, but also faith in Him. This account cannot be doubted. In Rome, from the time of the subjugation of the Jews by Pompey (63 years before the birth of Christ), a multitude of Jews began to live, and a special quarter was later set apart for them beyond the Tiber. But, living there, they did not grow distant from their homeland, particularly from Jerusalem, and they went there for the feasts, and especially for the greatest—Passover. Those who visited Jerusalem could not only hear of the Lord but also see Him and believe in Him; then, returning to Rome, relate of Him to others and awaken in some the desire to see Him themselves, so that they too might believe, while in others directly faith. New visitors to Jerusalem could return as new believers and bring new faith-awakening tidings. Thus, even before the crucifixion and resurrection, the Lord could have had many worshippers among the Jews living in Rome.

On the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, among the other witnesses of this event were also Romans (Acts 2:10). Three thousand believers were baptized on that day. It is quite unlikely that among such a number there was not a single Roman, especially if there were some among them who had been prepared beforehand. This believer who came to faith and was baptized, if he was one, or several such, if not one, returning to Rome, could have baptized all the previously prepared and added new believers to them. Baptism was accompanied then by wondrous changes in those baptized and served as an undeniable sign of the truth of the faith of those being baptized. And this could not fail to draw to the Lord those who were destined to be from His household. Granting this, we must agree that since leaven placed in mixed flour could not remain without effect, so the community of believers must have grown, attracting new worshippers of the Lord not only from the Jews but also from the proselytes (A proselyte is a pagan converted to Judaism), and through them from other pagans as well. This action could be intensified if we assume that among the new visitors to Jerusalem, some returned as believers and baptized; which is not at all surprising. Moreover, to Rome there always flowed from various places a multitude of people, some of whom remained there, either on account of their business or to live there altogether. Among such could have been believers, both Jews and Gentiles, who could not there be without connection to the community of believers. By all these probabilities, how many believers could have been formed in Rome in the course of already twenty-five years of the existence of Christ’s Church on earth, before the writing of the Epistle to the Romans? And here is the community of believers whose faith was proclaimed throughout the whole world!

But by this way one can explain only how such a multitude of believers and baptized ones were formed in Rome; but the establishment of the Church from them in its full order and structure cannot be so explained. Anyone could baptize, and baptism at once showed forth all its power evidently for all; but the reception of the gifts of the Holy Spirit was possible only through the laying on of hands of the holy Apostles or of those appointed by them—bishops (nowadays Chrismation). Meanwhile the holy Paul, writing in the Epistle rules of life for the Romans, mentions various gracious gifts acting in them—prophecy, teaching, presiding or church precedence (Rom. 12:6–8). This means that there the Church was in its full structure. But how could this have come to pass? Either one of the Apostles was there and personally established the Church in that place, or one of the Apostles appointed another, worthy and trusted, and entrusted him to establish it and govern it. And it appears as fully established and preserving the common order and discipline of all the Churches. What then are we to accept?

The tradition of the Roman Church says that the holy Peter was in Rome and established Christ’s Church there—that he arrived there after his miraculous deliverance from prison, into which he had been cast by Herod (Acts 12:3–11), in the year 43 after the birth of Christ, and from this time for twenty-five years was bishop in Rome. That the holy Peter could have been in Rome cannot be denied on the ground that he is the Apostle to the Jews: for even in this capacity he was to work not only in Jerusalem and not only in Judea, but in all other places where Jews lived in great numbers. This cannot be denied on the ground that, according to the Acts, the holy Peter, after his deliverance from prison, was in Jerusalem during the Apostolic Council, then soon in Antioch, and further in Babylon, whether that be the Egyptian city or the ancient Babylon. From these indications it is clear only that the holy Peter did not remain constantly in Rome; but on the basis of them it cannot be considered impossible that the holy Peter was in Rome and established the Church there. He could have been there and, having accomplished his work, departed to other places, as his apostolic duty required. Five years passed between the deliverance of the holy Peter from prison and the Council; and to go to Rome from Palestine and accomplish the necessary work would take only a year.

With all that, the presence of the holy Peter in Rome and his personal work in the establishment of the Church there cannot be considered certain. That the holy Peter was not in Rome when the Epistle was written by the holy Paul—of this there is no doubt. And the holy Paul would not have written to them at all if the holy Peter had been there; or, if he had nevertheless decided to write for some important reasons, he could not have written directly to the community of Christians, without any relation to the holy Peter, with whom he was on terms of sincere affection. But the fact that the establishment of the Church there is not indebted for its beginning to the holy Peter alone is also evident from the Epistle. For in some way the holy Paul would have hinted at this, according to the usual order among men. And it must be added that he was even obliged to do so, if it were truly the case, for the honour of faith and the Apostleship of Christ. For what sort of Apostles are they when they do not wish even to know of the labours of those set over them, and what sort of faith is it that comes from such teachers? The Apostle praises their faith: what could be a greater praise for them in this respect than the indication that it was planted by the chief Apostle, and that their very loyalty to the faith thereby acquires special weight? If nothing of the sort is in the Epistle, then we must accept that the holy Peter had not then acted personally in Rome. Moreover, if to write the Epistle and to teach means to build, and the Apostle Paul was not accustomed to build upon another’s foundation, then it is difficult to suppose that he would decide even to write an Epistle, unless by the commission of the holy Peter himself. If he writes, and on his own initiative, then it means that the Apostolic foot had not yet been in Rome.

Thus we must firmly conclude that the holy Peter was not in Rome before the writing of the Epistle to the Romans by the holy Paul. Nor was he there before the end of the first imprisonment of the holy Paul: for otherwise he would have mentioned this in some of his Epistles, and he, whenever he writes of himself, always speaks in such a way that the presence at that time of any other Apostle in Rome cannot be supposed. If the holy Peter was in Rome, it was only after the first imprisonment there of the holy Paul.—So then, who authoritatively established the Roman Church?

Someone from those invested with Apostolic authority. One can be satisfied with this, without seeking a more precise determination of who exactly. That the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the presiding in the Church could appear in Rome in no other way than through succession from the Apostles, this is certain; but how exactly this was accomplished, owing to a lack of evidence, we cannot say.—One can conjecture, and namely thus: the persons to whom the holy Paul sends his greetings were evidently very close to him and well known to him. Where and how did he become acquainted and intimate with them? Just there and in the same way as he became acquainted and intimate with Priscilla and Aquila, who stand at the head of those greeted. That is, all of them are exiles from Rome, scattered throughout Greece, Macedonia, and Asia, where they met the holy Paul, and some were illuminated by him with faith, others were more confirmed in faith, and some became his fellow-workers in the work of the Gospel. After the death of Claudius, under Nero, they have now all returned to Rome, and the holy Paul sends them his good wishes. So they were in Rome before; meanwhile some of them are called chosen ones, labourers for the Lord, and skilled in His work. And Andronicus and Junia are directly called notable “among the Apostles” (Rom. 16:7), believers in the Lord even before the holy Paul himself. And here are the founders of the Church of Rome, invested with authority from the Apostles, though we cannot assign this work definitely to this one or that one.

In this connection, such a conjecture about the formation of the tradition comes to mind, namely that the Roman Church was personally founded by the holy Peter. If we accept that the first believers in Rome were from among those converted and baptized on the day of Pentecost, when the holy Peter is represented as acting chiefly, and other believers there were either converted by these or learned faith similarly to them on other feasts in Jerusalem, then it would be completely just for the believers in Rome to consider the holy Peter as their spiritual father and to derive their faith from him. All subsequent believers, as many as were added, were grafted into this root, and the thought of the origin of Christ’s faith in Rome from the holy Peter could be universal among Christians. When later the holy Peter suffered a martyr’s death in Rome, the tradition, fusing the end with the beginning, came to derive the very origin of the Romans’ faith from the personal activity of the holy Peter in Rome. Thus this was later introduced into historical records: Eusebius’ Chronicle under the year 43, Jerome’s book “De viris illustribus” (cap. 1), Orosius’ history (7, 6).

The Composition of the Roman Church

Some think that the Roman Church consisted predominantly of Jews, others that it consisted of Gentiles. It is more accurate to say that at first there were more Jews, but then there became more Gentiles, – and this was even by the time the Epistle was written. Here is what leads to this conclusion! As soon as Jews appeared in Rome, they began to attract to themselves proselytes, both full and partial. Noble souls were oppressed by pagan superstitions and wicked customs. The truth hidden in the Jewish faith breathed soothingly upon their spirit, and they began to bow before it. This work proceeded so successfully that it could not fail to be noticed; and Seneca, seeing this, said that the conquered impose laws of faith upon the conquerors, and Juvenal mocked the Jews among the Romans and especially Roman women who converted. But if Judaism so attracted awakened souls, how much more could Christianity do this? Christianity did not give mere truth, but along with it communicated a new, gracious life. This was palpable for all. Could such a palpable advantage remain without special action on those who sought the better?! And we see that Jewish proselytes everywhere almost immediately turned to the Gospel as soon as it reached their ears, and became Christians. This was because Christianity gave complete satisfaction to their spirit, and because, in becoming Christians, they became full members of the believing community, whereas Jewish proselytism held them, as it were, at the gates of God’s house, which the Jews imagined themselves to be living in. As it happened everywhere, so it was in Rome. From the beginning there were more believers from among the Jews, but not an overwhelming multitude. There were many from the Gentiles as well.

Why were the Jews expelled from Rome by Claudius? Because, as Suetonius noted, disturbances kept arising among them on account of Christ. This gives the idea that faith in Christ the Lord was acting victoriously among the Jews and greatly irritating the restless zealots of Judaism. If we recall what happened with the archdeacon Stephen or later with the Apostle Paul in Philippi and Thessalonica, in Corinth and Ephesus, we can imagine what was happening in Rome on account of the Jews—disturbance after disturbance. Now noise and outcry, tomorrow the same. The government kept trying to quell it and finally resolved to expel them all from Rome so they would not disturb the public peace. It did not go deeply into the matter; it only heard that the disturbers of peace were shouting the name of Christ, and remained with the idea that He somehow was inciting them. Once they scatter to various places, it supposed, they will not be able to form such riotous parties as they form in Rome; but in any case Rome will remain at peace without them.

From this circumstance one cannot conclude that the first Christians were only from among the Jews and that disturbances arose among them, now fathers against sons, now sons against fathers, now neighbours against neighbours and the like, on account of their defection from the faith of their fathers. There could be many cases where disturbance arose on account of the loss of proselytes or female proselytes, as the disturbances against the holy Paul in Philippi, Thessalonica, and other places suggest. In such a case, the disturbance from their quarter must have spread into the city itself. This perhaps especially prompted the government to take stern measures.—From this it follows: since the expulsion of the Jews was not for faith but for disturbances, this punishment should not have touched the believers from among the Gentiles. They remained in Rome and began on their own to be Christian, developing both inwardly in spirit and outwardly in numbers: for the grace of God is not bound by external restrictive measures and does not regard faces. There could remain among them pastors—guides—and the community could grow and increase.—Here is the circumstance which gave the believers from the Gentiles the preponderance over the believers from the Jews in Rome. For although some of the expelled Jews could have come to believe in the Lord in exile and returned to Rome as believers, others, from those who believed before the expulsion, could have found themselves a peaceful place somewhere during the expulsion and remained there forever. Thus the believers from the Jews could not increase in number; whereas the believers from the Gentiles, remaining peacefully in place, could not fail to attract other believers to themselves and grow in number.

This same circumstance also served as a reason for the Christian community to become completely separated from the Jews. The believers from the Gentiles of themselves could not gravitate toward them, and now, after several years of life and action apart from them, it was impossible to compel them to enter into any communion with them. But the believers from the Jews, in exile, having more freedom to live according to themselves, according to the spirit of the new faith, grew accustomed to separate themselves from other Jews, and especially those who withdrew into regions which fell within the sphere of action of the holy Paul. There they everywhere encountered Christian communities separated from the Jews, and from them learned how to conduct such a religious life.—With such preparation, the believing Jews, upon returning to Rome, were not troubled and were not disturbed by any doubt as to how they should regard the Jews. They directly separated from them and entered into communion with the believers from the Gentiles, thus forming with them a single whole. From the greetings of the holy Paul to some of these returned ones, it is evident that they entered there into the order of those who guide and direct the affairs of religious life. Aquila and Priscilla already have a household church; others are greeted not alone but with the brethren with them, or with all the holy ones with them, – which also indicates household churches with them.—From this we must conclude that the believing Jews, upon returning to Rome, completely purified from Judaism, merged with the believers from the Gentiles. The Roman Church became a Church completely in the spirit of the holy Paul, that is, such as a truly Christian Church ought to be. This separation of the believers from the Jews became sharply marked upon the arrival of the holy Paul in Rome, two years after the Epistle. The believers come out to meet him up to the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns; from the other Jews, no one. And then three whole days passed, and none of them came to greet him: so that the holy Paul was forced to invite them to himself, to give them exact information about himself, – that he is not in fetters on account of any fault, but “for the hope of Israel I am bound with these chains” (Acts 28:20). He did this so they would not spread false rumour about him and thereby prevent those who wished to hear the word of the Gospel from coming to him. The leaders were invited; and with what coldness did they answer the holy Paul: we have not heard of you and received no letters! This was said falsely. And in the words that follow: “but we desire to hear from you what you think; for concerning this sect we know that it is spoken against everywhere” (Acts 28:22) – there is heard an undisguised aversion to the Gospel proclamation. But not all were such; for when on the appointed day the holy Paul had reasoned with the Jews gathered in great numbers, many believed (Acts 28:24), and many came to hear him afterwards and, of course, were added to the believers.

Thus far extend all the information about the Roman Church; but it is sufficient to form a correct understanding of the Epistle of the holy Paul to the Romans.

When and Where the Epistle Was Written

Even before writing the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the holy Paul determined in his spirit, having passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “When I have been there, it is necessary for me to see Rome also” (Acts 19:21). Later, writing the First Epistle to the Corinthians, he says: “I will come to you when I have passed through Macedonia” (1 Cor. 16:5). But writing the Epistle to the Romans, he says: “But now I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem” (Rom. 15:25, 26). This means Macedonia and Achaia have been traveled through, the Apostle is in Corinth and is preparing to go to Jerusalem with alms collected in those places. Here is where and when the Epistle to the Romans was written! In Corinth, during the last three-month stay there of the holy Paul, – about which it is written in the book of Acts that the holy Paul, in fulfilment of the plan he had made beforehand, indeed went through Macedonia, came to Greece (Achaia) and remained there three months (Acts 20:1–3). That the words of the Epistle to the Romans: “Now I am going to Jerusalem” – do not mean that the Epistle was written somewhere on the way to Jerusalem, but only express that the Apostle had just resolved upon this journey, is evident from the fact that he recommends to the Romans Phoebe, a deaconess of Cenchreae, with whom the Epistle was also sent; but Cenchreae is a suburb of Corinth. According to the probable chronology of the acts of the holy Paul arranged by years, the Epistle to the Romans should be placed under the same year as both the Epistles to the Corinthians, that is, in the year 58 or 59.

The Occasion, Motive, and Purpose of Writing

When the Apostle Paul was in Corinth, Phoebe, a deaconess of Cenchreae, was preparing to depart for Rome, a person who had rendered considerable service to the cause of faith and the Church. She had business in Rome; and the Apostle Paul, knowing how she herself had been “a helper of many” and also of him (Rom. 16:2), deemed it his duty to commend her to the Christians there and to ask them to assist her in her affairs.—This commendation could have been briefly expressed; but the holy Paul, on this occasion, decided to write an entire Epistle, greater in length and more significant in content than all the other Epistles. What prompted him to do this?

The Spirit of God, tangibly guiding the holy Paul in all things, inspired him to do this.—The pagan peoples—all of them constituted the province entrusted to the holy Paul: he considered himself obliged to proclaim the Gospel of Christ both to Greeks and to barbarians (Rom. 1:14). Hearing that faith had been sown in Rome and a community of believers had been formed, he sincerely rejoiced at this; but at the same time he could not free himself from anxious concern—was everything going there as had been ordained from above for him to conduct it among the nations? From this came the desire—to visit Rome as soon as possible, to assure himself with his own eyes that all was well with them. Of this he writes; how many times, he says, I have purposed to come to you. Why? Not to illuminate them with faith, but to establish them in it; “to be encouraged together”, he says, “by each other’s faith, yours and mine” (Rom. 1:12). In other words, this can be restated thus: to discuss with you point by point your faith and bring it into complete agreement with my faith, or, which is the same, with the norm of faith which was given to me from above by the Lord Himself. As natural as such a desire was, so too was the anxiety in the holy Paul that the time of his visit kept seeming to recede and recede. Finally this time drew near. All that remained for him was to visit Jerusalem, and from there to direct himself to Rome. It seems, why would he even write?!

But this nearness was only what the Apostle supposed; in reality it would be delayed for another two and a half years. The Apostle did not foresee such a delay. But the Spirit of God, who guided the Apostle, foresaw it and inspired him to write the Epistle, so that it would for a time replace his personal visit. This inspiration could be expressed in the Apostle by an irresistible desire to write, so that “I might have some fruit among you as well as among all the other Gentiles” (Rom. 1:13), portraying for them in general outline the way of salvation. And he wrote, fulfilling his desire and satisfying his apostolic duty. Had he not written at this time, how much heavier would have been the bonds that awaited him?! The Lord, who protects and sustains His servants, arranged for him to accomplish in writing for the time being what he intended to do in person.

We are led to think this way by the fact that from the Epistle it does not appear that the writing of it was prompted by anything from the side of the Roman believers. The Epistle has a completely general character and does not dwell on any incidental particulars. It is vain to think that disputes and disagreements among the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles prompted the holy Paul to write a reconciling Epistle, bringing both under one level in the matter of salvation, that is, expounding that neither those nor the others have in themselves the strength for salvation, but that it is given freely by grace in Christ Jesus the Lord. But there is not a single hint that just such disagreements, extending to disputes, actually existed in Rome among the believers. It is written, indeed, about this; but in general terms. Whoever should undertake to reason about the matter of salvation would not say anything other than what the holy Paul wrote then. We are sinful and have no answer before God. Judgement awaits us, and there is no salvation for us. But the merciful God has arranged salvation for us Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. Cleave to Him by faith, and you will be saved. There is no other way to salvation. This is essentially the main content of the Epistle. The difference in the conduct of the Gentiles and the Jews regarding the use of foods, which the Apostle seeks to soften and smooth over in the 14th and the beginning of the 15th chapter, does not touch the foundations of faith.

Thus the motive for writing the Epistle was entirely in the holy Paul himself. If something did contribute from the side of the Romans, it was perhaps only the circumstance that not long before, perhaps only several months before, the believers in Rome from among the Gentiles had again met with the believers from among the Jews who had returned there. That this indeed happened recently can be concluded from the fact that, writing the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the holy Paul greeted the Corinthians from Aquila and Priscilla: this means they were in Ephesus, whereas writing the Epistle to the Romans, he greets Aquila and Priscilla, already located in Rome. The interval of time was about six months or about a year. So Aquila and Priscilla had recently returned to Rome. If all the people to whom the Apostle sends greetings were from among the exiles who had become acquainted with the holy Paul during their exile, it is probable that they all also returned to Rome at about the same time, in this same interval.

The holy Paul could not have expected any collision at this meeting. For among the returned believing Jews, persons of influence (a notable person here means one who is known and respected), as it appears, in the Church, there were sincere disciples of the holy Paul, being of one mind with him and of one opinion, having become accustomed to the way of life and conduct, in word and deed, in complete separation from Judaism! See how he calls them? Beloved of me, fellow workers, my fellow prisoners, those who have laboured greatly for the Lord. On such the Apostle could fully rely that they would not only not stir up disagreement and dispute, but, on the contrary, if anything of that sort were to arise, they would be able to pacify all and bring them into accord. If anything was needed on the part of the Apostle in this regard, it was perhaps only to, in any case, give greater force to their word by his Apostolic authority. His disciples would speak in Rome about the matter of salvation, of course, according to that standard which the holy Paul had received from above, as they had learned from him. But their word might lack authority. To give it this authority, he writes the Epistle, delineating in it a general programme of Christian teaching. He writes not to them, but to the entire community of Christians. They, however, are presumed to be the most reliable interpreters of the teaching set forth, if it should seem unclear somewhere, which the greetings to them at the end of the Epistle seemed to authorize them for. And through this, every word of theirs was given weight, obligating to attention and obedience. All this together contributed to binding the entire community in unity of mind—this high good, which the holy Paul valued above all else.

Perhaps the desire to send such an outline of Christian teaching to Rome had occurred to the holy Paul before, more than once; but then he lacked a point of contact with the Romans. He was unknown to them and knew none of them. But now, as soon as a way opened up, he does not hesitate to write. His disciples there had already told him everything about himself and prepared a good reception for his Epistle. The occasion presented itself—the departure of Phoebe—and he writes. He writes about that which his soul was always full of, about salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. One might only ask why a special treatise on the providential significance of the Hebrew people is placed in the Epistle (Rom. 9–11)? Here is why, it seems.

The believers from among the Jews, disciples of the holy Paul, could not fail to come into collision with the unbelieving. What to say in justification of themselves, that they believed, and in refutation of those who did not believe, they knew. With regard to this, the Epistle to the Galatians or the propositions expressed in it, which they had heard from the holy Paul himself, could serve as their guide. But from such explanations confusing doubts could arise: how did this happen? The promises of God to Israel were so decisive, and yet how many unbelieving Jews! The Apostle explains that even in the present state of affairs, the unbelief of the Jews does not invalidate the promises of God, and all the more such thinking is out of place if we apply to this what is to be afterwards, that is, that the blindness of Israel has come in part. They turned aside a little from the right path, to make room for the Gentiles; but when these enter in, those will return also, and salvation will become universal. The latter positions his disciples might not have known: for this is proclaimed by a new special revelation. And yet how much instruction there is in such truths for the Jews! Could they not see from this that, despite their unbelief, they are still in God’s attention? And could the sense of God’s mercy not have softened their hardened hearts? Becoming aware of all that was written, they ought to have seen themselves among two stimuli, equally affecting: there the fear of definite rejection, if they remain in unbelief, and here the readiness to enter again into full mercy of God, if they abandon unbelief. Such a presentation of the matter smoothed the way to the conversion of those Jews who had not yet converted.

Such are the motives for writing the Epistle to the Romans: the aims correspond to them. He wrote so that he might have some fruit among them, clearly setting forth the image of faith by the clear portrayal of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and thereby bringing all to unity of mind,—to give authority to his notable disciples, persons, as it appears, influential in that community, and to give them guidance for conducting discussions both in the community of believers and, when it happens, among unbelieving Jews. We can add to this a third purpose,—to give the believers a preventative measure in case Judaizing false teachers should penetrate to them. These thrust themselves in everywhere and everywhere, by misguided zeal, disturbed the peace of the believers. What is strange if they reach Rome? But that they were there then does not appear. A brief warning against them the Apostle uttered at the end of the Epistle (Rom. 16:17–20). Let us add also a fourth purpose,—to become acquainted with the believers there before his personal visit to Rome, whom he hoped soon to see face to face. The Epistle contained not only the form of teaching entrusted to Paul from above, but also portrayed the character, spirit, and heart of himself. In the Epistle they could not fail to see him and become acquainted with him from afar, as some of them had become acquainted with him in person. So, in sending the Epistle, he had in view to prepare for himself a reception in Rome and at the same time to make his work there conducive to the benefit of faith. For he did not intend to remain long in Rome, but to pass through there on his way to Spain. So that he would not have to labour much with them there, adjusting their minds to the proper views, he sent this ahead for them, so that, at a personal meeting, he could only rejoice together in their common faith and clarify it, if anything still remained unclear.

The Content and Structure

The main subject is the only way of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, for both Gentile and Jew. The exposition of this occupies most of the Epistle. Eleven chapters. To this are then added general instructions about the Christian life. But, as in all the Epistles, there precedes all of this a preface, which consists of the heading and greeting with an appropriate beginning,—and at the end there follows a corresponding postscript with well-known greetings and so forth.

Thus the Epistle is arranged as follows:

1) after the preface (Rom. 1:1–17), consisting of: a) the heading, greeting (Rom. 1:1–7) and b) the appropriate beginning of the Epistle (Rom. 1:8–17), there follows—

2) the doctrinal part—on salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:18–11:36). Then—

3) the moral part (Rom. 12:1–15:13). And—

4) finally, the postscript (Rom. 15:14–16:24).

A more detailed structure will be presupposed in the Commentary itself.

We do not raise the question of the authenticity of the Epistle, finding it definitively settled by the very fact that the Church gives it to us as the Epistle of the holy Paul. This solution is more powerful and consoling than any other. We hear the voice of our mother and do not disturb ourselves with any doubts.

The ancient commentators served exclusively as guides in the Commentary: the holy John Chrysostom, the blessed Theodoret, Augustine, Ambrosiaster (Augustine in “Contra duas epistolas pelagianorum” [lib. 4, cap. 4, 7] cites one passage from this commentary under the name of the holy Hilary), the holy Damascene, Oecumenius, Theophylact.

Preface (Romans 1:1–17)

The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

The heading and greeting, like in the Epistles to the Galatians and to Titus, have in this Epistle the peculiarity that they contain introductory propositions of high dogmatic importance. It would have been sufficient to say, as the holy Paul usually did everywhere: “Paul, an Apostle, to those in Rome, called saints, grace and peace to you” (the blessed Theodoret and Oecumenius). But he does not content himself with this; rather he brings forward thoughts about his special election, about the prefiguration of the Gospel in the Old Testament, and about the Incarnation of Christ the Saviour. In explaining this, the blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle placed all this among those words with the intention of showing by whom he was appointed as a preacher, what he was commanded to preach, and to whom it was appointed to propose his preaching.”—One can also suppose that the holy Paul intended in a brief word to indicate what the Epistle would be about. He was to write about the only way of salvation for all in the Lord Jesus Christ—and he sketches forth His image as God-man; he was to explain the providential plans of God in the cessation of the distinction in which the Jews had been held—and he speaks in advance that this was foretold long ago; and he mentioned his election to preach to the Gentiles so as to say thereby that if he writes to them without having seen or known them, he is not unlawfully intruding into another’s domain, but fulfilling his duty. One can also suppose that such additions unconsciously broke forth in his word. The thought of salvation in the Lord of all humanity had profoundly embraced all the consciousness of the holy Paul, and he could not refrain from sanctifying his first words addressed to those to whom he was inclined to write about that with an indication of it.

Rom. 1:1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called as an Apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God.

The Apostle puts his name first, according to the custom of that time. So also Lysias, writing to Felix, begins: “Lysias, to his Excellency, the governor Felix” (Acts 23:26) (Photius in Oecumenius).—But how did Saul become Paul?

All our commentators ascribe this change of name to a heavenly origin. Thus, the holy Chrysostom supposes that God Himself changed the name of the Apostle, and he decides only the question of why He did this: “Why did God change his name for him and rename him from Saul to Paul? For this reason: that even in this he might not be less than the Apostles; on the contrary, he obtained the same prerogative that the foremost of the Apostles had, for the closer union with Him.” The blessed Theodoret writes: “He calls himself Paul, not having received this name originally from his parents, but being accounted worthy of it after his calling, as Simon was named Peter, and the sons of Zebedee—the sons of thunder.”—So it is held by others also. Nothing substantial can be said against this. The fact that it is not mentioned either in the Acts or in the Epistles is not a ground for objection: for the holy Paul himself says that he had many revelations, about which he remained silent.

Others explain this in a natural way. Among the Eastern fathers, Origen does this. He writes: “Why Saul—Paul? We find in Scripture that as in the Old Testament names were changed, for example Abraham and Sarah—to Abraham and Sarah; so also in the new grace Simon was renamed Peter, the sons of Zebedee—the sons of thunder. But this was done by God’s command, and concerning the holy Paul we do not see such a command. Why then should we seek a simple human explanation for such a change. Some have thought that the Apostle took this name from Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus, as a sign of his submission to faith, as victorious kings sometimes took names from the vanquished. One might not reject such a thought; but since we do not find such a custom in Scripture, we must resolve this question from our own examples. We find in Scripture that some had two names, and others even three: thus, Solomon—Jedidiah, Zedekiah—Jehoiachin (2 Sam. 12:25; 2 Kings 25:27); and in the Gospel: Matthew—Levi (Matt. 9:9; Luke 5:27); Thaddeus—Lebbeus (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18).—Matthew says one thing, and Mark or Luke says another. The Evangelists did not err; but since it was customary to bear different names, one used one name and another used another designation for some of the Apostles.—According to this custom, Paul had two names. And while he acted among his own people, he was called Saul, but when he passed into the midst of Greeks and Romans, he began to be called Paul. Scripture itself, when it says: ‘Saul, who is also Paul’ (Acts 13:9), gives to understand that it was not then only that this name was given to him, but that it had belonged to him from long before.”—But if the Lord renamed him at the beginning of his conversion, then this also was long ago.

“A servant of Jesus Christ.” “Instead of a great honourable title, he uses the designation of a servant” (the holy Chrysostom). “The governors of provinces and military commanders, in the beginning of their writings, place the designations of their dignities, swelling with them and elevating, in proportion to their rank, their haughty thoughts about themselves; but the divine Paul… calls himself ‘a servant of Jesus Christ,’ whom all unbelievers called dead, crucified, the son of a carpenter, whereas the Apostle loved slavery to Him more than any kingdom” (the blessed Theodoret). The word “servant” here has its usual humiliating sense. Since he had to say something great about himself, he places before it something humble, in order to suggest that if he speaks something great, he does so not from self-exaltation. I am a servant, he says, of Christ, as it were the least in His household, not some independent ruler, but an obedient slave, executing only His commands. All that I speak or do, I speak and do because it has been so commanded.

Or in that he confesses himself to be Christ’s servant, he speaks from the thought that previously he had waged war against Him. With what zeal and with what presumption had he persecuted this name! but now, he says, I am a servant, defeated, taken captive; and I do not mourn the bonds of servitude, but boast in them, counting it the highest good for myself that I am a servant of Jesus Christ. Whom I persecuted, to Him I now serve with all my soul.

“Called as an Apostle.” The holy Paul calls all Christians called ones, as here too the Romans; but that calling is a calling only to faith, so that the entire Church is the gathering of those called (the holy Chrysostom). But of himself he speaks here as being called not only to faith, but also to the Apostolate (Oecumenius). For him both callings were fulfilled in one moment, just as this was also with the twelve Apostles. As the Lord said to them: “Follow me, and I will make you… fishers of men” (Mark 1:17), at the very beginning of their belief, so also this same grace was manifested upon the holy Paul. He himself tells of this in his discourse before Agrippa and Festus, saying that when the Lord appeared to him on the way to Damascus, He at once said: “For this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of the things which you have seen and of the things in which I will appear to you, rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:16–18).

But why did he add: “called”—when the word “Apostle” already presupposes a calling? By this word he places himself in the rank of the twelve, whom the Lord Himself personally called and sent forth to preach. At that time many were called Apostles who preached either through their own zeal or by the commission of other Apostles and believers. But the true Apostles—the lawgivers and founders of faith and the Church—were only twelve, chosen and sent by the Lord Himself. Since the holy Paul was chosen like them and sent like them, he speaks of himself: “called as an Apostle.” This is the same as in the Epistle to the Galatians: “I ‘am an Apostle not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ’ (Gal. 1:1).”

For what purpose is this mentioned here? On one hand, this is a continuation of the expression of that same humble feeling about which the words bear witness: “a servant of Jesus Christ.” “He did not seek and find himself; but was called and obeyed” (the holy Chrysostom and the blessed Theophylact). Both the fact of preaching and the subject of preaching depend nothing on me. I am in this an executor of a will not my own. Why, in writing to the Corinthians, he said: in that I preach the Gospel, “I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me” (1 Cor. 9:16, 17).

But on the other hand, by this very thing he also hints at his great dignity and speaks thus, setting forth a trait worthy of praise in himself, after the manifestation of his humility (the holy Damascene). For it is not the same by whom one is called and to what one is called. The holy Paul was called; but—by God and the Lord, and called to the Apostolate—a ministry, above which there was nothing on earth and never will be. The holy Chrysostom says: “And all the faithful are called, but called only to believe, whereas Paul was entrusted with the Apostolate—a ministry containing thousands of perfections, comprehending all gifts and surpassing all.”

Thus the holy Paul combined here humility with dignity; through both he inspires to attend and obey his preaching. I exercise the Apostolate, but I am not a usurper in this rank. I do not seize the Apostolate, but received it from the Master, who said to me: “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:21) (the blessed Theodoret). “Called” and I execute the will of the one who called and sent me. Since, however, the one who called and sent is God of all, obey my word without murmur. For the universal law everywhere is to receive the messenger as the one who sent him. Who dares to contradict God? Do not then dare to resist my word either.—Such an exhortation the Apostle prefixes not in the sense as in the Epistles to the Galatians and to the Corinthians. There he expounded at length the manner of his Apostolic calling, because there were some who did not recognize him, but here he speaks of this only to incline toward attention those who had not seen him but had only heard of him.

This same exhortation continues also in the words that follow: “set apart for the Gospel of God.”

“Set apart,” ἀφωρισμένος,—separated, appointed. “As in a house each is designated for a special task, so also in the Church there are different ministries” (the holy Chrysostom). To the holy Paul was designated to preach the Gospel, or to be an Apostle. Therefore these words: “set apart for the Gospel”—serve as an explanation of the preceding: “called as an Apostle.” As with those, so also with these he speaks, as if to say: “I did not lay this upon myself, but received from God Himself the ministry of preaching” (the blessed Theodoret). And he speaks this “at the very beginning, arousing the attention of the listeners” (the holy Damascene). “Since he was writing to the vain Romans, who were puffed up about everything, he constantly inculcates that he was set up by God, that God Himself called him, God Himself chose him. And he inculcates this so that they would recognize his Epistle as worthy of trust and receive it” (the holy Chrysostom).

When and by whom was he appointed to preach? He was predetermined for this from the very beginning by the Lord Himself; then by Him also, appearing to him in the temple, he was directly appointed; for the Lord said: Go preach the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 22:17–21). This was for the holy Paul the same as for the other Apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). Then his appointment to preach, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, from Antioch was only the fulfilment of the former ordinance of the Lord (Acts 13:2). But all this, happening in time, was the fulfilment of what had been predetermined before time. If the holy Paul once reached the consciousness that he was chosen before he came forth into the world (and he did reach this (Gal. 1:15)); then one cannot deny that he had such a thought and every time he spoke about his election. Why the holy Chrysostom says: “I think that Paul means here not only the choice to ministry, but also predestination to it even before his birth. So also Jeremiah testifies of himself that God said of him: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations’ (Jer. 1:5).”

“For the Gospel of God.” “The Apostle calls his preaching the Gospel; because he came not with sorrowful tidings, as the Prophets came with reproaches, rebukes, and threats, but with glad tidings, with the Gospel of God about countless treasures, permanent and immutable blessings,—not only present but also future” (the holy Chrysostom). The Gospel is the same as tidings to the sick of recovery, to the captive of redemption, to the prisoner of the granting of freedom. The preaching of the Apostle was, as it is portrayed in the Epistle to the Romans, the following: you are sinners, you are under God’s wrath and after death you must go to hell to eternal torments; God has had mercy on you and sent His only-begotten Son, so that He by His death might blot out your sins and open for you the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. Believe and be baptized,—and you will receive the remission of sins, and you will receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, so as to live holy and unblemished, and to depart from this life and pass to where our Saviour is. Those who believed—all received this and had the assurance in themselves that all this is theirs and belongs to them eternally. Why the blessed Theodoret writes: “He called the preaching the Gospel, because it promises the bestowal of many blessings, proclaims reconciliation with God, the overthrow of the devil, the remission of sins, the cessation of death, resurrection from the dead, eternal life, the Kingdom of Heaven.”

“Of God” he calls the Gospel, because “it is given from God and gives true knowledge of God” (the blessed Theophylact),—that it “is not something human, but divine, unutterable, beyond all nature” (the holy Chrysostom).

Rom. 1:2. which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy scriptures.

All these words can be replaced by the phrase: the Gospel promised beforehand. Enough attention has already been aroused by what he said about himself—that he was chosen from on high and sent to preach the Gospel of God. Now the Apostle strengthens it, saying that his Gospel is not new, but was foretold long ago. The idea of the newness of the teaching shakes confidence in it and requires of the one proposing it strengthened proofs. On the contrary, an indication that it was foretold long ago inclines the mind to obedience. Why it has always been considered and is one of the strongest proofs of the divinity of Christian revelation that it was foretold by the Prophets. And the holy Paul often made use of this. Thus, in his discourse to Herod with Festus, he says that he continuously bears witness to the truth of God “and ‘to small and great alike, saying nothing except what the prophets and Moses said would happen’” (Acts 26:22). To the same he draws the thoughts here, so as to make a way for his word into the hearts both of Jews and of Gentiles. A Jew could not hear anything new; on the contrary, he became a lamb obedient when they spoke to him in the word of his fathers and the Prophets. A Gentile this could not incline to faith, for his fathers did not foretell it; but he could not fail to respect teaching which had been foretold and prefigured so long ago. Foretelling, by the universal understanding of all, is the work of God; the work of God—and the fulfilment of what was foretold. Whoever proclaims such teaching cannot himself fail to be from God’s domain and at once obligates to faith. Moreover, among the Gentiles, as Suetonius and Tacitus assure us, rumours were current at that time that teachers were about to come forth from Judea who would subject the whole world to their teaching. Hearing the words of the Apostle: “promised beforehand,”—they could not fail to think: this is surely what the rumour concerns; and thinking so, could not fail to say to themselves: we must listen, if we do not believe at once. The holy Chrysostom also says to this: “Do not leave without attention why this was foretold so long beforehand. If God is preparing something great, He foretells about it long in advance, in order to prepare the ear for its reception when it is fulfilled.”

The Apostle speaks that the Gospel was promised. And so it was. Moses gave the Law, but at once said: Look, God will send us another Prophet, listen to Him. The Prophets persuaded the people to be faithful to the given Law, but at the same time spoke that God would give them another Law, which would be written on their hearts. The holy David foresaw how “the Lord will give the word to those who proclaim it with great power” (Ps. 67:12), and the holy Isaiah prefigured the fair feet of those who proclaim the Gospel (Isa. 52:7).

But the Gospel is for this reason glad tidings, that it proclaims about blessings. Therefore the promise of the Gospel was a promise of blessings to mankind. That is, it was promised not merely a good word, but the very deed of good itself. Such a promise truly began immediately after the Fall and throughout all the subsequent time did not cease, but proceeded continuously, unfolding the good deed that was to be accomplished in all its details. Gospel events as in a picture are all prefigured in the Old Testament. Men enlightened by God knew that something wondrous and great was being prepared, and desired to see the event personally, but did not see (Matt. 13:17). Only to Abraham alone was it given to see all in a certain special way. “And he saw and rejoiced” (John 8:56).

For the foretelling God raised up Prophets, enlightened their minds with the Holy Spirit, and they saw the future and spoke of what they saw. “And not only did they speak, but they also wrote what they spoke” (the holy Chrysostom). Thus the Gospel was promised beforehand by the Prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5)

Rom. 1:3, 4. Concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is the subject of the Gospel—both promised and now accomplished in deed—the incarnate only-begotten Son of God! As holy Chrysostom cries out, drawing near to it: “What are you doing, Paul? Where are you drawing our souls, to what heights are you leading us, what lofty and ineffable subjects are you opening to our contemplation?!”

“Concerning His Son.” This word is placed intentionally first, to give the mind advance notice—that when they hear “born of the seed of David,” they should not think that He only then began to exist, but to make clear that He existed beforehand as the Son of God and God Himself, and then was pleased to become the Son of David, hiding the light of His divinity beneath the veil of human nature, though through that veil the greatness of His divinity shone forth, and was recognized and confessed by all. He strengthens this same truth then with the word “according to the flesh.” For by this it is clearly understood that if He is the son of David, it is only in one nature, and that consequently another nature must be confessed in Him, uncreated and preceding His appearance in the world through birth from the seed of David.

“By the mouths of all the Prophets the Father foretold of the Son, who before the ages was born of Him by nature; and was called the Son of David, as having taken up human nature from the seed of David. Therefore, having mentioned David, of necessity the Apostle added: ‘according to the flesh,’ lest they think Him the son of David by nature and the Son of God by grace. For this addition: ‘according to the flesh’ makes it clear that truly He is the Son of God and the Father in His divinity; for we do not find that for those who are nothing more than what appears in them, this “according to the flesh” is added. The blessed evangelist Matthew bears witness to this. For having said: ‘Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah’ (Matt. 1:2) and having set forth the entire genealogy in order, nowhere did he add: ‘according to the flesh.’ For them, being men, such an addition was not fitting. But here, since the God-Word who was incarnate is not man alone, but also the pre-eternal God, the divinely-inspired Apostle, having mentioned the seed of David, of necessity added: ‘according to the flesh,’ thus clearly teaching us in what sense He is the Son of God and in what sense He was called the son of David” (blessed Theodoret). “Thus the Gospel is not about a mere man—for it is about the Son of God, and not about a naked God—for it is about one born of the seed of David according to the flesh—the very same one who was both the Son of God and the son of David. Let Nestorius then be ashamed” (blessed Theophylact). “But why did the Apostle begin with birth according to the flesh? Because so do Matthew, Luke, and Mark begin. And in order to lead anyone to heaven, one must necessarily lead him upward from below. Thus it was in fact. They saw the Son of God first on earth as a man, and then recognized Him as God. And whatever manner of teaching He Himself employed, His disciple likewise paves the way leading to Him. At first he speaks of birth according to the flesh, not because it was first, but in order from it to raise the listeners to that which He is without flesh” (holy Chrysostom).

“Declared to be the Son of God.” Declared—ὡρίσθεντος—determined, defined. Just as when looking at a ruler coming from afar, one first sees in him only the image of a man, and then, when he draws nearer, recognizes him as a nobleman; but when he stands quite close, looking upon him, they exclaim: “the ruler!”—so it was likewise with regard to the Son of God, who took “the form of a slave” for our salvation (Phil. 2:7). At first everyone looked upon Him as a man, the son of the carpenter, save perhaps only she who treasured in her heart all the words spoken about Him, the Lady the Mother of God; but then, when He revealed Himself to the world and began to display the divine power in Himself, all in amazement asked: “Who is this?” (Matt. 8:27), yet recognizing Him only as an extraordinary man: “a great prophet has risen” (Lk. 7:16). By the end of His visible stay on earth they saw that no human greatness could be compared to that which Jesus Christ the Lord of powers displayed in Himself, yet what He truly was remained undefined. The Apostles confessed Him as the Son of God, but this enlightenment of faith did not hold at the height befitting, and the greatness of the Lord was obscured by earthly thoughts. Only after His resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit, when in His name they began everywhere to perform through the Holy Spirit by the Apostles and believers wondrous signs, did all understand that He in whose name all this was accomplished is the only-begotten Son of God and God. At last the countenance of the Lord was defined, and all who beheld it in faith cried out with the holy Thomas: “My Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:28). “This is what ‘declared’ means: shown, revealed, confessed by the judgment and verdict of all” (holy Chrysostom). Blessed Theodoret writes: “Until the cross and the passion, not only the other Jews, but even the Apostles themselves were not certain about the Master Christ, that He is God. An obstacle for them in Christ was the human—when they saw that He ate, drank, slept, and was wearied; and miracles did not lead them to conviction of this. Hence, for example, when they saw the miracle on the sea, they said: ‘Who is this man, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’ (Matt. 8:27). Therefore the Lord said to them: ‘I have many things to say to you, but you are not yet able to bear them: when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth’ (Jn. 16:12, 13). Therefore before the passion the Apostles had such thoughts about Him, but after His resurrection and ascension to heaven, after the descent of the All-holy Spirit and after all kinds of miracles which they accomplished, calling upon the precious name of Christ, all believers came to know that Christ is God and the only-begotten Son of God. Therefore here too the divine Apostle taught that He who was called the Son of David according to the flesh was declared and manifested as the Son of God in power, by which the All-holy Spirit worked, through the resurrection from the dead of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The words: “in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” point to the sources from which the faith of believers drew its conviction of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. “In power” points to the wondrous signs which the Lord accomplished by His own, not by grace-given power (Oecumenius), and especially those which were afterwards accomplished by the Apostles and believers in His name: for the latter are more convincing than the former. “According to the Spirit of holiness” points to the renewal of believers by the Holy Spirit with the addition of special gifts of grace. Believers through the mysteries became utterly transformed, filled with a new life which raised them above all around them, both in their manners and in the enlightenment of their mind and in the display of power. All experienced this in themselves and displayed it before all. What proof could be more convincing than this—that He in whom faith gives all this is the Master of all things? “By the resurrection from the dead” points to the resurrection of the Lord by His own power, and indeed so that He saw death no more: death has no dominion over Him. This most convincing proof gained an astonishing force when faith led the believer into the contemplation of the common resurrection of all to be accomplished by the Lord, whose foundation and power He established through His own resurrection: for the Apostles taught that the risen Lord had also raised all.

Holy Chrysostom asks: “By what is it proved that the incarnate (who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh) is the Son of God?” And he answers that—after the aforementioned fulfillment upon Him of all the prophecies and the wondrous, surpassing the order of nature, birth of Him from the Ever-virgin—this is proved “thirdly by the miracles which Christ accomplished, thereby proving an extraordinary power, and this is expressed by the word: ‘in power.’ Fourthly, by the Spirit, whom He gave to those who believed in Him and through whom He made all holy, whence it is said: ‘according to the Spirit of holiness’; for it is the property of God alone to distribute such gifts. Fifthly, by the resurrection of the Lord, because He alone first and only raised Himself; and He Himself calls this a sign, preeminently above all others sufficient to silence even the shameless. For He said: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’ (Jn. 2:19). And again: ‘When you lift Me up from the earth, then you will understand that I am’ (Jn. 8:28). And elsewhere: ‘A wicked generation seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah’ (Matt. 12:39)”.

Thus do all our interpreters understand these words.

The words: “Jesus Christ our Lord” stand in the Church Slavonic in dependence on: “the resurrection” like this: “from the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” But it is better to place them in relation to the word: “His Son,” so that it reads: “His Son, who was born… and declared…” that is—Jesus Christ our Lord. For the Gospel and all the preaching of the Apostles is about Him.

Rom. 1:5, 6. Through whom we have received grace and apostolic authority to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for the sake of His name, among whom you also are called as belonging to Jesus Christ.

He has already said that he was called and chosen; now he points out that this was accomplished not by mere verbal appointment, as among men, but rather by the bestowal of powers above human nature, the gift of an almighty grace which cannot be resisted even by those who oppose the truth. The Lord has clothed us, he says, in grace, but not so that we alone would enjoy it, but so that we should go out and make others partakers of it. Therefore this grace is a special grace. Grace all believers receive, but to us an apostolic grace has been given, by which we are clothed in power from on high—to bring all peoples under the obedience of faith.

“Observe the gratitude of a servant of Christ in the apostleship; he wishes to ascribe nothing to himself but ascribes all to the Lord. Not by our efforts and labors have we achieved being Apostles, but have received grace; and apostleship is a gift from on high” (holy Chrysostom). “It is a work of the higher order and divine providence for our race” (holy Damascene). Therefore “grace and apostleship” is the same as grace toward apostleship (Oecumenius) or apostolic grace.

We, he says, “have received.” Who is this “we”? At first glance, it seems holy Paul speaks of himself alone; but one may think that he speaks on behalf of all the Apostles and depicts the force and significance of the apostolic rank in general. Or, while having need to speak of himself alone, he expressed himself in such a way as to give the thought of all the Apostles as well, as if to say: as they did, so I do, or I as they did. For as the Lord said to them: “Go and teach all nations” (Matt. 28:19), so also to him: “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:21). Blessed Theodoret writes: “He Himself (the Lord Jesus Christ) appointed us preachers, entrusting to us the salvation of all peoples and giving grace suitable to this preaching, so that those who receive the preaching may also obey us and believe the word.”

“To bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles.” “Obedience,” so that all might hear of faith and, having heard, obey faith or believe. Holy Paul wanted to express in a single word that the mission of the Apostles was to carry the name of the Lord throughout all the world, but not merely so that all might hear of Him, but so that they might submit to Him as well—so that among all peoples there might be truly those who believed in Him and genuinely served Him according to faith. The word went forth from the mouths of the Apostles; along with the word came grace and subdued the hearts of the elect to faith. Holy Chrysostom says: “The success of preaching depended not on the Apostles, but on the grace that preceded them (and accompanied them). Although it was their work to go and preach, yet God Himself produced the conviction, acting in the Apostles. And so blessed Luke said: ‘opened her heart’ (Acts 16:14).” And therefore the submission to faith should be reckoned a work of God’s power, for the preaching was accompanied by signs. They assured that the preaching was a work accomplished by God’s will, and therefore required submission to what was preached, despite its incomprehensibility. “Power from on high is a witness to the truth of the teaching, so that on account of it what appeared incredible in the preaching might be accepted without dispute through faith” (Ambrosiaster).

If apostolic preaching is to the obedience of faith, then before it one must lay down the weapons of reason and present one’s soul as a clean tablet for the unhindered imprinting upon it of the truths of faith. The Apostles received it without reasoning and transmit it as they received it; and those listening to their word must receive it without cleverness. Holy Chrysostom says: “He did not say: for investigation and proof, but: to the obedience. We are sent, he says, not to conduct logical arguments, but to transmit what has been entrusted to us. When the Master speaks anything, those listening should only receive His words, not questioning or reinterpreting them themselves. And the Apostles were sent so that they might retell what they heard, adding nothing from themselves, so that we too might believe in it.”

“Among all the Gentiles.” Such is the calling of the apostleship—to carry the preaching of the Gospel to all peoples. Did they carry it? Throughout their lives the Apostles did nothing but carry the word of the Gospel, and they carried it everywhere they could reach, or as far as their lives permitted them to reach. But even after their death their preaching does not cease, through their writings and through the oral word of their successors. Holy Chrysostom says: “What is this? Did Paul really preach to all nations? From the Epistle to the Romans it is evident that he preached to many: for he went through all the lands, from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and from there again reached the utmost bounds of the earth; yet even if he was not among all peoples, what he said is not at all false. Because he speaks not of himself alone, but of the twelve Apostles and of all who preached the word with them. Meanwhile, it cannot be disputed that what is said applies also to Paul alone, if one considers Paul’s zeal and the fact that after his death he does not cease to preach in all the world. Do not fail to notice how much Paul exalts the gift of apostleship, shows its greatness and its superior excellence above the Old Testament. The promises of the Old Testament extended to one nation; but apostleship drew to itself both land and sea.”

“For the sake of His name.” This expression is all-encompassing. It means: by His name, and in His name or for His glory, and relying on His name, and concerning Him, and to Him. For in the faith of Christ all comes forth from the Lord and all returns to Him and stands on Him. Holy Chrysostom says: “‘for the sake of His name’ means that we should not inquire into His essence, but believe in His name. For this name accomplished miracles. ‘In the name of Jesus Christ,’ says Peter, ‘rise up and walk’ (Acts 3:6). It itself demands faith: and all this cannot be grasped by reason.” Oecumenius adds: “Faith was in His name. For they did not see Him Himself, but believed on the basis of the Gospel concerning His name alone. Truly full of grace was the apostleship of the disciples, when they persuaded peoples to believe and submit to Christ, being themselves unlearned, simple fishermen.”

“Among whom you also are called.” If speaking earlier of apostleship saying “we have received grace” and so forth, holy Paul understood himself alone, then with the words “among whom you also are called” he says: and you belong to my sphere of work, and in you must I exercise my apostolic office, bringing you under the obedience of faith and confirming you in it. Theodoret writes: “And you are among these peoples whose salvation has been entrusted to me. For do not think that I am claiming what is not mine and seizing fields entrusted to others. The Master appointed me a preacher to all peoples.”

If in the earlier part he spoke in general of apostleship, here he makes clear: and you are not forgotten by God, and He had you in His providential purpose—to bring you under the obedience of faith through the apostolic word, which has already reached you. By this he both encourages and gladdens them, and yet humbles them. Therefore holy Chrysostom says: “Do not fail to notice how far Paul’s soul is from all flattery. In addressing the Romans, who were as it were the head of the whole world, he gives them no advantage over other peoples. Although the Romans then ruled and dominated; yet Paul does not say that they had any more spiritual gifts. But as we preach to all peoples, he writes, so also to you, putting them on the same level as Scythians and Thracians. And if he did not mean this, the words would be superfluous: ‘among whom you also are called.’ He does this in order to destroy their arrogance, to humble the pride of the mind and teach them not to exalt themselves above others. For this he added the words: ‘among whom you also are called as belonging to Jesus Christ,’ that is, with whom you are also called. He did not say that Christ called others with you, but says that He called you with others. For if in Christ Jesus there is neither slave nor free, and much more neither king nor commoner, then you too are called, and did not come of yourselves.”

“Called as belonging to Jesus Christ,” in Greek—of Jesus Christ. The thought is the same: the Lord Jesus Christ called you to Himself through the Gospel that has reached you; and you have become the called of Christ. As if the Apostle wished by this word, after the humbling phrase preceding it, to raise them up somewhat, while giving them to understand that there is no room for pride here. If to be called by a king merely for conversation is great and honorable: how much greater and more honorable to be called to the Lord not merely to see Him and hear Him, but to be united with Him and in Him with God the Father by the grace of the Holy Spirit? Thus he raises them up and brings them as it were to his level; yet at the same time he does not draw them away from humble thoughts of themselves; for he says: “called,” not that they came and entered of themselves, and—the called is still only one who is designated. A calling to greatness is not an occasion for pride, but a summons to labor with all one’s might, so as to prove oneself worthy of the calling.

The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9)

Rom. 1:7. To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ..

To all in Rome. Complete universality testifies to benevolence and moreover continues to hold everyone in humble sentiments. “Among the believers were probably prefects, consuls, and the poor, and common people; but the holy Apostle Paul, paying no attention whatever to the distinction of ranks, sends one greeting to all. For if slaves and the free alike participate equally in all the most needful and spiritual things, such as: the love of God, calling, the gospel, adoption, grace, peace, sanctification, and all other things; is it not utter madness to distinguish by earthly attributes those whom God has united and made equal in honor in what is most important? Therefore, the Apostle, right at the beginning, casting out this grievous infirmity, establishes the Romans in humility, which is the mother of all good. Humility made even slaves better, teaching them that slavery does not harm those who possess true freedom, and turned masters to moderation, convincing them that there is no benefit in freedom if they do not excel above all in faith” (holy Chrysostom, the same as blessed Theodoret).

“Beloved of God, called to be holy.” “How often the holy Apostle Paul uses the word: ‘called’! Such repetition, however, is not excessive: the Apostle desires through this to root in the remembrance of the Romans the goodness of God” (holy Chrysostom). The Elect of His God loved from eternity; He draws near to them in reality through the benevolent will of love by means of calling. “No one can come to Me, unless the Father in heaven draw him” (Jn 6:44), the Lord says. Calling is that drawing toward the Lord. One must be counted called and summoned who, having heard the voice calling, went after it, not one who merely heard it: for such a one, hearing it, might despise it and go his own way. Those who go after the voice calling—where are they going? To the Lord Saviour, so that through Him they might come to the Father: for He says, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn 14:6). Hereby is enclosed the circular motion of calling. The love of the Father called to the Lord; the called one went to the Lord; through the Lord he came to the Caller and became united with Him. In such ones the love of the Father rests and is satisfied by them; but toward the disobedient, love extends over all of them, not entering within, for they are locked within themselves. When the holy Apostle Paul calls the Romans beloved of God, he understands by this the love of God, being satisfied by them and satisfying them. The Romans felt it and clearly understood in their heart what the Apostle was saying to them.

“Called to be holy.” Called, they believed; by faith they were renewed in baptism, receiving the beginnings of spiritual life; and then through the laying on of hands (now Chrismation) into the vessel of their renewed nature they received the grace of the Holy Spirit and became holy; in the form of thoughts, in the undertakings of will, and in the feelings of the heart they became the holy temple of God. Is it not for this reason too that they are beloved of God, that they are thus holy? Yes, so it is. How is this? Holiness comes through changes in the spirit as a consequence of calling; calling itself is the work of love. Consequently, love precedes what makes one pleasing to God. The Lord knows His own and loves them, by foreknowledge, knowing that they will heed His call and receive the sanctification bestowed by His economy—He loves them as clean and holy, and also those who are not yet clean and holy, but will come to love purity and holiness and become through the grace of the Holy Spirit holy and blameless.

“Grace to you and peace.” They already possessed both grace and peace. Therefore the meaning of this blessing is the same as what is directly expressed by holy Peter: “may it be multiplied” upon you grace and peace (1 Pet 1:2). You have entered into the streams of grace—may it pour forth upon you ever more abundantly and fill you more and more abundantly; you have received peace with God, you have made peace within yourselves, you have become united with one another by love in a mutual bond of peace—may this good enter into you, penetrating you more deeply and encompassing all your relationships. Blessed Theodoret writes on this: “he asks for the Romans, first, the grace of God, because by its aid all who believe obtain salvation; then peace, by which he means all progress in virtue. For he is at peace with God who has loved evangelical life and strives earnestly in all things to please God.” And holy Chrysostom says: “a greeting bringing countless blessings. So Christ commanded the Apostles that when they enter a house, this word be pronounced first. And Paul always begins with the same thing: ‘grace to you and peace.’ The war that Christ ended was not light, but from various sides, in every manner and for a long time disturbing us: it was ended not by our labors, but by His grace. And as love is the origin of grace and by grace comes peace, the Apostle, following precisely this order in his greeting, prays for the continuous and unbroken abiding of love, grace, peace, so that new war may not break forth again, and asks the Giver to preserve them immutable.”

“From God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” “Here the Apostle shows that the Giver of these gifts is not only the Father, but also the Son: by which He fully teaches us the equality of the Father and the Son” (blessed Theodoret). “For he did not say: grace and peace to you from God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ—but says: from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. O, how all-powerful is the love of the Lord! Enemies and the rejected suddenly became holy and sons. For the Apostle, naming God Father, made it understood that they are sons; and naming them sons, revealed all the treasure of blessings. Therefore, let us not cease to manifest a life worthy of the gift—to keep peace and holiness” (holy Chrysostom).

b) The Beginning of the Epistle (Rom. 1:8–17)

At the beginning of the Epistle, as is customary in letters, the holy Apostle Paul places such thoughts as are powerful to establish goodwill toward the Epistle and stimulate desire to read it. For this purpose: aa) he praises the faith of the Romans, giving thanks to God for it (Rom 1:8); and: bb) he testifies to his benevolence toward the Romans, expressing desire to see them and make them partakers of the blessings of his Apostleship (Rom 1:9–13). And indicating: cc) the reason for such desire in the obligation laid upon him to enlighten all by faith (Rom 1: 14–15), he transitions to: dd) the subject of the entire Epistle—that salvation is established only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 1: 16–17).

Aa) The Apostle praises the faith of the Romans (Rom. 1:8)

Rom. 1:8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world..

“An opening befitting the blessed Apostle!” (holy Chrysostom). Needing to praise the Romans, he praises them in such a manner, however, that he takes away every occasion for arrogance: for he does not ascribe to them the good praised in them, but to God, the source of all good. Saying: I thank God for your faith—he both stirs them to gratitude, drawing attention away from himself and fixing it on God’s blessing and God’s love. By this the Apostle “sufficiently instructs each one that the beginnings of good deeds and words must be dedicated to God and that thanks must be given to Him not only for one’s own progress in good, but also for the progress of others. Through this the soul becomes pure from envy and ill-will, and greater benevolence of God is drawn to the grateful” (holy Chrysostom).

“I thank my God.” “With what fervor he gives thanks! He did not simply say: ‘God’—but: ‘my God.’ Thus do the Prophets, claiming for themselves what belongs to all. And is there cause for wonder in the Prophets? Does not God Himself, it appears, always do the same concerning His servants, calling Himself exclusively the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?” (holy Chrysostom). Perfect God-fearing ones and lovers of God have God as their own in the feelings of the heart and themselves—as God’s. Feeling the great love of God personally toward themselves and themselves burning with love toward God, they naturally claim God as their own and themselves as God’s. And this is the full expression of true communion with God, not merely conceived in thought, but actually established between the spirit of the believer and God. While God is seen as something foreign and general, faith is still weak, still has not entered into its power. Likewise, whoever does not serve God with all his strength, but is attached to something else, cannot have God as his God.

“I thank…through Jesus Christ.” All from God comes down to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, and from us to God all must ascend through Him; we dare not appear before God without bearing the seal of Christ, without having Him in mind and heart by faith, hope, and devotion. Wherefore, even in prayer, the Lord commanded us to approach God—in His name, assuring that if anyone prays thus, he shall surely receive what he asks for (Jn 14:13, 14). And God accepts no sacrifice from us except the Lord. Everywhere sacrifices are brought to God. We Christians, what do we bring? a small loaf of bread and a small cup of wine mixed with water. Is it fitting for us to bring so little?! But this bread and wine become the Body and Blood of the Lord, and through this our sacrifice, so small in value in itself, becomes priceless. Thus God was pleased to arrange it. If we dare not appear before God in any other way than through the Lord Jesus Christ, then neither with thanksgiving. This is what the Apostle teaches by giving thanks to God for the Romans through Jesus Christ. “He is the mediator of our gratitude to God not only because He taught us to give thanks to God, but also because He Himself presents our thanksgiving before God” (blessed Theophylact).

“I thank my God…for your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.” “Note for what Paul gives thanks—not for earthly and perishable things, such as: power, might, glory—these are not worth noting; but for true goods, faith and boldness (before God)!” (holy Chrysostom). He gives thanks that faith is proclaimed; but how could it be proclaimed if it were not firm, clear, and perfect—so, in expressing gratitude for the proclamation of their faith, he at the same time recognizes in it these very qualities, giving to understand that it is lofty both in knowledge of the subjects of faith and in deeds corresponding to faith, and moreover is so animated that it does not hide but boldly reveals itself before all. But even the very proclamation of faith is an object worthy of thanksgiving: for the example of the Romans could act victoriously on the inclining toward faith of all who heard of it. “Speaking not to please them, but in all truth, the Apostle said this. For it could not be hidden from those living throughout the world what was accomplished in Rome. In it the Roman kings of old held their court; from there rulers of peoples were sent and tribute-collectors from cities; to it also flocked all who sought royal favors, and all of them everywhere made it known that the city of Rome itself had received the teaching of Christ. And this brought very great benefit to those who heard. Wherefore the blessed Apostle glorified for this the Master” (blessed Theodoret).

“Proclaimed throughout the whole world.” “How is this? Did all the earth hear about the faith of the Romans? According to Paul’s words, all; and this is not strange at all. Rome was not an insignificant city, but, being set as if on a certain height, drew the eyes of all toward itself. And he did not say: ‘became manifest’—but: ‘proclaimed’—that is, for everyone constitutes a subject of conversation” (holy Chrysostom).

“Picture to yourself the power of preaching, how in a short time through customs-officers and fishermen it overcame the first of cities and how a few Syrians became teachers and instructors of the Romans. Paul testifies here to the twofold success of preaching: that the Romans believed, and believed with complete firmness, so that report of them encircled all the earth. The Romans, recently having gained dominion over the universe, dreamed greatly of themselves, lived in wealth and luxury, and preaching was brought by fisher-Jews, people belonging to a people despised, whom all abhorred. And these fishers commanded to worship the Crucified One, raised in Judea; and these teachers to people enervated and sunk only in the present, together with this teaching, inculcated a strict life; and these preachers were poor, unlearned men, of the lowest of the low. And yet, all this did not hinder the success of faith. So mighty was the power of the Crucified One that the word spread everywhere. Preaching nowhere stopped, but quicker than fire it encompassed the whole world” (holy Chrysostom).

Bb) The Apostle testifies to his disposition toward the Romans (Rom. 1:9–13)

Rom. 1:9, 10. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by any means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you..

Having now praised his disposition toward them, the holy Apostle testifies that he remembers them and yearns for them. To remember means to bear them always in thought; to yearn for them means not to be content with only mental communion, to seek living fellowship face to face, to thirst for the embrace of love. Both of these are testimony of warm disposition and burning love, which breathe in these and the following words.

The matter itself is not so great and important—namely, that the holy Apostle remembers the Romans and yearns for them; but the matter is of great importance that no one doubt the sincerity of the Apostle’s words on this: for this doubt could later extend to the entire Epistle. Wherefore, speaking of this, the Apostle called God as witness, God, to whom his whole life is dedicated, before whom, consequently, he cannot allow himself to think or say anything that is not true.

“God is my witness,” he says. “Indeed, this is the language of the Apostolic spirit and heart, the expression of fatherly care; but what exactly do these words mean and why does Paul call God as witness? He was speaking about his attachment; and since he had not yet seen the Romans, he calls not men as witnesses, but Him who searches the heart. Having said: ‘I love you’—and in proof thereof presented that he always prays and desires to come to them, which, however, was not known to them, he resorts to sure testimony” (holy Chrysostom).

“Whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son.” “He mentioned the gospel to show the kind of service. For there are many different kinds of service in general, as well as service to God. As under earthly kings, although all are subject to one ruler, yet not all serve equally; but one’s service consists in commanding the army, another’s in governing cities, and another’s in guarding the treasury: so also in spiritual matters, one serves and works for God by believing and strictly observing his life; another by undertaking to minister to pilgrims, and another by taking on himself the care of interceding for those in need. Similarly, among the Apostles themselves, Stephen and his fellow-servers worked for God by supplying the widows, while another served by teaching the word, as Paul was, serving God by the preaching of the Gospel. That is the kind of his service, to which he was appointed! Wherefore he not only calls God as witness, but also tells what was entrusted to him, thereby letting it be known that, being deemed worthy of such trust, he will not call falsely upon God as witness” (holy Chrysostom).

Therefore, the service by which the holy Apostle served God was the gospel. How did he carry out this service? “By my spirit,” he says. What then does it mean to serve God in the gospel by the spirit? By the gift given to him. Thus in part understands and the holy Chrysostom, saying: “by this the Apostle shows us together both the grace of God and his own humility; the grace of God in that such a work was entrusted to him, and his own humility in that he ascribes all not to his own zeal, but to the aid of the Spirit.” But the blessed Theodoret expresses this thought more clearly: “there are many kinds of service to God. He is served by: whoever prays, and whoever fasts, and whoever heeds Divine words, and also whoever has care for services to pilgrims. And the divine Apostle said that he serves God, presenting to peoples the gospel of His Son, and serves with the spirit—that is, by the gift given to him.” Thus also other interpreters. The fact that the holy Apostle calls this spirit his does not prevent us from seeing in this word the gift of the Holy Spirit: for the spiritual gift is appropriated to him to whom it is given. The Apostle could say thus, meaning: by the spirit of grace given to me. This thought is supported by the fact that he served with this spirit in the gospel; in the gospel all—both zeal and power and even the very truths—are from the Spirit.

Moreover, in what way the holy Apostle served God with his spirit in the gospel, we can understand as: with my whole being, with all my strength, with complete sincerity, or, as he says of himself to holy Timothy, “with a pure conscience” (2 Tim 1:3). One can also suppose thus: the Apostle serves God not by body and soul alone, but rather by his higher part, that is, by the spirit: for he distinguishes in man these three, writing to the Thessalonians: “may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23). In him whose spirit is restored to its rights by the grace of the Spirit, it rules over the soul and body and draws them after itself; and such a one, serving God by the spirit, serves with his whole being. This thought may not be considered foreign to the Apostle’s mind in the said expression.

One may understand ‘serving in spirit’ also as spiritual service, in contrast to carnal service—the Old Testament service, as the Apostle also says in his Epistle to the Philippians: “For we are the circumcision, who serve God by the Spirit, and boast not in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3). Holy Chrysostom says: “With the words: ‘by my spirit’ the Apostle suggests further that his service to God is far superior to pagan and Jewish service. For pagan service is false, and Jewish service, though true, is carnal; but the Church’s service is the opposite of pagan service, and incomparably higher than the Jewish. Because in our service to God there is offered neither sheep nor cattle nor smoke nor incense, but a spiritual soul is offered, which Christ portrayed, saying: ‘God is spirit: and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth’ (Jn. 4:24).” Thus also our other interpreters. The Gospel is the most spiritual service.

“In the gospel of His Son” – either about the Son, or that which is from the Son. The Gospel is altogether about the Son: how He came, was incarnate, suffered, died, rose, ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father, and, as the Head of the Church, governs it and all things for its good. But it is also from the Son: for He began the Gospel, and entrusted the bringing of it to the world to the Apostles; in the Apostles, though the Spirit acted, yet He received all things from the Son. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Gospel, having ascribed above to the Father, now ascribes to the Son; thus it is spoken of Father and Son alike! For it was known to the Apostle, according to the blessed saying of Christ, that what belongs to the Father belongs to the Son and what is the Son’s belongs to the Father. ‘All that is Mine’, says Christ, ‘is Yours, and what is Yours is Mine’ (Jn. 17:10).” Thus also all our interpreters.

“For I make mention of you always in my prayers”. “Behold true love! Apparently speaking of one thing, Paul here brings together four thoughts: he remembers, remembers unceasingly, remembers in his prayers, remembers, praying for something pleasing to them. Not once, twice, or three times does he remember, but unceasingly; yet one cannot carry another unceasingly in one’s memory without great love. Therefore judge what devotion and love are indicated by remembering in prayers, and remembering unceasingly” (Holy Chrysostom).

“Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come to you”. Such is the disposition of souls devoted to God – not only to do what is pleasing to God, but to do it as God wills. Such was the Apostle. “Observing exactness, he said not simply that he asked God for his coming to them, but by the will of God, that is, if it be pleasing to the Ruler of all things” (Blessed Theodoret). “The Apostle indeed greatly desired to see the Romans, yet he does not presume to do so against God’s will, but tempers his desire with fear of God. However much he loved them, however much he was drawn to them; yet he did not wish to see them contrary to God’s will. See how abundantly he was filled with both – both with fear of God and with zeal for the Romans! His strong love was revealed in that he prayed unceasingly, prayed even when he did not receive what he asked for, and the fear of God in that, loving, he did not cease to be obedient to God’s will. Once Paul asked the Lord three times, but did not receive what he asked for; and, not receiving what he asked for, counted it a great mercy that he was not heard. How devoted he was to God in all things! Now though he received what he asked for, yet not at the time he asked, but later; but he was not grieved even at this. I say this so that we too should not grieve when we are not heard or are heard later. We are not better than Paul, who regards both as mercy; and quite rightly so. Once having given himself to God’s all-ruling Hand, he submitted to it as clay to the potter; and always followed God’s guidance” (Holy Chrysostom). “If anywhere there was in view the salvation of so many thousands, the divine Apostle did not ask unconditionally, but with his request coupled God’s will; are we worthy of any excuse when, even reasoning and praying about things sensible, touching us, we do not make this dependent on God’s will?” (Blessed Theodoret).

Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14)

Rom. 1:11. I desire to see you, that I may impart some spiritual gift to you for your establishment.

Having said that he is praying to God that he might be prospered to visit them, he now explains in what sense he desires this. He desires to visit them not as a traveler who wishes to satisfy curiosity about what the city offers, or to marvel at their metropolitan way of life—and certainly not for any human reason—but entirely for the sake of that spiritual work which he is called to carry on in souls everywhere. “He desires to undertake a journey to them not in vain, not as many now travel without aim or necessity; rather, his journey is motivated by necessary matters requiring the greatest urgency, though he does not wish to state this clearly but only hints at it” (St. Chrysostom).

By what word does he hint? “That I may impart some spiritual gift to you”. He does not say what gift, but says: “some”,—something from the treasury of the Apostolate. The Apostles were bearers of all graces, and when they appeared anywhere, the Lord distributed through them everything that was needful for those dwelling there: to some faith, to others confirmation in faith, to others consolation, to others some supernatural aid for soul or body, to others sanctification through the sacraments. The Apostles did not give what they wished, but what it pleased the Lord to take from their treasury and give to others—that is what was given. They were not stewards but executors of higher commands. That is why the Apostle does not say directly what he will impart, but expresses himself indefinitely: “some gift”,—though it is certain that it will be from the sphere of apostolic giving.

He used the verb: “impart”, μεταδω,—which means: to give over. As a master orders his steward: “give this to this one and that to that one,” and the steward does not think that he himself is giving; so the Lord inspired the Apostles that wherever he pours forth grace, they were pouring it forth and did not dare to think or say that they themselves were distributing, but—they were only imparting; for even if they themselves had wished to give something, it would not have been possible unless it accorded with the will of God. That is why holy Paul says here: I will impart—“thereby making known that not what is his own (and not according to his own choice) will he give to them, but will impart what he has received (and what will be inspired in him to impart)” (St. Chrysostom). “These words are full of humble thought about himself; he did not say: I wish to give, but: I will impart; for I impart what I myself have received (blessed Theodoret). Why this one word brings to mind three: God giving, the Apostle imparting, and the believers receiving (Ambrosiaster).”

“For your establishment”. Whatever the Apostle communicates to them from the gracious treasury of his Apostolate will serve for their establishment in faith and in life according to faith. Such is the usual fruit of the Apostles’ contact with believers. The Apostle may be expressing only this, without having in mind that there was anything in them that needed to be established. But it may also be, as St. Chrysostom says: “By saying, ‘for your establishment,’ he secretly makes them understand that the Romans were in need of correction in many things. For this is what he wishes to say to them: For a long time I have desired and asked God to see you for no other reason than to establish, confirm, make you unshakeable in the fear of God, so that you might never waver.” But without this supposition, holy Paul could have said this because there is no degree in life on which some establishment is not required. Every degree brings its own needs and uncertainties; the satisfaction of these needs and the resolution of uncertainties is the establishment of the spirit in the order of its own life.

Rom. 1:12. But this is, that I may be comforted together with you by the faith that is common to you and to me.

What will the Apostle speak about when he comes to them? Of course, about faith and everything pertaining to it. When faith is examined from all angles, the believers will see that everything in them regarding faith is in proper order and will be greatly comforted—both by the fact that it is so, and by the fact that from the person of the Apostle they will receive the seal of confirmation of their faith by a higher authority. And it will be comforting if something proves to be unregulated and is corrected; for who, seeking saving faith, does not wish to believe in the most complete manner? For the Apostle, it will be comforting to find them reformed or to reform what is unformed. For if he “suffered with those who suffered,” how could he not be comforted, encountering those strong in faith or desiring and working toward correctness in all things? Therefore he speaks as if to say: even that alone, that when we meet we shall be mutually comforted by our common faith, will be no small spiritual gift; for all this is from the Spirit and is spiritual.

St. Chrysostom explains how especially comforting it was then for Christians to see an Apostle in their midst because of the afflictions in which Christians found themselves almost everywhere. “In this way, the Apostle seemed to say: do not suspect that I spoke (the words ‘for your establishment’) as an accusation against you. My words were not spoken with such a disposition. What then did I wish to express? This: that you are surrounded by persecutors and endure much oppression; that is why it became my desire to see you, so that I might console you, or rather, not only to console you, but also myself to receive consolation. How then can we console each other? ‘By the common faith, yours and mine.’ What happens with fire—when someone kindles many lamps from it, he thereby intensifies the flame—the same ordinarily happens with the faithful. When we are separated from one another, we are weaker in spirit. But when, looking at each other, we mutually support each other, we receive much consolation. Do not judge by present times, when by God’s grace there are many throngs of faithful in both village and city, and every impiety is expelled; rather, imagine how in those times it was longed for by both teacher to see pupils and by brethren to meet with brethren coming from another city. To make you understand what I mean more clearly, I will give an example. If it happened (which God forbid) that by some circumstances we were taken away to Persia or Scythia or another barbarous land and scattered in those cities two or three at a time, and then unexpectedly saw someone arriving from here; then imagine what consolation would fill us! Have you never seen prisoners in dungeons, upon meeting with someone from their household, leap and jump with joy? And do not wonder if I compare those times to captivity or dungeons. Much greater tribulations did Christians endure at that time: scattered, persecuted, they suffered hunger and war everywhere, constant fear of death; they did not dare rely on friends, kinfolk, relatives; in the whole world they were as strangers, or rather, bore greater hardships than those living in exile. That is why the Apostle says: ‘for your establishment’ and: ‘mutually comforted by common faith.’ But he does not speak as if he himself needed their aid; not at all. For what need could there be for one who was the pillar of the Church, firmer than iron and stone, a spiritual adamant, who had strength enough to preach in thousands of cities? But if someone says that what comforted and gladdened the Apostle was the increase of faith in the Romans and that in this St. Paul had a need, even such an explanation of the words will not be sinful.”

Rom. 1:13. Now I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, that I often intended to come to you, and have been hindered until now, that I might have some fruit among you as also among the rest of the Gentiles.

He reinforces his speech: not only did he desire to visit them and pray for it, but he even actually attempted it—he was striving, yet there were always hindrances. What hindrances, he does not say. Writing to the Thessalonians, he says the same thing: that he once and twice attempted to come to them, but Satan hindered him (1 Thess. 2:18) by stirring up hostile Jews against him. Earlier, he wished to go from Galatia and Phrygia to Asia, but was hindered by the Holy Spirit, as St. Luke testifies (Acts 16:6) by some revelation, whether internal only or also external. Here, he indicates nothing of the sort, but merely says: “I have been hindered until now.” We must suppose that this hindrance was brought about by circumstances and the course of his apostolic ministry. Later he mentions that he has not yet come to them because in these regions he has not yet gone everywhere; now that he has been here everywhere, he is preparing to come to you too (Rom. 15:22 and further). The Apostles were strictly attentive to the indications of God’s providence in the circumstances of their ministry. They believed that the gracious Word revealed all its force of action over the one and the other only in the time appointed by God. That is why they did not force events and did not break through barriers to go somewhere with their preaching, but rather took them as guidance for where to direct their course. They did not go where they wanted, but where they were led, like those being guided. This very thought Paul wished to convey here, saying: “I have been hindered.” “And he both showed his own intention and revealed God’s providence. For he says: I am governed by divine grace as it pleases her” (blessed Theodoret). St. Chrysostom expounds this thought more fully. “But they will ask: if you wish, pray, hope to receive comfort and to give it; what prevents you from coming? To resolve such a question, Paul adds only: ‘I have been hindered until now.’ Behold the measure of slavish obedience and an example of profound respect! He merely says there were hindrances to him; but what they were, he does not say. Because he does not scrutinize the commands of the Master, but only obeys; though it was natural to be puzzled why God for so long hindered such a famous and vast city, toward which the eyes of the whole world were turned, from enjoying such a teacher. By capturing the capital, one could more easily attack the rest; but by passing over the capital, to conquer the cities under it would mean: not to care for the most important. Nevertheless, the Apostle did not reason about anything of the sort, but submitted to the incomprehensible providence, thereby displaying the well-directedness of his soul and teaching all of us never to inquire of God the reasons for His deeds, even if they seem to trouble many. For the master should command and the servant should obey. That is why, though Paul says there were hindrances to him, he does not say what they were. I myself do not know, he reasoned, and you do not ask about the intention and will of God. ‘Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?’ (Rom. 9:20). And tell me, why do you strive to know? Do you not know that God cares for all things? That He is wise? That He does nothing without purpose and uselessly? That He loves you more than parents and incomparably surpasses a father in love and a mother in tenderness? Then, do not ask further, do not extend yourself beyond; and this alone is enough for your peace. The fate of Rome until now was arranged wisely. If you do not know by what means, do not worry. The more you will prove faith, when, not knowing the means of God’s dispensation, you still recognize the ways of providence. So Paul achieved what he was striving for. What was that? He proved that not from negligence did he not come to them, but that there were hindrances, however much he desired to come. Having turned away the accusation of carelessness from himself and convinced them that no less than they did he desire meeting with them, he brings new proofs of his love. In spite of all hindrances, he says, I did not cease to seek; and though in all my seeking I constantly met hindrances, yet I never abandoned my intention; though I do not resist the will of God, I still preserve love. By being disposed to come and not abandoning his intention, the Apostle proved his zeal for the Romans; and by being held back and not resisting, he revealed all his love for God.”

“That I might have some fruit among you as also among the rest of the Gentiles.” These words should be placed before: “I have been hindered,” and after: “I often intended to come to you” (Oecumenius). They show what prompted the Apostle to strive toward them. “Though he had already presented the reason for his desire and shown how fitting it is for an Apostle (that I may impart a spiritual gift); nevertheless, here he brings the reason forth again, so that no suspicion should remain in them. Since Rome was a renowned, matchless city on land and sea, and mere curiosity about seeing it attracted many to travel; Paul continually repeats the reason for his desire, so that they would not conclude the same about him and suspect that he wanted to be in Rome only in hopes of gaining renown from his fellowship with the Romans” (St. Chrysostom).

“That I might have some fruit among you”—says the Apostle in accordance with the parable of the talents. The grace of Apostleship is like a talent. To put this talent into circulation and gain profit on it—means: to sow faith in the hearts of those ignorant of God, to teach them virtue, to sanctify them with grace—in short, to make people saved. The more one brings people onto the path of salvation, the more fruit his talent bears. All Apostles were chosen to bear such fruit, as the Lord says: “I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain” (Jn. 15:16). Apostle Paul has already borne his fruit for the Lord in many places; but such fruit he wishes to bear also among the Romans. There, though faith had already been planted, there was still much work to be done both in the believers themselves and even more so among those who had not yet believed. To bear such fruit of Apostleship he is striving toward Rome. It is self-evident that the thought here is the same as in the words: “that I may impart a spiritual gift.” Whoever distributes what was entrusted to him bears worthy fruit to him who entrusted it to him.

St. Chrysostom with particular emphasis expounds the moral side of the words: “as also among the rest of the Gentiles.” “God has appointed Apostles as rulers, teachers, and guardians of the whole world, as if they were lords and administrators appointed to all nations. Having subjected all nations to the Gospel, the Apostles are obligated to give account of them on the day of judgment. But one cannot give an account if one does not gather fruit and take care of those entrusted to him. Hence, he points out to them that the obligation lying upon him is to enlighten all by faith.”

The Apostle indicates the obligation lying upon him to enlighten all by faith (Rom. 1:14, 15)

“For I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise.” By this he shows the breadth of his apostolic obligation. He is a debtor to all without exception: to the Greeks, as the cultured and learned; to the Barbarians, as the rude and savage; to the wise, as having developed reason; to the unwise, as lacking it. “As if to say,” explains St. Chrysostom, “I have been entrusted with something that I must give to everyone. It is as though someone received from the master some gifts to distribute to all the servants, and would be under obligation to each one of them.” Rom. 1:14

“So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.” He shows his readiness and zeal. “Notice how he does not speak arrogantly or haughtily, but speaks modestly, saying: ‘as much as in me is,’—that is, according to my power and ability. By this he indicates that the success of his preaching depends not on his will and ability alone, but also on God’s grace. Not boasting about his power, he shows both humility and piety.” (St. Chrysostom) Lk 12:42.

The Apostle has thus justified himself for not having come earlier. He has shown: (1) that he always desired to come to them; (2) that he always tried to come to them; (3) that many hindrances stood in his way; (4) that these hindrances came from the providence of God; (5) that his coming would serve the establishment and consolation of the Roman church through the impartation of spiritual gifts; (6) that this desire comes from his apostolic obligation to spread the Gospel to all peoples without exception, and (7) his readiness to fulfill this obligation. All this was necessary for the Romans to understand that the delay in his coming was not due to his negligence or lack of love for them.

The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17)

Rom. 1:16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

The Apostle begins a new section of his epistle, marking a transition from the personal introduction of himself to the Romans and the explanation of his apostolic zeal, to the exposition of the subject itself—the Gospel of Christ. Before directly expounding the Gospel, however, he gives a preface setting forth its power and importance. “This preface was necessary,” says St. Chrysostom, “for the Romans did not yet believe. Many of them were still pagans, and even among the believing, there were those infected with Judaizing errors, who looked down upon the Gospel and considered the Law more important. Therefore, the Apostle needs to prove the power of the Gospel, so that they would abandon their prejudices and embrace it with faith and respect.” τό κατ᾿ έμέ πρόθυμον

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” Why does he say this? Because the Gospel was esteemed as foolishness and weakness by worldly wisdom. The philosophers despised it, the Romans mocked it, the Jews rejected it and considered it a stumbling-block. “Notice,” explains St. Chrysostom, “how he does not say: ‘I am proud of the Gospel,’ but only: ‘I am not ashamed.’ Why? Because he is speaking to those who, either from ignorance or from false shame, might be tempted to abandon the Gospel. It is not necessary to boast—it is only necessary not to be ashamed. Once a person is not ashamed, he will not abandon the truth, even if the whole world opposes him.”

“For it is the power of God to salvation.” This is the reason why he is not ashamed: because the Gospel possesses the power of God, the power of the Almighty. The Gospel is not merely a teaching; it is a force, an active power that truly transforms people and leads them to salvation. “It is the power of God,” says St. Chrysostom, “because through it God works; because it effects what it promises; because its effects are not merely words and teachings, but the transformation and salvation of those who believe in it.” Rom. 1:16

“To every one that believes.” This is the condition for the Gospel’s power to be effective in a person: faith. The power of God operates in salvation only for those who believe. This shows that although the Gospel is God’s power, it does not work automatically or by force. God respects human freedom; salvation comes to those who freely receive the Gospel through faith. Those who do not believe do not experience the saving power of the Gospel, not because it lacks power, but because they shut themselves off from it through their unbelief.

“To the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” This indicates the order in which the Gospel was to be preached. The priority given to the Jew is not because he is more worthy than the Greek, but because God’s redemptive plan in the Old Testament was directed toward the Jewish people, and the Messiah came from them. The Messianic hope was alive among the Jews, making them in some sense prepared for the Gospel’s reception. Thus, it was fitting that the Gospel be preached first to them, even though many rejected it. After the Jews, the Gospel extended to the Greeks, that is, to the Gentiles, to all peoples without distinction of race or culture 1 Cor. 1:23.

St. Chrysostom explains this priority thus: “Why does he mention the Jew first? (1) Because the Messiah came from the Jews; (2) because God made covenants with them; (3) because the Law and the prophets were given to them as preparation for the Gospel; (4) because in the Apostles’ preaching practice, the Gospel was indeed preached first in Jerusalem, the center of Jewish religious life; (5) because this was a token of honor to the Jews, even though many of them rejected the Gospel; (6) to indicate that the God of the Jews is also the God of the Greeks—there is no separate God for the Gentiles, but One God, One Gospel, One salvation for all.”

This verse establishes the fundamental themes that will occupy the Apostle throughout the epistle: (1) the power of the Gospel in salvation; (2) the centrality of faith for receiving this salvation; (3) the universality of salvation—it is for all, without regard to nation, culture, or prior religious status; (4) the continuity and yet transformation of God’s plan—the Jews first, yet now in equality with the Gentiles. All of this will be expounded in the following chapters as the Apostle proves that justification comes by faith in Christ, not by the works of the Law.

The mention of the Gospel’s power “to salvation” raises a crucial question: What is salvation? In what sense can the Gospel be called the power of God to salvation? St. Paul will answer these questions throughout the epistle. Salvation, in the deepest sense, means restoration of fallen humanity to communion with God—justification before God, sanctification in life, and final glorification. The Gospel accomplishes this through the death and resurrection of Christ, which it proclaims, and through the faith of believers in this proclamation.

It is notable that the Apostle does not begin his exposition with a philosophical argument or with a display of the Gospel’s rational coherence. He begins with an assertion of faith: “I am not ashamed”—a personal testimony to the power that has worked in his own life. He does not argue that the Gospel should not be ashamed of; he affirms that it is indeed the power of God. This sets the tone for the entire epistle: the Gospel is not defended by mere intellectual demonstration, but is proclaimed as the living power of God at work in history and in the hearts of believers Rom. 1:17.

The words “power of God to salvation” also contain an implicit contrast with human power. The world esteems power in terms of military might, political influence, intellectual superiority, and wealth. But the Gospel operates through different means: through preaching and faith, through the working of the Holy Spirit, through the transformation of the human heart. Its power is not evident to those who look only at external circumstances, but is real and effective for those who have eyes to see and hearts to believe.

The phrase “to every one that believes” also deserves meditation. It shows that the power of God is not imposed but offered; not coercive but persuasive; not determining fate but calling to freedom. Those who believe receive the power; those who do not believe do not receive it. This establishes a fundamental principle: divine salvation works through and with human consent and response. God’s grace does not eliminate human responsibility; rather, it enlists it. Faith is the human response to God’s offer of grace, the acceptance of His power working to salvation.

Rom. 1:17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

This verse is the key to the entire epistle. Here, the Apostle introduces what will be his central theme: the righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel, and the manner of its revelation—from faith to faith, through faith and faith alone. The phrase “therein” refers to the Gospel just mentioned. It is in the Gospel that the righteousness of God is revealed.

What is meant by “the righteousness of God”? This is one of the most important terms in Pauline theology, and it has been understood in different ways. Some interpret it as God’s own righteousness, His attribute of justice. Others interpret it as the righteousness that God gives to believers, or the state of being right before God—what we call justification. The context of the epistle suggests both meanings are present: God’s righteousness is manifested through His justifying action, through which He makes sinners righteous before Him.

The revelation of God’s righteousness is “from faith to faith.” This phrase indicates a progression, a dynamic movement. Some interpret it as meaning: from the faith of the Old Testament saints to the faith of New Testament believers. Others understand it as: faith producing more faith, or the Gospel calling forth faith in those who already have some faith. The most common interpretation is that righteousness is revealed in such a way as to evoke faith—it is revealed to faith and through faith, as faith apprehends it.

“As it is written” introduces a proof from Scripture. The Apostle cites from the prophet Habakkuk: “The just shall live by faith.” This quotation from Habakkuk 2:4 is central to Pauline theology. It affirms that the righteous—those justified before God—live by faith. This is not faith as mere intellectual assent, but faith as trust in God, as reliance upon God’s word and God’s promise. To “live by faith” means to orient one’s entire existence toward God, to depend upon Him, to trust Him in all circumstances Eph. 3:9 1 Cor. 2:7.

“The just shall live by faith.” Notice the word “live.” The justified person does not merely exist; he lives—he has true life, fullness of life, spiritual life that transcends mere biological existence. This life comes through faith. In the context of Paul’s theology, this means: the person who is justified by faith in Christ lives a new life, a life no longer under the condemnation of the Law, but under the grace of God, a life animated by the Holy Spirit Matt. 5:16.

St. Paul uses this text from Habakkuk to establish a crucial point: justification and life come through faith, not through works of the Law. This will be one of the primary arguments of the epistle. The Law cannot justify; only faith can. Why? Because the Law demands what it cannot give—the power to fulfill its demands. Faith, on the other hand, receives from God what the Law demands: righteousness, or the right standing before God, through Christ.

The movement in these verses is striking: from the Gospel as the power of God to salvation (verse 16), to the revelation of God’s righteousness in the Gospel (verse 17), to the call to faith as the means of receiving this righteousness and this salvation. The Gospel is not merely a message about God; it is God’s action, God’s power working in history and in human lives. And it addresses human beings as beings capable of faith—it calls forth faith, it awakens faith, it enables faith through the work of the Holy Spirit Lk 17:5.

The quote from Habakkuk also carries historical resonance. Habakkuk, the prophet, lived in a time of crisis and injustice, when he saw the righteous suffering and the wicked prospering. His faith was tested. Yet he affirms: “The just shall live by faith.” This means: even in times of trial, even when God’s righteousness is not apparent, the righteous person holds to faith in God. This is relevant to the Romans, who may have been tempted by the apparent worldly success of paganism and the apparent weakness of Christianity.

The entire epistle will unpack and expound what is compressed in these two verses. The Apostle will show: (1) the reality of human sin and its universal scope; (2) the impossibility of justification through the Law; (3) the revelation of God’s righteousness through faith in Christ; (4) the role of faith as the sole means of receiving justification; (5) the consequences of justification—peace with God, sanctification, hope of glory; (6) the continuation of God’s faithfulness in history, shown in the election of the remnant of Israel.

This verse establishes the hermeneutical principle that will guide the Apostle’s interpretation of Scripture throughout the epistle. The Law is understood in light of faith; the Old Testament promises are fulfilled in the Gospel; the righteousness that God demanded under the Old Testament is now revealed as a gift offered through faith in Christ. This is not a rejection of the Old Testament but its proper fulfillment and interpretation.

Oecumenius also brings other interpretations of the meaning of the words: “from faith to faith”. “This also means that the work of holy and righteous life, just as it begins by faith, so should be characterized by faith and stand upon it. Having entered into the gospel order, one should not curiously investigate everything perceived in it, but receive all by faith. Or thus: one must believe the Prophets and from them draw guidance toward gospel faith. Or differently: the believer in Christ the Lord and having received the grace of baptism is thereby guided to believe without doubt in future blessings—the resurrection of the dead, eternal life, and the Kingdom of Heaven. For one must believe that God appeared on earth in the flesh—which is the beginning—and that the inheritance of the believing will be the Kingdom of Heaven—which is the end of faith. (These last two interpretations are taken word for word from the Blessed Theodoret.) Or thus: ‘from faith to faith’—for the Jew, from the faith under the Law into the faith of Jesus Christ, and for the Greek from natural faith into that same faith of Jesus Christ (the interpretation of Akakios)”.

All these understandings are not foreign to edification for the one who seeks it. But nonetheless they all amount to this: to impress upon us that in the matter of salvation all depends on faith—which, one may suppose, is also what the Apostle intended to impress upon us. For, bringing forth thereafter a prophetic testimony in confirmation of the thought he expressed, he brought such a passage in which it is spoken simply of faith: “as it is written: ‘the righteous’ ‘shall live by faith’ (Hab. 2:4). He is, as it were, saying: the Gospel is the power of God to salvation, but for the believer; through it appears in everyone the righteousness of God, or everyone becomes righteous, but from faith to faith. Therefore, believe and believe. Whoever believes shall live by a holy and righteous life; but the unbeliever remains in the domain of death, by sin which kills and destroys all (words of the Lord (Jn. 3:15–18)). True life is righteous life; but the righteous man can live righteously only by faith. Without faith there is no true righteous life, nor is there salvation. The Prophet confirms this too, when he says: ‘the righteous’ ‘shall live by faith.’”

The Prophet’s words require no special explanation; they are clear in themselves. Let us only add the following observation. A man can himself perform deeds of righteousness—not to wrong, not to appropriate what is another’s, to be temperate, to help the needy—and in all his conduct can appear righteous and honorable. But for all his righteousness, so long as he remains alone, he is like a statue, skillfully wrought, but without a soul. Faith breathes a soul into him, by drawing down grace, which gives life to all who are truly righteous. The righteousness that precedes this, if it exists at all, exists only as a preparation for receiving grace through faith, makes one a vessel capable of receiving the quickening of grace, but does not complete the whole work. Take a Jew who perfectly keeps his law: he must be reckoned righteous. Take a pagan living rightly by the principles of righteousness written on his heart—and he will be righteous. But neither the one nor the other should be considered quickened by true life. This life will appear in them when they are deemed worthy of quickening by Divine grace according to faith in the Lord Savior. The clearest testimony to this is given by Cornelius the centurion. He was righteous, but he became truly alive when the Holy Spirit descended upon him. Saint Chrysostom accompanies the words of the Prophet with the following observation: “Let the heretics hear this spiritual voice! Reasoning, like a labyrinth and riddles (A riddle is the Greek word: γρίφος—a puzzle), has nowhere an end, does not give thoughts a place to settle on stone, and originates from self-exaltation. Those who are ashamed to admit faith do not know the heavenly and are whirled in a vortex of countless reasonings. Miserable pauper, worthy of our constant tears! It is unbecoming for you to dispute and to be untimely curious. And what shall we say of the members of faith? From the very vices of the present life we are freed in no other way than through faith. By faith those who lived before shone: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. By faith the harlot (Rahab) was saved (Hebr. 11:31). She did not begin to reason how those captives, fugitives, wanderers could overcome a city fortified with walls and towers. If she had so reasoned, she would have destroyed herself and them, as in fact the predecessors of those saved by Rahab perished. For those, seeing men of great stature and might, began to seek means of overcoming them, and all perished without war or battle. Do you see what an abyss is unbelief and how firm is the wall of faith! Unbelief brought countless people to destruction, but faith not only saved a harlot woman, but made her a protector of the people of Israel. Knowing this and many other examples, let us never seek the reason for the works of God; but without inquiry and excessive curiosity let us receive the commandments of God, even though they should seem discordant with human reason. For tell me, what could seem more discordant than for a father himself to put to death his only and beloved son? Yet the righteous man, having received such a command, did not reason about it, but accepted the commandment solely on account of the worthiness of the one commanding and obeyed. But another, having received from God a command to strike a Prophet, pondered this deed and did not obey simply. For this he was punished with death, but he who struck pleased God (1King 20:35–37). And Saul, contrary to God’s will saving the lives of men, was deposed from the throne and subjected to severe punishment. It is not difficult to find many other examples which together teach us never to seek the reason for God’s commandments, but in simplicity to obey them without resistance. Now if it is dangerous to go deeply into what is commanded, and curiosity awaits extreme punishment, what excuse will those have who judge concerning matters incomprehensible and awesome—for example, how did the Father beget the Son? what is His essence? (How did He become incarnate and by His death save our race?). Therefore, knowing this, let us receive with all goodwill the mother of all good things—faith, so that we, like those sailing into a peaceful harbor, may preserve the true teaching, and directing our life with complete security, may obtain eternal blessings.”

Having thus fixed the attention of the Romans, and with them all of us, on faith, the Apostle then explains and sets forth at length its nature, with all things connected to it, which constitutes the doctrinal part of the Epistle.

The Doctrinal Part: On Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 1:18–11:36)

No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

In the doctrinal part, holy Paul:

1) points out that apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ there is no salvation (Rom. 1:18–3:30);

2) persuades, attracts and inclines toward it (Rom. 3:31–5:21);

3) sets forth the chief obligation for believers in faith—to be holy (Rom. 6:1–7:6);

4) portrays its beneficence for our fallen nature and for all creation with comforting demonstration of how firm are the foundations of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 7:7–8:39);

5) and concludes with extensive clarification of the question of the unbelief of the Jews (Rom. 9:1–11:36).

1) Apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ there is no salvation (Rom. 1:18–3:30)

The Apostle explains this in the following propositions: a) judgment is appointed upon all who hold the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). But: b) in this are guilty: aa) both Gentiles (Rom. 1:19–2:16), and also: bb) Jews (Rom. 2:17–3:20). Therefore, there is no salvation for them both: judgment and condemnation justly fall upon the head of both. They would perish, but the loving God had compassion on them and arranged for them: c) a special wondrous way of salvation in His incarnate Son, who died on the cross and by His death washed away the sins of all (Rom. 3:21–30). Therefore, there is no other salvation but to lay hold of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

a) God’s judgment is inevitable upon all who hold the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18)

Rom. 1:18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

This proposition the holy Apostle does not prove but only sets before us. Everyone recognizes its truth by the testimony of conscience. Have you sinned? Expect the due recompense. Therefore he says: “it is revealed.” It is appointed immutably that judgment and recompense shall be, and soon the heavens shall be opened and the Judge of all shall appear. God’s wrath means judgment, condemnation and punishment. The Apostle called it wrath in human terms. Do not approach an angry man nor speak to him: he will not listen. So too God’s judgment is inexorable and unchanging: as it is determined in it, so it shall remain forever. Eternal torment is appointed to the sinner; he cannot escape it unless he satisfies God’s righteousness. Therefore, either hasten to seek reconciliation with God, or expect nothing but eternal torments. And the awfulness of God’s judgment is also expressed thus. The Lord Savior Himself depicted it as terrible, He who died to deliver all from this judgment. And it is terrible for the very reason that it is a judgment. What criminal does not tremble before judgment? In schools, examinations by authority, always benevolent, with what fear are they accompanied?! How not to have fear and awfulness at that judgment which decides eternal fate? The Apostle, instead of: the righteous judgment of God is revealed, said: “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.” Soon the heavens shall be opened and the Judge of all shall appear. “From heaven,” he says, to signify that in this Divine action there will be nothing earthly. On earth one may still somehow skew the scales of justice, but there, incorruptible righteousness shall penetrate all and decide all.

The Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle threatens future punishment, which is called God’s wrath, not because God punishes in passion, but so that by this name he may frighten the disobedient; and he said that ‘the wrath is revealed from heaven,’ because from heaven shall appear God and our Savior. For the Lord Himself said this: ‘Then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory’ (Matt. 24:30)”.

Rom. 1:24-27: “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Isa. 1:19-20 1 Cor. 11:32

The Apostle traces the consequences of humanity’s rejection of God. Having abandoned true worship of God, humans are “given up” to impure desires and degraded passions. This giving up is not arbitrary punishment but the natural consequence of their choice: when humans turn from God, the result is moral and spiritual degradation. The “uncleanness” (spiritual and moral filth) and “dishonorable passions” (shameful lusts) are the fruit of idolatry.

“Changed the truth of God into a lie.” This summarizes the fundamental error: humanity has exchanged the truth about God (that He is the Creator, worthy of worship, the source of life and goodness) for a lie (that created things are worthy of worship, that human desires are the measure of truth and goodness, that matter and flesh are ultimate). This exchange has devastating consequences for human society and morality.

“Worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.” This is the essence of idolatry and godlessness: giving ultimate allegiance to what is not ultimate. When humans make creatures (including themselves) the center of worship and service instead of the Creator, all values become inverted. What should be means becomes the end; what should be servant becomes master.

As a consequence, God “gave them up to vile affections.” Here, Paul catalogs specific sins, using sexual immorality as the prime example of the degradation that results from rejecting God. The women “changed the natural use into that which is against nature,” and “the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another.” These are not arbitrary prohibitions but violations of the natural order that God established.

The unnatural passions and acts described here are presented as consequences—“receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” The punishment is built into the sin itself. Those who reject the Creator find that their desires become disordered, their bodies become instruments of shame, and their relationships become corrupted. This is not vindictive punishment but the natural degradation that follows from rejecting truth and goodness.

It is important to understand Paul’s purpose here. He is not giving a scientific or anthropological account of pagan society for its own sake. Rather, he is demonstrating that humanity—without the saving work of Christ, without the grace of God—spirals into moral and spiritual degradation. The vivid catalog of sins serves to show the seriousness of sin and the impossibility of salvation through human effort alone.

The progression is instructive: knowledge of God → rejection of God → worship of idols → moral degradation → vile passions → shameful acts → spiritual death. At each stage, humanity has a choice, but also a consequence. The rejected knowledge leads to darkness; the false worship leads to distorted desires; the indulgence in false desires leads to enslavement. This is the trajectory of sin.

The mention of unnatural passions is particularly pointed in the context of the epistle. It shows that the moral degradation of pagan society was not limited to private vices but extended to the fundamental structures of human relationship and society. If even the most basic natural relationships become perverted, it shows the depth of the spiritual disease that grips humanity when it turns from God Rom. 1:19-23 α.

Yet all of this serves a purpose in Paul’s argument: to establish that all humanity—both Gentiles and Jews—stands under condemnation before God. The Gentiles, through their idolatry and immorality, have rejected the truth about God and deserve God’s wrath. But the Jews, as will become clear, also stand under condemnation, despite their possession of the Law and the prophets. None are righteous; all need salvation Rom. 1:24-31 β.

The passage does not describe the condition of all pagan society without exception. Not all pagans engaged in these extreme vices. Rather, Paul is describing the logical and actual trajectory of pagan religion divorced from the true God—the tendency and trend of societies that have rejected divine revelation. The vices he catalogs are real and prevalent in pagan society, showing the fruit of godlessness Rom. 2:1-16 γ.

The purpose of laying bare these sins is not to condemn pagans with self-righteous superiority but to show all humanity its need for grace. In describing pagan vice, Paul prepares the ground for his argument that the Jews, too, stand under condemnation despite their advantages. If the Gentiles, who lack the Law, are condemned for their sins, how much more are the Jews, who have the Law, condemned when they also commit sins? This will be his argument in the next chapters Rom.1:19.

Rom. 1:28-32: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

“They did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” This phrase shows the active, willful refusal to maintain the knowledge of God that was available to them. It is not a passive ignorance but an active rejection. Humans do not like to have God in their knowledge because God makes demands—demands for obedience, for worship, for moral purity. So they choose to reject this knowledge, to suppress it, to “not like” to keep it.

“God gave them over to a reprobate mind.” As judgment for their refusal to retain the knowledge of God, God allows them to follow the course of their own minds—minds that are reprobate, unfit for good, corrupted and unable to discern truth and good. This is a terrible judgment: to be left to one’s own devices, without the guidance and correction of God’s truth. The mind separated from God inevitably becomes corrupted and diseased.

The catalog of sins that follows (vv. 29-31) shows the result of this corrupted mind: all manner of unrighteousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, gossip, slander, hatred of God, insolence, pride, boastfulness, contrivance of evil, disobedience to parents, foolishness, faithlessness, lack of natural affection (even family bonds are broken), implacability, and mercilessness. This comprehensive list shows that when humans reject God, the result is not merely individual sin but a corruption of the entire moral and social fabric Rom.1:20.

“Inventors of evil things” is a striking phrase. Humanity, in its separation from God, becomes creative in devising new forms of wickedness. It is not content with the sins that natural human weakness might lead to, but actively imagines and invents new evils. This shows a kind of demonic ingenuity in sin Ps. 18:1.

“Disobedient to parents.” The breaking of the family bond is a symptom of the deep spiritual disease. In the Ten Commandments, honor to parents is the first commandment dealing with human relationships—it establishes the fundamental hierarchy and bond of family life. When this is broken, all social bonds become unstable.

“Without natural affection.” The Greek word here means literally “without family love.” In a society devoted to self-gratification and the pursuit of base desires, even the natural love that binds family members becomes attenuated. Parents may abandon children, husbands may betray wives, siblings may become enemies—all in pursuit of individual gratification.

“Implacable, unmerciful.” The final vices listed are particularly damning: the inability to be reconciled with others, the refusal to show mercy. A society in which people do not forgive one another, do not show compassion, becomes a society of conflict and vengeance, where past wrongs perpetually breed new wrongs Ps. 138:14 Job 38:7 Ps. 8:2, 4-5.

“Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” This final phrase is the climax of condemnation. These people know—either from conscience or from what remnant of knowledge of God remains—that such acts are worthy of death, that they violate divine law and incur divine judgment. Yet not only do they continue in these acts, but they “have pleasure” in them and in those who do them. This is not weakness or ignorance but active, deliberate rebellion.

The fact that they have “pleasure” in their sins shows that sin is not merely a mistake or a weakness but can become a positive embrace of evil. The sinner not only acts wrongly but comes to love the wrong, to take pleasure in it, and to affirm it. This is spiritual death—the will has become so corrupted that it chooses evil not despite its evil but because it is evil.

With this passage, Paul completes his description of human godlessness and its consequences. He has shown that humanity, having rejected the knowledge of God available through creation and conscience, has spiraled into moral degradation, impurity, and willful rebellion. The accumulated weight of human sin—both the sins of individuals and the sins of societies—stands as testimony to humanity’s need for redemption.

Thus everywhere are visible “the invisible things of God”, “that is, His creative work, His providence, His righteous judgment concerning each thing, and the dispensation of every kind. Therefore, those who have such strict teachers are without excuse and have drawn no benefit from so many lessons. For the Apostle also added this: ‘so that they are without excuse’. For the very works almost cry out that such people have no justification for deliverance from the evils threatening them” (the Blessed Theodoret).

The first chapter of Romans has served its purpose: to demonstrate the universal sinfulness of humanity, the revelation of God’s wrath against sin, and the condition that makes the Gospel necessary. The Gentile world, without the advantage of divine revelation through the Law and prophets, stands condemned through its idolatry and immorality. Now Paul will turn his attention to the Jews, showing that despite their advantages—the possession of the Law, the prophets, the covenants—they too stand under condemnation before God. The only hope for any person, Jew or Gentile, is the righteousness of God revealed through faith in Christ.

The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24)

Rom. 1:21. Although they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

The Apostle has stated that God’s judgment and wrath are appointed upon those who hold the truth in unrighteousness; then he explained that the Gentiles knew the truth; now he points out how they held this truth in unrighteousness. In a few words (Rom. 1:21-23) he delineates the entire course of humanity’s descent from true knowledge and worship of God to idolatry not from an external (historical) perspective but from an internal (psychological) one. By all this he establishes the thought that idolatry is not an original religion, as some suppose, but is the fruit of a descent from the height of true religion, through the corruption of hearts and minds.

“Although”—since—is grammatically connected to the immediately preceding “without excuse,” and in thought with all that has been said above, and especially with the holding of truth in unrighteousness, for there follows the indication of how precisely this came about.

“Although they knew God.” What did they know? Not only that God exists, but that He is, that He is the Creator, who sustains all and cares for all, that He must be worshipped and pleased in all things, with the consciousness of responsibility before Him, and finally that after death there will be judgment and recompense to all for their works, good and evil. These truths are imprinted in the heart, and there is no people that does not profess them. The Blessed Theodoret, explaining what the Gentiles knew about God, says: “they, as they themselves testify, knew that God exists, because always on their lips is that all-venerable name.” Saint Chrysostom sees evidence that the Gentiles knew God in their very recognition of many gods. “The sign that the Gentiles knew God, the Apostle places in the very fact that they acknowledged many gods.” And Photius in Oecumenius asserts that they knew not only that God exists, but also “that He is, what is to be understood by Him, namely—that He is the Creator and all-good Providence, that He is the Master of all things and that He must be honored.”

Having knowledge of God thus, the Gentiles, however, “glorified him not as God, neither were thankful.” “They did not make use of this knowledge as they ought” (Saint Chrysostom). “They would not entertain thoughts about Him worthy of Him” (the Blessed Theodoret).

“To glorify God”—means: to acknowledge His boundless perfections and His wondrous works and to entertain feelings corresponding to them of reverence, love, worship, abasement before Him and devotion to Him. “To be thankful to God”—means: acknowledging that both our being and all that is in us, and all the good sent to us, as well as all visible things in creation, are the direct gift of God’s many-concerned love for us and for creatures, a love that embraces not only our present but also our future for endless ages—to entertain toward Him feelings of gratitude, with readiness to devote one’s whole life to Him, striving in every way to please Him by the strict fulfillment of His holy will. Both together express the religion of the heart, as it ought to be, whose chief characteristic is fear of God, directing everything toward pleasing God and having that as its main and sovereign goal.

The first degree of descent from this state is forgetfulness of God, when the bright and wondrous countenance of Godhead falls out of consciousness; God is forgotten—and thoughts of Him only occasionally cross the mind. Together with this, the religious feelings toward God grow cold, and the fear of God evaporates. God becomes something mere, and ceases to govern all the inner movements of man. The heart no longer glorifies and thanks God, though the tongue reads praises and thanksgivings. Pleasing God ceases to be the main goal of life; in its place other goals appear and occupy the whole man. God still exists, but is no longer glorified and thanked as God. This is precisely what the Blessed Theodoret expressed by saying: “they would not entertain thoughts about Him worthy of Him”—or guard the due feelings and dispositions of the heart toward Him.

“But became vain in their imaginations.” This is the second degree of descent, forming together with the first, sometimes as a result, sometimes as a cause of it. They mutually produce and mutually support each other. The becoming vain in thoughts must be understood as Solomon presents it in Ecclesiastes—as giving oneself to concerns about earthly goods, which do not give real well-being, but only beckon toward themselves, always deceiving all hopes. Having turned from God, they turn to creatures and in them wish to find what God alone can give; they wish to arrange their well-being without God, by their own powers and by means at their disposal. With this all care is occupied, here all thoughts are, all plans and all purposes of life—that is, how to arrange earthly happiness, gratifying themselves with sensual goods. Relation to God is maintained only outwardly; deeds of piety are performed by custom, without the participation not only of the heart but of the mind. All has become earth, earth, earth. And even constant deception does not instruct them. Vanity continues without ceasing in vain hope: perhaps we shall still obtain what we seek. How excuse such a manner of action?! And God through Jeremiah condemning them said: “My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).

“And their foolish heart was darkened.” The third degree of descent—the fruit of the first two—is the darkening of the inner man. “Heart” is the innermost man, or spirit, where self-consciousness, conscience, the idea of God with the feeling of dependence on Him in all respects, all the spiritual life of eternal value. Together with the becoming vain in thoughts comes also the darkening of this man. Rules of life are established that are contrary to conscience—and conscience is stifled, the fear of God departs, and thoughts of God no longer occupy; together with this the sound truths about God are forgotten and grow dark, likewise true understandings both about man himself, about his significance and his purposes are hidden. Complete darkness is established within. The vain man does not even look there: there is no time, and it is unpleasant. He is wholly outward.

Rom. 1:22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

The fourth degree of descent is the submission of all this perverted order of life to the principles of reason and its establishment as the sole proper norm of life, befitting man. This is the height of folly; but in their view, it is the height of wisdom. Such they regard themselves, such title they give their systems and the views formed by them. Self-conceit and overconfidence are the distinguishing mark of this wisdom: it hopes for everything from itself, from its methods and from its cleverness. Oecumenius writes: “they considered themselves wise, thinking that they alone would suffice for everything.” Saint Isaac of Syria depicts such wisdom as “naked knowledge, because it excludes all Divine providence, and all its care is only about this world.” In this false wisdom, man trusts entirely in his own reason and abilities, and attributes all good in his life to his own diligence, denying God’s governance. Yet this “wisdom” cannot exist without perpetual care and fear for the body, and therefore it is seized by: despondency, sorrow, despair, fear of demons, fear of men, anxiety about brigands, reports of deaths, worry about illness, concern in poverty and lack of necessities, fear of sufferings and evil beasts. As much self-reliance as confidence, so much cowardice also: and in this cowardice is the clearest refutation of the folly of worldly wisdom. Saint Chrysostom adds: “dreaming much of themselves and unwilling to walk the path prescribed by God, they became entangled in the imaginations of folly. Whoever on a moonless night sets out on an unknown road or sails on the sea, not only does not reach his goal, but more often destroys himself. So the Gentiles underwent a terrible shipwreck when, having undertaken to walk the path leading to heaven, they deprived themselves of light, seeking the bodiless in bodies and the indescribable in images.” In these words of Saint Chrysostom is the transition to the final degree of descent into idolatry.

Rom. 1:23. And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Rom. 2:5-11: “But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasure up to yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But to them that are contentious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that works good, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.”

“After your hardness and impenitent heart treasure up to yourself wrath.” The image is powerful: by refusing to repent, by hardening the heart against God’s goodness and forbearance, the person is accumulating judgment for himself. Like a person storing up goods for future use, the impenitent person is storing up wrath for himself—preparing his own condemnation for the day of judgment Ps. 105:20.

“The day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” This refers to the final judgment, when God’s righteousness will be fully revealed, when every secret will be brought to light, and when every person will receive according to his deeds. This is the eschatological perspective that underlies Paul’s ethical teaching.

“Who will render to every man according to his deeds.” This principle seems to contradict the doctrine of justification by faith, which Paul has already hinted at and will expound fully. How can salvation be by faith alone if judgment is according to works? This apparent contradiction is crucial to understanding Paul’s entire argument, and he will return to it repeatedly.

The answer, briefly put, is this: in terms of final judgment and reward, God will indeed render to each according to his deeds. But the basis for salvation—the foundation on which the believer stands—is faith in Christ, through which one receives imputed righteousness. Works are important as the manifestation and evidence of faith, as the fruit of being in right relationship with God. But works cannot be the foundation of justification.

“To them who by continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life.” Those who persevere in good works, who seek true glory (the honor that comes from God), honor (a life of integrity), and immortality (life that transcends death), will receive eternal life. This is the positive side of the judgment—the reward of the righteous.

“But to them that are contentious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.” The contrast is stark. Those who are contentious, who refuse to obey the truth, who instead obey unrighteousness (let themselves be ruled by evil), will experience God’s indignation and wrath. Tribulation and anguish will come upon every soul of man that does evil.

“Of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.” The order is significant. The Jew, who has received greater light—the Law, the prophets, the covenants—bears greater responsibility. Thus judgment falls on the Jew first. But the Gentile, though lacking this special revelation, is also judged, for he too has received the revelation of God through creation and conscience Rom. 1:24-27 Rom. 1:28-31 αα ββ.

“Glory, honour, and peace, to every man that works good, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.” The same order applies to the reward: the righteous Jew receives glory, honor, and peace first; then the righteous Gentile receives the same. This shows that righteousness, not ethnic privilege, is what matters in God’s sight Rom.1:24.

“For there is no respect of persons with God.” This is a fundamental principle. God does not show favoritism based on ethnicity, status, or privilege. The Jew has no advantage before God because of his Jewish birth or his possession of the Law—not in terms of the final judgment. What matters is whether one’s deeds are good or evil, whether one obeys the truth or unrighteousness.

This principle demolishes the Jewish claim to automatic salvation by virtue of covenant membership. The Jew who judges the Gentile for sin while committing the same sins himself stands before God on the same basis as the Gentile: as a sinner in need of salvation. The external advantages—circumcision, the Law, the covenants—do not exempt one from judgment.

For the Gentile reader, this is also a statement of hope: though he lacks the Law and the prophets, though he was born outside the covenant people, God will judge him fairly. If he seeks good and does what is right, he too can receive eternal life. God’s justice is not limited by human categories of privilege and disadvantage Gal. 5:17 Gen. 6:3 Rom. 8:9 Matt. 18:10 Heb. 1:14 Jn. 10:15.

The second chapter of Romans drives home a single point: all humanity—both Jew and Gentile—stands under the judgment of God. The Jew cannot hope to escape judgment by his external advantages; the Gentile is not excused because of his lack of revelation. All will be judged according to their deeds. All stand in need of God’s mercy and grace. This prepares the ground for the next section, where Paul will show that the only hope for any person is the righteousness of God revealed through faith in Christ Rom. 1:26-27.

Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28)

Rom. 3:1-2: “What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that to them were committed the oracles of God.”

Having demolished the Jewish claim to automatic righteousness through the Law and circumcision, Paul now asks: if the Jew has no special advantage before God in terms of judgment and salvation, what then is the value of being Jewish? What profit is there in circumcision? The answer is clear and important: Much—every way. The Jew has great advantages, particularly the possession of the oracles of God Ps. 13:1.

“The oracles of God” refers to the whole body of divine revelation given to the Jewish people—the Law, the prophets, the psalms, the wisdom literature. This is a priceless privilege. The knowledge of the true God, the revelation of His will, the prophecies concerning the Messiah—all of these have been entrusted to the Jewish people. This is an immense advantage and a great responsibility.

The question of Jewish advantage is important because if the Jew has no advantage, then the entire Old Testament narrative—God’s choice of Abraham, the covenant with Israel, the giving of the Law, the sending of prophets—would appear meaningless. Paul must show that this narrative has meaning, that God’s promises to Israel were not in vain, even though the way of justification is now revealed to be through faith in Christ for both Jew and Gentile λατρεία.

Rom. 3:3-4: “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged.”

Paul anticipates an objection: if the Jew is not automatically saved by his possession of the oracles of God, if many Jews have rejected Christ, then perhaps God’s promises have failed? But Paul answers with a resounding “God forbid!” God’s faithfulness is not dependent on human belief. Even if all humanity disbelieves, God remains true. God’s truth transcends and is not diminished by human unbelief.

“Let God be true, but every man a liar.” This is the fundamental posture of faith: trust in God’s truth over all human claims and appearances. When there is a conflict between what humans say (or think, or believe) and what God has said, God’s word must prevail. Human sin, human unbelief, human failure cannot alter God’s character or negate His promises Rom.1:26.

“As it is written, That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged.” Paul quotes Psalm 51:4 (Psalm 50:6 in the Septuagint). This verse affirms that God’s justice and truth are vindicated even when the psalmist confesses his sin. God’s righteousness is not compromised by human sin but is actually demonstrated through His judgment against sin.

The point is subtle but important: God’s promises to Israel have not failed, even though many Jews have disbelieved. Rather, God’s faithfulness is being fulfilled in a way that includes the Gentiles and that is based on faith rather than ethnic status. The same God who promised salvation to Israel is the God who now reveals salvation through faith in Christ to all peoples.

Rom. 3:5-8: “But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie to his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.” χρησιν παρά φύσιν

Paul now addresses another objection: if God’s righteousness is actually enhanced or displayed by human unrighteousness (just as light appears brighter against darkness), then perhaps human sin serves a good purpose? Perhaps God uses human wickedness for His glorification? And if so, why should humans be condemned for their sin? Rom.1:27

This is a subtle and dangerous argument. Paul emphatically rejects it. God is not unrighteous if He judges sinners for their sin, even if that sin somehow contributes to the manifestation of God’s righteousness. The fact that good may come from evil does not make evil good or relieve the person who commits evil of moral responsibility. The logical conclusion of this argument would be “let us do evil that good may come,” which is clearly absurd and damnable.

Rom. 3:9-18: “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Paul now summarizes the argument of chapters 1-2: both Jews and Gentiles are under sin. This is the universal verdict. No one is exempt; no one can claim righteousness before God based on his own works or position. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The quotations from the Psalms (especially Psalm 14 and 53) underscore this universal condemnation Gen. 2:24.

“And receiving in themselves the recompense which was befitting their deceit. Recompense”—requital, and as requital for sin—punishment. “Which was befitting their deceit”. Deceit, πλάνη, is error—that which they turned aside from the truth of God and changed into falsehood. The punishment which should have been inflicted upon them for such impiety, they received within themselves, received it in the very degradation and shame of their own nature. The Blessed Theophylact writes: “they received the recompense for their falling away from God and idolatrous error in this very shame and in this very self-gratification, having in it, as being contrary to nature and full of uncleanness, punishment for themselves.” Ordinarily when punishment is inflicted, one is beaten; but they, without any blows, chastised themselves more severely than any evildoer could torment them. The Blessed Theodoret writes: “as no enemy would dare to treat them, so with all zeal did they choose—and they brought punishment upon themselves, which no judge would have condemned them to.” Having explained this passage, Holy Chrysostom adds an exhortation that those guilty of such unnatural shameful deeds should cease from them. Having expressed the Apostle’s thought that the degradation of nature through such deeds is punishment for those who commit them, he seems to have heard an objection: what kind of punishment is it when they do not feel it, but throw themselves into it?—and he answers: “Do not be surprised that they do not feel it, but delight in it. The mad and those suffering from mental derangement, even while tormenting themselves and in a miserable condition, laugh and amuse themselves, although others weep for them. One cannot call even those unpunished; on the contrary, in the fact that they know not their condition, one should see the severity of punishment, and so on.”

The catalog of human sins that follows—using the Old Testament psalms—shows the totality of human corruption. It is not merely external actions but the very faculties and capacities of humans that are corrupted by sin: the throat (used for lies), the tongue (used for deceit), the lips (used for poison), the mouth (full of cursing), the feet (swift to shed blood). Sin penetrates and corrupts everything Rom.1:28.

“The way of peace have they not known.” This is the ultimate effect of sin: the loss of peace, the disruption of relationship with God and with others. The human condition outside of grace is one of alienation, conflict, and enmity. The promise of the Gospel is peace—peace with God and, through that, peace with others and within the human heart.

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” The root cause of all sin is this: the absence of the fear of God. When the human heart is not oriented toward God, when there is no reverence for Him, then humans become the measure of all things, and the result is the catalog of sins just described. The fear of God is not mere terror but a profound reverence, awe, and trust that reorients the entire human being Ἐν έπιγνώσει.

Rom. 3:19-20: “Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” ούκ έδοκίμασαν

Paul draws a crucial conclusion: the Law, with all its demands and its condemnation of sin, serves to silence all human boasting and to bring all humanity—the whole world—into guilty silence before God. The Law was never meant to justify but to condemn, to show humans their sin, to silence their self-righteous claims Rom. 1:24 Rom. 1:26.

“By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified.” This is the verdict: works of the Law cannot justify anyone. The Law demands perfect obedience; no one has achieved it. The Law condemns sin; all are sinners. Therefore, the Law cannot be the basis of salvation. It serves instead to drive the sinner to despair of his own righteousness and to cast him upon the mercy of God νους.

Having expressed this general thought about how unbecoming life developed, the Apostle then shows in what deeds it was expressed, and enumerates the very vices that governed the order of life. A similar enumeration is made by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians (Gal. 5:19-21) and in the Second Epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. 3:2-5)—in both deriving them from the dominance of sensuality. In the enumeration there is no apparent order: one might think that the Apostle sets forth especially what the Romans saw with their own eyes among their fellow citizens and in which some of them before their conversion, perhaps, were themselves guilty.

The Catalogue of Iniquity; They Who Do Such Things Are Worthy of Death (Romans 1:29–32)

Rom. 3:21-22: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all them that believe: for there is no difference.”

Filled. The connection of speech is thus: He delivered them—filled. And the thought is: He delivered them, and they became filled with all unrighteousness. Their unrighteousness knew no measure, no limit, no restraint. And what could restrain it? God is forgotten, conscience is stifled, the mind is perverted, and without—the environment presents temptations everywhere. “Unrighteousness”—here can mean either unrighteousness in general—“that which is directly opposed to righteousness” (the Blessed Theodoret), or a particular kind of wrongdoing—injustice, violation of the rights of one’s neighbor and the proper relations toward him. All our expositors point to the first meaning. Holy Chrysostom says: “Notice how he intensifies the language; he calls them ‘filled’, and moreover: ‘with all unrighteousness’. First he used a general term for vice, then he enumerates its kinds, and concerning those subject to them he also speaks with intensity, calling them ‘filled’”—that is, we may complete from the Blessed Theophylact, “having reached the extreme degree of every vice.” But the second can also be accepted, because the general thought is already expressed in the words: “He delivered them to do things unfitting.”

“The righteousness of God without the law.” This is the shocking announcement: God offers righteousness apart from the Law, apart from works, apart from human achievement. This righteousness is not earned; it is manifested—revealed, made apparent, given as a gift. It comes from God, not from human effort πορνεία.

“Being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” This righteousness is not new or alien to the Old Testament. It is witnessed, confirmed, anticipated by the Law and the prophets. Abraham, the great father of the Jewish people, was justified by faith, not by works. The righteous shall live by faith. The Old Testament itself testifies to this way of justification πονηρία.

“The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ.” The specific means of receiving this righteousness is faith in Jesus Christ. This is not a general faith in God, but a specific faith in the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. It is faith that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died for sins, that He was raised, that He is the source of salvation and righteousness πλεονεξία.

“To all them that believe.” This righteousness is offered to all without exception. It is not limited to Jews or to the naturally moral or to the religious. It is for all—all who believe. There is no prerequisite except faith. The universal offer of salvation is now explicitly stated κακία.

“For there is no difference.” This is the revolutionary conclusion: there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, between the religious and the irreligious, between the morally upright and the depraved, when it comes to the offer of salvation. All need this righteousness; all can receive it through faith. The distinction between Jew and Gentile, so prominent in the Old Testament, is superseded by this universal salvation φθόνος.

Rom. 3:23-25: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;” φόνος

“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The universal sinfulness of humanity is stated again, now explicitly. All—without exception—have sinned. And the consequence of sin is coming short of the glory of God. This is the fundamental rupture: humans were created for communion with God, for participation in His glory, but sin has cut them off from this. This is the desperate situation that makes the offer of righteousness through faith so crucial ερις.

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Here is the solution: justification—the declaration of righteousness, the removal of condemnation—is offered freely, as a gift, by grace. It is not earned but given. It is through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Christ’s death and resurrection accomplished a redemption, a buying back of humanity from sin and death δόλος πονηρία κακία δόλος.

“Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” Christ is set forth as a propitiation—a mercy seat, a place of expiation, a satisfaction of divine justice. Through faith in His blood—His death, His self-sacrifice—believers receive the benefit of this propitiation. God is just, and therefore He cannot ignore sin. But through the death of Christ, God’s justice is satisfied, and God is able to justify those who believe κακοήθεια.

“To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” The cross of Christ demonstrates God’s righteousness: His justice in punishing sin, His love in providing salvation, His grace in offering it freely. The sins of the past—all the sins of the Old Testament saints and of all believers—are remitted through the forbearance (patience) of God, which is now satisfied by the cross Rom.1:30-31.

Rom. 3:26-31: “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”

“That he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.” The mystery of redemption is expressed in these phrases: God is just—He upholds the moral law, He condemns sin. But God is also the justifier—He offers salvation to sinners. How can God be both? The answer is in Christ: through the cross, God’s justice is satisfied and He can justify believers without compromising His righteousness ψιθυρισταί.

“Where is boasting then? It is excluded.” If justification comes through faith in Christ, not through works, then human boasting is excluded. No one can say, “I have earned my salvation through my righteousness,” because salvation is a gift received through faith. This cuts off at the root all self-righteous pride κατάλαλοι.

“By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.” There are two laws, two systems: the law of works (do this and live) and the law of faith (trust and receive). The law of works demands and condemns; the law of faith trusts and receives. Justification is by the law of faith, not the law of works θεοστυγεις.

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” This is Paul’s great conclusion, the center of his gospel: justification is by faith, not by works of the Law. Not that works are unimportant—they will be discussed later. But for justification, for the foundation of right standing before God, faith is the decisive factor, the sole foundation ύβρισταί.

“Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.” If justification is by faith in Christ, then Christ is the Saviour of all, not of Jews alone. God is the God of all peoples. All, whether Jew or Gentile, receive justification through faith in the same Christ, by the same grace υπερήφανοι.

1 Cor. 5:2: “Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.” The same God justifies both the circumcised (Jews) and the uncircumcised (Gentiles). The means is the same—faith. The foundation is the same—grace. The mediator is the same—Christ. This unity transcends all human divisions αλαζόνες.

“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” This is the subtle point that many have misunderstood: the doctrine of justification by faith does not set aside the Law. Rather, it establishes the Law—it shows what the Law truly is, its true purpose. The Law reveals sin; the Law shows the standard of righteousness. Faith in Christ does not deny these functions but fulfills them έφευρεται κακών.

The argument of Romans 3 represents the climax of Paul’s first major movement: the demonstration that justification is not through the Law but through faith in Christ. This is the foundation upon which all the rest of the epistle is built. It is the answer to human sinfulness, the revelation of God’s righteousness, the offer of salvation to all who believe άπενθέϊς.

“Senseless”, ασύνετοι, “because, having stumbled into lawless living, they lost the distinguishing marks of understanding” (the Blessed Theodoret). Or “senseless”, “ασυνείδητοι, unaware, lacking conscience, with no one more senseless than they” (Gennadius).

Sir. 13:19: It is important to understand that Paul has not yet answered all questions. The role of works, the relationship between law and grace, the problem of God’s faithfulness to Israel—these will be addressed in subsequent chapters. But the foundation is now laid: God justifies sinners through faith in Christ, apart from the works of the Law. This is the gospel, the good news that transforms human life and hope άσύνθετοι άσύνθετοι συνθήκαι.

Matt. 24:12: The proclamation of this truth—justification by faith—is not merely theological doctrine. It is the proclamation of salvation, the announcement of God’s victory over sin, the opening of the way of reconciliation between God and fallen humanity. For those who believe this good news, it is indeed the power of God to salvation άστοργοι Στοργή.

“Covenant-breakers”—άσπονδοι. An implacable enemy is called άσπονδος. Therefore, here the same is said as: “implacable and malicious” (Gennadius). But it can also mean the same as άσύνθετοι; for σπονδή also means agreement and covenant. It will be: άσπονδοι—“those who without fear break mutual covenants” (the Blessed Theodoret), that is, faithless. But the first meaning seems to express the force of the word more closely.

“Unmerciful”, άνελεήμονες—unyielding, devoid of compassion, not inclined to mercy (Gennadius). The heart has hardened, does not feel the impulse to alleviate the lot of others, to help, to console. “They imitate beasts in cruelty” (the Blessed Theodoret). “The root of all evils is the cooling of love: from this it follows that one does not reconcile with another, one does not love another, one does not have mercy on another” (the Blessed Theophylact).

Having depicted the evil character of the Gentiles, in the last verse of this chapter the Apostle shows that they are without excuse in this respect as well as in the religious one: for they knew, but did not do. It is evident, therefore, that they also held the truth of God in unrighteousness and are subject to judgment and condemnation.

Rom. 1:32. And they know the judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do they do them, but also approve of those who practice them.

“They”, οϊτινες—as also in verse 25 the same: οϊτινες—means: which ones, or they; refers not to a part, but to all of whom there has been previous mention. “Judgment”, δικαίωμα—the justice of God or the righteousness and justice of God, righteous judgment and condemnation with punishment.

“Worthy of death”—by death is understood either natural death, in the sense: those doing such things are not worthy to live, or figuratively—the most severe punishment, or the second death after the last judgment and condemnation—hell. The Apostle affirms: the Gentiles knew that those who did such things could not escape righteous recompense. This removes all excuse from them; they cannot cover themselves with the excuse that they did not know. Belief in judgment and recompense after death is common to all peoples of the earth.

Knowing all this, they not only themselves acted lawlessly, but also encouraged others to do so.

“Approve”, συνευδοκοϋσιν, does not merely mean that they look indulgently upon the sin of others, but look upon it favorably, protectingly, approvingly, with the desire that they sin and continue to sin. And in this one cannot help but see a greater degree of depravity than in the case when one merely sins oneself without contributing anything to the sinful deeds of others. One who falls into sin can still say in mitigation of his guilt: passion carried me away; but, being conscious of his guilt, he should at least say to another: you, however, be careful. If he, having fallen into the mire, leads another into it as well, he is doubly guilty, both for himself and for the other.

Holy Chrysostom says: “Having proposed two objections to himself, the Apostle here resolved both beforehand. Can you say, he says, that you did not know how you should act? Even if you did not know, you yourself are primarily guilty; because you abandoned God, who gives knowledge. But now much has been presented to you showing that you knew and sinned willingly. Will you say that you were carried away by passion? Why then do you carry others away and praise them? ‘Not only do they themselves do them,’ says the Apostle, ‘but also approve of those who practice them.’ Thus, to condemn the Gentile, he first of all points to the gravest sin; for to approve of sin is far worse than to sin oneself.” The Blessed Theodoret expresses this last thought thus: “nature itself teaches to choose the good and avoid the opposite; but they consider it insufficient merely not to do the latter, but moreover they weave praise for those who do similar things. And this is the ultimate limit of depravity”.

Some thought that to approve of others was weaker than to do it oneself; therefore they held that it should have been said: not only do they do it themselves, but also approve of others. Some even found such a reading of the text. Holy Isidore (of Pelusium), rebuking them that one should not so distort the text of the common reading, because it would give a wrong meaning, adds then: “to praise those who sin is worthy of greater punishment than to sin only oneself. Therefore it is rightly said: ‘not only do they themselves do them, but also approve of those who practice them.’ One who, sinning, knows that it is not good to sin and condemns his deed, may in time arise from his fall, having a strong incentive and aid to repentance in this knowledge and condemnation of sin. But one who praises evil life deprives himself of the aid to repentance (the awakener of repentance). Therefore, since such judgment (praising of sin) is a sign of the utmost depravity of heart and mind, it is right to consider one who praises the sin of a sinner as more lawless” (from Oecumenius).

Some commentators hold that the holy Apostle, from the 1st verse of the 2nd chapter, turns his discourse to the Jews. But our ancient expositors do not do this. Holy Chrysostom says that these words refer to the rulers of nations; for Rome then held power over all the world in its hands. But, having said this, he then passes to the thought that the Apostle speaks here generally about all who judge: anyone, whoever you are. Following him, all our other expositors understood it thus. The Blessed Augustine mentions Jews only because they also are included in the word: “anyone.” Ambrosiaster sees here the Apostle’s answer to a supposed objection: no, I do not approve, but condemn others, although I myself sin. Therefore, so that no lawless person could excuse himself or lighten his guilt by saying: well, I myself sin, but I do not approve of other sinners and I condemn them, the Apostle speaks as if to such a one: and you are not lighter; in judging another, you condemn yourself. And so both this understanding of the ancients and the very structure of the discourse compels us to recognize that here the holy Apostle continues to explain the guilt of those who know and condemn but do not do, with the intention of arousing a sense of fear of judgment, so that they will more willingly receive his good news of how to escape from this judgment. The discourse is addressed to the Jews properly from the 17th verse; but here there is a general reasoning or general exhortation to fear judgment. This resembles that part of our discourses which is called the application.

The Righteous Judgment of God on Every Soul (Romans 2:1–6)

Rom. 2:1. Therefore you are without excuse, O man, everyone that judges: for in that by which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you do the same things, O you that judge.

The Blessed Theophylact writes: “All of us are people of varying disposition: sometimes we favor evil, sometimes we become judges of the wrongs of others, we condemn those like ourselves. Therefore, having spoken before of those who approved of evil, now he speaks of judgment and says: ‘therefore you are without excuse.’ That is, you knew that the justice of God consists in punishing the wicked as they deserve; therefore, you too are without excuse, you who condemn those doing what you yourself do. It seems that these words apply to rulers of nations, especially to the Romans, as then the lords of the universe; for to judge is the function of rulers. Nevertheless, this befits every man; for every man can judge, even without a judicial seat. Therefore, when you condemn an adulterer and yourself commit adultery, then you condemn yourself.”

From the fact that they themselves did wrong and encouraged others to do so, it does not follow that in their conscience—in the judgment they make of their own deeds, the judgment they hold within themselves—they justified what was wrong. No, they understood the truth of God, that wrong is wrong and worthy of punishment, but, being unable to master themselves, they themselves sinned and led others to do the same. The Apostle now points out this contradiction between their actions and their life with this inner judge, in order to bring them to awareness of their own wrongdoing and awaken a sense of fear—that they might one day be condemned before the face of God’s righteousness. As an example of condemnation of sin despite their own sins, there may well have been in the Apostle’s mind the judgment of judges. The Law condemned and punished murder, theft, adultery, violation of others’ rights, injuries and the like. A judge could not justify any of this, but had to condemn and sentence the guilty to punishment, even though he himself was no less guilty in the same or other respects than the one he condemned. And the people, watching the judicial process, likewise agreed with the judge’s verdict, finding it just.

Thus, there is no reason to suppose a lack of judgment in us regarding the rightness and wrongness of deeds. What then is wrong? What is wrong is the direction of our judgment in that we apply strict condemnation to others, bypassing ourselves or keeping it distant from ourselves. It is observed that the more guilty a person is of something, the more strictly he judges another for that same thing. The Apostle seems to intend here chiefly to dispose us—this justice common to all—to turn it from others onto ourselves, applying to ourselves also the consequences of condemnation, that is, defenselessness and punishment. “Therefore.” Why then? Because they know the truth of God and consequently judge sinners rightly and condemn them correctly. “You are without excuse”—you can say nothing in defense of yourself. “Everyone that judges.” “The Apostle decidedly says: everyone, whoever you are, deprives yourself of excuse” (Holy Chrysostom). “For in that by which you judge another,” εν φ γαρ κρίνεις—at the moment when you judge—by that very act of judgment by which you judge another, you also condemn yourself. Judgment is the application of a general principle to a particular case. When you condemn someone for a certain deed, you acknowledge the wrongness of such deeds in general. This acknowledgment is what moves the judgment and condemnation. You condemn a fornicator. Why? Because of the acknowledgment that fornication is a sinful deed. But if you yourself commit fornication, is not your fornication equally sinful? Yes. So acknowledge this as well. Holy Chrysostom says: “Every man, both in conversation and common discourse and before his own conscience, judges those who have erred. No one would dare to say that an adulterer does not deserve punishment. But all, says the Apostle, judge others, not themselves.” The lack of such self-judgment is a universal lack. We direct the judgment away from ourselves onto others, not grasping ourselves. The Apostle wants to turn it back onto ourselves and for this takes the right condemnation of others and says: you judge others rightly; but this right judgment of others is equally right in relation to you. All sin; and the common mutual judgment of all should bring all to the awareness that all are without excuse.

Rom. 2:2. But we know that the judgment of God is truly upon those who practice such things.

“But we know”—who is this “we”? We, all people, everyone. The Apostle appeals to the common belief and conviction that there is a judgment of God: for all who live on earth have awaited and will await such a judgment. This is the same as above: “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.” Judgment is established—no one will escape it. Holy Chrysostom notes here that the Apostle, speaking of the knowledge of God, pointed to the source of knowledge of God—the contemplation of nature—but here he does not point to the source of knowledge of judgment, for this was known to everyone as a matter of course, without any hesitation. And Theodoret writes: “For those of sound mind it is evident that those who dare to commit lawlessness are by divine decree subject to punishment.” Intending to dispose each person to turn judgment from others onto himself, the Apostle teaches: well, this at least is beyond question—there is a judgment of God for such deeds; there is nothing to say about that; everyone knows this. What is lacking? What is lacking is that everyone would bring himself under this judgment and acknowledge himself defenseless before it. This he strives to teach from the following verse. The thought of the present verse can be twofold: either that there is a judgment of God, or that the judgment of God is true. Human judgment sometimes falters; God’s judgment is in truth; there is no partiality or concealment of deeds in it; to the extent that one is guilty, so will one be condemned—exactly according to the measure of one’s deeds.

Our expositors also carry through this thought. Here are the words of Oecumenius for all: “here (among men) there is judgment but not according to truth, because some guilty are acquitted while the innocent are condemned; but in the age to come judgment will be according to truth. Nevertheless, even now God neither acquits the unrighteous nor condemns the righteous when He manifests His judgment.” And we add what Ambrosiaster says: “It is not unknown to us that God will judge such things according to truth, even as we condemn them. If such deeds do not please us, how much less God, the most righteous and zealous for His work! When he says that God will judge such things according to truth, he strikes fear, teaching that He Himself, concerning whom they think that He cares not for their deeds (will not inquire), will judge them according to truth—that is, most truly will repay everyone according to the measure of his deeds and will not spare.” Both this thought and the other are in accord with the Apostle’s intention. Therefore, we can combine them into one thus: it is without question that on those who practice such things there is the judgment of God, and the most true judgment. From this directly follows: if there is, then how do you yourself think to escape this judgment?

Rom. 2:3. Or do you think, O man, you who judge those who practice such things and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

There is a judgment of God, and you know this. Stop then imagining that you will escape this judgment for bad deeds, especially when you yourself condemn them in others. Bring the sword of God’s judgment down upon your own head and be filled with the fear which naturally must weigh upon the heart when awaiting that this sword will fall upon your own head. Do not allow yourself to think that it will pass you by when you are guilty. In questioning: “do you think?”—the Apostle teaches that, with sound reasoning, such a thought is impossible. Do you really think? It would be amazing if anyone thought this, or one should marvel if anyone does think this. “Did you not escape your own judgment and will you escape God’s judgment? Who would say this? You yourself have condemned yourself; such is the strictness of this tribunal that you could not spare yourself; so how much more will God condemn you, He who is sinless and righteous? Or did you condemn yourself and God will approve and praise? How is this possible? For you stand deserving of greater punishment than the one you condemned. To punish (condemn) another for sin, while oneself persisting in the sin—this means even more than simply to sin. Do you see how much the Apostle has increased the guilt? If you, he says, punish (condemn) for a lesser sin, while you yourself do not cease to defile yourself with sins; then God, who is never partaker of sin, will not much more condemn and accuse for far greater transgressions you, already condemned by your own thoughts?” (Holy Chrysostom).

At this point someone could think: I have already sinned much, but I see no sign that God is punishing me; He will not punish me then either. The Apostle forestalls this thought, saying:

Rom. 2:4. Or do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

God’s present condescension and longsuffering have a completely different meaning from what you ascribe to them. Here God’s goodness leads you to repentance. Take from this an incentive not to wallow in sins to your own ruin, mistakenly imagining on this account constant impunity, but to cease from sins and repent. “God is longsuffering, but if you do not turn back, His sword will flash (over your head). The Lord is merciful, but not so that you might take from this an occasion for greater hardening, but so that you might have time to enter upon the path of repentance” (Oecumenius). But if such is God’s intention in not punishing you now, then when you do not use this mercy as you should, you will bring upon yourself even greater condemnation, as a despiser of God’s mercy. And you yourself, together with God’s judgment, will condemn yourself more severely when you see that salvation was in your hands and you let it slip. Holy Chrysostom says: “If you yourself acknowledge that you are deserving of punishment, but rely on God’s longsuffering and, since you were not punished at the time of your transgression, think that you will not be punished in the future; then, see, this very thing should terrify and horrify you. The Lord delays punishment not to leave you unpunished, but so that, if you do not amend, He will punish you with greater severity. And God forbid that this should happen to you! Therefore, the Apostle, having praised God’s longsuffering and shown its most important benefit for the attentive—to turn sinners to repentance—intensifies the fear. For those who use it as they should it serves as the cause of salvation; but for those who despise it—as the path to greater punishment. And as for the common saying: God is good and longsuffering; He does not love to punish—by uttering this, the Apostle teaches, you only bring upon yourself the most grievous punishment. God shows His mercy so that you might be freed from sins, not so that you might add new ones. As soon as you do not do this, the punishment will be more terrible. Therefore, especially because God is longsuffering, you must not sin, must not turn His benefactions into a cause of ingratitude. Though He is longsuffering, certainly and without doubt He also punishes.”

Rom. 2:5. But in accordance with your hardness and impenitent heart, you are storing up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

Longsuffering as He is, God leads the sinner to repentance. But if he does not heed this and, despite it, remains in the same sins, he sinks deeper and deeper into sinfulness; and from this the heart hardens and the sense becomes dull to receiving the impressions that excite to repentance—the presentation of consoling and terrible divine truths. When passion carries one away and sin is committed, conscience rises up, threatening judgment, and compels repentance and amendment. One heeds it—good for him. One does not heed it—he falls into sin again. But conscience rises up again, only weaker than before. If this happens again, this voice becomes still weaker. Finally, it falls completely silent. The sinner sins indifferently. Indifference to sin is the transition to hardness of heart, but not yet hardness itself. One can still awaken the indifferent, but the hardened one—only a special power of God can transform. One comes to hardening through being repeatedly awakened from indifference and amending one’s life, and then falling back into it through the repetition of sins. Divine truths awaken. When all these truths have exhausted their awakening power over the sinner, what will awaken him? His heart has become like stone, which no instrument can cut. “When goodness does not soften a man and fear does not bow him; what can be harder-hearted?” (Holy Chrysostom). Following such hardening comes hatred of God and everything divine, and after this despair—final ruin. Hardness, or hardness of heart, is explained by an impenitent heart.

Having reached impenitence and lying quietly in sins, the sinner suspects no danger to himself. Meanwhile, what is he doing?—“storing up for yourself wrath.” Wrath—the righteous recompense of God for every deed, word, and evil thought. It is called wrath “according to the feeling of the sinner” (Ambrosiaster), who takes the determination of the Judge as his own emotion, not according to the condition of the Judge. “See what fitting expressions the Apostle uses. He says: ‘you are storing up for yourself wrath,’—showing that the cause of wrath is not the Judge, but the one judged. You yourself are storing it up for yourself, not God. He has done all that was needed, equipped you with the ability to discern good from bad, shown longsuffering, called you to repentance, threatened a dreadful day, urging you by every means to repent. If you are unyielding, then you yourself ‘store up for yourself wrath, on the day of wrath’” (Holy Chrysostom).

“You heap up”, θησαυρίζεις,—you store up treasure. Just as someone, ruble by ruble, laying away in a chest, eventually gathers a great treasure: so everyone living on earth, deed upon deed adding up, gathers for himself a treasure in heaven, which will serve him as eternal sustenance or eternal deprivation. “The Apostle spoke well: ‘you heap up for yourself’,—showing that none of our words or deeds will be consigned to oblivion, but rather both those who love virtue gather good things for themselves, and workers of wickedness do the same (gather, though not good things)” (Blessed Theodoret). Now this treasure is not visible, but it will surely be revealed on the day of God’s righteous judgment. What will be revealed for whom, one can even now foresee. But for many, many these revelations will be unexpected, as the Lord makes understood in his depiction of how judgment is conducted; for many will say: “when did Τ we see you?”

So all heap up treasure—the sinner too heaps up; but what? “Wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of God’s righteous judgment”. What is wrath? Evil deeds, after which follows strict punishment, which in the sinner’s heart will be felt as “the wrath of God”. What is the day of wrath—this is explained by the following words: “and revelation of God’s righteous judgment”. On that day the righteous judgment of God will be executed; but since sinners, having lost all right feeling, will perceive this righteousness as wrath, for them it is the day of wrath. God’s mercy there too will be searching for how to justify the sinner, and will hand him over to God’s righteousness only after there is nothing left to do for his justification: but, despite this, for sinners it will still be the day of wrath, which will penetrate all their being. The Apostle sets forth two expressions—what that day will be for sinners and what it is in itself: for sinners: “day of wrath”,—and in itself: “day of God’s righteous judgment”. “So that, hearing of wrath, you might not think it the effect of passion, the Apostle adds: ‘of God’s righteous judgment’” (Holy Chrysostom). The word: “revelation”—means manifestation. “The day of revelation”—the day when the Judge will appear and God’s judgment will be revealed. But along with this one can imagine that this day will be revealed suddenly: just as lightning from one end of the sky to the other flashes unexpectedly, so shall God’s judgment be revealed. And on that thought one can dwell, that then everything will be laid bare, nothing will be able to be hidden. “There will then be revelation of all things; and recompense will be according to what is revealed, and as a result righteous judgment. Here righteousness does not always prevail, because deeds are hidden, but there after revelation comes righteous judgment” (Blessed Theophylact).

Rom. 2:6. He will render to each according to his deeds.

In this consists the righteousness of judgment. The measure of deeds—the measure of recompense. What you have done, that you will receive: from your deeds “you will be justified” and from your deeds “you will be condemned”. Nothing extraneous will be taken into account. You were aware of what ought to be done, you were able to do it and did not, or did the very opposite—bear the punishment. You were aware what ought to be done, constrained yourself to do it and did so, despite opposition within and without—receive the recompense. And faith is a deed, but only the initial and guiding one, not the final and all-encompassing. Faith enters into the path of salvation, supplies the strength; but salvation itself is accomplished through deeds corresponding to faith. You believed—and are received into the number of those being saved and supplied with all needful for accomplishing salvation: now accomplish it; be holy and unblemished in deeds, words, feelings, and dispositions. For nothing unclean will enter the Kingdom of God. When you hear: believe only and you will be saved; stop your ears. This is the speech of the serpent.

God Will Render to Each According to His Works (Romans 2:7–10)

Rom. 2:7. To those who by patience in good work seek glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life

At the judgment each will be repaid according to his deeds. To whom what? To the righteous—paradise; to sinners—hell. He places the recompense of the righteous first, so as to give thought a consoling subject and somewhat to soften the threatening speech that he has been conducting and will conduct further. “Having said that the Lord will render to each, he began with the reward of the good, thus making his speech pleasant” (Blessed Theophylact). “In discourse about judgment and future punishment, being harsh and stern, the Apostle does not at once depict punishment as one should expect, but turns his speech to something more pleasant, to the reward of the good” (Holy Chrysostom).

To those who by patience in good work seek glory, honor, and incorruptibility, God will give eternal life.—“By patience in good work”. Good work means both each good deed as it comes, and good-doing in general, or a virtuous and holy life. With such a life patience is so essentially connected that without it one cannot take a single step. Patience is necessary at the beginning, in the course, and at the end, both of each deed and of all life. Everywhere there is required a straining of powers always ready to fall, an overcoming of obstacles within and without, devising of means and putting them into action. All of this cannot be sustained without patience. Patience is the substrate (foundation) of holy and God-pleasing life. This is why Holy Paul, passing over other connections of good work with saving life, mentioned only patience. For when it is present, then all is present: there is zeal, there is attention to every opportunity for good that arises, there is the determination rather to die than to neglect anything of the good set before us, and still more to permit anything contrary to it. Therefore patience in good work can mean steadfastness in good works or in good and holy life.

“Seeking glory, honor, and incorruptibility”. To seek glory is glory-seeking; to seek honor is honor-seeking. Both of these are not good impulses; how then eternal life for them? The seeking of glory and honor, when it is directed toward the vain and transient, human glory and honor that feed human self-centeredness, gives birth to vices: glory-seeking and honor-seeking. But when it is directed toward eternal glory and honor with God in the Kingdom of Heaven, then it does not give birth to vices but to good dispositions, which lead to good deeds that do not feed the self but require self-denial. To desire and seek that glory and honor, one must deny oneself and all that is high and exalted on earth and descend to the most humble and debased lot—cast away what is before one’s eyes and seize what is invisible and to the mind unknown. Between here and there is a whole abyss. How to cross it and who will carry us across? However this may be accomplished, it is evident that this is a great struggle. For one who seeks that which is there is wholly there in heart and mind, though visibly he remains here. The future goods are embraced by hope. But hope cannot be established without love; for it is strong only in that it is placed on the beloved and the loving one. And love cannot be born without faith; for only faith introduces into the contemplation of the beloved. Thus, the seeking of glory, honor, and incorruptibility has a high spiritual perfection, to which, inasmuch as it is such, eternal life must belong: for it already breathes it.

There will be glory and honor; but no one will be occupied with them. There will be a glorious and most honorable state: human nature itself will become glorious and honorable; but the attention of those possessing it will be taken up with something else—something higher, the contemplation of God, who is all-blessed and all-blissful. And here, on earth, those who seek what is there yearn for it; but their attention is not directed to it but to what leads to it reliably—to holy and God-pleasing life and to every kind of labor which is required for achieving such a goal. Therefore one can say that in their yearning they have inexpressible future goods, without defining them by any particular feature. But the Apostle calls them glory, honor, and incorruptibility, borrowing features from what is great among men, not depicting their essence, but teaching them to foresee the greatness through a certain hint. Holy Chrysostom says: “Note that when speaking of the future, the Apostle himself is not able to depict all the goods, but speaks of glory and honor. Since these goods surpass all human things and there is nothing on earth that could serve as their likeness, the Apostle, as best he can, explains through comparison with what is esteemed among us as brilliant—with glory, honor, and life, for these are most desired by men. But in reality the heavenly goods are not like that, but, being incorruptible and immortal, are incomparably more excellent.”

Thus: “seeking glory, honor, and incorruptibility”—means the same as seeking heavenly goods.—And that God will give them eternal life means that God will enrich them with these goods. The whole passage can be expressed thus: to those who, having resolved to live in a holy and God-pleasing manner, patiently and steadfastly go on this good path, being inspired by the hope of a future most radiant state, God will give eternal life—will let them eternally taste the inexpressible heavenly goods. Here the Apostle “both showed the labors of virtue and showed the crowns. By the words: ‘by patience in good work’—the labors are meant. For one must endure and make progress in virtue, and thus await its crowns. But labor is temporal, while the gain is eternal” (Blessed Theodoret). “To those, he says, who seek honor, glory, and incorruptibility and never let them out of their thoughts, God will give in the resurrection eternal life. How then are future glory, honor, and incorruptibility gained? By steadfastness in good work. For one steady in good work and firmly standing against every temptation truly gains both glory and honor and immortality or the enjoyment of incorruptible goods in an incorruptible body” (Blessed Theophylact).

Rom. 2:8. But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, wrath and fury

“Just as in one group of people God promised those goods not simply to anyone nor to those who do not practice virtue with effort, but to those resolved to bear its labors; so too regarding vice he issues such threats not to those who by some circumstance stumbled into vice, but to those giving themselves over to vice with great zeal” (Blessed Theodoret). “Selfishly ambitious”, έριθεία,—zealousness, by which all efforts are employed so that someone does not get ahead of one. “Zeal, effort; with zeal—with effort” (Blessed Theophylact). Active effort proceeds from strong desire; and that comes from love of the desired; and love means wholehearted devotion. Thus, zeal here means willing love and earnest devotion to a life contrary to truth and good—enslavement to passions.

“With zeal they resist the truth”. When someone wants to hold another back, and that one strains to slip out of his hands, evidently this latter resists the former. God’s truth, calling us to faith and virtue, restrains the impulses of our empty wisdom and our vicious desires. Whoever stands in truth, loving it with all his soul, resists these impulses; but whoever yields to them and follows them resists truth, wrests himself from its hands, says to it: Go away, I do not wish to know your ways. In this straining for freedom from the empty wisdom and desires of his own lies the essence of a life opposed to God, in sin and passions. Though it is slavery in essence, the slave through self-deception thinks he stands on the rights of freedom and fancies it for himself, looking down from above at those devoted to virtue as lowly slaves not daring to have their own opinion or permit themselves any free action. Here truth can mean any truth—both that which determines faith and that which prescribes a good life. In that case righteousness too will mean all righteousness—both that required of the mind and that required of the heart. But by the course of the discourse it will be nearer to understand here active truth—the same as righteousness. For both before and after the Apostle speaks of righteous life and that opposite to it.

When the Apostle says: “resist the truth”,—he makes understood that they know truth as truth and consciously resist it. And when he says: “obey unrighteousness”,—he makes understood that they know unrighteousness as unrighteousness and consciously obey it. How they know both, he explains below: their conscience teaches them. And that such action contrary to conscience is possible we all know from ourselves. Holy Chrysostom says: “By the word: ‘with zeal’—the Apostle proves that they fell into vices through stubbornness and heedlessness. But see, there is yet another charge against them: ‘they resist the truth—they obey unrighteousness!’ What excuse can one have who flees from light and loves darkness? The Apostle did not say: those who are compelled and suffer violence, but: those who ‘obey’ unrighteousness,—thus making known that their fall and transgression is not from necessity but from choice.”

“Wrath and fury”. If before “eternal life” we are to understand: he will give—then here too the same can be understood. In that case by the words: “wrath and fury”—we must understand a state opposite to eternal life, or the totality of eternal unbearable torments. And without: he will give—one can thus read: and to these—wrath and fury. Wrath and fury properly express God’s rejection: “Depart from me” (Matt. 7:23). This rejection in itself is the most fearful punishment; but following it are enhanced by the soul’s torments that follow and bodily tortures. The Apostle wanted to make understood by these words that those enslaved to unrighteous desires and passions await the uttermost torments. For it is customary for one who burns with wrath and fury to wish on the angry one the uttermost evil.

Rom. 2:9. Tribulation and distress upon every human soul that works evil, both of the Jew first and of the Greek

Once more he repeats what he has already said, confirming it as if: Yes, so it will be and otherwise it cannot be. He wishes to imprint more forcefully that truth, that there will be a judgment and at it everyone will give an account of his deeds and receive corresponding recompense. Only a small nuance in this depiction is observed in that Jews and Greeks are mentioned separately. By this a transition is made to the condemnation afterward of Gentiles and Jews (Blessed Theodoret); to this, however, he proceeds below—from verse 17.

“Tribulation and distress”—will come or fall: “tribulation”—soul-torment, “distress”—bodily torment. But tribulation, tearing at the soul, also torments the body; and distress, tormenting the body, also anguishes the soul. Both words, one can think, express all-sided sufferings and torments, deeply felt.—“Upon every soul”—not the same as on every face or every person: for “person” stands right there. The Apostle wished to point out that both external and internal sufferings and torments—all converge in the soul. It will suffer both for itself and for the body: for all comes from it. In it sin originates, in it agreement to sin is pronounced, it is pleased by it and adopts the habit of it. It ought to suffer for all. One can also see here the thought that at the judgment attention will be given to the soul alone with its deeds, without any external earthly distinctions. Holy Chrysostom says: “This means that, whether someone is rich, a ruler of a free state or an absolute monarch,—the word of judgment respects no one; honors have no place at the judgment.”

Only one distinction will have weight at the judgment—whether one is a Jew or a Greek; but that too not in something external, but also in the internal state. A Jew had tangible assurance that God exists, the Creator, Providence, and Judge, and had fuller and clearer knowledge of his will and commandments. The Greek had both of these too, but in a lesser degree of clarity and fullness. Therefore that one is more guilty, forgetting God and transgressing his commandments, than this one. And his punishment is stricter than his. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle threatens the Jew with the severest punishment: ‘the Jew first and the Greek’. Whoever received greater instruction must endure greater punishment for transgression. The more learned and capable we are, the heavier will be our punishment for sins. If you are rich, more offerings are required of you than of the poor; if wise—more obedience; if clothed with authority, show the most brilliant merits. So in all else you will give account according to the measure of your powers.”

One cannot overlook the note of Blessed Theophylact on the Greek word corresponding to our: “works evil”. “The Apostle did not say, he says, εργαζόμενος— doing, but: κατεργαζόμενος— doing evil with zeal,—such a one as not only works evil but remains in evil and does not repent”. To the judgment all will come, but condemnation will befall only the unrepentant. Repentance casts out the evil from the soul; therefore, though this evil is recorded against a person, he does not carry it in himself. The repentant will come to judgment not having evil in himself; but what about that evil which is recorded against him? This God’s mercy will decide. We believe, however, that the tears of repentance wipe out even that record, by the power of the Mystery of Repentance, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rom. 2:10. But glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, both to the Jew first and to the Greek

He adds as if in consolation for the Jews whom he condemned more strictly, saying as if: Do not grieve that the strictest punishment is assigned to you; for the richest reward is assigned too.—“Glory and honor and peace”—one can, without determining the meaning of each word separately, suppose that by them the Apostle expresses the whole fullness of the reward, conforming to what is esteemed as high and consoling on earth; for truly in themselves those goods are incomprehensible and inexpressible for us. They are supremely great and supremely blessed, but what exactly they are, no one can understand or speak of. For there is nothing known to us to compare them with: everything high and consoling for us is nothing compared to them.

“Glory and honor”—somewhat explained above. What: “peace”? Peace within oneself, peace with everyone, and peace above all with God. When peace is established and reigns, those who have the happiness of living under its dominion enjoy ceaselessly a delightful state, pouring joy of life everywhere. Perhaps the Apostle added here: peace—to what was before said “glory and honor”, so as to denote the height of that blessedness and at the same time point out that that glory and honor have nothing divisive and disturbing, as they do here on earth. So Holy Chrysostom: “Whatever goods one may have on earth, possession of them is bound up with many anxieties; a rich man, a ruler, a king if not with others then with himself is often in discord, with his own thoughts conducts fierce war. But in possession of heavenly goods nothing of the sort happens; on the contrary, all is quiet, peaceful, he enjoys true peace.”—The same Theophylact writes: “earthly goods always have enemies, are bound up with anxieties, subjected to envy and intrigues, and, even if no one threatens them from without, the one possessing them is always anxious in his thoughts; but glory and honor with God are enjoyed with peace and free from anxiety in thought, as not subjected to intrigues.”

Blessed Theophylact, having directed attention above to the Greek expression: κατεργαζόμενος— struggling to do evil, arranges to direct it to the Greek expression for the word: “doing”—and here: έργαζομένω— simply doing good, even without struggle. The Apostle wished as if to hint that it is easier to receive reward than to undergo punishment, so as to encourage and drive away despair and hopelessness in those who feel themselves weak. Only begin to do at least something good—and you will already be among those for whom glory and honor await.

“To the Jew first and to the Greek”. Is this just? That greater punishment for the Jew doing evil is just, the justice of this is evident: for, having more inducements and means to do good, not only did he not do it, but turned to the opposite, to what was openly forbidden as evil. As for reward, it should have been less for him for the very same reason, that he was surrounded by greater inducements and means to good, and therefore it was easier for him to do it. For the Gentile it was harder to resist evil and stand firm in good; therefore, if he turns out to be good, he should receive the greater reward. So it would seem; but if the Jew had more inducements to do good, he also had a broader sphere of good-doing. Remaining fully faithful to the Law, he did more good, and therefore bore more labor. This is even in that part of good which was instilled along with the written Law by conscience. But the Law laid upon the Jew much that conscience does not say, which, however, must be steadfastly fulfilled and required labor, which made the Law felt as a heavy yoke. To one who bore this yoke faithfully and patiently is it unjust to give more? Not one measure of zeal and straining of moral powers determines the worth of the agent, but also the sphere of action. Moreover, though Judaism was not the ultimate dispensation of God for the advancement of mankind, it could not remain without trace for the soul, could not fail to leave upon it a mark that placed a sharp distinction between it and a soul naturally only good. There was the beginning of sanctifying power from the Lord Saviour. For Judaism was characterized by faith in the coming Saviour. Therefore a Jew faithful to his Judaism could not fail to stand higher than any Gentile faithful only to the natural laws of conscience. Holy Chrysostom reasons: “Which Jew does the Apostle mean here and about which Gentiles does he speak? About those living before the coming of Christ. For the discourse has not yet reached the coming of grace; on the contrary, the Apostle is treating of the most remote times.—By Gentiles Paul means here not idolaters, but people who fear God, obedient to the natural law, who, except for keeping Jewish rites, preserved all that pertains to godliness.” We add: they believed in God the Creator, Providence, and Rewarder, placed all their hope in him alone, and feared to offend him by transgressing anything that conscience suggested to them as pleasing to God—and, being thus disposed always, were enriched with works of righteousness and love, of which they recognized the obligation.

There Is No Respect of Persons With God; Doers of the Law Are Justified (Romans 2:11–15)

Rom. 2:11. There is no partiality with God.

How is there no partiality when the Jew is rewarded more? The Apostle means to say that the Jew is not rewarded insofar as he is a Jew, but insofar as he turns out to be faithful to the Law of commandments prescribed for him; likewise the Gentile is not condemned insofar as he is a Gentile, but insofar as he is unfaithful to the natural law of conscience. The Jew is judged, and then rewarded or punished as a Jew, according to his laws. The Gentile is judged and then rewarded or punished as a Gentile, according to his laws. In both cases the outcome is determined by faithfulness or unfaithfulness to the law which each of them considered binding for himself. Fulfillment of it will make him worthy of reward in the measure of fulfillment, and violation of it will make him worthy of punishment in the measure of violation. In this respect all are equal—both Jew and Greek. “There is no partiality with God”. Holy Chrysostom says: “When he said that both Jew and Gentile are punished for sins, this needed no proof. But when he wants to make understood that the Gentile too will be honored, proofs are now needed. For it seemed amazing and strange that one who had not heard the Law and the Prophets should be honored for good deeds. The Apostle makes understood to us that it is not God’s way to act otherwise, because that would be partiality, and there is no partiality in God. ‘There is no partiality with God’,—that is, God examines not the quality of persons, but the difference of deeds.—One receives honor while another receives shame not because that one is a Jew and this one a Gentile; on the contrary, each is repaid according to his deeds.”

One cannot fail to see that the Apostle—from verse 9 here and further on—has given his thought a special direction. Evidently he is imperceptibly approaching his main thought—the equality of Jew and Gentile before grace. Had he suddenly expressed this thought, he might have amazed and repelled the Jews. To dispose them from afar to receive it, he sets the Jew and Greek as equals before God’s judgment. In this judgment in favor of them stood the innate feeling of justice in all, shutting the mouths of the Jews and making them humbly agree to the decision pronounced by the Apostle of the eternal fate of each by God’s undeniable righteousness. Holy Chrysostom says: “So the Apostle from afar undermines the barrier between circumcision and uncircumcision, even from a distance prepares the destruction of this distinction, so as to accomplish it without raising any suspicion. If he had begun to prove this directly about the times of grace, his words would have aroused not a little suspicion. But when, reasoning about the prevailing wickedness and corruption in the world, in the course of discourse he reaches this subject; his teaching becomes quite unsuspicious. Pay attention!—The Apostle has brought his listener into fear, struck his ear with the reminder of the terrible day, said how evil a wicked life is, proved that everyone sins not from ignorance and therefore is not free from punishment, and if not yet punished, then surely faces punishment. Here he wishes to prove that the teaching of the Law is not something absolutely necessary, because both punishment and reward come for deeds, not for circumcision and uncircumcision. The Apostle, having said that the Gentile will be punished, from this position as incontrovertible drew the conclusion that the Gentile will also be rewarded, and thereby made manifest that the Law and circumcision are now superfluous. The Jews in their pride considered it base to place themselves on a level with Gentiles. Therefore the Apostle first accused the Gentiles, about whom he began to speak, so as not to arouse suspicion and to strike harder at the Jews; then he turns to reasoning about punishment and proves that the Law not only does not benefit the Jew but even burdens him. If the Gentile is without excuse for not becoming better under the guidance of nature and reason, then how much more without excuse is the Jew, who, besides such guidance, was also taught the Law. Thus the Apostle, having convinced the Jew to agree that the sins of the Gentiles are without excuse, compels him also to draw the same conclusion about his own sins.”

Rom. 2:12. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law

He explains and affirms God’s impartiality. Those, he says, “without law”,—that is, not having the written Law but guided only by the natural law of conscience, “have sinned”,—those “without law” will also perish, that is, will not be condemned by the written Law according to eternal torment, which is the ultimate destruction, but “by the one innate to their nature gift of discerning good and evil” (Blessed Theodoret),—will be condemned for not following this natural law, written in their hearts. And those who have the Law,—that is, having the written Law, “have sinned”,—those will be judged by this Law, and “will receive judgment”,—that is, will be condemned to the same eternal destruction. When on Mount Sinai they said: all that the Lord says we will do and obey,—they then took all the prescriptions of the Law into their conscience and made themselves answerable before them as before conscience. By this the scope of their liability was broadened. How gradually he is leading the Jews to the awareness of greater danger for them than for the Gentile! He does not say this openly; he only says that God is impartial and will judge each according to the law which he recognized as binding for himself. But since for the Jews both the prescriptions of the Law were broader, and their knowledge was clearer and fuller, then by that very fact he should have greater fear for his fate. Holy Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle proves that not only are Jew and Gentile equal to each other, but a greater burden is laid upon the Jew by the gift to him of the Law. Though the Gentile is condemned without the Law, this condemnation without the Law does not mean greater strictness but greater clemency in judgment,—namely that the Gentile has no accuser in the Law. Judged without the Law, that is, not subject to condemnation by the Law, is judged by natural reason alone. But the Jew is judged by the Law, that is, besides nature he has the Law as his accuser. The more care was taken for him, the greater punishment he undergoes. Do you see how the Apostle has placed the Jews in a greater necessity to have recourse to grace? Since they said they do not need grace as justified by the Law alone, the Apostle proves that Jews, if they undergo greater punishment, have more need of grace than Gentiles.”

Rom. 2:13. For not the hearers of the Law are righteous before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified

It is clear that the Apostle, leaving behind the Gentiles, is bearing down more and more on the Jews. As they boasted of the Law and hid behind it as behind a rampart, so he turns the Law itself into their condemnation, and, undermining that rampart, brings down righteous judgment upon them with all its weight. Good, that you have the Law, clearly depicting what you ought to do and what not to do; good, that you clearly hear and hear about all this. This is no small advantage. But before God what is valued is not that you have Scripture depicting the Law, and that you hear it, but whether you fulfill it. If you fulfill it, the greater the honor for you; but if you do not fulfill it, what benefit is the Law? It will give you no weight at all. Only the doers of the Law will be justified.

Such is the universal law of divine justice, by which the judgment of the whole world will be accomplished. The creators of the Law will be justified: when? “On the day of judgment” (verse 16). Therefore verse 16 stands in direct connection with the present, the 13th, as its completion. In verses 14 and 15 the Apostle explains that the Gentiles have their own law. He has said more than once before that the Gentiles knew the Law and, despite that, sinned, and are therefore answerable; but he did not explain how they knew it – he does so now. For, having placed the Jew and the Gentile on the same line before judgment, making each answerable – each before his own law, he necessarily had to explain this as well. That the Jew had the Law before his eyes is not worth mentioning. But what law does the Gentile have? The Jew might say: why do you equate him with me? He has no law at all, and all his deeds are sinful and unclean before God. What justification and corresponding reward can he expect? The Gentile might think: if no law is given to me, why condemn me? Let the Jews alone go into eternal torment. – The Apostle explains how the law is written in the Gentile and how therefore reward is fitting for him, and punishment is not unjust.

Rom. 2:14. When the Gentiles, not having the Law, by nature do the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves.

He says: “the creators of the Law will be justified”; but where is the law among the Gentiles? Look! The Gentiles do something lawful – something in accord with the Law? They do. And yet they have no written law? They do not. How then do they do what is lawful? By nature; that is, without special direction from above, by their natural powers, guided by that one thing which God has placed in their nature. If in this way they by nature do what is lawful, without written law, then it is evident that they are a law to themselves – that is, they themselves bear the Law within them, they themselves read it in themselves, listen to it, and fulfill it. You, Jew, hear the written law, receive it upon your conscience, consider yourself obliged to fulfill it – and you fulfill it – you do what is lawful; but in the Gentile all this is accomplished within, in himself, in his nature: there he hears the law, there he attends to it, there he resolves to do it and does it.

How this happens the Apostle explains in the following verse; here he only brings an empirical indication that the Gentile does what is lawful, does it “by nature” – without special guidance from above – and is therefore a law to himself. It should be noted that when the Apostle says “by nature”, he does not mean with natural necessity, but only with the natural powers which exist by nature. By these powers they recognize what is lawful, decide upon it, and do it, preserving full freedom – to follow it or not to follow it. “By saying ‘by nature,’ he means: by natural reason” (St. Chrysostom). “Having conviction in their thoughts, having impressed not letters but works in their hearts, and using, instead of a law, conscience as a witness to the good, and natural thoughts” (Blessed Theophylact). Also, when the Apostle says “are a law to themselves,” he does not grant them the right to act as anyone wishes, but only teaches that the law did not come to them from without. By its nature, however, it is just as unchanging as the written law – it is one for all and equally binding for all: for nature is unchanging, it is one for all, and he who acts not according to nature destroys nature.

But how could the Apostle earlier have portrayed the Gentiles as so depraved that to say of them, “by nature do the things of the Law” would no longer be fitting? There he portrayed them as they became by their own will, having fallen into the lusts of the flesh; here he points to what they should be by nature, that is, to do what is lawful, written in their nature. There is presented the dominant character of paganism, to what moral degradation it had fallen, and here it is said that despite all that, there were such as did what is lawful. These latter serve as a reproof to those who knew, were able to do what is lawful, and did not do it. Were there not those doing what is lawful, the lawless could say: what can we do? we must be made this way. The Apostle here teaches that this is not how they are made, to be ungodly and corrupt, but rather to do what is lawful. – The Apostle needs in the present place not the assertion that the Gentiles – all of them and all their deeds – do what is lawful, but only that they do what is lawful, in order to draw from this: consequently, they have their own law, operating in them.

Rom. 2:15. Which show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness together with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or also defending.

Someone might say: that the Gentiles sometimes do what is lawful is accidental; among a multitude of unlawful deeds, something lawful occasionally slips out. The Apostle prevents this thought, showing how naturally moral deeds are produced. The Gentiles “show the work of the Law”. What kind? Any that they show – which will mean the same as lawful deeds. Or “the work of the Law” – means: the work of the law, the work of morality, – moral legislation. One or the other they show “written in their hearts”. For the first inspiration toward good always issues from the heart. A suffering person is met – from the heart issues compassion, disposing one to ease his suffering. One sees an injured person – from the heart issues displeasure with the injurer, with impulse to defend the injured. One receives a benefit – the heart fills with gratitude to the benefactor. A thought of God comes – in the heart is felt reverent worship and devotion to Him, even if one does not have correct conceptions of the Godhead. – So every lawful deed shows itself written in the heart and in the Gentile. But in the heart whence does it come? Is the heart the producer of lawful inspiration or only the vehicle? Is it itself a lawful deed or does it only show, indicate a lawful deed, receiving inspirations from without and serving only as their interpreter? Deeper than the heart, in the spirit, lies conscience, quickened by the fear of God. It writes with its finger in the heart at every instance a lawful deed – what is to be done: sometimes – help, sometimes – defend, sometimes – do not touch, this is another’s – and the like. The lawful deed shows itself written in the heart and is witnessed by a feeling, indicating the manner of action.

But is this all? No. One must come to the fulfillment in deed of that which has been inspired through the heart. And this proceeds thus. The feeling of the heart is reflected in consciousness; the ray of consciousness again descends upon conscience and calls forth the obligation to act thus or otherwise. The heart only sympathizes with the lawful deed – as conscience inspired it; conscience, when consciousness has turned to it concerning the deed, now imposes upon it the moral necessity of acting thus and not otherwise. This is what is meant by: “their conscience bearing witness together with them. – Bearing witness together,” συμμαρτυρούσης, – testifying together, bearing witness with. To whom? To the feelings of the heart. Conscience speaks to consciousness or to the person: yes, yes; so you should act, as the heart inspires.

This inner legal enactment ends there each time. The lawful deed is indicated and known to be binding. But such a decision is made only in the innermost highest chamber, where nothing lawful meets obstacles. In order for this decision to pass into deed, it must pass through the lower chamber – the soul, with its needs, habits, and established external relationships. Every lawful deed comes here – and, as soon as it arrives, always meets a storm of contrary thoughts. – Conscience meanwhile defends its work. A struggle occurs within: “their thoughts among themselves accusing or also defending. – Defending,” απολογουμένων, – defending, fulfilling the role of advocate. On one side is heard accusation, on the other – defense and justification. Whichever side prevails, according to that the fulfillment follows – the lawful deed, legally enacted within, is either rejected or fulfilled in deed. Who is the judge? The free person doing the acting. And no one can decide why this person inclines to one side or the other, and his decisions cannot in any way be subsumed under any laws so as to foresee his decisions. For sometimes he makes one decision, and an hour later another, under completely equal circumstances.

Thus the whole production of a moral deed is seen. From it one sees that the moral law is written in the human heart and is supported by conscience. But from this it does not follow that it is always necessarily fulfilled: for it meets contrary thoughts, in struggle with which it does not always come out victorious. The author of its fulfillment or non-fulfillment is the free human being, who will give account of his deeds on the day when the Lord will judge “the secrets of men”: for human decisions about deeds are made in secret, and they, properly speaking, are subject to judgment and condemnation.

We consider verses 14 and 15 to be introductory explanatory statements. But it should be noted that our ancient interpreters did not think so, but see here a consecutive discourse. We are led to see here an insertion because otherwise the following, 16th text would stand without order: “on the day when God judges”. But they connect these words with the immediately preceding ones, and when they interpret, they write out the whole place thus: “and their thoughts among themselves accusing or also defending on the day when God judges” and so on. – The Apostle has shown above that at the judgment all will be judged by the law which lay upon each, and then explained that the Gentiles too had and have their own law, written in the heart and strengthened by conscience; now he says how the judgment itself will happen. Namely: there will be no need for witnesses; each by his thoughts will pronounce judgment or condemnation over himself: each will see his law and his deeds, will compare them, and decide: guilty or not guilty. Holy Chrysostom says: “the words: ‘accusing’ (and so on) – the Apostle applies to the whole human race. For on the day of judgment our very own thoughts will appear, now accusing, now justifying. And man at that court will not need another accuser.” So Theophylact and Ambrosiaster. Oecumenius brings, besides his own thoughts, also the interpretation of Blessed Photius. Theodoret explains, moreover, how the accusing thoughts will rise, by the following examples: “I do not consider it superfluous to clarify this word with some example. When the wonderful Joseph put into action the plot he had devised against Benjamin and attempted to take him as a slave, as if he had stolen the cup, and thus, as with fire, tested the disposition of his brothers; then the power of conscience’s testimony was plainly revealed. For then, just then, they were less occupied with the present sad event, but remembered the transgression committed twenty-two years earlier, and some said: the blood of our younger brother will be demanded of us – and Reuben recalled the exhortations he had made. Therefore one must imagine also the future judgment, and how the conscience of those who lived outside the law will now be justified, putting forward ignorance as an excuse, now accept accusation and proclaim the justice of the judgment pronounced.”

This interpretation does not contradict the previous one and does not repeal it, but only points to the second moment of one and the same judgment: one manifests itself in this life, the other will come in the next. But in essence, both are the same. And there conscience will likewise judge and condemn, as it does here. There only its voice will be stronger and more decisive; because it will not meet with contradiction, as it does here.

The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19)

Rom. 2:16. On the day when God judges the secrets of men, according to my gospel, through Jesus Christ.

There the eternal fate of each will be decided – that is, he will be condemned or justified, not insofar as he heard the Law – whether through the hearing of the ear or through the heart – but insofar as he did it; and not as he externally did it, but as every deed done was constructed internally. For this internal construction of deeds constitutes the soul of the deeds, while the external production of them is only the body for that internal, and is valuable only insofar as that internal is valuable. This inner side of deeds encompasses how the first thoughts about deeds arose, how they then reached to desire, how they touched conscience, how they obeyed or resisted it, how the decision occurred and why, and what in general is the spirit and direction of all deeds, of the whole life and activity. All this and the like constitute the essence of deeds and determine their worth in condemnation or justification of their doer. Since all this is invisible, the Apostle says that on the last day God will judge “the secrets of men,” κρυπτά, – the hidden things – not what man is outwardly, but what he is in his inner structure. “The Apostle, to increase fear, did not say: God will judge human sins, but: ‘the secrets of men,’ – so that you might not conclude that God’s judgment is the same as that pronounced by you, but know that His is far stricter than your judgment. For people can judge only manifest deeds” (St. Chrysostom), “but God will judge also the hidden” (Blessed Theophylact).

“According to my gospel, through Jesus Christ.” “You can also understand the words thus: ‘through Jesus Christ’ – according to my gospel, entrusted to me through Jesus Christ” (Blessed Theophylact). But more directly these words pertain to the execution of judgment by Jesus Christ, thus: “God will judge the secrets through Jesus Christ, that is, the Father through the Son, because the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son (Jn. 5:22)” (Blessed Theodoret).

When the Apostle says “according to my gospel,” he does not mean to say that he alone proclaims this, and no one else does, but that in his preaching he never omitted this most important subject. To whomever he preached, he spoke to all about judgment. With this he began his preaching, to awaken the sleeping conscience; then, taking this awakened conscience as an opportunity, he led to Christ, renewed by grace and imposing Christian commandments, he concluded: thus, renewed and strengthened by grace, live steadfastly according to the commandments, each moment awaiting the second coming of Christ the Lord, Who, when He comes, will repay each according to his deeds. The thought of the last dread judgment is the beginning and the end in apostolic preaching: it was and is the beginning and the end in the life of each one zealous for salvation. He in whom it does not slip from attention, with the corresponding feelings, cannot sin.

“Therefore each one, having entered into knowledge of himself and having reflected on his sins, demand of yourself a strict account, lest you be condemned with the world. For this tribunal is terrible, the throne of the Judge is fearful, the interrogations are awful. ‘Brother cannot redeem, will man redeem?’ (Ps. 48:8). – Imagine that if now before one Church the secret misdeed of one of us were to be revealed, the accused would prefer to perish, to be swallowed by the earth, rather than have so many witnesses to his crime. What then will happen to us when, before the whole universe, all will be displayed on this brilliant and open scene of shame, when all becomes visible to our acquaintances and strangers alike?” (St. Chrysostom).

b) And the Jews held the truth of God in unrighteousness (Rom. 2:17–3:20)

Having thus placed the Jew and the Gentile before God’s judgment on the same line, and thereby aroused in him fear of condemnation, the Apostle disposed him to listen to the following accusation of him, in which he, similar to the accusation of the Gentiles: α) first points out that they are by calling and by their own conviction knowers of God and knowers of God’s will, not only for themselves (Rom. 2:17–18), but for others as well (Rom. 2:19–20); β) if now, with all this, they show themselves to be living incorrectly, in contradiction both to their calling and to their conviction (Rom. 2:21–24), then: γ) all the aforementioned advantages – amount to nothing – they make the Jew worse than the Gentile (Rom. 2:25–29); δ) this conclusion could not but meet with objection: “what then is the advantage of the Jew?” Having set it aside (Rom. 3:1–8), the Apostle: ε) again presses the accusation of the Jews (touching also in part the Gentiles), no longer on his own, but on behalf of the Prophets, and thus forces them to be silent (Rom. 3:9–20).

Rom. 2:17. Behold, you are called a Jew, and rest in the Law, and boast in God.

“Behold, you.” In the Greek in some manuscripts stands: εί δε συ – if then you – and in others: ισυ – behold, you, or: lo, you. The preference according to the manuscripts belongs to the first, but by sense and flow of speech – to the second. Our Slavic and Russian translation retains it. – “Behold, you are called a Jew.” Jew is from Judah, the son of Jacob, not the firstborn, but the first according to the promise; for to him was promised the royal scepter and, above all, that from his tribe He would be born Who is the expectation of the nations. – They were called also Israelites – from Israel, the name given to Jacob because of the vision of God – and Hebrews – from Heber, the ancestor of Abraham. In the New Testament Scriptures they are called now Hebrews, now Israelites, now Jews, now Judeans. Perhaps at that time the name Jew was considered more honorable, both in the mouths of the Jews themselves and among others. The Apostle used it, wishing to show what an honorable name they bear, so that afterward their failure to correspond to this name in their life might appear all the more shameful. So also we bear the most exalted name – Christian, as clothed in Christ and anointed with the Holy Spirit; but this great name becomes our shame if we do not correspond to it in our life (St. Chrysostom). In the word “Jew” – the Apostle combined all the Old Testament advantages, which the Jew loved to turn over in his mind, as if saying: see, you love to call yourself a Jew – chosen of God, enjoying special God’s protection, with whom God has been pleased to enter into a special covenant, in preference to other nations. See then, are you this in reality? Or, having said “you are called a Jew,” – by this very fact he hinted that he only calls himself so, not being truly such, suggesting that only this honorable name remained to him, as sometimes we are told: you are a Christian only in name (St. Chrysostom, Blessed Theodoret).

“And rest in the Law,” έπαναπαύη. – As for another it is pleasant to rest, having lain upon a well-prepared bed: so pleasantly did the Jew rest in the Law – that certainly coming from God saving institution, certainly leading to the purpose envisioned in it, safeguarding from every delusion in the matter most close to the heart of each – in pleasing God and gaining salvation. Having such an institution, the Jew rested, setting aside all concerns in this regard, as though, having this, he had everything and nothing more was required of him; whereas this is only the beginning, and what was required by this beginning was not begun. Thus in the word “resting in the Law” – there is given high praise of the Law and is hinted a reproachful accusation against one resting in the Law. This also applies to us, when, being satisfied with the fact that we have a truly Orthodox confession, truly saving sacraments, divine worship in our approach to God in prayer, and reliable guidance in the matter of salvation in the divinely-established priesthood – with this one thing we rest, not moving ourselves from the place. Blessed Theodoret writes: “‘resting in the Law’ – for you do not labor, as one living outside the law, searching for what ought to be done, but you have the Law, clearly teaching you all things.” The same and Blessed Theophylact: “you do not labor, do not go about, do not inquire what ought to be done, but you have the Law, effortlessly instructing you in all.” – Cannot this expression also mean the diligent study of the Law, as when we say of someone: he sleeps on books? You love, it says, to pore over the Books of the Law, in order to know for certain what pleases God; for which reason below it adds: “instructed from the Law.” One cannot blame the Jews for neglecting the knowledge of the Law. In this respect they are diligent, more diligent than us Christians, who, for the most part, care not that which is written in Christian Books and what Christ the Lord, in Whom they believe and by Whose name they are adorned, wants of them.

“And boast in God,” εν Θεω, – in God, in God. “You boast in God, as having preferred you before all nations of the universe, as having deemed you worthy of great care, having given you the Law and guides, the Prophets” (Blessed Theodoret). “You boast that you are loved by God and preferred to all other men” (St. Chrysostom). You say: see what God is to me! He has done this and that for me, has given this and that, has promised this and that – loves me and is always ready to help me. I am God’s, and my God is the true God. To boast in God – truly is an expression that our relationship with God is in the proper state. So can act only one who stands in living union with God, in Him alone and lives by Him alone. This is the fruit of the highest degrees of moral-spiritual perfection. Those having true faith must all be such. And consequently, to boast in God is the duty of those who have received from God true faith. And they should boast in nothing else. “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (2 Cor. 10:17). But one can boast only with the tongue, not having such boasting in the heart. In the heart one cannot feign such boasting: it is the fruit of life. The Apostle says: you boast in God? This is good; but see whether this boasting is sincere and true. One can boast with the tongue in God, in order to magnify oneself before others, not having in the heart the corresponding feelings. – St. Chrysostom himself brings this out: “by this, I think, the Apostle wishes to mock the high-mindedness and inordinate ambition of the Jews, who turned this gift of God (that they are loved and preferred by God) not into their own salvation, but into an occasion to set up strife and despise others.” – Did not the Apostle wish to say by this that they boast in sound conceptions of God, that they know the true God and know Him truly? In the Gentiles he rebuked the distortion of the truth about God, and therefore also about the life that should follow. In the Jews, on the contrary, he sees both sound conceptions of God and knowledge of His true will, as he mentions just after. And before this, to point this out can the resting in the Law, by studying which with all the Holy Scriptures the Jew acquired true knowledge of God, which he could truly boast of before all nations. At the same time he understood also God’s will.

Rom. 2:18. And you know the will, and distinguish the things that are excellent, being instructed from the Law.

“And you know the will,” – “that is, the will of God” (Blessed Theodoret, Blessed Theophylact), defined in the Law and explained by the Prophets, with definite indication of how to please God, how to live godly among yourselves, how to atone for your sins and correct your vices – and what to expect in this life and after death. All this, he says, you know, Jew, and you would be blessed if you also did thus. But since you do not, such knowledge serves only to increase your condemnation. St. Chrysostom says: “to know only – is not important, when not confirmed by works, though it was esteemed an advantage; for which reason the Apostle notes this especially. He did not say: you fulfill – but: you know, not following it and not doing it.”

“And distinguish the things that are excellent,” δοκιμάζεις τά διαφέροντα. – Δοκιμαζειν – to test, to ascertain by experience, to discern and be assured. – Διαφέροντα – that which stands out from the row, the best, the distinguished. If understood generally, it will be: “you distinguish between opposites, right and wrong, chastity and lewdness, godliness and ungodliness” (Blessed Theodoret). But since δοκιμαζειν – points to particular activity or its experiences, in these words one can rather see an indication that the Jew was able well to determine what, when, where, and under what circumstances he should do in order to please God, what best manner of action to choose. That he knew what should be done generally, is indicated by the words: you know the will; but by the words “and distinguish the things that are excellent” – it is indicated that he could also decide in particular cases what would be better for him to do. Blessed Theophylact writes: “under ‘the excellent’ – one should understand the fitting or useful to each; and under ‘distinguish’ – you decide what ought to be done and what ought not to be done (in what case).”

“Being instructed from the Law.” “For in all this has he not become your teacher” (Blessed Theodoret). “Being instructed,” κατηχούμενος, – being catechized. “In the synagogues they read the Law, and through the hearing of the ear each, even unwillingly, received knowledge of what was required. This catechizing by the Law taught precise discernment of how in each case one should act. But they, fulfilling nothing in deed, gloried in this skill alone of distinguishing what was required” (Oecumenius).

Rom. 2:19–20. And are confident that you are a guide of the blind, a light to those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the Law.

Possessing true knowledge of God and God’s will, and seeing how all other peoples wallow in the darkness of ignorance and are carried away by various delusions, the Jew could not help but be aware of his advantage in this regard and regard himself as a guide, light, and teacher for others. And by God’s intention he was to be such; for God’s intention was, while preserving truth in His people, by means of continual reminding and explanation from above, through him gradually to spread it also among others. And the Apostle’s reproach does not fall on the fact that they are such, but on the fact that, being appointed to be such and being aware of such calling, they in reality proved no better than those whom they should have guided. Here he only presents this advantage, and then, from the 21st verse, begins the very accusation, saying as it were: all this is how it should be; but what are you yourselves?

“And are confident that” πέποιθάς τε, – you are confident, you think about yourself, you are assured about yourself, that you are this and that. – To the words “guide, light, instructor, teacher” – one may not attach special significance, understanding by them one – in different expressions – an indication of what becomes one possessing the truth for those not knowing it, when he communicates it to them. Truth itself then teaches, instructs, enlightens, and guides, being, like manna, suited to every taste. But one can see in these words an indication also of the particularities of enlightenment by truth. “Babes” – are by themselves already ignorant of truth, for they have not yet grown to the use of reason capable of knowing truth. – “The foolish,” άφρονες, – not deprived of mind, but not having developed it, unlearned, not having taken pains to enrich their mind with knowledge of truth, – those same babes, not understanding the matter, only infantile not by nature but by their own fault. – “Those in darkness” – and have eyes yet see not, for there is no light; “and the blind” – and are surrounded by light yet see not, for they have no eyes. One can also understand thus: babes, beginning to learn and know; the foolish – know, but do not know how to act according to what is known. The first need teaching, and teachers teach them – διδάσκαλοι. The second need practical instruction in the skill of doing; and instructors teach them – παιδευταί. – Thus, here one can see an indication of two aspects of teaching: explanation of truth and instruction of how to live according to truth. The same can be seen also in the last two: to one in darkness is given a candle – the light of knowledge; and a blind person is taken by the hand and led, being told how and where to step. By this is indicated the manner of guidance in knowledge and in instruction for life. In all this the Jew could be for all nations – and was indeed for proselytes. And then further in the words “having the form of knowledge and truth in the Law” – under “knowledge” – one can understand cognition, and under “truth” – life corresponding to cognition (Photius in Oecumenius). For knowledge becomes true knowledge only when it enters into life and is realized in deed. – The Jew had both in the Law. The written Law communicated knowledge to him and indicated how his life should be arranged. The form of both – the true form, how it should be – was impressed in the minds of the Jews by the preaching and study of the Law.

In all this there is nothing reproachful; all this is as it should be. It is not for this that the Apostle rebukes; but he presents this in order to provide beforehand a foundation for the reproach. The reproof here is only hinted at in the word “you are confident that” – you think about yourself. God taught through him, but he appropriated teaching to himself as its independent source. Does not this very self-conceit result in the failure in life? And does not failure in life corrupt the very teaching? For whose life does not correspond to the truth, his word is both unintelligible and unconvincing. From this the Jew – by his calling – thought he was a guide and teacher, but in reality had ceased to be such when he ceased to live properly. St. Chrysostom even says: “again he did not say: you are the guide of the blind; but he says: considering yourself such, you boast in that.” Photius moreover in Oecumenius writes: “one appropriates to himself the form of knowledge and of truth existing in the Law, the one who knows the Law and lives according to it: he appropriates the form of knowledge when he knows, and the form of truth when he fulfills it in deed. For only he shows true knowledge which is in the Law, who fulfills it in deed – such a one alone shows it to be true. But you, he says, consider yourself an instructor, a guide and teacher, not simply (in some manner), but having the form of existing in the Law of knowledge and existing in the Law truth; yet you live as though never having heard the teaching of the Law. Thus, thinking about yourself that you have the form of knowledge and truth, thinking that you are an instructor of the foolish, a guide, a teacher, first instruct yourself. When by deed you show that your teaching is true in you, then you will instruct (others).”

These words serve as a good transition to the following accusation – that they know but do not do.

You Who Boast in the Law Dishonour God by Breaking It (Romans 2:21–27)

Rom 2:21. Do you, then, who teach another, not teach yourself?

The Gentiles are without excuse when, knowing the good by the prompting of conscience, they do evil. But you, O Jew, have received knowledge of what is proper directly from God Himself, and not only this you possessed, but were even conscious of yourself as a teacher of others. Judge now how much more inexcusable you are when you do evil? You teach others, but what of yourself? “Just as the Apostle condemned the Gentiles, so he does the same here. As he there said: ‘whoever judges another judges himself’, so here he says: ‘do you, who teach another, not teach yourself!’ By setting forth his thought in the form of a question, he shames the Jews. At the beginning he said that hearing the Law alone, if not joined with its fulfillment, brings no benefit; but now he demonstrates something far greater—that not only hearing, but even the most important thing beyond that, the very teaching of the Law to others, will not help the teacher if he does not fulfill what he teaches. And not only will it not help, but it will bring down still greater punishment” (St. John Chrysostom). When you teach another, it means you not only know what is right, but also desire that it be recognized as such by others and enter into their lives. But you yourself: why do you remain behind and not budge from your place, like a pillar that points the way to others, yet stands immovable? It is observed that when someone errs in something himself, he rebukes others more zealously for the same thing. The Apostle speaks as if to say: do not waste this zeal for nothing; instead of directing it at others, turn all of it rather upon yourself.

Rom 2:22. You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

From the general accusation that, in teaching others, he himself remains untaught—that is, fails to do what he teaches others—the Apostle moves to pointing out particular instances of this kind. He points to only three vices—theft, adultery, and sacrilege. Why these three? Perhaps because they represent the chief among three vicious inclinations—avarice, lust, and pride. Theft is the representative of the first, adultery of the second, sacrilege of the third, despising not only men and human things, but God Himself and the divine. These three passions encompass all vice and sin, and their offspring are numerous. Without enumerating all of them, the Apostle sets forth one product of each, the most common or the most striking. Avarice impels acquisition through intense labor, trading, certain improprieties in commercial dealings and transactions, usurious interest and the like. But when one resolves to steal what belongs to another, it is evident that his greed goes beyond all bounds. Similarly, the adulterer, when he flees from his own wife to another, clearly shows his lust has become uncontainable. And sacrilege is the fruit of avarice, but in spirit it is the fruit of contempt for all and everything; and contempt constitutes the essential character of pride.

The Apostle’s words about theft and adultery are clear; but his words about sacrilege are not altogether comprehensible. “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?” — ἱεροσυλεῖ — you commit sacrilege. Before the exile, the Jews often fell into idolatry, but after the exile they were free from this greatest sin. And it is right to say of them that they abhorred idols. But what does it mean: “you rob holy things”? Whose and how? Where and how did they commit sacrilege? Judging from the fact that idols are mentioned here, one may suppose that the holy things they stole were also idolatrous and in heathen temples. This is how our commentators understand it. Through this the Jew was defiled, for everything sacrificed to idols is unclean and through them given to demons. If in this way he stole things dedicated to idols as if they were holy, he touched upon idolatry: his abhorrence of idols was only apparent; in reality he did not regard them as nothing, but as something. If this is so, then, turning our thought away from idols and fixing our attention solely on the theft of the holy, we see in this act impiety toward God, warfare against God, proud audacity against God in general. But it seems to others that, since it was not customary among the Jews to rob heathen temples, the stealing of holy things is better understood as thefts from their own temple. Yet this too was not so common that one could attribute such a vice to every Jew; so some have come to understand sacrilege here as the Jews’ irreverence toward their own temple and toward what is dedicated to it, or the appropriation to themselves of what should be given to the temple. What was to be given to the temple, he concealed and thereby stole from the temple. The Apostle speaks as if to say: you abhor idols, but you do not honor even your own holy things at all. Among the Jews living outside Palestine, transgressions against the established relationship they had with the temple and sacred services were quite common. This non-fulfillment the Apostle perhaps calls sacrilege. Or perhaps the Apostle named their impiety, their forgetting of God and the due spiritual worship owed to Him, as sacrilege. You abhor idols, but you do not honor the true God as you should; you steal from Him the heart, which should be dedicated to Him, and give it to earthly and material things. The subsequent discourse of the Apostle concerns how the Jew dishonors God and how His name is “blasphemed among the Gentiles” through him. Is this not the explanation of sacrilege mentioned here?

Rom 2:23. You who boast in the Law, do you dishonor God through breaking the Law?

“You boast in the Law”—you glory in the Law, in the fact that you have received it from God Himself and therefore have the assurance that God does not regard you as foreign, but especially favors you. But in setting forth this privilege, it was necessary for you to be wholly faithful to the Law, so as to show yourself worthy of this mercy of God toward you—the gift of the Law—before the face of all peoples, to show God’s choice of you in a manner not bringing shame—to show that God is righteous in having given you preference before other peoples. But you carelessly transgress the Law, and in transgressing it, you dishonor God, who gave it to you. All other peoples can complain: look at whom He chose! If He had chosen us and given us such a Law, we would never have allowed ourselves to show such ingratitude through transgression of the Law as these Jews do. “He sets forth two charges, or more rightly, three. The Jews dishonor, they dishonor by means of that which was their honor; they dishonor Him who exalted them in honor—and this is the very extremity of ingratitude” (St. John Chrysostom).

Rom 2:24. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is written.

“Lest you think the Apostle accuses the Jews on his own authority, he introduces the prophet Isaiah as the accuser (Isa. 52:5). I do not rebuke you in this, Paul says; listen to what Isaiah said: ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you’. And in this accusation there are again two charges. For it is said that they not only offend God themselves, but also lead others to do the same. Above he accused them of the fact that, while teaching others, they do not teach themselves; now he accuses them of something greater: you not only do not educate yourselves, but you do not teach others what they ought to do. And what is worst of all, you not only do not teach them to live according to the Law, but teach the opposite—you teach them to blaspheme God, which is contrary to the Law” (St. John Chrysostom).

“Because of you is He blasphemed”—not by your lips, but because of you, because of your unfaithfulness to the Law, which is from God. “Among the Gentiles”—the heathen peoples, seeing your wickedness, say: “Should God love such people? Is God, who loves such, truly God?” (Blessed Theophylact). “He ought not to have chosen such people or given them anything. Could He not foresee that they are evil and will be evil?!” (Oecumenius). “Thus you, O Jew, became not only the cause of no praise of God, but moved many mouths to blasphemy. For, seeing your lawless life, the heathen openly blasphemed God, who chose you” (Blessed Theodoret).

Rom 2:25. Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the Law; but if you break the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

After the Apostle said of the Jews that they too knew but did not do, it would have been fitting for him to apply the same judgment to them: consequently, you too are without excuse. But since this already followed of itself from what was said above, and yet the Jew might excuse himself from this judgment by the thought: we have circumcision and what is bound with it—God’s seal of our election—it cannot be that God would put us on the same level with the Gentiles. The Apostle now refutes these Jewish prejudices in his favor. Circumcision, he says as if, certainly has value, but not unconditionally. It benefits if you fulfill the Law; if, however, you break it, then regard circumcision as if it never existed. You have destroyed its significance through breaking the Law and have become as uncircumcised.

What law does the holy Apostle mean here? As the Apostle presents two aspects here, one of which is circumcision and, one must suppose, everything bound with it—Sabbaths, festivals, sacrifices, washings, the whole external religious arrangement, the entire external practice of pious Judaism—and the other is the fulfillment of the Law, one must recognize that by law here is meant the internal moral-religious character of pious Judaism, corresponding to that external—the fear of God and under it all the sentiments, dispositions, and deeds required by righteousness and love. For the Jew the entire external practice was law, but not the principal law. The religious arrangement among the Jews was such as to lead from the external to the internal. The external was valuable; but if the internal was not developed beneath it, then it lost value. So too circumcision was valuable; but if the circumcised one did not see in this the obligation—to circumcise his own heart—and did not circumcise it, then circumcision lost its value.

Blessed Theophylact writes: “He understands two circumcisions and two uncircumcisions: one external and another internal. That is: external circumcision is fleshly circumcision, when one is circumcised in the flesh, while spiritual circumcision consists in the rejection of fleshly passions. And uncircumcision in the flesh occurs when one remains uncircumcised in the flesh; while spiritual uncircumcision occurs when one, having a pagan soul, does not cut off passions at all. Paul’s thought is this: if you are circumcised in the flesh, but do not fulfill what is prescribed, then you are still uncircumcised—uncircumcised in the spirit; similarly, whoever is not circumcised in the flesh but fulfills what is prescribed is circumcised in the spirit, because his fleshly passions are cut off.”

Blessed Theodoret writes the same: “The Apostle here proves that fleshly circumcision is useless when there is no circumcision of the soul, because the latter was the reason the former was given. If the latter is absent, the former is useless; because it has the significance of a seal. Where we place gold, or silver, or precious stones, or valuable clothing, we customarily apply seals. But when nothing is placed within, then the application of seals is superfluous.”

Hearing a rebuke for uncircumcision of the heart was not new to the Jew. He had often heard it before from the Prophets. Thus the prophet Jeremiah says: “You are uncircumcised in the flesh, but the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart”—and then adds: “Circumcise your hardness of heart” (Jer 9:26; 4:4). The Apostle evidently imitates the prophetic word (Blessed Theodoret). Note the skill of St. Paul. He did not attack circumcision outright, but placed its value under a condition and, indicating that the Jew does not fulfill this condition, thereby disposed him to acknowledge that his circumcision amounts to nothing. “Thus you see how the Apostle, while granting circumcision in words, destroys it in fact. He did not say that it is useless, profitable for nothing, serves no purpose, but what does he say? ‘Circumcision is of value’—I agree, I do not dispute that circumcision is a good thing; but when? When you keep the Law. ‘But if you break the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision’.—And here he did not say it is useless, lest you think he is scorning circumcision. Rather, first he proved that the Jew does not have spiritual circumcision, and only then does he strike at his fleshly circumcision. Now the reproach falls not on circumcision, but on the one who has lost it through negligence. Just as judges, upon convicting an official of grave crimes, first deprive him of his rank and honors, and then punish him, so Paul deals with the Jew. Having said: ‘if you break the Law’, he added: ‘your circumcision has become uncircumcision’. And having shown that he is uncircumcised, he boldly pronounces judgment over him” (St. John Chrysostom).

Rom 2:26. So if those who are uncircumcised keep the requirements of the Law, will not their uncircumcision be reckoned as circumcision?

The word: “uncircumcision”—stands in place of: “the uncircumcised”.—Having placed the value of circumcision under the condition of fulfilling the Law and thus indicated that the Jew who does not fulfill the Law has become the same as the uncircumcised, now from the opposite side he sets forth the same thought more impressively: suppose the uncircumcised fulfills the Law; then he will become the same as the circumcised. Here the Apostle does not set forth an actual fact of an uncircumcised one fulfilling the requirements of the Law, but speaks this hypothetically: if it should happen that the uncircumcised one fulfills the Law. From the course of his speech it directly follows that this is what he is saying; but from this one cannot conclude that it is actually the case. For in reality, although there were decent Gentiles, strictly speaking, they did not have even true conceptions of moral perfection, and all the more so not the strength to achieve such perfection. In this sense one can only point to particular cases and contrast a sinning Jew in one sort of thing with a non-sinning Gentile in that sort of thing. For example: one Jew is a thief, but one Gentile is not a thief; the Gentile fulfills the requirement of the Law in this case, while the Jew does not; and in this respect that one is circumcised and this one uncircumcised. But one cannot on the basis of these words suppose that the Apostle deems it possible for an uncircumcised Gentile to prove himself morally perfect. He speaks of this only hypothetically, in order to impress more strongly upon the mind of the Jew the thought of how low he has fallen by breaking the Law, and thereby more successfully dispose him toward repentance and the seeking of another justification besides circumcision: which is precisely the Apostle’s aim in this section.

The meaning of the words: “if those who are uncircumcised keep the requirements of the Law”—is the same as in the previous verse the meaning of the words: “if you obey the Law”. As there is meant the heartfelt fulfillment of moral-religious requirements, so here. “Requirements,” δικαιώματα — rights, requisite demands. Whoever fulfills them or is holy, even though not circumcised, will be reckoned as circumcised. Theodoret writes: “The Law demands works. Therefore, if you, circumcised, have no works, while the uncircumcised one does, is it not just for you to be called lawless and for him to take upon himself your honorable title and be called no longer uncircumcised, as you scornfully call him, but rather circumcised, as one who has circumcised the wickedness of his soul?” St. John Chrysostom indicates that here the Apostle’s reasoning is abstract. Namely: “He examines what circumcision is and what uncircumcision is, and says that circumcision is good works and uncircumcision is evil works. And the uncircumcised one who has good works, including him in the concept of circumcision, and the circumcised one who leads a vicious life, excluding him from the concept of circumcision, he gives preference to the uncircumcised.”

Rom 2:27. And the uncircumcised by nature, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who, despite having the written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the Law?

“By nature uncircumcised”—naturally “uncircumcised”—stands in place of the person who, as he was born, so remains with uncircumcised flesh. The Apostle says: this uncircumcised one, if he fulfills, that is, keeps the Law, will condemn you if you prove to be a transgressor of the Law, which circumcision obligates you to fulfill and which Scripture constantly urges upon you. “You who despite having the written code and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law”. Not merely with the written code and circumcision, but more strongly—through the written code and circumcision. And he who, not having the written code and circumcision, transgresses the Law, is a transgressor; but when you, having the written code and circumcision, transgress the Law, through these very written code and circumcision you become the greater and more inexcusable transgressor.

On what judgment will he condemn? On the future judgment. The Apostle impresses upon the mind a picture of the future judgment; he places the Jew against the uncircumcised Gentile and says: this uncircumcised one will condemn you. “Not a Jew will condemn a Jew, but the uncircumcised. Christ said something similar: ‘The men of Nineveh will rise up and condemn this generation’ (Matt. 12:41)” (St. John Chrysostom). If the Jew took to heart what was said above, he could not but acknowledge that this is indeed so, and feel the danger of his position, because of which he is inevitably a victim of judgment and condemnation. It could not be imagined a stronger inducement for the Jew to repent and seek a means of deliverance from this condemnation. Through all this the Apostle strips the Jew of the sense of his own righteousness, which was destroying him, and brings him to the sense of being without excuse before God, indeed even more than the uncircumcised are without excuse. You are honored by God in such a way, surrounded by His care and furnished with such means for living holily; and yet at the judgment you will be condemned by the uncircumcised, whom you now refuse to look at and whose company you consider unclean. Can one not be struck by this possibility, which is entirely just?! We Christians too, who receive not external circumcision but inner rebirth, and not the written code alone but the grace of the Spirit, enlightening, strengthening, guiding, ought not to lose sight of such representations. What answer can we give if all this is trampled under our feet?!

The True Jew, and the Advantage of the Jew (Romans 2:28–3:2)

Rom 2:28. For a man is not a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.

So then, does being a Jew amount to nothing? Does being circumcised amount to nothing? No; that is not the Apostle’s thought. He wishes to impress upon us that the true Jew is not one who is a Jew outwardly only: the Jews always had and have their own type, so that they can be distinguished at first glance. And true circumcision is not that which is only in the flesh. “He does not reject either the Jew or circumcision, but rejects the one who is not a true Jew and not truly circumcised” (St. John Chrysostom). The Old Testament arrangement of the Church represented a divinely ordained guidance from the external to the internal. It is true that the whole life of a Jew in its outward manifestations was determined by the Law, which contained external ordinances; but not for the purpose of his stopping there alone, but in order to ascend from this external to the internal, having in the external both a reminder, an incentive, and a support for that inner life. This inner life is indicated right here amid the external ordinances. A true Jew was only one who, in the external, also developed within himself the corresponding inner life. Whoever was correct externally but had no inner life was not a true Jew. But this is the same as being a non-Jew—as counterfeit money is not money. This is what St. Paul makes us understand here, clarifying this thought even more fully in the following verse, which is one with the present.

Rom 2:29. But a Jew is one inwardly; and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code; such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.

Behold the true Jew! He who in the external also has the internal—that which is secretly built in the spirit and which, being invisible and hidden from people, is always visible and open to God: who not only honors a material temple, but builds himself as a spiritual “temple for God”; who not only brings sacrifices to God from his own possessions, but offers himself in spirit to Him in sacrifice, “living and holy”, ready always to die even for the glory of His name; who not only confesses and sings praise to God with his lips, but has God in his heart as his God, always remembers Him, loves Him and fears to offend Him and always runs to Him alone, putting all his hope in Him; who not only performs outward works of the Law, but also nourishes in his heart feelings and dispositions corresponding to them—is merciful, compassionate, ready for every help to his brother, yielding, patient, faithful in word, chaste not only in body but in sight and heart—and is generally adorned with all virtues in his heart. Behold the true Jew! Accordingly, true circumcision is not only that which is in the flesh, but that which is accomplished when, together with circumcision of the flesh, there is also circumcision of the heart by the Spirit. Holy Moses wrote that God chose the Jews for Himself and placed the seal of this choice upon circumcision; but then he added: “Circumcise your hardened hearts” (Deut. 10:16), thereby elevating circumcision to the fullness of its perfection.—Circumcision of the heart means the cutting away from it of all passions—anger, lust, envy, pride, vanity, avarice, and all their offspring. A circumcised heart is a pure and blameless heart, free from all sin and filled with holy feelings and dispositions. Whoever has such a heart is truly circumcised.

What does this mean: “circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code”? Since the Apostle here contrasts the internal with the external, then: “by the Spirit”—will be: in the spirit,—as in Greek stands: ἐν πνεύματι,—that is, within, hidden from view, the same as: “inwardly.—Not by the written code,” οὐ γράμματι,—not by the letter, not that which the letter of Scripture suggests, which in the Law on circumcision speaks precisely only of circumcision of the flesh; that is, true circumcision is not that which, according to the letter of Scripture, takes place openly in the flesh. But at the same time, it may be understood that the Apostle deliberately added: “by the Spirit,”—giving to understand that true circumcision can be accomplished only by the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament Scripture required with external circumcision also internal circumcision; but since the latter could only be accomplished by the Spirit, and the Old Testament arrangements did not provide the Spirit, through this very fact the Jew should have been disposed—to look forward to a new dispensation in which he could receive the Spirit and through Him be circumcised in heart. Therefore all our commentators say that in the word: “by the Spirit”—the Apostle “makes a path for the Jew toward the Christian way of life and shows the necessity of faith” (St. John Chrysostom). For true circumcision of the heart from sins and sinfulness is accomplished only in believers, and is accomplished by the Spirit. He who is thus circumcised in the heart from all uncleanness is truly a Jew, fulfilling the Law as he should (Oecumenius). This thought accords with the aim of the Apostle, to which he directs his speech, namely—to persuade not only the Gentile but also the Jew of the necessity of special grace of the Spirit from God.

“Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.” The Apostle concludes his discourse here, shuts the mouth of the Jew, and humbles his thinking. The Jews outwardly were correct; this correctness they saw in one another, praised one another for it, and based their hopes upon it. By turning their attention from the external to the internal, the Apostle certainly greatly shook this confidence; but when he now placed them before the face of God, this should have burned away in them every proud thought about themselves. However one thinks of oneself, when one places oneself “before God, who examines hearts,” one cannot remain in that same self-conceit. Not only is God a “consuming fire,” but the very thought of God consumes every arrogance. The Jews knew that the one praised is not he whom he himself praises or whom men praise, but the one whom God praises. Having been convinced by the Apostle’s words that before God only that which is internally good is of value, which they could not boast of, they must at the same time have been convinced that they cannot expect approval from God, who sees the secret—in a way that man does not see it.—“Such a man”—whom? The circumcised or the Jew?—Both the Jew and the one with a circumcised heart, and the circumcised heart in the true Jew.

By all that has been said thus far both the Jew, like the Gentile, could not but come to the conviction that he is not only a sinner, but without excuse before God and, as without excuse, has need of a certain way of salvation. Since this is indeed the aim of all the Apostle’s present discourse, it was possible for him then to begin directly to say what is said from verse 21 of chapter 3 onward; that is, to point out directly: behold, here is your way of salvation—faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I preach! God foresaw the extremity in which we all would find ourselves, and has provided for us a way of salvation in His Son made incarnate, who died for us and rose again. And nowhere else but in Him will you find salvation for yourselves.

But the Apostle knew that it would be difficult for the Jew to take such a step toward faith all at once. However much he felt himself to be a sinner, he could not but retain in his mind that he belongs to the people of God and enjoys the divinely ordained service to God; and if he could not but acknowledge that this does not yet lead him to the goal, he could not at the same time avoid perplexing questions: to what purpose then has all this been and is it? Since such perplexity, if not removed, could delay the course of the Jew’s conversion to faith in the Lord or shake the faith of the converted, the Apostle deemed it necessary, before pointing out salvation in the Lord, to dispel it (Rom 3:1–8). Let us note that the Apostle’s thoughts in this section, and especially their relationship, are very difficult to grasp.

Rom 3:1. What then is the advantage of the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

The course of the discourse itself naturally led to such a question. Before the judgment of God the Jew is placed on the same level as the Gentile, so that his circumcision is not circumcision. The Jew, hearing this, could not refrain from the question: how can this be? This is God’s ordinance. We did not devise it; God Himself established it all. God would not have instituted with such insistence that which amounts to nothing. “The Apostle foresaw the objection that would naturally arise and anticipated it. What is this objection? They will say: if in all of this there is no benefit, then to what purpose was the people called and circumcision given?” (St. John Chrysostom).

“What then is the advantage of the Jew? – An advantage”, περισσόν, – something greater, than that of the Gentile, something special, preeminent. Or “by: ‘an advantage of the Jew’ – the Apostle means preference before the Gentiles” (Blessed Theodoret). “The Jew” – the entire Jewish people, chosen from all nations. Chosen and honored by a special covenant: can this be for nothing? And how many mercies, wondrous guidances and deliverances were shown afterwards throughout their entire history? One cannot but see that the Jew stands under special divine protection. Can this also be for nothing? – “Or what is the profit of circumcision?” Circumcision is the door to God’s covenant and its seal. It began before all the Law; and when the Law came, it was established wholly upon circumcision. Of it alone is there mention, as the chief thing. For if it stands, then all the Old Testament service to God stands; if it falls, then all the rest falls. Circumcision brings one into God’s covenant, makes the circumcised one God’s own and a partaker of all God’s promises: how then could circumcision be nothing and have no profit from it?

These questions could not but arise and trouble the Jew who heard: the outward Jew is not yet the true Jew, and circumcision in the flesh is not yet true circumcision. The truth of this he could not but understand; but he could not escape confusion: what then is a Jew? and what is circumcision? “What then?” – an outcry of the soul seeking clarification of its confusion and peace for its troubled heart. But the answer to this has already been given in the preceding discourse that gave rise to the question. There it is clear what a Jew is and what circumcision is. A Jew is a person precious before God if he fulfills the Law, and circumcision has great power when joined with circumcision of the heart. Every Jew, recognizing that in him there is neither faithful fulfillment of the Law nor circumcision of the heart, must have also recognized that both circumcision and Jewishness in him, for him, lose all their power, and he is left with nothing. It would be natural to ask: what then shall I do? But here the thought is directed toward the Jew and circumcision in general – what are they? – an abstract inquiry into the significance of the Old Testament economy is raised.

The Apostle poses the question from his own side; but it must be supposed that he always heard it from Jews when they were driven by him to the utmost extreme of confessing themselves guilty on all sides and having nothing to lean upon. – What does the Apostle do? In personal conversations, he surely explained at length the significance of the Old Testament economy; he speaks extensively about this later in the present Epistle (Rom. 9:1–11:36). Here a complete discussion of this would have distracted him from his main purpose; therefore he makes only such an indication by means of which every Jew could himself find a full answer to the question that had arisen in him. To say directly that this entire economy was temporary. The time ended, and with it its end. But the Apostle does not say this; instead he points only to the word of God, which itself could lead them to such a conclusion. So too the Saviour directed the Jews to the Scriptures, saying: “search the Scriptures… and it is they that bear witness of Me” (Jn. 5:39).

Rom. 3:2. Much, in every way. First, indeed, that they were entrusted with the words of God.

He speaks as it were: I do not deny the advantages of the Jews who possessed the true divine economy. They are many. I could have mentioned that God, having chosen their ancestors, freed them from the dominion of Egypt, made them renowned (Renowned – here: glorious, known everywhere), performed miracles of every kind, gave them the Law as a help, raised up Prophets. But from all this I set before you one thing alone – that “the words of God were entrusted to them” (Blessed Theodoret).

“First indeed”. This gives the impression that the Apostle intends to enumerate advantages in order and says: πρώτον μεν– and first. But since there is no such enumeration, then: πρώτον μεν– stands here in the sense of: and chiefly, – especially.

“That they were entrusted with the words of God.” “What does this mean: έπιστεύθησαν? Given, entrusted, committed to their care. God recognized the Jews as worthy and therefore entrusted them with the heavenly revelations” (Blessed Theophylact).

“I know that some interpret the word: έπιστεύθησαν– as: by them the words of God were believed – or that: they believed the words of God; but the flow of the discourse does not permit this. The Apostle says that God entrusted His word to them, not that they believed the word” (St. Chrysostom).

Having said this, the Apostle has said all. Let us take these words abstractly, and they will lead to the following thoughts. “It is a high honor that, while other nations had only the natural capacity – to know the truth, the Jews received the Law (the words of God)” (Blessed Theodoret). This advantage consists in the fact that divine revelation communicated to them exact and complete knowledge about all that was necessary, answered all those questions which stand irresistibly in the mind and give it no peace until it finds answers – what God is, what the world is, what man is, how to live and what to expect ahead – answered them and confirmed its answers with divine authority that permitted no wavering or doubt. How priceless such an advantage is, those know and testify by deed who either do not have such support for their convictions, or have fallen away from it. The Gentiles knew much, some from tradition, some from their own inquiry and reasoning; but neither path imparted to their knowledge an unshakeable conviction, and they were carried away by every teaching. – So too this precious advantage – to have God’s revelation in general; but it becomes incomparably higher when one considers the truth that in it were communicated, and are, sure predictions of the coming Saviour of the world into the world – predictions upon which faith in the Saviour must have initially rested, an urgent condition for salvation. Since this salvation was appointed also for the Gentiles, then the good of entrusting the words of God to the Jew was a seed of goods that were to unfold also toward the Gentiles. In this respect even the Gentiles themselves must have recognized the great advantage of the Jew, and they truly did recognize it as soon as they learned of the words of God.

Thus the advantage of the Jew is made clear. But, satisfying the Jew, the Apostle did not wish the sense of guilt aroused by the preceding discourse to fade away in him. Therefore he set forth this advantage in such a way that it pointed directly only to God’s favor toward the Jew, and regarding the Jew himself, led him to a thought about responsibility before God by virtue of this very favor. Entrusting the words of God can be counted as an advantage to the Jew personally only if it should appear that he faithfully guards and preserves the treasure entrusted to him; but so, in itself, it is only God’s benefaction, God’s mercy. And clearly, with such a thought in mind, in the Jew there could arise not any self-satisfaction and pride, but rather humble self-condemnation. It is chiefly from this side that St. Chrysostom and our other commentators regard the Apostle’s answer.

But this answer could naturally lead the Jew himself to perceive the merely temporary significance of the Old Testament economy. For if, instead of an abstract representation of the advantage – to have the words of God, we turn our attention to what must have happened in the soul of the Jew when these words were uttered by the Apostle; then we shall see there such a succession of thoughts. – The words were entrusted to us! – Here is God’s word to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob about a seed from them that would pour blessing upon all nations. Here is Jacob’s word about the expectation of nations that should come when the ruler departed from the loins of Judah; here is the word of Moses the lawgiver about the coming of another Prophet, whom we must obey; here are innumerable prophetic indications about the coming Ruler and Father of the future age and the establishment of a new law; here are Daniel’s weeks, here is Malachi’s indication about the Angel before the face of the Lord and the coming of the Lord Himself into His Church. All this we see fulfilled before our very eyes. The ruler ceased from Judah, Daniel’s weeks have passed, there was the Forerunner and after him Someone, “a Man mighty in word and deed,” teaching “as one having authority,” greater than the Sabbath and Solomon. – Therefore there is no doubt that the Law has ceased. Behold, a New covenant is proclaimed, spoken of by the Prophets. It is the duty of every true Jew to enter into it, lest he prove to be an opponent of God.

Such a succession of thoughts could be produced by the Apostle’s answer. One can suppose that the Apostle in personal conversations with Jews himself led them through this train of thought before their understanding, and through it acted victoriously upon them. Since some of those to whom the Epistle was written were personally known to the Apostle and knew such a way of his regarding the Old Testament words, it can be supposed that, mentioning this here, the Apostle meant to cause even them to recall, at these words, his conversations and convey to others what this answer about the entrusting to them of God’s words means and to what it should lead the Jew.

The holy Apostle, guided by the Spirit of God, acted here the same way as the Lord, when for the first time He appeared after His resurrection to all the Apostles. The Evangelist writes that the Lord, instead of adducing prophecies about Himself, “opened” the Apostles’ “minds to understand the Scriptures.” And when by this action they perceived in their minds what was written, the Lord only added the conclusion from Himself. “And He said to them: thus it is written and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations” (Lk. 24:46–47). So too the holy Paul, having said that the words of God were entrusted to the Jews, did not undertake to explain to what this led, but left these very words to produce in their souls what was desired to be produced there. It appears that the Apostle already sees all this produced in the minds of the reading Jews. For the following words of the Apostle do not relate directly to the preceding words, but to those thoughts which he sees produced in the minds of the Jews.

The succession of thoughts produced by the Apostle’s answer in the mind of the Jew brings him to the conclusion: thus the Law has ceased; one must accept, without confusion, the New Testament proclaimed by the messengers of God, like the Prophets. But while the Jew’s thoughts were thus being calmed, a new troubling thought arose: how is it that from our people, many and many do not believe the new preaching, and precisely the leaders, who ought to be in the forefront? The Apostle meets this thought and repels it.

Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7)

Rom. 3:3. For what if some did not believe? Shall their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

Do not regard this unbelief. It does not hinder God’s work, long beforehand ordained. They do not believe: let them be. But God does not regard this unbelief and carries out His work. God promised that a Deliverer would come; He has come, and the gospel about Him is being spread throughout the whole world. That the Old Testament must be permanent is not God’s faith, but the false faith of your leaders. But God’s faith is that the covenant should stand until its time and in its appointed time should cease, giving place to a better covenant. Behold, it has now ceased, according to God’s ordination, and we proclaim this to you. Thus God’s faith enters the work and by this very appearance of itself in deed convicts the falsehood of their faith and deprives of all weight the fact that they do not believe in the New Testament. Their unbelief casts no shadow upon God’s faith. Do not waver in their unbelief and hold firmly in your heart that the Law has ceased and the New Testament has already entered into force.

It must be noted that in the early time of the Gospel’s spread, the unbelief of the Jews, especially the most prominent and learned, naturally disturbed the peace of the believers’ faith, and they, both for themselves and for others, held ready counterarguments to history – that the unbelief of the powerful is not a certain proof of the rightness of their unbelief and, consequently, the wrongness of faith. Remarkable in this respect is the speech of St. Stephen, the first martyr, in the Sanhedrin. Throughout all of history he traces a chain of instances of the stubborn resistance of powerful Jews against God’s purposes and dispositions – what is even recognized as wrong by those hearing him at that very time. Then he concludes: “stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so do you” (Acts 7:51). From this representation it followed directly that there was nothing to fear from the unbelief of the powerful Jews. They had always been such. Their unbelief should not shake our faith and persuade us to reject God’s faith. Such defenses of faith, it must be supposed, often occurred among Christians from the Jews both in conversation with others and in reflections with themselves. The same thing arises in the consciousness of the Jew here by the Apostle. What is it, he says, that some did not believe? Only some did not believe, but some did believe. Those are prominent, wealthy and renowned; but these are obscure and not wealthy. Two sides are before you. As the first have already more than once proved themselves not standing in the truth as opponents of God’s commands, you, by other reasons inclined toward faith or already inclined to it and having accepted it, have nothing to fear on account of their unbelief. For this would presuppose in you such a thought that God may not fulfill His purposes and may revoke His intentions when meeting the unbelief of some. But this would mean that God departed from His word by the force of their unbelief, that their unbelief overcame God’s plans and caused Him to prove unfaithful to His promises. But how can one think this? (Photius in Oecumenius).

Rom. 3:4. Let it not be: but let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written: that You may be justified in Your words and may overcome when You are judged.

“Let it not be” – a form of wish that, however, is decisively affirmative. This must not be. All religious feelings rise up against it and suppress this thought at its very birth. Let no one think this about God and God’s works.

“But let it be”. Let everyone hold and contain in his mind and heart, without permitting any wavering in this, that “God is true” always and in all things – as He promised, so He does; and nothing in the world can prevent Him from fulfilling His purposes. – “And every man is a liar,” – that is, let it be so – let him be thus recognized. “A liar,” ψεύστης, – deceitful. God is always true and never false in His words; but man can be false, is mistaken and persists in his error, deceiving himself and leading others into deception, often with intention. Therefore, if you see falsehood, place it not on God’s side but on man’s. In that which you see accomplished before your very eyes, you are compelled to see the fulfillment of God’s promises. Stand on this side and recognize it as true, inasmuch as you confess as true the God who openly testifies to this truth. And these “some” recognize as liars, perverting God’s truth into a lie. That which they, as you see, are taking for themselves is of no importance. It is only for a time. And here too God will shame them, before He convicts them before all the world in His judgment. God’s truth will triumph: for God is all-conquering. – Ambrosiaster writes: “both positions, that: ‘God is true’ – and that: ‘every man is a liar,’ – are taken from the book of Psalms (Ps. 85:15; 115:2). He calls man a liar inasmuch as he does not believe what God promised; for in denying that God will give what He promised, he lies. Being himself false, he for various reasons represents God as false as well, when he does not believe His promises. The Apostle calls every man who does not believe God’s promises a liar. But this designation is more fitting of the Jews, about whom he here discourses, in that, seeing Christ, they rejected that He is the One whom God promised. For this they are justly recognized as liars. But God is true, for He sent Christ as He promised.”

In confirmation of the truth uttered, the Apostle adduces the words of the prophet David from a penitential psalm: “that You may be justified in Your words and may overcome when You judge” (Ps. 50:6). You are always justified, or You are always right in Your words, and remain victorious, “when You judge,” – when You pronounce judgment on someone; that is, when You judge someone, that one himself will confess and acknowledge that You are right. Applying to the flow of the Apostle’s discourse, it will be: the unbelief of the Jews does not refute God’s truthfulness. God is always true in His promises, always fulfills what He has promised. Whoever says otherwise is a liar. This is confirmed by prophetic words, according to which God is always right in His words and proves victorious in judgment. St. Chrysostom says: “if one reasons and compares what God gave to the Jews and how the Jews conducted themselves before God; then the victory is on God’s side, God is right in all things. God did all on His side; but the Jews did not become better because of it.” – Blessed Theodoret adduces the following examples of how God justifies Himself in judgment. “So to Israel He said: ‘My people, what have I done to you? Or in what have I wearied you? Testify against Me.’ (Mic. 6:3); then (to silence them) He goes into detail reminding of His benefactions. So too through Jeremiah He cries out: ‘What unrighteousness have your fathers found in Me? that they have gone far from Me and have walked after vanities and become vain?’ (Jer. 2:5) – and likewise He appends a recital of His benefactions.” Thus God is always justified in judgment by the abundance of His benefactions – by the fact that He always truly fulfills His promises. “He overcomes,” “when He judges,” “by the fact that He fulfills that which people do not think He will fulfill. For when He is not believed, His word is thought to be false. But He, by fulfilling that which is thought will not be fulfilled, overcomes, showing that He is true, and the one not believing His words is false” (Ambrosiaster).

One can also somewhat extend the limits of this word as follows: let some not have believed; yet God, notwithstanding this, fulfilled His promise – He sent His Son as a Deliverer to the world – and by the fact that many believed, showed that indeed the words entrusted to the Jews contained predictions about Him and all the Old Testament institution served as preparation for receiving Him. The preaching goes forward, the Gospel spreads – and the work enters into the measure of the prediction about Him. But let others remain in unbelief: this is only here. There will come a judgment, and God’s truth will triumph. “They will see the Son of God in the glory which they would not give to Him, and confess that their unbelief toward the promises defeated the truth of the event” (Ambrosiaster).

Thus the Apostle disperses the confusion brought on by the unbelief of “some” and restores conviction in the victoriousness of God’s truth. In the mind is impressed the glorious course of things according to God’s ordination and God is magnified in His glory, while the Jew is seen impoverishing and depriving himself on account of his unbelief. “In speaking of the greatness of the promises in God’s words, the Apostle apparently defends the Jews; but in doing so he sets forth a new accusation, proving that they have not believed the words of God, which served to their honor” (Blessed Theophylact). But by this they have not only not harmed God’s glory, but rather have exalted it all the more.

Such a course of thoughts brought the Apostle to a new objection, which, perhaps, he had also heard in actual discussions with Jews, especially the Corinthians, accustomed, among Greeks, to sophistications.

Rom. 3:5. But if our unrighteousness commends God’s righteousness, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? – I speak according to human reason.

The preceding mention of the unbelief of the Jews chiefly fixes thought upon the unbelief in Christ the Lord, which at that time was an actual and obvious fact. – But the unbelief in Christ the Lord, according to the prophetic promises, should be accompanied by terrible calamities for the unbelievers. Although these calamities had not yet befallen at that time, the Apostle had no doubt that they were about to come, or perhaps he already foresaw their beginning. In adducing the passage from the prophet David: “You overcome when You judge,” – he perhaps alluded to this. But as he had just explained that the unbelief of the Jews manifested God’s truth to God’s glory; then a Jew, schooled in the logic of the Greeks, could entertain such thoughts: if our unrighteousness magnifies God’s righteousness, then why should He inflict wrath upon us? That would be unjust. However absurd such a thought might be, it could diminish the fear of God’s judgment, calm the Jew who had begun to be troubled in his unbelief, and thus block his path to faith. Foreseeing this, the Apostle speaks as it were to the Jew: you do not believe and think that it is nothing. No, terrible divine judgments will fall upon your head. Yes, do not let yourself be deceived by that perversion of falsehood that because your unrighteousness manifests God’s righteousness, God will not bring upon you the deserved punishment for your unbelief. Can one reason in such a way that because our unrighteousness constitutes God’s righteousness, God would be unjust in inflicting wrath and therefore will not inflict it? Do not reason thus. You will not escape God’s punishment, and God, in inflicting wrath upon you, will not prove Himself unjust in the least. Such a thought goes directly to the Apostle’s goal – to shake the self-confidence of the Jew and, by arousing a sense of fear for himself, to dispose him toward repentance and faith.

“I speak according to human reason” – the Apostle added to show that his own tongue would not have turned to say this, nor would such a thought ever come to his mind; but people, as I have heard, sometimes reason this way. In Greek there is such a thought: if our unrighteousness manifests God’s righteousness in glory, will not God be unjust in inflicting wrath? This, he says, I speak according to human reason. “Behold the reverence of the Apostle! Having said: is God ‘unjust in inflicting wrath?’ – he added: ‘I speak according to human reason.’ Thus would speak anyone reasoning according to human understanding” (St. Chrysostom). “Not in my own person, he says, do I utter this, but I relate the reasoning of others” (Blessed Theodoret). Or “I speak according to human reason” – better to connect with the following: “let it not be,” – in the sense that even according to human reasoning, this can in no way be said. God, however, may have such reasons to which we cannot even think. “Thus,” he says, “I reply in defense of God according to human reason, that is, as only a sensible man can reply: for God’s actions have certain inscrutable grounds for us and surpass human reason, and do not need our defense” (Blessed Theophylact). “For the righteous judgment of God exceeds incomparably what is just by our reckoning” (St. Chrysostom).

The reasoning that God would be unjust if He punished those whose unrighteousness manifests His righteousness does not constitute truth, but is cunning evasiveness of a crafty mind (like a lawyer’s). Unrighteousness here means the same as unbelief above. The Jews did not believe, even though they had been guided to faith throughout all their history, therefore they are wrong. But God, notwithstanding this, fulfilled His promise: the Lord came and wrought the salvation of all. This justified the truth of the promises and manifested in powerful light the boundless goodness of God – what the words mean: “constitutes God’s righteousness. – Constitutes” – from the Greek: presents, manifests, – causes it to be that over our unrighteousness God’s righteousness shines brightly; but in shining over it, it does not combine with it, does not become one with it. The Apostle here sets forth precisely this non-combination, and to God’s righteousness he gives what is its own, and to our unrighteousness – what is its own. Does our unrighteousness manifest God’s righteousness by its nature or by our intention? No, our unrighteousness is essentially unrighteousness; and in giving ourselves to unrighteousness, we never thought that through this God’s righteousness would be manifested, and it would be strange if we did think so; we only followed our own reasoning and did our own will. If now over such an action of ours God’s righteousness has shone forth, then this latter in no way can be related to the former as a fruit, and, consequently, it cannot confer upon it a right to reward or at least conceal it from righteous wrath and punishment. God in His boundless wisdom and goodness acts so that our unrighteousness manifests His righteousness. To Him be the glory; to us be wrath. For this in no way transforms our unrighteousness into righteousness.

Rom. 3:6. Let it not be: for how then shall God judge the world?

It is to the common belief in the boundless righteousness of God that the Apostle appeals in refuting that sophistry. How can one see any unrighteousness in Him, when all confess Him as Judge of the whole universe? This belief is inseparable from the sense of God’s righteousness and conviction in His justice; therefore the one powerfully dispels every shadow cast by sophistry upon God’s righteousness. If God is confessed as Judge of the universe, then He is boundlessly righteous. If He is righteous, then one cannot see any unrighteousness in the fact that He has assigned you punishment for your unbelief and will bring it upon you soon.

In the words: “how then shall He judge?” – one can also see such a thought: otherwise there would be no need for judgment. Whether God punishes us here or does not punish us, the one and the other manifests His glory: if He punishes, this manifests His righteousness; if He does not punish, this manifests His longsuffering. In the first case justice is satisfied, therefore there is no need for judgment; in the second case God’s glory is shown forth, therefore there is nothing to accuse, consequently, nothing to judge. – If such reasoning is valid, then how do we believe that God is going to judge the world? And conversely, if this belief is so universal and so deeply rooted in our minds and hearts that we cannot reject it or permit thoughts contrary to it; then we must recognize that reasoning as false and reject it (Ambrosiaster).

Rom. 3:7. For if the truth of God abounds in my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

The Apostle repeats the preceding false reasoning more clearly and fully. This question must be placed in connection with the preceding: how is God to judge the world if such reasoning is just—that since God’s truth abundantly manifested itself in my lie to the glory of God, I should not be condemned as a sinner? The Apostle places himself in the position of an unbelieving Jew and expounds from his own voice his cunning reasoning. If “God’s truth,” God’s truthfulness—that what proceeds from God’s lips is always the most perfect truth—if this inseparable property of the divine nature “abounded”—manifested itself abundantly: “in my lie,”—in that I did not believe God’s promises and distorted their meaning. God clearly foretold that the Saviour would come, and how He would come, and what He would be. The Jews, especially their ruling authorities, distorted all these prophecies and thus turned God’s truth into a lie. Nevertheless, God fulfilled His promise: in the Person of Christ the Saviour, all that was written “in the prophets and psalms” was perfected. The Jewish lie did not obscure this truth; on the contrary, it served only so that God, to display His truth, multiplied around the Person of our Lord Jesus the most remarkable testimonies that He is truly the promised One—and this both in His earthly life and after it during the preaching of the Gospel about Him. This abundance of testimonies to the truth about Christ Jesus displayed and displays God’s truth in the most brilliant light, and all who are of the truth receive it. The circle of believers expands, and with it the glory of God multiplies. All confess this and glorify the all-good God, who saves us through such a solemn establishment of God’s truth on earth, despite the unbelief of the Jews. All this was justified at that time by the very events themselves.

Thus God has arranged it; but this gives no justification to the unbelief of the Jews. God’s glory is glorious, while the unbelief of the Jews remains inglorious. The Jew’s reasoning: since my unbelief drew from God’s goodness the most striking testimonies of God’s truth, which through its confirmation and conviction displayed God’s glory in the most brilliant light; why should I be condemned?—rather, I should be rewarded (as the blessed Theophylact notes)—such reasoning remains utterly absurd, and consequently, the punishment of the Jew for unbelief is entirely just, in the face of that single universal conviction that God is to judge the world.

None Is Righteous, No, Not One (Romans 3:8–12)

Rom. 3:8. And not as we are slandered, and as some say we say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come,’ whose condemnation is just.

Thus, to reason in such a way is altogether impossible, and God, punishing the Jew for unbelief and the distortion of truth into falsehood, is not unjust. Let God against our unrighteousness display His greater righteousness; let His truth amid the darkness of our falsehood shine with the brightest light to His glory; let from our evil He extract greater good—all this serves only to the glorification of God, not to our justification. Despite such an arrangement of affairs through God’s providence, righteousness remains righteousness, and unrighteousness remains unrighteousness; truth remains truth, and falsehood remains falsehood; good remains good, and evil remains evil. If it were otherwise, if what God extracts of good from our evil served to justify us and not only nullified the guilt deserving punishment for wickedness, but made it worthy of reward; then it would follow: do more evil so that more good might come. And this is an outrageous absurdity, which arouses revulsion in itself, precisely as it is uttered.

That is my teaching, that is what I impart and on what I insist! Thus I teach, not as some say about me that I say: “let us do evil, that good may come.” This is open slander and calumny against me. My enemies invented this to spread prejudice against me and, before anyone hears anything from me, to bar his hearing from receiving the truth of God that I preach. If in this truth of God—the salvation of people, if to preach it everywhere to all is the unshakeable will of God; then those spreading such false reports about me oppose God’s good intentions and cut off the paths of good to people’s salvation, that is, they are God-fighters and haters of mankind. Upon such the judgment of God is truly righteous!

Such calumny was raised against holy Paul by his enemies, it must be supposed, from among the Jews. Holy Paul taught that to be received into the Kingdom of Christ, no preliminary merit is required. However righteous one may be, it is not his righteousness that brings him into this Kingdom, but faith; and conversely, however sinful one may be, it is not his sin that bars him from this Kingdom, but rather if he does not believe. All this is the work of God’s grace, and it happens that “where sin abounded, grace superabounded” (5:20). But in teaching thus, the Apostle had in view only entry into the Kingdom of grace; from those who entered it, he demanded the most perfect holiness, and even called them nothing less than saints, showing that to be in the Kingdom of Christ and to be a sinner are incompatible and unthinkable things. “What then? Shall we continue in sin” (after receiving grace, or entering into the Kingdom of Christ through faith)? “Certainly not” (6:1). Thus the Apostle taught; and thus it actually came to pass. Into the Kingdom of Christ all were received without distinction; but from those who entered it, perfect holiness was demanded, and whoever did not show it and fell into sins was cast out. But the enemies of holy Paul confused these two completely different points and raised against him the slander that he taught generally: “let us do evil, that good may come.” And he recalled this now: from your clever rhetoric it directly follows that position which you attribute to me. But if it, by your judgment, is absurd, then abandon also that reasoning, as if God were unjust if He brings wrath upon those who by their unrighteousness display His righteousness in glory.

Having thus repelled the objection that presented itself, the Apostle presses more strongly the condemnation and demonstration of the helplessness of the Jews, now not by his own word but by prophecy (Rom. 3:9–20). Some think that in this section the Apostle turns his rebuke upon both Jew and Gentile together. He rebuked them separately before, and now together. It is possible so. But it is better to refer the Apostle’s speech to the Jews, because, having finished quoting the prophetic words, which can indeed be recognized as general, he again turns to the Jew.

Rom. 3:9. What then? Do we have an advantage? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.

Who is asking? One may suppose that the Apostle is asking from himself, putting himself in the ranks of the Jews; and one may suppose that the Jews are asking. The Jew posed the question: “What then is the advantage of the Jew?”—hoping to shield himself from condemnation by the Jew’s advantage. Answering this question, the Apostle directly said: “Much, in every way”; but then in further explanation presented such considerations from which it followed that this much does not serve to justify the Jews, that despite all this they cannot escape judgment or all the more are subject to it. Supposing this was clearly formed in the minds of the Jews, he addresses his interlocutor and from himself poses him a question: after all I have said to you, what do you think, do we have an advantage? Can we hide behind it and shelter ourselves from God’s judgment by it? And he puts himself in their ranks, to soften the obvious answer—which is unpleasant.

But the Jews could have asked the same way. The Apostle did not say directly that advantages do not shelter from judgment, but conducted his speech so that the Jews themselves would draw that conclusion; and they did not want to. So they put the question: and so what then? Tell us directly, “Do we have an advantage?” Do we have any advantage? The Apostle satisfies their wish and now says directly: “Not at all.”—The advantages were, but our deeds have taken from them all significance; on account of these deeds we have remained without any advantage. The blessed Theophylact writes: “though they (that is, the Jews) did have some advantage, as chosen by God; but as by their deeds they dishonored the One who honored them with honor and chose them, God, then they not only no longer have any advantage, but are subject to greater condemnation. He speaks as if from the voice of the Jews: ‘What then? Do we have an advantage?’—that is, do we have some advantage, do we surpass others, are we more pleasing to God than the rest of us, we Jews who received the Law and circumcision? ‘Not at all,’—that is, not in the least. For the Jews, to say nothing more, sinned just as the Gentiles.”

Such a judgment from the lips of the Apostle Paul could seem harsh and prevent the beneficial effect of his accusatory speech. Therefore he hastens to turn this aside, saying: I do not say this; the Prophets long before me censured us in this. “Predukori,” προητιασάμεθα, can be rendered as: “anticipated the charge, are already accused”—as indeed our Slavonic translation does in a marginal note. And this both in the flow of the speech and in the intention of the Apostle must be considered the close rendering to the original. The Apostle puts himself in the ranks of the Jews, though he had long since departed from them, to show that he in no way excludes himself from under these anticipated censures and that they served him as the impetus to shelter himself from God’s wrath on the basis of their being under grace’s protection, and having shown this, to dispose them also to the speedier imitation of himself in this matter. He speaks as if: this was long ago foreseen; there is therefore no cause to marvel at this or to shun and deny it, but rather, having recognized the truth of this, one should seek the surest way to escape the accusation.

There is no need to rebel against the literal rendering: “predukori,”—that is, we beforehand condemned, accused, proved guilty. If so, then it will mean that the Apostle points here to his preceding speech, in which he indeed proved that both Gentiles and Jews equally are under sin. “To be under sin”—that they are sinful and helpless in sinfulness, subject for it to judgment and condemnation. For they did not sin by compulsion of any kind, but by their own evil will; not driven under sin by violent yoke, but from self-will they rushed toward it and were mired in it. “To be under sin” can mean: both they sin, and they are under God’s wrath for sin. “Jews and Greeks.” The thought is: the Jews no less than the Greeks, or like the Greeks, or just as the Greeks. For the speech concerns the Jews; it was they to whom the prophetic rebukes were addressed. The Greeks stand here as comparison.

Rom. 3:10. As it is written, ‘There is no one righteous, not even one.’

“The Apostle has accused the Gentiles, has accused the Jews; it now remained to speak of justification—of justification through faith. For if natural law did not help, neither did written law accomplish more; on the contrary, both served as a burden for people who did not make use of them as they ought; then there is no other means of salvation except grace. So then, speak and reveal to us that, Paul! But the Apostle does not yet dare, fearing the shamelessness of the Jews, and again turns to their accusation. And first he presents David as the accuser, who portrays at length what Isaiah expressed briefly. And by this he wishes to lay a strong bridle on his listeners, so that each of them, with all paths of accusation closed to him by the Prophets, cannot already escape and slip away when the doctrine of faith will be fully revealed before him. But the Prophets set forth three most grave offenses, namely: that all without exception did evil; that they did evil without any admixture of good, surrendering themselves solely to vices; and finally, they did evil with all their effort” (Saint Chrysostom).

“As it is written”—more directly renders the translation; “beforehand condemned, we have been condemned beforehand”. Holy Paul takes these condemnations from the Psalms and from the prophet Isaiah. First he brings forth such prophecies by which unrighteousness in general is rebuked, and then such by which the chief kinds of unrighteousness are rebuked—impiety before God, lack of love and evildoing in relation to one’s neighbor. It is remarkable that impiety before God is placed at the beginning and at the end, one must suppose, as the source and fruit of unrighteousness toward one’s neighbors.

The words: “there is no righteous one”—literally are not contained in the passages cited. They express the general sense of them and belong to the holy Apostle as an inscription to the prophetic sayings which he is bringing together into one. Understanding it thus, to the word: “righteous”—one must give an extended meaning: righteous in everything, both before God and before men, and in the opposite sense—unrighteous—likewise in everything and before God and before men. Therefore, in: “there is no righteous one”—one must see not the thought that sometimes he sins or is unrighteous, but rather that he is completely sunk in unrighteousness, only devises, only does unrighteousness. And such are all—no exception whatever.

Rom. 3:11. There is none who understands, and there is none who seeks God.

The Prophet says that God looked down only upon the earth to see if there were anyone “who understands or seeks God” (Ps. 13:2; 52:3). But as he then adds: “they have turned aside”; by this he makes it clear that God, looking down upon the earth, saw no one who understood and sought God.—The holy Apostle takes this thought and expresses it according to the flow of discourse not as a question, but affirmatively: “there is none who understands, there is none who seeks God”.

By this is meant in general the forgetfulness of God, a life without any attention to God, as though God does not exist at all. But one can distinguish in each of these terms a particular significance. “Understanding of God”—the occupation of the mind with God, in order to know and contemplate His boundless perfections, His creative work and, especially, His providential care for us. “Seeking of God”—the striving of the heart toward Him and the direction of all one’s activity toward acquiring Him and having Him within oneself, as the first and all-sufficing treasure. The latter is our ultimate end; understanding of God, knowledge of Him through reflection upon Him, opens in Him our treasure; and this opening calls forth the striving of the heart toward Him and awakens the energy of the active powers to attain Him and to possess Him. When there is no understanding of God, there is no seeking of Him. Without seeking—there is no acquiring and possessing,—no communion with God: man is outside his end. Why then must he wander and become entangled. The mind is not occupied with God, the heart does not tend toward God. But since neither mind nor heart can remain idle, turning away from the one God, they hasten toward creatures—many, and becoming entangled among them, they lose their right direction and produce only every kind of unrighteousness. In it they become skilled, in it alone they find pleasure, to it alone they cling with their heart and direct their active powers.

Rom. 3:12. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless: there is none who does good, not even one.

This is word for word from the 3rd verse of the 13th Psalm, or the 4th of the 52nd. He shows how the decline of godliness and fear of God was followed by the decline of good morality. “All have turned aside”—from where and to where? As was said above concerning the forgetfulness of God and the cessation of striving toward God, “they have turned aside”,—one must suppose, continues that same thought—they have turned aside from God in mind and heart. To turn aside thus from God means to turn aside from His will and from His ways, from His commandments,—or from pleasing God to self-pleasing. If now self-pleasing is carried out through the satisfaction of passions—lust, anger, pride, selfishness, envy and the like, then he who has turned aside from God naturally falls into passionateness, which, holding him in its bonds, makes him useless for any good. Therefore it is said: “together they have become worthless. Together”, ἀμα,—at the same time. At the same time as they turned aside from God, they became worthless, that is, useless for any good; because the passions which came to dominate them as a result of turning aside from God drew them away from good and led them toward the opposite evil.

“There is none who does good”. Goodness, χρηστότης,—a heart that is good and ready for every good deed, with all self-sacrifice. Watch people when they are in a good disposition of spirit, and you will understand what this goodness is. People in such a state—from what good deed would they refuse and from what sacrifice would they shrink? All have become to them brothers and sisters, and all their possessions have become common; and not their possessions alone, but they are ready to give their very lives so that there might be good for others. This is goodness! It is the direct reflection of the goodness of God and pours into the heart from communion with God, alongside godliness and love of God. He who has turned aside from God and fallen into passionateness cannot manifest this characteristic of godlikeness. For the soul of passionateness is egoism, which, making itself the end, turns everything else into means. What place then does goodness have with it? Goodness has in view only the good of others, while he only his own. They deny each other mutually. Thus he who serves passions naturally “does not do good”.

“To do goodness”—means: to fulfill in deed what the good-disposed heart tends toward. Therefore in the expression: “there is none who does good”—one can see such a thought: there is no one who would fulfill in deed the good promptings of heart and conscience. This would mean that they have become worthless, but not to the point that no good should occur to them at all. No—good does occur to them, and the impulse toward it is felt; but at the same time passion rises up, suppresses this good and does not allow them to do goodness. God created our nature good and placed in it all kinds of good dispositions. Then came the passions and pushed these goodnesses back. They are alive and make themselves known each time occasion arises; but they have no power. The master of them—man—pushes them back and gives strength to the passions, as another man drives his legitimate wife into a corner and commits adultery with others. In this regard, the not-doing of goodness happens not simply because evil thoughts and desires swarm in the soul, but because in struggling against goodness they suppress each time the good promptings arising in the heart. This increases the guilt.

“Not even one”. One from another learned and all became like one worthless and lacking goodness. The passions, having generalized themselves and taken possession of all, did not allow anything contrary to passions to appear among them, since all serve them. As inwardly every good thought and feeling is repelled, so outwardly no one in such a society dares to raise his voice against the common passion. Everyone newly born in this society or coming into it from outside is absorbed by the common spirit or cast out.

All the World Guilty Before God; By the Law Is the Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:13–20)

Rom. 3:13. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they speak deceit; the venom of asps is under their lips.

The first half of the verse is taken from the 5th Psalm, verse 10; the second—from the 3rd verse of the 139th Psalm. “Their throat is an open grave”. What is within, that is also on the tongue. What they devise, in what they find pleasure, toward what all their plans are directed, of that is their discourse always. And as their badness and lack of goodness prevail; so this same thing dominates in their conversations. An open grave spreads its stench and makes known that within it the body of a man is decaying. And the tongue of him who has turned aside from God and fallen into worthlessness and malice spreads the stench of impiety, worthlessness and malice and makes it understood that his soul decays from the decomposing action of passions.—What is in each person’s discourse, that is in society—literature. By it one can know what a society is.

“With their tongues they speak deceit”. That was generally said about the tongue of the impassioned; now it passes to the enumeration of kinds of the worthlessness of the tongue. The first—flattery. “Deceit” — ἐδολοφόνησαν. — Δόλος — maliciousness. Maliciousness of the tongue is the are of covering evil purposes with good speech and thereby leading another into deception and harm for the sake of one’s own gain. This is the direct consequence of egoism. Whether egoism encounters egoism or egoism encounters goodness, egoism cannot act without deceit. In the first case, because otherwise, by irritating the other’s egoism, it would stir up opposition to itself; in the second case, because otherwise, by exposing itself, it would reveal in itself that which goodness abhors. Passionate egoism is inevitably obliged therefore to scheme, covering itself with flattery.

“The venom of asps is under their lips.—Under their lips”—under or within their words. “The venom of asps”—harm and ruin. Just listen to what they say, and evil will befall you. It will be with you as with one who has taken the poison of an asp.—By this is meant the highest degree of that which is meant by the expression: “with their tongues they speak deceit”. When one deceives with the tongue, he leads only to evil, involves in some affairs and enterprises from which comes harm to one’s victim, and to him advantage; but when the venom of asps is in the discourse, then evil enters the soul together with the words. Here one can understand revilers of the ways of God and spreaders of evil teachings. Covering falsehood with a fair semblance of truth, they introduce it into the soul and, driving out truth from it, poison it with this falsehood.

Rom. 3:14. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness (Ps. 9:28).

Two other kinds of worthlessness of the tongue: “cursing and bitterness”.—Earlier was pointed out hidden evil of the tongue, and here open evil. “Cursing”, ἀρά,—curse; “bitterness”, πικρία,—speech that grieves, bitterness poured into the soul. “Are full”, γέμει,—swarm, are crammed full. It points to either a particular class of worthless people by tongue, or a particular state of those same deceitful and venom-bearing ones: they do not always succeed in covering evil, it breaks through. And then there is either uttered cursing—that you suffer such and such and the like; or bitterness—words that wound, in the form of subtle insinuations or in the form of crude abuse. Both are in circulation among the impassioned. Education and civilization do not save. When passion takes hold, cursing and bitterness appear even there, often in a more repulsive form, because there are more ways to express oneself more forcefully.

Rom. 3:15. Their feet are swift to shed blood (Prov. 1:16; Isa. 59:7).

After the lack of goodness of the tongue—the lack of goodness of deeds in mutual relations toward one another. For feet, hands, paths—in the word of God mean the conduct of people, their customary way of life and activity. “Swift feet”—because the desire is strong, irresistibly compelling toward the deed. As that to which they so strive is the shedding of blood; by this is expressed bloodthirstiness. This can go only to robbers. But even in them the thirst for blood is not the main thing, but an incidental thing; the main thing is gain. The shedding of blood in the strict sense is aimed at only by revenge and personal enmity. Generally, therefore, one cannot consider this kind of lack of goodness. So, if “the shedding of blood” is understood in the proper sense, then here is indicated some particular wickedness of certain individuals. The Prophet generalizes it and after him the holy Apostle, because if it appears in some, then, it means, arriving at such ferocity is not foreign to the Jews. But one can understand by shedding of blood only the painful wounding and injuring of another. In such a case, here will be expressed the state of the angry and embittered one. In anger and wrath, as a distinguishing feature, in all appears the desire to wound another, to make him feel—not by word, but by deed. And there flickers a small desire for the shedding of blood. If one thus understands the shedding of blood; then its generalization presents nothing problematic. The Apostle rebukes in the Jews the predominance of unloving and hostile feelings and deeds.

Rom 3:16. Destruction and misery on their paths (Isa. 59:7).

“Destruction,” σύντριμμα,—a shattering; “misery,” ταλαιπωρία,—all manner of troubles, grievous and painful. Where a band of wicked men passes, there houses are plundered, laid waste, and burned, the inhabitants beaten, wounded, and scattered. Here is destruction and misery! But there are such individuals who, living among others, inevitably embitter and shatter everyone they encounter—they cause grievous harm. Meanwhile, it is often impossible to accuse them: the victim is the one who suffers, while they pretend to know nothing. Some, however, become notorious for this, and public opinion warns people about them: do not associate with this one—you will regret it. “On their paths”—it follows after them, or they leave it behind. Just as fire cannot pass through without burning, so they cannot act without causing harm.

Rom 3:17. And the way of peace they have not known (Isa. 59:8).

This is as if a summary of all that has been said about the unworthiness of tongue and customary conduct. When one wounds with the tongue and causes harm by deeds, what peace can come from them? Unpeacefulness spreads through them everywhere. Selfishness—the passions—is a dissolving force, just as sympathy—goodwill—is a uniting one. Where selfishness and passions are, peace and a peaceful disposition are impossible: for they draw everything to themselves, whereas peace requires sacrifice from many. Therefore it is rightly said of them: “the way of peace they have not known.” Neither in thought nor in purpose do they have what it takes to establish and preserve peace. And they do not understand how necessary this is, and why, and how to do it. Peacefulness is for them an unknown land.

Rom 3:18. There is no fear of God before their eyes (Ps. 35:2).

The depiction of the wickedness of the Jews, begun with prophetic words concerning godforsakenness, ends with fearlessness before God. Both mean separation from God, as a result of which character is perverted. And popular speech expresses the same when it says to an evildoer and wrongdoer to his face: You do not fear God. A man confesses God exists, and acknowledges His judgment, and does not deny hell; and yet he has no fear of God. How is this possible and in whom? It is possible under the cover of a seductive rationalization: today I will act according to my heart’s desire, and tomorrow I will repent. One might suppose that evildoers do not all intend to do evil to the end, but rather act as if compelled by circumstance. But even so, those who do not have the fear of God are lacking something that is possible. And it happens that many of them come to their senses. But it also happens that, passing from one evil deed to another, they harden their hearts and, through the multitude of their evil deeds, lose all hope of mercy: consequently they surrender themselves to the hands of their own evil will, and when a thought of God appears, they drive it away with hostility and malice. This disposition is satanic.

Such is the depiction of the wickedness of the Jews in parallel to the wickedness of the Gentiles. Comparing the two, we see that in both cases all perversion of character stems from separation from God in mind and heart. But it is remarkable that while the Gentiles, having fallen away from God, descended into the grossest sensuality and then into every kind of unrighteousness, the Jews, having ceased to seek and understand God, gave themselves over directly to wicked and unprofitable deeds. And from history we see that although the Jews too fell into fleshly sins, there was not among them such an outpouring of fornication as among the Gentiles. The holy Apostle did not think it necessary to make a special point of this vice.

Rom 3:19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are in the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

It is as if the Apostle hears an objection from the Jews: all this that you have brought forward does not pertain to us—and he hastens to forestall it, saying as it were: not to you!—To whom would the law speak if not to those in the law—if not to you?—understanding by law all the Old Testament Scripture, since above he had cited passages from the Psalms, Proverbs, and the Prophet Isaiah.—So understands this the holy Chrysostom: “The Jews could have objected: this is not spoken about us. The Apostle replies: what need had the Prophet, sent for your correction, to accuse others? The Law was given not to someone else, but to you.—By law here the holy Paul means all the Old Testament.” So understand all our interpreters. The Apostle’s aim is to strip the Jews of all pretexts by which, to their self-deception, they might free themselves in their own minds from God’s judgment and condemnation. To this end his entire speech to the Jews has been directed from the first mention of them together with the Gentiles (Rom. 2:9–10) until now.

“That every mouth may be stopped.” As for the Gentiles, there is nothing more to say: they are without defense. But you too, even if you had something to say in your own defense, cannot present it; because by your unbelief you have yourselves deprived yourselves of all privileges and are justly condemned by the Prophets. You too are without defense. And thus every mouth is stopped—no one can offer anything in his own defense. The holy Paul makes this clear: the Prophets foresaw from afar that you would try to wriggle out from under judgment; therefore they condemned you so severely, to stop your mouths, so that you, understanding the matter, would acknowledge their condemnation as just, would condemn yourselves, come to repentance, and seek justification in that which the Gospel points out to you.

Thus the holy Chrysostom sets forth the flow of the Apostle’s thought: “By this the Apostle proves that what was said was not simply as an accusation, but so that the law might also prepare the way for faith. Such is the agreement of the Old Testament with the New, that accusations and reproofs undoubtedly had the aim of opening to the listeners the bright door of faith. Since what especially ruined the Jews was that they thought highly of themselves, and, not understanding the righteousness of God and trying to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness; therefore the law and the Prophets first restrained their pride and brought low their arrogance, so that, coming to an awareness of their sins, laying aside their arrogance, and seeing themselves in extreme danger, they might flee with full earnestness to Him who gave them forgiveness of sins and receive grace through faith. This same thing Paul was here indicating when he said: ‘that every mouth may be stopped.’ He shows that while the Jews do not dare boast of deeds, they are boastful and shameless in words. Therefore the expression ‘that every mouth may be stopped’ is used in its proper sense; by it is depicted the shameless and excessive boasting of the Jews, as well as the fact that their tongue needed to be restrained with all strength. It was uncontrollable, like a rushing stream; but the Prophet bridled it. When Paul says ‘that,’ he does not mean that they sinned for the sake of stopping their mouths; but that they were reproached so that, having sinned, they would acknowledge it.”

“And the whole world may be held accountable to God.—Held accountable to God”—guilty before God. The Gentiles would not object to this; they acknowledge themselves to be such. If now you too accept the reproach of the Prophets and acknowledge that you have nothing with which to defend yourselves, then it follows that the whole world, not by external judgment alone but also by its own acknowledgment, is guilty before God. All must acknowledge that the wrath of God revealed from heaven—judgment and condemnation—is righteous and unavoidable. “He did not say: the Jews shall be held accountable—but: the whole human race. For just as with the words ‘that every mouth may be stopped,’ the Apostle aims (more) at the Jews, though he did not say this plainly so that the discourse would not become harsh; so the words ‘the whole world may be held accountable to God’ apply both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. But this also greatly serves to humble the pride of the Jews, when they too have no advantage over the Gentiles in this regard, but are placed on equal footing with them in the matter of salvation. For he is properly called accountable who cannot defend himself but needs outside help. Such is our (yours and mine) position, the Apostle says as it were, after we have squandered the means given to us for salvation” (the holy Chrysostom).

Rom 3:20. Because by works of the law no one will be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

That the Jews are guilty before God without defense, the Apostle has proven above by the conduct of the Jews being inconsistent with the law, and by the prophetic judgments concerning them. Now he draws from the very essence of the law itself, as it were thus: and do not even think of justifying yourselves by works of the law; the law was not given for that, but only so that it might always place before your eyes knowledge of sin and guide you toward an awareness of sinfulness. The Apostle fully unfolds this position below; here he only presents it.

“Flesh”—a human being, one who bears flesh; “no one bearing flesh will be justified”—that is, no human being will be justified before God “by works of the law.—Works of the law”—deeds in accordance with the law. But which law is here understood? Only that one which defined sacrifices and purifications, or also that one which defined piety and virtue? Both. The first could not justify in essence because it had no justifying power in itself, but served only as a sign and indication of that in which true justifying power lies. Theodoret writes: “all this serves as a sign of another thing, and by itself, even if fulfilled, is not sufficient to make the one who fulfills it righteous.”—The second, though it might justify by itself—for in what else consists justification but in the complete fulfillment of the laws of piety and virtue?—yet there is no hope of obtaining justification by this path because by our weakness we cannot fulfill it in the required fullness: so that this law too is powerless to justify us, though not through any fault of its own, but through ours. Therefore he used such an expression: “all flesh,”—to show where the source of powerlessness lies—not in the law, but in us. As humans bearing flesh, we cannot fulfill the law; therefore do not even think that anyone could be justified by this means. “The law would have profited, certainly, if those who received its commandments had kept it; but since they did not keep it, then through this circumstance it rather harmed, not by its nature, but by the evil disposition of those who did not observe it—by their wickedness” (Oecumenius).

“For by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The law defined everything—how one ought to act in every case; but since it gave no power to fulfill it, and the flesh drew toward the contrary, it only illuminated sinfulness. One who received the law saw in what circumstance he was sinning, and could not help but be aware that he was sinning, but he did not see how to escape from these bonds of sin. All the law gave him was to teach him to know his sinfulness; but since even with this knowledge sin continued to act and draw him, this knowledge only increased sin: “for he who sins knowingly faces a greater punishment” (the blessed Theophylact). “The law shames you more because it exposes your sins. It was the cause that sin became known to you; but it was in your power to flee sin. Since you did not flee, you brought greater punishment upon yourself, and the law’s teaching led you to greater condemnation” (the holy Chrysostom). But even this last—being subject to greater punishment for sinning with knowledge—corresponds to the law’s purpose. Such indeed is its designation—to keep man in awareness of sinfulness and consequently of helplessness before God.

Nevertheless, one cannot think that sin is something fated—something that necessarily drives a person to transgression whether he wills it or not. The flesh indeed draws, but transgression is always committed because a person himself willingly desires what is contrary to the law. Therefore after breaking the law, a person is ashamed and feels pangs of conscience. This is evidence that the one who sinned could have refrained from sinning, but did not wish to deny his wicked desire.

One cannot think either that because by works of the law no one will be justified, works of the law are therefore not needed. No; justification consists precisely in appearing fully upright, having fulfilled all that the law requires. Fulfill all God’s will, and you will be saved. The Saviour said this repeatedly, and the Apostles taught it. The whole economy of salvation is directed toward bringing us into a state in which we appear perfectly righteous before the law. Hence comes the forgiveness of sins, hence the grace for the doing of every good. For the Jew and for the Greek alike, and now for the Christian—there is one goal: perfect faithfulness to God’s law. This must be our aim, in no way weakening the sense of obligation through faith; on the contrary, constantly warming and renewing this sense by faith, which provides all that is necessary to fulfill this obligation.

God’s Wondrous Way of Salvation in His Only-Begotten Son: the Righteousness of God by Faith (Romans 3:21–24)

The holy Paul has proven that both Jews and Gentiles are without defense, guilty before God, and must be subject to judgment and condemnation—the wrath of God revealed from heaven (Rom. 1:18).—By this he has aroused fear in them about their eternal fate and at the same time a desire to escape the threatening disaster. Having brought everyone into such a frame of mind, he now offers them where they might take refuge if they do not wish to perish. God, he says, has ordained for all a way of salvation in His Son: turn to Him in faith and “you will be saved.” The blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle spoke of those who lived outside the law and under the law and exposed that some transgressed the natural law, while others transgressed the law of Moses, and both deserve the harshest punishment. In this he imitated the best physician, who first shows the suffering what the weight of their sickness is, and then offers healing medicine in aid. For thus he, having exposed the lawlessness of both groups and shown that they are subject to accountability and worthy of punishment—finally offers the remedy of faith and reveals the loving-kindness of the Divine economy.” The holy Chrysostom says: “After the Apostle increased fear, he now begins to speak of the gifts of grace and, having aroused in his listeners a strong desire to receive forgiveness of sins, he says:”

Rom 3:21. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

But now—after both the Gentiles and the Jews have been sufficiently taught by experience that neither those nor these can attain true righteousness before God and therefore have no ground for hope of salvation. The Apostle by his preceding rebuke did not forcibly impress the sense of guilt and misery upon them, but uncovered what was dimly or clearly lying already on everyone’s conscience. He merely brought to light or more precisely defined what was already there. Therefore “but now”—can be explained: after the fulfillment of the time ordained for Christ’s coming.

“Apart from the law”—which law? Certainly that given to the Jews. But since below he speaks of righteousness “in all and upon all who believe; for there is no distinction” (Rom. 3:22); by the word: “apart from the law”—one can understand a hint at all that, before Christ’s coming, man hoped to justify himself before God by—that is, not only written law, but also unwritten. He speaks of written law because it was the immediate subject of the preceding discussion, and because if “apart from it”—then all the more apart from everything else. The Apostle proposes something wondrous: for “if those who lived in the law not only did not escape punishment, but even brought the heaviest upon themselves; how can one without the law not only escape punishment, but also be justified?” (the holy Chrysostom). Therefore “apart from the law”—does not mean: in violation of the law—but means that the offered new way of justification, though it is “apart from the law,”—is such, however, that through it all the law will be fulfilled and righteousness will appear in perfection: for apart from righteousness, there is no salvation.

“The righteousness of God has been manifested.” The righteousness of God, or Divine righteousness, perfect and complete, or “the righteousness bestowed by God” (Oecumenius). One can combine both: the complete righteousness bestowed by God. God has ordained and offers to all such a way of salvation in which all by the power of God are brought into perfect righteousness.—“Has been manifested”—has been revealed, being until now hidden, only as promised. The holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle said not simply: ‘righteousness,’—but: ‘the righteousness of God,’—proving by the dignity of the person the greatness of the gift and the firmness of the promise, since all things are possible for God. And he did not say: righteousness has been given—but: ‘has been manifested,’—so that they could not accuse him of introducing something new. For only that which existed before but was hidden can be manifested.”

Or “has been manifested”—has been revealed in deed. He points as it were to the Christians: neither you, Jews, nor you, Gentiles, have righteousness, but look at the Christians—how all of them are holy. Here is where righteousness is manifest for all to see.

“Being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” He confirms that this is not a novelty; it was thus ordained from the beginning and thus foretold and foreshadowed in the law and the Prophets. It is not my teaching. Look in the law and the Prophets, and you will see that all this ought to be thus according to God’s foreordainment. “Do not be troubled by the fact that the righteousness of God is given only now, the Apostle says, and do not be disturbed by this as something new and extraordinary. Of this the law and the Prophets spoke of old. The Apostle proved this partly above, and will prove it partly later. Above, when he cited the words of Habakkuk: ‘the righteous shall live by faith,’—and later, when he will point to Abraham and David, who spoke the same thing there. For among the Jews both Abraham and David were held in high regard; one as patriarch and prophet, the other as king and prophet; and promises about this were given to both of them” (the holy Chrysostom).

Rom 3:22. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and upon all who believe; for there is no distinction.

For those terrified by judgment, yet yearning for salvation, it was most comforting to hear: “now the righteousness of God has been manifested.” But how much more irresistible might have been the desire to know more clearly what this righteousness of God is. Tell us quickly—what is this righteousness? and where is it?—Here it is!—“The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ,”—that is, through faith in Jesus Christ. How righteousness is accomplished by this means, the Apostle explains below, namely: that he who believes receives forgiveness of sins and the grace of the Holy Spirit, which, having entered the heart, casts out sin from it and dwells righteousness within it. Here he only states the general position: the righteousness of God is possible and really manifests itself only through faith in Jesus Christ, meaning by faith in Jesus Christ all the New Testament economy of salvation, appropriated by sincere, heartfelt faith in the Lord. Theodoret writes: by these words “is repeated what was said before, to complete what was lacking. Since the Apostle said: ‘the righteousness of God has been manifested,’—and then introduced something else into the discourse; then, by necessity repeating this word, he indicates that they benefit from this righteousness by faith in the Master Christ, whether those wishing to obtain it be Jews or Greeks.”

“To all and upon all”—our interpreters understand in the following way following Theodoret: “saying ‘to all,’—he means the Jews, and saying ‘upon all’—those who believed from other nations.” This understanding is justified by the following words: “for there is no distinction.” One can also understand that the Apostle by this repetition wished to affirm more strongly the thought of the universality of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, implying also that this is the only way of salvation for all and that it is open to all and offered to all, and no one is excluded from it. One can further understand thus: “to all,” εἰς,—within all, and “upon all,” ἐπί,—over all, above all. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ works and is accomplished within all—and extends over all. The former refers to those who believed and have tasted righteousness, while the latter points to the power of Christ’s economy, which is sufficient for all mankind, extending into all centuries and over all. There the believers are called blessed; here those not yet believing are invited, pointing to the saving power of Christ that overshadows them.

“To all and upon all who believe.” The power of Christ’s economy extends to all, but is appropriated only by believers—those who with sincere faith receive the Gospel message and fulfill what it requires, those, that is, who decide, having renounced ungodliness and worldly desires, to live “soberly, godly, and righteously” in the world. In the words: “through faith in Jesus Christ”—is indicated the economy of salvation accomplished by Jesus Christ; and in the words: “to all and upon all who believe”—is indicated the appropriation of it by faith—the fact that in the blessings of this economy one can become a participant only through living faith.

“For there is no distinction.” Only one thing is required: believe sincerely; all other distinctions by which people and nations differ from one another have no significance in this matter—neither “for” nor “against”—give no right and take none away. Sincere faith smooths away all distinctions and equally opens the entrance to all into the court of God’s righteousness. By placing this word, the Apostle humbles some—the Jews—and encourages others—the Gentiles. To them he says as it were: you have no cause to boast, and to these: you have no cause to despair. No one has a right, but neither is anyone excluded by lack of right. Whoever comes is clothed in righteousness not by anything else but by faith. When there is no faith, whoever you may be, you will receive nothing; and when there is faith, whoever you may be, you will not be shut out. Bring faith—and you will buy the garment of righteousness, clothe yourself in it and shine brightly in it, however low your former condition may have been.

Rom 3:23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

One aspect, in what respect there is “no difference,” is that all have sinned and are deprived because of it of the glory of God; the other is that all are justified “freely” (Rom. 3:24). That all have sinned, the Apostle proved above, bringing both the Gentile and the Jew to judgment. They knew how they ought to live, yet lived contrary to it; they sinned, therefore, with knowledge of sin, resisting and suppressing their conscience, they sinned a mortal sin. “Do not say to me: that one is a Greek, that one a Scythian, that one a Thracian (while I am a Jew); all are equally guilty. If you received the Law, you learned only one thing from the Law—how to discern sin, not how to avoid it” (Holy Chrysostom).

“And are deprived of the glory of God. Are deprived,” ύστεροϋνται—do not have the glory of God, there is no glory of God in them. Yet this may also carry the sense: there is in them or from them no glory to God. They sinned—and there is from them no glory to God, God is not glorified in them and through them, but rather the name of God is blasphemed by them. Thus Oecumenius: “they fell away from the glorification of God—all have fallen short of rendering to God the honor due Him; Jews as transgressors of the Law’s commandments, Gentiles as worshippers of idols.” Yet more directly here is the thought that by reason of their sins they are deprived of the glory with which they would have been clothed by God if they had not sinned, but had walked in His will and kept His commandments. Those who cling to God and remain faithful to Him bear upon themselves the radiance of God’s glory. God clothes them with this glory on account of the godlikeness that works in them. So it was ordained from the beginning; and so it was in the first-created. After the transgression of the commandment, this glory faded and remains faded; and not only is it not restored by man, but becomes ever more darkened. They did not honor God aright through faithfulness to His commandments, and God stripped from them the glory predestined for them. Holy Chrysostom says: “that the Jews might not say: though we sin, we do not sin as the Gentiles do, the Apostle added: ‘and are deprived of the glory of God.’ Though your sins are not identical with the sins of others, yet you too are equally deprived of glory. For you have also offended God; and the offender belongs not to the glorified, but to the shamed.” Theophylact writes: “If he (the Jew) has not sinned as much as the Gentile, yet he is equally deprived of glory; because he has offended God, and such an offender reaps the fruit not of glory, but of dishonor.”

Yet not only the Jews are such, but all who have sinned generally. In recalling this glory, the Apostle wishes to stir their zeal—to take measures to restore it. For what could be more worthy of our striving than to be clothed with the glory of God? But this stirring of zeal could be replaced by despair because of the universal sinfulness, depicted earlier by the Apostle, from which to escape there is no strength, and therefore to become worthy of glory is impossible. To prevent this, the Apostle hastens to point to the divinely-appointed way to righteousness, offered by the Gospel: “being justified freely” and so forth—as if to say: “But do not fear; I said this not to plunge you into despair, but to show the loving-kindness of the Master” (Holy Chrysostom).

Rom. 3:24. Being justified freely by His grace, by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

“Being justified,” δικαιούμενοι—which means both receiving the forgiveness of sins—being exonerated, and receiving righteousness, being made righteous. The work of salvation necessarily consists in both; both therefore can and should be joined together in this one word.

As for the flow of the discourse itself, this word can be connected with what precedes thus: and they are justified already by grace—or: so that they are justified already by grace. The thought here is: they are in such a state that they cannot be justified except by grace; or: if there is for them any possibility of justification, it is not except by grace, which God has established for them. It is made clear that everything is already prepared; come only and take. All that went before is no good; the only prosperous thing is the justification I offer “by grace freely.”

“Grace” here means goodness and loving-kindness. There was no need on God’s part for this; all has been established by God’s goodness alone. And we, mankind, on our part presented and could present nothing such by which this wondrous justification would be deserved. The boundlessly loving God took pity on us and established for us freely a way of justification. Grace denotes the source or cause in God of the economy of our salvation; the means to it is redemption.

“By the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus. By redemption,” δια της άπολυτρώσεως—that is, through redemption. Redemption—that is the only way of justification! One redeems when payment of money is made for someone and he is freed from the bonds of slavery. Mankind through the fall of the first parents fell into slavery to sin and the devil, who held it because of its guilt, which brought upon it and kept over it the curse of God. For its salvation it was necessary to remove the curse, giving a righteous basis for its exoneration, and then to infuse into it new strength to destroy the power of sin and thereby to overthrow the power of the devil. All this was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Only-begotten and God, having taken upon Himself human nature and having died in it on the cross, having risen, having ascended to the heavens, having sat at the right hand of the Father, and having sent the Holy Spirit upon the holy Apostles, and through them to all mankind. All this in its entirety is the economy of our salvation, or the redemption of mankind. Those who come to it through faith receive the forgiveness of sins, and afterward the grace of the Spirit through the mysteries, and appear not only exonerated but righteous in their inner nature. By redemption is sometimes meant not the entire economy of salvation, but solely that action of it by which the Lord by His death on the cross freed us from the condemnation that lay upon us and the curse of God that weighed upon us. As ransom for us—unpayable debtors—He gave His blood. And it cries out more than Abel’s, yet calls from above not for punishment, but for complete justification upon all who believe.

Christ Set Forth as a Propitiation Through Faith in His Blood (Romans 3:25)

Rom. 3:25–26. Whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, for the demonstration of His righteousness, because of the remission of the sins that were previously committed, in the forbearance of God, and for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Above, all has been said about salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21–24). One could proceed directly to the conclusion: “where then is boasting?” (Rom. 3:27). But such is the nature of the spirit of the holy Paul that, having touched upon salvation in the Lord, he could not confine himself to a brief indication of it. His discourse at this point began to flow in a swift stream, to embrace from many sides and more fully represent this great work of God’s goodwill toward us. So he does here too, clarifying especially the truth that God, in having mercy on us in the Lord, has mercy righteously; He does not have mercy by indulgence contrary to righteousness, but because righteousness is satisfied and has opened the way to us for God’s mercy. God saw that there is no salvation if not for help from above; but we have blocked its path by our guilt. What does His goodness do? He gives His Only-begotten Son, that He might innocently bear upon Himself the guilt of all and satisfy His righteousness. When then righteousness is satisfied, what can prevent help from descending to us from above? And it descends; but it descends righteously, through satisfaction of the eternal righteousness. And when this path is established, is mercy from above poured out upon all without discrimination? No—but only upon the believing. And here too, therefore, is righteousness. Present faith—and you will obtain the fulfillment of all in which you were lacking for salvation. Thus the economy of salvation is all established freely, and each is saved freely, yet all this is accomplished righteously. And in this work of boundless goodness, the righteousness of God shines forth. For the demonstration of it—this is how it is all arranged.

“Whom God set forth. Whom”—His Only-begotten Son, who was to be incarnate and in His flesh to bear the death on the cross for the sins of all. “Set forth,” προεθετω—can mean also: proposed; but since the Apostle casts his gaze at the state preceding the coming of the Lord, it will be more correct to say: set forth beforehand. “By conveying the sense that this is not something recent and new, the Apostle says: ‘set forth beforehand’” (Holy Chrysostom); “to show that redemption by the blood of Christ was foreordained from of old” (Blessed Theophylact); “bringing to mind the ancient Council concerning this” (Oecumenius). Consequently, from eternity God the Father set forth, not without the Son and the Spirit. “Having said: ‘God set forth’—and thereby showing that this is the work of the Father, he also shows that it belongs to the Son. For the Father set forth, and Christ accomplished this work by His blood” (Holy Chrysostom).

“A propitiation through faith in His blood. A propitiation,” ίλαστήριον—the mercy seat. So it was called the golden cover that covered the ark, on which on the edges were positioned Angels, uniting their wings above and forming in such a way a place where God gave His answers. On the Day of Atonement, or the day of general repentance of the sons of Israel—and only on this day—the high priest would enter with the blood of sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood seven times upon the mercy seat (Ex. 25; Lev. 16). God was invisibly present above the mercy seat and received this blood as a sacrifice of propitiation. Through this both the sanctuary, and the sacrifices, and all Israel became cleansed from all uncleanness that had accrued to them during the year. In this one cannot but see a great symbol of the cleansing of all mankind by the blood of the Son of God. The mercy seat, receiving the blood upon itself, lifted it up to God, here present. The Lord Jesus Christ, sprinkled with His own blood and having it upon Himself, lifts it up to God the Father, with Whom He remains inseparably even after the Incarnation—and thus becomes the perpetual, eternally effectual mercy seat of our race. What the symbolic mercy seat gave once and for one year, in the Lord through His blood, being upon Him, is given continuously and throughout all ages of ages. This truth the Apostle conveys when he says that God from eternity determined that the Lord Jesus Christ should be for us the mercy seat or the propitiation; for He propitiates God and receives the forgiveness of our sins, which is true cleansing. Thus all our commentators. Blessed Theodoret depicted this most fully. Here are his words: “the mercy seat served as a golden cover; it lay upon the ark and had on both sides images of Cherubim; it became clear to the High Priest serving upon it that God was pleased. Therefore the divine Apostle teaches that the Master Christ is the true mercy seat. For that ancient one was a type of this true one. This name is fitting to Him as man, not as God. For as God, He gives answers through the mercy seat, but as man, He receives this appellation, as also others, such as: sheep, lamb, sin, curse, and the like. But the ancient mercy seat was bloodless, as it was without life, yet it received upon itself a drop of the blood of sacrificial animals; and the Master Christ is both High Priest and Lamb, and by His own blood He acquired our salvation, requiring from us faith alone.”

“Through faith in His blood.” Not faith in the blood, but cleansing through blood by means of faith. One who has soiled himself with dirt washes in water, plunging into it, and becomes clean. One who is defiled by sins washes, plunging into the blood of Christ, and becomes clean from the filth of sins. The blood of Christ is a bath that washes away the sins of all who plunge into it. How does this plunging take place? Through faith. By faith each draws upon himself the cleansing blood of Christ. The blood of Christ, by its power, has already cleansed the sins of all the world; but each becomes personally cleansed by it when through faith he receives upon himself the sprinkling or anointing with the blood of Christ. This is accomplished mysteriously in the water bath of baptism, and afterward in the tear bath of repentance.

God has established for us the shown mode of justification “for the demonstration of His righteousness,” so that for all it would be evident that He has mercy and justifies not by arbitrary will or overflow of goodness, but righteously. To have mercy when righteousness is not satisfied would not be permitted by righteousness; but when righteousness is satisfied, righteousness itself demands mercy. Satisfaction of righteousness is established by God’s independent goodness, it is free grace, grace given freely. But after satisfaction, justification is worked not by grace alone, but also by righteousness. The Apostle speaks here of this—that in justifying us or cleansing us by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, God demonstrates His righteousness.

This demonstration of righteousness he presents in two aspects—before the coming of Christ and after the coming of Christ. To the first belong the words: “for the demonstration of His righteousness, because of the remission of the sins that were previously committed, in the forbearance of God;” to the second: “and for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

How was the righteousness of God demonstrated before the coming of Christ? In this way: God, looking upon the death on the cross that was to be, forbearingly bore the sins of those who sinned at that time, did not punish them as they deserved, did not utterly destroy them. This thought is conveyed by the Russian translation, which reads: “for the demonstration of His righteousness in the forgiveness of sins previously committed. In forgiveness.” Forgiveness, πάρεσις—which means: passing over something without attention, overlooking something, as if you do not notice it. The Apostle wished therefore to express the thought that God, though He passed over without attention, did not turn the eyes of righteousness upon the sins previously committed, yet nevertheless in this also demonstrated righteousness, for He had ordained beforehand that the Lord Jesus should be the cleansing for all in His blood. Thus, looking upon this blood, He righteously had mercy upon those who sinned before. Blessed Theodoret writes: “and God showed His own goodness in prolonging forbearance to people violating the Law for a long time, yet He made His righteousness evident to all. He did not bear people who transgressed the Law in vain, but was preparing for them this remedy.” Ambrosiaster understood it similarly.

Thus it appears if one looks from the time of the Law into the time of grace. But if one looks from grace into what preceded, another thought is born, namely: God ordained that the Lord Jesus should be the cleansing for all in His blood on account of the remission of the sins that were previously committed, so that in this remission His righteousness would not be violated but demonstrated. It was as if a question arose in the Apostle’s mind: The Lord most pure pours out innocently the blood of His flesh—for what reason? For the remission of previously committed sins. God forgave by mercy, but righteousness was not satisfied. Behold, He pays what is owed to righteousness as well, pouring out the innocent blood of His Son—He compensates righteousness for the previous mercies; and thus He makes it so that through the forgiveness of previous sins righteousness suffers no damage. This thought is suggested by the Slavonic translation: “on account of the remission of sins previously committed,”—which translation exactly corresponds to the Greek: δια την πάρεσιν.

Such thoughts are conveyed if the word πάρεσις—is given the meaning: passing over, remission. But it means also: weakness, extreme loss of strength, mortal agony. Our commentators, besides those cited, accept it in this meaning and understand the expression δια την πάρεσιν—as: on account of extreme moral corruption or deadness. Holy Chrysostom says: “δια την πάρεσις—means: on account of weakness from sins previously committed. A strong expression. He did not say: on account of sins, but on account of weakness or deadness from sins. There was no longer any hope for recovery; on the contrary, as a weakened body needed higher help, so a dead soul. God showed us great forbearance and loving-kindness. When we had come to despair, evil had grown, sins had multiplied; then God demonstrated His power, that you might understand what abundant righteousness He has. If this had been done at the beginning, it would not appear so wondrous and extraordinary as now, when all means of healing had already been tried.” Photius understood it similarly according to Oecumenius, and Oecumenius himself and Theophylact. And in Holy Anthony the Great, Holy Macarius, Holy Ephrem, Holy Basil the Great, and others is found the thought that before the Birth of Christ, God employed various means to correct people—guided them by natural law, gave the Law through Moses, sent Prophets. But since nothing helped and people reached the utmost moral corruption, He finally sent His Son to heal such a sickness of ours, to cleanse and renew our nature.

In such a case “for the demonstration of His righteousness”—will mean: not for the demonstration of justice, but for the demonstration of righteousness and holiness. God saw that people could not manage themselves and set themselves on the right path; therefore He decided to infuse His righteousness into them, as fresh blood is infused into a corrupted organism—and to demonstrate it thus in them. And for this to be accomplished, He gave His Only-begotten Son, to be the cleansing for all who believe—not only so that on account of Him sins would be forgiven, but so that the believing would inwardly become clean and holy through the reception of the grace of the Holy Spirit through faith. Holy Chrysostom says: “what does it mean: ‘demonstration of righteousness?’ As the demonstration of wealth consists in not only being wealthy oneself, but also making others wealthy, and the demonstration of life in not only being alive oneself, but also raising the dead to life, and the demonstration of strength in not only being strong oneself, but also strengthening the weak; so the demonstration of righteousness consists in not only being righteous oneself, but also making others, wasting away in sins, suddenly righteous.” In demonstration of such righteousness God set forth the Lord Jesus “as the cleansing through faith in His blood.”

Such are the thoughts in the words: “for the demonstration of His righteousness, because of the remission of the sins previously committed.” The words following: “in the forbearance of God” point to the time preceding the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, when God forbore. And whatever of the shown thoughts one chooses for oneself, they all suit this meaning with only slight application to the chosen thought. But what did God forbear and what was He waiting for? He waited for the time to be fulfilled and for people to become capable, having received the Gospel, of entering upon a new way of righteousness under the sanctification and guidance of grace. Or He waited while people tried all their means and finally, exhausted, came to the awareness that it is impossible for them to correct themselves. Or He waited whether they would not repent, not amend themselves, as “God’s forbearance waited in the days of Noah” (1 Pet. 3:20), while they ever more sank into sins and were corrupted by them; so that it remained either to deliver them entirely to ruin, or to come to them with His extraordinary, incomprehensible to the mind, help. God chose the latter and established a special wondrous way of salvation, which is now offered in the Gospel.

How is the righteousness of God revealed in the present time, after the incarnation of God the Word?

Let us first set down a brief philological note on the words: “and as a demonstration of His righteousness at the present time”—namely, that there is no conjunction in the Greek and that above: “for a manifestation”—in Greek stands: εις ενδειξιν — and here: “for a demonstration” — προς ενδειξιν. By adding the conjunction, our Slavonic translators showed that here begins a new line of thought, corresponding nevertheless to the preceding—which is entirely justified by the content of both halves of this small section, one of which begins with the word: “for a manifestation”—and the other: “for a demonstration”. But what is the reason that one and the same word: ενδειξις — is there translated: “manifestation”—and here: “demonstration”? None, except to preserve in the translation the nuance of thought conveyed—there by the preposition εις, and here—by the preposition προς. Εις ενδειξιν — for a manifestation of something distant, as something awaited, hoped for, as a goal. Προς ενδειξιν — for a demonstration of that same thing before our eyes, as a fulfillment of what was hoped for and awaited—as a goal attained.

Following this observation, let us turn to answering the proposed question. Just as earlier, in answer to the question how the righteousness of God was revealed before the coming of Christ in the flesh—more than one thought was presented; so here too, in answer to how this righteousness is revealed after the coming of Christ, we may present more than one thought, developing them in correspondence with the preceding ones. Let us take the first of the former: God revealed His righteousness in His compassion for sinners before the incarnation of God the Word by showing mercy to them not solely out of a superabundance of goodness and benevolence, but looking upon the blood of His Son that would be shed for them, the cleansing power of which they received when He, “having gone down to Hades,” preached to them the salvation, redemption, and cleansing prepared for them through faith in Him. In light of this thought, how is the righteousness of God revealed in the compassion and justification of sinners now, when the Gospel is preached? It is the same: the righteousness of God is revealed in that mercy and justification are given not out of an indiscriminate excess of benevolence, but through the faith of those who receive this mercy. Faith covers the sinner before the face of righteousness—“the faith of Jesus”—and justification descends upon him not without satisfaction, not without the involvement of righteousness, but righteously, with a manifestation of righteousness. Thus God shows that He is righteous; for He justifies the one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. This faith unites the believer with Christ the Lord and presents him before God as he whom the Lord Himself is before Him. Herein lies the righteousness of the One who justifies now! As there, so here mercy is grounded in the person of Christ Jesus the Lord, in the all-cleansing power of His blood, shed for sinners.

If from the preceding we take this thought: God revealed His righteousness in His compassion for the sinners of old by giving His Son for the remission of their sins, so that He through His blood might be a cleansing for all who believe; then the demonstration of righteousness in the present time will consist in this: the believer at once receives upon himself drops of this cleansing blood—the blood does not act backward but directly upon the one of faith. By this thought, the cross of Christ with His blood is presented as set up in the midst and by its cleansing power overshadowing both all the sinners of old and all the present.

If we accept the thought of Saint Chrysostom and our other commentators—that when moral corruption had reached its ultimate limits, God then resolved to pour His own righteousness into humanity and thus reveal it in them; then the words: “for a demonstration of righteousness at the present time”—will serve as a confirming repetition of what was said before, thus: “for a manifestation of righteousness” and so forth—“for a demonstration,” I say, “of righteousness at the present time.” By this the past and present are divided into two halves: there corruption, and here righteousness and holiness begin. New blood flowed in the veins of humanity: it began to grow healthy and be sanctified. One may here allow that an allusion is made to the actual universal experience that believers were at once transformed and from vicious became spotless and holy.

The words: “that He might be righteous and justifying”—will then have this sense: that it might be plain that He is not only Himself righteous, but also makes others righteous (as Saint Chrysostom says), under the condition of faith in the Lord Jesus. Faith marks a great transformation in the believer and a great change in God’s relation to him. In the believer there begins to dwell a love of all righteousness and a hatred of all lawlessness, for love of the Lord, and from above the heaven that was sealed before opens and pours into the heart of the believer abundant grace, giving him the power to bear fruit in righteousness and holiness, like a tree planted by “the courses of waters” (Ps. 1:3).

Such is the content of verses 25 and 26, uttered by the Apostle in explanation of what is salvation “which is in Christ Jesus” or justification “by His blood.” Having set forth this, he again bears down on the Jew. It was difficult to break his pride. Therefore the Apostle employs various means to this end: at times he drew from their own life that they are no better than the Gentiles, at times he painted with prophetic reproofs how they had fallen in their conduct. Now he removes from them all occasion for boasting by pointing to the establishment of the New Covenant.

Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law; Paul Draws to Faith by the Example of Abraham (Romans 3:27–31)

Rom. 3:27. Where then is boasting? It has been excluded: by what law? By the law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

As it were: you might have boasted, having divinely ordained ordinances; but since you did not fulfill these ordinances, you thereby removed from yourselves all ground for boasting. But even if now, coming to your senses, you turned to strict fulfillment of all that has been commanded you, it would serve no purpose. God has now established a new covenant, and the first covenant has taken from you all possibility of boasting.

“It has been excluded,” έξεκλείσθη,—shut out, annulled. “He did not say: ‘destroyed,’ but: ‘excluded,’—that is, no longer has place” (blessed Theodoret). “He did not say: it vanished and perished, but: ‘excluded,’—by which is meant more—the unseasonableness of boasting. There was a time for boasting, but now that time has passed. As when the judgment has come there is no longer time for those wishing to repent, so also for the Jews that time had passed when they could say: we can make amends by keeping the Law—when the verdict has been pronounced and He has come who by grace destroys all evil. They should have been concerned about this before the coming of Christ. But when He came who saves through faith, the time of efforts (under the Law) ended, since all means proved ineffective; Christ saves by grace. Therefore He came now. And if He had come in the beginning, they could have said that it was possible to be saved with the help of the Law through one’s own labors and merits. Therefore, lest He give occasion for such shameless words, Christ waited a long time. And when it became clear from everything that men did not have sufficient strength of their own, then He saves by His grace. And whoever contradicts this acts like a man who, having committed grievous crimes and being unable to justify himself before the court, is condemned and sentenced to execution, but is then freed by royal mercy, and after his freedom has the shamelessness to boast and insist that he committed no offense. This should have been shown before receiving mercy; but when mercy is shown, it is no time to boast. The same happened with the Jews, since they did not defend themselves; Christ came and by His coming deprived them of boasting. He who presents himself as a teacher of infants, boasts in the Law, is called an instructor of the foolish, yet together with them has need of a Teacher and Saviour; he has nothing to boast about. If even formerly circumcision was uncircumcision, how much more now. For circumcision is abolished both for past and for present time” (Saint Chrysostom).

“By what law?” “Having said that ‘it has been excluded,’ the Apostle shows how this came to pass: how ‘it has been excluded’” (Saint Chrysostom). The word: “law”—can be understood both in the proper sense, and thus: by virtue of what “has it been excluded”?

“By the law of works?” From the Greek: by works?—that is, by the law of works?—by virtue of works? No; but by virtue of faith, that is, by virtue of the New Covenant, established on faith. How by virtue of faith boasting has been excluded, this is self-evident. But how could it be excluded by virtue of works, or by the law of works? For although the Apostle denies this, he shows by the question that it is possible. How then is it possible?—It is possible in the sense that the Law accuses the Jews. But this indeed happened, and the Apostle could not deny this when he himself accuses the Jews by the Law and takes away from them their boasting. The Law accused and took away boasting. And one could not have said: no—not by the law of works was boasting excluded. Therefore it seems that by this question and negative answer: “by works? no,”—the Apostle wished only to set forth more vividly the power of faith, placing before it the Law. For one could have said directly after the question: by what law?—By the law of faith.

“No, but by the law of faith.” “Behold, Paul has even called faith a law; he holds to the old terminology in order to make acceptable what seemed to be an innovation. And wherein consists the law of faith? In that one is saved by grace. Here the Apostle proves that all things are possible to God, Who not only saved, but also justified, and gave the right to boast, having no need for our works, but requiring only faith. And he says this so that the believing Jew might be accustomed to humility, and the unbeliever humbled and then drawn in. Do you see what riches faith holds?” (Saint Chrysostom).

Boasting is excluded by the law of faith not so that all may be covered with disgrace, but so that all may be shown the path to true glory. By faith in the Lord they received remission of sins and opened the way for grace to enter them, which is given in the mysteries and sanctifies and presents pure and glorious before God, Angels, and men the one who is faithful to the conditions of the gracious covenant. There is glory! Such a law of faith abolished boasting by the Law—both by giving believers what the Law did not give, and by the fact that it was established not for Jews alone, but for all men in general. “As soon as grace appeared and was poured out upon all nations, the boasting of the Jews ceased; because God gave men a short way to salvation—faith” (blessed Theodoret).

Rom. 3:28. We hold that a man is justified by faith, apart from works of the Law.

Having proved that justification is in the blood of Christ, and not in works of the Law, he concludes his discussion and says: “from all that has been said we conclude that every man is justified by faith” (blessed Theophylact). “We hold,”—we think—we usually speak thus of thoughts not yet settled; one who thinks a certain way may change his mind. But the Apostle, saying: “we hold,” λογιζόμεθα,—wishes to say: such is an immutable principle for our reasoning—firmly hold that man can be justified only by faith. “He did not say: ‘be justified’—to a Jew, or to one living under the Law, but, speaking generally and opening the door of salvation to the whole human race, he used a generic name—a common designation of nature—saying: a man” (Saint Chrysostom; blessed Theodoret). Before this he only stripped the Jew of this boasting, and from works of the Law he took away the power to do so, and he placed all mankind on one level, showing all one path of salvation through faith in the blood of the Lord. Now he expresses these same thoughts in the form of a principle, yet having in view chiefly the Jew; for he alone stood with the opinion that it was possible to be saved another way, often even after receiving the Gospel, and could not quickly become reconciled to the view that now the condition of salvation is one for all. Therefore he also added: “apart from works of the Law,”—that is, apart from a life according to the ordinances of the Old Testament institutions. Neither for the acceptance of the Gospel, nor for the appropriation of its gracious powers, nor for a salvific life according to its spirit do works of the Law give anyone any help or any advantage. “Two thoughts disturbed the Jews: the first, that those who could not be saved by works might be saved without works; the second, that the uncircumcised were given rights equal with the Jews, who had been trained in the Law for so long. This latter thought disturbed them much more than the first. Therefore the Apostle, proving the first, moves on to the second, which so terrified the Jews that even after receiving faith, disturbed by it, they accused Peter on account of Cornelius and all that he did for his conversion” (Saint Chrysostom). And what had been said was enough for their instruction, but for greater persuasion the Apostle adds a reasoning from common sense, saying:

Rom. 3:29. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not also the God of Gentiles? Yes, of Gentiles also.

The Apostle, as it were, sees from afar how the Jews, accustomed to claiming special privileges before God, upon reading the foregoing word, are troubled by the thoughts arising in their hearts: how can this be, how can this be allowed? Therefore he hurries to calm this turmoil, saying as it were: “do not be troubled by this, Jew, as if by some absurdity” (blessed Theophylact). “Or is God the God of Jews only?” “Is God some private God? From this it is clear that those wishing to demean Gentiles thereby demean God’s glory, not permitting God to be God of all. If He is indeed God of all, then He cares for all. And if He cares for all, then He saves all equally through faith” (Saint Chrysostom). He appeals to the common belief imprinted in the hearts of all, and thereby shuts the mouth of the Jew and encourages the Gentile. Even to this day God has not left Himself “without witness” among the Gentiles, although He has certainly guided the Jews more clearly. It was necessary that it be so for a time; but when that time passed, now He offers to all a common guidance to salvation. The sense of the words: “or is God only the God of Jews”—will then be thus: that God should forever show special care only for the Jews, this cannot be. God is the God of all. This was necessary for a time; but now God is pleased to show to all what He has shown to the Jews alone.

Rom. 3:30. Since God is one; and He will justify the circumcised from faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.

Such now is the law of salvation for all! Believe, and you will be saved. Whether you are circumcised or not circumcised, faith alone is powerful to show you righteous before God. This is not my reasoning. Thus God has ordained; He Himself justifies. Therefore, you Jew, do not resist stubbornly, and you Gentile, do not despair. Receive faith—and God will justify equally both the uncircumcised as the circumcised, and will not deprive one (not deprive—here: not shortchange), and will not give excess to the other. On the height of the justifying economy God presides, and He alone justifies; man on his part presents nothing justifying, only faith. And for it God justifies every one. Or “God is one”—conveys the thought that there is no other God to whom the Gentiles might turn for justification. God is one, from Him alone can justification come. If we cannot think that God abandoned the Gentiles to perdition, then we must accept that He will also give them justification. If now God is one and all men are of one nature, then the condition of justification must also be one for all. And it is—faith; the circumcised and the uncircumcised are justified by faith. “God is one God of all, one Creator of all, and it is impossible that He should care for some and leave others without His care. Consequently, to all who believe He grants salvation” (blessed Theodoret). True, the Apostle attributes to the circumcised justification — εκ πίστεως — from faith, out of faith, and to the uncircumcised — δια της πίστεως — through faith. But one cannot definitively point to what nuance of thought concerning the justification of some and others the Apostle wished thereby to express. It seems he wished only to mark off separately the justification of both, yet by the undivided faith whose power is the same for both. He draws all equally under the shelter of faith. There is, of course, a certain distinction of the Jew from the Gentile: for him in the Law and in the Prophetic Scriptures were sown both the Gospel and faith, and he stood already within God’s fence; while this one could rise only to the feeling of the impossibility of being saved except by God’s special help, and that God will not abandon him either, as God of all; yet for him to enter God’s fence there still remained some doorway. This door for him is faith; through faith, δια πίστεως,—he enters. For the Jew, by contrast, it remained only to be sprinkled from the fountain of faith, εκ πίστεως,—the suggestion of which he could draw from the Law and Scriptures. The fruit from this for both is one—justification.—Is not this what the holy Apostle hints at here?!

2) The Apostle persuades, draws, and inclines toward faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:31–5:21)

It has been explained that salvation is only in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it has been shown that, while both Gentiles and Jews had nothing remaining but to await the judgment of God’s wrath, God in His goodness revealed a special path to salvation through faith, which washes away sins and draws down sanctifying grace, and that in this way now all is from faith: God justifies “the circumcised from faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.” Having proved this, the Apostle now proceeds to persuade them of it and to incline them toward its acceptance. The first source of persuasion he draws from: a) the example of Abraham together with the testimony of David (Rom. 3:31–4:25); the second is supplied by: b) the treasures of faith (Rom. 5:1–11); the third: c) a presentation of the significance of the economy of Christ in the history of mankind (Rom. 5:12–21).

a) Through the example of Abraham (Rom. 3:31–4:25)

The Apostle examines the example of Abraham from all sides, but especially bears down on that side of his life where faith was active; and he briefly introduces the testimony of David into his discussion of Abraham. But at the transition to this examination, he sets forth a likely source of confusion among the Jews, arising from his previous arguments: so then, you destroy the Law? Clearing away this confusion, the Apostle responds: no, I do not destroy, but establish. I here set forth in word what our forefather Abraham showed in deed.

Rom. 3:31. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? By no means! Rather, we establish the Law.

By the word: “the Law”—here is meant all the Old Testament Scripture, and not merely the legislative books of the prophet Moses, the foreword to which is what is written in the book of Genesis, and the commentary to which is all that was written after the books of Moses. All the Old Testament institution, depicted in these books, the Apostle presents in the image of a building and asks: do I destroy this building of the Law by teaching faith?—“Do we then nullify the Law through faith?” This question in itself, and all the more so with the answer: “by no means,”—is completely unexpected. For the entire immediately preceding discourse (Rom. 3:20–30) deprives the Law of all power and declares it from now on unnecessary. How then does he say: we do not destroy, and still so decisively: “by no means”—and moreover with such an opposite assertion: “rather, we establish the Law”?

And yet this is perfectly true. The Apostle here does not explain this in detail, leaving it to us to make the explanatory inferences. The Law had two aspects: an external one—all the visible institutions, and an internal one—that to which it led, what it prefigured and what it promised in the future. This latter constituted its soul, while the former was its body. The external part of the Law is truly destroyed, and the internal part is released from under the external, brought to light and set before the eyes of all—by the coming of the Lord, the Gospel, and faith in Him. By drawing the mind away from that destroyed thing and fixing attention on this thing manifested and set before all eyes, the Apostle could say: “we do not destroy, but establish.” The same thing happens here as when a sown seed sprouts. To appearance it spoils and becomes waterlogged—the same as being destroyed; and yet the living power hidden in it, having gained freedom, through this very thing first gives a stalk, then an ear, and then a grain. Looking at the waterlogged seed, anyone would say: what is this—does nature destroy the seed? And apparently so it seems; but in reality one should say: no, it does not destroy, but builds.

Here are the specific conclusions flowing from this general principle! The institutions under the Law prefigured Christ the Lord with the whole work of salvation accomplished by Him, and the prophecies foretold all this. When the Lord came and, having accomplished salvation, began to call all to faith through the Apostolic Gospel; then faith, thus obtained sovereignty, fulfilled what constituted the content of the Law, or established the Law. Second, the Law was given so that men might fulfill it and, by fulfilling it, become righteous. But since it did not give power, through our weakness it remained unfulfilled, and its goal was not attained. The only fruit from it was the knowledge of sin; but through this only the conscience was burdened and the desire for a better ordering of the path to righteousness was kindled. And behold faith came, like rain upon thirsty ground. It washes away sins in the blood of Christ and in grace gives strength to everyone to become holy and spotless. Faith, therefore, gives what the Law had in view, but what was not attained under its guidance alone, and thus it establishes the Law—sets it in its proper place.

Thus all our commentators reason. Blessed Theodoret writes: “of old both the Law and the Prophets proclaimed about faith. Therefore, by receiving faith, we establish the Law.” Ambrosiaster completes this by citing the words of the Lord: “and the Lord Himself said: ‘I came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill’ (Matt. 5:17).” Saint Chrysostom explains all more fully: “the holy Paul proves here that faith not only does not harm the Law, but also helps it, just as the Law prepares the way for faith. As the Law, preceding faith, testified about it—for Paul calls it witnessed by the Law and Prophets; so faith restored the failing Law. How did it restore it, you ask? Look at what was the goal of the Law, to what did all its actions tend? To making man righteous. Yet the Law could not attain this: ‘for all’ it is said, ‘have sinned.’ But when faith appeared, it succeeded in this. Therefore, faith restored the desire of the Law and brought to fulfillment that for which the Law labored. Consequently, faith did not destroy, but perfected the Law. Since the Jews were troubled most of all by the fact that faith seemed to oppose the Law, the Apostle, even more than a Jew could have wished, proves that it not only does not oppose, but also helps and furthers the Law; and indeed the Jews particularly wished to hear this.”

Therefore, faith saves not merely in that it washes away the sins of the penitent with the blood of Christ, but especially in that, by drawing down grace, it gives power to fulfill the Law. An indispensable condition of salvation is the fulfillment of the Law. To this end the entire New Testament economy (dispensation) is directed. Having received the gracious means,—stand and remain clean and spotless—and you will be saved, for nothing unclean will enter the Kingdom of God. The entrance to it is purity, not imputed but essential, purity that passes through all of human nature, penetrating both body and soul and characterizing them.

Abraham Believed God, and It Was Counted to Him for Righteousness (Romans 4:1–4)

Rom. 4:1. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered?

The thought expressed before about not destroying the Law through faith, the holy Paul explains and confirms by the Law itself, or the Old Testament Scriptures. We do not destroy, he says, the Law through faith, but establish it, for look at what examples and what testimonies the Law or the Scriptures presents? Here is the example of Abraham for you, here is the testimony of David (Rom. 4:6–9)! Both attribute all power in justification to faith. Consequently, we do not go against the Law, but affirm what it itself testifies to.

“What then shall we say?”—What, shall we say, for example, our forefather Abraham discovered according to the flesh? “Having sufficiently proved that faith is necessary for all, he confirms this also by the example of Abraham, who enjoyed great respect among the Jews, and says that he too, having accomplished many great things, was justified not by works, but by faith” (blessed Theophylact). The Apostle asks a question, but the question itself already proves his thought: for it contains the answer in itself: “the power of faith the Apostle proves in the present place, setting forth his argument in questions, as he was always accustomed to do for clarity and from confidence in the truth of his words. Thus he did above, saying: ‘what then is the advantage of the Jew?’—and: ‘what then? Are we better?’—and again: ‘where then is boasting? It has been excluded.’—So here he says: what then shall we say, and so forth” (Saint Chrysostom).—This question pointed the mind to the entire history of the forefather Abraham, how he was taken from his house, from his kindred and from his land, how he went and came into a land unknown at first, what trials he underwent here, and how at last he received the promise of innumerable descendants and of an Offspring from whom would come blessing upon all peoples. One passing through all this history in thought could not fail to see what and how the forefather Abraham had found.

The word: “according to the flesh”—Saint Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Gennadius, and Photius in Oecumenius, Theophylact, join with “forefather”: our forefather according to the flesh.—This joining fixes the whole thought upon Abraham, saying as it were: look, what and how much and in what way did our progenitor Abraham find? Then imitate him. “The Apostle shows special respect to Abraham, calling him forefather, so as to oblige the Jews to obey him in all things” (Saint Chrysostom),—“so as to oblige them thereby to imitate him in all things” (blessed Theophylact). The Apostle ascends to that time when the whole human race stood on one level: written Law did not exist, and the path to justification lay open equally for all. In the person of Abraham are concentrated both Jewishness and Gentileness, destined to form themselves in the future. By pointing to him, the Apostle wishes “to open the path to kinship with him even to the Gentiles” (Saint Chrysostom), and at the same time to suggest to the Jews: can one be satisfied with mere descent from Abraham according to the flesh, when in his person that descent had no significance whatever?

Blessed Theodoret joins the word: “according to the flesh”—with “discovered”: what did our forefather Abraham discover according to the flesh? By the flesh can be understood human nature or deeds accomplished in the flesh and by the flesh, circumcision, for example, sacrifices and so forth. The thought will be: what did Abraham, our forefather, discover by his natural powers? Or: did our forefather discover anything by works performed according to the ordinances of the Law, visibly in the flesh and by the flesh? Neither the one nor the other can be answered affirmatively. To the first—because with Abraham all things were according to God’s good pleasure, and not according to his merits; to the second—because no such ordinances yet existed, and circumcision for him served as a seal of the distinctions granted to him before circumcision.

And these words of the Apostle lead to yet another thought.—The Jew, being born into the world, what did he encounter? The chosen people of God, to which he belonged by birth, and through circumcision at eight days, he became an heir to all the privileges of Israel. When born into the world, Abraham encountered none of this; and yet how greatly did he become exalted—and how was he sought out with God’s mercies! Consequently, there is a path to God’s good pleasure, apart from works of the Law. Look then, what is this path?—lest you make an error by attributing too much importance to these privileges?

Rom. 4:2. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

The previous question suggested: look at the example of Abraham. The listener passed through the entire life of Abraham in thought. The Apostle now speaks to him as it were: well, what do you see? In what did he distinguish himself? What did he do to deserve such mercy, that God Himself declared him righteous and always showed him great favor? By works? No. He had glorious, holy, and righteous works too. Look, how he made the division with Lot, how he defended the wronged cities and wanted nothing in return, how he received every stranger, how humbly he gave way to all who wished to wrong him. But if all he had were such deeds, then, despite the great value of these deeds, he would have been glorified only by men as a righteous man; but God would not have looked upon him, because even with all such deeds it is possible to be estranged from God, not to have one’s heart turned to God, not to live for Him and not to please Him alone. But God always looks upon the heart and relates to a man as the man stands toward Him in his heart. Therefore, if God so favored Abraham, then we must believe that this was not solely for his deeds, but especially for the disposition of his heart. And what was in his heart? In his heart dwelt boundless faith.

Rom. 4:3. For what does Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness.

He is recognized by God as righteous not because he did one thing or another, but because he believed God. This faith, penetrating his deeds, made them pleasing to God; indeed, it itself gave birth to the deeds. For look.—God commands him to leave his father’s house, his kindred, and his country, and go to a land which He would show him. He believes and goes, not knowing where. Faith moves him and smoothes his way. He came to the promised land. God says to him: this land I will give to you and to your descendants, which will be many. He believes and waits. Years pass, he has no children, but he keeps believing. Now old age comes childless, yet he still believes that he will have descendants. And this faith was at last crowned with an event. God gave him a son—the hope of posterity. But no sooner had he grown than God commands him to offer him as a sacrifice. Abraham believes that this must be so, and goes to offer his only son as a sacrifice, yet without losing confidence that, despite this, he will still have many descendants. So all in Abraham is faith and faith. Faith bore and enlivened deeds, giving both to them and to him acting, a special value before God.

Holy Chrysostom says: “It is in no way strange that one who has no works should be justified through faith; but for one adorned with merits to become righteous not by merits but by faith—this was wondrous and especially manifested the power of faith. The Apostle here introduces faith and works into contention, and makes Abraham the subject of their dispute. ‘If,’ he says, ‘Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.’ There are two kinds of boasting: one on account of works, the other on account of faith. The Apostle asserts that one can have greater boasting on account of faith. And salvation through faith far surpasses in every way what salvation by works could boast of and assure itself of. One boasting in works will display his own labors; but one who counts it as his honor to believe in God displays a far better pretext for boasting; because he glorifies and magnifies the Lord. Having acknowledged by faith in God that which nature did not reveal among visible things, he thereby proved sincere love for God and solemnly proclaimed His power; and this indicates the noblest heart, a wise disposition of mind, and an elevated intellect. Not to steal, not to murder is an utterly common deed; but to believe that God is able to do the impossible—this requires great spirit, firmly attached to God—this is a sign of true love. Though one fulfilling the commandments honors God thereby; yet far more does one honor Him who is made wise through faith. The first is subject to God, but the second has acquired the proper understanding of God, glorified and honored Him more than one is able to honor Him by works. The first boasting belongs to the laborer (one striving through works); but the latter glorifies God and belongs wholly to Him. The believing man boasts in his elevated understanding of God, and this constitutes his glory. Therefore it is said that he has boasting before God; yet not only for this reason, but also for another. The faithful man boasts not only in that he has sincerely loved God alone, but also in that he has been deemed worthy by Him of great honor and love. As he loved God, possessing an elevated understanding of Him, which manifests love; so God loved him and, when man was thousands of times guilty before God, not only freed him from punishment but even made him righteous. Therefore the believing man has cause to boast as one deemed worthy of great love.”

Rom. 4:4–5. Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due. And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.

After the words: “Abraham believed God, and his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness”—one could speak directly of what is said in verse 10: “how then was it reckoned to him?” But since this is the main point of his teaching, he dwells upon it longer and wishes to deepen it in our understanding. He says as it were: judge for yourselves—as soon as it is said: “he believed, and it was reckoned”—it means the whole power is in faith, not in works. If it were otherwise, it would not be so said. If all the power were in works, then it would have been said: Abraham did this and that, not: “he believed.” And then it would not have been said: “it was reckoned”—understood as by grace—but: it was rendered—understood as by right. For to the one who works, what is owed to him is not reckoned as grace, but is rendered as his due—paid to him as a reward that he has earned. “To one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift of grace”—that is, concerning what is rendered to him, it is not said that it is granted to him by grace, but that it is his wage, and is given not by grace, but: “as his due”—because righteousness requires it. If such is not said of Abraham, then it means that for him works did not control everything. If it is said: “he believed, and it was reckoned”—it means that the chief thing here is faith. To say: his faith is reckoned as righteousness—can only be said of one who does not work but believes “in Him who justifies the ungodly.” Consequently, all the power here is in faith.

By this the meaning of the present texts is fully determined; but for a complete understanding of them one must more precisely define what the Apostle means by one who works and one who believes—by works and by faith. What then are works and faith? Although the Apostle opposes to one who works one who does not work, and counts the one who does not work synonymous with the believer; yet from the whole course of the discourse it is clear that for him the believer does not mean one who does nothing, but one who not only believes, but lives in the spirit of faith. For below (Rom. 4:11–12), after pointing out that Abraham became the father of both the uncircumcised and the circumcised on account of faith, he adds an explanation that by the latter he means not only those of circumcision, but also those walking in the steps of faith. To walk in the steps of faith—means: to live in the spirit of faith. By faith, therefore, is meant not merely mental acknowledgment of something as true, but rather a characterization of life. By contrast, and under works one should understand not merely deeds, but rather a characterization of deeds, a spirit of works, or a spirit of active life. It turns out that with the Apostle here one spirit of life is opposed to another.

What then are these spirits?

Let us take again the word: “the believer”—what traits does the Apostle ascribe to him here? He says: “to one who believes in Him who justifies,” επί τον δικαιοΰντα. To believe with επί — means: to be established in faith upon someone, with unwavering confidence to rely upon someone, to be filled by faith in someone with that same sense of security with which one is filled who stands upon a granite cliff amid the waves that rage around him. The believer, therefore, will be one who does all that is due, but bases the assurance of salvation and justification not on works, but on faith in God; believes that He whom he serves with all his soul and all his heart, by His goodness will not permit him to perish—will save and justify him.—One who works will then be defined by contrast with the believer. This will be one who although believes that God exists, is Creator, Providence, and Recompenser, well-pleased with those who serve Him; yet does not base the foundation of his confidence in salvation and justification in the goodness and power of God, the Saviour and Justifier of those who serve Him, but in the deeds which he manages to accomplish while serving God.—Here only the main characteristic traits of the spirit of the believer and one who works are indicated. Faith in the former is not without works, and works in the latter are not without faith; the distinction of them lies in what they rely upon for the hope of salvation. Faith—on faith, not neglecting works, and works—on works, not abandoning faith.

Such are they by nature; but in experience they may appear with different shades. One believer may so lean toward the side of faith that he completely neglects works; then faith would remain without works. Similarly, one who works may so get caught up in works that he forgets faith and counts it as nothing; then there would remain works without faith in God. These are extremes in the manifestation of the spirit of the believer and one who works: faith with works and works with faith on one side; faith without works and works without faith—on the other. Between them one and the other spirit appears in different forms, depending on the degree of the application of works to faith and faith to works. The normal spirit: faith with unwavering works relying on faith. All other manifestations of life are deviations from this norm and should be rejected. Unwavering works with faith relying on works could have place, if it were possible to accomplish all that is due. But since this is impossible, then, despite the outward fairness of appearance, this spirit is alien to truth and introduces a delusion that destroys, substituting under the main part of the building a rotten support.

Therefore, the norm: faith with unwavering works relying on faith. That faith here is not alone, but with works or with firm resolve for works, this is suggested by the words: “to one who believes in Him who justifies the ungodly.” Ungodliness embraces all violations of due relations to God and all His will—consequently, also unbelief. Therefore ungodliness excludes faith. But consequently, and conversely—faith excludes ungodliness. The believer ceases to be ungodly. Therefore, when the holy Apostle speaks of the believer “in Him who justifies the ungodly”—not another, but this same believer—he means to show that this believer ceased to be ungodly at the same time as he believed. Whom exactly does the Apostle mean here? One who was ungodly, but, having received faith, turned away from ungodliness and resolved from that time always to practice godliness. Such one who has turned back God receives with merciful fatherly embraces, as is depicted in the parable of the Prodigal; for the sake of his faith God forgets his former ungodliness, and accepts this faith in place of all the righteous deeds which it was his duty to display during all the time of his ungodliness: faith alone at this moment takes the place of all righteousness. Therefore, faith cuts off all past ungodliness and covers it, makes it as if it did not exist, and through this draws down the reckoning of righteousness. But if it cuts off ungodliness, then, it means, the believer, by the very nature of faith, from the moment of receiving faith ceases to be ungodly and begins to be godly, that is, he becomes upright in heart.—Does this presuppose, however, perfect sinlessness? No; for there is “another law in my members” that draws toward what we do not wish. How then is one to deal with this intrusion of unrighteousness into the realm of righteousness? It too is covered by that same faith by which all ungodliness before the moment of faith is covered, for the sake of repentance and the constant desire of righteousness and dislike of unrighteousness present in the heart.—Consequently, if there are righteous ones before God, they are only believers, to whom God, for the sake of their faith, reckons righteousness, when together with faith there is present in the heart a rejection of all ungodliness and unrighteousness and a desire for all righteousness.

Such power, however, faith manifests not by its own nature, but by the goodness of God, well-pleased to combine such actions with faith. This is the direct work of grace, not a payment due. A reward is given to a work, as payment, and is given in measure of the work. Did a ruble’s worth of work, take a ruble. But to faith, although it itself is an exalted act of the spirit, there is not given a reward for this work, but a merciful mercy is shown. Against works stands a wage and recompense according to right, while against faith stands forgiveness and reckoning of righteousness according to grace. Why so? By the spirit of one who works and the believer. One who works, although he believes, yet relies wholly upon works. Therefore to him is rendered for works: take what you sought and what you wished to earn, what you earned and in what measure you earned it. The believer, although he labors unwavering, yet does not rely on works, but only on mercy; to him is given not in measure of works, but in measure of mercy. He does not attribute any value to works, they are neither in his memory nor in his hopes. He relies wholly upon the mercy of Him in whom he believes, passes by the righteousness of God and dwells in the realm of God’s mercy. Now God’s mercy is a treasury of gifts by mercy alone, and as it is boundless, it gives without any limits, not according to how much one has earned, but according to how much one is able to receive. Thus to faith corresponds the gift according to grace without any regard to works. Not because there are no works in it, for faith without works is not faith, but because faith does not rely on works, despite the fact that it is rich in them.

One might think: is this then injustice in God? One sweats over works and receives only in measure of his works, while another merely believed and receives without measure? But one cannot believe sincerely without willingness to do all deeds, and one cannot believe or keep faith without unwavering works in the spirit of faith. Faith accomplishes—completes works; therefore it is higher than them, a more perfect act of the spirit. If it is higher, then it is right that it also receives more.—“One who works,” writes blessed Theophylact, “receives a reward, as given to him for labor according to right, but the believer, although he does not work (does not rely on works), nevertheless presents faith on his part—a thing very significant; because to be convinced that God can not only free from punishment one living in ungodliness, but also make him righteous, is a matter of high value.” Therefore, one cannot count the believer as not working on account of the significance and height of the act of faith. Saint Chrysostom says: “it would not be reckoned to the believer if nothing had been done also on his part.—And the believer also makes God his debtor, and this debt is not of little importance, but significant and of high value.”

The Blessedness of the Man to Whom God Imputes Righteousness Without Works (Romans 4:6–13)

Rom. 4:6. As David also speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works of the Law.

“Speaks of the blessedness”—says that blessed is that man, or calls blessed the man to whom “God reckons righteousness,” whom He recognizes as righteous and accepts as righteous; “apart from works of the Law”—although he does not have and does not present works of righteousness, and not only does he not have such works, but on the contrary, has works opposite to them—sins and lawlessness, as the very words themselves show, cited in the person of the holy prophet David. Such is the thought; these words are connected through: “as”—with the immediately preceding, and through this with the entire discourse: “we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law”—and stand in parallel with the example of Abraham, as a new proof of this truth. “Having proved this by the example of Abraham, the Apostle turns to David, who affirms the same thought. So what does David say? Whom does he call blessed? One who boasts in works, or one who has received grace and obtained forgiveness of sins and a gift?—And David calls him who was justified through faith blessed, saying” (Saint Chrysostom):

Rom. 4:7–8. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin (Ps. 31:1–2).

The example of the righteous Abraham bears down especially on this thought: that justification is accomplished through faith, while the testimony of the holy David—that it is given apart from works of the Law. The holy Prophet presents a sinner received into God’s mercy, justified and accounted worthy of blessedness. Blessedness means that bright state which every man seeks, the final goal, the supreme good. It comes from nearness to God, or from drawing near to God, when God receives one into His mercy and embraces him with His good pleasure, so that this mercy and this good pleasure are felt in the heart of him who is received. Sin cuts off and hinders such drawing near, and as long as it exists in anyone, it is impossible for such drawing near to take place. The whole matter, therefore, is in blotting out and removing sin. But how is this done? Through contrite repentance with the resolve not to sin, yet only under the condition of faith “in Him who justifies.” In whose soul all this will happen, God mercifully forgives all his sins, receives him into His good pleasure, draws near to him, and gives him to feel this drawing near. Through this he is brought into the state of the blessed, whom the Prophet calls blessed.

But someone will say: the Prophet speaks only of forgiveness and covering of sins; but there is not a word about faith, nor about repentance, nor about resolve not to sin.—One must determine the Prophet’s thought in the words cited by their connection with what follows in him, and the Apostle’s thought, in citing these words, by their connection with the entire discourse of the Apostle. Directly these words speak of what God gives to the sinner: He forgives lawlessness, pardons sins, does not count them. But can God show such mercy to one who has not turned away from sins, who has not hated them, who has not grieved over them, but on the contrary, is immersed in sin in thoughts, feelings, and desires? No; He forgives sins to one who has cast them out of his heart with contrition and turning away from them. And the Prophet speaks of this right here: “there is no deceit in his mouth.” God forgives the sins of one in whose mouth there is no deceit. How then are sins and the absence of deceit combined in one and the same person? Thus: he, acknowledging his sins, displays repentance for them before God, not covering them up, and sincerely cherishes the desire not to fall into them anymore. Deceit, δόλος,—is a sin-loving disposition of the heart with a desire to cover it not only before men but also before God. When it is absent from the heart, one must believe that there is the opposite—sincere love of good with rejection of past sin-loving and contrition over it.

So in the words of the Prophet, which speak only of forgiveness, it is naturally understood that repentance is also implied, together with sincere dislike of sin. And where is faith “in Him who justifies”? And faith “in Him who justifies” is in the discourse of the holy Apostle, which throughout deals with faith, and especially—in the preceding words, which directly express this truth.—The Apostle insists: the righteous appear righteous before God not on account of works, though they have them, but on account of faith, as shown by the example of the greatest of the righteous, Abraham. And as for sinners, there is nothing to say. What works can they present when all have sinned? They have nothing to present except contrition and dislike of sin, with faith in the boundless mercy of Him who justifies. Therefore, let no one come before God relying on works. Go with faith alone, and you will receive justification.

But how is this? By the words of prophet David the Apostle wished to prove that faith is reckoned as righteousness, yet he cites such a passage which speaks only of the remission of lawlessness and non-imputation of sin? As if “the testimony does not fit the matter” (Saint Chrysostom).—This confusion is already removed by the preceding explanation: that as soon as lawlessness is forgiven someone and sin is not imputed to him, in that person receiving mercy all the conditions of forgiveness must be presupposed—the desire to sin no more and faith in Him who justifies. On the other hand, since there are two states: one—of righteousness and God’s good pleasure, and another—of sinfulness and God’s displeasure; it is evident that when sin is not imputed to someone, it means he is no longer counted as a sinner, standing under wrath, but is accepted in good pleasure as righteous. Non-imputation of sin for this reason stands on one line with the imputation of righteousness, or both are accomplished in one act of the mercy of the merciful and justifying God. But most importantly, one must keep in view the goal of the Apostle. His goal is not to explain the Old Testament order, but to clarify from the Old Testament the New Testament. When, in preaching the Gospel, the Apostles began to receive Gentiles into the communion of God, the Jews rebuked them: you have only faith and faith, and no works of the Law; you have even begun to receive sinful Gentiles, whereas it is sinful even to touch them. The Apostle, forestalling this, insists: that in us all is faith and faith, in this we take an example from Abraham, to whom faith was reckoned as righteousness; but that we receive sinners into the communion of God, the rightfulness of this was prefigured by the prophet David, who called blessed those whose sins are forgiven. We receive sinners, but only after forgiving all their sins, by the grace of the merciful God, on account of faith “in Him who justifies.” And this is such an order as was glorified by prophet David. In calling blessed those against whom God does not count sin, he “clearly calls us blessed and foretells the gifts of grace” (blessed Theodoret).

Having thus proved from the Old Testament that it is right for us to hold that “a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law,” he now brings the force of these proofs to bear on those who believe in Christ the Lord; and for this, the example of righteous Abraham and the testimony of holy David he brings together into one, saying:

Rom. 4:9. Is this blessedness, then, only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We hold that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.

To whom does the holy David predict this blessedness of mercy and forgiveness of sins: to the circumcised or to the uncircumcised—to the circumcised Jews alone or to the uncircumcised Gentiles as well? For deciding this, ascend higher from the holy David to the righteous Abraham and look at how it went with him.—We (I, or all the Apostles, or Christians in general), basing ourselves on the testimony of God’s word, say that the righteous Abraham had faith reckoned to him as righteousness. Now consider when it was reckoned to him as righteousness—before circumcision or after circumcision.

Rom. 4:10. How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he was circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.

And what you see in him, by his example judge also of all. If faith was reckoned to him as righteousness after circumcision, then it means that the grace of such reckoning of righteousness, or, according to the holy David, the blessedness of non-imputation of sin, should belong only to circumcised Jews; but if—before circumcision, then all of this should extend also to the uncircumcised Gentiles. So then, what do you see in Abraham? When was faith reckoned to him as righteousness—when he was circumcised or when uncircumcised?—“Not when he was circumcised, but when he was uncircumcised.” This means that the law of grace: the reckoning of righteousness through faith and the blessedness of forgiveness of sins—must extend also to the uncircumcised.—Thus the holy Paul “showed that this grace was offered to all” (blessed Theodoret).

But after this it is natural to ask: what then is circumcision? If all is from faith—what then does circumcision mean? To this the holy Apostle answers:

Rom. 4:11. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them.

Circumcision is an external sign, showing that the one who bears it stands under God’s good pleasure, and not at all something by which this good pleasure is acquired. What acquired such good pleasure took place in the heart before circumcision, and circumcision came afterward to serve only as a sign of it. “Circumcision is not righteousness, but a witness to righteousness, a seal and sign of faith, which Abraham showed before circumcision” (blessed Theodoret).

Thus does the Apostle interpret the course of events in the life of the righteous Abraham—that he first believed and was justified for his faith, and then received the command to be circumcised. But the very course of these events is not by chance, but ordained by God intentionally, to present in his person a prophetic prefigurement of what was to be when the Seed promised to him came, by whom all nations would be blessed. After the righteous Abraham, justified by faith while still uncircumcised, and then circumcised, mankind went in two lines—circumcised Jews and uncircumcised Gentiles. When the One promised to Abraham came, in Him the circumcised and uncircumcised, previously divided, are again united. The law of this union is the same as shown in the person of Abraham—faith “in Him who justifies the ungodly.” As this constituted the spirit of life of the righteous Abraham, it is evident that by spirit he is the father of all believers, both circumcised and uncircumcised. Thus was this ordered in his person: “that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them.”

Rom. 4:12. And likewise the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our forefather Abraham had before he was circumcised.

The uncircumcised have Abraham as their father when they believe, because in such a case their faith too is reckoned as righteousness, as it was reckoned to Abraham while uncircumcised. And the circumcised have Abraham as their father not merely because they are descended from him and receive circumcision, but because of faith—when they believe and walk in the steps of faith which Abraham showed when he was yet uncircumcised. So circumcision, being an external matter, has no influence whatever upon justification, which depends entirely upon faith.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “if one, coming from the Gentiles and not having received circumcision, follows in the footsteps of the patriarch’s faith, which he displayed before circumcision, he will not be alien to kinship with him. God, as God, foreseeing that from Gentiles and Jews He would gather one people and that He would grant them salvation through faith, prefigured both in the patriarch Abraham. For, showing that he even before circumcision acquired righteousness from faith, and after circumcision lived, being guided not by the Mosaic Law, but remaining under the guidance of faith, He called him the father of the Gentiles, so that, looking to him, both Jews and Greeks might rival each other not only in circumcision and uncircumcision, but both in faith. For Divine Scripture called righteousness not circumcision and uncircumcision, but faith.”

Saint Chrysostom carries his reasonings further—and all in favor of the uncircumcised (that is, ours): “do you see how the Apostle proved that it is more correct to call the Jews as having been accepted by mercy than to say that those in uncircumcision were united to the Jews? If Abraham was justified and crowned before circumcision, and then received circumcision, and afterward the Jews arose; then it follows that Abraham is primarily the father of the uncircumcised, who have kinship with him through faith, and then the father of the circumcised. For he is the forefather of both generations. Do you see the brilliance of faith? So long as there was no faith, the patriarch was not justified. Do you see that uncircumcision offers no obstacle whatever? Abraham was uncircumcised, yet this did not prevent him from being justified. Consequently, circumcision appeared later than faith, and not only later but far inferior to it—inferior as much as a sign is inferior to the thing signified, as much as, for example, a soldier’s uniform is inferior to the soldier himself. And why, you ask, did Abraham need a seal? So that he might be the common father of believers, both uncircumcised and circumcised, and not merely circumcised—‘not merely circumcised.’ If Abraham is the father of the uncircumcised not because he himself was uncircumcised, though he was justified in uncircumcision, but because the uncircumcised imitated him in faith; then all the more will he not be the ancestor of the circumcised by circumcision alone, without the addition of faith to it. He received circumcision so that the uncircumcised would not exclude the circumcised, but that both should have Abraham as their father. Then you will be able to have Abraham as your forefather when you walk ‘in the steps of faith’ of his, when you cease to resist and stand stubbornly for the Law. If you do not walk in the steps of faith, then, though you be circumcised a thousand times, you will not become a son of Abraham. Abraham received circumcision so that, remaining himself uncircumcised, He should not reject you. Do not seek the reason for circumcision in him; it was done to him for your benefit, not his own. You needed bodily signs, for you did not imitate spiritual excellence and could not see it, so you were given a bodily circumcision, so that, as you thought of this bodily sign, you might gradually ascend to spiritual wisdom, and, with all earnestness receiving circumcision as a sign of the highest dignity, learn to imitate the forefather in the manner indicated—that is, in faith. With such an intention God established not only circumcision, but all else besides; I mean sacrifices, Sabbaths, and feasts. And that Abraham received circumcision for you, you can see from the Apostle’s following words. Having said that Abraham received a sign and seal, he adds the reason, saying: ‘so that he might be the father of the circumcised’—for those who receive also the inner circumcision (through faith); because, having only outer circumcision, you will gain nothing by it. Circumcision then is a sign when the very thing is evident in you which it serves to signify, that is, when faith is evident in you. But if you do not have faith, then the sign cannot even be a sign. For what will it be a sign of, what a seal of, when there is nothing to be sealed? This would be like showing us a purse with a seal affixed, but with nothing in it. Equally absurd is circumcision when there is no faith within. If circumcision is a sign of righteousness (from faith), and you do not have such righteousness, then your sign is not a sign. You received the sign so as to seek the thing which your sign attests; but if you find the thing without a sign, you have no need of the sign. Circumcision proclaims not only righteousness, but righteousness in uncircumcision. Therefore, circumcision proclaims only that circumcision is not necessary.”

Rom. 4:13. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring, that he would inherit the world, did not come through the Law but through the righteousness of faith.

Thus far the holy Apostle had drawn conclusions from the words: “Abraham believed God, and his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness”—and from the fact that circumcision came after this act of justification by faith, as its seal. Since the latter led to Abraham’s advantage of being the father of all believers, both circumcised and uncircumcised, and in this consisted the substance of the promise given to him; so the holy Paul naturally fixed attention also upon this very promise, directing it too to prove that justification can be accomplished only through faith. Abraham, he says, received circumcision as a seal of righteousness by faith, to be the father of all believers; and this is the same as “the promise that he or his offspring would inherit the world.” But take, as he seems to add, this fact separately from the preceding—and again you will see that justification is possible only through faith.

The promise was given to Abraham or to his offspring, that he or it would be the heir of the world. By virtue of what was this promise given? By virtue of Abraham’s faithfulness to the Law, or by virtue of his faith?—“The promise came not through the Law but through the righteousness of faith.” The Law did not then exist. Circumcision, which is the door into the Law-dispensation, although it began then, was yet preceded by faith, and faith determined its significance. The promise was given to faith, and circumcision, serving as a sign of faith, serves as a sign of the promise. But if circumcision contributed nothing to this, all the less so the Law, which came much later than circumcision. Therefore, the promise was given by virtue of faith.

What is the substance of the promise?—“That he would inherit the world,”—that is, that he or his offspring would inherit the world, in other words, that the whole world would be his own. It is self-evident that this property could not be bodily, but spiritual. What is it then? This must be explained from the words of the promise: “in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” The inheritance of the world is the same as this blessing of all nations. But what is this blessing itself? If we fix our attention only at the time of Abraham, when the promise was made, its power for us will not be so clear: we see that something great and bright is being promised, but what it is is not so clear. But if we look at how it was fulfilled, everything will be clear. Abraham’s seed is Christ the Saviour of the world. In Him are all the powers for life, godliness, and eternal blessedness. The pouring forth of these powers from Him upon the world is the blessing through Him. Nations are united with Him and draw from Him this blessing. But as they are united with Him, they become His own, and through Him the own of Abraham too, whose seed according to the flesh is Christ the Lord. This is Abraham’s inheritance of the world, or the blessing of the nations through Him. But by what virtue is all this arranged? By faith. The promise is given to faith, and it is fulfilled also by the action of faith. For men are united with the Lord Saviour and receive blessing from Him only through faith. Through it, it turns out, Abraham became the father of all believers, the blesser of nations, and the heir of the world. Thus clear to us, looking from this point of view, is the promise given to Abraham. With such understanding did the holy Paul also wish to present it to us. He spoke as it were: through faith Abraham was accounted worthy of a great promise; through faith it is now also brought to fulfillment. Therefore, you Jews, you should not mix your Law into this.

But the Jews could object: thus you perversely represent the matter; rather it should be understood so: Abraham, our forefather, indeed received the promise for his faith—but then the Law came, and the fulfillment of the promise must depend upon the Law-dispensation. Into the circle of Abraham’s promise only those who receive the Law and submit to it can enter.—To this the Apostle responds: oh no! by this you destroy the promise.

The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19)

Rom. 4:14. For if it is the adherents of the Law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and void, and the promise is rendered void.

This can be understood in two ways: both in relation to the giving of the promise, and in relation to its fulfillment. In the first relation, thus: the promise was given to faith; faith, therefore, is so connected with the promise that, as soon as anyone removes faith, he destroys the promise itself. If now, according to you, all power is in the Law; then you do away with faith, nullify its power and significance. But by nullifying its power, you thereby destroy the promise, which after this will remain without foundation.

In the second relation, thus: the promise was given to faith; by faith also must its fulfillment be conditioned. The substance of the promise consists in this: that through the Seed that came forth from the loins of Abraham blessing would be poured out upon all peoples who would believe in this Seed. The condition of participation in this blessing is faith. It makes heirs of the blessings promised to Abraham. But if you make the condition of this participation in the blessing, instead of faith, the Law, then you cut off the possibility of such participation in the blessing. For blessing is the fruit of good pleasure; where there is no good pleasure, there blessing is impossible. But the Law produces wrath, and consequently removes blessing; if it removes blessing, it destroys the promise. Under the Law the promise is unfulfillable. See what comes from your zeal for the Law! By nullifying faith, you destroy the promise.

Rom. 4:15. For the Law brings wrath; but where there is no Law, neither is there transgression.

Where the Law is, there is transgression; where transgression is, there is retributive wrath; where there is retributive wrath, blessing is cut off; and the cutting off of blessing destroys the promise. Consequently, by doing away with faith and setting forth the Law, you destroy the promise. If those under the Law are to be heirs, “faith is null, and the promise is void.”

Such reasoning is clear and definite; but it is not entirely clear how the Law produces wrath, when, in giving the Law, God testified that if the people would be faithful to Him, they would receive blessing and enjoy an abundance of goods, both temporal and eternal. The holy Apostle, although he laid as a foundation to this proposition that where there is no Law, there is no transgression, or that transgression is bound up with the Law, whether it merely occasions it or is its direct cause, giving to understand that where there is transgression, there is wrath; but even this—that the Law occasions or leads to transgression—is not entirely clear. For the Law was given so that all might see how they ought to act, so that they would act righteously and consequently be free from transgression, not so as to lead into transgression.

Saint Paul resolves this arising confusion below, by saying that it is not the Law that is the cause, but our weakness. The Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good; but I am sold into sin, sin dwells in me, drawing me toward transgression. I see what the Law requires, and I strive to fulfill it, but sinful arousal comes and draws me to transgression of the Law. Therefore, the Law is a poor helper to me. It only more vividly exposes my sinfulness and transgression. Had I not known the Law, even had I sinned, these would have been sins of ignorance. But here you see and sin. And if it were only once or twice a month or week, but it is every day and hour: it is rare when a matter passes without wrong. The result is that the Law only encumbers you with sins, so that you do not know what to do with them and how to cast off the oppressive burden of them. “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me?” (7:24).

But what then is to be done? It would be so if God had left us forever with the Law alone. Deeper and deeper would man sink into the consciousness of his sinfulness and, because of this, into the sense of God’s wrath—and that is all; but he would find in the Law no way to remedy the situation.—It is this consciousness of the hopelessness of one’s condition with the Law alone that the Apostle intends to inculcate every time he discusses the relation of Law and faith. He has the same intention here. He speaks as it were: remain with the Law alone—and you will be always in sinfulness and under wrath. Through this you will cut off blessing, will not give the promise of Abraham opportunity to come to fulfillment over you, will destroy this promise. Do you wish that the promise given to Abraham be fulfilled over you? Receive faith. The promise is given to faith; under the condition of faith it comes into fulfillment. Faith brings forgiveness for transgressions in relation to the Law, gives power to fulfill the Law—and thus introduces into righteousness, on which blessing rests: and thus the promise is fulfilled.

Rom. 4:16. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the Law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of us all).

Above he said and proved that whoever holds that “those under the Law are to be heirs” (4:14) destroys the promise. Now he concludes: if the Law does not allow the promise to be fulfilled, then it is necessary to turn to faith. “Therefore, it depends on faith”—that is, those from faith are heirs.—The conclusion from the preceding proposition—that under the Law it is impossible for the promise to be fulfilled—is thereby fully determined. If, he says, it is so, then it is self-evident that only those of faith are heirs. But the holy Paul, wishing to inculcate this more deeply, further presents how certain the fulfillment of the promise is through faith. Under the Law there is not even the appearance of the possibility of this fulfillment, while under faith even a small doubt about this fulfillment seems inadmissible. Under it the promise is sure—that is, it will certainly be fulfilled exactly as spoken.

The holy Paul reaches this affirmation through the concept of grace, which is inseparable from the concept of faith.—“That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace.” If it is from faith, then by grace; and as soon as it is by grace, there is no reason to doubt in the fulfillment of the promise: it is certain. Faith opens the treasures of grace; and what can hinder grace in its outpouring when there is faith? Nothing can hinder it. Consequently, no obstacle is seen to the fulfillment of the promise. When the condition of fulfillment of the promise is made the Law or faithfulness to it, then there are so many hindrances. The whole support here rests on human efforts. What can one reliably expect from man? And these efforts are mostly lacking; but when they do exist, then both within and without, man encounters so many difficulties in doing a work of the Law that it is barely possible to find even one work in his whole life that has been perfectly accomplished. How can confidence in the fulfillment of the promise be established under such circumstances—any confidence, let alone a sure and certain one? But when the condition of this fulfillment is made faith and grace flowing from faith, then all depends upon the goodness of the One who bestows grace, who depends on no one and nothing, but does all according to the will of His goodness and benevolence. You merely believe and by faith cling to the Benefactor; and at once you will enter the realm defined by the promise. Faith “in Him who justifies the ungodly” presents nothing to attract mercy except faith in mercy itself, and thereby compels mercy to show mercy. Joining inseparably with mercy itself, it becomes the channel through which mercy flows. And so, if it is from faith, then by mercy or grace; and nothing can hinder mercy or grace when there is faith. Such is the order which God has established for the course of things toward our spiritual life, “so that the promise may be guaranteed.”

With this the promise of God is sure both in itself, as explained above, and in its application to men; for only with this can it extend to all men, not only those under the Law, but also those not under the Law—only let both those under the Law and those in lawlessness, leaving all their past behind, believe.—“That the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants.” With this the promise is secured for all the seed. By seed must be meant here not the natural offspring of Abraham who are under the Law, but all who believe.—“To his descendants not only adherents of the Law but also those who share the faith of Abraham.” Faith unites all and makes of all a single seed or offspring of Abraham, breathing one spirit of faith with Abraham. As a result, he is “the father of us all,” that is, of all believing Christians.

Rom. 4:17. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Thus also in the promise is it said: thus, therefore, the promise is fulfilled that Abraham became the father of many nations. Look, the Apostle says as it were, there he is the father of many nations, when he is father to all of us—believers. For do you see who we are: Romans and Greeks and barbarians of various names. Saint Chrysostom says: “Having said ‘to all his descendants,’ the Apostle then determines to which descendants, and says: those of faith; thereby showing both Abraham’s kinship with the Gentiles, and that those not having such faith as Abraham had cannot boast of him. Behold the fruit of faith! It strengthened the family bond with the righteous man and made him the forefather of the most numerous offspring. Therefore the Apostle called him not merely Abraham, but the father of us all, believers, confirming these words also with special testimony: ‘as it is written: I have made you the father of many nations.’ Do you see that this was predetermined long before?”—This predestination was spoken to Abraham by God Himself: “I am your God… and here is my covenant with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations” (Gen. 17:1, 4).

The Apostle cited this passage to show that in calling Abraham the father of all believers, he did not invent this name himself, but borrowed it from God’s word. He then continues the discourse interrupted by these introductory words: “in the presence of the God”—that is: “he who is the father of us all—in the presence of God, in whom he believed”.

“In the presence of God”—can mean either: in accordance with God’s intention, according to God’s design and determination, according to His plans of providence (in part Photius in Oecumenius); or: before God’s face—to judge by how God judges kinship. But God judges kinship by resemblance in convictions, feelings, and character, as the Saviour showed, calling for those Jews who resisted Him the devil as their father, and calling believers who kept His word His brethren (Jn. 8:44; Lk. 8:21). By your judgment, Abraham is the father only of the Jews, the other nations are strangers to him; but by God’s judgment it is not so, but all believers, like Abraham, are his children. Or “in the presence of God”—like God. Saint Chrysostom says: “the meaning of these words is thus: as God is not a partial God, but the Father of all, so is Abraham. And again: as God is our Father—not by natural kinship, but by the bond of faith, so is Abraham, for obedience makes him father to all of us. And since the Jews paid no attention to this kinship, holding fast to the crude natural one, the Apostle through the comparison of Abraham with God proves that kinship through faith is far more important. And thereby he opens up also that this was given to Abraham as a reward for faith. For tell me, what is wonderful in being father to those who came forth from him? This is common to every man. On the contrary, it is wonderful that those who were his children by nature became his children by the gift of God.”

“In the presence of the God in whom he believed.” The holy Apostle has explained how the testimony about Abraham’s faith (Rom. 4:1–12) and the promise given to him (from verse 13 onward) prove that all power in the matter of justification before God belongs to faith. Now he begins to reveal the essential traits of Abraham’s faith, so that in it to show what our faith also ought to be. The main thing here is that the righteous Abraham believed, even though in himself and in the course of circumstances he saw much contrary to his faith, which could shake and even destroy it—he believed for the sole reason that God said so, without having any external supports for his faith. The word of the promise existed—that numerous offspring would come forth from him; meanwhile he himself and Sarah had already grown old. Yet despite this, Abraham did not doubt at all that it would be as God had said; and this is all the more wondrous because not immediately after the promise did Sarah have a son. But years passed, the end of life drew near, yet the righteous Abraham did not fail in faith that the word of the promise would be fulfilled. For he believed God—“who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.”

“Who gives life to the dead.” By these words faith in the resurrection of the dead is attributed to Abraham (Saint Chrysostom). And it lay at the foundation of his faith in the promise concerning offspring from him. He believed that if God is able to give life to the dead, how can he not believe that He will give life to my dead flesh and Sarah’s? (Ambrosiaster). Blessed Theophylact writes: “Abraham believed that God could not only quicken dead flesh, such as his was, but also make it fruitful.”

“And calls into existence the things that do not exist.” These words express Abraham’s faith either in God’s omniscience or in His almightiness. In the first case the thought will be thus: God even speaks of what does not yet exist as if it existed. The future is before His eyes as the present is before our eyes. Therefore, Abraham believed, if God says that offspring will come from me, He says so because it is before the eyes of His omniscience. If so, I cannot help but believe that it will be in its time. In the second—the thought will be thus: God’s almightiness is boundless. Whatever He wishes, He accomplishes and brings into being. And this not by exertion of power and labor, but by a word alone. He speaks, and all comes into being. “As easy as it is for us to name something that exists, so easy, even far easier, is it for God to bring into being something that does not exist” (Saint Chrysostom). If so, believed Abraham, how can I doubt that God will bring forth numerous offspring from my loins?

Rom. 4:18. He believed, hoping against hope, that he should become the father of many nations according to what was said, So numerous shall your descendants be.

He believed in hope, that is, he believed in the fulfillment of what God had promised, that it would certainly come to pass; but he believed “hoping against hope”—means: he believed when circumstances were against it, not only did not support hope, but on the contrary, destroyed it. “How did he believe beyond hope with hope? Beyond human hope with God’s hope? What was contradictory to each other was reconciled by faith” (Saint Chrysostom).

What then did he believe beyond hope? That he would become the father of many nations. Abraham, having grown old and having no children, wished to make Eliezer of Damascus his heir. But God appeared to him and said: he will not be your heir, but from you yourself will come offspring, and offspring many in number. Look at how many stars are in the sky! So shall your descendants be (Gen. 15:1–5). Abraham believed—and this faith was beyond hope. “He had no hope that anything would be born to him from Sarah, but he believed God that it would be born, conceiving hope beyond hope; for he knew that for God all things are possible. He believed that which, by the course of affairs in the world, seemed impossible. For it was not according to nature that in such deep old age they could bear and give beginning to such numerous offspring that they could not even be counted. Therefore faith is of great value, because it believes in the fulfillment of what is contrary to all that is known and seen. On such faith Abraham rested, because the Promiser was God, in whom one should place trust more than in whatever is accessible to human weakness” (Ambrosiaster).

Rom. 4:19. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.

“He did not weaken in faith”—did not allow his faith to weaken and become feeble. There was much that could have shaken, weakened, and destroyed his faith; but it was so strong, living, and powerful that it did not feel any crushing influence from external unfavorable circumstances. Why was it so? Because the righteous Abraham, receiving the promise from God’s own lips, did not look upon his mortified flesh or Sarah’s deadness, but upon the infallible word of the almighty God. If he had looked upon the withering of flesh and also remembered that there had never been a similar example before him (Saint Chrysostom), it would be no wonder that his faith failed, just as the faith of the holy Peter failed when, instead of the Lord commanding the winds and sea, he looked at the raging storm and the rising waves. But since he kept his eyes only on the one God, able to raise up children even from stones, he did not weaken in faith, despite the fact that he himself was already nearly a hundred years old, and Sarah not only was very old but also barren.

Being Justified by Faith, We Have Peace With God (Romans 4:20–5:1)

Rom. 4:20. But he did not waver in faith regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.

The Apostle enters into the depths of Abraham’s soul and depicts what took place there when he heard God’s promise. He saw that something impossible for his flesh was being promised, but he did not look upon this and did not allow himself to enter into God’s counsels with critical scrutiny of reason: how so? This is against the laws of nature. εἰς τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν — upon the promise, and at the time when God was speaking the promise, οὐ διεκρίθη — he did not doubt, did not apply critical scrutiny to determine the natural possibility of the promise and find rational grounds before believing what he should believe, τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ — by disbelief, or meeting the promise with disbelief as reason suggests, urging: do not believe hastily. Nothing of this was in Abraham; he believed immediately as soon as he heard the word of the promise. “God provided Abraham with no confirmation of His promise, and worked no miracle at that time; on the contrary, it consisted only in words, and nature did not promise the possibility of fulfillment. Nevertheless, Abraham did not doubt, says the Apostle. Note that he did not say: he did not fall into disbelief—but: he did not doubt; that is, he did not waver, did not hesitate in thought, despite so many difficulties. From this we must conclude that if God promises thousands of impossibilities, and the one hearing the promise does not receive it, then the weakness of faith does not proceed from the nature of things but from the small-mindedness of the one receiving the promise” (Saint Chrysostom).

“But was strengthened in faith,” ἐνεδυναμώθη. As if there was a struggle: powerful was the assault of waves, but it did not shatter the cliff; fiercely bent the stormy wind the tree of faith, but it stood firm; impetuously attacked the adversary, but the wrestler came out victorious. Saint Chrysostom says: “and faith requires no small effort. The Jews disparaged faith as something easy and effortless. The Apostle refutes this and proves that not only one advancing in chastity or some other virtue, but also one exhibiting faith needs great strength. For as the first has need of courage to repel unchaste thoughts, so too the believer needs a powerful soul to ward off suggestions of unbelief.”

“By what was Abraham strengthened? By this, the Apostle answers, that he entrusted all to faith rather than to reason; otherwise he too would have fallen. And how did he advance in faith itself? ‘Giving glory to God’—says the Apostle” (Saint Chrysostom). To give glory to God means to render what is due to God, in accordance with the conceptions we have of His boundless perfections. God is truthful, all-knowing, all-good, almighty. Having raised up and maintained in mind this radiant image of Divine perfections that constitutes the glory of the Most High God, Abraham was strengthened in faith, proved mighty in it. Therefore, when it is said of Abraham that he gave glory to God, this means that he “understood His righteousness, His infinite power, and having formed a proper conception of God, was thereby fully convinced of God’s promises” (Saint Chrysostom). “He believed not through human reasoning, but thinking in himself what is worthy of the glory of God” (Blessed Theophylact). From this Saint Chrysostom draws: “therefore, not to be inquisitive means to glorify God; but to be inquisitive means to sin against God. The inquisitive, as those who dishonor God’s glory, bring upon themselves the utmost punishment.”

Rom. 4:21. And being fully convinced that, what He had promised, He was also able to perform.

Fully convinced, πληροφορηθείς,—holding or maintaining persuasion, being convinced. Unwavering conviction is the essence of faith. “The Apostle said not simply: believing—but: ‘being fully convinced.’ For such are the convictions of faith; they are far clearer and stronger than proofs of reason; no contrary reasoning can shake faith. Who believes in proofs of reason can be overpersuaded; but who is established on faith has already shut his ears to suggestions that might weaken faith” (Saint Chrysostom).

Conviction unwavering as a hair’s breadth, conviction as firm as we are convinced of our own existence—this is the first mark of faith; the second, inseparable from it, is confidence in God, “that what He had promised, He was also able to perform.” Not the reception of dogmas—faith is, but that which should sink deep into the heart as the extract and summary of all dogmas—confidence in God. A small likeness of this is the confidence of friends—one in the other. As here they trust each other as themselves, and each is confident in the other’s loyalty and readiness to do all for him not only according to his ability but beyond it—confident as in himself: so too the believer in God is confident in Him and by this confidence rests in the bosom of His almighty love. Such faith is the highest act of the spirit and is the fruit of love, or intimate, living communion with God and the heart’s disappearance in Him. “To believe,” says Saint Chrysostom, “is the mark of an exalted and great soul; while disbelief is the mark of an unreasonable and base soul. Disbelief reveals a weak, petty, meager mind. And if someone tried to reproach us for our faith, we on the contrary would reproach him for disbelief as a man of meager mind, little courage, low intellect, and weakness. Therefore, paying no heed to the unbelieving, let us imitate the patriarch in faith, so that thereby we glorify God, as he gave glory to Him.”

On account of this loftiness of faith it is said: “He believed, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

Rom. 4:22. Therefore his faith was accounted to him for righteousness.

Not without reason was it “accounted.” Faith too is a deed—and a deed greater than works; for it embraces all of man’s nature, whereas works, without losing their value, can be limited to the active side alone. Consequently, “all that is characteristic of works—such as having praise with God, requiring effort and labor, and glorifying God—belongs in greater measure to faith” (Saint Chrysostom). Justification is given to faith as a reward. “So precious is faith before God; for it believes against its own knowledge, not doubting that God can do even what by the course of created things cannot be accomplished. Therefore it is just that such a one receives recompense from God, since he trusts in God, his Creator, more than he comprehends with his own mind. That faith believes what seems by worldly measure incredible is the glory of the believer; and the more impossible that is which is believed, the more honorable is the believer. Such belief might be called unreasonable if the believed were thought accomplishable without God” (Ambrosiaster). “Let us also glorify God by faith, so that in reward God may glorify us. For He said: ‘Those who honor Me I will honor’ (1 Sam 2:30)” (Saint Chrysostom).

Rom. 4:23–24. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was accounted to him, but also for us.

Having portrayed Abraham’s faith from all sides, he makes application to those who believe in Christ the Lord. Not only for Abraham is it written that faith was counted to him as righteousness, to announce his faith and glorify him among his descendants, but also for us. The event with him is a prophetic prefiguring of what was to happen with us and what is now being fulfilled. Saint Chrysostom says: “After much having been said in praise of Abraham for his faith, righteousness, and honor with God, the listener could object: What has this to do with us? Abraham alone was justified. Therefore the Apostle again equalizes us with the patriarch. Such is the power of spiritual words! Concerning one who, being a pagan, recently joined the Church and has done nothing good himself, the Apostle confirmed that he lacks nothing not only compared with a believing Jew, but also compared with the patriarch, and, surprisingly, has even superiority over him. Such is our nobility, that the faith of the patriarch was only the image of ours. And the Apostle did not say: if it was counted to him, then perhaps it will be counted to us. This would mean proving through reasoning (making mental suppositions): but he speaks (decisively and legislatively), as one proposing a divine law, and turns his words into an utterance of Scripture. Why, he says, is it written if not to teach us that we also are justified in the same way? We believed in the same God and in the same promises of His, although we are not the same person as Abraham.”

Rom 4:24. But also for us, to whom it will be reckoned, those who believe in Him who raised Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead.

Having said that what happened by faith with Abraham was a figure of what is wrought by faith in us, the Apostle confirms this comparison of that faith and ours. In what did Abraham believe? That God, who raises the dead and calls “things that are not as if they were,” is powerful to quicken the deadness of his own flesh and Sarah’s, and give them a living offspring. And in what do we believe? We too believe in that same God who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. What did Abraham receive for his faith? – “Faith was reckoned to him as righteousness.” How can you doubt, then, that to us also, believers, our faith is reckoned as righteousness? God spoke so of Abraham in order to foretell in his person what He desired to do with us and does now – namely: whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, to him his faith is reckoned as righteousness. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The patriarch, seeing the deadness of his wife’s womb, believed that it is not hard for God to fulfil His promise; and we, hearing that the Jews call our Master dead, believe that He rose. Therefore, we too perceive the fruit of faith – and shall gain the righteousness begotten by faith. For not in vain was it written what the Master God accomplished with the patriarch Abraham, but that we too, looking upon this, might display faith equal to Abraham’s. By the words, ‘who raised Jesus Christ our Lord,’ the Apostle spoke of the humanity; for what He suffered in, He also rose in; and suffering is proper to the flesh, not to impassible Godhead.”

Rom 4:25. He was delivered up for our sins, and rose for our justification.

What was said above presents only an external likeness of ours to Abraham. But there is also an inner correspondence between us and him. He believed in Him who is able to quicken the deadness of his flesh – and that deadness was quickened and bore fruit. And we are dead in our sins; but being united with the Lord by faith – and our deadness vanishes, and in its place true life dwells. How is this accomplished? We believe in the crucified Lord, who nailed our sins to the cross and by His wounds tore apart the handwriting of our iniquities – and we receive the remission of sins. We believe in Him who rose in the splendor and life-giving power of the God-man life – and we partake of His life, which illumines our sinful darkness with the splendor of righteousness and holiness. Both are accomplished in the holy font, where sins are washed away and true life is granted after the image of the risen Lord, so that from now on we too walk in renewed life. This is what the Apostle expressed, saying: “He was delivered up for our sins, and rose for our justification.” – He was delivered to suffering and death to pay our debt of sin; and He rose for our justification, “to make us righteous” (holy Chrysostom). This righteousness or holiness is seeded by our participation in the life of the risen Lord, and unfolds through the power of action corresponding to such a renewal of life. What was accomplished in the Person of the Lord is repeated spiritually in us as well. And we ourselves must by the resolution of our will deliver ourselves to death to sin, so as to rise to righteous and holy life. All this is accomplished by faith, which, ascending to God and receiving gifts from Him, also brings and places upon us corresponding obligations, for the establishment in us and manifestation of all righteousness.

b) The Treasures of Faith (Rom. 5:1–11)

A second source of persuasion for receiving faith for holy Paul is the spiritual treasures of faith in Christ the Lord. Our inclination follows our heart. The heart is drawn to what is good. Show the good in something, and the heart will already be on its side. And where the heart is, there is also the will. This is what the Apostle Paul now does, depicting the spiritual treasures of faith (Rom. 5:1–11).

Rom 5:1. Being justified therefore by faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Above, the Apostle brought his discourse about righteous Abraham to this: that it was not for his sake alone that it was said of him, “faith was reckoned to him as righteousness,” – but also for us, believers in the Lord who died for our sins and rose for our justification – that to us also this faith will be reckoned as righteousness. – But here we believe; therefore, faith is reckoned to us as righteousness, and we are justified. Glory to the boundless mercy of God. Justified! For if we are justified, then we have peace toward God through the Lord Jesus, and that terrible pronouncement: “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” – can no longer fall upon us. The wrath of God, justly and righteously threatening us, has passed by; we are in God’s mercy, reconciled to Him through the Lord. – This is the first good brought into the heart by faith. A sinner, having come to consciousness of his sinfulness before God, sees the sword of righteousness over his head, ready to strike him. From the indication of this the holy Paul began his discourse on the wondrous way of salvation in the Lord, saying: behold, the wrath of God is ready to strike sinners. And it will not spare either those outside the Law or those in the Law. But lo, the merciful God has ordained a way of salvation by the death of His Son – all-powerful and all-encompassing! Whoever takes shelter under His shadow will be sheltered from God’s wrath. His sins are forgiven him, and he is received into God’s peace. We who believe in the Lord who died and rose have been vouchsafed this good. Glory to You, O Lord! – “We have peace toward God!” The examination of the matter of justification is finished – as if some victory were completed. Now the Apostle surveys what this victory has brought. In doing this, on the one hand, he invites those not yet believing under the shelter of faith, speaking as it were: Let us cast off stubbornness; let us all hasten to reconciliation with God through faith in the Lord Saviour; on the other hand, he persuades those who have believed to remain in the granted peace, speaking as it were: Let us therefore be zealous to remain in this peace, living in the spirit of faith. Our commentators all emphasize the latter chiefly; but holy Chrysostom and after him Oecumenius lightly indicate the former as well. Here are the words of blessed Theodoret: “Having shown the power of faith and unfolded the gifts of grace, the Apostle turns his discourse to exhortation, persuading us to care for active virtue. Although faith has granted us remission of sins and by the bath of regeneration made us spotless and righteous, yet you must preserve the peace established with God. For the Only-begotten, having become man, reconciled you who were in enmity with God. This enmity was produced by sin, and the established peace preserves righteousness.”

Here are the words of Holy Chrysostom: “What does it mean: ‘we have peace?’ Some explain that we must not rise up against grace, stubbornly maintaining the Law. But to me it seems that the Apostle gives us instruction in how we ought to conduct ourselves. Since above, after much reasoning about faith and justification through works, he preferred faith, yet another might take such teaching as a pretext for carelessness; therefore he says: ‘we have peace’ (let us have)—that is, let us not from now on sin and return to former ways; because this would mean warring against God. You will ask: how is it possible to reach a state of not sinning? But I ask: how was it possible to be freed, to be redeemed from sins? If we, being so guilty, have been freed by Christ from all sins, then all the more easily with His help shall we remain in the state into which He has brought us. It is one thing to obtain peace that did not exist, and another to keep the peace already given; acquiring is always more difficult than keeping. Yet the most difficult thing has already been accomplished and brought to pass. Consequently, without difficulty shall we succeed in what is easier, if we cleave to Him Who accomplished for us the most difficult. I think also that the Apostle here suggests the thought that not only is success in this (keeping of peace) easy, but that the very act of keeping is necessary on our part (by moral necessity, obligatory). For if Christ reconciled us when we were enemies, then on our part it is necessary to remain reconciled and thereby to repay His benefaction; otherwise it would turn out that He reconciled with the Father those hard-hearted and ungrateful.”

The Treasures of Faith: God Commends His Love in the Death of Christ for Us (Romans 5:2–6)

Rom 5:2. Through Him we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

“Access,” προσαγωγή—means also approach. But approach denotes only the possibility of free access, while access means not only this possibility but the very act of approaching. The latter meaning seems more fitting here. The Lord Saviour not only opened access to God for all, but takes each as if by the hand and leads him to Him. Here is the same thought as in the words of the Lord Himself: “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6). The Apostle points to himself and all the believing, explaining how they became worthy of the grace of salvation. The Lord drew all, sending the Apostles with the proclamation and aiding them in the conversion to faith. On our part is required only consent, expressed through “faith.” The Lord, having opened access to God for all, extends His hand to each through the proclamation, to lead him to Him. We through faith place our hand in His hand and are led by Him to God. “In this grace” embraces the entire economy in the Lord—all spiritual blessings granted through faith: the knowledge of God, being graced in the mysteries, strength for every good work, special care of God, communion with God and all the heavenly powers. “In which we stand” points to what each has experienced. This grace is not mere words, but that which is already present. Each knows what he was before and what he has become now in spirit. Look, he says, how exalted this is, and glorify the Lord Who granted it. “We stand” points to what is already present through grace, while “we boast in hope of the glory of God” points to the blessings promised in the future age. The whole of our work is as follows: we believed and received the gracious powers in the mysteries. Now live with the help of God in the spirit of faith, and you will assuredly become a partaker of God’s eternal glory in the future age. Assuredly, therefore it is said “we boast;” as if what is promised and what is hoped for were already possessed as an actual fact. In this consists the essence of Christian hope! Such is the thought of this text. We cite the words of Holy Chrysostom, who not only points out the thought, but also makes various deductions. “So if Christ provided us access to God when we were far from Him, then all the more so He will preserve it when we have become near. But pay attention that the Apostle, when he speaks of the benefactions of Christ, always adds what is required on our part. Yet the benefactions of Christ are numerous and diverse. Christ died for us, reconciled us, provided us access to God, bestowed on us unspeakable grace; and we on our part offer one faith. Therefore Paul says: ‘by faith in this grace, in which we stand.’ What grace, tell me? The grace by which we have been deemed worthy to know God, have been freed from error, have come to know the truth and received all the blessings granted through baptism. For Christ brought us to baptism precisely so that we would receive these gifts, that is, not only forgiveness of sins, not only reconciliation, but also countless honors. He did not even stop at that but promised new ineffable blessings that surpass understanding. Therefore the Apostle indicated both gifts and expressed the present gifts by the word ‘grace’—depicted the gifts we have received; while in the words: ‘and we boast in hope of the glory of God’—he revealed to us all the future gifts. Such is the grace of God! It has no end or limits, and—what is impossible from a human perspective—it continually extends to the future. Among people it happens that one attains power, glory, dominion, but does not preserve it for long, and soon loses it. And if a man does not steal it, then death will come and surely take it. Not so with the gifts of God! Neither man nor time nor circumstances nor the devil himself nor death that comes can snatch them from us. On the contrary, when we die, we shall possess them without any loss; though we enjoy them, the gifts will multiply. And if you are not assured of the future blessings, then be assured by the present ones which you have already received. And that you may know what sort of heart a believer ought to have, the Apostle said: ‘and we boast in hope of the glory of God.’ He ought not only to be firmly assured of the blessings granted to him, but also to regard the future ones as if already granted. For one can boast in what one already holds in hand. Yet since hope in future blessings is as firm and assured as hope in the blessings granted, the Apostle says that we boast also in hope for the future. According to this assurance in future blessings, the Apostle called them ‘glory.’ If the blessings serve for God’s glory, then assuredly they will be fulfilled, if not for us then for God.”

Rom 5:3–4. And not only that, but we also boast in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

“And what am I saying,” the Apostle continues, “that we can boast in future goods? Even the present afflictions are such that they serve to our glory and we can exult in them” (holy Chrysostom). It is as if the Apostle heard an objection: the future, you say, is bright? Let it be bright, but the present is very sorrowful: they deprive us of property, honor, shelter, they persecute us, beat us and kill us. Do not these present sorrows have the power to shake and entirely extinguish the hope of future glory? No, answers the Apostle, and these sorrows lead there too, to the strengthening and elevation of hope. Therefore we can even boast in them, just as in the hope of the future. Holy Chrysostom says: “Consider then, how great are the future goods, when we glory even in what appears to us as grievous. Such is God’s gift; in it there is nothing grievous! In worldly affairs, labors are accompanied by toil, pain, exhaustion, and pleasures nourish only crowns and rewards; but here, the very struggle provides pleasure no less than the reward itself. And since in the days of the Apostles trials were numerous and the Kingdom was only hoped for, hardships were at hand while goods were in expectation, and all this deprived the weaker of courage; Paul, having said that we must boast in sorrows, points them to rewards received even before the heavenly crowns. Yet he did not say: you ought to boast – but, encouraging by his own example, he says: we boast. Since then it seemed strange and unusual that a man struggling with hunger, bound in chains, enduring torture, insults, reproach, should boast in all these; the Apostle brings proof for this and, what is even more important, affirms that present sorrows are worthy of boasting not only on account of future goods, but even in themselves, because sorrows themselves are a good. – Observe how Paul gives his discourse a completely different, unexpected turn. Since sorrows most often led Christians to renounce future goods and plunged them into despair, he asserts that through sorrows we ought to become more assured of the future, not despairing. – Sorrows not only do not destroy this hope, but even strengthen it.”

As proof of this truth, the Apostle might have said directly: “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Consequently, tribulation for faith and life according to faith is a sign that we are going straight to the kingdom of glory. The Saviour already blesses such: “Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:10). Therefore those who grieve in this sense are as it were in possession of the kingdom of heaven, or God’s glory, and can boldly boast in their sorrows. But holy Paul enters into the depths of the soul of those suffering for faith and depicts a chain of morally good dispositions through which it ascends under tribulation to unashamed hope. “Knowing,” he says, “that tribulation produces perseverance.” This is the first link in this chain.

“Tribulation, before the receipt of future goods, already brings forth the important fruit of perseverance” (holy Chrysostom). Tribulation gives occasion and opportunity for patience, and not only manifests it, but gives it solidity and strength, tempers it, makes it what it ought to be. Perseverance has two sides: turned inward, it is steadfastness in good – and in this respect is conditioned by nothing external, but is an inseparable and constant trait of good disposition. Turned outward, it is endurance, bearing all difficulties encountered on the good path or in the fulfillment of good beginnings ripening within. This aspect of perseverance cannot manifest itself without sorrows. Without sorrows, endurance will not be seen and, consequently, perseverance. – But it is clear that this aspect of perseverance – endurance – necessarily presupposes the traits proper to the former – steadfastness in good or faithfulness to that inner order which is built in the heart under the action of faith, which reconciles the soul with God and gives it to feel reunion with God, whom it ever thirsts for and seeks. The essence of this order is the following: rather die than depart from anything pertaining to the knowledge of God’s will.

The second link of this chain is: “and perseverance, character,” – supply: produces. – “Character,” dokime, – trial, proving by deed, tasting. When someone through tasting learns the quality of food, this is dokime – trial. Thus, the Apostle’s thought is this: perseverance gives to prove or to taste by very deed the goodness. Of what? Of that to which the soul resolved itself under the influence of faith, and it resolved to live unswerving in the spirit of faith. Consequently, perseverance gives to taste the goodness of life according to faith – and having tasted how sweet, consoling, gladdening, blissful it is, despite external hardships and sorrows. How does it give this taste? By holding the believer on the path which he has entered by faith. Were there not this holding, and were it such that the believer with every external pressure departed from the path of faith – he would have no possibility to prove by deed and taste how sweet and blessed is life in the spirit of faith. Perseverance, holding him in the paths of faith, gives him to taste this, produces in him character. This trial embraces both the whole of life in general and, in particular, every aspect of it and even every deed in the spirit of faith – furnishes what the Apostle elsewhere determined as possessing senses trained in all good.

“And character, hope,” – supply: produces. This is the third link of the chain. – Knowing what character is, we shall not wonder how it produces hope. For this means: having experienced in heart how sweet and consoling is life in the spirit of faith, this awakens and establishes hope. How is this? Through the following reasoning, accomplished not by mind but by heart: if here, amid all external sorrows, this life provides such consolation and such blessed sweetness, then there all this will be in an ineffably higher degree. Nothing can shake me in this hope. God, who gave me to taste this sweetness here, will He deprive me of it there? This cannot be. As truly as I experience this, so certain is my hope. – From such consideration of the matter itself, it becomes evident that sorrows through perseverance and character lead to certain hope under the following two conditions: faithfulness to faith, or a good conscience, and trust in God. Both of these holy Chrysostom expresses thus: “nothing leads so much to good hope as a good conscience. No honest man loses confidence in the future; but the negligent, being oppressed by an evil conscience, desires neither judgment nor reward. We are founded on hope, but not on hope in men, which is often destroyed and shames the one who hoped, when he who promised patronage either dies or, though he live, changes his disposition. Our hope is not such; it is firm and unshakeable. He who gave us the promises is ever alive, and we, who shall enjoy them, though we die, shall rise again, so that we shall not be ashamed at all, as those who vainly and foolishly consoled themselves with weak hopes.”

Rom 5:5. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given us.

Here the Apostle draws a conclusion from the foregoing, saying: “and hope does not disappoint.” And by this he returns his discourse again to where he began, intending to depict the chain of good dispositions leading to hope in the heart of the believer: “we boast in the hope of glory. We boast in the hope of glory,” – for it will not disappoint. And the sorrows which we endure not only do not quench it, but on the contrary strengthen and elevate it to certain unshakeable steadfastness.

Of the two supports of unashamed hope – a good conscience and trust in God – the first was depicted above more fully, while on the second only a hint was made. Now the Apostle completes the depiction of this latter, saying: “because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given us.” The Holy Spirit is given to every believer. Coming into him, He brings with Himself, kindles and gives his heart to feel the love of God – God’s love for us and our love for God, from which both hold hope at the level of certain confidence. He who has felt the warmth of God’s love for himself cannot allow any doubt that God, warming him with His love, will do for him all that is expected from Him by His own promise. Likewise, he who nourishes warm love for God cannot allow doubt that the God whom he loves will refuse him anything. And this – even if there were no promises from God’s side, much more so given the promises. For such is the nature of love that it admits no wavering of confidence in the beloved and the lover regarding each other. This happens so among men who love each other mutually. It cannot be otherwise for those in whom a living communion with God in love is established.

Holy Chrysostom and after him our other commentators, understanding the pouring out of love by the Spirit given to us to mean God’s showing of His love to us through the giving of the Holy Spirit. The giving of the Spirit is a pledge of the giving of future goods. If He gave us His Spirit, can we doubt that He will grant the other promised goods? “He assures us of future goods by goods already given. There might be the objection: but if it is not pleasing to God to show us such kindness? For though we all know that He is almighty, eternal, and living; but how do we know that He desires our happiness? The Apostle answers: this is evident from the goods already given us. What are these goods? Love, which God has demonstrated to us. You ask further: by what deed did He demonstrate it? By giving us the Holy Spirit. – God has given us the very greatest good – He gave not heaven, not earth, not sea, but – what is more precious than all this. What gift is this? The Holy Spirit. If it had not pleased God to grant us magnificent crowns after our labors, He would not have given such a good to those who had not yet labored. But now the fervor of His love is revealed in the fact that He does not give us gifts little by little and in parts, but suddenly poured out the whole source of goods, and even before our labors. Therefore, though you are not very worthy, do not despair; you have a great intercessor – in the love of the Judge Himself. For this reason the Apostle, saying: ‘hope will not disappoint,’ – had as his foundation not our merits, but God’s love.”

Rom 5:6. For while we were still powerless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

It seems as if a particular turn of thought has begun. But if one looks closely, one cannot fail to see that the Apostle here and below (until verse 11) is occupied with the same matter – the strengthening of hope in glory. We are justified, reconciled, stand in grace, but all this is only the beginning. The main thing for us is hope in glory, unshaken despite all difficulties arising from our faith. It is this unshakedness of hope that the holy Apostle wishes especially to establish in hearts. He has already established it by experiencing or proving how good is the way of faith, and by confidence in God given through the pouring out of love into the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit. But since both these confirmations rest on inner feeling, whose testimony is not always vividly perceived by all, the Apostle hastens to establish the unshakedness of hope in another way as well – namely, by setting forth how we are justified.

It should be noted that the Apostle does not lose sight of the main thread of his reasoning, begun with the indication: behold, God’s wrath is upon those who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Following this thread, he has come to the assurance that this wrath is turned aside by the death of the Son of God made incarnate, and that we believers, taking shelter under the shadow of the cross, not only ought not to fear this wrath, but on the contrary should boast in the hope of glory. Having confirmed also this last by the testimonies indicated above, he now speaks as it were: Does the punishment of wrath still frighten you? Do you still waver in your hope of glory? Consider how everything was, and you yourself will see how unfounded are your fear and your wavering in hope. We were ungodly, sinners, enemies to God, and Christ died for us to justify us and turn away God’s wrath. Do you not see that now, when we are already justified, much more shall we be saved by Him from wrath? And again, if His death justified and reconciled us, does not His life “much more so” save us from wrath?

Such is the meaning and such is the connection with the foregoing of this brief section (verses 6–11). – Not something new is set forth, but the same truth about the death and resurrection of the Lord for salvation is indicated as the foundation of the infallibility of hope.

“For when we were still powerless,” – when we were still weak, understood morally; for we were overcome by sin and had no power to break free from its dominion: the same as what follows: “ungodly” – and further below: “sinners.” – Under “we” – the Apostle means all mankind. And that we were weak, sinners and ungodly did not require proofs and explanations after what has been said in the first chapters of this Epistle about the moral condition of the pagans and Jews who composed our entire race. – “The word ‘at the right time’ means: in the fitting and predetermined time; for the Lord died when the fitting time had come” (blessed Theophylact). The particle “for” – because – places this saying in connection with the foregoing, explaining in what the special showing of love consisted, which cannot admit hope to shame. As if: “let us consider that when we were still lawless and possessed by the disease of ungodliness, the Master Christ accepted death for us – and let us know from this the depth of His love for mankind” (blessed Theodoret). This is said, however, in addition to that showing of love which is presented by the giving of the Spirit. “Having said that the love of God is shown to be poured out in us through the Spirit, whom we have in ourselves as a gift from God, he shows further the greatness of this love – from the fact that Christ died for us who were powerless, that is, sinners (for sin is weakness and righteousness health), and not only for sinners, but, what is even worse, for the ungodly” (blessed Theophylact).

Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12)

Rom 5:7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; for perhaps for a good man someone would dare to die.

How great is the depth of God’s love for mankind shown in the fact that Christ died for us, sinners and ungodly! The Apostle explains this by comparison with what happens among us. Among us, he says, it rarely happens that even for a righteous man anyone would wish to die, yet Christ died for sinners. Marvel at God’s love! The words: “for perhaps for a good man” and so forth – present as it were a caveat: I say: for a righteous man; but for a good man, perhaps, someone might resolve to die. For a good man – that is, for one’s benefactor. I do not affirm that among men no one dies for another; it does happen that someone is moved to die, for instance for his benefactor. By the word “perhaps,” it is shown that even this occurs rarely. A righteous man commands respect; a good man or benefactor awakens gratitude, ready for corresponding sacrifices. Less is given to the righteous because, though he awakens respect, he remains apart from us, stands outside us, at a distance. But a benefactor stands in living connection with us. The heart stands for him and bears readiness to do all for him. Yet even so, to die for him, only one in many would agree, and for a righteous man scarcely anyone at all. – Judge then how great is God’s love for us, when Christ died for us – not righteous men, but sinners – not good men, but enemies!

Rom 5:8. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

“These words mean: if not many would readily agree to die even for a virtuous man, then consider the love of your Lord, when you see Him Himself being crucified not for the virtuous but for sinners and enemies” (holy Chrysostom). “God displays the excess of His love in the fact that Christ’s death was accomplished not for the righteous, but for sinners. For now we are justified by faith in Him; but when He undertook death for us, we were still burdened with every kind of transgression” (blessed Theodoret).

Christ died for us, and through this God shows His love toward us. For Christ the Lord is one with God the Father, and He died by the will of the Triune God. “Thus God loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, so that every one believing in Him might not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). Therefore now “every one seeing the Son and believing in Him has eternal life” (Jn. 6:40).

Rom 5:9. Much more then, now being justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Pause now in thought upon this truth: Christ died for us, sinners, and see what consolation flows from it to us through the confirmation of our hope. Christ the Lord died for us, sinners, so that we might obtain through faith in Him justification and deliverance from the coming wrath – that is, from the righteous judgment of God and our condemnation to eternal torments. Behold, we have come to Him, washed in His blood – we are justified and have turned away from ourselves the righteous wrath of God. If, while sinners, we have been deemed worthy of this, how much more should our confidence be strong and unshaken that we shall be saved from wrath, now that we are justified and stand in this justification! Wavering in this is the destruction of faith, ignorance of the price of Christ’s blood and what it pours forth upon the believer. When He died out of love and by His death justified us, how much more now will He save us from wrath – us whom He has already justified! He gave us something greater – justification: how will He not save from wrath? And those saved from wrath He will grant goods according to His great love (blessed Theophylact). “It is evident that, having endured such a shameful death for the ungodly and lawless, He will free those who believe in Him from future torment. For by wrath the Apostle means future torment” (blessed Theodoret).

Rom 5:10. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

“At first glance, these words seem to repeat the former (verses), yet they do not” (holy Chrysostom). The conclusion is the same here as there: “we shall be saved”; but the comparisons from which the conclusion is drawn are different. One and the same work of God’s mercy, saving us in the Lord Jesus Christ, is viewed from different angles. There the comparison was made chiefly between our sinfulness and the death of the Only-begotten Son of God; but here the comparison is made between justification and His life – that is, His resurrection and sitting at the right hand of the Father. Dying, He justified us, sinners; what will He not grant when living – that is, risen and sitting at the right hand of the Father and having all authority “in heaven and on earth”? Blessed Theophylact paraphrases this passage thus: “It appears that the same thing is said, but the comparisons for the conclusions are different. Above he sets our sinfulness and then, adding that we are justified, draws the conclusion by such comparison: He who justified us sinners by His death will much more save the justified. Now, mentioning Christ’s death and life, he reasons again by comparison: when we are reconciled by the blood and death of the Lord, how shall we not be saved by His life? For He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him to death for our reconciliation will He not much more now save us by His life?” Holy Chrysostom draws these inferences: “Thus, see! The Apostle desires Romans to be assured of future goods. (And after many persuasions he above all inspires hope through the death and resurrection of the Son of God.) And that alone would be a very powerful proof: that Christ died for us who deserved it in no way. But when the one who died becomes a giver of gifts (for being alive, He sits at the right hand of the Father and assures us that where He is, there His servant shall be also), and gifts most great, then such a kindness exceeds all measure and leads to faith even the most hardened. He will save us – none other than He who, while we were still sinners, loved us so that He gave Himself up for us. Do you see how powerfully the Apostle here persuades us to hope for the future? Until now there were two obstacles to our salvation: that we were sinners, and that salvation had to come through the death of the Lord. But the latter, before it was accomplished, was incredible and could be accomplished in no other way than through immeasurable love. Now it is accomplished in fact, and therefore the rest has become much easier. We have become friends, and the Lord no longer needs to die. He who spared enemies so much that He did not spare His Son for them – will He not save those who have become friends, and when there is no longer need for Him to give up the Son? One man does not save because he does not wish to, and another because he cannot, though he would wish. – Neither of these can be said of God after He has given up His Son. And that God can save, the Apostle also proved by the fact that God justified us who were sinners. What then remains as an obstacle for us to obtain future goods? None.”

Rom 5:11. And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

“Not only” – not only shall we receive what was said before – “being reconciled, we shall be saved” – but we shall receive that while boasting about God, alla kai kauchomenoi. – “Not only” – indicates that something greater and higher is to be said after it. In this section (Rom. 5:1–11) the Apostle enumerates the treasures of faith. He has already indicated calling, justification, reconciliation, the pouring out of the Spirit and love by the Spirit, hope of glory. Now he says: not only is all this our portion, but moreover we boast about God. Boasting about God is therefore the summit of the treasures of faith – a good than which nothing greater can be. What then does it mean to boast about God?

Let us explain this by comparison with what happens among us – what is meant when someone boasts of someone else. Boasting of someone, we boast of closeness to him, of being welcomed by him, of being loved by him and assured of his firm benevolence, ready to do all for us and provide us with everything. We usually say in such case: I have such a friend and protector; I fear nothing and no one; I am behind him as behind a rock; I need only speak a word and all will be done. – Applied to this, to boast about God or in God means: to boast of closeness to Him and intimate communion with Him – of the fact that He is ours and we are His, that we love Him and are loved by Him, and have in Him our ready Intercessor and Protector. And indeed this is given to us in Christ Jesus, and is so precious and exalted that everything else cannot compare to this. Justification, reconciliation, inheritance – these are great and lofty goods; but were it not for such communion with God that He is ours and we are His, they would be colorless. Take a servant who has sinned and whom his master has forgiven and taken back into the house. This cannot fail to gladden the pardoned one; but if the master, having forgiven him and taken him in, were to decree that he live in the courtyard and not show himself in his master’s sight, the first joy of forgiveness would soon fade and be replaced by sorrow and distress. Our forgiveness could have been such; God could have forgiven us and appointed us an ample life in eternity, yet at the same time decreed that we remain far from Him. He could have done so; for in our salvation everything depends on Him, and who can impose a law on Him in the distribution of goods? But if it were so, it would certainly be good, and a great good; yet it could not have blessed us in complete fullness, had God not also been pleased to draw near to us in such a way that we might be before His eyes, in living communion with Him. Therefore, when God has actually so arranged our salvation, we cannot but consider this closeness to God the summit of the goods granted to us by faith, and, boasting in all received by grace, to boast above all in God or in Him. Holy Chrysostom says: “Nothing contributes so much to glory and boldness as to be loved by God and to love Him who has loved us. This makes Angels, Principalities, and Powers resplendent. This is more important than the Kingdom itself; therefore the Apostle preferred it to the Kingdom.”

How did we come to boast about God – His closeness and our intimate communion with Him? Through our Lord Jesus Christ, “through whom we have now received reconciliation.” By faith and repentance, drawing near to the Lord, we obtain remission of sins and find reconciliation. But salvation does not stop there – we go further and deeper: in baptism we are clothed in Christ, in holy Communion we are deemed worthy that He dwell in us and we in Him – we become one with the Lord. And He is one with God the Father. And thus has come about a grace-filled chain of unity: we are one with the Lord Jesus Christ, He is one with God the Father, and through Him we too are one with the Father. Therefore we now boast about God – that He is ours and we are His, and we boast through our Lord Jesus Christ. These words of the Apostle bring to mind the words of the Lord Himself, in which He explains the mystery of our communion with God, praying to God the Father: “that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us. The glory which You have given Me I have given them, that they may be one, just as We are one. I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity” (Jn. 17:21–23).

c) The Significance of Christ’s Economy in the History of Mankind (Rom. 5:12–21)

Until now (Rom. 5:1–11) the Apostle has drawn the will and heart toward faith by setting forth the marvelous treasures of faith. Now he wishes to captivate the mind by leading it to contemplate Christ’s economy in the course of human history. He has explained that we are all under wrath and all would perish; but God took pity on us and gave His Son for our salvation. And here we, clinging to the Lord by faith, who died for us and rose for us, receive justification, are reconciled with God, become holy and spotless through the grace of the Holy Spirit, and truly “are” heirs of eternal glory from God. A sharp distinction is drawn between what was before and what begins now with the coming of the Son of God incarnate. All from Adam until now were born in sin, lived under wrath like those condemned to death, and died without reconciliation. But now all who believe in the Lord are born into holy life, live in grace under God’s favor, and die so as to enter into the inheritance of eternal glory from God. A completely new race has begun from Christ Jesus the Lord, in spiritual disposition utterly different from that which comes from Adam. And He is the founder of the race, just as Adam; but the race from Adam was born to sin and death, while the race from Christ the Lord is born to holiness and eternal life. Such is the main thought of the second half of this chapter. The Apostle enters with the economy of salvation into the course of human history and determines what the incarnate, dead, and risen Lord accomplished here and what faith in Him and grace from Him produce in the midst of men – and he determines this through comparing Him, as the new Adam, with the old Adam, and through showing what proceeded from the former and what proceeds from the latter. He does this in order that, by introducing into the minds of believers such an all-encompassing contemplation, to shelter, vivify, and guard from all wavering the awakened feelings flowing from the reception of the fruits of faith – by indicating how the way of salvation ordained for us is captivating even for the contemplations of reason.

Rom 5:12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

“Therefore” – why therefore? Because of all that has been said until now (from verse 17 of chapter 1). Consider at once all that has been said, and here is what you will see: you will see that just as “through one man sin entered into the world” and so forth. – “Skilled physicians,” says holy Chrysostom, “always strive to discover the root of diseases, reaching to the very source of evil; so does blessed Paul. Above he said we are justified, and proved this by the example of the patriarch, by the sending of the Spirit, by the death of Christ; for Christ would not have died if He did not wish to justify us. Now he takes up the same subject from the opposite side and confirms what he has proven by different arguments – namely, he examines what death and sin are, investigates how, in what manner, and from where death entered the world and gained dominion. And how did death enter and gain dominion? Through the sin of one.”

Death was originally joined with sin by God’s determination. Having given the commandment, God said: As soon as you sin, violating this commandment, you shall die, or come under the law of death. They sinned and came under the law of death. After this their children, born at a time when they were under sentence of death, were born subject to that same law of death. And thus death entered the world because of the first sin of the ancestors. Blessed Theodoret sets this forth thus: “The Master God, having created Adam and honored him with reason, gave one commandment for the exercise of the reasoning faculty. For one endowed with reason, having the ability to distinguish good from its opposite, could not live without law. He, being deceived, transgressed the given commandment, and the Lawgiver from the very beginning joined the threat of punishment to the commandment. Therefore, when Adam, already under sentence of death, in that condition fathered Cain, Seth, and others – all, as proceeding from one condemned to death, had mortal nature. The divine Apostle now tells that when Adam sinned and became mortal because of sin, this extended to the entire race. For ‘death entered into all men,’ because all sinned.”

The particle “and so” in the words: “and so death entered into all men” – is not the comparative “so also” – corresponding to the earlier particle “as,” as in the words: “just as through one man sin entered into the world”; rather it is a consequential particle, indicating the conclusion from the two preceding statements: “through one man sin entered, and through sin death.” As a consequence of such a joining of death with sin, “death entered into all men”: for in one all sinned. The translation should be: and in this way – not: so also. But in that case, where is the “so also” – which is required by the particle “as”? This particle and the corresponding thought are omitted and should be understood as follows: just as through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death, and in this way death entered into all men, because in him alone all sinned: so (it must be understood) through one man justification now enters the world (righteousness and holiness), and through justification life, and in this way life enters into all men, because in him alone all were justified and became righteous. So do our commentators paraphrase this passage. Blessed Theophylact writes: “The Apostle shows that sin and death entered the world through one man, Adam, and again through one man, Christ, they are removed.” – Oecumenius observes: “Having variously proven from Scripture that we are all justified by the death of the Son of God, now he proves this by the reasoning faculty. And it is fitting,” he says, “that we all, having become sinners and subject to death through one man, should also be saved through one man, having been justified in him and having paid in him the debt of death.” – The same Oecumenius cites the opinion of blessed Photius, in which the reason is set forth why holy Paul did not express the second half of the comparison. Blessed Photius writes: “And this is both possible, fitting, and consistent (namely, salvation in the one Lord). How is this evident? From the opposite, he says. For it is known that through one man both sin entered the world and death itself. If now through one man such evil has come about, then it is both possible and consistent for this evil brought in to be removed through one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and a higher good to be granted. – And that the Apostle, having set forth what proceeded from Adam, passed over what was accomplished for us by Christ, he did this, letting each one understand it by the opposite. For as soon as he stated the former (what proceeded from Adam), there is no difficulty in thinking out the latter (what is from Christ). Therefore he set down only the former thought, as naturally attracting the latter thought as well. For they call out to each other. Thus the Apostle, through the former presignifying the latter, did not express the latter in words but left it for us to understand ourselves.”

“What does it mean: ‘because all sinned’? That all sinned in Adam. As soon as he fell, through him even those who did not eat of the forbidden tree became subject to death, as if they themselves had also fallen, because he fell” (blessed Theophylact; the same, though more briefly, also in holy Chrysostom). “‘Because all sinned,’ – that is, in Adam, or through that one man, Adam” (Oecumenius).

Other commentators connect different thoughts with this expression, basing themselves on the fact that in Greek there stands not: “because” en ho, – but: ephho, – which should be translated: inasmuch, forasmuch as. But the thought will be the same even with this rendering, that is, that all sinned in him. And it is in vain that some try to take away the force of the proof of original sin from this passage, saying that the exact translation of this place should be: inasmuch as all sinned. And with this it would not be necessary to see here the thought that all sinned in him; for they might have sinned by his example, by his occasion. – It is true that if you take these words: inasmuch as all sinned – outside of their context, they may not convey the thought that all sinned in him; but if you take them in context both with what precedes and what follows, then even with this translation (inasmuch as all sinned), it is necessary to complete the translation with the word: in him – so as to fully preserve the Apostle’s thought. He says: sin through one entered the world, and through sin death, and in this way death entered into all. Sin opens the gates of death. If it entered into all, then in all sin preceded it. But sin could not precede death in all otherwise than by all sinning in him through whom sin entered, that is, in the first man, Adam. Thus reading: death entered into all men, because all sinned – we cannot understand this last part in any other way than: they sinned in him.

But although this “in him” – should naturally have come to mind from the course of speech – nonetheless the holy Apostle dwelt upon it, and used the following two verses to strengthen this thought in the minds of readers, so that in reading: all sinned… they could not understand it otherwise than: sinned in him. So important is this: in him!

To confirm this the Apostle does not engage in deep reasoning but simply presents the progress of death visually. All died after Adam, he says, but did not sin like him. Although they sinned, they did not sin like him because they did not have the Law; and where there is no Law, there is no transgression, sin is not imputed. If not imputed, then it does not bring punishment – that is, death. If so, then from whence comes death to those who died after Adam? – From nowhere else but from Adam’s own sin; from nowhere else but from that calamitous event that all sinned in Adam. Such is the Apostle’s thought in verses 13 and 14. He does not prove profoundly but simply presents the matter visually.

The Meaning of Christ’s Economy in Human History: Grace Abounding Over Sin (Romans 5:13–17)

Rom 5:13–14. For before the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no Law. Yet death reigned from Adam even until Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one to come.

Here is a paraphrase of this passage, made by blessed Theophylact, in accord with all our interpreters! “The Apostle wishes to demonstrate that even those who did not eat of the forbidden tree, and those who did not sin like Adam, on account of his sin were also reckoned as sinners and died. He demonstrates this thus: sin reigned before the giving of the Law, that is, even before the Law itself. What sin was this? Was it sin from the transgression of the Law? But how could there be such a sin when there was no Law? Sin is imputed when there is a Law, and people who transgress the Law are necessarily called sinners. But: ‘death reigned even until Moses,’ that is, until the giving of the Law. Therefore, there was a sin through which death reigned: if there had not been some sin that established death, it would not have reigned. Yet since it is proven that sin from the transgression of the Law did not yet exist, it follows that it was the sin of Adam, through which death reigned even over those who did not sin directly (for those who did not receive the Law and did not transgress it are not called sinners), but sinned in likeness to the transgression of Adam and became partakers of his fall, as the forefather who is a type of Christ. For as the old Adam made all liable to his fall, although they did not fall (as he did), so Christ justified all, although they did nothing for which they should have been justified. This is why he is ‘a type of the one to come,’ that is, of Christ.”

So all is clear, although one cannot deny that after this there may still arise perplexities in reading this passage. To remove them, one must keep in mind that the Apostle did not intend to present a completely sufficient proof that all sinned in Adam, but only to point to certain evident facts which could lead to this truth. And he pointed to them, as blessed Theophylact explains.

But how can one say that sin was not imputed before the Law? It was imputed to Cain; it was imputed to those before the flood; it was imputed to the tower-builders; and to the Sodomites, the Egyptians; and all of them suffered corresponding judgments from God.—To this, thus:—The Apostle means such an imputation by which death would be adjudged for sin, and death, common to all. For he seeks the source of death in people after Adam, and, since death stands for him as the consequence of sin, he seeks such a sin that would be the cause of the death of all by God’s determination. But no such sin existed; there were sins, but not sin in this sense. There were none sinning in likeness to the transgression of Adam. People sinned already being under the sentence of death, condemned to death. And some were condemned to death, as those before the flood, the Sodomites, Egyptians; but this was not the first, not the primordial adjudgment of death, but only an acceleration of the term of death, already adjudged to all.

Furthermore: “when there is no Law,”—when even before the Mosaic Law there was law,—the law of conscience, Noah’s law, the law of circumcision? But the Apostle requires as it were: show me such a law where God Himself personally said: do thus and so; if you will not do, you shall die. But no such law existed, as is known. There were laws, but with other threats, not with such a one. And there were deaths adjudged for sins, as by the flood in Noah’s time, by fire in Sodom and the like. But this was not for the violation of any law given with the threat of death for its violation, but for lawlessness in general, grown to such a degree that the lawless became unworthy of life. This was the application of judgment to the case, on the basis of laws given before, without threat of death. Death was not coupled with these matters from the beginning, but was afterward adjudged to the lawless by the free determination of God’s justice.

But why does the Apostle have in view only the period from Adam to Moses, as though after the Mosaic Law other orders of God’s judgment were to follow, and death could be explained as the consequence of its transgression? One can suppose that the Apostle does this conditionally. Whence comes death? From sin. From what sin, when, for example, before Moses there was no solemn legislation, and certainly not with the threat of universal death, as with Adam? Let someone say that death came for the transgression of the Law given through Moses; but whence came death before Moses? There is no source for it except the sin of Adam. Wherein the Apostle had no intention whatever to determine what was, how, and why it was after Moses. For his purpose it was sufficient to stop at this pre-Mosaic period, to indicate: you see death; and whence comes it, when there was no Law? From Adam’s sin. And Holy Chrysostom says in general: “If death had its root in sin, and sin, while there was no Law, was not imputed; then why did death prevail over those living before the Law? From this it is evident that it was not this sin, not the sin of transgression of the Law, but another, namely the sin of transgression of Adam, that was the cause of universal corruption. And how is this proved? By the fact that all living before the Law died.”

Adam is called a type of the future, that is, of Jesus Christ,—in what respect? In this: “as Adam for his descendants, though they did not eat of the tree’s fruit, became the cause of death, which was brought into the world by Adam’s ‘eating,’ so Christ for those who believe in Him, though they possessed no righteous works, became the source of righteousness, which He bestowed upon us all through the cross. The Apostle, as above, so below, supports this thought and repeats it many times; but he dwells especially on this thought so that to the objection of a Jew: how is it that mankind is saved by the merits of one Christ?—you too might object to him: how is it that the entire human race is condemned for the transgression of one Adam?—all the more so since there is no comparison between sin and grace; rather, there is an infinite distance between the two. When the very nature of the matter, the power of the one who accomplished it, and the very propriety—since for God it is more proper to save than to punish—all show that the superiority and victory are on Christ’s side; tell me, what ground do you have for disbelief? So the Apostle proves that in the matter of salvation there is nothing contrary to reason” (Holy Chrysostom).

The last words of Holy Chrysostom clarify the meaning and significance of the following verses (verses 15–17), in which the Apostle says that “the gift is not as the transgression.” They are not independent propositions, but contain subordinate and clarifying thoughts to strengthen the position stated before, that as through one sin and death, so through one also righteousness and life. Having proved such a position, one could proceed directly to present its content more fully in the form of a conclusion, as is done in verses 18 and 19. But since the Apostle’s goal in this section (verses 12–19) is to deepen the conviction that all can be saved through one, so as to remove all hesitation of mind in recognizing this truth, then, having proved before that as sin and death come through one, so there is no ground to doubt that righteousness and life also come through one, that is, that the certainty of the first position is strong enough to assure of the certainty of the second—he now sets forth that for a sound mind the last position must have greater certainty and must be accepted with greater conviction in its truth. Why is this so? Because not “as the transgression, so also the gift.” If sin subjected all to condemnation and death through one, then much more grace and gift through one are able to justify and save all. This superabundance of blessings in grace over the abundance of evils from sin Holy Paul sets forth in various ways in verses 15–17; and although some of the terms in them and the relations of concepts are difficult to grasp, this main thought is nevertheless clear.

Rom 5:15. But it is not as the transgression, so also the gift. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, much more the grace of God and the gift in grace of the one Man Jesus Christ abounded to the many.

From Christ the Lord you must expect far greater good than the amount of evil that came from Adam. If the latter you recognize as true, how can you doubt the former? “If sin was so powerful, and that the sin of one man, then will not grace produce a more powerful effect—the grace of God, and not only of God the Father, but of God the Son? This is far more in accord with reason than the former. It seems not entirely just that one should be punished for another; but that one should be saved through another is far more becoming and in accord with reason. If then the first is confirmed by experience—then much more should the latter be possible” (Holy Chrysostom). “Christ brought benefit not merely to the extent in which Adam caused harm. If sin was so powerful that in consequence of the fall of one all his descendants were condemned, though they did not fall (as he did); then a much greater and more abundant effect will be produced on many by grace. The gift of God cannot be equal to condemnation through one who sinned” (blessed Theophylact).

The grounds on which the conviction must rest that grace and gift surpass the transgression are to be seen expressed in the conditional propositions of verses 15–17; but what they are, this is difficult to grasp in the words of Holy Paul and to express clearly, without departing from these words. Holy Chrysostom, as we saw above, points to such grounds: “the nature of the matter, the power of the one who accomplished it, and the very propriety.”—And perhaps he saw the first expressed in verse 15, the second in verse 16, the third in verse 17. The nature of the matter: there, sin—the pernicious consequences of it are adjudged by God’s justice, and, of course in measure and in full correspondence with sin, the destructiveness of sin is limited by the measure of sin; but here—grace—grace and gift have no measure; their measure is the goodness of the Giver, and, when He is infinite by nature, naturally His goodness is infinite. The power of the one who accomplished it: there, a man; here, the God-man, God in human nature, whose work—justification—cannot fail to abound far more than the work of man—sin; the gracious restoration of the fallen, by the very nature of the Restorer, could not fail to raise the restored one higher than he stood before the fall, could not fail to introduce him into the enjoyment of far more abundant blessings compared with before.—Propriety—does not give a separate thought, but combines the two preceding grounds in the form of a concluding position.

Therefore, let us see the first ground expressed in verse 15: “for if by the transgression of the one, the many died, much more the grace of God and the gift in grace of the one Man Jesus Christ abounded to the many.” There is sin, here is grace. If sin had enough malice to subject the many to death: “shall not much more” with abundance upon the many suffice with grace combined blessings? The words: “the many, to the many”—stand for: “all—and: to all. Abounded”—points to grace already revealed and the gift given, signifying that they with abundance contain blessings, in the sense: it is superabundant.—Blessed Theodoret writes: “in punishment the Master God preserved the law of justice, and when Adam sinned and was given over to death, the whole race followed after him; then certainly it is more just for justice to be preserved in God’s mercy and for all men to become partakers of the Resurrection of the Master Christ… The mercy of grace surpasses the law of justice.”

Rom 5:16. And the gift is not as through the one who sinned: for the judgment came from one transgression to condemnation; but the gift came from many transgressions to justification.

This passage is very difficult: it is hard to translate it, and even harder to grasp the thought moving within it. The words: “not as through the one who sinned”—suggest that Holy Paul, having explained before the superabundance of grace over sin from the concepts of grace and sin, now intends to explain the same thing from the concepts of the person who sinned and of the person who gives justification. He says as it were: look at the one who sinned and introduced sin and death, and at the One who introduces justification and life, and you will see the superabundance of grace over sin. The gift coming from the latter in no way can be set in comparison with the harm that entered through the former. Why such a conclusion precisely follows from the concepts of the persons acting here, the Apostle does not unfold. One can conjecture: because the introducer of sin and death was a man, while their destroyer is God in human nature,—and the power of God even in human nature extends over all ages and all the works of these ages. Such a supposition will not be far-fetched; on the contrary, it seems required by the following words of the holy Apostle.

Our forefather sinned. This one sin alone was sufficient to subject all of us to condemnation, just as with us it happens that when a patriarch loses nobility, then all who come after him will no longer be noble.—But we, coming from the first who sinned, bear condemnation not only because that one sinned as our patriarch, but also because we ourselves began to sin and committed many sins. Therefore, in order to remove from us the condemnation, one needs not only to blot out the sin of our single patriarch, but also the sins of all of us—from Adam to the end of the ages. If now grace, manifested in Lord Jesus Christ, accomplishes this latter, is it not evident that the gift from the one Saviour is not as the deprivation through one who sinned? But whence comes such power in Christ Jesus? From the fact, we may add, that He is not merely a man, but God-man. Such a thought appears in the words: “for the judgment came from one transgression to condemnation: but the gift came from many transgressions to justification.” Holy Chrysostom says after these words: “What does this mean? That one sin could bring death and condemnation; but grace not only blotted out this one sin, but also the other sins that followed it. So that by the use of comparative particles ‘as’ and ‘so’—no thought may arise that an equal measure is taken for evil and good—and so that you, hearing of Adam, may not conclude that only the sin transmitted to men from Adam was blotted out—the Apostle says that many transgressions were blotted out. How is this evident? From the fact that after countless sins following the transgression committed in paradise, all ended in justification.”

If Lord Jesus Christ provided only the removal of condemnation for sins, even then it would follow that: “the gift is not as through the one who sinned.” Is not this conclusion even more necessary when it is known that the gift from Lord Jesus Christ is not limited to the removal of condemnation alone, but also imparts righteousness itself? “The gift came from many transgressions—” not only to acquittal, but also: “to justification,”—or to righteousness. Whence then comes such power in Jesus Christ? From the fact, we may add again, that He is not merely a man, but God in human nature, and in God is the source of all goods, sufficient for all people and for all ages. Holy Chrysostom says: “First (in the preceding, fifteenth verse) the Apostle said that if the sin of one killed all, then much more can the grace of one save all. Then (in this, sixteenth verse) he unfolded such a thought, that by grace not only the original sin was destroyed, but also all other sins; indeed, not only were sins destroyed, but righteousness was also given to us; and Christ not only corrected all that was corrupted by Adam, but restored all this to a greater measure and to a higher degree.”

Rom 5:17. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned by the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life by the one, Jesus Christ.

These words confirm what was said above, explaining at the same time how it comes about that from one people receive deprivations, and from another, abundance of gifts. How is this? Through communion with one and the other. There, naturally, coming from one man, they inherit from him sin, and through sin also death, so that death appears to be reigning in our race through one. Here, uniting oneself by faith with Lord Jesus Christ and receiving from Him new life through mysterious rebirth, they receive at the same time all the treasures of graces hidden in Him, so that not only life in them appears to be reigning, but they themselves are clothed in a royal state in life: life of all abounds through the one Lord Jesus Christ, because He, as God, is the source of life and the giver of all goods. The superabundance of graces in Him, being received by believers, not only removes all the deprivations that passed to us from the first who sinned, but fills instead all with goods. This itself follows from what was proven before, namely that: “the gift is not as through the one who sinned.” Holy Chrysostom says to this: “What armed death against all people? That one of them tasted of the tree. If death acquired such strength through the transgression of one, how, as soon as there are found people who have received grace and righteousness incomparably surpassing that sin, can they remain subject to death? Therefore the Apostle did not say here: grace,—but: ‘the abundance of grace.’ The gifts of grace communicated to us are not so much as to destroy only sin, but far more. We are freed from punishment, we have put off all evil deeds, we are reborn from above, we have risen after the burial of the old man, we are redeemed, we are sanctified, we are brought into adoption, we are justified, we have become brothers of the Only-begotten, we have become His co-heirs, we are joined with Him into one body, we have become His members, we are united with Him, as a body with its head. All this Paul called the abundance of grace, thereby proving that we have received not only medicine that heals our wound, but health, beauty, honour, glory and such dignities far above our nature. Each of these gifts by itself could destroy death; when all of them flow together, then death is destroyed at its root, then not even a trace or shadow of it can appear.—Imagine that someone owed a money-lender ten kopecks, and he throws into prison not only the debtor himself, but even his wife, children and servants; but another comes and not only pays those ten kopecks, but also gives ten thousand talents of gold, leads the prisoner to the royal palace, seats him at the most honourable place, showers him with honours and distinctions. Exactly this happened to us! Christ paid far more than we owed; His payment compared to the debt is like an immeasurable sea compared to a tiny drop.—And so do not doubt, O man, seeing such wealth of goods; do not be curious to know how the spark of death and sin was extinguished, when a whole sea of gracious gifts has been poured upon it. This is precisely what Paul understood when he said that those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life.”

Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Rom 5:18–19. Therefore, just as through one man’s trespass condemnation came upon all men, so also through one man’s justification life came upon all men. For just as through one man’s disobedience many became sinners, so also through one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

“Therefore” – indicates that the two texts following are a conclusion from the preceding reasoning. He speaks as if to say: thus, see now, – or: thus, it is proved. He had already demonstrated before that God saves us now through the death of His only Son incarnate. Then he resolved to bring this truth closer to conviction by contrasting this work of grace “of One” with what sin “of one” Adam wrought, and saying as if: the sin of one caused ruin to all, how can anyone doubt that through “One” salvation is also worked out? This he expressed in verse 12 and further, where he said: through one man sin and death, through one man righteousness and life; for just as in the first all sinned, so in the second all became righteous and justified. Having explained further that the latter has far greater power and certainty – in verses 15–17, he now draws all the reasoning back to the same thing he said in verse 12, namely that just as from one sin and death, so from one righteousness and life; for just as in the first all sinned, so in the second all became righteous. The proposition is contained in verse 18, and its foundation – in verse 19.

The proposition is expressed thus: just as through one man’s trespass condemnation entered into all men – understood as condemnation to death – so through one man’s justification justification to life entered into all men. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Looking to Adam, the Apostle says, do not doubt what I have said (that is, that God saves all in the One Lord Jesus Christ). For if this is true, as it indeed truly is, that when Adam transgressed the commandment, the entire race received the death sentence upon itself, then clearly the righteousness of the Savior brings life to all men.” – The Apostle said: “justification to life entered”, – giving to understand that the saving powers of grace have already entered humanity, been received by it, and begun their restorative action. But when he said: “entered into all men”, – when it was only beginning to enter, he thereby expressed on one hand the certainty of the action of grace, contemplating it in one comprehensive view, and on the other – the all-sufficiency of grace, which embraces everything – present, past, and future. Do not doubt that this grace has already entered, and hasten only to avail yourself of it, so as to destroy the harmful consequences of the first sin.

The foundation, why it came to pass that there ruin, and here salvation, – all from one, – is that just as there through one man’s disobedience all became sinners, so here through one man’s obedience all became righteous. “Many” – the Apostle employed instead of: all. The holy Apostle does not explain how through the disobedience or sin of one all became sinners, but this was proved by experience; for after Adam indeed all sinned, and all were reckoned as sinners. They added their own sins to Adam’s sin and were doubly sinners before God. He does not explain either how through the obedience of one all can become righteous; but in the example of the first he gives to understand the possibility of the latter. Therefore he says: “will be made righteous”, – from the Greek: will be constituted righteous. Already they have begun to be righteous; wait, they will all become such. But that they have begun, this was evident to all. All who believed had their sins forgiven according to faith in the Lord, and all by the same faith were given the grace of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to do all righteousness and making them strong in fulfilling it: all believers were righteous and holy by deed and appeared such before all. By this path all men could become righteous. They have not yet become so, but the Apostle contemplates them already as such in the One wholly righteous and wholly holy Lord Jesus Christ, as one can behold in a seed the whole tree, many-branched and fruit-bearing.

Rom 5:20. But the Law came in, so that the trespass might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

Following the preceding words (verses 18–19), one should read verse 21, in which is expressed the providential purpose of God in such an ordering of our salvation in the Lord; but this – the 20th verse – is an interpolation. One could have done without it; but, having said that the harmful consequences of Adam’s transgression are all taken away by the grace of the One Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle seemed to hear a question from someone: but what of the Law? – and in passing answered it. “Someone, no doubt, could have doubted and objected: what did the Law do during all those years, if Christ alone justified us?” (Blessed Theophylact). The essence of the answer is this: the Law came that it might hasten the coming of grace, for the Law multiplied sins, and multiplied sins attracted superabundant grace. “The Law came, so that the trespass might increase”. “The particle ‘so that’ here denotes not a cause, but, according to the manner of speech peculiar to this Apostle, indicates a consequence” (Blessed Theodoret and Blessed Theophylact). One can read: the Law came and transgressions increased (Oecumenius). “The Law, he says, not only brought no benefit (that is, such that after it another saving remedy would not be required) and offered no help, but even with its appearance the disease intensified; however, the Law itself was not the cause of this, but only thus it was revealed in experience. For the Law was given not to multiply sin, but to diminish and destroy it. And if the opposite happened, it is not through the nature of the Law, but through the negligence of those who received the Law” (Saint Chrysostom). “Or he said this to rebuke the Jews, for he is addressing them, and they thought too highly of the Law. So, instructing them, he suggests to them here that they are in vain so highly exalting the Law. For, judging by your works, one must say that the Law has come to multiply transgressions. He said it for this reason, because he mentioned the ruin in Adam and deliverance from it in Christ. So, in order that no one might attribute something of this to the Law, he says: the Law is not for this; taking glory from the Law, that he might give it all to Christ” (Oecumenius).

The Apostle said: “the Law came in”, – to signify that it is something subordinate, established for a time in the work of ordering our salvation, “that it was a temporary necessity, and not the chief and most important” (Saint Chrysostom). “The end of the promise given to the patriarch was Christ. For it was said to him: ‘Through your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed’ (Gen 22:18). But in the middle between Abraham and Christ the Law came in. Although it conveyed a more exact knowledge that sin is an evil, nevertheless it had no power to stop sin, but on the contrary, multiplied it to the extreme; for the more commandments there are, the more transgressions there became” (Blessed Theodoret). Here was done the same as other physicians do: they first give such a medicine which more fully reveals the disease, drives it outward, and then they destroy it. The disease of sin under the Law broke out outwardly, and it became manifest to all in what power sin possessed us. But this very thing attracted grace: either hastened its manifestation, or pointed to the predetermined moment for its manifestation. “Do not fear (that sin has multiplied); all this served to manifest greater grace” (Saint Chrysostom).

“Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. – Where” – as soon as, when. When thus sin was multiplied, “abounded all the more” – appeared in superabundance, or superabundantly, grace. It had always been present and covered our race, but now it poured forth in superabundance or in the predetermined fullness. There was nothing more to wait for; it was needful to crush the serpent’s head, as promised. “Then, when through the Law sin was multiplied, through Christ the grace of God appeared superabundantly, not only freeing us from sins, but also justifying us and making us heavenly and adopting us to God. Therefore he did not say: abounded – but: ‘abounded all the more’, – showing thereby a great abundance of it” (Blessed Theophylact). Not now only is she decreed to be thus; by her very nature she is such and from eternity was predestined to be thus. Now only is she manifested in deed and as she herself is superabundant, so superabundant she is seen.

Rom 5:21. So that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Here is expressed the essence of the ordering of our salvation. Sin reigned, and through sin death; now grace reigns and from now on will begin to reign, which, destroying sin and making righteous, shatters death at its root and opens the gates to eternal life. All this is ordered for us by Jesus Christ our Lord and is accomplished in us. He who in faith cleaves to the Lord becomes one spirit with the Lord, pure, spotless, holy, and receives through this the seed of eternal life, which he will be made worthy to receive at the appointed time by the power of the resurrection of Christ.

Saint Chrysostom says: “in these words the Apostle presents sin as a king, and death as a soldier, who is in his service and is armed by him. But if death is armed by sin, then clearly, righteousness, communicated by grace and destroying sin, not only disarms death, but also destroys and overthrows the entire kingdom of sin, inasmuch as righteousness is stronger than sin, because it came not from man, but from God and grace and leads our life to the most perfect and infinite good. And the very life itself will have no limits, that from this you might know more clearly the power of grace. Christ through His merits procured all this for us. Therefore, having righteousness, do not doubt about life. For righteousness is above life – it is the mother of life”.

Thus, behold to what all our care should be directed – that we be holy and spotless before God. Take up this with all zeal, making use of all the means of grace which the divinely ordained economy of our salvation affords us. Be thus, and you will assuredly enter into eternal life. Zeal for holiness in the hope of eternal blessed life – this is the one thing needful.

3) Faith in the Lord imposes upon believers the obligation to be holy (Rom 6:1–7:6)

Above the Apostle depicted that salvation is worked out for us by grace and that, in calling us to this salvation, God looks at nothing that is past, neither at circumcision nor at uncircumcision, neither at righteousness nor at sinfulness; for both the calling to salvation, as well as the working out of salvation, is the work of God’s goodness. But although before calling God does not look at whether someone is sinful or righteous, nevertheless it is not so with Him after calling. Here is an inviolable law: you are called, you have come, you are clothed with grace – then be holy and spotless. That is what grace is for – to reign in those who have received it, but to reign through righteousness.

This obligation to righteousness and holiness in those called to faith the Apostle unfolds in the present chapter. First: a) he enacts this obligation, deriving it from the graceful mystical union of ourselves with Christ the Lord (Rom 6:1–10); then: b) he proposes ways how to stand firm in this holiness and how to manifest it (Rom 6:11–14); with the addition also of: c) incentives to do so (Rom 6:15–23); and finally: d) he turns believers away from using the means which the Law had proposed for this (Rom 7:1–6).

a) The Apostle enacts this obligation (Rom 6:1–10)

Rom 6:1. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means.

This question and the answer to it the Apostle placed here as a transition to the exposition of the obligation of Christians to be holy. The occasion for it was furnished by the preceding words: “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Blessed Theodoret). Having said this, the Apostle recalled to himself that enemies everywhere spread slander about him, saying that he teaches: “Let us do evil that good may come” (Rom 3:8). “This slander he sets forth here, only not from their lips, but as if a question to which the flow of discourse leads” (Oecumenius). He does this to sharpen attention to what he intends to say; for he considered – after the mystery of redemption – the chief subject of his teaching – the exposition of the obligation of Christians before God – to be holy and spotless. What someone was before calling, that is no concern; but as soon as he is called, be holy, for he has been called to holiness and equipped with all that is necessary to attain it. Saint Chrysostom places these verses in such a connection. He says that the Apostle turns to morality, that is, to the exhortation to be holy; but, in order not to appear burdensome and intolerable, he makes as if he turns to this not intentionally, but forced by the vain wisdom of weak minds. “He proved that grace is sufficient to heal grave sins; but the unwise could reckon such words as an indulgence toward sin. They would begin to reason: if grace is revealed to a greater measure when we have committed the gravest sins, then let us not cease sinning, that grace might appear more abundantly. Mark how the Apostle turns away from such reasoning and opinion. First he refutes the objection by a simple negation, saying: ‘By no means’, – as is customary in speaking of something universally recognized as extremely absurd. But then he brings an irrefutable proof. What then is it?”

Rom 6:2. We who died to sin, how can we still live in it?

“What does it mean: ‘died’? – It means that, having believed and been enlightened (baptized), we became dead to sin. What does it mean to become dead to sin? To obey sin in nothing. Although baptism has already accomplished this once for all, that is, has made us dead to sin; nevertheless, we are obliged to employ all our diligence unceasingly, so as to remain in that same condition, and, whatever sin might command us, not only not to obey it, but not to budge from our place, like a dead man” (Saint Chrysostom).

“We died” – we. Who are we? – We all, Christians. The death understood is not physical, but moral, consisting in the rejection of all sin and hatred of it. For how do people come to the Lord? In repentance and baptism, as Saint Peter indicated on the day of Pentecost when those asking said to him: “What shall we do? Repent, and let each of you be baptized” – he answered (Acts 2:37–38). But what does it mean to repent? To say in one’s heart: I have sinned, I will not. This “I will not” is death to sin. But what does baptism give? It confirms by grace this decision of the will and gives strength to stand firm in this decision. The baptized one, in the sense of the power from the Lord, regards every kind of sin with mortal hatred. In this consists the essence of moral death to sin. But as soon as someone begins to entertain sympathy for something sinful, then, to the extent he does so, sin is revived in him or he is revived to sin. The suppression of such sympathies is remaining in death to sin. “From this we learn,” writes Theophylact, “that through baptism every believer truly dies to sin, but, through his own negligence, he himself raises himself and immediately comes to life for it, as soon as he joins himself to it; on the other hand, the diligent one always preserves in himself this deadness, and whatever sin might suggest to him, he does not obey it, as a dead man.”

Rom 6:3. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

“Since the preceding words were not entirely clear, he explains the same thing again, in stronger language” (Saint Chrysostom). He said: we died to sin. When and how? In baptism, he says. “He unfolds how we died to sin, and says: through baptism” (Blessed Theophylact). When we were baptized into Christ, then we also died to sin. For, being baptized into Christ, we were baptized into His death. It is evident that baptism into Christ’s death is a dying to sin. But how is this so? This explains the meaning and power of Christ’s death. Having died on the cross, the Lord Savior lifted our sins onto the cross and became a cleansing for our sins. In the cross-death of the Lord – there is the cleansing power of sin. Whoever is baptized – is submerged – into the death of Christ, is submerged into the cleansing power of sin. This power in the very act of submersion consumes every sin, so that not a trace of it remains. Here happens the same as if someone had prepared a chemical composition which, when some unclean linen or cloth is plunged into it, would immediately dissolve and consume all uncleanness: just plunge it in – and all uncleanness will be consumed. So also the death of Christ, as the cleansing power of sin, consumes every sin as soon as someone is submerged in this death by baptism. In the baptized one not a trace of sin remains: he is dead to it.

But one must remember this: in this dying to sin through baptism, nothing happens mechanically, but all is accomplished with the participation of morally free decisions of the person himself. The essence of dying to sin is always one and the same: this is the turning away from sin, mortal hatred of it. Where is it in baptism? Right there, in the spirit of the baptized one. For what does the person being baptized do before immersion in the font? He renounces Satan and all his works and all his service; and this is the same as turning away from sin and hating it with mortal hatred. When then, in this spirit of turning away and hatred toward sin, he is submerged in the font, the grace of God, descending within, confirms these dispositions and decisions of the will and gives them living and effective power. All former sins are forgiven to the baptized one, and from future sins he will be guarded by this power that descended into him in baptism. He is truly dead to sin. And all this is produced by the cleansing power of sin, which exists in the death of Christ, submersion into which is accomplished through submersion in the font. Saint Chrysostom says: “What the cross and grave were for Christ, baptism became for us, though in a different sense. For Christ died and was buried in the flesh; but in us sin died and was buried. Both are death; as in Christ, so in us there is true death. But although sin truly dies in us through baptism, nevertheless it is necessary that we ourselves cooperate in its mortification.” – This cooperation is accomplished through hatred of sin, received before baptism, sealed in baptism, and preserved with the help of grace after baptism. Baptism does not free us from self-guarding against sin; on the contrary, it obligates us to it. Why do people sin after baptism? Because, placing all reliance on the power of baptism, they themselves do not wish to move a finger in opposition to sin and willingly incline toward it, first in thoughts, then in sympathies, then in desires, and finally in deeds. Through this sin is revived and again begins to live, having been so effectively mortified in baptism. Just as it is true that, being submerged into the death of Christ in baptism, we die to sin, so it is inviolable that this dying to sin is hatred of sin, which we must kindle in ourselves willingly, with all the power of the grace of Christ enveloping us.

Buried With Christ in Baptism, That We Should Walk in Newness of Life (Romans 6:4–6)

Rom 6:4. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

“Therefore” – indicates a conclusion from what precedes. What conclusion does the Apostle draw? He says: we were buried with Him in the death of Christ, so as to live a new life. But does this directly follow from what precedes? There it was said that, being baptized, we were baptized into the death of Christ, which means: we died to sin. The direct conclusion from this would be: thus, we were buried in the death of Christ, so as to be dead to sin. And this would directly correspond to the rhetorical question: “how can we still live in it?” But he says: we were buried, so as to live a new life. Why does he say it this way? Because this is another expression of the same thought; for to live a new life – means: to live a life opposite to the former; and if the former was sinful, a life in which we lived to sin – then this new one must be a life in which we ought not to live to sin, or must be dead to it. Or because – to indicate the second half of the action of holy baptism; for in it we not only die, but also come alive, or rise. We die to sin, and we rise to righteousness and holiness. And by the essence of moral and spiritual death this must be so. When the soul dies to something, the soul itself does not die: for it is ever-living; but only it turns away from what it dies to, and hatefully abhors it with mortal hatred. But hatred and turning away in the soul always so arrange themselves that, in turning away from one thing, it does not turn into emptiness, but toward something opposite to that from which it turns. By this law, hating sin and turning away from it, the soul at the same time turns to righteousness and holiness and loves them. This love of righteousness and holiness is the new life. – This renewal of life is accomplished in the same holy baptism in which sin dies. It is accomplished not mechanically, but through inner voluntary changes or decisions; it happens in baptism this way because beforehand the person to be baptized has chosen to live thus. Therefore, before submersion in the font, having renounced Satan and his works, we are united with Christ the Lord, that we might dedicate our whole life to Him. This disposition in the font is sealed by God’s grace and receives power to be effective. Coming out of the font with it, the baptized one thus appears completely new, renewed in his moral and spiritual life – he rises. Just as Christ the Lord died and rose, so the baptized one, submerging in the font, dies, and coming out of the font, rises: he dies to sin and rises to righteousness, to new and renewed life. It is about this mystical and at the same time freely willing change that Saint Paul speaks in this place: we were buried … so as to walk in renewed life.

“We were buried with him by baptism into death” – means the same as above: “we were baptized into his death”. The Apostle used such a word to express the most immediate likeness of submersion in the font to the death of Christ – and not merely likeness, but also essential participation in the cleansing and life-giving power of this death. “We were buried” as if we together with Christ are lifted onto the cross and placed in the tomb, in the action of baptism. Thus truly the power of the death of Christ passes to us in baptism, as if our death here were the same as His death, or inseparable and united with it.

When the Apostle says that the Lord Jesus “Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,” διὰ, he thereby means that He rose “by His own Godhead; for the radiance of the glory of the Father is the Son” (Blessed Theophylact). “By the glory of the Father the Apostle calls the Godhead of Christ” (Blessed Theodoret).

One should not overlook the words: “walk in newness of life”. The renewal of life is accomplished in holy baptism – graciously mystical and freely willing. What is before the one who came out of the font? To begin from this moment to walk in this renewed life. Life is the manifestation in visible deeds of what was created within. There was created in the moment of baptism: dying to sin and being brought to life for righteousness and holiness. If dying to sin is mortal hatred toward it, then being brought to life for righteousness is positive love toward it. To walk, consequently, in renewed life will be – to walk, while hating sin, in love for righteousness and holiness. And this is the goal of the entire life of a Christian who has received holy baptism.

Rom 6:5. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

He proves that he correctly said before: “we were buried…” so as to walk in renewed life. For, he says, becoming conformed to His death, we must also be conformed to His resurrection. But if the former is accomplished through dying to sin, then the latter must be accomplished through new life in holiness and righteousness; and this is precisely to walk in renewed life, conforming ourselves to Christ the Lord, who rose from the dead in brightness and glory.

“United with”, σύμφυτοι, – grafted together, grown together, as a graft with a tree. He deepens more and more the thought of our participation in the death of Christ in baptism.

What does it mean: grafting into the death of Christ? Dying to sin, graciously accomplished mystically in the baptismal font and which must be preserved after baptism by our free will and our own diligence. Saint Chrysostom says: “Two mortifications does the Apostle have in mind here. One is accomplished by Christ in baptism, and another we ourselves are obliged to accomplish through our diligence after baptism. That in baptism our former sins are buried, this is Christ’s gift; but that after baptism we remain dead to sin, this must be the work of our own diligence, although in this struggle God helps us most greatly. For baptism has power not only to blot out former sins, but also protects from future ones. Just as on your side you employed faith for the blotting out of former sins; so, in order not to be defiled by sins after baptism, show a change in your disposition”.

Why did the Apostle not say: grafted into death – but: “into a death like his”? Saint Chrysostom answers thus: “because in you not the very essence died, but the sinful man died”. And further: “since we were buried in water, and Christ in earth, our buried is sin, and His is the body; therefore the Apostle did not say: ‘united with his death’, – but: ‘united with a death like his’. Although both are death, nevertheless, not the same thing is mortified by each.”

How to understand: “we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” – that is, will be grafted into a resurrection like His? According to the flow of speech, this should be understood the same way as the grafting into a death like His. “Certainly…will be,” in Greek: ἀλλὰ καί … ἐσόμεθα. Perhaps it is permissible to translate: we must also be. Judging from this, the Apostle proposes here an exhortation, or lays upon us an obligation, after baptism to make our life conform to the brightness of the risen Lord.

How then is it better to understand – according to the first or second indication? As one wishes. Only this should not be overlooked – that the Apostle’s intention in this discourse is to dispose believers to live holy and spotless after baptism.

Rom 6:6. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be enslaved to sin.

“We know” – shows that the Apostle intends to propose a truth which will serve as confirmation of the truth of what has been said before (Saint Chrysostom). If you are convinced of what follows, you cannot doubt what precedes. Therefore one can conclude that the words: “We know that” – mean the same as: because, for.

“Our old self” – “not the nature, but an evil disposition of the spirit” (Blessed Theodoret), or “depravity” (Blessed Theophylact). “Old, that is, grown old in sins. The old self is the same as our life grown old in sins. He calls it a man as a sign that by this is meant a habit of sin many centuries old and inseparable from man. Before the coming of the Lord and the ordering of our salvation in Him, people were so possessed by sin that, according to the customs of those times, without a life of lust and foul deeds, a man was not a man. This life, because it was intertwined with us, merged with us, and we had it inseparably united with ourselves, he calls a man – as something we loved as ourselves, or even more than ourselves” (Photius and Oecumenius).

“Was crucified with him” – “brings baptism and the cross together” (Saint Chrysostom) and gives to understand that the old self “like the body of Christ is buried in baptism” (Blessed Theophylact) – in the sense that “our evil disposition is mortified in baptism” (Blessed Theodoret). The evil disposition, renounced before baptism willingly, by free will and decision of the will, and replaced by a good disposition, is by the grace of baptism completely weakened and yields its dominion to the new good disposition. This is the direct meaning of the crucifixion of the old self in baptism.

“That the body of sin might be done away with”. “By the body of sin the Apostle means not this our body, but all our vices. Just as by the name of the old self he means generally all that is evil in man; so by the body of the old self he again calls the evil, made up of different kinds of vice” (Saint Chrysostom). Similarly in present common speech one says: a body (corpus) of soldiers – a collection of soldiers; a body (corpus) of diplomats – a collection of diplomats. To do away with means to make inactive (Blessed Theodoret). “That the body of sin might be done away with” – will be the same as: all kinds of vice or sin in us should become inactive or should cease to act, should be rendered dead. He did not say: the old self will be crucified, and the body of sin will be done away – but: “might be done away”, – showing that in this latter we ourselves must also take a share through our free diligence – hereby pointing to the labor and struggle in cutting off the effectiveness of vices, sins, and passions.

But how is it that the old self is already crucified, that is, the evil disposition is already mortified, and yet there remains the task to do away with the body of sin, or the different kinds of vice? To this we say: sin, like virtue, appears in three forms: sin as a deed, and embraces the whole sum of sinful deeds; sin as a tendency, and embraces all kinds of sinful inclinations, passions, vices; sin as a general love of sin, means man’s root-like proneness to sin in general. Sin in this last sense is properly the old self. It dies and is crucified in baptism; for in it we receive mortal hatred toward sin and love for righteousness and good; and this is the death of love of sin, that is, the crucifixion of the old self. But while such a good disposition, attitude, decision is received, the particular kinds of sinfulness and wickedness – passions – still remain, and they must be overcome and brought to inactivity or done away with, through special efforts and struggles directed against them. Efforts and struggles, not allowing them to act, exhaust them, wear them out, starve them; and they become inactive. There is no moral possibility of raising these struggles against the passions while love of sin, or the old self, still resides in the heart. Therefore the Apostle said that in order that the body of sin might be done away with, or the vices and passions destroyed, the old self is crucified beforehand – hatred of sin and love of good are received. This change for the good, strengthened by God’s grace in baptism, proves mighty in overcoming the passions and doing them away.

We add to this that inasmuch as the passions have their principal seat in our body, then doing away with them will be the same as driving them out of the body. The body, so long as it remains the seat of passions, is a body of passions or a body of sin; but when it ceases to be such a seat, it becomes impassive and sinless. “That the body of sin might be done away with” – can therefore be paraphrased thus: all passions are driven out of the body, and it becomes clean and spotless, completely different from before, instead of sinful – sinless, instead of passionate – impassive. One can also add to this: it becomes worthy of the most radiant resurrection to eternal glory and blessedness.

“That we should no longer be enslaved to sin”. This indicates both the means by which the body of sin is done away with, or the passions are destroyed – and the result of this doing away. You wish the body of sin to be done away, or the passions – do not serve sin, that is, whenever an opportunity for sin presents itself or thoughts of it arise, do not submit to it – drive away the thought, avoid the temptations. Do not yield to sin, do not do it – do not give food to the passion. It will remain hungry this time. Do not yield to sin the next time, the third time, and at every time; the passion will completely lack food and die of hunger – it will be done away. Do the same with another, a third, and all passions; and they will all die and be done away.

Therefore, do not indulge yourself in any sin or do not commit any sinful deed, and the body of sin – the passions – will be done away. Thus not serving sin is the means of doing away with the body of sin, or the passions; but it is also the result of this latter. Only there it was an act of self-coercion, but here it is an established condition. When the body of sin is done away with, the passions are quenched and stifled; then there is no urge to sin at all, no hindrance in good any longer befalls man, he freely walks in his good undertakings, nothing contrary holds him back and draws him into slavery. This condition is the condition of impassivity – most radiant and much desired. And it seems that the holy Apostle, saying: “that we should no longer be enslaved to sin”, – wished to show the final goal to which the image of salvation given to us in Lord Jesus Christ leads. Such is the goal! Receive boldly both the faith and all its obligations. There is much reason to strive after this and to labor.

Dead to Sin but Alive to God; How to Stand and Show Forth Holiness (Romans 6:7–12)

Rom 6:7. For one who has died is freed from sin.

What has been said before he confirms by example: as a dead man shows no movement, so one who has died to sin in the baptismal font should not permit any sinful deed. “Freed,” δεδικαίωται, – justified, released by judicial proceeding. The one justified, the judge says: you are free, nothing binds you.

Rom 6:8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

What is said here is similar to what is said in verse 5. There it seemed more consistent with the flow of discourse to understand the resurrection of the resurrection, or spiritual rebirth; similarly it seems not amiss here to understand under life with Christ the Lord a new life in His spirit and by His grace. But there all our commentators have referred the Apostle’s discourse to the future glorious resurrection, while here one of them, Blessed Theophylact, sees an indication of spiritual resurrection or revival to new life according to God. He writes: “Above the Apostle said that we should always remain dead to sin, but now he discusses rising to a new life according to God, which we should always have. If through baptism we died with Christ, we believe that we will always have present with us a rising, consisting in a new life; for Christ also, having risen from the dead, lives forever, will never die again.” Agreeing with this interpretation, the word: “we believe” – we will take as: let us believe – see in it an exhortation, advice, and suggestion (Oecumenius). In the words: “we will also live with him” – we will see either an obligation or an encouragement. In the words of Blessed Theophylact is contained the first (we should always have new life), but the second also shows through (we believe that we will always have present a rising). If we have died with Christ, receiving hatred of sin and love for righteousness, then let us believe, let us hold the conviction that we ought to live all the remaining time with Him who has risen, walking in renewed life, corresponding in brightness and purity to the brightness of the risen Lord. Thus the obligation will be expressed; the encouragement will be thus: if we have died with Christ, let us believe that we can also live the rest with Him, live to please Him, walking in His holy will spotlessly – and live thus because we are united with Him, living by His power, poured out from Him into us. That such a thought can also be understood here is justified by the manner of expression: and we believe that we will also live with him – let us cherish the hope that, having shared in His death, we will not be strangers to the power of His resurrection either, or to the firmness and constancy of the spiritual life renewed in us by Him, on account of our unceasing communion with Him, the risen one and no longer dying. Reason for such encouragement can be seen in the preceding exhortation: to always be dead to sin, not to serve it, after the old self in us has been crucified in baptism by the power of the death of Christ. Being aware of this obligation, anyone might falter with doubt: but how can I do this, when I feel the assaults of sin, when the mass of passions is not yet done away with in me? The Apostle, anticipating this, speaks as if: do not be troubled; you have in yourself the power of the risen Lord and by it you will overcome all, you will not yield to sin, you will not die by it, but you will remain alive, always walking with the Lord and by the Lord’s power in renewed life. Confirm this hope in yourself by the fact that Christ, having risen, does not die anymore and death cannot gain power over Him. As He cannot die, so you, united with Him, will not die by sin; as death cannot gain power over Him, so sin will not gain power over you, for Christ is with you.

Rom 6:9. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him.

Here is the foundation of the obligation to sinlessness and the encouragement to stand firm in it! The risen Christ does not die anymore; and you should not permit yourself to die by sin. Over the risen Christ death has no power; believe and hope that sin also will not gain power over you, when you are clothed with the power of the Christ the Lord who is not subject to death. Only be faithful to what you received in baptism – preserve hatred of sin and love for righteousness. If you alone remained, then certainly your new life and your safety from sin would not be secure: but when you are with Christ, then be confident, with Him you are as strong as He is strong. For all that is in Him is also yours by His goodness and love for mankind. The first – the exhortation – Blessed Theodoret sees in these words, who writes: “In these words the Apostle has sufficiently shown that he wants to turn believers away from sin.” And the second – the encouragement – suggests itself to the mind, from the thought, on one hand, of the force of the obligation not to sin, and on the other – of the force of our passions.

Rom 6:10. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

To whom should these words be referred? They are usually referred to the Lord Savior, as a reason for the preceding: “dies no more. Died to sin” – is understood: because of sin or for the sake of our sins; for to die to sin, as we are obliged to die, He could not, having no sin. “Once for all” – once and for all; as it is also said in the Letter to the Hebrews, that, appearing “to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, once for all” (Heb 9:26, 28). From this follows such a conclusion: see how Christ died once and will not die a second time; so you too, dying in baptism to sin, hold yourself in sinlessness and do not permit yourself to die a second time, through falling into sins. Saint Chrysostom says: “What does it mean: ‘to sin’? – It means that He himself was not subject to death, but died for our sin. He died for this purpose, to destroy sin, to cut off its roots, to take away all its power from it. Do you notice how much the Apostle has frightened us? If Christ does not die a second time, then there is no second baptism either; and if there is no second baptism, fear to stumble into sin.”

“He lives to God”, – that is, he lives by divine power; for He always lives in the power of God and the Father (Blessed Theophylact); or “lives as God, constantly, without interruption” (Oecumenius); or “lives eternally, for death has no more power over Him” (Saint Chrysostom). One can also say: “He lives to God”, – to His glory, establishing the kingdom of grace, the foundation of which was laid in His death and for the establishment of which after the resurrection He took up the power “in heaven and on earth.” From this follows a conclusion: and you too, having come alive in baptism to a new life, live to God, dedicating all your thoughts, undertakings, and deeds to Him and not permitting yourself to turn in the slightest toward anything contrary to Him.

But the thought comes to mind, is it not more fitting to refer these words to us, the baptized and those dying and rising in baptism – dying to sin and rising to life for God and according to God. The discourse in the Apostle goes all about the obligation of the baptized to be dead to sin and to live in renewed life. About the death and resurrection of the Lord is spoken only for this reason, to show that by their power there are accomplished in baptism both our moral and spiritual death and our moral and spiritual rising to new life; and to clarify this, what has already been said before is sufficient. The letter of the text does not give a direct indication to whom these words should be referred. Our Slavonic translation also maintains this lack of indication in the indefiniteness of the expression, as both the Greek text requires. Both say: for what has died, has died to sin – once, once for all, and what lives, lives to God. In such an expression these words can very well be referred to us, the baptized. In baptism one thing in us died, another came alive: sin died, or we died to sin; and life for God and according to God came alive, or we came alive to such a life. The force of speech is not in the dying and coming alive, but in: “once for all”, – in the fact that both happened once and for all; once and for all we died to sin, so as to always live thereafter to God. By this is pointed to that decisive hatred of sin and love of righteousness with which the person being baptized enters the font and which is sealed there in him by God’s grace. And the Apostle’s intention is to prove to believers and the baptized the necessity of always maintaining the force of these decisions and conducting their life according to them. Setting forth, however, such a thought, we do not insist on its greater fitness before the former one, but present it as possible.

b) How to stand firm and how to manifest holiness (Rom 6:11–14)

The grace of baptism and mystical union with the Lord has poured new life into us. What must we ourselves contribute for its preservation and for maintaining holiness? First – think that you are dead.

Rom 6:11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

“So”. If in the preceding verse the speech refers to the Lord Savior, then it means: as Christ the Lord, so also you. But if the speech refers to us, the baptized, then it means: such is the law for all the baptized, that in them there is accomplished a dying to sin and a coming to life for God, accomplished both by grace and by their own free will. As all the baptized – so also you.

In both cases the result is one: “you also must consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God”. What it means to be dead to sin and alive to God and how obligatory this is for the baptized has been sufficiently explained above. Now the question: how to fulfill this obligation? – “Consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God”. The force of speech is in: “consider”. Place it in your mind and in your heart, arrange yourselves in your inner decisions thus, that you are already dead to sin and alive only for God; therefore as for the first permit no movement toward it, so for the second direct all your diligence. As if someone had come to the conviction that he is physically dead, then, whatever happens around him, he would pay no attention to it, and to whatever the people around him might invite him, he would have one answer to everything: I am already dead, I have nothing to do with anything: so, he says, be you in regard to sin; not only movements toward it, but not even attention; it does not exist for you, nor you for it. On the other hand, as any machine, for example a clock that has been wound up, does nothing but show the time; so you do nothing but work toward living according to God and pleasing Him. Only, what the machine does involuntarily, you do voluntarily, with such willing self-compulsion or with the consciousness of such moral necessity of acting thus and not otherwise as exist in a machine without its will.

“In Christ Jesus our Lord” – or for the sake of Christ Jesus – because such are the conditions of salvation in Him, so it is ordained by Him and in Him is our salvation, that it cannot be otherwise and because we, uniting ourselves with Him by faith and grace through the holy mysteries, cannot be otherwise in Him than what we should be, except by appearing dead to sin and alive only to God. Whoever is not such is not Christ’s. Or “in Christ Jesus” – by the power of Christ Jesus. Be confident that you will truly remain such; for Christ the Lord is with you, and He will accomplish this in you, if you remain devoted to Him. On the other hand, however high it is – to be dead to sin and alive “to God,” do not exalt yourself and do not think highly of yourself, for it is not you who have accomplished and accomplish this, but Christ the Lord, with whom you have been united, to union with whom you have been called by His goodness, and through whom you have been led into this union by His grace, and through whom you remain in this union by His help and His protection for this one reason only – that you willingly devote yourself to His all-powerful action in you.

Rom 6:12. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its passions.

The second means on our part in preserving holiness is not to permit sin to reign in us. But how? By not obeying its sinful desires. We died to sin once for all; but by our willing choice – in that we received mortal hatred of sin and love for righteousness. The seat of this decision is in the spirit, in which God’s grace, having come with the gospel, awakened the fear of God, and through it the conscience, which both, by making us feel the bitterness of sinful life and the sweetness of holy and God-pleasing life, gave birth in the spirit to the decision to turn away from the former and to cling to the latter. But meanwhile, while this has been accomplished in the spirit, the soul and the body still remain on the side of sin. Through long dwelling in sin, there has formed in them a habit of acting only in a sinful way; to act in a holy way they do not know how, and not only do they not know how, but they cherish the old sympathy for the sinful. Therefore, when the spirit, having received new decisions, begins to establish new ways of life corresponding to those decisions, it always meets resistance in the soul and body, both because of their unaccustomedness to acting in this way and because of their lack of sympathy for it. They know not the taste of this new life and do not long for it; on the contrary, they long for what is opposite – for that which they have always delighted in before. The spirit demands good thoughts, but the head – the mind with memory and imagination – is filled entirely with sinful representations; therefore it not only does not think good, but presses the unseemly into consciousness. The spirit demands good undertakings, with self-denial, but the will – desires, plans, goals, means – is inclined to self-gratification and cuts off all good through self-pity. The spirit demands good feelings, but the heart does not respond to good and, not being able to find taste in it, remains cold to all that it has not tasted before. The spirit demands vigilance, labor, temperance, chastity, solitude, but the body wants to sleep, to indulge in comforts, to eat abundantly, to indulge passions, and to be everywhere for the gratification of its senses. And here is a host of passions, settled in the midst of the body’s functions and the soul’s faculties, with their opposition and demands. And all this does not merely exist passively in us, that is, opposing only good, but actively – drawing and urging us to sin. The spirit thus faces the task of transforming the soul and body through struggle against their opposition to itself and through overcoming their strivings and passions opposed to it. If we call these opposition and passions the sin living in us, then the spirit faces a struggle with this sin. It has itself died to sin, but the soul and body still live to it; we must make them dead to it too. How? By resisting them in what they want – and by compelling them to do what they do not want. They want what is sinful; do not listen to them, and not only do not listen, but compel them to do the opposite of their desire. – It is about this that the Apostle now speaks. About compelling to good he speaks in the next verse, but about opposing what is sinful he speaks in this one.

“Therefore do not let sin reign”. It reigned before, and whatever it wanted, man was led along as if bound. Now another King has taken the throne within us and has put an end to the reign of sin. According to old habit it may and does present its demands, but each time it receives a refusal from the spirit that has come to hate it. – Why then the precept, when all this arranges itself? It does not arrange itself by any natural necessity, but in virtue of the free decision of the spirit, sheltered and strengthened by God’s grace. A free decision for one thing at the present moment presupposes the possibility of decision for the opposite in the next. It can be strong, like a law of nature, through the strength of the motives supporting it, but it does not attain to natural immutability. The Apostle warns, speaking as if: see, beware; as you have decided, so stand; sin will come again with demands, to seize you; do not permit it, do not allow it to reign in you again.

“In your mortal body”. He mentioned only the body, being silent about the soul, because the chief seat of sin and passions is the body, so that one hardly notices the soul’s passions behind the body’s sinful urges. “Sin acts predominantly in the body and through the body” (Oecumenius). And general opinion has grown so accustomed to judge that, as soon as carnal sinfulness shows itself in someone, there is no mention of the soul, although customarily it is the one who runs everything. And therefore, perhaps, the Apostle did this because it is harder to control the body, accustomed to sinning. Whoever overcomes the body in its sinful compulsions will also deal with the soul. And because of their inseparability it so happens that you cannot refuse the body without refusing the soul. Therefore one can think that by the word: “mortal body” – the Apostle meant generally all the seats in which sin still hovers in us, having brought forth death.

“So that you obey it”. Sin does not bind necessarily, but only proposes itself. We ourselves incline toward its proposals and sin. This inclining is willing obedience to it. Do this and that, sin suggests. We can obey it or not obey it. When we obey, we sin; but this happens not by any necessity, but by our will. Thus the whole matter is in not listening to sin. Let it cry with its demands, let it draw; you do not listen and thus will not give it power to reign in you.

“Its passions”, – that is, of the body. Others read: “obey the passions”. But the thought is the same. Temptation to sin appears in the form of desire. There are representations of sinful objects and deeds without any sympathy for them. There are representations of them with sympathy, without desire for them. The drawing toward sin begins with the appearance of desire for sinful objects and deeds. And this is temptation. The Apostle directly points to desire, because here lies the danger of sin and the consequence of sin, accomplished by deed, of falling again under its power, or of allowing it to reign in you. Do not listen to sin, resisting and suppressing its desires – and thus you will not give sin power to reign in you.

Saint Chrysostom says on this verse: “The Apostle did not say: let not the flesh live, – or – let not the flesh act; but: do not let sin reign. Christ came not to abolish nature, but to correct the will. Moreover, the Apostle wants to show that we are held under the power of vices not violently and by compulsion, but by our own will; therefore he did not say: let not it tyrannize, which would mean compulsion, but: ‘do not let sin reign.’ For it would be absurd for those guided to the Heavenly Kingdom to have sin as king, and for those called to reign with Christ to wish to be captives of sin. Just as if someone, having taken the diadem from his head, wished to be enslaved to a mad, poor woman dressed in rags. – And in what way, according to the Apostle’s understanding, does sin reign? Not by its own power, but by your carelessness. Therefore, having said: ‘do not let sin reign,’ – he explains the very way of this reign, adding the following words: ‘so that you obey its passions.’ There is no honor in yielding to the body the power and everything else, but rather, the utmost slavery and the height of dishonor.” Explaining this, Blessed Theophylact adds: “in what way does sin reign? If we obey it in bodily desires, so that it is not the body that causes harm by its nature, but obedience to sin. Notice the grace of Christ: Adam sinned, although he had a body not subject to death, but we overcome sin in a mortal body”.

Present Yourselves to God as Instruments of Righteousness (Romans 6:13–16)

Rom 6:13. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.

The third means on our part for preserving holiness and shunning sin is not to give our members as instruments to sin. Sin, when it reigns, is seated in the heart. From there it takes hold of all the powers of the soul and all the members of the body; as a result of which everything that is in a man becomes its instrument. But when the spirit is brought to life by God’s grace and holy decisions to live in good to please God are formed in consciousness; then sin, expelled in this way from the heart, loses its determining power, but, from old memory, does not cease trying to draw it to itself again and to turn the members back into its instruments. The Apostle says: when this happens and sin again draws the eye to passionate viewing, the hands to theft, the feet to doing evil – do not give him your members for such shameful use. “Do not present”, – he says, showing that this is a matter of freedom. There is no way to blame the power of sinful urges. However strong they may be, the decision of the will can always overcome them. Do not those who eat for two, three days or more feel hunger? They feel it, but they overcome it. And do not those who spend nights in vigil experience drowsiness? They experience it, but they drive away sleep. So all other urges can be cut off and overcome.

Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness. When we sin, we do unrighteousness to ourselves or to others, and more to ourselves (Saint Chrysostom). Sin, when it draws us, covers itself with a very attractive garment and presents itself as the right side, suggesting that not satisfying it is doing violence to nature. But this is a lie and unrighteousness. When sin is committed, we do violence to ourselves, not when we refuse it. Not understanding this, we fall into deception and sin, doing unrighteousness to ourselves, thinking, however, to do right by nature. Those who have understood this keep the body strictly and thereby do it good, not violence and unrighteousness.

Saint Chrysostom says: “The body serves as a means both to vice and to virtue, like a tool. The latter is suitable for both bad and good, depending on who is using it. With the same weapon both the warrior fighting for his country and the robber arming himself against citizens act. Consequently, no weapon is blamable in itself, but guilty is the one who uses it for evil. The same must be said of the flesh – not by its own nature, but by the disposition of the soul is it one thing or the other. When you look with greed at another’s beauty, the eye becomes an instrument of unrighteousness not by its own action, but by the wickedness of the thought directing it; for it is the eye’s job to see, not to see wickedly. Master your thought, and the eye becomes an instrument of righteousness. The same must be said of the tongue, the hands, and the other members. And the Apostle did very well in calling sin unrighteousness. Whoever sins acts unjustly, either toward himself or toward his neighbor, but far more toward himself than toward his neighbor.”

“Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead”.

“Having turned away from vice, he leads to virtue” (Saint Chrysostom). There he showed what the baptized should not be and what they should not do; now he teaches what they should be and what they should do. They should be bright and pure, as those naturally risen from the dead should be. In this indication is both example and incentive.

Example: imagine what those risen from the dead are like, and strive to hold yourself thus. If this is hard to imagine, look at the Lord risen, how bright He is, how pure, how detached from everything. Be you also thus. Incentive: having come out of the font, you have spiritually risen from the dead, appeared in renewed life. God’s grace has made you thus. Render to God what He has made in you – present yourselves to Him always living from the dead, walking in renewed life. “Remind yourselves,” says Saint Chrysostom, “what you were before and what you have become now? What were you? Corpses, and moreover, corpses with a ruin from which there was no way to escape: for no one was able to help you. And what have you become from these corpses? Living ones immortal. Through whom? Through the Almighty God. Thus duty demands that you submit to Him with such zeal as is proper to those who have become alive from the dead.”

Present yourselves thus “to God.” The very purity and brightness of renewed life is attractive; but present yourselves thus not merely because of this attractiveness of holy life, but rather because this is your duty before God. Live clean and spotless, offering to God through this a sacrifice of thanksgiving and striving to please Him, forgetting everything else. And therefore the Apostle said here: “to God,” – so as by contrast with sin to make the obligation imposed irrefutable. For it is enough to represent to oneself what God is and what sin is, to devote oneself with all zeal to serving the former with aversion from the latter. Saint Chrysostom says: “See what force the Apostle gives his exhortation by this word: there he names sin, and here he names God. For he points to such a difference between rulers for the purpose of depriving the soldier of any excuse, who has left God and wished to submit to the reign of sin.”

“Your members to God as instruments of righteousness”.

Above he said not to give their members as instruments of unrighteousness, but now he exhorts to give them as instruments of righteousness. The members can be both, depending on which way the will inclines. “And the body is not something evil, but is a creation of the good God, because, if it is well managed by the soul for good, it can serve God. Therefore, an inclination of the will toward the worse – as it furnishes weapons to sin in the members, and conversely, a disposition of the will toward the good prepares the members to serve the divine laws. The tongue of a chaste singer utters fitting to God of all a hymn, while the tongue of one drunk and raving issues disordered sounds of blasphemy. So also the eye perceives both the chaste and the dissolute, the cruel and the merciful. So also the hand both kills and has mercy; and, in a word, all members of the body are both instruments of righteousness, if the mind wills it, and instruments of sin, when it loves the reign of sin” (Blessed Theodoret).

When the spirit is brought to life by God’s grace, then it takes under its power both the soul and the body and makes all forces and functions work for God, to whom it has devoted itself. Service to God is the fundamental law of righteousness, written in nature and renewed by the Gospel. This is walking in God’s will, declared in the commandments of the Lord. The commandments apply to every member of the body, to every action of the soul. Bind these commandments to every part of yourself and accustom them not to act otherwise than according to these commandments. Then the commandment, imposed from without, through habit will enter within and become the governing power of the corresponding part. And you will become a vessel full of righteousness – walking righteousness. And everything will come into harmony in you, one thing will fit with another, as the strings of a musical instrument are tuned. Just play and delight – and delight God with His holy Angels. This is what the Apostle wants, exhorting you to make your members instruments of righteousness!

But this blessed state is not achieved at once. Until now the members served as instruments of sin; they must be taken from sin and given to righteousness – which cannot be done without struggle. And it begins immediately upon taking the decision to serve God with all one’s being – and by God’s grace it will succeed. Saint Chrysostom at this word directly calls to struggle. “Speaking of weapons, the Apostle indicates that a heavy struggle has begun. Therefore we need strong armor, a courageous spirit and one well versed in what is needed for such warfare, but of all we most need a Leader. But this Leader is already with us; He is always ready to fight for us and is never defeated, and He has prepared strong armor for us. All that is required from us is the will to use it as we should, that is, obeying the Leader, to act with the weapon for the homeland.”

Rom 6:14. For sin shall no longer dominate you, since you are not under the Law but under grace.

“Shall not dominate”, – in Greek: οὐ κυριεύσει – will not have dominion, – understood to mean, – now, after baptism, upon receiving grace. Before, it had dominion over you, and whatever it suggested, you immediately did, following it as if bound; but now its power is cut off by the grace you have received, by the action of which you died to sin, that is, came to hate it with mortal hatred.

c) Incentives to this (Rom 6:15–23)

Rom 6:15. What then? Should we sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? By no means.

The Apostle returns to the question proposed at the beginning of the chapter: “shall we continue in sin?” There it was proposed for solution, but here for the conclusion following from its solution. He speaks as if: so what then comes out of all the reasoning I have set forth? Should we sin? Are we given freedom to sin because we are under grace, not under the Law? “By no means”, – certainly not – you yourselves see that we should not do so, but on the contrary, we should remain in all righteousness and holiness for this very reason, that we are under grace; for we have made a vow, confirmed it with firm determination, and received the helping grace. The Apostle’s intention in these words is to bring to tension the decision accepted in receiving faith and grace – to be faithful servants of the Lord, which they expressed in the words: I renounce Satan – I am united with Christ. For he said before that sin no longer has dominion over us, does not have tyrannical power over us, because grace has freed us from this. From these words someone else might conclude: so I need not worry, grace will do everything for me, I need not beware, foresee, or strain my strength in struggle. Everything will flow favorably of its own accord; I can live carelessly. – It is true that grace accomplishes all and is always ready with its help, but it always acts in connection and agreement with the inclinations of man’s will. It comes to the aid of one who is struggling, when he lacks strength to accomplish some deed. Therefore in life grace is grace, and free decisions are free decisions. Neither grace without these decisions, nor these decisions without grace accomplish anything; they act together. So do not grow slack upon hearing that, for the sake of grace, sin no longer has dominion over you, but guard the tension you accepted at the beginning – to resist sin. Sin does not dominate when you resist it and grace helps you because of your resistance. But drop your hands, give yourself to negligence, loosen your hatred of sin – sin will come, seduce, draw you, and gain dominion over you again; for grace will not do the work for you when you drop your hands. When you cease to resist sin, grace will withdraw from you, and you will be left alone; and left alone, you will not prevail over sin and will fall. That such a relaxation should not happen, the Apostle warns: what then? Shall we sin? Abandon all care to guard against sin, close our eyes, drop our hands? – No, he says, always be on guard and in full armor.

Such an exhortation Saint Chrysostom sees in these words: “Having reassured the listener with the preceding words (that sin no longer dominates), the Apostle protects him with advice, which he proposes in the form of an objection.” – Oecumenius expresses the same thought more clearly: “So that the listener, having heard that sin no longer dominates him on account of the protecting grace, should not become negligent and careless, the Apostle strengthens him, saying as if: if we do not submit ourselves to sin, we will not be captured by it.”

But since the tensions of the will depend on the strength of the surrounding motives, the holy Apostle, having said in general: “By no means” – do not grow slack – encourages resistance to sin by presenting the harmful consequences of indulging it and the great goods from faithfulness to the decision once made to live holy according to God’s will. On one side this is slavery and death, and on the other – freedom and life. The Apostle explains this in various ways to the end of the chapter.

Rom 6:16. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, whether of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Whoever you devote yourselves to with whole heart with readiness to obey, to him you become slaves. If you devote yourselves to sin, you become slaves of sin; if you devote yourselves to righteousness, you become slaves of righteousness. One might think: so it is the same – slavery here, slavery there. But besides the fact that slavery to righteousness is true freedom, while slavery to sin is real slavery, most oppressive and shameful, see the consequences: whoever serves sin is in death, and whoever serves righteousness is in life. Sin kills all the powers of the soul and exhausts the life of the body; but righteousness brings into true life, in which both soul and body flourish. After the words: “of sin, which leads to death” – one would expect: or of righteousness to life; but he said: “of obedience, which leads to righteousness.” Obedience, by contrast with disobedience, stands here for faithfulness to God’s will and His holy commandments. Against sin he sets forth the good disposition of the heart, which has decided to dedicate everything to God and to be most devoted to Him in all things. Such a disposition leads into righteousness, into a righteous condition, into that condition in which man should be by nature; and this is the condition of one truly living. To righteousness – means the same as: to true life.

Saint Chrysostom says on this place: “I do not speak, reasons the Apostle, about Gehenna and grave future punishment; but imagine only your shame, when you become slaves, slaves by your own will, slaves to sin, and for such a price, that you die again. If before baptism sin produced bodily death and the wound required such healing that the Master of all took death and thereby destroyed evil; then what will sin not produce, gaining power over you, when after such a gift and freedom you again and willingly bow under its yoke? Therefore, do not rush into this abyss, do not willingly surrender to sin. In war a soldier is sometimes forced to surrender; but here no one will take you captive, unless you yourself become a traitor. After these exhortations from shame, the Apostle acts through fear of retribution and puts before us the recompense awaiting each – righteousness and death, death not bodily, but far more dreadful. For if Christ dies no more, who will destroy this death? No one. Consequently, there must be eternal suffering and torment. For there will not even be bodily death, which, like in this life, would give rest to the body and separate it from the soul. For ‘the last enemy to be destroyed is death’ (1 Cor 15:26); consequently, punishment will be immortal. But those obedient to God await something different. Their reward will be righteousness and the goods flowing from it.”

Freed From Sin, Servants of Righteousness (Romans 6:17–20)

Rom. 6:17. But God be thanked, that you were servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

And how evil it is to be a servant of sin and how good to obey righteousness, you now know from your experience. Hold fast to the better! He now passes from the general principle to your particular case – what happened to those to whom he writes. So it is with all: they are either servants of sin to death, or servants of righteousness to life. Not both at once – but one or the other: either righteousness overcomes sin, or sin overcomes righteousness, depending on the inclination of your heart and the direction of your will. So it was with you: you were servants of sin, but when you heard the Gospel, you loved its teaching and surrendered yourselves wholly to all that it demands. This is the greatest good for you, with which no other can compare, and this good God has given you. He brought the Gospel to you and brought it about that, upon hearing it, you surrendered yourselves wholly to it. You cannot but recognize in this a great work of God’s mercy, and I myself recognize it. Let us cry out then: thanks be to God!

But the Apostle’s aim is not to arouse thanksgiving, but rather by arousing thanksgiving to dispose you to treasure that good whose receipt arouses gratitude. The good is so great that one cannot refrain from giving thanks to its Giver. But if it is so great, then it must be guarded with the greatest watchfulness. Holy Chrysostom says: “As one who has snatched a captive from the hands of a cruel torturer advises him not to return to that torturer, reminding him of his terrible cruelty, so Paul depicts with great force the sufferings endured (from sin), beginning with thanksgiving to God. It took not human strength, he says, to free us from all evils, but thanks to God, who both willed and was able to deliver us! And beautifully the Apostle said: ‘you have obeyed from the heart’. Not by compulsion, not by force, but willingly, by your own inclination you turned away from sin. In this lies both praise and also reproach. If you came willingly, without any compulsion, what excuse and justification will you have when you return to the former things? But that you may know that all this depended not only on your inclination but also on God’s grace, the Apostle, having said: ‘you have obeyed from the heart’, added: ‘that form of doctrine which was delivered you’. Obedience from the heart shows the free will; while the word ‘delivered’ suggests the help of God. What then is this form of doctrine? To live orderly and well-arranged.”

Rom. 6:18. Being then made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness.

You were servants of sin, but you hearkened to the Gospel and surrendered yourselves wholly to the righteousness it proclaimed and demanded. What came of this? That once you had accomplished all that was necessary for entry into the life required by the new teaching to which you had surrendered, by this very action you cast off the former yoke of slavery to sin and enslaved yourselves to righteousness. To live in righteousness is therefore your essential work and your good; this must constitute the spirit of your life from the moment of entry into the New Covenant of grace. Here is the truth concerning Christ Jesus: “that you put off concerning the former manner of life the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts… and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:22, 24). It teaches us to “deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:12–13). In consequence of this there lies upon us an urgent duty – to think upon and strive after “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise” (Phil. 4:8).

This is what the Apostle means by the words: “being made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness!” “He points here to two gifts of God: deliverance from sin and slavery to righteousness, which is better than any freedom. God acted like a man who takes to himself an orphan carried away by barbarians to their land, not only to free him from captivity but to become to him a caring father and to raise him to manhood. So, I say, God acted with us – not only freeing us from former evils but bringing us into an angelic life and preparing for us the way to perfect virtue, placing us under the protection of righteousness, slaying the ancient evil, mortifying the old man, and guiding us to immortal life” (holy Chrysostom).

Rom. 6:19. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity to iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness to holiness.

The words: “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh” may be referred to what precedes or what follows. In the first case the thought would be: I say: “you became servants of righteousness”, on account of the infirmity of your flesh. Strictly speaking, there should be no mention of any slavery at all; for in surrendering yourselves to the new teaching with the resolve to live according to its guidance, you have entered the realm of freedom – the freedom of God’s children. But since the infirmity of your flesh is such that you cannot fulfill all that the new law demands without experiencing opposition of the flesh, without struggling against evil in yourselves, and without compelling yourselves to good, the new life, because of this infirmity of your flesh, appears to be something resembling slavery, as if one walking this path carries a yoke. So understood blessed Photius according to Oecumenius. “I speak after the manner of men”, he says, “you became servants”; for strictly speaking, to live righteously is not slavery but true freedom and happiness. So why do you call this slavery when it is not slavery? Because of the infirmity of your flesh, he says, I speak so. That is, inasmuch as the mind of the flesh at first habitually opposes the commandments of righteousness, finding them burdensome and wearisome, having in view such infirmity of your flesh, I called righteous living slavery, after the manner of men. For we ordinarily, when we find something wearisome or do something under compulsion, apply to it the name of slavery and servitude. In this sense the Apostle Paul spoke: “I speak after the manner of men: you became servants of righteousness.”

If we refer these words to what follows, they will indicate the measure of slavery to righteousness, equal to the measure of slavery to sin. As you served sin, so serve righteousness. I say this because of the infirmity of your flesh. Can sin and righteousness be placed on the same level? And is it just then to demand only that you serve righteousness as much as you formerly served sin? But because of the weakness of your flesh, I limit the demand of the new life to only such a measure. It ought to demand far more, but at least do this. So understood holy Chrysostom, the same Photius, and all others. Holy Chrysostom says: “Above the Apostle demanded stricter conduct, commanded them to become dead to the world, to die to vice and to remain unmoved against the striving of sins. But such demands seemed great and heavy, even exceeding human nature. Therefore, wishing to show that he demands nothing excessive, that he demands less than ought to be demanded from one enjoying the gift of grace, and that his commandment is very suited to human strength and is light, he says: ‘I speak after the manner of men.’ This means the same as if he said: I speak by human reasoning, conforming to ordinary human practices. For by the word ‘after the manner of men’ he expresses the suitability of the demand with our strength. So in another place he says: ‘there has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man’ (1 Cor. 10:13), that is, suitable to your strength and small. However great the difference between the rulers (sin and righteousness), the Apostle demands that you serve righteousness in equal measure as you served sin. Although it would be fitting to serve righteousness far more, and all the more because its dominion is broader and better than the dominion of sin, yet I do not demand greater slavery, says the Apostle, because of your weakness. And he did not say: because of the weakness of your will or zeal, but, that the word might not grieve too much, he says: ‘because of the infirmity of your flesh.’ Who would be so wretched and poor as not to agree to serve Christ with the same diligence with which he served sin and the devil?”

“As you have yielded your members servants” – To yield one’s members as servants to someone means to give them to him as instruments of his action. In man all is ruled by his own personal will and activity. From this person flow designs and commands, which are executed by the various powers of soul and body, again by the command of that same person. Consciousness and self-activity constitute the person and are the source of our life and actions. But these qualities form only the form of life and action, while their spirit depends on the direction and disposition which the person of a man consciously and actively takes. There are two such directions: life according to God in righteousness and true holiness, and life in uncleanness and lawlessness. These directions are formed from love of God and his righteousness in the first case, and from love of sin with its uncleanness and lawlessness in the second. For when love of something is formed in the person, then it passes through consciousness and self-activity to the side of what is loved, surrenders itself to it, and arranges all things in itself and outside itself according to it; and this is the direction of life and action. Thus what is loved becomes the source and wellspring of conscious self-activity. A man does everything himself and consciously, but for the sake of what he has loved and what has come to rule over all of him because of his love. This thing served is his master; but as he himself is master of all his members, so through him it becomes master of them too, and the loved thing. At the moment of love he gave himself to what he loves, and with himself all his members, so that from that time forth both he himself and all his members become executors and instruments of what is loved: if sin is loved – instruments of sin, if righteousness is loved – instruments of righteousness. The Apostle said before that those taught by him through this Epistle were servants of sin, but then, upon hearing the Gospel, they wholly surrendered to its teaching with a firm resolve to follow it alone in all things. This is the same as: you formerly loved sin, but now you love righteousness and have turned away from sin. So then, he says, fulfill what love demands: give yourselves and all your members to righteousness, as formerly both have been given up to sin. By the constitution of the soul this cannot be otherwise. The Apostle expounds the law of the soul’s nature.

“Servants to uncleanness and to iniquity to iniquity”. The words “uncleanness and iniquity” need not be distinguished, for moral uncleanness is already iniquity, and conversely, every iniquity is moral uncleanness. But they may be distinguished, referring to uncleanness all kinds of sensuality, especially of the flesh, and to iniquity all other kinds of sins before God and men, and perhaps especially injustice, harm, envy, and all kinds of wickedness toward one’s neighbor. But what does “to iniquity” mean? – To increase of iniquity (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). Adding sin to sin, you increased iniquity. Every member of yours, serving sin, bore sin, as a branch of a tree bears fruit; and you were a many-branched tree, rich with fruits of sin. But it is possible, in contrast with the following indication: “to holiness”, to understand by “to iniquity” the lawlessness of all human nature. When sin is added to sin, iniquity penetrates more and more deeply: first into the member by which it is committed, and then, penetrating member by member, it penetrates all of human nature, and he becomes completely pervaded by iniquity. If we call lawlessness, as deviation from the law lying in our nature, a deviation from nature itself, then the permeation of nature by lawlessness will be a complete deviation of us from our nature, a disfiguring, perversion, and darkening of it. If we trace lawlessness to its source, Satan, then the unleashing of lawlessness in our nature is its satanization. The meaning of the word “to holiness” is determined by itself through contrast with what was said before about “to iniquity.” “To holiness” will mean: to increase of holiness. Adding one holy deed to another, they increase holiness. Each member, obeying righteousness, brings, as fruit, a holy deed; and man in this case becomes a many-branched tree bringing forth abundant fruits of holiness. The consequence of this should be the sanctification of all our nature. Each member, doing holy works, is pervaded by the sanctifying power of those works, and by constancy in doing holy deeds is filled throughout with holiness. When in this way other members one after another are filled with holiness, the whole person is filled with it; and all his nature becomes holy, pure, and bright. Within, love of righteousness; without, deeds of righteousness completely banish sin, and man becomes wholly holy. If we call righteousness the working and standing according to the law of our nature, then sanctification by righteousness of our nature will be the restoration of it to its natural rank, to that state in which it ought to be according to its original purpose. If we trace righteousness to its source – God – then sanctification by righteousness will be deification.

What a wonderful fruit – and yet how simply is it attained! Love righteousness and hate lawlessness, and then, sparing yourself not, compel every member of soul and body to fulfill only the commands of righteousness. What a simple demand! It is true that if we gather all that the Word of God imposes on each member of our nature, we get a large number of God’s commandments obligatory for us; but it is also true that at each moment only one work can lie upon us, and often upon one member alone. Consequently, the simple demand expressed by the Apostle is such in every moment of our life. Attend only to yourself and keep the love of righteousness you have received as your guiding compass – and you will never be confused by the complexity of works or overwhelmed by their number and weight, especially if you do not turn the eyes of your mind from the wonderful fruit you will at last taste from constancy in such a manner of action. This fruit, already hinted at in the present words, the Apostle hereafter depicts more fully, to draw those desiring to walk the path to its attainment and to kindle in them zeal for steadfast progress along it.

Rom. 6:20–21. For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

To inspire the fulfillment of the counsel he has proposed, the Apostle sets forth the fruits of both kinds of life – life in slavery to sin and life in righteousness. You, he says, when you served sin, lived by sin alone, and righteousness never entered your intentions and plans; you gave it a divorce and recognized no obligations concerning it; “you fulfilled only the commands of sin, you did not accept the laws of righteousness” (blessed Theodoret). “When you lived, surrendered to vice, impiety, and all evil, you were then in such obedience to sin that you did nothing good at all. Such is the meaning of the words: ‘you were free from righteousness’ – that is, you did not subject yourselves to righteousness but completely shunned it. You did not divide your services so as to sometimes serve righteousness and sometimes sin; but each one of you gave himself wholly to vice” (holy Chrysostom).

As an investigator of nature, wishing to know the action of some element on our body, frees it from all mixture with other elements, so that the action it produces may be attributed solely to it – and thereby he accurately determines its benefit and harm – so also holy Paul, removing his listeners from all outside influences and placing them exclusively under the action of sin, asks: look back and see what fruit you had when you served sin? You yourselves see what it was. Such that it is shameful even to remember it: you yourselves now are ashamed of what you did and what you were then. “Whereof you are now ashamed”. Sin is disgrace for a man. As it would be unspeakably shameful for a king’s daughter if she gave herself to shameful deeds; so for a soul created in the image of God and by nature obliged to be like its Creator, it is unspeakably shameful to give itself to sin and to disfigure itself in it. But the sinner, while he sins, does not fully perceive the shame of sin, often even boasts of it; when he comes out of sin and looks back, he cannot but flush with shame. Therefore the Apostle does not say: you were ashamed then, but: you are now ashamed. “Such was slavery to sin, that the very remembrance of it makes you now ashamed. And if the remembrance causes shame, how much more shameful is the deed itself. Consequently, you have now received a twofold benefit: you have been freed from shame and have learned in what condition you were, just as then you suffered a twofold harm: you committed shameful deeds and did not know that they were shameful – which is even worse than the first. Yet, despite the harm, you remained in slavery” (holy Chrysostom).

“For the end of those things is death”. It is not enough that sin covers with shame the face of man, the noblest and most perfect creature of God, reducing him to a state that makes him worse than the lowest creature; more than this, it subjects him to death: the end of life in sin is death – spiritual death (Oecumenius), after which eternal death surely follows after bodily death (blessed Theodoret). We may suppose that the Apostle means here not only bodily death but all-encompassing death – both bodily and spiritual and eternal. As soon as sin enters and begins to tyrannize in man, death also begins to work in him. Sin decomposes and destroys our nature: it decomposes the body, producing in it a struggle of vital elements, disturbing the natural course of bodily functions and throwing their harmony into disorder through excessive excitement of one element and suppression of another – the result of which is disease and always premature death; it decomposes the soul too, arming one of its powers against another, dividing them and thereby depriving the soul of the vitality proper to it, which depends on the harmonious action of all its powers. If the soul is not healed, it passes into eternity with this decomposing and destroying power of sin, as a result of which its eternal inheritance will be endless anguish and dying with all the horrors of death tearing at the heart. All this the Apostle brought to mind, saying that the end of sinful life is death.

What a powerful motivation this is – to yield no more to slavery to sin for those who have themselves experienced the disastrous state into which sin casts, and have just been freed from it! But the Apostle does not stop at this; rather, he adds a description of the blessed state into which slavery to righteousness places the believing Christian.

The Wages of Sin Is Death, but the Gift of God Is Eternal Life (Romans 6:22–7:2)

Rom. 6:22. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end everlasting life.

“But now” – having come out of that disastrous sinful state, having rejected sin and hated it, having loved righteousness and God, the source of righteousness, and having surrendered yourselves wholly to this new manner of life, as slaves surrender themselves to masters: “now you have your fruit to holiness”. Sin brought shame, debased, and perverted your nature, but righteousness, or rather God who has brought you to righteousness and keeps you in it, sanctifies your nature, brings it to a holy, pure, and unharmed state. You have set foot on the path to this bright state, and if you remain faithful to the decision you have made – to hate sin always and in all things and to love only righteousness, or in other words, if you continually enslave all the members of soul and body to righteousness as you formerly enslaved them to sin, you will surely attain it. If you preserve yourselves in this saving disposition until the end of life, you will pass into the other life holy and pure and begin to enjoy there unending bliss. The end of a holy life in Christ Jesus is eternal life, all-blessed. Judge that this shall be so by what you have already obtained: you have holiness. It is a pledge and foretaste of eternal blessedness. Having this in mind, can you grow weak in hatred of sin and in love of righteousness?

Holy Chrysostom says: “The fruit of the former state is shame; but the fruit of the present state is holiness. But where there is holiness, there is much hope. The end of the former state is death, but the end of the present is eternal life. Do you notice that the Apostle indicates one thing as given and another as awaited? But by what is given we are assured of what is awaited; by holiness we are assured of life (eternal-blessed). And lest you could say that everything is merely awaited, the Apostle proves that you have already reaped fruits here as well. First, you have been freed from vice and from those evil works which the very remembrance of fills you with shame; second, you have enslaved yourselves to righteousness; third, you have obtained holiness; fourth, you have gained life – and not temporal but eternal life. Yet despite all this, says the Apostle, serve God in at least the same measure as you served sin. Despite the fact that the new Master is more excellent and there is a great difference both in the very service and in the rewards for which you serve, I demand nothing more of you.”

Above the Apostle said: “being made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness”; but here he says: “being made free from sin, and become servants to God” – thereby showing that slavery to righteousness is slavery to God, as he taught above when he said that you must give your members “as instruments of righteousness to God” (6:13). Thus the Apostle teaches us that we must not stop at righteousness alone, but through it extend ourselves to God as the ultimate end. There are philosophers who think they can build good morality without God and faith in him. Follow conscience – and that is all. It is true that we ought to follow conscience, but why? Because it reveals God’s will to us. God has placed conscience in creation itself so that it might stand for his holy will. Therefore we see that as soon as conscience realizes that something or other is the law of God’s righteousness, it gives man no peace until it compels him to act according to this law. Such is the constitution of conscience. But even in its action it always depends on what kind of relation a man has toward God. He who remembers God and has fear of God has a strong conscience; but he who forgets God and loses fear of God has a weak conscience. So in our nature conscience is so united with God that without God it is itself little good for the purpose for which it exists in us. How then can good morality be founded on it alone?

There are other philosophers who sum up all their teaching on morals in the following brief proposition: believe in God and follow conscience. Fear of God together with conscience are mighty producers of good morality. And this is absolute truth; otherwise good morality cannot come into being. But how to awaken fear of God, how to raise conscience to a clear and full understanding of God’s will, and how, having understood this, to clothe the will with the power to steadfastly fulfill the promptings of conscience? These philosophers do not define and by themselves cannot define. All this is shown us by Christian revelation, and not only shown but brings us into a state of fear of God, knowledge of his holy will, and possession of the power to follow it. The first evangelical calling reveals itself in awakening fear of God and enlivening of conscience, which give birth to hatred of sin and love of righteousness, leading to the resolve to turn away from the one and cleave to the other. When this resolve is then sealed in baptism and receives the grace of God, the person coming forth from the font is already a mighty zealot of good works, ready rather to die than to violate in any way the holy will of God. This is the slavery to “God” of which the holy Paul speaks here, whose fruit is holiness. In saying “to God,” he means the reception of the whole ordering of our salvation by God in Jesus Christ, as he expresses shortly after, speaking of God’s giving in return for righteousness, that it will be in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rom. 6:23. For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“The wages of sin” – the same as above: “the fruit of sin,” – or its end and recompense for it. The Apostle employed such language because earlier he had portrayed sin in the form of a king. Sinners are therefore like the army of sin-king. As soldiers live on the royal allowance or pay, which is called wages, so sin-king also has his wages for his soldiers. What is it? Death. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Since sin formerly reigned and the Apostle named the poorly governed members as its instruments, it was appropriate to call the reward for sin ‘wages.’ And it is customary to call thus what is given to a soldier for his livelihood. For also in the Epistle to the Corinthians he says: ‘Who goes a warfare any time at his own charges?’ (1 Cor. 9:7).” In calling to himself the soldiers-sinners, he does not announce: come to me, serve under my banner and receive from me for this death. But with various seductive names and phantoms he covers both himself and the consequences of following him, so that he who rushes to him thinks he will be immersed in a sea of bliss. And this deception of sin is so great that, even seeing after each sin that such hope is false, sinners do not cease to hope that they will obtain this bliss. Only he who has managed to escape from this abyss of sin perceives that the wages of sin is death – soul death and bodily death and eternal death.

“But the gift of God is eternal life”. The king opposed to sin is righteousness, or the God of righteousness. He has his own soldiers – the workers of righteousness. One might expect the Apostle to say: the wages of righteousness, or the wages of God for righteousness; but he said: “the gift of God.” Why so? Because although eternal life will be the portion of those who served under the banner of righteousness and labored in its works, yet the recompense for it will not be in proportion to our righteousness but in proportion to the boundless goodness of God. Therefore it is more fitting to call it a gift rather than a reward for righteousness, although it will be given on the condition of righteousness. Moreover, the very ordering of eternal-blessed life, as well as the means to attain it, are gifts of God’s goodness. Here all is a gift of God. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Here, he said, not reward but gift, because eternal life is God’s gift. If anyone had attained the highest righteousness, eternal blessings would not be balanced by temporal labors.” Holy Chrysostom says: “Having said that death is the reward for sin, the Apostle did not preserve the same order when he began to speak of eternal life, and did not say: it is a reward for your merits – but: a gift of God – thereby giving to understand that we freed ourselves not by ourselves and received not a debt, not a reward, not recompense for labors, but rather all this is the work of goodness. And from this appears the excellence of grace; not only did it free us and improve our lot, but it did all this without our efforts and labors. It not only freed us but gave far more – it gave through the Son.”

“Through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Eternal life is the crown of the ordering of our salvation in the Lord Christ. But the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the Son of God made incarnate, is to us a gift of the goodness and love of God the all-good, who so loved the world that he even gave his only-begotten Son for us. Therefore eternal life is also God’s gift to us through him who was given before. The path to eternal life was closed, the door to it was locked. The first to pass this way and open the entrance was the Lord Jesus Christ, who passed by a new and living way and entered “within the veil.” After him now come there all who have believed in him and remained faithful to the laws of faith, as he himself promised that where he is, there also will his servant be.

d) Not to mix in Judaism (Rom. 7:1–6)

Having expounded all that has been said, the Apostle seems to hear the speech of a Jew addressed to him: “now, now – you are on our side. After all, the Law too demands only righteousness and holiness. Why then should we fall behind it?” Holy Paul responds: abandon the Law, brothers; it has already died for you, and you are free from it, just as a woman is free from obligations to a dead husband; and direct all your care to remaining faithful to the New Covenant, as a woman who has entered a new marriage after the death of the first husband ought to be faithful to the new husband. Explaining this, the Apostle both turns them away from the Law and does not weaken the obligations of believers toward holiness.

Rom. 7:1. Know you not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

The expression: “know you not” – indicates a direct connection of what follows with what precedes. Previously it was argued that believers ought no longer yield to sin but live holy and blameless, sustaining their resolve by consciousness of the harmful consequences of sin and the great benefits of holiness and righteousness. Therefore we must suppose that the subsequent discourse (Rom. 7:1–6) from the holy Apostle is directed to this purpose. Although he then begins to speak of the cessation of the Law and the termination of obligations to it, he does so in order to show that, having freed ourselves from the Law, we have not obtained freedom to be lawless; but we have entered into new obligations, have bound ourselves to live a new life according to the commandments of the Gospel, “that we should serve in newness of the spirit” (7:6). The Apostle’s aim is not to prove the cessation of the Law: he takes this truth as already proved – and only makes from it the necessary conclusion. He does this by comparing the obligation to the Law with the obligations of a wife to her husband. As long as the husband lives, the wife is bound to live with him; but when the husband dies, she is free to marry another and live with him; yet, having married another, she becomes bound by obligations equal to those before to the new husband. The same now applies to believers. They have died to the Law, and the Law has died to them: all obligations between them are ended. But, freed from the Law, they surrender themselves to another, to the Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Therefore they are obliged to live for him alone, in his Spirit and in his will. This is the same truth as in the preceding chapter – on the obligations of faith: “reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:11). That the Law stands here in place of sin is because to live under the Law, for the Apostle, is to live in the flesh with consciousness of the Law’s demands but without the power to fulfill them – that is, the same as living in sin. But he immediately transitions to this in this chapter.

The words: “brethren” – and: “(for I speak to them that know the law)” – are pleasing words to those he is addressing, in which, however, beyond courtesy is concealed an allusion to the fact that they cannot fail to agree with the conclusion which the Apostle is about to propose to them. For one addressed as knowing a certain proposition and accepting this designation will be ashamed not to agree with the direct conclusion from it.

“‘The law has dominion’ – rules, has authority, has binding force; ‘over a man,’ – “he did not say: over a husband or wife, but: over a man; for this name belongs to both” (holy Chrysostom). ‘As long as he lives’ – who? Man or Law? From these words it is not clear; but in what follows both the thought that the Law dies and the thought that man dies to the Law are expressed. Consequently, both can be understood here: whether the Law lives or man lives. There is reason to suppose that the Apostle intended to draw a twofold parallel with a twofold conclusion: whether the Law dies or man dies, the mutual obligations between them are ended. But he focuses on one side because from this the necessary conclusion follows more directly and quickly: ‘that she be married to another.’ Holy Chrysostom says: “Although he appears to speak of one thing, nevertheless he brings two arguments in support of what he says. The first argument is that a woman, by the death of her husband, is not subject to the law of marriage and is free to become the wife of another. The second argument is that in the present case not only the husband but also the wife dies, and therefore she enjoys a twofold freedom. For if she was freed by the death of the husband from his power, she became incomparably more free when she herself became dead. If one circumstance frees her from his power, much more is she free when both circumstances come together.” To make clear the words of holy Chrysostom, we must remember that the husband here means the Law, and the wife means the believers. The Husband – the Law – died because with the coming of Christ the Lord it ceased to be what it was. The Wife – the believers – died when they were buried with the Lord in baptism to death. And she became doubly free from the Law: on the one hand, because the husband ceased to be; on the other, because she herself died, yet in that death found new life, different from the former, in consequence of which, freed from the former obligations, she freely entered into new ones – ‘that she be married to another.’”

Rom. 7:2–3. For the woman which has an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

This provision of the law concerning a wife’s relation to her husband is clear in itself and requires no special remarks. But what should it signify in its application? Since the husband represents the Law here, and the wife represents those bound by the Law, the Apostle’s parabolic expression will convey: while the Law lives – that is, stands in force – so long are people subject to the Law obliged to obey it and live by its prescriptions; but when the Law dies – that is, ceases and loses its force – then those subject to it become free from its obligations, from obedience to it and following its prescriptions. Therefore, if those subject to the Law depart from it and submit to other rules while the Law is alive and has force, they are guilty before the Law and must be subject to its penalties, like a woman who gives herself to another while her husband lives. But if they surrender themselves to other rules after the Law has died, ceased, and lost its force, then they cannot be considered guilty before the Law or subject to its penalties: after the cessation of the Law they are free to submit to whatever they will, without becoming like an adulteress. Applying this to believers who have abandoned the Law and surrendered themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ through belief in him and submission to the new rules of life in his Spirit, it should have been said: so also you, brethren, ought to have obeyed the Law while it stood and had force. When it ceased and lost force, you became free from it and no obligation of it binds you. If you had departed from it while it was in force, you would have appeared as transgressors against it and would justly have been subject to punishment. But since you did this after the Law ceased and lost force, in departing from it you committed no transgression; for you were free to submit to the faith which you substituted for the Law. This is what should have been said. But the Apostle speaks otherwise and presents not the husband – not the Law – as dead, but the wife – that is, the believers (holy Chrysostom).

Dead to the Law Through the Body of Christ; Not to Mingle Judaism (Romans 7:4–6)

Rom. 7:4. Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God.

Why did holy Paul do this? Holy Chrysostom says: “in order not to offend the Jews with his words.” Although the believers had renounced the Law, they still could not but have respect for it. The Apostle did not say directly: the Law has died or ceased; but he limited himself to an allusion to it that was equivalent to the unspoken word. For how can we not see that the Apostle makes it known here that the Law has already died? (holy Chrysostom). The same explanation is offered by blessed Theodoret: “It would have followed from the Apostle’s example to say: the Law has died – that is, ceased to have force; but he, condescending to the weakness of the Jews, because they deeply respected the Law, and in order not to give occasion to heretics attacking the Old Testament to condemn the Law, did not say that the Law ceased, but speaks: we died to the Law in redemptive baptism.”

We may suppose that holy Paul intended here to make an application also from the cessation of the Law, namely: so for you now the Law has died – ceased and made you free; but he did not do this, leaving it to the readers themselves to complete by the obviousness of the matter, and only focused attention on the application from this case – freedom from obligations when the wife dies – as this gave him greater facility to draw the truth which he wished to impress upon his disciples. What it became after ceasing was not important to him, but what the believers dead to it should become – namely: “that you should be married to another.” This is what he hastens to set forth.

Moreover, in the provision of the Law one speaks of natural death, but in the application it is a matter of moral death. But the latter is a breaking off of mutual relations; therefore it is always mutual. He who dies to something – for him that dies to which he dies. Therefore in the words: you are dead to the Law – is contained also the other: the Law is dead to you. The mutual relations between you are ended; you are free from the Law. “Both the Law itself has died, and we have died, and the power of the Law over us is doubly abolished” (holy Chrysostom).

That the Apostle wished to combine both in one expression can be inferred from how he presents believers as dead to the Law. “You are become dead,” he says, “by the body of Christ” – that is, by the coming of the Son of God in the flesh and by his death on the cross (holy Chrysostom). And by the power of this death the Law too has ceased, and all believers die to all the former in holy baptism. The whole Law was a shadow falling from the coming of the Lord in the flesh and dying on the cross. The Law is the shadow, but the body is Christ. When the body stands before you, who pays attention to the shadow? It no longer occupies attention, and everyone forgets it. So also with the coming of the Lord the Law is no longer needed; its power has ceased and been done away, namely by the Lord’s death. But by the power of this same death believers also die in baptism, in which they are buried with the Lord. If they die, then all their former relations are broken off. Consequently, their relations to the Law are also broken off: they also die to it. And it follows from the Apostle’s words that believers die to the Law by the same that the Law has died or ceased for them. And the Law dies when they die to it by the body of Christ. And so the expression of the Apostle, only apparently gives the thought that it does not answer the flow of the discourse; in substance, however, he expresses what is expected.

With the words: “you are become dead to the law by the body of Christ” – the application to the provision of the Law set forth above is complete. The Apostle hastens thereupon to the conclusion from it: “that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead. That you should be married” – is so joined with “you are become dead” that both appear to have been accomplished in a single act. They died that they might be married to another; or they died because they gave themselves to another. In baptism this is done openly: “Are you united with Christ?” – “I am united.” Clearly, here a new marriage takes place: the soul unites with the Lord Christ – freely, willingly, but so decisively as death.

The words: “him who is raised from the dead” – show that the words “by the body of Christ” should be understood “of the death of the Master” (holy Chrysostom). He added them, moreover, so as to bring to mind what was said above: “like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4); which he also expressed here, only in different words: “that we should bring forth fruit to God.” We have been freed from the Law, but at the same time have been united with the Lord Christ. We have passed from one marriage to another; from one set of obligations to another. But why should we have moved at all when this transition is not into freedom but into new obligations – from subjection to subjection, from work to work? For this reason: that in the new union we shall bear fruit “to God.” The former union did not make us fruitful: we were subject to it, we submitted to it, but bore no fruit; we were barren for God. Now, however, having united with “him who is raised from the dead,” we have obtained in him the power to “bring forth fruit” “to God.” This word is very powerful and required confirmation: how so – the Law is barren?

Rom. 7:5. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which are by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit to death.

Now we have obtained the ability to bring forth “fruit to God”; but what was it before? Before we bore fruit to death. Why so? Because then sinful passions held dominion over us and, causing us to commit unlawful deeds, put us to death through sin. This is what it was like when we were under the Law! – such is the thought of the present text. In this connection arise questions requiring an answer.

First. Why did the Apostle not say: when we were under the Law – but says: “when we were in the flesh”? There is suggested the thought that to be in the flesh, according to the Apostle, is the same as to be under the Law. This thought is confirmed by the following verse: “but now we are delivered from the law” – that is, we have ceased to be in the flesh. In what sense then can living under the Law be called being in the flesh? It can be – in the sense that service under the Law was especially fleshly – bodily, material, leading to fleshly purity, without cleansing or correcting the soul and heart. So understands blessed Theodoret: “‘when we were in the flesh’ – that is, when we led a life under the Law; for the Apostle named by “flesh” the laws given for the flesh concerning food, drink, leprosy and the like.” But further, precisely because the Law, as a material and bodily service, leads only to fleshly purity without correcting the heart and consequently leaving sin and passions to rule there – living under the Law is equivalent to living a fleshly life, a lustful and self-indulgent life. So understands holy Chrysostom: “‘in the flesh’ – that is, in evil deeds, in fleshly life: for he does not mean to say that until now we have been in the flesh, but now have become incorporeal.” Whether one accepts the one or other meaning, the thought of the word is the same. The Apostle wished to express the spirit and force of the Law and the character of life under the Law; therefore he said: “in the flesh” – instead of: under the Law. Holy Chrysostom says that he did this so as not to give any occasion to heretics who judged wrongly of the Law.

Second. What do the words mean: “the motions of sins, which are by the law, did work”? How are sinful passions through the Law? – Aroused, countenanced, given strength?! Did the Law incline to passions or indulge them?! On the contrary, it condemned them, forbidding even wicked desires. How then do sinful passions come through the Law?

“Sinful passions are not implanted in us by the Law. God created our nature pure from passions. But when we fell away from God and, stopping at ourselves instead of God, began to love ourselves and please ourselves in all ways, then in this selfishness we received all the passions which root in it and are born from it. The Law came afterward, not in order to indulge the passions but to restrain them: for it contained prescriptions directly opposed to the passions, saying, for instance: you shall not kill, or you shall not steal, or you shall not commit adultery, and even you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. How then are sinful passions through the Law? The Apostle said only: through the Law – leaving us to complete the thought ourselves: through the Law – what? Not born through the Law; not indulged through the Law. What then – ‘through the Law’? Revealed, known, exposed. So all our holy interpreters. Holy Chrysostom says: the ‘Law’ fulfilled the duty of a strict exposer and revealed sins. Therefore the Apostle did not say: ‘sinful passions,’ – existing under the Law; but says: ‘which are by the law’ – that is, revealed by the Law, or known through it.” Blessed Theodoret writes: “the Law did not impel to sin but condemned in sin; but sin made bad use of what was good.”

With this understanding of the words: “the motions of sins, which are by the law, did work in our members” – we can paraphrase it differently thus: the motions of sins revealed and known by the Law, or, despite the fact that they were revealed, exposed, and known by the Law – worked in our members. The passions are portrayed as some kind of masters over which there was no control. As spasms or convulsions come from some external force entering into our members and twisting them at will; so passions work in our members when they are aroused arbitrarily. But where then are freedom and self-activity? Here as well: a man freely gave himself to the passions and himself acted with intensity to satisfy them. Did not man see the evil from the passions? And what of conscience? Conscience, strengthened and supported by the Law, rose up against the passions, and man himself saw their destructive action – and yet willingly gave himself to the passions and gave them power to work arbitrarily in his members. In the passions dwells the sweetness of sin, and fallen man has adopted self-indulgence as his principle, which is always allied with the sweetness of sin. Therefore, as soon as any passion arises with its inherent sweetness, self-indulgence immediately takes its side, drawing along consciousness, freedom, and self-activity before conscience has time to give its sobering voice. When such a union of the human person with passion occurs before the voice of conscience, then afterward, whatever conscience may say, man rushes headlong to act according to the passion. This is what the Apostle depicts, saying: “the motions of sins… did work in our members” – like masters or tyrants. Theodoret writes: “not our members produced sin, but in our members the inclination of the soul toward evil gave freedom to the activity of sin. And, living under the Law (or despite the force of the Law), we suffered the strongest impulses of sin, because the Law showed what ought to be done but, in order to do it, offered no help.” And holy Chrysostom speaks more fully: “The Apostle does not blame even the flesh, did not say: passions which were produced by the members – but: ‘which did work’ in our members. By this he shows that in man there is another source of depravity, namely: not the uncontrolled members, but the controlling thoughts. The soul was as if a musician, and the bodily nature – a harp; it produced such sounds as the musician caused it to produce. Therefore the discordant playing should be blamed not on the harp but on the player.”

What then was the consequence of such a state of affairs? That we by our life and by our deeds only brought forth fruit to death, so that it might seem as though the purpose of such an order (intentional) was that we should bring forth fruit to death: “that we should bring forth fruit to death.” But this only appears so in the expression; the Apostle’s thought is merely to show what was the consequence of the dominion of passions over us. Otherwise one can paraphrase it thus: and thus we only brought forth fruit to death. This is in contrast to what was said in the preceding verse, that we have been united with the Lord Saviour to bring forth fruit to God. He seems to answer the question: united with the Lord to “bring forth fruit” “to God,” but what was it before? Before, he says, sinful passions worked in our members, despite the exposure and prohibition of the Law, and we only did one thing – brought forth fruit to death.

The expression: “bring forth fruit to death” – means: to do such works as only deadened rather than gave life. It means moral death, which directly flowed from the discord that reigned inside man because of the dominion of the passions. The Law exposed the passions, conscience agreed with this exposure and gave its voice to the words of the Law, and man was persuaded by the word of the Law and the voice of conscience; but whenever a passion arose, he, in defiance of the Law and conscience, consciously and willingly gave himself to the passion. By this he mercilessly struck and killed himself morally. Every sin, as an act to gratify passion against conscience, is a death blow to our spirit. Blow after blow – and finally death, that is, such a state when good impulses no longer arise from the heart.

Rom. 7:6. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

But now – upon the completion of the gracious economy of salvation, upon our entry into it and upon our union with Christ the Saviour. In verses 5 and 6 the Apostle explains how it came to pass that, having been united with the Lord, we obtained the ability to “bring forth fruit” “to God.” In verse 5 he explained what was in us before this union – that then the passions worked despite their exposure by the Law, and only death-bringing results did they produce in us. In verse 6 he shows what has become of us through such a union and as a consequence of it – “but now. But now” – indicates not merely the ordering of salvation in the Lord but rather the obtaining of it by each person. The Apostle refers to experience, speaking as if: look at what is in you and judge. For saving grace is always present in the truly faithful and with its fruits.

“‘We are delivered from the law,’ κατηργήθημεν – we are abolished, freed, severed. The thought is: we have no more need of the Law. The Law was given to restrain the passions by the severity of its prescriptions and by fear of temporal and eternal punishments. This it succeeded in doing, but it did not remove the passions themselves; they remained in the heart even under it and drew toward the unlawful. Those under the Law are like a child. A child reaches for what is harmful; the mother strikes its hands – and it hides them; but it keeps looking at what it reached for and, if the mother were not striking its hands, would certainly seize that harmful thing – which it does as soon as it sees there is no mother. So too the law-bound, drawn by passions, reached toward the unlawful. The Law by fear of judgment restrained these attempts – and, while the memory of this was alive, the law-bound refrained from unlawful deeds, yet continued to sympathize with them and desire them. But as soon as this memory faded, unlawful deeds immediately followed. Such is the general character of life under the Law. ‘But now,’ says the Apostle, it is quite different: we no longer need such a guardian and restrainer – we are freed and delivered from it. Why? Because there is no longer in us that which it was appointed to restrain – in us dwells a new beginning of life – true, spiritual.”

“‘Being dead wherein we were held,’ – having died to that which held us. What held us? Self-will, or self-indulgence, which, uniting with the sweetness inherent in the sinful passions born from it, held us in its bonds, not allowing higher aspirations to arise and suppressing those that did arise. The grace of God, through faith in the Lord, dwelling in true Christians through the mysteries, by arousing complete self-denial mortifies self-will, and by the granting of a living sensation of higher goods defeats the sweetness of sin and thus delivers us from that which holds us before the reception of grace. Here we die to that which held us, and that which held us dies in us.”

But this is only one side: “being dead.” In material nature death is the negation of life: the living ceases to live. In spiritual life dying is not a cessation of life but the birth of new principles of life, which reject the former. Self-denial kills self-will or self-indulgence; what then? Nothing? No, not nothing. He who has denied himself or cut off self-indulgence in himself does not pass into emptiness, but at the same time as he denies himself he turns toward God, and at the same time as he kills in himself self-indulgence, he is reborn in himself with a zeal for pleasing God; likewise, when the sweetness of sin in the passions is destroyed, at the same time is born a sensation of the sweetness of the highest spiritual blessings, a sweetness with which no sweetness of sin can be compared. And it is even because the former departs that the latter enters. All this is produced by divine grace, which regenerates to new life.

Thus believers in the Lord, having died to that which held them, are at the same time enlivened by the opposite spiritual principles: instead of self-indulgence – zeal for pleasing God, instead of the sweetness of sin – inexpressible spiritual sweetness, which silences the sweetness of sin. The presence of these principles brings it about that believers no longer live for themselves but for God, finding in this joy and sweetness. This is what the Apostle expresses when he says: “so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. In newness of spirit” – he calls precisely the presence in us of these new, formed by divine grace and operating in us principles of spiritual life, and by “oldness of the letter” – the prescriptions of the Law: do not do this, do not touch that. Now, he says, we are so constituted that we can serve God by impulses arising from within from our renewed spirit, and not by outward instructions. These latter were necessary before, but now they are superfluous – “we are delivered from the law” by this very fact that we ourselves and wish to and can do all that the Law required. The Apostle called this “serving God”: for in Christ Jesus all proceeds from God and all returns to God, inasmuch as all is done by him.

Let us note that it is unjust that many interpreters refer the words: “wherein we were held” – to the Law and in their translations make rearrangements that confuse the Apostle’s words and thereby obscure the meaning. Our interpreters understand by the one who held us not the Law but sin. We cite the words of holy Chrysostom: “but how then are ‘we delivered’? Thus, the old man, possessed by sin, has died and been buried. The Apostle expressed this, saying: ‘being dead wherein we were held.’ By this he seems to say: the bond by which we were held is given to corruption and has dissolved; so that the one holding us, that is, sin, has nothing left to hold.” Thus Theophylact, Oecumenius and others.

The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

To make the representation of the beneficence of faith in Christ more impactful, Saint Paul first depicts the power of our corruption in the Fall, or the power of sin dwelling in us. The occasion for this he took from the preceding demonstration of the powerlessness of the law. This demonstration raised the question: So, according to you, is the law sin? You speak of the law in such a way that it seems all sinfulness comes from it. If it did not exist, there would be less sin or none at all. It came and only multiplied sins.—In answer to this, the Apostle does not deny that the introduction of the law was accompanied by such a consequence; but he places the blame for this not on the law, but on sin dwelling in us (Rom 7:7–13). Then he sets forth what this sin dwelling in us is, how it works, and in what it reveals itself (Rom 7:14–25). Both imprint on the mind a disconsolate picture of our moral corruption, strong enough to evoke from anyone the complaint: wretched as we are! What shall we do? Against this the Apostle sets another picture, far more comforting, representing the most bright state of those graced by faith in the Lord, in which power against sin is replaced by the opposite power toward good—a bright state that prepares for an even brighter life in the age to come (Rom 8:1–39). So this entire section can be entitled: a) A depiction of the power of our corruption in the Fall or the power of sin dwelling in us (Rom 7:7–25); and: b) A picture of the bright state of those restored from the Fall by the beneficent action of faith in Christ (Rom 8:1–39).

a) A depiction of human moral corruption (Rom 7:7–25)

Aa) The law did not multiply sins, but sin dwelling in us (Rom 7:7–13)

Rom 7:7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle in what was said above used many such expressions which those wishing to revile the law would use as grounds for condemning it, if he had not made the present resolution of the questions. It was said: ‘The law entered, that the offence might abound’ (Rom 5:20), and: ‘The law works wrath’ (Rom 4:15), and: ‘By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified’ (Rom 3:20), and the like. Presenting an objection on this account: ‘Is the law sin?’—the Apostle answered it with a decisive denial: ‘God forbid.’—Saint Chrysostom, having cited the same passages, and besides them the following: ‘The motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members,’ and also: ‘Where there is no law, there is no transgression’ (Rom 4:15), adds: “Since all this is apparently spoken in accusation of the law, the Apostle, to destroy such suspicion, introduces an objection and says: “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid.” He denies directly, so as to win over his hearer and correct the offended one. For he, having heard and been convinced of the Apostle’s mind, will together with us inquire into what seems difficult, and will not suspect the speaker. Therefore the Apostle, having first proposed an objection, added also his own mind and did not say: What should I say?—but: “What shall we say?” As if advice and opinions were being given at a gathering of the whole Church, as if the objection were not made by the Apostle, but flowed of itself from what was said above and from the nature of the matter. No one will dispute, says the Apostle, “that the letter kills, but the spirit gives life” (2Cor 3:6). (This is cited as a balance to what preceded: “that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”) This is so clear that there is no room for objection. And when there is no doubt about that: what should we say of the law? Is it that it is sin? God forbid.”—‘God forbid’—we cannot think that the law is sin, that is, that it teaches or indulges the production of sin (Oecumenius). After such an answer, however, there still remained something unclear, what the words spoken before signified. “So, resolve the difficulty” (Saint Chrysostom). And the Apostle resolves this difficulty in the following section (Rom 7:7–13), the content of which can be expressed thus: all that was said indeed accompanied the law; but the law is not to blame for this, but sin dwelling in us. And he establishes the beginning of such a resolution with words that follow immediately after the decisive “God forbid”: ‘Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.’”

These words present different thoughts or different nuances of the same thought, depending on how they are combined with what precedes: “God forbid.” They can be combined thus: “God forbid”—not only is the law not sin, but I would not even have known what sin and lust are if the law had not taught me to distinguish them. The law made clear to me what ought to be done and what not to do; I know what is a good deed and what is an evil—sinful—deed. And not only did it make all this clear, but applied punishment for non-compliance, so that I would not think at some point that I could fail to comply with its precepts. Thus the law is a teacher of good, not of sin. So understood Blessed Theodoret: “The law is not only not a teacher of sin—‘God forbid’—but precisely the opposite: it is an accuser of sin; for I would not have known what is evil if it had not taught me.” “The Apostle did not say: ‘I had not committed sin, but by the law,’—but: ‘I had not known;’ so the law is not the cause of the production of sin, but of its recognition, like a pedagogue, not allowing us to fall unknowingly to the level of the irrational” (Photius in Oecumenius).

With such an understanding of these words, they strengthen “God forbid.” But they can also be joined with thoughts by which they would weaken this denial. It could be thus: the law is not the author and teacher of sin, but the multiplier and intensifier of my sinfulness. It revealed to me all that is sinful, but gave me no strength not to sin. I now know what is sinful, and yet still sin; and these sins of mine became heavier under the law than they were before without the law. I would sin even without it, but would not know many things were sinful; but now I know and sin. My sins have become conscious and therefore more culpable. But in this there is not blame of the law, but praise: for in revealing before my eyes the weight of my guilt, it strengthened fear of punishment and thereby compelled me to guard against sin. Thus understand Oecumenius: “I do not say that the law is the author of sin, but that it is for me the author of knowledge of sin or consciousness of guilt, which subjected me to the heaviest punishment as one sinning knowingly”—and Ambrosiaster: “The law is not sin, but an indicator of sin. It showed that even the most secret sins are sins and cannot pass without punishment before God. But, learning this, man should have considered himself more guilty and responsible, and, judging by this, could not apparently be grateful to the law. For who will regard favorably one who threatens the most severe punishment?…Yet even in this respect the law is good and right: for to point out impending trouble is a good deed.”

One could also say: the law does not teach sin and does not indulge it; but by forbidding sin, it incites to sin. Many things I never even thought to do; but when the law pointed out to me all unlawful deeds, of some of them, which I had not even thought of before, I began to think, and thinking, came to desire them, and desiring, bent toward them, and bending, began to sin. Even if it did not incite to something sinful—unknown—it intensified the desire for the sinful—known—by some opposition to the law dwelling in me. Thus the law served me as an occasion for sin. But the blame for this lies not with the law, but with myself. The law presented itself to me not as an occasion for sin, but as a restraint from it. But I myself made the law an occasion for sin. So Saint Chrysostom: “Do you see how the Apostle imperceptibly gives us to understand that the law not only exposes sin, but in some way also provides an occasion for it? Nevertheless, he places the blame for this not on the law, but on the foolishness of men.”—The same also says Oecumenius: “The Apostle hints that the law is something that prepares and serves as an occasion for sin, not by its own nature, however, but by the wickedness of men.”

Whichever of these understandings we take, each one absolves the law and confirms “God forbid.” But the first is close to the truth; not far off is the third, being in accord with what follows. The second, however, is not direct, but derivative.

“But in what sense is it said: ‘I had not known sin—I had not known lust!’ For in reality we do know sin and lust is known. It is in the sense that after the proclamation of the law all this became known more clearly, more definitely, and more completely; but before the law, although it was known, it was confused, undefined, and incomplete. Consequently many things seemed permissible and were covered by general indulgence and justification. But now we cannot view any deed in such a way. “Concerning what I did not even suspect was not permitted by God, I now know is sin” (Ambrosiaster).—Blessed Theodoret writes: “The words “I had not known”—do not show here complete ignorance, but by them is expressed that in the law I received more precise knowledge than my natural discernment has” (of good and evil).” Saint Chrysostom expresses the same thought more fully: “If man had not known lust before receiving the law, why would the Flood happen? Why would Sodom be destroyed? In what sense then does the Apostle speak thus of lust? In this, that although those living even before the law knew that they were sinning, they learned it more thoroughly when the law was proclaimed, and therefore from that time began to be subject to greater condemnation. For it is one thing to have nature as an accuser, and another—to have beyond nature a law as well, which gives clear precepts concerning all things.”—Blessed Theophylact points to a particular nuance in the same thought, with an eye to the more active side, namely: I experienced sinful and lustful impulses even before, but not with such force; when, however, the law came, they became so fierce that there was no restraint—they made themselves known to me. “We knew,” he says, “even then that sin and lust are evil; but then the desire was not so intensified.”

By the word “sin”—we can understand a particular sin, and by the word “lust”—generally sinful attraction to all that is forbidden. But it can also be understood conversely: sin as generally sinful attraction, and lust as a particular desire for something that should not be desired, since in the law, where it says “You shall not covet,”—it specifically indicates what should not be desired (Ex 20:17). In the following verse they stand in such a way that sin is clearly considered the source of lust; while in the present it seems rather that lust is set as the source of sin. Therefore we need not insist on one particular meaning of these words here.

The Apostle speaks in his own person: I knew not, I was ignorant. But it is clear he speaks not of himself alone. For later, continuing his discourse in his own person, he says: “I was alive without the law once”—which he could not have said directly of himself. Without written law did not live he alone, but mankind; therefore we must suppose that although he speaks here in his own person, not from his own person: “he brings the general cause of all humanity” (Ambrosiaster). “In himself he understands man in general” (Oecumenius). This remark is not so necessary here as it will become when interpreting the section beginning with verse 14.

Rom 7:8. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

The law is not sin, not its producer or teacher; on the contrary, it taught me to distinguish clearly what is the forbidden sin. But how did it come about that sins were multiplied when the law came? Thus: sin dwelling in me, upon hearing the commandment, one part of which commands and the other forbids, began against every commandment to kindle in me the opposite lust and plunge me into sin—and thus sins were multiplied on account of the commandments. Sin dwelling in me lies as if dead until it hears the law opposed to itself; but as soon as it hears it, it awakens and begins to rage and kindle lusts. It resembles a venomous serpent or blood-thirsty beast which lies calmly in its den or lair, as if not there, until it senses that someone has entered its domain; but as soon as it senses this, it immediately rises with all its ferocity and attacks the disturber of its peace.

Sin here in the Apostle is the sin dwelling in us, or the law of self-gratification, which has seized our fallen nature, according to which it is imperative to do only that which pleases oneself, despite all opposition to it, both within and without, however respectable it may be. This self-gratification, by the breadth of its realm, is silent, as if not knowing where to turn, as if sated; but as soon as it hears the forbidding of something sweet to it, immediately it rushes to its defense, unwilling to part with it. Such a law of self-gratification has even been noticed by the heathen, who said that we commonly incline toward what is forbidden and burn with even greater desire for that in which we are refused. Self-gratification lies at the foundation, in the depths of sinfulness. It generates lusts—now one, now another, now a third, depending on which commandment forbidding something it encounters. The lusts themselves are not many; these are the passions. But the deeds satisfying each lust or passion are many. The Apostle speaks of lusts and passions as sources of deeds. Every lust or passion or all the lusts and passions together in his teaching come from sin dwelling in us. Here is the root of the fact that sins multiply despite the commandments or even on account of the very commandments.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle thereby attempts to prove that the law is not subject to accusation. Since he said that with the promulgation of the law sins increased, so that no one might think that the law is the cause of this, he necessarily shows the way sin acted, namely that it, turning the promulgation of the law into an occasion for struggle, overcame the weak thought.” Theophylact clarifies: “He did not say: the law ‘wrought concupiscence,’—but: ‘sin;’ the inclination to pleasure (self-gratification) and striving toward the worse itself misused the very teaching of the law.”—But more fully the entire production of sinfulness under the law is set forth by Saint Chrysostom: “Do you see how he has removed the blame from the law? Sin, says the Apostle, not the law, increased lust; and it came about opposite to what the law desired. This proves weakness, not maliciousness of the law. When we cherish a desire for something and are forbidden it, the fire of desire burns more fiercely. But this does not come from the law; it forbade so as to turn away from the desire. Sin, that is, your negligence, your evil will, turned the very good to evil use. And in the misuse of the medicine, the physician is not to blame, but the patient. God did not give the law to kindle lust by it, but to extinguish it. Although the opposite came about, but the law is not to blame for it, but we are. It would be unjust to blame one who, to a patient with fever, who is glad continually to drink cold water, does not permit much drinking and thereby intensifies in him such a destructive desire. It is the business of the physician only to forbid; the patient himself ought to abstain. What of it if sin found occasion through the law? To a wicked man even a good command often serves as occasion to become more depraved. So the devil destroyed Judas, casting him into love of money and making him a thief of what belonged to the poor. But the money box entrusted to him was not the cause of his ruin, but the evil disposition of the will.—Do not marvel that Paul, speaking of the law, employed very strong expressions. He limits himself to what is most necessary; as much as he does not permit his words to serve as an occasion to understand the matter otherwise, so much he cares to correct those already understanding wrongly. Therefore, accept here not bore words, but enter into the reason which compelled the Apostle to speak thus, picture to yourself the fury of the Jews and their invincible stubbornness, which he strove to overcome. When he apparently speaks much against the law, he does not blame the law, but only overthrows the stubbornness of the Jews. If to the law one imputes that sin through it found occasion, then you will find that the very same thing happened also in the New Testament. For in the New Testament too there are thousands of laws concerning many, even the most important matters. And everyone sees that the very same thing happens here not only concerning lust, but generally concerning every vice. ‘If I had not come and spoken to them,’—says Christ,—‘they had not had sin’ (Jn 15:22). Consequently, sin here too found an occasion for itself and greater punishment. And Paul, in reasoning about grace, says: ‘Of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God?’ (Hebr 10:29). Consequently, the greater gift served toward the heaviest punishment. Likewise also of the Gentiles the Apostle says that they became without excuse; because, being endowed with reason and having the opportunity through the study of the beauties of creation to raise their mind to the Creator, they did not use God’s wisdom as they ought. You see that good deeds (God’s benefits) for the vicious have always served as an occasion to be more punished. But certainly, for this reason we will not blame God’s benefits; on the contrary, we will admire them all the more; let us condemn those who turned good itself to evil. We will act the same way regarding the law. Note that the Apostle did not simply say: ‘wrought concupiscence,’—but: ‘all manner of concupiscence,’—meaning thereby the excess of lust. You ask: What then is the benefit of the law, if passion is intensified by it? None—on the contrary, still greater harm.—This is how it came about; but it is not the law that is to blame, but the negligence of those who received the law. For lust is produced by sin, and although through the law, yet then when the law cared not for that, but for the opposite. Consequently, sin became much stronger than the law. But even this must be placed again not at the fault of the law, but at human ingratitude.”

What does it mean: “For without the law sin was dead”? He does not say “was dead,”—but “is dead”; consequently he expresses a general principle. Always, he says, it is so that, while the law is not promulgated, sin is dead. But what does this death mean? That sin before the law is not recognized as sin. People sin, but do not know that they sin, and remain at peace. But when the law clearly says that this and that is sin, then sin is seen, as if emerging from some concealment. But since before the Apostle stands the thought that sin dwelling in us, on the occasion of the law, wrought all manner of lust and, consequently, as if awakened by the law; then by “dead”—would it not be better to understand: inactive,—as if asleep and motionless? Among our interpreters both understandings are found.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “While there is no law showing what ought to be done and forbidding what ought not to be done, sin has no place.” Continuing this discourse, Blessed Theophylact says: “That is, it is not considered to exist (not recognized). When, however, there is a law prescribing what is proper, then sin lives, that is, exists and is considered sin by those who transgress the law, who sin consciously.” The same thought also in Ambrosiaster: “The Apostle called sin dead, inasmuch as it was thought that since it (before the law) was not imputed by God, it was dead among men in the sense that people sinned as if unpunished. In reality sin was not hidden under a bushel, but it was not known that God would judge for it—so that when the law was promulgated it became clear, sin seemed to come alive. It lived before, but by the negligence of men was considered dead, being in fact alive. They thought it was not imputed, when it was imputed. That is, it, being alive, was considered dead.”—Oecumenius, however, understands by death the inactivity. “Sin is dead, that is, inactive. Though it acted before the law, it did not do so with such force. Many sins, he says, seemed to sleep or had died. Much I did not know, and, committing the unlawful in ignorance, I did not sin so heavily. And sin then did not attack me so fiercely. But when the law came, it became enraged against me.”

Sin, Taking Occasion by the Commandment, Wrought Death (Romans 7:9–13)

Rom 7:9–10. I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

“I was alive,”—in relation to what follows, means here: I lived; and “the commandment,”—in relation to what precedes, means the law. While, he says, there was no law, sin was dead, and I was alive; but when the law came, sin revived and began to live, and I died. What the death of sin without the law means was indicated by the words of the holy Fathers above—either non-recognition and not so clear recognition of sin, or its inactivity. Correspondingly, “I was alive”—in such a state of sin, because of the absence of the law, will mean: I lived without the law, because without it I did not recognize sin and did not so clearly recognize it, or because then sin slept in me and remained inactive. In contrast, the reviving of sin after the promulgation of the law will be—clearer recognition of it or bringing it into actuality—stirring it up; and the death of man or the soul will be—sinning with consciousness of sin, or being subject to all the harmful action of sin. The life of the soul lies in consciousness of the rightness of its action before God, before men, and before itself. When such consciousness is driven out by a manner of life, the life of the soul is not life, but anguish. Conscience enters into its rights and begins to gnaw at the soul, as a worm gnaws at wood or moth at cloth. While the law was not present, conscience was at peace; for it was not conscious of unlawfulness of deeds. But when the law revealed the whole realm of unlawfulness, conscience could not be at peace and silent; for its nature is to stand for God’s law. It raised its voice and began to torment man. As he, even under the law, remained in the same manner of action—sinful—he came to be, under it, under the constant torment of conscience, was as it were decomposing and dying, because of this internal discord. Sinning with consciousness of sin is the same for the soul as piercing the heart with a sword. The soul, in the act of sin, freezes. But as it is by nature not mortal, it again departs, as if it awakens, though no longer as it was before. A new conscious sin again strikes it, and it again awakens, but now even more weakly alive. So true life, with conscious sinning in it, is exhausted, and finally quite dies. It lives, for it is not mortal; but this life is no longer life. This consequence is hastened moreover by the fact that sin, at the appearance of the commandment opposed to it, comes into tension, as if a person prepared to stand up for itself. For, by bringing sin into tension, the law does not, however, give strength to resist it. And in this way it seems deliberately to hand man over to the power of sin. So when “the commandment came,” sin revives and the soul dies, if along with the commandment she is not also given strength to resist sin.

Oecumenius writes: “How did sin revive? Through the law. In what way? Thus: when the law was given, sin became more provoked to attacks on man and rushed more fiercely in every way to tempt him. As if suspecting that if man kept the commandments of the law, he would receive crowns, and therefore became more enraged against him. On the other hand, I too, says the Apostle in the person of man in general, having learned sin from the law, yet not ceasing to sin, came to sin by weightier sins, as one doing in knowledge that which ought to be shunned, and in this way drove sin deeper into myself and rooted it in myself, giving it greater power through conscious sinning and it, being weak and as if frozen, awakening and inflaming. But it, awakened, killed me; whereas before its awakening I lived more. Thus sin, after the promulgation of the law, revived in two ways: first, in that it was stirred up and provoked to more fierce attacks; second, in that we, with the law openly proclaimed, sinning consciously, deepened it in ourselves and gave it power to attack us with greater boldness. Thus it revived and I died. Having said: ‘sin revived,’—the Apostle showed that sin existed, only was silent, hiding as it were. The law, coming, revealed it, exposed it, with a beneficial purpose for us—so that, knowing it, we would flee it. Such benefit was not obtained from it for the reason that those who knew sin through it did not begin to flee it.”

We must bear in mind that the Apostle here sets forth history, what came about as a result of the law or what man made of the law, not touching upon God’s beneficent intentions in giving the law. And it is precisely this side he reveals, so as to make those under the law rush into the embrace of the Gospel, whose sanctifying actions were so evident to all. It would be unjust if someone were to infer from these words that the Apostle condemns the law unconditionally. Saint Chrysostom says: “Although this seems to tend toward blame of the law; nevertheless, whoever examines carefully will see in this praise of the law; because it did not produce sin, which had not existed before, but only revealed what was hidden (or less known). This is what is praiseworthy for the law. If before the law people sinned, not feeling the sin; then after the law, although they received no other fruit, at least thoroughly learned that they are sinning. And this is not a small way of liberation from vice. But if people were not liberated from vice, the law, which made every effort to turn them from it, is not responsible for this; all the blame falls on the will of men themselves, which has been corrupted beyond all expectation.” What happened here is what often happens in the treatment of diseases, as Blessed Theophylact remarks: “Suppose someone is sick and does not know that he is sick, then a physician comes and reveals to him that he is sick and that he must refrain from such food as increases the disease: the patient did not obey and died.” Clearly the physician is not to blame, but the patient.

Rom 7:10. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be to death.

Behold what came about because of sin dwelling in us! The commandment was given to give life—to give us more life and fill us with true life: “Do this, and you shall live” (Rom 10:5); but since, yielding to sin, we did not fulfill it, so, sinning under it consciously, we thereby suppressed, stifled, and killed in ourselves the true life proper to us. And the life-giving “commandment was found to be to death. Was found”—expresses the unexpectedness of such an outcome. One thing was intended, but another, quite opposite, came about. “For this reason precisely the Apostle said: ‘was found,’—wishing to show that one was the purpose of the law, but another came about because of sin (that is, self-gratification)” (Blessed Theodoret). “He did not say: it became death or produced death; but: ‘was found to be to death,’—explaining thereby the unusualness and strangeness of such an incongruity, for which the people themselves alone are responsible. If you wish to know the purpose of the law, it led to life, for which it was given; but if death resulted from it, those who received the commandment are responsible for this, not the commandment itself, which leads to life” (Saint Chrysostom). “The Apostle puts everything in defense of the law and the commandment, but exposes the wickedness of sin. For he says: the commandment is a giver of life; but turning to the worse brought forth death” (Blessed Theodoret).

Let no one pass over without attention the word of the Apostle: “the commandment, which was ordained to life.” Though the Apostle clearly speaks of the Old Testament law, by this expression he also designates the power of the commandment in general. The essence of the commandment is to lead to life and flow forth life to those who live according to it. The commandment is an expression of God’s will concerning how we should act. And all that exists lives according to God’s will: in creation the laws of God’s will are placed in all things; in providence they are preserved by the same will of God, and all is directed to the final end by this same will. The commandment reigns everywhere. One entering upon the path of the commandments enters into accord with all that exists—both with the intelligent world of Angels and the material world, and, first of all, with God Himself—plunges into the stream of universal life, moved and produced by the all-living will of God. This is why the Apostle said: “ordained to life.” The nature of the commandment is such as to give the taste of life. The Gospel and the whole economy of salvation are life-giving in that they give the believer the possibility to abide in that order of life which the commandment requires. To this end is the word of God, to this end is grace. And the Apostle seems to cast a shadow over the law and commandment not so as to awaken aversion to them, but so as to urge one to turn to Christ by faith (Oecumenius) and, receiving from Him justification and sanctification, to become capable of living according to the commandment, or according to God’s will, or even of living in no other way than thus.

Rom 7:11. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

He explains how “the commandment, which was ordained to life, was found to be to death.” Sin, he says, taking the commandment as a starting point, deceived me and, plunging me into deeds contrary to the commandment, killed me. Sin here is our root sinfulness, whose essence is self-gratification: I myself, I so wish, it seems good and pleasant to me, I wish to know no other considerations. The commandment submits us to God’s will, while sin teaches us to gratify ourselves in opposition to God’s will. The commandment, by submitting to God’s will, leads into the stream of universal life; but sin, withdrawing from submission to God’s will for the sake of self-gratification, tears us from this stream and plunges us into a realm alien to life—dead and deadly.

How does sin succeed in this? Through deception. It contrives to present deeds contrary to the commandment in such a light that it seems to a man that it is far better, even more reasonable, to act against the commandment than according to it. For example: someone has been wronged. The commandment commands: forgive. But sin comes and suggests: if you forgive, they will trample you, mix you with dirt—and you won’t be able to live. Better stand up for yourself; prove that you cannot be touched with impunity. And there will be nothing wrong with that. The law of justice demands it.—It seems to a man, from such reasoning, that it is better not to forgive—and he does not forgive. In reality, it is better to forgive; but not to forgive only seems better, but is not. So man has been deceived. As in this case, so it happens in every deed contrary to the commandment. Sin contrives so to present the matter that it seems better to act against the commandment, and deceives. He does not generally rebel against the commandment or dispute that the commandments ought to be fulfilled. But in every particular action he will surely get in the way and try to turn away from what the commandment requires, always using the same trick—presenting it as better in this case to act other than the commandment commands. And it turns out that man, knowing that he ought to live according to the commandments, being convinced of this, and even having it in mind so to act, acts contrary to the commandments. Such is the deception of sin! In every sin is repeated what happened with our first parents. There the enemy personally presented it as better to act against the commandment, and in us, instead of him, the seed of sin sown by him produces the same effect, though it is also true that he does not remain idle at this (Blessed Theodoret, Oecumenius, and Ambrosiaster).

In the present text the Apostle says the same as he said above: “sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.” Here he only explains how it wrought this concupiscence and what was the consequence. It deceived—and produced concupiscence contrary to the commandment; concupiscence, “when it has conceived,” brought forth sin; and sin, accomplished, brought forth death (Jas 1:15) (Oecumenius).

Rom 7:12. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

“Therefore” – signifies that the following discourse is a conclusion from what precedes: from all that has been said follows, or: you yourselves see. And if one supposes that the Apostle has in mind the vindication of himself, then this discourse may be completed thus: so I do not condemn the Law and do not blaspheme it; on the contrary, I affirm that it is holy and the rest.

“The Law is holy, and the commandment is holy.” The Law and the commandment mean one and the same thing: the Old Testament economy. But some make a distinction between them, and that in different senses. Blessed Theodoret says that by the Law is understood the Mosaic Law, but by the commandment the commandment given in paradise. Holy Chrysostom cites the interpretations of some, as if the Law signifies natural law and the commandment the commandment of paradise; and, rejecting them as wrong, proves firmly by the drift of the discourse that here is understood one and the same Mosaic Law. Blessed Theophylact, understanding the discourse in the same way, supposes only that the Apostle here “distinguishes Law from commandment, as the general from the particular: for in the Law one thing comprises the dogmas, and another the commandments. Both the dogmas of the Law are holy, and the commandments concerning conduct are holy and just and good.”

“The commandment is holy and just and good.” Such is the whole Old Testament economy! Holy, as proceeding from the Holy God, teaching holiness and guiding to it; just, as established by a just God, establishing all things justly and joining them justly with faithfulness to Him—prosperity, and with unfaithfulness—wretchedness; good, as laid upon those receiving it by a good God, not for burden but for the ordering of life here and blessedness after death. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The divine Apostle called the commandment ‘holy’ as having taught what is due; ‘just’ as pronouncing righteous judgment on transgressors; ‘good’ as preparing life for those keeping it.” Oecumenius thus defines these characteristics: the Law is “holy” because it preserved from uncleanness those observing it; “just” because it rewarded those fulfilling it with gifts and imposed punishments on transgressors; “good” because it did not chastise transgressors with wretchedness for its own pleasure or out of wrath, but for their salvation, welfare, and correction, and also because it rewarded great things for small improvements and instructed and punished those sinning not in proportion to their transgressions. Blessed Theophylact adds: “Here the Apostle very clearly stopped the mouths of Marcionites, Manicheans, Simonians, and all who despised the Old Testament. From these words it is clear that the Law and the commandment are the ordinances of a good and just God—not as these heretics blasphemed, saying that the Law comes from an evil god.”

Rom. 7:13. Is then that which is good made death to me? By no means! But sin, in order that it might appear as sin, was producing death in me through that which is good, so that sin through the commandment became exceedingly sinful.

Is this good thing—the Law that is holy and just and good—“become death to me”—was it deadly to me, did it bring me death and cause it? – “By no means” – it is impossible to think thus—neither do I so suppose, and no one should permit himself such a thought. Neither by the intention of the Lawgiver nor by the nature of the Law can this be, can it be expected, and should it be reasoned thus. It is not the Law that is death-dealing, but sin dwelling in us. It teaches to break the Law given for our good, and in this way causes death. This sin is so evil that it even turns good into evil for us; just as a corrupted stomach turns even healthy food into an intensification of disease. The Law revealed this harmfulness of sin, which, among other things, was given for the very purpose of drawing out the evil of sin lying concealed in us, placing it in such circumstances that it clearly turns good into death. The Apostle stirs up hatred against sin by pointing out to us such a malicious enemy. In other places such a manner of expression: “in order that it might appear” – indicates a consequence; so that, in this manner, here it would turn out: and it appeared that sin and so forth. But here such an expression indicates a purpose. The Law was also given for the purpose that it might appear that sin even turns good into evil; just as sometimes doctors give medicines so that a disease hidden inside breaks out externally. “The Law succeeded greatly in this, showing what an evil sin is, exposing and displaying all its poisonousness” (Holy Chrysostom). “By Law and commandment sin is shown to me, is shown, that is, how it is bad and evil. How? – ‘Producing death in me through that which is good.’ By the fruit I know the tree; seeing death, I begin to hate the mother of death. And the teacher for me in this is the Law” (blessed Theodoret).

By sin here is understood “careless will, striving toward evil and corruption of the heart—wherein lies the cause of all evils” (Holy Chrysostom)—“will inclined to pleasures and striving toward sin” (blessed Theophylact)—“the inclination of our will toward evil” (blessed Theodoret). Its essence lies in self-pleasing in defiance of all.

That sin through the commandment became exceedingly sinful. A second good effect of the Law. There—an exposure of the harmfulness of sin, and here—an indication of its extreme sinfulness. Sin is always sinful, as committed with awareness of its sinfulness, with contempt for the clear will of the Lawgiver—God. “Even nature teaches us about sin” (blessed Theodoret); but by nature alone, one might by some perversion reconcile it with righteousness; when the Law clearly indicates what is due, and sin, despite this, gains strength, then sinning does not happen with a quiet conscience, but directly against it. Such sinning is extremely sinful both before God and before conscience. “Now this: ‘became exceedingly sinful’ – is said with an omission; to be understood: ‘became’ manifest – that is: that it might become manifest because of the commandment that sin is exceedingly sinful or evil” (blessed Theodoret, and so also blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius, and Photius in him). Perhaps here sin may be understood as all the totality of actual sins which became more sinful under the Law, whereas in the preceding expression is understood sin dwelling in us, producing actual sins.

Holy Chrysostom points out here that “the Apostle intensifies the depiction of sin so as to show the surpassing nature of Christ’s grace and teach from what evil mankind was delivered by it, after all medical remedies had intensified the disease and all means to stop the evil had increased it.” And a bit further: “By this the Apostle also proves the excellence of grace, an excellence, not a contradiction. Do not look to the fact that those who received the Law became worse; but consider that the Law not only did not wish to intensify evil but, on the contrary, sought to cut off the evil that existed before it. And if it was not able to accomplish this, crown it for the disposition. But with the deepest devotion throw yourself before the almightiness of Christ; because Christ rooted out and destroyed so varied and insurmountable evil (sin).”

Having thus vindicated the Law and laid all blame on sin dwelling in us, the Apostle now proceeds to depict what this sin is and how it acts in us.

What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15)

Rom. 7:14. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

“The Apostle said above that evil increased, that sin, being restrained by the commandment, was intensified even more, and in fact the opposite of what the Law aimed for took place, and by this he brought the listener into great perplexity. Therefore, first freeing the Law from evil suspicion (as if it were the cause of sin), he then explains the reason why this happened” (Holy Chrysostom). And this has already been indicated, namely that this happened because of sin. It has also been hinted at how sin manages to succeed in this—namely through deception—deceives and draws toward the opposite of the Law. Now he enters more deeply into an examination of what happens in us when the Law and sin meet.

In order to understand the Apostle’s discourse more easily, one must keep in mind that he, here as before, speaking of himself, speaks in the person of a fallen man who has not received grace that restores from the Fall, but who has felt the need to rise and has desired it. It is useless to suppose that the Apostle speaks here of himself and in his person of everyone who has received grace. For to the one graced cannot apply the words: “what I do not wish, the evil, this I do” – and “it is not I who do this, but sin dwelling in me” (Rom. 7:19–20). Though sin makes itself known to the graced person, it does not have over him a determining and coercive power to action, as the Apostle said above: “sin does not have dominion over you” because you “are under grace” (Rom. 6:14) and as St. John says: “whoever is born of God does not commit sin” (1 Jn. 3:9). It is also useless to claim, as the basis of the opinion that the Apostle’s discourse can only apply to the graced, that such an inner division as is depicted here by the Apostle does not occur in the ungraced: “I delight in the Law of God according to the inward man, yet I see another law” (Rom. 7:22–23). In the fallen man without grace, sin reigns peacefully: both thoughts, feelings, and desires—everything in him has settled with sin, and there is no discord with it. For the fallen and sinning man, however much he corrupts his nature, does not transform it into an evil nature. Good principles remain in it, and it happens that they raise their voice powerfully with a demand for satisfaction. Here is the division! The Apostle in the present passage has in mind precisely this person—one who has felt such division in himself, who has recognized the necessity of passing to the good side away from sin and has desired to pass over, but finds no strength in himself to do so. We have the most obvious example of this in those struggling with drunkenness, or lustful passion, or gambling. How the Apostle’s word applies to all of them: “what I do not wish to do, the evil, this I do”!

All our interpreters understand here a depiction of the state of man before the Law and under the Law, that is, one who has not received grace to restore him from the Fall, so as to kindle a desire for this grace and draw to the evangelical faith—the one and only giver of it.

“For we know”. Here is the reason why the Law was given for one thing, but something quite different resulted! Because “the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal”.

“The Law is spiritual.” “Again he crowns the Law with praise. For what is more honourable than this designation?” (blessed Theodoret). “By this as it were the Apostle said: everyone knows and agrees that the Law is spiritual; and therefore it is impossible that it should be the cause of sin—that the blame should lie on it for the evils that occurred. And note that he not only frees it from accusation, but also praises it without measure” (Holy Chrysostom).

The Law is spiritual because it proceeded from the Spirit and leads to what is spiritual. “It was written by the Spirit of God; blessed Moses, having partaken of this grace, wrote the Law” (blessed Theodoret). “It is a gift of the Holy Spirit and was dictated by Him” (Oecumenius). – “By calling it spiritual, the Apostle gives to know that it is an instructor in virtue and an enemy of vice. To be spiritual means to turn from every sin. This is what the Law did, frightening, instructing, punishing, correcting, advising all that is virtuous” (Holy Chrysostom). “It desires what is spiritual and requires what is beneficial for the soul” (Oecumenius).

Though the dispensation under the Law was, according to the Apostle, predominantly visible, and the service in it was chiefly bodily, leading only to fleshly purity (Heb. 9:13) and to righteous ordinances of the flesh (Heb. 9:10), it was not intended that those under it should stop at this visible and bodily aspect, but from it should pass to the invisible and spiritual. It was guidance from the external to the internal: in that every precept determining a visible manner of action was given from God’s person, it impressed God through all the visible, and in that all the visible in it was instituted with a particular spiritual significance, it introduced into this spiritual aspect. Therefore, those serving in it, although they “served a copy and shadow” (Heb. 8:5), were not deprived of the ability to see through this veil and perceive what was hidden there. This must be said of the very external arrangement of the orders under the Law; as to the spirituality of the moral and religious ordinances, there is nothing to say. It is these last that the Apostle has in mind in the present passage; he says that the Law demanded what is spiritual—that is, that one should turn toward God, remain in mind and heart with Him, please Him in all ways by fulfilling His holy will with conscience, and delight only in what is Divine. Such is the Law, but I am “carnal”.

“Carnal” – not by nature, but by inner disposition, that is, I seek only what pleases the flesh or arranges my merely earthly well-being. The natural principles of spiritual life are not destroyed, but weakened and stifled, and from time to time they break through—so that on the whole carnal tendency prevails.

Carnality here does not mean solely the fleshly, sensual life, but expresses generally the poor state of the fallen sinner. In the Epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle called this same thing “soulishness” (1 Cor. 2:14). But one may also distinguish soulishness from carnality, as two kinds or two sides of a similar life, by carnality understanding the sensual life passed in fleshly gratifications, and by soulishness the life passed in the arrangement of exclusively earthly well-being through the satisfaction of only natural needs and those acquired by voluntary habit, yet never remaining in their proper place, but always disturbed and perverted by passions—so that it is justly called a life passed in gratification of soulish passions, though moving in the order determined by natural needs.

One must understand that man is not only body and soul, but body—soul—spirit. “What is body?” is clear of itself. “What is spirit?” Spirit is all those manifestations of our inner life that direct man from the earthly to the heavenly, from the temporal to the eternal, from the created to the Divine. It is that power which God breathed into man’s face at his creation and in which properly lies God’s image and likeness. As such, it directs man toward God and is satisfied only when man lives in God and is in a living union with Him. It is most tangibly revealed in us through the fear of God, the workings of conscience, and in that which does not allow us to be satisfied with anything created. All these innermost movements in us, when they are in force, separate us from all earthly things and make us heed no conditions of earthly existence. They are common to all mankind and are present in the most savage as well as in the most educated.

“What is soul?” What remains between body and spirit belongs to the soul and constitutes its life. This includes all kinds of knowledge and every science; all kinds of arts, every artistic endeavor and craft; all kinds of practical life, family and social life with all their methods of arrangement and sustenance. For all this, needs are placed in the soul, and powers are given to satisfy them with indication in them of the manner of satisfaction.

It is self-evident that bodily life is below soul life, and soul life is below spiritual life. Consequently, soul life must be subjected to spiritual life, and bodily life to both of them. The norm of human life is to live in the spirit and to spiritualize through the spirit both soul and body. Such was his original arrangement, such man came from the Creator’s hands, and such he was in paradise before the Fall. To live in the spirit is to live in God. He who lives thus receives from God the strength to govern his soul and body and subject them to the spirit. In the Fall man rebelled against God—truly rebelled. The sin of the first parents appeared small, but in its spirit it was very grave. Believing the enemy’s evil suggestion that God forbade them to eat from the tree lest they too become gods, in this very belief they perverted in themselves the most essential knowledge about God: for they supposed that God envied them and therefore kept them from what belonged to them, whereas God by His essence is a non-envious, all-flowing source of good things. Having received such an evil thought, they determined to arrange their own well-being themselves, contrary to God’s will. The violation of the commandment would not have been possible had there not arisen within them the decision: we ourselves will arrange ourselves and become what is fitting for us to be. This decision produced a complete reversal within man. Having thus wrenched themselves from God, his spirit turned away from God; as a result his spirit lost the power to rule over soul and body, and man inevitably fell subject to the manifold demands of soul and body and became soul-and-body-oriented, that is, the life of the soul became predominant in him, directed toward the arrangement of temporal existence, and bodily life, moving in fleshly gratifications; while spiritual life, though not annihilated, lost its first—ruling—place and came into subjection to the other two.

“The needs of soul and body are many, and there are many ways to satisfy them. Since the natural ruler of them, the spirit, lost power, great disorder arose among them: each need lost all measure, and all lost the law of mutual relation and subordination, and at every opportunity strive to take the predominant place and subject all others to themselves. And this is already a great evil; but it was immensely increased by the fact that, at the same time as man pronounced within himself the decision “I will arrange myself”—he fell into selfhood, and in this selfhood received the seed of evil passions springing from this selfhood and not rooted in nature. They penetrated the entire soul-and-body life, permeated it with their poison, and increased the evil of lost measure in the needs and order of their mutual relation to excess. The state of the fallen can be defined as: self-willed passionate soul-and-body-oriented existence. Its spirit is self-pleasing in defiance of all. This is precisely what Holy Paul called carnality, and what is sin dwelling in us, spawning in our life all lawlessness and all kinds of sins. Thus remains every man until he receives grace, though he may be under the Law. The Law, says the Apostle, is spiritual—it demands that I live in the spirit; but in me soul-and-body self-pleasing predominates; for which reason even under the Law I only sin. The needs of soul and body are not sinful; but when the body is gratified to the harm of the soul, and soul and body contrary to the spirit, then one sins. And sin is yet more sinful when one acts not properly to satisfy needs, but through satisfying them nourishes the passions. But in precisely such a position one who has not received grace remains. This is whom the Apostle means. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle brings forth the man before grace, troubled by passions. For “carnal” he calls one who has not yet received spiritual assistance.” “Carnal is a man,” says Oecumenius, “not insofar as he is man, but insofar as he is enslaved to passions and does what the flesh desires.” – Blessed Theophylact also indicates the source: ‘I am carnal’ – means: the whole human nature, both before the enactment of the Law and during the Law, was filled with a multitude of passions: for as a result of Adam’s transgression we not only became mortal, but our nature received passions, was sold to sin and became its slave, so that it could not even raise its head.” More fully this is depicted in Holy Chrysostom: “After death, a flood of passions rushed in. As soon as the body became mortal, by necessity it admitted in itself both lust and anger and sickness and everything else; and therefore much philosophy is needed so that reason not sink into the depths of sin amid the flood of passions.”

“Sold under sin.” Although unwilling, I sin, as a slave sold serves the will of his master. In application to what was set forth above it means: I live in soul-and-body self-pleasing and passions contrary to the spirit or to the suggestions of the fear of God and the demands of conscience. “Sold” suggests as if I have no freedom not to sin and sin as if out of necessity. But this only expresses the power of sin; in reality, however, it happens that the sinner, to gratify selfhood and passions, always does this freely and willingly decides on such deeds. Let us recall what was said under verse 11 about how sin deceives. Sin never rebels against the Law in general, but only in each particular case presents the matter so that man thinks it more suitable to act against the Law than according to it—and he sins. The learned man does not pray or prays little because he has no time now: he will pray tomorrow. Thus always. And he does not pray, knowing and affirming that he ought to pray. Thus all kinds of wrong actions. They are performed willingly. But when you look at them in their totality, the impression is made that man, like a slave sold, serves sin. This, however, does not mean he cannot help but sin, only that he is strongly bent toward sins, so that he pays no heed to the demands of righteousness.

“Sold” – in the transgression of the first parents; but then in life each man sells himself to sin every time. Blessed Theodoret sees an indication of this in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “behold, you are sold by your iniquities” (Isa. 50:1) and interprets the Apostle’s words thus: “I have sold myself to sin and I have sold myself to it.”

Rom. 7:15. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for what I will to do, this I do not practice; but what I hate, this I do.

“For what I am doing, I do not understand.” I cannot know what I do, cannot understand how it is that I do all that I do. Or in general: I do not know what is happening in me. Holy Chrysostom says that the Apostle does not mean to say that I sin in ignorance: for no one ever sinned in ignorance. If people sinned in ignorance, there would be no reason to punish them. What then does “I do not understand” mean? I remain in darkness, I am swept along, I myself do not know how I am deceived. And we ourselves commonly say: I do not know how such-and-such a person came and led me away; though we do not at all think to excuse ourselves by ignorance, but only express that there was some deception here, scheming, darkening of mind. – Blessed Theodoret likewise limits this non-understanding to a single moment, or the act of sinning. “Being overcome,” he says, “by sensual pleasure and being drunk with the passion of anger, one does not have clear knowledge of sin; but when the passion ceases to act, one begins to perceive the evil.” – Complicity with sin in the act of sinning is approved by the reason, but afterward he clearly sees that it should not have been done thus, and, looking back, asks in bewilderment: how did this happen? “I am deceived and swept away into sin—I am robbed, drawn away stealthily, and I cannot understand how I suffer this” (Oecumenius).

“For what I will to do, this I do not practice; but what I hate, this I do.” I will one thing, but I do another; what I hate, I do. Willing and hating denote general conviction and thought, but what is done is not what is willed but what is hated, this does not mean it is done against the will and with hatred, but that in the moment of action what is willed in general becomes unwilled and what is hated becomes loved. For every sin is done with desire and love. Before the decision to act there is a wish for one thing and hatred for what is before us; but sweetness of self-pleasing comes and—everything changes. There is struggle, but then everything settles down, and what was unwilled before is now done with the whole face of man with all willingness. Blessed Theodoret writes: “By the words: what I do not will and what I hate—not necessity but weakness is expressed, because it is not by any necessity and not by any compulsion that we sin, and do what we abhor as unlawful.” Holy Chrysostom says: “From this it is clear that by the words ‘what I will to do, this I do not practice’—the Apostle does not destroy free choice and does not signify some irresistible necessity. For if we sin not voluntarily, but by compulsion, there is no reason why people should have been punished all this time. But as by the word ‘I do not understand’—the Apostle expressed not ignorance but what we said above; so, adding ‘what I will to do, this I do not practice’—he expressed not necessity, but that he does not approve of what is done (both before and after the deed in general). And if he did not have such a thought, why would he not add to the words ‘what I will to do, this I do’—that I do what I am forced to by necessity? But the Apostle did not say this; instead, he replaced it with the words ‘what I hate’—so that you would understand that he also by the words ‘what I will’ did not destroy freedom.”

Just as in some household the head of the family holds intentions, which in his judgment are beneficial, but when it comes time to act, the members of the household gather and persuade him to do the contrary: he agrees and does it. Later, though he sees that he should not have agreed, but what is done cannot be undone. This, however, does not correct him; but when the time comes to act in the same sense, the members again turn him to do their way. Thus does he always do “what he wills not”. The same thing happens within us. Everyone wishes what is good and hates evil; but there comes the sweetness of self-pleasing, which clouds the eyes of the mind, perverts the disposition of the heart—and what is willed to be good is no longer willed, and what is hated as evil appears attractive; for which reason not this is done, but that is accomplished.

The Inward Struggle: the Law of the Mind Against the Law of Sin (Romans 7:16–20)

Rom. 7:16. If then I do what I do not will, I agree that the Law is good.

Speaking above: “I do what I do not will and I do what I hate”—though he spoke abstractly without specifying what exactly he wills and what he hates—yet from the course of the discourse it is evident that he wills what is lawful and hates what is unlawful. If we insert these terms into the discourse, we get: I do not do the lawful which I will, but I do the unlawful which I hate. But if it is so, then it is evident that I “agree that the Law is good”—both in the conviction of the mind and in the feeling of the heart I approve the Law—I hold that the Law is good for me, given to me for my good and will lead me to good if I follow it. And even in the fallen sinner, the fear of God remains intact, and so does the conscience, which points to what is right. For this reason, moral and religious truths—true ones—are found among all peoples. And among those who have received revelation, or the written Law, they are both fuller and more determinate. Thus everyone praises the Law as good and desires lawful action; but when it comes to act in deed, soul-and-body self-indulgence rises up, turns them from the path, and they do what they disapprove of and what they praise in their ordinary state. One must, however, complete the Apostle’s speech and see in his words this train of thought: if I say of myself that I do what I do not will, it means I am aware that I ought not to do as I do; and if I am aware of this, it means I approve of the opposite of this action—that is, I approve of the Law. Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see among other things that reason is not damaged, but truly preserves its inherent nobility? Even if it gives itself to vice, in giving itself to vice it hates it. And this has always served as the finest praise of the Law, both natural and written. That the Law is good, reasons the Apostle, is evident from this: that I accuse myself; although I do not obey the Law, yet I hate what I have done.”

Rom. 7:17. So then it is no longer I who do it, but sin which dwells in me.

“So then” does not denote time, but is a concluding particle, as we too often use it in the same sense: “now,” or “it turns out.” I approve the Law, I will what is lawful and hate what is unlawful, yet I do the opposite of all this. It turns out that it is not I who do this. I am not the actor here, but the acted upon. Someone else has seized me, takes me as if bound, and leads me where he wishes, and I follow. Who then is this other? The sin dwelling in me. Sin is personified by the force of its pull, and man is depersonalized by reason of his weakness toward sin and proneness to it. The Apostle seems to shift the blame from man, as before from the Law. But in fact it happens that man always voluntarily consents to sin. If he did not consent to sin, there would be no sin. And we often say in our speech: what will you do? I simply cannot manage myself, as if by necessity we do what we do, whereas we know that we do all of it willingly. Thus the Apostle’s word does not assert the involuntariness of sin nor does it deny its willingness. It usually happens that before sin man does not will sin, and after sin he does not approve it, but when he sins, he both wills sin and considers the doing of the sinful deed better than not doing it. It seems as though some third party came, took his hands and feet, and even his very soul with its thoughts, feelings and desires, and brought about the sin. But in reality, the sinful stirring does indeed come, yet man sins himself, with his whole being, and only insofar as he willingly consents to sin. One can only wonder at the mystery in sin, but one cannot absolve man of responsibility.

Let us repeat what was said before. Man: spirit—soul—body. The norm of his life is life in the spirit under the action of the fear of God and conscience, with submission of soul and body to it and their spiritualization. When in the fall man tore himself from God and resolved to manage his own well-being, he took on, as a new principle of life, selfhood and self-indulgence. Since the spirit is by nature self-renouncing and the character of its life is self-sacrifice to God, selfhood could find no nourishment in it for self-indulgence and turned instead to soul and body, which ordinarily move by impulses of pleasure and utility. Soul and body have many needs, each of which generates many desires, according to the variety of objects suited to their satisfaction. Each need presents a particular kind of self-indulgence, and the objects satisfying them provide nourishment for self-indulgence. Having fallen into this realm, man entered into a kind of dissonant multitude, where each voice offers him its own, something pleasing and pleasant to him. Since he from the beginning of the fall, tasting the sweetness of self-indulgence, himself raised this passion into a principle determining his activity, then, moving in the midst of this crowd, as soon as he feels the proffered pleasure, he falls upon it, corrupted as he is by the sweetness of self-indulgence initially embraced. Since in such a manner of acting one looks not to whether the deed is right or wrong, but only whether it is sweet, herein lies the very root of sinfulness. All done according to the principle of self-indulgence is sinful, though not all such actions are contrary to righteousness in their kind. The unrighteousness here lies in this: the demands of the spirit, which belong to the essential needs of human nature, are given no consideration whatever. Generally they are not disputed, for they inhere in consciousness; but in action they are not taken into account, because they do not provide nourishment for the sweetness of self-indulgence but demand self-sacrifice. In this way fallen man would be sinful even if, in appearance, he did what is natural to soul and body—satisfied their needs. But in reality his life is more unrighteous than this alone. It is unrighteous in this further, that the measure of satisfying needs is determined by the sweetness of pleasure, not by some higher standard, and so he always falls into excess—and in that the relation of needs, which should be satisfied more and more urgently, as well as the choice of objects for this satisfaction, he also determines not from some higher principle, but again by that same sweetness—whence comes disorder, acting detrimentally upon man, destroying itself. And this greatly increases sinfulness. But there is more. The spirit of the fallen man is selfhood: I myself. From this selfhood were born the passions, proceeding directly from selfhood and resting on nothing natural—such as pride, envy, hatred, malice, avarice, vainglory and the like. Selfhood, seeking self-indulgence and able to find it only in soul and body and having descended into them, entered there with all its host of passions. There already, without that, much unrighteousness was possible (in not observing the measure of satisfying needs and their mutual relations, as well as in the choice of objects for their satisfaction); but on account of this poison of passions poured into them, unrighteousness exceeded all measure; under their influence all there became perverted, and the satisfaction of needs turned into the satisfaction of the passions—took on a contrary-to-nature direction, destructive both for the one acting and for others.

All this in its totality is the sin dwelling in us. It is hidden by natural needs of soul and body, is set in motion by the sweetness of self-indulgence, is directed by the passions. One may describe it thus: a self-centered, passion-driven, pleasure-loving soul-and-body self-indulgence. Its spawn are many, but all ordinarily are silent and very much like a band of robbers lying in ambush. Like these robbers in ambush, or beasts in a den, they are hidden somewhere in us, and as if they do not exist. Since the spirit of man is still, even in the fallen state, alive and constitutes the norm of human life, ordinarily man stands on the side of the spirit—that is, he recognizes the legitimacy of its demands and is not averse to wishing to act according to them: “he praises the Law as good.” But as soon as it comes to actual action according to the spirit, since it is contrary to sin in all its described manifestations, the spawn of sin, against which the present deed should be directed, immediately rises up—with it rise all that is akin to it and rooted in it, seeking pleasure and self-indulgence. There occurs dispute and struggle: the spirit proposes its reasons, while sin with its spawn displays its enticements. Since the demands of the spirit are self-renouncing, and if they promise good, it is also spiritual, self-renouncing, while sin gives tangible pleasure directly in the action contrary to the spirit’s demand, man, having once chosen pleasure as the principle determining his deeds, inclines toward the action giving pleasure and commits sin. After the sin he again harkens to the spirit and condemns his action. But when he again turns to some deed according to the spirit’s demand, he again yields to sin, beforehand seduced by sin’s pleasure. Thus acts every sinner while he is a sinner. In him is fulfilled what the Apostle said: I praise the Law as good; but the sin dwelling in me seduces me and draws me to deeds contrary to the Law, and I sin. Oecumenius asks: how then does sin manage to do this? And answers: “It offers me pleasure in the deed at hand and thus seduces me not to remain faithful to what I knew to be right and what I wished.” Theodoret writes that the Apostle, speaking thus, “calls sin the slavery of the mind (spirit) and the dominion of the passions; the mind (spirit) does not itself act, because it hates what is done, but the dominion of the passions acts.”

Rom. 7:18. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh: for the will to do good is present to me, but not the ability to accomplish the good.

“For I know”—I know from experience, from the experiences of my own life I have been convinced that: “nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” Nothing good dwells: what then dwells? Something not good. So one is inclined to think that the Apostle’s thought is: I know from experience that in me dwells something not good. For to say generally that nothing good is left would be contrary to the Apostle’s teaching. And immediately after this he says: “for the will to do good is present to me”; and this is good. Or—nothing good dwells in me in the sense that it is not the determining principle (Oecumenius). The power of action has passed into other hands, while the good is confined to mere desires. However, the Apostle has sufficiently clarified in which aspect of us the good does not dwell, by adding: “in my flesh.” Not in human nature does the good not dwell, for it, as God’s creation, is good; but: “in the flesh”—a word the Apostle ordinarily uses to mean that which is not good and which has formed in us as a result of the fall and hovers there in the interstices of nature. In this Epistle he calls this fleshly nature, and in the Epistle to the Corinthians soulishness. Combining both, we get a soul-and-flesh nature as an expression of the corruption of the fallen. Soul and flesh, as God’s creatures, are good; but as a result of the fall they became the seat of all that is not good. Selfhood has made its home in them with its passions and turns all their powers and needs to self-indulgence. And there formed, in the midst of nature, a special kind of self-centered, passion-driven, pleasure-seeking soul-and-flesh self-indulgence. And in this body—the newcomer—the good does not dwell.

“For the will to do good is present to me, but not the ability to accomplish the good.” That is why, he says, I know that something not good dwells in me, or—that the good does not dwell in the self-centered and pleasure-seeking body formed in me through the fall—because I cannot accomplish good: I desire it, but when it comes to deed—no. “Not the ability”—again he points to experience; I see good desires in myself, but that deeds should go according to these desires, I do not see, do not find. How this happens was explained under the previous verse: the good deed before us is desired, but in doing it the opposing passion is aroused, seduces, and the desired deed is not done. “I wish, but I do not do, because of sin seizing me: it seizes me so that I do not do what I approve”—writes Oecumenius. “In saying: not the ability, the Apostle means not ignorance or doubt, but the attack and schemes of sin”—says Saint Chrysostom. All this is done by the “predominance of the passions”—Theodoret explains. “He shifts the blame both from the essence of the soul and from the essence of the flesh and attributes all to the corrupt will, the influence of sin”—adds Theophylact. “And the lawful pleases, and there is the wish to do it, but to accomplish it there is lacking power and strength. Thus confined is he (the fallen man) by the power of sin that he cannot run where he wishes, and is not able to resist it: it has become master in him. Moreover the habit of sin weighs upon man, and he falls more readily into sin than he is able to follow good. Although he wishes to do good, this habit does not allow him to do it. And the enemy is helper to evil.” Thus interprets Ambrosiaster.

Rom. 7:19. For the good which I wish to do, I do not do; but the evil which I do not wish, this I do.

He demonstrates by experience why “to do the good, I do not find,”—because instead of the good—the desired—I do the evil—not desired. The nineteenth and twentieth verses are a repetition of the fifteenth and seventeenth verses, but with a particular emphasis. There the enslavement to sin was proved, here the impossibility of performing good is explained. There is the cause, here the consequence. The explanation of why “what I do not wish, evil I do,”—can be drawn from there, adding: because I am sold under sin. The word “do” points to every particular case. Generally “I wish” for good, approve of it and have in mind to do it; but in particular cases sin approaches—sensual self-indulgence—attracts me and carries me away, and I do what I do not usually wish. Thus: “to do the good, I do not find.” “The Apostle points here to allurement and seduction by sin. I wish, he says, to do good, I wish not to do evil; but desire attacks, captures and inclines to despise what is recognized as good and desired and to do what it suggests” (Oecumenius).

Rom. 7:20. If then I do what I do not wish, it is no longer I who do it, but sin which dwells in me.

He seems altogether to shift the blame from himself. It is not I, he says, who do this, but the sin dwelling in me—this master to whom I am sold. But what is the nature of this master? He is a person whose soul consists of pleasure-loving self-indulgence, and whose body is all the passions with all the habits that feed them; while the soul and body with their powers and functions are merely his instruments. If so, then how can one absolve himself of guilt? The Apostle does not absolve himself. And that is not what his discourse is about. He only depicts here the wretched condition of the fallen man, in order to move him to seek effective help, but he reasoned about culpability at the beginning of the Epistle. Who self-indulges? The very sinner himself. By the pleasure of sin who is seduced? He himself, and willingly. Why? Because he himself first came to love it and took it as the principle of his life. In that moment he sold himself to this master—and he it is who rules him. Saint Chrysostom says: “everything depends solely on evil intent. The soul, body, and will are not in essence one and the same, but the first two are God’s creatures, while the last is a movement born in us ourselves, which we direct where we will. The will in itself is a natural faculty given by God; but the will directed toward a certain end is something of our own, the action of our disposition.” Blessed Theophylact, following the words of Saint Chrysostom, adds: “sin, dwelling in us, is a corrupt and sinful will; in it lies the root of the torment of sin, drawing the mind through pleasure.” Ambrosiaster writes the same: “not I… but the sin dwelling in me”—pressed and drawn by sin, I do not my will, but his. But is man truly free from blame when the Apostle calls him as if sinning involuntarily? Not at all; for sin captivates him through his own depravity and carelessness. Since through his consent to sin he himself delivers himself into slavery to sin, sin rightfully takes possession of him. It first bends man’s will, and then rules over him as over a captive. The Apostle sets this forth in order to magnify the grace of God, showing what evil it delivers man from or what wretched condition he inherits from Adam and what good he receives in Christ.

Wretched Man That I Am! Who Shall Deliver Me? (Romans 7:21–25)

Rom. 7:21. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

If we take “law” here to mean the written Law, then both the syntactical structure of the speech will prove awkward and the thought of the text unclear, so that understanding it would require adding and inserting whole sentences. Therefore, it is better to understand “law” as the law of life working in me, or the constant order of phenomena occurring within me, as the Russian translation does. So I find in myself such a law—such a law of phenomena occurring or happening within me—that when I will to do good, at the same time evil is before me or presented to me: παράκειται – it lies ready—evil. This points to nothing special, but to what everyone knows from experience.

Rom. 7:22. For I delight in the Law of God according to the inward man.

The inward man is the spirit, whose manifestations of life consist of the fear of God, the demand of conscience, and dissatisfaction with anything created. It is whole even in the fallen, and in the greatest of sinners it makes itself known—and always stands on the side of what pleases God, what is lawful and good, sympathizes with these, delights in them. And there is no one who has not experienced this. In the ordinary, peaceful state, man stands on this side—and reasons and feels rightly. Look at the one we speak of: he is now in a good spirit—altogether holy, but then where something will come from, and you would not recognize him.

Rom. 7:23. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

When I was first setting about good, evil was only offering itself; but when sympathy for good appeared in me and delight in it, my evil raised up a contrary-feeling against it and contrary-delight. The struggle grows. Evil resists in measure of the action of good, wars against the law of the mind. The mind here is the same as the inward man—the spirit. The aforementioned actions of the spirit the holy Antony the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa and others call the mind. Saint Isaac the Syrian sometimes calls it mind, sometimes spirit. The law of the mind or spirit is constituted by the demands of the fear of God and conscience, which contains natural law and receives within itself the written Law. By the action of the fear of God, conscience receives under its guardianship every action recognized as lawful and stands up for it. The consequence of this is delight in the Law of God according to the inward man. But when this occurs, our evil rises up against this law of the mind and begins to war against it, stirring up contrary-feelings and contrary-delights. This, says the Apostle in the person of the fallen man, I see in myself: “I see another law in my members.” He does not see a law “of the members,” but a law “in the members”—as something alien. A natural, proper law of the members is not “another” from the law of the mind and does not war against it; the law “in the members” wars, appearing besides nature, alien. In the following words the Apostle called it the law of sin. This law has indeed penetrated nature and makes the “members” instruments for itself—and is therefore “another law in the members”—along with the laws “of the members.” One might rephrase this: I see sin acting in my members and warring against the law of the mind. Holy Chrysostom says: “By the law warring the Apostle again calls sin here not according to its proper nature, but according to the excessive servitude of those who obey it. As he calls mammon a master and the belly a god not according to their proper nature, but by reason of the great slavishness of those subject to it; so also here he called sin a law, because men serve it and fear to abandon it as much as those who have received the Law fear not to keep the Law.” Men themselves have made it a law for themselves.

What then is the consequence of this warring? Captivity to sin: “bringing me into captivity to the law of sin.” How the preponderance turns toward this side, the Apostle does not say, but only testifies that this is how it happens. But how does this happen? There is a law there, and here is a law—and there is a desire, and here is an offering, seemingly even less—and there is delight, and here is contrary-delight. All is equal. Why then is the preponderance toward this evil side and not toward the good? Above the Apostle mentioned that this happens because sin “deceives” (Rom. 7:11). How does it deceive? With the sweetness of sin. This sinful sweetness is implied here in the words “warring against the law of the mind.” For if this warring is aroused by delight in the Law, it could only appear as contrary-delight in lawlessness. But such a contrary-delight in lawlessness, as soon as it appears, immediately draws toward itself. In the very act of its appearance it blocks out the delight in the Law and occupies the heart in its place; the heart passes to its side. Sin bribes the will with sweetness, and it inclines toward it. It bribes because it first—in the Fall—succumbed to such a bribe. Sin uses this first error as a contract: it has become for it as if a right and for the fallen as a law. By the law of sin “which is in my members,” one may understand precisely this sweetness of sin, promising to feed our self-pleasing. Though this sweetness always proves illusory, disappearing immediately—in the very act of sin—yet every time it appears again it draws. In this lies captivity. The holy Apostle James attributes arising disagreements among men to “the pleasures which war in your members” (James 4:1). If they too come from pleasures, then how much more, according to this Apostle, is this same source of all other sins.

The question arises: is such a course of events in us stamped with inescapable necessity, so that as soon as sinful sweetness is aroused, sin necessarily follows? There is no such necessity; but it happens through our weakness and corruption. It has become a law, as Holy Chrysostom said, because we ourselves have made it a law for ourselves, or—better—every time we make it a law. One can forestall the sinful sweetness and not allow it to reach the heart, or in the heart to such a degree that it would drive out delight in the law of the mind. One can even after this sweetness has seized the heart drive it out again and restore delight in good, though this is quite difficult. But our misery is that we do not will to, because of the self-pleasing and pleasure-loving dominion in us, we do not will to struggle with ourselves and inflict pain on ourselves through refusal. Sin takes strength in us through this weakness of ours. Some will say: but how—the law of the mind is right there and recognized? Sin does not reject this law and does not demand its abolition; but draws to sin only this once. And the sinning man sins only this once, and then resolves always to act according to the Law. Now he excuses himself in that pleasure has overcome: what will you do? With these two moments—pleasure and the fact that the Law is not permanently rejected—sin always prevails and draws toward sinful deeds—always captivates.

Rom. 7:24. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

The condition of the fallen depicted by the Apostle awakens pity. Bitter is such a position: wretched me! But as with everyone, however much he suffers, the desire for well-being naturally rooted in us remains alive; so together with the feeling of wretchedness of the situation is born the desire for deliverance from it. But who will deliver? I have no strength myself: this is proven by the experiences of a whole life. Who then will deliver? This cry breathes hope of deliverance. If there were no such hope, it would not be to cry out for deliverance, looking for a deliverer, but to make peace with life: why live when things are so? A body of death is so named not only because it is mortal, but especially because together with mortality it has taken within itself a host of passions, as Holy Chrysostom said above—which, leading into sin, cause moral death (Rom. 7:11). The body is a body of death because it has become the seat of sin killing the soul. Oecumenius rephrases this complaint thus: “Who will deliver me from fleshly deeds that cause me soul-death? Or who will deliver me from captivity to the lusts dwelling in the body, which are death to me?”

If the Apostle conducted all the preceding discourse in the person of mankind, one may ask: did mankind feel the wretchedness of its position? Having felt it, did it cherish hope of deliverance? Allowing such hope of deliverance, did it seek it? And if it sought it, where and from whom? The answer is given by the expectation revealed before the coming of Christ the Saviour among the nations, whose proclaimers were the more attentive to themselves and more elevated wise men. They expressed sighs similar to the Apostle’s about the wretchedness of man’s moral condition and confessed that effective help of deliverance could come only from heaven—if God Himself would come and deliver.

What all awaited indefinitely was fulfilled definitively—and the Apostle on behalf of all offers thanksgiving to God, who has wrought deliverance already in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rom. 7:25. I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

There: Who will deliver me? And here: Thanks be to God! I have been delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ. How this deliverance acts is indicated in the 6th chapter and depicted in the 8th chapter. Here only the general situation is set forth to dispel the darkness of sorrow cast by the preceding discourse. – Holy Chrysostom depicts both of these—the lamentation: Who will deliver me? and the consolation through Christ the Lord—thus: “Do you see the torment of evil, how it overcomes the mind, even one finding pleasure in the Law? No one can say of himself, reasons the Apostle: sin makes me its captive because I hate the Law and turn from it. On the contrary, I find pleasure in it, I praise it, I resort to it; but it is not powerful enough to save even those resorting to it. But Christ saved those even fleeing from Him. Do you see how great is the superiority of grace? But the Apostle did not say this clearly, but only sighed and shed bitter tears, like a man deprived of help, and by the very desperation of his position proved the power of Christ and says: ‘O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ The Law proved powerless, conscience weak, though I praised good, not only praised it but even struggled with evil. For the Apostle, calling sin warring, gave to understand that he too armed himself against sin. – Then, from where shall we hope for salvation? ‘I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Do you see how the Apostle demonstrated the necessity of the appearance of grace (and its very appearance)? And not even speaking of salvation as such a work which, by what is proven above (in the first chapters of the Epistle), is recognized by all, he passes to the most important and proves that not only were we freed from former sins, but also in the future we became unserviceable to sin. But he said this (Rom. 8:1) not before reminding once more of the former state: ‘So then, with the mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.’”

“I myself”—the same I. He speaks again in the person of the fallen man, not from his own person—the Apostle, graced, and especially more so. In brief words he embraces all that has been said up to this point, as if to say: so remember, behold the condition in which the fallen man finds himself—with the mind he serves the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Having uttered thanksgiving to God who has arranged deliverance and about to set forth in detail how it acts in each person, he brings to mind in what state each by nature—being apart from grace—is found, so that by showing how deliverance is applied to this state, he might make clearer both the wisdom of the manner of deliverance and the fullness of grace revealed in it, and might make the gratitude expressed by it a common feeling and incline one to cherish so precious a deliverance. – Perhaps also not alien to the Apostle is such a thought in uttering these words: it is worth delivering, for God’s power is in captivity to sin—and it is possible to deliver, for not all is corrupted; the mind, or spirit, is whole.

“With the mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” – the same as above: I delight in the Law according to the inward man, but I am taken captive by the law of sin “which is in my members” and I sin. The mind, or spirit, is whole even in the fallen. It approves one thing—what pleases God, the holy and righteous—delights in it and desires it. In this is expressed its service of the Law of God, that is, by desires and strivings alone. For in deed it always turns out the opposite. The cause is that in action the law of sin prevails, “which is in my members” or in my flesh. I submit to it, I serve it, fulfilling its commands with the members of my body. But, having done this, I again pass to the side of the spirit and serve it the Law of God, though again by delight and desire alone. It is evident that human nature in such a condition is thirsting for deliverance and crying out for it; by this very position it expresses that it thirsts for it and cries for it. Will God’s grace leave its creation—His image—in such a condition?! And it did not.

The Apostle says: with mind—with spirit—I serve, and with flesh I also serve. One must note that man is: spirit – soul – body – and that too in their right and wrong states. Yet the person of man, conscious of himself and acting freely, is one and the same. When consciousness and freedom are on the side of the spirit, man is spiritual; when on the side of the soul, he is soulish; when on the side of the flesh, he is carnal. Sin has taken possession of the soul and body and all their powers, needs and functions, perverted them, so that when man is under sin, they act not according to nature. The spirit, however, remains uncorrupted by this defacement: it always speaks its truth. Conscience torments the sinner and wounds with the fear of God. The sinning man can stop up the ears of his attention and not listen to this voice; but it is always ready and does not remain idle. On this indestructibility of the spirit is founded the possibility of deliverance. Were it not for this, there would be nothing to lay hand to.

In saying “with the flesh the law of sin” – he does not remove the truth that together with the flesh the soul also serves the same law: for there are many passions that are properly of the soul. One might rephrase thus: with soul-and-body existence corrupted and damaged by sin, I serve the law of sin—that is, I sin and sin. Sin brings consciousness down into this realm of passionate soul-and-body existence, binds my freedom and forces me to sin. But the spirit is in me, and as soon as the fog of sin passes, it utters its voice. I pass to its side: for I cannot stand against the justice of its demands. I pass to it and delight in it and desire what it suggests. Let me again repeat the same, sink into passionate soul-and-body existence in sin; yet again I pass to the spirit and desire what is spiritual.

One must suppose that the Apostle depicts the fallen man in his better state, that is, when the spirit is heeded. For it happens that in some the spirit is completely suppressed—and nothing spiritual is visible in the man.

No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3)

Having depicted a cheerless picture of our moral corruption, the Apostle sets against it a radiant picture of moral perfection attained by the Christian in Christ Jesus through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Before grace, he says, people serve the law of sin; but grace, having come, restores the power of the spirit, and the Christian no longer thinks and lives according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. In this: aa) lies the essence of the restoration of our fallen nature (Rom. 8:1–10). Yet here only the beginning of our restoration is laid; bb) in its full glory it will appear at the resurrection, when we enter into the promised inheritance as sons of God (Rom. 8:11–17). In this glory shall also be sharers: cc) all creation, now groaning for it (Rom. 8:17–22). The holy Paul concludes this portrayal with an indication: dd) how firm are the foundations of our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:23–39).

Aa) Its essence (Rom. 8, 1–10)

Rom. 8:1. There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

“Therefore”—indicates the drawing of a conclusion. From what, then, and from which facts? From verses 24 and 25. Having asked, “Who will deliver me?”—and answering, “I thank God through Jesus Christ”—the Apostle said everything, set forth all the blessings received by believers in the new-covenantal economy of grace for salvation—and the chief: sins are forgiven and the grace of the Holy Spirit is given, by which, resisting sin, we are able to live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. We are no longer slaves of sin—liberated from its yoke and its deception. He brought all this to mind with a single word: “I thank God” and so forth. Now he draws the conclusion from all that: therefore, there is no condemnation for us, because we do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

But why did he say “no condemnation”—when one might have expected rather: no slavery and servitude to sin—as is said immediately after: “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2)? It is in order to remind us that sin, however it is committed, always brings righteous condemnation upon itself. From the explanations offered earlier regarding what is the sin living in us and how it works, some might derive self-justification in sin: what are you to do? sin overpowers; you cannot master it. But in reality things are otherwise: though sin seduces and draws, yet the sinful deed is always committed of one’s own will. Consequently, it is subject to condemnation, from which one cannot escape with such an empty excuse. Who is to blame? Why do you incline and let yourself be drawn away by the pleasure of sin? This side of the matter the Apostle did not address: he was setting forth only the fact of our sinfulness as it is. But that all sinfulness is subject to judgment—this he had expounded in the first chapters, preceding them with such a law of God’s righteousness: “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Rom. 1:18). This law he now recalls, directing the thought: people sin, though yielding to the action of the sin living in them, yet they remain subject to judgment; but we believers—thanks be to God!—are not subject to this judgment and condemnation, because we are freed from the law of sin acting in the flesh—we do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Before the coming of Christ it was, he says, thus, but after His coming it became otherwise. Yet not for all, as if by some law of necessity, but only for “those in Christ Jesus,” who cleave to Him by faith and love, receive the holy baptism, regenerating to new life, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, giving them strength to live by the law of this new life. Those who draw near to the Lord leave behind all that is sinful (Satan and his works), and, repenting of it, make a firm resolution to live the rest of their days in holiness, guarding their union with Christ. For this resolution they receive grace and are clothed with power truly to live in holiness in union with Christ. Such are “those in Christ Jesus.” Wherefore they are “not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” The Apostle prescribes no commandment here, nor does he remind of any condition, but only sets forth the reality of life in Christ Jesus, as it is, just as he had depicted the reality of life in sin, as it is. Those in Christ Jesus, inasmuch as they are such, do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit: so that as soon as anyone does not walk according to the Spirit, he is no longer in Christ Jesus. Blessed Theodoret writes: “now, if we do not will it ourselves, the passions do not overcome us; for we have received the grace of the Spirit of God.”

Rom. 8:2. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

He said that, abiding in Christ Jesus, we do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, and therefore are not subject to condemnation, since we do not sin—now he enters more deeply and explains how it came to pass that we began not to walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, and therefore not to sin. How so? A new spirit has entered and freed me from the law of sin—and I do not sin. Now the Apostle speaks in the person of the Christian renewed in Christ Jesus, just as he had previously spoken in the person of fallen man.

To be subject to the law of sin is the same as to walk according to the flesh and to sin, as is evident from the preceding chapter. Man fell under the yoke of this law in consequence of the fall, or turning away from God. We must recall what ensued from that. Man is: spirit—soul—body. The spirit is meant to live in God, the soul—to order earthly existence under the guidance of the spirit, the body—to carry on and maintain visible, material life on earth under the direction of both. When man turned away from God and resolved to arrange his own well-being, he sank into self-centeredness, whose very essence is self-pleasing. Since his spirit presented no means toward this, on account of its separated nature, he turned wholly into the realm of soul and bodily life, where self-pleasing found ample nourishment—and became soulish and fleshly. To be soulish and fleshly was in itself a sin against man’s nature: for he was meant to live in the spirit, spiritualizing both soul and body. But the harm was not limited to this. From self-centeredness were born a multitude of passions, which together with it invaded the soulish and bodily realm, distorted the natural powers, needs, and functions of soul and body, and, beyond that, introduced much that has no foundation in nature. The soulish and fleshly state of fallen man became passionate. Thus, fallen man is self-centered; in consequence he is self-pleasing, and he nourishes his self-pleasing through passionate soulish and fleshly existence. In this lies his pleasure, the very strongest chain holding him in the bonds of his fall. In its totality, all this is the law of sin, “existing in our members.” In order to free him from this law, it is necessary to break these bonds—pleasure, self-pleasing, self-centeredness.

How is this possible? Within us there is a separated power—the spirit, breathed into the human person by God, seeking God and able to find rest only in life in God. In the very act of his creation—or inspiration—he was placed in communion with God; but fallen man, turning away from God, turned the spirit away from God as well. Yet his nature remained unchanged—and he ceaselessly reminded the fallen one, mired in passionate soulish and bodily existence, of his needs and demanded their satisfaction. Man did not reject these demands and in quiet moments resolved to do what pleased the spirit. But when it came to action, passion rose up from soul or body, flattered him with its pleasure, and took hold of man’s will. In consequence, the spirit was refused in the present action, while passionate soulish and bodily existence was satisfied, on account of the promised pleasure in feeding self-centered self-pleasing. Since this manner of proceeding happened with every deed, such a way of acting was rightly called the law of sinful life, holding man in the bonds of his fall. The fallen man himself was aware of the weight of these bonds and groaned for freedom, but found no power within himself to free himself: sinful pleasure was always beckoning and inciting him to sin.

The reason for such powerlessness lies in this: in the fallen man, the spirit lost its determining power: it passed from him to passionate soulish and bodily existence. According to man’s original constitution, he ought to live in the spirit and be determined by it in his activity—complete, that is, both soulish and bodily—and to spiritualize all his powers within himself. But the power of the spirit to hold man in such an order depended on his living communion with God. When this communion was broken by the fall, the power of the spirit dried up as well: he was no longer able to determine man—the lower parts of nature began to determine him, and those corrupted ones at that—therein lie the bonds of the law of sin. It is now evident that in order to be free from this law, it is necessary to restore the power of the spirit and return to it the authority taken from it. This is precisely what the economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ accomplishes—the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And it accomplishes it thus.

The grace of the Holy Spirit descends upon man and, quickening his spirit, restores him to his natural rights. From this moment begins in the fallen man a new, or is restored his original, life, in which the power that determines his deeds passes into the hands of the spirit, taken away from the passionate soul-and-carnality—and man’s life acquires the character of a spiritual life, separated from the self-will of self-gratification and sensual pleasure. This is the general testimony of the change that occurs in a man who becomes Christian. The particulars in this are as follows.

The elements of the spirit are fear of God, conscience, and the hunger for God, manifested as discontent with everything created. In the fallen state all these are manifest, but they are weak and unheeded. The grace of God, through the gospel of the Gospel, entering within, awakens fear of God; fear of God awakens conscience; these two sober and separate. Through consciousness and will passes the conviction: all is vanity, and meanwhile you will perish because of it. From this moment begins living concern for salvation, which “is the one thing needful” (Lk. 10:42). Work proceeds within, as God’s grace aids and directs. Fear of God threatens judgment; conscience torments on account of deeds according to soul-and-bodily passion. Comes the decision to change everything, according to the Gospel’s direction, which promises peace with God through the cross of the Lord and the calming of conscience on account of the resolve to live the rest of one’s life by its promptings or according to the commandments received by it as law or renewing the law written in it—promising to accomplish this through the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. This decision transforms one’s entire former life: instead of self-will, it establishes self-denial; instead of self-gratification, God-pleasing; instead of pleasure, readiness for all sorrows and even death in the hope of eternal rest. When such a decision is formed and strengthened under the action of faith and grace (still acting outwardly and turning), man is prepared to receive grace within, through the divinely appointed sacraments, according to the arrangement of those set over the grace-filled house of God and his treasures. He receives the sacraments and is filled with grace, which in its first moment of dwelling gives man the taste of the full sweetness of life according to God, compared to which all previously tried pleasures are nothing. This grace makes man strong for life according to God. Raising up his spirit, it brings him into living communion with God; having entered into which he begins to live in God, standing ever before Him inwardly in consciousness, and directing all his activity, in its every least manifestation—words, deeds, thoughts—toward what pleases Him, not only not heeding the self-will and sensual self-gratification, but even arming himself intentionally against it, finding pleasure in acts of self-denial and self-mortification, according to the promptings of grace, which guides and strengthens him. It is evident that the former law of sin has fallen away from man; into operation comes the new law of life, which is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

The passions approach even now; but since they no longer have within the former supports, through the removal of self-will and self-gratification, they no longer have any determining power such as they had before, and are driven off by mere scorn and disregard. The pleasure of sin attempts to entice, creeping in somehow, but it cannot stand even for a moment before the recollection of that surpassing sweetness which grace gives to taste in the moment of its dwelling within, and before the thought of the unspeakable future rest or, in the case of yielding, of terrible eternal torments.

We may define the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus thus: the self-devoted life of the spirit in God, beginning to work in a man who clings to Christ the Lord by faith and has been filled with grace, and giving authoritative direction to his soul and bodily activity, turning all of it toward the pleasing of God, while trampling and scorning the former self-willed self-gratification in passionate soul-and-carnality—in which consists liberation from the law of sin.

The Apostle joins with the liberation from the law of sin the liberation from death. For just as at the beginning, subjection to the yoke of sin brought death, so now the destruction of the sinful yoke must bring the destruction of the dominion of death. And people die after receiving grace; but the significance of death now is not the same. It is a passage into blessed immortality, not into unbearable torments, in which there is ceaseless dying without death. The seed of blessed immortality is laid together with the arising of spiritual life through the grace of the Holy Spirit. That is why, together with mention of the beginning of this life, the Apostle also mentioned the ending of that immortal dying.

All this is brought about by the grace of the Holy Spirit, but nothing happens within mechanically. God’s Spirit transforms our inner constitution, but not by creative power and force alone, but following after the conscious and free decisions of man himself and conforming to them. Yet notwithstanding all this, everything is from the Spirit: for man himself could not produce anything in himself, however much he might strain. All our interpreters understand by the law of the Spirit of life the Holy Spirit with His grace, which sanctifies us. Theodoret writes: “As the Apostle called sin the law of sin, so he called the life-giving Spirit the law of the Spirit of life. His grace, he says, through faith in Christ has granted you twofold freedom, for it not only broke the dominion of sin but also ended the torment of death.”

Holy Chrysostom sets forth more extensively the power of the present text. He says: “By the name of the law of the spirit, the Apostle means here the Spirit: for just as he called sin the law of sin, so he calls the Spirit the law of the Spirit. But he also named the law of Moses spiritual, saying, ‘We know that the law is spiritual’. So what is the difference? Great and immeasurable. That is a spiritual law; and this is a law of the Spirit. How do they differ from one another? In this: that one was given by the Spirit alone, while this law of the Spirit abundantly gave the Spirit to those who received it. Therefore the Apostle named it also the law of life, in distinction from the law of sin, and not from the law of Moses… By the law of sin is understood the law that wars against the law of the mind. This grievous battle grace of the Spirit ended, mortifying sin, making the struggle easy for us and first crowning us, and then bringing us forth under strong protection to the struggle. And as in other cases the Apostle, passing from the Son to the Spirit, and from the Spirit to the Father and the Son, ascribes all that is perfected for us to the Holy Trinity: so he does here. After the words: ‘Who will deliver me from the body of this death?’ he showed that the Father accomplishes this through the Son. Then he again ascribes this to the Holy Spirit together with the Son; for he says: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me. Then again he ascribes it to the Father and the Son.”

Rom. 8:3. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did: He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and because of sin He condemned sin in the flesh.

The Apostle pointed out that the new spirit of life in Christ Jesus freed us from the law of sin. The force of the affirmation lies in the words “in Christ Jesus,”—as in the first verse: “there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Now he explains that otherwise it would have been impossible for this to come to pass except in Christ Jesus. God sent His Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” and He condemned sin, or the law of sin, took from it its former power and strength and freed us from it. That this should be so admits of no doubt and requires no particular proof, that we must, living in the spirit, walk according to the will of God, written in the conscience and personally declared by Him. But through the fall, another law “in our members” came to prevail and gave another direction to our life and deeds. To aid the conscience the Law was given; but it did not improve matters: the law of sin became even more active in its operation. The need for a new economy is evident, and God was pleased to grant it to us in His Son, Who, having become incarnate, condemned—destroyed sin in His flesh and ordained that we too, cleaving to Him through faith and becoming one with Him in the mysteries, might become partakers of His power, which trampled sin, and by this power trample it in ourselves; in which consists freedom from the law of sin. Thus we obtain the possibility to live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit, to walk in the will of God, in faithfulness to the demands of conscience and law, and to be righteous before God—and our original destiny is fulfilled.

Such is the sense of the present verses, in connection with the preceding and following course of discourse. But the text itself requires special explanations.

“What the law could not do” does not have a corresponding verb, which must be supplied by one’s own thought. It seems that the most fitting completion will be: was supplied. What the law was not able to accomplish, this was supplied by a special economy of God—by the fact that God sent His Son for this. The law in itself is holy and pointed out the true path to holiness and righteousness. But in man, to whom it pointed this path, the flesh held sway—self-willed sensual passion—and did not allow him to walk this path. But the law only pointed out what ought to be and forbade what ought not be, forbade and this very passion itself (“You shall not covet”), but gave no strength to overcome the latter. In this consisted its weakness. It was good and beneficial that it clarified the matter; but since it went no further than that, the flesh, or passion, remaining in its strength in man, did not allow him to follow the law’s direction, and the law did not achieve its goal; nor was man’s original goal achieved—to be holy and blameless before God. This is what is meant by: “through the weakness of the flesh”, δια της σαρκός—on account of the flesh—or on account of extremely fleshly thinking (holy Chrysostom)—the passionate and self-loving self-gratification, this law of sin living in our flesh, “in our members” of our nature. “What”, εν ω—may be expressed thus: “what the law could not do”—namely, inasmuch as it “was weak through the flesh”; but better thus: what the law could not do—that in which it was weak on account of the flesh—was supplied by the sending of God’s Son, Who, coming, condemned this very flesh, took from it its power over us.

“God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh”. Since the law did not lead to holiness and righteousness, and these constitute man’s original destiny—without which man is not man—the boundless goodness of God arranged another wondrous way for the sanctification and justification of man—this: that the only-begotten Son of God was made flesh and, overcoming sin, gave man the possibility not to yield to sin’s power and to be holy. The Son of God was sent in “the likeness of sinful flesh”. Having said before that the law “was weak through the flesh”, “by flesh he meant not the very essence of the flesh, but a thinking excessively fleshly, which removes guilt from the body” (holy Chrysostom). Now by flesh he means the very nature of flesh, without the fleshly thinking or the law of sin that had entered into it. In people the flesh was usually sinful, but in the Lord Jesus it was not participant in this unnatural addition. It was in Him as the natural flesh of all men, except for the unnatural sinfulness. That is why it is said: “in the likeness of sinful flesh”. If he had said only: “in the likeness of flesh”—it would follow that He came not in our true flesh but in an apparent one. If he had said: “in sinful flesh”—it would make the incarnate Lord himself a participant in sin. But, saying: “in the likeness of sinful flesh”—he gives to understand that He came in our true flesh, only without the sin living in it. Holy Chrysostom says: “If it be said that God sent His Son ‘in the likeness of flesh’, do not conclude from this that the flesh of Christ was different. But since human flesh has been called ‘sinful flesh,’ the word ‘likeness’ is added. For Christ had not sinful flesh, but, although like our sinful flesh, yet sinless and by nature the same as ours.” And let us add the words of blessed Theodoret: “The Apostle did not say: in the likeness of flesh—but: ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’. For the Son of God took upon Himself human nature but did not take upon Himself human sin. That is why what He assumed the Apostle called not a likeness of flesh, but: ‘a likeness of sinful flesh’. For Christ, having one and the same nature as us, did not have one and the same direction of will.”

“And because of sin He condemned sin in the flesh”. The words: “and because of sin” may be related to: “He sent”—thus: “God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and because of sin”, περί αμαρτίας—on account of sin—the sin that tyrannized over men—conjoining with this the thought: to atone for sin through the sacrifice of His flesh, as the Russian translation does, or: to expunge sin by His power, first in His own flesh, and then through living communion in all believing men, or: not conjoining a definite thought as to the exact reason why, but keeping in mind generally—on account of sin—with the indication of the actual reason seen in: “He condemned sin.” One may also relate this word to: “and because of sin He condemned—He condemned sin because of sin”—showed that sin is sinful, by revealing sinless flesh. On account of the universal sinfulness, one might think that sin is inevitable—the flesh is so constituted that one cannot avoid sinning; consequently, sin is sinless. The Lord, revealing sinless flesh, showed that sin is not from the nature of the flesh but from evil will, and therefore is sinful—subject to judgment and condemnation—“showed the injustice and sinfulness of sin” (blessed Theophylact). And He condemned it—not by a mere condemning judgment, for the law also did that, but as another ruler seizes a criminal, condemns him and banishes him to hard labor or delivers him to death—condemned it by overcoming it and making us victors over it, so that we can despise it as a worthless insolence and trample upon it.

Our interpreters do not pay attention to the structure of speech, but rather discuss more generally the purpose and power of the sending of the Son of God—that He was sent to overcome sin, to take from it all its power, so that He might make us victors over it.

Only blessed Theophylact, among other things, remarks: “the expression: ‘and because of sin’—may be understood more simply, thus: the Father sent His Son ‘because of sin,’ that is, to overcome sins.” And Oecumenius brings as something another has represented as a possible arrangement of words here: “two arrangements of words may be taken here; one may separate ‘and because of sin’ from: ‘He condemned,’—so that it would be: ‘God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and because of sin,’—that is, on account of sin, to take it away and free us from it. How to take it away? By condemning it—not by a mere trial, but by overcoming and capturing it. One may also conjoin them, so that it would be: ‘and because of sin He condemned sin in the flesh’—condemned it because it is thoroughly sinful, like one who did good by committing evil, of which the Apostle spoke above, bringing to mind that sin is thoroughly sinful. How did He condemn it? In the flesh, that is, by His flesh. This is marvelous, that by flesh, once subject to sin, He condemned sin. How? By keeping it sinless. Having overcome sin in this way by His flesh, He also punished it. For the punishment of sin is its destruction.”

But whatever arrangement of words one accepts, it is evident that the chief thought of the Apostle here concerns the purpose and significance of the sending of the Son of God in the flesh, namely—to overcome, punish, and destroy sin and to make us victors and punishers of it. For since the Son of God came to supply what was lacking in the law, and what was lacking in the law was the ability to overcome sin in us or to make us victors over it, in the words that define the purpose of the sending of the Son of God we ought to see precisely this supply of what was lacking in the law—that is, the overcoming of sin and making us victors over it. Such indeed is the sense that should be seen in the words: “He condemned sin in the flesh”—condemned sin in His flesh, took from it its power and made us victors over it. The word: to condemn—also in ordinary speech has a similar meaning, for when we say: they condemned the criminal—we mean not only the pronouncement of a condemning judgment but also the depriving of the criminal of the ability to commit crime, by imprisonment or death. The same applies here: sin is condemned—bound and deprived of unbridled freedom to tyrannize over us. The incarnate Son of God accomplished this in two ways: by delivering His sinless flesh to death for the sins of the world, He gave us the ability to obtain forgiveness for the sins we have committed; and by revealing in Himself sinless flesh and instituting sacraments for communion with Himself, He gave us the ability to receive from Him the sin-conquering power, so that we might not commit other sins. Both of these have their treasury in Him. We become partakers of this treasure by cleaving to the Lord with all our heart. The first is indicated here, and the second in the words that follow.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle declares here that since the law could not fulfill its own appointed task, on account of the weakness of those receiving the law, for they had mortal and passionate nature, the only-begotten Word of God, having become man, by human flesh crushed sin, fulfilling all righteousness; not having accepted the shame of sin (that is, being sinless) and suffering death like a sinner, He exposed the injustice of sin, for He delivered to death a body not subject to death. Yet He Himself both crushed sin and death. For the Word of God, as not subject to death because it committed no sin, but having taken death upon itself by an unjust verdict of sin, became, as ‘free among the dead’ (Ps. 87:6), a just redemption for those justly held under the dominion of death.” Here the justification-accomplishing power of the coming of the Son of God in the flesh is chiefly indicated. But Saint Chrysostom portrays rather the sin-conquering power of this coming. He says: “Imagine that the king’s son, seeing at the marketplace that they are striking a woman of low station and homeless, calls himself her son and thereby frees her from the hands of her abusers. The same is what the Son of God did; He, confessing Himself the Son of Man, appeared to aid the flesh and condemned sin. And sin dared not strike it anymore; or, more precisely, although it struck with a deadly blow, yet—what is most wonderful—not the struck flesh but the striking sin came under condemnation and perished. If the victory had been accomplished not in the flesh, this would be less wonderful. But it is wonderful that Christ, being in the flesh, raised a trophy (Trophy—Greek: τροπαΐον—a monument of victory and properly victory itself), and that very flesh which sin had cast down thousands of times achieved over it a brilliant victory. Behold how extraordinary this is! First, that sin did not overcome the flesh; second, that sin itself was conquered, and conquered by flesh; third, that the flesh not only conquered but also punished. Christ, by not sinning, appeared invincible; but by dying, He conquered and condemned sin, making for it terrible that very flesh which had previously been despised. By this He destroyed the power of sin and destroyed death, introduced into the world by sin. Do you see how many victories were won?! The flesh was not overcome by sin, sin itself was conquered and condemned, and not merely condemned, but as guilty of sin.”

The Mind of the Flesh Is Death, but the Mind of the Spirit Is Life and Peace (Romans 8:4–7)

Rom. 8:4. That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

All that the Lord accomplished was in His flesh, in His Person. “You will ask: is there some benefit for me from the fact that this was accomplished in the flesh of Christ? There is benefit for you precisely” (Saint Chrysostom). What precisely? That we now walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, “do not will to live in the flesh but in the spirit” (Oecumenius). The Apostle does not explain how such a change was accomplished in us; because he wrote to Christians who bore such a change in themselves and knew how it was accomplished. The sin-justifying and sin-conquering power from Christ the Lord passes to every believer, who clothes himself in Christ in holy baptism and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit in chrismation. Therefore he immediately begins from now on to walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. But this is not accomplished mechanically, but as a result of free changes in the deepest disposition of man. Let us recall what was said under verse 2 of this chapter. The fallen man became self-centered, self-indulgent, pleasure-loving. Passionate self-indulgence, operating in soul-and-body life and moved by pleasure-love, was the source of endless sinfulness, the law of sin acting “in our members”—or that fleshliness of which Saint Paul writes here. But God’s grace in Christ Jesus comes and restores man’s spirit to its rights, forms in him self-denying zeal to please God by fulfilling His holy will, with readiness even to death for this. Upon this disposition, which in the beginning occurs only as it were inwardly, God’s grace, which has been acting till now from without, descends in the mysteries within and, dwelling in the spirit, makes what was before only deliberately intended to be the living elements and operations of man’s inner life. And he begins from now on to live by the spirit in God, pleasing Him, offering to Him in every way and self-denyingly his soul-and-body life as a sacrifice, with the suppression of all passionate self-indulgence—begins, in other words, to walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. “Not to walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit,” writes Ambrosiaster, “means to serve God with the mind, which is the spirit, not consenting to sin (self-indulgence), which through flesh sows lusts in the soul.”

What fruit comes from such walking not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit? This: “the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us”—that is, only in us, the believers, not in anyone else: for only we receive the power for it and form in ourselves the disposition suited for it. He who lives according to the spirit zealously seeks to please God; what pleases God is expressed in His Law—both in the law of conscience and in the written law, which has clarified and confirmed that law and merged with it. He who lives according to the spirit thus zealously seeks to fulfill the law and, having received the power to do so, truly fulfills it. As only believers in the Lord are such, so only they are faithful fulfillers of the law—in other words: it is in them alone that the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled. “The righteousness of the Law” is either the righteousness demanded by the Law, or the intention and goal of the Law. It comes to this: what the Law aimed at, for which it was given—and it was given so that we might be righteous and holy—is fulfilled in us believers—and only in us. And why in us alone? Because in us alone that is removed on account of which the Law was powerless, the law of sin dwelling in the flesh is removed, and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus begins to operate; in other words: because only we can live and do live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Saint Chrysostom says: “What does righteousness mean? The end, the goal, the success. What did the Law seek and what did it sometimes produce? That man should be sinless. This very thing is now accomplished for us by Christ. It was His work to resist and overcome, and ours to use the victory. So we will no longer sin, will not sin if we do not grow weak and fall in spirit. Therefore the Apostle added: in us, not walking according to the flesh. And so that, hearing that Christ has delivered you from the struggle with sin and that through the condemnation of sin in the flesh the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in you, you should not neglect the necessary preparation (disposition, readiness), the Apostle, as before, having said no condemnation, added not walking according to the flesh; and here he added the same thing to the words that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us. Or, more correctly, here something far greater is added. Having said that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, not walking according to the flesh, he added but according to the Spirit—thereby giving to understand that one must not only refrain from evil but also adorn oneself with good. Christ’s work is to give you a crown; yours is to keep it on yourself. Christ accomplished for you what the righteousness of the Law consists in—namely, that you are not subject to the curse. So do not lose this gift, but keep this beautiful treasure. By this the Apostle suggests to you that baptism alone is insufficient for our salvation if after it we do not show a life worthy of this gift. Consequently, this again is said in defense of the Law. For even after believing in Christ we must do and fulfill all things, so that the righteousness of the Law, fulfilled by Christ, operates in us and not remain powerless.”

Again, there naturally impresses itself on the mind the reflection that holy and righteous life is the essential norm of life for a man worthy of that name. It was man’s original purpose in creation; it was the goal of all God’s providential actions before the Law; it was what the Law aimed at; and for it the entire new-testament dispensation of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ is ordered. The essential condition for its actual manifestation is life not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit—that is, the restoration of the original structure of human nature—that man should live in the spirit in God and by its power authoritatively rule soul and body—a structure truly restored in Christ Jesus by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Rom. 8:5. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit, on the things of the Spirit.

He explains why the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled only in those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. It cannot be otherwise, he says: for those walking according to the flesh, or, what is the same, those living according to the flesh only “set their minds on the things of the flesh”—they have no concern for the Law, care nothing for the Law. Only those walking according to the Spirit, or, what is the same, those living according to the Spirit “set their minds on the things of the Spirit”—they concern themselves with what is in accord with the demands of the Spirit, or with the Law; for the Law is spiritual. Such is the nature of the fleshly and the spiritual that the former’s mind does not incline toward what is lawful; but the latter think only of ensuring that all is lawful, in accord with God’s will and pleasing to God. Therefore only these can fulfill the righteousness of the Law—the goal of the Law, that we be holy.

“Those who live according to the flesh”—not those who have flesh—but those living in the gratification of flesh, doing what pleases the flesh in lust (Rom. 13:14). The discourse is not about the nature of flesh, but about man’s fleshly disposition. “This does not lean toward an accusation of the flesh,” says Saint Chrysostom; “as long as it maintains its own proper order, nothing is unreasonable. But when we give the flesh freedom and it, transgressing the limits set for it, rises up against the soul, then all is ruined and corrupted—not by its own nature, but on account of excess and the disorder arising from it.”

“Those who live according to the flesh”—yet the expression is very strong. It points to such immersion in fleshliness that it is as if nothing but flesh existed in the man. We with our human eye see but few such: for however much someone is given to the flesh, both his soul appears to be active in him, and sometimes even the natural spirit of man. But God’s eye does not see all the fallen as such: for such is the law of the fall, that he who has fallen from the spirit does not stop in the soul either, but is cast down to the very bottom—into the flesh. Fleshliness appears as the ruling principle even in those who live by the soul (scientists, artists, men of affairs). It is the background, and everything else is various figures drawn on this background.

“Thinking”—here means not merely thoughts or the cast of mind, but the entire inner structure—thoughts, cares, plans, sympathies, deeds, and even dreams and imaginings—the moving, governing and arranging principle of all. “The fleshly,” he says, “having given themselves to lusts, have only that care and concern” (Oecumenius). “Those who have given themselves to immoderate slavery to the flesh always care only for the fleshly” (Blessed Theophylact). “Only what pleases the flesh is sweet to them” (Ambrosiaster).

“Those who live according to the Spirit”—these are those who live by the spirit in God, think of God’s things, desire God’s things, are consoled by God’s things, moved by the fear of God and guided by the suggestions of the conscience enlightened by the commandments—all through the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ. To live according to the Spirit is the norm of human life by its creation. But after the fall he no longer lived according to the Spirit, though the spirit was in him: it was in him, but had not the determining power; it spoke, but was not heeded. Such are all who have not yet arisen from the fall. Man begins to live according to the Spirit only after receiving grace—being born again. Then the spirit enters into its rightful place, gains power and governs all in man, by itself determines the norm of his life. Such a man cares only for one thing: to remain unwaveringly in God by the spirit and to direct all only to what pleases Him. “Those who have wholly submitted to the Spirit think and do all that is spiritual” (Blessed Theophylact). Soul-and-body life is not suppressed or silenced, but, having been placed within its natural limits, is directed there too, to what pleases God, and through this becomes spiritualized—and man’s whole external life becomes spiritualized in all its aspects. Thus those “living according to the Spirit” do not forget the fleshly, but only spiritualize it; while those “living according to the flesh” forget the spiritual—or perhaps one can say that they too do not forget it, only they carnalize it.

Rom. 8:6. For the mind set on the flesh is death; but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.

“For”—because; again a cause. The holy Paul here binds a chain of causes: for the following verse too begins with a causal particle “because.” To what does the cause in the present verse point? To that which immediately precedes, namely: “those living according to the Spirit” (think), “on the things of the Spirit”; it shows why they do so: because they are aware that only in spiritual thinking is life, and in fleshly thinking is death. And experience confirms this: for nothing so strengthens life according to the Spirit as the awareness, feeling and tasting of moral-religious well-being in such an order of life and the remembrance of what comfortless heartache is the source of fleshly life. And in theory it should be so; for he living according to the Spirit and holding spiritual thinking lives by the Spirit in God and, strengthened by His power, directs the actions of soul and body and all his relations to pleasing God. Through this, standing in living union with the source of all life, he is filled with true life, which, harmonizing all manifestations of his own life, both inner and outer, brings into it harmony and peace more beautiful, more sweet and more rapturous than anything man can imagine for himself on earth. Conversely, fleshly thinking—life at a distance from God and with forgetfulness of Him, life of pleasure-loving self-indulgence moved and agitated by passions—because it holds aloof from the source of life, makes human nature impoverished, exhausted, withering; and because it gives predominance to flesh and soul over the spirit contrary to the natural order of human nature, introduces discord into that nature, disintegrating and corroding it. Both result in torment like the agony of a dying man. Fearing this—the lethal effect of fleshly thinking which has been experienced—he who has entered into spiritual thinking holds fast to it with all his might, the more earnestly because he feels and tastes the life and peace that flow from it.

Rom. 8:7. Because the mind set on the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.

“Because” διότι—through that, that—by the fact that. He said that fleshly thinking is death and spiritual thinking is life. Now he clarifies through what and by what the first produces death, giving to understand that the second produces life by the opposite. By what does the first produce death? By the fact that it is by its very nature enmity against God. Life is in a friendly, living union with God; and fleshly thinking, born as a result of falling away from God, is not only estranged from this union but cannot bear it and shrinks from it, because it undercuts it at the root. Therefore it naturally brings death, and indeed is death.

Fleshly thinking, as has been said more than once, means the general disposition of the fallen, by which he directs all his care to arranging earthly well-being, placing it in the satisfaction of soul and body needs, corrupted and perverted by the passions. With this it is occupied day and night, and this alone does it know how to arrange, not thinking of that which is beyond earth and of what lies beyond earthly life. Toward God and the things of God his soul has no inclination. This inclination of the soul toward the Divine is the mildest extreme of enmity against God. The harshest extreme is active, furious rebellion against God’s order, accompanied by blasphemy and zeal to turn others from God. The middle occupies that manifestation of fleshly thinking by which it does not openly rise against the Divine and seems to be at peace with it; but as soon as it comes into conflict with it, it always compels one to act contrary to it. And this last is what the Apostle sets forth here in the form of disobedience to God’s Law, as the most widespread and universal, and as that in which the first degree is already contained and the way to the second is opened.

Fleshly thinking expresses its enmity against God by disobedience to God’s Law. Usually it is silent, as if it did not exist; but as soon as comes the time to fulfill the Law, it contrives to present the matter so that the poor man in that case acts to please it against God’s Law. Thus every time, therefore always, so that disobedience to God’s Law is the distinctive living characteristic of fleshly thinking. Therefore the Apostle added further: “nor indeed can it be.” Fleshly thinking, as long as it is such, cannot obey God’s Law; for as soon as it obeyed, it would cease to be fleshly thinking. Man can hold both fleshly and spiritual thinking, bound by neither, can pass from one to the other. While given over to fleshly thinking, he cannot obey God’s Law; but since he is not bound by fleshly thinking and can depart from it, one cannot say generally that he cannot obey God’s Law: he can, when he wishes, when he himself arms against fleshly thinking and drives it away.

Saint Chrysostom expounds at length this side or this kind of inability. “Do not be disturbed on hearing ‘nor indeed can it be.’ This difficulty is still easy to turn aside. Under the name of fleshly thinking the Apostle understands here the reason that has become earthly, clinging to worldly things and evil deeds. Of it the Apostle speaks, that it cannot obey God—not of man in general. Otherwise how did Paul become so great? How was the robber saved? How was Manasseh saved? How were the Ninevites saved? How did David rise after his fall? How did Peter come to himself after denying Christ? How could the prodigal be received into the flock of Christ? How could the Galatians regain their former blessedness when they had lost grace? Therefore the Apostle does not say that it is impossible for the wicked to become good, but that the wicked, while wicked, cannot obey God, but if he changes, he will become good and readily obey God. He did not say that man cannot obey God, but says that a wicked man cannot do good deeds, as a fornicator, for example, cannot be distinguished by chastity. So when Christ says in the Gospel: ‘a bad tree cannot bear good fruit’ (Matt. 7:18); He does not by this deny the possibility to pass from vice to virtue, but means only that while given over to vice one cannot bear good fruit. He did not say that a bad tree cannot become good, but says that while remaining bad, it cannot bear good fruit. Therefore the Apostle calls fleshly thinking a vice, and spiritual thinking the grace given and deeds approved by good will, and reasons here not at all about substance and nature, but about virtue and vice. What you could not do before, he says, you can now—you can walk straight without stumbling if you receive help from the Spirit. For it is not enough just not to walk in the flesh, but you must walk in the Spirit; because for our salvation we need not only to avoid evil but also to do good. And we achieve this when we give the soul to the Spirit and persuade the flesh to remain in its place. For by this we also make it spiritual, just as by giving ourselves to negligence we make the soul fleshly. Since the gift is not given by natural necessity but is entrusted to free will, it depends on you now to become one or the other. Christ accomplished all that was in His power; sin no longer opposes the law of our mind and does not take us captive as before; on the contrary, all this has passed and is finished: the passions are calmed, brought to fear and trembling by the grace of the Spirit. But if you yourself extinguish the light, push aside the charioteer, cast out the helmsman, then blame yourself for the tempest. But that virtue has become more easily fulfilled now, and therefore more lovers of wisdom, you can see by comparing what condition the human race was in before and what it is now that grace has shone forth. What seemed impossible for anyone before, such as virginity, contempt for death and many other sufferings, is now fulfilled throughout the world. Not only among us, but also among the Scythians, Thracians, Indians, Persians and other barbarian peoples are there virgins, hosts of martyrs, communities of monks—everywhere incomparable fasting, abundance of poverty. Therefore, seeing the truth of events crying out louder than a trumpet, do not give yourself to luxury, do not lose such grace. To the negligent, even after receiving faith, it is impossible to be saved. Struggles have become easier so that you, the athlete, might win, not slumber, and not make the greatness of grace an excuse for you to neglect it, sinking again into the mire of sins.”

You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11)

Rom. 8:8. So those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

“So” is a particle of contrast and is not bound with the immediately preceding text. Setting the present text in connection with the preceding, one would need to use the particle “thus” or “therefore.” If Saint Paul did not use it, it means he did not connect this verse with the preceding. With what then is it connected? With verse 4. Having said that the righteousness of the Law, its goal—to make us holy and pleasing to God—is fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, Saint Paul in verses 5, 6, and 7 sets forth the characteristic features of walking according to Spirit and flesh, binding them as a chain of causes with the particles “for, for, because.” All of them in their totality, consequently, are clarifications of what was said in verse 4 and present a series of inserted propositions. Having finished the clarification, the holy Apostle returns to the interrupted discourse. The dispensation of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ was accomplished so that the righteousness of the Law—that we might become holy and pleasing to God—might be fulfilled in us. It is fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. And in those who walk according to the flesh, it cannot be fulfilled, because such cannot please God. “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Such is the connection of this text; its meaning is clear in itself. “Those in the flesh” is the same as “those living according to the flesh”—that is, living in passionate and pleasure-loving self-indulgence. They cannot please God because they do not will to fulfill God’s will and God’s Law—what alone makes man pleasing to God—their heart has no inclination for it, they have no taste for it, no thoughts nor desires for it.

Saint Chrysostom says on this passage: “So what? Will you say, must we cut off the body, exit the flesh, to please God? Is he leading us to virtue by commanding us to be self-murderers? No. Under the name of flesh Paul here means not the body, not the substance of the body, but fleshly and worldly life spent in amusements and luxury, which makes the whole man flesh. Just as those who are winged by the Spirit make even the body itself spiritual, so those who turn from the Spirit, serving the belly and pleasures, make the very soul flesh, not changing its essence but destroying its nobility. Such a manner of expression is often found in the Old Testament; there too the name flesh means a coarse and unclean life devoted to coarse amusements. Thus Noah was told: ‘My Spirit shall not remain in these men, for they are flesh’ (Gen. 6:3). Although Noah himself was clothed in flesh; but being clothed in flesh was not sinful, as it was natural; sinful was to love fleshly life.” So here: “The Apostle does not command us to become without a body, but to be freed from fleshly thinking” (Blessed Theodoret). Because “those having fleshly thinking cannot please God while they remain such” (Blessed Theophylact).

Rom. 8:9. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Above, in verse 3, having said that the Son of God, being incarnate, condemned sin—that is, overcame it and made us its victors—immediately thereafter he said that we no longer walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit and have the power to fulfill the righteousness of the Law. But how it came to pass that the sin-conquering power from Christ the Lord passed to us and made us such powerful—of this he only hinted before, in verse 2, in the word about the law of the Spirit of life which freed us from the law of sin. Now he sets forth this very point more clearly, saying: you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, because God’s Spirit dwells in you. God’s Spirit, having descended in you in the mysteries, drew your spirit out of the bonds of fleshliness—passionate, soul-and-body self-indulgence—and placed it in its place, at the head, governing all in all manifestations of your life, and, by His power, for your self-surrender to Him, keeping it in this rank, makes it that you are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit, and, consequently, always do only what is spiritual, holy and pleasing to God, and stand therefore on the path of salvation, certainly leading to eternal blessedness in God in Christ Jesus the Lord. This conclusion itself comes to mind of its own accord after what the Apostle said before about the essential features of life according to Spirit and flesh. It seems that in the words “you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit” the spirit means the natural part of human nature—the spirit breathed by God at creation and through the fall subjected to the tyranny of flesh. And in the words following: “because God’s Spirit dwells in you”—by Spirit is understood the Holy Spirit, gracious, regenerating and establishing a new life within. He, descending upon man’s spirit and uniting with it, makes it strong to resist the flesh and to act as is natural to it, by its nature. Saint Chrysostom expounds this beautifully. “One thing is good, another is evil, another neither good nor evil. Thus soul or flesh is something in between and can become either one or the other; but spirit is always good and never becomes anything else. Therefore, if you give soul and body to the better, then you yourself will belong to the same side; if you give to the worse, you will share in its destruction, not by the nature of soul or flesh, but by disposition, which has the power to choose one or the other. And that this is truly the meaning of the Apostle’s words and by them flesh (as flesh) is not condemned, we shall see by returning to that same expression and analyzing it more carefully. ‘But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,’ says Paul. How is this? Were they not in the flesh but bodiless? Is this possible? Do you notice that he means fleshly life? Why then did he not say: you do not live in sin? So that you might understand that Christ not only quenched the torture of sin but made flesh easier and more spiritual, not by changing nature but more by uplifting it. As iron, from prolonged contact with fire, itself becomes fire, retaining its own nature: so among the faithful who have the Spirit, the very flesh is reborn into the same activity, becoming completely spiritual, altogether crucified and uplifted together with the soul. Such was Paul’s body. For this reason it despised all pleasures and delights, rejoiced in hunger, beatings, imprisonment, and suffering these things, it did not grieve. Paul expressed this clearly, calling it momentary and ‘light affliction’ (2 Cor. 4:17). Thus did he teach the flesh to walk together with the spirit.”

“Because God’s Spirit dwells in you. Because”—in Greek stands ει—if. But this if does not express doubt, but expresses an indubitable assertion and stands instead of έπειδήπερ—since. The Slavonic text exactly conveys the Apostle’s thought. “The word ‘if,’ εϊπερ,” testifies Saint Chrysostom, the Apostle often uses not to express doubt, but with full assurance, instead of έπειδήπερ ‘since’—as, for example, saying: “if it is right with God to repay with affliction those who afflict you” (2 Thess. 1:6).

“God’s Spirit dwells in you.” With what decisiveness the Apostle affirms this of the believing Romans, who have properly entered the assembly of believers! “God’s Spirit dwells in you”—he assured the Corinthians too (1 Cor. 3:16), adding: “you are the living church of God” (2 Cor. 6:16), “the temple of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you” (1 Cor. 6:19). He reminded the Galatians of the same, saying that God “sent into their hearts the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6). And to the Ephesians he said that they, “having believed, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13), whom he commands them “not to grieve” (Eph. 4:30). He affirmed the same in other Epistles, and not he alone, but all the other Apostles as well, and the Lord and Saviour Himself. And all this with such decisiveness that whoever does not have the Holy Spirit in him is not a Christian, and if anyone is a Christian, he is so only because he is anointed with the Holy Spirit. And into the Kingdom of Heaven is admitted only he who approaches its gates having on his brow and throughout his whole being the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the ticket for entrance, and therefore it is called “the earnest of the inheritance” (Eph. 1:14).

After this it is clear of itself why the Apostle adds further: “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His”—that is, he is not Christ’s, and is not a Christian. “He who does not partake of this grace has no communion with Christ” (Blessed Theodoret). And justly. For the Spirit is a seal. Therefore, he who does not have the seal does not belong to the Lord, marked by this seal (Blessed Theophylact). Hearing this, who will not be moved with desire to have the Holy Spirit? But you do have it. Everyone who with faith receives the Divine Mysteries of Baptism and Chrismation has the Spirit in himself. Therefore you do too. You will say: I have grieved the Holy Spirit with my sins, and He has departed from me. But you have brought forth repentance and communicated the Body and Blood of Christ the Lord, and the Divine gracious order in you has been restored. Therefore you have the Spirit, you are Christ’s. How comforting are these truths! Yet at the same time it cannot help but be painful that a Christian must be assured that he is Christ’s and has the Holy Spirit. And yet this is necessary, not to arouse pride, but to awaken attention to himself as a bearer, dwelling place and temple of the Spirit, and to strengthen him in the order of life showing how much one values this treasure. With all that, however, the question is not out of place: by what, by what signs can I know that the Holy Spirit is truly in me? The Apostle answers this:

Rom. 8:10. And if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

One would expect the Apostle to say: if the Holy Spirit is in you—but he says: “if Christ is in you.” “In saying this, the Apostle does not call the Spirit Christ—not at all!—but gives to understand that he who has the Spirit not only is called Christ’s, but even has Christ Himself dwelling in him. For it is impossible for Christ not to be where the Spirit is. Where one of the Persons of the Trinity is, there is the whole Trinity. Thus is it Itself indivisible and united in the close way within itself!” (Saint Chrysostom). Those being baptized clothe themselves in Christ; and as Christ, being baptized, received the descended Spirit, so those baptized in His name receive afterward the Spirit in Chrismation and have both Christ and the Spirit. Therefore, to say “if Christ is in you” or “if the Spirit is in you” is equivalent. The presence of the Spirit gives to understand the presence of Christ, and the presence of Christ the presence of the Spirit. And not only this, but also the presence of the Father, as Christ the Son of God assured us (Jn. 14:23). What a great mystery does a Christian bear within himself!

“What then will be, you ask, if Christ is in you? The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. See how many evils there are in not having the Holy Spirit in yourself: death, enmity against God, inability to please Him by obeying His laws, to be Christ’s and to have Him dwelling in you! See also how many goods there are in having the Spirit: truly to be Christ’s, to have Christ Himself dwelling in you, to rival the Angels! For to have the flesh dead for sin means to begin to live eternal life, even here on earth, to bear in yourself the pledge of resurrection and the ability to walk the path of virtue. The Apostle said not simply ‘the body is dead,’ but added ‘because of sin,’ that you might understand that vice is mortified, not the nature of the body. The Apostle does not speak of this; on the contrary, he wants the body to be dead while remaining alive. When our bodies differ in nothing from those lying in the grave with respect to fleshly impulses; this is a sign that we have the Son in us, that the Spirit abides in us” (Saint Chrysostom).

Just as darkness cannot stand before light, so the fleshly, passionate, sinful cannot stand before Christ the Lord and His Spirit. But just as the being of the sun does not take away the being of darkness, so the presence in us of the Son and the Spirit does not take away the being of something sinful and passionate in us, but only takes away its power. The passionate and sinful, as soon as occasion comes, immediately appears and offers itself to awareness and will. If awareness turns attention to it and occupies itself with it, the will too can incline that way. But if awareness and will in that moment turn to the side of the Spirit and turn toward Christ the Lord and His Spirit, then everything fleshly and passionate instantly vanishes like smoke at a breath of wind. This is what is meant by: the flesh is dead, powerless. This is the universal law of the life of true Christians. But there are degrees. When someone remains unwaveringly in awareness and will on the side of the Spirit in living tangible communion with Christ the Lord in His Spirit; then the fleshly and passionate cannot even appear—as darkness before the sun and cold before flame. There the flesh is completely dead, motionless. This is the degree the holy Paul means in the present passage. Saint Makarios of Egypt often depicts this degree. And the general order of spiritual life is best described by Saint Hesychios. The essence of his teaching is this: when flesh and passion rise up, turn away from them by inattention, contempt and aversion, and turn prayerfully toward Christ the Lord dwelling in you—and the fleshly and passionate will instantly depart. “And the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” In Greek stands not “is life” but life: the Spirit is life because of righteousness. The Spirit here means the human spirit, whose nature is life in God by attention and will with self-surrender to Him and earnest pleasing through strict fulfillment of His will or His commandments: in which consists righteousness. Life because of righteousness is the nature of the spirit; so that to say: then the spirit is life because of righteousness—is the same as to say: then our spirit becomes what it should be by nature—life because of righteousness, is restored to its rank. If we apply to this the thought that the passionate and sinful in body and soul is something foreign and added to nature, and becomes dead in him in whom Christ with His Spirit abides, then it will be evident how in these few words the Apostle depicted the state of one in whom fallen human nature has been restored from the fall to its natural rank in spirit, soul and body.

Thus here one can see a summary of the whole discourse on the restoration of the fallen. Having depicted in chapter 7 the sad condition of the fallen under the tyranny of sin dwelling in him, the Apostle came to the question: “who will deliver me?” With the answer “I thank God through Jesus Christ” he confessed that he was already delivered and indicated by whom he was delivered. Having explained the whole course of deliverance in the first verses of chapter 8, he concludes in the present verse: here finally is what kind of life is established in man: “the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” And this is the structure of human life originally ordained in creation.

But is the restorative power in Christ Jesus exhausted in this? No. For man still remains under the appearance of decay, and all nature still labors under vanity. Complete restoration requires the removal of these unseemly things. And they will indeed be removed in their time—toward which indication the holy Paul now proceeds. Previously he explained “the mode of restoration;” now he wishes to depict “the extent of this restoration”—in man himself and in visible nature.

Bb) Its full manifestation in the future age (Rom. 8:11–17)

Rom. 8:11. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Here is the answer to the following: man fell spiritually and became subject to death; but now he is restored spiritually: why then death? Why death is left, the Apostle does not explain, but only assures that death will be abolished, saying as it were: do not be troubled! Your dead bodies will also be made alive by the power of that same Spirit which already dwells in you, by the example and power of the risen Christ the Lord, who also is in you. He who raised Jesus the Lord will raise your bodies after death; and that it will truly be so, take assurance from the resurrection of Christ and from the giving to you of the Holy Spirit. About the connection of the gift of the Spirit with future resurrection the Apostle speaks here clearly, and about the connection with it of Christ’s resurrection only hints by mentioning it. But in other places of his Epistles the Apostle sets forth this, as well as the first, clearly, so that according to him, in the very resurrection of Christ we are already raised (Eph. 2:6). Christ the Lord is the firstfruits of the risen. Since believers clothe themselves in Christ and so unite with Him as a graft with a tree, so also must they be raised; for the members cannot remain in the realm of death when the head abides in the splendor of resurrection. But to each thing its own time: “each in his order: Christ as the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ” (that is, will be raised) (1 Cor. 15:23). The Apostle everywhere expresses the connection of the gift of the Holy Spirit with our resurrection by calling Him “the earnest of our inheritance”—the inheritance of the Kingdom with Christ risen, consequently after we too are raised (Eph. 1:14). The grace of the Holy Spirit is the seed of resurrection, which will surely sprout, flower and bear fruit in its time. It should be noted that the Apostle’s word “will give life”—in Greek some read διά του πνεύματος—through the Spirit—and others δια το πνεύμα—for the Spirit, because of the Spirit. Both meanings are acceptable. Our holy interpreters in their explanatory discourses use both expressions, but more the latter. There is nothing to dispute: for the work of universal resurrection is the common work of the Most Holy Trinity—God the One, the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit, or the Father through the Spirit in the Son.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle encouraged hope by the future and sufficiently inspired zeal for present struggles. For he says: in a short time your bodies will be immortal and will become inaccessible to the passions troubling you. And this God the Almighty Himself will accomplish, now generously giving you the pledge of the Spirit. And the Apostle presented to them the resurrection of Christ as surety for their resurrection.” Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle begins to speak of resurrection because the hope of resurrection especially encourages the hearer and strengthens him by the example of Christ. Do not be afraid, he says, that you are clothed in a mortal body. Have the Spirit in you, and the body will certainly be raised. But what is this? Will not the bodies of those not having the Spirit be raised? And how then shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ? Is the doctrine of hell then certain? If those not having the Spirit do not rise, then there is no hell. So what does the Apostle mean? Although all will be raised, yet not all to life, but some to punishment and others to life. Therefore he did not say ‘will raise,’ but ‘will give life,’—which means more than resurrection and is given to the righteous alone. And showing the reason for this honor, he added: through His Spirit dwelling in you. Therefore if you lose the grace of the Spirit in this life and die not preserving it intact, then surely you will perish, though you will be raised. Just as Christ, seeing His Spirit shining in you, will not wish to deliver you to punishment, so seeing it extinguished in you, He will not agree to bring you into the bridal chamber as the foolish virgins (Matt. 25:1–12). Do not let your body live now, that it may live then. Let it die so as not to die. As long as it remains alive, it does not live; but when it dies, it will live. The same will be at the general resurrection. The body must first die and be buried, and then become immortal. The same was accomplished in baptism. First man is crucified and buried, and then rises. The same was true of the Lord’s body. It too was crucified and buried, and then rose. Let us do likewise. Let us continually mortify the body in its deeds. I say this not about the substance of the body—not about that at all—but about its tendency to vicious deeds. For (even here on earth) not to tolerate anything human in oneself, not to serve pleasures—constitutes life, indeed the very life.”

The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15)

Rom. 8:12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

“Debtors,” ὀφείλεται ἐσμεν, “we are not debtors to the flesh,” or we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh—according to fleshly mindset, according to the principles of self-pleasing, sensuality, and passionate selfishness. Stretching forth the restorative power in Christ Jesus to all eternity, the Apostle now stops his attention at this point and determines the conditions under which this work of God’s favor toward our race can be a true blessing for each of us, accompanied by blessed life. This is clearly expressed in the following verse: life according to the Spirit with the mortification of fleshly deeds is the condition of blessed life in the resurrection. And here it is shown that this is required by the very law of the life established in us. We, he says, are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. Debtors to whom? To Him who established in us the order of new life—Christ the Lord dwelling in us, the Spirit of God living in us, who is the source of that spirit of life in Christ Jesus which freed us from the law of sin and death. “For having received salvation from the Master Christ and having received the grace of the Spirit, we are obligated to render to Him the debt of service” (Blessed Theodoret). “After such great grace, we must live according to the will of God, and by no means according to the flesh, that is, not in sins, not in indulgence to fleshly lusts” (Oecumenius).

St. Chrysostom says: “Having shown what reward the spiritual life brings, namely that Christ dwells in us, dead bodies are quickened, we are lifted up to heaven, the path of virtue becomes easy—the Apostle naturally then adds exhortation and says: therefore, we ought not to live according to the flesh. However, he does not express it thus, but far more powerfully and forcefully, saying that we are debtors to the Spirit; for this is what he meant by the words: ‘we are not debtors to the flesh.’ And he confirms this everywhere, proving that all that God has accomplished for us has been done not out of obligation but purely by grace; on the contrary, all that we hereafter do for God is not a gift but a debt. This he makes clear when he says: ‘You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men’ (1 Cor. 7:23). He shows the same thing when he writes: ‘You are not your own’ (1 Cor. 6:19). He mentions the same thing again in another place, saying: ‘Christ died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves’ (2 Cor. 5:15). He confirms the same thing here with the words: ‘we are not debtors to the flesh,’ lest you think again that he is speaking of the substance of the flesh—he did not stop there but added: ‘to live according to the flesh.’ We are obligated to do much for the flesh: to nourish it, warm it, give it rest, heal it of diseases, clothe it, and render it many other services. Therefore, lest you think that the Apostle forbids such service to the flesh by saying: ‘we are not debtors to the flesh,’—he clarifies this by saying: ‘to live according to the flesh.’ I forbid, he says, having such concern for the flesh as leads to sin; at the same time I wish you to care for it. He revealed this thought later as well, when, having said: ‘do not make provision for the flesh’, he did not stop there but added: ‘to gratify its lusts’ (Rom. 13:14). He teaches the same thing here, saying: let the flesh be an object of care, because we are obligated to it in this; but we must not live according to the flesh, that is, we must not make it the mistress of our life. It should come behind, not in front; it should not rule our life but receive the law of the Spirit. Therefore, determining this and confirming that we are obligated to the Spirit, then, showing by what benefits we are obligated to Him, the Apostle speaks not of the past but of the future, and this shows his great wisdom. Although the past benefits were sufficient; nevertheless, he does not set them forth now and does not speak of those ineffable mercies, but points to future ones. For many are usually moved not so much by benefits already received as by the future ones expected.”

Rom. 8:13. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

To live according to the flesh is to live in self-pleasing and according to passions. If, he says, you live thus, you will die. From the context, here death is understood as eternal death. But temporal death in the soul precedes that death. Since the Apostle was writing to those who had come alive in the Spirit by God’s grace, there must be something to lose in order to become subject to death; so by frightening them with the ultimate, the Apostle certainly had in mind the first death as well. As a seed of corruption, so a seed of eternal death lies hidden in passions and self-pleasing. They introduce a corroding poison into both soul and body. St. Chrysostom says: “Intending to speak of future blessings, the Apostle first frightens us with the sorrowful and harmful consequences of fleshly (passionate) life and says thus: ‘if you live according to the flesh you will die,’—meaning here immortal death, that is, punishment and torment in Gehenna. If we examine this carefully—one living according to the flesh is dead even in this present life.” Blessed Theophylact combines both in a brief statement: “By death he means here not merely immortal punishment but calls death also the life conducted on earth in evil deeds.”

“But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Spirit is life in God with zeal for pleasing Him through faithfulness to His commandments and with detachment from earthly things. The Spirit has been breathed into our nature and always requires such a life. But it has been oppressed by the fall, and its strength has been taken away. The grace that comes by faith in the Lord, being united with this spirit, restores it to its rights and gives it the power to direct all the conscious and free life of man, guiding it by its nature toward God. Whoever is deemed worthy of this, by this spirit thus graced, mortifies “the deeds of the body”—not external only, but internal as well—the actions and movements of passionate and sensual self-pleasing in general. So it is; but since this does not become a law of nature but is maintained by volition, the Apostle says: “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,”—regarding this as a work of volition, behind the movements of which grace follows, always ready to aid and supply our spirit with the power that mortifies passions.

“You put to death,” he says, making understood that this work is not accomplished once for all. Once for all it is only established in the resolve—never, neither in great nor in small matters, to indulge the passions of self-pleasing—but it does not destroy the possibility of these latter manifesting their movements. The Apostle says: every time these lustful, passionate, fleshly movements appear, “put them to death,” driving them away and cutting them off. For cutting them off is indeed putting them to death: they appeared and now are gone when driven away and cut off. They appeared again—drive them away again, and there will be none. So throughout your whole life “put to death,” he says, “the deeds of the body.” “They are put to death when they cease; for they are no longer once they cease” (Ambrosiaster). It has already been shown above, in the words of the holy Hesychius, how this is accomplished. As soon as a passionate movement or thought appears, repel it with aversion and then turn in prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ—and that passion which troubles will at once depart. This is putting to death by the Spirit the deeds of the flesh. “Such deeds (fleshly) are mortified only by the Spirit. As soon as the Spirit appears, all turbulence subsides, all passions are calmed, and nothing will rise up against us. The benefit of the Spirit consists not only in that He forgives us our former sins, but also in that He makes us unconquerable by sin in the future and deems us worthy of immortal life” (St. Chrysostom).

If so, he says, it will go with you, then “you will live,”—meaning eternal life; because such a life in the Spirit, always “putting to death the deeds of the body,” is the seed of eternally blessed life. This life there is revealed only in its power and radiance, but it is born here, when the grace of the Spirit of God raises up our spirit and gives man the power to live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Born, it grows, and in the measure of its ripeness passes there. Here it is not visible, hidden—sometimes by the disorders of external life, sometimes by internal struggles; but all ripens under the cover of this invisibility. And there it will shine forth in its radiance. This is “you will live,” if here you live according to the Spirit and by the Spirit “put to death the deeds of the body.”

Rom. 8:14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Having given the instruction—to live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit—verses 12–13—as a condition for resurrection to blessedness—verse 11—the Apostle now deepens the conviction that if this is so, they will certainly be heirs of the Kingdom. For, he says, if you live according to the Spirit, this will mean that you are led by the Spirit of God; but those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God; and if sons, then heirs. Such is the Apostle’s thought in verses 14–17. Having said “sons,”—verse 14—he could have directly concluded: “if sons, then heirs”—verse 17. But he deemed it necessary to strengthen the conviction in sonship, besides the indication of the mystical birth from God and the reception of the Spirit in the Sacraments of Baptism and Chrism, by the testimony of inner feeling, assuring us “that we are children of God.”

Why are those led by the Spirit of God led by Him? Because they are born from Him, and having been born from Him, have received Him into themselves. It is thus evident that those led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. They do not stand in an external relationship to God but in an inner, living one. But this is accomplished in the sacraments by God’s grace; the work of life should consist in the continuation of what has begun in them. But how can this be brought to pass? In such a way that those born of the Spirit are led and guided by the Spirit. True sons of God are those who are led by the Spirit of God. The Apostle has brought the whole matter to experience, to the testimony of life. It was necessary for him, in conditioning the inheritance on sonship and sonship on guidance by the Spirit, to kindle in those who desired eternal inheritance a zeal to walk according to the Spirit. For those who walk according to the Spirit are indeed led by the Spirit. You are born of the Spirit, you have received the Spirit in the sacraments; but this is not enough: you must be led by the Spirit, or walk by the Spirit—live according to the Spirit. “Led” means guided and guiding themselves. The Spirit of God imparts guiding thoughts, feelings, and movements, and the believer agrees to them, accepts them as guidance, and is led by them. The gracious guidance in a wondrous way unites the power of the Spirit with the volition of man.

Holy Chrysostom says: “Speaking thus, the Apostle expresses the wish that the Spirit of God be lord over our life, like a helmsman over a ship or a charioteer over a pair of horses. The Apostle imposes such a bridle not on the body alone but on the soul as well. He does not give the soul full authority; rather, he subjects its power to the power of the spirit. So that those encouraged by the gift of baptism should not neglect the proper ordering of their life from now on, he says: although you have received baptism, yet if you do not afterward let yourself be led by the Spirit, you will lose the dignity and right of sonship that have been granted you. Therefore he did not say: all who have received the Spirit are sons—but: all who are led by the Spirit of God. This means that those who conduct themselves throughout their entire life so as to be led by the Spirit, these are ‘sons of God.’ But since this dignity was also given to the Jews, for it is said: ‘I said, you are gods and all of you are sons of the Most High’ (Ps. 81:6); and also: ‘I have brought up sons and reared them’ (Is. 1:2); and also: ‘Israel is my firstborn son’ (Ex. 4:22); and Paul himself says: ‘theirs is the adoption as sons’ (Rom. 9:4); therefore he also explains the difference that exists between the one honor and the other. Although these names are the same, he says, yet the things are different.”

Rom. 8:15. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father.

He proves that sonship is not something externally assigned but rather something that constitutes the essential content of the whole structure of life in Christ Jesus. As the leading of the Spirit is not external but comes from within, for God’s Spirit has united itself with our spirit and acts from it, so too does sonship, arising from the whole structure of spiritual life, reflect itself in feeling and consciousness and constitutes the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. To make this clearer, the Apostle compares the spirit of evangelical life to the spirit of life under the law. “You did not receive,” he says, “a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,” as was the case under the law. He speaks in this way only for comparison: for there they did not receive any spirit, but such was the spirit of the law, that it held in obedience through fear, and those who were under it obeyed it as slaves, captives, so that the spirit of their life, inspired by the entire essence of the law, was a spirit of slavery born of fear. The spirit of evangelical life is not like that: here one serves God not as a slave but as a son in a house, understanding all the purposes of the master—one’s Father—entering into them, sympathizing with them, desiring them and loving them. The difference between these spirits is evident already from this, but it is even greater from the fact that the evangelical spirit of sonship is inspired not by the content of the Gospel alone, as the spirit of Old Testament slavery was inspired by the content of the law, but, what is far more important, is built up in the depths of our spirit by the Holy Spirit, whom we receive in Christ Jesus. Bearing this Spirit, we dare to cry out to God, infinitely great and incomprehensible by the mind: Abba, Father! Our Father!—as the only-begotten Son of God and God, who has arranged all this for us, has taught us.

Holy Chrysostom expounds these two spirits at length. “Passing over what is opposed to slavery, namely the spirit of freedom, the Apostle set forth something far more important—the spirit of adoption, through which freedom of spirit is also communicated, saying: ‘but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons.’ It is clear what the spirit of adoption means; but what the spirit of slavery is—this is obscure, and therefore it needs to be explained. What the Apostle has said is not only unclear but completely incomprehensible. For the Jewish people was not given the Spirit. What then is Paul speaking of here? By the spirit of slavery he called the written law. Why then were the writings of the Old Testament writings of slavery? Consider the whole manner of life of the Jews, and this too will become clear. Among them, punishments followed deeds, and rewards were not deferred to a distant time but were dispensed in exact measure, like daily rations to servants. Everywhere their eyes were vividly presented with terrors, bodily washings were strictly observed, and caution in actions. It is not so with us; we purify thought and conscience. Christ does not say only: do not kill—but also: do not be angry; or only: do not commit adultery—but also: do not look with unchaste eyes. He desires that we gain the habit of virtue not from fear of present punishment but from love of Him, and succeed in all else. To us God does not promise a land flowing with milk and honey, but makes us co-heirs with the only-begotten and in every way tries to turn us away from present goods and promises to grant chiefly such as befit those who have become sons of God. We have nothing sensory, nothing bodily, but all is spiritual. The Jews, although called sons, were like slaves; we, having become free, received adoption and await heaven for ourselves. With the Jews God spoke through others, but with us He speaks personally. The Jews did everything driven by fear of punishment; but spiritual people do all things according to inner disposition and love, which they prove by excelling beyond what is prescribed in the commandments. The Jews, like hirelings and the ungrateful, never ceased to complain, but Christians please the Father. Those, although benefited, blasphemed; but we, even in hardship, give thanks. Although sinners even now do not remain unpunished, yet there is a great difference even in this. The priests of the Jews would beat them with stones, burn them, maim them; but us they turn otherwise; for us it is enough to be cut off from the Father’s Table, debarred from it for a certain number of days. For the Jews, adoption was a title only in words; for us it is accompanied by actuality, purification through baptism, the gift of the Spirit and the sending of other blessings. The Apostle, having indicated all this by the words: spirit of fear and of adoption, brings a new proof to confirm that we have the spirit of adoption. What then? ‘By whom we cry, Abba, Father!’ How powerful is this proof, those who are enlightened know; for this word is the first that is prescribed for them to utter in the mystical prayer. But, you will ask, did the Jews not call God Father? Do you not hear what Moses says: ‘You neglected the Rock that fathered you’ (Deut. 32:18)? Do you not hear how Malachi reproves and says that God alone created us and is Father to us all (Mal. 2:10)? But although these and many other places of Scripture are brought forth, yet nowhere shall we find that the Jews called God by this name and prayed to Him as Father. But we—and priests, and laypeople, and rulers and subjects—all are commanded thus to pray. The first word uttered after that miraculous birth, accomplished according to a new and extraordinary ordinance, is: ‘Father!’ Moreover, if the Jews at any time called God Father, they did so from their own reason; but those living by grace call Him thus, being moved by the power of the Spirit. Just as there is a spirit of wisdom, through which the unwise became wise and revealed this in their teaching; just as there is also a spirit of power, through which the weak raised the dead and cast out demons; just as there is also a spirit of healing, a spirit of prophecy, a spirit of tongues: so also is there a spirit of adoption. And as we know about the spirit of prophecy that he who has it foretells the future and speaks not from his own reason but being moved by grace, so the same must be said of the spirit of adoption, that he who has received it calls God Father, being moved to do so by the Spirit. The Apostle, desiring to show that we are sons by birth, even used the Hebrew word; he did not say only: Father—but: ‘Abba, Father!’—for so truly his own children especially call their Father.”

Regarding this last addition, blessed Theodoret remarks: “The Apostle added: ‘Abba’—showing the boldness of those who call. Small children, enjoying greater freedom with their father, since their reason is still immature, more often use this word in addressing their fathers. So too we, by His unspeakable love for man and by His immeasurable goodness, call the Creator of all things Father, as we are commanded; but we do not know how great the difference is between Him and us, and do not understand ourselves with precision, and have no knowledge whatsoever of His nature.”

To this, Ambrosiaster adds such a lesson. “Having been freed by God’s grace from fear, we have received the Spirit of adoption; so that, seeing what we were and what we have received by God’s gift, we might with utmost care order our lives well, so that the name of God our Father might not suffer offense in us, and we, becoming ungrateful, might not again fall into that from which we have been saved. Such is the grace we have received, that we dare to cry out: ‘Abba, Father!’ This very thing should impel us to be cautious, so that, having received such boldness, we do not fall into the foolishness of improper living; for if we display a life unworthy of such a cry: ‘Abba, Father!’—we shall cause offense to God every time we call Him our Father. For He permitted us this for His own goodness—something above our nature—so that we might deserve through our deeds what we are unworthy of by our essence.”

In this saying is the answer to this: how can it be—we have received the Spirit of adoption, yet we do not feel that we are sons? We do not have the life of sons; the spirit of sonship has departed. For if this misfortune does not occur, then deep within there lives a conviction that we are children of God, as the Apostle says now:

The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19)

Rom. 8:16. The Spirit itself testifies together with our spirit that we are children of God.

“Testifies together”, συμμαρτυρεΐ—bears joint witness. Our spirit testifies that we are children of God, and the Holy Spirit testifies together with it. Two witnesses, at whose mouth every word is established (2 Cor. 13:1), therefore also the word about our sonship to God. Our spirit by nature is able to testify to this, as some of the wise men heard and on this basis affirmed that we are the offspring of God (Acts 17:28). But this testimony in the fallen man is silent and almost inaudible amid the noise that takes place within us. But when our spirit is restored by God’s grace, then its testimony becomes clear and is clearly heard. Although it is a gift of grace, as the restoration of our spirit itself in its rights and power is also a gift of grace, yet since grace is intimately united with our spirit and becomes one with it, all that grace effects is wrought through our spirit—it receiving it from the Spirit of God and proclaiming it in our inner peace. That is why the Apostle said before: “by whom we cry, Abba, Father!” The Spirit of grace gives our spirit the power and boldness to cry out thus, but we are the ones who cry. To this voice, emanating from the depths of our spirit, the Spirit Himself testifies. How? Probably by a certain particular testimony, not emanating from the depth of our spirit but yet in the spirit, though heard externally and reflected in it, coming from the Spirit of God. If we take for the testimony of our spirit the filial feeling toward God, consisting of the simplicity of unfailing trust in God and the surrender of ourselves to Him as one who cannot abandon us in anything, then we may take for the testimony of the Spirit the assurance that such a relationship to God is true, not deceived, and pleasing to God Himself (Oecumenius).

But we may understand this passage not as a new assurance in sonship to God but as a conclusion from what precedes, thus: we have received “the Spirit of adoption”; thereby the Spirit itself testifies to our spirit that we are children of God. To our spirit means: to our feeling, our consciousness—as a result of which we also cry: “Abba, Father!” Holy Chrysostom says: “It gives me strength, the Apostle says, not only the word (‘Abba, Father!’) but also the reason that produces the word. For I utter it at the prompting of the Spirit; which the Apostle expressed even more clearly in another place, saying: ‘God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!’ (Gal. 4:6). What does it mean: ‘The Spirit testifies together with our spirit!’? The Advocate, the Apostle says, testifies to the gift communicated to us. For this word is not only the voice of the gift but also the voice of the Advocate who gave the gift. He Himself, by means of the gift, taught us to pronounce this word. But when the Spirit testifies, does there remain room for doubt? If it were promised by a man or an angel, archangel, or any other power, others would have the right to doubt; but when the highest Being both grants this and testifies to it by that word which is enjoined to be pronounced in prayer, how can anyone doubt the dignity? If a king bestows on someone and publicly announces his rank, no subject dares to contradict it.”

But these two interpretations do not contradict each other. What is stated separately in the first is affirmed in combination in the second. It is more important for us to pause attention on how mysterious is this testimony. Blessed are those Christians to whom the Apostle, writing, affirmed that they have such testimony. It was tangibly clear for them. In our time it produces only amazement. Dogmatically we cannot but hold that it should be so, but who of us will boast of experiencing it? The spirit of the world has overcome us. And the movements of the Spirit of God are little clear to us. But this does not shake the truth that those faithful to the Spirit of God indeed bear within them this testimony of the Spirit or continually hear it. But who is faithful to the Spirit? He who is led by the Spirit. Again mysterious. Here is something clearer: whoever, living by the spirit in God, is zealous in every way to please God by fulfilling His will as expressed in the commandments—such a one will certainly reach the feeling of sonship to God and hear within himself the testimony of the Spirit about this. This is the height of growth, the end of the path. But they affirm that it is given to feel this even at the very beginning. Ambrosiaster writes of such a practical side of this testimony: “When we act well and when the Holy Spirit for this reason remains in us, then to that voice and to our spirit crying out in prayer: Abba, Father, this Spirit of God, so long as He remains in us, gives testimony that we are not speaking unreasonably: Abba, Father. For we manifest a life worthy of this voice, since it is the true testimony about children (that they are children) when the fatherly mark is seen in them through the Spirit (fatherly manner and spirit of life).”

Rom. 8:17. And if children, then heirs—heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

He has proved that we are children. From this it naturally follows that we are also heirs. Children of a father are heirs. But among men, children become heirs upon the death of the father, but not so with God: His children become heirs after their own death. It is rather like a father who had children who willfully scattered abroad into foreign lands, who divided to each his portion and decreed: as soon as anyone repents and returns to me, he shall enter into possession of his portion. Thus men have fled from their Heavenly Father and wander on this earth. The merciful Heavenly Father has decreed that if anyone repents and returns to Him, his Father, he shall receive his portion, and as a token that it will be so, He gives His Holy Spirit to those who turn, the receiving of whom signifies that sonship is again restored to them and the inheritance is confirmed to them, which they shall receive as soon as they pass through death from the foreign land to their own—only if they do not again turn away from their Father who shows them mercy. “Inheritance with God is not as it is with men,” writes Ambrosiaster; “with Him it is a gift from the father to obedient children, so that the living becomes heir of the living, not by chance of the father’s death but by his status as a son. The Lord portrayed this in the parable of the prodigal son, received by the father’s goodness into the enjoyment of all the blessings of sonship, for simply returning to the father. And the Apostle, to make us ready to obey the Heavenly Father, persuades us to this by the same hope—that we shall be heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ; so that by the greatness of the reward we expect, we show all the greater zeal for the works of God, putting aside all concern for worldly things.”

Why is it added: “and fellow heirs with Christ”? To determine the measure of the inheritance more precisely and to provide fuller assurance of its certain reception. The treasures of God are boundless. Not all of them can be the inheritance, but a portion—but which one? One might suppose it could be large or small—as the one who distributes the inheritance wishes. Since such indefiniteness could cloud the brightness and joy of hope, the Apostle determined both the kind and measure of the inheritance, saying that we are fellow heirs with Christ. “Although a servant often receives a certain portion from his master, he does not on that account become a sharer in the son; therefore the Apostle added: ‘fellow heirs with Christ,’ to reveal unspeakable love for mankind” (blessed Theodoret). By this “he enhances the value of the inheritance, assuring that we will be near to our Lord and Saviour” (Oecumenius). “What it means to be ‘fellow heirs with Christ,’ the Apostle John teaches us, saying: ‘When He appears, we shall be like Him’” (1 Jn. 3:2) (Ambrosiaster). By this very addition the certainty of receiving the inheritance is also enhanced. For it is already certain that Christ the Lord sits at the right hand of God the Father in glory. If believers become one with the Lord Jesus Christ, put on Him, are grafted into Him as branches into a tree, then one cannot doubt that where He is, there they will be also, as He Himself with divine lips assured us. Reminding us of this, the Apostle speaks as though saying: doubt not therefore; you are certainly heirs.

Let us note: the Father makes us fellow heirs of the Son because of the Spirit dwelling in us. Everything in Christianity is referred to the Life-giving Trinity, so that all may be from the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit, or through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Cc) When all creation will share in it (Rom. 8:17–22)

The Apostle indicated one part of the scope of Christ’s restorative power, which will be revealed in the resurrection of believers for blessed life, which is their certain inheritance. He now turns to the explanation of another—the restoration of all creation to its ordained order, from which it was displaced by the fall of man, its king and head. At the transition to this, however, he pauses to direct attention to the sorrowful outer situation of Christians, which, on the one hand, showing Christians in this respect also to be like Christ, confirms the certainty of the inheritance, and on the other hand, prompts the thought that all creation, standing in a similar sorrowful situation, is not deprived of hope—to be one day in a better and more joyful condition.

Rom. 8:17. Provided we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

“Provided that”—in Greek: εϊπερ—properly: if—but in the same sense as in verse 9: insofar as, inasmuch as. And it should not be translated otherwise. If we put “if,” we will distort the meaning of the text. What does the Apostle mean to say? He is as though hearing an objection: you say that we are God’s heirs, but look at what we are! No one in the world is more sorrowful than we. Comforting them, the Apostle answers: this should not shake our hope of the inheritance but rather confirm it. We do not suffer simply; we suffer for Christ and with Christ. And Christ suffered, but now is in glory. As He, after suffering, entered into glory, so shall we. Therefore we suffer with Him so that we may be glorified with Him. We receive nothing here so that we may receive everything there. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle added this not without intention, but for the comfort of those receiving this Epistle (and in them, all Christians); for they were subjected to all manner of temptations, endured mockings, tortures, imprisonments, and thousands of different deaths. Therefore he utters a comforting word, encouraging them with the future and exhorting them to endure the present courageously.”

But just as in all ages, so also at the beginning not all Christians were outwardly suffering; yet all of these were compassionate with Christ. How? Through crucifying themselves with the passions and desires. Ambrosiaster applies this thought here: “What does it mean to suffer with Christ? To suffer with Christ means to bear patiently the persecutions in hope of future blessings and to mortify one’s flesh with the passions and desires, meanwhile despising the comforts and pomp of the world. When all this dies in a man, then the believer in the life of the future age is crucified to the world, in which he expects to be a fellow heir with Christ.”

Rom. 8:18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

“I reckon”, λογίζομαι—I hold in mind and speak with my tongue, that is, I am fully convinced. The Apostle places himself in the position of one suffering for Christ and declares what encourages him in endurance—namely, that all these sufferings, whatever their kind, are nothing in comparison with the glory which will surround us for them, appear and shine in us. I hold this steadfast in my heart—and these sufferings are nothing to me. “Crowns surpass the labors, rewards are incomparable to toils, labor is small, yet the expected benefit is great; so that the Apostle named this expectation not a reward (equal to the labor) but glory” (blessed Theodoret).

The Apostle in this place does not propose a new thought but clarifies what was said before. He said: we suffer with Christ, and with Him we will be glorified. Now he adds: and how will we be glorified? So that at the mere thought of that glory all these sufferings appear trifling. But we cannot deny that inasmuch as sufferings were widespread and considerable, he intended to encourage the suffering as well. Let us suffer; but beneath this not-red covering lies hidden glory, which in its time will be revealed. Now this glory does not appear outwardly, because the state of this present age cannot contain the radiance of this glory. For it to appear in its power, the whole world must be transformed—all the present state of creation.

Holy Chrysostom expounds comprehensively and at length the thoughts which the present text suggests. “In the preceding verses, the Apostle requires spiritual correction of morals; for he says: you must live not according to the flesh, that is, you must avoid lust, anger, covetousness, vainglory, envy. But now, when he has brought to the believer’s mind all the greatness of the gift both in the present and in the future, when he has lifted him up and elevated him with hopes, brought him near to Christ, declared him a fellow heir of the only-begotten, now he requires that he boldly and confidently go to tribulations. For it is not the same thing to overcome one’s own passions and to bear external temptations, beatings, hunger, exile, bonds, chains, being led to execution. The latter requires a more noble and steadfast spirit in the soul. Observe how the Apostle at once humbles and encourages the thoughts of ascetics. Having shown that the rewards exceed the labors, he urges to greater labors and does not allow them to think highly of themselves, as though urged on by the reward of crowns. In another place, turning his speech to men more advanced in wisdom, he says: ‘For our light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison’ (2 Cor. 4:17). But here he does not count the sufferings as light, but comforts in them with the promise of future blessings, saying: ‘the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared.’ And he did not say: they are worth nothing compared to future rest—but, what is far stronger: compared to future glory. Where there is rest, there is not always yet glory; but where there is glory, there is certainly also rest. Then, having said that the glory is future, he proves that it has already begun. For he did not say: compared to that which will be—but: which shall be revealed. Consequently, it now exists, but is hidden, which he expressed more clearly in another verse, saying: ‘your life is hidden with Christ in God’ (Col. 2:3). Hope to receive this glory; it is already prepared and awaits your labors. You are troubled because this is still ahead; but this very thing should gladden you. For there is prepared there a glory most great, unspeakable, surpassing your present state. Not without intention did the Apostle say: ‘the sufferings of this present time’; by this he wishes to show that the future glory exceeds the present not only in quality but also in quantity. The present sufferings, whatever they may be, cease with the present life; but future blessings extend into infinite ages. And since the Apostle could not enumerate and describe them in detail with words, he named them glory, since for us glory seems most important, and we regard glory as the summit and beginning of all blessings. The Apostle employs another way to stir up his hearers; he strengthens his discourse by an indication of creation, assuming in the following words two purposes: to inspire contempt for the present and desire for the future. Besides this, he has a third purpose, which might more rightly be called the first, namely: to show how greatly God cares for the human race and in what honor our nature is held by Him. Besides, with this very teaching, as one destroys a cobweb and children’s toys, he breaks down all the speculations of philosophers about this world (for it will be different). But for greater clarity, let us hear the Apostle’s own words.”

Rom. 8:19. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.

“These words,” holy Chrysostom continues, “have this meaning: the very creation is greatly tormented, waiting carefully for those blessings of which we now speak. For expectation is the most careful waiting. And in order that the discourse be more expressive, the Apostle personifies the entire world. The Prophets do this: in them rivers clap their hands, hills skip, mountains leap; but for this reason we should not count them as animate and attribute to them any consciousness; rather we should conclude about the abundance of future blessings, extending even to the most insensate creatures. The Prophets often do the same when depicting something sorrowful: then with them the vineyard weeps, wine, mountains and the vaults in temples howl, by which they express the excess of evils. So the Apostle, imitating the Prophets, here personifies creation and says that it groans and is tormented, not because he actually heard the groans of earth or heaven, but to express the abundance of future blessings and the desire to be freed from present evils.”

The Apostle turns to indicating the participation of all creation in the restoration of fallen man, which will be revealed in glory in the age to come. The restoration is already at work but internally; in the age to come it will appear also externally. Now it is not revealed in its brightness, because that brightness cannot fit into the present state of things. But then the present state of creation will change and be adapted to the bright state of restored and renewed human nature. Creation awaits this revelation in the glory of God’s children, renewed and restored, because with this is connected its own restoration and renewal. It does not simply await this revelation to merely observe it, but because it itself will be a participant in that glory.

By this is also depicted the greatness of the future glorification with Christ; for it is shown that it is so great and brilliant that all creation strains toward it. “Do you not see,” the Apostle says as it were, “the heaven, the earth, the sea, the air, the sun, the moon, all visible creation and, beyond this, the invisible creatures, the Angels, Archangels, Powers, Authorities, Dominions? All of this awaits our appearing in perfection and glory” (blessed Theodoret). The participation of all creation in this glorification is also depicted through its participation in Christ’s restorative power. Oecumenius writes: “Creation itself impatiently awaits our future glory. Why? Because, being created incorruptible, it became corruptible on account of human sins; for we too became corruptible from incorruptible. And so creation desires that men again enter into their incorruptibility, so that it too might obtain its incorruptibility. For when man, through whom it became corruptible, obtains incorruptibility, then creation with him will obtain its proper incorruptibility.” It comes to mind at this point that just as the glory of God’s children will be revealed then, while it is still being built now, so creation will appear then in glory, which is being built in it invisibly even now. The future glorious state of all creation, both visible and invisible, is being built invisibly even now by the providential actions of God’s omnipotence, and then it will be revealed and seen.

The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23)

Rom. 8:20–21. For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own choice but by the will of the one who subjected it—in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

The personification of creation continues, revealing on what basis creation hopes to become a participant in the glory of God’s children. On the basis that such was originally God’s plan—that creation should remain in this sorrowful appearance only for a time. It was created not as it now appears, but was lowered and clothed in this mourning garment, in adaptation of its state to the state of the fallen. And as hope of restoration was given to this fallen one, so in this granting of hope of restoration to the fallen is contained the decree that when that restoration is accomplished, the sorrowful garment will also be removed from creation, and it will be freed from servitude to vanity and corruption. By subjection to vanity and servitude to corruption is meant the present unbrightened state of visible creation. Subjection to vanity may also mean that it became bound to serve the multitude of man’s needs, many of which are unnecessary, empty, vain, passionate, and sinful. But more properly, vanity is the impermanence of what comes to be, the same as servitude to corruption. Ambrosiaster writes: “What does it mean: subjected to vanity—if not that all that is born from it is impermanent and unstable? It works to produce corruptible fruits. Corruption is vanity itself. For all begotten in the world is unstable, changeable, and therefore vain. It is vain because it cannot maintain its state: in it all flows, changes form, and is troubled. This is what Solomon understood when he said that all is vanity (Eccl. 1:2). All in it is composed and decomposed, does not endure—although obviously under this flux something permanent, unchanging, better is hidden. Looking into that hidden better, the Apostle considers that better as essential, and the unattractive appearance of creation as accidental: ‘subjected’ he says, ‘not by its own choice.’”

“Not by its own choice”; and it does not even have a choice. All in it is and comes to be according to the will of the Creator. This signifies that, according to God’s plans, creation was not to be in such a state. The Almighty was constrained to place it in this state by the fall of its head—man. Since this fall occurred, He found it necessary to subject creation, which was made for man, to the same to which man fell through his will. But how? Is it that, foreseeing man’s fall, He created creation so as was fitting for it to be with a fallen head—yet with the purpose that when the fallen one is restored, He would raise it up to the measure of his restored state; or was it created in a better state, like that of the first-created man, and then brought low into a worse state when man fell, with the purpose that it would again be restored to a better form when its head is restored? The holy Apostle does not settle this. He looks at what is, and foretells what will be, without lifting the veil that hides from us the beginning of creation. Our interpreters proceed the same way, and only occasionally express themselves so that their thought seems to approach now the first, now the second interpretation.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle teaches here that all visible creation received corruptibility as its portion, because the Creator of all foresaw Adam’s transgression and the death sentence that would be pronounced upon him. And it would be inappropriate and unjust that what was created for him should receive incorruptibility as its portion while he himself, for whose sake all this was created, should be mortal and corruptible. But when he receives immortality through resurrection, then what was created for him will also receive incorruptibility as its portion. Therefore the Apostle declares that visible creation awaits this reversal; because it became changeable not by choice but out of love for the decree of the Creator. And seeing His care for us, it hopes for this reversal.”

“In hope”—apart from the personification—signifies that such was originally God’s plan: that creation should remain in such a sorrowful state only for a time, while men also remain in it, but when they enter into the glory predetermined for them, then it too will be clothed in the bright garment of incorruptibility. The Apostle strictly maintains the correspondence in the states of man and visible creation. Holy Chrysostom says: “What does it mean: ‘creation was subjected to vanity’? It became corruptible. For what reason and from what cause? From you, man. Since you received a mortal and suffering body, the earth was subjected to curse, produced thorns and thistles. But that heaven also, growing old, will finally have a better lot, hear what the Prophet says of this: ‘In the beginning you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will be changed’ (Ps. 101:26–27). Do you see how creation, having served vanity, will be freed from corruption? He says: ‘You will change them like a robe, and they will be changed.’ The same thing Paul says later; but now he discusses the servitude (of creation to corruption) and shows whence it came, and considers us ourselves as the cause. What then? Is creation, suffering this for another, suffering injustice? Not at all. It exists for me. But if it exists for me, what injustice is there when it suffers this for my correction? Otherwise one cannot even apply the notion of justice and injustice to the inanimate and insensate (that is, except by placing creation in a serving relation to man). But the Apostle does not enter into such reasoning but hastens to set forth another thought. What do you say, he reasons, that creation through you suffered evil and became corruptible? No injustice has been done to it by this; because through you it will again become incorruptible. This is what is meant by ‘in hope.’”

“The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God”.

“What does it mean: ‘the creation itself’? Not you alone, but what is far beneath you, what has neither sense nor feeling, will participate in blessings with you. That is, it will no longer be corruptible but will become correspondent to the beauty of your body. Just as creation became corruptible when your body became corruptible, so when your body rises incorruptible, creation will follow after it and will become correspondent to it. The Apostle expresses this very thing by adding: ‘in the freedom of the glory of the children of God’—that is, by means of freedom. Just as a nurse who reared a king’s son, when he ascends to his father’s throne, has her share in his royal blessings, so too creation, according to the Apostle’s words. Do you notice how man is everywhere first and how everything is done for him? Do you see also how the Apostle comforts the ascetic and proves God’s unspeakable love for mankind? Why do you sorrow in temptations, he says? You suffer for yourself, but creation suffers for you. And he not only comforts but also proves the certainty of what he has said. If creation, which has become what it now is for you, has hope, how much more should you hope, through whom creation will enjoy all those blessings. And among men there is a custom to clothe servants in rich garments in honor of a son when he is to appear in public. So God too will clothe creation in incorruptibility ‘in the freedom of the glory of the children of God.’”

“In the freedom”—from corruption, that is, it will put off corruption and put on incorruptibility correspondent to the glory of God’s children. If these children, according to the Apostle, will put on a certain spiritual body, will not all creation consist of the finest elements—like the diverse combination of rainbow colors?!

Rom. 8:22. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

“We know”—this word prompts the thought that in the Apostle’s discourse there is more than personification. In fact, what prevents us from supposing a universal hidden lamentation in all creation about its sorrowful situation together with us? Animals have sense and feeling; in plants are evident traces of sensation and desire: what prevents us from supposing some dim sense even in the processes of crystallization and chemical affinity? And beyond this remains what appears to have no sense, mere elements and forces. Yet over them too we should suppose something ruling, ordering, directing. If we allow in this last some dim sense, we will see the whole of creation, taken together, as having some feeling. In this feeling we can suppose a reflection of its general unattractive state. The Apostle saw this and pointed it out. “All creation,” he says, “groans together,” and confirms this by his apostolic, divinely-enlightened mind: “we know” we who have the mind of Christ. “Groans together”—either in itself, in its totality, or with us, for “with us” is not in the Greek. But this is not essential; what is essential is that it groans. “Suffers”—stronger: for it expresses the pain of childbirth. The thought is suggested that the future bright state of creation is already conceived and ripening in the depths of creation, like fruit in the womb of a mother, and is being prepared for manifestation. We see an analogy to this in the origin of beings on earth. The finest of them are conceived and ripen in unattractive situations and appear in all their proper beauty already after coming forth into God’s light. What holds for each creature holds also for all of them together. Beneath creation’s unattractive present condition ripens its better state—and in its time will appear, like fruit from the womb. Foreseeing this, creation groans, languishing with the desire that this might be accomplished soon. For when such a bright future awaits it, it still must labor in vanity and corruption.

“Creation groans,” writes Ambrosiaster, “because of the unceasing labor to which it is subjected. For all the elements labor with toil. The sun and moon do not traverse their appointed courses without effort, and the spirit of animals does not fulfill its services without groaning, for we see how reluctantly they go to their toil. All of this awaits rest to be freed from servile slavery. If this were service directed toward pleasing God, creation would certainly rejoice in it, not suffer; but since this is labor to corruption, to which it was subjected on account of us, it does suffer. For it sees that daily its works perish, daily its toil rises and sets. Therefore it rightly suffers, when its work does not lead to eternity but to destruction. But, as far as can be understood, it is troubled together also for our salvation, knowing that it will the sooner reach its liberation if we the sooner come to know our Creator. Knowing this, let us make every effort and show ourselves worthy (of our calling before God), not caring only for ourselves but also having in mind the creation, which day and night groans, suffering wrong because of us.” It should be noted that when we cling to creation, we cling to its appearance, on account of which it groans. It turns out that irrational creation groans about that which we, who are rational, unreasonably cling to. Holy Chrysostom says at this point: “Do you see how the Apostle shames the hearer, saying as though: be not worse than creation, do not cleave to the present. You should not only not cling to it but even groan that your departure hence is delayed. If creation acts so, how much more is it fitting for you, endowed with reason!”

Dd) How firm are these hopes. Their foundation (Rom. 8:23–39)

Rom. 8:23. Not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, also groan inwardly while we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

When speaking of the restoration of our nature in glory through resurrection, approaching the indication of the restoration of all creation as well, the Apostle was saying in the course of his discourse: not only will we be restored and freed from corruption, but all creation too. But now, when speaking of creation’s groaning for this deliverance, the discourse must go in the opposite direction: not only does creation groan for this—creation which has not yet visible or tangible pledges of it—but we too, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit as a pledge of future renewal, we also groan so that we might be freed from corruption all the sooner and enter into the full brightness of sonship to God in an incorruptible body. Starting from this groaning of ours for the hoped-for deliverance, the Apostle begins to speak of hope, explaining its characteristics and firm foundations of its steadfastness. These foundations are: α) the firstfruits of the Spirit (Rom. 8:23–27); β) the eternal decree concerning the saved (Rom. 8:28–30); γ) the worth of the incarnate economy (Rom. 8:31–34). All these foundations rest upon: δ) the steadfast love (Rom. 8:35–39).

The first foundation of Christian hope is the firstfruits of the Spirit, on which the Apostle fixes attention in the present text, as on that from which the hope of full deliverance was born and by which it is sustained. The firstfruits of the Spirit are the remission of sins, the power to resist sin, the peace of conscience, filial boldness toward God, and in many the special gifts of the Holy Spirit. All this is good earnest that the work of deliverance has already begun—has begun and is being carried out and gives a foretaste of what will be in the end. But this foretaste itself generates groaning, so that what is hoped for might soon become reality. What exactly are we groaning in hope for? The adoption as sons. But we have already received the spirit of adoption—what more is there to hope for here? The brightness of state corresponding to sonship. But not everything in us is yet in order, and there are great threats from without, and the body is still mortal. That is why we groan so that all this would pass away, all the troubles and dangers would be overcome, and the body would rise, so that we might be revealed as sons in all the brightness of sonship.

Holy Chrysostom says: “We too groan, having already tasted the future blessings. What has been given to us is enough to stir even the hardest man, to draw him from the present and give him wings toward the future, both by the greatness of what is given and by the fact that these high and many gifts are only firstfruits. If the firstfruits are such that through them we are freed from sins and gain righteousness and sanctification, and the Apostles cast out demons by their shadow and raised the dead by their garments, imagine what the future blessings will be. And if creation, which lacks reason and the gift of speech, which has no knowledge of any of this, groans, how much more should we groan! But that heretics might not have occasion to think that the Apostle despises the present, he says further: we groan not in contempt of the present but from desire for something greater. This very thing he expressed by the words: ‘waiting for adoption as sons.’ What are you saying, Paul? Why do you go back and forth, at one point exclaiming that we have already become sons, and then again numbering this blessing among the objects of hope and writing that we must still receive it? The Apostle clarifies this by adding the words: ‘the redemption of our bodies’—that is, the perfect glory. Now, our portion is hidden in secret until the very end of our life. But when we depart hence with good hope, then the gift becomes inalienable, most evident, and greater; then there will be no fear that sin and death might take anything from it. Only then does grace become firm when the body itself is freed from death and innumerable sufferings. The word ‘redemption’ means not a simple ransom, but one after which we will not return to former captivity. And so that you do not fall into confusion when you constantly hear about glory and have no clear idea of it, the Apostle unfolds the future blessings in detail, transforms your body and with it all creation. He expressed this more clearly in another place, saying: ‘He will transform our humble body to be like his glorious body’ (Phil. 3:21). And in another Epistle, saying: ‘When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory’ (1 Cor. 15:54). And as proof that with the destruction of the body, all worldly things likewise undergo change in their state, the Apostle wrote in another place: ‘the form of this world is passing away’ (1 Cor. 7:31).”

Ambrosiaster focuses special attention on why we groan: “After creation, the Apostle adds that we too groan, so that we might be delivered from here, being destined for blessed life: for this world for Christians is a sea. Just as the sea, tossed by opposing winds, attacks those sailing and subjects them to danger, so also this age, through the malice of hostile movements, disturbs the minds of believers; and the enemy does this with such variety that you do not know which to escape first. If authority ceases to be against us, it stirs up private individuals; if these too are calm, through members of the household it kindles a fire; if this too does not work, among relatives it sows discord through malice: so that, being struck from four corners, the house gives way somewhere. Therefore Christians with all their hearts must desire to flee hence as soon as possible. Simeon should be an example to them, who, knowing with what malice the hostile war is waged here, prayed to be let depart in peace (Lk. 2:29). This we too pray for when we say: ‘Your kingdom come’ (Mt. 6:10). The Apostle, as a man of God, has good thoughts about us, saying that we groan for deliverance from here, as Simeon groaned; but I see that we are very bound by the comforts of the world.”

“Photius, according to Oecumenius, reasons: ‘Waiting for adoption as sons.’ What kind? But have we not already received it through holy baptism? And did you not say a little while ago that we have received the spirit of adoption? Yes, he says. What further adoption must we wait for? The manifest one, he says, for all, accompanied also by the redemption of the body (from corruption). Is this then something different from what was said? Not at all; it is the same thing, only manifested in perfection, visible and known to all. For then, after the resurrection of the body and the receiving of incorruptibility, there will be full enjoyment of the promised blessings, the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven, and entrance into all the privileges of sonship. And now, in hope of receiving all this, we have received adoption.”

The Firmness of Our Hope; the Spirit Helps Our Infirmity (Romans 8:24–26)

Rom. 8:24. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?

He brings the reason why, having received the firstfruits, we still lament. Because we have not received everything yet. We have received a part, as a faithful pledge, but the final, perfect, we still hope for, though we know with certainty that it too already belongs to us; but since it is extremely good, we cannot help but grieve, yearning to receive it as soon as possible, just as in another place the Apostle spoke of himself as burning with desire to depart from the body and be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). “In this hope,” he says, “we were saved.” This does not mean that we are not yet saved. No; we are saved: “we were saved.” If anyone dies now, he will receive everything belonging to salvation. But while we live here, we do not hold in our hands everything belonging to those who are saved. The reception of salvation in its perfection is the object of our hope. “What we will be has not yet appeared,” says the holy Apostle John (1 Jn. 3:2). Thus, in hope we are saved. Hope by its nature is such that it does not hold in its hands, does not have before its eyes that which it hopes for. If it did, there would be no place for hope. Who holds something in his hands before his eyes—does it befit him to hope for what is visible and held? So too we hope, because we do not yet have everything in our hands before our eyes. We have already received much—received the forgiveness of sins, the power to overcome sin and be cleansed from passions, filial boldness before God, are deemed worthy of special divine visits and gifts that bless us beyond measure. But this is not yet everything. The final will appear in the radiance of resurrection and reigning with Christ. For this better thing we wait in hope.

But why is our salvation arranged and ordered thus? This is according to the nature of our weak humanity. Give us everything in our hands and we would immediately squander it all. But when a part is given and it is said: if you are faithful, you will receive something better, so much better that you cannot even imagine it—then this keeps us in due order and in earnest seeking and fulfilling of the conditions under which receiving that better thing is placed. This gives opportunity to show faith and faithfulness so that what is to be received is in some way also earned. Holy Chrysostom says: “We should not seek everything here but hope. The only thing we bring as a gift to God is that we believe Him when He promises future blessings. This is the only path to salvation. If we lose this path, we lose everything we have brought as a gift to God. I ask you, the Apostle says: are you not guilty of countless evil deeds? Are you not a lost man? Has not judgment been pronounced upon you? Have not all attempts to save you seemed vain? What then saved you? Only hope in God, only faith in what is promised and given by God—you could not bring anything greater as a gift to God. And if hope saved you, keep it now too. Since it has already brought you so many blessings, it is evident it will not deceive you in the future. If, finding you dead, lost, captive, an enemy, it made you a friend, a son, free, righteous, a fellow heir, gave you blessings such as no one ever expected, then after such generosity and kindness, will it forsake you afterward? Therefore do not say to me: hope again, expectation again, faith again. Through this you were saved at the beginning—this is the only gift you brought to the bridegroom. Therefore preserve it and keep it. If you will seek everything here, you will ruin your merit through which you were glorified.”

Rom. 8:25. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Here to the end is brought the explanation of why we also groan. We have received, he said, the firstfruits, but we have not yet received the perfect, the complete—it we hope for, we await, but do not yet see, do not yet hold in our hands. With such hoping is inevitably joined waiting, and with waiting comes patience. Thus it is natural that we wait for this hoped-for, awaited, still unseen thing with patience. And patience, though the certainty of hope alleviates it, is still something burdensome. This is why we groan, even though we have the firstfruits, even though we have not the slightest doubt about receiving it.

But in explaining our present position thus, Saint Paul had in view not merely this explanation but rather wanted to impress upon us that if this is how things are, if we must necessarily wait and while waiting endure with patience, then endure with magnanimity, in unfailing hope for the better and more perfect, whatever may befall you in your external circumstances. To wait with patience in hope—this should be the characteristic, essential trait of ours. Holy Chrysostom says: “If you will seek everything here, what then of hope? Hope itself is a firm confidence in the future. Can God demand more of you after He Himself has given you all His blessings? He demands of you one thing only—hope, and He demands it so that you yourself might contribute somehow to your own salvation. God crowns the one who hopes as He would crown one who labors, suffers, and endures countless trials.” But if he does not at once pass to where hope is crowned but remains here amid the trials of hope itself, then the value of his hope, through being tested by patience, becomes incomparably higher. “When you hear about patience, understand in it the thought of struggles and intense labors. For a Christian must endure, waiting not for what is visible but for what is hoped for by faith” (blessed Theophylact). To keep hope strong, one must remain faithful to Him who through promises gave birth to and nourishes hope, and this requires labor, sweat, and struggles both within and without.

Rom. 8:26. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.

“Likewise,” ωσαύτως—here does not denote comparison but conjunction: also in like manner. Holy Chrysostom read the text thus: “likewise also the Spirit. By weaknesses are not meant moral failures but those by which patience is tested. We, he said, have received a pledge, receiving the Spirit, and we expect to receive the final full payment in the future; and we groan about it—we groan both because it is so bright and especially because, being destined for such a most radiant state, we are now extremely straitened and humiliated. But however difficult such a position, we, relying on the pledge, wait with patience for the full payment, not doubting in the least that we will truly receive it. Thus hope—the expectation and waiting for the better and more perfect—constitutes the distinctive mark of the Christian spiritual disposition. Having come to this point, the holy Apostle now fixes attention on this hope and encourages it by presenting its firmest foundations. The reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit is itself already a firm foundation of hope, even the source of all other foundations; but it is in a sense a deductive one. Relying on it, we wait with complete confidence and patiently endure all difficulties. But we thus dispose ourselves: what about the Spirit? Likewise the Spirit also helps us in this work of enduring the weaknesses or difficulties that beset us—both by comforting the heart and driving away the bitterness of external troubles with spiritual sweetnesses, and by teaching us how, worthily of God, to pray to God.”

The Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. We, having received the Spirit, through good thoughts about God’s arrangements encourage ourselves toward patience; but the Spirit Himself is not in us like an inactive deposit in the treasury of our nature but as a life-giving power producing not merely hopeful thoughts but hopeful good disposition. “Helps us,” συναντιλαμβάνετοα—defends us together with someone. With whom? With us. When we by our good thoughts strive to encourage ourselves toward hopeful patience, then the Spirit of God comes to our aid and instills in the heart the most magnanimous patience in hope. “Although patience is properly your work,” Holy Chrysostom says, “yet the Spirit is given to you to encourage you to hope, and through it to alleviate your labors.” Let us add to this the words of Oecumenius: “Do not think that you will be overwhelmed by the weight of patience. The Spirit will not let you be overwhelmed by it but will be your helper in this work. We ourselves are weak and without the help of the Spirit cannot even accomplish patience itself.” But the Apostle speaks of more than this—he speaks not of help about to come from the Spirit but of help already present, as though to say: see how the Spirit helps you, and do not lose heart. The very fact that you endure and show magnanimity in your weaknesses testifies that the Spirit helps you. Blessed Theophylact writes: “Having mentioned patience, he encourages the hearer and says that the Spirit strengthens us as well. Therefore, not growing weak in hope and patience, you bring only hope and patience, and the Spirit helps you.”

This is the first help from the Spirit—that He pours comfort into the heart amid difficulties and thereby gives patience strength and magnanimity. And the second is that He teaches us how we ought to pray in this case and Himself places prayer in the heart. In difficulties, sorrows, and trials we usually turn to God in prayer; but in doing so we seldom find the trace of God and pray rather for what we desire, having no assurance that it is also salutary for us. But the Spirit of God, finding prayer and bringing forth prayer, inspires us to pray precisely for what is most needful. This most needful thing is either distinctly impressed on the mind by Him or is reduced to a general disposition of self-abandonment to God. You know all things, O Lord, and as You know, arrange for me what is most needful! And this is the true Spirit-moved prayer, which all the holy men of prayer place on the highest rung of the ladder of ascent to God in prayer.

“For we do not know how to pray as we ought.” One person prays for health, but it may not lead him to good. Another prays to be freed from poverty, but poverty is useful for him. Another asks for intelligence, but it would be his ruin. Even among spiritual needs not all satisfaction is salvific in the sense we understand it and pray for. Holy Chrysostom says: “By these words the Apostle shows both how great is the Spirit’s care for us and teaches the Romans not to count as beneficial everything that appears so by human judgment. Since it was natural for the Christians of that time, who were beaten, driven out, forced to endure countless trials, to desire rest and count it beneficial for themselves and to ask God for such grace, Paul says: do not count for yourselves as truly beneficial what appears so to you. We have need of God’s help even to know what is beneficial for ourselves. How weak and insignificant is man in himself! Therefore the Apostle said: ‘We do not know how to pray as we ought.’ But that the disciple might not be ashamed of this ignorance, he revealed that the very teachers are in ignorance. For he did not say: you do not know—but: ‘we do not know.’ But that he said this not from humility was shown in other circumstances. Although he continually asked God in his prayers to see the Romans, yet this did not come to pass immediately according to his request. Regarding the thorn given him in the flesh, that is, regarding tribulations, he prayed repeatedly and did not at all receive what was asked. And in the Old Testament neither Moses, who asked to see Palestine, nor Jeremiah, who prayed for the Jews, nor Abraham, who interceded for the Sodomites, received what they desired.” Let us continue with the words of blessed Theodoret: “Do not ask,” the Apostle says, “for deliverance from sorrows; for you do not know what is beneficial, as God the Ruler knows. Entrust yourselves to the One who holds the helm of the universe; for He, even if you do not ask but only groan according to the action of the grace dwelling in you, will wisely direct what concerns you and provide what will be beneficial for you.”

“But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.”

“Intercedes,” ύπερεντυγχάνει—which means to speak for someone before the powerful and to speak with extremely strong speech that does not cease until it obtains what is asked. Thus, he says, the Holy Spirit given to us “intercedes” for us before God. When he says “intercedes”—he clearly indicates that this was known to all and by all. What a blessed time that was! But what does this intercession mean? We ourselves, he says, do not know how to pray, but the Spirit prays for us—the Spirit within us. How does this happen? The Spirit prays, and we do not even know it—or does the Spirit pray, bringing forth His prayer through our consciousness and feeling? It cannot be that man does not know his own prayer. He only knows that it is not his, though it is in him; it has been formed apart from him, but he knows it, and knows whence it comes. The Spirit of God places a true prayer in the heart, and man, having received it, offers it to God in the meaning and power in which it was placed. He is passive in this, not active. In the next verse it is said that the One who searches hearts knows this prayer—knows it because He sees it in the heart or as it comes from the heart; and evidently the Spirit places it in the heart—that is, He acts in this not apart from consciousness and feeling. In the early Church, in assemblies, a spirit of prayer sometimes came upon someone. He would stand and ask permission to utter this prayer and, having received permission, would utter it. This means he was conscious of it, felt it formed in his heart, and in its utterance had his share of freedom.

This will be clearer if we apply it to something that happens in our time. In our time the same thing happens in prayer that comes upon us. Ordinarily we pray according to prayer books or with our own words. There are prayers and sighs that occur in us, but we ourselves deliberately stir them up in ourselves. And this is prayer. But sometimes an impulse to prayer comes upon us of itself and compels us to pray and gives us no rest until the prayer pours out completely. This is either the same as what the Apostle speaks of or something like it. The content of such prayers is seldom determined by any particular object; but it almost always breathes surrender to God’s will, entrusting ourselves to the guidance of God who knows better than we what is beneficial for us, both inward and outward, and desires this more strongly for us than we do ourselves, and is ready to give and arrange for us everything, only if we do not resist. All the prayers handed down to us by the holy Fathers are of the same origin, are Spirit-moved, and therefore remain effective to this day.

Holy Chrysostom says: “These words: ‘The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words’—are not clear, because the miracles which were then numerous have now ceased. Therefore I need to tell you about the condition of that time; by this the Apostle’s words will be explained. What was that condition like? To everyone who received baptism then, God communicated some gift, which was generally called the Spirit. One had the gift of prophecy and predicted the future; another the gift of wisdom and taught the people; another the gift of healing and healed the sick; another the gift of power and raised the dead; another the gift of tongues and spoke in different languages. Besides all these gifts, there was also the gift of prayer (which must be supposed to be common to all). Whoever had this gift (whenever it was activated in him) prayed for the whole people. Since, not knowing much of what is beneficial for us, we ask for what is useless, in the early Church the gift of prayer came upon someone who alone asked for what was beneficial for all the Church and taught others to pray. Thus the Apostle here calls Spirit both the gift itself and the soul which receives it, intercedes before God, and groans. For the one deemed worthy of such grace would stand in the assembly and, with great contrition, with the innermost sighs falling down before God, would ask for what was beneficial for all. Understanding this, Paul says: ‘The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.’”

Why are such groanings called “too deep for words”? Either because of their special power, unusual in ordinary prayers, or because they are born in a mysterious way, or because in this utterance is a prayer which man by himself would never have uttered. Ambrosiaster writes: “Here it is said that the Spirit of the Lord intercedes for us not with ordinary human utterances but according to the nature of His own being. For when He who is from God speaks to God, He must speak as He who is from whom He comes speaks. So it is customary with us that one does not speak to a fellow citizen in any other language. But the Spirit given to us pours Himself forth in our prayers to cover with His action our inexperience and lack of foresight and to obtain for us from God that which is beneficial for us.”

And perhaps there is in the word “too deep for words” this thought—that these groanings inspired by the Spirit cannot be fully expressed in human speech: the heart feels them, but the mind cannot grasp them and the tongue cannot express them. This thought accords with experience and is confirmed by the following words: “He who searches our hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit”—as if to say: be not troubled or disturbed by the fact that your tongue cannot utter in all its force the prayer placed in your heart. God knows what is in your heart and knows what the Spirit who placed it there wishes, and does not need your clarity and eloquence of speech for this.

All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29)

Rom. 8:27. And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to God.

Let us repeat what was said before. The Spirit prays for us, and God knows this mind of the Spirit, “as He who searches the hearts.” Consequently, this mind, or this prayer, reaches God not apart from man, but is first reflected in his heart and through it ascends to God. And moreover: this prayer, placed in the heart by the Spirit, being received and felt by the heart, may not be fully understood by the mind or properly expressed in words, yet this does not hinder its efficacy; for God sees what is in the heart of the one praying in this way and what intention the Spirit has, who placed the prayer there.

“And He makes intercession for the saints according to God. ‘Makes intercession’” means the same as ‘pleads for us.’ “For the saints,” that is, for those who believe, who preserve faith and live by faith through the grace of the Holy Spirit. But what does it mean: “according to God?” In accordance with God’s plans and intentions, both regarding the whole Church and regarding each believer. The Spirit of God, being God, knows these plans and intentions; for with God the Father He has one knowledge. Knowing this, the Holy Spirit prays for us in accordance with this, or composes prayers for us and places them in our hearts. And God knows them beforehand through the unity of knowledge in the Triune God.

Ambrosiaster writes: “God knows the prayer of all spirits, because nothing is hidden from Him; much more is the prayer of the Holy Spirit known to Him, who is of one nature with Him, and when He makes intercession for us, He speaks not through the stirring of the air nor as the Angels or other creatures, but as befits His Godhead. Thus He prays to God in us and asks for that only which He knows is pleasing to God and beneficial to us.”

Perhaps “knows” here means not mere knowledge, but also favorable attention, as in the first Psalm: “The Lord knows the way of the righteous” (Ps. 1:6). Since such prayer is according to God and perfectly in accord with God’s intentions, it is heard favorably and received and brings swift fulfillment. Our own prayer does not always hit upon God’s path; therefore we pray, but not as we ought, and we do not see our prayers fulfilled. One prays as one ought who prays not only for what is pleasing to God in general, but for what is pleasing to God at this time, in these circumstances. Since we cannot say that we know this with certainty, the best prayer for us is: “Your will be done, O Lord, upon us as we have hoped in You.”

Rom. 8:28. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Those who love God are believers who, having received grace, steadfastly walk in God’s commandments, having wholly given themselves to God. To such love and devotion to God, God responds by turning all that befalls them, even the most sorrowful, to their good. Assuring of this, the Apostle completes the strengthening of hope in the hearts of believers, which, as he said above, is the distinguishing mark of true Christians. “In patience” he said, “we wait.” This patience requires support precisely because what is hoped for—the most glorious and blessed—is not obtained quickly. But the need for such support is greatly increased by the fact that the external situation of those waiting is extremely sorrowful. The Apostle now sets forth these supports of hope. The first, he says, is the Spirit Himself, the earnest of what is hoped for. For He, visiting the heart, pours into it sweet consolations that remove the bitterness of external sorrows, and by teaching how one ought to pray, disposes to give oneself wholly to God. God, seeing how they wholly give themselves to Him and thereby witness great love for Him, arranges their life so that all that meets them is turned to their good—spiritual good, that is, to the purification of the heart, to the strengthening of a good disposition, even in cases of self-sacrifice for the Lord’s sake, highly valued by God’s righteousness and preparing immense recompense. How natural then is the conclusion: therefore, be not troubled when meeting sorrows, and do not weaken your hopeful disposition!

Saint Chrysostom, noting that this passage, like the preceding speech, is directed by the Apostle toward the afflicted in order to, having inspired them with hope, strengthen them in patience, adds: “after all that he further adds now, employing an argument sufficient to encourage them. ‘And we know,’ he says, ‘that all things work together for good.’ When he says all things, he includes also what seems to us sorrowful. Whether sorrow, or poverty, or chains, or hunger, or death, or something else befalls you, God is able to change all this into the opposite. It is characteristic of His unspeakable power to make easy for us and to turn into aid what seems burdensome. Therefore the Apostle did not say that those who love God are not struck by evils, but says that all things work together for their good; that is, God uses the very disasters to glorify those in distress. And this is far more important than preventing harm or averting harm once it has come. Thus God did with the Babylonian furnace; He did not prevent the holy youths from being cast into the furnace and, when they were cast in, did not quench the flame, but, letting it burn, through the flame made those youths more than worthy of admiration. And God showed different similar wonders in the Apostles. If men, accustomed to wisdom, can from things make use contrary to their nature, living in poverty, appear richer than the rich, and even turn dishonor to their own honor, then how much more will God show to those who love Him not merely something like this, but something far greater. For us, only one thing is necessary—to love Him sincerely, and all else will follow of itself. As for those who love God, even what appears harmful is turned to benefit; so for those who do not love Him, even what is beneficial brings harm. The Jews all things served to their harm—both the appearing of wonders, and the correctness of the dogmas, and the height of the teaching. For one thing they called Christ the Lord demon-possessed, for another apostate, for the wonders they sought to kill Him. On the contrary, the robber, crucified, nailed, mocked, undergoing countless sufferings, not only did not suffer harm, but even drew from it the greatest benefit. Do you see how ‘all things work together for good’ for those who love God?”

“Called according to His purpose.” With this second half of the present verse the Apostle begins a new foundation of the firmness of hope—that all true believers, those who live by faith and are maintained in the state of grace, are chosen by God; for they, being such, God is for them; and if God is for them, who can be against them?

In relation to what precedes, these words may be taken as the cause. Why do all things work together for good to those who love God and why does the Spirit act thus in them, comforting and strengthening them? Because they did not come into this state of life by chance or accident. All that is accomplished in the order of grace is accomplished according to what was foreordained from eternity and is therefore the work of God, which nothing human can destroy.

“Called according to His purpose.” Our interpreters place the force of the speech here not in the purpose, but in the calling. For all I cite the words of Oecumenius: “since it might seem unbelievable how evil is turned to good, the Apostle, having added to this the calling of God, gave credibility to what was said. This, he says, happens not with everyone, but only with those called by God.”

“According to His purpose,” κατά πρόθεσιν, according to the proposal of will, according to intention. According to whose intention, whose proposed will? Of those called or of the One who calls? Our Eastern interpreters all understand the will and intention of those called. Saint Chrysostom: “the Apostle speaks of intention, so that not everything be attributed to calling, because in such a case both Gentiles and Jews would begin to argue. For if calling alone is sufficient, why were not all saved? Because, he says, the salvation of those called is accomplished not by calling alone, but also by intention. The call was not something compulsory and forced. All were called, but not all obeyed.” Blessed Theodoret: “with great precision (to define his thought more exactly) the Apostle to ‘calling’ added: ‘intention.’ For God does not simply call everyone, but those having firm intention. Therefore in Corinth he said to the Apostle: ‘Speak, and do not be silent, for I have many people in this city’ (Acts 18:9-10); and in Mysia He did not permit him to speak the word (Acts 16:9). In Asia at first He did not permit, and then He permitted it. Therefore also in Jerusalem He said to him: ‘Make haste and get out of here quickly, because they will not receive your testimony’ (Acts 22:18).” Oecumenius: “τοις κατά πρόθεσιν, to those who according to their own disposition and intention were deemed worthy of calling. The Apostle shows that although all are called, not all obeyed. And therefore they encounter (divine) help only those who according to their own intention (from among those called) became called ones.” Blessed Theophylact: “one becomes called (understood—from among those being called) according to his own intention, that is, κατά πρόθεσιν. For calling alone is not sufficient; there is also need for intention.”

In Latin this word is translated as ‘according to purpose,’ and Ambrosiaster interprets it thus: “those are called according to purpose about whom God foresaw that after believing they would be pleasing to Him, so that they were already known before they believed.” Thus here the proposal of will is understood not only of those called, but also of the One who calls. The thought is connected with this: according to predetermination, according to foreordination. From those called, as the Lord says and the deed shows, not all prove to be chosen. Such a significant peculiarity in these latter, appearing after their calling, probably has its place also in the calling itself, where it lays for it, if not the cause, then a firm foundation and sound seed, because in this the intention of the one called corresponds fully to the power of the action of the One who calls. Saint Chrysostom says: “this good begins from the time of calling.” One may therefore suppose that in relation to the chosen the intention itself is accomplished in some particular manner. Although no one can define this peculiarity except perhaps those called and the One who calls, or rather the One who calls alone. But still it does not exclude the intention of those called, but only presumes the fullest correspondence of this intention to the predetermination and power of the One who calls. Wondrous are Your ways, O Lord!

Whose intention then should be understood here—of those called or of the One who calls? Both should be understood, because in calling they are united. The called are called according to God’s intention; but from among those being called they become called, or summoned, according to their intention, when they willingly obey the call and follow it.

Rom. 8:29. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

In verses 29 and 30 the Apostle depicts the providential foreordinations and actions of God regarding those to be saved. In verse 29—the foreordination, the foreknowledge and predestination; and in verse 30—the actions in fulfillment of that foreordination—the calling, justification, glorification.

Predestination is the incomprehensible action of the eternal God; but it is clearly required by the harmony of God’s attributes and perfections. “All His works have been known to God from eternity” (Acts 15:18). If “God knows all things” (1 Jn. 3:20), then He knows the beginning, the continuation, and the end of all that exists and comes to pass; He knows and His final determination of the fate of each, as also of all mankind; He knows whom His final word will touch: “Come,” and whom it will touch: “Depart.” And as He knows, so He determines it to be. But as, knowing beforehand, He foreknows, so also, determining beforehand, He predestines. And since God’s knowledge or foreknowledge is truly true and certain, so also His determination is unchangeable. But, concerning free creatures, it does not restrict their freedom and does not make them unwilling executors of His determinations. God foreknows free actions as free, sees the whole course of a free person and the general result of all his deeds. And, seeing that, He determines it as if it had already been accomplished. For He not simply predestines, but predestines, having foreknown (Blessed Theodoret). We determine a man to be good or bad, seeing his deeds, done before us. And God predetermines by deeds as well—but by foreseen deeds, just as if they had already been done. The actions of free persons are not the consequence of predestination, but predestination itself is the consequence of free deeds.

Thus God foreknew all who would truly believe in the Lord, heeding the call through the Gospel proclamation, and would follow Him in faithful fulfillment of His commandments, and, sanctified by grace, would become holy. And by virtue of this foreknowledge God predestined them to be such and to receive in eternity a corresponding portion. God’s predestination embraces both the temporal and the eternal. The Apostle indicates to what end those foreknown are predestined, namely, to be “conformed to the image of His Son.” But this conformity is received and appropriated here, and is completed in eternity. Here believers, deciding to follow the Lord, are clothed in Christ, the Son of God, embodied in the holy Mystery of Baptism, and, having received the gift of the Holy Spirit in Chrismation, are then transformed in all their nature, through the interaction of freedom and grace, into the image of Christ the Lord. The clothing in Christ in baptism establishes the standard for future transformation, as it were a seed from which the new man—conformed to Christ—then develops. But all this is here hidden, and will be openly revealed in the future. In their full manifestation believers will appear similar to Christ the Lord when He comes; now it is not yet “manifest what we shall be” (1 Jn. 3:2). “Do you see the height of honor?” exclaims Saint Chrysostom; “what the Only-Begotten was by nature, they became by grace.” “For they themselves became sons of God” (Blessed Theophylact). Thus those made of dust become “like the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:48) (Cyril in Oecumenius).

The word “image” in the phrase “conformed to the image of His Son” need not be sought for a special meaning, seeing in it only an intensification of the transformation of believers in Christ, or their fuller conformity with Him; but Blessed Theodoret perceives here such a nuance of thought: “how believers are conformed to the image of the Son of God, the Apostle more clearly explained in the Epistle to the Philippians. For, having said: ‘Our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,’ he added: ‘who will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory’ (Phil. 3:20-21). And our body, of course, will be conformed not to His Godhead, but to the body of His glory.”

“That He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Indicating kinship with the Lord Saviour, these words give wings to hope, establishing a certain necessity of obtaining what is hoped for. Where the Son of God incarnate, our Saviour, is, there must necessarily be also those who have become conformed to Him. He sits at the right hand of God; there around Him, under Him, as the head, or as the firstborn brother, will gather also all the conformed to Him, His brethren. He did not become incarnate and raise up in Himself human nature in order to remain singular, but in order to gather to Himself all in whom this nature will be restored according to His image and by His power. He is the firstfruits, the firstborn; after Him all believers, being regenerated according to His image. “He is the firstborn among many brethren according to the economy; for by His Godhead He is the Only-Begotten. He, taking upon Himself flesh, united it all and wholly with all His nature; became our firstfruits, sanctifying in Himself our condemned nature, and therefore rightly is He the firstborn, and we are called His brethren” (Blessed Theophylact). “He is the firstborn in a birth without sin; the firstborn from the dead; the firstborn, by the victory over death, having ascended to heaven. Therefore He is called to us the firstborn brother, in that He was pleased to be born a man; but at the same time He is also our Lord, as God” (Ambrosiaster). “It seemed to the Apostle insufficient to say: ‘conformed’; but he further added: ‘that He might be the firstborn.’ And, not limiting himself to this, after these words he adds yet: ‘among many brethren.’ In every way he wishes to show clear kinship. However, all this must be understood of the Son of God in relation to His incarnation, because by His Godhead He is the Only-Begotten. Do you see how many gracious gifts are given to us? Therefore, do not doubt regarding the future gifts” (Saint Chrysostom).

By these two actions—foreknowledge and predestination, coming together into one—God’s eternal foreordination concerning those to be saved is exhausted. Now the Apostle will indicate how this foreordination itself is brought to fulfillment by God.

If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:30–32)

Rom. 8:30. And those he foreordained, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “Whom he foreknew to have a firm disposition, those he ‘foreordained’ from the beginning; and having foreordained them, he ‘called’; then, having called them, he justified them through baptism; and having justified them, he ‘glorified’ them, naming them sons and bestowing upon them the grace of the All-Holy Spirit.” The pattern of salvation for all in the Lord Jesus Christ was foreordained from the beginning—he himself accomplished it and established the whole economy of salvation. Having established all this, he sent his holy Apostles to call those willing to receive salvation. The Wise One depicts this in this manner: “Wisdom has built her house, and has set up seven pillars: she has slain her victims, and has mingled wine in her cup, and has prepared her table. She has sent forth her servants, summoning with a loud proclamation to her cup” (Prov. 9:1–3). The same the Saviour depicts in the parable of the wedding feast prepared by a king for his son. Having prepared all things, he sent servants to call people to the wedding: “Go and say: Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my oxen and fattened cattle are slain, and all is ready; come to the wedding” (Matt. 22:4). “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk. 16:15). The Apostles went and called—they called all. But how is it said: “Those he foreordained, he also called”? The foreordained are the same as the chosen, but not all the called are chosen—the Lord said this, and events have borne it out. All are called; but not all of the called heed the call—not all become truly called. Truly called should be called he who has received the gospel and believed. But even among these, not all are chosen, not all are predestined to conformity with the Son in righteousness and glory. For many do not remain faithful to the call—either they go wrong in faith, or in their lives they “halt upon both their sides” (1 Kings 18:21). But the chosen and foreordained remain faithful to the end. How then does the Apostle say that those God foreordained he also called? We are all now called; for we stand in the Church of God, in the house of our God. But which of us, looking at his sins, can say with confidence that he is numbered among the foreordained chosen? Consequently, a distinction must be made between the called and the called. Some of them are predestined to salvation and glory, others are not predestined. And if this distinction must be made, then a distinction must be made between the call and the call. The chosen and foreordained pass through the act of calling in a special manner, although the word of calling is proclaimed equally to all. Beginning here, this distinction among the chosen continues through all the subsequent acts on the path to God and leads them to a blessed end. What exactly this difference consists in cannot be determined; but it lies not merely in the grace accompanying the word of calling, but also in the disposition and receptivity of the called, which is the work of their own free will. Ambrosiaster writes: “To call means: to grant faith to one who has determined to believe, or to persuade to faith him of whom it is foreknown that he will listen. These foreknown ones remain faithful to the end and stand under God’s good pleasure. But for the rest, whom God did not foreknow, he has no concern, because he did not foreknow that they would remain pleasing to him to the end. Though they may believe and be received for a time into the congregation of the chosen, appearing to be good, yet justice requires that each should receive his due: but they do not remain to the end and do not enter into glory, as we see in the case of Judas, Saul, and others.” When the chosen are called, these others go along with them and receive everything they receive; but they remain for a short or a long time within this enclosure and depart, like those who walked with the Lord, but after he proposed the doctrine concerning the Eucharist, they left him and walked with him no more (Jn. 6:71).

It is very distressing to see oneself among the called and to think: perhaps I have accidentally fallen among the called and do not truly belong to the called and foreordained? It is easy for us to come to this confusion, born among the called and seeing ourselves already called when we come to self-awareness. Are we called because we are foreordained? The answer is this: if you are faithful to the call of Christ, then know that you have no ground to exclude yourself from the number of the foreordained. Remain faithful and bless God, who has called you to conformity with his Son, apart from your deliberation. If you remain so to the end, then do not doubt that boundless mercy shall meet you there. If you do fall, do not fall into despair, but hasten through repentance to stand again in the rank from which you fell, like Peter. If you fall many times, arise, believing that in rising you again enter the congregation of those called according to foreordination. Only the unrepentant sinners and hardened unbelievers can be excluded from this congregation; but even that is not final. The robber on the cross, in the last minutes of life, was seized and taken by the Son of God into paradise. We cannot say that we are not numbered among the foreordained, but neither can we say the opposite. But since the path to it is open to all, and is proclaimed to all, and we are called to walk upon it, let us walk in confidence that if we reach the end, we shall enter into what stands at the end. God foreordained as he foreknew. The same applies to us. God foreknew what we would desire and toward what we would strive, and he accordingly appointed his determination concerning us. Consequently, all depends on our disposition. Guard a good disposition, and you shall become one of the foreordained chosen. Concerning the Kingdom of God, the Lord said that zealous contenders, sparing not themselves and striving for every good, seize it, ἀρπάζουσιν (Matt. 11:12)—as if forcibly wresting it from God’s hands. Apply effort and zeal, and you shall win for yourself election. Moreover, this very thing signifies that you are among the foreordained chosen: for the non-elect will not strive.

“And those he called, he also justified.” The calling is completed on God’s part by the proclamation of the gospel with great grace-bearing power attending this word, and on man’s part by the reception of the glad tidings, by sincere faith in it and by full readiness to live according to its precepts. When this is accomplished in the spirit of man, then he is clothed on God’s part in justification. This justification consists in the forgiveness of all previous unrighteousness and in the preparation or equipping of man for all righteousness from now on, through the bestowal upon him of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, which regenerates, illuminates, and strengthens. This is accomplished in holy baptism. Holy Chrysostom says: “He justified him through the bath of regeneration.” Theophylact: “He ‘justified’ him—freed him from sins and made him righteous through the bath of regeneration.” The Apostle writes to those already called and justified, who bore within themselves the justifying power in Christ Jesus and felt it. It is borne and felt even now by all who walk aright after the Lord.

“And those he justified, he also glorified.” How “glorified,” when Christians were despised and persecuted everywhere? The present was not glorious, and the future, though infinitely glorious, had not yet come. How then “glorified”? Through internal glorification, which is the foundation for the future. Internal glorification does not mean that within all speaks of glory to the justified, but rather that through justification there is built up within a most glorious state, wonderful to the Angels, well-pleasing to God. The grace of the Spirit, because of their complete obedience to its guidance, penetrates them in all their parts and powers and makes them such as they are predestined to be—conformed to the image of the Son of God made flesh, sons of God by grace. Is not this glorious? And what else can compare with this glory? Holy Chrysostom says: “He glorified them through grace, through adoption as sons.” And Theophylact: “He honored them with adoption and gave them the other gifts.”

The Apostle writes that God foreknew and predestined, then called, justified, glorified. All is God’s doing; but what of us? If all is God’s doing, should we not fold our hands? Whomever he wishes to act thus upon, he will surely bring to a blessed end. And when he does not wish it, no matter how hard you try, nothing will come of it. But he who begins to strive and strives is the very one God wishes to act upon. When it is said that God calls and justifies, this does not mean that the called and justified have nothing to do with it. God draws; they express their desire to follow and determine to do so—and they run, struggling against the difficulties that lie before them and overcoming them with God’s help. This struggle is intense, and this path is a bloody path. It is accomplished through the interaction of God’s grace-bearing power and human free will. The Apostle depicts in this matter only one aspect—God’s all-working—in order then to conclude: if this is so, what have we to fear? And he began speaking of this for the purpose of establishing firm foundations for hope. And this required that attention be directed principally to what comes from God in the arrangement of our salvation. What comes from us, everyone himself will already supply in this connection. But since someone’s thought about our participation might turn into confusion and he might get stuck on it, some of our interpreters come to help such a one.

Since the beginning of all God’s all-working depicted here is foreknowledge—for “having foreknown, he foreordained,” and then these foreknown and foreordained ones “he called, justified and glorified”—blessed Theodoret dwells upon it in order to say that it—and consequently all the subsequent actions of God—does not take away freedom from the foreknown. He writes: “Let no one assert that the cause of this (calling, justification, glorification) is foreknowledge; for foreknowledge did not make them such, but God, being God, foresaw from afar what would happen in the future. For if I, seeing a spirited horse that has seized the bit and thrown off its rider, say that as it approaches a cliff it will throw itself into it, and then according to my word this comes to pass, I did not cast the horse into the abyss; rather, I predicted what would happen, using the horse’s desperate wildness as a sign. God, however, foreseeing all things from afar as God, does not bring them to necessity—one to advance in virtue, another to do evil. For if he himself compelled both the one and the other, it would be unjust to proclaim one a victor and to appoint punishment for the other. But if God is just, as he truly is, he urges toward good and forbids what is contrary, praises those who work good and punishes according to his will those who have loved vice.”

“Oecumenius adduces words of Holy Cyril (it is not clear which one), in which he affirms that in all these actions of God one must understand what was said before this: ‘those who are’—κατά πρόθεσιν, according to their intention—‘called.’ Namely, ‘Those he foreknew, he also foreordained’—τοῖς κατά πρόθεσιν—according to their intention. ‘Those he foreordained, he also called’—τοῖς κατά πρόθεσιν—not binding their free will. ‘Those he called, he also justified’—τοῖς κατά πρόθεσιν—not without the participation of their free will. ‘Those he justified, he also glorified’—again ‘those who are’—κατά πρόθεσιν—‘called’—in accord with the direction of their free will. One must understand this in order that someone not come to an unsuitable conclusion, thinking that God created some for good and others for evil. But if one understands this—κατά πρόθεσιν—according to intention—then in all these actions the participation of the believers’ own free will will be evident, and God will be seen as free from all partiality.”

Rom. 8:31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

“Having indicated God’s decrees and actions concerning the saved, he draws from this a conclusion, directing it toward the establishment of hope, which is the subject of his discourse now. He speaks, as it were, thus: from all that has been said, it is clear that God is with us and stands for us. And if ‘God is for us, who can be against us?’ If one refers this to future hoped-for blessings, it means: who is able to snatch from our hands what we hope for, when God is for us? But if one refers it to the present sorrowful condition amid internal wealth, it means: who is able through these external afflictions to harm us, to diminish or disturb what has been given to us within, and thereby deprive us of what we hope for? Photius in Oecumenius writes: ‘What then shall we say to these things?’ What does this mean? It means: looking at his predestination, calling, justification, and glorification—gazing upon this abundance of benefactions, what shall we say? We do not even have sufficient words of thanksgiving to give thanks, let alone deeds to repay. So unspeakable is his grace toward us! Then, as if satisfied with these blessings, he says: ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’—giving us to understand that no one can. But how do we know that God is for us? From the fact that his mind is struck with amazement at a blessing so astonishing that he did not spare even his own Son for us. Thus, if God is for us, it is evident that he will turn all things to our benefit and will make what appears afflictive the cause of rejoicing, as for the Apostles and martyrs he turned sorrows, persecutions, and death into things deserving crowns and rewards and opening the door to the Kingdom of Heaven. In this manner, if only we ourselves do not stumble in anything, no one has power against us.”

Holy Chrysostom depicts at greater length how many foundations for hope the Apostle provides in this brief saying. “The Apostle speaks, as it were, thus: Do not mention to me the afflictions and snares that meet you everywhere. Though some do not believe in the future, they can say nothing against the blessings already given—such as God’s ancient love for you, justification, glory. But who is against us, you ask? The whole universe is against us, and torturers, and nations, and kinsmen, and fellow citizens. Yet all those who are against us are so far from having power to harm us that they unwillingly become for us the cause of crowns, mediators of countless blessings. Thus God’s wisdom turns all snares into our salvation and glory. Do you see how no one is against us? It was the adversity set against Job by the devil that made him famous. The devil set against him friends, his wife, wounds, his household, countless other devices; yet nothing was against him, since God was for him, so everything apparently rising against him was for him. The same happened with the Apostles. Jews, Gentiles, false brethren, rulers, nations, hunger, poverty—countless calamities rose against them; yet nothing was against them. For all this made them especially renowned, glorious, and worthy of praise before God and before men. So too for the believer who strictly fulfills God’s law, neither man nor demon nor any other can do him any harm. Do you rob him of his possessions? You are thereby weaving him a reward. Do you speak ill of him? By your slander you make him shine all the more before God. Do you bring him to hunger? You are providing him greater glory and greater recompense. Do you even deliver him to death, which is most terrible, you are thus weaving for him the crown of martyrdom. What can compare with the life of a man against whom nothing can stand, to whom apparently the very evildoers bring no less benefit than the very benefactors? Therefore the Apostle says: ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ Then, not content with these words, he sets forth here that greatest sign of God’s love for us, to which he always turns—I speak of the death of the Son. God not only justified, says Paul, glorified, made us like the image of his Son, but did not spare his own Son for you. Therefore he continues:”

Rom. 8:32. He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?

In relation to what precedes, these words may be arranged thus: God has already given us such great gifts—justification, glorification in the Spirit—and has promised yet greater things. If God so acts for our benefit, then do not waver in hope, for not only will no one take from us what we have received, but he will also not deprive us of what has been promised. Thus, proceeding from the thought of such divine care for you, you should not doubt any of this. But if this foundation seems abstract to you, then consider how he granted us the gifts we have received. To grant them to us, he did not spare his own Son. If he did not spare his own Son—beyond and greater than which it is impossible to do anything more for us—can you then waver whether he will give what has been promised, when it cannot exceed this? He gave the greater; will he not give the lesser? Or thus: he gave much, promised even greater; but if there should prove to be something yet more necessary and desirable, do not doubt that he will grant that too, when he did not spare his own Son for us. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle speaks intensely and with great fervor to express the love of God. Will God abandon us, when he did not spare his own Son for us, but delivered him up for us all? Picture, then, what goodness it is—not to spare his own Son, but to deliver him up, to deliver him up for the insignificant, the ungrateful, the enemies, the blasphemers! ‘How will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?’ These words mean: if God has given us his own Son, and not only given him, but delivered him up for death, then, having received as a gift the Master himself, why do we still doubt all the rest? Having the Lord, can we entertain doubt concerning the reception of the other gifts? He who gave the more important to enemies (when we were enemies), will he not give the less important to friends (now that we have become friends)?” Photius in Oecumenius touches on certain other nuances of the Apostle’s persuasion. “The Apostle added: ‘He who did not spare his own Son’ and the rest—in order to show the unspeakable divine care for us, and in order by this example to dispose us toward patient endurance, when something sorrowful should befall us from others, or even—what is greater than this—to inspire and embolden us toward suffering. For if the Son suffered so much for you, how much ought you to suffer for him? And if he, having suffered so, suffered no loss in the Father’s glory and Godhood, do not lose heart either, as if exceedingly diminished and robbed, when you suffer. You will certainly be deemed worthy to receive the promise, both after sufferings and after death. This is why it is added: ‘how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?’—wishing to assure us that what has been promised can in no way and under no pretext be withdrawn. ‘Along with him he will freely give us all things,’ he says. You may say: how if he should forget about us? But in that case he would forget about his own Son. For he promises to give ‘along with him all things to us’; so that certainly and without fail we shall receive what has been promised.”

Who Shall Separate Us From the Love of Christ? (Romans 8:33–35)

Rom. 8:33. Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen? God is the one who justifies.

All that has been said was sufficient to establish hope with unshakeable firmness; but, as if fearing lest some thoughts creep in to shake it, the Apostle draws from what has been said certain reflections directed at repelling all that might attack and waver hope. And just as before he established hope now by God’s bountiful providence and power, now by the magnitude of the economy of salvation in Christ Jesus, so too the reflections to repel attacks on hope he draws from these same sources.

You, he says, have received great gifts and will receive still greater ones. Do not doubt that this will be so, because God arranges all this. But someone might have been led to think, as happens among men, that when a powerful person gives something to someone and promises something greater, those ill-disposed toward the receiver creep in and, slandering him in every way, bring it about that not only does the giver revoke his promise to give greater things, but also diminishes or completely takes away what he has given. Supposing that someone might entertain such a thought even in the realm of faith, the Apostle refutes its inappropriateness, or by refuting such inappropriateness he wards off even the possibility of such a thought arising. Do not worry, as he says; no one will dare to bring a charge against you (ἐγκαλέσει). You are God’s chosen. If among men it happens that when experts select or determine something, no one then dares speak against it, how much less so against God’s selection? But God has not only chosen you, but also justified you—justified you not merely by declaring you pardoned, but by making you truly righteous: so that even if someone should wish to accuse you, they would have nothing to seize on: you are righteous by the grace of God. This is why there is no reason for you to waver in hope that what you have received will be preserved in you, and what has been promised will not be taken from you on that basis.

Holy Chrysostom says: “And observe how the Apostle shuts the mouths of accusers, pointing to the dignity of the chosen! He did not say: who will accuse the servants of God, but the chosen of God. Election is a sign of virtue (the worthiness of the one elected). If one who trains young horses recognizes them as fit for running, no one dares discredit his choice; rather, anyone who presumed to question it would be laughed at. How much more laughable are those who accuse when God himself chooses souls! ‘God is the one who justifies.’ The Apostle did not say: God forgives sins, but something far more important—God justifies. Does one who condemns such a person deserve any attention? Therefore, one should not fear either trials, because God is for us, who has also proved this by his deeds, nor Jewish empty boasting, because God has chosen and justified us, and what is even more wonderful, he justified us through the death of his Son.”

Ambrosiaster writes: “It is quite clear that God’s foreknowledge and determination concerning us cannot in any way be reversed. For who is there who could disapprove what God approved, when there is no one equal to God? Therefore, there is no one else who could disapprove what God has approved: unless perhaps God himself should condemn us? But how can he condemn what he has justified?”

Rom. 8:34. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, and more than that, was raised to life, and is at the right hand of God interceding for us.

“This is, as it were, an answer to the objection: granted no one from outside can bring an accusation against us, but what of our sins? Will not our sins condemn us? Oecumenius writes: ‘The one who condemns’ raises the thought that the discourse is about sins.” Sins may be understood as past sins, which even after being forgiven can trouble hope by coming to mind, or—rather—future sins, those yet to be committed after receiving justification: for who is without sin? The Apostle answers: whatever sins may lie upon anyone, do not be troubled; only act according to the rule that the economy of our salvation lays down for cleansing from them. Former sins are washed away in baptism; new sins, into which you fall through weakness, will be forgiven in repentance. For an infinite sacrifice has been offered for sins; for them Christ died, and having risen and been taken up to heaven, he sits at the right hand of the Father to intercede for those who sin and have recourse to him with tears of repentance. Regard sins as if they did not exist and do not allow them to shake your hope: only do not harden your heart and hasten to the Lord with repentance. This discourse of the Apostle is similar to the words of John the Theologian: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And further: I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin; and if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one” (1 Jn. 1:8–9; 2:1).

“Christ died.” Oecumenius understands that the Apostle is speaking this as a question, as if to say: who condemns? Christ, who died for our sins and rose for our justification, who sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for us?—thereby expressing the absolute impossibility of condemnation from the person of Christ the Lord, so that objection against this is not even permissible.

Christ the Lord died for us, rose, ascended to heaven, and sitting at the right hand of the Father, intercedes for us. How does he intercede? By his very presence at the right hand of the Father in human nature, bearing the marks of sufferings and wounds, which without words ever intercede for us. But the Apostle expresses more—for he says: ἐντυγχάνει—he converses intercessorily with God on our behalf. By all this is expressed the excessive love of Christ the Lord for us, desiring with his whole will to save each and every one of us. If such is the Lord’s care for us, how can we not be inspired with hope that we shall be saved and deemed worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven?

“What do you seek above this? The Master Christ died for us and, rising, sits with the Father; he has not even ceased in his providence for us, but, pointing to the firstfruits taken from us and showing their purity to the Father, through them he asks salvation for us” (Blessed Theodoret).

“Who will condemn us, when God himself crowns us, when Christ is slain for us, and after being slain still intercedes for us? Having appeared in his own dignity (by resurrection and ascension), he did not cease his providence for us, but intercedes for us and preserves toward us that same love. For him it was not enough to die for us, but what especially proves the greatest love—he not only accomplishes all that depends on him, but beseeches another for this. This alone the Apostle wished to show by the word: ‘he intercedes’; he speaks with kindness and condescension to show love. And if the Spirit intercedes for us ‘with groanings that cannot be uttered,’ if Christ died and intercedes for us, if the Father did not spare his own Son for you, chose you and justified you, what are you afraid of? Why do you tremble, enjoying such love, such care for you?” (Holy Chrysostom).

Our interpreters deemed it necessary to add here an explanation of the sense in which intercession must be understood. He intercedes, they say, as our Redeemer and Saviour according to the economy of salvation in the incarnation, not as God the Son. Therefore, this intercession does not signify any diminishment of the Godhood of God the Son. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle spoke of him in this way according to his humanity. For as God, he does not ask, but gives. But if heretics should say that the Son does this according to his Godhood, they will not diminish his glory by this either. Let us imagine two equally honored kings with equal power, and some provincial governor or military commander offends both; but one of them, having first received the petition of the offender, asks his coruler in the kingly power for reconciliation with him; does this diminish the honor of the one asking? Not at all. But here we cannot even say this; for what is pleasing to the Son is pleasing to the Father; both have one will. Therefore, in the Apostle, who set out to show an abundance of providence, the word takes on an ornate form of speech.”

Holy Chrysostom says: “First the Apostle said that Christ ‘is at the right hand of God,’ and then added that he ‘intercedes for us’; by which he demonstrated equality in honor, so that intercession must be regarded as the consequence not of lesser dignity, but of love alone. For when he himself is life, the source of all blessings, of equal power with the Father, raises the dead, gives life, and does all else, does he need to intercede to show us help? He who freed the hopeless and condemned from condemnation by his own authority, made them righteous and sons, he who raises them to the highest degree of honor, brings to fulfillment what it was impossible even to hope for; when all this has been accomplished, when our nature has been exalted to the throne of kingship, does he need to intercede for what is easier? Do you see how everything serves as proof that by the word ‘intercedes’ the Apostle sought to express nothing other than the fervor and strength of his love for us? And the Father himself appears as one who beseeches men for reconciliation with him: ‘We therefore, as workers together with him, also plead with you, as though God were pleading through us’ (2 Cor. 5:20). Yet when it is said that God beseeches and that men are ambassadors on behalf of Christ to men, we do not see anything degrading in their honor, but on the contrary, from such expressions we conclude only to the extraordinariness of love. Let us do the same here.”

“Oecumenius adduces explanations of this intercession by Holy Cyril and Photius. Holy Cyril says:”’He intercedes’—is spoken in relation to the humanity of Christ the Lord: for he is the High Priest, as it is said: ‘You are a priest forever’ (Heb. 7:17, 21).“Photius writes:”The Apostle here shows and explains the meaning of that word of the Lord, that word which the Lord raised to the Father in the form of prayer: ‘Father! Sanctify them in your truth, and: I pray that you keep them from the evil one’ (Jn. 17:17, 15), and the like. For the prayer then uttered has such power that it is always operative and always takes the place of spoken intercession.

Blessed Theophylact writes: “Some understood the words ‘he intercedes for us’ thus: since he bore a body and did not lay it aside (as the Manichees prattle), this very thing is intercession and advocacy before the Father: for, gazing upon this, the Father remembers his love for mankind, on account of which his Son bore the body, and in this way is moved to mercy and compassion.”

Rom. 8:35. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written:

The discourse takes a new turn. How should it be understood in relation to what precedes? It seems thus: the Apostle has depicted the firm foundations of our hope, which all proceed from the excessive love of God for us. But since all the strength of these foundations is firm in relation to each person not unconditionally, but under the condition of his faithfulness to God, the holy Paul now directs attention to this. He speaks, as it were, thus: God encompasses us with such love; therefore do not doubt that you will not lose what you have received and will not be deprived of what has been promised. Our hope might have been shaken if we were unfaithful, ungrateful, and not loving God. But this should not happen. For: “Who will separate us from the love of God?” Whoever has felt in his heart the love of God for himself cannot but be inflamed with love for God. And then let the whole world rise up against him for this love—he will never depart from God’s love. And if he does not depart from this love, neither can he weaken or waver in his hope. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle, having shown how much God cares for us, continues his discourse with complete freedom and says that you also ought to love God equally; but as if ravished by this unspeakable providence, he exclaims: ‘Who will separate us from the love of God?’” In answer to this he says: tribulations and distresses might seem to separate us from God’s love. But would they be able to separate us? They should not have such effect on us (verses 35–37). And then he adds: and I am confident that they will not even be able to have such destructive effect on us (verses 38–39). Nothing could be more inspiring for enduring sorrows and distresses “for the sake of God’s love”! As happens in our ordinary life, when someone says to another: I am confident that you will not do this or that—then by this friendly or authoritative word he imposes upon him an unbreakable obligation to actually not do it: so the holy Paul has acted here.

Thus, in the first place, the Apostle indicates what might separate us from “God’s love,” but cannot. And he mentions only tribulations and distresses. But are they alone able to do this? Are not the allurements of the world powerful to do the same? Indeed, do they not turn people away from God and faithfulness to him even more? And if not more, then they can always be set alongside tribulations and distresses as things that draw away from God’s love. Why then did the Apostle pass over them in silence? Because whoever stands firm against the onslaught of tribulations and distresses will find that the allurements of the world have no power over him.

Holy Chrysostom says: “Marvel at the wisdom of blessed Paul! He did not mention what daily takes us captive—love of money, passion for glory, the torment of anger; but he lists what is far more tormenting than this, does violence to nature itself, and often shakes the firmness of mind against our will—he speaks of tribulations and distresses.” And perhaps the Apostle did not mention the allurements because at that time if anyone was turned away from “God’s love,” it was by tribulations, not by allurements at all. There were so many tribulations and they were so widespread that allurements never even came to mind.

“Tribulation, or distress”. As it were, a summary of all that is hostile to lovers of God in Christ Jesus: “tribulation”—more from the inner side, as hostility is reflected in the heart; and “distress”—more from the outer side, with respect to body and external condition. “Persecution”—both in family and in society they rise up and refuse to tolerate such a person living among them; and either directly drive him out, or through harassments and hostilities force him himself to flee. And he flees—often with nothing and having nothing; the inevitable consequence is “famine and nakedness”—there is nothing to eat with, nothing to clothe oneself in. But this is not yet all: persecutors are not satisfied with expulsion and deprivation of everything—they seek to beat and kill; from this, danger hangs constantly over one’s head—any moment they may seize, torture, and kill him. So it happened almost everywhere in private life. But sometimes governmental persecutors joined the private persecutors—and took the “sword” in hand, as if to strike down enemies, to behead the lovers of God. Holy Chrysostom says: “Each word contains countless multitudes of trials. When the Apostle speaks (for example) of tribulation, he means prisons, chains, accusations, exiles, and all other miseries; in one word he sweeps over a boundless sea of calamities, and in short, in a single expression he opens before us all human misfortunes. And yet he ventures into all these miseries. The Apostle uses a questioning form of speech, as if not doubting at all that he who is so beloved and stands under such providence cannot be separated from love (to the Benefactor).”

“As it is written.” The Apostle cites a place from the Psalm (Ps. 43:23) to confirm, as it were, only the calamitousness of lovers of God; but if one takes those words in the context of the content of the Psalm, they also confirm the unwavering love of those who love God. The Psalm depicts the extreme calamity that befell God’s people, most likely captivity and exile, with all the sorrows that accompanied it. But it notes that, despite all this having befallen us, “we have not forgotten you, and we have not violated your covenant, and our heart has not turned backward” (Ps. 43:18–19). Thus, it is evident that if we “are put to death all day long,” it is for no other reason than “for your sake” (Ps. 43:23). Seeing in this a prefiguration of the condition of the first Christians and their leaders, the Apostle cited this place, giving us to understand: if those remained so faithful to God despite distresses, will not we? And we are “more than conquerors” (verse 37). Our faithfulness to God’s love is already prefigured. We are only fulfilling what was foreordained. Or: how can we depart from what was foreordained—that which has been prefigured for us over so many centuries?

More Than Conquerors; Paul’s Great Love for His People (Romans 8:36–9:1)

Rom. 8:36. For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are being counted as sheep to be slaughtered.

So it is written. Consequently, “we are destined to endure evil from everyone” (Holy Chrysostom). This is, of course, heavy in itself; but since it happens to us “for your sake,” O Lord, we endure all this willingly, rejoicing that for your name’s sake we bear shame. “Amid so many great calamities, in the midst of these extraordinarily grievous events, it suffices for us and even more than suffices as a consolation to know the very cause of our labors or, better said, not only to suffice but to abound; for we endure this not for men, not for anything worldly, but for the King of all things” (Holy Chrysostom).

“We are being killed all day long”—every day or the whole day—moment by moment, unceasingly we are being killed. One can die only once; but since danger of death hung over their heads moment by moment and they were joyfully ready for death, it is clear that they moment by moment offered to God the sacrifice of death in their hearts, and this was received as an actual sacrifice of death. “Since it is impossible for them, as men, to undergo countless deaths, he proves that the reward is not diminished at all by this. Though by natural lot a man can die only once, if we wish, God has granted us the possibility to die daily by our will. And from this it is evident that when we depart hence we shall have as many crowns as the number of days we live here, or the number of crowns will be even greater: for in one day one can die once, twice, and many times. He who is ready for this always receives a perfect reward. The Prophet understood this, saying: ‘all day long.’ The Apostle cited his words to excite the hearers more. If those of old, he says, who had as the reward of their labors the earth and what passes with the present life, so disdained the present life, trials, and calamities, what excuse will we have, who have as our reward heaven, the exalted Kingdom, unspeakable blessings, if we lose heart in spirit and do not even reach the measure attained by those of old? Though the Apostle did not say this directly, being satisfied with the testimony alone, he made it clearly understood in the consciences of his hearers” (Holy Chrysostom).

“We are being counted as sheep to be slaughtered.” Sheep to be slaughtered cannot defend themselves, nor does it occur to anyone to intercede for them. Everyone thinks that this is as it should be and that this brings them great honor. Applying this to himself, the Apostle speaks, as it were: we see and know this and take pride in it—not only do we not resist, but we ourselves willingly offer ourselves for slaughter. “He proves that their bodies are a sacrifice—yet they do not fear or are troubled, because their recompense is God himself. Do you see the courage and meekness? As sheep do not resist when they are slaughtered, so also we, says Paul. But since the human mind, even after so many examples, through its weakness could be fearful of many trials, observe how the Apostle again raises, exalts, and ravishes the hearer, saying:” (Holy Chrysostom).

Rom. 8:37. But we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

The Apostle cited the words of the Psalm instead of describing in his own words the sorrowful condition of the Apostles and Christians at that time. Now he adds from himself: “We are more than conquerors in all these things.” None of this shakes our faith and devotion to the Lord: “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” The victorious power proceeds from love for the Lord. He loved us so much! His love for us kindled in us love for him. Burning with love for him, we remain faithful to him, despite so many deaths threatening us. For “love is as strong as death” (Song 8:6). We have already given ourselves over to death for him once and for all; therefore these pre-death sufferings mean nothing to us—we easily overcome them. We have given ourselves to death for him: “for it seems to us the least fitting that the Master Christ received death for sinners, and we should not with full joy endure slaughter for him” (Blessed Theodoret). From this we draw strength to overcome every trial. “What is marvelous is that we not only conquer, but conquer by means of that which the enemies employed against us; and we do not simply conquer, but are more than conquerors—that is, with complete ease, without labor or sweat. Everywhere we erect monuments of victories over enemies, not only when we actually suffer, but even when we have a mere willingness to do so. And this is quite just, because God fights on our side. Therefore, do not lose faith that we, being subjected to blows, overcome those who beat us, being driven out, hold our persecutors in subjection, and dying, strike the living. If you consider God’s power and love, you will see that there is no obstacle to these miraculous and extraordinary deeds being accomplished and the greatest victory shining forth. The Apostles not only conquered, but astonished with their victories; everyone could see that their struggle was not (only) with deceitful men, but (rather) with that irresistible power. Look, how the Jews, surrounding them, are at a loss and say: ‘What shall we do with these men?’ (Acts 4:16). What is marvelous is that those who had them in their power, who demanded account from them, who had the right to bind them and kill them with the sword are in difficulty and fear being conquered by those whom they hoped to overcome. Neither torturer, nor executioner, nor multitudes of demons, nor the devil himself could overcome them; on the contrary, all themselves are completely conquered and see their schemes turned to their benefit. Therefore Paul said: ‘we are more than conquerors.’ This was a new form of victory—to overcome by means of that through which enemies thought to overcome, and never to be overcome—to go into battle as if already having victory’s triumph in one’s will!” (Holy Chrysostom).

Is it not better to understand the Apostle’s discourse from the words “Who will separate us from God’s love?”—to the end—as speaking specifically of the Apostles? Earlier, in proposing foundations of hope, he had in mind both the Apostles and all believers; but now, when he needed to speak of the condition for the irreversibility of the promises on the part of believers—precisely their faithfulness and love toward God—instead of exhorting them to this, he proposes the example of the Apostles, depicting their firmness in rapturous speech: “Who will separate us?” And the testimony of the Psalm applies more to them as well, as does this: “we are more than conquerors.”

Rom. 8:38–39. I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

He asked: “Who will separate us from God’s love?” Now he answers: I am persuaded that nothing and no one can separate us from this love. “I am persuaded,” πέπεισμαι—I am persuaded, convinced. Persuasion comes from above, but here we are speaking of the persuasions natural to man as man. From all that has been given to me, what has been with me, what trials I have experienced and what deliverances I have seen, I have come to the conviction that nothing can separate me or those like me from “God’s love”—that is, extinguish in us love for God and turn us to seek something other than what is pleasing to God. He sets forth his own conviction; but recognizing that he is not alone in this, he expresses the unwavering faithfulness of all, like him, inspired by love for God, in order to inspire all Christians in all times to the same love and the same confidence. I am convinced that whoever has once tasted true love for God, nothing can tear him from it; he will not exchange it for anything and will not allow his heart to cleave to anything other than God. By this the Apostle completes the indication of the foundations of hope on man’s side—in unwavering, loving faithfulness to God. He does not give a command, but expresses his inspired zeal; and inspiration naturally carries all who see the inspired along with it.

As for the enumeration of what might draw one away from God’s love, the Apostle had in mind to express only one thought: that no one and nothing can draw away from God him who has loved him—nothing from all that exists and can be imagined, except God. Therefore, one need not dwell on the things indicated by him with special attention. Our interpreters do not even try to define them precisely, but only present the general picture. Thus, Blessed Theodoret writes: “Against God’s love, having set upon the scales all creation together, and adding to what is visible what is intellectual, to present blessings attaching expected and even threatening punishments (for by ‘depth’ I think he means Gehenna, and by ‘height’ the Kingdom), and besides this eternal life and eternal death, and seeing that all this is still insufficient, the Apostle seeks what else to add; not seeing anything else such, he multiplies the creature many times over in his word and sees that all this is not equal to God’s love. I will not agree, he says, as it were, even with the Kingdom of Heaven, and all visible and thinkable, and the same again, taken twice and thrice, to be without love (or instead of love) for God. But if someone should propose to me present and future sorrows, temporary and eternal death and everlasting torment in Gehenna, then with love for God, I would gladly with all readiness prefer this to all that is bright, great, and surpassing all speech, if only by means of the latter I were not deprived of love.”

Thus Holy Chrysostom says: “Lofty are these words: but we do not grasp them because we do not have such love. The meaning of his words is this: Why speak of present calamities, inseparable from this life? If you point me to future states and powers, that too seems little to me compared with Christ’s love. If someone threatened me with future endless death to separate me from Christ, or promised me endless life for this, I would not consent. Will you point me to angels, to all heavenly powers, to all that exists, to all that is to come? In comparison with Christ’s love all is little to me, all that is on earth, all that is in heaven, all that is under the earth, all that is above the heavens. But as if this were not enough to express the strong love that possessed the Apostle, he presents something else, equal to what went before, and says: ‘nor any other creature.’ This means: if there were another creature, both visible as the first and understood by mind, even then nothing would draw me from this love. The Apostle expressed himself thus not because angels or other heavenly powers actually did draw him from Christ, but only to present in the highest degree the attachment he had to Christ. He loved Christ not for what belongs to Christ; on the contrary, he loved everything of Christ for Christ himself, directed his gaze only to him, and had one fear alone—to fall away from this love. To fall away from Christ’s love was more terrible to him than Gehenna itself, just as to remain in this love was more desirable than the Kingdom.”

5) The unbelief of the Jews in the face of Christianity (Rom. 9:1–11:36)

The essence of Christianity with all its beneficial effects on fallen humanity has been explained. One could conclude the theoretical part of the teaching here and turn to the rules of life. But in the Apostle Paul, who was such a zealot of the faith of the patriarchs, convinced of its divine origin, Judaism always stood before his mind in the face of Christianity and posed the question: what then of it, which received its beginning from God, with such promises to our fathers and to us? In his own conscience, the Apostle carried a reconciling solution to this question in the conviction that Christianity too is from God and is introduced by God’s all-working precisely in order to replace Judaism, which has already fulfilled its temporary purpose—a conviction instilled in his mind and heart in such a living and active way as the repeated appearances of Christ the Lord himself and the extraordinary gifts received by him in faith in him. Thus, within himself, he always had, as a counterpoise to his former convictions when they came to mind, these new and living convictions. But even when he explained to others the matter of the arrangement of our salvation, he was not stingy in sharing with them these new convictions, knowing for certain how much it smoothed the path to faith in the Lord and how powerfully it bound them to faith and kept them in it. This is why reminders of this are found in almost every one of his Epistles, whenever the course of discourse provided an occasion. He does the same here—and all the more so here, because at the beginning of the Epistle he had already proved that for both Jew and Gentile salvation is one—in faith in Christ the Lord—and that the purpose of the Epistle is a comprehensive depiction of the power and significance of Christianity. This depiction would be incomplete if the Apostle did not touch on Judaism and thus show believing Jews what answer to give to unbelievers when they bring up the divine promises given to them. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The divine Apostle clearly proved that the incarnation of God and our Saviour is necessary and furnishes believers with unspeakable blessings. But since the Jews, bringing up the promises given by God, attempted to show on their part that the Apostle’s preaching is contrary to these promises, as being proposed contrary to God’s promise even to Gentiles, he of necessity sets forth their objections and most wisely resolves them, conveniently using both testimonies of Scripture and ancient examples.”

However, in turning to Judaism, the Apostle here considers not so much its very essence as that particular circumstance that there are unbelieving Jews. He touched on the essence of Judaism in the preceding chapters, proving that it must yield to Christianity; now, not letting this out of sight, he rather resolves the following questions: b) if the promises concerning the election of the Jewish people are immutable, how is it that there are now unbelieving Jews and, consequently, rejected ones? c) from what did this happen, who is to blame? Having given proper answers to this—namely that the promise was given not to all, but only to the worthy, and that those not partaking of the promise now do not partake by their own fault—the Apostle finally: d) proposes certain consolations to the Jew in this regard. In approaching the resolution of these questions, in which it was impossible not to mention the rejection of unbelieving Jews, the Apostle first: a) prefixes an assurance of his excessive love for his people, so that they might see that he speaks thus not from ill-will toward them, but only because thus it truly is and because God has so commanded. To this assurance he naturally came after ecstatic contemplation of what Christians shall finally be, and after expressing the hope that this shall certainly be their inalienable possession. Love for his people spoke to him: you hope for such a high thing—but what of your brethren according to the flesh? He answers: nothing would he desire more than that they too be deemed worthy of the same, and he would even be willing to sacrifice all this for them.

a) Assurance of Holy Paul concerning his excessive love for his people (Rom. 9:1–5)

Rom. 9:1. I am telling the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit.

Such a solemn assurance! “He brings three witnesses—Christ, his own conscience, and the Holy Spirit—so that they would believe what he was about to say, for he had something very important and great to say” (Oecumenius, Blessed Theophylact). “Intending to touch on what many will find it hard to believe, the Apostle testifies beforehand that what he intends to say is immutable truth. This is how anyone ordinarily proceeds who intends to speak of something that many find incredible, and yet he himself is firmly convinced” (Holy Chrysostom). But to what precisely is such an assurance directed? Immediately following comes the expression of the Apostle’s great sorrow and unceasing pain in his heart over the rejection of the Jews from the gracious Kingdom because of their unbelief in the promised and already revealed Saviour, by which his great love for his brethren was expressed. Therefore, one can suppose that he is directly assuring in this love. Such assurance of love was fitting for the Apostle Paul: for the Jews thought that he had stopped loving them and their faith. Thus, if even the Apostle spoke of ordinary love, it would have been fitting for him to preface such an assurance. But when he expresses such an extraordinarily strong love that he would be willing to be cut off from Christ himself for the beloved, then such assurance was absolutely necessary. Believers from among the Jews could have believed on a simple word; but the Apostle, setting forth the full teaching of Christianity, had in view not just believers, but also unbelievers, for the overcoming of whose prejudices it was necessary to show both an expression of extraordinary love and a great testimony to it. Thus, the Apostle assures directly in his love by such witnesses. But since the very assurance of love was needed in order to smooth the path to faith in what he was about to say about unbelieving Jews, there is no doubt that these assuring witnesses extend their power to this latter as well. All our interpreters understand these witnesses in this fuller sense. Blessed Theophylact writes that since in what follows the Apostle intends to show why not all believed—in that not all who are of Abraham are Abraham’s seed—in order that “no one should think that he speaks in great disturbance of spirit (in irritation against the Jews), he removes such suspicion by expressing that he loves them very much.”

Are the witnesses adduced reliable? To testify in the name of Christ the Saviour and by the Holy Spirit clearly had power. For it was known to all that for the Apostle Paul it was “to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21); it was also known to all that his confession was that everything he does, he himself does not do, but the grace of the Spirit dwelling in him does it; he would never agree to insult it by a lie. But is there power in testimony from conscience? In the person of the Apostle, there is. A sinful conscience may limp sometimes for the sake of apparent advantage, sometimes from the pressure of threatening evils. But a conscience torn from the bonds of passions by the Holy Spirit does not bow before these idols. That this was so with the Apostle, his whole life testifies. But even before his conversion, conscience showed forth its full power in him. If he was zealous for Judaism, it was because he believed in conscience that truth was in it. Then, when such a conviction, on immovable grounds, passed over to Christianity, he, drawn by the power of that same conscience, devoted himself entirely to Christ the Lord, bringing him in sacrifice all that was dear to him as a Jew. After this, nothing could shake his conscience: thousands of deaths threatened him, and he remained firmly faithful to that in which his conscience assured him by the Holy Spirit. In a person with such a conscience one could without hesitation rely on the fact that he did not lie. Ambrosiaster expresses the power of the proposed witnesses thus: “Since above the Apostle spoke apparently against the Jews who hoped to be justified by the law, he now shows strong love and goodwill toward them, assuring that he speaks from sincere conscience, in Christ Jesus and in the Holy Spirit, so that, ceasing to see him as their enemy, they might give full faith to his words. He sets Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit as witnesses because from them nothing is hidden, and their testimony cannot fail to be received after they have so many times already given testimony for him, working signs through him.”

The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Rom. 9:2. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

“The structure of this utterance is incomplete; it ought to be completed: I have unceasing anguish on account of the rejection or unbelief of the Jews; but observing caution, the Apostle did not use these words, though the sense is made clear from what follows” (Blessed Theodoret). “The Apostle grieves in soul for his people according to the flesh for the reason that by their unbelief they have deprived themselves of eternal salvation in Christ Jesus” (Ambrosiaster). “I have great sorrow”—this alone expresses much; but when he added “anguish,” ὀδύνη—a word used chiefly to denote the pain of childbirth—how much has he intensified this expression? And calling this pain unceasing and tormenting his heart, he revealed in himself what a rare soul can bear and endure. Holy Paul grieved even for the salvation of all men. “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?” (2 Cor. 11:29), he said—and this amid countless needs, deprivations, evils, and afflictions. But surely he could not help but grieve more for his own people, because here nature joined with grace. Holy Chrysostom, having depicted in the preceding homily at the end of the commentary on Chapter 8 the love of holy Paul in general, begins the present homily at the beginning of the commentary on Chapter 9 thus: “Did not what I said about Pauline love in the preceding homily seem to you great, even superhuman? Truly, all of this is in itself great and beyond all speech! But what is said now (at the beginning of Chapter 9) surpasses what went before as much as that surpasses all we can say about ourselves. I myself did not think that anything could be higher than what was said in the preceding homily; but it turns out that what we read today is far more brilliant than all that went before. Paul himself felt and declared at the very beginning that he intended to touch on something even more important, which many will not believe.”

Rom. 9:3. I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my people, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

“What are you saying, Paul? From the beloved Christ, from whom neither Kingdom nor Gehenna, neither what is visible nor what is understood by mind, nor anything like these could separate you, from this Christ do you now wish to be ‘separated’? What has happened to you? Have you not changed, have you not departed from love? Not at all; have no fear of that; I have only strengthened this love in myself, answers Paul. Then why do you wish to be separated? Why do you seek estrangement and such a break, after which another one is impossible? Because I love him so greatly, answers Paul. How is this? In what way? Explain to us, for your words seem like a riddle” (Holy Chrysostom).

“To be accursed,” ἀνάθεμα εἶναι—to be anathema. “The word ‘anathema’ has a twofold meaning. For both what is dedicated to God is called anathema, and what is alien to this bears the same name. And the first meaning teaches us the common custom, because what is brought to God we call ἀναθήματα. And the second the divine Apostle taught in the Epistle to the Corinthians: ‘If anyone does not love our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed’ (ἀνάθεμα) (1 Cor. 16:22) (Blessed Theodoret). That is, let ties be broken with him and let him become alien to all. Just as no one dares to touch without necessity or approach with hands a gift dedicated to God, so the one cut off from the Church, being severed from all and as it were distanced as much as possible, the Apostle in the opposite sense calls by the name of a dedicate or offering (ἀνάθημα), and thereby forewarns everyone to flee in fear and get away from such a person. No one dared approach a gift out of respect; with the one cut off, they broke ties from the opposite emotion. In both cases ties are broken equally, and the object becomes alien to men. But the manner of breaking ties is not the same; on the contrary, one is opposite to the other. One is guarded against because it is dedicated to God, while the other because it is alienated from God, cut off from the Church. In this latter sense Paul spoke: ‘I could wish to be cut off from Christ’” (Holy Chrysostom).

One cut off from Christ no longer has a share with Christ, is deprived of his inheritance—the Kingdom of Heaven—and his part is with the condemned. Consequently, the Apostle is willing to offer for his brethren such a sacrifice than which none is greater: according to the greatness of the desire, great is the sacrifice. Here is combined all that holy Paul could offer on his part. What love! A similar expression of love was shown by the prophet Moses when he besought God to forgive the Jews their sin in making the calf, saying: “I prayed, O Lord: this people have sinned a great sin. And now if you will forgive their sin, forgive it; but if not, blot me out from the book that you have written, from which you have written me” (Ex. 32:31–32). To be cut off from Christ is equivalent to being blotted out from the book of life. Holy Chrysostom says: “Some think that Paul is speaking here in the words ‘I could wish to be cut off from Christ’ about temporary death. To such I say that they understand Paul no better—or far worse—than the blind understand a sunbeam. He who died every day, was subjected to clouds of calamities, and said: ‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or hunger, or persecution?’ Who, not satisfied with what he had enumerated, surpassed heaven and heaven of heavens, outran angels and archangels and all the celestial powers; who gathered together all—the present and future, the visible and thinkable, the sorrowful and the good, what partakes of both—left nothing unnoticed and was not satisfied, but imagined another similar creation that does not yet exist: would such a man mention temporal death as something important? No, no! To think this of Paul is unseemly. If he had spoken of this, why would he wish to be cut off from Christ? Temporal death more closely unites with the face of Christ and grants a taste of future glory. Therefore, leaving idle tales and empty words, which like baby prattle are not worthy of refutation, and returning to the Apostle’s own words, let us enjoy the sea of his love; let us imagine in our minds this unspeakable flame, of which, no matter what you say, nothing can be said worthy of it. For Paul’s love was wider than the sea, stronger than any fire. And no word can depict it worthily. Only Paul himself grasped it as one who fully possessed it” (at Holy Chrysostom this stands under verse 6).

But is the proposed sacrifice possible and is what is desired possible in consequence of this sacrifice? Is it possible to separate from one who burned with such love for his brethren in love for the Lord? Externally it might be possible to distance. But how can a living bond of love be broken, constituting the very life of the Apostle’s soul? And how can one be distanced from the Omnipresent, who cannot but favor those who love him? The favor of the love of the beloved Lord and love breathing the beloved Lord—this is paradise. The one who loves the Lord and is loved by him will be in paradise everywhere, even if placed in hell; just as conversely, the one not loved by the Lord and not loving him will be in hell everywhere, even if placed in paradise. This is why Blessed Theophylact interprets that the Apostle wishes to be cut off not from love, but from the glory of Christ. “Do you see that from flaming love for God he wishes, if possible, to be separated from the assembly of those eternally alive with Christ, not from his love, but from his glory and enjoyment of it. I, reasons the Apostle, who have accomplished an unnumbered multitude of labors, loving God immeasurably, wish for God’s glory to be deprived of Christ’s glory. But this does not mean to be deprived, but rather to be enriched.” On the other hand, what does the Apostle wish for his brethren? That they too become partakers of the Kingdom of Christ—gracious and glorious. But this is conditioned on faith and devotion to the Lord, which without the will of the soul, how can they be planted? An external gift can be given apart from the will; but how can an internal change be wrought without its participation? And the Lord does not wish to compel the will. He does all to call it forth, but never compels. All this has already been done by him for the Jews as well; but they resist all the more and refuse even to hear of Christ the Saviour. Thus the Apostle desired something impossible.

The Apostle himself knew that both were impossible; but he spoke thus to express his exceedingly strong love for the Jewish people. If such a sacrifice could secure the salvation of my brethren, then I am ready for it. “He says: ‘I could wish,’ optabam—not ‘I wish,’ opto. For he knows it is impossible that such a glorious member, without any fault, should be cut off from the body of Christ. He shows by this only his great love and devotion to his people” (Ambrosiaster). And yet these were not mere words, but a sincere desire proceeding from the depths of the soul—a desire irreversible. Had what he desired been possible, he would truly have been ready for the proposed sacrifice. “He does not simply say ‘I could wish,’ but expresses an intense desire: ‘I could wish,’ eukhomên—ηύχόμην—in prayer, springing from the heart and encompassing his entire being” (Holy Chrysostom).

To the expression of strong love must be referred the words: “I myself”—that is, I myself, who before testified that nothing can separate me from Christ, now myself wish to be separated from him, provided only that my brethren be saved. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Most fittingly the Apostle inserted also this: ‘I myself,’ recalling what had been already said about love for Christ and speaking as it were: I, whom neither life nor death, neither the present nor the future, nor any other creature can separate from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus, would very gladly have been separated from Christ for the salvation of the Jews.”

Yet in saying that he is ready to be cut off from Christ “for the sake of my brethren and my kinsmen according to the flesh,” does not the Apostle suggest the thought that he loves his race more than Christ and prefers it to the Lord? It is true that “by the words: ‘for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh’—the Apostle points to the most tender and ardent love he has for the Jews” (Blessed Theophylact). But this very love in what spirit and by what power does he have? In the Spirit of Christ, in the power of love for Christ, in the desire to sacrifice all for the glory of His name. “Thus the cause of this again is that beloved Jesus” (Holy Chrysostom). “It is evident therefore that the Apostle did not prefer the Jews to the Saviour, but only expressing his love and attachment to them, said this, wishing to see that all would submit and willingly receive the saving proclamation” (Blessed Theodoret). “As Moses seemingly interceded for the Jews, but did all for the glory of God and spoke: remove Your wrath, lest it be said that You could not save and ‘You brought them out to destroy them in the wilderness’ (Deut. 9:28); so Paul says: I would wish to be cut off only that it might not be said that God’s promise remained unfulfilled, that God did not stand by His covenant and did not bring His word into effect” (Holy Chrysostom).

Photius in Oecumenius sets forth this place in greater detail. We present his words, not wishing to deprive our readers of the pleasure of hearing this wise teacher. “He whom nothing can separate from God’s love—neither death nor life, neither the hereafter nor here, nothing that anyone could conceive—for he mentioned also angels and powers, depth and height—whom nothing can separate, how does he voluntarily fall away? And this for kinsmen according to the flesh? And he does not simply fall away by his own will, but strongly wishes, seeks, and prays to be cut off from Christ’s love? What is this? How can we reconcile what seems irreconcilable? First, we say that what is stated is not contradictory one to another. For it is not contradictory to love Christ so that by reason neither of torments nor of offered blessings would one depart from love for him, and to love one’s neighbor so as to regard his salvation as equal to one’s own salvation, and even greater. This is not contradictory, but very harmonious. For he who loves his brother loves the Lord, and vice versa (1 Jn. 4:20–21). ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’ (Jn. 13:35), the Lord says. And Paul himself writes in another place: ‘Love is the fulfilling of the law’ (Rom. 13:10). And again the Lord speaks of love for God and neighbor: ‘On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’ (Matt. 22:40), showing that love is the head and source of all deeds of love—both toward God and toward neighbor—together. This is so, someone will say; but here he prefers love for his neighbor to love for God and prays to be cut off from him to gain them. But Christ says: ‘He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me’ (Matt. 10:37). But what the Apostle says does not mean that he loves his neighbors more than Christ. For what does his love for them desire? That he gain them for Christ. Where then is the love for them greater than love for Christ, when he also zealously seeks to draw others to love Christ and submission to him? No; here he shows that he had preeminent love for Christ, because he also zealously sought to bring others to him. It would be so, you say, if he did not separate himself from Christ. But he did not separate; for he did not actually desire this, but, burning with flaming love for Christ, he zealously sought to graft all, especially the Jews, to him. And wishing to present this, he says that if it were possible for my destruction to glorify Christ more and the Jews to be saved, then I would not refuse such a sacrifice: ‘I could wish,’—if this were fitting, if my offer were accepted, if anyone yielded to my choice. What would you wish (he hears, as it were): to be cut off from Christ so that all the Jewish people might unite with him, and thereby Christ be more glorified and the promises of the Father fulfilled—or to remain in union with him while the Jewish people remained in alienation from him and opposition to him—and on account of this Christ be reviled? If this, he says, had been proposed to me, then I would prefer Christ’s glory and the salvation of many to my own salvation. Do you see the superabundance of love for Christ? Since he has already shown his love for Christ by all that exists, now he presents proof of it from what does not exist, from what is mentally supposed: for Christ’s glory and the conversion of the Jews I would hypothetically cast down even my own salvation. But separated from Christ, both for Christ’s glory and for the union of the Jews with him, Paul would again unite and cleave to him, like an infant to its mother, by being separated from the womb, and in this way he would again save himself, Christ would be most glorified, the Jewish people would be saved, and the promises to him and covenants with him would come to fulfillment. What more? Even separating himself for this purpose, he would not be separated, but rather united.”

Rom. 9:4. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the law, the service, and the promises;

Not natural love for his people alone moved the Apostle to propose such a sacrifice for its salvation, but rather the providential dispensations toward them, the mercies and benefactions poured out on them by God. He grieved that all this would come to nothing, bearing no corresponding fruit, if the Jews did not turn to Christ; therefore he was ready for the ultimate sacrifice, only to avert this ruin, and not only that, but also—that the name of God might not be blasphemed on account of the estrangement of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle did not speak these words without reason; but because, accusing God, they said that those were being driven out and deprived of honor who had been deemed worthy to be called sons of God, had received the law, had known God before all other peoples, enjoyed a special glory, served God when no one else was serving him, had received promises—and, what is most important, became the patriarchs of Christ himself; for this is what the words ‘from whom is Christ according to the flesh’ mean; and that instead of them men from the Gentiles were introduced, who had never known God. Since those who spoke thus blasphemed God, Paul, hearing this, was torn, grieved for God’s glory, and wished to be separated, if that were possible, only so that the Jews might be saved, blasphemy might cease, and no one remain in the thought that God deceived their patriarchs, to whom he had promised gifts. Paul wished to be separated so that you might know how much the thought tormented him—a thought that could settle in many, as if God’s promise remained unfulfilled.”

By thus purifying his sorrow and anguish of heart from natural impulses and sanctifying them by the workings of providential dispensations on its origin, the Apostle no less had in view to stir up in the hearts of the Jews regret for the loss of so many privileges and to draw them to faith in Christ, without which it is impossible to preserve them. He, as if not speaking, speaks to them: so many privileges! And all this is being lost by your mere unwillingness to believe in the Lord. Have mercy on yourselves and come to the Lord Saviour! Ambrosiaster writes: “The Apostle enumerates such lofty privileges of the Jews and glorious promises to them in order to awaken in all of them painful regret for this. For by not accepting Christ, they were losing the privileges of the fathers and being deprived of the promises, thus becoming worse than the Gentiles, whom they had before despised as those without God. For it is more bitter to lose dignity than not to have it.”

“They are Israelites.” “For this name also was honorable; for it was given by God to the patriarch and passed to his descendants as an inheritance” (Blessed Theodoret). The name was given to Jacob after he had remained wrestling with him who appeared to him until morning, and he consequently said to him: “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel shall be your name, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed” (Gen. 32:28). The name means one who sees God, standing under God’s protection and mighty with his blessings among men. This is why the name was honorable to all. The Lord, seeing Nathanael, honored him with this name, saying: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile” (Jn. 1:47). Saint Paul, needing to show that he too was not inferior to others, says: “Are they Israelites? So am I” (Phil. 3:5). Later, when Judaism came into decline, Christians gloried in this name, calling themselves the new Israel.

“And to them belong the adoption as sons.” “For they also received this name; it is said: ‘Israel is my firstborn son’ (Ex. 4:22)” (Blessed Theodoret). Thus the Lord God called the people of Israel in threatening Pharaoh, and when he took the firstborn of Pharaoh and all the Egyptians in retaliation for the oppression of this people as the firstborn. A son is dear, and a firstborn is all the more so. The Israelites were honored with this name for the reason that God chose them from all peoples and took them for himself, so that they constituted, as it were, his house. This is why Moses says in Deuteronomy: “You are children of the Lord your God… You are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you out of all the peoples on the earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Deut. 14:1–2). Having chosen them, God had special care for them, as his own, as for children. “For the Lord’s portion is his people… He found him in the desert land, in the howling waste of the wilderness; he shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft” (Deut. 32:9–11). This is why, when the Israelites proved unfaithful before God, God rebuked them thus: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me” (Is. 1:2). But this adoption—outward—was a prefiguration of that true and essential sonship which Christians attain, being born of God by the Holy Spirit and clothed in Christ, the Son of God, who was pleased to become our brother through the incarnation. “And the glory.” “For they became glorious through miracles” (Blessed Theodoret). Since glory is here listed among the special privileges of the Israeli people, it should mean something particular. This is the visible sign of God’s presence among this people. The first of these was the pillar of cloud that led them by day and shone like fire by night (Ex. 13:21), throughout all the time of their wandering in the desert; the second was the glory of God that descended upon Mount Sinai and covered it (Ex. 24:16); the third was the cloud that covered the tabernacle of the covenant at the moment of its dedication, when the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord (Ex. 40:34). This was repeated at the dedication of the temple built by Solomon, to show that the replacement of the tabernacle by the temple did not change God’s presence among them (1 Kings 8:11). The permanent sign of God’s presence among the Israelites was the ark of the covenant, overshadowed by angels, from whose midst God gave his answers (Ex. 25:22). This is why, when the ark of the covenant was taken by the Philistines, the people cried out in weeping: “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of the Lord has been captured” (1 Sam. 4:21). The ark was returned, and with it the glory of God; and holy Prophet David, when speaking of the tabernacle, called it “the place of the dwelling of God’s glory” because of the ark present in it. “Lord, I love the beauty of your house, and the place where your glory dwells” (Ps. 25:8). And when he came into the temple he said: “I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and your glory” (Ps. 62:3).

“And the covenants.” “For God promised to give them not only the Old Covenant but also the New Covenant; it is said: ‘I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel… not like the covenant that I made with their fathers’” (Jer. 31:31–32); “but they themselves were unwilling to receive the latter covenant” (Blessed Theodoret). But though they did not receive it when the time came for it to take effect, they did receive it in promise and looked for its coming. This is why the New Covenant is also their covenant. Non-acceptance of it is equivalent to violations of the covenant accepted and, like these, makes them guilty before God. However, those who wish may understand by covenants the one Old Covenant, repeatedly renewed: given to Abraham, repeated to Isaac and Jacob, solemnly proclaimed to all the people, and thereafter repeatedly restored because of the people’s frequent violations.

“And the law.” “For the law of Moses was given to them” (Blessed Theodoret). The law was a great benefit to the people. It defined in detail both family life and civic life, and relations to other nations, and, chiefly, uniting all the people together, proclaimed God as king for them, who, when necessary, revealed his will from between the mercy seat above the ark and in the hour of need protected his people with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

“And the worship.” “For, preferring them to other nations, he taught them the lawful sacred service” (Blessed Theodoret). The orders of worship to God are contained in the law. There all deeds and laws were laid down and received as a service to God. The Apostle separated it from the general law and mentioned it specially because civic and other worldly and governmental orders took a different form from the time of the establishment of kings, and the service of God remained chiefly as worship. Especially toward the end, it alone served as the distinguishing mark of the Israelite people from other nations. If we keep in view the Apostle’s aim—to draw all in every way to Christ the Lord—then we may suppose that he mentioned worship specially because all its orders were a shadow of the body of Christ.

“And the promises.” “And those given by God to the fathers and proclaimed by the Prophets” (Blessed Theodoret). To the fathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and to all the prophets, beginning with Moses and ending with Malachi. The subject of the promises was the Messiah and his Kingdom. All that pertains to this is defined in detail in prophetic utterances. And only the blindness and turning aside to worldly aims of those who governed the people prevented them from recognizing in the revealed Saviour the promised one.

The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9)

Rom. 9:5. To them belong the patriarchs, and from them according to the flesh comes the Messiah, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

“And from them the patriarchs.” “Those glorious and illustrious ones, whom God called his God” (Blessed Theodoret). These are understood to be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Though all the notable figures of the Old Testament are called patriarchs, these above all are the patriarchs, as the founders of the nation and as those with whom God made a covenant—the beginning and foundation of the Old Covenant and all the promises. This is why, just as God called himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so the Jews also called God the God of their fathers, and gloried in their names, and valued the privilege of being descendants of such patriarchs and fathers.

“And from them according to the flesh comes the Messiah.” “In conclusion the Apostle brings the greatest of goods” (Blessed Theodoret). Here is the foundation of all other privileges. Therefore the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, the worship—because the predetermined Deliverer of mankind was to be born in their race, and all the promises referred to him. The entire Old Covenant rested on Christ the Lord. This is why estrangement from the Lord Saviour made all other privileges valueless.

“Who is God over all, blessed forever.” Having said “from them according to the flesh comes the Messiah,” the Apostle gave us to understand that Christ is one thing according to the flesh and another thing not according to the flesh. According to the flesh he is man; what is he not according to the flesh? “God over all.” Blessed Theodoret writes: “Although the addition of ‘according to the flesh’ alone was sufficient to make plain the Godhood of the Master Christ, yet just as at the very beginning, having said ‘who was descended from the seed of David according to the flesh,’ the Apostle added ‘was declared to be the Son of God in power’ (Rom. 1:3–4); so here, having said ‘from them according to the flesh comes the Messiah,’ he added ‘who is God over all, blessed forever,’ both showing the distinction of natures and teaching that the Jews have solid reason to lament, because from them according to the flesh comes the God over all, and yet they have lost this nobility and become alienated from this kinship.”

“God over all”—both by nature as God and because he is the Creator (Jn. 1:3), by whom “all things were created” (Col. 1:16). The Almighty, “sustaining all things by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3), and the Providence, who, having authority “over heaven and over earth” (Matt. 28:18), guides all things to the final end, “that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). Oecumenius writes: “Here most brilliantly the Apostle calls Christ God. Blush, thrice-wretched Arius, hearing Paul praise Christ as the true God. Though the Jews may pour out blasphemies against him, I, knowing the ineffable economy in him and knowing his providence, proclaim that Christ is rightly praised as ‘God over all and blessed forever.’”

In conclusion of the depiction of such privileges of the Jews, in which the Apostle’s sorrow at their loss was so evident, Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle is like mourning women who in their lamentation over the dead and the lamented depict both the beauty of the body, the blooming age, the renown of ancestors, wealth, and power.”

b) The rejection of part of the Jews does not contradict God’s promises (Rom. 9:6–29)

Rom. 9:6. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

You grieve, someone might say, that such a significant part of the Jews remained without the benefits promised; this means you acknowledge that God’s promises have not been fulfilled: “He promised to some and gave to others; Christ was born of some but saved others; God gave promises to the ancestors of the Jews and, leaving their descendants, gave their blessings to those who never knew him. The Jews labored, were taught the law, read the Prophets, while the Gentiles had hardly abandoned their altars and idols when they became superior to the Jews. Thus, why did those who received the promise lose it, while those who never heard of the promise were saved before the first? To this the Apostle answers: I said this not in the sense that the word of God has become ineffective, but to prove love for Christ (and in Christ for them [Oecumenius]). Regarding your question, continues the Apostle, though the present state of affairs appears thus, we are not shaken in defending God and maintaining that the promise is inviolable” (Holy Chrysostom). “Though they oppose and refuse (in faith) to reap the fruits of salvation, the promises given to the fathers remain true” (Blessed Theodoret). “I,” he says, “am inflamed because they blaspheme God, as if he did not fulfill his promise, and therefore I expressed the desire that all might be saved. But if not all will be saved, it does not follow that God lied in his promises given to the fathers and that his word failed. He fulfilled what he promised, even though the blasphemers say that he promised to some and gave to others” (Blessed Theodoret).

To prove that this is indeed so, the Apostle puts forward: “Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.” This is a general proposition which continues in the following verses: “and not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants” (Rom. 9:7). You who object, he says, as it were, do not properly understand the force of the promise; in your view, if you are born only of Israel and Abraham, you are thereby already a partaker of the promise, but in reality this is not so: physical descent from the fathers who received the promise does not make one a partaker of it, but something else, something higher. What exactly this higher thing is, the Apostle does not state directly, but clearly gives us to understand in the name Israel and the children of the promise (verse 8). Israel means a seer of God. To see God is the highest spiritual perfection, which is given, comes, and is received through the mortification of the passions, as with Jacob in his struggle with the spiritual man, signifying the mortification of passions. The children of the promise are those born like Isaac; Isaac was formed and born by the word of God: “I will return at this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” “Though the womb of the woman and her inward parts contributed to the birth, it was not the power of the womb that produced the child” (Holy Chrysostom). Power from above came to nature through the word, the fruit was conceived, and Isaac was born. Behold what those to whom the promise belongs should be like: to be born by power from above through the word and then to ascend to the vision of God! Now consider with whom this is fulfilled. With none but true Christians, who are born again in the font through the word and then have their life hidden with Christ in God. Consequently, in what you see now being accomplished “before your eyes,” there is exact fulfillment of the power of the promise, and it should not occur to any one of sound mind that “the word of God has failed.”

Such is the thought our interpreters convey, beginning with this verse and beyond. But it is only discerned by the mind; the Apostle himself did not state it aloud. Having to deal with minds that thought after the flesh, he sought to lead them to such a thought by tangible fleshly examples. Having said “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel”—and thereby giving us to understand, those with purified understanding, that kinship with him is determined not by natural birth but by virtue that leads to the vision of God (Blessed Theodoret, Photius in Oecumenius)—he should, for those without such understanding, show an example of visible separation of someone from the fleshly descendants of Israel from the general mass of the people descended from him. But since history provided no such example, and all sons and daughters of the twelve sons of Israel were uniformly called Israel without visible separation of anyone from their midst and without clear indication of separation according to the spirit, though it was invisibly always being accomplished and known to God alone, holy Paul finds a tangible example of this separation earlier, in those born from Abraham and Isaac. He speaks, as it were: from Abraham was born not only Isaac, but he alone is a child of the promise, while the others were separated from this line; similarly, from those born of Isaac, Esau was separated and Jacob alone was recognized as the heir of the promise. Thus, just as there was tangible and visible separation of those not deemed worthy of the promise, so after that from among the descendants of Israel a like separation was made, but invisibly, not openly. Now it has been made visible through the word of the gospel—those who did not receive the gospel were separated, while those who believed were accepted. As on the threshing floor, when the winnowed grain is tossed with a shovel, the chaff is blown to the side while the grain remains and is gathered into the granary, so it is now—the unbelieving are blown to the side to soon be scattered over the face of the earth, while the believing remain in God’s place within the enclosure of the Church, to enter God’s granary. Thus, let no one think that the word of God has failed; for not all who are of Israel according to the flesh are Israel also according to the spirit.

The thought of the Apostle, laid out in this manner, sheds light on all the subsequent discourse up to verse 13 and makes it clear. Let us, however, review it both in our own minds and in the words of our wise theologian interpreters.

Rom. 9:7. And not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants; but ‘In Isaac shall your offspring be named.’

Not only because one is born of Abraham according to the flesh is he a child of Abraham. Not all who are born of Abraham are thereby his true children, that is, children of Abraham truly so-called, corresponding to God’s intention, or children of the promise, God’s children (verse 8). And Ishmael was from Abraham, and later the children of Keturah (Gen. 25:1, 4; 1 Chron. 1:32–33) were also Abraham’s fleshly children, but neither he nor they were accepted as heirs of the promise. Isaac alone was declared to be the heir: “In Isaac shall your offspring be named,”—that is, offspring worthy to partake of the benefits of the promise. Holy Chrysostom says: “If you understand who is called the seed of Abraham, you will see to whom the promise was given, and you will learn that the word of God has not failed. So tell me, who is called the seed? I do not speak, answers the Apostle, but the Old Testament explains itself, saying: ‘In Isaac shall your offspring be named’ (Gen. 21:12).” Here is the first example of separation from the inheritance of the promise of those born according to the flesh from the father who received the promise!

For the Apostle’s purpose—to show visible examples of separation from the inheritance—what has been said would suffice; but since he had in mind to present these examples in such a way that in them would be seen a reflection of what was accomplished before all eyes in Christ Jesus in the work of the proclamation of the gospel, which he now defends, he does not limit himself to what has been said but gives an interpretation of the entire event such that one cannot but see a reference to what is accomplished in Christ Jesus, which cannot be understood without presupposing this reference. This is why Holy Chrysostom says that the Apostle “in his explanation links the present (happening in Christ) with the Old Testament.”

Rom. 9:8. That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

Word for word, the deeds in the Old Testament did not proceed in this manner. Not all counted as seed were born according to the promise, and in such a way that they should be called children of God rather than children of their fleshly fathers who bore them. In Jacob, the son of Isaac, this can still be seen as the holy Paul shortly shows; but after that all were counted as seed without visible and open division of the worthy from the unworthy of the promise. God’s eye certainly saw both, but God did not openly and visibly rebuke some and approve others. The separation of one from the other began to happen visibly only when Christianity was established, when those who believed in Christ entered into the inheritance of the promise as true children of Abraham and God’s children, while those who disbelieved were alienated from him. Our interpreters directly see in these and the following words a reference to what happens in Christ Jesus our Lord. Holy Chrysostom says: “The meaning of these words of the Apostle is: those born in the manner of Isaac are children of God and seed of Abraham. This is why it is said: ‘In Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ But how was Isaac born? Not according to the law of nature, not by the power of flesh, but by the power of the promise.” That is, by the action of the power of God, as we are born in the font (Blessed Theophylact). Blessed Theodoret directly writes: “The Apostle calls the flesh-born according to the natural order ‘children of the flesh,’ but those who became sons by grace ‘children of the promise.’” So too Ambrosiaster explains: “The Apostle gives us to understand that not all are worthy simply because they are sons of Abraham, but only those are worthy who are sons of the promise, that is, those whom God foreknew would receive the promise, whether they are from the Jews or from the Gentiles. For only those are worthy to be called Israelites, that is, ones who see God, who believe. If we simply understand according to the flesh: ‘In Isaac shall your offspring be named’—then all Jews are sons of Abraham, because their whole race is from Abraham through Isaac. But since, as I have said, only those who truly are sons of Abraham are those who inherit what was given in Isaac, it is evident that the rest (who do not inherit this promise) ought not to be reckoned as sons of Abraham. Abraham, the believer, received Isaac (and in him the promise) because of faith, because he believed God (Rom. 4:3). In this is prefigured the mystery of the future faith, so that those who would have the same faith by virtue of which Isaac was born would be brothers of Isaac. Isaac, moreover, was born as a type of the Saviour according to the promise; so that the one who believes in Christ Jesus, promised to Abraham, is a son of Abraham, a brother of Isaac. To Abraham it was said: ‘In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed’ (Gen. 22:18); this was not fulfilled in Isaac, but was fulfilled in him who in Isaac was promised to Abraham, that is, in Christ, in whom all believing nations are blessed. It is evident therefore that the rest of the Jews (the unbelieving) are children of the flesh, since they are deprived of the promise and should not be reckoned as the seed of Abraham, as those who do not follow the faith by which Abraham showed himself worthy of the promise. This is why the Apostle added: ‘That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.’ And can ‘children of the flesh’ be children of God? These are born from fleshly lust, while the others are born through faith by the Spirit. Those only should be reckoned in the seed of Abraham who believe.‘We add from Blessed Theophylact:’Consequently, the word of God has not failed, but God gave what was promised to the true seed, that is, to the believing from the Gentiles, who became children of God, as Isaac did, because they too are of the promise. If the Jews say that the words ‘In Isaac shall your offspring be named’ mean that those born of Isaac are counted in the seed of Abraham, then the Edomites and all descended from Isaac must be reckoned as the seed of Abraham, because their patriarch Esau was the son of Isaac. But the Edomites are not only not called the sons of Abraham, but even are very foreign to the Israelites and are called strangers.”

Thus our interpreters see in the Apostle’s words an indication of what in the proper sense has already been fulfilled in Christ Jesus, in those who believe in him. But they see this tangibly in the words that follow:

Rom. 9:9. For this is the word of the promise: ‘About this time I will return, and Sarah will have a son’ (Gen. 18:10).

According to the course of the discourse, it follows that only those are the seed of Abraham and children of the promise who are born in this manner, that is, by the power of a special action of God on nature. But if we understand this of the fleshly children of Abraham, even apart from those who are plainly excluded from his descendants, such as Ishmael, Esau, and the children of Keturah, with all the peoples descended from them, this is not borne out by history. But since God’s word is infallible, so too is this, and consequently it has its full fulfillment somewhere. Where shall we find it? Nowhere but in Christ Jesus. The Apostle says that children of the promise are counted as the seed of Abraham; but the word of the promise gives us to understand that only those are children of the promise who are born by the action of God, like Isaac. “Such is the promise,” says Holy Chrysostom; “Isaac was formed and born by the word of God! Though the womb of the woman and her inward parts contributed to the birth, it was not the power of the womb but the power of the promise that produced the child. So too are we born by the word of God; for what gives birth to us and forms us in the water of baptism is the word of God, for when we are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we are born. Such a birth is not according to nature, but according to God’s promise. Just as he who foretold the birth of Isaac himself then brought it about, so he also proclaimed beforehand our birth long ago through the mouths of all the prophets, and then brought it to fulfillment. Do you see how much evidence and with what ease he who made great promises fulfilled them? Do you see that the children of the flesh are not God’s children, but rather that in the very nature (in birth from Sarah) is prefigured birth from above through baptism? If you speak to me of the womb (that is, that flesh participated there), I will speak to you of the water (that is, that something material participates here as well). But as here all is from the Spirit, so there all is from the promise; the womb, weakened by old age, was colder than water. Therefore, let us consider our nobility with complete attention and show a life worthy of it. In our birth there is nothing fleshly and earthly; let there be nothing of the sort in us. Not sleep, not fleshly lust, not embraces, not stirring of desire, but God’s love for mankind accomplished all. And as there, when age offered no hope, so here, when sinful old age had come, suddenly a new man was born, and we all became sons of God, seed of Abraham.”

God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Rom. 9:10. And not only that, but Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our father Isaac.

A second example of separation from the inheritance of the promise, more evident than the first. In the first example it is shown how children of one father but different mothers are separated; here is shown the separation among children of one father and one mother, and moreover ones who were both conceived and born at the same time. Against the first example one could object: from the children of Abraham the others were separated because they were not from Sarah, and Isaac was recognized as the heir because he was from Sarah. The Apostle speaks, as it were: such an objection has no force, because descent is reckoned according to the father, not the mother (Blessed Theodoret); but so that you have no doubt, I shall bring you another example. The same happened with the children of Rebekah, who conceived from Isaac at the same time and bore twins. But one of them was separated from the inheritance, while the other was chosen as the heir of the promise. Against this there was nothing to object to. Thus tangibly is it seen in this example that spiritual promises are in no way dependent on fleshly descent. The Apostle’s very speech in this text is truncated and incomplete. Anyone can complete it as he thinks best, guided by the proposed train of thought of the Apostle. Blessed Theodoret writes: “If you think,” says the Apostle, “that Isaac was preferred to Ishmael and the children of Abraham born to Keturah because of Sarah, what then will you say of Rebekah? For here the mother is one, the father is one, and the conception is one, because the children are twins. This is what the Apostle expressed in the words ‘by one man, our father Isaac,’—that is, Rebekah conceived both at the same time; yet one is beloved of God, while the other is unworthy of God’s care for him.” Holy Chrysostom brings both the earlier and this example under one view and makes a general conclusion corresponding to the Apostle’s purpose: “Why are you astonished,” says the Apostle, “if some of the Jews were saved and others not? Everyone knows that the same happened in ancient times with the patriarchs. Why is only Isaac called the seed of Abraham, although Abraham was the father of Ishmael and many others? Is it because Ishmael’s mother was a slave? But how does that affect the son? However, I will not dispute; let Ishmael be sent away because of the mother. But what shall we say of the children of Keturah? Were they not free and born not of a freewoman? Why then were they not deemed worthy of the privileges given to Isaac? And what is to be said of Keturah’s children? Rebekah was Isaac’s sole wife, bore two sons, and both from Isaac. But these, born of one father, one mother, suffering the same pangs of childbirth, these brothers, with the same blood and the same womb, and moreover twins, did not receive equal rights. Here one cannot refer to the slavery of the mother, as in the case of Ishmael, nor to the fact that they were not born from one womb, as in the case of the children of Keturah and Sarah; they had one mother, and she felt the pangs of childbirth at one and the same hour. Therefore Paul, as if thinking the last example clearer, says that it was not only with Isaac that this was so, but also with Rebekah and the others.”

By this simple indication the Apostle’s purpose was already achieved—to prove by examples from ancient history that God from the very beginning excluded some from participation in the promises, despite their fleshly descent from the fathers who received the promises, and that therefore there is nothing astonishing if even now some are found excluded from participation in the benefits bestowed by the promised Redeemer and Saviour. But as in the first example, so here the Apostle does not limit himself to a mere indication but adds explanatory thoughts, entering more and more deeply into the laws of divine providence.

Rom. 9:11–12. Before they were born or had done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to his choice might be maintained, not because of works but because of his call, she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger’ (Gen. 25:23).

“In these verses two parts and thoughts must be distinguished: one serves only to present the proposed example more strikingly, while the other introduces us to the laws of God’s providential action. To the first belong the words: ‘Before they were born or had done anything good or bad, she was told, The older will serve the younger.’ Not only from two born of one father and mother and from one man are they separated, one from the inheritance of the promise and the other chosen as its heir; but this happens before they even began to act and did anything good or bad. Thus naturally and necessarily is such separation and exclusion made! What then do you wonder and doubt,‘says the Apostle, as it were,’that now you see excluded, or rather excluding themselves, from the spiritual blessings bestowed by the revealed Deliverer?!‘The words:’The older will serve the younger”—were not always fulfilled in fact: it was so from David to Joram (2 Sam. 8:14; 2 Kings 8:20–22) and under the Maccabees; but for the most part the descendants of Esau were hostile to the descendants of Jacob and as it were foreign to them. The servitude indicated here means generally the state of alienation from the inheritance, similar to the condition of slaves who have no part in the inheritance.

To the second belong the words: “So that God’s purpose according to his choice might be maintained, not because of works but because of his call.”

These are not incidental words, but on the contrary, the main ones; they are placed in the middle so as to hold attention more forcefully on them. They point to that peculiarity in divine action which appears in the election of some to the inheritance of the promise and in the exclusion of others from this inheritance. Why did God tell Rebekah that of her two children one would be the heir and the other, like a slave, excluded from this before they were born and had done anything? So as to show not to her alone but to all in general that when he resolves to elect one and exclude another, he does this not on the basis of deeds already done by the elected or excluded, but from his own nature, as is fitting for him who elects or calls. The words: “So that God’s purpose according to his choice” and so on—literally convey these thoughts: “God’s purpose”—God’s decision, determination, or plainly God’s will; “according to his choice”—according to the act of choice or with respect to election—this one to the inheritance, that one to exclusion from it; “might be maintained”—might be made known to all that such purpose or will and determination takes place; “not because of works”—which would have already been done by those to whom this purpose applies, as is evident in Jacob and Esau, concerning whom the determination was made before their birth; “but because of his call”—does not depend or come, but: happens—and happens, of course, in the way fitting for him who calls or in accordance with his attributes.

Here there is no thought of unconditional divine determination of some to the inheritance of the promise and others to exclusion from it without regard for whether anyone is worthy or unworthy, but only that such determination is made not on the basis of manifested worthiness or unworthiness, but as is fitting for him who makes the determination. Or—he knows or is able to make such a determination apart from such manifestation, yet in complete accordance with his attributes—truth and goodness. One can make such a determination not according to manifested worthiness or unworthiness, but according to what is foreknown. It is according to just such foreknowledge that every divine purpose according to election comes to pass.

“Our interpreters dwell especially on this thought. Holy Chrysostom says: ‘Why is one loved and another rejected? Is it because one was bad and the other good? But one is honored and the other condemned before they were even born! Before their birth God said: ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Why did God say this? Because he does not wait, as man does, for the end of the deed, so as to see who is good and who is not, but on the contrary, he already knows beforehand who is good and who is not.’ And we read the same in Blessed Theodoret: ‘God did not await trial in deed, but while they were still being borne in the womb, he announced their difference. He announced it, having foreknown their dispositions, because this election is not contrary to justice, but accords with human disposition.’ Photius in Oecumenius explains: ‘God’s purpose’—means God’s will in election. ‘Not because of works’—expresses the greatness of God’s calling and his grace, that he chooses and calls from those who have yet done nothing. But you say: how are those who have done nothing chosen? Election happens according to the distinctions of the chosen, but what distinction have those who have done nothing?—Of course, so. But you must understand that for human eyes, since they have done nothing yet, they are distinguished in no way; but for divine foreknowledge, which sees what is to be as present, they are very much distinguished from one another: one is pleasing to God, the other is not. So God’s will in election was not from works, but was by calling and grace, and yet it was just, though such justice is not evident to all men.”

Ambrosiaster writes: “Divine foreknowledge acts in these matters in such a way that things cannot happen otherwise than as God foresees them to come to pass. Knowing what each of them was to be, God said: the younger will be worthy, the older unworthy. Foreknowledge elected one and rejected the other. And upon the one whom it elected rests ‘God’s purpose,’ because with him nothing other could be than what God foreknew and appointed for him—namely, that he be worthy of salvation (the promise). And in the one whom it rejected, likewise rests ‘God’s purpose,’ because it foreknew that he would be unworthy (as indeed he proved to be later). Wherefore in this, because of foreknowledge, God appears not partial; for he condemns no one innocent of sin, and he crowns no one who has not won the victory.”

Rom. 9:13. Just as it is written: ‘I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.’

These words begin the prophecy of Malachi (Mal. 1:2). God through the Prophet explains his special favor toward Israel. Are not Esau and Jacob brothers? he says; but Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. By the word “hated”—is meant non-election, rejection, exclusion from the promise. One cannot more tangibly present that one is elected to the inheritance of the promise and another shut out from it. God himself does this. Consequently, that not all born from the fathers who received the promise are heirs of the promise is found in the order of God’s providence concerning men. “God does not pay attention to nature, but seeks only virtue” (Blessed Theodoret). The testimony was cited to confirm the meaning of the example brought forward by the Apostle, not to confirm what conclusion he drew from this example, which was discussed above.

Holy Chrysostom makes this review of all that has been said: “The principal intention of blessed Paul was, by all that he said, to teach that God alone knows the worthy, while from men no one does, and though many imagine of themselves that they know, yet they often err in their conclusion. But to him who knows the secrets of hearts it is perfectly clear who is worthy of crowns and who of punishment and torment. Therefore he has many whom men think are good, and having convicted them, punished, and many who were deemed wicked, crowned and testified that they are not such. He pronounces judgment not by the report of slaves, but by his own strict and impartial judgment. He does not wait for the end of the deed, to recognize one as worthy and another as not. I bring an example of those born of one father and mother. Both were born of Rebekah and Isaac, the lawful son of Abraham, who was approved by God himself and preferred above all, and became the father of those having to inherit the promises. But if he is the father, then those descended from him should also be fathers; but this did not happen (for Esau was separated from this rank). From this we understand that the children of Abraham are called his own children not only by birth, but also because they are worthy of the virtues of the parent. But if they were called by birth alone, Esau and Jacob ought to enjoy equal rights, because Esau too came from the same withered womb. On the contrary, more than such birth was required—namely, morality—not something ordinary, but what could serve to the building up of our life. The Apostle, however, does not say that because one was good and the other wicked, the first was preferred. But he presents as the sole cause God’s foreknowledge, against which surely only one completely insane would dare to contend. To choose from the womb of the mother is the work of foreknowledge. This was, says the Apostle, so that God’s election might be revealed, having been accomplished according to his will and foreknowledge. God from the first day knew and foretold both what is good and the contrary. Therefore, do not tell me, continues the Apostle, that you have read the law and the prophets and have served for so long. He who knows and searches hearts also knows who is worthy to be saved. Therefore, yield to the incomprehensible providence in election. He alone truly knows whom to crown. Therefore, do not demand an account of the Creator; do not ask: why is one crowned and another punished? He knows how to observe justice in all things. Therefore he said: ‘Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.’ That this is just you know from the outcome; but God knew it completely even before the fulfillment. He requires not only the appearance of deeds, but free will and unsullied feelings. Such a man, even if he should sin sometime through circumstance, will soon correct himself. Even though he should persist in vice, he will not be despised; on the contrary, the omniscient God will remember him. And likewise, a corrupted man, even though he should do something apparently good, will perish; because he does it with an evil disposition. David, having become a murderer and adulterer, soon atoned for his transgressions, because he was seized by circumstances and committed them not from attachment to vice. But the Pharisee, having committed no wickedness, but on the contrary, boasting of good deeds, spoiled all by an evil will.”

Rom. 9:14. What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!

Judging by this pattern of the establishment of God’s determinations concerning the participation of one or another, can one say that there is any injustice in God? Let it not be so. We do not see why God makes one or another determination, but God sees; and if he makes a determination, he makes it because it would be unjust to make it otherwise. Therefore we, believing in God, must accept all his determinations with confidence that they are entirely just, and wholly give ourselves to his dominion, not allowing our limited intellect to judge the deeds of God. “The Apostle shows here that God’s dispensations transcend human thought” (Blessed Theodoret). “The justice of God’s decisions regarding our lots escapes our mind, but the Judge of all knows exactly and infallibly that so, and not otherwise, it ought to be determined. Believe then that though much happens for reasons unknown to us and seems to some to be discordant, it always happens as the all-seeing eye sees and judges it right to be” (Oecumenius).

“After this the Apostle adds a new thought, which is more difficult than the preceding. What is it?” (Holy Chrysostom).

Rom. 9:15. For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’

These words mean directly: whom I deem worthy of mercy, I will have mercy on, and whom I deem worthy of compassion, I will have compassion on. Such a thought can be seen in the Russian translation: “Whom I will have mercy on, I will have mercy on; whom I will have compassion on, I will have compassion on” (Ex. 33:19). And it completely accords with the flow of the discourse. You asked: is there injustice in God, that he determined people’s fates before their birth and deeds? No, he answers. For God sees beforehand who is worthy and who is unworthy. Thus he also told Moses that whom he should have mercy on—who is worthy of mercy—on him he will have mercy, and whom he should have compassion on, he will have compassion on. It is also in harmony with the circumstances under which these words were spoken to Moses. Holy Prophet Moses asked that the Lord God deem him worthy of great mercy—to see his face. The Lord told him that his face could not be seen, but here is what I will do for you. I will pass before you in my glory, or cause a visible manifestation of the glory of my being to pass before your eyes, as a sign of my presence, and I will call to you: “The Lord passes before you, and I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and compassion on whom I have compassion” (Ex. 33:19). That is, to the word “The Lord is before you” I will add these words. Thus the Lord promised, and commanded Moses to go up on the mountain. When he went up, the promised manifestation of God’s glory followed: “The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; but he will by no means clear the guilty” (one who is guilty and does not repent, he will not regard as innocent, but will punish) (Ex. 34:6–7). These words were spoken in place of “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and compassion on whom I have compassion”—and serve as a fuller explanation of them, coming from the mouth of God himself. The chief thought in these words is that whom God deems worthy of mercy, the Lord will have mercy on, and whom he deems unworthy, punishment will not pass by. Applying them to the question: “Is there injustice with God” in that he chose Jacob and rejected Esau?—we cannot fail to see a direct answer: No; he chose Jacob because it was fitting to choose him as worthy, and he rejected Esau because it was fitting to reject him as unworthy.

Let us add to this that holy Prophet Moses asked the Lord for mercy—to see his face after the Lord refused to go with the people, and then, persuaded by holy Moses, agreed again to go with them. This happened when the Israelites melted the calf and began to worship it as God. Holy Moses was on the mountain at that time. The Lord said to him: the people have sinned, they are worshipping the calf. I will destroy them all, and from you I will bring forth a new people. The prophet began to beseech the Lord not to do this, for otherwise all would blaspheme him, saying he brought the people out of Egypt only to destroy them in the wilderness. “Cease your burning anger, and change your mind about doing harm to your people” (Ex. 32:12). The Lord relented and set aside such a terrible determination, but not the punishment. Holy Moses, coming down from the mountain, summoned those who still remained faithful to the Lord, and commanded them to slay the ringleaders of the evil. They did so, and three thousand men fell then. After this, holy Moses again went up on the mountain to the Lord and began to pray: “This people have sinned a great sin; yet now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written” The Lord said to Moses: “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.” And he added: “But on the day when I visit, I will bring their sin upon them” (Ex. 32:32–35). This shows that the Lord determined to punish sinners of his own accord. Then it is written: “The Lord sent a plague on the people” (Ex. 32:35). And still more fell, besides those three thousand; many, but not all, though nearly all had sinned. Who made the choice? God’s foreknowledge; it saw those able to repent and bear good fruit and spared them; it saw those unrepentant in heart and struck them down, even though in this case perhaps some of the former were more guilty than some of the latter. Oecumenius writes: “If there is no injustice in God, and yet when all had worshipped the calf, God says: ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy’; then surely it is because in secret, by his eyes, he entered into the hearts of men and saw who was worthy of mercy and who unworthy.”

But God’s anger was not yet appeased. He declared to Moses: I will send an angel with you, and I myself will not go, so that I may not destroy you on account of your stubbornness. Hearing of this terrible determination, the people came into great sorrow, stripped off their ornaments, and clothed themselves in garments of mourning. And Moses began to beseech the Lord to go with them himself. The Lord relented and said: “I will do the very thing you have asked” (Ex. 33:17). After this, holy Moses asked the Lord to show him his face and heard the words about which we are speaking: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy” (Ex. 33:19). Comparing these words with those which the Lord spoke, refusing to go with the people himself—namely, so that he would not destroy them all for stubbornness—one can give them yet another interpretation: I will go with you, and though I will not destroy you all in case of any transgression, I will not leave the deed without punishment. Whom to have mercy on and whom to punish, I will see then. Whoever proves worthy of mercy, I will have mercy on, and so forth. Holy Chrysostom puts into the mouth of the Lord these words: “It is not your business, Moses, to know who is worthy of clemency; leave this to me.”

Thus from all these circumstances it is evident that the Lord both has mercy and punishes, judging by what one is worthy of—either by deeds already done, or by what is foreseen of their life ahead. And such is precisely the meaning of the words: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy” and the rest.

Ambrosiaster paraphrases this place thus: “I will have mercy,” he says, “on one over whom I have mercy, that is, I will have mercy on one about whom I foresee that he will turn and remain faithful to me, and I will show my compassion to one about whom I foreknow that he will turn from error to me with a right heart. This means: to give to one to whom one ought to give, and not to give to one to whom one ought not to give.”

And Oecumenius, applying this to the course of the Apostle’s discourse, speaks thus: “And regarding the present-day Jews too, God does not act unjustly; but even now those who are worthy are saved, because they believe, and those who are unworthy perish, because they do not believe. ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,’—as if to say: I know which are worthy of salvation and which unworthy. If Moses did not know which were worthy and which unworthy, shall we know the reasons for what happens? Who will fathom God’s judgments?” Thus here we can see a third example of how God receives some and rejects others. And this is now from among the multitude of the sons of Israel.

One can also explain these words thus: whom I wish, on him I have mercy. The subsequent thought is in agreement with this too. But even if we understand it thus, the fundamental thought will be one and the same—that God has mercy on the worthy, just as he punishes the unworthy. God always acts independently, as he wishes; but he acts in accordance with his infinite justice and boundless mercy, not in such a way as to have mercy on the unworthy regardless of all things and to punish the worthy. If we stop at this interpretation, then to it must be added the supposition that holy Paul introduced this saying in order to dispose those wondering why not all Jews entered into possession of the benefits of the promised Deliverer to resolve this wonder not according to any external and obvious circumstances, but out of the idea of God as all-just, all-good—as if to say: God has mercy on whom he wishes, and thus from you he chooses whom he wishes. But since there is no injustice in God, there is none in this action of his either. Give all to God and be at peace! Believe that the promise has not “failed” here.

It Is Not of Him That Wills, but of God That Shows Mercy (Romans 9:16–19)

Rom. 9:16. So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that has mercy.

That is, the selection to the inheritance of the promise is the work not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that has mercy. To understand whence these terms, “he that wills and he that runs,” came, one must turn to what precedes. The discourse concerns the selection of Jacob and the rejection of Esau before their birth. This decision of God was based upon His foreknowledge that one was worthy of it, and the other unworthy. Each vindicated this through his life and through his character. Yet according to the course of events, it should have been Esau who received the promise of inheritance, and Isaac had already resolved to do so and had already sent him to “hunt and bring him venison” and prepare food, so that, having eaten of it, he might bless him. Had this come to pass, the word of the Lord would not have been fulfilled, that the greater should serve the lesser, for in blessing Esau it would have stood: “be lord over your brother” (Gen. 27:29). But the word of God can never lie. God instructed Rebekah to arrange things so that the blessing of the firstborn should go to Jacob, and the words prepared for Esau became his. Thus what God, by His foreknowledge, had judged, no one could change, even if someone deliberately strove against it, as opposed to this example where the normal course of human affairs ran against it. Here was one who willed—Isaac—and one who ran—Esau—yet the matter was arranged not by the will of him that willed, nor by the labour of him that ran, but by the mercy of God who had mercy. Having recalled this circumstance, the Apostle said: “not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that has mercy.” Whomever God judges worthy of mercy, no one shall wrest it from him; yet mercy is bestowed not without discernment, but upon the worthy. We adduce this circumstance in expounding these words to show whence these terms, “he that wills and he that runs,” arose—because it is palpably evident in that circumstance; but one may also understand the connection of the discourse thus: God is said to have mercy on whom He will; whom He will have mercy on must be, by God’s righteousness, worthy thereof. From this someone might conclude: therefore all here depends upon good resolutions of the will, from “him that wills,” and from appropriate labours in fulfilling those resolutions, from “him that runs.” The Apostle forestalls: no, not from this. To will—let one will—and to run—let one run: without this one cannot; yet still the final decision of the matter belongs to God’s mercy, or grace, which strengthens the willing and gives strength to fulfill it. Whoever commits his lot to God’s mercy even with all his desire and labours, he is found worthy of mercy before God. And this mercy crowns him.

It may further appear that, according to the Apostle’s thought, all depends upon mercy and the goodness of the God who has mercy, while man’s own participation, be it or not, matters not at all. But this can only appear so. The Apostle did not say: “not from willing, nor from running,” but: “not of him that wills, nor of him that runs,” to show that willing and running are not excluded, but only to urge that he that wills and he that runs ought not to base his hope upon this alone, and much less claim any rights thereby. Blessed Theophylact writes: “Here the Apostle appears to abolish free will; but truly does not. We say of a house that it is the work of the craftsman. Although the craftsman needs both material and helpers in its construction; yet, insofar as it depends upon him, we say he built the whole house. So also of God we say that all is His work, though God has need of our willing. He works, He also gives crowns, He judges; therefore we say that all is God’s work.” The same we read in Oecumenius: “One must will and run and employ all one’s strength in action; yet one must remember that without the will of God neither he that wills nor he that runs shall attain the goal, if the help of God come not. God has mercy upon and wills that one be saved who himself wills to be saved.”

However one may understand the words set forth, they must have worked a startling effect upon the Jews—to terrify the unbelieving, and to fill the believing with joy. The latter is evident of itself; and the Apostle had not them in view, but the former. He proves here that if there are now unbelievers, this does not mean that “the promise has made none effect,” but that they have shown themselves unworthy of it, like Esau. The objectors might say: The Jews desire and run, they read the Law, they perform all the services, they bring sacrifices. Why then are they excluded from the inheritance of the promise? The Apostle says, as it were: Esau too had seemingly the right to the inheritance; but since his soul was of another character, he did not receive it. So also these Jews should seemingly be heirs of the promise; but since they do not have the soul required of the heirs thereof—that is, a believing soul—it is not given to them. Having felt such a driving home of the point, the unbelievers must have felt a strong impulse to look more carefully into what was happening and to understand what the God ready to have mercy upon them demands of them; but an even stronger impulse must have come to them from the example mentioned immediately after.

Rom. 9:17. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth. Ex. 9:16.

God says in Scripture to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose have I raised you up,”—that is, brought you forth from among others, displayed you as an ensign. Or—“raised you up,” ἐξήγειρα, as it were, raised you from the dead, in the sense: kept you alive. God commanded that it be said to Pharaoh that from the first his resistance would have cost him his life, but that he has been preserved thus far and shall yet be spared for the purpose that the power of God might be shown upon him. Thus he was already dead as one condemned to death, and if he lived, it was by God’s will for special purposes, as one alive from the dead. Or—“raised you up”—set you up against Myself, made it so that you have been resisting Me always. This is the same as in the following verse: whom “he will” God “hardens.” God did not by His power harden Pharaoh or stir him to resist Himself; on the contrary, He did all things to dispose Pharaoh to voluntarily let the Jews go, but he kept resisting. Plague after plague God sent upon him and upon Egypt; he softened for a moment, then hardened again, saying: “I know not the LORD, and Israel I will not let go.” Ex. 5:2. His hardness grew, and with it the punishing signs increased, until this hardened foe of God was drowned in the depths of the sea. The power of God was shown triumphantly upon him, and the glory of God’s name was spread abroad throughout all the earth, as Rahab confessed, saying: We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea Josh. 2:10. Oecumenius says: “Pharaoh suffered through his own wickedness, what he suffered. God wished to save him, whence He was so long-suffering, giving place for repentance. And who would not marvel at God so long-suffering?” Blessed Theophylact writes: “For this very purpose, says God, have I raised you up—that is, displayed you, O Pharaoh, so that through you the power of Mine might become known and many would restrain themselves, hearing of My name as righteous and mighty throughout all the earth.” Ambrosiaster reasons thus: “This Pharaoh, guilty of such many evils that he was not worthy to live, became so hardened in evil that he would not amend, thinking that despite everything he would live or that God, against whom he had sinned so greatly, dared not deal out to him a dread punishment. Wherefore he heard from God: ‘For this very purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth,’—that is, so that all nations might understand that there is no God save Him who is the God of the Jews. And he is called raised up (suscitatus—as if resurrected) because before God he was already dead, and obtained time only to appear to be alive, so that there be one upon whom to shower so many plagues and so many kinds of terrible torments, ending in his death; and all nations, not knowing the true God, struck with fear through this, confessed with great amazement that He alone is the true God, from whom proceeded such plagues. Thus ancient physicians, upon men condemned to death, learned to help the living, by dissecting and examining what was hidden within man, to learn the causes of diseases and turn the suffering of the dying into the salvation of the living.”

But the meaning of this passage is evident of itself; what is not evident is only why the Apostle mentioned this circumstance. Blessed Theophylact writes: “As out of those who made the calf some were saved and others punished, when God alone knew who was worthy of salvation and who of punishment, so though there were many other wicked men, yet to God’s wrath one Pharaoh was subjected.” He sees here too a new example of the singling out of one from many, only not for mercy, but for punishment. In the course of the discourse this is entirely consistent. This example could naturally have come to the Apostle’s mind by contrast with the foregoing discourse. He had spoken of mercy, and the thought of punishment came to mind. Yet it seems that the Apostle deliberately chose the example of Pharaoh to bring home to the unbelieving Jews a sense of what awaits those who resist God’s arrangements. From the earlier examples it is clear that God selects the worthy and rejects the unworthy. This should have shown the Jews that if there are among them those cut off from the blessings of the promise delivered by the Saviour, the cause of this is they themselves—they make themselves unworthy of it through their stubborn unbelief. Now by the example of Pharaoh he brings them to see what may and shall happen to them if they remain in their stubbornness. Pharaoh resisted, and perished. Beware lest the same happen to you! St. Paul does not explain it in this way, but causes the Jews themselves to guess it. Had he himself explained it thus, it would have worked less upon the Jews than when they themselves guess it—not all, of course, but those who do. And the whole discourse of the Apostle proceeds so that he points only to what proceeds from God, passing over in silence that His determinations are in accord with the disposition of men, in order that, by pointing out this so evidently and having convicted the Jews themselves of guilt, he may not drive them from him or arm them against the truth. If then they themselves divine what the Apostle intended to suggest, they cannot but take it to heart and ponder it, and this is a great step toward faith. We speak of the unbelieving. But they that believed surely drew from this the greatest confirmation of their faith.

Rom. 9:18. So then he has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardens.

This is the conclusion from all that has been said—not from the last examples alone: the sparing in the wilderness, when He said: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy”—and the hardening of Pharaoh—but also from the first: the selection of Isaac and Jacob with the rejection of Ishmael and Esau. The word: “hardens” should not be understood to mean that God by His power produced hardness in the hearts of the disobedient, like Pharaoh, but rather that the disobedient by nature, under the action of God’s mercies, themselves, through their wickedness, do not soften, but more and more harden themselves in their stubbornness and disobedience. Gregory of Nyssa writes: “That the Egyptian tyrant was hardened, this should not be understood in the sense that God deliberately by His power implanted hardened resistance in his soul; but that this came about because his will, through its inclination toward evil, would not receive the word intended to soften his hardness” (in Oecumenius). Basil the Great says: “God hardened Pharaoh by long-suffering and by the remission of plagues, intensifying his wickedness, so that, when his evil grew to its full measure, God’s judgment upon him might be seen as righteous” (in Oecumenius). Blessed Theophylact writes: “What means: ‘hardens’? On the face of it, this seems absurd. But it is said of God that He hardened Pharaoh’s muddy heart as the sun hardens mud. In what way? By long-suffering; for He makes it hard by showing long-suffering toward him. Here something like this happened: when someone has a wicked servant, and treats him with kindness. The more kindly he treats him, the worse the servant becomes—not because he teaches him wickedness, but because the servant takes advantage of his lord’s long-suffering to increase his own wickedness, because he despises his long-suffering.”

But as God “has mercy” on those worthy of mercy, and though they sin, yet they repent or are foreseen to be going to repent, so also He “hardens,” we must understand, those who are unworthy and, when they sin against God, not only do not repent but are even more stubborn against Him. Oecumenius writes: “God has mercy on him worthy of mercy, and the hard-hearted and disobedient He leaves to be hard. For the present time is not a time of final judgment, but of voluntary effort and free life. ‘Hardens’ stands in place of: suffers to remain hard, yielding to their will.” Or “hardens,” by contrast with the word: “has mercy,” may be replaced: does not have mercy, rejects, deprives of blessing and of inheritance of the promise.

From all the examples and reasonings adduced it is clear that God declares His promise to the worthy and makes heirs thereof those also who are worthy; while the unworthy are not touched by the promise; wherefore neither are they made its heirs. In this is direct proof that though now many of the Jews have not entered into the inheritance of the spiritual goods promised to their fathers, yet through this the “promise has not made none effect.” Such is the import of the promise: only the worthy can inherit it; if there are those not inheriting it, it is plain they are unworthy. The Apostle expresses this by tracing all to God: whom He will He has mercy, whom He will He hardens,—suggesting “that men should not demand account of God” (Blessed Theophylact). He is always right, acting according to His will, which is always both righteous and good. In the present case they show themselves unworthy because they do not believe. If they had believed and were yet cut off, the promise would have failed; but since they are cut off because of unbelief, the promise stands, “has not made none effect.” No one compels them not to believe—they themselves do not believe. They are themselves therefore guilty that they are cut off from the goods promised in the Deliverer. Let them believe, and they shall enter into the inheritance thereof. But from the fact that they persist in unbelief, it does not follow that the “promise has made none effect.” And let them not lull themselves with the promise, but rather take into account the dread example of Pharaoh, whose stubbornness brought him to the plague of drowning in the sea, and let them fear lest they too come to something like it.

Rom. 9:19. You will say then to me, Why does he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will?

In explaining that, despite the alienation of many Jews from the blessings of the Saviour promised in the promise, the “promise has not made none effect,” the Apostle, in proof thereof, set forth the firm foundation that not all “are of Israel which are called Israel.” By this he showed that in the determination of the fate of persons and nations there are two agents: the will of God and the will of man. When the latter accords with the former, then God’s determination is fulfilled upon those who manifest it; but when it does not accord, it is not fulfilled—in other words: the promise is fulfilled upon the worthy, but not upon the unworthy. But in the last two examples of the determination of men’s fate, the Apostle, for his own purposes, fixed attention chiefly upon the first agent, that is, God’s will, yet he did so in such a way as not to obscure the second agent, that is, man’s will, which is worthy, by its disposition, of mercy or wrath; on the contrary, he made it clear to be understood. Nevertheless, the question proposed itself naturally, especially after the concluding: “whom he will he has mercy on, and whom he will he hardens.” If all is from God, even those dispositions of will displeasing to Him—why then does He find fault? For who has resisted His will? The disapproved man, therefore, is not guilty when God makes him such; for he is not such of himself. “If ‘whom he will he has mercy on, and whom he will he hardens’—then human disposition depends on His will. If this be truly so, then He does not justly lay punishment on those who sin; for it is impossible to resist what pleases Him” (Blessed Theodoret). “He willed and hardened, and the hardened man sinned: how then can He accuse and punish him?” (Blessed Theophylact).

This objection appears to arise from the Apostle’s preceding words only in appearance. For, as has been noted, although in the last verses he referred all chiefly to God’s will, he did so in such a way as to make one understand the participation also of man’s will, or the worthiness and unworthiness of men. Wherefore he could say: you have misunderstood my discourse. But he yielded to the objectors: let all be from the will of God, which no one can resist; but from this very fact it follows that you do not dare to object; for a creature ought to obey God in silence. How then do you dare to object?

Shall the Thing Formed Say to Him That Formed It? The Vessels of Mercy and of Wrath (Romans 9:20–22)

Rom. 9:20. Nay but, O man, who are you that reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?

Holy Chrysostom remarks that “the Apostle does not at once give a solution, but first stops the mouth of the objector. Checking his untimely curiosity and excessive questioning, he puts a bridle upon him and teaches him to know the difference between God and man, and also how incomprehensible and beyond our understanding is God’s providence, and how all must submit to God. And all this to this end: that, having convinced the listener thereof, having rebuked and humbled his will, to give his solution with greater ease and to make his words unquestionable to the listener. And he does not say that it is impossible to resolve this. But what then? He calls the very question a transgression. For what is said by God ought to be obeyed, not questioned, even though we know not the reason thereof. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘O man, who are you that reply against God?’ Do you see how he destroys and casts down presumption? ‘Who are you?’ Are you partner with God in rulership? Do you sit as judge with God? In comparison with God you can not even be named as something, nor be said to be this or that; on the contrary, you are nothing. And to ask ‘Who are you?’—is more debasing than to say: you are nothing. Yea, the Apostle expresses even greater indignation by his question. He did not say: ‘O man, who are you replying to God?’—but ‘replying against God,’ that is, you who dispute, resist. To say: this ought to have been done thus or thus—means to dispute. See you how the Apostle terrified, struck, and caused to tremble, rather than to question and seek? This is the mark of a skilled teacher: not to follow in all things the desire of disciples, but to lead them according to his own will; first to root out the thorns, then to sow the seed; not to give answer at once to every question.”

“Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?” By the thing formed, πλάσμα, is understood any human work, especially sculpture and moulding. There is a similar passage in the prophet Isaiah Isa. 29:16; 45:9. As applied to God, it is used by way of illustration, as an example. The comparison begun here continues also in the following verse, which expresses the same thought.

Rom. 9:21. Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour?

“By this the Apostle does not destroy free will, but shows how one ought to obey God. When it falls to your lot (an impulse will come to you thereat), imagine to yourself that you are nothing but clay. And you are not only not to contradict, not to ask questions, but even not to speak, not to think, but to be like inanimate clay, which obeys the hands of the potter and is used for whatever he wishes. For this very reason the Apostle takes such an example, not as a model for life, but as a lesson in complete and silent obedience. Such a rule must be observed everywhere—to accept examples not in their exact meaning, but to choose from them what is needed, for which they are brought, leaving all else aside. So here one must understand the words: clay, potter, vessel. And when the Apostle adds and says: ‘Has not the potter power over the clay’ and so forth—do not conclude from this that he depicts therein the reasons of creation or the necessity of determination; on the contrary, he expresses power and diversity in arrangements. But if one take his words in no other sense, there will be many absurd consequences. For if the discourse here be about determination, it will follow that God is the Creator of both good and evil, and man is altogether innocent in both. Then it will also appear that Paul, who extols free will everywhere, contradicts himself. Therefore the Apostle wishes to attain here no other end than to persuade the listener to submit to God in all things and to demand account of Him in nothing. As the potter, he reasons, from the same lump makes what he wishes, and none contradicts him: so you too ask not and inquire not of God why men, though they be of one and the same race, He punishes some and rewards others; on the contrary, revere Him and imitate clay. As it obeys the hands of the potter, so do you obey the ordinance of the Ruler of the universe. He acts not without purpose and not by chance, though you comprehendest not the mysteries of wisdom. You allowest the potter from the same lump to prepare different works and blamest him not for this, yet of God you demandest account in the distribution of punishments and honours, and do not allow Him to know who is worthy and who is unworthy. But since in the same composition there is the same substance, you presume that the products are also the same. What groundlessness! It depends not on the potter that from the same lump one thing comes out for honourable, and another for base use; on the contrary, on the use (voluntary) by those who use the vessel. So here also the matter depends on free will. Moreover, as I have noted, the example must be taken in this one respect, that man is bound not to contradict God, but to commit all to His inscrutable wisdom. The example should be more comprehensive than the subject for whose explanation it is adduced, so that it might have greater effect on the listeners. If it were not more comprehensive and did not contain many concepts, it could not so move and confound the objector as is necessary” (Holy Chrysostom).

Holy Chrysostom, as is evident, turned all his attention to repel the thought which first presents itself to the mind upon reading these words of the Apostle, namely—if all is from God, then there is no freedom and we are not guilty. And he refutes it in the abstract, not considering it in relation to the course of the discourse, as do the words themselves. He says that the Apostle by this example teaches us only perfect and silent submission to God’s ordinances. As for God’s ordinances themselves, it is well known that they are made in complete accord both with God’s righteousness, mercy, and wisdom, and with the worthiness and unworthiness of men, or with the use they make of their free will. Since our lack of foresight does not permit us to see either of these as we should, and they certainly exist in all God’s works, it is unwise to object, to be troubled, and to draw absurd conclusions from this, such as: “Why does he yet find fault?” The most reasonable thing, when such perplexities arise, is to stir up faith in God’s righteousness and loving care, and to submit humbly and silently to His ordinances, driving away every thought that anything unrighteous or unmerciful issues from God, and finding complete rest in devotion to Him.

To this also, that is, to the refutation of the thought that by these words free will is abolished, directs his discourse Blessed Theodoret, only by another path. He takes as proof of freedom the very act of objection. If, he says, you objected, it means you are free. If you were not free, you would not object, but in silence submit, as clay to the potter. He says: “If you were not free and did not choose by your own will what you should do, but by necessity did slavishly follow God’s will; then you would be silent, like inanimate creatures, accepting what takes place according to God’s dispensation. But since you are honoured with reason, you speak and do what is pleasing to you, and love not what comes to pass, but seek reasons for God’s dispensations. Look at the clay in the potter’s hands; it, having no rational discernment, contradicts not the worker, but, if it be destined for making a vessel of dishonour, in silence accepts what is done to it. But you resist and dispute. Therefore you are not bound by natural necessity, you transgress not the law against your will, but voluntarily love wickedness, and by your will take upon yourself the labours of virtue. Therefore just and righteous is the judgment of God over all, lawfully does He punish those who sin, as deliberately daring to commit evil. There is also justice in His loving-kindness; for, taking occasion from us, God shows mercy.” A similar thought is expressed also by Oecumenius.

Rom. 9:22-23. What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared to glory

This discourse is abridged: both of its parts lack the second half of the expression; the preceding, beginning with “what if,” is there, but the following, which should answer to “what if” by “then,” is not; yet in the second verse, or part, even the preceding is incomplete: for it is said only: “that he might make known the riches” and so forth; but what exactly God did so as to make known these riches is not apparent. Hence the first necessity is to complete both. Thus, it seems, this can be done: the following, which should answer to “what if” by “then,” must be borrowed from the preceding example about the relation of the potter to the clay and of the clay to the potter. Of the potter it is said: “Has not the potter power?”—and of the clay: “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it?” Since verses 22 and 23 apply this example to the subject matter; it will be entirely proper to complete what is lacking in them from this example and—for both parts take some one of the phrases adduced, or for one part one, and for the other part another, which may be left to each one’s choice. It will be thus: in the example it is said: Does not the potter have power from the same lump to make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour? And the vessels do not ask him why he made them thus. In the application it should follow: if now God appoints some, the unworthy, to dishonour—to destruction, and others, the worthy, to glory, does not He then, in your view, have power to do this? Or—do those appointed have power to ask: why thus? Thus will be completed what is lacking in the following for both parts. How to complete what is lacking in the second part of the preceding—what exactly God did, to make known the riches of His glory? For this one must, as Oecumenius does, relate the verb: “endured” to both the first and second part of the preceding thus: in the first: “endured in destruction,” in the second: “endured in glory.” All the remaining words explain how it came about that some are appointed to one and others to another, and why God did the one or the other.

The word: “endured,” ἤνεγκεν, does not mean: to bear in the sense of to endure—but: to carry, as things are carried from place to place, to carry, to bear, to bring, to assign, to determine, to ordain. God assigned some, classified some, determined some to destruction, and others assigned, classified, determined to glory.

How it came about that the first were assigned to destruction is expressed by the words: “the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, endured with much longsuffering”; namely: God assigned to destruction the vessels of wrath, which became perfected or formed during the time of much long-suffering toward them, or on account of much long-suffering, or through the fact that they made poor use of much of God’s long-suffering. “Fitted,” κατηρτισμένα, from καταρτίζω—to fit one thing to another, to order, to give form, to form. It will be: κατηρτισμένα σκεύη—vessels of wrath formed, which became formed, adjusted, fitted, into such vessels. “With much longsuffering”—must be referred to: “fitted,” κατηρτισμένα—as a circumstance of time or of the manner by which it came about that they were so formed as σκεύη.

Holy Chrysostom says: “Pharaoh was a vessel of wrath, that is, a man who kindled God’s wrath. Having experienced God’s long-suffering many times, he became not better, but remained incorrigible. As God left nothing undone serving to his correction, so he left nothing undone serving to his destruction and to making himself inexcusable. Yet God, foreseeing even this, showed much long-suffering, for He wished to bring him to repentance. And if He had not wished this, He would not have endured so long.”

By Pharaoh also is meant all generally who do not heed God’s commandments, who despise His will and make nothing of His ordinances. All such separate themselves by their own action into the category of the perishing, and God confirms upon them this lot, because it cannot be otherwise or they are worthy of nothing else. There passes through the Apostle’s discourse here the thought of separation from the seed of Israel of those who are not Israel. First He showed examples of visible separation in Ishmael and Esau; but afterwards there was no such visible separation, as though all descendants of Israel were Israel. But this was only in appearance: the unworthy separated themselves from this rank by their own action, and God knew them, though He did not declare it. But now through the Gospel this has come to light. Those formed into vessels of wrath are assigned to destruction by remaining outside the sphere of faith, are winnowed from the company of the saved, as chaff from wheat on God’s threshing-floor. Yet the Apostle has in view not Jews alone, but mankind in general. In the Jews this is more clearly seen.

How did it come about that God assigned others to glory? Thus, that God prepared them for vessels of mercy. This too was during the time of long-suffering. Those formed themselves into vessels of wrath, but these God prepared for vessels of mercy. “Is there unrighteousness with God?” No; God’s intention was also to prepare these through His long-suffering for vessels of mercy, but they would not have it, and, instead of acting according to God’s indication and dispensation, acted on their own, and thereby formed themselves into self-willed men, foes of God, for which they are righteously deprived of mercy and assigned to the rank of vessels of wrath. On the contrary, these with complete submission followed God’s ordinances and commandments and thus formed themselves into God-dedicated servants of God, having no other law but the will of God. Being thus disposed, they were plainly ready vessels of God’s mercy, by reason of such formation of themselves according to God’s will. It is said: “God prepared them for vessels of mercy,” as though apart from their will. It is said thus because all guidance toward such formation came from God, and those who willingly submitted to this guidance were strengthened by God—not as though their will did not participate therein. Since without both together they could not form themselves into vessels of mercy, this is attributed to God wholly, yet not excluding the participation of their will.

Holy Chrysostom says: “As Pharaoh became a vessel of wrath through his own lawlessness, so the saved became vessels of mercy through their godliness. If the greater part belongs to God, yet we also contribute something small from ourselves. He did not say: vessels of merit or vessels of boldness, but: ‘vessels of mercy,’—thereby giving to understand that all belongs to God. Also, when he says: ‘not of him that wills, nor of him that runs,’ he does not thereby destroy freedom, but shows that not all belongs to man, but on the contrary, he needs grace from above. Although one must both will and strive; yet one must not rest upon one’s own striving, but on God’s loving-kindness, as the Apostle also said of himself elsewhere: ‘not I, but the grace of God which is with me’ 1 Cor. 15:10. Why then do some become vessels of wrath and others vessels of mercy? By their own will. But God, by His infinite goodness, shows mercy to both. For He had mercy not only on the saved, but also on Pharaoh, as much as He could. And both the saved and Pharaoh enjoyed the same long-suffering. And if Pharaoh was not saved, it was entirely by his own will. On God’s part, Pharaoh lacked nothing before the saved.”

Why did God thus act? So that on the vessels of wrath He might “show his wrath, and make his power known, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy.” The first is clearly drawn from the experience shown upon Pharaoh, to whom it was said: “For this very purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you.” But God acts thus also in regard to all who are impious and do not obey God. God is long-suffering with them, but they interpret this long-suffering either as weakness, or as indulgence and faint-heartedness. Wherefore God does not endure everything, but often punishes such impious and stubborn men, so as to show both His power and His wrath, as this was clearly manifested upon Pharaoh. Such is the general law of God’s providence over men, that He endures all things, and if He punishes, it is only so that men should not altogether forget that there is God, who is not so weak as to be unable to punish extraordinarily, nor faint-hearted as to shrink from it. When the time of His long-suffering shall end and when righteous punishment shall begin and God’s wrath shall appear in power, no one can determine. Wherefore everyone should keep himself on guard and not be lulled to sleep by long-suffering, but rather, waiting each moment for wrath, and believing that it will surely come, should hasten to repent, so as either to turn away wrath from himself, or if he fall under it together with others, to fall not to his destruction, but to final cleansing. To keep men in these saving thoughts, for this very reason God sometimes shows His wrath and power in punishing sinners, and not at all to make a final reckoning with them. The present time is not a time of such reckoning, but only of preparation for it.

In contrast to these, God shows “the riches of his glory” upon those obedient to Him. “By glory the Apostle meant the loving-kindness of God, giving to understand that it constitutes the glory of God chiefly and that God cares for this more than for anything else” (Holy Chrysostom). He did not simply say: shows glory or loving-kindness, but shows the riches of glory or loving-kindness, because God’s mercy always appears abundantly, beyond the expectation both of those who receive mercy and of those who behold it from afar. Perhaps mercy is called glory because it restores the glory of the pious and God-fearing, and through that the very godliness and fear of God. Commonly the impious debase the godly and appropriate all glory and honour to themselves and seize them. But when God subjects them to His wrath and shows mercy to the godly, then those are put to shame, and these are glorified, and namely by God’s glorifying. The glory of God shines forth upon them. And God does this not to show final retribution to His obedient servants, but so that they should not fall into despair upon encountering contempt, oppression, and persecution, but, being assured that God’s mercy always covers them and is always ready to be shown upon them, should be of good courage and bear all things patiently with joy, knowing that all this happens to them not for ill, but for good to themselves.

Such are the general thoughts suggested by the Apostle’s words, but they must be applied to the course of the Apostle’s discourse. He is explaining how it came about that not all Jews were called to share in the blessings of Christ the Lord, though He was promised specifically to them, and that in place of the rejected Jews, the Gentiles were called. It might appear that the promise had failed. Against this he says: “the promise has not made none effect.” For it was shown from the beginning that not all fleshly children are children of the promise. Thus Ishmael was separated from this rank, thus Esau was separated. What then is strange that now also part of the Jews appears to be separated from the inheritance?! This is according to God’s order of providence toward us. Delving more and more deeply into why some are separated and others remain heirs, the Apostle, though he stated that whom “he will” God has mercy, and whom “he will” He does not have mercy, yet gave to understand that He does both not without discernment, but has mercy on the worthy and obedient to Him, and does not have mercy on the unworthy and disobedient to Him—which he showed with particular clarity upon Pharaoh, who was subjected to plagues and death for his stubbornness before God, in open resistance to Him. But since this worthiness of the pitied and unworthiness of the unpitied are not always (indeed, accurately never) visible to us, while at the same time the inquisitiveness of the mind regarding God’s judgments is not restrained by this, and those troubled by this perplexity cease not to disturb the heart, often even the godly: then, on the one hand to restrain inquisitiveness, and on the other to calm the disturbed godliness, the Apostle brings all to devotion to God’s will, to the conviction that all that issues from God is good and right, as the Lord God Himself is good and right. And to present this more tangibly, he takes as an example the potter, who from the same clay fashions vessels to honour and not to honour, while the vessels are silent and do not ask: why did you make one thus and another otherwise? He speaks as it were: as these vessels are silent, so be you silent before God’s ordinances, seeing how He deprives some of mercy, but on others abundantly pours it out, believing that both is done in accord with God’s righteousness. This mercy, in the course of the discourse, is inclusion in the inheritance of blessings promised to the fathers in the Saviour, while not having mercy is deprivation of this inheritance; by the example of vessels, inclusion in the inheritance is selection for vessels of mercy, and deprivation of the inheritance is assignment to vessels of wrath. The conclusion from this will be thus: seeing how God selected some for vessels of mercy, as heirs of the spiritual promises in the Deliverer, while separating others from this inheritance and thereby showing them as vessels of His wrath, be not troubled and do not admit the thought that there is any unrighteousness here or that the promise has failed; on the contrary, believe that God is good and right in all His works, and find rest in devotion to His wise and inscrutable to us determinations and decisions.

From this it is clear that the vessels of wrath here with the Apostle are those who do not believe in the Lord, and the vessels of mercy are the believers. The assignment or classification of the former to destruction is their being left outside the sphere of faith, while the assignment or determination of the latter to glory is their acceptance into the fold of faith with all its blessings. That the former is a work of wrath was said at the beginning by the Forerunner of the Lord: already the axe is laid to the root of the trees, already the shovel “in hand” Matt. 3:10, 12. But this is the beginning of wrath; its final work will be at the last judgment. That believing in the Lord is glorious—this has been witnessed and is always witnessed by the inward spiritual glory of believers through the grace of the Holy Spirit; the final glorification of them follows beyond the grave, and will especially follow after the universal judgment. And the present spiritual glorification is already the riches of God’s glory; but how rich it will be in the future, neither thought can embrace nor word can express.

By this the thought aroused at the beginning about the failure of the promise is completely set aside. But the Apostle does not stop at this, but continues his reasoning further, so as to point out the true cause of the lot of both, namely, the faith of some and the unbelief of others (verse 30 and following). But first he dwells a little longer on the example of the potter.

Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Rom. 9:24. Even us, whom he has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

These words are a clarifying application of what was said before about vessels of mercy. There it was said that God prepared them, but here it is said that He has also called them; as it were, an answer to the supposed question: how did God assign these prepared vessels to glory? He assigned them by calling them, calling them to faith, through faith to the glorious Kingdom of grace, and through both to the Kingdom of glory, ineffably great.

But the foregoing discourse was about Jews alone, and here Gentiles are also mentioned; and if God called those He prepared, then Gentiles too were prepared. This compels one to expand the Apostle’s earlier thought and extend the example of the potter to the Gentiles as well. In such case, by the potter’s clay one must understand all mankind as it existed before the coming of Christ. It was in God’s hands as clay, from which He fashioned for Himself vessels of mercy, so as to make them vessels of glory. He fashioned the Jews more closely and directly, besides reason and conscience, through His manifestations, the sending of Angels and Prophets, the giving of the Law, and wonderful providence over them; but the Gentiles—through reason and conscience, through traditions remaining among them from before the division of tongues, and through tidings reaching them of what God wrought among the Jewish people, and through a certain hidden providential guidance. Since God Himself acted in this, one cannot doubt the success and fruits of God’s action. Where then is the proof thereof? In those who believed the Gospel. The preaching called the prepared vessels of mercy; since those who responded to this calling were not only Jews but also Gentiles, it means the prepared were in both places; and though we could not explain how this was done with the Gentiles, yet that it was so should not be doubted. One may only ask: The Apostolic preaching gathered the prepared vessels present; but the preparation went on throughout all preceding time, first all men together, then for more than two thousand years separately, that is, Jews especially and Gentiles especially; how then were the vessels of mercy prepared at that time brought to glory? Also through calling. The Lord, having descended into Hades, preached to the spirits of those who had lived before and departed, and all who had been prepared beforehand as vessels of mercy heard the call and entered the rank of vessels of glory. The holy Forerunner completed their final preparation, having appeared there two or three years before the Lord Saviour.

Such a providential arrangement of God concerning men among the Gentiles raised no perplexity: they simply received it with reverence, grateful hearts offering praise to God and marvelling at the incomprehensible wisdom of God’s providence over men. But some of the Jews, despite the preceding explanations—how the “promise has not made none effect” even though Gentiles were called—still could not easily rid themselves of questions arising in them: how so? We are God’s people, and they are not God’s people? The Apostle finally reassures such by adducing prophecies on this, speaking as it were: this is now revealed, but it was destined to be thus from the beginning and was foretold together with its being prepared. I intended to explain this to you by the preceding reasonings about how it is not foreign to God’s counsels if He separates the unworthy from the inheritance of the promise given to their fathers; but if this is unclear and unconvincing to you, I will adduce for you the prophecies on this. Do you believe the Prophets? Believe then that if now the Gentiles enter the flock of Christ, while many Jews remain outside God’s fold, this is done not by the error of preachers, but by God’s direct will. Thus in the prophetic predictions adduced can be seen a second proof that “the promise has not made none effect” through the calling of the Gentiles and the non-entering of some Jews into the inheritance. The Apostle adduces prophecies in two senses: one about the calling of the Gentiles, and the other about the non-entering of many Jews into the inheritance.

About the calling of the Gentiles, the Apostle cites from the prophet Hosea two passages, but from one prophetic discourse—the first.

Rom. 9:25-26. As he says also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God Hos. 2:23; Hos. 1:10.

Both these words are spoken in the Prophets from the mouth of God Himself, and spoken upon the following occasion. The Israelites, the ten tribes, forsook the true God and began to worship idols, especially Baal. As they turned away from God, so God turned away from them, and said to them: you are not My people, “you are not my people,” and rejected them as one rejects a disliked wife, saying: you are unloved. For such special reproach God raised up the prophet Hosea, among many others who admonished them. God said to Hosea: Take a wife of harlotry and beget children. The prophet took her, and when children began to be born to him, God Himself gave them names. Among them God commanded one daughter to be called: not pitied, not loved, not beloved, and one son: “not my people.” And explaining why thus, He said: You have turned away from Me, and I turn away from you and will no longer have mercy and love you. You do not count Me as your God, and I take from you the precious name of My people, My people: you are not My people.

As the Prophet lived in the sight of all and all knew the names of his children and their meaning, this was a continual manifest rebuke, reminding them what they forfeited through their falling away from God. The Israelites, however, did not heed this and continued in impiety, to the great grief of the Prophets and of the God-fearing, who sorrowed over the impiety of their brothers and feared God’s wrath. To comfort them, God, together with rebuke and threat, foretold also the turning of the impious, and the mercy that was to be shown upon them from God’s face. Not forever shall it be thus, He said to them: I will turn you to Myself, and you shall turn. I will turn and betroth you to Myself in faith, and you shall know Me, the Lord your God. Then I will call you, who are now not My people, My people, and you, who are now unloved by Me, as a disliked wife, beloved. And where it is now said of you: You are not My people, it shall be said: You are sons of the living God.

Thus the prophetic discourse related not directly to the Gentiles, but to the Israelites who had become heathenized. Nevertheless, it could be applied by the Apostolic spirit to the Gentiles; for before God fleshly distinction means nothing, and only inward dispositions are valued. Heathenized Israelites are to Him the same as actual Gentiles. Wherefore, as the prophetic spirit in the turning of Israelites, as heathenized, could foresee without distinction the turning of all those heathenized in heathendom: so the Apostolic spirit could see in this prediction of the turning of the former the general turning of all heathenized, whoever they be by flesh. To Israelites was promised mercy and acceptance as a people, not insofar as they are Israelites, but insofar as they forsake heathendom. Generalizing this, we get: what was promised to them is just to apply to all who forsake heathendom, such as are the believers in the Lord Saviour. Wherefore our interpreters accept the prophetic words as though they were spoken directly of the Gentiles. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle brings Hosea as a witness, through whom God cries out and says: ‘I will call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved, which was not beloved.’ Who are ‘not my people’? Clearly the Gentiles. Who is ‘not beloved’? Again they. Yet it is said of them that they shall be a people beloved, sons of God. ‘There shall they be called the children of the living God,’ continues the Apostle. If some say this is said of believers from among the Jews (as Blessed Theodoret), then even so our interpretation will hold. If such a change happened in a people who, after many benefits, showed themselves ungrateful, fell away, and lost even that which made them a people; what obstacle is there for the called and worthy through obedience of the same mercies for those who were separated not after receiving but were alien from the beginning?” Ambrosiaster writes: “It is clear that this was foretold of the Gentiles, who were formerly not God’s people, but afterwards, to the shame of the Jews, obtained mercy, were named God’s people; and those who were formerly unloved, upon the rejection of the Jews, were deemed worthy of adoption, became beloved; so that where they were formerly not called God’s people, there they came to be called sons of the living God. For formerly nowhere were they called sons of God save in Judea or in Jerusalem, where was God’s house, as it is said in Psalm 75: ‘In Judea is God known’ Ps. 75:2. But afterwards in the prophecy of Zechariah God says: ‘I will lay in Jerusalem a stone to be trodden by all nations’ Zech. 12:3. Then everywhere there shall be sons of God, and the house of God in all places, which is the Church. Wherefore the Lord said to the Jews: For this cause shall the kingdom of God be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.’ Matt. 21:43”

And that not all Jews will be received into the promised Kingdom of salvation in Christ Jesus, the Apostle adduces two prophecies, both from the prophet Isaiah.

The first:

Rom. 9:27-28. Esaias also cries concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth Isa. 10:22-23.

“Esaias also cries concerning Israel.” The prophecies set forth above relate to the receiving of the Gentiles. As for the Jews, who are called Israel, though not all are Israel, thus “cries Esaias” concerning them. “Cries,” that is, boldly and without concealment proclaims (Holy Chrysostom), showing that he speaks a truth certain, decisive, and of extreme importance to all. What then cries Esaias? “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.” Looking directly upon these words, anyone perceives that no more definite prophecy can be than one declaring that not all Israelites shall enter the saving inheritance of the promise. “A remnant”—signifies: few, as we ourselves often say: these are remnants, that is, a small part of the whole. Wherefore Holy Chrysostom, turning to his listeners, says with feeling: “See, by the words of Esaias also, not all are saved, but the worthy to be saved. Fear not the multitude, says God, does not such an increase of the race terrify Me; I save only those who prove themselves worthy of salvation. Why then are you troubled, calling the promise broken, when the Prophets declare that not all shall be saved?”

“But if one looks upon this prediction both where it was uttered by Esaias and consider it in context, it presents not another thought. Holy Esaias speaks in his 10th chapter concerning the Assyrian people, that they are appointed to be God’s scourge upon the impious and lawless, and shall indeed smite them, and take countries above Babylon, Arabia, Damascus (Syria), Samaria, Jerusalem (Palestine). But when they fulfill this work of God, then they themselves shall be punished for becoming proud of their successes, attributing them to their own wisdom and might. For this the Lord shall bring upon his ‘honour dishonour, and upon his glory a fire burning shall be kindled:’ all shall be taken from him. Then the remaining sons of Jacob from his smiting shall not hope in him, that is, shall not turn their eyes to him, hoping thereby to be delivered from final destruction, but shall hope in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. ‘And the remnant of Jacob shall return to the mighty God.’ Isa. 10:21. After these words follow the words cited by the Apostle Isa. 10:22-23, that namely only a ‘remnant’ shall be saved. At first glance it may appear that in the Prophet these words relate to the return of the Israelites from captivity. Indeed, not all returned, and those who returned, returned having turned to the mighty God, from whom they no longer fell away to strange gods. But even if one understand the prophetic words thus, still one could adduce them in confirmation that not all shall be saved also in the Lord Saviour—and adduce them precisely in the sense of a prediction of this latter event. For the return of the Israelites from captivity was a type of the return of men from spiritual captivity, accomplished by Christ the Lord. And types had a predictive significance. Wherefore all that was said of the first can be referred to the latter, as a prophetic prediction. But, looking more closely at the course of the Prophet’s discourse, we come to the thought that he is directly pointing here at what was fulfilled upon Israel in Christ Jesus. Consider what need the Prophet had to again repeat the word about salvation of only the remnant, when he had just said: ‘the remnant of Jacob shall return to God?’ No other than this: to use this occasion to turn the thoughts of his listeners to the distant future, when not in type but in reality a ‘remnant’ shall be saved. Wherefore, instead of: ‘the remnant shall return,’ he said: ‘shall be saved,’ reminding of the awaited Saviour and Deliverer. The structure of the Prophet’s discourse is such that it directly suggests that he wished to say something special here, and especially do the words suggest this: ‘for he will finish the work, and cut it short’ and so forth Isa. 10:23. Here we see the same as often is encountered in the Psalms, where holy prophet David, singing songs to God on the occasion of current events, is often caught up by the prophetic Spirit to the contemplation of what was to be in the awaited Saviour and suddenly spoke words that can only be understood if referred to the Saviour. The same is here: the Prophet mentioned the return to God of the remnant of Jacob after his sons were smitten by the Assyrians, and was carried by the prophetic spirit to the dispensation of salvation in the person of the awaited Deliverer, and, foreseeing that then also not all, but only some, shall enter the inheritance of salvation, said: ‘and though the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall be saved.’ Isa. 10:22. As it were: there shall be again a time when something like this is repeated.”

Those who heard the word of the Prophet could not at once understand when this would be, what the Prophet wished to suggest; but afterwards this ought to have become clear to them, especially after the “remnant of Jacob” Isa. 10:21 actually returned to the mighty God, in the period of return from captivity. The return from captivity, as has been noted, was the clearest type of that deliverance from captivity which the awaited Deliverer was to accomplish; so that in the sight of true Israelites in the first the latter was always beheld, and consequently that only a “remnant” shall be saved. And the Apostle, having adduced this place, said nothing that could trouble an intelligent Israelite. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle quite opportunely adduced this testimony, giving to understand that God Almighty foresaw from the beginning both those advancing to faith and those ailing with unbelief. Since the Jews (the unwise—the blinded) said that few of them received the preaching, and all the others fled from it as a deception; he showed that this was foretold of old, that not all would obtain salvation, but only those adorned with faith.”

This is seen even more clearly—namely, that the Prophet, while speaking of the matters of that time, foresaw what was to be in the distant future, namely in the work of salvation that was to be arranged by the awaited Deliverer—from the words that follow: “for he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” These words clearly point to something completing or final. They very much recall another Prophet’s utterance, also cited by Apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews, namely: “Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace.” Hag. 2:7-8; Heb. 12:26. Holy prophet Haggai clarifies holy Esaias, saying more definitely what this completing and final work is, concerning which Esaias had foretold centuries before. This is: how all nations, not excepting the Jews, shall be shaken by the coming of Christ the Lord and by the preaching of the Apostles, and the chosen from them, not all, a “remnant,” shall come into the Holy Church in the Lord—to which beginning was laid in the second temple of Jerusalem and which was to constitute its glory, as foretold by holy Haggai. What in prophet Haggai is called shaking “yet once more” of nations, is denoted in Esaias by the word cut short. Cut short, συντετμημένον, from τέμνω—to cut. In our ordinary speech, when someone utters a final decisive word, we say: he cut it off, spoke the final word, there is nothing more to seek from him. Such a thought is conveyed by the prophetic utterance: “a short work”—that is, a final word, decisive, last, after which expect no other. By the word: “word”—one must understand not only the word but also the deed, and the decisive determination, and its fulfillment, the final ordinance of God on earth, or as in the Prophet, throughout the universe. This can be referred to nothing else than the coming of Christ the Saviour and the establishment of faith in Him on earth. There was a word or ordinance of God about salvation before the Law; there was a second in the Law and Prophets; the final word about this, ordinance and ordinance, the Prophet predicts, shall be given in the Only-Begotten Son of God; and after this other word expect no more. This last word, the Prophet says, the Lord shall not merely speak, but shall perform. And it has been performed—all is fulfilled and ordained, and so shall remain to the end of the age.

Such is the meaning of the words: “a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” But what thought is in the preceding words: “for he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness?” The same thought is here. The expression is incomplete; a ruling verb is lacking. It must be completed. It is completed by: is. We get: The Lord “is finishing the work and cutting short” His word,—“finishing and cutting short.” He will not continually introduce new and new ordinances and arrangements. He has a final “word and work, which He shall at last perform.” The word: “in righteousness”—means: not in types and shadows, but in the actual substance of the work.

In what connection do these words stand to the former: “a remnant shall be saved?” In them can be seen a pointer to the time when this shall be fulfilled, namely that: “a remnant shall be saved”—in present reality and substance. When is this? When the Lord, who shall not continually multiply words with you, shall at last “perform” the “short work upon the earth.”

“Our interpreters, understanding by the short work the dispensation of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, understand by short not merely as final, but as brief in its essence, in contrast to the complex Law. But this does not contradict what was said, but only points to another aspect of the same decisive word and work of God. Blessed Theodoret writes: By ‘short word’ the Prophet called faith. For what the Law taught through many commandments and could not bring about perfect salvation, in that the confession of Christ succeeded, faith accomplished. Faith is short and has no need of long circuitous paths, is judged by the disposition of soul and is proclaimed by the tongue. Holy Chrysostom says: This, namely: ‘a short work will the Lord make,’ means: there is no need to go far, to labour, and to tire oneself with works of the Law; on the contrary, salvation shall be accomplished in a very brief manner. For such is faith; it contains salvation in brief words. ‘If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus,’ says the Apostle, ‘and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved’ Rom. 10:9. Understand you now what is meant by: ‘a short work will the Lord make upon the earth?’ It is worthy of wonder that this brief word not only brought salvation, but also righteousness.”

Why Many Jews Were Rejected and the Gentiles Called: Faith and Unbelief (Romans 9:29–31)

Rom. 9:29. And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should be as Sodoma, and should be made like to Gomorrha. Isa. 1:9.

This is a second passage from Esaias the Prophet. “Said before,” προείρηκεν, spoke before this, at the beginning of his prophetic utterances. “As,” καθώς, even as. It will be: even as that same Esaias said before this. Holy Paul adduces this passage to clarify the words: “a remnant shall be saved.” Wish you to understand what “remnant” means, read in that same Esaias before: “except the Lord had left us a seed.” Isa. 1:9. “The Prophet, whom he will afterwards call a remnant, the same here he has named ‘seed’” (Blessed Theodoret). What then is this seed? The prophet Esaias, in the place whence these words are taken, calling heaven and earth to witness, convicts the people of Israel of impiety, then depicts the wretched state to which they were brought for such impiety: “Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your country strangers devour in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.” Isa. 1:7; only Jerusalem remained, like a hut in a vineyard. (This is very much like what happened under Hezekiah, when God marvellously saved Jerusalem from the Assyrians.) After this the Prophet adds that if God had not left a seed in us, we would have been wholly destroyed, as happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. This seed left in us saved us; for its sake the Lord spared also the rest of us. Consequently, not all the remaining alive are the saving seed. The seed is among them, and for its sake all who escaped utter destruction were spared. What then is this seed? The aggregate of persons opposite to those who drew down heavenly punishment. These rejected God, but those, it turns out, remained faithful to Him; these are full of sins, while those, that is, fulfill God’s commandments and make progress in all virtues; these thus provoked the Holy One of Israel, while those are plainly pleasing to Him Isa. 1:2-4. For this God kept them safe, and for their sake many others. Thus the seed in the Prophet are people who believe in God, fear Him, and live holily according to His commandments. Bringing this notion into what was said before, that a remnant shall be saved, we get the thought that the prophet Esaias foresaw that from the great multitude of Jews living then, only very few would be saved, namely those who fear God and love to keep His commandments, such as are all who abandon Judaism and become Christians. They are the remnant, of whom it was foretold that it shall be saved.

It seems the Apostle, in adducing this place about the seed that was left, had in view nothing else than to clarify what this “remnant” is, which “shall be saved,” as was said before. But its significance can be somewhat expanded. For this “remnant” that is saved, for this seed that is preserved, all other Jews have been left to live, to live until now—from the beginning until now. The Jews, for their war against God, impiety, and lawlessness, ought long ago to have been all destroyed, like the Sodomites and Gomorrans. Other peoples also were impious and lawless; but they knew not the true God and heard not of His law. But these knew the true God, many times He made Himself known to them in the most palpable manner, and from His own mouth they heard the law. Therefore they are inexcusably guilty when they were impious and lawless. For this they ought long ago to have been destroyed. If they were not destroyed, it is only because God always preserved among them a seed worthy of His mercy. For its sake He spared the whole mass of the people. This very seed should properly be reckoned as seed of Abraham, to which alone the promise belongs. Dear is this seed in God’s eyes, especially because from it was to come that one Seed alone, through which all nations shall be blessed, and which was remembered even in paradise before the expulsion from it, and then was constantly recalled. That seed, always preserved by God, foreseeing that one Seed which it was to produce from it, was one with Him in spirit and, nourishing through this union its godliness and righteousness, always stood in God’s favour. That Seed was finally born, accomplished Its work in Its person, and sent Its servants to gather to Itself all who lived in expectation of It. This is being done now, the Apostle could say. The Apostolic preaching gathers them. That it takes not all is because not all are of this race. The Lord through us takes to Himself His own to Him. And those who were formerly His own, He Himself took, having descended into Hades. Therefore, O Jews, there is nothing strange or perplexing for you to see that not all are coming to faith. Nothing special is being done here, but only that is being fulfilled which long ago the Prophets foretold about the remnant that is saved and the seed that is preserved.

Here the Apostle ends his proof that the promise has not failed, although not all Jews come into the fold of faith, and thereby into the inheritance of spiritual blessings promised to the fathers, and although, while Jews remain outside the inheritance, the Gentiles enter into the inheritance in their place. Throughout his proof the Apostle only hinted that if it is so, it is because some appear worthy and others unworthy. Now he states this clearly, showing wherein consists the worthiness of some and the unworthiness of others.

c) How then did it come about that many Jews were rejected and in their place Gentiles were called? What is the cause thereof? Faith in some and unbelief in others, answers the Apostle (Rom. 9:30–10:21).

Rom. 9:30. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

“What shall we say then?” What shall we say to this? How did those not God’s people become God’s people, and the unbeloved become beloved? How did the Gentiles enter the spiritual inheritance in Christ, not seeking it, while the Jews are excluded from this inheritance, though they hoped for it? What is the cause thereof? Behold, and you shall see, answers the Apostle; you shall see only this, that the Gentiles believed in Christ and entered into the inheritance, while the Jews, stumbling at this stone through unbelief, are deprived of the inheritance. From prophetic predictions in the distant past the Apostle now turns the thought to what is before the eyes, and explains one by the other.

“The Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness.” The Gentiles lived for their own pleasure; all their care was to arrange their earthly well-being. They remembered God, but incidentally; they knew also of the future life, but it was to them a secondary matter; and they did not despise righteousness, but did not count it a law, but rather a matter of propriety and profit, and were not ashamed to trample it when it came in the way of their main road to earthly well-being. They did not strive, they had no zeal, that, remembering God and being filled with the fear of Him, they should arrange their life according to His will righteously and thus prepare for themselves a blessed future. All this is the righteousness of human life, indicated by God in the constitution of human nature. It hovered dimly in the minds of the Gentiles that thus it should be; but they had no time to occupy themselves strictly therewith: the arrangement of an earthly pleasure-loving life absorbed all their attention and labour. But when the Apostolic preaching began to spread among them, then the righteousness, driven back and suppressed, came forth, and stood before the eyes of reason and conscience, and convicted those who had not heeded it. They had nothing on which to rely to justify themselves, and the conviction acted upon them with all its force. In consequence, they repented, clung to Christ the Lord in faith, received grace, and began to live righteously, making righteousness the chief aim of their life. Thus those not following after righteousness attained “to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.” By righteousness here must be understood all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus: remission of sins, receiving of grace, gracious disposition of heart thereby, and all virtues—through all which was restored the righteousness inscribed in human nature at its creation and trampled underfoot till then. “Know,” says the Apostle, “that faith for the Gentiles is the cause of blessings, for it made worthy of righteousness those who were formerly astray, had not righteousness, and would not seek it, by grace” (Blessed Theodoret).

Rom. 9:31-32. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone.

The law of righteousness, inscribed in human nature, is—as was said before, remembering God and keeping the fear of God, to live according to His will, as informed by conscience, in hope of blessed future. This law of righteousness was even understood by the Gentiles, but dimly, and was confused with falsehood in conceptions both of God, of what is due, and of the future life. Israel had true knowledge of God, had a law exactly and in detail determining all that is due, and understood the future life more wisely and clearly. Wherefore he could run the true course, or pursue after the law of righteousness, so as to attain it. And certainly he attained. For all his institutions were of God’s ordaining, which cannot be in vain. All saints and the righteous, shining forth in the Law, are all those who have attained to the law of righteousness. The God-fearing, who kept God’s commandments and cleansed their sins by the order established by God, all are in Abraham’s bosom. They were that seed guarded by God, for the sake of which the whole mass of the Israeli people was guarded, and which now by Apostolic preaching is called and led into the inheritance of Christ and constitutes the “remnant” that is saved. When the Apostle says that “Israel has not attained to the law of righteousness,” he means that Israel which was before the eyes: the mass of people with the ruling powers, spiritual and civil, and with all the arrangements of the life under the Law, in Jerusalem and in all cities and villages, in Palestine and in the dispersion. Everywhere there were believers in the Lord; but they were few everywhere, they were despised, persecuted, and excluded from the company of the sons of Israel, so that in general it was just to say: Israel believed not in their Lord and Deliverer. This prevailing mass is what the Apostle meant when he said: “Israel has not attained to the law of righteousness.” How then did it come about that this mass “has not attained” when among them the preserved seed, though few, “has attained,” and this “remnant shall be saved?” “Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.” And this Israel pursued after the law of righteousness, but attained not; because they pursued not in the spirit of faith, but only by the works of the Law. Yet the few who have now attained to the law of righteousness were not without works of the Law—they faithfully fulfilled every righteous work of the Law, as the Saviour Himself did. Wherein then is there so great a difference, that some, of the same kind, attained, while others did not?

The Apostle characterizes this difference by the words: “because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.” In these many, there are works of the Law alone, but in those few, not works alone, but faith also, which had lived before in their hearts as a shadow, and now has materialized and taken its true, firm form.

In works one must distinguish properly the works themselves, visibly, in their place and at their time performed, then the dispositions with which they are performed, and still deeper—the spirit with which they are performed. Take an example: alms have been given, good alms, to someone, somewhere, then. This is the visible work. The disposition underlying it is invisible: it could have been from a natural feeling of compassion, from a sense of duty and commandment, from vainglory, or to recommend oneself temporarily to men for some need. The first two are right, the latter two are wrong; in them there is no charity at all, and the alms appear without a charitable soul. The spirit with which works are done usually embraces a multitude of dispositions and works, and sometimes, or usually, all—this is what moves the agent: self, the world, God, and moreover—from fear, or for reward, or from love. These movers, now singly, now in pairs, now accompanying each other, now crossing with each other, constitute the spirit of life of each. The spirit required by natural righteousness is to do all for God and according to God. In whatever strength this is done, all is right. The latter two are wrong.

Works never exist without hidden disposition and spirit beneath and within them. But it happens—and is this not the greater part?—that the latter (disposition and spirit) belong to quite another kind than the former (works); and then works remain alone, belonging to their own kind. In the example given, alms given from selfish motives, without charity of heart and without thought of God, remain alone as a visible work, belonging to the kind of good works, while the disposition and spirit are not good, belong to another kind. Yet the one who gave them may rely on them for assessing himself, and others may also assess him by this work. Only God’s eye will assess him differently; and moreover: if any trial meets him, then from others also will not be hidden what was within him. Let us generalize this case and assume that all works of the Law are done so that in them only the visible side conforms to the Law, while the disposition and spirit do not conform. Then it will be just to say that a certain circle of persons has only works of the Law, and nothing more; what is within the works is alien to the Law. Meanwhile, they themselves may, relying on these works, consider themselves correct, and others may also. Only God sees how correct they are; and this appears if one subjects them to some trial that might call forth and reveal what lies hidden within them. Let us apply this to the words of Apostle Paul. Why did the Jews, meaning by them the mass of the people, not attain to the law of righteousness, even though they acted according to the Law, and were assured they were correct and nothing more was required of them? Because, answers the Apostle, they had only works of the Law, and everything else (spirit and disposition) required therein was not right, not in accord with the law of righteousness. This lacking element the Apostle concentrated in the word: “because not by faith.” What is required by this? In another place the Apostle writes: “Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” Heb. 11:6. This is the universal faith inscribed in human nature. There is God, on whom we depend in every way and whom we must please in all things, acting before His face sincerely, according to the suggestions of the law He gave in conscience, in hope of blessed futurity. This is that natural righteousness mentioned before. And it is the spirit which must penetrate all works and produce all good dispositions (virtues) realized through works. This was lacking in the people under discussion—they did not attain to the law of righteousness.

But surely this also was lacking in the Gentiles: how then is it said that they attained? They attained because when the Gospel preaching revealed to them wherein the matter consists, they at once supplied this lacking element, for they had nothing on which to rely. And the Jews heard of this lacking element, but were deceptively assured they had it, because they had works of the Law. They relied on works of the Law and, thinking nothing more was required of them, rested on these works, considering unnecessary any other measure, and consequently that which the Gospel preaching offered. But their spirit was altogether different, a spirit of self-interest and love of the world, whose aim is to arrange and secure earthly well-being or happiness, turning everything into a means thereto, not excluding even the Divine. In this sense they stood on the same line as the Gentiles. On their tongue they had God, but not in their heart, nor His glory. The Saviour often convicted them of this. Take the example of the Pharisee who said: “God, I thank you” Lk 18:11. But further what? On what did he rely? On the fact that plainly he committed no wrong, did not steal, did not defraud, did not commit adultery; and what did he do? He fasted twice a week and gave tithes. All this, of course, is not bad. But if there is no fear of God in it, no zeal for His glory, no desire to do all for Him, no love for the brethren and desire to do them good with self-denial; then all is worthless. Yet it is quite possible for all this to be absent in what is said; it is even possible that there is that which not only takes away all value from such works but places the doer in the very opposite class of people. And the Saviour pointed to this: “I,” said one, “have given to the temple what should have been given to a father, a helpless old man. What then? And let him die of hunger?” Is it not evident that such a one stands in the opposite category to the Lawkeepers? At another time the Lord reproved them, saying they sought not God’s glory, but only human glory. It turns out that the general spirit then was such that God was not in their hearts and there was no concern for the brethren, only that they should be well; and they relied on all their own strength and methods and on external relations, while God they did not need. He was only on their tongue. Certainly, not all Jews were such. There were among them many whose hearts still lived the faith pointed out by the Apostle (namely, that there is God and that He is a rewarder), which constitutes the essence of the natural law of righteousness. They too performed all works of the Law alongside others, but did not rely on them and did them not for themselves, but for God, for His glory and to please Him. Wherefore they also had nothing on which to rely. Therefore, when they heard the Gospel preaching, they at once received it, like the Gentiles, with only this difference from them, that they as Jews met in it what they expected, while the Gentiles received what they did not expect.

Such is the Apostle’s thought if by the word “faith” one understand only the law of righteousness inscribed in our nature. But in this word is contained much more. The Old Testament, both in explicit word and in the arrangement of all its ordinances, presented an indication of the Coming One, in whom salvation was not for Jews only, but for all nations. Those who lived in this covenant or under the Law all had faith in this and all expected that the Great and Wonderful One would come, yet not all believed and hoped in the true spirit. That part which lived only for arranging its earthly well-being, as it did not attain to the law of righteousness, so much the less could it rightly believe and hope in the Coming One. But the other part, hidden among them, like seed and “remnant,” both attained to the law of righteousness and in the true spirit believed and hoped in the Coming One. That part hoped that when He came He would make them the happiest on earth—rich, glorious, rulers of all peoples; but this hoped that when He came, all that they could not succeed in acquiring despite all desire and all efforts to attain to the law of righteousness would be fulfilled in them; in other words, it hoped that He would fully satisfy their spiritual needs and wants and make them perfect in spirit, cleanse them from sins, and make them holy and pleasing before God. Wherefore, when Jesus, called Christ, appeared, He declared that He is the Coming One and the Promised of whom they hoped, and offered satisfaction of all spiritual needs to those who would believe in Him and cleave to Him. These latter, yearning for satisfaction of spiritual needs, at once believed in Him and cleaved to Him. Those who for some reason did not succeed in believing in the Lord while He was among them were gathered afterwards by Apostolic preaching. But the former, by neither word nor deed of His did they believe that He was the Promised One, the Coming One, because He promised them nothing of what they hoped for from the Coming One according to their spirit. Their spirit was different; wherefore they not only did not believe, but pressed and persecuted Him, and not only persecuted, but afterwards even delivered Him to death. Then as they bore themselves toward Him, so they bore themselves toward all who believed in Him. A sharp division occurred: it became evident whose spirit was whose. Apostolic preaching was a test of who was of the true spirit and who of a false spirit. And it was revealed that the mass of people was only in appearance Israel and seed of Abraham, but in inward disposition was quite other; wherefore it did not receive Him who came according to the promise to the fathers: it stumbled at Him. “They stumbled at that stumblingstone.”

One stumbles at a stone who is blind and sees not the stone, or, seeing it, thinks he will not stumble and walks recklessly. So also the Jews did not see that before their eyes was a stone at which they might stumble, and, rushing to trample it, stumbled and broke themselves, as the Stone Himself—Christ—foretold them Lk 20:18. “One stumbles who is fascinated by something else and does not pay attention to what is under his feet. So the Jews, fascinated by the Law, stumbled at Christ, that is, did not believe” (Blessed Theophylact).

The Gentiles did not receive the promise, and therefore did not expect the Coming One. But those among them who strived to attain to the law of natural righteousness were no less tormented by the dissatisfaction of their spiritual needs: they were weighed down by sins and knew not how to escape them, they hungered for aid to the good and knew not where or how to obtain it, they made vows to be corrected and always again fell and fell. Wherefore, when the Gospel preaching reached their ears, and they saw in whom they could obtain satisfaction of such needs, they at once approached Him with faith and, quenching their spiritual thirst in Him, clung to Him inseparably with all their being. And only then did they rightly attain to the law of righteousness: for there is no other path to this. What they had before was only a beginning; now it all came to perfection, as also in those who under the guidance of the Law strove to attain to the law of righteousness. Of course, not all Gentiles were such; if not all Jews, much less all Gentiles. And among them also was their own seed, their own “remnant”—the saved. The Gospel preaching gathered from both the true heirs of the promise, the true seed of Abraham, the true Israel.

So this is how it came about that some were received into the inheritance of the promise and others not! “Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.” “They thought that for them the acquisition of righteousness was sufficient to live according to the Law, and they neglected faith. And therefore they did not become partakers of the gifts of faith and did not acquire the righteousness of that life” (Blessed Theodoret).

Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4)

Rom. 9:33. As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. Isa. 28:16; 8:14.

They stumbled because they believed not, and not believing, did not attain to the law of righteousness and remained outside the Divine, to whom the promise belongs. Marvel not at this. So it was foretold long ago. This prophecy in the Apostle is composed of two passages of holy prophet Esaias, in both of which a stone is spoken of. But in one Isa. 28:16 it is called a cornerstone, precious, and whosoever believes in it shall not be ashamed; and in another Isa. 8:14, that it is a stone: for some a refuge, and for others a stumbling-block. Both those prophetic passages were understood by all Jews to refer to the Coming One, the Promised. Wherefore they used them when reasoning about the Coming One, as it came best to each, sometimes singly, sometimes together. Holy Apostle combined both passages, the quality of the stone as given to it in chapter 28 (a cornerstone, precious), omitting it, and in its place putting the quality given to it in chapter 8 (a stone of stumbling). The Coming One is called a Stone because on Him and upon Him the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of righteousness and holiness, the Kingdom of the sons of God, was to be built. But He is called a stone of stumbling and offence, not because He was intentionally laid as a stone of stumbling and offence: in Himself He is a stone of refuge and strength; but because many were to misunderstand what He is, be offended in Him, not believe, and thereby stumble at Him. As it was foretold, so it was fulfilled in Christ the Saviour. The Evangelists remark more than once that many were offended in Him. He spoke of Himself that He came from heaven and is the Son of God; yet in appearance He was very simple and had not where to lay His head Mt 8:20. Only His look, His speech, and His works showed that He was not earthly. But not all could understand and feel this. The majority understood it not and turned from Him. As it was during His abiding among men, so it was also after, during the preaching of the Gospel. He was reckoned with transgressors and crucified; they said: how can one believe that He is something great and Divine?—and were offended. But as during His earthly sojourn many under the humble appearance clearly beheld in Him the Divine: so too during the preaching, though the preachers without reserve offered to faith only Jesus Christ and Him crucified, many understood the truth and submitted to faith. What holy Simeon the God-Receiver foretold of the Lord Saviour was and is always being fulfilled in Him, that He is “set for the fall and rising again of many” Lk 2:34. The object of faith is hidden. They understand who are given, as about His hidden parables the Lord said—or rather, whom the Father draws to the Son Jn 6:44.

Such were not ashamed, as the Prophet foretold: “whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed,” “namely, shall truly be deemed worthy of the greatest blessings which in faith they hoped to receive from Him” (Blessed Theodoret). How much strength one must have to believe when unbelief surrounds, mocking faith, and the object of faith is hidden!—Yet they believed, showing in faith the most valiant struggle. They believed and were not ashamed because from the first movement of faith they began to receive in themselves invisibly, in spirit, that which they hoped for and which nothing and no one in the world could give—neither their own efforts nor the help of all the powerful of the earth. And when they passed through the whole stage of belief and ascended to the perfection of faith, then what they received and began to carry in spirit was beyond all description. Wherefore shame and the least movement of it could have no effect in them, and not the shadow of it could appear, though confounding words reached their ears from all sides. Rather did it seem to them incomprehensible how one could shame them, when they possessed such a treasure as had no price.

Having adduced such a prophecy, the Apostle completely scattered the perplexity about why so many Jews were not received into the inheritance—and set forth the reason for it decisively, so that after there was nothing left for objectors to object or for those refuting objections to explain. The matter is clear. But, finishing this, the Apostle now touches the tender string of the Jewish heart—zeal for the Law, which in them was coloured by zeal for God—and from it wishes to forge a path to faith. He himself walked this path, he himself was zealous, no less than any of the Jews, and yet had learned by experience that zeal alone does not necessarily lead straight ahead. No, it must be enlightened, that through its impulse it be not directed wrongly.

Rom. 10:1. Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

After the words: because not by faith—the Jews could object: are we not by faith? Who among us shows greater zeal for God than we do? With the intention of explaining to them that, despite this zeal, they are all not by faith, because they have directed their zeal wrongly, and thus to utter to them a most painful reproach, the Apostle again assures them of his goodwill toward them, to soften the reproach and incline those heeding his word to peaceful submission. “My heart’s desire,” he says, “my goodwill toward you—not in word alone; my whole heart is full of it; with all my heart I desire and always pray to God that all Israel may obtain salvation. Holy Chrysostom says:”The Apostle intends to deal Israel another blow, stronger than the former, and therefore again wards off from himself every suspicion of enmity and proceeds to the matter only after many disclaimers. Look not at the words and reproofs, he says, but at this, that I say these things not with hostile disposition. It is not fitting for him who desires the salvation of the Jews to hate and turn away from them, and not only to desire, but also to pray for it. For by the word ‘heart’s desire’ the Apostle here understands strong longing. Observe that his prayer comes from the heart. He does not apply great effort and pray that the Jews should escape punishment, but that they should be saved. And not in these words alone, but in the following also, he shows the goodwill he has toward the Jews. The Apostle with great effort tries, as much as possible, to excuse the Jews and seeks for them even a shadow of justification. Yet he does not succeed, being overcome by the nature of the matter itself.

Rom. 10:2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

I testify—I do not contradict, I agree, I say to their face and assure all others of them, that they have “zeal.” There is nothing to prove about this. Touch the Sabbath, the temple, the feasts, sacrifices, tithes, and you will see with what zeal each of them will kindle. Eyes, facial expression, gesture, word—all will tell you of this zeal. And this zeal in them is “of God”—for God’s cause, zealous as for God: for the Law is from God. Yet with all this, this zeal is “not according to knowledge.” They are zealous for the Law, as for God, but not according to the sense and meaning of the Law; they are zealous for God, but not in accord with God’s will and direction. The Law itself contained assurance that it was a shadow and, consequently, should cease when the body came, of which it was the shadow. And God repeatedly testified that there would be a new law, a New Covenant, to replace the old covenant and law. Consequently, zeal for the Law without any limits will be zeal not according to knowledge. Zealously strive; but also look lest the time come when the Law should cease. They are told that it has come, and proofs are given; but they, instead of carefully examining whether it is truly so, repeat only: our Law is from God, we do not wish to depart from it—forgetting that God Himself had announced to them that the Law would cease and that a New Covenant also would come from God and is coming. New foolishness. Zeal not guided by truth blinded the eyes of their mind and led them on a path which reason trained in Old Testament truth cannot approve. Thus “with praise the Apostle joined censure, as it were with a bait covering the hook, that the benefit of the word might be made easy to receive for them” (Blessed Theodoret).

Rom. 10:3. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.

This passage gives rise to different trains of thought, which converge, however, into one—the conviction that the zeal of the Jews is truly unreasoning. “Being ignorant of God’s righteousness,”—such as it is depicted and prescribed in the Old Testament. There it speaks both of the fear of God, and of this, that all must be done for God’s glory and in every way one must keep the heart pure from all passions, planting good dispositions in it, and then in this spirit and disposition to perform works as they are prescribed in the Law—both the works of piety, and the works of righteousness and love. Such in essence is the Old Testament righteousness of God. But they understood not this righteousness, and, thinking that external correctness alone was sufficient, they did not care about the heart, or about feelings and dispositions toward God and the neighbour, but contented themselves with only this business side, in false assurance that therein lies all God’s righteousness. But this was not God’s righteousness, but a righteousness they themselves had devised, which they attempted to put in place of God’s righteousness. What came of this? What came of it is that they submitted not to God’s righteousness—which can be understood in two ways: they submitted not to God’s righteousness as it was depicted and prescribed in the Old Testament, as is evident from the very arrangement of their life. They perverted the sense of that righteousness of God and established such arrangements of life as are contrary to its true sense. Holy Chrysostom says: “By these words the Apostle shows that the Jews fell into delusion—and did not even establish the righteousness required by the Law.” Or they submitted not to God’s righteousness, now newly preached, the righteousness of the Gospel; because as that righteousness they themselves devised, consisting in external correctness of conduct under the Law, pleased them greatly by its ease and its not demanding heart sacrifices and self-denials; they rested on it and would accept no new one; they would not accept this new one, but stubbornly stood by their own and defended it.

One can understand this passage thus: even if the Jews had observed the Old Testament righteousness in its true sense, yet now, when by God’s commandment the Gospel righteousness is being introduced, they are not free from the reproach of trying to establish their own righteousness, not submitting to the righteousness of God now offered in the Gospel. Old Testament righteousness was God’s righteousness for a time, and whoever submitted to it submitted to God and pleased Him. But when its time ended and God Himself introduces a new righteousness, abolishing that, then he who holds to that righteousness no longer submits to God, but to his own nature, no longer follows God’s will but his own, does not seek to establish God’s righteousness but his own—and, seeking to establish this—his own now—righteousness, does not submit to God’s righteousness. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle by ‘their own righteousness’ meant the untimely observance of the Law; for they strive to keep the Law, which has already lost its power; and by ‘the righteousness of God’ he named the righteousness obtained by grace through faith.”

And yet another thought can be here: one’s own righteousness is that which is acquired by one’s own labours, while God’s righteousness is that which is established in the heart by God’s grace. This latter alone is true God’s righteousness; any other is no longer God’s righteousness. The Jews, the Apostle says, understood not this, that is, that only that is God’s righteousness which is built in the heart by God, and they held that by one’s own labours one must attain to the perfection of righteousness. Wherefore when, by God’s commandment, we offer to go to the receiving of God’s righteousness from God through Gospel faith, they do not submit to this. Holy Chrysostom says: “The righteousness of the Jews the Apostle calls their own, either because it is acquired by labours and then, or because the Law no longer has force. And he calls the righteousness from faith God’s righteousness; because it is acquired solely by grace from above, and we are justified not by works, but by the gift of God. On the contrary, those who continually resist the Holy Spirit and strive to justify themselves through the Law, are far from faith. Being far from faith and not receiving the justification given by faith, nor yet having the means to justify themselves by the Law, they have lost all.”

Rom. 10:4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.

They understood not, he says, God’s righteousness, because they understood not the power of the Law and, forming wrong notions of both, devised their own righteousness, which they uphold, not submitting to the righteousness of Christ Jesus which we preach. If they had understood the power of the Law, they would in its end have seen Christ the Lord and would not have rejected Him when He is preached. The Law both by its structure pointed to the coming Christ, and by its word proclaimed Him. Wherefore Christ is the final goal of the Law, and whoever believes in Christ fulfills that for which the Law was given, and does that wherein the Law attains its goal—receives its end. In this sense Blessed Theodoret writes: “Faith in the Lord is not contrary to the Law, but in very accord with it; the Law was our schoolmaster to Christ the Master. Therefore he that believes on the Master Christ fulfills the purpose of the Law.”

But this is in some way an abstract end of the Law in Christ; yet in Him there is, besides this, an actual end of the Law, of which the following words speak: “for righteousness to every one that believes.” The Law has as its aim to make righteous, and whoever would fulfill it as he ought would be righteous. But no one was strong enough for such fulfillment. Only Christ gives strength for this to those who believe in Him; and they, receiving this strength, become truly righteous according to the full breadth of the Law: both they receive justification for their sins against the Law, and they are clothed with strength to act in all things in accord with the Law. Thus Christ is to righteousness to everyone that believes, that is, in the gift of righteousness for the sake of faith; wherefore He is also the end of the Law. Righteousness through faith in Christ is true legal righteousness; but legal righteousness alone, without faith in Christ, is not true righteousness. There were righteous under the Law, but only because they believed in the coming Christ. Had this not been so, they would not have been righteous. But now all are righteous in the legal sense who believe in Christ the Lord who has come. Righteousness is one both there and here. The Jews understood not this, and according to their own understanding, devising for themselves a deceptive form of righteousness, do not submit to God’s righteousness concerning Christ Jesus, and remain outside righteousness, though they are zealous for it. Holy Chrysostom says: “See Paul’s wisdom! Since he called both the other—the Law and the Gospel—righteousness; the believing Jews might have thought that they have one righteousness but lack another and are therefore accused of lawlessness, and the unbelieving Jews could hope to fulfill righteousness and thus could say: if we have not fulfilled it so far, certainly we will fulfill it. See what the Apostle does! He proves that righteousness is one, that legal righteousness is contained in righteousness through faith; and whoever acquired righteousness through faith fulfilled also legal righteousness; and whoever rejected the former lost also the latter. For if the end of the Law is Christ, then he who has not Christ, though he thinks he has righteousness, yet has it not; but he who has Christ, though he has not fulfilled the Law, has gained all. The aim of healing is health. As he who can make healthy, though he knows not the are of medicine, possesses all, but he who knows not how to cure, though he thinks he acts by are, has nothing: so must it be said of Law and faith. Whoever has faith has attained the goal of the Law; and he who is outside faith is alien both to faith and to the Law. For what did the Law wish? To make man righteous. But it could not do this; because no one fulfilled the Law. Such was the end of the Law; to that all tended, for that all was introduced, both festivals, and commandments, and sacrifices, and all else, so that man thereby might be justified. But Christ more certainly attained this goal through faith. Therefore, fear not, says the Apostle, that in turning to faith you have transgressed the Law. You then transgress the Law when for the sake of the Law you believe not in Christ. But when you believe in Him, then you fulfill also the Law, and in a much greater measure than is commanded in the Law; because you have acquired much greater righteousness.”

When the Apostle said: “to every one that believes,” he thereby abolished every distinction of birth and blood. Whosoever you are, only believe in Christ, and in you the end of the Law shall be fulfilled, that is, you too shall be righteous. “Beautifully said the Apostle: ‘to every one that believes’; for he embraced all human nature: whether one be Greek or barbarian, but if he believe, he shall obtain salvation” (Blessed Theodoret).

The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Rom. 10:5. For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which does those things shall live by them.

In verses 5-8 the Apostle, from those very Books of Scripture wherein the Law is depicted, proves also that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes,”—that is, that full and perfect fulfillment of the Law and attainment of that for which the Law was given comes only through faith in Christ the Lord, wavering not at all. The first passage he takes from the book of Leviticus Lev. 18:5, where briefly but fully is shown what the Law righteousness requires: “the man which does those things shall live by them.” God Himself said this through Moses when, pointing to the impiety of the Egyptians where the Israelites lived, and the Canaanites to whom they were being brought, He threatened with dangers and forbade contact with either, yet strictly required that they fulfill only His commandments and judgments. “I am the LORD your God. Wherefore you shall keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.” Lev. 18:5. Those peoples for their impiety and wicked life shall suffer punishments, but you shall live—safely and securely Lev. 18:25. When He said: “all,” He left no room for any exception: fulfill all, and you will be righteous according to the Law’s righteousness—and live. The Apostle makes no comments, but only by the words of the Law itself shows what the Law’s righteousness requires, “showing wherein consists legal righteousness and how it is acquired. In what does it consist and how is it acquired? By fulfillment of the Law. One cannot become righteous according to the Law except by fulfilling all the commandments” (Holy Chrysostom).

Thus the Law speaks of legal righteousness. Yet its determinations of righteousness are not limited to this; there are in it such indications about it as are unthinkable and cannot actually occur if faith does not arise. In Deuteronomy, in the concluding speech to the people, God says through Moses that if he observes all His commandments, it shall be well with him; but if not, trouble after trouble shall befall him. Yet if he, in God’s wrath, turns again to Him, he shall again be taken in mercy, and even if scattered to distant lands, he shall again be gathered to the inheritance of the fathers. For by these afflictions “the LORD your God will circumcise your heart…to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul” Deut. 30:6. Thus guarding faithful adherence to the Law by threats, God then removes all excuse for not fulfilling it which anyone might make because of difficulty in knowing the Law or the burden of the Law itself, imposed like a yoke. Also see Deut. 30 for the full context.

See also Deut. 30. “For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not hidden from you, neither is it far off…But the word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.” In these words one thing is pointed out that was before the eyes, and another that was to be as a promise. The first is that the word of the Law is near; the second is that the word of the commandments is in the heart. This is a special and most important moment in receiving the Law. The Law, written on tablets and parchment, though near, so that the eye sees and the hand holds its letters; yet it is still outside. The Prophets set it forth more clearly, when they foretold of the New Covenant, in which the Laws shall be written not on stone tablets, but on hearts Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:26. For us, the Apostolic Spirit saw a foreindication of that which in full meaning was fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord. Holy Paul refers this entire passage to the establishment of the New Covenant. See also Deut. 30:10, Deut. 30:11–14.

Rom. 10:6-8. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven?…that is, the word of faith which we preach.

Before he said, as Moses writes of the righteousness which is of the Law. Now he says: “the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise,” as if righteousness itself speaks, being personified. But about that righteousness which is of faith, thus speaks Moses or God through Moses. The Apostle speaks precisely of what was foretold, as it is fulfilled. How is the New Covenant with all its Laws written in the heart? They believe in the Lord, are renewed by baptism, receive the Holy Spirit, and this Spirit writes the new Laws in the heart. The beginning of all is faith in Christ the Lord. All is in Him, and he who believes in Him fully and sincerely has in himself already all the New Covenant and the new commandments. He who speaks of receiving the Lord by faith speaks also of writing in the heart the new Laws. This is what the Apostle does.

In that passage whence the prophecy cited is taken, it is said: Say not, Who shall ascend into heaven, to take the commandment thence and bring it to us? Why? Because it is already brought, uttered, and written. Holy Paul says: Say not, Who shall ascend into heaven, that Christ be brought down, so that with receiving Him by faith you might have inscribed in your heart the new Law? Why? Because Christ has already come, the Only-Begotten Son of God has been incarnate, and everyone receiving Him by faith receives also the new Law with Him and in Him.

The second question in the passage cited stands thus: Say not, Who shall descend into the deep. Holy Paul cites this in its fulfillment thus: Say not, “Who shall descend into the deep, to bring up Christ again from the dead?” He is already raised, has risen. The sea is also called the deep, ἄβυσσος. The edge of the sea in distance is another shore, and its edge in depth is the bottom, which is so far that one involuntarily thinks there is an abyss. Having this in mind, the Apostle said: Say not, Who shall descend into the abyss, to bring up Christ from the dead? He has already come out of it, as Jonah, who prophetically sank into it.

In the prophetic passage, further it is said: “The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart” Deut. 30:14. Holy Paul repeats these words, applying to them a fulfillment interpretation: “that is, the word of faith, which we preach.” The word of faith is near, listen and believe; and the whole Law you shall then find fulfilled in yourself: for you shall have the end of the Law—Christ.

Thus by the prophecy cited the Apostle proved that the end of the Law is Christ, both because in Him that which was indicated in the Law is fulfilled, and because in Him the Law itself is fulfilled and that for which the Law was given. The Law was given for righteousness; and whoever believes in Christ becomes righteous—because in Him and through Him he receives grace that transforms the heart and fills it wholly with holy feelings and dispositions, wherein fulfillment of the commandments comes forth as a natural fruit. If fulfillment of the Law is impossible in another way, then he who does not receive faith in Christ destroys that very thing which the Law desires. Is it not evident that such zeal is not according to knowledge?

The Apostle’s thought is that faith is all-embracing, and all is accomplished within, having no need for a variety of actions and expressions: you believed in the heart, and you are righteous. Yet this does not mean that the work of faith is as easy as a feather lifts on a breath. Faith is an inward action; but for that very reason it is harder than outward deeds. The movement of faith is a complete reconstruction of all that is within. That which undergoes reconstruction is the old and deeply rooted. One must remove this—there is the struggle. Faith, when it says “I believe,” is a single, momentary action; but reaching this does not always happen in one minute. Faith is the greatest struggle, root and foundation of all struggles. The Apostle says: “Say not in your heart,” who shall bring Christ down to earth and who shall raise Him from the dead. But how many questions this raises in the hearts of those hearing it? The Apostle says: allow not these questions.

Holy Chrysostom gives another shade to the same thought: In proving that this path is easy and short, he does not give the impression that it is unworthy of attention. The Apostle dwells on it, “say not in your heart.” As virtues displayed in deeds are opposed by neglect and weakness, so in the matter of faith arise thoughts that trouble and weaken the heart of many, and to repel them the soul must be most alert. The Apostle reveals these very thoughts. He proved that Abraham needed an exalted soul, receiving what is above hope, and not scandalized by what is visible. So he proceeds here, proving that we need a philosophical mind, a strong will, and one seeking heavenly things. He did not say simply, “say not,”—but “say not in your heart”; that is, do not even waver in thought. See you what is the distinctive property of faith—leaving all earthly reckoning, to seek what is above nature, and, casting aside the aid of reasoning, to accept all, relying upon the almightiness of God?

Rom. 10:9. That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

The force of these words is: “you shall be saved.” It has been mentioned about the word of faith in the mouth and in the heart, and what exactly is the object of this word; now it is only added that if thus it be, you shall be saved. This answers the final word of the passages cited: for the passage which relates to the Law concludes with the word: “shall live,” and that which speaks of faith concludes with the word: “this is your life” Deut. 30:20. To live through something, or to have life through it, is to be saved. This is the final application of the predictive discourse, or the last final stroke in the fulfillment of the prophecy.

That Holy Paul speaks specially of confessing with the mouth, and specially of believing in the heart, and that he first sets forth confessing with the mouth, and after it belief of the heart—he does this in application to the passage cited above. In essence, all is from heart faith. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks: and confession comes from faith established in the heart. Indeed it is impossible without such faith; and if it sometimes occurs, it has no significance in bringing about salvation. But faith, when living and fervent, cannot be hidden in the heart without being manifested, but comes forth of itself both in word, in look, in motion, and in deeds. Thus faith and its confession, in their truth, are inseparable. And the Apostle’s attention is all directed to faith, and, adding confession, he did not mean to indicate something separate, but the same faith.

The object of confession is the Lord Jesus: “if you shall confess…the Lord Jesus.” It can mean: if you confess the Lord Jesus as He is in truth, that is, the Son of God and God incarnate; or directly: if you confess Jesus as Lord, that He is Lord God. By this there is affirmed as a necessary condition of salvation—the confession of the Godhead of Jesus Christ. The object of heart faith is the resurrection of Christ. Why thus? Because from belief in this began and begins faith, and on this all the subsequent structure of faith was based and is based. That Jesus, called Christ, was crucified and died on the cross, was evident to all and known to all. And Apostolic preaching did not conceal this, but on the contrary, displayed it as its first point; but did not stop there, but always added: died on the cross, but also “rose and lived.” Rom. 14:9. From this point faith began and was conditioned by it: for if He had only died, who would have believed? The Apostles always depicted faith in the resurrection as the foundation of faith in Christ and of salvation 1 Cor. 15:14.

And by these objects it is clear that the Apostle does not separate faith and confession, as if it were possible to confess the Godhead of Jesus Christ without confession of His resurrection, or to believe in His resurrection without faith in His Godhead, without harming the work of salvation. Both are inseparable: for that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and God is evident from His resurrection, as the Apostle said at the beginning Rom. 1:4; and faith in His resurrection directly leads to confession of His Godhead also. Wherefore this passage by its meaning can be read thus: if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.

The Apostle said: “God has raised him,”—for the weakness of those hearing, so that the thought should not arise, how is resurrection possible, and cut short the course of faith. By setting: God raised Him—he removes all wavering about possibility: for it is the common faith that all things are possible for God. Holy Chrysostom says: “That Christ is Lord is evident from the resurrection, as the Apostle said also at the beginning of the Epistle: ‘declared to be the Son of God with power…by the resurrection from the dead’ Rom. 1:4. And that the resurrection is not a difficult work is proved even for the ignorant by the power of Him who raises.” That the Risen One is God, the Apostle just said, commanding to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. He who is Lord is able to rise Himself. If it be said that God raised Him, it is only to show the inseparability of Him with God the Father. For the Son of God and God became incarnate, not leaving the bosom of the Father, and when raised by the Father, participated in this action of His and Himself. The actions of God are inseparable—they proceed from the Trinity. And the resurrection of Christ is the work of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Thus when you believe and confess so that Jesus Christ is Lord, God incarnate, who died and rose for our salvation, you shall be saved. But how is this accomplished? The answer to this must be drawn from all the foregoing. It is an inviolable law that without fulfillment of the commandments there is no salvation. “If you will enter into life, keep the commandments,” Matt. 19:17 says the Lord. And again: “Not every one that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 7:21. Consequently, if salvation, which is also entering into the Kingdom and life, is conditioned by confession and faith in Christ and the resurrection of Christ the Lord, we must suppose that it is so because with this is inseparably joined the fulfillment of commandments or the will of the Heavenly Father. So it is indeed. Let us recall what was said before about the nearness of the Law. Holy Moses said: the law is near to you, because it is written and lies before your eyes; and though he added that it is also in the heart, this was only a promise, whose fulfillment the Prophets later indicated in the future coming of the Promised One, at which all the law and all the commandments shall be written not on paper, but on the heart. So it happens. He who receives the Promised One that came by faith clings to Him, and he that clings to Him becomes one spirit with Him 1 Cor. 6:17. His Spirit is the aggregate of all holy feelings, dispositions, and strivings required by the commandments and constituting their fulfillment. Consequently, by faith clinging to Christ the Lord, one bears in himself the fulfillment of all commandments, and is thereby saved. Or thus: “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved,” Mk. 16:16 says the Lord. But whoever is baptized into Christ is clothed in Christ Gal. 3:27. Christ is all that is holy and righteous. Consequently, he that believes in Christ bears in himself holiness and righteousness, which are the fulfillment of the commandments, and is therefore saved. Or thus: he that is baptized into the Lord into His death is baptized, so that, as Christ rose from the dead in the glory of the Father, so he also should walk in newness of life; renewed life is holy and righteous life, walking in all God’s commandments. Consequently, again he that believes is saved because he has the fulfillment of all commandments. Or thus: he that believes and is baptized is born again by the Holy Spirit to new life and becomes a child of God, not in name only, but essentially, because he is made godlike, that is, holy, as his Parent—the Trinity—is holy, and in this has salvation. In whatever way you touch faith in Christ the Lord, from all you will come to the one conclusion, that whoever truly believes is saved; but because through the dispensation of faith he becomes a fulfiller of all the commandments, which he bears inscribed in his heart, in holy feelings and dispositions, built there by the Holy Spirit.

Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14)

Rom. 10:10. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.

Faith and confession are two aspects of one and the same reality: faith, insofar as it is hidden, dwells in the depths of the heart; and insofar as it manifests itself outwardly before all, both in word and deed, it is confession. In essence, the two are inseparable. What kind of faith is it if it does not show itself when the occasion demands? And what kind of confession is it when it is only on the lips? True confession is that which, though witnessed by the mouth, issues from the heart; and true faith is that which, though hidden in the heart, straightway makes itself known whenever its cause is at stake. “There is a need for both—for true and steadfast faith, and for confession uttered with boldness, so that the heart may be adorned with the certainty of faith, and the tongue may shine, fearlessly proclaiming the truth” (Blessed Theodoret). “The heart needs the mouth: for what profit is there in believing in the soul and not confessing before men? Though faith justifies in the mind, yet perfect salvation depends upon confession; for then faith shines forth and is useful to many. But the mouth also needs the heart. Many confess Christ hypocritically, and their heart is far from Him” (Blessed Theophylact). Therefore, when the Apostle places faith in the heart and confession on the lips, he does this in keeping with the preceding prophecy. In like manner, the fruits of faith and confession that are indicated mean the same thing. Righteousness is built in the heart by faith—that is, by the whole economy of Christ’s faith—and accomplishes that wherein salvation consists; and he to whom salvation belongs has it in no other way than through the implanting in his heart of all righteousness—that is, all holiness, purity, and spotlessness—by faith, or by the whole economy of faith. Thus this text, like the preceding one, may be read as follows: with the heart one believes, and with the mouth one confesses, to righteousness and salvation.

Thus the Apostle has shown that faith gives what the Law only promised—that is, righteousness and salvation—and gives it easily and powerfully; therefore zeal according to the Law, in the face of faith, is meaningless; it is zeal without understanding. “When justification, which is of the utmost importance, is so easy and accessible (by faith), when without it there is no salvation possible; is it not the height of folly to abandon the easy way and take up the impossible? Now no one can say that he refused the work because of its difficulty. Do you see how the Apostle deprives the Jews of all excuse? For are not those worthy of condemnation who choose the most difficult and impractical course, and abandon the easy one, which could save them, which even the Law itself was not able to provide? All this proves nothing but stubborn will set against God. The Law is burdensome, but grace is light. The Law, with countless conditions, does not save; but grace gives justification, both as a matter of grace and as a matter of law. Therefore, what will those say in their defense who persist against grace, who hold to the Law without profit or purpose?” (Holy Chrysostom).

The Apostle presses the Jews and drives them toward faith, presenting one of the most powerful motives that determine our will toward action—reason, if they will heed his words and turn to faith—and unreason, if they will not heed and turn away from faith. This has been sufficiently explained already, and the discourse could be ended on the conclusion stated in this verse. “But since what the Apostle has said is of great importance, he confirms it again with Scripture” (Holy Chrysostom). His conclusion was this: believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, and you will be righteous before God and will be saved. It might seem to a Jew: this is only your conclusion. The Apostle adds: not mine; and the Word of God speaks directly of the salvific power of both faith and confession (verses 11–13). After reading these texts, Holy Chrysostom says: “Do you notice that the Apostle brings testimony concerning faith and confession? When he says: ‘Everyone who believes’ (verse 11), he points to faith; and when he says: ‘Whoever calls’ (verse 13), he means confession”.

Rom. 10:11. For the Scripture says: Everyone who believes on Him will not be ashamed.

And therefore the Apostle thought it necessary to bring forward particular testimonies concerning faith and confession, in order to show that the blessings of faith extend to all people without exception. For this reason in both texts he directs attention to: “everyone”, and moreover applies and explains this word specially: “there is no difference” (Rom. 10:12). In the preceding passages he had proven the foolishness of Jewish zeal for the Law from the fact that the same Scriptures that teach about the Law afterward declare that all power is in faith, and he who has it has the whole Law fulfilled. But there the attention was confined to the Jews alone, as the subject itself demanded. Upon hearing what was said, the Jews might say: very well; we see that it is foolish to turn away from faith because of the Law; we believe. But why are the Gentiles brought in too?! The Apostle answers: because the power of faith and confession is not restricted by fleshly descent: it extends to all and enriches all without distinction. Salvation’s power is not in race, but in faith. Whoever you may be, only believe—and you will be saved. See what Scripture says: “Everyone who believes on Him will not be ashamed”, and do not doubt the truth of my words.

But what faith is spoken of here? In whom are we to believe? In Christ the Lord. The words cited are taken from that place in the prophet Isaiah, where he speaks from the mouth of the Lord: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, precious, honored, and whoever believes on Him will not be ashamed” (Isa. 28:16). And under this stone, from the time the Prophet spoke these words until our day, all people—both Jews and Christians—understand none other than Christ the Lord. He alone lies as the foundation of the spiritual Zion—the holy Church of God, which, being established upon Him, stands firm and will stand unshaken until the end of the age. Whoever believes in Him will not be ashamed. In what will he not be ashamed? In his hopes; for he will surely obtain what he expects from this faith. And what does he expect? Salvation, both in this age and in the age to come. In this very age, from the very beginning, in baptism, everyone receives forgiveness of sins, a new life, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, which sanctifies and strengthens him, and which serves as a pledge that in the age to come it will go well with him who clings to the Lord by faith. Ambrosiaster writes: “When on the day of judgment the trial of all deeds done on earth begins, and all false dogmas and teachings are put to shame, then believers in Christ will rejoice, seeing how before all it will be openly revealed that what they believed in is true and that what was thought foolish is wise. For they will see that among all others, only they are glorious and wise, having been thought foolish and despised until then. For there is the decisive test of deeds, where reward or punishment is assigned”.

Rom. 10:12. For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: for He is Lord of all, rich toward all who call upon Him.

“By the words: ‘There is no difference between Jew and Greek’, ‘the Apostle explains the word everyone’ (Blessed Theodoret). “Proclaiming that in grace all can participate, and overthrowing the arrogance of the Jews, the Apostle repeats briefly what he had proven at length above—that there is no difference between Jew and uncircumcised” (Holy Chrysostom). And as he had proven this before by asking: ‘Is He the God of the Jews only, and not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also’ (Rom. 3:29), so here he lays down as a foundation: ‘He is Lord of all’. Ό γαρ αυτός Κύριος πάντων. Ό αυτός—one and the same. For He is Lord of all. There is not another Lord for the Gentiles, but the same one as for the Jews. All are His creation, and He providentially cares for all according to His hidden wise purposes. So do not begrudge God to others and do not imagine Him to be grudging, as though His hand were open only to you, but closed to all others. He has enough of every good for all, and He is ready to give generously to all. ‘Rich toward all’, that is, rich to all, who call upon Him” (Blessed Theophylact).

“Rich”, πλούτων εις πάντας, rich showing Himself toward all who call upon Him in that He pours out upon them and over them His riches because of their calling. Whoever you are, only call upon Him, and you will become a partaker of His riches. “He is Lord of all as Creator and Sustainer, but He is rich only to those who call upon Him. To the unbelieving He is not rich: for they cannot become partakers of His riches, seeing that they do not believe that He will give them thereof” (Ambrosiaster).

One could also understand it thus: rich being called upon by those who call upon Him in the sense that the Lord accounts those who call upon Him as His riches; therefore He will not distinguish whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, but only that one calls upon Him; and as soon as one calls, he will be immediately received into God’s treasury: for the Lord loves to enrich Himself with such goodness. “Do you see how earnestly God desires your salvation? For He accounts it even as His own riches. He who accounts our salvation as His own riches will not cease to be enriched, and to pour out gifts upon all is to Him also enrichment” (Holy Chrysostom).

Thus, if all depends upon calling, and not upon outward distinctions of any kind, then it is evident of itself that a Jew has no advantage over a Gentile in the matter of salvation. So it was foretold by the Prophets.

Rom. 10:13. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

The force of the utterance lies here too in: “everyone”. “Since it was the Jews particularly who were troubled that they enjoyed a privilege over the whole human race, and now faith dethrones them from this throne and gives them no more rights than others; the Apostle makes repeated references to the Prophets, who foretell to them of such equality. ‘Everyone who believes on Him’, it is said, ‘will not be ashamed; and whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’. To remove all possible objections, in both places the word ‘everyone’ is placed” (Holy Chrysostom).

The Apostle does not mention that he takes this passage from Scripture; but since it is read word for word in the prophet Joel (Joel 2:32), there is no doubt that he brought it forth as taken from Scripture, and did not mention it, surely, because he understood it when he said above in verse 11: “For the Scripture says”.

The meaning of the passage taken from Saint Joel is clear in itself. In the prophet Joel it is applied to the prophecy concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all God’s servants and handmaids. “Upon My servants and upon My handmaids I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy” (Joel 2:29). And at the end: “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:32).—Saved by what? By this, that calling on the Lord with faith, he receives the Holy Spirit, who will sanctify him and keep him holy to the end. This prophetic passage was already cited by the holy Apostle Peter on the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit. When the Jews, seeing the ecstasy of the Apostles at the moment of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon them, thought they were drunk, he in refutation of this said: they are not drunk, but this is being fulfilled in us what the prophet Joel foretold concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Then he recited the whole passage (Acts 2:16–21), and also at the end applied: “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). Finally, when thousands of Jews were pierced with contrition and asked what they should do, he, instructing them what to do, thereby also explained what it means to be saved and in what calling on the name of the Lord consists: calling is in repentance and faith in the Lord, and salvation is in baptism in His name for the forgiveness of sins and in the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit. “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Recognize that you are wholly sinful, and believe that there is no salvation for you except in the Lord; then in these feelings and in the spirit of this faith be baptized, through which you will receive the remission of sins and will be born again into a new life. Having thus become a strong vessel, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, who, poured out into you, will teach you how to be holy, and by His power will enable you so that you keep yourself in holiness all the days of your life. Behold, that is salvation! This is the apostolic explanation of how it comes to pass that he who calls on the name of the Lord is saved. And not merely calling out: Lord, Lord! For not everyone who says this will necessarily enter the Kingdom, as the Lord said in the Gospel (Matt. 7:21).

Rom. 10:14–15. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?

From verse 14 to the end of the chapter come new thoughts directed toward depriving the Jews of the last possible excuse for their unbelief (Holy Chrysostom). In this tenth chapter the Apostle explains how it came to pass that the greater part of the Jews does not partake of the inheritance of spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, promised to the fathers. What is the reason? The reason, he answered, lies in the Jews themselves, in that they do not believe in the Lord Jesus. They cover the wickedness of their unbelief by claiming to stand on the Law and to be zealous for it. But this does not excuse them, because the Law itself, or those Scriptures in which the Law is set forth and explained, guide them toward faith and indicate its necessity, showing that it is the direct and sole true and reliable means of salvation. From this it naturally follows the rebuke: so why do you not believe? For the completeness of the rebuke the Apostle now either devises himself, or introduces someone else devising, how the unbelief of the Jews might yet be justified, and then, proving that this last refuge for justification is inappropriate, sets forth in full force the inexcusability of Jewish unbelief. He speaks as if: one might yet excuse the unbelief of the Jews and their not calling upon the Lord Jesus, or not placing their hope of salvation in Him, if they had not heard of Him, and had not heard because there was no preaching, and there was no preaching because there were no sent preachers. This would have completely excused them. For it is natural not to call upon the Lord, or not to place hope of salvation in Him for one who has not believed; it is natural not to believe for one who has not heard what he should believe; it is natural not to hear of it when there is no preaching; and it is natural that there be no preaching when there are no sent preachers. But matters stand otherwise: and preachers have been sent (verse 15), and those to whom they were sent—the Jews—have heard their preaching (verse 18), and not only heard but understood (verse 19); and yet they remain in unbelief. Therefore, nothing remains after this by which they might be excused: they are wholly guilty. “Thus the Apostle, saying this as if in defense of the Jews, thereby increases the accusation pronounced upon them” (Blessed Theodoret).

The first question concerning calling to faith is proposed on the occasion of the preceding discourse, where it was concerned with them, and is proposed as a transition to that upon which the Apostle particularly wished to dwell and which he needed most for the purpose of rebuke, that is, to the hearing of preaching and the sending of preachers. For now in this lie the chief grounds of rebuke, while the first two have been spoken of above. In answering these three last questions, the Apostle begins with the last (Blessed Theodoret) and goes upward through the questions. Were not preachers sent? They were. Did not the Jews hear? They did. Did they not understand? They did.

It is remarkable that the Apostle takes his answers: they were sent, they heard, they understood—not from pointing to what was happening before all eyes, but from prophetic predictions concerning it. To the question: were preachers not sent?—he does not say: look, here am I, here are the twelve, here is a multitude of other helpers of ours; we all do not go of ourselves, but are sent. He does not say so, but puts forth the prophecy concerning it: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings!” To the question: did they not hear?—he does not say: how could they not hear? we go directly to the Jews and preach first in their synagogues, but the prophetic word concerning it he offers: “Their sound has gone out to all the earth”. To the question: did they not understand?—he does not say: how could they not understand? we explain to them in detail what the matter is; they understand, but, out of attachment to the Law, they will not believe and they persecute us; they are especially irritated when we, departing from them, offer the word of faith to the Gentiles and turn them to the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not speak so, but by the prophetic word depicts the same: “I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation”.

Why does the Apostle do this? To present the matter more strikingly. For if reality had answered all the questions, it would have been clear to all and speaking of it would have been but redundant multiplication of words. A Jew hearing such questions received the answer to them within himself, in his own conscience. It remained for the Apostle only to illuminate and sanctify these answers by that which the Jew treasured above all—the prophetic word. He speaks as if: you see what reality answers you; but you do not see how important is the significance of all that is happening before you. I help you in this. Return in thought to the depths of the prophetic predictions, and you will understand that all that now happens and what you do on account of it was long ago foretold: it was foretold that the Jews would hear their preaching, understand, and yet not believe. But if the sending of preachers is a matter of God’s direct will, then the non-acceptance of their preaching can be recognized as nothing other than resisting God’s will. But what sense is there in resisting God? From this understand what you should do. Acknowledge the foolishness of your opposition to faith, condemn yourself in it, and hasten to correct the deed worthy of God’s condemnation by a deed worthy of God’s approval, unbelief by faith.

As for the questions proposed in the present verse 14 and the beginning of verse 15, they are clear in themselves and are proposed only to mark beforehand the points for the rebuke of the Jews. The rebuke itself proceeds again by questions, but with the appending of answers to them, leading to an unanswerable rebuke. In this, note that, following the course of speech, after: “And how shall they preach unless they are sent?”—and before: “As it is written”—one must suppose a question: but were not preachers sent? They were, as it is written. The subsequent flow of speech compels us to suppose this. Below is given the question: “Have they not heard?”—and the answer is offered in the words of prophecy. Still further down is another question: “Did Israel not know?” And again the answer is offered in the words of prophecy. At the beginning of these question-and-answer exchanges, in verse 15, stands the prophetic word, but no question. Therefore there is a need here to mentally supplement the speech by inserting a question: were not preachers sent? And then read the answer: they were.

How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Rom. 10:15. As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!

All our expositors suppose such a question. Though they do not express it directly, yet the course of their speech shows that they suppose it. Holy Chrysostom says: “To the question: why did not the Jews believe? someone might object: how could they believe without hearing? They heard, answers the Apostle. Again the objection: how could they hear without a preacher? And again the answer: there were many preachers, sent precisely for this. From what, then, is it evident that these preachers were sent? To this the Apostle brings the words of the prophet: ‘How beautiful are the feet,’ and so forth.” The force of the proof lies in the agreement of the Apostolic preaching with the gospel of the preachers whom the Prophet foresaw. What did the Apostles preach? Concerning peace with God—peace such as from it flowed countless spiritual blessings, both for time and even more for eternity. Holy Paul speaks thus about this: God gave us the ministry of reconciliation; He placed on us the word of reconciliation. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). And here, having brought forth the prophetic word concerning the heralds of peace, he speaks as if: know in us those heralds whom the Prophet foresaw, and do not say that since there was no preaching and no preachers, I could not hear and believe. “Do you see,” says Holy Chrysostom, “how by the very manner of the Apostles’ preaching the Apostle proves that they are preachers (foreseen and sent). The Apostles, traversing the universe, proclaimed nothing else but unspeakable blessings and peace between God and men. Therefore you, unbelievers, do not disbelieve us, says Paul, but Isaiah, who many years beforehand foretold that we would be sent, would preach, and said the very same thing we are saying. Therefore, if salvation depends on calling, calling on faith, faith on hearing, hearing on preaching—and the Apostles were sent and preached—even the Prophet walked with them, pointed them out, saying and declaring: behold, these are the very ones of whom it was announced long ago from on high through me, whose feet I praised for the manner of their preaching: then it is plain that unbelief is the proper guilt of the Jews, and on God’s part all has been done.”

“The prophet Isaiah, in the place from which his prophetic word is taken, encourages the Jews with hope of deliverance from captivity: ten tribes were already in captivity to the Assyrians; the captivity of the rest by Nebuchadnezzar was imminent and was seen by the Prophet as if already accomplished. That they might not lose heart, the Prophet in the name of the Lord promises them deliverance: ‘Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion!’ (Isa. 52:1). Then the prophetic spirit carries the Prophet into the distant future, to the time of the coming of the Promised One, and causes him to speak from the mouth of God: ‘For My name’s sake will I defer My anger’ (Isa. 52:5); but a time will come when ‘My people shall know My name’ (Isa. 52:6). How shall they know? I Myself, He who speaks, shall be in their midst, and there shall be sent preachers, proclaiming joyful tidings of Me. This is expressed in the words: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’ (Isa. 52:7). ‘And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God’ (Isa. 52:10). Here the indication concerning Christ Jesus the Lord Saviour is so evident that the Jews could easily recognize the prophetic indication concerning the time of His coming. Ambrosiaster applies this passage thus to the time of Apostolic preaching: ‘Feet’ signifies the going of the Apostles, traversing the whole world and preaching that the Kingdom of God has come. This going of theirs sanctified people, showing them the way by which one walks in the world toward God, and which John the Baptist came first to prepare. This is that peace toward which believers in Christ hasten speedily. The Kingdom of God is peace; for in it, having severed all discord, all bend the knee to one God. Thus here; and the heavenly Jerusalem, which is our mother, by its name is interpreted and means the vision of peace (as the enjoyment of peace).”

Rom. 10:16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says: Lord, who has believed our report?

All our expositors read the first words as a question, in the form of an objection: but, someone will say, how then did not all obey the gospel? For if it were from God and those sent by Him were sent, then surely all would obey them and heed their word. In answer to this the Apostle says: this in no way diminishes the dignity of the sent ones and the truth of their gospel. For Isaiah foresaw long ago that it would be thus. And he spoke this right after his prediction concerning the gospel. He predicted concerning the beautiful feet of those preaching peace in the middle of chapter 52, and concerning the fact that not all would believe them, he predicted at the beginning of chapter 53. Therefore, that not all believed the gospel does not refute the fact that the gospel preachers were sent by God and proclaim the truth: for this was foretold by God. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Having brought testimony concerning the preachers, the Apostle speaks in the form of a question: ‘But they have not all obeyed the gospel?’—and then in the form of an answer brings the words of the Prophet.”

Holy Chrysostom expounds this more at length: “The Jews again made a new objection, saying: if the Apostles were sent by God, then everyone ought to obey them. Mark then Paul’s wisdom, how he proves that the very thing that was causing trouble ought to remove the trouble and uneasiness. What troubles you, he says, O Jew, after so many testimonies and such important ones, and after confirming them by deeds themselves—that not all obeyed the gospel? The very fact that not all obey, together with other proofs, is sufficient to convince you of the truth of what is preached. For the Prophet foretold this long ago too. What, then, he says? Is it that ‘they have not all obeyed the gospel’? Yes, Isaiah long ago foretold this; or rather, he foretold not this alone, but much more. You lay the blame that not all obeyed; but Isaiah says something even greater. What, then? ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ And let us add from Blessed Theophylact: ‘However, the word”who“is used here instead of”few,“—that is, few believed what they heard from us.’”

The prophetic passage is taken from chapter 53 of Holy Isaiah, where he portrays the sufferings and death of Christ the Saviour so vividly as though they were being accomplished before his eyes. At the very beginning of this portrayal he poses the question: “Lord, who has believed our report?” He takes upon himself there the person of the Apostles and speaks from them thus. In reality it was so: the Apostles preached Christ crucified, as the Apostle Paul testifies. And this was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23). Both stumbled at this and refused to believe. They believed, but few—the chosen. It was therefore fitting that there would be the question in their hearts: Lord, how do few believe what we put into their ears? Who—who believes? Foreseeing this, the Prophet cried out as if from their person before the portrayal of the sufferings and death of the Lord Saviour: “Who has believed?”

To read as a question the words: “But they have not all obeyed the gospel”—is closer to the subject of verses 15 and 16. In these verses the Apostle answers the proposed question: were not preachers sent? They were sent, he says, and preach; and the fact that not all listen should not cast doubt upon the fact that they are truly sent. If one reads these words as a statement, then they would contain an irrefutable rebuke of the Jews, the subject of the whole section (Rom. 10:14–21). Consequently, this too is fitting; but it somewhat disturbs the flow of speech. In the answers to: “Have they not heard?”—and to: “Did Israel not know?”—only the prophetic words are brought, without appending rebuke; but here would stand rebuke, whereas the Apostle’s purpose is not to rebuke directly, but for the Jews themselves to pronounce rebuke upon themselves on the basis of what he says.

Rom. 10:17. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

These words are spoken on account of the prophetic words. The Prophet says: “Who has believed our report?”—that is, what we have imparted to the hearing of those who hear. It is evident that, according to the Prophet, faith is destined to be born from hearing, or listening, when hearing is struck by the words of God. The words of God strike the hearing, pass through hearing into mind and heart, and generate faith. Therefore, listen, receive what you hear as the words of God, and believe—ask for nothing more than this. As if the Apostle, after explaining that the fact that not all obey the preaching does not refute the reality of the preachers’ commission, hears yet another objection: how can one believe them when they are so simple? Let them work signs and wonders—everywhere, openly; then it would be easy to believe. The Apostle answers: signs and wonders are not a natural accompaniment of the gospel. The natural path is this: there comes a preacher sent by God, proclaiming the word of God, and those who have the means to perceive that God’s word is truly being proclaimed here believe. But signs and wonders are not in our power. God works them, though through us, yet not according to our will, but where and how His holy will deems fitting. Therefore it is unjust to demand signs and wonders from preachers. They have received the word of God and impart it through the gospel into the hearing; let those who hear believe, if they are of faith. That is all; ask nothing more.—“The one who believes, receiving the divine words, brings faith as the fruit of hearing” (Blessed Theodoret). Holy Chrysostom speaks thus of this: “After the Apostle, by bringing the words of the Prophet, removed the disturbance, he, so justly basing himself upon this testimony, says: ‘So then faith comes by hearing.’ And this is not said without purpose. But since the Jews constantly sought signs, desired to see resurrection, and many were such as eagerly desired this; the Apostle says: The Prophet announced that our faith ought to arise from hearing. He proves this very thing beforehand, the Apostle, saying: ‘So then faith comes by hearing.’ But as this seemed to be still insignificant, see how he strengthens his speech. I did not speak, continues he, of mere hearing, not of the fact that one ought to listen to human speeches and believe them; on the contrary, I speak of exalted hearing: ‘and hearing by the word of God.’ The preachers did not speak their own, but proclaimed what they heard from God. This is far greater than signs. God, whether He speaks or works wonders, ought equally to be believed and obeyed, because both deeds and wonders are wrought by His word. Thus the heavens were made and all else.”

Rom. 10:18. But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: ‘Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world’.

The Apostle has proved that there are preachers sent and that all, basing themselves on the prophetic prediction concerning them, ought to have recognized them as such and therefore obeyed them, requiring nothing of them except what they did—namely, the proclamation of the word of God. From this it naturally followed that if there are unbelievers, the fault is not in the lack of preaching and preachers, but in the stubborn unbelief of those who hear. The Apostle leaves the Jews to draw this conclusion themselves, and turns again to inquire how the Jews’ unbelief might yet be excused. But perhaps, he says, they did not hear. If they did not hear, then surely they are not guilty of unbelief: for how can one believe in that of which one hears nothing? But matters stand otherwise: one cannot say that they did not hear. How could they not hear when the whole universe heard the proclamation of the Apostles? Holy Chrysostom says to this passage: “The Apostle asks: what then if the preachers were sent and proclaimed what they were commanded, but the Jews did not hear it? And then gives the most sufficient answer to the objection: ‘Yes indeed, their sound has gone out to all the earth,’ and so forth. What do you say, asks Paul, they did not hear? The universe heard, all the ends of the earth heard. How then could you not hear, among whom the preachers spent so much time and from whom they went forth? Is it possible? If the ends of the universe heard, all the more so you.”—Let us continue this speech with the words of Blessed Theodoret. “Was it possible for the Jews not to hear when in the whole universe the Gentiles heard? To the Jews first the preachers of truth proclaimed the preaching. For the Lord Himself said to them: ‘Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Matt. 10:6); and in the Acts of the Apostles it is said: ‘It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first’ (Acts 13:46).”

The prophetic word is taken from the Psalm (Ps. 18:5). The holy prophet David in that Psalm first portrays how the heavens proclaim the glory of God—the wisdom, goodness, and omnipotence, the creation and providence of the boundless God—and how such proclamation is heard everywhere and is understood by all, so that all people hear it, and all, receiving this proclamation of the heavens, repeat it in their own tongue. Then he adds that the merciful God was not content with this alone but, accompanying this silent proclamation of His glory from the mouth of creation, also gave us verbal revelation—the law, justifications, commandments, decrees, which are “more desirable than gold, than much fine gold, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb” (Ps. 18:11). If thus the Prophet, led by revelation in creation to the thought of a better revelation through the word, then there is nothing marvelous that through both—that revelation which then lay before him—with his prophetic spirit he foresaw the future higher revelation in the promised Deliverer who was to come; what is marvelous if, in the sun issuing from the east like a bridegroom from his chamber (Ps. 18:5–6), and then like a mighty man completing its course to the west, he foresaw the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God, who through Apostolic preaching was to traverse the whole universe, beginning from the east, that He might warm all with His warmth and enlighten all with His light—and what if, when he heard how the glory of God, proclaimed by creation, was repeated in all tongues, at the same time he also heard that preaching which the Apostles were to carry in all tongues throughout the whole world? What the prophetic spirit foresaw in secret, the Apostolic spirit saw and understood, and now proclaims to all openly as prophecy: “Their sound has gone out to all the earth”.

Rom. 10:19. But I say, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says: ‘I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will anger you by a nation without understanding’.

What else might be contrived to excuse the unbelief of the Jews? I think, this: Perhaps they “did not understand”—did not grasp the significance of the present time—that in it all is being fulfilled that the Prophets foretold, all that God promised. Their Saviour rebuked them more than once for this, when, for instance, He said that they “can discern the face of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times” (that is, of the present time) (Matt. 16:3), or when He wept over Jerusalem, saying that it did not understand that this was the day of visitation (Lk. 19:42–44). If truly they “did not understand”—then what they heard was the same as what they did not hear. In such a case the excuse would be fitting. But is it really true that “Israel did not understand”? Can one say this of them? Looking at it from without, one might answer thus: if he truly did not understand, that excuses him not at all; because he had and has all the means of understanding and was duty-bound to understand, so that he might then pass on his understanding to all peoples. For all others it may be excusable not to understand, but for him in no way: he is guilty precisely in that he did not understand. But the Apostle insists that he did understand but would not believe: here there is no excuse possible; here is manifest only satanic obstinacy. How, then, does the Apostle prove that the Jews understood what the matter was? By the fulfillment of prophecy, in which it was foretold that there would come a time when God would provoke them concerning a people that is not a people—that is, by a people which the Jews would think unworthy of being called a people: thus did the Jews think of the Gentiles. And how would He provoke them? By receiving them into His mercy and transferring to them and giving to them what belonged to the Jews. This was fulfilled precisely when the Gentiles were taught the gospel and by faith called to the inheritance of spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus promised to the fathers of the Jews, and entered into the possession of it. Could the Jews not have seen and understood this?! “This was happening,” says Holy Chrysostom, “not in a corner, on land and sea, throughout the whole universe. Those whom the Jews had once despised, they saw as possessors of numberless blessings. Therefore they ought to have concluded that this is that very people of whom Moses speaks: ‘I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a people; I will anger you by a nation without understanding.’ Do you see how God gave the Jews in advance all the marks and clear signs of these times, that He might open their blindness?” And in fact they did understand, as is evident from their irritation at the calling of the Gentiles. If they were angered, it means they saw that the Gentiles were entering into the inheritance of their blessings; as also the Saviour spoke to them directly: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it” (Matt. 21:43). And even earlier: “Many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness” (Matt. 8:11–12).

The prophetic word is taken from Deuteronomy (Deut. 32:21). The prophet Moses utters it when, after recounting the benefits of God toward the people of Israel in bringing them out of Egypt and preserving them during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, and foreseeing that in time they would forget God and “sacrifice to demons”, not to God—he threatens them from God’s mouth with various punishments, the chief of which he sets down thus: “They provoked Me to jealousy with what is not God; they provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will provoke them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation”. Both the sin of Israel and what God threatens them with belong to the future. God sees ahead the apostasy of Israel and threatens beforehand with punishment for it; but He does not determine in what it will consist and when it will be fulfilled. Since the Apostolic spirit has indicated the fulfillment of this punishment in the calling of the Gentiles to the inheritance of Christ in place of the Jews, there is no doubt that God, who spoke it through the mouth of Moses, had precisely this in view in those words, although, perhaps, by way of application one might suppose the fulfillment of this in something that happened before.

Holy Chrysostom makes the transition to the next verse thus: “But did Moses alone speak this? No. On the contrary, after him Isaiah confirmed the same thing. Therefore Paul said: ‘First Moses’—giving thereby to understand that there is also a second, speaking of the same thing more clearly and openly. And as he said above: ‘Isaiah cries out’—so also here.”

The Consolation of the People of God: God Has Not Cast Away His People (Romans 10:20–11:2)

Rom. 10:20. But Isaiah is bold and says: ‘I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me’ (Isa. 65:1).

Isaiah is bold—that is, speaks with certainty—and speaks clearly and openly concerning the calling of the Gentiles, not fearing the murderous threats of the Jews (Blessed Theodoret). Holy Chrysostom says: “This signifies that Isaiah strove and employed all means not to speak obscurely, but to present the matter to your eyes in all its nakedness, and preferred, by speaking clearly, to expose himself to danger, rather than, taking thought for his safety, to leave you some pretext for excusing your stubbornness. In order to shut your mouths completely, he foretells all things with complete clarity and in direct words. About what then—about everything? About your fall and the introduction of the Gentiles, speaking thus: ‘I was found by those who did not seek Me, I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.’ Who then are these ‘ones not seeking’ and ‘not asking’? Obviously, not the Jews, but the Gentiles, who until then did not know God. As Moses expressed their distinctive mark in the words: ‘by a nation without understanding’; so Isaiah here depicts that same characteristic in them—ignorance in the extreme degree. The most important accusation for the Jews was that the ‘ones not seeking’ found, while the seeking lost.”

And both an accusation and an irritation: how is it that the Gentiles, so insignificant and unclean in their eyes, are deemed worthy of such mercy before their very eyes?! For to find God, to be deemed worthy to have Him made manifest to oneself, is great mercy. The Jews considered no one worthy of it, and behold, they see it given to the Gentiles—and even at the expense of themselves. How should they not be angered?! And they were angered. And if they were angered, this means again, they understood the deed happening before their eyes. The words of the prophet Isaiah which Holy Paul brings forth serve to clarify that with which God threatened to provoke the Jews through the Gentiles, and merely strengthen the answer already given to the question: “Did Israel not know?”

“Do you see,” writes Oecumenius, “how many occasions and opportunities they had to understand? For, seeing what favor God shows toward the Gentiles through faith, they ought to have come to their senses and cast off their blindness.” And looking at it directly, one cannot think that, when the Gentiles, having found God through receiving the evangelical preaching, understood—Israel did not understand. He understood, but out of stubbornness did not submit to the truth. Concerning this Isaiah speaks right after the words quoted about the Gentiles.

Rom. 10:21. But to Israel He says: ‘All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people’ (Isa. 65:2).

If God stretches out His hands to them, calling and drawing them to Himself, how could He not be seen and understood by them? He was seen and understood, but they did not come to Him because of their stubbornness and contentious nature. “All day”—in the Prophet means all the day of Israel, from the time of his deliverance from the land of Egypt; and in the fulfillment of the prophecy in the mouth of the Apostle Paul, it means all the time since the Lord became incarnate and revealed Himself among Israel (Oecumenius). He Himself, going about among the Jews, called out: “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel”. And afterward He sent the Apostles, who both in Judea and in all the countries wherever they happened to meet Jews, proclaimed to them first the word of the Gospel. Thus there was no lack of calling, clear and comprehensible to all. What was wanting was only gracious faith and obedience to the One calling. Blessed Theophylact writes: “So that the Jews might not have the right to say to God: You revealed Yourself to the Gentiles, and would not turn to us—the Prophet adds: ‘I all day’—that is, at all times, ‘stretched out My hands’—that is, I drew you, but you showed yourselves to be a disobedient and stubborn people. Therefore you are guilty, not I. I stretched out My hands to you and called you, but you did not obey. From this it is evident that the Israelites both heard and knew, but would not submit.”

With this the Apostle ends the removal of all excuse for the unbelief of the Jews (verses 14–21). And there are preachers, and they hear, and they understand—and yet remain in unbelief. The conclusion from this: they have no excuse. But the Apostle does not make this conclusion openly; rather, he allows everyone reading or hearing to draw it himself, as well as to draw its application, namely: if they have no excuse, and have no excuse before God, whose judgment is impartial; then clearly they ought—they ought to submit to the preaching and believe in the Gospel. It is this application that the Apostle had in view, presenting the Jews as having no answer, not merely a bore rebuke.

Holy Chrysostom concludes this whole section with these words: “Here is the clear resolution the Apostle gave to all the difficulties set forth above, proving that the Jews perish by their own will and in every respect do not deserve excuse. Although they heard, although they understood what was said, yet for all that they would not come. And what is far more important, God not only gave them to hear and understand this, but also employed stronger measures to overcome and draw the stubborn and those who resisted. What measures exactly? He provoked them to jealousy, awakened emulation in them. You yourselves know the torment of this passion; you know what power emulation has to overcome every stubbornness, to restore the fallen. Need I speak of a grown person, when emulation produces great effect even on children in their immature years? A child often, when his father calls him, does not obey and continues to be stubborn; but when he sees another child being attended to, without any call he runs to his mother’s breast, and what calling could not do, emulation accomplishes. Thus God dealt with the Jews; not only did He beseech them, stretch out His hands to them, but also awakened in them the passion of emulation, bestowing blessings on those who were far below them—what especially produces emulation; however, not with the blessings given to the Jews, but, what is far more important, what makes the passion more tormenting—with blessings far greater and more necessary—such as the Jews never even dreamed of. But for all that they did not obey. Therefore, what excuse do those deserve who showed such excessive stubbornness? None. However, the Apostle does not say this himself, but leaves it to the conscience of his listeners to conclude from the consideration of what has been said.”

d) Consolation for the People of God (Rom. 11:1–36)

From the explanations the Apostle set forth it followed that if there are Jews not partaking of the blessings of faith as should be according to the promise, then the reason for this lies in themselves, in their stubborn refusal to accept the gospel and submit to faith—for which there can be no excuse. Such an accusation must have weighed heavily on the hearts of believing Jews who, despite their attachment to faith, could not help but grieve over their people, so exalted by God’s choice and so humbled by their own folly. Unwilling to leave them under such an unpleasant impression, the Apostle now sets forth consoling thoughts for them, such, however, as could also act beneficially on unbelieving Jews. He speaks with this aim: that if not all are accepted, then neither are all cast off; that the falling away of those who refuse to submit to faith serves for the salvation of the Gentiles; and that therefore the latter have nothing in which to boast over the former; and moreover, this blindness, according to the aims of God’s providence over men, has been permitted only for a time. This limitation will be fulfilled, and all Israel will enter the enclosure of salvation.

Rom. 11:1. I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

With these words the Apostle returns to his former position: “It is not as though the word of God has failed” (Rom. 9:6)—and asks: after all that has been said, can one assert that God has cast away His people? Not at all. For He did not give the promise to all, but only to those whom He foreknew to be obedient to His word. These properly are His people. You need only to look around now and assure yourselves whether there are any from among the sons of Israel who are heeding the gospel and thereby entering into the inheritance of spiritual blessings promised in the Deliverer. If there is even one, the promise is not broken. And there is one—here you have me. “I am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin”. If I, an Israelite, belong to those who have received the promised inheritance, then it cannot be said that “the word of God has failed”, and that “God has cast away His people”. “In proof that the Jews are not rejected,” says Holy Chrysostom, “he points to himself: ‘For I also am an Israelite’. I am a teacher, a preacher, myself a Jew. If God had determined to reject the Jews, He would not have chosen Paul from among them, to whom He entrusted all the preaching, the works of the whole world, all mysteries, all the dispensation of salvation. But it is self-evident that, pointing to himself, the Apostle wished only to give more quickly and more plainly an example of God’s not rejecting, and understood under himself all the believers from among the Jews. They were everywhere: both in Jerusalem, and in all other cities and villages of Palestine, and in all places outside it where Jews dwelt. All of them are heirs of the promises given to the fathers. Consequently, it should not be said that God has cast away His people.”

Rom. 11:2. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.

“Whom He foreknew”, προεγνω—had foreknowledge of. God foreknew that there would be those obedient to His word, and He gave the promise, expressing it in general terms to all the sons of Israel, but having in view specifically these obedient and faithful ones, whom alone ought to be called God’s people. And behold, what you see now being accomplished before your eyes—all this proceeds according to God’s foreknowledge and is the direct fulfillment of the promise. God has not cast away His people, but has now received them precisely and brought them into the inheritance of the promise. Holy Chrysostom sees in the words of the Apostle two proofs that God has not cast away His people: first, that he himself is an Israelite; and second, “it is contained in the words: ‘His people whom He foreknew’—that is, concerning whom He certainly knew that they were capable of receiving faith and would receive it. For from the Jews three thousand believed, five thousand believed, and a great multitude, so that to his words ‘I am an Israelite’ no one could object: are you the people, and from the fact that you are called does it follow that the whole people are called? The Apostle added: ‘God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.’ He speaks as if: with me there are three thousand, there are five thousand, there is a great multitude.”

Rom. 11:2–5. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, ‘Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life’? But what does the divine response say to him? ‘I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace (1 Kings 19:14, 18).

The Apostle speaks as if: what you see now being accomplished before your eyes is very similar to what happened in the time of the prophet Elijah, when, finding openly in no one around him true godliness, he complained to God: all have turned to ungodliness; I alone am left; and when the Lord said to him: no, not all; I have among them seven thousand men who are faithful to Me and turn away from idols. As it was then—that both king, and nobles, and all powers, and all upon whom you look, fought against God, and yet among them God had seven thousand true worshippers: so it is now. Both our kings and our rulers and the chief priests and the learned, and the whole people, if you look at it as a whole, fight against God, resist Christ the Lord, and persecute and kill His Apostles; yet at the same time among this very people, in all places, there are those who believe in the Lord sincerely, who cleave to Him with all their hearts and with their whole souls serve Him. These are properly the people of God, His own, preserved by Him for Himself, foreknown beforehand, and now called, and through that calling chosen out of the people. As then His own were only those seven thousand, and all the rest were strangers to Him, so now the whole people, when you look at it as a whole, is estranged from Christ and our God, while His own are only these believers, seemingly disappearing in the general mass of the people, yet in fact constituting the true people of God. Blessed Theodoret writes: “As then out of countless thousands only seven thousand remained free from ungodliness, so now the unbelieving are more numerous, while those who believe and have availed themselves of divine grace are fewer.” The force of the comparison of these circumstances—that is, what happened in the time of the prophet Elijah and what is now being accomplished—lies in the fact that as then the whole people as a whole fought against God, and the seven thousand, hidden among them, honored God and God called them His own, so now the whole people as a whole fights against Christ, and the believers, living among them, believe in Christ and worship Him—and them God has as His own. This remnant according to God’s election has come to be. God chose and chooses it from among the people through the gospel, faith, and grace. From this let everyone conclude that all that now happens is in accordance with the will and intentions of God and is not contrary to His promises; therefore it cannot be said that God has cast away His people.

Holy Chrysostom at length clarifies other marks of similarity in these circumstances. “The meaning of these words is this: God has not rejected the people. For if He had rejected them, He would not have accepted any. And if He accepted some, then He did not reject. But if He did not reject, you say, then He accepted all? Not at all. For even in Elijah’s time no more than seven thousand were saved. And now (besides those who clearly believe), probably many have believed (secretly). It is not surprising if you do not know them; for the prophet Elijah, so great a man, did not know this. But God was conducting His affairs, though the Prophet did not know (and so now He secretly conducts His work of faith). Mark the wisdom of the Apostle, how, in proving what he set out to prove, he imperceptibly increases the guilt of the Jews. He brought this testimony to mind to display their ingratitude more solemnly and to show that they have always been thus. And if he did not have this intention, but wished to prove only that the few constitute God’s people proper, he would have said merely that in Elijah’s time seven thousand remained. But now he brings the entire testimony from the beginning, since he was in every way laboring to prove that the conduct of the Jews toward Christ and the Apostles was in no way strange (novel) to them, but customary among them and had become their habit. Lest they say: we killed Christ as a deceiver, we persecute the Apostles as seducers—the Apostle brings testimony in which it is said: ‘Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars.’ (This meant that as then they killed not false prophets but true ones, so now they killed not a false saviour but the true Saviour and persecute not seducers but true preachers.) But the Apostle, so as not to grieve them too much by his words, (did not express this overtly, but) presents another reason for bringing this testimony, as if he brings it not with that main purpose of rebuking them, but with the intention of proving something else (namely, that the few constitute God’s people proper); meanwhile he deprives them of all excuse in their preceding deeds (the crucifixion of the Lord and the persecution of the Apostles). See how the rebuke gains special force from the mouth of the one rebuking. Not Paul rebukes, not Peter, not James, not John, but he whom the Jews admired more than any other—the chief of the Prophets, God’s friend. What then does he say? ‘Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.’ What could be more savage than such cruelty? They ought to have prayed for the sins already committed, but they intend to kill a Prophet besides. And this not in a time of famine, but when fertility had already come. All this makes them utterly inexcusable. (But as it was then, so do they now.) When demons are put to shame, God’s might is revealed (in Christ Jesus), they dare this evil deed (against Him), go from murder to murder, kill teachers and those who reform their morals. And what can they say against this (rebuke) in their defense? Were the prophets deceivers? Did they not know whence they came? They grieved you, but in return they spoke what was useful. (So understand also concerning the Apostles.) And the altars? Did the altars grieve? Did they insult? (Obviously they did all this in fighting against God [Blessed Theodoret].) See what examples of stubbornness and wickedness the Jews have always shown. Therefore Paul, writing also to the Thessalonians, says: ‘You also will suffer the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men’ (1 Thess. 2:14–15). Likewise here he speaks, saying that the Jews tore down altars and killed the Prophets (to show that they have always resisted God). ‘But what does the divine response say to him? I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ You will ask, does this apply to the present time? Very much so. For by this it is proved that God always ordinarily saves the worthy, though the promise was given to the whole people. The same the Apostle proved above, when he said: ‘Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant will be saved’ and ‘Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom’; and he proves the same here. Therefore he also adds: ‘Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.’ See how each word of the Apostle retains its force, expressing both God’s grace and the irreproachableness of the saved. For by the word ‘according to election’ the Apostle showed the merit of the saved, and by the word ‘grace’ he indicated God’s gift.”

A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Rom. 11:6. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, then it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

Having said: “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace”, the Apostle introduces depth to the events happening. Then God from a great multitude of people preserved for Himself seven thousand; and now also He by grace chooses from all the mass of the people the few who are being saved. Who then are these chosen ones? All those who do not hope in themselves, in their works, and in any external advantage, but commit all their salvation into God’s hands with readiness to receive it from His goodness, if He deems it fitting to grant it. Upon such humble ones the ray of God’s grace falls and draws them to the source of salvation. It naturally finds them, as water itself flows to the low places. This discovery by grace of those capable of receiving it is the election. Upon whom grace falls so that he receives its influence, he is inwardly separated from the rest of the mass and begins to be different. All such are a “remnant” saved by grace like the few saved in Elijah’s time.

Here is the main reason why some are now saved and others are not! It is because those do not hope in anything of their own, but humbly commit the matter of their salvation into God’s hands—and such are never many; while these rely on their own works and as it were demand salvation from God as their right. As this is contrary to the laws of the life-giving life according to God, they are not received into the enclosure of the saved, and such self-reliant ones are always many. Such a condition is derived from the preceding words: “there is a remnant according to the election of grace”. And the words of the present verse 6 are applied to them both as a rebuke and as an exhortation, thus: if the election to salvation is from grace, then not from works; for if it were from works, it would not be according to grace, because grace is no longer grace when works enter in. Why then do you, O Jew, rely on works? Cast off this vain hope and humbly commit yourself to the action of grace. If you rely on works, you do not feel the need for grace; not feeling such need, you do not seek it; not seeking, you do not find it; not finding and not receiving it, you remain estranged from salvation. And it turns out that that on which you hope to base your salvation serves for your ruin. To unite both is impossible. If you bring works into the foundation of salvation, you eliminate grace; and your foundation becomes rotten. But if you direct your gaze toward grace, then turn it away from works: for with grace works are already not works—that is, they mean nothing. So reckon them in your mind and heart, and either dispel them entirely from your attention and present yourself bore to the action of God’s goodness.

Holy Chrysostom says: “Therefore, why do you fear to approach when works are not required of you? Why do you contend and resist when grace is being offered to you? Why without need and benefit do you refer to the Law? You cannot save yourself by the Law, and you diminish this gift. If you stubbornly insist on being saved by the Law, you nullify God’s grace. But lest this be thought a new teaching, the Apostle says that even those seven thousand whom he brings as an example were saved by grace. For by the words: ‘Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace’—he indicates that they too were saved by grace. This is evident also from the words: ‘I have reserved for Myself.’ By this God shows that He Himself accomplished the greater part of the work. And if it is by grace, you say, why are not all of us saved? Because you yourselves do not wish it. For grace, despite being grace, saves the willing, not those who do not wish and turn away from grace, who constantly rise up against it and resist it. Do you see how the Apostle everywhere affirms the truth that God’s word cannot fail to be accomplished; and he proves this by the fact that the promise extended to the worthy, and the worthy, though not many, can constitute God’s people.”

As Holy Chrysostom was speaking his Homilies to Christians from the Gentiles, he also added: “Therefore, let us give thanks to God for the fact that we have become among the saved, and when we could not be saved by works, we are saved by God’s gift. And let us attest our gratitude not only in words, but in deeds and conduct befitting gratitude. For gratitude is full when we do what serves to God’s glory, when we avoid that from which we have been set free.” This word applies to us as well.

Rom. 11:7. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.

“What then?” What, then, has come from such an order of Israel’s life? That Israel, if looked at as a whole, in all the mass of peoples, has not obtained what it sought; but within this same mass God both foreknew before and now sees a certain remnant of worthy persons and chose them from the mass by His grace, so that this chosen remnant obtained what was sought, while the rest were blinded. What did Israel seek? To be God’s and heir of the promises given to the fathers. But this is a good seeking, in accord with God’s intentions; why then did he not obtain it? Because he did not give proper honor to God’s grace. He did the works of the Law and by these labors and efforts alone hoped to obtain what was sought, forgetting that this obtaining, for all that, is still a matter of grace, received by faith, and not coming as a right. From this it came to pass that when grace was revealed and the word of faith was offered to him as the condition of obtaining what was sought, he resisted stubbornly, insisting on the conviction which he himself had hammered into his mind and heart. As this was contrary to God’s order, God deprived him for this stubbornness of what he hoped for and what should have become his possession if he had not resisted and opposed faith. On the contrary, those who are not many, who are the “remnant” of God’s, though they also kept the Law faithfully, yet placed their hope of obtaining what was sought in God’s grace alone. Therefore, when grace was revealed and the word of faith was proclaimed, they received it with all their hearts and cleaved to the One preached. For this they obtained more than they hoped for or could hope for. Those were blinded by their wrong prejudice; but these, not admitting prejudice, always had their eyes open to God and easily perceived the grace sent from Him, which also chose them. Blessed Theodoret writes: “By election the Apostle means believers from the Jews. He says this: Israel, attached to the Law, did not attain the goal, because it now unlawfully keeps the Law and reaps no righteousness from it; but the believers from Israel obtained it. ‘The rest were blinded’—that is, unbelief hardened their hearts.” Therefore, Holy Chrysostom rightly sees in the present passage “not merely a question, but also a rebuke. The Apostle says that the Jew contradicts himself, seeks justification and does not wish to receive it. He presents the Jews as inexcusable, proving their wrongness by the fact that some have obtained: ‘the elect,’ he says, ‘have obtained it.’ The elect will judge the Jews. Thus also Christ the Lord said: ‘But if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges’ (Lk. 11:19). That no one might dare to refer to the nature of the matter itself, and everyone might blame the choice of the Jews, the Apostle mentions those who have obtained. Therefore he also uses an expressive saying that depicts both grace from above and their own effort. For the word ‘obtained’—does not nullify free choice, but expresses the greatness of the blessings and the fact that the greater part, though not all, was the work of grace. Among us it is customary to say of a person who comes out with great profit: he obtained, he found. Because most of it is acquired not by human labor, but by God’s gift. ‘The rest were blinded.’ Mark when the Apostle dared to call the rejection of the rest by its proper name. Though he had spoken of it before, nevertheless, he represented the Prophets as accusers; but now he himself appears as accuser. However, even here he is not content with his own opinion alone, but again testifies by the prophet Isaiah; for, having said they were blinded, he added:”

Rom. 11:8. Just as it is written: ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, until this day’ (Isa. 29:10; Deut. 29:4).

These words are taken by the holy Paul from two prophetic passages, and the prophecy itself is expressed in his own words. The first words, that God gave them a spirit of stupor, or dullness, are taken from chapter 29 of the prophet Isaiah, while the last—concerning eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear—are taken from the prophet Moses (Deut. 29:4). The prophet Isaiah in that chapter foretells a certain extreme disaster for the Jews from enemies and that when these enemies think they have already attained their goal, help will come from above and overthrow their hopes. Then, addressing the authorities of the Jews, he says that they will be in astonishment like the drunk, because the Lord will give them a spirit of stupor and seal their eyes, and the eyes of their Prophets and princes; and they will understand nothing of what is happening before them; it will be to them like a sealed book. It is not evident to what disaster and deliverance these prophecies refer; but since the stupor of the authorities and all the chief persons of the Jews depicted by the Prophet corresponds entirely to the way these persons regarded the Lord Jesus Christ the Deliverer and to the marvelous deeds of Him and His Apostles; there is no doubt that the prophetic spirit through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah foretold precisely this stupor and mental blindness of the Jewish authorities and, after them, of all the people, before the face of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Gospel. The Apostolic spirit indicated this to the Apostle in the words of the Prophet, and he truly testified by them that which he needed to testify to, namely that “they were blinded”.

The holy prophet Moses, in chapter 29 of Deuteronomy, after mentioning how the Lord God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and how many wondrous signs and wonders He performed in this—adds then: “And the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear until this day” (Deut. 29:4). That is: you looked upon this with open eyes and did not see; you heard of this with open ears and did not hear, and your hearts were not disposed to understand what all this meant. The deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery by the holy Moses is the most vivid type of our deliverance from slavery to sin and the devil by our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore what is spoken by the Prophets concerning the first must certainly be a prophetic foresight of the second. The Apostolic spirit understood this and brought forth the words depicting the mental state of those then as a depiction of those now. As then their hearts lacked understanding, so now they are blind—“they were blinded”.

From these two places the Apostolic spirit took the prophetic thought and set it forth in his own words: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear”. Both in the Prophets and in the Apostle it is spoken as if God Himself by His power produced such a grievous condition. It is customary for the Prophets to speak thus, referring all things to God, both good and bad. But some things are given directly by God, while others are merely permitted. God desires good for all people and seeks to bestow it on all. But when He encounters resistance from people, then after attempts to overcome this resistance He leaves them to their own will, which, as opposing God, never leads to good but is always accompanied by bad consequences. These bad consequences are evidently seen as God’s punishment for resisting His will. Therefore they are attributed to Him, though the reason why God permits this is found in the people themselves—in their disobedience. Such was it also with the Gospel. How many proofs did the Lord Himself display to the Jews, clearly pointing to who He was? How much also did the Apostles persuade both by word and deed that He was indeed the Promised One and that His teaching ought to be followed? The Jews did not have hearts to understand what was happening before their eyes and would not hear about its significance. But who was guilty? The Lord left them in their blindness. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The word ‘gave,’ as also ‘delivered,’ means ‘permitted.’ For it was not God who caused them not to believe; otherwise, how could He Himself instill unbelief in them and then punish them for it? The Prophet teaches this more clearly, saying: ‘The heart of this people has grown thick, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes’” (Isa. 6:10). “Therefore it was not another who blinded them, but they themselves shut their own eyes and would not see the light.” Holy Chrysostom says: “What caused this blindness? The Apostle explained the causes before, laid all the blame on the heads of the Jews themselves, proving that they underwent blindness for their untimely stubbornness, and now repeats the same thing. For when he says: ‘Eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear’—he accuses nothing but their stubborn will. Having eyes to see miracles, having received ears to hear this miraculous teaching, they did not use either as they ought. Therefore by the word ‘gave’—understand here not an action but a permission.”

“He gave them,’ it says, ‘a spirit of stupor”, κατανύξεως. Κατάνυξις—stupor, contrition of heart—is a good disposition; how then is this word used to denote a bad condition? But this word, from νύσσω—to smite—can depict a state of such smiting or of striking impression, in which the one smitten is bewildered, cannot gather his thoughts, looks and sees nothing, hears and perceives nothing of what is heard. Precisely such were the Jews before the face of the Lord and the Apostles—as though smitten, dazed, stupefied, like those of whom it is said: a stroke has fallen upon them. The Slavonic rendering in the note by the word ‘insensibility’—well expresses the force of the speech. Our interpreters do not change the meaning of the word, but take into account in their interpretation not the contrition and stupor itself, but its force—that when it takes possession of the heart, it is not bent toward the worse. This inflexibility of the stupor they take into account here, and by the spirit of stupor, κατανύξεως, they understand the spirit of the unyielding stubbornness of the Jews. Blessed Theodoret writes: “By the spirit of stupor the Prophet (and Apostle) called the fixed disposition of the heart; for as one who has praiseworthy stupor does not accept change for the worse, so one wholly given over to vice does not permit change for the better.” Holy Chrysostom says the same thing more fully and clearly: “By stupor the Apostle here calls such a habit of the soul toward the worse, which is incurable and unchangeable. For in another place it is said: ‘That my glory may sing praise to You and I will not be unmoved’” (Ps. 29:13)—that is, I will not change. As one who has become absorbed in godliness does not quickly leave that state, so one who has become absorbed in evil can with difficulty change. Therefore the Apostle, wishing to express that the will of the Jews is incorrigible and difficult to change, called this a spirit of stupor.

Rom. 11:9–10. And David says: ‘Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bend their backs forever’ (Ps. 68:23–24).

This passage is taken from Psalm 68, which is a prophetic psalm that foretells the sufferings of Christ the Saviour and the punishment of the Jews. From this psalm in the Gospels are cited: “Zeal for Your house has consumed me” (verse 10); and: “They gave me gall for food, and vinegar for my thirst” (verse 22). This verse ends the depiction of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ; and following it come the verses cited by Saint Paul (verses 23–24), which in the prophet David begin the depiction of the destructive consequences of the unjust condemnation of Christ the Lord to death. There is no doubt, therefore, that these verses contain a prophecy which, understanding it by his spirit, the holy Apostle brings to confirm his position. The punishment of the Jews for delivering the Lord to death is expressed by the Prophet in the optative mood: “Let their table become… Let their eyes be darkened”. So these words are also brought by the Apostle. The meaning is: their table before them becomes a snare—and their eyes are darkened—and their backs are bent.

Holy Athanasius the Great, expounding this psalm, says regarding the words: “Let their table become a snare before them” (Ps. 68:23)—the following: “By this the Prophet depicts what will befall the Jews after the suffering of the Lord.” The word “table”—Holy Chrysostom and Blessed Theodoret give an allegorical meaning, understanding by it enjoyment or pleasure. That which promised them pleasure and enjoyment, which they desired so much as nourishing food, becomes for them a snare—enmeshes them in calamities from which they cannot escape. As they thirsted and hungered for the death of the Lord, crying: “Crucify, crucify Him” (Lk. 23:21)—and did not heed any of Pilate’s exhortations! At last they satisfied their thirst for blood—they were satiated. And this very thing brought the most extreme calamities upon them. They thirsted for blood; they were repaid in blood. Holy Athanasius the Great writes: “By these words, as if speaking from the mouth of the Lord, the Prophet says: they will suffer the very things they prepared for Me, desiring that I experience this. Woe to the wicked, ‘for evil will meet the wicked according to the work of his hands’” (Isa. 3:11).

The other words: snare, stumbling block—mean the same: they were snared—thought they would be freed from harm by delivering the Deliverer to death, and fell into a snare, into all sorts of calamities. And the Prophet added the words “and a recompense to them”, so that it would be clear that the Jews would suffer all this as a punishment.

“Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see”—that is, their eyes are darkened. They did not see the Lord in the Son of Man walking on the earth, though in Him the Lord clearly showed Himself. But that was still a partial darkening. Complete darkening came to them after the death and resurrection of the Lord. Then their blindness was clearly God’s punishment upon them. How could they not see the Lord in the signs accompanying His death, when a Gentile saw Him, in the marvelous resurrection, in the descent of the Holy Spirit, in the testimonies of the Apostles confirmed by powers and wonders in the name of the Lord? One could have perceived the Lord in all this and cried out like the Apostle Thomas: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn. 20:28). But they did not see, because they did not wish to see. And the Lord darkened their eyes, “so that they do not see”.

“And bend their backs forever”—and they will forever be under the yoke of slavery. They were already under foreign power, but still held for themselves a certain share of self-government. But when they delivered the Lord to death, they soon lost everything—city, sanctuary, and were scattered everywhere as slaves. And until now they remain under foreign powers; and always will they remain under them, as the prophetic word shows: “forever bend”—that is, keep them always under the yoke bent down.

For the Apostle Paul to confirm his thought by prophecy, it would suffice to bring only the following words: “Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see”—that is, their eyes are darkened. But he brought also what stands before in the Prophet, and what comes after. Why did he do this? Perhaps so that the speech would not be meager and would be more rounded. But more truly, so as to show that this darkening according to prophecy is a recompense to them—a punishment and judgment from God—as is spoken before—and that it is only the vestibule of the snare and trap, while the end will be ultimate enslavement. When the Apostle brought these words, the darkening was already working in the Jews, but the “bending” of the back was not yet: they still held their heads high in pride and nursed vain hopes of their exaltation. By bringing this prophetic indication, he was leading them to think about what awaited them soon, hoping thereby to dispose those who had not yet accepted the gospel to receive it, and to confirm in faith those who had accepted it.

Holy Chrysostom, who wrote his Homilies after this punishment foretold by the holy David had been fulfilled—the “bending” of the neck—dwells on it with particular attention both as proof of the truth of the prophecies and as demonstration of the destructiveness of unbelief.

“Is any interpretation needed here,” he says, “Is it not clear even to the most simple-minded? Indeed, before our words the actual experience testified to what the Prophet said. When have the Jews ever been so easily taken captive and overcome? When have they been subjected to such slavery? But most important is the fact that there will be no end to these calamities, as the Prophet noted. For he did not simply say: ‘bend their backs’—but added: ‘forever.’ If then you, O Jew, claim that the calamities will end, judge the present by the past. You were taken captive to Egypt, but two hundred years passed, and despite all your ungodliness, God soon freed you from this slavery. After your deliverance from Egypt you worshipped the calf, offered your sons in sacrifice to Baal-Peor (Num. 25:3), defiled the temple, sank into every kind of vice, filled mountains, valleys, hills, fountains, rivers, gardens with abominable sacrifices, killed the Prophets, overthrew the altars, and succeeded thoroughly in evil and ungodliness. Yet God, having delivered you to the Babylonians for seventy years, again brought you back to your former freedom, and restored to you both the temple and your homeland and the former mode of prophecy. Even during the captivity you were not abandoned; you had Daniel and Ezekiel there. After this you again returned to your former vices, gave yourselves up to dissolution, and under the wicked Antiochus accepted Greek ways of life. But then too, having been under the domination of Antiochus for three years or a bit more, through the Maccabees you erected new famous monuments of victory. But now you have nothing of the kind; on the contrary, everything has gone differently. And what is particularly remarkable is that your former vices are not evident, yet the punishment increases, and there is no hope of a change in your situation. More than seventy years have passed, more than one hundred and two hundred—but three hundred (and now—1800) years and far more; yet there is not even a shadow of such hope. And all this has befallen you at a time when you do not serve idols, do not do anything of the kind you dared to do before. What then is the reason? This: that the figure has been replaced by reality and the Law excluded by grace. Foreseeing this in ancient times, the Prophet said: ‘bend their backs forever.’ Do you notice the precision of the prophecy—how it foretells unbelief, reveals obstinacy, announces the judgment that follows, and marks the endlessness of the punishment?’”

“Having explained that the rejection of the Jews and the acceptance of the Gentiles into the Kingdom of Christ is in accord with the promises given, and having shown the reason for this in the faith of some and the unbelief of others, Saint Paul now brings this event into the plans of God’s Providence over mankind, so as to completely calm minds and cut off all doubts on this subject. But in doing this, he at the same time gives a powerful admonition to the believers from the Gentiles—not to neglect the mercy shown to them—and comforts those troubled by compassion for the Jews with the prediction that blindness has befallen Israel only for a time, after which all of it will turn and be saved. “Thus the Apostle acts in order not to drive the Jews into despair, thus closing the path to faith, and not to give the believers from the Gentiles occasion for arrogance, lest they become proud and suffer harm in their faith. We must not simply listen to what is said, but discern the thought and intention of the speaker. If we receive each word with such reflection, we will encounter no difficulty in any of them. And in the present case the Apostle’s purpose consists in destroying arrogance in the believers from the Gentiles (while suggesting to the Jews that they have not completely fallen); for as the Gentiles, having learned humility, will more safely remain in faith, so the Jews, being drawn out of despair, will more readily approach grace. Therefore, attending to this purpose of the Apostle, let us hear all that he said in the present passage” (Holy Chrysostom).”

If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16)

Rom. 11:11. I say then, have they stumbled so as to fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.

You think that all this happened by chance, without any particular purpose. No. The falling away of Israel into unbelief has as its consequence that the Gentiles are brought into the enclosure of salvation, and this bringing in is willed in order to draw Israel after them as well, awakening in them emulation or rivalry, and thus to save all mankind. Behold the providential significance of what is now happening before our very eyes among the Gentiles and the Jews!

“Have they stumbled so as to fall?”—Μη επτοασαν ιπεσωσιν? This can be translated two ways: did they stumble, namely on the Stone, Christ the Lord, through unbelief and thereby sin so as to fall utterly, dashed to death? Or: did they stumble only to fall and nothing more? Blessed Photius sees the latter thought in Oecumenius. It is closer to the immediately following words, while the first is closer to the further discourse. Both are therefore fitly received. Blessed Theophylact writes: “Did they sin so that they cannot be healed? Not at all. They ‘stumbled’—that is, they tripped, yet their fall is not such that there is no means of remedy.” So too Holy Chrysostom, Ambrosiaster, Oecumenius. The latter writes: “The sin of the Jews is very great; but did they stumble so that, having fallen, they could not rise, even if they wished? No. However greatly they have stumbled, they can still be received by God into mercy again, if they wish.” Then he brings the words of Blessed Photius. “As among those who stumble, some merely waver, like those who have slipped, while others fall completely, the Apostle, wishing on one hand to awaken sorrow in the Jews as those justly deserving rebuke, and on the other to dispose them to faith, says that their stumbling resulted not in their complete fall, but that they, as it were, merely slipped. And this was not simply (by chance), but permitted according to a certain providential dispensation, so that by occasion of their fall the salvation of the Gentiles might be accomplished, and then their own restoration, when by the salvation of the Gentiles they are provoked to emulation and begin to imitate them. So their very stumbling serves in a way for their restoration, namely in this way: in their stumbling is salvation for the Gentiles, in this salvation is the rousing of the emulation of the Jews, and through this emulation—the restoration of those who stumbled. Such is the unspeakable and incomprehensible divine providence and dispensation, drawing benefit from harm and good from destruction! The Jews stumbled and fell—and would lie there, benefiting neither themselves nor others. But God used their fall as a means both to the salvation of the Gentiles and to their own restoration from this fall. So that they, by God’s good arrangement, stumbled not in order to fall, but that through stumbling they might rise and be corrected.”

That in the stumbling of the Jews there was salvation for the Gentiles was by God’s arrangement, the Apostle understood this from the events themselves. He and the other Apostles everywhere proclaimed the word of the gospel first to the Jews, and then, seeing that when only one or two from the Jews received the gospel while the rest resisted, the Gentiles listened joyfully to the word of the gospel—in this very thing they saw the finger of God pointing and were convinced that the acceptance of the Gentiles, in place of the resisting Jews, was the direct will of God. Holy Chrysostom particularly develops this thought.

“Their fall brought riches to the Gentiles”. This is not Paul’s word alone; on the contrary, the parables in the Gospels have the same meaning. He who made the wedding feast for his son then began to call from the streets when those invited would not come (Matt. 22:9). And he who planted the vineyard then determined to give it to other vine dressers when the first killed the heir (Matt. 21:38). And Paul said to the Jews who set themselves against him: “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; but since you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46). From all this it is evident that in order it should have come first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles; but since the Jews proved unbelieving, the order was changed. The unbelief and fall of the Jews made it so that the Gentiles entered first. Therefore the Apostle says: their fall brought riches to the Gentiles, “to provoke them to jealousy”. The meaning of his words is this: the Lord Jesus came to the Jews; but they, despite the great multitude of miracles He performed, did not accept Him and crucified Him. After this He began to draw the Gentiles to Himself, so that by the honor shown to them He might wound the insensible Jews and by mutual emulation convince them to come to Him. For it was fitting that the Jews should be received first, and then we. Therefore the Apostle said: “The power of God is for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). Since the Jews withdrew, we who are second became first. Therefore, see what honors are drawn for them even from this. First, the honor that we are called when they would not; second, that we are called not for our salvation alone, but that they too might become better by emulating our salvation. What then, someone will say, would we not have been called and saved if this had not become necessary for the Jews? We would have been called and saved, but in the proper order, that is, not before but after the Jews. Therefore Christ the Lord, when He sent His disciples to preach, did not simply say: “Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, but: “Go rather” (Matt. 10:6), showing thereby that after the Jews one should go also to the Gentiles. All this has been done and said so that the Jews might not resort to the shameless excuse that they were neglected and therefore did not believe. Therefore Christ, though He foresaw all this, came to them first.

Rom. 11:12. Now if their failure is riches for the world, and their loss riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!

Holy Chrysostom says to this: “Here the Apostle speaks words pleasant to the Jews. He encourages those of them who have fallen, proving with abundance that they can hope for salvation if they change. If, he says, so many received salvation when they stumbled, and so many were called while they were rejected, then think what will be when they turn about? For he did not say: ‘how much more’—their turning, or their change, or their amendment, but: ‘how much more their fullness’—that is, when all come to Christ. And by this he gives us to understand that then there will be a great or full measure of God’s grace.”

In the words: “their loss riches for the Gentiles”—loss in Greek: ήττημα—which signifies among other things smallness, a small number; and in the words: “how much more their fullness”—fullness in Greek: πλήρωμα—which means fullness, full number. Thus: if when a small number of Jews believed, so much good came to the Gentiles—that they believed, received grace, and became heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven—then what will it be when all of them believe? Thus Blessed Theodoret interprets this passage: “If when the greater part of them did not believe, those of them who believed brought riches of knowledge of God to the Gentiles, then clearly when all believed, they would have become for all people suppliers of greater blessings. For all would have more easily believed if they had not resisted, but together with us preached the truth.”

By stating: “how much more their fullness”—will bring riches, the Apostle prophesies that this will come to pass in time, that is, that the Jews will turn, enter the enclosure of faith, and provide fullness to the company of believers. When this will come to pass is explained below; here he merely hints at it.

Rom. 11:13. Now I am speaking to you Gentiles.

“I am speaking to you Gentiles”—you who believe from among the Gentiles, I have in view, saying this to you; I wish to teach you, to give you a warning. What exactly he intends to impress upon them is explained beginning below from verse 17. But to better adapt to this warning and make it more easily received and more striking, he first repeats once more what he said before about the significance of present events in the conversion of some and the obstinacy of others (verses 13–16). His train of thought is thus: as the Apostle to the Gentiles, I set so high value on your conversion; but in this I do not fix my attention on you alone, but have in view also my relatives, so that through your conversion I might turn them as well, which I desire very much not only because I love them as my own flesh, but especially because, as soon as they turn, then universal resurrection will occur and the bright Kingdom of God will be established. And that it will be so, that the Jews will indeed all turn, cannot be doubted; for if the root is holy—that is, their forefathers—then so will the branches, that is, their descendants, these very unbelieving Jews, also become holy. But how this can come to pass otherwise than by faith in Christ Jesus the Lord, it cannot; therefore neither can it be doubted that they will finally turn to the Lord with faith. Having reached this point: if the root is holy, then the branches will also be holy—the Apostle then builds upon this the intended exhortation to the believers from the Gentiles (verse 17 and following). Holy Chrysostom says about this section (verses 13–16): “The Apostle turns to the Gentiles and places an introductory address about them, wishing to show that he says all this to teach them humility.”

Rom. 11:13. For I am speaking to you Gentiles, I magnify my ministry.

“I magnify my ministry”—means that he in every way is concerned for the conversion of the Gentiles, or that he sets so high a value on this conversion and gives it such great significance that upon it depends the conversion of the Jews and the transformation of the whole world thereafter. The first meaning is expressed by Blessed Theodoret: “Since God appointed me to be a preacher to the Gentiles, I of necessity seek the salvation of the Gentiles and for them labor and prove that the divine Prophets foretold this long ago.” The second by Holy Chrysostom: “I praise (your conversion and) you,” says the Apostle, “for two reasons: first, because I need this, being sent to serve you; second, so that through you I might save others.”

Rom. 11:14. If by any means I might provoke my countrymen to jealousy and save some of them.

And by the multiplication of the number of believers from the Gentiles, and by exalting the significance of their conversion, the Apostle indirectly intends also “to at least by this arouse the Jews to emulation and make some of them partakers of salvation” (Blessed Theodoret).

“My countrymen”—literally “my flesh”—the Apostle called the Jews because, although they lagged in unbelief and were hostile to him, he did not cease to love them as one loves one’s own flesh. Blessed Theophylact writes: “By the word ‘flesh’ he showed his tender love for the Jews.” Or perhaps he called them thus because, although they differed from him in convictions, in rules of life, and in feelings, he retained closeness with them only according to the flesh. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle did not say: my brothers, my kinsmen—but: ‘my flesh.’” Clarifying this, Blessed Theodoret adds: he calls the Jews “his flesh” as those who are estranged from him in their manner of thinking, yet having communion with him only in fleshly kinship.

“Then, revealing their stubbornness, he does not say: shall I not persuade them thereby—but: ‘I might provoke them to jealousy and save some’; and even then he does not say: all—but: ‘some of them.’ So hard-hearted were the Jews!” (Holy Chrysostom). “What stubbornness of the Jews! It was impossible to hope to draw them to faith except by some excessive pressure, and not all of them, but only some” (Oecumenius).

Comparing what is said in these verses (13–14) about the Gentiles and the Jews, Holy Chrysostom says: “And in this again he reveals the superiority of the Gentiles. Though both Jews and Gentiles serve each other mutually in the matter of salvation, yet not in the same way. The Jews bring benefits to the Gentiles through their unbelief, and the Gentiles to the Jews through their faith. From which it is evident that the Gentiles equal the Jews, even surpass them. For what will you say, O Jew? If you had not been rejected, would you have been called so soon? The same will the Gentile say: if I had not been saved, jealousy would not have been aroused in you. And if you wish to know in what we excel, I save you by believing, while you, by stumbling, gave me the opportunity to come before you.”

Rom. 11:15. For if their being cast away is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

Here is set forth the reason for the care of holy Paul for the salvation of the Jews. Suppose someone asks: O holy Paul, why are you so concerned for the Jews, saying: ‘If by any means I might provoke my countrymen to jealousy and save some of them?’ What is the purpose of such labor? He says: it cannot be otherwise; I cannot but care and labor for them; what compels me to this is that if “their being cast away is the reconciliation of the world” and so forth. That is—if the fact that they rejected faith and for that were themselves rejected served to bring it about that God reconciled to Himself the (pagan) world and broke down the middle wall of the old enmity, how much good and marvelous good will result when they embrace faith and are saved? If their stumbling served for the salvation of the world—what will it be, tell me, who can, when they rise, turn to faith, and are received by God into His former mercy? What else, he says, but the resurrection of the dead? (Photius in Oecumenius). One can apply to this what Blessed Theodoret said: “If, says the Apostle, even when they did not believe, the Gentiles were received and freed from their former ignorance; then clearly if they all wished to believe, nothing else would remain to be accomplished except the resurrection of the dead. The Lord said this too: ‘And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come’” (Matt. 24:14).

Holy Chrysostom directs attention to the fact that the unbelief of the Jews is not the cause of the faith of the Gentiles, but only the occasion; just as the belief of all the Gentiles will not be the cause of the acceptance of the Jews, but only the occasion: the cause of all is faith. If there were no faith in the Gentiles, no matter how rejected the Jews were, it would bring them no benefit, and vice versa. He says: “Do not wonder that the Apostle attributes to the Jews what happened by necessity (that is, the acceptance of the Gentiles, apart from the will of the Jews). For he speaks thus in order to humble some and give advice to others. Meanwhile, if the Jews were rejected a thousand times, and the Gentiles did not show faith, the latter would never be saved. What the Apostle says means: if God, being angry at the Jews, showed so much mercy to others, what will He not grant when reconciled to them? But as the resurrection of the dead does not come from their acceptance, so our present salvation does not come from them. On the contrary, they are rejected for their unbelief, and we are saved by our faith and grace from above. And all this cannot bring them even a small benefit if they do not show proper faith.”

Rom. 11:16. For if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

“The lump”, φύραμα, is kneaded dough. When dough is kneaded for bread, first the foundation is laid, upon which depends both good kneading and good rising or leavening of the dough. Then flour is added and kneading continues until the dough comes to the right measure. If the foundation is properly laid, the bread will turn out good, but if something is wrong in the foundation, the bread will also be defective. The Apostle calls it the “first fruit” and says that if it is holy, then the whole “lump” or the whole kneading is also holy. The first fruit for bread dough is the same as the root for branches. Whom does the Apostle have in view here, and why did he say this? He has in view the patriarchs of Israel—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob—as the first fruit and root, and the whole people of Israel as the lump and branches, and affirms that if the patriarchs are holy, as they indeed are holy and in glory with God in heaven, then the whole mass of the people is also holy. The Apostle said this in order to impress: the whole mass of the people should be holy—such it was established in the patriarchs and such it is destined and capable of being. Therefore, seeing now the unbelieving among the Jews, do not think that they will remain so; the time will come when they too will believe and become holy. And such an assurance he presents to confirm his earlier expressed expectation that they will be received, after which the glorious Kingdom of God will be revealed upon the resurrection of the dead; his labors are not vain in seeking quickly to convert the Gentiles and thereby contribute to the quicker conversion of the Jews and the quicker revelation of the Kingdom of God. And extending his thought into the far future, the Apostle, of course, did not lose sight of the then-present Jews and by the proverb offered wished perhaps also to provoke them to faith, speaking as if: this is what you are destined for! What are you waiting for? Turn and quickly enter the rank of the holy, so as not to remain long estranged from your holy root. Blessed Photius in Oecumenius says: “If necessarily the dough and branches must be holy with the first fruit and root—which are holy—but the Jews are not holy (because of unbelief); then it is evident that they are in a falling away from their family root—Abraham.” To which Oecumenius himself adds: “By calling them holy, he disposes them to faith, speaking as if: you are fit and suitable for faith; you lack only one thing—the will to believe.”

The Wild Olive Grafted In: Do Not Be Highminded, but Fear (Romans 11:17–22)

Rom. 11:17–18. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches.

Having reached: “if the root is holy, so are the branches”—the Apostle now builds his exhortation to the believing Gentiles upon this: to be humble, as he intended, and does it thus: having said: “if the root is holy, so are the branches”—he suggested the thought that the Jewish people are holy in their entirety, yet there were many among them who did not believe and consequently were not holy. This could not fail to raise the question in the minds of the believing Gentiles: how is this? not all the branches are holy; as we see, the Apostle has already, though not clearly, settled this question in the words: “how much more their fullness” and: “what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” That is, they too will be holy, or—in possibility they are already holy. Therefore he does not repeat this now, but, agreeing with the objectors regarding the Jews, turns his attention to the Gentiles themselves and disposes them to fix their attention on themselves more than on the Jews, speaking as if: let some be broken off; do not fix your eyes on that, but look more to yourself. They are broken off, but you are grafted in. Disregard those who are broken off; God will arrange them according to His will. Direct all your attention to that which this grafting binds you to and how you ought to conduct yourself so as not yourself to be broken off like them.

Having given such a turn to the thought, the Apostle then teaches the believing Gentiles at length about humility and caution. But in setting forth this lesson, he uses such words as, while humbling the Gentiles, could not fail to touch the unbelieving Jews as well; so that it must be supposed that he had them in mind too, hoping that his words might humble someone and draw them to faith.

You, Gentile, a wild olive tree whose juices were bad and whose fruit was unfit for use, have now been grafted into a healthy and fruitful olive tree, not growing up from within it, but grafted on from without—as if to say: you are glued on and sit unsteadily; you have been grafted in and have become a partaker of the root and good juice of the olive tree. The good juices of the olive tree, foreign to you, have entered into you, displaced your bad juices, and made you fit to bear good fruit. You have nothing of your own; everything is foreign. One commentator notes: ordinarily a graft ennobles the juices of the tree; but, as ancient and modern travelers note, with olives it is different: a wild olive, grafted to the root, takes in good juices. This is how they rejuvenate old olive trees. All this is humbling instruction for the Gentile. From it follows: it is certainly praiseworthy that you have been grafted in, but you yourself have nothing here to boast of.

But how many strong admonitions for the Jew are contained in these words! It is this side particularly that Holy Chrysostom clarifies: “Observe the wisdom of the Apostle, how, apparently speaking to benefit the Jews and devising for them consolation, he yet strikes them in secret and through the words: root and first fruit—represents them as having no excuse. For imagine the worthlessness of branches that, having a sweet root, do not resemble it, and the worthlessness of the dough when it is not changed (does not rise and leaven) from the first fruit. ‘If some of the branches were broken off.’ Most of the branches broke off, but the Apostle wishes to console the Jews (that only some did). Meanwhile, however, he wounds them, proving (by the word ‘were broken off’) that they have separated from kinship with Abraham. For that is precisely what the Apostle was trying to say—that unbelieving Jews have nothing in common with Abraham. Because if the root is holy and they are not holy, then they are far from the root. Then, apparently consoling the Jew, he again strikes him by the very degradation of the Gentiles. For, having said ‘if some of the branches were broken off,’ he adds: ‘but you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them.’ The more worthless the Gentile, the more the Jew grieves, seeing that he enjoys his own possession. To the Gentile shame comes not so much from his worthlessness as honor from his change. And mark the wisdom in the Apostle’s words—he did not say: you were planted—but ‘you were grafted in’—by which he again wounds the Jew and shows that the Gentile came to stand on the tree in place of the Jew, and the Jew lies on the ground. And therefore he did not stop there and, having said ‘you were grafted in,’ did not end his discourse, though he had already said everything; on the contrary, he continues to describe the prosperity of the Gentile and expands in depicting honor, saying: ‘and became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree.’ Though apparently he places the Gentile at the level of something accessory (humbles him), yet he shows that he suffers no harm from this, but has everything that belongs to a branch proceeding from the root. That from the words ‘you were grafted in’ one might not conclude that the Gentile is debased before the natural branch, see how the Apostle makes him equal, saying: ‘and became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree’—that is, attained to the same nobility, received the same nature (by this he wounds the Jew). Then, when he instructs and says: ‘do not boast against the branches’—apparently he consoles the Jew by this, but in fact shows his worthlessness and greater dishonor. Therefore he did not say: do not boast—but ‘do not boast against the branches’—do not exalt yourself over them as over those broken off. You are placed in their place and enjoy what belonged to them. See how apparently he rebukes the Gentiles, yet in fact wounds the Jews.”

Rom. 11:18. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

“Do not boast against the branches”—do not exalt yourself over these broken-off branches, do not humiliate them or mock them, seeing into what calamity unbelief has plunged them. “‘This,’ as Ambrosiaster noted, ‘was not to be done even by the general rule of the Wise, according to which one should not rejoice in another’s stumbling, because this is not pleasing to the Lord’ (Prov. 24:17–18). But the Apostle, to urge this upon them, brings that very thing of how the Gentiles have come into such a state that they could, even sinfully, boast over the Jews, namely that although they have become better than the broken-off branches, yet they are still branches on a foreign root, not a separate tree with their own root. You do not, he says, ‘support the root, but the root supports you’—that is, you have no stability in yourself and everything is foreign to you, so you have nothing to boast of.” “If you boast”—if temptation comes to you to boast, then, one must understand, “consider that the root bears you, and you do not bear the root, and you have need of it, not it of you” (Blessed Theodoret), and the temptation will pass; you will drive off the budding self-praise. By this the Apostle humbles the Gentiles. “But, as has been noted, in devising even a faint shadow of comfort for the Jew, by the very fact of rebuking the Gentiles, he strikes a timely blow against the Jews. Having said: ‘do not boast’—and: ‘if you boast’—he gave the Jew to understand that what was happening was worthy of boasting about, though one should not boast of it; and by this arouses and encourages him to faith, shows himself a champion of his cause, points out the loss he has sustained, and that foreigners possess his own possessions” (Holy Chrysostom).

By these words the Apostle suggests the thought that the race of the saved is one from the beginning of the world, like one tree of life, and that no one is saved separately, but, if he wishes to be saved, must be grafted into this tree of the saved race, enter into communion with its life, and become one with it. This race was preserved by special divine providence among the Jewish people, and then through the Lord Jesus Christ entrance into it, or kinship with it, was opened to all peoples. The Saviour Himself showed this when, conversing with the Samaritan woman, He said that: “salvation is from the Jews” (Jn. 4:22). To this also can be referred the prophetic blessing of the righteous Noah given to Japheth: “May he dwell in the tents of Shem”. And to Shem he had earlier foretold that the race of the saved would remain in his line and the Lord God would always be the God of Shem (Gen. 9:26–27).

Rom. 11:19–20. You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’ Well said. They were broken off by unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.

“The Apostle continues to humble the believing Gentile and wound the unbelieving Jew. “A Gentile raises an objection: how should I not boast when so many goods have increased to me? They were broken off, and I was grafted in and enjoy the promises given to them, I who am a stranger to them and stand in no kinship with them” (Oecumenius). Every word is a wound to the Jew. What does the Apostle do? Though there is no causal connection here—the breaking off of some is not the cause of the grafting in of others; yet the Apostle agrees with this speech and says: ‘Well said’. Quite so; you see, I see it too, and everyone else sees that these events follow one another. But do not stop at this mere succession of events; look deeper into the cause of each. The cause of the breaking off of the Jews is not your grafting in, but their unbelief; and the cause of your grafting in is not their breaking off, but your faith. Each of these events, following one after the other, does not have one as the cause of the other, but each has its own cause. In them—unbelief; in you—faith. Let each of those involved in these events direct his attention to this. You are grafted in by faith, but faith gives all freely, and no external advantages are taken into account in this. Therefore you have nothing to boast of. They were broken off by unbelief; but what is easier, more convenient, and more at hand than faith? It requires neither special time, nor special place, nor labor; only an inner turning—commit yourself to God and lay everything upon Him. Therefore your unbelief can have no excuse. ‘Here again is new praise for the Gentiles, yet praise that overthrows their arrogance, and a new accusation of the Jews, one that can yet serve them as a strong inducement to faith’ (Holy Chrysostom).”

Of those he said: “were broken off”—but to him he says, not: you were grafted in—but: “you stand”. He wishes by this to express that you are firmly established on the root and therefore can be confident if you do not lose the power by which you were grafted in and now stand: for here “everything is not a matter of nature but a matter of faith and unbelief” (Holy Chrysostom). Since passage from unbelief to faith and from faith to unbelief is equally easy and can happen in an instant, the Apostle adds: “Do not be haughty, but fear”. Ascribe nothing to yourself and do not think highly of yourself, having been made worthy of great spiritual blessings by grace. For here all is from God, and faith itself is from Him. You only agreed to believe; God Himself gave the faith, and by faith all else was then granted. And the very foundation of faith is utter self-abasement: I am God’s debtor without hope of repayment and one condemned; I have no salvation in anything except the Lord Jesus Christ; to Him I commit myself with my whole soul. And faith, as it begins in this spirit of self-abasement, so stands by it, and from it all the zeal and solicitude for salvation comes in believers. Therefore the Apostle, having said: “you stand by faith”—added nothing else but “Do not be haughty”, because in not being haughty and humble self-abasement is the spirit of faith and the power of life by faith. Whoever begins a little to deviate into thinking highly of himself, his faith has begun to waver; conceit has already arisen toward the very thing of faith, indifference has begun to stir regarding salvation (Holy Chrysostom). And in all this what extreme danger! Therefore the Apostle also added: “but fear”. Walk with caution and with utmost vigilance watch over your heart lest high thoughts of yourself creep in. For as soon as they creep in, they weaken faith, and after this weakening comes a crack, and from a crack it is not far to breaking off, and in that is ruin. Fear haughtiness as fire, and with all fear and trembling work out your salvation.

Rom. 11:21. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.

The natural branches he calls the Jews descended from the patriarchs, their forefathers, to whom and whose race the promises were given. The promises extend to this race under the condition that those who make it up remain in the same spirit of faith in God and obedience to His commandments as the patriarch forefathers. This is indeed so: those who believed and listened to the Gospel partake, as you see, of the promises and are in the mercy of God, as their fathers were; but those who do not believe and stubbornly resist the will of God in this are deprived of the promises and excluded from the race of their fathers, because they became of a different spirit from these fathers. God did not look at the fact that they are descended from such great fathers and such a blessed race, but rejected them when by their unbelief they became unworthy of mercy. For God shows no partiality. Everyone receives according to their worth—either mercy or no compassion. Look, you, Gentile, who believed and for that were received into the blessed race of God, the race of the saved; reason and keep in mind that if God rejected those whose race He had as His own and watched so carefully until now, for their unbelief; then even more He will not spare you, a stranger, received into God’s race from without, if you become weak in faith or waver in it, or conduct yourself unworthy of it. Keep this in mind and fear—fear losing the good you have been granted and being deprived of God’s mercy.

“Unbelief made the Jews strangers to the root, and faith united you with the root and made you partaker of its richness. Therefore one ought not to be haughty, but to fear and tremble. For what? (That you might not lose this spirit of faith and for that not be deprived of God’s mercy.) For if that kinship by nature brought them no benefit when they did not have the same disposition as their fathers; then even more you, if you do not keep grace, will become a stranger to the root” (Blessed Theodoret). “And rightly so. For if God cut off those who by their fathers’ advantages were worthy, who were even given the promise to be adopted as God’s sons, because of their unbelief; what will He not do to those who are exalted so without any advantages, if they waver in faith or become haughty? For they are honored altogether without any merit” (Ambrosiaster).

The thought of the Apostle in the words: “He may not spare you either” is that He will assuredly not spare you either; but he expressed it so uncertainly and hesitantly, or in keeping with the word: “fear”, since fear usually manifests itself in uncertain expectations, lest this or that happen, lest one allow that or this; or to soften in the word the harshness of the judgment (Oecumenius), allowing the readers to understand it for themselves. And Holy Chrysostom says: “Having said: ‘For if God did not spare the natural branches’—the Apostle did not continue so: He will not spare you either—but says: ‘He may not spare you either.’ Thus, excluding harsh expressions from the speech and making the believer cautious, he attracts the Jews and humbles the Gentiles.”

Rom. 11:22. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.

Two examples before your eyes—an example of God’s goodness and an example of God’s severity, that is, of His stern judgment and rejection of the guilty. The Jews did not believe, did not submit to God’s will in this, and fell away thereby from the race of God’s chosen sons—and God did not spare them, did not look to the fact that they have such fathers according to the flesh and that He Himself lavished so much care on them; but as soon as they became unworthy of His goodness through their stubborn unbelief, He immediately rejected them and deprived them of His mercy. You believed humbly and with submission—and God’s goodness poured out upon you all blessings predetermined for such. And these blessings will remain forever your possession if you throughout your life keep yourself worthy of God’s love and thereby remain in God’s goodness. But “if you do not do so, you too will be cut off” (Blessed Theophylact). Do not expect mercy; the example is before your eyes. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle did not say: see your merits, see your labors—but: ‘consider the goodness and severity of God.’ By this he shows you that all has been accomplished by grace from above, and he brings you to fear. The very ground for vainglory makes you fear. The Master became merciful to you, and therefore fear. As the blessings are not yours to keep if you neglect them, so the evil is not unavoidable for the Jews if they change.”

All Israel Shall Be Saved (Romans 11:23–28)

Rom. 11:23. And they also, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again.

God both shows mercy and rejects, according to the disposition of men’s will: He shows mercy to the obedient, and rejects the disobedient. But while we are here on earth, God’s rejection is never final: it is always only corrective. He rejects so that through rejection itself He may bring to reason and draw to Himself. However someone may be rejected, but as soon as he comes to reason and flees to God, He again receives him into mercy. So it will be with the Jews: if they cast off their unbelief and cease to resist, God will again receive them into His people, into the race of the saved, chosen, and holy. Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see the power of freedom? What is the authority of will? Nothing is unchangeable, neither your good, O Gentile, nor his evil, O Jew. Do you see how the Apostle both raised up the despairing Jew and humbled the presumptuous Gentile? And you, Jew, hearing of severity, do not fall into despair; and you, Gentile, hearing of goodness, do not rely on yourself. I did not spare you but cut you off so that you might desire to return; but to you I showed grace so that you would remain, and the Apostle did not say ‘in faith’ but ‘in grace,’ that is, so that you do what is worthy of God’s love for mankind; for faith alone is not enough. Do you notice how the Apostle does not allow the fallen to lie, or the others to act haughtily? Rather, he still stirs up those fallen to emulation, showing the Jew from the example of the Gentiles the possibility of again taking the place of the Gentile, just as the Gentile took the place of the Jew? He frightens the Gentiles lest they boast against the Jews by the example of the Jews and what happened to them; and he encourages the Jew by what was done for the Gentile. And you will be cut off too, the Apostle says to the Gentile, if you grow negligent. The Jew is cut off, but he will be grafted in if he makes an effort, because you were grafted in too. And it is most wisely done by the Apostle that he directs the whole address to the Gentile and, by his constant habit, striking the stronger, he corrects thereby the weaker. Then, lest his chain of reasoning could be disputed, he takes proof from the almightiness of God. Although the Jews are cut off and rejected, although others have taken their place, they should not, for all that, despair. ‘For God is able,’ he says, ‘to graft them in again.’ God is able to accomplish even what is beyond hope. But if you need empirical proofs, you have in yourself the most sufficient example.”

Rom. 11:24. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree.

He explains the possibility of the Jews’ being grafted in again—those who fell from the tree of the saved—by the grafting of the Gentiles who did not belong to it. Everything is from faith, and faith comes from will. If the Jews receive faith, they will be grafted in. “If faith was able to produce what is not according to nature, much more will it produce what is according to nature” (Saint Chrysostom). He calls the whole Gentile race a wild olive tree because they had not been cultivated as the Jews were cultivated; they had neither the Law given by God, nor the Prophets sent by God, nor experienced God’s special providential actions. They grew as a wild olive tree grows, not tended by a skilled gardener. Therefore they had nothing special from God except what is placed in nature; and yet they grafted themselves in by grace through faith. With the Jew, although he does not yet believe, traces of that special divine gift which was given and revealed to his ancestors still remain—he has the Law and the Prophets. Therefore he has much that is akin to the foundations of faith. So he can the more readily turn when he wishes. Blessed Theodoret writes: “If you, being a wild olive tree (because you had neither a law to cultivate you, nor Prophets to water you, to cleanse you, and to provide proper care for you), are separated from the impious ancestors and relatives, and have been made a partaker of Abraham’s faith, and boast that Abraham is your root, father and forefather, not by natural law but by God’s generosity, then certainly it is more lawful and natural that the Jews, believing, should be joined to their own root. This is what the Apostle says, teaching the believing Gentiles humility and drawing unbelieving Jews to salvation.” Saint Chrysostom more fully expounds such exhortation, turning his speech to the unbelieving Jew: “You, if you wish to return, will be established not on what is foreign, as the Gentile is, but on your own root. So then, will you deserve any excuse, when for a Gentile it became possible what is not in his nature, but you cannot do what is in your nature, and moreover will destroy what is natural? Since the Apostle said (of the Gentile): ‘contrary to nature’ and ‘you were grafted in,’ from this you might conclude that the Gentile received something greater; but he removes such a conclusion, saying that the Jew will also be grafted in. ‘How much more these,’ he says, ‘who are natural branches, will be grafted into their own olive tree.’ And again: ‘God is able to graft them in.’ And above he said: ‘If they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in.’ Now when you hear that the Apostle often uses the expressions ‘contrary to nature’ and ‘according to nature,’ do not conclude from this that he means here immutable nature; on the contrary, by these terms he signifies both what is in accordance with and corresponds to nature, and what is contrary to nature. Good and evil are not natural actions, but only actions of will and freedom.”

Rom. 11:25. For I do not desire you to be ignorant of this mystery, brethren, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

What he spoke of before based on reasoning, he now presents as the providential will of God, made known to him by revelation. For when he says he wishes to make known to them a mystery, he signals that what is being made known is something hidden, unknown to the mind; and when he promises to make it known, he indicates that it has been revealed to him from above. And if it is revealed from above, it means such is God’s will that what happens shall be as he makes it known. “A mystery here,” says Saint Chrysostom, “he calls what is unknown and hidden, containing much that is wonderful and incomprehensible. In another place also he says: ‘Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed’ (1 Cor. 15:51).” Blessed Theodoret adds to this: “a mystery is what is known not to all, but to those trusted with it. Therefore the Apostle says: I wish to make known to you what mystery about this matter we know (by revelation).” What is this mystery? “That blindness in part has happened to Israel. ‘In part’” means either not completely, not forever, but only for a determined time, or that not all were subject to this blindness because of unbelief, but that there are also believers; or both together, that part believed while part remains in blindness, yet we should not despair concerning them; they will also believe later when the blindness falls from their eyes. He called the state of unbelieving Jews blindness because indeed there lay a veil upon the eyes of their mind because of their attachment to the Law, and it did not allow them to see concerning Christ the Lord—they did not believe because of deception. The deceptions will scatter, and they will believe. When? “When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” The blindness of Israel will continue until “all the Gentiles foreknown by God” (Blessed Theophylact) enter the fence of faith. “After the Gentiles receive the preaching, they will also believe when the great Elijah comes and proclaims to them the teaching of faith. The Lord Himself declared this in the Holy Gospel, that Elijah ‘will come and set all things in order’ (Matt. 17:11)” (Blessed Theodoret). Ambrosiaster writes: “The Jews are struck with blindness only for a time, and only those of them who, zealous for the Law, did not see that the goods promised by God came in Jesus Christ the Lord and are proclaimed. Thus they were blinded by foolish zeal, and, thinking that the Law of works should never cease, they are zealous for the Sabbath. By this stumbling block they are blinded in part, so that they suffer for their unbelief, seeing how the Gentiles with joy use their unbelief and enter into the inheritance of Abraham’s promise. But when the full number of the Gentiles comes in, then the blindness will fall from the eyes of their mind, and they will be able to believe and will believe. The spirit of stupor that brings blindness upon them will depart from their heart and restore freedom to their good will. Their unbelief is not from malice but from deception: they will be corrected and saved.”

The Apostle communicates such a revelation to the “brethren,” that is, to the whole assembly of believing Romans, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles, and communicates it so that “you may not be wise in your own opinion.” Perhaps by this he wishes to spare them the labor of investigation and resolution of the difficulty before them regarding the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles, as it were saying: so that you do not rack your brains over this and by error come to false conclusions which, however, will seem to you true and thus puff you up. Or thus: the Romans were more educated than others and naturally they were inclined to attribute to themselves some advantage over others, especially after being enlightened by faith, which imparted views embracing all that exists from the beginning to the last days and for all eternity. The Apostle says: lest you fancy about yourselves that you already know everything, I make known to you the marvelous, unspeakable, and unknowable mystery of God’s providence concerning all people in the temporary rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles. Understand and humble yourselves (Gennadius in Oecumenius). Something similar seems to have been in the mind of Blessed Theodoret, when he wrote: “that you, considering yourselves very wise, may not thereby form a high opinion of yourselves.”

Rom. 11:26-27. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.

“And so,” but he does not say how; he lets it be understood from the course of the discourse. The blindness of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. Consequently, when this number comes in, the blindness will fall from Israel’s eyes, he will see the truth, will believe in the Lord Saviour, and thus will be saved. “All Israel,” instead of the greater part, will turn away from sins and turn toward the Lord (Oecumenius). As during the time of the Apostolic preaching they said all Israel did not believe, understanding the majority, the mass; so in the last time they will say all Israel is saved, having turned to the true faith, also because of the majority believing. Those saved are always the chosen ones, whether from the Gentiles or from the Jews, and not all of one or the other kind of people. “All Israel” may also mean to the Apostle all believers, whoever they are; for it is they who are truly Israel. Blessed Theodoret indeed understands it so: “By ‘all Israel’ the Apostle calls the believers, whether they are Jews having natural kinship with Israel, or Gentiles joined to Israel by the kinship of faith.”

“Since what the Apostle proclaims is important, he brings forward the Prophet as witness, speaking the same thing. He does not present testimony that blindness occurred, since this is evident; but that the Jews will believe and be saved is testified to by Isaiah, who cries out and says: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion and will turn away ungodliness from Jacob’” (Saint Chrysostom).

The Prophet Isaiah foretold the coming of Christ the Saviour, calling Him the Deliverer or Redeemer and saying that He will come from Zion, that is, from among the sons of Israel themselves, and will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, who was the first to be called Israel. “Turn away ungodliness” means: make godly, that is, teach faith, supply grace, sanctify, and present to God as a sincere believer. During the times of the Apostles ungodliness was turned away from many Israelites by faith in the Lord and grace of the Holy Spirit—from many, but not from all; the mass of the people remained in ungodliness. But since the Prophet Isaiah decisively asserts that the Deliverer, having come, will turn away ungodliness from Jacob without limitation, and this has not yet been fulfilled, it will surely come to pass, for prophetic word cannot “lie.” That which will come to pass is the turning away of ungodliness from all Jacob; but since this cannot happen while he remains in blindness, there will be a time when this blindness falls away and Israel is saved, becoming truly godly. Which is what the Apostle wished to confirm with the cited prophecy. But lest someone interpret the Prophet’s words wrongly and say that this turning away of ungodliness means that the Israelites will become perfectly faithful to the Law given to them, rather than being sanctified by faith and grace, the Apostle cites other words of the same Prophet showing what this turning away of ungodliness will consist of. “And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” The essence of this covenant and the sign by which you can understand that the promised thing has been fulfilled is: when “I take away their sins. ‘Take away’” means not merely to forgive the guilt, but to make them themselves clean, driving sins out of them. “It is clear that this word means the cleansing of sins, given through baptism” (Blessed Theodoret). Here is the essence of the covenant, here is the sign when it will be fulfilled: “I will turn away ungodliness from Jacob!” Since this has not yet happened—it must be added again—since not all the Israelites have yet believed and been baptized and therefore sins still lie upon them, and prophetic word cannot lie, then this will certainly happen.

Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle here points to the sign of salvation, so that no one would refer and apply it to past times. Not then, he says, will this be accomplished, when they will be circumcised, offer sacrifices, perform other lawful works, but when they receive the forgiveness of sins. And if this was foretold and has not yet been fulfilled in the Jews, they have not yet received the forgiveness of sins through baptism; then it will certainly be fulfilled.” Ambrosiaster adds: “The Lord does not immediately condemn (and reject) the unbelieving, but waits for their repentance, knowing that they too can come to the knowledge of God.”

The prophetic words up to: “this is My covenant” are taken from the fifty-ninth chapter of the Prophet Isaiah (verses 20-21); and the latter words: “when I take away their sins” are taken from the twenty-seventh chapter (verse 9) of the same Prophet. But even if the Apostle had taken the words from different Prophets and composed them into one prophecy, it would have been correct; for the power lies not in the words but in the thought. The prophetic spirit is one and the same with the Apostolic, and the Apostles see all the utterances of the Prophets as one utterance.

Rom. 11:28. Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.

From all that has been said it follows that if we look at the Jews in relation to the Gospel, they are enemies. Of whom? Of God, as they are hereafter and beloved—also of God. Inasmuch as they resist the Gospel and wage war both against the preachers and the believers, and thereby resist God’s arrangements, God is not well-pleased with them; He rejected them, did not spare them, cut them off from the olive tree as unworthy branches. And this is “for your sake,” O Gentiles, so that you might enter the fence of faith and be saved. And it will remain so until you all enter. By this the Apostle urges the Gentiles: see how God has been well-pleased toward you! “Because you are called, the Jews have become more stubborn. However, God has not stopped calling you even at this, but waits until all who are to believe from the Gentiles come in. Then the Jews will also come in” (Saint Chrysostom).

And that this will truly come to pass should be concluded from the fact that although now the Jews, on account of their unbelief, do not enjoy God’s actual blessings, yet because they belong to the chosen race—the one chosen from all nations and adopted by God—God, for the sake of this election of which they are deemed worthy on account of their great fathers, has not entirely turned away from them, has not entirely rejected them, but continues to regard them as a Father and is ready to receive them again as soon as they believe. Thus they do not cease to be beloved by God on account of their fathers, in virtue of the election of their ancestors, and in them—of themselves. By this the Apostle urges the Jews: see how God loves you, that despite your unbelief and resistance to Him, He still has not entirely rejected you, but waits for your turning. See also that “the virtues of the ancestors profit you nothing if you yourselves do not believe” (Saint Chrysostom). Therefore, hasten to faith, lest God’s waiting be exhausted and you fall under final rejection. “The Apostle does not cease to comfort the Jews with words so as to draw them in” (Saint Chrysostom).

The Depth of the Riches and Wisdom of God: For of Him and Through Him Are All Things (Romans 11:29–36)

Rom. 11:29. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

The Apostle brings this forward as the foundation for conviction in what has been said. “Irrevocable” means God does not repent and does not annul what He has given and whom He has called. He reminds of the original election of the Jewish people. How many patriarchs were there among the descendants of Noah, and how many peoples arose from them after the confusion of tongues! But from all of them God chose only the race of Hebrews, and not the entire race, but from it He took only one Abraham, from whom He produced for Himself a special people. This people is the chosen one, having a special calling and purpose and enjoying so many blessings and gifts: to them was given the Law, to them were sent the Prophets, for them signs and wonders were shown. And after all this, is it possible that God would entirely reject them?! No; whom God has chosen He will chastise correctively, will deprive of His mercy for a time, but will never entirely reject him. For otherwise He would not have chosen him if He had foreseen that he would someday become entirely unworthy of His mercy. The Jews have their defects and continue to have them; but among all peoples none could better fulfill God’s intentions regarding the salvation of mankind. God foresaw this and chose them. If He chose them, then He has not entirely rejected them, despite the fact that at the present time they appear worthy of rejection and are rejected. This is only temporary. Later that which was originally destined for them will return to them. See Gen. 10:21, 24–30.

Rom. 11:30-31. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have been disobedient that through the mercy shown to you they also may obtain mercy.

And you, Gentiles, once disobeyed God—ἤπειθήσατε—were not convinced by His word of truth and did not listen, did not follow it. When was this? Perhaps this refers to the time when God equally guided all nations, even before the calling of Abraham. God, seeing that they were not brought to reason by the flood nor by the confusion of tongues, and increasingly and increasingly turned away from God’s truth and righteousness, living according to their own will, reasoning and walking—seeing all this, decided to choose and as it were create a special people who would fulfill His intentions.

We cite the words of our interpreters. Saint Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle shows that all nations were formerly called (and guided); but then, when they were unwilling (to follow God’s guidance), the Jews were chosen, and now the same thing has happened: since the Jews were unwilling to believe, nations are called again. But he does not stop at this and always directs it not to the fact that the Jews are rejected, but to the fact that they too will be shown mercy again. See, to the Gentiles he gives as much as he previously gave to the Jews. Since you, Gentiles, were once disobedient, says the Apostle, the Jews entered. And again, since they became disobedient, you entered, yet they will not entirely perish (but will be shown mercy).”

Blessed Theodoret writes: “Remember how you were all impious for a very long time, and the compassionate Master did not regard this long and stubborn impiety, but deemed those who wished worthy of unspeakable compassion and, when the Jews did not believe, called you in their stead. Therefore it is not at all strange if those who are now resisting (the Jews), wishing to believe, will be received by God and obtain the same compassion. Again the Apostle used the expression ‘that’ in his characteristic manner of expression. For it is not that they resisted in order to be shown mercy; but although they resisted through the stubbornness of their mind, they will be shown mercy, turning to repentance.”

In Ambrosiaster we read: “Since, he says, you, Gentiles, when the words of God were entrusted to the Jews, disobeyed God, and now have obtained mercy not according to your worthiness but because of the reprehensible conduct of the Jews, why should they not the more obtain mercy, who formerly lived under God’s Law and were deemed worthy of special promises of God?”

Photius in Oecumenius reasons thus: “With such words the Apostle disposes the Jews toward faith and gives them good hopes, removing all shame. Do not be ashamed, he says, that you were stubborn in coming to faith, and do not despair as one coming late: you will receive mercy even coming late (toward evening). For even the Gentiles, being called, did not obey at first, but now believed, neither being ashamed of their former disobedience nor encountering impediment to salvation in their lateness. So you too, Jew, do not be ashamed or despair, but with a ready heart come to faith, and you will certainly be shown mercy. So either in the manner of such exhortation and persuasion is it said, or in the manner of prophecy, disposing toward faith in the application of what will happen to what has already happened. And when he says: ‘you were shown mercy because of their disobedience’ and ‘they disobeyed for the sake of your mercy,’ he does not say this because the disobedience of the Jews is the cause of the mercy shown to the Gentiles, nor because the mercy shown to the Gentiles is the cause of the disobedience of the Jews, but in order to show and teach that God never ceases to do His work and pour out His mercy. Let the Gentiles formerly not have listened, and let the Jews not listen now, He nevertheless does not cease His beneficence and mercies. This is evident from the fact that just as then, because of the disobedience of the Gentiles, the Jews were deemed worthy of mercy, so now the Gentiles are shown mercy because of the disobedience of the Jews. And even more clearly this is evident from the fact that He will show mercy to these very Jews now disobeying. Along with this the Apostle makes an instruction to the Jews, speaking as if: although you have withdrawn from faith, do not think that thereby faith is in any way diminished in its significance. For just as of old, when the Gentiles fell away, the work of serving the true God did not suffer diminishment, so now, when you have cut yourselves off from faith, the work of faith is not in any way diminished in its significance. He transformed what was said on the Gentiles, wishing to make the rebuke and persuasion to the Jews more keenly felt. One can also take it that the Apostle said this, having in mind the believing Gentiles, so that they would not be wise in their own conceit, that they believed. You, he says, believed by mercy; the Jews too, now not submitting to faith, will believe and be shown mercy.”

Rom. 11:32. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He might show mercy to all.

“That is, He convicted all, declared all disobedient (shut up all in one class of the disobedient), not in order that all would remain disobedient, but in order to save some through the stubbornness of others, the Jews through the Gentiles and the Gentiles through the Jews. See therefore: you (Gentiles) were disobedient, and they (Jews) were saved. Then they became disobedient, and you were saved; nevertheless you were saved not in order to turn away again, like the Jews, but so that, remaining in faith, you might draw them in as well, stirring them to emulation” (Saint Chrysostom).

Rom. 11:33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

By “depth” he calls the incomprehensibility; by “riches” the fullness of goodness; by “wisdom” the successful execution of the great plans of His providence regarding mankind through suitable means, the suitability of which is incomprehensible to our mind, although it sees it; by “knowledge” God’s knowledge, which in the best manner determines everything that should be. Or perhaps riches relates to wisdom and knowledge thus: O the depth of riches as of both the wisdom and knowledge of God, that is, of rich wisdom and rich knowledge! And God’s wisdom and knowledge are both rich and deep. By “judgments” he calls God’s determinations and decrees, what should be; and by “ways” the means of executing what is determined. All this in God is incomprehensible and beyond thought. Saint Chrysostom says: “Rising in thought to the first times, surveying in mind God’s ancient economy from the beginning of the world to the present events (and foreseeing it to the end of the world), reflecting on how God arranged everything in such varied ways, the Apostle came to amazement and cried out, thus assuring the listeners that what he has said will certainly come to pass. And if it were not bound to come to pass certainly, he would not cry out and be amazed. And although he knows it is a depth, he does not know what depth it is. This is the speech of an amazed man who does not know everything. Filled with amazement and wonder before the goodness, he proclaimed it in the two most expressive words he could find: ‘riches and depth.’ And he was brought to amazement by the fact that God wished to do it, was able to do it, and produced opposite actions one toward another. ‘How unsearchable are His judgments.’ (‘How,’ ώς—How unsearchable!) Not only is it impossible to comprehend them, but even to search them out. ‘And unfathomable His ways!’ That is, the ways of the economy; because not only is it impossible to know these, but even to investigate them. And I, says the Apostle, did not find everything, but disclosed a small part, not the whole. God alone completely knows His works. Therefore the Apostle continued:”

Rom. 11:34-35. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?

Words of the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 40:13-14). The whole passage reads in him as follows: “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor, who taught Him? Or with whom did He take counsel and instructed and (Him)? Or who showed Him judgment? Or who showed Him the way of understanding? Or who first gave to Him, and it shall be repaid to him?” “These words mean that God, being so wise, does not borrow wisdom from another, but is Himself the source (of it, as of all) good things; that He, having accomplished so much for us and benefited us so greatly, did not give us something borrowed from another, but poured it forth from Himself; that He owes no one a reward, as having taken something from another, but is always the principal source of good things Himself. Riches consist especially in abounding in all things and being indebted to no one else” (Saint Chrysostom). Let us add to this also what Blessed Theodoret said: “The Apostle proposed these three questions to show three preeminences—riches, wisdom, and knowledge: ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord?’ to show knowledge; ‘Who has been His counselor?’ to show wisdom; ‘Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?’ to show riches. For so immeasurably great is the riches of goodness that He gave being to those not existing, and to those brought into being He grants good being, and He does not recompense, but gives blessings, and in His love for mankind He calls His giving a recompense.”

Rom. 11:36. For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

“He Himself devised, He Himself created, He Himself sustains, because He is rich and does not need to take from another; because He is wise and does not need counsel” (Saint Chrysostom). “He Himself is the source of all: this means: ‘of Him.’ He is also the Creator of all: this means: ‘through Him.’ He is also the support of all: this means: ‘in Him.’ All has its origin from Him, and by Him all was created, and all stands and is held, resting on Him as on a foundation” (Blessed Theodoret). Saint Basil the Great by this passage proves the Godhead of the Holy Spirit, referring to Him the word “in Him, through” Him to the Son of God, and “of Him” to God the Father, who are comprehended in a single name—Lord and God, as Consubstantial and Equally Worthy of Worship. “In the words: ‘of Him and through Him and to Him are all things’—in a single name are united the distinctive properties of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For there is One God, from whom all things; and One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things; and One Holy Spirit, in whom all things, as it is said: ‘You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you’ (Rom. 8:9). Therefore the statement: ‘in Him we live and move and exist’ (Acts 17:28) clearly expresses the distinctive property of the Spirit in God. Creation is sustained, lives, and exists certainly not by a creature, which itself needs support by the power of the Creator; certainly not by the action of a creature is God glorified, when it is said of Him Himself that: ‘in Him we live, move, and exist’; but truly the divine Spirit sustains in being all that is from God and all that came through the Son. Therefore, to those partaking of Him He grants the continuance of being. And in Him we live again, we who previously, through separation from Him, became corrupted.”

“To Him be glory!” “It is Paul’s custom to end his discourse with thanksgiving when he speaks of something important. Thus he does now. Since he was filled with amazement at the goodness, wisdom, knowledge, and ways of God’s economy, he finally doxologizes God, thereby teaching us also to thank God for great blessings and glorify Him both in words and in life” (Blessed Theophylact). “For He Himself created all things, He Himself continues to govern creation. To Him all must direct their gaze, giving thanks for what they have in the present, and asking His care for what is to come. And we must offer to Him also the appropriate doxology” (Blessed Theodoret).

The Moral Part (Romans 12:1–15:13)

The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2)

“Having sufficiently discussed the dogmas, the Apostle finally turns to moral teaching” (Blessed Theophylact). “The beginning and foundation of good things is knowledge of the divine nature, faith in it, and devotion to it. What the eye is in the body, faith and knowledge of the divine is in the soul. However, faith has need also of active virtue, as the eye has need of hands, feet, and other members of the body. This is why the divine Paul joined moral teaching to dogmatic teachings, preparing in us the most perfect virtue. For by teaching the Romans, he benefited all people” (Blessed Theodoret).

In the first place the Apostle sets forth, in a brief but comprehensive outline:

1) A portrayal of the spirit of Christian life (Rom. 12:1, 2)

Rom. 12:1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your spiritual service.

“I beseech you by the compassions of God.” “After a long discussion of God’s love for mankind, in which Paul proved God’s unspeakable care, unspeakable and unsearchable goodness, by this very goodness he persuades those blessed by God to show a life worthy of the gift. And, being so great and exalted, he does not refuse to beseech them, beseech them not for something that would serve him properly, but for that which they could draw benefit for themselves. (The Apostle gives laws and hides power, and in beseeching presents teaching.)” (Blessed Theodoret). “And is it not wonderful that he does not refuse to beseech when he presents to the beseechers God’s very mercy? Since, from God’s compassions, he says, countless blessings have poured upon you, be ashamed, fear them, because these very compassions turn to you with a petition not to reveal in yourselves anything unworthy of them. And I, says the Apostle, beseech you by them, by those compassions by which you are saved. Thus one wishing to shame someone much benefited usually presents to the beseechers the benefactor himself” (Saint Chrysostom).

And experience of life confirms that the most powerful inducement to a life pleasing to God is the awareness of great blessings from God, both in general to all mankind and in particular to the person himself who strives for this. It gives birth to warm feeling of gratitude and stirs up readiness to devote all one’s powers and all one’s possessions to God. Because it sows love, which holds nothing back for itself, but offers all as a sacrifice to the One whom the soul has loved.

“That you present your bodies a living sacrifice.” He taught this before, saying: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body to obey it in its lusts; nor present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom. 6:12, 13). And a little later: “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and lawlessness to lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for holiness” (Rom. 6:19).

The Apostle begins his lessons with how one should relate to the body, because sinful life, against which he arms Christians, and which they have abandoned and cut off in their decision to resist sin, strengthened by the grace of renewal in baptism, leans primarily on the flesh, and self-indulgence—the soul of sinfulness—is almost exclusively fleshly gratification. Therefore, having determined not to spare sin from the first step, he begins the new life with ruthlessness toward the body. Saint Paul confirms this necessity and sanctifies it with his word, demanding that one constantly make his body a sacrifice to God. Whoever holds his body as he should truly offers such a sacrifice to God—always “crucifying his flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24). And there is a slaying here, and a slaying for God, there is a sacrifice to God. The Apostle called this sacrifice living. Saint Chrysostom says: “Since he said ‘sacrifice,’ so that no one would think he commands to slay bodies, he immediately added: ‘living…’ In the Jewish sacrifice what was offered became dead; our sacrifice makes what is offered alive. The Apostle also uses ‘holy’. ‘Present your bodies…a sacrifice…holy.’ Saint Chrysostom says: ‘By this the Apostle also urges that in offering our members as a sacrifice, we must make them blameless; because we present them not to an earthly man but to the King of the universe Himself—God…’ A sacrifice is the first fruits of what you have. Let us offer God the first fruits of our hands, feet, lips, and everything else. Notice the precision in Paul’s words. He did not say: prepare your bodies as a sacrifice, but: ‘present.’ By this he as it were said: you no longer have authority over them; you have given them to another. See also Ps. 50:19, Dan. 3:38, 39 for parallels.”

A holy sacrifice, one might suppose, is already pleasing to God; yet the Apostle thought it necessary to add especially: “present your bodies a sacrifice pleasing to God.” By this the Apostle urges having the proper dispositions in the matter of sacrifice, as Saint Chrysostom said before—namely, one must offer this sacrifice to God, having no extraneous intention except pleasing God, for it is possible that a sacrifice clean in deed will be unclean in intention. Moreover, this sacrifice must be accomplished in the spirit of faith in Christ, because Christ Himself went by the way of the cross, and salvation, given to us by the cross, cannot be participated in otherwise than by the cross itself, taken up in willing choice—which happens precisely when one makes a sacrifice to God from his body.

You must be disposed in this way, the Apostle continues, so that in you there is constantly accomplished “your spiritual service.” “Service,” λατρεία, is service to God, divine service. This service will be spiritual, that is rational, mental, spiritual, when you present to God a sacrifice from holy bodies. That everyone must accomplish such service is accepted as requiring no special proof or explanation. The Apostle only points to the true way to accomplish it. Offer your body to God as a sacrifice, and you will constantly accomplish the spiritual service to God which you are bound to accomplish. On your altar a sacrifice will always thus be burning, and not a fleshly one, although the body is sacrificed in it. The body becomes both a sacrifice and a temple in which the priest—the mind or spirit—offers the sacrifice to God or accomplishes God’s service. Saint Chrysostom says: “What is ‘spiritual service?’ Spiritual service. As one serving and performing sacred rites in God’s house, however they are at other times, enters into themselves while serving and becomes most reverent; so we too must be in such a disposition throughout our whole life as those accomplishing service to God and performing sacred rites. And you will attain this if each day you offer sacrifices to God; you will become a priest of your body and soul’s virtue, sometimes offering chastity, sometimes alms, sometimes meekness and patience. Doing this, you will accomplish spiritual service, that is, service having nothing carnal, crude, or sensual.”

Rom. 12:2. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Having given a law for the body, he writes a law for the soul as well. “And be not conformed to this world,” that is, to the spirit of this world; do not live according to this spirit, do not form yourselves according to it, so that no one could as it were read written on your foreheads: here is a man of this world or the world’s spirit. But what does the spirit of this world consist in? In this: when all care and attention is directed only to how to best arrange one’s earthly well-being using all available means which can be given, one’s personal abilities and powers, family, property, connections, all of civil life and its orders, even the orders and deeds of faith and the Church, and the course of all events, both near and far, both dependent and independent on us—to arrange it, relying on oneself, one’s methods, on people and creatures, not on God, who rules all, although they say “I believe” and “Our Father” and even speak of God’s providence and hope in Him. They think about God, know there is another world and another life, but live in their hearts in this world and in what it gives, having no taste for anything higher than it, and experiencing no striving for what is not sensual, not fleshly, not earthly. The spirit of this world does not necessarily mean unblushing vice and unbridled passionateness. It loves sin and passion, and self-gratification in this constitutes an inseparable trait of it; but it does not tolerate obvious evil and sin, but wishes to appear respectable and honest, often hiding behind such a fair disguise sins sometimes amounting to villainy and even shameful passion. But not all its children are such. The main thing in it, as was said at the beginning, is that it hopes only in this world, pursues earthly happiness, and strives to arrange it by its own means.

In whom such a spirit is active, there is nothing Christian, even though he is a Christian. Christianity begins the moment a longing and striving toward the heavenly, spiritual, eternal, and divine is born in the heart, with a turning away from the earthly, sensual, temporal, and created. The Spirit of Christ is opposed to the spirit of this age, and whereas the latter is entirely upon the earth and in earthly things, the former is entirely in heaven and in heavenly things, in God and in divine things – it alone loves, it alone pursues, in it alone it finds its satisfaction. This does not mean that, being withdrawn from all earthly and created things, he no longer touches anything of the sort and has nothing in his activities resembling the deeds of the sons of this age. The forms of human life are the same, there as here; but the spirit and direction of all is different. The Spirit of Christ does not prohibit the satisfaction of natural human needs, nor does it necessarily drive one from family and society. It permits both civil service and military service, and commerce, and learning, and the arts, but it transforms all of this into means for advancement in the Spirit, for the acquisition of heavenly goods, for pleasing God, ruthlessly casting out only that which is contrary to such a direction. It may happen that the Spirit withdraws some from family and society entirely, but this is not its exclusive property, but rather its higher and most perfect manifestation, in its true form the possession of the few and elect.

Such a spirit of Christian life is born when God’s grace, finding entry into a human heart, awakens there the fear of God and disturbs the conscience, and through these brings a person to feel the danger of remaining in the spirit of this age and in its ways of life, then to repentance and a change of direction in one’s life in thoughts, feelings, desires, and deeds, and to a resolve to live not according to the earth, but according to heaven, the spiritual and divine. After this, whoever is not baptized is baptized; and whoever is baptized receives the Sacrament of Repentance, and being armed by God’s grace, begins in either case to live not according to the spirit of this age. It is to such as these that holy Paul addresses his word: “Be not conformed to this age.” Whoever still remains under the spell of the spirit of this age cannot accommodate this rule: he hears, but does not heed, and cannot understand it as he should. But he speaks thus to those who have already driven out the spirit of this age and begun to live according to the Spirit of Christ, for the spirit of this age is deceptive and might again draw away those for whom the murky pleasures of its deeds are known from their former life. He speaks to them as if saying: see, lest the spirit of this age again seduce you and begin again to refashion you in its way, dragging you from heaven to earth, from spirit to flesh, from God to creation. Do not listen to it and do not wish to conform to it and to its ways. For the spirit of this age, enticing through earthly well-being, has devised such deeds, diversions, and goods that it seems as if happiness flows from them like a river. Those drawn by it spin around in these its ways, hoping to be intoxicated by happiness, and though they never taste it, they hope to taste it yet. Those from whom the spirit of this age has been driven out by the Spirit of Christ are drawn from this spinning that crushes the heart. But since they still move about in the vicinity of the ways of the spirit of this age, there is danger: might not this spinning again seize them and draw them into the former whirlwind. The Apostle warns: all this must be abandoned, it is not fitting for you to move about in such ways and conform to them.

Holy Chrysostom, in expounding this passage, endeavors to turn his listeners away from this by chiefly depicting the illusory nature of the goods of this age. “The character (spirit) of this age is bound to the earth, low, fleeting, in it there is nothing exalted, enduring, or right, and all is perverted. Therefore, if you wish to go the proper way, do not imprint upon yourself the character of the present life. In it there is nothing permanent and firm; therefore it is called a character, as in another place the Apostle says: ‘The character of this world passes away’ (1 Cor. 7:31). In it there is nothing enduring and immovable, but all is temporal; therefore he said: ‘this age’ – meaning thereby the transience, but by the word ‘character’ – expressed the unreality. Do you point to wealth, glory, physical beauty, amusements and all else that people regard as great – all this is merely a character, not an actual thing, an appearance and mask, not an enduring essence. But do not conform to this, says the Apostle, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. He did not say: be transformed outwardly – but: be transformed essentially – showing thereby that the world has only an outward character, while to virtue belongs not the outward but the true, essential character, which has a natural beauty, for which no outward ointments and masks are needed, suddenly appearing and vanishing; for all this disappears before it even appears. Therefore, if you tear away the mask, you will at once see the true character. Nothing is weaker than vice, nothing grows old so quickly.”

“But be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” The spirit of this age has been driven out with all its ways and manifestations, the Spirit of Christ has been received. What now? What lies ahead is to transform oneself. Living according to the spirit of the age, by its customs and rules, we are tuned to that with our whole soul, and our way of thinking is worldly, or of this age, and our inclinations with our deeds and undertakings are the same, and our tastes with our feelings and sympathies are similar. Having received the new spirit, it lies before us to remake all this, retune it, transform it. The new spirit, restored and maintained by God’s grace, is a great power. In whom it awakens, it draws him irresistibly toward the higher, the unearthly, the spiritual. But the inner life of a person in whom this spirit awakens is not entirely rebuilt at once according to it. The power to do this has been received, but the transformation itself requires both time and labor. This is what the Apostle impresses upon us, saying: “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Your mind, or spirit, has been renewed, that is, as was said above, God’s grace has quickened in you the fear of God and disturbed your conscience, and under their action with God’s help you have come to the resolve to leave the life of this age and begin to live according to the demands of another age, a resolve strengthened by grace in the Sacraments of Baptism or Repentance. Thus the renewal of your mind or spirit has been accomplished in you. Now by the power of this renewed mind, or spirit, transform yourselves – that is, your thoughts, your dispositions and inclinations, your feelings and tastes – your whole soul. Your soul was entirely turned toward the earth and earthly things, toward this age and its deeds – and was occupied only with how to arrange earthly well-being. To this it subjected and held your mind, or spirit, in a subordinate position to itself and to this age. Now – thanks be to God! – it has been freed from these chains and has entered into its rights; now it is no longer the soul that rules it, but the soul will submit to it and be rebuilt according to its demands. Teach it to adopt the character of sound words, that it may judge all things and look upon all things with spiritual, or divine, eyes, as shown in Divine Revelation; teach it to root in itself, instead of the passions, holy dispositions, or virtues of all kinds, so that virtue may constitute your permanent character, as the passions once did; teach it to cultivate in itself tastes and sympathies for the spiritual, the invisible, the heavenly and eternal, so that your treasure may not be in the carnal, tangible, earthly and passing, but in the opposite – and after the treasure your heart also will be not here, but there. But do not imagine and do not hope to accomplish all this by yourselves, but rather commit all of this and your entire fate to God’s hands and expect success solely from His gracious help, hanging yourself as it were upon God’s right hand – the Almighty.

For all this there is no need to take up anything special; but the same ordinary human deeds done in the new spirit. Some deed lies before you: the former thoughts about it arise – drive them out and receive new ones; the former passionate impulses that used to guide it show themselves – cut them off and awaken new impulses; the old feeling of self-gratification, finding pleasure in it and being fed by it, is irritated – suppress it and stir up sympathy for whatever is unearthly in the deed. Thus in each deed – and the transformation of the soul will proceed on the right path, effectively and fruitfully. Only preserve the renewed mind, or spirit, in the renewal it has received.

But there is no man without sin. However much you guard yourself – unworthy thoughts, feelings, dispositions, deeds, and words will break through and break through again. Because of this the course of the soul’s transformation is slowed, and the very mind, or spirit, weakens in its renewal. Therefore one must ceaselessly renew oneself through repentance. Penitence is an inseparable attribute of the new spirit of Christian life, expressed by the heart’s perpetual condition of contrition and humility. Holy Chrysostom says: “Since it was natural for Paul’s listeners, as humans, to sin every day, the Apostle comforts them, advising them to renew themselves daily. Just as you maintain a house, continually repairing in it everything that has grown old, so do with yourself. Did you sin today? Has your soul grown old? Do not despair, do not be discouraged, but renew it through repentance, tears, confession, good deeds, and never abandon this work.”

“That you may test what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” It lies before you with your renewed mind to transform yourselves. By what standard? By the will of God. In the Word of God all is shown how to do this. Study it, make it your own, and apply it to your life, despite resistance within and obstacles without. There is no better and more trustworthy guide and director. And when you conduct yourselves in all things according to God’s will, then by your very deeds you will test and prove that if anyone wishes to transform himself in a new way, he will not achieve it except by acting according to God’s will. Action according to it will at once bear fruit, evident and perceptible, and will convince you by deed how good, pleasing, and perfect is God’s will. – In the Apostle the fruit of transforming oneself is placed not in knowledge of God’s will, but in its testing and experiential tasting of its qualities, its beneficial action upon us. “That you may test,” εις το δοκιμάζειν. – Δοκιμάζειν – to taste, to sample, to prove by deed. The knowledge of God’s will can be placed on the condition of the renewal of the mind, but not the transformation of oneself by the renewed mind, which already presupposes knowledge of God’s will. And indeed, as long as the mind, or spirit, is not renewed, as long as it is wholly seized and oppressed by the spirit of this age, so long cannot a human know and understand God’s will; it is unintelligible to him, incomprehensible, no matter how much it may be explained. By placing the knowledge of God’s will in dependence on the renewal of the mind, holy Chrysostom says: “You may ask: who does not know in what God’s will consists? Anyone who is attached to the present, who regards wealth as enviable and despises poverty; who desires power, is partial to worldly glory; who thinks himself a great man when he has built magnificent houses, prepared splendid tombs, has a crowd of servants, leads multitudes of eunuchs after him; such a man does not know what is beneficial for him and in what God’s will consists. For both one and the other are one and the same: what is beneficial for us God desires; and what God desires is beneficial for us. What then does God desire? That we love poverty, meekness, despise glory, live temperately, not luxuriously, in sorrow, not in pleasure, weep, not laugh and make merry – fulfill all that God has commanded us. But many turn away from this as from evil, not only do not agree to recognize it as beneficial and as God’s will; and therefore can never even approach the exploits of virtue. Such people, not knowing what virtue is, and marveling at vice, how can they withdraw from this present age?”

With this, holy Chrysostom also proposes another thought, useful in life. Placing it as possible to understand by the renewal of the mind the acquisition of sound judgments about things, he teaches that this too is good, even though there may be no life corresponding to it, even though we do not live thus; but knowledge of what ought to be will finally give wisdom and lead to proper deeds. “First and foremost, he says, we must have a right judgment about things. If we do not yet follow virtue, at least let us learn to praise it. If we do not yet flee vice, at least let us become accustomed to condemn what is bad, so that at least our judgment be right. Holding to this path, we can then take up the deeds themselves. For this reason Paul commands us to renew ourselves, ‘that you may test what is the will of God.’”

In elucidation of what is meant by God’s will being “good and acceptable and perfect,” blessed Theophylact briefly brings the exposition of these words given by Basil the Great in his concise Rules, in answer to the 276th question. We give this passage in full. “First, one must seek what is the good will of God; this is the direct commandment to do something, for example: ‘Be merciful, as your Father is merciful’ (Lk. 6:36) – or: ‘Walk in love, as Christ also loved us’ (Eph. 5:2); then, when we know the good will, we must investigate whether this good will is pleasing to God (in relation to us). For it is one thing that is God’s will, and God’s good will; but when this is done by the wrong person, or not at the time it should be done, then it is no longer well-pleasing to God. For example: it was God’s will and a good will that incense be offered to God; but it was not well-pleasing to God that Dathan and Abiram do this. And again: there is God’s will and a good will that alms be given; but that this be done for glory from men, this is not well-pleasing to God. And again: it was God’s will and a good will that the disciples, ‘what you have heard in your ear, proclaim on the rooftops,’ (Mt. 10:27); but that they speak of certain things before the time, this was not well-pleasing to God. For He says: ‘Tell no one about this vision until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.’ (Mt. 17:9). And in general every will of God that is good is then also well-pleasing when there is fulfilled in it what the Apostle said: ‘Do all to the glory of God’ (1 Cor. 10:31) – and: ‘Let all things be done properly and in order.’ (1 Cor. 14:40). But again, if there is God’s will, and a good will, and an acceptable will toward something, then in this case too one must not give oneself to carelessness, but labor and take care that it be perfect and without defects, in the measure both of the deed itself and of the power of the one performing the deed. (One may add: with all zeal, attention, and diligence; for God does not look favorably upon one who does His work carelessly.) For it is said: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,’ and with all your soul, ‘and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself,’ (Lk. 10:27), as the Lord taught in the Gospel according to John: ‘As I have loved you, so you also love one another.’ (Jn. 13:34). And love every commandment, as it is written (Deut. 6:6). For it is said: ‘Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.’ (Mt. 24:46)” (Saint Basil the Great. Rules concisely set forth in Questions and Answers. Answer 276).

Having delineated the spirit of Christian life, the Apostle now begins to depict:

How It Is Expressed in Life: The Gifts of Grace and the Members of One Body (Romans 12:3–6)

He places first here: aa) the general rule for this, namely: in the said spirit act among the believers according to the gifts you have received from God – having in view chiefly the persons who manage the community (verses 3–8).

To make this intelligible, he represents the community of Christians as like a body and says: the body is one, yet it has many members; each member has its own function, and all, doing their function, order and preserve the life of the body. So too we, the believers – we are one body in Christ the Lord, and each individually members of this body. To each is given his own gift, and in it is appointed his own function. Let each do this his function, indicated by God’s gift, and the spiritual well-being of all believers will flourish unhindered. This is indicated in verses 4–8. But as the heading for this whole lesson the Apostle puts the lesson of humility, which might be expressed thus: however great your gift, do not think too highly of yourself, and however small it may be, do not reach too high and do not take upon yourself what exceeds your strength (verse 3).

Aa) As managers of the community (Rom. 12:3–8)

Rom. 12:3. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God has distributed to each a measure of faith.

Desiring to teach humility, he reveals his own humility: “I say through the grace given to me.” My word to you is not mine, but the grace of God given to me inspires and compels me to set it before you. The grace given to holy Paul is the grace of Apostleship, which was expressed in the power to bind and loose – to establish all, prescribe rules and exact their fulfillment – and in this, that the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostles what to say to whom and when. It is scarcely likely that the Apostle in the words quoted had in view the first aspect of Apostolic grace; for the exercise of power does not dispose toward humility, but irritates the consciousness of one’s own dignity. Rather, he wished to express that “he does not authorize what is written, but the grace of the Spirit acting through him,” speaking as it were: I am an instrument of grace (blessed Theodoret); he would not of himself trouble you with this lesson, but the Spirit of God compels, whom I cannot resist. Holy Chrysostom says: “He said above: ‘I beseech you by the mercies of God,’ and now again he says: ‘I say through the grace given to me.’ See the meekness of the teacher, see the gentleness of his heart! For such exhortations and counsels he does not regard his own words sufficient, but in confirmation of them refers now to the mercy of God, now to grace. It is not from myself I present the word, he says, but from God. And he did not say: I persuade you by God’s wisdom, by God’s law – but: through grace – continually reminding of God’s benefits, so as to inspire greater gratitude and prove that grace itself requires the fulfillment of what is here spoken of.”

“To everyone among you.” “Not to this or that, but to all – to the ruler and the ruled, to the slave and the free, to the ignorant and the wise, to woman and man, to the young and the old; this is a universal law, for it is the Lord’s. Thus the Apostle offends no one with his word; he addresses the instruction to all, even to those who are not guilty (of the sin contrary to the instruction), so that the guilty might more readily receive this wisdom and correction” (holy Chrysostom).

“And what are you saying to me? ‘Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.’ He prescribes meekness, the mother of all good, imitating in this his Teacher. As Christ, ascending the mountain that he might present the moral discourse, began with the word of meekness and offered such a foundation: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ (Mt. 5:3); so Paul too, in transitioning from doctrinal truths to moral ones, although he had presented the lesson on virtue in general (in verses 1 and 2), demanding from us a wonderful sacrifice, but intending to describe virtue severally, he begins with meekness, as with the head, and advises ‘not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,’ for such is God’s will” (holy Chrysostom).

“Not to think of himself more highly,” μη ϋπερφρονεΐν, – to think beyond one’s measure – to think of oneself, which is the same as to be arrogant, to be proud of one’s gift, rising above others and looking down upon them – or to think beyond measure – to plan deeds beyond one’s strength and demand for oneself a place and office beyond one’s abilities, which is the same as – to be presumptuously ambitious, vain-glorious, power-loving, glory-loving. All this and the like is forbidden by one word: “not to think of himself more highly” – know your measure and as in thoughts about yourself do not exceed it, so in your plans and demands – do not go beyond its boundary. This will be: “to think soberly,” φρονεΤν εις το σωφρονεΤν, – to think in such a way that this means to be sober-minded. Soberness here – not the virtue of purity, but soundness of judgment. ΣωφρονεΤν – properly means: to think healthily – from: σόος – whole, undamaged, healthy – and: φρονεΐν – to think. – ΦρονεΤν – does not mean abstract thinking, but deliberation about deeds, occupations, undertakings. ΣωφρονεΤν – will be: to know how to deliberate all this healthily, to think prudently. The Apostle takes one aspect of prudence, namely not to plan or demand anything beyond one’s measure – as the Savior also taught in the parable about those planning to build a house or wage war. Whoever keeps himself and his deeds within his measure, he is sober-minded or prudent. Holy Chrysostom says: “These words: φρονεΤν εις to σωφρονεΤν – mean: we have received the power of reason, so that we turn it not to arrogance, but to soberness. The Apostle did not say: think of yourselves humbly – but: soberly – understanding here by soberness not the virtue opposed to shamelessness and not abstention from debauchery, but the mind that is temperate and healthy. For to have healthy thoughts is called: σωφροσύνη – soberness. By calling meekness soberness (prudence), the Apostle showed that the presumptuous (unmeek) is not healthy in mind, but raves, acts disorderly and behaves more foolishly than any madman.” “Pride is a diseased way of thinking” (blessed Theodoret).

“According as God has distributed to each a measure of faith.” What then is the measure of prudence? That which each should think of himself according to the measure of the gift he received from God. The Apostle called here the measure of gifts by the name of the measure of faith, putting the cause in place of the effect – for faith is the cause of gifts, and the measure of these is determined by the measure of that. Theodoret writes: “The Apostle here called faith grace. For by faith the gift of grace is acquired and according to the measure of faith the gifts of grace are given. And he commands that thought be measured by the grace given.” – And holy Chrysostom says: “Since many from the Romans and Corinthians on account of spiritual gifts fell into arrogance, see how the Apostle exposes the cause of this disease and gradually turns it away. Having said that one must ‘think soberly,’ he adds: ‘according as God has distributed to each a measure of faith,’ calling here faith a spiritual gift! And by the word: ‘distributed’ – as he comforted the one who received a smaller gift, so he humbled the one using a greater gift. If God distributed thus, and success does not depend on you, why do you think greatly of yourself? But if someone says that here faith itself is spoken of, not gift; this even more proves that the Apostle wishes to humble the vain. If faith is the cause of the gift, by it miracles are worked and all this (that is, faith itself also) is from God, on what grounds do you think much of yourself? If God had not come to earth and been incarnate, faith would not have such success. Thus all good has its beginning in God. And if He Himself gives, He knows how to distribute. He created all and cares equally for all. On His love for man depends both how to give and to give in a certain measure. Having shown grace in the main – in that He gave His gifts – He will not pass you by in the distribution. If He wished to deprive you of honor, He would not have given you even the first.” The measure of faith is the measure of the gift; but since faith itself is from God, there is no essential difference – whether to understand here the measure properly of faith, as the word requires, or the measure of the gift conditioned by the measure of faith, as the course of speech requires. For after the Apostle speaks no more of the measure of faith, but of the measure of gifts.

Rom. 12:4, 5. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

What was said before this the Apostle elucidates with an example. Having required not to think beyond one’s measure, that is, to know one’s measure, and as not to think of oneself beyond measure, so not to plan deeds beyond one’s strength and not to demand for oneself a place and office beyond one’s abilities, he now persuades: look at the body, and you will learn all this. In one body we have many members, and not all members do the same work, but each has its own work, which alone it is occupied with and does not demand that another work be given to it, which seems higher to it. Not all members see, not all hear, not all breathe… But sight is given to the eye – it is occupied with that; hearing to the ear – it does that; breathing to the lungs – they breathe: so too the other members each have their own work: the stomach processes food, the heart circulates blood and so on. The stomach does not demand: give me, I will see – for it is not disposed to that and has no capability. So too each member does not push into where it does not belong – it knows its measure and cares only that its own work be done as it should. The Christian community is similar to the body, the Apostle continues. We are many, but we all are one body in Christ Jesus the Lord, who is the Head of this body. We are all one body, but not all the same, but differ from one another; we are to one another what members are. – The comparison goes no further in the Apostle. One would expect him to say: so too we, as members of one spiritual body in Christ, do not have and should not have one and the same function, as the members of the physical body do not have one function. But since this was obviously evident of itself, the Apostle did not think it necessary to make such an application, nor to draw out the lesson: each do your work and do not push beyond your gift.

It is evident that the Apostle placed this comparison thus to support especially the second aspect of not thinking beyond what is proper, that is, not to be presumptuous, not to seek higher for oneself, but to know one’s measure and do one’s work. But the first is here too: for one cannot have such presumption without thinking of oneself beyond measure. Therefore it is not out of place that our interpreters see in these verses too a continuation of the Apostle’s instruction on humility. “Why do you think highly of yourself? Are we not all, great and small, one body? And when with regard to the Head we are one body and members one of another; why do you sever yourself through arrogance? Why are you ashamed of your brother? As he is your member, so are you his member; and in this respect you are equal in honor” (holy Chrysostom).

Rom. 12:6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, according to the proportion of faith.

The Apostle’s speech is incomplete; let us complete it. The members of the body do not have one function; and we must not have one function, but each his own. What then? Which each received a gift for from God. Having thus different gifts, we must act each with his own gift: whoever received the gift of prophecy, prophesy and so on. Oecumenius writes: “The Apostle speaks incompletely, not using all the words needed to express his thought. Here after: ‘Having gifts differing’ – one must complete with such words: remain each in the gift you received – or: be content with it – or: act according to it and in conformity with it – or something similar.”

The gifts of which the Apostle speaks here are understood not as natural, which each receives in birth, though they too are all from God; but as supernatural gifts, gifts of grace, given by the Holy Spirit after Baptism in Chrismation, which in the time of the Apostles was accomplished by the laying on of hands and was an inseparable property of every believer and a sign that he is Christ’s, a believer. The Apostle enumerates these gifts in detail in the Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 12:7–11). Such a distribution of gifts was manifest to all. Therefore the Apostle does not prove this, but merely points it out: “Having gifts”.

Holy Chrysostom here too sees a lesson toward humility: “Therefore, do not think greatly of yourself. All that you received is given to you from God, not acquired by yourself. For this reason the Apostle, having touched upon spiritual gifts, did not say that one received more and another less; but how did he name the gifts? As different. For he says: ‘Having gifts’ – not greater and lesser, but: ‘differing.’ What does it matter if the same is not entrusted to you, when you belong to the same body?”

But for the additional thought, that is, this: you have received different gifts, and now each act according to his own – holy Chrysostom makes a special admonition: “Since he has sufficiently humbled the listeners already, he wishes to make them zealous and move them to greater diligence, indicating that it also depends on themselves to receive a greater or smaller gift. To humble the arrogant, he affirms that this is given from God, when, for example, he says: ‘according as God has distributed to each a measure of faith’ – and again: ‘according to the grace that is given to us.’ But to encourage the careless he adds that the first foundation is laid by the people themselves. For those same two purposes he affirms the same thing also in the Epistle to the Corinthians. When he says: ‘Desire earnestly the greater gifts’ (1 Cor. 12:31), he shows that they themselves are also a cause of the difference in what is given. And when he says: ‘But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills’ (1 Cor. 12:11), he proves thereby that those who received a gift should not exalt themselves in it. Thus in both respects he heals the ailment of the Corinthians. He does the same with the Romans similarly.” Let us also add the words of blessed Theodoret: “each part of the body is useful not only to itself, but brings usefulness also to the whole. Therefore, whoever receives some grace from above must clearly know that for the common need did he receive this gift… We are members one of another, having according to the grace given to us different gifts; for although they are different, yet they are given by Divine grace for the common good.”

“If prophecy, according to the proportion of faith.” Here too the speech is incomplete. The Apostle wished to say: if anyone has the gift of prophecy, let him prophesy according to the proportion of faith. He begins to enumerate the different gifts and indicates their proper use. The words: “according to the proportion of faith” – our interpreters relate not to the use of the gift of prophecy, but to its reception, in the sense that this gift is received according to the measure of faith. Thus holy Chrysostom: “Although prophecy is given by grace, yet it is not poured out simply, but takes its measure from the receivers; and it flows as much as the vessel of faith is large.” Thus blessed Theodoret: “grace measures itself by the faith of each one, the Giver of goods.” Thus others too. But in this case we would still need to complete the speech: if anyone received prophecy according to the measure of faith – prophesy for the benefit of others. And that such completion is necessary, the whole discourse obligates. For further it says: if you received ministry, minister; if teaching, teach and so on. Consequently, here too one must understand an indication of the use of the gift of prophecy, whether to relate the words: “according to the proportion of faith” – to the receiving of the gift of prophecy or to its use.

“By prophecy the Apostle means not only foreknowledge of the future, but knowledge of the hidden” (blessed Theodoret), and more specifically, knowledge of the hidden thoughts of the heart, with which there is also found both the compelling power to speak a word about the revealed thoughts, whether to drive them away and change them if they are disapproved, or to strengthen them more if they are good. In whatever sense one receives the word: “prophecy,” – the use of this gift requires great faith and spiritual experience. Otherwise it may happen that either the gift remains altogether unused, from excessive modesty and timidity, or in its use there is mixed much that is personal, one’s own, and not inspired by grace. But faith and boldness give and teach true discernment of one’s own from God’s. Faith, childlike and meek, is not ashamed in either case. To it belongs dedication to God, for which, as a bridle, God leads the one meekly dedicated to Him on an infallible path. Therefore, “according to the proportion of faith” can be understood – according to the measure of conviction, the inner witness of conscience. In Greek it stands: κατά την άναλογίαν της πίστεως, – which can fairly be translated: in accord with faith. Faith here, as the aggregate of dogmas – the symbol of faith. This is the test of prophetic visions and revelations and the program for their use. From what is revealed propose to others that which accords with the common faith, which explains it, nourishes it, confirms it.

Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9)

Rom. 12:7. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; or he who teaches, in teaching.

If you received the gift of service, remain in service. Service, διακονία, – is understood properly as the performance of something in the Church: oversight of those entering the temple and order in it, serving in the performance of the sacraments and all else is διακονία. This embraces not only the diaconal, but the entire sacred-ecclesiastical serving order. Holy Chrysostom says: “Service is taken here in a general sense; for Apostleship is also called service, and every good spiritual deed is service. Although this name is used to denote a particular office; yet here it is spoken of generally.” Blessed Theophylact also writes: “There is service and a special gift in the ecclesiastical order, such as the service of ‘the seven deacons.’ But here by the name of service understand generally every spiritual work. Whatever service you received, he says, remain in its performance (this word must be supplied here), do not seek something greater and do not exalt yourself before another, but be content with what you received.”

“Or he who teaches, in teaching.” If you are “a teacher,” received the gift of teaching; then remain in teaching, think about it, occupy yourself with it, strive in every way to do it as it should be done and be zealous for it. – “By teaching is understood the exposition of divine dogmas” (blessed Theodoret) – concerning the Holy Trinity, creation and providence, the blessed state in paradise and the fall, the incarnation of God and our salvation in Him, the grace of the Holy Spirit and the hopes of Christians. That this is a special gift is seen down to this day: for one expounds the dogmas very clearly, but cannot comfort, cannot untangle moral confusion and lead on the path. This gift is distinguished from prophecy in that the prophetic spirit came suddenly and compelled one to speak, not being limited to persons and not being constrained by time or place; while the gift of teaching acted constantly and gave the teacher freedom to choose subjects and order of teaching, to observe the time and prepare discourses. Holy Chrysostom says about this: “Notice that the Apostle does not observe strict order, but places the lesser (service) first and the greater (teaching) after, teaching the same as he taught before, that is, not to be puffed up and not to be arrogant.”

Rom. 12:8. Or he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

If you are “he who exhorts” – received the gift of exhortation, then remain “in exhortation” of others. Exhortation, παράκλησις, – can have a twofold meaning – either consolation in sorrow, pacification and quieting of a troubled heart, or persuasion toward a good life, the ordering of the moral side. Both one and the other may be accomplished by one and the same gift on account of the homogeneity of the work and the similarity of the disposition required to accomplish it. Therefore here both can be understood, as our interpreters do. Blessed Theodoret understands by “exhortation” persuasion toward virtue; and blessed Theophylact understands the quieting of a sorrowing heart, saying: “And exhortation is a special kind of teaching. For teaching is generally called reasoning about any subject, but exhortation properly is when someone quiets with words souls that are disturbed by sorrow or anger. Therefore the one who exhorts, he says, let him remain in exhortation, doing his work, and not exalt himself before another.”

In Apostolic times there were in the Church special orders of prophets and teachers, apart from the Apostles, and special orders of those serving in the Church. But was there a special order of those who exhorted and set on the right path? Certainly there was, when the Apostle speaks specially of the gift for this. Their work could have been oversight of morality and persuasion of the undisciplined to become disciplined, before the ecclesiastical authority would take up the matter. – Is there not a trace of this order in ό ευταξίας – the one who oversees good order in the Church?

“He who gives, with liberality.” If you are “he who gives” – received the gift of stewardship and are appointed to distribute what is necessary to those in need in the name of the Church; then give “with liberality,” that is, not suspecting the one who presents his needs of deceit, but in the simplicity of your heart believing his word that he truly needs as he says – or in the simplicity of your heart give to him, not grudging, not regretting, with a generous heart. In the primitive Church the Christian communities supported their own poor, and for this each according to his ability gave from his means to the common ecclesiastical fund what he could and as he was zealous. For the distribution of aid special persons capable of it were chosen. In the Jerusalem Church the Apostles chose seven deacons for this. Thus we must suppose it was done in all Churches. Later, when the deacons withdrew to serving in the performance of the sacraments, special stewards were chosen for distributing what was necessary to those in need, on whose care were all the poor, widows, orphans, the sick, and all kinds of those in need. That the skill to conduct such affairs is a special gift, everyone knows from constant experience. The Apostle speaks here of this gift, but not as of a natural ability, but as of a gift of grace, giving to understand that such a gift manifested itself then in persons who by nature did not show special disposition toward it. But even if we suppose in someone such a disposition, we must still suppose that God’s grace, when it came, awakened, elevated, and directed it.

That the Apostle understands here a special gift – to manage church property – is indicated by the fact that this: “he who gives” – stands among them between: “the teacher” – and: “he who exhorts,” – on one side, and: “he who leads,” – on the other – that is, in the order of those conducting proper order in the Church. Our interpreters speak here more about the dispositions with which one should give to those in need – yet in such a way that all they say can be applied not only to the general virtue of giving alms, but also to special church stewards. Here are their words: of holy Chrysostom: “It is not enough to give, but to give abundantly; for this is understood everywhere by the word: ‘liberality.’” of blessed Theodoret: “‘he who gives, with liberality,’ – not seeking glory for yourself from others, but satisfying the need of the one in need and not reasoning whether it will be sufficient or insufficient for yourself, but relying on God and giving abundant aid”; of blessed Theophylact: “Having spoken of teaching and exhortation, that is, of what pertains to concern for souls, he now speaks of the bodily, which holds the second place. By ‘liberality’ he means generosity; consequently he teaches to give with generosity. For no virtue is a virtue if performed improperly. Thus the virgins, although they had oil, had it insufficient, therefore were rejected (Mt. 25:1–12).” All these instructions can apply to distributors both of their own and of church property.

“He who leads, with diligence.” If you are a leader, conduct the work of leadership with diligence. The Apostles, wherever they planted faith, everywhere appointed priests or even bishops with ordination to rule the formed Christian community or Church in all things pertaining to faith and salvation. Leaders were also appointed for each gathering of believers. There were no churches yet; they gathered in houses. If the community of believers was large, they did not gather in one house. For each such gathering there was a special leader with full authority of leadership. This was the beginning of many parishes in one place of residence – a city, town, or large village. To every such leader, great or small, the Apostle commands to lead with diligence. What way to lead and direct and how to act was known. Only do not be lazy, and all will go well. This is the same as holy Paul impressed on holy Timothy: “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery” (1 Tim. 4:14). “It is not enough to be a leader, but one must lead with zeal and earnestness” (holy Chrysostom). “To the one who received prayerful oversight of the brethren, it behoves along with authority to assume also careful concern for them, so that those under his leadership make progress and he have in them fruit and for himself as well” (Ambrosiaster).

“He who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.” – “With cheerfulness,” εν ίλαρότητι, – which should be expressed fully thus: with a joyful heart and a cheerful countenance – heartily. But who is this “he who shows mercy?” Since he stands in the order of those building and maintaining order in the Christian community, it is fitting to understand him as some office. Perhaps this is the one caring for the sick. He, together with “he who gives and he who exhorts” healed all the wounds of the believing community, one with aid, another with word, another with care for health. And they should do this heartily, but especially the one going about to the sick.

But perhaps the Apostle ended the enumeration of ecclesiastical orders and special gifts for them with the preceding: “he who leads, with diligence,” – and from this word he begins to prescribe virtues common to all Christians, placing first cheerful mercy toward those in need. Our interpreters understand here the general virtue of mercy. Holy Chrysostom speaks at length about this virtue: “It is not enough to show mercy, but one must do it abundantly and without grief; or rather, say, not only without grief, but even with a cheerful and joyful spirit. For to be not grieved and to rejoice are not the same. Paul proved the very same thing with great diligence also in the Epistle to the Corinthians. For, urging them to generosity, he said: ‘He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; but he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully’ (2 Cor. 9:6) and, teaching with what disposition one should show generosity, added: ‘not grudgingly nor of necessity’ (2 Cor. 9:7). In the one showing mercy there should be both, and generosity, and a cheerful disposition. Why do you weep while giving alms? Why do you grieve while showing mercy, and thereby deprive yourself of the fruit of your merits? If you grieve, then there is no mercy in you; on the contrary, you are cruel and inhuman. If you yourself grieve, how can you cheer the one who is in sorrow? It is not easy to prevent in him a bad suspicion when you give to him even with joy; for it seems to man nothing more humiliating than to receive something from another. If you do not turn away the suspicion by special cheerfulness of your disposition and show that you yourself are under obligation more than you obligate; then sooner will you diminish than restore the receiver. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.’ Who receives royal power with a sad face? Who remains with downcast eyes when receiving forgiveness of sins? Look not at the loss of money, but at the fruits of that loss. If the sower rejoices, even though he sows at random; how much more should the worker of heaven rejoice. If you give even little with joy, you give much. Similarly, if you gave much but with sorrow; then you made little out of much. Thus the two widow’s mites (Mk. 12:41–44) surpassed many talents, because her disposition was not stingy. You say: how can the one show mercy cheerfully who himself lives in extreme poverty, whose all is exhausted? Ask the widow, from her you will learn how this is possible, and you will find that not from poverty comes soul’s distress, but that one’s own will produces both this and all the contrary. One can be magnanimous even in poverty, and wavering in wealth. Therefore the Apostle requires simplicity in giving, cheerfulness in mercy, diligence in leadership. He wishes us to help those in need not only with money, but with words, deeds, bodily labor and all else. And, first having mentioned the main kind of help – teaching, advice – which are so necessary for they feed the soul, only then does he pass to help with money and all else.”

Having pointed out how persons managing the affairs of the Christian community should act, the Apostle now writes:

Bb) Rules, how all other Christians should act (Rom. 12:9–21)

Here he presents an enumeration of dispositions and actions in which the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, indicated at the beginning, must be expressed – in each Christian (Rom. 12:9–21).

Rom. 12:9. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

Sincere love must constitute the soul of all the actions shown before this, as holy Chrysostom explains: “The Apostle, teaching how one can make progress in those virtues, presents their mother – love. If you will have love, then you will not feel loss from money, nor bodily labor, nor the heaviness of teaching others, nor sweat in serving; on the contrary, you will bear all manfully, whether help be needed for a neighbor through bodily labors, money, word, or something else.” But it must constitute the soul of all Christians in all their actions, serving as the distinctive mark of true Christianity, as the Lord Himself pointed out: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35). The consciousness that this should be so lies deep in the heart of Christians, and all strive to show themselves loving others both in word and deed. But since the showing of oneself as loving does not always proceed from a loving heart, the Apostle adds: let love be without hypocrisy, that is, do not show love only outwardly, but, most importantly, nourish it in your heart. Holy Chrysostom also says further: “Just as the Apostle requires not simply giving, but with simplicity, not simply leading, but with diligence, not simply showing mercy, but with cheerfulness; so neither does he simply require love, but love without pretense. For such is true love; and if it is such, all else will follow of itself.”

The Apostle does not prescribe a commandment of love: this is an acknowledged truth for him. But he indicates the quality of love, as a warning against deviating to wrongfulness in this principal matter. Love is stamped on the heart together with the reception of rebirth, which is built on the destruction of self-will, as the Apostle writes elsewhere: “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5). But afterwards it is possible that self-will again creeps into the heart and, leaving on the surface external affability, weakens the love of the heart or drives it out entirely and takes its place. Then love, although visible in deeds, will already be hypocritical. It is from this that the Apostle warns.

“Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” By evil and good are not understood people, but evil and good – deed, word, thought, all wickedness and all good. That in the conduct of Christians there should be nothing bad, shameful, and disgraceful, and that they should be holy and blameless in all their life, about this there is nothing to say. But there is required not only conduct free from sin and full of virtue, but a heart that with horror turns away from all that is bad and burns with love for all good. Since this is not always the case, the Apostle reminds of this with a special commandment. – Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle commands not merely to abstain from evil, but to hate it, and not simply to hate it, but to turn away from it with horror. Since many, although they do not do evil, harbor evil desires; the Apostle said: turn away with horror. He wishes our thoughts to be pure, that we declare open enmity, hatred, and war against vice. Since I have prescribed to you, says the Apostle, to love one another; do not conclude from my words that I command you also to cooperate in evil deeds. I prescribe to you the opposite: shun evil not only in deed, but in disposition; and not only shun evil dispositions, but turn away from evil and hate it in every way. And with this Paul is not yet satisfied, but requires the exercise of virtue, saying: ‘Cling to what is good.’ He did not say: do good – but: be devoted to it; for this he expressed by commanding to cling to good. Thus God, joining man and woman, said: ‘A man shall cleave to his wife’ (Gen. 2:24).”

Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

Rom. 12:10. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another.

Love and mutual respect are the basic dispositions by which Christian relations one to another are governed and maintained. Where they are strong, there is deep peace and lasting well-being. Love binds, and mutual respect drives away all that is base from loving bonds, which might somehow cloud them.

“Be kindly affectioned one to another.” As above, so here the Apostle does not write a commandment of love, but defines its quality. There he said that it must be sincere, genuine; and here he indicates how it can be such, defining its new qualities, namely affections kindred one to another. For “kindly affectioned,” φιλόστοργοι, – indicates properly familial love; and brotherly love chooses from the circle of familial love the fraternal. We are brothers also by nature, but rather brothers by spiritual life: born by one grace of the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus from one maternal womb – holy baptism; watered with the same waters of gifts of grace from one source – Chrismation; washed in one bath – in the tearful waters of the Sacrament of Repentance; fed with one incorruptible food from one Table – the Sacrament of the Most Pure Body and Blood of the Lord. In whom all this is truly and powerfully accomplished, they have themselves in the feelings of their heart as brothers, without special commands and reminders. And yet the Apostle reminds. For in life there is a continuous flow of diverse chance happenings, and around the heart (even in the reborn) a persistent swarm of alien movements clouds the bright countenance of brotherly love and disfigures its features. The Apostle dispels this fog, steadily telling each of us: see, you are brothers; relate to one another as blood brothers do. “Have a warm love for one another and a disposition befitting brothers” (blessed Theodoret). “You are brothers, you have come from one womb (that is, the baptismal font as Theophylact has it). Consequently, by this very fact you are already obligated to love one another. Your love should be not only sincere but strong, burning, ardent. What is the use if you love, even though sincerely, yet without warmth? Therefore the Apostle said: ‘be kindly affectioned,’ φιλόστοργοι, – that is, love warmly. Do not wait for another to show love to you; but run to him yourself and begin first. Then you will receive reward both for his love” (holy Chrysostom).

“In honour preferring one another.” Προηγούμενοι αλλήλους, – preferring one another, esteeming another above yourself, as more worthy, perfect, honorable – always holding in relation to others the last and most humble place. “Having shown the reason why we are obligated to love one another, the Apostle explains how our love can become unshakeable. Therefore he adds: ‘in honour preferring one another.’ For by this love is born and maintained. Nothing acquires us so many friends as striving to surpass a neighbor in honor. From this grows not only love, but also respect. As love comes from respect, so likewise respect comes from love” (holy Chrysostom). There are great Christians who know how to honor all above themselves, despite even the evident defects of some – and this not merely in appearance, but in the feeling of the heart. Such is God’s grace with them. To show honor to perfection is nothing marvelous; but to prefer a less perfect one or even one who has evident defects and disrespectful vices – this goes out of the natural order and is a direct work of God’s grace. And God’s grace does not accomplish such a lofty disposition all at once. Practice and self-compulsion with self-resistance are necessary. In the very seed of grace-filled life lies the feeling of contrition and self-abased humility. Life grows, and this feeling grows too. But the more it deepens, the higher in the eyes of the one progressing become all others. He sees in them the image of God, Christ the Lord, dwelling in them, and over their head the crown of the Kingdom prepared for them. Their defects and falls, in his opinion, are steps forward, as with the apostle Peter. They have fallen back a little now – tomorrow they will surpass all: for God is mighty to grant them this. Great wisdom at this – always to keep the countenance of every neighbor spotless or only casually besmirched. The experiences of life will teach all to those who wish and are zealous for perfection.

Rom. 12:11. Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.

He impresses what our zeal for pleasing God and salvation should be like. The one walks who drags his feet from one to another, but clearly shows that his soul is not set on where and why he is going. Whoever has his soul in the work being done is quick in movement, does not spare his strength, is wholly in tension. Such energy is undermined by laziness – one of the chief passions that does evil in a human. This the Apostle drives out, commanding to be not slothful. To be not slothful means: to be zealous for the work, to act quickly and with effort. But the Apostle enjoins not only quick movement, but also diligence in the work. Some act quickly but with no attention to the work, they hurry to dump the work off their hands as soon as possible, and it is done carelessly. This is another side of laziness, which does nothing. Against this the Apostle commands to do your deeds with all diligence, with all attention to the work, taking every care that the deed comes out perfectly as it should be. How wisely the Apostle joined the words: “not slothful in diligence!” So that someone might not think to justify his slowness by diligence, saying: one must do the work properly, he commands to be not slothful in diligence. And lest someone through that same laziness rush through the work, trying to get it done quickly and do it carelessly, he in diligence commands to be careful. From both sides he safeguards right and vigorous energy.

But what is the object of this non-slothful diligence? If we take these words in connection with what precedes, it will be deeds of love toward neighbors. Blessed Theophylact writes: “Since many seem to honor and love one another in heart, but do not stretch out their hands to them; the Apostle teaches to care for one another and to help others by deed itself.” He borrowed this statement from holy Chrysostom, who speaks more extensively in the same sense: “The Apostle requires of us not merely respect, but something even greater, saying: ‘not slothful in diligence.’ And this produces love, when alongside respect one renders services. For nothing compels love so much as respect and respectfulness. It is not enough to love, but we need also this, or rather, as this proceeds from love, so love becomes more ardent from it; each strengthens the other. Many though love one another heartily, yet would not give help to one another. Therefore the Apostle supports love from all sides.” – So also Oecumenius.

But nothing prevents us from recognizing as the object of non-slothful diligence generally the activity in the spirit of faith, all that is good, well-pleasing to God, and saving, into which will enter also deeds of love toward the brethren. For non-slothful diligence is required not in these deeds alone, but generally in all deeds of the Christian, which should be directed exclusively to pleasing God and presented to Him as service to Him. Ambrosiaster also writes: “In the words: ‘not slothful in diligence’ – the same is said as the prophet Jeremiah says: ‘Cursed’ is every one who ‘does the work’ of God ‘carelessly’ (Jer. 48:10). The slothful in deeds of pleasing God is without hope (he has neither boldness toward God now, nor can he expect anything bright in the future).” Blessed Theodoret also understands thus: “Be, says the Apostle, ‘not slothful in diligence,’ – showing living zeal for what is good and completely avoiding laziness.”

“Fervent in spirit,” – that is, be fervent in spirit. He indicates the source of non-slothful diligence. Whoever is fervent in spirit, all his deeds burn in his hands, that is, are done quickly and well; for they are done with all earnestness and zeal. “Notice, says holy Chrysostom, that the Apostle requires intensification in all things. He said: not only give, – but abundantly; not only lead, – but with diligence; not only perform deeds of mercy, – but with joy; not only be respectful, – but anticipate others in respect; not only love, – but love without pretense; not only abstain from evil, – but hate it; not only hold to good, – but cling to it; not only be friendly, – but with affection; not only be diligent, – but tirelessly; not only have spirit, – but burn with spirit, that is, be zealous and earnest.”

By spirit is meant that force or aspect of our inner life which is turned toward God, virtue, heaven, and eternity. In the fall it became weak and oppressed; but when grace comes, it quickens it, and the person begins to be zealous for the divine, holy, unearthly. To burn with spirit means: to be zealously ardent for pleasing God, salvation, and the acquisition of the Kingdom of Heaven. The soul may be zealous, but only for the arrangement of earthly existence; but toward the spiritual it is cold. And the whole person is cold toward it so long as the psychical aspect predominates in him. But when the spirit is awakened by grace, then it not only pursues the spiritual zealously, but directs all psychical, physical, family, and civic things toward it and spiritualizes them. We all received grace at Baptism and Chrismation. Therefore it should be that we burn with spirit, which is quickened by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Why then can we not say that we burn with spirit? Because we occupy ourselves more or exclusively with the psychical, the mundane, the civic; the spirit has withered, though it makes itself known. To kindle the spirit, one must recognize the unsatisfactoriness of the direction of our activity, chiefly toward the earthly and mundane – to deepen by reflection in contemplation of the divine, holy, heavenly, and eternal – and above all to begin to walk in the deeds spiritually so-called. And the spirit will ignite: for by all this the gift of grace living in us will be kindled. Thus our holy fathers and teachers interpret. Holy Chrysostom, having enumerated, as was set out above, the kinds of intensified activity, then adds: “If you will have all now listed, then you will draw the Spirit. And if the Spirit abide in you, He will make you diligent for all listed. When you are then aflame with the Spirit and love, then all will become easy for you. Do you not see how terrible an ox becomes when fire is set on its back? So will you become intolerable to the devil if you take up both these firebrands (that is, the grace of the Spirit and love).” Ambrosiaster writes: “To burn with spirit means: not to be in God’s work either lukewarm or cold, regarding which state holy John speaks in the Apocalypse: ‘Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth’ (Rev. 3:16). If you wish to escape this, meditate on divine things. Continual meditation on this drives away sleep and imparts life-giving vigilance.” – More fully on this is the word of blessed Theodoret: “By spirit the Apostle meant the gift (of grace awakening our spirit) and commanded that our zeal supply it food, as wood supplies fire (understanding – meditation on the divine and spiritual deeds). The same he says also elsewhere: ‘Do not quench the Spirit’ (1 Thes. 5:19). It is quenched by things unworthy of grace; for, not having a pure eye of the mind, they do not receive its ray. So too for those spiritually blind, darkness comes even from light, and in the midst of day they serve darkness. Therefore the Apostle commands us to burn with spirit and have ardent love for the divine.”

“Serving the Lord,” – that is, be servants of the Lord, work for the Lord, not for anyone else, neither for yourself nor for the world. From this word, and throughout the next verse, the Apostle defines the direction of the burning spirit. Foremost in his consciousness and aspiration is the Lord, living union with Him, and all pleasing to Him, and not departing from His will in small or great, in word or deed or thought. By nature the spirit is divine; therefore when it awakens, it turns to God, clings to God, lives by God and wishes to live. In Christian faith a person is joined to this by the consciousness that he is bought with the priceless price of the Lord’s blood, and with this consciousness is inseparably bound the feeling of obligation to ceaselessly work for the One who bought him, and to Him alone. Therefore he directs all to this work, even “whether you eat” or “drink” (1 Cor. 10:31), remembering the Apostle’s instruction: “you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20). By this mark everyone can infallibly determine whether his spirit has come to life and lives in him: if he zealously directs all his activity toward the Lord, then his spirit lives; if not – it does not live. And one must therefore take care to quicken it: the means lie at everyone’s hand.

Rom. 12:12. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing steadfast in prayer.

Here are the signs of burning in the spirit! “Whoever burns with spirit, he works earnestly for the Master, expects to enjoy the hoped-for blessings and overcomes the temptations encountered, opposing their assaults with patience and ceaselessly calling upon divine grace for aid” (blessed Theodoret). “All this serves to support that fire (that is, burning in the spirit)” (holy Chrysostom).

“Rejoicing in hope.” From the first moment of the awakening of the spirit by grace, the consciousness and aspiration of a person passes from creation to God, from earthly to heavenly, from temporal to eternal. There, in that realm, is his treasure, and there is his heart also (Mt. 6:21). Here he expects nothing, all his hopes are on the other side. His heart falls away from earthly things, nothing here draws him, he expects nothing here, rejoices in nothing here. He rejoices in future goods in which he firmly expects to have a share. This transferring of goods and hopes of the heart is an essential feature of the awakened and burning spirit. It makes a person essentially a stranger on earth, seeking his country, the Jerusalem on high. All Christians, as those who have received grace, should be such. Therefore the Apostle prescribes to all also in another place: “If then you were raised with Christ” (that is, if you came to life in spirit by the grace of Christ), “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God: set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died” (that is, died to all earthly, created, temporal things), “and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:1–3).

That the Apostle says: rejoice in hope – by this he impresses the certainty of gaining the hoped-for goods. Although they are still in the future, they are certainly ours. Therefore, counting them ours already, we can rejoice. And therefore he could say this to support zeal for good works, to which he obligated before. He assigned many labors; but as labor is sustained by the fruits of labor, and on earth good works should expect nothing, he fixes our attention on the contemplation of future goods from this work, which can make any labor unnoticed. Holy Chrysostom says: “Since the Apostle required money expenditures, bodily labors, patronage, diligence, teaching, and other efforts, then, beyond love and spirit, he anoints the laborer with hope. For a good hope makes the soul most courageous and ready for everything.”

“Patient in tribulation” – be patient in tribulation. Both affliction and patience are inseparable attributes of the burning or awakened spirit. The spirit awakened by grace inevitably encounters resistance both within the person himself and in the order of life flowing around him. Resistance generates attacks; attacks bring tribulation. Therefore the Savior said: “In the world you will have tribulation” (Jn. 16:33). “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (Jn. 15:19). Affliction is an inevitable companion of those living according to the spirit. – It was, it is, and it will always be so.

And patience in its true form – magnanimous, not “shaken by opposites” (Phil. 1:28), has place only in those in whom the grace-given spirit is strong. Where this is not, there self-pity predominates, which loves nothing afflictive and cannot be reconciled with it. Therefore there people bear the afflictive, but have no patience, but only suffer, murmur, condemn all and everything and burn with vengeance. Whoever burns with spirit does not spare himself and from the first moment of its awakening determines himself to all affliction, even to death; therefore he meets tribulations not as something alien (1 Pet. 4:12), but as natural and expected. The very magnanimity in this comes to him from the fact that he is one rejoicing in hope. He has transferred his hopes into another world; in this world he has no hope; therefore he never finds himself in a hopeless situation.

“Continuing in prayers.” As breathing is to the body, so prayer is natural to the spirit. Therefore, as soon as he comes alive by grace, he begins to sigh in prayer and breathes thus continually. His nature is such that he seeks God and rests in devotion at God’s right hand. All these are the elements of prayer. Therefore he is “continuing in prayer” when he comes alive and begins to burn. The Apostle pointed to the height of perfection in this matter when he spoke of the spirit in which the Holy Spirit dwells: “The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26). The Psalms depict the sighs of the spirit thus: “To You my heart has said, ‘Seek my face’; Your face, O Lord, I will seek.” (Ps. 26:8). “My soul thirsts for You” (Ps. 62:2)—“When will You come to me?” (Ps. 100:2). “In the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me” (Ps. 62:8, 9). “I will praise Your name…because You have delivered me from all my troubles” (Ps. 53:8, 9). “My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He will pluck my feet out of the net” (Ps. 24:15). “I lift my eyes to You, O You who dwell in heaven. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He has mercy on us” (Ps. 122:1, 2). Yet it is not foreign to the Apostle’s intent in this place that we not neglect common prayer, but always be at them. For he said not: in prayer, unceasingly working in the spirit, but—in prayers, which take place in their times and are various. Whenever a common prayer takes place, hasten to it. And this also can be meant by the Apostle’s word: more often stand in prayer at home. As soon as you have the opportunity, stand and pray. Thus you will be continuing in prayers.

Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16)

Rom. 12:13. Distributing to the needs of the saints; given to hospitality.

Having depicted the burning spirit with its distinctive features or inseparable properties, the Apostle turns to its active manifestation, what it is occupied with and what deeds it performs. Before this depiction of the burning spirit, having said: “be kindly affectioned one to another,” – in the depiction he indicated the power from which brotherly love proceeds; and now he denotes the deeds in which brotherly love is expressed, moved by the power of the burning spirit. The burning spirit is zealous only to please God. But since God Himself said that no one can please Him without benefiting the brethren, he turns his zeal chiefly to this. Christians are called saints throughout, as here. “He teaches about almsgiving to the faithful; for he calls them saints” (blessed Theophylact). By “needs” he means their necessities and wants – food, drink, clothing, shelter. To share in these needs of the saints, when one of them has them, is to have a part in meeting them. “He did not say: share in great expenditures of theirs – but: ‘needs’ of theirs – so as to satisfy the necessities of the saints” (blessed Theophylact). By the word: “distributing,” – sharing – is indicated a certain reciprocity, that is, that in this one gives and another receives. Those helping give the material, in which they themselves are rich; and from them they receive the spiritual, in which they are rich – prayers. This reciprocity can serve as an incentive to help. Thus blessed Theodoret writes: “By reminding of communion he persuades to generosity. For who would not agree to give money and become a sharer of the advancements (that is, of that in which the saints advance and in which they are rich)? The Apostle said this also in the Epistle to the Corinthians: ‘that your abundance may supply their lack’ (2 Cor. 8:14).” Holy Chrysostom points out also what exactly is received from the saints. “He did not say: help the saints in their needs, but: distribute to the needs of the saints – showing thereby that those helping receive more than they give, that helping is also a purchase, for it is communion. You give money, and they give you boldness before God (that is, the prayer of the one helping, supported by the prayer of the saints toward God, is more bold and acceptable).”

“Given to hospitality.” δκόκοντες, – pursuing, zealously caring for it and striving to not miss an opportunity for it. “Strangers the Apostle calls the saints who have come from another place and have need of service; and he commands that care be applied to them” (blessed Theodoret). – Then many were deprived of their homes and driven from their cities and villages. Therefore they were forced to seek shelter in other places. Then hospitality to strangers was a universal practice among Christians. In urging pursuit of hospitality, the Apostle teaches as though to snatch away from others the strangers appearing, in zealousness to house them. – Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle did not say: be hospitable, – but: pursue hospitality, teaching us not to wait for those in need (of shelter and rest) to come to us, but ourselves to run to them and pursue them. Thus did Lot, thus did Abraham. He spent the whole day watching for this fine catch, and, seeing them, sprang up, ran to meet them, bowed to the ground and said: Lord, ‘if now I have found favor in Your sight, do not pass by Your servant’ (Gen. 18:3). He did not imitate us, who, as soon as we see a stranger or a beggar, raise our eyebrows and do not deign to greet him with a word. And if, moved by a thousand requests, we command one of the servants to give a small coin, we think we have fulfilled all our duty. Abraham did not act so: he presented himself as a petitioner and servant, though he knew not whom he would receive. But we know perfectly that we receive Christ; yet we do not become condescending because of it. Abraham calls, asks, bows; and we insult those who come to us. Abraham does everything himself with his wife; and we will not trouble the servants. He especially deserves admiration for showing generosity and zeal, not knowing who came to him. So neither be curious; for you receive for Christ’s sake. The one receiving even the unworthy does not become guilty, but has his reward. For ‘he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward’ (Mt. 10:41). So, do not be curious about his life and deeds; to try a whole life for one piece of bread shows extreme lack of discernment.”

Rom. 12:14. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

The Apostle does not mean mere manipulation of the tongue when he commands not to curse but to bless, but the feelings of the heart. One can bless without good wishes; one can refrain from cursing with the tongue while harboring in the heart hostility, vengeance, malice, and a curse: may this or that happen to you. The Apostle requires that toward persecutors we not only harbor nothing hostile, but rather cherish a benevolent disposition, as toward benefactors and friends. How is this possible? It is possible when one lives by the spirit awakened and burning under the action of God’s grace dwelling in him. Having passed in consciousness and will to this side of the spirit, the Christian has nothing on earth, but transfers his heart, thoughts, and hopes to another world. His goods are there, he occupies himself with theirs; the earthly all does not occupy or trouble him. He is cut off from this and assesses it in relation to that. What conduces to the gaining, increase, and preservation of goods there, he considers good, and what has the opposite effect, he considers evil. And this not in word and thought, but in the depths of his heart, with all his feeling. Consequently, for him the goods of the world are evil, and his evil is good. So too in persecutions he does not see and feel evil, but good; therefore he blesses those persecuting as benefactors. Why does the Apostle remind of this, when it should naturally be in the heart of those living by the grace-given spirit, which all truly believing, sacrament-sanctified are? Because within us there is always alongside the higher spiritual side a lower, psychical side, whose nature is to arrange earthly well-being. So long as this side is not recreated by the spirit, not spiritualized, and not transferred with the spirit to another world, it ceases not to present its demands. According to its demands, when persecuted, one must defend oneself, take vengeance, prove that no wrong is done to us with impunity: otherwise life on earth is impossible. Whoever takes such presentations to heart cannot bless those persecuting. But as this is an urgent requirement of life in Christ Jesus, the Apostle reminds: see, do not allow hostile self-seeking feelings toward persecutors into your heart, but hold to what the Spirit of Christ requires: “bless, and do not curse.”

At length on this holy Chrysostom interprets: “The Apostle did not say: do not remember injuries, do not take vengeance; but he required something far greater. The first a lover of wisdom can accomplish; but what the Apostle requires is the work of angels. – Persecutors are distributors of rewards to you. And if you are watchful, beyond this reward, you yourself acquire another. He will give you reward for being persecuted; and you yourself acquire by blessing the persecutor; for this is the surest proof of your love for Christ. As the one cursing the persecutor shows he does not bear persecution for Christ with great joy; so the one blessing shows strong love. Therefore, do not reproach the persecutor, so that you yourself may receive a greater reward, but show him that you bear it zealously, not by necessity – that this is for you a triumph and joy, not a disaster and sorrow. Therefore Christ also said: ‘Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven’ (Mt. 5:12, 11). Therefore the Apostles returned from the Sanhedrin rejoicing, that not only were they reviled, but also beaten. Besides you will acquire another not insignificant advantage: you will strike your opponents with wonder and teach them through your deeds that you are preparing for another life. As soon as your persecutor hears that you bear evil with joy and willingness, he will be convinced by experience itself that you have other hopes surpassing all the present. And if you conduct yourself otherwise, weep and complain; how is he to know that you expect another life? Besides this, another new gain presents itself. When the persecutor sees that you are not offended by wrongs, but even bless the wrongdoer; he will cease to trouble you. And see what good comes from this! Your reward is increased, temptation is diminished, the persecutor stops persecuting, God is glorified, your wisdom turns for the erring into a lesson guiding toward piety. Therefore to those offending not only in word, but also in deed, even persecutors, the Apostle commanded to render the opposite. And first he commands to bless them; later (verses 20-21) he persuades to show them kindness.”

Rom. 12:15. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

Such is the law of love that those who love each other mutually live one in another; because what happens to one, the other receives as if it happened to himself. And he rejoices with those rejoicing and weeps with the weeping. Compassion is natural to us and deeply felt; but rejoicing together is not so common, more rare and manifested more superficially. This is because compassion may not manifest itself only toward those who have wronged us. In this case there lives in the soul the desire for vengeance. The affliction visited on the wrongdoer satisfies this desire and, instead of compassion, resounds with malicious pleasure. But since wrongs in communal life are not everywhere, compassion rarely meets obstacles to its manifestation. On the contrary, rejoicing together presupposes preference for the well-being of others over one’s own, while in the natural order, self-love dwelling in the heart makes us think and feel opposite to this. Another’s well-being directly offends self-will, which instead of rejoicing is tormented with envy. So it is in the natural order of life. But when grace comes and awakens the spirit, then together with its igniting there is reborn disinterested love for the brethren; yet it does not at once embrace the whole being, but ascends to a flame through struggle with self-will. The measure of suppression of self-will is the measure of the elevation of love. When that completely melts away – this begins to burn with flame. And then rejoicing together and suffering together manifest themselves in their full force. Until then they are maintained sincerely only through struggle. And this struggle, that is, self-overcoming, self-compelled arousal and maintenance of the force of feelings of rejoicing and suffering, serves as the best means for advancement in love and its elevation to the proper degree.

Holy Chrysostom also expounds these feelings at length: “The Apostle wishes us to be warmed by friendship. Therefore he added that we must sympathize and suffer with those when we see that the neighbors have fallen into misfortune. – I agree, you say; but if the Apostle had reason to prescribe that we mourn with the weeping; why did he give another commandment (to rejoice with the rejoicing), which seems to need no explanation? On the contrary, to rejoice with the rejoicing, the soul needs more wisdom than to weep with the weeping. To the latter nature itself draws us; and there is no man so hard that he does not weep at the sight of the unfortunate. But to see a man in good fortune and not only not envy, but even share his joy – this requires a very noble soul. Therefore the Apostle spoke of this first. – Nothing so inclines us to love as when we share both joys and sorrows with one another. So, do not shun compassion because calamity is far from you. When your neighbor suffers evil, you must consider his misfortune as your own. Share with him tears, to lighten his sorrow; share joys, so that the joy be lasting, love unbroken, so that not only your neighbor, but you yourself gain benefit, when, weeping with him, you will train yourself in mercy, and, rejoicing with him, will drive away envy and ill-will. See how light is Paul’s commandment! He did not say: deliver from calamity; then you might object that this is in many cases impossible. On the contrary, the Apostle prescribed the lightest, which is wholly in your power. If you cannot avert misfortune, shed tears, and thereby greatly diminish it. If you cannot increase well-being, add your joy, and thereby add much to it. Therefore the Apostle commands not only not to envy, but, far more importantly, to rejoice together with the neighbor; for this means far more than not to envy.”

Rom. 12:16. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

“Be of the same mind toward one another” – can have more than one sense. One can see here a lesson on unity of mind generally, as in the Epistle to the Philippians: “that you be like-minded, of one accord” (Phil. 2:2). Divergence in views on things and in judgments about them is the beginning of division and heartfelt separation, as a result of which inevitably those of differing minds become strangers to each other, and alien; and after this there will no longer be joy with the rejoicing and weeping with the weeping, nor unity in prayer. Therefore below holy Paul also prays: “May the God of patience and comfort grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15:5, 6).

But it can also be understood thus: be of like minds toward one another, accommodate yourselves to each other, with thought and heart enter into each other, be separate in nothing. Holy Chrysostom says: “What do the words mean: ‘Be of the same mind toward one another?’ A poor man comes into your home: be of one mind with him, do not assume too important an air because you are rich. In Christ there is neither rich nor poor. Do not be ashamed of outward clothing, but receive according to inner faith. Do you see a weeping one – do not think him unworthy of comfort. Do you see one prosperous – do not be ashamed to share his pleasure and feelings; but as you think of yourself, so think of him. For example, you consider yourself an important man? Regard him as such too. Do you suspect that he is small and low? Pass the same judgment on yourself, cast off all inequality. But how is this possible? It is possible if you lay aside arrogance. Therefore the Apostle added: ‘Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.’”

“Do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought.” Do not hold high opinions of yourselves. Pride produces contempt for others and brings about division. The Apostle everywhere arms himself against this evil, and especially in the Romans, to whom this evil was nearer than to others. He spoke against this before; now he “again forbids the arrogance of pride” (Blessed Theodoret). “Again, as at the beginning of the discourse, he is very concerned about humility of mind, because the Romans both by place of residence and by many other reasons, as is natural, were full of pride. Therefore the Apostle constantly strives to remove the disease and overthrow arrogance. For nothing so divides the body of the Church as pride” (Saint Chrysostom). “To think lofty thoughts is pride. And the devil, having thought lofty thoughts, fell away from God. Let there be no exaltation in your heart, so that in attributing perfection to your deeds, you do not demean your brother as a sinner, when you yourself are already in sin precisely by that exaltation, and in a sin greater than any other. Signifying this, the Lord said: ‘Hypocrite, first remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye’ (Lk. 6:42). The one who exalts himself exalts himself as if sinless, and by this very fact he sins, for who is without sin? Therefore the wise Solomon wrote: ‘God opposes the proud’ (Prov. 3:34)” (Ambrosiaster).

“But associate with the lowly.” The word “lowly” can be understood both in the sense of people humbled by condition and external station. Thus Saint Chrysostom: “by the name of the lowly the Apostle here understands not simply the humble-minded, but those who are abased and despised.” So all our interpreters. Blessed Theodoret expresses the Apostle’s thought thus: “The Apostle decrees to condescend to those who, in men’s judgment, are humbled.” Associate with them, enter into their needs and yourself personally meet their needs, not fearing to suffer some humiliation through it. Saint Chrysostom says: “Condescend, adapt yourself, adjust to their lowness. Not only share their humble feelings, but help by extending your hand, not a strange hand, but your own, as a father cares for his son, a head for the body. The Apostle says the same thing in another place: ‘Remember those in chains as if you were bound with them’ (Heb. 13:3).”

But one can under “the lowly” understand humble thoughts and feelings. The instruction would then be: do not think highly of yourselves, but be guided by humble thoughts and feelings about yourselves. Among the holy ascetics one often encounters the lesson: always hold to the humble or last place. Whether you go with someone, lag back a little; whether you enter an assembly, choose the last place; whether a conversation is being held, either be silent or, if you must speak, speak last; whether you choose obedience, take the lowest task. Thus in everything. This is the surest path to acquiring true humility. Such a thought appears in Ambrosiaster, who writes: “associate with the lowly so as to have grace with God.”

“Do not be wise in your own sight.” Do not think that you yourself can think everything through well and arrange it properly; verify your thoughts by consulting with others more experienced. “Do everything by counsel,” the Wise One taught long ago (Prov. 31:4). And this applies both to worldly and all the more to spiritual matters. Blessed Theodoret expresses the Apostle’s thought thus: “do not be satisfied with what you have thought up yourself, but accept counsel from others.” Saint Chrysostom interprets thus: “do not think that you can satisfy yourselves in all things by yourselves. And Scripture says in another place: ‘Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight’ (Isa. 5:21)! The Apostle again undermines pride here, overthrows presumption and arrogance.”

Concerning how dangerous it is in spiritual life to rely on one’s own reason alone and how beneficial it is to do everything here with counsel, the holy Abba Dorotheus teaches at length in his fifth instruction. Those wishing to know about this more thoroughly are referred to this instruction. But all other ascetics also have many lessons about this. Among them a special phrase has been coined to designate this disease of the mind: to accept thoughts or to believe one’s own mind. The main danger is that the enemy comes up and instills much that appears good but is not. As he himself transforms himself into an angel of light, so too he knows how to give his thoughts an appearance of light. And thus he leads someone from one apparent good to another, and then brings him to evil that appears to be good, then to actual evil, and finally casts him into ruin.

Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19)

Rom. 12:17. Repay no one evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

To repay evil for evil, to take vengeance – has become a natural need of the fallen. He has taken upon himself self-preservation and self-defense and considers it a law of righteousness for himself not to leave unavenged the evil suffered, to cut off repetition or greater influx of it. Vengeance is a direct offspring of self-will, which does not rest until it finds satisfaction for itself directly or indirectly. Vengeance weakens when self-denial is adopted as a law, and is completely extinguished only together with the final extinction of egoism. In perfect form this takes place only in those sanctified by grace. Grace, quickening the spirit, establishes life in God, and at the same time begets devotion to God, committing all concern for oneself, one’s life and deeds to God. Therefore both good and evil are received as from God’s hand, and one does not interfere with one’s own efforts to correct it, in the conviction that, if needed, God will set all right Himself. Vengeance thus disappears in devotion to God and complete reliance on Him with all hope. “And this is advancement close to the most perfect virtue and dispassion” (blessed Theodoret).

The commandment about non-vengeance and not repaying evil for evil was given when grace came – as a sign that only grace-given rebirth makes one capable of it. This commandment came from the lips of the Savior Himself: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” (Mt. 5:43, 44). And with what strong, compelling, and at the same time lovely incentives this is surrounded! – “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect… For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brethren, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Mt. 5:45–48). To this the Lord adds a little later: “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Mt. 6:14, 15).

Ambrosiaster writes: “The Lord said: ‘Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.’ (Mt. 5:20) In the Law it was written: ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ (Mt. 5:43) This seems in appearance to be just. But may the righteousness of Christians surpass this; they received the commandment not to repay evil for evil, that they may be perfect and receive for this a reward at God’s judgment. For it seems to exceed justice itself when one, imitating heavenly justice, does not do what is considered permissible among worldly people.”

Vengeance is considered by the vengeful as a measure of prudence. But only blinding passion teaches such thinking. True prudence cannot but see that oil does not extinguish fire. If the fire of hostility already burns in the one who did wrong; rendering evil for evil will not extinguish it but will inflame it more. If you wish to extinguish this fire, pour water on it – the water of gentleness, forbearance, beneficence. – And again, what prudence is there in imitating evil?! If you judge that the one who wronged you acted badly; why do you go against your own judgment and strain yourself to do evil which you consider bad? Holy Chrysostom says: “If you rebuke another for evil intention, why do you make yourself guilty? If he did evil, why do you not avoid imitating him? Notice that the Apostle made no distinction here, but gave a general law. He did not say: do not repay evil for evil to a believer; but he says: repay no one, neither a pagan nor a villain, whoever it may be.”

“Provide things honest in the sight of all men.” If we connect these words with the preceding and see the same thought in both positions; then their sense will be: always provide good in relation to other people. One who wishes to take vengeance on another sits and thinks up ways to wound the one who caused him displeasure. The Apostle, forbidding to repay evil for evil and, consequently, to contrive to do evil, now says: do not occupy your head with this, do not think how to do evil to the one who offended or insulted you, but how to do good to every person, whoever he may be – concern yourself only with this, have this in your heart. Thus, among others, Oecumenius interprets: “Since above he said: ‘Repay no one evil for evil,’ – then he added: ‘Provide things honest’ – as if saying: it is not enough only not to repay evil, one must also have care for the one who did you wrong. And above too, he was not satisfied to say: do not curse those persecuting you – but also commanded to bless them.”

But if we take these words separately from the preceding and see in them a special lesson, then in them the thought will be: always care to do good in the sight of all people – for fear of offending anyone. The Wise One long ago taught: “Provide things honest before the Lord and before men.” (Prov 3:4) And the Apostle more than once already repeated this lesson in former Epistles. Thus, in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, commanding to collect alms for the suffering brethren in Jerusalem, he advises them to do this with prudent care, so that no shadow would fall on himself and his companions, who had to carry this alms to its destination. “Provide things honest,” – he says – “not only before the Lord, but also before men.” (2 Cor 8:20, 21) And in the first epistle to them the same lesson, on the occasion of instructions how to act in relation to idol-offered animals, he expressed in other words, saying: “Be without offense, both to Jews and to Gentiles and to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.” (1 Cor 10:32, 33) And the Savior commanded: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Mt. 5:16)And holy Paul before the words cited above said: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10:31).

All our interpreters understand the words thus, not excluding Oecumenius. Blessed Theophylact, in the words of holy Chrysostom, writes: “The Apostle speaks thus not that we live for vainglory, but that we give no cause for those who wish to reproach us. For he requires that we live inoffensively and without stumbling; for many watch over us and those connected with us.” Ambrosiaster focuses attention more on when this rule is most applicable, namely in deeds not determined by commandment, but left to discretion – things permitted. It is seldom necessary to think how to fulfill commandments; but the permitted must always be considered, so that by freedom in it we do not offend a brother. “To provide honest things, he says, is to foresee or have before one’s eyes good resulting from our deeds, so that what is done cannot be turned against us in reproach, but rather serve in praise both before God and before men. Let no one think that since what is permitted is not displeasing to God (otherwise it would not be permitted), there is no need to care whether it will be a stumbling-block to a brother or not. Preventing this, the Apostle teaches that one must act so that what is done is both not displeasing to God and does not serve as a stumbling-block to a brother. Let something be permitted, but if it offends a brother, then it is no longer pleasing to God; for God wishes that we mutually care for each other’s salvation. Thus honest things are provided ‘before God and men’ when what is permitted is done so that it does not offend a brother.”

Rom. 12:18. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” – that is, in peace and harmony (Ps 132:1). Everyone knows this by experience and all strive for the preservation of peace and mutual harmony; but, so long as there remain traces of self-will within, there is always a source of division and discord outside, mutual dissatisfaction and enmity. All for what? For earthly interests. The heavenly never serves as a cause for this: for it is free from envy. Take each one as much as you can and as much as you wish. But all earthly things are such that as soon as one gets something, there is nothing left for another.

In those living according to the spirit of this age, that is, with only earthly aims, in self-will and self-gratification, there is hardly any true peace, and if there is – it is accidental, unstable. Those who have denied themselves and followed the Lord have in themselves a stable foundation of peace; but since even in them the old man does not die at once, in them also there are often felt fits of irritation, attempting to destroy mutual peace. And one must be watchful. – Not much is required: always sacrifice yours for the benefit of another, and peace with others will never be violated. This seems like a loss; but in reality it always proves profitable. Through this not only internal, spiritual, unearthly advancement and satisfaction are assured; but earthly well-being flourishes, either through blessing from above or through the force of the action of such manner of acting on others.

If we act in this way, peace on our part will not be broken. But can it be guaranteed that it will not be broken by others as well? It cannot: for there are people who hate peace, as the prophet David makes known (Ps. 119:6). What is to be done here, and what is to be done? The same as holy David did: “I was at peace with those who hated peace” – he says. So must everyone act. Be at peace in your heart, and outwardly allow yourself nothing of the kind that usually destroys peace and can turn the first spark of discord into a flame of strife and hostile enmity. This is why the Apostle added: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you.” For your own part, use every possible means so that peace is not broken, and, if it happens to be broken, that it may be restored the sooner. If such effort is not crowned with success, God’s will be done: be patient, without ceasing your efforts to establish peace. And may God bring about what is well-pleasing before Him. “Whoever does not repay evil for evil, but strives to overcome evil with good, is already a peacemaker. Let another not be a lover of peace; but you, by striving to be at peace as far as depends on you, fulfill the commandment – to have peace with all. Let us be ready to be at peace with all; if others resist this, it is not our fault” (Ambrosiaster).

But there are cases when truth is trampled and righteousness violated. The commandment bids us to defend the wrongly injured and uphold truth; yet neither can be fulfilled without stirring up discord. What then? Stand courageously for truth and defend the injured; but in your heart be at peace with him against whom you stand for truth and righteousness. Do this in the spirit of love, not from selfish motives. Saint Chrysostom refers the Apostle’s words to such cases: “If it be possible, as much as lies in you”. For sometimes it is impossible to be at peace—for example, when it concerns godliness and when you defend the injured. The meaning of the Apostle’s words is thus: “As far as it depends on yourself, give no one occasion for enmity and strife, neither Jew nor Gentile. If, however, you see that godliness is being violated, do not prefer agreement to truth, but stand for it courageously, even to death. And in this case do not wage war in your heart, do not lose kindness, but rise up only against the deeds. This is what the words mean: ‘As much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men.’ If the other does not keep peace, you do not stir up a storm in your own soul; but inwardly be his friend, yet change the truth in no way, as I noted above.” – The blessed Theophylact expresses the same thoughts thus: “The Apostle teaches: fulfill your duties and give no one occasion for enmities and tumults. If, however, you see that godliness is being dishonored, then stand up courageously, fighting for truth, yet not warring against the man but against impiety, and pitying and sparing the man instead. In this way, what seemed impossible before becomes possible: for as far as you are concerned, you are at peace with him, but you wage war against impiety alone.”

Rom. 12:19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.

He has already said not to render evil for evil: which is what it means not to avenge yourselves. What then does the new exhortation not to avenge yourselves mean? Either it is a repetition of the same thing for emphasis; for vengeance is so tempting and cloaked in such plausibility that it is not even reckoned a sin—yet occasions for it are very frequent in the collisions of life. By this repetition the Apostle reminds us to be watchful, lest feelings or deeds of vengeance break through. Or, perhaps in saying this, the Apostle had in view a special kind of vengeance—through courts, namely: when you suffer some injury from another, clearly unjustly, do not seek to restore your right through legal proceedings, for: ἐκδικεῖν—properly means this. Although this, from a civil standpoint, is not shameful; yet since in doing so the feeling of revenge is still fed and satisfied, the Apostle does not allow you to bring lawsuits at all. Endure rather; remain rather the injured party, as it is said in the Epistle to the Corinthians: “Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?” (1 Cor. 6:7)—or as the Saviour teaches: if anyone wishes to take “your coat,” “let him have” “your cloke also” (Matt. 5:40). Whichever interpretation we give the Apostle, we must chiefly attend to the motive for non-vengeance set forth here—namely, entrusting the matter to God’s judgment. The avenging man holds his cause to be just and, in avenging, maintains the thought and feeling that he stands for the right. Refraining from vengeance seems to him like falling away from righteousness. The Apostle refutes this notion, saying as it were: righteousness will not suffer from your forbearance. There is an avenger of righteousness—God. Entrust the matter to God’s vengeance; He will repay, if it is due. This is what the words mean: “give place to wrath”—to God’s wrath, that is, to His righteous retribution: for God has no wrath, but only righteous retribution, which seems like wrath to him who undergoes it. Saint Chrysostom thus interprets: “To whose wrath must we give place? God’s. And as the injured party above all desires to see vengeance so as to enjoy it, God will give it in greater measure. And if you yourself do not avenge, He will be your avenger. So to Him, says the Apostle, leave vengeance. This is what the words mean: ‘give place to wrath!’” The blessed Theophylact expresses the same thought somewhat more forcefully: “Give place, he says, to God’s wrath in respect to those who injure you. If you avenge yourselves, God will not avenge you; but if you forgive, God will avenge more severely.” – Oecumenius adds: “If you yourself avenge yourselves, then when God’s wrath comes, it will have nothing to repay the wrongdoer, because you have already extracted payment from him.” And Ambrosiaster goes so far as to suggest that God’s wrath, coming, will find that you, taking it upon yourself to stand for the right, have exceeded the measure of righteousness, exacting more than is due, beyond measure, and instead of repaying the wrongdoer, will repay you for the excess of exaction you permitted. And that this is possible you can judge from the nature of wrath, which always stands in league with vengeance. Wrath never keeps a righteous measure but always goes beyond it. Therefore the Apostle James wrote: “For the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). Ambrosiaster precisely writes: “To preserve the bond of peace, the Apostle persuades us to refrain from wrath, especially because in wrath one cannot but err: for he who is moved by wrath usually exacts more than the unjust deed requires—thereby harming even himself, appearing unrighteous because of disproportionate exaction, and making the wrongdoer worse, whereas by forbearance he might have corrected him. Therefore wise Solomon teaches: ‘Be not righteous over much… For there is just man that perishes in his righteousness’ (Eccl. 7:16, 15): for when wrath takes hold of us, the enemy finds a place in us, and under the appearance of righteousness, inspires what is unrighteous and destructive.”

“For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord”. “For greater persuasion, the Apostle brought a testimony, supporting his word thereby” (Saint Chrysostom, the blessed Theophylact). This is not my commandment; but such is God’s will, such is the law of God’s providential acts toward us. God Himself takes upon Himself the matter of vengeance. Do not meddle in this matter, He says as it were; I Myself will repay—it is My business. You are not able to do this as it should be done. According to you, vengeance must happen at once, but by the better order it is better to delay vengeance, or for a time, or altogether. Often vengeance can be dispensed with entirely: the wrongdoer himself may come to his senses and correct his wrong; and this is far better. Or—if you avenge him now, he will be hardened all the more; but if you punish him later, he will be softened in heart and reformed. Since you know nothing of all this, it is better not to undertake this business. Besides, you yourself, the injured one, have been wrong in much. I sent you this injury as retribution for your wrongs and sins, to deliver you from future reckoning. If you endure it, consider what evil you forestall? But if you avenge, you destroy the whole good fruit of the injury for you. Your sins remain upon you, and expect eternal reckoning, unless another injury befalls you in cleansing. So do not seek vengeance. With him who caused you the injury, I know better than you how to act according to all righteousness; but you receive it as a medicine for you and as warding off a greater and more terrible evil. With Me, all is directed toward bringing good to all from everything—not temporal but eternal, not earthly but heavenly, not visible but spiritual. So it is, when you do not meddle with your righteousness; but when you do meddle, you disturb My order and instead of good, you multiply and reap evil.

The words: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay”—are not read word for word in the Old Testament writings, but this thought is clearly expressed by the prophet Moses in different words, namely: “In the day of vengeance I will repay” (Deut. 32:35). The Apostolic Spirit took the thought of the prophetic spirit—which is the same as the Apostolic one—and expressed it in another, a stronger word.

Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1)

Rom. 12:20. If your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head.

These words are taken from the Proverbs of the Wise One (Prov. 25:21, 22) and point to the sole blessed way of vengeance—doing good to those who have done and do us something unpleasant and evil. The Saviour Himself commanded the same, saying: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you” (Matt. 5:44). This is the one kind of vengeance that brings to his senses, and most powerfully, him who shows us enmity. The figurative expression: “you shall heap coals of fire on his head”—means nothing evil, but expresses the remorse into which the wrongdoer is brought by his evil deed when the one he has wronged does good to him in place of evil. This “coal of fire”, heaped “upon his head” by benefaction, quenches or disperses the fire of enmity burning in his heart and brings about peace. For the one who does good to his enemy, this reconciliation is what must be kept in mind, not the sorrowful state into which his enemy will be placed: for then a feeling of vengeance might slip in, which is likely to hinder the beneficial effect of benefaction. Perhaps, however, the Apostle’s words also contain a threat to the enemy—that if he does not amend, the good done to him in place of evil will increase the punishment that God will send him in avenging the injured. Thus, these words on one side encourage the injured, on the other restrain the wrongdoer with fear. Such a thought is evident in all our interpreters. Saint Chrysostom sees here a certain concession or yielding to the feeling of vengeance. This feeling, blending with the right of self-defense, is so persistent that it seems there is no possibility of turning away from the desire to see the wrongdoer suffer something unpleasant. The Apostle seems not to contradict this, encouraging the hope that the wrongdoer will yet suffer more from God if you do good to him. But he does not speak thus in order to justify this feeling, rather in order to, somewhat satisfying it, to pave the way for a willing acceptance of the rule that follows: “Be not overcome of evil”. Here is exactly what Saint Chrysostom says: “What do I say, continues the Apostle, that we must live in peace with an enemy? I command you to do good to him. Feed him and give him drink, it is said. But since this commandment is very difficult and great, it is added: ‘for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head’. The Apostle said this in order to restrain the wrongdoer with fear and encourage the injured with hope of repayment (of retribution on the enemy by God). For when the injured one weakens in spirit, not so much his own good sustains him as the punishment of his offender. Most pleasing to man is to see his enemy punished. And whatever a man desires, the Apostle gives him first. When the poison is extracted, he proposes to him loftier exhortations, saying: ‘Be not overcome of evil’. The Apostle knew that the enemy, though he were a beast, once fed, would not remain an enemy and that the injured, however vengeful he might be, once he has fed and given drink to his enemy, will no longer desire vengeance. Therefore, being assured of the conclusion of the matter, he not only threatens but becomes generous even in the punishments themselves. He does not say that you will bring down vengeance (that is, God’s), but: ‘you shall heap coals of fire on his head’. The Apostle gives his commandment, saying: ‘Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.’ Through this he also subtly teaches that it is not with such an intention that you should do good to your enemy (that is, to heap coals on his head). For to remember an injury means already to be overcome by evil. And although the Apostle did not say this at first because it was still inopportune, yet as soon as he had satisfied his listeners’ wrath, he immediately added: ‘overcome evil with good.’”

Here are the words of the blessed Theodoret: “Having pointed out the Judge and declared His righteous determination (for this is what the words mean: ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay’), the Apostle commands us to bear manfully the wrongs inflicted, to return wrongs not with wrongs, and to provide for the hostile what is needful for them. For this weaves crowns for the wise, and increases punishments for the wrongdoers. Yet one must know that it is not in order that they may suffer greater punishments that one should serve the hostile. For the divine Apostle introduced these words with the intention of quenching irritation in the injured, not seeking to increase evil with good.” Here are the words of Ambrosiaster: “The Apostle commands not only to leave vengeance to God but also to render acts of kindness to enemies; to show that by our deeds we have not made enemies for ourselves, when, to appease their enmity, we strive to overcome them with services to them. If they harden themselves in their enmity, through the impiety of their mind, then our services will serve to increase their punishment; but perhaps, being moved by the zeal of our services, they will kindle in good will toward us, as sometimes cold embers glow again. Therefore, wishing to make us perfect and to teach not only ourselves but also others to acquire eternal life, the Lord through Solomon not only forbids vengeance on our enemies but persuades us by kindness toward them and deeds corresponding to that to return them to friendship.” Here are the words of the blessed Photius at Oecumenius: “Do not do good to your offender in order to bring greater punishment upon him. This has been said for your consolation—that in feeding and giving drink to him, you ‘heap coals of fire on his head’; but not that with precisely this feeling should you do good to him. Let God, by reason of your doing good to your enemy, be all the more angry with him, in avenging you, and turn the fire of trials and evils that he stirred up for his neighbor upon his own head: but you should not do good to him with that goal, that you might see him subjected to such calamity, otherwise you will be overcome by evil. And it will be that he will suffer nothing more than what was due him, but you will lose your reward, being overcome by evil. And what is more—if God sees such intention in you, He will not avenge you. For He avenges for the good and meek when they are wronged, but not for the one who avenges himself with wrath and ill will, through the good deed of benefaction plotting evil against his offender and wishing to see him ruined. Therefore, do good in order to overcome evil with good and to be a son of your Heavenly Father, as the Lord said.”

Rom. 12:21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

This is the most exact determination of what was said above. When one, meeting insult, injury, and slander, yields to the feeling of insult, then he is overcome by evil; and all the more when he grows angry, and even more when he plots vengeance. But when one yields to none of these, and on the contrary, instead of evil, resolves to do good, then he shows himself a conqueror. The Apostle commands us: first, not to permit the former; second, to take the latter as a rule of life. “For to avenge is to allow evil to gain victory over you; and the glorious victory is to repay evil with good” (the blessed Theodoret). “By these words the Apostle persuades us not to render to enemies mutual evil. For us it is more profitable to yield to malice; for he overcomes evil who appears to be overcome by it for a time. Vengeance acts against itself and thinks it is gaining victory when it suffers defeat. Here too the enemy acts, striving, by drawing us away from good will, to plunge us into sin. But when we, being kindled by him, do not render evil for evil, then we overcome him with good. We do not resist evil in order to preserve the good (of peace), leaving justice unsatisfied: for to requital, ordinarily, impels the feeling of right (though not always a just one)” (Ambrosiaster).

“Saint Chrysostom speaks at length on this: ‘overcome evil with good’. For this is indeed victory. A fighter gains victory not when he exposes himself to the blows of his opponent, but when he brings himself into such a position that his opponent is forced to strike at air alone. In this way he both saves himself from blows and his opponent wastes his strength in vain. The same happens with insults: when you repel insult with insult, then you are not conquered by man but, which is far more shameful, by a base passion; for you are dominated by anger. When you are silent, you have conquered and without effort raised yourself a trophy; thousands of people stand ready to crown you and acknowledge the lie of slander. Whoever refutes slander shows by his response that it has wounded him; and whoever is wounded suggests suspicion that he confesses the thing he is slandered for. But if you answer with laughter, the very laughter refutes the evil judgment against you. And if you want clear proof of the truth of my words, ask your enemy himself, what is more painful for him—that you, heated by the insult, pay him back with insult, or that you laugh at the offender? He will say that the latter is far more painful for him. Not so much is it pleasant for him that he does not hear insults from you as it is torment that he cannot drive you into impatience. By depriving your enemy of success in what he especially desires, you humble him, show that he is worthy of scorn, that he is a child, not a man. You yourself gain thereby the glory of a wise man, while he is made to be thought of as a vile beast. Let us use the same measures if it happens we receive blows; and to him whom we wish to strike, let us not return blow for blow. To him who strikes you on one cheek, offer him the other also; in doing so you will inflict thousands of wounds upon him. Those who will applaud you and marvel at you will become for him more fearful than those who stone him; and even before that, his conscience will condemn and judge him to a terrible punishment, and he will depart in shame, like one condemned to death. If you also care for human glory, you will acquire it in greater measure by such action. For toward the evils suffered by others, in any case, we have some pity. But when we see a man who does not repay blow for blow but himself offers his cheek, then we do not so much pity him as marvel at him. To overcome by doing evil is one of the devil’s laws. Not such is the law of rewards in the arena of Christ; there it is appointed to crown not the striker but the struck. Such is the arena of Christ; all its ordinances are opposite; not by one victory alone, but by the very manner of victory it awakens wonder. What in another place is counted as defeat is here a victory. This is the power of God, this is a heavenly arena, this is an angelic spectacle!”

Both of these—both how those who manage the affairs of Christian society should act and how all other Christians should act and with what virtues they should be adorned, not excepting even those who manage affairs—relate to Christians as Christians. Now the Apostle wishes to show:

b) How they should act as members of civil society or the state (Rom. 13:1–14)

Aa) The first point here—obedience to authorities (Rom. 13:1–7)

Rom. 13:1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

“Having formed morals (that is, having shown in the previous chapter what Christians should be like in character), the Apostle commands that proper honor be rendered even to rulers. For, as one abundantly receiving the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, he foresaw that some, being led more by arrogance than by zeal (for good), would despise the rulers of the world, regarding themselves as superior in knowledge; moreover, he does this to suppress the rumor spread about the Apostles; for they were slandered, supposedly overthrowing the public order; and some said: ‘These that have turned the world upside down are come here also’ (Acts 17:6); and others: “they introduce other “customs” (Acts 16:21). Therefore, he deemed it necessary to establish a law on this as well” (the blessed Theodoret).”

“The Apostle reasons much on this in his other Epistles when speaking of submissiveness—both of slaves to masters and of subordinates to rulers. And by this he wishes to show that Christ introduced His laws not to overthrow the general civil order but to correct and improve it; and at the same time he wishes to teach us not to undertake unnecessary and useless wars. It is enough for us to face those plots that are raised up against us for the sake of truth; we should not add unnecessary and useless trials. Notice how timely the Apostle brought up this subject. After he proposed to his listeners various demands of Christian wisdom, prepared them to live in peace with friends and enemies, taught them to be useful for both the fortunate and the unfortunate and for the needy, in short, for all, planted ordinances of community life befitting the Angels, exhausted wrath, cast down pride, and completely softened their hearts—after all this he proposes his exhortations about obedience to authorities. He calls us to obedience by representing it as a duty. And, wishing to teach that his command extends not merely to secular people but to all, both priests and monks, he declares this beforehand, saying: ‘Let every soul be subject to the higher powers’. Even if you were an Apostle, even if an Evangelist, even if a Prophet, or anyone else, obey. Submission to authority does not undermine godliness. The Apostle here means not mere obedience but submission (humble, with bowed head). The first foundation of such an order, satisfying the reason of the faithful, lies in the fact that powers are instituted by God. ‘For there is no power but of God’—says the Apostle. How is this? Is every ruler appointed by God? Not so, I say, the Apostle would answer. My discourse now is not about each ruler individually but about rulership itself. That there are rulers, that some rule while others are subject to them, and that there is no disorder whereby things happen haphazardly without order, that peoples are not tossed about like waves—all this I call the work of God’s wisdom. Therefore the Apostle does not say that there is no ruler who was not appointed by God, but, reasoning generally about rulership, he says: ‘For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God’. Similarly, when the Wise One says that: ‘Every wise woman builds her house’ (Prov. 19:14)—[he means through this that marriage is established by God, not that God unites each who enters into marriage. For we see that many enter into marriage with evil motives and not according to the law, which we cannot attribute to God. But what Christ said: ‘Have you not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife’ (Matt. 19:4, 5)—the Wise One understood the same.] Since equality often leads to strife, God established many forms of rulership and subordination: between husband and wife, between son and father, between elder and youth, between slave and free, between ruler and subject, between teacher and pupil. And should we marvel at such an order among men, when God Himself established the same in the body? For He so arranged it that not all members have equal honor, but one is lower, another more important, and some govern, others are governed. We observe the same among the beasts: among bees, among cranes, in herds of wild sheep. Even the sea is not without such good order, but even there among many kinds of fish one governs and leads many, and under its leadership they set out on long journeys. On the contrary, lawlessness everywhere is evil and produces confusion” (Saint Chrysostom).

However, from other places in Scripture it is evident that rulers, whether good or bad, exist by God’s providential order; only God appoints the good and beneficial rulers, but permits the evil ones to be rulers as punishment for the sins of the people. Thus the blessed Theodoret writes: “If God wills, He gives rulers who respect justice. For it is said: ‘I will give you pastors after mine own heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding’ (Jer. 3:15); and again: ‘I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counsellors as at the beginning’ (Isa. 1:26). But to instruct those who go astray, God permits even evil rulers to govern. For it is said: ‘I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them’” (Isa. 3:4).

Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8)

Rom. 13:2. Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

“The Apostle, having said who established the powers, adds: ‘Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God.’ See where the matter leads, what fear he inspires, and how he proves that to obey the rulers is our duty. Lest someone among the faithful say: you humble us and make us despicable, subjecting to (earthly) rulers those who have been allotted the Heavenly Kingdom—the Apostle proves that even in this case he subjects them not to (earthly) rulers but again to God. For he who submits to authority obeys God. Nevertheless, the Apostle does not say this directly and in such words: whoever heeds the ruler obeys God; but he terrifies by contraries, and confirms the same thing with greater force, saying: whoever does not obey the ruler resists God, who ordained the powers; and everywhere he strives to teach that obedience to authority is not some voluntary concession on our part but our duty. By such instructions the Apostle encouraged both the faithful to obedience and disposed even unbelieving rulers favorably toward Christian godliness. At that time, rumor was spread everywhere that the Apostles were rebels and innovators who by word and deed sought to undermine the public order. But by proving that our common Master commands all His worshippers to observe these ordinances, one can both stop the mouths of slanderers accusing us of innovation and defend the true doctrine with greater boldness. Therefore, do not be ashamed of submission, says the Apostle. This law God gave and sternly avenges those who despise it. If you disobey, He will punish you, not lightly but in the strictest manner; no excuse will save you, moreover, from men you will suffer the harshest punishment, for no one will defend you, and you will greatly anger God. This is exactly what the Apostle teaches when he says: ‘they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation’” (Saint Chrysostom).

“shall receive damnation”, κρίμα λήμψονται—will receive κρίμα—condemnation and punishment as a result: for it means both.

Rom. 13:3. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Will you then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and you shall have praise of the same.

“After working through fear, the Apostle proves the benefit of obedience and persuades by reason, saying: ‘For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil’ (that is, “to those who do evil deeds, not good ones” (Oecumenius)). Before, he dealt a deep wound, brought his listeners to fear; now he eases again and, like a wise physician, gives soothing medicine, comforts, says: what do you fear? What do you dread? Does the ruler scold one who does good? Is he fearful for one who strives for virtue? Therefore the Apostle adds: ‘Will you then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and you shall have praise of the same.’ Do you see how he reconciles the one who does good with the ruler, showing that the ruler is appointed to praise him? Do you see how he disarms every resentment” (Saint Chrysostom).

Rom. 13:4. For he is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid; for he bears not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil.

“For he is the minister of God to you for good.” “The ruler is not only not fearful for you but even praises you; he not only does not hinder you but also helps you. If he praises and helps, why do you not submit? He makes your labors in virtue easier even by punishing the evil and heaping benefits and honors on the good, thus cooperating with God’s will—in which sense the Apostle called him God’s servant. Consider: I advise you to be chaste; and he too demands it by law. I persuade you not to be greedy or rapacious; and he too is set over that as judge. Therefore, he is our fellow-worker and helper; for this he was appointed by God. Thus, in a twofold respect he is worthy of our respect—both as God’s messenger and as one assigned to the same work as we. And so he is your servant for good, being God’s servant. How is he your servant? By protecting you from the evil, preventing the harm they might cause you, and giving you freedom to do good. He serves you for good also in that he makes you fear for evil and thus turns you from it toward virtue” (Saint Chrysostom) and (Photius at Oecumenius).

“‘But if you do that which is evil, be afraid.’ Therefore, the ruler is not the cause of fear, but our own vices are. ‘for he bears not the sword in vain’. Do you see how the Apostle represents him armed like a warrior, so as to make him fearful for transgressors of the law? ‘for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil.’ And lest you, hearing of punishment and the sword, run away, the Apostle again confirms that the ruler carries out God’s law. What does it matter to you if he himself does not know this? It is enough that God ordained it thus. Therefore, if the ruler, whether punishing or rewarding, is God’s servant because he guards virtue and pursues vice, which God Himself desires, why do you resist him who brings so much good and furthers your welfare? Many at first strove to live virtuously for their rulers, and afterward became attached to virtue through the fear of God. The common people are not so moved by the future as by the present. And he who by both fear and honor predisposes the hearts of men so that they are more ready to receive the word of teaching is justly called God’s servant” (Saint Chrysostom).

“a revenger to execute wrath”, εἰς ὀργήν—not to punishment but to terror: for punishment is already contained in the word: “a revenger”, one who repays—which in relation to the evil is carried out through punishment. “The ruler, as he serves God in praising the good, so also in punishing the evil, imitates God in being angry at them and exacting from them”—and thereby inspires fear in them (Photius at Oecumenius).

Rom. 13:5. Wherefore you must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

One must obey not only from fear of punishment but also from conscience, from a sense of duty. Conscience always stands for the recognized will of God. Therefore the Apostle, having pointed out in the rulers the servants of God and sanctified obedience to them by God’s will, concludes: you must obey not only from fear, but even if there were no fear at all, from conscience. The blessed Theodoret writes: “wrath the Apostle called punishment (fear of punishment). And he commands obedience for both reasons: both from fear of punishment and to fulfill one’s duty; for this he called conscience.” “Even if there were no fear from the authorities, we add the words of Photius, conscience compels you to listen to him and obey him. The evil obey him against their will from fear, but zealots of order and goodness should obey him from conscience, willingly and from the heart.”

Saint Chrysostom interprets this passage thus: “What does it mean: not only for wrath? You must obey, says the Apostle, not only because, in not submitting to the ruler, you resist God and thereby bring upon yourself great calamities from both God and men; but also because the ruler, as guardian of peace and civil order, is your greatest benefactor. By thousands of advantages of the state, we are obliged to our governments. As soon as government is removed, everything falls apart; neither cities nor villages nor houses nor markets nor any other institution stands firm; on the contrary, everything is overthrown because the strongest devour the weakest. Therefore, even if those who disobey were not pursued by wrath, you ought even then to maintain submission, lest you appear conscienceless and ungrateful to your benefactor.”

Rom. 13:6. For for this cause pay you tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

“For for this cause pay you tribute.” Without enumerating all the benefits which states owe to their governments and what they are—good order, peace, and other services, both military and civil—the Apostle brings one following proof for all of that. By paying tribute to the government, he says, you yourself testify that it brings benefits to you. Notice the wisdom and skill of the blessed Paul. That which was regarded as burdensome and intolerable—namely, taxes—he turns into a proof of the government’s care. For what, he asks, do we pay tribute to the king? Is it not because he cares for us? Is this not a reward to the ruler for his care? We would not pay tribute if we did not know beforehand that the protection of authority would be beneficial to us. On the contrary, from ancient times, by common agreement, it has been accepted by all that rulers are maintained at our expense; because they, leaving their own affairs, care for public matters and spend all their time in concern that our property be secure.

“Having brought forward external arguments, the Apostle again returns to his former proof; for in this way he could more easily win over the faithful. Therefore he again shows that this is God’s will, with which he concludes his exhortations, saying: ‘for they are God’s ministers.’ Then, depicting the labors and anxieties connected with authority, he adds: ‘attending continually upon this very thing’—that is, all their life is devoted to this, all their cares are so that you may enjoy peace. (‘Attending continually,’ προσκαρτεροῦντες—and this word means: to toil at something without sleep). Therefore, in another epistle Paul not only commands submission to rulers but also prayer for them; moreover, he shows the common benefit that results, adding: ‘that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life’ (1 Tim. 2:2). For rulers greatly contribute to the quietness of our present life by arming themselves against enemies, repelling them, quelling internal uprisings, and settling all disputes. Do not tell me that some use power for evil; on the contrary, observe the order of the civil system and judge how much wisdom there was in him who established this in the beginning” (Saint Chrysostom).

Rom. 13:7. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

“Tribute,” φόρος—a tax, τέλος. The blessed Theodoret interprets these words thus: “The Apostle calls tribute the land tax; by ‘custom’ he means the fee for the right to trade,‘a duty. And Oecumenius with the blessed Theophylact thus:’Render to everyone, as a debt, that which should be rendered to him according to the kind of authority entrusted to him: to whom a poll-tax, φόρος, is due, render tribute; and to whom a land-tax, τέλος, is due, render custom.” Saint Chrysostom, leaving the money aside, directs all attention to what is required by the words: “fear”—and: “honour”—that is, to the moral side of the matter. “The Apostle continues his former thought and commands that to rulers, in addition to money, be brought also honor and fear. But how did he say above: if you wish not to fear authority, do good; and now says: render fear? Here by fear he means the higher degree of respect, not the fear arising from a bad conscience, which he meant above. And he did not say: give, but: ‘Render’; moreover, he added: ‘their dues.’ For the fulfillment of this is not a gift but a debt; and if you do not fulfill it, you will be punished as ungrateful. Do not think that the honor of your wisdom will be diminished and suffer loss if you rise in the presence of an authority or uncover your head. For if the Apostle so ordained it when rulers were pagans, how much more should you observe it now when you have Christian rulers. If you say that you yourself have been entrusted with more (referring to faith and gifts of grace), know that your time has not yet come. Now you are a sojourner and a stranger; and there will be a time when you will prove stronger than all. Now your life is hidden ‘with Christ in God; when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory’ (Col. 3:3, 4). Therefore, do not seek your reward in temporal life; but if you should even have to approach a ruler with fear, do not count this as diminishing your nobility. This is God’s will, that the ruler who has received the honor of authority from Him should have his strength. And for you this will serve as even greater honor; for a man is not diminished by showing another respect, but by not showing it. Moreover, the ruler will admire you all the more, and even if he were an unbeliever, he would praise the Lord for it.”

The blessed Theophylact in agreement with Oecumenius interprets this passage thus: “Do not give only money; render also fear, that is, respect, reverence, and distinctive honor. Therefore he adds: ‘honour to whom honour.’ Fear is of two kinds. One kind is the fear by which criminals fear—fear arising from an unclean conscience: this fear the Apostle already earlier rejected. The other kind of fear is that which the loving have for the beloved—that is, the higher degree of respect.”

But one can apply fear to all persons in authority, and honor to all other respected persons in society. Ambrosiaster expresses such a thought: “It is proper to show fear before authority and power, because fear does not permit errors and crimes (pursued by authority). And in respect to parents and masters, son and slave ought to show honor from a sense of gratitude. The honor indicated here can be applied to persons high in the world, so that they, seeing the humility of Christ’s servants, may praise rather than censure the evangelical teaching.”

Bb) Second, in the civic sense (Rom. 13:8–14):

α) The fulfillment of all duties of community life (Rom. 13:8–10), with: β) the avoidance, however, of evil customs that have gained currency in pagan society (Rom. 13:11–14).

The Apostle speaks in this section (verses 8–10) about the observance of the duties of common life, determined by law. These are the laws he points to (verse 9). All are of a negative nature: do not do this, do not do that—and are taken from the second tablet of the Decalogue. For a Gentile, and even for a Jew, it suffices not to do; but for a Christian it is not enough: one must still have a good foundation for not-doing. The Apostle points to it in love. About love for the brethren he has already spoken; now he speaks of it as the foundation and source of praiseworthy civil life. He speaks as if to say: there are many laws here; but love, and you have fulfilled all, even if you did not know the laws—love itself will teach you lawful action, and with it you will always be the most righteous citizen.

Rom. 13:8. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.

Before this he showed that to official persons, clothed with whatever authority, what is due must be rendered, each their share according to their rank. A question arises: but in respect to other citizens, what is due? “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another.” Have love as your unpayable debt. You have paid the poll tax or land tax, paid the custom duty, and are free; but count love as an eternal debt, always pay it, but never count it as fully paid. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle again returns to the mother of goods, to the perfecter of all virtue—to love—and says that it is a debt not temporary like taxes or duties, but eternal. For he wishes this debt never to be repaid, and although always paid, yet never fully, so that you still remain in debt. Because this is such a debt that is continually paid but never discharged. Having then said how one ought to love, the Apostle reveals also the benefits of love, saying: ‘for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.’”

In this lies the answer to the question of how one ought to act toward others. Love—and you will fulfill all that is due in this respect. For love is the fulfillment of the law—it both points out what is due and gives strength to fulfill it; it is the executory power of the law, the source from which all that is lawful and only the lawful proceeds. Love’s only business is to do what is lawful, not because the law imposes this on it from outside, but because if it is in motion, it can do nothing but the lawful, whether it is aware of this lawfulness or not. It is the foundation of peace, prosperity, and public tranquility. If it were to become the universal moving force, then there would be no need either for guardians of order or for courts. Everything would flow together in harmony of itself. But without love, community life is not stable. Externally all is one, but internally they are separated: this is a heap of unbound sand. “If there is no love in us, then the whole composition of the body is torn apart,” says Saint Chrysostom.

Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12)

Rom. 13:9. For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

He shows how love fulfills the law. He enumerates deeds that are pursued also by civil law, and teaches that love will not permit any of these or similar deeds. He who loves his friend—can he allow himself to seduce his wife? Can he raise his hand against him or stretch it toward his possessions? Will his tongue turn to utter lies against him? Will his heart be moved with desire for anything belonging to his friend, or to envy him? And he will not permit himself any other unpleasantness or harm to his friend. Thus, where love is, there are only lawful deeds—and deeds not only of righteousness but of mutual cooperation, helping, and support. The blessed Photius at Oecumenius writes: “How he who loves his neighbor fulfills the law is evident from the following. He who loves will not attempt to dissolve the marriage bond of the beloved, counsel against what is most important in life, and thereby harm him in this chief thing. But he will not arm himself with murderous hands against him, nor will he permit himself to steal anything from him, nor will he dare by any other violent means to take anything from him, because he cannot indulge the desire against what is his neighbor’s. Nothing of this sort is fitting for the lover. Nor will he give false testimony against his neighbor, nor will he swear a perjured oath to his harm. And having guarded himself by such dispositions, what other virtue will he not add to these? So he who loves his neighbor truly shows himself a faithful fulfiller of all the law.”

“and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, You shall love.”—“briefly comprehended,” ἀνακεφαλαιοῦται—is recapitulated, is subsumed under this heading: “You shall love”—and is contained in it, and in the fulfillment of it is fulfilled. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle did not simply say: is fulfilled—but: ἀνακεφαλαιοῦται—that is, in this commandment all the system of commandments is briefly contained. For the beginning and end of virtue is love. It is both the root and the necessary condition; it is also the summit of virtue. And if love is the beginning and fullness, then what equals it? Nevertheless, the Apostle requires not merely love but love in the highest degree, for he did not simply say: ‘You shall love’—but he added: ‘as yourself.’”

Rom. 13:10. Love works no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

The essence of love is to sacrifice oneself and everything one has for the beloved and to do for him all possible good. If such is its nature, how is it possible for it to do any evil? The Apostle brings forward this second aspect of love—that it does no ill—having in mind civil life. Civil law pursues those who violate good mutual relations, but the doing of good it leaves to each man’s conscience. Therefore, if you wish to be a correct citizen, do no evil. But to be strong enough not to do evil and to be upright before civil law, love. If you love, all civil laws will easily be fulfilled by you, and you will have nothing to fear or worry about in this respect.

Such is the thought flowing from the discourse. But if we take these words in the abstract, they express the general characteristics of love. Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see that love has both kinds of perfection—both refraining from evil, for it is said that it ‘works no ill’—and doing good, for it is said that it is the fulfillment of the law? Love not only teaches us a summarized doctrine of what we ought to do, but also greatly facilitates the fulfillment of moral laws. It not only takes care that we know our duties (the law does this too), but also greatly helps us to fulfill these duties and accomplishes in us not just some one part of the commandments but whole virtue in all its fullness. In it is our Kingdom of Heaven, in it is the enjoyment of blessings, in it is every consolation, in it is joy, in it is gladness, in it is blessedness, and whatever I say of this good, nothing will fully express it: it is known only by experience.”

Having shown how one ought to be an upright citizen in the Christian spirit, the Apostle now protects the Romans from shameful customs that have gained currency in pagan societies. As the incentive for this, he sets forth the coming of Christ. The coming of Christ is day, while those customs are dark as night; therefore, we Christians should not follow them or take part in them. Which coming of Christ does the Apostle mean? Some suppose the second, which is to come, and others the first, which has already come. Let us accept both.

Rom. 13:11. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

“And that.” The word “that”—can be referred both to what precedes and to what follows. In the first case it will mean: and this all the more. He said: owe no one anything except love, and pointed out the reason in the fact that love itself will fulfill all that is due. Now he applies a new incentive: and this “especially because now is not the time to sleep but to be awake” (the blessed Theodoret). That is, Christ the Lord has come and enlightened us—or that He is about to come, and the day of future glorious resurrection will arrive. And in the second case it will mean: besides that, moreover even this. He said: love, and through this easily fulfill all that is lawful. Now he adds: besides that, moreover even this you must do. What is it? Knowing the time, that Christ the Lord has come and enlightened us or—that He is about to come and the eternal day will arrive—let us put aside the deeds of darkness—carousing, drunkenness, and the like. The latter better fits the flow of the discourse.

“knowing the time.” It is evident that the Apostle sets forth knowledge of the time as an incentive to conduct befitting it. And the Saviour said in rebuke to the Jews: “You hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that you do not discern this time?” (Lk. 12:56), implying that if they had understood, they would not have persisted in unbelief and opposition to Him: this understanding would have made them act quite differently. The same He said to Jerusalem at His triumphant entry into it: “If you had known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong to your peace!”—that is, to peace, good order, salvation. But you did not know, and not knowing, you acted as you should not and thereby brought heavenly punishments upon yourself: “because you knew not the time of your visitation” (Lk. 19:42, 44)—of visitation by the Lord, not in this time alone, but in general of His coming to earth. The same the Apostle now says: “knowing the time”—being clearly conscious of what it obligates us to—and it obligates us to not sleep but to be awake—to put aside the deeds of darkness, of night.

“The time is understood as the coming of Christ. Which one? The first or the second? Understand the first, understand the second too. Both is day. In the first the Sun of righteousness, Christ our God, shone forth, and the day of the knowledge of God dawned; and in the second the bright resurrection will shine forth and the restoration of all things, and the unfailing day of blessed and eternal life will come. When you compare the first with the time that preceded it, it is day; but when you compare it with the second, it is only the dawn of day. Whichever time you understand, both thunder forth loudly to each of us: wake up, cease to sleep—like a good master crying to his sons and servants: wake up, it is time to work. Reflection and remembrance of the coming of Christ, both first and second, has always been and is the strongest incentive to turn away from evil deeds and to advance in good, to ‘awake out of sleep’ and begin to be vigilant, cast off negligence, and take up zeal for salvation and for deeds that lead to it. Saint Chrysostom, turning his thought to the second coming, says at this point: “The Apostle, having prescribed all that is needful, urges the Romans to good deeds also by the very shortness of time. The time of judgment, he says, stands already at the door. Thus he wrote to the Corinthians: “the time is short” (1 Cor. 7:29)—and also to the Hebrews: “Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Heb. 10:37). But there he spoke in approval of the toiling and in comfort for those who had come to exhaustion from frequent trials; but here he wishes to awaken the sleeping. And indeed, this Apostolic word is useful for us in both cases. What then does this mean: “it is high time to awake out of sleep”? That the day of resurrection is near, the dreadful judgment is near, the day burned like a furnace is near; and we must now put aside negligence.” Ambrosiaster, keeping attention on the first coming, writes: ‘awake out of sleep’—means: to do good as by day, openly; for by night in secrecy are forbidden deeds usually done. We, being in the state of the enlightened, that is, in the knowledge of God, and knowing what we ought to follow, should strive in all ways to live purely and holily, having cast off the sleep of ignorance and negligence.”

“for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” Keeping attention on the first coming of Christ, let us refer the words “when we believed”—to the Old Testament time, when they only hoped and awaited Christ the Saviour with full faith that He would come, but now we have already seen Him, heard Him, and touched Him. And then salvation was by faith in Him who was to come, but now it is nearer to us. Now the Saviour Himself is with us, clothes us in Himself, feeds us with Himself, and gives every divine “power that pertains to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3). Therefore, it is in no way fitting for us to sleep; we must be awake and work diligently. As in working time, when the weather is good, no one allows himself sleep; all hasten to work lest they miss the favorable time: so we Christians, having such a favorable time for salvation, must strain all efforts toward doing only that which effects salvation, avoiding everything that harms it. This the Apostle teaches also the Corinthians, saying: “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain… Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:1, 2).

But evidently, this thought also leads to reflection on the second coming: if you let the time slip, the day of God’s judgment will come. What will you say then and how will you justify yourself if He finds you asleep or engaged in the dark deeds of night? Therefore Ambrosiaster writes: “It is evident that those who after the bath of the second birth in the font of baptism live well and are zealous for the works of love are not far from the glory of the promised resurrection. For good Christian life is a sign of future salvation.” But Saint Chrysostom says on these words: “Do you see how the Apostle expressed to them the approach of the resurrection? With the passage of time, he says, the present life is exhausted; and the life of the future age becomes nearer to us. If you are ready and have fulfilled all that God has commanded, then this day will be for you a day of salvation. Otherwise do not hope for this. Moreover, the Apostle persuades the Roman Christians not by representing bitter consequences, but by pointing to blessings, and thus striving to draw them away from attachment to the present. Besides, it is not surprising that at first, soon after receiving faith, when zeal was in its full strength, they were distinguished by greater fervor; but with the passage of time their zeal grew weak. Therefore the Apostle teaches that we must act in the opposite way and with the progress of time not weaken but be more inflamed. The nearer the King draws to us, the more ready we must be. The nearer the reward, the more we must stir ourselves to deeds. So those who race in running do; when they approach the finish and the receiving of the reward, then with greater zeal they strain their last strength. Therefore the Apostle said: ‘for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.’” When we believed, that is, accepted the faith of Christ, the salvation, that is, the second coming of Christ, when it will be revealed whether one is saved or not, was farther from us; but the more you live after that, the nearer it becomes, and as much as we have lived after baptism, so much nearer it has become. But until the second coming comes, for each of us the hour of death is the same as that itself. The blessed Photius at Oecumenius writes: “The Apostle calls by salvation the end of life, because then it is revealed whether one is worthy of salvation and blessedness or not.”

Such teachings are given if in the words cited we understand the second coming. But it will be more direct to understand the first coming in them, as the following words also show.

Rom. 13:12. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

The words: “The night is far spent, the day is at hand”—the blessed Theodoret interprets thus: “The Apostle calls the time of ignorance ‘night,’ and the time after the coming of the Master ‘day;’ because the Sun of righteousness, having shone forth, illuminated the universe with the light of the knowledge of God.” And Ambrosiaster writes: “The Apostle called ‘night’ the old man, who through baptism becomes new. He has passed, he says, like night, and day has drawn near, in the light of which truth has been revealed to us—so that we might know what we ought to do. Before, not knowing Christ, we were in darkness; but when we came to know Him, light shone in us, because we passed from falsehood to truth.” And our other interpreters, adhering to the same thought that the Apostle here speaks of the second coming of Christ, understand by “night” the present life and the present age, and by “day” the future age; and what the Apostle says: “is far spent and is at hand,”—here is expressed that as it is appointed for one to pass away and for another to draw near, and both will certainly happen, remember that this is already so: the night is past, and day is at hand. The blessed Theophylact writes the same as Oecumenius: “‘The night is far spent,’—that is, the night soon will end. For example: suppose the night consists of twelve hours. When ten hours have passed, we say that the night is already far spent, προέκοψεν—that is, it has passed, is near its end. By night the Apostle calls the present age, because in it many are in darkness and the life of each is covered with darkness; and by day he calls the future age, both because of the brightness of the righteous and because then the secrets of all will be revealed.” And Saint Chrysostom says: “Therefore, if the night is passing away and day is drawing near, let us now occupy ourselves with the deeds of day, not of night. This is observed also in the affairs of life. As soon as we see the approach of dawn and hear the chirping of swallows, we wake each other up, even though the night has not yet passed. And when it has passed, we urge each other on, saying: day has come, it is time to dress, to put aside dreams, to shake off sleep, and to set about the deeds of day. Let day find us ready; for it is too late to rise and make ready when the rays of the sun have shone forth. So we conduct ourselves in the affairs of life; so let us behave in the affairs of the spirit. Let us abandon dreams, put aside the illusions of the present life, cast off deep sleep, and instead of clothing, let us be clothed in virtue.”

“let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” Since we are enlightened by holy baptism—justified, sanctified, and clothed with grace—it is not fitting for us to do dark sinful deeds; we must cast them off, throw them away, and remove them, and instead let us put on the armour of light, that is, the virtues. Sins are dark deeds because they are done in darkness and plunge those who commit them into darkness—the darkness of ignorance, blindness, passion, and carnal sensuality. But virtues are armour of light because each virtue, becoming established in the heart, strikes down the opposite sinful passion, which cannot otherwise be struck down save by the opposite virtue corresponding to it. Virtue places a man in a bright state: he then walks before God and boldly looks upon Him, sees himself clearly and does not hide from men, boldly looks everyone in the eye. Such properties of virtue and sinfulness are reflected also in all of human nature; and those in whom the eyes of the spirit are opened see some as dark and others as bright. The angels of God, however, always see us either as bright or as dark, according to what is our inner disposition.

“The blessed Theophylact writes of this thus: “The Apostle called sinful actions the works of darkness, and virtuous actions the armour of light. By the words: “cast off and put on”—he showed the ease of both, that is, of both avoiding evil deeds and turning to virtue. Just as it is not difficult to take off one garment and put on another, so it is possible to turn away from vice and take up virtue.”—But perhaps this is said not because both are easy: for in reality both the removal of sins and passions and the clothing in virtue are accompanied by no small labor; but rather to teach that both must be done completely, in perfection, so that nothing vicious remains and, on the contrary, virtue is visible in everything, from whatever side you look upon a man.”

Ambrosiaster reasons thus: “The works of darkness are carnal life, which is led by the allurements and seductions of this age. Being dark, they are worthy of darkness, as the Lord says: ‘bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness.’ (Matt. 22:13). The armour of light, however, are good deeds. As evil deeds are put off until the darkness of night—because those who do them ordinarily do them in secret; so those who do good act openly; because they are not ashamed of their deeds but boldly and joyfully do them. Good deeds are the armour of light because they drive away the darkness of carnal passions.”

Saint Chrysostom stops attention more on the word ‘armour of light’ and encourages us to warfare for good.—“Day,” he says, “calls us to the ranks of war and to battle. But do not be frightened hearing of military ranks and armour. It is heavy and unbearable to clothe oneself in material armour; but to clothe oneself in spiritual armour is desirable and should be the object of our prayers; because this armour is the armour of light. It will make you brighter than the rays of the sun shining like lightning; it will place you in safety because it is armour; it will make you light-bearing because it is armour of light. What then? Therefore is there no need to fight? There is need to fight; but do not fear at this the trials and exhaustion. For this is not war but jubilation and triumph. Such is the nature of this armour, such is the power of the Commander! He clothed in this armour is as adorned as a bridegroom coming forth from the wedding chamber; for he is at once both a bridegroom and a warrior.”

Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14)

Rom. 13:13. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

Sin hides in the darkness of night, but in day it fears to show itself openly: for even sinners themselves are ashamed of sin and try to show themselves to be well-behaved before men. This ordinary order the Apostle takes into account and teaches that since we are now “in the day,” in the light of the knowledge of God and in the illuminating grace, it is fitting for us to walk honestly; not in appearance alone, but rather in our inward disposition, in soul and heart: for there too is our day. The blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle by the bodily indicates the spiritual. For even those who have loved an unlawful life commit unlawfulness at night, but by day they take on the appearance of good order. Therefore, it is his desire that after the passing of night and after the cessation of ignorance, we be freed from the deeds of evil.” The same with Ambrosiaster: “People do not sin publicly; therefore let us also act as people act publicly.”

But sin does not always hide. There are states of society when sin boldly breaks forth and is not afraid to boast of the most shameful deeds. The prophet David noted this long ago: “I saw violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it. Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets.” (Ps. 54:10–12). Nevertheless, it is also true that such shamelessness of sin is only put on and lasts in the expectation that society too sympathizes with such deeds. But it is enough for someone in authority to reveal disapproval, and the unlawful society will scatter and hide. Shame follows sin and always covers the sinner, to a greater or lesser degree. Saint Chrysostom says: “Since the Romans greatly valued public opinion, the Apostle proposes to them as an incentive that by which common people are most moved, namely, a sense of decorum.”

“In what this decorum should consist, the Apostle indicates by pointing out the indecorum which must be avoided. This indecorum was made up of drunkenness, revels, shameful songs, unchaste deeds, quarrels, disputes, and the like. From all of this, he who wishes to live decently must refrain. We Christians are sons of light and of day—we have received the light of faith and the grace of the Spirit. We should not indulge in such deeds or take part in them. These are pagan customs, and they are entirely unfitting for us. The same the Apostle wrote to the Thessalonians, and he set forth the same incentive: we are not in the darkness of night but in the light of day. The night-dwellers get drunk, but we ought to be sober and vigilant (1 Thess. 5:5–7). This is the chief point of the present section, in which the Apostle requires that Christians, while remaining good citizens, refrain, however, from evil customs that have gained currency in pagan societies. The holy Apostle Peter notes that Christians at that time held themselves thus. ‘For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles… in lasciviousness, lusts… in excess of wine, revellings, banquetings… wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot’ (1 Pet. 4:3, 4). From this we must conclude that indulgence in such customs is a sure sign of weakening in the spirit of Christian life and that society in which they prevail is pagan, though covered with the Christian name.”

“Rioting”—“revels at which it is customary to be wild and to defile the tongue with shameful songs; the cause of this is drunkenness. It also becomes the matter of unchastity and the teacher in quarrels and disputes” (the blessed Theodoret). These are “riotous revels which either are established together in shares or arranged in turns by each participant. At them no one thinks it shameful to say and do what is shameful and unholy, because each one regards the revel as his own in a sense. At another’s table shame restrains, but here they gather in order to be shameless under the influence of wine and to enjoy themselves with various sensual pleasures. Therefore the Apostle commands us to avoid such revels” (Ambrosiaster).

“Drunkenness”—excessive use of intoxicating drinks, which darkens the mind and leads to senseless deeds, stirring up shameful lusts. “The Apostle forbids not drinking but drinking without measure; not the use of wine but drunkenness” (Saint Chrysostom). It is the cause of all indecorum at feasts and away from them.

“Chambering,” κοίτη—licentiousness, unlawful association with a woman, and “wantonness,” ἀσέλγεια—means either unbridled lust or unnatural satisfaction of it. “After forbidding riotous revels and drunkenness, the Apostle attached the forbidding of what ordinarily follows—shameless association: for this is the direct fruit of riot” (Ambrosiaster). “The Apostle forbids not association with women but fornication—he prescribes measure in enjoyment” (Saint Chrysostom).

Two sources of passions and passionate deeds are lust and anger. Turning away from the deeds of lust, the Apostle now turns away from the deeds of irritation, from “strife and envying.” Envy is the fruit of pride, which cannot bear for anyone to get ahead of us in any respect. Envy gives birth to strife, ἔρις, which in its peaceful form impels to all kinds of efforts to get ahead again of him who got ahead, but when not peaceful, it picks quarrels, starts disputes, quarrels, and fights, without which no riotous revels are complete. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle strives to extinguish those passions from which other passions are kindled—namely, lust and anger. And therefore he forbids not only these passions themselves but also their source. For lack of sobriety and drunkenness kindle lust most powerfully and inflame anger. Therefore, having first said: ‘not in rioting and drunkenness,’ he then added: ‘not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.’”

Rom. 13:14. But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Those who are baptized have already been clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ; how then does He say: “put you on?”—That was and is a mystical clothing, but this is an active one; there grace accomplishes everything, but here our own effort is also required. “Put you on”—means: show yourselves clothed in Christ, guard in every way this divine clothing upon you, so that everyone sees you clothed in it and understands you in no other way. But what does clothing in Christ itself mean? Either to show yourself always acting as Christ the Lord acted, to display in yourself such properties and dispositions as were in Christ Jesus, so that all who see would say: this is an imitator of Christ, a true follower of Christ. Or to, rejecting all self-reliance and self-confidence, place all hope of success in deeds pleasing to God upon Christ the Lord, surrender yourself to Him, that He may be all-working in us in thoughts, in feelings, in dispositions, in words and deeds, and keep full faith that He, for the sake of this our surrender, will accomplish all that is due in us and will bring us to the blessed end we hope for. The latter clothing is the cause of the former, which cannot be manifested without it. In the present passage it seems more the former is meant, but certainly not without the latter. Saint Chrysostom says of this: “In mentioning vices, the Apostle said: let us cast off the works of darkness. But when he began to speak of virtue, he called it not merely deeds but armour, thereby showing that virtue places its possessor in perfect safety and complete splendor. He did not even stop at this, but, reaching higher, instead of mere raiment gives us something far more exceeding—the Master Himself, the very King. Whoever is clothed in Him fully contains in himself all virtue. When He says: ‘put you on,’ He commands us to wrap ourselves in Him from all sides. He expresses something like this also in other places, namely: ‘if Christ be in you’ (Rom. 8:10); and again: ‘that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith’ (Eph. 3:16–17). The Apostle desires that our soul be the house of Christ, that Christ enwrap us like a garment, be for us everything, both within and without. For Christ is our fullness, as He is ‘the fulness of him that fills all in all’ (Eph. 1:23). He is the way, He is spouse and bridegroom: ‘I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ’ (2 Cor. 11:2). He is the root, and the drink, and the food, and the life: ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me’ (Gal. 2:20). He is the Apostle and the High Priest and the Teacher and the Brother and the Father and the joint heir and the sharer in the grave and the cross. ‘We are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life’ (Rom. 6:4, 5). He entreats us: ‘Now then we are ambassadors for Christ’ (2 Cor. 5:20). He protects us before the Father; ‘for he makes intercession for us’ (Rom. 8:34). He is the house and the dweller: ‘he that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him’ (Jn. 6:56). He is the foundation and the cornerstone; and we are His members, His field, His building, His branches, His fellow-workers. And what does He not wish to make us in order somehow to bind and attach us to Himself? All this proves His boundless love for us. Therefore, surrender yourself to Him, awake from sleep, and be clothed in Him; and having clothed yourself, keep your flesh in submission before Him. This is what the Apostle meant when he said: ‘make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof’ (do not extend your care for the flesh to lusts).”

“Provision,” πρόνοια—care, concern. “make not provision…to fulfil the lusts”, μὴ ποιεῖσθε εἰς ἐπιθυμίας—do not act at the prompting of lusts, for the satisfaction of lusts, or do not turn into lusts. The bodily needs—eating, drinking, sleeping, clothing, having shelter, giving rest—cannot go unsatisfied; but this satisfaction is simple and straightforward and requires no great care when one keeps to the natural order. But when someone breaks from this order, then so many artificial needs of the flesh are generated that neither his strength nor his wealth suffice to satisfy them; day and night he toils, and it is never enough—and he bears the yoke like a beast of burden. And he will not throw off these unnatural things; for he has turned them into lusts; and lusts he regards as himself, so that to deny lust anything seems to him like an attack on his life. Thus tyrannical dominion is exercised over those who indulge the flesh, and it does not let them break free from its bonds. But in Christians there should be no place for such slavery to the lusts of the flesh. The lusts of the flesh have tyrannical power where the spirit is stifled. But in Christians the spirit is awakened and raised to powerful authority by God’s grace, and this power first and foremost turns itself to taming the flesh. For the lusts of the flesh are the furthest point of man’s falling; therefore his raising up or arising must necessarily begin with the rejection of them. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). And why is this? Because they have begun to live by the spirit; and having begun to live by the spirit, they ought to walk by the spirit, in contrast to carnal lust (Gal. 5:25). And whoever begins to live by the spirit does so at the same time as he clothes himself in Christ. Therefore the Apostle joined with clothing in Christ the cutting off of the lusts of the flesh.

Saint Chrysostom speaks at length on this: “As above the Apostle forbade not the use of wine but drunkenness, not married life but licentiousness, so now he forbids not care for the flesh but care that extends to lusts, that is, beyond what is needed. But that he himself commands care for the flesh—listen to how he says to Timothy: ‘Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake’ (1 Tim. 5:23). Similarly in all else have care for the flesh, but for maintaining health, not for gratifying sensuality. For it no longer counts as care when you add fuel to the fire and heat the furnace. And so that you may more precisely know when care for the flesh extends to lust and avoid such care, imagine people given to drunkenness, gluttony, devoted to finery and amusements, living an effeminate and luxurious life—and then you will understand what the Apostle said. Such people, whatever they do, do it not for maintaining health but for pleasure, for inflaming lust. On the contrary, you, clothed in Christ, put away all this; in your care for the body, keep in view only that it be healthy, and apply care to the body only so far as is necessary for health; extend it no further. Instead, devote all your care to spiritual things.”

Then, having depicted how carnal life is sleep from which those who love such a life await a most bitter awakening after death, Saint Chrysostom adds: “I entreat you, awake from sleep, tear out these thorns with root—and sober yourself from drunkenness, from which comes sleep. I offer my counsel especially to those who love to feast with friends. Such feasts cannot be called either pleasure or rest; on the contrary, they are punishment and torment. Pleasure consists not in shameful talk but in fitting conversation, not in being stuffed, but in being satisfied. But in saying this, I do not forbid you to come together and dine with one another; I only require that you not shame yourselves; I desire that your pleasure be true pleasure and not turn into punishment, into torment, into drunkenness and wild merriment (which brings headaches and various diseases). Let the pagans learn that Christians know better than all how to make merry, but to make merry while observing decorum. For it is said: ‘Rejoice in the Lord with reverence’ (Ps. 2:11). How then should one rejoice? By speaking spiritual songs, performing prayers, singing psalms instead of shameful songs. In this way Christ Himself will be present at your table and will fulfill your feast with blessing—when you pray, when you sing spiritual songs, when you invite the poor to share with you what is provided, when you maintain decorum and moderation at your feast. In this way your gathering place will become God’s church, when instead of unseemly shouts and applause, you sing the praises of the Master of all. Do not tell me that a different custom is now established; rather, correct what is evil. ‘Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God’ (1 Cor. 10:31). But from your feasts come evil desires; from them comes licentiousness; from them your wives fall into contempt while wanton women are honored; from them homes collapse, thousands of evils are born—and all falls into disorder. To avoid all this, let us be clothed in Christ and always remain with Him. For to be clothed in Christ means to not be without Him for a moment, but always to show Him in yourself through your holiness and righteousness. And concerning friends, in order to express their strong love and unbreakable bond, we say that one is clothed in another. For he who is clothed appears as that in which he is clothed. So let Christ always be visible in us. And when will He be visible in us? When we imitate His deeds. What then did Christ do? ‘The Son of man has not where to lay his head’ (Lk. 9:58). And you imitate Him. When it was necessary to eat food, Christ ate barley bread. When He was on a journey, He had neither horses nor other beasts of burden, but walked on foot, even to exhaustion. When it was necessary to sleep, He lay, instead of a pillow, on the stern of a boat. When it was necessary to recline, He ordered people to sit on the grass. His garments were inexpensive; He often walked alone, having no one with Him. Furthermore, consider all His words and deeds, on the cross and amid various mockeries, and indeed His whole life—and strive to imitate it. In this way you will be clothed in Christ, when you do not extend your care for the flesh to lusts.”

Having shown how Christians ought to live and conduct themselves as Christians and as members of civil society, the Apostle:

Receiving the Weak in Faith Without Disputes (Romans 14:1–5)

This failing consisted in the fact that they did not relate properly to one another on account of differences in the eating of food. Some of them refrained from certain foods either always or only on certain days, while others made no distinction regarding foods. Both groups, considering their way of acting to be right, condemned those who did not follow it and thus violated the law of brotherly love and peace. The Apostle now corrects this failing. He leaves undetermined which way of acting is better, but directs all attention to the bad feeling with which they related to one another over this matter. Do not judge, he says; it is not your business. Let each one act as his conscience dictates.

Who were these abstainers, the Apostle does not indicate. Judging by what occurred in other Churches, we can suppose that they were either Jews strictly observing the law concerning foods, or pagans who, believing that an idol was something, thought that sacrifices offered to them received something from them and were defiled, and therefore did not dare eat other foods, fearing lest they be idol-offerings, as happened in the Corinthian Church. All our interpreters see the former here, while Clement of Alexandria and the blessed Augustine, as one interpreter notes, saw the latter. One can understand both: for there are expressions that can be referred either only to the former or only to the latter. The Apostle himself did not indicate whom he meant; for this was not required to confirm the rule he prescribed.

Rom. 14:1. Him that is weak in the faith receive you, but not to doubtful disputations.

“Him that is weak”, ἀσθενοῦντα—one who lacks strength in faith. The Law has now ceased, and true faith releases the conscience from any feeling of obligation in respect to it. But weak faith does not give the conscience such release and makes it weak too. One suffering from such weakness is worthy of all brotherly forbearance and attention. Receive, says the Apostle, welcome him into brotherly fellowship, do not turn away from him, do not shun him, do not push him away from yourselves. The words: “but not to doubtful disputations”—are not entirely clear. Μὴ εἰς διακρίσεις διαλογισμῶν.—Διάκρισις—reasoning; hence, on the one hand—hesitation, wavering in thoughts and doubt, and on the other hand—examination, judgment, and condemnation.—Hence various interpretations. The blessed Photius at Oecumenius writes: “Do not condemn him, but receive him as one weak in brotherhood.” And the blessed Theophylact paraphrases these words differently: “Do not condemn him, do not be offended, do not be troubled by many thoughts, but in every way strive to heal him as one weak.” It could also mean: without disputes about opinions, as in the Russian translation, or thus: not examining according to what thoughts he does this or that, or: not condemning such thoughts. God will judge them. You see only one thing—his abstinence, which in itself is worthy of praise.

Saint Chrysostom says on this passage: “I know that these words are difficult for many to understand. Therefore it is necessary first to set forth what gave occasion for these instructions and what the Apostle wishes to correct with these words. What then does he wish to correct? Many of those who believed from among the Jews, even after receiving faith, having their conscience bound by the Law, observed strict discernment in food, because they did not dare completely abandon the Law. Moreover, in order not to incur reproach merely by refraining from pork, they began to refrain from all meat and eat only vegetables, under the pretext of observing a fast rather than Jewish discernment in food according to the Law. On the other hand, there were those more perfect in faith who themselves observed no such discernment in food, and they troubled and grieved those who did observe it with their reproaches and censures and even cast them into despair. Therefore the blessed Paul was concerned lest those who intended to correct this unimportant shortcoming might spoil everything—lest in wishing to accustom the weak in faith to disregard food, they would lead them to fall away from the faith, and in prematurely trying to bring all to perfection, would upset the good they should expect from them at this time, that is, lest by constant reproaches they would shake them in the confession of Christ, so that afterwards neither one nor the other could be corrected. See then how wisely the Apostle acts and with his characteristic wisdom cares for the benefit of both sides! He does not dare say to those who reproached: you are doing wrong; for this would give the others cause to hold to their discernment. Neither does he say: you are doing well; for then they would attack even more strongly. On the contrary, he admonishes both as it should be done, and although apparently he rebukes the stronger party, yet this very rebuke falls also on the opposite party. This is the gentlest and most imperceptible way of correction, when, addressing one, you strike another. Then you do not give the one being corrected reason to be angry and imperceptibly pour into him the medicine of correction. Notice how wisely and timely the Apostle does this! Having said: ‘make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof’, he suddenly turns to the present discourse, so that one might not think he is speaking in favor of those who forbid discernment and commanded to eat all. The weak side must always be protected more; therefore the Apostle addresses his rebuke to the stronger side and says: ‘Him that is weak in the faith receive you.’ But do you see that by this a blow is already struck also at the one observing discernment? By calling him weak, the Apostle makes him feel that he is sick. Then he strikes another blow, saying: ‘receive you.’ By this he shows that much care must be exercised over him; and this is a sign of extreme sickness. ‘but not to doubtful disputations’: here is the third blow struck! From these words it is evident how important his matter is; for it raises doubt even in those who do not participate in it (probably causing them to think: really, should we too not keep such discernment?). Do you observe how he apparently speaks to some while at the same time imperceptibly and without giving offense corrects others?”

Rom. 14:2. For one believes that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eats herbs.

The Apostle indicates whom he means by the strong and whom by the weak. The strong one is he who “eats all things;” but he is not strong because he eats all things, but because, without wavering, he believes that “every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving” (1 Tim. 4:4). And the weak one is he who “eats herbs,” but he is not weak because he eats herbs—for such can be stronger than “those eating all things”—but because from weakness of faith he supposes that food can “commend us to God” (1 Cor. 8:8) and that there are foods which can defile a man. He is weak not from eating little but from weakness of faith: “for not having perfect faith, he thinks that he is defiled by some food” (the blessed Theodoret). The perfect one, daring by faith, nourishes himself with all things indiscriminately, while the imperfect one, as weak, eats herbs. Therefore the latter deserves healing, not rebuke (the blessed Theophylact). “He, believing what is written in Scripture, does not doubt eating all that is given for human use. For he reads in the book of Genesis that all created by God, ‘is very good’ (Gen. 1:31). Therefore nothing should be rejected. And we do not read that Enoch, who first pleased God, or Noah, who alone was found righteous at the time of the flood, or Abraham, the friend of God, or Isaac and Jacob, righteous and friends of God, among whom Lot was, or other righteous ones, refrained from any foods. But another supposes that he cannot eat everything indiscriminately and eats herbs. And let him eat. There is no need to compel him to eat meat, lest he eat with a doubting and troubled conscience and sin because he did not keep his conviction or his intention” (Ambrosiaster). We should suppose that those eating only herbs showed themselves at certain common meals. Here a believing Jew ate no meat at all, lest he appear to abstain from other foods out of respect for the Law; and some, whether Jews or pagans, did not eat, fearing to happen upon idol-offerings.

Rom. 14:3. Let not him that eats despise him that eats not; and let not him which eats not judge him that eats: for God has received him.

You, who believe that all may be eaten and who eat all, do not despise him who thinks differently and holds it to his conscience and therefore does not eat all. And you, who do not eat all, do not judge him who eats all. Among the Romans, however, “it happened that as the more perfect (those eating all) despised those not eating all, considering them weak in faith, not true Christians, harboring a hidden malady within and still holding to Judaism; so the latter condemned the former, considering them transgressors of the Law or even given to gluttony” (Saint Chrysostom). The very acts of both, namely eating and not eating, the Apostle does not touch; for judging abstractly, “it is left to man’s will to eat or not to eat, and no questions or disputes regarding this are proper. All created things are subject to man’s dominion and entrusted to his will” (Ambrosiaster). But, directing attention to what is in the hearts of the two groups, he says to one: do not despise, and to the other: do not judge. Whether there is sin in eating and not eating, none of you can say definitively, but in despising and judging there is already apparent sin. Where there is greater harm and where it is more evident, there he hastens to avert and stop it.

“for God has received him”—“that is, the Gentile. The Apostle continues his discourse addressed to the Jew” (the blessed Theodoret). Do not judge him, Jew, when God has received him in His grace, not making it an obstacle to this reception that he was not under the Law and consequently under the Law regarding the distinction of foods—and after receiving him has not imposed upon him any burden of the Law. “Why do you speak to him about the Law as if he were a transgressor? God received him, that is, He showed upon him His unspeakable grace and freed him from all guilt” (Saint Chrysostom).

But perhaps the words: “for God has received him”—refer to both, thus: the one who eats does not despise the one who does not eat; “for God has received him,” and the one who does not eat does not judge the one who eats; “for God has received him.” You are both in God’s grace, received into His Kingdom, honored with adoption: do not cast each other out of this saving enclosure over such trifles as distinction and non-distinction of foods. It was no obstacle to the Jew being received into grace that he held to discernment of food. Why do you think it will hinder him from remaining in grace? It was no obstacle to the Gentile being received into grace that his freedom in eating. Why do you think it will hinder him from remaining in it? Have this grace in your hearts and give thanks to God. Mutual recrimination and condemnation, which breeds divisions and dries up love, will sooner cast you out of God’s enclosure than discernment and non-discernment of foods.

These words: “for God has received him”—can be used as medicine against condemnation in general. You condemn a sinner for the sin he has committed, but you do not take into account what is in his soul after the sin. He has already sighed to God, been broken by contrition, wept for his sin, and God has received him back into His mercy, and you condemn him.—Do you see what an incongruity? Therefore, never condemn anyone.

Rom. 14:4. Who are you that judge another man’s servant? to his own master he stands or falls. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

This is a general basis for non-condemnation not just in the present case but in every other. All men are God’s, as God’s creatures; to God they ought to serve and before Him alone are they accountable. Whether he acts rightly and stands, or acts wrongly and falls, is no concern of yours. Before the Lord he is good or bad—the Lord is his Judge. Just as it is inappropriate to judge the servants of another after entering another’s house, so it is inappropriate to judge men in their relations to God or in the actions of their conscience. The Apostle commands us not to judge. He says as it were: “I command you not to judge another not because his way of acting does not deserve condemnation, but because he is another’s servant, that is, not yours but God’s. Whether he stands or falls, both concern the Lord. If he falls, it is loss to God; equally, if he stands, it is gain to God.—See then how strongly the Apostle’s words should have shamed the one who reproached! If God, reasons the holy Paul, although He sustains a loss, yet does not make reproaches, how unseasonably you act and how far you overstep your bounds and meddle in another’s affairs, thus torturing and troubling your weak brother in faith!” (Saint Chrysostom). “A servant should not judge a fellow servant: authority for this is not given to him. What conscience one eats or does not eat with—God is the Judge for this, whose servant is he that acts one way or another” (Ambrosiaster).

“Yea, he shall be holden up.” You have suddenly become firm on the foundation of faith, while he still wavers. Not wavering in faith generally, but only in respect to that circle of acts about which you condemn him. Being firm in the general faith, he will gradually grow strong also in this respect and will be no worse than you. Although he is weak in this part, he does not fall away from God. And God, seeing his adherence to Himself, will help him be freed from the weakness deemed reproachful. For in being weak, he is not pleasing himself but thinks he is rendering service to God—he acts thus from reverence toward God (Photius at Oecumenius), fearing to offend Him by improper conduct. God will not abandon him but will stretch out His helping hand and raise him up.

Rom. 14:5. One man esteems one day above another: another esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

“One man esteems one day above another”—that is, he distinguishes days and sometimes eats, sometimes does not eat certain foods. “another esteems every day alike”—he regards every day as equal and either eats every day or does not eat certain foods. But it is possible that the Apostle is also speaking here of fasting and non-fasting on certain days or constantly, as Saint Chrysostom remarks: “Here, I think, the Apostle makes a slight hint also about fasting. Probably some of those who fasted constantly condemned those who did not fast (and vice versa); or perhaps even among those discerning in food there were those who observed discernment on certain days and not on others.”

“But the force of the Apostle’s discourse does not lie in this, but in the principle expressed regarding things indifferent: let each one act according to his conscience. What is appointed by commandment and what is established by dogma, hold to that and fulfill it unfailingly. There is no need to question here whether it is your conviction or your conscience. Even if all your inner and outer disposition went against it, do not depart. God so commanded: even if you die, remain faithful to what was commanded. It is different regarding acts and things indifferent. There let your conviction and your conscience determine how to act and how to think. Only in everything keep in view the glory of God, not self-pleasing—neither to your mind nor to your heart. And many things have been left to freedom of judgment: only do not allow anything that would be directly or indirectly contrary to dogmas or inconsistent with them. And many acts have been left to freedom: only in nothing permit yourself merely to please and allow feelings and dispositions that could not be pleasing before God. The blessed Theodoret writes: ‘Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind’—The Apostle did not speak thus generally; for concerning Divine dogmas he does not command such reasoning, but utters anathema against those who permit themselves to teach contrary to the truth and says: ‘though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.’ (Gal. 1:9). Therefore, only concerning foods does he give the right to each one’s reason to judge. For this custom remains also to this day in the Churches: one loves abstinence, another fearlessly partakes of all foods, and the latter does not condemn the former, and the former does not censure the latter, but both boast in the law of being of one mind.”

Each Shall Give Account of Himself to God; Judge Not One Another (Romans 14:6–12)

Rom. 14:6. He who observes a day observes it for the Lord, and he who eats eats for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God. And he who does not eat does not eat for the Lord and gives thanks to God..

The holy Apostle holds that both act with the intention of pleasing God. “He who observes a day”—he who distinguishes days and foods, “observes it for the Lord”—he distinguishes them in the confidence that this pleases Him. “And he who does not observe a day”—he who does not distinguish days and foods, “does not observe it for the Lord”—he does not distinguish in that confidence, believing that faith in the Lord has freed him from all such obligations. “Whoever distinguishes days does so for the Lord, as one who is reverent; and whoever does not distinguish days does not do so for the Lord, as one already perfect in Christ and raised above legal observances,” says the blessed Theophylact. Thus both act, wishing to please the Lord and acting for the Lord. “God knows the intention of those who eat and those who do not eat, for He does not look merely to the deed but examines the reasoning with which it is done,” says the blessed Theodoret. Therefore He receives both.—God receives both, yet you condemn: how is this consistent? And what do you make yourself to be?

“He who eats eats for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God.” By giving thanks to God for providing food for enjoyment, satisfaction of hunger, and sustenance of life, he shows that he eats to the glory of God and for the Lord. Since he gives thanks to God in receiving food, “he eats for the Lord.” “And he who does not eat does not eat for the Lord and gives thanks to God.” He gives thanks to God for granting him strength to abstain and offer Him this sacrifice of self-denial. Eating becomes eating for the Lord through thanksgiving; not eating is directly for the Lord and has thanksgiving as its consequence, adornment, and sanctification. The holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle’s meaning is that it does not matter whether one eats or does not eat. Rather, the question is whether each acts for God and whether both end with thanksgiving. According to the Apostle, both give thanks to God. And if both give thanks to God, then the difference is not great.” Photius writes similarly in Oecumenius: “He who eats gives thanks to God for receiving food—for the fact that God gave food for satisfaction and sustenance of life. And he who does not eat gives thanks to God for granting men abstinence and patience as aids to overcoming carnal passions. But in any other sense, the eater or faster would be subject to condemnation, as some heretics say. The Apostle’s words should be understood in relation to those who fast and eat in a way pleasing to God, and not otherwise. Not all can be spoken of thus, but only those who conduct themselves properly in both cases. Therefore these words are not altogether fitting for the one spoken of earlier—he who distinguishes foods in the Jewish manner. Such a one does not eat, but not in disregard of the glory of Christ, but as weak and not yet established in faith. Yet he too should not be condemned, considering the circumstances of the time, for it was then only the beginning of preaching. But let no one condemn the one who eats every day (with thanksgiving) or fasts for entire days or longer (through abstinence), for both do what they do to the glory of the Lord.”

The holy Paul affirms that both he who distinguishes days and he who does not act for the Lord, though he knew it was possible to do either without regard for the Lord; he also affirms that both he who eats and he who does not eat act for the Lord and give thanks to God, though he knew that in both it was possible for neither to occur. Why then does he speak thus? In order to remind them that, acting in this way, they should act in precisely this spirit, and to teach us not to judge them except in a good sense. Since we cannot know what is in their heart, but we know that they must act for the Lord in all things and give thanks to God for everything, and have committed themselves to this obligation, we have no ground for supposing they do not act thus; having no ground, we cannot judge them: to condemn them would be slander.

Rom. 14:7. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself..

In verses 7–9 is set forth the universal law that our entire life without exception must be devoted to the Lord, and therefore eating or not eating. This confirms what was said above: “observes it for the Lord” or “does not observe it for the Lord.” The Apostle thought it necessary to dwell at length on this matter to teach all to sanctify every particular of life by this law and to unite all and concentrate them in this common orientation of spirit. For only by this can eating or not eating and all else be equally pleasing to God. The expression “none of us lives to himself” or “dies to himself” does not mean that all do this, but that all should do this—this is the universal law of the Creator and God, that no one should live to himself or die to himself. The word “to himself” can be understood both as “for himself” and as “by himself”: no one should live and die for himself alone, and no one lives and dies by his own power. Both can be understood together, the latter providing the foundation for the former—thus: our life and death are not from us and not in our power; therefore we should not live and die for ourselves. The words “to live” and “to die” are like expressions used in common speech: “for life and for death,” or “to live and die with you.” They express the entirety of our existence. Therefore one need not inquire into how one lives for himself and dies for himself in order to see how, on the contrary, to act so as to fulfill the Apostle’s commandment; nor need one inquire into how we do not live by our own power and do not die by ourselves. Rather, in general, confess that the entire sum of our existence is not from us and not sustained by us; therefore it should not be spent for ourselves alone.

Rom. 14:8. If we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord. Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s..

Consistent with what was said above: if we live, or as long as we live (as the blessed Theodoret says), for the Lord we should live; and if we die, or when the end comes, in whatever manner, we should die or part from life in such a way that this too is for the Lord, to His glory. Or thus: if we live, or as long as we live, by the Lord we live—His right hand sustains us, His power gives us life; and when we die, by His determination we die, and in dying we are not torn from His almighty hands. The Lord is the Master of life and death. To Him the entire sum of our existence is devoted and should be devoted. The holy Paul himself showed the example of this, standing with all boldness, hoping and trusting that “Christ will be magnified in his body,” whether “by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20). He hoped for this because he devoted all to the Lord, who does not put to shame His servants.

“Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” “We are not masters of ourselves: and while we live, we are the Lord’s, and after death we are still the Lord’s,” says the blessed Theodoret. “Do you see how mighty is His dominion? Do you see how invincible is His power? Do you see how all-embracing is His providence?” asks the holy Chrysostom. “We are the Lord’s;” the power of God encompasses our existence; there is nowhere to flee. This is the most compelling incentive to devote all to the Lord and, taking heed, to be pleasing to Him. If you please Him by devoting all to Him, you will be in His right hand—for all blessedness; if you do not please Him, gratifying only yourself, you will be in His right hand—for endless torment. Such is the law. Therefore cast off self-pleasing and do all for the Lord. The Apostle does not draw this conclusion, but desires that each one draw it for himself. For to this the purpose of his instruction in verses 7–9 tends. From this he will then again begin to draw persuasions toward not condemning the brethren.

Rom. 14:9. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living..

That we are in the hands of God and are God’s is taught even by the natural law of faith. It is written in every heart by nature that both the beginning, the continuance, and the end of our existence—all are in the hands of the Lord. “We are the Lord’s,” and He is our Master. But in writing to Christians, the Apostle adds to the natural also a Christian assurance in this. Our Lord Jesus Christ died and rose and lived again for this very purpose: to have dominion over all, both those who are alive and those who are dead. By this He has become our Master a second time. He is already our Master as Creator and Providence; but willing to establish the marvelous way of our salvation, He has become our Master also as our Redeemer. He has purchased us and has dominion over us. We are His servants and must serve Him alone. This is the same as what the Apostle has so frequently expressed already: all should be for the Lord with us. “He is the Master of all—He who gave Himself up to death for us, destroyed the dominion of death, and grants all of us the promise of resurrection. Therefore we are subject to Him, as having received life from Him,” says the blessed Theodoret. “Creation was made by the Lord, but because of sin it was separated from its Creator and became captive. God the Father, that His work might not perish, sent His Son from heaven to earth and taught what must be done to escape from the hands of plunderers. For this He endured death from enemies, that, descending into Hades, He might free those held by it. Therefore, since He showed the way of salvation to the living and offered Himself as a sacrifice for them, and freed the dead from Hades, He has dominion both over the living and over the dead: for from the perishing He has made them servants to Himself,” writes Ambrosiaster.

Rom. 14:10. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ..

Having thus established that we are servants of the Lord both by creation and providence, and even more so by redemption, the Apostle again turns to exhort us not to judge one another. We are servants of the Lord; therefore, we are fellow-servants and brothers one to another. All our concern should be directed toward pleasing our Lord, not toward how others who are with us serve that same Lord. He had said before: what do you judge “another man’s servant?” He is God’s servant, not yours; to you he is a fellow-servant, as you are to him. Now he turns attention to another aspect of the matter: we are brothers and equally servants of one Lord; we should be concerned to please Him, not to watch over one another; for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, where each will give account for himself alone. Your brother, whom you judge, will give account for himself; what have you to do with it? You yourself will give account; you will answer also for this very act of judgment. So it is better that you refrain from judging, but rather look to yourself, lest you find in yourself something worthy of condemnation at the judgment seat of Christ.

In these words the Apostle offers a general exhortation against judging; yet at the same time he expresses himself so that those who gave occasion for it could not fail to see that he does not overlook them in particular; for in saying “you” and then “you” again, he seems to point, as with a finger, now at the weak Jew who does not eat all things in the Jewish manner yet condemns all eaters, now at the strong one in faith who rebukes the first despite his weakness. To reconcile them one with another, driving out condemnation and rebuke that sound discord, the Apostle tries to persuade them that they are equal to one another—equal as brothers, and equal as those who likewise must stand before the judgment seat of Christ. On the one hand, the feeling of brotherhood, on the other the common danger are powerful to dispose one to abandon mutual attacks and instead to be concerned with securing safety, both for oneself and for all mutually. “Thus does the Apostle end the disputes first by calling them brothers, then by reminding them of the awesome day of judgment,” says the holy Chrysostom. “He is our Investigator, He is our Judge, before His throne we must necessarily stand,” says the blessed Theodoret. Him therefore we shall endeavor to appease with all care, having ended our mutual condemnations and rebukes.

Rom. 14:11. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will confess to God..

This is written in the Prophet Isaiah, in chapter 45, verse 23. “As I live”—an oath-like assurance from the mouth of God, frequently used in Scripture when speaking of important matters that require absolute faith. These words mean the same as: “I swear by myself” (Isa. 45:23), as it stands in holy Isaiah. And this expression is used as frequently in Scripture as the first. Since both express the same thought, they can substitute for one another, as the holy Paul did. In holy Isaiah’s aforementioned chapter is depicted the return of Cyrus bringing the Israelites back from the Babylonian captivity, the restoration among this people of true knowledge of God and worship of Him, and then the spread of this to all peoples of the earth. All shall come and turn to the true God, confessing that they acted wrongly in worshiping that which is not God. The turning of all peoples points to the preaching of the Gospel, which is to fill the whole earth and be concluded by the awesome judgment. Thus in the words of holy Isaiah is prefigured both the first coming of the Lord and through it the second. Whether one or the other be held in mind in reading these words in holy Paul will equally accord with the purpose for which they are cited. He had said before that the Lord is our Master, we are His servants, and we shall give Him account of how well we worked for Him. In bringing prophetic testimony, the Apostle could direct it both to the first—that is, the lordship of God and our servitude to Him—and to the second—that is, our account before Him at His judgment seat. The first is fulfilled when we believe in the Lord and worship Him as God, which the Gospel’s preaching accomplishes; the second will be fulfilled at Christ’s second coming. With the first understanding, the connection in the Apostle’s words would be as follows: we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ; for He is our Lord, as it is written: “to me every knee will bow”; to Him and not to another belongs judgment over us. With the second, the connection is direct: for the words cited by the Apostle paint before us a picture of Christ the Lord’s appearing at His second coming: all peoples from every corner of the earth gathered, and seeing the Lord coming from heaven with multitudes of Angels, all will tremble and bow to Him and confess Him as their God, before whom they are accountable, whether they believed in Him before or not.—Then the universal confession of Christ the Saviour as God will be properly manifested and solemnly proclaimed. Until then there will be those persisting in unbelief. Therefore it may be supposed that the words of the Prophet directly point to this. And the holy Paul, in citing them in this sense, does not give them a thought foreign to the Prophet. The holy Chrysostom says: “The holy Paul brought forward the words of the Prophet, who bears witness that both those who lived under the Old Testament and all without exception are subject to God, and are subject to Him in all things. For it is not simply said: every knee will bow; but ‘will confess’—that is, will give account of what he has done. Therefore, imagining our common Master sitting on the throne, be attentive to yourself,” and do not judge others.

Rom. 14:12. So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.

“Each one of ‘us’—softens the word and places himself in line with all who give account—each one of us will give account to God for himself,—an answer or accounting—accounting for all that was done, good and bad; but such words are especially brought forward to remind of the impending accountability in the bad, to frighten those who do wrong and move them toward amendment. Imagine yourself standing at the judgment and being questioned why you did this and that, when you knew you ought not to do it, and could have refrained from doing it, having at hand the means of grace—and you will never sin. Intending to turn Roman Christians away from wrongdoing, and in them all of us, the Apostle impresses on the mind this impending and unavoidable accountability. One of the saints said: the very best place where you ought to stand is the judgment seat of Christ; establish yourself there and do not move, and all will go well with you—both the cry of prayer, and the struggle against passions, and the doing of every virtue; the fear of God will always overshadow you and guide you. The most common sin among us is condemnation, which we do not even count as sin, and we have become unaccustomed to even noticing it in ourselves. But when we remember our accountability at the judgment seat of Christ, we will learn to notice this sin and to resist giving in to it. The holy Paul therefore points out the most effective means for healing the weakness of the Romans that he is correcting.”

Put No Stumbling Block Before a Brother; the Kingdom of God Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy (Romans 14:13–18)

Rom. 14:13. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore; but rather determine this—not to put a stumbling block or offense in a brother’s way..

“Since the Apostle has pointed to the Lord’s tribunal, he necessarily advises not to judge one another but to await that judgment,” says the blessed Theodoret. “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore”—he writes a commandment common to all, subjecting himself to it as well—a commandment common to all and touching all matters generally that we notice in others. Judgment, whoever it concerns or whatever it concerns, should have no place among us.

Therefore, do not occupy your mind with the affairs of others and do not weary your attention with them. To what then should you direct it? To considering how to conduct your own affairs so that you do not cause anyone to stumble. From the flow of the discourse it is clear that the Apostle determines here the way of outward conduct, and precisely regarding matters that are indifferent—things that can be done or not done, done one way or another. The general law is: conduct these matters so that you do not cause anyone to stumble and, consequently, that you edify all. And here the Apostle writes a general rule as well, though on the occasion of a particular case, and does not lose sight of it, as the following words show.

This is a second rule that has escaped our attention. It hardly occurs to anyone to think whether to stumble someone through this or that. The Apostle does not mean obvious sins and iniquities—these have no place among Christians, so completely that the very name of them be forgotten. But he means all other permissible deeds. Since by the manner of their performance one can cause stumbling, the Apostle says: watch, weigh these deeds and perform them so as not to cause stumbling. And yet almost no one thinks about this, and not only about this, but even about obvious sins and iniquities: shameless sin walks through our streets. The holy Chrysostom strongly argues against this carelessness: “Consider, what punishment shall we undergo if we cause our neighbors to stumble without any good purpose. If here, where the only error consisted in the untimeliness of reproofs (over eating and not eating), the Apostle forbids them, lest the brother stumble and fall; what shall we deserve when we cause a brother to stumble, having no intention at all to correct him? If to fail to preserve (the brother, to bring him no benefit) is a transgression, as is evident from the example of him who buried his talent in the ground, what shall we not bring upon ourselves by causing another to stumble? You will say: what then am I to do if he stumbles of himself, because he is weak? But it is precisely for this reason that you ought to endure all things. If he were strong, he would have no need of such care. But now, the weaker he is, the greater is the care he requires. Therefore, let us be concerned for him and support him in all cases. For we shall give account not only for our own sins, but also for that in which we have been a stumbling block to others. But if it is hard to answer even for our own sins, how shall we be saved when this responsibility also rests upon us? If you become the cause of the destruction of others, you will fall under heavier punishment than those whom you have brought to ruin. It is not so destructive to sin oneself as to draw others into sin besides oneself.”

Rom. 14:14. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean..

“I know and am convinced”—I am fully convinced, convinced with deep and perfect conviction, but not of myself, not through my own reasoning did I arrive at this, but having been taught by Christ Jesus the Lord. He has implanted this conviction in me. The Apostles were not only enlightened once and for all, but were also taught by the Lord and the Holy Spirit in particulars. They had their own reasonings; but they knew with precision how to distinguish what was their own and what was from the Lord and the Spirit of God. That nothing of food be considered unclean was the Lord’s instruction. Having received it from the Lord, the Apostle communicated it to all, saying: “nothing is unclean in itself.” “Nothing is impure by nature; I was taught this by the Lord. He Himself has assured me of this; this is not the judgment of human reason,” says the holy Chrysostom. But it happens that one person, from certain thoughts, considers one thing unclean, and another person something else; in such a case, for him alone is it unclean. His thought that this or that food is unclean does not make the food unclean in itself or for others: it is unclean only for him, not in itself, but by his conviction; and as long as this conviction remains in him, it remains unclean for him. He defiles himself by partaking of it against the conviction of his conscience. The blessed Theodoret writes: “If someone, thinking that a certain food is unclean, partakes of it, then it is unclean not by nature (of the food) but because of the thought of the one eating.” One must first change the conviction, and then partake with a peaceful conscience; but nothing should be done against conscience, even if the conscience errs.

Whom had the Apostle in mind when he said this? Both the Jew, who had not yet been freed from the sense of obligation to observe the law concerning foods—and others, especially the Gentile, who, still thinking that an idol is something, fears lest he happen upon food sacrificed to an idol, in the thought that such foods have received a certain defilement from the idol; therefore he refrains not only from obviously sacrificed foods, but from any other food that could have come from idol sacrifice. The Apostle explains this in detail in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, in the 8th chapter. The expressions there and here are the same; therefore it must be supposed that the Apostle also had in mind similar cases here.

What then does the Apostle desire? Not to reproach, not to attack, not to seduce or compel such persons to partake of what they consider unclean: for otherwise they will act against their conscience, defile it, be subject to its accusations, and on account of that grieve. And not only this does the Apostle require, but also wise use of freedom in the consumption of food. This especially concerned foods sacrificed to idols. One person, being convinced that an idol is nothing and does not defile food, freely eats obviously sacrificed food everywhere—and it matters nothing to him. But another, not having such conviction, seduced only by his example, will begin to eat something of the kind; therefore will eat against his own conscience, defile it, and will afterwards grieve, tormented by it. The Apostle gave the rule—to use freedom concerning food cautiously, so as not otherwise to violate love for the brother.

Rom. 14:15. For if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died..

Whether you reproach your brother for distinguishing foods, or compel him to taste what he considers unclean, or seduce him by your example to do so—in any case you will cause grief to your brother and thereby violate brotherly love. But love is chief with us, while distinguishing foods is an indifferent matter. Is it wise to act thus? It is not only unwise, but impious. “You will say: why then not correct the brother so that he does not consider anything unclean? Why not use all your power to free him from this habit and opinion—of considering something defiled? I am afraid,” the Apostle answers, “lest I grieve him,” says the holy Chrysostom. Of course, it would be good to wean him from this; but for that the surest way is to change his convictions. To change them cannot be done by attacks and compulsions. Rather show the forbearance and caution of love; and it will set all things right. Living in the midst of those who relate freely to sacrifices and who at the same time embrace him with warm love, he will sooner waver in his convictions, and then entirely change them. Time with love will set all things right peacefully: neither disputes nor reproofs nor compulsions are necessary. They only spoil the matter and do not further it. “Do you see how much the Apostle cares about preserving love? For he knew that love can set all things right. And therefore he requires something greater from his listeners. Not only should you not,” he says, “drive them to extremity; but, if it should be necessary to show forbearance, not refuse even that,” says the holy Chrysostom.

“Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.”

See to what lengths folly in indifferent matters can go! to destroy a brother. How? By causing your brother to stumble, by compelling or seducing him to act against his conviction or conscience. The Apostle wrote this very thing to the Corinthians: “Take care lest this liberty of yours” (to relate freely to foods) “become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you who have understanding” (being convinced that an idol is nothing and does not defile food sacrificed to idols) “reclining in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols?” (his conscience, remaining weak, not having convictions like yours, will consent, seduced by the example of your wisdom, to eat food sacrificed to an idol, holding in mind that it is defiled) “And the weak brother will perish by your knowledge, he for whom Christ died. And thus, sinning against the brethren and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.” (1 Cor. 8:9–12). This is exactly what these present words recall: “Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.” The holy Chrysostom sees such instructions here: “Will you not honor your brother as worthy of it, that through abstaining from food you might gain his salvation? Christ did not refuse to become his servant and to die, but you, for his salvation, do not agree to refrain from food? Although Christ knew that He would not win all, yet He performed His work and died for all. But you know that you are corrupting the most important thing through quarreling about food, and, despite that, you persist—you dishonor whom Christ recognized as worthy of such honor, you insult whom He loved? Christ died not only for the weak in faith but even for an enemy, but you, for the weak in faith, do not wish to abstain from food? Christ accomplished the greatest work, but you do not wish to do a small thing? He is Master, but you are brother.”

Rom. 14:16. Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil..

Whose “good”? That of those who have not bound themselves by any prejudices regarding foods. What is “your good”? Precisely this freedom from prejudices and the strength of faith that has raised him to this freedom. “The reproof contains praise. I praise,” says the Apostle, “the faith of the one who is free from prejudices, but I do not wish it to become a cause of harm and reproach,” says the blessed Theodoret. “Do not let it be spoken of as evil.” He does not have others in mind, but the very one who feels himself free from prejudices; do not permit yourself to use this freedom in such a way that it debases it and subjects it to condemnation. For if by your freedom you offend one and cause another to stumble, are you not justly subject to reproach for your folly, especially since from this the reproach can pass to your very faith, and from yours to faith in Christ in general? “You have perfection in faith: do not abuse your perfection and do not give occasion to reproach it. For if you, being perfect, destroy perfection, you have given occasion to reproach the good you possess. But you understand that our teaching is good and that it does not wish to be subject to reproach from unbelievers when they see schisms and scandals concerning food,” says the blessed Theophylact.

But “your good” can be understood as Christian faith in general, and “your” as referring to the Romans. Let yourselves not be subject to reproach for having accepted faith in Christ. What kind of faith is this, they will say, that teaches them to quarrel and contend over such trifles as the consumption of permitted foods? The holy Chrysostom understands it thus: “By the name of the good, the Apostle here means faith, or hope in future blessings, or perfect godliness. You not only do not help your brother,” says the Apostle, “but you cause the very doctrine, God’s grace and gift, to be reproached. When you quarrel, persist obstinately, grieve, tear apart the Church, reproach your brother, and treat him hostilely, then outsiders reproach the Church. And you not only do not correct, but do the very opposite. Your good consists in living in love, in brotherhood, in unity, in communion, peacefully and meekly.”

Rom. 14:17. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit..

The kingdom of God is not acquired by eating one thing and not eating another, or by drinking one thing and not drinking another. Or—the kingdom of God does not consist in this, is not adorned by this, is not composed of this as its distinguishing mark. Or—those who have entered the kingdom of God are not glorified by this, and this is not the sign by which to know whether someone is in God’s kingdom or not. “Do not think that in this there is great advancement and that the kingdom of Heaven is acquired by this,” says the blessed Theodoret. “Do you really think this will be set down to your credit? And in another place he says the same: ‘Neither if we eat do we have abundance; nor if we do not eat are we diminished,’” (1 Cor. 8:8) says the apostle.

What then introduces into the kingdom? What are its blessings? What is the sign that someone belongs to its heirs?—“Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” “A virtuous life, peace with the brother, joy arising from harmony,” says the holy Chrysostom. “True righteousness in peace and love, harmony and diligence, from which godly gladness is born, win for us the kingdom,” says the blessed Theodoret. “Righteousness”—not only justification and the remission of sins, but inner righteousness that has cast out all wrongdoing from the heart and implanted in it right feeling and right thinking, from which come right speech and right action—in a word, holiness, ready for every good work and mighty to accomplish it. “Peace”—peaceful order within oneself, in thoughts and feelings, as a consequence of being freed from the passions that churn and agitate; peace, descending from above and overshadowing the soul with the feeling of God’s good will, kept by the consciousness that nothing wrong has been voluntarily allowed, and giving boldness to gaze joyfully upon the all-merciful God—and the peace of love with all the brethren, making all into one heart and enriching each with the feeling of the power of such a life as is composed of all lives bound together in peaceful union of heart. “Joy”—not some sensory joy, but one that is detached and detaches from all the sensory, not drawing one out of oneself as usual, but deepening one in oneself, for the reason that there the heart is given to taste gladdening blessings “which eye has not seen” (1 Cor. 2:9),—from the tasting of which flows continually a joy that cannot be purchased by anything else. Joy is inseparable from life; but true joy is found only in spiritual life, while soul-ish and sensory life have only fleeting joys, and always turbid and troubled. Spiritual life’s joy truly belongs to it inseparably, because this life dwells in nothing else but through union with the all-blessed God by His grace. The all-blessed God pours forth continual joy into the heart that is vitally united with Him by faith, love, and hope.

All this, moreover, is “in the Holy Spirit.” Although in the Apostle “in the Holy Spirit” stands in connection only with “joy,” yet in reality not only joy but peace and righteousness as well are only in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives the powers needed for life and godliness, and therefore makes a person righteous. The Holy Spirit snatches our spirit from the grip of soul-ish and bodily passions and, dwelling in peace within, keeps it in peace with God and the brethren. The Holy Spirit also gives joy, immediately upon turning to God, in the form of a foretaste and an inducement, and after cleansing from passions, in the form of a steady or more or less steady tasting: for then the perceptible action of the grace of the Holy Spirit in the heart begins, with which spiritual sweetness is inseparable, and with this sweetness comes joy. From this it follows to conclude that righteousness, peace, and joy in their true meaning are found only in Christians; and among Christians, in those in whom the gift of grace has been kindled.

Rom. 14:18. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men..

This is how to serve Christ the Lord! This is what is essential in Christianity! Not that you eat one thing and not eat another, or eat everything indiscriminately. This may play a role, but not as what is chief, but only as an appendage. But how can the Apostle say: you serve thus, and yet righteousness, peace, and especially joy are the fruit of the grace of the Holy Spirit? Grace is given; but what grace produces and bears fruit in us is the work not only of grace but also of our free will. Grace cooperates with our labor and zeal—and there is spiritual fruit. Strive after righteousness, and with the help of grace you will become righteous not outwardly but in your heart; labor over calming yourself within yourself and in your relations with God and men—and with the help of grace you will attain peace; joy will come as the inseparable consequence of righteousness and peace. Joy in the soul makes a person an encouragement to all with whom he enters into relations. And by it he serves the brethren, and through it also serves Christ the Lord.

Whoever serves the Lord thus will acquire two fruits, or achieve two goals: “will be ‘acceptable to God and approved by men.’ In Christ Jesus the point of departure is self-denial. And after yourself, who else remains? God and people; toward them is directed the activity of a person: he strives to please God and endeavors to be useful to people in all things. The Apostle says: do you wish to achieve this successfully and to perfection? Here is what you must arm yourself with: righteousness, peace, and joy—or first build these in your heart, and then you will be ‘acceptable to God and approved by men’ through this very thing, that you will have them in your heart. Do not rely too much on the external, though it is necessary; but primarily, build your heart.”

“Approved,” δόκιμος — tested, shown capable of doing both this and that and the third thing. This word is well expressed in our saying: a jack-of-all-trades, does everything splendidly. And in society the person who is invaluable is one to whom you can turn with confidence and upon whom you can rely in all things: he will not deceive, will not wrong you, will help, give counsel, and whatever you entrust him with, he will arrange well. Such a person is always the one who has righteousness, peace, and joy dwelling in his heart; and such alone is he who has this disposition of heart.

Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24)

Rom. 14:19. Therefore let us pursue the things that make for peace and the things by which one may edify another..

He directly points to the disorder—namely, that by their foolish conduct in the consumption of foods and drinks, they were disturbing their mutual peace and causing each other to stumble—and what is even more grievous—seeing this, they did not wish to change their behavior. This referred more to those who did not observe distinction of foods and appeared more perfect in faith; they disturbed the peace by treating those who abstained from certain foods with contempt and reproach, and caused stumbling instead of edification by leading others contrary to conscience to eat things sacrificed to idols. But the same applied to those who abstained from certain foods: they too disturbed the peace simply by separating themselves from others, and especially if they entered into disputes, generally unfavorable to peace, and answered reproaches with reproaches of those who rebuked them, reproaching them as omnivorous, intemperate, and gluttonous; and they caused stumbling by inclining others who did not observe distinction of foods but were weak in heart to imitate them, thinking this would make them appear more perfect, when in fact it indicated not perfection but weakness.

From this we can draw a rule for ourselves—in our outward conduct, and especially in matters that are indifferent, to have primarily in view not how we ourselves have decided to act, but solely that we do not disturb mutual peace and do not cause anyone to stumble, but rather so conduct our affairs that mutual peace is increasingly strengthened and all things serve toward mutual edification.

Rom. 14:20. Do not tear down the work of God on account of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the person who eats with offense..

The work of God is that “He desires all to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4). But you, by foolish use of freedom regarding foods, tear down this work by compelling or seducing him to eat what his conscience does not approve, and thus destroying him; for offending the conscience is a pernicious evil. It is true that all things are pure, as you believe; but you, by eating everything to the offense and stumbling of your brother, are doing evil—evil to yourself, for “woe to the one through whom the offense comes” (Matt. 18:7). The holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle calls the salvation of the brother the work of God and increases fear by proving that he who causes his brother to stumble does the opposite of what he seeks. You not only do not build up, as you think, says the Apostle, but tear down, and tear down not a human work but God’s work; and moreover tear it down not for anything important but for something unimportant—‘for the sake of food.’ If you compel him and he begins to eat, there will be no small benefit in it (rather harm: for he will eat with injury to his conscience). It is not foods that make one unclean, but the disposition with which one eats. Therefore if you do not correct the disposition, your entire labor is vain and harmful. It is one thing to consider something unclean, and another to eat what you consider unclean. In the latter case you sin twice—by your quarreling you strengthen the prejudice and force him to eat the unclean (that is, what he considers such contrary to his conscience). Until you persuade him, do not compel him.”

The words “with offense” can be understood to mean: it is evil for the person who eats with offense, in spite of the fact that his conscience is not in agreement. The commentary of the holy Chrysostom on this is more direct.

Rom. 14:21. It is good not to eat meat, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is weakened..

“It is good not to eat.” Throughout the entire chapter, discoursing on this, the Apostle plainly requires this as what is proper and gives the commandment to fulfill. But he expressed himself in such a way that he seems to be saying “it is better”—in the manner of his opinion and counsel; in order that, in giving the commandment to the strong together with the weak, he might intimate to the latter that indulgence is shown to him for his weakness, and thereby move him to concern himself with recovery. He does not prescribe not eating meat and not drinking wine in general, but only in the case where someone is offended by it. The Apostle does not touch on the fact that both should be done for the sake of abstinence—he speaks of this in other places, for instance: “he who competes for a prize exercises self-control in all things” (1 Cor. 9:25); here he speaks of this only in relation to those misunderstandings and disagreements that occurred among the Romans, to make peace among them. From this, then, for all of us and in all cases the law: do nothing by which you can cause your brother to stumble. The holy Chrysostom says: “Again the Apostle requires something greater, not only not to compel, but also to show forbearance. So he himself often acted: he was circumcised, cut his hair, offered a Jewish sacrifice. He does not say: do it; but proposes it as his opinion, lest he make the weaker one even more careless. And what does he say? ‘It is good not to eat meat.’ And why do I speak only of meat? Abstain also from wine and from everything that serves as a stumbling block; because the salvation of your brother is incomparable with anything. Christ Himself showed this by His own example, who descended from heaven and endured everything for us, whatever He endured. Note, then, how the Apostle instructs the other, saying: ‘stumbles or is offended or is weakened’ (for this signifies that he is not in a good state and has need of amendment).—Do not say to me, continues the Apostle, that this is foolish (that the weak one himself is at fault, through his lack of understanding); rather, remember that it can be corrected. And for you it is sufficient justification, that you will help the weak one and not at all harm yourself. Your deed is not hypocrisy; rather, it serves to build up and preserve your brother. If you compel him, he will resist you, condemn you, and become even more confirmed in his rule to abstain from food (from prejudice). But if you show him forbearance, he will love you, without any suspicion he will listen to your teaching, and finally imperceptibly give you the power to sow in him right doctrines. But if once you plant hatred of yourself in him, you will close the door to your words. Therefore, do not compel your brother; rather, abstain for him yourself; abstain not as from what is unclean, but because he is offended—and he will love you the more.”

The words “stumbles, is offended, is weakened” are all directed to one purpose and mean one thing; but we can see in them certain nuances of weakness. The blessed Theophylact says: “By the word ‘stumbles’—he showed that he (by his prejudice not touching other foods) is blinded; for the blind stumble. And he is offended as one who is thoughtless, and is weakened as one who has little faith” (so also Oecumenius). One can see here a progression in the trampling of conscience by the weak one: “weakened”—he began to waver, “offended”—he leaned toward it, “stumbles”—he ate contrary to his conscience. But the exhortation goes in the reverse order: not only do not lead to stumbling, but do not even lead to leaning or wavering of thought.

Rom. 14:22. Do you have faith? Keep it to yourself before God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves..

You have faith—you are convinced that in foods all is good “and nothing is to be rejected” (1 Tim. 4:4), and that food does not establish us before God. This is a good conviction; but in the circumstances in which you now find yourself, you must manifest such a conviction carefully, so that by foolish use of freedom in this respect you do not cause your brother to stumble and do not harm him. Hold such faith to yourself before God; but when you see that by indifferently eating everything you can cause someone to stumble, abstain from eating. This is required of you by the duty of love for the brethren and the commandment—to make all things to the glory of God, whether you eat or drink. From this you will allow no harm: for according to your faith to eat or not to eat something is an indifferent matter. You can with a peaceful conscience abstain from a certain food. Your conscience will not condemn you; rather, it will approve you for making a certain sacrifice for the benefit of your brother. In general, blessed is the one whose conscience does not condemn him in what he decides upon, what he chooses and does. “Approves,” δοκιμάζει — properly: chooses with the approval of the conscience.

Were there not those who loved to boast of their mind freed from all prejudices and displayed it unrestrainedly, for show? And the holy Paul instructs them with these words. The holy Chrysostom suspects this: “Here, it seems to me, the Apostle is subtly hinting at the vanity of the one more perfect in faith. The meaning of his words is thus: do you wish to prove to me that you are in all things upright and perfect? Do not prove it (by displaying it), but content yourself with the testimony of your conscience. Faith here he takes not in relation to doctrines but to the subject of discussion. Concerning one faith it is said: ‘with the mouth confession is made to salvation’ (Rom. 10:10); and also—‘whoever denies me before men, I will deny him also’ (Matt. 10:33). One puts you to shame if you do not confess it; and this one (regarding food) will put you to shame if you confess it (show it by deed) at the wrong time.—‘Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves.’ He proves that the approval of conscience is enough for him. Although another does not see your blessedness, be content with yourself (that is, the testimony of your conscience). Since the Apostle said: ‘Keep it to yourself,’ then, lest you think this tribunal unimportant, he affirms that for you it is better than the universe. If all condemn you but you do not condemn yourself, and your conscience does not accuse you, you are blessed. But the Apostle has not given such a judgment concerning everyone without exception. There are many people who do not condemn themselves and commit great sins; they are the most miserable. But the Apostle is dealing with the present subject (he speaks, that is, regarding the distinction of foods).”

The blessed Photius in Oecumenius resolves such an objection. “What, someone will say, am I also to abstain from certain foods because of the weak? Will this not mean that I have sided with his position? Shall I not become like him? Against this the Apostle speaks: by no means. For your faith remains pure and unharmed before God. But what am I saying—that this will not harm you and that your faith remains whole before God? You gain blessedness for yourself if for the benefit and salvation of your brother you abstain from certain foods. ‘Blessed,’ he says, ‘is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves,’—that is, one who has a conscience that bears witness to him (that he did no wrong by acting thus and thus). Not only in this, when someone abstains from certain foods for the benefit of his brother, but also in every deed generally, if someone after due examination finds that this or that is good and does it—will have the approving and blessing testimony of conscience. Such a one is blessed; and not only does he suffer no harm from what he chooses and does according to his conscience.”

Rom. 14:23. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin..

You are blessed whether you eat or abstain, because you can do either with a peaceful conscience. But miserable is he who is not convinced that it is right to eat both, but on the contrary thinks it hardly proper to do so, and yet “eats” not from faith, without assurance from his conscience that so it is right to do. His conscience is troubled, deprives him of peace, does not allow him to taste that blessedness which is the lot of those whose conscience does not condemn them for their deeds. Therefore you do him harm. “Again he exhorts us to spare the weak. What benefit is there in doubt and condemning oneself? I approve the one who eats, and eats without any doubt. But he who eats while doubting is condemned. The reason: ‘because it is not from faith.’ He is condemned not because it is unclean but because it is not from faith, because he was not assured that this is clean, but thought he was touching the unclean. And by this the Apostle makes clear how much harm is done when they force those not yet convinced to touch what, in their opinion, is unclean, and he desires by this to hold them back from reproaching the weak in faith,” says the holy Chrysostom.

“And whatever is not from faith is sin.” This is a general principle for all cases, on which are founded all the instructions of the holy Paul. From this it follows that all are obliged to have a clear conscience regarding what they undertake and do, so that they do all things with a clear consciousness of the rightness of the deed. The holy Chrysostom teaches: “The present life is a contest; at every step one needs many eyes—and one must not think that ignorance is sufficient for justification. You will surely be punished even for ignorance if it is not excusable. And the Jews were in ignorance, yet their ignorance was not set to their account as an excuse. And the Gentiles were in ignorance, yet they have no excuse. When you do not know what cannot be known, you will not be guilty. But when you do not know what can easily be known, you will bear extreme punishment. Moreover, if we are not too careless, we will use every possible measure; God will give us His hand even in what is hard to know. Thus Paul said to the Philippians: ‘If you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you’ (Phil. 3:15).”

Rom. 14:24–26. To Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages, but now has been manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the command of the eternal God, has been made known to all nations for the obedience of faith, to God, the only wise One, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen..

This doxology interrupts the flow of discourse about the wise use of freedom regarding foods and about sparing the weak in this regard, which resumes immediately after: “We who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak” (Rom. 15:1). This interruption seemed so unnatural that these three verses were moved to the end of the Epistle, placing them after verse 24 of chapter 16. This is entirely without justification: it is usual for the holy Paul to interrupt his teaching with prayer directed to God; the present doxology is entirely in harmony with the subject of discourse, and at the end it would be out of place; very few manuscripts support such a transposition. All our commentators have this doxology in its present place.

The doxology itself in few words is thus: “To Him who is able to establish you, glory forever, Amen!” (according to the holy Chrysostom). Everything else relates to showing in what He will establish and what moved the Apostle to this doxology. The truth beloved by the Apostle is the union of Jews and Gentiles into one body of the Church in Christ Jesus. Hitherto there had separated them, on the Jews’ side, the middle wall of the elemental law of service which set them apart from all others, and on the Gentiles’ side, ignorance of the true God. The Lord appeared, the preaching of the Gospel began—it tears down the Jewish middle wall, dispels the darkness of pagan ignorance, and from both peoples forms one nation knowing God and worshiping Him in spirit and in truth. This work was a mystery, hidden for ages and generations and revealed only now in actual reality, though it had been foreseen by the Prophets. The service of this work, as the Apostle was aware, was entrusted chiefly to him, and every success in it filled him with joy and thanksgiving. Before this he had said: how blessed are those who have come into the freedom of the children of God! Here he would add: glory to the One who has given such grace! But since the Apostle was occupied with the weak part of the believing Jews, whose full freedom he still saw only ahead, his doxology naturally merged with this hope; and in the certainty that it would be so, he cried out: “To Him who is able to establish you, glory!” By this he wished to encourage the weak, as if to say: we condescend to your weakness, but we hope that you will soon be strengthened and stand on your feet. The holy Chrysostom says: “This is the constant custom of Paul—to conclude exhortations with prayers and doxologies. The Apostle knew that in this lay no little power, and had grown accustomed to doing this from strong love and piety. It is characteristic of a father-like and God-loving teacher not only to instruct by word but also by prayers to ask God’s help for those being taught. Thus Paul acts in the present case. Here again he has in view the weak and addresses his word to them. When he offered corrections, he corrected both groups. But now, when he prays, he offers prayer for the weak.”

“According to my gospel”—to establish you according to the subject of my gospel—in what I preach. The essence of the gospel is salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ; the essence of faith is hoping for salvation in Him alone without any mixture of anything else on which that hope might even slightly lean and which might dare to share the honor of this hope with the Lord. From the one who has received the gospel and entered the path of salvation, the most strict, most laborious activity is required; but the hope of salvation in the Lord alone is established. But they thought that their salvation would be more secure if they did not eat one thing or did not drink another. “By this it is given to understand that they were not yet established, but, although they stood, they wavered nevertheless,” says the holy Chrysostom.

“And the preaching of Christ.” “My gospel,” the Apostle implies, “and the preaching of Christ are one and the same, for this is not our teaching but His laws,” says the blessed Theophylact. I proclaim what Christ commanded, or my tongue proclaims, but Christ preaches through me.

“According to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages.” What mystery? “[That the] Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and fellow-members of the body and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 3:6). There are no barriers. Access to union with God is open to all. Neither Judaism helps at all in this, nor does Paganism hinder at all. Hold fast to the Lord by faith—and you will be saved. Nothing external brings one to God or turns one away from Him. This is accomplished by inner disposition. To preach this very mystery to the Gentiles was entrusted to the holy Paul, as he expounds in detail in his Epistle to the Ephesians.

We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3)

Rom. 14:25. And now has been manifested according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages, but now has been manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the command of the eternal God, has been made known to all nations for the obedience of faith..

It is made manifest now and brought into action by Apostolic preaching, “the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that followed” (Mark 16:20). The prophetic writings served the Apostles as confirmation of the conviction that from eternity it had been determined that all peoples should be called to faith in the Lord, not binding them with Jewish ordinances and even freeing the Jews themselves from them.

“According to the scriptures of the prophets”—means the same as according to the prophecies. This taught the Jew: “What do you fear? That you will depart from the Law? But that is what the Law desires; it was foretold long ago,” says the holy Chrysostom.

“According to the command of the eternal God.” Not we ourselves, having availed ourselves of prophetic predictions, undertook this work. We act according to the express command of the eternal God: “Go therefore and teach all nations” (Matt. 28:19),—not to Judaize but to believe in the Lord—the end of the Law and the Prophets. And everyone sees the finger of God on the work of our preaching.—You will ask: why then did the mystery become manifest only now?—There is no need to inquire when it has pleased God and His will in revealing it is clear. “If you inquire why the mystery was revealed now, you take upon yourself a dangerous task, when you are curious about God’s mysteries and demand an accounting of them. You should not be curious about them, but receive them with love and find in them the rest of your heart. Therefore the Apostle, wishing to stop such a disposition in you, added: according to the command of the eternal God. When God commands, one must obey, not be curious,” says the holy Chrysostom. “Eternal” he added because he speaks of a mystery hidden from eternity: hidden in the eternal God, and it is revealed according to the command of the eternal God, manifesting itself from eternity into time. Who could draw it from the depths of God except God Himself who is eternal?

“And has been made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.” For this purpose the hidden mystery is revealed! The mystery itself consisted in the fact that all peoples were predestined to be participants in the work of salvation accomplished by the Lord. It was hidden; but now it is revealed—for what? Not only that they should know about it, but that by deed itself that which the mystery consisted in should be accomplished, that is, that all peoples should hear, believe, and submit to the faith proclaimed to them, and become partakers of the blessings of redemption and salvation. Not by force, not by external might are they herded into the fold of faith, into Christ’s flock, but they are proclaimed the good thing which never occurred to them, so that, if they wish, they might hasten to appropriate it by faith and obedience. For the weak one, from this the holy Chrysostom draws such an instruction: “Not you alone, but the whole universe believes thus and is taught not by man but by God.”

Rom. 14:26. To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be glory forever.

In other places, following the flow of discourse, the Apostle glorifies God as blessed (1 Tim. 1:11), the only mighty One, immortal, dwelling in unapproachable light (1Tim 6:15, 16). But here he glorifies Him as the only wise One. He could never marvel enough and always marveled at God’s great wisdom: how by one and the same means He uncovered the Jews from their fine covering of legal observances and enlightened and purified the Gentiles, and from both formed one people worshiping God in spirit and in truth. It was hidden and suddenly appeared, like a flower from a seed. Is it not wondrous that a seed is cast into the earth, and after some time a beautiful flower and fruit come forth from it? So the Apostle marvels that the seed of the Word, hidden in Judaism, suddenly sprouted and produced a tree whose branches cover the whole earth. The holy Chrysostom says: “In this doxology is expressed wonder at the incomprehensibility of these mysteries. For even now, when the mysteries are revealed, it is impossible to comprehend them mentally, but one must know them only by faith. Beautifully the Apostle said: to the only wise God. For when you consider how God brought the Gentiles into His Church and united them with the ancient righteous, how He saved the hopeless, how He raised those unworthy of the earth to heaven, gave those who had forfeited the present life access to the higher, immortal and ineffable life, made those trampled by demons equal to Angels, opened paradise, destroyed all ancient evil, and accomplished all this in a short time, by an easy and shortened path; then you will understand God’s wisdom, seeing that what neither Angels nor Archangels knew, the Gentiles were suddenly taught by Jesus Christ. Therefore you ought to marvel at His wisdom and glorify Him; yet you are occupied with trifles (not eating one thing or drinking another), still clinging to the shadow (the Law). This means you give little glory to Christ. For he who does not have hope in Him and boldness in Him, who is not guided by faith, does not confess the greatness of His works. But Paul himself renders glory to God for them; and by this he urges them to like earnestness.—But when you hear the Apostle say: to the only wise God, do not think this was said to diminish the Son. If all that manifests God’s wisdom was accomplished through Christ, and nothing was accomplished without Him, then clearly He is equal to the Father in wisdom.” To this last point let us add the explanation of the blessed Theodoret: “If heretics say that God is called the only wise one (so that Christ Jesus is not wise by His own wisdom), let them learn that the Master Christ is called not only wise but wisdom itself. And if they think to deprive the Son of this name of wise, let them also not call Him immortal. For the same Apostle says of God: ‘He alone has immortality’ (1 Tim. 6:16).”

“Through Jesus Christ,” διά,—can be referred both to “establish you” and to “has been manifested” and “has been made known,” that is, the mystery. The blessed Theophylact writes: “The words ‘through Jesus Christ’ can be connected thus: ‘He who is able to establish you through Jesus Christ.’ But they can also be understood as: the mystery revealed to all nations through Jesus Christ; for He Himself, who sent the disciples to teach all nations, revealed the mystery to them.” (So also the holy Chrysostom and Oecumenius and Photius.)—But one can also read and interpret it thus: “Through Jesus Christ—glory.” For Jesus Christ Himself says that the Father is glorified and glorifies Himself in Him—the Son (Jn 13:31; 14:13). This is the more easily admissible because some consider “to whom” ω as superfluous (Oecumenius; and someone else in him). There are even manuscripts in which it is omitted, and the flow of discourse is not opposed to this omission, but seems even more in harmony with it. But the majority retain this word, and in that case it appears to stand in place of αύτω, as is read in some manuscripts. “To Him who is able to establish you—to the wise God, to Him—such a one—glory.”—The insertion of this (to Him) was needed because between “He who is able to establish” and “glory” many words are placed that draw attention elsewhere.

“Thus, having rendered the doxology, the Apostle returns from prayer again to exhortation,” says the holy Chrysostom, though now he sets forth new reasons for fulfilling what he teaches and requires.—Until now he has exhorted not to break harmony over trifles, drawing reasons for this from the very subject matter; now, however, he leads to the same by the general obligation not to please oneself, as “Christ also did not please Himself” (Rom 15:3; Rom 15:1–Rom 15:6),—and by the fact that Christ, the Author of salvation, receives all, both Jews and Gentiles, as was foretold; for which reason you should not divide yourselves because of Judaism and Paganism (Rom 15:7–Rom 15:13). Both are derived from the person of Jesus Christ.

Rom. 15:1. We who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves..

“Strong”—these are those who have attained to firm conviction that godliness and salvation are founded on inner good disposition flowing from faith; and “weak”—those who still found their hope of salvation on something external as well. But perhaps the Apostle, transitioning from the particular to the general, under weaknesses understands both weaknesses of character and every sort generally, whatever they may be. “The word ‘ought’ shows that this is a matter of obligation, not of mercy.—What then must we do? ‘Bear the infirmities of the weak.’ We who are strong must. Do you see how the Apostle encourages them by this praise, not only calling them strong but placing them on the same level as himself? And he does not attract them by this alone, but by presenting the benefit of the neighbor without any burden to themselves. You are strong, he says; and if you condescend, you will suffer no harm. But he, if you do not bear his weaknesses, faces extreme danger. And he does not say: bear the weak,—but ‘bear the infirmities of the weak,’ by which he calls and draws them to compassion, as in another place he says: ‘You who are spiritual, restore such a one’ (Gal. 6:1). You have become strong? Render what is due to God, who made you strong. But you will render what is due by healing the weakness of the fainting one. For we too were weak, but became strong by grace. So should you act not only in this case but with the weak in other respects. Is someone quick to anger or prone to injury or has some other deficiency? You bear with him. How is this possible? Listen to what the Apostle says next. Having said: ‘We ought to bear the infirmities of the weak,’ he added: ‘and not to please ourselves,’ says the holy Chrysostom.”

“And not to please ourselves.” In another place: “Let no one seek his own” (1 Cor. 10:24). And the Saviour says that the first step on the path of salvation is to “deny himself” (Matt. 16:24). Having stepped away from yourself, whom do we encounter? God and the brethren. God is pleased by inner disposition—faith, fear of God, devotion to God, heartfelt attachment to Him and hope. Our external activity is almost entirely spent in contact with the brethren, and there the main thing is: “not to please ourselves, not to seek our own,” whatever it concerns. It might seem that by this you would ruin yourself or be oppressed; but in reality it turns out that only by this is the good of each and all firmly established. From where comes the strength for this? From love, which considers everything of brothers as its own; for it loves them as itself. Opposite to it is self-pleasing, the source of all that is wrong and all the disorders among us, great and small. As soon as someone turns to self-pleasing, immediately harm to another, unpleasantness from him, and further discord.—The Apostle mentioned the suppression of self-pleasing because his discourse is about abstaining from foods so as not to cause the brother to stumble. If for you eating or not eating certain foods is an indifferent matter, then for you to abstain costs nothing, and if you do not abstain, it is for no other reason than self-pleasing. But one must not indulge self-pleasing; for this means to live according to the sin that dwells in us, which must be mortified.

Rom. 15:2. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to his edification..

There he spoke in general: we should not please ourselves; but here he makes the application to those listening to his word: “each of us please his neighbor.” Having turned away from yourself, fix your gaze on your neighbor, as he said in another place: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4); or: “Let no one seek his own, but each one the welfare of his neighbor” (1 Cor. 10:24). The Apostle himself always acted thus, and therefore offered himself as an example: “just as I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but that of many, that they may be saved” (1 Cor. 10:33).

He himself pleased all, “that they may be saved,” and teaches others to please the neighbor “for his good:” “for it is possible to please to harm, both of oneself and of the neighbor,” says the blessed Theodoret. “Each of you do what pleases your neighbor and serve your brother, only for his good,” says the blessed Theophylact.

But why did the Apostle add further: “to his edification?” This was required by the manner of conduct of the strong Romans. They were leading toward good by requiring not to hold to the distinction of foods as a condition of salvation; but since they were doing this in a disorderly manner, they were not edifying but tearing down. It was necessary to convince them; and then the distinction of foods would have removed itself, but they wanted to break everything by force all at once and, instead of benefit, caused harm. Therefore, “lest someone of the perfect say: look, I am drawing my brother to what is good (by rebuking him and compelling him), the Apostle added: ‘to his edification.’ For although what you are doing now is good, yet since it is untimely, your work is turned into destruction; for untimely rebuke does not edify,” says the blessed Theophylact. And in very many cases this restriction has a saving application: do what is good, but with discernment.

“Therefore, if you are rich, if you are clothed with authority, do not please yourself, but the poor and those who have need. By this you will also gain true glory and render much benefit. Worldly glory soon flies away; but spiritual glory remains forever if you will do this to edification,” says the holy Chrysostom.

Rom. 15:3. For even Christ did not please Himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me..

“Since the Apostle gave a rule of special importance, prescribing that the perfect should descend from the step of their perfection for the healing of another’s weakness, he presents Christ as an example. And so Paul always acts. When he reasoned about almsgiving, he presented this same example: ‘You know the grace of the Lord…that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor’ (2 Cor. 8:9). When he exhorted to love, he persuaded by the same example, saying: ‘just as Christ also loved us’ (Eph. 5:25). When he advised to endure shame and calamities, he resorted to the same example, saying: ‘who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame’ (Heb. 12:2). So here too he shows that Christ Himself acted in this way: ‘did not please Himself’, says the holy Chrysostom.”

Christ the Saviour did nothing for Himself, but all for the arrangement of our salvation. Only once did He express before His Father what He would have desired for Himself, namely: “let this cup pass from Me;” but immediately He refused it: “yet not as I will, but as You will.” The blessed Theodoret writes: “The Master Himself did not seek His own but gave Himself up to death for our salvation. For we hear that before His suffering He prays and says: ‘Father… if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will’ (Matt. 26:39).” We read a similar application in Ambrosiaster as well.

The Lord drank this cup and in it drowned our sins. He bore our sins and suffered for us, and thereby saved us. Since this especially manifested that He “did not please Himself,” we must understand the prophetic words quoted in this light, namely: “the reproaches of those who reproached God”—God the Father, “fell,”—fell upon, pressed upon Me, the incarnate Son of God, who took upon Himself the sins of all the world and its salvation. The reproaches of those who reproach God will be the sins of the world; for every sin, insofar as it is committed before the face of God who is omnipresent, insults the face of God and is done to His reproach. The Son of God, having become incarnate, confesses before the Father that all these reproaches have pressed upon Him, and He willingly takes them upon Himself, to remove the guilt of reproach from those who committed it and thereby save them. By this He especially showed that He “did not please Himself,” but removed the guilt from all others and bore it for them.

In the Prophet the whole passage reads thus: “The zeal of Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproached You have fallen upon me” (Ps. 68:10). In the first words: “the zeal of Your house has eaten me up”—the Lord confesses through the mouth of the Prophet that it was zeal for the house of God the Father, that is, for the glory of His house, that moved Him to take upon Himself the reproaches of those who reproach, or the sins of sinners. God’s house is all creation, especially rational creation. By sin this house has been darkened. The Son of God was zealous to restore the light of its glory; for this He came to earth, became incarnate, and, taking upon Himself sin, removed what darkened the glory of God’s house. After the removal of sin, the Holy Spirit descended, who, renewing believers, expands the light of the glory of God’s house, until all those needed enter into it.

Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Rom. 15:4. For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope..

On the occasion of citing the aforesaid passage from Scripture, the holy Paul expresses a general thought about the purpose and beneficial effect of the Divine Scriptures. He is as if saying: I have brought one passage from Scripture, but all such passages there can be turned to our instruction: they were written for this very purpose. “For our instruction”—for our, Christians’, learning. All of Christianity is prefigured there. Read or listen, ponder and reflect—and learn. “God, caring for our benefit, entrusted to the Scriptures teaching handed down to us,” says the blessed Theodoret. Every point of Christian doctrine can be found there in outline—manifest or hidden. Perhaps in saying this, the Apostle intended to lead the weak Jew to the thought that if, according to the spirit of Christianity, there is no necessity to maintain the distinction of foods as some condition of salvation, then this teaching is not some particularity foreign to the former Scriptures; it is contained there too: search and you will find.

Just as the purpose of Scripture is expressed generally, so its beneficial effect is also indicated in general terms: “so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The chief matter here is “that we might have hope.” This hope is the hope of salvation—an unshakeable conviction that, believing as we believe, living as we live, and being sanctified through the mysteries as we are sanctified, we are surely accomplishing our salvation. The foundation of this hope is our Lord Jesus Christ. If the very Son of God and God came, became incarnate, suffered, died, rose, ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father, what can be unreliable and unstable in our hope? For all that, doubts may come that shake our hope. What then should we do? Turn to Scripture, and there you will find encouragement; draw from it assurances that will calm the confusion of thoughts rising within. If a troubling thought comes—did we do well in hoping in Christ—look at Scripture and there you will find that He is the hope of the nations, that the nations, as it is said, “will place their hope in Him” (Matt. 12:21), which we see being fulfilled—that He is the Father of the age to come (that is, the present age now), the mighty God. If the thought comes, did we do well in following His commandments, look at what Moses commanded: when He comes, listen to Him. If the thought comes, is it new that through the mysteries we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, read the Prophets and you will find that long ago it was foretold: “in those days I will pour out My Spirit” (Joel 2:29). So every other thought, whatever may come, can be dispelled by the encouragement drawn from the Scriptures, and leave our hope in peace and strength.

From what has been said, it is clear how the encouragement of the Scriptures affects the firmness of our hope. But how does perseverance relate to these spiritual manifestations? In the text it stands on one line with the encouragement of Scripture: everything was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of Scripture we might have hope, that is, stand in it, be firm and not fall, says the holy Chrysostom. Just as the encouragement of the Scriptures affects the firmness of hope, it is evident: how does perseverance contribute to this? Let us distinguish: everything was written for our instruction, “so that through perseverance we might have hope.” Instruction drawn from what was written gives perseverance; perseverance preserves hope. By perseverance is not always meant the bearing of sorrows, but sometimes steadfastness in accepted principles. One can understand it in this sense in the present case as well. It will be: instruction drawn from what was written produces steadfastness in the principles of faith, life, and the sanctifying order, and this steadfastness supports hope. Hope indeed grows weak as soon as some neglect or deviation in faith, life, or the sanctifying orders of the Church is permitted. Constant fidelity to all this gives hope boldness and inspiration. And how what was written can cultivate such steadfastness requires no explanation.

But one can understand perseverance here as the bearing of sorrows as well. Sorrows are inseparable from faith and life according to faith. Scripture, by proclaiming such inseparability everywhere, both by word of instruction and by examples of perseverance, inspires to perseverance, and perseverance enlivens hope and gives it firmness. The latter is attested by universal experience. The holy Chrysostom says: “Many different struggles lie before us, both inner and outer (the inevitability of this was written beforehand), so that, drawing strengthening and encouragement from the Scriptures, we may show perseverance, and by living in perseverance may remain in hope. One disposes toward the other, perseverance toward hope, hope toward perseverance; and both perseverance and hope are drawn from Scripture.”

Rom. 15:5–6. Now may the God of perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..

Again with prayer he interrupts the flow of discourse and directs it toward removing the dissension among the Romans which, though concerning an insignificant matter, nevertheless disturbed their mutual peace. God is called the God of perseverance and encouragement because both perseverance and encouragement come from Him, and they appear in their true form and true power only in those to whom God grants them. The Apostle determines God with these terms according to the flow of discourse—because he had just spoken of perseverance and encouragement; or, rather, because of those to whom he addresses his word, some had need of perseverance and others of encouragement: the strong needed perseverance, and the weak needed encouragement, for whom the very consciousness of weakness was already a source of grief, all the more if they noticed anything reproachful from the side of the strong. But the Apostle asks God for them not perseverance and encouragement (he only hints at this) but the removal of what caused some to persevere and others to seek encouragement—namely, the removal of dissension and the establishment of unity of mind. “Grant you to be of the same mind”—to have the same thoughts, to hold the same truths, concepts and representations—all of you regarding Jesus Christ, κατά,—according to Christ Jesus, that is, according to the spirit, teaching and requirement of Christ, or regarding the matter of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The chief matter here is the hope of salvation in Christ Jesus. This hope is founded entirely on the one Jesus Christ the Lord. To add anything to this foundation means not to think and act according to Christ Jesus. But this was observed among the Romans: some hoped that they were closer to salvation by abstaining from certain foods, while others thought they were closer to it by giving themselves complete freedom in this regard. Both troubled the pure water of the hope of salvation. The Apostle prays that God will enlighten their mind and grant them to equally understand the matter of salvation in Christ the Saviour.

Rom. 15:6. So that together you may with one voice glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..

He seeks unity and concord of mind for this, he says, so that when you gather together to pray and glorify God, you glorify Him not only with your lips, singing the same praises, but with one soul, holding in your soul one and the same thoughts and convictions. That God should be glorified in precisely this way is received as an undisputed principle. There is one body—all; there should be one soul as well. In this there is nothing to persuade. The Apostle only prays for the means to this. It is necessary for you to glorify God not only with your lips but with one soul. As an essential condition for this is unity of mind, I pray God to grant you to be of one mind. Unity of convictions will give rise to unity of feeling and disposition—and there will be one soul with which you will fittingly glorify God. “Do you see what unity the Apostle gave to the whole body of Christ and how he concluded his discourse with doxology? By this especially does he persuade them to unity and harmony,” says the holy Chrysostom.

“Glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “The Apostle called God our God and Father of the Lord Jesus; because God is the Father of all of us,” says the blessed Theodoret. “Here the word ‘God’ should be separated, referring it to what precedes, and then the reading begins anew: and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, it will not be inappropriate if we read these words together, that is, understanding ‘God and Father’ in relation to the one and the same Christ; for God the Father is the God of Christ according to His humanity and Father according to His divinity,” says the blessed Theophylact.

Rom. 15:7. Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received you, to the glory of God..

A new incentive to unity of mind. Do not divide yourselves one from another because of slight differences in your outward conduct, when Christ the Lord has received both of you equally—which is the most essential thing. Because of this great mercy, common to you, tear down the middle wall that divides you; held by one embrace of God’s love, embrace each other as well. Or—so the Apostle speaks to the stronger in faith—he offers them this incentive: what were you when the Lord received you? Weak among the weak. And yet the Lord did not shun you because of your weaknesses, but mercifully received you into His love and into communion with Himself. Therefore, as the Lord dealt with you, once weak, so deal you with your weak brethren; do not shun them, but receive them into your love, into your embrace, and into every communion with you. Thus the blessed Theodoret: “And Christ the Master did not love us when we were righteous, but received and justified sinners. Therefore you too must bear the weakness of the brethren and take every measure for their salvation.” Thus Ambrosiaster: “We are received by Christ so that He ‘took our infirmities and bore our diseases’ (Matt. 8:17). Therefore, urged on by this example, we must bear each other’s weaknesses with patience, lest we render vain the glory of the name we have received; for by the grace of Christ we are called the sons of God.”

“To the glory of God”—can be referred to Christ’s reception: as Christ received you to the glory of God—understanding by the glory of God the divine glory, great, to which the received were made worthy, as the prophet Isaiah foretold. So Ambrosiaster. Or—“to the glory of God,”—for the sake of the glory of God’s name—that the Father may be glorified in the Son, as most merciful.—This can also be referred to mutual reception of one another. “Receive one another—to the glory of God.” So our other commentators. Theophylact writes: “The Apostle repeats his former exhortation and brings Christ as an example, so that we receive one another, because this serves to the glory of God. For our unity above all glorifies God; contrariwise, discord does dishonor to God. For when pagans see that Christians are at variance with one another, they accuse the faith itself.” The holy Chrysostom draws from this: “God is especially glorified when we protect one another. Therefore, if you, grieved by disagreement with you, stir up discord with your brother, consider that, laying down your anger, you will glorify your Master, and be reconciled with your brother, if not for his own sake, then for God’s glory; or rather, for this first of all be reconciled. The Apostle continually repeated this, and in his prayer with the Father, He said: all will know that You sent Me if (My disciples) are one.” (John 17:21), and we should see “Is there not an example in Isaiah 56:5” (Isa. 56:5, 4)?

But from what follows it is clear that “to the glory of God”—the Apostle connected with—“received you:” for he says that the Jews were received so that God’s truth might be manifest in the promises to their fathers, while the Gentiles were received by mercy, so that God might be glorified thereby.

Rom. 15:8–9. For I say that Christ became a minister of the circumcision for the sake of the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, while the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy..

In saying “Christ received you to the glory of God,” I understand that Jesus Christ is “a minister,” διάκονος, “and High Priest of our confession,” άρχιερεύς (Heb. 3:1), the accomplisher of God’s economy for us, the Author of our salvation—is all this for the circumcised “for the sake of the truth of God,” for the truthfulness of God, that God might be shown truthful in His words and in His promises given to their fathers, through their fulfillment in Christ Jesus; and for the Gentiles He is all this by mercy—because with respect to them God is not bound by any word of promise, and if He receives them to participate in the blessings in Christ Jesus, it is only to manifest the riches of His goodness toward them, so that all nations, made worthy of this, glorify God, the most merciful and loving Father. Both, of course, are relative: for there is mercy even in the promises, because the very promises were made by mercy, and there is truthfulness here too, because promises were spoken regarding them as well, though not to their fathers. But the Apostle needed to emphasize the latter especially according to his purpose. If such mercy has been shown you, then be merciful yourself to the weak. If such mercy has been shown you, that God may be glorified, glorify Him not with your tongue but by deed, imitating Him in compassion and forbearance toward the brethren and thereby showing that you have Him as your merciful Father of all. Nothing glorifies God as much as the mutual union of the brethren. The holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle, holding to his former subject, again reasons about what care Christ took for us, and shows how much He did for us and how He did not please Himself. And at the same time he also proves that believers from the Gentiles are more indebted to God. If they are more indebted, then it is their obligation to bear with the weak from the Jews. Since the Apostle had dealt strong blows to the latter, to prevent the former from becoming proud of that, he now subdues their arrogance, proving that the Jews were given blessings according to the promise to their fathers, while those called from the Gentiles were given them by mercy and loving-kindness alone. Therefore he says: ‘while the Gentiles glorify God for His mercy.’ The Jews had promises, but you did not have them, yet you are saved by mercy alone. The Apostle mentions the promises so that the Gentiles will be humbled by this and not rise up against the weak. Regarding the Gentiles he says that they were saved only by mercy; and therefore are obliged especially to glorify God. And God is glorified when we live in union and unity, when we unanimously bless God, patiently bear with one who is weaker than us, and do not despise a member that is separated.”

Rom. 15:9–12. Therefore I will confess You among the Gentiles, and sing to Your name. And again: Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people. And again: Praise the Lord, all Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him. And again, Isaiah says: There shall be a root of Jesse, and He who shall rise to rule the Gentiles; in Him the Gentiles will hope..

That the Gentiles were called by mercy to glorify God, the Apostle proves by the testimonies of the Prophets, who, in foretelling the calling of the Gentiles, invite them to glorify God.

The first prophecy is taken from the Psalms (Ps. 17:50). The Prophet from the mouth of Christ the Lord says: “I will confess You among the Gentiles, O Lord.” The Gentiles who were called clothe themselves in Christ and have Him living in them. When they glorify God for this, it is Christ the Lord, living in them, who moves them to this glorification. The Prophet represents the Lord foreseeing this from afar and puts into His mouth a song to God the Father: The Gentiles, being converted to faith through My gospel, will receive Me, and through them I will confess You and will sing praise to Your name, moving them to Your glorification. Ambrosiaster writes: “The Prophet writes that the Gentiles will be admitted to God’s grace for obtaining salvation. This is the voice of Christ, declaring that His gospel among the Gentiles will have as its fruit the confession of God; therefore the Son thanks the Father for the obedience of the Gentiles. And in the Gospel He exclaims: ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight’ (Matt. 11:25).”—And on the day of His solemn entry into Jerusalem, when certain Greeks who had come to worship at the feast were brought to Him by the Apostles, He cried out: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified…” and at the end: “Father, glorify Your name” (Jn 12:20; 12:23; 12:28).

The second prophecy is taken from the concluding song of Moses in Deuteronomy (Deut 32:43).—The Prophet invites all the Gentiles to rejoice with the people of God, foreseeing their future calling to participation in the blessings that God’s people inherit by the promise to their fathers. Ambrosiaster writes: “The Prophet shows that God, by His mercy, determined from ancient times to gather Jews and Gentiles together, so that the Gentiles, having become partakers of grace, might be united with the Jews, who are themselves called God’s people by the gift of His mercy—and that all together, rejoicing in the knowledge of truth, might glorify God, who has increased the number of His faithful people by the addition of the Gentiles. When, on account of the murmuring of the Jews against the Apostle Peter for receiving Cornelius the centurion into the number of the saved, that Apostle explained the matter to them, they were satisfied, saying: ‘Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life’ (Acts 11:18).”

The third prophecy is taken from the Psalms (Ps. 116:1). The Prophet universally calls all peoples to praise and sing to the Lord, because “His mercy is established” (Ps. 116:2) upon us all. It is established, firmly fixed, become unshakeable and inalienable. When was this accomplished, if not at the coming to earth of Christ the Lord, through whom all are enlightened with true knowledge of God and sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit—and the Church of God is built and established as the keeper of these blessings until the end of ages? Knowing this, O peoples, praise and sing to the most merciful Lord.

The fourth prophecy is taken from the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 11:10). “The words: ‘There shall be a root of Jesse’”—are said instead of: from the root of Jesse there will grow up One who will rise to rule the nations, that is, Christ, says the blessed Theophylact. “By many testimonies the Apostle proves that it was God’s eternal determination that all nations be made worthy of blessing in Christ Jesus. And he proves this in order to teach the nations that their hope is firm and not subject to doubt,” says Ambrosiaster. The nations who believed have put their hope, and since they hope for great things, they cannot refrain from glorification of God, especially having received sure pledges that assure them of obtaining what they hope for.

The holy Chrysostom concludes these testimonies with such an inference: “All this the Apostle cites as proof that all must unite and glorify God, and at the same time wishes thereby to humble the Jew, so that he not exalt himself over the Gentile, because all the Prophets call even the Gentiles (to the glorification of God)—and to inspire modesty in the Gentile, showing that he is obliged to give more thanks to God.”

The God of Hope Fill You With All Joy and Peace in Believing (Romans 15:13)

Rom. 15:13. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit..

Again the holy Apostle prays. This is the concluding prayer for all that he has spoken about so much, beginning from the preceding chapter. The words of the prayer are applied to the preceding prophetic word. There it was said: the Gentiles will place their hope in Him; and here it is said: and let the Lord, the God of hope, give you to hope, and not only to hope, but to abound in hope. Hope here is the hope of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, which, as soon as someone has gained it, will no longer think up new supports for it—unreliable and fragile ones, such as, for example, to eat certain things and not touch others, or to eat everything: from which the Apostle was dissuading them above. So this prayer, by its wording clinging to the just-cited words of the Prophet, corresponds in its content to all the preceding section (chapters 14–15).

Remarkably outlined here by the Apostle in a compact word is the relationship of spiritual feelings and dispositions. The object of the prayerful good wish is the abundance of hope; that this may be, the filling of the heart with joy and peace is desired; faith is indicated as the source of these. Faith produces joy and peace, joy and peace increase hope, and all this is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore the prayer is directed to the God of hope.

God is the God of hope because the very word God already moves one to hope: for He is goodness itself, without limits well-wishing toward us and doing good to us, knowing better than we do what is necessary for us, always ready to satisfy our needs, and possessing all the means for this. Therefore the prophet David confesses that “Our God is God of salvation” (Ps. 67:21). And “Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord” (Ps. 39:5). And therefore God is the God of hope because He Himself plants it in the heart; for He is the source of all spiritual blessings.

“The God of hope,” he says, “fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” “In believing,” εν τω πιστεύειν,—as you believe or insofar as you believe. First—faith. God has given you faith—and you believe. Insofar as you believe, there is no impediment for God to fill you with all spiritual blessings, and He will indeed fill you insofar as you will believe. Faith is both a channel for the flowing of God’s mercies and a vessel for receiving them.

Of all spiritual blessings the Apostle wishes for the Romans only “joy and peace.” Apart from the condition of the Romans, joy and peace are indicated above other blessings because they are the inseparable companions of faith, giving themselves more perceptibly to be felt by the believer. The believer’s sins are forgiven. Take this as a feeling, and you will feel as if a mountain has fallen from your shoulders. How not to rejoice at this? The believer is received into God’s mercy, into sonship to God, and is embraced by the warmth of God’s fatherly love. Having received this as a feeling, how can one not rejoice? Thus joy is inseparable from faith; and peace is inseparable from joy: without peace, joy cannot exist. Peace is established from being overshadowed by grace. Grace, when it comes, suppresses all passions for the sake of self-denial and does not give them motion or power. And when the passions are not in motion, there is nothing to disturb the peaceful order either within or without. All then remains in its natural state; and the natural state is the peaceful flow and order of all things. Moreover, peace comes from the fact that grace unites with God, who is the God of peace, bringing peace with Him everywhere.

In relation to the condition of the Romans, the Apostle especially desires joy and peace because when these are present, those insignificant differences in conviction of which he speaks will no longer have the harmful consequences that now result from them—joy and peace will suppress every disagreement, division, and alienation, and will not allow them to arise any longer. The blessed Theophylact writes: “The Apostle prays that believers from the Jews be filled with joy, for they were grieved by reproaches, and believers from the Gentiles be filled with peace, for they appeared to be at peace in relation to those who held to the Law; or better to say, he prays that both be filled with joy and peace.”

But the Apostle does not stop his good wish with joy and peace, but extends it further: “abound in hope.” “Abound,” εις το περισσεύειν,—so as to abound. He desires the filling of the heart with joy and peace, so that you might abound in hope. Hope—that God, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, will arrange our essential good in the best way—is born together with faith; and it grows and increases as we taste the blessings of faith. The blessing received and tasted assures us that all the rest will certainly be received, and thereby increases hope. Joy and peace are blessings of faith. The Apostle wishes: grant you, O Lord, to be filled with peace and joy, so that you might also abound in hope. Hope, or abounding in hope, is placed as the highest good, the aim of good wishes. So it truly is. Even in worldly order one cannot live without hope, much less in the spiritual. How, on the contrary, life flourishes in both orders with the increase, expansion, and abundance of hope!

But one must keep in mind that spiritual feelings and dispositions are so closely bound together and so influence one another that one cannot establish their sequence as a universal and unchanging law. We say: faith produces joy and peace, and joy and peace increases faith. But it can also be: faith increases hope, and hope fills with joy and peace; or thus: hope fills with joy and peace and thereby sustains and enlivens faith. Spiritual life moves through the flowing of spiritual feelings and dispositions into one another; and only such flowings testify that spiritual life is alive. And all this is accomplished “by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The power of the Holy Spirit generates spiritual life; it also sustains it and leads it to perfection; from it come all movements and changes in spiritual life. Just as there is no life in the body without the soul, so there is no spiritual life in the soul without God’s Spirit. The God of hope first of all sends the grace of the Spirit; and it produces faith and fills with joy and peace, increases hope, and arranges all their mutual influences and transitions. Therefore the Apostle concluded his good wish with a good wish that all this be in you by the power of the Holy Spirit. Where this power is, there all is firm and full of hope.

Conclusion of the Epistle (Romans 15:14–16:24)

Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

It is composed of:

A) certain announcements;

B) greetings; and

C) an admonition, after which is appended:

D) a postscript with additional greetings.

All breathes warm love and friendly feeling.

a) Announcements (Rom. 15:14–33)

Aa) After apologizing for writing somewhat “boldly” (Rom. 15:14–16), the holy Paul:

Bb) tells them what the Lord has accomplished for him in the work of preaching (Rom. 15:17–22); and:

Cc) what plans he has for the future in this regard, promising to visit them as well (Rom. 15:23–29); and finally:

Dd) asks them to help him in prayer (Rom. 15:30–33).

Aa) The Apology (Rom. 15:14–16)

Rom. 15:14. And I myself am convinced about you, my brethren, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another..

He praises them—and by praise moves them to fulfill what he had written about: “for he who hears himself praised usually makes an effort to justify it and show it to be earnest,” says Ambrosiaster. He had rebuked them for a certain discord among them, which revealed a lack of good will, and for an inability to comport themselves in these circumstances, which revealed lack of understanding. Now he softens this rebuke, saying: I am convinced that you are both good-willed and wise—so that even you can instruct others, νουθετεΤν. The holy Chrysostom depicts the Apostle’s thoughts thus: “The Apostle earlier said: ‘I am the Apostle to the Gentiles, and I make much of my ministry’ (Rom. 11:13); also: ‘But also you may not be spared’ (Rom. 11:21); and further: ‘Do not be conceited in your own estimation’ (Rom. 12:16); and then: ‘But you, why do you judge your brother?’ (Rom. 14:10). And again: ‘Who are you to judge the servant of another?’ (Rom. 14:4). And besides these expressions, he used many similar ones. And so, having expressed in his Epistle much that was stern, at the end he heals the wounds inflicted and, as he began, so he concludes. At the beginning he said: ‘I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world’ (Rom. 1:8). And here he says: ‘I am convinced about you that you yourselves are full of goodness’ and so forth.—And in this place it is said even more fully than in the first. He did not say: I have heard—but ‘I am convinced’: I do not need to inquire of others but I myself am sure of you—I myself, who have rebuked and accused you. ‘You are full of goodness’: this refers to the recently given exhortation. The Apostle is as if saying: I did not consider you harsh and brothers who hate one another when I advised you to receive one another, not to abandon or destroy God’s work. For I know that you are ‘full of goodness.’ By goodness, I think, he here means the fullness of virtue (goodness). And he did not say: you have goodness—but ‘you are full of goodness.’ With the same emphasis he continues: ‘filled with all knowledge.’ What good would it be if, with all their love, they did not know how they should deal with those they love? Therefore the Apostle added: ‘filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another’—not only to learn but to teach others as well.”

All our commentators read: others, άλλους,—to teach, except for Ambrosiaster, with whom others read: αλλήλους — to teach one another mutually, or to admonish one another.

Rom. 15:15. But I have written to you very boldly in part, as reminding you, because of the grace that was given to me from God..

Someone might say or think: if you are convinced we are wise, why then do you write so sternly and teach? I do not teach, answers the holy Paul, but only remind you, ώς έπαναμιμνήσκων,—I lightly bring to mind. It happens that you know something well and then forget it, says Ambrosiaster. So I am just lightly reminding you. Someone might think: and what is it your concern to remind us? The holy Paul adds: I have a responsibility: for I have been set to be a servant of Jesus Christ among the Gentiles. So, although I see that from your perspective—from the capital city’s perspective—this may seem out of place, I could not help but lightly remind you. The holy Chrysostom marvels here at the humility and wisdom of the holy Paul. “Notice Paul’s humble wisdom, notice his wisdom—how, after dealing a deep wound earlier, when he had already achieved what he wanted, he applies various remedies to it. One statement alone would have sufficed to comfort them; but the Apostle even admits he was excessively bold. He does the same thing in the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying: ‘But we are confident of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we speak in this way’ (Heb. 6:9). Similarly he writes to the Corinthians: ‘Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you’ (1 Cor. 11:2). And in the Epistle to the Galatians he says: ‘I am confident about you … that you will come to no other judgment’ (Gal. 5:10). And in all of Paul’s epistles you will find this thought more than once, but especially here; because the Romans enjoyed great respect, and their arrogant understanding had to be humbled not only by stern but also by gentle measures. The Apostle employs both. Therefore he also says to them here: ‘I have written to you very boldly’; even, not content with that, he adds: ‘in part’—somewhat. But he does not stop there either; what does he say? ‘As reminding you.’ He did not say: teaching you or reminding you—but ‘reminding,’ that is, lightly reminding.—Do you notice how the end of the Epistle corresponds to the beginning? Both there and here he descends from the teacher’s chair and converses with them as with brothers, as with friends, as with equals. And this is the chief virtue of a teacher—to vary his discourse for the benefit of his listeners. Notice also that the Apostle, after saying: ‘I have written to you very boldly,’ then ‘in part’—and furthermore: ‘as reminding you’—not satisfied with that, expressing himself even more humbly, added: ‘because of the grace that was given to me from God.’ And at the beginning he said: ‘I am obligated’ (Rom. 1:14), as if to say: I have not seized this honor for myself, I did not undertake this work myself, but God commanded me to do this, and moreover, by grace, not because He found me worthy of it. Therefore, do not be grieved: I am not rising against you, it is God who commands. And as the Apostle said there: ‘to whom I am serving… in the gospel of His Son’ (Rom. 1:9), so here too, having said: ‘because of the grace that was given to me from God,’—he added:”

Rom. 15:16. So that I might be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit..

He explains what grace was given him by God—the grace of Apostleship among the Gentiles. I am a minister, λειτουργός,—that is, a priest performing the Liturgy—I am a minister of Jesus Christ, and my service to Him is proclaiming His gospel among the Gentiles. This is my Liturgy, which I strive to perform with all diligence and reverence. Therefore I cannot be indifferent to what is happening among you; my Apostolic conscience compels me to take a part in it. And I do take part, wishing to help advance your progress in Christianity. So do not complain against me that I wrote to you somewhat sternly. I had no choice: it is my duty.

Remarkably he defines the gospel as priesthood. The Apostle is a liturgist—the preaching of the Gospel—the Liturgy. What then is the sacrifice? The sacrifice is the believers. By self-denial and commitment to the Lord they slay themselves; the grace of the Holy Spirit, descending upon them through the mysteries, sanctifies them and makes them an acceptable sacrifice to God. The holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle turns his discourse to the highest dignity of his Apostleship and calls it not simply a ministry, as at the beginning, but a sacred ministry, a priesthood. For me to preach and proclaim the gospel is priesthood, it is a sacrifice I offer. And no one will blame a priest for his care that the sacrifice he offers be unblemished. By such words the Apostle both inspires the minds of believers, showing them that they are a sacrifice, and justifies himself, suggesting that this is what he has been commanded to do. My sacrificial knife, he says, is the Gospel and the word of preaching, and my purpose is not to glorify myself and become famous, but ‘that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit,’—that is, that the souls of those I teach might be pleasing to God. God, sending me to this work, wished not so much to glorify me as to have care for you. How can the offering become acceptable? By the Holy Spirit. Faith alone is not enough, but also a spiritual life is needed, so that we might keep in ourselves the Spirit given once for all. The wood, the fire, the altar, and the knife—the Spirit replaces all these for us. Therefore I strive by every means that this fire not be extinguished. For this has been entrusted to me. As in the Old Testament the priest stood before God, kindling the fire, so I serve God, stirring up your zeal by reminding. And notice, he did not say: may the offering from you—but ‘the offering of the Gentiles’ become acceptable. And by the word ‘of the Gentiles’ he means the universe, that is, all the earth and sea; and thereby he humbles the pride of the Romans, so that they not regard it as low to have as their teacher one whose work extends to the ends of the universe. He said the same thing at the beginning of the Epistle: ‘as also among the rest of the Gentiles’ (that is, I might have fruit among you too). ‘I am indebted both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish’ (Rom 1:13; Rom. 1:14).”

“In the words ‘that the offering of the Gentiles might be sanctified by the Holy Spirit’—there is hidden the thought that if he wrote sternly it was out of concern for their perfection. I am concerned, he says, that the offering of the Gentiles be sanctified by the Holy Spirit. I have the same concern regarding you. “True, having believed and been baptized, you have received the Spirit; but if you do not also live spiritually, the grace will be extinguished,” says Oecumenius and the blessed Theophylact. Since I noticed in you something that is harmful to spiritual life, I reminded you to correct what is defective, lest otherwise, if you remain in this defect, the Spirit depart from you and you cease to be an offering sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

Bb) About the Work of Preaching (Rom. 15:17–22)

Why does the holy Paul relate what the Lord accomplished in his Apostolic ministry up to now? His mention of his assignment to be an Apostle to the Gentiles might have led to this, to show that this grace was not “in vain” in him (1 Cor. 15:10), and to conclude: now I have completed everything here, I will go further, to Spain, and on the way I will visit you, as I have long desired. Or thus: having mentioned the grace given him, he was going to say that in the power of this grace I am planning to go to Spain and visit you on the way. But since the question arose: why then have you delayed until now?—he anticipates it, saying: there was work here; I labored in preaching and sowed the word of the gospel from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum. Having finished here, I am going there. Since this account might have appeared like boasting, the Apostle begins his discourse by removing this supposition, saying as if: certainly, there is something to boast of; but the boast belongs not to me but to God and His grace, which showed its power in the preaching by signs and bent minds to obedience to the Gospel.

Rom. 15:17. Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in those things which pertain to God..

Yes, I have a boast—I am praised—or I am able to boast, I have whereof, but not for anything earthly, human, but: “in those things which are toward God”,—for the divine work, for that I proclaim to all the word of God and bring all to God, tearing them away from the earthly, perishable and created to the heavenly, eternal and divine. But I do not appropriate this boast to myself, but ascribe all to Christ Jesus my Lord. In myself I have nothing boastworthy: the Lord accomplishes all. To Him be the glory. Holy Chrysostom sees such an impulse to these words: “since the Apostle humbled himself greatly before this, he again elevates his word and does this so that the Romans might not consider him contemptible. Elevating himself and saying: ‘I have a boast’,—he does not change his nature. I boast, he says, not by myself, not by my efforts, but by the grace of God. It cannot be said that I was appointed by God but did not fulfill the entrusted task. I fulfilled it, but not I, but Christ. Therefore I boast in Him, I boast not in some trifling works, but in spiritual ones. This very thing is meant by the words: ‘in those things which are toward God’”.

Rom. 15:18, 19. For I dare not speak of any things except those which Christ has worked through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.

I dare not, ου τολμήσω,—speak of anything Christ the Lord has not done through me, because that would be a base lie and empty boasting,—I dare not from reverence before God, who is truth. But here also is contained such a thought: but I dare not and do not speak of what the Lord accomplished through me: for since these works are in sight of all and were done through me, they might think that I myself accomplished them. And that would again be a lie; for not I did them, but Christ through me. For this reason I speak of these works; but, speaking of them, I do not ascribe them to myself, but openly refer them to their source,—to Christ the Lord, that He alone might be glorified in all—our Saviour and Lord. Perhaps in this way one can also repel all self-boasting, awakening awareness and feeling that the good which provokes it comes from the Lord: for all good truly comes from Him, and is not merely thought up by the mind from piety that it is so.

The Apostle testifies that all which he has done, Christ accomplished through him. “See how he strives to prove that all belongs to God, not to him. Whether I speak or act or work miracles,—all is wrought by Christ, all is wrought by the Holy Spirit” (Holy Chrysostom), “using me as an instrument” (Blessed Theophylact). The Lord Christ granted me the grace of the All-Holy Spirit for working signs and wonders, so that by them the Gentiles might be caught and receive the ray of the knowledge of God (Blessed Theodoret). Under: “by word”—is understood the gospel preaching and explanation of the mysteries of faith, and under: “by deed”—life according to faith, confirming the sincerity of conviction in what is preached. “The power” of “signs and wonders”—encompasses all supernatural actions that accompanied the gospel preaching, to assure the listeners that the one preaching is truly a messenger of God and his word is God’s word, to whom creation must submit. Holy Chrysostom says: “saying: ‘by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders’,—the Apostle understands by this teaching, philosophy concerning the Kingdom of God and striving for it, the manifestation of deeds and life, the raising of the dead, the casting out of demons, the opening of the eyes of the blind, the leaping of the lame and all other miraculous actions which the Holy Spirit wrought through him”. Blessed Theophylact sets forth a distinction even between signs and wonders. “Between a sign and a wonder there is a difference. In a sign is accomplished that which is accomplished according to nature, only in an unusual manner. Such is the sudden healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, who was sick with a fever. Here the healing of the fever is an action according to nature; but it was accomplished in an unusual manner: as soon as Christ touched her, the fever departed (Matt. 8:14, 15). But a wonder is an action accomplished over that which is contrary to nature. Such is the healing of a man born blind (Jn. 9:1–7)”. I was clothed by the Lord in such a complete armour of the grace of the Holy Spirit for the purpose of bringing the Gentiles to obedience of faith,—“for the obedience of the Gentiles”: in which the Lord granted me to succeed.

Rom. 15:19. Even as from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

The Roman Jews who had been in Jerusalem, as well as those who were in relations with Asia by commercial affairs, among whom could be both Gentiles and those who had recently returned to Rome from exile, could know what a vast expanse of lands and peoples the Apostle had traversed and what he had enlightened with the gospel, and could explain this to others who did not know. The general impression these words should have left was such that Holy Paul is the universal Apostle, whom all should listen to, consequently also the Romans; for he is such by God’s election. “Speaking thus, the Apostle was far from any boasting, he spoke it for the Romans, so that they might not think too much of themselves” (Holy Chrysostom). And perhaps also he said this to inspire them in faith, elevating it in their eyes. For by these words he speaks as it were: our faith, the Gospel of Christ, is not known in some obscure corner of the world. It has already occupied such an expanse; and this is not yet the end of its success: it will go further and encircle all the earth. From this it directly follows that if you Romans consider your Rome the ruling center of the world, then you did well not to let others get ahead of you in faith; stand firm in it, to serve in it as an example for all.

The word: “fully preached”—gives such a meaning that the gospel not only the hearing of the mentioned peoples was enlightened, but that it was received by them and took root among them: so that all the mentioned lands are not only in word filled with the gospel, but are filled and inhabited by believers. What an affecting assurance in the divinity of the faith of Christ?!

Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30)

Rom. 15:20. But so have I striven to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, that I might not build upon another man’s foundation.

“So I have striven”, φιλοτιμούμενον(that is: με),—moreover I made it a point of honour, I considered it an honour of my apostolic dignity to preach the gospel not where Christ was already known, but where He was not known. I did not allow myself to thrust into the sphere of labour of others, so as not to reap the fruit of their labours. The praise belongs not only to him who laid the foundation, but to him who completed the building. Meanwhile, in the matter of gospel preaching, to lay a foundation—to sow faith somewhere—is far more difficult than to bring the work to completion. If I thrust myself into another’s domain and, seeing a ready foundation, completed the building, I would appear as one devouring the fruits of others’ labours, accomplishing after their great labours the easiest thing, while seizing the praise for the whole building of faith, or the complete establishment of the Church somewhere. Blessed Theophylact, after Holy Chrysostom, depicts the thought of the Apostle thus: “I not only preached to so many peoples and turned them, but also did not go to those people to whom the name of Christ had already been proclaimed. Thus I am far from subjecting others’ disciples to myself and doing this for my own glory. Therefore I have not written to you from a desire to gain glory from you, but because I fulfil my ministry.” In speaking thus, the Apostle gives to understand that other Apostles also preached in those same countries; but by this, without diminishing the value of their labours, he raises the thought of how abundant was the fruit of the labours of all the Apostles, how deeply faith took root there and how it became common. I, he says, did not go where others laboured; but they preached in some places, and I in others: “I did not spare my labours, took up unworked fields, cultivated them, sowed and raised abundant harvests in them” (Blessed Theodoret). The same was done by others. From this those reading these words should have concluded: if they laboured thus and this had already been more than twenty-five years; then how many believers must be there? How brightly shines the grace of faith there? And such a thought is so inspiring and so rousing for every believer, confirming him in faith and moving him to bear witness to it in deed!

“Holy Chrysostom removes here a misunderstanding that might arise from the words: ‘upon another man’s foundation’. ‘The foundation’,—laid by other Apostles, Saint Paul calls another’s not because the people themselves were strange to him or their preaching was different, but in relation to the reward of each. Their preaching itself was not strange to him, but was strange only in relation to the reward; for strange to him was the reward for the labours borne by others”.

Rom. 15:21. But as it is written: They to whom no tidings of Him came shall see, and they who have heard shall understand (Isa. 52:15).

In the prophetic prediction the Apostle sees a commandment for himself. Thus it was predicted, he says, from God’s mouth: and I strove to act thus. The prediction concerns all gospel preachers. Saint Paul applies it to his manner of acting, because all the Apostles also acted thus. All of them were sent to teach those who knew not the true God worshipped in the Trinity; and whither they directed themselves, they knew that they went to such as knew not the true God and His holy truth, that they might enlighten them with knowledge. “To whom no tidings of Him came”,—to whom nothing had been proclaimed about Christ the Lord, that He, being One of the Holy Trinity, was incarnate for us, suffered and saved us,—to them it shall be proclaimed, and so clearly, that they shall as if see with their own eyes the crucified Lord, contemplating at the same time mentally all the mystery of the economy of salvation. “And those who have heard”—they shall hear and understand, that: “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”,—except the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).—Such is the prophecy concerning the labours of gospel preachers; thus have I acted.

Rom. 15:22. Therefore also I have been hindered many times from coming to you.

“In the beginning he said: ‘I wished many times to come to you, but have been hindered’ (Rom. 1:13); but here he sets forth the very reason which held him back not once or twice, but many times” (Holy Chrysostom). I desired to come to you; but even as I prepared to satisfy my strong desire to see you, a new door for preaching opened, and I had to enter it, renouncing my intended journey to you. In this he also understands all other labours for the establishment of already founded Churches. Misunderstandings arose among them, disorders and needs. It was impossible to leave them without reconciling them; and this required time and postponed that hour when at last I could freely move toward you.

B. Plans for the future (Rom. 15:23–29)

Rom. 15:23, 24. But now, having no more place in these regions, and having a great desire these many years to come to you; Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company.

“Having no place”—does not mean that all places were already filled with the gospel, but that there remained no place which according to the plans of the Apostle should be sown with the gospel. Holy Paul, like all the Apostles, acted according to the parable of the leaven of the dough and the seed. They put in the leaven, and it of itself penetrates all the dough and makes it all to rise; they cast seed into the ground, and it of itself gives forth stalk, ear and grain (Mk. 4:28). So also Holy Paul laid the leaven and seed of the gospel in the chief cities and says: all is done,—in the confidence that the power of evangelical truth and the grace of the Holy Spirit, of themselves, by the action of Divine Providence, will pass from the chief cities to other cities and villages and enlighten all and draw them to the Lord. For this reason he said: “having no place”—there remained no place where I should lay leaven or sow the seed of the gospel.

“And having a great desire…” “If the Apostle had said: I come to you because I have no other business, the Romans would have considered it degrading for themselves. Therefore he turns his word of love to them and says: ‘I have greatly desired to come to you many times’” (Holy Chrysostom). This desire had not just now arisen from idleness: it had always been, and was strong, but could not be satisfied because of pressing affairs; but now, having freedom from affairs, I consider it my first duty to hasten to you, to see you and enjoy you. “But so that he should not thereby awaken pride in them again, see how he humbles them, saying: ‘when I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you’. He wrote this so that they might not think too much of themselves. He wished both to show his love and not allow them to fall into pride. Therefore he often repeats the same thing and alternately uses words leading to one or the other purpose. For this again the reason, so that the Romans might not say: he wishes only to pass through us,—the Apostle added: ‘and to be brought on my way thitherward’,—that is, you yourselves will be witnesses that I hasten not from contempt of you, but from extreme necessity. Since this again could seem offensive to them, he quiets them with a comforting word: ‘if first I be somewhat filled with your company’. By the expression: ‘in my journey’, he gives to understand that he seeks not glory from them; and by the word: ‘satisfied’—he expresses that he desires to see them from love, and moreover desires greatly. Therefore he did not say: ‘satisfied’,—but: ‘if I be somewhat filled with your company’. Howsoever long I may be with you, I shall never be fully satisfied, or my being with you will never become tiresome to me. Do you see how he proves his love by the fact that, despite all the necessity to hasten, he does not wish to leave them until satisfied? And this already serves as a sign of his love; and no less also the fact that he employs expressions full of such fervency. He did not say: I shall see you, but: ‘satisfied’,—imitating the way parents speak to children. At the beginning he says: ‘that I might have some fruit among you’ (or—‘that I might be comforted with you’) (Rom. 1:13, 12); but here he expresses: ‘that I be satisfied’. Both reveal a strong attraction of his heart to them. In those words is contained the highest praise for them, since the Apostle awaits fruit from their obedience (or, hoping to be comforted by their faith, places them on an equal with himself); but here he already directly shows sincere attachment. In the same way he also wrote to the Corinthians: ‘that you may conduct me on my way whithersoever I go’ (1 Cor. 16:6). Thus in all things he expressed his love to his disciples, a love incomparable with anything. This he always began his Epistles with and ended with. As an affectionate father loves his only child, so he loved all the faithful. Therefore he said: ‘Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble and I do not burn with indignation?’ (2 Cor. 11:29)” (Holy Chrysostom).

Rom. 15:25–27. But now I go to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it has pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints that dwell at Jerusalem. It has pleased them truly; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in carnal things..

“Since the Apostle said: ‘I have no place in these regions’—and: ‘I have for many years a desire to come to you’—and meanwhile it was necessary for him to delay; then, so that the Romans might not think that he mocks them, he explains the reason why he cannot come to them for a time, and says: ‘I go to Jerusalem.’ But, ostensibly stating the pretext for his delay, the Apostle has also another purpose in view, namely—to urge them to give alms and make them most zealous in this. If he had not been concerned about this, it would have been enough for him to say: ‘I go to Jerusalem.’ But now he adds also the reason for this journey: ‘I go,’—he says,—‘to minister to the saints’ (calling all believers in Jerusalem by the name of saints). Here one should especially marvel at the wisdom of the Apostle in that he devised such a way of counselling. By this he could act more upon the Romans than by direct exhortation. For they would have considered it offensive if the Apostle had set before them the Corinthians and Macedonians as an example to imitate. Therefore he exhorts the Corinthians, in his epistle to them, thus: ‘Now I make known to you…the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia’ (2 Cor. 8:1); and he acts upon the Macedonians by the example of the Corinthians: ‘your zeal has stirred up very many’ (2 Cor. 9:2).—But he deals otherwise with the Romans, with them he is more cautious. And see with what propriety he uses expressions. He did not say: I go to bring alms,—but: ‘I go to minister to the saints.’ But if Paul serves, then consider how important it is, when the teacher of the universe himself takes upon himself the labour to bring the gifts; and though he intended to journey to Rome and greatly desired to meet with the Romans, yet he prefers the first to the latter. ‘For it has pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia,’—that is, by common consent they wished,—‘to make a certain contribution.’ Again he did not say: alms,—but: ‘contribution.’ Not without thought also did he insert the word: ‘a certain’—but so that the Romans might not take what was said as a reproach to themselves. And he did not simply say: to the poor,—but: to the ‘poor saints,’—persuading in a twofold way to help,—both by poverty and by virtue. Even with this he was not satisfied, but added: ‘their debtors they are.’ Then he proves why they are debtors: ‘For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things’ (of the Jews), ‘their duty is also to minister to them’ (the Gentiles) ‘in carnal things’ (to the Jews). This means: to them belong the promises, from them Christ, to them He came first, wherefore He Himself also said: ‘salvation is of the Jews’ (Jn. 4:22); from them the Apostles, from them the Prophets, from them all blessings. But all this the whole world has become a partaker of. Consequently, concludes the Apostle, if you have become partakers of the most important thing and, when, according to the evangelical parable, the supper was prepared for them, you entered and tasted of what was offered; then you also should permit them to share in carnal blessings and distribute to them thereof. But the Apostle did not say directly: permit to share,—but: ‘to minister to them’; by this he presented them as it were as deacons or bringing tribute to kings. Nor did he say: in your carnal things,—as was said above: ‘in their spiritual things’; because the spiritual blessings belonged to the Jews alone, but the carnal blessings belong not to the Gentiles alone, but to all in general. And the Apostle commanded that possession be common to all, not to the possessors alone” (Holy Chrysostom).

Rom. 15:28. When therefore I have finished this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.

“Having finished”,—having accomplished this work of ministering to the poor saints. Having sealed,—“as if placing in the royal treasury, in an inaccessible and safe place” (Holy Chrysostom). “To them”,—“that is, to the Macedonians and Achaians” (Blessed Theodoret). Their alms through the hands of the poor saints I place in God’s treasury and seal, so that it will be preserved there for them forever. “For by the hands of the saints I bring what is sent to the right hand of God, and it will preserve it inviolate and unharmed” (Blessed Theodoret). “And he did not say: alms,—but again: ‘fruit,’—giving to understand thereby that those who give alms themselves remain in profit from it” (Holy Chrysostom). “I will come by you into Spain.” “Again he mentions Spain, showing thereby that his way there is necessary for him and that he will as it were pass through Rome, not from contempt of the Romans” (Blessed Theophylact).

Rom. 15:29. And I am sure that, when I come to you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

“In the fulness”, έν πληρώματι,—in fullness; “I shall come” in the fullness of the blessing or full of the blessing of the gospel of Christ, that is, all the gracious gifts which are given to those who receive and hold the gospel of Christ, or faith in Christ the Lord; “I shall come”,—he says, of course with the purpose that they too should become partakers of these gifts. He promises, being assured by the Spirit that truly some spiritual gift will be given to them for their strengthening,—with which purpose he also desired to see them (Rom. 1:11); or—that as in other places Christ the Lord wrought much through him, “by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders”, so also among them He works in the same manner. Thus Ambrosiaster understands: “being assured of God’s favour and grace toward them, he promises that he will come to them with an abundance of blessing which is proclaimed concerning Christ Jesus. And this blessing is the power of signs, by which they are strengthened in faith and by which they will be strengthened all the more”. Thus Oecumenius: “‘I shall come’,—to fill you with the blessing which flows forth from the Gospel; for I will give you anointing to strengthen you in faith and virtue”.—Such a promise should have disposed the Romans to await Holy Paul as a benefactor, and earnestly to pray that the Lord would prosper his coming to them, of which he then asks them.

C. He asks for their aid in prayer (Rom. 15:30–33)

Rom. 15:30. Now I beseech you, brethren, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.

He asks them to pray for him, either in testimony of his greatest humility, whereby he feels himself in need of their prayers (Oecumenius, Blessed Theophylact), or as an assurance of the power of prayer accomplished by a whole Church. Ambrosiaster writes: “he asks for the help of prayer not because his own prayer had no power before God, but so that, keeping the order established by God, the Church also might pray for its pastor: for when many small ones gather in united prayer, they become great; and by the prayers of many one cannot fail to obtain what is asked. Therefore, he says, if you also truly desire to see me, then pray more earnestly, so that, freeing me through your prayers from all adversity, you might at last receive me into your embrace with the full joy of love”.

“Strive together with me”, συναγωνίσασθαί μοι,—struggle with me in prayer, I entreat. Consequently he himself also struggled in prayers about the same thing, and invites them only to be his co-workers. He did not pray with ease, but struggled in prayer, held a prayer struggle. From this it follows: see how he loved them and how he desired to see them, that he held a special struggle of prayer that the Lord would bring him to them! This is what Saint Paul intended to show to the Romans; but to us at the same time to give a lesson—that in order to become a partaker of the power of church prayer, one must at the same time hold a prayer struggle, preparing oneself thereby as a vessel capable of receiving and holding what is asked of the Church. And further: if the Apostle considered it necessary to strengthen his prayer with common prayer; who will dare to consider himself so close to God and standing in His favourable hearing that he would not resort to the common prayer of the faithful?

The Apostle does not expect that the Romans will be zealous in prayer for him from respect for him alone; therefore he sets before them as intercessors for him Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit, in the confidence that it is only necessary to mention these sweetest and most dear names for Christians, and all will hasten to fulfill what is asked. “I beseech you”,—he says,—“for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ”, who died and rose for your salvation, of whom you are already partakers, and “for the love of the Spirit”,—who has graced you with His gifts. Or—“for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ”—your faith in Christ Jesus and your readiness according to faith in Him to do all that is pleasing to Him; and “for the love of the Spirit”,—the love poured forth by Him into your hearts, by which He has united you with all who are in Christ and made the needs of each the common needs of all, so that it is enough for you to know of these needs to be disposed to prayer for them.

Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3)

Rom. 15:31. That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints.

He shows that through their prayer he desires to obtain this; he desires that he may not encounter in Jerusalem the unpleasantness which he foresees, senses, or assumes. He goes to Jerusalem to the believers; but Jerusalem was full of unbelievers, ready to tear apart Holy Paul for his preaching about the cessation of the power of the law. From these he could expect all manner of evil; but among the believers also there were those prejudiced against him, because of their attachment to the law. From the latter he could not expect direct harm, because other believers and the heads of their Church would not have permitted this; but he could fear that they might reject his offering as unclean, brought by one who disparages and destroys the law, and lead others to do so, although not sharing such thoughts themselves, but forming a minority, powerless to withstand the majority of them. And he could fear that even those not estranged from him might somehow suspect him in the matter of the offering and think about him in a way that was not in accord with the spirit with which this ministry was being performed: which could deeply grieve the Apostle. Such were the fears that occupied the Apostle as he moved toward Jerusalem. For their removal he himself prayed fervently, and asks the Romans to struggle with him in prayer.

First: “that I may be delivered from them that do not believe”, άπειθούντων,—the unbelievers, not in Jerusalem alone, but throughout all “Judaea.” But all these also flowed together in Jerusalem; therefore the chief danger was there. Either the Apostle foresaw definitely, or sensed indefinitely, that there great evils and dangers awaited him. Therefore he prays for deliverance. But he does not flee from the evil, but courageously goes to meet it, in surrender to the will of God. He testified to this afterwards on the way to Jerusalem. Blessed Theodoret writes: “who and what praise could crown this blessed and thrice-blessed head? First, he knows what will happen to him, and predicts it; for still in Miletus he said to the presbyters of Ephesus: ‘The Holy Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me’ (Acts 20:23) (but, despite this, he goes). And when Agabus predicted the same thing, and all mourned and tried to hinder him, the divine man declared: ‘What mean you to weep and to break my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only…but also to die…for the name of the Lord Jesus’ our Christ (Acts 21:13). This was spoken after writing the epistle; but it was seen or sensed now. Therefore the prayer, not as a testimony of fear, but as an assurance of trust and certain hope for deliverance. Holy Chrysostom says: ‘certainly, a great struggle awaited the Apostle; therefore he asks them to pray for him.—And he did not say: that I may enter into the contest,—but: that I may be delivered,—as Christ commanded: ‘pray that you enter not into temptation’ (Matt. 26:41). By these words he expresses that some evil wolves are ready to attack him, not men, but—more truly to say—beasts’.”

Second: “that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints.” “Accepted,”—not that it would serve for the benefit of the saints, but that it would be graciously received, ευπρόσδεκτος,—by the saints, so that they might see in it on his part the labour of disinterested love, having no other purpose but the desire to lighten the lot of those in need, and on the part of the Macedonians and Achaians,—a work not of compelled aid, but of free, compassion-driven by the feeling of brotherhood alone—and a testimony of their spiritual union. Pray, he says, that this ministry be accepted as being performed precisely in such a spirit. Ambrosiaster writes: “and for this, the Apostle says, one must pray, that my ministry be graciously accepted by the saints in Jerusalem, showing that he desires that all go according to the will of God; that as he in his ministry, striving to please God, laboured, so also they in the receiving, through the disposition of their hearts, corresponded with God’s dispensations (received it as God wishes such offerings to be received),—so that, seeing God’s favour toward themselves in this, together with the Apostle they might unanimously bring thanksgiving to God. Thus the Apostle considered it a great matter that they, being gladdened by his ministry, would glorify God”.

Rom. 15:32. That I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.

“That I may come with joy”; or he places joy in dependence on being delivered from those opposed and the favorable reception of his ministry by the saints, thus: “if I am delivered from those opposed and my ministry is favourably received, then in joy and good disposition of spirit will I ‘come to you’” (Oecumenius); because behind me there will remain nothing whose remembrance would weigh upon me and bring sorrow to my heart. Deliverance from evils is in itself joyful; but, in the time of their coming and in the time of their passing, there are always possible accidents, either from enemies or even from friends, which cause wounds to the heart, not healed even by deliverance. But if the ministry had not been accepted as Saint Paul desired and expected, then there would be no accident, but direct and the deepest sorrow. With troubles, persecutions and deaths the Apostle had already become accustomed, and expected nothing more: “we are made a gazing-stock” (1 Cor. 4:9)—he said. But there was always one comfort to him in the assurance that beneath this mournful exterior a spiritual work was ripening in those for whom he laboured and suffered. A loss in this would have deprived him of all comfort; and such would have been an unfavourable reception by the saints of his offering; and the memory of this would always have weighed upon him. So he himself prays and asks others to pray that this might not be.

Or joy here is understood as that with which he hopes to be filled upon seeing the Romans, thus: help me through your prayer to soon taste the joy of meeting with you,—“that I may come to you” in joy, “I will come”—and I will be delighted, and be refreshed. “I am concerned and ask God to be delivered from there, so that I might soon see you, and see you with pleasure, without bringing sorrow upon myself there (in Jerusalem)” (Holy Chrysostom).

“As he said at the beginning: ‘if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come to you’ (Rom. 1:10), so also here he resorts to the same will of God” (Holy Chrysostom). As one given to God, he expects success in all things from God alone. He makes plans, puts forth effort, but keeps in his heart that it will be as and in the way that pleases the holy and good will of God, to which he wholly submits himself in all things. “He does not even wish to do good without the will of God” (Blessed Theodoret).

“And may with you be refreshed.” This is the same as what he said at the beginning: “that I may be comforted together with you by the common faith both of you and me” (Rom. 1:12). “I will be refreshed, that is, you will be enlivened by my teaching, and I will be enlivened by the growth of your faith” (Blessed Theophylact). It is pleasant to enter into the fellowship of the like-minded. Unity of convictions, feelings and dispositions makes all one soul, rich in life, the movements of which, passing through all, warm, nourish and refresh all. Or—“and may with you be refreshed,” συναναπαύσωμαι,—I will rest together with you, I will rest with you. It is assumed that both he and they are in continual struggle; therefore, “as those struggling and labouring have need of rest” (Blessed Theophylact), which will be afforded by the communion of love and unity of mind.

Rom. 15:33. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

“According to his custom in exhortation the Apostle also adds a prayer” (Holy Chrysostom) “and wishes the Romans peace, because of the discord that was among them regarding the observance of legal precepts” (Blessed Theodoret). “‘The God of peace’—is Christ the Lord, who said: ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you’ (Jn. 14:27). The Apostle wishes that the Lord might be with them, as He Himself through the person of the Apostles promised to all believers, saying: ‘Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world’ (Matt. 28:20). Wishing this, he also wishes them to be such that with them the Lord Jesus Christ would abide, who, taking away all discord among them that comes from human error, would show them and give them to know what is truth, that in this truth they might abide at peace” (Ambrosiaster).

B. Greetings (Rom. 16:1–16)

With the greetings or salutations the Apostle also joins one commission regarding Phoebe, the bearer of this Epistle.

Rom. 16:1. I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchreae.

“I commend”, συνίστημι,—I present, I recommend, and better, into your hands, to your care I commit her. “Phoebe brought this Epistle to the Romans. Therefore the Apostle makes her known to them. He expresses his respect for her both by mentioning her first, and by calling her sister, and by showing her office, naming her a servant (deaconess)” (Blessed Theophylact).

“Our sister.”—“Sister”—by good will and unity of spirit; “our”—or of Holy Paul, or of him and his companions, or—“our”—of all the Christians here, or ours with you, O Romans, that is, common to all Christians, because of her virtues and beneficence to all. It is possible that she was known to all or some of the Jews who had recently returned from the East.

“Who is a servant”, διάκονον. In the primitive Church, for ministry at the baptism of women, for distribution of alms to them and for care of the sick among them, there were chosen maidens and widows distinguished by holiness of life and readiness for every good work. From among such was Phoebe. The Church where she served was in Cenchreae—a large village standing opposite Corinth on the shore, at the harbour. “Cenchreae is one of the very largest villages of Corinth. Therefore it is worthy of wonder the power of the preaching, for the Apostle in a short time filled not only cities, but also villages with the gospel. And such was the arrangement of the Cenchraean Church that it had a deaconess, and moreover a woman famous and known everywhere. Such was the abundance of her successfulness, that from the lips of the Apostle himself she obtained praise” (Blessed Theodoret).

Rom. 16:2. That you receive her in the Lord, as becomes saints, and that you assist her in whatsoever business she has need of you: for she has been a succourer of many, and of myself also.

“Receive her in the Lord”,—“that is, for the Lord’s sake receive her with honour. For he who receives for the Lord’s sake even an insignificant person, receives him with zeal. But as Phoebe was holy, judge for yourself how it was proper to serve her. Therefore the Apostle added: ‘as becomes saints’,—that is, as one should receive the saints. You should serve her for two reasons, both because you receive her for the Lord’s sake, and because she is holy” (Holy Chrysostom).

“And that you assist her”, παραστητε,—take her part, be her intercessors and advocates. It is not poverty that oppresses her, but she has a matter which one must obtain. So you will there employ your intercession, whoever and where and how they can. She herself is not powerless; but it may happen that a service will be needed from you too. So do not refuse her then. “See how this is not burdensome? He did not say: satisfy all her needs,—but: lend her a helping hand and assist her in what she will have need of from you. I speak not of all needs, but of those which she will have from you (in her business). Do therefore what will be in your hands” (Holy Chrysostom).

“She has been a succourer.” Here is understood not only aid to the needy, not only shelter to the stranger, though this too is great; but especially intercession before the authorities, when someone was unjustly wronged, suffered slander and oppression. “Again, an unspeakable praise! But do you notice the prudence of Paul? First he set praise, then in the middle exhortation, then again praise; and by this twofold praise he all the more obligates to help the needs of the blessed woman. For is not Phoebe prudent when she was worthy of such a testimony from Paul and was in a position to help even Paul himself, the teacher of the universe? This is the crown of all her perfections! Therefore the Apostle set this at the end, saying: ‘and of myself also.’ That is, to him who was a preacher of the universe, endured countless sufferings and alone was sufficient for many thousands” (Holy Chrysostom). “Holy Paul and rewards her for this with all honours. For although she, as is likely, received him in her house (once or twice) and for a short time, when he visited Corinth (and came to them); but he opened to her the universe, and everywhere, both on land and on sea, this woman became famous; not only Romans and Hellenes knew of her, but also all barbarians” (Blessed Theodoret). Memory of Phoebe is September 3.

Rom. 16:3, 4. Salute Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles: And greet the church that is in their house.

Regarding Aquila with Priscilla from the book of Acts (Acts 18)—it is known that Aquila was Pontic by birth, lived in Rome with his wife. From there both were together with other Jews expelled under Claudius and settled in Corinth. When Holy Paul came preaching to Corinth, he met with them, lived with them and worked with them making tents. After establishing the Church in Corinth, when Holy Paul departed for Syria, he took with him Aquila and Priscilla, and stopping in Ephesus on the way, left them there. There they lived all the time while Holy Paul, having visited Jerusalem and Antioch and gone through the previously founded Churches in Asia Minor, stopped in Ephesus, and during all the time of his stay there. At the end of this period, writing his First Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle was sending them greetings from Aquila and Priscilla. This means they were still there. But, about a year after that, when writing this present Epistle to the Romans from Corinth, he sends them a greeting in Rome. This means they were already there, having returned after the death of Claudius together with the other Jews,—among whom were all those to whom Holy Paul here sends greetings.

“‘My helpers’, συνεργούς,—the Apostle calls them so because they helped him in the work of the gospel or generally contributed to the conversion of Gentiles, which Holy Paul considers his personal work. Therefore he said not simply: ‘my helpers’,—but added: ‘in Christ Jesus’,—so that no one might think that (in calling them thus) he means (merely) fellowship in the trade, because they also ‘were tentmakers’ (Acts 18:3)” (Blessed Theodoret). He speaks as it were: “they helped me in word and teaching and shared with me the labours and dangers” (Blessed Theophylact). An example of such co-working is their guidance of Apollos to a more perfect knowledge of the way of the Lord, or Christianity (Acts 18:26). Of course, this was not the only example.

He speaks further in praise of them that they “laid down their own necks” for his life. This gives the thought that for the salvation of the Apostle’s life or for his deliverance from some great danger they themselves were subjected to attacks or even beatings. This could have happened in Corinth, could have happened also in Ephesus or somewhere near it: for there was no place where deadly dangers did not threaten Holy Paul.

So that no one might think that he speaks so well of them out of special friendship with them, the Apostle presents as witnesses to their praiseworthy deeds all the Gentile Churches. whom, he says, “I thank not only I, but also all the churches of the Gentiles” for. They give thanks not for perfection in the spirit, but for charitable works. “The Apostle understands hospitality and material assistance” (Holy Chrysostom).

“And another praiseworthy virtue of theirs the Apostle sets forth, greeting ‘and the church that is in their house.’ This word gives to see the excellence of their godliness; for, as is likely, they instructed all their household in high virtue and earnestly performed divine services in the home” (Blessed Theodoret). Holy Chrysostom says: “so virtuous were they that they turned their house into a church, so that all their household became believers and their house was open to all strangers. For the Apostle does not have a custom of calling houses churches indiscriminately, if in them there is no exemplary godliness and a special fear of God is not rooted. Therefore, also writing about Onesimus (Phlm. 1:10–18), he says: ‘Paul… to Philemon… and to Apphia… beloved, and to the church that is in their house’ (Phlm. 1:1, 2). For even in married life one can be worthy of wonder and noble. And so Aquila and Priscilla lived in matrimony and shone forth greatly, though their trade was humble. They made tents, yet virtue covered all and showed them more brilliant than the sun. Neither trade, nor marital union hindered them; on the contrary, they manifested in themselves such love as Christ required, saying: ‘Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’ (Jn. 15:13). They fulfilled what is a sign of Christ’s disciple: they took up the cross and followed Christ. For those who did this for Paul certainly thereby showed the same courage for Christ the Lord.”

Concerning the subsequent life of Aquila and Priscilla, Saint Dimitry of Rostov speaks thus: Holy Paul appointed Aquila bishop and sent him back to Asia Minor to spread the Gospel. Upon arriving there with his wife, Aquila greatly helped Holy Timothy in Ephesus, and Holy Paul, writing his Second Epistle to Timothy, greets them, saying: “Salute Priscilla and Aquila” (2 Tim. 4:19). And as Aquila preached Christ in Asia, Achaia and Heraclea, he brought a great multitude of human souls to salvation, turning them from idolatrous frenzy to divine wisdom and baptizing them. He passed through many other diverse lands, preaching the Kingdom of God; and was killed by unbelievers somewhere. His memory is July 14. He is an Apostle of the Seventy.

Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Rom. 16:5. Salute Epenetus my beloved, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ.

“‘Salute Epenetus, my beloved.’ From this it is evident that the Apostle gives to each his own praise: for to be beloved by Paul, who knew how to love not without purpose, but with discernment,—such praise is not insignificant, but on the contrary, very great and shows in Epenetus many virtues. Then follows another praise: ‘who is the firstfruits of Achaia.’ By this the Apostle shows that Epenetus either was the first of all to draw near to Christ and believe (in Achaia, that is, in Athens or Corinth), which also constitutes no small praise (for he paved the way for others and inspired them), or, preferably before others, showed in himself greater godliness. Therefore, having said: ‘who is the firstfruits of Achaia,’—the Apostle did not stop, so that you might not understand worldly distinction here, but added: ‘to Christ.’ If the first in civil affairs is considered great and notable, then all the more the first in spiritual affairs. And since Epenetus, as is likely, was of low birth, the Apostle expresses his true nobility and superiority and, thereby adorning him, says that he was not a beginning for Corinth alone, but for the whole nation, that is, he became as it were a door and entrance for others. And to such is given no small reward. Such a man will receive great recompense for the virtues of others, as having greatly contributed to them in the beginning” (Holy Chrysostom). His memory is July 30. Saint Dimitry writes that he was bishop in Carthage. An Apostle of the Seventy.

Rom. 16:6. Salute Mary, who bestowed much labour on us.

“What is this? Again a woman is crowned and praised; and we, men, are again put to shame or, rather to say, and honoured. Honoured in that we have such women; and shamed in that we, men, fall far short of them. But if, learning how these women are adorned, we try to imitate them, then we too will soon be like them. How are they adorned? Let both men and women hear this! Not with rings, not with necklaces, not with golden robes, but with labours for the sake of truth. ‘Who bestowed much labour on us,’—says the Apostle. Not for herself alone, not for her own perfection in virtue alone, she fasted, prayed on the ground, which even now women do; but also for the salvation of others entered into the struggles of the Apostles and Evangelists. How then does Paul say: ‘I permit not a woman to teach’ (1 Tim. 2:12)? He forbids a woman to occupy a place of honour among the church and sit on an elevated platform; but he does not forbid her to teach by word. Otherwise, would he have said to a woman having an unbelieving husband: ‘For what know you, O woman, whether you shall save your husband?’ (1 Cor. 7:16).—So, the Apostle forbids in these words not home building discussions, but assemblies in common gatherings, which is fitting for teachers alone. And again, when the husband is a believing man, but she turned out to be more knowledgeable than him, the Apostle does not forbid her to teach and correct. And here he did not say: who taught much,—but: ‘bestowed much labour,’—giving thereby to understand that Mary, besides word, served in another way, namely in that she subjected herself to dangers, lent money, made journeys. For then women were more fearless than lions and shared with the Apostles the labours of preaching; therefore they travelled with them and performed all other services. And women followed after Christ, eagerly devoting their possessions to the Teacher and serving Him” (Holy Chrysostom).

Rom. 16:7. Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

“‘My kinsmen.’ Although this too seems a praise, yet the following is far more important. What is it?—‘And my fellow prisoners.’ Here is the most glorious crown, here is the loud proclamation! Where was Paul held prisoner, calling them his fellow prisoners? He was not a prisoner (in the sense that some foreign people took him captive), but suffered far more than any prisoner (imprisonment in dungeon he understands, which the holy Paul had often to endure (2 Cor. 11:23); Clement of Rome, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (Chapter 5), says that he sat in bonds of prison seven times; somewhere during this Andronicus and Junia sat with him). Then follows a new praise: ‘who are of note among the apostles.’ And it is important to be an Apostle; judge then how much more praiseworthy it is to be distinguished among the Apostles! And they were distinguished by their deeds, their merit. But Paul does not stop even here, but adds yet another praise, saying: ‘who also were in Christ before me.’ And this—to be the first to come to others and come before—is a very great praise. See how pure was the holy soul of Paul from vanity! With all his glory Paul prefers others to himself, does not hide that he came last, and is not ashamed to confess it. Since he could not prefer them in this to the other Apostles, he found one who came to Christ after others, namely himself, and from this made for them a praise” (Holy Chrysostom).

Their memory is May 17; Andronicus with others also July 30. He is an Apostle of the Seventy. He was bishop in Pannonia, and preached in many lands. His relics and those of Junia were discovered in the reign of Arcadius and Honorius (395–423) before the gates of Constantinople bearing the name of the Eugenian gates; a memory of which is observed on February 22.

Rom. 16:8. Salute Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.

“The Apostle again turns his love into praise; for Paul’s love was love for God and contained within it innumerable goods. If it is considered great to deserve the love of a king, what praise it is to be beloved by Paul! He who did not possess many virtues would not have drawn his love. The Apostle not only did not love those living evilly and unlawfully, but even consigned them to a curse. Thus, for example, he says: ‘If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema’ (1 Cor. 16:22); ‘and if any man preach to you another gospel than that which you have received, let him be accursed’ (Gal. 1:9)” (Holy Chrysostom). “The Apostle called Amplias beloved in the Lord, which indicates his proficiency” (Blessed Theodoret).

His memory is October 31. An Apostle of the Seventy. Holy Apostle Andrew appointed him bishop in Diospolis; he preached in Odessa, in Mysia, which is now Varna, and was killed there by Hellenes. His relics were transferred to Constantinople and placed in the Pigae—at the springs.

Rom. 16:9. Salute Urbanus our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.

“Urbanus our helper.” “This praise is greater than the previous, because it contains the previous one” (Holy Chrysostom). A helper, of course, “in the preaching of Christ” and in the labours of gospel preaching (Blessed Theodoret). “And whosoever is such, is also thereby beloved” (Blessed Theophylact). Having said: “our helper,”—gives to understand that he laboured not with the Apostle Paul alone, but also with other Apostles. Saint Dimitry of Rostov says that he was appointed bishop for Macedonia by the holy Apostle Andrew, where he died a martyr’s death.

“And Stachys my beloved.” “And he crowns him with the same” (Holy Chrysostom). Holy Apostle Andrew appointed him the first bishop of Byzantium in Argyropolis.

The memory of Urbanus and Stachys together with Amplias is October 31. And their relics together were transferred to Constantinople and placed in one place, in the Pigae.

Rom. 16:10. Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of the household of Aristobulus.

“Apelles approved,” δόκιμον,—or approved, well skilled both in preaching faith, and in strengthening it, and in defending it, and in general conducting all affairs concerning Christ the Lord; or tested, so that one can rely on him in all things; for he proved by deed that he truly believes, is truly devoted to the work of faith and to all believers. “Here is a testimony of high virtue; for to have nothing counterfeit—is the height of goodness” (Blessed Theodoret). “Nothing equals this praise—to be blameless and give no occasion for blame in matters concerning God. And when the Apostle calls Apelles approved in Christ, he expresses thereby all virtues.—Why does the Apostle not use in his greetings such expressions: my lord so-and-so, my master? Because apostolic praise is more important than that. In the former is expressed one honour, but in apostolic praise are expressed virtues. And the Apostle honoured them not without discernment, greeting many of lower rank together with the higher and famous. By greeting them, and greeting them together with others in the same Epistle, the Apostle showed equal honour to all; and by praising each in particular, presented to us each one’s own virtue. And he does this so as not to breed envy, having honoured some and not honoured others, and also so as not to confuse the unworthy with the worthy and not lead to carelessness, bestowing the same honour on all and not equally worthy” (Holy Chrysostom).

His memory is October 31, together with the three preceding. An Apostle of the Seventy. Bishop in Heraclea by Apostle Andrew,—after many labours and struggles, he yielded up his blessed soul into the hands of the Lord.

“Salute them which are of the household of Aristobulus.”—“These, probably, were not such as the former, and therefore he did not mention them by name” (Blessed Theodoret). They were believers, but distinguished in nothing. Are understood either his family and servants, or all his relatives. Or thus: “Aristobulus had gatherings of the brethren in Christ. Wishing to show how much he approves his work, he honours with a greeting those gathered at his place” (Ambrosiaster).

It is unclear why Aristobulus himself was not given a greeting. Perhaps he himself was not then in Rome, but only those of his household. Aristobulus—an Apostle of the Seventy. Was bishop in Britain, where after many labours and sufferings he died. His memory is October 31, together with the four preceding.

Rom. 16:11. Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord.

“Herodion my kinsman”—and added nothing more. But by the fact that he greets him, gives to understand that he stands worthily in the rank with the others. Saint Dimitry of Rostov writes that he was from Tarsus by birth, attached himself to the Apostles and served them zealously, enduring all sufferings with them; was bishop of Neopatrum; and was beheaded together with many others, at the time when Peter was crucified and Paul was beheaded.

An Apostle of the Seventy. His memory is April 8.

Of those who are “of the household of Narcissus,” only those “which are in the Lord” are greeted; “because there were certainly others at his place who had not yet become such” (Blessed Theodoret). Ambrosiaster writes of him: “This Narcissus was at that time a presbyter, as is read in some codexes. Since he himself was not present in Rome, the Apostle greets, as saints, only those of his household. He himself performed the work of visiting believers outside Rome, strengthening them in faith through his exhortations. The Apostle did not know by what qualities those of his household were distinguished; therefore he wrote a general greeting to those of them in the Lord, as if to say: whosoever of them you consider worthy of my greeting,—which is to say, those who have set their hope in the Lord,—greet them on my behalf.”

Narcissus—an Apostle of the Seventy—was bishop in Athens. His memory is October 31.

Rom. 16:12. Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord.

“Again Holy Paul begins to greet women. About Tryphena and Tryphosa he says that they still labour” (Holy Chrysostom). “By labour is understood either hospitality, or fasting, or some other virtue” (Blessed Theophylact). “It is no small praise to always be in the work, and not only to contribute, but to labour (separately from others). And Persis the Apostle calls beloved, showing thereby that she is above those mentioned before her. For he says: ‘Salute the beloved Persis,’—and testifies to her many labours by these words: ‘which laboured much in the Lord.’—Thus Holy Paul knew how to name each according to his merit; and he encourages some to greater zeal by the fact that he does not deprive anyone of what belongs to him, but proclaims even the slightest superiority of each; and he leads others to greater activity, awakening in them through his praises the same zeal which the first showed” (Holy Chrysostom).

Tradition has preserved nothing more about these holy women.

Rom. 16:13. Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.

“Such a son, such a mother—a root corresponding to the fruit, and a house full of blessing. For it was not in vain that the Apostle said: ‘his mother and mine,’—but thereby testified to the many virtues of this woman” (Holy Chrysostom). “‘Rufus chosen in the Lord.’ And this praise is likewise desirable; ‘For many are called, but few are chosen’ (Matt. 20:16). And Rufus’s mother is glorified for her many advancements in virtue, otherwise she would not have been worthy to be called the mother of Paul. For nature made her the mother of Rufus, but worthy virtue made her the mother of the divine Paul” (Blessed Theodoret).

Rufus—an Apostle of the Seventy, was bishop in Thebes, which is in Hellas. His memory is April 8.

Rom. 16:14. Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brethren which are with them.

“Do not look here at the fact that the Apostle listed them without ascribing to them any special praise, but at the fact that, although they were far inferior to others, they were nevertheless worthy of his greeting. Or rather to say, it is no small praise that he calls them brethren, as well as other saints with them” (Holy Chrysostom). “Why does he greet them together? For he knew that they were united in Christ and joined by Christian friendship” (Ambrosiaster). This is as it were a special gathering (in our terms—a parish with elders in it).

Asyncritus—an Apostle of the Seventy, was bishop in Hyrcania, a land of Asia. Phlegon—also of the Seventy; was bishop in Marathonium in Thrace. Hermas—also of the Seventy,—later bishop of Dalmatia. Their memory is April 8.

Hermes—of the Seventy—was later bishop in Philippopolis. Patrobas—also of the Seventy, was bishop in Neapolis and Puteoli. Their memory is November 5. Hermes separately—March 8.—This Hermes is not the author of the book ‘The Shepherd.’

Rom. 16:15. Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them.

“And these all, of course, were united, for which reason the Apostle greets them together. But their merit is indicated by those who were with them. By naming these last saints, the Apostle gives to know that he also considers the first saints, and therefore greets them according to their merit” (Ambrosiaster). “All of them, living together, for the virtue which they had, were deemed worthy of the Apostolic greeting” (Blessed Theodoret). Perhaps these also formed a special gathering, like the preceding ones.

Philologus—of the Seventy—was later appointed bishop of Sinope by the holy Apostle Andrew.—His memory is November 5.

Olympas—also of the Seventy, following Holy Peter, at the time of his martyrdom in Rome by Nero, was beheaded together with Holy Herodion. His memory is November 10.

Rom. 16:16. Salute one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.

“So as not to give cause for discord by greeting some in one way and others differently, some by name and others in general, some with great and others with lesser praise, the Apostle finally equalizes all with equal honour of love and a holy kiss, saying: ‘Salute one another with a holy kiss.’ By this peace he removes from them every thought that could disturb them, and every cause for faint-heartedness, so that the higher might not despise the lower and the lower might not envy the higher, but scorn and envy were removed and all was reconciled and equalized by the holy kiss” (Holy Chrysostom).

“And he had not only this in view in writing this, but also that by mutual kissing they would replace his own kiss, which he would have given each, if he were among them.” Therefore, as being absent, he could not himself embrace them in his embrace, but does this through them themselves, commanding them to kiss one another,—and to kiss with a “holy kiss,” honourable, chaste, sincere, brotherly, free from all guile (Blessed Theodoret); “by a holy kiss,”—“that is, in the peace of Christ, not with fleshly feelings, but in the Holy Spirit, so that the kisses were godly and reverent, and not sensual” (Ambrosiaster).

“The churches of Christ salute you.”

“You”—“not this one or that, but all,—and not this church or that, but all ‘churches of Christ’” (Holy Chrysostom). He unites East and West and from all constitutes one brotherhood, breathing mutual love in Christ Jesus, full and pure.

Holy Chrysostom, in approaching the explanation of these greetings, said: “I think that many pass over this part of the Epistle without attention, as useless and containing nothing important.” Having finished their explanation and including in it a multitude of edifying observations, he adds: “Do you see what great benefit we have received from these greetings? How many treasures we would have passed by if we had not carefully examined this part of the Epistle, I mean with the care that was possible for us? And if a wise and spiritual man could be found, he would penetrate deeper and see a greater number of pearls.—But since some have repeatedly asked: why does the Apostle greet many in this Epistle, which he does not do in other Epistles?—we answer that the Romans were more illustrious than others, and in Rome, as in the safest and royal city, lived those who had moved there from other cities. Therefore, since they lived in a foreign land and had need of greater protection, and some of them were personally known to Paul, while others, being in Rome, served greatly for him, it was fitting for the Apostle to praise them in writing; for Paul was then of such great fame that those who received his Epistle found great protection for themselves in the very Epistle itself. Everyone respected Paul; everyone had a high opinion of him. Therefore, wishing that they (to whom he writes and whom he greets) might be in safety and honour, the Apostle greets and distinguishes each as far as possible. One he called beloved, another kinsman, another fellow prisoner, another helper, another approved, another chosen. Likewise concerning women: he sometimes indicates their office; for he called Phoebe a servant,—not simply, but because she was ordained as a deaconess, otherwise he would have named Tryphena and Persis thus also; he calls some co-workers and laborers, magnifies another as a mother, presents the labours which others have borne. For some he turns the fame of their house into praise, others he greets by the name of brethren and saints. Some he distinguishes by deeming worthy of a greeting, others by greeting them by name; others by naming them ‘firstfruits,’ and still others by distinguishing them by seniority; but above all he greatly praises Priscilla and Aquila. For although all were believers, yet not all were equal to one another, but differed from one another in their struggles. Therefore the Apostle, urging all to greater labours, concealed no one’s praise. For if the more laborious ones received little reward, many would become negligent.”

A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24)

Rom. 16:17. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; and avoid them.

At the conclusion the Apostle gives one warning, namely against false teachers. It is not evident that there were such among the Romans yet, but he foresaw that there would be,—and warns them. These corruptors of minds followed in the footsteps of Holy Paul everywhere, and caused him much trouble and evil everywhere, and did great harm and damage to God’s truth. Wishing to protect the Romans from this evil, he says to them: “mark,” σκοπεΐν,—I beg you to look vigilantly, lest there creep in among you those who cause discord and confusion. He does not say who they are, but defines them in general: such as will teach not what you have learned. What you have been taught is unchanging truth. Whoever teaches contrary or different from that is a teacher of lies. Depart from him: give him no hearing and have no fellowship with him in any way.

Holy Chrysostom says hereupon: “Again an exhortation. But notice how condescending his exhortation is: he presents it not as an adviser, but as one close to them, and even with great respect for them. For the Apostle calls them brethren and asks, saying: ‘I beseech you, brethren.’ Then he warns them, revealing the schemes of harmful people. But since these people did not act openly, the Apostle says: ‘I beseech you mark,’ παρακαλώ— σκοπεΐν,—that is, look vigilantly, examine carefully, investigate, discern. Whom exactly should you beware? ‘Those who cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned.’ For division above all undermines the Church. This is the devil’s tool, by it everything is overthrown! As long as unity is preserved in the body of the Church, the devil cannot have access to it; but from division comes scandal. Whence comes division? From teaching contrary to apostolic teaching. There would be neither scandals nor divisions if there were not invented teaching contrary to apostolic teaching. To this very thing pointing here, the Apostle says: ‘contrary to the doctrine.’ He did not say: which we taught you,—but: ‘which you have learned,’—thereby showing that they are completely convinced, have heard and received the teaching.—What then should we do with these harmful people? The Apostle did not say: come together and fight them,—but: avoid them. If they were doing this through ignorance or delusion, they should be corrected. But since they sin intentionally, flee from them far away.”

Rom. 16:18. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Know that in these corruptors’ mouths all is the Lord, but they do not serve the Lord, only cover their evil designs with His name. But they serve their own belly,—which means, perhaps, self-gratification in general, concern to live in comfort and ease. Since the belly is the most unruly tyrant within us, self-gratifiers are most concerned that it be filled and made silent. Keeping this weakness in mind, the Apostle said that they serve only their own belly. The stomach moves them; and they run about everywhere, having devised an easy way to profit—the spreading of false doctrines, to which, it must be said, the common people everywhere are very prone. They come under the covering of godliness, wrap themselves in secrecy, in whispers, as if in someone’s ear, begin to throw incomprehensible words into conversation to provoke curiosity; when attention is aroused, they add flattering speeches to the listeners and meanwhile pour in the poison of evil intent and catch the simplest in their nets. The means which they use, the Apostle called: χρηστολογία—and: ευλογία,—words pleasant to the ear and flattering to the heart. Holy Chrysostom says: “How then is it not shameful now for a servant of Christ to have servants of the belly as teachers? But as gluttony serves in them as the cause which urges the spread of delusion, so the method by which this treachery is accomplished is flattery—another plague. ‘By good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple,’—says the Apostle. Well said: ‘good words.’ The services of flatterers are only in words, but their hearts are not so; there all is treachery. Further, the Apostle did not say: deceive you,—but: ‘deceive the hearts of the simple.’ The Apostle speaks in general: everywhere such corruptors of minds proceed so as to creep up to the simplest, because they are easier to deceive. And from those who are firm in mind and character, they flee, fearing rebuff and being struck. As everywhere, so among you will they act. So look.”

Rom. 16:19. For your obedience is come abroad to all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise to that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

“Your obedience”—obedience to faith, submission and devotion to faith, “is come abroad to all men”—is known to all, or, as at the beginning, “is proclaimed throughout all the world” (Rom. 1:8). The Apostle wishes to say by this: corruptors of minds succeed in deceiving the simple-hearted in other places. But as for you, “I am assured of your firmness, you will not cast off the yoke of obedience to faith and will not be shaken in it. And it would be incredible that they, so wise, after the knowledge of truth, would submit to some stupid notions” (Ambrosiaster). “He intentionally sets forth so many witnesses of their obedience in faith, that, keeping this in mind, they might not allow themselves to be brought to shame by turning to some evil teaching” (Oecumenius).

“I am glad therefore on your behalf.” Knowing this, I am only glad about you or I cannot be glad enough about you. But that I speak thus or write such a warning, I do this from sincere desire that you always show yourselves wise in good, that is, know good and be able to do it, and simple concerning evil, that is, know it not and be unable to do it. Good in this case is faithfulness to truth and the rejection of all lies. The Apostle wishes that they at once notice the falsehood and treachery of false teachers, and immediately decide to resist them and protect themselves and theirs from them, and be able to do all this. But evil is: to lean even a hair’s breadth toward the side of falsehood, thinking, for example: is it really not so? The Apostle wishes that, hearing falsehood, they appear to understand nothing in it, like small children, and only cry out from their hearts: how can this be, how can this be?

Rom. 16:20. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

The Apostle sees them already struggling with teachers of lies taught by Satan, and either prophesies that the God of peace will soon crush the common teacher of all lies, Satan, under their feet, or prays that God would be pleased to do this for them. By either or both he encourages them to manfully resist the enemies of truth, saying as it were: you will have but little to struggle with them, soon you will see them under your feet, you will overcome and drive them away. Do not fear them; stand firm for God’s truth. Holy Chrysostom says: “Since the Apostle mentioned those who introduce divisions and scandals, he now speaks of the God of peace, so that they might confidently hope to be freed from them. For he who loves peace overthrows all that disturbs peace. And the Apostle did not say: will subdue,—but, what is far more important: ‘shall bruise.’ He will bruise not only those who introduce divisions, but also their leader—Satan. And he will not simply bruise, but: ‘bruise Satan under your feet,’—so that they gain victory and raise themselves a brilliant monument of victory. The Apostle also comforts by the brevity of time—‘shortly.’ Therefore in his words were contained both prayer and prophecy.”

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” The speech continues in the same spirit. Grace is with you: what have you to fear? You have already experienced its effects: it will surely display the experiences of its irresistible power in the future as well, when you come to struggle even with Satan himself. Or he wishes them well, that the grace of our Lord might be with them continually, protecting them and making them victors over all evil. For with us all is from grace. We must also put forth our own efforts, but success always comes from grace. Holy Chrysostom says: “Grace with you.” Here is the most reliable weapon, an impregnable wall, an unshakable pillar! For the Apostle mentioned grace to them so as to make them most zealous. If you have been freed from the greater, and freed by grace alone; then all the more will you be freed from the lesser when you have also become friends and have added your own efforts. Do you see that the Apostle does not separate prayer from works, nor works from prayer. First he testified of their obedience; then he began to pray, giving thereby to understand that if in every way we strive to better our salvation, we have need of both—both our own efforts and God’s grace. In God’s grace we had need not only before, but we also have need now, however great and skilled we may be.

“Amen”—all our interpreters do not read it in this place. If one reads it, then it will mean: truly so—or may it be to you as I have said. But it seems that the Apostle concluded the Epistle here; and the postscript that follows is deemed necessary to be placed after the conclusion of the Epistle. In that case the words: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you”—will constitute the usual concluding word of Apostle Paul, after which: “Amen”—is necessary.

D. Postscript (Rom. 16:21–24)

Rom. 16:21. Timotheus my workfellow, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you.

They were acquainted with some of the Roman Christians who were on this side and returned to Rome. When the Epistle was finished, they entreated the Apostle to add greetings from them also, which Holy Paul does. All the persons from whom a greeting is written here were famous in the Church. “One is famous for his participation in the work of gospel preaching, and others by kinship. But a helper is far more honourable than a kinsman. Such is Timothy, whom Paul circumcised in Lystra and to whom he later wrote two Epistles” (Blessed Theodoret).—“Lucius”—is he not the one mentioned together with other Prophets and teachers in Antioch: “Lucius of Cyrene” (Acts 13:1)? “Luke also mentions Jason in the Acts and presents to us his courage, saying: ‘And the multitude, supposing that he had brought him, they dragged Jason to the rulers of the city’ (Acts 17:6). Probably the others also were distinguished men. For Paul would not have simply mentioned kinsmen if they had not resembled him in godliness” (Holy Chrysostom). Jason, mentioned by Holy Chrysostom, is Jason at whose house Holy Paul stayed in Thessalonica. When the Thessalonican Jews rose up against Holy Paul, not finding him at Jason’s, they brought Jason himself to court, where he was released from trouble. “Sosipater”—is he not the one mentioned among the companions of Holy Paul on his return journey from Greece at this very time, that is, soon after writing the Epistle to the Romans: “Sopater of Berea” (Acts 20:4)?

By tradition—Lucius—of the Seventy, was later bishop in Laodicea of Syria. His memory is September 10. Jason—also of the Seventy, was later bishop in Tarsus. His memory is April 28. Sosipater—also of the Seventy, was bishop in Iconium. His memory is November 10. Jason and Sosipater are also mentioned on April 28. They founded the Church in Corcyra, as is said here (in the Menologion of Saint Dimitry of Rostov).

Rom. 16:22. I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.

“Tertius said this, accounting it a great praise for himself—to be a scribe to Holy Paul” (Oecumenius). “And it is no small praise to be Paul’s scribe. But he says this not to his own praise, but so that by his service he might draw to himself the warm love of the Romans” (Holy Chrysostom). “And he was one of those deemed worthy to hear apostolic teaching. Therefore he received the command, receiving from the mouth of the Apostle the offspring of the holy soul, to place them on paper” (Blessed Theodoret).

“In the Lord”—can be referred both to: “salute you,” and to: “who wrote this epistle.” In the latter case he wished to express that he laboured in the assurance that thereby he contributed to the glory of the Lord and the successes of the gospel concerning Him. Love for the Lord animated him.

And he is of the Seventy. He was in Iconium the second bishop, after Sosipater, and died a martyr. His memory is October 30 and November 10.

Rom. 16:23. Gaius mine host, and of the whole church, salutes you. Erastus the chamberlain of the city salutes you, and Quartus a brother.

“Gaius my host.” “Do you see what a crown the Apostle wove for him, testifying to such hospitality of his and gathering the whole Church into his house. And when we hear that Gaius received Paul in his house, wonder not only at his generosity, but also at Gaius’s strict life. For if Gaius had not been worthy of Paul’s virtues, Paul would not have gone to his house. Striving to fulfil more than many of Christ’s commandments prescribed, the Apostle surely did not transgress the law which commanded first to inquire about the recipients, and to stay in the houses of the worthy” (Holy Chrysostom). “This Gaius was a Corinthian; and of this the divine Paul informs us in the Epistle to the Corinthians, where he says: ‘I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius’ (1 Cor. 1:14)” (Blessed Theodoret). He is called the host of the whole Church, probably because all Christian strangers found shelter at his place, from wherever they came; or perhaps also because Christian gatherings for the rites and prayers took place at his house.

Gaius—of the Seventy; was later bishop in Ephesus after Holy Timothy. And Origen, according to tradition, says that he was bishop of the Thessalonian church. His memory is November 5.

“Erastus the chamberlain of the city.” “He does not simply add the words: ‘chamberlain of the city.’ But as the Apostle wrote to the Philippians: ‘They that are of Caesar’s household salute you’ (Phil. 4:22), so as to show that the preaching touched even men of note; so also here with the same purpose he mentions Erastus’s rank, thereby giving to understand that for an attentive man nothing serves as an obstacle (in the matter of salvation)—neither riches, nor the duties of office, nor anything of the like” (Holy Chrysostom). “He calls Erastus a chamberlain not of the church, but of the city, because certainly some care was entrusted to him. The Apostle mentions him also in the Epistle to Timothy, saying thus: ‘Erastus abode at Corinth’ (2 Tim. 4:20)” (Blessed Theodoret).—Holy Paul sent him together with Holy Timothy to Macedonia, so that from there they would make their way to Corinth to inquire about the condition of affairs there (Acts 19:22).

“Quartus brother”—a common name for every believing Christian. He did not have outstanding characteristics, but was a respectable person and was known to the Roman believers.

Erastus—of the Seventy, was first treasurer of the Church in Jerusalem, and later bishop of Paneas. Quartus—also of the Seventy, was bishop in Berytus. Their memory is November 10.

Rom. 16:24. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

And again he repeats his usual concluding good wish. It was already spoken in verse 20. But since something more had to be written, it is repeated. In similar cases we write: and fare you well. “Again the Apostle imparted to them a spiritual blessing and, as if with some adamantine wall, protected them by the Lord’s grace” (Blessed Theodoret). “Do you see with what everything should be begun and ended? This very thing the Apostle laid as the foundation of his Epistle and with this covered all the edifice,—both entreating grace from God for the Romans—the mother of all goods, and reminding them of all God’s benefactions. This is the chief characteristic of a wise and good teacher—to help his disciples not only by word, but also by prayer. Therefore it was said: ‘But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word’ (Acts 6:4)” (Holy Chrysostom).

“May we also become partakers of apostolic prayer, so that, enlightened by his blessing, we might steadfastly proceed on the straight path and, following in the footsteps of the Apostles, through his intercession, be deemed worthy to obtain the promised goods by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory and majesty, now and ever and to ages of ages. Amen” (Blessed Theodoret).

Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians

Introduction

The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilyevich Govorov in 1815, the son of a village priest in the Oryol region of central Russia. He passed through the seminary at Oryol and then the Kiev Theological Academy, where he graduated with distinction and, in 1841, received monastic tonsure with the name Theophan. Years of teaching and administration in the Church’s schools followed, together with a formative period of service with the Russian ecclesiastical mission in the Holy Land and a posting in Constantinople—an immersion in the living Greek East and its libraries that left a permanent mark on his reading of the Fathers. In 1859 he was consecrated Bishop of Tambov, and in 1863 he was transferred to the ancient see of Vladimir. He proved an energetic pastor, founding schools and preaching widely; but the labors of administration drew him away from the inner life he most desired.

In 1866 he asked to be released from the government of a diocese, and his request was granted. He withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov province, and from 1872 he entered upon the strict reclusion from which his name is drawn. For more than twenty years he did not leave his cell, saw almost no one apart from his confessor, and served the Liturgy alone in a small chapel he had built within his quarters. Yet his solitude was anything but idle or cut off from the Church. He received a great volume of letters—by the accounts that survive, twenty to forty a day—and answered them all, so that his cell became a center of spiritual direction for correspondents across Russia. Alongside this correspondence he produced the immense body of writing for which he is remembered: translations, ascetical and devotional treatises, his great Russian rendering of the Philokalia, and a series of running commentaries on the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. He reposed at Vysha in 1894. In 1988, at the Local Council that marked the millennium of the Baptism of Rus, the Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints, and he is commemorated on the tenth of January. He is honored as one of the foremost teachers of the interior Christian life in the modern Orthodox world, and his influence has reached well beyond it, into the wider Christian readership that has found in him a sober and experienced guide.

The Work: Occasion and Purpose

This volume is Saint Theophan’s exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, composed at Vysha in the early 1880s and belonging to the ordered series in which he worked, letter by letter, through nearly the whole Pauline corpus. That series was not an academic project. Theophan wrote for believers who wished to understand the Apostle and to live by what they understood, and he chose the Epistles of Paul precisely because in them the doctrine of salvation is set out and pressed home upon the conscience. Among those letters, First Corinthians offered him a field of extraordinary breadth, for no other letter of Paul touches so many of the concrete questions of Christian living.

To read the exposition rightly, it helps to recall the situation the Apostle himself was addressing. Corinth was a great commercial city of Greece—wealthy, cosmopolitan, and long notorious for its moral laxity. Paul had founded the church there during his second missionary journey, remaining a year and a half to establish it. Some years afterward, while he was laboring at Ephesus on his third journey, disquieting news reached him. Members of the household of a certain Chloe reported that the young church was splitting into rival parties, each rallying to a favorite teacher; other grave disorders had come to light as well; and the Corinthians had themselves sent a letter putting a series of practical questions to their founder. The Epistle is Paul’s answer to all of this, written from Ephesus around the middle of the first century. Its subjects were handed to him by events, and this is why the letter moves as it does, turning from one urgent matter to the next as the condition of the community required.

The moral condition of the city pressed on the young church from every side. Corinth was a port and a crossroads, restless and prosperous, its religious life crowded with cults and its reputation for licentiousness proverbial in the ancient world. Converts drawn from such a setting brought its habits of mind with them—a taste for rhetorical display, a readiness to prize the clever over the humble, an uncertainty about how the new faith bore on the ordinary business of eating, marrying, and worshiping. Many of the difficulties Paul addresses arise just here, at the meeting of the Gospel with a way of life it had begun to transform but not yet remade. This is part of what gives the letter its lasting usefulness, for the pressures of Corinth are recognizably those of any believer living in a great city and among many competing goods.

Theophan takes up this occasional and practical character as the key to the whole. Because the Apostle is answering real troubles in a real church, the letter can seem, at first glance, to lack a single thread. Theophan’s purpose is to show that the thread is there—that beneath the succession of particular questions runs a consistent pastoral wisdom, and that the disorders of Corinth are, at bottom, the disorders that beset every Christian community and every soul. His commentary therefore has a double aim: to make the argument of each passage plain, and to draw that argument home to the reader’s own inner life, so that a close reading of First Corinthians becomes at the same time a manual of the Christian struggle.

Argument and Structure

Theophan follows the Apostle’s own order, dividing the letter into a sequence of clearly marked parts and leading the reader through them in small portions—a verse, or a few verses together—so that the movement of Paul’s thought is never lost in detail.

The letter opens, after its greeting, with the checking of the parties and disputes that had provoked it (chapters one through four). Here Paul confronts the two roots of the Corinthian faction: an inflated trust in human wisdom and eloquence, and a corresponding overvaluation of the Church’s ministers, around whom the parties had formed. Against the pride of worldly cleverness he sets the word of the cross, foolishness to those who are perishing but to the saved the very power of God; and he reminds the Corinthians that their teachers are only servants and stewards, through whom they came to believe.

From this the Apostle turns to grave moral faults that had been tolerated in the community, and to the scandal of believers dragging one another before pagan courts (chapters five and six). He then answers, one by one, the questions the Corinthians had raised: the ordering of marriage and the single life (chapter seven); the vexed problem of food that had been offered to idols, with all it involved of conscience and of care for the weaker brother (from chapter eight through the opening of chapter eleven); and the correction of disorders in the church’s own assemblies, including the grave abuses that had crept into their keeping of the Lord’s Supper (the remainder of chapter eleven).

The letter then rises to its two great climaxes. The first is the teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit (chapters twelve through fourteen): the many gifts are given by one and the same Spirit for the common good; the Church is one body of many members, no one of which may despise another; and at the heart of this teaching stands the hymn of chapter thirteen, in which love is set above every gift as the more excellent way, the one thing that abides when prophecy and tongues and knowledge have passed away. The second climax is the teaching on the resurrection of the dead (chapter fifteen), Paul’s sustained answer to those in Corinth who denied it: our hope is grounded in the risen Christ, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and the chapter unfolds the mystery of the last Adam and of the spiritual body that shall be raised incorruptible. A short conclusion, with its practical directions and greetings, closes the letter (chapter sixteen). The reader who keeps this ordered sequence in view will follow the Epistle without losing its thread, and will see how each section answers a definite need of the church at Corinth.

Theological and Spiritual Significance

The abiding power of Theophan’s commentary lies in the way it joins precise exegesis to spiritual earnestness, so that doctrine never remains an abstraction but is carried at once to the conscience, to prayer, and to the daily fight against sin.

This is felt most strongly at the letter’s high points. On the word of the cross, Theophan follows the Apostle in exposing the perennial temptation to prefer human wisdom to the humility of faith, and he presses the lesson upon a reader of any age who is tempted to measure the Gospel by the standards of the learned. On the sanctity of the body, he takes up Paul’s teaching that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and makes of it a summons to purity of life. He is especially full where the Apostle treats the Lord’s Supper. Expounding Paul’s account of the institution and his warning against eating and drinking unworthily, Theophan teaches the reality of the Body and Blood of the Lord without reserve: what is set forth at the holy table is the Lord’s own gift, to be approached with reverence and self-examination—a passage that shows how naturally his exegesis passes into the Church’s sacramental life.

The middle chapters, where Paul answers the Corinthians’ own questions, show Theophan’s pastoral judgment at its most careful. On marriage and celibacy he refuses to let the Apostle’s evident esteem for the unmarried state be turned into a disparagement of marriage, holding both callings within the one honor of a life ordered toward God, and reading Paul’s counsel as a physician reads a case—with an eye to the particular condition and strength of each person. On the meat that had been sacrificed to idols he unfolds the delicate balance the Apostle strikes: the idol is nothing, and so the food is in itself indifferent, yet knowledge is not the last word, for love may require the strong to forgo their liberty rather than wound the conscience of a weaker brother. In such passages Theophan draws out a principle that runs through the whole letter and through his own spiritual teaching—that Christian freedom is completed in charity, and that the measure of an action is not merely whether it is permitted but whether it builds up.

The two crowning chapters draw from him some of his richest pages. The teaching on spiritual gifts becomes, in his hands, an instruction on the ordering of every charism to love and to the good of the whole body, a corrective to spiritual competitiveness in any generation. The hymn to love he reads not as a set piece of eloquence but as the description of the one disposition that gives worth to every other gift and alone endures. And the great chapter on the resurrection he expounds as the Church’s sure answer to death itself, tracing Paul’s argument from the historical fact of Christ’s rising to the promise of the believer’s own incorruption. Throughout, the unity of the Church, the holiness of the body, the right ordering of gifts, and the hope of rising again are treated as realities to be lived rather than as positions merely to be argued—and it is this that gives the commentary its enduring character as a guide for the Christian soul.

Reception and Method

Theophan’s exposition is, before all else, a work of tradition. He never reads First Corinthians in isolation. On nearly every page he sets beside the sacred text the great expositors of Paul who preceded him—Saint John Chrysostom above all, whose homilies on this Epistle he quotes at length and follows closely, and with him Theodoret of Cyrus, Oecumenius, Photius, and Theophylact of Ohrid. He does not simply pile up their opinions. He compares them, weighs them where they differ, and draws out the reading the Church has held in common, adding his own labor chiefly to bind their comments to the movement of Paul’s argument and to make the whole intelligible to a modern reader. In this he stands consciously within the patristic stream, offering not a fresh and independent theory of the letter but the distilled wisdom of the Fathers, ordered and applied.

Upon this patristic foundation he lays the warmth of the Russian ascetical tradition in which he was formed and to which he so greatly contributed. The commentary is of a piece with the rest of his teaching on the inner life: the same insistence that knowledge must pass into practice, the same attention to the movements of the heart, the same conviction that Scripture is given for the healing of the soul. Read alongside his commentaries on the other Epistles of Paul, it forms part of a single sustained effort to place the whole Apostle within reach of the ordinary believer, as a school of Christian living rather than an object of study.

The Text and This Edition

This edition presents a fresh modern English translation of Saint Theophan’s commentary, rendered from his original Russian. The underlying text is the public-domain Russian of his exposition of First Corinthians, as preserved in the collected editions of his commentaries on the Epistles of the Apostle Paul issued by the Russian monastery of Saint Panteleimon on Mount Athos and long circulated in Russia. The aim of the translation has been to carry Theophan’s meaning faithfully into clear, readable contemporary English, keeping the pastoral directness of his voice while making his exposition accessible to readers who do not have the Russian.

A few conventions of the edition are worth noting. In keeping with the practice of this series, the author is named as the Church has received him—Saint Theophan the Recluse—and those who have prepared the English are credited as translators, never as authors. Scripture is quoted in a modern English register faithful to the Slavonic and Russian Synodal text that Theophan himself expounds, so that the wording the commentary comments upon and the wording the reader sees remain in accord; Old Testament citations follow the versification of the Greek and Slavonic tradition where it differs from other numbering. Chapter, verse, and section references are given in ordinary Arabic figures in the modern style, so that a citation such as 1 Corinthians 13:4 appears as the reader would expect to find it. The result is intended to be a clean, single-volume English reading text—the work of a great spiritual teacher of the modern Orthodox world, offered to a wider Christian readership in a form that lets his exposition speak plainly for itself.

Suggestions for Reading

First Corinthians repays patience. Because its arguments answer particular situations, a difficulty raised in one verse is often resolved a little further on, and Theophan’s habit of advancing in small, ordered portions is designed to lead the reader through without haste. It is best to keep the Epistle itself close at hand and to turn to the comment only after reading the Apostle’s own words; the citations of Chrysostom, Theodoret, and the others are not digressions but the substance of the exposition, the Church’s long memory of how these words have been understood. Above all, the book asks to be received as Theophan meant it—not merely as a means of mastering Paul’s teaching, but as a companion for the reader’s own road, since the remedies the Apostle applies to Corinth are held out no less to every soul that takes up the letter today.

Part One. The Checking of the Disputes That Had Arisen (1 Corinthians 1:10–4:31)

Exhortation to Concord and Unity of Mind (1 Corinthians 1:10)

The discords, as can be seen, did not strike deep roots but arose rather from carelessness; they consisted in the fact that some attached themselves principally to one of the learned among them, or generally to some famous teacher, others to another, and still others to yet another. Previously, in paganism, those accustomed to divide according to philosophies thought that in Christianity too it would be permissible to place oneself under the heading of one teacher or another, and they began to conduct such conversations. They did not separate themselves from one another, did not form separate parties, congregations, or assemblies, but lived in harmony as Christians; they merely permitted themselves such conversations. This proceeded from too great trust in the decisions of their own mind, or in human wisdom, and from failure to understand what teachers truly are—people in the work of building up the Church of God on earth. Learning of this, holy Paul first 1) briefly but powerfully denounces the absurdity of such conversations (1 Cor. 1:10–16); then 2) cuts off the sources from which those absurd conversations issued (1 Cor. 1:17–4:16); 3) in conclusion informs them of the sending to them of holy Timothy and of his own speedy arrival, with instructions able to sober them (1 Cor. 4:17–21).

1. Brief denunciation of the discords that arose (1 Cor. 1:10–16)

Having prefaced, as a conclusion from the preceding, a) an exhortation to unanimity and unity of mind (1 Cor. 1:10), and b) having indicated wherein their discords consisted (1 Cor. 1:11–12), he shows c) how this is absurd (1 Cor. 1:13–16).

a) Exhortation to unanimity and unity of mind (1 Cor. 1:10)

1 Cor. 1:10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

“Now I beseech you, brethren”. “Rebuke must be made gradually and little by little; thus Paul does here. In approaching a subject fraught with great dangers and liable to shake the Church to its very foundations, he begins his discourse with gentleness. So it always is: if you suddenly begin to rebuke someone sharply, he will harden and become shameless; but if you make (a gentle) remonstrance, you will bow his neck, soften his boldness, and make him ashamed. This is what Paul does, beseeching in the name of Christ” (holy Chrysostom).

“Now I beseech by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Holy Chrysostom, observing that in the preceding nine verses the precious and most sweet name of the Lord Jesus Christ is mentioned nine times, remarks that “holy Paul does not do this in vain and not simply, but by the frequent use of this exalted name wishes to cast down their pride and destroy their evil malady” (under verse 8). In beseeching by the name of the Lord Jesus, he brings both the Corinthians’ love for Him and their consciousness of the duty to obey Him as helpers to the power of his word. By the name of the Lord, to whom you have cleaved in love, before whom you stand in awe, to whose bidding you are ready to listen—by His name I beseech you. What heart could resist such persuasion? Yet at the same time, however gentle such discourse is, it could not help but remind them that although the Apostle beseeches, still in beseeching by the name of Christ, he at the same time strictly binds them. This is fatherly discourse, not indulging but sobering!

“That you all speak the same thing”. The tongue speaks what is in the soul and heart. Unite the thoughts and feelings, and the speech will be one. But speech spreads disharmony of mind, and the evil of division widens. This is what holy Paul first checks, saying as if: stop being discordant, speak all with one voice; otherwise division among you will increase. And therefore, perhaps, he spoke of this first because the whole matter probably consisted more in thoughtless discord in speech than in serious mutual division. Therefore, immediately after this, the Apostle says: “and that there be no divisions among you”—σχισματα, that is, divisions into parties. There is not yet such a rupture; the Apostle only, as it were, fears it, and speaks as if: stop saying: “I follow this one, I follow that one,” lest you produce division in the heart and breed parties, lest you tear the whole society into pieces, as one tears apart a garment. When a garment is torn into pieces, the pieces are useless, and the garment is lost. The same will be with you. The parts into which you divide will present nothing sound, and the whole will be destroyed. So say holy Chrysostom and Theophylact.

“But that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment”. “Perfectly joined together”—κατηρτισμενοι. This word means the fitting of one part with another, so that from all of them, when fitted together, one strong and durable whole is formed. The Apostle draws on the comparison that as, for example, a carpenter, fitting part with part, achieves that a needed and reliable thing—a table, or something else—is obtained; so be fitted together in all things, you also. Holy Chrysostom says: “After the words: ‘that you all speak the same thing’, do not think, says the Apostle, that I mean agreement in words only; no, I desire agreement also in thoughts. And since one can have the same thoughts but not on all subjects, he adds: ‘that you be perfectly joined together’ (κατηρτισμενοι—fitted together in all things). For whoever is agreed on one thing but not agreed on another has not yet been perfectly joined together, has not attained complete unity of mind.”

The distinction in the words: “in the same mind”—νοι and “in the same judgment”—γνωμη, blessed Theodoret explains thus: “He does not reproach them for difference in dogmas but for quarrels and rivalries about leaders: the sense of the preaching, says the Apostle, is one (and this is expressed in the words: ‘in the same mind’), but the disposition is not one (and this is meant by the words: ‘in the same judgment’). Therefore he beseeches them, holding one thing in mind and understanding alike, not to make discord and not to contend vainly about leaders.” Holy Chrysostom states more precisely what γνωμη is. “It can happen that even with agreement in thoughts there is not yet agreement in spirit; for example, when we, having the same faith, are not united with one another in love. In this case we are agreed in thoughts, because we think alike; but we are still not agreed in spirit—γνωμη. The same was true in Corinth, where one held the party of one and another held the party of another. Therefore Paul says that you ought to be ‘perfectly joined together’ (fitted together) ‘in the same mind and in the same judgment.’ For the dissensions among you arose not from difference in faith but from disagreement in spirit, from human vanity.”

Thus we can establish that “in the same mind” means—in unity of mind; and “in the same judgment”—in unity of spirit: let there be among you one mind and one soul, one heart; the same as: strive to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). By this the disharmony is very clearly defined. It was all in thoughtless disputation: this teacher is better; no, that one is.

What the Dispute Consisted In (1 Corinthians 1:11–12)

1 Cor. 1:11. For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those of the household of Chloe (by the household members of Chloe), “that there are contentions among you”.

“It has been reported to me”. “Just as an accused person without witnesses could remain hardened into shamelessness, in order that they might not be able to reject what has been said, he brings forward witnesses. He did not say this all at once, but first presented the rebuke, because he believed those who reported it; for if he had not believed, he would not have rebuked them, yet Paul could not believe blindly. Thus he did not say all at once ‘it has been reported to me’ in order that it should not appear that he accuses them merely on the word of those who reported, and he did not remain silent about it in order that it should not appear that he speaks only from himself” (Saint Chrysostom).

“My brothers”. “Here again he calls them brothers. Although their sin was manifest, nothing yet prevented him from calling them brothers” (Saint Chrysostom). If their disputes did not touch upon the dogmas, but represented only an indulgence of frivolity, then there was no reason for division from them or any other reason, all the more for the Apostle, who hoped to heal the sickness by rebuking their lack of understanding.

“By those of the household of Chloe” (by the household members of Chloe), – υπο των Χλοης – of Chloe’s. Chloe was presumably a well-known person in Corinth, among the believers. If we suppose that she was engaged in commerce, and Ephesus, where Saint Paul then was, stood in this respect in direct relations with Corinth, then it is evident of itself how the household members of Chloe, by reason of commercial affairs, could have been in Ephesus and could have reported to Saint Paul about everything that was happening in Corinth. “Observe the wisdom of Saint Paul! He did not point to an individual person, but to an entire household, so that they might not rise up against the reporter. Thus he concealed the reporter, and at the same time openly revealed their fault. He knew what was beneficial for some, and what was necessary for others” (Saint Chrysostom).

“That there are contentions among you”. “Contentions” – εριδες, quarrelsome disputes, with a desire to outargue and have their own way. All their fault, as it turns out, consisted in quarrelsomeness, which disturbed and violated the brotherly union of love. That they should deviate into some kind of error is not evident. Saint Chrysostom had already noted that in matters of faith they were of one mind. What then were they disputing about?

1 Cor. 1:12. Now I say this, that each one of you says: I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

“Now I say this” – I speak by way of example. The matter with you is like this: one of you would say, I am of Paul, I love Paul, I follow him, I prefer him to all, I hold his side, I stand firm for him, I am even prepared to die for him. Another would have in the same way taken Apollos for himself, a third – Peter, a fourth – Christ Himself. “Each one”, not of the members of the Church, but of those who were carried away in this movement. The greater part remained calm, the body of the Church was not shaken. That any false opinions should be joined with this, is not evident, and should not even be supposed. If under each title some error was concealed, Saint Paul would have set forth each one and rebuked it, but later he rebukes only human wisdom in general and explains the significance of teachers in the spreading of Christian faith. This means that the Corinthians exercised their wisdom only in skillfully displaying the distinctive qualities of one or another person, under whose banner they positioned themselves. In this they showed their wisdom and boasted of it. Just as among the pagans wise men occupied themselves with trifles, so too, having entered into Christianity, learned men thought to occupy themselves with matters that had no importance for the work of salvation. It was enough for him to say: are you not children? (1 Cor. 3:1–3), as Saint Paul indeed said after rebuking the worthlessness of human wisdom. Nevertheless, although under the aforesaid titles no errors were concealed, the very act of distributing themselves under such banners could not be approved; for it revealed a misunderstanding of the matter of salvation in Christ Jesus and of the relationship to Him of the believers. And this was tolerated by all! No one saw how absurd this was! And to them Saint Paul speaks: well, you have confused yourselves with wisdom! And having rebuked the blindness of human wisdom and having pointed out what teachers are in the matter of Christianity, he brings it about: thus see, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas – all are yours, for you, and you are all of Christ, and Christ is of God (1 Cor. 3:22–23). Christ must not be set on a level with anyone.

Thus there is no necessity to inquire who exactly were the followers of Paul, who were the followers of Apollos, who were the followers of Cephas, who were the followers of Christ, to determine their way of thinking, and to compose schools. The matter did not go so far. The Corinthians distributed themselves, as it were, under certain banners, under some notable figures of theirs, and each party defended its choice. In this their disputes consisted. This is entirely consistent with what occurred later in Constantinople, as has been noted already, regarding the great hierarchs. One must suppose that among the believers there came a good many learned men, and it was they who stirred all this up there. In each party there were also ringleaders. These ringleaders were the immediate guides of each party. Saint Chrysostom and our other commentators think that it was these very ones that Saint Paul had in mind, but he did not name them in order not to provoke them. Meanwhile the purpose was achieved in this way by his discourse. For if it is not possible to range oneself under the banner of the Apostles, how much more absurd it is to range oneself under the banner of those who are incomparably inferior to them.

The Absurdity of Such Talk Exposed (1 Corinthians 1:13–16)

1 Cor. 1:13. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

These questions alone were enough to demolish the gossamer web of the Corinthian wise men: “The Apostle does not prove, but only poses a question, as a sign of the obvious absurdity contained in it” (Saint Chrysostom). “Is Christ divided?” Christ is the sole head of the Church; and the Church is one body under the head Christ. How then have you made yourselves so many heads? How, by doing this, does the body of the Church remain one, when it is placed under different heads? “This means you have divided Christ and torn apart His body” (Saint Chrysostom). Saint Chrysostom adds further: “some find here also this thought: did Christ tear apart and divide the Church among men, taking one part to Himself and giving another part to them?”

By saying this, the Apostle meant that we are all united under the one Christ the Lord, and therefore it is absurd to choose a man as your head. He now wants to say that all spiritual blessings we receive directly from Him. And therefore it is absurd to cling so to men and as it were to expect everything from them. He died for us, and we, through holy baptism entering into communion with His death, receive remission of sins and exchange the old life for the new life of grace. At this very moment we become Christians. He need only have said: how have you all forgotten this? But Saint Paul expresses all this more forcefully and movingly through questions: “was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” Blessed Theodoret represents the thought of the Apostle hidden here in this way: “Was it not He alone who accepted death for all of you? Was it not in His name that you received the grace of baptism? Did the calling upon human names give you the remission of sins?” But the contrast in the Apostle’s word is striking. He had to startle everyone with a contradiction to their empty opinions and the first foundations of faith in Christ the Lord. They could not afterward fail to say to themselves: how did this simple thought not occur to us in our empty disputes. Now it is clear as day how unfounded our reasoning is. The enlightenment flowing from this was meant to be complete. Saint Paul spoke no more about this. “It is clearly proven that the honor which the Corinthians paid to their teachers could belong to no one but the Lord” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 1:14. I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius.

He thanks God that he did not baptize, not because he considered baptizing to be unimportant or esteemed the power of baptism lightly, but because by this he was saved from innocently giving any occasion for division or the strengthening of the opinions that divided the believers there. It must be supposed that among the causes why someone chose one person as their head in preference to another, was also the fact that they were baptized by him. If, even when the Apostle baptized almost no one, a party was formed that considered him their head, what would it have been if he had baptized all those he had converted. He thanks God that he did not baptize, and by doing this gave no one occasion to turn his attention away from Christ the Lord. He brought all to the Lord, and rejoiced whenever someone could say like him: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Seeing that those baptized held those who baptized them closer to themselves than the Lord in whose name they were baptized, he thanks God that he has no part in this direction of minds, which displeases the Lord. If it were so, he says as it were, then my grief and the pain of my heart would have no end, because, although without fault, I would have been the cause that someone held him closer to his attention than the Lord. The language of the Apostle is moved by his immeasurable love for the Lord. By this he gives all such a lesson: “Do not tell me who baptized you, but in whose name? It is not important who baptized, but whose name is invoked in baptism, for this One forgives sins. Baptism is important, but this importance is conveyed to it not by the one baptizing, but by the One invoked in baptism. The performance of baptism means nothing with respect to human labor; but in itself is so important that without it it is impossible to obtain the Kingdom of Heaven. But such is its power not from the one who baptizes, but in the name of Whom baptism is performed” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 1:15. Lest anyone should say that I baptized in my own name.

He anticipates an even greater misfortune. If, he says, when I baptized almost no one, you formed a party under my name, then, if I had baptized all, perhaps some would proclaim that I baptized in my own name, and out of you, having gathered yourselves under my name, a new party would be formed, those considering themselves baptized in my name. I, he says, consider this possible, and “I fear lest the sickness should reach such a degree” (Saint Chrysostom). For after those empty opinions which have divided you, anything is possible from you. To baptize in one’s own name means to set oneself up as a god and savior for someone. From the Greeks this was very much to be expected. In one place people even considered Saint Paul a god in the form of a man, and it took him great effort to convince them that he was an ordinary man. Why should we not expect something similar from the Corinthians, when they have already shown no small frivolity? And Saint Paul says: Glory to God that I baptized no one. See what else could have happened!

1 Cor. 1:16. I baptized also the household of Stephanas; otherwise, I do not know whether I baptized any other.

The Apostle enumerated by name all those he baptized. Crispus was the ruler of the synagogue and was the first to believe in the Lord with his whole household; following his example, many others believed and were baptized, as soon as Saint Paul, abandoning the Jews, began to teach in the house of Justus (Acts 18:8). In the Apostolic Constitutions it is said that this Crispus was later appointed bishop of Egypt (book 7, chapter 46). Gaius, at whose house Saint Paul stayed when, after this epistle, he came to Corinth. From his house the Apostle wrote the epistle to the Romans and sent greetings from him: “Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, greets you” (Rom. 16:23). “The host of the whole church” suggests the thought that all believers, from whatever country they came, when they arrived in Corinth found shelter in his house. Saint Dimitry of Rostov thinks that he was later a bishop in Ephesus. Concerning the “household of Stephanas,” Saint Paul writes at the end of this epistle that this was the firstfruits of Achaia, that is, the people of this household were the first of the Achaians who devoted themselves to the service of the saints, to help forward the Gospel and to labor together with those laboring in this work. Stephanas himself was sent now together with Fortunatus and Achaicus to Saint Paul with a letter from the Corinthians, to which he answers below (1 Cor. 16:15–17). These are all, he says, those baptized by me. Whether I baptized anyone else, I do not know. The mode of speech means a complete negation. It means: I baptized no one else. I was not concerned with baptizing. “I did not strive to gain honor from the people by such a deed” (Saint Chrysostom). My helpers performed this, and even those first converted and baptized. It is certain that not all the Corinthians were carried away by the crowds of the vainly wise, and the people pointed out by the Apostle, baptized by him, did not belong to their circle. Pointing to them, he as it were says: behold, these, baptized by me, do not consider me their head; why then have you, the rest, fallen into such a disease of mind and remain in it? Come to your senses; follow in the footsteps of these. That this thought is fitting is shown by the words of the Apostle at the end of the epistle about the household of Stephanas: “obey such as these” (1 Cor. 16:16). And for thanksgiving this thought is more directly suitable: glory to God that I baptized almost no one; and those whom I baptized are well, and not only well, but they will serve to bring others to their senses.

The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21)

The opinions among the Corinthians were so absurd that it would have been enough to ask two or three questions to expose their absurdity and cause those who held them to come to their senses. But Saint Paul determined also to prevent in the future any possibility of similar occurrences by closing off the sources that produced them. These sources were: A) too great a trust in the decisions of one’s own mind, as well as in human wisdom in general, and B) a wrong understanding of what men are, and even the Apostles themselves, in the matter of planting the saving faith of Christ on earth. The first is addressed in 1 Cor. 1:17–2:16; the second in 1 Cor. 3:1–4:16.

d) Too great a trust in human wisdom (1 Cor. 1:17–2:16)

The first source of the opinions is the admission of human wisdom into the realm of faith as an arbiter of questions and a lawgiver of determinations. To prevent the Corinthians in the future from falling into any more vain wisdom, the Apostle now reveals that human wisdom and the Gospel are two opposites. One must renounce the former to accept the latter. The Gospel is true divine wisdom; but to human wisdom it does not appear to be so. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a disciple of Gospel wisdom must renounce human wisdom and agree to be foolish in the eyes of men. This is a lesson of the Apostle for all times, for it determines the relationship of intellectual reasonings to the simplicity of Gospel truth.

The Gospel is true wisdom; but it appears in a completely simple form. Those who have become acquainted with human wisdom and are accustomed to sophisticated reasoning cannot receive it. Only those receive it who are not entangled in this reasoning wisdom. But by accepting it with a simple heart, in its naked simplicity, they become wiser than the wise. What is this, look, says the Apostle: aa) what do we preach? We say: the crucified Christ is the Savior of the world; believe and you will be saved; those who believe become wise to salvation (1 Cor. 1:17–25). But to those who reason according to human wisdom this is not manageable. For how many believers are there in Corinth, for instance! But look, bb) who are they? Are there many wise according to the flesh among them? But these not wise according to the flesh are made wise by God (1 Cor. 1:26–31). Thus God has ordained it to be. Therefore cc) coming to you, I did not offer any wisdom, but spoke only about the Lord Jesus Christ crucified, so that human wisdom had no part in your faith (1 Cor. 2:1–5). But with such simplicity of preaching we appear at the beginning only so that, by themselves, without any participation of human efforts, there may be revealed and separated those who are capable, or chosen by God, to be disciples of divine wisdom. When someone believes and goes the way of the Gospel, dd) then we reveal to him more fully the true wisdom of God, which embraces both heaven and earth, and what is without beginning and without end. And not we alone, but rather the grace of the Holy Spirit, filling those who truly believe and live rightly according to faith (1 Cor. 2:6–16).

1 Cor. 1:17. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel, not with eloquence of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be emptied of its power.

This text stands at the transition from the previous discourse to the present one. At first the Apostle presents the reason why he did not baptize many. I was not sent for this, he says. The Lord said to the Apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them” (Matt. 28:19). Consequently, they had to perform both. But concerning Saint Paul the Apostle, the Lord said through Ananias: “he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles” (Acts 9:15). And to Paul himself: “open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light” (Acts 26:18). But just as other Apostles could entrust baptism to others, so Saint Paul could perform baptism through others. Saint Paul was always accompanied by helpers, whom he had dedicated to God’s work. Through them he performed holy baptism, while he himself was mainly engaged in preaching; when needed, he performed it himself as well. This is what he wanted to say: my main work is to enlighten by faith, and others baptize those who have come to believe. Thus says Saint Chrysostom: “Preaching is much more difficult, required greater efforts and special steadfastness of spirit, and contained everything in itself; therefore it was entrusted to Paul. But why did he, not being sent to baptize, baptize? – He did this not in opposition to the One who sent him, but from an overflow of zeal. He did not say that it was forbidden to him, but: I was not sent for this work, and for a much more important one. Preaching was entrusted to few, but to baptize could anyone having the priesthood. For a man instructed in faith and who has believed can be baptized by anyone else, the disposition of the one approaching and the grace of God accomplish everything; but to instruct the unbelieving in faith requires great labor, great wisdom, and even presents dangers. There everything is already done, the one wishing to receive the sacrament is convinced in faith, and it is not at all difficult to baptize one who believes, but here great labor is needed to change the disposition, correct character, destroy error, and plant truth. So too now we entrust this work (baptism) to the simplest of presbyters, but teaching of doctrine to the more prudent, because here labor and effort are needed. Therefore he himself says: ‘Let the presbyters who preside well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those laboring in word and teaching’ (1 Tim. 5:17). For just as to train wrestlers there is needed a teacher brave and skilled, while to place a crown on the victor can even one unskilled in wrestling, although the crown glorifies the victor, so too in baptism; although without it salvation is impossible, yet the one who baptizes does not accomplish a great work, receiving one already disposed and prepared for it.”

“Not with eloquence of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be emptied of its power”. “Here the Apostle turns to condemn those who gloried in outward wisdom and speaks against them with particular force” (Saint Chrysostom).

The wisdom of speech means a word adorned with the are of eloquence and seasoned with all manner of intellectual reasoning. I was sent, says the Apostle, to preach without these instruments of human wisdom, sent to present only the bore truth about the cross of Christ – he says: God became incarnate, suffered, died on the cross and saved us; believe this and you will be saved. Thus I have always done and continue to do: I do not embellish the word, I do not frame the cross with pathetic pictures, I do not devise any intellectual reasoning about the necessity and fitness of such a death for the work of our salvation; I preach everywhere only this bore truth: God died on the cross and saved us; believe – and you will be saved. To hearts and minds I entrust the action of this very truth itself, without any intervention of human aids. It finds its own. It is all the same as if you bring a magnet near particles of different metals, the magnet selects from all of them and draws to itself the iron particles; thus, when I stretch forth the word of preaching before an assembled crowd of people, my word itself finds its own, and those who are of the truth themselves turn to it and cleave to it. That my word produces such an effect must be ascribed not to my speech, but to the truth itself, naked and unadorned: God died on the cross and saved us. If I were to embellish it, then with it would happen the same as with a magnet when you wrap it in something that prevents it from acting on iron. If I were to embellish the word of the cross with ornaments of speech and reasoning of human wisdom, I would block its path to act on simple hearts. And by this I would empty it of its power. I would convert no one. And this is very natural. Let us divide the listeners into two halves: those acquainted with human wisdom and those not acquainted with it. For the first, the word about the cross, however much you embellish it, however much you frame it with reasoning, can in no way be received. To labor for them over such a word means to waste time and effort in vain. If it is possible for any of them to believe, it would be only from the presentation to them of the bore truth about the cross. But in embellishments and reasoning they will always find many objections against this truth, which will not allow it to become established in their mind and reach their heart, so as to lay the beginnings of faith there. Thus for the learned, embellishment and reasoning are not a help to the success of the word of the cross, but rather an obstacle. They are an obstacle also for the unlearned, because for an unaccustomed mind they entangle the truth in the intricacies of speech and reasoning inaccessible to the simple; and also because the tricks of speech and contortions of thought always arouse suspicion – is the truth being presented? If it is truth, speak directly and simply: why hide? Such is the law of simple hearts.

Thus, the embellishment of speech and entanglement of it with reasoning would empty the cross of Christ of its power. Saint Paul was not commanded to mix this wisdom of speech with his preaching. And he did not do this.

This discourse of the Apostle was very instructive for those who, valuing human wisdom too highly, had created so many opinions in Corinth. He spoke as it were to each of them: “Why do you boast in what you should be ashamed of? For if this wisdom is hostile to the cross and opposed to the Gospel, then you should not boast but be ashamed of it” (Saint Chrysostom).

Even to this day one of the strongest proofs of the truth of the Gospel is that it conquered the world through its artless simplicity. Saint Chrysostom well depicts this side of the matter: “For this reason the Apostles were not from among the wise, not from lack of gifts, but so that the preaching would not suffer harm. The wise did not help the preaching, but hindered it; the unwise, on the other hand, established it. The preaching won victory not by human wisdom, but by the grace of God. So when it is said that the Apostles were simple men, we will add that they were also uneducated, unlettered, poor, unknown, unwise, and obscure. It is not to the dishonor, but to the glory of the Apostles, that they, being such, appeared more glorious than the whole universe. For these simple, unlettered, and uneducated ones defeated the wise, the mighty, and the powerful, who boasted of wealth, glory, and all external things, in such a way as if these were not men at all. From this it is clear that great is the power of the cross and that all things were accomplished not by human power. For such deeds are not in the nature of things, but above nature.”

1 Cor. 1:18. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Why was I sent to preach not with the wisdom of speech? – Because the word about the cross, in itself, for those being saved is the power of God. Consequently, its purpose is achieved even without the wisdom of speech. But for those perishing it is foolishness; and however much you embellish it and frame it with reasoning, it will be of no benefit; those perishing will always consider it foolishness and will perish.

“The word of the cross” is this: God became incarnate, died on the cross, and saved us; believe in Him and you will be saved. “Those perishing and those being saved” – as though they were determined – some to destruction and others to salvation; so that however hard the perishing one struggles, he will perish, and however far the one being saved deviates at times from the path of salvation, he will be saved. Observation of people suggests that there is something as it were fated in the paths of human life. But faith assures us that the life of man is entirely the work of his free will, and if he perishes, he destroys himself, and if he is saved, he is not drawn to salvation against his will. By the manner of his life, one indeed reaches the point where he cannot receive the word of the cross; and another by the same manner of life reaches the point where he willingly receives this word. The first perishes, the second is saved. The course of life with all its circumstances, although not in our power, yet the moral character is always in our power. For this reason, that one does not receive the word of the cross, by the nature of his thoughts and established character, and through this perishes, is his own fault; and that another encounters no resistance to this word either from his mind or from his character, and therefore willingly receives it and is saved, this also has nothing determining him to faith mechanically, apart from his will. The holy Apostle takes those and these persons as they appeared before his preaching. He speaks the word in the synagogue, in the Areopagus, or in a private house: some mock, others pose questions, and still others, hiding the word in their hearts in silence, secretly come to the Apostle’s house and finally turn. Who attracted these last? And who repelled the first? – We do not know who, but we can say and add: but not God repelled the first, for He desires all to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth; He alone did not draw even the last, for if He began to draw everyone, all would be saved. Thus we confess. Although there is something incomprehensible here, it is certain that there is nothing opposed to God’s goodness and justice. The Apostle with his word only states the fact, what he derived from observing conversions. One word, and people of one kind and one locality hear it, but some believe and are saved, while others do not believe and perish. Those are his being saved, and these are perishing.

The word of the cross for those perishing is foolishness; one might expect that for those being saved it is wisdom, but he says: for those being saved it is the power of God. Did not the Apostle wish that those reading would supply the omitted opposites, and add weakness and powerlessness to foolishness, and wisdom to power? At least in the further unfolding of his thought he touches on both opposites, and toward the end brings it about that the Crucified Christ is both God’s power and God’s wisdom. Or the Apostle wished to set forth that by which the one perishing is more repelled from the cross, and by which the one being saved is more attracted to it. To the first the cross seems foolishness, and he turns away from it; to the second it appears as power, and he clings to it.

The Apostle’s intention is only to say that the word of the cross itself produces its work where needed, and does not require any aid from human wisdom. But one cannot fail to see that he regards human wisdom very unfavorably and understands by those perishing chiefly those acquainted with this wisdom, following it, and considering it alone their true guide. In outward life this wisdom truly rules, and harmlessly; but whoever enters with it in this same sense into the realm of salvation always spoils the matter. God determines the manner of salvation; it must be received with submissiveness, as it is presented. But our wisdom, without its submitting to God’s command, both in the beginning prevents the reception of saving faith, and if, after submissive reception of faith, it then meddles, it always muddies everything. The path of salvation is decidedly incompatible with human wisdom. It can understand nothing about the word of the cross; and this word is the beginning and end of everything.

Saint Chrysostom says: “For those suffering mortal sickness, even healthy food becomes repugnant, friends and relatives become unpleasant, whom they often do not even recognize and even are burdensome by their presence. So it usually happens also with those suffering spiritually: they do not know what is needed for salvation, and are burdened by those who care for them. This happens not from the nature of the matter itself, but from sickness. Just as those mad in mind do not bear those who care for them, and even condemn them, so do unbelievers act. Let us weep for them, for the fact that the word of the cross, which is wisdom and power, is to them foolishness. ‘The message of the cross,’ says Paul, ‘is foolishness to those who are perishing.’ Since among the pagans the cross was subjected to mockery, they probably called the teaching about it contrary to their wisdom and inconsistent with their teaching; therefore Paul, enlightening them, says: do not consider it strange and absurd; this matter is such by its nature that those perishing cannot grasp its power, for they have lost their mind and fallen into madness. Therefore they revile and hate the saving remedies. What do you say, man? God became a slave, taking for you ‘the form of a slave,’ was crucified and rose; you should bow down before the Risen One and marvel at His love for mankind, how all that neither father, nor friend, nor son did for you, He did for you, His enemy and offender; you should wonder at Him for this; yet you call foolishness a deed full of such wisdom! And it is not surprising; for it is characteristic of those perishing not to know what is necessary for salvation. Therefore do not be disturbed; there is nothing strange or unexpected in that the foolish laugh at great matters. Such people cannot be convinced by human wisdom; and if you try to convince them in that way, you do the opposite: for that which surpasses understanding requires faith alone. Indeed, if we wish to explain by means of judgments of reason (to the wise regarding themselves) how God became man, dwelling in the womb of the Virgin, and do not consider this a matter of faith, then they will only laugh. Those who wish to grasp this by means of reason, they are the ones who are perishing.”

1 Cor. 1:19. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

This is written by the Prophet Isaiah (Isa. 29:14). There, as it is supposed, these words are spoken as a rebuke against the wise men of that time, who to King Hezekiah, finding himself in difficult circumstances, offered counsel that seemed to them wise and very appropriate to the matter. But God, through the Prophet Isaiah, declares that what He has determined in His divine counsel will take place. This counsel is a sealed book which no one can read; there the literate and the illiterate alike. Let no one guess what I will do, and when I do it, let no wisdom discern why it was done thus… “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will hide.” Wisdom will be shamed by this, and understanding will be hidden, humiliated, as if it will hide itself. Wisdom will be shamed because all its methods will turn out to be good for nothing, and understanding will be hidden because it will comprehend nothing in how things are done by Me. Such in general are the providential judgments of God, repeatedly vindicated in the history of Israel. Saint Paul brings this passage not as a prophecy, but as a law of God’s providential actions. He says as it were: that it pleased the Lord to do thus is nothing to marvel at; such is the law of God’s Providence, that no one can comprehend the turns in His judgments. No one can comprehend either why He ordained our salvation through the cross, and commanded the preaching of it to be conducted not in the wisdom of speech. It is therefore unnecessary to thrust oneself in here with one’s own wisdom, and because it can understand nothing here, to justify one’s unbelief and consider the manner of salvation proposed by God to be foolishness. Throughout all history it was so that what God ordained seemed to human wise men to be inconsistent with the course of things and not leading to the goal, yet in fact it turned out to be the most expedient and by this shamed human wisdom. So it is with the word of the cross! The wise look at it and say: what kind of means of salvation is this? How can one save and be saved by this? Yet in fact it turns out that it is the most effective means of salvation, and those who receive it with faith are saved, keenly sensing its saving power. The Lord destroyed wisdom for them and rejected the discernment of the discerning – repelled it, so that all it had left was to flee and hide.

1 Cor. 1:20. Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

That I speak truth, let the Apostle’s discourse continue, here is proof for you: behold the cross, the word of which saves believers. Its saving power cannot be denied, for its proofs are before everyone’s eyes: they hear the word of the cross, believe, receive baptism, and appear as a new creation; they feel themselves new, others see them as new. They have another mind, other feelings, other deeds. Those who an hour before were the same as everyone, upon coming out of the font became completely different. There they shared in the power of the cross. So is not the power of the cross saving? But explain it to us! Where are you, wise ones? Where are the scribes? Where are the questioners of this age? Come, probe this wonderful deed with your wisdom and explain to us, why is it that if you only believe that God, becoming incarnate, died on the cross for our salvation, and are baptized – suddenly you become completely different! Here you have whole societies of people renewed in this marvelous way! And not a word from anyone. And behold a deed by which God showed that all the wisdom of this age is foolishness, has made it foolish – rendered it senseless. And that they call the word of the cross, the preaching of the Crucified One, and faith in Him, foolishness, by this they further expose their own foolishness: for is it not foolish to call a deed foolish when it justifies its own wisdom before the eyes of all?

“Having said: ‘it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,’ he adds proof for this from deeds and says: ‘where is the wise man?’” (Saint Chrysostom) – All of them were overcome by the preaching of the cross. He calls “wise” one who adorns himself with Greek eloquence, “scribe” – a Jewish teacher who boasts of knowledge of the Law, and “questioner” – a Jew and Greek who has long exercised himself in the are of disputation (Theodoret). The Apostle meant to say: of whatever rank a man may be who glories in human wisdom, the cross shamed them all; through it God “made foolish” their wisdom, that is, “showed that it is senseless and unsuited to the work of faith. Since people thought highly of it, He directly exposed it. What kind of wisdom is this if it cannot only find, but even understand where our chief good is? He exposed its foolishness, because it had beforehand exposed this about itself” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 1:21. For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what we preach.

“He brings the reason why it was done thus” (Saint Chrysostom); that is, why it was pleasing to God to arrange our salvation in such a way that it seems to human wisdom like foolishness. God was saving with wisdom, they did not understand: and He was pleased now to save through the foolishness of preaching, that is, through the word of the cross or the God Crucified, which seems foolishness to our wisdom. – By what wisdom did the world not know God, that is, men? – By that which He implanted in us, reason, capable of distinguishing good from evil, of knowing God and rendering Him due worship. In what wisdom did it not understand? – In the wise arrangement of the world, where God impressed His traces so palpably that ignorance of Him in creation is inexcusable. The Apostle speaks here of natural knowledge of God and worship of God; but not in the sense that they would be sufficient for salvation if they appeared in perfection, but in this sense: you, who contend for reason and set human wisdom so high that you will not accept anything that seems unintelligible to it, although God Himself vouches for the truth of it, arranging and revealing it, tell me, did you by your reason accomplish what you could have done and ought to have done? Before you God opened His great book – a wisely arranged world. The testimony here about God is so evident that one could almost touch it. Tell me, did you understand God in this wisdom of God? – No. If then you did not understand, why then demand something reasonable? You have lost all right to it by not knowing how to make use of reason. If you did not know how, confess this and humbly submit to God’s will to save us through the foolishness of preaching. But let us leave the discourse to Saint Chrysostom.

“For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom,” then the cross appeared. What does “in the wisdom of God” mean? – In His works, through which He was pleased to reveal Himself, He arranged everything so that man, passing from visible objects to the Creator, would marvel at Him. Great is the heaven and boundless is the earth; marvel then at their Creator, for this great heaven was not only created by Him, but was created easily, and this boundless earth was produced by Him as nothing. Therefore of the first it is said: “the heavens are the work of your hands” (Ps. 101:26); and of the earth: “he made the earth like nothing” (Isa. 40:23). Since the world did not wish to know God through this wisdom, He taught through what appears to be “foolishness of preaching,” not through judgments (reasonings of mind), but through faith. Where the wisdom of God is, there is no need for human wisdom. For to say that the Being who created so beautiful and so great a world is God, having boundless and unspeakable power, this was a matter of judgments (reasoning of) human wisdom and meant grasping Him through them; but now what are needed are not judgments, but faith alone. To accept and be convinced that the Crucified and Buried One rose and sits on high, this requires not judgments, but faith. The Apostles went not with wisdom, but with faith, and proved themselves wiser and higher than external philosophers, and so much more because the reception of divine matters through faith is higher than reasonings, for it surpasses human understanding. How then did He destroy wisdom? – By revealing Himself to us through Paul and men like him, and showing that it is useless. For to the reception of Gospel preaching, wisdom does not help the wise at all, nor does ignorance hinder the uneducated at all; and even to one’s amazement it must be said that ignorance can receive it far more quickly and easily than wisdom. A shepherd and a farmer, not carried away by reasonings and giving themselves over to the Lord, will receive it sooner. Thus He destroyed wisdom! Since it had already shamed itself beforehand, it became thereafter good for nothing. For when it ought to have shown itself and known the Lord from His works, it would not; and now although it might wish to contribute to this, it cannot, because the position of things is now different, there is a way to the worship of God far better than it. Now simple faith is needed, it must be sought everywhere and preferred to external wisdom. For if this wisdom revealed nothing then, when it was possible to inquire through reasoning, what success is to be expected from it now, when matters higher than it appear, when faith alone is needed, not the are of reasoning. Thus God showed its foolishness, and was pleased to save through the “foolishness of preaching,” yet a foolishness not actual, but apparent.

The Apostle expressed it thus: “through the foolishness of preaching”; but his thought is this, that God saves believers through the highest wisdom, such wisdom before which even the greatest mind becomes foolish, comprehending nothing in it. Just as we call a great light a blinding light, so the highest wisdom is wisdom that makes the mind foolish. Through the preaching of this very wisdom God was pleased now to save believers. For when the mind is made foolish by this wisdom, then there is nothing left to receive it by except faith.

God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28)

1 Cor. 1:22–23. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

Saint Paul explains that the preaching which he and the other Apostles conduct by God’s command is indeed foolishness, and yet, notwithstanding this, it saves. He speaks as it were: that God indeed arranges the salvation of all through the foolishness of preaching, this needs no intellectual proofs; but look at what is happening before everyone’s eyes and you will see that it is so. God chose us and sent us to preach salvation both to Jews and to Greeks. What exactly shall we preach? – Believe in Christ crucified and you will be saved. That is what we do: wherever we come, both to Jews and Greeks we say: believe in Christ crucified and you will be saved. Looking at us, must not anyone say: is it not foolishness to conduct such preaching? What success can you expect from such preaching? You say: believe in the Crucified One and you will be saved. But for a Jew this is a stumbling-block, and for a Greek – foolishness. Who will listen to you and believe? Give the Jew a sign, present the Greek some wise philosophical system and offer it in an attractive form, then perhaps they will open their ear to your preaching, but the way you do it – this is sheer foolishness: for it means wanting to reach a goal by means that not only do not lead to the goal but rather distance one from it. – And that is how those perishing looked upon this preaching. The Apostle brings here the testimony of experience.

“Jews demand signs.” But indeed there were signs, both from Christ the Savior and from the Apostles. What then does the Apostle mean by this? – Either that they all demand signs and wonders – they demand more and more signs, not satisfied with those they see. How many signs did the Lord reveal! And yet they, having seen many of them, come up to Him and say: Teacher, we want to see a sign from You. They want signs, but when these are given, they do not want to be forced on the basis of this to change their hopes and convictions, and this cannot be avoided: so they begin to distort the sign they have seen and desire another. Thus without end.

Or this is what the Apostle meant: they ask for signs, but we cannot give them whenever we wish. This is God’s work. When it pleases God, then He performs through us a sign, and when He does not please, He does not perform. But the preaching nonetheless we must and do present.

Or this thought is his – that the Jews await some striking sign, like that which Moses performed, freeing the Israelites from Egypt and leading them through the sea, in which Pharaoh and his host were drowned. Then this miracle resounded through all peoples. And now it should be so. If the Lord had appeared in the brightness of His divine glory and had struck all peoples, and had magnified Israel, then for the Jew no greater sign would be needed.

Christ the Lord, living among the Jews, left behind a reverent memory both through His moral character, His teaching, and His signs. Memory of this could have greatly aided the preaching. But the death on the cross spoiled all. For in the eyes of the Jew, death on the cross is a kind of heavenly punishment. Meanwhile the preaching told them: believe in the Crucified One and you will be saved. The thought of crucifixion was a stumbling-block to them, and they turned their hearing away from this preaching.

“Greeks desire wisdom.” They desire that there be proposed to them some wise teaching and moreover in speech beautiful in form, but to them is proposed an account of one event, the most unpleasant – the crucifixion of a man – and they are told: believe and you will be saved. What could one expect from them but: “what does this babbler want to say?” (Acts 17:18). The teaching of salvation through the cross-death of the incarnate God, as it was later unfolded by the Apostles, presents the most exalted and harmonious metaphysical system, beginning in eternity, embracing all temporal things, and ending in infinite eternity. But such teaching in its full scope was not offered at the beginning, not to novices, but to those who had already progressed in Christianity, as Saint Paul writes below (1 Cor. 2:6 and further on). At the beginning, however, the preaching was always simple: God, becoming incarnate, died on the cross; believe and you will be saved. To a Greek this preaching could not fail to seem foolishness. What God, when crucified? If crucified, it means He could not save Himself: how then can He save others – and moreover all, the whole universe? This is inconsistent with anything (Saint Chrysostom). Regarding the preaching in this way, how could he believe?

Thus it is evident that God arranged for salvation a preaching that was bound to appear foolishness to all. It appeared foolishness and yet it saved, and by this proved that in it is hidden the highest wisdom and divine power.

1 Cor. 1:24. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

How it came to be that certain souls, despite this apparent stumbling-block and this visible foolishness, penetrated through this unprepossessing veil and beheld in the substance of the preaching saving power and wisdom, this is God’s mystery. Saint Paul does not explain this, but only testifies that it was so. It was so with the souls whom earlier he called those being saved, and whom he here calls the called. Both expressions point to God’s election, and although, of course, not without the participation of human will, yet in such a way that human wisdom had no part in it whatsoever.

And thus for these blessed souls, from among Jews and Greeks, the preaching which was for others a stumbling-block and foolishness, presented divine power and divine wisdom. Having received it in this sense, they believed and were saved. Truly they were assured of this power and wisdom when in baptism they were buried with the Crucified Lord and tasted the saving power of the cross. But everything obtained here was transformed in faith; and was obtained because it was believed.

“One and the same thing – both wisdom and foolishness, both power and weakness; foolishness and weakness to unbelievers, but wisdom and power to believers. For the sun is light to those who see and darkness to those who are blind. But it does not bring darkness; rather the disease keeps back the brightness of the ray. So also the pus of unbelief prevents the light of knowledge of God from illuminating the soul” (Theodoret).

Saint John Chrysostom says: “Great power is contained in these words of the Apostle! He wishes to show how God overcame through that which seemingly promised no victory, and how preaching is not a work of man. His words mean the following: when we say to the Jews, ‘Believe,’ they object, saying, ‘Raise the dead, heal the demon-possessed, show us signs.’ What then do we say instead? We say that the One we preach was crucified and died. This seemingly cannot only fail to attract those who oppose, but can repel even those who are not opposed; yet it does not repel, but attracts, retains, and conquers. The Gentiles, on their part, require from us eloquence and skill in reasoning; yet we preach the cross to them as well. To the Jews this seems like weakness, to the Greeks like foolishness. If we present to them not only what they do not require, but even the opposite, for the cross seems to reason not only not a sign but something contrary to a sign, not only not a sign of power but a sign of weakness, not only not an expression of wisdom but a proof of madness—if those requiring signs and wisdom not only do not receive what they demand but also hear from us the opposite of what they require, and yet are still persuaded by this opposite, is this not the work of an unspeakable power of the One preached? The Apostles conquered not only without signs but through that which seemingly opposed signs. Thus Christ dealt with the blind man: wishing to grant him healing, He destroyed blindness through that which produces blindness, ‘He put mud’ (John 9:15). As He healed the blind man with mud, so He drew the universe to Himself through the cross, through that which seemingly increased scandal rather than destroyed it. He acted thus also at creation, arranging the opposite through the opposite: He enclosed the sea with sand, restraining the mighty through the weak. Through the Prophets He worked such that iron swam up from water by means of a small piece of wood (2 Kings 6:6). Thus also did He restore the universe through the cross. In this way, to persuade through the opposite is a sign of great power and wisdom. The cross seemingly produces scandal, yet it not only does not scandalize but attracts. Contemplating all this and marveling, Paul says:”

1 Cor. 1:25. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

That is, what God establishes and introduces into life, that, although it seems foolish and weak to our wisdom, in reality is wiser than all the wisdom that men can devise, and stronger than all the strength that men can exert. “The Apostle calls the mystery of the cross foolish and weak according to the opinion of senseless men, and proves that it overcame both the wise and the strong” (Theodoret). To human wisdom it seemed that the cross was a testimony of weakness, and to believe in it was unreasonable; but in reality it was quite different: those who believed in it were filled with power and wisdom. “Speaking of the foolishness and weakness of the cross, the Apostle means not that it actually is such, but that it appears so; for he speaks in accordance with the opinion of opponents. What philosophers could not accomplish through reasoning, was accomplished through what appears as madness. Who is wiser? The one who persuades many, or the one who persuades no one? Plato tried so hard to prove that the soul is immortal, but said nothing clear and persuaded no one! On the contrary, the cross through the uneducated persuaded and converted the entire universe, persuaded not in trivial matters, but in doctrine concerning God, true piety, Gospel life, and the future judgment; it made philosophers of all—both farmers and the uneducated. Thus the foolishness of God is wiser and the weakness of God is stronger than man. Stronger in what? In that it spread throughout the entire universe, subjected all to its power, and while countless multitudes of men strove to destroy the name of the Crucified One, it did the opposite. This name was glorified and grew more and more, while they perished and disappeared: the living, rising up against the One delivered to death, could do nothing. What the tax collectors and fishermen accomplished by the grace of God, philosophers, orators, rulers, and the entire universe, despite countless efforts, could not even imagine. What did not the cross accomplish! It introduced the teaching concerning the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of bodies, the contempt for present goods and hope for future blessings; it made men into angels; through it all everywhere became philosophers and capable of every virtue” (Saint John Chrysostom).

“Above, the Apostle expressed that human wisdom has been rejected, and proved this both by the testimony of Scripture and by the very events themselves; by the testimony of Scripture in the words, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise’; and by events in the proposed question, ‘Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe?’ Then he proved that this was both useful and necessary: ‘For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe’; that the cross is a proof of unspeakable power and wisdom, and that the ‘foolishness of God’ is far above human wisdom. Now he proves the same not from the perspective of teachers, but from that of the very disciples themselves: ‘Look,’ he says, ‘at your calling’ (Saint John Chrysostom).”

1 Cor. 1:26. For you see your calling, brothers: that not many of you were wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.

It corresponds exactly. Since God was pleased to arrange salvation through the cross, which appeared weak, inglorious, and presented nothing wise, almost none of the wise, glorious, and powerful of the world accepted the preaching about it; instead, mostly the unwise, the weak, and the unknown came. Look at all the believing brothers, and you will be convinced that it is so. But this neither demeans the cross nor you. For God willed that it be so. He called you. This ‘calling’ and election is your honor, higher than all earthly glories. And the honor of the cross lies in the fact that having believed, you do not remain as you were, but are transformed in spirit, and receive such advantages before which all the advantages of the world are nothing. In a word: ‘calling’ means those who are called.

“Not many. He did not say there is not one wise, not one strong, not one noble; for some from among them had believed, but he says ‘not many’ because the greater number of believers came from among poor people” (Theodoret). Pride prevented those prominent according to the flesh from believing, while nothing prevented the humble, the unseen, from believing—not their undeveloped intellect nor coarse manners. Their humble faith was clothed by the power of the cross with high perfections of spirit. Saint John Chrysostom writes on this: “Not only were the teachers uneducated, but the disciples themselves were chosen to be such: ‘Not many,’ he says, ‘were wise according to the flesh.’ Thus is revealed great power and great wisdom when many are persuaded, and moreover the unwise. For it is the most difficult thing to persuade the ignorant, especially when great and important matters are being inculcated. Yet they were persuaded, of which he presents them themselves as witnesses: ‘For you see your calling, brothers,’ that is, look, consider. What does ‘according to the flesh’ mean? Apparently, in a worldly sense, according to external learning. So that you do not think he contradicts himself (for he also persuaded a proconsul and an Areopagite, and Apollos, and we know that other wise men accepted the preaching), he does not say not one wise, but ‘not many wise.’ For he did not exclusively call the ignorant and reject the wise, but accepted the latter as well, yet far more of the former. Why? Because the wise according to the flesh are filled with great foolishness, and especially are foolish when they do not wish to reject impious teaching. As it is when some physician wishes to teach others his are—people who know something but are using it badly and incorrectly and are stubborn cannot learn quickly, while those who know nothing can sooner accept the teaching; so it was here. The ignorant were more quickly persuaded because they did not have that extreme foolishness of considering themselves wise. ‘Not many strong, not many noble.’ For such people are often filled with pride; and nothing harms true knowledge of God as much as pride and attachment to wealth; for those devoted to them consider the present as great, care not at all for the future, and close their ears with a multitude of cares.”

The cross made so that all came to despise everything by which man is shown from without, and instead strove for perfections of spirit, which are both true nobility, and true dominion, and true wisdom, putting to shame the wisdom, power, and nobility from without.

1 Cor. 1:27–28. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; and God chose the weak things of the world to shame the mighty; and God chose the base things of the world and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are.

“Foolish things of the world”—uneducated people, ignorant not only in speech but in knowledge; “weak things of the world”—the poor, having no weight or authority in society; “base things of the world and despised”—people of simple station, low birth; “things that are not,” whom all regard as nothing. The opposite to them are people—“the wise,” not merely educated but those who are high in their education and knowledge; “the mighty”—those strong in authority and weight, and wealth in society, and those relying on themselves, and those placing their permanence in such things; “things that are”—those who alone seem to be in society, while the others are not, those high both by birth and honor. God chose, he says, the first, in order to “shame and nullify” the last. But how? If God, having chosen the first, left them as they were, there would be no shaming of the last. But He, leaving the first in their external appearance as they were, filled them with perfections in spirit, such high perfections and so prominently manifest that the last could not help but notice them and could not help but recognize that these perfections were incomparably higher than those they possessed. To recognize that those whom they considered as nothing had become incomparably higher than themselves—therein lies the shame. Coming into contact with them, the noble saw in the despised a noble character of disposition, feeling, and sentiments which they themselves did not have and which was not given them by their birth according to the flesh; the mighty saw in the weak power over themselves unshaken by any passions, and peace of spirit not shaken by any accumulation of adverse external circumstances, saw power and peace which were foreign to themselves and which their external power did not give them; the wise saw in the foolish clarity of understanding about all things, and about God, and about the world, and especially about man—why he is on earth, what awaits him beyond the grave, and how to pass there not to torment but to bliss—saw understanding before which their own, gained with such effort, was nothing both in scantiness, brevity, and in darkness and indefiniteness. Seeing all this, those prominent according to the flesh could not help but feel ashamed. Experience showed many times that, feeling shame, they cast aside all they considered valuable, turned to faith, and humbly entered into communion with those whom before they regarded as nothing. Thus God arranged it because there was no other way to draw minds away from the fleshly and visible, than to present before their eyes so strikingly the advantages of spiritual perfections, combined with external invisibility and deprivation of the advantages of the flesh.

“The Apostle called the foolish, weak, and base according to human opinion; for true foolishness is not inexperience in speech, but lack of faith; and weakness and baseness—not poverty, but impiety and moral corruption. But God conquered the learned through the uneducated, the rich through the poor, and caught the universe in a net through fishermen” (Theodoret).

“Great is the victory—to conquer through the foolish. For the Gentiles are no more shamed when defeated by the wise than when they see that men who work with their own hands and belong to the common people philosophize better than they. Therefore Paul said: ‘to shame the wise’. And God did not stop with this alone but did the same with other worldly advantages. ‘And God chose the weak things of the world to shame the mighty’—not only the uneducated but the poor, despised and obscure He called, that He might shame the strong. ‘And God chose the base things of the world and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are’. What is meant here by ‘things that are not’? Those who are counted as nothing. Thus He manifested great power, bringing down the great through those who seemed as nothing, as He says also elsewhere: ‘My power is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Cor. 12:9). For it takes great power to suddenly make the most despised men, who have never engaged in any learning, to philosophize about what is above the heavens. We marvel at a physician and an orator and all others especially when they successfully persuade and teach the ignorant. If it is a great thing to impart to the ignorant learning about some are, how much more such wisdom! However, God did this not only for marvel or to show His power, but also to humble the haughty. Therefore the Apostle, as he said above: ‘to shame the wise, to nullify the things that are,’ so also here speaks” (Saint John Chrysostom).

Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5)

1 Cor. 1:29. That no flesh should glory in His presence.

Let not all flesh glory, that is, let not every man glory before God. For there is nothing of which he can boast. People prominent according to the flesh have nothing of which to boast, for they have nothing spiritual, and their external show is exposed and shamed as having no worth. People unknown according to the flesh, called to spiritual perfections, are left externally in the same humble state; their inner self, however high, is recognized tangibly as a gift of grace, in no way earned by their effort. Thus the salvation arranged by God through faith in the word of the cross leads directly to this: that no flesh shall glory before God.

Or by ‘flesh’ is meant the fleshly, external, visible, and the thought here is this: let not fleshly things boast, let them not be considered something important, worthy of attention, and let those possessing them not boast: I am rich, I am learned, I am noble. All this leads to nothing worthy of value, but rather turns away from it. Behold—God called not those who possess these things, but those who do not have them, and when He called them, He did not enrich them with these things but with perfections of spirit; and He rejected the others after calling as He did not regard them at calling. So it is not worth praising or boasting in what is prominent according to the flesh. Saint John Chrysostom makes eloquent exhortations on this passage.

“God did this in order to humble pride and haughtiness, to destroy boasting. But especially through this He showed that we cannot save ourselves. Thus He arranged it from the beginning: for then it was also impossible to achieve salvation by oneself; one needed to contemplate the beauty of the sky and the magnitude of the earth and investigate the nature of other creatures, in order to ascend to the Creator of creatures. By this He wished to destroy the haughtiness that was to arise. Just as a teacher, having commanded his student to follow where he leads, when he sees that the student runs ahead and wants to learn everything by himself, leaves him to wander and, having given him to experience that he cannot learn by himself, then begins to guide him himself, so God in the beginning commanded to go the way of contemplating creatures, and when men would not do this, He, having given them to experience that they themselves cannot go, began to lead them to Himself differently. He gave us the world like a tablet (or table of stone); but philosophers did not think about this, did not wish to obey Him and go to Him in the way He commanded. Therefore He proposed another way, clearer than the first and teaching that man alone is not sufficient for himself. Before, one could indulge in reasoning, use external wisdom with the guidance of nature; but now whoever does not become ‘foolish,’ that is, does not abandon all reasoning and all philosophizing and does not give himself to faith, cannot be saved. Thus He accomplished no trivial deed: He proposed an easier way while at the same time destroying the former disease and teaching not to boast, not to be high-minded: ‘that no flesh should glory’. Much trouble arises from the fact that men want to be wiser than God’s laws and do not wish to learn as He commanded: thus they learn nothing. So it was from the beginning. God said to Adam: do this, but not that; but he, thinking to find something greater, did not obey, and lost what he had. Then He said: do not stop at creatures, but through them know the Creator, and men, as if seeking something more wise, built themselves countless labyrinths; thus they themselves became lost and came into conflict with one another, found not God, and understood nothing clear about creatures or formed no proper and true understanding of them. After this, wishing decisively to destroy their haughtiness, He called first of all simple people, and thereby showed that all have need of wisdom from on high. Not only in relation to knowledge, but in all other matters, men and all other creatures have great need of Him; and He did this that He might give them a strong incentive to obedience and surrender, so that, having turned away from Him, they might not perish. Therefore He did not allow them to be self-satisfied. For if even now, when they have need of Him, many leave Him, what oblivion would they come to if this were not so? Not out of jealousy did He deprive them of grounds for boasting, but to deliver them from the destruction arising from it.”

1 Cor. 1:30. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

God chose the foolish, the weak, the base, so that from this side we have nothing of which to boast. “But do not think that, having deprived us of grounds for boasting in anything, He left us so; no, He granted us another boasting, a greater one” (Saint John Chrysostom). In place of the visible insignificant advantages, He enriches believers with advantages spiritual, of the highest worth. They do not have nobility of blood from fleshly birth; in place of this is given them sonship according to spiritual birth. From “Him,” says the Apostle, “you are,” that is, from God. By this the Apostle points not to the beginning of being, but to new spiritual birth, concerning which it is said: “To those who received Him” (Christ the Lord, the incarnate Son of God), “He gave the authority to become children of God, to those believing in His name. Those who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13). Therefore he says: “of Him you are in Christ Jesus.” By faith in Christ Jesus the Crucified, you became born of God in the font of baptism. You are His children and became so through Christ. You became more noble than all, because you have God as your Father; and the author of this nobility is Christ the Lord (Saint John Chrysostom, Theodoret).

“Who became for us wisdom from God.” Worldly wisdom is not accepted into the realm of faith and the work of salvation. In its place believers are filled with divine wisdom, that which comes from God. This wisdom combines clear understanding of all that is and comes to be—of God worshipped in Trinity, of creation and providence, of the fall and rising again, of the incarnation of God the Word, His death on the cross, resurrection, sitting at the right hand of the Father, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, of the ordering of the Church, of the gifts to Christians, of their hopes and means to prevent them from becoming vain, of what the present life is, and how to live so as to be worthy of blessed eternity. All these understandings, of which each is beyond the grasp of the highest philosophy, become the possession of every person at the beginning of his life in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is for us this ‘wisdom from God,’ because He brought it from heaven from the Father and communicated it to us first Himself, and then through the Apostles. ‘But why did the Apostle not say He made us wise, but ‘became for us wisdom’? By this He shows the abundance of the gift’ (Saint John Chrysostom). And it was said thus because Christ the Lord in Himself combines all the understanding enumerated and many others besides. Begin to reason about Him, and in His one Person you will find all wisdom. Here is the Trinity of Persons, and creation with providence, from the fall redemption, and bestowal of grace, and hopes in the future with obligations in the present, and all the mysteries of salvation. And something even greater can be thought upon, since He is wisdom itself, and believers, united with Him, become one spirit with Him; communing with Him so intimately, they become partakers of His wisdom as well. But in every way here it is shown that the sole source of Christian wisdom is Christ the Lord. There is no other source for it. There is the revealed word; but it only serves as initial guidance. True wisdom must be learned from God, according to the ancient promise.

“And righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Believers do not have wealth and external power; but they have spiritual wealth and moral power: righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ is our ‘righteousness,’ because in His name is given remission of sins and grace strengthening us for the doing of all good. He is our ‘sanctification,’ because under His banner, under His guidance and His power we wage war against passions and lusts, and through them against the world and the devil, and achieve purity not only in external conduct but in the secret heart of man, purity wherein true holiness dwells throughout all our nature. This is our sanctification. It comes from Christ the Lord, for it comes through being clothed in Him. He is also our ‘redemption.’ From the sanctified all bonds fall away: the bonds of sin and flesh, and the bonds of the world and the devil. He enters into the full freedom of children. Like a free bird from paradise, he soars in the heavens. He bears Christ in himself and is borne by Him, and no longer fears the former binders of his hands and feet, but they fear him. This is the summit of spiritual goods and of spiritual perfection in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Thus Saint John Chrysostom portrays it, saying: “See what order the Apostle preserves. First God made us wise, freeing us from error; then righteous and holy, granting us the Spirit; and thus He delivered us from all evils, so that we became His (possession, or part).” The same writes Theodoret: “He granted us true wisdom. He granted us remission of sins, made us worthy of justification, made us holy, delivering us from devilish torment.”

1 Cor. 1:31. As it is written: Let him who glories glory in the Lord.

“External advantages are nothing; all worth belongs to spiritual advantages. But since they all are received from the Lord and in the Lord, if you wish to boast, boast only in the Lord. To boast in the Lord will mean, therefore, not by tongue alone but by constant feeling of heart to confess that if there is anything in spirit, all that is from the Lord and the Lord’s, and that if there is hope in preserving what we have and gaining more, all that depends on the Lord. To boast in the Lord means to glorify the Lord for His mercies with the confession of hope for their continuance. The same thought is in that place of the Prophet Jeremiah, in accordance with which the Apostle speaks here. ‘Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, and let not the rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, doing mercy and justice’ (Jer. 9:23–24). “Therefore ascribe nothing to yourself, but in all things boast in God. Never ascribe anything to any man, for if you should ascribe nothing to Paul, then certainly not to others. I, he says, planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth (1 Cor. 3:6). Whoever has learned to boast in the Lord will never be arrogant, but will always humble himself and thank Him for all things” (Saint John Chrysostom).”

“And what has been said before was sufficient to destroy the pride of those glorying in their wisdom; even part of it would have sufficed. But that the victory might be more glorious, he continues his discourse, trampling already upon overcome opponents. Having shown that God set out to save believers through the foolishness of preaching, ‘destroying the wisdom of the wise,’ and therefore called more of the uneducated (and unknown), now he proves that even the very manner of preaching might have confused, yet it did not. Not only disciples, he says, simple men, but the very preacher is such” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 2:1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.

Since I was sent to preach not in the wisdom of speech, and since it was established that through the foolishness of preaching to save believers, I came to you to preach and proclaimed among you the testimony of God not with eloquent speech and not with wise argumentation. “Not with excellence of speech or wisdom” ου καθ υπεροχην λογου η σοφιας —not with superiority of speech or wisdom. “The testimony of God”—God’s revelation; teaching testified by God or affirmed as true, offering the true path of salvation, outside of which it is impossible to be saved. “When I came to you, I came.” In coming to you and having arrived, I had no thought of holding discourse with you with distinguished eloquence or wise argumentation. But as I was sent and as God ordained, so I took to heart to proclaim to you the testimony of God plainly, as it is, in simple speech.

1 Cor. 2:2. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Above he said that when he came to them he proclaimed the will of God not in the wisdom of speech but as Christ commanded; now he says that, being among them, he fulfilled God’s determination—through the foolishness of preaching to save believers—and proclaimed only the word of the cross. I taught, he says, but so that it was as if I knew nothing else except Jesus Christ the Crucified, or so that I did not wish you to know anything else except Jesus Christ the Crucified. There was nothing in my discourse but Christ Jesus. But about Christ Jesus one can speak much without touching on His death upon the cross; I, he says, spoke only of the Crucifixion of the Lord. I began with it, ended with it, and filled my discourse with it. Yet the Apostle’s word does not deny the thought that his discourses touched on other matters of faith, only it affirms that whenever I began to speak about anything, I always proceeded from the cross and returned to it. The Crucified Lord dominated in my discourses to you over all things. The word about the Crucified One is brief: God became incarnate and for our salvation died upon the cross; believe in Him and you will be saved. But to approach Him, one must say that we, fallen, have angered God and cannot save ourselves; having said that we are fallen, one must speak of the original state, and then of creation and providence, and even further of the Holy Trinity. Then, having spoken of the incarnation of God the Word, of His deeds and teaching, and finally of His crucifixion, one could not stop there but must speak of the resurrection, of the ascension to heaven, of sitting at the right hand of the Father, of the sending of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, of their being sent to preach, and finally of what those hearing the preaching and believing must do—that is, that one must be baptized, then through the laying on of hands (anointing with chrism) receive the Spirit, and by its power overcoming passions, live from now on in holiness according to the commandments, in hope of a blessed life in eternity. All these matters, entering into the discourse, introduced nothing superfluous to it but made the discourse about Christ the Lord Crucified complete. And though these matters seem many, all of them reduce to the discourse about the Crucified—so that the Apostle, speaking of much, spoke only of Jesus Christ, and moreover the Crucified.

1 Cor. 2:3. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

And my speech among you was simple, not eloquent, and the subject of the speech was such as to seem to some a scandal and to others madness, and moreover my external appearance and outward position had nothing impressive about them. “In weakness”—some understand general weak health, or some illness that befell him then, others—weakness of voice, others—poverty, poor appearance, others—something else. We bring the words of Saint John Chrysostom, which explain this whole passage. “Here is yet another circumstance. Not only are believers simple men, not only is the preacher a simple man, not only is the manner of teaching full of simplicity, not only is the very subject of preaching able to disturb listeners—for this subject is the cross and death; but besides this, there were also other obstacles, namely tribulations and snares, daily perils and persecutions. He often calls persecutions ‘weakness,’ as for example: ‘If I must boast, I will boast of my infirmities’ (2 Cor. 11:30). Of what weakness? ‘The governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me’ (2 Cor. 11:32). And again: ‘Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities’; and what he means he explains further: ‘in reproaches, in hardships, in persecutions, in distresses’ (2 Cor. 12:10). This is what he means now as well, for having said, ‘I was with you in weakness,’ he does not stop there but, to show that by weakness he means dangers, he adds: ‘and in fear and in much trembling.’ What is this? Was Paul truly afraid of dangers? He was afraid, and feared greatly. For he was, though Paul, nevertheless also a man. This is not a fault of Paul but the weakness of human nature, and at the same time a praise of his will, if he, fearing death and wounds, did nothing unworthy out of fear. Therefore those who say that he did not fear wounds not only do not honor him but greatly diminish his worth. For if he had not feared, what firmness or what philosophy would there have been in enduring tribulations? And I for this reason marvel at him—that he, though he feared, and did not merely fear but trembled at tribulations, nevertheless always contended gloriously, and did not weaken at any danger, cleansing the universe and everywhere, on land and sea, sowing seeds of preaching.”

1 Cor. 2:4. And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

What does he mean? Was his speech and preaching such when among them, or in general such? He says they were such when among them, for immediately after he says: “that your faith.” By “enticing”—πειθοις—persuasive, convincing. He wishes to say that his speech was not seasoned with the turns and devices that human wisdom usually employs to convince someone and turn them to its side. Such devices, he says, I did not use, but spoke simply. He has already said this above; now he merely repeats it in order to show thereby by what means the hearers were convinced, how they inclined to the word and believed. The power of my preaching, says the Apostle, consisted in “the demonstration of the Spirit and power.” What does this mean? Nothing other than this: that my preaching was accompanied by signs and was convincing, and as the Evangelist Mark says, when the Apostles went out to preach, the Lord “went with them and confirmed the word through the signs that accompanied it” (Mark 16:20). What was in all the others was also with Saint Paul. There is no doubt that the grace of the Spirit acted through Paul’s word upon souls and disposed them toward faith: this is always the case with anointed speech. But this alone cannot explain the establishment of faith; for the transformation it produced was extremely great, and to persuade someone to undertake it, it was necessary to make a striking impression, a shaking one, in which there was at the same time a testimony that the teaching offered comes from on high, that God sent it and requires obedience. As the Apostle Paul himself was converted, so then the Lord gave him to convert all peoples. Everywhere his preaching was accompanied by signs—by these demonstrations of the Spirit and power, which sealed finally the persuasion and faith. All our commentators understand it this way. Theodoret writes: “Signs of the Spirit served as testimony to the preaching. Very fittingly the Apostle placed alongside the weakness of suffering also the power of the Spirit.” Saint John Chrysostom says at greater length: “If preaching had nothing sophistic in it, and the called were simple men, and the preachers were likewise simple, and besides this there were persecutions, fear and trembling, then tell me, how did they achieve victory? By divine power. Therefore Paul added: ‘but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power’. Simple preachers, restricted and persecuted, overcame their persecutors. Why? Because their preaching was accompanied by demonstrations of the power of the Spirit. For tell me, who would not believe, seeing the resurrection of the dead and the casting out of demons? This precisely proved that it was divine and had a higher, heavenly origin.”

1 Cor. 2:5. That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Thus the Lord arranged it so that your belief would not be at all obliged to human wisdom but all to God’s power. And God sent you preachers, and God convinced you through powers and signs. There is nothing of which man should boast. All in your faith is from God. Glory in the Lord and boast in Him. And do not waver. For if you have such tangible testimony that our teaching is from God, then, having believed, stand firm in faith. Then the Lord arranged everything so that doubts and suspicions would find no support in the form of your belief. You cannot help but acknowledge that God so commands; and to God one must obey with all the soul. Behold what good God sent you, sending the preaching in simple speech but with the demonstration of the Spirit and power. Theodoret writes: “For this very reason the Master did not allow us to employ eloquence, that your faith might prove not subject to suspicions and fluctuations, as not aroused by the power of speech, but led by the power of the Spirit.”

Saint John Chrysostom speaks on this an extensive exhortation that applies to all times: “Do you see how clearly he presents the great benefit of simplicity and the great harm of wisdom? The latter debased the cross, the former proclaimed God’s power; this produced the result that men did not know what they ought to and boasted in themselves, while that disposed them to accept the truth and boast in God; wisdom led many to consider apostolic teaching human, while simplicity clearly showed that it was divine and descended from heaven. When proof consists of wise words, then often even the less worthy, being stronger in speech, triumph over the more worthy, and falsehood takes the place of truth. But it is not so here: the Holy Spirit does not enter an unclean soul, but having entered (one desiring purity) cannot be overcome, even if against it all the power of eloquence were arrayed; for proof through deeds and signs is far clearer than proof through words. But perhaps someone will say: if preaching must triumph and has no need for the power of speech, ‘let the cross not be nullified,’ then why have signs now ceased? Why?! Do you not believe, and think that they did not exist even in the Apostles’ time, or do you truly only want to know why? If you do not believe, I will dwell on this first. If signs were not then, then the Apostles, being persecuted, oppressed, subjected to fear and imprisonment, common enemies to all and hated by all, having in themselves nothing attractive, neither eloquence, nor nobility, nor wealth, nor renown in the city, among the people, by birth or by are, and nothing else like this, but having the opposite—ignorance, obscurity, poverty, simplicity, and abjection, and moreover rising up against entire peoples and proclaiming such truths—produced persuasion? Tell me, how? Their rules were not easy, their doctrines difficult to understand, and their listeners, whom they had to persuade, were given to pleasure, drunkenness, and great impiety. How did they convince? How did they gain trust? If they, as I said before, convinced without signs, then this is even a greater sign. So from the fact that there are no signs now, do not conclude that there were none then. Then they were useful, and now it is beneficial that there are none. However, from the fact that now persuasion is produced by the word alone, it does not follow that now preaching depends on wisdom. As the first sowers of the word were simple and uneducated and said nothing of themselves, but what they received from God they delivered to the universe, so also we now present not our own, but what we received from them we proclaim to all. And now we convince not by syllogisms but by testimonies of the Divine Scriptures, and by the signs of that time we lead to believe the proclaimed. However, the Apostles also then convinced not by signs alone but by discourse as well; only their words gained more power from signs and testimonies of Old Testament Scripture, not from the are of eloquence.”

The Lord spoke in parables—for what reason? For this reason, He says, that whoever has the seed of life from God can, even under the parabolic veil, behold the hidden treasure; and then, having become attached by faith to Him and entered into the company of disciples, received along with them the open explanation of what was hidden. The same was commanded to be done by the Apostle: to present to all the word of the cross simply, without adornment and reasonings of the mind. Whoever, despite this simplicity, approached faith and through baptism entered into the number of believers, who that is became a perfect Christian and not merely was instructed in Christian teaching, then heard within the full disclosure of Christian wisdom. On this now the Apostle speaks, explaining at the same time that it is impossible to act otherwise; for the understanding of Christian wisdom requires the grace of the Spirit, which is given within faith. Only the spiritual understand Christian wisdom; and the Spirit of God makes men spiritual.

The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10)

1 Cor. 2:6. We do speak wisdom among the mature; but it is not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.

This discourse on true wisdom stands opposed to everything the Apostle has said from the point where he declared that he was sent to preach the Gospel not in the wisdom of words (1 Cor. 1:17). There he said that God chose to draw people to salvation through the folly of preaching, and those who received the preaching were mostly foolish and of low standing in the world’s eyes, and he himself preached simply and only the simple word of the cross. Upon hearing this, anyone might have thought: surely Christianity contains nothing nourishing for the mind, it is meager in content, and its wisdom is not great. Against this the Apostle argues that the folly of preaching and all its humble circumstances were adopted by the Lord’s arrangement solely so that the wise might prove themselves through it. When such people are converted by the working of simple preaching, they are then enriched with a wisdom that is inaccessible to the children of this age.

What wisdom then do they hear? – The complete revelation of how salvation was accomplished by the Lord through the cross and death, and how this salvation is appropriated by those who turn to the Lord through faith; then, from what sources the arrangement of such a way of salvation proceeded, and what fruits it bears in all creation. The Apostle unfolds all this in his epistles, especially in the letter to the Ephesians and Colossians. Into the knowledge of our relationship with God they are led gradually by the grace of the Spirit under the condition of moral perfection. Here the spiritual, divine realm is revealed, and there is no end to such revelation. Our interpreters speak of this wisdom thus: “By wisdom the Apostle means the preaching of the Gospel and the way of salvation through the cross” (holy Chrysostom). “The preaching which was formerly called foolishness is indeed wisdom and is called wisdom for those who have received the true and perfect faith” (Theodoret). “By wisdom he means the preaching and the way of salvation, how they are saved through the cross” (holy John of Damascus), – “how through the cross all that is under heaven is saved” (Oecumenius). “For it is the work of the highest wisdom to destroy death by death” (Theophylact).

Whom does the Apostle mean by the mature? – This is understood in different ways. Setting these mature Christians in contrast to the catechumens, who are still preparing to become Christians, one must understand them to include all the faithful who have been baptized, received the grace of the Spirit through the laying on of hands (anointing with chrism), and partake of the holy mysteries of Christ. These divine mysteries were called the perfecting mysteries, for they perfected the Christian. One who received them was considered a mature Christian, and his concern thereafter was no longer how to become a Christian, but how to live and act as a Christian afterward, preserving the grace he had received. Others, in contrast to the mature with those infants in Christ who have only recently become Christians, understand by them those who have advanced in the Christian life and attained the higher degrees of it—passionlessness, the active working of the grace of the Holy Spirit, or tangible sanctification. It would seem that the latter understanding is more fitting here. Yet we must consider that in the early times those being converted approached the Lord with burning faith, with complete self-denial and willing readiness for all that might be required for His sake; wherefore the grace of God, descending into them through the mysteries, found the vessel of their heart prepared to receive it, and manifested its work in them without restraint. Spiritual perfections in them shone forth suddenly, and this transformation was evident to all. Based on this, the mature Christians of the Apostolic age cannot be placed so far from the beginning of their Christianity as is done now. Our interpreters proceed more carefully, understanding by the mature the true Christians, the faithful, the believing. Thus holy Chrysostom and others. Holy Chrysostom says: “By the mature he means the faithful. For indeed those are mature who know that all human things are very weak, who despise all these things and are convinced that they serve them not at all; and such are the believers.” – Holy Chrysostom means to say that these are believers who, having left all temporal and earthly things, have desired with mind and heart the heavenly, eternal, spiritual, divine things, and live not for the interests of this age, but for the sake of the age to come. Others write thus: “By the mature he means the faithful who, despising all things, soar toward the heavenly” (Theophylact). – “They give themselves to God” (Oecumenius).

“The wisdom of this age.” This is an earthly way of thinking that does not extend its knowledge beyond the visible, and in life limits itself to knowing how to conduct affairs so as to live in peace and plenty. Holy Chrysostom understands by this “the external wisdom which is confined to this present world and does not extend beyond it, and which cannot bring any benefit even here to those who possess it.”

“Nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.” This refers not only to persons in authority, but to all the directors and upholders of the established order in this age – the leaders of the world. “By the rulers of this age,” says Chrysostom, “he means here not demons, as some suppose, but men clothed with distinctions and authority, who consider this very important, philosophers, rhetoricians, and writers, who often wielded authority and were governors of peoples. He calls them rulers ‘of this age’ because their authority does not extend beyond the present age; wherefore he adds: ‘who are passing away,’ and thus shows the futility of external wisdom both by its own nature and by the nature of those who possess it. Having shown that it is false and foolish, that it cannot reveal anything, that it is powerless, he now shows that it is also temporal.”

1 Cor. 2:7. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages for our glory.

“God’s wisdom” is the pattern of the arrangement of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, with its originating principles and with its boundless consequences that will resound in all realms of created being, as holy Paul depicts in his letter to the Ephesians (1 Cor. 1:9–10). Its first outline is contained in the word of the cross, which is offered to catechumens, while believers are led into its fuller contemplation; the more perfect one is, the deeper one enters and the more one sees.

In what “mystery” is this wisdom “hidden”? – It was hidden in the mystery of the Godhead, and before its revelation no one knew it as it ought to be known. “Neither Angel nor Archangel nor any other created power knew it before it was revealed. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places’ (Eph. 3:10). Thus God honored us in that they heard it together with us” (holy Chrysostom).

“Mystery it is called also because in it we contemplate not what we see; but one thing we behold, and we believe in another. Such is the nature of our mysteries. I look upon them differently, the unbeliever otherwise. I hear that Christ became a servant, and I marvel at His providence; the unbeliever hears it and considers it shame. I hear that Christ was crucified and died, and I marvel at His love for mankind, I am astounded at His power – how He, having submitted to death, was not held by it, but even destroyed death; the unbeliever hears it and ascribes it to His weakness and powerlessness. Hearing of the resurrection, he calls it a fable; but I, assured by the very events, worship the economy of God. Hearing of baptism, he sees only water; but I see not only the visible, but also the invisible cleansing of the soul, accomplished by the Spirit. He thinks that only my body has been washed; but I believe that my soul also has become pure and holy, and I envision a tomb, resurrection, sanctification, justification, redemption, adoption as sons, inheritance, the Heavenly Kingdom, and the giving of the Spirit; for I look upon the visible not with mere sight, but with spiritual eyes. When the body of Christ is spoken of, I understand the words differently from the unbeliever. So too with respect to all mysteries: unbelievers, hearing of them, as it were hear not, but believers, being taught by the Spirit, understand the power of the hidden things. Therefore Paul says that ‘our Gospel is veiled, to those who are perishing it is veiled’ (2 Cor. 4:3). For some are natural men and do not understand, others have a veil on their heart and do not see” (holy Chrysostom).

And for this reason too this wisdom is a hidden mystery – that even now, when it has been entrusted to writing, it is understood only through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, without whom you read and understand nothing. But even if everyone understood it, they would know only part of it, not the whole. “A mystery is God’s wisdom,” says holy Chrysostom, “and this is why, although it is preached everywhere, it is not grasped by those who do not have a sound mind, and it is revealed not through wisdom, but by the Holy Spirit, as much as we are able to comprehend. Therefore one who, for this very reason, calls it an unknowable mystery does not err; for even we who believe have not been given complete and perfect knowledge, as Paul says: ‘we know in part’ (1 Cor. 13:9, 12).”

“Which God ordained,” he says, expressing by this the care of God for us. For ordinarily those are considered most solicitous and loving who have long been inclined to do good to us, as parents are with their children: they give them property later, but have been disposed to do so for a long time from the very beginning. So Paul here tries to show that God loves us from ancient times and always, even when we did not yet exist; for if He did not love us, He would not have destined riches for us. Therefore do not imagine hostility between Him and us: love is older than it. The words “before the ages” denote eternity, similar to what is said elsewhere: “He who is before the ages” (Ps. 54:20). – “For our glory,” “because He bestows not only salvation but also glory upon believers” (Theodoret). Glory in the future is the gift of the Kingdom; but it is preceded by glory here. This is the purification of our nature, its filling with the brightness of grace to such a degree that it not only becomes bright but also radiant – the glory of spiritual perfection in Christ Jesus.

1 Cor. 2:8. This is the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

By rulers of this age he means the same as before – those who guide and direct life according to the spirit of this age, according to the principles of human wisdom, whether they have authority or not, but are always influential and lead others by their influence toward ruin, whereas with better direction of their own they could lead them to good. He said before that the wisdom preached is not that which these rulers have; now he says more, that it is such that none of these rulers could or can understand it. So it is opposed to the spirit and the principles which these rulers maintain.

“For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Since he speaks generally, he mentions the crucifiers of the Lord only as representatives of the rulers of this age. There was Pilate – the representative of the rulers of this age from the Gentiles, and Herod and Caiaphas with the high priests and scribes – representatives of the rulers of this age from the Jews. And he speaks of the crucifixion as the most striking witness to the blindness of the rulers of this age, when, being face to face with Wisdom itself, they did not understand it. The crucifixion occurred in Judea, in Jerusalem, and could not have happened otherwise according to the prophecies and types that had been given; but by the nature of things, it could have happened anywhere. The rulers of this age everywhere are of one spirit, and what they did in Jerusalem, they could have done in any other place. The failure to understand the wisdom of God continues, and the crucifixion of the Lord of glory continues – all by the rulers of this age, those who guide life according to the spirit of this age and the leaders of human wisdom. For God’s wisdom is not beyond reach only for the rulers of that age, but generally for all of them, insofar as they are rulers of this age. And it is not only beyond their reach, but irritates them and is the object of their hatred, persecution, and oppression, which they practice at all times, whenever their wisdom finds suitable means and sees that this can be done without hindering their main goals, which they pursue – namely, peace and plenty in this life.

“The Lord of glory.” – They crucified the man Jesus, but as He was God incarnate, who is the Lord of glory, in crucifying Him they crucified the Lord of glory. So the Apostle speaks according to the unity of hypostasis in the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone might say, what blame is upon them? for they did so in ignorance. But their very ignorance was culpable; the Lord did not leave Himself without witness. The Jews had so many testimonies and proofs of who Jesus Christ is! He Himself said directly to them: “My Father has been working until now, and I am working,” and they understood that He was putting Himself on equal terms with God. And in parables He taught them wisdom, saying in one: the son would be shamed… and they also understood that He was speaking this parable to them. And through prophecies He instructed them: David calls Christ Lord – how is He his Son? And they were silent, because the answer led them directly to confessing Him as Lord of glory. And Pilate was not left without instruction either. What did those brief words mean when the Lord said to him, My kingdom is not of this world, and so on, if not instruction? This was especially the meaning of his wife’s dream. Thus all who crucified Him could have understood, but they did not. God’s wisdom was veiled here, and seeing they did not see. But why did they not have eyes to see – in this lay their guilt. For the fact that they were all steeped in the spirit of this age and wanted to know nothing except human reasoning – this was not something forced upon them, but was the fruit of their free choice. The spirit of this age is opposed to God’s wisdom, and the rulers of this age do not understand it, because they do not have that cast of mind, those tastes of heart, those plans for life. But as it was then, so it is always. And the rulers and sons of this age always fail to understand God’s wisdom and are ready to crucify it for the same reason – that it is beyond their comprehension and opposed to their principles.

1 Cor. 2:9. But as it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him.

“But” – a contrast. To what? – to the rulers’ age failure to understand. They did not understand: one might think that this is something not worth looking at. No, he says, it is not so. They did not understand through blindness; but in reality it is such a high good that there is nothing like it, nor has been, nor will be. “Since the Apostle mentioned the ignorance of the Jews and said that the mystery of the economy was hidden, it was necessary for him to add that what no one had heard, what no one ever saw or the most insatiable mind ever conceived, God has prepared for all those who have ardent love toward Him” (Theodoret).

“As it is written.” Where? There is no such place in the Old Testament writings. But the Apostle takes it from the spirit of all Scripture, or having drawn the thought from the spirit of Scripture, he took words for its expression from various places in it. For example: “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you” (Isa. 64:4). Or again: “So shall he startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand” (Isa. 52:15). Theodoret cites the first; holy Chrysostom points to the second, and perhaps it was written word for word thus, but that writing is lost. Thus holy Chrysostom settles this: “and thus it is said (that is, written) even when something is depicted not in words but in the very events themselves, or when the same thought is expressed, though not in the same words, as here. In this way, the Apostle either expresses this, or perhaps it was indeed written in the books, but the books themselves have been lost.”

By the words: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man,” he expresses the extraordinariness, the greatness, the excellence surpassing all expectation, the incomprehensibility and boundlessness of the goods granted to us in Christ Jesus, and of the very manner of their bestowal, or the economy of salvation. God becomes incarnate, assumes the form of a servant and is found in appearance as a man, humbles Himself even to death, even to death on the cross, and this is so that mankind, who transgressed against Him, might be justified, adopted as sons, spiritualized, deified, made not only bright but radiant, and still more, that all things might be gathered up in Him, whether earthly or heavenly. This is incomprehensible not only until its completion and manifestation in deed, but even after its manifestation and completion it remains boundless and beyond comprehension for all, save those who receive those goods and are brought into participation in them; and even they taste and see, but cannot comprehend it. All this is prepared, he says, “for those who love God” – that is, for those who, leaving all things, cleave to God with all their heart, and enter into heart-felt living communion and union with Him by the way indicated and prescribed by Him, the depiction of which also forms part of God’s wisdom, hidden before, but now revealed and made manifest to all.

Holy Chrysostom says: “What? Did the eye not see what God has prepared? – Indeed it did not see: for who among men saw the economy of God that was to be? Did not the ear hear, and did it not enter into the heart of man? Is this so? If the Prophets foretold it, how did the ear not hear and how did it not enter into the heart? It indeed did not enter. The Apostle speaks not only of the Prophets, but of all human nature. How then? Did not even the Prophets hear? They heard, but their prophetic hearing was not human hearing; they heard not as men, but as Prophets. Therefore Isaiah says: ‘The Lord gave me an ear to hear’ (Isa. 50:4), meaning the addition granted by the Spirit. From this it is evident that before they heard, it did not enter into man’s heart; for after the gift of the Spirit, the hearts of the Prophets were not human hearts, but spiritual hearts, as Paul himself says: ‘We have the mind of Christ’ (1 Cor. 2:16). The meaning of his words is this: before the Spirit was given to us and the unknown mysteries revealed, no one understood them – neither any of us nor the Prophets. And could it have been otherwise if even the Angels did not know them? What then are we to say of the rulers of this age, if no one among men and even the heavenly Powers did not know this? What? – That what appears as the folly of preaching will conquer the world, peoples will be converted, reconciliation of God with men will be accomplished, and such great goods will be bestowed upon us.”

1 Cor. 2:10. But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

The economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ was accomplished before the eyes of all; and no one understood it. The Apostles themselves, until they were assured of the Lord’s resurrection, were in great bewilderment from the crucifixion. It is natural to ask: but how do you now know the mysteries of this wise economy, and see what God has prepared for those who love Him? – The Apostle answers: “to us God has revealed it by His Spirit,” that is, by the Holy Spirit, for whom, as one of the Holy Trinity, nothing is hidden in the mysteries of the Godhead.

“To us.” To whom? – Evidently to the holy Apostles, and then through their guidance to all believers; for all are taught by the same Holy Spirit. He both brings about conversion and forms faith and strengthens in life and through the purification of the heart leads every Christian into the contemplation of God’s mysteries. In this respect, the Apostle contrasts us to the rulers of this age with all the sons of this age. Holy Chrysostom says: “How did we know this? ‘But to us,’ he says, ‘God has revealed it by His Spirit.’ Not by external wisdom, which, as a contemptible servant, is not permitted to enter within and see the Lord’s mysteries. Do you see what a difference there is between this wisdom and that? One taught us what even the Angels did not know; but external wisdom did the opposite: not only did it not teach, but served as an obstacle, and when everything had already been accomplished, darkened the events and despised the cross. Thus Paul honors us, showing that we not only learned, and moreover together with the Angels, but learned from the Spirit Himself. But at the same time he shows the importance of knowledge, giving us to understand that if the Spirit who knows God’s mysteries had not revealed this to us, we would not have known either. Thus God chose to keep this work in mystery. Therefore we needed such a Teacher who knows this clearly. Such is the Spirit of God. – ‘The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.’ Here the word ‘searches’ does not mean ignorance, but exact knowledge. He uses the same expression of God when he says: ‘He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit’ (Rom. 8:27) – he knows all things, that is, all that is and comes to be. But can it be that he does not know what is hidden in God?! – No, he knows even all that is hidden in the depths of Godhead – he searches the very depths of God – so that nothing remains hidden or concealed from him.”

The Spiritual Man Discerns All Things; We Have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11–16)

1 Cor. 2:11. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

The Apostle explains how the Spirit of God knows all the depths of God through a comparison comprehensible to everyone – what happens in the spirit of each man. Whatever occurs in the human spirit is hidden from outsiders through the body, yet the human spirit itself, being self-conscious, knows all of it and cannot help but know, even if it wished not to; for all of it occurs within itself. So the Spirit of God knows all things in God, because all that is in God is in Him, as being inseparable from the other Persons and one God. But does not the Son of God know all things? – He knows. And God the Father knows all things. Knowledge is undivided in the Godhead and belongs equally to all Persons. Yet holy Paul mentions the Spirit, because the discourse concerns Him, who reveals the mysteries of God. Or perhaps he indicates here the spirit of Divinity, which unites all hypostases in the single consciousness of the one Godhead, speaking in a human manner.

Yet the intention of Paul is not to introduce us into the mysteries of the Godhead, but to make clear that God’s things are known by no one except the Spirit of God. They are hidden from all creatures, and no one can grasp them by himself, no matter how high a place he holds in the ladder of creation. He said that the Holy Spirit revealed it to us. Now, lest anyone think: the Holy Spirit revealed it to you, but we shall reach the same place by another way, he adds: God’s things no one knows except the Spirit of God. There is no other way, therefore, to the knowledge of God’s wisdom, hidden in mystery, and there cannot be. Either learn from us, or remain outside, in ignorance and lack of understanding. And in following us, you will not be taught by us, but by the Spirit of God, who teaches all and enlightens all, whom the crucified Lord grants for the sake of faith.

1 Cor. 2:12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, so that we might know the things freely given us by God.

The Apostle was about to say: this very Spirit, who knows the depths of God and all things of God, we have indeed received; but since through contrast an affirmed thought becomes clearer, he first spoke of the spirit of the world – that it is not this spirit which we received, this spirit before whom the door to God’s mysteries is closed – and which, as it sits itself in darkness, so covers with darkness all who breathe even a little of it into themselves. And the princes of this age with the sons of this age are filled with a spirit which likewise knows depths, but not of God, but of Satan. Or Satan himself is this spirit of the world, who darkens the understanding of unbelievers so that the light of grace does not shine forth in them. In every way the spirit of the world here is not merely an idea – an outlook and undertakings of the sons of the world, the hopes that animate them, the goals they pursue, the customs and mores that govern all among them – but the spirit that holds sway over all this, sets all this in motion, and whirls about those who love the world. The contrast with the Spirit of God demands this understanding.

Not this spirit, but “the Spirit which is from God” we have received – from God – ἐκ θεοῦ – out of God, that is, the Spirit proceeding from God the Father. The Apostles received Him on the day of Pentecost. From them afterward all believers received Him through the laying on of hands (anointing with chrism). So it began, so it is even now. In communities where this mystery is absent, the Spirit of God is also absent. If without the Spirit of God there is no true knowledge of Christianity, then the consequence is evident. One may speak, but not in those taught by the Spirit.

“So that we might know the things freely given us by God.” “He Himself, the Spirit proceeding from the Father, has taught us the hidden mysteries” (Theodoret). “The Spirit of God is light, and we have received this light, so that being illuminated by it, we might behold what was hidden until now. What exactly? – That which has been given us by God, given according to Christ’s economy, that is, as He died for us, as He made us sons of God, and as He has seated us in Himself in the heavens at the right hand of the Father; so that those not having the Spirit do not know this” (Oecumenius). This divine knowledge indeed shone forth on earth from the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit, and even now it is preserved by Him in God’s Church and communicated by Him to the worthy. The Apostle speaks not only of himself and his time, but of Christians in all times. It was written in the books of the New Testament; anyone can read it and all is transmitted to catechumens before baptism. But true knowledge of all this is always communicated by the Holy Spirit. Strong faith and sincere devotion to God make the soul a parchment upon which the Spirit of God writes the mysteries of God.

1 Cor. 2:13. And we speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Holy Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

“Having spoken of the perfect knowledge of the Spirit, having shown that it equals the knowledge of God, as human knowledge equals itself, and having proved that we learned all from Him, the Apostle continues: ‘and these things we speak.’ Do you see how he has honored us with the dignity of the Teacher? We are as much wiser than the pagans as Plato is distant from the Holy Spirit. They have rhetoricians as their teachers, but we have the Holy Spirit” (holy Chrysostom).

Earlier he spoke of the subjects revealed by the Spirit, or the content of his preaching; now he speaks of the form in which the Apostles presented their teaching. “And these things we speak.” “These” – what we know through the Spirit, whom we received from God, that is, all the mysteries of the Kingdom, all the economy of salvation. “We speak” – we preach, we proclaim to all; “not in words taught by human wisdom,” not in the form of speech which human wisdom devised for transmitting its teaching to others. The thought here is the same as in the words: “not in persuasive words of human wisdom,” or: “not in the wisdom of words.” All verbal artistry, which the rhetoricians teach, is negated. The essence of this are consists in stirring the movements of the heart and passions through various turns and devices of speech, and through this gaining control of minds and inclining them to one’s side. Since all that is passionate can only be directed toward earthly, temporal, fleshly things, while God’s wisdom belongs entirely to the opposite realm; the devices of speech devised to arouse passions were not adopted by the Spirit in teaching God’s wisdom to men. We, he says, did not use them. We had our own methods. As the Spirit of God taught, so we spoke. The Spirit of God impressed certain truths upon us; these awakened certain concepts, and the concepts drew forth certain words. These words came from the sum of words at the disposal of the one to whom the truth was revealed, and the manner of speech was likewise awakened in accordance with what he was accustomed to, or what suited the one receiving the revelation. But when it came to presenting the teaching, he not only did not resort to the are of rhetoric, but gave no thought to the word at all. It flowed from the heart, moved by the Spirit, who impressed upon it the mysteries of the Kingdom. This is what the Apostle expressed by saying: “we speak… in words taught by the Holy Spirit.” The Lord promised the same, saying: “Do not be anxious how or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Matt. 10:19–20).

“Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” “Interpreting” – συγκρίνοντες. This verb means: to bring one thing alongside another so that they fit together. “Spiritual” – God’s wisdom, all truths impressed by the Spirit of God; “with spiritual” – with spiritual words, turns of speech, modes of expressing the revealed truths. Thus the Apostle says: for spiritual truths, bringing together the corresponding words and turns of speech, which likewise should be called spiritual. We never allowed ourselves to descend from that height to which contemplation, produced by the Spirit of God, lifted us, to find here, in the sphere of vain human wisdom, means for expressing divine truths. Although the Spirit of God moved the tongue of the Gospel-proclaimers, they did not lose their self-control and directed their speech consciously.

Holy Chrysostom explains where to find the necessary subjects for clarification. He says – from the types and prophecies. Here is his statement: “What does it mean: ‘interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual’? If concerning the spiritual there arises any perplexity, we bring forth explanations from spiritual subjects, for example: I say that Christ rose, that He was born of a Virgin, and for explanation I bring forth testimonies and types – the abiding of Jonah within the whale and his subsequent deliverance from it, the births of barren women – Sarah, Rebecca, and others, the sprouting of trees in paradise while seeds had not yet been sown, rain had not yet fallen, furrows had not yet been made. For future events were sketched out and foreshadowed, as it were in shadow, by earlier ones, so that they might believe in them when they were accomplished. I show further how man came from earth, how without any union a woman came from a single man, how earth itself came from nothing, how everywhere and in all things the power of the Creator was sufficient. Thus I explain the spiritual by the spiritual, and nowhere do I resort to external wisdom, to reasonings and inferences. The pagan sages strain and torment their weak reason and cannot at all explain what they speak of, but do the opposite – they bring greater confusion and increase darkness and perplexity.” Thus all our – Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact.

Theophylact, among other things, expressed also this thought: “interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual,” that is, offering spiritual truths to spiritual people, or reasoning about the spiritual with the spiritual; for only such can receive them. Πνευματικὰ πνευματικοῖς συγκρίνοντες… Πνευματικοῖς can also be translated in the dative case. Some modern interpreters have also adhered to this, and there has arisen the opinion that this is indeed what the Apostle meant to say here. To prefer such an opinion to the first might be going too far, but neither should it be completely disregarded. The following text gives it probability: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God,” as if called forth by what was said – that is, we strive to present the spiritual to the spiritual, or to reason about the spiritual with the spiritual, for they alone are able to receive it; the natural man does not receive the spiritual. It is implied: we do not even offer it to him. Thus the Saviour commanded: “Do not cast your pearls before swine.”

1 Cor. 2:14. The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

“The natural man” – he who wants to know everything by his own mind, and considers true only what appears so to him – he who arranges his life and all his undertakings by his own methods, relying on them alone as on a solid foundation – he who makes earthly peace and happiness the goal of life and converts all things into means to that end – he who has become so accustomed to the tangible and sensible that he does not even consider the invisible and spiritual to exist. “The things of the Spirit of God” – that which God’s wisdom offers, impressed upon us by the Spirit of God, is entirely opposite to this. It reveals dogmas which are accepted by faith contrary to reason, commands us to renounce all our own methods and entrust both our external life and especially our spiritual life into God’s hands, points to a goal beyond the grave, and to achieve it demands that we sacrifice earthly happiness, abundance, and peace, commands us to live as if we had neither body nor anything visible, but only the invisible, which to taste is to live.

Because of such opposition between the requirements of spiritual God’s wisdom and the disposition of the natural man, it is very natural that the latter accepts nothing from the requirements of the former. The proclamations of the Spirit are incomprehensible to him; they appear to him as folly, and he can understand nothing in them. For the natural man to accept and understand the spiritual and see wisdom in it, he must cease to be natural, or at least desire this. We have in our nature a spiritual element – spirit, breathed into the face of the first man. It is characteristic of it to fear God; it is the seat of conscience; it instils dissatisfaction with all created things. When the soul – the power entrusted with the management of earthly existence – gets the upper hand over spirit, the latter is stifled, but is never destroyed and is always present within, and immediately speaks when opportunity arises. When the Apostles set out to preach in order to proclaim the things of the Spirit of God and in words taught by the Holy Spirit, they encountered everywhere, especially among the Gentiles, chiefly natural men. On what then was the hope of success based, when the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God? – On this: that however natural a man might be, spirit lies hidden in him, which, under the action of graceful Gospel preaching, raised its voice in the natural man and compelled him both to listen and to consent to what he heard. And this to varying degrees. In some the spirit barely moved; in others it rose with such force that immediately conversion took place. But the one completely given to the natural resisted, stopped his ears, and fled from Apostolic preaching or rose up against it. The Apostle was everywhere a witness to this phenomenon and testifies that one absorbed in the natural does not contain the things of the Spirit, does not understand them, and does not accept them.

“Because they are spiritually discerned.” “Discerned” – ἀνακρίνεται – examined. In him in whom the natural movements and manifestations of spirit are not stifled, especially the fear of God and conscience, when listening to Apostolic preaching, he found in it a kindred element, was drawn to it with attention, examined it, and seeing how it corresponded to the requirements of his own spirit, cleaved to it, believed, and was renewed in the mysteries. From that moment he no longer examined the things of the Spirit of God with his spirit alone, but also with the grace that had vivified him and taken up dwelling in him. He entered the spiritual realm and the grace of the Spirit gradually led him into the knowledge of the things of the Spirit of God. And by such a person the spiritual is indeed examined spiritually. The natural spirit, aroused by the Gospel preaching, examined the spiritual only as a probability, as hope, but now he examines it as something actual, possessed, tasted.

1 Cor. 2:15. The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself judged by no one.

The Apostle compares the scope of the spiritual man and the natural man. Although he does not name the latter, it is evident that he means him by the one unable to judge the spiritual. The spiritual man, he says, examines, surveys, and determines all things – he examines his own spiritual realm, for he dwells in it, and thus knows it, as one ordinarily knows the house in which one lives; and he surveys and examines the natural realm, and understands it, for although he is no longer in it, he knows it well, because he suffered so long under its yoke; he knows all the workings of the natural and all that it depends on and what it aims at when it says one thing or another, when it undertakes this or that. From the first words he recognizes the natural and spiritual man and acts accordingly in his bearing toward them. The natural man, however, cannot understand the spiritual from any perspective, for the realm in which the spiritual man lives is to him an unknown land. He sees only that he is not like himself and that instead of expecting such a manifestation of him in a given case, something entirely different appears in him. And this is incomprehensible to him. He can neither understand nor explain to himself his way of thinking or his rules of life. To the natural man the spiritual is incomprehensible, is not judged by him. Here is what happens, for example, when in a two- or three-story building a man who has lived in the lower stories moves to the upper. He knows his story well, and he knows the lower stories, but those who live in the lower stories and who have had no opportunity to visit the upper ones know nothing of it and cannot make judgments about it.

Holy Chrysostom says: “He who sees sees all and even what pertains to him who does not see; but what pertains to him, no one among those who do not see perceives. So too here – we know both our own things and all that pertains to unbelievers, but they do not know ours. For we know what is the nature of present things and what is the dignity of future things, what will happen to the world afterward, what punishment sinners will bear and what the righteous will enjoy; we know that present goods have no worth, and we expose their vanity, while future goods are eternal and unchanging. The spiritual man knows all this, both what punishment the natural man will bear in the future life and what the believer will enjoy when he departs from here, whereas the natural man knows none of this.”

1 Cor. 2:16. For Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

He gives the reason why no one among the natural can understand and examine the spiritual man. For, he says, what is in the spiritual man is the mind of Christ – the spirit of Christ, the contemplations of Christ, the dispositions of Christ, the powers of Christ, the plans of Christ, the hopes of Christ – all is Christ’s. But the mind of Christ, the mind of the Lord, no one among the natural can understand, so that everything in it is clear to him. As none of them can understand this, they cannot understand the spiritual man either, because he has that same mind. The words: “Who…could instruct him?” – some refer to the mind of the Lord, thus: Who knows the mind of the Lord so as to understand it clearly and harmonize it with his own conceptions? (Theophylact). Some refer to the spiritual man, thus: Who understands the mind of the Lord so as to understand and examine the spiritual man? But in us, the spiritual, is the mind of Christ – that is, the Lord’s. The main thought remains the same in both interpretations of these words: the spiritual realm – with all that it contains, with the persons and subjects in it – is inaccessible to the natural man; he can understand nothing in it, neither how it is in itself nor how it manifests itself in persons living spiritually.

Here is what holy Chrysostom says to this:

“We have the mind of Christ, – that is, we know what is in the mind of Christ, what He desires and what He has revealed to us. Since the Apostle said above that the Spirit revealed to us, and lest anyone reject the Son, he adds that Christ also revealed, expressing not that we know all that Christ knows, but that all our knowledge is not human and thus subject to doubt, but is the knowledge of the mind of Christ and spiritual. The understanding which we have is Christ’s, that is, the knowledge we have of the objects of faith is spiritual knowledge, and therefore truly no one can judge us, for the natural man cannot know divine things. Therefore the Apostle said: “For who has known the mind of the Lord,” affirming that our understanding of these things is His understanding. And the words: “so as to instruct him?” – he added not in vain, but in correspondence with the words said above, “the spiritual man is judged by no one.” – Do you see how variously he refutes external wisdom and shows that the spiritual man knows more and better? It is only in this way (that is, having the mind of Christ) that we can see and know high, mysterious objects that are above us; and reason proved insufficient, because through worldly wisdom we cannot grasp what is above us. – “We have the mind of Christ,” – that is, spiritual, divine, having nothing human in it; Christ has communicated His knowledge to our understanding. And Christ Himself presents as proof of perfect friendship the fact that He revealed mysteries to us: ‘No longer’ he says, ‘do I call you servants…but I have called you friends…for all things that I have heard from the Father I have made known to you,’ that is, entrusted to you (Jn. 15:14–15). Now if even mere confidence serves as a sign of friendship, think what love He expressed by entrusting to us mysteries not in words alone, but by communicating them to us in deed. Let us be ashamed; and if the horror of hell does not frighten us too much, let it be more terrible than hell for us – to prove ungrateful and unthankful to such a friend and benefactor.”

Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

The second source of the divisions that separated the Corinthians was a misunderstanding about what the Apostles truly are in the work of preaching, and likewise all other teachers after them—and how one should judge them, from what perspective one must evaluate them. Holy Paul now clarifies both matters, directing his speech to instruct those who led the factions and controlled the parties. For this purpose, Holy Paul shows aa) that the Apostles are only workers in God’s field (chapter 3), and bb) that one must judge them not by any external standard, but by whether they are faithful to their calling and purpose (1 Cor. 4:1–16).

α) The Apostle makes the transition to this discourse from his previous thoughts. The natural person, he said, does not comprehend spiritual things. Therefore it is not fitting to offer him extensive teaching about this. For this reason, he says, I did not offer you the exalted, because you are still not spiritual. And that you are not spiritual is evident from your divisions (1 Cor. 3:1–4). You have clearly shown by this that you do not understand the spiritual order of things. Why did you divide yourselves according to men? Are we the sources of Gospel preaching and the producers of salvation? β) God ordains all things, and we are only His instruments (1 Cor. 3:5–9). Proceeding from this thought, the Apostle then makes γ) exhortations that instruct the leaders of the division.

1 Cor. 3:1. And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.

Having explained so fully the relation of outward wisdom to God’s wisdom, and of the natural soul’s life to the spiritual, Holy Paul has prepared for himself a firm point of support, and standing upon it, he now begins gradually to instruct those who have gone astray and turned from the path of truth following their own reasonings. To understand why Holy Paul now speaks of the fact that he could not offer the Corinthians exalted teaching, we must suppose that those who led the Corinthian divisions based their preference for, say, Apollos over Holy Paul on the fact that Holy Paul speaks simply and not high truths, unlike Apollos, who is both eloquent and learned. He surely argued powerfully from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 18:28). Setting aside the perfection of Apollos or anyone else, Holy Paul takes up one thing alone—why he himself did not offer them high truths—and explains that he truly did not offer them, but the reason for this lies not in him but in them. I could not, he says, proclaim to you high truths as I would to spiritual people, when you are carnal, or as I would to perfect men, when you are babes.

We proclaim the highest wisdom, but to the perfect (1 Cor. 2:6)—whether someone becomes such immediately upon baptism, or rises to such perfection gradually; only while someone remains imperfect do we not proclaim to him the highest truths. Such is our law—to proportion spiritual discourse to the spirituality of those who hear (1 Cor. 2:13), so as not to waste the labor of sowing when the field is not prepared to receive the seed and make it grow. To act as I acted among you was required by my Apostolic duty. “I did not remain silent because I could say nothing more to you, but because you ‘were carnal.’ (Holy Chrysostom).”

In what sense carnal?—In the sense that they had not yet entirely freed themselves from carnal and natural ways of thinking and aims. They had already believed, had already received baptism, had come alive in the Spirit; but the carnal and natural reasoning was still alive in them and intruded into the spiritual realm, as is evident even in their use of extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. “The Apostle called the Corinthians carnal because they were attached to this present life, desired what is glorious according to human opinion, and paid attention to wealth and eloquence (external advantages).” (Blessed Theodoret).

The Apostle called them carnal; but to show that this carnality is not such as among the unbaptized, he adds that they are “babes in Christ.” Among the unbaptized there is not even the beginning of spiritual life, but in them it exists; they have already been reborn in the Spirit, but the new man born in them is still in infancy, and around him the manifestations of carnal and natural life still break through; only these must grow smaller and cease entirely, while that must grow and mature. “Because what was said (that is, that they are carnal) could wound them, softening the blow by a certain likeness, he says: ‘as babes in Christ,’ that is, you are still carnal, like newborns and imperfect.” (Theodoret).

If Holy Paul, living with them for a year and a half, could not succeed in moving them toward perfection in spiritual life, then it must be recognized as certain that outward cultivation, polish of life, refinement of worldly customs and tastes—in which the Corinthians distinguished themselves—serves as the greatest obstacle to Christian perfection, hindering those who strive for it with carnal ideas and views, and in others extinguishing even the very zeal for it.

Holy Chrysostom resolves at this point the question of how they could have so many spiritual gifts, as is mentioned below—and having resolved it, makes an application to those who perform the mysteries, which is edifying to recall at all times: “But how does he call carnal those people who received so many gifts of the Spirit and whom he at the beginning of the letter praised with such praises?—In exactly the same way that those were carnal to whom the Lord said: ‘Depart from me, I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness’ (Matt. 7:23), even though they cast out demons, raised the dead, and uttered prophecies. Consequently even one who performed signs could be carnal. Thus God acted even through Balaam, revealing the future (in a dream), and also through Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, and Caiaphas prophesied, not knowing what he said, and some others cast out demons in the name of Christ, though they themselves were not Christ’s; because all this happens not for those who perform it, but for others. Often this was done through the unworthy. It happens that leaders are evil and intemperate, while subordinates are good and temperate; laypeople live piously, while priests live wickedly; and if grace always sought the worthy, there would be neither baptism, nor the performance of the body of Christ, nor offerings. But now God acts even through the unworthy, and the grace of baptism suffers no harm whatever from the life of the priest, for otherwise the one receiving would also suffer harm. Although this happens rarely, it does happen. I say this so that if anyone observing the life of the priest should not be scandalized concerning the mysteries performed by him. Man brings nothing of himself into them, but all this is the work of God’s power; He acts upon you in the mysteries.”

1 Cor. 3:2. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able, nor are you able now.

“Milk” the Apostle calls the beginnings of Christian teaching, and “solid food”—the full impartation of God’s wisdom, hidden in mystery. The former is fitting for babes in Christ, and the latter for perfect men. Since you are still babes, I have imparted to you only the beginnings of teaching, and nourished you with it, as one nourishes children with milk. “I proportioned the teaching, he says, to the weakness of hearing and imitated a father who gives to newborn babes food proportioned to their age.” (Theodoret).

What is milk and what is solid food in Christian teaching? One commentator, answering this, says: “milk” is the factual side of the economy of salvation, and “solid food” is the ascent to the foundations of why it is so, and the drawing out of the consequences flowing from it. This can be accepted. For the believer, approaching the Lord, must believe that God, worshipped in Trinity, created the world and provides for it; that He, having created man in His image and likeness, placed him in paradise for a blessed life; that he fell, and from his fall is raised up only by the Son of God incarnate, who, having become incarnate, died on the cross and thereby saved the fallen; that the believer, being baptized, enters into communion of this death and receives new life, in which with the help of grace, amid sorrows and deprivations, in struggle against passions and lusts, abiding faithful to the Lord through keeping His commandments, becomes worthy of this, that at the Lord’s second coming He will glorify him with Himself in the Kingdom of Heaven. Such sketches of the whole economy of salvation Holy Paul often makes in his letters. And it may be supposed that this served for him as a symbol which he taught to all when catechizing them for the first time in the calling to faith and salvation. This is surely what he also taught the Corinthians, and now calls milk. Here indeed all facts are contained, some already accomplished, some yet to be accomplished. When Christian contemplation deepens in them and reaches their foundation, and passes through to the consequences, then the solid food of spiritual wisdom will be obtained—wisdom whose teaching the Apostle refrained from in Corinth.

“You were not yet able.” That they were not able then is not surprising, for they had only just approached the Lord; but that even “now” (when the epistle was written) “you are not able,” this compels us to suppose great obstacles to spiritual progress in the arrangements of ordinary Corinthian life. Perhaps these are the same as in all capital cities and generally in large cities—an excessive development of carnal, self-indulgent life. They were advancing in outward wisdom, while falling behind in the spiritual—is it not because these two do not coexist well? For five years already as Christians, yet still children! Since the Apostle speaks thus, we must suppose it was truly so—that the Corinthians neither could then nor can even now (at the time of writing the epistle) accept the lessons of God’s spiritual wisdom. Holy Chrysostom says: “If they were not able at the beginning, this may have depended on the nature of the subjects themselves, though such an excuse, as he proved, they cannot present; for because, he says, the subjects were incomprehensible for them, was it that they themselves were carnal. However, in the beginning this was not yet so culpable; but to have failed to attain knowledge of perfect subjects over such a long time—this is already a sign of extreme negligence.”

1 Cor. 3:3. For you are still carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife, are you not carnal, and walking as mere men?

He said that they are not yet able to accept the lessons of the highest Christian wisdom; now he points to why he judges thus. Because, he says, you are still carnal, and that you are carnal is evident from the fact that passions operate in you—envy, rivalry, strife. And in the epistle to the Galatians, enumerating works of the flesh, he sets among them “rivalries, jealousies, outbursts of anger” (Gal. 5:20). Therefore he now says to the Corinthians: if these passions operate in you, are you not carnal? and are you not walking according to man? According to man, that is, according to fallen, corrupted man, according to the stirrings and demands of fallen, corrupted nature. The most palpable trace and sign of corruption is passion; they arose as a consequence of the fall in the pure and passionless nature of man. The grace of the Spirit comes to destroy them and purify our nature from them; but it does not destroy them by itself, rather it aids the will, which alone cannot succeed in this matter. As the will, even having received the Spirit, does not rise against its passions with equal fervor, passions melt and evaporate quickly in some, slowly in others. For this reason even one who has received the Spirit appears passionate, because he does not resist them with his whole soul. While such an inner order persists, a person is carnal and passionate. But when he makes passions completely silent with the help of grace, then the grace of the Spirit shines forth in him, and he appears spiritual. Such a one is the fitting vessel for the mysteries of God’s wisdom.

The envy, rivalry, and strife the Apostle means are those which manifested themselves on account of the divisions. Because of this they quarreled with one another, strove with all their might to prove the superiority of their side, and envied when one succeeded in out-arguing the other. “All this proves, he says, that you do not think about anything spiritual, but are attached to the earthly.” (Theodoret). “He could have rebuked them for adultery and intemperance, but he especially points to that sin which he now strives to eradicate. From this we are taught, as Christ justly said, that ‘everyone who does evil hates the light’ (Jn. 3:20), that an unclean life hinders the understanding of great truths, not allowing reason to display its faculty of thought. He who leads a vicious life cannot rise to the understanding of our dogmas, but everyone who seeks to grasp the truth must purify himself from all passions. Whoever purifies himself from them will be freed from error and will know the truth. Do not think that for this it suffices for you only not to be covetous and not to commit adultery; no, whoever seeks truth must have united in him all virtues.” (Holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 3:4. For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not carnal?

This is what the strife is about and what the rivalry concerns! It seems as though their zeal revolves in the spiritual realm, but what was kindling this zeal was entirely of the carnal sort. Everyone was zealous only to maintain their own position, whatever the cost: truth was set aside. They strove so as not to lose face. Self-will moved everything, and it is the source of carnality. Holy Chrysostom says: “Here he turns to the subordinates; in the preceding words (ch. 2) he exposed the leaders and said that eloquent wisdom has no value, and now he exposes the subordinates and shows that this (I am of Paul, of Apollos) not only brought them no benefit or gain, but closed the path to receiving the higher, for it produced envy; envy made them carnal, and when they became carnal, they became incapable of understanding higher matters.”

1 Cor. 3:5. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each?

“Having explained and proved his thought, he now openly turns to their condemnation.” (Holy Chrysostom). I came to you with preaching, then Apollos came. We did not act of ourselves; but you, being carnal, fixed your attention on what was before your eyes—on me and Apollos; and as we were not equal in our personal qualities and one pleased some more, the other pleased others more, naturally some clung more to one, others to the other. If you, passing by us, had paid more heed to our teaching, then, finding no difference in it, you would not have disagreed with one another. And you would be even more united if you thought only of Him who entrusted us with the preaching and brought it to you. You would see then that we are only servants, servants of God as executors of His commission, and your servants as having brought you the gift of salvation. We are the instrument in God’s hands through which you believed. “Of course, this too is important and worthy of attention and respect, but in comparison with the original and source of blessings—it is nothing. For not he is the benefactor who serves in the distribution of blessings, but he who imparts and bestows them. He did not say: those who brought you to faith, but: ‘through whom you believed,’ so that, again, also to those who believe to give what is due, and to show who are servants (and that belief came apart from them, not without action from above). ‘And to each one as the Lord gave.’ And this small thing (service of the Gospel) depended not on themselves, but on God who gave it to them (and in the measure He gave). But surely, could they say, we ought not to love those who serve us? Thus he speaks, but one must know to what degree, for their work does not come from themselves, but from God who gave it to them.” (Holy Chrysostom).

By these words the Apostle wishes to turn their attention away from himself and Apollos and transfer it to the Lord, from whom both the Gospel comes, and their commission with preaching, and the very faith of the Corinthians. And this simple truth was not well understood and assimilated by them because of their carnal view of Gospel preachers and their vain valuing of persons by the measure of outward wisdom and external appearance and prominence.

1 Cor. 3:6. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

He explains what the Lord gave each of them to do in planting faith in the Corinthians. “I,” he says, “sowed the word; and so that the seeds would not dry up from afflictions, Apollos added something from his side; but all was the work of God.” (Holy Chrysostom). “Success depends on God’s grace.” (Theodoret). Those listening hear the preaching and in desire incline to receive it. God seals this desire with grace, and it becomes deed. To those who have received faith lies the life according to faith, and it is impossible without God’s grace. Desire brings one to earnest action, and throughout all the time of action upholds patience in labors according to it—both generally in life and in every particular deed and undertaking—it is God. If growth in spiritual life is determined by action, then it is evident why the Apostle says: “God gave the increase.” But what increase, when they are still carnal?—First, faith: for in faith they were strong; second, to a certain degree also life according to faith. For the moral deficiencies mentioned by the Apostle concerned particular persons: in the community, on the other hand, in them there manifested themselves impulses toward a more perfect life, as is evident from their question about celibacy. We can also say thus, that the Apostle does not determine in them a high degree of spiritual growth, but only wishes to impress that all that is good and spiritual in them—all of that God grew in them, while he and Apollos were only instruments of sowing good seeds, which they themselves received from God.

1 Cor. 3:7. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who makes it grow.

“For without God’s working together, labor is in vain” (Theodoret). This is why “the Apostle refers everything to God, who gave all” (holy Chrysostom), – “teaching that to Him alone should we attend, and to Him refer all that is established as good in us” (Theophylact). The one who plants and the one who waters – are not anything decisive and exclusively important in the matter of bringing about your salvation. Their labor is not nothing, as he will say later, but your conversion to faith and your establishment in it was worked out among you not by their power. We spoke the word, but grace came with the word and brought forth faith in you. We accomplished the mysteries for you, but grace took up dwelling in you and became your indweller not from our action, but from God’s arrangement (Augustine, *On the Grace of Christ*, Bk. 1, ch. 25).

1 Cor. 3:8. The one who plants and the one who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

“Are one” – as instruments through which God works. And He can make even a donkey speak and stones cry out, if that should be necessary. “He calls them one in the respect that they can do nothing without God who makes things grow” (holy Chrysostom). “Because both alike serve God’s will” (Theodoret), which works through them, not insofar as one is such and another is different, but insofar as it pleases Him.

“But although they are one in relation to God’s work, they are not one in their labors” (holy Chrysostom). “Not simply,” he says, “according to the accomplishment of the work, but according to the labor in the work. One often with ease brings two hundred to the Saviour, while another, having undertaken great labor, frees one or two from deception. The same can be seen with respect to fasting and chastity. One, helped by nature, advances in chastity without difficulty; another, struggling with natural inclinations, achieves the desired end with great effort. One, having a passionate temperament, waits for evening with great suffering without tasting food; another goes two or three days without food and yet does not suffer much labor. Therefore the just Judge looks not at the deed but at the labor” (Theodoret).

What consolation is expressed here for those laboring over something good, in themselves or others, and not seeing success! – Holy Chrysostom sees the very purpose of the Apostle’s adding these words in this: to remove from those who achieved much without great labor any occasion for boasting, and to provide consolation for those who labored much and achieved little, and to encourage all to labor for their own good and that of others. Labor: the measure of labor is the measure of reward.

1 Cor. 3:9. For we are coworkers with God; you are God’s field, God’s building.

He shows the reason why labor is valued. Because we are coworkers with God. It pleased Him to choose us as instruments for bringing about your salvation and that of others; He values our labor because through it His fatherly will to save all is fulfilled. “We who teach,” he says, “are coworkers with God, working together with His intention, who wills to save all; but we are not the makers or givers of salvation itself. Neither should you despise us as coworkers with God, nor should we be puffed up; for all is God’s” (Theophylact).

We are coworkers with God, and you are God’s field – γεώργιον – God’s field, but not lying idle; it is being tilled; you are God’s cultivation. God’s field belongs to God and is tilled by God. – To this comparison, begun earlier, he adds a new one – with a building. You are God’s building – οἰκοδομή – not finished and standing idle, but a building in the process of construction; you are God’s structure being built. – From this it follows: therefore you should refer all things to God, and consider yourselves God’s, not Paul’s or Apollos’s. “If you are God’s field, then you ought to bear the name not of the tillers but of God, for a field is called by the name not of the farmer but of its owner. ‘You are God’s building.’ And likewise a building belongs not to the builder but to the owner… If you are a building, then you should not break apart into factions; otherwise there will be no building. If you are a field, then you should not be divided, but enclosed by a single fence of like-mindedness” (holy Chrysostom).

This explanation of the meaning of the holy Apostles was meant to sober both those who promoted the factions and those who were carried away by them. They probably imagined the Apostles to be philosophers who invented their own philosophy and gave their name both to the philosophy and to the followers; the Apostle showed that such an understanding does not apply to them, and by this cut away the foundation on which the factions stood. This is similar to what came before: “Was Paul crucified for you?”

At the transition to these instructions, holy Paul to his previous comparison, by which he explained his and other Apostles’ significance – that of a farmer and a sower of the field – added another – a builder, constructing a building according to the instructions of the master. From the first comparison one could extract the needed instruction, but from this it is more convenient, and the ideas it presents are more accessible to all; therefore it was taken by holy Paul as the starting point for the instruction. You, he says to the Corinthians, are God’s building. I and others like me are God’s workers in building you into this structure, or each one of you into the building.

To more clearly understand the further flow of the Apostle’s thoughts in instructing those who promoted the factions, one must bear in mind that when holy Paul was in Corinth, he not only laid the foundation but also erected the building; for each of the Corinthians was already a complete Christian, and all together constituted a true Church of God; therefore he said earlier: you are a building, and later will say: you are a temple of God. But in spiritual construction things proceed in such a way that each preceding state serves as a foundation for the following one, although in its essence it represents a complete building. Therefore at each moment of the building one can say: I laid the foundation, and can say: you are a temple, that is, a complete building. Thus holy Paul does: he first looks at his work of establishing the Church in Corinth as the laying of the foundation (1 Cor. 3:10–15), and then as a complete building (1 Cor. 3:16–17). By both he makes powerful exhortations to the leaders of the factions and to those led by them. Let us say, he says, that I only laid the foundation. You should look to see what kind of foundation it is, so that you can select materials according to it. One can build with solid materials and build with non-solid materials, such as: wood, straw, reeds. If you build with these latter, the fire of judgment will come and burn it all up; nothing will remain for you, and you yourselves will not escape unscathed (1 Cor. 3:10–15). The factions that arose there were indeed straw, yet they gloried in them, thinking they had built something magnificent. But the Apostle does not make application word for word, but gives it to those who should understand to grasp themselves. Understanding what such speech was about, they should have been struck with fear. But this fear should have grown even more from the following words. Why, the complete building was established there by me (1 Cor. 3:16–17). You took it upon yourselves to add to it and build it up further. When this is done with skill, it is good; but one can, taking on the work without skill, destroy the building. But this building is not an ordinary one – it is God’s, and whoever destroys God’s temple, God will destroy (1 Cor. 3:17). Holy Paul does not make application word for word here either. Those to whom the speech pertained could not but understand what it was about.

If they understood – and they could not fail to understand – then at the same time they should have abandoned the factions and returned to the simplicity of evangelical confession. Having placed them in such a position, holy Paul γγ) finally strikes down their wisdom, saying as if: that is how you must throw away the wisdom of this age. Everything you have built is from it; it is by its nature hostile both to God and to divine orders of things (1 Cor. 3:18–20). This is directed at the leaders; then to all he applies a concluding exhortation: and you also should not fix your attention on any of men or on anything human. All things around you exist for you, to lead you to Christ. Once led – stay in Him, not blocking communion with Him by placing human persons between. The whole matter is to be with Christ, and through Christ – with God. You are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s (1 Cor. 3:21–23).

Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)

1 Cor. 3:10. By the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I laid the foundation, and another builds upon it; but let each one take heed how he builds.

“You are God’s building”, he said. But God built you into a building through me, as His fellow worker. Furnished with His gracious aids—that is, with the knowledge of the wisdom of God, with moral strength, and with the gift of miracles—I, as a builder who knows his craft, laid the foundation of the building that is you, God’s building, and raised it to a certain fullness. But all that I did may be reckoned only as the laying of the foundation. And let us take this as the starting thought: suppose I laid the foundation, and another builds upon it and raises the structure. To what is this builder-upon obliged first of all?—To attend carefully and to make sufficiently clear to himself how the building ought to be raised. Though only the foundation was laid by me, yet in it the full design of the building is already given. In material buildings the foundation indicates only the outward form of the structure, but in spiritual ones it is not so: here the foundation foreshows both the plan of the whole building, and its character, and the materials of which it is to be built. Whoever undertakes to build must understand all this well, and then with all attention raise the structure: “let him take heed how he builds”.

Why this discourse becomes clear afterward. Here the Apostle fixes attention only on this, to make the one who has undertaken to raise the building stop and consider whether he has properly understood what and how he must do, having begun the building upon a ready foundation, and one, moreover, that indicates everything. Having founded the Church in Corinth, the Apostle went to another place; after him Apollos came and continued the building up of the Church. Apollos carried on the work entirely in the spirit of the holy Apostle Paul, and therefore faithfully and blamelessly. It is not him that St. Paul has in view. But when Apollos too had departed from there, there arose from among the local sages those more capable, more educated, and more talkative than the rest, and they set themselves up as leaders of the lesser brethren. It is at them that he aims. Yet at the same time, since every Christian is a little model of the Church, and has likewise received from the Apostle a foundation for building up salvation in himself by faith in the Lord, everyone too was to see in this a good reminder to himself: take heed how you build. St. Chrysostom indeed says: “Here, it seems to me, he turns them toward the labors of life”. Oecumenius continues: “He calls them to a worthy life, naming the activity of each a building-up. And let each take heed how he builds upon the foundation laid, that is, having faith, and Christ Himself, so as to do good works”.

In the words “as a wise master builder” the thought is not that he calls himself wise—there is only a comparison here: when some wise master builder lays a foundation, he lays the proper, firm, very best foundation. Just such a foundation I too laid, or rather God through me; for all that I do, I do according to the grace given to me. The stress of the thought falls not on the wisdom of the one laying the foundation, but on the firmness of the foundation, or its unalterableness—on the fact that a foundation has been laid which cannot be changed, for it is the only one in the spiritual building. Of this he speaks at once. But even if we grant that he called himself wise, this too is not in the sense that he “exalts himself, but he sets before them an example and shows that it belongs to the wise to lay one (single) foundation. And see how even here he preserves humility. Having called himself wise, he did not ascribe this to himself, but first gave himself wholly to God, and only then so named himself: by the grace, he says, of God, given to me. At the same time he suggests that all is God’s” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 3:11. For no one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

As a wise architect lays the very best foundation, which cannot be replaced by a better, so I laid in you such a foundation as no other can be. The only foundation of the spiritual building of the Church and of believing souls is the one I laid, that is, Jesus Christ. This is the same as: “there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved”. Or, as above: “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified”. The whole mystery of the faith is in this. Briefly it may be described thus: God, worshipped in Trinity, saves us in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, incarnate and dead upon the cross; those who believe in this are, through baptism, brought into communion with this crucifixion-death and, receiving full forgiveness, are granted the firstfruits of the renewal of the spirit; then, having taken up His dwelling in it, the Spirit of God leads the one being renewed—through the labors of good-doing, through the struggles of self-denial and self-mortification, and through the good-hearted endurance of all that befalls—to complete renewal, that he may be able to stand wholly pure and blameless before the face of the Lord on the day of His second coming. The foundation of salvation, therefore, lies in mystical union with the crucified Lord, and then in the ordering of such a life as would be wholly a co-suffering with the Lord. By this the holy Apostle said to the leaders: this is where the mind of all must be directed, to this must desires and undertakings be roused; and this is what you all must care for, how to abide in union with the crucified Lord, through co-crucifixion with Him—by the crucifixion of the passions and lusts, and by the bearing of one’s own cross.

“Let us build, St. Chrysostom teaches, upon this foundation and hold fast to it, as a branch to the vine, and let there be no division between us and Christ; for if we are separated from Him, we shall immediately perish. The branch draws sap into itself because it is joined to the vine, and the building stands because it is bound together (to the foundation and to itself); but what is torn away perishes, because it rests on nothing. Therefore let us not merely hold to Christ, but cleave to Him; for if we are separated, we shall perish. Those who remove themselves far from You shall perish, says the Scripture (Ps. 72:27). Let us cleave to Him, and cleave by deeds; for he who keeps My commandments, He says, abides in Me (Jn. 14:20–21). He (the Apostle) instills union with Him by many comparisons. Look: He is the head, we the body—between head and body can there be any distance? He is the foundation, we the building; He is the vine, we the branches; He is the bridegroom, we the brides; He is the shepherd, we the sheep; He is the way, we those who walk; we are the temple, He the dweller; He is the firstborn, we the brethren; He is the heir, we the co-heirs; He is the life, we the living; He is the resurrection, we those who rise; He is the light, we the enlightened. All this signifies union and admits of no division, not even the least. For whoever has separated a little will afterward separate much. So the body, receiving even a small wound from a sword, is corrupted; a building, cracking even a little, collapses; and a branch, broken from the root even a little, becomes useless. Thus this little is already not little, but almost everything. Therefore, when we err in anything of this kind, or feel slothful, let us not despise this little, because, if left in neglect, it will soon become great. So a garment, if it begins to tear and is left in neglect, tears entirely; and a roof, if it is stripped of a few tiles and left in neglect, brings down the whole house”.

1 Cor. 3:12–13. But if anyone builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw: each one’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed by fire; and the fire shall test each one’s work, of what sort it is.

Having pointed out the foundation and, in it, the plan, scale, and character of the building, the Apostle does not touch further on these matters, because for his purpose it was enough to fix attention only on the materials of the building. These materials he indicates not by name but metaphorically, leaving the intelligent free to understand for themselves what is meant. It is clear only that he wished to signify durable materials and non-durable ones. The durable are gold, silver, and precious stones; the non-durable are wood, hay, and straw. There is no need to inquire what precisely the Apostle means by each of them in particular; it is enough to determine what is durable and what is not. Durable is what is in accord with the foundation; non-durable is what is not in accord with it. For the foundation itself is so firm that it can neither be moved nor replaced; therefore everything in accord with it will also be solid and durable.

But first we must determine what is to be understood by the building-up—the teaching of the teachers, or the life of each Christian? By the Apostle’s aim, it would be nearer to understand the teaching of the teachers; but since he speaks in general terms, it is not strange that he wished to instill both—to the teachers, that they teach soundly, and to each Christian, that he live as he ought. Theodoret writes: “Some maintain that this is said by the Apostle concerning doctrines, but I think he says it concerning active virtue”. So in his time opinions were divided. St. Chrysostom, on the words “let each take heed how he builds”, said: “Here, it seems to me, he turns them toward the labors of life”. But then, explaining the meaning of the foundation laid, he says: “The Apostle’s words signify the following: I proclaimed Christ, I gave you the foundation; see how you build upon it—is it not with the aim of drawing the disciples away from Him and attracting them to certain men? Let us then not be carried away by heresies”. From this it is clear that St. Chrysostom understood by the building-up both the teaching and the teachers, and the life of the believers. Although he afterward speaks preferentially of the latter, this was required by the aims of his homilies, which are always moral.

What teaching, then, is durable?—That which develops directly from the foundation laid and is established upon it. That is, when the teachers strive to explain to their disciples only this: how salvation was accomplished and how to be saved—that is, how God created us and set us in paradise, how we fell, how the merciful God did not leave us in our fall but was pleased to accomplish salvation for us, not sparing His only-begotten Son; how the Son of God came to earth, was incarnate, suffered, and died on the cross for our salvation; how He then rose, ascended into the heavens, and sent down the Holy Spirit for the ordering of the salvation of each person; how these persons are called to salvation by the grace of God, are mystically made partakers of the Lord’s death, and, receiving new life, are led to perfection through voluntary and involuntary privations and sorrows, and through death are conducted into the realm of the inaugural blessedness with the Lord. Whoever teaches all this, and moreover just as it is set forth in the New Testament, prefigured in the Old, explained by the holy fathers, and held by the holy Church—teaching simply, clearly, having in view this one thing, to build up the souls of the hearers—his teaching is durable, like gold, silver, and precious stones. But whoever, in teaching, though he does not violate the doctrines, yet teaches about extraneous subjects that only stuff the head and rouse a proud opinion of learning—both in himself and in those who listen to him—or who, in teaching, sets forth the matters of faith more by the reasonings of the mind than as they are delivered in revelation, as if they derived their force precisely from these reasonings—or who, teaching about the Christian life, tries by every means to cover over the obligatory severity of this life, introducing self-indulgence and comfort instead of the cross, and thereby making void the cross of Christ—whoever teaches so and the like, his teaching is not durable: it is hay, straw, brushwood. To this belong also the talk of the Corinthian parties—petty, the fruit of levity and idleness.

Whose life is durable?—That of the one who, having been mystically joined to the death of Christ and having received new life in Christ, and strengthened in his heart by the grace of the Holy Spirit, knows how to enter ever more deeply into co-crucifixion with the Lord, indulging self-love in nothing, constantly crucifying the flesh with its passions and lusts, ready sooner to die than to indulge himself in anything, or to violate in anything even the least commandment he is aware of—and doing all this not out of any fear, but out of love for the Lord who was crucified and who by His death granted us life. Whoever is so disposed, his rules of life and his deeds are gold, silver, and precious stones. But whoever, without openly violating the commandments, though he leads an orderly life, yet has no care to keep his heart pure for the Lord, and for that reason to be at war with himself and, as an aid to it, to hold himself in the struggles of self-denial—and therefore denies himself none of the comforts and pleasures possible on earth and introduced by the spirit of this age into the order of life, not regarding them as contrary to the cross of Christ, which every Christian is bound to bear—his rules of life and deeds are not durable. They are hay, straw, brushwood.

It should be noted that in this half of the exhortation (1 Cor. 3:10–15) the Apostle does not oppose to sound teaching of teachers and truly Christian life of Christians false teachers and obvious sinners, but such teachers who hold to the foundation laid and labor on this foundation to raise the building of teaching, except they take non-durable material—learning not related to the work and the like—and such Christians who do not want to destroy their souls but suppose they are saving it and do works of practical necessity for it, that is, they also raise the building of salvation, but in this also refuse themselves nothing—their material is hay and straw.

“Each one’s work will become manifest.” Now it is not visible, he says. And teachers enjoy glory, and respectable Christians enjoy honor. But the day will come when all will be brought to light. Each one’s work will be manifested—that which he has built on the foundation of faith received—the teaching built by teachers, and the works built by all Christians for salvation. “For the Day will declare it.” This is the day of judgment. The appearing of the Lord for judgment is depicted as preceded by a fiery river. It is a sign of the impartiality of the judgment, from which nothing can be hidden, and all that is uncovered will receive a righteous, impartial evaluation, and then a recompense. This is what the Apostle also expresses, saying that day “will be revealed by fire: and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.” The Apostle represents such a picture, that everyone must pass through the fire preceding the Lord, so that, standing before Him, he may receive a reward. This fire that is passed through will test each one’s work—what it is, whether durable or non-durable. Here is a figurative expression of the fact that God’s judgment will precisely determine what each one’s deeds are worth.

1 Cor. 3:14–15. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

What a picture! Each one, whatever house he has built for himself on the foundation of faith, in that he lives, both here and beyond the grave; in that will he stand before the fiery river flowing before the Lord. It will roll over each one. Whose house remains intact when the fire passes through it will receive a reward from the Lord the Judge; and whose is burned, he will “suffer loss,” that is, see that all his labor was vain: he labored in vain, cherished a futile hope, deceived himself, thinking he was building rightly. It is evident whom the Apostle means by these latter and whom by the former. By the latter—such whose teaching and life are hay and straw; by the former—such whose teaching and life are gold and silver.

What will become of him whose house is burned?!—He will “be saved, yet so as through fire.” This passage is obscure and has given rise to various interpretations. The word “saved” means he will remain intact: his house will burn, but he will not burn, will not be destroyed. What will happen to him? The words “yet so as through fire”—point to a comparison. Let us take this comparison and obtain: he will be saved in the same way as those are saved whose fire catches in a house. Fire all around, they must run through it. What happens then? Some will run through almost unharmed, others—in various degrees of burning, while one remains in the fire. Something similar will happen to those whose buildings will burn in the fire of judgment. Some will go into fire, others will receive other various degrees of punishment; and some will be pardoned. For though all are guilty of building from non-durable material, their guilt may have different degrees. One may be guilty even without guilt; he labored on the building of non-durable material, not knowing a better way of building; or it may be by circumstances he did not manage to undertake the better, or for some other reason deserves pardon.

Up to this point the Apostle has looked at the Corinthian Church as having received from him only the foundation. Now he looks at it as a whole, as a building constructed by him. You, he says, are the temple of God. The purpose of the discourse is to terrify all the more those who have undertaken to build, or rather, to rebuild the structure built, according to their own judgment; and that is the same as to destroy it. Above he left still a possibility for them of salvation, though with difficulty; but here he gives a decisive judgment: “God will destroy him.”

1 Cor. 3:16. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

What he said above: “you are God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9), he now says: “you are the temple of God.” He expressed this as a question: “Do you not know,” showing the certainty of this truth and its being well-known. They all knew that it was so, therefore it was sufficient to insert this truth into their consciousness more forcefully by means of a question, to instruct them, without elaborating in the explanation and proof of it. With the consciousness that they are all one temple of God, should have come to mind also this, that a temple, though ordinarily a multi-part building, is one, undivided. With this thought, conscience could not fail to remind them: But what about us?—We have divided ourselves according to different teachers, some under one, some under another, some under a third. It turns out we have broken the temple of God into parts, destroyed God’s building. “And the Spirit of God dwells in you.” And this too was known to all. For all openly received through the laying on of hands the gift of the Holy Spirit, and He revealed His operations tangibly in their assemblies. What is the Apostle reminding them of?—That the division begun among them might lead to this, that the Spirit of God departs from them. As a vessel, while unbroken, holds and preserves some fragrance within, but when broken, the fragrance escapes, so it could be with them, that because of the division, they would be deprived of the Spirit. These words pertain to the whole community and instruct it, while the following are directed against the leaders of the division.

1 Cor. 3:17. If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, which you are.

Although he speaks generally: “If anyone destroys,” he clearly alludes to those who caused and maintained the division. He does not say that they have already destroyed—in that case the Apostle would have written and acted differently—but neither does he consider what has already been done unimportant, reasonably supposing that if the same state of affairs continues, the division will take root, especially if any accidents increase the dividing partition. Then this will be actual destruction. And he terrifies them with the possibility of such an outcome. It was begun through levity and idleness, but it might end thus: the Church will divide—will be destroyed. All the blame falls on you. But see what judgment will then fall upon you: “If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.” “‘Will destroy,’ that is, will hand over to perdition. The Apostle does not curse, but prophesies.” (Holy Chrysostom). What stronger exhortation could be expected?! One feels the sword over one’s head.

Why such a punishment for destroying God’s temple?—Because it is holy, and it is holy because it belongs to God and is the dwelling place of the Spirit, and its foundation is Christ the Lord. When Gamaliel, as the Jewish authorities were about to destroy the Church in Jerusalem, turned them from it, terrifying them: “lest we be found fighters against God” (Acts 5:39). The same thought is here.

“Which you are.” Deliberately did the Apostle add this word, making it to be understood: see what you are!—Again he turns to the whole society of believers and gives them a lesson: how you, having such high significance, allowed yourselves to be placed in such a position that you could lose the Spirit. At the same time also to the instigators of division he intimated: you so thoughtlessly looked at this community of saints and began to tear it into pieces, and it is this!

Such thoughts appear in these verses (1 Cor. 3:16–17) according to the flow of the Apostle’s discourse. But when taken outside their context, they may be applied to heresy-founders and unrepentant sinners. Heresy corrupts the Church; mortal sin corrupts the soul. The heresy-founder answers for the corruption of the Church—God will destroy him. And for mortal sin, uncleansed by repentance, the sinner answers. And God will destroy him—that is, ruin him—if he does not repent. If not here (for this sometimes happens), then certainly in the next life. The final thought about the corruption of the soul’s temple by the sinner is unfolded by holy Paul below, when he warns against fornication (1 Cor. 6:15–20).

In verses 18–23 lies the conclusion of the foregoing discourse, like an answer to the question: what then should we do? After the preceding warning, such a question would very naturally arise, and holy Paul answers it: ααα) some should abandon the wisdom of this age (1 Cor. 18–20); and βββ) others should cease to marvel at it and stop submitting to its false reasonings (1 Cor. 21–23). “Intending to add what still remained to be said so as to complete this subject, the Apostle turns to refutation of external wisdom and to exposure of those who, boasting in it, divided the Church” (holy Chrysostom).

Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

1 Cor. 3:18. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish, so that he may become wise.

Whoever thinks himself wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he may be truly wise—that is, wise before God. Who is this wise man of this age? Anyone who thinks not as God has revealed, but according to his own understanding of how things appear. “The Apostle means here a wisdom deprived of the grace of the Spirit, guided only by human reasoning” (Theodoret).

This wise man has his own worldview, which includes his understanding of himself, his place in the world, and the ultimate aims of human life. He possesses learning and eloquence to varying degrees. Most importantly, in arranging his circumstances, his happiness, and his affairs, he ultimately relies on his own reasoning, not sensing any need for help from above. The objects of his wisdom are all external—the earth and earthly prosperity. Care for the soul and its salvation never enter his mind. Yet for all the perfection of his reasoning in these areas, he only “thinks himself wise,” but is not. Others may not always regard him as wise, yet he sees himself no differently than as a sage of the highest rank, though his knowledge and worldly wisdom are quite limited. He always holds himself in high esteem for his wisdom. In this he deceives himself. The deception lies in counting himself to possess what he lacks. In this delusion are entangled all those who are not true Christians. It is the garment of pride, the veil that conceals it. Scattering this very delusion, the Apostle says: let such a person “become foolish”—that is, first let him acknowledge to himself that he has no wisdom whatsoever; then let him recognize his supposed wisdom not as wisdom but as an empty phantom; and then let him accept both the teaching and the manner of life that both he himself and all of like disposition have considered foolishness, appearing foolish before all the wise ones of this age. To become foolish means both to acknowledge oneself as such in external wisdom and to have others begin to count him so, because he has been wholly transformed. The Apostle commands not merely to abandon external wisdom, but to embrace the foolishness of Gospel preaching. One cannot do this without being mocked as a fool: he believes in the Crucified, gives away his possessions, mortifies the flesh, spends nights in prayer, avoids amusements. When someone wrongs him, he does not defend himself. Before him stand beauties of many kinds, yet he finds no pleasure in them. He does not save money for a rainy day. He constantly thinks and hopes for what he alone sees. By worldly wisdom this is foolishness worthy of all contempt. And it is precisely this that the Apostle proposes, promising that whoever becomes such will be a true sage. “So that he may become wise”—meaning there is no other way to be truly wise except to appear foolish before the wisdom of this age: for whoever appears thus has entered the realm of wisdom from God and become its possessor.

Holy Chrysostom says: “Just as the Apostle commands to be dead to the world (Col. 2:20), and this death not only does not harm but brings benefit, becoming a source of life, so he now commands to be foolish to the world, showing us true wisdom in this. Foolish to the world is he who despises external wisdom and is convinced it does not aid him in the work of faith and salvation. Therefore, as poverty according to God leads to riches, humility to greatness, contempt for worldly glory to true glory, so this foolishness makes a man wiser than all, for with us all things are reversed. And why did he not say: abandon wisdom, but ‘become foolish’? So as to abase external learning as much as possible. For these are not the same: to say ‘cast aside your wisdom’ and to say ‘become foolish.’ Further, he teaches us not to be ashamed of our ignorance, presenting what seems ridiculous as worthy of ridicule. He is not ashamed of names because he relies on the power of deeds. As the cross, seemingly shameful, became a source of countless blessings and author of inexpressible glory, so what appears as folly becomes for us the source of wisdom. As one who has learned something incorrectly must abandon all, erase it from his soul, and present himself pure to one wishing to teach him anew, in order to learn sound doctrine clearly, so with external wisdom, if you do not give up all, do not cleanse your mind, and do not present yourself to faith as an unlearned person, you will not know anything good properly; just as one with weak eyesight, if he does not close his eyes and entrust himself to others but follows his corrupted vision, wanders far more than those who see nothing. But how, you ask, can one abandon external wisdom? By not accepting its teachings.”

1 Cor. 3:19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. It is written: He catches the wise in their own craftiness.

Worldly wisdom is foolishness before God—a harsh judgment, but completely just, confirmed by universal experience. The wise men of the world themselves pronounce this same judgment upon such wisdom when they come to know the truth and wholly enter the realm of God’s wisdom. Is it not foolishness that it considers itself sufficient to itself? Is it not foolishness that it exalts itself above revealed wisdom and counts it as nearly nothing? Is it not foolishness that, though of lofty intellectual quality, it restricts itself to only the external, earthly, and created? Is it not foolishness that it thinks to arrange its circumstances, happiness, and affairs according to its own reasoning, when it plainly sees how all around it flows contrary to human calculation? Is it not foolishness that it has excluded from consideration what lies beyond the grave, when it clearly sees that present life is but a moment and cannot contain the final goal of human existence? Is it not foolishness that it does not even consider that its adherents will die tomorrow, when humanity flows like a broad river through death’s gates? Thus it is foolishness, and foolishness before God, because it does not see God’s visible order, condemns it when others tell of it, and keeps its followers in its dark delusion, preventing them from rising from its snare and turning to true wisdom from God. In this way it is godless. And it proves “not only does it not help man achieve his final aims, but it actually hinders; therefore it must be abandoned as harmful. Do you see how triumphantly holy Paul refuted it, proving it is not only useless but positively harmful to us? Yet he is not satisfied with his own proofs; he brings also witness: ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness’ (Job 5:13)” (Holy Chrysostom).

The craftiness of the wise does not mean malice, but rather their every stratagem to comprehend all things and arrange everything in their life and that of others on earth according to their own reasoning. So long as this serves only empty busyness and does not overthrow God’s providence toward mankind, God allows them to dig in their anthill as much as they wish and to build and rebuild as they please. But when their undertakings go too far, God sets obstacles before them, overthrows their plans, as a child destroys a spider’s web with one light touch of a thin stick. The Tower of Babel and the scattering of peoples over the earth give striking witness. How far had the philosophers gone by the time of the Apostles? To the point that they themselves no longer knew where to draw the line: their opinions had become so divided and they had devised so many teachings. There arose necessity to teach people truth through the uneducated. Holy Chrysostom sees in this the catching of the wise in their own devices. “In their craftiness—that is, capturing them with their own weapon. Since they used their wisdom to manage without God, through that very wisdom he proved to them they have great need of God. How and in what manner? Through it they reached the point where they themselves did not know what to do; consequently through it they are caught. For, thinking to manage without God, they fell into such misery that they became worse than fishermen and the unlearned and came to need them. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’. The words ‘I will destroy the wisdom’ express its complete uselessness; the words ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’ show God’s power.”

1 Cor. 3:20. And again: The Lord knows the thoughts of men (in the Greek original of the Apostle: of the wise), that they are futile. (Ps. 93:11)

The prophet wrote: “the thoughts of men,” but the Apostle substitutes: “the thoughts of the wise.” Not only in common people are thoughts vain, but in the very wise themselves. “And when infinite wisdom utters such a judgment upon them and thus describes them, what further proof could one ask of their utter foolishness?” (Holy Chrysostom).

What is their emptiness? It is futility: people rely on them, yet nothing lasting comes from them. The wise think they have finally grasped truth through reasoning—each philosopher thought so—yet there was no truth in them. They think to build paradise on earth, yet it is never built, and meanwhile no one grasps that this is empty labor and should be abandoned: they just keep building. They think nothing exists beyond what is visible, yet it is there that true being exists. In many other ways too the thoughts of the wisest are empty. But no wise man knows this. The prophet says: “The Lord knows,” meaning: only the Lord knows how empty they are. What is to be done? The Prophet shows this, saying next: “Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord, and teach from Your law” (Ps. 93:12).

“Having thus given glory to God’s judgment over worldly wisdom, the Apostle with greater force turns to his hearers and speaks” (Holy Chrysostom):

1 Cor. 3:21. Therefore let no one boast in men, for all things are yours.

Now he turns to those captured by the leaders of division and says that after God Himself has so thoroughly exposed the emptiness of human wisdom, no one should marvel at it, cling to it, or boast of belonging to its faction. “Boast in men” must be understood in contrast: boast in the Lord, or about the Lord. One who boasts in the Lord says: see how our Lord is! He has done this for us and that, and is ready to do all we ask. One who boasts in or about men says: see what a teacher I have! What knowledge! What eloquence! What character! In Corinth it had become customary to boast in one leader, then another, then a third of the local celebrities. These faction leaders held first place with them and drew others to themselves. The Apostle has been exposing their vain wisdom until now. Now he begins to sober those seduced: “Let no one boast in men.” I have explained to you well what human wisdom is. You clearly see it is not worth being captivated by it, saying: this man and that man are so clever, they speak thus and thus, I must join their banner, and so on. Have your own Christian judgment and by it determine the worth of persons and things.

So that they might know how to do this, the Apostle sets before them a ladder of relationships established because we have been reunited with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is in God, you are in Christ, everything else—persons and things—are for you as means to lead you into communion with Christ and to sustain you in Him. “All things are yours.”

1 Cor. 3:22–23. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

“And we Apostles, he says, have been deemed worthy of apostolic grace for your sake, that we might preach the word to you; both present and expected life have been given to you; indeed, death itself has entered your nature for your benefit; and all visible things have been created for your need, and the things to come have been prepared for your sake. Therefore you must be in unity with the Master Christ, who is the giver of all good things, and through Him in unity with God Almighty. For He is in unity with us by nature, the nature which He took from us, and with the Father by His divine essence, because He is born from the Father by nature. Christ is God’s not as God’s creation, but as the Son of God” (Theodoret).

To this height he raised their understanding—to that truth that “our life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). And from this height he surveys all that exists, determining the worth of all things by this truth. Originally we were appointed for life in God, but we fell from Him. Since God’s gifts are without repentance, He did not allow us to perish forever in this fall, but was pleased to establish an indescribably wonderful way of reunion with Himself. The Son of God was incarnate and hypostatically united in Himself both humanity and divinity, remaining indivisibly in the trinitarian unity of essence. People, saved by faith and grace, enter mysteriously and actively into living union with Christ, and through Him with God. Thus our original destiny is fulfilled and achieved. You are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. Consequently you too are God’s. The Lord Himself spoke similar words: “I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you” (Jn. 14:20). Therefore in His prayer to the Father He said: “that they also may be in Us, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You” (Jn. 17:21). This has already begun to operate and is operating. But now this wonderful work occurs in hiddenness; openly it will come when the other petition of the Lord is fulfilled: “Father, I desire that those also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am” (Jn. 17:24).

The Lord after His resurrection ascended to heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father. There those given to Him by the Father are led through the gate of death (and death is yours). But in order to be led to Him by this gate and not elsewhere, during earthly life one must prepare oneself properly by the means established by the Lord Himself. These means are all contained in the Holy Church, established on earth by the Lord through the Apostles. The principal ones are: faith in the Gospel word, communion with the Lord through the mystery of the mysteries, and after receiving grace, the deepening of this communion, or growth in it, by active life under the guidance first of the Apostles and then of their successors (and the Apostles are for you). Those who have matured here pass through death to where Christ is, that they may be with Him forever. In this lies the whole work of the economy of salvation in Christ Jesus.

Bearing this in mind, it is not hard to see how “whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas—they are yours.” They are yours or for you, because they call you to Christ, sanctify you through the mysteries, and guide you. This is what the Apostle says elsewhere: “I have betrothed you to one husband, that I might present you a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2). The Apostles are such not only for the Corinthians, but for all believers, not only in their lifetime but after their death, acting themselves invisibly and spiritually, both through their writings and through their successors. Apostleship and subsequently the pastoral office are the leading of the Bride to the Bridegroom, and are for us believers.

How is “the world yours”? It is the arena on which the economy of salvation has been accomplished and on which each person’s salvation is accomplished. The world exists not for itself: its purpose is in the spiritual world. One might say: it exists so that all who are able to be saved in the Lord Jesus Christ might be born.

How is “life yours”? In this way: we are born so that we might believe in the Lord and by His gracious means prepare ourselves for blessed eternity.

How is “death yours”? In this way: by its gate we pass to the Lord.

How are “things present and things to come yours”? But what is meant? Things to come—this is blessed dwelling with the Lord in the kingdom of glory. Correspondingly, things present will be the gracious kingdom of Christ on earth, the Church with all its means of grace. How this is “yours” is evident.

Thus did holy Paul illuminate all the relationships of things and persons and make clear on what you should rest your hopes, what you should count as your glory, and what you should seek. You are Christ’s. In this lies everything. Therefore take care to remain Christ’s forever, for this alone is the condition for all things to be yours. Nothing will be yours if you are not Christ’s.

They misunderstood the significance of the Apostles and therefore judged them wrongly. Thinking they were like founders of philosophical schools, they began to rate each by personal qualities: one eloquent, another plain-spoken; one impressive in appearance, another inconspicuous; one wealthy, another poor, and so forth. Hence this one is better than that; he deserves preference, he should be followed, his name taken. To this now the Apostle hints, saying that if we are servants of Christ and stewards of His treasures, one should not focus on what each of us is in himself, but on ααα) how faithful he is, how faithfully he fulfills what has been entrusted to him (1 Cor. 4:1–5). This faithfulness consists in communicating to others what has been commanded to communicate, not claiming it for oneself but referring all to the One who gave the charge. βββ) Apply this to yourselves. See, you were taught by us, and all you know about Christ’s work you know from us. Why then do you tear followers away after yourselves, as if what you know you know from yourselves? This is irrational (1 Cor. 4:6–8). γγγ) As for my lack of impressiveness and poverty, this is in the order of things. Thus God was pleased—that we be reproach, refuse of the world. You see this in me and all the Apostles (1 Cor. 4:9–13). δδδ) But let my words not seem bitter to you: they are fruit of fatherly love for you (1 Cor. 4:14–16).

You began judging us by each one’s personal traits and fell into error. If you must judge us, judge only by how faithful each is to the Lord who entrusted us with His work. But who can judge this except the Lord Himself? I do not count it important who judges me or how; I do not even judge myself, but commit judgment to the Lord. Do likewise yourselves: do not judge beforehand. The Lord will come, will examine all things, and will repay each according to his works.

Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6)

1 Cor. 4:1. Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

By “us” he means himself, Apollos, and Peter, and the Apostles generally. “Let him regard”—let him consider, let him place on that rank. “As servants” υπηρετας and “stewards” οικονομους. Just as a rich householder has servants and stewards in his house, managers over various departments, so the Lord Jesus Christ—Master of all spiritual treasures for humanity—has servants and stewards to whom He has entrusted the dispensing of His treasures and the management of His work on earth—the salvation of men through establishing churches everywhere. Such are we. But just as servants and stewards in a master’s house have nothing of their own and all belongs to the master, so we have nothing of our own and all is Christ’s. And just as servants and stewards can do nothing according to their own will but must do only what and as the master commands, so we cannot do anything by our own will and understanding but do all as the Lord has commanded. There is no need to stress the distinction between servants and stewards in Christ’s kingdom, for the Apostle’s purpose is only to make plain that they are not self-acting agents and have nothing from themselves and can do nothing independently. “Servants of Christ,” he says, “and stewards of the mysteries of God.” For all Christ’s is God’s, and all God’s is Christ’s. “All that is Yours is Mine, and all that is Mine is Yours,” says the Lord to God the Father. “Mysteries” here means not only the sacraments but the organization of Christ’s entire work on earth, which is called God’s wisdom hidden in mystery; and not merely the mysteries of doctrine but the whole economy of salvation, which includes teaching, the direction of right living, and the administration of sanctifying mysteries.

1 Cor. 4:2. Moreover it is required of stewards that one be found faithful.

If we are stewards of Christ, then all our concern should be directed to faithfully administering what has been entrusted to us; in this lies all our worth. Neither our intellect, nor eloquence, nor wealth should enter into the reckoning as factors determining our significance. Whoever is faithful is a true good steward, and to the degree he is faithful, to that degree he is good. The faithful steward claims none of the master’s property for himself, conceals nothing, but distributes all as commanded, and tells everyone this is not his wealth but the master’s. Faithfulness in God’s work consists in “not claiming what belongs to the Lord as one’s own, and not attributing to oneself instead of to the Lord, but acting as faithful stewards do. For the work of a steward is to manage well what is entrusted to him, not to call what belongs to the Lord his own, but on the contrary, to attribute what is his to the Lord. Bearing this in mind, let everyone possessing the gift of eloquence or property—that is, anyone who knows these gifts were entrusted by the Lord and not his own—not keep them for himself or claim them, but attribute them to God who gave all. Do you want to see faithful stewards? Hear what Peter says: ‘Why are you looking at us, as if by our own power or godliness we made him walk’ (Acts 3:12)? And Paul, having said ‘I labored more than all of them’, added: ‘yet not I, but the grace of God with me’ (1 Cor. 15:10). And again, addressing the Corinthians, he said: ‘What do you have that you did not receive’ (1 Cor. 4:7)? You have nothing of your own: neither wealth, nor the gift of eloquence, nor even your soul; for all come from the Lord” (Holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 4:3. But to me it is a very small thing that I am examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.

So, he says, this is how you should judge us—by how faithfully we fulfill the work the Lord entrusted to us. But who can judge this except the Lord Himself! He entrusted it; He alone can determine how well one fulfills the trust through faithfulness to the charge. You judge us not from this angle, and your judgment is worth nothing; but even if you judged from this angle and did not reproach but exalted me to the heavens, even then it would mean nothing to me. I speak with certainty as to how I view such judgments: whether you judge me or anyone else judges and determines my worth, it means nothing to me. I do not even judge and determine myself.

“Very small” εις ελαχιςον—human judgment, whether yours or anyone’s, counts as least of all for me; I regard it as utterly nothing. He does not speak in contempt of people and their judgment, but because such judgment can determine nothing with certainty about a person’s worth. “Human court” the Apostle calls human judgment, as “the day of the Lord” is God’s judgment. “To examine” ανακρινειν—to judge or review someone by determining worth—to pronounce judgment with decisive verdict. Whether you praise or blame me in your judgment, this has no weight for me; it is worthless.

Here is an edifying word from holy Chrysostom on this passage: “I do not know how among other evils the evil of judging and wrongly condemning one’s neighbor entered human nature, which Christ Himself rebuked, saying: ‘Do not judge, that you be not judged’ (Matt. 7:1). It provides not even the pleasure that other sins do, but leads only to trouble and punishment. Meanwhile we, guilty of countless sins ourselves and having what is like a plank in our own eyes, carefully examine the sins of our neighbor, which are but a splinter (Matt. 7:3). So it was among the Corinthians. Godly and devoted men they mocked and rejected for lack of learning, yet they respected those guilty of countless vices for eloquence. Taking on the role of judges, they boldly pronounced verdicts: this one is worthy, that one better than such and such, this one above that, and that below this; instead of weeping for their sins, they judged others and stirred up great mutual strife. To heal this sickness, see how wisely Paul teaches them. Having said ‘Moreover it is required of stewards that one be found faithful’—and by these very words seemingly allowing them to judge and examine each one’s life, he wishes to free them from this passion and says: ‘But to me it is a very small thing that I am examined by you’—again pointing to himself. Do not think Paul speaks from pride, as if no one is worthy to judge him. First, he does not speak for himself but to heal others of this disease; second, he did not stop at the Corinthians but did not claim the right to judge himself either, saying such judgment exceeds his own understanding; ‘in fact, I do not even examine’, he adds, ‘myself’. So he does not exalt himself but humbles others, teaches the proud, and instructs them in humility when he says: ‘But to me it is a very small thing that I am examined by you, or by any human court’. See how he heals them? Hearing he pays no attention to anyone’s judgment equally and considers all incapable of judging him correctly, no one could grieve or say he alone was rejected. Had he said only “by you” and stopped, they might have felt hurt as rejected; but by adding “or by any human court,” he softened the blow, acknowledging with them that others too are incapable. Further, he softens even this by adding: “in fact, I do not even examine myself.” See how his words do not arise from pride? I myself, he says, am incapable of pronouncing judgment.”

1 Cor. 4:4. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.

“Why speak of others? Even I, knowing exactly what pertains to me and conscious of nothing lawfully criminal against myself, dare neither to condemn myself nor to declare myself innocent; I await the Lord’s sentence” (Theodoret).

“I am conscious of nothing against myself.” I know nothing sinful against myself before God; my conscience accuses me in nothing. Since I came to know the Lord and gave myself to His service, I have not allowed myself to do even the least thing I recognized as displeasing to God, and have not failed to do what I knew was good and pleasing to God, however difficult or costly. By this reckoning one could say I am justified, if we could be sure God’s judgment matched ours. Yet although it is certain that if conscience accuses one, God will also condemn him, one cannot ground oneself on the fact that if conscience does not accuse, God will not condemn. Thus, though “I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted.” What of us whose conscience is wounded by countless injuries and we know nothing good in ourselves but all the opposite? But why does he not consider himself justified when he knows nothing against himself? “Because it happens to him too to commit certain sins without his own awareness” (Holy Chrysostom). “Often we sin without knowing it, even deeming what we did just; but otherwise God who sees all views it” (Theodoret). He speaks as if: “It is quite possible I am guilty of something, though I know not what” (Theophylact). “Therefore I cannot trust my vindication until I hear it from God’s lips” (Oecumenius). “From this you can judge how fearful the future judgment will be” (Holy Chrysostom).

“But the one who examines me is the Lord.” Not only can others not truly judge me and pronounce verdicts, for my inner self is hidden from them, but I myself, though able to see what is in me, cannot judge myself, for much escapes my awareness, or my conscience is not keen enough to accuse the sinfulness of certain heart movements and often of words and deeds; or perhaps I have given others occasion to sin through carelessness with my words and deeds. And prophet David prayed: “Cleanse me from secret faults, and from presumptuous sins keep Your servant” (Ps. 18:13). Therefore I commit my judgment to the Lord. He alone “tests hearts and minds rightly” (Ps. 7:10), correctly determines the quality of deeds and thoughts, and pronounces judgment on man accordingly. And His judgment is righteous and unchanging.

1 Cor. 4:5. Therefore do not judge anything prematurely, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the purposes of hearts; and then each man’s commendation will come from God.

“You perceive what is visible, but God knows both what is hidden and secret. But in the present life He does not reveal all; in that life all will be made manifest. Therefore await righteous judgment. For then you will see righteous verdicts” (Theodoret). You, he says, undertook to judge us not from the proper viewpoint and erred. But even if you began judging from the proper viewpoint, still you could not pronounce righteous judgment, for you cannot see how deeds are born in the heart and how they come forth into the open. Even the doer himself does not always understand this as he should; how then can an outsider know it? Better you should cease judging altogether, so as not to utter unrighteous judgments that expose your lack of discernment. “Therefore do not judge anything prematurely.” “Do not judge anything”—that is, do not condemn anything, any deeds or anyone, do not pronounce condemning verdicts, or judgments at all. He says “prematurely”; as though when the time comes it will be permissible for them to judge. But when the time comes, the Lord will be the judge, and they themselves will have no time to judge others. Consequently he means: never judge.

When the time of judgment comes, the Lord will “bring to light the things hidden in the darkness.” “Things hidden in the darkness” are deeds done in darkness, which outsiders now do not see; but then the Lord will bring them out and all will see them. And He will not only bring hidden deeds to light, but will also “disclose the purposes of hearts.” What a man deliberates with himself to do, no one but the man himself can know. It is hidden beneath the veil of the body; but then the Lord will disclose these purposes and all will see what each person harbored in his heart when he performed his deeds. And the doer himself will see it. Now he sees one thing and deliberately hides another from himself; but then with unquestionable clarity he will see all. It is very likely that some now reviled will then be found worthy of praise. But it is certain that many now praised will not pass the judgment’s test. And so, when in this way all deeds now hidden are brought to light and all heart’s intentions now naturally invisible are disclosed, then all data will exist for forming a righteous judgment about each one. God will issue it. “And then each man’s commendation will come from God.” One will receive praise, another blame; but the Apostle sets forth only this one part, perhaps because the Corinthians erred in saying some is better than that one. Then, he says, it will be clear who is better.

“The Apostle speaks here of preferring one to another and condemning others. Only He who will judge our hidden thoughts and determine which deserve greater or lesser punishment or reward can judge this infallibly, but we judge by appearance. What does it matter if some appear outwardly virtuous and wonderful? This Judge does not judge by appearance but discloses hidden purposes. Thus for two, or rather three reasons, our judgment is not righteous: first, because even if we know nothing against ourselves, we are not guiltless before Him who probes our sins precisely; second, because most our deeds remain hidden and unknown to us; third, because many of others’ actions seem to us good but are done without good purpose. Why then do you say one is better than another? For the Apostle says he knows nothing against himself, yet he is not acquitted by this—he cannot say he is free from guilt and condemnation. If we cannot be free from condemnation even when we know nothing against ourselves, and are liable to punishment for even good deeds done without good intent, consider how unjust human judgments are. Men cannot see all things; only the unwearying Eye can do this; we can deceive men, but never Him. Therefore do not say: darkness and walls surround me; who sees me? ‘The Maker of every heart’ (Ps. 32:15) knows all; for ‘darkness is not dark to Him’ (Ps. 138:12). Therefore do not say: who sees me? There is One who pierces ‘to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow’ (Heb. 4:12)” (Holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 4:6. Now these things, brethren, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sake, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.

“Now these things I have applied.” What things? That which he said in chapter three and what he has just said. There he said: “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed.” Here he said: “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” It is certain that those who proclaim the Gospel had high significance in building up the Church, humanity’s savior. But the Apostles attributed nothing to themselves but referred all to the Lord acting through them, regarding themselves as His instruments and directing all care to being faithful to Him in everything. But in Corinth the faction leaders, perhaps surpassing others in learning and gracious gifts, probably thought highly of themselves, elevated themselves above others, and those whom each drew to his side boasted of being above others. To heal them, holy Paul showed them that even he, who labored greatly in planting faith in Corinth, and Apollos, who contributed much, are nothing in this work: “neither the one planting nor the one watering is anything, but God who gives growth.” Yet all saw both the importance of their work and the greatness of their labor. From the entire flow of discourse, those who elevated themselves could not fail to understand how shameful it was for them to claim anything for themselves and exalt themselves when the Apostles judged themselves so humbly. But since the sinful conscience is evasive, the Apostle, rightly supposing it might evade his rebuke, thought it necessary to say plainly that he had spoken all this about himself and Apollos to heal their weakness. “For your sake,” he says, “I have applied” it to myself and Apollos. Though he does not name them specifically, it was evident to them and all to whom the discourse was directed. Though done cautiously, it could not help but trouble them; therefore, to soften the impression, he prefaces it with a word of love: “brethren.” All they had heard up to now they listened to with attention and grasped well, perhaps dimly guessing the discourse concerned them. But when the Apostle said: “for your sake,” all became clear to them—both how the discourse applied to them and why the Apostle took this approach. The instruction was complete.

“If he had said directly: you condemn holy and worthy men, they would have been offended and would not have listened; but now, when he said ‘What is Paul’ and so forth, they could more readily accept the instruction. Therefore he said: ‘I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your sake, that you may learn from us not to exceed what is written’—meaning that if he had spoken directly about those men, they would not have learned what they should and would not have accepted the instruction, being offended by what he said” (Holy Chrysostom). But now there is nothing to escape, for everything needful for instruction has already been heard.

“Not to exceed what is written.” What is this written? It is what the Apostle wrote before. He wishes to say to the leaders: learn from us to refer all you have to God; if you have done something good for the brethren, consider yourselves merely servants through whom God worked, and if what you have done has borne fruit, attribute it to God who causes all good to grow; count yourselves as nothing, and in no way anticipate God’s judgment, thinking you are worthy of praise and reward.

The words “so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other” apply to the leaders, of course, but more to all the others seduced by them. “Here, leaving the teachers, he rebukes the disciples” (Holy Chrysostom). “For the Corinthians, having divided into factions and taken names—some this one’s, others that one’s—disputed with each other, and each faction strove to give its teacher preeminence over the others” (Theodoret). The Apostles whose names the factions bore were overshadowed by the immediate personalities of the leaders. The disciples gloried in them and elevated themselves above one another. This was the emptiest kind of one boasting against another. Boasting is the fruit of levity, yet it is still boasting, pride. “Indeed, it is pride when someone, having nothing of his own, exalts himself in another. As one who boasts in another’s wealth does from pride, so one who boasts in another’s glory. Therefore the Apostle rightly calls this pride. When in a body one member rises above others, it is nothing but a diseased swelling, for one member cannot rise above another except by inflammation. So in the Church’s body—whoever boasts and exalts himself is in a diseased state, because he rises above the normal proportionate position and consequently suffers diseased swelling. In the body this occurs when excess harmful fluid accumulates instead of normal nourishment. So in the soul pride is born when alien thoughts enter us. Pride is like an inflamed swelling filled with harmful fluids. Yet in saying this, he does not forbid showing respect to (teachers), but condemns respect joined with harm. Do you wish to show respect to such a one? I do not forbid it; only let it be without harm to another. Teachers are not given us so we rise against each other, but so all unite with each other. A commander is set over an army so from divided members he makes one body; if he causes division in the army, he is more enemy than commander” (Holy Chrysostom).

The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16)

1 Cor. 4:7. For who sees any distinction in you? And what have you that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?

When it became clear to whom the previous words were directed, and the hidden rebuke was shown to aim at preventing them from glorying over one another, the guilty could not escape, then the rebuke itself falls upon them with full force. The Apostle abandons the rest and presses the leaders, with the particular thought that when they return to humility in mind and deed, all those led by them will also humble themselves, watching them. “Here, leaving the subordinates, he turns again to the leaders. And the meaning of his words is as follows: how do you know that you deserve praise? Was there judgment? Was examination and investigation and careful scrutiny performed? You cannot say this. If people judged thus, their judgment is uncertain (“discerns”—διακρινει, distinguishes, differentiates). Let us suppose that you do deserve praise, that you truly have gifts and that human judgment is not false: even then you should not be high-minded. You have nothing from yourself, but received everything from God. Why do you present yourself as having what you have not (from yourself and for yourself)? What you have, others have with you as well (for it was given for them). You received everything you have, and not just certain particular gifts. Your excellences come not from you but from God’s grace. Do you point to faith?—it comes from calling; do you point to forgiveness of sins, to gifts, to the ability to teach, to virtues?—you received all of it from there. Tell me then, what do you have that you did not receive? And have you achieved it by yourself? You cannot point to anything. You received, and yet you are puffed up? In this case you ought to be humbled, because what was given does not belong to you but to the Giver. If you received, you received from Him; if you received from Him, you received what is not your own; if you received what is not your own, why are you puffed up as though you have everything from yourself? Therefore the Apostle adds: ‘and if you received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?’ Thus, having proven his thought consecutively, he further shows that much is still lacking in them, and says: if you had even received everything, still you should by no means boast, because all of this is not yours; but you do not even have much now. At the beginning he hinted at this when he said: ‘I could not speak to you as spiritual people’ (1 Cor. 3:1), but here he impresses it upon them with reproach and says” (St. Chrysostom):

1 Cor. 4:8. You are already satisfied! You are already rich! Without us you have begun to reign! And I would that you had begun to reign, so that we might reign with you!

“See”—how is it that you are already “satisfied” and have “become rich”! You have not yet tasted the beginning of the fruits of faith, yet you are already satisfied; you have not yet acquired a small portion of Christian knowledge and Christian virtues, yet you already count yourselves rich? How does this accord with anything? On the other hand, he rebukes pride: in the previous place he rebuked it by showing it claims what was given; here he rebukes it by showing it always proceeds from harmful self-deception, from the feeling of self-satisfaction: the enemy puts into the head the thought that what exists is so abundant that nothing more is desired. There remains only to enjoy and to adorn oneself with wreaths of praise, or rather to weave for oneself self-congratulations, and as a result to rise above others, looking down on them. Since such a disposition is very ridiculous in its nature, the Apostle uses irony to destroy it. “‘See, you are already satisfied.’ The Apostle used the word “see” (look how, you are already satisfied) not without purpose, but proves by the very timing how groundless and foolish their opinion is. He speaks to them ironically: you have reached the end so quickly! This could not have been the case in time itself; perfection is in the future; to be content with little is the mark of a weak soul; to count oneself rich when having little is characteristic of a sickly and wretched soul; piety is insatiable; to consider oneself having received everything at the beginning and having achieved the end only at the start belongs to a childish mind.” (St. Chrysostom).

“Without us you have begun to reign.” “We are still suffering hardship, enduring suffering for the sake of preaching, while you have already enjoyed the kingdom” (Theodoret). One must understand “as though” here. You conduct yourselves as though you have already reigned, as though the kingdom of glory has come, crowns have been distributed, the blessed celebration has begun. But how can this be without us? We labor, bear all kinds of deprivations, while you have already entered the kingdom as though! The Apostle displays the absurdity of the thought of the proud, that they already have everything in abundance and have nothing more to labor for. He says here: now is the time of labor and sweat; it is absurd to behave as though you already hold the kingdom in your hands. Or there may be this meaning here: we labored both over you and over those you gathered to yourselves, and you have entered our labor and manage it for yourselves as though you were true kings. Everyone has turned to you, we have been pushed out of notice, as though we did not exist, and we mean nothing, although your doctrines are adorned with our names. But the first meaning is more direct.

“And I would that you had begun to reign!”—“The irony has ended; the Apostle expresses his true disposition toward them, and speaks as if to say: in this regard I not only do not envy you but wish that you might be deemed worthy of such a good” (Theodoret). “And so that these words might not seem irony, he continues: ‘so that we might reign with you.’ Then, he says, we too would receive this good!” (St. Chrysostom). “By this the Apostle expressed the immeasurability of his humility. Christ truly reigns; His servants are participants in His kingdom; but the Apostle, intending to humble their arrogance by his own humility (the leaders of the factions), used such an expression” (Theodoret). “As if to say: for your sake the kingdom would be given to us as well; perhaps we too would not be deprived of such a good. For it is right for teachers to be where the disciples are—not lagging behind them. Or thus: we would reign with you in you, that is, your glory is our glory. Honor comes to teachers when disciples stand high” (Oecumenius and Theophylact). The following words require us to complete: but this cannot be now. We would wish that you were already in the kingdom, as it were, so that we too might be there with you, but the time is not yet. Now is the time of labors, sorrows, deaths.

The thought of this passage is somewhat dark. It is not clear what the Apostle wished to convey by it.

Some think that in this section the irony begun before continues; others think that the Apostle intentionally presented a picture of the sorrowful and humbled condition of himself and all the Apostles and attributed the cause of this condition to a special intention of God—so that those who have not yet purified themselves from proud worldly views would not look upon him and the other Apostles with contempt and would not disparage them for this. The latter seems to go more directly. But one can see the former in certain expressions as well. Thus both understandings of this section can be reconciled.

1 Cor. 4:9. For I think that God has made us Apostles last, as men condemned to death, for we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.

“For”—because—the reason for the unspoken thought. We wish you to reign, so that we too might reign with you; but the time is not right. For this present time is of this sort: sorrows, deaths, deprivations. And this by God’s intention. God has so ordained. “I think”—I am certain, that is—I see. He wishes to say: for it is obvious that it pleased God to reveal us Apostles as last—last in lot. It pleased God that we be in the very last and lowly lot, that we be like men condemned to death and given over to shame, for example like those who are given as food to beasts. That this is so, observe what we are.—“We have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.” A spectacle—a sight—not for glory but for humiliation and utter degradation, although in the spiritual sense this is glorious and magnificent. We select certain positions from St. Chrysostom: “The Apostle speaks as if to say: I proclaim that the present time is not the time of honors and glory, but of persecutions and sorrows. I see that we Apostles are the most despised of all and condemned to bear constant hardships. Those who sow the preaching of piety, God has revealed last, as condemned to death as it were, that is, as if condemned to death and worthy of every sort of death.—‘For we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.’ What does it mean: ‘we have become a spectacle to the world’?—Not in a hidden place, he says, and not in a small part of creation do we undergo this, but everywhere and in the presence of all. And what does ‘and to angels’ mean? One can be a spectacle to people but not to angels when what is done is unimportant; but our, he says, exploits are such that they are worthy of being a spectacle even to angels (despite the fact that by appearance they are so degrading). They turn the gaze upon themselves not only of people but of the entire host of angels. ‘For our struggle’ is not with people but with the powers without body (Eph. 6:12), and therefore a great multitude of spectators looks upon us.”

But the Apostles are such, that is, so humiliated and unfortunate only in appearance; in reality what they accomplish has worldwide significance. People not enlightened by grace do not see this; those enlightened can see it if they cast aside worldly notions of brightness or lack of brightness in external conditions; but angels certainly see it. The evil ones see it because their kingdom is being destroyed, and the good ones see it because their work is to assist in spreading the kingdom of good, which is always their joy.

1 Cor. 4:10. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honored, but we are dishonored.

Our deprivations, sorrows, and condemnings to death are a good to the world—not external but spiritual and eternal. Proof of this is you yourselves. “We are fools for Christ’s sake,”—“we preach what the unbelievers consider foolishness” (Theodoret). For our preaching about Christ the Lord Crucified, everyone considers us mad. And let them; we do not regard it, for we are certain that this foolishness is true wisdom for those who receive our word with faith. You know this from experience. You received our word, believed, cleaved to the Lord, and became wise concerning Christ, wise with the true wisdom which no one in the world possesses except believers. See how everything became clear to you; you know that God exists, what this world is, how it began and how it will end, what man is and what his purpose is, where evil comes from and how to heal it, and so on. Who in the world knows this as you do?!

“We are weak, but you are strong.” Here too, as in the first statement, a completion must be understood: we are weak for Christ’s sake, but you are strong concerning Christ. We are weak for Christ’s sake in that we are persecuted, beaten, put in prisons; we have no external force in us, just as we have no external wisdom. But to those who follow our teaching we impart moral strength which no worldly force can overcome. You know this from yourselves. As soon as you decided to follow the Lord, taking His cross with firm resolve to fulfill His commandments, and were baptized, you immediately received new life, and through the laying on of my hands the grace of the Holy Spirit, Which poured out in you moral strength, invincible against the passions rising up in you, against the allurements of the world drawing you, against the enemy struggling against you. Thus you became strong concerning Christ. Such strength exists nowhere in the world, and cannot be obtained anywhere except in the faith we preach.

“You are honored, but we are dishonored.” And here too it must be completed: we are dishonored for Christ’s sake, but you are honored concerning Christ. This is nothing new, but as it were a conclusion from what precedes. What honor is there when you are considered mad everywhere, persecuted from city to city and from village to village, beaten and put in prisons? By this the Apostle speaks as if to say: thus we are dishonored for Christ’s sake. But accordingly, in the first statement too the same conclusion must be seen: thus you are honored concerning Christ, honored with true knowledge and moral perfection, honored with inner glory, which is the beginning and earnest of eternal glory concerning Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Cor. 4:11–12. To this very hour we are hungry and thirsty and poorly clothed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands.

We are appointed not only to bring such a good to you but to distribute it throughout the world, so as to communicate it to all capable of receiving it. But since for this, not only at first but always we must be in a humiliated state by God’s ordinance, we, as we began, continue to this day to lead the last lot, as men condemned to death. To this very hour “we are hungry and thirsty and poorly clothed.” Not that we go without clothes, do not drink or eat, but we are clothed as it happens, having no clothes in reserve except that which we wear according to the Lord’s commandment; we eat and drink, also as it happens, and because of this we are often without food and drink. The Apostle wishes to say that the satisfaction of these first bodily needs in their case is the most meager and does not constitute the object of their care and concern, but is provided as God sends it.

Clothing and food come to us meagerly, while for dwelling we have nothing at all, we have nowhere to lay our heads: “we are buffeted and homeless.” “Buffeted”—κολαφιζομεθα—expresses when someone is driven out of a house. “Homeless”—αστατουμεν—there is no place to stop for the night or for rest. Everywhere we are driven, pushed, and we move from place to place.

“And we labor, working with our own hands.” But wherever we happen to stop, we are not a burden to anyone, and immediately set about work, so as to earn our sustenance by our labor.

What a heavy lot! But in the confidence that God has so ordained it, and in the conviction that the salvation of the world cannot be arranged any other way, and for this very reason the Lord Himself had nowhere to lay His head, we bear our lot with equanimity and with joy—“not only do we not complain, but we rejoice, and to those who do us evil we repay with good” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 4:12–13. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat.

We are reviled and cursed, but we bless them, speak kind words to them; we are persecuted with hostility, but we bear it with equanimity, without anger, not breaking love and not allowing movements of vengeance; we are slandered—βλασφημουμενοι—cursed, they not only scornfully revile us but call heaven’s wrath upon us as upon worthless people, but we entreat—παρακαλουμεν—we beseech, it is understood, God: they call down punishment from heaven upon us, but we ask God for all His mercy upon them.

1 Cor. 4:13. When slandered, we entreat; we have become as the filth of the world, the refuse of all things, until now.

“As the filth”—περικαθαρμα—“of the world, we have become,” “that is, we are no different from what is thrown out of houses as superfluous, whether vegetable peelings or something else similar. Thus most people consider us unimportant” (Theodoret). Like dirt which is swept out of a house into the yard, and then swept away from the yard, so we are swept away from everywhere, and they wish to sweep us out of the world altogether. “The refuse of all things”—(περιψημα)—this very dirt, thrown out and trampled by all, without any caution and any concern.

It is impossible to say anything more degrading than this.

What must those Corinthians have felt when they said: Paul is invisible, poor, lives by his own hands, and the like—Apollos is better? But Apollos did not endure what holy Paul endured, both in other places and in Corinth; and this was for God’s work, of which they themselves had become participants. They could not help but feel that what they thought was a disadvantage in holy Paul was an advantage such as nothing in Apollos or anyone else like us could compare to.—Both shame and sorrow!

1 Cor. 4:14. I do not write this to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

“I am not saying this to shame you, he says. But shame has already been produced. Therefore he wishes to express by this: not with an evil, not with a hateful intention did I do this. For, having spoken a word, to justify it by intention—this is an excellent method of healing. It was impossible not to speak, for otherwise they would have remained uncorrected; but having spoken, to leave the wound without treatment would also be dangerous; therefore after the rebuke he justifies himself. This does not only fail to destroy the effect of the treatment applied, but even embeds it more deeply, and at the same time alleviates all the pain of the wound, for the listener, knowing that this is spoken not with anger but with love, more readily receives correction. Nevertheless great is the rebuke and reproach here. He speaks not as a teacher, not as an Apostle—which would express dignity—but as a father: ‘as my beloved children I admonish you.’ Not simply ‘children’ but ‘beloved.’ Forgive me, he says, if anything has been said that is unpleasant, it came from love. He did not say: I rebuke, but ‘I admonish’—I give instruction. Who would not listen to a father lamenting and offering helpful counsel? Therefore he said this not first, but after he had already struck the blow” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 4:15. For though you have countless teachers in Christ, you have not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have fathered you through the Gospel.

“Other teachers the Apostle called guardians, but himself a father, because he first brought them the Gospel teaching” (Theodoret).

“Guardians are teachers who have instructed them after holy Paul. Here are understood Apollos and the Corinthian teachers themselves. At the words ‘beloved children’ someone might think: ‘What then? Do not others love us?’—The Apostle answers as it were: they do love, but not as I do. They are guardians—pedagogues, but I am a father. As in regard to children there is one father but many guardians, and against the love of one father the affection of those many falls short, so also in regard to you” (Theophylact). “The Apostle points not to his dignity but to the excess of his love. He does not reproach other teachers, adding ‘in Christ,’ and calling them not flatterers but ‘guardians,’ indicating that they had care for you and labored for your sake; but expressed also the superiority of his love and his care for you, saying ‘you have not many fathers.’—Thus he did not wish to point them to his dignity nor remind them how much benefit they received from him, but, having agreed that other teachers too labored much for you—for such is the nature of guardians—he attributes to himself the excess of love, for such is the nature of a father. And he does not merely say that no one loves you as he does—that would not be proof—but points to the very deed. Which?—‘For in Christ Jesus I have fathered you through the Gospel.’—‘In Christ Jesus’—I do not attribute this, he says, to myself. Again he hints at those who appropriated the teaching to themselves. Later he will say: ‘you are the seal of my apostleship’ (1 Cor. 9:2); above he said: ‘I planted’ (1 Cor. 3:6); but here he says: ‘I fathered.’ He did not say: I proclaimed the word, but ‘I fathered,’ using an expression close to nature, for his aim was to express one thing—the love he bore for them. Others, receiving from me, have educated you; but that you became believers came through me. Thus, saying to them ‘as my children,’ and wishing to show that this is not flattering words, he pointed to the deed” (St. Chrysostom).

The Corinthians were “fathered,” that is, became Christians, not through preaching alone, but preaching laid the beginning of this fathering and illuminated all the production of the deed; therefore only one is mentioned. The fathering in Christ occurs thus: faith begins through the Gospel, and then, by the action of grace, is completed by it; the believer is baptized and receives new life in Christ; then this new person is anointed with the Spirit through the laying on of hands (now the chrismation). And behold the completed Christian, that is, anointed with the Spirit and become spiritually Christ’s or Christ.

1 Cor. 4:16. I urge you, then, be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

An unexpected application! The reason it is hard to guess the Apostle’s direct meaning. Theodoret paraphrases this place thus: “Humble yourselves as I humble myself; endure what I endure; glory in sufferings, not in gifts.” Theophylact thus: “Imitate me in all things, be not puffed up with wisdom or wealth, and do not quarrel with brothers, but count as one thing both wisdom and wealth—to love Christ and the brothers in Christ. See what tenderness!—He entreats, not commands.”

Perhaps the Apostle wished to say only this: see then, do not separate from me in your soul, but, remaining faithful both to the teaching and to Christ’s commandments, remember me too, and do not break with me your spiritual communion and bond of heart. ‘I urge you’ stands in place of all persuasions, for when one who loves entreats about love, who can resist?

Saint Chrysostom draws from these words a universal lesson. “O, what boldness of a teacher. How faithful an image of Christ he was, if he points this out to others too. But here he does not exalt himself but shows the ease of virtue. Do not say: I cannot imitate you, you are a teacher, and a great teacher. The distance between me and you is not as the distance between me and Christ, yet I imitated Him. When he writes to the Ephesians, he does not present himself as intermediary but leads all of them directly to God: ‘be imitators of God’ (Eph. 5:1); but here, since he was addressing the weak, presents himself as intermediary. On the other hand, he shows that in this way too one can imitate Christ. For whoever imitates a faithful image imitates the original.”

Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21)

1 Cor. 4:17. For this reason I am sending Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere and in every Church.

“For this reason.” For what?—“That I indeed consider you as beloved children and care for you as a father” (St. Chrysostom). Or also this: because of my fatherly love toward you, but on account of the disorders that have arisen among you; so that ‘for this reason’ embraces all the previous section.

“I am sending.” When this epistle was being written, St. Timothy had already been sent to Corinth. This gives the thought of such a course of events. The household of Chloe informed St. Paul of the wrong things happening in Corinth. St. Paul himself would have hastened there, but affairs detained him, so he sent St. Timothy ahead, so that he might either correct or stop the evil until St. Paul himself arrived. This is the very sending of Timothy of which it is spoken in Acts 19:22, where it says that St. Paul, having determined in his spirit to go through Macedonia and Achaia, sent Timothy and Erastus ahead to Corinth. “See how noble is the soul of Paul, how it is more ardent and alive than fire! He wished to come himself to the Corinthians, who were in grave sickness and confusion, for he well knew how beneficial his presence was to disciples and what harm accompanied his absence. He wished to come and hastened to come; but since it was not yet possible to do so, he instructs them with the promise of his arrival, and meanwhile sends to them a disciple” (St. Chrysostom). When St. Timothy departed, messengers came from the Corinthians—Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus (1 Cor. 16:17) with a letter; for which reason this epistle is written.

“I am sending Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord.” “To the Corinthians the Apostle showed his goodwill by sending Timothy to them; and to Timothy his love, by calling him his beloved child, and declared his other virtue, calling him faithful in the Lord” (Theodoret). St. Timothy was known in Corinth, for he was there with St. Paul when faith was first planted. But the Apostle thought it necessary to display his good qualities and his closeness to himself, for the reason that the Corinthians proved to be very forgetful, since they even forgot the dignity of their own Apostle. “Therefore with these words both he expresses his love to Timothy, and at the same time disposes the Corinthians to receive him with respect. ‘Child,’ he says, ‘beloved and faithful.’ Not simply ‘faithful,’ but ‘faithful in the Lord,’ that is, in the things of the Lord. If to be faithful in worldly affairs is praiseworthy, then all the more in spiritual matters. If he is faithful, then he will accomplish your affairs without reproach” (St. Chrysostom).

“Who will remind you of my ways.” Here both rebuke is heard and the voice of love, in every way trying to soften the word. Rebuke by this understanding: “He did not say that Timothy will inform them of his ways, but will remind them; this word, however, accuses them of forgetfulness, because they were eyewitnesses to Apostolic virtue” (Theodoret) and activity. Probably they heard how the Apostle acted everywhere; but this did not remain in their head, and they acted as though they knew nothing of it. Meanwhile it is enough to remember this to hold oneself in proper order.—The voice of love, softening the word, by this understanding: “He did not say: will teach, but ‘will remind,’ so that they would not grieve as though obliged to learn from him. But not even satisfied with this word, extending the discourse further, he adds: ‘my ways.’ Not his own ways, but ‘my’ ways. For Timothy was young” (St. Chrysostom). He will not speak in his own person and not about himself. He will be the representative of an authoritative person and act by his commission. Pay attention!

“My ways.” This word embraces the whole manner of apostolic action in planting Churches: both how he began preaching and how he conducted it, how he dealt with believers, what order he established, in what relation he placed believers toward their leaders. Therefore he says: “my ways in Christ,”—not my private affairs, but how I act in the work entrusted to me by the Lord—the preaching of the Gospel. “He, the Apostle says, will tell you how I act,—for he calls his manner of action ‘ways’” (Theodoret). “That is, arrangements, customs, laws, institutions, apostolic rules, and all else” (St. Chrysostom).

“As I teach everywhere and in every Church.” “Teach”—not teaching alone, or the imparting of truth, but in general instruction; and exhortation and the establishment of all order. When soldiers, recruits, are given to be trained by experienced soldiers, these do not merely tell them what they should do, but teach by deed how to act. So also here: I teach, that is, I train the Churches,—I impart truth to them, teach them to live, show how to perform the mysteries, and place the entire Church in order. By this the Apostle conveyed: I have taught nothing special anywhere and have introduced no different orders anywhere; as with you, so everywhere; so that this alone should have strongly rebuked them and instructed them: everywhere the same, why do you introduce such novelties among yourselves? “Be ashamed! not a single Church departs from my ways except you” (Theophylact).

1 Cor. 4:18. As though I were not coming to you, some have become arrogant.

I am sending Timothy, and I myself will soon follow after him, he says, because some of you, on account of my not coming to you, have become arrogant.—Clearly St. Paul either promised when departing from them that he would come again, or warned someone that he would come. Seeing that he does not come, some have become arrogant, that is, began to act as their high opinion of themselves prompted them—with disrespect to others and with contempt for the ordinances and rules given by St. Paul, as in the Lord’s parable the servant (Matt. 24:48; Lk. 12:45). To this St. Paul hints. I see, he says, the cause of some disorders among you: that I delayed in coming. I will correct this omission. While Timothy does something among you, and then I will myself soon come.—Here is hidden strong rebuke of them. He speaks to them as if to say: how childish your understanding is! When I am with you, or there is fear that I will soon come, you are in order. But as soon as I departed and it seemed to you that I would not come soon, you immediately became forgetful, and disorders arose among you. You are like children, who in the absence of a teacher become careless and mischievous (Sts. Chrysostom, Theophylact). In what way and how did some become arrogant?—It is very probable that those among them who stood out from others because of learning, or wealth, and perhaps even Christian knowledge and deeds, and even spiritual gifts, began to think highly of themselves; to this vanity then attached itself, and since in the absence of an authoritative teacher—the Apostle no one could rebuke and correct them, they became completely arrogant (Oecumenius).

1 Cor. 4:19–20. I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not just the words of those who are arrogant but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.

As among children, when the teacher comes, order is immediately restored, so also for the restoration of order among the Corinthians, as the Apostle hopes, his presence alone is sufficient. “For as the presence of a lion frightens all animals, so the presence of Paul frightens those corrupting the Church” (St. Chrysostom).—“I will come,” he says, “soon.” His intention is resolute; but since the course of events is in God’s hands, he added: “if the Lord wills.” “He does not name a definite time,—since he could also delay,—in order to maintain watchfulness in them by the uncertainty” (St. Chrysostom), and so that they, knowing in advance about the possibility of delay independent of his will, would not interpret it wrongly, not for their building up—if it should actually happen.

“I will come” following the preceding “have become arrogant” already hints at a threat; but it would have remained very indefinite, and therefore perhaps would not have produced the proper effect, if St. Paul had not immediately added: “and I will find out not just the words of those who are arrogant but their power.” The first thought which these words suggest is that those who are arrogant glory in something not substantial. “Their pride was a consequence not of their own merits but of the absence of a teacher, which was also a sign of the base disposition of their soul” (St. Chrysostom). Substantial merits never lead to pride, but something accidental, phantom, deceptively valued—always. The Apostle proclaims that before his judgment this phantom arousing pride will disappear. But what is it?—In a word: “I will find out,” he says, “not the words of those who are arrogant but their power.” He makes known that they have words, but lack power, and that they glory precisely in words, but words have no significance before power, which they lack. What then is meant by words and what by power?

Theodoret and Oecumenius understand thus: ‘words’ means the ability to speak well about the matter of salvation, or to claim it for themselves by words without deeds, while ‘power’ means the very accomplishment of salvation by deed. Theodoret writes: “I will subject, the Apostle says, to examination not eloquence but the manner of action.” Oecumenius: “Perhaps some were ostentatiously presenting themselves as perfected in Christian spirit without being so in deed. The Apostle therefore says: I will come and learn whether you are justified in exalting yourselves. For to boast without deeds is an unworthy thing, but words must be answered by deeds. Words are not needed, but that you do the spiritual work (of salvation). Words without deeds will not lead into the kingdom of heaven, but rather, if you by deed yourself accomplish your salvation by doing deeds worthy of it.”

St. Chrysostom, St. John of Damascus, and Theophylact oppose to ‘words’ the ‘power’ of signs. Here is the speech of St. Chrysostom for all of them: “But why do you not want to regard ‘words’? Not because I am poor in ‘words,’ but because our work is in power. As in war those who speak much do not prevail but those who act much, so also here victory belongs not to those who speak but to those who act. You glory, he says, in eloquence. If now were the time and place for orators, you could justly glory in it; but since now is the time of Apostles proclaiming truth and confirming it by signs, why do you glory in a superfluous deed, one that amounts to nothing and can bring no benefit now? For can eloquence serve to raise the dead, to cast out evil spirits, or to accomplish any other such miracle? But now this is necessary, and through it our work is established. Therefore he also adds: ‘the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.’ We overcome, he says, by signs, not by eloquence, and the greatest proof that our teaching is divine and that we proclaim the kingdom of heaven is the signs which we accomplish by the power of the Spirit. Thus, if those now exalting themselves wish to be great, then when I come, let them show whether they have such power, and not present to me eloquence and grandeur, because this are serves us for nothing.”

This is the true meaning of the ‘power’ manifested in the kingdom of Christ the Lord. The holy Church was founded on the preaching of the holy Apostles, “the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it” (Mk. 16:20). The holy Church by the power of God’s Spirit dwelling in her is what she is. By the power of God’s Spirit simple people become Christians; by the same power they remain so and ascend to the highest degrees of Christian perfection, when it begins to manifest itself in them obviously and perceptibly—so that the essence of Christianity consists in the manifestation of the powers of the Spirit. Their absence exposes the falsehood of those glorying in the word of truth, or the moral falseness of those appropriating to themselves true Christian perfection. St. Chrysostom touched here upon the power of the Spirit insofar as it manifested itself in the initial planting of the Church on earth; but in other places he expounds with equal persuasiveness the truth that in the life of Christians, if anything substantial and valuable exists, all of it comes from the Spirit. At this point the first opinion can be reconciled with the present one, that is, to understand by power life or the accomplishment of salvation, and all that is substantial in a Christian, adding to this: insofar as all of this is fruit of the power of God’s Spirit.

1 Cor. 4:21. What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

With these words he impels the guilty to repentance and correction. He has already pointed out their sin, exposed the emptiness of their pride, said that in God’s kingdom it is intolerable, for it expels from itself all that is phantom and stands only on what is substantial. To hold the Churches and believers thus is his apostolic work. It follows from this of itself that if the guilty, when rebuked, do not acknowledge and correct themselves, then he, on coming to them, will have nothing left but to pronounce upon them a strict judgment, but if they repent and correct themselves, he will receive them with love. Since correction of themselves or lack thereof is in their power, it also depends on them what kind of Apostle he will be when he comes to them—gentle or stern. Therefore he says: “What will you?” Do you wish me to come to you with a rod? Remain in your pride; but if you do not wish this, cast off your pride and I will appear to you as a father full of love.

Saying “with a rod,” he, as it were, ascends to the seat of a judge and from there pronounces a word with full authority. The rod signifies the sternness of authority, but it can also signify the punitive power by which Ananias and Sapphira were punished (Acts 5:9) and Elymas (1 Cor. 13:11) (St. Chrysostom, Theodoret). The Apostle used it also among the Corinthians, delivering the fornicator to Satan. It is not surprising that here too, foretelling the sternness of judgment, he had in mind to use such power in action if the good of the Church required it.

Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love? “And was coming with a rod not a sign of love?—It was a sign of love; but one who loves strongly does not easily incline to punishment, therefore he speaks thus. Speaking of punishment, he did not express himself as about gentleness. Here he says: ‘with a spirit of gentleness,’ but there: ‘with a rod’; although this too was the work of the Spirit, for there is a Spirit of gentleness and a Spirit of strength (sternness)—but he does not wish to call Him by this name, but attributes to Him actions more gentle. And see the wisdom of Paul: having authority in his hands, he offers them both as choices and says: ‘What will you?’ This depends on you, just as it depends on us ourselves—to fall into hell or to receive the kingdom, because it pleases God thus. ‘See,’ he says, ‘I have set before you fire and water: stretch out your hand to whichever you wish’ (Sir. 15:16); and again: ‘If you are willing and obey, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword’ (Isa. 1:19–20)” (St. Chrysostom).

Part Two. The Rebuke and Correction of Moral Faults (1 Corinthians 5–6)

The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8)

A) Rebuke of the Corinthians for indifference toward the fornicator and judgment upon him (1 Cor. 5:1–8), with the addition of b) instruction about cleansing Christian society from all manifest sinners (1 Cor. 5:9–13)

f) Rebuke of the Corinthians and judgment upon the fornicator (1 Cor. 5:1–8)

In rebuking them for the fornicator, St. Paul aa) first demonstrates the greatness of the sin and condemns the indifference of the Corinthian Christians toward it (1 Cor. 5:1–2); bb) then pronounces the judgment of excommunication upon the fornicator (1Cor 5:3–5), and cc) finally sets forth the reasons why he should be treated thus, and how one should act concerning every sinner and sin (1 Cor. 5:6–8).

1 Cor. 5:1. It is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife.

“It is widely reported”—ολως—altogether, or the certainty and undoubted nature of the report, or its prevalence, or both: the report is widely and certainly heard. Photius in Oecumenius says that “‘it is widely reported’ is the voice of one struck by this report and abhorring it and grieving over it, as if to say: alas! what an outrage!” Theodoret understood this expression likewise, for on the words “it is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you,” he writes: “The Apostle sufficiently showed the extremity of the impropriety; for, he says, this ought not even be heard.”

“Among you.” “The Apostle directs the force of reproach against all as much as possible. He does not say: why does such-and-such a person commit fornication? but: ‘it is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you,’ so that they, considering themselves entirely free from accusation, would not remain inattentive but would see that their entire community is subject to rebuke and that the whole of their Church is not free from accusation, and for this reason would be zealous in piety. Such is the nature of this matter: it is not said that a certain person commits fornication, but that in the Corinthian Church such a crime is committed, ‘of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans.’ The Apostle frequently rebukes believers by the example of pagans, so that ‘they would not walk as the other nations walk’ (Eph. 4:17). But here the reproach is the strongest. If it is unforgivable to sin equally with pagans, then tell me, exceeding the pagans in this regard—what a great sin! Among them, he says, not only is nothing of the kind committed, but it is not ‘even named.’ Do you see how important he considers this crime? If they tolerate a kind of immorality such as not only pagans do not commit but do not even know of, then inexpressible is the greatness of their sin” (St. Chrysostom). “They have dared to do what even those taught by demonic doctrines do not dare” (Theodoret).

“With this thought, the expression “among you” takes on an extremely reproachful sense. “Among you, believers who have been deemed worthy of such mysteries, who have received unspeakable goods, who have been called to heaven.” Do you see what indignation and anger his words are full of? If he had not felt strong anger he would not have addressed his words to all but would have said: I have heard that such-and-such a person commits fornication—punish him. But now not so; he directs his address against all. Perhaps he would have expressed himself more leniently if they had written to him about it; but since they did not write and by that showed that they were perhaps covering up the sin, it was necessary to use a more striking form of speech” (St. Chrysostom).

“For a man is living with his father’s wife.” After his father’s death he took his stepmother as wife. It is noted that in pagan laws other kinds of incest are mentioned, but this one is not. So contrary to nature is it! “But why did he not say: someone is committing adultery with a woman? He did not wish to express too low a sin, therefore he spoke of it with a certain modesty and not directly, but at the same time expressed the importance of the crime in the same way, showing that something such happens among you that Paul does not permit himself to name directly. Therefore he uses the same manner of speech later: ‘the one who did this deed’; again he is ashamed and does not permit himself to speak directly, just as we are accustomed to do concerning very low deeds. He does not say: stepmother, but: ‘his father’s wife,’ so as to move them more strongly. When the names themselves are sufficient for rebukes, then he uses them without adding anything else” (St. Chrysostom). “And in this the apostolic wisdom is to be admired. He did not say: stepmother, because this name expresses a kind of aversion, but ‘his father’s wife,’ that is, she who took the place of a mother, she who united with the father after his own mother, becoming for the parent that which she who bore him had been” (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 5:2. And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this deed would have been removed from among you?

“And you are arrogant.” Over what?—Certainly not over the sin or the sinner, insofar as he is a sinner (St. Chrysostom and others); but rather, you think highly of yourselves generally, you are puffed up. The vice of the fornicator is so great that it overshadows all your good qualities; you have nothing to boast about. You should have long ago humbled yourselves and wept. “Do not argue that only one commits fornication; no, this is a sin common to all of you” (St. Chrysostom). Or: you are arrogant over some brilliant, worldly aspects of this criminal, for example, wealth or learning. You have fixed your eyes on these phantom merits and are arrogant that you have such a person among you, but have not noticed that he is so worthless that he shames you all and should be driven out. Theodoret supposes that he was one of the teachers and perhaps the leader of a certain faction; therefore he writes: “they thought highly of themselves as having a very learned teacher.” St. Chrysostom also thinks that they gloried in the learning of the sinner: “‘And you are arrogant.’ The Apostle did not say: over such a sin—for that would be senseless—but over the teaching of the sinner. However, he did not express this clearly but omitted the intermediate thought so as to move them more strongly. And see the good judgment of Paul. He first demolished external wisdom and showed that it is futile in itself, even if not joined with sin, and only then spoke of the sin. If he had proven the greatness of spiritual gifts in comparison with the incestuous person, who perhaps was distinguished by external wisdom, he would have accomplished nothing important; but, having demolished external wisdom without relation to sin and shown that it is futile in itself, he proved its utter unworthiness. Therefore he first pronounced such a judgment upon it, and only then began to speak of sin. However, he does not deign his discourse with the fornicator himself, thereby expressing the extreme disgrace of his deed, but speaks to others, that they should weep, wail, and be ashamed; but you, he says, act otherwise, therefore he adds: ‘you are arrogant rather than having mourned.’ Why should we mourn?—Because reproach has been brought upon the entire community of the Church. And why should we mourn?—‘So that he who has done this deed would have been removed from among you.’ And here again he does not call him by name, or rather never does—just as we are accustomed to do concerning matters too shameful. As when there is a contagious disease it is necessary both to weep and to pray earnestly, so you should have acted; but you did not weep, so that he might be removed; it is necessary to pray and use every measure so that he might be cut off from you, and you yourselves should have done this without me because of the importance of the crime” (St. Chrysostom).

Bb) The judgment of excommunication upon the fornicator (1 Cor. 5:3–5)

1 Cor. 5:3–5. For though I am absent in body, I am present in spirit and have already pronounced judgment on the one who has done this, as if I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

An extraordinary session of judgment! The Lord presides; the Apostle directs all things from Ephesus; and a decision is rendered, one part of which was to be immediately executed by an unseen power, and another to be completed on the day of the Lord! Only in the Church of God can such a judgment be carried out. Was it not following this example that some holy hierarchs later acted in ordination matters? Thus the holy Gregory the Wonderworker was ordained bishop while hidden in the desert; thus Daniel the Stylite was ordained priest while remaining locked on his pillar, and others. The Church is one body under its head—the Lord. Whoever is a living member of the Church, his absence is unthinkable, wherever he may be. Division by place does not constitute any barrier to union in spirit. Theodoret writes: “An awesome court the Apostle has established. First he assembled all in the name of the Lord; then he introduced himself by the grace of the Spirit, and showed that the Master himself presides, pronounces judgment, delivers over to the executioner, and determines to punish the body only, because for the soul itself he prepares a healing remedy through the punishment.”

1 Cor. 5:3. You yourselves should have removed such a one from your midst. Since you have not done this, I do, and write my decision to you for execution. “I have already pronounced judgment.” “See his zeal: he does not allow himself to wait for his arrival and then punish the incestuous man only after receiving him, but, as if wishing to stop some contagion before it penetrates the whole body, he seeks to restrain him” (St. Chrysostom).

“Though I am absent in body, I am present in spirit.”—“Present” — παρων — present, being. The Slavonic translation gives the sense that this is not merely mental presence, but a living presence; “just as Elisha said that he was with Gehazi: ‘Did not my heart go with you?’ (2 Kings 5:26)? Behold such is the power of spiritual gifts! They make it possible to be together at one time with all, and grant the ability to know what is distant.” (St. Chrysostom). The ancient prophets were called seers because, through the Spirit dwelling in them, they saw what was distant as if present. Many of the saints acquired the gift of clairvoyance, as is recorded in their lives. Some, remaining in their own place, appeared tangibly in another place to offer some help and intercession. This is more than clairvoyance. One who was caught up to the third heaven essentially, and not in a dream, and heard there unspeakable words—such a one surely knew how it was possible to be in Corinth in spirit while remaining in body in Ephesus. Therefore, when he says “in spirit,” although he means his own spirit, it is not in the way that this is his natural power, but “through the Holy Spirit” (Theophylact). “He said this not only to urge them to carry out the judgment, but also to frighten them by showing that all that happens and is discussed there is known to him” (St. Chrysostom). The Apostle writes the decision; but it will have force when they too reach agreement and determination in the assembly.

“I have already pronounced judgment, as if I were present.”—The matter is decided. “He does not allow them even to consider any other decision of the matter; I have already determined, he says, as if being with you; do not present me with excuses and delays: nothing else should be considered” (St. Chrysostom). “The one who has done this.” What revulsion he expresses toward this vice when he does not even name the guilty one!—He neither names the guilty one nor the vice itself, but says only “the one who has done this.” He does not wish the name of the vice to reach Christian ears. By the word “thus” he expresses the deformity of the vice: he “who has insulted the name of Christ, who had been a believer and bore such a name, and yet dared to do such a deed—deliver such a one to Satan” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 5:4. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

—or to deliver to Satan, and in this case these words would mean: “looking to God, not relying on human judgment” (St. Chrysostom). Or—“you assembled in this name”—“that is, the name itself unites you; in it and gather yourselves” (St. Chrysostom). Then he makes them sharers in the judgment and, joining them to himself, separates them from the one who sinned, saying: “with you and my spirit.” “Again he presents himself to them so that they, carrying out judgment, would as it were in his presence condemn the incestuous one to excommunication, and so that no one would dare to think him worthy of forgiveness, imagining that Paul will learn what happened” (St. Chrysostom).—“With the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is, when you gather and my spirit, this assembly, being in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, will also be with his power as the head of the Church; so that he himself together with you will pronounce judgment against the one who sinned and impart to it divine power. Or these words mean that “Christ is able to grant power to the judgment—to deliver such a one to the devil” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 5:5. To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

This does not merely mean excommunication from the Church, outside which is the realm of Satan (Acts 26:18), but that the evil spirit took hold of his body and wasted it. The fleshly sin is punished in the flesh. The wasted flesh will weaken the bonds of sin and give room for the spirit to repent. This is a remedy, not punishment. “Something similar occurred with the blessed Job, though not with the same force: there—for the most glorious crowns, and here—for the forgiveness of sins, so that Satan might punish him with grievous wounds or some other affliction. In another place he says: ‘We are judged and chastened by the Lord’ (1 Cor. 11:32); but here, wishing to strike the sinner more forcefully, he delivers him to Satan, although even this depends on God’s will, so that his flesh might be punished. Since lustful desires are born from gluttony and the flesh’s lack of self-control, he punishes it” (St. Chrysostom).

“So that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.” “That is, so that his soul might be saved—not in the sense that it alone is saved, but understanding the certain truth that when it is saved, then the body will inevitably share in salvation. The body became mortal through sin of the soul; therefore, if the soul becomes righteous, then the body again will be deemed worthy of great glory. Thus these words express more care and healing than mere wounding, or vain and fruitless punishment, for the benefit is greater than the punishment: this is temporal, that is eternal. And he did not simply say ‘his spirit may be saved,’ but ‘on that day.’ Wisely and opportunely he reminds them of that day, so that they too might approach more earnestly to healing, and he would more readily accept healing, seeing that these words proceed not from anger but from the care of a watchful father. For this reason he said ‘for the destruction of the flesh’; here he prescribes laws to the devil and does not allow him to go beyond the limits, just as concerning Job God said: ‘Only spare his life’ (Job 1:12, 2:6)” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 5:6. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens all the dough?

He returns to what was said before: and you boasted in this, rather than mourning. “Your boasting is not good”—or there is nothing to praise in you, because you permitted such sin in your society and have not yet cared to heal it; or—it is not well that you boasted in such a person: this only rooted him more firmly in sin and kept him in blindness and impenitence. With these words the Apostle “shows that they, boasting in him, were the cause of his impenitence up to this time. Next he explains that he does this (striking with such judgment) not for the benefit of the sinner alone, but for all of them: ‘Do you not know,’ he continues, ‘that a little leaven leavens all the dough?’—Although the sin, he says, belongs to him alone, yet if left unattended, it can infect the whole body of the Church, for if the first offender is not subjected to punishment, then soon others too will fall into the same sin. By these words the Apostle expresses that those to whom he speaks should care for the whole Church, not just one member, and therefore he uses the comparison of leaven. Just as leaven, he says, though small, transforms all the dough, so he, if he remains unconfessed and his sin unpunished, will infect others” (St. Chrysostom).

This principle applies fully also to each person who allows some sin in themselves. The sinner who sins openly, according to his influence on those around him, always spreads contagion, but not as noticeably and destructively as the satisfaction of some passion does in the soul of each person. Every such act darkens the mind, hardens the heart, and suppresses the energy for good. Therefore, if the matter is not corrected immediately, then sinfulness, receiving reinforcement in the wounding of spiritual powers by the corruption of one passion, will raise up other passions, one after another: for they are linked as a chain. Satisfying each gives it power over the soul: gratify all, even a little, and you become slave to all. Thus man appears again in the position of a fly ensnared by a spider. Therefore, while the leaven is small, we must cleanse the dough from which our nature is composed.

1 Cor. 5:7. Cleanse out the old leaven so that you may be a fresh batch, as you are already unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us.

“It seems the Apostle moves here into generality. For although the old leaven which he commands to cleanse out, by the course of the discourse, means the incestuous man; yet the expressions used are such that they give the idea of cleansing society from every sinner, and from this they transition to the thought of cleansing Christian souls from every sinful uncleanness. So St. Chrysostom. He says: ‘Cleanse out the old leaven,’ that is, this sinner; or rather, he speaks not only of him, but hints at others, for not only is fornication the old leaven, but every vice is.”

Yet the first thought is about the incestuous man. The Apostle requires that the community cast him out and not tolerate his presence any longer. Why “he did not say ‘cleanse,’ but ‘cleanse’—thoroughly cleanse, so that there remain neither traces nor shadow of him. By this comparison he very strikingly excludes the incestuous man from the Church. He is not only, he says, useless by his presence, but causes harm by infecting the whole body. For when decay is hidden inside and one cannot see where the stench comes from, then it is attributed to the whole body. Therefore the Apostle with special force urges them to cleanse out this leaven. And see his wisdom: in this first epistle he does not give the incestuous man hope of return, but commands him to spend all his life in repentance, so that promise of forgiveness would not make him more careless; he does not say: deliver him to Satan so that after repentance he again be accepted into the Church—but what?—That he ‘may be saved on the final day.’ He points to that time to make him diligent; but what he intended to give him after repentance, he does not reveal, imitating his Lord. Just as God said: ‘Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown’ (Jon. 3:4), and did not add: if you repent, you shall be saved; so he did not say: if he repents properly, we shall love him dearly, but leaves it to him to do the deed, so that then he receives grace. If he had said this at the very beginning, he would have driven away fear; therefore not only does he not say this, but by the comparison of leaven he even leaves him no hope of return, but excludes him until the future day. But when he had repented, he at once readily receives him again (into communion with the Church)” (St. Chrysostom).

“So that you may be a fresh batch.” Here the meaning shifts to the general purity of all, and such that there would not be a single sinner among them, and such that in no Christian soul would there be even one sin. “A fresh batch”—newly mixed dough for unleavened bread, where there is only pure water and unmixed flour. Such should be the whole Christian community and every Christian soul. A newly converted soul and a newly formed Church are always thus. Such too was the Corinthian Church: but then a sinner entered and it became old or was leavened. The Apostle says: cast out this old leaven, so that you may again become fresh—pure dough, as you were in the beginning.

The words: “as you are already unleavened”—since you are unleavened, do not express their actual blamelessness, for they had obviously become leavened, but express their obligation to be unleavened, that is, pure from every sin and passion. “St. Chrysostom says: the expression ‘as you are unleavened’ means not that they all are pure, but that they all should be such.” As the foundation for why they—and we in general—should be thus, the Apostle sets forth that “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us.” Just as before the Passover lamb in Israel’s houses nothing leavened remained, so before our Passover lamb, Christ the Lord, nothing sinful and passionate should exist. And this is continuous; so that sinlessness and passionlessness is our normal state. With Israel leaven was destroyed for only seven days. With us it is not so; but since our lamb is always present, slain, we should at all times be without the leaven of passions. If Israel’s lamb, let us suppose, always stood on the table, no one would dare to bring anything leavened into the house. In the Church—the house of God—the Lamb of God always lies slain before us—common to the whole Church and every believer; let no one dare bring into the house of his soul anything sinful, or, by manifesting it in deeds, into the house of God’s Church.—Such is the calling of Christians, such is their unavoidable obligation. This is what St. Paul expresses in the words: “as you are unleavened.” “Unleavenedness means that the believer must be free from every vice. As a Jew perishes if old leaven is found in him, so it will be with us if vice is found in us. For if those walking in the shadow of the Law are struck by such punishment, how much more must we be struck by greater punishment. If they so carefully cleanse their houses of leaven, even examining the mouse holes, then all the more should we examine our soul to cast out every unclean thought” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 5:8. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

With Israel the Passover lamb was joined a seven-day festival. With us the Passover lamb is always present: consequently, our celebration should be continuous. And just as throughout the festival the Israelites ate nothing leavened and spent the time brightly, clothing themselves in bright festive garments, so should we, avoiding all sin in words, deeds, and thoughts, and clothing ourselves in bright and pure virtues and gracious overshadowings and indwellings, spend all the time of life from the moment we became Christians, always keeping ourselves spiritually as the Israelites kept themselves in the flesh.

How exactly to keep oneself is explained by the following words: “not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Old leaven—our sinfulness: egoism, or selfhood, with the passions of soul and body. The same is meant by the leaven of malice and evil. On the contrary, sincerity and truth mean the rejection of all that is sinful and passionate, and progress in all that is opposed to it—in every virtue and all that pleases God. There is no need to define with precision what malice and evil are, and what sincerity and truth are. The Apostle wished to designate by the first all that is bad and opposed to God, and by the second—all that is holy and pleasing to God.—His thought is: the life of a Christian from beginning to end should be sinless, pure, and bright.

St. Chrysostom pauses on another attribute of the festival, joy, and says: “The Apostle said: ‘Let us keep the feast,’ not because it was then Passover or Pentecost, but to show that for Christians every time is a time of festival because of the overflowing of gifts granted to them. For what good is lacking to you? For you the Son of God became man, freed you from death, called you to his kingdom. Having received and receiving such goods, should you not celebrate all your life? Thus let no one grieve in poverty, in sickness, and in troubles; for us every time is a time of festival. Therefore Paul says: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice’ (Phil. 4:4). During festivals no one clothes himself in unclean garments; so let us do likewise, for a marriage is being accomplished, a spiritual marriage. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding feast for his son’ (Matt. 22:2). But when a king accomplishes a marriage, and a marriage of his son, what could be a greater festival? Therefore let no one enter clothed in rags; we speak not of garments but of unclean deeds. One who appeared at the marriage in an unclean garment was cast out with shame: see then what care and purity is required of those entering this marriage.”

Purging the Christian Community of Open Sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)

The Apostle expresses this instruction by requiring not to associate with any sinner from among Christians, nor even to eat with him. This means—to regard him as cast out from their community. Therefore he concludes: expel the wicked—every such wicked one—from among yourselves.

1 Cor. 5:9. I wrote to you not to associate with sexually immoral people.

In what epistle?—Now everyone says: in an epistle which the Apostle wrote before, but which has been lost. But our commentators all hold that this is spoken of the present epistle, alluding to the previous words: “Let such a person be removed from among you, cleanse out the old leaven.” So Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact. Here are the words of St. Chrysostom: “When the Apostle said, ‘Should not rather have mourned, so that the one who did this might be removed,’ and ‘Cleanse out the old leaven,’ the Corinthians might have thought they had to avoid all fornicators; for if the one who sinned communicates his contagion to those who have not sinned, then much more should they flee from those sinning from among the heathen; if one should not spare one’s own for the harm he causes, then much more those of others. But if they had begun to avoid pagan fornicators, this would have restricted them and provoked the heathen. Therefore the Apostle makes a disclaimer and says: ‘I wrote to you not to associate with fornicators, and not with any fornicators of this world.’ He uses the word ‘any’ in the sense of a disclaimer.”

This explanation can be accepted.

1 Cor. 5:10. Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

Making this disclaimer: “not with any fornicators,” he links others to them and other open sinners, and says that he commands not to associate not with sinners of this world, that is, from the heathen, for otherwise one would have to seek another world: “Since then you would need to go out of the world.” How is it possible, he says, that a man with a house and children, fulfilling public duties, being a craftsman or a soldier, with such a multitude of heathen, could always avoid fornicators? “By ‘fornicators of the world’ he meant fornicators from among the heathen” (St. Chrysostom). The thought that these are strangers, not ours, lessened the evil influence of the sinner on a Christian’s soul. With the acceptance of faith, separation in the soul took place from all that was pagan and from the heathen. Christians even in thought held that a heathen and a great sinner are one and the same. Therefore the sinfulness of the heathen could not lead them astray. It seems the Apostle mentions this in order to then more clearly single out open sinners from Christians.

1 Cor. 5:11. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a one.

There, he says, is what I meant when I wrote to you!—Do not associate, do not enter into relations, do not have close fellowship with one who, though bearing the name of a Christian, gives himself over to open vices. “Do not even eat with such a one”—meaning ordinary hospitality, neither invite him to yourself nor go to him and enter into dealings with him. Theodoret remarks: “If one should not have fellowship with such people in ordinary food, then much more in the mysterious and divine meal.” And by the course of the discourse it is clear that if they themselves are not to associate with such, then they too should not allow them to associate with themselves; and if this is in the ordinary order of life, then all the more in the ecclesiastical. Thus the Apostle determines: regard such as estranged from Christian society, the same as excommunicated, like that incestuous man—cast out as old leaven. The Apostle sets forth as the reason for this—so that they might not be infected, not become leavened by them. Christians should be so holy and so faithful to the commandments that it should never even occur to them that one could sin while remaining a Christian. If open sinners remained in their society, then this zeal for moral purity would be greatly shaken by the thought that, apparently, Christians too could bear the name and not be in deed such as the name requires. To prevent this common weakening, the Apostle commands to cut off fellowship with such persons.

Among such he includes a fornicator, a greedy person, an idolater, one who is verbally abusive, a drunkard, a swindler. The very names give us understanding of them. A fornicator is one who openly commits fornication; a greedy person is one who, through unjust trade or usury or some cunning, grows rich and becomes miserly and stingy; an idolater—must be one who eats food offered to idols without discernment, as the holy Paul will explain later; a verbally abusive person—one who is quarrelsome, irritable, slanderous; a drunkard—one who drinks beyond measure and acts shamefully; a swindler—a thief in various forms. Earlier he mentioned only a fornicator, a thief, a greedy person, and an idolater (1 Cor. 5:10). Here he added—a drunkard and an idolater, though these verses should be in direct correspondence. One may conclude that not all those to be shunned are enumerated here either, or excommunicated from Christian society. Therefore it is permissible to generalize the Apostle’s position: every open sinner should be excluded from Christian society.

Christian society should be pure. As soon as someone falls into sin, he should be cast out. In the early times sinners indeed were cast out; and those who, repenting, sought again to share in fellowship, though they were received, subjected themselves to strict trials and had to pass through several degrees of repentance to be received again into full communion. This was the wise apostolic discipline. The multiplication of sinners has made its execution impossible. Now if you try to enforce it: drive them all out. And there is no one to enforce it.

1 Cor. 5:12. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

“By ‘those outside’ he means the Gentiles, and by ‘those inside’—Christians. ‘To me,’ he says, ‘it is no concern what happens to those outside. It is as if to say: they are outside my laws. It is inappropriate to impose the laws of Christ on those who are not of Christ’s household. For ‘whatever the Law says, it says to those who are under the Law’ (Rom. 3:19)” (Theophylact). Since he is writing laws of judgment over Christians, one can understand by “judge” to mean: it does not befit me to prescribe laws of judgment for those outside. But here also his practice of judgment is defined; why the words ‘what have I to do with judging?’ can be completed: what have I to do with you in judging those outside? or: what have we to do with you? In his person he represents all Christians judging, or the whole Church, whose authority extends only over her children.

“Do you not judge those who are inside?” He says: “do you judge?” and he entrusts this authority to them. Therefore one can here rephrase the discourse thus: do we not judge those inside together with you? Photius in Oecumenius says: “We correct our brothers when we examine their affairs and pronounce judgment upon them, for the purpose of correction, and from those (the Gentiles) we have already separated ourselves.”

In these words is indicated the reason why the Apostle gave the rule earlier not to associate with manifest sinners only from among Christians, but not from among the Gentiles. For he says: these are outside, and those are inside; but we can judge only those inside, not those outside. But if here he speaks of judgment, then it must be understood that the non-association with sinners from among Christians should come about as a result of ecclesiastical judgment. Through this whole short section runs the thought that Christians themselves must preserve their community in purity and holiness, and in the case of the appearance of anyone not measuring up to the standard of the others in this regard, they should expel such a person from the community by means of their own internal judicial process.

1 Cor. 5:13. God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among yourselves.

And in writing to the Romans, the Apostle says that those outside, the Gentiles, though without the Law, shall nevertheless receive judgment—they shall receive it not according to written Law, but according to the law of conscience (Rom. 2:12 et seq.). He says the same thing here, that God judges them, that is, that God is their judge. Every rational creature bears the conviction that it is accountable to God and will receive judgment from Him according to the laws which He has placed in their conscience. Gentiles were deceived in their understanding of God, but on this point—about God’s judgment upon them—it was operative even with them. Therefore the Apostle’s thought is this: we judge our own here and now ourselves, and through this, disposing them toward repentance, we save them from God’s judgment, but the Gentiles do not have this intermediary corrective judgment; there awaits them directly God’s judgment. Holy Chrysostom says: “So that from his words ‘what have I to do with judging those outside,’ someone might not conclude that the Gentiles will remain unpunished, he points to another judgment—the Terrible One. He says this both to terrify the outsiders and to comfort his own, and to show that this temporal punishment saves one from the eternal and infinite, as he said in another place: now ‘we are being judged and disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world’ (1 Cor. 1:32)”.

“Purge the evil person from among yourselves.” “Evil”—not just the man guilty of incest, but every evil person, every manifest sinner. This saying is taken from Deuteronomy (Deut. 17:7), and by it the Apostle confirms his ordering about the expulsion from Christian society of manifest sinners. The Old Israel was a type of the new, and those material laws of that time were types of the spiritual laws of the Church of Christ. There great sinners were stoned to death, and the Israelites thus purged the evil from among themselves. In the Church of Christ, the evil person is purged by his excommunication from communion both in the mysteries and in external relations, for the purpose of not only cleansing herself of the evil but also of correcting the evil person himself. By bringing this saying, the Apostle both justifies his ordering, that it should indeed be done thus, and at the same time displays the distinction of the new Israel from the old. Holy Chrysostom says on this passage: “The Apostle borrowed this saying from the Old Testament in order on the one hand to suggest that in such a case (having purged the evil) they themselves will gain the greatest benefit, having been freed as it were from a dangerous infection, and on the other hand—to show that this is not a new invention, but was even commanded by the ancient lawgiver to expel such people. However, there it was stricter, and here it is more merciful. At this point one may justly ask, why there the lawgiver allowed criminals to be executed and stoned to death, but here it is not so, but he leads him to repentance? Why is it so prescribed there and differently here?—For two reasons: first, because those called in the New Testament are called to greater efforts, and consequently have need of greater forbearance; second, and more justly, because the lightening of punishment more readily disposes them to repentance and correction, whereas with those of the Old Testament it would have led to greater corruption.”

The Rebuke for Lawsuits Before Unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:1–6)

Having mentioned internal judgment in spiritual matters, the Apostle desires that a) Christians also judge their temporal affairs among themselves, not bringing them before pagan judges (1 Cor. 1–6); and better yet would be if b) by mutual concession and readiness rather to suffer injury than to inflict it, they did not allow disputes to arise between them (1 Cor. 7–8). St. Chrysostom notes that the previous discourse provided occasion for this condemnation; it seems to be an insertion, and, having finished it, the Apostle returns again to the former subject, that is, to the condemnation of lustful and in general sensual life.

h) Disputes among Christians should not be judged by pagan judges (1 Cor. 6:1–6)

1 Cor. 6:1. When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?

“Does he dare?” The Apostle begins his discourse directly and with emotion. The question shows how displeasing this matter is to him because of the dishonor to the name of Christ brought by it, for the honor of which he was always zealous. “To have a grievance against another”—to have a disputed matter with someone, as is clear from what follows, over temporal things.

He calls the heathen “unrighteous” and Christians “saints.” Christians in baptism take on an obligation before their conscience—to observe all righteousness and do all good, and for the fear of God allow nothing contrary to conscience; so that conscientiousness becomes their distinguishing mark. Among the heathen, on the other hand, moral powers are in decline, and they are presumed always ready to twist their conscience. The Apostle, knowing also by hearsay that the Corinthian Christians, perhaps chiefly from among the heathen, go to pagan judges in case of disagreements, either from old habit or because it is shameful to appear with a lawsuit in a Christian assembly—at mere recollection of this he becomes indignant and says: does he dare? How does one resolve to do this? What is this like?

“St. Chrysostom says: ‘Again the Apostle condemns them here as a known fact; there he said: ‘Is it not reported that there is sexual immorality among you’; here: ‘Does he dare?’ From the very beginning he expresses anger and shows that this matter is in no way suitable. Is it not strange, he asks, to choose an enemy as a mediator for reconciliation with a friend? Is it not shameful and degrading that a heathen sits to judge a Christian? And see how he expresses himself: ‘to go to law before the unrighteous, not before the saints’—by the very names condemning the unreason of the deed and turning them away from it. He did not say: before the unbelievers, but before the ‘unrighteous’; he uses such an expression as was especially necessary for his intended purpose, to correct and turn them away from such a deed. Speaking of judgment and having in mind that those bringing suit desire nothing so much from judges as justice, he thus instructs them, as if to say: where are you going and what are you doing, man, acting contrary to your own desire, seeking justice from unrighteous men? But to incline them to appeal to their own, see how he exalts them and presents them as worthy of all confidence, first calling them saints, then calling them judges of the world. At first he does not reject judgment among the faithful; but when he has already strongly condemned them, then he altogether forbids judgment. If, he says, it is absolutely necessary to judge, then it should not be before unbelievers, but it would be better not to judge at all. But he expresses this last thought later (1 Cor. 6:7–8), while now he merely forbids going to judgment before outsiders. It was hard to hear the prohibition against judging directly; therefore he does not at once command this, but first only changes the judges, turning those who would judge from external judges to the Church.’”

1 Cor. 6:2. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to handle trivial cases?

He proves why it is unsuitable for Christians to judge before heathens; because, he says, Christians—saints—will judge the world, that is, unbelievers, the heathen, and below, angels too, also unbelievers. If they will judge the heathen, then clearly the heathen are below them and heathen courts are not for them; it is unworthy of you, he says, to go to these courts. The matter is proven. The force of the proof lies in the certainty of the circumstance that saints, Christians, will judge the world. When the Apostle asks: “Do you not know?” by the question itself he makes it clear that this was known to the Christians of that time. Therefore the Apostle’s purpose was achieved even without explanation of how the saints will judge the world. He does not provide it. But for us now this is not quite clear. The judge of the world is the Lord alone. He himself, in depicting judgment, makes it clear that both the faithful and the unfaithful will be subject to him, and that having carried out judgment, he will say to some: “Come, blessed,” and to others: “Depart, cursed.” How then will the saints judge, if they themselves will be judged?—To this we say: the Apostle’s word is not false; the saints will judge the world and the angels, and how—we do not know. Our ignorance does not diminish the truth of the apostolic word. But would this answer satisfy anyone? Everyone wishes to reach a decision, but how to base decisions on nothing, it is inevitable to construct suppositions. Many have constructed them. There is no point in listing them. Let us take the one which all our commentators unanimously accept. Here are the words of Theodoret: “He said: ‘will judge,’ instead of ‘will condemn.’ For this is made clear by the following words: ‘if the world is to be judged by you’(εν υμιν) [lit. ‘in you’]. Thus ‘the men of Nineveh… and the queen of the South will condemn this generation’ (Matt. 12:41–42); thus the twelve Apostles will judge ‘the twelve tribes of Israel’ (Matt. 19:28), that is, will condemn them, will condemn them because they themselves came from them and believed in the Lord, and underwent countless forms of death, and did not deny their faith in him. So believers from among the heathen will condemn those who did not believe in the saving preaching.” Here is what St. Chrysostom says: “The saints will judge, not by sitting down and demanding an account, but by condemning. This is what the Apostle expresses by the words: ‘if the world is to be judged by you’ [lit. ‘in you’]. He did not say ‘by you’ but ‘by you,’ [in your holiness], just as the Lord said: ‘The queen of the South will rise up and condemn this generation’; and ‘The men of Nineveh will rise up and condemn this generation’ (Matt. 12:41–42). They see the same thing as we do, participate in the same, and yet if we turn out to be believers and they unbelievers, they will not be able to claim ignorance; we will condemn them by what we have done. And many similar means of condemnation will be found then.” So too St. John of Damascus, Oecumenius, Photius in Oecumenius, and Theophylact. The last note of St. Chrysostom shows that other ways of condemning the unbelievers by the faithful are possible. But all are condemnations, not judgment. On this resolution let us stop. It is greatly supported by—εν υμιν—in you, as if in your person, or showing through you, the judge will pronounce judgment, and will be justified in his judgment by you.

“If so, the holy Paul says further, then ‘are you not competent to handle trivial cases?;’ as if to say: ‘Your conduct brings you shame and inexpressible dishonor. Corinthians, it seems were ashamed to be judged before their own judges; therefore he says: on the contrary, be ashamed that you are judging before outsiders; their courts are trivial, not yours’ (St. Chrysostom).”

1 Cor. 6:3. Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!

“The Apostle uses the expression ‘are to judge’ again in place of ‘will condemn’; by angels he meant demons, because formerly they were angels. The saints will condemn them because, though clothed in flesh, they were concerned with divine service, while they in their bodiless nature loved wickedness” (Theodoret).

St. Chrysostom refutes the opinion of those who think that the Apostle means by angels the priests. The Apostle, he says, contrasts with the angels temporal matters (temporal — βιωτικα — temporal, matters of this life); and such matters are not opposed to priests, for they too are men of this life; to angels they are opposed in the sense that by their nature they have no need of temporal things. “No, the Apostle speaks here of evil spirits, of those angels of whom Christ speaks: ‘Depart from me… into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’ (Matt. 25:41). When these bodiless powers prove themselves worse than us, clothed in flesh, they will undergo the heaviest punishment.”

1 Cor. 6:4. If then you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who are least esteemed by the church?

This place is somewhat obscure, because of the uncertainty of who are “those who are least esteemed by the church.” The first words are clear: “If then you have temporal disputes,” that is, if you have temporal matters or conflicts that need to be settled by court procedure. Clear too are the last words: “do you lay them before,” that is, you set on the judge’s seat for judgment over yourselves, or choose as judges. But what the words “those who are least esteemed by the church” mean is not clear. And this obscures the whole text.

“Those who are least esteemed by the church” can be understood in two ways: either as persons who belong to the Church, believing members of the Church, but such as occupy the last places in it, standing lower than others; or as persons outside the Church, unbelievers, who for that very reason are reckoned as worthless in the Church—they mean nothing to the Church and its members, they are “least esteemed.”

If under “those least esteemed” we understand those outside the Church, then, placing this passage in connection with the preceding, we get: you have angels to judge, not much more so temporal matters? But you, having temporal disputes, set on the judge’s seat, or take as judges, such persons who in the Church have no significance whatsoever, as unbelievers, or are nothing before the Church and its members. What an absurdity!—I say this to your shame.—Now in the Greek text this place is made a question. This does not change its sense, in the form presented, but strengthens it, giving it a tone of reproachful disapproval.

If under “those least esteemed” we understand persons belonging to the Church, but not visible in the church, then, placing this passage in connection with the preceding: “you have angels to judge, not much more so temporal matters?”—we can continue the discourse thus: as for temporal matters, if you have need to settle them among yourselves by outside judgment, take for this the last believers and set them on the judge’s seat. The thought will be either this: take you the very last of Christians—and they will judge; or thus: take you, whatever come—Christians, even the very lowest, and entrust them with judgment over yourselves, only never go to pagan judges. With the first thought there will be heard the suggestion that temporal matters are in themselves, and all the more among Christians, to be regarded as trifling, so trifling that the very last Christian will settle them; and at the same time there will be a reproach: but you go to courts, as if with some important matter and to important persons, when both the one and the other are trivial. With the second thought there will be heard a suggestion of aversion to judgment before the heathen, as a deed in no way suited to Christians.

All our commentators read not “do you lay them before” but “set before”—and in interpretation they express the latter of the thoughts brought forward. In the words in question they see a response to an anticipated objection: do not go, you say, to pagan judges; but to whom among ours should one turn? There is no one fit to judge, so perforce one goes to the heathen.—Here are the words of St. Chrysostom: “Wishing to instruct us with special force that in nothing whatsoever should we turn to external judges, and seeing the objection that would arise, he resolves it in advance. The meaning of his words is as follows: perhaps someone will say that there is among you not a single wise man or one capable of judging a matter; what then? even if, he says, there were not a single wise man among you, entrust this matter to the very lowest.—Pointing to the least esteemed, he does not say that in place of judges there should be incapable men, but he shames them. That judgment should be entrusted to men capable of settling matters, this he expressed below in the words: ‘Is there not even one wise man among you’; and in order to completely silence them, he says that even if there were not a single wise man among them, it would be better to entrust the matters to the judgment of the unwise than to judge before outsiders.’”

1 Cor. 6:5. I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one wise enough among you to decide between members of the family?

“I say this to your shame.” I speak thus to shame you, to the shame of your unreason, that you go to others when at home you cannot count how many there are capable of doing this, or to shame the empty excuse that there is no one to judge. In the Church there will surely always be found wise men capable of settling any matter and bringing peace among the brothers. St. Chrysostom says: “‘I say this to your shame.’ He condemns such an objection [that there is no one to judge] as an empty pretext; therefore he continues: ‘Is there not even one wise man among you?’ Is this so scarce with you? Are wise men so rare among you? By the following addition he strikes them even more; for having said: ‘Is there not even one wise man among you,’ he adds: ‘able to decide between members of the family?’ When brother is tried by brother, for a mediator in the dispute there is no need for great wisdom and rhetorical skill, but the disposition and kinship [spiritual] can greatly aid in the resolution of disagreement.”

1 Cor. 6:6. But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers.

“A twofold offense: that he judges, and that he judges before unbelievers” (St. Chrysostom). Or even threefold: “First, that a believer judges; then, that he judges with a fellow believer, and worst of all, that he judges before an unbelieving judge” (Theodoret). If judging with a brother is in itself a sinful act, then is one who judges before the external worthy of any excuse? It is greatly shameful, if among brothers there cannot be a reconciler, the priest, but there is found need to resort to outsiders. “And that before unbelievers,” he says. “See how prudently he first lowered the judges, calling them unrighteous, and now shames the Corinthians, calling these judges unbelievers?” (St. Chrysostom).

There Should Be No Lawsuits at All; the Unrighteous Shall Not Inherit (1 Corinthians 6:7–11)

1 Cor. 6:7–8. To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and that even your own family.

Among those in dispute there are two sides: one regards himself as wronged, or is indeed such; the other is regarded as wronging, or is indeed such. The Apostle accuses neither of them. To the one wronged he says: why do you not agree to remain wronged and suffer loss? To the one wronging he says: why do you wrong, and even a brother? His rule and desire is that there be no disputes at all among Christians. “I do not yet inquire,” he says, “who is right and who is wrong; already by the fact that they dispute, both of them are worthy of condemnation and neither is better than the other. Do not tell me (wronged one) that injury has been done to you; I condemn you already for the fact that you judge. (And to you, wronger, I say): if not to suffer injury is a sin, what condemnation does injury-making deserve? Here are two transgressions, or rather three, even four. One, that they do not endure injury; another, that they themselves injure; a third, that they seek judgment from the unrighteous; a fourth, that they do this with a brother. For sins are not equal when committed against someone met by chance, or against one’s own member (brother); in the latter case there is displayed more shamelessness: there is offense to one nature, but here to the very heart” (St. Chrysostom). “‘Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?’ (1 Cor. 6:9). He concludes the exhortation with a threat, thereby making his word more powerful” (Theophylact).

The requirement that there be no disputes among Christians presents nothing excessive. Christian society is a society of the holy. Such does St. Paul depict it everywhere. He commanded that all sinners be cast out, depriving them of the name of Christian if they do not repent. He cast out the fornicators, cast out the greedy and the thieves, cast out those who are quarrelsome and the drunkards. But if there are no such persons in the society, then there is no one to wrong. No wrongs, and there is no occasion for disputes. And if some conflict arises, it can always be resolved with the help of some mediator, or even without one, when love reigns among all and all strive equally to preserve the common peace. How weakened has become ecclesiastical discipline now!

3) Condemnation of sinful and passionate life in general, especially fleshly gratification (1 Cor. 6:9–20)

Condemnation a) of sinful and passionate life in general (1 Cor. 6:9–11), and in particular b) of life of fleshly gratification, expressed aa) in gluttony (1 Cor. 6:12–13), and bb) fornication (1 Cor. 6:14–19), with c) a general conclusion about glorifying God in soul and body (1 Cor. 6:20).

Having condemned the incestuous man, the Apostle commanded the Church to cleanse itself of every old leaven, every open sinner, and for that established internal judgment. As he had to condemn the Corinthians also for bringing their temporal matters to pagan courts for judgment, he attached this condemnation to the discourse on that internal judgment. Having finished this condemnation, he again returns to the cleansing of the Church from sinners, directing his word now not to the Church, but to the sinners themselves, to sinners of every kind, especially those who gratify the flesh.

a) Condemnation of sinful and passionate life in general (1 Cor. 6:9–11)

1 Cor. 6:9–10. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

The words: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God,” refer to what precedes—to persuading those ready to wrong to refrain from wrongs, and thus not to provide occasion for disputes. Wrongs or injustice in temporal matters, which give occasion to disputes, may on the surface seem not so important; but as they proceed from disrespect for justice, or loss of love for justice, and thus expose the crookedness of conscience and corruption of heart, then, however trifling the matter of them, they make those who commit them unclean and unfit for the kingdom of God; for nothing unclean shall enter it. Having finished this, the Apostle turns to the condemnation of sinful and passionate life in general.

“Do not be deceived,”—do not be mistaken, do not err, do not delude yourself with empty hopes, as if sin is nothing. “Here the Apostle means some who were saying, as many now say: God is merciful and kind, he does not avenge transgressions, we have nothing to fear, he will never punish any sin. Therefore he says: ‘Do not be deceived.’ For it is extreme delusion and error—hoping for what is pleasant, to receive what is opposite and to think of God in a way one would not think of a man. Therefore the prophet speaks on God’s behalf: ‘You thought that I was like you; I will accuse you and lay out the case before your eyes’ (Ps. 50:21)” (St. Chrysostom). However foolish such thoughts are, yet all sinners always hold them. The enemy is always stuffing such thoughts into their heads. Only when, by God’s mercy, they begin to repent, do they realize they were in deception, and clearly see that with God mercy is mercy and justice is justice. He is infinitely good; but equally righteous. Therefore let us fear his fear.

Having opened the eyes of sinners, closed by deception, the Apostle now enumerates them by kinds, just as he did above when he was expelling them from Christian society (1 Cor. 5:10–11). He mentions all those again and adds new ones, not intending to suggest that besides these, the door to the kingdom will be open to other sinners, but giving to understand that, like these, so too all other transgressors of the commandments will have no entry there.

“Neither fornicators”—those without wives, men engaged in lust with unmarried women; “nor idolaters,” who, permitting themselves to eat food offered to idols, fall there into other abominations joined with it; “nor adulterers,” who violate the faithfulness of the marriage bed; “nor the effeminate”—in the original there is no such word: one must assume it was added to clarify the obscure word that follows, malakia, so that one should read “nor the effeminate—the soft,” by which it seems one must understand those who defile themselves with illicit pleasures, or those who practice self-abuse; “nor men who lie with men,” when a man has another man in place of a woman to satisfy lustful desire; “nor robbers,” those eager for possessions, wanting to have more and more, without regard for means—such as excessive interest, fraud in commerce, various cunning in transactions; to them belong also the miserly, who, having much, neither use it as they should nor share it with those in need; “nor thieves”—those who rob houses, shops, churches secretly, mostly under cover of night’s darkness; “nor the drunken,” not only those who are always drunk or drink in binges, but also those who generally love the spirit of drunkenness in whatever form it appears—condemned as a voluntary dulling of the mind and heating of the blood, placing oneself in such a state as to be ready for anything; “nor the abusive”—those who are quarrelsome and brawling, scoffers and mockers, from whom no one has any peace, whether in gross or subtle ways; “nor the greedy,” who, like ravenous beasts, prowl the roads and lie in wait to fall upon someone and rob them—robbers; included also are those who empty pockets and those who violently withhold any payment. Two types of sins are listed—fleshly lusts in their most shameful forms, and greed with all its unrighteousness. Of sins of irritation and wrathfulness, only one is mentioned—being abusive, which, however, can also proceed from one without anger who simply wishes to insult others.

All such “shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” And in good society such people are intolerable, much more so in the most glorious and pure kingdom of God. The Apostle brings this up, probably because many of the believing Corinthians belonged to the lower classes and were formerly entangled in bad habits. The case of the incestuous man showed that relapses into former deeds were possible even for others. Thus he writes to the whole Church: to cast out such people from Christian fellowship, and to terrify those who might be subject to fresh falls with the fear of hell. For nothing is so powerful as the awareness of the danger of losing the kingdom and the feeling of fear of falling into hell to sober one and turn one away from the attractions of habitual sin. That this truly is the Apostle’s purpose to prevent such things is clear from what he says next:

1 Cor. 6:11. And some of you were such; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Some were such, but now surely neither they nor others are such. For if they were still such, the Apostle would not have spared them and would not have concealed it. And Saint Chrysostom says that “the Apostle uttered the aforesaid threat not because he knew that the Corinthians were guilty of all these sins, but in order to make all watchful and careful.” To maintain watchfulness over themselves, alongside the threats he now adds a reminder of the spiritual gifts they received upon entering into the bosom of the Church. He speaks to them, as it were: “Consider what evils God has delivered you from, what proof He has shown of His mercy toward you; and He did not limit His compassion to mere deliverance from evils, but extended His beneficence further: He made you clean. Is that all? No, but He also sanctified you; and that is not all, but He also justified you. To be washed from sins is already a great gift, but He has enriched us further with countless blessings. Therefore, beloved, knowing this and considering the greatness of the gifts granted to us, let us live piously, keeping ourselves pure from all the listed sins” (Saint Chrysostom). And this admonition of the Apostle is like that which he uttered when commanding to purge out the old leaven. There he said: you have a passover on your table; be unleavened, free from any admixture of sin and passion. Here he says the same: you were washed, sanctified, justified; do not fall again into uncleanness, do not lose your justification and sanctification—which is the same as saying: be unleavened. To say “you were washed, sanctified and justified” means to say the same as: a passover is on your table. For the passover signified the exodus from Egypt, deliverance from slavery and entry into the freedom of an independent people. To be washed, sanctified and justified is—to be delivered from slavery to sin, to depart from the Egypt of the passions and the domain of Satan and enter into the spiritual freedom of the sons of the kingdom, walking in the will of the King of righteousness. To remember all this means to remember that we have a passover on our table, for all this is given in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Paschal Lamb, by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

“You were washed,” that is, the original sin and all our voluntary sins are forgiven: these impurities are washed away in the waters of baptism through partaking of the blood of the Lord, who nailed our sins to the cross. “You were sanctified,” that is, in you who have been forgiven and absolved, the grace of the Holy Spirit has dwelt, laying in you the beginning of a new, holy life and sanctifying you. In your thoughts, desires and feelings everything has become holy, and in your heart reigns one single zeal to be forever holy, as you came forth from the baptismal font. “You were justified,” that is, this disposition of yours constitutes your inner righteousness, blamelessness before the face of God and the angels and before the judgment of your own conscience. By the name of the Lord all this is given, for it is given by faith in Him and through partaking of His death and life. The power that produces this is the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19)

Having driven away evident sins by fear of the loss of the kingdom and by the remembrance of the great gifts of grace in Christ, stirring up zeal for inner purity, or abstinence from all pleasure of the flesh, holy Paul now turns to building purity in their hearts, drawing them away from sympathy with such deeds in which fleshly indulgence is most manifest, namely—a) toward gluttony, and b) toward fornication.

1 Cor. 6:12. All things are lawful to me, but not all things are profitable: all things are lawful to me, but I will not be enslaved by anything.

“All things are lawful to me.” Judging from what is said in the next verse, which is directly connected to this one, concerning food, it seems that in the words “all things are lawful to me,” the meaning is: I am permitted to eat every kind of food. But one can understand here generally the gratification of all the senses—sight, hearing, smell and touch, and the satisfaction of all bodily needs, besides food—such as sleep, rest, cooling, and washing, in general all comforts of the flesh. The Apostle presents here someone who, having surveyed all these comforts, says: “all things are lawful to me.” That is, I can freely use all this. Perhaps such language was borrowed from the very lips of the Apostle himself, who abandoned the Law that bound: “do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” and proclaimed to all complete freedom in this regard. But whereas Saint Paul added at the same time: “only see that this freedom does not become a stumbling-block to the flesh” (Gal. 5:13), others forgot this limitation and dwelt more on freedom and lack of restraint, and perhaps indeed restrained themselves in nothing—not only by the Law, but even by a measure of prudence. Since such freedom is very dangerous, because in developing the sensual life, it thereby diminishes and altogether extinguishes the spiritual life, and especially because it prepares lustful stirrings and exposes one to the danger of falling into fornication, in which is death, Saint Paul hastens to bring such people to their senses. He takes the saying of each such person: “all things are lawful to me,” and says as it were: yes, “all things are lawful to me, but not all things are profitable; all things are lawful to me, but I will not be enslaved by anything.” He lays two limitations on the freedom to use all things: the first—profit, the second—that I be enslaved by nothing.

God gave you a body and placed in it needs necessary for the sustaining of its life, and scattered abroad in nature goods by which these needs are satisfied. Use all. The blessing of God is spoken in the very fact that all this was created, and created for you. But use it only within the bounds of profit. If we had only a bodily life, one could interpret this thus: within the bounds of profit for the body. But since we are not body only, but also soul, it is necessary to add: within the bounds of profit for the soul as well. And the first already greatly limits much, both with regard to kinds of pleasure and with regard to their measure and other characteristics. But when we add the second, it will exclude very much from the list of what seemed “lawful.” And this is in the natural order of life. But if we take into account the order of grace-filled life, which begins precisely with self-denial and is conducted entirely with a view to seeking the things above, minding heavenly things and not earthly, then there will remain only what is essentially necessary; everything else will be reckoned as not profitable and consequently excluded from what is lawful, though at the beginning it might not have been so. Thus it is evident that the Apostle does not bind those already bound: he does not lay external bonds of the Law, but establishes a commandment of strict self-limitation.

The second limitation: “I will not be enslaved by anything.” In our body there lies a certain law of habit, by which a pleasure now tasted will be sought again by the body tomorrow at the same hour. If satisfied tomorrow, the demand will repeat itself on the third day with greater force. Further and further, finally a habit forms—a need to satisfy the body in a certain way and to a certain measure, which replaces the simple natural need. Habit is a bond. Whereas a natural need only demands and does not bind, habit binds, designating the object, the time, and the measure. The more habits, the more bonds and chains. One can attach several habits to every simple need and be thereby bound hand and foot. This is the same as, dreaming of freedom, to be in shameful slavery to one’s sensuality. This is incomparably worse than slavery to the Law. For “do not touch, do not taste, do not handle”—all this had good moral aims. Against this the Apostle warns: let all things be lawful to you; but do not bind yourself to anything. Be like a bird, freely soaring in the spaces of air. But this leads to the same result as the limitation by profit. In order not to bind yourself with sensual habits, you must deny yourself sensual pleasures, allowing only what is essentially necessary.

Theodoret seems to understand in this place a limitation of sensual pleasures in general; while Saint Chrysostom—a limitation regarding food alone. Here are his words: “Here the Apostle speaks against gluttons. Intending presently to condemn fornication and knowing that this sin comes from excess and intemperance, he strikes hard against this passion. One can, he says, eat and drink, but it is not profitable to eat and drink immoderately. He turns them from this, first, as unprofitable: ‘not all things are profitable,’ and secondly, as leading to its opposite: ‘but I will not be enslaved by anything.’ The meaning of his words is this: you are master of eating; preserve then your mastery and see that you do not become a slave to this desire. Whoever uses it properly is master of it; but whoever indulges immoderately has no power, but becomes enslaved to immoderation. If you are not temperate, then you do not have power over your belly, but it has power over you.”

1 Cor. 6:13. Food for the belly and the belly for food; but God will bring to nothing both the one and the other.

“If you wish to use freedom in this (that is, in food), then use it, because food was created for the belly. But you ought to know that there will be an end to this, for beyond the grave food is superfluous for people, and the future life has nothing of the sort; in it, according to the word of the Lord, just as ‘they neither marry nor are given in marriage’ (Matt. 22:30), so neither do they eat nor drink. The word ‘will bring to nothing,’ the Apostle uses prophetically” (Theodoret). This same thought is also in Saint Chrysostom. Here are the words of Photius in Oecumenius: “If we simply take food in the sense of nourishment and belly in the sense of a receptacle of food, then the words that follow are better taken as a prophecy about the state in the age to come: ‘God will bring to nothing both the one and the other,’—as if to say: but both of them will be done away with after the resurrection, as unnecessary; for then God will transform us into incorruption, so that we will have need neither of food nor of a receptacle for food—the belly. The meaning of the words: ‘food for the belly and the belly for food’ will be this: they provoke and excite each other and seek each other. The appetite of the belly seeks food, and food in turn excites and stimulates the appetite. But God after the resurrection will make them unnecessary. Therefore, we should not be overly concerned with what is destined to be done away with.” Previously the use of fleshly pleasures, including food, was limited by the Apostle to profit and to not allowing oneself to be enslaved by them. Here, placing our present state before the face of the future, he draws from this a new incentive to temperance and moderation. In the age to come, he says, there will be neither food nor belly; therefore one must take care to root out every gluttony and attachment to food from the soul through strict abstinence, otherwise the soul, passing into the age to come with these attachments and finding nothing there to satisfy them, will languish and carry hell within itself. If there will be no belly or food there at all, then in preparing for that life, one must in this life reduce them to the smallest possible measure. How rationally do the great ascetics act in this regard!

What a view of the future life is revealed in this word of blessed Theodoret! There will be no food, no belly, consequently—no appetites of the belly, consequently—no marriages, consequently—no family relations, consequently—nothing of earthly life. The whole order of life there will be different. If the purpose of this present life is preparation for the future one, then how wisely do those act who separate themselves from all the arrangements of this life, in order to pass into that other life unbound by any ties!

In a few words the Apostle said very much against sensual pleasures in general, especially against gluttony, in order to prepare the way for his word condemning fornication, and to clear the path for the ascetic from sensual delights and gluttony to victory over the movements of fleshly lust.

1 Cor. 6:13. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Having taught concerning chastity in living, he now begins to teach about chastity of conduct. Incentives to preserve chastity could be drawn from the natural dignity of man; but the Apostle Paul, passing over nature, borrows them from the essence of Christian faith.

“Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” The Lord—the Head, as God and man, consisting of soul and body; we are mysteriously His members, not by the soul alone, but also by the body; consequently, He ought to belong to us and we ought to serve Him both by soul and by body. In consequence of this our body ought also to belong to the Lord and serve Him together with the soul.

But how is “the Lord for the body”?—The Lord became incarnate in order to enter into communion with us, with all our nature received from us. And He is pleased to enter into such communion mysteriously—with the soul by His Godhead and His soul, and with the body by His Godhead and His body. In this respect He is pleased to grant our body to partake of Him, or to be also to the body. This passage is somewhat obscure. To shed some light on it, we should not in our thoughts separate body from soul in ourselves, but in the Lord we should contemplate the entire God-man.

Saint Chrysostom says: “The body was not created so that you would live intemperately and commit adultery; neither was the belly created so that you would give yourself to gluttony; but so that it would serve Christ as the Head, and He would be ‘Lord of the body.’ Let us therefore be ashamed and afraid that we, having been deemed worthy of such honor and become His members, we who are under Him as our head, have dishonored ourselves with such vices.” Theodoret writes: “The Apostle often calls the Lord our Head. Therefore the body is joined to Him as to the head.”

Fornication is understood here not as the natural function of the body, but as a misuse of nature; therefore a sober life in marriage does not make the body not to belong to the Lord, for in marriage it does not go beyond His will and obedience to Him.

1 Cor. 6:14. And God both raised the Lord and will raise us up by His power.

To what is this spoken?—This is, as it were, an answer to the question: how can the body be the Lord’s and the Lord be the body’s when our body dies and decays? The Apostle answers to this: “If our body is a member of Christ, and Christ is risen, then the body also will surely follow its Head” (Saint Chrysostom). “He is raised; so will God who raised Him raise us up by His power” (Theodoret). But at the same time, by rousing the thought of the radiance of the risen body of the Lord, he causes one to imagine in what radiance our body will rise, and in this he prepares the strongest incentive to flee fornication, which darkens the soul and body. The representation of the radiance of the future body served all ascetics as a powerful incentive to refine it as much as possible, and especially not to allow lustful stirrings. When any of them, by the grace of God, was deemed worthy of lust growing faint and dying within them, it was said of them that they had before the universal resurrection tasted the power of it. Some of them, when moved by gracious impulses during prayer, sometimes became entirely radiant; in others the face was illuminated, in others the hands were raised to heaven. These were all tangible signs of their tasting the power of the future resurrection.

The Apostle said that God will raise us up “by His power” in order to “since he mentioned a matter incomprehensible and beyond the grasp of reason’s understanding, by certain might He might shut the mouths of the unbelievers who challenge the Raiser of the resurrection. And do not be troubled that he ascribes the resurrection of Christ to the Father. Such an expression does not mean that Christ is powerless, for He Himself says: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’ (Jn. 2:19); and again: ‘I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again’ (Jn. 10:18). And Luke in the book of Acts says: ‘He presented Himself alive’ (1 Cor. 1:3). Why then does Paul use such an expression? Because what belongs to the Son is ascribed to the Father, and what belongs to the Father is ascribed to the Son; ‘whatever He does, the Son also does likewise’ (Jn. 5:19)” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 6:15. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!

What he said before: “the body is the Lord’s,” he now says again in the words: “your bodies are members of Christ.” Here he repeats this with greater precision in order to draw out how unseemly is fornication in a Christian, how senseless and terrifying. The very truth that we are members of Christ is proclaimed everywhere by the Apostle. In baptism, renouncing Satan and all his works, we are united to Christ in our entirety. This union is mysterious. It is more tangible in the moral grace-filled order of the Christian spirit, by virtue of which Christians have, let us say, a heartfelt inclination toward the Lord Christ and an awareness that they are His. Thus children always incline toward their father and mother. But we must assume that there is also another union, though not tangible, yet real, into which participation our body also enters. All planets are united with the sun, and the sun with the planets. This is a dynamic union, but the forces uniting them are material; something similar exists between the Lord and the believers. Perhaps this comes about by means of the light-filled, all-penetrating element, to which the glorified body of the Lord is akin, and which is akin to the vital forces of our body, which lighten the soul. If we accept this, then we will to some degree see how indeed our bodies are members of Christ, not only on account of the moral and grace-filled union with the Lord, but also in another way, though not without dependence on that union.

But our explanations add nothing to the certainty of the apostolic position that our bodies are members of Christ. This we must accept with childlike faith, without speculation, and in the meaning that the words give. So take this truth and from it look at what fornication is. Here it is: you take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot. “Nothing can be more terrible than these words. He did not say: taking the members of Christ, I join them with a harlot (once), but what?—‘make them members of a harlot’ (so they will remain). Such an expression is far more striking” (Saint Chrysostom). “The Apostle greatly heightened the force of the transgression by calling our members the members of Christ. They are no longer yours, he says, but Christ’s, so how do you make them members of a harlot?” (Theodoret). “Who will not be terrified by these words—to take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot?” (Theophylact). The conclusion is thus obvious; it remains to explain how this actually comes to pass with the fornicator, which is what the holy Apostle does, saying:

1 Cor. 6:16. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For, He says, the two shall become one flesh.

“Cleaving to one another, the two can no longer be two, but both become one” (Saint Chrysostom). He who is to be one with Christ is torn away from Christ and becomes one with a harlot. By what law?—By the law of the original institution of marriage. But surely the married man also becomes one with his wife, why is he not rebuked? The married couple both remain in the order of the will of God and of Christ; both are Christ’s. But the harlot is not Christ’s; she is a servant of Satan. He who unites himself with her, though in his action resembles the married, yet in essence is opposite to them, and he tears his body and himself away from Christ and through union with the harlot casts himself into a realm opposed to Him, a Satanic realm. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Not without reason did the Apostle apply what was said of the conjugal union to fornication, because both in essence amount to the same thing; the difference lies only in the lawfulness and unlawfulness of the deed. Therefore he says that he who cleaves to a harlot makes his members ‘members of a harlot,’ while he who unites himself with the Lord makes his members ‘members of Christ.’ So if you have united yourself with the Lord and again go to a harlot, the outrage extends to the very Master, because you give His members to the harlot and make the members of the Master ‘members of a harlot.’”

The Christian body is pure and holy and akin to the body of Christ, being in mysterious union with it. The lustful passion, even as it is born and draws the soul, makes the body dark and foul; but when fornication is actually committed, the darkness becomes impenetrable and the foulness unbearable. But those of the flesh do not see or feel this; it is seen and felt by spiritual people and by angels. There are many accounts of this. If one were to strip the fornicator of the gross covering of the body and leave him as he is in the soul, clothed in the vital force of the body, one would see a figure of impenetrably dark and foul man, emitting unbearable stench. Meanwhile, this very thing, so dark and foul, was radiant and fragrant with the radiance and fragrance of Christ’s body, with which it was in living relation. Being such, it was the Lord’s, appropriated to Himself by Him. When they begin to incline toward fornication, they begin to darken and be torn away from the Lord. Fornication itself completely tears one away from Him, for what is dark and foul cannot be one with the Lord.

1 Cor. 6:17. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

They are joined to the Lord by faith, by the mysteries, and by the dedication of their entire life to Him. Whoever is such naturally becomes one spirit with the Lord. What does it mean: “one spirit with the Lord”?—The same as when they say: such people live soul to soul. He who is joined to the Lord abides in the Lord, and the Lord abides in him. Therefore he lives only and entirely for the Lord and in every way strives to enter into the Lord’s intentions, views, and plans, so as to allow nothing contrary to the Lord. Oecumenius writes: “Such a man, though bound in the body, becomes spiritual through the fact that he does nothing fleshly. Or he is such because, being united to Christ through the Holy Spirit, he cleaves to Him through spiritual deeds.” He also cites the words of Photius: “He is united, wholly becomes spiritual through union with the Lord. He is not swept away by fleshly passions, is not divided within himself into a duality, serving both God and mammon, but is wholly unified and wholly spiritual, raised up into unity of spirit.”

Why does the Apostle speak of this?—So that the opposition between the two activities might be more striking—one remaining one spirit with the Lord, while the other unites with a harlot and through her becomes friends with Satan. He speaks as it were: behold the fruits of that; see what this one receives! Look, compare, and choose. The fact that there it says “one body with the harlot” and here “one spirit with the Lord” should not trouble the mind. For even there the body is not without the soul, and here the spirit is not without the body. The Apostle only sets forth the predominantly operative parts of our nature in one case and the other. His purpose is to point to the consequences, to draw away from fornication and to inspire one to remain one with the Lord.

1 Cor. 6:18. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man commits is outside the body, but he who commits fornication sins against his own body.

“He did not say: abstain from fornication, but: ‘flee,’ that is, strive carefully to distance yourselves from this vice. What he sets forth here as an incentive is less important than what was said before; but, speaking of fornicators, he condemns their sin from all sides and shows the importance of their guilt, both great and small; the former was said for the more reverent, and the latter for the weaker. The wisdom of Paul is revealed also in that he instructs by presenting not only what is great, but also what is small, and shameful, and unseemly” (Saint Chrysostom).

But what is the meaning: “every sin is outside the body, but he who commits fornication sins against his own body”?—Some say: other sins, though committed by members of the body as instruments, yet the sin itself is outside the body; in fornication, however, the sin itself is in the body. Others say: other sins are committed with one particular member, which is defiled, but fornication defiles the whole body. Still others say: the fornicator sins against his own body because it is depleted by fornication, a part of it is torn away and cast away senseless. We draw from our commentators:

Saint Chrysostom says: “You might say, does not the murderer, the covetous man, and the robber defile their hands? This is known to everyone (that is, that they do defile them). But the Apostle wished to express the thought that there is none worse than the fornicator, and since he did not want to say this directly, he otherwise depicts the seriousness of this sin, explaining that from fornication the whole body becomes unclean; it is defiled as if it had fallen into a dirty vessel filled with filth. Therefore it is our custom that after acts of greed and vengeance no one takes care to wash himself, but goes straight home; but after fornication people go to wash themselves, as if having become wholly unclean; so conscience is ashamed above all of this sin! The gravity of it—both this sin and greed—and both avarice and fornication cast one into hell; but, making every provision, holy Paul shows the seriousness of adultery to all by every means he can.” Theodoret writes almost the same: “Who commits thousands of other sins: breaks oaths, defiles his tongue with blasphemies, appropriates what is in no way his, does not feel the sin so acutely; but he who has become enslaved to depravity, immediately upon committing the sin feels the evil and loathes his very body. Therefore, resorting to bathing, he washes his body with the idea that by this he will cast off some of the foulness.” Oecumenius: “Other sins are born from a passion of the soul, such as vainglory, greed, envy; but in fornication the source of lust comes from the body itself.” He also cites the opinion of Saint Athanasius: “Other sins cause harm to the soul alone; but fornication debases and destroys both soul and body, exhausting the spiritual and vital force”; and Photius: “The fornicator brings evil to this very body and to himself, which does not happen in any other sin. Other sinners bring harm to others, but the fornicator does evil to himself.”

He who is enslaved to this passion soon exhausts the forces of body and soul and goes down to the grave. In this he is much like the drunkard; what could be said of both, the Apostle attributed to the fornicator alone, because it is he who is being discussed. The fornicator thinks that he is gratifying himself, but in reality he is preparing himself a grave.

1 Cor. 6:19. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price (1 Cor. 6:20).

Above he said that the body is the Lord’s and that our bodies are members of Christ; now he says that our bodies are temples of the Spirit. We must assume that our bodies are members of Christ in one way and temples of the Spirit in another way. For Christ is embodied; the Spirit is bodiless. Therefore, though it is incomprehensible to us how, yet it is possible for our body to have a relation to the body of the Lord; but it is possible for the body to have a relation to the Spirit of God not directly, but through the spirit of man. The body is the dwelling-place of the human spirit. The Spirit of God descends into the human spirit and dwells in it, and through it also in the body.—“Whom you have from God.” All Christians are bearers of the Spirit. In chrismation they receive the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and from then on they have the anointing from the Holy Spirit. This makes them Christian; in this is the pledge of the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. So what then? Having said “your bodies are members of Christ,” he drew the conclusion: “shall I take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?” But what conclusion is to be drawn from the fact that “our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit”? The Apostle is silent about this, leaving it for those who read and will read his epistle to understand. In other places he said: “do not grieve the Holy Spirit, do not quench the Spirit.” Similarly it is to be understood here. Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit: do not therefore defile them with unclean lusts and shameful deeds, and do not defile your spirit with unclean thoughts and desires, so as not to drive away the Spirit of God, who is most pure. For, as smoke drives away bees, so these impurities drive away the Spirit (Theophylact).

“And you are not your own; for you were bought at a price.” This is yet another incentive to flee fornication. You are not your own; you have been purchased. Consequently, you cannot do with yourselves as you wish. As slaves must obey their masters in all things, so you must be obedient in all things to the Master who bought you and not depart from His will. But it is not pleasing to Him that you commit fornication and do with your body as you see fit. It is His, as is also your soul. Saint Chrysostom says: “‘You are not your own.’ This serves not only to condemn but also to inspire virtue. How, he says, can you do whatever you wish? You have no power over yourself. By saying ‘you are not your own,’ he does not take away freedom, but turns us away from vice and shows the Lord’s care for us. He desires to establish us, so that we do not sin and follow the vile desires of the soul. We have many vile desires, but we must abstain, because we are not our own but ‘bought at a price.’ He reminds us of the greatness of the beneficence and the manner of our salvation, showing that we were redeemed when we were alienated from Him, and not simply, but ‘at a price.’” Clearly, at the price of the blood of the Only-Begotten Son of God. “The blood of the Lord has been poured out for you; you belong to Him and must live according to His laws” (Theodoret). “So dearly have you been redeemed from the domain of Satan; do not cast yourselves back into it through fornication” (Oecumenius).

Glorify God in Your Bodies and in Your Souls (1 Corinthians 6:20)

1 Cor. 6:20. Therefore glorify God in your bodies and in your souls, which are God’s.

This follows directly from the fact that you have been purchased and have become a temple of the Spirit. But in its essence it is the conclusion of all that has been said against the passionate and fleshly life. Do nothing that has been condemned in these points, but do the opposite, and you will glorify God both in spirit and in body. Whoever is temperate, chaste, abstemious, industrious, and ready for all manner of works performed by the body in fulfillment of the commandments, glorifies God in his body. Whoever always remembers God and glorifies His great beneficence shown to us in our redemption, whoever, having become a participant in the Spirit, lives a spiritual life in the fulfillment of God’s commandments and in all the struggles of pleasing God, glorifies God in his spirit. When we are such, then through us will be fulfilled what the Lord has commanded: “Let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). “As the heavens glorify Him, not by emitting a sound but by their appearance arousing wonder and inclining men to glorify the Creator, so should we also glorify Him, indeed even more so. For not so much does heaven glorify God as does a holy soul. ‘Glorify therefore,’ he says, ‘God,’ that is, show forth God both in your body and in your spirit, ‘which are God’s.’ He called them God’s not only because God created them, but also because when they became estranged from Him, He again acquired them at the price of the blood of His Son” (Saint Chrysostom). “See how he refers everything to Christ, how he lifts us up to heaven. You, he says, are members of Christ, you are a temple of the Spirit; do not therefore become members of a harlot; you dishonor not your own body, for your body is not your own, but Christ’s. By these words he shows the love of Christ, who made our body His own, and at the same time restricts our vicious power over it. If your body is not yours, he says, then you do not have the right to dishonor it, since it belongs to another, especially since it belongs to the Lord, or to defile the temple of the Spirit. For if someone who enters a private house and commits disorder in it is subject to great punishment, then think what torment awaits him who makes the temple of the King a den of robbers. Considering all this, be ashamed of Him who dwells in you; this is the Comforter; fear Him who has united Himself with you and claimed you as His own; this is Christ. Have you not become a member of Christ’s body? Remember this and be chaste. Reflect on whose your members were and whose they have become. Once they were members of a harlot, but Christ made them members of His own body. Therefore you no longer have power over them, but must serve Him who freed them. If you, having a daughter, in madness sold her to a brothel-keeper for fornication, and a king’s son, happening upon this, freed her from such slavery and took her as his bride, then you would no longer have the power to give her to a dishonorable house after once selling her. The same is true for us. We sold our flesh to the devil, this evil tempter; but Christ, seeing this, snatched it away and freed it from his evil power; therefore it belongs now not to us but to Him who freed it. No one hinders you from using it, as the bride of a king; but if you use it for the former deeds, you will suffer what such offenders ought to suffer. So you must adorn it, not dishonor it. You do not have power over the flesh to satisfy vile desires, but only to fulfill God’s commandments. Reflect on what dishonor God has delivered it from” (Saint Chrysostom).

Part Three. Instructions on Marriage and Celibacy (1 Corinthians 7:1–40)

The General Law of Marriage (1 Corinthians 7:1–2)

Beginning with the seventh chapter, the holy Apostle Paul starts to answer the letter sent to him by the Corinthians and resolves the various difficulties that arose among them, while also providing them with instructions about the order of Christian life. First and foremost he gives instructions on: 1) marriage and 2) celibacy. “Having corrected three grave defects—first, the division of the Church; second, the wickedness of the incestuous man; and third, that of the lover of gain (lawsuits)—the Apostle now speaks more gently and at the outset offers instruction and counsel regarding marriage and virginity” (holy Chrysostom).

1. On marriage (1 Cor. 7:1–24)

In expounding the teaching on marriage, the Apostle a) first establishes a general law concerning it; then gives b) instructions on the use of the marriage bed; c) counsel to the unmarried and widows; and d) a lesson on the indissolubility of marriage.

d) The general law concerning marriage (1 Cor. 7:1–2)

Briefly put, it is this: it is better to remain unmarried, but to avoid fornication, marry.

1 Cor. 7:1. Now concerning the matters about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

“Now concerning the matters about which you wrote to me”—the sentence is incomplete; it must be supplied: here is what I will say, or here is my answer! “The Apostle clearly shows that he is writing answers to the questions that were proposed to him” (Theodoret). “It is good for a man not to touch a woman”—not to touch at all, and therefore not to enter into marriage either. The thought that the Apostle is speaking this to those already married, on the idea that it would be good for husband and wife to live as brother and sister, is not permitted by the words that follow, where in contrast to this place it is said: let a man have a wife, and a woman a husband. Saint Chrysostom on this very place about not touching a woman says: “If you seek the highest good, it is better not to marry a woman at all; if, however, you seek a state that is safe and suited to your weakness, then enter into marriage.” Theophylact understands the Apostle’s meaning in the same way. “It is an excellent thing for every person (not for a priest only, as some wrongly interpret)—to refrain entirely from touching a woman and to preserve virginity; for the weak, however, marriage is more secure.”

1 Cor. 7:2. But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

To have a wife, to have a husband means to marry, to enter into marriage; not to have relations after already entering into marriage. The Apostle says: let every weak man marry, and let every weak woman marry. Why? “Because of the temptation to sexual immorality,” so as not to fall into fornication from lack of self-control. Marriage has other purposes as well; but the Apostle points out the side of celibacy that is dangerous for morality. It is better, he says, to be free from marriage, but whoever cannot endure this state as one ought, it is better for him to marry. He introduces two states into Christianity. In both one can please God and be saved; but in the first, this is done more easily; in the second, less easily. One may add that a married person cannot attain the spiritual perfection that the unmarried can attain. Marriage is for the weak. This weakness is both bodily and spiritual. There are temperaments of the body that incline more to lust, and there are temperaments that are more sober (cold); likewise there is a zealous spirit that is strong, and there is a zeal that is weak. One who is strongly zealous for the salvation of his spirit can overcome nature itself, with God’s grace that provides that zeal; but one who has little zeal and a sober temperament will not prevail. The choice is left to prudence and self-knowledge. Some wish to derive from the Apostle’s words an obligation to marry; but one could derive the opposite, if we left the decision to our own reasoning. Let us rather fix our attention on the exhortation that the holy Paul gives here to the married. “By the very reason for permitting marriage, he urges the married to self-control” (holy Chrysostom). “If marriage is allowed because of fornication, then the married ought not come together without restraint, but maintain themselves in possible sobriety” (Theophylact). Animals, acting by instinct, experience arousal once a year, for which marriage is established among men.

Counsel on the Marriage Bed; to the Unmarried and Widows (1 Corinthians 7:3–9)

1 Cor. 7:3. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.

“Conjugal rights”—οφειλομενην ευνοιαν—can also mean due loyalty, for ευνοια properly means good will; let each of the married persons maintain that good will so as not to know another. In other manuscripts, instead of the stated word stands οφειλην—duty, understood as the marriage debt, that is, loyalty. So it stands in the Sinai and Vatican manuscripts. So it seems the holy Chrysostom also read. The Apostle’s thought is that husband and wife should preserve mutual loyalty, by good disposition toward each other. The blessed Theodoret explains it thus: “The Apostle legislates on this matter of continence (conjugal—loyalty), commanding both husband and wife equally to bear the marriage yoke (Oecumenius πιστιν—loyalty), and not to look elsewhere, not to break the bonds, but to nurture due love for each other. He first gave this law to the husband, because the husband is the head of the wife. Human laws prescribe that women be chaste (loyal) and punish those who violate this law, but they do not require equal continence (loyalty) from men; for men, as lawmakers, have not concerned themselves with equality but have granted concession to themselves. But the divine Apostle, inspired by God’s grace, prescribes continence (loyalty) by law to husbands first. And since it happened that either husbands or wives, loving continence and without consent of those living with them in marriage, abstained from marital relations, then, as was fitting, he also gives a commandment about this.”

1 Cor. 7:4. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

“Since the marriage law has made them one flesh, the Apostle justly calls the wife’s body as belonging to the husband, and also the husband’s body as being under the wife’s authority. But here to the wives he first spoke the law, because women mostly, more than men, are accustomed to love continence” (Theodoret). “The wife, he says, is not mistress of her own body, but is both slave and mistress of her husband. The same he says to the husband, showing that neither of the spouses is master over himself, but that they are slaves to each other. Therefore, when you see that a harlot tempts you, say: my body does not belong to me, but to my wife. The same let the wife say when someone were to attempt to violate her chastity: my body does not belong to me, but to my husband. In some places of Scripture more advantage is given to the husband, but here the Apostle assigns to both equal authority, neither more nor less. Why? Because here he is speaking about continence. In other respects, he says, let the husband have the advantage, but in continence there is none; the husband does not have authority over his own body, just as neither does the wife—perfect equality and no advantage at all” (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 7:5. Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

“What does this mean? The wife ought not, he says, to be continent against the will of her husband, and the husband ought not to be continent against the will of his wife. Why? Because great evil comes from such continence; from this often came adultery, fornication, and domestic disorder. For if some, having their wives, give themselves to adultery, how much more will they give themselves to it if you deprive them of this comfort? He spoke well in saying ‘do not deprive one another’; for to be continent when one wishes it against the will of another means to deprive, but if willing, it does not. So, if you take something from me with my consent, it will not be deprivation for me; he deprives who takes against my will and by force. Many wives do this, violating justice and thus giving their husbands cause for licentiousness and bringing all into disorder. Agreement should be preferred to everything; it is most important of all. If you wish, we can demonstrate this by experience. Let one of the spouses, the wife, be continent while the husband does not wish this. What will happen? Will he not then give himself to adultery, or if he does not give himself to adultery, will he not sorrow, be anxious, become irritable, angry, and cause his wife much unpleasantness? What benefit comes from fasting and continence when love is violated? None. How much sorrow will inevitably come from this, how much trouble, how many conflicts! If in a house the husband and wife do not agree with each other, their home is no better than a ship tossed by waves, on which the helmsman does not agree with the steersman. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a set time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer’. Here he means prayer performed with special diligence, for if he forbade those who come together to pray, how could one fulfill the commandment of unceasing prayer? Consequently one can both lie with a wife and pray, but with continence prayer is more perfect. He did not simply say ‘pray,’ but ‘devote yourselves to prayer,’ because the marriage act only diverts from this, not producing defilement. ‘But then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you’. Lest they think this a law, he adds also the reason. What? ‘So that Satan may not tempt you.’ And lest they know that not the devil alone is the cause of adultery, he adds: ‘because of your lack of self-control’ (holy Chrysostom). He commands to be continent during times of fasting for more fervent prayer: this can apply to all church fasts, especially to the preparatory fast. He counsels to cease continence—‘so that Satan may not tempt.’ Consequently, if there is no danger, one can continue continence. It is evident that the Apostle wished continence to be held as a law, and to come together only when yielding to extreme necessity, which is determined not by desires, but by nature, and indeed not by nature but by prudence.”

1 Cor. 7:6. This I say by way of concession, not of command.

That at certain times spouses should be continent is a law of nature. To this nature’s law is added the requirement of the law of pleasing God. But how to arrange and order all this, this cannot be determined by prescriptions. It is left to the mutual agreement and prudence of the spouses. “By way of concession,” as a concession I propose in the manner of advice; “not of command,” I do not give as a command; my word does not have the force of a legal prescription.

f) Counsel to the unmarried and widows (1 Cor. 7:7–9)

1 Cor. 7:7. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one having this gift and another that.

Intending to propose something difficult and not easy to fulfill, he sets himself up as an example as a leader in overcoming difficulties. “I wish,” from a desire that all have substantial good, “that all were as I myself am,”—that is, unmarried, because this is the better path to Christian perfection, to a tranquil life, to unhindered approach to the Lord. Example is stronger than teaching, however persuasive it may be. The Apostle does this: he offers the better choice, and to incline toward choosing it, “presents himself as an example, being forced to open to us the riches of his own chastity” (Theodoret). He says: does anyone not wish to go this path? Go, without excusing yourself by impossibility, for here I go. I would very much wish that all of you were as I am. “But each has his own gift from God, one having this gift and another that.” I wish it, but I do not compel; everyone must see for himself what is better. Each has his own gift from God. The gift here is not a natural disposition, but the measure of gracious awakening and stirring of spiritual life, though not without relation to nature. In one, the spirit is so aroused and strengthened by grace that it makes all bodily and mental demands fall silent at once; in another, although the requirements of the spirit stand out strongly, the lower needs also speak their voice, and it remains for him to struggle in order to give himself wholly to spiritual life; in another both are equally strong, and it remains for him only to arrange things so that the requirements of the spirit take the first place and govern all, allowing their own measure of satisfaction to the soul and body. And because of this, those two live unmarried in God, while this third seeks to please God in marriage: “one having this gift and another that.” And this latter way of life does not block the path to God. The blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle also comforted those living in marriage, calling marriage itself a gift from God. Helped by God’s grace, a person prospers in chastity (and every virtue) even in married life; grace helps all who bring forth good zeal from themselves; for it is said: ‘Ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find’ (Matt. 7:7).”

1 Cor. 7:8. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I am.

“Having established fitting laws for those living in marriage, the Apostle writes what ought to be done by those who have not taken on the marriage yoke, or who took it on but then these bonds were broken by death, and they mourn their widowhood” (Theodoret). That is, “the unmarried and the widows.” Some say that in correspondence with widows, by “unmarried” one should understand widowers. Would it not be better, with unmarried men to also understand unmarried women, and with widows also widowers? The Apostle’s aim is to give instruction to those who are outside the marriage union, after he has spoken to those in it; and there are two classes of such people: some who have never married, and others who have become widowed after marriage. What does he say to them? It is well for them to remain as I am—that is, for some not to marry at all, and for others not to enter into marriage after widowhood. “The Apostle again shows that he is among those who have not entered into marriage, for there was no reason to include himself among widowers—one who was still young when he received the calling (to the Apostolate). Let no one think that he legislates the unmarried life for men only and continence after marriage for women only. For he teaches both one sex and the other in this regard” (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 7:9. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

“The Apostle calls not temporary stirrings of lust but the enslavement of the soul and its inclination toward the worse, burning. What he says means: both for you who have no part in marriage relations, and for you who were united but then freed from the marriage bond by death, it is better to prefer continence. But if you cannot bear the assaults of lust, and your soul is weak for this struggle because there is in it no ardent zeal for the good, then no law forbids you to enter into marriage” (Theodoret).

“Do you see the wisdom of Paul, how he both shows the excellence of continence and does not compel those who cannot be continent, lest some sin occur? ‘For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.’ He expresses how great the power of lust is. And the meaning of his words is this: if you feel a strong attraction and burning, free yourself from the yoke of continence, so that you do not become debauched” (holy Chrysostom).

Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

Instruction to the married—not to dissolve marriage, whether aa) both are believers (verses 10–12), or bb) one side is an unbeliever (1 Cor. 7:12–24)

1 Cor. 7:10–11. To the married I give this charge—not I but the Lord—that the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.

“Intending to repeat the commandment clearly prescribed by the Lord, that one ought not to divorce one’s wife except in case of adultery, he says: ‘not I.’ For what was said above was not clearly stated by the Lord, although it accords with His teaching, but this He set forth clearly; such is the difference in expression between ‘I’ and ‘not I.’ Do not, however, take even the Apostle’s words as merely human, for he says: ‘I think that I also have the Spirit of God’ (1 Cor. 7:40)” (holy Chrysostom). What then is the commandment? “The wife should not separate from her husband, and the husband should not divorce his wife.” The Lord had especially in mind the husbands when He commanded them not to divorce their wives, “except on the ground of sexual immorality” (Matt. 5:32). But the Apostle directs this commandment especially to the wives. It is true that in Corinth women enjoyed greater rights, and the husbands gave themselves greater freedom. The latter he had already restrained somewhat by the strict judgment on the incestuous man, applying this severity then to all fornicators and adulterers as well. Now he humbles the wives so that they do not hastily proceed to divorce. Therefore he says: “If she does separate, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband,”—reconciled, that is, made to agree. He makes no mention of the causes of separation, therefore—whatever the cause may be. He said this to one wife; but since throughout his discourse the husband and wife go in perfect equality with him, one must suppose that this limitation also applies to the husband, that is, that if he abandons his wife, let him remain unmarried or be reconciled to his wife. The blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle strives to keep the marriage bonds indissoluble. For in prescribing continence to the one who separates, he thereby prevents divorce. In forbidding marriage with another, he compels both sides to return to the former marriage.” He limits their freedom so that even if there are causes for separation, they may be more willing to use all means of reconciliation than to hurry toward divorce. Neither does this exclude the word ‘adultery,’ understood to be under the condition of sincere repentance on the part of the one who sinned. That in the earliest times this matter was so understood can be inferred from the words of Hermas, who in his fourth commandment says that if a husband, knowing that his wife is unfaithful, remains with her, he sins; but likewise he also sins if he does not receive her when she repents and promises to be faithful.

In giving instruction to the married, one side of whom belongs to the unbelievers, the Apostle even in such marriages, α) advises the believers not to separate if the unbelievers married to them wish this (1 Cor. 7:12–16); and in order to dispose them to this, he portrays, β) how he teaches all everywhere to remain in that state in which each was called to faith (1 Cor. 7:17–24). This latter discourse seems to be separate; but it leads directly to the goal, that is, it disposed them to act as the Apostle counseled.

1 Cor. 7:12–13. To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.

“This ‘I say’ means: I have not found this law to be written in the sacred Gospel (transmitted from the Lord), but I am establishing it now. And that the apostolic laws are the laws of the Master Christ is manifest to those learned in divine things. For the Apostle said: ‘Since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me’ (2 Cor. 13:3); and: ‘Not I, but the grace of God that is with me’ (1 Cor. 5:10); and again: ‘By the grace given to me’ (Rom. 12:3). So too here he gives a law because the Holy Spirit speaks through him” (Theodoret).

What then is the substance of the law? “If, he says, a wife has an unbelieving husband or a husband has an unbelieving wife, they should not abandon each other” (holy Chrysostom). “He does not legislate taking an unbelieving wife and does not command the believing wife to be joined with an unbelieving husband, but gives rules for those joined before the preaching was received. For it happened that a husband believed while the wife remained in unbelief, and vice versa: the wife accepts the preaching while the husband remains in the sickness of unbelief. And the Apostle commands the healthy one to bear the weakness of the one remaining with him in marriage, caring for his salvation” (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 7:14. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

This passage is not altogether clear. How are unbelieving spouses sanctified because of believers? One cannot of course understand here a gracious sanctification, for the sole path to such sanctification is faith and the reception of the sacraments of baptism and chrismation. An unbelieving husband and unbelieving wife, wishing to live with a believing wife and believing husband, despite the faith in Christ the Lord, though they show hidden good disposition or benevolent condescension to this faith, one can suppose in this only a seed of future personal faith and the sanctification that will result from it, but not sanctification itself. How then to understand: “is made holy”? One must understand: the husband as a husband is made holy, and the wife as a wife, that is, in the marriage relation. In other words: your marriage, believing wife, with an unbelieving husband has not turned into unlawful cohabitation because you believed; rather, your faith has sanctified this marriage (is made holy—ηγιασται, already sanctified) and your husband in the marriage relation. The same believing husband should keep in mind regarding his unbelieving wife. The Apostle’s aim is to calm the disturbance of conscience from not understanding how to act, and moreover to prevent the divisions and dissolutions of families that could make much noise and adversely affect the work of preaching, and especially that, since the unbelieving husband and wife do not turn away from the believing wife and husband, there is hope that they too will eventually turn, as he says of this directly below.

Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle said this so that the wife (believing) should not fear to become unclean from cohabitation with such a husband (unbelieving), and vice versa. On the contrary, the purity of the believing wife overcomes the uncleanness of the unbelieving husband, just as the purity of the believing husband overcomes the uncleanness of the unbelieving wife. The idolater is unclean, but his wife is not unclean because of this. If she participated with him in that in which he is unclean, that is, in ungodliness, she would herself become unclean; but now the idolater is unclean in one thing, and in another thing he shares with his wife, in which he is not unclean, for in marriage and conjugal relations they participate mutually with each other. Besides, here there is hope that the wife of the unbeliever will convert him, for she is his own. Moreover, she does not live with the unbeliever simply, but by his wish. So tell me, is there any harm in their remaining united, when also piety is preserved in its entirety, there remains good hope for the conversion of the unbeliever, and occasions for needless quarrels are avoided? ‘The unbelieving husband is made holy.’ How? Is an unbeliever holy? He did not say holy, but ‘is made holy because of the wife,’ he said this not to recognize the unbeliever as holy, but to comfort the wife as much as possible and to arouse in the husband a desire for truth. Uncleanness is not in the bodies of those united, but in the will and thoughts.” Theodoret holds that for the purpose of calming the conscience and preserving family peace, “the Apostle employed an emphatic manner of speech, persuading them not to abandon cohabitation.” In a similar sense also the children from such marriages are holy. Not holy in the sense that Christians are holy, for children even of consecrated Christians are born in such a state that they require sanctification through the sacraments,—but in the sense that they are not unclean, illegitimate, worthless children. Holy Chrysostom says: “Holy,’ that is, not unclean. He calls them holy by this name, so that by such a name to even more powerfully drive away the fear of the spouses.”

1 Cor. 7:15. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. The brother or sister is not enslaved in such circumstances; God has called you to peace.

Just as eating food offered to idols—with the sound understanding that an idol is nothing and can have no influence on the nature of the food—does not make the eater impious (for the impiety lies in acknowledging the idol to be something), so too living with an unbeliever in the marriage bond does not defile, as fornication and adultery defile. The natural act of cohabitation has in itself nothing unclean; it is the lustful desires in fornicators and adulterers that make it unclean. This is why the Apostle commanded them to live peaceably in the marriage union with unbelievers. Yet he laid this down not unconditionally, but on condition that the unbelieving party consents. As soon as that consent is lacking—that is, if the unbelieving husband is unwilling to live with a believing wife, but demands that she either return to her former impiety or leave him—then it is clear that such a husband must be left; for to change one’s faith is not even to be thought of, while to remain with the husband, holding the faith in defiance of him, would be deliberately to bring discord and quarrels into the family. And so he says: for the sake of peace, let go of such husbands and wives; in that case you are free from the yoke of marriage and not bound by it. “The believing party,” says the Apostle, “must give no occasion for separation; but if the ailing party wishes to depart, you are guiltless and free from blame” (Theodoret). “If the unbeliever commands you to offer sacrifice and to share in his impiety by right of marriage, or else to leave him, it is better to give up the marriage than godliness. If the unbeliever daily insults you and stirs up quarrels, it is better to separate: for God has called us to peace. The unbeliever himself gives the occasion for this” (St. Chrysostom).

But how has “the Lord called us to peace,” when the Lord Himself says, “I came not to send peace upon the earth” (Matt. 10:34)?—“What the Apostle says does not contradict the Lord’s teaching but explains it. For, he says, the saving preaching does not introduce turmoil into life; on the contrary, it seeks all the more that true and God-loving peace. It first breaks up an evil concord (in impiety) and through disagreement attains a praiseworthy unanimity. For those who received the divine preaching, becoming teachers of the unbelievers, brought about, beyond all expectation, a wondrous change, and led families that had been divided into a most desirable harmony. This is precisely what the Apostle expresses immediately afterward” (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 7:16. For what do you know, O wife, whether you shall save your husband? Or what do you know, O husband, whether you shall save your wife?

“If the husband does not trouble you, then remain with him, he says; from this there may even come benefit; remain and exhort, counsel, persuade: no teacher can persuade as a wife can. Yet the Apostle does not compel her, nor demand this of her without fail, so as not once again to lay too heavy a burden upon her; he advises her not to despair, and leaves the matter in doubt, because the future is unknown” (St. Chrysostom). “Undertake the labor with good hope, he says; you have God as helper of your zeal” (Theodoret). The work of conversion to the faith is accomplished by grace; but how?—that is a mystery. Grace has many instruments, but through which of them it will pass into a sinful or unbelieving soul, and whether it will pass at all, no one can determine. For here freedom also enters with its own rights, whose deviations cannot be defined, but with which God, who works all things in all to good, takes account. That is why the Apostle says, “For what do you know, O wife; for what do you know, O husband?”

To set the Corinthians still more at ease in this regard, the Apostle declares to them that he nowhere bids anyone change the outward condition in which he was called to the faith, but commands him to remain in it. The thought he brings forward is that the outward things count for nothing in the matter of salvation; here everything depends on faith and on the grace that builds up the spirit for the sake of faith. One may be in the lowest condition and yet be highest in spirit, or highest in condition and yet be most worthless in spirit. So, he says, do not look to the outward; let it remain as it was. “All this counts for nothing with respect to faith; therefore do not dispute or be troubled; faith is above all this. Let each remain in the calling in which he was called. Were you called while married to an unbelieving wife?—Remain with her; do not drive out your wife because of the faith. Were you called as a slave?—Do not grieve, and remain a slave. Were you called uncircumcised?—Remain uncircumcised. Did you come to believe while circumcised?—Remain circumcised. None of this is a hindrance to godliness. You were called in the condition of a slave, another while married to an unbeliever, another in circumcision” (St. Chrysostom). The way of salvation and all the treasures of grace are open equally to all.

1 Cor. 7:17. Only, as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each, so let him walk; and so I ordain in all the churches.

“Only” — ει μη — if not, unless. I urge you not to separate, in the hope that perhaps the unbelieving party may believe and turn to the Lord. But even if this does not come about, or if no such hope can be entertained, still do not separate, submitting to that law which says that one must live in the lot God has given, in the condition in which one was called. To make the structure of this text clearer, the words “so let him walk” should be placed first: “so let him walk, as God has distributed to each”—“distributed,” εμερισεν, measured out a part or portion—“and as the Lord has called each,” that is, in whatever condition he was called. “So let him walk,” so let him live, not tearing himself away from it, but remaining in it. “God alone knows what is profitable for each and what is better—whether that a believer should from the outset be joined in marriage to an unbeliever, or to a believer. Sometimes it is better for a believer to be joined and to live with a believer, and sometimes with an unbeliever. This has been borne out in fact. But the reasons for it no one can know except God, who has so arranged and distributed the lots, and except the Lord, who has called each in this or that condition. And if God and the Lord have arranged and apportioned such unions according to what is more profitable for each, then a believer who finds himself joined to an unbeliever ought not to be burdened by it, nor to seek release and freedom, but to abide in that in which he was called, and to live such a life” (Oecumenius). Oecumenius applied his explanation of the apostolic saying only to the marriage of a believer with an unbeliever and the reverse; but what he said in regard to them may be applied to all other conditions as well. The Apostle’s statement is general, though it was uttered on a particular occasion.

“So I ordain in all the churches.” I establish such an order not among you alone, but everywhere the same. “He said this so that, learning that they had others as partners in the same way of life, they might be all the more zealously disposed to submit to the Apostle’s ordinance” (Theophylact).

1 Cor. 7:18. Was anyone called being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Was anyone called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised.

He sets forth examples of just how he ordains this everywhere, and at the same time clarifies what it means to remain in that in which one was called. He brings forward only two cases: circumcision and uncircumcision, and slavery and freedom. Surely it was instructive for the Corinthians to touch upon these.

“Let him not become uncircumcised” — μη επισπασθω. This word suggests the artificial restoration of the circumcised part, after which the circumcision is no longer noticeable, and the circumcised man becomes as though he had never been circumcised. In our Slavonic translation a remark is even added: “let him not make himself uncircumcised”. Photius, in Oecumenius, cites the observation of St. Epiphanius that by certain medical means a circumcised man could be made uncircumcised. Others report that during the persecution of Antiochus many Jews used these means to conceal their Jewishness. It is conjectured that some of the Jews who had come to believe did the same—some out of zeal, that no trace of Judaism might remain, others for some other reason. It is as though, having them in view, St. Paul wrote: do not do this; it is vain labor; both circumcision and uncircumcision are nothing in the matter of salvation. Perhaps it was so.

Why does he say, “let the uncircumcised not be circumcised”? Were there really those who, having been called uncircumcised, were being circumcised?—Surely there were. They were driven to it by the talk of the Judaizers. Theophylact writes: “Some, on the contrary, being carried away by the seeming great glory of circumcision, were being circumcised after receiving the faith. To them St. Paul says that this adds nothing to the matter of faith and salvation”.

The Apostle mentions both this case and that one, either in prevention or in rebuke and correction.

1 Cor. 7:19. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is everything.

“Neither circumcision contributes to the work of salvation, nor does uncircumcision harm it. Only one thing is required—the keeping of the commandments” (Oecumenius). “And both the circumcised and the uncircumcised taste the good that comes from the fulfillment of the commandments” (Photius in Oecumenius). In the Epistle to the Romans the Apostle teaches that before God what is precious is circumcision of the heart. What he requires here is one with this. For circumcision of the heart is the cleansing of it from passions; and the commandments are directed against the passions, so that one who fulfills them drives the passions out of the heart, or circumcises it. In another place the Apostle opposes to circumcision and uncircumcision faith, helped by love, and also the grace of the Holy Spirit. And all this is encompassed in the fulfillment of the commandments, as a necessary means. Faith leads to the sources of grace; one who drinks of it is strengthened to fulfill the commandments; and in fulfilling them reaches the purity of heart, or its true circumcision; the pure heart burns with love. This is what is needed, and circumcision and uncircumcision are nothing, as is any other external state or position.

1 Cor. 7:20. Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called.

Already for the second time the Apostle says this; and yet a third time will he say it at the end of this section (1 Cor. 7:24). This commandment to impress upon the mind is what he aims at; for that reason he brings examples. “What mode of life did you have, in what class did you stand, in what state were you when you believed, in that remain. By ‘calling’ he means the bringing to faith” (Theophylact).

1 Cor. 7:21. Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom, make use of the opportunity instead.

“Do not be concerned about it,” μη σοι μελετω, the Greeks say: τι με μελει? What does it matter to me? And the Apostle wishes to say: What does it matter that you are a slave? Do not pay any attention to this, and do not think about it (Photius in Oecumenius). “Make use of the opportunity instead” μαλλον χρησαι, “rather use slavery” (Photius in Oecumenius), rather remain in slavery, and having accepted faith in that state, advance in it.

Holy Chrysostom says on this passage: “See how he views slavery. Just as circumcision brings no benefit at all and uncircumcision harms not at all, so likewise slavery and freedom. But in order to show this as clearly as possible, he says: ‘But if you can gain your freedom, make use of the opportunity instead’ (χρησαι), that is, all the more serve. Why then does he command the slave to remain a slave when he could become free? To show that slavery not only causes no harm, but even affords benefit. I know that some claim that the words ‘make use of the opportunity instead’ speak of freedom, and interpret them thus: if you can become free, be freed. But such a thought would be entirely contrary to Paul’s intention; in comforting the slave and proving to him that slavery causes him no harm, he would not command him to seek freedom, for then another might say: but if I cannot become free, do I suffer humiliation and harm? Therefore Paul does not mean that, but wishes to show, as I said before, that one freed from slavery obtains no benefit; even if, he says, it were in your power to become free, you would do better to remain a slave.” Theodoret writes: “Grace knows no distinction between slavery and lordship. Therefore do not flee slavery as unworthy of faith; but even if it is possible to obtain freedom, remain in slavery and wait for your reward. He urges not to avoid slavery under the pretext of piety.”

1 Cor. 7:22. For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord. Likewise whoever was called as a free person is a slave of Christ.

“A freed person,” απελευθερος, a manumitted slave. To the external state of slavery and manumission the Apostle opposes freedman status in the Lord Jesus Christ and slavery to Him. Here they both come together in one and the same person. Freedom in the Lord is liberation from slavery to sin, the world, and the devil. It is produced in the heart on the basis of faith by the grace of the Holy Spirit, transmitted through the sacraments. One who has turned to the Lord and has been mystically united with Him is already a freedman of Christ: such is the mystery of our faith. But one obtains this freedom as a result of complete self-surrender to the Lord and full submission to His will, which one witnesses at the beginning by determination, and then throughout life in all one’s deeds. In the very moment when one surrenders himself wholly in this way into slavery to the Lord, the Lord by His grace frees him from his former moral slavery; the enemy is driven from the heart, the enchantments of the world are unmasked and seen in their repellent deformity, and over the sin living within is given power to trample it and tread upon its neck every time it lifts up its head. This happens to everyone—whether slave or externally free, even if a king—it is all the same. “In relation to Christ, he says, both are equal. Just as you are a slave of Christ, so is your master. When is a slave free while remaining a slave? When he is freed from passions and mental illnesses, when he does not give himself over to avarice, anger and other such passions” (holy Chrysostom). For who is as free as one freed from sin? And who serves in such bitter slavery as one enslaved to the passions? (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 7:23. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of human beings.

Just before this he said that even if they had the possibility to gain freedom, they should remain in slavery, but now he says: “Do not become slaves of human beings.” How is this? One must understand here slavery not as external, but as spiritual—moral, and precisely only in relation to human beings. Spiritual slavery, as we have seen, appears in various forms: there is slavery to the passions, slavery to the world and the devil. From this comprehensive slavery Christians receive freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ. “You are bought,” he says, “at the price” of the blood of the Only-begotten Son of God, all of you are bought, both slaves and free, and you ought to serve the Lord in every way. This is moral. Consequently, “do not become slaves of human beings” is also moral. What then is this? Do not be a people-pleaser. This is one subtle but much-evil side of slavery to the world, to human opinions, human customs and the desires of people with whom one must live. The Apostle says as it were: that you are slaves is not important in Christ, but this have in mind—do not become slaves to human opinions, customs and desires against the will of the Lord. You are bought by the Lord; let His will govern in you in all things, and in whatever way the opposite of this will is shown, agree not to do anything to please men. This rule accords with the Apostle’s other rules: not to gratify the flesh in lust, not to please oneself, and here: not to please men when this violates the will of the Lord.

Theodoret writes: “He does not set down anything contrary to what was said; but he commands that one should not have a slavish manner of thinking, neither the one who is called a slave nor the one who is named free.” Theophylact: “He says this not only to slaves, but also to the free, exhorting all Christians to do nothing out of pleasing men and in no way to obey them when they command what is unlawful, for this is what it means to be enslaved to men.” Saint Chrysostom speaks at length on this: “It is possible to be a slave and not enslaved, and to be free and not free. When, then, is a slave not enslaved? When he does everything for God, when he serves not hypocritically and not from pleasing men: this is what it means to be enslaved to men and to remain free. And conversely, when is a free person enslaved? When he serves men in something base, in gluttony, greed, or ambition. Such a man, though free, is worse than any slave. Here is an example of each. Joseph was a slave, but was not enslaved to men; therefore even in slavery he was freer than all the free, because he did not submit to his mistress. His mistress, on the other hand, though she was free, proved herself lower than any slave, and could not bend him, the free one, to what he did not wish. Truly he was not a slave, but in the highest degree free. Thus there are limits to slavery, set by God, there are laws to which it may extend, and these must not be transgressed. When a master requires nothing contrary to God’s will, then one must obey him and submit, and it should not extend further; thus the slave remains free! If you go further, then you become enslaved, though you are free. Such was not Joseph; he was everywhere and in all things truthful and remained free. Nothing could enslave him—neither chains, nor slavery, nor his mistress’s love, nor dwelling in a foreign land—but he always remained free. This is the highest freedom, which shines even in slavery”.

1 Cor. 7:24. Brethren, let each one remain in that state in which he was called, before God.

Again, for the third time, he repeats the same. Here—both as a conclusion and to prevent a misunderstanding that might arise in some from the words: “be not enslaved to men.” He means not this, he says, so that you should flee from your masters. No, the law that was stated before—to remain in that same state in which one was called—remains unchanged even now. “By the foregoing words,” Theophylact writes, “the Apostle does not suggest that slaves should flee from their masters. Far from it! That he is not suggesting this is clear from the present words: ‘let each one remain in that in which he was called,’ that is, even if called in slavery, remain in it. He added the words ‘before God,’ so that, on the other hand, one should not turn away from God on account of obedience to masters who command what is unlawful. He removes both: both that, under the pretext of pleasing God, one should not flee from masters, and that one should not turn away from God by obeying masters more than one ought.”

On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

First the Apostle sets forth a) general principles on this matter (1 Cor. 7:25–35); then b) he writes rules on the application of these principles in practice (1 Cor. 7:36–40).

h) General Principles (1 Cor. 7:25–35)

In the general principles the Apostle says that aa) it is better to be in celibacy, although those who marry do not sin (1 Cor. 7:25–28), establishing bb) as the foundation for this on one hand α) the affliction and brevity of life (1 Cor. 7:29–31), on the other hand – β) the greater convenience for pleasing the Lord in celibacy (1 Cor. 7:32–35).

1 Cor. 7:25. Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord; but I give my judgment, as one who has received mercy from the Lord to be faithful.

“Concerning virgins” – παρθενος – applies to both male and female, meaning both a virgin man and a virgin woman. And the words that follow address now one, now the other. Therefore, in placing this word, the Apostle probably meant virginity in general. Until now he has been speaking about restraint in the married state; now he moves to virginity. “Continuing his discourse, he gradually arrives finally at virginity; having instructed and enlightened the Corinthians through discussion of restraint, he moves to the higher subject” (Saint Chrysostom).

“I have no commandment of the Lord.” In saying this, the Apostle means either the personal revelations from the Lord that came to him from time to time when needed, or the words of the Lord spoken by Him when He dwelt on earth. And the Lord settled this question when, on account of the law concerning the indissolubility of marriage, the disciples said: if so, then it is better not to marry. The Lord answered them: “Not everyone can accept this word,” and then, pointing to various eunuchs and among them to those who became eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, added: “the one who is able to accept this, let him accept it” (Matt. 19:10–12). This means: not everyone can be a virgin man or woman, but he who is able. The same is established by the Apostle. What then do the words “I have no commandment” mean? – I do not dare to make definite binding pronouncements on this matter. “I do not introduce a law, but propose counsel. For even the Lord, having prescribed what accords with nature, only proposes as counsel what is above nature” (Theodoret). “I do not dare to legislate either, for this is a great matter and is surrounded by great difficulties and dangers” (Theophylact).

“As one who has received mercy from the Lord to be faithful.” – “As one who has received mercy,” ἠλεημένος, as one who has received that mercy from the Lord, or as one deemed worthy of that mercy from Him, to be faithful – faithful to Him, a faithful interpreter of His will, a person entrusted with opening His will to all. The Apostle speaks as if to say: though I only give counsel, yet such counsel is not foreign to the Lord’s intentions. “Since some, probably, might have objected to this counsel as an innovation, the Apostle added these words. With his customary humility he indicated in them the apostolic dignity: I am a worthy counselor, says he, called by the great mercy of the Master and appointed as a preacher” (Theodoret). “Since, by the great mercy of God, I have been deemed worthy of being in God’s possession, worthy that He would entrust me with His mysteries” (Theophylact).

1 Cor. 7:26. I suppose therefore that this is good in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is.

“What then do you counsel us? ‘I suppose therefore that this is good… for a man to remain as he is.’ He says “I suppose,” not because he doubts that virginity is good and the best of blessings, but so that the counsel would not turn into law, he expressed a kind of doubt. For law is accompanied by observance, transgression, and punishment of the transgressors: therefore he does not legislate concerning something great, but proposes it in the manner of counsel” (Theodoret).

“In view of the present distress,” or on account of a distress that already exists, presses down, or a distress that is coming, it is not yet here, but it is ready to fall upon our heads. In the first case these would be either distresses from the concourse of constrictive circumstances, or the distresses of the married state itself. In this latter sense Oecumenius and Theophylact understand these words: “It is good, and very good, for a man to refrain from marriage, but not because marriage is unclean, but on account of the difficulties and sorrows of the married state” (Theophylact). What in the course of expounding the epistle Saint Chrysostom said on this passage has not been noted; but one commentator quotes his words from his work on virginity, where he understands by “the present distress” generally the burden of earthly life, weighed down by cares, deprivations, conflicts, miseries and sorrows. In the second case these would be calamities ready to fall upon the heads of the Corinthians on account of the faith. The Church of Corinth was enjoying peace, but the Apostle foresaw that the Corinthians would soon be subjected to trials on account of their faith, which are easier to bear for the unmarried than for the married. For in those days no Church was free from this. Therefore he says: it is better not to marry. Thus the blessed Photius in Oecumenius: “By the ‘present distress,’ I understand here that the Apostle means persecution directed by the unbelievers against the faithful, and all manner of pursuit and malice on their part. In setting down so exalted a rule, the Apostle thought it not superfluous to base it on them also, making it seem that he is setting it down as if compelled by circumstances. He speaks as if to say: virginity, which is good in itself, is also good on account of the impending trials: for the unmarried does not find it so difficult to bear them as one bound by wife and children. The soul is torn as if into pieces in this—both one is confined, and one grieves for them, and a man is laden with unbearable weight of evil; but the unmarried, not afflicted by the sufferings of those so close to him, finds it easier to endure the turmoil of calamities.” How then should we understand these words? At all other times the choice of a celibate life is prompted more by the burdens of the married state itself and the excess of sorrows generally in the present life; but at that time, perhaps the Apostle had in view more the strained situation in which Christians found themselves almost everywhere on account of the hostility toward them of the unbelieving. So then, says he, my counsel is: on account of the present distress it is better for “a man to remain as he is.” – “To remain as he is,” that is, not to enter into marriage, but to remain alone. “Man” in general, whether male or female.

1 Cor. 7:27. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

“Have you become bound to a wife?” This is understood through marriage, the same as whether you have entered into marriage, whether you are married. “Do not seek a release”—not the temporary one, by mutual agreement, a separation of which was spoken of before (1 Cor. 7:5), but divorce, so as to send away your wife. He again confirms the indissolubility of marriage. Before entering into marriage, seek freedom from a wife; but once you have entered, bear her burden and do not send her away, however difficult it may be. “Have you been freed from a wife?” λελησαι—one can also understand it as: have you been freed from a wife with whom you were joined in marriage, by reason of her death; and one can understand it as: are you released from a wife, that is, have you not entered into marriage at all. In either case, “do not seek a wife,” that is, do not enter into marriage. It is expressed in the form of a decisive command; yet throughout here it is proposed as a counsel, that is, if you are able, if you feel yourself strong enough for it. Therefore either this condition must be understood, or this decisive form must be explained in this way: above he said that for the present need it is better “for a man to be thus,” that is, not to have a wife. Those who are married might think or ask a question: well then? Should we send away our wives? No, the Apostle answered; my thought is this: if you are released, not bound in marriage to a wife, do not seek a wife; and if you are bound, do not seek a release—so as to send her away. Thus Photius in Oecumenius.

1 Cor. 7:28. But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.

He continues to soften that decisive form of expression: “do not seek a wife,” and at the same time more precisely defines the meaning of his counsel, guarding it from all confusion. I have said, he says, “do not seek a wife,” not forbidding you to marry, but offering you counsel. And if you do marry, you will not sin; likewise a virgin, if she marries, will not sin. I propose the counsel of celibacy not because there is anything sinful in marriage: there is no sin at all in entering into marriage. But those who enter into marriage will have the troubles of the flesh, “and I want to spare you this.” “And the Apostle revealed his paternal love and showed the benefit of a celibate life. One must understand that the Apostle said this not of those who have once and for all renounced the world, but of those who have not yet chosen either one or the other, but still stand at the common boundary of married and unmarried life” (Theodoret).

What does “troubles of the flesh” mean? Oecumenius writes: “Those who marry will have troubles,” he says, “because of the sorrows that are bound up with marriage; and I spare you, as my children, and I wish for you to be free from sorrows and undisturbed. Being in marriage, you are as though in bonds; and no one among you has authority over himself.” Theophylact understands by “sorrows of the flesh” the cares and anxieties, inevitable in the married state. “Troubles of the flesh”—τη σαρκι—for the flesh or in the flesh. The Apostle points to the trouble which is closer than external troublous circumstances, to such a sorrow which is in the flesh itself. Why would not he understand first of all the pains of childbirth? Both husband and wife suffer equally at this time: he in soul, she in body. And then further understand here the troublesome cares of maintaining the household, raising children, maintaining external relations, deprivations, failures, reversals, attacks, ruin. All this is inevitable to endure, while the unmarried are free from all this and remain masters both of their body and their occupations and all their external situation. Since in the course of the discourse the words “troubles of the flesh” stand in relation to the words “for the present need,” perhaps the Apostle also had in mind here what blessed Photius saw in “the present need,” that is, the persecutions and afflictions always ready to arise for the sake of faith, which are easier for the unmarried to bear, or from which he is better able to escape.

The Apostle places the troubles of life in the first place. He inserted this thought when speaking generally of the preferability of celibacy to married life, in the words: “for the present need,” and: “those who marry will have troubles;” here “he referred to circumstances, threatening need, the tightness of the times, and sorrow, and pointed out that marriage is bound up with many difficulties” (holy Chrysostom). Now he particularly dwells a) on the brevity of time, life, and the goods of the world (1 Cor. 7:29–31); and then he sets forth β) the greater ease of pleasing God in an unmarried life (1 Cor. 7:32–35).

1 Cor. 7:29. I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none.

“I mean, brothers,” By these words he both demands special attention and at the same time shows that he approaches the explanation of a point not entirely clearly stated, which nevertheless is necessary to understand. He explains what sorrow is and what need. How? By saying that “the appointed time has grown short… the form of this world is passing away.” What then? Let the time grow short, let the form of the world pass away, what is that to us? The answer is: with this there will be such a strike upon all that everyone will forget everything: husbands will forget their wives, wives will forget their husbands, the joyful will forget joy, the sorrowful will forget sorrow, and all those enjoying any goods of the world will forget those goods. As in a time of terror everything is driven out of consciousness and all is seized by one terror, so that those terrified, seeing, do not see, hearing, do not hear: so it will be at that time. And that time is imminent, it is almost at the door now. So when is there time for marriage?! When is there time for pleasures and enjoyments! Is it not better to dispose yourself beforehand and prepare yourself, so that that time might strike you less?

What does “the appointed time has grown short” mean? “This present life is rushing toward its end, the end of the present age is near” (Theophylact). “So that no one should say to the preceding words, ‘those who marry will have troubles,’ but they will also have pleasures, the Apostle cuts off the hope of pleasure by representing the time as grown short. Everything tends toward dissolution, the kingdom of Christ has drawn near, into it we are destined to move, so that even if any pleasure is possible, it is momentary and will only increase sorrow” (Theophylact). “We are already commanded to depart from here and prepare for our exit, but you are striving inward (that is, you are entering deeper into this life). If marriage were not accompanied by any sorrows, even in that case one ought to strive for what is future; if however it is accompanied by sorrows, why should one lay a burden on oneself? What necessity is there to lay on oneself such a burden, which having accepted, one must bear as though not having accepted?” (holy Chrysostom). Thus by the words “the appointed time has grown short,” the Apostle puts people in the same disposition as the Lord does when He says: “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man comes at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matt. 24:42–44). “Be on your guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It is like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping” (Mk. 13:33–36). The memory of this, once rooted and embracing consciousness, and especially falling upon feeling, changes one’s view of all that exists and becomes to its opposite. Whoever truly feels that this is the Lord’s hour will not stop at anything earthly, but will wholly pass into another world, into that in which they neither marry nor are given in marriage, where belly and food will be done away with. What drives this decisive moment out of memory is that we keep waiting and waiting, and it never comes. But still it will come, and it will come as the Lord said—suddenly. Moreover, it does not matter: either it comes, or death will come very soon; and the decision for us is the same in either case. Therefore everything is the same—at every moment something is ready to overtake us by which our fate will be decided for all eternity. “The appointed time has grown short.” You need not stretch it out to years and tens of years. Abbreviate it to a single moment, and with this thought pass from moment to moment, thus to the end of life. Put yourself in such a disposition—then, even having a wife, you will be as not having a wife, that is, you will forget all that is marital, and will not even think of marrying, if you do not have a wife. “What does it mean: ‘as not having a wife’? That is, they will forget about the marital bed and will not heed their wives when they come with demands to fulfill their senseless worldly desires” (Oecumenius). “They will not be attached to them, will not turn all their care only to the marital and to their wives” (Theophylact).

1 Cor. 7:30–31. Those who mourn should be as though they are not mourning; those who are happy should be as though they are not happy; those who buy something should be as those not owning anything; and those who use the things of the world should be as though not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

To verify in practice that this is truly so and must be so, one need only place oneself mentally in the state of a dying person, ready to leave this world. Do this, and immediately—whatever of the present things you should have wept over, or which you had already wept over—you will cease to weep; whatever you rejoiced in, you will cease to rejoice; if you bought something, you will be so indifferent to it as though you had not acquired anything new; and in general, whatever goods of the world you might use, you will cut off all pleasure in them and all sympathy toward them. But if such a mental representation produces such an effect, what must happen when the thing itself comes to pass? The Apostle wishes for us to be in heart as though we were already departing from here, as though the hour of the Lord were already upon us—he wishes, that is, for us to be completely released from all things, so that not only in heart but in mind we hold nothing of the transient with anxious care. “The present is alien to us,” says the Apostle, “because we depart from here very quickly” (Theodoret). “And not only about wives, but about nothing else should we be overly concerned, whether it be sorrowful or consoling, or whatever profit may come about by reason of favorable transactions. And why,” he says, “should I enumerate this and that? In one word I will say: ‘those who use the world should be as though not using it,’ as though they had nothing. For to be attached to worldly things and to torment oneself with care about them is not the use of the world but the misuse of it” (Theophylact). “Since time is short, everything that anyone has should be considered as though it did not exist. If death is near, why become attached to worldly things? He who gives himself to worldly pleasures, glorifies himself in wealth, is lifted up by honors and praise—he does not use the world as he ought. One must look upon all this as passing by and not concerning us. We do not enter this world for the sake of these things, but for the sake of advancing in good works and being always ready for our departure. Whoever forgets this goal and gives himself to the world as though eternal life were here, does not use the world as he ought, but misuses it” (Oecumenius).

“For this world in its present form is passing away.” Everything in the world is so changeable that it flows like a river. As a lighted candle burns and by burning destroys itself, so the world by its changeability decomposes and hastens toward its end. “By this the Apostle shows the brevity of the present” (Theodoret). It is passing—it is decomposing. Why then become attached to what presents nothing substantial? For by saying “is passing away,” and moreover “in its present form,” the Apostle gave to understand that all the goods of the world are such only in appearance, but in themselves contain nothing enduring and substantial. Or, it is passing away, destined to cease, and it will cease very soon, so that afterward nothing in it will remain in the form that it now has. Why then become attached to all this or be concerned about all this? “There will no longer be farming and seafaring, nor kingdoms and military commands, nor slavery and dominion, nor arts and sciences, nor poverty and wealth, for from all this and the like does the present age consist—but it is passing away. In the future life everything will be arranged otherwise, it will take on a different form” (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 7:32–33. I want you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife.

“I want.” A new teaching begins: I also want you to be free from concern, that is, without care, so that you are not tormented by evil worry. Care, sorrow, excessive anxiety—these are the distinctive marks of life according to the spirit of the world and its driving force. No passion appears as respectable as this one; and none does so much harm to a man in his Christian life as it does. It clouds and darkens the mind, crushes and dries the heart, and gives no opportunity to come to one’s senses, driving from one task to another and never allowing one to see their end. Meanwhile the one who is driven around, crushed, and goaded presents nothing bad to outward appearance, provided he does not use openly bad means for his goals and provided he maintains proper relations with others. Thus his soul is broken, but he thinks of himself as a respectable man, and lives in the phantom deception of himself. He has no time even to think about salvation, about eternity, about pleasing the Lord. He is entirely in worldly and temporal things; and the spiritual side, turned toward God and eternity, is completely closed to him. When the Apostle says, “I want you to be free from concern,” he requires that you not torment yourselves exclusively with worldly and temporal cares and that you change the sorrow of this age into sorrow for the age to come. “How then can we become free from concern?—If we remain unmarried” (Theophylact).

For “an unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs, how he can please the Lord.” An unmarried person too may not have concern about the Lord’s affairs; but a married person, even if he wished to be concerned with this, cannot, even if he desired it, because wife, children, and house stand in the way, all of which require care and attention. “A married man is concerned about the affairs of this world, how he can please his wife.” Where there is a wife, there is a family and a house: and therein lies a field of cares. The wife herself has many necessary needs; and if to this is added vanity and the desire to live up to the demands of the age, then they cannot even be enumerated. Celibacy frees one from all such cares and untangles one’s hands for works that please God—of course, if one wishes it. If you wish, he says, to please the Lord, then the unmarried state is the most fitting for that. To satisfy one’s own needs is easy, and then he can devote all his time to the Lord. But a married man has a large portion of his time taken up by cares, vanity, and the world, even in the best oriented married life. Therefore the married can never reach such a degree of spiritual perfection as the unmarried. “The Apostle himself pointed out the aim of virginity; for a virgin’s soul is free from unnecessary and foolish cares, and he, so far as is possible, imitates the life to come” (Theodoret). “But how is it that holy Paul, wishing to make us free from concern and for that reason counseling celibacy, again says, ‘an unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs’?—Here again is concern! But,” he says, “this concern is quite different from that which is imposed by marriage. Concern about the Lord’s affairs, about how to please the Lord, is salutary and sweetly nourishing, but worldly and temporal cares that come from marriage are destructive and torment the soul” (Theophylact). It is very remarkable that the same, as it were, psychological action produces such opposite consequences. This is due to the difference in the objects. The Lord is our goal. Exclusive self-dedication to Him brings us into communion with Him and, placing us at the goal, provides well-being. Moreover, the Lord is one and unifies those who devote themselves to Him, giving them wholeness and strength, while the world is complex: it decomposes the soul within itself and, disrupting the wholeness of its life, exhausts it, torments it, and dries it up.

1 Cor. 7:34. And his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit; but a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.

“His interests are divided,” that is, the same distinction applies to the married woman as to the virgin. The latter cares only about how to please the Lord, preserving holiness in both body and spirit, while the former cares only about how to please her husband, with the cares connected to this and other vanities. The Apostle distinguishes what is in the attention, goal, and heart of the one and the other: for one, the Lord and all that is of the Lord; for the other, the husband with other vanities. By as much as heaven is separated from earth and the Creator from the creature, by that much is the spiritual state of the first separated from that of the second. It is evident that the Apostle sets the virgin, who has dedicated herself exclusively to the Lord, in contrast to the woman who has become entangled in vanities. But if the latter also begins to have concern for pleasing the Lord, then to the extent that she labors in this pleasing, she will taste of the well-being characteristic of the former. Yet it is certain that she cannot possibly reach the perfection of the former, because she also spends time on unavoidable tasks and her heart shares in fleshly pleasures, which in their measure always diminish the tasting of spiritual goods. Those in families know how impossible it is to be completely free from carnal considerations. If this is impossible, then perfect spiritual perfection also cannot be attained.

The Apostle noted it well: “Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit.” “It is not enough to be holy in body; one must be holy in spirit as well. For true virginity is the purity of the soul. But there are many virgins who are pure and blameless in body, yet stained in soul. Pay attention also to this: she who is controlled by worldly cares is no longer a virgin. Therefore when you see that a certain virgin who has embraced virginity gives herself over to worldly cares, know that she in no way differs from the married. Paul has precisely defined the features by which they should be distinguished—it is not merely marriage and celibacy, but excessive care and freedom from care, so that one with excessive care is no longer a virgin: for how does she differ from the married woman, who is much concerned with how to please her husband and other vanities?” (Theophylact).

1 Cor. 7:35. I am saying this for your own good—not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.

“I am,” he says, “not drawing you to this wealth by compulsion, as though laying a constraint upon you and catching you by force, but am showing the advantage that flows from it. For there is no other way for us to remain constantly in the service of God than by escaping the bonds of worldly life” (Theodoret).

More than once he has said that he is not giving a commandment but counsel; but by repeating this so often, he gives to understand, as though wishing, that as many people as possible would willingly fulfill his counsel. This is evident from what he states as the purpose of virginity. It is for “propriety,” he says, “and undivided devotion to the Lord.”

“For propriety”—“wishing to call you to the most proper state; and indeed, what is more proper than virginity?” (Oecumenius, Theophylact). In the second letter he even speaks of the whole church at Corinth in this way: that he was jealous for it with a godly jealousy, to present it to the Lord as a pure virgin (2 Cor. 11:2); and here he is jealous to present each soul to the Lord in the most proper form, using as a means to that end a wise and strictly followed virginity. A virgin is more proper before the Lord. Why is this?—Because, of course, the marks of God-likeness can be imprinted more quickly and fully on a virgin soul than on one who has known the pleasures of marriage.

“And undivided devotion to the Lord.” “Devotion”—ευπαρεδρον—constant sitting near the Lord, free, convenient, easy. “Undivided”—απερρισπαστως—undistracted. Therefore, he says, as a second reason, I counsel you so insistently, though without compulsion, to virginity, because it grants the possibility, convenience, and ease—to sit constantly near the Lord without any distraction. No cares, no thoughts distract him; his attention is wholly fixed on the Lord, and nothing tears him away from Him. Thus he is always with the Lord and the Lord with him—he like a bride, the Lord like a bridegroom. Behold a spiritual marriage—inseparable. What follows from this, everyone can see for himself. The Apostle’s word is very decisive.

The Application of These Instructions (1 Corinthians 7:36–40)

Aa) first to virgins (1 Cor. 7:36–38); Bb) then to widows (1 Cor. 7:39–40)

1 Cor. 7:36. And if any man thinks he behaves unseemly toward his virgin daughter, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will; he sins not: let him marry her.

If anyone, not understanding the high propriety of virginity, thinks it will be shameful for him to leave his daughter in virginity for some worldly reasons, or thinks that for his daughter it will somehow be inconvenient and that people will disapprove—and meanwhile she is already of age and beginning to pass her full bloom—so, if he thinks it unseemly not to marry off his daughter, unseemly if she is to be this way, that is, unmarried—let him do as he wishes: there is no sin. Let her marry, that is, let marriage be arranged for such cases.

The Apostle does not mention the inclinations of the daughters themselves, probably having in mind those cases where they share the same thoughts as their parents. For although at that time children were almost entirely under their fathers’ authority, yet in such a matter as celibacy, even modest prudence should have taken into account the intentions and decisions of the daughters themselves.

If, he says, the father thinks it unseemly to keep his daughter unmarried, let him marry her off. Is a work of God to be sacrificed to men’s opinions or something else? Perhaps the Apostle also had in mind the infancy of spiritual life in those to whom he wrote, and perhaps by the words ‘thinks he behaves unseemly,’ he was suggesting: if the father sees that his daughter will not properly maintain virginal life, then let him rather arrange marriage for her. But the very lack of conviction in the superiority of virginity on the part of the father under whose care the daughter remained could not help but be taken into account. The Apostle was writing the principles, leaving it to time and to the spiritual maturity of Christians to establish the very order of life according to them. Especially such a new thing as virginity could not have been organized all at once without confusion, given the diversity of worldly circumstances.

1 Cor. 7:37. But he that stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has power over his own will, and has so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin daughter, does well.

“He that stands steadfast in his heart”, has firm conviction of the superiority of virginity and courageously resists the pressure of men’s opinions (Oecumenius); “having no necessity”, has no need to marry off his daughter either from family affairs (for example, to support the family) or from external circumstances (for example, if marriage proposals have been made and the matter has gone far), but from the daughter’s reluctance and his fears for her; “but has power over his own will”, is completely free, meets no hindrance from any quarter to act by his own authority: and “has so decreed in his heart”, has thought it all through, considered the matter from every side and been persuaded that it is good, feasible, and promises nothing but real good for both him and his daughter—has resolved in all his heart “to keep his virgin daughter”, that is, to keep his daughter in virginity “does well”, does right. Such must be the moral character in every deed, so as to act with full conviction of the righteousness of the thing, its appropriateness, and its manifold benefit. When there is such conviction, then no external, side considerations are able to shake the decisions of the will. The instrument moving action is the heart: there convictions and sympathies are formed which determine the will and give it strength.

1 Cor. 7:38. So then he that gives his virgin daughter in marriage does well; but he that gives her not in marriage does better.

The relation of marriage to celibacy is ‘good and better.’ ‘The Apostle showed that one is good and the other excellent, and thereby put a bridle on the tongues of heretics who condemn marriage’ (Theodoret); and not only by this, but even more those who condemn celibacy. ‘See how by this comparison he persuades toward celibacy’ (Oecumenius). To marry off a virgin is a work of worldly prudence; not to marry her, for the sake of more perfect pleasing of the Lord, is a feat and virtue. If the father receives such approval, how much more praise does the virgin herself who resolves to remain celibate deserve!

1 Cor. 7:39. The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord.

The wife who has married is ‘bound by the law’ to her husband, to know only him, and to the married state, so as not to abandon it at will. Before entering marriage, consider whether to enter or not; but when marriage is accomplished, live with your husband as long as he lives. And when he dies, then you are free; marry whom you will, only ‘in the Lord.’ ‘In the Lord’ means: ‘marry a faithful, godly man, chastely, lawfully’ (Theodoret). ‘With chastity, with purity, for these virtues are needed everywhere, and one must always be concerned about them; otherwise it is impossible to see God’ (the holy Chrysostom). ‘For the bearing of children and their upbringing in the fear of God, not from fleshly passion’ (Oecumenius). ‘And this is sufficient to refute the followers of Novatian, who condemn second marriage as fornication, directly contrary to the apostolic laws’ (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 7:40. But she is more blessed if she so remains, according to my counsel; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

He makes allowance for second marriage, but considers ‘her more blessed who does not enter into second marriage. For just as virginity is better than first marriage, so first marriage, or single marriage, is better than second marriage’ (Theophylact). ‘According to my counsel,’ thus I think, propose, persuade—not laying down a law, but leaving to freedom the choice of the better. ‘Then, lest someone say: if this is not a law, why ever should one follow this counsel?—the Apostle added that he gives this counsel by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Although through your weakness this counsel is not raised to a law, yet its proposal comes from on high. ‘And I think that I also have the Spirit of God.’ Do not think that these counsels are mine, human; no, they are the enactments of the Spirit the Comforter’ (Oecumenius). He enacted that such matters should be proposed in the Church as counsel, and that those who undertake them should do so by their full will; but the very fact that He inspired giving such counsel makes us certain that He desires it to be fulfilled. The absence of its being law is not a diminishing of the dignity of virginity, but its exaltation. It is offered as a sacrifice and gift, not borne as the yoke of law.

Part Four. How to Regard Food Offered to Idols (1 Corinthians 8:1–11:1)

How the Stumbling Arises: Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1–6)

‘It is necessary to say first what the Apostle is referring to; then his speech will be clear to us. Whoever sees someone accused and does not learn beforehand the nature of the accusation cannot understand what is said. In what then does the Apostle accuse the Corinthians here?—In a great transgression that caused many evils. In what exactly? Many of them, knowing that “whatever enters the mouth does not defile a man, but what comes out” (Matt. 15:17–18), and that idols, that is, wood and stones, can neither harm nor benefit, used such perfect knowledge imprudently, to the detriment of others and themselves. They entered into temples, partook of meals there, and thus produced destructive effects. For those who still feared idols, who had not learned to despise them and therefore took part in those meals, seeing that even the more perfect do the same, received great harm from this; for they partook of what was offered not with the same disposition as the perfect, but as to food offered to idols, by which idolatry was maintained; and at the same time the perfect themselves fell into a not insignificant sin, being defiled by demonic meals. This was the fault of the Corinthians’ (holy Chrysostom).

Thus those who ate food offered to idols committed two sins: they caused the weak to stumble and they themselves became defiled, though they did not intend to do either. ‘The blessed Apostle, wishing to correct them, does not at once use words of rebuke, for what was happening among them was the result more of lack of understanding than of corruption, and therefore one needed to employ at first exhortation rather than strong and angry rebuke’ (holy Chrysostom).

1) First the Apostle speaks against the first sin—the stumbling of the weak (1 Cor. 8 and 1 Cor. 9).

2) Then—against the second sin—the defilement from food offered to idols (1 Cor. 10:1–11:1).

1. On the stumbling of the weak (1 Cor. 8 and 1 Cor. 9)

Speaking against eating food offered to idols from the perspective that this causes the weak to stumble, the Apostle a) first reveals how this stumbling occurs (1 Cor. 8); and b) then urges abstaining from this (1 Cor. 9).

j) How the stumbling occurs (1 Cor. 8)

And in revealing how the stumbling occurs, the Apostle already urges abstaining from eating food offered to idols. To do this, he undermines the basis on which those who ate it relied—the intellectual view of the matter. aa) By reason, he says, it turns out that eating food offered to idols is nothing (1 Cor. 8:1–6); but, acting by reason, one must still consider not to produce thereby a harmful influence on others. bb) Your freedom in this regard does indeed harm the weak, and you would do better if you did not act this way. Acting this way, you sin (1 Cor. 8:7–13).

1 Cor. 8:1. Now as touching things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifies.

The first words: “as touching things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge”, are probably taken from a letter written to the Corinthians. Repeating them, the Apostle makes a remark that extends to the end of the third verse. In the fourth verse he repeats them again: “as touching the eating of those things offered to idols”, and then sets forth what the knowledge of Christians about this subject is and should be, to the end of verse 6. From the seventh verse begins the second half of the chapter, in which is set forth how imprudent action according to reason causes the weak to stumble and perish.

“As touching things offered to idols”, that is, as to eating food offered to idols, as is evident from the beginning of the fourth verse. Sacrifices offered to idols were not all burned; part of them were—the rest went partly to the priests and partly was returned to those who brought them, from which they arranged a meal, either there at the temples or at home. Christians who were more educated, knowing that an idol is nothing and therefore cannot convey either harm or sin to food, approached this meal without fear when they were invited either by kinship or acquaintance or for some other reason; but the simpler Christians were scandalized by this. The leaders of the church, probably, asked: we know that eating food offered to idols is nothing; but behold, some are scandalized—what are we to do?—What to do, the Apostle explains below; but now he takes only the first words from their letter: we know, and rebukes the pride of knowledge and its inability to act beneficially for others.

‘We know that we all have knowledge.’ The Corinthians speak of themselves that they understand very well what idol sacrifices mean. The Apostle says nothing against this, leaves to them this advantage. Later he will say that not all have understanding (v. 7); but now he concedes, saying as it were: so be it. Theodoret remarks that the Apostle testified here to their understanding with some mockery, as is evident from the rebuke that follows: ‘there is nothing.’ And holy Chrysostom says: ‘Leaving aside the weak, as he always does, he first addresses his speech to the strong and at first brings down their pride. He does not reject knowledge, but strikes at the pride arising from it, by representing knowledge as not only incomplete but also very imperfect, and not only imperfect but also harmful if it is not joined with something else.’

‘Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifies.’ The particle ‘ubo’ is not in the original; there is no particle there at all. This gives freedom to connect this utterance with the preceding one, as anyone might judge. Let, he says, you have knowledge; but then mere knowledge is an unreliable guide to life. It arouses pride, and from pride comes division. Only love builds—οικοδομει—constructs from all Christians one whole and orderly building—a house to the living God. Therefore, if knowledge is without love, it is more harmful than useful. Holy Chrysostom explains it thus: ‘If knowledge is not joined with love, then it produces pride. Knowledge has need of love. Whoever loves, as he who fulfills the greatest of all commandments, though he may have some shortcomings, with the help of love can quickly acquire knowledge; but he who has knowledge without love, not only will acquire nothing, but often loses even what he has. Knowledge drives love away from an inattentive man, begetting in him pride and arrogance. Pride produces division, but love unites. I do not forbid you, he says, to have perfect knowledge, but I command you to have it together with love; otherwise it is not only useless but harmful. Why are you proud of knowledge? If you do not have love, it will harm you, for what is worse than pride? But if you have love, then knowledge will be reliable, for whoever knows more than his neighbor and loves him, will not boast, but will also impart the same to him. Therefore, having said: “knowledge puffeth up,” he added: “but charity edifies.” He did not say: humbles, but expressed something far greater and more useful. Just as knowledge not only puffs up but produces division, so love has the opposite effects’ (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 8:2. And if any man think that he knows any thing, he knows not yet as he ought to know.

There he said only: it is good that you know, but see whether you have love together with knowledge, for if it is alone, expect no good from it. Consequently, the rebuke remains only conditional, though he knew they had already sinned against love. But here he rebukes directly. From the very fact, he says, that you said: ‘we know’—all know, all have knowledge—from this very fact I conclude that your knowledge is poor. Whoever thinks that he knows something thereby reveals that he does not know it as he should. For even the simplest objects have many sides that cannot be explained, and the more one knows, the more one encounters mysteries, hidden things, misunderstandings. We have examples before us: tell us how we see, how we hear, how we speak? Therefore, whoever truly knows and delves into the realm of knowledge will never say: I know, we all know this. If this is so in simple matters, how much more in spiritual matters. This rebuke is very strong; but the Apostle softens it, expressing his thought in a general proposition. ‘By this the Apostle showed that the Corinthians not only lacked love, but were also deprived of knowledge, which ascribing to themselves, they thought highly of themselves. Yet he expresses the accusation indefinitely, because he wishes to heal rather than strike’ (Theodoret). ‘And see how he brought down their pride. He did not say: you do not have proper knowledge of the matters proposed, but of all things in general; he did not say: you, but: anyone, whether Peter or Paul or whosoever. By these words he excellently both comforted and humbled them’ (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 8:3. But if any man love God, the same is known of him.

From the words, if anyone thinks to himself that he knows something, it directly follows that he knows nothing as he should—it does not follow that whoever does not think this knows something as he should. On the contrary, from this it follows that nobody knows anything as he should, and only because this proposition is true is the first one also true. From this, naturally, a question arises: so what is to be done? Where should one seek knowledge? If naturally this question arises, then one would naturally expect the Apostle to resolve it immediately after. And he does say: ‘whoever loves God is known by Him.’ The speech indeed concerns knowledge, but in a form altogether different from what might be expected. If he had said: whoever loves God knows what he should know and knows as he should—then this would fully meet the expectation and satisfy it. But he says: whoever loves God is known by Him, εγνωσται υπ αυτου. In Russian, it has been translated: he is given knowledge from Him; but it is evident that this does not answer the original. The Slavonic translation is correct. So what does it mean—‘to be known by God’? Inasmuch as God knows all, then when it is said that someone is known by God, one must understand here some particularity of knowledge, as when someone sees all but looks at something in particular. The Prophet says: “the Lord knows the way of the righteous”. This means that He looks upon it with special attention and guards it, takes particular care of it, as is evident from what follows: “but the way of the ungodly shall perish”, being abandoned as if without the Lord’s attention. So does God know the one who loves Him; He knows it in that He takes particular care of him, or, what is the same, loves him. It turns out: whoever loves God is known by Him, that is, is under His special care, as His own, is loved by Him. If the one who loves God lives in God, then God, for whom the one who loves Him is precious, also dwells in this latter. The one who loves God abides in God, and God abides in him. Is this not what the Apostle wanted to say? We are accustomed to value knowledge too highly, and think that the Apostle, having rebuked our knowledge, should point us to the paths toward it; but with the Apostle, all care is for life, not for knowledge. Therefore, having rebuked knowledge, did he not mean to say this: knowledge alone, without love, puffs up; and it is not even his in perfection. Someone asks: but how are we to act, where shall we get knowledge?—I will tell you this: give up all your cares about knowledge; love God, and you will be loved by Him—that is all. There is your goal! There is no further to go, nothing more to desire. The blessed Theodoret writes: ‘We have need of much knowledge, and in this present life to acquire perfect knowledge is something impossible. Therefore let us love God, so that we may be deemed worthy of His care for us. This is what the Apostle expressed in the words: “he who loves God is known by Him”, that is, is deemed worthy of His care. Thus also the blessed Moses said to God Almighty Himself: “You have said to me; You have found grace before me, and I know you above all” (Ex. 33:12–17).’ The blessed Theophylact leads by the same path also to knowledge: ‘This is what the Apostle says here: whoever loves his neighbor certainly also loves God. But he who loves God is known by Him, that is, becomes known to Him, His own—a member of His household. Having thus become known so closely to God, he receives from Him knowledge, although even then he has it not perfectly. So that, although you may have knowledge, be not proud, for it is imperfect, and this imperfection is not yours but God’s gift. See how the Apostle humbles their pride!’

1 Cor. 8:4. Therefore, as concerning the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

Having repeated the first words from the Corinthians’ letter on this matter and made remarks upon them, apparently the Apostle continues reading their letter in this and the following two verses—verses 5 and 6; and from verse 7 he begins his remarks again. Taking up this supposition, we shall see more clearly the structure and flow of speech in this chapter. From the fact that the words of verses 4–6 will be counted as the words of the Corinthians, they do not lose their dogmatic importance; for from whom did the Corinthians take them, if not from the holy Paul? Therefore, though the Corinthians cite them, they are not the product of their mind, but are God-revealed apostolic word. Moreover, when the Apostle cites them here, he confirms them by his assent, for he makes no remark upon them, but approving them in their full force, notes further that not all understand the matter so exactly and clearly, and then tells what came from this. To such perfection did the holy Paul bring his disciples that they could assimilate and utter such exalted truths! Or perhaps from the Corinthians’ letter were taken again only the first words up to—‘we know,’ and then the Apostle in his own words already explains the thought contained in ‘we know.’

‘As concerning the eating of things offered to idols we know’—he repeats the same, only adds: ‘as concerning the eating,’ to show that the confusion concerned precisely this, not what idols and food offered to idols are.—‘We know that an idol is nothing.’ Theodoret puts into the Apostle’s mouth such a word: ‘You are accustomed to speak thus, because you learned to speak it from me, namely, that idols are inanimate, insensate, and that the Creator and Master of all things is the one God.’ ‘An idol is nothing in the world.’ ‘But surely there are no idols? Surely there are no images?—There are; but they have no power, and they are not gods, but stones and demons’ (holy Chrysostom). ‘In the world,’ that is, among things that actually exist in nature and are necessary in the chain of beings. They are a contrivance of human imagination and have no significance. Concerning statues and images, some thought that they themselves were gods; and others believed that the images served only as dwellings for gods, while the gods were separate beings. The Apostle calls both an idol, and, combining both in one word, says that an idol is nothing. An idol properly means—a phantom, a fantasy, something imagined, but not actually existing. They imagine that the statue is a god, but it is not a god; they imagine that someone dwells in it, but there is no one there. All of this is fantasy. God is one, and besides this one God there is no other.

1 Cor. 8:5. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,).

‘Though there be,’ not in fact ‘are,’ but ‘are called,’ are named thus, are called: gods, but in fact they are not. Gods ‘in heaven,’—or imaginary, fanciful beings, or the sun, moon, stars.—‘On earth’ gods—earthly creatures or men who have become renowned by something and are held to be gods.—‘As there be gods many, and lords many.’ Again ‘are’ not in fact, but are held to be such. By this it is said as if: for behold, see how many gods and lords are worshipped everywhere. Gods and lords—not higher and lower gods, but mean one and the same thing: to whom is not divine honor paid?—And all of this is fantasy. Holy Chrysostom says: ‘Since he said that an idol is nothing and there is no other God—and yet there were idols and so-called gods—then, lest they think that he rejects what is evident, he adds: “though there be gods, so called”—though there are gods, not simply gods, but so-called, that is, not actually existing, but only so named. ‘Whether in heaven or in earth.’ In heaven he means the sun, moon, and other luminaries, for the Gentiles also worshipped them; and on earth demons and all deified men.’—Theodoret writes: ‘The Greeks claim the existence of many gods, whom they also name lords, but they do not exist at all, are known only by names. According to Greek mythology, some gods were called heavenly, such as: Zeus, Apollo, Hera, Athena, and others earthly, such as: springs, rivers, so-called nymphs, Heracles, Dionysus, Asclepius, and thousands of others.’

1 Cor. 8:6. But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

‘But to us,’—not in the thought that they have many while we have one, attaching any significance to those many, but rather: according to us, according to our true faith, “there is but one God”; only and alone there is one God. ‘The Greeks, enveloped in the mist of ignorance, go astray, acknowledging many, and moreover non-existent gods, but we know the one God the Father and the one Lord Jesus Christ’ (Theodoret).

“One God the Father, of whom are all things,—and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things.” One God, one Lord. Inasmuch as God and Lord are names of the Divine nature, the Apostle thereby affirms the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son. To the Father he says: ‘of whom are all things’—εξ ου—not from His essence, but from His creative power,—that is, from Him. To the Son he says: ‘by whom are all things,’—δι ου, through Whom, not as through an instrument, but as through a self-acting, almighty power, as in the Gospel of John: “all things were made by him” (1 Cor. 1:3)—that is, from Him. And ‘of whom’ and ‘through whom’ mean one and the same thing: from Him. By this is affirmed the co-activity of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever the Father creates, the Son at the same time creates as well. Regarding us, he says,—in relation to the Father: ‘and we in him,’—εισ αυτον, into Him, that is, we are destined to be in communion with Him, in Him is our goal and supreme good. And in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ: and ‘we through him,’—δι αυτου,—that is, through Him we come to God, are reconciled with Him after our fall and attain our final destiny. This is what holy Chrysostom says on this important passage: ‘The very names themselves (that is, God and Lord), used by the Apostle, should not be understood as if the name ‘Lord’ belonged exclusively to the Son, and the name ‘God’ to the Father. In Scripture one is often used instead of the other, for example when it is said: “the Lord said to my Lord” (Ps. 109:1); and again: “therefore God, even your God, has anointed you” (Ps. 44:8); and again: “of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God” (Rom. 9:5). And in many other places these names are used one instead of the other. If each of them belonged exclusively to one Person, if the Son were not God, and God as the Father is, but were only the Son, then Paul, having said: “but to us there is one God,” would have uselessly added the word: “the Father,” to denote an unbegotten essence, for it would have been enough to say the word: “God,” if it belonged to Him alone.—Not only this, but something else can be said. God (the Father), you will say, is called ‘one’ (God); consequently, the name God does not belong to the Son. But look, the same is said of the Son; and the Son is called ‘one Lord’; yet we do not say that therefore the name Lord belongs to Him alone. Therefore, whatever significance the word one has in relation to the Son, it has the same in relation to the Father; just as the fact that the Son is called the one Lord does not prevent the Father from being Lord, and being Lord just as the Son is; so the fact that the Father is called the one God does not prevent the Son from being God, and being God just as the Father is.’ These are the words of Theodoret: ‘Here the wisdom of the Apostle is worthy of admiration. For in what was said above, showing that the name ‘God’ is equal in force to the name ‘Lord’ (in the words: “gods many and lords many”), now the Apostle divided these names and assigned one to the Father and the other to the Son, thereby healing the weakness of the Corinthians (that is, leading them to the knowledge of the equality of the Father and the Son). And the Old Testament Scripture shows these names joined together. For it is said: “I am the Lord your God” (Ex. 20:2); and “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4); and: “O Lord my God, you are very great” (Ps. 103:1), and much the like. Therefore, the true God is without doubt also Lord; and the true Lord is without doubt also God. Moreover, there is no other God the Father, for there is one God the Father, and there is no other Lord Jesus Christ, for there is one Lord Jesus Christ.—And the words: ‘and we in him’ mean: to Him we should turn, look toward Him, praise Him unceasingly. But the words: ‘and we through him’ convey not creation, but salvation, because by Him all things were created, but we, believers, obtained by Him salvation.’ But holy Chrysostom relates both expressions: ‘we in him’ and: ‘we through him’ equally to salvation, as he relates ‘of whom are all things’ and ‘by whom are all things’ to creation: ‘By the words: “of whom are all things” he points to creation and the bringing forth from non-being into being; and by the words: “and we in him” he points to faith and our union with Him, as he also says above: “of him are you in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor. 1:30). We are from God in two ways: by our being and by our faith, which is also a kind of creation.—The same must be understood also of Christ, for through Him mankind has been brought both from non-being into being and from error to truth,—which the Apostle expressed in the words: “by whom are all things and we by him”.’

Take Heed Lest Your Liberty Become a Stumbling Block (1 Corinthians 8:7–13)

1 Cor. 8:7. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol to this hour eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

If the preceding words the Apostle spoke from himself, then in concluding them it would be appropriate to put into his mouth such words: this is how one should think about idols, and accordingly about food offered to idols; but not all have yet risen to such conceptions. But if one takes it that he is reading these words from the Corinthians’ letter, then such: you reason well, but not all have such convictions regarding idols—not ‘all have’ such understanding. Others consider idols to be something, and think that the sacrifices offered to them obtain from them a corresponding consecration, so that to eat these sacrifices, in their thinking, means to enter into communion with idols or the powers hidden in them. Before they thought so; and as they had recently still been turned away from idolatry, they had not yet managed to unlearn such convictions regarding idols and food offered to idols. This is what the Apostle called ‘conscience affected by idolatry.’—But of themselves they do not think to touch anything idolatrous. They rejected all of this upon accepting the Christian faith, and with accepting it they received a Christian conscience. This conscience recoils from them touching food offered to idols, because, in their thinking, this means to become a partaker of idolatry. Meanwhile, encountering examples of those strong in reasoning who, looking at food offered to idols as at any other food, pure, eat of it with a quiet conscience, they are led astray by them and eat the same food offered to idols, not having that reasoning which the strong have, holding the thought that to eat food offered to idols means to commune with idolatry, and despite the fact that the Christian conscience recoils from them doing this. Thus they act against their Christian conscience and defile themselves, stain their conscience.—“And conscience, being weak, is defiled.” ‘Eating does not defile, but conscience is defiled, not having received perfect knowledge, and still being held by idolatrous deception’ (Theodoret). ‘Some, he says, have not yet realized that “an idol is nothing in the world,” and therefore continue to fear idols. Do not point me to the present state in which you find yourself, having received piety from your ancestors, but turn your mind back to those times when preaching had only just begun, when impiety still prevailed, when altars smoked, when sacrifices and libations were being made, when there were still very many Gentiles—and imagine what those must have felt who had inherited impiety from their ancestors, descended from such fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, and had only just turned to Christianity—how they must have feared and trembled! These are whom the Apostle has in mind when he says: “conscience affected by idolatry, eating food offered to idols,” that is, with those same thoughts with which they ate before. “And conscience, being weak, is defiled,” because it still cannot count these sacrifices as nothing and despise them utterly, but remains in doubt. As if someone, following the Jewish way of thinking, considering contact with a dead body to be defilement for himself, refrained from it—but then, seeing that others with a clean conscience touch it, began to touch it himself, only not with the same thoughts—so it was then with the Corinthians.—And their conscience was defiled’ (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 8:8. But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.

In the preceding verse the Apostle expressed a general thought, how some can have their conscience defiled if they eat food offered to idols without the proper convictions. It was then proper to make an application and say: there you are, strong in mind, eating food offered to idols and not becoming defiled, because you are convinced that through this you have no communion with idolatry. But your example can lead the weak astray, who do not have such convictions; but not having them, they, in eating food offered to idols, will offend their Christian conscience and defile themselves; and the defilement of conscience is the destruction of the soul. Thus by your wisdom you destroy a brother, and in destroying him you sin against Christ. Therefore, abstain.—But they might have said: what concern is it of ours? Let them clarify their conceptions!—And this would have led to stubbornness and hardening of heart. Preventing this, the Apostle speaks beforehand: eating or not eating—the matter is not great before God. From which it directly follows: therefore, there is nothing to quarrel about. This thought cut off every objection before it was even born and paved the way for the full effect of the Apostle’s corrective exhortations.

Our commentators understand the flow of the Apostle’s speech thus. Holy Chrysostom says: ‘Until now the Apostle has not yet spoken about the essence of the matter, but only drawn attention to the conscience of the one eating, fearing that in correcting the weak, he would not offend the strong and make him weak as well; he spares both. Therefore he says: “meat commendeth us not to God,” preventing them from saying: what is it to us that not all have such knowledge?—And why does such a one lack knowledge?—Why is he weak?—He does not immediately conclude that one must abstain (from these foods) in order not to harm one’s neighbor, but first only pointing this out, he suggests something more important. What is it?—That, although abstinence from these foods might not cause anyone harm and would not scandalize the neighbor, and in such a case one should still abstain, because it is a useless thing. Whoever knows that a certain deed harms another but brings benefit to himself, will not easily abandon it, but more readily abandons it when he is convinced that he himself will not gain any benefit from it either. Therefore he says first: “meat commendeth us not to God.” Do you see how he represents as insignificant that which apparently arises from perfect knowledge?—“For if we eat, are we the better,” that is, do we not deserve the favor of God, as if we had done something good and great; “neither, if we eat not, are we the worse,” that is, we lose nothing. Thus he has proved that eating food offered to idols is superfluous and insignificant, for what brings no benefit when eaten and no harm when not eaten is superfluous.’ By ‘meat’ here is meant precisely food offered to idols. The Apostle’s thought is this: you, boasting of high wisdom and clear understanding of the matter, do not think that you are accomplishing something valuable before the eyes of God when you eat the remains of sacrifices to idols. No addition to your pleasing God, gained through other deeds, comes from this. Do not think either that those who do not eat such foods are diminished thereby in the eyes of God. No, their pleasing God, gained through another path, suffers no harm or loss through this.—From this it is clear how unfounded it is to apply the Apostle’s words to fasts!

1 Cor. 8:9. But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.

Some commentators consider the preceding words about food to be the words of the Corinthians. According to their opinion, the Apostle’s speech proceeds in this order: he took from the letter the words: “we know that an idol is nothing in the world” and so on; and made a remark upon them: this is true, but not all have such understanding. Then again he reads from the Corinthians’ letter: ‘meat, etc.,’ that is, the Corinthians write: idols are nothing, consequently, food offered to them receives from them neither holiness nor sinfulness; it is like any other food. Food in itself does not put us before God: whether you eat, nothing is added in this regard, and whether you do not eat, nothing is diminished. There, we eat.—On this the Apostle now makes a remark: it is true that this is a matter of indifference, but one must see that this does not cause a stumbling-block to the brother. The particle ‘de’ at the beginning, placed in ‘meat de,’ and here repeated: ‘take heed de,’ and especially the words: ‘this liberty of yours,’—stand for this supposition. And the flow of speech comes out more orderly. But there is no need to insist on this. The flow of speech loses nothing even in the understanding set forth above. One can, however, leave this to the choice of one’s will.—Taking the thought set forth before, we continue: The Apostle says as it were: that what you in such an understanding of the matter eat from the remains of sacrifices will not defile you; but this adds nothing to you even in pleasing God—the main thing for you. Meanwhile, see what danger! From such freedom in your relation to sacrificial foods a brother can stumble. And this is no small matter. Therefore, be on your guard!

‘Take heed.’—He did not say: your power serves as a stumbling-block,—he did not express this positively, so that they would not become even more shameless, but how?—‘take heed,’ he says, arousing in them fear, shame, and resolve not to do this. He did not say: your understanding or your perfection, which would mean more praise, but: ‘power,’ by which he expressed more their shamelessness, audacity, and pride. He did not say: to the brothers, but: ‘to the weak’—from the brothers, increasing their guilt by the fact that they do not spare even the weak, and moreover brothers. You do not correct and do not lift up the brother—so be it; but why do you put an obstacle before him and bring him to fall, when you should extend a helping hand? You do not want to help him; at least do not hurl him down. If he is vicious, he has need of correction; and if he is weak, he needs healing’ (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 8:10. For if any man see you which have knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols?

He explains how the stumbling-block can occur.—A brother will see, he says, you in the temple—you, whom he knows as a man of great learning, honored by all, whose word and deed always carry weight among the brothers—and will be led astray by your example to also sit at the table of food offered to idols, while in his conscience he considers this deed not sinless for a Christian. Acting thus, he will offend his conscience and sin before God, for one must never act against conscience. This is how the stumbling and fall of the weak brother can be accomplished!—‘And this scandal arises not only from his weakness, but also from your lack of wisdom; you make him even weaker’ (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 8:11. And through your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died.

‘And perish’; for, acting against conscience, he sins; and perhaps moreover, having become a partaker of the demonic meal, he will fall away entirely from the faith and again turn to idolatry. He fell—he has perished, until he repents; and fell away—he has perished altogether. And the reason—your wisdom; you view things wisely, but act unwisely in your wise views. And the brother has perished—the brother for whom Christ died. A striking reminder! He has already received the cleansing and sanctifying action of Christ’s death: drops of the Lord’s blood are upon him for his salvation. And you hurl him back into former uncleanness and together with him trample this life-giving, priceless blood. Does this not terrify you?! ‘The harm you inflict is unforgivable for two reasons: because your neighbor is weak, and because he is your brother; but there is yet a third reason, the most terrible. What is it?—That Christ did not refuse to die for him, but you do not wish even to show him forbearance. He does not say: for whom it was proper for you to die, but far more powerfully: “for whom Christ died.” Your Master did not refuse to die for him, but you pay no attention to him, do not wish to abstain from an unclean table even for him, but allow him to perish after salvation has thus been accomplished for him, and, what is most grievous, all because of food!’ (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 8:12. Thus also those who sin against the brethren and strike their conscience when it is weak, sin against Christ.

Those who act this way sin “against the brethren,” that is, against the brethren. They received the gift of understanding and knowledge in order to build up the brethren, but acting without wisdom, they destroy them. They strike the conscience—a merciless deed! As we sometimes say: you strike me to the heart. They strike the conscience not only by leading into temptation, but by turning them away from the path and plunging them into deeds contrary to conscience. Their conscience is struck through you; and being struck, it strikes them: they suffer.—“They sin against Christ,” that is, against Christ, and all the more because the Lord commanded: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones”, the least of those “who believe in me” (Matt. 18:10), yet they pay no attention to this; and especially because they lead a brother into sin. “Do you see how gradually and little by little he has proved that their guilt is the gravest transgression? They sin against Christ: first, because what concerns his servants he ascribes to himself; second, those who are struck down constitute his body and his members; third, those who strike the conscience of the weak, through their pride, destroy the work which he accomplished through his death” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 8:13. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will not eat meat forever, so that I may not cause my brother to stumble.

The Apostle says: judging by such destructiveness of causing offense, here are the resolutions I have—that if food causes my brother to stumble, I will not eat it forever, so as not to cause my brother to stumble. He sets forth his own will, decisions, rules, and dispositions; but his intent is to give the Corinthians a lesson in how exactly they ought to act. He presents his own example so that they will be more readily inclined to act likewise. “He conducts himself as an excellent teacher, showing in himself an example of what he teaches. He does not say: whether this is just or unjust, but however it may be. I say nothing more, as if he were urging, about the offerings to idols, which are forbidden for another reason as well; but if something causes my brother to stumble, something that depends on my power and is permitted, I will abstain from it, not for one or two days, but for the whole of my life.—‘I will not eat meat forever’. He did not say further: so that I may not destroy him, but even only: ‘so that I may not cause my brother to stumble’. Truly, it is extremely foolish to regard those about whom Christ is so concerned that he was pleased to die for them as so contemptible that we should not even refrain from food for their sake. This concerns not only the Corinthians, but, we may say, us as well, who neglect the salvation of our neighbors and utter such satanic words. For to say: what is it to me if such a one is caused to stumble and such a one perishes?—this is truly satanic cruelty and inhumanity.—At that time offense arose at least from the weakness of those who were offended, but with us it is not so; we commit such sins that they cause offense even to the strong” (St. Chrysostom).

Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

The Apostle has proved that unwise use of freedom regarding the eating of food offered to idols is offensive to the weak and therefore must be avoided. Now he approaches them to persuade them to act thus. His persuasion draws from his own example. Look, as if he says, how I act: I have the right to live from the support of the faithful whom I have converted, but I do not do this, so as not to give reason to think I preach from mercenary motives and thereby turn away the weak from the Gospel. I myself work, I endure hunger and need, and I do not burden anyone with myself. Act so too. You see that your way of acting is offensive; change it. For you this requires no sacrifice; not so as for me.—The ninth chapter is devoted to the explanation of this. It appears to be a digression, but one should not regard it in that way.

Here are the words of St. Chrysostom on this: “The Apostle has not yet done what is expressed in the words: ‘if food causes my brother to stumble, I will not eat meat forever’, but only explained his readiness to do this if the need should require. Therefore, so that no one should say: you only boast, you show wisdom in words and make promises—which is easy for me and for everyone else—if you speak from the soul, then show it in deed, from what have you abstained so as not to offend a brother—he finds it necessary to explain this and show how he refrained even from what is permitted, so that he might not offend anyone, whereas no law compels him to do so. It is not only remarkable—though this itself is remarkable—that he refrained from what is permitted merely so as not to offend, but also that he refrained with great difficulty and amid dangers. Christ, he says, commanded the preachers of the Gospel to receive support from those whom they teach, but I did not even do this, and I resolved, should the need arise, to torment myself with hunger and subject myself to the most terrible death, only so as not to take anything from those whom I teach. And he makes as witnesses of this those very people with whom he worked, endured hunger, received his sustenance from others, and found himself in a constrained situation, so as not to offend them, though they would vainly have been offended, because it would have been a lawful matter; so much did he spare them! If, then, he himself acted above the law so as not to give cause for offense, and refrained from what is permitted for the instruction of others, what are they worthy of, not refraining from the offerings to idols, when many perish from that, and moreover, when even without offense one ought to refrain, because this is a table of demons. This is the chief content of the following verses (that is, of the ninth chapter). But the Apostle did not express his thought all at once, but began from afar.”

This beginning from afar consists in this, that, having to deal with the learned, St. Paul thought it necessary to prove to them comprehensively that he, as an Apostle, indeed had the right to receive support from the faithful whom he had converted. And thus arose the following course of thought: aa) I am an Apostle (1 Cor. 9:1–3); bb) as an Apostle, I could have used support from the faithful (1 Cor. 9:4–14); cc) but I did not use this right (1 Cor. 9:15–18); dd) and not only did I not use this, but I also renounced many other things for the benefit of those whom I was converting (1 Cor. 9:19–23).—The last verses (1 Cor. 9:24–27) contain ee) the application of what has been expounded.

1 Cor. 9:1–2. Am I not an Apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If to others I am not an Apostle, yet I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

“Am I not an Apostle?” Questions follow one after another—and with movement, perhaps intentionally, to arouse attention. To this as well led the unexpectedness of the questions themselves, for at first glance it is not evident where they lead.—His purpose is to restore in the minds of the Corinthians the thought that he is a true Apostle. “Am I not an Apostle?” Am I not a true Apostle, receiving appointment from on high? (Theodoret). It was not I who began the work of preaching on my own, nor was I sent by any other man. I was appointed by the Lord himself to this ministry, as were all the other Apostles. Therefore “am I not free?” Do I not have the authority to act fully in the capacity of an Apostle, as all the others do? “I am not under the dominion of another and do not hold the rank of a disciple, but the whole universe is entrusted to me” (Theodoret). “Do I not have power over myself?—Does anyone have the power to stop me or forbid me?” (St. Chrysostom).—“Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?” “Forasmuch as St. Paul was called after the ascension of the Savior, and the Apostles were held in great glory by all because they were deemed worthy to behold the Lord himself, therefore of necessity he added this too” (Theodoret), so that no one could think that he was in any way inferior to the others in apostleship. What others have, I have the same. They saw the Lord, and I saw him too. He himself appeared to me (1 Cor. 5:8), and he himself sent me to preach to all nations.

By this series of questions he has restored the thought that he is a true Apostle. Now for his purpose he must make them remember how he apostolized among them. Hence the question: “Are you not my work in the Lord?”—“Not my work,” that is, apostolic work, not the work of my apostleship—you?—He means your conversion to faith and the establishment of the Church from among you, in its full composition. “In the Lord,” or by the help of the Lord, or to the glory of the Lord, or the Lord’s work,—making you ready for salvation in the Lord. This was supposed to bring to their remembrance all—how St. Paul came to them and how he acted during the course of a year and a half, and how he conducted himself among them.—“If to others I am not an Apostle, yet I am to you.” Others, who have not seen me, may still doubt whether I am an Apostle, but for you this ought to be evident. You have touched in me the apostolic power. “The Apostle expressed this briefly, but said much in few words—of labors in the teaching of doctrine, of struggles and all manner of sufferings for it and of the wonderful workings of grace, of which the Corinthians were true witnesses, as eyewitnesses” (Theodoret).—“For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.”—“The seal, that is, the proof. Whoever wishes to be convinced, he says, of my apostleship, I point him to you. For all that is proper to an Apostle I have done among you and have left nothing undone. Among you I showed both signs, and taught by word, and subjected myself to dangers, and lived an exemplary life. In the second epistle he testifies more fully of this: ‘The signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. For what is there in which you were deprived more than the other churches?’ (2 Cor. 12:12–13)” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 9:3. This is my answer to those who examine me.

And this is my answer to those who would object against my apostleship and dispute. What I have said should convince everyone that I am a true Apostle. “For those who wish to know why I am an Apostle, or strive to prove that I am not an Apostle, your conversion serves as proof and justification for me” (St. Chrysostom).

The Apostle brings convictions of this by various arguments. The first argument he takes from the example of the other Apostles, 1 Cor. 9:4–6.

1 Cor. 9:4–6. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other Apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who do not have the right to refrain from working?

“Do we not have the right to eat and drink?”—“Yet, notwithstanding that I have the right, I refrain from it. Did he not eat, not drink? Indeed, he often did not eat, did not drink. ‘In hunger’, he says, ‘and thirst… and we were naked’ (2 Cor. 11:27). But what does he mean here?—We do not eat and drink at the expense of the disciples, though we have the right to take from them” (St. Chrysostom). “The Apostle means: ‘to eat and drink’ from the Gospel. He intends to show thereby that, having the right, by the Lord’s law, to receive necessary food from his disciples, he continued to work and by his labor to earn his necessary sustenance, for the benefit of his disciples” (Theodoret).

“Do we not have the right to take along a believing woman?” By “sister woman” one cannot understand a wife; in that case it would have been sufficient to say: “a woman.” By adding “sister,” the Apostle made it known that he does not mean a wife here, but a woman from among the faithful. And in this case it would have been enough to say—“a sister”; but so that no one would think this is a sister by blood, he added “woman.” And the Greek word γυνη means properly a woman, not a wife. Who then is such a “sister woman”?—“As faithful women followed the Lord, providing the necessary food for the disciples (Lk. 8:3), so also some women followed certain Apostles, who showed themselves to have fervent faith, were devoted to their teaching, and assisted in the divine preaching” (Theodoret). These are women respectable both in position and in age. “Wealthy women from among the believers followed some of the Apostles, providing them with the necessities of life, so that, being free from care about this, they might devote themselves entirely to preaching” (Oecumenius).

“As do the other Apostles.” By no means were all the Apostles married—perhaps two or three. The rest were unmarried; and those, when they went out to preach, or even when they were still called by the Lord, left all marriage and domestic matters, as the Apostle Peter testified before the Lord: “Behold, we have left all things.” The word: “take along” is to be understood in this sense: they permitted to go behind them, they did not forbid them to provide for themselves. From the perspective of an onlooker looking at them, one could indeed think and say that they take them along with themselves.

“And the brothers of the Lord”—this refers either to the children of Joseph from his first wife, or to cousins. The Evangelist John spoke of them, that they did not yet believe in the Lord when he was on earth, which is to be understood thus: they did not yet fully believe, and not all, but some. Later they all believed and zealously devoted themselves to the work of preaching the Gospel.

“Cephas”—the Apostle Peter. “Do you see the wisdom of St. Paul? The chief Apostle he places last; the strongest proof he places at the end, for pointing to others who do this would not be so striking as pointing to the first Apostle. However, he does not point to him alone, but to all, and speaks as if thus: whether you look at the lesser or at the greater, all serve as an example. The brothers of the Lord, having abandoned their former unbelief, were also renowned, though they were equal to the Apostles (out of the 12); therefore he places them in the middle, putting the chief ones before and after them” (St. Chrysostom).

“Or is it only Barnabas and I who do not have the right to refrain from working?”—“To refrain from working,”—that is, not to earn one’s livelihood by the labor of one’s hands. He speaks as if thus: “The Lord allowed all who preach the Gospel ‘to live from the Gospel’; and are we alone deprived of this right?” (Theodoret). “If all else is common with them, why should this not be common also? Both they and we are Apostles, and free, and have seen Christ, and have done what befits Apostles: therefore we too have the right to live without labor and to receive support from the disciples” (St. Chrysostom).—Why is Barnabas mentioned, when Silas and Timothy were with St. Paul in Corinth?—Probably the Corinthians knew that St. Barnabas, even after separating from St. Paul, acted similarly to him regarding the matter of supporting himself. St. Chrysostom remarks only this: “Do you see how humble and pure of all envy is the soul of St. Paul, how he does not pass over in silence those who shared in his labors?”

The Apostle takes the second argument from “the customs of life” (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 9:7. Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?

“Having brought the strongest proof—the example of the Apostles—that one can do this (live by labor not of the hands), he now turns to comparisons and accepted customs and says: ‘Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense?’ See how fitting are the comparisons he brings to the present subject, and how he mentions first a matter joined with dangers—military service, arms, and war. Such also is apostleship, and even much more difficult. For the Apostles had warfare not only with men, but with demons and with their commander. The meaning of his words is as follows: if even external (pagan) rulers, cruel and unjust, do not require from soldiers that they go to war and subject themselves to dangers, while at the same time supporting themselves; is it possible that Christ required this (of the Apostles)? He is not satisfied with one comparison—for a simple crude man is more easily convinced when he sees that God’s commandments accord with accepted customs; but he brings another and says: ‘Who plants a vineyard without eating its fruit?’ By the first he expressed dangers, and by the second—labor, zeal, and diligence. Then he adds a third comparison: ‘who,’ he says, ‘tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?’ By this he means the great solicitude which it is proper for a teacher to have toward his disciples. The Apostles were both soldiers, and farmers, and shepherds, having to do not with earth, not with dumb animals, not with sensible enemies, but with rational souls and with demonic forces. Note how the Apostle everywhere observes proportion, striving to say only what is useful, and not what is superfluous. He did not say: which soldier serves and does not become rich? but: ‘Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense?’ He did not say: ‘Who, having planted a vineyard,’ does not derive gold, or does not gather all the fruit? but: ‘without eating its fruit?’ He did not say: who, tending a flock, does not sell the lambs? But how?—‘Does not drink of the milk of the flock?’ Not from the lambs, but ‘from the milk’; expressing that the teacher should be satisfied with a small comfort and with only necessary food. And by such comparisons the Apostle teaches not only this, but also shows what kind the priest ought to be. He must have the courage of a soldier, the industriousness of a farmer, and the solicitude of a shepherd—and with all this, desire nothing but what is necessary” (St. Chrysostom).

The Apostle takes the third argument from the typical significance of the ordinance of the Mosaic law concerning not muzzling the ox that treads the grain 9–10. “Having proved both by the example of the Apostles and by comparisons from ordinary life that a teacher is not forbidden to take support, St. Paul proceeds to the third proof, and says” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 9:8. Am I saying this only on human authority? Does not the Law also say this?

“Until now he had brought nothing from the Scriptures, but referred to accepted customs; therefore do not think, he says, that I base myself on this alone and ground the commandment upon human opinion; I can prove that this is pleasing to God and cite the ancient law, which commands the same. Here he continues his discourse in the form of a question, as happens in a discussion of something well known, and says: ‘Am I saying this only on human authority?’ That is, am I basing myself only on human customs? ‘Does not the Law also say this?’ (St. Chrysostom).”

1 Cor. 9:9. For in the Law of Moses it is written: You shall not muzzle an ox that treads the grain. Is it for oxen that God cares? (Deut. 25:4).

In the East they thresh with oxen. They spread wheat or barley in sheaves loosened on the threshing floor and drive oxen over them, a pair, two, or three. They with their feet will tread everything into small particles. Then they winnow, and get the grain. The law forbade muzzling the mouths of these threshing oxen. This can be applied also to all who labor. St. Paul applies this to the Apostles, laboring in preaching, giving the thought that if the disciples did not support the Apostles, it would be like a cruel master muzzling the mouths of threshing oxen, which the law forbids. The legitimacy of this application is based on the fact that the old law in all its parts prefigured spiritual matters that were to appear in the kingdom of grace of Christ. All ordinances are exactly such that in them spiritual life is pictured forth clearly, as in a mirror. St. Chrysostom says regarding this: “Why does the Apostle mention this (not muzzling the mouths of threshing oxen), when he has the example of the Jewish priests? So that he might prove his thought more strongly. Then, so that no one might object, what does it matter to us what is said about oxen, he explains this thoroughly and says: ‘Is it for oxen that God cares?’ Does God not care for oxen? He does care, but not so much that he would make a special law about them (it must be understood: about them alone,—without application). If God did not have something more important in mind, if he did not wish by the example of dumb creatures to teach the Jews kindness of heart and at the same time remind them of teachers, he would not show such care for oxen as to prescribe a law about not muzzling their mouths. (In prescribing the latter, he had the former in view.) From this we see how great is and ought to be the labor of the teacher, and something more. What is it then?—That what is said in the Old Testament regarding care for animals principally relates to the instruction of men, as does all else, for instance, what is said about various garments, about vineyards, about seeds, about not sowing the land with various kinds of seeds, about leprosy, and, we may say, about everything else. Since the hearers were crude people, he speaks to them in such a way as to lead them to understanding little by little. However, the Apostle does not prove what is clear and evident in itself. For having said: ‘Is it for oxen that God cares?’, he continues:”

1 Cor. 9:10. Or does he not say this entirely for our sake? For our sake it has been written: that the one who plows should plow in hope, and the one who threshes in hope should share in the fruits of his labor.

Or, he says, does the law speak of us under the image of oxen? Or “does he not say this entirely for our sake?”—“Entirely” is inserted so that in the question the answer is already indicated, decisively affirmative, not admitting any objections (St. Chrysostom). Then he adds anyway: yes, this is written about us—there is no doubt that it is about us. What then is written?—Not what follows: “that the one who plows should plow” etc., but what was said before: “You shall not muzzle an ox that treads the grain.” Here, after “written,” the typical interpretation of that law is applied, only again not in simple words, but by metaphor (St. Chrysostom). Instead of saying: yes, this is written about us, in the thought that we cultivate your souls and sow in them the seeds of truth, and then direct you in every way so that you may bring forth fruit, being unconcerned about our support—just as one who cultivates the land cultivates it in hope that it will give him fruit, and one who threshes threshes in full assurance that he will eat bread—instead of so fully describing his thought, the Apostle takes one last comparison and sets it forth, giving the readers themselves to understand that by these images he means the preachers of the word. “By the words: ‘the one who threshes in hope should share’, the Apostle said the same thing as: the teacher must receive compensation for his labors” (St. Chrysostom). By placing in the word both “plowing”—the beginning of the work, and “threshing,” nearly the end of it—he showed the continuousness of the Apostles’ labor over the faithful, that is, that they do not act such that they sow the word and thereby do everything. No; but they continue to watch over them and labor so as to beat out everything good from them and winnow away from them everything bad. “From sowing he passes to threshing and thus shows how great are the labors of teachers, who both plow and thresh” (St. Chrysostom). The last words: “and one who threshes,” etc., can be read thus: and one who threshes threshes in hope of sharing in the fruits, that is, what he looked for from the time he began to plow and sow; the work approaches its end, the time is near when he will taste the fruit of his labors. “Thus, the law about not muzzling the mouth of an ox threshing the grain means nothing else than that laboring teachers should receive compensation” (St. Chrysostom).

“And here is the fourth proof that it is necessary to provide livelihood for teachers” (St. Chrysostom). An argument from the nature of preaching itself.

1 Cor. 9:11. If we sowed spiritual things to you, is it a great thing if we reap material things from you?

“The Apostle brings a new and most substantial reason why they have the right to take—namely, that they not only labor, but also provide the disciples with something far more important” (St. Chrysostom). We, he says, sow spiritual things; is it a great thing if we reap material things. “Having given something far greater, do we err if we take something far smaller?” (Theodoret). “Do you see the reason, most just and most substantial compared to the former? There, he says, material seeds, material fruit also; but here it is not so, but spiritual seed and material recompense. So that those who provide something to teachers should not think much of themselves, he shows that they receive more than they give. Farmers reap what they sow; but we sow spiritual things in your souls, and we reap material things, for such is the food provided to us” (St. Chrysostom). Those who taste the spiritual blessings of faith are naturally ready themselves to give everything to those who brought them into the participation of these blessings. For the faith of Christ is not mere theory, but the work of the renewal of the soul, which is immediately felt. He who has felt it understands that he has been deemed worthy of a blessing beyond price on earth. How will not such a one be ready to share everything with his enlightener?!

All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20)

1 Cor. 9:12. If others participate in this right over you, do we not much more? But we have not used this right. Rather, we bear all things so that we may not place any obstacle to the Gospel of Christ.

He strengthens the significance of the previous argument for the Corinthians by reminding them of what they do for others, or how among them certain ones use such a right to take from them or exact from them. He wishes to say that if we had wanted to use our right among you, you could not object to this not merely on the basis of the matter itself, but also because you do this for certain ones. Who are these certain ones? The Apostle does not determine them by anything; but whoever they are, no one could provide more than what the Apostles provide. If even these certain ones provided nothing bad, and then the Apostle could have said: “do we not much more?” If, on the other hand, these were some kind of troublemakers, then this exceeds all measure. St. Chrysostom understands here false teachers of some kind, concerning whom in the second epistle St. Paul wrote: they devour you, they take from you, they boast, they strike you in the face (2 Cor. 11:20). However, it is not necessary to determine strictly who these certain ones are. For the strength is not in their quality, but in the fact that they enjoyed support and certain advantages from the Corinthians, while they could not in any way be compared to the Apostles. The words: “this right over you,” mean: authority over you, or over your things, or the right to your things; “participate in”—make use of. “Right”—authority, as above: “Or do we not have the right to take along a believing woman, or not to refrain from working?” St. Chrysostom sees in this an indication of the boldness, violence, and covetousness of those who used the authority. “They rule over you, show authority over you, treat you as slaves, not only take from you, but with great insistence and boldness. Evidently, he hints at some harmful people and deceivers. But be that as it may, from this circumstance it follows plainly: you yourselves have established and have as a rule to provide livelihood. Do we not much more? Would you not much more provide it to us if we wished it?”

“But we have not used this right.” “That is, we have not taken. See, after so many proofs that it is not unlawful for them to take, he finally said to them: we do not take, so they would not think that he abstains from it as from something forbidden. Not because it is forbidden, I do not take, he says; this is permitted, as I have proved by many arguments: by the example of the Apostles, by examples from life, such as: the soldier, the farmer, the shepherd, by the Mosaic law, by the very nature of the work—because ‘we sow spiritual things to you’, and finally by the fact that you yourselves do this in relation to others. It is permitted; but we ‘have not used this right’, of our own will we refrained from it, not as from something forbidden. Later he expressed this more clearly in the words: ‘I have not written this so that it may be done for me’ (1 Cor. 9:15); but here he says: ‘we have not used this right’. And moreover, what is even more important, no one can say that we did not use it because we lived in abundance; no, being in need, we did not yield to need. The same he says in the second epistle: ‘And having come to you, and being in want, I did not burden anyone’ (2 Cor. 11:8); also in the present epistle: ‘We hunger and thirst and we are naked and we are beaten’ (1 Cor. 4:11). And here again he hints at the same with the words: ‘we bear all things’. For the expression bear all things means both hunger, and need, and all other misfortunes. Yet all this, he says, did not force us to violate the law which we ourselves had established for ourselves. Why?—‘So that we may not place any obstacle’ (εγκοπην — obstruction) ‘to the Gospel of Christ’. The Corinthians were weak; therefore, he says, so as not to offend you by receiving compensation from you, we resolved rather to do more than what is commanded, than to place any hindrance to the Gospel, that is, to the teaching of you. He did not say: destruction, but: “an obstacle” (obstruction, hindrance), and not simply an obstacle, but “an obstacle”—that is, so as not to cause the least delay and stoppage in the spreading of the word” (St. Chrysostom).

The fifth argument from the ordinance of the Old Testament priesthood — 1 Cor. 9:13.

1 Cor. 9:13. Do you not know that those who perform the sacred services eat what is from the sanctuary, and those who serve at the altar share in the altar?

“Very carefully the Apostle strives to prove that it is not forbidden to take (support from those taught). Having said much about this before, he is not satisfied with that, but again turns to the law and presents from it an example closer than the former. For it is not the same thing to present oxen as an example or to bring a clear law about priests” (St. Chrysostom).

“Those who perform the sacred services, those who serve at the altar.” By this the Apostle means either indiscriminately all who served in the temple, Levites, priests, and high priests, or by “those who perform the sacred services” he means high priests and priests, and by “those who serve at the altar” Levites (St. Chrysostom). The words: “eat what is from the sanctuary, share in the altar,”—mean that the priesthood then subsisted on the support of the sanctuary and altar. Whatever was brought as a sacrifice, all was brought to the sanctuary and altar; and the sanctuary and altar distributed from it to those who served. Not everything brought in sacrifice was put on the altar, only a part of it. These parts, which remained from the sacrifices, the Lord commanded to be divided among those who served. By these they were supported. The Apostle wishes to urge: if it is thus in the old law, which was a shadow of the new, do we not much more see that it should be thus in the new? But he also makes this application directly, deriving from the Lord a particular ordinance about this.

The sixth argument from an explicit commandment of the Lord — 1 Cor. 9:14.

1 Cor. 9:14. Thus the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Gospel should live from the Gospel.

When did the Lord ordain this?—When, sending the Apostles out to preach, he commanded them to take nothing with them, neither extra clothes, nor food, nor money, but where they were received, there to live on their support, saying: “Remain in that house, eating and drinking what they have; for the laborer deserves his wages” (Lk. 10:7; Matt. 10:10). “So that no one might say: why do you remind us of the Old Testament? Do you not know that now is the time of more perfect commandments?—The Apostle presents what is most important: ‘Thus the Lord ordained.’ And here he does not say: to be fed by men, but, just as concerning the priests he said: ‘from the sanctuary and altar,’ so here: ‘from the Gospel’; and as there: ‘eat,’ so here: ‘live,’ and not to make a profit or become rich” (St. Chrysostom). “‘To live,’ means to receive the necessary livelihood” (Theodoret). When the Lord himself sent the Apostles out to preach, he both inspired those who received them to do so, and to support them. And also later, when they went throughout the world, he both disposed people to hear their preaching and inspired them not to let them die of hunger. It came about that the Apostles were maintained by the Lord himself. Men were only instruments. And in the Old Testament the Lord ordained that those who brought the sacrifices not take the remains of the sacrifices, but leave them to the sanctuary, and from the sanctuary the servants took them, receiving support from the house of God, as if from the hands of the Lord himself. This for the Apostles was provided by the Gospel.

Thus the holy Apostle has made clear on all sides for the Corinthian learning that there ought not be even the slightest doubt that he, as an Apostle, had the right to be supported by the Corinthians.

1 Cor. 9:15. But I have used none of these rights. And I write this not so that it may be done for me; for it would be better for me to die than to have anyone deprive me of my ground for glorying.

Now for you, he says, it is evident that I could have used support from you; but I voluntarily have used nothing from you, I have not presented any claim to you, to which the apostolic labors among you would have authorized me. “He says this not once and not twice, but several times. Above he said: ‘we have not used this right’; later he will say: ‘not to use my authority’ (1 Cor. 9:18) and here: ‘I have used none of these rights’.—What does it mean: ‘none of these’?—I have not used so many examples. Much gave me the right: examples of the soldier, farmer, shepherd and Apostles, ordinances of the law, our conduct toward you and yours toward others, the example of priests, the commandment of Christ—and yet nothing forced me to violate my law and take from you” (St. Chrysostom).

“And I write this not so that it may be done for me.” I have written this to you now not with the intention that from now on you provide me with everything needful. Let no one think thus: “If hitherto you have not done this, do you not then wish to do so in the future?—No, he says, in the future the same will be. I would rather die of hunger than be deprived of such crowns: ‘it would be better for me to die than to have anyone deprive me of my ground for glorying.’—He did not say: so that no one might violate my law, but: my glory. So that no one might say that although he acts this way (in itself), yet not with joy, but with sighing and sorrow, he calls this glory, wishing to show with how great joy and with how great zeal he acts thus. For he was so far from sorrow that he even glories and resolves rather to die than to lose this glory. It was more pleasing to him than life itself!” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 9:16. For if I preach the Gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting; for an obligation is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!

If I preach the Gospel, I do not deserve special glory thereby, “for an obligation is laid upon me.” It is my duty. “I do this as a servant, serving the master; no servant thinks highly of himself when he merely fulfills what the master has commanded” (Theodoret). “‘An obligation is laid upon me’—this is not to be understood as if he were doing this against his will—far from it—but thus, that upon him lies a duty, and in contrast with freedom—to take or not to take (I must preach, whether I wish or not—it is my duty; but to preach at my own expense is a matter of freedom—when I wish, then I do so; there is room for glory for the free choice of what is not even commanded). Therefore Christ also said to the disciples: ‘When you have done all that is commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants; we have done only what we ought to have done’ (Lk. 17:10)” (St. Chrysostom).—So, if I preach the Gospel, there is nothing for which to praise, on the contrary, if ‘I do not preach the Gospel, woe to me.’ ‘Because to resist the Master is an act worthy of punishment’ (Theodoret). ‘A miserable end awaits me. Consciousness of this inspires fear; fear compels me to preach. This is why I say that ‘an obligation is laid upon me’ (Theophylact).

1 Cor. 9:17. For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a stewardship.

“Not of my own will,” corresponding to “an obligation is laid upon me,” means—from duty, because it is commanded, while “of my own will” means beyond duty, by free choice I add something of myself to the work of preaching, beyond what is commanded—for preachers of the Gospel to live from the Gospel. “The words: ‘of my own will’ and ‘not of my own will’ the Apostle uses in the sense: commanded and not commanded” (St. Chrysostom). So, he says, if I do this, that is, preach of my own will, not because a duty lies upon me, but because I myself desired it and chose it; then I have a reward,—“reward,” that is, glory, in the course of the discourse,—there is something for which to give me something special. But indeed, this cannot be said of me. And how would I myself have dared to undertake such a matter? So, I have been entrusted with this work, upon me has been laid the duty of preaching, not of my own will do I do this. If not of my own will, then, laboring in preaching, I do nothing special,—“I am entrusted with a stewardship,” I fulfill what has been entrusted to me (Theophylact).

“He did not say: ‘if not of my own will,’ then I have no reward; but ‘I am entrusted with a stewardship,’ expressing that even in this case there is a reward, but such as one receives who has fulfilled a command, and not such as one receives who has shown his own zeal and done more than commanded” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 9:18. What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the Gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the Gospel.

“What do you say to me? Tell me. If you preach the Gospel, there is no glory for you; but if you preach the Gospel without compensation, then there is?—So is the latter more important than the former?—Not at all; but in a certain different respect the latter has the advantage, namely in this, that the former is a command, and the latter a work of my will. For what is done beyond command deserves great reward; but what is done by command, is not thus. In this respect the latter is more than the former, and not in the very essence of the matter. For what can be compared to preaching? It makes preachers like the Angels. And yet, since it is for them an obligation and a duty, and preaching without compensation is a work of voluntary zeal, in this respect the latter is more than the former” (St. Chrysostom).

The reward is that I preach the Gospel without compensation. I preach the Gospel of Christ, or about Christ, I fulfill my duty; but in doing so I do not use the right belonging to me,—I do not “make full use of my right,” the right given by the Lord to me as an Apostle, “in the Gospel,” that right, that in the Gospel preachers should live from the Gospel. “Do you see how he uses the word ‘right’ everywhere, so as to show that even those who take (support) do not deserve blame” (St. Chrysostom).

Blessed Theodoret applies what is said in this section to the chief subject of the chapter thus: I sacrifice my right so as not to hinder the Gospel; do you also renounce the right of your knowledge and do not eat food offered to idols, so as not to cause your brother to stumble, for whom Christ died, and not plunge again into destruction him whom my preaching had saved. “The Master gave me the right, the Apostle says, to receive necessary sustenance from my disciples, but I do not use this right, but labor, working myself, so as to reap the fruit of this labor. On all this the Apostle expanded, trying to force the Corinthians, who made bad use of knowledge, fearlessly ate food offered to idols, and thereby gave the weak cause to suffer harm,—to renounce their bad right. For this reason he showed that, having received the right both from the law and from God of all things, and seeing that the Apostles use this right, and seeing its foundation in the very nature of the matter, he paid no heed to any of this, having in view only the success of preaching and the benefit of the hearers.”

1 Cor. 9:19. For though I am free from all, I have enslaved myself to all, so that I might win the more.

“Free,” he says, “from all”—not of things, but of people—and “I have made myself a slave to everyone,” not to things, but to people. For the discourse concerns persons throughout. And this enslavement consisted in his subjecting his own disposition, his own customs and desires to the dispositions of others in order that, by drawing near to them in this way, he might find access to their hearts, and by laying there the seed of the word, might win them for the Lord. Saint Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle presents yet another excellence. And not to accept—that is a great thing; but what he wishes to say is far more important. What is it then? I not only, he says, did not accept, and not only did not use my right, but I even subjected myself to slavery, and to slavery diverse and comprehensive, for not in money alone, but, what is far more important than money, in many and varied matters did I act in just the same way; I enslaved myself, when I was not subject to anyone and had no necessity, for this is what the expression means: ‘free from all’—and I enslaved myself not to one person alone, but to the whole world, therefore he adds: ‘I have made myself a slave to everyone.’ To preach and announce what was entrusted to me I was obliged, but to devise and invent thousands of ways to do so—this depended on my zeal: I was obliged to deliver the silver, but I employed all measures besides to demand it back, fulfilling more than what was commanded. For he did all things through zeal, diligence, and love toward Christ, and had an insatiable desire for the salvation of mankind, therefore from the excess of his zeal he transgressed the bounds and in all things stretched beyond the very heavens. Having spoken of his enslavement, he now speaks of its various kinds. What are they then?”

1 Cor. 9:20. To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those under the Law, as under the Law, that I might win those under the Law.

All the Jewish ordinances, prescribed by the Law to the Jews, through faith in the Lord lose their binding force and pass into the category of things indifferent, which one may use freely, depending on circumstances, having in view one thing alone—what pleases God. Thus acted also Saint Paul for the sake of the Gospel’s success. When he was among Jews, he acted in all outward matters as a Jew, not attributing in his conscience any religious meaning for himself to anything he did. If he had appeared among them, standing apart from them in things of no moral value and yet loved by the Jews, he would have pushed them away from himself and thereby closed the door of his word to their ears. The Gospel would thereby lose followers. Therefore, he says, “To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews.” Where and when? Everywhere and always he was such, in Jerusalem and in other places, when he moved among the Jews. Such instances relate, for example, to the circumcision of Timothy in Lykaonia, attending the synagogues on Sabbaths, as in Philippi, and listening there to the Law and prayers, and other similar things. Saint Chrysostom says: “How was this? He circumcised in order to abolish circumcision. Therefore he did not say: I was a Jew, but ‘as a Jew,’ for this was with deliberate purpose. What are you saying? A preacher of the world, who ascended to the very heavens and sowed with such grace, could he suddenly descend so low? Yes; for this too is an ascent. Look not only at the fact that he descends, but also at how, descending, he restores the one lying below and raises him up with himself.”

“To those under the Law, as under the Law, that I might win those under the Law.” These words can be taken as a repetition of the preceding. There he pointed to a Jew in general, but here he specified more particularly how he looked upon him—namely, from the aspect of his zeal for the Law. Or here he means other people who have bent themselves under the Law besides Jews—that is, full proselytes and partly incomplete ones, or those of the believers in the Lord who, along with faith in Him, regarded it as necessary to keep the Law entirely and did keep it. And such people needed to be won, for they were far from Christ in spirit. There is no great need to seek precision in the meaning of these words, for the power of the discourse does not lie in them. Saint Chrysostom says: “These words are either an explanation of what was said before, or they mean something else. By Jews he calls those who were such from antiquity and from the very beginning (by race and blood), and by those under the Law—proselytes, or those who accepted faith but still held to the Law, for they were not Jews but were under the Law. When then was the Apostle under the Law (with respect to these)? When he cut his hair short, when he offered sacrifice. (The Apostle James advised Saint Paul to do something according to Jewish Law for the sake of believers who were zealous about the Law. (Acts 21:18–26). He did this not because he changed his way of thinking—that would be a corrupt deed—but out of love and condescension toward others, so as to turn actual Jews; he himself was ‘as a Jew,’ not in reality but only in appearance, not truly being such but only acting so without genuine disposition. For how could he sincerely do this, when he strove to turn others also, when he did everything to free them also from such degradation?”

Running to Obtain the Prize; Buffeting the Body (1 Corinthians 9:21–27)

1 Cor. 9:21. To those without the Law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under the law toward Christ), that I might win those without the Law.

By “those without the Law,” the Apostle means those who were not under the Mosaic Law in any respect. These are Gentiles. Appearing among them, he was in his outward life as they were; he did not avoid their food, nor did he shun their other customs: he was as all. There cannot enter into this customs that expressed a confession of faith, such as, for example, sacrifices to idols and similar things. But, acting thus, he says, I was clean in my conscience before God, for I acted in the conviction that so pleased Him Himself: “I was not without law toward God. But I was under the law toward Christ,” that is, by faith in the Lord I directed all things toward His glory, I bore His sweet yoke and, carrying His law in my heart—the law of faith and love toward all people, for whom Christ died and whom He wants to be saved—I showed myself free from the Mosaic Law. Thus, outwardly I was without law, but inwardly I was the most faithful keeper of the law toward God and toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Saint Chrysostom says: “Coming to those who were outside the Law, the Apostle acted in many ways according to their customs. In Athens he even delivered his speech in the Athenian manner, on the occasion of the inscription on the shrine. But lest someone think that his actions proceeded from a change of mind, he adds: ‘not being without law toward God, but under the law toward Christ,’ that is, not only not being without law, but submitting to the law—not the ordinary law, but one far higher than the old—the law of the Spirit and grace. Then, having assured them of the consistency of his thinking, he again presents the benefit of such condescension: ‘that I might win those without the Law,’ likewise, as he shows everywhere, the reason for his condescension.” Theodoret writes: “One can see his entire economy not only in his writings, but also in the Acts of the Apostles. For he conversed differently in Jewish synagogues than he did in presenting his teaching at the Areopagus, employing for each disease a remedy suited to it.” To the applications which Saint Paul used, one should also rightly relate the manner of speech, not only the language but also the forms used in conducting discussions.

1 Cor. 9:22. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I became all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

By the weak one can understand both non-Christians still, listening to the word but not yet able to understand it. The Apostle says that he condescended to the weakness of mind of such people and, lowering himself to the level of their understanding, employed all means to bring them to the knowledge of the matter concerning Christ. But one can also understand by them Christians weak either in faith or in life, as he writes also to the Romans: “We who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak” (Rom. 15:1). The manner of the Apostle’s conduct in Corinth—that he supported himself—what else did this signify but condescension to the weaknesses of the weak? Saint Chrysostom understands them thus. “Here he speaks of the Corinthians, for whom he says all the rest as well. What was said before was far more important, but this is closer to them, so he placed it after everything else. He does the same thing in the epistle to the Romans, when he instructs them concerning food, and in many other places.”

“I became all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” However the case required me to act toward someone, thus I acted, counting nothing degrading for myself, and nowhere setting my own will and my own wishes and tastes as law. For me there was one law—to save all in every way possible. My desire is to save all. It is impossible to succeed in this, but I do not doubt that “some” I will save—I employ all that is possible so that I save all who can be saved. And certainly I will save some. The manner of expression shows confidence that this is and will be so. “Do you see his excellence? For everyone, he says, I became everything, not hoping to save all, but so that I might save even a few. My zeal and my service was of such a kind as belongs to one saving all, although I did not hope to convert all; a great deed and one showing fiery zeal! And a sower sows everywhere, and although not all the seed remains whole, he does his work. By pointing to the small number of the saved with the addition of the word: ‘some,’ he comforts those who grieve about this, for although it is impossible that all the seed remain whole, it is also impossible that it all perish. Although some, yet I will save them. He thus teaches that a diligent worker will certainly attain success.”

1 Cor. 9:23. And this I do for the sake of the Gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

The Gospel is the Gospel of the kingdom of Christ. A partaker in the Gospel is a sharer in the ordering of the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of the saved, through the ordering of salvation by those called to faith through the Gospel. Participation in the kingdom itself is great, but participation in the ordering of the kingdom is incomparably higher. The Lord said to the Apostles that they will sit with Him to judge. It is beyond our understanding—what this is; but it is self-evident that this is something great. But the Apostle out of humility expressed himself as though he only hopes to be saved together with others. Saint Chrysostom says: “So that he might from his side also contribute (to salvation) and be a partaker in the crowns which are kept for believers.” Theodoret writes: “The aim of the Gospel is the salvation of people. For this reason the Master ate with tax collectors, and permitted the sinful woman to weep at His feet, thereby teaching that He came for the salvation of men.” Imitating the Lord, thus also acted Saint Paul, so as to more successfully order the salvation of all. And he does not expect great rewards, but is concerned only that he himself be saved: “That I may be, he says, only a fellow partaker with believers of the Gospel.” “Do you see his humility, how in receiving rewards he places himself alongside others, although in labors he surpassed all? Undoubtedly, he is more worthy of honor than all, but he does not ascribe it to himself before all, but wishes to be only a fellow partaker with others in the prepared crowns. He says this not in the sense that he did everything for some reward, but in order to thus dispose and with such hopes persuade the Corinthians to do all things for their brethren. Do you see his prudence? Do you see his excessive zeal, how he did more than what was commanded and did not take, when he could take? Do you see his greatest condescension, how he, being under the law of Christ and keeping the highest law, was for those without law as without law, for Jews as a Jew, appearing in both respects more perfect and higher than all? So act also you: do not think that you are falling if, being high, you do something degrading for your brother. This does not mean falling, but condescending; for he who falls lies down and can barely get up himself, but he who condescends will also rise with great gain, just as Paul condescended alone and rose with the whole universe. He was not a hypocrite; for if he had been, he would not have sought the benefit of those being saved. A hypocrite seeks the ruin of others and is a hypocrite in order to take, not to give. He does not act this way; but as a physician, a teacher, a father condescend—the first to the sick, the second to the student, and the third to the son for their benefit, not their harm; so also did Paul” (Saint Chrysostom).

Saint Paul in the 8th chapter argued that one should not eat food offered to idols, so as not to cause the weak brethren to stumble, although for those who understand the matter, there seems to be nothing here that defiles faith. The notion of the clever ones—that just as an idol is nothing, so food offered to idols has received nothing unclean from it—gave them the right to eat fearlessly from the sacrifices of the Gentiles. Saint Paul, not rejecting this right, impresses upon them that they ought to renounce this right so as not to cause their brother to stumble; and to incline them to act thus, he presented them with an extensive depiction of how he himself, having the right to use the support of those being converted to faith, did not use this right, and precisely among them themselves, so as not to place an obstacle to the Gospel, and how in many other respects he yielded his own for the benefit of those being converted. It was necessary only to say: see how I renounce everything for the benefit of the brethren, renounce you also what your knowledge seems to authorize you for, cease eating food offered to idols, so as not to cause the weak brethren to stumble. Otherwise your salvation is doubtful. Your brother is perishing from your knowledge, a brother for whom Christ died. You sin against Christ. Such a manner of action does not end well.

The Apostle expresses these thoughts in verses 24–27. He presents the life of each person, with all its characteristics, as a course to be run in a race. As on the race track all run so that, reaching the finish, they might receive a crown, so we run so that we might receive a true crown from the Lord. These race tracks were customary among the Corinthians themselves. The Apostle says to them: see how things go on the race track? Thus understand and “so run that you may attain it” (1 Cor. 9:24). As he was speaking to intelligent people, he does not elaborate in the application, leaving it to them to understand what he wants from them—namely, that they should stop eating food offered to idols, for this, by causing their brother to stumble, hinders them from attaining what is hoped for. However, presupposing that perhaps they might turn away from the proper instruction, he hinted at it to them, saying: “everyone who competes exercises self-control in all things” (1 Cor. 9:25). This addition says the following: understand, where does this lead?! So be willing to act thus. And to take from them any excuse for objections, he presented himself again as an example (1 Cor. 9:26–27).

Thus Saint Chrysostom and our other commentators understand the meaning of these texts.

1 Cor. 9:24. Do you not know that those who run in a stadium all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.

On the race track—among the Corinthians themselves there were competitions in various kinds: they wrestled, boxed, threw stones, jumped over trenches and posts, and among these they raced—both on foot and on horseback. For the latter a certain finish line was designated, and whoever reached it first received the prescribed reward, and all who were entered in this competition ran. The Apostle points this out to the Corinthians: see how on your race track all run who have taken it up, but only one receives honor. Why? Because he prepared himself better than the others, because he threw away everything that could hinder his running, because he did not spare his strength and effort as he ran. So act also, he says: “run in such a way that you may win it.” Whatever means and efforts this one employed, employ the same, all of you. Set aside everything that hinders your race, and do not spare your strength. And what hinders your race do you know? That which destroys your brother and makes you guilty before Christ. Therefore, practice self-control.

Saint Chrysostom says: “That only one receives the prize is not said in the sense that only one of us all can be saved—God forbid—but that we ought to apply great diligence. For just as there, among the many who enter the arena, not all are crowned, but only one attains this, and therefore it is not enough merely to enter the contest, anoint oneself, and wrestle; so also here it is not enough merely to believe and struggle in some way. No; if we do not struggle in such a way as to show ourselves blameless to the end and attain the prize, we will gain no benefit. Although you, he says, might consider yourself perfect in knowledge, you have not yet attained everything; at this he hints to them with the words: ‘so run that you may win it,’ from which it follows that they have not yet attained it.”

1 Cor. 9:25. Everyone who competes practices self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.

“Look at the labors of those who compete bodily. They do not eat everything they would desire, but they eat the food that is offered by the one teaching the contest” (Theodoret). “What does ‘in all things’ mean? That is, not that he abstains from one thing but sins in another, but that he abstains from gluttony, from sensuality, from drunkenness, and from all passions in general. This happens, he says, even in bodily contests, for those competing (at the games) cannot during their contest drink to excess, nor commit adultery, in order not to weaken their strength, nor occupy themselves with anything else; but, abstaining completely from everything, they devoted themselves only to their contest. If this is so there, where a crown is given to one, how much more should it be here, where there is greater generosity, for here not only one will be crowned—and the rewards themselves are far higher than the contests” (Saint Chrysostom). “Therefore, recognize what is still lacking in you, and understand the way by which one can attain the crown. The Apostle compressed everything into one word: ‘practices self-control in all things’” (Theophylact).

And “they do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.” The hope of receiving a good arouses energy and brings the active powers into tension. The Apostle says: see how they labor and strive; for what? To receive a crown that tomorrow will be worthless. Compare with this what is promised to us, and judge how much greater ought to be our effort and labor and care. Our crown is superior to theirs not only in that it is imperishable while that is perishable, but also in that its value is beyond measure in its height and goodness. And his too is beyond measure, but in its nothingness. The Apostle adds no exhortation to this: it follows of itself, both then and now. For us it may be said: a carnal mind does not see the value of spiritual goods and does not present their excellence to the consciousness, therefore zeal for acquiring them has weakened everywhere. We live as though besides the earth and earthly things nothing exists.

1 Cor. 9:26. Therefore I run in this way, not uncertainly; I strike a blow, but not as one striking the air.

In his own example Saint Paul presents how important it is in spiritual life to clarify for oneself what will crown proper struggle, and then to direct everything in one’s life so that it leads directly to the attainment of what is hoped for. As in household management, a prudent householder, having begun some undertaking and devised reliable means for completing it, then conducts the work with full confidence that he will achieve what he intended, paying no attention to comments or talk from outsiders; so it is also in spiritual life. Whoever has well understood the end and figured out how to attain it walks along the path of this life with full confidence that he will attain the hoped-for good, whose goodness exceeds all description. In this, outsiders may often say to him: striking the air (beating the water). But he knows firmly that he does not run to an unknown goal. “I look,” he says, “to the goods hoped for, because the crown is not unknown to me” (Theodoret).

“Saint Chrysostom takes this as applying to the corruption of the Corinthians and says: ‘What does ‘not uncertainly’ mean? I have in view, he says, a certain aim, I struggle not vainly and not in vain, as you do. For what is the benefit to you from entering into idol temples and as though displaying your perfection? None. But I am not thus; but everything I do, I do for the salvation of others; whether I display perfection—this is for them; whether I condescend—this is for them; whether I show my superiority in accepting nothing—this is so that they might not be offended; whether I show humility more than all, getting my hair cut and receiving washing—this is so that they might not stumble. This is what ‘not uncertainly’ means. But you tell me, why do you eat in the temples? You cannot present any solid reason; food does not bring you closer to God; if you eat, you gain nothing; if you do not eat, you lose nothing; therefore, you act uselessly and without aim; this is what ‘uncertainly’ means. I strike a blow, but not as one striking the air.’ With these words he also expresses that he acts not vainly and not without aim. I have an enemy, he says, whom I strike—that is, the devil; but you do not strike him, but uselessly exhaust your strength.‘More clearly does blessed Theodoret express this thought:’I do not labor in vain, striking the air, but I inflict a blow on invisible adversaries. The Apostle took this figure of speech from wrestlers practicing. For they usually, while exercising, instead of an opponent move their hands against the air.”

1 Cor. 9:27. But I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

I have, he said, a definite aim, clearly conscious to me, I have taken measures and means which surely lead to this aim, and I struggle in the confidence that I will attain what is hoped for. Struggles are various: there are spiritual struggles and there are bodily ones. He emphasizes the latter because he pointed to an example in himself for the correction of indulgence toward the body, and because when the body is mortified and enslaved, the soul also will be amended. Saint Chrysostom says: “Here he intimates that they are given over to gluttony, do not curb this passion, and under the pretext of perfection satisfy it; at which he also spoke above with sorrow: ‘food for the belly and the belly for food.’ From excess comes both fornication and idolatry, therefore he justly in many places attacks this disease. And here he curbs it with his own example. I endure all things, but besides that I take upon myself the great labor of living soberly. For although it is difficult to overcome the passion and appetite of the belly, yet I curb it, I do not give myself over to this passion, but in all ways I strive not to be carried away by it. Do not think that I succeed in this without labor; no, this is for me a struggle, self-control, and combat with nature, which is constantly rising up and demanding freedom, but I do not yield, but I tame and subdue it with great effort. He says this so that no one would be discouraged in the struggles of virtue by the difficulty of the matter, and therefore he expresses it thus: ‘I discipline and make it my slave.’ He did not say: I destroy, or I torture, because the flesh is not an enemy, but ‘I discipline’ (ὑπωπιάζω, to strike under the eye, to strike until black) ‘and make it my slave,’ which is the act of a master, not an enemy, a teacher, not a criminal, a guardian, not an opponent.”

“So that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” Indulgence toward the body is a path to disqualification. There is a measure, beyond which when body indulgence goes in food, sleep, and all ease, spiritual life begins to fail, zeal weakens, vigilance departs, apathy seizes the soul. If any passion arises, it is no wonder if a fall follows. Behold disqualification! To prevent this, Saint Paul gives instruction to mortify and enslave the body. “If Paul, a teacher of so many, feared this, and feared it after he had spread his preaching, became a gospeler, and showed himself an intercessor of the universe, what should we say? Do not think, he says, that for your salvation it is enough that you have believed; if to me, who preached, taught, and converted thousands of people, it is not enough for salvation when I do not conduct myself blamelessly, then how much more for you” (Saint Chrysostom).

Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

The main thought—that those eating food offered to idols participate in a demonic table, therefore are not innocent and ought to fear the wrath of God—the Apostle unfolds in the middle of the chapter (verses 15–22). But before this he sets forth: a) examples of God’s judgments upon the Israelites, who were chosen like Christians and sinned against God, through other sins as well as through idolatry (verses 1–14). And afterwards b) he applies rules as to how to deal with food, so as not to sin by consuming food offered to idols (1 Cor. 10:23–33).

l) Examples of God’s judgments (1 Cor. 10:1–13)

The Apostle set these examples in advance in order to prepare obedience to his instruction to refrain from food offered to idols, as the deed of the impious. He says, as it were: behold how strictly God dealt with those who were found guilty of idolatry—so that, having then said: and you become participants in idolatry through eating food offered to idols—he concludes: depart then from this. Or do you provoke God to anger? Are you stronger than He? (verses 14–24). But lest someone think that those are Israelites, and we are different—he first of all draws aa) a parallel between the Israelites and Christians: you are baptized, and they were baptized in the cloud and in the sea; you eat the Body and Blood of the Lord, and they ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink (1 Cor. 10:1–4). bb) But God did not spare them when they sinned; He will not spare you: for all that “happened to them as an example” (1 Cor. 10:5–13). The conclusion from this is evident: flee therefore from idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14).

1 Cor. 10:1–2. For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

When beginning to speak about the race track, he said: “Do you not know?” but here he says: “I do not want you to be ignorant”—I want you to know, which is the same as: do you know? or know. “Our fathers,” not yours; he places himself on the side of the Israelites, in contrast to the Gentiles, so as to give the thought that just as then the Israelites were chosen from all nations, so now from all nations, not excluding even Israelites, Christians are chosen. “All were under the cloud and all passed through the sea.” A well-known history. For a time it is not clear where the discourse is going, but the unexpected turn simply arouses attention. “All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Here is where the discourse goes: to show in the passage under the cloud and crossing through the sea a prefigurement of baptism. Saint Paul does not set one feature against another, but with one word “were baptized” gives to understand all that he wanted to say. “What happened to them,” he says, “is a pattern of what is accomplished with us. For the sea was likened to a baptismal font, the cloud of grace to the Spirit, Moses to a priest, the rod to the cross, the Israelites who crossed the sea to those being baptized, and the Egyptians who pursued represented an image of demons; Pharaoh himself served as an image of the devil” (Theodoret). How were they baptized into Moses? Not properly into Moses, but into Him whom he prefigured. Saint Chrysostom says: “Since the Apostle wishes to draw the prefigurement near to the truth, he calls even the prefigurement by the name of the truth.” That is, he says: into Moses, but by this you must understand not him but the Lord; as below he says, they drank from the spiritual rock, “and the rock was Christ.” To be baptized into someone means to give an obligation to be whose, to belong wholly to someone. Although it is said of the Israelites that in crossing the Red Sea they believed Moses, the servant of God (Ex. 14:31), yet the basis of their faith is not in him but in God, who showed such defense through him. Therefore, the baptism of the Israelites in the cloud and sea was through him into God and the Lord.

1 Cor. 10:3–4. All ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and the rock was Christ.

“Spiritual food” is manna, sent miraculously; “spiritual drink” is water from the rock, gushing forth miraculously. Both were called spiritual because they were not supplied by a natural way but by the miraculous power of God; as in the epistle to the Galatians Isaac is called a spiritual son of Abraham, and Ishmael a carnal one, for the reason that the former was born by a special action of God’s power, and the latter naturally (Gal. 4:29). The manna prefigured the body of the Lord, and the water from the rock the blood of the Lord, from whose rib flowed blood and water (Theodoret). “Above he pointed to the prefigurement of baptism, and here to the prefigurement of the sacred table. As you eat the Body of the Lord, so the Israelites ate manna; as you drink His Blood, so they drank water from the rock. Although this was physical, yet it was supplied spiritually, not by the laws of nature but by grace (that is, by the power of God). About the food (manna) he added nothing (in explanation), because it was (obviously) different from ordinary food not only in the way of obtaining it but in its very nature; but about the drink, in which only the way of obtaining it was miraculous and required explanation, after the words: ‘all drank the same spiritual drink,’ he added: ‘for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them,’ and further: ‘and the rock was Christ.’ Not the rock by its own nature gushed forth water, otherwise it would have gushed before—but a certain other, a spiritual rock did all this, that is, Christ, who constantly accompanied them and performed all the miracles; therefore he says: ‘that accompanied them.’ Do you see the wisdom of Paul, how he explains that Christ is the giver of both, and thus brings the prefigurement near to the truth? He supplied, he says, the Israelites those gifts; He also offers this table; He led them through the sea; He also leads you through the water of baptism; He provided them manna and water, but to you He offers Body and Blood. Such are His Gifts” (Saint Chrysostom).

Although we do not completely understand point for point the prefigurement and the truth, there is no necessity. The general thought is evident—that the Israelites received gifts from God which in a higher sense correspond to the Gifts given to Christians. For the Apostle’s purpose, this is sufficient. “Why does he speak this? So as to show that, just as the great gifts did not benefit the Israelites, so baptism and participation in the spiritual mysteries will not benefit the Corinthians, if their life does not correspond to such grace; therefore he points to the prefigurements of baptism and the mysteries” (Saint Chrysostom).

“Let us see then whether God spared the Israelites when they showed themselves unworthy of His gifts. No; therefore the Apostle adds” (Saint Chrysostom):

1 Cor. 10:5. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

“Not with most of them”—“God was not pleased with many. For except Caleb and Joshua, all who were numbered were destroyed” (Theodoret). Or: God did not regard that there were many of them, and destroyed all—some by fire, some by serpents, some by sickness; all fell in the wilderness except two. “They were a great multitude, but their numbers in no way helped them. All the acts of kindness were a sign of God’s love, but this did not help them because they themselves did not show deeds of love. See how many acts of kindness God showed the Israelites: He delivered them from Egypt and from slavery there, led them through the sea, sent manna from heaven, caused wonderful springs of water to flow forth from the earth, constantly accompanied them, performing miracles and protecting them everywhere; and yet, when they proved unworthy of such gifts, He did not spare them but destroyed all of them. ‘They were struck down in the wilderness,’ says the Apostle, expressing both that they were suddenly struck down and that the punishments that struck them were sent by God. And moreover, He did not send all this upon them in the promised land, but outside and very far from it, punishing them with a double punishment: by not allowing them to see the promised land, and by punishing them severely. But how, you ask, does this pertain to us? It pertains to you precisely. Therefore the Apostle continues” (Saint Chrysostom):

1 Cor. 10:6. Now these things happened to them as examples, so that we should not desire evil things, as they also desired.

“As their gifts were prefigurements, so also their punishments were prefigurements; as baptism and the mysterious table were prefigured, so by the events that followed was also foretold that those unworthy of the gift would undergo punishment, so that by such examples we might learn to be temperate. As gifts preceded by prefigurements, and truth followed them, so it will be also with punishments. Do you see how he intimates that we will not only be punished, but even far more than the Israelites? For if there were prefigurements, and here there is truth, then the punishments must be far greater, just as the gifts are” (Saint Chrysostom).

“That we should not desire evil things” is understood as either evil desire in general, the source of every sin (Theophylact), as Saint James says: “desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin” (Jas. 1:15); or, in application to the words: “as they also desired,” especially gluttony and love of pleasure. For the Israelites are depicted as especially desirous of food (Oecumenius). Thus Prophet David says: “They craved in the wilderness… and He gave them what they asked, sending them abundance to their souls” (Ps. 105:14–15). And in the book of Numbers it is written: “the people craved with a strong craving, and the sons of Israel wept and said, Who will give us meat to eat?” (Num. 11:4). And the place where those struck down with such strong craving were buried was named “the graves of craving” (1 Cor. 34). The last is closer to the Apostle’s purpose. Here covertly the Apostle points to the reason that drew the clever Corinthians to tables of sacrifices from idols. They themselves said: we know that an idol is nothing, and consequently justified their behavior by elevated views; but the Apostle, presenting this image from the history of the Israelites, gives them a hint to examine themselves and see whether your elevated views truly reconcile you with sacrificial meat, or is it gluttony? Saint Chrysostom says: “He also presents the reason why they flocked to the tables: it is love of pleasure.” That this is indeed so is evident from the fact that immediately after this the Apostle speaks of idolaters. In Corinth Christians had already turned away from idolatry, and only some clever ones defiled themselves by contact with idolatry through participation in demonic tables. “Having said: ‘that we should not desire evil things,’ and continuing: ‘nor become idolaters,’ he points to the cause of such impiety in love of pleasure” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:7. Do not become idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

This was after the molding of the calf and offering sacrifice to it (Ex. 32:6). Having eaten and drunk their fill, they rose up and began to sing songs and, forming choirs, to dance about and in every way to make merry. The Apostle’s purpose is to connect eating and drinking with idolatry through historical events, and thereby to suggest to the Corinthians: see, those progressed from idolatry to gluttony (as was always the case among the Gentiles), so that by a reverse path you might not ascend from gluttony to the worship of idols. But at the same time he hints to them that they have already come into contact with idolatry. For to whom else could it apply: “Do not become idolaters”? “Do you hear how he calls the Corinthians idolaters? Indeed here he only hints at it, but later he proves it” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:8. Let us not be immoral, as some of them were; and in a single day twenty-three thousand people died.

And how did those act immorally? On the advice of Balaam (Num. 31:8–16), the Midianites sent women against the camp of the Israelites, who, being seduced by them, offered sacrifices to Baal of Peor, ate from the sacrifices and drank, and lay with the women (Num. 25). This brought down God’s wrath, and in a single day 23 or 24 thousand Israelites fell. By setting forth this example, Saint Paul adds one more feature to the dangers from eating food offered to idols—the danger of falling into idolatry—the danger of falling into immorality. For it is noted that in some cases unclean deeds were connected with priestly feasts. The Apostle’s attention is entirely fixed on one thing—on eating food offered to idols—and he depicts to the Corinthians with these examples what an abyss opens beneath what seemed to them such an insignificant deed, one that appeared so respectable to their clever persons with their independent views.

1 Cor. 10:9. Let us not put the Lord to the test, as some of them tested Him, and perished by the serpents.

The circumstance of the Israelites’ destruction by serpents determines the case the Apostle points to. From Mount Hor the Israelites directed themselves toward the Red Sea, going around the land of Edom, and, becoming discouraged, began to murmur against God and Moses, saying: Why did you bring us out of Egypt into the wilderness, where there is neither bread nor water? Are you going to kill us here? Because of this God was angered and sent serpents upon them (Num. 21:5–6). Saint David, depicting all the things by which the Israelites provoked God in the wilderness, in Psalm 77, called the fact that the Israelites craved better food a testing of God: “they tested God… and said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?” (1 Cor. 10:18–19). Saint Paul transferred this expression: “tested,” from the circumstance which the prophet speaks of to the case when the Israelites in discouragement complained of the scarcity of food, although strictly speaking it was murmuring. So here also the matter concerns food, and furthermore the complaint of the murmurer is also: “Can God?” only with even greater doubt.

By the words: “let us not put the Lord to the test” the Apostle hints that the Corinthians were in some way guilty of this, but how exactly cannot be determined with certainty from the epistle. Oecumenius writes that they, testing Christ, demanded signs. Perhaps there was such a case during the initial preaching. Given such extraordinary faith, signs were necessary, and the Apostles were equipped with them. But this demand was so natural that one cannot fully assign it to testing the Lord. Saint Chrysostom says that “the Apostle here points to one more transgression, accusing the Corinthians of murmuring against trials and saying: When will good things come? When rewards?” It is very likely that in these two verses: “let us not test—let us not murmur” the Apostle hints at the discouragement of the Corinthians, against which he will later encourage them (1 Cor. 10:13). But one need not seek absolute precision, for the Apostle’s purpose in citing these examples is simply to impress that one cannot live carelessly relying on the fact that one is called and baptized; this is evident from the examples given in their application. Some propose yet another thought: to test the Lord means to throw oneself into dangers with a questioning intention: I wonder if God will deliver me. Those eating food offered to idols exposed themselves to various moral trials. Perhaps they had the thought: the Lord will deliver, or: we will see if Christ will deliver us when trouble approaches. The Apostle says to them: “Let us not put the Lord to the test.”

1 Cor. 10:10. Do not murmur, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

It is difficult to determine what circumstance these words indicate. For the murmurings of the Israelites in the wilderness were numberless. At the slightest difficulty, immediately came murmuring, and it was severe. One could use the words: “were destroyed by the destroyer” to determine a particular case; but no such circumstance is evident in which any particular destroyer stood out. They perished in general from God’s punishment; sometimes a mysterious plague attacked them, sometimes serpents struck them, sometimes fire burned them, sometimes the earth opened and swallowed them. Oecumenius, after listing the various cases of Israel’s murmuring, stops at the one described in the 11th chapter of Numbers: “And the people began to murmur evilly before the Lord. And the Lord heard, and His wrath was kindled, and a fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some on the edge of the camp” (Num. 11:1). This fire, he says, is called by the Apostle the destroyer (ὀλοθρευτοῦ), as a certain punitive power of God—this occurred at the beginning of their wandering. Others understand here the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who were swallowed by the earth (Num. 16:41 and onwards). Still others—the murmuring as a result of spying out the land, for which God decreed that all who came out of Egypt, above 20 years of age, would die in the wilderness, excepting Joshua and Caleb. It is not clear which guess to prefer; nor is it clear how such an instruction could apply to the Corinthians. Let us rather use the general thought which Saint Chrysostom draws from this, who in both verses (1 Cor. 10:9–10) seems to see one lesson: encouragement toward patient endurance of all that comes. “Do not murmur, he says. It is necessary not only to suffer for Christ, but to endure all that happens courageously and with full satisfaction; this is the crown of all; and if this is not present, punishment will overtake the murmurers. The Apostles rejoiced when they were beaten; Paul gloried in his sufferings.”

Blessed Theodoret brings all five cases mentioned (1 Cor. 10:6–10) under one review and says: “The Apostle presented each of the aforementioned events as similar to that in which the Corinthians had transgressed. And, first of all, he pointed to evil desire, from which the greater part of evils arises; then to idolatry and to gluttony, from which the first also proceeded, because the Corinthians themselves, enslaved to gluttony, held feasts in the temples of idols. He mentioned also fornication, showed the number of those slain for it, sowing thereby the fear of punishment in the mind of the fornicator. And those who had received lesser gifts murmured among them, because not all were deemed worthy (this refers to Dathan and Abiram with Korah). And they tempted the Lord, those speaking in various tongues, using this gift in the Church more out of love of honor than out of necessity (of those assembled).”

1 Cor. 10:11. Now all these things happened to them as examples; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

“Now all these things happened to them as examples.” All this truly happened to them, but not for them alone did the Lord manifest His judgments upon them; it was rather as an example for us, that, seeing it, we might learn in our minds that for those whom God has chosen for Himself and supplied with the gifts of grace, sins cannot remain unpunished. In what sense these are “examples” is explained by the words: “they were written for our admonition.” Read or listen, reflect and learn. No one will receive mercy—neither those who lust, who live only for their own pleasure with forgetfulness of God and the future life; nor idolaters, who base their hopes on people or things apart from God; nor those living in carnal sins; nor those who tempt God, who either recklessly throw themselves into dangers, or irreverently offend God, saying: what will God do? nor murmurers, to whom, whatever they desire, God gives, and when the least thing happens not to their liking, they rise up against heaven. The Apostle took only the chief judgments; but by saying “all,” he made it understood that the wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness, after the exodus from Egypt and the passage through the Red Sea, in all its parts can present instruction for us in life, from baptism until entering into the promised land, until the passage through the gates of death into the other life.

“Upon whom the ends of the ages have come,” word for word from the Greek thus: upon you (that is, us) the ends of the ages have come to rest. As a road goes on and on, and finally comes to rest against something—a wall or a mountain—so that there is nowhere further to go; so, he says, the former ages went on with their events, and came to rest upon us, upon whom all that was prefigured in them must be fulfilled. We are the goal of preceding events; in us is accomplished what there was only foretold. The Apostle wished to frighten them and turn them away from any attempt to avert from themselves the judgments of God, thinking: perhaps all this will somehow pass us by. No, he says, there is no escape; the last times; the dread judgment is near (holy Chrysostom). “He spoke of the last times in order to remind them of the end of the world, and at the same time to convey that our punishments will not be temporal but eternal. Temporal punishments end with the present life, but future ones will continue forever. Our gifts are greater, and our punishments are greater” (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:12. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

In the examples given, it was being conveyed: see, do not be carried away from feasting to idolatry and from both of these to fornication, or to tempting God and murmuring. The wise men with lofty views could say or think to this: oh no! we clearly understand the matter and stand firm. The Apostle instructs them: but he who thinks that he stands, let him take heed lest he fall. “Again he brings down the pride of those who were puffed up with knowledge. To rely on oneself does not mean to stand as one ought to stand; such a person will soon fall. Pride, and then carelessness and sensuality are the sources of evils. Therefore if you stand, beware lest you fall. To stand here (in this life) does not mean to stand firm until we are delivered from the waves of the present life and have reached the quiet harbor. So do not be proud that you stand, but fear lest you fall. For if Paul was afraid (1 Cor. 9:27), who was stronger than all, how much more ought we to fear” (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:13. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man; but God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

What temptation is this? Not internal, as is evident from the whole discourse, but external: tribulations, afflictions, distresses from unbelievers. They were under this temptation and endured it; for he says, “has overtaken you.” And the Apostle Paul, speaking of his sojourn among them, writes that he was among them “in fear and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3), of course sharing their afflictions. Perhaps having begun then, they had not ceased, and the believers were still under them when the epistle was written. Was not this perhaps why, bringing instructive examples, he also brought those in which God punished for tempting Him and murmuring? Were not these temptations connected with the eating of food offered to idols? Abstinence from them aroused suspicion, and then upon discovery of whence it came, persecution. The wise men, hiding behind knowledge, sat down fearlessly at the tables of idols and thereby avoided all unpleasantness; but others could not bring themselves to do this, and for that were subjected to insults, mockery, oppression. To the first the Apostle had already given strong instruction and would give more; here he speaks a few words to the second: do not lose courage, do not murmur. “No temptation has overtaken you that is common only to man,” that is, “small, brief, moderate. You have not yet seen danger that threatened you with death, temptation that could destroy you. He says the same also to the Hebrews: ‘You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood, struggling against sin’ (Heb. 12:4)” (holy Chrysostom).

But such a word, instead of consolation, could bring even greater fear. Let a small human temptation have overtaken us, but still it is burdensome, and who knows—tomorrow it will become even heavier. Anticipating such thoughts, which could bring despondency, the Apostle encourages and heartens them, saying: “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.” It is possible, as it were, that even what you fear may come, but be assured that God will not permit you to fall into temptations exceeding your strength. Entrust yourselves to His will and do not trouble yourselves with gloomy thoughts, but rather be encouraged by fortitude, trusting in the immutability of the promises of Him who said: “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). God is faithful! All is from Him, and all is in His hands. He knows how to proportion the burden to the strength of him upon whom He lays it. When a man casts himself into temptation, it is no wonder that he encounters something beyond his strength, and he will fall under it. But God will never tempt you “beyond your ability, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Let the temptation sent or permitted by God seem unbearable, but He will either soon deliver you from it, as soon as you show steadfastness, the trial will pass, or He will “provide with the temptation the way of escape,” or, if it is necessary to continue it, will give strength to endure all, and you will bear it as if scarcely noticing (Photius in Oecumenius). “God gives both endurance and speedy deliverance, so that the temptation becomes bearable” (holy Chrysostom).

Holy Chrysostom makes the following deduction: “So there are temptations that cannot be endured? There are. Which ones? One can say all of them; for the ability to endure them depends on the help of God, which we obtain through our own disposition. Not only temptations exceeding our strength, but even human temptations we cannot endure without help from above; even moderate temptations we cannot endure by our own strength, but even in this case we need the help of God to overcome, and before we overcome—to endure them.”

1 Cor. 10:14. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

To this chiefly he was leading the discourse from the beginning of the chapter. The Israelites, baptized in a prefigurative manner and nourished with spiritual bread and drinking spiritual drink, when they touched idolatry, perished. See then, you who are truly baptized and who partake of the true Body and Blood of the Lord, do not touch idolatry in any way. For God will not spare you either, and will spare you even less than them. Flee then from idolatry! By idolatry he means the eating of offerings sacrificed to idols. This is not direct idolatry, but participation in it, defilement by it. Before he did not touch upon this aspect, agreeing that knowledge and lofty views made them invulnerable to the defilement of idolatry. Now he attributes this to their action and says: flee, understand—flee such tables. Fear of participation in idolatry he had already aroused by the preceding judgments of God. It remains for him to explain that, eating from sacrifices to idols, they are partakers in idolatry. Of this the following discourse will speak.

Theodoret writes: “The Apostle gradually strengthens his accusation, and shows that indifferent consumption of food offered to idols differs in no way from serving idols.” Holy Chrysostom says: “Why does he urge them to quickly abstain from sin; for he did not simply say: abstain, but: flee; he calls their deed idolatry, so that they might abstain from it not only because it causes harm to their neighbor, but also because it is in itself most pernicious.”

The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

The course of the Apostle’s thought is this: judge for yourselves: when we partake of the Holy Mysteries, we partake of the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ; likewise among the Jews, those who eat from the sacrifices become sharers in the altar; and you think that those who eat from sacrifices to idols are sharers in nothing?! Idols are truly nothing; but there are demons to whom, through sacrifices to idols, service is rendered. If so, then those who eat food offered to idols are sharers in demons. This is where your wisdom leads you! Therefore I greatly do not wish for you to be sharers in demons. You cannot partake of the Holy Mysteries and at the same time participate in the table of demons. Stop this. You are provoking God’s jealousy by this. When God is angered, who will stand?

1 Cor. 10:15. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

The preceding verse can be considered both the end of the preceding section and the beginning of the present one. There it was said: “flee from idolatry”; the thought of the saying is this: stop participation in the feasts of the temples, because through this you make yourselves partakers of idolatry. Now approaching the proof of this, or rather approaching the proof of something far greater, namely, that through this they become sharers in demons—and this is terrible—the Apostle chooses the Corinthians themselves as judges over themselves. He says as it were: I will only present the data to you, and you will draw the conclusion yourselves. Holy Chrysostom says: “Since he has said much and intensified the rebuke by calling their deed idolatry, so that it may not seem that he speaks too harshly and reproachfully, he submits it to their judgment and, having praised them, makes them judges: ‘I speak,’ he says, ‘as to sensible people.’ One must be completely confident in the rightness of one’s cause to make the accused the judge of the case. This greatly encourages the listeners, when someone discourses with them not as a ruler or legislator, but as an advisor awaiting their own judgment. With the Jews, who were senseless and childishly cowardly, God did not converse thus and did not everywhere reveal to them the reasons for His commandments, but only commanded; but here, since we are deemed worthy of great freedom and capable of sharing in freedom, the Apostle converses as with friends and says: I do not require other judges; you yourselves will pronounce judgment; I make you judges.”

1 Cor. 10:16. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ?

Two kinds of communion through the visible with the invisible the Apostle presents for the consideration of the wise Corinthians. The first is the highest—communion in the Body and Blood of Christ under the form of bread and wine. In the Church is offered a bloodless sacrifice. Then all who are present in the temple partake of this sacrifice, and by partaking they enter into communion with the Blood of Christ and the Body of Christ. For bread and wine through blessing are mystically transformed into the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we have and what you know, he says. The force of his words is that we enter into communion with the body and blood of the Lord; but at the same time both dogmatic truths concerning the mystery of the Eucharist are affirmed: first, that in this mystery a sacrifice is offered, and second, that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of the Lord. The first is according to the course of discourse, for the discourse concerns sacred sacrifices; the second is according to the power of partaking, for drinking wine is communion in blood, and eating bread is communion in body; neither is merely mental but truly actual. “Being deemed worthy of the sacred Mysteries, do we not enter into communion with the Master Himself, do we not say that this is His body and His blood?” (Theodoret).

“The cup of blessing” (or Eucharist, thanksgiving) he called it because we, holding it in our hands, glorify God, marvel and are amazed at His unspeakable gift, blessing Him that He poured out His blood for our deliverance from error, and not only poured it out but bestowed it upon all of us (holy Chrysostom). The words, moreover: that we bless“indicate the sacred blessing through which by the power of Christ wine mystically becomes the blood of Christ and bread becomes the body of Christ. Consequently, partaking from the cup”is it not a communion in the blood of Christ?“He spoke very truly and awesomely; the meaning of his words is as follows: that which is in the cup is the very thing that flowed from the side of the Lord; this we partake of” (holy Chrysostom).

Consequently, partaking of the bread, “that we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ?” Both questions contain a most emphatic affirmation of what is asked. “Why did he not say: participation? Because he wished to express something greater, to show perfect union. For, when we partake, we not only become participants and sharers, but are united with Christ. As the body of Christ is united with Christ, so also we through this bread are united with Him” (holy Chrysostom).

“In the Old Testament, when people were imperfect, He was pleased to accept the very same blood that the heathen offered to idols, so as to turn them away from idols, which also proved His unspeakable love; but now He has given a more awesome and perfect sacred rite, changing the sacrifice, commanding that instead of the slaying of voiceless beasts, He Himself be offered” (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:17. Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

That partaking of the Mysteries of Christ is truly communion in His body and blood, though for all Christians evident and beyond doubt, the Apostle deemed it necessary to clarify or even prove by presenting, as confirmation of this, a manifest reality—that all who partake, though they are many, constitute one body, and the body of Christ. How could this be if those who partake of the Mysteries of Christ did not partake of His body and blood? Thus it is evident that, since by partaking of the one bread we become one body, it means that by partaking of the bread we partake of the body of Christ. Holy Chrysostom says: “Having said ‘communion in body,’ he wishes to express an even more intimate connection and says: ‘Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body.’ What do I say, ‘communion’?—he continues—we are His very body. For what is this bread? The body of Christ. What do those who partake become? The body of Christ, not many bodies, but one body. As bread, made up of many grains, becomes one, so that, though grains are in it, they are not seen, and their distinction is imperceptible due to their union, so also we are united with one another and with Christ. For we do not eat separately, one one thing and another another, but all eat the same body. Wherefore the Apostle also adds: ‘For we all partake of the one bread.’ Christ united you with Himself, though you are so far removed from Him. See what manner of life you are deemed worthy of! For He did not simply give His body, but in place of the former flesh, which by its nature, coming from the earth, was slain by sin and deprived of life, He brought, as it were, another constitution and another leaven—His own flesh, which though by nature the same, is alien from sin and full of life—and bestowed it upon all, so that, being nourished by it and putting off the former dead flesh, we might be prepared through this table for incorruptible life.”

1 Cor. 10:18. Look at Israel after the flesh; are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

The second example of communion with Israel according to the flesh. “He proves the same again from the Old Testament. The greatness of what was being said exceeded far the understanding of the listeners; therefore he persuades them by former, ordinary examples” (holy Chrysostom). The significance of the mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ was not unknown to the Corinthians, but its meaning truly exceeds the understanding not only of them but of all. The significance of Old Testament sacrifices is more comprehensible. Why the Apostle speaks as if: “Learn at least from the simplest examples that those who eat from sacrifices become partakers of the sacrifice” (holy Chrysostom). “Israel after the flesh” he called those who continued to follow the Mosaic law and were descended according to the flesh from Abraham and Jacob, who was the first to be called Israel, in distinction from spiritual Israel—Christians, who see God and are gathered through the Gospel of faith from all nations. The law concerning sacrifices among Israel was such that only a part of what was brought to the altar was laid upon the altar and burned, but the rest was consumed as food by the priests. Thus God legislated, saying that those who serve at the altar should also be nourished from the altar. Why to the tribe of Levi, appointed for the performance of services in the temple, He did not assign a portion of land, but said: I am your portion; that is, the other tribes the land feeds, but I will feed you. Thus the priests and Levites were nourished from the table of God. The table was the altar. The portion of God was consumed by fire, but the priestly portion was consumed by the priests themselves, by the blessing of God, receiving it from the altar as if from the table of God. This is why the Apostle called them “participants in the altar,” that is, the table of the Lord. They did not enter through this into a real communion with God, though they were God’s, but only with the altar. With spiritual Israel it is not so: here a sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ is offered, and those who eat from this sacrifice are sharers not in the altar but in Christ Himself. Holy Chrysostom says: “Those who ate from the sacrifice there became sharers only in the altar, but with us it is not so; but how? The partaking of our sacrifice is ‘communion in the body of Christ,’ for we become partakers not of the altar but of Christ Himself.”

1 Cor. 10:19. What do I mean then? That an idol is anything, or that meat sacrificed to an idol is anything?

From the two examples cited it was evident that those who eat from sacrifices become sharers in the sacrifice in that sense and with that force in which it is performed. Having read this, the Corinthians could come to perplexity and have an inclination to turn to the Apostle with a question: from what has been said, it is evident that we too, eating food offered to idols, become sharers in something. Sharers in what then? An idol is nothing, and food offered to idols receives nothing, being offered to that which is nothing. The Apostle himself taught this. So in whom are we sharers? Anticipating them, the Apostle qualifies his speech: I am not saying that an idol is anything or that food offered to idols is anything. No, an idol is nothing, and food offered to idols remains what it was. There is another being with whom the sacrifice and those who sacrifice it and those who eat it enter into communion, and this being is opposed to God.

In the moral and religious sense there are two realms: God’s and Satan’s, demonic—opposite, like light and darkness, like truth and falsehood, like good and evil, like life and death. He who is in God’s realm is not in the demonic realm, and he who is in the demonic realm is not in God’s. He who does something for God is free from demons, and he who does not do it for God is on the demonic side. Consider now: is it to God that the nations sacrifice what they sacrifice? Clearly not. But if not to God, then to demons. The idol remains nothing; but the demon is not nothing, but a being opposed to God, an enemy of God and of us. He taught them these sacrifices, he receives them, and those who accept and consume them please him. The table from sacrifices to idols is a real demonic table, despite the fact that the idol is nothing and the sacrificial meat remains what it was. So this is my thought!

1 Cor. 10:20. No, but I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons.

The course of the discourse is thus: I am not saying that an idol is something or that food offered to idols is something. No; but that the heathen sacrifice to demons what they sacrifice. And consequently, those who eat from these sacrifices commune with demons. And I do not want you to be sharers in demons. “I say this and turn you away from idols not because they could cause any harm or have any power; they are nothing; but I want you to despise them. If he wants us to despise them, you will say, why does he so strongly turn us away from them? Because their sacrifices are not brought to your Lord. ‘What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.’ Do not turn, therefore, to that which is opposed to God. You enter through this into a connection with the enemies of God. That is why I turn you away from this! The purpose of those who bring sacrifices and the nature of the beings who receive them (that is, demons) make what is offered unclean. ‘I do not want you to be partners with demons.’ Do you see the love of a caring father? Do you see how his very words express great benevolence? I do not want, he says, for you to have any communion with unclean powers” (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:21. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

This is now an authoritative commandment. “Before he said: ‘judge for yourselves,’ as if offering advice; but when he laid out for them the whole course of reasoning and drew from it to what danger those who eat from sacrifices to idols come—that they even go over to the side of the enemies of God and themselves—he no longer gives place to their reasoning, but writes a determination: do not dare any longer to touch these demonic sacrifices: you cannot drink that cup of demons and partake of that demonic table. You have your own cup, the cup of the Lord, and your own table, the table of the Lord. Partaking of them, desire no others. This strict commandment the Apostle uttered, so that none of the more obstinate, seeing that he spoke all the former as if in the way of advice: ‘I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves’—would not disobey and consider themselves at liberty not to do what followed from that reasoning. This is why he says: ‘You cannot… you cannot.’ These expressions alone are sufficient for instruction” (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:22. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

“That is, do we dare to tempt Him and provoke Him, going over to the side of His opponents and standing as enemies of His? Here he reminds them of Old Testament events and the iniquities of their ancestors; therefore he uses the very expression that Moses once used, speaking from God to rebuke the Jews for idolatry. ‘They,’ he said, ‘provoked me in what is not God, they angered me with their idols’ (Deut. 32:21). ‘Are we stronger than he?’ Do you see how powerfully, how terribly he strikes them, shaking their very nerves, driving their judgments to absurdity and thus bringing down their pride? Beginning with the lesser, he reached the most important; the latter could be accepted much more readily after the listener’s soul had been softened by the previous arguments” (holy Chrysostom). Reasoning is good, but acts weakly upon the determinations of the will if the fear of God does not lie at the foundation of moral life. Where the fear of God is, even weak reasoning is powerful; but where it is not, even strong reasoning will accomplish nothing. To protect against moral weakness, the Apostle raises up the fear of God, and moreover in its terrible aspect, as the fear of punishment and God’s wrath. No feeling acts so powerfully on the arousal of strength as the feeling of self-preservation. It is this that the Apostle stirs up here. Having reached the fear lest God strike them for eating food offered to idols, they could more readily and decisively refrain from this, relying upon this fear.

In the words: ‘or do we provoke the Lord’—provoke not His anger but His jealousy, παραζηλουμεν. God is called God—the jealous one, as jealous for His glory, for the glory of His Godhead. “My glory,” He says, “I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved idols.” This jealousy and its provocation the Apostle means. And that it is not idle in God, how many proofs of this there are in the history of the Israelites! Hence also the question: “Are we stronger than he?” Let God’s jealousy be stirred up and it will grind you to dust. So be careful and, subduing your lofty views, do not touch the sacrifices of idols.

How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1)

Such a question could not have been avoided, and rules had to be written in response to it, given the external circumstances of that time. Food offered to idols was eaten not only at idol temples but was also offered on tables in homes and sold in markets. Thus it was possible either to buy food offered to idols at the market and eat it, or, having come to a meal at a pagan’s house, to partake of it. What then should one do? The Apostle answers: eat all things, until someone tells you: “this is food offered to idols.” Having heard this, do not eat, so as not to cause offense to anyone—a Jew, a Greek, or a brother weak in conscience. Receive food with thanksgiving, turning its consumption to the glory of God and the spiritual edification of others.

1 Cor. 10:23. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.

After the terrible warning, the discourse flows calmly. The Apostle begins with what gave occasion to the whole discussion about food offered to idols—with freedom regarding the consumption of all kinds of harmless food. Standing on this foundation, the clever ones sat down at tables in idol temples. The Apostle does not reject it, but affirms it: “all things are lawful for me, all things are lawful for me.” Absolute, says he, justice. But the use of this right to freedom cannot be without limits. I place for this two restrictions: benefit to oneself and edification of one’s neighbor. As soon as eating something is not beneficial to oneself and does not edify one’s neighbor, one must refrain from it. The Apostle places these thoughts at the beginning because he will be guided by them in setting forth the rules that follow. Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see the great wisdom of the Apostle? Since one of them could say: I am perfect, I have control over myself, I eat what is offered with full knowledge of the matter – he says: suppose you are perfect and have control over yourself, but look not to that, but to whether your conduct causes some harm or some disturbance. Both he expressed in the words: ‘not all are profitable, not all edify,’ understanding the first of himself and the second of the brother, for the word ‘not profitable’ indicates his own destruction, and the word ‘edify not’ indicates offense to the brother.”

Saint Chrysostom calls harm to oneself the destruction of himself, probably because through eating food offered to idols one becomes a partner of demons, and in this there is manifest ruin. Oecumenius and Theophylact see this harm in the fact that, having become accustomed to eating food offered to idols, one will again become accustomed to idols and may fall away from the Church, also to one’s ruin.

But one can understand both benefit and edification only in relation to the brothers, as the following text suggests, where nothing is said about oneself, and all attention is commanded to be directed toward the benefit of one’s neighbor. So reasons the blessed Theodoret: “By that knowledge which you ascribe to yourself, it is permitted you to do all things; but it is not beneficial for you to cause harm to others. What you do does not edify them. Suppose you are perfect, but you must also care for the weak. For the Apostle added this.”

1 Cor. 10:24. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.

“Do not look only to what you eat with a pure conscience, but especially to whether it edifies your neighbor. In many places Saint Paul sets forth this rule as most necessary. But he does not simply command not to seek one’s own benefit, but only when this harms the brother. In such a case what benefits the neighbor should be preferred to one’s own benefit, and one should choose that and abandon this” (Theophylact). The root law of Christian action: love God above all, and love your neighbor as yourself. Concerning love of oneself there is no need to write rules; it can only be limited. Love of God is chiefly an action of the heart, internal, hidden. In manifest life there acts love of neighbors alone, kindled within by love of God. You must love God above all; but active love toward God you cannot show in any way except through acts of love toward neighbors. Therefore, “let each one seek that of his neighbor” – is the sum of all moral law. But in this one must hold strictly in the soul the complementary principal thought, so that this seeking of “that of his neighbor” proceeds from love of God. For there are humanists who appear to be moved by love of mankind, while they have not only no love of God, but no faith in Him either. Empty persons!

By these two verses the Apostle reminded the Corinthians: therefore, eating food offered to idols openly in idol temples—from now on do not dare to do this. But there remained other cases in which, without knowing, one could eat food offered to idols. These the holy Paul now determines.

1 Cor. 10:25–26. Eat anything sold in the market without raising questions of conscience; for the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.

“Since the Apostle completely forbade eating food offered to idols—and at that time cities were full of such meats, and probably some out of respect for the apostolic law would not have bought them at all, while others from gluttony would have disregarded the law—therefore out of necessity he also prescribes concerning this what should be done. The essence of the prescription is as follows: at the market buy everything without asking whether it is food offered to idols or not, and then eat it without fear” (Theodoret).

Priests, not managing to consume all that was offered in sacrifice themselves, sent the surplus to the market, or perhaps someone bought it from them and sold it. In this way food offered to idols could have come to Christians. The Apostle says: what you buy at the market, eat without question, μηδέν ἀνακρίνοντες. There is as it were no thought of examination and investigation, whether it is food offered to idols; but only one thing, to eat it without any deliberation, as simple, pure food, unsullied by anything, in simplicity of mind. Our Slavonic translation expresses the Apostle’s thought exactly: “without doubting.” The word “conscience” διὰ τὴν συνείδησιν means: according to that conviction of conscience that all God’s creation is good and nothing is to be rejected. With this bright conscience, with this bright conviction eat everything that is sold in the market. Therefore he added as the foundation of such a provision: “for the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.” All is the Lord’s, and what is the Lord’s is blessed. There is no need to deliberate: eat all as God’s blessed gift.

Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle does not even allow them to doubt, that is, to examine and inquire whether this is food offered to idols or not, but commands simply to eat everything found in the market without asking what is being offered. Food offered to idols is bad not by its own nature, but produces defilement by the will of the one eating. Therefore he says: without doubting. ‘For the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness,’ not the demons’. If the earth is the Lord’s and the fruits and dumb animals, then there is nothing unclean; something becomes unclean only through the malice and disobedience of man.” Here are some more phrases of the blessed Photius, whose extensive opinion Oecumenius cites. “Eat market food without divided mind, μηδὲν διστάζοντες, with a pure, unwavering conscience. Without deliberation, ἀζητήτως eat market food with a pure conscience that does not deliberate and does not require any other assurance than the conviction that the earth is the Lord’s. If the earth is the Lord’s and what is upon it, what further need there be to deliberate?”

1 Cor. 10:27. If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you wish to go, eat everything put before you, without raising questions of conscience.

Another case: when some pagan invites you to dinner, and they had the custom of taking portions from sacrifices and bringing them home. What then should one do? – Here too the same rule applies: “eat everything put before you, without raising questions of conscience,” that is, according to the same conviction that all creation of God is good, not admitting even the thought that there might be food offered to idols here, “without raising questions,” in simplicity of mind.

The Apostle neither forbids nor commands going to pagans for dinners; he leaves this to the freedom of the one invited. Theodoret remarks: “Because it would be impossible to win over unbelievers if one severed all contact.” “And he frees those eating from all suspicion (of anything being food offered to idols),” Saint Chrysostom explains, “in order that excessive caution might not appear as an act of fear and anxiety, for whoever inquires does so from fear, while whoever refrains after learning the matter does so from aversion, contempt, and revulsion” (to idolatry and to everything connected with it). The Apostle wants that, holding firm in the conscience a steadfast conviction that one Master, the Lord, reigns over all, and that all His creatures are His, with this bright faith they should eat all things with thanksgiving to the Giver of blessings.

1 Cor. 10:28. But if someone says to you, This is food offered to idols, do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience; for the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.

Not all dishes are presumed to be food offered to idols, but only some. So if someone, when it comes to them, says: “this is food offered to idols,” in such a case do not eat. Who is this one who informs? As the Apostle does not define this, it would be more direct not to touch on this question. Whoever it may be. But since the preliminary settlement of this question, even by supposition, provides convenience for clarifying the course of all the subsequent discourse, people began to settle it. Some think it is best to understand by this a weak Christian who says this to a strong one; others think it is better to understand some pagan who says this with malicious intent to tempt the Christian and see how he will act. But the Apostle writes a rule not for one case but for all; in all cases it could happen that sometimes a weak Christian might say this, sometimes a pagan. So let us suppose: whether a weak Christian or a tempting pagan says: this is food offered to idols – do not eat, says the Apostle. Do not eat “for the sake of the one who informed you,” that is, sparing him. It is evident how sparing the weak Christian applies here. In this: if the strong one, after this notification, were to eat, the weak one could not refrain from eating, and having begun to eat, he would eat it as something having religious significance, and thereby defile his conscience; but if he refrains from eating, he will give him courage to refrain himself, and thus save him from the staining of conscience. But how does sparing the pagan apply? If a pagan says this to a Christian, it is evidently because he thinks the Christian should not eat this. Thus his pagan conscience has formed. If the Christian, despite this, were to eat, the pagan might think: what is this, Christians boast of the height of faith and moral teaching, and yet show them only a tasty morsel and they are ready to live again at peace with our gods. For him, food offered to idols is something sacred (in some manuscripts it stands ἱεροθύτον), the eating of which anoints one with the blessing of the gods. The same, according to his thought, will transfer to the Christian. How is this, he will think? And from an unfavorable thought about the Christian he will move to an unfavorable thought about Christianity. Consequently, eating after the notification given will mean degrading oneself as a Christian, degrading all Christians in one’s person, and Christianity itself. Consequently further, one’s dignity as a Christian, the honor of Christians, and Christianity itself require not to eat certain food as soon as they say it is food offered to idols. And this must be done for the sake of the one who informed and others like him, and for the sake of the informing itself. In what spirit should one do this? – In demonstration of contempt for all idolatry. Not because food offered to idols is something, but because in so far as it is offered to idols, it is abominable. Out of contempt for idolatry, I despise this food offered to idols too. Thus Saint Chrysostom: “The Apostle commands abstaining from sacrifices to idols not as from things having power, but as from things worthy of aversion. Avoid food offered to idols, says he, not because it could cause harm; it has no power whatsoever; but because it is despicable. However, on the ground that it has no power at all, do not eat it indifferently, for it is the table of enemies and the impious.”

Thus this abstention before the face of pagans will be an instructive preaching about the dignity of Christianity and the contemptibility of idolatry. “For the sake of the one who informed you” will mean in this case: so as not to close the door for him to ascend to clear knowledge of the height of Christianity, and through that the door of faith. For eating would have mixed up all his concepts and darkened the bright countenance of the faith of Christ.

“And conscience.” Whose conscience? – The Apostle explains below: not one’s own conscience, but that of another. In the previous two cases (1 Cor. 10:25, 27) conscience was understood as one’s own, but here as that of another. Whose then? – Most nearly, the one who informed. Whether a pagan says: this is food offered to idols, or a weak Christian, not eating this food offered to idols will be healing for the conscience of either of them.

“For the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.” This should be connected with the course of the discourse thus: I mean not your conscience, but that of another; for your conscience there remains unchanged that conviction, that in the kingdom of the Lord all is good and nothing is to be rejected. “I am not forbidding this, says he, as if it were an alien thing, for the earth is the Lord’s, but “for the sake of conscience,” that is, so as not to cause harm. So then, must one inquire? – No, says he, I mean not your conscience but that of another, for I previously said: ‘for the sake of the one who informed’” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:29. I speak not concerning my own conscience, but another’s; why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience?

Act thus, sparing the conscience of another, yet not changing your own convictions. When another says: “this is food offered to idols” – from this word your conviction, that all creation is God’s good, and consequently this food offered to idols too is good, receiving no defilement by itself, must not change, must not pass over to the thought that before you is a thing alien to God, not His creation. In this be firm, but refrain from eating for the benefit of others. Not submitting to the opinion of those speaking, act thus, but following an entirely different principle – the will of God, which commands to love one’s neighbor and care for his welfare, especially spiritual more than bodily. They speak because they consider food offered to idols as something, but you refrain not because of this, but to show them that, having turned away from idolatry, you do not wish anything to have contact with it, you loathe and abhor it.

“Why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience?” He sets forth the reason why in his word one should understand the conscience of another, not one’s own. He speaks as if to say: the conscience of another is not a law for me. I must follow my own conviction, not another’s. According to my conviction I have full freedom with respect to every kind of food; others judge differently. By this judgment my conscience and my freedom are not bound. And I could eat without perturbation despite the indication that what is offered is food offered to idols; but I refrain not because of this word: it does not bind me, and I remain free even with it. It is another law that binds me, that of my own conscience, not another’s. Saint Chrysostom develops a different thought – that if I eat of my freedom, pagans, not understanding why I do so, will condemn this freedom. I do not want to permit this to happen, for the condemnation of my freedom is the condemnation of Christian freedom in general. I do not want to be the cause of this. He says: “By freedom he means – not being bound to observe and not being subject to prohibition (with respect to food). And the sense of his words is this: God created me free (or recreated me in Christ for freedom) and set me above all harm, but a pagan neither knows how to judge my wisdom nor understands the bounty of my Master, but will condemn me and say to himself: the teaching of Christians is a fable; they flee from idols, avoid demons, yet do not refuse what is offered to them: great is their gluttony. What then, you will say, is the harm for us if he judges us thus unjustly? But is it not far better not to give him occasion for condemnation at all? (Judgment from one person passes into condemnation of the faith.) If you refrain, he will not say this. – How will he not say it? Seeing that I, without inquiring, use everything both at the market and at the feast, how will he not say and condemn me for using everything indifferently? – Indeed not, for you use it not as food offered to idols but as clean; without inquiring you show that you do not fear what is offered. Therefore, whether you enter a pagan’s house or come to the market, I do not permit you to inquire, so that you might not be anxious and timid and not bring unnecessary cares upon yourself.”

1 Cor. 10:30. If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I reviled for that which I give thanks?

This passage is somewhat obscure. By grace one should understand the grace of faith, which has enlightened our understanding and given us to understand that we can freely eat any kind of food as God’s gift. So I do: I eat all things and give thanks to God. But if I eat indiscriminately in every case, then others, not understanding the matter, will condemn me for it, and through me also my faith. I do not want to allow this to happen. – This is the sense of the words: “why am I reviled” – I do not want reviling to fall upon me. Oecumenius writes: “By God’s grace, which has made my soul so elevated that I am convinced that I am not defiled by such things, by this grace I eat with boldness. But if, says he, you are such, if by God’s grace you have reached the knowledge that an idol is nothing and there is no harm in you eating food offered to idols, then why do you allow yourself to be reviled, and through you faith, and even God – and that by the very thing for which you should give thanks, having received perfect understanding of things. The Apostle turns his exhortation on the Corinthians through his own person.”

Saint Chrysostom says (of “for which I give thanks”): “What then, tell me, do you receive with thanksgiving? – God’s gifts. His grace is such that it makes my soul pure and sets it above all uncleanness. As the sun, touching with its rays all unclean things, keeps its rays clean, so we too, moving about in the world, can remain clean if we wish, and all the more as we have greater strength. Why then, you will say, refrain? – Not because otherwise one might become unclean, but for the brother, so as not to have fellowship with demons, and so as not to be subjected to condemnation by the unbeliever. Here it is not the nature of foods, but disobedience and fellowship with demons that makes me unclean, and defilement depends on willing choice. What then do the words mean: ‘why am I reviled, for which I give thanks’? – I, says he, give thanks to God that He has so magnified me and set me so far above Jewish degradation (for with them: ‘do not touch’ and so forth), that nothing can harm me; but pagans, not knowing my wisdom, will suspect the contrary and will say: Christians desire our company; they are hypocrites, they revile demons and shun them, yet they flock to our tables; what could be more unreasonable than this? So they did not accept this teaching for truth, but from ambition and licentiousness. – Therefore, is it not foolish to give occasion for reviling for those very benefits for which thanksgiving is offered? But, you will say, a pagan will say this even when he sees that I do not inquire. No, for not everything is filled with food offered to idols, to have such suspicion; moreover you eat this not as food offered to idols. So, do not inquire needlessly; but on the other hand, do not accept food when they tell you it is food offered to idols. Christ, having given you grace, has so magnified you and set you above all harm not so that you might give occasion for ill fame about you, and not so that by those very prerogatives for which you give thanks you might so offend others that they might revile.”

1 Cor. 10:31. Whether therefore you eat or drink or do anything else, do all to the glory of God.

“The Apostle covers all considerations with one universal rule: “Do you see how he moved from the particular subject in his teaching to the general and taught us an excellent rule – to glorify God in all things?” (Saint Chrysostom). From this it is evident that, in the Apostle’s thought, from indiscriminate eating of food offered to idols a certain shadow fell upon faith itself and upon God. Therefore the Apostle set forth this general law: that we are obliged to use not only food and drink, but do all other things to the glory of God – permitting ourselves nothing through which anyone, even to the slightest degree, might think something not praiseworthy about our holy faith and about God. Beautifully does the Apostle combine all these – both sitting and walking and conversing and grieving and instructing – into one, so that in all things to set for himself one goal – the glory of God. So the Lord also commanded: ‘Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven’ (Matt. 5:16). So it is said here too” (Theodoret). “Thus, says he, do all things so as to thereby give occasion for the glorification of God, making clear that what they then did served to God’s dishonor and to reviling of Him and of His holy faith” (Oecumenius). “One eats and drinks to the glory of God when one eats and drinks not to the offense of another, not as a glutton and lover of pleasure, but as one wishing to maintain the body so that it might be capable of doing every virtue; and simply, anyone does anything to the glory of God when he neither harms another through offense, nor himself by anything, and when he does nothing from pleasing men or from any other passionate thought” (Theophylact).

1 Cor. 10:32. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God.

“That is, give no one any occasion for offense (do not eat). Otherwise the brother will be offended, and the Jew will even more hate and condemn you, and the pagan will laugh at you as at a glutton and a hypocrite. One must not offend not only the brothers, but, if possible, even the outsiders. For if we are light, leaven, lights and salt, then we must enlighten, not darken, strengthen, not weaken, draw unbelievers to ourselves, not drive them away from ourselves. Why then do you drive away those whom you should draw? Truly, pagans are offended when they see that we return to these things, because they do not know our way of thinking and that our soul has become above every sensual defilement; Jews and weak brothers will experience the same thing. Do you see how many reasons he has given for why one must abstain from sacrifices to idols? Then, when he said: ‘give no offense,’ he laid upon them responsibility for the offense of Jews and pagans, and expressed something grievous” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:33. Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved.

“To seek what is beneficial for all – that is the rule of the most perfect Christianity, that is its exact purpose, that is the height of perfection” (Saint Chrysostom). “To please all and to flatter are properties of flatterers, but not what the Apostle says of himself. Flatterers seek not the benefit of others but their own, or rather, neither do they seek their own, because they harm themselves more than others. But the divine Apostle sought not his own but had in view the salvation of others, thereby multiplying for them imperishable wealth” (Theodoret). How Saint Paul was “all things to all people, that by all means he might save some,” he has already spoken. Now he only reminds of this, setting the pattern of his own action as a law for all. This is the third principle as guidance for the ordering of our life, or even the fourth: first, that we should do all things with a clear and firm conscience, with true awareness of the conformity of a deed with God’s will; second, that we should do all things to the glory of God, not only having as a goal the glory of God, but so that the glory of God proceeds from our action itself; third, that we should not offend anyone, not only intentionally but also unintentionally; fourth, that we should direct everything toward the salvation of our neighbors in word and deed. To what extent the Apostle was ready to sacrifice all for the salvation of others we can judge from his prayer, in which he expressed his readiness even to be accursed, if only his brothers would be saved (Rom. 9:3). Such disposition, more than anything else, gave him boldness to say:

1 Cor. 11:1. Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

“This word is not arrogance but a desire to every way dispose toward the work he was urging. If, says he, I imitated Christ, who despised His life to give us life, should not you all the more imitate me? For I am not so much above you as Christ is above me, infinitely surpassing all” (Theophylact). Or, limiting the mind’s gaze to only the subjects flowing in the discourse, the Apostle speaks as if to say: “Rival me in these measures in the work of the economy, because I imitate the Master, who spoke otherwise with the Jews and otherwise with the Apostles, offered one thing to the perfect and another to the imperfect” (Theodoret).

Saint Chrysostom says: “You cannot imitate Christ better than through care for your neighbors. Abstention from sacrifices to idols is in itself a useful work, but I, says the Apostle, did much that was not useful, for example, I was circumcised and offered sacrifices; such actions, if examined in themselves, can even destroy those who do them and deprive them of salvation, but I subjected myself even to this for the benefit that proceeded from it. Thus Paul, being above all in perfection, became lower than all in condescension! Do you see the excellence of his zeal and the greatness of his soul? Imitate him too.”

Part Five. The Rebuke and Correction of Certain Disorders at the Church Assemblies (1 Corinthians 11:2–34)

The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6)

This concerns two subjects: 1) women not covering their heads in church (1 Cor. 11:2–16); and 2) disorders at love feasts (1 Cor. 11:17–34).

1. Against Women Not Covering Their Heads in Church (1 Cor. 11:2–16)

“The matter was this. “Women with bore and uncovered heads prayed and prophesied—women prophesied then too—while men grew their hair long, like those engaged in philosophy, and covered their heads when they prayed and prophesied, following pagan law in both respects” (Saint Chrysostom). Finding this unbecoming for Christians, the Apostle writes against it; however, as appears, his discourse is directed chiefly against women who did not cover their heads. He insists that they should cover them as a sign of their subordinate position with respect to their husbands, clarifying this position by a) the order of the economy of salvation (1 Cor. 11:2–6), and b) the order of creation (1 Cor. 11:7–12), applying as confirmation of his thought c) the requirement of common sense (1 Cor. 11:13–16).”

o) A Woman’s Head Should Be Covered According to the Order of the Economy of Salvation (1 Cor. 11:2–6)

1 Cor. 11:2. I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions just as I passed them on to you.

With these words he paves the way for the rebuke that follows. When he was with them, he established among them comprehensive orders by which their family, civil, and church life was formed. All my teaching, he says, you remember, and the traditions I delivered you hold fast to. Remember what I commanded, and keep the orders that I established. At the same time, he was already rebuking many disorders among them, and will continue to do so. What does this praise mean? – One may suppose that the disordered matters were revealed in the Apostle’s absence and were discovered in subjects regarding which no detailed provisions had been made; therefore he speaks as if to say: the things I established among you, these you all keep well, but lo, disorders have appeared among you in other respects; I am writing to you about them and making new provisions so that you may correct yourselves, in full hope that you will also keep and hold all this faultlessly. Or we can understand it this way: that for the most part the Church of Corinth was correct in everything and acted as he commanded, deviations occurring only in some cases and appearing in some persons. In such a case praise for the majority is the best incentive for the minority to rival them in correctness. Saint Chrysostom understands it this way too. “By praising the correct ones and rebuking the incorrect, the Apostle encourages the former and shames the latter. Rebuke, though it can affect of itself, has even greater power when joined with praise of the correct. Therefore he does not begin with rebukes but with praises, and great praises at that, and says: ‘I praise you because you remember all my teaching.’ So Paul usually acts: for small virtues he gives great praise, doing this not from flattery—far be it!—for how could he who sought neither money nor fame nor anything of the sort have used flattery? But in all things he had in view their salvation. – ‘And hold fast to the traditions just as I passed them on to you.’ Consequently, he had previously delivered much to them orally, as he expresses in many other places too; but before he only left them traditions, and now he adds the reason. Thus he further strengthens the obedient and destroys the pride of the disobedient. He does not say: I praise you for obeying when others did not obey, but, without expressing it directly, hints at it in the further exposition of his instruction.”

1 Cor. 11:3. Now I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

He speaks as if to say: on the whole I praise you, but behold, this and that with you are not entirely correct. And, intending to begin with women’s not covering their heads in church, he first sets forth a firm foundation for reasoning about this: the hierarchy of subordination that is ordered in Christ Jesus, according to the economy of salvation.

“I want you to understand.” As if they did not know what he speaks of here? – Certainly they knew, and the Apostle’s word means only: bring to mind, acknowledge, or imagine the following truth. Unless we suppose that they did not know it in the form or relation in which it is presented here, for it is presented here as nowhere else. In such a case the Apostle communicates to them a new truth for their knowledge.

“The head of every man is Christ.” Christ is the head of all, the Head of the entire Church, as in the body the head is the head not of the chest only, or arms or legs, but of the whole body. Consequently, the woman’s head too is Christ. But as in the body some members relate directly to the head while others do it through the mediation of other members, so in the Church the holy Apostles and their successors, the presiding elders of the Churches, and generally the priesthood relate more directly to Christ as the head; other members of the Church, though united with Christ as the head, in many cases have need of their mediation. Similarly there is something by which the man appears to relate more directly to Christ as the head, while the woman, though she has Christ as her head just as the man does, relates to Him in a certain way through the man. In what sense precisely? Certainly not in that in which she is saved in the Lord; in this respect everything is from the Lord for her as for the man. Faith is from the Lord, grace is from the Lord, all help is from the Lord too. And all this is communicated to the woman not at all through the man as man. This all follows its divinely ordained order. What order? – The Apostle does not clarify this, and it is very difficult to bring forth a certain guess about it from oneself. One thought suggests itself—that in Christ Jesus the customary subordination of the woman to the man is not broken, and that although the woman is also united with the Lord, she is not cut off from subordination to the man; and she is in the Lord while remaining under the man. As children and parents, masters and servants, subordinates and superiors remain in the Lord what they were according to the worldly order, so do husband and wife. Here the man is taken as the head and representative of the family.

“The head of the woman is man.” Did not the women in Corinth claim equality with men in all respects, knowing that in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female and that women have access to Him as freely as men? The Apostle with this word puts them in their proper order. You are baptized in the same way, and you received the gift of the Spirit in chrismation in the same way, and you partake of the body and blood of Christ in the same way, and the inheritance of the kingdom is promised to you in the same way; but for all that do not forget that the head of the woman is man. “Wishing to subordinate women to men and teaching that from of old God commanded them to be under the authority of men, the Apostle employed this form of expression” (Theodoret).

“The head of Christ is God.” Christ’s head is God, as the God-man, according to the economy of salvation. And the Son of God incarnate is God, in no way less than God the Father and God the Holy Spirit; but having taken upon Himself, in the counsel of the Godhead, to fulfill the economy of salvation, He, even as God, is the fulfiller of what was determined in the counsel of the Godhead. Therefore He says that He came down from heaven not to do His own will but the will of the One who sent Him. In this respect God is the head of Christ.

Theodoret holds that “the Apostle did not present divine dogmas or expound theology, but ordered his discourse in this manner.” What then did he intend? Only to direct attention to the submission of the wife to the husband from a Christian perspective. On the basis of these words one cannot conclude that just as the wife submits to the husband and the husband to Christ, so also does Christ submit to God. If the husband falls immeasurably short of Christ, and in the same measure his submission to Christ, then, measuring the wife’s submission to the husband by this same measure, where would we find the extent of it? Holy Chrysostom says: “If in this entire discourse we take the word ‘head’ in the same sense, then the wife will be lower than the husband to the extent that the husband is lower than God the Word. But who can accept this?” In presenting this ladder of the wife’s submission to the husband, the husband’s to Christ, and Christ’s to God, the Apostle does not define the precise measure of the wife’s submission, but only directs the mind to it, having principally in view the subordinate position of the wife with respect to the husband. Though we do not understand this text precisely, the Apostle’s principal thought is evident, and this is sufficient for us.

1 Cor. 11:4–5. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head: for it is one and the same as if she were shorn.

The connection these words have with the preceding ones is not apparent. They seem to form a separate statement, independent of those. One might suppose that between them a connecting thought has been omitted, namely this: if the woman even in the order of grace remains in a subordinate position with respect to the husband, she ought to manifest this in all her external appearance, just as the husband by his external appearance ought to show his authority and superiority over the woman. Among these signs of the woman’s submission to the husband and of the husband’s authority over the woman is this: that she always covers her head, while he does not cover it in certain situations. From this it follows directly that if she uncovers her head and he covers his, they step outside their proper place, and thus shame themselves.

Holy Chrysostom introduces this mediating thought into the commentary on this passage: “To the man and woman many signs have been given—to one of authority, to the other of submission—among them also this: that the woman is covered and the man has his head uncovered. If such are the signs, then both of them err if they violate good order and God’s commandment, if they transgress their proper bounds, the man falling to the degradation of the woman, and the woman raising herself above the man by her external appearance. For if it is not permitted them to change their clothing, that is, for the woman to dress in men’s garments or for the man to put on women’s clothing, ‘there shall not be’, it says, ‘the garment of a man on a woman, nor shall a man clothe himself in a woman’s robe’ (Deut. 22:5); then it is not permitted to change with respect to head coverings either. That one is covered and the other not covered comes from nature itself. By the name of nature I understand God, for He is the creator of nature. Therefore, if you transgress these bounds, see how much harm will result. Do not say to me that this transgression is trivial; it is great in itself, because it is disobedience, and even if it were trivial in itself, it would be great because it concerns the sign of great matters. And that this sign is great is evident from the fact that it produces good order in the human race, presenting in the proper manner both ruler and subject; but one who acts contrary to this brings everything into confusion, deprives himself of God’s gifts, diminishes the honor given to him from above—not only the man but also the woman. For it is a great honor for her to keep her place, and conversely, it is shameful to step outside the bounds. Therefore the Apostle speaks thus of them both.”

However, since in all this discourse on head covering the attention is directed principally to the woman, one can say with confidence that mention of the man shaming himself by covering his head is made here only for completeness of speech and for clarity by means of contrast. With respect to the woman, some interpreters conjecture that a woman who covers her head signals to all that she has a husband and lives with him honorably, while one who uncovers her head signals that she has no husband and is not steadfast in her principles. Thus she shames herself before all honorable people. Some also say that in the locality for which this epistle was written, pagan women went openly to their temples with unchaste purposes. In driving this custom out of the Christian temple, the Apostle writes thus, not mentioning the shameful purposes of the pagan women, but deriving the prohibition from other sources, so that by this mention he not defile chaste souls, but by this derivation of the command from a higher source, sanctify it and the very matter it concerns by universal Christian understanding, so that in all things Christ the Lord with His commandments is seen.

Holy Chrysostom says also about the very derivation of the commandment from Christian principles, or its confirmation by reasons, that there need not have been any, for the believing are sufficed by the commandment alone; the Apostle brings this reason for the weak. “The Apostle brings this reason,” he says, “so as to make the weak more attentive. For the believer who is properly faithful and steadfast in faith has no need of either proof or reason for what is commanded him, but is content with tradition alone; but the weak one, learning the reason, observes what is said with greater zeal and obeys with greater devotion.”

What does it mean: “a woman praying and prophesying”? In the first time, in the gatherings of the believers, God’s Spirit manifested its special working on some, and inspired one with prayer, another with a word of edification. Both prayer and the word of edification could arise from one’s own reflection and deepening in Christian truths. But they knew how to distinguish what was from the Spirit and what was their own. The one who felt this stirring would rise and utter before the assembly what God’s Spirit had inspired him: a prayer or a word of edification. The gift of being in such a state was not denied to women either, and they likewise would rise and utter prayers or words of edification. But the Apostles found that it was unseemly for women in the church to utter prayers or to read instructions, and therefore forbade it, as holy Paul later forbade it as well (in 1 Cor. 14). Here he speaks only of the impropriety of doing it with head uncovered, so as not suddenly to burden them with his commandment. The word of edification is called prophesying here because this inspiration resembled the prophetic state. Moreover, both in prayer and in speech there often entered direct prophecies—that is, predictions about the future.

Holy Chrysostom says: “At that time there were both men who prophesied and women who had this gift, for example the daughters of Philip and others before and after them. Of them the prophet of old spoke: ‘Your sons shall prophesy… and your daughters shall see visions’ (Joel 2:28). The Apostle commands a man to be uncovered not always, but only during prayer; but he commands a woman to be covered always, as is evident from the addition: ‘for it is one and the same as if she were shorn’. If being shorn always is shameful, then it is clear that being uncovered always is shameful.”

1 Cor. 11:6. For if a woman does not cover herself, let her also be shorn; but if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her cover herself.

“First he requires that the woman not uncover her head during prayer, and then explains that she must be covered constantly; and moreover, covered with all care and circumspection, for he did not say simply ‘let her be covered’ (καλυπτεσθαι), but ‘let her cover herself’ (κατακαλυπτεσθαι)—that is, she must carefully cover herself on all sides. He shows also the impropriety of the opposite course of action, and severely reproaches it when he says: ‘if she does not cover herself, let her be shorn’; if, he says, you cast off the veil established by God’s law, then cast off what nature has given you as well. But someone might say: how can it be dishonorable for the woman if she attains to the honor of the man? To this we answer: by doing so she not only does not exalt herself but deprives herself of her own honor. For to fail to keep one’s own bounds and the laws established by God, but to transgress them—this is not exaltation but degradation. Just as one who desires what is another’s and seizes what does not belong to him does not gain but is degraded and loses even what he had, as happened in paradise; so also the woman in this case does not gain the nobility of the man but loses her own propriety. Thus, having pointed to what is undoubtedly recognized as shameful in the words: ‘if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved’, the Apostle finally says of himself: ‘let her cover herself’—he did not say ‘let her grow her hair’, but ‘let her cover herself’, suggesting that both are the same. Veil and long hair, he says, are one and the same; just as a shorn and uncovered head are one and the same, ‘for it is’, he says, ‘one and the same as if she were shorn’. But someone will ask: how are they one and the same when the one has a natural covering and the shorn one does not even have this? The one, we answer, with an uncovered head by her will has rejected even the natural covering; if she is not without hair, this is the work of nature, not of her; therefore, just as the shorn one has an uncovered head, so does she. For this reason God commanded nature to cover the head with hair, so that the woman, learning from nature, would also cover herself” (Holy Chrysostom).

The Order of Creation and Common Sense on the Covering of the Head (1 Corinthians 11:7–16)

1 Cor. 11:7–8. For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.

“This is now the second reason” (Holy Chrysostom). The Apostle proceeds to explain the submission of the woman to the man according to the order of creation. Man was created first, and created in the image and likeness of God: he is the reflection of God’s glory. The woman was then taken from man, as if created according to his image already, and is therefore the image of an image, or is the reflection of the man’s glory. Therefore he adds as proof of this: “for man was not made from woman, but woman from man”.

Theodoret, limiting the image of God to the dominion over creatures given to man, says in keeping with the flow of discourse: “Man is the image of God by virtue of authority. Since authority over all that is on earth is entrusted to him, he is called the image of God. But the woman, being under the authority of the man, ‘is the glory of the man’, and as it were the image of the image. For though she too has authority over others, she is commanded to be in submission to the man.”

From this, Holy Chrysostom draws the following: “The man ought not be covered not only because he has Christ as his head, but also because he has authority over the woman (according to the order of creation). When one who has authority approaches the king, he must have on him the signs of his authority. Therefore, just as no one with authority would dare to appear before one crowned with a diadem without a belt and clothing fitting his rank, neither do you pray to God without the signs of your authority—that is, with uncovered head—lest you bring dishonor both to yourself and to the one who honored you. The same thing must be said of the woman: it is likewise dishonorable for her not to have the signs of her submission.”

1 Cor. 11:9. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.

Man was created first, and thus shows a certain independent significance. The woman was created according to man’s need to be in society with one like himself, and was created to be a helper to the man. By this is expressed her dependent and subordinate position. “Thus the man has precedence according to the order of creation. And this is sufficient to prove that to the man belongs authority and the right to rule, because he was not brought into being for the woman’s sake, but she for the man’s sake” (Theodoret). “This is the second advantage, or rather the third and fourth. The first is that our head is Christ, and we are the head of woman; the second is that we are the glory of God, and our glory is woman; the third is that we are not from woman but woman from us; the fourth is that we are not for her but she is for us” (Holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 11:10. For this reason a woman ought to have authority over her head, because of the angels.

“Why then? Because of all the reasons shown, and furthermore ‘because of the angels’. If you, he says, do not heed the man, then be ashamed before the angels” (Holy Chrysostom). “To have authority over her head”—that is, the sign of the man’s authority over her—is the head covering. “The Apostle called the veil ‘authority’, as if to say: let her show her submission by covering herself, and especially because of the angels, who are set over men, because to them is entrusted care for them. So also in Acts it is said of Peter (who knocked at the door): not he himself, but ‘his angel’ (Acts 12:15). And the Lord says: ‘see that you do not despise one of these little ones’, who believe in Me; ‘for I say to you, their angels always see the face of My heavenly Father’ (Matt. 18:10)”.

Some interpret “because of the angels” as referring to men—that is, to the leaders of the Church, or the more honorable of the Christians present in the Church. But there is no need to depart from the usual meaning of the word “angels.” What then is the thought: “because of the angels”? Being ashamed before them, or fearing to offend them. The very thought of the invisible presence of angels ought to restrain one and keep one in one’s proper place. For the angels themselves, the covering or uncovering of the head is equally indifferent; but the manner and spirit with which it is done can either comfort them or offend them; and this especially if the evil is not limited to one person openly bearing an uncovered head, but spreads around her. Sometimes the enemy through one person brings harm to hundreds.

“Thus, covering is a sign of obedience and submission; it prompts one to look down, to humble oneself and keep virtue, for the virtue and honor of the one who is subject consist in remaining in obedience. The man is not prescribed to do this, for he is the image of the Lord Himself; but the woman is rightly prescribed to do so” (Holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 11:11–12. Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man, nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. But all things are from God.

The argument is concluded. But as it seems to magnify the husband’s authority too much, which could give husbands occasion not only to take pride in themselves, but also to display excessive dominance and hunger for power, the Apostle, to prevent this, says that the husband also is in a certain dependence upon the wife, and therefore ought to show his superiority over her with moderation: not everything is on the husband’s side, but there is something also on the wife’s side. This the Apostle expresses in the words: “neither is the man without the woman,” and “the man [comes] through the woman.” But what precisely is indicated by this is difficult to determine.

The first proposition: “neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man, in the Lord.” By the phrase “in the Lord” it is shown that here we are speaking of man and woman as they exist in Christ Jesus. “In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.” To both equally the path to the Lord is open, and both are equally received. From this it follows: Do not be divided, and do not present yourselves divided before the Lord; but as the Lord has joined you together, so draw near to Him united. Neither does the man stand before the Lord as if he had no wife, nor the woman as if she had no husband. But neither man without woman nor woman without man ever be in the Lord. Placing this thought in correspondence with the first reason for the wife’s submission to the husband, according to the order of the economy [of salvation], we can say that just as the equality of husband and wife in the Lord does not annul her submission to him, so also the law of her submission to him does not annul their equality in the Lord. And this last point, it seems, holy Paul intended to set forth here.

The second proposition: “For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman” transfers the thought to man and woman as they exist in the order of creation. First the woman was taken from (εξ) the man; then the man came to be born through the woman (δια). By this is said, as it were: the woman has relation to the man from whom she was taken; and do you likewise look upon the nature of her who gave you birth in the woman, and treat her with respect.

“All things are of God.” “All things” – all such relations of yours, or “all things” – both of you – are from God. God has created both of you, and has arranged all things concerning you thus, and keep these ordinances of God, whether they be according to nature or according to grace. Saint Chrysostom says: “Do not look,” he says, “only to the original privileges and the creation, but attend to what follows, and you will see that each of them depends on the other, or rather, not on each other, but all on God.”

q) For a Woman to Cover Her Head – a Requirement of Sound Judgment (1 Cor. 11:13–16)

1 Cor. 11:13. Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God uncovered?

At last the Apostle appeals to natural feeling or judgment. Again he leaves it to them to judge the matter themselves, just as he did in the discussion about food offered to idols. And he intimates something fearful: “Here,” he says, “the affront touches God; but he does not say this directly; rather he expresses himself more gently and covertly: ‘Is it proper for a woman to pray to God uncovered?’” (Saint Chrysostom). He directs his discourse to the woman alone, by which he shows that all the foregoing was spoken chiefly for her instruction, though his word concerned the man as well.

1 Cor. 11:14–15. Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her as a covering.

“If a woman counts it an honor to have hair, but considers its removal a disgrace, let her consider how she dishonors Him who gave her the hair, when she approaches Him in prayer without proper modesty and honor” (Theodoret). “As in many other places he always uses well-known proofs, so here also he appeals to a well-known custom and powerfully shames those who receive instruction from him, in that they could have known this from ordinary custom, for it is not unknown even to the barbarians” (Saint Chrysostom).

But the discussion is about covering the head with coverings, while the custom cited speaks of growing one’s hair. What is the connection? The Apostle indicated this connection earlier, when he said that for a woman to be without a covering is the same as being shorn. Now he expresses the same thing from the opposite side: for a woman to be without a covering is the same as being shorn, and with a covering it is the same as growing long hair. As growing long hair is glory to a woman, so covering the head is glory. “But you may say: if the growing ‘of hair is given instead of a covering’ to a woman, why add one garment to another? In order to show submission not only by nature but by choice. Nature has already established that you should be covered, and you add something of yourself, lest it appear that you are violating the laws of nature; for to resist not only us, but nature itself, is a sign of great shamelessness” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 11:16. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.

“Since he was writing to those eager to philosophize, who had the custom of defending their thoughts by syllogisms and refuting those of others, he says to them: this is not the time to argue. Whoever shall shamefully rise up against what has been said, we and the churches of God do not have such a practice. What practice? Arguing; but we gladly submit to the directives of the teachers, in no way contradicting them” (Oecumenius). “We,” he says, “do not have such a practice that we argue, contend, and contradict. Not stopping at this, he adds: ‘nor do the churches of God,’ suggesting that in disobeying they make war against and resist the whole world. Therefore, resistance is a sign of obstinacy, not of sound judgment” (Saint Chrysostom).

Or the Apostle’s discourse proceeds thus: I have argued, persuaded, explained that women in the church ought to have their heads covered; for the attentive and sensible this is sufficient. But if someone raises an objection and invents arguments against it, to such a one I say: there is no point in arguing; the matter is settled; we and all the churches of God do not have such a practice, that is, the practice of women appearing in the church with uncovered heads. Leave off your objections and submit to the common voice. Saint Chrysostom concludes his word on this: “If then the Corinthians contradicted this law, but now the whole world has received and keeps it. Such is the power of the Crucified One!” This second interpretation is adopted by Oecumenius, Theophylact, and Theodoret. The latter writes: “These words are sufficient to shame even the most contentious,” for the Apostle showed that such an opinion is not his alone, but that of all the churches of God.

The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

“First of all, we must explain the reason for the censure that is about to be offered, so that our discourse will be more easily understood. What then is the nature of this reason? Just as in the beginning the believers, numbering three thousand, ate food at a common table and held all things in common (this was in Jerusalem, immediately after the descent of the Holy Spirit), so it was also at the time when the Apostle wrote this, though not with such exactness, but rather as if some remnant of the former community had been preserved and observed in the subsequent time. The believers, of whom some were rich and others poor, though they did not surrender all their possessions to common use, nevertheless on appointed days by custom established common tables, and after the completion of the assembly and communion in the Mysteries, they all gathered for a common meal, with the rich bringing provisions and the poor and those who had nothing being invited by them; and thus they ate food all together. A custom both beautiful and beneficial! For it served to maintain love, to console poverty, to use wealth well, to instill great wisdom, to preserve humility” (Saint Chrysostom). It was introduced also in Corinth, as everywhere, and at first all proceeded in order here, but then certain disorders arose which perverted the very essence of these feasts. Learning of this, Saint Paul now directs to them a word of rebuke and correction.

The course of his discourse is as follows: a) first he points out what the disorders are and rebukes them (1 Cor. 11:17–22); b) then, to dispose them toward reverence with regard to the feasts of love, he speaks of the sacrament of the Body and Blood, namely—aa) as it was instituted (1 Cor. 11:23–26) and bb) how to approach it worthily (1 Cor. 11:27–32), and c) finally he makes ordinances regarding the order at the feasts of love (1 Cor. 11:33–34).

r) Pointing Out and Rebuking Disorders at the Feasts of Love (1 Cor. 11:17–22)

1 Cor. 11:17. Now in this that I declare to you I praise you not, for your assemblies are not for the better, but for the worse.

“Now in this that I declare to you,” παραγγελλων, proclaiming, presenting. These words relate to the preceding. Upon this it comes to mind to observe the following: beginning his discourse on the covering of their heads by women in the church (1 Cor. 11:2), the Apostle said: “I praise you, that you remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you.” Then follows the discourse about the covering of their heads by women in the church, and no hint is made that the Corinthians were not observing this, but it is written only in general that this should be and how absurd the contrary is. Only at the end of the discussion is it added: if anyone wishes to dispute after all that has been said, let him know that such is the custom everywhere. This tone of discourse is so general, without hint of negligence, that it gives the thought that the Corinthian women did cover their heads and were fulfilling the Apostle’s command; there were only some clever persons who argued against it. The Apostle writes: I praise you that you do as I commanded; and against the objectors he sets forth reasons why women should conduct themselves thus and not otherwise in the church, adding at the conclusion: contend no further, for all the churches do likewise.

So it will be: I praise that you do as I delivered, and against the objectors I say this and that… Proclaiming this, I do not praise this—that “your assemblies are not for the better, but for the worse.” Perhaps it is better understood this way.

“You come together,” that is, you gather at the feasts of love. “Not for the better, but for the worse” conveys the thought that formerly it was well with you, but now it has become bad. It should have been that all would be advancing forward and ascending to what is better, but they have moved backward and descended to what is worse. “I reprove you justly, for it should have been that with the passage of time virtue would increase, but you are losing it and diminishing this wealth” (Theodoret). “When you should have been advancing and growing in love, you have already shortened the prevailing custom, and shortened it so that there is need for my exhortation to you to return to the former order” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 11:18. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.

What was the nature of the disorder? In this: when all should have been eating the feast of love together, they divided into groups, or by families, or by cliques, leaving the poor to themselves, whereas the very purpose of instituting this feast was that even the poor on these days of common communion in the Holy Mysteries would have consolation from those of sufficient means. He states this plainly in verse 21; here he indicates the same thing by the general expression: “divisions.” “Divisions” σχισματα, separations—which shows that they were not quarreling, but simply dividing themselves because they were unwilling to share their abundance with those who had nothing. Saint Chrysostom says: “That he might not appear to speak only in behalf of the poor, the Apostle does not at once begin to speak of the tables, but, that his rebuke might not be taken by them as of little consequence, he employs an expression more striking and inspiring greater fear. What then does he say? ‘I hear…divisions.’ He does not say: I hear that you do not establish common feasts; I hear that each eats his food separately and not together with the poor; but he employs an expression which could shake their souls more mightily, namely: ‘divisions’ (separations into parts, as one tears a garment into shreds), which were the cause both of this disorder, and thus again reminds them of that which had been spoken at the beginning of the epistle and which had been announced to him by those of the household of Chloe. ‘And I partly believe it.’ That they might not say: what if some slanderers have lied?—He does not say: ‘I believe,’ that they might not become shameless; he does not say: ‘I do not believe,’ that the rebuke might not seem superfluous; but: ‘I partly,’ he says, ‘believe it,’ that is, I believe it somewhat, and thus makes them attentive and calls them to correction.”

Thus the first must either be understood as left without the second, or we must attribute to it that they divided into groups, when they should have all made one feast, one common table; and under the second we place that they abandoned the poor.

“When you come together in the church.” They came together in the church not directly for the feast of love, but to celebrate the Eucharist and to commune in the Holy Mysteries. After this sacred action they instituted the feast of love, made from the remnants of what was brought for the bloodless sacrifice and from what was brought directly for the feast. The censured disorder could not fail to indicate a lack of reverence toward the sacrament of the Body and Blood; therefore immediately after this the Apostle speaks of the importance of this sacrament and of the attention due to it. Why did this come to pass? They became accustomed, they grew used to it, and began to regard everything in the church, as at any other ordinary worldly matter, and conduct it according to their own inclination. And there came forward: this is mine, and you yourself prepare for yourself.

Does the word “church” mean only an assembly?—Perhaps it means only that; but there is nothing strange in that there was also a particular place for assemblies, whether a new building or one yielded by one of the believers. To have a particular place for common prayer and satisfaction of religious needs is a requirement of faith. No special ordinances are needed for its selection and establishment. This happens of itself.

1 Cor. 11:19. For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.

“By the name of heresies he understands here not errors concerning doctrines, but actual (and similar) divisions. However, if he were speaking even of errors concerning doctrines, even in such a case he would not give occasion for offense (in the word: ‘there must be’). For Christ also said: ‘Offenses will certainly come’ (Matt. 18:7), and yet he did not destroy freedom of will and did not place us in any necessity and inevitability, but foreknew the future that was to come from evil human will, not as a consequence of his foreknowledge, but from the will of wicked people. Offenses did not come about because he foreknew them, but rather he foreknew that they were to come about. For if offenses happened by necessity and not by the will of those who cause them, then he would have spoken in vain: ‘Woe to that man by whom the offense comes’ (Matt. 18:7).—That the Apostle indeed called the disorders at the tables and the divisions occurring with them ‘heresies’ he clearly expressed in the following words. For having said: ‘I hear there are divisions among you’, he did not stop there, but, wishing to explain what divisions he means, he says further: ‘Each one eats his own supper’ (1 Cor. 11:21). It is evident that he is speaking of these disorders; and do not be surprised that he calls them divisions (tearings apart of society); he wished, as I have said, to affect them more powerfully with such an expression. If he meant doctrinal heresies, he would not speak to them so gently” (Saint Chrysostom).

“What do the words mean: ‘that those who are genuine among you may be recognized’?—That they may shine forth more. He wishes to say that for steadfast and firm people this not only does not harm but even makes them more prominent and glorious. The particle ‘that’ does not always mean purpose but often consequence. Thus Christ uses it when he says: ‘I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind’ (Jn. 9:39); and Paul himself, when speaking of the law: ‘The law came in, so that the trespass might increase’ (Rom. 5:20). The law was not given in order that the transgressions of the Jews should increase; but so it was. And Christ did not come in order that those who see should become blind, but with the opposite purpose; yet so it was. In the same way here we must understand the words: ‘that those who are genuine among you may be recognized’; heresies (divisions and disorders at the feasts) did not come about in order that the genuine might be revealed, but when they appeared, then this happened. The Apostle said this for the consolation of the poor, who were magnanimously bearing disrespect. Therefore he did not say: ‘that the genuine might be’, but: ‘that those who are genuine may be recognized’, expressing that they were such even before, but were mixed in with others and, receiving consolation from the wealthy, were not very conspicuous, but now the confusion and disagreement have made them known, just as a storm makes the helmsman known. Also he did not say: ‘that you may be recognized as genuine’ (you who are such), but: ‘that those who are genuine among you may be recognized’; as in the censure he did not point directly at anyone, that he might not make them more shameless, so also in the praise, that he might not make them careless, but he expresses himself indefinitely, leaving it to each one’s conscience to apply what has been said to himself. It seems to me that here he comforts not only the poor, but also those who did not violate this custom, for probably there were those among them who did observe it. Therefore he said: ‘to some extent I believe it.’ Rightly he calls those genuine who not only together with others observed the custom, but even without them did not transgress this beautiful institution. With such commendations he strives to awaken greater zeal in both.” (Saint Chrysostom).

In saying: ‘For there must be,’ he gives a reason. For what?—For what follows: ‘I hear there are divisions…’ For this reason one might think that he also comforts himself with these words, as it were: ‘I hear divisions among you.’ It is sorrowful; but what can be done? There must be this as well. Some depart from the order; others, appearing firm in it, are even more confirmed in it for the future.

1 Cor. 11:20. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat.

“The Lord’s supper”—the Lord’s feast. The Lord’s supper properly is the communion in the holy sacraments of the Body and Blood of Christ; but because of its connection with it, the love feasts’ name transferred also to this supper; similarly, the supper at which the sacrament of the Eucharist was instituted, we call the entire Last Supper, whereas there only a small part was properly the Last Supper, when the Lord instituted the sacrament of the Body and Blood and first gave communion to the holy Apostles,—the rest was all a common meal, for although it was the Old Testament Passover, at this time it ceased to be that and became a simple table. And the love feast, which took place after the communion in the Holy Mysteries, corresponded to it.

The Apostle says: when you come together in one place to eat the Lord’s supper, you conduct yourselves in such a way that it is altogether unlike eating the Lord’s supper. There all were together, no one was excluded, even Judas the traitor; but with you the poor are excluded, they who in patience are like the Apostles. “In the Lord’s sacrament, he says, you all commune: both those living in poverty and those boasting in wealth, both servants and masters, both rulers and ruled. Therefore it should have been that your common tables were truly common and resembled the Lord’s supper, which is offered equally to all. But now you do not proceed this way” (Theodoret). “Do you see how he shames them and under the appearance of narration presents an exhortation?—The outward appearance of the assembly, he says, shows one thing, for it happens as if from love and brotherly love; you gather in one place, and all together,—but the table does not correspond to the assembly. He did not say: when you gather you do not eat together, you do not share food with each other, but he speaks otherwise and far more strikingly: ‘It is not’, he says, ‘the Lord’s supper that you eat’, reminding them also of that supper at which Christ gave the awesome Mysteries. Therefore he also called their eating a supper, as at that supper all reclined together. Although the rich and poor are not so different from each other as the Teacher and disciples—between the latter the difference is boundless—but why am I speaking of the Teacher and disciples? Imagine what a difference there is—between the Teacher and the traitor; and yet he himself reclined with them, did not cast out the traitor, but with him shared salt and made him a partaker of the Mysteries” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 11:21. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own supper. One goes hungry and another gets drunk.

This is why your supper does not resemble the Lord’s supper!—Each of the guilty, of course, hastens to eat as quickly as possible what he has brought, unwilling to share with others. And this particularity is reprehensible, and especially in that you treat what has been brought to the church as a gift to the Lord as if it still remains yours and you dispose of it as your imperfect heart wishes. But it should not have been this way. You brought to the church what God sent, and you should have given it to the stewards of the supper, that they might distribute everything equally to all, and that no one should receive anything more than another. From your disorders it has come about that one is satisfied and even drunk, while another is hungry. “Do you see how they shame themselves all the more?—What belongs to the Lord they appropriate to themselves, and therefore they first demean themselves, depriving their table of that which constitutes its greatest dignity. Why and how?—‘The Lord’s supper,’ that is, the Lord’s feast, should be common; what belongs to the master does not belong to this or that slave, but is common to all; it is the Lord’s, he says, therefore it is common. But if it belongs to your Lord, as indeed it does, then you ought not appropriate it to yourself, but, as what belongs to the Lord and Master, offer it to all in general.—It is ‘the Lord’s,’ and you hinder it from being the Lord’s, by not allowing it to be common, but eating it apart for yourselves. Therefore he adds: ‘For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own supper.’ He did not say: sets apart, but: ‘goes ahead with,’ subtly rebuking them for excess and intemperance, which is explained by what follows; for having said this, he continues: ‘One goes hungry and another gets drunk’; both lack and excess show intemperance. And here is the second fault, which also harms them; the first is that they dishonor their supper; the second is that they gorge themselves and become drunk, and still more importantly, while the poor go hungry. What should have been offered to all in general, they consume alone, and thus fall into gluttony and drunkenness. Each of these acts in itself is worthy of condemnation: to get drunk while not scorning the poor is sinful; and to scorn the poor while not getting drunk is sinful. But if both are joined together, imagine what a great transgression occurs” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 11:22. Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? In this I do not praise you.

“If you love to indulge, do this in your homes. But here—this is an insult and manifest mockery of the Church. Is it not the most inappropriate thing, within the temple of God, in the presence of the Master, who has set before us a common table, for you to indulge while those in need hunger and are in shame because of poverty?” (Theodoret). “Do you see how from the poor he transfers the insult to the Church, that he might strengthen his discourse?—And here is the fourth fault, consisting in that they insult not only the poor but the Church itself. The Lord’s supper, he says, and the very place itself you appropriate to yourselves, using the church as if it were your own home. The Church was not established in order that those gathered in it be divided, but that the divided be united, as the very word shows: ‘assembly.’—‘And humiliate those who have nothing.’ He did not say: leave the destitute hungry, but with greater reproach: ‘humiliate,’ expressing that he is not so much concerned about food as about the insult caused to the poor. And here is the fifth fault, that they not only despise the hungry but humiliate them.—With these words on the one hand he praises the poor, expressing that they are not so troubled by hunger as by dishonor, and on the other hand he inclines the hearer to mercy.—Having shown so much that is criminal in their behavior: the degradation of the supper, the degradation of the Church, the insult to the poor,—he suddenly mitigates the force of the accusation and says: ‘Should I praise you? In this I do not praise you.’—This is especially worthy of wonder, that, having shown so many crimes, when he should have expressed his anger more strongly, he acts entirely otherwise—he softens his discourse and grants them relief. Why does he do so?—He has already moved them deeply, by proving the importance of their fault, and, like an excellent physician, uses treatment suited to the wounds. Those requiring deep incision (abscesses) he does not cut only on the surface—you have heard how he cut off the fornicator from them—while to those requiring gentler treatment he does not apply the knife; therefore he also speaks to them gently here. On the other hand, he was especially concerned to make them gentle toward the poor, and therefore he himself converses with them gently” (Saint Chrysostom).

On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

The Apostle speaks of this because the love feast was established in connection with this sacrament, and therefore improper behavior at this feast revealed a lack of reverence for the sacrament. By awakening in their consciousness how exalted this sacrament is and with what strict preparation one must approach it, he thereby hopes to put an end to the disorders that have arisen. For if reverence for the sacrament had not first grown cold in the guilty ones, they would not have been able to permit such improprieties at the feast. Saint Chrysostom speaks of this thus: “Why does he mention these mysteries here?—Because this was very necessary for the present matter. Your Lord, he says, has deemed all worthy of one and the same table, and moreover the most awesome and surpassing the dignity of all; and yet you consider others unworthy of your table, trivial and insignificant, and while they receive nothing from you of spiritual blessings, you deprive them even of physical ones, though these are not yours. However, he does not say this (openly), that his words not be too heavy, but employs gentler language (allowing them to understand for themselves where his meaning tends).”

The Apostle speaks here—aa) of the institution of the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Cor. 11:23–26), and bb) of worthy approach to it (1 Cor. 11:27–32).

1 Cor. 11:23. For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed…

“I received from the Lord”, “that is, I was taught by the Lord” (Oecumenius). Saint Paul was taught everything directly by the Lord himself. Not only the mysteries of faith did the Lord present to him personally, but also the manner of performing all the sacraments of grace. “What I also passed on to you.” As he received from the Lord, so he handed on to you. Saint Chrysostom says concerning this: “The Apostle says this in order that you might understand that that supper contained nothing greater in comparison with the subsequent ones. For even now the same Lord performs and gives everything, just as he did then.”

“On the night he was betrayed.” “Why does he remind us of this time, of this supper and of the betrayal?—Not simply and not without reason, but in order to move us the more mightily by this very time. For everyone, even if he were as hard as stone, representing to himself how in this night the Lord was grieved with the disciples, how he was betrayed, bound, led forth and condemned, how he endured all the rest, will become softer than wax, will be freed from earthly things and all this world’s vanity. For this reason the Apostle reminds us of all this; he shames us both by the time, the supper, and the betrayal, and says: Your Lord gave up himself for you, and you are not willing even to share bread with a brother for your very own sake?—And he reminds us of this night not only for this purpose, but to move us in another way as well. As it is generally the case that we more remember the last words which we hear from the dying, and to their heirs, when they dare to violate their testaments, we say in rebuke: remember, these were the last words of your father, which he commanded before his death itself; so also Paul, wishing thus to strengthen his discourse, says: remember, this was the last mystery which he gave you, which he commanded in the night in which he was preparing to die for us, and having presented us with this supper, he did not present any other after it.”

1 Cor. 11:24. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.

Having taken bread in his most pure hands, “he gave thanks and broke it.” The word of thanksgiving from the Lord was not an Old Testament one concerning the deliverance from Egypt and other benefits of God, but concerning the foundations of the new covenant, similar to his high priestly prayer at the end of that same supper, concerning the completion of the work which had been given to him; with the thanksgiving was joined a blessing, as the evangelists Matthew and Mark relate, directed upon the bread and wine set before him, a blessing that works the sacrament. By virtue of the thanksgiving and blessing, bread became Body and wine became Blood; therefore after breaking the bread, the Lord said: Take, eat, “this is my body.” He took bread, and after the thanksgiving and blessing, he gave to the disciples no longer bread, but the Body: for it had been transubstantiated by the blessing. This is my body “which is for you,” not “which will be” for you, but “which is,” indicating thereby the continuous breaking and perpetual nature of the sacrifice of the Body.—It is a sacrifice for all mankind; but its saving power and intercessory strength overshadows only those who by faith have been united to Christ the Lord and partake of it; therefore “for you and broken. Do this in remembrance of me.” Saint Chrysostom has already said: what was then accomplished at the supper is accomplished now at the suppers of the Lord. Then there was nothing superior to the present mystical suppers, and in the present mystical suppers nothing is lacking in comparison to that one. For the Performer of the Mysteries is the same Lord who then instituted this sacrament. From that moment this mystical commemoration of the Lord continues in the Church amid all believers everywhere, and it is not merely mental, but a reenactment of the deed in its very substance.

1 Cor. 11:25. In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.

“In the same way and with the cup,” that is, he does not repeat the act of thanksgiving and the blessing that effects the sacrament, but rather gives what is already Blood, saying: “This cup is the new covenant” in my blood. The Apostle does not record the words: “Drink of it,” for this was understood of itself, but only reminds us of the words that express the mystical power of the blood: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” Moses, having read the law aloud to all the Israelites, sprinkled them with the blood of the sacrifice, and said: “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you” (Ex. 24:8). The meaning of the Old Testament sprinkling was: if you do not keep the law, you shall pay with your own blood for its violation. The meaning of the cup of the new covenant is: though it should come to pass that I shed all my blood, I will not depart from you and your commandments, O Lord. As the Lord for our sake shed his blood, so we must be ready to shed ours for him. In this consists the essence of the new covenant. Upon our resolve to sacrifice our lives for the Lord and faith in him and his commandments, the life-giving Blood of the Lord descends within as a cleansing and sanctifying power. Those who drink it do not take upon themselves fear of death, but are filled with the encouragement of grace, ready for all holy deeds and all privations and sorrows. “Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”—“Do this,” that is, perform the sacrament of the Blood and drink my blood,—in remembrance of me, in remembrance of the blood shed by the Lord for us, and together with it the covenant which we receive in the partaking of his Blood.—“Whenever you drink,” every time that you drink. The power of the sacrament is always the same: and your obligation in this must be the same, and the feeling with which you must approach the cup, as at the first time, so always must be the same. The Apostle recounted these words in order to prevent our ruinous habit of growing accustomed to all things and the indifference that follows from it, and in order to dispose us each time before the cup to renew the disposition which one has at the first approach.

Thus, he says, the sacrament of the Body and Blood has been instituted, after the reception of which you pass to the love feast, and there you conduct yourselves in a way unbecoming of one who remembers and understands what power and what significance this sacrament has. What corrective admonitions the Corinthians could draw from this, Saint Chrysostom explains thus: “If you approach (the Mysteries of the Body and Blood) for thanksgiving (the sacrament is otherwise called the Eucharist—thanksgiving), then do nothing unworthy of thanksgiving, do not shame your brother, do not despise the hungry, do not get drunk, do not offend the Church. You approach in order to give thanks for the blessings you have received; then render thanks on your part as well, and do not separate yourself from your neighbor. Christ gave the supper equally to all, saying: ‘Take and eat.’ He gave his Body equally to all, but you are unwilling to distribute the common bread equally to all? The bread was broken by him equally for all, and became the Body equally for all. ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’ And what do you do? You celebrate a memorial of Christ, and despise the poor, and do not fear? When you celebrate a memorial for a deceased son or brother, conscience would torture you if you did not observe the custom and invite the poor, yet when celebrating a memorial of your Lord, you are unwilling even to share the table?”

1 Cor. 11:26. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

This is a conclusion drawn from the manner of the institution of the sacrament, by which its significance is defined for all time until the Lord’s second coming.—“You proclaim the Lord’s death.” “As Christ, having spoken concerning the bread and cup: ‘Do this in remembrance of me,’ revealed to us the reason for the institution of the sacrament, and at the same time impressed upon us that this reason is sufficient to awaken in us reverence; for when you represent to yourself what the Lord suffered for you, you become wiser, so Paul says here: ‘You proclaim the Lord’s death.’ Such is this supper! The Apostle also teaches by this that the faithful even now should approach the Mysteries in the same disposition of spirit, as if they were present at that very supper, reclined together with the Apostles, and received this sacrifice from Christ himself” (Saint Chrysostom).

Every time, he says, that you eat this bread, that is, the one concerning which the Lord said: this is my body,—“and drink this cup,”—that is, the one concerning which the Lord said that it is the new covenant in his blood,—“you proclaim the Lord’s death.” By this solemn action you proclaim to all the death of the Lord, namely, that there was on earth the Lord, God incarnate, who died on the cross for our sins. Not faith, not a word proclaims this, but the partaking of the Body and Blood, without words, speaks loudly of this to all. How sinful is abstinence from communion! How inexcusable is infrequent communion! In early times no gathering of Christians passed without the communion of those gathered. Now, where are the communicants?! Yet many liturgies are performed, especially in the cities. This is very much like someone running into church, lighting a candle and running out about his affairs: let the candle pray! The bloodless sacrifice is offered, and the Christians do not care. Let it proclaim the Lord’s death! But the Apostle writes that not it for each one proclaims the Lord’s death, but communion in it. That there are no communicants rather means that Christians wish to suppress the proclamation of the Lord’s death.

1 Cor. 11:27. So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

“Therefore” — ωςε — so that. What is the conclusion?—From the nature of the sacrament. This bread is the Body of the Lord, and this cup contains the Blood of the Lord, true, not merely representative of the true. Therefore whoever unworthily partakes of them “will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.” What does this guilt mean?—That he kills the Lord and sheds his blood. Saint Chrysostom says: “Why is he guilty of this?—Because he sheds blood and brings about slaughter, rather than offering a sacrifice. As those who pierced the Lord then pierced him not in order to drink, but to shed his blood, so also does he who unworthily partakes. Do you see how terrible his words are and how mightily he has moved them, showing that if they thus intend to drink (the Blood of the Lord), they will unworthily partake of the Mysteries set before them? And truly, does not he approach unworthily who despises the hungry, and beyond despising them, even humiliates them? For if the withholding of alms from the poor deprives a person of the kingdom of heaven, even if he were a virgin, as also stingy giving does, for virgins too had oil, but only not in abundance, then consider how great is the evil if so many transgressions are accomplished? What transgressions, you ask? About what transgressions do you speak? Having partaken of such a supper, you should have become more humble than all and become like the Angels, yet you became hardhearted above all; you have tasted the Blood of the Lord and do not acknowledge your brother; do you deserve forgiveness? If you had not known him before, you should have recognized him after this supper; yet you dishonor the very supper itself, considering unworthy of your food one who has been deemed worthy to be a partaker of it. Did you not hear what befell him who demanded one hundred denarii of his brother, how he lost the gift granted to him by his master? Do you not know what you were, and what you have become? Do you not know that far more than this poor man in money you were poor in good works, being full of countless sins? Yet God forgave you all your sins and deemed you worthy of such a supper; but you did not become more merciful even after that, so nothing remains but to deliver you also to the torturers (Matt. 18:34). Let us all who approach the sacred table here together with the poor heed the words of the Apostle, yet when we depart from here, we are unwilling even to look at them, but abandoning ourselves to abundant self-indulgence, we leave the hungry without attention, in which the Corinthians too were guilty. When you have eaten something pleasant at dinner, you are careful lest something bad ruin what you tasted before, but having received the Spirit, you abandon yourself to pleasures. Remember what the Apostles did after partaking of the sacred supper; did they not turn to prayers and hymns, to sacred vigil, to prolonged teaching filled with great wisdom? And you, if before communion you fast a little so as to appear somewhat worthy of communion, yet after communion, when you ought to intensify abstinence, you destroy everything. But fasting before is not the same as fasting after; one ought to be temperate both before and after, but especially after receiving the Bridegroom; before—in order to become worthy of his reception, and after, in order not to show yourself unworthy of the gifts received.”

Thus Saint Chrysostom clarifies that those who partake unworthily are not only those who do not prepare themselves properly, but also those who after communion conduct themselves unworthily of this participation. The example of the Corinthians leads precisely to such a lesson.

1 Cor. 11:28. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.

To examine oneself means to test and carefully investigate whether one is worthy of holy communion. But since it is said here: “and let them eat of the bread and drink of the cup,” it is thereby also indicated that as soon as you find something hindering communion, you must remove and correct it. Examination here means proper preparation. In what does it consist?—In cleansing the conscience. Bring repentance for your sins, and make a firm resolve from now on not to sin, but instead of sins to perform all virtue, and you are properly prepared for communion. Saint Chrysostom says: “The main benefit is to approach the Mysteries with a pure conscience. Not being content with what has been said before, he adds the following: ‘Everyone ought to examine themselves,’ as he also says in the second epistle: ‘Examine yourselves’ (2 Cor. 13:5), and not as we now do, conforming ourselves more to the time than to spiritual disposition. We are not concerned with approaching prepared, having cleansed ourselves from all evil and with full reverence, but only to approach when everyone else does. Not so does Paul command; he knows only one time for approaching the Mysteries and communion: when the conscience is pure. If we do not approach a physical table when suffering from fever and the influx of corrupted humors, lest we expose ourselves to death, then all the more we ought not to touch this table with vicious desires, which are worse than fever. By the name of vicious desires I understand both bodily and spiritual ones—covetousness, wrath, malice, and in general all vicious inclinations. The one approaching must cleanse himself from all such things, and then touch this pure sacrifice. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘Let each one examine himself,’ and thus let him approach; he commands not one to examine another, but each to examine himself, establishing a court without publicity and correction without witnesses.”

1 Cor. 11:29. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.

“What do you say? The source of so many blessings, the table flowing with life, becomes condemnation?—Not by its nature, he says, but by the fault of the one approaching. As the coming of the Lord, which brought us great and unsearchable blessings, served to condemn more greatly those who did not receive him, so also do these Mysteries bring greater punishment upon those who partake unworthily. Why then does he eat ‘judgment’? ‘Without discerning the body of the Lord,’ that is, without reflecting, without representing to yourself as you should the greatness of the Mysteries set before you and without thinking of the importance of the gift. If you fully understood, Who stands before you and to whom he offers himself, you would have no need of any exhortation, and this alone would be sufficient to awaken in you complete reverence, unless you have fallen too deep” (Saint Chrysostom).

“Eats judgment”—presumes a judgment passed by God’s court in the very moment of eating,—and not only this, but condemnation to punishment. The sentence of judgment has been stated before: “guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord”; but here is meant the condemnation to punishment. “Having received the gift unlawfully, you will not only not obtain salvation from it, but will also bear punishment for the mockery” (Theodoret). What punishment?—As there is one guilt, but its degrees vary, so also punishments; some are executed in this life, and sometimes at once, while others are reserved for the life to come. All is as divine justice judges and mercy toward us, even in punishment itself. That punishments were indeed sent upon those who partook unworthily even in this life, examples of this were found among the very Corinthians, as the Apostle recounts immediately after.

1 Cor. 11:30. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

“So indeed it was actually, for the Apostle would not have dared to write of something that did not happen, knowing that this would be a manifest lie” (Theodoret). “Weak”—indicates general weakness, “sick”—specific illnesses, “fallen asleep”—died. “Here he adduces as examples not others, as he did in the discourse about food offered to idols, where he spoke of ancient events and calamities of the Hebrews in the wilderness, but the Corinthians themselves, which gives his words greater poignancy. Having said: ‘eat judgment,’ and intending this not to be taken as mere words, he points to facts, calls themselves as witnesses, which acts more powerfully than a threat, expressing that the threat has already passed into reality. Not content with this, he afterwards reminds them also of Gehenna, and firmly proves his words, terrifying them from all sides and resolving a question often raised. Many in bewilderment ask each other, from whence come premature deaths, from whence prolonged illnesses?—The cause of many such unexpected calamities, he says, is contained in sins. Those who sin, yet remain healthy and fortunate in a worldly sense, are being kept for future torments. There they will undergo the harshest punishment” (Saint Chrysostom). Thus there is nothing with which to comfort ourselves, or to indulge ourselves in boldness, that if it happens we unworthily partake and do not undergo manifest punishment. From God’s justice no sin is hidden, and no sin can remain without retribution. Whenever it comes, he will receive it.

1 Cor. 11:31. If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

“To judge oneself” here means the same as above: “let each one examine himself.” This means: if we had properly examined ourselves before communion and prepared ourselves duly for it, then “we would not be judged,” that is, we would not eat and drink judgment to ourselves, there would not be pronounced over us the sentence: “guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” Condemnation, that is, judgment and assignment of punishment, comes from unworthy communion, and unworthy communion is allowed because we do not judge ourselves, we do not examine ourselves and do not cleanse ourselves from sins through repentance, some concealing, others confessing halfway.

“The Apostle did not say: if you would punish yourselves, or torment yourselves, but: if you would only wish to acknowledge your own sins and judge yourselves and your transgressions, then you would be delivered from punishment both here and there. For one who judges himself doubly appeases God, both through acknowledgment of his sins and through readiness not to commit them in the future. But we do not wish to do as we ought, even this easy thing” (Saint Chrysostom).

In the context of the discourse this applies to communion, but outside the context this principle applies to every sin. Every sin results from not judging oneself, and every sin has judgment and punishment pronounced on it in the very act of the sin. The execution of the sentence is sometimes postponed to another time, but the sentence itself follows immediately. To judge oneself means to acknowledge who you are, presuming to commit sin that angers God in the very presence of God Himself, invisibly, yet nonetheless actually present to you. If one had accepted this irrefutable truth through acknowledgment, hardly anyone would decide to sin. But in the act of sin the enemy obscures it and completely drives it from consciousness. No matter how absurd the sinner’s word: God does not see – it always passes through the mind of the sinning sinner.

1 Cor. 11:32. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world.

The Apostle’s thought rests entirely on unworthy communion with the holy mysteries. “Judged” – means that at the moment of unworthy communion a sentence is pronounced over us, for having communed unworthily, we have eaten and drunk judgment to ourselves. After the sentence follows punishment: sometimes weakness, sometimes sickness, sometimes death. Thus “we are disciplined by the Lord.” But the Apostle has already said all this above. What he now adds is: “so that we may not be condemned with the world,” that is, these temporal punishments the Lord sends in order to deliver us from condemnation to eternal torment together with the world, or with all the ungodly sinners.

“The Apostle does not threaten us with punishment together ‘with the world,’ but spares us, threatening us with earthly punishment, which is temporal and contains great comfort, for it frees us from sins and gives sweet hope for the future, which eases present sufferings. By this he wishes both to comfort the weak and to make others more zealous. Now, he says, ‘we are judged and disciplined by the Lord.’ He did not say: we are subjected to punishment or torment, but “disciplined” παιδευόμεθα, instructed, made wise. For present punishment is more instruction than condemnation, more healing than punishment, more cure than torment, more correction than retribution. And not only by this, but by threatening greater (future) punishment he eases the present: ‘so that we may not’, he says, ‘be condemned with the world.’ Do you see how he points to Hades and to the Dread Judgment and demonstrates that this judgment and punishment are inevitable and will surely come? For if believers and those under God’s protection do not escape punishment for their transgressions, as is clear from the present passages, how much more will the unbelieving and those who sin gravely and incurably not escape” (Saint Chrysostom). “By ‘the world’ he called those sunk in unbelief and sins, and he says that as God especially favors and cares for the faithful, He repays them for their sins here, so that they may not be condemned together with those” (Oecumenius).

Ordinances Concerning the Love-Feasts (1 Corinthians 11:33–34)

“That the Apostle proposed his discourse on the mysteries as an example, teaching the Corinthians to make their common meals in churches with regard to that sacred supper, is testified by what he adds” (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 11:33. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

Although here it is said only that they should wait for others, that is, not hurry to eat and not deprive anyone of their share, nevertheless at the same time it is also impressed that not only some should eat, but they should share with all. “Again he proposes instruction concerning the poor, concerning which he has said all the foregoing, and impresses that those who do not fulfill this are unworthy of communion. He did not say: gathering together, give to the poor, but more loftily: ‘wait for one another.’ For by such words he both implicitly urged care for the poor and presented the exhortation in a form suited to the matter” (Saint John Chrysostom). “By the word ‘wait’ he showed that what is brought to the assembly is common property, and it should be tasted by all together” (Theophylact).

“If you do not do so, you will show that you have partaken unworthily of the body and blood of the Lord, having become guilty of the slaughter of his body and the shedding of his blood; and for this you must expect immediate judgment, and following the judgment, diseases, sufferings, and death” (Photius in Oecumenius).

1 Cor. 11:34. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you do not gather together to bring judgment on yourselves. As for the other matters, I will settle them when I come.

A concession to weakness: if your need is so great that after eating what falls to your share at the common meal, you feel hungry, eat at home; but do not bring sin into the assembly, for to gather for sin is not safe. When may one eat at home, before the supper or after? Not at first, and it is improper. For the supper was preceded by the communion of the mysteries. Thus, afterward. But there is nothing to discuss about this: whoever is hungry will take bread for himself. Saint John Chrysostom notes that the Apostle said this to “shame them. Giving such permission, he forbids even more strongly than by direct prohibition, for he expels them from church, sends them home and thus moves them strongly, presenting them as slaves of the belly and intemperate. He did not say: if anyone neglects the poor, but: ‘if anyone is hungry,’ reasoning as if with impatient children or with dumb animals serving the belly. Not content with this, he adds a more terrifying thought: ‘so that you do not,’ he says, ‘gather together to bring judgment on yourselves,’ so that you do not gather to your condemnation, do not bring punishment upon yourselves, insulting the Church, shaming your brother. You gather so that you might show love to one another, receive benefit and confer benefit; if the opposite happens, then it is better for you to be satisfied at home. He says this to dispose them more toward communion; he pointed to the harm arising from lack of communion, proved that it is a weighty sin, and inspired fear from all sides—from the mysteries, the sick, the dying, and all else mentioned before.”

“As for the other matters, I will settle them when I come.” “For it was impossible to write about everything; but having written about what was most necessary, the Apostle reserved the rest for his coming” (Theodoret).

“But again by this he inspires fear. What does he promise to settle? Either something else or the same thing. Since, probably, they brought up some other reasons and it was impossible to settle everything by letter, he says: let the present matter be kept as I have taught for now; if you have anything further to say, let it wait until my coming. He says this, as I have said, either about the same matter or about some other matters not very important; and he acts thus in order to make them more attentive. Awaiting his arrival, they could correct their shortcomings, for Paul’s arrival was an important matter. And he not only promises to come; but, so that they should not doubt and give way to carelessness, he presents also the reason making his coming necessary: “I will come—I will settle,” impressing that even if he were not disposed to go to them, the necessity of setting other matters right compels him to come there” (Saint John Chrysostom).

Whatever this settlement might concern, one cannot fail to see from this that in church order everything essential comes from the Apostles. And it is time for those who love to repeat “show me where it is written” to come to their senses.

Part Six. On the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Church (1 Corinthians 12–14)

The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

In the early Church, the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit were displayed in believers with particular power, which made all the world understand that Christianity alone is the one true faith. Among these gifts, the gift of speaking in tongues appeared most prominently. The Apostles themselves, as soon as the Holy Spirit came upon them, began to speak in other tongues; in Cornelius the centurion, as soon as the Spirit of God came upon him, the gift of speaking in tongues was revealed; the same happened to those twelve who previously had not even heard whether the Holy Spirit existed, and who received him after baptism and the laying on of hands by the Apostle Paul in Ephesus. The same probably occurred in all other places, and the same in Corinth. Here, as it appears, believers possessed many gifts, and among them not a small number possessed the gift of tongues. The use of other gifts was regulated by these gifts and proceeded in order; but the use of the gift of tongues was more free than the others, and therefore in it deviations from reasonable order were manifested and required correction.

Such is the occasion on which Saint Paul speaks of this. Blessed Theodoret explains it thus: “Those who anciently received the divine message and were deemed worthy of saving baptism were clearly given the effective power of spiritual grace; and some began to speak in diverse tongues which by nature they did not know and which they had not learned from others; others worked miracles, healed diseases; some received the prophetic gift and predicted the future, and sometimes made manifest what was done secretly, revealing the power of the grace dwelling in them. For when the greater part was enslaved to demonic delusion, it would have been impossible for these ignorant and impoverished people to believe so easily and know the truth, unless the divine grace were openly revealed and presented miracles as a pledge for the truth of faith. With these gifts, along with other believers throughout the world, the Corinthians partook, but they did not use what had been given to them as they should. For they displayed the effectiveness of grace out of love of honor rather than necessity. The gift of tongues puffed them up especially with pride; and although there was neither listener nor interpreter, they spoke in diverse languages and did this not in order, but at one time two, three, and four. Therefore the thrice-blessed Paul wrote about this, teaching the Corinthians the proper order.”

Saint John Chrysostom also says the same about this occasion, adding to what has been said one more characteristic feature: “As the Apostles first of all received this sign (of speaking in tongues), so believers too received the same gift of tongues, and not only this, but much else besides. For many raised the dead, cast out demons, and performed many other similar miracles. However, some had fewer gifts, others more. Most frequent among them was the gift of tongues. This even became the occasion of discord among them—not from the nature of the matter, but from the lack of wisdom of those receiving the gifts. Those who received more gifts exalted themselves above those who received fewer; and the latter grieved and envied those who received more, as Paul proves later. In this way, violating mutual love, they inflicted a mortal wound, which he now seeks with great care to heal.”

Thus, the occasion for discourse on the gifts of grace was mainly the unreasonable use of the gift of tongues, then a certain lack of peace on account of the variety and inequality in receiving the gifts of grace, and finally the violation through this of the chief law of Christian life—love. Correspondingly, the Apostle writes: 1) about the gifts of grace in general, explaining how they are necessary and equally valid both in their source and in their significance in the Church (1 Cor. 12); 2) about love as the vessel and at the same time the condition of the gifts (1 Cor. 13); 3) about the use of the gift of tongues (1 Cor. 14).

1. Concerning the Gifts of Grace in General (1 Cor. 12)

In this chapter the Apostle directs his discourse primarily toward ensuring that no one considers his gift as unimportant, whatever gift it may be, and applies all his care solely to acting with it as he should. He explains this by b) a comparison of the structure of the Church, which contains diverse gifts, with a body composed of different members (1 Cor. 12:12–26). But as the foundation for this main subject he first sets forth a) an indication of the source, purpose, and diversity of the gifts of grace (1 Cor. 12:1–11); and in the application, he c) enumerates the different bearers of these gifts in the Church, or explains how the preceding discussions are embodied in the Church (1 Cor. 12:27–31).

u) Indication of the Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:1–11)

In approaching discourse on these matters, the Apostle places something in the form of aa) a preamble (1 Cor. 12:1–3). “This place is very obscure,” says Saint John Chrysostom. It seems Saint Paul intended to remind the Corinthians that they were formerly in heathendom. Then faith was mute—empty, giving them nothing (1 Cor. 12:2); but in Christ Jesus you receive the Spirit, and in particular one that speaks. But since the Corinthians were familiar with other spirits that also speak, so that they would not confuse one with another, he points out a test to them: one in whom the true Spirit speaks confesses Lord Jesus; whoever does not confess him does not have a good spirit (1 Cor. 12:3).

1 Cor. 12:1. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.

By “spiritual” here is meant not people, but spiritual gifts, χαρισματα (Oecumenius, Theophylact). Saint John Chrysostom calls these signs: “The Apostle called these signs ‘spiritual’ because they are the actions of the one Spirit, and human efforts in no way contribute to their accomplishment.” It is to be supposed that the Corinthians themselves asked about this. The turn came to this subject, and the Apostle says: concerning spiritual gifts, I very much desire that you have a sound understanding of this subject, certainly so that accordingly you may act.

But were there not among the Corinthians also persons who claimed for themselves the name “spiritual,” and were not those who spoke in diverse tongues among their number?

1 Cor. 12:2. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.

“When,” he says, “you were in paganism, you were drawn to dumb idols as if someone were pulling you toward them, bound with ropes. Pagans were ensnared by the darkening of their understanding and so deceived that, seeing, they saw not—that before them stood a soulless and voiceless idol, made by their own hands, which had no power in it, yet they hoped to obtain everything from it. The enemy so ensnared them, holding them in deception, and not allowing them to look clearly at the matter; beguiling them with empty hopes, he drew them as with a rope. Habit from childhood and the commonness of the practice lent much force to this deceptive attraction and made the darkness covering it impenetrable. The Corinthians had been set free from this devilish snare and had passed from Satan’s domain to God. Their eyes were now open, and they saw what foolishness their former attraction to idols had been. The Apostle thus says to them: you know. What is spoken here of false belief applies also to sinfulness. Sin likewise ensnares, and following it the sinner is led like one being led, and yet does not see either the deception or the bondage that holds him. But afterward, when he turns to virtue, he clearly sees his sinful condition—how evil it is and how it binds him, not allowing him freedom to break free from it. The enemy’s deception is the same in false worship as it is in a life of sin.”

Theodoret depicts the deception of idolatry thus: “The Apostle wishes both to refute the senselessness of Greek mythology and to display the truth of piety. For demons, having seized and appropriated to themselves the title of god, led people into great error because, departing from the right path and abandoning the true God, they began to render divine honor to many and thought that not every god can do all things, but recognized one as the giver of wisdom, another of military skill, and another of seamanship. This very thing the divine Apostle expressed in what he said, namely: before you received the light of piety, serving still the lie, like creatures without speech, you were led here and there, being enslaved to the deception of senseless idols.”

Holy Chrysostom draws attention to another aspect of the matter—namely, that idolatry was maintained, among other things, by seers in an ecstatic state. These prophecies came either from people who were in ecstasy or even from idols themselves. This marvel drew people to the idols. Saint Chrysostom deliberately explains the distinction between these ecstatic prophecies and true prophecies in order to show that the gifts of the Spirit, which are now about to be discussed, have nothing in common with the grotesque marvels of paganism. He says: “In the temples of idols, when someone was possessed by an unclean spirit and prophesied, he was, as it were, led and bound, was carried along by the spirit, and had no awareness whatsoever of what he was saying. It is characteristic of the soothsayer to be in ecstasy, to endure compulsion and violence, to be carried away and to rave like one possessed by demons. But the prophet is not like that; rather, he speaks everything with a sober soul and sound judgment, knowing what he says. Thus distinguish the ecstatic soothsayer from the prophet. When someone through various sorceries and rituals introduced a demon into a person, that person began to prophesy and, while prophesying, tore and lacerated himself, unable to endure the violence of the demon; finally he began to cry out: ‘Unbind me, unbind my bonds! Sprinkle my feet with pure water and erase the marks so that I may go!’ All this and the like—and one could say much more—proves both the compulsion with which demons are held and serve, and the violence which people endure once they have given themselves over to them and thereby lose their sound mind. Alluding to all this and the like, Paul said: ‘you are led.’ Since he was speaking to those who understood the matter, he did not expound everything in detail, lest he weigh them down, but merely reminds them. He does not explain about us—that is, about what pertains to prophets—for this too was known to the Corinthians; and among them were prophets who prophesied as they ought, with judgment and complete freedom. They had the power to speak or not to speak, for they were not compelled, but preserved their will together with their honor. This is the first distinction between the ecstatic soothsayer and the prophet.”

1 Cor. 12:3. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed; and no one can say Lord Jesus except by the Holy Spirit.

The connection of these words with the preceding is not entirely clear. “Therefore,” he says—as if drawing a conclusion from what went before; but how this conclusion follows is not evident. Perhaps it goes like this: in paganism too there appear certain marvels, such as prophecies in ecstasy, which demons uttered through human mouths; and these seem to be unusual gifts, only demonic and anti-divine; if you wish to verify the matter, make the ecstatic confess the name of the Lord Jesus, and you will see the difference. “When you see that someone does not pronounce the name of Jesus, or even curses Him, then he is demon-possessed; but when you see another who speaks about everything with His name, then know that he is a true bearer of the Spirit” (Saint Chrysostom). “In whom the Divine Spirit acts, it is impossible to say that Christ is alien to the Divine nature; nor can anyone sincerely confess Him as God except one illumined by that grace” (Theodoret). The believers were surrounded by idolaters, who sometimes manifested something that could astound. The Apostle had already pointed out a sign of deception in the ecstatic state of their soothsayers. Now he points out another (according to Saint Chrysostom)—that they cannot bear the name of Jesus, they blaspheme Him, revile Him, and say to Him: anathema. One filled with the Spirit of God cannot speak an evil word about Jesus; and indeed, no one can confess Jesus as Lord by himself, but if he does confess, it is only by the Holy Spirit. True faith—that the Lord Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and the Saviour—is sealed in the heart by the Spirit of God. There are various kinds of confessions of Jesus as Lord; sometimes the tongue confesses Him, sometimes the memory, sometimes the mind; but confession from the heart is something altogether different from all such things. And demons spoke to the Lord: “We know who you are, the Son of God” (Mk. 1:24; Lk. 8:28). But there was nothing sincere in that; rather, there was cunning and the intention to turn people away from the Lord by another means. In our time, such cunning concealed itself among the spiritists; at first they spoke well of the Lord, then they forbade speaking about Him, and now openly some blaspheme Him, while others insist that He is also of their party.

Having thus shown the essential distinction between what among the pagans appears illusory as coming from beyond the normal order, and what supernaturally operates in the Church in the form of extraordinary gifts, Saint Paul now speaks: bb) of their source (1 Cor. 12:4–6), cc) their purpose (1 Cor. 12:7), and dd) their variety (1 Cor. 12:8–11), “discussing this not simply, but in such a way as to put an end to the discord that had arisen from this, and to persuade those who had received less not to grieve, and those who had received more not to be puffed up” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 12:4–6. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activity, but it is the same God who empowers them all.

In these words the Apostle showed that although the gifts are numerous and various, their source is one. The same thing, he says, is given by the All-Holy Spirit and by the Lord and by God the Father. For he called one and the same gifts by three names: gifts, services, and activities. They are called “gifts” because they are given by the generosity of God, and “services” because they were given through people appointed to this sacred ministry (they were appointed for service to others). And he also called these gifts “activities” as receiving their efficacy from divine nature. For the Apostle did not mean, as some foolish heretics supposed, that one thing is activated by the Spirit and another by God of all; on the contrary, he showed that the giver of one and the same gifts is the Holy Trinity. By this he comforts those who have received what seemed to them to be the lesser gifts, teaching them that from one and the same source both these gifts and those are given (Theodoret).

First of all, he instructs the one who has received the lesser gift and therefore grieves. About what, he says, do you grieve? That you have not received as much as another? But remember that this is a gift, not an obligation, and you will receive comfort in your grief. Therefore, from the very beginning he expressed it thus: “there are varieties of gifts.” He did not say: “of signs” or “of wonders,” but “of gifts,” by the very name “gift” persuading not only not to grieve, but to feel gratitude. At the same time, he says, consider also this: although you have received a gift of lesser measure, by being deemed worthy to receive it from the same source from which one who received more also received, you have equal honor with him; you cannot say that the Spirit gave him a gift while an Angel gave you one; for the Spirit gave a gift to both you and him. Therefore he also adds: “the same Spirit”. Although there is a difference in the gift, there is no difference in the Giver, for from one source both you and he received (Saint Chrysostom).

“And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord”. To strengthen the comfort, the Apostle brings in both the Son and the Father. The gifts themselves he calls here by another name, wishing by this too to provide greater comfort. Therefore he says: “there are varieties of service.” Having heard about gifts, one who received less might have begun to grieve; but hearing about service, he will not; for this word means labor and work (that is, the gifts are for service). Why do you grieve, he says, if God commanded another to labor more, while He spared you? (Saint Chrysostom).

“And there are varieties of activity”. What is “activity”? What is “gift”? What is “service”? Only different names, while the things themselves are one and the same. For he (in other places) calls both gift and service an “activity.” Do you see how he makes no distinction between the gifts of the Father (and the Son) and the Holy Spirit, not confusing their persons, but showing the equal honor of their substance? What the Spirit gives, he says, the Father God produces; and the Son divides and appoints. If one were less than another, he would not have spoken thus and would not have comforted the grieving one in this way (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 12:7. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

“The purpose” is not the distribution of gifts, but the inequality in the distribution. Why is it done this way? Because receiving a gift in such a measure rather than another, and precisely such a gift, is beneficial for the one receiving it. That every gift is given for the benefit of the Church is self-evident, for otherwise it could not be revealed except by bringing benefit to others. But the Apostle’s purpose is to say to the receiver of the gift: if your gift is lesser, that is what your own benefit required. Thus all our commentators understand profit. The words “manifestation of the Spirit” mean the evident action of the Spirit, its disclosure, noticeable to all. The Apostle did not say: grace is given, but “manifestation of the Spirit”; because even now those deemed worthy of all-holy baptism receive grace, but not evidently; whereas then they immediately began to speak in diverse tongues and work miracles, by which they were taught and confirmed in the truth that the teaching is true. By necessity the Apostle said that the manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit, comforting the sorrowing Corinthians and teaching that he who clearly knows and sees all distributes wisely to everyone what is profitable for each (Theodoret).

The same thought is also in Saint John Chrysostom, who says: “The Apostle here comforts the grieving in yet another way, namely by showing that the measure of gifts communicated to him, though small, serves for his benefit. So that someone might not say: What does it matter that it is one and the same Spirit, one and the same Lord, one and the same God, when I received less? The Apostle says that this is ‘for the common good.’ By ‘manifestation of the Spirit’ he calls the (evident) signs, and rightly so. For me, a believer, it is known who has the Spirit, namely the one who is baptized; but for the unbeliever this is visible nowhere except from the (evident) signs. And from this again follows no small comfort: although the gifts are diverse, the revelation is the same; whether you have many or few, you are equally revealed (as those bearing the Spirit), so that if you wish to show that you have the Spirit, you have enough for this. Thus if the one Giver is single, and what is given to you is a gift, and the manifestation of the Spirit can be from him, and this is most beneficial to you, then do not grieve as if you were despised. It is not to your dishonor, not to your humiliation before others that God acted thus, but out of his condescension toward you and his desire for your benefit. For to receive more and not be able to bear it—that is what is unprofitable, destructive, and worthy of grief.”

1 Cor. 12:8–10. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit; to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

Such is the diversity of the gifts of the Holy Spirit!

“What is ‘the message of wisdom’? It is what Paul had, which the son of thunder John had. And ‘the message of knowledge’? It is what many believers had who had knowledge but were not able to teach and conveniently convey to another what they themselves knew” (Saint John Chrysostom). “By ‘word of wisdom’ the Apostle means not eloquence but true teaching, the grace of which was received both by the divine Apostle himself and the godly Evangelist John and the most divine first of the Apostles Peter and the blessed first of the martyrs Stephen. For fishermen, living by the labor of their hands, unlettered, would not have dared to speak and write publicly, moreover filling their words and writings with the greatest power possible, unless they had received true wisdom from the divine Spirit. Others of the faithful, though they had knowledge, were not able, like them, to speak to the people. And this was the gift of knowledge, by the grace of the Holy Spirit” (Theodoret). Theophylact sets forth this reason why the word of wisdom should be understood thus: wisdom—σοφια—is called the clarifier—σαφεια—as she clarifies—διασαφουσα—what is hidden. But perhaps by the word of wisdom one can understand the word that is operative from spiritual experience, concerning the mysteries of spiritual life; and by the word of knowledge, the word that is knowing, contemplation, concerning the same subjects, insofar as they are accessible to the mind.

What is “faith”? It is “not faith in doctrines, but faith that works miracles, concerning which Christ says: ‘If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move’ (Matt. 17:20). And the Apostles asked about it when they said: ‘Increase our faith’ (Luke 17:5). For she is the mother of miracles” (Saint John Chrysostom). “Here the Apostle means not common faith, but that concerning which he says somewhat later: ‘and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains’ (1 Cor. 13:2). For because of the prevailing unbelief (the Apostles and other believers) performed many such amazing miracles, and by them they guided the unbelieving toward truth” (Theodoret).

What are “gifts of healing”? Theodoret writes: “The Apostle means by this the healing of the sick, the gift of making the lame walk and restoring sight to those deprived of vision. For this was accomplished in that time, as the Acts of the Apostles testifies. Thus it is said of the godly Peter that many of the sick were laid in the streets ‘on beds and couches, so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them’ (Acts 5:15); and of the divine Paul, that even the handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched his skin carried healing (Acts 19:12)”.

What are “miraculous powers”? Saint John Chrysostom says: “Having ‘miraculous powers’ and ‘gifts of healing’ is not the same thing. He who had the gift of healing only healed; but he who had miraculous powers could also punish, for from power comes not only healing but also punishment, as for example Paul blinded, and Peter struck down with death.” The same is true of Theodoret: “This gift often imposed punishment as well, as on Elymas—loss of sight, and on Ananias and Sapphira—premature death.” Oecumenius attaches to this the power to “hand over to Satan so that they may learn not to blaspheme” (1 Tim. 1:20).

What is “prophecy”? It is the gift of seeing the future, revealing what is hidden, discerning what is in someone’s heart. “And of this gift many were partakers at that time, not only men but also women” (Theodoret). The daughters of Philip prophesied; a certain Ananias predicted bonds to the holy Paul, and so on.

What is “distinguishing between spirits”? Theodoret writes: “Since at that time there were also soothsayers (inspired by demons) deceiving people, to others the divine Spirit gave such grace as to be able to expose those possessed by hostile spirits.” Saint John Chrysostom says that “The discerning of spirits is the knowledge of who is spiritual (filled with the Holy Spirit) and who is not spiritual (speaks only from himself), who is a prophet and who is a deceiver. At that time there was great danger from false prophets, for the devil strove in every way to oppose falsehood to truth.”

What is “speaking in different kinds of tongues”? It is the gift of speaking in diverse languages, not from learning them, but by a gift from the Spirit of God. The Roman empire was filled with peoples of diverse languages. So that no one would be deprived of the opportunity to hear the gospel, everywhere the gift of speaking in diverse languages was given. This gift and the gift of wisdom were the most necessary. “The Apostle gave it the last place, and the gift of teaching the first, because for both these gifts all the others are given, so that the preaching be received with faith” (Theodoret). “This gift (of tongues) was esteemed great; the Apostles first of all received it, and many of the Corinthians had it, but the gift of teaching is greater. The Apostle placed it first, but speaks of this at the end, because this (gift of teaching) is the reason for it, as well as for all the rest, both prophecy and miraculous powers and gifts of healing, and nothing can equal it, as he himself says: ‘The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching’ (1 Tim. 5:17)” (Saint John Chrysostom).

What is “the interpretation of tongues”? The gift of interpreting for others what was spoken in foreign languages. “One person himself knew what he spoke, but could not interpret it to another; while another had the ability for both” (Saint John Chrysostom). “And this was a spiritual gift. For often when someone knew only the Greek language and another spoke in a Scythian or Thracian tongue, he would interpret it to those listening” (Theodoret). “This gift sometimes those who spoke in tongues themselves had, and they interpreted themselves” (Oecumenius).

In enumerating such gifts, the Apostle explained that they are given now “by the same Spirit,” now “in the same Spirit,” “teaching that although the streams are diverse, the source is undoubtedly one. But he also deemed this insufficient and added” (Theodoret):

1 Cor. 12:11. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

“By all this the Apostle comforts those who received lesser gifts, teaching them that these are also gifts of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God gives as he wishes; and what he wishes is profitable” (Theodoret). “Here is the chief foundation of comfort: we all receive from one and the same root, from one and the same treasury, from one and the same source. For this reason he constantly uses this word, and by it makes equal the supposed inequality and comforts. Above he said that both the Spirit and the Son and the Father give the gift, but here he speaks only of the Spirit, so that from this you may know that they have one and the same dignity. And he not only comforts by this, but also shuts the mouth of the opponent by saying: ‘distributes them to each one, just as he determines’; for in comforting one must also instruct, as he does also in the epistle to the Romans when he says: ‘Who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?’ (Rom. 9:20). So here: ‘distributes them to each one, just as he determines.’ At the same time he shows that what belongs to the Father belongs also to the Spirit. For as he said of the Father: ‘it is the same God at work in all of them’; so also of the Spirit: ‘all these are the work of one and the same Spirit.’ But he acts, you say, under the influence of God? Nowhere did the Apostle say this; you yourself invented this. When he speaks of God the Father: ‘at work in all,’ he says this of men, and does not at all count the Spirit with men, although you, like a madman, repeat it a thousand times. Since he said above: ‘by the Spirit’ (δια του Πνευματος, ‘the message of wisdom is given’), so that you might not think that this expression signifies a diminishment of the Spirit or a dependence of his actions on another, he adds that the Spirit ‘works,’ and is not impelled to work, and works ‘just as he determines,’ not as he is commanded. As the Son speaks of the Father, that ‘he raises the dead and gives them life,’ so also of himself, that ‘he gives life to whom he wishes’ (John 5:21); so also of the Spirit in one place it is said that he does all things with authority, and nothing hinders him—for the words: ‘where he chooses, he blows’ (John 3:8), although spoken of the wind, prove also this; and here it is said that he works all things just as he determines. And from another place you can see that he is not a being through which others work, but he himself works; ‘who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God’ (1 Cor. 2:11). The spirit of a person, that is, the soul, does not need external impulse to know its own; this is known to all; consequently, the Holy Spirit too, to know divine things, for the Spirit of God knows the mysteries of God just as the human soul knows its own mysteries. If then in this case he is not impelled to work by anyone else, then knowing the deep things of God and working without external influence in the distribution of gifts to the Apostles, he is all the more not dependent on anyone else himself. Let us not be discouraged, grieve, and say: why did I receive that but not this; let us not demand an accounting from the Holy Spirit, for if you know that he gives according to his providence, and are aware that by the same providence he gives in a certain measure, then be content and rejoice in what you received; do not be saddened by what you did not receive, but rather give thanks that you did not receive beyond your strength” (Saint John Chrysostom).

The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26)

1 Cor. 12:12. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

Saint John Chrysostom says: “Having comforted the Corinthians with the fact that every gift is a gift of grace, that all is given by the same Spirit and for common benefit, that the Spirit reveals itself even in lesser gifts, and having sealed their mouths with the conviction that they must submit to the power of the Spirit, the Apostle now comforts (and instructs) them with another well-known comparison—the comparison with the body. By this comparison he seeks to prove that none of the Christians is humiliated before the others (even though he received an unequal gift). Nothing so comforts and disposes a faint-hearted man who has received less than others to abandon his grief as the conviction that he is not humiliated before the others. Therefore the Apostle proves this: ‘For just as,’ he says, ‘the body is one and has many members.’ Do you see the depth of his wisdom? He proves that one and many are the same. Elaborating further on this subject, he adds: ‘all the members of the body, though many, are one body.’ He does not say: many members belong to one body, but: the very one body is many, and many members of it are one. If then many is one and one is many, then where is distinction, where is superiority, where is humiliation? ‘All,’ he says, ‘are one,’ not simply one, but when properly considered in relation to the body’s composition, all are one; but when they are considered separately, then there is distinction, and indeed distinction in all of them. Not one of them can by itself constitute a body, and each is equally insufficient to constitute a body. Rather, their union is necessary, for when many become one, then one body is constituted. Expressing this, he says: ‘all the members of the body, though many, are one body.’ He does not say: higher and lower, but ‘though many,’ which applies to all generally. How can they be one?—When, setting aside their distinction as members, you consider them in relation to the body. For what the eye is, so is the foot, in the respect that they are members and constitute a body; in this there is no distinction between them. You cannot say that one member constitutes the body by itself while another does not; in this respect they are all equal, and all are one body.” (Saint John Chrysostom)

“Having stated and clearly proved this by the common sense of all, the Apostle adds: ‘so it is with Christ.’ It would have been fitting to say: so it is with the Church, for this followed from what preceded; but he did not say so, and instead of the Church he named Christ, using an expression more exalted and more reproving to the listener. The meaning of his words is as follows: so is the body of Christ, which is the Church. As the body and head constitute one person, so the Church and Christ, he says, are one; therefore he names Christ instead of the Church, understanding His body here. As our body is something one, though it consists of many members, so in the Church all of us constitute something one, for although it consists of many members, these many are one body.” (Saint John Chrysostom)

“Thus, having comforted and encouraged by a well-known example one who considered himself humiliated, the Apostle leaves ordinary matters and passes to another—a spiritual matter—which could provide even greater comfort and clearly show the equality of honor (among the members of the Church). What then is it?” (Saint John Chrysostom)

1 Cor. 12:13. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

“The meaning of his words is as follows: one Spirit constituted us one body and regenerated us, for one was not baptized by one Spirit and another by another. And not only is the Spirit who baptized us one, but also that into which He baptized us, that is, for what purpose He baptized us, is one; for we were not baptized to constitute different bodies, but so that all of us exactly constitute one body, that is, we were baptized so that all of us would be one body. Thus both He who constituted us is one, and that into which He constituted us is one. And the Apostle did not say: that we might belong to one body, but that we might be one body: ‘we were all baptized into one body.’ It is also well said: we all, including himself. I, the Apostle says, do not have any advantage before you in this respect; you are a body as I am, and I as you are, and all of us have one and the same Head and were born by the same birth, and therefore constitute one and the same body.—‘Whether Jews.’ But why do I point to Jews? Even Gentiles, who were so far from us, God brought into the composition of one body. ‘Whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free.’ If we, who were previously so far from each other, have been united and become one, then all the more after union should we not grieve and despond, for there is no longer room for distinction. If He has honored both Gentiles and Jews, both slaves and free with the same honor, then having honored us, will He divide us, when the very communication of gifts serves for the most perfect unity?” (Saint John Chrysostom)

“And we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” This drinking is different from the regeneration in baptism. There a spiritual being is obtained; here the spiritual being is given drink of the Spirit. When does this happen?—In the sacrament of chrismation, by the laying on of hands among the Apostles. In this sacrament the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given, which is drinking of the Spirit. Oecumenius writes: “Through the one Spirit we have the grace of spiritual gifts.” Theophylact at first said that this drinking is accomplished in communion, but then added: “But more truly here we should understand the descent of the Holy Spirit upon us, which we receive after baptism and before communion of the Holy Mysteries.” Clearly he understands the holy chrismation. Such is the thought of Saint John Chrysostom, from whom both of them borrowed their interpretation. He, having first mentioned the Holy Mysteries, then adds: “But it seems to me that here he speaks of that descent of the Spirit which is accomplished over us in baptism (after baptism) before the sacrament of communion. He said ‘drink,’ because this figurative expression is very fitting for the present subject, as if he were speaking of plants and a garden, that all trees are watered by one and the same source, by one and the same water. So also we, he says, are watered by one and the same Spirit, are given the same grace. Thus, if the one Spirit constituted us and into one body, united all of us together, for this is what the words mean: ‘we were all baptized into one body,’ if then he gave one and the same watering to all of us, for this is what the words mean: ‘we were all given the one Spirit to drink,’ and he united those so far from each other together, and if many only constitute a body when they become one, then about what distinction do you speak? If you say that members are many and they are different, know that this very thing is remarkable and constitutes the peculiarity of the body—that in it the many and different constitute one; but if there were not many, it would not be so remarkable and wonderful that the body is one, or rather, then there would not be a body at all.”

1 Cor. 12:14. For the body is not one member but many.

“The body is not something simple, but complex, made up of many parts” (Theodoret). Therefore diversity is necessary here. But with all this diversity there must be unity, otherwise a body will not be formed; unity in that every member does everything only for the whole body, forgetting about itself, and for this receives everything from the whole body. The conditions of the body’s life are many; different members fulfill them, and because they fulfill them, the body lives, and the living body gives them life. That is why the body does not have one member but many!

1 Cor. 12:15–16. If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

The Apostle’s thought is that once the body is formed, each member, willy-nilly, is what it is. Therefore it is his duty not to tear himself out of the body because he is a lesser member, but to keep his place and his significance. Saint John Chrysostom says: “If the fact that one is smaller and another larger prevented entering the body’s composition, then there would be no whole body at all. Therefore do not say: I am not of the body, because I am less than others; the foot occupies the lowest place, but it too is in the body’s composition. Being or not being part of the body’s composition depends not on the position in one place or another—this produces only a distinction in place—but on connection or disconnection; being or not being of the body depends on connection with it or disconnection. And note Paul’s wisdom, with which he represents our members as uttering these words. As above he said: ‘I have applied all this to myself and Apollos’ (1 Cor. 4:6), so here too, in order to make his speech more gentle and readily received, he represents the members themselves as speaking, so that the readers, hearing an answer from nature itself, being refuted by their own experience and common sense, can no longer contradict. Even if you yourselves, he says, said the same thing and however much you might object, you cannot be outside the body, for both as a law of nature and even more by the power of grace everything is preserved and maintained. And see how he avoids excess: he does not speak of all members, but only of two, and moreover the extreme ones, the highest—the eye, and the lowest—the feet. Furthermore, he represents the foot speaking not with the eye, but with the hand, which is a little above it, and the ear with the eye. As we ordinarily envy not those who far exceed us, but those who are but little above us, so he constructs his comparison.” Theodoret points out in addition: “The Apostle again persuades those who have received lesser gifts not to grieve, but to love what has been given to them. For if you perform not the function of the hand but of the foot, and fulfill not the ministry of the eye but of hearing, you should know that this too is necessary to the body.”

1 Cor. 12:17. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

This desire to aspire to higher members leads to the abolition of lower ones, and this results in the disorder of the body and common ruin. If such a desire were to be satisfied, all would have to be made (for example) into eyes or ears, the noblest members; and the whole body would become an eye or an ear. And what would that be like? “If the whole body were to become one member only, even if it were the most adequate, then without doubt it would be useless, deprived of the other members” (Theodoret). “Since he pointed to the distinction of members, mentioned feet, hands, eyes, and ears, and thereby suggested the thought of lower and higher dignity, observe how again he comforts and shows that this is useful, that the body is a body precisely because its members are many and different. If they were all one, then they would not constitute a body, therefore he says below: ‘If all were one member, where would the body be?’ And here he expresses something far greater still, namely, that in such a case not only would there be no body, but neither would there be the other members” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 12:18. But as it is, God has arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

This is what would result from your desire not to be what you are, but something higher! But God judged differently: He ordained that there be many members, and to each member He assigned its own place; from this both the body lives and each member thrives. So then, “let each love what has been given; for if God has distributed operative powers to parts of the body, then the one who does not remain within the appointed limits openly goes against the One who appointed these limits” (Theodoret). And this is not quite safe.

“If God so willed it, then do not ask why so and why not otherwise. Although we might present thousands of reasons, we cannot prove with as much force that this is good as with the words: as the highest Craftsman willed, so it was done, for He wills as is beneficial. If we ought not to be too curious about the members in our body, then all the more so in the Church. It is well said by the Apostle: ‘each one of them’ expressing the benefit of all of them. You cannot say that the Lord fashioned one member and not another, but each is placed so by His will; and it is beneficial for the foot to be in exactly that place, not only for the head (to be in its own); and if some member, changing position, left its place and moved to another, then although apparently it would occupy a better place, it would destroy and disorder everything; it would lose its own place and not attain another’s” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 12:19–20. If all were one member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body.

“From that which they concluded to the inequality of honor, that is, that there was a great distinction among you, from the very same thing he proves that they have equal honor. The meaning of these words is as follows: if there were no great distinction among you, then you would not be a body; not being a body, you would not be one; and not being one, you would not have equal honor. Conversely: if you all had equal honor (apart from relation to the body), then you would not be a body; not being a body, you would not be one; and not being one, how would you have equal honor? Now, since you have not just one gift, you constitute a body; and being a body, you all constitute one and do not differ from each other in the respect that you constitute a body. Consequently, this very distinction produces equality of honor. Let us too, understanding this, abandon all envy; let us neither envy those who have more gifts nor despise those who have fewer. So it pleased God; let us not murmur then. If you are still troubled, consider that another is often not capable of doing your work, and therefore, although you are smaller than him, you surpass him in this respect; and he, though greater than you, is smaller in this respect, and thus you are equal. And in the body, members apparently insignificant perform not insignificant actions, but often cause ruin even to important ones if they are separated from them. Remove one finger, and you will see that the others will be less active and will not perform their function so well” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 12:21. The eye cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you! And the head cannot say to the feet, I don’t need you!

“Having convicted the envy of the lesser and removed their sorrow, which they could have from the fact that others were granted greater gifts, the Apostle now humbles the pride of those who received more. He did this before as well, when speaking with the first, namely when he taught that a gift is a gift, not a merit; but now he does the same with greater force, continuing the same comparison. From the body and its unity he comes to a comparison between the members themselves, which was especially necessary for the Corinthians to know, for it could comfort them not so much that all of them constitute one body as the conviction that even with the gifts they have received, they are in no way humiliated. And the lesser gift is also necessary. As without the great there would be a great deficiency, so without the small the fullness of the Church would be violated. He does not say: it cannot speak, but: ‘cannot say,’ that is, even if it wished to, even if it said so, this is impossible by the very nature of things. He takes two extreme members and focuses his discourse on them, bringing as examples, first, the hand and the eye, and second, the head and the foot. What is more insignificant than the foot, or what is more honored and necessary than the head? The head properly constitutes the human being. Yet it too by itself is insufficient and cannot accomplish everything alone, otherwise we would have no need of feet” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 12:22–24. On the contrary, those members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with the greater honor, and our unpresentable members are treated with greater modesty, whereas our more presentable members do not need this.

“Some think that Paul calls here the weaker and more necessary members, the less noble and those receiving greater care, the eyes and feet, namely under the first—the eyes, for though they are weaker in strength, they are superior in use, and under the second—the feet, about which much care is taken. It is well said: ‘seem to be’ and ‘we think,’ expressing that such a position is based not on the nature of things but on human opinion. We have nothing dishonorable in us, because all is God’s work. God ordained it so that some members by nature have no need of anything, while we must provide to others what was not given them by nature; yet they are not thereby dishonorable, just as animals by nature have mostly no need of anything, neither clothing, nor shoes, nor shelter, yet our body is not dishonorable compared to their body because it has need of all these things. Truly, if we examine carefully, we will see that these members (seeming not so beautiful) are by nature itself honorable and necessary, which the Apostle himself hints at, rendering his judgment on them not on the basis of our attention and greater care, but on the basis of the nature of things itself; for calling them weak and less noble, he says ‘seem to be,’ but calling them necessary, he does not add ‘seem,’ but renders his own judgment and says they ‘are indispensable.’ Further, lest there be exaggeration on the other side, he says: ‘our more presentable members do not need this.’ Lest someone say: how, surely we should neglect the noble members and care for the less noble?—he says: we do this not out of neglect for them, but because they have no need of it” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 12:24–25. But God has composed the body, giving greater honor to the inferior member, so that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

“Composed”—as wine is mixed with water. Attention is paid to apparent deficiency and care. What is lacking in apparent quality is made up by greater care, and where more quality seems present, care is correspondingly diminished. And all came out equal. Saint John Chrysostom says: “If God has composed the body, He did not leave room to distinguish the less noble in it, for what is composed becomes one, so that it is no longer seen what it was before; otherwise one could not say it is composed. And see how he everywhere only slightly mentions the defects, saying: ‘inferior,’ (lacking something in comparison to another). He did not say: dishonorable or shameful, but ‘inferior’ (lacking something in comparison to another). ‘To the inferior,’ he says, ‘he gave greater honor,’ showing that God both gave less wisely and honored more. ‘So that there may be no discord in the body.’ Indeed, there would be great inequality if some members both by nature and from us enjoyed greater care, while others had neither from one side nor the other; then they would fall apart, not having the possibility to preserve union among themselves, and if some fell away, the others too would suffer harm. Do you see how he proved that the less perfect members necessarily had to be given more honor (that is, care). If it were not so, all would perish. But perhaps someone will say: one can indeed say of the body that the less perfect members received more honor, but how can this be seen among people?—Among people this can be seen even more. Thus, those who came at the eleventh hour received their reward first; for the lost sheep the shepherd left ninety-nine others, went after it, and when he found it, carried it, not drove it; the prodigal received greater care than one who conducted himself honorably; the thief was crowned and glorified before the Apostles. Therefore, knowing this, you who are higher do not oppress those who are lower, lest you yourselves suffer harm before them, for if they separate, the whole body will be destroyed. The Apostle requires not only that we not separate from one another, but that we be joined together in the tightest manner. For having said: ‘so that there may be no discord in the body,’ he was not satisfied with this, but added: ‘that the members may have the same care for one another.’ God ordained it not only so that members would not separate from each other, but also so that there would be great love and harmony among them. For if each must care for the salvation of his neighbor, do not speak to me of higher and lower; there is no higher and lower here. Do not say that such-and-such a member is unimportant, but remember that he is a member of the same body that contains all. Therefore the Apostle requires equal care for all” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 12:26. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

“For this reason, he says, God established mutual care for one another, ordaining unity in such diversity, so that everything that happens is common to all. If the salvation of all depends on caring for one’s neighbor, then necessarily both glory and sorrow become common to all. Thus the Apostle proposes here three commandments: not to separate, but to be in tight unity; to have equal care for one another; to consider everything that happens as common. In all that happens, whether pleasant or unpleasant, the members mutually sympathize with one another. When, for example, a thorn is driven into the foot, the whole body feels pain and is troubled; the back bends, the belly and thighs contract, the hands, like weapons-bearers and servants, stretch forward and extract the splinter, the head bends and the eyes watch with great care. Again: when the eyes hurt, then all members suffer, all fall into inaction, feet do not walk, hands do not act, the belly does not accept its usual food, though the illness is in the eyes. Remembering this, let all of us imitate the mutual love of bodily members and not act contrary to it. When the head is crowned, the whole person is glorified. So it is in the Church: when some are distinguished, then all society acquires good renown. Is someone distinguished by the gift of eloquence, then even enemies praise not him alone, but the whole Church. They do not say: such-and-such a one is worthy of admiration, but what?—Christians have a teacher worthy of admiration, and they make this treasure common. So the pagans unite, and you divide, wage war against your own body and rise up against your own members? Do you not know that through this all collapses? ‘A kingdom’ the Lord says, ‘divided against itself… will not stand’ (Matt. 12:25)” (Saint John Chrysostom).

The Ordering of the Members in the Church; Seek the Greater Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:27–31)

1 Cor. 12:27. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

“Lest anyone say: what relevance does the example of a body have for us? It is arranged thus by nature, but our perfections depend on our will—the Apostle applies this example to our circumstances and shows that by will we must have the same harmony that the members of the body have by nature: ‘you are the body of Christ,’ he says. If there should be no discord in our body, then much more so in the body of Christ, and all the more so because grace is more powerful than nature” (Saint John Chrysostom).

You all together are the body of Christ, and each individually is a member of this body. But properly the body of Christ is “the whole universal Church, not just the Corinthian Church. By adding: in part, he makes them understand: your church is part of the universal Church, this mystical body of Christ, constituted by all Churches; so that you are obligated to be at peace not only with one another but with the whole universal Church, if you are indeed members of the whole body” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 12:28. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues.

“God appointed.” The administrators of churches and keepers of order in them did not establish themselves: they are of heavenly origin. Therefore, the arrangement existing in the Churches should be received with complete obedience, as a direct institution of God (Theophylact). By saying “first, second, third,” the Apostle ranks the ecclesiastical offices according to their dignity.

“First, apostles.” “The most excellent order becomes highest of all, for the Apostles possessed all gifts” (Saint John Chrysostom). “They are the leaders of faith” (Oecumenius). “Conveyors of all spiritual blessings and treasures” (Theophylact). “He means not only the twelve, but also the seventy and others who later were deemed worthy of this grace. For he himself, being called later, received this appointment, as did the divine Barnabas, and besides them many others” (Theodoret).

“Second, prophets.” “He means those who existed not before grace, but under grace. Of their number was Agabus” (Theodoret). “The daughters of Philip prophesied, and those of the Corinthians about whom he says: ‘Let two or three prophets speak’ (1 Cor. 14:29). Generally at that time there were far more prophets than in the Old Testament, because this gift was not given to ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred people, but this grace was abundantly poured out, and each Church had many prophets. If Christ says: ‘the law and the prophets were until John,’ (Matt. 11:13), he speaks of those prophets who foretold His coming” (Saint John Chrysostom).

“Third, teachers.” “And they brought great benefit, and are justly placed immediately after the prophets” (Oecumenius). “Inspired by divine grace, they set forth the doctrine of divine dogmas and made moral exhortations” (Theodoret). “The prophet speaks all from the Spirit, but the teacher sometimes speaks from his own reason. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching’ (1 Tim. 5:17). Whoever speaks all from the Spirit does not “labor,” therefore the Apostle placed the teacher after the prophet, for the work of the latter is wholly a gift, while the former is also human labor; the teacher says much also from himself, though of course in accord with the Divine Scriptures” (Saint John Chrysostom).

“Then deeds of power, then gifts of healing.”

Before he pointed to persons who received the gifts, but now he began to point only to the gifts—which produces no difference in the course of the discourse, for these gifts too were sent to certain persons. “Do you see how again he distinguishes the gift of healing from power, as he did before? This is because power is greater than healing. One who has power both strikes and heals, while one who has the gift of healing only heals” (Saint John Chrysostom). Perhaps “deeds of power” also mean the gift that manifested itself in extraordinary authority over the forces and elements of nature. “The Apostle placed teaching before these gifts not simply, but thereby teaching that these gifts are for the sake of teaching, not teaching for their sake; because teaching furthered salvation, since they did not receive it without signs, it was out of necessity for those coming, as a kind of guarantee, that they performed miracles” (Theodoret).

“Forms of assistance,” αντιληψεις. “They assist the wronged and those suffering violence. If one takes this meaning more completely and goes through everything from which a weak person can suffer and consequently would require assistance, then under this gift much can be understood. People suffer from human injustices, suffer from poverty and illnesses, suffer violence and oppression from demons. Correspondingly, the gift of assistance would be either the gift of courage and wisdom in defending the oppressed before authorities, or the gift of care for the poor and sick, or the gift of authority over demons. What is more fitting to recognize in the present case? Our interpreters did not give this word a strict definition, so all can be understood. But more closely—assistance from wicked people and demons.”

“Forms of leadership,” κυβερνησεις. The gift of administering particular Churches—shepherding. Theodoret places leadership and assistance together and says: “By this the Apostle depicted the administration of Churches.” Theophylact says the same about both together: “‘Forms of assistance, forms of leadership,’ that is, to assist the weak and to govern, or to arrange the affairs of the brethren. Although this depends on our diligence, the Apostle calls it God’s gifts, teaching us to be grateful for them to God and to look to Him, not to exalt ourselves.” Saint John Chrysostom says: “What is ‘assistance’?—To help the weak. Is this also a gift?—Without doubt, to help and to manage spiritual matters (here Saint John Chrysostom also speaks of ‘leadership’) is God’s gift.—However, the Apostle calls many of our virtues gifts not that we might become careless, but to show that we always have need of God’s help, and to dispose us to gratitude, to make us more diligent and to stir up the souls of listeners.”

“Various kinds of tongues.” “The Apostle placed this gift in the last place not simply, but because the Corinthians thought highly of it and used it excessively for show, not according to the measure of need. For this reason the Apostle presented the order of gifts and said which of them is first, which second, and which third, so that they would take care of what is more necessary” (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 12:29–30. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?

“By this the Apostle again comforted those who received gifts that, in their estimation, were lesser, and clearly taught that it is impossible for all to have the same gifts, and that they have need of one another, as the members of the body have need of mutual assistance” (Theodoret).

“Since by listing the gifts he again showed great distinction among them and excited the distress of those who received the lesser gifts, finally, after having presented many proofs that they are not too humiliated, he addresses them with a very strong rebuke, saying: ‘Are all apostles?’ and so on. He does not stop at one or another gift, but enumerates all to the last, expressing either that not all can have everything, or at the same time adding to the word of comfort something else. What is that?—That even the lesser gifts, like the greater ones, equally should be objects of desire, because they too are not given to all. For why, he says, do you grieve that you do not have the gift of healing? Consider that the one who has the greater often does not have what you have, even though it is lesser. As God did not grant all great gifts to everyone, but gave one such to one and another to another, so He acted also with lesser ones, granting not all gifts to all. And He did this to inspire great harmony and love, so that each, having need of his neighbor, might be more closely united with him. The same He did in the arts, in the elements, in plants, in our members, and in all things generally” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 12:31. But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

This text stands at the transition to the following discourse on love. Having said all about the extraordinary gifts of grace that manifested themselves in the Church, and having calmed all who were troubled by receiving lesser gifts compared to others, the Apostle speaks to them as it were: Do you desire the better gifts?—Seek them. But I will tell you that the matter of Christian life is not in the gifts. All gifts can cease in the Church. There is in Christianity something higher than all gifts. And this I now want to show you.

“A still more excellent way,” the most excellent way, that is, the way of life, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Photius in Oecumenius says: “I show you a way on which, having no need of any of the gifts I have shown, you will nevertheless prove to be better and more perfect than all. What is this?—Something most simple, effortless, achieved in the easiest manner—love. Whoever has obtained pure love has risen above all, has surpassed all. And whoever lacks it has fallen below all, and moreover is empty (of all spiritual goods). Having obtained love, you will no longer look with envious faint-heartedness at the higher gifts of others.”

These are the words of Saint John Chrysostom. “He did not say: strive for the higher gifts, but κρειττονα, the better ones, that is, the more necessary, the more useful. He did not say: a gift, but a way, to exalt more that of which he intended to speak; not one, not two, not three gifts, he says, will I show you, but one way, leading to all of them, and not simply a way, but the most excellent way, open to all generally. This is not like the other gifts, of which some are given to some and others to others, not all to all, but there is a gift universal.”

Love, the More Excellent Way, Surpassing All Gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1–3)

First the Apostle shows: a) the superiority of love over all gifts and deeds (verses 1–3); then b) he depicts its bright face, pointing to the fullness of virtues in it and the rejection of all passions (verses 4–7); finally c) he declares that it is eternal (verses 8–13).

x) The superiority of love over all gifts and deeds (1 Cor. 13:1–3)

1 Cor. 13:1. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Love is the inner force of life. Immersing itself in God and being filled by God, it is all God’s and pours itself out on the brethren, in whom it dwells not in thought but in heart, counting everything that concerns them as concerning itself. This is a self-crucified life, an inexhaustible source of all good. Speaking in tongues is quite an external matter, and in the natural order perhaps only memory is occupied with it, and in the order of grace not even that, for even a donkey was able to speak when it was necessary, and the Lord says stones will cry out when there is no one to declare the will of God. The one who speaks without the presence of inner life is exactly like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. The first expression denotes a single monotone sound, like striking a piece of metal or a metal object, and the second also changes of tones, but without meaning. In Greek—αλαλαζον—it babbles, but says nothing definite.

“The Apostle, in comparing gifts, placed first of all the gift of tongues, because in the opinion of the Corinthians it was more important than others. They considered it important because it was given to the Apostles before all others on the day of Pentecost at the descent of the All-Holy Spirit. He says: if I learn all human languages, and beyond that also the languages of the invisible Powers, but have no love for my neighbor, then I do not differ at all from inanimate instruments” (Theodoret). “And see what he begins with: first of all with what they considered wonderful and great, that is, with the gift of tongues, and when speaking of this gift, he represents it not as it was theirs, but far greater. He did not say: ‘If I speak in tongues,’ but: ‘If I speak in the tongues of mortals.’ What does ‘mortals’ mean?—The languages of all the peoples of the world. Not satisfied even with this increase, he adds another, much greater: ‘and of angels,’ he says. Do you see how he exalted this gift and then afterward lowered and humiliated it? He did not simply say: then I am nothing, but: ‘I am a noisy gong,’ something insensible and soulless, producing sound in vain, without purpose and without any benefit, and not only bringing no benefit to anyone, but seeming to many to be troublesome, burdensome, and unbearable” (Saint John Chrysostom).

What is the angelic language? The blessed Theodoret writes about it: “By angelic languages he does not mean sensible ones, but certain intelligible ones, in which the Angels sing praises to God almighty and converse with one another. For Isaiah heard them singing, and Ezekiel, also Daniel, Zechariah, and Micaiah heard them conversing. The divine Apostle expressed this hyperbolically, intending to show the superiority of love.” Saint John Chrysostom says: “When speaking of the angelic language, the Apostle does not attribute a body to the Angels, but expresses the following: although I were to speak as the Angels ordinarily converse with one another, without love I am nothing and even burdensome and unbearable. Similarly in another place, when he says: ‘every knee of those in heaven will bow,’ (Phil. 2:10), he does not attribute knees and bones to the Angels—far be it—but by the likeness of our worship he wishes to express the earnest worship of the Angels. So also here he speaks of language, meaning not a bodily member, but by a certain way of our conversation expressing their mutual intercourse with one another.”

1 Cor. 13:2. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

These gifts are inward and indicate a great closeness to God. Nonetheless, they do not touch the very depth of our nature, and do not signify an essential union with God. Prophecy—with full knowledge of God’s mysteries in the administration of the kingdom of grace and with full knowledge of the arrangement of the world and all creatures, in their beginning, in the course of time and in the purposes to which all is directed—even such prophecy still has its seat in the head, and when necessary, God can impart it to the mind without regard to what is taking place in the heart, just as He made a donkey speak. Consequently, even with this the innermost can be estranged from God and from neighbors, estranged from true life. Miraculous faith, moving mountains, presupposes great boldness before God; but as the works accomplished by it are external and not its own but God’s, and God by the purposes of His providence can act even through imperfect instruments without regard to them but to others, this gift too can be manifested in a completely external manner, not be a decisive assurance of an inner union with God and with the brethren in God. By the ordinary course of spiritual life one can have neither such prophecy nor such faith without perfect purity and sincere communion with God; but God, by His purposes, when necessity arises, can grant both to such persons who by their inner constitution could not have them. From this it follows that deeds of this kind are not assurances of true spiritual perfection, which is all found in love, that is, one can have these and still be without love, and consequently be nothing. The possibility of such manifestations the Lord Himself confirmed when He said: “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’” (Matt. 7:22–23). I never knew you, He will say, for “the Lord knows those who are His.” By this the Lord expressed that, despite such signs, those who performed them were not His own, and they were not His own because they did not do His will, or what amounts to the same, they did not have love. Thus the word of the Apostle accords with the word of the Lord. The Apostle’s thought is not that such gifts never indicate sincere closeness to God of those manifesting them, but that even with them the absence of such closeness is possible, and without it all is nothing.

Saint John Chrysostom expressed such thoughts on this passage: “The Apostle does not stop at the gift of tongues, but points also to the other gifts, and having shown their worthlessness without love, then begins to describe its image. And since he wished to gradually strengthen his discourse, he ascends from lesser to greater; what he placed last when enumerating the gifts, that is, the gift of tongues, he now places first, ascending, as I said, from lesser to greater. Having spoken of tongues, he immediately passes to prophecy and presents this also in the superlative degree. For as there he pointed not only to tongues but to the tongues of all people, and even to the tongues of Angels, and then said that this gift without love is nothing, so here he speaks not only of prophecy but of prophecy of the highest degree. Having said: ‘if I have prophetic powers,’ he adds: ‘and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,’ presenting this gift also in the superlative degree.”

“Then the Apostle proceeds to the other gifts, and lest he seem burdensome by enumerating them separately, he points to the mother and source of all of them, and again in the superlative degree: ‘and if I have’ he says ‘all faith.’ Not satisfied with this, he adds also what Christ recognized as great: ‘so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.’ See how here again he humiliated the gift of tongues. From prophecy he shows great benefit, namely—knowledge of mysteries and all understanding, equally from faith an important work, namely—the removal of mountains, but about the gift of tongues he only mentioned it and said nothing more about it. Note also how in a few words he encompasses all gifts, that is, in prophecy and faith; this is because miracles are contained either in words or in deeds. He attributes to faith the moving of mountains, not because all faith could produce only this, but because to crude people this seemed great because of the weight of mountains. The Apostle thus exalts the subject, and the meaning of his words is as follows: if I have all faith, if I could even move mountains, but do not have love, then I am nothing.”

1 Cor. 13:3. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

From gifts the Apostle passes to the very high forms of ascetic labors—distribution of possessions and surrender to burning. The Apostle regards them as works performed in an external manner, in which the inner disposition may not correspond to the dignity of the external. One can distribute everything without love, and resolve to die, also without having love. If God looks at the heart and values works by it, and the value of all works comes from love, then it may be that even deeds of this kind will have no value before God, that is, will bring no benefit. The Apostle’s thought is not to say that such deeds are worthless, but that all their value comes from love; and it is not also that one could love and not perform such deeds when required. He has one thought—to present through such comparisons that it is love alone that gives value to all gifts and to all deeds, and that as soon as it is absent, all is nothing.

Saint John Chrysostom says: “What an emphatic speech! And here he presents everything in the superlative degree. He did not say: if I give away half my possessions, or two or three parts, but: ‘all my possessions.’ He did not say: give away, but ‘distribute’ ψωμισω (to feed someone with one’s own hands), expressing besides the use of wealth, the very zealous service. Also he did not say: if I die, but again he expresses it emphatically, presents the cruelest death, that is, to be burned alive, and says that even such a death without love is not an important matter. But the full force of the Apostle’s words will be revealed when I bring the testimony of Christ about almsgiving and death. What testimony?—To the rich man Christ said: ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven’ (Matt. 19:21); also, when discussing love of neighbor, He said: ‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (Jn. 15:13). From this it is evident that even in God’s eyes such love is the highest. But I affirm, says Paul, that if we lay down our souls even for God, and not merely lay them down, but also be burned, then we will have no benefit if we do not love our neighbor. There is nothing surprising in that gifts without love bring no benefit—they are even below a good life; because many who possessed gifts will be punished as wicked, for example, those who prophesied in the name of Christ, cast out demons, and performed many miracles, like Judas the traitor. So there is nothing surprising that gifts need love; but that the very exemplary life means nothing without it, this may seem an exaggeration and cause confusion, especially when Christ attributes great dignity to these two virtues, that is, freedom from greed and martyrdom. Why then does he speak thus? What is to be said about this?”

“Either that Paul supposes the impossible possible, as he ordinarily does when he wishes to say something extraordinary; for example in the epistle to the Galatians he says: ‘Even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed’ (Gal. 1:8). Neither he himself nor an angel could certainly have done this; but in order to depict the matter in the most emphatic manner, he supposes what will never happen. He does the same thing here as well. So either this is to be said, or…” But let us take this second thought from Theodoret, who expresses it more briefly, yet in accord with Saint John Chrysostom. He says: “It is necessary to know that the righteous Judge looks not only at a righteous deed, but also at the purpose of this deed. Many do very much for human glory.”

How it is possible to suffer without love, an example of this was given by a certain Sapriky, priest of Antioch. He was in the most friendly relations with a certain layman Nicephorus. Later they fell out over something, and very much. Nicephorus, however, soon came to his senses and sought reconciliation, but without success. In this state they were overtaken by persecution in the reign of Valerian. Sapriky was seized; he stood firm in the faith and for this was tortured in various ways, and finally was sentenced to beheading. Nicephorus, learning of this, hurried after him and asked for reconciliation; but he refused him. At that the grace departed from him, and he denied Christ the Lord at the very moment when he had already bent his head under the sword. Behold, he suffered, and was ready for everything, but did not have love; and he received no benefit from his sufferings (see Lives of the Saints, February 9).

Love, the Fullness of the Virtues (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)

1 Cor. 13:4-7. Love is patient, love is kind; it is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Having proved that without love there is no great benefit either from faith, or from knowledge, or from prophecy, or from the gift of tongues, nor even from a perfect life and martyrdom, the Apostle describes, as was necessary, the matchless beauty of love, adorning its depiction, as it were, with various colors—with different kinds of virtue—and carefully connecting all its parts. Therefore, beloved, be attentive to what is said and ponder each word with great care, so that you may see both the perfection of the subject and the skill of the painter. See what he began with and what he placed first as the cause of all blessings. What is it?—Long-suffering. (Saint John Chrysostom)

“Love is patient,” μακροθυμος. It patiently bears all unpleasantness, insults, and false accusations without yielding to movements of anger or vengeance. “Patience is the root of all wisdom; therefore the Wise One says: ‘A patient man has great understanding, but the hasty-tempered display folly’ (Prov. 14:29); and further, comparing this virtue to a strong city, he says it is stronger than a city. It is an unconquerable weapon, an unshakeable pillar, easily repelling all attacks. As a spark that falls into the sea causes it no harm but disappears at once, so all that is unexpectedly unpleasant, striking a patient soul, quickly vanishes and does not disturb it. The patient one, as though dwelling in a harbor, enjoys deep peace; whether you harm him, you will not move this stone; whether you insult him, you will not shake this pillar; whether you strike him, you will not crush this diamond; therefore he is called patient, having, as it were, a long and great soul, for what is long is also called great. This virtue is born from love, and to those who have it and use it well, it brings great benefit. Do not tell me that lost people, doing evil and not suffering for it, become worse: this happens not from patience, but from those very people who use it improperly. Therefore, do not speak of them, but remember the gentler people who receive great benefit from it; for when they, doing evil, do not suffer for it, marveling at the patience of the sufferer, they receive the very best lesson in wisdom.” (Saint John Chrysostom)

“Love is kind.” χρηστευεται, it acts beneficently: from others it endures unpleasantness, but itself not only causes nothing painful to anyone; rather, it regards the sorrows of others as its own and, entering into sympathy with their sorrow, strives in every way to alleviate their grief; as oil on wounds, so is it for every need, sorrow, and weakness of one’s neighbor—it does not rest until it has comforted, helped, and made peace; it suffers with all, especially those in need and suffering; even to those who cause it unpleasantness, it strives to instill a peaceful disposition; “it deals gently with those burning with anger, to calm it and extinguish it, and heals the wound and cures the ulcer of anger not only with courageous endurance, but with compliance and exhortation.” (Saint John Chrysostom)

“Love does not envy”. It envies neither the gifts nor the external prosperity, nor the distinctions, nor the success in affairs and no good or advantage of another before itself. This is contrary to its nature; its essence is to desire and to do good to others, and indeed every kind of good; therefore it does not seek to be happier than others, but that all be happy with the fullest possible happiness; it will allow itself to be passed by in regard to present good so that all may taste it, not caring whether anything falls to its portion, only that all receive their share.

“Love is not boastful,” ου περπερευεται, it is not conceited. The conceited person in words, judgments, manners, in intercourse, in deeds, allows much thoughtlessness, because he acts without deliberation, in the confidence that all that proceeds from him is fine and should in others leave only admiration and praise; he soars, settling on nothing, therefore he can produce nothing useful or give useful advice, interferes in everything with his judgment and, besides confusion, leaves nothing after him. Love does not soar thus; it acts quietly, looking about and making sure where, what, and how it can do something useful, and does it without noise and announcement. Saint John Chrysostom says: “Love ‘is not boastful’—that is, it does not act thoughtlessly. It makes the lover prudent, sober, and thoughtful. Conceited thoughtlessness is characteristic of those who love with fleshly love, while those who love with true love are completely free from this; love, dwelling in the soul like some skilled farmer, does not permit any such evil thorn to grow in the field of the heart.” The same is written by Theodoret: “He who loves does not agree to act rashly in anything.” Oecumenius: “He does nothing rashly: for the rash is the flying one.” The same thought appears in Theophylact: “Love does not act rashly, but acts with self-collected and careful attention. The flying one is the one who is light in thoughts, words, and deeds.”

“It is not arrogant,” ου φυσιουται, it is not puffed up by φυσαω—to blow, to inflate, like a bubble. Whatever perfections love may possess, it thinks it has nothing better compared to others, and however much good it may have done in its sphere, it does not think it has done anything at all. Like a mother caring for children, however much she labors over them, she acts as though she had done nothing, and doing something, she does it again as though beginning for the first time: so also love. “It does not think much of its own goodness.” (Oecumenius) “It does not pride itself over the brethren.” (Theodoret) “But it thinks humbly, despite possessing lofty perfections.” (Theophylact) “We see that many pride themselves in their very virtues, that is, in being not envious, not evil, not faint-hearted, not foolish (these vices are joined not only with wealth and poverty, but with very good natural qualities), while love completely purifies all.” (Saint John Chrysostom)

Bringing together in one review all the qualities mentioned thus far, Saint John Chrysostom remarks as follows: “Note: the patient one is not always merciful; if he is not merciful, then his good quality becomes a vice and can turn into rancor; but love, providing the remedy—that is, mercy—keeps this virtue pure. Also, the merciful one is often thoughtless, but love corrects this defect as well. The merciful and patient one is often proud, but love destroys this vice as well. It, on the one hand, produces virtues, on the other—destroys vices, or rather, does not allow them to arise. It is not that the Apostle said, for example: although she has envy, but she overcomes envy, or: although she has pride, but she tames this passion; he says: ‘she does not envy, she is not proud’; and what is especially remarkable, she does good without effort, raises a trophy without struggle and resistance. For he who has her does not labor to achieve a crown, but without labor she brings him a reward, because where there is no passion opposing the virtuous disposition, what labor can there be?”

Remarkable is the last word of Saint John Chrysostom about effortless and unimpeded good-doing apart from passions. Love is the denial of all passions and dwells in the heart after their expulsion. This expulsion in some is accomplished directly upon conversion, in the moment of rebirth, by the Holy Spirit, who at the same time pours perfect love into the heart. Since we come to consciousness of Christian obligations quite some time after baptism, by which time, having been deadened in rebirth, the passions have managed to come alive again and rise with force, for us, before our heart is filled with full love, it still remains to struggle with passions and overcome them, so that we may unimpeded perform every good. The blessing of love for us is a blessing yet to come. Saint Isaac of Syria calls love a paradise which is on an island in the middle of the sea. We are still sailing there. And oh, if only we would reach it!

“It is not rude,” ουκ ασχημονει, it is not disdainful, does not scorn, is not disgusted by anything, so long as the good of one’s neighbor requires it; whatever may seem degrading in the eyes of men, it does not stop before it, but is readily willing to do it, only to do good to the beloved. So all our interpreters! Theodoret writes: “It does not refuse to do something even degrading for the benefit of the brethren, does not consider such action inappropriate for itself.” Oecumenius: “Although sometimes it must endure something shameful for the beloved, it does not count this as shame for itself.” The same in Theophylact. But here is an extensive word from Saint John Chrysostom: “What do I say, continues the Apostle, that love is not arrogant? It is so far from this passion that, enduring extreme misfortunes for the beloved, it does not count it as dishonor for itself. He did not say again: although it endures dishonor, but manfully bears it, rather—it does not feel dishonor at all. Let us look at Christ in this regard, and we will see the truth of what is said. Our Lord Jesus Christ was spat upon and scourged by miserable slaves, and not only did he not count this as dishonor, but even rejoiced and esteemed it as glory; he admitted to paradise a thief and murderer before others, conversed with a harlot, even in the presence of all his accusers, and did not count this as shameful, but even allowed her to kiss his feet, to anoint his body with tears and wipe them with her hair, and all this before the eyes of enemies and opponents; because love does not disdain anything. Therefore, even fathers, though they were wiser and more eloquent than all, are not ashamed to babble together with children, and no one who sees this condemns them; rather, this seems such a good deed that it even deserves praise.”

“It does not insist on its own way.” “Having said: it is not rude, he shows also how love does not tolerate dishonor. How?—‘It does not insist on its own way.’ The beloved constitutes everything for it, and it considers itself dishonored when it cannot save him from dishonor, so that if one’s own dishonor could help the beloved, it would not even consider it dishonor for itself; the beloved for the lover is the same as oneself. Love is such that the lover and beloved no longer constitute two separate persons but one, which nothing but love can do. Therefore, do not seek your own, that you may find your own; for he who seeks his own does not find his own. That is why Paul says: ‘Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor’ (1 Cor. 10:24). The good of each consists in the good of one’s neighbor, and the good of the neighbor in his good. God has arranged it thus so that we might be attached to one another.” (Saint John Chrysostom)

“It is not irritable,” ου παροξυνεται, does not grieve. Meeting something unpleasant from the very one to whom it strives to do good, it does not grieve at it, or does not grieve at the unsuccessfulness of its labors for someone’s good, and does not cease seeking ways to achieve its goal in this regard; or as Theodoret writes: “If it encounters something sorrowful from anyone, it bears it magnanimously because of the passion of love which it has in itself.” Saint John Chrysostom says the same: “See again how it not only destroys vices but does not even permit them to begin. For he did not say: although she is irritated, she overcomes the irritation, but: ‘is not irritable.’ She does not permit grief even to be conceived.”

“It does not rejoice at wrongdoing,” ου λογιζεται το κακον, does not take evil into account, and does not even think that there is evil in the actions of others, does not see evil in evil; others see it, but it does not; to the lover all seem good, and as he plots nothing but good for others, so he never suspects anything evil in the actions of others toward himself. Thus Theodoret: “Excuses faulty deeds, supposing that they were done without ill intent.” Another thought: does not plot evil in vengeance, which would be the direct consequence of the preceding, and can be seen here, but in connection with it (Theophylact). Saint John Chrysostom understands not scheming of evil, apart from injuries received, but thus: “Not only does she not do, but she does not even plot anything bad against the beloved. And indeed, how will she do evil when she does not even permit an evil thought? And here is the source of love.”

1 Cor. 13:6. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.

Wrongdoing and truth here determine themselves mutually. As you understand wrongdoing, so by opposition you must understand truth, and conversely. The interpreters understand these words so variously that, collecting all together, one must understand by wrongdoing all evil, and by truth all good. Saint John Chrysostom says: “She does not rejoice when others suffer from some moral evil; she rejoices in those who are well-ordered in life. Or here the same thing is contained as is said elsewhere: ‘rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep’ (Rom. 12:15). Therefore she does not envy, therefore she is not arrogant: the goods of others she recognizes as her own. Do you see how love makes her nursling almost an Angel? For if he has no anger, is free from envy, and clean from every destructive passion, then clearly he has already risen above human nature and achieved the dispassion of Angels.” Theodoret writes accordingly: “Hates lawlessness, is glad about what is good.” Theophylact somewhat differently: “She does not rejoice when someone is wronged, injured, and has evil done to him; she rejoices with those who are well-ordered, while truth prospers, counting it as glory for herself.”

1 Cor. 13:7. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

“It bears all things,” στεγει, covers. Saint John Chrysostom says: “Love ‘bears all things,’ by its patience and gentleness, whatever sorrowful and burdensome thing happens, even if it be insults, even if blows, even if death, or something else similar. This can be seen from the example of the blessed David. What can be heavier than to see a son who has risen up, seeks power, and thirsts for his father’s blood? But the blessed David endured even this; he did not even wish to utter a reproachful word against the murderer, but, leaving everything else to the commanders, commanded to preserve his life; so strong was the foundation of love in him! Therefore the Apostle says: ‘it bears all things.’ By these words he expresses the power of love.” Theodoret writes: “Out of love it endures even sorrowful things.” It can also mean: στεγη—a roof. From this the thought: love serves as a covering for all, all resort to it and find in it protection and shelter from all troubles. A roof gives also the thought of covering: from this love covers the sins, weaknesses, defects, and infirmities of others; not only does it not reveal them, but covers them with good words.

“Believes all things.” “Regards the beloved as truthful” (Theodoret). “Believes all that the beloved says; and not only does it not itself speak with cunning deceit, but does not even suspect that another would speak thus” (Theophylact).

“Hopes all things.” Doing good and meeting with failure, it does not stop, but devises new methods, and if these do not lead to success, takes up still others, and so forth, encouraged by the hope that God will bless this labor of love with success. Theodoret writes: “If it sees the beloved inclined to evil, it expects a change for the better in him.” It does not itself sit idly, but uses all available means on its part for his correction, and using them, “does not despair, but hopes that he will finally return to what is better” (Theophylact).

“Endures all things.” It willingly undertakes all labors necessary in doing good, manfully overcomes obstacles, benignly endures unpleasantness, and all that is encountered on the path of good it endures, having one goal—to do good to the beloved, that is, to every human being; it even endures the unsuccessfulness in doing good. “If it happens that the beloved does not respond to its cares and remains in his evil way, it benignly endures his falling” (Theophylact). “And whatever is in the beloved, or from his side, nothing can separate the lover from love of him” (Theodoret).

Saint John Chrysostom unites all three of these—“hopes all things, believes all things, endures all things”—into one discourse and says: “Without despairing, it expects everything good from the beloved, and even if he were evil, it does not cease to correct him, to care and be concerned about him, and it does not merely hope, but with confidence, because it loves strongly; and even if contrary to expectation no good comes about, and even the beloved becomes worse, it endures this too.”

1 Cor. 13:8. Love never ends.

“The divine Paul, having depicted the above-mentioned properties of love in particular details and perceiving that his language is insufficient to praise love, briefly adds: ‘Love never ends,’ that is, does not depart, but always remains constant, unmovable, abiding eternally. For the Apostle shows this in the words that follow” (Theodoret). “Do you see by what he completed the depiction, and what is especially sublime in this gift?—That it never ends, that is, does not cease, does not weaken from the fact that it endures, because it loves all. Whoever loves can never hate, whatever happens: in this is the greatest dignity of love. Such was Paul himself. How much evil did the Jews do to him! But this not only did not cool his love, but raised it even more to the point that he prayed to ‘be cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren’ (Rom. 9:3) (Saint John Chrysostom); or: it does not cease in this life, will pass into the future age and abide there, even though all else is done away” (Theophylact).

Love Abides Forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13)

“Having proved the superiority of love by the fact that even the gifts and good deeds need it, having enumerated all its perfections and shown that it is the foundation of true wisdom, the Apostle shows its dignity also from a third side” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 13:8. Prophecies will cease; tongues will cease; knowledge will cease.

This should be read in connection with “never ends.” Let all this happen, and love will not end. To what time does the Apostle point here? Tongues have ceased, but the gift of prophecy still operates in the Church, and all the more clearly—knowledge. And there is no reason to suppose that this will not be so until the end of the age. Therefore one must suppose that the Apostle means here the future age. “The future age will not have need of these (gifts): prophecy is unnecessary when the things themselves are present; and knowledge of tongues is useless when their distinction is abolished; lesser knowledge will cease when greater is granted” (Theodoret). “If prophecies and tongues were sent for faith, then with its spread everywhere, their use becomes unnecessary. But love for one another will not cease, but will increase all the more both here and in the future age, and then even more than now. Here much weakens love: money, worldly affairs, bodily passions, mental illnesses—but there will be none of this. However, there is nothing surprising in that prophecies and tongues will cease; but that knowledge will cease seems strange. How? Shall we then live in ignorance?—No; then knowledge especially should increase, as he himself said: ‘then I will know fully, as I have been fully known’ (verse 12). Therefore, lest you think that it too will cease like prophecies and tongues, after the words: ‘knowledge will cease,’ he did not stop, but immediately showed the manner of its cessation, adding” (Saint John Chrysostom):

1 Cor. 13:9–10. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.

“Therefore it is not knowledge that will cease, but the incompleteness of knowledge, because we will know not only what we know now but far more. So, I will clarify this with an example: now we know that God is everywhere, but how—we do not know; that He created all existing things from nothing, but how—we do not know; that He was born of the Virgin, but how—we do not know. Then we will know this more and more clearly” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 13:11. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

“Having said that when perfect knowledge comes, then partial knowledge will cease, he now provides an example to clarify this, and thereby shows also how great is the distance between our present knowledge and that which will be. Now we are in knowledge like children, and then we will be like men. ‘When I was a child I spoke like a child,’ he said, alluding to the gift of tongues; ‘I thought like a child,’ alluding to the gift of prophecy; ‘I reasoned like a child’—to the gift of knowledge. But with the words: when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways, he indicates that in the future age we will have knowledge so much more perfect before our present as the knowledge of a man is more perfect before that of a child; then will cease this knowledge like to a child’s which we now have” (Theophylact). “For having reached perfect age, being adorned with prudence and wisdom, one has no need of childish knowledge. Thus the Apostle in the present life likened the knowledge given us to that of children, and the knowledge expected in the future life—to that of perfect men, again teaching by this not to think highly of his knowledge those who tore the Church apart over knowledge” (Theodoret). When he says: “I put an end to,” he implies that of the present views, and the very wisest, scarcely anything will remain in the future age. Earth and heaven will be new; new the conditions of existence and mutual relations. All will appear in another form, in another sense and will be understood. What is to be in the future age is foretold to us through likenesses. As likenesses are taken from the things of this age, and it will pass away, such likenesses give no understanding of it as it actually is, but only provoke conjecture. And this the Apostle speaks of next.

1 Cor. 13:12. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, as I have been fully known.

“The Apostle explains the same thing with another example: ‘we see,’ he says, ‘now in a mirror.’ But since a mirror presents the seen object fairly clearly, he adds (as if in a riddle): ‘dimly,’ to show that present knowledge is extremely incomplete” (Saint John Chrysostom). “The present is a shadow of the future, for in holy baptism we see the image of the resurrection, but then we will see the Resurrection itself. Here we see a representation of the Body of the Lord, but there we will see the Lord Himself. This is what the words mean: ‘face to face.’ We will see, not His invisible nature, unseen by all, but that which He assumed from us” (Theodoret). “‘Face to face,’ the Apostle said not because God has a face, but to express more clearly and understandably the perfection of knowledge then compared to now. Do you see how all our knowledge will increase?” (Saint John Chrysostom).

God is always hidden and will remain so; not even the highest beings see Him directly, but only in the manifestations of His glory. There will be no greater and more perfect vision of God than that which the believers will be granted in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this is the unspeakable mercy of God toward us. He desires in every way that we behold Him, but since this cannot be directly, He was pleased for the Only-Begotten Son of God to become incarnate, so that the worthy might be able to see God in His eyes. In our eyes the soul sees soul and soul is united with soul. We have experience of this in those who love one another. They feel that through the eyes the soul seems to flow from soul to soul. So the believers through the eyes of the Lord will be closer in communion with the hidden Godhead. And in this lies all their blessedness.

Now even from what we already have, much is hidden, perhaps because much here appears only in its beginning, while then it will appear as it is. Who can say in what the renewal of our nature consists? But it exists, and is in action, moving toward its end, maturing, and will be revealed in the future age. For this reason the blessed Evangelist John says: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed” (1 Jn. 3:2). Our present knowledge compared to the future is like the Old Testament compared to the present. Thus Saint John Chrysostom understands this. “To explain this difference to you somewhat and to introduce into your soul some ray of understanding of this matter, now that grace has shone forth, remember the times of the Law. Before grace what then existed seemed something great and wonderful, but after grace it became small. But to make what I have said clearer, take some one of the sacred actions of old, and you will see the difference. Let us imagine, if you will, the Passover of the old covenant and that of the new, and you will understand the superiority of the latter over the former. The Jews celebrated it, but celebrated it as if in a mirror and a riddle; the inexpressible mysteries they did not even have in their minds, and did not know what their actions prefigured; they saw the slain lamb, the blood of a creature without reason, and doors marked with it; but that the incarnate Son of God would be slain, would liberate the whole universe, would give His Blood to Greeks and barbarians as food, would open heaven to all, would offer its goods to mankind, would raise the bloodied flesh above heaven and the heaven of heavens, and generally above all the heavenly hosts, Angels, Archangels, and other Powers, and would seat it on the very royal throne at the right hand of the Father in the splendor of unspeakable glory—none of them then could have imagined in their minds.”

What do the words mean: “then I will know fully, as I have been fully known”? This too explains the highest measure of future knowledge compared to the present. The future “I will know fully, as I have been fully known” will replace the present: “I know only in part.” Consequently, “as I have been fully known” explains the measure of knowledge then. For this is already an accomplished deed. What is it then? What is the meaning of the words: “as I have been fully known”?—Saint John Chrysostom says: “As He Himself foreknew me and Himself descended to me, so I will reach up to Him then far more than now. One sitting in darkness, before he sees the sun, does not come by himself to its beautiful rays, but they reveal themselves to him when they shine; but when he receives their shining, then he himself also strives toward the light. Such is the meaning of the words: ‘as I have been fully known,’ not that we know Him as He knows us, but as He Himself descended to us now, so we will reach up to Him then, will know many things that are now hidden, and will be deemed worthy of the most blessed intercourse and wisdom.”

Theodoret understands it thus: “The Apostle does not say that I know Him as I am known by Him, but that I will see Him more clearly as become His own. For the word ‘known’ the Apostle used instead of ‘made His own.’ So the Lord said to Moses: ‘I know you above all’ (Ex. 33:17), and the Apostle says: ‘The Lord knows those who are His’ (2 Tim. 2:19), that is, honors them with greater care.” The Apostle has used this word more than once, and it is always somewhat obscure. This too likely belongs among the matters that will be known in perfect clarity then.

1 Cor. 13:13. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Saint John Chrysostom says: “Here is a new praise of love. Not satisfied with what was said before, the Apostle strives to find something else in it. See: he said that love is a great gift and the most excellent way to the gifts; he said that without it gifts bring no great benefit; he wrote a depiction of it with abundant strokes, and now he wishes especially to exalt it and show its magnitude by the fact that it never ceases. ‘And now,’ he says, ‘faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.’ Why is love the greatest?—Because those two pass away. Faith and hope cease when the goods that are the object of faith and hope appear.” Theodoret also writes: “In the future life faith is unnecessary when the things themselves are revealed. If ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for,’ (Heb. 11:1), then when the things themselves appear, there is no longer need for faith. Also hope is unnecessary there. For ‘hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?’ (Rom. 8:24). But love there has all the more force when the passions are quieted, the bodies become incorruptible, and the souls no longer choose one thing now and another later.”

Theophylact compares these virtues with the gifts of grace and says: “There are now meanwhile prophecies and tongues, because they are necessary for the establishment of faith. But when faith is spread everywhere and established, then those gifts will cease, and these will remain: faith, hope, and love; they will remain until the end of the age. When the age ends, faith and hope will cease, but love will pass into the future age as well.”

Modern interpreters suppose that the Apostle speaks of all three virtues as not only surviving all gifts in this age, but also passing into the future age—all three: there will be their own objects both for faith and for hope, not just for love. Then we will see, but until then let us hold to the interpretation of the holy fathers, according to which present faith will change into the vision of what is believed, and hope—into the possession of what is hoped for, while love will remain love as it is. If faith and hope obtain other objects, then even though they will be, they will not be those that enliven and inspire us here. There is no need, then, to go further.

The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

The Apostle’s aim in this chapter is to dispose the Corinthians to seek and to use more the gift of prophecy than the gift of tongues in their assemblies. With this aim a) he first persuades them of the superiority of the gift of prophecy before the gift of tongues (1 Cor. 14:1–25), then b) he writes rules about the use of each in the Church (1 Cor. 14:26–38), and finally c) he puts a brief conclusion to the whole discussion of these gifts (1 Cor. 14:39–40).

AA) The superiority of the gift of prophecy before the gift of tongues (1 Cor. 14:1–25)

The train of thought here is as follows:

Aa) The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, because that one builds up the Church, but this one only builds up himself (1 Cor. 14:1–5).

Bb) But if we act thus, building up only ourselves, how will the salvation of the world be established? Behold, if I, the Apostle, should come to you and begin to speak in a tongue you do not understand, who would believe? This would be like a commander giving a signal with a trumpet that none of the soldiers understand. The soldiers would not move from their place. So I would not convert any of you (1 Cor. 14:6–11).

Cc) So you too seek gifts that are useful to the Church, I mean—the gift of prophecy. If someone already has the gift of tongues, let him pray that the gift of interpretation might also be granted to him. Then, praying in the spirit, he will afterward also pray with the mind understandably for others, so that both his spirit and his mind will bear fruit (1 Cor. 14:12–19).

Dd) Without this to use the gift of tongues in the Church, when no one understands it, is childishness operating without purpose (1 Cor. 14:20); it is operation without regard to those before whom one acts, for tongues should be spoken to unbelievers, but here all are believers (1 Cor. 14:21–22); it is a deed that can lead to ridicule of the faithful and to damage to faith (1 Cor. 14:23–25).

By all this the Apostle persuades and inclines them to give preference to the gift of prophecy and to seek it, and to abandon the high opinion about the gift of tongues, acknowledging their error.

1 Cor. 14:1. Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy.

“Pursue,” διωκετε, chase, strive, urgently seek love. “Strive,” seek earnestly for the “spiritual” gifts, and of them especially to prophesy. To prophesy means by the movement of the Spirit of God to address speech to the believers for their edification in a language they understand. The subject could be doctrine, moral teaching, comfort, prayerful praise, or actual prophecy. Saint Paul urges especially to seek this gift—he does not say compared to what, but from the following words it is evident that compared to the gift of tongues.

Saint John Chrysostom says: “Having thoroughly shown all the dignity of love, the Apostle finally persuades them to zealously achieve it; therefore he says: ‘pursue,’ chase. We must chase after it and strive for it vigorously; for it flies away from us, and there are so many obstacles to striving for it! Therefore we need great efforts to attain it. To express this, Paul did not say: seek love, but: pursue love, urging us on and inflaming us toward attaining it. For it often departs from us, because we deal with it improperly and are ready to prefer everything else to it. Further, lest they think he spoke of love in order to diminish the gifts, he adds: ‘strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy.’”

His thought is as follows: “Since love is such a great possession, account its acquisition a great work; however, do not remain negligent about spiritual gifts either, and prefer prophecy before all others. Clearly, the Apostle is again humbling the arrogance of those who were puffed up with the gift of tongues” (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 14:2. For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit.

“The one who speaks in tongues,” who speaks in a language unknown to those gathered in the Church, “does not speak to other people,” does not speak for these people; for them it is completely foreign speech; they do not even know if something is being said for them, and perhaps the speaker himself did not intend to say something to them, but spoke thus only because the movement came to speak, which however he could control—“but to God,” all-seeing and hearing the most secret, that which happens and is spoken in the mind and heart—God alone understands it; “for nobody understands them”; they hear, yet do not understand; it is all the same as if they do not hear; the words do not enter into the ear and through the ear into the mind, but beat against the ear from outside, not communicating inward; “to understand” here means to apprehend and perceive. “Since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit,” either moved by the Spirit of God, or within himself, in his own spirit and to his own spirit (Oecumenius), he speaks mysteries, that which was communicated to his spirit, mysteries of faith and life, that which is hidden from others. The Apostle’s speech is such that it does not diminish the gift, but it leads the one using it improperly to understanding. “He produces both effects together. He accuses the Corinthians of being lovers of honor and shows the need for the gift. It was given to preachers because of the different languages of peoples, so that when coming to Indians they would present the divine preaching speaking their language, and likewise conversing with Persians, Scythians, Romans, and Egyptians, they would preach the Gospel teaching in the language of each nation. Therefore for those speaking in Corinth, it was a superfluous thing to speak in the languages of Scythians, Persians, or Egyptians, which the Corinthians could not understand” (Theodoret). “The Corinthians greatly gloried in the gift of tongues and considered it a great gift—considered it great because the Apostles received it first and with such solemnity. But this did not make it superior to others. Why did the Apostles receive it first? Because they had to go everywhere. Just as during the tower of Babel one language was divided into many, so then (in the time of the Apostles) many languages often belonged to one person, and one and the same person spoke in many languages at the prompting of the Spirit. Such a gift was called the gift of tongues. See how the Apostle both humbles it and exalts it; with the words”do not speak to other people, for nobody understands them,“he humbles it, showing that this gift is not unconditionally useful; and with the words”since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit,“he again exalts it, so that it does not seem unnecessary, useless, and given in vain” (Saint John Chrysostom). For from these words it follows that though incomprehensible to others, he still speaks the mysteries of God and speaks by the Spirit.

1 Cor. 14:3. On the other hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.

“The one who prophesies,” who likewise speaks under the movement of the Spirit of God, speaks the mysteries of God, yet in a way understandable to the hearers, and speaks not to himself alone and to God, but also to people, and brings them spiritual benefit—upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation. “Upbuilding”—οικοδομη, generally awakens a good disposition of the spirit inwardly, in all its aspects, or especially in the moral aspect; “encouragement”—παρακλησις, exhortation, persuasion, entreaty, mental benefit; “consolation”—παραμυθια, literally consolation, heart’s peace, healing of its ailments. “Do you see with what he demonstrates the superiority of this gift? From the perspective of its universal usefulness. And everywhere he prefers what brings benefit to the many. And those, tell me, did they not speak to people? They did speak to people; but not for upbuilding, not for exhortation, not for consolation. To have inspiration from the Spirit is equally characteristic of both, the prophet and the one who speaks in tongues; but the prophet, that is the one who prophesies, has the advantage over the latter in that he is still useful to the hearers. Those who speak in tongues were not heard and understood by those who did not have this gift” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 14:4. Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the church.

The one who speaks in tongues understands only himself; therefore he builds up only himself, but the one who prophesies is understood by all present in the Church, and all are built up. And in this is the purpose of the gifts. They are given for the benefit of the Church, or for multiplying its members through converting them to faith, which the gift of tongues also serves, or for building up those who have believed, which the gift of prophecy serves especially, the gift of preaching. Some hold that those who spoke in tongues did not understand themselves either; but how would they build themselves up if they did not understand themselves? “The Apostle speaks of those who knew what they spoke—they knew themselves, but could not convey it to others” (Saint John Chrysostom). How did the one who prophesies build up others? Both through revealing the mysteries of faith and life in general, or sometimes more specifically “through revelation of thoughts and uncovering what is secretly happening” (Theodoret). Speeches of this kind had to hold all in strict attention to themselves, from fear of being shamed before all. Let it not always, but occasionally happen; yet even if only once, this could not but keep all in vigilance. From this came edification, not for one moment, but for all of life. Comparing the benefits of the one gift and the other, we see that “just as there is a difference between one person and the Church, so too is there a difference between these gifts. Do you see how the Apostle does not reduce this gift to nothing, but shows that though it brings benefit, it is small, limited only to the one who possesses it” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 14:5. Now I would like all of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. One who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

Since there were many who spoke in tongues in Corinth, the Apostle more precisely defines his thought about the comparative worth of the gifts. I am not, he says, hostile to the gift of tongues: God grant that you all speak in tongues; but I judge what is better, and I desire the better for you, namely, “that you may prophesy.” The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues. The greater I desire for you. Greater because of the benefit he provides to the Church. Only in such a case would the one who speaks in tongues stand equal to the one who prophesies, when he would interpret in an understandable language what he speaks in an incomprehensible one. For then he too would equally build up the Church. The equality of benefit would equalize them, but without this the latter cannot be compared to the former. Saint John Chrysostom says: “The expressions ‘more’ and ‘greater’ indicate not opposition but superiority. The Apostle does not condemn the gift, but guides the hearers toward the better, showing his concern for them. And he is ready to give approval to this gift too, ‘unless someone interprets’—if the one who possesses it is also capable of this, that is, of interpretation, then, he says, he becomes equal to the prophet, because then many receive benefit. It is particularly important to note how he everywhere seeks benefit above all.” Theophylact adds: “If he can also interpret his speech, in such a case the one who speaks in tongues is equal to the one who prophesies. For he too then builds up the Church through the interpretation of what was said incomprehensibly in tongues. And the interpretation of tongues was a gift that was given to some of those who spoke in tongues, but not to others.” Theodoret writes: “The Apostle clearly gave reason why he said ‘more.’ I do not diminish the gift, he says, but seek the more useful. When there is no interpreter to tell the meaning, then prophecy is better because it brings greater benefit.”

The Apostle then explains at length how it is unreasonable to speak to others when no one understands. He does this because on this is based all his exhortation and all his arrangements concerning the use of these gifts. Only understand well how absurd this is, and you will no longer fall into such an error.

1 Cor. 14:6. Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I speak to you in some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?

He brings to their memory how he was with them and, despite being the foremost in speaking in tongues, conducted his discourse to them in their language, not in a foreign one. By this he greatly sobers and enlightens them. However, he phrased his speech as if assuming only a possible case. If I myself, he says, had come to you and begun to speak in tongues, there would be no benefit; yet he had been with them, and they know how he conducted his discourses with them. He implies as if: if I myself acted thus with you, even then I would not have approved such a manner of acting. The words “unless I speak to you in some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching,” etc., do not mean that in tongues is not communicated revelation or knowledge or anything else: all of this could be presented by one who speaks in tongues; but rather that, though all of this were contained in my speech, you would not receive revelation or knowledge of anything like this, because by speaking to you in an incomprehensible language, I would be the same as saying nothing at all. “The meaning of his words is as follows: if I do not tell you something that can be understandable and clear for you, but only show that I have the gift of tongues, then having heard tongues, you will leave, having received no benefit; for what benefit is there from words which you do not understand?” (Saint John Chrysostom).

The words “revelation, knowledge, prophecy, teaching” suggest that it was these that those who prophesied presented in their discourse, and likewise those who spoke in tongues, when interpretation accompanied their speech; consequently, all by which the Church was built up. Therefore a precise definition of them is desirable. Saint John Chrysostom does not touch on this. Theodoret writes in general: “What benefit will I bring you if I do not impart teaching, revealing to you the hidden mysteries, guiding toward the divine and offering you fitting advice?” Theophylact explains these words fully: “‘In revelation,’ that is, what those are customary to speak who receive revelation from God, which includes even if in the presence of all the thoughts of each are revealed; ‘in knowledge,’ that is, what those can speak who have understanding and expound to the hearers the mysteries of God; ‘in prophecy,’ that is, telling what was, is, and will be: prophecy is all-encompassing of revelations; ‘in teaching,’ that is, in the form of didactic speech, when there is a discourse on virtue, on dogmas.’”.

1 Cor. 14:7. It is the same way with lifeless instruments that produce sound, such as the flute or harp. If they do not produce distinct notes, how will anyone know what is being played?

“What I am saying,” the Apostle continues, “that this is useless among us, and that only what is clear and comprehensible to the hearers is useful? The same can be seen even in lifeless musical instruments; if, for example, you blow into a pipe or strike a harp without proper harmony and agreement, but in a confused and disorderly manner, you will provide pleasure to no one among the hearers, for even from inanimate instruments is required some clarity, and if you strike a harp or blow into a pipe without skill, you accomplish nothing. If then from lifeless things we require such clarity, harmony, and articulation, if we try and strive to give great importance to meaningless sounds, then much more is comprehensibility required from animate and rational people and spiritual gifts” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 14:8. And if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?

“From things not necessary the Apostle passes to the most necessary and beneficial things and says that the same can be seen not only on harps but also on the trumpet. For from it there are well-ordered sounds, indicating now war, now something else, now a call to attack, now to retreat; and he who does not know this is exposed to extreme danger. To explain this and point to this danger, he says: ‘who will get ready for battle?’ And whoever does not do this destroys everything” (Saint John Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 14:9. So with yourselves; if in a tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is being said? For you will be speaking into the air.

“Not intelligible speech,” —μη ευσημον—speech that does not have clear meaning, unintelligible. If, he says, you will speak such words, who will understand you? You will be speaking into the air. “For when those present do not understand, words are poured into the air in vain” (Theodoret). “That is, you will say nothing, will speak for no one” (Saint John Chrysostom). Just as a military trumpet, if it sounds unclearly, its sound will resound in the air, yet no soldier will move from his place, so also your words, spoken in a foreign language and incomprehensible. As if hinting: do you want the trumpet of your speech, uttered in a foreign language, not to sound its sounds into the air? Join it with your interpretation or through another. Theodoret writes: “What for the harp is proper harmonic arrangement and for the trumpet a military signal, for tongues is ‘interpretation.’” The same thought is suggested by Saint John Chrysostom: “For the gift of tongues to be beneficial to others as well, it is necessary to unite it with interpretation. This gift is good and necessary, but then when someone will also explain what is said. The are is not revealed if there is no material; and the material does not take form if form is not given to it. Set voice in place of material, and clarity (comprehensibility) in place of form, without which there can be no benefit from material. He is speaking of the interpretation of the word spoken in a foreign language.”

1 Cor. 14:10. There are doubtless many different kinds of sounds in the world, and nothing is without sound.

“Kinds of sounds”—languages and dialects. Without sound—without speech, not silent. All of them speak and communicate their thoughts to one another: “So many languages, so many dialects, of Scythians, Thracians, Romans, Persians, Moors, Indians, Egyptians, and many other nations!” (Saint John Chrysostom). The single-tongued speak with the single-tongued, but why do you, among your own, speak in some unknown dialect? And you make yourselves foreign to them, and them to yourselves.

1 Cor. 14:11. So if I do not know the meaning of a sound, I will be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker a foreigner to me.

“If I do not know the force of the language,” if I do not understand the language of the one addressing me, then I am to him a stranger—βαρβαρος, a barbarian, and he is to me the same. By speaking incomprehensibly, you have done this: as if you have gone into a foreign land and move about among foreigners, and have made yourselves such for them: not understanding your speech, others have the right to consider you foreigners. Behold what absurdity results! (The thought of Photius in Oecumenius). “By saying this, I do not censure the language, but show that it is useless for me, as long as it remains unclear. Notice how he everywhere tries to show that the gift itself does not deserve censure, but he transfers the blame to those who received it” (Saint John Chrysostom).

Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Cor. 14:12. So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in building up the Church.

“Eager for spiritual gifts”—that is, for spiritual endowments of grace. The second half of the text should be understood thus: seek such gifts as would build up the Church. You are zealous, he says, for spiritual gifts of grace? Good, be zealous; but seek those by which the Church is built up. “Do you see his constant aim, how he always and in all things has in view one thing—the need of many, the benefit of the Church, setting this as a kind of rule? And he did not say: seek so that you may receive gifts, but: that you may abound” (Holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 14:13. Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray for the power to interpret.

“Let him pray to interpret”—let him pray to receive the gift of interpretation of what he says in a foreign tongue. “Ask,” says the Apostle, “the one who gave you the gift of tongues to add also the gift of interpretation, so that you may be able to bring benefit to the Church” (Theodoret). “The Apostle shows that it is in their power to receive the gift: ‘let him pray’, he says, that is, let him apply what is in his power. For if you ask earnestly, you will receive. So ask to have not only the gift of tongues but also the gift of interpretation, so that you may be useful to all and not confine the gift to yourself” (Holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 14:14. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.

“By spirit the Apostle means the gift, and by mind he means understanding of what is said” (Theodoret). The mind bears fruit when, understanding something, it conveys it to others and thereby benefits them. This benefit is the fruit of the mind. Speaking in foreign tongues, they were presenting everything mentioned above—both revelation and knowledge and prophecy and teaching, and often also prayer. My spirit, says the Apostle—in the case of each one speaking in tongues, my spirit stirred up by God’s Spirit prays in a foreign tongue, God’s gift is in action, it does its work, but my mind remains without fruit because it does not convey to others in an understandable language what it itself receives from God’s Spirit. If I were doing this, I would benefit others, and then my mind would not be without fruit. “The fruit for the speaker is the benefit of those listening. The Apostle said this also in the epistle to the Romans: ‘I want to have some fruit among you as well, as I have among the rest of the Gentiles’ (Rom. 1:13). Therefore, speaking in another tongue and not offering the assembly an interpretation, I shall have no fruit, because they will receive no benefit” (Theodoret). Speaking of prayer in tongues, the Apostle takes only an example but means speaking in tongues generally. “If I speak in a tongue and at the same time do not interpret, then my spirit—my soul in itself—receives benefit, but my mind is without fruit because it brings no benefit to others” (Theophylact).

1 Cor. 14:15. What should I do? I will pray with the spirit, but I will also pray with the mind. I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will also sing praise with the mind.

“What then?” How then should I act? How should I proceed? It is necessary to do this: both pray and sing in a foreign tongue, by the movement of the Spirit, and then do the same thing also in an understandable tongue. But how can this be done? The Apostle has already indicated: either let another interpret, or ask for such a gift yourself. So blessed Theodoret: “The Apostle says that one who speaks in another tongue—whether in psalm-singing or in prayer or in teaching—ought either himself to be an interpreter for the benefit of the listeners, or to take another capable of this as a coworker in the teaching.”

1 Cor. 14:16. Otherwise, if you say a blessing with the spirit, how can someone in the position of an outsider say Amen to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying?

“Outsider”—ιδιωτης in Greek—the Apostle calls a simple layperson. “The meaning of his words is this: if you give a blessing in a foreign language without being able to interpret it, the layperson cannot answer ‘Amen’, for not hearing (not understanding) the concluding words ‘forever and ever’, he will not say ‘Amen’” (Holy Chrysostom). This suggests that those responsible for the unreasonable use of the gift were the leaders themselves, to whom it was entrusted to build up and watch over the believers. It is also remarkable that the indication shows that even laypeople took part in the church prayer. Not all could pray, he says; but some spoke prayers because God gave them prayer, and others listened to that prayer and expressed their agreement with it in the word: Amen—let it be so—thus proving that their hearts prayed with the prayer of the leader.

1 Cor. 14:17. For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.

“In order not to appear that he is disparaging the gift of tongues itself, he says: ‘you give thanks well enough’, for you speak by the inspiration of the Spirit, but the one who understands nothing of what is said stands receiving no benefit” (Holy Chrysostom). “I know that, inspired by God’s grace, you sing praise to God, but one who does not know the language does not understand what is uttered” (Theodoret). The benefit is limited to you alone. You can receive it even by praying silently within yourself.

1 Cor. 14:18. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.

“In order that you do not think he disparages them because he himself lacks this gift, he says: ‘I speak in tongues more than all of you’. Therefore do not boast as if you alone have this gift; I have it, and far more than you” (Holy Chrysostom). How the Apostle acted among the believers, they knew; but they may not have known of his gift of tongues if he did not use it unnecessarily, and the right occasion did not present itself while he was among them. Therefore mention of it was not out of place; but it should have acted with utmost persuasiveness on the Corinthians. For they could not fail to see in the Apostle an example to imitate.

1 Cor. 14:19. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

“Before you I was granted this gift, through me you also received this grace. Yet, being concerned for the benefit of many, I prefer clear teaching to unclear” (Theodoret).

“What does it mean: ‘speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others’? To speak what I understand, what I can explain to others, to speak intelligibly and teach the listeners. ‘Rather than ten thousand words in a tongue’. Why? ‘That I may instruct others’, he says. The first brings only external glory, but the latter brings great benefit. Everywhere he seeks one thing—the common benefit. Though the gift of tongues was extraordinary and the gift of prophecy was ordinary and ancient and belonged to many, whereas that had just become known for the first time, yet Paul did not consider it very desirable for himself and did not even use it—not because he did not have it, but because he sought what was more useful. He was free from all vanity and had only one aim: how to make his listeners better. Therefore he was able to see what was beneficial both for himself and for others, because he was free from vanity; but whoever has enslaved himself to this passion cannot see what is beneficial not only for others but even for himself” (Holy Chrysostom).

The Apostle has already sufficiently proved his point that the gift of tongues ought not to be used in the Church when no one understands that language; now he gathers several more considerations to turn them completely away from such action, showing how improper it is.

1 Cor. 14:20. Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be mature.

“After many explanations and proofs the Apostle rightly now employs stronger language joined with great reproach, and brings an example suited to the subject. Children are amazed and astonished at the sight of small things, but not so much at very great things. Similarly, those who had the gift of tongues, which was the least of all, thought they possessed everything; therefore he says: ‘do not be children’, that is, do not be foolish where you ought to be wise, but be like children where there is unrighteousness, where there is vanity, where there is pride. Whoever is an infant in evil ought to be wise; for wisdom joined with malice would not be wisdom, nor would simplicity joined with foolishness be simplicity; in simplicity one must avoid foolishness and in wisdom malice. As medicine that is more bitter or sweet than is proper brings no benefit, so simplicity and wisdom by themselves do not suffice. Therefore Christ, commanding that both be joined, said: ‘Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves’ (Matt. 10:16). What does it mean ‘to be an infant in evil’? Not to know what evil is at all. He wanted them to be both men and children: children toward evil and men in wisdom. And a man will be a man when he is at the same time an infant; but as long as he is not an infant toward evil, he will not be a man, because one who is evil cannot be mature but becomes foolish” (Holy Chrysostom).

Having expressed such a thought, the Apostle does not explain it nor draw any application from it to his subject. For this was evident of itself. He wanted to tell them what is often said among us: to act as you do is to behave childishly. “Do not pervert the order but emulate not the small-mindedness but the guilelessness of children; and from those mature in age borrow not guile but prudence” (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 14:21. In the law it is written, ‘By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people; and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord’.

By the law here is understood the Old Testament Scripture in general, for the words cited are taken from the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 28:11–12). God taught His people through the prophets, and while they listened, He was content with this means of instruction and correction. When they reached the point where the prophet’s word no longer acted upon them, He threatened them: will they not listen to the prophets? Then I will speak to them in another language—that is, I will send a foreign people upon them. “And even then they will not listen to me”—and they will remain stubborn nonetheless. Holy Paul takes for comparison only two features: the prophets spoke to the people while they listened to them; prophecy, therefore, is a sign that those to whom the prophetic word is addressed are obedient, faithful, believing. On the contrary, the appearance of people speaking a foreign language is a sign that those to whom they came have departed from obedience to God and are unfaithful to Him. Taking this into account, he says:

1 Cor. 14:22. Tongues, then, are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers; while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers.

He speaks as if to say: what an absurdity you have produced! From the circumstance pointed out in the writings of the prophet Isaiah, it follows that when you speak in a language foreign to the assembly, this means that before you stand obstinate unbelievers who have departed from obedience to God; but in reality these are all genuinely believing, ready to listen, thirsting for edification. You ought not to speak to them in foreign languages but in the prophetic language, with which God of old spoke to His people while they were faithful to Him and listened to the prophets. You are completely perverting the order! From your manner of acting such an absurd comparison results! In our assembly there should not be a sound of a foreign language, but only the prophetic word should be heard.

1 Cor. 14:23. So if the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

This does not follow from the previous statement but stands apart—a new, third absurdity is pointed out in the manner of action of the Corinthians. Suppose, he says, that your whole church gathers and all who have the gift of tongues begin to speak in them—one after another, or even several together at once. And this in itself is disorderly. But if there enter to you outsiders—ιδιωται—simple folk, peasants or unbelievers, what will they think, hearing one, then another, or several together? Will they not say that you are mad, out of your minds? And you will drive away from the doors of salvation those who came seeking salvation, and in such a way that you will never after draw them to listen to the truth, and not only them but also many others to whom they will tell of the disorders taking place in your assemblies.

1 Cor. 14:24–25. But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is truly among you.

Completely the opposite effect your assembly will have on the simple folk or unbeliever when, coming to you, they encounter that you one after another prophesy—that is, speak in a language understandable to all, what the Spirit of God inspires in each one, whether prophecy or knowledge or revelation or instruction or prayer. Whatever anyone speaks, the truths of Christianity are of such a kind that they can trouble the conscience, stir up the fear of God and turn any unbeliever and sinner to the good path. The one who enters will be convicted and called to account by all, not through judicial interrogations. No; each will speak not knowing what is in the soul of those who entered, but the truths themselves are of such a kind that they convict the hearer. Words breathed by God’s Spirit fall upon the conscience, and it, awakened, produces complete conviction without anyone seeing it. Yet conviction alone in itself is comfortless, and if Christian discourse produced only this one thing, little fruit would come from it. The strength lies in this: that such discourse always offers to those who are convicted also the comforting way of salvation, for the very substance of the discourses is salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ—and no matter what subject begins the conversation, all will come down to the Lord, the only comfort of all the broken-hearted. Therefore the convicted one is not only convicted but receives hope of salvation and comes to a firm resolve not to delay but to set out on the way of salvation. The grace of the Spirit, overshadowing all in the assembly and penetrating the very words of those who speak, brings the work to completion. And behold, the unbeliever, changed within by the action of the prophetic word, invisibly to all, falls on his face and worships God the Christian and confesses that in the assembly of Christians, in the Church, God truly is, is present and is at work! “Do you see how the power of prophecy changed a rough man, taught him and brought him to faith” (Holy Chrysostom).

Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

First he expresses aa) the general law: all for building up (1 Cor. 14:26), then he writes bb) the rules α) for those speaking in tongues (1 Cor. 14:27–28); β) for prophets (1 Cor. 14:29–33); γ) for women (1 Cor. 14:34–36), finally he adds cc) a general exhortation to the fulfillment of what has been said (1 Cor. 14:37–38).

1 Cor. 14:26. What should be done then, my friends? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

“What should be done then?” What follows from all that has been said? How should you act? Here is how! You have gathered in church; each of you has something from God’s Spirit; one has a “hymn”—every kind of prayerful address to God, petition, thanksgiving, praise to God our Saviour in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit; one has “a lesson”—doctrine, moral instruction, counsel, resolution of difficulties; one has “a revelation”—foresight of the future, perception of what is hidden in the present or past, knowledge of the secrets of hearts: “revelation is called prophecy” (Oecumenius, Theophylact); one has “a tongue”—the gift, and all that has been shown speaks in a foreign language; one has “an interpretation”—the gift of explaining what is said in an incomprehensible language. So you have gathered in the church with all this spiritual wealth: here is the general law for its use: “let all things be done for building up”. Remember that no one receives anything exclusively for himself, but everything one receives is received for the whole assembly of believers. One must share it with them, not seeking one’s own glory but fulfilling God’s commission regarding what has been given. In giving the gift, God speaks to each one: take and give away.

Holy Chrysostom says to this: “Do you see the foundation and rule of Christianity? As it is the work of a builder to build, so it is the work of a Christian in every way to benefit his neighbor. One has a hymn, one has a lesson, one has a tongue: but all this, he says, let it tend toward one thing—the building up of one’s neighbor; let nothing be done in vain, for if you come not to build up your brother, why do you come? For me the distinction of gifts is not very important; my care and effort tend only toward one thing—that all be done for building up; then even one who has a small gift will exceed one who has a great gift if he uses it for building up. Gifts are given so that each may receive building up; if this does not happen, then the gift will serve even to the condemnation of one who received it, for tell me, what benefit is there in prophesying, what benefit in raising the dead, if no one receives building up? If then the goal of gifts, which can be achieved also in another way without gifts, consists in this, then do not exalt yourself by signs and do not consider yourself miserable not to have gifts.”

Applying this general law to the cases that might occur in the assembly, the Apostle says:

1 Cor. 14:27–28. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let them be silent in church and speak to themselves and to God.

To speak in tongues in the assembly only when there is an interpreter, a translator, and when there is not one, keep silent, speaking to yourself and to God. “Let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn”. This does not mean that two and three can speak at the same time, but that in the whole assembly only one, then another, at most a third should speak, and that not all at once but separately, one after another (Oecumenius). “And speak to themselves and to God”. That is, “speak to yourself, in your mind, secretly and without noise” (Holy Chrysostom); mentally before God go over what you would like to utter in a tongue and ponder on it. “One who speaks in tongues is not sufficient by himself; therefore, if anyone has also the gift of interpretation, let him speak; but if he does not have it and wants to speak, let him do so with an interpreter present. If there is no interpreter, let him keep silent, for nothing should be done in vain and from ambition. You do not gather, he says, to show that you have a gift, but to build up the listeners” (Holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 14:29. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.

“Prophets”—those who have received from God’s Spirit a revelation, knowledge, instruction, to convey it to the assembly in a language common to all. “Let two or three speak”—one after another. “As before regarding tongues, so here he requires that it be done separately” (Holy Chrysostom). “And let the others weigh what is said”—let them listen to what is heard and ponder it, assimilating what is heard, for only in this way can what is revealed to one or another become the common possession. Or the words “let the others weigh” give a task to those who had the gift of discerning spirits. So blessed Theodoret: “The divine Apostle numbered among the spiritual gifts also ‘the ability to distinguish between spirits’ (1 Cor. 12:10). Here he says that those who have been granted this gift should weigh what is uttered, whether it is spoken by the action of God’s Spirit. For as the devil opposed false prophets to the prophets, so he opposed false apostles to the Apostles; and the Apostle shows this in the second epistle to the Corinthians, saying: ‘such false apostles, deceitful workers’ (2 Cor. 11:13).” Holy Chrysostom means the same: “The Apostle said this as a warning to the listeners, so that among them there should not arise a μαντις, a demon-possessed soothsayer. He ordered them to be wary of this from the beginning, and now he orders them to distinguish and observe the same thing, so that nothing diabolical should creep in.”

1 Cor. 14:30. If a revelation is given to another person sitting nearby, let the first be silent.

“What do these words mean? If, he says, while you are prophesying and speaking, the Spirit stirs another, then you be silent. For why should you continue your speech when another is stirred to prophecy? But should not both speak? This would be unseemly and would produce disorder. Should not the first continue until he finishes? This also would be unseemly, for the reason the Spirit stirred the other while the first is speaking is that he also should say something (while the first is silent). Then, for the comfort of the one whom he commands to be silent, he says” (Holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 14:31. You can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged.

As if to say: let this newly moved speaker have a turn, and then the one who was interrupted may speak again if he still has something to say. Why such preference to the newly moved speaker? Because his speech tends to be more fervent, more heartfelt, and therefore more effective. Since the Apostle’s aim is that all may learn and all be encouraged, it is fitting to give such a speaker the floor quickly; whereas the one who was speaking before is presumed to have already received good instruction before the gathering, during private prayer and contemplation; consequently, his words are not new but have been repeated in his mind many times and are now being presented more from memory. Yet even this change ought to proceed in order. Theodoret writes: “Nothing should be done in disorder and confusion, for any of you may present a prophecy to those assembled and thereby bring them benefit. This order has remained in the Churches even to this day, and among teachers some speak to the people at one solemn gathering, while others speak at another.”

1 Cor. 14:32. And the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.

“Do you see how he again brings forth the reason for this command? So that man should not object or resist (excusing himself by the irresistibility of the Spirit), he says that the very gift itself is subject (to the one who received it). By ‘Spirit’ here he means His action (activity). But if the ‘Spirit is subject,’ how much more you, who have received it, have no right to object” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 14:33. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

“He proves that this is pleasing to God as well. Do you see with how many arguments he urges silence and comforts the one yielding to another? First, by the fact that he is not excluded in this case: ‘you can all,’ he says, ‘prophesy one by one’; second, by the fact that this is proper to the Spirit, for ‘the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets’; further, by the fact that this is in accordance with God’s will: ‘God is not a God of confusion but of peace’; third, by the fact that this rule extends to the whole Church and that he is commanding nothing new: ‘as’ he says, ‘in all the churches of the saints’ (I command). Can anything be more marvelous than this? The Church then was heaven; the Spirit ordered all things in the people, guided and inspired each of the leaders. But now we have only the signs of those former gifts. And now we speak, but all this is only signs and monuments of what was before. In ancient times they spoke not by their own wisdom, but by the inspiration of the Spirit. But now it is not so; I speak my own thoughts. Now the Church is like a woman who has lost her former wealth, preserving in many places only the signs of her original prosperity and showing the warehouses and storehouses of golden treasures, but not possessing the wealth itself; to such a woman the Church is now likened. I say this with respect not only to gifts—it would not be too grievous if it were only this—but to life and virtue as well” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 14:34. Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says.

Since the Apostle’s discourse concerns teaching in the church, then here too he is speaking of that same matter. Likely, women also were moved with excitement and, relying on the fact that in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, would rise in the assembly and speak for the edification of all. Saint Paul finds this inappropriate and forbids it, placing a seal of silence upon their lips by the law of obedience toward their husbands. Saint Chrysostom says: “Having rebuked the disorder arising from tongues and from prophecies, the Apostle turns to the disorder produced by women, and checks their inappropriate boldness. Here he does not exhort or advise, but commands with authority, bringing forth an ancient law for this. What law? ‘Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you’ (Gen. 3:16). Do you see Paul’s wisdom, how he brought such a testimony as commands them not only to be silent, but to be silent with fear, and with such fear as a slave must observe silence? If such they must be toward their husbands, how much more toward teachers, fathers, and the common assembly of the Church. They should listen as is fitting, and about matters of doubt should ask their husbands at home.”

1 Cor. 14:35. But if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church.

“It is not permitted to them, he says, not only to speak openly in the church themselves, but even to ask about anything. If they must not ask, then much less are they permitted to speak. Why then does he place them in such subjection? Because woman is a weaker, inconstant, and frivolous creature. Therefore he appoints husbands as their teachers and brings benefit to both: he makes women modest and men attentive, for they must transmit to women with perfect precision what they have heard. Further, since it was considered an honor among them to speak in the assembly, he again proves the contrary and says: ‘it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church’; he proves this first by God’s law, and then by general human judgment and custom, as he did when he spoke with them about hair. And everywhere one can see this manner of his discourse: he convicts not only by Holy Scripture but also by well-known customs. Moreover, he draws the conviction from the agreement of all and from the universality of the commandments, as he does here” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 14:36. Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached?

“Here he expresses that the other Churches observe the same law, and thus stops the disorder by pointing to an innovation and makes his words more persuasive by referring to the voice of all. He speaks as if to say: you are not first, and you alone are not believers, but (such is the case with) the entire world. You, he says, cannot claim: we were teachers of others and should not learn from others; here alone the teaching of faith has been established, and we should not follow the example of others. Do you see how many arguments he brought in their rebuke? He brought forth the law, showed the shame of the deed, presented the other Churches as an example” (Saint Chrysostom).

Modern commentators join the phrase “as in all the churches of the saints” (1 Cor. 14:33) with “let your women keep silent in the churches”. Thus both at the beginning and at the end, the imposition of silence on women in the church is protected by the universality of such a law throughout the Church. It was fitting that some disobedience in this matter might be expected, against which the assurance could prevail that in acting thus they would stand apart from all and consequently bring shame upon themselves; for singularity in Christianity brings shame, not honor.

1 Cor. 14:37. If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that what I write to you is the Lord’s commandment.

With this Saint Paul confirms his directives regarding the exercise of the gifts of prophecy and tongues in the Church. So, he says, you who speak in tongues and prophesy, understand well what I write to you and fulfill it exactly, for these are the Lord’s commandments. “God commands this through me” (Saint Chrysostom). I am not proposing this to you as advice, but I give it on behalf of the Lord, as a commandment to be obeyed. “I did not move myself to say this” (Oecumenius). Who is the spiritual one here in the Apostle? Broadly speaking, the spiritual can mean the one “in whom the Spirit of God dwells” (Theodoret), or “who has some spiritual gift” (Oecumenius, Theophylact). But here, in the flow of the discourse, it seems closer to mean one who has the gift of tongues. For the Apostle has been speaking about him together with prophecy throughout, and turns this concluding exhortation to them.

1 Cor. 14:38. But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.

The thought is rather obscure! If, he says, anyone of those to whom he addresses his discourse does not recognize that these are the Lord’s commandments, let him not recognize them—as if to say: do as you wish, it is your choice, I do not compel you; but you also take upon yourself the responsibility that lies on those who resist God’s will. “I have said what is necessary; let the willing one obey, and the unwilling one do as he wishes” (Oecumenius, Theophylact). And Saint Chrysostom says nearly the same: “Why did he add this? To show that he does not compel and does not wish to contend. And in another place he said something similar: ‘if anyone thinks he is contentious, we have no such custom’ (1 Cor. 1:16). However, he does not act thus everywhere, but only where the offenses were not very great.” Theophylact presents yet another thought. He said earlier: “let the spiritual one understand”; here he says if “anyone does not understand”—the same as if anyone is not spiritual—“let him not understand”—the same as remain unspiritual. Such a manner of speaking will make everyone obey the given directive, so as not to reveal themselves as unspiritual.

CC) Conclusion of all that has been said about the gift of prophecy and tongues (1 Cor. 14:39–40)

1 Cor. 14:39–40. Therefore, my brethren, be zealous to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order.

Having begun to discourse on these gifts, the Apostle first proved that the gift of prophecy is better and more useful for the Church than the gift of tongues; now he concludes: therefore be zealous for the gift of prophecy, but when someone is given the gift of tongues, do not forbid him to use it, with the limitations I have laid down. Then the Apostle set forth rules for how to exercise these gifts in the Church; and as a conclusion to this especially applies the words: only let all things be done decently and in order; and how this should be done decently and in order, he has shown in the rules set forth. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle returns to the former subject, which gave him occasion to speak of this. And do you see how he maintains the distinction (between these gifts) throughout, and how he teaches that the first is very necessary, while the latter is not so necessary? Regarding the first he says: ‘be zealous,’ and regarding the latter: ‘do not forbid.’ Then, as if presenting all the rules given together, he adds: ‘let all things be done decently and in order’.” “This order the Apostle made clear in what was said before (that is, in the rules)” (Theodoret).

Part Seven. On the Resurrection of the Dead (1 Corinthians 15)

The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

“Having concluded his discourse on spiritual gifts, the Apostle turns to the most important subject—the teaching about the resurrection—for the Corinthians were very weak in this regard as well. As in the body, when disease touches the most fundamental parts, the evil becomes incurable unless great care is taken, so too a similar danger was present here, because the evil had extended to the very foundations of piety. Therefore Paul applies great diligence. The Corinthians disagreed regarding the teaching about the resurrection itself. Since in it lies all our hope, the devil strongly rose up against it, and sometimes denied the resurrection completely, and sometimes said it had already occurred. In his letter to Timothy, Paul called this impious teaching a gangrene, and indicated its spreaders, Hymenaeus and Philetus, who said that the resurrection had already taken place (2 Tim. 2:17–18). Sometimes they said this, and sometimes that if someone speaks of the resurrection, he means not the resurrection of the body but the purification of the soul (which is its resurrection). Such teaching the demon whispered to them, wishing not only to deny the resurrection but also to present as fable all that was accomplished for us. For if they had believed there is no resurrection of bodies, he would have gradually convinced them that Christ did not rise, and from there would have drawn the conclusion that Christ did not come and did not accomplish what he accomplished. Such is the malice of the devil! Therefore Paul calls his activities ‘wiles’ (Eph. 6:11); for the devil does not openly reveal what he wishes to do, so as not to be exposed, but assuming a certain mask, produces something else—just as a cunning enemy, approaching a city and its walls, secretly digs underneath, so as not to be noticed and to succeed in his enterprise. But Saint Paul always exposed such nets and pursued his evil wiles: ‘we are not ignorant of his’ he said, ‘schemes’ (2 Cor. 2:11). So here too he exposes all the devil’s cunning and shows all his tricks. He speaks of this subject after others because it is the most important and constitutes everything for us” (Saint Chrysostom).

How did such opinions contrary to the truth about the resurrection come to the Corinthians? When Saint Paul spoke on this subject in Athens, some, hearing him, mocked him (Acts 17:32). So incredible did it seem to the learning of that time. Similar learned men could have been in Corinth, even among the believers. They were—those who said there is no resurrection of the dead. This was not a universal error but of some. But they could not be left without correction, for from them the evil could pass to others and perhaps infect all. It appears that among them some did not believe in the resurrection at all or doubted it (1 Cor. 15:12), while others only puzzled about how the dead will rise and with what body they will come (1 Cor. 15:35). Correcting both groups, the Apostle: 1) first proves the truth of the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:1–34); 2) then explains how it will be (1 Cor. 15:35–53); and 3) finally sings a song of victory over death, with a brief exhortation (1 Cor. 15:54–58).

1) Proofs of the truth of the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:1–34)

In persuading them to this truth the Apostle: a) lays a firm foundation for all the subsequent argument—in the certainty of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor. 15:1–11). Then b) on this foundation he builds proofs of the general resurrection of all (1 Cor. 15:12–32). And as a conclusion he adds c) a brief exhortation (1 Cor. 15:33–34).

a) The truth of Christ’s resurrection is certain (1 Cor. 15:1–11)

Among the believers in the truth of Christ’s resurrection, none of the Corinthians doubted. Saint Paul does not endeavor to prove it, but only reminds them of it, recalling how he himself had instructed them in the faith. The first instruction always began thus: Christ died and rose, and ascended to heaven, from where he will come to judge the living and the dead. So it was in Corinth, and so they believed. The Apostle reminds them of this, so that, as Saint Chrysostom observes, when he subsequently draws from this the truth of the resurrection of the dead, they could not fail to believe, for this would mean not to believe themselves and to condemn themselves.

1 Cor. 15:1–2. Moreover, brethren, I make known to you the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

“I make known to you”—γνωριζω—I give to know; but since they already knew it, the Apostle wishes to say: I awaken your knowledge, I restore it to your consciousness, I remind you. So all our commentators. Theodoret: “I intend to remind you.” Theophylact and Oecumenius: “I remind you.” Saint Chrysostom: “He conveys that he is not teaching anything new but reminding them of what was already known to them.”—One can say: remember, brethren, “the Gospel which I preached to you”. The Apostle’s purpose is to remind them how the Gospel came to them, where it began, on what it was based, as is clear from the words “that word which I preached to you”; but he speaks in general about this with the thought that it will also remind them around what the Gospel chiefly revolved. “The essence of the Gospel consists in the fact that God became man, was crucified and rose” (Saint Chrysostom). This was always the first word of the Gospel; and this is what Saint Paul wishes to remind them of.

“Which also you received.” I preached, and you received. If I only preached and you did not receive, perhaps you would find it difficult to remember; but since you received it, you find it difficult to forget, because what I remind you of is the foundation of the faith, the reason that you received it. “In which you stand.” Not only received, but stand in the Gospel. Εστηκατε—you have stood, established, confirmed, or have been established. One can receive some thing and lay it away in a treasury, but the Gospel is not so: if received, it already becomes the spirit of life; such is it with you, it is active in you, you live and breathe by it. There is no difficulty in remembering what is always before your eyes.—“By which also you are saved.” You were perishing before, but now you are being saved, you see and recognize that you have come out of the abyss of destruction and are on the path of salvation, in the assurance that, having remained on this path to the end, you will attain eternal salvation as well. Consequently, the Gospel is such a matter as should be precious as life is precious, and eternal life—how could you not remember?

“By what word I preached it to you.” So remember what word I preached to you. Below, from the third verse, he himself tells what word he preached, that is, that he spoke of the Lord’s death and then of His resurrection. One could not fail to speak of the death, for our salvation stands upon it; but to speak of the death and not speak of the resurrection means to cut off the faith at its very root. The preaching of the Gospel has always consisted of this: the Lord died for our sins, then rose, ascended to heaven, and taking the reins of rule, leads all to Himself, so that with Himself they might be blessed in his eternal kingdom. So, saying: remember what word I preached to you—of this word Saint Paul reminds them. The chief thing here is the resurrection. It illuminates the cross with divine light and brings it into the reign of Christ the Almighty. Upon it the Gospel stands. “What word I preached”: directly the word restored in consciousness the resurrection. Saint Chrysostom even defines the meaning of this word thus: “In what manner I preached to you the reality of the resurrection.”

“If you hold fast.”—If you hold in memory. This is the customary turn of phrase: remember, if you have not forgotten. But he was confident that they had not forgotten, but did hold, which all the previous words prove. He wishes to express by this that if they had forgotten, it would be quite out of place. Some transpose these words with the previous ones so: “if you hold fast, what word I preached to you”—and they connect all this speech with “by which also you are saved,” in the thought: you are saved if you hold what I preached to you. There is no need for such a transposition; the Apostle’s discourse flows smoothly as it stands. It was not his purpose to set forth conditions of salvation, but only to remind them on what the Gospel stood, what word formed their faith. “What word I preached”—depends on “I make known,” I remind you, or remember.

“Unless you believed in vain.” Only if you have not vainly believed, have not lightly received the faith, but have established yourselves beforehand on a firm foundation of faith. And the foundation of faith is the resurrection of Christ. He says: if only you have rationally believed, you must constantly hold in mind the truth of Christ’s resurrection. “‘If you hold fast.’ You do hold, of course,—‘unless you believed in vain,’ that is, if only you do not vainly call yourselves Christians. For the whole substance of Christianity rests on the doctrine of Christ’s resurrection” (Theodoret). “By this he shows that the evil touches the chief subject, that the matter is not about something of little importance, but about the whole faith” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 15:3. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

He was calling them to remember, but now he himself repeats how it was, that is, what word he preached; it was the Gospel about the death and resurrection of the Lord. From the first words to you the discourse began with this. This is the meaning of the word “first of all”—εν πρωτοις. But in this word there could have been hidden a particular suggestion for them: “he points to the time and intimates that it is exceedingly shameful to alter the faith after believing for so long a time, and not only this, but also that the dogma being explained is necessary because it was taught among the first things and at the very beginning” (Saint Chrysostom).

“For I delivered…which I also received.” I introduced nothing from my own mind; truth came down from heaven and is distributed over the earth; we are transmitters. “He conveys that nothing should be introduced into the Gospel from oneself, and shows that not one of the dogmas is human” (Saint Chrysostom). “I did not myself invent the preaching, nor did I follow human reasoning, but from the Master Christ I received the teaching about this. What then did you receive? ‘That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.’ This the prophets foretold, and Isaiah cries out: ‘He was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities’ (Isa. 53:5)” (Theodoret).

The Gentiles always reproached Christians: you believe in a Crucified One. The Apostles knew that the persuasion to believe in the Crucified One destroys itself—yet they always began their word with this, not concealing themselves and speaking the truth as it is. There was on earth a man—Jesus; and He was crucified: believe in Him and you shall be saved. That it was so in Corinth, Saint Paul had already mentioned, saying: “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). And meanwhile the faith continued to grow and spread throughout the whole world. By what was it attached to hearts? By the conviction that Jesus Christ “died for our sins.” No one could hide from himself that he is a sinner, and that to a sinner there is no salvation. The news of the death undertaken for our sins opened the door to salvation. Into it all rushed. It was only necessary to have the assurance that that death is not merely called death for our sins but truly is such. And that it is such, the resurrection of the One who died testified. Behold the golden chain of saving truths and convictions! Behold why the word about death was bold, and faith in Him was confident!

“According to the Scriptures.” “The cross was known to all because Christ was crucified before the eyes of all, but the reason was not known to all; that He died all knew, but that He endured death for the sins of the universe many did not know; therefore the Apostle brings forth testimony from the Scriptures” (Saint Chrysostom). He points to Scripture, determining by it the significance of Christ’s death. “Let us not enumerate all the places of Scripture separately, some of which in direct words and others through the types contained in them prove that Christ died in the flesh and that He died for our sins. ‘For the wickedness’ it is said in Scripture, ‘of my people he was led to death’; and: ‘the Lord delivered him up for our sins’; and again: ‘He was wounded for our transgressions’ (Isa. 53:5–6, 8)” (Saint Chrysostom). The word “according to the Scriptures” shows that this was foretold long ago; and it was foretold long ago because God inspired it to be foretold; and God inspired it to be foretold because it was thus determined in the eternal counsel. Thus behold where that one word brought it. Deeds occur in time, but their determination is fixed in eternity. Such consideration was all the more necessary in regard to the word about the saving death of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died as a man.

1 Cor. 15:4. And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

“And that He was buried.” “Wishing to show that the death was true and not apparent, as some heretics believed, the Apostle added this word: ‘and that He was buried.’ Burial is a confirmation of the reality of death (Oecumenius). And that He rose again the third day.‘And this, he says, I delivered to you; and as he then brings many testimonies about His resurrection, he thereby shows that his preaching consisted chiefly in this, and now he mentions it with the particular thought that they especially restore this subject to their consciousness.—’According to the Scriptures‘refers both to’buried‘and to’rose again the third day,” and is said not to prove the truth of the burial and resurrection, but to show their significance, that all this happened not simply but according to the eternal decree and requires not only faith but also reverence and deep contemplation of the all-encompassing significance of these events.

Saint Chrysostom says: “Where is it said in Scripture that Christ shall be buried and on the third day shall rise? In the type of Jonah, to which Christ Himself points when He says: ‘For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’ (Matt. 12:40); in the type of the bush in the wilderness: as it burned and was not consumed, so the body of Christ was dead but not held by death forever; in the type of the serpent with Daniel: as it, having received food given it by the prophet, burst asunder, so hell, having received the body of Christ, burst asunder, because it broke through its belly and rose again. But if you wish to hear in words as well what you see in types, then listen to Isaiah, who says: ‘His life shall be taken from the earth’ (Isa. 53:8) (that is, He shall be buried); and again: ‘The Lord is pleased to crush him by disease’ and ‘to make his light shine’ (that is, to raise Him) (1 Cor. 15:10–11); also David, who even before Isaiah said: ‘You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will You suffer Your Holy One to see corruption’ (Ps. 15:10). Therefore also Paul sends you to the Scriptures, that you might know that this was accomplished not simply and not without reason. For could it have been so if so many prophets had not written beforehand and foretold it?”

1 Cor. 15:5. And that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

The appearance of the Lord to Saint Peter is mentioned in the Gospel (Lk. 24:34), and there is no doubt it occurred. Saint Paul could have heard of it from Peter himself. Saint Chrysostom says: “In the Gospel it is said that Christ appeared to Mary before all others; but among men, before all Peter, who especially desired to see Him. The one who was first deemed worthy to see the Lord needed great faith so as not to be troubled by the unusual vision. Therefore Christ appeared to Peter before all others. He who first confessed Him as Christ was rightly the first deemed worthy to see His resurrection as well. And not only for this reason did Christ appear to Peter before all others, but also because Peter had denied Him; to completely comfort him and to show that he was not rejected, Christ deemed him worthy of His appearance before others.”

“Cephas is sufficient as a witness, but he is one. Therefore the Apostle adds: ‘then to the twelve’” (Theodoret). In Saint Chrysostom and all our other commentators it is not eleven but twelve—δωδεκα. It is customary for Scripture to name the whole assembly of Apostles by their original number, although Judas had fallen from their number; which is why Thomas is called by the Evangelist John as one “of the twelve” (1 Cor. 20:24). To the assembly of the Apostles the Lord appeared in the evening on the very day of Resurrection and on the eighth day after that, and perhaps at other times as well, though not recorded. When did He appear to the Apostle Peter? If we assume that Saint Paul in the enumeration of appearances maintains the order of time, then it must be on the very day of Resurrection.

1 Cor. 15:6. After that He appeared to over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present time, but some have fallen asleep.

After mentioning the appearance of the Lord to the twelve—“so that no one might suspect that they preached the resurrection of a beloved teacher that did not happen, the Apostle also mentioned the appearance to over five hundred brethren, not separately but all together at once. The testimony of such a number of people is unquestionable. And, so that no one might think that he himself is speaking of something that did not happen, he added that many of them are alive to this day. Whoever wishes can ascertain this from them themselves” (Theodoret). “Although I, he says, am narrating past events, I have witnesses still living. ‘Some have fallen asleep’; he did not say died, but ‘fallen asleep,’ and with this very expression affirmed the truth of the resurrection” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 15:7. Then He appeared to James, then to all the Apostles.

“James—I believe, His brother; it is said that He Himself ordained him and appointed him the first bishop of Jerusalem” (Saint Chrysostom). “He was a significant person not only by kinship, as he was called the brother of the Lord, but also by his own virtue, as he was called the Just” (Theodoret).

“Then to all the Apostles.” “For there were other Apostles besides the twelve” (Saint Chrysostom). “By Apostles Saint Paul did not mean again those same twelve, for he had already mentioned them, but all who received such ordination” (Theodoret). “There were also other Apostles from the disciples of the Lord in imitation of the twelve, such as Barnabas and Thaddaeus” (Oecumenius). Were they not chosen by the Lord Himself from among those who believed after the resurrection?!

Looking over all these appearances, Saint Chrysostom observes: “Christ did not appear to all at once after the resurrection, but first appeared separately, so that He might first sow seeds of faith in a few and through them prepare all for faith. For he who first saw Him and was completely assured told others about it; then what was said spread and produced in those who heard it expectation of a great wonder and paved the way for faith in the appearance. Therefore Christ did not appear suddenly to all together and to only a few at the beginning. Those who saw after seeing others and when they had already heard from them, in their testimony had considerable help disposing them toward faith and preparing their souls. He appeared first to only the supreme leader alone. After Peter He appeared to others separately and together—to few and to many, so that they might become witnesses and teachers to each other in this matter. Thus the matter proceeded. And the most reliable witnesses and preachers of the resurrection are, without doubt, the Apostles.”

1 Cor. 15:8. And last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

Having heard all that has been said thus far, one might think: you speak all this by hearsay. Hearsay is not a reliable witness. So that no one should say this, or so that someone should not trouble himself with such thoughts, Saint Paul presents himself as an eyewitness and witness of the Lord’s resurrection, lending his words the humility customary to him in his way of thinking (Theodoret). “Untimely born”—not a wretch, but an abortion. “He compares himself to an aborted embryo, which is not even included among people” (Theodoret). “What does he wish to say here with such humble words, and for what reason? If he wishes to show himself reliable and include himself among the witnesses of the resurrection, it would have been fitting to do the opposite; it would have been fitting to exalt and magnify himself, as he does in many places when circumstances require. But here he humbles himself because he intends to do the same thing, only not all at once but with his characteristic prudence. For, having first abased himself and spoken many reproaches against himself, he then magnifies his works. Why? So that when he says of himself a great and lofty word: ‘I labored more abundantly,’ his words might be certain and received as if spoken in the course of the discourse. He who speaks something great of others speaks boldly and confidently, while he who is compelled to praise himself, especially when he presents himself as a witness, is ashamed and blushes. Therefore this blessed man first humbles and then magnifies himself. He does this both to soften the unpleasantness of self-praise and to make thereby his following words reliable; for, having spoken truthfully about what is worthy of condemnation and having hidden nothing, for example that he persecuted the Church and destroyed the faith, he thereby makes his deeds certain and praiseworthy. And see his great humility. Having said: ‘last of all He appeared to me,’ he was not satisfied with this—for ‘many shall be last that are first and first that are last,’ says the Lord (Matt. 19:30)—but adds ‘as to one untimely born’; and does not stop there but adds his own condemnation and brings forth the reason” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 15:9. For I am the least of the Apostles, and am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.

The enumeration of eyewitness witnesses of the resurrection is finished. They are so many that not to believe in the Lord’s resurrection would be the same as calling day night. It would have been fitting to say only what he said two verses later: so we preach, and so you believed. But, touching upon himself and his calling, the Apostle could not restrain himself from dwelling on this both by his feeling of humility and gratitude and by the purpose for which he brought forward the testimonies of the resurrection. “I persecuted the Church,” he says, and therefore I do not deserve to be called an Apostle. A forceful expression of humility; yet at the same time, if he previously persecuted the Church and now has become a preacher of the faith whose foundation is the resurrection of Christ, then for anyone it follows as a necessary conclusion: truly, this persecutor must have had a striking assurance of the resurrection when he changed from persecutor to preacher of the faith. This conclusion gave Saint Paul’s testimony about Christ’s resurrection the highest value before all others; it elevated all the rest and crowned them. Saint Chrysostom says to this: “‘I am,’ he says, ‘the least of the Apostles.’ He did not say ‘of only the twelve,’ but of all the rest as well (in Eph. 3:8 it says ‘of all the saints’). He says all this both from humility and with the intention of disposing his listeners to speedier acceptance of his following words. For if instead of this he had said: you must believe me that Christ rose because I saw Him, and I am more reliable than all other witnesses because I labored more than all—then with such words he might have offended his listeners. But now, by first depicting the circumstances serving to his abasement and condemnation, he both softens his speech and paves the way to faith in his testimony.”

1 Cor. 15:10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Again the same—both a display of humility and an elevation of his testimony to a certainty that shuts every mouth of contradiction. “By the grace of God I am what I am,” and he is an Apostle to the Gentiles, who has illuminated all of Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, and some islands by that time. After this he could say that the grace of God, which chose him, has not been in vain in him, that it has not chosen him for nothing, that through him it successfully accomplishes what it determined to accomplish. Therefore although he indicates that he labored more than all the Apostles, he sees in this not the fruit of his own zeal but the work of grace as well. For his own spirit would not have had the strength to kindle such intense zeal, nor his will the energy to continue such incredible labors. This sincere confession: “yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Now bring together: “by the grace of God I am what I am, the grace toward me was not in vain, by the grace of God I labored more abundantly,” and you must be convinced that this is a person bearing grace and borne by grace. If so, then what is his testimony about the resurrection in his mouth if not the same as testimony from above, from God Himself? Thus the display of humility became an irresistible assurance in the certainty of the testimony about the resurrection of Christ the Lord.

1 Cor. 15:11. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.

He draws together all that has been said. Remember, he says, what word I preached the Gospel to you. I told you that Christ the Lord died for our sins, then was buried and rose on the third day, to which there are innumerable witnesses—not only the Apostles but also a multitude of believers who are alive to this day, and finally I myself as well. And behold the word by which we proclaim to all, by which you also were instructed, and which you have believed. This meant: if you are believers, then without doubt you stand on the firm rock of faith in the resurrection of Christ the Lord. The Apostle has said quite enough to renew in the consciousness of the Corinthians the truth of the Lord’s resurrection and to revive the conviction of it. Oecumenius writes: “‘Whether it was I or they, so we preach.’ We are agreed, he says, in our preaching—all agree and we preach thus not somewhere in a corner but openly, to all everywhere. So also you believed together with all. This very faith of theirs he now calls forth as a witness to the truth (of the resurrection). For in saying you believed, he conveys that they were not drawn away by deceptive and false words, but were convinced by true proofs of the truth of the preaching, and therefore believed.”

If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

“Having laid down the resurrection of our Saviour and God as a kind of foundation, the Apostle builds upon it the doctrine of the general resurrection, proving it with the most solid reasoning” (Theodoret).

The Apostle draws the first proof from showing how absurd it is, given faith in the resurrection of Christ, to think that there is no resurrection of the dead, and what disorder this idea introduces into the system of Christian belief (1 Cor. 15:12–19).

1 Cor. 15:12. Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

Everywhere the resurrection of Christ is preached, confirmed by undeniable witnesses; everywhere it is believed, and you too believe it. So how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? Look: Christ rose from the dead. For He, being God, was also man; as man, He died and was buried, and then rose; He rose with the same flesh in which He died; He rose bodily, with the very body He had as He walked among us, and in which He was crucified; and after the resurrection it bore the wounds received in the crucifixion. So here you have the resurrection of a dead man! How then do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? We must suppose their meaning was this: the resurrection of the dead is impossible. By pointing them to the actual resurrection, the Apostle completely refutes them: for if it is, if it has been accomplished, then it is possible; from actuality to possibility the reasoning has force.

The blessed Theodoret writes: “We preached, says the Apostle, that Christ is not only God but also man; for, ‘being in the form of God,’ He took on the form of a slave (Phil. 2:6–7); and we said that He both died and rose. But clearly the Godhead is impassible; suffering belongs to the body. It was His body that Christ delivered to the cross, and raised from the tomb. So how, the Apostle continues, can the resurrection of bodies be doubted by some, when we have believed in the resurrection of the Lord Christ?” Saint Chrysostom says: “He did not say, as you say, but: ‘some among you say’; he does not rebuke all, and those he rebukes he does not openly expose, so as not to harden them, yet he does not hide them entirely so as to correct them. For this reason, having set them apart from the rest, he turns against them, and in this way on one hand undermines and strikes them, while on the other he strengthens the others in the truth for the struggle against them, not allowing the believers to drift toward those who sought to corrupt them; against such people he has prepared to speak a strong word.”

1 Cor. 15:13. And if the dead do not rise, then Christ has not risen.

Take your idea from another angle, he says. Let it be true. See now what must follow from it? If the resurrection of the dead is impossible, then the resurrection of Christ is also impossible; if impossible, then it did not happen. For from impossibility to non-occurrence the conclusion follows of itself. Or: what is an inalienable property of a kind applies to each individual. If according to you the resurrection of the dead is unthinkable, then it is unthinkable in Christ; therefore He did not rise. You cannot appeal to the fact that Christ was God. He was not God alone, but also man, and He had a real body, our body, with all its essential qualities. If according to you it is essential to bodies not to rise, then the same must apply to the body of Christ. The blessed Theodoret writes: “If one thing is impossible (that is, the resurrection of the dead), then the other did not happen either (that is, the resurrection of Christ), because the Master Christ had a body (the same as ours).”

1 Cor. 15:14. But if Christ did not rise, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is empty.

If Christ did not rise, then terrible conclusions follow from this. The first is that our preaching is therefore void, containing nothing true and real, and your faith is also void, giving you nothing substantial; we tell you dreams, and you have accepted dreams; everything with us is a kind of illusion. The Apostle stops at this point alone. It should have been added: one cannot think this way about either our preaching or your faith. But he regarded this as so obvious that he found it unnecessary even to mention it. The faith of the Corinthians was based not on words alone, but was confirmed by signs and wonders, through which they understood that before them were God’s messengers proclaiming God’s will to them, and their faith was not empty, but was accompanied by clear proofs that they had entered on the true, God’s path. Most tangibly this was demonstrated by the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. If faith is so clearly not empty, then neither is preaching. Both were so obvious that there was no need to clarify these points. Saint Chrysostom says: “He wishes to shake their souls. We, he says, have lost everything, everything is destroyed if Christ did not rise. Do you see the mystery of the economy? If Christ, having died, could not rise, then sin is not destroyed, death is not defeated, the curse is not broken, and not only did we preach in vain, but you also believed in vain.”

1 Cor. 15:15–16. And we are found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified concerning God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if indeed the dead do not rise; for if the dead do not rise, then Christ did not rise.

But it is not merely the futility of our preaching and your faith that follows from this, but something even greater: we are false witnesses, you are still in your sins, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. “We are found to be false witnesses of God,” that is, concerning God; “because we testified,” because we affirmed, assured; “concerning God,” – κατα του Θεου – against God. We testified as if for the glory of God, but it turned out against God, in blasphemy against Him, as if He raised when He did not raise. Theodoret writes: “We are subject to punishment for slander, having dared to affirm that God raised Christ, ‘whom He did not raise.’” He did not raise, as your reasoning requires, that is, “if the dead do not rise.” For this must necessarily follow, as I have said: “if the dead do not rise, neither has Christ risen.” The Apostle repeats this reasoning often with the intention of fixing it in the mind, for it is very striking and presents the idea of the non-resurrection of the dead in a form that is somewhat frightening, and even more absurd; because it sets itself in contradiction to the manifest fact of Christ’s resurrection, so incontrovertibly proved, of which he himself is a witness who established faith in the Corinthians and now writes these convictions.

1 Cor. 15:17. If Christ did not rise, your faith is empty, and you are still in your sins.

But see what follows for you if Christ did not rise: “your faith is empty, and you are still in your sins.” You believed in the hope of receiving forgiveness of sins and gaining strength to oppose sin and destroy it in yourselves through a new life. This hope of yours is empty. For on what is founded the hope that sins are forgiven to the believer? On this: that Christ, dying on the cross, offered a redemptive sacrifice for all of them: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn. 1:29). And how is it witnessed that this sacrifice was accepted? By the resurrection of the One who died for sins. If He did not rise, the sacrifice was not accepted. His death would be like the death of anyone. On the other hand, deliverance from sins has two aspects: the first is the forgiveness of sins, and the second is the seed of new life for the destruction of sin. The first is given by participation in the death of Christ, and the second by participation in His resurrection. Both are received by believers in the waters of baptism—they are washed from sins and return to a new life, so that after baptism they may walk in a new life, bright as the state of Christ after the resurrection is bright. But if Christ did not rise, there is no participation in His resurrection; and if there is no such thing, then there is no seed of new life in us; if that is lacking, then sin continues to possess us, and we are still in our sins. Sins that are upon us are washed away when sin within us is cut off. From this it follows that, even if the death of Christ had value, we would all remain in our sins, for we could not receive the new life on which the very forgiveness of sins stands. Therefore, “if Christ did not rise, you are still in your sins.”

1 Cor. 15:18. Therefore those who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished.

Here is yet another terrible consequence of your thought, which leads to the conclusion that Christ did not rise. If Christ did not rise: “those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” Why have they perished? Because they died in their sins. If you, the living, are still in your sins without the resurrection of Christ, then they too, when they were living, remained in their sins; if that is how they were when living, then that is how they departed from here; if they departed thus, that is, existing in sins, what comfort awaits them there? They have perished, gone to destruction, to hell, to eternal torment. But in Christian faith the consolation lies in this: that it saves from hell and makes us heirs of the kingdom of heaven with Christ, after the resurrection and ascension, sitting at the right hand of the Father. One empty thought of yours about the non-resurrection of the dead throws into confusion the whole chain of comforting Christian truths and hopes.

By those who have fallen asleep in Christ the Apostle means not only believers, but also those who suffered for the faith—both alike. So Saint Chrysostom: “The expression ‘those who have fallen asleep in Christ’ means those who died either in faith, or who endured for Him many perils and great sufferings, who walked the narrow path.” Theodoret presents the whole idea of the text thus: “It appears that virtuous martyrs have been killed in vain for the confession of Christ; and although they eagerly undertook the contest, they did not receive crowns, because if there is no resurrection, then there is no proclamation of victory either.” Who will distribute the crowns when the very Author of the contest is not crowned? And He is not crowned if He did not rise.

1 Cor. 15:19. And if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Here two interpretations are possible. One is this: if all our hopes, which we nurture by clinging in faith to Christ, are limited only to this life, if only in this life we expect to receive something from Him, then plainly we are more miserable than all people; such hope cannot be formed, for we are all oppressed, persecuted, deprived of everything, and we ourselves subject ourselves to all kinds of deprivation for the sake of moral advancement. How could anyone come to expect something from Christ in this life? And if someone were to nurture such a hope, no one more foolish or pitiable could be imagined. Or another interpretation: if, living here, in this life, our whole hope is in Christ—εν Χριστω—in the belief that after this sorrowful life we shall receive consolation from Him in the future, and yet we too, like the dead already, shall die in our sins and perish, as was said before—that is, if Christ did not rise—then we are the most miserable of all people. Here we are deprived of everything, and there we shall receive nothing, and this is all the more bitter because we expect there to receive what is beyond all imagination. It is not so bitter not to receive what one did not expect as to not receive what one expects with certainty to receive. The blessed Theodoret writes: “We pass through life amid perils of every kind: tormented by hunger, enduring constant insults, going from prison to prison throughout the world, having no shelter, wandering, struggling against constant anxieties. Good hope sustains us (of rest in the future), and in the resurrection of our Saviour we have a pledge of our resurrection (and future glorification).” But if Christ did not rise, we might add to his words, then there will be no glorification in the future either, and we shall remain with nothing at all. What could be more bitter than such a fate?

The Apostle draws the second proof from the power of the resurrection of Christ, which is undoubtedly proved and believed by all those to whom he speaks. There he explained how that absurd thought (about the non-resurrection of the dead) is contrary to this manifest fact of the resurrection; now he unfolds how from this manifest fact of Christ’s resurrection flows a thought completely opposite to that absurdity, namely: inasmuch as Christ rose, so too shall all rise. He speaks as it were: there I explained what follows if one admits your thought; now I will show not only what follows, but what is and must be, if one accepts the true reality.

Verses 20–28.

1 Cor. 15:20. But now Christ has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

“But now”—I was drawing conclusions from the supposition that Christ did not rise; now I take the truth that Christ rose, and I will show you what follows from it. Or “but now,” in fact, in present reality, here is what is. From your thought a dark picture emerges; but in reality that is not the case, and that does not follow according to the true confession of our faith. And he depicts α) a picture of the resurrection of all (1 Cor. 15:20–23) and β) the glorious change of everything after the restoration of all things (1 Cor. 15:24–28).

“Christ rose from the dead.” Take this truth which you have received and in which you stand. “Christ rose”—for Himself? No, for Himself alone. He is wholly not for Himself. The Only-begotten Son of God did not come to earth for Himself, He did not become incarnate for Himself, He did not suffer and die for Himself, and neither did He rise for Himself. For whom then? For those for whom He came—for the human race. Do not regard this resurrection as if it were accomplished in Him and limited to Him alone; but as His death abolished the death of all, so understand His resurrection—that it is the foundation of the resurrection of all. “In the resurrection of our Saviour we have a pledge of our resurrection. He first shattered the dominion of death, and after Him, as the firstfruits, all mixture (and all humanity) shall certainly follow” (Theodoret).

Having risen, He rose as the “firstfruits of the dead,” meaning those who are to rise, as “the firstborn of the dead” (Col. 1:18), after whom all others shall be born from the dead into endless life. As in the Old Testament, when the firstfruits were offered to God in the temple, for example the first sheaves of the harvest, thereby sanctifying all the sheaves and the whole harvest, so Christ the Lord, having risen, sanctified, blessed, and established the resurrection of all who shall rise from the earth as grain from seed. But the Apostle wanted to say something even greater by this, namely: that in the resurrection of Christ is laid the beginning and foundation of the resurrection of all, that its power is so great that from it shall come forth life for all, or that this resurrection is already in potentiality the resurrection of all. Therefore, as much as you do not doubt the resurrection of Christ the Lord, so much you ought not to doubt the resurrection of all.

1 Cor. 15:21–22. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.

He explains why the risen Christ is the firstfruits of the dead, in whom the foundation of the resurrection of all is laid. To this end he sets forth two progenitors: the patriarch Adam, in whom all died, and Christ the Lord, in whom all shall be made alive. All who are from Adam die, because they have already died in him; and all in Christ shall be made alive, because all are already made alive in Him. The dying of all is the manifestation in actuality of what was accomplished in potentiality in Adam; and the being made alive of all will be the fulfillment in actuality of what is laid in potentiality in the risen Christ. Theodoret writes: “Look at the foundation of the race, and you will see that after the progenitor the descendants followed, and all became mortal, because he accepted mortality. Thus all human nature will follow the Master Christ and will share in the resurrection, because He too ‘is the firstborn of the dead’ (Col. 1:18), as Adam is the first-born. It is not without purpose that the Apostle here called Christ a man, knowing that He is God; but to show consubstantiality and confirm the teaching on the resurrection.”

These last words of the blessed Theodoret pertain to the first position: “by man came death and by man came the resurrection,” in its juxtaposition with the last: “in Adam all die, in Christ all shall be made alive.” To the former: “by man came the resurrection,” corresponds here: “in Christ all shall be made alive.” It comes out: in Christ the man they shall receive the resurrection, or shall be made alive. The thought underlying this is that the deified human nature had to traverse the entire path of restoration, to open the way for those being restored. For this reason Christ dies, to destroy the power of death; for this reason He rises, to lay for all the foundation of resurrection; for this reason He enters into glory, so that for all He might open the door to entering into this glory. The ancient saints did not enter paradise, but went down to a special place—sheol—and waited there until the Promised One would come and open for them the path there. He came, passed through, and led them into paradise, but only with the human soul, because even paradise is still preliminary. Thus the deified human nature passed everywhere, that through itself it might open the way to the restoration of all men. This is what the Apostle expresses when he says: by man came death, by man came the resurrection. By this resurrection the foundation is laid, the path to the resurrection of all is opened.

Christ the Firstfruits; the End, When He Delivers Up the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:23–28)

1 Cor. 15:23. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ’s, at His coming.

The words “but each in his own order” can be understood in two ways. If we connect them with what precedes, they will mean that in Christ all shall be made alive, but each will receive his portion after the resurrection according to his own worth; all shall be made alive in Christ, but not all shall taste blessed life in Him—they shall first rise for judgment, and after the judgment, to receive the lot each has deserved. St. Chrysostom says: “Lest you think that sinners too shall be saved, he adds, but each in his own order. Hearing of the resurrection, do not think that all shall receive equal recompense; for if the punishment shall not be equal for all, but greatly different, then all the more shall there be a great difference between sinners and the righteous.” And Theodoret writes: “Since he had said, all shall be made alive, but after the resurrection there shall be a distinction between those who lived chastely and those who gave themselves over to incontinence in life, between those sick with unbelief and those shining with faith—in a word, between those who strove after praiseworthy deeds and those after blameworthy ones—of necessity he added, but each in his own order. So too the Lord in the holy Gospel teaches that He shall set the lambs on the right hand and the goats on the left (Matt. 25:33).” So too all our other commentators. This interpretation is justified by the word ταγμα, which means a military detachment, a regiment. This suggests at the same time that the resurrection itself will already point each man to his own detachment and regiment, to which he will of himself be borne.

Others connect these words with what follows, as a general indication of the order in which the resurrection will proceed. All shall be made alive in Christ, but this making-alive will go on in its own order: first Christ rose, then at His second coming those who are Christ’s shall rise, then the end—that is, as some think, there will follow also the final resurrection of all, the resurrection even of those who, after the resurrection of those who are Christ’s, still remained unraised. As for the meaning of the words “but each in his own order”, they may be placed in this connection, only not in the sense that some suppose—that detachments of those rising are meant: that is, Christ rises, then the believers, then the unbelievers and sinners—but in the sense that everything has its own time. All shall be made alive in Christ, but not together with Christ’s resurrection, rather each in his own time, when the turn comes; and it will come at Christ’s second coming. St. Chrysostom says: “Now, after Christ’s resurrection, human affairs remain in their usual order; but then, at the second coming, all shall rise, and there shall be an end of all things.”

The risen Christ is the firstfruits, in whom the foundation is laid and the way pointed out for the universal resurrection; and through this resurrection there will be accomplished the final restoration of fallen humanity and its manifestation in the glory appointed for it, in the light and perfection proper to it. The resurrection of Christ is therefore the pledge of the certainty of all Christian hopes, and this is why it is glorified by Christians above all things. Having risen and ascended into the heavens, the Lord commanded us to await His second coming. And we do await it—every hour and every minute. No one knows when the trumpet will sound that rouses the dead. But when it sounds, all will rise from their graves, or from the place where anyone’s bones are laid. Then that will be fulfilled which the Apostle says: “then those who are Christ’s”, οι του Χριστου — Christ’s, “that is, the believing and the godly” (St. Chrysostom). “Not only those who came to believe in Christ after His incarnation, but also those who shone with godliness and virtue under the Law and before the Law” (Theodoret). But this is only one part of saved humanity—where is the other part, the unbelievers and perishing sinners? Some say the resurrection of this part is meant in the words “then the end”, which signify: afterward there will follow the final resurrection of all; and thus they introduce two moments of the Resurrection, and some even two periods separated by no small span of time. This is entirely arbitrary. There is not even a hint of two resurrections in Scripture; and the words “then the end” signify that after the resurrection there will follow the end of all things—the judgment, the assigning of the justified and the condemned to their places, the cessation of the present order of the existence of things, and the beginning of a new one, when a new heaven and a new earth shall be revealed. To attach any other thought to these words ought not even to enter the mind. St. Chrysostom says: “Then there shall be an end of all things.” Theodoret writes: “Then all shall receive its end, both the present order of things and the predictions of the prophets.” Where then is the resurrection of sinners and unbelievers?—It is to be understood together with the words “then those who are Christ’s”—understood, that is, as not excluding even those who are not Christ’s. The whole thought will be this: now Christ has risen, and at His second coming those who are Christ’s shall also rise, but not they alone, of course, but together with all other men. It only remains to settle why the Apostle did not mention them separately. To this we answer: so it pleased him; he mentioned those who are Christ’s because he was speaking to those who are Christ’s, and was reviving their hopes, while he passed over those who are not Christ’s in silence, so as not to darken the bright picture of the resurrection, leaving the readers themselves to understand about them—from what he had said before, that in Christ all shall be made alive, without distinction. But on the ground that he did not mention them, to divide the resurrection into two moments, taking cover under a distorted reading of the words “then the end”, is entirely unjust. St. Chrysostom makes not even a hint at such moments; and it seems neither does Theodoret. Oecumenius and Theophylact, though they hold that the righteous will precede the sinners and unbelievers in rising by a little, in order to meet the Lord in the air—yet since they say at the same time that the sinners will remain below, by this they suggest that the time of the resurrection of the dead, even by their understanding, will be one: at the coming of the Lord; only some will come forth from the graves in front and others behind, as those coming out of some house are all in the state and act of departure, but some go out in front and others behind. To the new commentators, one knows not why, it is pleasing to foist upon St. Paul the notion of two moments, or times, of the resurrection of the dead.

1 Cor. 15:24. Then comes the end, when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father, when He shall abolish all rule and all authority and power.

“Then comes the end.” That is, the end of the present order of things, the end also of the kingdom of grace! After the resurrection—the judgment; after the judgment—the sentence: to some, “Come”; to others, “Depart. And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.” With this everything will end.

“When He shall deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father.” When is this “when”?

When all is ended, then He shall deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father; and when He delivers it up to Him, then all is ended. These are inseparable simultaneities, or events, each calling forth the other, mutually presupposing each other. What kingdom shall He deliver up?—The one He received as founder, builder, and perfecter of the kingdom of grace. After His resurrection He said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth”—as to the conqueror of hell and death. After His ascension and sitting at the right hand of God the Father, He took into His hands the reins of the governance of His kingdom, to fulfill all that was foreordained in the eternal counsel concerning the ordering of the salvation of humanity. By this authority the Church was established on earth; by it the nations are converted; by it all the works of grace are accomplished, the ordinary (through the sacraments) and the extraordinary—directly and at the prayer of the Church; by it all humanity is led to its final end; by it the power of Satan shall be finally destroyed by the annihilation of Antichrist; by it death too shall be abolished by the resurrection, and by the last judgment the lot of all shall be brought to completion. And so, when all this that was foreordained shall be accomplished in the kingdom of grace, then the Lord Jesus Christ shall deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father—that is, then He shall give back what He received after His resurrection. By this is expressed that the kingdom of grace will end, and the kingdom of glory will begin. This kingdom is the kingdom of the Most Holy Trinity, in which the Son too has the same portion as the Father and the Holy Spirit. But the Apostle does not say all this, only what concerns Christ the Saviour. If by the kingdom we understand all who have entered into this kingdom, in the sense that then the Lord shall declare, “Behold, I and the children”, then the main thought is not thereby changed at all. For Christ’s kingdom, of course, has its subject persons, and these are all the believers, of whom His kingdom will be composed. To this one may only add: when all those foreordained to this kingdom shall have entered it, then comes the end of Christ’s reigning as Redeemer and Saviour. The application of His redemptive and saving powers will cease: there will remain only the unbroken and endless working of them in those already saved and glorified.

This delivering up of the kingdom to God and the Father will be the last act of Christ the Lord, King of the kingdom of grace. It must be preceded by the subduing and abolishing of all the enemies of this kingdom: the devil, death, sin. The whole continuation of Christ’s kingdom is a constant vanquishing of them. In His own person He conquered them by His death, resurrection, and ascension. And He unceasingly conquers them, and will conquer them until the end of the age, in the person of His believers. At the end of the ages Antichrist will arise, who is to unite in himself all the satanic and demonic power. Him the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth, and thereby smite Satan and all his hosts at the head. Thereupon will follow the resurrection of the dead, which is the abolition of death, or the final victory over it. There remains still sin. And it too, in the person of sinners, will be abolished by the final sentence: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The kingdom of God will be cleansed of all that is opposed and God-fighting, and the light of God’s glory will shine forth in all the realms of being. After all this the Lord will deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father.

Of this abolishing of the enemies by the Lord Saviour St. Paul speaks further. “When He shall abolish all rule and all authority and power.” By this is indicated the final destruction of Satan and his confederates. They will be shut up in hell even before the judgment, for at the judgment there will be no mention of them, but only of the place in which they already are. St. Chrysostom says: “Of the abolishing of what rule does the Apostle here speak? Of the angels?—No! Of the believers?—No! Of what then?—Of the rule of the demons, of which he also says, For our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, and against the powers, and against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age (Eph. 6:12). Now it is not yet completely abolished, for they still act often; but then they will cease to act.”

1 Cor. 15:25. For He must reign, till He has put all enemies under His feet.

So, he says, it is laid down in the eternal counsel, that the Lord should reign until He puts all enemies under His feet; and consequently, before this it is neither fitting nor possible for Him to deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father. One must here bear in mind that both “He shall deliver up the kingdom” and “He must reign, till…” are to be understood according to the economy of salvation. For as the Son of God and God, the Lord has over all things an unchanging kingdom, as does God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. We may not clearly picture to ourselves what the receiving of the kingdom and the delivering up of it according to the economy of our salvation is; but we cannot fail to understand that this cannot touch any change in the boundless authority and almighty power belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ as God; nor can we fail to hold that much is both said of Christ the Saviour, and represented as having place in Him, which we can neither comprehend nor explain, but must accept as it is delivered to us in the word of God. Thus that the Lord Jesus Christ received the kingdom as Saviour, and will deliver it up as Perfecter of the salvation of humanity, we shall accept by faith, without being able to represent to ourselves with clarity in what this consists and how. One thing we shall hold: that it is precisely so, and that this in no way violates His divine reigning over all. On this thought our commentators especially dwell. St. Chrysostom says, on the words “He shall deliver up the kingdom”: “If we take this simply, and not in a manner befitting God, it follows that Christ will after that no longer have a kingdom, for whoever gives something to another himself ceases to possess it. And not only does this absurdity follow, but also that the one who receives did not have it before he received it; that is, by their opinion, neither was the Father King before, but only still awaits the kingdom over us, nor will the Son after that remain King. But how then did He Himself say, My Father works until now, and I work (Jn. 5:17)? Likewise from the words He must reign, till He has put… and so forth, another absurdity will arise if we take it not in a manner befitting God. For till signifies the end of time and a limit, and this is not in God. He said till not in the sense of signifying the end of the reigning, but to make what was said beyond doubt and to inspire hope. When, he says, you hear that Christ will overthrow all rule, do not fear that He will lack the power for it: He must reign until He accomplishes this. He rules, He governs, and His kingdom does not cease.” Theodoret writes: “The God of all is eternal, and coeternal with Him is His Only-begotten Son. And He has a kingdom likewise eternal; and of this the prophet Daniel taught us, when he said, His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom (Dan. 7:27), it shall not be destroyed to eternal time!”

1 Cor. 15:26. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

Death will be abolished by the resurrection, after the demonic rule, authority, and power have already been abolished through the destruction of the Antichrist. Theodoret writes: “Having sent the devil and his helpers into outer darkness, Christ will put an end to death by raising all the dead.” Saint Chrysostom says: “How ‘the last’? After all, after the devil, after everything else, for even at the beginning death entered after everything else: first the devil’s counsel, then disobedience, and then death. Its power is already abolished even now, but its action will cease then.” Death will be abolished not only in relation to men but in relation to all creatures, for our body cannot become free from death and corruption without corruption and death being utterly expelled from all regions of being. There will come a period of being of heaven and earth and all things in them that is incorruptible.

1 Cor. 15:27. For he has put all things under his feet. But when it says that all things are put under him, it is clear that he is excepted who put all things under him.

The Apostle quotes Scripture to confirm that all things must be subjected to the Lord Saviour. The passage is taken from Psalm 8:7, where it is said that God subjected to man all earthly creatures. The Apostle applies this passage to the Lord Saviour because He is the archetype of restored humanity and in Him the original destiny of man is achieved in the most perfect way. But since He is not man alone but also God, human attributes could not remain in Him within the limits befitting them in man, but took on extraordinary dimensions. Therefore, man’s power over earthly creatures in Christ the Saviour, as the God-man, became authority over all creation. The Apostle clarifies this thought especially in the words that follow. So that from the cited passage no one might think that He, as it were a mere man, has authority only over earthly creation, He says: “But when it says that all things are put under him, it is clear that he is excepted who put all things under him,” that is, when Scripture says all things are subjected to Him, by this must be understood all creation, all except the Creator Himself who subjected all to Him.

Above the Apostle said that the Lord Saviour Himself will subdue under His feet all His enemies, will Himself abolish every rule, authority, and power; but here he says that God the Father subjected all things under His feet. There is no contradiction here, but the same thing is affirmed in different aspects. All things the Father subjected, ordained to subject, or ordained that all be subject to Him. The Son participated in this ordinance as much as the Father according to the unified action of the Holy Trinity. But the execution of this decree is carried out by the Son of God Himself after the incarnation, death, resurrection, and sitting at the right hand of the Father. From this moment He assumed authority over all that is subject and began the subjugation of the disobedient, namely sin, the devil, death. This subjugation proceeds toward its end but is not yet complete: “we do not yet see all things subjected to him” (Heb. 2:8), says this same Apostle. If we look only at what is visible, we might think there is no subjugation at all—all Christ’s enemies and ours are raging, and their power with enmity is not diminishing but increasing. But we should not look at that, but at what the Lord accomplishes in the believers; in them He tramples sin, defeats the devil, and strips death of its power. The number of true believers sometimes diminishes, sometimes increases, but they always exist, and the subjugation of these enemies and the deliverance of their victims from their hands goes on continuously. The trophies of victory over them are the multitudes of saints who grow in the Church on earth and shine with the glory of victory in heaven. Our enemies may think they are gaining strength, but the Lord allows them to continue to act for the purpose of preparing conquerors of them through them. But when everything is fulfilled according to what has been written, then all these enemies in their own persons will be placed by the Lord under His feet. As long as the Lord thus subdues all His enemies and ours, so long He must reign. And the word “subjected” means He gave the power to subdue, made Him Lord and King.

In the preceding verse it is said: “The last enemy that will be abolished is death”; in the present verse, “For he has put all things under his feet.” The basis is given to believe that death will indeed be abolished. Do not be troubled that death still reigns. It is included among those things given into the power of the Lord. A time will come and it will come to an end. In his epistle to the Philippians the Apostle expresses the same thought more directly. For having said: “who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body”—this is the same as abolishing death and establishing incorruption—he adds: “by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:21)—this is the same as: because into His hands has been given authority to subject all things. By this authority and power He will drive out death and adorn the corruptible with incorruption (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 15:28. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be everything to everyone.

All that the Apostle said in verses 25–27 was directed to clarify the words: “he delivers the kingdom to God the Father.” The essence of the matter is this: all things have been given into His power so that He might abolish all God’s and humanity’s enemies. When this is accomplished, the purpose of entrusting this power will be achieved, and there will be no need for the power itself to continue, so it will be laid aside. And it will be: “The Son himself will be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him,” or, what is the same, “he delivers the kingdom to God the Father.” What exactly this will consist in we cannot clearly conceive, but we cannot doubt that it will be so; we also cannot doubt that although this will be according to the economy of salvation, the Son Himself will be subjected—but in such a way that thereby will be shown and still more will be accomplished no diminishment whatsoever of the glory, power, and dominion of the Godhead of the Only-begotten. Saint Chrysostom says: “He will be subjected in a manner befitting the Son of God, and not in a human way, but freely and with full authority. Otherwise how does He sit on the throne together with the Father? How does He ‘give life to whom he wills, just as the Father does’ (Jn. 5:21)? How does everything that belongs to the Father belong also to Him, and everything that belongs to Him belongs also to the Father (Jn. 17:10)? This shows us His perfect authority equal to the Father’s.”

That which is said here “when he shall have subjected,” that is, the Father, whereas before it was said “until he has put under,” the Son Himself, “expresses both the perfect accord of the Son with the Father, and that the One who gave birth to such a mighty Son who accomplishes such deeds is the beginning and first cause of all good” (Saint Chrysostom).

And “God may be everything to everyone.” Even now He is in all: “for in him we live and move and have our being.” But then it will be accomplished and manifest in a special way, so perfect that the present fulfillment of all things by God is, in comparison with that, almost as if it were not fulfilled. And this is incomprehensible, but it must be and will be so. For such universal changes as the abolition of all enemies of good, the destruction of all traces of evil from all regions of being, with the confinement of its perpetrators in one place of exit as Saint Chrysostom says, somewhere on the final boundaries of existence; and finally the subjection of the Son to the Father and the delivery of His Kingdom to Him (although we cannot well conceive of this act)—such changes cannot fail to be accompanied by the most intimate communion of God with all those capable of receiving His communion. God is always most hidden; even then He will remain so. But there are degrees of His revelation. He is in us differently than in the angels, and among the angels differently in the Cherubim, Seraphim, and Thrones. If we then ascend somewhat higher on the ladder of perfection, what is strange if He then reveals Himself in us so fully that the present seems insignificant in comparison with that?

We have fallen away from God; to bring about our reunion the boundless goodness of God has introduced the God-manhood of the Son of God. In the present period of time through this unspeakable mediation the reunion is accomplished, remains in action, is in progress. In His person humanity is reunited with Godhead hypostatically, as it cannot be united in anyone else. All, however, are reunited according to His pattern, and thereby it is shown how fitting it is that this reunion should be most intimate. On earth it is accomplished mysteriously through the mysteries, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. In heaven, in the glorified, it appears more substantially—but it must not yet be in its full completeness, for they are not yet in their whole nature. When all are clothed in incorruptible bodies, then they will be more fully united with the humanity of the Saviour, and through Him and with Godhead more intimately united. The Lord Saviour, as the Head, will penetrate the whole body of the saved and unite it with Himself, and through union with His humanity it will touch Godhead more closely, more vividly, and more substantially. This is what is meant: “God may be everything to everyone.” All such reasonings are but childish prattling. But that something will be marvellously great and glorious in the very relationships of Godhead to us and us to Him—this is a certain object of hope, as wonderful as it is sure.

The blessed Theodoret writes on these words: “Now by essence God is everywhere, because His nature is infinite, and ‘in him’—according to the Apostle’s word—‘we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28); but not in all by his good pleasure, because he ‘is pleased with those who fear him, and those who hope in his mercy’ (Ps. 146:11). But in them He is not all things, because ‘no one is clean from uncleanness’ (Job 14:4); and ‘no one living is righteous before you’ (Ps. 142:2) and ‘if you keep a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?’ (Ps. 130:3)? So although he is pleased with that in which they progress, yet he is not pleased with that in which they transgress. But in the future life, when corruption ceases and immortality is given, there will be no place for passions, and after the final expulsion of passions no sort of sin will have an effect. Thus at last will come ‘God all things in all,’ when all are freed from transgressions and turn to Him, and will no longer receive inclinations toward the worse. But what the divine Apostle said here of God, he said elsewhere of Christ, saying: ‘where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all’ (Col. 3:11). He would not have attributed to the Son what belongs to the Father if the grace of God had not taught him of His equal honor.”

Continuing to prove the truth of universal resurrection, the Apostle brings two convictions for the acceptance of this truth: one from baptism (1 Cor. 15:29); and another from his own mortal perils in the preaching of this resurrection (1 Cor. 15:30–32). “Otherwise,” επει, is here used in the sense: otherwise.

Baptism for the Dead; Dying Daily; a Brief Exhortation (1 Corinthians 15:29–34)

1 Cor. 15:29. What will those do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead are not raised at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?

This passage is somewhat obscure. It is clear that the holy Paul draws the necessity of faith in the resurrection from the sacrament of baptism, but in what way exactly is not evident.—Is it not so?—We are baptized into the death of the Lord with a participation in the power of His resurrection, for he who comes forth from the font now lives a new life. This renewal of life is a pledge of the resurrection, as the resurrection of Christ is the foundation of the resurrection of the dead. The Apostle says to them: you baptize yourselves for the dead, though you will come to life—here spiritually, and then bodily as well. Suppose now that someone is baptized without this hope of resurrection and consequently without participation in the power of Christ’s resurrection; what is he doing?—A dead man enters the font, and a dead man comes forth. Such persons are baptized for the dead, that is, for themselves, and nothing more. What then is the point of being baptized? Thus does the blessed Photius explain it through Oecumenius. “What,” he says, “do the baptized do to avoid being dead forever and forever held in Hades? That is, if there is no resurrection, what do the baptized do in such hopes? If the dead are not raised, what is the point of being baptized in order to rise? But he expresses it more strikingly, saying: what are they doing being baptized for the dead, speaking as it were for those who, by your disbelief in the resurrection, you assign to be eternally dead. Since you are assigning others, and yourselves, and all to be eternally dead, what do you accomplish by being baptized for yourselves, who will never rise, and who are condemned to remain dead forever?—He does not speak directly to them, but rather speaks of outsiders (that is, not in the second person, but in the third), so as not to strike them too forcefully.”

The holy Chrysostom takes this in much the same sense. Here is his extended treatment: “The Apostle now turns to another proof of the matter, bringing even the opponents themselves as witnesses to the truth. What does he say? But I will first tell you how those infected with the Marcionite heresy distort these words. When one of their catechumens dies, they hide a living person beneath the bier of the dead one, approach the dead one, and ask whether he wishes to receive baptism. The one hidden beneath the bier answers on his behalf that he wishes to receive baptism; then they baptize this living one in place of the dead, staging what seems to be a theatrical performance. Then when they are condemned for this, they point to the words of the Apostle and say: the Apostle said, ‘those who are baptized for the dead’. Do you see how ridiculous this is? And is it worth refuting them? I do not think so. What does the holy Paul say? But first remember what we do when we approach holy baptism. We confess the dogmas sent down from heaven, among which we pronounce the following: ‘I believe in the resurrection of the dead’. In this faith we are baptized, for after this confession we descend into the spring of those sacred waters. Remembering this very thing, the Apostle says: if there is no resurrection, then why are you being baptized ‘for the dead’, that is, for bodies? For in baptism you believe in the resurrection of a dead body—that it will not remain dead. You confess in words the resurrection of the dead, and the priest, as it were in symbol, shows you in deed that in which you have believed and which you have confessed in words; you do what lies in your power, and God then assures you. How and in what manner? By water. For descent and immersion in water, and then rising forth from water is the sign of descent into Hades and rising thence. Therefore Paul calls baptism a grave, when he says: ‘we were buried with Him through baptism into His death’ (Rom. 6:4). By this he assures us of the certainty of the future, that is, of the resurrection of the body. For it is far more difficult to wash away sins than to raise a body. In the bath of rebirth the grace touches the very soul and tears sin out by the root. The soul of the baptized becomes cleaner than the very rays of the sun, becoming what it was at the beginning, or even far better, for it receives the Spirit, who completely sets it ablaze and makes it holy. Just as you, by melting iron or gold, make it pure and new, so likewise the Holy Spirit, by melting the soul in baptism as if in a furnace, and destroying sins, makes it the purest and most brilliant of all pure gold. From this you can now convince yourself of the truth of the resurrection of bodies. Since sin brought in death, then with the destruction of the root, without any doubt, its fruit will be destroyed as well. Therefore you speak first of ‘the remission of sins’ (I confess one baptism for the remission of sins), and then you confess the ‘resurrection of the dead’ (I look for the resurrection of the dead), passing from the first to the last and further, since the word ‘Resurrection’ does not yet show everything, you are commanded to say also ‘the life of the world to come’ (and the life of the age to come), so that no one thinks death will come again after that resurrection. Thus, remembering these words, Paul says: ‘What will those do who are baptized for the dead’? If there is no resurrection, he says, then these words are a joke; if there is no resurrection, how do we persuade others to believe what we do not give them? We compel them to confirm by agreement the truth of the Resurrection, which they will not receive? What need is there for the confession itself, if it is not followed by deed?”

The blessed Theodoret expresses the Apostle’s thought in his own way, holding to the same underlying idea—the power of baptism. According to him the Apostle says: “The one being baptized is buried together with the Lord, so that, having shared in His death, he might become a partaker also of the resurrection. But if the body is dead and will not rise, then why be baptized at all?”

“Therefore, in explaining this passage, one must either accept some opinion from our commentators or leave it among the things that are not understood. Modern commentators do a very poor job by supposing that the Apostle speaks here of baptism for the dead, that is, of that which the holy Chrysostom so ridicules. Can we suppose that the Apostle Paul would have left such an absurd novelty unconfuted if it had been practiced in Corinth? And is it consistent with his character to use an error to confirm a truth that he has already proven so firmly from other sources?”

1 Cor. 15:30. Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?

The second proof the holy Paul draws from the selfless labours of apostolic preaching of the Gospel, among the subjects of which belongs the dogma of the resurrection of the dead. He speaks as if saying: how could we resolve to endure hardships, deprivations, deaths, if the Gospel were not tangibly certain, and in it the truth of the resurrection, after which those who labour in the Gospel await a bright reward?! This is unthinkable. “See what else he strives to confirm this dogma by,” says Chrysostom,—“by his own resolve (that is, his readiness for all hardships and death), or rather, not only his own, but that of the other Apostles as well. And this is no trivial proof—to point to teachers fully convinced of the truth and confirming it not only by words but by deeds. Therefore he does not simply say: we are convinced of this—this alone would not have been sufficient to convince—but he presents proof from deeds and speaks as if in this way: to confess this in words may seem to you not at all surprising; but if we present to you proof from deeds, what will you say against this? Listen then to how we preach this every day by our sufferings. He did not say ‘I’ but ‘we,’ having in view all the Apostles together, and thus on the one hand showing his own humility, and on the other making his words credible. What can you say? Are we deceiving you by preaching this, and are we not teaching from vanity? But to hold such an opinion is prevented by our sufferings, for who would constantly expose himself to sufferings vainly and pointlessly? Therefore he says: ‘why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?’ Out of vanity, perhaps someone might resolve to do this once or twice, but not for his whole life, as we have; but we have devoted our entire lives to this.”

1 Cor. 15:31. I die daily, just as surely as I have reason to be proud of you, brethren, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

After pointing to all the Apostles, he fixes his gaze upon himself alone, confirming by his own example the sufferings of the other Apostles. Behold, he says, I die every day—why, if there is no resurrection? “I die every day” means: every day I find myself in such circumstances that death threatens me; but I do not turn back, but I commit myself to the resolve of my will to this death and so conduct myself as one about to die at once. Thus, although death does not actually come, I nevertheless experience the feelings of a dying man, as if I pass through the shadow of death. The holy Chrysostom says: “How does he die ‘every day’?—By zeal and readiness for it. And why does he say this? Again, in order to confirm by this means also the truth of the resurrection. Who would resolve,” he says, “to expose himself to so many kinds of death if there is no resurrection and future life? If it requires great courage even for those who believe in the resurrection to expose themselves to dangers for it, how much more would an unbeliever not resolve to expose himself to so many and such heavy kinds of death.”

“Just as surely as I have reason to be proud of you”—this is an asseverative turn of phrase. It means either: you yourselves will give me this boast, because I have always been in the same position among you. Or: I swear by your boast (Photius), as though I were pledging the boast which I have concerning Christ Jesus in you, for your conversion and salvation,—if I speak falsity. The first thought is the most natural, for such an intense proving of this circumstance, which is known to all and which the second thought assumes, is completely unnecessary. It is enough to point to it.

1 Cor. 15:32. If from human motives I fought wild beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead are not raised, then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

In the course of the speech one expects that here the Apostle mentions something greater than what he has already indicated by the words: “‘we stand in jeopardy every hour’,” and “‘I die every day’.” Therefore the words “‘I fought wild beasts at Ephesus’” must be understood in the literal, not the figurative sense. The holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle shows by what kinds of death he died: I fought, he says, with wild beasts. God delivered me from dangers; but what of that?” The same with the blessed Theodoret: “I became food for wild beasts, but I was miraculously saved. What then is the fruit for me from this danger, if there is no resurrection of the dead?” That this is not mentioned in the Acts, and that the holy Paul himself does not mention it in the second epistle to the Corinthians, in chapter 11, this does not prevent us from understanding this passage in such a way, for neither do the Acts say everything about the Apostle, nor does he himself. How could this have come to pass?—“From human motives,” κατὰ ἄνθρωπον,—by human accusation. His ill-wishers became enraged and resolved to deliver him to wild beasts. God delivered him, shutting the mouths of the beasts. Some think that God frustrated the very plot, and the Apostle, though he did not actually fight, nonetheless in his resolve had himself given up to the beasts. But “I fought” suggests the reality of the event.

The word “from human motives” is difficult to settle here. The holy Chrysostom says: “To the extent that is possible for a human.” Theodoret: “According to human reasoning.” Photius, through Oecumenius, like Chrysostom, and further: “If it was not for the sake of future hope and reward that I fought with the beast, but for human glory, what advantage is it to me?”

“What advantage is it to me?” “If the time of reward does not come and all our deeds are confined to the present, then we suffer greater loss; you have believed without dangers, but we are slaughtered every day. However, he says all this not because he laboured for reward, but because of the weakness of many, in order to establish them in the truth of the resurrection. For him it would have been sufficient reward to do what is pleasing to God. And indeed (for the believer), great is already the reward to please Christ in all things, and without reward it is already great for him to endure dangers for His sake” (the holy Chrysostom).

“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” If there is no resurrection, no other life and reward, which can be full only when human nature is whole, that is, when one is not just spirit and soul, but also body, then why deprive yourself of any pleasures? Eat and drink, you will die—and that is the end of it. “By these words now the Apostle puts them to shame and speaks not from himself, but brings the words of the great prophet Isaiah against the careless” (Isa. 26:13–14) (the holy Chrysostom). “And the Apostle brought these words aptly, speaking as it were in this way: fasting is useless, abstinence is useless, let us enjoy the pleasures of the present life, if those who love virtue have no reward appointed for them” (Theodoret). This consequence followed directly from disbelief in the resurrection. For although it is still possible to believe in the immortality of the soul even then, this is not sufficient. The soul alone is not a human being, and life by the soul alone is an incomplete human life. All the saints at the present time live by soul and spirit and, strengthened by God’s power, help those who call upon them, but even this activity and the enjoyment of good things, until the resurrection, is not complete; it is only a beginning and a pledge of what will be after the resurrection. And it is because there is a resurrection. If there were not, neither would this be. The holy Paul does not distinguish the immortality of the soul from the resurrection, but holds that as soon as there is no resurrection, there is no immortality either; consequently, death ends all, and from this follows directly: “‘let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’.”

The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)

1 Cor. 15:33. Do not be deceived: bad company ruins good morals.

“Do not be deceived” μη πλανασθε, do not be misled, do not fall into error, do not be taken in by deception. “Evil company”—association with evil men, whose understanding is corrupted, for they possess a demonic cunning in creeping into the minds of others and corrupting their understanding, and following the understanding, their lives as well. Or company means generally association, intimate relations with people who reason perversely about everything. Above the Apostle cited the words of people given over to despair. Now he speaks as if saying: such people can always be met with in plenty; watch out, beware. The Apostle is speaking of sound and unsound thinking, and evil company corrupts the thinking, so one would expect him to say: evil company corrupts minds, driving truth from them and sowing falsehood; but he says: it ruins good morals, that is, good habits, customs, good conduct, a good life. An established character cannot be disrupted without disrupting the understanding. Evil company indeed directly corrupts minds, but when the mind is corrupted, how will you support character? It will immediately begin to decay. The Apostle, bypassing this intermediate link of the corruption of the mind, directly points to the greater danger of the corruption of character. A good character is both more evident and more precious. If the Apostle had said: evil company will corrupt your thinking, someone might say or think: how will it corrupt? It went in one ear and out the other; though this never actually happens. But when he said that it corrupts character, he caused everyone to stop and think, and from this one word already to prepare themselves with caution against evil company and people. Or by good morals he understands even guileless souls, easily bent by every wind of teaching (Saint Chrysostom, Theodoret and others). “By these words, on the one hand, he rebukes the Corinthians as foolish (easily led astray), but on the other hand, he excuses their former errors as much as possible, removing much of the blame from them and laying it on others, so that in this way too he might turn them to repentance (to the abandonment of error)” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 15:34. Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.

“Awake to righteousness” banish false thoughts, restore sound understanding of all things, as you have been taught by me, reason soberly about all things, faithfully, firmly, not wavering, not as drunkards, to whom nothing is clear. “To righteousness” means: as it should be, as divine truth requires, as God has commanded in revelation. “And do not sin”, do not err in your way of thinking. “As to those led astray and intoxicated by unbelief, he said: ‘Awake to righteousness’” (Theodoret). “He speaks as if to drunkards and madmen. For it is characteristic of drunkards and madmen not to see what they saw before and not to believe what they confessed before” (Saint Chrysostom).

“And do not sin” can be understood in relation to “awake to righteousness” as a means to an end. Do not sin so that you may have and always maintain a sound way of thinking about all things, and about the very resurrection of the dead, and the future recompense. Saint Chrysostom says: “He rightly added: ‘and do not sin,’ showing that from this came the seeds of unbelief among you. He expresses in many places that a corrupt life gives birth to evil thoughts, for example he says: ‘The love of money is a root of all evils, and some, craving it, have wandered from the faith’ (1 Tim. 6:10). (So here as well.) Many, being aware of their vices and unwilling to endure punishment, from fear cease to believe even in the resurrection; on the contrary, those who do much good desire to see it every day.”

On the other hand, one can understand “awake to righteousness” in relation to “do not sin” as a means to an end.—So it stands in all the holy fathers. Although for them sobriety means not wandering in thought here and there, standing in mind and attention on one thing alone, yet such a state is possible only insofar as the mind is established in all truths. Then the wandering of thought stops, or empty and vain thinking. But the passing of attention from one holy truth to another is not considered a violation of sobriety; it rather contributes to its fervor. The influence of sobriety on not sinning depends on the fact that a sober mind does not admit not only passionate but also empty thoughts; when there are no thoughts, passions are silent; and when passions are at rest, how can sin arise? For every sin is the actualization of a passion.

“For some have no knowledge of God.”—“No knowledge of God” is ignorance of God, of the properties of God and His works. If they knew this as they should, they would never have fallen into unbelief concerning the resurrection of bodies. For if God revealed this and He is truth, how can one not believe? Who, rightly understanding what God is, would dare to contradict the mind of God with his own mind? When God speaks, the creation must receive His word unconditionally, with warm obedience. On the other hand, whoever knows God cannot entertain even the slightest doubt about the possibility of resurrection, clearly understanding that it costs the Creator nothing to recreate from ready, though dispersed, matter what He created from nothing. “Not to believe in resurrection is characteristic of one who does not have a perfect understanding of the invincible and fully sufficient power of God in all things. For if He created being from non-being, then all the more can He raise up what has been destroyed” (Saint Chrysostom). Theodoret draws the same conclusion from another angle. “Very wisely the Apostle called disbelief in the resurrection a lack of knowledge of God. Whoever ‘confesses to know God’ (Tit. 1:16) believes that He is righteous. It is fitting for a righteous one to render righteous recompense. But we do not see righteous recompense in the present life. Therefore, whoever confesses that he believes in God must expect the resurrection.”

Such ignorance, he says, “some have,” and thus he softens the rebuke, but then he adds: “I speak this to your shame,” suggesting that, although “some” are guilty of this, yet this guilt is of such a kind that it brings shame on all of you. How do you allow someone to be among you like this?—If they are not like this through stubbornness, then how have you not corrected them until now; and if through stubbornness, then how have you tolerated them among you until now? It is necessary either to correct them or to purge the community of them. Saint Chrysostom finds that these words are added to soften the rebuke. “‘I speak this to your shame,’ that is, to correct, to enlighten, so that you, being ashamed, might become better. For he feared that, striking more than was proper, he would not alienate them from himself.”

2. Concerning the manner of the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:35–53)

First the Apostle sets forth the theme for all the subsequent discussion, in the form of an objection: how will the dead be raised, and in what form? (1 Cor. 15:35).

Then he answers the first question: a) how will the dead be raised, that is, by what power? (1Cor 15:36–38). Then the second: b) in what form will they be raised? (1Cor 15:39–50). Finally, he prophetically describes c) how the resurrection itself will take place (1 Cor. 15:51–53).

1 Cor. 15:35. But someone will ask, How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?

These are the usual questions regarding the resurrection of bodies, whether a believer seeks instruction or an unbeliever thinks to confound a believer, assuming there is nothing to answer to such questions. The Apostle presumes an objection from the latter. “Here he refutes the objections raised by the pagans (accepted and disturbing those in the faith of the resurrection of bodies among the believing Corinthians). He did not say: ‘but perhaps you will say’ (though he meant them directly), but rather indefinitely points to some objector, so that by a direct, harsh indication he would not strike the guilty too hard. He presents two doubts: concerning the manner of the resurrection and concerning the quality of bodies, for those who objected doubted both and said: how will what has been destroyed be raised, and in what form will it appear? What does ‘with what kind of body’ mean? That is, in this very corrupted, destroyed body, or in some other?” (Saint Chrysostom).

d) By what power will the dead be raised? (1 Cor. 15:36–38)

The question of how the dead will be raised, that is, by what power, the Apostle answers by comparing resurrection with the regeneration that comes from seeds of plants, concluding from this: the dead will be raised by the power of God.

1 Cor. 15:36. Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.

“It is with such stern words that he addresses them because they ask not about something doubtful, but about what is known with certainty. Thus we too usually do with those who contradict something known with certainty. But why does he not immediately point to the power of God? Because he reasons with the unbelieving. When he speaks with believers, he does not resort to arguments. So elsewhere, having said: ‘He will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body,’ and having revealed here something greater than resurrection, he did not offer comparisons, but instead of any proof pointed directly to the power of God, adding: ‘according to the working by which He is able to subdue all things to Himself’ (Phil. 3:21). Here he uses arguments as well. Having proven truth by the words of Scripture, he now forcefully directs his speech against those who disbelieve Scripture and says: ‘Foolish one, what you sow’; that is, you yourself have within yourself proof of resurrection in what you do daily, and do you still doubt? I call you foolish because you do not know what is done daily by yourself, and whereas you yourself are the cause of the resurrection of seeds, you doubt it with regard to God. Very expressively he says: ‘what you sow,’ that is, you who are mortal and subject to decay. And see how his very expressions correspond to the present matter: ‘is not made alive,’ he says, ‘unless it dies.’ Instead of using expressions pertaining to seeds, such as: sprouts, grows, decays, disintegrates, he brings forth expressions corresponding to our flesh: ‘is not made alive, unless it dies,’ which is characteristic not of seeds, but of bodies. And he did not say: it will be made alive after it dies; but—what expresses more—it is made alive because it dies. Do you see how he reverses the objection? From what others drew a conclusion against resurrection, he turns it into proof of resurrection. They said that the body will not be raised because it died. But what does he say to the contrary? If it had not died, it would not be raised; therefore it will be raised because it dies. In like manner Christ Himself clearly shows the same thing when He says: ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit’ (Jn. 12:24). Borrowing the comparison from here, Paul did not say: ‘will not live,’ but ‘is not made alive’ (ου ζωοποιειται, not quickened); he points again to the power of God and suggests that not earthly nature, but God Himself accomplishes all things” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 15:37–38. And what you sow is not the body that will be, but a bore seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other kind; but God gives it a body as He has determined, and to each kind of seed its own body.

To the question of how the dead will be raised, the Apostle in the preceding verse answered: in the same way that from a seed cast into the earth and dead there is born and grows a living body of some kind. As from a dead seed, and under the condition of this death, a new body is born, so from the dead human body in its time a new living body will be born. But this comparison only clarifies the course of things, while how and by what power this is accomplished is not evident. This now the holy Paul indicates, saying: you sow a bore grain of wheat or some other kind, and when it dies in the earth, God then in His time gives it a body, each seed its own, so will the resurrection of the dead be accomplished: from each dead body by the power of God a new body will arise. By this the question of how is completely resolved. There might arise a doubt: but in the regeneration of plants from seed nature acts; how in the regeneration of the body will it act, when up to now it has shown no trace of such action? To this one must say that the word “nature” is an empty word. The will of God has established laws, the will of God wishes them to act; and they act and produce what God wishes them to produce. What is usually attributed to nature belongs to God. If now God acts in the regeneration of plants, on what basis can one doubt that He cannot act in the same way in the regeneration of dead human bodies? That He has not heretofore shown trials of this, no one can say; and that He does not show it for all bodies, it is because not all bodies have yet been sown and the spring in which they ought to be born again and rise to new life has not yet come. Saint Chrysostom responds to this objection, that nature acts in plants, as follows: “What nature, tell me? Here too God accomplishes all things, not nature, not earth, not rain. Therefore the Apostle, mentioning neither earth, nor rain, nor air, nor sun, nor the hands of the farmer, says: ‘God gives it a body.’ Do not then inquire or demand to know how and in what manner, when you hear that this is the work of the power and will of God.”

Saint Chrysostom further remarks that some heretics, not well understanding the meaning of the Apostle’s words: “what you sow is not the body that will be,” came to the conclusion that one body dies and another body will be raised, and began to teach thus. To them he says: what kind of resurrection would this be? This would be a new creation, not a resurrection, whereas the bodies will be raised. Here are his words: “But what kind of resurrection is this? Resurrection relates to what has died. And where is that wonderful and glorious victory over death, if one dies and another rises? Then it will not be seen that it returns what it held in its captivity. No; not another being is sown, but another grows, yet the same grows in a better form. Otherwise Christ too, being the firstfruits of those being raised, was not raised in the same body, but according to you He left one body (in the tomb), though it was without any sin, and took another (upon rising). Where did He get the other? That one from the Virgin, but this one where from? Do you see to what absurdities such an opinion leads? Also why did He show the wounds of the nails? Was it not to prove that this very body was nailed to the cross and this very body rose? And what does the type of Jonah mean? Without doubt, it was not one Jonah that was swallowed and another cast up on the land. And again, why does Christ say: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’ (Jn. 2:19)? He certainly raised the very temple that was destroyed, which is why the Evangelist adds: ‘He was speaking of the temple of His body’ (1 Cor. 15:21). So then, what do the words mean: ‘what you sow is not the body that will be’? Not the whole ear and not new wheat. You sow a bore grain; from it after regeneration arises a new ear with new wheat. The question is, how does this ear relate to the grain sown? It is the same with it and not the same: the same because it has one nature with the grain; not the same because it is better: the substance remained the same, but greater beauty appeared, and it arose in a new form. So too the future body will be the same, but will appear in a more perfect form. The same is evident from the fact that ‘God gives each seed its own body.’ Where then is the different (other) body? He gives ‘its own.’ Therefore when the Apostle says: ‘what you sow is not the body that will be,’ he affirms not that instead of one another being will rise; the same will rise, but in a better, more glorious form.‘Theodoret conducts the same thought here:’Just as from wheat wheat is born, from lentils lentils, and from each kind the same kind, so too our bodies will rise the same ones, but with greater power, incorruption and immortality.”

In What Form the Bodies Rise: the Natural and the Spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:39–44)

In explaining the form in which the bodies will be raised, holy Paul aa) first enumerates the very properties of the future bodies (1 Cor. 15:39–44); and then presents bb) the foundation that this is how it must be and not otherwise, namely according to the economy of our salvation (1 Cor. 15:45–50).

The body will be raised the same, so that each person will recognize the body in which he is raised as his own proper body—the very same body he wore in his former life; but it will possess altogether different qualities. It will be the same, yet not the same. What properties the future body of ours will possess is shown by (β) the Apostle below (1 Cor. 15:42–44); but before that, he sets before our attention (α) the diversity of bodies on earth and in heaven (1 Cor. 15:39–41). Why does he do this? If his intention had been to clarify, by means of this, in what different glory our bodies will be raised, then, in subsequently making an inference about the properties of the future body (1 Cor. 15:42–44), he would have presented those properties in such a way as to make it clear that they belong to different degrees of those who are to be raised. But he presents them thus: although they are diverse, they belong to each and every raised body. There is a comparison between the body as it is buried in the earth and the body as it will rise. The difference between them is great to the point of opposition; they stand apart in their properties as heaven stands apart from earth. Meanwhile, on entering into this comparison, he says: “and so too the resurrection of the dead,” suggesting that he intends now to make an inference from what he has just said—namely from the indication of the diversity of earthly and heavenly bodies (1 Cor. 15:39–41). From this we gain the thought that, in enumerating these different bodies, his intent was to say one thing only: behold how coarse and dim the earthly bodies are, and how bright and luminous the heavenly bodies are. Such will be the difference between the bodies that die and the bodies that are to be raised.

1 Cor. 15:39. Not all flesh is the same flesh, but there is one kind for humans, another for beasts, another for fish, another for birds.

He enumerates almost all the classes of earthly organisms, or bodies, so as to present more vividly that although they differ by degree of perfection, all are of one kind—coarse, fleshly, perishable, easily decomposed. The essential characteristic in all of them as organisms is one; the differences concern the external manifestation of that essential characteristic.

1 Cor. 15:40. And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; but one is the glory of the heavenly, and another that of the earthly.

By heavenly bodies the Apostle means the sun, moon, and stars, as is evident from the flow of his discourse, and not, as some suppose, the bodies of Angels. By earthly bodies he means those he has enumerated and all others like them. He says: there are also heavenly bodies, as there are earthly. But the heavenly are altogether different from the earthly. They are luminous, unchanging, firm, constant. A simple glance is enough to see how much more glorious the heavenly bodies are than the earthly. This point seems to be the chief one with the Apostle. And he says it for the purpose of leading the mind to the thought that just as heavenly bodies differ from earthly, so the future bodies will differ from the present ones.

1 Cor. 15:41. One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, another the glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

Just as above, when speaking of earthly bodies, the Apostle was not content to speak of them in general but enumerated their various kinds, so here, speaking of heavenly bodies, he is not content to speak of them in general but likewise enumerates them as they appear to ordinary sight: sun, moon, and stars. They are of different degrees, but all of one rank—luminous bodies shining upon the earth. He enumerates them so as to hold attention upon them longer and to establish in the mind that they are altogether not the same as earthly bodies. Heaven with its bodies is, in common opinion, the representative of all that is best and most perfect, just as earth is the representative of all deficiency and weakness.

In all these passages (1 Cor. 15:39–41) the Apostle had no intention of indicating a difference in the glory of the raised according to their moral difference; his discourse aims to make clear that the raised body will indeed be the same, but in its perfections will be incomparably higher than the present one. This is what he indicates by two kinds of bodies—earthly and heavenly. However, this passage may also be understood as indicating a difference in future bodies according to moral condition. So do all our interpreters explain it. The earthly bodies, they say, represent sinners, while the heavenly represent the righteous; the various kinds of each represent different degrees of sinfulness and righteousness. Holy Chrysostom says: Having proven the truth of the resurrection, the Apostle now proves that there will be great difference in glory then, although the resurrection is one. Dividing all into two classes—the righteous and the sinners—he then divides these two classes into many parts, showing that the righteous and sinners will not receive equal lot, that not all the righteous will be equal with the righteous, nor all sinners with sinners. The first division—of righteous and sinners—he makes in the words: “heavenly bodies and earthly bodies,” understanding by earthly the latter, and by heavenly the former. Then he shows the difference among the sinners themselves in the words: “not all flesh is the same flesh, but one flesh for fish, another for birds and beasts,” for although all are bodies, some are more, others less insignificant, both in manner of life and in structure. Having said this, he then turns to heaven and says: one glory to the sun, another glory to the moon. Just as there is difference among earthly bodies, so too among heavenly ones; there is difference not only between the sun and moon, between the moon and stars, but also among the stars themselves, for although all are in heaven, some have more glory, others less. What then do we learn from this?—That although all the righteous will be in the kingdom of heaven, not all will receive equal blessedness; and the sinners, although all will be in Gehenna, will not all be tortured equally. Therefore he also adds: “and so the resurrection of the dead;” so it will be then—great difference.

Having brought the mind to contemplate the difference of future bodies from present ones, as heavenly bodies differ from earthly, the Apostle now explicitly states the very features of the difference.

1 Cor. 15:42–44. And so it is with the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.

Such are the features of the difference! The present body is corruptible, dishonored, weak, natural; the future will be incorruptible, glorious, powerful, spiritual.

“Likewise.” To what does this comparison correspond? It seems it should be referred to verses 36 and 37. You, what you sow, does not come to life unless it dies—and you do not sow the future body, but the bore grain, which must die so that from it may come forth a new and better body. So, he says, it will be in the resurrection: our body will be raised with altogether different properties from those with which it is laid in the earth. Then verses 39–41, the indication of the diversity of bodies—might it not be better to count them as an introductory discourse, prompted by the word that God gives to each seed its own body, leaving ourselves free to understand them without being constrained by the flow of the discourse? Holy Chrysostom himself speaks of them: Why did the Apostle turn aside from the resurrection here?—And although thereafter he says: he did not turn aside; but he understands them independently of the flow of the discourse. This is noted because in all this section it is difficult to establish definiteness in conceptions and their combination.

In a word: “sown” indicates the burial in the earth of dead bodies (holy Chrysostom). But in the comparison are taken the present bodies in general, as they appear on earth, and not only those as they appear in the tomb and grave, though it is there most evidently revealed what they are. We must think thus because among the features of sown bodies stands also that they are natural, when the soul is already gone from them; and also that they are in weakness, which does not wholly apply to bodies placed in the grave.

The features contrasted between present and future bodies are self-evident.

“Sown in corruption,” so that it will decompose into the elements of which it is composed. In two or three days it undergoes foul decomposition (Theodoret). But it is also corruptible in its very essence. Being itself composed and maintained through the decomposition of consumed food and then through their forced combination within by the action of vital force, and not by simple chemical affinity, it is already destined that, as soon as this life-giving principle departs from it, it will fall apart and decompose by the action of chemical process, which holds dominion outside, against which it existed until then.

“Raised in incorruption.” It will be raised so that it can no longer be considered destined for decomposition. It will be composed and maintained not through the decomposition and combination of coarse substances taken within, and therefore it will itself be free from decomposition. The Apostle said before that God will do away with the belly: the mode of life will then be different, and the body’s constitution will be different. The vital force, which now labors over the construction and maintenance of the body, struggling with coarse matter to produce from it particles capable of being vivified—then it will be in direct connection with the very source of all-vivifying force, and will drink from it life, or what is necessary for life.

“Sown in dishonor.” What is more shapeless than a dead, decayed body? (Holy Chrysostom). Our body, apart from decay, although more honorable than all earthly bodies, has lost its true honor. For this reason creatures do not render it fitting honor. It ought to be bright, but it has darkened, thickened by the coarse substances entering into it. The bodies of the saints, in hours of intense spiritual awakening, shone bright, like the Savior’s transfiguration on Mount Tabor; and this light was visible to others. And animals obeyed them, perceiving in them the fragrance of Adam’s body as it was before the fall, as those who report on this explain. This and similar things—for example, the opening of sight to perceive the distant and hidden, of hearing to hear the song of angels, of smell to perceive in a thing the passion with which it was given, of movement to be in another place without leaving one’s own—all this and similar things manifesting in the body of the saints filled with grace do not belong to the present age but to the future, and testify only to how diminished in honor and glory our present body is in its ordinary state.

“Raised in glory.” Glorious means bright and luminous. Those manifestations of the body’s glory in the grace-filled already make clear how glorious the future body will be, freed from the denseness of coarse matter; but we cannot now fully determine and imagine that glory. It has not yet been revealed what we shall be. Writing to the Philippians, holy Paul defined it thus: “he will transform the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory” (1 Cor. 3:21). Our humble, degraded, and shamed body will be glorious, like the body of the Lord Savior. That suffices for us.

“Sown in weakness.” What power can there be when there is neither motion nor sensation!—But in general our body is very weak: a little labor and it grows weary; a little waking and sleep overcomes it; the slightest unfavorable contact from foreign elements and it is struck with illness; how much time is needed to move from place to place, how much effort to lift something, how many precautions to escape unpleasant external influences—clothing, shelter! We are accustomed to all this and it seems to us to be in the order of things. No, it is unfitting for the king of earthly creatures to appear in such weakness.

“Raised in power.” Then nothing will overcome it (holy Chrysostom). It will receive imperishable power (Theodoret). Not omnipotence is promised, but what is intelligible to us—the removal of all that now makes it weak. It will be active without fatigue, alert without the need of sleep, not subject to painful and destructive influences from outside, swift in movement as thought, powerful enough that in the execution of its due it will encounter no obstacles from extraneous things and elements, and the like.

“Sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.” From many conceptions connected with the words natural body and spiritual body, the most fitting here seems to be to see—a body prone to passions and a body free from passions.

Our interpreters explain these words thus. Theodoret writes: The Apostle calls natural what is governed by the soul, and spiritual what is administered by the Spirit. Holy Chrysostom says: What are you saying? Is this body not spiritual? It is spiritual, but that one will be much more so. Now the great grace of the Holy Spirit often departs when someone falls into grave sins; but then it will not be so; rather, the Spirit will continually dwell in the flesh of the righteous and will dominate in it, although the soul will also be present. Thus the Apostle understood either something similar when he said spiritual—or that it will be lighter, more refined, and able to move even through the air—or, better, both. The same is said by Oecumenius and Theophylact. Photius, according to Oecumenius, interprets: This mortal body of ours is natural because it serves the passions; the natural body will be raised spiritual because it will no longer serve the passions—and this not only for the righteous but also for sinners. The seat of passions, their support and instrument—this is the body when the soul is not filled with the Spirit. A soul filled with God’s Spirit arms itself against the passions and casts them out of the body. Therefore spiritual is the same as passionless, and natural is the same as passionate.

Having enumerated and clarified all the stated oppositions in the features of bodies—present and future—holy Chrysostom adds: If you do not believe what is said, then look at the heavenly bodies, so bright, unchanging and never aging, and believe that God can make corruptible bodies incorruptible and much better than the visible. Let us draw the conclusion from this that, according to holy Chrysostom too, the differences of bodies mentioned above were made only so as to show the superiority of heavenly bodies over earthly and in this to present a reflection of the superiority of future bodies over present ones.

“There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” Now people read: if there is a natural body, then there is also a spiritual body. To the thought this adds neither clarity nor force. The Apostle could have uttered this as a direct affirmation. And that would be clearer. There is, that is, there can be, a body, both natural and spiritual. But to condition it so that, if there is a natural body, then there is a spiritual body, is not quite fitting.

Theophylact cites the opinion of Origen, that spiritual body means an ethereal body, most refined, while natural is our coarse organism, heavy, motionless, burdened with many needs. One can understand it that way, but this does not present much difference from our understanding—natural as passionate and spiritual as passionless.

In the words natural body and spiritual, the Apostle seems to have combined all the distinguishing features of future bodies compared with present ones. That is why, in proving that according to the economy of our salvation it must be so, he is guided chiefly by the conceptions natural and spiritual.

The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50)

1 Cor. 15:45. And so it is written: The first man, Adam, became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

That Adam became a living soul is written in the Book of Genesis 2:7—but that the Lord Savior became a life-giving spirit is not written anywhere word for word in that way. Therefore holy Paul either speaks this from himself, joining it to what is written in Scripture without marking where Scripture’s word ends and his own begins (yet in this case too it will be God’s word for us), or he combines in this utterance the sense of many Scripture passages about the coming Deliverer as one abundantly anointed by the Spirit—such as: “Your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness” (symbol of the Spirit) “beyond your companions” (Ps. 44:8); and again: “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,” and so on (Isa. 11:2–3); also: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me,” and so on (Isa. 61:1). And concerning his birth it is said: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Lk. 1:35); and at his baptism the Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove. Or, as holy Chrysostom and all our interpreters say, he took this from the event: thus the Lord appeared that about him it should be said he became a life-giving spirit. Here are the words of holy Chrysostom: The first (that is, Adam became a living soul) is indeed written, but the last is not; how then did the Apostle say: it is written?—He derived this from events, as he often does. So the prophets too are accustomed to proceed; for example, the prophet said that “Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth” (Zech. 8:3); yet it was not so called. What then? Did the prophet speak falsely?—No, he speaks of the name through events. Similarly, Christ “shall be called Emmanuel” (Isa. 7:14); and yet he was not called so; but his deeds give him that name. So here too.

But what is the Apostle’s thought in these words?—He indicates two periods of humanity’s existence, represented by the natural Adam first and by Christ vivified by the Spirit—Adam the second. The character of each period he shows afterwards; here he only points to the representatives, as if to say: Adam became a living soul—see there a man who is natural, and a natural body; and the second Adam—a life-giving spirit—see there a man vivified by the Spirit, and a spiritual body. Understand what each means, and you will know what a natural body is and what a spiritual one, and why in the age to come it is fitting only for a body to have the latter property—that is, to be spiritual. Photius, according to Oecumenius, writes: Do not waver, he says, in faith that our present natural bodies will then become spiritual. We already have proofs of this. Adam had a natural body, and Christ had a spiritual body, the dwelling place of all the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The dove that remained upon him shows this. Inasmuch as Jesus Christ is also known as a man, he is the vessel of the Spirit, though the Spirit is with him; inasmuch as he is also known as God, he abides in the one divine nature. The same is said by holy Chrysostom: The Apostle said this so that you know that there are already signs and pledges of both the present and the future life: of the present—Adam, and of the future—Christ. Since he sets the better goods in the future, he now proves that their beginning has already come, that their root and source have already appeared. And if the root and source are evident to all, one should not doubt the fruits either. Therefore he says: the last Adam is a life-giving spirit; and in another place: “he will make alive even your mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you” (Rom. 8:11).

To present the Apostle’s present thought precisely is very difficult. But it is evident that, according to him, in the person of Christ the Savior, humanity begins a new life not merely naturally but corporeally, as this very thing appeared in him too. When the Lord Jesus Christ appeared, all people were, according to the first Adam, natural. He first became a life-giving spirit. But through resurrection and ascension into heaven he became the Head of a new humanity, which is born from him. The characteristic feature of this new humanity is spirituality—that it bears within itself God’s Spirit; this Spirit is the pledge of future vivification of the body, which will appear then spiritualized. Spiritual bodies are being prepared in the realm of the natural Adam; they will appear in spiritual glory in their due time. This natural period must wholly cease. Once naturalism alone prevailed in humanity; from Christ the Savior, by the grace of the Spirit, spiritual humanity is formed; at his second coming naturalism will end, spirituality will shine forth. To each its time!

1 Cor. 15:46. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual.

So, he says, the law of the manifestation of life required that the natural come first, and from it, by God’s action, the spiritual arise. Thus God was pleased to appoint. He does not ask why, but is content to point to God’s arrangement, having in witness the evidence of events and thereby proving that all that happens with us happens for the better, and at the same time lending greater credence to his words (holy Chrysostom). Had Adam not fallen, naturalism would have transformed into spirituality there, in paradise. After the fall, however, a special and prolonged natural period was appointed, so that in the course of it—now through particular providential actions (among all nations), now through special institutions (in the Jewish people), and finally through the extraordinary economy of salvation through the incarnation of God the Word—spiritual humanity would be gradually developed and would appear in glory. The natural must necessarily precede the spiritual, as a lower degree precedes a higher.

1 Cor. 15:47. The first man was of the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

How the first man was of earth, dust, is known from the account of the creation of the first man; whence he is called Adam—dusty, of the earth. But how is the second man from heaven? Did he not take human nature from the Most Pure Mother of God? Did he bring flesh from heaven? There were certain heretics who thought so. But one cannot derive such a thought from the Apostle’s words. Was the first man entirely only dust of the earth?—No; he became a living soul. And just as he was not entirely dust of the earth, though he is called so here, but had in himself another essence—higher, heavenly, breathed into him by God—so reason in the same way about the second man: that he is not entirely the Lord from heaven, though he is so named, but has in himself another essence—lower, earthly, akin to us, taken by him in the womb of his mother by the action of God’s Spirit. The Apostle speaks thus of both in order to sharply show their distinction, why he emphasizes in the first only the lower aspect and in the second only the higher. Of Christ the Savior one can say that he is the Lord from heaven because of the unity of person with two natures.

Before he said: the first man became a living soul; here he says: the first man is of earth, dust. It appears that the distinguishing mark of the life of the first man, or according to the first man, is natural-corporeality.—Of the second Adam he said before that he is a life-giving spirit, and here—that he is the Lord from heaven.—From this the distinguishing mark of the life of the second man, or according to the second man, is life-giving spirituality and theurgic heavenliness. The Apostle’s aim is to convey the thought that if humanity remained living only according to the first man, remaining merely natural-corporeal, its end would be: you are dust and to dust you shall return; dust would return to dust, and the soul alone—not humanity; and as a result humanity would cease to be. But when into the sphere of life according to the first man the second man has introduced the principles of life-giving spirituality and theurgic heavenliness, then together with this, to humanity has been opened the possibility, instead of corruption, to inherit heavenly, spiritual, divine life.

1 Cor. 15:48. As was the man of dust, so also are those of dust; and as is the man of heaven, so also are those of heaven.

In what sense is this?—Holy Chrysostom says: The earthy are earthy, that is, all will likewise perish and die; and the heavenly are heavenly, that is, all will likewise remain immortal and bright. What verb should complete the Apostle’s statements: are, become, or should be? As the ancestor, so the descendants—and they are, and they become, and they should be. Holy Paul writes the natural history of humanity. All of us come to light according to the first ancestor, but then we are reborn and become such as the second ancestor—so we are, so we become, so we should be, spiritual, heavenly, destined for incorruptible eternal life, of which we already receive the first fruits. The Apostle does not limit his gaze to believers alone, but looks upon the Lord Savior by his power and significance, or by his idea—as the Savior of all humanity—and beholds humanity in its wholeness as it should be according to God’s intention, worshipped in the Trinity: reborn and renewed in the Lord Savior.

1 Cor. 15:49. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, let us also bear the image of the man from heaven.

Instead of let us bear, the Greek reads we will bear. With the flow of discourse this seems more fitting. The Apostle is not writing moral lessons but clarifying the foundations on which the raised bodies should be such as he has depicted them—incorruptible, glorious, life-giving, spiritual. And this place contains his final word of explanation. We will bear, he says—do not doubt. We will bear the image of the heavenly, that is, we shall become such as he is. Take assurance in this from the fact that we have borne the image of the dusty Adam. We bore the image of dust through the way of natural birth; the image of the heavenly we are being spiritually clothed with in the waters of baptism, and shall appear fully thus clothed after the resurrection in the age to come. Having received the pledge of spiritual clothing in the heavenly, do not doubt that you shall appear fully clothed in him, just as you appear clothed in the dusty. As we became partakers and sharers of the death of the dusty, so we shall become partakers of the glory of the heavenly Lord (Theodoret). For this let us bear was spoken by the Apostle as a prediction, not as an exhortation. The image of dusty Adam is: you are dust and to dust you shall return; the image of heavenly Christ is resurrection from the dead and incorruption. The Apostle predicts what will come to be, yet with decisive determination, saying: we shall most certainly bear the image of the heavenly as we have borne the image of the dusty. The image of the dusty is death, and the image of the heavenly is resurrection. In death is the image of Adam, for he was the first cause that all others began to die. And in resurrection and incorruption is the image of Christ, for he first rose, vanquishing death, and thereby granted to all mankind resurrection and incorruption (Methodius, in Oecumenius, on the resurrection).

1 Cor. 15:50. Now I declare, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

By flesh and blood the Apostle means mortal nature. And it, while it is mortal, cannot attain the heavenly kingdom. This is what the Apostle added: nor does corruption inherit incorruption. But clearly, when it becomes incorruptible, it will enjoy the promised blessings (Theodoret). Photius, according to Oecumenius, makes the same judgment.

Now I declare—all this, beginning from verse 45, I have spoken to you so as to convince you that flesh and blood—your body as it now is—coarse, many-compounded, heavy, and always ready to fall apart—is not fitting for the kingdom of God. If it is destined to have a share in that kingdom, it cannot inherit it unless it is transformed. Corruption must be given over to corruption. The heirs of the incorruptible kingdom must clothe themselves in incorruption, for corruption does not inherit incorruption. He does not mean that all who are raised in an incorruptible body will necessarily inherit the kingdom, but that without resurrection and clothing in incorruption, even if one is holy, one will not see the kingdom as it is constituted. He looks upon humanity as whole—in complete composition. The soul alone is not a human being; the body, as it now is, is coarse and unfitting for the kingdom. It is appointed to decay; an incorruptible body will be given in its stead. For this purpose was the new Adam, who rose and laid the foundation for the resurrection of all. By his resurrection he gave the possibility to become heirs of his incorruptible kingdom. Participation in the inheritance is subject to other conditions; but without resurrection in incorruption, even the fulfillment of these conditions would not bring one into his inheritance. One must clothe oneself in the incorruptible body and then enter the kingdom if one is worthy of it. Thus is it arranged, that it cannot be otherwise, though it is arranged in accordance with human nature.

From the Apostle’s discourse, the thought might arise that whoever has not appropriated the new Adam, the heavenly one, will have no share in incorruption. One must bear in mind that the Apostle takes humanity in its full composition and in its destiny: it is all destined to be reborn in the Lord Jesus Christ. For this reason the power of Christ’s resurrection is such that in him all humanity is already raised. This already belongs to all, whether one rises to glory or does not rise to glory. The power of Christ’s resurrection cannot be otherwise, for he who rose is God. The divine cannot be limited by any boundary of time or place. Christ’s resurrection has universal significance and introduced an order of being extending over all.

Throughout this entire section, verses 45–50, holy Paul reasons dogmatically, as blessed Photius expresses it. But outside the context, all these passages, especially the latter ones: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and let us bear the image of the heavenly, also as is the earthly so are the earthy—may be understood as moral lessons, as they have always been and continue to be understood. Holy Chrysostom interprets them in this sense; Photius and Methodius in Oecumenius run through both the dogmatic thoughts and the moral lessons in parallel.

The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58)

1 Cor. 15:51. Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.

“Behold, I tell you a mystery.” The Apostle is about to speak of something awesome and inexpressible, of what not all know, and shows great honor to his listeners in conversing with them about inexpressible matters (holy Chrysostom). A mystery is called that which is not revealed to all but entrusted to friends alone. Therefore the Apostle comforts the Corinthians.

What does this mean: “we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed”? The meaning of his words is as follows: not all of us will die, but all will be changed, even those who do not die, for they are mortal. So when you die, do not fear as if you would not rise; there are certainly those who will escape death, but that will not be sufficient for the resurrection—it is necessary that the bodies even of those who do not die be changed and become incorruptible (holy Chrysostom). For not only those who have died will rise incorruptible, but also those still living will be clothed in incorruption (Theodoret).

1 Cor. 15:52. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

In a moment, εν ατομω, in such a brief moment of time as cannot be divided. Not even an instant of time will pass between God’s command for resurrection and the resurrection itself (Theodoret). They will follow simultaneously. As soon as the trumpet’s voice announcing God’s command sounds, in that very instant the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed—that is, put on the incorruptible body in which the dead too will rise. The Apostle here refers the word we not to himself but to those who will be living then. After much said about the resurrection, he now reveals something very wonderful within it. For it is not only amazing that bodies first decay and then rise, nor that those raised after decay will be better than present bodies, nor that the living will pass to a better state, nor that each will receive his own body and not another’s, but that so many and such great deeds, surpassing all mind and all understanding, will be accomplished soon—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye—so swiftly, as fast as the eyelid closes (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 15:53. For this corruptible body must put on incorruption, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

“Must”—an inescapable law. As if pointing at his own body, he says: this mortal, this corruptible, must become incorruptible and immortal. The corruptible is the body, and the mortal is the body. The body remains body because it is that which is clothed; what disappears is mortality and corruptibility when it clothes itself in immortality and incorruption. Therefore do not doubt how the body will live eternally when you hear that it will be incorruptible (holy Chrysostom).

At the same time the thought is also confirmed here that these very bodies will be raised, not others. The Apostle made it clear that not something else will rise, but that very thing which decays, for as if with a finger he pointed to it by the word “this,” saying: “this corruptible and this mortal” (Theodoret).

3. Song of victory over death with brief exhortation (1 Cor. 15:54–58)

1 Cor. 15:54. But when this corruptible body has put on incorruption, and this mortal body has put on immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: Death has been swallowed up in victory.

When corruption in this way is driven out from all domains of being and immortal life reigns everywhere, then all will be filled with the joy of life. Freed from the bonds of corruption, which held them till now in fear of death, as if breathing freely, they will say: Glory to God! Death is consumed utterly. These words are taken from Isaiah 25:8, where he promises the Jews full victory over enemies and such peaceful life that their enemies will not destroy them according to their whim. This the Apostle applies to the bright state after the resurrection. The sense of his words “then shall the word written come true” is: then one can say with the words of Scripture: death is swallowed up in victory. “In victory—”so will death be conquered and struck down that it will never rise again; that is, utterly, death will be no more. Holy Chrysostom says: in victory, that is, finally, so that no trace of it remains, no hope of return, when corruption will be swallowed up by incorruption.

1 Cor. 15:55. Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory?

Death is represented under the image of a venomous serpent, which with its sting slew all, but when its sting was taken from it, it became harmless and a mockery to children. Hades, according to the customary conception of that time, as the receptacle of all who depart from this life, is represented as claiming all into its power through death. Now an end has come to its victims. The Apostle personifies them and, with the words of the prophet Hosea (1 Cor. 13:14), addresses to them such a word of contempt. “He, as it were, contemplates already the very fulfillment itself, beholds both the victory of the Master and the resurrection of the dead, and, singing the triumph over enemies, utters this prophetic song” (Theodoret). “Do you see the greatness of soul? As if triumphing in victory, he is inspired and, contemplating the future as though already accomplished, is carried away, treading death beneath his feet and over the head of the vanquished proclaiming the cry of victory, loudly exclaiming: ‘Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory?’ It has passed, perished and utterly vanished. The Lord not only disarmed and defeated death, but destroyed it and turned it into nothing” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 15:56. Now the sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the Law.

Through sin death entered in. We were appointed in paradise to immortal life. We sinned and are condemned to death. Sin has stung us to death; it is the mortal, deadly sting. This truth is painfully experienced by those who sin: both soul and body are disordered and struck by sin—the soul in all its faculties, the body at its root of life; life becomes sluggish from it. “The power of sin is the Law.” Why so? From the action of conscience. God has implanted conscience in our soul as a guiding force, and then as His condemning, judging and punishing power. To it pertains what is said of the word of God: “it penetrates even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow.” This happens when, armed with the word of God that proclaims the Law, conscience finds a man to be a transgressor of the Law. At such a time it acts as a corroding and dissolving element. Thus sin proves so powerful as to bring death. The Law illuminates conscience; enlightened by it, conscience looks more keenly upon the deeds of a man and gives him no rest as soon as he becomes a transgressor of the Law; and through this it disturbs the life of both soul and body, and, disordering it, leads to death. That this should be so God has appointed. Conscience fulfills the Law of God’s righteousness.

With what purpose did the Apostle add these words? Is he not continuing the question: “Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory?” Where is the sting of death, that is, sin? And where is the power of sin—the Law? For then there will be neither sin nor Law, because eternal righteousness and perfect holiness will reign. Nothing prevents us from looking at it this way. But it may be more direct to put it thus: transported in thought to the contemplation of the glorious state after the resurrection, when everywhere the joy of life will abound exceedingly, he was carried away by that state and exclaimed: “Where, O death, is your sting?” But at once he remembered that this state still lies ahead, though it is assuredly certain; we, however, must yet fulfill the condition on the path to it, so that, entering into the realm of immortality, we might begin to taste blessedness and not torment. At this thought the sting of death brought to mind sin, and from this arose the impulse to remind all: while triumphing over death, sing: Where, O death, is your sting? but do not forget that the sting of death is sin. For us the triumph over death is as yet the victory over sin within ourselves. Be inspired then to such victory, so that afterward we may enter with joy, not with horror, into the state of triumph over death. The sting of death is sin: and the destructive power of sin comes from the fact that it is the transgression of the Law, for which God’s righteousness punishes through conscience and either takes away or diminishes life. Be therefore keepers of the Law and faithful fulfillers of all its commandments! This is the direct path to triumph over death.

With such an understanding of the connection of the aforesaid words, the following thanksgiving and the further exhortation (in verse 58) stand in direct agreement.

1 Cor. 15:57. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The triumph of victory over death is still in the future, but it is so certain that God has, as it were, already placed it in our hands. Victory in action. In the person of Christ the Saviour it has already been accomplished; by faith we also appropriate it to ourselves, not merely in hope but also in deed through participation in the life of Jesus Christ in baptism and the Eucharist. Our extraction from the jaws of death is proceeding, solid foundations are being laid for blessed immortality. And all this through our Lord Jesus Christ! Thanksgiving to God, who was pleased to arrange all this in this way. Saint Chrysostom says in this connection: “Christ Himself has erected the trophy, and He has deemed even us worthy of the crowns, not by obligation, but by mere compassion.”

The Apostle gives thanks to God for granting the victory, but does not specify over what. One may understand it as over death; one may also understand it as over sin, the sting of death. Thanksgiving to God, who has given us in the Lord Jesus Christ the power that conquers sin, which leads us to joyful triumph in victory over death. Before, in the words: “the sting of death is sin,” he said: See now, nevertheless, cut off the sting of death. At this point the thought might arise: how do we overcome it? This might have led to contemplation of the economy of salvation, which is wholly directed toward overcoming and rooting out sin in ourselves. And from this comes: thanksgiving to God! Do not be afraid! We have everything in our hands. God in the Lord Jesus Christ gives us complete victory over sin as well.

1 Cor. 15:58. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

“Therefore,” ὥστε, “so that,” places these lessons in direct dependence upon what immediately precedes. There—triumph over death, and at the same time—an incidental admonition to overcome sin first, for which strength has been given in the Lord. With this last admonition it is directly connected what the Apostle now says.

“Be steadfast, immovable.” Since the Apostle does not specify an object, it would not be just to limit steadfastness and immoveability solely to faith in the resurrection. It is rather to be understood that, as thanksgiving before was offered to God for granting victory over sin as well, and the whole economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ is directed to this, steadfastness and immoveability here are meant in every respect: in faith and in life according to faith, in the reception of the mysteries, and in participation in all the sanctifying orders of the Church—a steadfastness and immoveability that is not the kind where one became zealous and then abandoned it, started again but then abandoned it again—intermittent—but constant, unchanging, and even.

“Always abounding in the work of the Lord.” What is this work of the Lord? The work of salvation. And in what does it consist? “Put off, in regard to your former manner of life, the old man who is being corrupted by his deceitful desires… and be clothed with the new man, who has been created in accordance with God in righteousness and piety of the truth” (Eph. 4:22, 24). This is what Saint Chrysostom means by the work of the Lord. He says that abounding is abounding “in pure life.” The same thought is found in Theodoret: “Laboring diligently, gather the riches of piety.” The doing of the work of the Lord will be the doing of every good. One must do good not haphazardly, not as it happens, but must abound in doing it, “so that the good be abundantly perfect and exceed the prescribed bounds” (Saint Chrysostom).

“Knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” “This exhortation is just, for nothing so shakes (steadfastness and immoveability) as the thought that one labors in vain and to no purpose” (Saint Chrysostom). So then, he says, do not be shaken! Stand firm in faith, in good deeds, and in patience on this way. The fruit of your labors is certain. “The righteous Judge and to the striving weaves the crowns (1 Cor. 2 Tim. 4:8), to the workers has already prepared the reward (Matt. 20:8)” (Theodoret). Where does “knowing” come from? From what he said about the resurrection and the future life. “In the Lord” gives the thought that, consequently, all one’s labor should be directed so that it be “in the Lord,” dedicated to Him and accomplished as though everything done were done before the eyes of the Lord. Such labor is always free from every admixture of impure motives and is always pleasing to the Lord. He will not allow the labor for Him and before Him to be vain, either here or still more there.

“Let us not, beloved, give ourselves to sleep: it is impossible, absolutely impossible for the careless to attain the kingdom of heaven, just as for those given over to luxury and intemperance. Rather, by tormenting and wasting our body and enduring countless labors, we can obtain the heavenly goods. Do you not see what distance lies between heaven and earth, what battle awaits us, how inclined man is to evil, how sin surrounds us and what snares it sets? Do you not know that what has been promised to you is beyond human measure? Do you not know before what judgment we shall stand? Do you not remember that we shall have to give account for every word and thought? Know that if we are careless, no one will protect us—neither the righteous man nor the prophet nor the apostle; but if we are zealous, having sufficient protection in our own deeds, we shall boldly attain the blessings prepared for those who love God” (Saint Chrysostom).

Part Eight. Conclusion of the Epistle (1 Corinthians 16)

The Collection for the Saints in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1–4)

1 Cor. 16:1. Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also do.

This collection was gathered for the Jerusalemites, who at the beginning suffered deprivations, oppression, and persecution more than all others. The relentless fanaticism of the Jews is well known. From the time of the persecution following the death of Stephen the protomartyr, attacks on Christians there never ceased, and they were all the more severe because they were carried out by the will of the people. Saint Paul received a commandment from the Apostles concerning the gathering of alms for them, not incidentally but as the first task, which he strove to fulfill with all diligence. The “saints” refers to all Jerusalem Christians, not to certain individuals among them. So the Apostle customarily designates Christians—as those sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, who have made the vow of holiness and strive for it. In the Galatian churches, the Apostle made arrangements for the gathering of the aforesaid alms during the time he spent with them, not in a letter, which does not mention this. The Apostle mentioned this to stir up emulation in the Corinthians.

Saint Chrysostom says about this: “He called the collection by the name ‘alms,’ λογία, in order to at once from the very beginning present this matter as easy, for if it is to be collected from everyone, then such an arrangement becomes easy for each. By pointing to what others (the Galatians) are doing, he stirs them up to emulation, presenting it to them in the form of a narrative. He did the same thing in the epistle to the Romans, where, explaining to them the reason for his journey to Jerusalem, he speaks also of the alms: ‘Now I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints’ (Rom. 15:25–26). He disposes those to alms by the example of the Macedonians and Corinthians (here, in the epistle to the Romans, he speaks of the alms collected according to the arrangement we are discussing), and these by the example of the Galatians. They would have been ashamed to show themselves inferior to the Galatians. ‘As I directed in the churches of Galatia.’ He did not say: I persuaded or advised, but ‘I directed,’ thereby expressing greater authority; he brought as an example not one city, not two or three, but a whole nation, as he did also regarding dogmas: saying that ‘in all the churches of the saints’ (1 Cor. 4:33), for if such conviction is powerful for faith in dogmas, it is even more powerful regarding deeds. What then, tell me, did you direct?’”

1 Cor. 16:2. Upon the first day of the week, let each of you lay by him in store, whatever he may be prospered, so that when I come, there be no gatherings then.

“Upon the first day,” κάθα μίαν σαββάτων—“the Sabbath,” σάββατα, means the week, all seven days; “the first of the Sabbaths,” μία σαββάτων, means the first day of the week, the Lord’s day, Sunday. “Upon the first”—not after, but on each first day of the week, on Sundays. On Sunday, from Apostolic times, it was customary among Christians to conduct works of beneficence. The wealthy maintained their poor on this day at love feasts, and for the distant—through collections and sending them aid. The Apostle commands not to set aside suddenly but little by little, because by this method one can collect more imperceptibly than one would be ready to give at once. Why did he use the word “storing,” θησαυρίζων—treasuring, gathering into a treasury. “Whatever he may be prospered,” according to what profit each may have for himself from his business and labors; but at the same time it hints also at goodwill: he does not want to compel, for “God loves a cheerful giver.” “The Apostle leaves the amount of giving to one’s disposition, teaching that God helps souls that choose the better. For he expressed this with the words: ‘whatever he may be prospered’” (Theodoret). Why: “so that when I come there be no gatherings then?” Either, again, so as not to burden them, or so that when he comes their minds will be free from all extraneous cares and will attend only to what he had to present to them.

Saint Chrysostom says: “See how he persuades them by the very time; for this day by itself is sufficiently disposed to alms. Remember, he says, what you have been deemed worthy of on this day: the ineffable blessings, the root and source of our life received its beginning on this day. And not only does this time dispose to compassion, but also because it affords rest and freedom from labors, for souls lightened from the burden of labors are more inclined and disposed to mercy. Besides, the reception on this day of the awesome and deathless Mysteries produces great readiness for giving. Thus, on this day ‘each of you,’ not this one or that one, but ‘each,’ whether he be poor or rich, woman or man, slave or free, ‘lay by him in store.’ He did not say: let him bring to the church, lest it shame them to bring a small amount, but: let him, saving little by little, increase the offering, and then show it when I come; but until that time, he says, set aside at home, and make your house a church, an ark, a treasury; be a guardian of sacred property, a self-appointed steward of the poor; compassion gives you this sacred right. A sign of this remains to this day in the alms box. But the sign remains, and the deed does not. See, again, how this is not difficult. He did not say: such and such an amount, but: ‘whatever he may be prospered,’ much or little. He did not say either: as much as one earns, but: ‘whatever he may be prospered,’ expressing that earning comes from God. And not only in this way does he make his advice easy to fulfill, but also by not commanding to bring all at once, for if one collects little by little, the service and expenditure become imperceptible. Therefore he commands not to bring at once, but appoints a prolonged time and gives a reason: ‘so that when I come,’ he says, ‘there be no gatherings then,’ that is, so as not to make collections when the time for payment comes. And he proposes such a remark not without purpose; the expectation of Paul should have stirred in them greater zeal.”

1 Cor. 16:3. And when I come, whomsoever you shall approve by letters, them will I send to bear your bounty to Jerusalem.

He stirs up the gathering of alms and makes all arrangements relating to this, but himself keeps at a distance from touching what is collected. Tell me, he says, whom you choose, you yourselves will select trustworthy people. He does this “so that he himself first does what he advises others, and be blameless before Jews and Greeks and the Church of God” (1 Cor. 10:32) (Theodoret). But so that it might not appear that he is indifferent to this matter, he says: I will send them, and I will give them letters; I will be their guide in this work. Here everything will proceed from you, he says: I will not obscure your face. The Jerusalemites will see in this not my labors, but your good will. Therefore he called the alms “grace,” as their good giving, or as a good deed, grace accomplished in them and bringing grace, and befitting the gracious Christian fellowship. Saint Chrysostom says: “He did not say: you will send someone, but ‘whomsoever you shall approve,’ that is, whom you choose, so that the service be unquestionable. The task of choosing those who will carry the alms he commits to the Corinthians themselves. But so that it might not appear that he removes himself from them, he adds his own letters: ‘I will send them with letters’; as though saying: I will be with you, and I will take part in the service by means of letters. He did not say: I will send them to bear ‘your alms,’ but: ‘your grace,’ so as to show that they accomplish a great deed, and so as to impress that they themselves also gain benefit from this.”

1 Cor. 16:4. And if it be meet for me to go also, they shall go with me.

“If it be meet for me”—if it is necessary, if it should happen that I also need to go, “they shall go with me.” I will be their guide and will serve them instead of instructive letters. The amount of the collection had no bearing on such a decision. However great it might be, the appointed ones carry it. This, the Apostle said, in place of letters. When they go with me, there will be no need for letters. This thought seems more direct. But perhaps there is here also the thought that as soon as so much is collected that I myself also need to go, I will go. Thus, however, all understand it, both old and new. Saint Chrysostom says: “Here again he disposes them to generosity: for if, he says, so much is collected that I myself need to go, then I will not refuse. But he did not plainly promise this and did not say: when I come, I myself will carry it, for he would not have so much disposed them to increase the alms if he had said this at the beginning; but after such an addition is timely and well suited, therefore he neither definitively promised nor completely passed over this, but said first: ‘I will send,’ and then mentioned himself. And in these words: ‘if it be meet for me to go also,’ he again leaves it to their will, that is, it depended on them to collect much and so much that it would not be shameful for him to undertake the journey.”

Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12)

1 Cor. 16:5. Now I will come to you when I pass through Macedonia; for I am passing through Macedonia.

“I will come.” “He said the same thing before, but then with anger, adding: ‘and I will know not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power’ (1 Cor. 4:19); but now with more goodwill, so that they might desire his coming” (Saint Chrysostom). “I am passing through Macedonia”—he does not mean that he is now on the way, for he was writing from Ephesus and says right after: I will remain yet in Ephesus (1 Cor. 15:8); but that he has decided to go that way and has already made arrangements for it, having sent ahead holy Timothy, who was to reach Corinth as well (Acts 19:21 et seq.). So, he says, when I pass through Macedonia and visit the churches there, then I will come to you, allowing them to calculate for themselves when his arrival would be.

1 Cor. 16:6. But with you it may be that I will stay, or perhaps even winter, so that you may send me on my way, wherever I may go.

“It may be that I will stay,” τύχον, “perhaps.” “Lest they say: Why do you prefer the Macedonians to us? he says: But I will not merely pass through you, but I will stay with you. He was writing this in winter while in Ephesus. Therefore he says: I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost, then I will go to Macedonia; passing through it during summer, I will come to you and perhaps will spend the winter with you. But why did he say ‘perhaps’ rather than definitively? Because Paul did not foresee everything, and because this was useful. Therefore he does not affirm it directly, so that, if it did not come to pass, he would have a justification in having spoken indefinitely then, and also in that the Spirit guided him according to His own authority, where He wished, not where Paul himself desired. ‘So that you may send me on my way, wherever I may go.’ And these are words of love and great goodwill” (Saint Chrysostom). He entrusts himself to their hospitality and care. You will refresh me with you, you will be my guides and protectors in further travels. He decides nothing in advance, but is ready to go where the finger of God points. And although he had already a plan to visit all these places, spend time in Jerusalem, and then set out for Rome (Acts 19:21), he did not regard its fulfillment as dependent on his own will, and therefore passed over it in silence.

1 Cor. 16:7. For I do not wish to see you now just in passing, but I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord will permit.

“I want,” he says, “not to visit you in passing, but to stay and live with you” (Saint Chrysostom). “He sufficiently comforted the Corinthians by promising to spend some time with them” (Theodoret). He wants to spend time with them, for, as appears from the epistle, many disorders had crept in among them; it was necessary both to correct their conduct and to change their way of thinking in many matters. For the correct this news brought joy and pleasure; but for the incorrect it should have begotten fear and anxiety. “Here he expresses his love and at the same time frightens sinners, though not directly but under the guise of friendly feeling” (Saint Chrysostom). By the words “if the Lord will permit,” the Apostle shows “that he intends to do nothing without God’s will, but desires that God’s hand should guide him.”

1 Cor. 16:8. But I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost.

“It is not in vain that he speaks of all this with precision, but reveals everything to them as to friends, for it is the nature of friendship to declare the reason why one does not come, why one delays, and where one is” (Saint Chrysostom). This plan was scarcely fulfilled, for because of the uprising caused by Demetrius the silversmith, Saint Paul appears to have had to leave Ephesus somewhat earlier. But he spent the winter with them, as is evident from the fact that, having spent three months in Achaia, he kept the days of Unleavened Bread in Philippi on his return journey (Acts 20:6), and he hoped to arrive in Jerusalem by Pentecost (Acts 20:16).

1 Cor. 16:9. For a great door and effectual is opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

The work that had been prepared during the three years of residence began to bear fruit. Many began to be converted, but this same angered the opponents and stirred up an uprising. The work of God, however, could have been completed even without Paul, through his disciples and the overseers he had left; only Saint Paul himself had to depart. Saint Chrysostom says: “If the door is great, whence come ‘many adversaries’? From that very same thing: many are the opponents because great is the faith, because great and wide is the entrance. What does it mean: ‘a great door’? Many are ready to receive the faith; many are ready to come and be converted; wide is my entrance because souls that come readily receive the obedience of faith. The devil then breathed fiercely with great malice, seeing that many were departing from him. Therefore Paul had to remain there for two reasons: because the benefit was great and because the struggle was great. With such words he also encouraged the Corinthians, informing them that the word is everywhere at work and grows readily. And that there were many opponents—this too marks the success of Gospel preaching. The evil demon never rages so fiercely as when he sees that many of his vessels are being taken from him. Therefore we too, when we wish to accomplish something great and distinguished, should look not at the great labor the work presents, but at its benefit. And Paul, see, does not lose courage and does not flee because there are many opponents, but remains and strains his strength because the door was great. For this, as I have said, was a sign of the devil’s exposure. He cannot anger this evil beast, whoever has done something small and insignificant. Therefore do not be surprised when you see a righteous man accomplishing great struggles suffering many tribulations, for it would be necessary to be surprised at the opposite, that is, if the devil, having been often defeated, remained at peace and patiently endured the wounds inflicted upon him. It is not surprising if a serpent, receiving constant blows, rages and throws itself upon the striker. And the devil, crawling on the ground, rages against all more fiercely than any serpent and attacks, having set his sting like a scorpion.”

3. An instruction concerning Timothy, with news of Apollos (1 Cor. 16:10–12)

1 Cor. 16:10. If Timothy comes, see that he be with you without fear; for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am.

That he sent Saint Timothy to them, the Apostle had mentioned before (1 Cor. 4:17); now he gives them instructions in case of his arrival. When the epistle was written, Saint Timothy was no longer in Ephesus; he was on the way, traveling through Macedonia to Corinth. This is the very journey of his that is mentioned in the Book of Acts (1 Cor. 19:22). The instruction consists in that “he be with you without fear.” This may mean both that he should suffer no danger or harm—as if to say: protect him as you know, if anything should happen. But more directly it means that they themselves receive him with love and respect, that before them he should have no fear; therefore he says: πρὸς ὑμᾶς—in relation to you, before you. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle forewarns them and says, ‘that he be with you without fear,’ that is, lest anyone shameless rise against him. For he may have to make a remark to them concerning what Paul had written, for which reason he was sent, as the Apostle expressed in the words: ‘I have sent Timothy to you… who will remind you of my ways’ (1 Cor. 4:17). So, lest they, relying on their status, on wealth, on protection from the people, and on worldly wisdom, should rise up against him, should insult him and lay snares for him, being vexed at his rebukes or at the admonitions of his teacher and wishing to take revenge on the latter through the former, the Apostle says: ‘that he be with you without fear.’”

Saint Timothy was sent as a result of news received from the household of Chloe, to learn the true state of affairs and probably to make necessary arrangements if needed. The epistle is written after his departure, occasioned by the arrival of actual messengers from Corinth with letters. These messengers confirmed that matters indeed required correction, and that Saint Timothy had arrangements to make. Saint Paul anticipated them. These messengers, who were sent with Paul’s epistle and departed by sea, were to arrive in Corinth long before Saint Timothy.

Theodoret understands these words generally, without reference to the content of the epistle, as if to say: “Receive him, serve him, that he may not experience any sorrow.”

“For he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am.” “Sufficient testimony to rouse even the idle to show service to a disciple” (Theodoret). He seeks not his own but God’s. “The Apostle wishes to instill in them confidence and respect for Timothy by the very work entrusted to him: ‘For he is doing the work of the Lord.’ Do not look at the fact that he is not rich, uneducated, and not old, but look at what is entrusted to him and what he is fulfilling. This takes the place of fame, wealth, age, and wisdom for him. Not content with this, he adds: ‘as I am’” (Saint Chrysostom). He will do what I have commanded him, my work; but my work is the work of the Lord, consequently so is his. The work of the Lord is the work of the salvation of men. The means to this are establishing the Gospel truth in hearts and introducing Christian order into life. This is what we both labor at: he by my direction, and I by the Lord’s commandment.

1 Cor. 16:11. Let no one despise him; but send him forward in peace that he may come to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers.

“Let no one despise him.” Since he is doing the work of the Lord, do not dare to despise him. “Do not look at his youthful age, but receive in him the Apostolic labors” (Theodoret). “Since he was young and to him alone was entrusted the correction of such a community, then this and that could be a reason for disdain toward him, the Apostle rightly forestalls them from despising him. And not only does he require this for him, but still greater honor: ‘send him forward,’ he says, ‘in peace,’ that is, safely, without quarrels and disputes, without enmity and hatred, but with obedience and concern for him as for a teacher. ‘That he may come to me.’ And by this he inspires them with fear, so that, knowing that he will report to the Apostle all that happens to him, they may be more meek; for this reason he adds: ‘for I am expecting him.’ But on the other hand, by this he also inspires confidence in Timothy, showing that he himself, intending to depart, awaits him, and at the same time testifies his love for them, showing what a useful man he has sent to them” (Saint Chrysostom).

“For I am expecting him with the brothers.” I am expecting him and the brothers who are sent with him and should return together. Or: I and the brothers who are with me are expecting him. There he is as head of the delegation, and here as a person dear to all. In both respects—an incentive to treat him with both respect and love. Saint Timothy was sent with Erastus.

1 Cor. 16:12. But concerning Apollos, the brother, I greatly desired that he come to you with the brothers, but his will was not at all to come now; but he will come when he shall have opportunity.

Concerning Apollos the Corinthians had written in the epistle, wishing to see him. The Apostle writes in reply: As for Apollos—the brother—I greatly urged him to come to you with the brothers. With which ones? Probably with the one sent from Corinth and now to return there. The point is not in that, but in the fact that I urged him much, I entreated him; but “his will was not at all to come now.” Whose will? Certainly Apollos’. Or circumstances hindered him, or business prevented him, for there is no indication that Gospel preaching was Apollos’ main work. Therefore he added: “but he will come when he shall have opportunity.” When he finishes his affairs, he will come. Saint Chrysostom says: “‘But concerning Apollos…’ This man, as is evident, was both educated and older than Timothy, therefore, lest they say, why did he not send this man to them but instead sent a young man, see how the Apostle also reassures them concerning him, calling him a brother and informing them that he greatly urged him to come to them. And so that they should not think that he preferred Timothy to him and therefore did not send him, and so as not to stir up greater envy in them, he says: ‘I greatly desired that he come.’ What? He did not agree and did not listen, but resisted and refused? Paul does not say this, but in order not to blame him and to justify himself, says: ‘his will was not at all to come now.’ Then, so that they should not say that this is merely an excuse and pretext, he adds: ‘but he will come to you when he shall have opportunity.’ Thus he both justified him and comforted those who wished to see him with hope of his coming.”

Exhortations: Stand Fast in the Faith, in Mutual Love (1 Corinthians 16:13–18)

1 Cor. 16:13–14. Be watchful, stand firm in faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

What does he remind them of? Of watchfulness, steadfastness in faith, courage, strength, and mutual love. One might add: as every Christian should have. The watchful one looks in all directions and guards lest the enemy approach suddenly. When the enemy comes and wants to knock the watchful one from his position, he stands his ground, not yielding. The position of Christians is faith, in its all-encompassing meaning. The enemy intensifies his attacks; he is resisted courageously; in courage one is strengthened. By what? By mutual love. All constitute one body, bound together tightly. In few words the Apostle told them and reminded them of a great deal. “Apparently he offers an exhortation, but at the same time he rebukes them for carelessness, and therefore says to them: ‘Be watchful,’ as to those sleeping, ‘stand firm,’ as to those wavering, ‘act like men, be strong,’ as to the faint-hearted, ‘let all that you do be done in love,’ as to those lacking mutual accord. One is directed against deceivers, namely: ‘Be watchful, stand firm’; another against those who injure, namely: ‘act like men’; a third against those stirring up discord and strife, namely: ‘let all that you do be done in love,’ which is the bond of perfection, the root and source of blessings. What does it mean: ‘let all that you do be done in love’? Whether one rebukes, rules, or serves, teaches or learns, all should be done with love, for all the evil mentioned (among the Corinthians) arose from neglect of love. If love had not been neglected, they would not have boasted and said: ‘I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos’ (1 Cor. 1:12); if it had been among them, they would not have gone to law with one another before the unbelievers, or rather, would not have gone to law at all; if it had been among them, the fornicator would not have lived with his father’s wife, they would not have despised weak brothers, would not have had divisions, would not have boasted of spiritual gifts. Therefore the Apostle says to them: ‘let all that you do be done in love’” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 16:15. Now I urge you, brethren, you know that the household of Stephanas is the firstfruits of Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the ministry of the saints.

“Earlier in the epistle he mentioned this, when he said: ‘I baptized also the household of Stephanas’ (1 Cor. 1:16), and now he calls them the firstfruits not only of Corinth, but of all Greece. No small honor to be first to turn to Christ. But the Apostle not only said that they were first to believe, but that they were the firstfruits, expressing that together with faith they also showed its beautiful fruit in their lives, and proved themselves worthy in all respects. Truly, the firstfruits must be better than all the others of which they are the firstfruits, which Paul indeed testified to them by such an expression. For they, as I have said, not only sincerely believed, but also demonstrated in deed great piety, high virtue, and zeal in works of mercy. And not only by this does he prove them worthy of honor, but also by the fact that the entire household was filled with piety. And how zealous they were in good works, this the Apostle shows in the following words: ‘they have devoted themselves to the ministry of the saints.’ Do you hear what praise he gives to their hospitality? He did not say: they serve, but: ‘they have devoted themselves to the ministry’—they have chosen such a life for themselves forever, they are constantly concerned with this” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 16:16. I urge you to be subject to such as these, and to every one who helps and labors.

The flow of discourse is thus: I urge you, brethren—you know, of course, the household of Stephanas—such and such a one, so I urge you, be subject to such as these, and to every one who…

“Be subject,” ὑποτάσσησθε, means more than honor. Subjection, ὑποταγή, is submission, obedience—the obligation of the subject to the one in authority. Therefore, we must suppose that Stephanas was among the overseers of the Church. That the Apostle surrounds him with the words: “such as these—and every one”—mingling him in the mass of other worthy persons—depended on the fact that Stephanas was present and was to present the epistle to the Corinthian community. He needed to be protected. Saint Paul certainly did not leave the Corinthian community without overseers. To whom could he better have entrusted it than to one like Stephanas and similar to him? The community was large: certainly the overseer was not one. “Those who help” Saint Paul calls persons who assist in the good order and welfare of the Church in some way other than by presiding; “those who labor”—serving in church and outside, in baptism, preaching, helping the poor and sick. Elsewhere he distinguishes those laboring in the word. Are not they the ones he means here? Theodoret writes: “He gives the commandment that they and those consenting to such work be honored with all honor.” Saint Chrysostom speaks generally from the perspective that they “have devoted themselves to the ministry of the saints.” “Cooperate with them in monetary gifts and bodily service, have fellowship with them, for their labor will become easier if they have co-workers, and the works of charity will extend to a greater number of people. He did not simply say: cooperate, but: ‘be subject’ to them, do whatever they command, inspiring the strictest obedience. But so that it might not appear that he is indulging them, he adds: ‘and to every one who helps and labors.’ Let, he says, this law be general; I speak not of them exclusively, but every one similar to them should receive the same. Therefore, even as he begins to speak of them, he calls the Corinthians themselves as witnesses. You, he says, yourselves know how they labor, and have no need to hear this from us.”

1 Cor. 16:17. Now I rejoice in the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, for they have made up for your absence.

Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus were messengers from the Corinthians, who brought their epistle to him, to which Saint Paul answered point by point. I rejoiced, he says, in their coming, because in them I saw all of you. He shows a strong love for them, witnessing that he would have wished to see all of them—but you are absent; these messengers have made up for your absence. At the same time, by this expression of joy, he approves those who sent them for their choice, and praises those sent, that they bore themselves so worthily that they diminished in no way the joy which their first meeting brought. “In praising those who came to him, he at the same time gives praise to others, joining the senders with the messengers. They came to him in place of all, presented in their person the entire city, were representatives of all believing Corinthians” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 16:18. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore, recognize those who are such.

They refreshed the spirit of Saint Paul by giving him the opportunity to see in themselves all his beloved children of the Corinthian Church, and especially by presenting the condition of that Church in its true light—that there are indeed irregularities, but they are rather the result of lack of understanding than of negligence in doing good and unwillingness to show themselves correct in all respects. And this meant that it would suffice merely to point out to them how things should be, and all would go as it should. Which is what Saint Paul does in his epistle. They refreshed the spirit of the Corinthians by consenting to take upon themselves the labor of traveling and by giving them hope that their spiritual needs would be met and everything that troubled them would be prevented—they refreshed them with hope. This gives the thought that those sent were persons in whom one could confide in all respects. In this same word, perhaps, is understood also that they will refresh; but that they will refresh, there could be no doubt. The Apostle speaks of it as though it had already been accomplished.

“Know then those who are such”—that is, show them gratitude by your acknowledgement, attention, love, and honor. “For you they have left their homeland and their own house; for all of you they undertook to make such a journey; know then them. You will do this if you reward them with a kindly disposition toward them, if you will honor them, if you receive them, if you show sympathy in their good works” (Saint Chrysostom).

Greetings and the Apostle’s Final Word and Blessing (1 Corinthians 16:19–24)

1 Cor. 16:19. The churches of Asia greet you; Aquila and Priscilla, with the church in their house, greet you greatly in the Lord.

“The churches of Asia greet you”. “And the Apostle added this for the benefit of the Corinthians, showing the spread of the preaching” (Theodoret). This was customary for the Apostle Paul. “He always brings together and unites the members of the Church in his greetings” (Saint Chrysostom). All those converted by the Apostle understood themselves in a spiritual sense as children of one spiritual father, and thus greeted one another sincerely as kinfolk. But besides this, all Christians are of one spirit, have one Lord as their head, and are bound to one another in Him, constituting as it were one family.

“Aquila and Priscilla” send their greetings also because they were known to them personally and probably contributed much to the holy Paul in establishing faith in Corinth. To receive a greeting from them could not help but be comforting to the Corinthians, testifying that these persons remember them still and do not cease to hold them in good affection. The holy Paul marked this especially with the words: “greatly” and “in the Lord.”—“With the church in their house”—that is, either with all who were in their house, or with that portion of Christians who gathered in their house for prayer and communion. Saint Chrysostom and other of our commentators remark that the holy Paul lived with them, and consequently their gatherings were more numerous. As there were no separate churches then, houses were given over for assemblies. Scarcely could one house be found that could accommodate all believers; therefore, probably more than one house was set apart for this purpose. This was the beginning of what occurs now in cities, that there are many churches. “By their great virtue they made their house a church, having determined to do only that which is proper to the church” (Theodoret). “And this is no small achievement—to turn one’s house into a church” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 16:20. All the brothers greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

Not Aquila and Priscilla alone with their household church, but all the Ephesian Christians greet you. And the unknown do not fall short of the known in good wishes. But if those far distant from you thus draw near to you, should you not all the more remain in sincere unity among yourselves? This I ask you to do now, upon reading the letter, with a mutual greeting of one another by a holy kiss, so that it may drive away from among you all discord, all dissension, so that you may be one in both mind and heart. “The Apostle cast out discord and bound them together with a holy kiss” (Theodoret). “Such an addition: ‘with a holy kiss,’ he makes only here. Why? Because among the Corinthians there was great division; they said, ‘I belong to Paul,’ and so on; some of them suffered hunger while others became drunk; among them there were quarrels, dissensions, and lawsuits; even over the very gifts of grace among them there was great envy and great pride. Having reconciled them through his exhortation, he rightly commands them to unite with a holy kiss; it could unite them and make them one body; it is ‘holy’ if it is free from deceit and hypocrisy” (Saint Chrysostom).

6. The Apostle’s final word and good wishes (1 Cor. 16:21–24)

1 Cor. 16:21. The greeting of Paul with my own hand.

A greeting of love to you and from me, who write with my own hand. By this he confirmed that the whole letter comes from him. The Apostle customarily expressed his greeting with words: “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”, and so on (1 Cor. 15:23). But sometimes, in accordance with those to whom he wrote, he would add something to this word. In this letter he surrounds it with words about love…

1 Cor. 16:22. If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha.

The essence of Christianity lies in union with the Lord—essential union. But whoever is in this union, can he not love the Lord? If someone does not love the Lord, it is a direct sign that he is not in union with Him; and if he is not in union with Him, he is estranged from Christianity, estranged from the body of the Church, self-excommunicated from it, though he bears the name of Christian—he is anathema, meaning he is cut off from the body of the Church. In the original stands only ἀναθέμα, and what to add here—“is” or “let it be”—is left to the will of the reader. It seems that here “is” fits better, in the sense that whoever does not have love for the Lord is already cut off from the Church, not a member of it, or a member who has been severed. The words “maranatha” are better understood as a confirmatory word in the sense of: truly so, yea, so. In translation this means: “The Lord has come.” The Apostle expresses: whoever does not love the Lord is anathema. This is as true as it is true that the Lord has come. In the Old Testament He was the coming one, who was to come, awaited; but for us He is the one who has come. By confessing this the Apostle confirms that the failure to love the Lord makes a Christian anathema.

Saint Chrysostom says: “By this very utterance He strikes fear into all those who made their members the members of a harlot, who led brothers astray by the eating of idol offerings, named themselves after men, did not believe in the resurrection—and not only does He strike fear, but also points the way to virtue and the source of vices. Just as love for Christ, when it is strong, casts out and destroys all kinds of sins, so too it, when weak, allows them to grow. What does ‘maranatha’ mean? Our Lord has come. Why does he say this? In order to confirm the teaching about God’s economy of salvation, since the seeds of resurrection lie chiefly therein; and also in order to shame them, as if saying: the common Master of all deigned to humble Himself to such a degree, and you still remain in the same state and continue to sin? Does not His excessive love, the greatest of all goods, strike you? Remember only this one thing, and you will be able to make progress in all virtue and destroy every sin.” Blessed Theodoret adds the following further consideration: “Just as those who love carnally wish to have no one else as a rival in their love, so, on the contrary, the blessed Apostle desires that all people together with him should be lovers of the Lord, and whoever is not such, he cuts off from the Church.”

1 Cor. 16:23–24. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen.

“It is proper for a teacher to help not only with counsel, but also with prayers. The Apostle also prays: ‘grace… be with you. And my love be with you’. Being separated from them by distance, he as it were stretches forth his right hand and embraces them with the embraces of love: ‘my love,’ he says, ‘be with you’; as if to say: I myself am with all of you. This shows that what he wrote came not from irritation and not from anger, but from concern for their well-being, if even after such rebukes he does not turn away from them, but loves and embraces them, despite the great distance, and pours out his soul before them in writings and letters. But so that they would not think that he makes such a declaration of love out of flattery, he says: ‘in Christ Jesus’; his love has nothing human in it, nothing fleshly, but is spiritual, and therefore most sincere; his words, moreover, express great love” (Saint Chrysostom).

“And we will draw profit for ourselves from the Apostle’s last words, and will love our Master who has loved us, so that the curse may not fall upon us also, but so that we may be counted worthy of all His blessings. With Him the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory and honor, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen”

Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians

Introduction

The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilyevich Govorov on the tenth of January, 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Oryol province of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. He was schooled at Oryol and then at the Kiev Theological Academy, and while still a student received monastic tonsure, taking the name Theophan when he became a monk in 1841. Two decades of teaching, administration, and service followed—as rector of seminaries, as a member of the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem, as chaplain at the embassy church in Constantinople, and finally as rector of the Saint Petersburg Academy. In 1859 he was consecrated bishop, serving first the diocese of Tambov and then, from 1863, that of Vladimir.

None of this satisfied the pull he felt toward stillness. In 1866 he asked to be relieved of his see and withdrew to the secluded Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov diocese, and about 1872 he entered strict reclusion, shutting himself away for the remaining twenty-two years of his life. He would call his cell not a hermitage but a place of glad incarceration. Those years were the most fruitful of his life. From that seclusion came the Russian Philokalia, the adaptation of Unseen Warfare, his letters of spiritual counsel by the thousand, and the great sequence of expositions of the Apostle Paul from which the present volume is drawn. He died on the sixth of January, 1894, on the feast of Theophany, still at his writing table. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints in 1988, and he is commemorated on the tenth of January. This same Saint Theophan is the author whose reading of Second Corinthians the reader now holds; a fuller account of his life stands at the close of the volume.

The Work: Occasion and Purpose

Nowhere does the Apostle Paul lay his own heart so bare as in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. It is the most personal and least guarded of his letters, and to read it is to overhear a father speaking to children who have wounded him and whom he loves past all reckoning. Saint Theophan takes it up as one member of a still larger undertaking: during his years at Vysha he set out to expound the whole of the Pauline corpus in Russian, epistle by epistle, and this commentary on Second Corinthians takes its place in that sequence beside his readings of Romans, First Corinthians, Galatians, and the rest. It was published in the early 1880s, the work of a man who had spent decades inside these texts and who now had nothing to do but dwell in them.

To understand the letter, Theophan first reconstructs the circumstances that called it forth, and he does so at length before he touches a single verse. The letter is a sequel. Paul had written to Corinth from Ephesus—the epistle we know as First Corinthians—to correct grave disorders in a young and turbulent church, and had then waited in acute anxiety to learn how the rebuke had been received. His plans miscarried; the uproar stirred up by Demetrius the silversmith drove him from Ephesus sooner than he had intended. He sent Titus ahead to Corinth to gather news and to oversee the collection of alms, arranged to meet him at Troas, and pressed on when Titus did not appear—so troubled in spirit that, as he tells us, he could not settle even to preach where a door had been opened to him, but hurried into Macedonia. There at last Titus met him, and the news was good: the Corinthians had taken the correction to heart and set about mending their faults with zeal.

Out of that relief the letter was written, from Macedonia—Theophan judges from Philippi—and carried back by Titus in the company of two brethren. But the news Titus brought was not all consolation. Around the edges of a sound and faithful community there ran murmurs against the Apostle himself: that he was fickle, promising a visit and then changing his route; that he was bold enough on paper but weak and unimpressive in person; even that he was no true Apostle at all. So the letter answers to a double occasion. Paul writes to seal his reconciliation with a church now restored to him, and at the same time to disarm the whispering that would set that church against him before he could arrive in person. Theophan reads the whole epistle as the meeting of these two currents—overflowing tenderness and unbending self-defense—and finds in that very tension the key to its swings of tone. On the older chronology that Theophan follows, he dates the letter to the year 58 or 59; readers should note that modern reckonings more often place it in the middle of that decade, but the difference touches only the calendar, not the story.

Argument and Structure

Theophan divides the epistle into three unequal parts, and this scheme governs his whole exposition. The first and longest part runs through chapters one to seven; he calls it the theological. It opens with thanksgiving to God for comfort granted in affliction, moves through Paul’s explanation of why his travel plans had changed, and then rises—prompted, Theophan observes, by the flood of relief at Titus’s report—into a sustained contemplation of the dignity of the gospel ministry: the treasure carried in earthen vessels, the surpassing glory of the new covenant, the ministry of reconciliation, the appeal for open and undivided hearts. The part closes as it began, in the language of joy, with Paul rehearsing the comfort that the Corinthians’ repentance had brought him.

The second part, chapters eight and nine, Theophan calls the practical. Here the register drops from contemplation to counsel: two whole chapters on the collection of alms being gathered for the impoverished believers in Jerusalem. Paul holds up the generosity of the Macedonian churches as a spur, sets out the measure of what is owed and what is freely given, and surrounds the whole business of money with the motives of grace, so that a matter of practical charity becomes an occasion for teaching on cheerful and abundant giving.

The third part, chapters ten to thirteen, is the defensive. The tone hardens. Paul answers the murmurers directly, insists that he will prove as bold in person as in his letters when necessity demands it, and—driven to it against his own inclination—enters upon the reluctant “boasting” by which he vindicates his apostleship: his labors, his sufferings, his visions, and the thorn in the flesh through which he learned that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. He ends with a warning that when he comes he will not spare, and with the summons to self-examination that leads into the letter’s closing benediction. Theophan sums the three parts up in a single stroke: the first is warmhearted to just the degree that the last is sternly sobering, and the fatherly care of the Apostle required both.

Within this frame Theophan proceeds as he does throughout his Pauline work—a few verses at a time. He prints the passage, lays bare the thread of the argument, clears away what is obscure, and then presses the sense home upon the reader’s own conscience. He is unhurried where Paul is dense and swift where Paul is plain, and he never loses the connective tissue of the letter, the “why here and not elsewhere” that makes a string of exhortations into a single sustained address.

Theological and Spiritual Significance

The governing theme of the epistle, and of Theophan’s reading of it, is the apostolic ministry itself—its glory and its suffering held together in one hand. Paul carries the treasure of the gospel, in the words Theophan dwells upon, “in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” His afflictions are not evidence against his calling but the very seal of it, for it is in a body given over to death that the life of Jesus is made manifest. God, Paul says, “comforteth us in all our tribulation,” and the comfort received becomes comfort to be passed on; strength is perfected in weakness, and the servant’s helplessness is the theater of his Lord’s power. Theophan handles this paradox not as a doctrine to be admired from without but as a condition to be entered—the pattern, as he understands it, of every Christian life and not of apostles only.

At the center of the theological part stands the contrast of the two covenants in chapter three. The old covenant was written and engraved on stone, “for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life”; the new is the “ministration of the spirit,” whose glory, unlike the fading brightness on the face of Moses, does not pass away. When the heart turns to the Lord the veil is lifted, and believers “beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.” Theophan reads this transformation as the very substance of the life of grace—not a metaphor for moral improvement but the real remaking of the person from within by the Spirit.

From this flows what is perhaps the letter’s most luminous teaching, the ministry of reconciliation. In Christ there is a new creation: “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” God has reconciled the world to himself through Christ and has entrusted to the Apostles the word of reconciliation, so that they stand as ambassadors and plead in Christ’s own stead, “be ye reconciled to God.” Theophan lingers here on the astonishing courtesy of it—that the offended party should be the one to entreat—and on the weight it lays upon those who carry the message.

The practical chapters give the theology hands. The collection for Jerusalem is no mere fundraising; Theophan takes it as an enactment of the same reconciliation, the Gentile churches binding themselves in love to the mother church in Judea, and he draws out Paul’s teaching that God loves a cheerful giver and that giving, done in grace, enriches the giver more than the recipient.

The defensive chapters, for all their sharpness, yield the letter’s most intimate disclosures. Caught up to the third heaven, Paul will not boast of the vision but only of the thorn given him lest he be exalted above measure—the messenger of Satan to buffet him, which three times he begged the Lord to remove, and to which came the answer, “my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Theophan finds in this the summit of the whole epistle, the point where its argument about ministry and its argument about weakness become one confession. And the letter closes, as no other of Paul’s does, with the full Trinitarian blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.” Theophan expounds this as a compressed creed—the one God confessed in three Persons—and as a summary of all the gifts of salvation, grace from the Son, love from the Father, communion from the Spirit.

Reception and Place in Theophan’s Pauline Work

Before it is anything of Theophan’s own, this exposition belongs to the Church’s continuous tradition of reading Paul. Theophan sets himself among the earlier interpreters and quotes them on page after page: Saint John Chrysostom above all, whose homilies on Second Corinthians he treats as the indispensable foundation, and beside him Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, Oecumenius, Photius, and Theophylact of Ohrid. Where these authorities agree, he lets their consensus carry the weight; where they diverge, he sets their readings side by side and judges between them, reserving his own labor for tracing the movement of Paul’s thought and rendering it plain to a nineteenth-century reader. To that inherited learning he adds the unmistakable note of Russian spiritual writing: he will not let a truth stand as mere theory but drives it toward prayer, toward the heart, toward the daily struggle against the passions. This marriage of patient, catena-fed interpretation with ascetic urgency is what distinguishes the commentary and what has kept it in use.

Its place is within the larger monument of Theophan’s Pauline expositions, composed across his years of reclusion and received in Russia as a major contribution to the study of Scripture—the labors for which the theological academies elected him an honored member and the Saint Petersburg Academy, in 1890, conferred on him a doctorate in theology. Read alongside his commentary on First Corinthians, this volume completes his account of Paul’s long and stormy dealings with that one difficult, beloved church, and shows the Apostle in the aftermath of conflict, wounded and reconciled at once.

The Text and This Edition

This edition presents a fresh, modern English translation of Saint Theophan’s commentary, rendered from his Russian text. The source is the public-domain Russian edition of his Expositions of the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, as issued by the Russian Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos in the pre-revolutionary period and preserved in the digital text of that edition. Theophan wrote in Russian for ordinary believers rather than for scholars, and this translation keeps that plainness, aiming at clear and dignified contemporary English while preserving the movement of his exposition and the many voices—Chrysostom, Theodoret, and the rest—that he weaves into it.

The scriptural text within the commentary follows Theophan’s own citations, which rest on the Church’s Greek and Slavonic tradition; where his readings reflect that tradition rather than a later critical text, the translation stays faithful to what he actually comments upon, so that the exposition and the verse before it always agree. Chapter and verse references, and the internal divisions of the work, are given in the plain Arabic style now standard for reference, so that a reader may move quickly between the commentary and a Bible.

In keeping with the conventions of this series, the author is named as the Church has always received him, Saint Theophan the Recluse; those who prepared this English text are credited as translators and never as authors. The aim throughout has been an edition that a reader with no Russian and no specialist training can take up and follow—the very readers Theophan wrote for—and through which the Apostle’s most personal letter may be heard again in its own accents of severity and love.

Suggestions for Reading

Second Corinthians is Paul at his most exposed, and its abrupt turns from tenderness to self-defense can bewilder a reader who does not know the history behind them. Theophan’s opening chapters exist precisely to supply that history; it is worth reading them first and unhurriedly, for they are the map to everything that follows. Keep the Apostle’s own text open beside the commentary and read the exposition just after the verse it treats, remembering that the quotations from Chrysostom and the others are not digressions but the substance of the reading. Above all, take the book as Theophan meant it to be taken—not merely to understand Paul but to be changed by him. The Apostle’s readiness to spend himself for his children, his boast made only in his weakness, and his unwearied plea that men be reconciled to God stand here not as ancient history but as the shape of the Christian life itself.

Introduction

Reason for Writing

Let us recall that the holy Apostle Paul, having received word from the household of Chloe concerning certain disorders in the Church of Corinth, sent the holy Timothy there to ascertain the facts and to effect what corrections could be made. But following Timothy’s departure from Ephesus, envoys from the Corinthian Church arrived with a letter from the Corinthians. In response to this letter and to all that was occurring in Corinth, the holy Apostle Paul wrote his first epistle, sending it with these same envoys to the Corinthian Church. In it he wrote, among other things, that he had sent Timothy to them, instructing that they receive him and provide for him, and promising himself to come to them as soon as he had arranged all things in Ephesus, where he intended to remain until Pentecost.

Thus, from the first epistle we see that the chief intermediary between the Corinthians and the holy Apostle Paul, on Paul’s behalf, was the holy Timothy. From the second epistle, however, we see that this role is now held by the holy Titus. Paul anxiously awaits him from Corinth in Troas, is gladdened by his arrival in Macedonia, thanks the Corinthians for the good reception they gave him, and sends the second epistle with him; whereas the holy Timothy stands with the holy Apostle in the inscription of the epistle, as a co-author, yet is not mentioned in the epistle itself. What a change?!

In the introduction to the first epistle, a conjecture has already been offered in explanation of this. Let us repeat it. The affairs of the holy Apostle in Ephesus did not proceed as he had supposed. The tumult raised against him by Demetrius the silversmith forced him to depart from Ephesus much sooner than he had written to Corinth; and this altered all his plans. The holy Timothy could not reach Corinth before Paul himself; the alms could not be collected as he desired; an unexpected appearance in Corinth by Paul himself might have an unfavorable effect on the perceptive scholarship of the Corinthians; moreover, to appear there without knowing how the first epistle had been received would not accord with the rule of prudence observed by the holy Apostle. For all these reasons, when departing Ephesus, the holy Apostle sent the holy Titus to Corinth with word of the change in his plan and of his coming much sooner than expected, entrusting him meanwhile to oversee the gathering of alms and especially to inquire carefully into how the first epistle had been received and what effect it had produced. The latter, one may say, was the principal matter, which was concealed under the arrangements concerning the collection of alms. Having gathered reliable information about the consequences of the first epistle, the holy Titus was to hasten to meet the holy Apostle, whom he expected to wait for him in Troas.

Having made these arrangements, the holy Apostle set his course toward Troas. Troas is by sea almost as far from Ephesus as Corinth. But if the holy Apostle intended to visit certain churches on the way, then upon arriving in Troas, he could reasonably hope that, if he did not find the holy Titus already there, he would soon await his arrival. In every way, he intended to occupy himself in Troas with preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 2:12). Upon arriving there he set to this work; and a door was opened to him by the Lord; but since Titus was still not there, from great anxiety he was unable to continue the work of preaching; therefore, taking his leave of those there, he hurried to Macedonia, probably to Philippi (2 Cor. 2:13). Here the holy Apostle either found, or soon awaited, Titus with joyful news from Corinth; therefore, having spoken of his going to Macedonia, he exclaims: “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph!” (2 Cor. 2:14). In Macedonia the holy Apostle also caught up with the holy Timothy, who perhaps delayed there for some reason, whether it was on account of business, or illness, or yet some other cause—if such conjectures are needed on this matter. That is why in the second epistle the holy Titus is mentioned only as the active agent on behalf of the holy Apostle, while the holy Timothy stands only in the inscription.

The second epistle to the Corinthians is written immediately after Titus’ arrival, as is evident from what the holy Apostle writes in this epistle concerning the reception he received in Corinth (2 Cor. 7:11–16); consequently, it is written on the basis of the information that Titus brought, and in accordance with it. From this the content of the epistle makes it possible to conjecture what the holy Titus brought from Corinth; and this conjecture, if one sets it forth, will make it possible both to understand the content of the epistle more clearly and to see why it is such and not otherwise. Thus commentators proceed: and thus we must proceed as well.

What did the holy Titus bring? He brought assurance that the epistle had worked the same effect on Corinthian society as a strong wind works on gathered noxious vapors. The community was roused and with great zeal immediately set about correcting all the faults that had been pointed out (2 Cor. 7:11), and showed complete readiness to do all possible toward gathering alms. Although the epistle speaks of the correction of only one matter, namely the excommunication of the one guilty of incest (2 Cor. 2:5–8), and only in passing alludes to the rejection of all pagan practices (2 Cor. 6:14–17); yet there is no doubt that they had resolved to correct everything according to Paul’s instruction with complete exactitude. This should be confirmed by the very fact that the holy Apostle no longer mentions anything else, regarding that as unnecessary and burdensome. Having received such news, the holy Apostle was extremely comforted and gladdened (2 Cor. 7:6, 7).

But there was something else that the holy Titus brought, which, though it did not disturb the apostolic spirit that had been reassured concerning the whole body of the Corinthian Church, nonetheless required his attention and care. The body of the Church in all respects showed itself to be pure (2 Cor. 7:11) and full of true Christian spirit; but around its edges there were certain rumors about the holy Apostle Paul and his deeds that were not altogether favorable; there seem to have been even some who were not particularly eager and did not quickly abandon disapproved customary practices (2 Cor. 12:20, 21). The latter is a matter of weakness; but in the former one perceives hostile disposition toward the holy Apostle. These, for example, criticized in the holy Apostle the fact that he first wished to come directly to them, to go from them to the Macedonians, and then return from them, so as to depart from them to Judea (2 Cor. 1:16), but then changed his plan and is coming to them through Macedonia instead. This, they said, he does with “levity” or is “deliberating” something “according to the flesh” (2 Cor. 1:17). When the holy Apostle made such a promise is not apparent from either the Acts or the first epistle. Probably he had communicated this to them before the first epistle and before the reports from the household of Chloe through one of the faithful. The information received afterward regarding the state of the Corinthian Church caused him to change this intention. But those, not knowing this, censured him and were even ready to cast some shadow of instability upon the very preaching of the Gospel and upon the economy of salvation in the Lord (2 Cor. 1:17–22). But evil rumors were not limited to this alone. They also said: How strict he is in his letter! But when he was here, how did he conduct himself—so humbly and gently! And this is not all; it was also heard: Is he really an Apostle? Such and similar rumors were circulating in Christian society. There is no need to seek out who originated them, whether misguided believers or unbelievers ill-disposed toward the holy Apostle. It is sufficient to know that they were heard among Christians to see in this a reason for the holy Apostle to attend to them and to hasten to the believers with explanations that could prevent them from erring regarding him.

Both kinds of news prompted the holy Apostle to write a new epistle to the Corinthians. He needed to assure them, before his arrival among them, that he was completely reconciled to them in spirit, and joyful concerning their zeal in correcting all the faults indicated by his letter. He needed to provide the faithful with adequate explanations by means of which they themselves could repel the empty rumors about the holy Apostle that were being spread among them; for if these were left alone, they could implant in the minds of Christians prejudices dangerous to the Gospel’s cause regarding him and his manner of action. He needed also to urge to correction those who still were lagging in correcting themselves, so that, when coming to them, he would have no need to act with all the severity of apostolic authority, as he himself says: “I may not come harshly and use the authority that the Lord gave me” (2 Cor. 13:10). And concerning alms, too, he needed to say something, in order to surround this holy work with holy motives and deeds, to point out the bounds of what is due and what is willing, and in part to encourage zeal for it: “I am afraid that somehow”, he says, “if the Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to mention you—would be humiliated in this undertaking” (2 Cor. 9:4).

Content of the Epistle

All this constitutes the content of the epistle. There is in it yet one more subject, which seems to depend on no particular circumstances, namely: an exposition of the high dignity of Christian revelation despite the outward unprepossessing appearance of its preachers, and of how it is accomplished in deed and reaches the ear of those willing to listen to it. The holy Apostle rises to the contemplation of this upon hearing of the triumphant effect of his written word to the Corinthians. For he speaks of this immediately after, upon listening to the holy Titus, he exclaims: “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph… and through us spreads the fragrance of His knowledge among us in” “every” “place” (2 Cor. 2:14).

The holy Apostle sets forth these subjects in the epistle in the following order. In the middle comes discussion of alms and occupies two chapters—chapters 8 and 9. At the end is placed a stern word to dispel evil rumors about the holy Apostle and to urge those who had not yet corrected themselves to do so. People said of him that he was stern in his letters, but when present himself, he was gentle and meek; and others added to this: Is he really an Apostle? Perhaps such rumors were the reason that in some the moral energy was weakened, and they corrected themselves slothfully. Therefore the Apostle, having in mind especially to rouse these last, writes that he is just as stern in person as in his letters, when necessity requires it (ch. 10); and then, having proved that he is indeed a true Apostle, no less than others, and consequently clothed with full apostolic authority (ch. 11–12), concludes: correct yourselves beforehand—I will come and will not spare (2 Cor. 12:20, ch. 13). This is set forth in chapters 10–13. At the beginning, after giving thanks to God for the comfort afforded him by deliverance from many afflictions (2 Cor. 1:1–11), the holy Apostle explains the reason for changing his travel plans (2 Cor. 1:12–24, 2:1–11); then, rising to the contemplation of the exaltedness of Christian revelation and economy, he sets forth with inspired speech the whole course of this work (2 Cor. 2:12–7:1) and concludes by expressing the joy and comfort brought to him by Titus’ reception in Corinth and all that he saw there and what Titus reported to the Apostle (2 Cor. 7:2–16). This occupies the first seven chapters.

Division

Thus the epistle is divided into three parts: The first contains an expression of thanksgiving to God, and of the joy and comfort that the happy success of his epistle brought to the holy Apostle Paul, with an exposition on this occasion of the high dignity of Christian revelation and economy and the whole course of it (ch. 1–7). The second contains instructions concerning alms with certain arrangements with respect to it (ch. 8 and 9). The third contains necessary explanations to refute the evil rumors being spread about the holy Apostle and to urge those who have not yet corrected themselves to do so (ch. 10–13). More briefly they can be designated as follows: the first—theological, the second—practical, the third—defensive. If we distinguish them by tone, the first is warmhearted to the same degree that the last is sternly sobering, breathing the inexorableness of authority. This the fatherly care of the holy Apostle demanded in regard to the correction of the uncorrected.

Time and Place of Writing

From the course of events it is evident that this epistle was written in the same year as the first, namely 58 or 59. It was most probably written in Philippi and sent with Titus in the company of two other brothers (2 Cor. 8:16–24).

Preface

The Inscription and Greeting (2 Cor. 1:1–2)

2 Cor. 1:1, 2. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the Church of God that is in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The inscription and greeting are customary; but there are certain terms in them that raise questions and require clarification.

The holy Apostle had need to confirm his apostolic dignity (in the final part); yet in the inscription he does not present his name and person with any special indications, as he did, for example, in the epistle to the Galatians, saying: “not from men nor through man” (Gal. 1:1). From this one must conclude that he did not attach great importance to the evil rumors being spread about him; for which reason he did not make particular effort to prove his apostolic dignity from the very beginning.

In the first epistle he placed Sosthenes with himself; here he places the holy Timothy. Sosthenes probably, with the holy Titus, returned to Corinth and remained there. That the holy Timothy would not be in Corinth, this the holy Titus told them; but they might have wondered where he was. By placing his name alongside his own, the Apostle made known to them that he was with him. This alone explained everything to them without any special additions about him. The holy Chrysostom, as is his custom, points to the moral dimension of this arrangement, saying: “By placing Timothy alongside himself, the Apostle gains him greater respect, and shows profound humility in himself. For although Timothy was lower than the Apostle, love unites all things.” And Theodoret adds: “but the blessed Titus the Apostle did not place alongside himself in the writings, because he designated him to be their minister and sent this epistle with him.”

The Corinthian Christian community the Apostle calls a “Church,” signifying thereby that it was fully organized in all its parts and possessed all that should be in a Christian Church. In this he presented to them “an incentive to unanimity and concord” (Theodoret), “wishing to gather and unite them as one: for there cannot otherwise be a Church where those comprising it are divided among themselves and make war upon one another” (the holy Chrysostom).

“Together with all the saints throughout Achaia.” “By these words the Apostle shows preference to the Corinthians, when through an epistle written to them he greets all others, and at the same time urges the whole Church gathered from that nation toward peace and harmony. By calling them saints he shows that the unclean have no share in this greeting” (the holy Chrysostom); “it belongs to no one who is earthly and has become earthlike” (Oecumenius). But whom does the holy Apostle mean by these “saints,” individual persons or whole churches? One must suppose whole churches. For it is known that there was a Church in Cenchreae (Rom. 16:1); probably also there was a Church in Athens, and perhaps in other places, far and near. Achaia included both Greece proper and the Peloponnese. And that the Apostle said “to all the saints” rather than “to the churches” is customary with him. For in writing to the Ephesians, the Philippians, and the Colossians, he said the same: “to all the saints”; whereas in all those places there were fully organized churches. But was this a circular epistle, intended for all those churches which the Apostle designated by the words “to all the saints,” or was the epistle intended only for the Corinthians, and those others mentioned only as a greeting, only as an incentive to fraternal unity of all? Judging from the fact that the epistle contains particulars relating exclusively to the Corinthians, one must suppose that this was not a circular epistle. But, as in those days there was such zeal for hearing and understanding the apostolic word, an epistle to one Church quickly became the possession of other churches; so too the epistle to the Corinthians probably soon circulated throughout all the Achaian churches. Supposing that they found here admonitions that might apply directly to them, we must allow in them also the belief that it had been written for them. The holy Chrysostom supposes that it can be called a common epistle for all on the assumption that it healed the common ailments of all.

In the words “grace to you and peace,” one may understand by “grace” the entirety of spiritual life, and by “peace” the entirety of outer well-being, that is, apart from peaceful union of the believers among themselves, apart from the peaceful progress of their affairs, especially peaceful relations with outsiders, so that there would be no persecutions, oppressions, or hardships, so that with outward peace they might more easily advance also in the inward life well-pleasing to God.

“From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” “He indicates to them the Master and Benefactor” (Theodoret). This is a customary word in all the epistles. But as the Apostle does not tire of mentioning it each time, neither should we be lazy to refresh in our minds thereby that good thought, that all good things descend to us from God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, adding: in the Holy Spirit,—from the Most Holy Trinity,—the one and benevolent God, and infinitely gracious.

The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

The holy Apostle begins his epistle with an outpouring of grateful feelings toward God for comfort in his afflictions and those of all who labor in preaching the Gospel, and for deliverance from a recent mortal danger, cherishing the hope that He will continue to deliver, with the aid, among other things, of the prayers of the faithful Corinthians (2 Cor. 1:3–11). a) In offering thanksgiving to God for comfort in affliction, the Apostle assures them that God does this for the good of the believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7), and b) in cherishing hope for future deliverance from evil, he acknowledges the prayers of the faithful as contributors to the bestowal of this good (2 Cor. 1:8–11). In both places he expresses the close union of those who labor in preaching the Gospel with those who believe in it, under the influence of their preaching.

a) God sends afflictions for the good of believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

2 Cor. 1:3, 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

“Blessed be God!” How natural it was for the holy Apostle to cry out thus after God had delivered him from “such a deadly peril in Asia” (2 Cor. 1:10, 8), and as he, who had no rest in his spirit in Troas (2 Cor. 2:13) and in Macedonia was experiencing “conflicts without and fears within,” was comforted by the coming of Titus (2 Cor. 7:5, 6)! Wholly dedicated to God, the Apostle perceived every event with himself as coming directly from God, and saw God’s gracious hand not only in comforts but also in afflictions.

“The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” is used in the same sense as the Lord Himself said after the resurrection: “I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (Jn. 20:17), that is, according to the economy of our salvation. “In these words there is nothing new. The same Christ, according to His humanity, is God to, while according to His divinity the Father” (Theophylact).

“The Father of mercies and God of all comfort,”—God, whose very essence consists in pouring forth mercies and comforts: for He “is love” (1 Jn. 4:16). Thus has He ordered all that exists and thus He orders all that comes to pass, so that, provided only the creation does not depart from His will and His counsel, it will always drink only comforts from the cup of God’s mercies. In the present order of things, even that which outwardly brings affliction is undoubtedly a work of God’s mercies and leads to comfort. The Apostle speaks as it were with these words: Father and God, “who pours forth mercies, is a fountain of compassion, and deals with us with paternal mercies” (Theodoret). It is customary for the Spirit-inspired writers to name God not by one name, but variously, deriving these names from His infinite perfections, attributes, and actions. “Thus the holy David does not call God the same everywhere, nor does he derive the names of God from the same attributes; but when he reasons about war and victory, he says: ‘O Lord, my strength, I love you’” (Ps. 17:2); “and when he recalls his deliverance from affliction and darkness that oppressed his soul, he said: ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation’” (Ps. 26:1). “Sometimes he borrows His name from philanthropy, sometimes from His justice, sometimes from His impartial judgment, in accordance with the circumstances in which he found himself. In like manner here the holy Apostle at the beginning of his epistle calls God from the aspect of His philanthropy: ‘Father of mercies, God of all comfort.’ That is: to display mercies abundantly and to show compassion before all else is proper and native to God” (the holy Chrysostom).

“He who comforts us” “in every” “affliction of ours.” “The Apostle shows that God provides comfort equal to every trial. So also the blessed David said: ‘The multitude of sorrows in my heart; Your comforts have delighted my soul’ (Ps. 93:19).” (Theodoret). “He did not say: the one preventing us from falling into sorrow, but: the one comforting us in sorrow. For this shows both God’s power and strengthens the patience of the afflicted. David the prophet said the same: ‘In my affliction You have expanded me’ (Ps. 4:2). He did not say: You did not permit me to fall into affliction, or: You immediately scattered my affliction; but he said: in the course of affliction You expanded me, that is, You gave me great coolness and relief, which is what God did also with the three youths. For He did not prevent them from being cast into the furnace, and when they were cast in, He did not extinguish the flames; but when the furnace was burning, He gave them coolness. And this God ordinarily does in all cases. Alluding to this, Paul also says: ‘the one comforting us’ ‘in every’ ‘affliction.’ But by this he shows something yet more. What is it? That God does not act this way once or twice, but always. For God does not act so as to comfort now but at another time to abandon; but always and at every time of affliction He provides comfort. Therefore the Apostle said: ‘the one comforting,’ not: the one who comforted; and: ‘in every’ ‘affliction,’ not in this or that affliction, but in every affliction.” (Saint Chrysostom).

“So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” – “So that we may be able” Εις το δυνασθαι, that we might be able. For this reason, he says, God comforts us in all affliction, so that we also might comfort others. We – this is either the holy Paul with the holy Timothy, or all the Apostles in general. God chose them to be both organs of His word and instruments of consolation for those grieving over this word. But how could consolation from the Apostles be transmitted to other grieving ones? – Some say: by the example of consolation granted by the Apostles, other sorrowful ones were encouraged toward magnanimous endurance, and hope of similar consolation comforted them in sorrows; others say: from love for the Apostles, others, looking at their sorrows, grieved too; but when they received consolation, they were comforted together with them as well. And the sorrow of the Apostles was their sorrow, and the consolation of the Apostles – their consolation (Oecumenius, Theophylact). Both, though capable of being accepted, do not fully express the Apostle’s thought. Here consolation from the Apostles passes to others without the knowledge of the Apostles themselves; but in the word of the holy Paul they are represented as actively pouring consolation into the hearts of other sorrowful ones. Being comforted by God, they become an overflowing source of consolation for the sorrowful; with the consolation with which God comforts them, they share with others. And how is this done? – Through the word. A heart full of consolation also imparts consoling power to the word, so that it breathes only consolation. The one who has grieved knows from which side come the oppressive and deadly floods of sorrow, and also knows what thoughts the comforting God raises in the soul against these floods; therefore he can so attune every soul that, even while grieving, it will always rejoice. The Apostles abounded in this gift; and as, being alive, they comforted all the grieving, so in their writings they left us instructions by which every sorrowful person will find consolation for himself.

2 Cor. 1:5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our comfort also abounds through Christ.

He presents the reason why one should not doubt that they are indeed able to comfort those who are in all afflictions. Do not doubt this, he says; for we have sufferings in abundance, and comforts in abundance; we suffer more than all, and God gives us comfort more than all. We have much in reserve; the afflictions are for us, and the comforts are for you. Having said that our sufferings abound, the Apostle did not stop at this alone; “but lest he discourage his disciples by too strong a description of his afflictions, he shows the great wealth of comfort, and in this way encourages their spirit; and not only does he encourage them by this, but also by mentioning Christ when speaking of his sufferings, that they are the sufferings of Christ, and thus draws comfort from the afflictions themselves before any other comfort. For what can be more pleasant than this, to be a partner with Christ and for His sake to endure sufferings? What can equal this comfort?” (the holy Chrysostom).

The Apostle called sufferings the sufferings of Christ because they were for Christ, for His word and for the work of preaching salvation to all in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even more one may say: sufferings for Christ are Christ’s sufferings, because He appropriates them to Himself, counts them as His own. He once suffered with all-embracing suffering; those who suffer for Him enter into compassion with Him, in which, as the Apostle often assures us, consists the mystery of our salvation. Participation in the sufferings of Christ introduces into participation in His life as well, and in this is everything.

By placing the sufferings for Christ so closely alongside the sufferings of Christ, the Apostle in this communion with Christ through suffering points also to the source of comfort. Suffering for Christ, we enter into communion of the sufferings of Christ; but since Christ is now in blessed glory, naturally through Christ comforts abound, notwithstanding sorrowfulness, or in the very sorrowfulness itself, so that sorrowfulness remains only outward, while inward peace alone reigns, and it cannot be otherwise. This is not produced by consoling thoughts in the heart, but comfort, apart from any efforts of the mind and self-consoling reasoning, flows into the soul from the face of Christ the Lord and, dwelling in it, fills it. “Through Christ,” he says, “our comfort also abounds,”—abounds both over our sufferings and absorbs them. Thus understands it the holy Chrysostom: “The Apostle glorifies the philanthropy of the Lord also by saying that we are much more comforted than we are troubled. Since he did not say that comfort equals sufferings, but comfort, he says, abounds, so that the time of labors is also a time of superabundance of comfort. Therefore those who suffer for Christ fear no one and tremble at nothing, and amid afflictions themselves are calmer and more joyful than all: for they are at once deemed worthy of countless comforts from Christ Himself.”

2 Cor. 1:6, 7. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Thus, he says, it turns out that whether we suffer, we suffer for your sake; or whether we are comforted, we are comforted for your sake. This is the direct meaning of both texts, and it is self-evident. But the holy Apostle sets it forth at length, with certain correlations. This—for your sake, the Apostle expresses—“for your comfort and salvation.” He had spoken of comfort throughout, and it appears as though it is the main thing; yet here is introduced “salvation.” How comfort that is Christ’s is the fruit of the Apostles’ sufferings follows directly from what precedes. Since we suffer, it was said earlier, so we are comforted; we are comforted so that we might have the ability to comfort others who grieve. From this it is evident that the Apostles suffer so that they themselves might be filled with comfort and then pour it into the souls of others who are in all afflictions, that is, they both suffer and are comforted for the comfort of others. But how does “salvation” fit here? It is the principal thing indeed. For the Apostles suffered for the preaching of the Gospel, and the Gospel is the glad tidings about the sole means of salvation for us, and those who receive it in faith, who heed the preaching, are saved. Zeal for this salvation inspired the Apostles in their labors of preaching and in enduring all afflictions. It went before; it drew comfort. Likewise, believers, receiving the Gospel from the Apostles, entered the path of salvation; but with this entrance they also underwent afflictions, and suffering for this cause, they were deemed worthy of comfort from the Apostles, who suffered for the Gospel and their salvation,—so that such an inseparable connection of sufferings and comforts in Apostles and believers exists for the sake of salvation being worked in one through the other. Only in the order of salvation does it happen that sufferings themselves spring forth comfort. This, as was said above, is because the sufferings of the believers and the saved introduce them into participation in the sufferings of Christ, into union with Christ Himself, from whom, as He stands in blessed glory, comfort immediately flows forth. The principal thing, therefore, both in Apostles and believers, is the bringing about of salvation. Comfort effects this, and by removing the destructive effect from sorrows, does not allow them to hinder the accomplishment of salvation.

The blessed Theodoret writes: “For your sake we Apostles undergo all sorts of temptations (afflictions). For if we had not wished to impart to you salvation-bearing preaching, no one would have caused us sufferings. But since we are concerned for your salvation, from opponents we receive an onslaught of griefs toward us, and from the Master God we enjoy comfort. And thus, for your sake we have both. Share with us both, as making your own all that is ours.”

This appropriation of all the Apostles had in their hearts already come to pass. They received faith; according to faith they began to bring about their salvation; and for both they began also to suffer. Therefore the Apostle says: “We are afflicted for your comfort and salvation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we also suffer.” They believed, turned from pagan gods, abstained from pagan customs, separated themselves from the ways of pagan fleshly life, became strangers amid their own people; and for this they underwent unpleasantness, privations, oppression. They worked their salvation; but since it was impossible not to stir up others thereby, this working of salvation was accompanied by endurance of sufferings. The Apostle says: “the same sufferings,” in the sense of: such sufferings, that is, for the same cause for which we also suffer, for the accomplishment of salvation. He is not writing some exhortation, but setting forth the matter as it is. We suffer, bearing to you salvation through the Gospel; you suffer, having received the Gospel. And this is testimony that salvation is being worked in you. If indeed salvation, then also comfort, for they are inseparable. The holy Chrysostom says: “Not we alone (Apostles) are the authors of your salvation, but you yourselves as well. For as we, by preaching, endure sorrows, so you, receiving our word, endure the same: we, so as to transmit to you what we ourselves have received; and you, so as to receive what is given and not to lose it. Your salvation is not established only by the fact that you believe, but also by the fact that you also suffer and endure as we do. From this it is evident that the actual power of salvation does not consist merely in not doing evil, but also in courageously enduring evil ourselves.”

It is not superfluous to pay attention also to the word “being worked.” Outwardly—sufferings; under their cover, within, salvation is being worked. By whom and how? As if apart from and without the knowledge of those being saved. They only suffer and exert strength to endure; yet there—within—salvation is worked of itself. But although it is worked of itself, it cannot be worked without one who works it. Who is he? The grace of God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, who, as He was pleased Himself to suffer, so also accomplishes the salvation of all under the weight of sufferings. The holy Chrysostom remarks on this word: “He did not say: being worked, but ‘being worked,’ showing thereby that their zeal was greatly aided by the grace working in them.”

“Our hope for you is unshaken.” You suffer, he said, as we do, bringing about your salvation. But although you endure countless hardships, yet we hope that you will not fall away even when you are persecuted. “We not only have no suspicion that you will be troubled by our sufferings, but we also hope that you will remain steadfast even when you yourselves are in danger” (the holy Chrysostom).

We are comforted “for your comfort and salvation, knowing that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.”

There, in testimony that the Apostles suffer for the comfort and salvation of believers, he brings forward the sufferings of these latter. These sufferings assured that salvation was being worked; with salvation is inseparably united comfort. But that salvation was being worked in them came from the Apostles, who preached and suffered for the Gospel. Here, that they are comforted for their sake, for their comfort and salvation, is accomplished through their sufferings. We suffer for the Gospel; you suffer for the reception of the Gospel. It would be sorrowful for us to see that you suffer as if by our fault. But this does not grieve us. Why? By the certain coincidence in us of both sufferings and comforts. For as in us, so it must be also in you. Our sufferings bring forth to us comfort through Christ the Lord and our Saviour. Undoubtedly the same must be also in you: for Christ the Lord is the same for you as for us; because you do the work of His just as we do. Knowing this, we are not troubled by your sufferings, which accompany the reception of our Gospel, “knowing that” you are “partners in our sufferings, so you will also be in our comfort”.

But this came to pass afterward; beforehand this happened: The Lord amid the very sufferings filled the Apostles with every comfort. Having experienced this and knowing that believers too will undoubtedly undergo sufferings, the Apostles told them everything beforehand—both that they would necessarily undergo sufferings, and that in the very sufferings they would receive comfort. Knowing this, believers courageously met sufferings and, enduring them patiently, were established in salvation and were deemed worthy of comfort. Had the Apostles not forewarned them of all, they would not have entered into the struggle, and consequently not onto the path of salvation and comfort. But how would the Apostles have forewarned if they themselves were not experiencing comfort in sufferings? And it turns out that God sent them comfort for the comfort and salvation of believers. For the inevitable path was this: to believe, and upon believing to suffer. Sufferings would turn them from faith if they did not spring forth comfort. They did spring forth, but to believe this, there were needed proofs. These proofs God manifested in the persons of the Apostles, who then with boldness assured all: you will suffer, be not troubled; in the very sufferings you will receive comfort. Thus it always happens with us, so will it be with you: partners in our sufferings—partners in our comfort.

But one can understand the words “we are comforted for your comfort” and “partners in sufferings—partners in comfort” in the sense that this happens through sympathy. Believers see Apostles suffering, and suffer themselves; see them comforted, and are comforted themselves; and are still further established in the work of salvation. Thus the holy Chrysostom: “Our comfort passes over into peace for you, even then, should it happen that we do not comfort you with words. If we receive only a small consolation, even this is enough for your comfort. And although comfort might come only to us, this itself will comfort you. For as you receive our sufferings as your own, so you must count every comfort of ours as your own. For as in our sorrows you participate, why would you not participate in our joys? No; as then, when we are persecuted, you grieve, as if you yourselves were suffering persecution, so we are sure that when we receive comfort, you receive it just as if you yourselves enjoyed it.”

The Prayers of Believers Share in Deliverance From Troubles (2 Cor. 1:8–11)

2 Cor. 1:8. For we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

“We do not want you to be ignorant”—we want you to know. “We tell you of this,” he says, “so that you will not be in ignorance of what happened to us. For we desire that you know all that is happening to us, and we are very concerned for this. And this is the strongest proof of his love for them” (the holy Chrysostom).

“About the affliction we experienced in Asia.” What affliction does the Apostle mean here? Either the affliction which he suffered from those “many adversaries,” of whom he spoke in the first epistle (1 Cor. 16:9) (the holy Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact), or “he has in mind the uproar raised by the silversmith Demetrius” (Theodoret). But why not understand here, besides this, also that great extremity in which the Apostle found himself when fighting with the beast in Ephesus (1 Cor. 15:32)? These two passages mutually explain each other, and all that the Apostle says now becomes completely understandable when we admit that he means the affliction which he experienced when placed in the necessity of standing face to face with the beast; it is understandable how he was “so utterly burdened beyond our strength,” how he did not hope to remain alive, and in his thoughts he considered that he would no more live (“we had the sentence of death upon us”), and how, when God delivered him from this evil, He did the same as if He had delivered him from death. Therefore we hold that it is best to rest upon this circumstance, not turning to allegorical interpretation of the Apostle’s struggle with the beast, not sheltering under the fact that nothing is said of this in Acts.

“So utterly burdened beyond our strength,”—“like a ship laden beyond its capacity with some cargo and ready to sink. With the words ‘so utterly’ and ‘beyond our strength,’ at first glance it seems that one and the same thing is expressed, but in reality it is not. ‘So utterly’ does not mean the same as ‘beyond our strength.’ Why, so that no one should say: however excessive the danger was, it was not great for you, the Apostle added that it was both great and exceeded our strength, and exceeded it so much that” “we despaired of life itself,” that is, we no longer expected even to remain alive. This state David called “the gates of hell, the pains of death, and the shadow of death” (Ps. 87). “The Apostle says the same thing, that is, they were subjected to such a danger which undoubtedly threatened them with death.” These are the words of the holy Chrysostom. How well they fit when we picture the holy Paul standing before the beast!

2 Cor. 1:9. Indeed, we had the sentence of death upon us, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God, who raises the dead.

“We ourselves had in our own hearts the sentence of death”, that is, we ourselves determined that we would no longer live. Holy Chrysostom says: “What does ‘the sentence of death’ mean?—It means judgment and expectation of death. The power of God did not allow this judgment to come to execution, permitting it to strike only our thoughts and expectation. Therefore he says: ‘we ourselves’ and not in reality the sentence ‘of death we had.’ Why did God permit such danger so they lost hope?—‘That we should rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.’ Here again he reminds them of the resurrection of which he spoke much in the first epistle.”

2 Cor. 1:10. He rescued us from such a deadly peril, and he will rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again.

“We, he says, were in such extremity that our death was a settled matter. Having delivered us from such extremity, God delivered us from death; we appeared—as alive from death, as buried ones risen from their tombs. ‘From such a deadly peril he rescued us,’ he says. He did not say: from such dangers, as well to show the irresistible force of the trials, and also to confirm more fully the truth of his teaching which he had presented before. Since the resurrection of the dead is still a future event, he shows here that it also happens daily. For when God snatches away a man who has despaired and approached the gates of hell, what else does He do but resurrect a dead man, drawing from death itself him who has fallen into its mouth? Therefore, at an unexpected deliverance of some man from a desperate state, it has become customary with many to say: in this man we have seen the resurrection of the dead.” With us they say: he has risen from the dead.

“And he will rescue us.” He spoke of the great affliction that occurred in Asia; but now he speaks of afflictions from which he has only just emerged, and the anguish of heart experienced in Troas, and of those outward conflicts and inward fears that troubled him in Macedonia. Afflictions continue; in their footsteps follows also the mercy of God that delivers from them. The hand of God, which holds me and protects me, is never withdrawn. I feel this and confess it.

“On him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again.”—“We have set our hope”—we have firmly hoped, we have certain hope, believing unshakably that it will always be so, as long as God has ordained us to live and work for His glory, planting the evangelical faith on earth; it will be thus: God will deliver us from all extremities. We seem destined to suffer and afflictions. This we know and expect nothing else ahead; yet this does not trouble us and does not stop us: for as certain as afflictions are for us, so certain is also deliverance from them. One expectation covers the other; and the peace of our spirit remains firm. The Apostle speaks as if saying: “We must constantly labor throughout all our lives; many trials lie ahead, and in them we will not again be abandoned, but will receive help and support from above” (the holy Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 1:11. As you help us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

“As you help us” relates not only to “will rescue us” but also to “rescues us” and “rescued us.” He wishes to say: your prayer has always been and is and will be helpful and instrumental to us. “He rescued us,” he says, “from those deaths, through the intercession of all of you in prayers for us” (the holy Chrysostom, and Photius in Oecumenius). If this prayer-help related only to future deliverance from evils, the Apostle would have said: you also help. But he does not ask; he speaks as of a pious act being fulfilled according to the established order. And prayer for the father-enlightener was arranged of itself, and probably the commandment was made directly upon enlightenment. Everywhere everyone prayed in common about their father, who had given them spiritual life. Thus “prayer was being made earnestly by the Church to God” for Peter (Acts 12:5). Thus all the churches prayed also about the holy Paul, that God might prosper him in all things. This prayer contributed to the fact that God delivered, delivers, and will deliver him from all evils. This is not a condition without which God’s help cannot exist; but such is the order in the spiritual kingdom, that such prayer necessarily exists in it, although God Himself by His own self provides all things as “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” “Note here,” says the holy Chrysostom, “that even when God by His mercy gives something, prayer here greatly contributes. Thus although Paul at the beginning of the epistle attributed his deliverance to God’s mercies; yet here he attributes it also to the prayers of the faithful.”

“As you help us” συνυπουργουντων, “and you.” Who then are the other participants in this work? The holy Paul himself, and all other churches, and all believers. Thus God was pleased to establish the kingdom of Christ, so that the need of one should be the common need of all, and deliverance from it should be received as a good for all. God wishes through this to keep all in the bond of love, living and sincere. Nowhere is this bond expressed so tangibly as in sympathy and the united prayer that results from it. All become one soul. For this reason such prayer is powerful and quickly answered. “Often the united and harmonious prayer of many inclines God. Therefore to the prophet Jonah He said: ‘Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons?’” (Jon. 4:11) “This was after they repented and cried out to God in prayer. What did the prayer for Peter accomplish? This prayer was so powerful that even when the doors of the prison were closed, and chains bound the Apostle, and on both sides guards slept around him, it brought him out of prison and freed him from all those dangers.”

“So that from many mouths thanks may be given on our behalf for the blessing granted us.”—“Blessing” χαρισμα, such a gift, such a good, which by natural means cannot possibly be obtained, but only from God, from God’s mercies (Photius in Oecumenius). “The blessing granted us” here means our deliverance. “Our deliverance, that is, liberation from all the evils of which he spoke, God wished to bestow on all of you, so that many might give Him thanks, because many received His grace” (the holy Chrysostom). He points to a deed already accomplished, but in it he points also to the law of God’s providential actions in the power of many prayers. God hears the prayers of many and grants what is requested, so that for what is given through the prayer of many, many may give thanks. But what? Does God need thanksgiving? No; but what is precious and valued in God’s eyes is that which evokes thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is evoked by a sense of well-being, and well-being is the goal of God’s mercy. Thanksgiving is a testimony that God’s mercy is poured out upon many, is received by many, and establishes well-being among them. In this lies God’s rest. But this sense of well-being is more precious in God’s eyes when it is felt not for this reason, that each received from God’s hand for himself, but that others received. In this case thanksgiving is anointed with the fragrance of disinterested love and places those who give thanks in a disposition corresponding to the giver. Behold what principles are hidden in the Apostle’s word! “And he said this both to urge them to pray for others, and to train them always to give thanks to God also for the deliverance of others from adversities, showing at the same time that God especially desires this. Those who pray and give thanks for others in both cases gather much greater benefit for themselves” (the holy Chrysostom).

Part One: The Theoretical (2 Cor. 1:12–7:16)

The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

First the Apostle 1) explains why he changed his travel plan (2 Cor. 1:12–24, 2:1–11). Then 2) he speaks of the exaltedness of Christian revelation and all the economy of salvation, setting forth also how it is established on earth (2 Cor. 2:12–7:1). Finally 3) he expresses joy and comfort brought to him by Titus’ arrival and all that he saw in Corinth and what Titus reported to him (2 Cor. 7:2–16). Why these subjects entered in will become clear in the commentary itself.

1. Reason for the Change in Travel Plan (2 Cor. 1:12–24, 2:1–11)

There were rumors in Corinth: he thought to come to us, but now he is going differently. What is this changeability? It is levity. Properly such empty talk should belong to the third part, where the Apostle concerns himself with dispelling gossip about him. But he singled out this rumor from among the others and addressed it first and foremost because certain persons were using it to cast a shadow upon the very unchangeableness of the Gospel itself, which for the Apostle Paul was above all things on earth. Therefore he places this subject first. His line of thinking here is this: a) I have always and everywhere acted with a pure conscience; I acted thus also among you; and it should be well known to you how sincere are my words (2 Cor. 1:12–14). b) Relying on this, you should not have given a bad interpretation to the fact that I wished to come to you in this way, but now I go differently, as though this is levity, as though there is here some deliberation according to the flesh (2 Cor. 1:15–17). c) But this is nothing; I fear lest you go further and on the basis of this begin to permit thoughts about the instability of the Gospel itself. Oh no; the word of our Gospel was at once accompanied also by deed—you received the anointing. Therefore your word was—yes (2 Cor. 1:18–22). d) From this alone you should have concluded that there was a reason for the change in my plan, worthy of attention. And I declare it to you. This was the desire to avoid the sorrowful necessity of personally dealing with judgment and punishment upon him who grieved us all (2 Cor. 1:23, 24). e) You did well to deal with him as I wrote; but since he repents, he may be received back into the community (2 Cor. 2:1–11). This last word is added here only so as not to return to the same subject again; yet what is said about it needed to be said.

c) Apostolic Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

2 Cor. 1:12. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience: we have behaved in the world, and especially toward you, with frankness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God.

Earlier the holy Apostle expressed the hope that God, as He had delivered them, will always deliver from all evils. But one cannot sustain such hope if his conscience is unclean. Only the purity of conscience gives such boldness to hope, and without it hope dies like a flower in frost. The Apostle speaks of this now; and this same thing served for him as the starting point for explaining what he intended to say next.

“Our boasting,” he says, “is this.” “Boasting” – that which he spoke above: “that we have hoped, and He will still deliver us” (2 Cor. 1:10). To boast thus, I have a foundation in the testimony of conscience. Boasting – here, consequently, is the same as boldness. Theodoret writes: – “Boldness is given to us (that we might hope for deliverance from dangers) by the testimony of conscience.” Or boasting means inner consolation. God has delivered and will deliver; but while deliverance comes, for it has its own time, what sustains us is a consciousness that we suffer unjustly, giving us manly and magnanimous endurance of afflictions. Saint Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle reveals to us yet another, and by no means unimportant, but rather very important means for consolation, which can embolden the soul even when calamities oppress it, and shows another virtue of his own. What is it? – That we, he says, wherever we have lived, everywhere have conducted ourselves in pure and sincere conscience. And this serves not a little for our comfort and consolation. So the Apostle speaks to believers so that he might teach them also not to lose heart in sorrows, but to rejoice if only they have a pure conscience. ‘Our boasting,’ he says, ‘is the testimony of conscience,’ that is, when our conscience does not have cause to condemn us as criminals pursued for evil deeds. For, he says, although we endure countless calamities, although we are threatened from all sides by attacks and dangers; for our consolation it suffices to have one thing: the testimony of a pure conscience, that we endure these calamities not for any crime, but for pleasing God, for virtue, for true wisdom and for the salvation of many. Therefore, the first consolation of which the Apostle spoke above came from God, and this of which he now speaks came from themselves and was the fruit of their pure life. And because this latter was the fruit of their virtue, he calls it also his boasting.”

What exactly is the boast, and what did conscience testify to? “We have behaved in the world with frankness and godly sincerity.” “We have behaved,” ανεστραφημεν, we moved about among others, we bore ourselves in relations with others and acted upon them and before them. “In frankness,” απλοτητος, such as exists in children, artless, hiding no designs, open entirely as it is. “In godly sincerity,” ειλικρινεια, honestly, as on the heart so also outwardly; neither word nor deed nor countenance nor anything external of ours differs from what is in our heart. “Godly”—or God-like, or pleasing to God (Theophylact), or bestowed by God and as shown before God. Thus the Apostle says here: “We did nothing deceitfully, or hypocritically, or in pretense, nor from flattery, or ill-will, or for deception and seduction, nor from other similar motives; but always acted with full freedom, simplicity, truth, in purity and guilelessness of heart, honestly, from the heart; since we had nothing that needed to be hidden, nothing shameful” (the holy Chrysostom).

“Not by earthly wisdom.” Flesh here—life which the fathers call outer; the wisdom of this life consists in always contriving to maintain good relations with others and family well-being, masking oneself and carefully concealing one’s aims, all of which are focused on living always for one’s own pleasure, pursuing one’s interests, and not losing face before anyone, sparing neither anyone nor anything that stands as an obstacle in the way, yet covering this all with decent appearance. This wisdom has in view neither virtue nor God’s glory, but only the satisfaction of egotism, which generates it, nourishes it, and perfects it. It is cunning in words, and even more cunning in the conduct of affairs. If one were to unfold all its intricacies even in one case, people would be amazed and not believe that a man can be so cunning by himself. That is why we have the saying: the devil taught him. This saying is not without reason—it expresses truth. Could such wisdom appear in the spirit of Apostles, filled with God’s Spirit? The holy Paul denies this, saying: “not by earthly wisdom” do we always act, “that is, without deceit and guile, without elaborate words and contrived reasonings. Thus, what false apostles boasted of, the Apostle Paul rejects and despises, clearly showing thereby that fleshly reasoning is unworthy of praise, and that he himself not only does not seek it, but is also ashamed of and turns away from it” (the holy Chrysostom).

“But by the grace of God we have behaved in the world,” that is, we have lived as God’s grace inspired us, as it guided us and as it worked in us. Life “by grace,” εν χαριτι, is opposed to the former life according to fleshly wisdom. The holy fathers distinguish three degrees or classes of life in which one and the same person may at different times revolve. One is fleshly life, as indicated above: it is called sub-natural life, and even contrary to nature; another is virtuous life, according to the demands of conscience, possible even outside grace: it is called natural life; the third is grace-filled life, beginning, ripening, and manifesting itself variously through the action of God’s grace alone: it is called super-natural and possible only in true Christianity, constituting its distinguishing feature. It is completely opposed to life according to the wisdom of the flesh. In it nothing is done for oneself, but all for God’s glory and the good of others; nothing is done according to one’s own thoughts, but all according to the inspiration of grace, and whatever is done is not done by one’s own strength, but by grace, which takes human strength merely as an instrument for manifesting its actions. Those who possess it live in consciousness and heart in God alone, who, living in them, acts through them and outside them. But where God is, the limits of nature give way; therefore such a life is never without miracles. This could especially not be without miracles in the Apostles. Therefore when the holy Paul says: “by the grace of God,” he means not only moral height, purity, and detachment, but also the manifestation of God’s power through them.

“The holy Chrysostom says about this: ‘What is ‘by the grace of God’?’—That is, by the wisdom and power given us by God, proving them by miracles and by the victory which we won over philosophers, orators, sophists, and kings—we, unlearned men who drew nothing from human wisdom. And not in vain did the Apostles comfort and boast in this when assured in themselves that they acted not by human power, but accomplished all by God’s grace, and not in Corinth alone, but throughout the whole world. For he says: ‘in the world, and especially toward you.’ What is ‘especially toward you’?’—That is, ‘we have behaved by the grace of God.’ For in you we accomplished more, he says, miracles and signs, took greater care, and were especially concerned to conduct ourselves so as not to deserve censure from you. For the Apostle attributes also this to God’s grace, ascribing to it his own actions as well. For it is well known that in Corinth he renounced his rights regarding the sustenance of the preachers of God’s word (1 Cor. 9) and, sparing the weakness of the Corinthians, preached the Gospel without any recompense from them.” Thus according to the holy Chrysostom, “especially toward you” relates not only to “by the grace of God” but also to “in frankness and godly sincerity” and to “not by earthly wisdom.” Since he ascribes these latter traits to God’s grace, he said in general that “especially toward you” by God’s grace our life was distinguished and shone forth.

2 Cor. 1:13, 14. What we write to you is not anything other than what you read and understand; “I hope you will understand fully,” “just as you have understood us in part, that we are your pride even as you are our pride, on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“What we write,” he says, not of previous writing, or of writing in general, but of this very thing that he writes now. We do not write one thing, he says, while holding another in mind; but that very thing that we think we express in written words. What concepts do the written words evoke in you, those same are found in us. The words “read” and “understand,” αναγινωσκειν and επιγινωσκειν, are often placed together by similarity of sound, though one may need to express one or the other. Thus here the holy Paul wished to say: what we write, you know yourselves from our stay among you, and reading what is written, you at once see that this is so. Therefore Oecumenius and Theophylact understand by αναγινωσκειν not “read” but “recall.” The Greek word permits this: αναγνωσις is ανωθεν γνωσις. So: we write nothing else than what you yourselves recall, and what you know. Thus also the holy Chrysostom: “He brings the Corinthians themselves as witnesses that what he says to them is true. Let no one suppose, he says, that my words are empty boasting unsubstantiated by deeds. For I am conveying to you only what you yourselves know, and that I do not lie, you before all others should witness. For in reading our epistles, you see that what is written in them is the same as you actually know about us—and that our testimony about ourselves in our epistles not only does not contradict our deeds; on the contrary, what you previously knew about us is completely in accord with what you read about us in our epistles.”

The following words: “I hope that you will understand fully, just as you have understood us in part,” should be read in connection with: “as you have understood us in part.” From the experience of our stay and action among you, you understood us in part; I hope that you will always understand thus. He wishes to say that as we have until now given you no cause to think of us as crafty and insincere, so in the future you will meet with no such cause; what we were, we are now, and will always be; and our word and manner of action have always been the same, are now, and always will be. We are not passing on our own, we are not introducing our own, but God’s; and God is unchanging and His truth is eternal. Whoever preaches his own and introduces his own, can speak and act one way today and differently tomorrow. But we—God’s instruments: God is He who works in us.

The words “you have understood us in part” and “you will understand fully” can be understood as an indication of degrees of knowledge. You have understood us in part and known us; I hope that you will come to full understanding of us, will understand us completely. It is natural for human knowledge and understanding to grow.

“For you are our pride just as we are your pride, on the day of the Lord Jesus.” This is not a subject of understanding, not an indication of what exactly the Corinthians understood in the Apostles in part and what they will understand fully—but a new confirmation of apostolic sincerity. He wishes to say: what we say to you and write, what we teach you and establish in you—all this we do as those who are to appear for judgment before God. And I assure you that on the Lord’s day, that is, on the last day of judgment, we will be your glory. The Judge, absolutely righteous and omniscient, will glorify you for following our word and sincerely believing in it; and you will then be our glory, for this faith of yours—our Judge will not shame us, but will glorify us. So certain is our word, that although we might be found unworthy of glory in other respects at the judgment, yet because we transmitted to you this word and made you faithful to Him, the most righteous Judge will glorify us. “See,” exclaims the holy Chrysostom, “how he raises the Corinthians to what is higher and trains them in philosophy, when he directs their thoughts to that great day of the Lord. Then, he says, we will be glorified in you, and you in us, when it will be revealed that you had such teachers who taught nothing human and, living an unblemished life, gave no occasion for scandal; and you had such students who did not conduct themselves as ordinary people—did not waver, but with readiness received all and never reasoned contrary to the truth. Now this is open to those who have the mind of Christ, but then it will be revealed to all. So although we grieve now, yet we have no small consolation both from a good conscience and from the expected then revelation. Now our conscience alone knows that in everything we act by God’s grace, as you know this, and will know further; but then all men will know both our deeds and yours, and will see that we are glorified for each other.”

We will be your glory on the Lord’s day, he says, and you will be ours. But about himself he said that as he has always been faithful to God’s truth, so he will not cease to be such. Therefore, by the correspondence of speech, he draws the Corinthians also to a promise and decision—that as they have been faithful to the received word until now, so in the future they will remain faithful to it, and not in the same measure of knowledge of it in which they have become partakers of it until now, but in whatever measure they may come to know it. And there would have been no difficulty for the Corinthians to understand that this is the inevitable condition in order not to be put to shame at the judgment. Teachers will be glorified for teaching alone; but it is impossible for students to be glorified for mere hearing and reception of their teaching. This will only serve for greater condemnation, if reception of the teaching is not joined by following it, sincere and unwavering until the end.

That the Change of Plan Should Not Be Interpreted Unfavorably (2 Cor. 1:15–17)

2 Cor. 1:15. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea.

“I wanted”—that is, the hope which he expressed above, that the Corinthians would understand him as one who speaks sincerely; but he means here not that he hoped from the Corinthians, but that the Corinthians would see in him until the end, as he hoped, that is, sincere speech. “I wanted” will mean: in such a disposition, sincerely, truthfully, not deceitfully. When I wished to come to you earlier, this was truly my desire; and when I told you of it, I spoke the truth.

But when was this? Probably the holy Paul, before writing the first epistle in which he writes that he goes to them through Macedonia, had told them through faithful men that he would come from Ephesus directly to them, would go from them to Macedonia, and from Macedonia would return to them again, and from them would depart to Judea. When reports of the discord among the Corinthians, especially concerning the man guilty of incest, reached the Apostle, he changed this plan; he first sent the holy Timothy there, and prepared himself to go through Macedonia afterwards. In the first epistle he wrote of this. Upon hearing this, some began to say: there he is, he changes—today one way, tomorrow another. Concerning these rumors, the holy Titus reported to him upon returning from Corinth, and it is about these that the holy Paul now begins to speak. Such, he says, was my firm wish and intention, to come to you first.

“So that you might have a double blessing.” By “blessing” he means the visit to the Corinthians, both because of the joy and comfort which it would provide them, and because of the spiritual goods which they would receive through it: for with the Apostles always came abundant grace, words of the anointed, overshadowing of believers with the outpouring of grace, or even manifestations of grace-filled healings, deliverance from demons, and the manifestation of other powers. But what does it mean: “so that you might have a double blessing”? According to the meaning of blessing mentioned—that you might receive a second visit from me. But how? Most directly it would be: the first blessing you had in my first stay with you, and this visit would be the second blessing. But our commentators do not take the word in this sense, but understand it thus: the first blessing would be if I came directly to you, and the second would be if, having visited Macedonia, I returned to you again. Theodoret writes: “so that you might have a double blessing,” that is, “double joy from receiving me twice.”

2 Cor. 1:16. And to pass through you to Macedonia, and come to you again from Macedonia, and have you send me on my way to Judea.

In order not to see contradiction in these words of the holy Paul with what he wrote in the first epistle, one must keep in mind that such was the plan, as the Apostle states it, before the first epistle; but afterward he changed it and wrote that he goes to them through Macedonia. It is this change that gave some cause to accuse the Apostle of inconstancy. One can only ask why the holy Paul did not mention this in the first epistle? He states the reason for the change in the plan below, namely—the unwillingness to personally deal with the man guilty of incest; and about this, as everyone sees for himself, there was no reason to write. Besides, when he wrote: “I will pass through Macedonia” (1 Cor. 16:5), it seems he wished to say: know that the promise has been cancelled, and for good reason.

2 Cor. 1:17. When I planned this, did I plan it lightly? Or do I make my plans according to ordinary human standards, ready to say ‘Yes, yes’ and ‘No, no’ at the same time?

This place will not be entirely clear and consistent with what precedes and follows unless we supply the thought that the Apostle is here already speaking of a change in his travel plans. All our commentators do this. Here are the words of Saint Chrysostom for all. “Here the Apostle directly refutes the accusation of not fulfilling his promise to come to the Corinthians. For the meaning of his words is this: I wanted to come to you. Why then did I not come? Not out of frivolity or inconstancy? (For this is what the words mean: ‘did I perhaps act lightly?’) No. Why then? Because ‘that which I deliberate, I do not deliberate’ ‘according to the flesh.’ What does it mean: not ‘according to the flesh do I deliberate?’ Not as a fleshly man;—‘that with me there may be ‘Yes, yes’ and ‘No, no.’ But even this is not clear. What then is he saying? A fleshly man, he says, that is, one attached only to the present, always living in the present and not under the influence of the Spirit of God, can go everywhere and wander where he wishes; on the contrary, one subject to the Spirit of God and guided and ruled by Him cannot always be master of his own will, being dependent on the power of the Spirit. What happens to him is the same as with a faithful servant, who knows only to execute his master’s orders and has no power over himself, and does not know rest even for a short time;—he sometimes promises something to his companions, but later does not fulfill his promise when it turns out to be contrary to the will of his master. This is what the Apostle’s words mean: not ‘according to the flesh do I deliberate,’—that is, I am under the guidance of the Spirit of God and do not have the power to go where I wish: I am subject to the power and commands of the Spirit of God, and His voice guides and directs me. Therefore I could not come to you; for this was not pleasing to the Spirit of God. (Something similar is often said in the Acts of the Apostles, (Acts 16:6–9). In one place the Apostles intended to go, but the Spirit of God commanded them to go to quite another place). So, that I did not come to you, despite my promise, this depended not on my frivolity or inconstancy, but on the Spirit of God, to whom I am subject and must obey. But what?—someone will say. Was not the Apostle’s promise to come inspired by the Spirit of God?—No, not by the inspiration of the Spirit. This promise was an act of his love for the Corinthians.”

The thought of the holy Chrysostom is that he who plans according to ordinary human standards, when he decides to do something, exerts himself by all means to do it so as to carry out his own will, so as to have a yes-yes and a no-no. The blessed Theodoret thus expresses the Apostle’s thought: “I am not enslaved, I say, to passion, to accomplish things one way or another. Whoever follows the desires of the flesh is carried away by his own thoughts, however extremely absurd they might be; and whoever soberly deliberates on something, even if the deliberated thing is good, as soon as he perceives that it does not benefit others, does not carry out his intention. And that we, as soon as we perceive something beneficial for you, eagerly propose it to you without any hesitation—this is testified to by our preaching; because repeatedly proposing this to you, we have not changed our words.” The last words of the blessed Theodoret serve as a transition to the following words of the Apostle.

This Change Casts No Shadow on the Unchangeableness of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 1:18–22)

2 Cor. 1:18. But as God is faithful, our word to you is not ‘Yes’ and ‘No.

They could have thought that if his yes is not yes and his no is not no, then it turns out that about the same matter he says both yes and no. And what if the Gospel is the same?! Anticipating this, he says: no, do not think thus; my Gospel is unchangingly true, as God is true. So Saint Chrysostom: “Here the Apostle refutes an arising objection. For they could have said to him: if you previously determined in your promise to come to us, but then changed what you said before, if with you there is no ‘yes, yes’ and ‘no, no,’ then woe to us! Did not the same happen even in the preaching itself? So that they would not think this and be troubled, he says: ‘God is faithful, so our word to you is not yes and no.’ In preaching, he says, this cannot be; but this happens only in predetermined journeys. In preaching our words are always true and unchanging. For by ‘word’ here he means preaching. Next he presents an irrefutable proof of this, attributing the work of preaching to God. And his words have this meaning: the promise of coming was mine, that is, I promised it of myself; but preaching is not mine and not human, but God’s; and what is from God is beyond the reach of falsehood and deception. Therefore he said: ‘God is faithful,’ that is, true. Therefore, suspect nothing in what comes from God; for there is nothing human in this.”

2 Cor. 1:19. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not ‘Yes’ and ‘No’; but in him it is always ‘Yes.

He proves the unchanging truth of his word by the very deed, by the very working of preaching. When, he says, we preached Christ the Saviour to you, was it so that we said one thing and something else came to pass? No; but whatever we said, all of it was vindicated in deed in you and upon you. We said: believe in the Son of God who was crucified and you will receive the remission of sins; through baptism you will receive a new life; through the laying on of our hands (the equivalent of what is now chrismation) you will be deemed worthy of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and will be filled with power to overcome all sin, all passion, and all enemy violence. Did it come to pass as we said? It did, and you know this. So do not think or say that Christ, whom we preached to you, was yes and no: for you clearly see that in Him all is yes. Whatever we say about Him, all of it is so; and whatever you hope for from Him when you approach Him, all of it you receive fully and with abundance. “Everything we preached about Christ has come to pass with complete accuracy in deed” (Oecumenius).

By placing Silvanus and Timothy with him, with whom he first established faith in Corinth, the Apostle brings the Corinthians to the remembrance of what they were before receiving faith and what they became upon receiving it. He speaks as if saying: remember what you were before communion with Christ the Lord and what you became afterward; but what you became afterward, we promised you this before you became Christ’s. Christ, the Son of God, whom we preached to you, therefore was—yes.

“Silvanus is here the name of Silas, for he shared with Paul bonds in Philippi” (Acts 16:25). “Having left him in Berea of Macedonia, Paul went to Athens” (Acts 17:14). “He, together with Timothy, coming to Paul in Corinth, became his co-worker in preaching.” (Theodoret).

2 Cor. 1:20. For all the promises of God find their ‘Yes’ in him. That is why it is through him that we say the ‘Amen,’ to the glory of God.

All the promises of God, he says, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, are fulfilled with complete exactness—in Him they are “yes” and “amen.” The promises of God were uttered in the Old Testament through the prophets. They concerned the person of Christ the Saviour, the time, place, and other circumstances of His manifestation—and especially related to the work of salvation which He was to accomplish, that is, how He would suffer for our sins, die on the cross, rise, ascend into heaven, and sit at the right hand of the Father—how He would send the Divine Spirit from the Father for the renewal of spiritual life in mankind through faith and grace, thereby preparing the sons of the eternal kingdom. All these promises, prefigured in prophecies, were completely fulfilled and are being fulfilled in Christ Jesus the Lord. Those who approach the Lord in faith immediately experience in themselves the fulfillment of all promises relating to the work of salvation: they experience the remission of sins, in which testimony is given them by a lightened conscience; they experience renewal, in which testimony is given them by the consciousness of new life received in the baptismal font; they experience the coming of the grace of the Holy Spirit, in which testimony is given them by the perceived moral strength to overcome all passion and all sin; they experience adoption as sons, in which testimony is given them by the inner feeling of sonship to God, quickened by the Spirit, as a result of which they cry out: Abba, Father. Another part of the promises to believers relates to the future life—the resurrection and eternal blessedness with Christ. These have not yet been fulfilled, but that they will certainly be fulfilled is assured by the promises that have already been fulfilled, which the Apostle brings together in the giving of the Spirit, calling this giving the seal or pledge of the inheritance. From this directly follows that all the promises of God in Christ Jesus are “yes” and “amen.”

“To the glory of God through us.” How are God’s promises about Christ Jesus fulfilled? Through the Apostles. For in order to become a partaker of them, one must believe. But how can one believe without preachers? The Lord established them. He Himself sat at the right hand of the Father; but in His place He sent the Comforter Spirit and, clothing the Apostles with His power, sent them throughout all the earth to plant faith and establish salvation in people. The multiplication of those accomplishing salvation is God’s glory on earth—the final goal of the fulfillment of all God’s promises in the Lord. For it Christ’s coming in the flesh, for it apostolic preaching, for it faith, for it also the future blessedness—so that the one God be glorified by all lips and all deeds, both by Apostles and believers and by the deeds of all of them.

The holy Chrysostom in his discourse on this passage dwells with especial attention on the future promises. “The evangelical preaching,” he says, “contains many promises, and the Apostles proclaimed and preached of many promises. For they spoke both of resurrection and of adoption as sons and of immortality and of great rewards in the future life and of unspeakable blessings there. These promises the Apostle calls irrevocable. And if God’s promises are irrevocable and there is no doubt that God will fulfill them, then all the more is He Himself faithful and the word about Him firm: and one cannot say that sometimes He is, and sometimes is not; but He always is and is one and the same. What then does it mean: ‘in him it is Yes and Amen’? By this he shows that God’s promises will certainly come to pass, for their fulfillment depends on God, not on man. So there is nothing to fear. For not a man promises, who can be suspected of unfaith, but God, who speaks and acts.”

2 Cor. 1:21, 22. But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

“Confirming us”, βεβαιων—confirming; but not simply confirming, but confirming with conviction, communicating to us unshakeable assurance in the firmness of faith and promises about Christ Jesus the Lord. “And has anointed us,” that is, filled us with the Holy Spirit, through whose power the perfections which were prefigured in the ancient high priests, prophets, and kings are communicated to our spirit. This anointing—not an external sign, but the internal indwelling of what is signified. That God’s promises are not false is attested by this anointing. Thus God Himself established it and thus He accomplishes it in us. “Us with you,” that is, both Apostles and believers: for what is spoken of operates equally in those and in others; and the Apostles in this respect have no advantage before believers, for this belongs to the common order of faith and the work of salvation.

The following words: “who has sealed us” explain the anointing; and “and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” indicate the foundation for the confirmation. “Sealed”—means put in us the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is God’s seal upon us. A seal on wax gives it form; a seal in our spirit is the forming of it by the action of the received Spirit of grace. By this is signified both regeneration and grace-filling. The Apostle wishes to say by the word “sealed” that all this is not mere name and sign, but power and life. “And given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” Sealing with the Spirit is the same as giving the Spirit into our hearts, or dwelling of Him in our inner man. This dwelling is a guarantee, that is, a pledge, a down payment, assuring that all the promises, not yet fulfilled, will certainly be fulfilled. The assurance is established by the fact that such a great down payment has been given. If the down payment were small, it would be fitting to still doubt, as is usual in worldly matters; but when it is so great as the giving of the Spirit, who can doubt that all the future will be fulfilled in exactness?

The holy Chrysostom says: “From what has come to pass, the Apostle establishes the truth of what is to come. For if God Himself establishes us in Christ, that is, does not permit us to waver in faith in Christ, and He Himself anointed us and gave the Spirit into our hearts, how will He not give us the blessings promised in the future life? How will He not give us these blessings after He has already given the beginning and foundation, the root and source of them, that is, true knowledge of Him and participation in the Holy Spirit? Truly, if even the present blessings which we enjoy have been given for the sake of those which we still await, then the Giver of the present will certainly give the awaited ones. And if He gave these blessings to us when we were still enemies of His, then all the more will He give the future ones now that we have become loved by Him. Therefore the Apostle did not simply say” “Spirit,” but added “as a guarantee,” that is, a down payment, so as to assure us more and give us hope in receiving all that God has promised. Indeed, if God did not wish to give us all that He promised, He would not be pleased to give a down payment, lest He waste it pointlessly and in vain.

Thus he says that our word was not yes and no with you, and that on the contrary, all that we proclaimed to you is unchangeably true; in this you have tangible assurance in the fact that with you and in you has been accomplished and by you has been received. Do not therefore dare to cast shadow of doubt on this because I changed my plan. On the contrary, from the faithfulness of the work of salvation accomplished in you, you ought to conclude that if I changed my plan, I changed it not from levity or inconstancy, but having important reasons. I will now tell you what they are.

The Real Reason for the Change of Travel Plans (2 Cor. 1:23–2:4)

2 Cor. 1:23. And I call God as witness against my soul, that it is in sparing you that I have not yet come to Corinth.

“I call God as witness to my soul”—not that he is subjecting himself to God’s punishment, but rather simply setting God as a witness to the truth of his words. He speaks as it were: I speak as before God, who sees my soul. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The divine Apostle, desiring to assure us that his words are true, called as witness Him who sees our thoughts.”

God is witness, he says, that “in sparing you I have not yet come”, that is, he did not go directly to Corinth as he had promised. The matter stood thus. The Apostle had announced that he intended to come to Corinth directly from Ephesus, but before he was able to do this, troubling news arrived. Upon receiving this news, the Apostle postponed his intention to go directly to Corinth, but instead wrote a letter, urging the Corinthians to correct everything that was amiss themselves before his arrival, so that when he came, it would be joyful for them to meet him as already reformed, and for him only to rejoice, seeing their reform. If he had gone directly to Corinth, he himself would have had to correct what was amiss; and this, no matter how one softens it, cannot fail to be bitter both for the one correcting and for those being corrected. This is what he means by saying: “in sparing you”. Self-correction is easier and has its own pleasant side, in the expectation of approval from the Apostle who had noticed the shortcomings and desired their correction. Saint Chrysostom says: “What does it mean: ‘in sparing you’?—I heard, he says, that some of you had committed fornication, and therefore did not want to come to you, lest I grieve you. For, being with you, I would have been placed in the necessity of investigating this matter myself and examining it, and punishing many. Therefore, I thought it better not to be with you, so as to give you time to repent, rather than, having come to you, to punish you and myself to suffer greater sorrow from you.”

2 Cor. 1:24. Not that we lord it over your faith, but [that we] are helpers of your joy: for by faith you stand.

He said above: “in sparing you”, I did not come to you. This “sparing” could seem to some too lordly a tone, as if he considered himself entitled to do with them and their faith whatever he wished. They might have thought: “What is this? Did we believe for this, to take upon ourselves slavery and so that you might punish us in a lordly manner?” (Theodoret). Preventing this, the Apostle writes: I said this not because I wish to exercise dominion over your faith; faith is a matter of freedom; if you wish—believe, if you wish—do not. “For who is able to compel an unwilling person to believe?” (Saint Chrysostom). But when you have entered into the realm of faith, you must be faithful to faith in all things. And I am a guardian of this faithfulness. By my duty I cannot leave your shortcomings uncorrected. All that I have taught you and what I have established among you is not mine but God’s; I cannot yield on any of it. As soon as you prove yourselves deficient, I must correct you, and this is bitter for you. But I do not wish to be the cause of your sorrow; I wish that from me personally there would always issue only what is joyful for you. That is in what sense I said: “in sparing you”—not wishing to grieve you, but on the contrary, always and in all things to further your joy. For when you have corrected yourselves through my admonition from afar, there will be nothing sorrowful in this for you; on the contrary, you will feel the joy of willing self-correction; and when I come to you after this, it will be joyful for me to see you corrected, and it will be joyful for you to meet me and to see me rejoicing over you. Therefore, I spared you, so as to be a helper of your joy. “I did not come to you, that I might not plunge you into despair,—so as to give you the opportunity to rejoice in your self-correction from my threat alone. We do all things for your joy; we think only of this” (Saint Chrysostom).

“For by faith you stand”. The thought is clear; but in what connection it stands here is not evident. Theophylact writes: “As for faith, you stand firm in it (εστηκατε — were established, are solid). In other respects you have wavered; and if the guilty ones remained uncorrected, I would have had to bear down on them and thereby grieve them (and all of you) and myself.” Thus also Oecumenius. Saint Chrysostom does not express this, but, holding the same thought, introduces it into the Apostle’s intentions, why he said this: “Observe, with what care again he speaks; he did not begin again to reproach them, because he had already reproved them sufficiently in the first letter, and they had already shown some change of life after that. If, after this change, they should hear the same reproaches as before, this might destroy them (plunge them into despair or hopelessness). Therefore this letter is written with greater gentleness than the first.” Thus, the Apostle said this to encourage the Corinthians and to raise their spirits, approving them in this chief respect.

But perhaps the Apostle has here such a thought, as if he were saying: after all, you are believers; faith gave you both sufficient motives and sufficient strength to correct all shortcomings to your own satisfaction and to my joy. That is why I was confident that I would be a helper of your joy if I allowed you to correct yourselves, having only mentioned the shortcomings. By this I truly spared you; but why I did this, the cause is my confidence that you stand by faith.

2 Cor. 2:1. And I decided in myself not to come to you again in sorrow.

I did not want to come to you before you had corrected yourselves, seeing that I would thereby cause sorrow both to you and to myself. And I decided within myself, or conversed with myself, not to go to you directly from Ephesus, but first to write to you, so that you might all correct yourselves, and so that when I come after this, I would come to you not bringing sorrow, but bringing joy. And my hope for this rests on your faith; for you are firm in faith.

2 Cor. 2:2. For if I cause you sorrow, then who is the one who makes me glad, except the one who receives sorrow from me?

This passage is somewhat dark, but in connection with the flow of speech, one cannot fail to see that Saint Paul is here justifying the manner of his action by its success, relating it to the praise of the Corinthians. Since it was necessary to correct, this could not be accomplished without sorrow. It was a matter of prudence to do it with as little sorrow as possible or with sorrow that was scarcely noticeable. This is what I did: I wrote to you, reproaching and urging you to correct yourselves. Of course, this could not fail to be sorrowful not only for those to whom the rebuke applied, but for all of you. But what did this sorrow lead to?—To correction, and correction to gladness for me. Who can gladden me more than one who with such strength receives sorrow from me? Therefore, if I cause you sorrow, both by my not coming to you and by my rebuking letter, let sorrow be created: it is a remedy; those who receive sorrow will correct themselves; having corrected themselves, they will gladden me; and my gladness will be reflected again upon you, and there will be common joy among us. Theodoret writes: “For what gladdens me so much as the sensitivity of those being reproved? It shows me the benefit produced by the rebukes.”

To see the connection of these words with the previous ones, one must insert a supplementary thought between them: I did not intend to bring sorrow to you personally, but if it was impossible to avoid it, I limited myself to bringing you sorrow through the letter. In the following verse he expresses this directly. Saint Chrysostom says on this passage: “I did not wish, he says, to come to you and grieve you with new reproaches, with indignation and aversion. True, I did not escape grief either, when I was forced to reproach you and to see your sorrow from that; but this very thing also brought me joy. For this was a sign of the greatest love from you toward me, that I meant so much to you that even my indignation alone could consume you with care. No one gladdens me so much as he who is consumed by my words and grieves, seeing me grieved. True, it would have been better to say: if I indeed grieve you, then who can gladden you? But he does not say this and, desiring to correct the Corinthians, transforms this speech and says: although I do cause you to grieve, yet, being consumed by sorrow from my words, you bring me great joy.”

2 Cor. 2:3. And I wrote this very thing to you, so that when I came, I might not have sorrow upon sorrow, from those concerning whom I ought to rejoice, being confident concerning all of you, that my joy is the joy of all of you.

By this the thought of the previous somewhat dark passage is more fully and precisely determined. “My coming was preceded by a letter so that it might serve as healing for you, while preparing joy for me, in which you too will share, recognizing my joy as your own joy” (Blessed Theodoret). This indeed is the meaning of my letter to you. I wrote, therefore, so that you might correct yourselves and so that, having come to you before the letter and before your correction, I might not receive sorrow upon sorrow. I already had the sorrow that there were considerable shortcomings among you; and having come to you before your correction, I would have had to take on a new sorrow, personally rebuking the deficient ones and correcting them. And this latter sorrow would be increased by the fact that, whereas I ought to find you at the highest degrees of perfection and rejoice in that, I would see you completely uncorrected. This already is a third sorrow, and the most sensitive one, when you receive sorrow because of those who ought to be bringing joy. That is why I did not come to you myself directly from Ephesus, but first sent a letter, so that, having received the letter, you would correct yourselves and I, coming after this, would only rejoice among you. I acted thus, “being confident”, in full assurance, that “my joy is the joy of all of you”, that is, that you would be zealous to bring me joy through the correction of all shortcomings, considering my joy to be the common joy of all, wishing to see me rejoicing, so that from the sight of joy on my face you yourselves would also be gladdened. Saint Chrysostom expresses the Apostle’s thought thus: “I wrote to you beforehand so that to my sorrow I would not find you uncorrected. I am confident that you rejoice if you see me rejoicing, and you yourselves will be filled with sorrow when you see me sorrowful. But I acted this way, having in mind not my own, but your benefit. Although from your sorrow I receive considerable joy, when I see you caring about me so much that you yourselves grieve when you see me grieving, nevertheless, having such a disposition of spirit, since I have in mind your benefit, both when ‘I wrote this to you so that I might not receive sorrow’, I sought in this too not my own, but your benefit. For I know that you yourselves will grieve when you see me grieving, just as you will also rejoice when you see me rejoicing. Note how the Apostle also said this: ‘from those concerning whom I ought to rejoice’. For this testifies to his sincerity and great love for them. Thus might any father say to children for whom he has done much good and labored greatly. Therefore, he says, if I only write and do not come to you myself, then I do not come because by this I am arranging something better for you, not out of hatred for you, and not because I shrink from you, but because I love you greatly.”

2 Cor. 2:4. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have abundantly toward you.

The Apostle spoke touchingly to them in the previous letter; therefore he declares that he wrote this not simply with the intention of grieving them, but having in view to heal those who had sinned, for whom he himself endured great heartache, and sent his letter with hope in them, thereby showing what disposition he has toward them (Theodoret). “Since the Apostle said that he rejoices when they grieve (in feelings of repentance and correction), then, so that the Corinthians might not say to him: So you are concerned only that you yourself rejoice and show everyone how great your authority over us is,—for this reason he added: ‘For out of much affliction’ and so forth. What soul can be more tender and fatherly than one which speaks thus? The Apostle grieved not less, but on the contrary far more about those who had sinned than those sinners themselves grieved. For he does not simply say: out of affliction, but ‘out of much affliction’; not by tears alone, but ‘with many tears’, and from ‘anguish of heart’, that is, I was suffocated and oppressed by sorrow, and, unable to bear further the weight of this cloud of sorrow, I resolved to write to you,—yet not for this, that I might grieve you, but that you might know the love which I have in abundance toward you. It would have been fitting to say thus: not that I might grieve you, but that I might correct you, for I wrote for this reason, but the Apostle does not speak thus; on the contrary, to make the speech more pleasant and to bind the Corinthians more strongly to himself, instead of reminding them of correction he assures them of his love, by which he does all things. And he does not simply say: I have love toward you, but—‘which I have abundantly toward you’, desiring also by this to draw them to himself, showing that he loves them more than all and is disposed toward them as toward chosen disciples. Thus the Apostle, although he spoke with anger, yet this anger proceeded from great love and sorrow. For, even while writing the letter, he says, I grieved and suffered not only that you had sinned, but also that I was placed in the necessity of grieving you, and all this from love,—like a father who, being placed in the necessity of cutting off and cauterizing decayed limbs in his beloved son, suffers doubly, both from the thought of his son’s disease and from the necessity of cutting off the diseased limbs himself. Therefore, what you consider a sign of ill will toward you serves as a sign of the greatest love toward you. If I was moved by love to grieve you, then all the more can I be glad seeing your sorrow. Thus the Apostle defends himself. And he often defends himself thus, and is not ashamed of it. For if God does this, when He says: ‘My people, what have I done to you’ (Mic. 6:3)? then all the more could Paul do this” (Saint Chrysostom).

The Pardon of the Penitent Offender (2 Cor. 2:5–11)

2 Cor. 2:5. But if anyone has caused sorrow, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to be too harsh—to all of you.

From defending himself he now moves to defending the one who has fallen into fornication (Saint Chrysostom).

This text indeed stands precisely at the transition from the previous thought to the following declaration of forgiveness to the repentant sinner. Above he said that if he wrote to them strictly, he did so with sorrow and tears, and wrote this way not in order to grieve them, but to show his love. In what does the love consist?—In the fact that, in pronouncing a strict judgment on the one who sinned, he was defending them, removing the stain from them, cleansing and gladdening them. For, he says, this one, who committed such an unheard-of transgression, grieved not only me, but also in some measure you, I say in some measure so as not to speak a harsh word, but my thought is that he grieved you no less than me (Saint Chrysostom). Thus, in pronouncing judgment on him, and that through your or common decision, I was satisfying you, standing up for you, desiring to chase away your sorrow.—And recognize my love in this.

But in this very presentation of the matter the Apostle was preparing the Corinthians to receive the following statement about forgiveness.

2 Cor. 2:6. It is sufficient for such a one that this rebuke was inflicted by the majority.

Having learned of the fall that occurred among you, I grieved about it and was distressed. When I rebuked this depravity, you too were grieved about it no less than I. Therefore you unanimously pronounced the judgment I prescribed to him. And behold, he is excommunicated and bears the sorrow that has oppressed us. It is gladdening to us; it is heavy for him. He grieves at heart and is contrite. As for me, looking at this penitential sorrow of his, I am comforted: for this means that he is alive spiritually. It gladdens me to see his evident desire to be in communion with us, partaker of the great promises for believers in Christ Jesus. But I wish that you too, as you grieved together with me because of him, would enter also into the sharing of my joy because of him. I wrote strictly so that you might know my love, intending to show this love also to the sinner if he repents. Behold, he repents; let us show love to him!—Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle begins to speak of this to the Corinthians just as he had previously praised them for the fact that they alone share his joys and the same sorrows, and having said beforehand: ‘my joy is the joy of all of you’. But if my joy is also your joy, then it is fitting, he says, for you now to rejoice together with me, just as you grieved together with me then. For as you brought me joy and gladness with your sorrow then, so you will do now with your joy, if only you take part in my joy.”

All sins committed before baptism are washed away by baptism and forgiven freely. But sins after baptism require purificatory punishment. It was required also for the Corinthian sinner. The Apostle says: as far as the purificatory punishment which must be laid on the penitent, in regard to our penitent it is sufficient that this already accomplished rebuke “inflicted by the majority”, that is, this excommunication pronounced by the assembly of believers, [is sufficient,] “because all have turned away from him, as the Apostle commanded” (Theodoret). Rebuke — επιτιμια — embraces all that was laid upon the sinner, despite his repentance. Here is the beginning and foundation of our ecclesiastical penances and the very manner of their use, that is, their pronouncement in full strictness and then their shortening, depending on the feelings of contrition of the repentant person.

It is remarkable that the Apostle here, as in the first letter, does not mention the name of the sinner, nor the name of his sin. Saint Chrysostom says of this: “He does not say: one who has fallen into fornication, but, again as in the first letter, ‘such a one’, though for a different reason. Then he spoke thus out of aversion to the sin committed, but here out of condescension toward the sinner. Therefore he does not mention the sin committed, for it was now time to defend the guilty one.”

2 Cor. 2:7. On the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

The Apostle commands here not only to lift the imposed punishment, but also to restore the guilty one to his former state. For if someone, after having punished the guilty one, simply releases him without any comfort, he does no benefit to him. But observe again how the Apostle restrains both the guilty one, so that he, having received forgiveness, might not become worse. For, despite the fact that he has confessed his sin and repented of it, the Apostle makes the guilty one see that he receives forgiveness not so much for his repentance as for mercy and condescension; therefore he says: “you ought rather to forgive and comfort him”. This is evident from the following words. For he does not say: I permit you to forgive the guilty one because he is worthy of it or because he has made sincere repentance,—but because he is weak. Therefore he also added: “so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow”. In saying this, the Apostle testifies both to the great repentance of the guilty one and does not permit him to fall into despair. What then does it mean: “may be overwhelmed”?—Either that such a one might do the same as Judas did, or that he might do worse in his way of life. For although, he says, he is not such that he cannot endure further the torments of prolonged punishment, yet, having lost patience and hope, he might easily harm his own life or give himself to greater impiety. Therefore we must be careful so that the wound does not become more severe and dangerous, and so that by excessive severity in punishment we do not destroy what we have already accomplished for good. In saying this, the Apostle wished, as I noted before, both to restrain and to instruct the guilty one, so that having received forgiveness, he might not become even more careless. For, he says, I have received such a one back into my former disposition not because he has completely purified himself from the stain of the sin committed, but fearing that he might do something worse. From this we are taught that the measure of penance must be appointed not only according to the nature of sins, but also in accordance with the nature of the spirit and the condition of the sinners themselves. Thus then the Apostle acted, for the weakness of the sinner alarmed him too. Therefore he said: “so that he may not be overwhelmed”, as it were by some beast, or by waves, or by a storm.

2 Cor. 2:8. Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

“Reaffirm” — κυρωσαι — to make a decisive determination, to sign off on what is being affirmed. Perhaps the Apostle means that by common decision they should return their love to him, or he only wants to signify that this love should be strong, complete, irreversible. He speaks as it were: “Rejoin the member to the body, unite the sheep to the flock, show warm disposition toward him” (Theodoret). “He no longer commands, but begs the Corinthians, not as a teacher, but as an equal, and, having let them sit on the judge’s seat, he himself became the defender. For, having achieved what he desired, he did not know moderation in his humility from joy. What, then, are you asking for? Tell me.—‘Reaffirm your love for him’, that is, receive him with sincere and strong love, not simply and as it happened. In saying this, the Apostle again attributes to the Corinthians a very high virtue. Those very ones who previously showed such love for their brother and defended him so that they took pride in it, afterward came to have such aversion to him that it took great effort for Paul to make them receive the guilty one back into their former love. Behold a praiseworthy quality in disciples, behold perfection in a teacher: when disciples are so obedient, and the teacher forms such obedient disciples! For no one should be loved without reason, nor should one show aversion without cause. If this were so even now, those who sin would not be so indifferent and insensible to their sins” (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 2:9. For I also wrote this for this reason, that I might test your obedience, whether you are obedient in everything.

“I wrote” — εγραφα,—wrote. Earlier, writing about the punishment of the guilty one, the Apostle already had in view to pardon him if he repented. Do one thing, he says; do also the other. By this you will show “proof”—discernment in obedience. Holy Chrysostom says: “That I may know whether you are obedient, not only in separating the guilty one but also in readying them for reinstatement. For as then, when the guilty one sinned, the Apostle showed how dangerous it would be not to separate him, saying ‘a little leaven leavens the whole lump’ (1 Cor. 5:6), so here he showed all the danger of disobedience. The removal of the guilty one could seem an act of cruelty; on the contrary, receiving him back will prove the sincerity of your obedience. Good disciples obey their teacher not only in his first requirement but also in another. Therefore the Apostle said: ‘in all things,’ and he praises them, saying: ‘For it was for this that I wrote to you.’”

2 Cor. 2:10. But to whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; for indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it was for your sake in the presence of Christ.

He puts himself in the close bond with the Corinthians, so that where they are, there he is too. And he sends them forward, and represents himself following after them, showing them obedience, so that he might cut off from them all excuse for disobedience. He had already pronounced pardon to the guilty one before, when they had not even thought about it; but he pronounced it, having in view their benefit, their good, their common salvation; “I have forgiven,” he says, “for your sake.” Not displaying and exercising his authority, he did this, but borrowed the motive for such a deed from you, receiving as it were a command from you. “Do you see,” says Saint Chrysostom, “how again the Apostle humbles himself before the Corinthians, placing them in the first place, and himself in the second; and all this so as to soften hardened souls and bend inflexible hearts. But so that by this he would not give the Corinthians reason to think that the whole matter has been entrusted to their authority, and so that they would not become stubborn about forgiving the guilty one, the Apostle, limiting their authority, says that he himself also forgave pardon to the guilty one: ‘for’ ‘I’ ‘also, if I forgave something, forgave it for your sake,’ that is, I did this very thing for you. And the first time, when the Apostle commanded the Corinthians to cut off the guilty one, he did not give them power to forgive him, saying: ‘I have already judged… to deliver such a one to Satan,’ but then he allowed them also to participate in this judgment, when he said: ‘when you are gathered… deliver such a one’ (1 Cor. 5:3–5). He acted thus, having in view two important things: both to pronounce judgment, and (to pronounce it) not without the consent of the Corinthians, so as not to grieve them. In exactly the same way he acts here, for he says: ‘I forgave’ pardon to the guilty one, I, who in the first epistle condemned him. Then, so that the Corinthians should not be offended, as if despised by the Apostle, he says: ‘for your sake.’ What is this? Did he forgive the sinning one for men? – No; for he also added: ‘in the presence of Christ,’ that is, either by God’s will, or for the glory of Christ. – Theodoret writes about this thus: “So that no one might think that the Apostle, from pleasing men, neglected justice, he added: “in the presence of Christ,” that is, I do this when Christ sees it and is pleased with what is done.” One can also say: in the order of salvation, according to the principles of salvation. For Christ Jesus is the Saviour; and whoever acts for true salvation acts in His presence. Or he spoke thus because he, like all the Apostles, as they spoke, so also acted always before God in Christ, having neither himself in view, nor guided by pleasing men. Nor does Saint Chrysostom speak otherwise about this: ‘In the presence of Christ,’ – or for the glory of Christ, or because Christ Himself commanded forgiveness to the sinning one. These latter words were especially persuasive to the Corinthians. For they already feared to refuse forgiveness which served for the glory of Christ and was pleasing to Him.”

2 Cor. 2:11. So that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

“So that we may not be taken advantage” — ινα μη πλεονεκτηθωμεν — so that we may not be defrauded, so that our manner of action may not serve him to his advantage, so that he may not extract benefit for himself from it. How?—If, closing our eyes with what seems like zeal for righteousness, he causes us to allow a brother to perish. Satan inserts himself everywhere with his counsels. He does not always directly suggest what is bad, but often also what is good, only his goal is always one—our eternal destruction. In the present case, he could suggest to the Corinthians: how can you tolerate such a one? You are a holy people, people of renewal; has he a place to be among you? Drive him out. And he might speak other words to the guilty one: you are already lost; there is no salvation for you! Leave them; do you see what they are like? Go back to the pagans and live as your soul wishes.—The Apostle includes himself among those taken advantage of by Satan. Of course, he also tries to gain something near them, for his shamelessness knows no limits, since he even approached the Saviour. But the Apostles, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, saw his schemes and immediately cut through all the knots and intricacies of these schemes. Therefore he says: “we are not ignorant of his schemes”. We, he says, clearly see and understand what he is leading and how he might profit from it for his own advantage. And understanding this, we cannot permit that he have success in anything. In this is the final persuasion to forgive the guilty one. For it clearly shows that if they do not do as he proposes, then instead of serving Christ the Lord they will fulfill the will of Satan, and instead of making a saving step they will make a destructive one for themselves. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle brings to the attention of the Corinthians the common harm to all in case of their disobedience, for he says: ‘so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan’. Here he very opportunely called Satan a defrauder and robber. For he does not take what is already his, but steals what is ours. But do not only think that the one sinner could become the prey of this beast, but imagine also that the danger threatens the whole flock with the diminishment of its number, and especially now, when Satan has the opportunity to recover what he has lost. ‘We are not ignorant of his schemes’, that is, Satan can also bring to destruction by the path of godliness. For he can not only lead to fornication, but also from the opposite side with immeasurable sorrow during repentance can plunge into destruction. Thus, if Satan, together with his own property seizing also ours, both destroys him whom he leads to sin, and steals from us him to whom we prescribe salvific repentance, then how is this to be called if not a defrauding and robbery? For it is not enough for him that he casts us down through sin; he does the same through repentance too, if we are not careful and watchful. Therefore the Apostle very justly called it theft and defrauding when Satan overcomes us with our own weapon. For it is his nature to take possession of us through sin, not through repentance, which is our weapon, not his. So if Satan can possess us even through repentance, then judge for yourself what shameful humiliation for us this is! How he mocks and jests at us, as at the powerless and weak, overcoming us with our own weapon! And truly, for him it is most amusing and for us extremely shameful, that he inflicts wounds on us with our remedies. Therefore the Apostle said: we are not ignorant of his schemes, that is, what a clever, cunning, malicious, wicked scheme Satan conceals even against our very godliness. Considering all this, we ourselves should never despise anyone who sins. Similarly, and when we ourselves sin, we should not give ourselves over to despair, but again we should not remain in heedlessness either; on the contrary, let us be heartily contrite about our transgressions, not repenting of them in words only (but also by deed showing both sorrow for sins and true correction in them).”

On the Height of Christian Revelation, or Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:12–13)

Having finished his discourse on the change of travel plan, the Apostle intended to expound what happened to him on this journey, that is, from Ephesus through Macedonia until the return of Titus, and on this occasion, and especially on the occasion of what he communicated, to give necessary instructions (ch. 8, 9) and admonitions (ch. 10–13); but as soon as his account reached his arrival in Macedonia (2 Cor. 2:12, 13), he was taken up by the Spirit into contemplation of the power, glory, brightness, and wonderful workings of Gospel truth, and began to expound his contemplations with fluent and inspired speech, until he poured out all that the Spirit gave him to proclaim at that time (2 Cor. 2:14–7:1). Having finished this, he again begins the interrupted discourse and tells how he was gladdened by the coming of Titus and all that he conveyed to him (2 Cor. 7:2–16). What happened to the Apostle here was the same as what happened to the prophets when the Spirit seized them. “The Spirit took me up” (Ezek. 3:12), they used to say. The Spirit took up Saint Paul and showed him in his mind what he speaks about Christian revelation, or Gospel truth. Anyone sees this immediately upon reading the letter: for the discourse on this begins unexpectedly.

Verses 12–13 will thus be an introduction to the discourse on Gospel truth, as having provided the occasion for it. In content they stand in direct connection with what is written after 7:2 and onward and form one unified whole with it.

2 Cor. 2:12, 13. And when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus; but taking my leave of them, I went to Macedonia.

The Apostle went to Troas from Ephesus, perhaps both by sea and by land, and, having visited the churches lying on the way, had in mind to engage in the preaching of the Gospel in this city; for in the second journey, when he was led by the Holy Spirit through this city to Macedonia, it does not appear that he stayed in it for preaching. Meanwhile, it was evidently an essential transition point from Asia to Macedonia and back. This disposed the Apostle to plant faith here. The door for preaching was opened: the Apostle was heard willingly and believed with complete submission to the word of grace. If, then, the door was opened, and opened in the Lord, preaching in even one day could accomplish much. It acts immediately, and that same speech, being received by thousands of ears, could convert thousands. Therefore, when the Apostle says immediately after this that, having no rest because of Titus’s non-arrival, he had to leave them, this does not mean that he abandoned the work unfinished, but only that he could not stay long with them. But the work of gospel proclamation was both sown and ripened. It commonly ripens everywhere by itself under the action of grace. The Gospel is not verbose, but contains an all-encompassing system of knowledge, which can then develop by itself in the minds and hearts of those who believe humbly. This truth is confirmed by all the early apostolic preaching. So it was in Troas; therefore, when on his return journey from Greece through Macedonia the Apostle arrived here, he found the faith here in full flourishing and spent whole nights in sweet fellowship with the believers (Acts 20:7).

That Saint Paul had no rest does not at all suggest the kind of anxiety we usually experience because of personal dangers and losses. He was troubled for the sake of God’s work. If Titus had been ordered, after completing all the business in Corinth, to hasten to Troas, and by the reckoning of time he should have already been there, yet he was not there, then the Apostle naturally could suppose misfortunes that would be destructive to the Church’s cause and the Gospel. The Apostle lived only for the welfare of the Church and for the success of the Gospel. To touch on these matters is the same as touching the apple of his eye. That is why he is troubled and has no rest. The uncertainty of what was happening in Corinth tormented him; the Holy Spirit did not deign to reveal it to him or to fill his heart with confidence, leaving him to the natural course of human feelings under the influence of external circumstances. This caused him, not finding Titus in Troas or not waiting for him long, to hasten to meet him himself. Therefore, having said farewell to the Troadians, “taking his leave of them”, he went to Macedonia, for that was his further way, and through that country Saint Titus should return to him.

Thus the narrative here ends. What news Saint Titus brought and how Saint Paul was gladdened by them, he writes about below, at 7:2 and onward; here, just the remembrance of it transported his spirit; and he, before he had even managed to say a word about Titus’s coming or the news which Saint Titus brought, was taken by the Spirit into contemplation of the power and glory of Gospel truth, and, crying out: “Thanks be to God”, began to expound his contemplations with inspired speech.

This discourse can be called a conversation on one and the same subject, but without a definite, carefully planned structure; the presentations in it are replaced by one another, exhausting their subject, but not following the usual custom of one proceeding from another. One can, however, point out three turns in it and thereby designate its division: a) first the Apostle expounds the properties and workings of Gospel truth, or Christian revelation (2 Cor. 2:14–4:6); b) then he tells that despite all the height of this revelation, its bearers and carriers on earth are extremely degraded, are earthen vessels, yet act zealously, being inspired by hope for the future (2 Cor. 4:7–18, 5:1–10); finally, c) he expounds how the very preaching goes, with application of this to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 5:11–7:1).

The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

The word of the Gospel: aa) testifies of itself, spreads forth as a fragrance (2 Cor. 2:14–17, 3:1–3); bb) it is not ours, but from God, and glorious,—more glorious than the Old Testament (2 Cor. 3:4–11); cc) it is bright and illuminating (2 Cor. 3:12–18); dd) it acts irresistibly, when the god of this age has not blinded anyone’s reason, except present it to conscience in pure form without any mixture (2 Cor. 4:1–6). In all these points the Apostle speaks of himself and in general of the Apostles, inasmuch as they were organs of the Gospel, but what he says is evidently to be applied only to the Gospel itself, not to those who proclaim it.

The Apostle says: we,—proclaimers of the Gospel,—are the fragrance of Christ, which for some is life and for others is death (2 Cor. 2:14–16). In this nothing depends on us, for we do not add anything of our own to the Gospel; it acts this way of itself (2 Cor. 2:17). Therefore, we do not bring letters of recommendation anywhere, and from those we enlighten, we do not take them so as to present ourselves somewhere else with them; but the Gospel itself recommends us and the converted themselves replace letters of recommendation. They see what our Gospel has accomplished and assure themselves of its truth (2 Cor. 4:1–3). Such thoughts are hidden in the words of the Apostle, although at first glance they are not evident. In presenting them, we do not think we are doing violence to the word, but merely wish, as much as we are able, to enter into the spirit of the apostolic testimony.

2 Cor. 2:14. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

Thanks be to God! This he cried out after he had considered in his mind what his letter had accomplished in Corinth, as Saint Titus had reported to him. The sinners had repented, all shortcomings had been corrected, all doubts had been dispersed, and all had shown complete readiness to follow the Apostle’s word. His word proved completely victorious, and he could justly recognize himself as a victor conducting a triumphal procession after some famous victory. Therefore, he cried out: “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession!”—“Leads in triumphal procession” — θριαμβευοντι — arranges a triumph for us, sets us on the triumphal chariot. “Always” leads in triumphal procession—the Lord always does this for us, so that when everything seems to rise against us and everything we have done seems to be falling apart, He again restores everything to its power and returns full glory to His truth. And now in Corinth everything seemed to be falling apart,—in Asia I was burdened beyond my strength, in Troas I had no rest, in Macedonia it was no better; and when Titus came and told me what was in Corinth, I cannot but see and confess before all the triumphant power of God, accompanying our word, whether spoken or written. That is why “we praise God in all things, for He, ruling us wisely, leads us here and there, making it known to all and spreading through us the knowledge of godliness” (Theodoret).

The Apostle says that God makes the Apostles conquerors; it is really the word of the Gospel of truth that is victorious, and glory of the victory falls upon them only as organs of this word. That is why he further says that God makes them victorious “in Christ”, and specifically by the fact that they everywhere present “the fragrance of the knowledge of him”, that is, they everywhere spread the fragrance of knowledge of God and Christ the Lord, the Saviour,—calling this knowledge a fragrance because of its sweetness and because of the willing, joyful, and pleased reception of it by all those capable of it. “Having pointed out the Giver of victories, he further tells the cause of these victories, adding: ‘in Christ’, that is, through Christ and the preaching about Him. ‘Fragrance of knowledge’—he calls the knowledge of Christ. We, he says, are like the royal censer, because we go everywhere, carrying with us heavenly myrrh, from which spiritual fragrance emanates. He said this to show the power of preaching” (Saint Chrysostom). This fragrance is victorious. As the bride in the Song of Songs, so souls that have heard the word of the Gospel of Christ the Saviour could cry out: “Your love is more fragrant than all perfumes… We run after you in the fragrance of your perfumes” (Song 1:2, 3). They run after the Lord, as crowds of people after the triumphal chariot of victors. Is this not the similarity that gave the Apostle occasion to use this very metaphor: “fragrance of knowledge”?

2 Cor. 2:15. We are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

“We,” he says, “are the fragrance of Christ.” If one perfumes any material or garment with some fragrance, wherever you take it, it spreads its aroma everywhere, and no other smell is heard from it anymore, although it has its natural smell. So the Apostles, filled with the knowledge of Christ, wherever they appeared, appeared knowing nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ. Their word was only about Him, they manifested power only in His name, they sanctified believers with His name, they gave commandments from His face, they built churches to His glory, and everything that proceeded from them was about Christ, for Christ, from Christ. Thus openly they were the fragrance of Christ! And this was true both for those being saved and for those perishing.

“Those being saved”—these are those who believed, were sanctified by the mysteries, were born again to new life of grace and began to walk in this renewal of life. “Those perishing”—these are those who turned away from the word of the Gospel and were hostile both to it, to the One proclaimed, and to the proclaimers. To both of these they were the fragrance of Christ. Both understood clearly, persuasively, and tangibly that there is no other salvation except in the Lord Jesus Christ; both understood well the power of this Gospel word; but some accepted it and were saved, while others turned away from it and remained in their destruction. In the fact that there are those being saved and those perishing, there is nothing fatalistic, although in experience one can see how some irresistibly strive to destruction despite all care for their salvation, while others hold firm to the path of salvation despite unfavorable circumstances around them. Without God there is no salvation; and He wishes all to be saved, but compels no one. Therefore if there are those perishing, it is because they do not wish to be saved. Although we are not able to explain why some do not wish to, nevertheless it is certain that the ultimate cause lies in their will.

2 Cor. 2:16. To the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?

“We present the fragrance of Christ to all, but not all who perceive it acquire salvation. For a painful eye finds light dangerous and hostile; yet the sun does not cause harm. It is said that the vulture flees from the fragrance of myrrh; yet myrrh remains myrrh, although the vulture flees from it. So the saving preaching brings salvation to believers, but brings destruction to unbelievers” (Theodoret). There are foods which one person receives with pleasure, while another cannot even bear the smell of them, and when he perceives it, he experiences a tremor throughout his whole body. The nature of the foods is one and the same; the fact that they act so oppositely on these two depends on accidental dispositions of their organism. Christ the Lord is the essential life for all of us; and the Gospel about Him by its very nature contains life-giving principles for all; yet according to accidental moral dispositions, for some it is life, for others death. “But whether someone is saved or perishes,—Gospel preaching always retains its dignity. As light, even when it blinds those weak in vision, remains light, though it blinds; or as honey, though it may seem bitter to the sick, does not cease to be sweet in its essence,—so too the Gospel of Christ always has its characteristic fragrance, even though those who do not believe this Gospel perish; for the Gospel does not destroy them, but their own hardness of heart does. And the destruction of the wicked yet more displays the fragrance of preaching. Thus, the power of the Gospel is manifested not only in the salvation of the good, but also in the destruction of the wicked, for the sun precisely blinds the eyes of the weak because it shines very brightly. So also the Saviour, although ‘lies… for the fall and rising of many’ (Lk. 2:34), nevertheless does not cease to be the Saviour even when countless multitudes fall. Therefore, the Gospel is always the saving fragrance; but, perceiving this fragrance, some are saved while others perish,—yet in such a way that if anyone perishes, he is the cause of his own destruction” (Saint Chrysostom).

“And who is sufficient for these things?” By saying that the saving word of the Gospel is for some a fragrance to death and for others a fragrance to life, the Apostle naturally arouses in all the question: how is this? Presupposing this question as if already posed to himself, he answers it: “Who is sufficient for these things?” Who can explain how this happens? God desires one good and grants one good; Christ the Lord is our Saviour and Life, and the Gospel of salvation in Him is a life-giving word. Whence comes destruction? Only from us. But how can it come from us? Only if we were to mix our own reasonings with the Gospel and therefore preach it impurely. But this, he says, cannot be said of us, as is evident from the following verse. Thus, why the Gospel word produces such opposite effects remains incomprehensible. Who is sufficient (able) to understand and explain this?

This understanding of these words and their connection with what follows appears most direct if we keep in mind the twofold action of the Gospel. And if we view the previous discourse as one in which the Apostle merely hinted in passing that the Gospel is also a fragrance to death, while his chief aim was to present the life-giving and victorious nature of the Gospel word; then in the words: “Who is sufficient for these things?” the Apostle clearly wished to disclaim all honor of participation in this victory and to attribute it all to God. That the Gospel word goes through the world like a conqueror on a solemn chariot, this is not from us; no one among men could accomplish this. It is victorious by itself through God’s power, hidden within it, or accompanying it and giving it universal efficacy. Thus Saint Chrysostom: “Since the Apostle said so much that is great and extraordinary, claiming universal triumph for himself, he again tries to moderate what was said, attributing all to God. He speaks as it were: all this is Christ’s, and there is nothing of ours. False apostles boast in preaching as their own; on the contrary, the true Apostle considers it praise of himself that he calls nothing his own. Therefore he says: ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ From which itself it follows: if we ourselves are not sufficient for this, then everything that happens to us and through us is the work of grace.”

In this case, the following words will then have this sense: everything in the Gospel is the work of God, the work of grace; there is nothing of ours here and there cannot be. All our concern is directed to ensuring that nothing of our own is mixed into the Gospel word, but that it be transmitted pure, as received, giving it the ability to act unobstructed with all the fullness of power inherent to it.

2 Cor. 2:17. For we are not like many, adulterating the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as from God, before God, in Christ we speak.

“Adulterating the word of God” — καπηλευοντες — huckstering the word of God. Hucksters, to gain more profit, water down wine, and so that this mixture does not lose the color and taste of wine, they add something else to it and thus sell what appears to be genuine wine, but it is no longer genuine: it has lost its power and works harm to health. Similar to them are those who mix their own reasonings with the pure Gospel word. Even if such reasonings were not false, but were added as explanations of the matter according to the principles of reason,—even then, by expanding and diluting the word unnecessarily, they weaken it and rob it of the power and healing properties inherent to it in its whole, unmixed state. If falsehood is mixed in, then everything is perverted and the Gospel words become bad news. The Apostle says: we do not do any such thing—not only no falsehood, but no reasoning of our own do we add to the Gospel word, transmitting it in its natural purity,—as we received it from God,—as those conscious that we speak before the eyes of God Himself, we speak in Christ, by His power, by His protection, to His glory, or as one fulfilling His work. Saint Chrysostom says to this: “Although, says the Apostle, we proclaim much that is great and extraordinary, yet we claim nothing for ourselves; on the contrary, we attribute everything to Christ. We do not wish to imitate the false apostles, who claim much for themselves, for this would be like the huckster who adulterates wine or sells for money what ought to be given freely. Indeed, it seems to me that the Apostle here cleverly ridicules the covetousness of the false apostles and hints at what I said before, namely that they preach the Divine with an admixture of their own. Rebuking the same vice, Isaiah too says: ‘Your merchants mix wine with water’ (Is 1:22). Although this is said of wine, it would not be wrong to apply it also to doctrine. We do not act so, says he; but what we ourselves believed, that we offer to others too, and we teach pure doctrine without any mixture. Therefore he added also: ‘but as of sincerity, but as from God, before God, in Christ we speak,’ that is, we do not preach so as to deceive you, as if we were giving you something of our own or bringing in and mixing something from ourselves,—‘but as from God,’ that is, we do not speak as though we ourselves were giving you something, but we affirm that we have all received from God; for the expression: ‘as from God’ means not to boast of anything as our own, but to attribute everything to God. ‘In Christ we speak,’ that is, we speak all things not from our wisdom, but enlightened by the power of Christ.‘And Theodoret in this place points to the chief thought that the Apostles transmitted the Gospel word as it is, in its natural purity:’The Apostle makes it known that he himself presents teachings inspired by God’s grace, while his opponents huckster the word of God, turning it into fable by mixing their own thoughts with grace, as those do who mix pure wine with water.”

Let us present the opinions of other interpreters on certain expressions: “as of sincerity” — εξ ειλικρινειας — from sincerity, without deceit,—“from a pure and guileless heart (with childlike simplicity)” (Theophylact). “But as from God”—“as from God we have received and by God have been taught” (Oecumenius),—so also we speak. “Before God”—“the Apostle said this to show the integrity and boldness of his heart. Our heart, he says, is so pure in this matter that we dare to present it to God’s eye and judgment” (Theophylact). “In Christ”—“that is, we speak being instructed and taught by Christ. Behold what truth and purity, according to the testimony of the Apostle, the Gospel word handed down to us has!” (Oecumenius).

Thus, if our Gospel word is effective and victorious, all of this belongs to the Gospel itself and to God’s power accompanying it, not to us. We only strive to transmit it in all its purity and freedom from any reasonings and our own considerations.

2 Cor. 3:1. Are we beginning again to recommend ourselves to you? Or do we need, as some, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?

The Apostle speaks in accordance with the custom and usage of letters of recommendation. Wishing to be well received in some place, one takes a letter of recommendation from a known person and with it appears in that place; then, having accomplished his business there—commercial, and sometimes also teaching—he takes a letter of approval from the inhabitants of that place so as to find a like reception in another place. The holy Apostles appeared nowhere with such letters, but with the Gospel word alone and with the power of the Holy Spirit and Christ accompanying them. This replaced for them every letter of recommendation. The power of the Gospel word and the signs accompanying it assured all that they were truly God’s messengers. From this assurance was born faith; through faith the whole Gospel was accepted; after this followed sanctification and renewal by grace and the impartation of special gifts. From that moment, it was not external assurance any longer that ruled, but internal assurance of the heavenly dignity of the Gospel; and this not only for those who received the Gospel and were renewed by its power, but for all outsiders. Outsiders saw spiritual renewal in some locality, were amazed, and themselves came to the conviction that the Gospel they had accepted was heavenly, Divine, and worthy of reverential attention and faith. Thus, this renewal in one place served as a letter of recommendation for the Apostles in all other places.

Such a course of the Gospel’s success is what Saint Paul now recalls to the Corinthians in several expressions. He said above that they mix nothing with their Gospel word, but, transmitting it in its natural purity, leave it to act as is proper to it. Now he reminds them: remember, we came to you with the Gospel word alone, and it itself made you what you now are. By its power you are what you are. You know this; and behold, for you the nearest assurance that the Gospel word is self-acting and all-victorious, as I said above! This is a letter of recommendation for us both before you and before all others.—But Saint Paul expresses this in the form of a correction, as if saying: but what are we?—As if we were again beginning to recommend ourselves to you, as to those unknown, as if entering into relations with you for the first time?—There is no need for us to recommend ourselves to you or to present ourselves, as is customary, with letters of recommendation from others to you and from you to others. All such things you replace yourselves; you yourselves are our recommendation both before you and before others.—“Recommend” — συνιστανειν — to present someone to someone, or to recommend.

“Blessed Theodoret writes in this sense: ‘Are we beginning again to recommend ourselves?’ This is not for us to say, but for you, who know perfectly well what concerns us (and concerning the Gospel work among you).” Oecumenius conveys the Apostle’s speech thus: “Let no one say that we are laying all this out wishing to recommend ourselves to you or to present ourselves to you?—No; do we need, like certain others, letters of recommendation to you or from you?—Not at all; you are our letter of recommendation.”

2 Cor. 3:2. You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men.

You are our letter of recommendation, an open letter, which all people know and read,—they see your faith and good life according to faith, they find out, or directly know, where such a change came from in you, and, having found out or knowing that all this was produced in you by our Gospel, they begin to reverence it, seek an opportunity to hear it, so as themselves to taste its fruits. Such a disposition, spread through you everywhere, is better than any letter of recommendation for us. How this letter is written, the Apostle explains further in verse 3, saying that you are a letter of Christ, written by the Holy Spirit; and what he says here: “written in our hearts,” by this the Apostle only wishes to say: all read you as our letter, but you are not strangers to us, any more than we are to you,—we carry you in our hearts. So that no one should say: behold, you are a letter of recommendation for us, and you have thrown this letter open,—let whoever wishes read it,—the Apostle says to this: let them read you openly, but we value you no less than anyone values a letter of recommendation. One wraps his letter and preserves it carefully in his bosom, but we carry you in our heart, you are written there. Where needed, we ourselves read it to others, and from us people know about you no less than from seeing you yourselves.

Saint Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle expresses not only his love for them, but also testifies to their virtuous life, that is, that they can prove before all the dignity of their teacher by their virtues. For this is what his words mean: ‘You are our letter.’ What your written letters would do, in which you would approve and praise us, you accomplish through your life according to faith, which all see and hear about. For the virtues of disciples serve as the best adornment for their teacher and approve him better than any letter. ‘Written in our hearts,’ because we carry you with us everywhere and keep you in our hearts. As if he said: you serve us as approval before others, and we always have you in our heart and proclaim your virtues to all. Therefore, we have no need for letters of approval from you to others; you serve as our approval. If we need to recommend ourselves before others, we will put you forth in the stead of a letter of approval. He said this also in the first letter: ‘For you are the seal of my apostleship’ (1 Cor. 9:2).”

Blessed Theodoret writes: “We have no need of letters,—the very deeds testify about us and we have an animate letter which speaks for us and to all—this is your faith, celebrated everywhere, on land and on sea,—because we, having delivered you from delusion, led you to the light of the knowledge of God.”

2 Cor. 3:3. It is manifest that you are a letter of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, on hearts.

There he said only that the Corinthians are their letter, which all read partly through what they see in them, partly through what the very founders of faith in them themselves say about them, carrying them everywhere in their heart written there. Now he explains what kind of letter it is, how such a letter is written and where. This is what is chief in the Apostle’s discourse, for his aim is one—to say how high and self-evidently the Gospel word is, through which the Corinthians became what they are.

“It is manifest”—you appear before all, it is plainly evident to all who know you that you are “a letter of Christ”, a letter written by Christ Himself and about Christ, that is, a letter testifying to salvation in Christ, or written in the spirit and according to the matter of the economy of salvation in Christ Jesus. On you is seen by all how the work of salvation begins, how it is established, how it ripens, how it is colored (gifts of the Holy Spirit) and how it is crowned; you are a vivid law of life in Christ Jesus. Saint Chrysostom says: “Elevating them to higher understanding, he calls them a letter of Christ, as having within them written God’s law (concerning Christ Jesus). What God was pleased to reveal to all (through our Gospel), all this, he says, is written in your hearts.” Theodoret writes: “And why do I say: ‘our’? You are a letter of the Saviour Himself, utterances of His own preaching.” Oecumenius and Theophylact interpret: you are a letter of Christ, “because His law and His commandments remain in you and are kept by you.”

“Ministered by us.” Christ wrote you by the Holy Spirit; “and we are only servants of the writing” (Theodoret). “We prepared you to receive these letters. As Moses prepared the stones and tablets, so we prepared your souls” (Saint Chrysostom). “Thus, we through preaching were only servants of your faith and your knowledge of the work of salvation” (Oecumenius and Theophylact). But the faith itself and the knowledge itself and all else by which salvation is worked was written in your hearts not by us. Apart from us, although we served you by word and action, the Holy Spirit wrote all that in you.

“Written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” He means to say that your writing was accomplished not externally, but internally, not by an external means, but by an internal one. Usually one writes on paper with ink. One wishing to know what is written reads it, understands, and receives: thus it passes to him inwardly—into consciousness, and is there understood by the mind, felt by the heart, and becomes a motive for desires and active energy. With you, he says, it was not so: the Spirit of God directly penetrated your hearts and there depicted the truths of salvation, transforming you and issuing forth into action. Together with the Gospel word,—which is spirited and spirit-bearing,—the Spirit of God passes to the inner man and arouses him to attention. One who heeds, receiving through words representation after representation, finally perceives what the matter is and what is required. Upon perceiving this, not without the help of grace, he is faced with the necessity to decide whether he consents or does not consent. The Spirit of grace draws back at this point: the decision belongs to freedom. But when assent is inwardly expressed, it is secured in the essence of the soul by grace, and all that was heard passes from the mind, where it was gathered by attention, into the heart and is imprinted there in a vital manner. This is first—initial writing. In it is the program of the new life, whose requirements issue from here, but are not all at once understood and accepted. Christianity is not a theory, but a life. One who pronounces assent to receive it takes upon himself the obligation to live according to it. These requirements of life immediately enter into consciousness and are accepted by conscience as a law. But with all this, this is a new process of internal spiritual life. The Spirit of grace helps to clearly picture all that is required and again withdraws, so that freedom itself would freely express assent to this. When this assent is expressed, the Spirit of grace stamps in the conscience and in the heart all understood as a condition of Christian life: and behold, the tablets of the law of life in Christ Jesus, vivid and written! This is second writing. Third writing continues unbroken throughout all of life. None of this is done without Divine mysteries: the first writing is completed by holy baptism; the second—by holy chrismation, and during the Apostles—by the laying on of hands; the third—throughout life by the repeatedly performed mysteries of repentance and communion.

Thus, one believes, is born again, enters into a new life, and leads this life,—all by the action of the Spirit of God. If all this is precisely the letter of Christ, then it is of itself evident why it is thought to be written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.

“Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, on hearts.”

From letters of recommendation, the Apostle passed to living writing, imprinted on the Corinthians through the Gospel, and this led to writing by the Spirit in hearts, in distinction from writing, though by God’s finger, but externally, on tablets of stone. Thus all this section on the excellence of the New Testament revelation is constituted in Saint Paul, as a chain is linked, link joined to link.

Moses prepared stone tablets. God Himself wrote the commandments of His law on them with His finger. This is a great symbol depicting the moral order of the Old Testament. The tablets are outside the person under the law. Reading them, he understood what was required, and, since under the law there lay a debt of blood for non-fulfillment, he was compelled to fulfill it. But this came from outside, and lay upon him as an external yoke. In Christianity, the law of life in Christ Jesus is written by the Spirit of the living God in the inner man, in the heart itself, the very source of life, and, issuing from there and embracing consciousness and freedom, fills all the fountains of life and appears outwardly in deeds as a natural manifestation of what has been established and ripened within. Behold the great and essential difference between Christian law-writing and Old Testament law-writing. There the law was read on tablets, entered into consciousness, and lay on the conscience; here it issues from the heart together with consciousness and conscience, and directly arouses and disposes to deeds, which are done willingly, not as there, from under a yoke.

“On tablets of flesh, that is, on hearts”—Theophylact and Oecumenius transpose thus: on tablets of flesh, that is, on tablets of the heart, or in the heart. The heart is the tablet of the Law when it is completely saturated with the commandments, or with the will of God alone, so that it shows neither sympathy nor inclination toward anything except the commandments, or except that upon which God’s will is sealed. Then the heart unites with the conscience inseparably, is unified with it, and the conscience becomes the clear and exact determiner of the law of life in Christ Jesus, both in general and in particulars. The Apostle presents the matter in ideal perfection, which is nonetheless attainable. For the heart to reach such perfection, we need much labor and effort. This state is contemporary with purity of heart. That is why the prophet prayed: “‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 50:12). A right spirit is renewed together with, or through the purity of the heart. The right spirit within us is precisely the Spirit of the living God writing on the tablets of the heart the law of life in Christ Jesus.—All God’s saints had this goal in view and by the measure of achieving it measured the degrees of their ascent to perfection.

The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8)

2 Cor. 3:4, 5. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.

Although above the Apostle referred everything to the Gospel word and the grace of the Spirit, depicting the hearts of the Corinthians; he could not, however, pass over in silence the fact that both were and served toward their salvation through them. They were the immediate instruments of Divine grace acting upon them. And the Corinthians knew this from the very deed itself. From their lips came the victorious Gospel word; through baptism, either by them or by their guidance, rebirth to a new life was bestowed; through the laying on of their hands the gifts of the Holy Spirit descended. All this the Corinthians knew. Therefore, when the Apostle magnified so greatly God’s work manifested in them and upon them, he could give them occasion to think of him and other workers with him more highly than they were. That is why he deemed it necessary to qualify this and present the matter as it really is. He speaks as if: indeed, we also act here and act with complete boldness, with full confidence in God through Christ the Lord; and He never puts our hope to shame, but always acts through us with all the fullness of Divine action, as He appointed for salvation to be accomplished in men according to the economy of salvation. But do not think anything excessive about us. Despite all that is accomplished through us, we here—are nothing. Not only can we not devise anything of our own to improve the action on people from ourselves, but we do not even understand how all this is accomplished. The actions issuing from us for salvation prove complete, and we appear ready and capable of accomplishing them, but this readiness and capability are not from us—“our sufficiency is from God.” He acts through us in Christ Jesus by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

“Such confidence” — πεποιθησιν — assurance in God we have, that He will not refuse to act through us in this or that case, as He promised and appointed, and we have this assurance through Christ the Lord, for we act in the order of the economy of salvation accomplished by the Lord. Theodoret writes: “We boldly rely on God, because Christ gave us this boldness; but we do not think highly of ourselves and do not present preaching composed of our own thoughts.”—Saint Chrysostom says: “Again he attributes everything to God and calls Christ the cause of all things. He did not say: ‘such confidence we have,’ by which we ascribe one thing to ourselves and another to God; on the contrary, ‘such,’ by which we lay everything on God and ascribe it to Him: for our sufficiency is from God.” Here is Oecumenius’ rendering: “We have such confidence,” we dare, he says, completely rely on God, through Christ being filled with inspired boldness toward Him; but we ourselves in no way are sufficient to worthily work in this ministry; we cannot even conceive the greatness of the works, much less understand anything in it.

2 Cor. 3:6. Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

“What does it mean: ‘made us sufficient’?—That God made us capable of such ministry. For it is a great thing to communicate to the whole world such tablets and writings, which are far more important than the first. Therefore he added: ‘not of the letter but of the Spirit.’ Behold the difference between the old and the new tablets! Moses brought not the Spirit, but letters, but to us is entrusted the impartation of the Spirit (Saint Chrysostom). God Himself endowed us with power sufficient to serve the grace of the Spirit. For we present not the old letters of the Law, but the new gift of the Spirit (Theodoret). God made us sufficient, filled us with His power, made us ministers fitting for such a great and Divine work, ministers ‘of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.’ And the Law was spiritual, but did not give the Spirit as the New Covenant does. To us, he says, is entrusted the impartation not of letters, as to Moses, but of the Spirit. The Apostles did not merely teach about the spiritual and Divine, but gave the Spirit, laying hands on the believers” (Theophylact).

Behold the essence of the New Covenant—the inspiration of believers with the Spirit. The word issuing from the lips of the Apostles was the same as the Old Testament word; and if apostolic ministry had been limited to preaching alone, the New Covenant would not have been higher than the Old, even if the conceptions communicated by the preaching were higher than Old Testament conceptions. The power of the New Covenant is not in the conceptions, but in the grace of the Spirit. The Gospel word only prepared for the reception of the Spirit; but the New Covenant work was accomplished by the Spirit, received through Divine mysteries, of which the Apostles were the first servants. The Spirit, having entered into the heart, not only wrote the New Covenant, but accomplished it, transforming the inner man according to the spirit of the New Covenant. The Spirit did everything: He formed faith; He established the new life; He directed the paths of life. And here the Apostle is not proclaiming something new, but indicating the fulfillment of what was foretold of old by the prophets. The prophet Jeremiah foretold: “‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers… I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts” (Jer. 31:31–33). The prophet Ezekiel completes this prophecy: “‘And I will give them another heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they will follow My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them; and they shall be My people and I will be their God” (Ezek. 11:19, 20). These predictions were fulfilled when the Lord poured out His Holy Spirit on the holy Apostles, and then through them, by means of the God-appointed mysteries, upon all believers. Believers all received the Spirit and became new in the very sources of life. Thus it is and always happens to all who truly believe and sincerely walk the path of faith. Behold, he says, as what kind of covenant God made us sufficient to be ministers of—“‘not of the letter but of the Spirit!”

“For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” “The Apostle spoke of each with an eye to the outcome, because the law punished those who transgressed, while grace gives life to believers” (Theodoret). “By letter here he means the law, threatening punishment to those who transgress the law, while by Spirit he means grace, giving life through the mystery of baptism to those dead in sins. Before he said that one covenant was written on tablets of stone, while another on tablets of flesh. But it seemed to him that this distinction was still slight, and therefore he added that the former Covenant is written in letters and ink, while the New is written in the Spirit. But since even this distinction could not fully arouse his listeners, he points out to them something even more powerful that would inspire them, namely that ‘the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.’ What does this mean?—According to the old law, a sinner is subject to punishment, while according to the new, he takes refuge in baptism and becomes righteous; and having become righteous, he lives, freed from the death of sin. The law, if it apprehends a murderer, condemns him to death; but if grace apprehends a murderer, it sanctifies and gives him life. But why do I speak of a murderer? The law even seized and stoned him who gathered wood on the Sabbath (Num. 15:32–36). Behold what ‘the letter kills’ means! On the contrary, grace seizes countless murderers and robbers, and having washed them in the waters of baptism, releases them from their former evils. Behold what ‘the Spirit gives life’ means! The law, whomever it apprehends, makes dead out of the living; grace, the transgressions out of the (spiritually) dead makes living. By the grace of baptism, sins are washed away, former iniquities are blotted out; man is made alive, and all grace is impressed upon his heart as upon a tablet” (Saint Chrysostom).

At the present time, Christianity too is all contained in writings. The Spirit-bearing word of the Apostles constitutes our New Testament revelation; the spirit-bearing mysteries are surrounded by beautiful ceremonial order; the guiding movements of the Spirit are fulfilled in the relations of shepherds and their flocks. And all this is determined by the canon. But the canon is writing, the letter; its fulfillment is an external form. In all this, the spirit of life may not be present. One can move in the forms of life without life. One can know the whole New Law by heart and understand it, and not have the Spirit illuminating by living faith; one can strictly observe all the orders of the Church and not have the Spirit that gives life, or not have spiritual life; one can remain in complete obedience to the shepherdhood and not receive guidance truly issuing from the Spirit. Truly spiritual life moves in all these orders, but is not necessarily presupposed by them. We all live according to established order; but some are spirit-bearing while others are not. Of two standing in the church, and even acting, one may be spirit-bearing while the other is not. So what then? Does the letter kill here too?—The letter, the form is everywhere of one value; and when there is no Spirit with them, they are nothing. But the Spirit blows where it wishes, and you do not know where it comes from and where it goes (Jn 3:8). It does not come without faith and mysteries; but these can only be observed in form, without the manifestation of inner power. That all this is so, universal experience testifies. It is before our eyes. But how and why this happens, we cannot comprehend. The Lord has covered with great secrecy the genesis and ripening of life from the Spirit. So His will is pleased; and His will is holy, righteous, and good. One consolation: “‘Seek and you will find” (Mt 7:7).

2 Cor. 3:7, 8. For if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit come with even more glory?

The Apostle has already shown sufficiently the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old, especially in that the old was written with dead letters on stone, while the new is depicted by the life-giving Spirit in the heart, so that the old is death-bringing while the new is life-giving. Now he wishes to present the glory of the New Covenant, overshadowing the glory of the Old, and for this he uses reference to the glory that shone on Moses’ face when he came down from the mountain after communion with God. His reasoning here is this: How much more excellent is the economy of salvation that we have presented to you and you have accepted before the Old Testament one, you know from your own experience; you have received the life-giving Spirit, who gave you new life, sanctified you, and openly manifested the sign of His abiding in you (in extraordinary gifts). The Old Testament ministry gave nothing of the sort. But see with what glory its establishment was accompanied? Moses, coming down from the mountain with its inscription, shone with glory. Conclude from this that if that, so much lower in comparison with our ministry, appeared thus glorious, how much more glorious must our ministry be? The purpose of such speech by the Apostle is as follows: I am telling you about the superiority of the new grace over the Old Testament ministry; in this someone might think: but how is it that Moses shone with glory, and here what do we see? The Saviour in humiliation, the Apostles all obscure and all believers share a similar inglorious fate. Be careful not to be scandalized by this thought; on the contrary, from the very fact that the Old Testament ministry appeared so glorious, conclude that ours is incomparably more glorious. For you have already experienced its power on yourselves and you bear testimony of its superiority in yourselves. If what you receive from this ministry is incomparably superior to what that ministry gave, then do not doubt that the glory of our ministry is brighter than the glory of that ministry. Do not look at appearance; what appears is temporal, what is unseen is eternal. Is what you have from the Spirit of grace visible?—It is invisible. And is it less real because of that?—Not at all less; for it is not something told to you from outside, but what you yourselves feel and experience in yourselves. So—if this is certain, though invisible, do not doubt that the glory of our ministry is indeed brighter than the glory of the Old Testament ministry, though the brightness of its glory no one sees.—The Apostle presses upon them this truth by reasoning, for he could not point to this glory so that bodily eyes would see it as the Israelites saw the glory on Moses’ face,—he could not say: look here—what glory! And even intellectual eyes do not contemplate this glory as light; it is only accepted in the certainty of conviction that it exists. This certainty of conviction is its light. The glory itself is the superiority of its dignity, clearly perceived. All this was built on that indisputable fact that the economy of salvation gave the Spirit of grace, imparted new spiritual life, and was crowned with special gifts. This universally experienced quickening from the Spirit, this spirit-bearing and spirit-moving nature present in all, gave the Apostle’s reasoning an unshakeable support point and strength capable of dispelling all doubts.

Saint Chrysostom sees such a structure of thoughts in the Apostle, and following him all our interpreters. He says: “The Apostle said that Moses’ tablets were stone and written in letters or writings, while the new covenant tablets are fleshly and are written by the Spirit; he also said that ‘the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.’ It remained finally to add to this comparison something else, quite important, namely about the glory of Moses’ face, a glory which no one saw in the New Covenant with bodily eyes. Therefore the former seemed great glory, for it struck the senses and was contemplated by bodily eyes, though it was also inaccessible. And the glory of the New Covenant is spiritual. But the perception of this superiority of the latter was inaccessible to the weak, therefore the Old Testament glory more attracted and drew them to itself. Therefore, since he had already allowed such a comparison (of the New Covenant with the Old), he resolved to show the superiority of New Testament glory. But since this was very difficult because of the weakness of the listeners, see what he does and what method he employs to achieve this goal: he shows this difference and superiority through reasonings, which he draws from what was said before. If the Old Testament ministry, he says, was a ministry of death, while the New Testament is a ministry of life, then undoubtedly the glory of the latter ministry is greater than the glory of the former. Since he could not present New Testament glory to bodily eyes, he shows its superiority through reasonings.”

The Apostle constructs three such reasonings, for which the source point is, on one hand, the glory of Moses’ face, and on the other, the spiritual perfections of New Testament ministry. The production of reasoning is everywhere the same: that is less, yet so glorious; how then will not this better and greater be incomparably more excellent? He sets forward what is less and what is greater, and from this draws the obvious conclusion: if that which is less is glorious, then surely this which is greater is incomparably more glorious. The following features are compared: that is “‘ministry of death” (dead), while this is “‘ministry of the Spirit” (living and life-giving) (2 Cor. 3:7, 8); that is “‘ministry of condemnation,” while this is “‘ministry of righteousness” (2 Cor. 3:9, 10); that is “‘passing away,” while this is “‘abiding” (2 Cor. 3:11). Who does not see that if the first is glorious, the second must be incomparably more glorious?

After this, the content of these verses 7–11 is clear. However, necessary remarks should be made on certain expressions.

What is to be understood here by ministry?—Not Moses’ mediation and Apostleship, but the economy of salvation under the law and under grace, in their comparison with one another. So Saint Chrysostom and all our interpreters. Theodoret only points to one or the other. And in the course of the discourse it is better to understand the latter. The Apostle in this section reasons throughout about the superiority of the New Covenant and sets it forth, and hides and obscures himself in every way. Just before this he only said that by themselves they are nothing. Is it fitting to suppose that after such a word he immediately sets forth the glory of Apostleship?

“For if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory”—“Carved” — εντετυπωμενη — impressed with letters on stones—on two stone tablets. On these tablets only the Decalogue was written; by ministry of death, however, the whole Old Testament establishment is meant. The Apostle embraces all of it by that one thing which was written on the tablets, because the Decalogue constituted the center of the whole Old Testament establishment, and because the glory on Moses’ face first appeared when he brought down the tablets, and perhaps also because writing with letters on stones very well expresses the essential features of the Old Testament. The words: “came with such glory” point to the glorification of the “appearance of his face” when he came down from the mountain. This glorification was so great that Aaron and all the sons of Israel could not endure its brightness, and “were afraid to come near” Moses (Ex. 34:29, 30). This is what the Apostle expresses when he says: “that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face.” Moses himself at first did not know “that the skin of his face shone,” but when he found out, he began to put a veil on his face (Ex. 34:33) so that he might communicate freely with the sons of Israel in carrying out the arrangement of the whole Covenant. When ascending the mountain, Moses removed the veil for communion with God. This glorification of the face was a result of the vision of God’s glory, its reflection; therefore at the end of all the work of setting up the covenant orders, it probably ceased. That is why the Apostle called this glory “fading.” The sons of Israel could not gaze upon Moses—“because of the glory of his face, which was being brought to an end.”

But why was this establishment called “ministry of death”?—“The Apostle called the ministry of the law a ministry of death, because the law punished (with death) those who transgressed” (Theodoret). “By ministry of death the Apostle understands the law, though the law was not the originator and producer of death. The originator of death is sin. It led to transgression of the law; and the law revealed this and subjected it to condemnation for sin. It made evil more clearly known and only punished for evil, and did not incite to evil; and it served not to produce sin or death, but to punish the one who sins. And thus it was at the same time a destroyer of sin. For when it showed sin to be so terrible, it certainly thereby caused it to be fled, or restrained sin by fear of punishment” (Saint Chrysostom). The law held back from the deeds of sin, but the power of sin remained in operation even under it. Since the power of sin is a death-dealing power, and it was irritated by the law, which gave no help to resist it, it kept those under the law in the death-dealing realm of sin. “The law was nothing other than writings. And writings provided no help, as on the contrary happens in baptism, to those under the law; but the tablets and the inscriptions brought death to those who transgressed the writings” (Saint Chrysostom). That is why the law is a ministry of death!

Or perhaps the Old Testament establishment is called a ministry of death in the sense that it was a dead ministry, that is, written, literal, statutory, external ministry, without the inner power of life. The law did not give the Spirit, but only prescribed deeds. Deeds were done in the usual order, but inwardly there was no spiritual life, for it is given by the Spirit, which the law did not communicate. In the New Covenant, on the contrary, the first thing is the bestowal of the Spirit, which, regenerating to new life, also depicted in the heart the laws of this life, giving power not only to suppress sin externally, but to destroy it. Therefore, in contrast to the Old Testament establishment as a ministry of death, he called it a ministry of the Spirit, giving to understand that the ministry of the Spirit is the same, according to him, as the ministry of life, that is, living, issuing from the heart, not determined by external prescriptions, but issuing from within, as a need of the heart. But the ministry appears such only because it is itself the fruit of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Recognizing the superiority of such ministry, everyone with the Apostle will cry out: “how will not the ministry of the Spirit come with even more glory?”

The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

2 Cor. 3:9. For if the ministry of condemnation came with glory, much more will the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

The Old Testament establishment was a ministry of condemnation, because the law only exposed sin and condemned the sinner as a sinner in the knowledge of the one sinning, and left the sinner there, leading him no further. The sinner could not but recognize the righteousness of the condemnation and would wish to escape it and no longer be subject to it, but he could not, because the law did not give him the strength to do so. Thus the law always kept those under it under condemnation, giving them no way out. On the contrary, the covenant of grace, although it too opens by exposing those called to it in every way, says: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you… for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). That is, in it from the first step is given the forgiveness of sins, in which the law condemns, and a new life is communicated, strong to walk steadfastly in God’s commandments,—a right spirit is renewed within, imparting to the one who receives it inner righteousness, or justice. That is why it is a ministry of righteousness — δικαιοσυνης — of justice, holiness, and blamelessness, not in name, but in essence. So, if a ministry of condemnation is glorious, that is, glorious, then a ministry that gives righteousness and holiness, does it not abound even more in glory, though this is not visible to sensory eyes as it was visible on Moses’ face?

2 Cor. 3:10. Indeed, what was made glorious has no glory in this respect, because of the glory that surpasses it.

A clarifying thought is inserted for the previous conclusion. As if an objection were heard: But how is this? After all, that establishment of ministry appeared so glorious!—The Apostle answers: Let it be glorious, but know that it is glorious not in the sense that nothing more glorious could ever appear, that it was the highest glory, above which no other is to be expected. Και γαρ ουδε δεδοξασται — for it is not glorious in this respect, that is, in the establishment of Old Testament ministry, — ενεκεν της υπερβαλλουσης δοξη — because of the surpassing glory. That was not glory of the highest degree, but moderate glory, and was given only to impress the sensory sons of Israel, given for the time of the establishment of the law, so that they would always see on it the reflection of heavenly origin. When the establishment of the law came to an end, that glory too faded. The following verse links exactly with this thought: “For what was fading came with glory.” If now this fading [ministry] is glorious, how much more glorious should the abiding [ministry] be!

Understanding the passage thus, we remain in our attention on Mount Sinai, before Moses with his glorified face, and we measure its glory by the same measure that subsequent events give to it. But one can place that glory before the glory of the New Testament establishment and understand this passage thus: that which was glorified does not even appear glorious before the Gospel, because of the surpassing of the glory of the latter; “as the light of a lamp, which is powerful in itself, becomes imperceptible in broad daylight before the light of the sun” (Theodoret). Saint Chrysostom says: “First the Apostle showed that the ministry of righteousness is in glory, and not only in glory, but also abounds in glory. Now he shows how great this superiority is, saying: if I compare this glory with the Old Testament glory, then the glory of the Old Testament will not even be glory.” Theophylact adds: “And the law was glorious in itself, in its own measure, but because of the abundance of the glory of the Gospel it now appears not glorious.”

2 Cor. 3:11. For if what was fading came with glory, much more will what is permanent come in glory.

“The third reasoning, showing the superiority of the New Covenant in another way, drawn from time. For the Old Testament ministry came to an end, while this remains perpetually” (Saint Chrysostom). “The Apostle called the law ‘fading’ as having lost its power with the coming of the Lord Christ, while the gift of grace ‘permanent,’ as a gift which will have no end. Therefore, if the law was deemed worthy of glory, surely the gift of grace will be deemed worthy of glory many times greater” (Theodoret). “If the law, which was to pass away, was given with the accompaniment of such glory, shall not the New Covenant, which is always to endure, be in glory all the more?” (Theophylact).

By such comparisons and conclusions the Apostle clarified that the New Testament economy of salvation is more glorious than the Old Testament one. But how? Is it or will it be?—The Apostle’s thought is that it is more glorious, only this glory is not visible, but contemplated by the intellect, spiritual. It will be revealed visibly at the second coming of the Lord, but until then it remains invisible, though nonetheless real. The Corinthians already perceived it in the wonderful workings of the Holy Spirit, but these workings came and went like the flash of passing lightning, and although they left assurance of the glory of the Gospel order, without the visible, continual manifestation of this glory. In God’s Church, this invisible inner glory is continually present. But the reality of the Spirit appears tangibly only in those who by long labor and sweat have purified themselves from passions. The glory of which the Apostle speaks is in no way external, visible, as, for example, the glory of the Church under Constantine the Great. These glories are always accidental, come and go, and one should not fix attention on them, and still less measure by them the dignity of the kingdom of grace. Truly one must judge thus: whether these external glories be or be not, from them to God’s work—neither loss nor gain. What is important and what one should treasure is that in the Church there is always present the efficacy of the Spirit and there are always in it zealots zealous to attain such a measure. Their diminishment is the diminishment of the spiritual glory of the kingdom of Christ, and their cessation—the obscuring of glory. Where this is absent, there is established a ministry of death and condemnation, despite all the appearance of a ministry of spirit and righteousness.

Having clarified the great glory of the Gospel order compared with the glory of the Old Testament order, marked by the glorification of Moses’ face, the Apostle dwells longer on this latter circumstance. Moses with his glorified face, hidden under a veil, is a great symbol expressing with exact precision the meaning of the Old Covenant. As Moses’ face was glorious, but hidden, so that others could not see this glory, so the Old Covenant is glorious, but its glory is concealed. Its glory is Christ the Lord hidden in all its orders and statutes; but this glory is concealed by materiality, so that if one looks at mere externals, the whole Old Testament order presents nothing but elemental service with sacrifices, incensings, washings. In essence, however, all this is only shadow, while the body of this shadow is Christ the Lord. Only one who believes in the Lord can perceive this body and, consequently, understand what the Old Testament order is. Through the external veil he penetrates inward and sees the hidden light there. Such, says the Apostle, are we believers. We directly see the Lord and His glory, and we ourselves are more and more illumined by that same glory.

2 Cor. 3:12. Since we have such hope, we act with great boldness.

“Hope” here is close to the meaning of complete conviction; he called the conviction hope because it embraces both the present and the future. He spoke of the glory of the New Testament order. This glory already exists, present both to those proclaiming this covenant of grace and to those entering into it,—although it is invisible to bodily eyes, it is only contemplated by the intellect and felt by the heart. It is present in such a way that, having begun, it never ceases, and in the future age will appear in all brightness outwardly. This all encompassing with equal conviction, he called it hope, perhaps intending also to turn the gaze of those “who wish to see this glory with their own eyes toward the future age” (Saint Chrysostom). With such conviction, we, he says, “act with great boldness.”—“Act” — χρωμεθα — use boldness, employ boldness. “We,” Apostles, proclaimers of new grace, boldly propose this grace to all, being assured that we propose something truly glorious, than which there is nothing more glorious even in God’s institutions, not to speak of human ones. “We know the greatness of the glory and are not in the least doubtful, but with boldness show the superiority of grace” (Theodoret). Saint Chrysostom says: “‘Since we have,” he says, “such hope,” “‘Such’—what kind?”—That we have received more than Moses, and not only we, but all believers. “‘We act with great boldness.” Before whom, tell me? Before God or before the disciples?—Before you, he says, to whom we preach, that is, we preach everywhere with freedom, hiding nothing, without any pretense, not fearing anything, but speaking plainly and not afraid that we might dazzle your eyes as Moses dazzled the eyes of the Jews.

2 Cor. 3:13. And not as Moses, who put a veil on “his face” “to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was being brought to an end.”

Let us repeat this history in the words of Saint Chrysostom. “First it is necessary to recount the history itself, for the Apostle himself does not let it out of sight. What then does this history tell? When Moses, having received the tablets a second time, came down from the mountain, a certain glory issuing from his face shone so brightly that the Jews could not approach him and speak with him, until he put a veil on his face. This is written in the book of Exodus (Ex. 34:29–34). Pointing to this history, the Apostle says: ‘And not as Moses, who put a veil on his face.’ His words have this meaning: we have no need to cover ourselves like Moses. For you can gaze upon this glory, though it is far greater and higher than Moses’ glory.‘Theodoret writes of this:’We have no need of a veil, as Moses, because we commune with believers, and believers enjoy the ray of intellectual light. In saying this, the Apostle shows that the divine Moses, foreseeing the unbelief of the Jews, put a veil on his face, thereby teaching that they would not be able to see the end of the law, because the end of the law is Christ, for the justification of everyone who believes.—This is what the Apostle said: ‘that the Israelites could not gaze at the end of what was being brought to an end.’ For the law, that is, what is losing its power, is called fading, while the end of what is fading—what was preached under the law, that is, Christ.”

Our other interpreters explain the chief terms of this text: the covering of Moses’ face and the end of what is fading, thus: Oecumenius: “Why then, as if someone asks the Apostle, do you not preach in a veiled manner and do not obscure your word like some veil? Why?—First, by confidence in the purity of the preaching, and further also because you can see the beauty existing in the preaching. For you do not suffer from blindness like the Jews. The New Testament order is so much higher, so much more excellent are those taught it. They could not gaze upon the face of Moses, the glory of which was to end. Wishing to show the brevity of that glory in comparison with the glory which the New Covenant is always to have, he says that they could not ‘gaze at the end of what was fading.’ The Israelites could not gaze upon that glory, and Moses covered it, and when he covered it, it ceased to exist for the Israelites, became invisible to them more than it appeared, indicating that it was fading. So brief was it that as soon as it began, it immediately ceased (having been covered).” Theophylact: “We have no need of a veil, for you can see the glory of the Gospel, that is, understand its mysteries, God’s mysteries; and we have no need to cover them with dim obscurity, like some veil. The Israelites, being crude, could not see that the law has an end, that it must cease. That covering indicates the rudeness of mind and heart.”

Let us bring together all that has been said. The Apostle wants to say that the time of concealment has passed; now it is time to speak openly. That the law would cease lay in its very nature and purpose; but to say this directly to the Israelites at the time of its first establishment was impossible; for, being unable to understand why it should be so, they could not have endured hearing it without harm to themselves and the law. Yet it had to be indicated. It was indicated symbolically in the covering of Moses’ face, indicating the concealment of a certain wonderful light under the elemental service of the law, with a hint also that when that light should appear, the law too would cease. This was not said in words, but an understandable symbol was presented, and those capable afterward could perceive its meaning. The Apostle makes it understood that now that light has appeared and we have nothing to hide about it. The former coverings, elemental service, must be torn away, and we point openly to all to the true light.

Thus, Moses employed such a symbol because the sons of Israel could not endure a direct word about the end of the law, or that its power and obligation would be brought to an end. But to limit the Apostle’s thought, at the word about the end of the law, to this alone would be very insufficient. For the true end of the law is Christ the Lord. Whoever speaks of the end of the law cannot but have in mind Christ the Lord. The Israelites could not receive a direct word about the end of the law because they could not understand what Christ the Lord is, though He was the body for the shadow of the law. If they could have understood this, there would have been no need to conceal the end of the law. But they could not understand this because of the rudeness and carnality of their minds. Therefore, the Israelites could not gaze upon the end of what was fading because they could not see Christ the Lord in the law. The following words: “‘the end of what was fading” directly lead to the thought of Christ the Lord, the end of the law, as Theodoret points out.

2 Cor. 3:14. But their minds were hardened; for to this very day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside.

The symbol of Moses’ covered light-bearing face meant that under the materiality of elemental Old Testament service, intellectual light is hidden. But it is hidden not so that it might remain hidden forever, or be inaccessible to all. No; it is hidden for a time, and those capable saw into it and clearly understood the meaning of the hidden, as is evident from the holy prophet Isaiah and many others, or indeed all the prophets and righteous ones, each of whom in his measure perceived what was hidden under the shadow of the law and received the light issuing from under this shadow. For the majority, however, the coverings of the law remained impenetrable, and this was not only before the coming of Christ, but even after He came and illumined by His light the meaning of the Old Testament order. This is what the Apostle shows here, laying the blame not on the law, but on the blindness of those holding to it. Their minds, he says, were hardened, and they do not see the light hidden in the law. For them an impenetrable veil lies over the law even now, as it lay over Moses’ face. And they will not perceive within until they believe in Christ the Lord. As soon as they believe, the veil will be removed, and they will clearly see all that was hidden in the law. Saint Paul speaks of this from his own experience. How everything became clear to him in the law is shown by his explanations of the shadow-bearing institutions of the law, scattered throughout his letters.

Saint Chrysostom says: “See where he is directing his discourse. What was done once by Moses has remained on his law forever. However, what is said is not an accusation of the law, nor indeed an accusation of Moses, that he then covered himself, but a rebuke of the rudeness of the Jews. Therefore he says: ‘their minds were hardened.’ But what is the connection of this hardening with the then veil, someone might say?—The fact that it prefigured the future. For they not only then did not see the law, but even now do not see it, and they themselves are the cause, for the hardening depends on their insensitive and crude heart. And only we now see the law, while from them are hidden not only grace, but also the law itself. ‘To this very day,’ he says, ‘that same veil is still there in the reading of the old covenant, not set aside.’ That is, the Jews do not know that this veil has been destroyed, because they do not believe in Christ. ‘Since only in Christ is it set aside.’ For if it is destroyed through Christ, as it indeed is by Him, as the law itself long before foretold, then how can those who did not accept Christ, through whom the law was done away, find out that the law is done away? And not knowing this, they obviously do not know the power of the law itself, which speaks of this. You might ask: where did the law say that it has its end in Christ?—Listen to the lawgiver himself, who says: ‘The Lord your God will raise up a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren; him you shall obey in all things that he says to you: and it shall be that every soul that does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people’ (Deut. 17:15–18; Acts 3:22, 23). Do you see how the law showed that it has its end in Christ? For this Prophet, that is, Christ the Lord in flesh, whom Moses commanded to obey, did away with the Sabbath, circumcision, and all Old Testament ceremonies. And David, foretelling the same thing, said of Christ: ‘you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek’ (Ps. 109:4), and not in the order of Aaron. Therefore Paul, interpreting this passage, clearly said that ‘when the priesthood is changed, a change in the law must occur as well’ (Heb. 7:12). Besides these, many other testimonies can be brought from the Old Testament, which show how the law must receive its end in Christ. Now, when you abandon the old law, then you well understand the law; but if you continue to hold to the law and do not believe in Christ, then you do not know even the law itself.”

The Veil Removed in Christ; Beholding the Glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15–4:2)

2 Cor. 3:15, 16. Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

He tells the same thought, referring only to universal experience. All, he says, experience this: that, reading Moses, that is, the law, without faith in the Lord, they see nothing there; “a veil lies over their heart,” they could see, but the eyes of the heart are closed by unbelief, so that seeing they do not see and reading they do not understand. As soon as they believe in the Lord and “turn to Him, the veil is removed” from the heart, their spiritual eyes are opened by faith, and they begin to see clearly all that is hidden in the law. This spiritual miracle Saint Paul himself experienced and saw it in all other Jews who truly believed. By faith the same thing is seen differently, read differently, understood differently. Parphenius of Guslitsy tells of himself how he read one passage in a book about faith a hundred times and it gave him no thought; but when he began to incline toward faith, that passage suddenly, like lightning, illumined the eyes of his heart, and he clearly saw the justice of the Church and the falsehood of the schism. So it was with the Jews; while they did not believe, they did not see Christ the Lord in the law, but when they began to believe, He was clearly perceived by them in everything. The heart, constrained by unbelief, constricted the mind as well, and did not allow it to expand its intellectual horizon; when unbelief departed, the horizon of the mind expanded, and all appeared clear. Something similar is experienced by all in reading Divine Scripture, though not from unbelief, but from unpreparedness of life “to contemplate more than what the letter of Scripture presents.”

Saint Chrysostom says: “Since the Apostle said that even now ‘a veil remains in the reading of the law, not unveiled,’ then so that no one might think that these words indicate the darkness of the law, he endeavored even before, though in other words, to show the injustice of this. For when he said: ‘their minds were blinded,’ he clearly showed that the Jews themselves are to blame. The same thing he shows in the present place, saying: ‘a veil lies on their heart,’ that is, this happens because of the crude and fleshly understanding of the Jews, because they are not able to understand Moses, to see the glory of his face. ‘But whenever they turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away.’ He shows also the remedy, or the way of correction. Though he did not say directly: when they abandon the law, but he clearly pointed to this, saying: ‘whenever they turn to the Lord.’ Thus he maintained the narrative consistently. For Moses also, when he spoke with the Jews, covered his face; but when he turned to the Lord, he removed the veil. And this prefigured what was to come after, that is, when we turn to the Lord, we will see the glory of the law. Do you see how strongly he draws the Jew to faith? He shows that the one coming to grace not only can look upon Moses, but can even stand on the same level as this lawgiver, for you will not only, he says, behold the glory which you then did not see, but you yourself will become partaker not of that same glory, but of one much better. How so?—Because when you turn to the Lord and receive grace, you will enjoy such glory that in comparison with it the glory of Moses is so small that it is not even glory.”

2 Cor. 3:17. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

This passage is difficult, especially in the words: “‘Now the Lord is the Spirit.” Spirit here is evidently the Holy Spirit; for its meaning here should be the same as in the following words: “‘where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom,” and here it clearly speaks of the Holy Spirit. The word “‘Lord” should mean the Lord Saviour, the Son of God made flesh: for before this it was indicated that the veil is removed when they turn to the Lord, and a little higher it was said that it ceases about Christ. Therefore, according to the flow of discourse, Lord is Christ the Saviour. But when we place these terms in the position: “‘Now the Lord is the Spirit,” we get an expression that is incongruous, namely: the Lord Saviour, the Son of God made flesh, is the Holy Spirit. To speak thus contradicts the dogma of the Holy Trinity: of no person of the Holy Trinity can it be said that he is another person; for example, the Son is the Spirit, the Spirit is the Son, the Father is the Son or the Spirit, and vice versa. Although they are coequal in honor, consubstantial, and seated together on the throne, each person is the very person he is, not another. Therefore, we must either take the word “‘Lord” in the sense of Divinity in general, or the word “‘Spirit” in the sense of spirituality in general. That is, to recognize that here is spoken either of the Lord, that He is Spirit, that is, by nature Spirit, or of the Holy Spirit, that He is Lord, that is, God. And both according to the context and according to grammar are possible. Which should we take?—We should take that which better fits the flow of thoughts. Before this the Apostle said that the veil is removed from the hearts when they turn to the Lord. A natural question after this is: how is this accomplished? And the direct answer to this—in what way?—By the grace of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if we establish that in verse 17 it is spoken of the Holy Spirit, we establish what is completely in harmony with the flow of thoughts. The Apostle here indicates the way in which the eyes of the heart are opened and the veil is removed from them. Consequently, if we accept that in the words: “‘Now the Lord is the Spirit” it is spoken of the Holy Spirit, that He is Lord, then we accept a thought completely in accordance with the flow of the Apostle’s ideas. With this, perhaps we will not succeed in well constructing the sentence, but this is no reproach to the thought accepted.

All our interpreters understand this expression in the sense that in it is spoken of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. Saint Chrysostom says: “Some say that in the same sense in which Scripture speaks—‘the Spirit is God,’ so also it is said here—‘the Lord is the Spirit.’ But this is not just. The Apostle does not express that the Lord is the Spirit, but that the Spirit is the Lord. And between this and that construction of the words there is a great difference. About whom did the Apostle speak all that he spoke above, for example, when he said: ‘the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,’ and again: ‘written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God,’—about the Son or about the Spirit?—Evidently, about the Spirit; for it is to Him that he leads the Jews from the letter. But so that someone, hearing about the Spirit and reasoning to himself that Moses spoke with the Lord, while this one speaks with the Spirit, might not think from this that the Apostle (the New Testament order) is lower than Moses (the Old Testament order), he, preventing such a thought, says: ‘The Lord is the Spirit,’ that is, the Spirit too is the Lord. And so that you may know that he speaks of the Comforter, he adds: ‘where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom;’ so that you cannot then say that his words mean the same as—where the Lord is the Lord.”

The same thing is expressed by Blessed Theodoret: “In the words: ‘The Lord is the Spirit’ the Apostle showed the equality of God and the Spirit; for Moses turned his gaze to God, and we turn it to the Spirit. But he would not have mentioned the Spirit, intending to show the superiority of the new before the old, if he knew that the Holy Spirit is a creature; for if He is a creature, according to the teaching of Arius and Eunomius, and we approach the Spirit, while Moses approached God and the Father, then ours is far lower than that of the old. But if it is not lower, but higher, and far higher, then it follows that the Holy Spirit is not a creature, but equal in power and honor to the Father. But, being shameless, the heretics say that here the Lord is called Spirit, and not the Spirit Himself the Lord. This is full of folly and shamelessness, for the divine Apostle produced a complete comparison of the letter and the Spirit; he says: ‘written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God;’ and again: ‘not of the letter but of the Spirit;’ and then: ‘the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life;’ and again: ‘how will not the ministry of the Spirit come with even more glory?’ Therefore it is evident that the divine Apostle called the Most Holy Spirit the Lord. The following testifies to this; for the Apostle says: ‘where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.’ If he had called the Lord the Spirit, he would have said: “where the Lord is” (Lord is the Lord). But it is not said thus; on the contrary, the Apostle here named the Spirit Himself as the Lord’s Spirit, because through Him is given the Lord’s grace. And so that no one would consider the Spirit as a servant, by necessity he added that the Spirit is the Lord.”

So also holy John of Damascus, and Oecumenius with Theophylact. Let us establish ourselves on this thought. The Apostle has so far brought us to the revelation of what is hidden in the law. When, he says, they turn to the Lord, the veil is removed from the heart and what is hidden is perceived, that is, the whole economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here he says how this is accomplished. Those who believe in the Lord receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, which tears through all coverings and all bonds of their spirit and heart. This is directly stated in the words: “‘where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” But the words: “‘The Lord is the Spirit” must also be understood in this light, as it were. In them is concealed the thought: the Lord, to whom one turns by faith, gives the Holy Spirit, as being consubstantial with Him and seated with Him on the throne,—and the Spirit of the Lord already releases all bonds. Or: the Lord is one in essence with the Spirit, consubstantial with Him and inseparable; so that where the Lord is, the Spirit also is, or what the Lord creates, the Spirit also creates, by the co-operation of the persons of the Holy Trinity. Or better we confess that we cannot well construct this speech.

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”—complete, comprehensive freedom. The mind is bound by blindness, a veil lies over its eyes; the Holy Spirit comes, anoints the eyes of the mind with His eye-salve, and it begins to see clearly (Rev. 3:18) God, and itself, and how to remain in living union with Him, and what all that is created is, and how to relate to Him. The heart is bound by attachments to earthly pleasures and comforts; the Holy Spirit comes, releases it (cuts it off), and it begins to seek only what is above and strive only toward what is on high. Our active powers are bound by passions; the Holy Spirit comes, breaks these bonds, implants completely opposite principles for desires, undertakings, and deeds, and the weak man, like a mighty lion, begins to walk new paths of life, breaking all forms of life that previously held him as if in chains. The Spirit of God introduces the spirit of the believer into the spiritual realm, where no statute any longer binds him, no letter any longer constrains him. There he is guided solely by the Spirit of God, as a son and free. All this is accomplished when someone by faith clings to the Lord and receives the grace of the Holy Spirit through the mysteries.

The holy Apostle speaks as if of freedom only in relation to the Old Covenant, that is, “in contrast to the former slavery” (Saint Chrysostom), or the yoke of the law (Oecumenius). But in fact his thought embraces all aspects of freedom; for just before this he only spoke of the veil on the spiritual eyes, which is a bond; and above he spoke of the lifelessness of serving the letter, because of the death that remains even in it from sin and passions. Therefore, we must suppose that, proclaiming freedom through the Spirit, he meant to gladden all with complete freedom, though his thought was chiefly fixed on freedom from the law. Theophylact writes: “Under the Law there was a yoke and slavery; under the law of the Spirit of the Gospel there is freedom; so that those deemed worthy of this freedom freely and unhinderedly gaze upon the glory of the Lord.”

2 Cor. 3:18. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.

“And we all,”—not the Apostles only, but all believers,—“with unveiled face,”—not of the body, but of the spirit, from which are removed the veils that shadowed it, the bonds that enslaved it, the yoke that weighed it down,—which, having received justification and taken up new life with readiness for all sacrifice, has dared to rise up to the Lord and to look directly upon Him,—“beholding the glory of the Lord,”—either the glory of the Divinity, or the glory of the Lord Saviour, glorious both in the incarnation and in His cross death, and not only in the resurrection and ascension, the glory as the Only-begotten of the Father, who laid the firm foundations of the kingdom of grace, now invisibly glorious, but destined to shine forth with wondrous glory and openly, after the second coming of the Lord and the renewal of all things,—“are being transformed into the same image,”—into the very image which we behold, into the image of the Lord, according to which we have been recreated, in this recreation having received, as it were, a pattern according to which the recreation that has begun must continue to its end,—so that it is nothing other than our transformation, our change from one image to another,—“are being transformed,”—we put off one thing, take on another, and our nature and all the powers of our nature remain the very same and with those same immutable laws naturally belonging to them, but everything receives another direction, another spirit, another image, not according to the image of the old, but according to the image of the new Adam,—“from glory to glory,”—for the pattern according to which we are transformed is boundless; therefore the transformation according to it can have no end, but must continually go further and further, ascending from one degree to another, from glory to glory, in consequence of which the first stage is glorious, and each new degree is glorious, and what lies ahead is even more glorious, so that necessarily the past fades, as being darkened by what is before, and one stretches forward to what is ahead,—“as from the Lord who is the Spirit.” All this is accomplished in us as the Spirit of the Lord wills; this glorious life is born in us by Him, ripens under His influence and movements, and all that is in it is from Him.

“Beholding the glory of the Lord”, — κατοπτριζομενοι,—which means “and clearly seeing,” as in a magnifying glass constructed according to the laws of catoptrics, “and clearly reflecting in oneself,” this glory and beholding it there. This final thought is evident in all our interpreters. Theodoret writes: “This is fitting for those who have acquired a pure heart. For as transparent water imprints upon itself the faces of those who look into it, and the circle of the sun itself, and the vault of the heavens, so a pure heart becomes as it were some sort of imprint and mirror of God’s glory. So too did the Lord say: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God’ (Matt. 5:8).”

“From glory to glory”,—Oecumenius understands it thus: “Into the same, he says, radiance we are transformed, for the reason that transformation goes from the glory of the Spirit into our glory; that is, we attain such glory as it is fitting for one illumined by the Spirit the Comforter to attain, and for one reflecting the image of His glory upon oneself.” Theophylact adds: “We are transformed from the glory of the Spirit into our glory, and such a glory as it is fitting for those illumined by the Spirit of the Lord, who is subject to no one. Being Lord, He possesses lordly radiance. For all believers are filled with the Holy Spirit through baptism, and their soul shines with light.”

Holy Chrysostom says: “What do the words mean: ‘beholding the glory of the Lord, in the same image we are transformed’?—This was clearer for believers in apostolic times, when the gifts of miracles were at work; nevertheless, whoever has the eyes of faith can even now understand it readily. As soon as we are baptized, our soul, cleansed by the Spirit, becomes brighter than the sun; and we become not only capable of beholding God’s glory, but we ourselves also receive from it a certain radiance. As pure silver, lying in the face of the sun’s rays, itself emits rays, not only from its own nature, but also from the brilliance of the sun, so too the soul, cleansed by the Spirit of God and made more resplendent than silver, both receives the ray from the glory of the Spirit and reflects from itself the ray of that same glory. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘beholding the glory of the Lord, in the same image we are transformed from the glory’ of the Spirit ‘into our’ glory, to which we are deemed worthy,—into such glory as is fitting ‘from the Lord’s Spirit.’ As bodies that have the capacity to receive and reflect light, illumined by self-luminous bodies and themselves reflected in them, scatter light upon other bodies nearest to them; the same befalls the faithful. And when they attain this, they abandon all earthly things and live by the heavenly alone. But what of us?—It remains for us only to groan, for, deemed worthy of so many benefits of God, we do not even understand what is being said to us about them. And this is because we quickly destroy all that is spiritual within us and attach ourselves to the sensual alone. This ineffable and fearful glory remains in us no more than one or two days, and then we extinguish it again, tossed about by the cares of life and obscuring its radiance with the thick clouds of passionate turbulence. For the cares of life are storms, and more violent than storms themselves.”

Having been chosen to proclaim the word of the gospel, says the Apostle, we direct all our effort to ensuring that nothing impure be mixed into it, but to present it to the conscience of each person in its purity. Once received by the conscience, it itself already produces its work; it awakens repentance and leads to the Lord, in whose name the forgiveness of sins is given. Thus goes the conversion of the Gentiles. The Jews are converted through the Law and the Prophets, if their minds are not darkened by superstition; but the Gentiles are converted by the action of conscience and fear of God, which lie in the human spirit, if these ordinances of God are not suppressed by the action of the god of this age.—Behold the mystery of the action of our gospel, which the Lord has now deigned to cause to shine forth in the darkness of this age, as He originally commanded light to shine out of darkness.

2 Cor. 4:1. Therefore, having this ministry, as we have been shown mercy, we do not lose heart.

Therefore: on account of such glorious fruit in believers, produced by our gospel, we, “having this ministry”, that is, the ministry of the gospel entrusted to us by God’s mercy and kindness, “do not lose heart”, do not despair, are not burdened by the difficulty of the work, do not stop before obstacles, do all that depends on us with eagerness, for the reason that such good flows from it for you and all believers.

The Apostle’s purpose is to keep attention fixed on the heavenly origin of the gospel, so as to have grounds at the end to say that if such light of knowledge now spreads abroad, it is because God caused it to shine, who originally commanded material light to shine. “To this end he employs such a turn of speech as shows that everything depends not on his own perfections, but on God’s kindness; hence he says: ‘having this ministry’, that is, we have brought nothing of our own, we are only servants of God and executors of His given instructions. Therefore he calls his apostolic work not sovereignty or leadership, but only ministry. Yet not content even with this, he says further: ‘as we have been shown mercy’, that is, and the very fact that we are appointed ministers (of the gospel), and this depends only on God’s mercy and kindness. ‘We do not lose heart’, that is, and the fact that we do not despair, this too is to be attributed to God’s kindness. For the words ‘as we have been shown mercy’ must be understood to apply both to the ministry and to these words: ‘we do not lose heart.’ He means by this that whoever has been deemed worthy of such great and manifold blessings, and has been deemed worthy of them only by God’s mercy and kindness, accomplishes nothing great, no matter how much he labors, what dangers he undergoes, or what trials he endures. Therefore we not only do not lose heart, he says, but we even rejoice and act boldly.” (Holy Chrysostom)

2 Cor. 4:2. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor deceit in God’s word, but manifesting the truth by commending ourselves to every “conscience of man before God.”

This is the chief point in this section. We care only, he says, for this: to present pure truth to the conscience of each person, pure as before God, and it will do its own work, so long as it is received. To preserve the truth of the gospel in purity, we avoid all that is evil in our intentions, in the manner of our actions, and in the very presentation of truth.

“But we have renounced the hidden things of shame.” We have renounced all shameful things not only outwardly, but in the very secrets of the heart we have rejected all shameful things,—all shameful things of whatever kind. Neither honor nor glory, neither gain nor any desire to seek only what is pleasant to ourselves, do we have in view. Only love for truth, only obedience to God’s will guides us. False teachers appear holy outwardly, yet keep passions untouched inwardly, to which each is enslaved. We are altogether not such, but guard our heart pure from every sin and every defilement, knowing that in an impure soul truth will not be retained. Holy Chrysostom says: “False apostles were celebrated as lovers of poverty, yet they received gifts, only secretly; they were considered holy, yet in fact had many vices. We, he says, have renounced all this, that is, what he calls ‘the hidden things of shame.’” Oecumenius continues: “We have renounced even doing secretly what brings shame in public. He alludes to the false apostles, who appeared in the form of godliness while being evil in secret. But we, he says, do not allow anything shameful even in secret. Thus, ‘we do not lose heart’ in afflictions, as you yourselves see; but not only outwardly, but also inwardly we do not allow any thought capable of bringing us shame in this regard; neither cowardice, nor hesitation, nor complaint, nor ingratitude, nor any other thought we do not allow in secret that might disgrace our: ‘we do not lose heart.’” Thus by the words “we have renounced the hidden things of shame,” the Apostle has said: we have a pure and blameless heart, free from all that is shameful, on the contrary full of truly holy moral and religious feelings.

“Not walking in craftiness,” — μη εν πανουργια. We do not act in such a way that one thing is spoken and done while another lies in our mind; we do not ensnare anyone with words, nor do we entice with apparently good schemes, behind which lies an ambush; we act openly, and what our words and deeds display, that they truly are. There is nothing crafty in the manner of our action. Holy Chrysostom says: “We do not, he says, proclaim so that we promise much in words while showing something different in deed, as false apostles do, but we are the same in deed as we present ourselves in words; we have nothing equivocal about us. We truly are what we appear to be, and have nothing hidden and crafty, whether in our life or in our very proclamation. We do not do as others do, cloaking our deeds to deceive and entice.” The Apostle denies employing all cunning devices to attract disciples, and at the same time all measures of prudence that their own wisdom could have devised. We do not contrive, but act as the Spirit of God directs, always openly and in simplicity of heart, expecting fruit not from our skill in acting, but from God’s blessing and all-working.

“Nor handling the word of God deceitfully,” — μη δολουντες. This is similar to what was said above: “not” corrupting “the word” (2 Cor. 2:17). We deliver the word as it is: when it is strict, we do not allow ourselves to soften it arbitrarily, out of people-pleasing; if something in it is unacceptable to human wisdom, we do not conceal it and do not diminish it in the hope of reconciling it with that wisdom; whether it is simple or extremely exalted, we never mix our own reasoning into it, so as to raise something that appears lowly or lower something that appears unattainably high. We do not even allow ourselves these apparently harmless devices, fearing to beguile God’s word; and as to adding any lie to the word of truth, and moreover consciously, that never even occurs to us. And we do not surround the word of our gospel with false hopes, we do not say: only believe, and happiness will flow to you in rivers; but we openly declare that believers await tribulation, attacks, and every kind of deprivation. And in general we add nothing to the word of the gospel, but present it as it is, in its natural nakedness and purity. Theophylact writes: “Not only, he says, is our life simple, pure, guileless, but our word too is not deceptive. For we add nothing to it from external wisdom, we do not surround it with flattering speech, we do not adapt it to times and persons, and thus we do not teach one way now and another way tomorrow.”

“But by the manifestation of truth presenting ourselves to” every “conscience of men in the sight of God.”

“This is similar to what was said above about letters of recommendation (2 Cor. 3:1). Not with letters of recommendation, he says, do we appear among people in various places, but with truth alone. It alone presents us everywhere and commends us. In what manner?—By its manifestation alone. We present it in all purity, as it is, and it itself assures those who hear that we are not deceivers and that the word of our gospel is inviolable truth. And how does this come to pass?—Through conscience. There is in the soul of each person an advocate for the truth of the gospel—the spirit with its inherent fear of God and conscience. These spiritual elements are of one kind with the word of the gospel and are at once recognized by it, so long as they are not suppressed by the spirit of this age. The gospel says that we are unanswerably sinful before God, and the conscience acknowledges it; the gospel assures us that every sinner awaits impartial judgment and condemnation, and the fear of God confirms this truth. If the gospel stopped there, it would plunge all into despair, attracting no one to itself, but it goes further and to the conscience distressed and afraid of judgment it offers a hopeful outcome, saying: The Son of God came to earth, was incarnate, suffered on the cross, and tore asunder the handwriting against us; believe in Him, and you shall obtain forgiveness of sins and the grace of the Holy Spirit for a new sinless life, which, having kept pure until the end, when you depart hence you shall be received by heaven for eternal indescribable blessedness. What spirit not suppressed could resist the power of this gospel?! This is why the gospel found acceptance everywhere, for everywhere there were people in whom the fear of God and conscience, natural elements of our spirit, were alive. They at once received the gospel as something akin, which had always been longed for but not found, and now appears as such a joyful guest from heaven. Those who received the word of the gospel were sanctified through the mysteries, reborn to new life, received the gift of grace, and from that moment had testimony within themselves not for themselves alone but for all who surrounded them. This affected the suppressed spirit of these latter, awakened it, and led them to faith. Made new, they in their turn by their very presence aroused others and drew them to faith. Thus in a short time all those disposed to faith were added to it and formed a small or large community of servants faithful to the Lord. Holy Paul experienced this in every place, and in the words cited he speaks precisely of this, that they everywhere presented themselves only to men’s consciences by the manifestation of pure truth, pure as before God, and it converted them to faith; and it remained only for them to guide those being added to faith. Photius says in Oecumenius: “False apostles presented themselves not by manifestation of truth, but by a counterfeit likeness of truth, and not before God, but only to gratify those whom they beguiled.” Of course, and those beguiled by them were beguiled because they had already been possessed by the flattering spirit.”

The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6)

2 Cor. 4:3. But if our gospel is also veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

The thoughts laid out above directly lead to the question: why then did not everyone accept the word of the gospel?—Because not everyone had their spirit in motion with fear of God and conscience. Those in whom it was in motion immediately received the gospel; those whom the word of the gospel could not arouse, were awakened by the action of the wondrous gracious change taking place in believers; those whose spirit was so blocked that neither these nor other extraordinary things awakened it, remained and persisted in unbelief. The gospel remained veiled for them, because there was no organ for receiving it. Their spirit, natural to them, was so blocked that there was no access for the gospel to rouse it. The Apostle calls them those who are perishing, not because they were ordained to destruction, but because they, by the manner of life that had formed them up to that point, had placed themselves in such a state that the gospel is incomprehensible to them, veiled, they can understand nothing in it, it does not adhere to their soul in any way, and the soul finds nothing in it that could interest it. Therefore they do not accept it, and as salvation is possible only on the condition of this acceptance, they remain outside the realm of the saved, among those who are perishing. These are those whom the Apostle means by the perishing. But now or sometime later, their spirit too may awaken and heed the gospel, and they will enter into the community of the saved. Holy Chrysostom says that in these words the Apostle expresses the same thought he expressed before in the words: “To some we are the aroma of death leading to death, to others the aroma of life leading to life” (2 Cor. 2:16). Oecumenius places such speech in the Apostle’s mouth: “It is not our fault that the gospel is veiled for some; the cause is their own blindness and perishedness.”

2 Cor. 4:4. In whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, might not shine on them.

“The god of this age” here means the same as in other places “the prince of the world” (Jn. 12:31, 14:30), “the ruler of the darkness of this age” (Eph. 6:12), the spirit working “in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). He is the god of this age because those living according to the spirit of the age obey him, willingly listen to his suggestions, and eagerly act according to his principles. This authority is not natural to him, but accidental, based on human negligence and attraction to fleshly life in self-indulgence. Those subject to him do not directly obey him, but rather are devoted to self-indulgence, and their self-indulgence opens the door for him to enter their souls, and entering there, he rages, drawing them to evil and shameful deeds, depending on the degree of self-indulgence of each. He himself rarely acts directly. His personal work was the seduction of our first parents, the temptation of Christ the Saviour, and will be his work in the Antichrist. Usually he acts through his hordes of demons, who prowl about everywhere and meddle in everything, seeking where they might perpetrate something evil. Some of them take up residence in human bodies, in those parts through which a passion to which someone is enslaved chiefly acts. Those possessed are not only those in whom the demon’s violence is visibly manifested. In the majority of the possessed, demons live quietly, managing their passionate deeds only through suggestions and intensifying their activity at the time when someone intends to repent and reform. Some have several demons dwelling in them; these are those who serve many passions. Through them the god of this age holds his dominion. The Gentiles worshipped him, transforming their passions into divinity; now they bow to him by yielding to the impulses of passions, inflamed and guided by him.

How does he blind the minds of the unbelieving?—By completely obscuring God from them and the order of divine things, and binding their consciousness to the visible and tangible alone, as if the invisible and intangible did not exist. God is on their tongue, but the word passes through their lips without trace; the word about death flickers, but as though this matter did not concern them. Usually they themselves are their own god, they themselves take thought for themselves, they themselves secure themselves, they themselves arrange their fate, putting faith in themselves alone and relying on means and methods at their disposal. Their goals do not extend beyond the present life. This alone they seek to transform into paradise, and all their care is directed there, all plans aimed there, all enterprises directed there. Their goal is to live in abundance, with honor, and with the greatest measure of comfort and pleasure. Conscience has no say here, and the fear of God does not reach into this sensual darkness. True conscience is trampled; its place is taken by the rule of conducting oneself as is considered best among others and judging by them, with the aim—not to disgrace oneself. God is had as something extraneous, and satisfaction of religious customs in external form is considered fully sufficient to avoid fearing Him; as if neither does He care about our soul, nor does our soul care about Him. To this circle belong not only thieves, robbers, fornicators, drunkards, and other manifest sinners. These are not well regarded even among them. A world-loving life usually flows gently, with visible gloss of propriety, dutifulness, and dignity. Its spirit is against God, and it is this that causes the eyes of the children of this age to be closed to seeing the light of the gospel. The gospel belongs to one realm, and they with all their structure belong to another. They have nothing in common with the gospel; it is even incomprehensible to them.

The beginning of the gospel’s action is the disturbance of conscience, but the sons of this age are self-satisfied: they do not recognize any guilt in themselves and do not understand what is meant when one says: “Repent,” the “kingdom” of God is at hand (Matt. 3:2, 4:17). The completion of the gospel’s action is the fear of God’s judgment, but the son of this age says: a sacrifice has been offered (with us—a candle lit, a prayer service performed), so what more? Death and judgment are far away; let us live yet a while. And the thought never takes root in him that judgment will fall upon him with the full weight of justice. The gospel is inspiring through the promised paradise—eternal blessedness; but the sons of this age think they already have paradise, living in their own pleasure and drowning in the visible and tangible, can experience no sympathy for the invisible paradise and blessedness in the intangible. These three moments, so essential to the disposition of the sons of this age and so opposed to the principles of the gospel, make it so that the gospel for them is veiled, unintelligible, incomprehensible. Everything in it is foreign to them; they cannot properly understand anything in it; no sympathy is wrung from their breast toward its proclamations: hearing they hear not, seeing they see not; the heart of these people has become dull. And thus the true meaning of the words—“the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving”: the spirit of the sons of this age, working in them under the influence of the god of this age—Satan—has made them incapable of heeding the gospel, understanding its beneficence, and accepting it. Without saying so, they say to the gospel-preachers: go on your way; this does not concern us.

“Has blinded,”—says the Apostle,—“so that the light” of the gospel “of the glory of Christ might not shine on them.” The light of the gospel, when heard and received, shines as a brightly burning lamp suddenly kindled in a dark place. For the one who heeds it, it illuminates everything and makes everything comprehensible to him: he clearly sees both the hopeless ruin in which he finds himself and the suitability of the means for escape from it offered by the gospel; therefore he seizes it with all the strength of his being. And when he tastes its healing power in deed, then there is no measure to the spiritual light shining in him. In a single glance he embraces both past and present and future, and heaven and earth,—and he sees all embraced by one God in the Lord Jesus Christ through the grace of the Holy Spirit. The starting point of the light is the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate, who has glorified our poor nature in Himself and seated it at the right hand of God the Father. The gospel illuminates all things,—and especially radiates the countenance of Christ the Saviour, for it all rests on Him. Therefore it is the gospel “of the glory of Christ.” The unbelieving see none of this, for they have closed the eyes of their minds with unbelief. The door to God’s mysteries is not opened for them, and the light does not illuminate them. The god of this age keeps them in darkness and does not allow the light of God to shine in them. He does this not by force, but cunningly by devising to deceive the sons of this age. Walking in delusion, they do not notice their darkening and are content in darkness, through deception taking it for light. But however thick the darkness of blindness, there is nothing here forcing them. They themselves wish it, and they are blind; if they wish it, they will open their eyes; for the light of God is all around. The god of this age tries in every way to keep them in blindness; but he does this by offering them blinding elements, which they themselves willingly accept and are blinded. Direct power over anyone or anything the god of this age has not, and dare not force anyone. We ourselves are at fault in everything.

Holy Chrysostom says: “What happened to the Jews in the time of Moses happens now to all the unbelieving in the times of the Gospel. Because of the hardening of their hearts, the ‘light’ of the gospel ‘of the glory of Christ’ is hidden from them, that is, they do not see that the cross is the salvation and glory of the universe, that the Crucified wishes to come again with great glory,—and all else, present and future, visible and invisible, the ineffable revelation of the expected good remains hidden from them; but it is hidden because they themselves before did not want to believe in this.”

“Who is the image of the invisible God.” “The Apostle called Christ the ‘image of’ God, as God from God, because Christ manifests the Father in Himself, wherefore He says: ‘He who has seen me has seen the Father’ (Jn. 14:9)” (Theodoret). God will always remain invisible and hidden. He deigned to manifest Himself more tangibly through the incarnation of the Son of God. In His eyes, through divinized humanity, rational creatures, Angels and the saints, can meet face to face with Divinity and as it were touch It. Outside of this It is hidden and is apprehended only through Its working according to the receptivity of creatures. For those who do not know the Son, the Father is unknown and will remain unknown forever. Holy Chrysostom says: “To show that those who have not known ‘the glory of Christ’ do not know only Christ’s glory, but also the Father’s glory, the Apostle added: ‘who is the image of the invisible God.’ But one cannot stop at Christ alone, because as through Christ you see the Father, so, not knowing the glory of Christ, you do not know the Father’s glory either.”

2 Cor. 4:5. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

Having explained why the gospel remains veiled in those who are perishing, in the unbelieving, he turns again to point out the mystery of the gospel’s action in the conscience of those capable of receiving it. The mystery lies in this: in our gospel we do not put ourselves forward,—neither in the form of our words, nor in the form of our actions, nor in our purposes (2 Cor. 4:2)—we are not seen at all—Christ the Lord stands before, His face we portray before the consciences of men, and they themselves already recognize in Him the Saviour from ruin, the Healer of infirmities, the Giver of all strength to the weak. Therefore they cling to Him with all their soul. Behold the mystery of the gospel’s action! We ourselves are only instruments, only laborers, your servants, ministers to your salvation, for the Lord’s sake. Theodoret writes: “He wrote the same thing in the first epistle: ‘Let a man regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God’ (1 Cor. 4:1). But here he spoke of himself even more humbly, calling himself a servant not only to Christ but to all believers, from love for Christ; for this is what the words mean: ‘for Jesus’ sake.’” Holy Chrysostom looked at the Apostle’s speech from a somewhat different angle: “Inasmuch as the false teachers strongly rose up against the Apostles and attacked them from all sides, he says: in taking up arms against us, you take up arms not against us, but against the One we proclaim, for we do not preach ourselves. We are slaves and servants even to those who receive this proclamation; we labor for another, that is, for the Lord, and do everything for His glory, so that those who war against us war against the Lord. We are so far from seeking any gain for ourselves from the preaching of the Gospel that we do not refuse to be even your servants for Christ, when it pleased Him to honor you so much, when He so loved you and did everything for you. Therefore he says: ‘and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.’ Do you see a soul not at all concerned about glory? He says: we not only do not appropriate to ourselves what belongs to the Lord, but we even serve you for His sake.”

2 Cor. 4:6. For God, who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In conclusion, the Apostle directs everyone’s attention to what is now given through the gospel being spread across the face of all the earth. A veil lay upon the hearts of the Jews, he said, and they do not see the light hidden in the Law; all Gentiles walked in darkness, and no one saw God’s light. But the Lord Jesus Christ came, and light of understanding shone upon the world. The illuminating power is the Holy Spirit, who descended upon the Apostles. Illumined by Him, guided and taught by Him, they walk about the world and proclaim the light of truth to all. The Spirit of God, illuminating them, illuminates also the hearts of believers, and they begin to see clearly the light of understanding of God’s glory. Thus amid the darkness that covered the whole world, the light of knowledge of God has now shone forth. Now the same thing is taking place in the moral world that occurred on the first day of creation for the material world, when God commanded light to shine out of darkness. “God said: Let there be light. And there was light” (Gen. 1:3). Now that same God speaks through us to all: “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk. 1:15). And this word shines light in the hearts of believers. Those who receive it begin to see clearly the indescribable glory of the boundless God in the face of Jesus Christ. The face of Jesus Christ makes it clear that God, so great and wondrous, is our merciful Father, who did not wish to leave us in our fall, but deigned to devise a wondrous way of salvation for us in His Only-Begotten Son, who came to earth, was incarnate, suffered and died on the cross, rose again, ascended to heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father, drawing all believers and the elect to salvation there, so that where He is, they too may all be. Such is the face of Jesus Christ! What perfections of God are not reflected in this face?! Here is infinite goodness and endless justice, here is unthinkable wisdom and immeasurable omnipotence, here is all-caring providence and all-embracing sovereignty. And the mystery of the Holy Trinity is radiantly revealed in this same face. God the Father willed it, the Son accomplished it, the Holy Spirit completes in believers what is accomplished in the Son. “For through Christ we know God the Father, just as through the Spirit we are brought to Him” (Holy Chrysostom). Thus the light of understanding (knowledge) of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ has shone in the world through shining in the hearts of believers. “By the shining of this light, we too see not things perceptible to the senses, but God Himself through Christ” (Holy Chrysostom).

Theodoret writes: “He who of old by his word brought nature of light into being and said: ‘Let there be light,’ has now, not by that, but by His own light, illumined our minds, so that we might see His glory through Christ Himself. And this: ‘in the face of Jesus Christ’ has such a meaning: since the nature of God is invisible, It becomes, as much as possible, visible through the humanity that it has assumed, illumined by Divine light and emitting brilliant radiance.” Oecumenius continues the same thought: “He who commanded light to shine out of darkness at the beginning, has shone in our hearts. He shone, illumining us and revealing to us knowledge of His glory, and this ‘in the face of Jesus Christ.’ For through the Son alone have we obtained true knowledge of the Father, as He Himself says in the Gospel to the Father: ‘I have revealed your name to men…’and ‘I have glorified you on earth’ (Jn. 17:6, 4). And through Christ Jesus alone has it been revealed to us that the Father does not wish to be honored by incense and blood, but by spiritual sacrifices, and that true worshippers of God should bow before God not otherwise than in the Trinity, consubstantial and co-equal.”

The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

Having shown how great a treasure the New Covenant economy of salvation is, the Apostle now tells how the ministers of the gospel about it are outwardly contemptible and abased. First of all, aa) he indicates the providential purposes of such an ordering, which are God’s glory and the confirmation of faith of those instructed by the gospel (2 Cor. 4:7–12); then bb) he sets forth that toward enduring labors under such an ordering the gospel-preachers are inspired by the certainty of future glorification with the Lord (2 Cor. 4:13–15). But, having touched on this subject, he, because of its importance, vv) determined to dwell on it more extensively with attention, and to this end unfolds, α) how glorious the future is (2 Cor. 4:16–18); β) how desirable it is (2 Cor. 5:1–5); and γ) how one should prepare for it (2 Cor. 5:5–10). These latter points the Apostle unfolds though in his own person, not without relation to apostolic service, yet in features common to all Christians.

2 Cor. 4:7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not from us.

“Treasure” the Apostle calls what he spoke of before, that is, the word of the gospel with the fullness of the grace of the Holy Spirit for the establishment of the spiritual kingdom of Christ on earth, or His Holy Church. This treasure, so great, so glorious, so mighty in action, we have, he says, or carry “in earthen” “vessels,” meaning by this the weak body, with the understanding also of our external condition, always abased and restricted, as he depicts immediately after. Why is it thus ordered? Could not the Lord have made it so that the Apostles by their very appearance or prominence would already influence people?—He could, but did not will to do so, for the reason, he says, that nothing of our own be seen in our action, that nothing of ours be conspicuous, but all be attributed to the power of God. Looking at us, so weak and abased, no one could even think that when a powerful word comes from us, or an extraordinary deed is accomplished by us, this and similar things depend on us, but all would directly attribute it to God’s power working through us. This power is obscured from nothing on our side; it is seen in all its nakedness and fullness. If it is so, then everyone should have concluded in the words of the Lord: if these by the finger of God do all this, then the kingdom of God has come upon you; one must obey their word and believe, so as not to war against God.

Holy Chrysostom speaks to this place: “This is what especially amazes and is the greatest miracle of God’s power, that an earthen vessel can contain such light and preserve such a treasure. ‘So that the exceeding greatness,’—he says,—‘of the power may be of God and not from us.’ For both the greatness of the gifts and the weakness of those who received them show God’s power, both in that God granted such great gifts and especially in that He granted them to weak people. By earthen vessel he means the weakness of our nature and the feebleness of our flesh, because our flesh is no stronger than an earthen vessel; it is equally easy to crush and just as easily shattered by death, diseases, atmospheric changes, and countless other causes. And he said this both to shame the pride of the boastful and to show all that there is nothing human in the works of his ministry. For it is especially then that God’s power is seen, when through weak instruments it accomplishes great deeds; as is evident from what the Lord said to this same Apostle: ‘My strength is’ made perfect ‘in weakness’ (2 Cor. 12:9).—Thus, sending only twelve men, He subdued the universe, and that when these twelve themselves were persecuted. Let us marvel at this power of God, let us wonder at it and adore it! Let us question the Jews, let us ask the Greeks: who persuaded the whole universe to abandon ancestral customs and change their way of life? Were they not fishermen, tent-makers, tax collectors, scribes and simple people? How could this have been accomplished if God’s power had not worked through them? Moreover—what did they say when they persuaded?—Be baptized in the name of the Crucified. Which?—The One whom they did not know and had not seen. Yet despite what they spoke and preached, the Crucified Christ drew all to Himself. From whence came such persuasive power?—From nowhere else but from God’s power. The newness of the preaching was opposed to all, and the preachers were from a people despised by all, poor and unlearned. In what manner did they subdue the universe? Is it not clear that they had God as their helper? For it is not characteristic of human power to produce such actions, but of God’s almighty power.”

2 Cor. 4:8, 9. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

He said above that they carry a great treasure of God in earthen vessels, so that through this the power of God working in them be confessed by all. Now he depicts what blows they receive from all sides, and meanwhile remain whole. Under such strikes the earthen vessels should be crushed and the treasure contained in them should perish, yet they remain unshattered and the treasure is preserved. Is not God’s power evident in this? “It is not only wonderful, he says, that we preserve this treasure in earthen vessels, but also that, subjected to countless misfortunes and struck from all sides, we preserve it and do not lose it. For even an adamantine vessel could not withstand such attacks. But behold, now even the earthen vessel remains unharmed by God’s grace, and the treasure is preserved” (Holy Chrysostom). “If all this had not befallen us, the greatness of God’s power would not have become manifest. But inasmuch as we are made like plants that bloom in fire, by this very fact, that, suffering, we are preserved unharmed, we proclaim the power of God protecting us” (Theodoret).

“Hard pressed on every side.” “On every side,” “at all times and in every place, from everything and from everyone” (Theophylact). “From enemies and from friends, from adversaries and from our own, from lack of necessities and from other things we need” (Holy Chrysostom). “Hard pressed,” θλιβομενοι. We suffer not only external deprivations and misfortunes, but sorrows that strike the heart. They cause us grief, wound the soul painfully, bring wounds to the heart; but we do not feel confined, ου στενοχωρουμενοι. This does not tighten the chest, does not catch the breath, does not squeeze the heart. We are not insensible to these sorrows, but God sends such breadth to our heart that they do not confine or suffocate it. “We are not confined in sorrows because God widens our hearts” (Theophylact). “To not feel confined in sorrows, this is the work of God’s grace” (Oecumenius). All outside witnesses of apostolic sorrows should have seen and confessed this grace of God and God’s help to the heart, when by all calculations they should have been crushed in spirit, yet they show in appearance, in words, and in actions complete equanimity. Or perhaps ου στενοχωρουμενοι — we are not confined—does not refer to inner constriction of the heart, but to external. The Apostle may wish to say: yet this does not confine the sphere of our activity; despite all sorrows, we do our work, not confined. Sorrow does not dampen our eagerness to act in our office, is no hindrance to us.

“Perplexed,” απορουμενοι, “but not in despair,” ουκ εξαπορουμενοι. Απορια — bewilderment of the mind by unexpectedness and unusualness, so that it cannot come to itself and think of anything. Εξαπορειν — to be at a loss. We, he says, are in such circumstances that we do not know what to do, are in a hopeless position. But we do not lose presence of mind, knowing that God is with us and that no one can do anything to us against His will. And it always happens that God provides for us an unthinkable way out of extremities. Help comes from we know not where and how, and gives us freedom. “‘But not in despair,’ that is, we do not lose hope. For though we often grieve, yet not to the point that we have lost hope” (Holy Chrysostom). “In hopeless circumstances we find for ourselves saving exits” (Theodoret). “It often happens that you do not know what to do when attacked by all and pressed from all sides; but this affects us not so much as to lose ourselves, that is, to fall in spirit, it does not kill us” (Oecumenius). “Falling into extremities and hopelessness, we do not despair and do not collapse under their weight, but stand bravely, and God arranges our exit and shows us victorious” (Theophylact).

“Persecuted, but not abandoned.” We are persecuted, yet it cannot be said of us: these are people utterly forsaken. God does not abandon us. “God permits such trials against us not to abandon us, but to perfect and exalt us” (Holy Chrysostom). “People persecute us, but God does not abandon us. He does not permit this to us so that we be overcome, but to give us occasion to enter into struggle and appear victorious through His power” (Oecumenius). “He permits this for our exercise, to teach us to overcome” (Theophylact). Perhaps by “not abandoned,” the Apostle means, by people, that is, by believers. Some persecute, while others are with us, on our side. The part of God, hidden in the mass of humanity, always adheres to us and forms one with us. There we always find shelter and warmth. Those who persecute us cannot boast: well, now we have driven them out; for we remain inseparably with our own, and our own remain with us.

“Struck down, but not destroyed.” It happens that enemies completely throw us down; they should be celebrating victory, yet we prove to be whole and alive, we do not perish. This greatly reminds us of the circumstance how they beat the holy Paul with stones and threw him outside the city, and he afterwards appeared alive and well (Acts 14:19, 20). “Judging by the magnitude of trials, one would have to say: well, they perished; but by God’s grace we all do not perish. And in deadly extremities God opens for us the door of salvation” (Oecumenius). “In body and external condition, it sometimes happens that enemies completely strike us down; but our soul always stands firm and our zeal for God’s work, and God preserves even our body itself” (Theophylact).

The Apostle depicted the escalating force of misfortunes, taking an example from those who wrestle. Of wrestlers, the weaker one first receives blows and wounds, then grows faint and does not know what to do, then flees, finally is struck and thrown down. We, he says, always appear at some stage of weakness before those attacking us, but, even when brought to the final overthrow, we are never overcome. Who will not see God’s power in this? The earthen vessel of ours should shatter to bits, yet it is whole; and not only whole, but does not even fear to be shattered from now on. Trials are strong, but their consequences never match expectations. Holy Chrysostom says: “Though trials befall us, yet their consequences do not befall us; and this all occurs through the action of God’s power and grace. In other places he says that God permits such trials upon us in order both to humble us and to warn others. Thus, ‘so that I may not become proud,’—he says,—‘there was given me a thorn in the flesh’ (2 Cor. 12:7), or: ‘so that we would not trust in ourselves’ (2 Cor. 1:9). But here he says: ‘so that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not from us.’ See what benefit there is from trials? Through them the action of God’s power and grace becomes more evident, for he says: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Cor. 12:9). They brought some to humility, and others, at least, made them moderate their pride and became more magnanimous and tolerant. For ‘perseverance,’—he says,—produces ‘character, and character produces hope’ (Rom. 5:4). For those who were subjected to countless misfortunes and freed from them only by trust in God learned thereby to hold to this trust in every other case as well.”

2 Cor. 4:10. Always carrying about in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

“The putting to death of the Lord”—misfortunes, sorrows, sufferings, mortal dangers. As the Lord suffered, so we suffer too. “I die daily,” he says in another place (1 Cor. 15:31). But when it should be so evident that we are struck by death, and yet we are all alive, it is equally evident that we appear daily as it were risen from the dead alive. This is entirely similar to how the Lord was crucified and laid in the tomb, even sealed, yet He rose: death could not hold Him. His life swallowed up death. That same life of Jesus now works in us, and we are living preachers of Him. We show that the Lord Jesus is alive and is the source of life; for when we submit ourselves to countless deaths for His sake, we remain alive and each time go forth to serve with new strength for His glory. What else does this show but that the life of Jesus is working in us? Thus Holy Chrysostom: “What does ‘the putting to death of the Lord Jesus’ mean, which they carried?—Daily various kinds of death threatening, which pointed both to the resurrection. If anyone does not believe, he says, that Jesus died and rose, let him be convinced of the truth of the resurrection by seeing us, dying daily and rising. When the Lord snatches us from mortal dangers, through this ‘the life of Jesus’ is manifested ‘in our flesh.’ So that what on one hand seems to show the weakness of the Apostles and their abandonment by the Lord, on the other hand clearly preaches His resurrection. For His power would not be so visible if we never suffered anything, as it is now when we suffer but remain unconquered.” So also Oecumenius and Theophylact.

It cannot be missed that, according to the flow of discourse, the manifestation of the life of Jesus in the constantly, as it were, dying body of the Apostles is the same as: “so that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not from us.” Only in this place he brings the manifestation of God’s power in general to its manifestation as applied to the word of the gospel. For here the all-conquering principle is the assurance that the Crucified is alive, and not only alive, but gives us the power to live, despite all the destructive force of attacks against us from without. From this one can further trace the Apostle’s thought, namely: we show by ourselves that the Lord is alive, and this is the beginning and source of faith, quickening your souls. Consequently, as it were the spirit of life in Christ Jesus proceeds from our every-hour dying bodies. God purposely ordered it so, that the treasure hidden in our frailty, the word of the gospel and grace, might become your possession unhindered, so that you might taste its power and thereby partake of the life of Jesus Christ. Too strong and firmly closed a vessel would hinder knowing what is in it, but a fragile one and continually seeming to crack and being constantly repaired inevitably reveals what is in it.

2 Cor. 4:11. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

He repeats what he said before, to make the thought he expressed clearer in the minds of readers; and this was necessary, so that what follows in verse 12 would be understood more precisely. Holy Chrysostom says: “When Holy Paul says something unclear, he always adds an explanation of his words. He did this in this place, clarifying what was said unclearly. For the reason, he says, ‘we are delivered to death for Jesus’ sake,’ that is, we carry His putting to death, so that the power of His life might be revealed in us, when He does not permit our mortal flesh, suffering so much, to be overcome by a multitude of evils.”

This is the direct thought. About future partaking of the life of Jesus through resurrection, the holy Apostle does not seem to have thought at this point. His attention is now limited entirely to the present work of preaching and the manifestation through it of the life-giving saving power in Christ Jesus. What the Apostle says: “that the life may be manifested,” ινα φανερωθη, points not to the future but to the present: that the life of Jesus be revealed or manifested now. Therefore, when thought turns, on account of these words, to future co-living with Christ, Holy Chrysostom says: “It is possible to understand the words otherwise.” And other of our interpreters follow him and repeat: it is possible also thus, suggesting that this is a possible but not the direct thought. Holy Chrysostom says: “It is possible to understand these words yet otherwise. How?—As he says in another place: ‘if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him’ (Rom. 6:8). For as we carry His putting to death and resolve to die alive for Him now, so too He will deign to quicken us when we are dead. If we, despising life, go to death, then He also will bring us from death to life.” And Theodoret likewise: “So the Apostle also says in another place: ‘if we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with Him’ (Rom. 8:17). For this very reason we lovingly meet deadly dangers for the sake of our Master, so as to become partakers of His life and, sacrificing temporal life, receive in return the incorruptibility of the flesh.”

One can also read another incidental thought in these words of the Apostle, namely that one cannot become a partaker of the saving life of Jesus Christ in all its power except through suffering with Him. In baptism we are mystically buried with Him, and in life afterwards we are grafted into the life-giving tree of His passion and death through unavoidable suffering and voluntary deprivations, or various kinds of self-denial and self-mortification. Through these deaths, or dyings for the sake of the Lord Jesus, the power of His life is manifested in our nature. There is no other way; it is the one way—narrow and sorrowful. A comforted life in plenty and comfort places one outside the circle of those who partake of the life of Christ.

2 Cor. 4:12. So then death is working in us, but life in you.

“Death is working in us,” that is, sorrows, misfortunes, continual mortal dangers, by which it is shown to all that we are earthen vessels. “But life,”—he says,—“in you,” that is, the treasure hidden in us—the word of the gospel and grace—by this very fact that we die daily, becomes your possession and imparts to you life, which works in you. Being assured from our weakness and frailty,—from the fact that we die and yet remain alive,—being assured from this that God’s power works in us, you believe the word of the gospel; believing, you are quickened by the grace of the Holy Spirit through the mysteries and begin to live a new life, known to no one else, the life in Christ Jesus, a life which, having begun here, shall remain eternal, leading you into endless blessedness. Theodoret writes: “For the sake of your salvation we are subjected to dangers, because at the cost of danger to ourselves we deliver to you the teaching (that gives true life). And it turns out that as much as we suffer, you enjoy true life.” And Oecumenius likewise: “As if the Apostle said: we die because of the gospel, so that you, believing through it in Christ, might be deemed worthy of true life, which is both incorruptible and eternal life.” In him Photius says: “Sorrows, sufferings, and deadly dangers work in us, but faith and godliness, in which true life consists, in you. Life is faith with godliness, because they gain incorruptible, endless, and eternally blessed life in the heavens.” Let us conclude the discourse with the words of Theophylact: “We are in dangers; but from these dangers you gather the fruit of life, believing in the Gospel we proclaim, through which you begin to live the eternal life.”

The Apostle unfolded that they are earthen vessels, in order that the power of God working in them be clearer, and through this the faith of those called to salvation may increase, and the life in Christ Jesus may work more abundantly in these latter. A question might have arisen: but what of you? Will only death be working in you?—No, he says, not death alone. We are convinced that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also in glory. This faith inspires us, and we, believing thus, do not cease to speak.

2 Cor. 4:13. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak.

He said: “in us death is working.” Now he continues as if: but this does not prevent us and does not deprive us of zeal to continue the work of preaching the Gospel. There is faith, inspiring us. And we in this case turn out to be in the same position as the prophet David, when he said: “‘I believed, therefore’ I spoke” (Ps. 115:1). A similar spirit of faith fills us too; having it, we believe and, believing, we speak. We speak, that is, we continue the gospel proclamation for the salvation and life of all, though surrounded from all sides only by deaths. The exact nature of the spirit of faith cannot be deduced from the example of holy David. The Apostle takes only one circumstance, that holy David, from the intensity of faith, could not restrain his tongue and spoke. In a similar way (he says), our tongue is moved by the irresistible force of faith. What meaning did faith have for the Apostle?—Judging from the preceding discourse, it will be the unwavering assurance that we are doing God’s work for God’s glory and the eternal good of all people. The following words: “knowing”—that God will raise us also, and so on—present that which supplements and vivifies this faith; for without this it would lack a final point, as it were, or be endless. But since this is such a point, which may be called the center of faith, it is very likely that the Apostle, speaking of faith, meant precisely this subject of faith. Holy Chrysostom says: “Having proved that affliction is not a sign of weakness and abandonment by God of those who allow it, the Apostle turns to faith and directs everything to it. And for the establishment of this faith he again points to the resurrection of Christ, saying: ‘we also believe and therefore speak.’ What do we believe?—‘That He who raised Jesus will raise us also.’” And Theophylact likewise: “We believe and therefore speak, because as Jesus rose, so we shall here be delivered from all mortal dangers, and there be raised together with Jesus.”

The Renewal of the Inward Man; the Eternal Weight of Glory (2 Cor. 4:14–5:1)

2 Cor. 4:14. Knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you.

Co-resurrection with the Lord in glory is the most inspiring and stirring subject in Christian confession. How much consolation here for those suffering for their faith! How much strength for those striving in life according to the spirit of faith! And thus the Apostles also drew moral strength from the same truth to bear the labors in planting faith on earth. Our poor nature is so glorified in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus—for His sake?—No, it is the image, foundation, and power of the resurrection of all believers to glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Contemplating this, the Apostle even before said: “No longer I live.” And here he says the same: let death be all around; we believe that eternal life is ours, which no death can snatch away. We stand in possession of this life and, not fearing deaths, boldly conduct the work of the gospel.

“Knowing.” Since this knowing stands here as an explanation of faith, it should be recognized as one that embraces all consciousness and—as it governed all the life of the Apostles—such as closed itself upon all other subjects of knowing and always stood foremost. “That He who raised the Lord Jesus”—God the Father, doubtless together with the Holy Spirit. The incarnate God the Son rose; but His resurrection was accomplished by the united action of the Holy Trinity. “Will raise us also with Jesus.” “Us”—the Apostle speaks of himself, of the Apostles, that is, of those ever dying in the work of the gospel and the imparting of grace to all; of course, not thinking that only they will be raised, but that He will raise them along with all. The resurrection of Christ laid the foundation for the general resurrection of all men. Now all must necessarily rise. The difference will be only in the manner and condition of the resurrection for each. Some will rise in light and for glory, while others in darkness and for torment. And those who rise gloriously will not all appear in the same degree of brightness. With what brightness will the Apostles be surrounded?! This they sensed beforehand. And here is the source of inspiration of which the Apostle speaks here! “Will raise with Jesus,” δια Ιησου, through Jesus. The power of Christ’s resurrection will then pass from Him to all. Now it is concentrated in Him alone and in others works only spiritually. When reborn in the baptismal font in faith, they receive together the seed for glorious resurrection. The gift of the Holy Spirit seals this hope more substantially. On this foundation every baptized person can truly confess: He will raise me also to glory, if I keep the grace of baptism or restore the lost by repentance. This faith, common to all, rose in the Apostles to a higher degree because they became more substantially partakers of Christ’s death, for he says: “we are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake.” As in the Lord death and resurrection were inseparable, so the Apostles understood their resurrection through the Lord as inseparable from their dying for His sake.—“And will present us with you.” Present before whom? If before Himself and His throne, this will bring to mind the judgment that will occur after the resurrection. But since the Apostle’s thought is of the inspiring glory of the future, it is closer to say: He will present into the blessed kingdom, or there where the Lord promised to be with His servants.—“With you,” he added, to remind the Corinthians that this is also the subject of their faith, and so that, by fixing attention on the glory of the Apostles’ resurrection, they might not lose sight of their own resurrection with them and forget the corresponding obligations of this hope. Blessed Theophylact writes: “He will raise us with you to receive endless goods. By this he inspires them to keep the faith and to show zeal for good life corresponding to faith.”

2 Cor. 4:15. For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

“He shows that he did not speak exaggeratedly when he said: ‘will raise us and present us with you.’ In speaking thus, I do not extend words of flattery to you, but because so it must be: for all is for you, ‘for you’—not only the Corinthians but all believers—‘all things,’ all the economy in Christ Jesus here and all the indescribable goods there. Theodoret writes: ‘For your sakes,’ that is, for believers; for he spoke not of the Corinthians alone, but of all who received the proclamation. God, caring for the salvation of all, accomplished the economy of the Master Christ.” Holy Chrysostom says: “His resurrection and all else are for you. For it is not only for one man that He accomplished so much, but for all.”

“So that the grace which is reaching more and more people,” that is, becoming the possession of many. The Lord arranged salvation for all and instituted the Apostolate, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit it might lay the foundation for the salvation of all men throughout all the earth, in all languages and societies. This is what we do. The word of the gospel spreads; with it grace flows, quickening to new life, a pledge of endless blessedness in eternity. Those who have partaken of this grace taste joy in the Holy Spirit, which prompts the lips to give thanks. The more partakers of grace, the more voices of thanksgiving. Multiplying grace multiplies thanksgiving; the abundance of thanksgiving overflows to the glory of God. God’s glory is the final goal of all the economy in Christ Jesus. Angels continually glorify God; to that same glorification men were created. But their song of praise was broken at the very start. It needed to be restored. To restore it, the Son of God, incarnate, descended to the uttermost depths of abasement and then ascended with humanity to the uttermost heights of glory. Having granted it all possible glory, He made it again capable of rendering the highest possible glory to God. Those partaking of the good things in Christ Jesus both taste God’s glory and glorify God. Glorification is a sign of tasting the joy of life. Therefore it became the goal of all, for God wishes all to be blessed. God wants all to taste spiritual goods, all to rejoice, and for that reason also to give thanks and glorify Him. The Apostle speaks of tasting grace by more and more, and of thanksgiving by more and more, because not all wish what God wishes.

Having expressed the truth that the Apostles are inspired in the labors of the gospel, amid continual mortal danger, by the sure conviction that they will be raised by Jesus Christ in glory, holy Paul determined to hold our attention on this subject longer, because of its extreme importance in the work of salvation. In the moral sense, the most influential, most restraining, most stirring truth is the truth about the future life. Those established in contemplation of it do not sin, and in the works of good deeds and asceticism know almost no measure. The Apostle determined to hold attention on it longer. He speaks in his own person: we, us, our, perhaps because he himself experiences the feelings he depicts; but his reasonings in content do not have an exclusive relation to apostolic service, but are reasonings that apply to all Christians in general. He presents them all in his own person when he says: we, us, our.

2 Cor. 4:16. Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day.

The Apostle’s thought turns to the future life on account of his continual mortal danger. From this he now begins his discourse, and as if by a ladder he leads us up from the decay of the outward man to the renewal of the inward, from it to the measure of future glory, and, having ascended thus to the invisible and eternal, leaves us there, desiring that we not come down from there to look at the things in our earthly house.

“Therefore we do not lose heart”: we do not tire, are not burdened, express no discontent. At the beginning of the chapter he said the same: “having this ministry, we do not lose heart.” There—after he said that in the economy of the New Covenant all are brought to contemplate the glory of God with unveiled face, so as to be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, with such a thought: how willingly should we not serve such a glorious work, paying no attention to all external inconveniences? Here he brings the same to mind after expressing confidence in being glorified with the Lord at the resurrection. Having such a glorious fate in the future in view, we, he says, “do not lose heart,” despite the sorrows, misfortunes, mortal dangers surrounding us. “We do not grieve, do not give way to despair, but endure all manfully” (Theodoret), “knowing the power of God, which even now delivers us from all evils, and in the future will raise us in glory” (Theophylact), “and seeing how all that is done and endured by us turns to the increase of glory and thanksgiving to God” (Oecumenius).

But all that we endure has relation to the future life. The future life will correspond to spiritual progress here. External sorrows perfect the spirit. Let the outward man decay! From this, or along with this, the inward is renewed “day by day.” “The outward man”—the body with what belongs to it and with its participation; “the inward”—spirit and soul (Theophylact, Oecumenius). The inward man is the same as “the hidden person of the heart” (1 Pet. 3:4), the self-conscious and free spirit, with its operations—fear of God, conscience, and dissatisfaction with anything created. Such it is in the natural order. Under the action of grace, it stands reverently before God, with love contemplates Him in tranquility, walks steadfastly in God’s commandments, having the law of God in its heart, and for that is filled with joy in the Holy Spirit, tastes how good the Lord is, and loses the taste for everything that is not the Lord’s. All these manifestations of the spirit under the action of grace begin from the first moment of birth to new life; but they grow and strengthen gradually, more from gracious influences, but not a little from the external conditions of man. External prosperity can greatly hinder his perfection; but external sorrows greatly aid it, keeping the spirit detached from all and giving it the opportunity to receive in full measure the gracious influences and to direct all its efforts to its own growth, not being distracted by anything external. This is what the Apostle means when he says that when the outward man decays, the inward is renewed day by day. Holy Chrysostom says: “In what manner does the outward man ‘decay’?—When he suffers scourgings, persecutions, and countless other misfortunes. And how does the ‘inward’ become ‘renewed’?—By faith, hope, zeal. The more the body suffers, the more the soul has good hopes and the more it is enlightened, like gold much tested by the action of fire.”

It is self-evident that the decay of the outward man mentioned renews the inward not unconditionally, but under the condition of grace, faith, and life according to faith. For renewal does not come directly from it, but is assisted by it, having its own special source. The decay of the outward man either happens involuntarily or is deliberately arranged, but its meaning and action are one: it assists the renewal of the inward, nourishing fear of God in the soul, enlightening conscience, and detaching from all created things, from all earthly attachments. The decay of the outward man, besides misfortunes and sorrows, comes also through reduction of food and drink, sleep and rest, through withdrawal from sensory distraction by means of solitude, cessation of cares, and generally through the weakening of the body and satisfaction with the barest minimum of what is needed, with avoidance of much turmoil. Such an order of life already presupposes the generation of the inward man; presupposes, but does not directly point to it: for all this can be done externally. The true inner man is one born of grace and educated and renewed by it. When this exists, then the decay of the outward man is necessarily required, and only in this case does such decay assist the renewal of the inward. But without this, through the decay of the outward man, the inward man is never truly renewed.

2 Cor. 4:17. For that which is momentary and light in our affliction works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

“Now,” το παραυτικα, – the present, momentary. “Light affliction” – light troubles. However great, he says, is what we endure, so much so that we may justly be called those who are dying; yet all of it consists only of troubles, light and fleeting when regarded from the perspective of future glory. What is this life compared to eternity, and is it worth accounting for if one had to endure it all continuously in suffering? Afflictions are sometimes very acute; but since they all pass away, and past affliction is no longer painful, they are all in the true sense light. An affliction that has no end, however small it may be, cannot fail to seem overwhelming. “By an exceeding measure to exceeding measure,” καθ υπερβολην εις υπερβολην, – by surpassing abundance to surpassing abundance – he wishes to say: there is no measure to what surpassing abundance this is, “in the greatest surpassing abundance” (holy Chrysostom); “the future glory has a magnitude superabundantly superabundant” (Theophylact). “Weight of eternal glory,” αιωνιον βαρος, – the eternal weight of glory. In contrast to the fleeting light troubles, there is set the eternal heavy glory – glory that is substantial and full of weight. “To the light and easy-to-bear the Apostle opposes the heavy, that is, the very precious” (Theodoret). “Works for us,” – prepares for us; we endure here, and there is being laid up what follows from what is endured here. They proceed together: here light affliction, there a pledge of full glory. “Behold how he takes away the force of present sorrows; when he opposes the present to the future, the temporal to the eternal, the light to the weighty, sorrow to glory. The whole matter he places in hope” (holy Chrysostom). External afflictions by faith and grace place the sufferer in close communion with the sufferings and death of Christ. Therefore they become channels of the life of Christ, renewing the inner man. But that same communion in the sufferings and death of Christ the Lord, already glorified, serves as the foundation for the glorification of those who suffer for His sake. Hence it follows that sorrows, renewing the inner man, serve at the same time as a pledge of eternal glorification. Therefore the Apostle places inner renewal with future glorification in a certain causal relationship: “For.” – They come together through sorrows in one source, the glorified Lord Saviour, spiritually renewing those communing with His sufferings and death through the power of faith and grace and preparing for them glory such as He Himself is clothed with, sitting at the right hand of the Father, as the Conqueror of death and hell.

2 Cor. 4:18. We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

The Apostle sets forth the condition under which the corruption of the outer man renews the inner and light affliction works the weight of eternal glory for us. On that condition, he says, if we do not look at visible things but at invisible, or living in such a moral state wherein we do not look at visible things but at invisible alone. This is evident in itself. Look upon the sun, and you will be filled with its light-bearing quality (the inner man will be renewed). Likewise rise higher, and all that exists on earth will appear trivial and insignificant. – Holy Chrysostom says: “He shows the way how heaviness of sorrow becomes light. How? – ‘We look not,’ he says, ‘at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.’ If we turn our gaze from the visible, then the present will be easy for us and the future great.” Oecumenius sees the same connection in these texts: “Because he called sorrow light, though it is heavy, he now explains how present sorrow becomes light. If, he says, we do not look at visible things but at invisible. For oppose only the things there to things here, and you will see how all things here will appear light. For this is all temporal, and that is eternal.”

“Not looking,” μη σκοπουντων. On the race-courses – σκοπος, – the mark, which runners had to reach before all others to gain the prize. Those running on horses or on foot fix their entire gaze on this mark, paying no attention to anything else, even if there were mountains of gold. The Apostle expresses that those being renewed spiritually and awaiting eternal glory must not only have nothing visible as their aim, but also keep it not in their attention, be toward it as if it were not; but the aim, to which their gaze, passing over all, must be fixed, is exclusively the invisible. It alone is the object of their desires, strivings and hopes. While a man lives by body and by materialized soul, invisible things seem to him something phantom-like, indefinite, as if non-existent. When grace comes and awakens the spirit, among the first demands for receiving new life is renunciation of visibility, of supports, hopes and comforts provided by visible things and persons, and a turning to the invisible, that there he may place his hopes and the objects of his strivings and expectations. This demands a bloody sacrifice, but it is necessary. One who has understood this makes a break, painful though it be, and brings the required sacrifice. It opens the door to the entrance of grace, forming the new man. Being born under such estrangement from the visible, the inner new man, if he develops rightly, no longer returns here but lives altogether in the invisible. It alone becomes truly existent for him; the visible appears phantom-like and vanishing, as it truly is. Therefore in the words of the Apostle: “We look not at the things which are seen” one can see such a meaning: it is such an order, or law of the life of Christ Jesus, that we do not look at the visible but at the invisible alone. – What is this invisible? – God worshipped in Trinity, and all that He gives to those drawing near to Him. This is simple in elements but vast in scope – and provides complete nourishment; whereas the visible is many, but it does not nourish, only stimulates appetite. What is this visible? – All that man counts as good, devoted as he is to this life: contentment, pleasures, honour, dominion, power, breadth of undertakings and success in them, and the like.

“The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” He touches on no other characteristics of the visible and invisible, for these are more evident. To one attached to visible things, whatever is said about it to his disadvantage will not be altogether clear; but that all of it is temporal is palpably evident, for it flows before his eyes like a river and cannot stand still. One detached from the visible and united with the invisible, though he might be able to understand many other characteristics of that invisible besides eternity, – but since he already tastes them and in that tasting sees the blessedness of a life freed from all things, it is most comforting to him to hear that the invisible, whose sweetness he has begun to taste, is eternal and that, consequently, the sweet wellbeing begun by him will have no end. Thus the Apostle, with a simple word, gave strong instruction to one and most comforting encouragement to another. Holy Chrysostom says: “He did not say that sorrows alone are temporal, but – all visible things, whether they be sorrow or joy; that in joy also we may not grow weak, and by sorrows not be weighed down. And likewise, speaking of the future, he did not say: the kingdom is eternal, but ‘the things which are not seen are eternal,’ whether it be kingdom or torment – that we may fear the latter and strive for the former. Therefore, since the visible is temporal and the invisible eternal, let us extend our eyes toward the invisible. If we prefer the temporal to the eternal, how shall we excuse ourselves? Let us suppose that the temporal is also pleasant, but it is not lasting, and the punishment for it will have neither end nor mercy. What answer will they give who, being counted worthy of the Spirit of God and having tasted so great a gift of God, afterward turned their eyes downward and fell to earthly things?”

For there we shall be clothed in a heavenly body, pure, light, radiant. This body, the present one, is heavy, burdensome, requiring much care for itself, and repays care with resistance to our spiritual strivings toward the heavenly. This is why we long to shed this rough body and be clothed in that spiritual one. This longing in us is from God, who gave us the earnest of the Spirit, which depicts for us the future radiant state and assures us by itself of its reality. Hence the sighs.

2 Cor. 5:1. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.

“We know.” The present period of our existence is transitional and ordered as a consequence of the fall. We ought to be aware of and feel this. But, having grown accustomed, we usually reconcile ourselves to remaining on earth and to life in the body. The expectation of another life appears in us in the most indefinite and shaky form. The grace of God, giving birth to new life, also quickens the expectation of the future life, presenting it in definite outlines. This is what the Apostle expresses, saying: “We know.” For him this was clear knowledge. We know this from his words; but we are obliged to know as he knew, for we have been granted the same grace of the Holy Spirit. Those pure in heart have such knowledge, in whom the grace of the Spirit appears in actuality.

“When our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved.” – “When” – he does not speak in this sense: in case it should be dissolved, but in this sense: when it is dissolved, expressing that this is the longed-for and certain moment of liberation from this earthly burden, which weighs on us and binds us to earth. “Earthly house of this tabernacle,” – οικια του σκηνους, – our earthly dwelling, tent-like, or resembling a tent. “The Apostle speaks thus of our body. Calling it tent-like, he indicated its easy destructibility and the brevity of life here” (holy Chrysostom). This body, or such a body, is the house of the soul, but earthly only, temporal, set up for a time, like a tent or a pavilion, which by its very form gives to understand that now it stands here, but in a few days and even hours it will not be here. The body is a temporary dwelling. When it is dissolved, “we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.”

“A building of God,” οικοδομην εκ θεου, – a structure built by God, a house built by God. The Apostle means not eternal dwellings, but our future body, calling it subsequently a “house not made with hands.” To call it not made with hands was perhaps occasioned by the comparison to the tent; but his thought is that the present body is formed by the natural way of birth, and because of this it is a burdensome dwelling in many respects, by this very heaviness stirring up the desire to be freed from it and to receive a new one; but the future body will be a dwelling built by the power of God, and therefore free from all that makes the present body so heavy. Because of this, that dwelling – the future body – will be “eternal,” for it will be composed not of gross elements, which by the very manner of their combination foretell dissolution and decomposition, but of incorruptible elements, or of the heavenly element alone. One cannot live on earth with such a body; the fitting place for it is heaven; or the earth will have to be transformed into heaven. – In short: “in the heavens” the Apostle indicated where our dwelling with the future body will be. But the body itself will be received on earth, for this is the resurrected body, and resurrection shall follow on the earth. In another place the Apostle says that after the resurrection those worthy of dwelling with the Lord shall rise to meet the Lord in the air and shall not return thence to earth, but shall always remain with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17).

The Apostle says that when the earthly house of the body is dissolved, we have on the heavens a building of God, eternal. It is as if we have it immediately upon shedding this mortal body through death; whereas, by God’s provision, there is placed between the two a period which may cease at any moment, but continues still, and its appointed end no one can set. The Lord waits until all who are able to be saved know Him and enter His flock. Why then did the Apostle speak thus? – So that no incidental and unsound inferences be drawn from his words, one must keep in mind that in the Apostle’s attention were only two moments – life in this body, heavy and burdensome, and life in the future glorious body, radiant, heavenly, longed-for, which will undoubtedly be received. He wished only to say: we shall shed this body, temporal, and receive that one, eternal, heavenly. What shall be between these moments, he does not touch on; this did not enter into his reasoning in this case.

The Earthly Tent and the Heavenly Dwelling (2 Cor. 5:2–10)

2 Cor. 5:2, 3. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

“Here is the reason why we sigh! It is that we desire to be clothed in our heavenly house, in the incorruptible and not-made-with-hands body. We know for certain that it exists and that it is incomparably better than the present body, or rather that it is the very body we ought to have; for this reason we yearn for it. – ‘Earnestly desiring,’ επιποθουντες, having a strong, irresistible desire. That is why we ‘groan,’ στεναζομεν, – we groan with sighing. The sighing answers to the strength of the desire. Holy Chrysostom says: ‘Tell me, into what house (do we desire to be clothed)? – Into an incorruptible body. Why then do we groan now? – Because that body is far superior.’ ‘Heavenly,’ το εξ ουρανου, he calls it on account of its incorruptibility, not because it will descend from heaven to us; from heaven it will receive only the life-giving grace (of incorruptibility) that quickens it.He did not say: to be clothed (ενδυσασθαι), but to be clothed upon (επενδυσασθαι), to change one’s raiment, because we shall not be clothed in another body, but this corruptible shall be clothed in incorruption.” (Theodoret). What sighing does the Apostle speak of here? – That which is common to all pious Christians, not living to please the flesh, but walking worthily in the name they bear, following the Lord with the cross of self-denial. All know that there will be another life, but not all desire it, for not all have complete self-denial. The labours of self-denial give boldness to desire that life, and the testimony of conscience supports it with assurance that they will find mercy from God there. All such both desire to depart and to be with Christ. This desire is intensified to longing with sighing by the felt and continuously felt heaviness of the body, and especially by the fact that the enemy often uses it for deception and enticement to the improper, or to place one in a state of unwanted weakness, drowsiness, weariness, immobility. Or is it not that sighing which Saint Paul means, which is heard in all men, that we are exiles on earth, and our true home is not here? Therefore all have a certain longing, as it were a homesickness. Outside of Christianity this longing remains vague, but in Christians it receives a precise and definite meaning.

“If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.” If “naked” is understood in relation to the body, that is, “not without a body,” then there is no thought in this verse at all. For what meaning would there be in saying: if we are clothed in a new body we shall not be without a body? If instead of “being clothed,” ενδυσαμενοι, it said “being stripped,” εκδυσαμενοι, then the thought would be: we desire to be clothed in a new body, and at the same time to be stripped of this one, that is, we desire to be stripped of it, but not in such a way that, having stripped ourselves of it, we should remain without a body, naked. Such a thought appears to have been held by holy Chrysostom, probably based on a reading he encountered – εκδυσαμενοι. He says: “That is, although we shall lay aside this body, we shall not be manifested without a body there, but with this same body, which will then become incorruptible.” But the reading εκδυσαμενοι is not supported, and everyone now accepts the reading ενδυσαμενοι. But reading “being clothed,” this text cannot have any other sense than that which our commentators give it, namely that “naked” means without good works and glory. For only under this condition is the clothing in the new, incorruptible body desirable; without this it is not only not good, but is the beginning of the utmost torment, and therefore cannot be desirable. The Apostle says: we groan in the desire to be clothed in the new, heavenly body, but surely with this proviso: if only, having been clothed in it, we shall not be found naked of glory, grace and God’s good pleasure.

The holy Chrysostom, after the opinion given above, continues: “Some, however, give a different sense to the words: ‘if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked,’ and very reasonably so; that is, so that believers, in hope of the resurrection, may not give themselves over to carelessness, the Apostle said: ‘if we be clothed,’ that is, in incorruption, and having received an incorruptible body, ‘we shall not be found naked’ (shall not be deprived) of glory and eternal salvation. For although resurrection is common to all, glory is not for all. Some shall rise to honour and some to shame; some for a kingdom and some for torment.” The same writes Theodoret: “Although every man shall be clothed in the garment of incorruption, yet not all shall be partakers of Divine glory. Therefore he calls naked those deprived of Divine glory, to which he counts himself as the Apostle, and the Corinthians, and all men, teaching thereby humility.”

This expresses that those destined to be condemned at the resurrection will feel themselves in naked shame, like those who are exposed to disgrace, standing naked before a numerous gathering of people. How natural this is, is evident in itself. Speaking of this, the Apostle wished to lay down an exhortation: strive then not to be found naked in that day, so eagerly desired for itself. This exhortation he expresses directly below: “we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him” (2 Cor. 5:9).

2 Cor. 5:4. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

He explains in what sense we desire to shed this body and what moves us to do so. This body is heavy, he says, it requires much care for itself: feed it, give it drink, clothe it, give it a comfortable bed, and this every day, and sometimes several times a day provide it something; so that your whole life you labour for nothing but caring for the body. And meanwhile, for spiritual life it not only does not help, but on the contrary, serves as the chief obstacle to it, until the last breath. It happens that all enemies fall silent, but it keeps pulling downward. This is why those “in this tabernacle,” we “groan,” we groan while “being burdened” by it.

But let no one think therefore that we desire to be rid of the body in order to be entirely without a body. No; we sigh for freedom from such a body, not from a body in general. To be with a body is appointed to man by the creating wisdom according to the order of creation, and it is unnatural for him to be without a body. Without it he cannot help but feel himself incomplete, impoverished, deprived, and therefore cannot taste complete joy of being, even with the assurance that it is a good existence. Therefore, in desiring to put off this body, we do not wish to be without a body, but only to change clothes. (“Clothed upon,” επενδυσασθαι, to change one’s raiment.) And how exactly? – “That mortality might be swallowed up of life.” There is what we desire! That from this body there be taken away death: corruption and passion, and in their place there should enter into it incorruptible, pure, most radiant, heavenly life; that this life should enter into it and swallow up that death, and completely transform it. “We groan, not desiring to be freed from the body, but having the desire to become free from its passions, for we do not desire to put off the body, but to be clothed in incorruption” (Theodoret). Holy Chrysostom says: “We do not groan, he says, in order to be freed from the body, for we do not wish entirely to lay aside the body, but we wish only to be freed from the corruption which is in it. That is why he says we wish not to be unclothed, but only to be clothed in the immortal. Then he himself explains how this is possible: ‘that mortality might be swallowed up of life.’ For many it might have seemed burdensome to put off the body, but contrary to the common voice he says: we groan because we desire to be freed from it. Another might say to this: if the soul suffers and grieves so much when separated from the body, how do you say that we groan because we cannot be freed from it for so long? Forestalling this objection, he says: and I do not say that we groan as if to lay aside the body, for no one lays it aside without sorrow; but we groan that we might clothe it in incorruption. We are burdened by the body, but not because we bear a body, but because we bear a corruptible and passionate body. This is what produces sorrow in us. But the coming life will destroy and annihilate corruption – corruption, not the body.” “As ascending light scatters darkness, so imperishable life destroys corruption” (Theodoret).

2 Cor. 5:5. Now he that has worked us for the selfsame thing is God, who also has given to us the earnest of the Spirit.

For such incorruptible life, he says, we were created in the beginning, but we fell and through sin were subjected to corruption. The Lord and Saviour destroyed corruption, trampling death by His resurrection. Mystically we become partakers of this resurrection in baptism, laying aside our old life in it and being clothed in the new. But this is only a pledge, a beginning and foundation for the future resurrection in glory, like the resurrection of the Lord. Here this is worked mystically through faith and grace in the spirit; but at the general resurrection we shall actually be clothed in incorruption. And that this shall indeed be so, may the goodness of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us assure everyone. He is the pledge of the inheritance of incorruptible life. Thus God has been pleased to order it.

Holy Chrysostom says: “The coming life will destroy corruption. Therefore he added: ‘who has also made us for this very purpose.’ By this he shows this was determined beforehand, for God revealed this not only now but in the beginning, when he fashioned us from the earth. Then to further assure them, he added: ‘And who has given us the Spirit as a deposit.’ For as then for this purpose he created man, so now through baptism he has recreated him for the same purpose, providing the important pledge of the Holy Spirit to assure us.”

For this reason we must make every effort to be pleasing to the Lord. I have said, he says, that we are burdened by life in this body and desire to shed it. Now I will show you why this is especially burdensome – it is because the body prevents us from seeing the Lord. And we long to be freed from it that we may be with the Lord. But if this is so, then while we live, we must strive to please the Lord, for those who have not pleased Him will not meet Him with joy, but only to hear a sentence of condemnation against themselves.

2 Cor. 5:6–8. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

“Confident,” and then “we are confident,” it seems, denotes here nothing other than the decisiveness of the mental action which is expressed by the verb that follows. Thus “being confident, knowing” denotes knowledge decisive, with conviction, admitting no doubt; “we are confident and willing” denotes desire decisive, admitting no wavering. Oecumenius paraphrases these words thus: “confident, knowing,” θαρρουντως ειδοτες, knowing boldly; and “we are confident and willing,” θαρρουντως ευδοκουμεν, – we are willing boldly. The Apostle therefore says: knowing with certainty that, living in this body, we are absent from the Lord, we strongly desire “to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” The words, “for we walk by faith, not by sight,” constitute an inserted proposition, explaining by experience that the body indeed distances us from the Lord. Theodoret thus expresses the general thought of these texts: “The Apostle does not say that we are alienated from the Lord, being still bound with this mortal body, but that now we do not see Him with bodily eyes, and then we shall both see Him and be with Him. For now, he says, we do not see the things expected, but we discern them only by faith. For this very reason we desire ‘to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.’”

In saying: “boldly knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord,” the Apostle gives us to understand that such knowledge requires a bold mind. Likewise in the words: “we are boldly willing to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord,” he gives us to understand that such willing desire requires a courageous spirit. Indeed, to those suffering persecution for the Lord, revilement and constant dangers of death, outsiders could say: what are you doing? You suffer, and Him for whom you suffer you do not see. And similar thoughts could come to the sufferers themselves. To these thoughts of their own and the words of outsiders, bold, faith-winged thought could boldly answer: yes, we do not see; but nonetheless He exists and is near, we only do not see, but we feel. The reason we do not see is this body of ours. “While we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.” “At home,” ενδημουντς, sojourning, as in a foreign land. “We are strangers and pilgrims in it” (Oecumenius). “He did not say: being, οντες, in the body, but ενδημουντες, because we are in it as strangers in a lodging house” (holy Chrysostom). In the body we sojourn, as in a foreign land; our true home is there, where the Lord is, or with the Lord. Thus, sojourning in the body, we have naturally been separated from our native home and from the Father Himself. “The body has become a wall between us and the Lord” (Oecumenius).

So then, what – should we not break down this wall violently and arbitrarily? – No. Such an order the Lord Himself was pleased to establish, that we should first live by faith and, having proved ourselves faithful to the Lord in all things by faith, should enter into such an order of life where we shall walk before the Lord in vision, remain with Him face to face. Now is such a period that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” For it does not happen that we, being first before the Lord, pass into the body as into a strange house. No; we are born to God by the way known to Him alone and, being already in the body, are made kin to the Lord through rebirth in the font of baptism, according to His image. Having become so akin to Him, we feel that the body cuts us off from Him, but we must remain in the body until the time appointed by the Lord, so that we may grow strong in this new life, grow up for another, and show our faithfulness to the Lord before Him when He remains hidden from us. Now we know Him by faith, approach Him by faith and are guided to remain in spiritual mystical communion with Him. Having endured ourselves as is fitting during this period of trial and education, under the guardianship of faith, we shall then enter into another, in which we shall remain with the Lord face to face.

Yet with all this, we cannot regard with indifference that blessed moment when we depart from the body and stand before the Lord. This moment is greatly desired. Therefore “knowing what it brings, to enter to the Lord, we boldly are willing to depart from the body, or with our whole soul yearn for this” (Oecumenius). – “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” We are willing boldly, he says, because such willing, eager and joyful desire requires a courageous spirit. Life in the body, and despite a keen sense of its inconveniences, has its attractions, drawing us to it. To stand in complete estrangement from it is impossible without a sharp break with oneself, and such a break cannot take place without bold determination. And to constantly maintain oneself in such a disposition means to be a soul inspired with courage. That is why the Apostle said: “we are confident and willing,” that is, boldly and courageously we yearn for this. Reading the history of martyrs, we cannot but see in them a vindication of the words of holy Paul. They yearned to depart to the Lord, and yearned with irresistible striving and courage. – Holy Chrysostom says on these words: “Do you see how the Apostle, passing over the unpleasant names ‘death and end,’ replaced them with the most desired name – ‘dwelling with the Lord’; and, on the contrary, bypassing the names of life that seem pleasant, he used an unpleasant one, calling this present life ‘distance from the Lord.’ And he did this so that no one not only might not delight in the present, but rather might be burdened by it; and so that no one, approaching death, might grieve, but rather might rejoice, because he passes into the enjoyment of better blessings.”

2 Cor. 5:9. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

“But whether there or here we are, he says, our only concern is to live in accordance with His will. For this is our chief obligation, so that after this you shall undoubtedly be an heir of the kingdom of heaven. But since even with the desire to enter to the Lord it is easy to deviate from the intended path, the Apostle points out what is most needful on this path. What is that? – To be pleasing to the Lord, for it is not simply good to depart from here, but to depart having pleased God; by this latter the former will also be good. Just as it is not simply difficult to”live here,“but difficult to live offending God. Therefore, do not think that for eternal life it is enough merely to depart from the body. Virtue is needed everywhere. Therefore, as in reasoning about the resurrection of bodies, he did not let them rest content with mere knowledge of it, saying –”if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked“: so likewise, in speaking of departure from the body, so that you should not think that this alone is sufficient for your salvation, he added that you must yet become pleasing to God” (holy Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 5:10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.

“Having aroused the zeal of the Corinthians with manifold blessings, the Apostle did not forget to impel them also with fear of threatening evils. For our blessedness consists both in the acquisition of goods and in the avoidance of evils, that is, in gaining the kingdom of heaven and avoiding hell. But fear of torments works more strongly upon us. For some might agree to be punished by deprivation from the inheritance of eternal goods, but few would agree to endure torments. Of course, the first ought to be counted as more intolerable, but for many, because of their weakness and attachment to earthly things, the latter appears more intolerable. – Therefore, since many are aroused not so much by promises of good as by threats of punishment, the Apostle thought it necessary to conclude his discourse thus:”For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.“But again, having terrified and aroused the hearer with the reminder of that judgment, he did not leave sorrow without comfort here either, but mingled the bitter with the sweet, saying:”that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.“Saying this, he strengthens the upright and the godly, although persecuted, with hope; and rouses the unrepentant and the careless with fear to repentance, and at the same time confirms his teaching on the resurrection of bodies. For, he says, the body, which served either virtue or vice, shall not be excluded from participation in the recompense; but together with the souls, some bodies will be delivered to torment, while others will be crowned with reward” (holy Chrysostom).

How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15)

A) God in Christ has reconciled the world to Himself and given us the word of reconciliation; we go about persuading all to be reconciled to God. And we also say to you, giving counsel: see, do not let pass the opportune time for salvation (2 Cor. 5:11–21, 6:1, 2). b) We do our work, being always concerned not to cause anyone to stumble, but on the contrary to turn all to faith (2 Cor. 6:3–10). c) Be concerned also to do your part – leaving all impiety and lawlessness, cleave to God, that you may be God’s (2 Cor. 6:11–18, 7:1).

God in Christ has reconciled the world to Himself: in this is the α) essence of the New Covenant (2 Cor. 5:11–18). And He has established preachers of this reconciliation and inviters to it: in this is β) the Apostleship, a necessary institution in the economy of salvation, (2 Cor. 5:19–21, 6:1, 2).

We are fallen and condemned to death. The Son of God, having been incarnate, died for all and saved us, satisfying the righteousness of God and imparting new life to us (2 Cor. 5:14–18). At the transition to the exposition of this subject, from the previous discourse on the universal judgment, the Apostle briefly indicates his sincerity in the work of preaching, (2 Cor. 5:11–13).

2 Cor. 5:11. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest to God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

As a reflection from contemplating the future life, judgment and recompense according to deeds, the holy Apostle brings forth a sobering fear. We know, he says, the fear of the Lord, and, permeated by it, we persuade people, as those who must give account to God in every word and deed. We present the word of exhortation as those aware that God sees us. Here the Apostle expresses what he said before: “before God, in Christ we speak” (2 Cor. 2:17). God sees, he says, that there is in our word neither falsehood, nor craftiness, nor flattery. We are confident that you likewise understand us, for we are not known to you outwardly, but are plainly known by your own conscience itself.

“Knowing the fear,” not merely conceiving it in mind, but bearing it in our hearts. “We persuade men,” πειθομεν, – we convince. In what? – In what we are sent to convince, – that they believe, are sanctified by the mysteries and receive through them the grace-giving power for life according to God’s commandments, so that at the coming of the Lord we appear pure and spotless. This embraces all the content of apostolic exhortations. But often they were forced to deal with incidental questions that arose; especially often there was a need to assure believers in the truthfulness and sincerity of their word. Some ill-natured thoughts about the Apostles crept in among the believers and disturbed them. The working of faith in their souls thereby diminished or ceased altogether. The Apostles considered it their duty to dispel such thoughts, that they might give free scope to the working of faith. Our commentators understand under the word πειθομεν in this place precisely this. Theophylact writes: “We persuade men” – stands for: we heal scandals. “For even if you do nothing wrong, but if you give some occasion for suspicion and have the ability to dispel the scandal, do not dispel it, you are subject to condemnation.” The same Theodoret says: “We strive to correct those who have false opinions of us and to give them knowledge of what we truly are.” Thus also holy Chrysostom: “In this way, the holy Apostle says, knowing this, that is, that terrible judgment, we do everything so as not to give you any occasion even falsely to suspect us of insincerity in our action. Do you see the strict exactness in the fulfillment of duties and the care of a soul concerned for the good of others? For, he says, we are subject to condemnation not only when we actually do something wrong, but we are subjected to it also when, having done nothing wrong, we are suspected of wrong and, having the power to remove the suspicion, do not bother to do so.”

“Made manifest to God.” “God knows all; there is no need for us to assure Him of our sincerity” (Oecumenius). Before God we are open; He sees the manner of our action; and we should not offer Him any explanations, as if He had received something scandalous about us (Theophylact). The purpose of the Apostle in this word is not to present God’s omniscience and all-seeing nature, but to say that their conviction of God’s omniscience does not allow them to harbour anything insincere. We walk, speak and act with the consciousness of God’s presence, and this consciousness keeps us pure in all things, like the prophet David, who says: I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved (Ps. 16:8).

“We hope also,” ελπιζω, I hope; as it were waiting, and yet expresses his complete confidence, and by this confidence dispels any perplexity, if it were still lurking in them. He speaks as if: “You have no need of our assurances, knowing well what our aim is” (Theodoret). “What we are in fact, you know us, and you know us precisely, in a pure and clear conscience” (Oecumenius). “You know all about us well; we are open before you; and we have no need to dispel your scandals and suspicions” (Theophylact). Thus speaks the Apostle about the majority of them, about the body of the Corinthian Church; but that there were also some ill-disposed there, of this the Apostle speaks in the latter part of the epistle.

2 Cor. 5:12. For we commend not ourselves again to you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.

“We commend not ourselves to you,” συνιστανομεν, we recommend, commend you ourselves. In this there is no necessity, because you know us fully. But we speak thus, we clarify the whole matter, we open before you our feelings and the disposition of our spirit with the purpose of giving you cause for glory on our behalf, so that you, knowing all how we act, may not be ashamed of your teachers, but on the contrary, may be able to boast of us when need requires. The Apostle does not mean that they should praise them without any cause, but that they should have at hand firm grounds to repel accusations against them from ill-wishers, and thereby, as they defended the truth, so they also secured their own conscience, for it is very important to preserve an unshaken conviction in the high and inviolable dignity of those who have taught the teaching of the Lord. Holy Chrysostom says: “See how he always forestalls suspicion of boasting, for nothing offends the ears of listeners as much as a recounting of something great and extraordinary about oneself. But since he was forced to say something of this sort about himself, he corrects himself, saying: we do this for you, not for ourselves, so that you may have something to boast of, not we; but you too would boast not without cause, but on account of false apostles. Not for this, he says, do we say this, so that you would praise us, but so that you might be able to speak freely for us, and not so that you would boast of us alone, but so that you would not be deceived anymore.”

Such understanding of the Apostle’s thought is fully justified by the following words: “that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.”

“That you may have,” – what shall you have? – “Something to boast of” (holy Chrysostom), “what to answer and what to say in defence of us” (Oecumenius), “so that you may learn how you must defend your teacher and refute the false words of opponents who wear a double mask, thinking one thing and saying another” (Theodoret). “Them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.” That you may have something to say to these who glory in outward appearance, but in their hearts do not have those virtues which they display for show. They appear to show both zeal for God and love toward the Corinthians and, as it were, self-denial; but in reality, in their soul, all this was not what it appeared. Holy Chrysostom says: “That you may have,” something to boast of “against them which glory in appearance.” And he commands them not to do this simply and without need, but when the false apostles are exalting themselves. And he says this not for his own glory, but to shut the mouths of false teachers, to the harm of the Corinthians glorying in their deeds, “glorying in appearance,” that is, in outward deeds done for show. And the false apostles were indeed such and did everything from love of honour; and being empty in soul, although they had the appearance of godliness and seemed worthy of respect, they were devoid of good works.

2 Cor. 5:13. Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for you.

The Apostle calls “ecstasy” what he said about himself that was great, what in other places he calls “foolishness” (holy Chrysostom); and “sobriety” – humble speech about himself (Theodoret). These concepts are the same for all commentators; but in what relation the first is “to God” and the second “for you,” they understand differently; from which have arisen different paraphrases of this text. And holy Chrysostom brings them up to three, not showing which of them should be preferred. From this it is evident how difficult it is to point out the definite thought of this place.

“If we be beside ourselves,” if I seem to someone to be beside myself, speaking I know not what, because I speak of my special election, of the revelations I have received, of the signs of God which I have worked, and of other like things; then indeed, in speaking of this, I attribute nothing to myself, but refer all to God; I glorify not myself, but God, for I proclaim everywhere that “by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10), and that although I have laboured more than all, yet it was not I that worked, but the grace of God. Thus, “whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God.” One might blame me, why do I speak, and in this sense: let those whom it concerns know of it by another way, not from your mouth. But I could not be silent; I must speak to all that I am God’s ambassador, and point out the signs of this, so that seeing my humiliation, they may not also humiliate and despise my preaching, may not reject it and perish (holy Chrysostom). This is why, although I know that I am being foolish, as it were beside myself in speaking thus of myself, I speak, nevertheless, because through this God is glorified, both by my word and by the salvation of others. Let them count me mad for this; I bear it joyfully for God’s sake. “If anyone counts us mad for this, let him know that we are mad for God” (holy Chrysostom).

“Or whether we be sober, it is for you.” “If we speak anything humbly and with self-abasement, we do this for you, that you may learn sober-mindedness; or thus: if anyone counts us sober-minded, let him himself also learn sober-mindedness from us” (holy Chrysostom). “Both one and the other I do, he says, with right intention” (Theodoret).

2 Cor. 5:14. For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

He transitions to discourse on the essence of the New Covenant of grace. One can place this discourse in connection with the previous thus: although the definite thought of the Apostle in the previous text is not clear, one cannot fail to see that he wished to express his constant zeal to do all for God’s glory and the salvation of men. What inspired him to this? – Love. The blessed Theophylact and the word “we be beside ourselves” – come into ecstasy – he interprets as meaning that the Apostle was in ecstasy from the strength of his love to God; it caused him to forget himself, so that he knew no measure in the impulses of self-denial. And what nourished this love? – Contemplation of the death of Christ the Saviour for all men. At the thought of this, he says, the love of God encompasses my soul, I enter into the feeling of God’s love, am kindled and burn with love myself. But in the further interpretation of the Apostle’s words it is better not to place them in relationship with the previous discourse, because this can restrict his sublime teaching on the essence of the Covenant of grace. The previous is better recognised only as an occasion or transition to the exposition of this teaching.

“The love of God,” του Χριστου, the love of Christ, the love which Christ the Lord showed, being pleased to die for all, for he died by love alone. But as in the word: “love” “of God” is often understood God’s love, or God-like, so in the expression “love of Christ” is heard Christ-like love. To this the verb “constrains” συνεχει, seizes, embraces, also leads. For the love of Christ to seize and embrace us, it is necessary to receive it in feeling. Whoever receives with the full fullness of heart the love of Christ cannot but be set on fire with the same love, and it will combine both the warm feeling of gratitude to such a Benefactor, and self-denying readiness for Him in all things, and especially in the doing of all good to all, and because this pleases Christ the Lord above all else and by the feeling of brotherhood with them in Christ. Thus, the love of Christ, if it constrains someone, is undoubtedly also Christ-like.

This love constrains us, “having judged this,” having considered, weighed, embraced with mind, insofar as is possible. One cannot be kindled with the love of Christ without being conscious of it, without imagining its immeasurable vastness and greatness. Contemplation of the love of Christ, reflecting in the heart, kindles that heart also with love. Reflection on this love always brings this fruit. Judging here does not mean comprehension, but consciousness of the incomprehensible greatness of the love of Christ, and from that aspect especially to which the Apostle points here, namely on account of the death of Christ for all, which took away the power of death for all. “For what greater love is there than to die for the whole universe lying in evil?” – says holy Chrysostom. The blessed Theodoret writes: “We burn, says the Apostle, with love toward Christ, considering that when we were subject to death, He alone took death upon Himself for us, that life might be acquired for all.”

“If one died for all, then were all dead.” The force of the word: one died for all, means all died. It could not be said otherwise, that He died for all. His death alone encompassed the death of all. In His death all died. If this were not so, “if all did not die in Him, then neither did Christ die for all” (holy Chrysostom). In what sense this is, the Apostle does not explain here. In the epistle to the Hebrews he says that the Lord Jesus Christ “by the grace of God tasted death for every man” (Heb. 2:9); and in the epistle to Timothy he explains that this “grace” was given us from “eternal times” and that the Lord, having tasted death, “abolished death” (2 Tim. 1:9, 10). Understanding these words literally: “abolished death,” all “died in Him,” one would expect that after the death of the Lord no one should die. But since all do die, and God’s word is not false; one must understand that there is a sense in which death is indeed abolished by the death of Christ and all have already died in Him, and yet all must still die, as all do die. This leads us to a brief outline of the mystery of the whole economy of salvation.

God created not death; it entered the world through sin. God said to our first parents that if they transgressed the commandment they would die. They transgressed and died. Death immediately came into effect. That they died spiritually was then manifest in their attempt to hide from God and in covering up sin and laying blame on one another. That they did not die bodily immediately is on account of the grace determined for us from eternal times. This grace entered into the plans of world-existence. Angels fell and were left in their fall, because of their utmost stubbornness in evil and in opposition to God. If all had fallen, this link would have been removed from the chain of creation and the system of world-existence would have been disrupted. But since not all fell, but part, their link remained and the harmony of the world remained unbroken. Man was created alone with woman, so that he might bring forth all the number of persons who were to constitute the human link in the system of world-existence. When he fell, this link was broken, and the world lost its order. As this link is necessary to the order of the world, it was necessary either, having consigned the fallen to death as decreed, to create new progenitors, or to provide a sure way to restore them to their first rank. Since the fall did not occur because, so to speak, the first creation had been unsuccessful, but because created freedom, especially the freedom of a spirit physically united with a body, contained the possibility of the fall, then in beginning to repeat creation, it would perhaps have to be repeated without end. Therefore God’s wisdom, guided by boundless goodness, judged it otherwise to ordain for the fallen a way to rise.

In arranging this way, the execution of the judgment of eternal righteousness had first to take place: “you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17); death, equal to the death of all men, had to come, so that by its force all might be accounted as already dead, or as having paid the debt of death, and thereby acquired the right and were made alive by hope for life. For this the Son of God and God had to take upon Himself human nature, with all its infirmities except sin, and die in it. This death, as the death of God in the flesh, had to have infinite worth and all-encompassing scope, and, as an innocent death, could be reckoned to others under sufficient conditions. In this is the grace determined for us from eternal times. This determination entered into the plans of world-existence and, where needful, appeared acting in providential power; but the time for its execution in reality was set apart. In the sixth thousand years from the fall, the Son of God came, was incarnate and died on the cross. God died in human nature, and in this one death actually combined the deaths of all men. One died – all died. Contemplating this, the Apostle exclaimed: “the love of Christ” “constrains us, having judged this.”

But if all died, is death then destroyed? – Yes, precisely: God, having died in human nature, abolished death (2 Tim. 1:10), for on the third day He rose in glorified humanity and from that moment dwells in this resurrection. Humanity has already tasted the glory and greatness of resurrection. If, when one died, all died; then also, when one rose, all rose. The power of the resurrection of Christ is indeed such that the foundation of the resurrection of all lies in it. This power does not pass to each through imputation, but will truly be tasted by each; each shall personally taste this power and shall rise. But there is set a time for this. As there was a time for the manifestation in the flesh of the Son of God, to die in it and rise, so a time is set for when all shall taste resurrection. When this is accomplished, then shall be fulfilled what is written: “O death, where is your sting? Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:55, 54).

But to rise, one must die; to die, one must be born mortal. Thus it was ordained, that the first parents should not die immediately after the fall, but should remain to live for a time, as mortals, so that they too should bear mortals. Hence into the order of world-existence entered a period of mortality and corruption, as a path to incorruptible and immortal life. People are born mortals each individually, but to rise in incorruption is appointed to all men together, so that all at once shall appear in their appointed glory. Angels were created all together; men, however, shall appear in a similar order all together already after resurrection. Since men do not all appear in the world at once, but are born, as God’s all-ruling wisdom determines for each, then each one, dying as a mortal, must wait for the general resurrection. Hence for each there is inevitable a period of existence in separation from the body in hope of resurrection. If we look on the surface, we see on earth reigning death and corruption; if in thought we penetrate into the hidden depths of being, we see human souls, in countless numbers, living as God has appointed for them, in hope of union with resurrected bodies incorruptible. They sigh, desiring to be clothed in a heavenly house. This is not complete human life. Living in the body, we cannot understand in what consists properly the diminishment or reduction of life without the body, but it must be and is, as was revealed to the Apostle, who said above: “not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon.” The sorrow of this deprivation is swallowed up by love, for all know that such a mode of being is both ordained and lasts so that all who are to be partakers of the resurrection in incorruption might be born. The law of self-denial penetrates all degrees of human existence. Although resurrection is still only awaited, it is so certain that it is as if already accomplished. All, by hope, so partake of the resurrection as if already risen. Let it not yet be; but it is already ours.

Thus all died in Christ and all still die; and all rose in Him, and yet remain not risen. It remains to be seen why this temporary life exists. – For this reason: so that in this short time the spirit may be quickened. The first parents, having fallen, died spiritually. This is evident from the fact that they thought to hide from God after the fall and that they laid the blame for the transgression on one another. The strict judgment of righteousness struck them, but the promise of the Deliverer quickened their spirit. Therefore after exile they wept and were sorrowful, but were not swallowed up in despair. The hope of deliverance quickened and revived their spirit. This quickening of spirit they received, being dead both spiritually and bodily. But, having been quickened by hope of deliverance in the spirit, they themselves thereby drew upon themselves the power of the all-encompassing death of the Deliverer and became partakers of the resurrection in incorruption. They became mortals, so that in their time they might receive resurrection in incorruption. And this was on account of the quickening of the spirit through the promise of the Deliverer. Such as they then became, such were born from them all men: born mortals bodily and dead spiritually, with the aim that, being quickened in spirit like them, they might have hope of resurrection in incorruption, despite death. All the business of this life, therefore, is the quickening of the spirit in the order of promised deliverance. Saint Paul describes this as follows:

2 Cor. 5:15. And that he died for all, that they which live should not from now on live to themselves, but to him which died for them, and rose again.

The quickening of the spirit in the order of promised deliverance, as the goal of life, is essentially the same, but in form has not been the same in its manifestation: it was worked differently before the Law, differently under the Law, differently began to be worked under grace. The Apostle speaks of the last. One has already died for all and risen. And all in Him died and rose; but both the one and the other in the order of the economy, according to which they too must die in their time, and then wait for the resurrection in incorruption that is to be in its time. Consequently they live still in the ordinary order of life. The question arises, how are they to live? – Those living now must not live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. In this lies the goal of life, in this the quickening of the spirit, which from the beginning became the goal of life. The Apostle means not only believers, but all men living in every time. All should live for the one Lord. If they do not live thus, it is their fault. To what extent ignorance excuses anyone, God will judge; but it is an inviolable law that, after the Lord died for all and rose again, all should live for Him. In this is the norm of human life.

The fact that we have this temporary life with the means of quickening the spirit is because the Lord died for all; and the fact that after death, remaining in separation from the body, we shall live by hope of resurrection in an incorruptible body is because He rose in our nature. If, therefore, all that is essential in our life is from Him, then the law of righteousness bids us not live for ourselves, but for Him alone. The holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle said that we must not live for ourselves, and presents an evident reason why we should so act: that is, if we live by Him who died for us, we should also live for Him by whom we live. And although what he said seems to contain but one reason, yet if we examine carefully, we shall find the following two: the first is that we live only by the Lord; the second is that He died for us. And each of them, taken separately, is sufficient to make us obedient to Him. How much, then, should we be indebted to Him when we unite both together? But yet a third reason lies hidden in his words, namely this: for you the Lord rose and ascended to heaven the first-fruits of our nature; therefore He added:” “Him which died for them, and rose again.”

What is required by the obligation to live not for ourselves, the Lord determined thus: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and” follow “Me” (Mk. 8:34). What is required by the obligation to live for the Lord, concerning this the Lord said: “The one who loves Me will keep My commandments.” (Jn 14:21). The blessed Theodoret writes: “We recognize it as just to live for Him and to lead a life according to His commandments, because this duty toward Him obligates us to do so.”

But such requirements are evidently only fulfilable for those who have known the Lord, believed in Him and cleaved to Him with their whole soul. Therefore, although the Apostle said that all the living are obliged to live not for themselves but for the Lord – he expressed himself after the idea; but he intended especially to fix the attention of the believers on this point, those to whom he wrote, and through them all. For if all men are obliged to this, then all the more are believers obliged, for they, having undertaken the obligation, have also received the powers for its fulfilment in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Believers in the Lord, approaching Him, renounce impiety and worldly lusts, first in intention, desire and determination of will; but when in the font of baptism they are born again to new life, they receive the grace-giving power that actually severs them from impiety and lusts and directs them toward chaste, righteous and godly life. Thus, to live not to ourselves, that is, not according to the selfish strivings of the flesh, but to the Lord, that is, according to His will, holy, well-pleasing and righteous, is an inalienable attribute of truly believing Christians. With respect to them the word of the Apostle means: so this must be, and it cannot be otherwise when you are such as you ought to be.

A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21)

2 Cor. 5:16. Wherefore from now on know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now know we him no more.

“Now,” – from what moment in time? – After the Lord Saviour died for all and rose. From that time, he says, “we know no man after the flesh.” Who is this “no man”? – Perhaps not a single man. As above under “those living” one can understand all men, so here under “we know no man” – not a single man. The Apostle views men according to an idea drawn from the economy of salvation. All men, he says, we now understand not as flesh and blood: born, lived and died – but as persons destined to receive into themselves the beginnings of divine life, as a pledge of resurrection and glorious life in incorruption. In this sense the blessed Theodoret writes: “Having learned that death was destroyed by the death of the Lord, we no longer recognize anyone of men as mortal; for although the Master Christ Himself had a body subject to suffering, yet after suffering He made it incorruptible and immortal.”

The work of life in Christ Jesus, or of spiritual quickening of humanity in Him, only began at the time of the Apostles; into the mass of humanity only leaven was placed and penetrated only the nearest layers, but as it was appointed to penetrate all, Saint Paul in this beginning of the quickening of humanity could contemplate all of it already quickened, as one who has placed leaven in a mass of flour can see it all already risen and reason about what will come from it. Of it he speaks, fixing his attention and confirming what he says about it, pointing to those already believing, freed from the flesh and beginning to shine with spiritual life through rebirth into it by the grace of the Holy Spirit. In this sense holy Chrysostom says: “If all have risen, risen by the laver of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit; then the Apostle rightly says that we know no one of the faithful after the flesh. For what if they still dwell in the flesh? But the former fleshly life has already ended, and we have been born anew from above by the Spirit, and have learned another citizenship and dwelling and life and order, namely heavenly.”

Or thus: no external considerations are precious now in our eyes: neither birth, nor wealth, nor learning, nor power. What matters is only the reception of new life in Christ Jesus by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The measure of the manifestation of such a life determines the significance and weight of this or that person, not something fleshly. However one is visible according to the flesh, he is nothing if there is not in him life from the Spirit. What someone is according to the flesh, that for us as if does not exist, and we do not look upon it; our gaze is wholly turned to who and what he is in Christ Jesus, not according to the flesh, but in the spirit. Whoever has the latter, only he exists for us; we know him; the rest as if do not exist.

“Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.” The Apostle takes the person of all the Apostles, or of all believers who were cleaving to the Lord during His earthly sojourn, and says that when Christ the Lord walked among us, then looking at Him as He appeared with all the infirmities of human nature, we knew Him according to the flesh, judged Him by this appearance; and although we understood Him highly, yet not as we should have, not as we understand now, when our minds are illumined by the light of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Now that appearance completely disappears from our eyes; we see in Him only the majesty of the incarnate God, the Restorer of fallen man, who raised him in His person to deification; we contemplate Him sitting at the right hand of the Father, clothed in the glory of incorruptibility and holding in His hands the reins of all world-governance. Saint Chrysostom says: “By application to us, ‘according to the flesh’ means the same as being in sins; and ‘not according to the flesh’ means the same as not being in sins. By application to Christ, ‘according to the flesh’ means nothing other than being partaker of the infirmities of human nature, such as: thirst, hunger, weariness, sleep, except sin; and ‘not according to the flesh’ means that He has now freed Himself from those infirmities of the flesh, not that He now exists without flesh. For with flesh, only now incapable of suffering and immortal, He will come to judge the universe.”

2 Cor. 5:17. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

“Here it speaks directly of believers. All, he says, are appointed to live not for themselves but for the Lord, all must live a spiritual life; but actually such are only those who are in Christ, that is, have believed in Him and, having been united with Him in the font of baptism, have begun to live new life, warmed by the grace of the Holy Spirit in them. ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.’ ‘Whoever,’ he says, ‘has believed in the Lord has become a new creation, for such a one is born again from above by the Spirit. And therefore,’ he says, ‘we ought to live for Christ not only because ‘we are not our own’ (1 Cor. 6:19) or because He died for us and raised the first-fruits of our nature, but also because through Him we have passed into another life” (holy Chrysostom).

“That he might more explain what has been said and show how we become a new creature, he says: ‘old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’ What then is old? – Either sins and various kinds of ungodliness (paganism), or all Jewish ordinances, or better both together. ‘All things are become new’ (holy Chrysostom). A new manner of viewing all that exists and comes to pass is imparted, new orders of life are introduced in all its manifestations; but the foundation of all is an essential renewal of life in its very sources, hidden in spirit and heart; there is born the hidden man of the heart, who begins to govern all things both in soul and in body and in external relations. To look at him – he appears the same man, the same powers of spirit, soul and body are in him, but his life is not the same. It is not an earthly plant, does not breathe with earthly air, is not nourished by earthly elements. Therefore he thinks on things above, not on things of the earth, and his life” is hid with Christ in God.

Holy Chrysostom under the following verse returns to this subject and says: “Now they (those in Christ) have even a new soul, for it is cleansed, and a new body, and new service, and new promises, and a covenant, and life, and table, and garment, and all in general new. Since instead of earthly Jerusalem we have received the heavenly throne-bearing city, instead of a sensible temple we have beheld a spiritual temple, instead of stone tablets we have received tablets of flesh, instead of circumcision – baptism, instead of manna – the Body of the Lord, instead of water from the rock – blood from the side, instead of the rod of Moses or Aaron – the cross, instead of the promised land – the kingdom of heaven. Presenting all these and like blessings, the Apostle said: ‘all things are become new.’ And all this from God through Jesus Christ and by His grace.”

2 Cor. 5:18. And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

All these blessings are from God. Thus he was pleased to order it, establishing the economy of our salvation. All things are from God, in the Trinity of Persons worshipped, saving us “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2). In the mystery of the Holy Trinity it was ordained from eternity for the Son to become incarnate and die on the cross, reconciling us with God. The Apostle here sets forth preeminently the reconciliation in Christ the Lord, who died for all, pointing to the good pleasure of God the Father and the grace of the Spirit working in the ministry of reconciliation through the Apostles.

“Saint Chrysostom says: ‘All things are from God.’ And nothing from us. For both the remission of sins, and adoption as sons, and incorruptible glory are given to us by Him. Thus he stirs up the Corinthians to virtue not only by future blessings, but also by present ones, which they have already received. See now how. He said: we shall rise someday, pass into incorruption and receive an eternal dwelling. But inasmuch as for the conviction of those who do not believe the future as much as they should, the present has more power, he shows them also that which they have received (in the present as a pledge of the future). ‘All things,’ he says, ‘are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ:’ because all blessings are given to us through Christ. He Who made us His friends is the author of all other blessings which God has given to His friends; for not leaving us as enemies, He rewarded us so much, but having made us friends to Himself. But when I (the Apostle gives to understand) call Christ the author of our salvation, I mean at the same time also the Father; and when I say that the Father has given it to us, I again mean also the Son. For ‘all things were made through Him’ (Jn. 1:3); consequently, He is the author of this action too. For it is not we who turned to God, but He Himself reconciled us to Himself. How? – By the death of Christ.” – The blessed Theodoret continues as if this discourse, saying: “The Apostle portrayed the ineffable mercy of God. Although He was offended by our transgression, yet (He was not wholly angered) was pleased to reconcile us to Himself, not using man as a mediator, but making His Only-Begotten Son the mediator of peace.”

“And He who gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” When He says: “He has reconciled us,” by “us” He means all people; but when He says: “He who gave us the ministry of reconciliation,” by “us” He means the Apostles. “Here he points to the dignity of apostolic office, showing what a great work has been entrusted to them and how great is God’s love for us (in the establishment of the Apostolate).” (St. John Chrysostom). The work of reconciliation in the person of the Lord Saviour was accomplished completely; but the appropriation of reconciliation to saved humanity was to be accomplished not through imputation, not mechanically, not externally, but required certain moral changes in those being reconciled, as essential conditions for the spread of the power of reconciliation upon them. For this to happen, it was necessary to announce to people these conditions, to tell them what they must present of themselves for reconciliation to be established; it was also necessary, after they understood the conditions and showed readiness to fulfill them, to grant them the power for their fulfillment, because in their nature they could not obtain it. For this purpose the Apostolate was established, essentially necessary in the dispensation of human salvation. The Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit who came upon them, were to go throughout the world and proclaim to all God’s benevolent will concerning the reconciliation of all with God under the condition of repentance, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for all, and ready self-denial to walk steadfastly from that moment in God’s will, or in His commandments; to baptize those who yielded to this preaching in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and finally, through the laying on of hands, to bring down upon them the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is the essence of apostolic ministry, and in this way reconciliation with God was accomplished for each person. Through the establishment of the Apostolate was fulfilled what was foretold in the depiction of the deeds of Wisdom—how she, having built herself a house and prepared a table, sent her servants with great proclamation to call the foolish and the wise to her cup (Prov. 9:1-5), and what the Lord depicted in the parable of the marriage of the king’s son, saying that when all was ready, the king sent his servants to call all to the feast, first those to whom word had previously been given, and then those who knew nothing of it. And they went, He says, through the streets and squares, through the crossroads and highways, on the main and country roads—and called. This is what the Apostolate is: God’s servants go throughout the world and call. St. John Chrysostom points to a particular aspect of God’s purposes in establishing the Apostolate. He says: “After people did not listen to the Mediator who came, God neither rejected nor abandoned them, but continues to call them both Himself and through others. Who can sufficiently marvel at such longsuffering and God’s care for us! The Son came for reconciliation; the Son, closely related and only-begotten, was put to death; but the Father in this case did not reject those who killed Him and did not say: I sent My Son to accomplish My mission, but they not only did not want to listen to Him but also killed and crucified Him, therefore it is righteous to reject them. But He did the opposite: after the departure of His Son from us, He entrusted us with the work of reconciliation, for He says: ‘He who gave us the ministry of reconciliation.’”

The work of the Apostolate is to call to reconciliation with God those who have turned away from God and provoked His anger, and after calling to bestow grace upon them. The Apostle says now: we do this, we call all: be reconciled with God, and we bestow grace upon all. Thus you also were called and made partakers of grace. And we beseech you not to receive in vain so great the grace of God.

2 Cor. 5:19. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and has placed in us the word of reconciliation.

He repeats what was said before on account of the importance of the subject, desiring to imprint it more fully and deeply. He only portrays more clearly the manner of reconciliation in Christ. Christ the Lord “bore all our sins” “on His body on the tree” (1 Pet 2:24); He took the bond of our sins from our midst and nailed it to the cross (Col 2:14), so that to God’s righteousness these sins and their bond are as if no longer in existence. It is fully satisfied. All that remains for people is to come under the shadow of the cross, so that God’s righteousness does not see their sins. This is what we now proclaim to all, persuading and entreating everyone: “be reconciled with God.” “Behold God’s love,” says St. John Chrysostom, “exceeding not only every word but every understanding! Who was first wronged? God. Who first came for reconciliation? He Himself. But you say, He sent His Son, not Himself? Yes, He sent His Son, but the Son alone did not call us; together with Him and through Him the Father also worked. Therefore the Apostle said: ‘for God was reconciling to Himself the world in Christ,’—that is, through Christ. He says as it were: do not think that we are the authors of this work; we are only servants: the author of all this is God, who reconciled the universe to Himself through His only-begotten Son. How did He reconcile? For it is wonderful not only that He became a friend, but even more so how He became a friend. How? By forgiving them their sins. For otherwise He could not be a friend. Therefore the Apostle said further: ‘not counting their’ transgressions ‘against them.’ And if He had wanted to demand payment for our sins, we would all perish. But with such multitude of our sins, He not only did not require punishment from us, but also reconciled Himself with us; not only forgave our sins, but also did not count them against us. ‘And has placed in us the word of reconciliation.’ For He says, we have not come now to proclaim something harsh and terrible, but to make all friends with God. Because they did not believe in Me, says the Lord, you do not cease to exhort them until you persuade them.”

2 Cor. 5:20. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were exhorting you through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled with God.

“We are ambassadors for Christ” — υπερ Χριςου πρεσβευομεν,—we beseech in the name, or in the name of Christ. But in church language: πρεσβευε υπερ ημων, intercede for us. This turn of speech means, as it were, that the Apostles beseech all on behalf of Christ not to abandon His work, accomplished completely, so that it not prove fruitless or raised in vain. “As though God were exhorting you through us”; “exhorting” παρακαλουντος. As if God Himself through us earnestly begs and entreats you. For God has arranged for the forgiveness of sins through the death of Christ and has prepared all other blessings as a consequence; and having prepared all, He begs and entreats us to come and enjoy these blessings. Not only has God arranged all for our salvation out of mere kindness; but His love extends to us to such a degree that He counts it as a favor to Himself if anyone makes use of it for their own salvation. So it is when a kind householder, having prepared a feast, entreats guests to come to the feast, counting it a favor to himself if they consume all that has been prepared: otherwise it would be lost for nothing. So here God has prepared all in Christ Jesus and sent the Apostles to ask all to make use of these blessings for their own salvation. “So we are ambassadors for Christ” — υπερ Χριστου δεομεθα — we beseech in the name of Christ, or intercede on behalf of Christ, do Him a favor, or satisfaction, or honor—taste the blessings obtained for you by Him. What blessings? “Be reconciled with God.” God in Christ has reconciled you to Himself; now you must enter into this reconciliation. What is necessary for this? “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15). “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name” of the Lord “Jesus for the forgiveness of sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

St. John Chrysostom says regarding this passage: “See how high he elevated his discourse, bringing in Christ Himself beseeching on this, and not only Christ, but even God the Father Himself. For the meaning of his words is this: The Father sent His Son to exhort people and to fulfill the mission from His name to mankind. But since He, having been put to death, departed from here, this mission is now entrusted to us, therefore we beseech you on behalf of Christ and His Father. The human race is so dear to Him that He gave His Son for it, knowing beforehand that He would be put to death, and made us Apostles for you. ‘So we are ambassadors for Christ,’ that is, instead of and on behalf of Christ, for we have been given His office. If this seems to you exaggerated, listen further: further on he says that they do this not only instead of Him, that is, Christ, but also instead of the Father, for he adds: ‘as though God were exhorting you through us.’ ‘Through us,’ for God does not call people through the Son alone but also through us, to whom His work has been entrusted. Therefore, do not think, he says, that we are beseeching you; Christ Himself beseeches you through us, and even the Father of Jesus Christ Himself. What grace can be greater than this grace? So ungrateful and insulted despite innumerable benefits from Him, He not only did not condemn us, but gave His Son to reconcile us to Himself; and when those to whom He came not only did not reconcile but killed Him, He sent other messengers to call, and through them He Himself beseeches. What does He beseech? ‘Be reconciled with God.’ He did not say: reconcile God with yourselves; because God is not hostile toward us, but we are hostile toward Him. God was never hostile.”

2 Cor. 5:21. For our sake He made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

See how much God spent in preparing a feast of faith and love, justification and holiness, for those called. The Apostle says as it were: there is reason for you to take the trouble and come! See what has been prepared? The spotless Lamb has been slain; come, taste and be satisfied with righteousness. Or thus: all is already ready; your sins have been taken away and lifted by another; all that remains for you is to approach and, receiving forgiveness of sins, obtain righteousness. In general, by these words the Apostle wishes to express that from God’s side all has been done for your salvation. It remains for you to approach.

The Apostle calls the work of salvation reconciliation. He said before that God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself. Here he shows how He did this. “For our sake He made Him who knew no sin” – he says – “to be sin.” “Who knew no sin,” not only did not commit and did not think what was sinful, but did not even know what sin is, did not experience the temptations of sin that require struggle. For the unclean does not adhere to the pure. Such a Most Pure One God made sin for us, that is, treated Him as a sinner, as if He Himself had committed all those sins of which all people collectively are guilty. Only in this way could God’s righteousness be satisfied. And it was satisfied, and God was reconciled with people. But this is only half of the economy of salvation. People still must appropriate to themselves this reconciliation of God and taste of its fruits. But this cannot happen without the participation of people. That God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself—He did this without people. But for people to become partakers of reconciliation, their corresponding action is necessary. For this reason, he says, we call out to all: “be reconciled with God.” For the economy of salvation lies not only in the fact that God “made Him who knew no sin” “to be sin” and thereby reconciled the world to Himself, but also in the fact that we become “the righteousness of God in Him.” God does not wish to produce this by the power of His might. Here the participation of people’s free will is necessary. This is what our prayer means: “be reconciled with God.” Do what lies in your power, enter into the covenant of peace, assume the conditions of reconciliation, and immediately you will become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. That is, repent, believe in the Gospel, give your word to live blamelessly, approach holy baptism, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. When all this is accomplished in you and upon you, you will become “the righteousness of God,” that is, you will become inwardly righteous, not outwardly, but will possess inner righteousness, or rightness of spirit and holiness, the righteousness of God or God-like.

St. John Chrysostom says regarding this passage: “For our sake He made Him who knew no sin to be sin.” Even if He had done nothing else but this alone, think about it—what is this itself, that He gave His Son for those who offended Him? And He did many other benefits for us and, besides, condemned the One who did no wrong to suffering on behalf of the unrighteous. But the Apostle, passing over all other benefits, mentioned only this one, far greater and more important than all, that the One “who knew no sin,” He who is self-existing righteousness, “He made sin,” that is, allowed Him to be condemned as if a sinner, and to die as if cursed, because “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Deut 21:23). For to die on a tree meant much more than to die simply, to which, pointing in another place, he says: “obedient even to death, death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). Such a death was reckoned not only as punishment but also as dishonor. Therefore, consider how much God has granted you. For it is a great thing when even a sinner dies for someone; but when a righteous one suffers in such a manner and dies for sinners, and does not simply die but dies as a criminal; and not only is reckoned among criminals but through His death grants us great blessings, which we did not even expect, for He says: “so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God,” then what word, what mind can adequately embrace and depict this? For God made the Righteous One a sinner, he says, so that He might make sinners righteous. But He did not say even that, but much more: for He set this Righteous One not only side by side with sinners but even with sin itself, for He said: not a sinner, but “sin” He made “Him”; and not only one who had not sinned but “who knew no sin, so that” we “might become,” He did not say righteous but “righteousness,” and “the righteousness of God.” And indeed, this righteousness is God’s, when we are justified not by works but by grace, which alone destroys all sin. And this at once guards us from pride, when all is granted to us by God, and shows the whole importance of what is granted to us. For the first righteousness is from the law and works; but this latter is “the righteousness of God.”

Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

2 Cor. 6:1. And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

The discourse above was about how the Apostles, by God’s command, go everywhere and urge all to enter with God into the covenant of peace, arranged by Him for their salvation. Now his word turns to those who have already entered into this covenant, to those who have already believed, repented, been baptized, and received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He says as it were: we not only invite all to enter into the covenant of peace with God, but we also do not abandon those who have already entered, but continue to care for them, beseeching them so that, having been vouchsafed such great grace, they might from now on keep themselves worthy of it, so that it might not be received in vain by them but might bring forth fruit worthy of it. It is not important merely to enter into this covenant and receive the grace connected with it, but it is especially important to fulfill its conditions precisely. “Therefore, listen to us and do not accept in vain the grace proposed to you; that is, so that you do not think that reconciliation consists only in believing in the One calling, He still requires the correction of life. For when you have received forgiveness of sins and been reconciled with God, to live as before is the same as to begin again to wage war and to receive grace in vain. Grace will not save us in an unclean and dishonorable life; on the contrary, it will harm us even more and increase our sins if after such knowledge and gift we return to former lawlessness. However, the Apostle does not clearly say this so as not to make his word heavy; but he only says that otherwise we will receive no benefit.” (St. John Chrysostom).

“With such a thought on the content of this text, the word: ‘working together,’ συνεργουντες, can also have this meaning: continuing our work and our labor, we beseech you also that this grace might not be received in vain. It turns out: ‘working together’ with you; for we, he says, help you more than God, from whom we are sent. He has no need of anything; all salvation belongs to you. However, this does not deny that the Apostles were also helpers to God, as he says in another place: ‘we are God’s fellow workers’ (1 Cor 3:9).” (St. John Chrysostom). So also Theodoret: “He makes known that the messengers are cooperating with those being urged to make use of Divine grace and not to make the economy fruitless and vain if they show life contrary to it.” Theophylact admits both, holding that the Apostle, saying: “working together,” meant cooperation with both God and people. “We are working together,” he says, “both with you and with God: with you, so that you might be saved; with God, so that His desire to save us might be fulfilled.”

2 Cor. 6:2. For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I heard you, “and on a day of salvation” “I helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

He continues to persuade them not to make vain the grace they have received. Hasten, he says, to use the time; now it is very favorable for salvation; if you neglect it, you will perish. The time, he means,—the time of this life for each person and the time until the second coming for all people. Thus Saint Chrysostom: “Do not give yourselves to carelessness; strive in every way to please God and to gather spiritual treasures; so that after such great care from God, having given yourselves to carelessness and shown nothing good, you may not be deprived of such great blessings. Do not think that this forbearance will continue forever. It will continue only until the second coming of the Lord. He will entreat and call, as long as we are here, but after that—judgment and torment. This, he says, is what moves us to entreat you. He stirs believers not only by the abundance and height of blessings and the kindness of God, but by the shortness of time, and not only by the shortness of the time given, but by the fact that this time alone is favorable for salvation. ‘Behold now, he says, is the favorable time; behold now is the day of salvation.’ Let us not then lose the favorable time, but show concern worthy of the grace given us. Therefore, he says, we ourselves also hasten, knowing the shortness of the favorable time. ‘The favorable time.’ What is this time?—The time of gift and grace, in which no accountability for sins is required and no condemnation is pronounced, but with the forgiveness of sins countless blessings are offered to be enjoyed: justification, sanctification and all others. How much one would have to labor to obtain such a time? But behold, without any labor on our part, this time has come, bringing with it the remission of all sins committed before. Therefore he calls it favorable; because the Lord now receives even the greatest sinners, and not only receives them, but even honors them with the highest honors. For at the coming of the king it is not a time of judgment, but of mercy and salvation. Therefore, again, he calls the time favorable, as long as we are in the struggle, as long as we work in the vineyard, as long as the eleventh hour remains. So let us undertake the struggle, show a virtuous life; for it is easy and fitting to receive a reward when struggling in such a time, in which such gifts have been poured out, such grace. And with earthly kings, at the time of celebrations, when they appear in royal garments, even one who has labored little receives great gifts; but at the time when they judge, greater exactness is required and great effort to obtain anything. Therefore we too will struggle in such a favorable time now, in which all things are given freely. For now is the time of grace, of God’s grace, in which we can easily obtain crowns. For if God accepted and forgave us burdened with such sins, will He not all the more accept us, already forgiven, when we bring something also from our own will?”

The Apostle brings this lesson together with the prophetic word. Our interpreters do not dwell on the words of the prophet, but take the general thought of the text and explain it. From this it is evident that whether we understand the word of the prophet as we should, whether in the flow of prophetic speech there and here in the flow of apostolic speech, or not – the lesson of the Apostle remains equally powerful. The Apostle takes the words of the prophet Isaiah: “The Lord says” (Is. 49:8). Who speaks? – In the prophet Isaiah it directly states: “The Lord.” “Thus says the Lord.” To whom does the Lord address His speech in the prophet? – To him of whom He said above: “I have given you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth” (Is. 49:6). It is evident that here Christ Jesus, the Lord Saviour, is being spoken of. The words brought by the Apostle are read the same way in the prophet: “At a favorable time I listened to you, and on a day of salvation I helped you.” – “I listened” presupposes a prayer from the Saviour to God the Father, and “I helped” – the hearing of the prayer and the granting of all requested. When did the Lord Saviour pray so fervently that it was anticipated and known by the prophetic spirit? – About this the same Apostle says: “In the days of His flesh, He offered up prayers and entreaties to the One able to save Him from death, with loud cries and tears, and was heard because of His reverence” and so on. (Heb. 5:7). From this it is evident that the prophet calls the favorable time and the day of salvation that time when the Son of God, having become incarnate and suffered, thereby opened all the treasuries of Divine grace to mankind. The cross-bearing death was His prayer and supplication, not by word but by deed, and it attracted all God’s mercies to us. This intercessory prayer, having begun, does not cease, but continually rises with a loud cry to God for mercies toward us. Hence the favorable time and the day of salvation is all the time while this intercession has power, and it will cease when the sole Mediator comes instead of intercession to judge; all the time from Christ’s first coming to the second – the time of establishing Christ’s kingdom on earth, a kingdom of grace. The prophetic indication is very clear precisely about this; for he says afterward “I helped you – to establish the earth,” and further: “saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Appear.’” “Those in bonds” are those ensnared by sins, and “those in darkness” – those plunged in the murk of ignorance. The Apostles did nothing other than carry everywhere on behalf of Christ the Saviour freedom from the bonds of sin and enlightenment by the light of Divine knowledge. Therefore the holy Paul could not fail to see in his time the precise fulfillment of the prophetic word. He speaks as it were: the favorable time proclaimed by the prophet has come; hasten to use it, for if there is favorable time, then there is also unfavorable time; and who can say when it will come?! “Behold, now is the favorable time, behold, now is the day of salvation.” And tomorrow, perhaps, one can no longer say thus. Therefore, do not delay.

2 Cor. 6:3, 4. We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that our ministry will not be blamed, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: through much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in straits.

We do our work, he says, as we should, with all diligence. To help you progress in the life of grace, we do everything on our part: we persuade you not only in word but also conduct ourselves so as not only not to be an obstacle to anyone, but rather to present ourselves to all as an example of how God’s servants should live. Looking at us, no one can reasonably think that we are not God’s servants, and consequently suspect our word of falsehood. Having been convinced of the truthfulness of our word and accepting it as completely true, you have in this an incentive to faithfully fulfill it; and how to fulfill it, our life will teach you. St. John Chrysostom says: “Since the Apostle is accustomed to present himself in the middle so that they might take an example from him, he does this here as well, saying: ‘We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that our ministry’ might be ‘blameless.’ He draws conviction not only from time, as he did above, but also from the example of those who labored as they should. And see how modestly he does this. He did not say: look at us, and we are such and such; but, as if defending against accusation, he enumerates his own labors and virtues. He sets down two distinguishing features of a blameless life: the first is ‘we put no obstacle in anyone’s way’; he did not say: accusation, but what is far less important, ‘obstacle,’ that is, giving no one even a pretext for slander and reproach against us, ‘so that our ministry’ might be ‘blameless,’ so that no one would begin to blame this ministry; and again he did not say: so that no one would blame or accuse, but so that it might give no accidental occasion for anyone to be able to blame it in anything.”

The second feature is: “but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way” (2 Cor. 6:4), which is far higher than the preceding. Because it is not the same thing to be free from accusation and to conduct oneself so that it is clear from everything that we are God’s servants. Similarly, it is one thing to avoid blame and another to be praised. He did not say: showing ourselves (φαινομενοι—appearing in appearance) but “we commend ourselves” (συνιςωντες), that is, in deed and from the heart representing ourselves, or being such. Further, he speaks of how they became such. How then?

“Through much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in straits.” He set endurance as the foundation of blessings, which is why he said not simply: in endurance but “through much endurance,” to show the measure and extent of it: for to endure one or two hardships is not yet a great thing; therefore he enumerates many sorrows and trials, saying: “in afflictions, in hardships.”

“In afflictions,” not in such cases that oppress only externally, but in such cases that strike and wound the heart, and are truly painful sorrows. “In hardships,” αναγκαις, in necessities and extremities, from which the sorrow is felt even more acutely by the sorrowful. “Extremity strains sorrow, representing the evil that oppresses man as unavoidable” (Theophylact). “For sorrow is usually increased when one cannot avoid misfortunes, and as if some unavoidable necessity requires suffering” (St. John Chrysostom). “In straits.” Strait is the final degree of extremity; evil has seized and oppresses, like a beast that has seized its prey. He means “strait from hunger and necessary needs, or simply strait from trials in general” (St. John Chrysostom), “such a sorrowful condition from which no convenient exit appeared” (Oecumenius).

2 Cor. 6:5. In beatings, in prisons, in riots, in labors, in sleepless nights, in hunger.

“In beatings,” of course from blows. By the time of writing this, it was known that the Apostle was stoned in Lystra (Acts 14:19), which could not have happened without wounds, and beaten with rods in great numbers of blows in Philippi (Acts 16:22, 23). He himself testifies of himself that from the Jews he received five times forty stripes less one and was beaten with rods three times (2 Cor 11:24, 25). “In prisons.” Having beaten him with rods abundantly in Philippi, together with Silas they threw him into prison; and in general, as he himself says, he was in prisons “far more abundantly” (2 Cor 11:23). “In riots,” ακαταςασιαις, when persecution arose against him with noise and commotion, forcing him to flee from one place to another. Mostly the Jews raised such storms against him. So it was in Iconium (Acts 14:5), in Thessalonica (Acts 17:5), in Berea (Acts 17:13), and in Corinth itself toward the end of his stay there (Acts 18:12). St. John Chrysostom says: “And each of these three trials is in itself grievous: it is grievous to endure scourging, grievous to be in bonds, and it is grievous to have no rest from persecution—for that is what ‘in riots’ means—but when all these sorrows come upon you all together, think what kind of soul is required for this!”

“In labors:” the most difficult labors—travel, mostly on foot; then the labors of work for his own support and that of others; teaching required labor, and the establishment of order in the newly established Christian churches. “In sleepless nights,” when he spent nights in prayer or conversation with the newly converted. So in Philippi he and Silas around midnight, praying, sang to God (Acts 16:25), and then engaged in instructing and baptizing the jailer with all his household and spent the whole night without closing his eyes. So later in Troas he extended his discourse until midnight; and after the young man Eutychus, who had fallen from the window, was revived, he conversed until dawn, until the time came to leave the city (Acts 20:7, 11). The same, of course, happened in all other places. “In hunger,” when not from lack but voluntarily he deprived himself of food, as an aid to prayer and for appeasing God, to prepare himself for any struggle against falsehood and error. Fasting is a powerful moral means and a precious feat in the eyes of God. St. John Chrysostom says: “Here to the external (involuntary) sorrows he adds those that depended on him himself, pointing to the labors with which he burdened himself, traveling from place to place and working with his own hands; to the nights in which he taught or worked for himself, and at the same time did not forget fasting, though these feats alone were worth more than a thousand fasts.”

2 Cor. 6:6. By purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love.

“By purity,” εν αγνοτητι, in cleanness, in purity. Here he means either chastity (bodily and of heart), or purity in all things (moral purity, purity of intentions, purity of conscience in general), or non-covetousness (Theophylact—freedom from corrupt gain), or that he also preached the Gospel for free (St. John Chrysostom). “By knowledge,” εν γνωσει, in knowledge of Divine things, seeing all clearly and being powerful to resolve all difficulties. St. John Chrysostom asks: what is “knowledge”? And answers: “Wisdom descending from God, which is truly knowledge and understanding. Supposed wise men boasting of external learning do not have this understanding.” “By patience,” εν μακροθυμια, by magnanimity, which despite all unpleasantness from others does not lose a peaceful and kind disposition toward them. “This is important testimony of a courageous and noble soul—to endure blows and strikes magnanimously, coming from all sides” (St. John Chrysostom). “An adamantine soul has this property: when they torment and wound from all sides, not only to endure it with equanimity but also to show goodwill to the offenders” (Theophylact). “By kindness,” εν χρηστοτητι, by tenderness of heart, when they have a merciful heart toward all, ready to do any good to anyone, to dispel any sorrow, to avert any misfortune—a heart that cannot see unmoved the need or sorrow of another and cannot rest until it exhausts all its means and eases his lot.

“By the Holy Spirit,” not in the general grace of the Holy Spirit that all Christians have, but in that which filled the Apostles abundantly, bestowing upon them all that was necessary for the confirmation of the faith of Christ on earth. By this is encompassed the whole fullness of apostolic spiritual gifts. From it came all the enumerated feats and virtues and every success in spreading faith. St. John Chrysostom says: “Through Him, he says (that is, through the Holy Spirit), we accomplish all this. But see where he placed the help of the Holy Spirit—after already enumerating his own feats. It seems to me he wished to show something special. What? It is fair to say that we are abundantly filled with the Holy Spirit and justify our Apostolate no less in that we have been vouchsafed spiritual gifts; nevertheless, we ourselves, he says, were not without part in this: our conditions, labors, and feats gave room for God’s grace to work through us. And if someone thinks that besides what is said, the Apostle in these words further expresses that they, in the use of the gifts of grace, gave no one any occasion for offense, I think he will not go against the sense. Indeed, some of the Corinthians, having received the gift of tongues and being puffed up by it, gave occasion for their own condemnation, for whoever receives spiritual gifts can also abuse them. But we, he says, were not such; we remained blameless in the Spirit, that is, in spiritual gifts.” “By genuine love.” Love is the all-embracing virtue; and all the virtues enumerated above and the feats proceed from it, as the Apostle expounded in his first letter, ch. 13. She is poured into hearts by the Holy Spirit; which is why she is set immediately after the words: “by the Holy Spirit.” That he added: “genuine,” he added to distinguish it from works of love shown in visible activity. The works of love can be accomplished by rational self-compulsion, well-intentioned or not; and the path to acquiring love is voluntary labor in doing works of love, until at last the grace of the Spirit fills the whole heart. Of this latter the Apostle speaks, that not only his visible works of love, but his very heart is full of love. “This was the cause of all the blessings he obtained; this is what made him such and preserved the Spirit in him, by whose action all in him came to perfection” (St. John Chrysostom).

Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

2 Cor. 6:7. By the word of truth, by the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.

“By the word of truth,” in a true word, one in which there was neither deceit nor falsehood nor flattery nor guile. As we have received, as we are convinced, so we convey, in full consciousness that we convey exactly without any admixture. “He often mentions this, that is, that we proclaim God’s Word without deceit and without falsehood” (St. John Chrysostom). “By the power of God.” By the words: “by the Holy Spirit” he meant in general the whole fullness of apostolic gifts; here he means chiefly the signs and wonders that accompanied the preaching of the Gospel. The manifestation of God’s power was so inseparable from the word of truth that without it the latter could not take root in human minds and hearts. It aroused and rooted faith; the word only told what to believe. The exposition of the subjects of faith, however clear and strong, does not always powerfully produce faith. God’s power alone in signs when accompanied by the word conquered minds and hearts and bent them toward faith. Theophylact writes that by the words: “by the power of God,” the Apostle wishes to say: “In the preaching of the Gospel and its success there is nothing of ours; all is accomplished here by the power of God, by signs and wonders, by power that smites or does good.” St. John Chrysostom understands here all supernatural help to the Apostle in both life and preaching and labors: “As he always acts, that is, ascribes nothing to himself but assigns all to God and attributes all his actions to Him, so he does here too. He assigns to the Holy Spirit and to God that he proclaimed great truths, and conducted a life beyond reproach in all things, and showed great wisdom in himself, for all this was unusual. Even in peace to become virtuous and beyond reproach is difficult; think what the soul must be like of one who, while beset by so many sorrows, always shone like the sun. And it is not only wonderful that he remained unconcerned, beset with such waves, and courageously endured all, but also that he endured all this with joy.” “By the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.” “Weapons,” δια των οπλων. The preposition is changed, but the meaning of the speech is the same. The Apostle continues to point out in what and how they presented themselves as true servants of God. Thus we presented ourselves, he says, and in the use of the weapons of righteousness right and left. He represents himself as a warrior animated by God’s power and as a fighter. A warrior going into battle takes some arms in his right hand, others in his left hand—in the left, for instance, a shield, in the right a sword, a spear—and when the battle begins, uses sometimes one then the other, as is better and more suitable. There are such weapons of righteousness too: with some it defends itself, with others it strikes its enemies. The Apostle says: and both the defensive and the striking weapons of righteousness we used, so that through this we presented ourselves as servants of God. By righteousness he calls his righteous work—the faith of Christ, the economy of salvation introduced and established by him everywhere; by weapons—both his word, his labors, and all help from above. In everything with which we defended the righteous work of God and with which we struck down falsehood, impiety and corruption, we gave all to see that we are servants of God. The weapons right and left are the same as weapons from all sides.

2 Cor. 6:8. Through glory and dishonor, through slander and praise; as deceivers, and yet true.

“Through glory and dishonor.” And when something happened that glorified us, and when something happened that covered us with dishonor in the eyes of others. In Lystra, for instance, St. Paul and Barnabas healed the lame man, and all ran together to show honor to them as if they were gods. This was to glory. But then an uprising arose: St. Paul was stoned and thrown out of the city. This was to dishonor and shame (Acts 14). The same and in Philippi: St. Paul and Silas were beaten publicly with rods—this was to shame; but then the whole magistracy of the city comes to them in the prison, apologizes, and no longer persecutes them but asks them to leave the city; this is to glory (Acts 16). So probably it was repeated in many other places. “Through slander and praise,” δια δυσφημιας και ευφυμιας. The words and rumors that went around them and reached them are understood. Some praised, others evil-spoke—this both behind their backs and to their faces. In all, he says, these contingencies—and when they praised us and evil-spoke of us and when something happened to glory or dishonor of ours—we conducted ourselves as servants of God should, we did not become exalted by the former and did not fall in spirit from the latter. St. John Chrysostom says: “Do you say that you consider it great to enjoy glory? Indeed so, he says. Why? It would seem that to endure shame is a great thing; but to enjoy glory without falling into pride—does this not require a great and very great soul? Therefore, he thinks the same and the same way about glory as about shame, for he equally shone in both cases. And that shame and slander powerfully strike and require a courageous soul in them—there are many testimonies. Jeremiah endured many trials courageously, but when they evil-spoke of him, he said: ‘I will not prophesy’ ‘and will not remember the name of the Lord anymore’ (Jer 20:9). And David often complains of slanders. And the Lord, comforting His disciples, said: ‘Blessed are you when they revile you… and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake; rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven’ (Mt 5:11, 12). He would not set such a reward if this struggle were not difficult. And for Job, wounds and worms were more bearable than the reproaches of his friends (Job 19); for there is nothing more painful than a word that wounds the soul. Many of the Jews did not want to believe in the Lord only from fear of losing glory among the people; they feared not tortures but being cast out of the synagogue (Jn 12:42). Therefore the Lord said: ‘How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another’ (Jn 5:44)? And many could be pointed to who, overcoming all trials, were overcome by the fear of losing glory.‘In what greatness therefore the righteous character of St. Paul and the other Apostles should appear when they equally worthily for their office conducted themselves’through glory and dishonor, through slander and praise”!

“As deceivers and yet true.” Again a new turn of phrase; but its meaning is still the same. The Apostle continues to depict how they always presented themselves as worthy servants of God; only it is as if he clarifies this by examples, presenting a series of opposites by which they were considered and how they actually were. “As deceivers and yet true.” “Deceivers” on the side of those who evil-spoke of them, and “true” on the side of those who praised them (St. John Chrysostom). “Deceivers,” πλανοι, means those who themselves are in error and lead others into error. So the enemies thought of them. The Jews from Iconium ran to Lystra and armed the people there against St. Paul and Barnabas, saying: “They speak nothing that is true but all that is false” (Acts 14:19). The same was done in other places. Meanwhile those of truth listened to them (1 Jn 4:6), and nothing could shake their conviction that the Apostles both stand in truth and proclaim true truth. Both of these happened before the eyes of the Apostles.

2 Cor. 6:9. As unknown, and yet well-known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed.

“As unknown and yet well-known.” Some said: we do not understand what kind of people they are, or, having looked at them and seen how unpretentious they were, said: is it worth paying attention to them, getting to know them, and finding out what they are saying there? And others, on the contrary, immediately recognized them and understood what their work was and where their word led, clung to them, began to value them highly, and considered them as precious persons. St. John Chrysostom says: “For some they were known and worthy of respect; for others unworthy even of knowing them.” “As dying, and behold we live.” It seems St. Paul took this from an actual event, for in Lystra he was stoned and dragged out of the city, thinking him dead; but when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up (Acts 14:19, 20). How not to say after this: as if dying, and behold, alive. Besides, how many mortal dangers he was in, of which he said: and did not expect to live, but God delivered (2 Cor 1:8-10)! After passing through them both he and others could not help testifying: life hung by a thread, and behold, alive. St. John Chrysostom says: “As dying,” that is, condemned and sentenced to death. And he said this to show both the unspeakable power of God and the height of their endurance. Looking at how the enemies raged against us, he says, we certainly had to die. Everyone thought so; but God saved us from destruction. “As punished, and yet not killed.” This opposite is added to explain the preceding, why thus it happens that thus the death is near, yet we are all alive. Therefore, he says, because such mortal straits God permits to come upon us not that He might give us to death, but that He might teach and instruct, especially convince that in all things we should rely on His almighty hand. Such a confession is heard also from the lips of holy David: “The Lord chastened me sorely, but has not given me over to death” (Ps 117:18). So—St. John Chrysostom and all our interpreters.

2 Cor. 6:10. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet enriching many; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

“As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” “Others, looking at us, think we are sorrowful; but we, on the contrary, experience the highest pleasure. He did not simply say: ‘rejoicing,’ but added: ‘always,’ that is, always, constantly rejoicing. What can compare with such a life, in which as misfortunes increase, so also increases and grows joy?” (St. John Chrysostom). This was the case with them because they carried in themselves the Spirit of Comfort, whose first fruit according to love is joy (Gal 5:22).

“As poor, yet enriching many.” That Apostle Paul never had anything and was literally poor, this was known to all everywhere, but how did he enrich many? If we understand this in the spiritual respect, then indeed he enriched all the believers whom he had converted, which were many, and all of them recognized themselves as spiritually rich. For they were enriched in knowledge and in virtues and in the powers of grace. If we understand this in the material respect, then nothing comes to mind but that he collected alms and supplied them in abundance to the poor believers in Jerusalem. This can be called enrichment because for the poor even to have wherewith to sustain himself is wealth. But perhaps the Apostle points here to the fact that because of the loving reception of him the houses of the not rich God blesses with wealth. Although no such case is noted in the Acts, yet we cannot doubt that this happened. For it is known that God often blessed houses because of the Holy ones of God. If He did this for their sake, why not allow that it happened for the sake of the Apostles? In confirmation of this we can take the present word of the Apostle, that always, he says, I was poor, and yet enriched many, meaning that for his sake God enriched many houses.

“As having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” And this “possessing everything” can be understood spiritually too, that is, that the Apostles were rich in the Spirit and possessed all spiritual blessings in such abundance that it would suffice for the whole universe, for they carried the Spirit of the Almighty. It can be understood also in the material respect, namely: the believers, feeling what spiritual blessing they had obtained through his ministry, were ready to do all for them, so that the possession of all the believers was as it were in the hands of the Apostles, all houses and all treasuries were open for them. St. John Chrysostom says: “And even that can be reckoned to their wealth, that in a wondrous way all houses were open to them everywhere. And if it still seems wondrous to you how one who has nothing can possess everything, I will present as an example St. Paul himself, who had great power over whole nations and was master not only of their possessions but also of their very eyes. ‘If it were possible,’ he wrote to the Galatians, ‘you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me’ (Gal 4:15). So what was it that St. Paul possessed when he says: ‘as having nothing, and yet possessing everything’? Earthly and spiritual blessings. For whom, like an Angel, did the cities receive, for whom were they ready, having torn them out, to give their eyes, for whom were they ready to lay down their heads—how was he not master of all belonging to them? If you wish to see his spiritual blessings, you will see that he was also rich in them. For who was so close to the King of all things, that the Lord of Angels communicated to him hidden mysteries, how could he not exceed all in the abundance of spiritual blessings and how did he not have everything? Otherwise the demons would not have obeyed him, would not have fled from him in such haste, diseases and infirmities would not have fled.”

St. John Chrysostom concludes this section with such instruction: “All this the Apostle says in order to teach us not to be troubled by human judgments of us, whether they call us deceivers, whether they do not want to know us, whether they consider us criminals condemned to death, whether they think us sorrowful, poor, having nothing; though they think us downcast when we are merciful and rejoicing, because even the sun does not shine for the blind, and the wise man’s pleasures are unknown to the foolish. Only the faithful and pious know how to rightly judge deeds; and they rejoice and grieve not about what others do. If someone, without any understanding of martial games, saw a fighter, though crowned with a crown, but bearing wounds, would not think, not knowing the pleasure that the crown brings to the fighter, only of the pain he experiences because of the wounds. So those know only that we endure, they see only struggle and calamities, but they do not see rewards, crowns, and recompense for feats. Therefore, we too, if we bear anything for Christ, must bear it not only courageously but also with joy. Do we fast—we will be merry, as if feasting; do we endure insult—we will conduct ourselves as if showered with praise; do we spend wealth—let us strive to be in such a disposition as if we were increasing it; do we give to the poor—let us think that we are acquiring. And not only in giving alms, but in every other virtue, think not of the severity of labors but of the sweetness of rewards, and especially keeping in view our Lord Jesus Christ, for whom you undertake one or other feat, from which you will more willingly undertake feats and spend all the time of your life in pleasure.”

The holy Paul explained how the Apostles were entrusted with the word of reconciliation and how they carried it everywhere, in every way endeavoring not to be a stumbling block to anyone, but rather in every way to further the success of the Gospel. Now he turns his word to those who heard and received the Gospel and indicates what they must especially keep in mind in order to prove themselves worthy of their calling.

God, he says, has reconciled us to Himself; you have received the word of reconciliation; therefore see, keep the conditions, that is, flee all lawlessness and depart from all impiety. If you strictly keep the accepted rules, then you will appear pure. As pure, God will dwell in you and will receive you into Himself, in which is the final highest goal of intelligent creatures (verses 14 and following). These teachings he sets forth, addressing the Corinthians, and as a transition to them, he expresses his special broad affection toward the Corinthians, requiring mutually from them broad attention to his words for their full reception (2 Cor 6:11-14).

2 Cor. 6:11. Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open.

The preceding discourse, especially toward the end, went, as is evident in itself, with a certain movement. Such frankness drew the Apostle into the embrace of special affection for the Corinthians; as if he were still ready to continue his word in the same direction, but the force of feeling stopped him and forced him to open what was setting his tongue in motion: “my heart is wide open,” therefore my “mouth is open.” From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. “We do not wish,” he says, “to be silent before you, but always desire to speak and converse with you, and this is the custom of those who love. And what for the body is the embrace of arms, for the soul is friendly conversation. At the same time he hints at something else. What? That we converse frankly with you, as with the beloved, hiding nothing from you and concealing nothing. And the very name ‘Corinthians’ expresses great love, affection, and warmth toward them. For it is known that we often repeat the names of those we love. ‘Our heart is wide open.’ As heat and warmth widen what it is contained in, so it is the property of love to widen the heart, because it is such a virtue that is both hot and inflames. It opened the lips of Paul and widened his heart. For not only with lips, he says, do I love you, but the heart agrees with the lips. Therefore, I speak so boldly, with open lips and from my whole heart. For there is nothing on earth wider than the heart of Paul; it loved all the faithful like a friend, not dividing his love into parts and thereby weakening it, but remaining wholly in each. And is it wonderful that Paul had such love for the faithful when his heart embraced the whole universe and even the unfaithful? Therefore, he did not say: “I love you,” but much more expressively: ‘our mouth is open to you, our heart is wide open’; we have all in our heart and not negligently, but with great breadth and ease. For in this case the beloved without any danger is placed in the heart of the lover.” (St. John Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 6:12. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.

“You are not restricted by us”—means: we embrace you with broad love; “but you are restricted in your own affections,”—means: but you do not love us as broadly. A tender rebuke! “See how he spares them even in reproofs! And this is the property of those who love greatly. He did not say: you do not love us, but: you do not love as much as we love you; for he does not wish to rebuke them sharply. The same he says at the end of the letter: ‘though I love you more abundantly, I am loved less by you’ (2 Cor 12:15).‘(St. John Chrysostom). But what exactly this rebuke concerned is not evident with definiteness.’For in this same letter he says that not only does he love them, but that they love him. When he says that Titus came ‘telling us about your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me’ (2 Cor 7:6, 7), he thereby testifies to their love for him.” (St. John Chrysostom). “Your longing,”—επιποθησιν, means the disposition of a heart that loves strongly. How then a rebuke? Perhaps the Apostle means that not all love him as he loves them. I, he says, love all of you broadly, but you do not all do so. There are among you such in whose hearts there is no room for me. Thus, with regard to the majority, one could fairly say that they love greatly; and with regard to the minority, one could fairly say that they are restricted, love less.

2 Cor. 6:13. In return (I speak as to children), widen your hearts also.

As I love you broadly, in equal return widen your hearts in love toward me; or, as I love all of you together and each individually, so also do all of you together and each individually love me with full love. “I speak as to children,”—this is a tender exhortation, to which one cannot refuse. I have given you birth, you are my spiritual children: what children do not love their father? And what trouble is it for children to love him? And I lay no yoke upon you, but only point out to you what should naturally be in you. St. John Chrysostom sees in these words the most subtle shades of the Apostle’s thoughts. “And although it is not the same thing—first to be loved, and then to love others; because one who loves afterward, even if paying with equal love, stands lower by the fact that he loved afterward than the one who loved first; nevertheless, I do not enter, he says, into strict investigation of this; for me it is enough if you, taking an example from me, show the same measure of love with which I love you. Then, to show how this is necessary for them and how foreign his words are to any flattery, he adds: ‘I speak as to children.’ What does ‘as to children’ mean? That I ask nothing more from you than your love, as your father. Do you see what prudence and humility here? He does not speak of those miseries which he endured for them; he passes over his labors, the dangers of death, though he could speak much; so foreign is he to pride! But he speaks only of his love and asks from them mutual love, because I am your father and love you greatly. The one enjoying another’s love is sometimes greatly annoyed by the fact that the lover reminds him of his benefits to him, for he reckons this as a reproach to himself. Therefore St. Paul does not do this, but speaks only: love me, as children your father, which is much closer to human nature and constitutes the duty of each in relation to the father.”

Having thus explained how his heart was widened and his mouth opened, reproving the Corinthians that they are restricted in their affections, and urging them to widen themselves in correspondence with the breadth of his heart, the Apostle now begins to propose lessons: “Do not be unequally yoked,” and so on. Comparing this together, one cannot help but come to the thought that the widening which the Apostle required is nothing other than the breadth of attention and heart for the reception of the teaching proposed. Hence the whole preceding discourse appears in this light: my heart is widened and my mouth is opened. I am full of lofty and important truths and ready to pour them into your souls. But widen your minds and hearts too for their reception. I say: widen; because you are not always broad in understanding the truth. So, as a father to children, for your benefit, I say: widen yourselves and listen! Thus reasons blessed Photius according to Oecumenius.

Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1)

2 Cor 6:14. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” Μη γινεσθε ετεροξυγουντες απιςοις. Ετεροξυγειν means to be joined in one yoke in a pair with another. The Apostle says: do not be you yoked in a pair with the unbelieving. Word for word one might translate: “do not be yoked in harness in a pair with unbelievers.” He explains further why it should not be so; because, he says, you are not a pair with them at all, but differ from them to the point of opposition. – The reason for this exhortation might have been the participation of some believing Corinthians in feasts from idol-sacrificed meats, and perhaps also in other pagan customs of daily life. But the Apostle’s intention was to completely separate them from everything that bore the mark of paganism: “come out from among them and be separate, do not touch what is unclean.” In his view, all such contact with pagans is the same as yoking oneself to them in one yoke, to bear the same burden and walk the same path. Saint Chrysostom thus introduces the Apostle’s intent in such a turn of speech: “Here the Apostle speaks as it were to them: do not turn to their path. See what a distance there is between your nobility and their baseness. Such a comparison made his discourse more persuasive and attractive to the Corinthians. If to a son who disrespected his parents and gave himself to depraved people one should say: ‘What are you doing, child? You despise your father and prefer to him corrupt men and those sunk in lawlessness. Do you not know how much better and nobler you are than they?’ – by this method he would deter him from associating with them better than if he merely praised the father. So, if he had said: ‘Do you not know how much better your father is than they?’ – he would do little or nothing. But when, leaving the father out of account, he would prefer the son to them, saying: ‘Do you not know who you are and who they are? How do you not think of your own nobility and free birth, but of their baseness? What do you have in common with such thieves, adulterers and robbers?’ – then, as it were giving him wings with these praises, he would easily dispose him to leave company with them. But the first exhortations he will not easily accept, because to such a son a father will serve not as honour but as an accusation that he dishonours the father, and a father so worthy at that; here he will hear nothing of the sort. Moreover, who does not love praise? And therefore a rebuke itself, when coupled with praise of the listener, is more readily received. For it softens, exalts his spirit and makes him loathe company with wicked people. But here what is worthy of admiration is not only such a distinction, but also that he depicted it so strongly to inspire fear in the Corinthians. First, he conducts his discourse through questions, which ordinarily occurs when speaking of something known and evident to all; then he extends it with many and various epithets, for not one, not two, not three, but many epithets of the things being compared does he place before the eyes of his listeners, so that, on one hand, he might depict the height of virtue (faith in Christ), and on the other – the extreme lowness of vice (paganism), and through the vast, even infinite, distance between them he shows that the matter requires no further proof.”

“For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what communion has light with darkness?” Verse 15. “And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?”

Verse 16. “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said: ‘I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.’”

“See how many simple words he employs, and yet they are sufficient to turn the Corinthians away from the yoke of the unbelieving” (Saint Chrysostom).

Simple words, but they encompass the objects being compared from the most essential aspects. First, from the moral side. “What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?” As righteousness is opposed to lawlessness, so you to the pagans: do not enter with them into one yoke. He calls believers righteousness because their former sins have been washed away in baptism, and to avoid falling into new ones, they made the intention and took a vow, approaching baptism, in which they received new life, which by God’s grace is powerful in bringing forth all righteousness and in remaining in purity and holiness. He calls pagans lawlessness because in paganism sin reigns. As they are born in sin, so do they live in it: self-indulgence governs their whole life. Even the best among them cannot break loose from its bonds and even have no notion that they should do so. And if they understood, what would they do? They must be born anew; but they are deprived of this. And so they are in lawlessness, which constitutes as it were the spirit of their life: that is, to sacrifice everything for oneself, or to turn everything into a means for one’s own ends.

“Or what communion has light with darkness?” This, second, is a comparison from the intellectual side. As light is opposed to darkness, so you are to the pagans. As there is no communion of light with darkness, so there should be none between you and pagans in anything pagan. Believers are light, by the brightness of their knowledge, which encompasses all that is and comes to be, the beginning-less and infinite, time and eternity, and determines all with the precision and clarity now possible. They know where they come from; why they are on earth; what awaits them beyond the grave and how to make their abode there blessed. They know God, Creator and Providence, Saviour and Comforter; they know how to enter into communion with Him and remain ever in Him, in which is the final goal of intelligent creatures. Knowing all this, they live as in the daylight. Pagans, on the contrary, know none of this; the most essential questions for them remain unanswered, and they live as they happen to live, trudging along the common path, unable to give themselves an account of where they are going and how their path will end. A thick darkness of ignorance covers them. There they are! How, says the Apostle, can you think to put yourselves into one yoke with them?!

2 Cor 6:15. What accord has Christ with Belial?

This, third, is a comparison according to leaders. You are Christ’s; those are Belial’s. As agreement between Christ and Belial is impossible, so it should not exist between you and pagans. Christ the Lord is the Head of Christians; into Him they are clothed in baptism and, having received grace, are then transformed into His image through the labours of a whole life – so that, becoming one with Him here, they may be deemed worthy in the other life to be where He is, in unspeakably blessed glory. Belial is Satan, who first entered into godlessness in the spirit of pride; then deceived the first parents, promising them mountains of gold and depriving them of all; then deceives all men, drawing them to deeds of self-indulgence contrary to conscience and God. He has no power over anyone or anything, yet falsely boasts of being king, because men, deceived by his illusions, throw themselves into self-indulgence and through it serve him. The purpose of his efforts is to produce as many perishing as possible; and truly nothing of gain comes to him from this, for the same fire is prepared for him. So he takes pains only so as not to suffer eternal torment alone with his accomplices. Thus, you see, says the Apostle as it were, what opposites! Christ the Lord is essentially the Saviour and the Bestower of certain salvation; and Belial is ruin, a crafty seducer, drawing all wickedly to ruin with the bait of the pleasures of self-indulgence. Is it fitting for you, partakers of Christ’s salvation, to be with those who flounder in delightful ruin?

“Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?”

This, fourth, is a comparison according to the beginning of life and its end. The believer heard the word about salvation and received it in faith; in faith he willingly submitted himself to the conditions of salvation and remains true to them, and because of this faithfulness he cherishes the confidence that Christ the Saviour will crown the course of his life with a good end, deeming him worthy of unending bliss in His kingdom. Such is the lot of the believer! It is certain, because it is established on God’s faithfulness. The unbeliever walks in uncertainty and can promise himself nothing certain in this life, much less in the future. His conscience, ever offended, gives him a dark foreboding of his fate; and as the door to it opens with death, this moment always strikes him with overwhelming fear. Do you see what the lot of the unbeliever is? Why then should you yoke yourself with him?

2 Cor 6:16. Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

This, fifth, is a comparison according to the final goal of religion, which is communion with God. A soul that has received God, through communion with Him, becomes a temple of God. Believers through communion with the Lord Jesus Christ enter into communion with God and are essentially the temple of God. The Apostle says: “You are the temple of the living God.” This he says not of all together, but of each believer individually, for he says: you are temples, not temple. Therefore, he says, see what incongruity arises when you participate in anything pagan. Here the same incongruity results as if someone took a pagan idol and set it up in a Christian temple. As the latter action is inconsistent with everything, “for what agreement has the temple of God with idols,” so it is inconsistent with everything when any of you, through participation in paganism, brings something pagan into your soul, in which God is pleased to dwell. Saint Chrysostom says: “And why do you, bearing God in yourself, run to idols, with which God has nothing in common? Is such conduct worthy of excuse? Think, who lives in you and dwells with you.”

Having set forth such a series of opposites, the Apostle, as it were taking them by the hand, draws believers away from everything pagan. As the height of all distinctions of the believer from the unbeliever is true communion, living communion with the living God, on this privilege the Apostle fixes special attention, proving it by prophecies and through them depicting it from various sides. The testimonies cited from the Old Testament are not read word for word in Scripture as the Apostle cites them, but have been gathered by him from various places and woven together into one coherent discourse.

“You,” – he says, – “are the temple of the living God.” And that this is so, listen to what God promised to Israel. “I will dwell in them and walk among them,” “that is, I will dwell in these temples and walk in them, showing thereby great favour toward them” (Saint Chrysostom). “I will be their God, and” “they shall be My people” (Lev. 26:12). I am their God, they are My people. In this is expressed communion on God’s side. But when God announced this to men and those men accepted it in their heart, then they also came to have God as their God and themselves as God’s people. In this is communion on men’s side. So it was in Israel – the type of believers, and that communion was typical. It all took place externally. True communion with God has been perfected by the Lord Saviour first hypostatically in His person, and then by grace-and-morally in all believers. All believers, becoming one with the Lord, become truly, essentially, one with God also. So the Lord Himself prayed: “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us” (Jn. 17:21). And the Lord’s prayer becomes deed in every believer. But this is accomplished not nominally but actually. Believers are reborn by the grace of the Holy Spirit and, having become pure through the renunciation of passionate self-indulgence and through the reception of all virtues, are a ready and fitting temple for God, who indeed dwells in them and, dwelling in them, guides them in the ways of life, or walks in them, as the cloud pillar once walked in the midst of Israel. What was accomplished externally in ancient Israel is accomplished internally in the new, in souls and hearts. For the Lord says: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (Jn. 14:23).

2 Cor 6:17. Therefore ‘Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you (Is 52:11).

Above was expressed a promise; here is proposed a condition, on the fulfillment of which by Israel depended the fulfillment of the promise by God. “Come out from among them,” he says, that is, from the pagans, and “be separate,” completely separate yourselves from them, so that you become strangers to them and they to you. “Do not touch what is unclean;” “unclean,” ακαθαρτου, do not touch anything unclean, anything defiled by idol worship. Ancient Israel was so arranged: both in external conduct and in its laws it was separated from pagans and everything pagan. But what was then observed and kept externally should be accomplished internally in the new Israel through moral changes and determinations. What there was idol worship, here is self-indulgence with all its passions. What there was leaving the midst of pagans, here is abandonment of all deeds done for self-indulgence and passions; what there was not touching uncleanness, here is the renunciation and rejection of passionate thoughts and self-indulgent feelings. Here the condition is: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Mt 16:24) or: “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). Saint Chrysostom says: “He did not say: do not commit uncleanness; but, requiring greater exactness of them, said: do not touch and do not even approach it. He means all uncleanness, both bodily and spiritual. Bodily uncleanness consists of fornication, adultery and all fleshly gratification; spiritual uncleanness – unclean thoughts, lustful gaze, grudge-holding, deceptions and such like. He desires that we be pure from both kinds of uncleanness. See, and here is the reward for that – union with God.”

“And I will receive you.” First He promised: you will be Mine; then, having proposed conditions, He says: if you fulfill them, then “I will receive you,” – you will become Mine. I will receive you, both into My protection and into My family. I will take you in My arms and warm and cherish you, as a mother her beloved child. And so it is: whoever renounces all and belongs himself to God, him also God claims as His own and guards as the apple of His eye. See what wide scope is given to free will! The promise is made and proclaimed; but to obtain it, one must make the required movement by free will. As soon as this movement takes place, immediately comes upon it the fulfillment of the promise. This is vividly portrayed in the parable of the prodigal son. The father saw the approaching son from afar, ran to meet him, fell on his neck and kissed him. So God receives repentant sinners who flee to Him. But He receives them when they flee. It is their part to flee, and when this is accomplished, there will be no delay in God’s receiving them.

2 Cor 6:18. I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty (Jer 3:19; Hos 1:11).

Such God always had Israel as; and when it proved unfaithful, He represented to it His fatherhood to it and its sonship to Him as a reproach. “I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me” (Is 1:2). And is not the very same promised to the new Israel in a more perfect sense and in a more essential meaning? For it is said: “as many as received Him (the Lord Saviour, in faith and love), to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:12, 13). In this consists the perfection of every believer as a Christian – that he is born anew by water and the Spirit and in the moment of this birth becomes a son or daughter to God. In one moment is accomplished both the perfection of a Christian man or woman and entrance into the rank of son or daughter to God. “Do you see,” says Saint Chrysostom, “the prophet long ago foretold of our present nobility, that is, of rebirth by grace.”

2 Cor 7:1. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

To this the Apostle was leading throughout his discourse; to this the fivefold contrast of the high dignity of believers with the worthless baseness that deserves no attention from the unbelieving; to this the exalted prophetic promises, which are all essentially fulfilled only in those who cleave to the Lord Saviour in faith and love; and to this, we may add, all the divine economy of salvation, and the cross-death, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, and apostolic preaching, and the establishment of the Church with all its wondrous manifestations both at the beginning and throughout the entire time of its standing. All was to this end – that all believers, through the labours of good deeds and the struggles of self-denial, with the help of God’s grace, “cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” For only then will they truly become sons and daughters to God and living temples of the living God.

“Having these promises.” “Which ones? – That we have become temples for God, His sons and daughters, and have God and the Father as our own” (Saint Chrysostom). Mystically all this is already with us and is ours. It remains for us by our free will, through deeds, words, thoughts and feelings, to show ourselves to be such as we are called not only, but truly created mystically, for the grace of rebirth already dwells in us, and consequently everything connected with it. The Apostle wishes to say: behold then and conduct yourselves as befits sons and daughters of God, or persons who are the temple of the living God who dwells in them. What is needed for this?

“Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” “Let us not touch bodily uncleanness and that which blackens the soul” (Saint Chrysostom). By “filthiness of the flesh” he means both fleshly sins and all “lawless deeds” (Theodoret), perpetrated by the body. By “filthiness of the spirit” – sinful thoughts, feelings and dispositions, but chiefly the root of all – self-indulgence or selfishness. To cleanse oneself from all this means to repent of all former filthiness and to refrain from now on not only from unclean deeds, but from unclean thoughts and any evil movements within, and especially to root out self-indulgence, on which all uncleanness rests and which generates it. This cleansing is accomplished in the manner in which dirty linen is washed. The latter is soaked, steamed, rinsed, wrung, beaten, dried, rolled or ironed, and it becomes white and takes on the appearance that makes it suitable for use again. Not without labour is the cleansing of the soul accomplished: everything pertaining to this is combined in the experiences of good deeds and in the struggles of self-denial. How all of this goes forward was shown in deed by the holy ones of God, who in all kinds of pursuits attained high purity and openly demonstrated to all that truly they are temples of the living God, sons and daughters to Him, whom He guards and grants all that is pleasing to them.

“Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Fear of God begins the work of inward cleansing, and through it also of outward cleansing. When it comes, it awakens conscience, giving its voice irresistible force. Then they together beget zeal for the accomplishment of salvation, and this zeal already arranges repentance and the resolve to banish all that is unclean and sinful, and all the ordering of good deeds and the struggles of self-denial. It, having received power in the sacraments and in deed, with the help of God’s grace, accomplishes all that is planned and, maintaining constancy in labour and work, brings to complete purposeful purity of flesh and spirit, befitting sons and daughters of God. Fear of God as beginning is also its guardian, remaining vigilant sentinel over all this work. Therefore the Apostle said: perfecting holiness, that is, cleansing oneself, or ascending in purity, by the fear of God. Saint Chrysostom says on this: “The Apostle was not content to say: do not touch the unclean, but added moreover: ‘perfecting holiness in the fear of God.’ For mere avoidance of the unclean does not yet make one clean; to become holy, something greater is required – namely, zeal, watchfulness and godliness. And it was not in vain that he said: ‘in the fear of God.’ For one can maintain chastity not in the fear of God, but for vain glory. Nevertheless, he had something else in mind when he said ‘in the fear of God,’ namely the way by which holiness is attained and preserved. For however great the power of passion, if you fence yourself with the fear of God, you will overcome its violence. By ‘holiness’ he means here not chastity alone, but also estrangement from all sin. For he is holy who is pure, and he is pure not who merely avoids fornication, but who is also free from covetousness, envy, pride and vanity, especially vanity.”

Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

Saint Paul had begun to speak of this above (2 Cor 2:12, 13). But he had scarcely begun when he was taken up by the Spirit to contemplate the power and glory of the New Testament gospel. After setting forth all that the Spirit granted him to proclaim about this, he now returns to his interrupted discourse. It begins with verse 5; a) verses 2–4 present a transition discourse; verses 2 and 3 are as it were closer to what precedes, and verse 4 to what follows. In the discourse itself he speaks of how he was gladdened and comforted first b) by the arrival of Titus, verses 5–7; then c) by the effect produced in Corinth by the first epistle, verses 8–12; finally d) and by the reception Titus received in Corinth, verses 13–16.

2 Cor 7:2. Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one.

“Open your hearts to us.” He directly recalls the earlier word: “you are restricted in your own affections… be open” (2 Cor 6:12, 13). Theodoret writes: “Open your hearts” – he says to those who were restrictive; he said this earlier too: “you also be open.” Saint Chrysostom says: “He did not say: love us, but as if mollifying them, says: ‘open your hearts to us.’ Earlier he said: ‘you are restricted in your own affections,’ and here he expresses it more clearly with the words: ‘open your hearts to us.’ And again he draws them to himself; for nothing inclines toward love more than when the lover suggests to the beloved that he greatly desires his love.” Theophylact directly paraphrases this word applying it to what was said earlier: “receive us with wider hearts, and may we not be restricted in you.” Oecumenius recalls the thought of Blessed Photius, according to which the Apostle asks them to receive not only himself, but rather his word and teaching. This thought does not contradict the flow of discourse.

“We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one.” “By this he points to false apostles” (Saint Chrysostom). Such, he says, who do all this to you, you receive (he points to this below (2 Cor 11:20)); so much the more should you receive us, who have done nothing of the sort to you. Saint Paul could have pointed to the good they received from him, first spiritually and then materially, for humble Christian life could not fail to have influence on external conditions as well. But this could not have been as powerful as this juxtaposition of the Corinthians’ relation to himself with their relation to others, from whom they received no good but only harm. “He is silent about his own benefactions, but by another method both softens and at the same time strengthens his word. He does not say: we have done such and such benefactions for you, but as it were: even if we had done no benefaction for you whatsoever, you should not have fled from us, for you cannot accuse us in anything, great or small” (Saint Chrysostom).

“We have wronged no one,” ηδικησαμεν, we have not wronged anyone in any respect; we lived a year and a half in your midst quietly, peacefully, honorably; not only in deed but in word no one was wronged or insulted by us. “We have corrupted no one,” we corrupted no one by a bad example, we have not led anyone astray by evil teaching: “we did not use flattering words, disguising falsehood” (Theodoret); “we did not lead anyone into error, corrupting the mind with impious doctrines” (Theophylact); “we did not deceive or corrupt anyone’s mind by seducing simplicity, as the serpent deceived Eve with his cunning” (Saint Chrysostom). “We have cheated no one,” – we have not taken advantage of anyone. “We did not extort anything from anyone by acting deceitfully” (Saint Chrysostom); “we did not make merchandise of the gospel, turning it into a means of enrichment” (Oecumenius, Theophylact).

These words stand in Saint Paul without explanatory additions, so there is no need to depart from their direct meaning. The reason why this is said is less likely to be that ill-wishers of Saint Paul were spreading such judgments about him, but rather, as Saint Chrysostom indicated, that some false teachers were actually so acting among the Corinthians – that is, both cheating, corrupting minds with falsehood, leaving a bad example, and wronging some, conducting themselves arrogantly, which could not help but include insults.

One cannot but note what high praise it is for a pastor if he can speak such words before the face of his entire flock. Were only the prophet Samuel and Saint Paul such?! – No; at every age God’s eye truly sees not seven, but several times seven thousand pastoral souls who have not bent the knee before falsehood, flattery, wrongdoing and mammon.

2 Cor 7:3. I do not say this to condemn you; for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

“Feeling that what he said might seem harsh, he again softens his word” (St. Chrysostom). He averts anxiety, saying: “not to condemn” (κατακρισις) you “do I speak.” Do not fear; I am not calling down punishment from heaven. I love you so much that I cannot live without you. But instead of simply saying: I love you strongly, he expressed it in other strong words, when he said: “our hearts are enlarged. You are not restricted in us.” (2 Cor. 6:11, 12). To say you are ready both to die and to live together is to say: I have embraced you with broad love and will never part from you. St. Chrysostom says: “Truly very great is such love, that being even despised by them, I am ready both to die and live together. ‘You are in my hearts’; but such that we are ready with you to live and die. Neither death nor life, in themselves, is important, but to be where you are; with you death is better than life, and life better than death.”

2 Cor. 7:4. I have great confidence in you, I have great pride in you, I am filled with comfort, I am overflowing with joy in “spite of all our affliction.”

These words express what burst from the Apostle’s soul after Titus told him how he was received in Corinth and what effect the Apostle’s letter produced on those believers there. For they repented of their shortcomings, grieved over them, and firmly resolved to correct everything according to the Apostle’s instructions, and testified their love and deep respect for him. Bringing all this to mind, the Apostle says: “I have great confidence in you.” By your deeds you have shown that I can speak boldly to you in full assurance that you will obey me in all things. With the previous this discourse is tied thus: there he expressed that he loves them with a strong love, and here it is as if he explains: why shouldn’t I love you?

“I have great confidence in you.” Now I see that I can rely on you in all things. You have shown that you regard me as disciples regard a teacher, as children regard a father. This heartens me to labor among you and for you: I know that it will not be fruitless.

“I have great pride in you.” You have given me much reason to praise and boast of you. I always boast of you to others, but now you have given me fresh cause to do so and have shown much that is praiseworthy beyond your former praiseworthy qualities. “I am filled with comfort.” I was grieving, but as soon as Titus came and told me about you, my sorrow departed and I am filled with comfort. “What comfort? That which I obtained from you; by correcting yourselves, you comforted me with your deeds” (St. John Chrysostom). “I am overflowing with joy” “in spite of all our affliction.” “Again he shows the intensity of his love toward them. So insatiable was it! For even a small mutual love from those we love brings great joy, because of our strong love for them. In speaking of comfort, he said: ‘I am filled,’ that is, I received what was owed; but in speaking of joy, he said: ‘I am overflowing,’ that is, I was very fearful for you, but you have fully satisfied and comforted me, and not only taken away reason for sorrow but also given me abundant joy. In expressing how great is this joy, he not only states: ‘I am overflowing with joy,’ but also because he: ‘in spite of all our affliction’ (επι παση). Such is the delight given to us, that it was not darkened even by great sorrow, but on the contrary, by the excess of its magnitude, it overcame all the sorrows that befell us and does not allow us to feel them.” (St. John Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 7:5. For when we came to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted in every way—conflicts without and fears within.

“In mentioning sorrow above, he now tells what was the sorrow and presents it as greater, wishing to show how great was the comfort and joy which they brought, which dissipated and such sorrow.” (St. John Chrysostom). “For when we came to Macedonia”; in the Greek, “for also when we came.” Through “for” the discourse is connected with the immediately preceding, and through “also” with what was said in (2 Cor. 2:12, 13). There it was said: in Troas I had no rest in my spirit. Here it is said: but also when I came to Macedonia, “our flesh had no rest.” There “spirit,” here “flesh,” it cannot be thought that they are used with special meaning, but as a descriptive addition to the person speaking. Both there and here I had no rest. “But we were afflicted in every way”—it is necessary to supply “were.” Sorrows surrounded us from all sides, or in all respects. From what sides and in what respects, the words indicate: “conflicts without” and “fears within.” And what do they mean? St. John Chrysostom says: “‘Conflicts without,’ that is, from unbelievers; ‘fears within,’ that is, for the weak in faith, lest they be drawn into errors, which happened not only among the Corinthians but among others too.” Oecumenius and Theophylact understand “conflicts without” also as from unbelievers, which Oecumenius usually calls external. “And fears within”—they refer to believers, but not in one sense: Oecumenius—“fears for the believers, lest sufferings crush them,” and Theophylact—for the weak believers, “lest false brothers turn them from the right path.” Theodoret writes: “Not only did conflict with opponents oppress us (‘conflicts without’), but the care for the weak also exhausted, because I feared their change to worse.”

2 Cor. 7:6. But God, who comforts the humble, comforted us by the coming of Titus.

The sorrow and anxiety, as he said above (2 Cor. 2:12, 13), began because Titus was so long in returning. And he places the beginning of comfort in Titus’s arrival. Before he had told him anything, I was already comforted by his arrival alone. It seemed Paul, from long waiting, had given up hope of ever seeing him, so he counts his arrival as if a message from heaven. It is proper for one living in God to refer every event, both great and small, to God, as it truly depends on Him. Therefore the Apostle, recognizing in Titus’s arrival God’s great mercy and, looking at it from the face of God’s providence, says: God, who comforts the humble, those who are humble and stricken with sorrow and sorrows, comforted us by the coming of Titus. But of course, it was not only this arrival that so delighted the Apostle, that he immediately forgot all the weight on his soul—but rather what Titus brought. For this reason he continues:

2 Cor. 7:7. And not only by his coming, but also by the comfort he himself had received about you, in telling us about your longing, your sorrow, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

“Returning, he brought us to rapture by his joy when he told us such pleasant things about you.” (St. John Chrysostom). What seemed to be expected is that the Apostle would say: comforted by the comfort which he brought us; but he says: comforted by the comfort which Titus himself had received about you. It must be supposed that the holy Titus, setting out for Corinth, had no hope of finding there what he found. The Apostle sent him there in anxiety, and Titus greatly desired that the Corinthians would prove themselves such in relation to the Apostle as the Apostle himself desired them to be. Since Titus greatly desired this, he was also afraid, lest something contrary to his expectation and desire should happen there. Therefore, when he saw that his reception of the epistle and of himself exceeded his very expectation, he was exceedingly gladdened and moved; comforted that the Corinthians proved to be such, and that this would very much gladden and comfort the Apostle. In joy, he could not but express this in his glance and first words. The Apostle wishes to say: and the arrival delighted me, but I also saw in his eyes that he was comforted by what he found among you. This is the second moment of rejoicing. And when he, he says, told me that among you he found, then I even more rejoiced. What did he find? “Your longing,”—επιποθησιν, a warm disposition toward the Apostle. “Your sorrow,”—οδυρμον, painful compunction and sorrow that by their shortcomings they so troubled him. “Your zeal for me,” a resolve to zealously correct all that was amiss, to drive out the incestuous man and make those who reviled the Apostle keep silent.

St. John Chrysostom says: “‘He was comforted about you,’ says Titus. What comforted him? Your virtue, your correction. Therefore he adds: ‘telling us about your longing, your sorrow, your zeal for me.’ This is what comforted and delighted Titus! See—and he represents Titus as very well disposed toward the Corinthians, because he counts their good reputation for his own comfort and, arriving, boasts of it before Paul as his own blessing. And see with what fervor the Apostle expresses this: ‘your longing, your sorrow, your zeal for me.’ For they ought to have wept and sorrowed that the blessed Paul had become so angry with them and was away from them so long. Therefore he said not simply: tears but ‘sorrow,’ and not simply—longing but ‘great longing,’—επιποθησιν; and not irritation (in the sense: my spirit was stirred), but zeal—ζηλον,—and zeal for the Apostle both against the incestuous man and against those who condemned Paul. Having received my letter, he says, you were inflamed and burned with zeal. He ‘overflows with joy, is filled with comfort,’ because he deeply moved them. And it seems to me that this was said not only for comfort for what was before, but also for greater awakening of those who fulfilled what was required. For I think that some of those who were subject to the former reproofs did not deserve such praise; but he does not separate them; rather, he praises all together and reproaches, leaving it to the conscience of the listeners to choose for each their own. And thus both the reproofs became bearable, and the praises awakened them to greater zeal.”

2 Cor. 7:8. For even if I made you sad with my letter, I do not regret it; although I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while.

“For,”—οτι,—because. He said above that when Titus told him all that was in Corinth, he became very gladdened by it. But someone could think: how so? In those there is bitter weeping—οδυρμος—and he rejoices? The Apostle explains now how this comes about: they weep and he rejoices. I rejoice not in the fact that you are saddened, but in what came from it—your repentance and correction. But the explanation itself he expounds somewhat at length, beginning with what was on his mind while he did not receive word of the effect of the letter. St. John Chrysostom says: “Since the Corinthians have cleared themselves of their sin, and therefore it was now possible to speak with them more gently, the Apostle excuses himself for the sternness of his former letter and shows its usefulness. He did the same above, saying: ‘for out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, not so that you would be sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have in abundance for you’ (2 Cor. 2:4). He does the same here, but expresses it at greater length.”

For, he says, although I “made you sad”—ελυπησα, afflicted, you “with my letter”—εν τγ επιςολη, by the letter, by the words of the first letter; yet “I do not regret it”—ου μεταμελομαι,—I do not regret that I caused you sadness, “although I did regret it,” I did regret or began to regret. When? While Titus was delayed. He wrote the stern and threatening letter and could not but imagine that it would bring sorrow to the Corinthians. He wrote this way because it was necessary. But later, when he saw that Titus was delayed, he rightly supposed that the letter had made matters worse, and so he began to grieve and regret that he wrote so sternly. Concerning this he now says: although I did regret, or began to regret, but now I do not regret, seeing the good fruit of your sadness.

St. John Chrysostom, however, gives this word: “although I did regret it” such a sense: although I should have regretted it, because I wrote too harshly, beyond what was proper, but I do not regret it because of the benefit from it. Here are his words: “even if what I had written was such that it should have caused me to regret that I had written too harshly, beyond the measure of proper rebuke and required repentance from me, yet great benefit resulted from it does not allow me to regret. He said this not because in fact he exceeded the measure in his rebuke, but to increase the praise of the Corinthians, showing: you are so humble and obedient that however harshly I write, you accept it with contrition and readiness to correct everything; so that I have only to boast of you.” Doesn’t this understanding fit the course of the discourse better?

“For I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while.” I should regret, he says. Why? Because I see that the letter saddened you, even if only briefly. Seeing this, I should regret, but I do not regret: “for the sadness was brief, but the benefit is eternal.” (St. John Chrysostom). Therefore, he continues:

Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

2 Cor. 7:9. Now I rejoice, not that you were grieved, but that you were grieved into repentance. You were grieved in a godly way, so that you might suffer no loss through us.

“Not only,” he says, “do I not regret this, but on the contrary, I rejoice; I rejoice not at your grief itself, but at the spirit and fruit of that grief. ‘I rejoice seeing not grief itself, but the fruit of that grief, for this grief has produced commendable repentance’ (Theodoret). ‘When a father sees his son undergo surgery, he rejoices not that his son suffers pain, but that he is being healed. So too does the holy Paul rejoice. Observe that he attributes all success to you: he assigns the grief to his letter, but he credits the benefit to you. For he did not say: I rejoice that the letter corrected you, although that was indeed the case, but ‘you were grieved into repentance’ (St. Chrysostom). You were grieved, but not in anger, and did not become indignant at the one who grieved you; rather, you blamed yourselves, acknowledging that you deserved the rebuke, repented of your fault, and resolved to amend. This kind of grieving is grieving according to God. Hence he says: ‘you were grieved in a godly way’ — kata Theon — in accordance with divine requirements, or in accordance with godly living, in accordance with pleasing God and salvation, or in fear of God, looking toward God, not reckoning according to outward appearance. When rebuked, you remembered God and his judgment, and hastened to correct what was amiss. For God always requires one thing: that all be corrected, and those who are amiss should repent. One who remembers God, if he is corrected, gives thanks to God; if uncorrected, he repents and hastens to correct himself. Whoever acts thus acts according to God, as God wishes, as requires reverent thought of him.”

“That you might suffer no loss through us.” Blessed be God, for he has so arranged it that he moved us to rebuke you rather sharply, and in you awakened the desire for repentance. He arranged it so that you suffer no loss in your spiritual progress, or any harm in the matter of your salvation through our fault. Had we not rebuked you, you would have remained in your negligence and consequently suffered harm. But if even after we rebuked you the Lord had not turned your affections to good, that would have been terrible. Now I see that everything has turned out for the best, and I cannot help but rejoice. “Observe,” says St. Chrysostom, “his extraordinary prudence! If we had not done this, he says, we would have done you harm; and he attributes the correction to you, while he claims the harm would have come from his silence. If we had not rebuked you when it was possible to correct you by rebuke, we would have done you harm, and the loss would have been not only for you but for us as well. For as one who gives merchants no means of sailing does them harm, so too would we have done you harm if we had not given you reason to repent. Do you see that failure to rebuke sinners is harmful both to the teacher and to the student?”

2 Cor. 7:10. For the grief according to God produces repentance leading to salvation without regret, while the grief of the world produces death.

“Therefore,” he says, “although I regretted it before I saw the fruit and benefit of the letter, now I do not regret it; the fruit was grief according to God” (St. Chrysostom). And what does godly grief produce? Salvation. Grief according to God is sorrow and painful contriteness of heart, when by remembering God and one’s relation to him, one recognizes oneself guilty before him without defense. Such recognition strikes fear of judgment and condemnation; this fear compels one to seek sure deliverance from one’s bitter state. Since there is no other such deliverance except heartfelt repentance with firm resolution to live from now on according to the known will of God without wavering, one in grief according to God flees to him; and this means to set one’s foot firmly upon the path of salvation. This is why the Apostle said: “grief according to God produces repentance leading to salvation without regret.”

“Repentance without regret” means repentance with firm resolve never to turn back; or repentance in whose fulfillment no one regrets, despite the considerable sacrifices it demands, because one immediately learns from experience what great good it brings.

To this saving grief the holy Paul opposes deadly worldly grief, saying: “the grief of the world produces death.” Worldly grief is grief over loss of glory, honor, possessions, comforts, disorder in one’s secular or civil affairs, or in general over anything earthly, limited to this life, touching neither salvation nor eternity. All such griefs kill by sorrow and strike with hopelessness. When earthly goods are taken away, one who loses them acts as though his soul is being drawn out. But one grieving according to God, although also struck by deep sorrow, yet this sorrow is always tempered by hope of mercy, for to the whole world God’s readiness to receive the penitent is known. Therefore, grief according to God does not kill but vivifies, does not bring death but extracts from death and converts to life.

St. Chrysostom speaks at length about these two griefs. “What is meant by the grief of this world? It is when you grieve over possessions, over glory, over the dead; all this is worldly grief, and therefore brings death. Whoever grieves over glory envies and often comes to inevitable ruin. By worldly grief Cain and Esau grieved. So he means by worldly grief that which harms the very ones who grieve. For grief over sins alone is beneficial, and this is clearly seen from what follows. One grieving over loss of wealth does not recover the loss; one grieving over the dead does not raise him; one grieving from illness not only does not free himself from illness but increases it. Only one grieving over sins gains benefit from sorrow: it wears down and destroys sins. Grief is a medicine prepared for this one case; only here does it have strength and benefit, and in other cases it harms. True, what is heavier than grief? But when it is grief according to God, it is far better than worldly joy, for that joy turns to nothing, whereas that grief ‘produces repentance leading to salvation without regret.’ In it too is something worthy of wonder: no one ever grieving with it repents, whereas repentance is most natural to worldly grief. For what is dearer than a son? And what more sorrowful than his death? Yet fathers, who during their heavy grief received no comfort and tormented themselves, later repent of grieving without measure; and not only gained no benefit but further disturbed themselves. Not so with grief according to God! It has two advantages: it does not make one repent of the grief itself, and it transforms the very grief into salvation. Worldly grief lacks both advantages. In it one grieves to one’s harm and after strong grief regrets it, and this serves as strong proof that in grieving they harm themselves. Completely opposite are the effects of grief according to God. No one will blame himself for grieving, weeping, and being contrite over sin.”

2 Cor. 7:11. For see what this very thing—being grieved in a godly way—has accomplished in you: what eagerness, what defense! What indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! In everything you have shown yourselves pure in the matter.

St. Chrysostom says: “The blessed Paul, in speaking of the good fruits of grief according to God, had no need to bring foreign examples to confirm what he said, but points to the Corinthians themselves and draws his proof from what they did, so that in praising them, he both instructs and draws them to himself. ‘For see,’ he says, ‘what this very thing—being grieved in a godly way—has accomplished in you: what eagerness?’ That is, your grief according to God (the fact that you came into fear of God, were contrite, and repented), see how it made you zealous for yourselves (to show yourselves corrected in all things before God, before your conscience, and before the holy Apostle). And here are the signs of such zeal! ‘What defense’ (‘But’, alla, in all these expressions stands for “and”—Oecumenius), apologian, explanation before me (expressed perhaps before Titus and passed on to the Apostle); ‘what indignation’ toward the one who sinned; ‘what fear’ (“Into fear of God you came,” Theodoret), for such zeal and very quick correction showed that you were greatly frightened (perhaps of the holy Paul himself, says Oecumenius and Theophylact). And lest you think he is praising himself, see how he immediately softens his speech by saying: ‘what longing,’ that is toward me [“and you loved us more earnestly than before,” Theodoret. “For,” he says, “loving me and not wanting to grieve me, you hastened to correct yourselves”—Oecumenius; “so it would not seem that by pointing to fear he was claiming some authority over them, he hastens to turn away this thought by pointing to “‘longing,” epipothēsin, warm affection toward himself, which is a sign of love, not subordinate obedience”—Theophylact]; ‘what zeal,’ that is toward God (“being filled with righteous zeal, you wept over the violated laws”—Theodoret; “either toward God, or toward me before those who slandered me as false apostles”—Oecumenius); ‘what punishment,’ for they punished those who violated God’s law (“they armed themselves in indignation against the sinners”—Theodoret). ‘In everything you have shown yourselves pure in the matter,’ that is, not only in that you yourselves did not commit such a transgression, but also in that you did not indulge the one who did. In the first letter he said: ‘And you became puffed up’ (1 Cor. 5:2); therefore here he says: you have purified yourselves also from this suspicion, when you not only did not approve the sinner but punished him and became indignant at him.”

2 Cor. 7:12. Although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did wrong, nor for the sake of the one who was wronged, but so that your eagerness on our behalf might be revealed to God.

Who is the one who did wrong and who the one who was wronged? Theodoret says: “The Apostle calls the one guilty of fornication the one who did wrong, and the father the one who was wronged, because he was dishonored even after his death by the desecration of his bed.” Oecumenius and Theophylact think it was those who fornicated, for they wronged both themselves and each other. St. Chrysostom does not address this question. But whoever they were, the force of the speech lies not in defining who they are, but in pointing out the intention with which such stern decisions were written in the first letter. “This was not written for their sake,” he says. He does not mean that in writing he had them in mind not at all, but that he did not write primarily for them, but chiefly for you, so that one through another and you all might not be infected with the same evil. Now those are correcting themselves, and you have been filled with zeal and indignation at such sin. Yet even if those did not correct themselves, but only such indignation appeared in you, the letter’s purpose would be achieved. It was dictated by my care for the whole body of the Church. I showed you thereby my eagerness for all of you, which I have before God. It is the same before God as it is revealed before you. The Apostle seems to hear an objection from their side: when we are pure, why did you rebuke us? Now that’s clear, but then I could not have assumed this; and concern for you, prompted by love for you, made me stern. St. Chrysostom says: “He conveys that he feared for the whole Church, for he was afraid the evil might spread and, continuing onward, might embrace the whole Church. Therefore he said: ‘a little leaven leavens the whole lump’ (1 Cor. 5:6). But he said that then; now, when they have corrected themselves, he expresses the same thought not as before but differently, and although he has the same meaning, presents it with greater agreeableness, saying: ‘so that your eagerness for you’ might be revealed, that is, so you might see how I love you. Since I love you greatly, I feared that you might suffer harm from this scandalous example and yourselves be forced to grieve.”

2 Cor. 7:13. Therefore we have been comforted by your comfort, and we rejoiced all the more abundantly at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

“Therefore we have been comforted by your comfort.” By your comfort — επι, on account of, or because of, your comfort, not the comfort you received, but the comfort you gave us by your correction in all things and in every way that resulted from my letter. The holy Chrysostom says: “We have been comforted; for we showed our care for you, and everything turned out according to our wishes.” Similarly, I said elsewhere: “we are now alive, if you stand firm in the Lord” (1 Thess. 3:8). For the progress of students is the life, comfort, and joy of a wise teacher. And nothing shows a leader in a better light than his love for those under him.

“And we rejoiced all the more abundantly at the joy of Titus.” “See how the Apostle again praises the Corinthians and expresses his love for them! For after mentioning above his own joy, that his first letter had such success and brought such benefit, and expressing his love for them, he now presents another mark of their benevolence, which also brings them great praise and shows the sincerity of their love: ‘And we rejoiced all the more abundantly at the joy of Titus.’ Titus was comforted by you; but I rejoiced not so much for Titus as for you” (St. Chrysostom). Titus was at peace among you not bodily, not in having food to eat or a comfortable bed, but in spirit. His spirit was at peace, and not from one thing or another, but from all of you. That the apostolic spirit of Titus found rest among the Corinthians is a testimony to their high spiritual perfection. For a spiritual man like Titus cannot find rest among those in whom there is no movement and manifestation of spiritual life, and bodily comfort cannot satisfy his spirit so that he feels at peace.

2 Cor. 7:14. For if I have boasted to him about you in anything, I am not ashamed; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus has been truthful.

“For if I have boasted to him about you.” “It is great praise when a teacher boasts of his students and rejoices that his boasting is shown to be true, for he says: I am not ashamed. Therefore I rejoiced because you showed yourselves to be better and indeed justified my words. From this I have double comfort: you showed yourselves to be more perfect, and I did not appear to be a liar contrary to the truth; ‘but as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus has been truthful.’ Here he implies something else as well: just as I spoke nothing but truth to you, so probably he praised them greatly to Titus; and so what I said about you to Titus has proven to be true” (St. Chrysostom).

That in the words: ‘as we spoke all things to you in truth,’ the Apostle means his praises of Titus before the Corinthians, St. Chrysostom considers only probable. So do all the others. The direct meaning here is that falsehood never proceeded from the Apostle’s mouth, whatever his speech touched upon, and especially that his preaching is true. Theodoret writes: “We never had to resort to lying, but have both taught you true doctrine and adorned your praises with truth.” So too Oecumenius and Theophylact: “As what I preached to you is true, so also my word about you to Titus proved true.”

2 Cor. 7:15. And his affection is abundantly toward you, remembering the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.

“And his heart has overflowed toward you.” “This refers to the praise of Titus, that he is well-disposed toward you and attached to you” (Saint Chrysostom). “He presents Titus to them in such a way so that they too might love him in return, as one who is bound to them in heart and holds a warm disposition toward them. Therefore he said: ‘his heart is toward you,’ to show the depth and warmth of his sincere love for you” (Theophylact). “Then he brings, as he does everywhere, the reason for such a disposition, so as not to seem flattering, but on the other hand to move the Corinthians themselves to greater things by giving all praise to them and showing that they themselves gave Titus occasion and reason for such love. For having said: ‘his heart has overflowed toward you,’ he adds: ‘remembering the obedience of all of you.’—‘Remembering.’ By this the Apostle expresses Titus’s gratitude, who parted from you, having impressed all in his soul, and always remembers you, constantly has you on his lips and in his heart; and at the same time he even more praises the Corinthians, that they sent off Titus with such warm reception. Then he reminds them of their obedience: ‘remembering ‘your obedience,’ stirring thereby their zeal also” (Saint Chrysostom). Obedience both to the word of the Apostle in the letter, which obedience was so pleasant for Titus to encounter, and perhaps to the word of Titus himself, with which he accompanied the reading of the letter, adding to what was written his own counsel and exhortations. Thus Theodoret: “And he is very well-disposed toward you and keeps an unforgettable memory of you, telling how you yielded to his counsel.”—“How you received him with fear and trembling.” “That is, not only with love, but with great honor. Do you see how he testifies to their twofold virtue, that is, that they both loved Titus as a father and feared him as a leader, so that neither did fear cloud their love, nor did love weaken their fear?” (Saint Chrysostom).

And obedience, fear, and trembling were shown in the person of Titus to the Apostle himself, yet he, by the modesty customary to him, attributes all of it now to Titus, now to the goodness of the Corinthians. The following words guide us to this thought:

2 Cor. 7:16. Therefore I rejoice, because I have confidence in you in all things.

“Do you see that he rejoices more about them? For he says: you neither brought shame to your teacher in anything and showed yourselves worthy of my testimony about you. Consequently, he rejoiced not so much that Titus received such honor, but that they showed such goodwill toward Titus. But so that they would not think he rejoiced more for Titus, see how he also presents the reason for joy here. As he said above: ‘if I boasted to him about you, I was not put to shame;’ so now he says: ‘I am confident in all of you.’ If I need to rebuke you, I am not afraid that you will turn away on account of it; if I need to boast about you, I am not concerned about being convicted of empty boasting. ‘I am confident in you,’ whether I praise you as obedient, or as loving, or as zealous. I said: separate, and you separated; I said to Titus that you are great, worthy of wonder, and know how to honor teachers, and you proved it in deed; he learned this not so much from me as from you yourselves. Therefore he returned to me, filled with strong love for you, since you showed in deed more than I told him.” (Saint Chrysostom).

Part Two: The Practical—On the Collection for the Saints (2 Cor. 8–9)

Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

On the Collection of Alms for the Poor Brothers in Jerusalem (Chapters 8 and 9)

The Apostle had already spoken of alms and given instructions in the first letter, chapter 16. Titus, during his stay in Corinth, contributed greatly to organizing this matter (2 Cor. 8:6). Now the Apostle directs his speech merely to encourage swift and generous giving, for he himself was going there with the Macedonians, of whom he had boasted before.

With this aim: 1) at first the holy Paul seeks to stir up zeal for this work (2 Cor. 8:1–15), presenting a) the example of the Macedonians, who proved to be extraordinarily willing, verses 1–6, and then adding to this b) other motivations more closely connected to the Corinthians, verses 7–15, such as: aa) that in their other good qualities they should not fall short in this virtue, verses 7–9; bb) that this matter is not new, they have already begun, verses 10 and 11; and cc) that what is required is not excessive, but whatever one can give, verses 12–15.

2) Then he mentions his arrangement a) to send to them Titus and two other brothers, with an indication of the good qualities of each (2 Cor. 8:16–24); b) presenting as motivation the desire that everything be ready among the Corinthians for his coming and that when he comes to them with the Macedonians, he not be put to shame through them. This is again no small incentive both to swift and to generous giving of alms (2 Cor. 9:1–5).

3) Finally he again inspires them to both liberal and willing giving: a) by the promise of God’s blessing, verses 6–11, and b) by the glory resulting from our confession of faith, verses 12–15.

1. Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving (2 Cor. 8:1–15)

k) By the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

2 Cor. 8:1. Now we make known to you, brethren, the grace of God given in the churches of Macedonia.

The holy Paul considered it necessary to speak a word about alms in this letter as well. It was precisely at this point, prepared by the preceding discourse, that he resolved to speak of this matter. Just before this, he praised the Corinthians for the good reception of Titus, concluding his words with an expression of joy that they are so attentive to what comes from him: ‘I rejoice, because I have confidence in you in all things,’ that is, I rejoice that whatever I say, you are ready to do willingly. To this he adds his word about alms, that is, “and thus demonstrates his confidence in them by proposing an exhortation to show concern for the saints,” that is, the poor Christians in Jerusalem (Theodoret). “And he said this beforehand, because he intended to discuss alms, wanting to pave the way for exhortation by praise and stir up zeal for almsgiving. Nevertheless, he did not say it all at once, but notice with what wisdom he leads the discourse from afar and from on high: ‘Now we make known to you, brethren, the grace of God given in the churches of Macedonia,’ and in describing the deeds of others, by praising them, he stirs up zeal for similar deeds in the Corinthians too” (St. Chrysostom).

“He called the deeds of mercy and almsgiving ‘the grace of God’” (St. Chrysostom). “For to be merciful is a gift of God, just as to work healings” (Oecumenius). Both intellectual perfections and active virtues are gifts of God, whether to individuals or to entire nations. The natural dispositions, which likewise come from the all-ordering Providence, are only predispositions. When grace comes, it sanctifies them, distinguishes them from corruption, and manifests them in their proper strength, fullness, and perfection. The Macedonians were distinguished by their generous liberality. God’s grace sanctified their compassionate and communal hearts (a characteristic of the Slavs). The Apostle says: “in the churches of Macedonia,” meaning not only Philippi, but Thessalonica and Berea as well. “He does not say: ‘grace given’ in this or that city, but praises an entire nation” (St. Chrysostom). In the word: “we make known” there is a sense of wonder. Being a witness to such a movement toward charity among a people suffering and not wealthy, the Apostle could not but see in this a special action of God’s grace and could not help but wonder. With this wonderment, though with particular purposes, he shares with the Corinthians. I cannot, he says, be silent; I cannot but tell you about this marvel happening before my eyes. This was very instructive for those who were striving mainly for spiritual gifts (intellectual and theoretical ones), suggesting that in Christianity, which even children can understand in their teaching about it, active gifts should carry more weight. Such a reminder could naturally come to the Corinthians’ minds; and lest it breed the thought that the holy Paul no longer values them at all, he purposely inserted the word “brethren,” showing that if he praises some, he does not reject others, but gives each his due. St. Chrysostom observes: “He called them ‘brethren’ in order to cut off any envy, for he wants to praise the Macedonians extraordinarily.” And indeed extraordinarily: for what does he say?

2 Cor. 8:2. That in great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy, and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their generosity.

And who would not consider it extraordinary that while experiencing much affliction they rejoice, and rejoice in abundance, so that joy covers over affliction, and the latter is not seen because of the former? This is one extraordinary thing! Another is that they are in dire poverty, yet so generous that it would be appropriate for the rich to be so generous. The Apostle expresses this in the abstract, and thus his words seem more impressive. “The deep poverty,” η κατα βαθους πτωχεια, poverty running so deep that it cannot descend further; and what does it give forth? With abundance it produces rich generosity. It is as if a withered tree gave abundant and succulent fruit. Is this not extraordinary? The Apostle gave them the highest praise, for he showed that they in tribulation are brave-hearted and in extreme poverty rich in generosity; being buffeted from all sides by waves, they rejoice as if borne by a favorable wind, and, rarely having what is necessary, they display magnanimity as if wallowing in wealth (Theodoret). With the joy in afflictions the Apostle does not further occupy himself, but only with the generosity of the Macedonians alone, so it must be supposed that he mentioned it only to exalt the virtue of generosity. The grieving, usually, have no thought for others, but among the Macedonians, he says, things proceed not as is usual. They forget themselves and care only for others. Brave-heartedness in afflictions did not constrict their hearts; on the contrary, joy expanded their hearts, opened their meager treasuries, and produced rich giving. This picture was to appear as a very stirring example to imitate for the not-impoverished Corinthians.

Holy Chrysostom says: “What do the words mean: ‘in much tribulation their abundance of joy’?—That they had in abundance both sorrow and joy, and such sorrow produced such abundant pleasure. ‘And that their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their generosity.’ Again both things in abundance. As great sorrow produced great joy, so great poverty gave birth to great wealth of almsgiving. The Apostle said: ‘overflowed in the wealth of their generosity.’ For generosity is valued not by the measure of giving but by the disposition of those giving. Therefore he does not say: wealth of what is given, but—‘wealth of their generosity.’”

2 Cor. 8:3. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they were willing.

He explains what was said and even more exalts their virtue. “According to their means” and “beyond” “their means,” – some according to their means, others even beyond their means. Or thus: they give according to what strength they have; but what I am saying: according to what strength they have – beyond their strength. This is the same as what he expressed above by the excess of their liberality (Theophylact). And by the word: “willing,” αυθαιρετοι, he exalts their compliance; for by this he expresses: not we urged them to it, or persuaded them; they do all this by themselves, of their own accord, by their own good will. It is good when one does good by direction and persuasion from others; but certainly far better is he who himself guesses what needs to be done, and does it by his own initiative. Goodness in such a one, that is, lies in the depths of the heart and serves as its own inner mover to corresponding deeds. The Apostle speaks as it were: “I testify concerning them that they gave beyond their ability and of their own accord anticipated our exhortation.” (Theodoret). – “I testify,” that is, “I speak as an eyewitness and reliable witness.” (Saint Chrysostom). For the clever Corinthians, not yet wholly freed from selfish narrowness, the Apostle’s word could seem unbelievable. How “beyond” “their strength’?” – The Apostle assures: I do not speak by hearsay, I see myself. Against such assurance even the clever ones could not argue, but had to acknowledge the height of the virtue of the Macedonians and gather strength to imitate them.

2 Cor. 8:4. Begging us with much urgency for the favor of participation in the ministry to the saints.

With ever brighter colors he paints the picture of the generosity of the Macedonian Churches. With much urgency, he says, they begged us to accept their alms—as if fearing that the Apostle, seeing their poverty, would refuse to take it or would counsel them to curtail it. Or they begged with much urgency, from deep feeling of humility, not considering their alms as anything important and seeing in its acceptance more of a favor done to themselves than a benefaction to those in need. Such is the way of the humble and not wealthy; the rich, on the other hand, usually give from on high, in a spirit of obligation and patronage. Begging us to accept—not quite the usual phrase in their language. St. Chrysostom says: “Since the chief aim of the Apostle was to bring the Corinthians to the point where they would give alms from the free disposition of the heart, he especially dwells on this, saying: ‘with much urgency,’ and then—‘begging us’; that is, not we asked them, but they asked us. For what?” “For the favor of participation in the ministry to the saints.” “Do you see how he exalts almsgiving again, giving it sacred names?”

“By ‘the ministry to the saints’ the Apostle means the commission given him by the holy Apostles in Jerusalem to gather everywhere among the believers alms for the poor Jerusalem Church. The holy Paul performed this ministry very zealously. The Macedonians knew of this and were very zealous to take part in this ministry, which the Apostle calls” “participation in the ministry to the saints.” Theodoret notes that “they begged the Apostle to allow them to care for the ministry to the saints.” This zeal was prompted by their conviction of the high value which such participation has in the eyes of God. Why he also calls it ‘favor.’ ‘Favor’—both because to be merciful is a gift of grace, as was noted, and because alms attract God’s mercy to the merciful. It is as it were a pledge of new grace from God; those who give it hand over with one hand what is insignificant, and with the other receive what is divine—incomparably greater and better. “They,’ says St. Chrysostom, ‘by giving to others, themselves receive.”

2 Cor. 8:5. And not as we hoped, but first they gave themselves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God.

“And not as we hoped.” And yet another degree of exalting their virtue: they surpassed, he says, our expectations. “He says this not about willingness but about the amount of giving. Looking at them, we expected that something small would be gathered, but their magnanimity overcame poverty” (Theodoret). This observation is important in that where grace works, encountering no obstacles from selfish constraints of the will, the deeds always turn out beyond the ordinary order of human affairs.

“But first they gave themselves to the Lord.” This brings to mind that they gave more to others than they left themselves with. From this arises the question: what then will they themselves do?—As the Lord wishes; we give ourselves to him. This is yet another degree of praise, and the highest. The surrender of oneself to the Lord is the pinnacle of Christian spiritual perfection; it arises after cutting away all earthly and common human feelings and dispositions. “See,” says St. Chrysostom, “how by the very words: ‘they gave themselves to the Lord,’ the Apostle shows their extraordinary zeal toward God. They did not partially submit to God, serving the world with the other part, but completely and wholly gave themselves to him alone. They dedicated themselves to him, showing themselves skilled in faith, displaying in afflictions great courage, good order, gentleness, love, readiness and zeal for all other virtues. For in helping the poor, they did not become proud; on the contrary, with great humility, obedience, reverence, and wisdom they performed alms.”

“They gave themselves to the Lord and to us.” First to the Lord, but for the sake of the Lord and to us as well, “as his servants” (Theodoret). They did not separate our cares from their own and considered the burden lying on us as their own. “They were obedient to us, loved us, and submitted to us, both fulfilling God’s laws and joining themselves to us with love” (St. Chrysostom).

“What does ‘by the will of God’ mean? That when they gave themselves to us, they did so not by human calculation but also did this by God’s will” (St. Chrysostom). “By the will of God”—through God’s will, by the power of God’s will. God’s will was the governing principle. They acted in consciousness of it. Such is the distinctive mark of truly Christian activity—to take steps only after becoming assured that it is God’s will to do so.

Reviewing all that the Apostle has said about the almsgiving of the Macedonians, the blessed Photius in Oecumenius: “In this short section, the Apostle pointed out six good qualities in the Macedonians. First,—that they are generous ‘according to their ability’:’ for it is great even that when someone gives alms to the extent of their ability. But he says something even greater about them, that is, that they are generous ‘and beyond their ability’:’ this means that they even deprived themselves of the necessary. Third—that they are willingly eager, that is, there was no need for outside persuasion to this, but they themselves became zealous for this good deed. Fourth—that with much entreaty they asked to receive the alms, which serves as proof of their warm and overflowing (gushing like a spring) disposition toward almsgiving: for not as those dispensing grace to others, but as those themselves acquiring something great, they asked, entreated, and did not cease to entreat, until they obtained what they asked, that is, so that their alms would be accepted. Fifth—that through their almsgiving they exceeded the expectations of the holy Paul. See how high he elevated their virtue. They, he says, proved themselves more magnanimous than I myself, for if I did not expect it, then it gives perhaps the thought that I myself, in similar circumstances, would have shown myself less generous. But he is not satisfied with only these indications, but increases his praise by something incomparably higher than all that has been said. This, he says, is still not so great that ‘according to their ability,’ and ‘beyond their ability,’ and “willingly,” and ‘with much entreaty,’ and ‘entreating,’ and ‘not as’ we expected.” But what is this, what else special did they do?—“They gave themselves first”—he says—“to the Lord and to us by the will of God.” Not a portion did they give, and kept a portion for themselves; but they gave all of themselves to the Lord. He speaks as if: they even did not keep for themselves means of livelihood, but—having given everything, they laid all care and providence for themselves upon the Lord. Therefore the holy Paul, presenting the height of such a disposition, finally added: “by the will of God.” By this he said as if: do not be surprised at this, man! They had God as their helper, having drawn Him to themselves by their good disposition. Where God works together, nothing is impossible.

2 Cor. 8:6. So we urged Titus, that as he had begun, so he should also complete this favor in you.

Between this text and the preceding praise of the generosity of the Macedonians there is omitted a series of thoughts which the Corinthians must have inferred for themselves. It was evident from the context itself why such discourse was being conducted. The Apostle spoke as if to them: the collection of alms is also being carried on among you; imitate the Macedonians in this work; you yourselves, of course, would be able to arrange all that relates to this well; but since Titus has already begun to conduct this good work among you, I am sending him to complete it as well. The Apostle very much desired that the Corinthians not be inferior to the Macedonians. Hence both Titus’s mission and the extensive discourse about alms. “Seeing such zeal and such eagerness for alms here,” he says, “I hastened to send Titus to you, so that you too might compare yourselves to them. The Apostle disclosed this thought, though he said it differently. But notice the excellence of his love. When they begged and urged us to accept their generous alms, we, he says, were concerned for you, that you not fall short of them. For this reason we sent Titus, that you, being stirred and turned by him to think about it, might rival the Macedonians. Titus was already there and had begun the work of collecting alms among them, according to the first letter. Now the Apostle sent him so that his very presence might serve the Corinthians as an incentive to give alms” (St. Chrysostom).

The Apostle says that he “urged” Titus, showing that he is not like a servant, but like an equal co-worker, whom one must ask to do something rather than command. He said this here for the honor of Titus, as a recommendation for him, but further down he says that he did indeed ask Titus to go, but Titus himself also wanted to come to you by his own will, showing that Titus was fulfilling here not merely the ministry itself, but also was satisfying his own affection toward them.

The Apostle says of Titus that he had already begun to act among them before: “as he had begun”; but on what subject? Perhaps on the whole matter of organizing church and religious affairs among them. He says: as he began to act among you, so let him also complete this favor, that is, let him also complete this among other works. Or perhaps he means directly only alms. The collection of alms had begun among the Corinthians long ago, and in the first letter the holy Paul wrote to them how to do it. It is probable that the holy Titus, during his stay among them, took special part in this work, and the holy Apostle now mentions this: “as he had begun.”

“And He will perfect this grace.” “Mentioning almsgiving the first, second, and third time, the Apostle always calls it grace. And indeed, almsgiving is a great good and God’s gift, and the giving of alms makes us, as much as possible, like God Himself. This especially makes a man a man. Therefore someone, presenting the image of a man, said among other things: great is the matter – man, and precious – a man who practices mercy (‘Great is a man, and precious is a man who does mercy.’ (Prov. 20:6))” (Saint Chrysostom).

Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

2 Cor. 8:7. But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

“See how the Apostle again joins exhortation with praise to achieve greater praise.” “‘As you excel,’ he says (all is well with you, Oecumenius), ‘in faith,’ that is, in the gifts of faith, ‘in speech,’ that is, in the word of wisdom, ‘in knowledge,’ that is, in understanding of dogmas, ‘in all earnestness,’ that is, in zeal for other virtues, and ‘in your love for us,’ that is, in the love of which I have already spoken and have presented proofs.” “See that you also excel in this grace.” “Do you see! This is why he began the discourse with this very thing and with such praise—so that, proceeding in order, he might stir up in them similar zeal for almsgiving as well.” (St. Chrysostom). Just as an artist, when his picture is perfect in everything except one part which falls short in finish compared to the others, need only be reminded of it to stir his zeal and give that final part the same perfection as the rest of the picture, so the Apostle acts toward the Corinthians. He praised them in all respects, then says: see that almsgiving too does not stand in discord with your other perfections. Yet it is not hard to notice that the praised qualities of the Corinthians are chiefly of a theoretical nature—faith, the gift of speech, knowledge. The active side, plainly, was weaker, as can be inferred from the content of the first letter. Meanwhile, Christianity is primarily a work. Its theory is very brief—it can be summarized in a few words; but its work has no end. The first step in it—work, repentance, and then every step is work and work. And no step in it can be taken without work, by thought alone. The intellectual side in it is like a candle or lamp in a workshop. The work proceeds by its light; it is a helper and aid, but not the chief agent. This is why the Apostle exerts such effort to dispose the Corinthians toward almsgiving. For it is the nearest expression of love toward one’s neighbors, which testifies also to love for God. Almsgiving is sweet: it involuntarily draws one into active life in general.

2 Cor. 8:8. I say this not as a command, but to test the sincerity of your love against the earnestness of others.

To practice almsgiving is a commandment or imperative law; but the manner of fulfilling this commandment cannot be turned into law. This is left to the free choice of each person, to his means and prudence. Meanwhile, by presenting the almsgiving of the Macedonians in such a light, the holy Paul clearly suggested that he desires them to act likewise. Now he explains in what sense he desires this. I do not hide, he says as it were, that I desire this, but still I leave the matter itself to your free choice. I write not as a command, but present you with the occasion to prove by deed the sincerity, γνησιον, the genuineness of your love, and not only the occasion but also motivation in the example of others—through the “earnestness of others” I want to stir your zeal for the same virtue. The purpose of the discourse is to remove the feeling of being under obligation, which might harm the work. You are free, he says, to do it this way or more or less; whatever you do, what you do will be the fruit of your good will, not of any authoritative command of mine. But can one not see that although the Apostle speaks thus, he has so arranged his words and introduced such motivations that one cannot help but do as he indicates and suggests? “See how he is considerate toward them everywhere,” says St. Chrysostom, “he uses no violence or compulsion! He especially takes care that his word not cause offense.” “‘Not as a command,’ he says, ‘do I speak,’ but as one wanting to make your love visible and open to all, and even stronger; I say this in order to stir you to such zeal; I have mentioned the earnestness of the Macedonians to test and awaken your disposition.” Theodoret writes: “I said this not as a command but as advice, with the intention of making you skilled in goodness. For this purpose I pointed you to the earnestness of the Macedonians.”

“Testing,” he says, “the genuineness of your love.” What kind? Toward whom?—The love of Christians, toward God and men, and perhaps also toward St. Paul. Photius says: “Love toward God—active proof and test—generosity to the neighbors. I am assured that you love God and me for his sake, but the most complete manifestation of sincere love is almsgiving given to needy brethren.” Everyone is ready to say he loves God; but show a test. St. John presents such a test: “he who loves God loves also his brother. For he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 Jn. 4:20, 21).

2 Cor. 8:9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

“He presents the highest example” (Theodoret). “He proceeds to another, far higher mode of exhortation. For he leaves not one method of admonition unused, but sets all in motion and employs various turns of speech. Before he exhorted them, now praising others, now praising themselves, for it is more effective for a man to see that he has become lower not only than others, but than himself. Now he proceeds to what constitutes the top and crown of exhortation. ‘You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Picture to yourselves, he says, the grace of God, think and ponder about it, and not in passing pay attention to it, but comprehend all its magnitude and breadth, and then you will not spare anything from your possessions. He (‘being rich,’ as God, ineffable, incomprehensible, invisible, inscrutable, having glory indescribable, light unspeakable, magnificence incomparable, ‘became poor,’ Oecumenius), poured out His glory so that you might be enriched not by wealth, but by His poverty. If you do not believe that poverty produces wealth, then remember your Lord, and you will doubt no longer. For if He had not become poor, He would not have become rich. Indeed it is wonderful that poverty has found wealth. By wealth the Apostle here means knowledge of godliness, cleansing from sins, justification, sanctification and other countless blessings which Christ has given and still promises to give us. “And all this was acquired for us through poverty – what poverty? – That which He took upon Himself flesh, became man, and endured sufferings; although He owed you nothing, but you owe Him” (Saint Chrysostom).

What follows in the present matter from the fact that we are enriched by the poverty of the Lord, who became poor for our sake, the Apostle does not spell out. He leaves it to the Corinthians themselves to conclude, and in a certain way limits the work of the Lord to them alone: “for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich,” although the Lord became poor and enriched all for everyone. He speaks as it were to them: Here is whom to imitate! The Lord. He emptied himself; empty yourselves, if not yourselves, then your treasures for his sake, through the intermediary of the needy. And by this you will prove that you truly love the Lord. One cannot fail to see that the holy Paul had in mind the Lord’s word: “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40). The Lord has enriched you; the law of justice requires you to repay him the same. Enrich the lesser brethren, for what is done to them the Lord graciously accepts as if done to himself. The Lord enriched you spiritually; is it great if you repay him materially in the person of the needy? The former is so high that the latter cannot even be compared to it, whatever sacrifices you make.

2 Cor. 8:10. I give my advice on this: it is best for you who last year began not only to do but even to will.

In the words: “I give my advice… it is best for you,” the preceding exhortation continues. Having indicated in his reminder of the spiritual enrichment through the Lord Jesus Christ the obligation on your part to follow a similar manner of action toward those requiring help and aid, he now says: “I give my advice on this.” From the previous words: “For you know the grace of the Lord” and so on, in the mind of the Corinthians was formed the thought of what exactly is required of them. The Apostle confirms it, as it were saying: yes, yes; it should be so; and I give you advice to fulfill this necessarily, to fulfill it not for any other reason but because it is beneficial for you. Fulfill your duty, imitate the Lord, and in the decisive hour for you, you will hear, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” See how he again takes care not to be burdensome, and how he softens the word with these two expressions: “I give my advice,” and “it is best for you.” I do not force, he says, I do not use violence and do not demand against your will; I say this with a view not so much to the benefit of those receiving alms as to your own (St. Chrysostom).

Having said this and expecting that they are ready but perhaps troubled by something, he finally indicates how it is convenient for them to fulfill it—first, because they have already begun and only need to complete what was begun, and second, because what is being asked is merely that each give according to his means (2 Cor. 8:12–15). By both these he clears as it were the way for them and gives them wings to walk by the indicated path.

“You who… began,” he says, “a year ago.” The matter is already in progress for you; you are not about to make a beginning of it now; other things might have troubled some with the difficulty of how to undertake it or start it; but you already have some experience in conducting it. “He sets before them as an example themselves rather than others” (St. Chrysostom). “A year ago”—this means even before the first letter. In the first letter, instructions were already written on how to conduct the matter. And now there are exhortations to hasten and to gather more. Why especially? Because, he says, you began not only to do but even to will before the Macedonians. You began, but the matter moved slowly with you. The Macedonians meanwhile later conceived and undertook the matter, and succeeded both quickly and in gathering much. So take care that your almsgiving, as it stood first in beginning, should also stand first in completion. With such a thought in the expression: “not only to do but even to will… a year ago,” the order of the statements will not seem reversed. Whoever begins to do first certainly also wills first; but whoever wills first does not yet necessarily do first. But you, he says, began not only to do but even to will before them. The Macedonians might have willed first but only accomplished later. No, he says, not only in deed but even in will you anticipated them. You have priority not only with respect to action but also with respect to desire, that is, you began this matter willingly, without outside suggestions and persuasion (Oecumenius). See how he shows that they came to the same point voluntarily and without exhortations. And since he has testified about the Macedonians that they eagerly took up almsgiving, he wishes to show the same perfection in the Corinthians as well, adding: and not only now do you begin, but before. Therefore I urge you to fulfill what you yourselves first stirred up with such zeal (St. Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 8:11. Now finish the work as well, that just as there was eagerness in the desire, so there also may be in the completion according to what you have.

“And to do it now,” και τοι ποιησαι, and to do so, that is, now complete the deed itself. The thought of the Apostle is this: hasten to act now, do not delay; so that as then, when you only intended this deed, you had much zeal, so also now, in its execution. With what fervor you began the deed, with the same fervor complete it. “He did not say: do; but ‘complete’;’ so that this good deed would not stop at mere zeal, but, being truly accomplished, would receive a reward” (Saint Chrysostom). “To zeal one must add also the testimony of deeds” (Theodoret). It is true that the Corinthians at first showed much fervor in this deed, but then began to grow cold and procrastinate, under various pretexts. One of such pretexts could have been—as some perhaps excused themselves—that there is nothing to give: this year my affairs have gone badly. Against this excuse the Apostle adds: let each one contribute to the common collection “from what he has.” Having alluded to this here with this brief word, he explains his thought further in several verses.

2 Cor. 8:12. For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.

“What unspeakable wisdom! Before he noted that the Macedonians gave beyond their ability, and praised them for it, and now, allowing the example of the Macedonians to produce its effect on them (for it is not so much exhortation as rivalry that impels imitation in such matters), he says: ‘if the willingness is there, it is acceptable according to what one has’ (thus encouraging even the weaker). Do not fear, he says, what I said about the Macedonians, for I said it in praise of their generosity (not as a law for all); but God requires giving according to one’s ability, according to how much one has, not according to how much one does not have. For the word acceptable here means the same as required. Relying on the power of the example presented, he softens his words and thus even more strongly inclines them to give. And the Lord Jesus Christ praised the widow because she gave all her livelihood and gave out of her poverty (Mk. 12:44) (but did not establish this as a law for all). So the Apostle also praises those who give alms beyond their means, but does not compel the Corinthians to do the same, not because he does not wish this for them, but because they were still weak. Otherwise, why praise the Macedonian Churches, that ‘their poverty overflowed in the wealth of their generosity’ and that they gave alms beyond their ability? Is it not evident that he wished to impel the Corinthians to the same? If then he seemingly agrees to the lesser, he does this so that the example of others might urge them to greater.” (Saint Chrysostom). It is undoubtedly true that the strength of zeal makes up for the smallness of quantity; but one must show zeal in deed. “God ordinarily measures what is offered by the strength of each; He looks not at the quantity, but at the quality of intention.” (Theodoret). But the offering must nonetheless be made, and made with zeal, which gives all value to what is offered. When there is zeal, and sincere zeal, it will draw from the treasuries all that is possible.

2 Cor. 8:13. I do not mean that there should be relief for others and hardship for you, but rather equality.

The Apostle writes here the law of justice, not of love, for love has no boundaries. It not only gives all that is its own but even lays down its life for its friends. But such manifestations of love are not introduced into the realm of obligations, for by nature it is impossible to fulfill them. When the grace of the Spirit pours love into the heart, then it offers all in sacrifice, and offers it because it finds satiation in this, and without it feels itself unsatisfied, hungry. But the general order is that one should do only what is possible: “I do not mean… relief for others and hardship for you: but rather equality.” The giver, taking one measure upon himself, raises the other needy one to his measure—and they are equal. If this rule alone had become the law of life among us, poverty would long ago have vanished from among Christians. But the trouble is that in our souls reigns: “it is necessary for myself.” Who will set a limit to this “necessary for myself”? But when it is necessary for oneself, then giving to another becomes suffering for oneself, and there is no equality. And the poor went in suffering without help, while the one who did not give remained in comfortable self-satisfaction: no, he says, the rule is not relief for others and hardship for you, but equality. With this stone he closes the lips of conscience; it falls silent for the time being.

From what point suffering begins for oneself from sharing with others from one’s own—no outsider can determine; one cannot enter the circle of another’s life with one’s own measure. God alone knows the limit, and sometimes one’s own conscience, though there are many obstacles to the reliability of its determinations even within. Only one who has completely settled with worldly affairs can give without limit. But even in such people this is perfection to be desired, though not displayed by all. Therefore the Savior did not point to it at once. The blessed Theodoret came to this thought in connection with the present text and says: “The Master places as perfection complete contempt for possessions and voluntary poverty; nevertheless he teaches that even without this perfection one can attain eternal life. For when the youth asked:” “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Lk. 10:25) “he did not at once present the teaching about perfection but reminded him of other commandments, and when the youth said he had fulfilled all the commandments, he advised him to choose an unconcerned and unmercenary life. Instructed by this, the Divine Apostle does not establish something great as law but adapts the laws to the weakness of the spirit. Therefore he said: ‘I do not mean… relief for others and hardship for you,’ and commanded to give the surplus.”

2 Cor. 8:14. At the present moment, your abundance will supply their need, that their abundance may also supply your need, so that there may be equality.

At first sight it seems that the Apostle’s thought is: now you are in sufficiency while they are in poverty; so transfer your surplus to them and cover their poverty. Another time, when God blesses them and they are in plenty, they will help you from their surplus if you happen to be in want. But we must not suppose that the Apostle had exactly such a thought, for this almost never happens, and those who give to others never have in mind such equal repayment here. And what kind of incentive and comfort is it: you too will be poor?! Therefore we must suppose that in the words: ‘their abundance may also supply your need’ is hidden the thought that not a future abundance of theirs but their present abundance should supply your present want. In what respect? Not otherwise than in respect to spiritual wealth. You are rich in material things while they are rich in spiritual things. Give them what you have in abundance and receive in return what they have in abundance. That is, you will give material things and receive spiritual things. This is how all our commentators understand it. St. Chrysostom says: “You are rich in money while they are rich in purity of life and boldness before God. Therefore give them from your abundance of possessions what they do not have, and yourselves receive from them in exchange boldness before God, which they are rich in and in which you are lacking. Do you see now how he imperceptibly persuades the Corinthians to give even beyond their means and even from want! If you wish, he says, to receive only from surplus, then give from surplus; if however you wish to gain everything, then give also from want and beyond your means. However, he does not say this openly but leaves it to the listeners to reach this conclusion themselves. He himself continues with the presumed and suitable exhortation for his goal, adding what apparently should have been said: ‘so that there may be equality.’ How then will there be this equality? In that we and they will mutually share with each other our surpluses and thereby make up for mutual needs. But what kind of equality is it to repay with spiritual what is given in material? The latter far surpasses the former. So why does he call this equality?” Theophylact answers this more fully: “It is not according to the value or lack of value of what is given and mutually received that he said: there may be equality; but since what you have in abundance you give from that, and conversely, what they have in abundance they give from that, and again, what you lack you receive from them and what they lack they receive from you. Thus there will be equality.”

2 Cor. 8:15. As it is written: Whoever gathered much did not have more, and whoever gathered little did not have less. (Ex. 16:18)

“So it was at the gathering of manna: some gathered more, others less, but both the one and the other had found with them an equal measure; God himself punished greed” (St. Chrysostom). “No one who gathered more had any advantage, because the Great Giver combined measure with the gift” (Theodoret). It happened thus. When manna fell for the first time, everyone was commanded to gather one omer per person. Nevertheless, despite this command, some, being greedy, gathered more. But when they measured it, it turned out that even they had no more than one omer per person for their family. And it came to pass that both the one who gathered more did not have surplus and the one who gathered less did not have want. God equalized everyone by a special miracle. But what was done here by miracle, the Apostle persuades to do out of love. Give your surplus, he says, to the needy, and you will both have equal, that is, each the amount needed for his necessities. Theophylact writes: “The Apostle brings up what happened at the gathering of manna, also to show how equalization comes about. Namely, when the rich man, having much, gives his surplus to the one having little, and he himself will not have surplus, and the one who has little will not have want, as having received from him what is needful. The same again happens in respect to boldness before God.”

The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24)

The holy Paul has already presented sufficient motivations for the willing gathering of alms, and there is no sign that he doubted the Corinthians would follow his advice and direction. But probably they had given reason to think that this matter would continue to move slowly with them. Therefore he judged it necessary to send Titus to them with two brothers to attend exclusively to this matter. In informing the Corinthians of such an arrangement, he tells a) who these messengers are, entrusting them to the attention and care of the Corinthians, and b) then indicates why he made this arrangement.

m) Who Are Being Sent (2 Cor. 8:16–24)

Titus from the Apostle’s side, and another brother from the Jerusalem Church, and another from the Macedonian churches. How many motivations for the Corinthians are in this composition of the delegation to show themselves corrected!

2 Cor. 8:16. But thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus the same eagerness for you that I have.

In everything that the holy Paul has said up to now about alms, the Corinthians could not fail to see how much he desires that they show themselves corrected in this matter. He is zealous for the good reputation of the Corinthians. Therefore he does not limit himself to exhortations alone but sends Titus. He had already mentioned this before, saying that he urged Titus; now he adds to it: I thank God that Titus has agreed to come to you, and not only because he agreed, but especially because he displays the same zeal for your good name, or that you show yourselves perfect, as I have. God has so disposed his heart toward you. Thanksgiving to God.

St. Chrysostom says: “The Apostle praises Titus again. For since he has been speaking about alms, he now wants to speak also of those who will receive alms from the Corinthians. This was necessary for the success of the collection and for stirring greater readiness in those who are eager. For people give far more generously when they are assured of the honesty of those serving and do not suspect those receiving the alms. Listen then how here too, to achieve this, he praises those being sent, among whom Titus was first. He says: ‘But thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus the same eagerness for you that I have.’ What does ‘the same’ mean? The same that I myself have. Notice his wisdom. By showing that this is the work of God (that is, Titus’s eagerness), he gives thanks to the one who gave it so that by this too he might stir the Corinthians. For if God has raised up and sent him to you, then without doubt he himself is asking through him. So do not regard this as a work of man.” By this he speaks to them as it were: “So you ought to make an offering worthy of God” (Theophylact).

2 Cor. 8:17. For he not only accepted our urging, but being very eager, he is going to you of his own accord.

He explains that Titus has his own eagerness concerning them. My request was indeed made, but he himself hastens to you, not so much fulfilling my command as satisfying his own desire to be with you and to act together with you for your good. “Although I urged him, yet he was not moved by me but by his own will and God’s grace. ‘He is going of his own accord,’ that is, he seized the work for himself, hastened to the treasure, counted it as his own benefit to serve you and to love you so greatly that I had no need to persuade him” (St. Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 8:18. We are sending with him the brother who is famous among all the churches for his proclaiming the good news.

Titus was already known in Corinth. It was enough to say that he comes to you on wings of love, as to his own loved and dear ones. As for the other messengers, about them it was necessary to say at least as much as was needed for an initial acquaintance.

“We are sending with him the brother.” He does not give his name, so there is no point in guessing about it. Whomever you name, it will all be supposition, always replaceable by tens of others. He does not name him but points out in him what constitutes his glory, namely: “the brother who is famous among all the churches for his proclaiming the good news.” In the very preaching of the Gospel, or in furthering the good news through other, incidental labors—“his proclaiming… among all the churches.” “Among all the churches” in which he happened to be. Wherever he was, he always left a good name about himself. After such praise of him from all, I have nothing more to praise about him; it is enough to speak of this. St. Chrysostom asks: why did the holy Paul not name this brother, just as also the other whom he mentions below? And he answers: “Perhaps they were unknown to the Corinthians. He does not elaborate about them, because the Corinthians had not yet experienced their virtues; but he speaks of them as much as was needed to inspire good opinion of them in the Corinthians and remove suspicion.”

2 Cor. 8:19. Not only that, but he has also been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we administer this generous gift in a way that honors the Lord and shows our eagerness to help.

“Not only that,” and it is not only what I have said that is worthy of attention and respect in him, “but also” that he “has been appointed by the churches,” χειροτονηθεις, ordained, chosen by common vote and through the laying on of hands determined for a certain work. “The Apostle turns to his honor the judgment of those who ordained him, for this is significant” (St. Chrysostom). To what has he been appointed? “To travel with us,” συνεκδημος ημων, to be our companion, fellow traveler, to accompany us. But to what end? To be a companion and co-worker with us in the work of gathering alms, “in administering this generous gift.” “That is, he was chosen to serve in the gathering of alms. We asked, he says, that they choose him and send him with us, entrusting to him the office of steward of church property and deacon. For such an office is significant. ‘So that you may select from among yourselves seven men… of good repute’ (Acts 6:3) was said about the Jerusalem deacons. And he was chosen by the Churches by the consent of all the people” (St. Chrysostom). From this it is evident that when the holy Apostles in Jerusalem “gave the right hand” to the holy Paul to go on a preaching mission among “the Gentiles, only… remembering the poor” (Gal. 2:9, 10), at that time the holy Paul asked them to choose and send with him a reliable man who would be occupied primarily with the management of the work of remembering the poor; and that such a person was indeed chosen by common voice and ordained to this ministry and always accompanied the holy Paul. He is the one whom he speaks of now. Thus reason all our commentators and see in this person the holy Barnabas. “From this I conjecture,” says St. Chrysostom, “that the Apostle means Barnabas here.” So do all. Against the view that it was Barnabas, some difficulties can be raised, but that it was a man trusted by the Churches of Palestine and from the very beginning appointed to accompany the holy Paul, this thought is impressed by the whole course of the present discourse.

“In a way that honors the Lord and shows our eagerness to help.” “That is, so that God be glorified and you become more eager in giving when those receiving these alms are tried men, so that no one can have even false suspicion against them” (St. Chrysostom). Some read: “shows our eagerness,” not “your eagerness.” Theodoret and Oecumenius also read thus. In such case these words, as well as “in a way that honors the Lord,” should be referred to “has been appointed”; it will be: appointed to this work of gathering for the poor of Jerusalem to honor the Lord and to further our eagerness for this work and, one might add, to protect it from criticism, as the following words show.

2 Cor. 8:20. We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this generous gift.

The Apostle eagerly cared about the collection of alms but himself kept far from what was gathered. It went into the hands of the said trustee, and to protect suspicion, St. Paul sent with him someone from the local church where a significant collection had been made, bringing alms to Jerusalem, as he had written earlier to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 16:3). His purpose was to protect the holy deed from any accusations and spread the assurance that what is given goes certainly by the will of those giving directly to the needy. With this purpose, he sends these men—“that no one might speak against us regarding this generous gift.” “That no one might suspect us or take occasion to reproach us as if we appropriate something from the alms entrusted to us, we have sent these men, not one but two and three. He frees them not only by saying they are preachers chosen by the churches, but also that they are men of proven honesty. And he did not say so you might not reproach; but ‘that no one might speak against us in this abundant gift.’ The very abundance, the large amount of alms, can awaken suspicion in evil men if we do not take precautions.” (St. Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 8:21. For we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord’s sight but also in the sight of others.

We strive, he says, to do good not only so that it be pure and perfect before God and our conscience, but also so that others see it as such, not for the sake of praise, but so we do not cause a brother to stumble. “Not contenting ourselves with the testimony of the Lord alone, we wish that men too have a good opinion of us and derive benefit from this.” (Theodoret). Causing others to stumble through unwise doing of good works much diminishes the goodness of these works. One cannot say: my conscience is pure; let him who loves to suspect think as he wishes. This betrays a hard heart, which wants to pay no attention to the weakness of the weak, a heart that is also proud, despising others. To act thus – means to forge ahead blindly. There are circumstances when such action is unavoidable, but not always. In the ordinary course of affairs it is necessary to spare the consciences of the weak, for this too belongs to the circle of deeds which fulfills the rule: “we who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Rom. 15:1). Keeping to this law, the Apostle himself acted as he speaks. – Saint Chrysostom says about this: “Who can compare in wisdom with Paul? He did not say: let him who dares to suspect me in anything be wretched and perish; as long as my conscience does not accuse me – I care not for those who suspect. On the contrary, the weaker they were, the more he condescended to them. Not to be angry at the sick, but to help them, one ought to do. Meanwhile, from what sin are we as far removed as he is from such suspicions? If there were one like to a demon, yet he could not suspect the blessed Apostle in this ministry. However much he was far from being suspected, yet he does and arranges everything so as not to leave even the slightest shadow for those who would wish to suspect something evil. He avoids not only accusation, but evil opinion, the slightest reproach and idle suspicion.”

2 Cor. 8:22. With them we are sending our brother, whom we have often tested and found eager in many things, and now still more eager because of his great confidence in you.

We are sending with them, he says, our brother. This is someone from those near the holy Paul, executing various commissions for him both in the preaching of the Gospel and in other matters, perhaps even in the very gathering of alms. It is thought that this was someone from among the Macedonians. Three eyes the holy Paul turned toward the Corinthians—his own in the person of Titus, those of the Palestinians and Macedonians (and perhaps also Asians) in the persons of these two brothers. How much stirring and excitement did he give these Corinthians! In adding this brother to the others, he does not leave him without an approving reference but sets forth in him one characteristic especially—zeal. To what end?—Most directly to the careful fulfillment of commissions. Since all of the holy Paul’s commissions concerned the work of the Gospel and consequently the work of God, the power inspiring zeal was zeal for God. This, he says, is a man, σπουδαιος, a zealous man: I have tested his eagerness and faithfulness in many works and many occasions, often repeatedly. He always showed himself careful; now, when I send him to you, he shows special carefulness, in the confidence that he will best fulfill the commission entrusted to him among you. He highly values you and relies on you in all things. This last addition was not superfluous to dispose the Corinthians in his favor. St. Chrysostom says: “Thus he adds yet another one, and with praise and approval, both his own and that of many other witnesses: ‘whom we have often tested and found eager in many things, and now still more eager.’” “Having praised him for his own merits, he praises him also for his love for them, and what he said of Titus, ‘being very eager, he is going… of his own accord,’ he says the same of this one:” “‘and now still more eager… because of his great confidence in you,’ that is, after Paul has sown seeds of love for the Corinthians in him.”

2 Cor. 8:23. As for Titus, he is my partner and co-worker among you. And as for our brothers, they are representatives of the churches, and an honor to Christ.

“Having shown the virtues of all his messengers, he disposes the Corinthians in their favor. ‘As for Titus,’ that is, if I should say anything about Titus, I will say that he is ‘my partner and co-worker among you.’ He gives to understand that if they do anything for Titus, they do it not for an ordinary man: he is ‘my partner.’ And while seemingly praising Titus to them, he at the same time praises the Corinthians, showing in them such regard for himself that they consider it sufficient reason to respect a man as soon as they learn he is Paul’s partner. Not satisfied with this, the Apostle adds: ‘and co-worker among you.’ Not simply a co-worker, but in works concerning you: in your progress, perfection, in love and care for you. This above all could attract the hearts of the Corinthians to him. ‘And as for our brothers.’ If you wish to know anything about the others, they have the greatest rights to your goodwill. For they too are ‘our brothers’ and ‘representatives of the churches,’ that is, sent from the churches, and what is most important, ‘an honor to Christ.’ For him must be attributed everything that is done through them. So if you wish to receive them as brothers, or as messengers of churches, or as doing everything for the honor of Christ, in any case you have many reasons to show them your goodwill. For as about Titus I can say that he is my partner and loves you, so about these I will say that they are brothers, messengers of churches, an honor to Christ. Do you see from this that these latter were not known to the Corinthians? Otherwise the Apostle would praise them for the same thing he praised Titus for, namely their love for the Corinthians. But since they were still unknown to them, he says: receive them as brothers, as messengers of churches, as doing everything for the honor of Christ.” (St. Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 8:24. So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men.

Thus, he says, show proof of your love, demonstrate your Christian love for them and thereby prove that we have praised you truly. By showing love to them, you will show love and respect to those churches on whose behalf they have been sent. “Display all the riches of your love and confirm my praise of you, for by this you will honor all the churches” (Theodoret). St. Chrysostom says: “Now show, he says, that you love us and that we do not boast about you vainly and without cause. And prove this by showing them your love. Then he gives his word special force by saying: ‘before the churches,’ that is, for the glory and honor of the churches. For if you honor them, you honor the sending churches. Your honor relates not only to them but also to those who sent them, who chose them, and even before that to God’s glory. For when we honor God’s servants, through them we honor God as well.”

Why the Apostle Sent Titus and the Brethren Ahead (2 Cor. 9:1–5)

So that everything would be ready among the Corinthians for his coming to them, and that when he came to them with the Macedonians, he would not be put to shame because of their lack of readiness.

Rom. 9:1. About the ministry to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you.

Why then is it needless to write, when I have already written so much? This he says here as a supplement to the preceding discourse (2 Cor. 8:24). I am speaking to you now only so that you receive with love those sent, but concerning the ministry to the saints, that is, concerning alms for the poor people of Jerusalem, it is needless for me to mention. And it is needless both because I have already spoken much, and because this deed is already being done among you.—“To write about the ministry,” means, namely, to explain what it consists in, to whom it goes, why it is necessary, and such like. Our commentators, however, see in such a turn of speech a subtle, irrefutably strong persuasion toward generosity. Theodoret expresses such a thought by a general statement: “The Apostle, having spoken in detail about those serving in what is needfully required, called exhortation concerning generosity needless, not really considering it needless, but in this manner of speech stirring them to greater generosity.” Saint Chrysostom develops this in more detail. “Having reasoned so long about this ministry, having said so much, he now says: ‘it is needless for me to write to you…’ And he does this in order to attract them more. For for a man about whom there is such a rumor, that he needs no advice, it is shameful to show himself below the good opinion of himself and to lose it. He proceeds similarly mostly also in his rebukes, employing a turn of speech called praeteritio (παραλειφις, praeteritio), for it has greater power.”

2 Cor. 9:2. For I know the eagerness of your mind, of which I boast about you to the Macedonians, that Achaia has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them.

He said: ‘I am not writing to you about this,’ yet at the same time he gives advice, and see how. ‘I know your eagerness, about which I boast to the Macedonians on your behalf.’ Much is gained by his knowing it himself, but far more important is that he communicates it to others. This has special power, for they would not have wished to be shamed before so many people. Do you see the wisdom of his advice? He convinced them by the example of others, that is, the Macedonians: ‘I want you to know about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia’ (2 Cor. 8:1); he convinced them by their own example (2 Cor. 8:10), he convinced them by the example of the Lord Himself: “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor” (2 Cor. 8:9). Now again he resorts to the strongest mode of persuasion – the example of others, presenting it in a particularly persuasive form. The example of the Lord and promised rewards should have acted more on them; but since they were still weak, he attracts them by the example of those like them, for nothing acts so powerfully as rivalry. And see in what new form he proposes this kind of persuasion to them! He did not say: imitate them; but what? “The zeal of some spurred on the majority of you.” What do you say? I recently said myself about the Macedonians that they voluntarily with much entreaty begged you to accept their gift. How then now does he say: “the eagerness of you” (Corinthians) “stirred up the majority’?” Yes, he answers, we did not advise them, did not persuade them, but only praised you and boasted in you, and this was sufficient for their persuasion. Do you see how he arouses them by mutual example, – the Corinthians by the example of the Macedonians, and the Macedonians by the example of the Corinthians; and this rivalry even more strengthens what is joined with great praise. And so that this does not give them reason for pride, he expresses it with special skill: “the zeal of you stirred up the majority.” Imagine how it must be for those who were for others the cause of generosity to fall behind them in charity! Therefore he did not say: imitate them, for by this he would not have aroused such rivalry; but how did he say? – They imitated you: you, teachers, do not prove yourselves worse than the disciples. And see how, to further stir and inflame them, he acts as if he is taking their side and defending their cause, as if there were a dispute and contest about it. (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 9:3. But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, but that you may be ready as I say you are.

I spoke in Macedonia, I said, that you were ready since last year, that is, that you have collected everything and it is ready; it remains to hand it over to the brothers designated to receive the collection. Representing how bad it would be if I come with the Macedonians and your collection is not yet ready, I have sent brothers to you for the purpose that you be prepared as I said to the Macedonians, and that my boast about you not be shown to be empty, vain, false—not in general but only “in this matter,” that is, with respect to the preparation of the collection among you.

“Do you see in what anxiety and fear he is? So that all he said would not seem to be said only for persuasion (of the Macedonians) and not because it was actually so, he says: ‘But I am sending the brothers’—I am so concerned for you—‘so that our boasting about you may not prove empty.’ Apparently he gives great attention to the Corinthians, though he cares equally for all. And the meaning of his words is thus: I boast much about you, I speak of you with admiration to all, and I boasted to the Macedonians. Therefore if you show yourselves not to be such, the shame will be common. And he expresses this carefully, for he added: ‘in this matter,’ and not in all things. ‘But that you may be ready as I say you are.’ For I spoke to the Macedonians not that you would be ready but that you have everything already prepared and lack nothing in any way. Therefore, he says, I want you to show this indeed.” (St. Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 9:4. If some Macedonians should come with me and find you unprepared, we shall be ashamed—not to mention you—of this confidence.

The circumstances have arranged themselves in such a way that in their very development there lies an irresistible compulsion for the Corinthians to hasten the collection, and not only hasten it but also make sure it is not meager. In explanation of why the holy Paul is so concerned about this and gathers motivation upon motivation, one can suppose that the holy Titus brought word of the slowness of the collection of alms—that they are ready to give but are slow in collecting, thinking to gather everything at once when the holy Paul arrives. He now presents to the Corinthians representations by which they should feel themselves in an inescapable position: you have no choice but to hasten the collection, and with a significant collection.

“See how he acts on them not only with spiritual but also with human incentives. If you do not respect me, then think of the Macedonians, ‘that perhaps, if they come with me, they will find you’—‘unprepared,’ that is, not having completed everything. If it is shameful to give late, think what shame not to give at all or to give less than proper. ‘That we not be ashamed, that you not say’—and with the words: ‘in this matter of boasting’—he again softens his speech, to show that those who have distinguished themselves by other virtues should also distinguish themselves in this virtue.” (St. Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 9:5. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead and prepare your promised gift, that it might be ready not as an exaction but as a willing gift.

For this reason, he says, I also deemed it necessary to urge the brothers, mentioned before, that they go to you beforehand, before me, and beforehand prepare “what was announced before,” which you determined and told me, and which I and others recounted – “your blessing,” that which you willingly and with goodwill determined to gather for the needy, – prepared, as was announced before, so that at my coming with the Macedonians all this would be ready, but ready “as a blessing,” as a willing offering with an open heart, accompanied by good wishes to those to whom it is given, and “not as coercion” – not stingy: it is not good to constrain almsgiving with stinginess and accompany it with unwilling feeling or word to those to whom it is given. Saint Chrysostom says: “In another place he speaks of the same thing, explaining that the brothers go for no other reason than so that the Corinthians not remain in shame. All his care is directed at that almsgiving be gathered quickly and generously. At the end he adds that it should also be cordial, – ‘as a blessing, not as coercion.’ He desires that the gift be unpressured. For almsgiving is a blessing, is performed with goodwill and brings blessing from on high. ‘Not as coercion.’ Coercion is characteristic of those who give under pressure; and therefore whoever gives alms under pressure gives stingily.”

An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11)

At the end of the preceding section he only hinted that alms should be given “as a willing gift, not as an exaction,” that is, willingly, generously, and cordially, not with stinginess and reluctance. Now he explains this thought more fully, showing: a) that according to the measure of our willingness and generosity, God’s blessing from on high is measured, verses 6–11, and b) that this willing generosity sets in motion the whole religious life in the midst of Christian communities, so it is the glory of the Church, or of believers in Christ, the glory of Christian confession, verses 12–15.

o) The Measure of Willing Generosity—the Measure of God’s Blessing (2 Cor. 9:6–11)

2 Cor. 9:6. Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

“I say this,” that is, this is what I mean, so that giving is “as a willing gift, not as an exaction.” He explains why almsgiving should be as a willing gift, for it brings blessing. St. Chrysostom said above: “Do you see how even in the very exhortation he immediately shows forth the fruit brought by giving, namely that those who give are filled with blessing.” The Apostle explains more fully now by comparing giving to sowing. The universal truth is known: what you sow, so you will reap. The sower knows this; therefore he sows both willingly and without stinting his seeds. The assurance that he will certainly reap what is sown with abundance—thirty, sixty, a hundredfold—emboldens him. The Apostle applies this to almsgiving. A sower seems to waste and scatter seeds, one knows not for what. So anyone who doesn’t know the purpose of sowing and what it will yield might think. One giving alms seems to scatter his goods one knows not for what; yet the deed certainly bears fruit, and bears it more surely than sowing. From sowing there is not always a harvest, although always expected, but from almsgiving there is never a failure of harvest—it always bears fruit. One need only put willingness into it, so it pours forth from the heart with the desire to exhaust oneself for others. This disposition is like timely rain upon sowing. The lack of such disposition in almsgiving is like drought for sowing. The Apostle’s expressions hint precisely at this. “Whoever sows sparingly,” φειδομενως with sparing and reluctance over seeds, or in other words, stingily, “will also reap sparingly”—and will reap φειδομενως; the earth will contract its depths as he his hand, and will produce for him what is sown sparingly. “Whoever sows generously,” with desire to scatter as much as possible, with overflowing from his heart unwillingness to spare himself and his own, “will also reap generously’:” the earth also will open freely its depths to him, as he opens his sowing hands. What the earth gives to the sower, God gives to the giver of alms, proportioning the generosity of recompense to the willingness of giving. Theodoret writes: “The Apostle very aptly employed the metaphor and called generosity sowing, pointing to the abundant fruit of benevolence; he set forth and those led by avarice, saying that the harvest is proportioned to the amount of seed.” St. Chrysostom says: “Whoever sows sparingly,’ φειδομενως. He did not say: stingily, but used the more noble name of the thrifty one (φειδολου); and he called the very action sowing, so you immediately remember recompense, imagine the harvest and understand that in giving to others, you gain more yourself than you give. Therefore he did not say: the giver, but ‘sows.’ Nor did he say either: if you sow, but he used a general expression. Neither did he say again—generously, but, which is far more important: ‘generously.”

2 Cor. 9:7. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

“Each one as the will of the heart has,”—let him give. Give as much as your heart is disposed to. What is not by this measure will be barren. This would be the same as sowing seed, crushing or damaging it to the point of spoiling the sprout. Like such seed is dead seed, and therefore barren, so alms given with sorrow and reluctantly are dead alms and deserve no reward. The tightness of heart and absence of cheerfulness in giving kills it. What he says: “not from sorrow, nor from necessity,” by “sorrow” is meant regret about what is being given, when one gives but in heart regrets and grieves that they are giving: this is a sign of stinginess; and by “necessity” is meant compulsion; not from the heart and not willingly do they give, but being compelled, either by necessity of obedience, or by the commonality of the deed, or by other external considerations. If not for these compulsions, there would be no alms. The Apostle wants alms to come from the heart, as juicy grass comes from rich earth. In confirmation of this “he also brings testimony from Scripture, saying: ‘for the cheerful giver’ God ‘loves’ (Prov. 22:9). The Apostle used this word (‘cheerfully’) to move the Corinthians to generous giving. For as the example of the Macedonians and all else was sufficient to move them to generous giving, he does not speak much about this anymore, but directs the discourse to the point that they give not under compulsion. For if almsgiving is a virtue, and every deed done under compulsion loses its reward, then the Apostle rightly reminded them of this” (Saint Chrysostom). “He said the same thing also in the letter to the Romans: ‘let the one who shows mercy do so’ with a willing heart (Rom. 12:8), for monetary almsgiving must be preceded by a willing heart” (Theodoret).

2 Cor. 9:8. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

“Every grace” every good in abundance send to you in place of what you expend, “God is able”, if He wills, not so that you are immersed in pleasures, but so that you abound in the doing of good deeds. Saint Chrysostom sees in these words not assurance in confidence of hope, but a prayer for the same purpose. He says: “The Apostle not only advises, but also prays to God for them, saying: ‘God is able to make all grace abound in you.’ By this prayer he removes from them the thought that militates against generosity, which even now serves as an obstacle for many. For many fear to give alms under the pretext of not themselves becoming poor and having to beg from others. Therefore, to dispel this fear, he adds a prayer, saying: ‘all grace abound in you,’ not only fulfill, but ‘abound.’ What does it mean: ‘grace is able to abound’?’ – He is able to enrich you so much that you can abound even with such generosity, ‘so that you may always have enough in all things and may abound in every good work.’ See, and what wisdom in his prayer itself. He does not ask God for riches and excess for them, but for all sufficiency. And this is not the only thing admirable in him, but especially that as he does not ask God for excess, so he equally does not cause them distress, but, condescending to their weakness, does not compel them to give from want, but asks sufficiency and at the same time shows that God’s gifts ought not to be misused: ‘so that you may abound in every good work.’ For this reason, he says, I ask sufficiency for you, so that you may give to others too. And he did not say: give, but: ‘may abound.’ For in bodily goods he asks for them sufficiency, but in spiritual goods, not only in mercy, but in all else besides, he asks them abundance. For this is what the words mean: ‘in every good work.’”

2 Cor. 9:9. As it is written: He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.

“The Apostle brings in the prophet as counselor (Ps. 111:9), having found a testimony that urges to generosity. For the word ‘scattered abroad’ means nothing other than generosity in giving. And although what is given is no more, the fruits of giving remain forever. This is remarkable: what is kept perishes while what is scattered remains and remains forever. By ‘righteousness’ here is meant benevolence, for it makes people righteous and, like fire, destroys human sins when it pours forth abundantly.” (Ps. 111:9) (St. Chrysostom).

By this testimony the Apostle teaches that although the Lord, according to his wise plans of providence over us, does not always reward here those who scatter their possessions on the poor, the power of benevolence is not thereby diminished—it remains forever. Time will end but the fruits of benevolence will remain and in their time will be reaped by the benefactor. But also in this age, the same prophet assures, “I have not seen a righteous man—a benefactor—abandoned, nor his seed begging bread. All day long he is gracious and lends, and his offspring will be blessed” (Ps. 36:25, 26).

“So let us not be stingy; on the contrary, let us scatter generously. Don’t you see how much others give to comedians and depraved women? You give to Christ, at least half of what they give to dancers. Give at least as much to the hungry as they give from vanity to performers at spectacles. They adorn the body of the depraved with a multitude of gold; you don’t even want to clothe in simple dress the flesh of Christ, even seeing that it is naked. Scattering your wealth on satisfying your belly, on drunkenness and debauchery, you don’t want to remember poverty. You scatter freely on what is empty, but when there is need to ease someone’s poverty, you count yourself poorer than all. When you pamper jesters and flatterers, you rejoice as if scattering on them from inexhaustible sources, but when you see a poor man, at once fear of poverty seizes you” (St. Chrysostom). Such instruction from the holy father is never superfluous at any time, which is why it is inserted here.

2 Cor. 9:10. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

He expresses a prayer of goodwill to the Corinthians, that God increase their material blessings so they might become rich in spiritual blessings. “God—he says—‘gives seed to the sower and bread for food; he will provide and multiply the seed you have sown.’” This seed—material blessings, sufficiency in all things, for they sow them into almsgiving. May God increase in you what can be sown. But having received what one can sow, one can turn it to one’s own benefit rather than to alms. Therefore the Apostle asks God that the Corinthians apply them to almsgiving—he asks God to increase in them “the harvest of your righteousness.” Harvest, γεννηματα, offspring, fruits. May God grant that you, having received sufficiency, direct all to the multiplication of benevolence and become rich in the fruits of righteousness. The Apostle desires that in them material sufficiency go hand in hand with spiritual advancement. St. Chrysostom: “‘He will provide and multiply the seed you have sown, and may he increase the harvest of your righteousness.’ And by this he again imperceptibly suggests generosity. For as seed thrown into the earth produces a rich harvest, so generous almsgiving brings full sheaves of righteousness and produces countless fruits.”

2 Cor. 9:11. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

“Let” – not all our interpreters read it, and others do not have it. It is read only: “abounding in everything” and further, – εν παντι πλουτιζομενοι. The thought they see here is as if it stood: πλουτιζομενων. In connection with what precedes it will be: “let God increase” God“the harvest of your righteousness,” υμων, you, πλουτιζομενων, abounding in everything, – which can be restated thus: so that you abound in everything, that is, receive every sufficiency from God, but not for your own pleasure, but “in all generosity,” that is, for all liberality or increase of charitable works. Theophylact writes: “The Apostle shows how one should use wealth. One should not bury it in the ground, he says, but have it in all generosity, that is, spend it with all liberality.” – “Which produces thanksgiving to God through us.” Receiving from your generosity aid, the needy will send up thanksgiving to God, both for giving you sufficiency and for inspiring you to make good use of it. By the word: “through us” the Apostle means his mediation in arranging the giving of alms. Saint Chrysostom says: “Spend your wealth not on what ought not to be spent, but on that by which thanksgiving is brought to God. God has entrusted much to our power; and, reserving to Himself the lesser, has yielded to us the more important. Thus, He has entrusted to Himself the care of our bodily food, but has committed to us the care of spiritual food, and in our power is it to make flourishing the fields of our mind. For they require neither rain nor temperate air – only willingness, and they will grow to heaven itself. ‘By generosity’ he calls here that liberality from which alms proceed, which gives occasion for great thanksgiving.”

Generous Giving Sets the Whole Christian Life in Motion, to God’s Glory (2 Cor. 9:12–15)

St. Chrysostom transitions from the preceding to this subject thus: “Generosity not only gives occasion for thanksgiving but also for much else. The Apostle enumerates this in the following words, so that by showing many good consequences of generosity, he might stir them to greater zeal. What are these fruits?—Listen to what he himself says:”

2 Cor. 9:12. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

“The service of this ministry,” διακονια της λειτουργιας, as it were the performance of service in this liturgical, worshipful matter. He means both the entire institution of gathering alms and the gathering itself and its delivery to the place and its distribution to the needy. He called this a liturgical work because of its being pleasing to God, for those who perform it seem to be performing sacred worship and offering a sacrifice to God, upon which God himself looks with favor. This service, he says, “is not only” “supplying the needs of the Lord’s people;” “do not think that through this you will advance only in one thing and serve only the needs of the saints” (Theodoret); “you are not only” “supplying the poverty of the saints” (St. Chrysostom); “this service does not only produce” “coverage of the deficiencies and needs of the saints” (Oecumenius). Although this is a very great work, the fruit of almsgiving is not limited to this alone. It is at the same time “overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.” This fruit is better and higher than that; that remains on earth, but this ascends to heaven. Thanksgiving to God is a simple feeling, a single one, but it comes from a sense of blessing being ordered by God. In inscrutable ways he stirs the hearts to benevolence and himself arranges everything so it reaches to its place indicated by him. What faith, self-devotion to God, and clear sight of the divine order of affairs in those who give thanks to God! Such a movement of spirit in the hearts of believers helped by you would not be, he says, if it were not for your alms. Just as the scent of a rose brought into a place not only pleases the eyes of those looking but spreads its pleasant fragrance far and wide, so alms overflow with spiritual good, which is all expressed in thanksgiving to God. When the Apostle says that the service overflows, by this he means not only that the benefited give much thanks, but that on this account not they alone but many others give thanks too, so thanksgiving to God spreads everywhere and like incense from the censer rises up to heaven everywhere.

2 Cor. 9:13. And they glorify God for your obedience that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.

The movement of spirit aroused by this service does not stop at thanksgiving but rises to glorification of God, which is higher and more rarefied than thanksgiving. For it is called forth by perception of the beauty and perfection of God’s works, without consideration of their beneficial relation to those who glorify. What then do they perceive in this service?—The victoriousness of the Gospel and its beneficialness for all.

“By proof of this service,” δια της δοκιμης, having tasted the fruit of this service, having tried how sweet it is for them, and having given thanks to God for it, they begin to glorify him. For what? First, “for your obedience that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ,” because he subjected you to the Gospel and disposed you to confess the faith of Christ. Jerusalem and Corinth—how far has the light of Christ spread! Glory to you, O Lord! Darkness of error passes, the light of truth reigns. Glory to God! St. Chrysostom says: “‘So as not to give the thought that they give thanks merely because they receive benefits, see how elevated he presents them. What I said about myself in the letter to the Philippians: ‘Not that I am seeking a gift’ (Phil. 4:17), I testify the same about them. Although they rejoice that you make up their deficiencies and ease their poverty, they rejoice far more that you are obedient to the Gospel.” Theodoret writes: “Through experience of this service, seeing how you received the divine preaching, how you yourselves submitted to the Master, they raise glorification to the author of this, God.”

“This is the first reason for glorification, but there is another. This is ‘your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.’ They glorify God for the fact that the Gospel in you was not received dead but has benefited you actively. Selfish principles reign everywhere in the fallen. The Gospel, establishing itself in hearts, expels selfishness and establishes there selfless self-sacrifice of all for all. This we see in you, in your generosity in sharing not only with us but with all, in the fact that you are ready generously to share with all everything that God himself has sent to you. In this is the glory of the Gospel, the glory of Christianity. No other faith gives this. Such disposition is given by the grace of the Spirit, given by faith alone in Christ the Lord. This is not hidden from the unbelievers either. And they too begin to be conscious of this and marvel at the power of the Gospel. And thus they glorify God who chose you as an instrument for glorifying the power of our confession. The Apostle enters the thoughts and feelings of the benefited Jerusalemites and says that they have already turned away from themselves and look at your generosity—your generous sharing with all—and, seeing in this the glory of the Gospel, glorify God. St. Chrysostom stops attention on this turning away of the Jerusalemites from themselves and points out their highly praiseworthy side. ‘They glorify God because you are so generous not only to them but to all. This—giving thanks to God for what is given to others—serves to their praise. Although they themselves are in dire poverty, they care not only for their own advantage but for the advantage of others. This shows their high virtue. For no one is as envious as the poor; but they are free from this passion, and not only do they not envy, seeing your benefits to others, but they even rejoice no less as if they themselves had received them.’”

2 Cor. 9:14. And in their prayers for you they long for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.

The grammatical structure of this text presents difficulties even in the original; yet the thought is clear: they not only thank and glorify God but also pray for you, having loved you for the exceeding grace of God toward you. “And you gain fruit in prayers brought for you because they love you greatly, having seen the generosity of God toward you” (Theodoret).

“And in their prayer on your behalf” και αυτων δεησει υπερ υμων, επιποθουντων υμας. One can also understand it thus: they glorify God and for the surpassing grace of His poured out upon you, in their prayer on your behalf, which they offer to God, having loved you. Επιποθουντων means a strong disposition toward someone, a drawing, with a desire for close fellowship, with a desire to see. Saint Chrysostom says: “They pray to God so that He would grant them to see you. And they desire this not for your possessions, but so that they might see the grace given to you.” The words: “for the surpassing grace,” if not attributed to the glorifying of God, should be attributed to “those desiring you,” as they stand. “Grace,” if attributed to glorifying, will mean generally the manifestation of grace in the Corinthian Church,—and that they heard the preaching, and that they believed, and that they were baptized and renewed, and that they were supplied with special gifts, and that they are so cheerfully generous; and if attributed to “those desiring,” it will mean more specifically the latter, that is, that God so expanded their hearts toward charity. Throughout this whole section generous almsgiving in the Apostle is signified by grace, because such a thought is fully justified by the flow of the discourse. Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see the wisdom of Paul, how he, having exalted their virtue, attributed everything to God, when he called their deed grace? After all he had said about them, having called them ministers, elevated them to heaven, called them skilled,—he now shows that the author of all this is God, and himself with them offers thanksgiving to God, saying”:

2 Cor. 9:15. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

“He calls gift here either the numerous blessings which those receiving alms and those giving alms receive through alms, or those ineffable blessings which were bestowed most abundantly by the coming of Christ upon all the world, and the latter especially should be understood here” (St. Chrysostom). “He reminds of the blessings which we were granted through the incarnation of Christ, as if saying thus: do not think that you do something great, for ineffable are the blessings which we received from God. And if we give little of what is corruptible, what is great?” (Theophylact). But if here gift means in general the gracious economy, then in the preceding the exceeding grace is more fittingly understood the same way. The Apostle presupposes the Jerusalemites as having flowed toward contemplation of the great grace of Christ in the face of the Corinthians; but naturally after them the Corinthians too have flowed toward the same; after both of them he himself fixes the eye of his mind on the same and concludes the discourse with common thanksgiving to God for the indescribable gift in the Lord Jesus Christ, covering by this one contemplation all other good thoughts.

Part Three: The Apologetic (2 Cor. 10:1–13:10)

In Person I Can Be Stern, as in My Letters (2 Cor. 10:1–5)

Necessary Explanations in Refutation of Evil Speeches Spread About the Holy Apostle and in Exhortation to Those Not Yet Corrected to Correct Themselves (Chapters 10–13)

The ill-wishers of the holy Paul spread false rumors and opinions about him in Corinth. When such cases did not harm the work of the Gospel and the steadfastness in faith of those who believed, the holy Paul paid no attention to them; but when this caused harm, he considered it his duty to clear himself and his works of all reproach. What exactly was said against him disadvantageously in Corinth can be judged from his own apologetic words. Titus heard this either himself or from sincere followers of the Apostle and reported it to him. There were few such reproachers; the whole church revered the holy Paul with reverence and was ready to listen with obedience to all his instruction and carry out all his arrangements. Up to this point he had directed his discourse to these worshippers of his—corrected Christians, and this discourse was quiet, warm, benevolent. From now on he begins to speak against the reproachers, and it is stern and bears the mark of apostolic authority.

The holy Paul was not imposing in appearance and his health was weak. His speech in personal preaching was distinguished by gentleness and meek persuasiveness. He entreated people to believe in the Crucified One, not presenting a command from heaven for them to believe. But in his letter, when writing already to believers, his word was stern and powerful. His opponents took this difference as the starting point for censure. They said: “he is humble in person,” but behind his back “he dares… his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible” (2 Cor. 10:1, 10). This would not have been so disturbing, but in explanation of this difference was inserted something by which some could consider the holy Paul as “living according to the flesh.” Therefore such speech could not be left without explanation. The holy Paul attends to it with all care. His answer to this is: I am in person the same as in writing – stern, when need requires; my apostolic rank, entrusted to me from on high, authorizes me to this. Therefore I entreat you beforehand: do not force me to use this sternness, correct yourselves; for if, coming, I find you unrepentant, I will not spare. All this apostolic self-defense occupies four chapters: 10–13. In it are three points: I am stern in person just as in writing; my apostolic rank authorizes me to this; I will come – I will not spare. But the space these points occupy is not equal: 1) the first – properly 11 verses of chapter 10; 3) the third – the last three verses of chapter 12 and 10 verses of chapter 13; 2) the middle, – two and even three times more space – is occupied by the defense of apostolic dignity. Surely, extreme necessity pressed in this, although it is not possible to indicate it definitely. We cannot but note that, by this order, the last part of the epistle is similar to the first. As there a lengthy discourse on Christian revelation, or the economy of grace, is inserted into another brief speech which embraces it by its beginning and end, so here a lengthy discourse on the apostolic dignity of the holy Paul and his apostolic activity is inserted into another even briefer speech which also embraces it by its beginning and end. Meanwhile, both subjects, as if involuntarily breaking into the epistle, or bursting forth from the soul of the holy Paul, constitute the most important sections of this epistle.

1. I am Stern Even in Person as Well as in Writing (2 Cor. 10:1–11)

A) Bringing forward these speeches about himself, that he is humble in person but bold in absence, verse 1, and hinting lest those speaking thus experience the opposite, verse 2, b) The Apostle explains that one cannot judge him by appearance, for his power is not external but spiritual, strong by God, verses 3–6; c) equipped with this power, I can, he says, appear among you as stern as I am in the letter, verses 7–11.

2 Cor. 10:1. I, Paul, appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face-to-face with you, but bold toward you when absent.

“I, Paul.” With this he connects his discourse with the preceding. He speaks as it were: as regards my messengers, I have said everything to you; but as regards myself, I must say to you this. The expression “I, Paul” is full of importance. St. Chrysostom says: “Do you notice how much weight is here? How much dignity? Much force and weight in these words. He uses similar expressions in other places, for example: ‘Now I, Paul, say to you’ (Gal. 5:2). And again: ‘as Paul the aged, I appeal to you’ (Phm. 1:9, 10). So here: ‘I, Paul’ (as if saying: I am an Apostle, teacher of the world—Oecumenius). ‘I appeal to you.’ It is important already that he himself asks, but far more important is what is added: ‘by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.’ For, wishing to shame them more, he mentions meekness and forbearance, and thus gives his request still greater force. He speaks as if to say: be ashamed of the meekness of Christ by which I beseech you. He said this to show that although they a thousand times provoke him to sternness, yet he himself is more inclined to meekness and does not punish them not because he lacks power but because he is meek and because this is how Christ acted.—‘I who am humble when face-to-face with you, but bold toward you when absent!’ What does he mean by this? Either he speaks ironically with their own words, for they said about the holy Paul that when he is personally with them, then he does not look important, but in his absence from them he is proud, conducts himself majestically, attacks them and threatens. To this the Apostle hints and later on, saying: ‘his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible’ (2 Cor. 10:10). So either he speaks ironically, expressing great sorrow: I am a humble and insignificant man at personal meetings, as they say, and in absence—high; or, although he speaks of himself with importance (‘I, Paul’!), not from conceit but in reliance on them.’—‘Or he truly says this about himself, that I, when being with you, am humble and meek to you, but now, although I say something great about myself, I do this not from conceit but with confidence in you’ (Theophylact); ‘relying on your love, I dare write thus’ (Oecumenius).”

2 Cor. 10:2. I beg you that when I am present I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some who think we are acting according to the flesh.

The structure is: “do not presume”—depends on “I may dare’;” “in confidence, which I think,” τι πεποιθησει η λογιζομαι, by the self-confidence (in power), which (confidence) they ascribe to me (in my absence, or when I am absent); λογιζομαι in the passive voice; η λογιζομαι, by which I am reckoned to be acting in my absence.—I beseech you, he says, do not put me in the necessity and even when present with you in person to act according to the self-confidence in power which is ascribed to me when absent, to act in regard to those who think we are acting according to the flesh, that is, against those very ones who speak thus of me. The holy Chrysostom says: “He means to say the following: I beseech you, do not force me and do not permit me to use my power against those who demean us and think we live according to the flesh.” This is expressed here more strongly than what was said as a threat to the Corinthians in his first letter: “What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?… when I come, I will not be lenient” (1 Cor. 4:18–21). And here he both shows his power and wisdom and patience, when with such care he asks them not to drive him to the necessity of coming and showing his awesome power, that is, to smite them, torment them and subject them to the utmost punishment. He gives this to understand by the words: “I beseech you that when I am present I may not…toward some.” Do you notice how much indignation is expressed in these words and what clear condemnation? I beseech you, he says, do not force me to prove that I, and even being personally with you, am strong and have power, since some of you said that I, not being with you—using their own words—am bold and elevated, then I beseech you, do not force me to use my power. For this is what the words mean: “I may not have to be as bold.” So, do me a favor, he says, do not force me to show you that and even at personal meeting I can act boldly with whomever I should, that is, I can subject them to torment and punishment. Do you see how he was not ambitious, did not do anything from vanity, when even by necessity to act sternly, he calls his sternness boldness? The chief duty of a teacher is not immediately to punish but to correct, to wait and be slow in punishment. Who then are these some whom he threatens? Those, he says, who think we are acting according to the flesh. For they slandered Paul as if he were a hypocrite, deceitful and proud.

Below St. Chrysostom expresses about this walking according to the flesh also such a thought: they think that our preaching is a work of man, and our means too are human means; in general they see nothing special in us compared to ordinary human agents. From this came to them the idea that since the holy Paul conducts his affairs as do all men, then, appearing meek in person and stern in writing, he uses ordinary human cunning: he flatters in person, seeks favor, and then, as if having acquired power through that, acts more boldly in his letters. This is exactly what the holy Paul denies about himself in the next verse.

2 Cor. 10:3. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

As it were: “Look at us, we are the same as all people, but in deed we are quite different. ‘We walk in the flesh,’ in human form and body, with human speech and powers; but what we do and what means we use are all not human. True, we are clothed in flesh, I do not deny this; but we do not live according to the flesh. We reason about preaching, showing that it is not human work. Therefore he did not say: we do not live according to the flesh, but he says: ‘we do not wage war according to the flesh,’ that is, we wage war and have entered into battle; we do not fight with fleshly weapons and without any assistance from men.” (St. Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 10:4. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

“What are fleshly weapons? – Wealth, glory, power, eloquence, high-sounding speech, schemes, flatteries, hypocrisy and other such things. But our weapons are not of this sort. What are they then? – ‘Mighty through God.’ He did not say: we are not fleshly – but ‘our’ ‘weapons’; because, as I have noted, he reasons for now about preaching, ascribing all its power to God; and he does not say: our weapons – are spiritual, although it would have been fitting to say so in opposition to the word: ‘fleshly’; but ‘mighty’ (‘through God’), thereby giving to understand that they are spiritual, and at the same time showing that fleshly weapons are weak and powerless. See then how far removed he is from pride! He did not say: we are mighty, but ‘our’ ‘weapons are mighty through God.’ Not we made them such, but God Himself. Since they were being tormented, driven out, endured countless and most severe calamities, and all this revealed their weakness; therefore, wishing to show God’s power, he says: ‘but mighty through God.’ For His power is especially revealed in the fact that it overcomes by means of them. Although we bear these weapons, yet God Himself fights and acts by means of them. After this the Apostle expands in praise of the weapon, saying: ‘for the destruction of strongholds.’ And so that one, hearing about strongholds, would not imagine something physical, he adds: ‘casting down arguments.’ By metaphor he gave force to the speech, and by explaining it he shows that their warfare is spiritual. For these strongholds strike at souls, not bodies. And since he is far stronger than material strongholds, therefore better weapons are needed. And by strongholds he means the pride of the Greeks, and the power of their sophisms and syllogisms, and at the same time all weapons used against them (the Apostles).” (Saint Chrysostom).

The weapons of apostolic warfare—all with which the holy Apostles were armed to overcome delusions, impiety, sin. All united an exceeding outpouring of the grace of the Most Holy Spirit upon them, who, filling them, both taught and strengthened them, how in each case to act, now with one word, now beyond that with the manifestation of extraordinary powers. Theodoret writes: “Our weapons, says the Apostle, are spiritual gifts, by means of which we become victorious and subject those resisting to the Master.” But in this action of apostolic weapons, with all their extraordinariness and their divine power, there is nothing mechanical. True, they do demolish, but through self-building of our spirit, and they do take captive, but through free submission to God’s truth.

The Apostle expressed the manner of this action as ‘to demolish strongholds: We demolish arguments.’ “The Apostle as he called the holy ones temples of God, so the enslaved in impiety he calls strongholds of the devil” (Theodoret). As unbelief with impiety, so sin with selfishness and passions build around themselves a fortress, composed of reasonings by which they think to justify both their way of thinking and their way of life. Wrapped in such reasonings, they cherish the assurance that they sit firmly and securely not only from demolition but from attacks. But here comes the Apostle with the gracious word and begins discourse. The sound of the word the ear receives; the thought expressed in the word, the mind receives; and the grace that came in the word inspires the sleeping or buried spirit. The awakened spirit perceives fear of God and by this fear awakens conscience. And both together, strengthened by God’s grace, scatter the fortress that constrained them and lay upon them, so that not one reasoning of those which before seemed so firm and solidly standing endures: all is demolished. Unbelief with impiety flee before the face of fear of God; sin with selfishness and passions—before the face of conscience. Having remained masters alone, these powers of the spirit then mysteriously clothe themselves in Christ. And so—a Christian! Thus what always comes from the demolition of soul strongholds through the overthrow of reasonings by the spirit graced with grace.

2 Cor. 10:5. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

“And every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God”—thus also demolishing. “The metaphor continues so as to give greater force to the speech. And strongholds and towers and anything else, he says, all yield to our weapons.” (St. Chrysostom). In the demolition of the stronghold of unbelief and sin, the demolition of arguments is one half of the work; the other is constituted by the overthrow of every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. The first means the overthrow of all upon which unbelief and sin think to be based, and the second—the overthrow of all by which unbelief and sin dare to rise up against the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God is God’s truth, preached by the Apostles, about salvation in the Lord Jesus by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Against this from the very beginning the enemy of truth instilled into the minds of the unbelieving and into the hearts of the sinful many objections which to some seemed irrefutable. These were and are pretensions against the knowledge of God. We demolish them, says the Apostle, with the weapons given us. How?—Through the confirmation of the word by following signs (Mk. 16:20). The gracious action of the Gospel is sufficient for those in whom the elements of natural spiritual life are not entirely deadened. But they could be knocked off the path by delusions led only by low-moving rational inductions. To help the former and to strike the latter, God was pleased in the work of preaching to bring forth signs. Before them all objections fell by themselves. Those who believed were finally established in their faith by them; those who did not believe were struck, and part of them too believed; the other, remaining in stubborn unbelief, fell silent. Thus every pretension against the knowledge of God was and continues to be overthrown.

“And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” The stronghold of unbelief and impiety, sin and passions is demolished through the overthrow of arguments and every pretension against the knowledge of God. What next?—The spirit that was there in captivity, vivified by God’s grace, arises and, as a new hidden man of the heart, comes forth to freedom, comes forth, but not otherwise than through voluntary and joyful surrender into captivity of obedience to Christ. Consciousness and freedom bind themselves by the commands of Christ the Savior and give themselves to him as slaves with readiness to sacrifice all for him, even life itself. This is the taking captive of every thought in obedience to Christ. Thought, νοημα, self-acting consciousness. It gives itself into obedience to Christ in confidence that through this alone are preserved both true life and freedom. Thus within occurs demolition, but for building up; captivity, but for freedom. This captivity is the transition ‘from slavery to freedom, from death to life, from destruction to salvation. For we came not only to overthrow opponents, but to bring them to truth’ (St. Chrysostom). ‘Them, like certain captives, leading from the field of battle, we present to the King of all, and bring to the point that they willingly follow his laws’ (Theodoret).

The Weapons of Our Warfare; Ready to Punish Disobedience (2 Cor. 10:6–11)

2 Cor. 10:6. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

This word is already to those who, having believed, enter the flock of Christ. He had previously brought the discourse to obedience to Christ the Lord. Further, what?—Life in this obedience. This obedience embraces the entire moral-religious arrangement of Christ’s Church, and its acceptance is taken into conscience and sealed by covenant. One who acts against it is a transgressor bringing upon himself righteous punishment. The guardians of God-instituted orders of the Church and avengers of willful violation of them were the same persons entrusted from on high to establish them, namely the holy Apostles. They always fulfilled this. Those violating order they would convince to correct themselves; the incorrigible they would excommunicate. So after the Apostles their successors acted, and so it is done even now. Of this precisely the Apostle now speaks, that we always have ready the power and strength to punish every disobedience, but speaks this in application to the circumstances of the Corinthian Church. He has already pointed out to them the shortcomings that have crept in and waits for correction. Titus assured him that they expressed readiness to correct everything, but some are reluctant to undertake this. Perhaps these were the very ones who said: the Apostle is weak when he acts personally. The holy Paul reminds them now that the power to act against the disobedient, entrusted to me from on high, as one of the weapons strong by God for the building up of the Church, is always in my hands, and I am always ready to use it, as soon as necessity appears; I will use it with you as soon as you have fulfilled your obedience and the disobedient distinguish themselves by themselves. “The Apostle depicted the reason for his patience. We wait, he says, to persuade the greater part by word and exhortation, and then punish those who intend to resist further” (Theodoret).

Saint Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle frightens not only those who slandered him, but also all the Corinthians, for he says to them: we are waiting for you, so that, when you according to our instructions and threats have set yourselves in order, been cleansed and ended communion with the slanderers, then, separating them alone, we subject to punishment only those who are incurably ill, as soon as we are fully sure that you have withdrawn from them; for though you obey now, you do not do so fully. First I want to correct you and then proceed to punish those. What can be more merciful than this mercy? Since he sees that those close to him have entered into communion with an opponent, he wants to strike a blow; but he spares, restrains his anger, until they separate from the opponents, so that he might punish only these, or rather—not punish even them, for he threatens those close to him for the purpose of returning them to himself, so that those, corrected by fear, might change and, in this way, his anger might not be poured out on anyone. In everything he acted as a skilled physician, as the common father, protector and defender of all: how much he cared for all! He removed obstacles everywhere, quieted harmful people, was present everywhere, and did not achieve his goal through combat, but as if going toward an easy and assured victory, he erected victory monuments, overthrew, destroyed, scattered the strongholds of the devil and the schemes of demons, and led all captives into the army of Christ. Even for a short time he did not give himself rest, quickly went from them to others, and from these again to still others, and, as an experienced general, daily, or rather—hourly, erected victory monuments. Entering into military ranks in only a tunic, he took cities and inhabitants. His tongue was a bow, a spear, arrows and everything, for Paul’s tongue, since he spoke alone, and his words struck opponents more powerfully than any fire; he cast out demons, and people possessed by them he brought to himself. When he cast out an evil spirit (in Ephesus), a great multitude of people who engaged in secret arts gathered; they burned the magical books worth fifty thousand drachmas and turned to the truth. And as in battle, as soon as the walls of a fortress fall or the oppressor is overthrown, all those with him cast down their weapons and go over to the leader of the opposite side, so it was then. For as soon as the evil spirit was cast out, all those held by it in a siege, having thrown down the books, or rather, having destroyed them, fled to Paul’s feet. And he, fighting with the entire world as if with one army, never stopped anywhere, but as if borne on wings, did everything: now healed the lame, now raised the dead, now punished with blindness—I mean the sorcerer (Acts 13); even imprisoned in prison, he did not remain idle, but even there drew to himself the guard of the prison, continuing to captivate people into his good captivity.”

2 Cor. 10:7. Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do.

Do you judge only by appearances?—You saw that I am not impressive, weak in health, speak quietly,—and believed those slanderers that I am nothing in the order of grace. Yes, if one were to look at me only as a Christian, and even then it would not follow that either they should speak thus about me or you should believe their speech. For know that as he belongs to Christ, so do I; and as he, being Christ’s, strives to act according to Christian conscience, as a servant of Christ, so by me let him judge and about me, that I too so care in all things to be faithful to Christ, to fulfill his will, in his glory to act in all things. Take this into account, everyone, and you will not misunderstand me and my works. Thus I speak, not yet pointing to the special appointment which I personally received from Christ the Lord himself and which my reproachers in no way can boast of. But about this in the next verse.

Saint Chrysostom enters more deeply into the intentions of the holy Paul and says: “Alongside everything else, what is worthy of special wonder in Paul is that, being placed in great necessity to praise himself, he achieves a dual purpose: that is, he praises himself, and at the same time by such self-praise does not become burdensome to others. It is difficult and requires great prudence – both to maintain modesty and to say something great about oneself. And see with what dignity he does this here: – ‘What do you see when you look at us?’ – Having reproved those who deceived the Corinthians, he does not stop his discourse at them, but proceeds from them and also to the deceived. Thus he always acts, – reproves not only the authors of deception, but also those led by them into deception. For if he had not subjected these latter to accountability as well, they would not have been so easily corrected by what was said to others; indeed, they would have become proud as not being reproved. Therefore he also reproves them. And this is not the only thing worthy of wonder in Paul, but especially that he uses rebukes which are fitting for some and the others. – Hear what he says to those fallen into deception: ‘Do you look at things according to their outward appearance?’ No small but very important rebuke! Why? – Because mankind very easily falls into deception. The meaning of his words is thus: do you judge by appearance? By fleshly, by bodily relations? – What does it mean: by appearance? – If someone is rich, if someone boasts, if someone is surrounded by many flatterers, if someone praises himself, seeks empty glory, if someone hypocritically pretends to be virtuous without having virtue (he is great and worthy of attention with you); for this is what the words mean: ‘Do you look at things according to their outward appearance? – If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, let him consider again that just as he belongs to Christ, so do we.’ The Apostle does not wish to show himself stern all at once, but gradually raises and strengthens his speech. And see how what he has said about himself becomes especially felt and significant. For – ‘from himself’ means, do not expect to learn from us, that is, from our rebuke, but judge by yourself that as he belongs to Christ, so do I. He did not say: just as much Christ’s as he, but as he belongs to Christ, so I belong to Christ. In this we are equal. For one cannot say that he belongs to Christ, but I belong to someone else. But, having shown this equality, he displays a superiority as well, saying”:

2 Cor. 10:8. Even if I boast somewhat freely “about the authority” “the Lord gave us for building you up rather than pulling you down, I will not be ashamed of it.”

Thus, he says, if one were to look at me only as a Christian, and even then my reproachers are wrong and you who believed them are wrong. But I am more than every Christian. Power was given to me by the Lord to arrange his Church, and to give laws for it, and to exact from the violators of these laws. Such is my power! In this you yourselves can be assured. Test and see. I am not afraid to be put to shame as if I spoke falsehood. Or ‘I will not be ashamed’ means—and by deed I will show this power, I will not disgrace the apostolic power present with me by false forbearance. At the same time he gives to understand that although such power is always inherent in him, as it was entrusted to him, so he uses it not to destroy but to build. In this lies also the reason why I do not always manifest it, and if I do manifest it, it is with caution after trying all measures of correction. “The Apostle said this, that he received power for building up, not for destruction, showing that his opponents act contrary to this, and do not want to build but attempt to destroy the work of others” (Theodoret).

Such thoughts are contained in the Apostle’s word, but they are expressed by him somewhat veiled so as not to seem too sharply displaying himself. St. Chrysostom says: “See how he softens his speech, having proposed to say something great about himself. For nothing is so offensive to many of the listeners as self-praise; therefore, removing offense, he speaks thus: ‘So even if I boast somewhat freely.’ He did not say: if anyone is confident in himself that he belongs to Christ, let him think that he is far from us. For I received from the Lord such great power that I can punish and condemn whom I will to death. But what did he say?—‘So even if I boast somewhat.’ Although it is impossible to express how great the power he had, nevertheless in his words he does not show this. He did not say also: boast, but ‘if I boast,’ if I wish to boast. And thus he at once preserves modesty and shows his advantage. Therefore he says: ‘So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us.’ Again he ascribes everything to God and makes the gift common. ‘For building you up rather than pulling you down.’ Do you see how again he removes envy which his self-praise might have awakened, and attracts the listener by pointing to the benefit for which he received power? And how above he said: ‘We demolish arguments’?—This is the preeminent way of building—to destroy obstacles, to condemn the rotten and use only the true for building. So although for the purpose of building we received power, still if anyone stubbornly resists, opposes and offers no hope of correction, we will use and the other force, we will demolish and overthrow him. Therefore he also adds ‘I will not be ashamed,’ that is, I will prove to be neither a liar nor vain-glorious.”

2 Cor. 10:9. I do not want to seem to be frightening you with my letters.

I could, he says, boast of power, but I will not do this so it does not seem that I am only frightening you with my letters. It is understood: it would be better when need arises, I will show this power by deed itself. The Apostle employs such a turn of speech in which, as if not speaking or not wishing to speak, he says everything that is necessary. “The meaning of these words is thus: I could boast, but so they do not again say that in letters I am eloquent but at personal meeting I am nothing, I will not say anything great about myself. Although he later spoke, but not about the force by which he was terrible, but about revelations, and even more about afflictions” (St. Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 10:10. For some say, ‘His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.’

Thus they spoke of St. Paul. What he says: “said” does not point to one person but includes all his opponents. Or he means the one who first invented this phrase. “His letters are weighty”—he pronounces stern judgment, lays a heavy yoke—“and forceful,” with force, authoritative, commanding. “But his bodily presence is weak”—that is, when he himself is face-to-face with us, then neither authority nor force is seen in him, and “his speech is despised,” is humble, not commanding. So that I not entrench them further in such thoughts, I will not now speak of my authority, although I have already said what was necessary. Although he writes: I will not speak, but by this he clearly reminds that he does not wish to speak about it in word so as to show it in deed when he is with them, if need be. “Therefore he adds:”

2 Cor. 10:11. Such a person should realize that what we are in our letters when absent, we will be in our actions when present.

I will not elaborate. Let him know—apparently the same one who invented such speech, and in his person all who side with him—let him know that I even in person by deed am as stern as I seem to be in the letter by word. ‘We are able to display the greatness of apostolic dignity and show that deeds correspond to writings’ (Theodoret). ‘Let those speaking thus know that we, both in presence and in absence, are always the same. As we are absent, in word and letters, so we are present, in deed. That is, not only do we threaten when absent, but we are strong, and when present, to bring into effect what we threaten’ (Oecumenius). A mighty and sobering word!

The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

In this large section the holy Paul defends his apostolic dignity and cleanses his apostolic activity. He speaks here a) about the measure of his preaching allotment (2 Cor. 10:12–18); b) about his preaching freely (2 Cor. 11:1–21); c) about the sorrows, deprivations and sufferings accompanying his preaching (2 Cor. 11:22–32); d) about his catching up to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–10); and e) about the signs of apostleship in Corinth, again with the reminder about acting without grudging (2 Cor. 12:11–18). The proof of his apostleship from all that is said turns out to be such: here is how I act and here is what happens to me! Should all be thus with one who is a true Apostle? – If so, then be assured that I am a true Apostle, armed with full apostolic authority, by which I can act wherever and however it shall prove necessary. – Throughout the section the Apostle speaks of himself and as it were praises himself. Since this could seem not entirely pleasing, he constantly makes reservations. “Bear with me” (2 Cor. 11:1), “I speak foolishly” (2 Cor. 11:21), “I have become foolish in boasting: you forced me” (2 Cor. 12:11). Surely, the circumstances demanded such a manner of presenting his apostleship. For he speaks not only of what is glorious, but also of what pertains to his humility.

q) Regarding the Measure of Preaching Allotted to the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

In this short section the Apostle speaks that God divided for him a measure—a portion, that consequently he reached even to Corinth, and after establishing them will go further, not being accustomed to intrude into another’s territory. In all this, he says, it would not be excessive for us to boast. This is the same as what God praises, according to whose arrangement all this is accomplished. Why does the Apostle say this? Probably his opponents, having come to Corinth and succeeded in drawing the attention of a few people, began to think and say that they were the main workers here, while the holy Paul was nothing. Against this he speaks: I am in my portion, but they have intruded into my area. But he expresses this thought in a special way. His opponents he strikes with irony from the first word. Keeping in mind their self-praising speeches, demeaning to himself, he speaks as if to say: where are we compared to them!

2 Cor. 10:12. We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.

This place is rather obscure, as the blessed Theodoret notes, saying: ‘The Apostle wrote this passage quite unclearly, not wishing to condemn the guilty overtly. But he means the following: they, looking at themselves, supposed about themselves that they alone are greater than all, and as for us, let it not be that we similarly rated ourselves.’ St. Chrysostom says: ‘Here the Apostle shows that they are both vain and verbose, rebukes them for praising themselves. And we, he says, do not act thus. But if we do something great, we attribute all to God. He says: we do not dare to compare ourselves with those who quarrel with one another, are vain, and meanwhile do not understand what they are doing; that is, they do not see how ridiculous they are when they are so vain and exalt themselves before each other.’

The Apostle says he does not dare to compare himself with these self-praising ones, yet later he himself praises himself. But when he speaks praise-worthy things about himself, he shows deeds which God gave him to accomplish. This is the same as God praising him, while he praises God, attributing all to him. His opponents praised themselves only in words, having no deeds. How was such self-praise built! They measured themselves within themselves and compared themselves with themselves, and seemed worthy of praise to themselves. There is nothing wonderful that they possessed some perfections, could do praiseworthy deeds and wish and plan to do such deeds; but they had not yet done anything, and all this was only in their head. Thus, measuring themselves within themselves by their illusory measure and not stepping outside the circle of fantasies built by their imagination, they see themselves as great and boast and speak high. Clearly, in acting thus, they do not understand what they do. Such is the evaluation of all the vain. The self-praising vain are not without perfections; only they have no desire to work, but build only plans. The plans are bright. Counting them already fulfilled, the vain one boasts; but day after day he delays beginning the deed, and often does not begin at all. Therefore almost always it turns out that he only trumpets about himself, and in deed remains with nothing. Such were the opponents of the holy Paul. The Corinthian Church was built by the labors of the holy Paul. And they came, spoke with this one and that, perhaps even made some impression, and began to trumpet: our area, we did; meanwhile they did nothing, although they might perhaps have done, and wanted, and had plans. But to go to a fresh place and to labor—there was not enough zeal. Therefore they limited themselves to “boasting about the work of others in the fixed boundary” (2 Cor. 10:16). Contrasting himself with them, the holy Paul says:

2 Cor. 10:13. We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of activity that God has allotted us, a sphere that also includes you.

This place is not entirely definite. The holy Paul seems to have in mind his calling from on high to be an Apostle to the Gentiles, but does not boast of this; rather, he boasts only of what he has succeeded in doing up to now. The whole universe is my portion, but I do not boast in the boundlessness of such, but only in that measure to which God gave me and has been giving me to reach. Up to now this is the measure God has assigned me. I can boast of this. His opponents, probably, in their imaginative plans supposed they would traverse the whole universe and, as if having already preached everywhere, boasted; meanwhile they had not yet done anything, but only entered into another’s labor. This inconsistency the Apostle exposes. He is appointed from on high for all nations, yet boasts only of what he has done; those, imagining voluntarily to traverse the whole universe, boast as if they had already traversed it, having done nothing yet. St. Chrysostom says: “Probably they in praise of themselves said: we will convert the whole universe, we will reach to the ends of the earth, and much similar they proclaimed about themselves. But we, says the Apostle, not so, but” “according to the measure of the rule, which God divided, that measure, to reach even to you.” And thus, on both sides, his humility is evident, for he does not say of himself more than what he has done, and what he has done, he ascribes to God. “God divided the measure.” As a master householder divides vineyards, so to each of us God appointed his own portion. And therefore we boast not of anything greater, but of that which we have been given to reach.’

2 Cor. 10:14. For we are not overstepping our limits by coming to you, since we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ.

“We extend ourselves,” we ourselves expand ourselves in fanciful self-praise, stretch ourselves in praises of ourselves. Judging by this, the thought of the text will be thus: “No one can say that we, not having reached you, expand ourselves, saying that we have reached you, boasting of ourselves in empty rhetoric. For we truly have reached you, and we have reached you through the gospel of Christ, that is, not simply came to you, but proclaimed to you the Gospel” (Oecumenius). “We were not only among you, but we preached, proclaimed, persuaded, corrected. For it is probable that those criticizing Paul came only to the disciples of the apostles, and by virtue of their coming attributed the whole success to themselves. But we, says the Apostle, did not act thus: no one can say to us that we could not come to you and that we only stretch our praise in words as far as you; for we also preached to you the word (of faith)” (Saint Chrysostom).

But the words: “we are extending ourselves” υπερεκτεινομεν εαυτους, perhaps may be better translated: we are extending further and further, more and more, understanding the expansion of the circle of apostolic activity. The Apostle wishes to say: we proceed gradually, from place to place extending ourselves. Now for the time we have reached only you, and extend not further. It is necessary to establish you in faith as it should be first; when you are established, we shall go further, as is said in the following verse. Not having reached you, to extend further would be a matter not worthy of praise. Who would praise a farmer who leaves behind uncultivated strips? We do not act thus; but we go step by step. We have reached you with the Gospel – and glory to God! This we have done; this for now we speak of.

2 Cor. 10:15, 16. We do not boast beyond measure in other men’s labors; but having hope, as your faith grows, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, so as to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s sphere of accomplishment.

Not so, says the Apostle, as those false apostles—they entered into others’ labor and boast without measure—we boast in our own, and in the measure in which it has been given us to accomplish the work. ‘In these words the Apostle shows the gravity of their guilt, that they boasted without measure, and boasted in what belonged to others, and when all the labor belonged to the Apostles, they attributed the labor to themselves. But we, says he, speak of what the deeds themselves testify, and have proved by deeds. And what do I say: “we came even to you”? I have hope that “your faith grows”—he does not assert directly, but, following his custom, says: I hope that, when you grow in faith, our portion will extend further, and we will preach the Gospel to those afar off. For we will go further, says he, to preach and labor, and not to boast in what others have labored over. Rightly he called his labor a “rule” (a portion) and a “measure,” as one who has entered into possession of the universe and received a noble inheritance, showing thereby that all this is the work of God. So then, having such deeds and hoping for yet greater ones, we do not boast vainly like those who have nothing, and ascribe nothing to ourselves, but ascribe all to God’ (St. Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 10:17. But ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

When, says the Apostle, faith grows and is strengthened among you, then rightly will we too be magnified through you. And we hope that it will be so. And we hope not only for this, but also that we will go further from you and establish faith there, not entering into another’s labor, but newly planting the faith, not coming to what is ready, but ourselves preparing the souls to receive the new sowing of the Gospel. Yet in spite of all this, do not think that I ascribe anything to myself. I remember the prophetic command: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord” (Jer. 9:24). I do not boast of myself, but glorify the power of God and the gift of God. For that I should walk about preaching among the Gentiles is God’s decree, and that I should reach you is the fruit of His all-mighty power, and if I go further beyond you, it will be from Him. “And that we should boast, says he, is given to us from God” (St. Chrysostom). “We do not magnify ourselves, but boast in divine gifts” (Theodoret).

2 Cor. 10:18. For it is not the one who commends himself that is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

This alone is true praise, lasting and unfading. For who is he that boasts in the Lord? He who says and feels: the Lord is everything to me, I rely on no one else, I trust nothing else. He alone is my hope and my foundation. Therefore, whatever I do, whether great or small, I believe that the Lord does it through me: His is the wisdom, His the power. As I believe, so I confess, and before all I proclaim this. If because of something accomplished by me, some shadow of praise falls upon me—the Lord so wills, and this is His doing. By giving me the ability to act and helping me accomplish the deeds, He sets me before others, and since thereby He moves them to praise me, this is the same as if He Himself praised me. God praises by giving the ability to accomplish praiseworthy deeds. This is the eternal, unfading praise. Only he who lives and acts in this manner is a skilled workman; not he who praises himself, whether because of deeds done or merely because of intentions formed.

St. Chrysostom says of this: ‘See with what humility he speaks? And if, as the speech continues, he begins to speak of himself somewhat loftily, do not be surprised. For in this too appears Paul’s discretion. If he had always spoken of himself with humility, he would not have so terrified the false apostles, nor freed his disciples from their deception. For he who is humble at the wrong time causes harm; and conversely, he who at the right time speaks something great about himself brings benefit. So Paul acted; for the danger was great if the disciples had believed some evil rumor about Paul. Not because Paul sought human glory—for if he had sought it, he would not have been silent so long about the great and marvelous things that happened to him over fourteen years; and if even in extreme necessity he delays and reluctantly speaks of it, it is clear that he would never have spoken of it if he had not been compelled.’

On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9)

2 Cor. 11:1. Oh, bear with me a little in my foolishness; indeed, bear with me!

“St. Apostle Paul, intending to speak in praise of himself, makes many disclaimers. And not once or twice does he make disclaimers, although the very necessity of the matter sufficiently vindicated him. For even from the fact that he mentioned his own sins which God did not mention, and that he called himself unworthy—for the very insensitive it is clearly visible that he will not speak in order to glorify himself. For it would damage his glory most to speak of himself; besides, this is offensive to many. Nevertheless he paid no attention to all this but had in view the salvation of the hearers. So that he not scandalize the unwise, he often made many disclaimers—and here he says: ‘I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me.’ For to express a wish means to leave the matter to their will; but to say affirmatively shows that he firmly hopes on their love, and shows he loves them and is mutually loved by them. Not simply by ordinary love, but by the most ardent and irresistible love; he says that they should bear even foolishness of his.” (St. Chrysostom).

“Bear with me” ανεχεσθε μου – some translate thus: but you do bear with me. The Slavic translation agrees better with the words following: “I am jealous for you.” For the sake of such concern of mine for you, you ought to bear with me. And bear with me in the assurance that this is done for no other reason than my zeal for your salvation. He obliges them, speaking as it were: whether you wish or not – bear with me; this is necessary for you. Theodoret writes: “The Apostle knows that those who are distinguished by high minds ought not to dwell on their own praises, but I am forced to do this. Therefore bear with this foolishness of mine a little.”

2 Cor. 11:2. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one Husband, that to Him I might present a holy Church, spotless and blameless.

As one who loves is jealous for the beloved, so that she belongs to no one else, or so that another does not try to draw her to himself, so I am jealous for you, he says, and cannot allow the thought that you belong to anyone else. Not because, belonging to no one else, you would belong to me; no—not to me but to God so that you belong: “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy,” – that by which God is jealous for you, not wishing that you be carried away by any false wisdom, but follow the one truth proclaimed by Him through us everywhere. – Saint Chrysostom says: “He did not say: because I love you, but used a far stronger expression. For jealous souls burn fiercely for those they love. And jealousy comes from nothing else but from strong friendship. Moreover, so that they might not think that he seeks their friendship for power, or honor, or money, or something like that, he added: ‘with a godly jealousy.’ For jealousy is ascribed to God not so that you might conceive of God some passion (for God is passionless), but so that all might understand that God does everything not for some other goal but for those about whom He is jealous; – not so that He might gain some profit for Himself, but so that He might save them. Not such is human jealousy: it has the goal of one’s own comfort, – not that the beloved should not be offended, but that the lovers should not suffer something and should not lose respect, or should not be humiliated in the eyes of the beloved. But here it is otherwise. The Apostle says: I am not concerned that I should not be humiliated in your opinion, but that I should not see you corrupted (by false teachers). Such is God’s jealousy, such is my jealousy, – it is strong and at the same time pure. Then follows the necessary reason for that.”

“I have espoused you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” A betrothal occurs when the bride says to the groom: from now on I will belong to you alone; and the groom, having loved her already from before, receives her and makes her his own. Christ the Savior—redeemed all souls, having loved them from before, and prepared everything for them. Then He sent Apostles—to call souls to a marriage union with Himself. The Apostles went throughout the world and proclaimed this joy to all. Those souls who believed and, abandoning all, gave themselves to the Lord, the Apostles betrothed to Him through holy baptism and the laying on of hands (anointing with chrism). Every such bride received from the Lord, by virtue of the betrothal, remission of sins, renewal of life and the grace of the Holy Spirit, as a pledge of future eternal blessedness with Christ the Lord, if she remains faithful to the end. The Apostle did all this for the Corinthians and says now: behold in what relationship to Christ the Lord I have placed you,—and I am zealous, so that you forever preserve this position, not turning away from the union into which you have entered with the Lord Jesus Christ. “I was the helper and mediator of your marriage union; through me you received gifts from the Bridegroom; therefore I am zealous in your regard, fearing and trembling, lest craftiness might overcome your simplicity.” The Church is called “a virgin,” so calling this the purity of faith, for not all believers take a vow of virginity; but all must be adorned with sincerity of faith (Theodoret). The holy Chrysostom says: “What novelty! In the world virgins are ordinarily virgins only before marriage, and after marriage they are no longer virgins. But here it is not so. Though before marriage they were not virgins, yet after marriage they become virgins. Thus the entire Church is a virgin. For the Apostle says this to all,—to men and women who have entered into married life.”

2 Cor. 11:3. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds might be led away from the simplicity and purity that is in Christ.

Having betrothed you to Christ, I have become surety for you that you will remain faithful to Him. Meanwhile, all around are temptations: your very thoughts may be corrupted, and the purity of Christian character spoiled. I fear that you might turn aside from the right path. The enemy who deceived Eve does not sleep: then he used a serpent as an instrument; now he acts through false teachers, through the seductions of the world and the power of desires. How long will you be carried away?! – He deceived Eve with a false promise of excessive greatness and glory; with the same he deceives now, promising similar excesses – excess of knowledge, excess of pleasures, excess of happiness – and presents all this in so attractive a form, so easily attainable, as if he puts it into your hands. Meanwhile all this is a phantom and deception. Eve did not discern this illusoriness and was carried away. You might not discern it either – and like her be carried away. That is why I fear – “I fear that your minds may be led astray” – that you might be corrupted in sound judgment and spoil both a correct view of the work of salvation and a true understanding of following its path. “From simplicity,” – or on account of the simplicity which the soul acquires in Christ Jesus. For, seeing all in Christ as true, it forgets about deception and seduction – and, becoming filled with His goodness, it forgets about cunning and malice – and thereby in a sense acquires some such ignorance of evil which characterized the innocent state. The enemy may take advantage of this your disposition and lead you astray through his instruments. – Or – “from simplicity, which is in Christ Jesus,” should be understood thus: so that your minds might not be led astray, having departed from simplicity, that is, from the artless and pure faith with which you ought to remain in Christ the Lord (Oecumenius).

“See what wisdom,” – says Saint Chrysostom. – They have already been corrupted, but he says: I fear that you may be corrupted. For what reason? – So as not to plunge them into hardness of heart. He speaks thus, that he neither condemns, nor is silent. For to speak openly (of such a great disaster), and to be completely silent – are equally unsafe. Therefore he keeps the middle, saying: “I fear that somehow.” For this is how one ordinarily speaks who neither condemns too much, nor trusts too much, but holds the middle between one and the other. So he both quieted them and by reminding them of Eve brought them into unspeakable fear, and deprived them of any excuse. For although the serpent was cunning (πανουργος), yet Eve was simple, nevertheless, this did not save her from blame. So look, says the Apostle, lest you too fall into the same; then nothing will protect you.

2 Cor. 11:4. If the one coming preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or you receive another Spirit, which you did not receive, or another gospel, which you did not receive, you bore with it well.

This place is difficult for translation and understanding. After the preceding: I fear lest your minds be corrupted—one might expect: for if anyone comes to you, you are at once ready to receive him well—even if he preached another Jesus, promised another Spirit. But one cannot suppose that the Apostle, who throughout the epistle treats the feelings of the Corinthians so tenderly, made such harsh a representation. Therefore one must suppose another course of thoughts. In the same word of the Apostle is concealed both his wish and exhortation: do not receive anyone, with whatever teaching anyone comes. The reason why they should not receive any other teacher is: there is no need for you to receive; you already have all and have fully. Jesus alone the true one is preached to you—God the Son, incarnate for our salvation; the true grace of the Spirit has been given to you; the full gospel has been proclaimed to you with the offer of forgiveness of sins, renewal, adoption as sons and inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. What more do you desire?! If someone offered you what we have not communicated and granted, and yet it would be true and substantially necessary for salvation, then you would do nothing wrong in receiving such a teacher: “you would do well to bear” with him. But I assure you that such a circumstance cannot be; no one can either proclaim or grant to you more than what has been proclaimed and granted to you by us. You have all, and have fully.

Remember again, the Apostle speaks in such a manner as if he were warning them of a future danger; meanwhile, it is known that they had already accepted someone, and because of this, allowed discord among themselves, though it all came to nothing. Therefore the Apostle’s thought here is: it was a mistake for you to do this; you should not have accepted them and listened to them. ‘The Apostle has now turned his accusation against those who fell into deception and clearly showed the absurdity of the deception. For he says: how then and in what manner did you become enticed? Did they preach another Jesus to you? Did they impart different gifts of the Spirit? Did they offer a different gospel?’ (Theodoret).

St. Chrysostom says: ‘From this it is evident that those who corrupted the Corinthians were not from among the Corinthians themselves, but that outsiders deceived them. Of course, they boasted that the Apostles taught imperfectly, while they, on the contrary, brought something greater. For probably, speaking much empty talk, they introduced into the doctrines of the faith silly trifles. So, since they, using external wisdom, probably spoke much that was empty, the Apostle says: if they had only said something extra and preached Christ more fully (fuller), while we said nothing, “you would have borne well.” For with this intention he adds: “whom we did not preach.” But if they have the same foundations of faith, what is the advantage? However much they speak, they will not say more than what we have already said. If, on the other hand, they spoke of what should not be spoken, and for that reason we also did not speak, then why listen to them? But you will say: if they speak the same things, why do you forbid them to speak?—For this reason: cloaking themselves in hypocrisy, they introduce a different teaching (between empty speech and excessive speech, falsehood slips in unnoticed). But Paul does not yet say this now, and will add it later, when he says that they transform themselves into Apostles of Christ (2 Cor. 11:13). Meanwhile he uses the lightest methods to weaken in the disciples their respect for them—and does this not from envy of them, but for the safety of the disciples. Otherwise, why does he not forbid Apollos, a man of eloquence and skilled in Scripture? Indeed, he himself asks and himself promises to send him?—Certainly, because the Apostle, along with learning, preserved the orthodoxy of doctrines, while the Corinthian teachers did not. Therefore the Apostle arms himself against them and makes it a charge to the disciples that they heed them, saying: if we have omitted anything that should have been said, and they have supplied it, we do not forbid you to listen to them. But if everything has been done by us and nothing omitted that benefits you, what draws you to them?’

2 Cor. 11:5. For I consider that I am in no way inferior to the most eminent apostles.

If we continue the Apostle’s speech in the preceding tone and spirit, we get: now, if you desire to know something more complete or to receive something more abundant, you should wish for the leading apostles to come to you, not some chance teachers; but even such a desire is unnecessary, because even they would not have taught you anything that was not taught by me, for I am in no way inferior to them. And with these foreigners I will not even compare myself, and you should not do so either. So, what need have you of them? ‘Comparing himself not with the Corinthian teachers, but with Peter and the other Apostles, St. Paul speaks as if: if they know more than I do, then they know more than the highest Apostles; but who would dare think that? See what humility is shown here too! He does not say: the Apostles said nothing more than I; but how? “I consider,” that is, I think that I have not fallen short of the highest apostles. Since probably, in denigration of Paul, they pointed out that the Apostles who came before him had a louder name and greater fame than he; and the Corinthian false teachers thought to equate themselves with them, St. Paul compares himself with the Apostles in a fitting manner; therefore he speaks of them with praise, not simply calling them Apostles, but “the most eminent,” having in mind Peter, James, and John’ (St. Chrysostom).

The words: “the most eminent apostles,”—των υπερλιαν αποστολων,—extraordinary, supreme, very first apostles—some refer not to the leading Apostles, but to these Corinthian newcomers, and translate των υπερλιαν ironically: these excessively grand apostles. But the Apostle had no need to compare himself with them, and the Corinthians’ fascination with them was entirely accidental and passing, so that it was sufficient to point them out to dispel their influence. The first epistle had already done this. Now the Apostle only finishes the correction begun, and pays little attention to the false teachers, being more occupied with the Corinthians themselves. But for them it was important to know and consoling to hear that their enlightener stood on equal footing with the leading Apostles.

2 Cor. 11:6. Even if I am untrained in speech, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this evident to you in all things.

Probably the false apostles, in denigration of St. Paul, said that he could not even speak properly. Or some other Corinthians, being carried away by the eloquence of these newcomers, said: what kind of teachers are these—but what sort of speech does that one have?!—St. Paul says to them: ‘Though my speech is uneducated, my mind is adorned with knowledge of God’ (Theodoret). I do not deny that I am unskilled in speech; but this in no way diminishes the significance of my apostleship, for the matter is not in eloquence, but in understanding of the truth. God gave us understanding from on high, while leaving us our own natural speech. Each one speaks as he is able, but speaks always the truth, and divine truth, without admixture of his own speculations, purely, as it is inspired, and without wrapping it in clever wordplay, which obscures more than it clarifies. In our lack of skill in eloquence, there is not a diminishing of apostleship, but its exaltation. This means that truth comes from our lips in its natural simplicity, as inspired by the Spirit. St. Chrysostom says: ‘Since the corruptors of the Corinthians boasted before the Apostle that he was an uneducated man, the Apostle mentions this too, showing that he not only is not ashamed of his lack of education, but also glories in it. He did not say, however: if I am untrained in speech, then the other apostles are also. For this would have been slander against the Apostles and praise for the false teachers. Instead, he diminishes the very advantage—that is, external wisdom. Therefore, in the first epistle, he strongly attacks it, saying that it not only does not help Gospel preaching, but even obscures the glory of the Cross of the Lord. For he says: “I came not in the excellence of speech or wisdom, lest the Cross of Christ be emptied of its power,” and much else of this sort (1 Cor. 1:1–31, 2:1–16). By which he shows that the false teachers were ignorant of knowledge, and this is the extreme degree of ignorance.’

“But in all respects we have made it evident to you” – actually: “but in everything we are revealed to all of you.” But it is not necessary for me, he says, to speak at length about what is in me and what is not. You yourselves know all this. I have acted among you openly, hiding in no respect. Neither with cunning speech did I cover up ignorance, as the eloquent do, nor with outwardly proper behavior did I hide ill-intentioned feelings and dispositions. Whatever I am, such have I shown myself in all respects, acting always openly. You know this – and you know all of me. Saint Chrysostom says: “And here again he reproves the false apostles for acting in a cunning manner. But he has spoken of himself before as well, that he did not feign, preached God’s word without deception and unselfishly. The false apostles are different in reality, and showed themselves as different, but he is not such. Therefore he glories everywhere that he does nothing for human glory and does not hide his deeds. So here too he says: we do everything openly before you. And he speaks thus much only because he is not at all afraid of the Corinthians and preserves truth in all his words. Therefore he refers to them as witnesses – both now, when he says: ‘we are revealed to all of you,’ and before, when he said: ‘we write nothing to you except what you read and understand’ (2 Cor. 1:13).”

2 Cor. 11:7. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I proclaimed God’s gospel to you without charge?

All that has been said up to now was merely as a preamble. Now the Apostle touches upon the main subject of this section, in which, by displaying the disinterestedness of his Gospel preaching and strongly hinting at the opposite methods of his opponents, he aims to imprint upon their minds which side truth is on.

Before this the holy Paul said: you are well acquainted with me from all sides—meaning thereby that in his manner of action he sees nothing that would give the Corinthians reason to prefer someone else to him. But in this, as if remembering the humble manner in which he appeared among them and remained throughout the entire time of establishing the holy faith, because of material lack which he did not want to remedy by taking anything from the Corinthians—remembering this, he asks: might you perhaps hold this against me?—That is, ‘that I conducted myself with great modesty among you, and in preaching the Gospel to you, I did not use the necessary sustenance from you?’ (Theodoret). But I did this for your benefit; I humbled myself so that you might be exalted—I humbled myself in material things so that you might be exalted in spiritual things. This cannot serve to diminish my apostolic service, but to exalt it. St. Chrysostom puts into the mouth of the Apostle the following speech: ‘I lived among you in extreme poverty: for such is the meaning of the words—“humbling myself.” So, is this a charge against me? Are you making yourselves superior to me (raising others above me) because I humbled myself among you, begged for alms, endured hardship and hunger, so that I might exalt you?—How did they become exalted when Paul was in extremity?—Like this: they received greater edification, and not cause for offense. He had also said before that he was criticized, as if at face-to-face meetings he abased himself, while in absence he was bold. Now, defending himself, he again strikes at them, saying: and I did this for you.’

2 Cor. 11:8. I robbed other churches by taking wages from them so as to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. And I refrained from burdening you in any way, and will continue to refrain.

So essential did Saint Paul consider this manner of conduct that nothing could make him deviate from it. He says he became a financial burden to (εσυλησα — as if plundering) other churches, he himself was worn down by poverty, yet he would not allow himself to trouble any of you. Nothing makes the countenance of preachers shine so brightly as when they appear completely detached from all earthly things. For this directly demonstrates that they themselves did not embark on their work in an earthly manner. Therefore, Saint Paul treasured the manifestation of this quality, especially in Corinth, being assured by the Spirit’s guidance that it was fundamentally necessary for their conversion. Saint Chrysostom says: “Before all his other merits, first and foremost he glories in contempt for earthly goods. For this is what (worldly people) demand most of (preachers of truth)—by this they are most inclined to believe. Therefore Saint Paul does not begin his discourse with dangers, nor with miracles, but with contempt for earthly goods. It is worthy of wonder that the Apostle, though he could have said that he worked with his own hands to provide for himself, did not say this, but speaks of that which was especially shameful to the Corinthians and did not even serve as a boast for the Apostle, namely, that he received from others. And he did not say: I received, but: ‘εψα’, that is, he took even the last and brought them to poverty. And, what is still more important, he took not for abundance, but to meet necessary needs. For by the word ‘provisions’ (οψωνιον, a soldier’s rations) is meant what is necessary for sustenance. And what is greater still, the Apostle says: ‘for your service to me’; that is, we preached the gospel to you, and when I ought to have received sustenance from you, I received it from others. Two or even three reasons condemning them: when he, being among them, serving them, having need of necessary sustenance, received it from others, who thus held great advantage over the Corinthians. For the Corinthians remained carefree, while those took care of the Apostle; some sent to him from afar, while others could not provide for him when he was among them. But, sensing the harshness of such reproach, the Apostle again imperceptibly softens it and says: ‘I gave trouble to none of you’. He did not say: you did not give to me, but—I did not take. For he was still sparing them. But again, even in the very softening of his speech, he imperceptibly wounds them. For the words: ‘coming to you and being in need’ are very expressive. Lest they say: what could we do when you had everything with you? he adds: ‘being in need, I gave trouble to no one of you.’”

2 Cor. 11:9. For my need was supplied by the brothers who came from Macedonia. And in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and so I will continue to do.

The Macedonians came to the Apostle in Corinth, probably not once, and each time with gifts. Such is the nature of the Macedonians (Slavs)! They loved the holy faith and its herald and were ready to sacrifice everything for him, forgetting themselves. Though they themselves were not wealthy, but knowing that the Apostle had nothing, they could not bear to refrain from sharing with him what they could, and even more than they could, and not only with him but with all needy believers. This is unreasoning and self-forgetful simplicity!

“And in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you”.—“In everything”,—in food, in clothing, in lodging: he burdened no one with anything; he did not allow anyone of you to sacrifice anything or do anything for me. In such complete detachment did the Apostle keep himself from all! And this was not only at the time when he was planting faith among you, but he established this principle for himself to maintain among you forever. “I kept myself,”—he says,—“and I will continue to keep myself” without troubling you. “He added this so that they would not think he was speaking to them of past forbearance with the intention of obtaining something from them now” (Theodoret).

How comprehensively does Saint Chrysostom examine this matter! “See what a sensitive blow he strikes them by presenting those who did serve him. First, having aroused in the Corinthians the desire to know who these were, by saying: ‘I became a burden to other churches’,—then he names them. He wrote about this to the Macedonians themselves, saying: ‘you even sent once and again for my need’, and this at the beginning of the gospel (Phil. 4:15, 16). This served them as the greatest praise, because right at the beginning they so distinguished themselves. But note that the Apostle everywhere displays his poverty and nowhere speaks of abundance. By the words: ‘coming to you and being in need’, he showed that I ought to have received sustenance from the Corinthians, but by the words: ‘my need was supplied’ he shows that he did not demand this, saying at the same time the reason for it, though not the true reason. What is it then?—That he received from others. ‘My need was supplied,’—he says,—‘by the brothers’ ‘who came’ ‘from Macedonia.’ Therefore I did not trouble you, and not because I did not trust you. But in fact he acted according to the true reason (that is, that he did not trust, lest they be offended if he took from them), which he shows later, though not directly, but obscurely, leaving it to the conscience of the listeners to understand and imperceptibly pointing to it with the following words: ‘and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you’. Do not think that I am saying this with the intention of obtaining something from you. And the word ‘will keep’ shows even more strongly that he not only now expects nothing from them, but has even renounced forever taking anything from them. And equally shows that they considered it burdensome to help him, which is why he said: ‘without trouble to you I have kept and will keep myself’. He speaks similarly in the first epistle: ‘I did not write this to you to act in this way, for it would be better for me to die than to have anyone rob me of my ground for boasting’ (1 Cor. 9:15). And here again: ‘without trouble to you I have kept and will keep myself’.”

False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20)

2 Cor. 11:10. The truth of Christ is in me, that this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia.

Saint Paul lived only for the Gospel and the holy Church and would not agree on any account to depart from this, and directly professed that he would rather die than change this order. And here he says the same thing, or even more strongly, for the words: “the truth of Christ is in me” constitute an oath-like affirmation. Thus he assured the Romans also, saying: “I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying” (Rom. 9:1). As the truth of Christ, by which alone I live, is infallible, so is my word infallible. This is the same as: as Christ is true, so I speak truly, or I assure you by Christ. How important the Apostle considered this, that he places it alongside the truth of Christ! And this only with respect to Achaia, not to all. One cannot fail to see the finger of God in this. This also explains the disposition with which the Apostle endured this. To labor, and at the same time endure poverty in all things—this could not fail to resound with sorrow in his heart. But the Apostle not only does not sorrow, not only is magnanimous, but even glories in it. This is my boast, he says. “He calls his action a boast so that no one would think that he grieves about it or speaks in anger, and at the same time, so that he would not shame them too greatly with his words, as though they had not provided for him, even though he asked. Against this he speaks as if: you would even be ready to give, but I do not take. In this is my boasting. The word: ‘will not be stopped’ is used in a figurative sense: it is taken from a dammed river and means that the fame about him, that he does not take, spreads everywhere, like a river. You will not stop by your alms my boasting; yet he did not say: you will not stop, which would have been harsh to them, but—‘this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia’” (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 11:11. Why? Do I not love you? God knows. But what I do, I will continue to do.

The preceding words: “this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia”—could have struck the Corinthians. This was quite enough to bring them into despondency and hurt them by the fact that he rejects them alone. For if he boasts in this, then he should act this way everywhere, but if it is only with them alone, then by this he clearly rebuked their weakness. So, lest they fall into despondency from such a thought, note how he corrects this. “Why?”—he says,—“because I do not love you? God knows.” He gave a quick and easy resolution (Saint Chrysostom).

God is witness, he says, that I love you, as I also assured you above: “you are in our hearts, to die together with you and to live together” (2 Cor. 7:3). “From his great love for them it happened that he took nothing from them” (Chrysostom). Do not conclude from the fact that I act differently toward you than toward others that I do not love you. Love is precisely what makes me act this way, for otherwise the Gospel of salvation could not be so successful among you. With you, such is the condition for its success; I act this way—with others it is different, and I act differently with them. “Thus he, from one and the same love, did opposite things, that is, he received from love, and did not receive from love; and this opposition depended on the different disposition of those giving” (Saint Chrysostom). I love you, he says; God knows that I love you. In spite of all this, “what I do, I will continue to do.” And my love for you is unchanged, and my manner of conduct toward you is unchanged. These two unchanging qualities live together in me, and one does not hinder the other. Do not you interpret my behavior to the detriment of my love for you.

2 Cor. 11:12. But I will cut off any occasion from those who desire an occasion, so that in that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.

The Apostle acted thus because he could not go against the urgings of the Spirit. Why the Holy Spirit willed it thus, about this, if it was not openly revealed, even the Apostle himself had to conjecture, as the prophets conjectured when the Spirit revealed to them in images the events of the coming of the Son of God to earth. And he conjectures, pointing out the cause in the connections of the gospel. “But I will cut off any occasion from those who desire an occasion.” He could have said that otherwise you would have been offended and would have reluctantly listened to my word, and this would have placed an obstacle to the success of the Gospel. But he said this before: “we have not used this authority… that we might not place an obstacle to the gospel of Christ” (1 Cor. 9:12). Now he derives the necessity of this from the precautions that must be taken in view of false apostles. It is them he means by those desiring an occasion. “Occasion” here is αφορμη — grounds, pretext, opportunity. The false apostles used every opportunity to present in an unfavorable light both Saint Paul himself and his preaching, and thereby to place obstacles to the success of the Gospel. Therefore, he says, I do this so that my opponents, if I were to take something from you, would not turn this into an occasion to cause harm to the Gospel of Christ. “For the sake of many opponents I do this, cutting off their occasions for slander against us” (Theodoret). “Since false apostles concerned themselves only with finding some pretext, it was necessary to take that away from them too” (Saint Chrysostom).

But in what way the opponents of Saint Paul could turn it into a weapon against him if he were to take something from the Corinthians, Paul does not say definitively, but only makes an allusion in the words: “so that in that wherein they glory, they may be found” “even as we.” There is a suggestion that the false apostles already glory in their disinterestedness. The Apostle says: foreseeing this, I took nothing from you and thereby cut off their occasion to boast. Now they cannot boast, for they have nothing special over me. But if I had taken, they could have boldly said: we take nothing, but he does; listen to us, not to him; he acts from selfish motives. But it is hard to suppose that false apostles could act disinterestedly. Therefore, the word: “glory” does not mean that they have disinterestedness, but that they only assume the appearance of being disinterested, without actually being so. The Apostle speaks as if: I feared that, assuming the mask of disinterestedness, they might seduce you; now let them, as they wish, cover themselves with the mask; despite all their cunning, they will come only to what I am. It is understood: but in other respects they are far below me. Consequently, I can think that by this manner of conduct I cut off all their success among you. Blessed Theodoret does not merely suppose, but directly asserts that they only wore the mask of disinterestedness. The Apostle showed that they boast in words, but secretly gather money. For he says this soon after: “you bear with anyone who enslaves you, anyone who devours you, anyone who takes advantage of you” (2 Cor. 11:20).

To this it must be added that, since the Apostle began to act so disinterestedly, not yet knowing how enemies of the truth would oppose him, the words: “so that in that wherein they glory” can be taken in this sense: so that in case they should come to glory in their disinterestedness, or should come to act disinterestedly, they would present no advantage over me, but would be found only to be like me. It is not unnecessary to recall that in Corinth there were also philosophical sects. Many philosophers assumed the appearance of those detached from visible goods, and thereby influenced their followers. Was it not this circumstance that disposed the Apostle to display in himself the face of one truly detached from everything, teaching heavenly philosophy, for the sole purpose that they might follow it and thereby acquire for themselves an essential good, not temporal, but eternal.

2 Cor. 11:13. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

Do not be surprised, says the Apostle as if, that I resolved to act thus, not yet seeing how the enemies of truth will act. I foreknew that they are ready to assume every mask: such is already the nature of falsehood. Such are these false apostles. As deceitful workers, who do not take by truth but by a semblance of truth, they disguise themselves as apostles of Christ and deceive the simple. “They do everything deceitfully, for deception. Since they know that otherwise they would not find acceptance, then, having assumed the mask of truth, they conceal beneath it the deception of seduction. And they do not take money so that they might obtain more—to destroy the soul. But even in this was there more deception. They took money, but secretly. In this he exposes them, saying: ‘disguising themselves’; for them the sheep’s skin serves only as a mask” (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 11:14, 15. And no wonder: for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light. It is no great thing therefore if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end will be according to their deeds.

“It is the custom of the devil to imitate the Divine—just as against the prophets he brought forth multitudes of false prophets, so he imitates in appearance Angels and deceives men. Therefore it is not surprising that they (his servants, instruments of his schemes, gathered from among men) claim for themselves the identity of those called Apostles and use deception that furthers the seduction of men” (Theodoret). “Therefore, if one should be amazed, it is at Satan that one should wonder, not at his servants. For when their teacher dares everything, it is not surprising that his disciples follow him in this. Whom does the Apostle call an ‘Angel of light’?—An angel having boldness to converse with God and standing before God. But there are also angels of darkness, servants of the devil, dark and fierce. And many has the devil deceived in this way, that is, disguising himself as an Angel of light, not becoming an Angel of light. Exactly so these wear upon themselves a mask of Apostles, but do not have the power of apostles; because they can do nothing (in reality, only assume an appearance). And this is precisely the devil’s work—to do everything only for appearance. Who then are the ‘servants of righteousness’?—We, says the Apostle, preaching to you the Gospel, which contains all righteousness. Or this he means, or that the false apostles claim for themselves the glory of righteous men (in general, not only Apostles). How then shall we know them?—From their deeds, as Christ the Lord said” (Matt. 7:20) (Saint Chrysostom). But they cannot hide themselves forever in this way. The time will come, their deeds will be exposed, “and they will reap the fruit of their undertakings” (Theodoret). “They may deceive you, but will not deceive the ever-watchful eye of Christ” (Photius in Oecumenius). “And they will not escape their fate, for according to their deeds will be their end, that is, evil. The end always corresponds to the deeds” (Theodoret).

And for everyone there is a moment when all the illusions that seduce him scatter away. They are seduced by illusions of truth, which resourceful empty wisdom builds for falsehood; they are seduced by illusions of good, which worldly cunning places in the stead of true good; they are seduced to madness by illusions of happiness, which the wicked world presents in such variety. All of this is evil and leads to ruin; but no one caught up in this whirlwind of illusions thinks that they are heading toward ruin. Thus the enemy knows how to mask his deception. But in the hour of death everyone’s eyes are opened and the illusory nature with which they were enveloped vanishes. The same effect can be produced by remembrance of the hour of death, if one takes it to heart and holds it long enough so that it produces all its effect.

2 Cor. 11:16. Again I say: Let no one think me foolish; but if you do, then accept me as foolish, that I may also boast a little.

Saint Paul has spoken about his disinterestedness and now makes a reservation again, lest they think ill of this action of his. In these words, verses 16–20, he presents the conclusion of what precedes, pointing out among other things to the greed of his opponents, verse 20, and makes a transition to what follows—the proof of the truth of his apostleship from what he has endured until now.

“Again I say.” The entire discourse shows how reluctantly Saint Paul speaks in his own praise. It is evident how contrary this is to his nature and heart, but necessity forces him to act against himself. He began “to compare mutually his own merits with the bad deeds of his opponents, so that through such comparison the unlawful teachers might be exposed” (Saint Chrysostom). This was extremely necessary for the Corinthians, for by nothing better could they be turned away from false teachers. He has already said something like this. “Now, intending again to praise himself, he again first exposes false apostles beforehand, so that they might see by what necessity he touches this subject, and so that no one could reproach him for why he speaks of himself. And even before he made many qualifications, but, not being content with what was said before, he says, again I repeat: ‘Let no one think me foolish’ (Do not think that I do this without reasonable grounds). For thus false apostles acted—they boasted without any reason. It is foolish, he says, to boast, but I do this not from foolishness, but from necessity. Therefore, even if you did not believe, but seeing the necessity, began to condemn me, I will not abandon my action. Do you see how he showed that there was great necessity to speak? For if he was not even frightened by this suspicion, then consider with what violence he intended to speak to himself, how he suffered and forced himself when he spoke” (Saint Chrysostom). “It happens that one speaks a word of foolishness, without being foolish and without committing through it the deed of a fool. One is foolish who speaks much about himself uselessly and vainly boasts; such a one in foolishness speaks not only words of foolishness but also commits the deed of a fool. But whoever speaks about himself, though great things, but true things and for the sake of spiritual benefit, those words seem to be words of foolishness by the similarity of speech, but he is not foolish, but rather very wise and commits the deed befitting the wisest man, when for the sake of the benefit and salvation of others he does not regard even blame for it as foolishness. Therefore, he says, ‘Let no one think me foolish.’ Not for myself, but for you I speak what I speak, being forced by the desire to turn you away from false apostles” (Someone in Oecumenius; perhaps Photius).

“But if not”—if you cannot view my deed and word in this way, and despite my assurance you still consider my word of praise for myself as the deed of a fool, “then at least accept me as foolish.” The turn of speech is both subtle, and expository, and persuasive! False apostles came to the Corinthians and spoke any sort of thing about themselves. And they were accepted and honored, and their word was not scorned or rejected. The Apostle, placing himself in their ranks in the quality of a fool, both exposes their foolishness and reproaches those who accepted them in foolishness, and thus opens a way for his word to both, so that they would not think he acts from foolishness. That he precisely shifts the reproach in foolish self-praise from himself to false teachers is evident from the following words: “that I also may boast a little.” “That I may”: they boast, and you listen; so allow me also to boast. “A little”: they boast much, excessively; give me at least a little to boast. “May boast”: they boasted both much and vainly and of trifles; but what Saint Paul said of himself was both true and valuable and spiritually beneficial. All this was known also to the Corinthians; they also knew that the self-praise of false teachers did not correspond to reality. Keeping this in mind, what strong exposure of these latter they saw, what an impressive instruction for themselves, and what a bright and consoling vindication of Saint Paul in his pointing to his praiseworthy deeds! “If you do not believe and, despite the necessity for me to speak thus, still consider me not free from foolishness, then accept me as one speaking foolishly what I speak, so that I too may boast, as false apostles boast. For they are what compel me to speak such words, by boasting to your detriment” (the same in Oecumenius).

2 Cor. 11:17. What I am saying, I am not saying as the Lord would, but as it were in foolishness, in this matter of boasting.

“What I am saying,” that is, I am saying praiseworthy things of myself; I am not saying “as the Lord would.” “There is a divine law which teaches: ‘When you have done all that you are commanded, say, We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty to do’” (Lk. 17:10). Therefore, the divinely-wise Paul said: “What I am saying, I am not saying as the Lord would,” that is, I speak this not according to His law (Theodoret). It seems the intention of the holy Apostle in these words is to turn others away from imitating himself in this respect, for fear that self-praise should not turn into a rule, under the pretext that what is being praised is true and that it brings benefit to others. He speaks as if: but in spite of the fact that necessity compels me, and this is beneficial for you, and I see what good effect my manner of speech will produce on you, nonetheless I will say that this is not done as the Lord would: let no one think of imitating me in this. I recognize self-praise as both a foolish deed and displeasing to the Lord, and being forced to such action, I make one proviso—that if you come to consider me foolish, you limit my foolishness to this part of boasting, and do not extend it to all my deeds and words, or to all my teaching, and to all my dispositions and institutions. So that no one would think that he calls all his teaching foolishness, he necessarily added: ‘in this matter of boasting,’ that is, in these words I call myself foolish (Theodoret). He added this so that you might not think that he does everything ‘as it were in foolishness’ (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 11:18. Since many boast in the flesh, I also will boast.

He explains in what part of boasting, namely in that I will, he says, boast in the flesh. Here he does not mean what he has already said, that is, that he gave trouble to no one, but what he is about to say below, in verse 22, that is, that he too is a Hebrew, an Israelite, and the seed of Abraham, and that he himself has these external advantages from his fleshly origin. Doubtless the false apostles ostentatiously displayed this. The Apostle says: they boast in this; I will boast too, though this is foolish and not as the Lord would. “Regarding the Lord, boasting is meekness, temperance, holiness, but to be a Hebrew and an Israelite is not as the Lord would. For hear what the Apostle says in another place:” “There is neither Jew nor Greek… in Christ Jesus you are all one” (Gal. 3:28) (Oecumenius). Saint Chrysostom says: “What does ‘in the flesh’ mean?—Outward advantages: nobility, wealth, wisdom, that they have circumcision and Hebrew forefathers—they use these for glory. And note Paul’s prudence! He pointed out such advantages which, by what he has proven, amount to nothing, and then called his boasting foolishness. And indeed, if it is foolish to boast of substantial goods, then it is even more foolish to boast of what amounts to nothing. And this very thing he calls ‘not as the Lord would.’ For to be a Hebrew and such like does not bring benefit. So, do not think, he says, that I consider this a virtue. But since they boast, I am forced and in this to compare myself with them. Thus he acts in another place: ‘If someone else thinks they have reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more’” (Phil. 3:4). If someone, being of famous lineage, but having chosen for himself a wise life (monastic, in poverty, deprivation, obscurity), saw that others are proud of nobility, and wished to put to shame their arrogance, then he would be forced to speak also of his own fame, not in praise of himself, but in their humiliation. Thus does Paul.

2 Cor. 11:19. You gladly put up with fools, since you are wise.

This ought to have been said directly after the words: “then at least accept me as foolish.” But there was need to insert certain explanatory concepts, which having done, he returns to that thought. By it he placed himself in the ranks of false apostles who boast foolishly. This foolish boasting is boasting not as the Lord would, only in fleshly advantages. False apostles boasted thus—you accepted them gladly. That you thus gladly accept the foolish gives me also courage to stand in their ranks and hope that you will accept me as well. How much reproof and exposure is here, both for the false apostles and for the Corinthians! It would be good if they had accepted the foolish as foolish, out of compassion, but they accepted them as first-rate sages, even better than Saint Paul. He speaks as if: and this you did not even discern, and yet you are wise! The word: “you are wise” is reproachful. If you were unwise, it would be excusable; but since you are wise, there is no excuse for your action. One cannot turn them away from false apostles more strongly. The Corinthians will have no more desire to accept such. See how the very wise teacher, not defending but as if praising, lays an embargo on accepting such and turns the very heart away from them! Saint Chrysostom says: “It would have been necessary to forbid and to say: do not accept foolish people; and he does this, but with great skill. If he had said this directly, he would have given the impression that he forbids them as one who did not have such advantages. But now, showing that he is not inferior to them in these advantages, and yet considers this nothing, he thus far better corrects them” (On the Corinthians).

2 Cor. 11:20. You bear with anyone who enslaves you, anyone who devours you, anyone who takes advantage of you, anyone who exalts himself, anyone who strikes you on the face.

“Anyone”: though he does not point to anyone specifically, it is evident that the Apostle means false apostles and describes how they held themselves in relation to the Corinthians—so that it might be clearly seen that they are not true teachers: for true teachers cannot act this way. Earlier the Apostle said: accept me, even as a fool, because you gladly accept fools. And immediately after this he says: you accept such and such, meaning false teachers—consequently, he is clearly censuring them; toward the Corinthians he expresses pity, though in words he ‘censures them for their extreme servility to false apostles and for the fact that they have submitted themselves to them to such a degree’ (Saint Chrysostom).

“You bear with anyone who enslaves you.” “See, in what servitude he reproaches the Corinthians and how excessively they have submitted to false apostles!” (Theophylact, Oecumenius). Καταδουλοι, he transforms into slaves, binds you in everything, gives you no freedom in anything. “You,” he says, “have given to them both your possessions and your flesh and your freedom. To become masters not only of your possessions but of you yourselves means far more than to take. About this he spoke also before: ‘If others share authority over you, do we not even more?’” (1 Cor. 9:12) (Saint Chrysostom).

“Anyone who devours you, anyone who takes advantage of you.” “Devours,” κατεσθιει in the sense of gluttons himself.—“Takes advantage,” λαμβανει, takes.—“Not”—there is no such qualifier in the original. “Do you see, now he shows that false apostles take, and not only take, but to excess, for that is what the word ‘devours’ means” (Saint Chrysostom). Consequently, “they falsely boast of contempt for money” (Theodoret). “And what the Apostle said above: ‘so that in that wherein they glory’” (2 Cor. 11:12), he said about their boasting. They only boasted, but had no truth; they only feigned, as though they did not take (Theophylact).

“Anyone who exalts himself,” επαιρεται, raises himself up, haughtily holds his head high, looks down upon you with disdain, regarding you as nothing. This last thought is expressed more strongly metaphorically: “anyone who strikes you on the face.” “The Apostle said this not because false apostles actually struck them on the face, but because they despised them and dishonored them. Your slavery, he says, is not easy; you do not have mild rulers, but harsh and intolerable ones. You suffer no less than those who are struck on the face. Do you see the extreme degree of tyranny!” (Saint Chrysostom).

With this the Apostle concludes his discourse on preaching without charge. The last verses, 16–20, through varied turns of phrase lead to one point: to present in what opposition false apostles stand to Saint Paul. We, he says, are both disinterested and meek, while they are greedy and haughty and power-loving. Judge now, on whose side truth should be?

The following verse 21 is connected in one part with what precedes, and in another part with the subsequent indication by the Apostle of his truly apostolic dignity in that which he has endured until now.

What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

2 Cor. 11:21. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that! But in whatever anyone dares to boast—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast.

“What the Apostle has said is not clear” (Saint Chrysostom). To clarify this, let us return to what precedes. The Apostle showed how slavishly the false apostles were received by the Corinthians. Let us ask ourselves how this was possible. And we will find no other answer than this: certainly they set forth some perfections, showy ones, which made a strong impression on the Corinthians and disposed them to submit to them so. To these advantages the Apostle pointed in the words: “many boast in the flesh” (2 Cor. 11:18). This “in the flesh” he indicates in the following verse 22, that is, that they are Hebrews, that they are Israelites, that they are the seed of Abraham. Somehow they managed to present these titles as very valuable in the eyes of the Corinthians: the Corinthians so slavishly related to them. Bringing this to the minds of the Corinthians, the Apostle says: yes, but what of us? Have we become nothing to you, “weak,” appearing to you as powerless, having no dignity, insignificant?!—No, this is unjust. For if anyone dares to set forth some fleshly, showy advantage, I dare it no less than he. And then he enumerates what advantages the false apostles claimed, adding at the same time that he has all of them too. They lack only one thing—sufferings for Christ the Lord. By these trifles they glory, and for this be in honor and devour the wealth of others they are ready; but as soon as there is need to suffer, they run away; they lack the courage for this. By such reasoning the Apostle’s discourse is brought into order and receives appropriate clarity.

“To my shame,” κατα ατιμιαν, as a dishonor. Whose dishonor is meant? One can understand either the Apostle’s dishonor or the Corinthians’. Of the Apostle thus: I speak this from a sense of dishonor done to me by your treatment of false apostles. As if I have nothing such as they boast and for which you have so enslaved yourselves to them!—Of the Corinthians thus: I say this to your shame. How can you not see that everything they boast of I also have, and yet they have exacted excessive sacrifices from you, while I asked nothing of you and only implored: be reconciled to God, be saved. “What can be worse and what slavery more intolerable than when those who have taken from you both your possessions and your freedom, do not even become meek thereafter and treat you at least as slaves, but conduct themselves contemptibly toward you, worse than toward the lowest bondservant? Therefore you deserve no excuse when you despise those who humble themselves for you to exalt you, and marvel at those who exalt themselves over you to humble you” (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 11:22. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.

Hebrews from Heber; Israelites from Jacob, who was called Israel after his all-night struggle with a certain heavenly being; the seed of Abraham—heirs of the great promises given to Abraham. Here is what the false apostles gloried in! Here is what especially influenced the Corinthians! But all this, he says, I also have. Though the Church of Corinth consisted mainly of Gentiles, but, having become Christians, they entered into spiritual kinship with all that was in the Old Testament; therefore they could value this, not in itself, but in the relation in which all of it stood to Christianity. “The Apostle brought this up because false teachers spoke thus of themselves, and in this he showed his equality with them, but in voluntary sufferings he shows his advantage” (Theodoret). All these are distinctions which were given freely, by the order of natural birth. But let us see how they measure up there where it is necessary to show endurance and firmness of faith.

2 Cor. 11:23. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.

“Servants of Christ”—does not give the thought that they were true Apostles, and generally means persons serving the work of Christ, the gospel of the Gospel, for the purpose of saving people. The true Apostles were chosen from above for this and armed with extraordinary gifts of grace. Close to them come their helpers, chosen by themselves and acting according to their instruction and guidance. But there were also those in those times who themselves took upon themselves the work of preaching the Gospel, as is shown by the example of Aquila and Priscilla, Apollos and others. Of these, some went the straight path, wishing only to serve the work of Christ, with humility and self-denial; others deviated, mixing their own views and reasonings into the work of God. These are the true false apostles; and it is about them that the Apostle speaks. He puts their service to Christ the Lord in the form of a question; consequently, he does not affirm that they truly serve Christ, but speaks as if thus: if they say that they are servants of Christ, then I am even more such. The thought will be: though they say this about themselves, yet they are not truly such, I am the true servant of Christ. Saint Chrysostom says: “If they are false apostles, then it was necessary for him not to compare his advantage with them, but to refute the assertion that they are servants (of Christ). He has already refuted this, saying: ‘false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ’ (2 Cor. 11:13). And here he does the same thing, only differently. First he presents the opinions of opponents (as they think of themselves), saying: ‘are they servants of Christ?’ And then says: ‘I am all the more,’ showing that the true character of apostleship remains with him alone.”

“I am talking like a madman,” παραφρονων, acting out of reason; and in the preceding text he said: “speaking as a fool,” εν αφροσυνη, in foolishness. “This earlier disclaimer was not enough for him, but he excuses himself again here. And though he had clear proof of his superiority, yet he calls it madness to speak of it. He calls it boldness and madness to say anything great and important about oneself, even when necessity demands it, and thus teaches us with all our strength to avoid this. For if, having done all, we must call ourselves unprofitable” (Lk. 17:10), then without any compelling cause, can he who exalts and boasts of himself merit any excuse? For this the Pharisee suffered condemnation, and in the very harbor suffered shipwreck when dashed against the rock of self-boasting. For this reason Saint Paul, seeing a thousand reasons to speak of himself, makes excuses and constantly repeats that it is madness, and only dares to do so after presenting in his own defense the extreme necessity (Saint Chrysostom).

Having said that he alone preserves the true character of apostleship, the Apostle “proves this by his very deeds and, passing over miracles, begins with afflictions” (Saint Chrysostom); “he does not set forth miracles, not the dead raised, not the lame walking, not the flight of demons, not the salvation of the world, but his sufferings for the Gospel” (Theodoret). Why does he do this?—Because it would be in a certain way offensive to the very extraordinary gifts themselves to prove the false apostleship of the false apostles and his true apostleship by the absence of these gifts in them. For this it was sufficient to show by deed that they only care for themselves and try to extract their own advantages from everything, wearing the mask of servants of Christ; but to suffer for Christ, which is essentially necessary for true servants of Christ, they have never suffered and cannot take this path.

“With far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.”

“With labors.” “Very great, he says, are the labors I undertake, traveling from place to place, teaching day and night and working with my own hands. But, what is more, I endure moreover even ‘beatings’” (Theophylact). “For I endure blows and stripes beyond measure, that is, in addition to the undertaking of labors” (Saint Chrysostom). “Besides this: with wounds and ‘imprisoned’ how many times was I shut up!” (Theophylact). Clement of Rome (Epistle to the Corinthians, 15) says that Saint Paul was imprisoned seven times.—“Often near death.” “‘Daily,’ he said, ‘I die’ (1 Cor. 15:31); but here he means death in fact. For his life was often exposed to mortal dangers (Saint Chrysostom). Not merely willingly dying, but actually putting himself in death-bringing perils” (Theophylact).

“More, far more, excess, many times”—“this is not said in comparison with false apostles,” Oecumenius supposes. But Theophylact says: “It is spoken comparatively with false apostles as if: let them also labor, but I labor more and far more. Others maintain that this is spoken not in comparison, but simply to indicate the multitude and degrees of sufferings.” The latter is closer to the truth.

2 Cor. 11:24. From the Jews five times I received forty lashes minus one.

He explains how he received the wounds. Five times, he says, I was given forty lashes minus one. The Law commanded only that not more than forty lashes be given to those found guilty (Deut. 25:3). One lash was removed by the elders afterwards, so that, perhaps miscounting, they would not give more than forty and thus not prove to be breakers of the Law (Theophylact). When the holy Paul endured these lashes. The Acts does not indicate. Yet in Philippi they beat him, but not Jews, but civil pagan authorities. This means that the book of Acts does not portray all the labors of the holy Paul (Theophylact). “Why ‘forty lashes minus one?’ An ancient law existed among the Jews, that whoever received more than forty lashes be considered disgraced (Deut. 25:3). So that the one striking in passion and heat would not give an extra number of lashes and thereby disgrace the one being punished, they determined to give forty lashes minus one, so that the striker would not exceed forty, even if he struck an extra time; yet, always remaining within the limits of the lawful number, could not inflict disgrace on the one being punished.” (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 11:25. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea.

“Three times I was beaten with rods,” that is, beaten with sticks, ερραβδισθην. Acts mentions one such case, namely in Philippi (Acts 16:22). Since this was from pagan authorities, probably all three cases of beating were by pagans as well. This is why they are noted separately from those five times; and also because the beatings from Jews were probably not with rods.

“Once I was stoned.” This happened in Lystra (Acts 14:19). Ελιθασθην means: not hit with stones thrown at, but beaten with stones; as it is written in Acts: “they stoned Paul”, λιθασαντες, “and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead” (Acts 14:19).

“Three times I was shipwrecked.” “How does this relate to the Gospel?—In that he undertook distant travels, and by sea” (Saint Chrysostom). Where were such cases possible? From Antioch to Jerusalem and back one could travel by sea, and the Apostle had already crossed there more than once. Further, between Antioch and Cyprus is the sea; between Cyprus and Pamphylia is the sea; from Troas to Philippi is the sea; from Berea to Athens is the sea; from Corinth to Ephesus is the sea; and now from Troas to Macedonia is the sea.

“A night and a day I was adrift at sea.” “The ship was wrecked with me,” εναυαγησα, that is, three times I suffered shipwreck. Twice I escaped from trouble easily, but once for a whole day I was tossed about by the sea, probably clinging to some broken piece of the ship. Saint Chrysostom says: “Some explain this as meaning he spent a whole day in the middle of the sea, while others say that (when the ship was broken) he drifted for a day in the depths of the sea; the latter agrees better with the truth, and the former would not be worthy of wonder, and the Apostle would not have put it above shipwreck.” Theodoret explains it thus: “When the ship was broken, I was then tossed about all through the night and all through the day by the waves.”

2 Cor. 11:26. I have been on frequent journeys; in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers from false brothers.

“In frequent journeys,” he suffered and endured hardship “because for the sake of preaching he undertook the labors of travel” (Theodoret). Often sending his coworkers by sea, he himself went from place to place on foot, hoping to find a field favorable for sowing the gospel (Acts 20:13).

“Dangers from rivers.” “Dangers,” κινδυνοις;—it is understood, I was—in dangers: “on rivers,” “for he was forced to cross rivers” (Saint Chrysostom). There are almost no bridges there even now, and the rivers are small. They cross by fording. Dangers come from the swift current, and during rains from flooding.

“Dangers from robbers”: he was in dangers from robbers attacking on the way. Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece—all these lands traversed by Saint Paul are mountainous. Gorges are convenient refuges for wicked men. It is so even now.

“Dangers from my own people,” εκ γενους, from my race, that is, I was in dangers from Jews, “my kinsmen, and more so than from others; they were provoked to savagery against me by their unreasonable zeal for the faith and envy at the success of the Gospel” (Theophylact).

“Dangers from Gentiles,” εξ εθνων, I was in dangers from pagans; Jews did not always rise up against Saint Paul themselves, often they incited pagans against him. These could themselves be displeased with him, either because of the abandonment of temples, or because of the diminishment of work for artisans who made objects for pagan religious worship, as happened in Ephesus.

“Was he perhaps not safe in cities?—Not at all” (Theophylact). He was in dangers also “in the city,” εν πολει, in the city. “By this he means the disturbances that arose against him” (Theodoret). “Was he perhaps safer in the wilderness?—Not even there” (Theophylact). “Dangers in the wilderness,” and even in the wilderness he was in dangers, “for he was often forced to travel through desolate places” (Theodoret). These are not dangers from robbers, but from beasts, serpents, sandstorms and the like. “Dangers at sea.” “And when he came down from land, dangers met him on the sea” (Theophylact). These are dangers not properly from the sea, for he has already spoken of that, but from sailors and those who sailed with him. “For he had to engage frequently in seafaring, striving to fill the islands and mainland with piety” (Theodoret).

Dangers everywhere, “everywhere labors were set before me, in various places, in villages, in cities and in deserts” (Saint Chrysostom). “The devil everywhere stirred up wars against me. There was no safe place for me: neither city nor wilderness sheltered me from dangers” (Oecumenius).

“Dangers from false brothers.” “Here is a new kind of warfare! Not only enemies, but those who bore the mask of brotherhood waged war with the Apostle; and in this case great courage and much prudence were required” (Saint Chrysostom). Are meant those who believed from among the Jews, who, however, did not wish to part with the Law; they everywhere caused much trouble to Saint Paul, destroying what he built up. At their instigation, shortly after in Jerusalem there arose an uprising against Saint Paul, which nearly cost him his life. “This kind of trial is the most painful and bitter. And David with deep sorrow complains: ‘If an enemy insulted me, I could endure it… But you, a man my equal,’” (Ps. 54:13, 14) “And again: ‘My close friend… magnified slander against me’” (Ps. 40:10) (Theophylact).

The Apostle’s Labors, Perils, and Care for the Churches (2 Cor. 11:27–32)

2 Cor. 11:27. In toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and nakedness.

“In toil and hardship,” εν κοπω και μοχθω. — Μοχθος is also toil, but intensified toil, toil to exhaustion. “In the toil of teaching and in the hardship of manual work” (Theodoret). So for the Apostle “after toil came dangers, after dangers came toils, alternating and constantly following one another and giving him not a moment of rest” (Saint Chrysostom).—“Through many sleepless nights”: “for even in refuges I did not surrender to sleep, as witnessed by what happened in Philippi” (Theodoret). Here he spent the night in prayer, and later in Troas in conversation with believers. These are examples of how everywhere and always the Apostle acted. “It was not enough for him to suffer afflictions from without, but he also exhausted himself with toils, with sweats, and with sleepless nights” (Theophylact).

“In hunger and thirst”: “this is one of the involuntary hardships” (Theodoret). For voluntary deprivations of this kind are contained in the following word. He could endure this both when traveling and when imprisoned.

“Often without food”: “this is one of the voluntary ascetic struggles” (Theodoret). Fasting is a helper to prayer, the best preparation for preaching with the power of the word. Such help was needed by Saint Paul almost continuously.

“In cold and nakedness.” That is, he endured coldness on account of poor clothing that did not warm him well. “This was a consequence of poverty and extreme destitution” (Theodoret). “With all the sufferings mentioned, he did not even have necessary food, and had nothing to clothe himself with—the teacher of the universe struggled in nakedness and fought while hungry” (Theophylact).

2 Cor. 11:28. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

“And apart from other things,” χωρις των παρεκτος, besides the rest: I pass over the rest. “From much,” he says, “I am forced to relate a little” (Theodoret). He wants to say: “More is omitted than what is set forth. Even of what is enumerated it is impossible to describe fully. For the Apostle did not indicate each trial separately, but recalled only those whose number was not great and could be retained in memory, saying: five times, three times, once; of the other trials he did not even say this, because he endured them many times” (Saint Chrysostom).

“The daily pressure on me.” “Uprisings, riots, oppression from the people and the rushing of whole cities. For the Jews chiefly displayed their enmity toward him in this way, because the Apostle shamed them more than all others, and the greatest rebuke of their madness was his sudden conversion to Christ. A great war was stirred up against him from his own, from strangers, from hypocrites. Everywhere for him were waves and rapids, in inhabited and uninhabited places, on land and on sea, without and within” (Saint Chrysostom).

“Anxiety for all the churches.” “This is the culmination of all: his soul was torn, his heart was rending. Even without external sorrows, the internal struggle would have cost him much, waves of anxieties chasing one another, clouds of cares, conflict of thoughts. For if one caring for a single house, though having servants, stewards, and managers, often knows no peace from care when no one troubles him, imagine what Paul had to endure, who had care not for a single house, but for cities, for peoples, tribes, for the whole world, and in matters so important, with so many enemies striving to harm him everywhere and in everything; he labored alone and was so sensitive, cared for all as a father does not care for his own children” (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 11:29. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?

“So that you do not say: though Paul was concerned, yet he was concerned lightly, he showed how great was his concern, saying: ‘Who is weak, and I am not weak?’” He did not say: I take part in sorrow, but he says: I am so troubled and grieved as if I myself were in the same affliction, suffered that same illness. “Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?” (I burn, as in fire, zealous for their salvation). See again how great is his sorrow, which the word ‘indignant’ shows. I am inflamed, I am consumed, he says; and this sorrow is truly greater than all others. Other sorrows, though heavy, quickly passed and brought imperishable joy, but this sorrow—to endure so many sufferings for each weak one, whoever he might be, oppressed, constrained, wounded his heart. For he was not only concerned for the highest, leaving the lowest in neglect, but rather counted the contemptible among the necessary. Therefore he said: ‘Who is weak’ (‘Who is made to stumble’), showing that he means anyone, whoever he might be. As if in himself encompassing the whole universal Church, Paul grieved for each member of it. (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 11:30. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

This is the conclusion of all that precedes. He speaks as if: thus, if I must boast, as you compel me, then I will boast of my weaknesses, meaning all that I have said of myself before, that is, deprivations, sorrows, persecutions. “For all this shows the weakness of human nature. He does not mention miracles, because they are God’s gift, but all this under God’s will and protection shows both His will and his endurance” (Theophylact). “The Apostle gave an indication that he could have pointed also to what was accomplished by him through grace, but he considered it more fitting to point to the labors of endurance” (Theodoret). Why did he judge thus?—Because “such is the distinctive character of apostleship; by this the gospel is established” (Saint Chrysostom). And he had to show the Corinthians more clearly that he is a true Apostle. By enumerating all he endured, he speaks as if to them: do you not recognize in me one of those whom the Lord sent as sheep in the midst of wolves? This impressed itself and consequently proved what Saint Paul intended to prove: the goal was achieved.

2 Cor. 11:31. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

To what purpose such an assurance of truth? I testify before God, I speak before God, that I do not lie. What does this confirm: the truth of what has been said, or what is still to be said? But much of what has been said the Corinthians knew personally and saw with their own eyes; and judging by this, they had no reason to doubt what they did not see. Consequently, this must refer to what follows. To what then?—Not to what happened in Damascus, for this event is not so important and incredible that it would require testimony before God to assure of its truth. Rather, it should refer to the account of the rapture to the third heaven, as a phenomenon outside the ordinary. Perhaps the account of Saint Paul’s persecution in Damascus is inserted here because this event stood in some connection with the rapture of Saint Paul to heaven—and for this reason stands here as an introduction.

“The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Both God and Father of the Lord. But the Lord is also a divine name, therefore by this is said the same thing as: Father of God; and consequently, the Lord Jesus Christ is God of God.—“Who is blessed forever.” A heart that loves and reverences God, and always contemplates Him as a gracious Father, cannot help but, in its ascents to God, express such dispositions in some reverent and loving word. So does Saint Paul both here and in many other places.—“Knows that I am not lying.” He walked before God and led all his thoughts, feelings, dispositions, and deeds as before the face of God. His conscience showed him no crookedness in himself before God in any respect. He testifies boldly before God, both that what he says is true, and that it was approved, arranged, and helped by God Himself.

2 Cor. 11:32. In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.

Apostle Paul, upon returning from Arabia to Damascus, preached the Gospel here with such zeal that he angered both Jews and Gentiles. Both together stirred up against him the pagan governor (εθναρχης, a people-ruler or city-ruler, or perhaps a provincial governor); and he ordered that all entrances and exits of Damascus be guarded to capture Saint Paul. The city was surrounded by a wall, but the city houses, as even now, were built close to this wall and adjoined it, sometimes rising even above the wall. With such an arrangement, a window looking out over the city was possible. Through it Saint Paul was lowered in a basket, and he escaped from the hands of the people-ruler and his enemies. After this he went to Jerusalem to see Peter (Acts 9:23–26; Gal. 1:17, 18).

Saint Chrysostom says: “See what a war it was, if a governor guarded the city because of him. When I speak of war, I mean Paul’s zeal. If Paul had not breathed with such fire of zeal, he would not have inflamed such fury in the provincial governor. Such is the nature of an apostolic soul—to endure so much and never waver, but to bear manfully all that comes; yet not to fall recklessly into dangers or run to meet them. See by what means he consented to escape the siege. ‘Through a window in the wall I was let down in a basket.’ Though he desired to depart this life, he at the same time sought human salvation. Therefore and often he devised such means to preserve himself for preaching. And he did not refuse to use human measures when circumstances required it. Thus was he cautious and vigilant. Where evil was unavoidable, he resorted to grace alone; but where temptation did not exceed human powers, he devised much from himself. But here again he attributes all to God. And as a spark of inextinguishable fire, fallen into the sea, though swallowed by many waves, yet afterwards comes forth to the surface as bright: so blessed Paul, now as if plunged into the abyss, beset by afflictions, then was freed and appeared most brilliant, remaining victor in his evil sufferings. Here is glorious victory, here are victorious standards of the Church! The devil brought many scourges upon Saint Paul, but he remained victor in all. Like a warrior who alone fights against the whole world, surrounded by ranks of enemies and suffering no harm, so Paul, appearing alone among Greeks, barbarians, everywhere—on land and sea, remained unconquerable. And as a spark fallen into straw or hay transforms all it consumes into one nature with itself, so he, to whomever he came, brought all to the truth, and passed everywhere like a stream destroying barriers. Like some wrestler, who alone wrestles, pursues, and strikes; or like a warrior who both sieges walls and fights on sea and land, so Paul engaged in every kind of warfare, breathed fire, for all was unapproachable, with one body encompassed the whole world, with one tongue scattered all. Constantly appearing everywhere, coming to some, hurrying to others, appearing with those, being transferred to these, rushing faster than wind. And governing the world as one house or one ship, he would draw up the drowning, strengthen the weakening; give orders to sailors, sit at the stern; inspect the rudder, draw the ropes, steer the oar, furl the sails, look to heaven: he alone was all—both sailor and helmsman, and sail and ship; endured all that he might free others from evil. And note, he suffered shipwreck that he might stop the shipwreck of the world; spent a night and day in the deep of the sea that he might draw men from the depth of deception; was in toils that he might give rest to the toiling; endured wounds that he might heal those wounded by the devil; sat in prisons that he might bring those bound in fetters and darkness into light; was many times at death’s door that he might save others from cruel death. Five times he received forty lashes minus one that he might save from the devil’s scourges those who scourged him; was beaten with rods that he might bring others under the rod and club of Christ; was stoned that he might free from hardened insensibility; was in the wilderness that he might draw from the desolation of sin; was in journeys that he might turn back the wandering and open the way to heaven; underwent dangers in cities that he might point to the heavenly city; endured hunger and thirst that he might save from spiritual famine; was naked that he might clothe the shameless in the garment of Christ; endured attacks from the people that he might avert attack from demons; was inflamed that he might quench the fiery arrows of the evil one; was let down in a basket through a window in the wall that he might raise up those cast down. Shall we still speak when we do not know all that Paul endured?!”

The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5)

Two subjects here: aa) the rapture itself to heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–6), and bb) the thorn in the flesh given to the Apostle, to conceal his great spiritual perfections, lest he become proud, having constantly such a reminder of the weakness of our nature (2 Cor. 12:7–10).

Aa)

2 Cor. 12:1. I must go on boasting. Though it is not beneficial, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.

He said before: if I must boast, I will boast of my weaknesses. Now he says: to boast of something brilliant, which catches the eye by itself, is not beneficial for me (Photius in Oecumenius), or is not fitting for me. For though there were great divine revelations, yet there is constantly with me a thorn, causing me pains, which humbles me more than those exalt me. To endure all that has been said by Saint Paul is truly a glorious deed. This surrounds his face with the glory of an exalted, not earthly heroism. But not everyone will understand this glory immediately; it must be explained and made clearer, as Saint Chrysostom did at the end of the preceding chapter. The glory of endurance concealed itself with humble appearance or visibility. But something brilliant catches the eye by itself and itself proclaims its glory. Therefore Saint Paul, having need to speak of revelations that came to him, anticipates with a reservation: this is not beneficial for me, or this is not fitting for me. And then, having spoken of it, he concludes: “lest I should be exalted, a thorn was given me” (2 Cor. 12:7). As if to say: do not draw excessive conclusions at my account from what is said, and do not think of me more than I am.

“It is not advantageous for me to boast. I will go on to visions.” “I will go on,”—he shows the reason, but for what?—For an implied thought: I am saying this because I am proceeding to an account of revelations that came to me. “The account of this is not advantageous for me, but beneficial for you. Therefore, caring for your benefit, I am compelled to say what I do not consider beneficial for myself” (Theodoret). Saint Chrysostom says: “What does this mean? After saying so much, he says: ‘It is not beneficial for me to boast.’ In the sense that he said nothing yet?—No. But since he intends to proceed to another kind of boasting, which, though leading not to such reward as the former, yet apparently glorifies him more in the eyes of many who cannot fully understand the matter, he says: ‘It is not beneficial for me to boast.’ For great and the aforesaid grounds for boasting, namely, trials. But he intends to present another kind of grounds—revelations and unspeakable mysteries; therefore he speaks thus. For what reason does he say: ‘not beneficial for me’?—In order not to fall into pride. What do you say? Do you not know of this yourself, even if you do not tell it? But our exaltation is not the same when we alone know the reason for it and when we communicate it to others. For usually it is not the merits themselves that puff us up, but the fact that many testify to them and know of them. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘not beneficial for me,’ and he also does not want to make his hearers think of him more highly than appropriate. False apostles told of themselves things that never happened, while Paul, even what did happen, conceals, even when necessity itself demanded that he not conceal it.” “‘Not beneficial for me,’ he says, teaching everyone in every way to avoid self-praise. For it brings not benefit, but harm, if some necessary and beneficial necessity does not compel to praise.”

“Visions and revelations” here in the Apostle contain one thought: revelation through vision. Revelation embraces all that God is pleased to reveal to us. It happens mentally, when knowledge is imparted to the mind; it happens externally, when God or an Angel appears and speaks what is necessary; but it also happens through visions. A vision either presents the spiritual in images, as, for example, the visions of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse, and requires a new revelation in the mind to understand it; or it is a vision of the spiritual world in its essence, when the spirit of a man is in an unusual way taken up and introduced to its contemplation, not in images, but as it is. Of such a vision Saint Paul now speaks.

2 Cor. 12:2. I know a person in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows.

“I know a person in Christ.” As if speaking of another, though evidently he speaks of himself—this is because he was not the acting one, but the acted upon. He consciously recognized and clearly saw all that was happening to him; but as he did not himself act, but was acted upon by a higher power, he places himself only in the rank of observer, and what was accomplished in and with him, he considers as an object or person observed, as if different from himself. Scripture distinguishes in man a certain inner man, or hidden in the heart. This inner man was introduced to the vision, while the ordinary man only remembers it. Yet nothing would have prevented him from saying: I was caught up, instead of what he said: “I know a person…caught up.” If he said thus, surely he had reasonable causes. We can only conjecture that the course of his discourse led him to it, for throughout this whole section the Apostle is both forced to speak about himself something extraordinary, and wishes to conceal himself. Thus here—he both speaks and as if does not speak. Saint Chrysostom says: “Someone will say: if Paul wanted to conceal, he should have made no allusion and said nothing like it. But if he wanted to say, he should have spoken clearly. So, why did he speak neither clearly nor remain silent?—In order to show by this how reluctantly he undertakes the matter.”

The words: “in Christ” can be combined in various ways: both “a person in Christ,” and “I know in Christ,” and “caught up in Christ.” A person in Christ is a believer in Christ, clothed in Christ, become one with Christ. If the one caught up had not been such, he would not have been caught up.—“I know in Christ,” for if the Apostle speaks of himself, then “I know a person” would mean: I experienced this; experienced not by my own powers or by any mental devices, but in Christ. But evidently, in such a case “I know in Christ” would merge with: “caught up in Christ.” It would mean: as one united with Christ and become one with Him, I was caught up by His power, according to His good pleasure, to His glory, for the advancement of His work. Oecumenius and Theophylact write: “He added ‘in Christ’ so that the false apostles, from whose daring anything can be expected, would not say that he was taken by demons, like Simon the magician.”

“Fourteen years ago.” If the epistle was written in 58 AD, then the vision falls on 44 AD, the year of famine, when Saint Paul with Barnabas carried alms to Jerusalem, and after returning thence were set apart by the Spirit of God for preaching. Thus this vision was either in Jerusalem, when Saint Paul was there with the alms, or in Antioch, before departing for the first time to preach to the Gentiles. The rapture of which Saint Paul speaks in his speech to the people when they seized him in Jerusalem and wanted to kill him (Acts 22:17), does not agree with this in content and was earlier by two or three years—namely after Saint Paul’s return from Damascus to Jerusalem.—Why did the Apostle mention the time? Saint Chrysostom and all our interpreters explain thus: “He determined also the time—fourteen years ago—for not without cause did he mention this, but wishing to show that, having kept silent for so long, now too he would not have spoken if there had not been a great necessity. On the contrary, he would have remained silent if he had not seen perishing brethren.—And if Paul was such that in the very beginning, when he had not yet such merits, was deemed worthy of a great revelation, then consider what he became after fourteen years?”—Such an impression was and desirable for the Apostle to raise in the minds of the Corinthians, as Oecumenius surmises: “Since false apostles appeared to be something great and thereby drew all to themselves, the Apostle was forced to show that he far exceeded them, so that they would heed his words and not theirs. For this reason he suggests: one deemed worthy fourteen years ago of such revelations, what is he now after so many labors undertaken for Christ?”

“Whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows.”—I cannot say, he says, whether my soul alone was taken to heaven while the body remained on earth, or the body too was taken there. Attention was occupied not with this; it was all absorbed in what was seen and did not turn to itself. After the vision a question could arise and probably did; but fourteen years passed, and it remained unanswered. And if even for Saint Paul himself it remained unanswered, then surely this is such a matter that it cannot be decided, or should not be decided. Saint Chrysostom says: “See how modest he is in everything: he speaks of one thing, but confesses about another that he does not know. He said he was caught up; but whether in the body or out of the body, that, he says, he does not know. It would have been enough to speak of the rapture, keeping silent about the rest, but out of modesty he adds that too. So what then? Was only the mind and soul caught up while the body remained dead? Or was the body too caught up?—This cannot be determined. For if Paul himself, who was caught up and deemed worthy of so many unutterable revelations, does not know this, much more we cannot know. That he was in paradise, this he knows; that he was in the third heaven, that too is not unknown to him; but how he was caught up, of this he does not know clearly.”

“Caught up to the third heaven.” To say this, one must have seen distinctly how the heavens pass—one after another—the second after the first and the third after the second. Since all the vision was a vision of what the bodily eye does not see, these heavens cannot be determined by correspondence to anything visible on high for the bodily eye, whether simple or aided. These heavens are hidden, though for one able to see they are distinct from one another, contain different objects and have different meanings. Within, or in the depths of, the visible world to us, is hidden another world, equally actual as this—spiritual, or subtly material, God knows; but it is certain that Angels and saints dwell in it. According to the degrees of the latter are the degrees of heavens. Since there are many such degrees, there are probably many heavens. The Apostle was caught up to the third heaven; but he does not say it was the last. Moreover, the meaning of his words is such that he passed by two heavens and stopped at the third; but it is possible to pass by not only two but tens and stop at the twentieth.

2 Cor. 12:3. And I know that this person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows—

He confirms that he was truly caught up, and was clearly conscious of it, and knows that it was reality, not some illusory dream. He can only not say whether he was caught up in the body or out of the body. This, he says, only God knows. It is evident that for us knowledge of this is not necessary; surely it does not pertain to the essence of the matter. There is nothing to seek. He speaks as if: this vision is wondrous not only in its subject but also in the very manner of the vision. “Speaking of a wondrous and supernatural matter, he insists that he does not know the manner in which it was accomplished” (Oecumenius).

2 Cor. 12:4. Was caught up into paradise and heard things that are not permitted to tell to mortals.

This third heaven is paradise—or was he first caught up to the third heaven and from the third heaven to paradise? If one accepts the latter, then the heavens passed through will not be the blessed abodes of the saints and Angels but some heavenly arrangements. Theodoret writes: “To the third heaven,” the Apostle spoke about the third part of the distance between heaven and earth, to which he was caught up and heard unspeakable words. Oecumenius and Theophylact distinguish paradise from the third heaven. Theophylact finds something corresponding to the three heavens in the visible world. He says: “‘The third heaven’ understand it this way! Scripture calls air heaven when it says—heavenly birds: here is one heaven! And the firmament it names heaven: ‘God called the firmament heaven’ (Gen. 1:8): here is the second heaven. It knows also another heaven, created with the earth (Gen. 1:1): here is the third heaven. From this third heaven, that man was caught up to paradise.‘So also Oecumenius:’He was caught up to the third heaven and again from there to paradise.” Oecumenius explains the twofold repetition: “whether in the body or out of the body I do not know” by this same twofold action of catching up. “Do not think the Apostle unnecessarily repeated these words twice; but the first time he spoke of being caught up to heaven and the second of being caught up from there to paradise.” Greater definiteness is neither needed nor can be expected when the holy Paul himself is silent.

We do not consider it unnecessary, however, to bring here the following thoughts of blessed Theophylact: “According to the letter, it appears that the third heaven is one place and paradise another; but by analogy (in the spiritual sense, in the application to phenomena of moral and religious life) it appears sometimes that they are the same, sometimes that they are not the same. Analogically much could be said about this, but we will say little,—what is more readily understood. The first heaven is the moral realm, when one orders his moral character. The second heaven is the realm of knowledge of creatures, when one acquires knowledge of every created nature, as much as is accessible to us. The third heaven is the realm of theological knowledge, when one, to the measure possible for him, attains knowledge of divine things and things transcending understanding through contemplation. Therefore Saint Paul was certainly caught up to places, so to speak, near or about the Holy Trinity, that is, having passed and risen above all things created, not knowing whether in body or out of body. To feel and be conscious of this was impossible for him, for there ceases self-activity and self-determination. When a man is introduced into the realm of divine things, his self-activity and understanding of the manner of accomplishment of what he sees ceases. God catches up and takes the man, he is borne by Him and acted upon by Him. And since in these realms too there are their own degrees and ascents to them, it happens that sometimes someone is suddenly caught up to paradise, that is, introduced to the contemplation of the most hidden mysteries of the Godhead, which, as incomprehensible and unutterable, no one can grasp unless first they have come out of human corruption.”

“And he heard inexpressible words, which it is not permitted for a man to speak.” Whose words? – Those of the Lord Saviour or of God invisible, or of Angels, or of saints brought by the Lord into paradise?! And the vision of all this is inexpressible, and much more incomprehensible for an earthly ear is the speech of that place, whoever’s it might be. The saints glorify God, the Angels sing to Him, the Saviour gives commands to the executors of His will. All there is in blessed movement, but all in the order and harmony of the supercelestial, for the description of which there are no words in our tongue. Should we regret that he did not say what he heard? Since the Apostles were sent to tell men all God’s will, all that is necessary for their salvation, – and these words could not be told; one must assume that they do not pertain to matters necessary for salvation. If so, then there is nothing to regret that they could not be communicated to us. They surely concerned the Apostle Paul personally and were needed only for him, whether he understood them fully or not. For visions are needed not to enrich knowledge, but to tear the spirit from bondage to the fleshly and material. This was especially needed by the holy Paul upon entering the struggle of Gospel preaching. This he was given to experience and taste. The blessed Theodoret writes thus about these words: “The Apostle heard inexpressible words, which ‘it is not permitted’ for a man – he did not say: to hear, but ‘to speak.’ For if it were impossible for man to hear, how would he have heard? But the Apostle heard and did not dare to recount them. Others say that the words are the very things themselves; because the Apostle saw the beauty of paradise, the ranks of the saints in it, and the all-encompassing voice of the psalmody. All this the one who saw it knows precisely.”

2 Cor. 12:5. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in my weaknesses.

Saint Chrysostom says: “He does not mean that the one caught up was someone else, but gives such a turn of speech that he both says what is fitting and what can be said, and at the same time avoids the necessity of speaking openly of himself. Otherwise, what congruity would there be, speaking of himself, to introduce another person?—Why did he express himself thus? Because it is not the same thing to say: I was caught up, and: I know a person who was caught up; or: I will boast of myself, and: I will boast of such a one. And if someone asks, how can one be caught up without the body? then I will ask: how can one be caught up with the body? For the latter is harder to believe than the former, if we reason by understanding rather than submit to faith. And for what reason was Paul caught up?—Probably so that he would not be considered lesser than the other Apostles. Those were with Christ, but he was not; therefore the Lord, to show his glory, caught him up to paradise. For the word: paradise, is full of meaning and known to all. Thus it is evident that the words: ‘on behalf of such a one I will boast,’ the Apostle spoke of himself. But if he added: ‘on my own behalf I will not boast,’ this means only that he would not have said anything like this without necessity, in vain and frivolously,—or that he wished, as much as possible, to conceal what was said.” The same also our other interpreters say. Thus Oecumenius writes: “See what modesty! As if speaking of someone else. ‘On behalf of such a one,’ he says, ‘I will boast.’ He does this wishing to leave himself in the shade. ‘On my own behalf I will not boast, except in my weaknesses,’ that is, in sorrows, deprivations, and persecutions.”

Perhaps it is also for this reason he spoke thus, to attribute all in this vision to God. To God be the glory! In this matter I was not the acting one. All that was accomplished was accomplished by God. To Him be the glory! This concerns me only because it happened in me; but as it happened without my knowledge and without exertion of my powers, I speak of it as of something not my own. I boast as of something glorious, not however claiming anything for myself. My only are my weaknesses, humiliations, insults, contempt, beatings. And God helps to endure all this, but there is a part that is mine; in that vision there is nothing of mine. All belongs to God.

The Thorn in the Flesh; Strength Made Perfect in Weakness (2 Cor. 12:6–10)

2 Cor. 12:6. If I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will speak the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than what he sees in me or hears from me.

“If I wish to boast,” that is, to apply what is said of another to myself, “I will not be a fool,” that is, I will not do a foolish thing, I will not tell a lie, I will not deceive; “for I will speak the truth,” for it was truly so. And finally he speaks directly, yet still conceals himself and tries to keep himself in the shade. How unwilling he was to surround his head with such a halo of glory!

Before he said that boasting is foolishness, but now he says that boasting I will not be a fool. “This must be understood not in relation to boasting, but in relation to the truth of what one boasts of. In this latter respect he says: ‘I will not be a fool.’ Why he adds: ‘for I will speak the truth’” (Saint Chrysostom). And in this respect I will not be a fool, that I do this against my nature, compelled by the benefit that proceeds from it for you. “For it is not foolish for one who, for the sake of salvation and building up of souls, forced by necessity, proclaims the grace sent to him by God. On the contrary, it is befitting one who is wise and loves mankind to disregard even suspicion of self-exaltation for the salvation of others” (Oecumenius).

“But I refrain from it.” However, though necessity presses, and there is benefit, still I am stingy in praise for myself, I fear to present myself so brightly. “So that no one may think more of me than.” He did not say: so that no one speaks more of me, but: “so that no one may think more of me,” even let him not think more of me than I deserve. Here is the true reason why he refrains from speaking of himself and conceals it; and even when necessity compels him to say something, he speaks obscurely, placing himself in the shade! He fears lest they think more of him than what he is. For there was already a time when, because of the signs, they considered him and Barnabas as gods and prepared to offer oxen in their honor. What would they have invented if he had declared all his revelations and displayed all that is glorious? (Oecumenius).

“Than what he sees in me or hears from me.” If he were to tell all, the imagination would be aroused and begin to picture more than the words convey; and because of the arousal of imagination, their eyes would see in me more than there is. “Therefore I fear to tell all, lest someone form of me a greater opinion than of a man” (Theodoret). Saint Chrysostom says: “Just as God created the elements of the world both powerless and brilliant, so that through one they would proclaim His power, and through the other restrain men from error; so the Apostles were at once wondrous and weak, so that by their very deeds they could teach the unbelievers. For if they, remaining always wondrous and not showing examples of weakness, tried with mere words to convince people not to think of them more than appropriate, they would not only fail, but produce the opposite. For mere verbal disclaimers would sooner be attributed to humility and make them wonder all the more. Therefore weakness often actually manifested itself in their deeds. Examples of this one can see in the Old Testament holy men. Elijah was a wondrous man, but once he showed himself to be fearful (1 Kings 19). Great was also Moses, but through the same weakness he once gave himself to flight (Ex. 2). And they suffered this when God withdrew from them and allowed human weakness to be exposed in them. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, they said: where is Moses? What would they have said if he had led them into the promised land? For this reason too Paul says: ‘So that no one may think more of me than what is.’”

Bb)

2 Cor. 12:7. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from becoming proud.

“And to keep me from being conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations,” τη υπερβολη των αποκαλυψεων,—by the abundance of revelations “a thorn was given me in the flesh,” σκολοψ τη σαρκι, a prickle in flesh, or for the flesh, piercing and pricking the flesh—“a messenger of Satan to torment me,” ινα με κολαφιζη, to strike me on the cheeks, to slap me, humiliating and shaming me.

It was ordinarily thought that the tormentor of the flesh, an angel of Satan, was something that disturbed and troubled the holy Paul from the side of the flesh and was found in the flesh itself. New commentators recognized that Saint Paul speaks here about movements of fleshly desire. But fleshly desire—what is special about it? All experience it, and not only the unmarried, but also the married. And Saint Paul by his manner of expression gives the thought that something special was given to him, that is not common to all. Moreover, the tormentor given to him, κολαφιζει, strikes on the cheeks, mercilessly, cruelly acts, while fleshly desire is the very most flattering and insidious enemy. Therefore this thought cannot be accepted. Our commentators believe that Saint Paul speaks here, as he did before, about external afflictions and hostility from the enemies of the Gospel, who are instruments of Satan. Thus Saint Chrysostom says: “What the Apostle’s words mean will be determined once we reveal who the tormentor is and who is the angel of Satan. Some said that this meant some kind of headache produced by the devil. But this is impossible. For Paul’s body could not have been given into the hands of the devil, because the devil himself yielded to Paul, by a single command of his. Paul assigned him laws and limits, when, for example, he delivered the fornicator to him for the destruction of the flesh, and the devil did not dare to transgress these. So, what does the said mean? Satan in the Hebrew language means adversary. And Holy Scripture in the third book of Kings (1 Kings 5:4) calls adversaries by this name. Narrating about Solomon, it says: there was no Satan in his days, that is, no rival, who would wage war with him or trouble him. Therefore the Apostle’s words have such a meaning: God was not pleased that our preaching spread without hindrance; He desired to humble our high opinion of ourselves; but He permitted adversaries to attack us. For this alone was sufficient to overthrow proud thoughts, while headache could not produce this. Thus, by the angel of Satan he means Alexander the coppersmith, the associates of Hymenaeus and Philetus, and all opponents of the word, who entered into disputes with him and resisted him, threw him into prison, beat him and dragged him. For they did the deeds of Satan. Thus Holy Scripture also calls the Jews sons of the devil, because they were zealous in his deeds; thus also it calls every adversary an angel of Satan. Therefore the words: ‘a tormentor of the flesh was given to me, that it torment me’ do not mean that God Himself armed the adversaries, or punished and restrained the Apostle through them,—God forbid!—but only that He allowed and permitted them for a time.” Theophylact also resolves the question: why is it said: angel of Satan, when there were many who rose up?—“Why did the Apostle not say: angels of Satan, but—angel?—Because ordinarily in each place one or another adversary rose up against Paul and stirred up the people against him, according to his leadership; the rest rose up. Or, what is much better, the Apostle called the angel of Satan the very deed itself, that is, the resistance to preaching and the causing of harms to preachers. (‘He called the angel of Satan injuries, mockeries, popular uprisings.’ Theodoret). And the words: ‘so that I might not be conceited’ some understood in the sense: so that I might not be glorified by men. But that is not what Paul says here, though above he did say so, but namely: so that I might not become vain-glorious, he says, for he too was a man.” Thus Theodoret, Oecumenius, Saint John of Damascus and Ambrosiaster, so also Photius in Oecumenius.

2 Cor. 12:8. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me.

“That it would leave,” that is, the thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan. According to the sense given by the holy fathers to these words, the Apostle says: may the path of preaching be smoothed, may the attacks be lessened, may I not meet resistance with such force and continuity.—“The Apostle showed in these words the weakness of nature, for he says: I asked for deliverance from trials” (Theodoret). “‘Three times’: many times. And this shows the great humility of the Apostle, when he does not hide that he could not bear the enemy’s attacks, but was worn down and prayed for liberation from them” (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 12:9. And he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

“My grace is sufficient for you;” “that is, it is enough for you that you raise the dead, heal the blind, cleanse lepers and perform other miracles. Do not desire that you might live in safety, without fear, and preach without labor. But you grieve and sorrow? Do not ascribe to My weakness the fact that many act treacherously toward you, torture you, persecute and beat you with scourges. This very thing shows My power. ‘My power is perfected in weakness,’ that is, when you who are persecuted overcome those who persecute you, when you who are pursued vanquish your pursuers, when you who are bound put to flight those who bind you. Therefore, do not desire excess. Mark that the Apostle presents one reason, but God another. He says: ‘to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh;’ but God said that He permits this to show His power. Therefore you are asking not only for excess, but even for what obscures the glory of My might. For the words: ‘My grace is sufficient’ show that nothing more needs to be added, but everything has been done.” (Saint Chrysostom). “From your weakness My power appears in all fullness and in all perfection. If for preaching there had been employed some wise men and royal persons, another could ascribe the subjection of all to the Gospel to the power of those who served in preaching. But now the weakness of those who preach the Gospel throughout the world shows God’s power; it alone appears to be acting here, and all that is accomplished must be ascribed to it alone.” (Oecumenius).

“Having heard such an answer, Paul says: ‘Therefore I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses.’” So that the Corinthians do not lose heart, seeing that the Apostles are in persecution, Paul shows that through persecutions he becomes more glorious, that in this especially the power of God is manifested, and that what happens to him is worthy of being boasted of. Therefore he says: “Therefore I will all the more gladly boast.” It is not from a sorrowful heart that I spoke of what I have enumerated above, or what I now mention, that is, that “a thorn was given me;” on the contrary, I am adorned by this and draw even greater power upon myself from God. Therefore he adds: “So that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” By these words he gives to understand something else as well, namely: to the measure that trials increased, to that measure grace abounded and remained in him. (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 12:10. For this reason I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

“Therefore I am content.” He did not say: I endure, but “I am content,” that is, I am glad, I rejoice, I accept gladly what comes, because apparent weakness gives me true strength (Theodoret).

“I am content with weaknesses”: what weaknesses are these?—Insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ. By this the Apostle himself defines who exactly is his thorn in the flesh and messenger of Satan. He prayed that this thorn would depart from him. The Lord said to him: “My grace is sufficient for you; for my power is made perfect in weakness,” that is, is manifested in you as acting through this thorn and messenger of Satan, exposing your powerlessness and weakness. The Apostle agrees to such an arrangement, saying: “Therefore I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses,” that is, I no longer wish to free myself from the thorn and messenger of Satan, I remain with him willingly and count it to my glory that he torments me—in other words, that I am surrounded by weaknesses. Having now explained what these weaknesses are, namely, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for Christ’s sake, he showed that they are the thorn in the flesh and messenger of Satan. All our interpreters make such an elucidation in connection with these words.

The holy Chrysostom says: “Do you see how he has made everything clear now? For, speaking of the kind of weaknesses, he named not fever or periodic illness, or other bodily weakness, but outrages, persecutions, and oppression. Do you see what an obedient soul! The Apostle wished to be freed from afflictions; but when he heard from the Lord that this was not to be, not only did he not lose heart at not receiving what he asked for, but even rejoiced in it. Therefore he said: ‘I am content,’ I am glad, I wish to bear outrages, persecutions, and oppression for Christ.” He said this, wishing to humble the false apostles and encourage the Corinthians, so that they would not be ashamed of Paul’s sufferings. For such endurance of sorrows can make us stronger than all. Then he sets forth another reason: “When I am weak, then I am strong.” Why be surprised that there are weaknesses, if the power of God is manifested in our weaknesses and I am then strong? For then the grace of God acts most powerfully. “Just as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” (2 Cor. 1:5). Where sorrow is, there too is grace; and where grace is, there is consolation and strength to bear sorrow. When he was cast into prison, then he performed miracles. When he suffered shipwreck and was cast into a barbarian country, then he especially became famous. When bound, he ascended the judgment seat and conquered the judge himself. So it was in the Old Testament. The righteous flourished amid trials. So the three youths, so Daniel, Moses and Joseph—all through trials became famous and attained great crowns. For the soul is purified when it suffers for God’s sake. Then it receives greater help, because it has need of greater aid from God and is more worthy of greater grace; and becoming wise, it treasures up great goods for itself, not to mention the rewards laid up for it with God. For sorrow uproots pride, cuts off every negligence, prepares for endurance, reveals the nothingness of human deeds and introduces into life much wisdom. All passions yield to it: envy, rivalry, lust, attachment to wealth, carnal love, pride, arrogance, anger and the whole swarm of soul’s ailments. If anyone will consider even our present deeds, he will see what benefit sorrows bring. Now, enjoying peace, we have grown weak, become lazy and filled the Church with thousands of evils. But when we endured persecutions, we were more chaste, more virtuous, more zealous and more diligent both in these assemblies (the Church) and in hearing (the teachings). What fire is to gold, that sorrow is to the soul: it wipes the filth from it, makes it pure, bright and clear. Sorrow leads to the kingdom, while a comfortable life leads to Gehenna; therefore the path to the kingdom is narrow, and to Gehenna broad. Therefore Christ, as if offering us some great good, said: “In the world you will have tribulation.” (Jn 16:33)

The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

2 Cor. 12:11. I have been a fool! You forced me to it. For I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing.

The Apostle speaks as if: but why am I boasting?! After all, I was with you and worked; and among you I showed the signs of my apostleship no less than in other Churches, no less than the first Apostles show them. You all know this. It was your responsibility to defend my dignity when false teachers began to cast doubt on it, but you did not. If you had done so, I would have had no need to speak about myself with praise. You yourselves are to blame for this. When you did not defend me, there was nothing for me to do but defend myself. And though I see that this is foolish, I do it because it is necessary for you.

Holy Chrysostom says: “Ending his speech of self-praise, the Apostle does not stop on himself, but again defends himself and asks forgiveness in what was said, because it was said by necessity, not by his own choice. Nevertheless, despite necessity, he calls himself foolish. For having achieved his purpose by his speech, he boldly and harshly attacks this defect, teaching all never to boast without need, when even Paul, having boasted by need, called himself foolish for that. Then he lays all blame not on false apostles, but on the disciples: ‘you compelled me.’ If the false apostles boasted, but did not lead you into deception and destruction, I would not have allowed myself such words. But since they corrupted the whole Church, caring for your benefit, I was forced to become foolish.”

“For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles.” I am not lacking in anything, he says, that the foremost Apostles have. Everything that they have I have too; or in general, everything that every Apostle must have as an Apostle, I have. But the Apostle’s thought is not to show what he is in himself, but to remind them how he appeared among them. He presents the reason why they themselves should have defended him before others and before themselves. It was your responsibility, he says, to do this because I appeared among you as anyone of the foremost Apostles could have appeared. But, having said this, the Apostle again thought lest they consider him greater than he is, and therefore hastened to add: “even though I am nothing.” “Yet he does not deviate from moderation and his usual manner; but, as if having said something unusual and beyond his dignity in that he ranked himself with the foremost Apostles, he again employed this modest expression about himself” (Saint Chrysostom). He wants them to acknowledge the extraordinary things manifested in him, but at the same time teaches them to understand them in such a way that they do not dwell on him with their attention, but from him ascend to the source of such manifestations and from this draw conclusions not to his glorification, but to giving due faith and honor to the work he serves. I am nothing, he says, less than others, but all this is not mine. I am nothing here. I serve the work of God and have the power for it—the power of God.

2 Cor. 12:12. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with “all perseverance, by signs and wonders and mighty deeds.”

And this is the proof that he is not inferior to the first Apostles. Everything by which an Apostle should be distinguished was accomplished through me among you, in your midst, before your eyes. Do you want patience? How much of it was there? Do you seek signs of power over nature? They were there too. Do you desire miraculous healings? There was no lack of them. Do you require power over demons? This power was displayed among you too. Everything, everything that you can only expect from an Apostle, as a messenger of God, and by which he should appear when the work of preaching requires it, you saw in me yourselves; and I had nothing to say to you about my apostleship. Though I am nothing, I am an Apostle, and, as an Apostle, I am armed with great powers.

Saint Chrysostom says on this passage: “Look, he says, not at the fact that I am insignificant and small, but at whether you received from me what you should receive from an Apostle. And he did not say: insignificant, but something even lower, ‘nothing.’ For what benefit is it to be great and help no one? There is no benefit from a skilled doctor who has not cured a single patient. Therefore, he says, do not judge the fact that I am nothing, but look at the fact that in everything serving to your benefit I did not lag behind others, but showed evidence of my apostleship. Therefore I have no need to speak about myself. I spoke thus not because I actually sought praise, but because I desired the salvation of the disciples.—‘The signs of a true apostle.’ Oh, what a depth of merits he expressed in a few words! And note what he puts first!—Patience. For the mark of an Apostle is to bear all magnanimously. And about patience he expressed himself briefly, in one word; on the contrary, he used not just one word about signs, because they were not produced by his power. But imagine how many bonds, how many blows, how many dangers, how many plots, what multitude of trials he meant here; how many battles, internal and external, how many sorrows, how many attacks he expressed in one word: ‘patience’! And by the word ‘signs’ did he not again depict how many dead were raised by him, how many blind were healed, how many lepers were cleansed, how many demons were cast out? Hearing this, let us learn, if we are even placed in the necessity of speaking about our merits, not to expand on them, following Saint Paul’s example.”

2 Cor. 12:13. For in what were you less favored than the other churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!

They might have thought: we do not deny that all this was manifested among us; but in other Churches, where other Apostles worked, it was manifested in greater quantity and degree. The Apostle says: examine all Churches, and you will find nothing in any of them that you lacked. What others have, you have too. As if the Apostle hears a complaint: you came to us, getting ahead of others, we received you with faith, but you did not give us what others give; it would have been better for us to wait for them. The Apostle says: do not worry, go around all the Churches, and you will see that you are not diminished before any.—“Lest someone say: though you are great and did much, yet not as much as the Apostles in other Churches, Paul added: ‘For in what were you less favored than the other churches?…’ That is, you too in comparison with the other Churches partake of no less grace” (Saint Chrysostom).

There is one thing in which you are deprived, that is, that “I myself did not burden you,” I did not trouble you with supporting me. All other Churches, both those founded by me and those by other Apostles, are not free from this. In relation to you alone do I act this way. But if you consider this an injustice on my part toward you, “forgive me this wrong,” χαρισασθε, grant me a favor, show mercy and forbearance in this to me, or do me a favor, forgive. “If, he says, you accuse me of this, I ask your pardon, forgive me this fault. Note what prudence! Since reminding of this could seem like a reproach and as if inflict dishonor, every time he repeats it, he softens it with explanatory words. Thus he said above: ‘The truth of Christ is in me, that this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the churches of Achaia’” (2 Cor. 11:10). And immediately added: “But do I not love you? God knows… but I will cut off any occasion from those who desire an occasion” (2 Cor. 11:11, 12). And in the first epistle he says: “What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel I may make the gospel free of charge” (1 Cor. 9:18). And here again he says: “Forgive me this wrong.” For everywhere he tries to show that he does not take because of their weakness. Therefore here too he says: if you count this against me, I ask your pardon. (Saint Chrysostom).

“2 Cor. 12:14. ‘Behold, I am ready to come to you the third time, and I will not burden you: for I do not seek what belongs to you, but you. For it is not the responsibility of children to lay up treasures for their parents, but’ ‘of parents’ ‘for their children.’”

“So that they would not think that the Apostle often turns to the same ones with the intention of receiving something from them, he forestalls this suspicion, having said even in the first epistle: ‘I did not write this to show you how you ought to do, for it would be better for me to die than to have anyone deprive me of this boast!’ (1 Cor. 9:15); but here he expresses himself more pleasantly and graciously. How exactly? ‘See, I am ready to come to you’ a third time. I have come already a second time, and am ready to go a third time, and again I will not be a burden to you. And the reason for this is weighty. For he did not say: I do not wish to be a burden to you because you are stingy, because you are troubled by this, because you are weak. But what does he say? – ‘I do not seek what is yours, but you.’ I seek not your possessions, but you. I seek what is greater: instead of money – souls, instead of gold – salvation. Then, since there remained room for suspicion that he was grieved with them, he introduces his reasoning. For they could have said: is it impossible to seek both us and ours? Therefore he justifies them with great graciousness thus: ‘For children ought not to lay up treasure for their parents, but parents for their children.’ Instead of calling them teachers and disciples, he uses the words: parents and children, and shows that he turns into an obligation even what he was not obliged to, for Christ did not command this; but the Apostle out of condescension to the Corinthians speaks thus. Therefore he adds something even greater. For he said not only that children should not gather treasure for parents, but also that parents are obliged to do this for children.” (Saint Chrysostom).

The obligations of parents to children, in the material respect, are not applicable to the Apostles in their relation to believers. But in the spiritual respect they are more than applicable. The Apostle wishes to impress upon the Corinthians that he does this from parental love for them, meaning his concern for their salvation. But as he began this discourse the first time, he said: “That we might not place an obstacle to the gospel of Christ” (1 Cor. 9:12), so he always gives this as the reason to be understood, as the chief one, though he also presents something else as the basis for such a manner of action. Why precisely in Corinth the success of the gospel required this, for us now it is not so clear. The Apostle saw it and submitted to necessity. But he could not say it directly in the epistle, because by this he would have destroyed the beneficial effect that proceeded from it.

2 Cor. 12:15. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls; if I love you more abundantly, am I to be loved less?

Here is why he acted thus! He did not spare their possessions, but their souls—he spent his own, not because he spared theirs, but because this was required for the salvation of their souls. In other places, accepting such services from those being converted and converted did not hinder their salvation, but in Corinth it hindered. The Apostle saw this, guided by the Spirit of God, so he would not agree on any account to take anything from the Corinthians, he spent his own; and in spending it, not only did he not grieve, but even found sweetness in it. This sweetness was produced in him by the vision of good that came to those being saved from such a manner of action. Such a thought the Apostle expresses in the words: “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.” He does not speak of the past—he only confirms it—but of the future, that it is thus decided for him to act, forever, as he had often mentioned before. Moreover, he intensifies the matter: for while “spend” can be limited to expenditure of resources, “be spent” suggests that the spending does not touch only expenditure, but the very person of the Apostle: he expresses readiness to sacrifice himself too for their sake, “to give himself for them” (Theodoret). “To parents the natural law commanded to gather possessions for children; but I, he says, not only do this, but even give myself. The height of generosity is not only to take nothing, but to give one’s own and give it not simply, but with great eagerness, even with hardship, for these words show: ‘be spent.’ Even if it were necessary to exhaust the very flesh, I will not spare it for your salvation.” (Saint Chrysostom).

The second half of the text: ‘If I love you more abundantly, am I to be loved less?’ “expresses both love and reproof. I do this, says the Apostle, for those whom I love and who do not love me in equal measure” (Saint Chrysostom). “By this he both saddened them, reproaching them for lack of love, and gladdened them, showing his strongest love for them” (Theodoret). The Apostle hints at what happened before the first epistle, when some began to turn away from him and prefer others to him. The first epistle turned everyone’s hearts back to him, as Saint Paul himself witnessed, saying with what zeal they hastened to correct everything he indicated. Why does he speak thus now?—So as to more strongly stir their love for him and beforehand prevent such turning away on their part. For nothing so stirs love as to say to the beloved: I love you strongly, but you love me less; and nothing so urges to avoid any occasions of showing diminished love as such a reminder. He knew that this reproof would not sting like a wound, but would be like wind fanning the flame, so he spoke thus.

Saint Chrysostom concludes the words of Saint Paul on self-spending with such an elucidation: “Consider finally how many degrees there are: he should have taken, but he did not take—this is the first merit; he did not take while in poverty—this is the second; he did not take while preaching to them—this is the third; he himself gives to them—this is the fourth; and not simply gives, but abundantly—this is the fifth; he gives not possessions only, but himself—this is the sixth; he gives himself for those who do not love him very much—this is the seventh; and whom he loves greatly—this is the eighth. Let us then rival him too.”

2 Cor. 12:16. But be that as it may, I did not burden you. Nevertheless, crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit.

The Apostle builds probable suppositions from his ill-wishers. Someone will say about me that I personally indeed did not burden you with anything, but this was one cunning trick. Behind this appearance of disinterestedness, I, as a schemer, so cleverly managed that you did not even notice I was taking from you. “You took me in,” υμας ελαβον, robbed you, or took from you, or got you in your hands, that is, gained control of your possessions, while you did not notice and continued to regard me as acting without pay. But when I did not personally take, but took somehow by another means—this could not happen invisibly but visibly. Visibly how?—Not otherwise than through my helpers and fellow servants. The Apostle points to this afterwards.

2 Cor. 12:17. Did I take advantage of you through any of the men I sent to you?

If I myself did not take, but took from the side through my messengers, then tell me: by which of those sent to you did I exploit you, or benefit from your possessions? The Corinthians knew that this had not happened, so this reminder was sufficient, but the Apostle describes his very sending to them.

2 Cor. 12:18. I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?

And how many messengers were there?! Beside me, only Titus with a certain brother was with you from me. Did Titus exploit anything from you?—No. This you know. So there is no point in entertaining or listening to such thoughts. We all act in the same spirit of disinterestedness, we go one way, we walk in the same steps.

We present the words of Saint Chrysostom on all these concluding in this section texts (2 Cor. 12:16–18). “These words are spoken by Paul very unclearly, but not without purpose, and not in vain. Since the discourse concerns money and the Apostle is defending himself that he takes nothing, it was fitting for him to veil his words. What then does he mean? Before he said that he took nothing, even ready to give and spend his own, and reasoned much about this both in this letter and in the first. But now he says something different, as it were introducing words from an objection made to him, and beforehand resolves it. Here is the meaning of what was said: I did not seek profit from you, but perhaps someone will say that although I myself took nothing, yet as a cunning man, I arranged for those sent by me to ask something from you on my behalf and I received from them, and thus, receiving through others, I avoided suspicion of taking myself. But not even this can anyone say. You yourselves are witnesses. And he conducts his discourse with questions, saying: ‘I urged Titus, and sent the brother with him: Did Titus take advantage of you?’ Did he not come to you in the same way as I? That is, did he not take nothing just as I did? Do you see with what care he strove not only to keep himself pure from greed, but also to keep those sent by him from it, so as not to give even the slightest pretext to those seeking a pretext. This is far surpassing what patriarch Abraham did (Gen. 14) on returning from victory. When the king offered him part of the war spoils, he refused to take more than what his household had eaten; but Paul, as he himself did not benefit, so he did not allow even his fellow workers to use even necessary food, so as in this way to completely shut the mouths of the shameless. Therefore he does not speak of himself that they took nothing, but, what is far more important, presents as witnesses the Corinthians themselves, so that the testimony comes not from his own person, but is established on their judgment. So we usually act when it concerns something obvious and subject to no doubt. Tell me, says the Apostle, which of those sent by us made use of anything from you? He does not say: who took something from you? but calls such a deed ‘taking advantage,’ reproaching them thereby, bringing them to shame and showing that to take from someone against his will means taking advantage. And he did not say: only Titus, but anyone; that is, you cannot even say that although one did not take, another did. On the contrary, not one of those sent to you took anything. – ‘I urged Titus,’ and this is not said simply, for he does not say: I sent Titus, but ‘I urged,’ thereby showing that even if he had taken something from them, he would have taken it by right, yet with all that remained pure. Therefore again he asks them: ‘Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit?’ What does ‘in the same spirit’ mean? – That he ascribes all to grace and shows that all worthy of praise is produced not by our labors, but is the work of a spiritual gift and grace. Truly great was the grace when those having want in all things and suffering hunger took nothing for the edification of those being taught. – ‘Did we not walk in the same footsteps?’ – That is, they did not at all depart from the caution I adopted, but kept the same rule.”

Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3)

Here is the conclusion of all that has been said in this third part of the epistle and as it were its conclusion. He has defended his dignity and cleared his activity of all reproaches, now he asks: what then? Did I say all this only to justify myself before you and for nothing else?—No. I have in view your edification—namely, so that you, recovering the conviction of the apostolic authority present in me, would hasten to set yourselves in order before my arrival and thus free me from the necessity of manifesting this authority among you and acting toward you strictly. For if, coming, I find you not set in order, I will not spare. This one suggestion in various turns of speech dominates throughout this small concluding section.

2 Cor. 12:19. Do you think that we have been defending ourselves to you? We speak before God in Christ; and everything, beloved, is for your upbuilding.

“We defend ourselves,” απολογουμεθα, we justify ourselves. The Apostle’s thought is what was expressed before: do you think that we have only in mind to justify ourselves before you?—No, we write all this for your edification. Or thus: do you think that in speaking so we only cleanse our person and justify the outward appearance of our action, while on our hearts we have something quite different?—No; we speak before God, in Christ,—we speak of ourselves as we are before the all-seeing eye of God. Neither flattery nor deceit is hidden in our words. One can combine both thoughts, and one will correspond to the words: “We speak before God in Christ,” and the other—to the words: “everything…is for your edification.” Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see how he everywhere feared lest he seem a flatterer?”—“Not flattering you and defending ourselves only before you, we say this, but as before the face of the all-seeing God, in Christ and through Christ we speak. But is it possible that one who speaks before the face of God and in Christ speaks with flattery for merely concealing himself?” (Oecumenius).

“Everything, beloved, is for your edification.” And “building”—there is no such word in the original. “Edification” — οικοδομη, building, arrangement, ordering. So, he says: everything we direct toward bringing into seemly order and arrangement what among you has fallen into disorder and taken on perverted direction. To this is added: “beloved,” to show that it was sincere fatherly love for you that moved us to this. Being inspired by it, “we humble ourselves or speak about ourselves in an elevated manner, we accuse you or praise you, we do all for your benefit” (Theodoret).

2 Cor. 12:20. I fear that when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish; I fear there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.

I write all this so that you set yourselves in order and so that, when you are set in order, I find you fully corrected in everything, as I wish to find you, and so that you meet in me only kindness, approval, and praise of you. Fearing lest the opposite happen, I remind you of what I would not wish to meet among you. “This already shows not arrogance or teaching authority, but fatherly care, when he fears more than the very sinners, and approaches their correction with trembling. Yet even then he does not attack them, and speaks not directly, but in the form of doubt: ‘I fear that when I come I may find you not as I wish.’ He did not say: virtuous, but: ‘as I wish,’ everywhere using words expressing friendship. And the word: ‘find’ expresses something unexpected them, as well as ‘you may find me’: both, he says, depend on yourselves.” (Saint Chrysostom). “He fears,’ he says. Do you see fatherly care? Others sinned, but Paul is afraid. ‘I fear that when I come’: he does not affirm, but as one knowing nothing, fears lest he encounter something unrepaired in them. ‘I may find you not as I wish,’ that is, disorganized and corrupted (in character and thoughts), and as a result I too shall be forced to appear to you as ‘you do not wish,’ that is, as a strict punisher of those who turn out incurably ill.” (Oecumenius). “He could have said: as I myself do not wish to be found among you, thus showing his love, but he does not wish to weaken the listener; moreover, his speech would then be far harsher. But now he made them feel the wound more deeply, and showed himself more gentle. For it is fitting for wisdom to act so that the wound be deeper, and the blow lighter.” (Saint Chrysostom).

What exactly would he not wish to find among them?—Discord and deeds of lust. He speaks of discord in this verse, of lustful deeds in the next.

“I fear there may be quarreling,” ερεις, disputes, contentious strivings to have one’s way, efforts to outshout everyone, under which there always lies scorn not only for others’ opinions, but also for them: I know no one;—“jealousy,” ζηλοι, envy, perverted rivalry—the first daughter of conceit and pride, when, not having the strength to become equal or surpass others, they chafe with annoyance at why those are so and why everything goes so well for them; “anger,” θυμοι, irritation, outbursts of wrath and irritation, at clashes with others not to one’s advantage, finding and departing, because random heating of pride is overcome by the sympathetic harmony of the heart; but there is danger that frequent irritations can turn into constant hatred, which is evil;—“hostility,” εριθειαι, contentious ambition, “when someone challenges another to compete in some matter” (Theophylact), or strains with all strength to overtake others and leave them behind, in which, of course, strict examination of means is not made and little attention is paid to whether this will bring good to oneself or others;—“slander,” καταλαλιαι, defamation; not condemnation only, which is built secretly in the heart, but also the spreading with the tongue of evil about others, without assurance in the truth of it, but by mere suspicion, often even by malevolent lies; “gossip,” ψιθυρισμοι, cowardly defamation, which, not daring to speak openly, whispers evil about others to the ear of more influential people who, if they believe, can do something unpleasant to the one in question: here it is more appropriate—false defamation (Theophylact); “conceit,” φυσιωσεις,—puffedness, arrogance, high-handedness, when, without examination, one rises above others and relates to them scornfully, not even hiding this: this is a soap bubble;—“disorder,” ακαταστασιαι, disorder, confusion, when everything is not in its place—the direct consequence of all that precedes. Saint Chrysostom derives all these evil deeds from one envy, saying: “All this: slander, accusations, disagreement, was born from envy; envy, like a harmful root, produced irritation, condemnation, arrogance, and through them grew itself.”

In the first epistle, beginning the rebuke of the Corinthians, the Apostle says: “there are rivalries among you” (1 Cor. 1:11). Because of some empty considerations they began to divide into factions, standing under the standards of a few outstanding persons among them: from this came disputes, oppositions and disorders (1 Cor. 1:10). Having rebuked them properly in the first epistle and learning from Titus that his rebuke had not been without effect, yet supposing that there might still be remnants of that disorder, he again persuades that nothing similar, not even traces of it, should remain among them, threatening beforehand that he will not look at it with forbearance.

2 Cor. 12:21. I fear that when I come, my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many who have sinned previously and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and debauchery that they have practiced.

The second matter in which the holy Paul condemned the Corinthians in the previous epistle was fornication, which you would not find even among pagans. He wrote especially about this shameful deed; but as he even after this twice repeated lessons about abstaining from fornication and at length set forth rules of life for the married and unmarried, one may presume that among the Corinthians the Apostle knew not just one sinner guilty of this kind of sinfulness, but many, and that, writing a stern judgment against one, he had in view awakening all the others as well. The awakening effect began, one must presume, and was noticed by the holy Titus and reported to the holy Paul. But as in relation to divisions, so here too, the Apostle could not without reason think that some unrepentant remained, with whom he would have to deal himself, so as to put them in proper order – which cannot happen without unpleasantness for him and for them. Wishing to avoid this grievous necessity, he urges the unrepentant to repent themselves before his arrival, and surrounds this suggestion with the most touching representations, saying: “I fear that God may humble me among you” with what? – If I have to weep over those who have sinned in uncleanness, fornication and sexual immorality, and have not repented. He speaks as it were: that they have sinned, already done; cannot be undone; but what is bitter is if I find those who have sinned unrepentant and stubbornly remaining in impenitence. What is to be done with such? Though it grieves me, I must cut them off from the body of the Church: for stubborn sinners are not tolerated in the Church. There I will weep. And I will weep, yet must still cut them off if they do not repent. By this God will humble me among you. It will be shameful to me both before myself, before God, and before men, that I boasted of you before them and of myself, yet will be forced to deal with you thus. So that I may not be in such shame and sorrow, and write all this, with the desire that with you all should come to proper order and all take their place, and I, coming to you, should only rejoice and be glad at your propriety and progress.

Saint Chrysostom says on this passage: “Do you see how he shows both indignation and fatherly concern? What does the word ‘humble’ mean? To accuse, to punish, to demand account, to appear in the role of judge seems to constitute glory, yet he calls it humiliation. He not only was not ashamed that his bodily presence was weak and his word contemptible, but even desired always to be such and asked not to reach the opposite state. He speaks of this more clearly in continuation. And to come to the necessity of punishing others he considers as the greatest humiliation for himself. Why did he not say: when I come I will be humiliated, but—‘I fear that my God may humble me’? If it were not for God, he says, I would pay no attention to it, would not care about it. For not arbitrarily and not willfully do I impose punishment, but by God’s command. He expressed the same thing above, saying: ‘you may find me not as you wish,’ but here he weakens the speech and speaks with greater condescension and meekness: ‘I may have to mourn over many who have sinned,’ not simply sinned, but—‘have not repented.’ And he did not say: all, but ‘many’; he does not even declare the names of these many, giving them thereby an opportunity to come to repentance, making it known that repentance can correct their transgressions, mourning only over those not repenting, incurably sick, remaining in wounds. So, imagine what virtue the Apostle has!—Knowing nothing wrong in himself, he weeps over others’ sins and is humiliated by the transgressions of others. For it is especially the duty of a teacher to have compassion on the misfortunes of disciples, to mourn and sob over the wounds of those under him.”

2 Cor. 13:1. This is the third time I am coming to you. ‘Any charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.’ (Deut. 17:6)

He calls witnesses his personal admonitions and written exhortations. What word then will be established by these witnesses?—The word of threat against you; it will at last certainly be carried out. Thus Saint Chrysostom and others. Oecumenius understands by three witnesses three personal admonitions and three non-personal ones. As if thus: I was with you twice, and a third time I am going. These will be three witnesses. Also—I wrote in the first epistle, reminded you through Titus and here I remind again in this second epistle. This is also three witnesses. Coming in pairs, they strengthen the significance of the testimonies.—“This is the third time I am coming,” as in the previous chapter: “Here I am, ready to come to you this third time” (2 Cor. 12:14). Our interpreters do not determine how this count will work out, they do not indicate, that is, when Saint Paul’s second visit to Corinth was. Let us leave this also undefined, for the conjecture that the second time the Apostle was in Corinth directly from Ephesus, as some suppose, is very inconvenient and disturbs the whole order of events. It is more convenient to suppose that the Apostle was away from Corinth for about a year and a half and returned to them again, which can be reckoned as a second coming to them. One cannot fail to notice that in the present passage—“This is the third time I am coming,” according to the flow of the discourse, has a great difference from—“Here I am, ready to come to you this third time” of the previous chapter. There he speaks that a third time he goes and will not burden them, which cannot fail to refer to his personal presence. But here he speaks of threefold testimony and then only mentions: “This is the third time I am coming.” According to the flow of the discourse, the subject of these cases is one—threats for not setting themselves in order. Consequently, it does not apply to the first visit. Threats began with the first epistle, were reminded through Titus and now are being reminded for the third time. Is this not what means in this passage: “This is the third time I am coming,” that is, for the third time the threat comes to you?—Then he adds: “If I come again.” If after this I come and find you not set in order,—do not ask for mercy, “I will not spare.” If we accept this supposition, then cannot we also put it thus: that the second stay was nothing other than the first epistle, in which he wrote that in declaring judgment on the fornicator he would be among them in spirit as truly as if in body? (1 Cor. 5:3) Then the count would be determined more simply, and there would be no need to construct suppositions for which there is nowhere to place them.

2 Cor. 13:2. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not be lenient—

Holy Chrysostom says on both these verses: “The wisdom of St. Paul and his fatherly heart can be seen from much else, but preeminently from the fact that he is abundant and stern in threats but gentle and slow in punishments. For he did not at once punish the sinners, but twice exhorted them; even those disobedient to his exhortations he does not punish but again exhorts, saying: ‘Behold, I am about to come to you the third time,’ and before my coming I write another epistle. And lest slowness produce carelessness, he constantly threatens, saying: ‘if I come again, I will not spare.’ He acts in imitation of the Lord of all. For God, though constantly threatening and many times exhorting, does not often punish. So the Apostle. ‘For the third time,’ he says, ‘Behold, I am about to come to you: Every fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ Instead of witnesses he presents his repeated presence in Corinth and his exhortations. His words mean: I have spoken to you once and again, coming to you, and now I speak in writing. If you obey me, my wish is fulfilled; if you do not obey, I must fulfill what I have said and lay on punishment. For if ‘every fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses,’ and I have already been with you two times and spoken to you, now I speak in writing, then I must keep my word. Do not think my epistle to you is less important than my personal presence. As when with you I spoke, so now in absence I write. See the fatherly care of the Apostle! See what teaching he has and what befitting Providence! He neither was silent nor punished; several times he already forestalls and does not cease to threaten, but delays punishment. Finally he pronounces these fearful words and says: ‘if I come again, I will not spare.’ He first said he cannot do this unless forced, calling punishment sorrowful for himself; he has already forestalled them once, twice, three times, doing everything to avoid punishment by words alone; finally he pronounces these fearful words: ‘if I come again, I will not spare.’ He did not say: I will avenge, punish, torture, but even of punishment speaks paternally, showing his love and compassion toward them, by which, sparing them, he has delayed punishment till now. And only being forced, he says: ‘I will not spare,’ that is, I will not delay punishment, if I find you uncorrected, but will certainly punish and fulfill what I said. This he added finally, so they not think punishment will be delayed again and threats are only in words.”

2 Cor. 13:3. Since you desire proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.

He presents the reason why “I will not spare,” and shows that they themselves force him to act this way, not otherwise. He speaks as if to them: thus you yourselves have raised the question, that for me, if you do not set yourselves in order, it is inevitable not to spare you, but to manifest the apostolic authority and power of Christ acting in me given to me. You began to say about me: he is weak in body, and his word is not strong, thus leading even to the very teaching I am preaching, as if it too is not Christ’s. Therefore, since you talk thus about me, if I do not manifest apostolic strictness among you, you will truly be confirmed in such thoughts, and this will greatly harm the work of the Gospel and your salvation. Thus, one of two: either set yourselves in order, or I must not spare you, powerfully cutting off the disobedient from the Church or striking them with a direct punishment, as I struck the sorcerer Elymas with blindness in Cyprus.—And then you will see tangibly that in me Christ speaks and acts, the Lord.

Saint Chrysostom says on this passage: “Since you wish to test whether Christ dwells in me, you demand proof from me and therefore laugh at me as at a man low and contemptible, not having in himself the power of Christ, you will know that I am not deprived of it if you give occasion for it, though I do not wish it. He speaks thus, expressing his indignation and wishing to make them feel it—those who despised him. I do not wish, he says, to show such an experience over you. If you yourselves give occasion and wish to provoke me to it, then you will know it in deed.”

“He who in you is not weak, but able in you.” There he said: I must show to you the power and authority of Christ over you, because you wish to see experiential assurance that He speaks and acts in me. So you will see in me the power of Christ, – “He who in you is not weak, but able in you,” who is not powerless in you,“–” ουκ ασθενει but is mighty, – αλλα δυναται. He points to the power of Christ that the Corinthians have experienced, and moreover, that it continues yet to be manifest in their midst. The purpose, then, for which the Apostle added this, is either to strengthen in them fear, as if saying: and as Christ is mighty, you know this, have experienced it and experience it. Therefore, it is understood, take care not to provoke His power to punishment yourself. Or it is to shame them, suggesting that they ought not to subject him to such a test, because if Christ is mighty in you, then by no one’s mediation, as by the mediation of the holy Paul himself. If Christ is mighty in you, he says as it were, is it not shameful for you to test Christ who speaks and acts in me, when you have come to know Christ and have entered into communion with Him through me?

Here are the opinions of our interpreters on this. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle transfers here the speech from himself to Christ, so as to make the threats more fearful. His words have such a meaning: if and I do what I will punish those who sin, then will it be I who punishes them?—Christ will punish, He who dwells in me. And the power of Christ you know. He ‘is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.’ For what reason did the Apostle add—‘among you,’ when Christ is mighty everywhere? Whether He wishes to punish the unbelieving or someone else, He can do all. What then does this addition mean?—The Apostle either wishes to shame them more by what they themselves have experienced, or expresses that Christ even now shows power among them.” Photius in Oecumenius writes: “Do you test, wishing to know whether Christ speaks in me, looking at me as such one who merely comes from Christ, you wish to test the one speaking in me, Christ, while you clearly know His power in me. The very attempt—to test in me the power of Christ—is sin. For to test is, especially after such manifestations of it, the deed of the ungrateful, unbelieving and inconstant. Therefore, it is evident that these words are words of threatening—threatening.” Theophylact says: “Of course, you have already experienced the power of Christ. Therefore the Apostle says to you, from the experiences you had, you certainly know that Christ among you is not weak, but mighty.”—What other evidence of His power do you need?

Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10)

2 Cor. 13:4. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.

Having said that Christ is mighty among the Corinthians, he reminds: yet He was in weakness when crucified—and he takes this circumstance to explain what he is discussing with them. He speaks as if: the same thing happens with us, or in us Apostles, that happened in Christ Jesus. When He suffered and was crucified, everyone considered Him to have no power; meanwhile by death on the cross He destroyed the power of death, and when they laid Him in a tomb, He was destroying hell and bringing out from it all those held captive since the beginning; then He rose and continues to act with power in the souls of believers and in the arrangement of His Church on earth; and in you He is mighty. Similarly, we all seem weak to everyone, and they persecute us, and lay wounds on us, and count us as nothing; yet meanwhile the power of God works through us—and it is manifested in you, and will be manifested as you do not expect. We seem as if dead to you: we will come to life in Christ, and you will experience this living power of Christ in us. He means when, coming to them and finding them not set in order, he will be forced to act among them with apostolic authority, which is the power of Christ dwelling in him.

Saint Chrysostom says: “What does ‘he was crucified in weakness’ mean?” – That although Christ was pleased to suffer, which had the appearance of weakness, this does not diminish His power. His power remains unconquered, and what appears as weakness did not harm it at all; but it was precisely this that especially showed His strength, in that He endured suffering yet His power was not diminished. So do not be troubled by the word “weakness.” For elsewhere the Apostle says: “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor. 1:25); although in God there is nothing foolish, nothing weak, yet the cross is thus named, depicting the opinion of the unbelievers about it. Hear how the Apostle himself explains his words: “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). See, he everywhere sets forth the opinion of the unbelievers, who regard the cross as foolishness and weakness. So here too he speaks not of actual weakness, but of that imagined by the unbelievers. Therefore, the Apostle does not say that Christ was crucified because of weakness; far be it! For He showed in all things that He could have not been crucified; He showed this: both by casting those coming with Judas to the ground (Jn. 18:6), and by darkening the sun, and by withering the fig tree, and by blinding the eyes of those who wanted to seize Him and performing countless other miracles. Therefore, understand the expression: “from weakness” thus, that although Christ was crucified, enduring disaster and plots, yet He sustained no harm. And the Apostle said all this to apply it to himself. Since the Apostles were persecuted, pursued, despised, and God did not avenge them, and they themselves did not defend themselves; therefore, teaching them that they endure all this not from weakness and not because they could not avenge themselves, he points to the example of the Lord. For the Lord Himself was crucified, bound, endured countless torments, but did not avenge Himself; on the contrary, He bore all that seemed like weakness, and in this weakness revealed His strength, because He sustained no harm, although He did not avenge Himself and did not defend Himself. The cross did not cut short His life, did not prevent the Resurrection; on the contrary, Christ rose and lives. And when you hear about the cross and about life, understand this about the economy of salvation, for that is what is being discussed. So when the Apostle says: “from the power of God,” he does not mean that Christ could not Himself quicken His flesh, but shows only that there is no difference whether we say: by the power of the Father, or by the power of the Son. And therefore having said: “from the power of God,” he said the same as “‘by His own power.” And that Christ indeed Himself raised and resurrected His flesh, listen to how He Himself says about it: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn. 2:19). And if what belongs to Him He calls belonging to the Father, do not be troubled by this. “All things that the Father has are Mine,” He says (Jn. 16:15). And in another place: “and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine” (Jn. 17:10). Therefore, says the Apostle, just as Christ, though crucified, sustained no harm, so we too, when persecuted and attacked, sustain no harm. Therefore he also added: “‘for we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God.” What does “we are weak” mean?—We are subject to persecutions, oppressions, and endure utmost calamities. And what does “in Him” mean?—That we endure for His preaching and for faith in Him. If we endure all that is sorrowful and grievous for Him, then clearly we shall also receive what is joyful. Therefore the Apostle says further: “but we shall live with Him by the power of God.”

The concluding words are more fully explained by Photius in Oecumenius and Theophylact. The first says: “We will live with Him…among you.’ That is, we will show ourselves alive among you, not simply, but with Christ Himself, having life from His power, by which He, having overcome death and destroyed hell, rose and lives. This life and power is both punishing for those who do deeds of wickedness, and saving for those who by sins resort to repentance. For this reason, he says, do not despise us, seeing us persecuted and enduring countless sorrows. So too was Christ despised being crucified, but, having risen, did what He wished. We what we endure, we endure for Him. Why, though we endure, as He is alive and mighty, so too we with Him, by His good pleasure, are alive and mighty, able to do in you what we wish, and especially in you, because by reason of the disobedience manifested among you we have many righteous reasons against you.”—The second writes: “They persecute and pursue us for Christ and the preaching of Him; but as He suffered no harm being opposed, so too we will live with Him, that is, will show ourselves unconquered among you, that is, for your benefit. But perhaps he even further frightens them, saying as it were: although you think we are weak, yet we are alive for you, that is, to punish you if you do not set yourselves in order.”

2 Cor. 13:5. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, of course, you fail the test!

The Apostle speaks as if: but why do I prove to you that Christ is in me? He is in you too. Therefore, instead of testing me, test yourselves, whether you are in faith. If you are in faith, then Christ is in you; if He is in you, then certainly in me. Here is your assurance that Christ speaks and acts in me. Or do you not know that Christ is in you?—He is in you: “unless, of course, you fail the test.”—“Fail the test,” αδοκιμοι, do not withstand the test. The test of Christians is faith, aided by love. Whoever does not withstand this test either wavers in faith or is weak in living according to faith. The Apostle speaks as if: if you do not withstand such a test, then surely Christ is not in you. From this comes this induction: are you examining yourselves not for this reason, that you have lost Christ, that you are testing whether Christ speaks and acts in me? If you had Him, you could not doubt that He is in me too, for you knew Him through me. Thus the words: “Examine yourselves” led both to this: finding Christ in yourselves, to assure yourselves that He is in Holy Paul, and to this: not finding Him, to grieve over it and care about finding Him, which again would lead to the same thing, that is, to assure yourselves that He is, speaks and acts also in Holy Paul.

Saint Chrysostom says: “Why am I to speak of myself, a teacher, who has so many cares, to whom the whole world is entrusted, who worked so many miracles? And you yourselves, being among the disciples, if you wish to examine yourselves, will see that Jesus Christ dwells in you. If He is in you, then all the more in the teacher. For if you have faith, then Christ is in you. It seems to me that the Apostle is speaking here of faith that works miracles, because believers in that time worked miracles. If you have, he says, such faith, then Christ is in you, unless you are not what you should be. Here, it seems, the Apostle points the Corinthians also to life. Because one faith alone is not sufficient to obtain spiritual power, but he said that if you remain in faith, you have Christ in you, while many, having faith, did not have miraculous power; then, resolving the difficulty, he says: ‘unless you fail the test,’ that is, unless your life is corrupt. But he does not say this directly, so as not to offend them, but hints at it lightly; he does not say affirmatively: you are corrupt, but presents it as if not entirely possible among them: ‘unless perhaps’.”

The blessed Photius according to Oecumenius finds different shades of thought in these words of the Apostle: “Do you not put to the test your own faith? Do you not require proof that you believe? For to seek a test of the one speaking in me as Christ and not to be firmly convinced that Christ speaks in your teacher – what else does this mean but to test yourselves, to doubt whether you are faithful, as not to know at all that Christ is in you. For if there is no Christ in the teacher, much more so in the disciples. But how, he says, do you not know that Christ is in you, when He has enriched you with various gifts of grace? Or, having represented yourselves as deficient in works (living badly), have you lost them? By this he also wishes to say: if you have received and possess the gracious power over unclean spirits (if only, having become base, you have not lost it), does not this all the more mean that I have authority over those who do the will of unclean demons, if such exist among you? Or thus: in me you seek a test? – Test yourselves, examine yourselves more carefully, whether you are in the faith. Have you not fallen from it, for otherwise, probably, you would not be testing me. Then, as if softening the strong rebuke, he says: ‘Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you?’ As if to say: I understand you in such a way that Christ is in you. If you yourselves do not know this, your fault is in that. See that you have not become what you ought not to be. Together he also shames them: if I recognize that Christ is in you, are you not proven deficient, how then do you seek a test of His abiding in me? But how could they know that Christ was in them? – From the signs which they performed, if they still performed them. The words: ‘unless indeed you fail the test’ hint at a bad life. If you, he says, are even in the faith, but do not have a life corresponding to it, then you are deficient and Christ is not in you, and He no longer shows His presence among you through signs.”

2 Cor. 13:6. I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.

The discourse flows as if thus: if you did not become deficient, then you would know that Christ is in you, and from yourselves you would conclude that Christ is in us too. But since, as it appears, so about you one cannot judge, then I must in another way prove to you that Christ is in me, that I did not become deficient like you, and did not lose the presence in me of the power of Christ. I hope that you will know this by deed, when I come and deal punitively with the guilty. And here again a great threat, great fear. Since you wish me to prove this to you by punishing you, then we are able to give you such proof. However, he does not speak thus, but with greater severity and threat: “I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.” You ought to know our power and that Christ speaks and acts in us without this. But since you wish to test this in deed, then you will know that “we have not failed the test.” (Saint Chrysostom). “‘Have not failed the test,’ have not lost the gift of signs and the power of grace, or have not corrupted our life so that Christ would move out of us, but He is in us, with an able life, and will punish those who do not listen to us.” (Theophylact).

2 Cor. 13:7. Now we pray to God that you do no wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, even though we may seem to have failed.

The words: “we have not failed the test” are equivalent to the words: we are able to manifest the power of Christ acting in us by judgment over those who sinned and have not repented. But, says the Apostle, in manifesting such power and authority, or our ability, we do not find pleasure, it is not the object of our desires. On the contrary, we beg God so that we are not in the necessity of producing any punishment among you, laying upon you any punishment unpleasant to you; we wish rather that you, having repented and corrected yourselves, thereby do good and thus take from us the occasion to appear strong by the power of Christ, or able. Let it rather be that we remain unable, than you to suffer anything from us, though justly.

The holy Chrysostom says: “Since he has extended the threat far, has placed punishment as it were at the very doors, brought the Corinthians into trembling and made them expect punishment, then look how sweetly again he opens his word, how he calms their fear, how much he reveals in himself of non-acquisitiveness, care for disciples, wisdom, height and lack of vainglory. All this he opens in the following words: ‘We pray to God that you do no wrong,’ and so on. Where can one find a soul like Paul’s? They despised him, degraded him, mocked him, made fun of him as of a man low, of no account, boastful, who boasts only in words, but can show no power in deed; yet he not only delays and does not wish to punish, but even prays to God so as not to come to such necessity. I ask and beseech God, he says, that I find no one not set in order and not repented. And I pray not only for this, but especially for this that you do not begin to sin—‘that you do no wrong,’ he says—that you do no evil; and if you sin, then that you hasten to repent, forestall me with correction and prevent God’s wrath. I care not for appearing before you able, but, quite on the contrary, for not being in the necessity of showing this ability in deed. For if you remain in sins unrepented, then it is necessary to punish you, to subject your bodies to torture, as was done with the sorcerer” (Acts 13:11), over whom we showed the evidence of our power. But we do not pray for this, but on the contrary, so as not to show ourselves able in such deeds, that is, so as not to do the evidence of power, which is in us, punishing you and torturing those who sinned and are incurably ill. But for what do we pray?—“‘That you do what is right’; we pray that you always remain in virtue, always be corrected;” and we may appear to have failed, not manifesting in ourselves the punishing power. And he did not say: we will fail, for we would not become unable even if we did not punish; on the contrary, through this we would show ourselves able. But though some, he says, regard us as contemptible and unworthy of respect because we do not show our power, yet I care not about it at all. Better for us to incur such an opinion from them than to manifest the power given us by God in punishing people, hardened in heart.

2 Cor. 13:8. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.

“For if you walk in the path which you should (the true one), how can we show punitive power?” (Theodoret). “So as not to seem to be doing this (the above prayer and yielding) out of gratification, which is foreign to the spirit not knowing vanity—on the contrary, to show that he does what the very nature of the matter requires, the Apostle said: ‘For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.’ If we find you well arranged, having cast off sins through repentance and having boldness toward God, then for us, even if we wished, it would be impossible to punish you; on the contrary, if we decided on it, God would not help us. For He gave us power so that we would pronounce judgment truly, righteously, and not against truth. Do you see how everywhere he softens his word and moderates the weight of threat?” (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 13:9. For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. This is what we pray for, that you may become perfect.

“We rejoice especially when we have no need to punish you, seeing how you please God, when we do not find you giving us cause to show our power in punishing you. And even if through that we would appear glorious, skilled and powerful, we desire the contrary—that you be skilled and blameless, and we gain no glory from that. Therefore he says: ‘we rejoice when we are weak.’ What does: ‘when we are weak’ mean?—When we are regarded as weak, not when we are weak, but when we are considered weak. And such the Apostles were regarded by enemies because they did not show their punishing power. Nevertheless, we rejoice, says the Apostle, when you live such that you give us no cause to punish you. And it is pleasant to us to be regarded as weak in this, only if you are blameless. Therefore he adds: ‘and you are strong,’ that is, skilled and firm in virtue. And we not only desire but also pray that you be blameless, perfect and give us no cause. Truly fatherly love—to prefer the salvation of disciples to one’s own glory!” (St. Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 13:10. This is why I write these things while absent—so that when I come, I may not have to be harsh in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.

Here is the goal toward which all that was said in this final section was directed, (2 Cor. 12:19–21, 13:1–10). If, he said, when I come I find the unrepentant unrepentant, “I will not spare.” But now he says: I write this so that when I come I do not deal with you harshly. I have no desire to deal with you in this way. “I wish my severity to be only in words, not in deed; I wish the letters to be stern; I wish the threats to continue, but not come to fulfillment.” (Saint Chrysostom). But for this wish of mine to come to pass, you must reform in everything and show yourselves perfect. For I do not speak to you as an indulgence, that I do not wish to deal with you harshly, but so as to urge you yourselves to willing repentance, not from punitive measures. Know that “the authority which” “the Lord gave” “me” is always with me. It was given to me “for ‘building up, not for tearing down.’” If I find you unrepentant, I must correct you with authority, and thereby build up, for leaving you unrepentant I would grant you indulgence not for building up but for tearing down. You will be even more disordered. So it is one or the other: either reform, or expect harsh punishment. But know that I do not wish this, but will do it because the nature of the authority given me demands it. “He left everything to them for reflection.” (Saint Chrysostom).

Conclusion (2 Cor. 13:11–13)

Conclusion: Final Exhortations and the Grace (2 Cor. 13:11–13)

2 Cor. 13:11. Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, be encouraged, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

“What does ‘Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice’ mean? You have saddened, frightened, plunged into sorrow, made us tremble: how then do you command rejoice?—For this very reason, he says, I command you to rejoice. For if you on your part will correspond to what I am obligated to do on my part, then there will be no obstacle to joy. And on my part everything has been done: I have long endured, delayed, did not separate you, persuaded, admonished, frightened, threatened, so as somehow to produce in you the fruits of repentance. Now you must do your part, and your joy will not be dimmed.” (Saint Chrysostom). If they set themselves in order, they enter the path of virtue; “for those advancing in virtue, spiritual joy is fitting,” (Theodoret) independent of external prosperity. Perhaps for this reason he says: “Rejoice,” because not all were unrepentant, and for that reason not all were terrified by the threat. To all who are corrected, this is most fitting: “Rejoice.” Rejoice that you are Christians, have believed in the Lord, have received forgiveness of sins, received the grace of the Spirit sanctifying you and strengthening you for every good, and have certain hope that, remaining faithful to the Lord, you will inherit the eternal blessed kingdom of heaven. How can one not rejoice, having taken all this to heart?!

“Mend your ways.” “Be perfect, and supply what is lacking” (Saint Chrysostom). Here is the goal of life! One who has entered the court of Christ, into His flock, cannot help but rejoice, seeing what he receives and what he has hope of receiving still. But, having entered such a station of life, one cannot sleep. Much is given, much incomparably more will be given. But the first is an unconditional gift, the second—conditional. One must contribute effort, directing it to cutting off what is imperfect and joining perfect to perfect. This is perfecting oneself.

“Be encouraged.” “Since there are many trials and great dangers, seek encouragement in one another and in us, and in your own correction. For if your joy comes from a pure conscience and if you are perfect, then nothing is lacking to your courage and encouragement, for nothing brings so much encouragement as a pure conscience, even if you were surrounded by countless trials” (Saint Chrysostom).

“Live in peace.” “Bind yourselves more tightly with unity of mind, hold all to one way of thinking” (Theodoret). “He asked for this also at the beginning of the first epistle” (Saint Chrysostom). Perhaps this is the chief thing in these last brief instructions. For from empty infatuation with certain persons, they had begun to separate from one another and group into parties. The first epistle sobered them. They resolved to set themselves in order. It was necessary to seal this decision, which is what the Apostle does here.

“Have peace.” “It happens that people also think the same, yet do not have peace; for example, when they agree in the dogmas of faith, but war against one another. On the contrary, Apostle Paul requires here both unity of mind and harmony” (Saint Chrysostom).—“Have peace.” Ειρηνευετε, live in peace, can have an all-encompassing meaning, that is, both to be at peace within yourselves, and with God, not only with others. Theodoret writes thus: “‘Have peace’ with us and with one another, but first of all with God who saved you.”

“And the God of love and peace will be with you.” “For seeing these improvements, God will grant you all His providence, because He is the lawgiver of all” (Theodoret). “He not only admonishes and advises to have peace, but also prays to God for it. For he either prays here (that is, may God of peace be with you), or foretells the future (that is, that God will be with you for your shown virtues); but rather, both together. If, he says, you act thus, that is, think the same and have peace among yourselves, then God will be with you. Because God is the God of love and peace. In this He rejoices (that is, in love and peace), and in this He is glad. From this—from His love—peace will be in you. From this—deliverance from all evils. This love saved the world; it ended the ancient enmity on earth, it united earth with heaven, it made men angels. Let us too love it, for love is the mother of countless blessings. Through it we are saved, through it we have received unspeakable goods” (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 13:12. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints send you greetings.

“‘Greet one another with a holy kiss’; that is, without flattery, with chastity, as members of one another and the body of Christ” (Theodoret). “What does ‘holy’ mean?—Not feigned and flattering, as Judas kissed Christ. For the purpose of a kiss is to awaken love, to kindle sincere affection, so that we love one another as brothers love brothers, as children love fathers and fathers love children, or even more: for this is natural love, but ours is spiritual. Through the kiss souls are united with one another. Therefore, returning from travels, we kiss one another, when our souls come into mutual communion. For the lips especially express the disposition of the soul. One can say something more about this holy kiss. What then is it?—We are the temple of Christ. The lips are the door of this temple, through which Christ entered and enters us when we partake. Participants in the mysteries! Do you understand what I am saying? Your lips do not receive mere honor when they receive the Lord’s Body. Therefore especially at this time do we greet one another with a kiss. Let those who kiss shamelessly hear this, and let them tremble at the thought of how they defile their lips!” (Saint Chrysostom).

“All the saints send you greetings.” “In one assembly he joined all believers throughout the world” (Theodoret). “Do you see how he unites all far and near, the former through Scripture and the latter through the kiss?” (Saint Chrysostom).

2 Cor. 13:13. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

The salvation of all and each is accomplished by the undivided action of the Holy Trinity. Scripture assigns different actions in the production of our salvation to different names and refers them sometimes to one, sometimes to another, sometimes to the third Person of the Holy Trinity, thereby showing that it does not distribute them among the Persons so that one belonged exclusively to one and another to another. So here also “not to indicate a separation did the Apostle express himself thus, and did not give to Christ the Lord one thing, to the Father another, and to the Spirit yet another, for repeatedly he attributed love to the Spirit, communion to the Son, grace to God the Father. Thus in the first epistle, having attributed the action to the Father (1 Cor. 12:6), a few words later he attributes it to the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:11). He placed the Persons in another order, not perverting the order pointed out by the Lord (Matt. 28:19), but teaching that another order of names does not mean difference of nature, or power, or difference of dignity” (Theodoret). “All that belongs to the Trinity is undivided! And where there is communion of the Spirit, there is also communion of the Son, and where there is grace of the Son, there is grace of the Father and Holy Spirit. I say this not as one confusing the Hypostases; not at all: on the contrary, I know both how they are distinguished and separated, and also the unity of their essence” (Saint Chrysostom).

“Let us also hold these dogmas with all precision and attract to ourselves the love of God. For He first loved us, when we still hated Him; and reconciled us to Himself, when we were still enemies of His; and now wants to love us, already loving Him; let us therefore constantly love Him, so that He might also love us. And if, using the love of powerful men, we are feared by all, then all the more when we are in the love of God. If it becomes necessary from love for Him to give up possessions, our body, even our very soul, we will not spare it. For it is not enough to testify to our love for Him only in words; it is necessary to show it also in deeds. For He Himself has shown His love for us not only in words but also in deeds. You also show this in deed and do what is pleasing to Him. In this case you will gain benefit yourself, because He has no need of anything in us. That it is a special proof of His sincere love for us is that, having no need of our love, He does everything so that we love Him. Therefore Moses said: ‘What does the Lord your God seek… from you, only that… you love Him, and be’ prepared ‘to walk after Him’ (Deut. 10:12). Therefore when He commands you to love Him, He thereby shows all the more that He loves you. For our salvation is never as certain as when we love Him” (Saint Chrysostom).

“Let us also pray that we may be deemed worthy of apostolic blessing and obtain the promised goods by the grace and mercy of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory and majesty, now and always, and to the ages of ages! Amen” (Theodoret).

Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians

Introduction

1. The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born George Vasilyevich Govorov on 10 January 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Oryol province of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. He was schooled in the seminary at Oryol and then at the Kiev Theological Academy, one of the great centers of Russian ecclesiastical learning, and it was there, on the eve of completing his studies, that he received monastic tonsure in 1840 and the name Theophan, “revealer of God.” Ordained soon after, he taught and served as rector in a succession of seminaries and academies, spent formative years with the Russian ecclesiastical mission in the Holy Land and at Constantinople—where he steeped himself in the Greek Fathers and the manuscripts of the ascetic tradition—and in 1859 was consecrated bishop, first of Tambov and then, from 1863, of Vladimir. He governed his dioceses with energy and tenderness, but the pull of the contemplative life never left him.

In 1866, at the age of fifty-one, he asked to be released from the burdens of a diocese and withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov province. For six years he lived there as an ordinary monk, attending the services of the church. Then, in 1872, he entered strict reclusion. He shut himself into a few small rooms, saw almost no one but his confessor, built with his own hands a little chapel where he served the Liturgy alone, and gave the remaining twenty-two years of his life to prayer, to a vast correspondence with people who wrote to him for spiritual counsel, and to writing. He died on 6 January 1894, on the feast of the Theophany whose name he bore.

Those years of seclusion were the most productive of his life. From them came the works for which he is best known: the moral and ascetical treatises such as The Path to Salvation and What the Spiritual Life Is and How to Be Attuned to It; the Russian rendering of the Philokalia, the anthology of Greek ascetic masters that he did more than anyone to make available to his countrymen; the adaptation of Unseen Warfare; and, at the center of his labors on Scripture, a series of running commentaries covering nearly the whole body of the Apostle Paul’s letters. The commentary on Galatians belongs to this Pauline set and was composed at Vysha in the mid-1870s. The Russian Church numbers Theophan among its teaching saints and glorified him in 1988; he is commemorated on 10 January and, for the translation of his relics, in the summer. But his authority has never been confined to one communion, and readers across the Christian world have come to him as to a sure and gentle guide.

2. The Work: Occasion and Purpose

Theophan did not write his commentary for scholars. He wrote it for believers who wanted to understand the Apostle and, more than that, to live by him. His method throughout the Pauline set is the same: he takes a letter in small portions—a verse, or a handful of verses at a time—gives its plain sense, gathers what the Fathers before him had said of it, clears away the difficulties a reader might stumble over, and then turns the passage back upon the conscience, so that exposition passes almost imperceptibly into a summons to the Christian life. The Galatians commentary opens, in the manner of the ancient introductions, with several chapters that set the stage: a sketch of the region of Galatia and its mixed population of Greeks, Celtic settlers, and Jews; an account of how Paul founded the Galatian churches on his missionary journeys; a careful reconstruction of the crisis that provoked the letter; and a survey of its argument and audience. Only then does he begin the verse-by-verse exposition itself.

The crisis he reconstructs is the one that gives Galatians its heat. Paul had preached the gospel in Galatia and had been received, as he recalls, “as an angel of God”; the Galatians had believed with such fervor that they would have plucked out their own eyes for him. Then, after he had moved on, other teachers arrived. Theophan is careful to say who they were and who they were not: they were not unbelieving Jews, but men who had themselves accepted faith in Christ while remaining convinced that circumcision and the other ordinances of the ancient Law were still necessary for salvation. What they preached to the Gentile Galatians was that faith in Christ was not enough—that they must also be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses if they hoped to be saved. To make this teaching stick they undermined the man who had taught otherwise, whispering that Paul was no true apostle, that he ranked below the “pillars” in Jerusalem who had walked with the Lord, and that he trimmed his message to his hearers. The Galatians were beginning to waver.

This was not a new question in the early Church, and Theophan sets it in its history without rancor. The status of the Mosaic Law for Gentile believers had first been raised when the Gentiles began to come to faith, had been settled from above at the conversion of the centurion Cornelius, and had been settled again, formally, by the apostles and elders gathered in council at Jerusalem, who declined to lay the “yoke of the Law” upon Gentile converts. The dispute, in other words, was an internal one about how the new covenant stood to the old—not a quarrel with the Jewish people or their piety, which Paul himself never ceased to honor. A party unreconciled to the council’s decision pressed on, and their first real success came in Galatia. Learning of it, Paul wrote at once, “marveling” that the Galatians were so quickly turning away, and wrote, Theophan notes, in his own hand and in a single continuous rush of argument and feeling, to catch the disease in its early stages before it could spread. Theophan places the letter during Paul’s stay at Ephesus, about the year 56.

3. Argument and Structure

Following the ancient commentators, Theophan reads Galatians as an oration in well-marked parts, and holding this shape in view is the surest way through the letter. After a preface of greeting and rebuke, in which Paul withholds his usual thanksgiving and comes straight to his astonishment (1:1–10), the letter falls into three movements.

The first is a defense of Paul’s own apostleship (1:11–2:21). Because the false teachers had made his authority the wedge for their doctrine, he must first show that the gospel he preaches is not of human origin but came to him by revelation of Jesus Christ. He tells the story of his calling and of his dealings with the apostles at Jerusalem, recounts how he withstood even Peter to his face at Antioch when the truth of the gospel was at stake, and lays down the principle that will govern everything that follows: a man is not justified by works of the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

The second movement is doctrinal (chapters 3–4). Here Paul proves from Scripture and from the Galatians’ own experience of the Spirit that righteousness comes not from the Law but from grace received through faith. He appeals to Abraham, who was justified by faith before the Law was given; he explains why the Law was given at all, as a temporary guardian leading to Christ; and he draws the great contrasts of the letter—slavery and freedom, the bondwoman and the free, the child under a tutor and the son who has come of age. To go back under the Law now, he argues, is to abandon the freedom Christ has won and to fall from grace into a servitude Christ died to end.

The third movement is moral (5:1–6:10). Having established Christian freedom, Paul guards it against the opposite error. Freedom is “not an indulgence to the passions”; the believer set loose from external ordinances is freed precisely so that he may turn his whole attention to the purifying of the heart. Here stand the letter’s most quoted lines: the summons to stand fast in liberty and serve one another through love, the warning that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump,” the somber catalogue of the works of the flesh set over against the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Paul closes with counsels on bearing one another’s burdens, on doing good to all, and on glorying in nothing but the cross.

One thing must be said plainly to the reader. The commentary as it has come down to us breaks off at Galatians 6:6, in the middle of this third movement; the closing pages, which would have carried Theophan’s exposition through the letter’s final verses and conclusion, have not been preserved. What survives is complete and self-contained through the great body of the argument, but the reader should not expect it to reach the last verse.

4. Theological and Spiritual Significance

The doctrinal heart of Galatians is the truth that “a man is not justified by works of the Law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ,” and everything in Theophan’s reading turns on how that truth is understood. He reads justification not as a mere verdict laid over an unchanged life, but as a real transformation. The righteousness the Law could confer was only outward; it “brought no peace to conscience and gave no power to resist sin.” Faith in Christ gives both—the forgiveness of sins, and the grace by which the believer is “clothed with power from above to resist sin and do all righteousness,” attaining the “internal righteousness in thoughts, feelings and dispositions which alone makes us righteous before God.” Faith, on this reading, is never idle. It binds the believer to an inward holiness that grows, and this is why for Theophan the argument of Galatians and its closing moral exhortation are not two subjects but one.

From this center the letter’s other themes open out. There is the great theme of freedom in Christ: by His cross and the grace of the Spirit the Lord has freed those who believe in Him from the yoke of the Law’s precepts, so that to return to that yoke is to fall backward from grace into bondage. Yet freedom, Theophan insists with Paul, is no license. The same Spirit who liberates also demands the crucifixion of the flesh, and so the letter ends by setting the works of the flesh against the fruit of the Spirit. On this last theme Theophan draws out the ancient teaching of synergy—the working together of divine grace and human freedom. Evil, he says with Chrysostom, comes from us alone; but the good dispositions require both our effort and the loving-kindness of God, and it is “by the cooperation of the Spirit,” as Theodoret adds, that the soul makes progress in each of them. The fruit of the Spirit is truly a gift, and yet, Theophan is candid, it “cannot be accomplished without struggle with oneself.” Grace does not spare the labor; it makes the labor fruitful.

What keeps all of this from being a dispute over an old controversy is the ascetical seriousness Theophan brings to it from the Russian and Greek spiritual traditions he had made his own. A doctrine is never left as information. He carries it into the conscience, into prayer, into the daily war with the passions, and in the later chapters of the commentary the exposition broadens into some of his most searching practical counsel—on how to discern the roots of anger and desire in the heart, on the stages by which a passion is starved and finally uprooted, on the remembrance of the divine judgment as a remedy against pride. The dispute at Galatia becomes, in his hands, a map of the reader’s own road: freedom, faith, and life in the Spirit are not positions to be defended but a life to be entered, and this is what gives his Galatians its warmth.

5. Reception and Influence

Galatians has never been a quiet book. Its declaration that righteousness comes through faith made it a touchstone in every later age that returned to the question of grace, and the Fathers whom Theophan follows had already made it a battleground and a treasure. Saint John Chrysostom devoted to it one of his most vigorous commentaries; Blessed Jerome wrote his own; and Theodoret, Ecumenius, Theophylact, Ambrosiaster, and Augustine all left their readings of it. Theophan expounds the letter in the company of exactly these interpreters, quoting Chrysostom above all and setting the Greek and Latin Fathers side by side. Where they agree he lets their agreement stand; where they differ he lays their comments out and adds only what is needed to make Paul’s swift argument clear. His commentary is thus a work of transmission as much as of interpretation—the Church’s long memory of how these verses have been read, gathered up and handed on to a nineteenth-century Russian readership, and through this edition to a modern English one. That it circulated widely, and that Theophan’s Pauline commentaries as a body earned him a doctorate in theology and the honor of the Russian academies in his own lifetime, is a measure of how surely they filled a need.

6. The Text and This Edition

Theophan wrote his commentary in Russian, as part of his multi-volume exposition of the Pauline epistles composed during his reclusion at Vysha and first published, in the pre-revolutionary era, by the Russian monastery of Saint Panteleimon on Mount Athos. That Russian text—long in the public domain—is the basis of the present volume. What is offered here is a fresh modern English translation made directly from the Russian: a clean, readable rendering that aims to carry Theophan’s voice, at once learned and pastoral, into contemporary English without the archaism of an older ecclesiastical style, while keeping intact the substance of his argument and the many quotations from the Fathers that form its body.

A few conventions of this edition are worth noting. Names of authors and saints follow traditional usage, and the persons who prepared the translation are credited as translators, never as authors of the work. Scripture is quoted in a register faithful to the text Theophan himself used, following the versification and wording of the Slavonic and Septuagint tradition where his exposition depends on it, so that the reader meets the verses as the commentator read them. Citations of chapter and verse are given in the ordinary modern style—“Galatians 6:6,” and so on—for ease of reference. Where the underlying commentary is itself incomplete, breaking off at Galatians 6:6, the edition preserves that ending faithfully rather than supplying what Theophan did not leave. The result is meant to stand on its own: an English reader with no Russian and no Greek can follow the whole of Theophan’s exposition, and the Apostle’s argument through him, from the first verse to the last that survives.

7. Suggestions for Reading

Galatians is short but tightly argued, and Paul’s tone shifts quickly from reproach to tenderness to close reasoning from Scripture. Theophan’s habit of taking a little at a time is the reader’s best safeguard against being swept past the turns. It helps to keep a copy of the Epistle open alongside the commentary and to come to Theophan’s comment only after reading the Apostle’s own words for the passage. The quotations from Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Jerome are not ornament but the very substance of the exposition, and are worth slowing down over. Above all, the book asks to be read as it was written—not only to win the old argument against the Law, but to be freed by it, and to take that freedom as the beginning of the labor of a purified heart.

Introduction

Information About the Region of Galatia and its Inhabitants

Galatia, to whose churches the holy Apostle Paul wrote this Epistle, is a region in Asia Minor, surrounded by Paphlagonia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Phrygia, and Bithynia. It was inhabited by Greeks; but in the third century before the birth of Christ, Gauls settled there and mingled with them, and afterward Jews also came in considerable numbers.

The Gauls, as the accounts tell, came from the banks of the Rhine under the leadership of Brennus. There were three tribes: the Trocmi, Tolistoboii, and Tectosages—all Celts. At first they raided various regions of Macedonia and Greece, then in Thrace they settled themselves somewhat, founding something like a principality under the name Tylis. Meanwhile they did not cease to satisfy their warlike inclinations—and this prompted Nicomedes I (280–255 BC), king of Bithynia, to invite them to aid him against his brother Kivel. For this purpose they crossed into Asia Minor in 280 BC under the leadership of Leonor and Lotar; but there they remained, receiving from Nicomedes, in compensation for their service, lands in Bithynia. They did not cease to expand these lands at the expense of neighboring regions, until Attalus, king of Pergamum, opposed them, gaining a victory that made such an impression on them that they judged it better to change their place of settlement and moved to the river Halys, which flows through the middle of Galatia from southwest to northeast. This happened in 240 BC. There they settled finally and never changed their dwelling place again. Shortly after, in 189 BC, the consul Manlius subdued them to the Romans, yet leaving them their own government under their rulers, who later received the title of kings. From this time forward they turned to peaceful pursuits and arts and began to cultivate their fertile and flourishing land. The natural consequence was that through civil and domestic relations they mingled with the local Greeks, adopting their customs and language, although, as the blessed Jerome notes (at the beginning of the second book of his Commentary), even in his time some there spoke the language of the Treveri. From this all the inhabitants of that region came to be called Gallogreeks, and the region itself was called Gallogrecia. But later these names were replaced with others, and they came to be called Galatians, and their country Galatia—perhaps from their tribal name Celts, from which through kalty and kalaty the name Galatians and Galatia could have been formed. Pausanias (the ancient Greek writer, author of the Description of Greece) (as mentioned by the venerable Philaret of Chernigov in his introduction to the Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians) writes: “Only recently have they come to be called Galatians; from ancient times both they and others called them Celts.” The blessed Jerome, at the beginning of the second book of his Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, cites the opinion of Lactantius, that just as Gauls were called Galatai, that is, milky, on account of the whiteness of their bodies, from the Greek γάλα, milk—so also the region where Gauls mingled with Greeks, on account of this, received the name Galatia.

The wealthy region of Galatia began to attract Jews—perhaps shortly after the time of Alexander the Great, when they were sometimes forced to settle in various regions or were drawn to it by their own commercial desires and enterprises. Their numbers especially multiplied in this region after Augustus showed his patronage of the Jews settling there and ordered a decree to this effect to be posted in the temple at Ancyra, as Josephus Flavius wrote.

The Founding of Churches in Galatia

The Apostle Paul writes his Epistle to the churches of Galatia without specifying which ones. No information about this can be drawn from the Book of Acts either. But based on the custom of the Apostle Paul to preach chiefly in populous and influential places, we may reasonably suppose that these were churches founded in Ancyra, Pessinus, Tavium, and Gordium—the most significant cities in that region.

That all the churches there were founded by the Apostle Paul himself is stated directly and with particular force in the Epistle itself: (Gal. 1:6–9, 4:13 and following). When this could have been accomplished, church history shows precisely through the record of the Apostle’s preaching journeys in Acts. We learn from there that in his first Apostolic journey, the holy Apostle Paul with Barnabas reached only Antioch of Pisidia and northward; he did not extend further beyond where Galatia lay through Phrygia, but after founding churches in this city and also in Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe with their surrounding areas, and visiting the newly founded churches a second time, he returned to Antioch (Acts 13–14).

The holy Apostle went further north already in his second journey, which he undertook with Silas, Luke, and Timothy, after the Apostolic Council which followed the completion of his first journey (Acts 15). At this time the holy Apostle with his companions first visited the former churches of Lycaonia and Pisidia, strengthening them in the true faith and delivering to them to observe the decrees “delivered by the Apostles and elders” (Acts 16:4).

Then they went further north and passed through Phrygia and the Galatian region (Acts 16:6)—passed through, of course, with the preaching of the Gospel, although this is not mentioned, but is understood of itself. And this visitation of Galatia by the holy Apostle Paul must be reckoned as the beginning of the conversion of the Galatians to the Christian faith and the founding of churches there. That the foundations of the churches were indeed laid in Galatia at this time is confirmed by the Book of Acts, which tells us that when the holy Apostle Paul, having been in the Galatian region at this time, came later by heavenly direction into Macedonia and Greece, and after founding churches there in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth, and thereafter having been in Jerusalem and Antioch (see: Acts 16–18), undertook his third Apostolic journey—then, passing through the region of Galatia, he was already strengthening his “disciples” (Acts 18:23). And one strengthens in the faith those already converted to the faith and instructed in it. This the Apostle could accomplish only in his preceding second journey.

Concerning the circumstances of the conversion of the Galatians, the Book of Acts says nothing; but in the Epistle the holy Apostle gives to understand that during his first preaching among them he was infirm in the flesh, and perhaps even by this infirmity was held among them longer than he had intended. Yet this served for their good; for it gave the Apostle the opportunity to preach Christ the Lord to them so vividly that they beheld him as though crucified before their very eyes. Therefore they believed with extraordinary fervor and received the Apostle himself as an angel of God, as Christ Himself, and loved him so much that they were ready to pluck out their own eyes and give them to him (Gal. 3:1, 4:13–15 and following). And the Apostle justly marveled how after such vividness of feeling they so quickly proved unfaithful to the grace of Christ that had called them.

The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

The occasion for writing the Epistle to the Galatians was the perversion or only the beginning of an inclination of the Christians there toward Judaism, caused by certain false teachers, probably coming from Palestine, who were not unbelieving Jews but who had accepted faith in Christ, yet were convinced that circumcision and other ordinances of the ancient Jewish church were necessary for salvation.

By that time, the question of the significance of the Old Testament church ordinances for Christians had been definitively clarified among believers from the beginning. It is known that at first there was no question about how Christians should conduct themselves in relation to the Old Testament ordinances. This question arose when Gentiles began to believe, namely in the case of Cornelius the centurion. But at the same time a solution was given from above. Those zealous for the Law were disturbed by this; but when the holy Peter explained how it all happened, they fell silent. There was nothing to say against it. Although primarily in this event the will of God was solemnly revealed regarding the acceptance of Gentiles into the bosom of the Church, yet it was evident at the same time that circumcision and submission to other church ordinances of the Jewish Church were not set as conditions for this. The Gentiles received entry into the Church through faith alone and holy baptism and became partakers of all the gracious promises of Christ. Naturally, after this, a question arose in believers from the Jews: the Gentiles received grace and remain in it without circumcision and all the rest that we keep; then what is this circumcision and all that is connected with it for us? The prudent, under the guidance of the holy Apostles, could not fail to agree that all this was not at all necessary for salvation, and, being convinced of this, although they kept some of their ancient ordinances, except circumcision, which was replaced by holy baptism, yet not as a condition of salvation, but by habit and because they had not yet had time to establish new ordinances. But foolish zealots of the Law could not detach themselves from it and held to the conviction that it was necessary for salvation, that faith in Christ alone would not save unless circumcision and the rest were also accepted. It is probable that these zealots were not satisfied with the explanation given by the holy Peter at the assembly and began to separate themselves from others in Jerusalem and Judea, although without visible and open division.

Meanwhile, first in Antioch and then in other places, through the activity of the holy Apostles Paul and Barnabas, strong churches were formed from among Gentiles, in which there was no trace of anything that smacked of Judaism. The holy Apostles Paul and Barnabas no less than the holy Peter saw signs of grace indicating the complete uselessness of the old Law for the new life in grace—and, being convinced of this by such signs from above, they themselves communicated their conviction not only to Gentiles but also to Jews converting to Christianity. For Jews living outside Palestine it was easier to agree to this, since they could not perform much of their Law anyway amid Gentiles (circumcision mainly—festivals and other things), and they had already grown accustomed to religious fellowship with them when they received only faith in the God of Israel and His moral Law. From this there naturally arose many among Christians who held the conviction of the uselessness of the old Law for salvation not only in their hearts but also in actual practice—some did not even begin to observe it, others fell away from it, or allowed themselves freedom to observe it sometimes and not at other times, considering it a matter of indifference.

All, however, lived in peace among themselves, until strict zealots of the Law began to disturb it. They did not want to limit themselves, but were zealous to communicate their convictions to others and to persuade those among whom other convictions had already taken root and were active. From this came conflict, disputes, and opposition. For the first time this manifested itself in Antioch. After the holy Apostles Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch from their preaching journey through Asia Minor and greatly rejoiced the Christians there by recounting the grace of God poured out on the Gentiles, certain ones came from Judea and began to teach the Antiochene Christians that if they were not circumcised according to the custom of Moses, they could not be saved (Acts 15:1). It was easy for the holy Paul and Barnabas to refute them after what they had experienced from above among the Gentiles; yet apparently some were shaken and demanded stronger assurances. Therefore it was decided to send these Apostles with other brothers to Jerusalem to the elder Apostles for a final decision.

There, from prior events, it was already known how such a question should be decided. Yet they convened a Council to deliberate on it. The account by the holy Paul and Barnabas of what God had been doing with them among the Gentiles renewed and strengthened the conviction that had already formed after what was revealed to the holy Peter at the conversion of Cornelius. Certain believers from the Pharisaic sect rose up, “saying that it was necessary to circumcise them” (the believing Gentiles), “and to order them to observe the Law of Moses” (Acts 15:5). But those attentive to the signs from above prevailed and decreed not to place on the necks of the disciples the yoke of the Law and not to “trouble those who are turning from the Gentiles to God” (Acts 15:10, 19). This joyful decree was received with great joy everywhere. The holy Paul distributed it to all the churches he had founded and certainly did not hide it from the newly established Christian communities.

It must be supposed that from this time the zealots of the Law separated themselves into a distinct sect in Jerusalem and Judea and resolved to oppose more vigorously the sound teaching of faith by spreading their personal convictions. The previous unsuccessful attempt in Antioch did not stop them but only irritated them further. They pressed ahead. Since the freedom from the Law was preached chiefly by the holy Paul, as it were by a duty imposed from above, it is not surprising that they deliberately directed themselves along his tracks. Their first known success, however, was in the churches of Galatia.

It was they who disturbed the bright state of these churches in their beginning. Although they are not named by the holy Paul, it is not hard to recognize them by the suggestions by which they managed to trouble the Galatians. They instilled in them the same thing that had been instilled in those who came from Judea to Antioch and that believing Pharisees had said at the Council—that if they were not circumcised and did not observe the Law of Moses, they would not obtain salvation. That this was indeed the case is evident from the content of the Epistle. From this same content it is evident that in order to make their false teaching more persuasive, they cast a shadow on the Apostolic dignity of the holy Paul, saying that he was not a true Apostle, that the true Apostles, the pillars of the Church, Peter, James, and John, were in Jerusalem. They saw the Lord Himself, but he had not seen Him and was sent by them. It is not surprising that they added that Paul himself sometimes keeps the Law and sometimes does not, sometimes rises up against circumcision and sometimes circumcises himself (as, for example, Timothy).

But let us rather listen to how the holy Chrysostom presents their sophistical arguments: “Certain believers from the Jews,” he writes, “yet those who held to Judaism and were at the same time puffed up with ambitious pride, desiring to arrogate to themselves the dignity of teachers, came to the Galatians and taught that they should be circumcised, observe the Sabbath and new moons, and not accept Paul, who rejected all this, whereas, on the contrary, they said, Peter, James, and John, the first-ranking Apostles who were with Christ, did not forbid it. And indeed they did not forbid it. However, they did this not because they wanted to defend Jewish customs, but only out of condescension to the weakness of believers from the Jews. But Paul, as a teacher of the Gentiles, found no need for such condescension. Nevertheless, when he was in Judea, he also made such condescension. But the false teachers, not revealing the reasons for which he and the other Apostles made this condescension, seduced the weak, saying that they ought not listen to Paul because he appeared only yesterday or is appearing even now, whereas Peter and those with him are the foremost Apostles, and moreover he is an Apostolic student while they are Christ’s, he is one while they are many, and moreover they are the pillars of the Church. They also accused Paul of hypocrisy, saying that him also, who rejects circumcision, they have sometimes seen observing Jewish rites, and that he preaches one way to you and another way to others.”

By such speeches the false teachers succeeded in sowing tares in a field cultivated by the labors of the holy Paul and promising an abundant harvest. They were listened to and the Galatians began to be inclined toward their convictions. How far they progressed in this deviation is hard to determine precisely; but apparently they had gone so far that it could not be left without attention. From the tone of the speech and the manner of exposition of the subject, one can conclude that the holy Paul feared complete apostasy, but at the same time was confident that his word would find the proper reception among them and there is hope to return them to sound faith. The Apostle’s authority had been shaken considerably; but the teaching concerning salvation, perhaps, was still only under consideration as a question, troubled and alarmed their minds. In the words: “My little children, for whom I am in labor again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. 4:19)—there is evidence that the image of the Savior had become clouded in their consciousness; but those who had strayed had not yet allowed themselves to be circumcised, only had adopted some of the precepts of Jewish religious life—there was only the beginning of Judaism (Gal. 4:10). The words: “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Gal. 5:9)—give us to understand that only some things have been adopted from the suggestions of the corruptors. How many had strayed is not apparent. One cannot think that all in all the churches had strayed; but the holy Paul addresses both his defensive and denunciatory speech to all, without distinguishing those who retained sound faith, either because the majority had fallen into error or because of their weight and influence among others, or because not all had marked all, and by addressing his speech to them alone, he was warning and strengthening the others as well. Since the disease had arisen, he looked upon all their body as sick.

The Apostle learned of what had happened there quickly and hastens to seize the disease in its early stages, hoping for a quick cure. He sees them only just entering the false path and hopes in them that they will listen to his call and return to the right path. The Epistle gives the thought that the Apostle speaks with those who have strayed for the first time. And it is needless for some to suppose that the Apostle had already noticed the beginning of corruption during his last visit to these churches, on the way to Ephesus. The words: “As I said before” (Gal. 1:9)—and: “I testify again” (Gal. 5:3)—upon which they want to base this supposition, do not necessarily lead to it. The Apostle could have spoken of what he now writes about also at his first visit, especially since it was soon after the Jerusalem Council. He could have spoken the same thing at the second visit as a warning, and not because he had noticed anything. Against this stands directly the fact that the Apostle, when he was with them, saw them as zealous in the good sense. Therefore he reproaches them: “It is good to be zealous in good things always, and not just when I am present with you” (Gal. 4:18). Moreover, if this were the case, there would be no need for the Apostle to be so amazed at their change. Their change is indeed astonishing after such fervor of faith. It can only be explained by the impressionability of the Galatians, with a strongly aroused desire for salvation. From this could come their initial fervor; from this also came their swift change, when the false brethren succeeded in presenting to them the danger of the path of salvation proposed to them by the holy Paul.

The holy Paul, learning of all this quickly, was greatly struck by it and under the fresh impression set forth to the Galatians the entire matter of salvation as it is, in opposition to the false suggestions they had heard. He wrote with his own hand so as not to encounter delay and interruptions on the part of a scribe—and the entire Epistle is indeed an inspired, continuously flowing discourse in which arguments convincing to reason are everywhere interspersed with suggestions capable of touching the sensitive strings of the heart. The holy Chrysostom writes: “Seeing that the whole people had caught fire, and a great fire had been kindled in the Galatian Church, and its very building was shaking and threatened to collapse, the Apostle, seized with both righteous anger and sorrow—for he declared this, saying: ‘I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone’ (Gal. 4:20)—writes this Epistle, answering all the accusations.”

The Content of the Epistle

The content of the Epistle answers the presumed wrong interpretations of the corruptors. Since they, in convincing of the necessity for salvation of circumcision and the observance of the Law of Moses, gave force to their convictions especially by succeeding in instilling suspicion about the soundness of the teaching of the holy Paul and the divine origin of his Apostleship, the Apostle, in destroying their work, first defends his Apostolic dignity and shows that his teaching is not human but divine, and thereby lays a firm foundation for the subsequent arguments and persuasions (Gal. 1–2); and then refutes the proposition of the false teachers, proving that salvation does not come from circumcision and observance of the Law, but from the grace of the Lord through faith (Gal. 3–4); and finally he adds moral lessons, which naturally flow from the teaching he has set forth about freedom from the yoke of the Law of Moses—that this freedom is not an indulgence to the passions, but in order that, turning away from external justifying ordinances, one might turn more attention to the purification of the heart (Gal. 5–6).

Which believers had the holy Paul in view when he wrote this Epistle—Gentiles and proselytes, or also Jews? All those who made up the composition of the churches there, and they had to be from all these classes. For if there were Jews there, then according to his custom, the holy Paul addressed his preaching to them first and had his first believers from them. On the other hand, where there were Jews, there were also their proselytes. They were certainly among the Galatians. And if they were, then a still greater number of believers had to be presumed from among them than from the Jews. The Epistle was written to the churches in their complete composition; therefore one cannot assert that it was intended exclusively for believers from the Gentiles. The content of the Epistle does not require this either. When, for example, the holy Paul more than once calls himself an Apostle of the Gentiles (Gal. 1:16, 2:9) and speaks of those to whom he writes, saying that they before worshipped “those who by nature are not gods” (Gal. 4:8), then it is evident that he is addressing Christians from the Gentiles. But when he warns against circumcision those who are not yet circumcised but whom others are trying to persuade to be circumcised, this can relate not only to believers from the Gentiles and proselytes but also to Jews, for they had children whom they could circumcise on the eighth day after birth if they believed in the power of circumcision. And the fact that the Apostle, addressing them, says: “We were kept under the Law” (Gal. 3:23), “we were enslaved by the elemental spirits of the world” (cf. Gal. 4:3), and especially the reproach he makes, that they now again wish to serve weak and inferior elemental spirits (Gal. 4:9)—causes us to suppose that he writes also to Jews. Moreover, the manner in which the holy Paul sets forth his subject causes one to suppose in his readers great familiarity with the Old Testament; and the fact that the Judaizing false teachers found access to them and had such swift success among them causes us to think that they had some predisposition in favor of Jewish religious ordinances. Both of these can apply only to Jews or proselytes. Thus one must conclude that the Epistle was directed to all Christians who had begun to incline toward the way of thinking of the Judaizing false teachers and sets forth the subject more according to its essence than by adapting it to the kind of persons whom the Christians previously belonged to, although certain statements show in them now such and now others.

Time and Place of Writing

From the course of the Apostolic labors of the holy Paul it is evident that the Epistle to the Galatians was written by him during his stay in Ephesus and falls in the years that according to chronology correspond to this time. For, accepting as true that the first preaching to them mentioned by the holy Paul (Gal. 4:13) necessarily presupposes also a second one, we must conclude that the Epistle was written after both. From the Book of Acts we know that the second visit to the Galatian churches was during the third preaching journey of the holy Paul, when he was heading toward Ephesus. From this it follows that the Epistle could not have been written before the time when the holy Paul, having been a second time in the Galatian churches, moved to Ephesus. That the writing of the Epistle should not be attributed to any later time during the stay of the holy Paul in Ephesus is evident from the fact that the holy Paul calls the change in the Galatians something that happened very quickly. “I marvel,” he says, “that you are so quickly turning away” (Gal. 1:6). This “quickly” is not after the first visit to the Galatians, when they converted to faith, but after the second, when he was strengthening them in faith. It is as if saying to them: How long ago was I with you? Everything was well with you; I saw you as zealous in the good way (Gal. 4:18). And suddenly I hear that you have turned aside into crooked ways. I am amazed at this. If, therefore, the Epistle is written quickly after his last stay with the Galatians, then it cannot possibly be supposed that it was written after the Apostle left Ephesus, where he stayed for three years (Acts 20:31). For this would not be soon, even if we suppose, as some do, that this was soon after the holy Paul’s departure from Ephesus to Macedonia or to Corinth, where he stayed for three months (Acts 20:1-3).

Now count the years. In Corinth the holy Paul was for the first time after the year 52; for he met there Aquila and Priscilla, who had been banished from Rome by a decree issued in that year. And he stayed there for a year and a half; and then one year should be allowed for the return journey from there, a visit to Jerusalem and Antioch, and then again, on the third journey, for the passage through the previously founded churches in Lycaonia, Phrygia, and Galatia. The arrival of the holy Paul in Ephesus falls thus in the year 55; and the writing of the Epistle—between the years 55 and 58. Let us suppose a year after his arrival there: it will be 56. To this same year we shall arrive if we reckon according to the visits to Jerusalem mentioned in the Epistle itself by the holy Paul: “after three years” (Gal. 1:18) and “after fourteen years” (Gal. 2:1), counting both from the time of the conversion of the holy Paul. From the Ascension of the Lord to the conversion of the holy Paul all should be reckoned as three or four years, to accommodate the events mentioned in Acts up to this time and to give time for the holy Paul to study under Gamaliel—which could not have begun before the Ascension of the Lord; for if he had been in Jerusalem during the final events of the earthly life of the Lord, he could not have failed to know of them and, if he knew, would not have restrained himself from mentioning them somewhere in the Epistles. His conversion will be in the years 37–38. Add 14 years, it will be 51–52, the time of the Jerusalem Council. After the Council—the second journey, through Asia Minor, to Macedonia and Greece; to Corinth will fall the years 53–54. To the return from there and the third journey to Ephesus another year. Arrival in Ephesus will be in the year 55; and the writing of the Epistle in 56.

Division

For the reason stated, the holy Paul writes the Epistle, intending to erase the impression produced on the Galatians by the false teachers. In opposition to their suggestions, he defends his Apostolic dignity and refutes their position, that the Law is necessary for salvation, applying also moral lessons in accordance with the subject of faith set forth. As is customary, a preface precedes all, and at the end a conclusion is appended—both with characteristic distinctions according to the content of the Epistle. Thus, in this Epistle:

– after the preface—containing the inscription, with greeting, and the opening of the Epistle (Gal. 1:1–10),

– there follows first the defensive part, where the holy Paul restores his Apostolic authority (Gal. 1:11–2:21),

– then the dogmatic part, where the holy Paul, refuting the false teachers, proves that salvation does not come from the Law, which, by the coming of Christ the Savior, lost its force and significance (Gal. 3–4),

– then the exhortatory part, where instructions are applied, toward which the moral powers should be directed, having received freedom from the yoke of the Law (Gal. 5; Gal. 6:1–10).

At the end a conclusion is added (Gal. 6:11–18).

The speech of the Apostle throughout the entire Epistle, from beginning to end, is lively, powerful, breathing with zeal for saving faith and love for the Galatians. As guides following the former holy Fathers and teachers, the holy Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Hilary (Ambrosiaster), and the holy John of Damascus, Ecumenius and Theophylact, the blessed Augustine and Jerome came forth.

Preface (Gal. 1:1–10)

The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

The inscription and greeting in the Epistle to the Galatians differ from other epistles in that they introduce propositions that from the outset indicate the content of the Epistle itself. It is evident that the holy Apostle Paul was deeply engaged with his subject, and thoughts about it, filling his soul, burst forth into words from the very beginning. He had to prove his apostolic authority and make clear what our salvation consists in. Both of these he indicates here in advance. In the inscription, he attaches the word about his true apostleship to his name, and in the greeting, he addresses it to the venerable name of Christ the Savior, in connection with salvation which is in the Lord. Such an introduction of external ideas into the inscription and greeting, corresponding to the content of the Epistle, the holy Paul did also later, as we see in the Epistle to the Romans and in the Epistle to Titus.

Gal. 1:1–2. Paul an Apostle, not from human beings nor by a human, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of the Galatians.

In the Epistles to the Thessalonians, the holy Apostle Paul did not attach this word—Apostle—to himself, not because he was more humble then and his humility has diminished now, but because here there was a necessity to display this title given him by God, which they tried to take from him, which was not the case there.

“Not from human beings, nor by a human”. In those times, those called apostles were not only the twelve, but also all who were sent out to preach, either by one or another who had weight and authority, or by the entire Church. So the holy Paul calls apostles Andronicus and Junia (Rom. 16:7), and counts Apollos among the apostles (1 Cor. 4:6). They are one with the evangelists and differed from the pastors and teachers, who, remaining in one place in their church, built up Christians by the word, whereas those went through villages, cities, and lands (Eph. 4:11). Later the Church also granted the title of apostleship to all known coworkers of the apostles and to many others who labored in the proclamation of the Gospel. Memory of them is commemorated on January 4. There are seventy of them, according to the number of others chosen by the Lord besides the twelve Apostles. But the apostles properly speaking, the foundation stones of the Church’s building, from which all Christian teaching and all the orders of Christian life came, were the twelve who had seen the works of the Lord, heard his teaching, and were witnesses of his resurrection (Acts 1:21–22).

Regarding Apostle Paul, the Judaizing false teachers could say: he is not a true apostle. The true ones saw the Lord himself and were sent by him personally, but what about this one? Ananias baptized him; Barnabas recommended him to the apostles in Jerusalem, then he himself called him to Antioch, where he taught together with Barnabas; the church of Antioch sent him with Barnabas to preach in other places; and after this first experience the apostles in Jerusalem also gave their approval for them to labor in proclaiming the Gospel outside of Palestine. So his apostleship has nothing special, appointed from on high. People saw that he was capable and sent him. But such people cannot teach independently, from themselves; they must agree in everything with the true apostles. And the believers ought not to trust them completely in all things, but should test their teaching by what the chief apostles say and how they act. But Paul does not agree with them; for they, living in Jerusalem, do not forbid circumcision and the observance of other ordinances of the Law, and they themselves keep them. Consequently, Paul has departed from them, and one should not listen to him.

Against such insinuations the holy Apostle speaks, saying he is an apostle—“not from human beings, nor by a human”—that it was not Ananias and Barnabas who indicated him, not Peter or the church of Antioch who chose him for apostleship, but the Lord himself. Here, however, he only states such a proposition; he proves it at length in the first two chapters of the Epistle. By the words “not from human beings, nor by a human” he is as it were saying: my apostleship cannot be thought of as merely a work of human foresight and human selection, whether understanding one human or an entire Christian community. It goes beyond the bounds of human affairs—it is from above. Such a meaning is evident from these words at first glance.

Others distinguish between these expressions: not from human beings, nor by a human—and see a particular thought in each, for they differ both in number and in prepositions: in the first there is the plural and the preposition “from”, in the second the singular and the preposition “through” (δια). Based on this, they think that by the first expression the holy Apostle denies that his apostleship came from human beings, denies that it was given him on the basis of human considerations alone, without any participation from above; by the second he also denies its heavenly origin if understood as mediated, denies the thought that although there is God’s will for his apostleship, it was given him through the mediation of a human, and not directly by the Lord, as it was given to the other apostles. Blessed Jerome sees in these words of the Apostle an indication of three kinds of selection: the first, which is accomplished by people alone; the second, which, though from God, is produced through some human; and the third, which is accomplished directly by the Lord himself. Saint Paul claims the last for himself. Blessed Theodoret writes: “(by these words) the Apostle said that he received grace worthy, not receiving this gift from people; no one of the divine apostles seized him, but the Lord himself from heaven called him, not employing any human in service to accomplish it. This is what he meant when he said: ‘nor by a human.’”

“But by Jesus Christ and God the Father”. How Saint Paul was chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ is presented in the book of Acts. At Paul’s conversion, when the Lord appeared to him on the road to Damascus, he said nothing to him about his calling, but only told him to go into the city where it would be told “what is right for him to do” (Acts 9:6). This corresponded to the calling of the holy Apostles to follow the Lord. In a vision to Ananias, the Lord only foretold Paul’s calling, saying: “he is a chosen instrument for me to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel” (Acts 9:15). But Paul’s actual selection as Apostle to the Gentiles was accomplished in the temple in Jerusalem directly by the Lord himself, as the holy Paul testifies in Acts. Praying, he says, in Jerusalem, in the temple, I was in a trance and saw the Lord, who said to me: “Go quickly from Jerusalem, because they will not receive your testimony about me… Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:18, 21). This for the holy Paul was the same as for the other apostles: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them” and so forth (Matt. 28:19). What happened later in the church of Antioch, when the Holy Spirit commanded to set apart Paul along with Barnabas for the work to which he was called (see Acts 13:2), was only the fulfillment of this selection by the Lord. In this, however, one can see, in relation to Paul and the other apostles, a correspondence to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon those latter ones on the day of Pentecost, after which immediately their apostolic activity began, as also after that event for Paul.

So the direct selection of Paul by the Lord as Apostle to the Gentiles is evident. But how was he chosen by God the Father? Insofar as he was chosen by the Lord, he was also chosen by the Father; for the actions of the Father and the Son are inseparable. The Persons of the Holy Trinity are distinct personally, but inseparable in essence, in actions, and in will. The Lord Jesus Christ is God the Son incarnate. Therefore his actions are also the actions of the Father. While still on earth, he said: “All that the Father has is mine; what the Father does, the Son also does. I do what I see the Father doing” (John 14:10; John 14:31; John 16:15). This applies all the more completely after his resurrection and his sitting at the right hand of God the Father. The holy Paul, led into the contemplation of divine mysteries, clearly saw in his selection as Apostle by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, also the selection by God the Father; which is why he expressed it in this way. The book of Acts gives us to understand that in this selection the Holy Spirit also participated, as mentioned, so that it is from the Holy Trinity. And all things in the Church of God are from God the Father in the Holy Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ.

So with one brief utterance the holy Apostle placed himself on an equal footing with the other chief apostles. Let us listen to how the holy Chrysostom writes about all this: “at the very beginning the Apostle points to what those who diminished his dignity were saying, that is, that the other apostles were Christ’s disciples, while he was a disciple of the apostles. That is why he begins the Epistle thus: ‘Paul an Apostle, not from human beings, nor by a human’. For other false teachers insisted that Paul was the least of all apostles and that he learned the faith from them. Since Peter, James, John were called first and hold the first place among the disciples, and received the doctrines of faith from Christ himself, it is better to believe them than him. And they do not forbid circumcision and the observance of the law of Moses. Saying this and similar things to diminish Paul and elevate those apostles, not indeed to praise those, but to more certainly deceive the Galatians, they taught them to observe the law when they ought not. So the Apostle began the Epistle with very fitting words. Since they diminished the teaching of the apostle, saying that it was from human beings while Peter’s teaching was from Christ, he at the very beginning refutes this, saying that he is ‘an Apostle, not from human beings, nor by a human’. Though Ananias did baptize him, he did not deliver him from error and did not convert him to faith, but Christ himself from above with that marvelous voice called and seized him. The Lord called Peter and his brother and John with his brother as he walked by the sea, but Paul after his ascension to heaven… He immediately (after this) received baptism and then waged an unrelenting struggle with the Jews and thus excelled the other apostles even more; for he says: ‘I labored more than all of them’ (1 Cor. 15:10). But in the present case he does not touch on this, considering it sufficient to show his equality with the other apostles; for he needed not to show his superiority over them, but to remove the cause of offense. From this the word: ‘not from human beings’—refers to all preachers; and the word: ‘nor by a human’—refers only to the apostles. For God called them not through people, but immediately by himself.”

“Who raised him from the dead”. The holy Apostle Paul often mentions the resurrection of Christ the Savior as the most solemn and triumphant sign of Christianity; but its significance, specific in one case or another, is determined by the course of the discourse. Since the holy Paul has two subjects in mind here—that he is a true apostle and that salvation is solely in the Lord Jesus—one might think that he mentioned the resurrection here so that its light would fall on both of these subjects.

In relation to the first mention of Christ’s resurrection, Paul wanted to bring to the Galatians’ minds how he was called to apostleship by the Lord. According to Blessed Augustine, he hints that “he also was sent by Christ, but by the Christ who is now glorified.” The Lord called the other apostles in person before his death and resurrection, finally determining them for apostleship only after the resurrection; but Paul he both called and chose for apostleship and established in it—all after the resurrection and ascension, by which his apostleship is not diminished, if not elevated. That is why in another place, enumerating the appearances of the Lord to the apostles after his resurrection, he adds: “last of all… he appeared also to me” (1 Cor. 15:8). That is, he too is placed by this on the same level as the others. It is not hard to draw support for the apostleship of the holy Paul from the fact that he represents the resurrection of the Lord as having come from God the Father. Saying: I am an apostle chosen not only by the Lord, but also by God the Father who raised him from the dead, the Apostle suggests that the participation of God the Father in choosing him for apostleship is mediated by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus—how is this so? Thus, that God the Father, who raised Christ the Savior, thereby sanctified and confirmed beforehand with his agreement all that the risen Lord had to do and establish. This is how my apostleship also ascends to God the Father, Paul is as it were saying.

In relation to the second mention of the resurrection, and consequently of death, what is brought to mind is the principal thing in the economy of our salvation—the satisfaction of infinite justice and reconciliation with God, faith in which we are granted all the blessings obtained by the incarnate Son of God for us. Whoever contemplates this and receives it with heartfelt faith will not turn to the feeble way of salvation through observance of the law of Moses. The holy John of Damascus writes: “since they thought they would be punished if they departed from the law, he reminds them of the deed by which all need for the law is abolished, that is, of the cross and resurrection, in which is founded our salvation.” Saint Chrysostom is moved by the words: “who raised him from the dead”—and says: “what are you doing, Paul, desiring to bring those who wish to judaize to the faith? Why do you not bring forward any of his great and divine attributes, as you wrote to the Philippians, saying: ‘who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped’ (Phil. 2:6), or as in the Epistle to the Hebrews you said plainly of him that he is ‘the radiance of his glory and the exact expression of his being’, that is, of the Father (Heb. 1:3); or as in the beginning of his Gospel the son of thunder proclaimed him: ‘in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (John 1:1); or as Jesus himself often said before the Jews that he is equally almighty as the Father and has the same power as him (see: John 5:19–21)? Why did you not say something like this, but, leaving all that aside, brought to mind what was accomplished, according to God’s ordering, over his flesh, pointing to the cross and death? It was necessary to do so, he replies. For if the word were addressed to such people who knew nothing great about Christ, it would be fitting to speak of him thus. But since the matter is with people who fear that by abandoning the law they will be exposed to God’s wrath, he mentions that by which the necessity of the law is abolished, that is, the good fruits that have come to all from the cross and resurrection.”

But let not any of us also be troubled by the fact that the Apostle calls Christ the Savior as having been raised by God the Father, rather than as having risen by his own power, which he does not only here, but also in other places (see, for example, Rom. 4:24; Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:15; Eph. 1:20, 2:6; Col. 2:12; 1 Thess. 1:10). One must consider all together the places where the holy Paul speaks about the resurrection. Doing this, we will find that there are no fewer places where the Lord is called as having risen himself (such as: Rom. 4:25; Rom. 6:4; Rom. 6:9; Rom. 8:34; Rom. 14:9; 1 Cor. 15:4, 12, 20; 2 Cor. 5:15; 1 Thess. 4:14 and the like). So it should be expected. Since Christ the Savior is both God and human, it is fitting to speak of him both as having been raised and as having risen. He rose as God, and was raised as human. But with either expression one must not lose sight of the unified action of God the Father and God the Son as Persons of the Holy Trinity. Looking at the resurrection from this perspective, one must believe that Christ the Savior both rose himself not without the action of the Father, and was raised by the Father not without his own action as the Son; for the Persons of the Holy Trinity, distinct personally, are inseparable in their action. But in the word of God these expressions are used—the Lord Jesus Christ who rose, or: God the Father who raised him—according to the requirements of the discourse and the condition of those to whom the discourse is addressed. The Lord himself, during his earthly life, foretold that he would rise himself. Thus he spoke at the very beginning in the temple: “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19)—this is about the temple of his body. On Tabor he commanded his disciples to be silent about his glorification in the transfiguration, “until the Son of Man is raised from the dead” (Mark 9:9), that is, by himself. He himself said that he has power to lay down his soul—his life—and take it again, to come alive (John 10:18). And the angel at the resurrection says to the women: “he has risen, he is not here” (Matt. 28:6)—he rose himself. All this was handed down to us by the holy apostles. Consequently, they understood the Lord’s resurrection no other way. But in their speeches to the people, at first certainly to the Jews, they did not think it wise to speak so directly, lest with this splendor they should not blind the weak understanding of the Jews. In Peter’s very first speech we hear: “you killed him, but God raised him” (Acts 2:23–24). Then also afterward the apostles often spoke this way. The Jewish people were raised in faith in the one God. It would have been overwhelming for them if suddenly the face of Christ the Savior, in all the light of his Godhead, were to rise before their attention and as it were hide the face of God the Father from them. That is why both are always mentioned together, and in such a way that all is traced back to God the Father as to the sole beginning. The intention was by this means gradually to raise the infant mind of faith to the contemplation of the consubstantiality and unified action of the Triune God.

Regarding the present passage, Saint Chrysostom writes: “but behold the heretics object, saying: see, the Father raises the Son? For they, once infected with the disease of heresy, become deaf and incapable—though of their own accord—of perceiving the height of the dogmas, and choose only what is said about Christ either according to the state of his humiliation, or according to his humanity, or to the honor of the Father, or according to some other divine ordering; and, considering such passages apart, they damage themselves all the more, I will not say—Scripture. I would like to ask them: why do they say this? Is it so they might present the Son as weak and unable to raise even his own body? But faith in him alone was such that even the shadow of those who believed in him raised the dead. So, if those who believed in him, themselves mortal, by the mere shadow of their earthly bodies and the clothes that covered such bodies, raised the dead, could he not raise himself? Is this not obvious madness? Is this not the highest degree of folly? You heard what Christ says: ‘destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’ (John 2:19); and again: ‘I have authority to lay down my life, and I have authority to take it again’ (John 10:18). So why then is it said that the Father raised him? Why are many other things also attributed to the Father that the Son also does? This is said to the honor of the Father and on account of the weakness of the listeners.”

Blessed Theodoret sees in these words an indication of the unified action of God the Father and God the Son. “The words: ‘who raised him from the dead’—do not suggest a thought of weakness in the Godhead of the Only-Begotten (for suffering touched not the Godhead), but show agreement in the work of the proclamation, namely that the mystery of the divine incarnation was not administered by the Son alone, but the Father himself also participated in this providence. Since the defenders of the law supposed that God should be served by observance of the law, the divine apostle shows that the giver of the New Covenant is not the Son alone, but also the Father.”

The holy Fathers did not pass over without attention either the form of expression or the order of the names of God in the words: “by Jesus Christ and God the Father”; but in both they saw important dogmatic indications. From the Greek, word for word it should be translated: “by Jesus Christ and by God the Father”. If here there were only: “by Jesus Christ”, and then it said: “from God the Father” or something else, then it might seem that the Lord Christ is not self-originated and self-acting, but is only an instrument in the hands of the Father, and both in being and in actions subordinate to him. But since the holy Paul expressed himself regarding God the Father the same way as regarding the Son, he thereby showed that he does not make any distinction in their nature and authority. Blessed Theodoret writes: “so that someone, finding the preposition ‘by’ before the name ‘Jesus,’ should not think that the Son serves the Father, the Apostle added: ‘and by God the Father.’ He used the preposition ‘by’ before the name of both Persons, teaching that this preposition means no distinction in nature.‘Saint Chrysostom, drawing the same thought from this form of expression, that is, that, using the same expression for the Father as for the Son, the Apostle taught us’not to make laws for the incomprehensible nature and not to set boundaries for the Godhead between the Son and the Father‘and that’he does this not in order to attribute the Sonship to the Father, but to show that this expression does not allow for any distinction in their nature‘—draws out another, no less significant thought, from the order in which the divine Persons stand here:’what will those also say who think they find some diminishing of the divine Hypostases in baptism, for the sole reason that they are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit? For if the Son is less than the Father because his name is placed after the Father, what will they say now when the Apostle begins with Christ and then moves to the Father? And we here do not intend to say anything blasphemous. For, contending with those in error, we must not depart from the truth; and, even if they a thousand times went beyond reason, we must always keep ourselves within the bounds of piety. Therefore, just as here we do not say the Son is greater than the Father because the Apostle mentioned him first—for this would be the height of madness and all impiety—so there, in the command about baptism, we should not think the Son less than the Father because the Son is placed after the Father.”

“And all the brethren who are with me”. Who are these? It is thought that this is the entire church in Ephesus, based on the fact that the Apostle said not simply: “the brethren who are with me,”—but: all the brethren. Against this one could say only that it was unusual for the holy Paul to write epistles on behalf of an entire church in which he was writing, though it was customary for him to send greetings from the entire church at the end of epistles (as see: Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; Phil. 4:22…). But here, in relation to the Galatians, special circumstances could have prompted him to this. The false teachers had convinced the Galatians that only Paul rejected circumcision and the law of Moses, while others, on the contrary, do not forbid either one or the other. Apostle Paul places the entire church in Ephesus with him at the beginning of the epistle, showing thereby that she agrees with him in all things. In Ephesus, moreover, there had been the beginnings of faith even before his coming there (Acts 18:21, 24). From this it directly followed that it was untrue to say that he alone teaches thus; but that such is the spirit of Christianity, that where it dwells, there the synagogue must fall entirely in all its composition. So Saint Chrysostom: “why does he not say this anywhere else in other epistles, but either puts only his own name or names others, but no more than two or three, and here he mentions the entire multitude of believers, why did he not name anyone by name? Why does he do this? Judaizing Christians reproached him for being the only one to preach thus and thereby introducing new teaching into the dogmas of faith; so, in order to destroy such suspicion and show that he has many of the same mind as him, he joins the brethren, showing thereby that what he writes about is also in accord with their thoughts.”

Others think that by these words not the entire church is meant, but only those brethren who stood in special relations to the Apostle; there were his coworkers and, perhaps besides them, others, but, as Blessed Jerome remarks, “known to the Galatians and enjoying their respect, and moreover themselves from the circumcision.” In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, written after the Epistle to the Galatians, Sosthenes is mentioned (1 Cor. 1:1), in the Second, written right after the First, Timothy is mentioned (2 Cor. 1:1). Titus was sent to Corinth soon after the First epistle was sent there (2 Cor. 2:13). All of them were obviously in Ephesus. Here too were Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:21); and Gaius with Aristarchus—Macedonians, seized during the uprising of the unbelieving Ephesians against the holy Paul (Acts 19:29). Here too, perhaps, were some of those seven men who are mentioned as companions of the holy Paul on his return journey from Corinth, some four months or so after leaving Ephesus (Acts 20:4). All these were significant people, known in the circle of all believers. These, or all of them, or perhaps a large part of them, the holy Paul may have meant by the words: “all the brethren who are with me.” He did not name them individually because there were many of them. So Blessed Theodoret, who saw in these brethren those assisting the holy Paul in preaching. The motivation by which the holy Paul places many with him, besides what was stated by Saint Chrysostom, could also be, as Jerome writes, that “in the matter of correcting people, much depends on the agreement of many in one opinion.” For, according to Ambrosiaster, “it is easier for someone to understand his error when he sees that many condemn him in it.”

“‘To the churches of the Galatians.’ There were churches not in one or two cities, but in many—perhaps in all four of the most well-known cities, and not only in them, but also in their surrounding areas. This epistle, therefore, resembles a synodal or circular letter. Saint Chrysostom writes: ‘to the churches of the Galatians’: because the flame of the error has engulfed not one city, not two or three, but the entire Galatian people. And note here also the great indignation of the Apostle. He did not say: to the beloved or to the holy, but simply: to the churches of the Galatians. For this is a sign of one greatly grieving and distressed, in that he greets them neither with the name of love nor with the name of honor, but only with the name of their assembly; and does not even add: to the churches of God, but simply says: ‘to the churches of the Galatians.’ And at the same time by this very appellation he hastens from the very beginning to restore to unity their division. For this reason he also mentioned the name of the Church, so as to bring them shame and gather them into one. For, divided into many parts, they could not even be called by the name of the Church; because the name of the Church is the name of concord and harmony.”

Gal. 1:3–4. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins so as to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.

“Grace and peace.” “Grace, by which our sins are forgiven us, peace, by which we are reconciled and reunited with God” (Blessed Augustine). But together with the forgiveness of sins, grace lays the foundation for a new life in Christ Jesus through rebirth; and peace, beginning with reconciliation with God in conscience, ascends to perfect rest in him, a living, felt, and manifested communion with him, when God is in the soul and the soul is in God. The apostolic greeting, embracing in this way the beginning and the final boundary of life in Christ Jesus, encompasses all those gracious acts through which a Christian moves from that beginning to that end.

“From God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” This form of expression too, like the previous one: by Jesus Christ and God the Father—indicates the equality of power and authority and unity of nature in God the Father and the Son. Christ the Lord is not merely a mediating instrument, but is himself the source of grace equally with God the Father. The fact that in the first case the Lord Savior stands first and here God the Father shows that, whomever you place first, you do not depart from the truth—it is all the same, for in the Holy Trinity nothing is first and nothing is last.

Though this is the customary apostolic greeting, in the ears of the Galatians it should have sounded in a particular way: “grace,”—which you are trampling by falling under the yoke of the law, and “peace,”—which you are breaking both with God and with me and with all the churches, and among yourselves. The holy Fathers directed their interpretation especially to this, and in every word of the greeting saw a rebuke to the Galatians. So the holy John of Damascus: “the Apostle places such a greeting everywhere, but now, when he writes to the Galatians, this was more necessary, since they were in danger of falling away ‘from grace’ if they circumcised themselves again.” Ecumenius: “he appropriately wishes peace, for the Galatians have risen in war against God by turning to the law, which he had abolished.” He further: “from God the Father. Where do you get the audacity to call God the Father? Is it not from baptism? Why then do you turn to the law?” Theophylact: “and these names—‘Jesus Christ’—are indicators of Christ’s good deeds to us (and rebukes to the Galatians). For ‘Jesus’ is he ‘who saved his people from their sins’ (Matt. 1:21), and ‘Christ’ because of his anointing with the Spirit by which he was anointed for our sake, sanctifying our nature and allowing us to be called by his name. To depart from such a Benefactor is a sign of the utmost ingratitude.” Ambrosiaster: “by the grace of both the Father and the Son mankind has been restored. So, he says, as it were: if the grace of both the Father and the Son is the same toward you, how is it that, thinking something less of the Son, you equate the law to him, deciding to serve partly Christ, partly the law? Have you not heard what the Lord says: ‘the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath’ (Luke 6:5)? The Apostle speaks thus so that they might see what disrespect they show the Lord when they equate him to a slave (the law, that is).” Similarly Theophylact: “not the law is our master, but Christ Jesus.”

“With Saint Chrysostom all these thoughts are brought together in ‘grace to you and peace.’ With this wish for grace and peace he begins all his epistles, considering this necessary everywhere, and especially here, sending to the Galatians. Since they were in danger of falling away from grace, he implores God that they might be established in it again. They had become adversaries of God, so he asks God to reconcile them with him again. And he calls God Father here, not indulging them, but on the contrary rebuking them strongly and bringing to their remembrance the reason why they became sons. For not by the law, but by rebirth they were deemed worthy of such honor. That is why everywhere at the beginning of his epistles he thus manifoldly indicates the good deeds of God to humanity, as it were saying: slaves, enemies, cast-off ones, how have you come to call God your Father? Did the law give you this such lofty kinship? Why then, leaving the one who drew you so near to himself, do you turn again to the tutor? And not only the name of Father, but also the designations used for the Son are sufficient to show them the same good deed of God. For if we look carefully at the very designation itself—‘the Lord Jesus Christ,’ it too will show all of God’s favor and all his beneficence toward us. For, he says, ‘he will be called Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins’ (Matt. 1:21). And the designation ‘Christ’ brings to mind the anointing by the Spirit.”

The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

“Who gave himself for our sins.” In these and the following words is the second distinctive feature at the beginning of the Epistle to the Galatians. As in the inscription, by the addition of several phrases, the holy Apostle indicated his true apostleship, so here, in the greeting, by the addition of certain propositions, he brings to the attention the source and what the conditions of salvation are—the second principal subject of the epistle. By showing this, he gave the Galatians to understand beforehand that they were seeking salvation not where it is placed.

The form of the arrangement of our salvation corresponds to the baneful consequences of the fall. In the fall we became transgressors before God, objects of his wrath, and moreover, we were in disorder within ourselves, having received in ourselves the force of moral corruption—selfishness along with all the passions. In arranging our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, by his death, satisfied the justice of God, appeased his righteous wrath against us, reconciled us with God, and by sending the Holy Spirit healed our moral corruption through rebirth by the grace of the Holy Spirit, placing in us the power of a life morally pure before God, in opposition to all the passions operating in us. These two saving actions of the coming to earth of the Only-Begotten Son of God through his incarnation, the holy Paul expresses here as well—the first in the words: “who gave himself for our sins,”—and the second in the words: “to deliver us from the present evil age.”

“Who gave himself for our sins.” What this self-giving means is explained at length in other places. Thus, in Ephesians 5:2 it is said: “Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma,”—or as elsewhere: “propitiation for our sins” (compare 1 John 2:2). For “God set him forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, to show his righteousness for the remission of sins that had gone before” (Rom. 3:25). And he “suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). Thus “we are reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10), who “redeemed us from the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). By these brief words the Galatians were already being prepared to acknowledge their error. They were reminded thereby of the reconciling power of the death of the Lord, the failure to understand which they revealed in themselves by their turning to Judaism. There is no longer need for any sacrifices: one has been offered for all and for all times, and it alone accomplished what the law was powerless to do. Why then go under the yoke of the powerless law? Faith in the redemptive death of Christ the Savior gives us forgiveness of sins; but if the power of Christ’s coming were limited to this, our salvation would not be complete. It was necessary to add to this also the removal of the power of sin living in us, otherwise it would continually make us guilty anew before God. Therefore the holy Paul says that the Lord not only gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins, but also “delivered us from the present evil age,” that is, delivered us from the power of sin, which commands all the deeds of people of this age.

“The present age” is the order of things, especially moral ones, established by the fall and destined to continue until the renewal of all creation. Since this order was established by the fall, and that was the source of our moral corruption on account of the self-centeredness implanted in us along with all the host of passions, which gained dominion over all things in people and rule over all, then “the present” age is the same as the state of people in bondage to sin and passions. For which reason it is—“evil,” wicked and full of evil. A person living in this age, in the circle of people acting according to self-interest and passions, where at every step there is an attraction to sin and self-gratification, cannot deliver himself from it; for the same power that controls everything outside him also rules within him. That is why he is always a slave of the world, which lies in evil (1 John 5:19), in which there is only “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). It is the grace of the Holy Spirit that delivers him, which, coming into the heart, removes from the sin living in us its power over him and gives him moral strength to resist its impulses. From that point on, a person no longer serves the world and sin (Rom. 6:6), though he is subject to its assaults. But, having received strength to resist it within himself, he resists by that same strength everything outside himself through which people serve the world and passions, and thus becomes withdrawn from the general circular life of people of this age. This is the deliverance from the present evil age, when a person begins “not to be conformed to this age” (Rom. 12:2), “not to love the world, nor the things of the world” (1 John 2:15). Deliverance from this age is not being taken out of it, but being given the strength to live in it not according to its spirit, to live in it and be foreign to it. The grace of the Holy Spirit produces this in us, but this grace the Lord Savior earned for us, which is why the holy Paul attributes to him even the very action of grace. The Lord gave himself to death, then rose, ascended to heaven, and sent from the Father the most Holy Spirit to earth, who withdraws everyone from the bonds of sin of the world. And it comes about that the Lord, having given himself, delivered us from the present evil age. For “if I do not go away,” he says, “the Paraclete will not come to you; if I go, I will send him to you” (see John 16:7). In the work of our salvation all is bound together in an indissoluble union and is accomplished by the action of one God, worshipped in Trinity, though in explanations of these actions they are attributed now to one Person, now to another of the Holy Trinity.

It is evident that deliverance from the present evil age is not something mechanical, but a moral change, not accomplished without the participation of human will. In another place the holy Paul speaks of this thus: “Who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people that is his own, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:14). Zeal for good deeds, through faith in the Lord, in obedience to him, for his glory—is the living sign of whether one has been withdrawn from the bonds of the present age. This is depicted in the same place as follows: “The grace of God has appeared to all people, teaching us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live temperately, righteously, and piously in the present age, awaiting the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (see Titus 2:11–13).

Saint Chrysostom explains at length that by the evil age one should not understand creatures or life itself as the passage of time, but says: “when you hear of the evil age, understand by this evil deeds, corrupted freedom. Why then did Paul say: ‘from the present evil age’? He said this according to the common usage of the word among people. For we ourselves often say now: a bad day was it for me—blaming not time but deeds and circumstances. So Paul, condemning evil intention, used a commonly accepted expression and shows that Christ released us both from previous sins and placed us in safety from future ones. The first he showed in the words: ‘who gave himself for our sins,’ and by the following: ‘to deliver us from the present evil age’—he indicated a safe harbor for the future as well. The law was powerless to free from even some sins, but grace is mighty to purify from both these and those.”

Blessed Augustine says: “the present evil age should be understood on account of the evil people living in it, just as we sometimes call a house evil on account of its evil inhabitants.” Ambrosiaster explains deliverance from the present age thus: “so that, being freed from under the yoke of the law, we would no longer be sinners before God, but righteous through rebirth, for which we are also called sons of God; so that, having become foreign to the spirit of this age, we become partakers of the endless age.” Jerome likewise: “even in this age he delivers us from the present evil age, when, having died with Christ, we are transformed anew in our senses and dispositions and are no longer of this world.”

For the Galatians these words, reminding them of the action in their hearts of the grace-giving power through faith in the Lord by means of the holy mysteries and of their inner renewal, served as a strong indication beforehand that, by inclining toward the law, they were abandoning what is better and taking up what is worse. Saint Chrysostom writes: “we were bogged down in countless transgressions and deserved the harshest punishment. But the law not only did not relieve us, but even condemned us, revealing our sins and being unable to free and deliver us from God’s wrath. On the contrary, the Son of God made the impossible possible, forgiving our sins and changing those who were our enemies into the rank of friends, and gave us also countless other blessings.” After setting forth similar thoughts, Theophylact adds: “how then, leaving your Deliverer, do you listen to the law, which brought no benefit?” Or as Ambrosiaster: “what then is this delusion after grace to return under the yoke of the law, that is, after receiving freedom to wish to be in slavery! The one who, after being ransomed, runs back to his former master insults his ransomer.”

For those who do not wish to be limited to the direct thoughts provided by a given Scripture passage but seek also the resolution of all related questions raised by it, we present the thoughts of Saint Chrysostom regarding the words of the Apostle about delivering us from the present evil age. They shed light on the darkness of our life and restore respect for it, which is greatly shaken by the fact that this age is evil and the world surrounding us, not excluding ourselves, lies in evil. There were heretics who, seeing much evil in the world, thought that it was not created by the all-good God, but was a product of some evil power. Against them Saint Chrysostom directs his discourse: “some heretics seize this utterance to their own advantage, slandering the present life and producing Paul as a witness to their slander. Look, they say, Paul calls the present age evil. But tell me, what is an age? Time composed of days and hours. What then? Is the continuation of days and the course of the sun evil? I think no one would say this, even if they reached the height of madness. You will say: the Apostle did not call time evil, but the present life. But these words do not mean that, and you do not base the slander woven by you against life on the words of the Apostle, but voluntarily compose your own interpretation. Allow us too to interpret what the Apostle said, and all the more so, because our interpretation is pious and has foundation. What then shall we say? That no evil, and never by itself, has ever been the cause of any good; but in the present life, on the contrary, are acquired countless crowns and ineffable rewards. That is why the blessed Paul himself values this life so much when he says: ‘if I am to live in the flesh, this is fruitful labor for me; which one I shall choose, I do not know’ (Phil. 1:22); and, deliberating about the choice, that is, whether it is better to live here or to depart and be with Christ, he prefers to remain here. But if the present life were evil, he would not say this of himself, and no one else could take advantage of it for the works of virtue, no matter how much he tried. For no one can acquire good from evil, nor acquire temperance from debauchery, nor goodwill from envy. And when Paul says: ‘the mindset of the flesh is opposed to God’s law and cannot submit to it’ (see Rom. 8:7); he is saying that evil, inasmuch as it is evil, cannot be good. So, when you hear of the evil age, understand by this evil deeds, corrupted freedom. For Christ did not come to kill us and thus remove us from the present life, but to leave us in the world and make us worthy heirs of heavenly life. Therefore, in his conversation with the Father, he said: ‘they are in the world, and I am coming to you. I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to protect them from evil,’ that is, from evil (John 17:11, 15). But if you do not wish to accept this explanation and will not stop saying that the present life is evil, then do not condemn suicides afterward. For one who rids himself of evil would be worthy not of blame but of crowns. Thus, one who ends his life by violent death, or by hanging, or in some other way, would not be worthy of condemnation, according to your opinion. On the contrary, God punishes such more severely than murderers, and we all rightly recoil from them in horror. For if it is criminal to kill others, it is all the more so to kill oneself. If the present life is evil, then murderers should be rewarded for delivering us from evil. And the world should not be called evil. If you point out to me murderers, adulterers, and grave-robbers, I will say that these sins do not blame the present life: they depend not on our life in the flesh, but on corrupted free will. For if they belonged to the present life and were necessarily bound to it, then no one would be free and pure from them. Look—no one can avoid the necessities inevitably bound to life in the flesh. What are these necessities? to eat, to drink, to sleep, to grow, to hunger, to thirst, to be born, to die, and all other such things. No one can avoid them, neither sinner nor righteous, neither king nor commoner, but all are subject to this necessity of nature. Thus, if the necessity of doing evil were essentially bound to life, then no one would escape it, just as no one can escape the unavoidable necessities of nature. Do not tell me that rare individuals live well: for you will not find a single one who could avoid the necessary needs and requirements of nature. Therefore, even if only one is found living virtuously, the truth of our word suffers nothing from it. What else will you say, wretched and miserable one? Is this the evil and corrupt life by means of which we come to know God, philosophize about what is to come, become angels among men, and unite in one communion with the heavenly Powers? And what further proof shall we find against your evil and corrupt reasoning?”

“According to the will of God our Father.” The Lord Savior gave himself for our sins and delivered us from the present evil age according to the will of God our Father. The entire arrangement of our salvation—that it be accomplished through faith in the Lord our Redeemer and by the grace of the Holy Spirit—was according to the will of God the Father. Just as the Old Testament economy (dispensation) was according to the will of the heavenly Father, so the new grace, which replaced it, became the possession of mankind according to that same will. For the Galatians this indication was very important. If the false teachers had impressed upon them fear of offending God, who gave the law through Moses, the Apostle gives them the means to cast off this fear, assuring them that the New Testament arrangement of salvation is also from that same God, and that in departing from it, they directly oppose God.

What was said earlier: “He who gave Himself”, is phrased with the idea that He Himself gave Himself; but here: “by the will of God the Father” indicates the co-action of the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. What the Father does, He does not without the Son; and what the Son does, He does not without the Father. As in the Eternal Counsel concerning our salvation, the Son also says: “to do Your will, O God, I desire” (Ps. 39:9); and God the Father, before the foundation of the world, according to the good pleasure of His will, ordained that our salvation should be in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, through sanctification and adoption as sons (Eph. 1:4–5). So too in time, the Son of God both lays down His own soul (Jn. 10:18), and is delivered to death by the Father—according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23), because the hand of God and the counsel of God had decreed it to be so (Acts 4:28). Holy Chrysostom, on the words: “He who gave Himself for our sins”, writes: “Behold, He did not bear slavish or forced service, nor was anyone delivering Him, but He Himself delivered Himself. Therefore, when you hear John saying: ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son for us’ (Jn. 3:16), do not for that reason diminish the dignity of the Only-begotten, nor think of Him as being merely human. For although it is said that the Father delivered Him, this is not so that you should regard the service of the Son as slavish, but so that you should know that the service borne by the Son was pleasing to the Father as well. Paul demonstrated this same thing here when he said: ‘by the will of God and our Father’, not by command, but by will. For the will of the Father and the Son is one; what the Son willed, the Father also willed.” Blessed Jerome agrees and says: “and the Son delivered Himself for our sins not without the will of the Father, and the Father delivered the Son not without the will of the Son. But it is the will of the Son to do the will of the Father, as He Himself says in the psalm: ‘to do Your will, O God, I desire’ (Ps. 39:9)”.

And for the Galatians, the holy Fathers see a powerful instruction in these words. So Blessed Theodoret says: “The Lord Christ not only Himself administered our salvation, but also has the Father’s good pleasure in this. That is why the Apostle added: ‘by the will of God and the Father’. Everywhere he places the Father alongside Christ, teaching thereby that it was also pleasing to the Father that we should live not under the Law, but according to the Gospel.” Ecumenius continues the same thought: “Since they were saying that one must not abandon the Law, as it was given by God, he shows that to believe in Christ is also the will of the Father.” More fully than both of them does Holy Chrysostom: “Since they thought that they would disobey God, the giver of the Law, if they accepted the new one, and therefore feared to abandon the ancient Law, the Apostle corrects this prejudice as well, saying that this is also pleasing to the Father. And he did not simply say: ‘by the will of the Father’, but: ‘of our Father’ (an addition he often makes), so that he might shame them all the more by pointing out that Christ made the Father His own and our own Father as well.” “And this is accomplished through our new birth from Him in baptism. Why then circumcision? Why the Law?” (Ecumenius)

Gal 1:5. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Holy Paul, living in God and always carrying in his grateful heart the great blessing of God toward mankind, revealed in redemption, and toward himself in his calling not only to salvation but to Apostleship as well, was often moved during the writing of his Epistles by this consciousness and was seized with rapture to glorify God. (So: Rom. 11:36; Rom. 1:25; 2 Cor. 11:31; Eph. 3:21; Phil. 4:20; 1 Tim. 1:17.) So here as well. Having mentioned the will of God and the Father, his mind was lifted above the heavens to the throne of the Tri-personal Godhead, upon which rests the Eternal Counsel concerning the salvation of our race—and he offers glory to God for this good pleasure of His will (Eph. 1:5). May eternal glory be His for such a great blessing! For the words: “forever and ever” mean the same as the holy of holies, the song of songs, the heavens of heavens. Eternities of eternities—infinite eternity (Blessed Jerome). “Amen”. The Savior spoke: “Amen, amen”—truly, truly. And here “amen” may mean: “truly so”. Or it expresses only a wish that it should be so. May He receive glory from all who know His glorious name. This recalls the command of the Savior: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16). Let no one darken by his life and deeds the glory of the God whom he confesses. Holy Chrysostom writes on this passage: “and this is new and unprecedented; for we do not find the word ‘amen’ anywhere at the beginning and in the preamble of the Epistles, but only after many and lengthy discussions is it placed. Here, desiring to show that what has already been said is sufficient for the conviction of the Galatians and that his word has no need of further elaboration, he placed ‘amen’ at the beginning of his Epistle. For evident transgressions do not require lengthy preparations for their exposure. Therefore, after recalling the cross and resurrection, the cleansing of sins and protection from them from now on, the will of the Father and the consent of the Son, grace and peace and all the riches of God’s gifts, he concluded his discourse with glorification. And he concluded thus not only for this reason, but also from his extreme wonder at the magnitude of the gift and the superabundance of grace, and from contemplating what we were and what God has made us, beyond our expectation and in so short a time. Unable to express all of this in words, he ended his discourse with glorification, sending up praise to God for the whole universe—not such praise as would correspond to the magnitude of God’s blessings, but such as was possible for him. And therefore afterward with even greater force he continues his discourse, kindled, as it were, by a strong flame, from the contemplation of God’s blessings”

The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

After the greeting, in beginning the Epistle itself, Holy Paul indicates: aa) what compels him to write the Epistle; and he establishes: bb) the subject which he will prove in it. What drives him to write is a change in the Galatians’ thinking about the manner of salvation that had been taught to them by the Apostle himself (Gal. 1:6–7). And the subject of the Epistle will be the immutability of the Gospel he proclaimed to them. Desiring to bring them back to their former faith, he undertakes to prove to them that the teaching he gave them cannot be changed by anyone. Whoever attempts this will fall under a terrible anathema, whoever he may be, from earth or from heaven (Gal. 1:8–10).

aa) What compels the Apostle to write the Epistle (Gal. 1:6–7)

Gal. 1:6. I marvel that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ, to a different gospel.

“I marvel”—I am amazed, I cannot understand, this unexpectedness astounds me—your change and falling away from the faith. For we are accustomed to marvel at what happens contrary to expectation and what we cannot suddenly understand how it came to be. It could not be expected precisely because they had received the faith with such fervor, and precisely because they had already experienced its saving fruits. Holy Chrysostom writes: “When he says: ‘I marvel’, he not only reproves them for the fact that they, after such great and abundant gifts, after such a magnitude of forgiveness of sins and such a great lovingkindness of God toward them, voluntarily surrendered themselves under the yoke of slavery. But he also shows what opinion he holds of them—a high and distinguished one. For if he considered them weak and easily deceived, he would not marvel at what happened. But since, he says, you were among those who truly believed and labored much, for this reason do I marvel. This was sufficient for their turning around and restoration to their former state; and he expressed his hope for this even in the middle of the Epistle, saying: ‘Did you suffer so much in vain, if indeed it was in vain?’ (Gal. 3:4)” Ambrosiaster: “He marvels that from the freedom they had obtained they threw themselves into slavery. It is rare that anyone passes from what brings joy to what causes sorrow. The Apostle marvels at them, that being in a state of contentment and security, they themselves delivered themselves to anxious and futile work. It is as if a foolish sailor, being in a safe harbor, in a storm set forth into the open sea, into obvious dangers.” Thus Holy Paul directly addresses the Galatians with a word of reproach, whereas in his other Epistles he first praises those to whom he writes for receiving the faith and making progress in it, although even they were sometimes at fault in other ways. For what place is there for praise when they are falling away from the faith? Other churches, though they appeared imperfect, nonetheless firmly held the faith; but these, having changed their faith, destroyed in themselves all goodness. Although there was something good in them, it lost its value, because it no longer proceeded from faith. The Apostle does not accord them praise. Perhaps also because, upon receiving this unpleasant news, he took up the pen and hastened to lead them out of deception: there was no time to observe customary formalities; he hurried to the matter at hand. His attention was entirely occupied with their change. His discourse is directly about it. You have changed, he says, in what cannot be changed. And then he proves this.

“So quickly”. So soon—either after your conversion, for that too did not occur long ago, perhaps only three or four years before; or after the second time Saint Paul stayed with them, from which perhaps not even a year had passed. He is, as it were, saying to them: Was I not long ago with you and did I not see that you were on the good path—“you were running well” (Gal. 5:7). How then so quickly have the steps of your feet been disturbed? Or,—count “quickly” from the appearance of the false teachers among them. As if to say: no sooner did the false teachers appear among you than you already flowed after them. In Saint Chrysostom the first thought shows through, but the second is more evident. “The Apostle,” he says, “lays two charges against them: falling away, and such swift falling away. Of course, they would be worthy of blame even if they fell away after a long time; but here we are speaking of deception and deceit. If one who does not fall away suddenly, but after a long time, is worthy of blame, then one who falls at the first attack of enemies, and from arrows still being shot from afar, displays an example of extreme weakness. This is what the Apostle reproaches in the Galatians, as if saying: What is the meaning of this—that those deceiving you have no need even of time, but a single first approach is enough for them to overthrow and capture all of you?” Likewise, Holy John of Damascus: “that amazes me,” says the Apostle, “that you who were so instructed in the mystery of faith, that you could even be teachers for others, so easily believe false teachers.” Blessed Jerome sets forth both ideas: “Paul marvels, first, that they fell away from Gospel freedom into slavery to the works of the Law; second, that they fell away so quickly. For it is not the same sin to fall away from someone slowly and quickly. So regarding martyrs, it is not the same offense whether one, without any resistance and without torture, at once consents to renunciation, and whether one is compelled by unbearable torment to renounce what he believed. The Gospel preaching was still new to them; little time had passed since Paul brought the Galatians from idolatry to Christ. He marvels, therefore, how they so quickly turned away from Him, in whose name they had recently begun to be called Christians.”

“Are falling away”. You are leaning toward false teaching, wavering in your faithfulness to the Gospel. They were preparing to pass under the yoke of the Law, but have not yet done so; the matter is in process, but not yet accomplished. This is what drives him to hasten to them with a word of understanding. For it is always the case that it is easier to restrain one who is falling away from the faith or falling into sin than to return one who has fallen away and to raise up one who has fallen. Holy Chrysostom writes: “He did not say: ‘You have fallen away,’ but: ‘you are falling away,’ that is, I do not yet believe and do not think that this deception will achieve complete success. By this again he shows hope of converting them; and he expressed this hope even more clearly later, saying: ‘I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will think nothing otherwise’ (Gal. 5:10)”.

“From Him who called you”. Who is He who called? The most immediate person that comes to mind is the Apostle Paul. He called them to the faith through his preaching, just as the Thessalonians were called (2 Thess. 2:14); he planted faith in them, as in the Corinthians (see: 1 Cor. 3:6). He, like all the Apostles, was the immediate instrument of calling the nations to the grace of Christ; for it was said to them: “Go and teach all nations” (see Mt. 28:19). It would not be inappropriate to understand it this way here as well; for the Apostle’s first task will be to prove to them that they should not fall away from the faith precisely because they were converted and instructed by him; for his teaching is not from men, but from above. The following words point more directly to this understanding: “by the grace of Christ”. And everywhere Holy Paul says that by the grace of Christ he is what he is—an Apostle, sent by the Lord Himself into the nations to proclaim His glorious name. But since it is unusual for Holy Paul and the other Apostles, when explaining the calling to faith, to dwell on themselves as the instruments of calling, and they always raise their thoughts to Him who, acting through them, was establishing the Kingdom of Christ on earth—it is better here too to understand the same One who is at work. Who is He? Some say Jesus Christ. The Greek text does allow such a translation of this place: you are turning away from Christ, who called you by grace (His own). Blessed Jerome finds this possible. “One can also,” he says, “marvel that so quickly you are falling away from Jesus Christ, who called you into grace, and as He speaks of Himself in the Gospel: ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’ (Mk. 2:17),” thereby suggesting, of course, that in every way He came in order to call. But it is unusual to speak thus, neither for the Apostle Paul nor for the other Apostles. All of them attribute the calling to God the Father, raising all things to the one source of all good. Anyone can verify this for himself by reviewing the passages of Scripture in which calling is spoken of (such as: 1 Pet. 1:15; 1 Pet. 2:9; 1 Pet. 5:10, 2 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:30; Rom. 9:24; 1 Cor. 1:9; 1 Cor. 7:15, 1 Cor. 7:17; 1 Thess. 2:12; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Thess. 2:14; 2 Tim. 1:9). And the Apostle’s purpose in the Epistle required that the calling of the Galatians, in the manner in which it was accomplished through him, be attributed to God the Father. They feared offending God the Father if they abandoned the Law; the Apostle here gives them to understand that they will not offend God by failing to submit to the Law, but by turning away from the Gospel. Thus Holy Chrysostom: “Since they, in keeping the Law, thought to please the Father, just as the Jews did in persecuting Christ, he first shows that by so doing they offend not only Christ, but the Father as well. For in doing this, he says, you are falling away not only from Christ, but from the Father. For just as the Old Covenant is not from the Father alone, but from the Son, so also grace is a gift not of the Son alone, but of the Father, and all things are common to Them: ‘All things that the Father has are Mine’ (Jn. 16:15)”.

“By the grace of Christ”; but in Russian it is translated: “into the grace of Christ”. The Greek text permits both translations. Having examined the cited passages, one surely already sees that the calling is set forth in such bright representations: we are called by God the Father “to salvation” (2 Thess. 2:13), “into the fellowship of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:9), “into peace” (1 Cor. 7:15; see: Col. 3:15), “into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9), into His “kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:12), “into His eternal glory” (1 Pet. 5:10). All these expressions are equivalent to the expression: into the grace of Christ—and broadly define what the grace of Christ is. But there are other expressions as well that are equivalent to the expression: “by the grace of Christ”. Thus Holy Paul himself confesses that he was called “by the grace of God” (Gal. 1:15), and of all he says that God called them “with a holy calling according to His own purpose and grace, granted us in Christ Jesus before eternal times” (2 Tim. 1:9). From this we can conclude that although we must distinguish how to say it best in each place—whether by grace or into grace—in substance the one and the other are inseparable. For without the grace of Christ there would be no calling at all; and when calling has begun, where else can it lead but into the grace of Christ.

“If we fix our attention on the expression in which God the Father appears as calling us by the grace of Christ, the thought is thus: through the fall we angered God and were deprived of His favor; the Lord Jesus Christ by His death reconciled us to God and restored to us His favor; and this is the grace of Christ—not inadequate, on account of which all other mercies from God flowed out to us, of which the first is calling. Thus Holy Chrysostom: ‘Calling is the work of the Father, but the cause of calling is the Son. He reconciled us and gave the gift of grace; for we did not receive salvation from righteous deeds.’ Holy Chrysostom also expresses the idea that Holy Paul said: ‘by the grace of Christ’ in relation to God the Father, because all things are common between Father and Son. ‘Or rather,’ he says (that is, the Apostle said: ‘by the grace of Christ’—because), what belongs to the Son belongs also to the Father; and what belongs to the Father belongs to the Son. For He says: ‘Mine are Your, and Your are Mine’ (Jn. 17:10).‘Ecumenius, upon these words, ascends from the co-action of Father and Son to the co-action of all the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, saying:’The Son grants forgiveness (of sins and reconciliation) through His blood; the Father calls; the Holy Spirit works. This is the common blessing toward us of the Holy and Blessed Trinity”.

If we fix our attention on the expression: into the grace of Christ, then by grace we understand the entire economy of our salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord, that is: the incarnation of the Only-Begotten Son of God, His teaching, miracles, sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension, and sitting at the right hand of the Father, the sending of the Most Holy Spirit, the revelation of saving truths through the Apostles, the establishment of holy mysteries that impart grace, and of all the institutions in the Church, by means of which those who come with faith to the Lord and become sons of the Church are given justification, regeneration, sanctification, adoption as sons, and the pledge of inheritance of the eternal and unspeakable blessings in heaven. All of this in its totality is the grace of Christ, into which the Galatians were called by God the Father and into which we ourselves are called by being born of Christian parents—which is a great, in no way deserved blessing from our loving and merciful God and Father. The essence of the calling into this grace can be expressed thus: we are called that, being justified for repentance through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and receiving through the holy mysteries the grace of the Holy Spirit, we should live henceforward, with the help of this grace, in holiness and without blemish, in hope of the inheritance of Christ’s glorious Kingdom. Behold the unsearchable riches of Christians with which we have been enriched through the poverty of Christ (2 Cor. 8:9)! “You are called,” says Theophylact, “that you might be justified in Christ.” From this it is evident that he understood the calling “into the grace of Christ” at this place. In this he agrees with Ecumenius, who paraphrases this place thus: “God the Father called you into the grace of His Son”.

Holy Chrysostom along with Theodoret direct attention upon these words to why Holy Paul said that the Galatians are falling away not from a teaching, but from Him who called them. This is not without purpose, but so as to have a stronger effect on the apostates. “He did not say,” writes Holy Chrysostom, “you are turning away from the Gospel, but: from Him who called you—that is, from God. By this he expressed what was stronger for them and more likely to terrify them. If someone were to act in this way toward his own friends, then one who abandoned his former beneficent friends would certainly be worthy of condemnation. Consider then, how much punishment is deserved by one who abandoned God, who called him?”

“To a different gospel”. Holy Paul preached one true teaching about salvation, and when the false teachers came, they began to propose a different teaching, at variance with his. As his true teaching was a Gospel, a good news of salvation; so their false teaching he also called a Gospel, only a different one, without regard to either those who received this false teaching or to those who proposed it. But we can also understand that the Apostle had in mind the idea that the Galatians accepted it as the true Gospel or that the false teachers claimed that they were preaching the true Gospel, perhaps deliberately not mentioning that they were going against the Apostle Paul or disagreed with his teaching, at least at the beginning of their preaching. Thus Holy Chrysostom: “Those who wished to deceive and lead the Galatians astray did not do so all at once, but, gradually changing the substance of the truths preached to them, they did not change their names. In this way the devil ordinarily deceives and leads astray—spreading his nets imperceptibly for those he is catching! For if they had immediately begun to say: renounce Christ, they would have been guarded against as deceivers and corruptors. But now, leaving them in the faith and giving their false teaching the name of Gospel, they worked more boldly at undermining the edifice, covering the teaching they preached with names, like a curtain, after the fashion of those who undermine walls. Accordingly, since they called their false teaching a Gospel, or good news, the Apostle most opportunely steps in and for the very name itself, when he says: to a different gospel, which is not really another gospel”.

Gal. 1:7. Which is not really another, except that some are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

“Which is not really another”—or thus: you are turning to a different gospel, but it is not another gospel, it is not a teaching that is worthy to be called a gospel or Gospel. Thus Blessed Jerome: “you are turning to a different gospel, which is not a gospel.” The false teachers, though they call it thus, and though you have accepted it as such, in substance it is not so. Or thus: you are turning to a different gospel, but there is not another gospel, there is not another teaching that could be called good news. The Gospel is one—that which I preached to you. Thus Theophylact: “there is no other Gospel except what you received. The Gospel containing Orthodoxy is one, that very one which I preached to you.” Holy John of Damascus also points out the basis for this: “as Holy Peter says: There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).” Blessed Theodoret adds: “Abandoning this Gospel, you will find no other, because the Master does not preach one thing through us and another through the other Apostles, but all of us who love the truth preach one and the same thing. And those who think otherwise offer you nothing divine, but undertake to distort what is divine”.

Both these interpretations, however, are in substance one and the same: you are turning to a different gospel, which is not another gospel, because there is no other gospel. There is only one. Holy Chrysostom had need to clarify the difficulty: But how do we have four Gospels? But he does not state this directly; rather, he enters into a dispute with the Marcionites, who accepted only one Gospel from Luke, and that not in its entirety, and says: “As the sick suffer harm even from wholesome food, so the Marcionites here also suffered harm. For they, using these words, say: See, Paul himself said there is no other Gospel. Though they are absurd, it is necessary to refute their falsehood. What then shall we say? Even if very many wrote Gospels, but if they wrote the same thing, then many would be nothing more than one Gospel, and the multitude of writers in no way would prevent it from being one. On the contrary, though one alone wrote, but wrote something contrary, then what he wrote would no longer be one. Whether a Gospel is one or not, this is known not by the number of writers, but by the identity or difference of what is written. From this it is evident that the four Gospels also are one Gospel. For when all four say the same thing, there is not one and another or something different, because different ones are speaking, but one in the agreement and unity of what they wrote. And Paul here speaks not of the number of preachers, but of disagreement and contradiction in what is preached”.

“Some are troubling you and so forth. Following the flow of speech, one would expect an answer to the following question: if the teaching of these newly arrived teachers is not a Gospel, if there is no other Gospel at all, what then is their teaching? The Apostle Paul answers: it is nothing other than a troubling of minds, a confusion of understanding and a distortion of the Gospel. But in the manner of expressing this idea, instead of presenting the phenomenon and its action, he presents the agents; just as the Savior Himself, in explaining the parable of the sown word, said: These are the ones sown instead of the seed being sown or the Gospel preached (Mk. 4:15–20). Paul did so because he wished more quickly to cast a shadow on these new teachers by calling them troublers of minds and perverters of truth.”

“Troubling”, ταράσσοντες—a word used to express both disturbance in a people on account of some event, and inner perturbation from intrusive thoughts and the stirring up of the passions. Although the Apostle does not mention disturbance among the believers and disturbances between them, there surely was such. Not all agreed at once, of course. Holy Paul perhaps did not pay particular attention to this because the disturbance was insignificant, or rather, because he was exclusively concerned with their inner disturbance, the perturbation of their faith and inner peace, from which all external disorder arises. By presenting this inner disturbance to view, he thereby gives the Galatians an indication of how they themselves can understand the evil of the new teaching they have accepted. Having mentioned the disturbance from false teaching, he brings back to their memory the blissful state in which they had been when they accepted the true Gospel (see Gal. 4:15). Compare, as it were he is saying to them, that joy with this disturbance, and you yourselves will understand where truth is and where falsehood. By the same word Holy Paul also explains how those teachers succeeded in turning them from the path. They gave them who-knows-what to hear, confused their understanding, aroused their fears—and they began to see one thing instead of another. The eye of the mind was darkened and began to see truth where there was nothing but falsehood and deception.

The holy interpreters particularly direct their attention to this inner state in regard to this word. Thus Theophylact: “those wishing to distort the Gospel of Christ darken the eyes of your soul and make it so that you see one thing instead of another.” “For,” says Holy Chrysostom, “as an eye disturbed by something sees one thing instead of another, so too a mind disturbed by the influx of perverse thoughts undergoes the same affliction. And those suffering from madness present one thing instead of another; but that illness (false teaching) is more dangerous than this one, inasmuch as it harms the person not in the perception of sensible objects, but of spiritual ones, and produces a distortion not in the pupil of the eye, but in the eyes of the mind”.

“Want to distort the gospel of Christ”. The troubling of minds was in the hands of the false teachers a means; their goal is the distortion of the Gospel of Christ. And they have produced and continue to produce disturbance only among the Galatians so far—but their goal is everywhere to distort the true Gospel. This is their main intention, and this impels them to undertake such journeys and sow their distorted teaching everywhere. By this word they are presented as malicious destroyers of the most essential good on earth—salvation in the Lord. It is an intention that cannot be fulfilled; but from this their guilt does not become any less heavy. Blessed Augustine says that these false teachers wish to distort the Gospel of Christ, but it remains unchanged and firm. Let the Galatians agree to change the spiritual (service) to the carnal, but through this they have only distorted the Gospel in their own understanding, while it itself is incapable of distortion.

In what this distortion of the Gospel consisted, Blessed Jerome expresses in a general proposition, as Augustine also does in the thoughts cited above: “Whoever interprets the Gospel in a different meaning and spirit than as delivered by the Apostles troubles the believers and distorts the Gospel of Christ, pushing back what should be forward, and putting forward what should remain back. Whoever agrees to the interpretations of the Judaizers pushes back what by its significance should be forward.” Holy Chrysostom expresses this distortion more precisely: “Even if they added only one or two commandments, say about circumcision and the observance of days; but since even what is small, admitted contrary to the law, ruins all, therefore he said: distort the gospel. In royal coins, if someone spoils the seal of a coin, he makes the whole coin worthless: similarly, whoever distorts even the smallest dogma of the true faith subjects all of it to the same corruption, gradually passing from the first damage to another, worse one”.

We do not consider it superfluous to set forth also a lesson of Holy Chrysostom, which he offers on account of this distortion of the Gospel. It will find application also in us. “As long as,” he says, “you are sound of mind and the eyes of your mind seek only what is right and not perverted, inventing what does not exist, you will not recognize or accept another Gospel. But listen to what Paul says—that even those distort the Gospel who introduce into it something, though unimportant, but contrary to the Gospel. Did you not hear what happened in the Old Testament? Someone gathering sticks on the Sabbath and thus transgressing one commandment, and moreover not a great one, underwent the most severe punishment (Num. 15:32–36). Uzzah wished to support the threatened, as he thought, falling ark of the Covenant, and right then he died for wishing to offer help to Him who has no need of his help (2 Sam. 6:6–7). So if the violation of the Sabbath and touching the falling ark so angered God that those who dared to do either one received no mercy whatsoever, then how will he who distorts the terrible and unspeakable dogmas of the faith justify himself and what mercy will he receive? There is no mercy for him, none whatsoever! This itself is the cause of all evils—that we do not concern ourselves with small transgressions; on account of this we have fallen into grave sins, because small ones remain without proper correction. What happens with bodies—that is, when those afflicted in body leave bodily wounds uncared for—produces fevers, decay, and the very death of the body; the same must be said of souls: those who neglect small transgressions fall into greater ones. One transgresses against fasting, and some say nothing is wrong with this. Another is firm in Orthodox faith, but, pretending to yield to circumstances, sometimes speaks freely and boldly about the faith, yet even this, some say, is not too important a matter. Another, being angered by something, threatens to depart from the true faith; and this too, it is said, does not deserve punishment, for he sinned in anger and vehemence. Every day one can encounter still other countless such sins that violently force their way into the Church. On account of this we have become worthy of ridicule, mercilessly splitting the Church into countless parts. If all who ever attempted to depart from the divine laws and to make even the smallest change in them had been restrained from the very beginning with a prohibition, then the present corruption would not have appeared and such a storm would not have encompassed the Church. Some of us maintain even many pagan customs, such as divination, casting lots, augury, observation of days and superstitious notations at birth and all manner of impiety recorded in writing, which, to the greater evil, they place on the heads of newborn children, teaching them from the first days of life to disdain the labors of acquiring virtue and subjecting them to the false power of fate. But if circumcision does not profit Christ (Gal. 5:2), how can faith in any way serve for salvation to those who introduce such impiety? Circumcision was established by God, but since, being observed at the wrong time, it harmed the Gospel, Paul did everything to bring it to an end. But if Paul was so concerned with ending Jewish customs only because their time for observing them had passed, how will we not be concerned with destroying pagan customs? And what justification will we have? This is why all is now in confusion and mixture with us, and those being taught, filled with many and proud thoughts, have perverted the order, and the higher have become lower. Now if anyone gives them even a light rebuke, they spit upon and despise such leaders. And this is because we taught them poorly in childhood”.

bb) The subject which the Apostle will prove in the Epistle (Gal. 1:8–10)

Gal. 1:8–9. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any gospel other than what we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel other than what you received, let him be accursed.

In these verses Holy Paul expresses the main subject of the Epistle—the immutability of the Gospel in the meaning and spirit in which he transmitted it to the Galatians. Although in the first part he proves his Apostolic dignity—that he was taught the Gospel by the Lord Himself and received authority to preach it to the Gentiles—yet the goal of even this is obviously so that he might impress upon them that since the Gospel teaching he preaches is from the Lord, it is divine, and therefore it cannot be changed according to human calculations. When God speaks, a rational creature must listen reverently and receive obediently. One’s own thoughts and calculations should be directed only toward understanding more fully and deeply what is commanded.

The Apostle’s position is thus: no one and nothing can change what has been delivered in the Gospel. Whoever attempts to do so, whether from earth or from heaven, is accursed. This is similar to what is said in the Apocalypse: if anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues… And if anyone takes away… God will take away his share from the book of life (see Rev. 22:18–19).

That no one can change the Gospel, Holy Paul expresses in the words: if we, or an angel from heaven. The Apostle takes the very highest persons—Apostles and Angels: for on earth in the matter of faith there is no one higher than the Apostles, and heaven is filled with Angels. But if even they, attempting to change the Gospel, cannot escape the punishment of heaven, who can do this with impunity?

By “we” is most immediately understood the Apostle Paul himself with his companions; but judging by the force of the discourse, one can suppose that Holy Paul embraced by this word both himself and all the Apostles. Thus Holy Chrysostom: “By pronouncing a curse on the preachers and Angels, he thereby embraced every dignity; and by pronouncing it also on himself, he thereby indicated every kinship and companionship. Do not tell me, he says, that such Apostles and your friends teach this; I would not spare even myself if I did not preach what is right. But he says this not for condemning other Apostles, as though they were corrupting the preaching of the Gospel; no! For he says: whether then it was I or they, so we preach (1 Cor. 15:11); but by this he wished only to show that the dignity of persons is not taken into account when truth is at stake”.

The words “other than what we preached” mean to the Apostle not only what is contrary, but what is at variance, inconsistent with the spirit of the Gospel, generally not what has been delivered by him on behalf of God. “He did not say: if anyone preaches what is contrary or entirely perverts; but, if anyone preaches even something unimportant at variance with what we preached, or changes even the slightest thing in the preaching, let him be accursed,” (Holy Chrysostom).

In what sense does Holy Paul speak thus about the Apostles and Angels? He speaks hypothetically. We believe that the Apostles by the grace of the Holy Spirit were guarded from deviation from the truth, and that the Angels are so confirmed in truth and goodness that for them falsehood and sin have become a moral impossibility. Not by their nature are they recognized as such, but by the grace of God. Only God by nature is unchangeable; but this quality is communicated also to those who enter more deeply into communion with Him. The Apostle’s thought is that even if the impossible were possible, the Gospel must and will always remain unchanged. Blessed Theodoret says regarding the Angels: “He mentioned the Angels, not at all presuming that any of the holy Angels would begin to teach what is contrary to the divine preaching (for he knew this was impossible), but rejecting by this all human innovation”.

Blessed Jerome prefers the same thought, but offers another as well. “It can,” he says, “be accepted that this was spoken hypothetically (some read: hyperbolically), not because the Apostles and Angels could preach otherwise than as once delivered; but if it were even possible for the Apostles and Angels to change, still from what once was accepted, one should not depart. The Apostle himself elsewhere presents the immovability of his faith most forcefully, saying: I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor authorities, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38–39). And again: I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience assures me by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 9:1). These are not the words of a man who could ever depart from faith and love in Christ. Those who do not wish to accept that this was spoken hypothetically, but think it was said literally—that is, that both the Apostles and Angels can change for the worse—counter this with what Paul himself recognized, that he could fall if he became negligent, saying: I buffet my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified (1 Cor. 9:27); and that Angels are changeable, since some of them did not keep their own principality (Jude 1:6). Only God by nature is unchangeable, as it is written: You are the same (Ps. 101:28), and as He Himself says: I am the Lord your God, and I do not change (Mal. 3:6)”.

Holy Paul was not content to pronounce this terrible determination once, but repeats it again, saying: as we have said before, so now I say again. The importance of the subject and a desire to impress this fundamental principle of faith more deeply upon the hearts of the Galatians demanded this. For on it faith and the Church stand. “So that you not think,” writes Holy Chrysostom, “that his previous words were spoken in anger, or exaggerated, or somehow inadvertently came out; he repeats the same thing again. One who is roused to anger speaks something and soon disavows it; but one who says the same thing a second time shows thereby that he thought it through and, having first deliberated in his mind, then pronounced what he said.” Blessed Augustine adds: “this repetition powerfully arouses a salutary desire to hold firm the faith, which is commanded with such insistence”.

It is not important to determine precisely what Saint Paul meant by the word “foretold”—whether the preceding verse or similar words he spoke when present with the Galatians. Saint Chrysostom, it appears, understood the preceding verse; blessed Augustine and Jerome understand both. The latter view is considerably weakened by the fact that in that case Saint Paul would have expressed himself something like in his Epistle to the Thessalonians: “Do you not remember that while I was still with you I told you these things?” (2 Thess. 2:5).

The other differences in expressions make no change in the force of the Apostle’s pronouncement. There, in verse 8, it says: “we, or an angel from heaven”—but here: “if anyone”. Speaking generally (blessed Jerome), the Apostle wishes to say: whoever corrupts the truth, the judgment upon him is the same. There: “preaches”—Ευαγγελιζηται—would preach, but here: Ευαγγελιζεται—preaches. By this is indicated the continuing effort of false teachers to lead astray. There: “than what we have preached”—but here: “than what you have received”. This is one and the same; for from the Apostle they received nothing other than what he proclaimed to them. Yet there is also a rebuke here. You received it; but now what? And not merely a rebuke, but also an indication of the path to return to truth. One who hears the gospel may or may not be persuaded, may accept it or not accept it. But whoever accepts it accepts it, of course, because he is persuaded of its truth. The Apostle hints: you received my gospel with mind and heart and were at peace in it; recover these convictions, and you yourselves will find within yourselves the strength to withstand those corrupting the truth. Or thus: be yourselves inspired to drive them away, to cast them out from your community. By the words “we have preached” and “you have received” is embraced everything—both doctrines and rules of life and the whole order of the Christian Church. The Apostle’s judgment falls upon the corruptors of the teaching, not only the written, but especially what was transmitted orally.

With anathema the Apostle strikes down those who lead astray; but it is evident that those led astray also, as soon as they do not submit to exhortation and do not come to their senses, are subject to the same anathema; for by clinging to false teaching, they become one with the false teachers. The anathematization pronounced by the Apostle: “let him be anathema”—served and serves as a rule and guide for the Church—how to deal with those who preach otherwise, or rather, with those who speak falsely, and with those who willingly follow them. The meaning of anathema is that the one subjected to it is cast out of the Church and, becoming outside of it, not only loses its grace but is subjected to all the gracelessness that exists outside of it. He is God’s rejected one, wrathful to Him. This is enough to inspire fear of anathema and at the same time cause everyone to fear most earnestly lest they be subjected to it. Scholars especially should bear this fear above all others, for in delving into the realm of knowledge they often forget that they have a duty before God and the Lord Jesus Christ not to proclaim anything beyond what was proclaimed by the Apostles, and that they should rather suspect the truth of their own conclusions than attempt to establish anything that sounds like a proclamation beyond the Apostolic gospel, heavenly and divine. The Apostle merely laid the foundation of anathematization. Subsequently the Church has already marked all views worthy of this punishment. At the present time there is no need to wait for a special act of the Church to strike false speakers with this judgment. They themselves put their head under this sword as soon as they invent opinions contrary to truth and stubbornly insist upon them.

Gal. 1:10. Now am I trying to persuade men or God? Or am I seeking to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

By these words Saint Paul denies in himself human-pleasing tendency, in order to turn aside the thought of his inconsistency. For they were saying that he adapts himself to people and in one instance speaks and acts one way, and in another way differently—that he changes in his convictions. From this it followed that although the Gospel is unchanging, yet the Apostle’s own convictions are changeable. To this Saint Paul answers with these words in their connection with the preceding. One can be changeable out of human-pleasing, in order to gain something from people for himself, but one who pronounces such a terrible judgment upon himself, as upon others—him one cannot suspect of human-pleasing, and consequently not of inconsistency from it. He is as if saying after such pronouncements determining anathema upon one who changes the Gospel or anything in the Gospel: judge yourselves, am I able to myself be changeable for the sake of pleasing men? Do I adapt myself to men, do I try to please men in my preaching? If this were in me, if I had a human-pleasing disposition, I would not have become a servant of Christ. So cease believing the slanders that I teach one way now, another way tomorrow. The Gospel in me is as unchanging as it is unchanging in itself.—He expressed the same also in his Epistle to the Thessalonians, saying: “For we were approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts” (1 Thess. 2:4). I am the same in thoughts and feelings before God as I am in words and deeds before men. As I received the Gospel from God, so I pass it on. God sees that this is so. “Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God” (2 Cor. 5:11).

Such is the thought of this text; but determining the meaning of some of its expressions presents difficulties, especially the opening words: “Am I now trying to persuade men or God?” The difficulty arises from the fact that it is not clear what meaning to give to the word “persuade”. In Greek it stands: πειθω—which means: to convince, by means of persuasion to draw to one’s side; to more successfully draw to one’s side people use cunning speech and various evasions, from this: to seduce; whoever wishes to convince another sets forth his own arguments and refutes the other—disputes, quarrels, defends himself, and refutes the other, as happens in defensive speeches; whoever stands firm on his own and convinces everyone gains general approval and goodwill. Which of these meanings should be taken? Following Saint Chrysostom, take whichever one you wish, only direct everything to showing that the sincerity of Saint Paul’s preaching is evident—that he preaches as before God. Saint Chrysostom indeed takes all the meanings and from all draws out this single one. He takes this word in the sense: seduce, deceive—and says: “if the Apostle could deceive you by his words, but he could not deceive God, who knows secret thoughts and to whom to always please is his only wish. Do you see the Apostolic spirit and the height of the Gospel?”—He takes this word also in the sense: defend oneself—and says: “a teacher is forced to defend himself before his students; and although he bears this affront patiently, at the same time he is troubled, yet not from pride, God forbid, but at the thoughtlessness of those being deceived and their distrust of their own teacher. And therefore, saying this, he is as if saying: my quarrel is not with you, not men will judge me; my quarrel is with God, and I do all things so that there, before His judgment, I might justify myself. We have not yet come to such misfortune that, in preparing to answer before the Master of all in our preaching, we should corrupt doctrines. So, for my defense and at the same time for their refutation, I spoke the words cited above. For those being taught should not judge their teachers, but believe and obey them. But when already the order has been perverted by you and you have seated yourselves in the place of judges, know, he says, that I care very little for my justification before you; but since we do all things for God, before Him we shall justify ourselves in the proclaimed doctrines. He said the same thing when he wrote to the Corinthians: ‘For me it is a very small thing to be judged by you or by a human court’ (1 Cor. 4:3).”—He takes this word also in the sense “to gain the goodwill and favor” and says: “whoever wishes to gain the goodwill of men uses many tricks and cunning, employs deception and falsehood to bend and draw listeners to himself; on the contrary, whoever wishes to gain the favor of God and tries to please Him alone, he needs only a sound and purified mind; for God cannot be deceived.” Thus Saint Chrysostom does not restrict himself to the meaning of the word, but directs everything to clarifying that the Apostle sincerely proclaimed the single Gospel truth, having God as witness to his conscience. Ecumenius and Theophylact follow Chrysostom. The latter writes: “Since they were slandering him, saying that he preaches one thing to some, another thing to others, changing his words and teaching according to men, he speaks here against this: Do I adapt myself to men and try to please them or do I pursue God? If I wanted to please men, I would certainly do as you say.”

The Beginning of the Epistle (Continued) (Galatians 1:6–10)

Judging from this, “now”, according to Saint Chrysostom, means either now, when I write the Epistle—or all the time of my preaching labors, that is, “now”, when I abandoned Judaism and began to proclaim the Gospel,—or the consequential particle: judge “now” after what has been said. Blessed Jerome understands “now” as: after my conversion and abandonment of Judaism.

“Or do I seek to please men?” They were saying that Saint Paul gave freedom from the Law of Moses to the Gentiles in order to adapt himself to them and more easily attract them; for the Gentiles did not favor the religious ordinances of the Jews. From this it followed that he was deceiving himself and did not preach pure truth. Against this Saint Paul now speaks, saying that this is not so, that he is not such in his convictions as to change the truth out of human-pleasing. This already followed from the judgment he had pronounced on those changing the Gospel. Saint Chrysostom says: “We do not write this from love of authority and not in order to have disciples, and not seeking glory and praise for ourselves; for we strive not to please men, but God.” Ecumenius continues: “I do not wish to please men; consequently, not you either. I have not said this in order to flatter you and gain your favor.”

“For if I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Another proof that Saint Paul was not deceiving the truth out of pleasing men. The strict judgment on those proclaiming otherwise, under which he also placed himself, already proved this. Now, in proof of the same, he points to his conversion from Judaism to Christianity. He speaks as if: if I did not love truth and changed my thoughts according to the persons I address, of course so as to benefit from their goodwill, then there was no reason for me to abandon Judaism. There I enjoyed great honor and had even greater prospects in the future. If I cast all this away, then surely on the conviction that remaining in Judaism no longer was proper, that it had lived out its time, appointed to it by God. The truth about Christ was revealed, to which I clung with all my heart and which alone I proclaim to everyone, both Gentiles and Jews, having offered in sacrifice to it all my earthly advantages. “If I wanted to please men,” Saint Chrysostom speaks in the name of Paul, “I would even now still be on the side of the Jews and would continue to persecute the Church. But since I have despised both my people and my friends and relatives and high honor and suffer persecution from them, enmity, warfare and death daily, this clearly shows that everything I now say, I say not for the sake of gaining human glory. He said this because he wanted to recount his former life and sudden change and by his very deeds prove that he stands for the truth.” Ambrosiaster makes this conclusion from here: “Saint Paul, who taught with all reverence to please God, did not fear to go against men when the glory of God demanded it. Before the coming of the Lord the Law was proclaimed by the will of God; but when the Lord came, promised in the Law, the Law had to cease, as the Prophets foretold about this. For this reason the Lord says: ‘The Law and the Prophets were until John’ (Luke 16:16). It was no longer fitting that in the presence of the Lord the Law should retain its power. Consequently, whoever after this thinks to keep the Law does not obey the will of the Lord, but resists Him.”

Someone might object: then why does the Apostle write in other places: “I please all men” (1 Cor. 10:33), “I have become all things to all men” (1 Cor. 9:22)—and advises every Christian to “please his neighbor” (Rom. 15:2)? But Saint Paul speaks so to show that he employed all the methods which proved suitable wherever he was, only to dispose people to accept the single truth which he proclaimed everywhere. He did not change the truth, adapting to men, but changed his methods and approaches so that people more easily accepted the single truth for all. His pleasing of men could touch everything else except truth. With it he fearlessly went against the whole world. For this reason also in the passages cited he speaks thus: “I have become all things to all men”—but: “so that by all means I might save some; I please all men in all things”—but: “not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved”. And to others he advises to please “for good, to edification”. Blessed Augustine writes: “Whoever strives to convince men of the truth is not concerned with how to gain a favorable reception for himself from men, but with ensuring that the truth itself which he imparts becomes pleasing to them. Whoever is pleasing to men for the sake of truth—it is not he who is pleasing to them, but the truth itself.” Jerome adds: “Thus the Apostle himself shows why he pleases all men in all things: ‘not seeking,’ he says, ‘my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved.’ Whoever by love that seeks not its own, but ‘that of the neighbor’ (1 Cor. 10:24) pleases everyone so that they may be saved, he pleases God even more, for whom the salvation of men is precious, than he pleases men.‘In the Apostle’s advice to please one’s neighbor blessed Jerome sees this meaning:’If it is possible both to please God and to please men, then one must please men too. But if it is impossible to please men otherwise than by not pleasing God, then we must please God more than we please men.”

In the words “for if I were still pleasing men”—by the word “men”—not only Jews are understood, but in general all people. The thought is: if I had a human-pleasing disposition. By this he denies human-pleasing even before his conversion. Then he was zealous for the Law, but not from human-pleasing, but because of the conviction that he was zealous for God’s truth; but as soon as he became convinced to the contrary, he immediately withdrew his zeal from its former object and turned it to another. And this again not from pleasing any men, but because he became completely convinced of the truth of the Gospel. By the words “I would not be a servant of Christ”—Saint Paul expresses that he would not have become a Christian either, if he did not love truth but merely practiced human-pleasing. Others interpret it thus: he would not be a servant of Christ, that is, an Apostle. But the first thought is more fitting. Saint Paul strengthens his speech: not only would I not have been an Apostle, but not a Christian either, would not have turned to Christ, would not have accepted His holy Gospel and would not have submitted to it.

Apologetic Part (Gal. 1:11–2:21)

The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

The false teachers, in order to have greater success among the Galatians, were diminishing Saint Paul in their eyes, saying that he did not see the Lord Himself, but learned the Gospel from other Apostles, and afterward departed from them and, having composed his own teaching about the unnecessary nature of the Mosaic Law, began to teach in disagreement with them; and moreover, in order to conceal their different teaching, when he was with the other Apostles, he speaks and acts as they do, that is, he condescends to the works of the Law. Against such wrongful insinuations Saint Paul directs his speech at the beginning; for otherwise the prejudices aroused in the souls of the Galatians against him would prevent them from accepting the proofs of the truth of Gospel teaching which he intended to offer them on the basis of Divine Scripture and a rational understanding of the conditions for the salvation of fallen man. He says: 1) that the Gospel which I preach was not received by me from men, nor did I myself devise it, but was taught it by the Lord Himself (Gal. 1:11–16); 2) that from other Apostles, or from believers in general, I could not have learned this Gospel, as you see from the circumstances of my life (Gal. 1:17–24); 3) that I teach not at all differently from the other Apostles; on the contrary, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas for exactly this teaching (Gal. 2:1–10); 4) that I do not at all adapt myself to others; on the contrary, I directly opposed even Peter when I saw that he was acting in complete disagreement with the Gospel (Gal. 2:11–21). By these evident proofs Saint Paul dispelled the wrongful insinuations against himself and restored his dignity as a true teacher. His goal, however, is not to defend himself, but to restore in the hearts of the Galatians the conviction that the Gospel preached to them is from above, and therefore is unquestionably true and cannot be changed. Saint Chrysostom, as has already been noted, thus understands that Saint Paul recounts the circumstances of his life in order to prove that he preaches the truth. “He could have,” continues the holy Father, “drawn proofs from another source to confirm the truth of his preaching, such as: from signs… miracles… but he arranges his discourse in another way.”

1) On the direct revelation of the Gospel to Saint Paul by the Lord Himself (Gal. 1:11–16)

Saint Paul conveys this truth: a) by his Apostolic authority “I assure you”… (Gal. 1:11–12) and confirms it: b) by his sudden change from persecutor to defender (Gal. 1:13–16). So Saint Chrysostom regards this: “See how he proves from both what is highest and what is lowest that he was a disciple of Jesus Christ, who Himself, without human mediation, deigned to reveal to him the understanding of all things. How else would you prove to unbelievers that God Himself revealed to you those unspeakable mysteries without human mediation? This is proved, he says, by my former way of life and thoughts and my sudden change. For if God had not revealed those mysteries to me, I could not have changed so suddenly and quickly. With those learning from men, when they hold their contrary opinions firmly and fervently, much time and effort are needed for them to be persuaded otherwise. Therefore, whoever changed so suddenly and, being at the very height of folly, came to such genuine awareness; it is evident that by God’s revelation and instruction he so suddenly returned to sound mind. This is what caused him to mention his former life and conversion, and to call them as witnesses to what happened with him.”

a) He proves this by his authority (Gal. 1:11–12)

Gal. 1:11–12. For I make known to you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

By these words the Apostle “opens the beginning of the Epistle itself and says that he learned the Gospel from the Son of God through a revelation, when after the resurrection He was already in heaven, and that what he learned corresponds to the greatness of Him from whom he learned” (Ambrosiaster).

“I assure you”—a solemn affirmation of the truth of his word. It is given to understand that what is about to be said is not subject to doubt, that he vouches for it with all his authority. It was customary for Saint Paul to speak thus, and he uses this form of speech especially in important matters, as for instance in his Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:1 and following), where he briefly sets forth the essential points of the Gospel. For us it is enough to hear such a word from the lips of the Apostles to believe that their teaching is indeed all from above. For they were bearers of the full truth and gave themselves wholly as a sacrifice to it. Blessed Jerome makes precisely such a deduction at this point: “Is the Gospel, received by Churches throughout the world, divine or human? We answer that when those who say of themselves: either ‘Do you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me’ (2 Cor. 13:3) and: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me’ (Gal. 2:20), when such speak, then it is not they who speak, but the Lord Himself speaks through them. Therefore, when Paul and Peter speak, they deliver the divine Gospel, not the human.”

“Brethren”. Although he did not praise them and knew that they had opened their ears to the words of false brothers; yet he still regards them as remaining in communion with him and writes to them as to brothers in Christ, certainly in hope of their correction and as an exhortation to it. Error does not yet separate the one who errs from the community of those who hold the truth; obstinacy in it does.

“The Gospel which was preached by me”—not as I everywhere preach it, but as I preached it to you, in the form, sense, and meaning as I conveyed it to you and as you received it; similarly as he said earlier (Gal. 1:8–9): we have preached, you have received. The Apostle’s view is limited to the Galatians alone, and he directs them to concentrate all attention on what they were taught. For us, however, this is all one, as if the Apostle had said: the Gospel which I preach; for he preached the same everywhere.

“Which is not according to man”. If one looks at it abstractly, considering only its content, one cannot fail to conclude that it is not the work of human wisdom. This expression is similar to how we speak: in human fashion, in angelic fashion, in divine fashion. Every class of beings has its own circle of properties inherent to it, of powers and actions, of means and ends, of actualities and possibilities. Based on these, one can determine in advance whether something belongs to a certain class or not. This is what Saint Paul is now saying—that the Gospel he preached is not from the sphere of human affairs, is not within the power of man, and one cannot expect that man could devise it with his mind. “It is not composed according to human reasoning” (blessed Theodoret). “Not according to man, for it is according to God, that is, according to God’s revelation” (Ecumenius).

“For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it”. After: “not according to man”—one would expect: but according to God or according to the revelation of Jesus Christ. But Saint Paul had a special reason to set before the Galatians that the Gospel is not only not human, but also, being divine, came to him not through man, but was received by him personally from the Lord Himself. Without this assurance the Galatians could still be swayed by the thought that Saint Paul received the Gospel from others, reinterpreted it in his own way, and teaches differently from how the Lord Himself taught the first Apostles (Saint John of Damascus, Ecumenius). In refutation of this they would have needed to check it against how the eyewitnesses of the Word taught. But when Saint Paul assured them that he received the Gospel not from man but directly from the Lord: the thoughts of the Galatians had to take on another direction. It became evident that if the Lord commanded to teach thus, then Saint Paul could not teach otherwise. Whatever might now be said about the first Apostles, for the Galatians it was manifest that Paul’s word is God’s word, that there was no need to verify it with those living so far from them, for the Lord is everywhere one and the same, that they hear the truth as if directly from the Lord Himself.

In the words: “received”—and: “taught”—some see one and the same thought, while others see an indication of different degrees of understanding and assimilation of the Gospel: in: “received”—initial instruction, acceptance of truth in general outlines; in: “taught”—penetration into the circle of revealed truths, complete study of them. So blessed Jerome: “Between ‘receive’ and ‘be taught’ there is such a distinction, that the Gospel is received by him to whom it is imparted for the first time, who is brought only to faith in it; but is taught he who knows all its mysteries.” Others see in: “taught”—personal study of the Gospel being revealed—and extend it to the point that in: “taught”—they see a contrast to “received.” We have two human sources of knowledge: some things we receive from others, to other things we arrive ourselves through our own reasoning. Saint Paul denies both sources for his Gospel. He speaks as if: I did not receive it ready-made from man, nor did I myself devise it; in which case: “nor was I taught”—would be the same as: I did not invent it myself. This last thought is very important in that it rejects the speculation of those who suppose that the teaching of Saint Paul is his personal understanding of the Gospel. Here he assures us that his Gospel in its complete composition is from above, nothing has been contributed to it from his own personal reasoning, although of course one cannot deny such reasoning in the further applications of revealed truths, though even these occurred in his divinely-graced mind not without the guidance and guardianship of the Spirit of God.

It seems to some that in the phrase “nor I” is heard: for I too did not receive from man; that is: I like the other Apostles. But the flow of the discourse does not support this; although the thought is not far from the intention with which Saint Paul speaks these words.

“But through a revelation of Jesus Christ”—that is, I received the Gospel directly from the Lord Himself. Our Slavonic translation directs attention to the manifestation of the Lord to Saint Paul on his way to Damascus and gives to understand that at this moment he grasped the power of the Gospel, although at this time he heard only: “I am Jesus: it is hard for you to kick against the pricks”—and: “Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that you are appointed to do” (Acts 9:5–6). So blessed Jerome: “here he points to that revelation, when on his way to Damascus he was deemed worthy to hear the voice of Christ on the way, and when he, being blinded, saw the true Light of the world.” And Theodoret: “very wisely (Saint Paul) used the word ‘revelation’; for the Master Christ had ascended to heaven at that time and was no longer seen in the same way by everyone; but He appeared to him on the way and deemed him worthy of the ministry of preaching.‘But meanwhile one cannot fail to see that here only the seed of the Gospel was laid, which was destined to develop into the whole tree of New Testament truths. Although for a Jew, especially a learned one, much is already said by the very fact that Jesus Christ is indeed what is proclaimed about Him—the promised Savior of the world to Israel. At this point all those characteristics should of themselves have occurred to him in which the person of the Messiah and His Kingdom are presented in the Old Testament. But it is evident that this alone was not enough for complete understanding of the Gospel. There are many truths in New Testament teaching that cannot be known from Old Testament Scripture alone. It was necessary to be taught by someone. Saint Paul says that he was taught this by the Lord Himself. If the manifestation at Damascus could not teach him everything—and from men Saint Paul learned nothing—then one must acknowledge that the manifestations of the Lord to Paul continued afterward, and through these were revealed to him all the mysteries of the Gospel. Why here by’revelation” one must understand revelation in general. The Apostle does not indicate when and how these revelations came to him; but that they were, on this he refers more than once in his Epistles. Thus, for example, about Christ’s second coming and what will happen then with the living and the dead, he speaks to the Thessalonians “by the word of the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:15), of course in the sense that he heard this word from the Lord Himself; about the Last Supper he spoke the same way, as he himself “received from the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:23); judging from this, and there, where before setting forth the essence of the Gospel he said: “what I also delivered”—one must understand that he received this from the Lord (1 Cor. 15:3). And that rapture to the third heaven, about which he, recalling in the Epistle to the Corinthians written some year after the Epistle to the Galatians, wrote that it happened fourteen years prior (see: 2 Cor. 12:2), had already occurred before Saint Paul wrote this Epistle, and in general falls on the first years after his conversion to the Lord. All such indications obligate us to acknowledge that the Gospel entirely, in all its composition, was revealed to Saint Paul directly by the Lord Himself, and that consequently he is a full immediate disciple of the Lord, like all the first Apostles.

He speaks as if: “The same One who taught the other Apostles with Peter revealed the Gospel to me” (blessed Theophylact). He speaks of this in order “to set against the slanders of his opponents, making known that in this too he is not inferior to the other Apostles. For as they received the teaching from the Lord Himself, so he too had Him as his teacher” (blessed Theodoret).

Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24)

And this Apostolic word of Saint Paul alone would have been sufficient to assure that the Gospel was received by him from above. But he does not content himself with this; rather, he presents the most palpable proof of it in his own change. He speaks as if saying to them: Look what I was before and what I suddenly became afterward, and you will see the finger of God in the turning point of my life. That it was the finger of God working in him and helping him, he could prove by the manifestations of the Lord to him and by the signs accompanying his preaching; but he does not do this, for there human weakness would require verification, but instead he sets forth what was tangibly evident to all—his transformation from a Jew into a Christian. That he persecuted the Church and destroyed it was known to all. And everyone also saw now that this persecutor and destroyer of the Church defends it and builds it up. From this what followed? It followed to marvel, as did the believers in Judea, and to glorify God (Gal. 1:23–24); but at the same time to recognize that the work of Saint Paul and his preaching came from God, and therefore to listen to his words and obey his commands.

One must note that Saint Paul’s words only prompt such thoughts; they instill such conviction, and certainly are spoken by him not without a secret intention that they would instill this conviction. But the literal flow of discourse suggests another assurance as well, that the teaching of Saint Paul is not human, namely thus: before my conversion I persecuted the Gospel; consequently I did not want to know it and did not consider it necessary; after my conversion I did not enter into contact with anyone who believed in it for the purpose of learning it. Judge for yourselves after this, how much probability is there in the rumors you have heard that I learned the Gospel from men? The Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church dwell more upon the first point, seeming not to notice the second at all. For they strove to clarify more the spirit of Scripture than its letter.

Gal. 1:13–14. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, that I violently persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

“You have heard.” It is evident that the Apostle himself did not recount his former life; rather, rumor reached them. “That the Only-begotten Son of God deigned to call me by His voice from heaven, you do not know; for how would you know it, not having been with me? But that I was a persecutor, you know very well; for rumor of my cruelty reached even to you despite the great distance between Palestine and Galatia. Such a rumor about me would not have spread so far if my cruelty had not been too great and unbearable to all” (Saint Chrysostom).

“My life in Judaism formerly. Life”—not in general how he conducted himself, but what he was in relation to the Church of Christ; in “Judaism”—when he held to the Jewish law, was by faith a Jew; “formerly”—once, presumably quite a long time ago. More than twenty years had passed since Saint Paul’s conversion until the time he wrote this Epistle.

“I violently persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. Violently”—καθ υπερβολην—exceedingly, more than was proper. In this word is heard the acknowledgment of his former wrongness and unreasoning youthful fervor. Then he did not see this excessiveness; now, looking back, he sees that he acted in blind zeal. He thought he was defending God’s cause; but it turned out that he was going against God. “I violently persecuted”—he was not one of the light persecutors, but one whose cruelties knew no measure (blessed Jerome). “The Church of God.” “He did not say: the Church of Christ, as he thought before, when he despised Christ (considering Him a man), but, as he now believes, ‘the Church of God,’ showing thereby either that Christ is God, or that the Church is the Church of that same God who once gave the Law” (blessed Jerome). “And tried to destroy it.” As a building is destroyed, stone by stone being cast down from it; so he strove to destroy the Church, oppressing and bringing to the slaughter one by one those professing faith in Christ. The Church of God is destroyed internally by corrupting its dogmas and ordinances, as false teachers and heresiarchs do; it is destroyed externally when believers are exterminated. Saint Paul destroyed it in this latter way. The Church would cease to exist if there remained no one to confess the name of Christ. “Saint Paul persecuted the Church not like others, but exceedingly; not content even with excessive persecution, but, like some robber, he made raids upon it and laid it waste” (blessed Jerome). “See how forcefully he expresses each word and is not ashamed! For he did not merely persecute, but persecuted with all cruelty, and not only persecuted but destroyed, that is, strove to exterminate, devastate, overthrow and annihilate the Church of God. For this is what a destroyer does” (Saint Chrysostom).

“And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my people.” Saint Paul begins to explain the spirit in which he persecuted the Church. One could persecute from a robber-like, man-destroying disposition; one could persecute in order to please the high priests and other authorities of the Jews, in hope of oneself also occupying a prominent place among them afterward. None of this was in Saint Paul. I, he says, persecuted the Church from love of ancestral faith alone, without any external calculations. I was convinced that such was God’s will, to always hold to Judaism, and, being zealous for it, I breathed zeal for God, though I was mistaken. And for the Galatians it was important to know not so much that he persecuted the Church as how his heart lay toward the Law. Having said that he was so devoted to the Law, Saint Paul left them with the thought: such a lover of the Law abandoned it—this cannot be done without cause.

“I advanced in Judaism.”—This is not the same as before: “My life in Judaism.” There only external belonging to Judaism was indicated, but here internal relation to it is pointed out. “Judaism”—the faith, morals, and customs of all kinds by which the Jews were distinguished. “Advancement” in it, of course, consisted in the study of all this, in adherence and devotion to it, in fashioning oneself according to Jewish principles, so that for all it was evident that he was a true Jew both soul and body. Seeing him thus, and others without doubt related to him with honor, cherishing great hopes about him. In this respect—advanced will mean: went uphill, rose to the number of those in positions of activity, whom the authorities themselves trusted greatly. “Beyond many of my contemporaries among my people.” I was not among the ordinary ones among the youth of our generation; I surpassed many, or all; as if to say: there were many contemporaries of mine, but I surpassed all of them both in knowledge of Judaism and in zeal for it. Perhaps Saint Paul wanted to express something even more than this. In any age the young generation presents zealots for the ancestral, for what is considered the distinction of the nation and does it honor. Saint Paul places himself in the ranks of these and assures that he showed more zeal than all zealots for Judaism; he does not compare himself with the indifferent and weak, but with the lively and active, and says that he surpassed all such. This precisely was important for him to set forth before the Galatians, so that his estrangement from Judaism would appear the more striking and his change would more decisively indicate participation in it of supernatural power. “Among my people”—not the Pharisaic sect is understood, but the Jewish nation—among the Jews in general.

“Abundantly the zealot was of the traditions of my fathers. Abundantly” – not what earlier “very abundantly”. There it means excessiveness, but here only superiority over others. In Greek there: καθ υπερβολεν; and here: περισσοτερως. Not only did he advance in Judaism more than all, but also in zeal for it he excelled all. He advanced only beyond his peers; regarding zeal, he makes an allusion that he was zealous more than all – not only his peers, but also those who surpassed him in age. From the Acts of the Apostles it is precisely evident that he was the instigator and kindler of persecution. “By the traditions of the fathers” embraces what the holy Paul understood as the entire sum of views, rules of life, mores and customs, which in that time composed Judaism – all Judaism as it had taken form before his time and was transmitted from elders to younger. But at the same time it gives to understand that in this formation the guide and determiner was not so much Scripture as the tradition of the elders: consequently, Judaism is understood as warped, in which even the chief concept of Judaism was distorted – namely that Judaism was an eternal and unchanging religion, binding for all – and much that was introduced into life was extremely restrictive yet useless, yet was considered a condition of pleasing God and of salvation. Blessed Jerome writes: “wisely did the holy Paul act, having inserted into his narrative an indication that he served not so much the Law of God as the traditions of the fathers, according to which they taught teachings and commandments of men (Mt. 15; Mk 7) and rejected the Law of God to uphold their traditions. In this same sense he said earlier as well, that he advanced not in the Law, but in Judaism.” The same thought is also in blessed Augustine: “if Paul, the zealot of his own paternal traditions, persecuted the Church of God, then evidently his paternal traditions oppose the Church of God. But the Law cannot be such. It is not the Law that is at fault, that persecution of the Church arose among the Jews. Those carnally-minded Jews are at fault, who, even what they received as spiritual, understood carnally and, moreover, added much of their own, destroying, as the Lord says, the commandment of God on account of their traditions (Mt. 15:3).”

The holy Fathers, foreseeing what impression this simple account should produce in the souls of the Galatians, make various inferences in this regard, according to the purpose which the holy Paul had in recalling his former life and his conversion. He persecuted faith, and now spreads it; he was wholly devoted to Judaism with great hopes for himself, but now has turned from it, undergoing all manner of deprivation. Such a turning in life is unthinkable without divine instruction. Jerome writes: “it is remarkable that not just any of the lighter persecutors, but one who surpassed the rest in persecution, was converted to faith.” Ecumenius continues: “because the Galatians did not know of the revelation that had come to him from Christ, the Apostle wishes by pointing out that he was previously a persecutor and then suddenly changed, to suggest to them that if there had not been some divine revelation to him, he would not have changed so quickly; so that, being convinced through this that he is a disciple of Christ, they would not despise him anymore.” Holy Damascene, drawing out the same thought from the sudden change of the holy Paul, adds: “and something else also is suggested by this covertly, namely that one should not continue to hold to the works of the Law: for if one who showed such zeal for the Law abandoned it and went over to the path of salvation by faith; then clearly he abandoned it convinced that it could not lead to perfection. If then such a zealot of the Law abandons it; all the more should those who directly turned to faith not follow this weak Law.” Ambrosiaster carries through the same thought: “I, says he, was zealous for the Law more than all; but when by revelation I learned that it had already lost its power, then I devoted myself entirely to faith and grace. From this it followed: if this Israelite, a disciple of the renowned Gamaliel, who was in connections with all the best among the Jews, abandoned the Law; how much more should those outside the Law not subject themselves to the Law? If this one rejoices that he has come out from under the yoke of servitude, why then should they bind their freedom with the bonds of the Law?” Ecumenius again, understanding Paul’s advancement in Judaism in a worldly sense, that is, that he became ever more honored in the eyes of the Jews, says from the mouth of the holy Paul: “what reason is there that I suddenly waged war on those who esteemed and loved me? No other than the appearing of Christ.”

The holy Chrysostom directs all things chiefly to bring out in the holy Paul a detachment, a zeal for God free from all earthly calculation, and a love of truth. Here are his thoughts on verse 14: “lest you think that he acted thus (that is, persecuted the Church) in anger and malice, he adds that he did all this ‘out of zeal’, even if in ignorance, and persecuted not from vanity and not from enmity, ‘but a zealot of his own paternal traditions’. These words mean the following: if what I did against the Church, I did not for man, but out of divine zeal, though erroneous, yet out of zeal: then how now, striving for the Church and having come to know truth, can I do all this out of vanity? For if during my time of delusion, such a passion did not dominate me, but zeal for God impelled me to that manner of action: all the more, since I came to know truth, is it wrong to suspect me of vanity. For as soon as I turned to the dogmas of the Church of Christ and abandoned all Jewish delusions, I showed even greater zeal here than there; and this proves that I have truly changed and am filled with divine zeal. If this is not it, tell me, what else moved me to such a change, that I traded honor for disgrace, peace for perils, security for sufferings? Nothing else but only love of truth.”

Gal. 1:15–16. When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, at once I did not confer with flesh and blood.

What he merely hinted at by the preceding words – that his change was wrought in him by God’s power – he now speaks of as an accomplished event, namely that God indeed revealed his Son in him and thereby wrought in him such an overturning, that after this he abandoned all human and earthly things and devoted himself entirely to serving the truth of the Gospel. He strengthens the significance of this event by pointing out that it was foreseen and predetermined and in time was accomplished as it was accomplished, because God so willed it; so that everything in him is from God and he is truly established by God himself as an Apostle to the Gentiles, to whom one must listen and obey, as to God’s messenger. Although he speaks all this as if in passing, hastening to express quickly the thought contained in the words: “at once I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go…to the Apostles”; nonetheless the truths suggested by his words are significant not only for the Galatians, but for all of us, for they illuminate with brilliant light God’s providence of events and the life of each of us, pointing in eternity to the source of what is accomplished in time.

“When it pleased God” – when he was pleased, but was he not pleased before this? If he chose even from the womb of the mother, then he was pleased from the time he chose. But that pleased choice is eternal; in time, however, God accomplishes his eternal decrees in deed when the time comes. With God all things have their proper time. There was its proper time for the coming of the Lord to earth through the incarnation (Gal. 4:4); there will be its proper time for his second coming; there is its proper time for every manifestation in public life and in the life of each person. So there was its fitting moment also for the conversion of the holy Paul. Divine providence did not let it pass. The holy Paul, by the conversion and enlightenment of the Spirit, understood this and now confesses it before all. “Observe,” says the holy Chrysostom, “how he recognizes all that happened to him not as a human work, but attributes it to God, who orders all things for him by special providence.” But Paul’s God is also our God. For this reason, in this is a lesson for us to regard the events of our life in the light of faith in God’s good providence.

But the question arises: “if he was chosen from the womb of the mother, then how was he a persecutor?” (holy Damascene). “If he was chosen from the womb of the mother, yet called later, then surely by some providence, in that interval of time he was left to himself” (Ecumenius). “See how he tries here to show that even the very time during which he remained in delusion was in dependence on some unknown dispensation of God. For if he was chosen from the womb of his mother to be an Apostle and called to this service, yet was called later and, being called, hearkened to the Caller: plainly God for some unknown reason delayed calling him until then. What then was this dispensation of God?” (the holy Chrysostom). “That his sudden change might serve many as confirmation in the truth of the Gospel” (Ecumenius). “And Paul himself settles this in another place, saying: ‘that in me first he might show all his patience as a model for those who would come to believe in him for eternal life’ (1Tim. 1:16)” (holy Damascene).

“He chose me from my mother’s womb”. He confesses that before he came forth into the world, when only the foundations of his existence were being laid, he was already chosen. God foresaw the fitness of the holy Paul for the Apostolate and chose him for this service; as earlier, foreseeing the fitness of Jeremiah, he chose him to be a Prophet before birth: “before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5). There are thinkers who take this and similar passages in support of their false teaching about eternal election by God, without regard to what a person by their natural gifts and free will should be. Others think not only of election to some particular service, but also in general of election to salvation – so that then these chosen ones, not by free choice of their will, but by the outpouring of special grace upon them, apart from the directing of their freedom, are what they are chosen to be – those as Apostles, Prophets and so forth, and these as saved. But if that were the case, all people would be saved: for God wills all to be saved, and inasmuch as he wills it – then that, having chosen, – then all would be saved, if the human will, or his free will and choice, were not involved in it. But since human will is necessary even to save him, then though God wills all to be saved, not all are saved; for not all wish to be saved. Their corrupted will opposes the will of God, not wishing to submit to the conditions of salvation; and they perish, in spite of the fact that God does not will that they perish. Regarding the election of the holy Paul, Theophylact says that “God chose him not by lot, but by foreknowledge, that he was worthy of it.” Ambrosiaster expounds this thought more fully: “Paul relied on the Law, not knowing that the time of service to it had already passed, and with all his fervor strove to oppose the Gospel of Christ, thinking that by so acting he acted in accordance with God’s will; God, seeing that he had good zeal but was lacking in knowledge (of truth), was pleased to call him into his grace, knowing that he was fit for proclaiming the Gospel of his Son among the nations: for if in lesser matters he was so zealous and faithful in conscience, and not to please anyone of men; would he not then be firmer in proclaiming God’s grace concerning Christ Jesus, in hope of the promised reward. Therefore, by God’s foreknowledge he was chosen from his mother’s womb, that is, before he was born and as soon as he was born. God knew that he would be good, as he said to Jeremiah the Prophet: ‘I knew you – before you were born’ (Jer. 1:5), and knowing what he would be, called him.”

Blessed Jerome passes over in thought to election in general, and having rebuked those who think that election and non-election depends on a distinction of natures, good or evil, as the Manicheans believed, says: “by God’s foreknowledge it is that for whom he knows will be good, he chooses, and whom he foresees will not be good, he does not choose. And in this there is no injustice in God. We, humans, judge only by what is, but He, before whom even the future is as the present, pronounces judgment by what he has foreseen as the end.”

“And called me through his grace”. Chosen above, called here below. That heavenly determination was brought to execution in time by calling. God before the ages foreknew about him and then called him in time, such as was pleasing to him. Paul burned with love of truth, only he saw it not where it is. The Lord appeared to him and showed him this truth. A sincere lover of truth, he turned to it from that moment with all his soul. The calling that occurred on the road to Damascus was a calling only to faith and grace, to salvation; the calling to the Apostolate came later, though it was already intended here, as is evident from the words of the Lord to Ananias (Acts 9:15). Calling is the work of grace, inclination to calling is the work of freedom. He who is called is one who followed the calling, submitted his freedom to the calling voice. Therefore in calling, or turning to faith, there is a part of freedom, as in election there is a part of foreknowledge of the inclination of freedom. But since one free will alone is not able to turn around without grace, the holy Paul relates all the work of conversion and calling to grace, as also the holy Peter confesses that calling of all is accomplished by glory and power, that is, by the gracious power of God (2Pet. 1:3). The holy Chrysostom writes here: “God says that he called Paul for his goodness; for ‘a chosen vessel to me is’, he said to Ananias, ‘to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel’ (Acts 9:15); that is, he is fit for this service, for accomplishing this great work; this God places as the reason for calling him. But the Apostle himself attributes everything to grace and the unspeakable love of God, thus saying: ‘I am by mercy’ – and not because he is fit or worthy of it; ‘but in order that in me first he might show all his patience, as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life’ (1Tim. 1:16). Do you see the height of his humility? For that reason, he says, I was shown mercy, so that no one would despair when the worst of all people was granted God’s love. For this is what he wished to say by these words: that my unworthiness and uselessness called the Lord to grace alone” (Ecumenius).

“To reveal his Son in me”. This is the third moment! In the chosen one predestined in eternity, and later called in time, God was pleased to reveal his Son. This is the threshold to dedication to the Apostolate; for he says: “to reveal…that I might preach” him. It is necessary for the one preaching to clearly behold all the mysteries of the gospel. This is what the holy Paul expresses by the words: “to reveal his Son in me”. He means not an external appearance: to me, – but an internal: in me. In the sanctuary of his soul the Son of God was revealed to him. By internal illumination the holy Paul beheld that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation. There was a moment when in his mind was imaged all the essence of the Gospel and the whole way of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. External appearance alone, without this internal illumination, would not have produced an effect. “Why,” asks the holy Chrysostom, “did he not say: ‘to reveal his Son to me’, but: ‘in me’?” And he answers: “in order to show that he learned all that was necessary concerning faith not through word only, but also through the fact that he was filled with the Holy Spirit, when the revelation illuminated his soul, and that he had Christ in himself speaking.” Ecumenius says: “in me, saying, wishing to show that he knew him not through word only, but through mind and heart, that knowledge of him entered into life in his inner man,” – or, as Theophylact says, “was imprinted in the inner man.”

“‘That I might preach him’. With this is completed the formation of the holy Paul into an Apostle. Called and enlightened by internal knowledge of the Gospel, he is a ready Apostle. Not in vain does grace pour out so abundantly, but that he go and bring forth fruit, that he go ‘to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings’ (Acts 9:15). There was a special act of divine consecration of the holy Paul to the Apostolate, though he himself does not speak of it determinately. Ecumenius writes thus: ‘that I might preach’. You see that the Father who chose him and revealed his Son in him himself ordained him as a preacher and Apostle.” He took this thought from the holy Chrysostom, who says: “not only his faith, but also his consecration to the rank of Apostle was from God. For he says, as he revealed himself to me, so that I would not only come to know him, but also declare him to others – ‘among the Gentiles’. ‘Among the Gentiles’ – amid the Gentiles, by which it was hinted that, having in view chiefly the Gentiles, he could not pass without attention even the Jews living among them. From the Acts it is evident that he so did. Almost everywhere he first turned to the Jews with his preaching, and then, when these proved unfavorable to him and the Gospel, he turned to the Gentiles and with them alone did he busy himself.”

“At once I did not confer with flesh and blood.” These words, through the ambiguity of the phrase “flesh and blood,” have given place to various interpretations. “Flesh and blood” means human nature with all that in it is base and good, that is, everything human. Taking this meaning, we obtain the following thought: as soon as I was called and enlightened by knowledge of the Son of God, I at once abandoned all that is human, human thoughts, hopes, fears, orders, changed with complete transformation, entirely entered into the spirit of new life in Christ Jesus and devoted myself entirely to serving him. If we take the preceding speech of the Apostle, somewhat higher up, the result will be: I persecuted Christianity, and then suddenly became devoted to it with all my soul, offering in sacrifice all that I could have in life, by human reckoning. Similar to this says Ecumenius: “at once he did not betake himself to rest and self-satisfaction or, as if having done something great, to idleness and carelessness, but entered upon the difficult path of preaching the Gospel.”

Dwelling attentively on what the holy Paul says above about his devotion to Judaism and paternal traditions, which bear the character of fleshly, material service to God, one can come to the thought that it is these he means by “flesh and blood.” And is this not what he wishes to express by those words: as soon as I knew Christ Jesus the Lord and salvation in him, I at once abandoned the fleshly service of Judaism in all its composition, entirely separated from it, never returned to it again?

If we take “flesh and blood” to mean man, then, judging by what kind of man we will understand, we will get a sense corresponding to that. Ecumenius, besides what was said above, also understands by: flesh and blood – house, kinsmen, homeland. “I did not prefer,” he says, “to see kinsmen, or home, or acquaintances, or homeland, but abandoned all (for in this I do not lag behind Peter and John), and at once hastened to preaching.”

Others under: “flesh and blood” – understand man in general, thus: having received revelation of the Gospel from above, I did not turn for help in understanding it to any man, considering it both unnecessary and improper.

So many different opinions! Our holy commentators, understanding these words to mean man, nevertheless see in them a definite reference to the Apostles, thus: being taught by God himself, I did not turn to the Apostles for teaching as to men. In that case the words: “at once I did not confer with flesh and blood” must be read together with the following: “nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me” – and see in them one and the same thought, considering the latter as an explanation of the former.

The holy Chrysostom writes: “here, that is, in the words: ‘I did not confer with flesh and blood,’ – he refers to the Apostles, calling them by nature.” And a bit lower: “for it would be extremely unjust and improper if one who was taught by God himself would take counsel even with men. One taught by men very justly turns again afterward to the counsel of men; but one deemed worthy of that divine and longed-for voice and taught everything by him who possesses the very treasury of wisdom – for what reason will he take counsel with men? Such a person should not learn from men, but teach men.” Theodoret the same: “having been deemed worthy of that calling, I did not go at once to Jerusalem, but was satisfied with the grace given to me by God; for it would be extremely improper for one who had received teaching from God to discuss it with men.” Holy Damascene: “how would he have turned to men, being deemed worthy of being taught from on high?” Theophylact has the same thought.

Such unanimous judgment of all our commentators obliges us to dwell upon it. This is all the more readily to be done, that, having deviated from it, we would inevitably wander amid a multitude of suppositions, not knowing which to settle upon.

2) Paul could not learn the Gospel from others (Gal. 1, 17–24)

When he received revelation from above, it naturally followed that he had not learned it from others or that from others he should not have learned it. But the holy Paul speaks about this with that and thus, so that all the same conclusion comes out – that is, that his teaching is from God. He says here: the circumstances of my life show that I did not learn the Gospel from: a) from the holy Apostles (Gal. 1:17–20); nor: b) from other Christians (Gal. 1:21–24). But from his simple account of this came out – from the first: I, not having yet seen the Apostles, began to preach the Gospel in Arabia and Damascus; but when I afterward came to Jerusalem, I was in communion with Peter and James. Therefore my teaching agrees with theirs. Why is this so? Because it comes from the same source. If the Gospel of those is from God, then mine also is. From the second: believers of other Churches did not see me, but, learning that I preach the faith, they glorified God. How would they have glorified God if my teaching was not the same as their faith?

Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

That the holy Paul did not turn for teaching to the other Apostles, this he already said by the words: I did not confer with flesh and blood. But those words can still be understood as an expression of the fullness of his conversion with complete detachment from all that is human. For which reason he speaks after more decisively.

Gal. 1:17. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me: but I went into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

“He did not go to Jerusalem to take counsel with the Apostles concerning preaching, being satisfied with divine revelation” (Ecumenius). He did not go at once after his conversion, but went later. “The first Apostles” here are understood by time – those who before him were called to the Apostolate and began to exercise the apostolic ministry. All this speech the holy Paul conducts so that by the history of his life he might reveal that he took nothing from the older Apostles, that he was both called to follow Christ and taught the faith and sent to preach directly by the Lord himself. For this reason he places himself in the row with them, saying: “to the apostles who were before me.” From this it followed that “he too was an Apostle like them” – the only difference being that they preceded him in time. If then he too is an Apostle like them, then he too must be listened to as they are listened to, and in no way should the Gospel preached by him be altered. Thus Ambrosiaster: “The Apostle wishes to say that, after he was chosen by God, he had no need to go to the older Apostles so as, that is, to learn something from them; because God revealed to him through his Son what and how he should teach. And this is said in order to show that nothing else should be held than what he teaches – and not to believe men, but God, by whom he was taught. From which it follows that those who draw them to the Law are false teachers: for it was not from God that what they taught was handed down.”

The holy Chrysostom dwells on the moral side of this act, but comes to the same conclusion. “If anyone examines these words carefully in isolation, he may think that they are filled with great pride and far from agreeing with the spirit of the Apostles; for to determine something by oneself and not to open one’s thoughts to others – can be taken for pride. For it is said: ‘I see a man who does not think himself wise, yet arrogance is the companion of fools’ (Prov. 26:12) – and: ‘woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight’ (Isa. 5:21). And Paul himself says: ‘do not be wise in your own eyes’ (Rom. 12:16). But could one who had heard these and similar teachings from others and himself taught the same to others, fall into such conceit – not only Paul, but anyone at all? For what reason then did he do and say this? Not to the disparagement of the Apostles and not in praise of himself, but, protecting everywhere the safety of the Gospel and wishing to show the importance and dignity of his preaching (that is, that he received it directly from the Lord himself), he says: ‘I did not go up to them’. For if there had been need to take counsel, the one who revealed to him the word of preaching would have commanded him to do this as well. And so, what then? did he not go there? He went, but not in order to learn something, not in order to receive something.”

“But I went into Arabia.” Arabia – a country bordering on the Damascus region, which had its own civil order. At that time the prince Aretas of that place ruled over Damascus (2 Cor. 11:32). As this dominion was accidental and unstable, the holy Paul hastened to use this circumstance and quickly offer the Gospel to the inhabitants there, while this temporary autocratic rule made access there free. “See, what a fiery soul!” says the holy Chrysostom. “He strove to occupy countries not yet cultivated and remaining in wild state. If he had delayed with the Apostles, having nothing to learn from them, the work of preaching would have stopped. But it was necessary for them to preach the word everywhere. Wherefore this blessed one, burning with the Spirit, at once went to teach untaught and wild peoples, having chosen a life of much labor and danger.” Thus understand all our commentators – that the holy Paul went to Arabia with the preaching of the Gospel.

Some of the newer non-Orthodox commentators construct a guess that the holy Paul went to Arabia not to men with preaching, but to the wilderness there, so that in solitude he might think through the system of Christian doctrine according to the principles he received from the Lord and could hear from believers in Damascus. A guess entirely arbitrary, favorable only to that empty wisdom by which it is supposed that the teaching which the holy Paul taught is his personal view of Christianity, which he arrived at through independent development and his own deep involvement in the matter of salvation. When he himself says of himself that neither did others teach him the Gospel, nor did he himself arrive at it, but received it directly from the Lord himself, why construct such suppositions? Moreover, what suitable place for developing some doctrine – a wilderness? It can promote detachment from everything, but does not give doctrine. For this communion with others is needed, conversation, books.

The holy Paul does not say why he went to Arabia. But this very silence should lead us precisely to that thought – that he went with preaching. For he did not say either why he returned to Damascus and what he did there. In the Acts the holy Luke says that he preached in Damascus that Jesus is the Son of God (see Acts 9:20). Since he in no way distinguishes here his account of Arabia from his account of Damascus, it is more natural to come to the thought that he preached there as he did in Damascus, than to allow those fantastical suppositions. The holy Chrysostom says: “having said: ‘I went into Arabia,’ – he added: ‘and returned again to Damascus.’ He says not a word about his deeds, nor about whom he taught and how many. Likewise in Damascus he showed such zeal that he aroused hatred against himself, and yet he says nothing about these deeds of his. But as he says nothing about this here (though it was); so also there, relating that he came (to Arabia) and went away, he mentions nothing about what was there (though it was).”

How to reconcile this account with the book of Acts, where nothing is said about the journey of the holy Paul to Arabia? This is easily reconciled, if we place the journey to Arabia between verses 19 and 20 of chapter 9 of Acts. After baptism, having remained “certain days” with the believers and perhaps having preached somewhat, he went to Arabia; after returning from there, he preached more intensely in Damascus, until three years had passed, when the enmity of the unbelievers drove him away. Thus blessed Jerome: “right after baptism, having remained ‘certain days’ in Damascus and, to the amazement of all, having preached in the synagogues several times that Jesus is Christ, he went to Arabia. Returning from Arabia to Damascus, he remained there for three years, which in Scripture are indicated by the words: ‘many days’ (Acts 9:23). After this, learning of the plot against him, he departed from Damascus.” Holy Luke does not mention this circumstance in Acts, perhaps because the holy Paul did not tell him about it, and from others he did not hear of it and did not see the Letter to the Galatians, written before the book of Acts.

Gal. 1:18. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days.

“‘After three years’ – from what time is this? From the time of returning from Arabia to Damascus, or from the time of his conversion? From the time of his conversion. Here the new life of the Apostle began; to this moment, of course, the holy Paul referred everything. And the course of the speech leads to the same conclusion: at once after my conversion, he says, I did not go to Jerusalem (Gal. 1:17); but went there only after three years had passed (Gal. 1:18), – clearly, counting from the same conversion. By this at the same time he gives to understand: so much time passed, and I did not take care, did not consider it extremely necessary to go there, where for all is the source of Christian truth, and yet preached this truth. Whence did I have it? From the same place where it is in Jerusalem. For this reason he says that he went there not to learn, but ‘to see Cephas,’ – to see his face, to become personally acquainted with him. The Greek: ιςορησαι – is used of the observations of travelers. Consequently, he went in order to learn in reality who such Peter is, of whom it was known everywhere that he is the first Apostle. – “Not in order to learn from him, because he himself had the same teacher of the Gospel, but in order to show honor to the first Apostle” (blessed Jerome).”

“Who can be more humble than such a man,” writes the holy Chrysostom, “who, after such great and such many deeds, having no need of Peter, nor of his voice, but being his equal in honor (I will say no more for now), nonetheless comes to him as to one greater and older, and makes the reason for his journey only that he wishes to see Peter? Do you see how he gives the other Apostles their due honor and not only does not consider himself better than all, but does not even equal himself with them? This is shown also by the journey undertaken by him. For as now many of our brethren go to holy men, so also Paul at that time went to Peter, or even with greater humility. For now they journey for benefit; but that blessed one journeyed not in order to learn something, and not for correction of some error of his own, but solely in order to see Peter and honor him by his presence. ‘To see’ (ιςορησαι) Peter, he said, not simply: to see (ιδειν) Peter, but: ‘to see’ – as people usually speak when examining great and famous cities. Thus did he consider it worthy of special care to see this man.”

“And remained with him fifteen days.” The holy Chrysostom writes of these words: “the journey undertaken for Peter demonstrates great respect of Paul for him; and his remaining with him so many days shows friendly disposition and sincere love between them. Do you see how great disposition he has toward Peter? For him he undertook the journey, with him he remained. For this I speak often, wishing that you keep this in memory, so that, when afterward you hear words seemingly against Peter, you should not in anything suspect the Apostle. As a precaution against this, he himself speaks of visiting Peter, so that, when he says: ‘I opposed him to his face’ (Gal. 2:11), – no one should think that these words are the fruit of enmity and contention. For he honors this man and loves him above all, and came to Jerusalem not for any other of the Apostles, but solely for him.” Similar to this is the thought of Ambrosiaster: “he remained with him fifteen days, as his fellow-Apostle of one mind with him. This he declares in order to show that in all things he agrees with the Apostles and in nothing disagrees with them, as the false apostles whispered against him, in order to discredit him in the Churches of the Gentiles and thus more easily sow their evil in simple souls – that their teaching agrees with the teaching of the older Apostles (whereas Paul’s does not).”

Here the holy Paul speaks of himself, that he went to Jerusalem of his own accord, to see Peter; but in Acts it is related that he was forced to depart from Damascus by the plot of those infuriated against him for the preaching about Christ the Savior among the Jews and even Gentiles (2 Cor. 11:32), who agreed to kill him (Acts 9:23–25); and that, having come to Jerusalem, he tried to draw near to the believers, but they shunned him, not knowing that he had turned to Christ, and only after Barnabas brought him to the Apostles and told them how the Lord appeared to him on the way and how he dared to speak in the name of Jesus in Damascus, could he freely enter into communion with all and with the Apostles, went about the houses, daring to speak in the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 9:27–29). In this account of the holy Luke in Acts is contained the external history of the holy Paul, while the holy Paul himself points to what his aims were in those or other circumstances. His desire to see the holy Peter might have arisen before the rising up of the Damascenes against him, and this latter only provided the occasion for the fulfillment of his desire or hastened it. From Damascus he was forced to depart, but to Jerusalem he directed himself because he desired to see the holy Peter. Further, having come to Jerusalem, he did not approach Peter of himself, but was brought to him by Barnabas, and from that time remained with him fifteen days, and together with him and the other Apostles preached the Gospel throughout Jerusalem. The holy Paul does not mention all this in the Letter because, moreover, he makes a brief outline of his life; for his purpose he considered it sufficient to mention only the remaining with the holy Peter, by which were marked the friendly disposition and sincere love between them, according to the word of the holy Chrysostom.

Gal. 1:19. And other apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.

But then, how is it said in Acts that he was brought to the Apostles by Barnabas and walked and preached with them? In Acts, by the word “Apostles” is understood not those of the Twelve, but generally teachers who were sent by the senior Apostles to teach in Jerusalem and the surrounding regions. Such were, besides Barnabas, Silas, Judas, or Barsabas, who later were sent to Antioch with the Apostolic letter and called Prophets (Acts 15:32), and those like them. But in his letter, Saint Paul says that of the present Apostles he saw no one except Peter and James, the Lord’s brother.

But again, so-called brothers of the Lord were not among the Twelve, as is clear from the Gospel accounts (Matt. 12:46; Matt. 13:55; Mark 3:31; Mark 6:3 and so forth). They are first mentioned in the assembly of believers after the Lord’s Ascension (Acts 1:13–14), and then among the preachers of the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:5). But how does Saint Paul here hint that James, the Lord’s brother, was an Apostle, when he says: “I saw no other of the Apostles, only James the Lord’s brother”? Yet these words can be understood thus: no other than Peter of the Apostles did I see, yet I did see another among the eminent ones, namely James, the Lord’s brother. Or it should be understood that James, on account of his holiness and the dignity of his position as overseer of the Jerusalem Church, was regarded on par with the other Apostles and bore the name Apostle, and so was named by Saint Paul.

Blessed Jerome writes of Saint James: “He was the first overseer of that Church which was first gathered in Jerusalem from believers—that is, the first bishop of Jerusalem; he bore the name of the Righteous One and was so holy and honored by the people that they hastened before one another to touch the hem of his garment. That Saint Paul, besides these, saw no other of the Apostles, is not because he did not wish to see them, but because they had gone forth with the preaching of the Gospel.” Saint Chrysostom draws attention to another aspect: “Note,” he says, “with what respect he also named him; for he did not simply say ‘James’ but added to it his honorable name. Thus was he far from any envy! For if he merely wanted to point out the one of whom he spoke, he could have done so using another distinguishing mark; for example, he could have said: the son of Clopas, as the Evangelist said. But he did not speak thus; rather, because he held the honorable titles of the Apostles as his own titles also, and thus as if honoring himself, he magnifies him too. For he did not name him as I have said, but how? The Lord’s brother, though indeed he was not the Lord’s brother according to the flesh, but was so regarded. Yet even this did not stop the Apostle from acknowledging the dignity of this man. And in many other places he shows that he was disposed toward all the Apostles as sincerely as was fitting for him.”

The heterodox much dispute about how James is the Lord’s brother, and in doing so do not shame to speak blasphemies against the Ever-Virgin Mary, the blessed Mother of the Lord, thus bringing upon themselves the anathema pronounced against such by the Third Ecumenical Council. All antiquity held this brotherhood either as a cousinship or as a brother-in-law relationship through Joseph, and only as lawful. Ambrosiaster says that “James is the son of Joseph from a previous wife”; Augustine, that he is “the Lord’s brother either because he is one of the sons of Joseph from another wife, or because he was one of the children of Mary, sister of His Mother.” Saint Chrysostom, as we saw above, holds to the latter explanation, as do Theophylact and Theodoret, who writes: “James was called the Lord’s brother but was not His natural brother. He was not even the son of Joseph, born from his first marriage, as some supposed, but the son of Clopas and cousin to the Lord; because he had for his mother the sister of the Lord’s Mother.” Accepting this opinion, one must moreover hold that Clopas is not the same person as Alphaeus, lest thereby one confuse the so-called brothers of the Lord with the similarly-named Apostles of the Twelve.

Gal. 1:20. Now what I write to you, behold, before God, I do not lie.

What is to be understood by “what I write”? All that Saint Paul has said about himself up to now, especially what he has said about his conversion, about the revelation to him of the Gospel, and that he learned it from none of the Apostles, and yet he agrees with them in everything, being in agreement with the Apostle Peter. From all this it followed that he is a true Apostle of God. When he proclaimed the Gospel to the Galatians, he did not speak to them of this; for he appeared before them as God’s messenger, and was received with full faith in his mission from on high (Gal. 4:14–15). Wherefore there was no need then to speak of such events from which it would be clear that he was sent from above. Now, when false teachers had instilled in the Galatians doubts about this, he clarifies to them through his history that there are no grounds for doubting his Apostolate. And what he had already said was sufficient to confirm this truth; but, to wipe out every trace of doubt and guard them from wavering in the future, he establishes his word with an oath: “behold, before God, I do not lie.” This is the same as in other places: “God is my witness” (Rom. 1:9); “I call God to witness against my soul” (2 Cor. 1:23); “God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ knows that I do not lie” (2 Cor. 11:31). It is evident that Saint Paul often found himself struggling against distrust in him even from those already believed. Saint Chrysostom marvels at the humility of Saint Paul on this occasion: “Do you see the humility of this soul shining everywhere equally? For he, as if standing before a tribunal and preparing to undergo interrogation, was so concerned with his defense.” Blessed Jerome first sets forth the thought of the text: “What I write to you is true; God is my witness that I conceal no lie in my words.” And then he makes a general remark: “This can refer not only to what he now writes to the Galatians, but to all his Letters generally; all that he wrote is not false; his heart and his words do not contradict one another.”

b) Nor from others (Gal. 1:21–24)

Having explained that he did not see the Apostles, and yet showed himself to be in no disagreement with them in the teaching which he was already proclaiming for three years, from which it followed that his teaching came from the same source as theirs—Saint Paul now briefly explains that he had no dealings with other believers either, that consequently from them he could hear nothing about the faith, yet they, hearing of his labors in spreading the faith, glorified God; from which it likewise followed that his teaching agrees with that of the Universal Churches planted by the Apostles in the cities and villages of the Jews, and consequently comes from the same source with them.

Gal. 1:21. Then I came to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

That is, apart from Judea and Palestine, where Churches were planted by the Apostles and where, probably, at this very time those planters of the faith who had seen the Lord continued to work. Thus, “he did not meet the Apostles even by chance” (Saint Chrysostom). And with other believers, among whom there could be strong knowers of the faith, he had no dealings. All points to the fact that his teaching depends on no one among men, and yet it agrees with the Apostolic teaching, which is from the Lord. It is obvious of itself what follows from this.

It is written in Acts that Saint Paul, living in Jerusalem, dared to speak boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed with the Hellenists, that is, with Jews living among the Gentiles and who happened to be in Jerusalem at that time, and they became angry with him and sought to kill him. This compelled him to depart from Jerusalem, and the believers for his safety conducted him to Caesarea, from which he set out for Tarsus, his native city (Acts 9:29–30). The journey lay through Syria. Paul perhaps only passed through Syria at that time, but in Cilicia he surely preached. It was hard for him to refrain from proclaiming the Gospel, which filled his heart with inexhaustible joy for salvation, in the place of his birth. That he truly preached there and even founded Churches can be concluded from the fact that, when he later passed through Syria and Cilicia on his second journey, he strengthened the Churches (Acts 15:41). How could he strengthen them if he had not planted them before? Wherefore Saint Chrysostom writes: “After his meeting with Peter, he begins again the word of preaching and the present labor, not approaching the Jews, both because he was sent to the Gentiles and because he did not wish to build on another’s foundation.” And likewise Jerome: “He went to Cilicia, desiring to bring it to faith in Christ, preaching to it the call to repentance.”

Gal. 1:23. They had not known me by face in the churches of Judea which were in Christ; they only had heard that he who once persecuted us now preaches the faith which once he tried to destroy.

The churches in Judea—those which, besides Jerusalem, were planted throughout Judea. “Believers in Christ were not only in Jerusalem; there were many throughout all Judea, so that whole Churches were formed from them” (Blessed Augustine). It must be supposed that the holy Apostles, before they dispersed to different lands, called to the faith the Jews living in Palestine, and, having planted Churches here and strengthened them, turned their attention also to other peoples. These Churches did not know Saint Paul in person, but only heard of his conversion and his labors in Gospel preaching. Report came to them also from Christians who said: our persecutor is now preaching the faith we believe; which they themselves afterwards repeated. This filled them with joy and moved them to glorify God!

What ought the Galatians to have concluded from these words? First of all they should have thought: how then did our new teachers say of Saint Paul that he teaches circumcision among the Jews, when he had not even seen those Christians? So Saint Chrysostom: “what did he mean to say by: ‘I was not known by face to the churches of Judea’? That he was so far from preaching circumcision to them that he was not even known to them in person.” And the same from Ecumenius: “Not only, he says, did I not teach those who believed from circumcision that they ought to be circumcised (for they slandered him, saying that he taught circumcised believers to practice circumcision), not only, he says, did I not teach this, but they had not even seen my face.”

And this was made clear: that Saint Paul, unable to learn the faith from the senior Apostles, heard nothing about it from other believers either. So Photius in Ecumenius: “I did not learn from Peter, but only saw him; I did not learn from James and only saw him; I did not learn from anyone else of lower rank, no one of lesser importance. Could I have learned from those who had not even seen my face? But if they rejoiced that the one who persecuted the faith now preached it, did this not mean that the faith preached by them was the same as the faith of those who rejoiced at this good news?”

Gal. 1:24. And they glorified God because of me.

They saw in his conversion the finger of God, manifest confirmation of the truth of the Gospel, a sign of God’s blessing upon the faith, and were more firmly established in faith, and, rejoicing at this, glorified God, who had accomplished it. “Observing the sudden change, that a wolf was doing what is proper to shepherds, they turned what happened to me into an occasion for glorifying God” (Blessed Theodoret). “He did not say: they were amazed at me, they praised me, they were astonished at me, but showed that all this was the work of grace: ‘and they glorified,’ he says, ‘God’ because of me” (Saint Chrysostom). “They glorified God because of me—not such and such a teacher, but God Himself. For He Himself revealed to me and taught me to preach” (Ecumenius). Now Paul speaks of this, giving to understand that the believers from among the Jews were not against him, were of one spirit with him, held the same principles, and that consequently those false teachers who disagreed with him disagreed with all believers. “The believers,” he says, “from among the Jews, whom he had formerly persecuted, rejoiced and thanked God that He had made him from a persecutor a defender of the faith, intending to make the Galatians understand that they were deceived and that under the name of Christians they would be the same as the Jews if they should circumcise their flesh; for the Law of Christ requires something different than Judaism: there circumcision of the flesh, here circumcision of the heart; there they serve God with elements, here with the Spirit” (Ambrosiaster).

3) Concerning the agreement of Saint Paul’s teaching with that of the other Apostles, WHICH WAS SOLEMNLY CONFIRMED at the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem (Gal. 2:1–10).

Up to now Saint Paul has been proving that he received the Gospel not from anyone among men, but directly from God Himself, and that consequently he is a true Apostle. Now he wishes to show that the other Apostles also recognized him as such and his teaching to be unchangeably true. He has been led to this demonstration by the course of his argument and necessarily had to do this. The thought advanced is that Saint Paul came to know and understand the Gospel he preaches independently of the Apostles or from anyone else. They could have objected to him: so you have a different teaching, not such as that of those Apostles who saw and heard the Lord. Teaching differently from them, you preach your own teaching, not the Lord’s, you devised it yourself. Against this Saint Paul now speaks: I went to Jerusalem to the senior Apostles, and they approved my teaching as agreeing with theirs. If, then, their teaching is divine, so is mine.

In recounting this circumstance, Saint Paul indicates: a) the impulse and purpose of his journey to Jerusalem (Gal. 2:1–2); b) how he was received by the Christians there (Gal. 2:3–5); c) and how the senior Apostles regarded him—the main subject of this section (Gal. 2:6–10).

The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

A divine impulse moved Saint Paul to go to Jerusalem; he intended thereby to set before the senior Apostles how he teaches, lest he be running in vain.

Gal. 2:1–2. Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up by revelation and set before them the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but in private before those of repute, lest perhaps I was running or had run in vain.

After his first time in Jerusalem, three years after his conversion, Saint Paul withdrew to Cilicia. From there Saint Barnabas called him to Antioch, that together they might more successfully build up the church there. In the year 44 there was a famine under the Emperor Claudius. The prophet Agabus, who had come from Jerusalem to Antioch, moved the Antiochians to send relief to the brothers living in Jerusalem. They collected, “as each one had,” and sent alms to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul (Acts 11:28–30). Of this second visit to Jerusalem Saint Paul does not make mention; he passed over it because it presented nothing great for the purposes of his Letter. After this time in Jerusalem Saint Paul with Barnabas, by divine instruction, traveled to preach in Cyprus and in the regions of Pamphylia and Lycaonia in Asia Minor. When they returned again to Antioch and remained there “no little time with the disciples” (Acts 14:28), there “came down some men from Judea” and began to teach the Antiochians that unless they were circumcised according to the custom of Moses, they could not be saved. Saint Paul and Barnabas defended Gospel freedom, but did not succeed in quieting the congregation. It was decided to send Paul and Barnabas and certain others “to the Apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this question” (Acts 15:1–2). Of this going, his third journey, Saint Paul now makes mention in his Letter to the Galatians. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Paul and Barnabas spent much time in Antioch and won over very many of the Gentiles, commanding them to live according to the law of grace. But some defenders of the law, coming from Judea, attempted to persuade those who believed from among the Gentiles to desire a life according to the law. The great preachers of truth, Barnabas and Paul, rejected their teaching. Wishing to convince the assembly of believers that this was pleasing also to the great Apostles, they went to Judea, informed the Apostles of what they had done, and brought Letters which clearly commanded not to lay upon the Gentiles the yoke of the law, but to ‘abstain from things offered to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication’ (Acts 15:29). This, I believe, is what the Divine Apostle is here recounting.”

Some think that what is spoken of here is Paul’s second visit to Jerusalem with the alms; others suppose it is of some visit after the Council. The latter opinion cannot be accepted because after the Council shortly thereafter the holy Paul and Barnabas went different ways on preaching journeys and did not meet again. Nor can the first opinion be accepted because there is insufficient time. The famine was in the year 44, which would be the eighth or ninth year after Saint Paul’s conversion; yet he says “after fourteen years.” And moreover, this opinion cannot be accepted because at that time there was persecution of Christians in Jerusalem from Herod: the apostle James, son of Zebedee, was killed; Saint Peter was in prison (Acts 12). Consequently, at that time it would have been unsuitable to hold a council, and there would have been no one to convene it. Thus both these suppositions present difficulties, whereas, comparing the account in Acts of the Apostolic Council with what Saint Paul says here, one cannot but see perfect agreement between them. The difference lies only in this: that Saint Paul speaks more of his own aims, under divine guidance, and of the significance of the Council specifically for his preaching, as the purposes of his Letter required—more than of the actual proceedings of the Council and other details of the matter.

Why does Saint Paul set forth this account of years? In order to impress upon them that for so long a time he had been preaching the Gospel without communication with the senior Apostles, and yet it turned out to be in agreement with their teaching. How could this have come to pass? Only because his teaching also came from the same Source as theirs, that is, from God, who revealed His will to mankind concerning salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“I went up with Barnabas, taking Titus with me.” Barnabas, a Cypriot from among the Jews, who believed before Saint Paul and at first guided him, but afterward yielded him the preeminence; Titus, of pagan Gentile parents, converted or finally established in the faith by Saint Paul and baptized without circumcision, and then, by the gifts given to him, taken by Paul as his companion and co-worker. In Acts it is said only that with Saints Paul and Barnabas certain others went to Jerusalem (Acts 15:2), without naming them. Among these others was Titus. But there was no need to name him separately from the others; here Saint Paul had a particular reason: he wished to show that if he dared bring an uncircumcised man into the midst of those attached to the Law, this meant that in defending Gospel freedom he would not shrink from any obstacle; and on the other hand, that he had no thought he would be rebuked for this in Jerusalem by those who rightly understood the matter of Christian faith. Blessed Jerome writes: “The holy Paul took with him Barnabas, who was circumcised, and Titus, who was uncircumcised, from among the Gentiles, so that ‘at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established’ (Deut. 19:15). Hereby he shows that if he resolved to bring with him Titus uncircumcised to those who knew that he was abolishing circumcision, he did this for the sake of Christian faith and Gospel freedom.”

“I went up by revelation,”—that is, by divine impulse, indication, command from on high. “He makes the reason for the first ascent to Jerusalem to be Peter and the meeting with him, whereas the reason for the second is a revelation of the Spirit” (Saint Chrysostom). “He speaks thus in order to reassure those who might wonder why, after so long a time, he finally went there. By saying ‘by revelation,’ he made it clear that this was the will of God” (Blessed Augustine). “He added ‘by revelation’ so that you would not judge him to be foolish, seeing that what he did was not a human affair but a work of divine Providence, which ordains both the present and the future” (Saint Chrysostom).

That Acts says Paul and Barnabas were sent by the Church of Antioch does not contradict this. That is the external course of events, whereas this is the hidden direction determined by impulses from on high. This latter is fitting in its place. This revelation was known to the Apostle Paul alone and was either before or during the decision of the Antiochian assembly. Saint Luke did not know of this circumstance and did not mention it in Acts. What marvel is it that there was also a revelation to Saint Paul about this, when his entire life was directed by impulses from on high? He was converted by the appearance of the Lord (Acts 9:3); the Lord appeared to him in the temple and commanded him to depart from Jerusalem on his first time there (Acts 22:17-18); at another time he was caught up to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:1 and onward); the Spirit of God forbade him to go to Asia or Bithynia, and a night vision directed him to Macedonia (Acts 16:6-9); in Corinth the Lord in a night vision encouraged him: “Do not be afraid; I am with you; there are many people in this city who belong to me” (Acts 18:9-10); and again in Jerusalem when he was seized and put in bonds (Acts 23:11). It can be supposed that not all the divine guidances given to him have been remarked.

In the present case the importance of the matter seemed to require a special impulse from on high. The time had come to solemnly determine and express the relationship of the old covenant ordinances to Christianity, of grace to the Law. Seven or eight years before this, it had been made clear to Saint Peter that uncircumcision does not close off the entrance of God’s grace into the souls of believers. On this occasion there arose a movement in Jerusalem among those attached to the Law. Saint Peter assured them that it was God’s will to receive the uncircumcised into the Church for faith’s sake alone, without circumcision. From that time the conviction of this began to spread increasingly. Yet many remained wavering. Meanwhile the successes of the Gospel among the Gentiles expanded through the preaching of Saint Paul with Barnabas. Report of this held everyone’s attention on this same matter, and troubled some while comforting and encouraging others. The time had come to solemnly determine and declare that the ancient Law was not an instrument of grace nor a condition for receiving it, but that it comes down by another, new path. During his preaching Saint Paul had already gained enough experiences assuring him of the needlessness of the Law for the children of grace. His account of this was to incline all voices to this side. And so came the command from the Lord to Saint Paul to go to Jerusalem with this question.

Saint John of Damascus writes: “In the beginning, when Saint Paul had just received the Gospel, he did not go to Jerusalem and did not present it to the Apostles. He himself had no need of this, being taught by Christ the Lord Himself. Yet when enough time had passed and he had long preached the Gospel among the Gentiles without requiring them to be circumcised, some were scandalized, seeing that Peter and those with him did not abolish circumcision, but this one alone did so. Wherefore the Holy Spirit, wishing to cut off this scandal, commanded him to go with witnesses of his preaching and to set before the Apostles how he preaches the Gospel, so that their agreement with him would be manifest and the scandal thereby ended.” Ecumenius, having stated the same thought, added: “so that it might be revealed that there is no discord in preaching, but that those (Peter and those with him) are accommodating to circumcision by a certain stewardship (allowing it as a measure of prudence).” The same word is found in Ambrosiaster: “While the fame of the successes of Saint Paul’s preaching was growing, there spread among those believers from among the Jews who had not yet fully rejected the Law the opinion that he was teaching contrary to the other Apostles. This scandalized many, so that even among the Gentiles disturbing thoughts could arise: is not Saint Paul introducing some other teaching among them different from what the other Apostles, who were with the Lord, hand down? Wherefore Paul was instructed from on high to go to Jerusalem with witnesses of his preaching—Barnabas and Titus, one a Jew, the other a Gentile—so that if anyone afterward were scandalized, he would be reassured by their testimony (that is, the testimony of both that the other Apostles agreed with Paul). He proclaimed to all how he had taught and with what success, so that they might know that he had not departed from the rule of the Gospel. He did this for the sake of concord and peace, by divine instruction, to turn away from himself suspicion of disagreement with them, and so that this might serve for the benefit of the Gentiles, informing them that his Gospel was in agreement with the Apostles.”

“I laid before them”—in Greek, as it were laid upon them, or as it were submitted the whole matter to their judgment. Jerome says: “ανεθεμην—expresses when we communicate to another what we ourselves know, as if placing it in his heart and mind. But one thing means to communicate something, another to learn something. Among those who communicate (their thoughts to one another) there is equality, whereas between the learner and the teacher, the one who learns is inferior.”

I laid before “them.” Whom do “them” mean? If we read the thought from above, it means the Apostles. After my conversion, he says, I did not immediately go to the senior Apostles; I went after three years to see Peter and, except for him, I saw only James; then, after fourteen years, I went and laid my Gospel before them. With this word the thought rests upon the Apostles. And in Acts too it is said that the church at Antioch sent Saints Paul and Barnabas to the Apostles and elders (Acts 15:2). Yet if we pay attention to the following words: “but in private to those of repute,” then “them” will mean the same as all the Christians there—both Apostles and elders and all believers. I conducted an open discourse before all about my preaching and God’s grace manifested among the Gentiles. From Acts it is evident that Saint Paul and Barnabas, both on the journey and in Jerusalem, recounted to everyone what God had done through them among the Gentiles (Acts 15:3-4); and they did the same later at the Council itself (Acts 15:12). But in vain do the heterodox hope to prove by this that in the primitive Church the assembly decided matters of faith. Everything was made known to the assembly for its instruction, comfort, and confirmation in faith; the decision of the question belonged to the Apostles and elders, after they had deliberated it thoroughly in private with the greatest among them. The assembly was obliged to receive this decision as law for itself.

“The Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles,”—namely, salvation by faith without the works of the Law. All the justifying and purifying ordinances of the Old Testament were replaced by faith in grace given through the mysteries concerning Christ Jesus, our Lord. Thus taught Saint Paul and established this everywhere in the Churches he gathered, particularly from among the Gentiles. He says “I preach” to indicate the form of Gospel preaching established once for all, his unchanging catechism. “I went up,” he says, “by revelation and laid before them.” Surely this too was by revelation. It was in the purposes of Providence; this was necessary according to the degree of the Church’s education, which the Lord Himself was conducting.

“But in private to those of repute.” Those of repute—the same as in verse 6 “those who seemed to be something” and in verse 9 “those reputed to be pillars,”—those held in high regard among Christians. This is not a disparaging expression but an honorific one. The Greek δοκουσι—those who seem, are shown, stand in view of all, whom all regard as the most reliable guides to the true path of salvation. Theodoret says: “he said: ‘those of repute’—that is, the famous.” Saint Chrysostom writes: “When he says ‘those of repute,’ it is not to deprive them of the respect due to them, for even of himself he says: ‘I also think that I have the Spirit of God’ (1 Cor. 7:40)—which simply means a man who moderates his own standing and does not deny what he possesses. So too here, when he says ‘those of repute,’ he speaks according to the common opinion of them and his own.” Saint Paul set forth his Gospel to them in private. Why in private? Because not all among the believers could yet bear everything. Prudence required that some things be passed over in silence until the fitting time. And again, in private it was easier to discuss difficulties that might arise or unclear aspects of the matter. All of this signified that Saint Paul was in the close and mutually trustful relations with the chief Apostles—an important point for the purposes of his Letter.

Blessed Augustine says: “That Paul set forth his Gospel separately to those who were greatest in the Church, after he had set it forth to all, was not done because what was spoken to all there was untrue, and what was true was spoken to the few here; but because he held back publicly what infants in the faith could not yet bear, as he himself says, he gave milk and not solid food even to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 3:2). One must never lie; but sometimes it is useful to be silent about some truth.‘The same thought appears in Blessed Jerome. Saint Chrysostom writes:’Why in private? Whoever wishes to reform matters of common doctrine sets them forth not in private but before all. But Paul did not do this. For he did not wish to learn something or correct anything, but rather to remove the occasion for deception from those who wished to seduce others. When everyone in Jerusalem was scandalized if anyone allowed departing from the Law and forbade the use of circumcision (for this reason James even said: ‘You see, brother, how many thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and they are all zealous for the Law. They have been told about you that you teach all the Jews living among the Gentiles to forsake Moses’ (Acts 21:20); when I say scandalized, he did not dare openly before all to set forth his preaching, but laid it before ‘in private, before those of repute,’ with Barnabas and Titus, so that they would be reliable witnesses before his accusers that even the Apostles found nothing wrong with his preaching, but on the contrary confirmed it.”

“That I might not run in vain, or have run in vain”. These words directly suggest that Saint Paul is entering into consultation with the senior Apostles in order to assure himself that he is acting rightly. But in one who has been taught the Gospel from above, directly from the Lord Himself, such wavering about the truthfulness of the Gospel cannot be supposed, especially given the circumstance that he also came to Jerusalem to present his Gospel by revelation. Therefore, we must understand that the Apostle acted this way not for his own assurance, not whether he was running in vain, but for the assurance of others—one could say, all others besides himself. Saint Chrysostom brings out very forcefully the inappropriateness of such doubt in Saint Paul: “What do you say, Paul? When you didn’t make up your mind to present it at first, or within three years, how after already fourteen years pass do you ask whether you are running in vain? How much better it would have been to do this right at the beginning rather than after so many years! Why then did you labour at all? Who could be so foolish as to preach for so many years and not know whether he is preaching well?… So we cannot agree that this blessed soul was in such uncertainty about his own actions. Does he not himself say: ‘I run thus, not uncertainly; thus I fight, not as one beating the air’ (1 Cor. 9:26)? And if ‘not uncertainly,’ how could he say of himself: ‘That I might not run in vain, or have run in vain’?”

A little above (at the 17th verse of the 1st chapter) Saint Chrysostom also speaks of the very ascent to Jerusalem, saying it was undertaken by Saint Paul not for his own sake, but for others: “He did not come there in order to learn, but in order to convince others. For from the very beginning he held the same opinion that the Apostles later affirmed—namely, that one should not be circumcised. But since others still considered him unworthy of trust and preferred to believe those who were in Jerusalem, he went there not in order to learn something greater, but to convince his opponents that those in Jerusalem agreed with him on this. So from the very beginning he saw what needed to be done, and had no need of a teacher; so that in what the Apostles confirmed after lengthy deliberation, he was immovably established from above even before their deliberation. Luke, declaring this, said that Paul argued much and at length against this matter even before his journey to Jerusalem (Acts 15:2).”

For whom exactly was this done? Some say it was for the opponents of Saint Paul, some for the believers generally, some for the churches founded by Saint Paul, some for the work of his preaching in general. The opponents of Saint Paul taught that without observing the old law there is no salvation, and that whoever teaches otherwise labours in vain, acts not according to God’s plan, builds not on a firm foundation. From this it followed that Saint Paul, who did not bind them to circumcision and other Jewish practices, was running in vain. In support of this they pointed to the other Apostles, saying in effect: those ones act according to God’s wisdom, the direct disciples of the Lord, do not oppose the observance of the law and therefore do not run in vain; but this one runs in vain. Saint Paul, having now set forth before all and privately his Gospel, which he preaches, and having summoned the common agreement and solemn, declared at the Council, approval of his teaching, demolished the foundation on which his opponents were relying, and closed their mouths. Now it became clear to all that if he agrees with the Apostles in everything, then he also acts according to God’s wisdom, builds on a firm foundation like the others, and consequently does not run in vain. He speaks as if to say: so that my enemies may not have grounds to say I am running in vain or have run in vain, and so that others, hearing their slanders against me, that I preach differently from the Apostles, may not yield to their insinuations that I labour in vain. Blessed Jerome remarks that adherents of the law “spread the notion that he runs in vain who thinks the old law should not be observed.” These were the critics of Saint Paul, and Saint Chrysostom holds that they “respected Peter and John more and thought that he (Saint Paul) did not agree with them, since he preached the Gospel without circumcision, while they tolerated it, and therefore they thought he was acting against the law and labouring in vain. Therefore, he says, I went up and laid before them the Gospel, not so that I myself might learn something from them, but so that I might convince those people that I am not running in vain.” After this, all those whom the critics of Saint Paul might have led astray were guarded from the danger of being deceived by them, being convinced that the teaching of Saint Paul was the common teaching of all the messengers sent by God to proclaim the saving truth. Saint Paul’s preaching received through this a firm foundation, and there was no longer any danger that he might run in vain, that is, that anyone should hope to detach from him those who had embraced his teaching and thus render his labour fruitless. Some paraphrase it thus: “That I might not run in vain”—so that my labour might not be lost or so that nothing from my labour might be lost. The thought is presupposed: you convert someone, but then these come along and persuade them that there is indeed a divinely-granted teaching on earth, but in its present form it is taught only by the senior Apostles, while this one disagrees with them—they persuade them of this and tear away from the truth those who have already embraced it: my labour becomes vain. So that this might not happen either to those who have already believed or to those who are to believe, I now, by God’s inspiration, secure the common approval of all for the Gospel which I preach, so that the mouths of false teachers may be closed and the one truth of God concerning Christ Jesus our Lord may triumph.

Titus Not Compelled to Be Circumcised; the False Brethren (Galatians 2:3–5)

Having explained why he was in Jerusalem and what he did there, Paul now speaks of how he was received by the Christians there. All the brothers, he says, received us as we were, having shed all constraints imposed by Jewish prescriptions, as they demonstrated by their communion with Titus, who was uncircumcised (Gal. 2:3). False brothers, zealots for the law, came near in order to shake us, but they succeeded in nothing (Gal. 2:4), so that the freedom of the Gospel was vindicated by us before all (Gal. 2:5)

Gal. 2:3. But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.

Titus, a believer from among the Gentiles, uncircumcised, was with me everywhere in the midst of Christians from the Jews and, despite his uncircumcision, was accepted by all into communion. That community presented no difficulty to communion with Titus, which proved more forcefully than any words their conviction that circumcision and uncircumcision make no difference among those who have believed in the Lord. “Not compelled”—either he was not compelled at all, that is, there was no mention of it; or he was not forced, although they urged and pressed him. The latter could only be expected from false brothers, who did not understand the conditions of salvation, about which there is special discussion; they demanded not only circumcision but the observance of the whole law and all precepts. Who compelled him—the Apostles alone or also the Christian community? Since the Apostle says ahead that he set forth his teaching both before all and privately to the Apostles; so here it is understood that Titus was compelled by no one, neither Apostles nor believers who judged rightly about the relation of the Mosaic law to Christianity, though of course the Apostles were guiding. Our ancient interpreters say that the Apostles did not force Titus to be circumcised, though some desired it. If some desired it, certainly the false brothers, then some did not desire it. The affair happened openly. The false brothers would have liked to circumcise him, but the Apostles and the true brothers did not agree to it and left Titus free. It appears here that Apostle Paul intends to single out from the company of rightly-believing brothers these false brothers, adherents of the law, giving to understand that they were like some isolated group, going stubbornly against all.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “this is itself the strongest proof that even in the opinion of the Apostles believers from the Gentiles should not keep the law, for Titus, who was uncircumcised and called from the Greeks, was not prescribed to be circumcised, although very many desired the opposite.” Saint John of Damascus says that Titus’s uncircumcision “was the strongest proof that the Apostles did not condemn Saint Paul for not circumcising Gentiles.” Ambrosiaster adds: “and it is implied: why then are you Galatians circumcised, when Titus was not forced to be circumcised by the chief Apostles, but was accepted into communion uncircumcised?” Other interpreters of ours dwell more on how the Apostles themselves tolerated circumcision in Jerusalem. To this there is one answer among all: it was by a certain economy, that is, permitted for a time as a measure of wisdom, not as an unchanging rule. Ecumenius says that the non-compulsion of Titus to be circumcised serves as “proof that Peter and his companions do not legislate circumcision, but, by condescension to those who believed from the Jews, permit it.” Theophylact: “and the Apostles also permitted circumcision not as an inviolable law, but by a certain economy (that is, as a temporary measure of wise condescension to the weak).” Saint Chrysostom explains this more fully: “that the Apostles did not force Titus, who was uncircumcised, to be circumcised, this clearly proves that they did not condemn Paul’s teaching or his actions; and it proved this even more when his opponents, learning of this, insisted on circumcision, the Apostles did not command this to be done; to which very point he indicates with the words: ‘because of the false brothers who came in’. Who were these false brothers? This here requires explanation. If the Apostles permitted circumcision, why do you call false brothers those who, with the knowledge of the Apostles, commanded this to be done? First, to demand something be done is not the same as to permit what is being done. One who demands insists that his demand, as necessary and important, be fulfilled; but one who does not demand but only does not forbid the willing, permits a certain action not as something that ought to be and is necessary, but by some particular arrangement. So here the Apostles, although they permitted circumcision, did so not as defenders of the law, but by condescension to the weakness of the Jews. But if they had defended the law, they would not have acted one way regarding the Jews and another way regarding the Gentiles; for what was necessary to do according to the law of Christ for one group, the same, of course, would have been necessary for the other. But if they established as a rule not to compel Gentiles to circumcision, then they showed that they permitted this to the Jews only by condescension. The false brothers, however, did so not with this intention, but in order to tear away believers from grace and again subject them under the yoke of bondage. And this is the first distinction, placing a great wall between the Apostles and the false brothers. The second is that the Apostles did this in Judea, where the law was still so powerful; but the false brothers did this everywhere, for they wished to enslave all the Galatians. From this it is evident that the latter did so not for building up, but for utter destruction.”

Gal. 2:4–5. And this was because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. To them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, that the truth of the Gospel might remain with you.

All our ancient interpreters do not separate the word: “and because of the false brothers”—from the preceding verse and connect the speech thus: Titus was not compelled to be circumcised, even because of the false brothers who came. Thus Saint Chrysostom, as is evident from the preceding quotation. Thus Blessed Theodoret, even though in the Greek it says not: “and because of”—but: “because of those false brothers who came.” “The conjunction ‘who came’,” he says, “is extraneous to the structure of the speech. For the sense of these words is thus: And Titus, although he was a Greek, was not compelled to be circumcised on account of the false brothers who came.” Thus Saint John of Damascus: “The Apostles did not compel the uncircumcised Titus to be circumcised, though the false brothers who came were watching and demanding circumcision.” Photius in Ecumenius: “even seeing the false brothers present.” Ecumenius himself: “not even on account of the false brothers who came.” And Theophylact the same. And among the Latin teachers Blessed Augustine writes: “Because of the false brothers who came, Titus was not compelled to be circumcised; that is, it was impossible to wring agreement to circumcision from him, although those who came to spy out our freedom very much desired that Titus be circumcised, so that they might then preach that circumcision is necessary for salvation, by the agreement and testimony of the Apostle Paul himself.” Thus all antiquity maintains this kind of connection of the speech; and we ought not to depart from them. Our Slavonic translation does not depart from them.

Modern non-Orthodox interpreters hold that here begins a separate statement by Saint Paul, to which the particle “who came” compels them, of which Blessed Theodoret spoke. This reading is indeed maintained precisely; but the flow of the speech becomes confused. For: “because of the false brothers who came,”—such and such,—“to them we did not yield…” turns out disjointed. To give the speech coherence, they make various suppositions, sometimes very awkward.

Who were these false brothers? They were brothers, that is, believers in the Lord and baptized ones, but false brothers, that is, those holding false principles, supposing that with faith in the Lord it was necessary also to observe the old law in order to be saved. And in this, their faith concerning the Person of the Saviour could not be true, and further, their whole moral character. Consequently, outwardly they were Christians, but inwardly they did not have a Christian disposition. There were many among the believing Jews who held to the law—in Jerusalem, one could say, all of them. But among them some held to it by habit only, no longer considering its observance a necessary condition of salvation, while others held to it in precisely this sense, thinking that without it one could not be saved. And among these, some, having formed such convictions, lived quietly by themselves, while others came forward as active fighters for the truth and were zealous to impart their convictions to all. Those who came to Antioch and raised a dispute there were among their number. Among their number were also these who now crept in to Saint Paul and his companions to watch how they lived, whether in a Jewish manner.

“Because of false brothers secretly brought in,” παρεισακτους,—brought in, secretly introduced; “who came in” παρεισηλθον,—as if they crept in. This, of course, was not into Christian society in general, but into the house where Apostle Paul was with his companions. They entered the Church of Christ by faith in the Lord, and they had no thought about how they ought to relate to the law; they were convinced that the law would remain in force and that, by accepting faith in Christ, they were becoming true Jews, complete, according to all the prophetic promises. Having seen, after the baptism of Cornelius, that Christians had taken a road on which the law could not maintain among them the force that they gave it, and yet unwilling to return to Judaism, they determined to uphold the law alongside faith and began to act in this spirit. Nevertheless, they were tolerated for a long time in the Church: they were not excommunicated, in hope of their coming to their senses and repentance.

“Came in to spy.” The very word “came in” shows something base in them, as if they crept in secretly, under the pretence of brotherhood. And: “to spy”—reveals even more their base intentions, as if to observe what was said and done there, so as to use it against them afterwards. Ambrosiaster writes: “they came with cunning, presenting themselves as brothers when they were enemies… they entered with humility, pretending to be friends.” The same with Ecumenius: “see how he presents them as enemies who came to harm the faith,—first, in that he says ‘came in’—secretly, with ill intent they crept in; second, in that he says ‘to spy’; for a spy spies with the intent to harm and do evil.” Saint Chrysostom more fully: “Do you see how by calling them spies he expressed their hostility? For spies enter only in order to, having espied the affairs of their opponents, prepare themselves the most suitable means to defeat and overthrow them; so also did the false brothers act then, wishing to enslave to that old-covenant bondage. For this reason it is also evident from this that the intention of the Apostles and the false brothers was not one, but very different and opposite. For the Apostles condescended so as gradually to lead out from bondage; but these, on the contrary, arranged it so as to subject to even greater bondage. Therefore they carefully watched and observed who was circumcised, to which very thing Paul alludes and says: ‘came in to spy out the freedom we have in Christ Jesus,’—indicating their cunning not only by the name of spies, but also in that they came secretly and like thieves.”

“To spy out the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, by His cross-bearing death, which replaced all the sacrifices and rites of the old covenant—propitiatory, justifying, and sanctifying—and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, which in the mysteries renews our nature, freed believers in Him from the yoke of the precepts of the Mosaic law, made them no longer necessary. Those who drew near to the Lord in faith, by the very fact that they drew near to Him, received all that the old law only prefigured in promise, and consequently, by the very nature of that spiritual state into which faith placed them, became free from it. The Apostle by this expression points both to the freedom that all believers ought to have, and to the freedom that he and his companions actually possessed, having cast off all the bonds of the law. In Jerusalem, even those who rightly understood the power of faith in the Lord kept to the legal observances by habit. Saint Paul, as soon as he believed, abandoned the law to which he had been so devoted. In this same freedom he also trained all believers according to his Gospel, not Gentiles only, but also Jews. The Jerusalem believers could not see this freedom anywhere more clearly than in Paul and those who were with him. They appeared in Jerusalem as representatives of the way of life renewed in Christ Jesus, pure from every trace of Judaism and all the more of paganism. For this reason they could be a subject of curiosity for everyone. Everyone was curious to see how these lived and were saved, while not keeping the practices that were then in use and were considered necessary marks of a pious Jew.

But the false brothers were drawn there not by curiosity alone. They had a hidden purpose, which Saint Paul indicates with the words: “that they might bring us into bondage.” They crept in to Saint Paul secretly, and crept in with the intent to spy out his freedom and that of those who were with him; but they also had this in mind—not to limit themselves to mere observation. Zeal for the law drove them there, so that, noting the disobedience to the law, they might make efforts to return those who had freed themselves from it back under its yoke. The words of Saint Paul suggest that they did make such attempts. But how could they do this? Of course, they had no authority to do so. One might suppose this if they had been acting in the name of the Apostles; but from the course of the whole affair it is evident that they had already separated from the Apostles and were acting independently of them. By their mere presence? Perhaps they were important persons among the Jews, and their number was considerable. By both these means they could exert powerful influence over Apostle Paul and those with him, and shake their firmness now with respect, now with the threat of discord, now with some fear. But more directly they engaged in discussion and tried to persuade. Their zeal could not allow them to be silent. It is evident that on their part there was considerable pressure. But they accomplished nothing. Not without effort, however, did this proceed for the Apostle; which is why it was memorable, as one can conclude from the following words.

“To them we did not yield in submission.” As we say: not for a moment or not an inch did we give in. Consequently, there was a struggle: some attacked, others defended.—In Greek: ειξαμεν τη υποταγη — we did not yield to submission. The thought: either we did not yield in submission, submissively, without contradiction, or we did not yield to submission to the law, neither wholly nor in part—we did not agree to return to any works of the law, neither great ones like circumcision, nor small ones like, for example, prescriptions about food, washings, and so forth. In the Slavonic translation the latter thought is maintained; the Russian translation, to express the same thought more clearly, uses a paraphrase: we did not yield and did not submit. Those had the thought not merely to dispute, but in deed to subject to the law. “Note the loftiness and expressiveness of these words,” says Saint Chrysostom. “He did not say: ‘to their word’ (did not submit), but: ‘to submission’ (that is, their effort to subdue). For they did this not to teach something beneficial, but to subject and enslave.”—Saint John of Damascus: “not for a moment did we yield to them, that is, to those who came, so as not to be saying one thing and doing another.”

“That the truth of the Gospel might remain with you.” That is, that the truth of salvation in the One Lord Jesus Christ, or Christianity in general, in its whole constitution, might remain pure and unmixed among you, the believers from the Gentiles: for among the Jews there are still many attachments that hinder it from appearing so, attachments which the wisdom of those who direct the affairs of Christ constrained them to consider. Had Saint Paul yielded here and agreed to accept even something of Judaism, this admixture would have spread also throughout the entire Church of the Gentiles, and the truth of the Gospel would not have remained on earth as it ought to be. “With you”—the speech is addressed to the Galatians, inasmuch as they are believers from the Gentiles. In this case he regards them as representatives of Gentile Christians and speaks in their person of all such. Saint Chrysostom says: “so that what we taught you in words, this to confirm also in deeds, that is, that ‘old things have passed away, and all things have become new; and if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation’ (2 Cor. 5:17); and that ‘Christ will be of no advantage to those who are circumcised’ (Gal. 5:2)—confirming this truth, we did not yield to them even for an hour.” Theophylact adds: “so that there may remain firm and changeless true what we preached to you. By resisting them, we showed that we truly proclaimed to you the abolition of the law. Do not turn away from this truth.”

Blessed Jerome directs his interpretation toward the purposes of the Epistle and draws from the words of the Apostle a powerful lesson for the Galatians: “In the midst of such a multitude of Jews, his enemies, who out of zeal for the law would have exhausted all his blood, neither he himself nor Titus yielded from any fear or necessity; although they could have been excused if they had not endured the hatred of so many and so great—and had yielded… He speaks as if to say: threatening with threats and overwhelming us by their great number, they wanted to plunge us again from the freedom of Christ under the yoke of the law; but not for a moment did we yield to them, although in this case necessity to preserve the peace of the Church could have excused us. And we did this in order to give you no cause for falling away from grace. So then, if we, being in Jerusalem, surrounded by such a multitude of Jews and false brothers, in the face of the condescension of the senior Apostles, could by no power be compelled to fulfil the rite of circumcision, which they recognized as having already lost its force; how you, from the Gentiles, you, living in Galatia (that is, far from the Jews), you to whom no influential compulsion could be applied—how you, falling away from grace, have determined to subject yourselves to an obsolete law?”

The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Having explained how the believers and these zealots of the law received him, Paul now speaks of how the senior Apostles regarded him. As for the most eminent among us, he says, there was no difference between me and them, no disagreement in teaching, no distinction in authority. They added nothing to my teaching or to my authority. On the contrary, clearly perceiving the grace of God both in my selection and in my preaching, they gave me the right hand of fellowship with Barnabas, that is, they fully agreed that I, with them, should preach authoritatively the Gospel among the Gentiles, in the same spirit as I had preached until then, as they learned from my conversations with them—in what spirit I preach it now, in what spirit I preached it also among you (Gal. 2:6–10). The general thought of this section is quite clear in itself; but certain expressions of Saint Paul are rather difficult to interpret.

Gal. 2:6. As for those who were reputed to be important—whatever their importance was, it makes no difference to me; God judges not by appearances. Those of reputation added nothing to my teaching.

“Those reputed to be something”—the same as above: “those of repute”—and below: “those reputed to be pillars.” It is not, according to Augustine, that the Apostle wishes to express that they themselves consider themselves to be something important, but rather that all Christians regard them so. Everyone thinks of them that they are not the same as everyone else, are something special, standing out from the ranks. One could paraphrase these words: the most eminent among us.

“Whatever their importance was.” The Greek text: οποιοι ποτε ησαν — allows for this translation: whatever they were at any time (as people). And this, it seems, will be the most suitable translation, according to the flow of the speech and the purpose of the Apostle. The Apostle expresses his thought about the senior Apostles and sets them above all human distinctions, as they indeed are. Comparing himself afterwards to them, he raises his own authority in the eyes of the Galatians, so as to take from them any pretext for not following his teaching. Another translation: whatever they were (that is, the Apostles) at some time, or whatever they may have been at any time, places in difficulty to explain what “at some time” or “at any time” means—suggesting the thought that they ceased to be eminent. Stopping at this translation, one is involuntarily led to ask: when then—at some time? Some answer: when the Lord was seen on earth and they followed Him everywhere (Blessed Jerome). But after the descent of the Holy Spirit, they became more eminent than before. Others: even before the Lord called them to the Apostolate, when they were sinners (Blessed Augustine), simple people, not learned in the law (Ambrosiaster). But Apostle Paul had no need to lead the thought of the Galatians so far, when it contributes nothing to his purposes. Still others: before the confirmation from above, given through Saint Peter, that the door was opened to the Gentiles to enter the Church of Christ without circumcision. The thought: formerly they thought the law was necessary, but now they have ceased to think so (Ecumenius), in which there is no difference between me and them. This, with this translation, comes close to the flow of Saint Paul’s speech. Let us note, however, that this is an incidental proposition which has no bearing on determining the principal thought of the text. Therefore one need not be overly concerned with determining its precise sense precisely.

“There was no difference to me.”—In my view there was no difference, neither in Apostolic authority, which I have the same as they,—nor in teaching, for they too understand salvation in the Lord just as I do. “He who put understanding of Christian teaching into those unlearned in the law (that is, unlettered fishermen) also, in His good pleasure, granted the same understanding to me, skilled in the law (learned).” (Ambrosiaster)

“God does not show favoritism.” God does not regard what one is, but what one can become with the help of God’s grace. Although I was an unbeliever and persecuted the Church of God; but God, foreseeing that I would remain a faithful worker if He entrust the Gospel to me (see 1 Thess. 2:4), chose me for this ministry and placed me in the ranks of those most eminent. “By the grace of God I am what I am.” (1 Cor. 15:10)

“For those of repute added nothing to me.” That there is no difference with the most renowned is proven by the fact that, after conversing and understanding the whole course of the Apostle Paul’s affairs, they added nothing to him, neither in teaching nor in Apostolic dignity, but only, recognizing both as proceeding from the Lord Himself, received him into fellowship equal to their own. Blessed Jerome writes: “Above he said that he entered into conversation with the senior Apostles and told them everything he had accomplished among the Gentiles. Now he says that they added nothing to that, but, having approved all that was said to them, gave him the right hand of fellowship, confirming that their Gospel and the Gospel of Paul is one and the same.”

This understanding of the text is given by our Slavonic translation, mainly with the words: “There was no difference to me.” But the corresponding Greek expression: ουδεν μοι διαφερει — is also used when one wishes to say: I have no concern about something. Taking this meaning of the phrase here, one must suppose that Saint Paul wished to say: as for the reputed Apostles, I have no concern for them,—namely in the respect that they tolerated circumcision among the Jews, by a certain economy. Our most ancient interpreters understand this phrase thus and in explaining the thought of the text are especially concerned to ward off from Apostle Paul any even shadow of disrespect toward the chief Apostles.

Their line of thought is thus: previously Saint Paul directed all his speech toward proving that circumcision is no longer necessary for salvation. Someone could object to him: but how do the other Apostles, the first, tolerate it? If they tolerate it, why should not you also tolerate it? Those Apostles tolerated circumcision among the Jews only, and that for a time, permitting this condescension as a measure of wisdom, by a certain economy. One could say to Saint Paul: that is why they act so! But, having declared this, he would have weakened the force of that measure, and it would have brought more harm than good instead of benefit. That is why he keeps silent about this, and says only: how they act—I have no concern for that. I am not their judge. God will judge, Who does not regard faces. “God will not be ashamed (will not regard) that they are leaders.” (Ecumenius)

I will quote the very words of certain interpreters. Here are the words of Blessed Theodoret: “Since the Galatians, probably, were saying that the very first of the Apostles keep the law, and the Divine Apostle knew that they were compelled to do this out of condescension to those who believed from the Jews and were still not firm in faith; being placed between two extremes, and on the one hand recognizing it most improper to accuse the Apostles, while on the other hand not wishing to expose their intention so as not to harm the divine economy, he charts a kind of middle course and presents himself in a position as if grieved by what is done and embarrassed to speak of it, and entrusts everything to God’s determination.”

Here are the words of Photius in Ecumenius: “they could have said to Saint Paul: if Peter acts well in condescending to circumcision, why not you? Why do you so strictly condemn what in others you call a wise economy? Let it be here to do the same, do not forbid, and afterwards call it what you wish—economy or dogma. So they would have thought and so they would have spoken to Paul, if he had said that Peter by economy temporarily permits circumcision. Therefore Paul did wisely in keeping silent altogether about economy, but speaking with severity about the very action itself and reproaching as if breakers of the law those who condescend, so that by the severity of his reproach of these he might all the more terrify and correct those who held circumcision with sin (that is, regarding it as necessary for salvation). That is why he is not afraid afterwards to call them hypocrites and as not walking rightly (Gal. 2:13–14), only so as to preserve the purity of the Gospel of Christ.”

Finally, here are the words of Saint Chrysostom: “Since the deeds of the Apostles spoke against him (Apostle Paul) and, looking at them, some naturally could have said: but how do they permit this?—see how wisely he resolves this objection. He does not state the true reason, that is, that the Apostles did this out of condescension and by a special arrangement (economy, dispensation); for this could have harmed his listeners. Those for whom a certain benefit is prepared through this arrangement do not need to know the reason for that or the other arrangement. If, however, the reason for this arrangement is revealed, everything will be destroyed. Therefore only he who makes the arrangement ought to know the reason for his actions; but those for whom a benefit is prepared through this arrangement ought not to know the reason. To present more clearly what I say, I will give an example from this very same matter. The blessed Paul himself, so strongly opposed to circumcision, when he sent Timothy as a teacher to the Jews, first circumcised him and then sent him. He did this so that the listeners would have greater confidence in Timothy; and thus he came to them circumcised, so as to destroy circumcision. And Timothy himself knew the reason for this deed, but did not tell his disciples. For if they learned that he had circumcised himself in order to destroy circumcision, they would not have listened to his preaching for a moment, and all the benefit would have been lost. But now this ignorance brought them the greatest benefit. For, thinking that he did this as a keeper of the law, they willingly and gladly received him and his teaching. And, accepting gradually his teaching and learning the truth, afterwards they themselves abandoned the old ways. Which would not have happened if they had learned the reason from the beginning. For learning it, they would have turned away from him; turning away, they would not have listened to him; and not listening, they would have remained in their former delusion. So that this might not happen, he did not reveal the reason. For the same reason here the Apostle does not reveal the reason for such an arrangement by the Apostles, but leads his speech by another way, saying thus: ‘As for those reputed to be important, whatever their importance was, it makes no difference to me; God judges not by appearances.’ Here he not only does not defend the Apostles, but speaks strongly against these holy ones so as to benefit the weak. His words have this meaning: even if they do permit circumcision, they themselves will have to answer to God; God will not respect their standing because they are regarded as great and chief Apostles. However, he said this not so openly, but with care. For he did not say: if they corrupt the preaching and do not preach as commanded, then they will give account at the last judgment and be punished. He did not say this, but addresses them much more respectfully, saying thus: ‘As for those reputed to be something.’ He did not say again: as they are, but: ‘as they were;’ showing thereby that they also afterwards ceased to preach thus, when the light of the Gospel shone forth everywhere. And again with these very words: ‘whatever they were at some time,’—he also says: and if they did preach thus, they themselves will give account; for they will give account not to men, but to God. And he says this not because he doubted them or did not know their intention; but because, as I said, he judged it more beneficial to speak thus. Then, so that they might not think he is taking the opposite course—condemning them, and thereby give cause for division—he immediately corrects his speech, saying: ‘For those of repute added nothing to me.’ What does this mean? What you ask me about, he says, I do not know; but only this I know clearly, that they did not contradict me, on the contrary, they were of one mind and agreed with me; they taught me nothing new, corrected nothing, and added nothing to what he knew. ‘For those of repute,’ he says, ‘added nothing to me.’ That is, they, having heard my teaching, added nothing to it, corrected nothing, knowing moreover that I came for this very purpose, to communicate my teaching to them by the revelation of the Spirit—came for this very purpose and brought Titus with me, uncircumcised; but they neither said anything to me beyond what I already knew, nor did they circumcise Titus.”

Such is also the thought in Theophylact and Ecumenius. Jerome’s interpretation is similar to this. Which understanding of this place should be accepted? The first is more natural, the second is more authoritative. Let each choose what is more valuable for him. The principal thought of the Apostle—the agreement of his teaching with the teaching of the senior Apostles—is maintained in both understandings.

Gal. 2:7–9. But on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Gospel to the uncircumcised just as Peter had been entrusted with the Gospel to the circumcised—for He who worked through Peter for the apostolate to the circumcised worked through me also for the Gentiles—and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

In all these verses the principal thought is one: they added nothing, but on the contrary gave him the right hand of fellowship. “They not only added nothing to my preaching, but on the contrary approved it with praise.” (Ecumenius) The other statements: “when they saw,”—that the Gospel to the Gentiles has been entrusted to me; “and recognized the grace,” and so forth—present the reasons why this was done,—because Saint Paul, just as the chief Apostles, was appointed by God for this work and was equally blessed with grace by Him.

“But on the contrary.”—“What does ‘on the contrary’ mean? Some think that by this he wished to say that the Apostles not only did not teach him anything, but rather learned from him. But I will not say this. For what more would they have learned from him? Each of them was perfect. That is not what he meant by the word ‘on the contrary,’—but that they not only did not rebuke him and did not think to accuse him of anything, but even approved and praised him. For the contrary of accusation is approval and praise. But to this some could now object: if they approved, why did they not abolish circumcision? For if they approved, then circumcision ought to have been abolished. But to say that they abolished it—he considered a very presumptuous thing and thought that through this he would provoke open conflict with Apostolic confession. But if he said that they permit circumcision, he saw that he would encounter another objection. If they approved your preaching, his opponents would say, and yet they themselves allowed circumcision, then in that case they themselves would be contradicting themselves. How then to get out of this difficulty? Of course, he could have said that the Apostles permitted circumcision by condescension to the Jews. But, saying this, he would have shaken the whole foundation of their wise arrangement; and therefore he does not say this, leaving it in uncertainty and concealment, having said only: ‘As for those reputed to be something… there was no difference to me.’ As if to say: I do not condemn or accuse these holy ones. They themselves know what they did; for they know that they too must give account to God. My concern is only to prove that they did not reject my teaching, and did not correct it, and did not add anything to it; on the contrary, they approved it and confirmed it by their agreement; I have Titus and Barnabas as witnesses to this.” (Saint Chrysostom)

“You perceive that the Gospel of the uncircumcised has been entrusted to me, just as the Gospel of the circumcision was entrusted to Peter.” “By circumcision and uncircumcision he means not the practice itself, but the peoples distinguished by this difference. He calls the Gentiles uncircumcision and the Jews circumcision” (St. Chrysostom).

In the words: “to me, just as to Peter,” “he shows that he possesses equal honor with the Apostles, and compares himself not with anyone else among them, but with the first-ranked, thereby showing that each of them received equal dignity” (St. Chrysostom).

“The Apostles perceived” that to St. Paul was entrusted the Gospel to the Gentiles. How did they perceive this? They could have perceived it from the accounts of how, upon his conversion, St. Paul was straightaway appointed from on high for this work. For the Lord said to Ananias: “He is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings” (Acts 9:15); and to Paul Himself He later commanded: “Depart; for I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:18, 21); and in the Church of Antioch the Holy Spirit appointed him to be set apart for the work of preaching to the Gentiles (Acts 13:2). Most tangibly, confirmation of this came from the fact that “He Who worked for Peter in the apostolate of the circumcision worked also for him in that to the Gentiles,”—the wonderful signs that accompanied the preaching of St. Paul on his first missionary journey, as he recounted it with Barnabas both on the way to Jerusalem and in Jerusalem itself (Acts 15). In Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, he blinded Elymas the sorcerer, a Jewish false prophet, for his stubborn opposition to the truth, which hindered the Gospel (Acts 13:11); in Lystra he healed a man unable to walk from birth; during his extended stay in Iconium, the Lord confirmed the truth of the word of the Gospel, accomplishing signs and wonders through his hands (Acts 14:3); and upon his return to Antioch he recounted to the Church of Antioch what God had done with him (Acts 14:27). It was manifest that just as all the Apostles “went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it” (Mark 16:20), so also St. Paul was not deprived of this cooperation from on high in his preaching. Assured of this, the elder Apostles could not but see that St. Paul was no self-appointed impostor but chosen from on high—and indeed protected from on high. So it must be held that he, both then in Jerusalem at the Council, intentionally related “all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” in his preaching with Barnabas (Acts 15:12), and here also, in the Epistle, intentionally recalls this; for nothing so convinces of the truth as testimony from on high, surely ascertained. The Galatians from this alone could draw the conviction that his preaching in the manner and spirit as he presented it was from God, Who so visibly cooperated with him in all things.

Thus St. Paul, through the supernatural action of God’s grace, was transformed from such a zealot of the Law into one completely released from all bondage by the Law—in conviction of mind, in the feelings of his heart, and in his very works; and in this new state he was appointed to preach the Gospel, completely pure and divorced from any admixture of Judaism, among the nations. Wherefore he is the Apostle to the Gentiles. But as St. Peter is called appointed for preaching only to the Jews—since he says, the Gospel of the uncircumcised has been entrusted to me as to Peter, the Gospel of the circumcision—when the Lord commanded to all Apostles, including St. Peter himself and all the others: “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19)? Here St. Paul takes the state of apostolic activity as it was in the time about which his narrative speaks. The course of the activity of the holy Apostles may be conceived thus. At first all of them labored in Jerusalem. When the Church was firmly established in Jerusalem, they dispersed throughout all the other cities and villages of Palestine. Having founded Churches here as well, they dispersed throughout the whole world, whither God had appointed each. In Jerusalem, for the completion of the ongoing work of converting the Jews and for the guidance in case of doubts of all other Churches, there remained, by common counsel and perhaps by direction from on high, Peter, John, and James (not the son of Zebedee, but the brother of the Lord), the first overseer of the Jerusalem Church. This was how it was at the time of the Council. Peter and those with him were at that time occupied exclusively with the establishment of Churches among the Jews. And St. Paul could say that to him was entrusted the strengthening of faith among the circumcised. Peter is set here as the representative of the rest, first among them. Our eastern interpreters in explaining these passages always say: Peter and those with him—St. Paul only wished to distinguish his own ministry from others. As Peter was the chief actor among the rest, with him alone does he compare himself. Ambrosiaster writes: “He names only Peter and compares himself with him. Just as that one received primacy in establishing the Church from the Jews, so he sets himself forth as chosen to have primacy in establishing Churches from the Gentiles; yet so that Peter also preaches to the Gentiles when needed, and Paul to the Jews. Both of them indeed acted thus. But the full administration of preaching the faith among the Jews is recognized for Peter, and the full administration of preaching it among the Gentiles for Paul. Wherefore he calls himself a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth (2 Tim. 1:11). Each of them received an appointment according to his abilities.”

Blessed Jerome sees in this distribution of apostolic labors a particular wise ordering of divine Providence in the establishment of the Church of Christ on earth. “The One and the same God,” says he through St. Paul, “entrusted to me the Gospel of the uncircumcised and to Peter the Gospel of the circumcision. He sent me to the Gentiles and established him in Judea. Neither were the Gentiles to be subjected to the painful rite of circumcision, which brought no benefit, and compelled to abstain from foods to which they were accustomed; nor could those who believed from among the Jews, being already circumcised, suddenly abandon the customs to which they were accustomed and in which they saw their superiority over the Gentiles. Thus, by divine Providence, one Apostle was given to the circumcised, who would condescend to the shadow of the Law; another to the uncircumcised, who would present the Gospel in the freedom of faith from any admixture of the works of the Law; so that there might be no obstacle from any quarter to faith, and no one might be deprived of faith in Christ on account of circumcision or uncircumcision. It was not that this arrangement determined that Peter, who was taught by a vision not to regard whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, as though forgetting this, should think that besides the grace of the Gospel one must also fulfill the Law; but that he, in condescension not disdaining the observance of the Law, might gradually draw the Jews away from their ancient customs of life. For they could not suddenly be torn away from them. Wherefore it was purposefully mentioned: ‘He Who worked for Peter in the apostolate of the circumcision’—so that no one should think he is reproaching Peter, but that, encountering beforehand such praise, everyone should understand that Peter acts in condescension to the circumcision not without God’s will, precisely to preserve those of the Jews entrusted to him in the faith of Christ and the Gospel. It is given thereby to understand that if that one (Peter) was not in fault in keeping, for a time, what was no longer necessary, in order not to lose those entrusted to him, all the more should he (Paul) act according to the full truth of the Gospel, to preserve what was entrusted to him in the uncircumcision, lest the Gentiles, terrified by the yoke of the Law, be repelled from faith in Christ.”

“And knowing the grace that was given to me,” Grace here means that of which he spoke before—the entrusting to him of the Gospel to the Gentiles and the cooperation from on high of his preaching through the manifestation of signs and wonders. From both together the Apostles could not but see that grace such as that given to them had truly been granted to him from on high.

St. Chrysostom says: “Having shown his oneness of mind with the Apostles, with greater freedom he continues the discourse and does not stop merely at the Apostles, but raises his word even to Christ, to Whom he attributes the grace of Apostleship given to him, and calls the Apostles themselves witnesses of this, saying: ‘and knowing the grace’ He does not say ‘having heard,’ but ‘knowing,’—that is, having been assured from their very deeds. Do you see how he finally showed that his preaching is also pleasing to Christ and the Apostles? For that grace would not have been given to him and would not work in him if such preaching were not pleasing to Christ.”

In virtue of such assurance it remained for the holy Apostles only to give their right hand to St. Paul and to Barnabas, as a sign of complete agreement with him in all things and approval of his manner of action—which they indeed did.

“James and Cephas and John” James is the same mentioned before, the brother of the Lord, who, for the holiness of his life and love for the Lord, was greatly honored in Jerusalem among all and presided over the Church of Jerusalem. He stands first because of this presidency, not as the brother of the Lord. St. Chrysostom remarks at this point: “Where he needed to compare himself, he mentions Peter alone; but where he needed to present a witness, he names three together, and moreover with praise.”

“Reputed to be pillars” Pillars—support, protection, guides of the way. All of this applies to the mentioned Apostles in relation to the faith. “Reputed,” that is, “being pillars of the faith and regarded as such by all” (Ecumenius).

St. Chrysostom remarks: “By the word ‘reputed’ he does not deny that they truly were such, but he adduces the opinion of others and says that those great and illustrious whom everyone everywhere extols, they themselves are witnesses of what I say, that this is pleasing to Christ, that they learned the truth of it from the very deeds and were assured of it from experience itself.” The same from Ambrosiaster: “St. Paul says: The Apostles more famous among others, whom for their steadfastness they call pillars, I affirm as witnesses that to me from God has been granted grace and the gift of having primacy in preaching among the Gentiles, as Peter has primacy in preaching among the circumcised.”

“They gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.” They gave the right hand of fellowship as a sign of partnership and complete agreement, oneness of mind, and unified action. “It shows that his judgment was in agreement with theirs, and their judgment was in agreement with his” (St. Chrysostom) “It did not appear that the elder Apostles disagreed with Paul in anything, so as to deny when he said that he had received perfect knowledge of the Gospel and to wish to add something to him as to one imperfect. But on the contrary, they showed themselves not as reprovers of imperfection but as approvers of perfection” (Blessed Augustine). “To me and Barnabas.” “Just as he mentions the best men among the Apostles with Peter, so he also joins Barnabas to himself, who was united with him by God’s will. But the grace of primacy in preaching to the Gentiles he attributes to himself alone, as to Peter alone (in preaching among the Jews). Thus the Apostles of the circumcised gave the right hand to the Apostles of the Gentiles as proof of common agreement” (Ambrosiaster). “To Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship was given by James, Peter, and John, so that because of the difference in regard to keeping the Jewish customs, no one should think that they also differ in the Gospel itself, and that between the circumcised and uncircumcised there might also be harmonious communion” (Blessed Jerome).

“We to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision.” “Both sides were pleased that these should preach to the Jews, and the others to the Gentiles” (St. Chrysostom). This was by preference, not exclusively. For Paul and Barnabas proclaimed the truth even in Jerusalem itself; and everywhere they first turned their preaching to the Jews, and only then to the Gentiles (Acts 17:1–4; Acts 18:4–9; Acts 19:8–9). And Peter and John labored among the Gentiles after all in Jerusalem and Judea who were able to believe had come to faith, and those who did not believe increasingly became estranged from the believers, adopting a hostile stance toward them.—Blessed Jerome decides thus: “A question arises: what then? If Peter had found some Gentile ready to believe, would he not have brought him to faith? And if Paul had found some from the circumcised in this state, would he not have given him the baptism of Christ? This question is resolved thus: he was appointed primarily for the Jews, and the other for the Gentiles, so that those who were attached to the Law would have someone to follow, and those who were alien to the Law would have a teacher and guide ready for them. In general, both of them had one goal—to gather the Church of Christ from all nations. We read that Peter baptized Cornelius, and Paul often preached Christ in the synagogues of the Jews.”

Gal. 2:10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, which very thing I was also eager to do.

The poor here means those believers among the Jews who were impoverished on account of persecutions, deprivations, and devastations caused by unbelievers to believers. The need to set such a commandment was extreme necessity. Though not all of those who believed were ruined, and there were among them those who were well-off and willing to help, surely the number of the poor and impoverished was so great that the local Christians lacked the means to sustain them. The Gentiles, suffering less devastation from their own than the Jews, were more affluent and without burdening themselves could provide help to the poor Jews—which they gladly did, at the persuasion and direction of St. Paul. By this means, spiritual communion with the center of Christianity, Jerusalem, was also maintained, and the yearning of all Churches toward their mother, the Church of Jerusalem, was preserved. St. Paul speaks of this, perhaps to show that the arrangement he made among them—to set aside weekly, according to each one’s inclination, to help poor believing Jews (1 Cor. 16:1)—was compelled by the commandment laid upon him by the Apostles, and was not some superfluous, willful ordinance personally devised by him.

St. Chrysostom writes: “What do these words mean? In the matter of preaching, he says, we divided the whole world among ourselves; and I took the Gentiles, while they took the Jews, because this was pleasing to God. But in regard to care for the poor from the Jews, I also helped them. Therefore, if there were any disagreement or quarrel among us, they would not have accepted my help. Who are these poor? Many of the believing Jews in Palestine, who lost everything they had and were persecuted everywhere. He points to this in the Epistle to the Hebrews, when he says: ‘You joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions’ (Heb. 10:34). He points to the same thing in his Epistle to the Thessalonians, when, commending their courage, he says: ‘For you became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen just as they did from the Jews’ (1 Thess. 2:14). And everywhere he shows that believers from the Gentiles were not persecuted by those who remained in paganism as much as believers from the Jews were persecuted by their own countrymen. For the Jews are the cruelest of all peoples. Therefore the Apostles were so concerned about believers from the Jews—they were deprived of all comfort in life. For this reason also Apostle Paul writes about them both to the Romans and to the Corinthians, and not only collects money for them but even brings it himself, as he himself says: ‘Now I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints’ (cf. Rom. 15:25). For they needed daily bread.”

4) The steadfastness of St. Paul in his teaching on freedom from the Law, demonstrated in his resistance to St. Peter, when the latter showed indulgence to Judaizing Christians not at the right time and place (Gal. 2:11–21)

The false teachers told the Galatians that St. Paul himself was not firm in his convictions. He teaches you that it is not at all necessary to keep the Law, but in other places, among the Jews, he himself keeps the Law and subjects others to it (St. Timothy was already circumcised). From this they concluded: why should we listen to him when he acts one way in one place and differently in another? Against this St. Paul answers them by recounting what he did in regard to St. Peter, when the latter, unknowingly, acted incautiously contrary to the good of the Church and the progress of the Gospel. The meaning of this account is as follows: indeed, I become a Jew with Jews and look indulgently on others who act likewise, but only so long as this serves the salvation of many and builds up the good of the faith. But as soon as something harmful to the faith and the Church comes from this, I stand against it with all my strength, regardless of any person. This account has two aspects: a) it is itself very instructive (Gal. 2:11–14); but it is especially significant for understanding the faith through: b) the speech (Gal. 2:15–21) that St. Paul delivered at that time in the presence of Jews and Greeks concerning salvation in Lord Jesus Christ, with complete renunciation of all works of the Law. This speech serves as a transition to the next part and gives the theme that St. Paul then develops and proves with the energy characteristic of him.

Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

The circumstance that St. Paul mentions here was as follows: at one time, after the Apostolic Council, St. Peter came to Antioch when Barnabas and Apostle Paul were still there. The Church of Antioch consisted almost entirely of believing Gentiles, though there were also Jews in it, but in small numbers. St. Peter, taught by a revelation from on high not to despise the Gentiles and assured by experience that uncircumcision does not hinder the reception of the grace of the Holy Spirit and entry into the Church, wherein there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one in Christ Jesus and obligated to fraternal communion with one another—lived in Antioch among believing Christians from the Gentiles in complete communion, without observing the customary rules of the Jews regarding Gentiles, and ate with them, which zealous Jews never allowed and for which St. Peter had already been forced to justify himself in Jerusalem after baptizing Cornelius and dining in his house. But when certain believing Jews came to Antioch from Apostle James, he began to separate himself from the believing Gentiles and ceased his free communion with them, fearing those from the circumcision. The other Jewish Christians of Antioch joined him, so that even Barnabas was led away by their example. A division arose, scandalous and dangerous. St. Paul, noticing this, explained to St. Peter, and through him to all Jewish Christians, that they ought not act thus. What resulted from this explanation St. Paul does not say, but from St. Peter’s silence it can be concluded that all agreed with St. Paul, re-entered into communion with the believing Gentiles, and the peace of the Church was restored.—Truth triumphed—which was especially important for St. Paul to impress upon the Galatians.

Many find St. Peter’s action in this circumstance perplexing. Regarding it as an error or wavering of conviction in the chief Apostle, they naturally raise the question in their minds: how could this be? And to resolve it they construct various hypotheses. But one need only look at the matter in its natural significance according to the circumstances of that time, and the question will not arise and there will be no need to construct hypotheses to resolve it.

Why did St. Peter act thus? Not from error and not from wavering of conviction, but because he had to act this way and no other according to Apostolic conscience and convictions, which St. Paul also shared. Take the affairs of the Church at a higher level. In the first period of the preaching of the Gospel, which began in Jerusalem, the participation of Gentiles in it never occurred to anyone, although all the Apostles received the commandment to go and teach all nations the faith (Matt. 28:19). It was a particular wondrous direction from on high that prompted this. The instrument on the part of the Apostles was chosen to be St. Peter, and on the part of the Gentiles the devout Cornelius, as became known to all (Acts 10). By the vision of the sheet with animals descending from heaven with the command to slaughter and eat, it was indicated that one ought not to despise Gentiles and without hesitation receive them into the bosom of the Church as soon as they believe, and by the fact that the Holy Spirit fell upon Cornelius and all who believed in his house, it was signified that for Gentiles to become children of God, born from God, there was no need to be circumcised beforehand, and consequently to fulfill all the Jewish ordinances thereafter. St. Peter understood all of this and afterward in Jerusalem boldly assured everyone that such directions from on high could not be disobeyed and that therefore Gentiles should be left free from the yoke of Jewish ordinances. But from this it followed that if for Gentiles receiving grace was not conditioned by circumcision, then it is also not conditioned by it for Jews. The holy Apostles and all the more prudent of the Jews understood this. But others, the weaker ones, could not understand it soon and held to the conviction that for salvation and grace both circumcision and Judaizing were necessary. St. Peter and the others, knowing from experience how difficult it was to depart from this conviction, decided to spare the weaker believers from the Jews, not insisting on renouncing Judaism from those Jews who had been accustomed to it from childhood, and left it to time, circumstances, and God’s grace to enlighten them and change their convictions. In this same spirit they themselves continued to keep to the former Jewish ordinances among the Jews and in other places; but, of course, under the firm condition that this would not harm the work of the faith and the progress of Gospel preaching. They decided to become all things to all, but so that all by any means might be saved (1 Cor. 9:22), or in other words: not seeking their own profit but that of others, that they might be saved. But as soon as from this—that is, from Judaizing or freedom from it—something harmful to the Gospel arose, they did not hesitate to renounce the bonds of the Law here, freedom there. In the actions of St. Paul this is expressed with tangible clarity.

From this very viewpoint one must regard St. Peter’s action in Antioch. When there appeared to be no need to bind himself by the bonds of Jewish ordinances, he lived freely with the believing Christians from the Gentiles. When he saw that this was necessary, he relinquished this freedom and bound himself by those bonds. What was this necessity? Not merely sparing the weakness of those who came from Jerusalem, but the peace and well-being of all the Churches gathered from the Jews. When they came, it lay before St. Peter to decide whether to continue to conduct himself freely as before or to become with these arrived Jews a Jew. He chose the latter, as he should have. He already knew how irritable the Judaizing Jews are and cannot view indifferently what seemed to them to be indulgence toward the Gentiles. By remaining as before in close association with the Gentiles, he would certainly have irritated these arrivals. This in itself would have been no great matter; but they, returning again to Jerusalem, would have spread their irritation everywhere, both throughout Judea and in Jerusalem itself. And divisions and disturbances would have arisen there which could not have remained without harmful consequences for God’s Church. Foreseeing this, on the basis of prior experiences, St. Peter had to begin again to live Judaically with these Jews. Only obvious harm to the believing Gentiles, which his conduct might produce, could have stopped him from this. But he could not foresee or perceive this. From pre-Christian history, Gentiles were already accustomed to separation from Jews; in Christianity there were yet no examples of how they would receive such a temporary separation. For Apostle Peter there was a choice between probable disturbance among the Jews and harm to the Gentiles which he could not even suppose—that is, there was no choice, but only one course of action lay before him, which he adopted.

St. Paul acted entirely similarly in other cases. Therefore here also, he, of course, saw nothing against which he ought to resist. He saw that Apostolic prudence required St. Peter to act thus; and he would have said nothing if this conduct of Peter had not made an unfavorable impression on the believing Antiochians, which St. Peter did not see but which only St. Paul could notice. As soon as this harm arose and was noticed, the course of events took quite a different turn. Then appeared obvious harm that demanded attention more than the supposed disturbance among the Jews. The duty to clarify this lay upon Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles: which he did. But in doing this, he could not openly reveal before all that hidden intention of St. Peter, but spoke as though St. Peter had actually made an error. St. Peter recognized the rightness of St. Paul’s words and expressed his agreement with him by his silence. If he had persisted in his position, he could be rebuked; but here he plainly saw that the law—to become all things to all, that by all means he might save some (1 Cor. 9:22)—bound him no longer to spare the Jews. And one might even suppose that he was very glad that St. Paul made such a speech. It could have exerted strong influence on the present zealots of Judaism and served to cool their zeal for Judaism and lead them to the simplicity of the Gospel. This supposition of St. Peter’s pleasure at St. Paul’s words arises in the mind of itself, so that the holy Fathers, our commentators, even admitted the prior agreement between St. Peter and Paul in the deliberate arrangement of the entire event with the aim of instructing Jewish Christians, both those present and all others, most effectively.

Here is the natural course of events! From it is evident that even Apostle Peter could not act otherwise as the Apostle to the Jews, and St. Paul could not remain silent as the Apostle to the Gentiles. Both of them came together in the one—as Apostles of the One Lord Who commanded to establish the Church from all nations. So that there remain no doubt of this, we present the views of the ancient commentators of the Church.

Here is the view of Blessed Jerome: “From the fact that Peter, before certain ones came from Jerusalem, ate with believing Christians from the Gentiles, it is clear that he had not forgotten the inspiration given to him from on high, that God despises no human being, provided he believes in Christ Jesus. But when he, for the sake of those who still thought that fulfilling the Law was necessary for salvation, began to avoid dining with Christian Gentiles and thereby induced the believing Gentiles in Antioch to submit to the yoke of the Law (for they did not know of St. Peter’s good intention, that he was doing so for the salvation of the Jews, but supposed that this was how it should be according to the sense of the Gospel)—then St. Paul, seeing that the grace of Christ was in danger, this experienced warrior of old—employed the are of battling for the truth, to correct Peter’s measure of wisdom, useful for the Jews (and which had turned out to be useless for the believing Gentiles), with a new measure of wisdom, which he placed in open opposition to Peter, in standing against him to his face, not revealing his hidden intention, so that by such opposition to Peter he might save the believing from the Gentiles (in the purity and unmixedness of Gospel faith). If someone thinks that St. Paul truly stood up against Peter (on account of Judaizing) and thus fearlessly rebuked him, will it not contradict this that Paul himself became a Jew to the Jews to gain the Jews, and that he himself will be found guilty of hypocrisy, when he shaved his head at Cenchreae (Acts 18:18), brought an offering in Jerusalem (Acts 21:26) and circumcised Timothy? Thus, if he himself, sent to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, did not find it unsuitable to say: ‘Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved’ (1 Cor. 10:32–33)—and did something contrary to Gospel freedom in order not to offend the Jews—then how could he truly rebuke Peter, Apostle of the circumcision, for this very thing, being himself convicted of doing it as Apostle to the Gentiles? But, as we have said, he stood up against Peter and the others to correct the observance of the Law, held with a particular hidden intention (which had turned out to be harmful to Christians from the Gentiles), by rebuke (made also with a particular intention) and thus both peoples were saved.”

Here are the words of St. Chrysostom: “After showing (above) his agreement and oneness of mind with the Apostles, he further found it necessary to mention also his discourse with Peter in Antioch, and therefore says: ‘When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face’ and so on. Many, without proper attention, reading these words of the Epistle, think that Paul condemns Peter’s hypocrisy by them. But this is unjust. One must not understand it this way. Here we will find the profound wisdom of both Peter and Paul for the benefit of their listeners.—Paul says this not against Peter; but with the same intention with which he said: ‘from those who seemed to be something, I received nothing,’ he also says this. However, so that we might no longer remain in doubt about this, it will not be superfluous to show the very reason for what is said. The Apostles, as I said above, allowed circumcision in Jerusalem, for it was impossible to suddenly withdraw from the Law; but when they came to Antioch, they no longer observed anything similar and treated the believing Gentiles indifferently; Peter acted thus at that time too. But when those who came from Jerusalem knew that he had acted otherwise there, he ceased to act as a Gentile, fearing to offend them, and changed the manner of his conduct for two reasons: to avoid leading believing Jews into scandal and to give Paul a seemly occasion for rebuke. Paul knew the intention for which Peter acted thus. But Paul rebukes, while Peter patiently bears the rebuke, so that the disciples, seeing the teacher’s silence when he is rebuked, might the more quickly be convinced to change their way of thinking. For if Paul had not taken this opportunity to exhort them to it, he would have accomplished nothing important; but now, having made such a strict rebuke, having sufficient cause for it, he produced much greater fear in Peter’s disciples. And if Peter, after hearing the rebuke, had begun to contradict, very easily another might have thought that they distort the structure of salvation; but now his silence at Paul’s rebuke struck great fear into the believing Jews. For this reason he so strongly opposed Peter. Look moreover at how cautiously he speaks, allowing those with understanding to perceive that his words were not an act of combat but of ministry and wise action. If they had truly been in disagreement with one another, certainly one would not have rebuked the other in the presence of disciples; otherwise they would have given them great scandal. But now this apparent disagreement was beneficial.”

Gal. 2:11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

“When.” When was this? After the Apostolic Council, when Barnabas was still with Apostle Paul. Most directly this falls on the time before the second Apostolic journey of St. Paul: for after that Barnabas is no longer seen with Apostle Paul. Consequently, this was soon after that Council, in the interval between it and the second journey of St. Paul. But was there time for this? There was. In Acts it is related that those sent with Apostle Paul and Barnabas, Judas and Silas, “remained there for some time” (cf. Acts 15:33). Then, when Judas returned to Jerusalem and Silas remained in Antioch, “Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord” (Acts 15:35). “After some days” Paul proposes to Barnabas to go again to preach. From this it is to be concluded that from the Council to this moment a considerable time had passed, during which St. Peter could also have come to Antioch. Others place this in the time after the second Apostolic journey of St. Paul, from which, having returned, he stayed in Antioch “for some time” (Acts 18:23). But in that case one would need to draw Barnabas there from Cyprus—an unnecessary supposition, which one can do without in the first view. However, it is not necessary to insist on the most exact determination of the time, because it cannot have an influence on the meaning of the account.

“I opposed him to his face”—either immediately, as soon as I noticed the scandal, or with firmness, without indulgence, not letting it pass because he was among the senior apostles, or the same as it says below: “before them all,”—that is, not deferring to speak of it privately. The good of the Church demanded this.

“because he stood condemned,” κατεγνωσμενος ην,—“was condemned”; which leads one to think that he was condemned not by Apostle Paul but by others—the Christians of Antioch from the Gentiles. “He did not say: was condemned by me, but: was condemned,—understanding condemnation from others. And if Paul himself had condemned him, he would not have feared to say so” (St. Chrysostom). “Not knowing the reason, some condemned him” (Blessed Theophylact). “Not condemned by Paul, who knew why Peter was acting thus, but by those who did not know this and thought that he was truly being hypocritical” (Ecumenius).

Why then was St. Peter condemned? Because previously he had dined with believing Christians from the Gentiles, but then withdrew from them.

Gal. 2:12–13 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and separate himself, fearing those from the circumcision. The rest of the Jews also joined him in this hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

Dining together is a sign of friendly intercourse in daily life, which presupposes agreement in all other matters. The same applies here. When St. Peter dined with Christian Gentiles, he thereby showed that there was no longer any partition wall between Jews and Gentiles in the Church of Christ. In the Church of Antioch itself the fellowship of Jews with Gentiles was established by St. Paul and Barnabas from the very beginning of its foundation. And St. Peter, coming there, acted entirely in that same spirit. But when certain ones from James came, he changed his manner of conduct—he had been in complete intercourse with the Gentiles, and now he began to avoid them and withdraw from them. What caused him to act thus? “Fearing those from the circumcision,” says St. Paul.

Was St. Peter afraid? On Pentecost before countless multitude he proclaimed boldly the new truth; then in the temple he proclaimed the same after the healing of the lame beggar; then after imprisonment, he did not fear to boldly instill faith in the Crucified before His very crucifiers themselves and said firmly, to the face of the entire Sanhedrin, which forbade preaching about the Lord: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20). And now he was afraid? Before enemies he was not afraid; but here he was afraid before brothers, believers, who were merely devoted to the Law? He was afraid not with some ordinary human fear, but with the fear of Christ’s love; he was afraid lest these from the circumcision should fall away or, remaining in the faith, should stir up turmoil among all the Churches gathered from the Jews, presenting Peter before them as an open enemy of the Law, if he continued to be with the Gentiles as a Gentile even in their presence. “He was not afraid of subjecting himself to danger (for, having not been cowardly at first, how could he be cowardly now?), but of his disciples falling away, which Paul himself also feared. Thus, writing to the Galatians, he says: ‘I am afraid I have labored over you in vain’ (Gal. 4:11); and to the Corinthians: ‘But I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds should be corrupted and led astray’ (2 Cor. 11:3). The fear of death meant nothing to them; but the fear of the perdition of disciples powerfully struck their souls” (St. Chrysostom).

The personality of those who came—neither that they were from James nor that they were perhaps influential among the Jews—had any influence on St. Peter’s concerns. He was not afraid of them, but was concerned for them, solely because they were from the circumcision, believing Jews who valued the Law and considered its observance, even along with faith in the Lord, to be a condition of salvation. That these from the circumcision came from James does not necessarily mean that they were sent by James: for we can say this of them if they came with James’s knowledge and even that they came from the place where James held prominence. And in no way can it be concluded that they were of the same spirit as James. For he, though living in Jerusalem among Jews and keeping all the requirements of the Law so strictly that even those devoted to the Law considered him holy, did not consider observance of the Law to be a condition of salvation. He was the first to cast a decisive vote for the freedom of Gentiles from the Law at the Council (Acts 15:13); and he, when St. Paul arrived in Jerusalem after his third Apostolic journey, advised him to observe certain ceremonial practices to soften the rumor that was circulating about him, that he despised the Law (Acts 21:18–26), thereby showing that he did not consider the observance of the Law to be a condition of salvation, but a temporary measure of wisdom to attract and keep the Jews in the faith. If those who came to Antioch had been of the same spirit, St. Peter would have had nothing to fear for them. But clearly, these were such as could not bear any indulgence toward the Gentiles, and St. Peter knew this, which is why he acted toward them so as not to provoke their zeal, which, as is known, when not guided by reason, begins to act noisily, disorderly, without regard for anything.

So Saint Peter began to withdraw from the Gentiles, with the aim of avoiding scandal to those who loved Judaism and of preserving peace in the churches. But the result was different. The first consequence was division in the Church at Antioch. The Jews, who through the exhortations of holy Paul had become united with the Gentiles in this church and who were swayed by Peter’s example, began now to separate themselves from them. “And the other Jews fell into the same hypocrisy with him,” says holy Paul. They did not know Peter’s intention and, merely imitating him, separated themselves from the Gentiles. But it could have come to their mind: is it truly not the case that we should keep ourselves apart from the Gentiles? This could not help but shake their previous conviction that the barrier that divided Jews and Gentiles had already been torn down. In this way the labors of the Apostle Paul were being made fruitless. He had one concern: to unite into one Church those from Jews and Gentiles, in which there would be no traces either of Judaism or of paganism, but in which Christianity alone would reign and all believers would live in one spirit in Christ Jesus. The Church at Antioch was exemplary in this regard, and to its formation he had devoted so much labor. And yet, before his very eyes, this dangerous division occurred in this church.

How painful it must have been for the Apostle Paul to see this, especially when Barnabas too fell into the hypocrisy of the others—this co-laborer of Paul, who worked with him in one spirit here and in other places, who together with him had planted not one church free from Judaism! At first glance, the action of holy Barnabas seems very difficult to understand. But there is nothing exceptional in it: he acted in the same spirit as holy Peter, and as Paul himself had done in other cases. He sided with holy Peter, not yet seeing how holy Paul would act, and not expecting any consequences harmful to the work of the Gospel. But holy Paul looked at this circumstance differently. He clearly saw the harm flowing from this manner of conduct to the well-being of the Church. Even the division alone was harmful. But beyond that, wavering might occur in the convictions of Christian Gentiles themselves. They might think: what is this, have we become rejected? But from this some might draw such a conclusion: if communion requires Judaizing, then we too are ready—while others might think: if communion requires Judaizing, but we will absolutely refuse to Judaize, then only one thing remains: to return to the old pagan beliefs. Holy Paul does not say that Peter’s action produced such an effect on Christian Gentiles; but the possibility of it is very probable. In any case, his action could not remain without some influence on them. Ambrosiaster holds that when holy Peter, previously having lived with Gentiles in a Gentile manner, suddenly began to shun them because of these zealots of the Law who had come, the Christian Gentiles were thereby thrown into confusion as to which manner of conduct was right. If righteousness required Judaizing, then he himself appears to be a violator of it when he lived with them in a Gentile manner. And if it were better or righteous to live simply as they did, then his now beginning to show them contempt was deeply disturbing to them.

However we interpret all this, it is clear that the well-intentioned action of holy Peter had a harmful effect on Christian society in Antioch. This is what moved holy Paul to clarify the truth and restore the order that had been disturbed.

Gal. 2:14. But when I saw that they were not acting rightly in accordance with the truth of the Gospel, I said to Cephas before them all: if you, being a Jew, live in a Gentile manner and not in a Jewish manner, how can you compel the Gentiles to live as Jews?

“When I saw.” He saw before all the others did; because it was easier for him to see this. If holy Peter had seen this harm himself, then certainly without any reminder he would have ceased to act as he considered beneficial to act; the others would have followed suit and the matter would have been settled by itself. But what did holy Paul see? That “they were not acting rightly in accordance with the truth of the Gospel.” The thought here is not that they were not living according to the Gospel, but that they were acting in such a way that their manner of conduct was proving unfavorable to the progress of the Gospel. Whoever wishes the Gospel to go forward and spread successfully will not act in this way. You are acting in such a manner that by this you are undermining the success of the Gospel. In this lies your wrongness. A sensible measure ceases to be sensible once it produces results entirely opposite to those expected.

“I said to Cephas.” Holy Paul addresses the Apostle Peter because from him the withdrawal from Gentiles had begun, and consequently, if he were to stop withdrawing from them, the others would stop as well. And for this reason too it could be done this way: if holy Paul had turned to the others, they might have thought that holy Peter was on their side and would have boldly resisted; but now, seeing that Peter is being rebuked and remaining silent, they too had to be silent and submit to holy Paul’s word. Saint Chrysostom writes that holy Paul turns to Peter so that those who believed from among the Jews might learn the truth from the rebuke given to him. For if Paul had directed his rebuke at the believers from among the Jews themselves, they would have rejected his rebuke with contempt and indignation, since they had not yet learned to respect him greatly. But now, seeing the silence of their teacher being rebuked, they could neither despise him nor contradict what he says.

He speaks to him “before them all,” because his action, which provoked the remark, was also committed before all, and especially because for all it was beneficial and necessary to hold in mind and in heart what he was about to say. “What he said before all was made necessary by the need for this rebuke to serve as a healing remedy for all. For it was not beneficial to repair a wrong that had plainly caused harm in secret” (Blessed Augustine). “He spoke before all in order to strike fear into those who heard” (Saint Chrysostom). “Just as those with healthy legs who make a show of limping do not actually have a defect in the legs but limp for some other reason, so too Peter, knowing that circumcision and uncircumcision are nothing, but rather the keeping of God’s commandments, had previously eaten with Christian Gentiles; but then for a time separated himself from them so as not to drive the Jews away from the faith. Therefore Paul opposes him in the same spirit and speaks before all, not in order to rebuke Peter, but so that those on whose account Peter played the hypocrite might be corrected, or to cut off the pride of the Jews and prevent the Gentiles from falling into despair” (Blessed Jerome).

“If you, being a Jew, live in a Gentile manner and not in a Jewish manner, how can you compel the Gentiles to live as Jews?” Holy Paul turns to what was before and takes this as the basis for his remark. Holy Peter, having grown up under the constraints of Jewish ordinances, upon entering into the fellowship of Christian Gentiles, gave himself complete freedom from these constraints, not observing the customary rules among Jews which determined their relations with Gentiles. Holy Paul speaks as if to say: to yourself, who were once in bondage, you gave freedom from Judaism, but the Gentiles, who did not know this bondage, you compel to Judaize. The essence of the rebuke is not that you became a Jew with the Jews, but that by this you compelled the Gentiles to Judaize. How? By your example, which had the force of persuasive speech and even of law in him. Seeing themselves separated and wishing to preserve fellowship with this highly esteemed person, they were ready to or were coming to the thought of submitting themselves to the yoke of the Law. Thus the convictions sown there by holy Paul among both Jews and Gentiles were being shaken, and the purity of Gospel truth was in danger of receiving an adulteration that would distort it.

I will adduce the paternal opinions on this matter, which interpret its significance eloquently. Blessed Augustine writes: “Peter was rebuked by Paul not because he observed Jewish customs, but because by this observance he was also compelling the Gentiles to do the same. In separating himself from the Gentiles to please those who considered the observance of Jewish ordinances necessary for salvation, he gave the appearance of considering it necessary to lay the yoke of lawful servitude upon the Gentiles as well. This is evident from the very words by which he is rebuked. For holy Paul does not say to him ‘why have you again returned to Jewish customs, you who, being a Jew, live in a Gentile manner?’ but rather ‘why do you compel the Gentiles to Judaize?’”—

Blessed Jerome expresses the same thought more fully: “He presses Peter with irrefutable proof, or rather, in Peter’s person, those who forced him into such contradictory actions. If, he says, you, Peter, who by nature are a Jew, circumcised in infancy and who observed all the precepts of the Law, now by the grace of Christ, knowing that all of this is nothing in itself but was merely a shadow of the good things to come, have begun to partake of food with believing Gentiles with complete freedom, without disturbance, how is it that by now withdrawing from them as if from the unclean, you compel them to Judaize? For if they are unclean, from whom you withdraw, and you withdraw because they are not circumcised, then by this you are forcing them to be circumcised and become Jews, while you yourself, though a Jew, live as a Gentile. Paul states as the reason for his rising up against Peter the fact that by his hypocrisy (well-intentioned though it was) he compelled the Gentiles to Judaize; for they were disposed to imitate him.”—

Saint Chrysostom directs attention to another aspect of the matter—namely, that holy Paul stands up for the Gentiles but has in view the correction of the Jews, and not directly them themselves but in the person of holy Peter. “What does holy Paul have in view in saying this? He wishes to make his rebuke more acceptable and bearable. For if he had said thus: you are acting badly by observing the Law, then the Jews would have accused him of audacity against their teacher. But now, accusing him for the sake of his students, he thereby made his speech more acceptable, and not only this, but also by leaving all the others and directing all his rebuke against the single Apostle Peter. ‘If you,’ he says, ‘being a Jew, live in a Gentile manner and not in a Jewish manner’—speaking almost as if to say: you imitate your teacher, and he himself, though a Jew, lives as a Gentile. But he did not say this openly, because they would not have accepted his counsel; instead he reveals Peter’s thought under the guise of a rebuke for the sake of the Gentiles. Also, if he had said: why do you compel those converted from Judaism to live again according to the Jewish manner? his words would have been far more intolerable; but now, as if taking the side of the Gentile disciples rather than those from among the Jews, by this very means he corrects the latter. For rebukes and reproaches are accepted more easily and quickly when they are not too harsh. Moreover, no one from the Gentiles could complain against Paul, because he was speaking against the Jews. And all of this Peter accomplished by his silence, taking upon himself the appearance of hypocrisy, so that he might free the Jews from actual hypocrisy.”—

Peter’s silence leads us to suppose that in response to holy Paul he harbored such thoughts: if so, if those believing Gentiles are indeed being scandalized and drawing from my action the conclusion that for salvation one must Judaize, then you are right, I should not act this way. I agree with you that this barrier—Judaism—should not exist among believers. The speech of holy Paul did not cause a rupture. Holy Peter saw the rightness of it and remained in good relations with holy Paul, as he himself testified (2 Pet. 3:15). The peaceful reception of Paul’s word shows that he was saying what was already in Peter’s own heart. And perhaps he was glad of the opportunity for such an eloquent admonition to those zealots, with whom in Jerusalem it was very difficult to speak and deal. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The great Peter confirms Paul’s words by his silence, as if speaking thus to the believers from among the Jews who were present with the Apostles: Paul is right in rebuking me, and it is impossible even to contradict his words. And that Peter, having in view the benefit of those listening, was satisfied with Paul’s words—this is manifest to everyone. Thus, inasmuch as one rebuked while the other received this in silence, there was thereby prepared a remedy beneficial for both those who believed from among the Jews and those from among the Gentiles. The Divine Apostle wrote these things to the Galatians, thus making known to them that the great and first Apostles, on account of the weakness of the Jews, sometimes allowed the Law to be observed, but did not always act in this way.”

Saint John of Damascus clarifies the relation of this incident to the Galatians, showing how the reminder of it corresponds to the purposes of the Epistle. “Through this circumstance, holy Paul teaches the Galatians in passing to accept the rebuke directed at them as well with a gentle and patient heart. For if Peter, being from the Jews, underwent rebuke because he was disposing others to Judaize, accepted this rebuke peacefully as a fitting and good thing, then all the more should the Galatians, being from the Gentiles and having been inclined after their belief in Christ to submit to the yoke of the Law, being rebuked for this, accept this rebuke with a gentle and patient heart.”

“How lovingly did holy Peter receive this rebuke for the salvation of Christ’s flock!” says Augustine. “The one who was rebuked was more wonderful than the one who rebuked. Here is an example worthy of imitation—an example of humility, which is the highest Christian virtue. It is by this above all that mutual love is preserved, and nothing destroys it more quickly than pride.”

Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

The speech of holy Paul to holy Peter, on account of his withdrawal from the Gentiles, has only begun with the preceding words. It continues uninterruptedly further to the end of the chapter and clarifies the essence of faith in Christ the Lord, and particularly the freedom from the Law that accompanies it, which is the principal subject of the Epistle. And all the ancient interpreters (with the exception, it seems, of Ambrosiaster alone) consider verses 15–21 to be a continuation of the speech of holy Paul to Peter and the other Jews who were there. Some state this directly, as Theodoret does, who makes the transition from verse 14 to verse 15 thus: “Paul says also everything else that he spoke to blessed Peter, having in view the benefit of the Jews who were there.” Others, without mentioning this, by the course of their speech make it clear that they regard the words following from verse 15 as a continuation of the speech begun in verse 14, as Saint Chrysostom does, who says: “At first he directed his speech only to Peter, saying, ‘if you, being a Jew,’ but then he turns it to all, not excluding himself.”

And the flow of the speech is such that it gives no reason to suppose that from verse 15 onward it is directed to different persons. No one would think that holy Paul, who was clearly in motion, having begun his speech to holy Peter, would confine himself merely to what he said in verse 14. On the contrary, after this verse one naturally expects further speech in the same spirit and tone, and the words “we by nature are Jews” and the rest correspond perfectly to this expectation. But grant only that even one more verse was spoken in Antioch, and you will not find where to stop until the end of the speech in order to say: from here holy Paul turns to the Galatians. He turns to the Galatians only after this speech, beginning from verse 1 of chapter 3. Here the entire speech is directed to holy Peter and the other Jews. And it is particularly necessary to maintain this understanding because verse 18 (which I destroyed…) cannot be understood if we do not refer it to holy Peter, who had abandoned the Jewish ordinances and then taken them up again; and this verse stands in the middle of the entire speech. Some seize upon this and say: with verse 18 the speech to holy Peter ends, and from then on it is directed to the Galatians. But one need only read these verses in sequence to reject such a conjecture. From verse 18 onward, holy Paul speaks in his own person: “I… I.” By this verse 19 is connected with verse 18 externally; internally, in terms of thought, it is linked to it by the conjunction: “for I…” There is therefore no reason to divide them. It is beyond doubt that in bringing this speech into the Epistle to the Galatians, holy Paul had in view the benefit of the Galatians, and it truly does give them strong exhortations; but these will be saving conclusions for the Galatians drawn from a speech not directed to them. Some of the ancient interpreters do draw these conclusions.

It may be noted, however, that whether these verses were spoken to Peter in Antioch or written to the Galatians in Ephesus has no influence on their understanding. Therefore there is no need and no importance in laboring to determine this. What is important is that they were spoken by holy Paul, and consequently they are God-inspired.

In this speech: aa) first holy Paul keeps all attention on the same incident on account of which he began speaking, striving to draw from the very conduct of holy Peter and the other Jews the conviction that it is groundless to hold to the Law, especially after he had been so openly abandoned (Gal. 2:15–18); bb) then he shows how the one who has sincerely believed in Christ should now place all his hope of salvation on him alone, decisively rejecting the Law. He speaks of this disposition as it has formed in himself and how he maintains it, giving to understand that it should be the same in all (Gal. 2:19–21).

aa) First the Apostle keeps all attention on the same incident (Gal. 2:15–18)

Gal. 2:15–16. We ourselves are Jews by birth and not from among the Gentiles, sinners. Yet knowing that a man is not justified by works of the Law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ, we too have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law; for no one will be justified by works of the Law.

“We”—we with you, Peter, if the speech is addressed only to holy Peter, or with all the Jews who believed in Christ that were there, or not only with these but with all Jews who have believed in Christ in general. It is clear that holy Paul is turning thought away from Peter and directing his speech at those who were still attached to the Law and considered its observance necessary for salvation. “By birth Jews”—Jews by birth and origin, and not having embraced Judaism after birth. Our fathers and forefathers are Jews. We were born and raised in the Jewish Law. “Jews”—the people of God, chosen by God for a portion of his inheritance, preserved and guided by him, the people to whom God himself showed the true path of pleasing him and supplied with all the means of justification before him, consequently a holy people, appointed to holiness and fitted to attain it. “And not from among the Gentile sinners.” A sinner is one who does not fulfill God’s commandments and violates God’s Law. But here Gentiles are called sinners in contrast to Jews, as not knowing the true God and worshipping gods that do not exist by nature, and as not having the Law, which would show them how to be righteous before God, and therefore allowing among themselves many shameful deeds contrary to God, which they, nevertheless, do not consider sins and which are even approved by their religion. By presenting such a contrast, the Apostle leads to the thought that if Gentiles are sinners, then Jews are not sinners; and further, if Jews by nature are not sinners, then Gentiles by nature are sinners—that is, Jews have written upon them from birth the destiny to be holy, while Gentiles are destined to wallow in sinfulness—so that among Jews, sinfulness is an exception, while among Gentiles, the absence of sin would be an exception.

“So this is what we are!” says holy Paul, as it were. And there is nothing for us to look for in other paths of salvation and justification before God. Let the Gentiles look for it. And yet,

“having come to know”—having evidently learned and been convinced by palpable experience, partly from our own experience and chiefly from the revelation in Christ Jesus—“that a man is not justified”, cannot become or be made righteous, cannot attain righteousness and holiness, “by works of the Law,” through works of the Law, despite the strictest observance of the precepts of the Law which determined the external order of our religious life, which though they sanctified to bodily cleanness, brought no peace to conscience and gave no power to resist sin—but “only through faith in Jesus Christ,” only through faith in Jesus Christ, the promised Savior, who by his death satisfied God’s justice and sent us the Holy Spirit for our sanctification from the Father, made it so that everyone who believes in him and has decided to follow him receives forgiveness of sins and is clothed with power from above to resist sin and do all righteousness, because of faith in him and the resolve to be faithful to him to the offering up of his life—having learned all this, we too, Jews, to whom God himself had shown all the orders of justification which had strength until a time but have now grown old, have “believed in Christ Jesus,” believed in Christ, abandoning the Law, and fled to Christ, placing all our hope of salvation upon him, “so that we might be justified by faith in Christ”—in the conviction that he will forgive all our sins and give us the power to attain the internal righteousness in thoughts, feelings and dispositions which alone makes us righteous before God—“and not by works of the Law,” which provide only external righteousness, leaving the heart in its former, old wickedness: “for no one will be justified by works of the Law.” For works of the Law never brought and cannot bring anyone to this internal righteousness before God. God, who established them, did not give them such power.

Throughout this entire speech there is one thought: the Law does not bring us to righteousness; therefore, having been convinced that only Jesus Christ can provide it, we, abandoning the Law, have clung to him by faith. But holy Paul expresses this idea in various ways to imprint it more forcefully in memory. Three times he reminds of the powerlessness of the Law to provide righteousness, and three times he points to the true source of righteousness, holiness, and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ through faith in him. So full was his soul of this conviction, and so eager was he to impart it to the souls of others! Nevertheless, there are aspects here that require explanation.

What is meant here by the “Law”? The external observances by which the order of the moral and religious life of the Jewish people was determined—circumcision, Sabbath observance, festivals, sacrifices, washings, sprinklings, and similar practices. This order set the Jews apart from all other peoples and constituted their exclusive possession. The dispositions that form part of piety and good conduct, such as the fear of God, hope in God, compassion, charity, patience, temperance, diligence, and similar virtues, were common to all mankind and did not belong to the Jews alone. These are not meant here by the Law. That what is meant here by the Law is precisely the external order of Jewish life is evident from the reason why this speech began. The speech began because holy Peter at first had abandoned all the observances and practices that set him apart from the uncircumcised and lived freely with them, but then, when strict zealots for the observance of these practices arrived, he recoiled from the uncircumcised and again submitted to the practices that set him apart from them, along with these zealots who were advocating separation. The operative causes here were the law of circumcision and non-eating with the uncircumcised. These holy Paul directly had in mind, and alongside them all similar laws that determined the external order of Jewish life; for circumcision alone bound one to all of them, just as uncircumcision made one free from them. What the Apostle Paul calls in verse 14 “living as a Jew” means living while strictly observing all the practices that characterized Jewish life, while “living as a Gentile” means living not subject to these practices. These practices constituted the barrier that separated Jews from Gentiles. Holy Paul was directing all his efforts toward destroying this barrier and uniting Jews and Gentiles into one indivisible Church as one body of Christ.

Thus all the ancient interpreters understand the Law here. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Nature herself taught what was necessary in the Law; such are the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness against your neighbor, honor your father and your mother, and other similar ones; but the commandments concerning the Sabbath, concerning circumcision, concerning the leper, concerning sacrifices, and concerning sprinklings constituted the Law’s own properties; for nature did not teach these things. Therefore the Apostle calls all of this ‘works of the Law.’” Saint Chrysostom, though he does not state so definitively what he understands by the Law, speaks in his entire commentary of this section of the Epistle—wherever he had occasion to speak of the Law—only of circumcision, the Sabbath, and sacrifices; and consequently understands by the Law the same thing that Theodoret expressed directly. Following them, all the other ancient interpreters understand the Law in the same way.

Thus one should not understand by the Law here the moral law, the rules of piety, good conduct, and all good works. This understanding is contrary to the direct sense of this section and to everything that holy Paul writes in chapter 2. For even at the Council in Jerusalem they treated of the external Jewish practices, and the incident with the Apostle Peter was about external practices. When the Apostles of the Council wrote to the Antiochians that they had decided to place no burden on the believers from the Gentiles except for certain restrictions, they certainly did not mean to grant them complete freedom from all rules of piety and good conduct, but rather that they would not require them to observe any of the laws of Jewish external life, beginning with circumcision (Acts 15:24).

What is meant here by “justification”? In the general sense, to be justified means to present good reasons by which the blame charged against someone is lawfully removed and he is declared righteous. In this sense, justification before God cannot occur. Among people it is possible for someone to be blamed for something of which he is not guilty, and he has only to explain the matter to appear innocent. But before God we are all guilty both on account of ancestral sin and on account of our own sins. We can present no excuse in justification of ourselves, and we can do nothing by which we might atone for our guilt. What are we to do? We would remain forever under the judgment of God’s justice if the goodness of God had not established for us a special way of justification. To understand this better, let us represent our guilt as a debt before God’s justice. A debtor himself may have no means to pay his debt, but another can pay it for him, and when he does, the creditor no longer regards him as owing anything, clears him, and makes him free from debt. This is precisely what the goodness of God has done for us in justification before God. Our debts are unpayable. But for all of us, our Lord Jesus Christ has paid them to God’s justice by his death on the cross, the power of which is such that in it the Lord himself bore our sins in his body on the tree (1 Pet. 2:24), nailed our handwriting of debt to the cross (Col. 2:14). It remains only to arrange that God’s justice should acknowledge each of us individually and personally as falling under this mercy, or for each of us to present to God’s justice the fact that he is included in the general mass of those whose debts have been paid. Let there be many debtors in some city, and let a certain rich man declare to the creditors—whether various or one—that whichever debtor presents a note or certificate from me, that debt is to be reckoned as paid from my account and he is to be set free from debt. Now this note or certificate from the person of the Lord is what each sinner must present to God’s justice in order to stand before him free of the debt of his sins. What is this note or certificate? Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who has believed in the Lord is righteous before the face of God’s justice.

What then is faith in the Lord? It is vain to try to define faith in the Lord in one word. It must be described, for it is a state of the heart that comprises not one feeling, conviction, and disposition, but several. It comes through repentance; for the Lord says: “repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). From this laboratory of the repenting spirit, faith comes forth not alone but “helped along by love” (Gal. 5:6); and then he who has faith is baptized (Mark 16:16). This is the “new creation” which is conceived by grace in the first movements of repentance, and in this order appears as a fully formed and characteristically developed personality that has taken on the Christian person. The entire course of the matter is this: only the truly repentant one seeks the Lord. The repentant one is filled with two feelings and dispositions: sorrow that he has sinned and a firm desire to yield no more to sinful inclinations. But in the first feeling, God’s justice troubles him, which he cannot satisfy in any way, and in the second feeling—the desire—his own powerlessness terrifies him, proven by experience. He flees to the Lord in full confidence that he will deliver him from both extremes—will forgive his previous sins and will give him the power to resist sin in the future. Without these two convictions, faith in the Lord is unthinkable, just as repentance is unthinkable without contrition for sins and firm resolve not to yield to sin. But all these dispositions are only the preparation for the formation of a believing personality. The formation itself is produced by the grace of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of baptism, in which, in being immersed, one is immersed in Christ’s death and receives the remission of sins, and in arising from the immersion, comes forth in the renewal of life, clothed with the power not to serve sin and to live the rest of one’s life for God in Christ Jesus (see Rom. 6:3–13). This is when a fully formed believing Christian personality appears. One passes through this entire path, but nothing is lost from what has been traversed; on the contrary, everything enters into the order of one’s spirit, which in one word is called faith. Faith therefore comprises in itself many feelings, but its distinguishing and prominent characteristic is the surrendering of oneself to the service of the Lord to the laying down of one’s life in the hope of salvation by his grace. The believer feels that he has been purchased with the price of blood and must serve the one who purchased him, in full confidence that by this path he will certainly be saved.

Only the one who believes in this way appears justified before God, not merely in the sense that the guilt of sinfulness is removed from him, but in that the seed of all righteousness is planted in him through his resolve to serve the Lord by fulfilling his will, and in the sense of the power for this that is given to him by the grace that has regenerated him. He possesses internal righteousness; for “a right spirit” is renewed within him (Ps. 50:12).

After this, it is self-evident why the Law does not justify but only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ does: because the Law did not give new life. A Jewish sinner would come, confess his sin, offer the prescribed sacrifice, and be restored to all the rights of a Jew; but inwardly he remained the same, with the same bondage to sin. Therefore it is said that all sacrifices cleansed only for bodily cleanness (Heb. 9:13). Likewise, the observance of all the other ordinances of the Law communicated only external righteousness, leaving within the old wickedness. Circumcision itself admitted one into the assembly of Israel, but left the heart uncircumcised. Thus a Jew, faithful to the Law, was only declared righteous externally without being righteous in his heart. On the contrary, the one who has believed in the Lord is not merely declared righteous but attains righteousness in the internal order of his life, is renewed, and, like a mature young man full of strength, goes forth to please the Lord in the sense of the grace-given power granted to him. This internal renewal is the distinguishing characteristic of Christian faith. For the sake of it, the Christian is truly justified before the face of God’s justice, justified with a complete justification. This renewal itself is precisely what the testimony is, on account of which everything is forgiven, and the one who presents it is again received into the full mercy and full favor of God.

Nevertheless, the Law was not bad. It had its power according to God’s ordinance and bore appropriate fruit: it kept those who lived under it in a state of correctness—though external only—and prepared those who were more attentive to receive the Lord, since all its ordinances were a shadow of the good things to come. Those who understood this, even while under the Law, sighed for those good things and awaited the coming of the person who was to bring them. And this set them apart among the Jews, making them superior to other Jews. Such were all the Old Testament patriarchs, prophets, and righteous ones.

Saint Chrysostom sees in the words of holy Paul such an exhortation to abandon the Law: “We,” he says (holy Paul), “abandoned the Law not because it was not good, but because it was weak.” In clarification of this weakness, Theophylact adds to the words of Saint Chrysostom: “(and it is weak) because it did not sanctify souls but only removed bodily uncleanness.” On this basis, Blessed Theodoret defines the significance of the Law in general thus: “Violation of these commandments (those mentioned above: concerning circumcision, the Sabbath, sacrifices, washings, and the like) is a sin (for a Jew), but keeping them is not yet progress in perfect righteousness. For all of this served as an indication of something else; however, it was suitable for the Jews at that time.” Blessed Jerome, speaking of such significance of the Law, explains in what cases and for what reason the Law remained with such small fruit. “Some say: if it is true what holy Paul says here—that no one is justified by works of the Law but only by faith in Jesus Christ—then the patriarchs, prophets, and saints who lived before Christ’s coming were imperfect. To such people we should answer that those are called here as not having attained righteousness who believe that justification can come only from such works. But the holy ones of old were justified by faith in Christ. For Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoiced. And Moses considered the reproach of Christ greater treasure than the riches of Egypt: ‘for he looked to the reward’ (Heb. 11:26). And Isaiah saw the glory of Christ (Is. 6), as the evangelist John testifies. From this it is evident that it is not so much works of the Law that are condemned as those who hope to be justified only by works, when the Savior himself says: ‘unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 5:20).”

Gal. 2:17. But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not.

The Apostle directs attention to the present circumstance—that, except for those sent by James, all the Jews who were there and the Apostle Peter among them had abandoned all the Law for faith in the Lord, but then turned to it again because the zealots of the Law were now looking at them. As if they had been caught in some wrong deed that they needed to hasten to correct! As if it were a sin to abandon the Law and cleave to Christ—to Christ, who is the propitiation for our sins! See what an absurdity comes from your manner of action!

By “seeking” the Apostle shows that all who heard his word were truly earnest people seeking salvation. They sought it in the Law and saw that it did not satisfy the requirements of conscience and a God-loving heart. Therefore, they rightly abandoned it and clung to the Lord, the true Savior, the Physician of souls, in whom all spiritual treasures are given to us. This they sought in Christ and, of course, found it, for everyone who seeks this in Him finds it. Why then turn back again to the weak elements? This behavior cannot be understood.

They sought to be justified, “but we found ourselves to be sinners.” When they caught us engaged in the kind of deeds that testified that we believe to be saved solely in the Lord Jesus Christ, without works of the Law, we came to our senses, became ashamed both before others and before our own conscience, and hastened to correct our mistake. We had received freedom, but then turned back from it as if burned, as if having committed a grievous sin!

“So is Christ a servant to sin?” And it turned out, according to you, that to cling to Christ and to place all hope of salvation solely upon Him, abandoning the works of the Law, means the same as falling into sin. So Christ became for you a servant to sin, plunging into sin everyone who clings to Him in faith. How can this be—when He came for the sake of our salvation and we turned to Him, hoping for this salvation and actually receiving it through our very deeds? Such is the meaning of your action. What reasoning could those who understood the force of the Apostle’s words have drawn from this—to completely abandon the Law and never return to it again!

“Holy Chrysostom writes: “If, he says, faith in Christ cannot justify, but the Law is necessary again; then, having abandoned the Law for Christ and not obtaining justification through its abandonment, but undergoing condemnation, we must acknowledge as the source of our condemnation the One to whom we went, abandoning the Law. Behold, to what unavoidable absurdity he has brought his argument. For if we ought not to abandon the Law, and yet we have abandoned it for Christ, then we will be judged for this. But why, Paul, do you speak and advise this to Peter, who knew all this perfectly? Was it not God who revealed to him that a man who is uncircumcised ought not to be condemned for not being circumcised?… He does not speak this for the correction of Peter, but, having directed his speech to Peter because he found this necessary, he speaks meanwhile to his disciples. You have clothed yourself in Christ, have become a member of the Lord, have been numbered among the heavenly city—how then do you still grovel around the Law? How can you attain the Kingdom? Listen to Paul’s words, that by observing the Law the Gospel is overthrown, and, if you wish, I will show you how; and you be afraid and try to avoid the threatening abyss. Why do you observe the Law? Surely, because you fear the Law and are afraid to abandon those writings? But you would not fear to abandon the Law if you had not despised faith, as though it were weak and unable of itself to save you. If the fulfillment of the Law is necessary, then either you must reject Christ or, in following Christ, become a transgressor of the Law. For if the Law must be fulfilled, then those not fulfilling it are transgressors of the Law, and Christ will be the author of this transgression of the Law; for He Himself freed men from the obligation of this Law and gave others the commandment to free them from this obligation. Behold, where the Judaizers have arrived! They make Christ, the author of our justification, the author of sin, as Paul himself says: “So is Christ a servant to sin?” Having brought them to such absurdity, he no longer needed to bring other proofs against them, but one denial was sufficient”; therefore he said simply: ‘May it never be!’ For against what is utterly obvious absurdity, there is no need to seek proofs; a simple denial suffices.”

This “may it never be,” according to the opinion of blessed Augustine, was uttered by holy Paul not from his own lips alone, but from the lips of all who heard him, not excluding the zealots of the Law who had come. For that Christ should be a servant to sin, even they could not say, because not only did they themselves believe in Christ, but did not even want the Gospel to be preached to anyone except the circumcised.

Gal. 2:18. For if I rebuild what I have torn down, I make myself a transgressor.

He explains how they turned out to be sinners when, having abandoned the Law, they returned to it again—by an example from everyday life. Here no one would tear down a building arbitrarily, but only if convinced that it is not needed. But if he himself, having torn down the building, then begins to rebuild it in the same form, he thereby convicts himself that he acted badly in tearing it down, proves himself a transgressor against prudence. So also with us, as it were says holy Paul. Having abandoned the Law, we tore it down; returning to it again, we rebuild it. But if we return to it again because we believe it is necessary, then by this we convict ourselves before everyone that we acted badly in abandoning the Law, sinned in this before God. If, on the other hand, we abandoned the Law because we were convinced that it had become obsolete and lost its force, and clung to Christ because we were convinced that He alone is the true Savior, then, returning now again to the abandoned Law, we act against our own conscience and knowingly violate the clearly understood will of God to seek salvation only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Consequently, we have shown ourselves to be sinners both before God and before our own conscience.

“Do you see the wisdom of Paul,” says holy Chrysostom. “The Jews wanted to show that one who does not observe the Law is a transgressor; but he says the opposite—that one who observes the Law is a transgressor, and a transgressor not only against faith but against the Law itself. For by the words: ‘I rebuild what I have torn down,’ he means the Law. And his words have this meaning: the Law has come to an end; and we ourselves confirmed this by the fact that, abandoning it, we sought salvation by faith. Striving after this to restore the Law, we thereby become transgressors of it, that is, when we stubbornly wish to observe what has been annulled by God Himself.”

This reproach is very strong; therefore holy Paul turns it upon himself, as if he himself had acted thus, while at the same time softening the impression which could not have been pleasant. Or, speaking in the first person, he makes the speech general, as if to say: whether I or another or anyone at all who acts thus does wrong—to turn the speech away from his listeners for the sake of softening the reproach.

bb) Then the Apostle shows how upon the Lord alone one must place hope of salvation (Gal. 2:19-21)

Gal. 2:19. For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live for God; I have been crucified with Christ.

In these last three verses the Apostle shows with what decisiveness one must abandon the Law and cling to the sole Lord, laying as a foundation the fact that in this clinging to the Lord, as it were in the union of one’s life with His life, is true life, salvation, and righteousness. He speaks of this in his own person, as if to say: this is how everyone should act, as I do—die to the Law and live only in Christ and by Christ. He could speak thus of himself and set himself as an example not for boasting, but for explanation of the matter. For it was known to all how, as soon as he learned that there is truth in Christ, he cut off all communion with the Law. As much as he had previously been devoted to it and trusted in it, so much, having believed in the Lord, he became distant from it and regarded it as nothing.

“He expresses such his relation to the Law with the words: ‘I died to the Law,’ ceased to exist for it, and it for me. As the dead become free from all obligations to the living, so with my death to the Law all my obligations to it ceased. ‘To the Law,’ he says, ‘I died,’ so as no longer to be under the Law” (blessed Augustine). For “whoever is freed from the Law dies to the Law” (Ambrosiaster).

“He presents himself as dead to the Law through the Law itself: ‘through the Law I died to the Law.’ The Law itself put me to death for itself, itself pushed me away from itself, itself drew me away and led me to Christ. This can be understood in two ways. Either so: the Law itself, because it did not satisfy my search for righteousness, forced me to abandon it and turn to another true source of righteousness; or so: the Law itself pointed me to Christ—the end and goal of the Law; it itself speaks of the coming of Christ the Savior and of the necessity of listening to Him in order to be saved. Following this instruction of the Law, I turned to Christ and abandoned the Law. Both thoughts converge in the one that the Law was a guardian toward Christ. Ancient interpreters dwell on this more. Thus blessed Augustine: ‘by the Law,’ he says, ‘I died to the Law;’ inasmuch as I was a Jew and the Law had me as a guardian toward Christ, as he explains later (Gal. 3:24). The guardian itself becomes unnecessary after he has served his purpose: as also the breasts nourish an infant, so that afterwards he will not need the breasts.” So holy Chrysostom: “He shows by this that through this very Law he died to the Law, that is, the Law itself convinced me not to follow the Law. And if after this I follow it, then by this very act I violate it. How and in what way? Moses, prophesying about Christ, says: ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers like me: you shall listen to him’ (Deut. 18:15). It is evident from this that those not obeying Christ transgress the Law.” So Theodoret: “Convinced by the Law itself, says the Apostle, I have made myself dead to the Law; because the Law pointed me to Christ; convinced by the Law, I came to Christ, and I am dead to the Law; because I am no longer governed by it in life, but follow the ordinances of Christ.”

But besides this primary understanding, they find in the Apostle’s words the nuances of other thoughts. Thus they say that by the Law through which holy Paul died to the Law, one can understand the Gospel law, as if to say: a new law came from God, by obeying which I abandoned the old law; or so: I was bound to the old law as a wife to a husband, and could not leave it; but a new law came and put to death that old law, and having become, through its death, free from it, I was united to the new law, which permits me even the very Law itself. So holy Chrysostom: “It is possible that he speaks here of the law of grace, because he also ordinarily calls grace the law, when, for example, he says: ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free’ (Rom. 8:2).” So blessed Jerome: “whoever dies to the Law once lived it, observing Sabbaths, new moons, feast days, sacrifices. But when Christ came and the old law died through the Gospel law, then the soul, which, as it is written, ‘while a man lives she is bound to him by law, but if the man dies, she is free to be united to another man,’ upon the death of the husband, that is, the old Law, becomes free to be united (to another husband) to the spiritual law (of faith in Christ), that she may bear fruit for God (Rom. 7:3-4).”

Holy Chrysostom, moreover, finds it possible to see in the Apostle also this thought: the Law put me to death, and I became dead to it; but Christ enlivened me when dead, and I live to Him. “We can,” he says, “also understand the words differently: ‘through the Law I died to the Law.’ If the Law commands to fulfill all that is written in it and punishes for non-fulfillment (with death), then we all died by it, because no one fulfilled it. But as it is not the property of what is soulless and dead to obey the commandments of the Law, so to me, dead to the Law, because I died by the power of its word, the Law should no longer demand obedience from the dead, whom it itself put to death—and not only bodily death, but also death of the soul, through which it brought about even bodily death. Since therefore he said: I am dead, lest they say to him: how do you then live?—he gave also the reason for his life and showed that the Law killed him when he was alive, and Christ, having received him when dead, enlivened him through His death: wherein he shows a twofold miracle—both that Christ enlivened him ‘dead,’ and that he enlivened ‘through death.’”

Crucified With Christ; Christ Lives in Me (Continued) (Galatians 2:15–21)

“That I might live for God,”—that is, to live for God. One lives for God who dedicates all his thoughts, desires, feelings, words, deeds, and all his labors to God, to His glory, to pleasing Him, according to His holy will. And those living under the Law lived for God, but only outwardly; their inward man did not serve Him. Despite this they were considered righteous as having fulfilled the external conditions of justification. Now, he says, I, by God’s grace being born again in the Lord, both inwardly and outwardly, with my whole being am directed toward God and live for Him truly, “that is, with immortal and uncorrupted life” (Ecumenius). Or so: before the Lord’s coming, whoever wished to live for God had to live by the Law of Moses; for such was God’s will. Now it is different: God in the Lord Jesus Christ has established a new, better, and more efficacious way of living for God. Therefore, whoever now wishes to live for God, that is, fully according to His will, truly to please Him, must abandon the Law and believe in the Lord: for such now is God’s will, that to live for God is no other way than in Christ and through Christ. If I, he says, had merely abandoned the Law, left it simply not to restrict myself by the Law, that would be worse than being under the Law. But I abandoned one law in order to take up another, a better one; I continue to move in the same realm in which the will of God reigns; I abandoned the Law in order to live for God, as before, in slavery to the Law, I thought to live for God. But then there was no true life in me; and now I perceive it in me and live by it, with the assurance that, living thus, I live for God.

Where then did holy Paul find this new life? In being crucified together with Christ. “With Christ,” he says, “I have been crucified.” By these words he shows how, having abandoned the Law, he came to live for God. He speaks as if to say: do not think that abandoning the Law was easy for me. No. It was the same as crucifixion. Why was Christ crucified? In order to fulfill the will of the Heavenly Father, who “so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). This will I came to understand, and in order to follow it, I offered everything in sacrifice—everything that was so dear to my heart—our religious convictions and the love of my people. Was it easy for me to abandon what I had been accustomed to from childhood, what I valued so highly and cherished so dearly?! But, having understood that such was God’s will, I tore this from my heart. Did I not see that in abandoning the Law I would incur the hatred of my people, whom I love and whose glory and well-being I count as my own? But I delivered myself to all sufferings from those I love, rather than to sin against the will of our Heavenly Father, so clearly revealed to me in the Lord Jesus Christ. My change was painful, like death. It was grievous to turn away from the Law, terrible to arouse dangers all around and to place myself in a state of expectation of death at any hour. But I delivered myself to pain and death, clinging to Christ in faith and laying all my hope of salvation on Him alone. I was and am in the state of one crucified, in being crucified together with Christ.

But in this there is still more. Crucifixion together with Christ is visible here; but how does new life according to God flow from this?! For a new life to begin, the above-mentioned moral change alone was not sufficient. This change is only a preparation for new life. Life itself is formed by being born from above, which is accomplished in baptism. Holy Chrysostom says: “But how, someone will say, was he crucified with Christ, when he was alive and breathing? That Christ was crucified is clear; but how were you crucified and living? By the words: ‘I have been crucified with Christ’—he pointed to the manner of life after baptism, by which the members are mortified.” “I was crucified together with Christ; for I was buried with Him in baptism” (blessed Theodoret). “I was spiritually crucified together with Him and died with Him through baptism” (blessed Theophylact). As the one being baptized into Christ’s death is immersed and comes out of the baptismal font in the renewal of life, the Apostle depicts extensively in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 6:1-13). In this moment of new birth the soul feels and from this same moment begins constantly to feel that it already possesses in perfection everything it expected and could expect from the Law, which therefore turns out to be unnecessary—and that the new life that has begun is so blessed that compared with it all sacrifices are nothing. Thus that which during the turning to Christ the Lord caused mortal pain and threatened with deaths has now disappeared: that which was dead has been swallowed up by life in Christ Jesus the Lord.

Gal. 2:20. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I am dead, he says, but not to be dead, but to live a different life, a more perfect one. I have been crucified together with Christ; and Christ, living even in crucifixion, has filled me with His life: He has come to live in me. Now it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. This is not merely moral in the sense that I am wholly devoted to Him and dedicate all to Him—my thoughts, feelings, deeds, words, and everything external, as well as internal—I plan nothing for myself, everything for Him, so that it is as if I do not exist, but only He exists in me, and pleasing Him is my only concern: but really and essentially He is in me. I am united to Him, and He to me. I have been grafted to Him as a wild olive, and He has filled me with His life. He works in me with His all-working, directing everything to God’s glory and my salvation and that of others. From Him comes the awakening, from Him also comes the strength. It is not that the personality disappears; but so that the soul consciously and freely surrenders itself to Christ’s all-working. And He works in the soul according to the soul’s desire, seeking, and loving reception of His working; so that in deed it turns out as if the soul itself acts. For “whoever is united to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17). It is by faith that Christ dwells in the hearts (Eph. 3:17), and that is fulfilled which He promised: “You are in me and I am in you” (Jn. 15:4). Therefore: whatever the believer does that is truly of value in God’s eyes, he does it not without Him (Jn. 15:5). Without Him no one can do such deeds.

Ecumenius writes: “For this reason Christ lives in me, that in me nothing displeasing to Him occurs. Or so: He lives in me, working, ruling, being everything for me.” Holy Chrysostom depicts both sides of this mystery of life in Christ more extensively: “Having said: ‘it is no longer I who live,’ he pointed to the manner of life that follows baptism, by which the members are mortified. What does it mean: ‘Christ lives in me’? That, he says, I do nothing that is displeasing to Christ. For just as by life he means not general life, but sinful life, so by death he means freedom from sins. For in no other way is it possible to live for God except to die to sin. Thus, as Christ died bodily, so also I have died to sin. ‘Put to death, therefore, your earthly members: sexual immorality, impurity, passion,’ he says (Col. 3:5). Also: ‘our old self was crucified with him’ (Rom. 6:6), that is, in the baptismal font. Now, if you remain dead to sin, you will be alive and living for God; but if you again rise for sin, you will lose this life. But Paul is not like that: he remained dead to sin throughout his life. See how strict and pure his life is, and above all admire this blessed soul before others! He did not say: I live, but: ‘Christ lives in me.’ Who would dare to dispute the truth of what is said? Although he entirely gave himself to Christ, refused all that is temporal, and did everything according to His will, yet he did not say: therefore I live for Christ, but, which is much more important, ‘Christ lives in me.’ For just as sin, when it dominates a person, lives in him and governs his soul according to its will: so when a man, having mortified it, does what is pleasing to Christ, such life of his is no longer the life of the man, but of the One living in him, that is, of Christ acting in and governing him.”

“And the life I now live in the flesh.” This is a conclusion from the preceding. To live according to the flesh means to live carnally, sensuously, in the lusts of the flesh; and to live in the flesh means to live in the body visibly to all, in this present life. The Apostle draws attention of his listeners to how he held or conducted himself visibly to all, and speaks as if to say: what if I visibly to all conduct myself thus and so—that is, free from all obligations of the Law, neither offering sacrifices nor undergoing ablutions, not observing either the Sabbath or the festivals, and accounting circumcision as nothing, if I live thus visibly, it is because “I live by faith in the Son of God;” I do not rely on anything else, have placed all my hope of salvation on Him alone, with the firm assurance that He will forgive my sins, correct my life, and lead me into His eternal Kingdom. By this faith I live; it constitutes the whole structure of my inner life. The sacrifices of the Law and all the precepts of the Law had value because they prefigured Christ—the Son of God. But now, when the Son of God has come and given Himself for us, all the Old Testament ordinances have lost their significance. We must abandon the Law and cling to Christ by faith: which I do. I have counted everything as rubbish, that I may gain Christ—and I live solely by faith in Him. The Son of God, who loved us, came to earth, gave Himself for us, became our Mediator, the Propitiator of God’s righteousness, the Giver of God’s grace, which grants us new life. This I receive and appropriate to myself by faith and wish to know nothing else. That is why I live as you see me living, that is, in complete separation from the Law! Here, according to the remark of holy Chrysostom, lies a powerful reproach to those to whom Paul’s address was directed. He speaks as if to each of them: “Christ loved you so much that He gave Himself; and when you had no hope of salvation, He brought you to such a great and exalted life; and you, having received such blessings, turn back again to the old.”

Holy Chrysostom at this point draws special attention to why holy Paul appropriates to himself alone the perfect salvation accomplished by the Lord for all. “What are you doing, Paul? Why do you appropriate to yourself what is common to all and refer to yourself alone what was done for all people? For you did not say: him who loved us, but: ‘him who loved me.’ And the Evangelist says: ‘God so loved the world’ (Jn. 3:16); and you yourself in another place say: ‘He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all’ (Rom. 8:32). Why then does he speak thus here? He represented to himself the whole hopelessness of human nature and the unspeakable concern of Jesus Christ for us, and from what He freed us, and what He granted us, and, contemplating all this, was wholly inflamed with love toward Him; therefore he speaks thus. For the Prophets also often call their God, who is God of all, their own, speaking thus: ‘O God, O my God! Early will I seek you’ (Ps. 62:2). Besides, he showed that each of us is bound to Christ with such just gratitude as we would be bound if He had come for him alone. For He would not have refused to take upon Himself such mediation even for one; because He loves each individual person separately just as much as He loves the whole world. Moreover, although the sacrifice was offered for all and was sufficient for the salvation of all; yet only those who believed made use of its blessing.”

Gal. 2:21. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the Law, Christ died for nothing!

“To set aside means not to believe, to despise, to treat as worthless” (Ecumenius). The Apostle speaks as if to say: I cannot do otherwise; for if I should continue to hold to the Law, then I would set aside, despise, and treat as worthless grace. Or so: The Lord Himself approaches me so graciously, on the basis of faith alone, granting me both forgiveness of sins and inner renewal: how can I set aside this grace and continue to bind myself with the bonds of the Law? Holy John of Damascus says: “By grace, he says, I have become free. Why then, by returning again to the Law, should I not incur reproach upon grace, as if it were not powerful to give life?” “For (after the coming of grace) he who continues to live according to the Law dishonors grace as insufficient for salvation” (blessed Theodoret). According to Ambrosiaster, holy Paul speaks as if to say here: “I cannot show myself ungrateful to God’s grace and not remain unshakeable in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that I have been blessed by no one as by Him, and that if I compare to Him another (the Law), from which I have received no help, I thereby show contempt for Him.”

“If righteousness could be gained through the Law,” δικαιοσύνη—righteousness, the life pleasing to God, the salvific life,—“then Christ died for nothing.” If the Law provided both forgiveness of sins and inner rectitude and sanctification, then there was no need for Christ to die. He died precisely in order to provide us with these two essential goods—forgiveness of sins and sanctifying grace, which no one else could provide and without which we have no salvation. For as long as we are under sin, not forgiven, we have no access to God. But even if we were forgiven, if we were not inwardly renewed and did not receive the strength to walk unfailingly in God’s will, we would all remain unworthy before God. The Lord Savior died for us and nailed our sins to the cross. Then, having ascended to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit from the Father. Therefore, to those who believe in Him He grants both forgiveness of sins and the salvific grace of the Holy Spirit. Without these two we have no salvation. Consequently, Christ, who has provided them to us, did not die in vain. But if the Law could provide these goods, then there would be no reason for Christ to die, when the Law already provides everything necessary for salvation.

The Apostle, indeed, states here only a general principle; the conclusion from it he leaves for each to draw for himself, on account of its extreme obviousness. Namely: but Christ did not die in vain—it is impossible to say that Christ died in vain; consequently, righteousness is not through the Law.

Holy Chrysostom says upon these words of holy Paul: “What sin is greater than this, what words are stronger than these for conviction? For if Christ died, it is evident that the Law is not powerful to justify us; but if the Law justifies, then Christ died in vain. But would it not be foolish to call useless and in vain this so terrible and surpassing human understanding, Work, this ineffable mystery, which the Patriarchs awaited with longing, which the Prophets predicted, and at which the Angels trembled with awe—the work which by right should be recognized by all as the chief cause of God’s providence for us? In this way the Apostle presents as the extreme degree of foolishness and absurdity to regard so great and important a work as vain.”

“This word is very powerful,” writes blessed Jerome, “against those who after faith in Christ think that they ought to observe the precepts of the Law. If righteousness is through the Law, then Christ died in vain. Or let them show how Christ did not die in vain if the works of the Law justify; but however foolish they may be, they will not dare to say that Christ died for nothing. Therefore we must complete his speech here by the following reasoning: but Christ did not die in vain; and conclude: consequently, righteousness is not through the Law.”

Doctrinal Part (Gal. 3–5:12)

O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

In the first part, the holy Paul has justified himself against certain reproaches and reestablished his Apostolic dignity. Having thus disposed the Galatians to hear his word again with obedience, he begins to instruct them what a grave error they have made by turning to the Law. “Earlier he demonstrates only that he became an Apostle not from men nor through men, and that he had no need of instruction from the Apostles; but here, after presenting himself as a trustworthy teacher, he now speaks with authority, comparing the Law and faith between themselves” (holy Chrysostom). The subject being explained here by the Apostle is the needlessness of the Law for the Galatians as Gentiles. And although the discourse throughout was addressed to the Jews, it was of such a nature that throughout its course it gave the Galatians the most instructive lessons. The general impression derived from it was this: if the Jews must abandon the Law, which was given to them, why should we bind ourselves to it? The holy Paul now takes up this very thought, proves it, defends it from objections, and applies it to the Galatians with persuasion.

In the course of the holy Paul’s thoughts, the order is as follows.

First:

A) he proves that for the Galatians, as Gentiles, the Law is not necessary (Gal. 3:1–14);

1) his first proof is drawn from the Galatians’ reception of the Holy Spirit without the Law’s participation in this (Gal. 3:1–5);

2) the second is drawn from a reference to God’s divine governance over mankind, according to which it was appointed from the beginning that Gentiles should enter God’s possession through faith in Abraham, just as it was promised to Abraham (Gal. 3:6–14).

Then:

B) he refutes objections (Gal. 3:15–29). The thought concerning the significance of Abraham’s faith could be shaken by doubts and could undermine the force of the proof;

1) let the promise be given to Abraham’s faith, but afterward the Law came and changed the conditions. Before the Law, faith was in force; under the Law, the Law became the condition for obtaining the promise. No, says the Apostle, the Law did not nullify the power of the promise through faith (Gal. 3:15–18);

2) but if this is so, why then the Law? It is the preparation leading to Christ. And when Christ the Lord came, it was to cease. Now both we (the Jews) and you are one (Gal. 3:19–29).

Finally:

C) he persuades the Galatians to return to the truth, inclining them to obedience to it by various representations, such as are ordinarily employed for this purpose (Gal. 4:1–5, 12).

The chief purpose of the holy Apostle is not to show that righteousness is not from the Law, but that the Law is not necessary for the Gentiles, that the way to Christ the Lord lies open to them apart from the Law. All the course of his discourse is directed to this. The Law is only for the Jews, and then only for a time. When that time ended, it became unnecessary for them as well, and for them too the way to the Lord is the way of faith alone. In this both they and the Gentiles are equal.

A) Proofs of the needlessness of the Jewish Law for the Galatians as Gentiles (Gal. 3:1–14)

1) The first—from their reception of the Holy Spirit apart from the Law (Gal. 3:1–5)

The distinctive excellence of Christianity, which sets it above all other faiths and displays it exclusively as the true faith, is the bestowal of the grace of regeneration and other gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is not merely the height of the knowledge of God and the purity of its moral law that distinguish it; but the fact that through faith in the Lord via the mysteries, grace of the Holy Spirit is given in it, making a person a new creation—something which no faith except the truly Christian can give, nor is able to give.

Christian revelation is now in almost all languages. Any lover of learning can read and acquire the concepts contained in it; but he will not be a Christian as long as he has not received the grace of the Holy Spirit through the appointed, divinely-established way. It is possible to have an entire society of such knowers of the Gospel and even to take upon themselves the name Evangelicals, yet be destitute of grace and, consequently, be Christians in name only.

And here is the subject which the holy Paul chiefly elucidates throughout all his Epistles. It is incorrectly said that the chief point in Apostle Paul is the contrast of faith to works. No, his chief point is the preaching about the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which there is no salvation; everything else is the means to this.

And in the Epistle to the Galatians he returns to this subject more than once. He places it at the head of the truths by which he wishes to instruct the Galatians. He does not prove that without the Holy Spirit everything is nothing. This is considered proven and universally recognized. Rather, he asks: the grace of the Holy Spirit—how did you receive it? By the Law? No. So what do you need the Law for? A short speech, yet one that utterly destroys all Judaism.

Gal. 3:1. O senseless Galatians! Who has bewitched you not to obey the truth? Jesus Christ was depicted before your eyes, crucified in you.

The exclamation expresses both sorrow and the indignation of love, and amazement. It could have burst forth of itself after the preceding reasoning about the power of faith in Christ Jesus the Lord and about what great perfection and blessedness is granted to those who live in Christ and have Christ dwelling in them. Turning his thought from himself to the Galatians, the Apostle says with amazement and with compassion: O senseless ones! After all, you had all this too—how did you allow yourselves to be deceived? “Note,” says holy Chrysostom, “that he did not use such severity at the beginning (of the Epistle), but after refutations and proofs, so that they might receive this rebuke not as from him, but as the necessary consequence of the preceding reasonings. For he first proved that they reject faith and consider the death of Christ superfluous; only then does he make this rebuke, and yet still a mild and gentle one; for they were worthy of even harsher rebukes.”

Blessed Jerome refers this unreasonableness to the natural character of the Galatians. “Cretans,” he says, “are liars; Dalmatians are cruel-hearted; Phrygians are cowardly; Greeks are vain and frivolous; but Galatians are thoughtless. If anything at all seems probable, they, without thinking it through properly, rush at it.” Present experience bears out this judgment. With what enthusiasm did they receive the preaching about Christ the Savior! And suddenly they turned their backs to Him.

But in the holy Apostle one cannot see the indignation of contempt and aversion, but the indignation of love and zeal for their salvation—the weeping of a father’s compassion for them, the voice of intense desire to bring them quickly to self-correction. So do parents act when they wish to correct their children.

This paternal tenderness is heard in the question: “Who has bewitched you?” He does not say directly: why did you do this? But he appeals to other persons who have wickedly dealt with them. By this he softens the paternal rebuke, attributing their deviation from the truth not so much to their own will as to the seductive deception of false teachers. This is the word of a father full of love, who makes a reproach and yet inserts into the very reproach words that excuse in some way the guilty one, so as not to wound but to heal and to inspire him to return to the truth, indicating in the deviation from it the work of enmity from malicious people. This is why he used such a word: who bewitched you? To bewitch means to make others see things not as they are, to see what does not exist, and not to see what everyone sees.

The Greek word: ἐβάσκανε, from βάσκαινω, means: to look at something with an envious, ill-wishing eye, with a wish to harm, and further, to harm with the eye, or, as is commonly said, to cast an evil eye. The Apostle seems to wish to express: your change is so incomprehensible that I am ready to attribute it to some sort of sorcery. Of course, such a thought was not in the mind of the Apostle. He wished only to soften the rebuke, indicating that their apostasy depends more on the plots and cunning of those who turned them aside than on themselves. Those who envied your good success in Christianity laid such snares for you that you were led astray and are losing what you had acquired in such abundance.

Blessed Jerome dwells somewhat on the meaning just stated. “He bewitched,” he says, “enchanted, cast an evil eye. However, one must interpret these words in a manner worthy of the Apostle. He did not speak thus because he recognized sorcery as something real, but used a common expression. It is said that the eye of an envious person harms the one he envies, especially children. Whether this is so or not, God knows. Perhaps demons serve this sin. But what is clear to us is that the Apostle took the word from folk speech to show that just as, by common saying, the evil eye harms tender children: so the Galatians, newly reborn through faith in Christ and still fed on milk, not solid food, as if bewitched by someone, suffered harm.”

But the Eastern Fathers understand here direct envy. Holy Chrysostom says: “Having said: ἐβάσκανε—envied—the Apostle joins rebuke with praise. By this he shows that their first deeds and actions were worthy of envy and that what happened to them came about through the cunning of the devil, greatly vexed at their prosperity. When you hear here the word—‘the envious eye’—as also in the Gospel: ‘the evil eye’ (Mt. 20:15), which means the same thing, do not suppose that a mere glance of the eyes can harm those at whom we look. But just as in the Gospel Christ the Lord called envy by this name, so here the Apostle means those who envied; the work of envy is to harm. And he says this not because envy in itself has the power to harm, but because those who turned them aside did this out of envy.”

In the same sense blessed Theodoret writes: “he joins rebuke with praise. For envy strikes the rich, not the poor; the prosperous, not the wretched. This is why the Apostle’s word shows their former zeal for piety; and shows also the fatherly love in the Apostle; because he grieves for them as for those who have lost the wealth they had gathered. What envious and malicious demon, says the Apostle, has stolen your wondrous wealth?”

“Not to obey the truth.” They already obeyed it, but did not stand firm. The Greek word πείθεσθαι means both to be persuaded and to hold firmly to one’s conviction. The Apostle expresses his amazement at how it came to pass that they did not hold firm in the conviction once received, did not remain obedient to the truth of the Gospel entrusted to them, but, abandoning it, yielded to false assurances of teachers ignorant of the truth, when the work of salvation through the cross had been so clearly set before them and they had received it so vividly.

“Jesus Christ was depicted before your eyes, crucified in you.” “Depicted through the preaching. The preaching portrayed the cross to you; but you saw it through the eyes of faith as present” (Ecumenius). He expresses a twofold action—both how powerful the preaching was and how vividly they apprehended its power. Faith raised them to the contemplation by the mind of the Lord crucified and the work of salvation accomplished by Him. The word “in you” means either: among you, as if the Lord were crucified in your midst and each of you saw Him crucified before your eyes; or “in you”—in your hearts, in your feeling, in that thought that they entered into sympathy with the Lord’s sufferings and suffered with Him in their hearts. The force of the speech lies in this: consequently, you understood the power of the Lord’s death, you knew that this is the propitiation sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and consequently for your sins as well. Then the legal sacrifices did not come to mind. How then did it come to pass that you now wish to rely on them?

The cross-death of the Lord is the center of the divine economy of our salvation and the support of all the hopes of the saved. Thence, deviation from faith, or life by faith, is always the consequence of inattention to the Lord’s cross-death and improper regard for it. But the Galatians had a sin directly against this death; for in accepting the Law, they diminished the value of it. Thence comes a very important lesson for everyone: not in faith alone, but also in thought, do not turn away from the cross: contemplate always the Lord crucified and thereby nourish your faith and zeal for living by faith.

Holy Chrysostom expresses the meaning of these words thus: “Jesus Christ was depicted before your eyes…” “But He was not crucified in the land of Galatia, but in Jerusalem. Why then does he say: ‘in you’? By this he points to the power of faith, which can even see what is distant. Therefore he did not say merely: crucified, but: ‘was depicted as crucified,’ showing by this that they with the eyes of faith saw the events better than some of those who saw them with bodily eyes. For many of those who saw them with their own eyes gained no benefit; but these, though they did not see them with their own eyes, saw them far more clearly by the power of faith. Saying this, he both rebukes them and praises them. He praises them because they received everything told about Christ with complete confidence in its truth; and he rebukes them because they abandoned Him whom they saw stripped for their sake, bound to a pillar, fastened to the cross, spat upon, mocked, given vinegar, reviled by the robber, pierced (for he embraced all this in the words: ‘was depicted as crucified in you’), and, abandoning Him, turned to the Law, showing no shame at all for His sufferings. But do you note how he, leaving behind heaven, earth, sea, and all else, preached the power of Christ, bearing everywhere the one cross of Christ; for this is the height of the Lord’s providence toward us.”

If one takes the word “depicted” abstractly from the Galatians, then for us Christians, Christ is depicted in the Old Testament. Blessed Jerome expressed this thought. “For us as well,” he says, “Christ is depicted, because the entire choir of Prophets foretells His sufferings, His mockings, and His insults, so that of His cross we learn not from the Gospel alone, which tells of His crucifixion, but also from that which was written in Divine Scripture before He was pleased to descend to earth and take upon Himself humanity, so as to be crucified in it.”

Gal. 3:2. This one thing I wish to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit from works of the Law, or from the hearing of faith?

The Apostle directly proceeds to the matter and resolves the dispute with a single question. He sets forth a position beyond dispute: that which is the reason the Holy Spirit was given must be exclusively upheld. If He was given for the works of the Law, then the works of the Law must be upheld; if for faith, then faith. But underlying this position lies another principle—that the chief good for us is the reception of the Holy Spirit. Wherever the Holy Spirit is, there we must also stand.

He offers no solution to the question; for it resolves itself by its very nature. It is a self-answering question. All knew, saw, and felt that they had received the Holy Spirit; and all also knew that they had received Him apart from the Law through the medium of faith alone; and all were likewise convinced that the chief thing in the work of salvation is the grace of the Holy Spirit. The question brought all this to mind and elicited the answer which the Apostle desired.

“This one thing I want to know”. “I am not beginning my argument from afar and I am not setting out lengthy proofs: perhaps you would not be willing to follow all of it. I am not presenting to you the entire magnitude of the economy of our salvation: perhaps you would not wish to plunge into contemplation of this. I am gathering everything into one brief and simple question” (blessed Theophylact).

“There are many questions by which I could persuade you to prefer the Gospel to the Law; but since you are weak in hearing, I speak with you in plain speech and ask about that which is evident to all” (blessed Jerome).

“Did you receive the Spirit from works of the Law?” By works of the Law are understood here the Old Testament ecclesiastical ordinances of worship and reverence. “It is necessary to observe that the Apostle did not simply say: ‘from works’, but with the addition: ‘from works of the Law’. For we know that Cornelius the centurion received the Spirit not without works (he means prayer and almsgiving, which ascended before God), but not from works of the Law, which he did not know” (blessed Jerome).

“It is necessary to know,” writes blessed Augustine, “that works of the Law are of two kinds: sacred actions and mysteries, and moral deeds. Among the sacred actions are these: circumcision, the sabbath, new moons, sacrifices, and all such countless ecclesiastical ordinances. Among the moral deeds: do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness (Ex 20:13–16). Here the Apostle is speaking about the sacred actions.”

By Spirit is understood not merely inner rebirth and sanctification, but especially the visible gifts of the Holy Spirit. For the Apostle wished to point to something evident and tangible. Rebirth and moral sanctification, though they could not but be consciously felt, are not so evident and tangible. Holy Chrysostom says: “He had previously instructed them by a discourse addressed to Peter; now he turns his speech to them and draws all that serves to persuade them from what happened to them; and not only from those gifts which they had in common with others, but from those that were specially given to them, he persuades and assures them. You, he says, received the Holy Spirit, performed many miracles, accomplished signs, raised the dead, cleansed the lepers, prophesied and spoke in different tongues. Did the Law give you such power?”—“In that time those who were deemed worthy of spiritual grace both spoke in different tongues, prophesied, and worked miracles. Therefore the Apostle said what follows: Did the Law give you the power of the Divine Spirit, or faith in the Lord alone?” (blessed Theodoret).

“‘Or from hearing of faith?’ Hearing of faith is both the hearing of Gospel preaching and obedience to it, the submission of the mind to faith, the receiving of the Gospel. You did nothing lawful, he says; meanwhile, as soon as you heard the word about faith and submitted to it, received it in your heart and cleaved to the Lord, at once you received grace in baptism and the laying on of hands. It was not the mere hearing of the Gospel that drew such divine mercy to them, but the fact that, having heard, they submitted to it—that, having believed that salvation is in Christ, they cleaved to Him and were baptized. I came to you, he says, set before you the word, you believed, were baptized, and behold the grace of the Spirit. You did no works of the Law, neither circumcision, nor sacrifices, nor washings, nor observed the sabbath. Faith alone gave you this. Judge for yourselves, then, whether it is not the height of folly to abandon faith, which bestowed such great goods upon you, and turn to the Law, which gave you nothing of the kind?” (holy Chrysostom).

Gal 3:3. Are you so senseless? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Having posed the question, the Apostle does not give it its answer. The answer immediately resounded of itself in the mind: no, we did not receive the Spirit from works of the Law, but by faith. The Apostle takes this answer and draws a conclusion from it: and so you, having begun by the Spirit, are now being perfected by the flesh. What could be more senseless than this? How have you descended into such senselessness?

“He called grace Spirit, and the life under the Law flesh; because in the Law everything pertained chiefly to the body: circumcision belonged to the body, keeping the sabbath, the sprinkling of water, and all things of this sort” (blessed Theodoret). “Again he rebukes them opportunely. You ought, he says, to increase your progress in faith with the passage of time; but you have not only added nothing, but have gone backward. Others, beginning with the small and advancing little by little, eventually attain to the great; but you, having begun with the great, have gone to the opposite. Even if you had begun with the carnal, you ought nevertheless to have risen to the spiritual; but you, even having begun with the spiritual, have returned to the carnal. To perform signs is a spiritual work, but to be circumcised is carnal. Yet you have gone from signs to circumcision; having touched the truth, you have turned to images, you seek a lamp in the light of the sun, you return to milk after solid food. And he did not say: you continue in the flesh, but: ‘you are being perfected by the flesh’ (επιτελεισθε—one can render: you are being finished, you are being slain, you are being brought to completion), showing that the false teachers, having caught you, have killed you like voiceless animals, and you yourselves have voluntarily agreed to endure whatever they wished; just as if some general and at the same time courageous warrior, who had already won many trophies and victories, falling into the hands of rebels, allowed them without any resistance to brand his body” (holy Chrysostom).

“You are being perfected by the flesh”—you are completing. Having received the Spirit, you inwardly received a spiritual disposition; you began a morally-religious building within yourselves by the Spirit and raised it to some extent. However much you raised it, it was all spiritual. Now on top of it you are beginning to build up the carnal. This upper part does not correspond to the lower, and the whole building becomes worthless. No wise master does things this way.

Their error is not in that they were doing something carnal in the matter of salvation and pleasing God. One cannot do without this. But in that they considered this carnal element a condition of salvation and thereby ruined the whole matter. By this characteristic, the reproach can also be directed at all of us. We all begin by the Spirit, receiving rebirth in the font of baptism. In the Church of God it is appointed to kindle this spirit of grace by all the ecclesiastical ordinances, especially by the work of fasting with proper confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries. But all of this has both an inner and an outer side, and the latter is the expression of the former; and it has value inasmuch as it is penetrated by it. Suppose that someone has stopped at only this outer side; then of him one can say: having begun by the Spirit, you are being perfected by the flesh.

Flesh here does not have the meaning of sin; but outside the context this passage can apply to those who after a good life indulged in a bad one; to those who, having received spiritual life in baptism, will never remember what it requires throughout their whole lives, but live according to the requirements of the flesh and fleshly thoughts; and also to those who, coming to themselves and turning in repentance to the Lord, having truly united with Him in holy communion and having labored somewhat in walking the path of the commandments, have again grown weak and, having grown cold toward the Lord, have turned back to deeds of self-pleasing and man-pleasing. And all such have begun by the Spirit and are being perfected by the flesh.

But these are only applications of the passage; the direct meaning of it is that the Galatians, having begun by faith, which gave them the grace of the Holy Spirit, have now turned to carnal justifications, which give only external purity without internal sanctification.

Gal 3:4. Did you suffer so much in vain? If indeed it was in vain.

Question after question the holy Paul puts forward; and although he leaves them without an answer, these answers themselves resounded in the mind of those reading and pressed upon them more and more, bringing them to the awareness of how unreasonably they had acted in turning to the Law. Earlier he had spoken of the gifts of grace, of what faith wrought in them by the Spirit; now he fixes attention on their external situation as a result of faith. Then all suffered for faith; the Galatians probably suffered as well, though this is not stated clearly in the Epistle. The Apostle says to them: look, you suffered for faith; sufferings for faith bind us more closely to Christ, who suffered for us, and multiply the streams of grace and thereby further elevate internal spiritual perfection in Christianity. In so elevating, they raise in the opinion of all believers, they draw God’s favor, and prepare crowns in eternity. What goods sufferings bring! But, turning to the Law, you lose all of this: your sufferings no longer have any value, you have suffered in vain. How then do you allow all of this to be lost for nothing? Do you not regret that you are making your sufferings meaningless? “This ought to move them even more powerfully than what he said before. For the remembrance of signs could not affect them so much as the indication of the labors and sufferings they endured for Christ; for all, he says, that you have endured for Christ, they wish to take from you and thereby deprive you of your crown that belongs to you” (holy Chrysostom).

“If indeed it was in vain”, ειγε και εικη—if, of course, in vain (let them be lost). All the ancient Fathers hold that with these words the holy Apostle expresses the hope that they will not allow their sufferings to be lost in vain, namely by abandoning the Law and again receiving entirely the one, unmixed faith.—In our way of speaking: but hopefully not in vain,—I hope it will not be in vain. Holy Chrysostom says: “but lest he strike their soul too hard and weaken their strength entirely, not waiting for their answer, he at once added: ‘if indeed it was in vain’. For if you come to your senses, he says, and make amends, then it will not be in vain and meaningless. What shall those now say who reject repentance? Look, the Galatians both received the Holy Spirit, both performed signs, both were confessors, and endured for Christ countless sorrows,—and after such gifts fell away from grace. Yet the Apostle says that, if you wish, you can restore everything.”—Here is the judgment of blessed Jerome: “you suffered in vain, he says, for faith if you fall away from the grace of Christ, for whose sake you suffered. But at the same time there is set forth here also the thought that if someone suffers for faith in Christ, and then falls into sin, then as he is reckoned to have suffered in vain who falls into sin, so he will lose nothing of this if he again returns to the former faith and to the former zeal to live by faith”.

But some of our interpreters understand these words thus: did you suffer only in vain? If only in vain! “Is it not with harm as well? In vain means neither to gain something nor to lose: but he who began by the Spirit and on that account was subjected to great trials, and then changed course, not only bore what he endured in vain, but suffered loss, being deprived of what was laid up for him as a reward for sorrows and privations for Christ’s sake” (Ecumenius). Blessed Augustine thus: “what is called done in vain, does neither harm nor benefit. But one must, he says, look to see whether what was done would lead to destruction. Not to fall is not the same as to fall after rising. Although they have not yet fallen, they have already inclined toward falling. For the Holy Spirit still worked in them, as the following verse shows.”—And Jerome, after his judgment already cited, adds: “or thus: it is no small harm to you if, inclining toward circumcision, you lose only your former labor of faith; but to this harm there may be added also punishment for apostasy; so that you both suffered before in vain, and in the future age will be tormented for that (if, of course, you do not amend)”.

Such an understanding of the last words offers a reason to look differently also at the first words and to refer “suffered” not to sufferings but to their having taken upon themselves the yoke of the Law. “Did you suffer so much”—such bonds have you laid upon yourselves, which even the Jews themselves could not bear: circumcisions, sabbaths, new moons, washings, sacrifices and so forth.—And all of this have you borne or begun to bear, you think, in vain? If only in vain! but with harm; for you are falling away from grace. Now the Greeks say, for example, τι επαθες?—in the sense of: what is the matter with you? what has happened to you, what has befallen you? Applying this to the present passage, we get: has this happened to you in vain? Or will this pass for you in vain? Such an understanding appears in blessed Jerome. “Let us imagine,” he says, “the unfortunate Jews, with what efforts they live among other nations, trying to observe their ordinances: do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,—and you will see how truly it is said: ‘did you suffer so much’.—The thought is visible that the Galatians, bending under the yoke of the Law, are laying upon themselves a burden of suffering. Why he also adds further: “consider the former freedom of grace and the present yoke of observing the Law, and you will see how much vain labor you are taking up.”

It seems that such a thought is more natural, especially in view of the fact that throughout the entire Epistle there is no direct indication of the sufferings of the Galatians for faith. But the authority of the great multitude of Fathers should take precedence.

Gal 3:5. He who gives you the Spirit and works miracles among you, does he do it from works of the Law, or from hearing of faith?

This verse contains the same thought as the second: only there the Apostle fixed attention on them themselves, who had received the Spirit, while here he raises their mind to the one who gives the Spirit and works miracles in them, God. “God, who gives you the Spirit, so that you both prophesy and speak in tongues; God, who works miracles in you,—who shows signs and wonders, does he do this for the sake of works of the Law,—for that reason, that is, that you have pleased him greatly by them,—or for the sake of faith in Christ?” (blessed Theophylact). Altogether, however, this same thought receives here a particular tone, threatening and terrifying: for, while in the first form of expression it only moved the Galatians to pity themselves as doing themselves harm, here it strikes fear by the danger of fighting against God. Such a question borders on the following: so then? Do you wish to cast God out of yourselves, God who now works in you for the sake of faith and will depart if you stubbornly remain in your attachment to the Law?

The words: “gives” and “works” show that they have not yet been deprived of God’s favor, as having gone astray in ignorance. But after such an authoritative person as the Apostle has pointed out their error, the sin of ignorance would be turned into stubborn resistance to the truth, as a consequence of which should follow God’s anger with the deprivation of all gifts. This the Apostle wished to impress upon them by the repetition of this question. He as it were says to them: after all that has been said, how will you judge: for the sake of works of the Law or for the sake of faith has God drawn so near to you? Certainly for the sake of faith. So look, be careful; for if for the sake of faith God has drawn near to you, then for your turning to the Law He will withdraw.

Thus this verse is the conclusion of the preceding speech; but not so much the words as the series of thoughts which those words ought to have stirred up. The Apostle sets his propositions in questions like milestone markers on a great road, and by means of them brings one to careful reflection; indeed, our state in grace is clear, which we have been given without any participation of the Law in it: how not to lose it by mixing works of the Law with faith? Or: we are about to lose it. Let us hasten quickly to cleanse ourselves from this admixture. According to holy Chrysostom, the Apostle wished by this to lead them to the thought that “if the Law is joined to it, faith will bring no benefit: for faith is powerful only when nothing is added to it from the Law”.

One cannot but notice how all the attention of the Apostle stands upon the grace of the Holy Spirit. The distinction of Christians is the bestowal of grace. Lose grace,—and you are nothing. And nothing in the world can give you grace except faith in the Lord through the holy mysteries, with your firm resolve to be always faithful to the faith in word, and deed, and thought.

2) The second proof of the unnecessariness of the Law for the Galatians as Gentiles: so from the beginning, in the promise to Abraham, God appointed that Gentiles would enter into the inheritance of God by faith (Gal 3:6–14)

Gal 3:6. Just as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

The grammatical connection of this verse with the preceding one is as follows: the grace of the Holy Spirit was promised to the believers; God also promised that He would dwell in them and remain in them for the sake of faith. The Galatians believed and received grace and were deemed worthy of that God was working in them. This reality, obscured by false teachers, the Apostle restored in the consciousness of the Galatians through questions whose content can be characterized thus: for the sake of what—works or for the sake of faith—were you deemed worthy of such promises? The answer formed itself: no, for the sake of faith. The Apostle continues this thought: yes, for the sake of faith, without works of the Law, just as “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”. These words became a transition to the following discourse, in which he unfolds a new proof that for the Galatians as Gentiles there is no need whatever for the Law. Its content can be expressed thus: such is the will of God expressed in the promise to Abraham. Abraham pleased God by faith and for faith received the promise that all peoples would be blessed through him. This was before the command to be circumcised. Whoever now believes like Abraham, he spiritually enters into his descendants and for this single faith is deemed worthy of Abraham’s blessing.

Holy Chrysostom says here: “he brought also another proof, and indeed the most difficult and disputed one, setting forth Abraham as an example, and very opportunely and with great benefit, saying: ‘just as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’. I demonstrate, he says, the power of faith and the wonders you have worked; but, if you like, I shall try to convince you of this also by examples from ancient history. Since they had great reverence for this patriarch, he sets him forth as an example, proving that he too was justified by faith. If he, who lived before the dispensation of grace and was so adorned with good deeds, was justified by faith, how much more are you. What loss did he suffer from not being under the Law? None; and faith alone was sufficient for his justification.”

These words were spoken of Abraham after the promise to him of countless descendants, like the stars of heaven (Gen 15:5–6). In the time of his advanced age, Abraham believed that he would have an offspring and then descendants; he believed only because God had promised it, being mighty to accomplish it; he believed that He would accomplish it: “believing against hope in hope” (Rom 4:18). Here is expressed complete confidence in God and complete submission to His will, constituting the spirit of true piety. To believe in hope is a great labor of faith. Abraham had shown faith before, when at the voice from above he went out from his land; but there it was very probable that he would encounter a fertile land ahead; here there was nothing to lean upon except hope. And such is the spirit of faith in Christ the Lord as well. The object is different, but the labor of faith is the same. It is set before a man by God: a man who was crucified, called Christ, is God incarnate, who offered Himself on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Believe, and you will receive the forgiveness of sins and the grace of the Holy Spirit, by whose help, having lived well, you will be deemed worthy of eternal blessedness with the Lord after death. And here too there is nothing to lean upon except the word of the true God, and here too the same hoping beyond hope. Therefore, he who believes enters into God’s favor and is truly claimed by Him as His own, becomes God’s, like Abraham, and is filled with God’s goods and gifts. The Galatians have already experienced this, and they should have found such a relationship to Abraham very understandable. But at the same time, they could not help being inspired with the resolve to cast off this Law, which Abraham, their father in the spirit, did not know.

“And it was reckoned to him as righteousness”. Δικαιοσυνη—righteousness, holiness. It was counted as worthy that Abraham at this exhibited righteous and holy feelings, displayed a disposition of spirit pleasing to God. So it should be, thus God wishes it, thus He is well pleased, and upon those who are such He places all His favor. Abraham did nothing special in this instance, but only believed the promise, seeing in himself no props for the possibility of its fulfillment, but solely relying fully upon the word of God. And for this alone God confirmed to him the promise spoken—“it was reckoned”—not something that was not there, but something that was counted as great, worthy of all favor and the most abundant recompense. The act of faith of Abraham was a deed of extremely high dignity.

Gal 3:7. Know then that it is those of faith who are the children of Abraham.

He said before that by faith they became like Abraham; now he suggests that this is what establishes your kinship with Abraham, this is what makes you his children. But he does not speak this to them directly, but sets it forth as a general principle, that those who believe are indeed the children of Abraham. You value being Abraham’s: know then that you already have this through faith alone, and there is no need for you to seek another way to enter into kinship with him. Holy Chrysostom says: “Since they were afraid lest they might lose kinship with Abraham (which they greatly valued) if they abandoned the Law, holy Paul dispels this fear, showing that faith especially and establishes kinship with him.”

The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

“Those of faith”—having a disposition of spirit the same as Abraham had, a disposition of faith in hope beyond hope—constitute properly the tribe promised to him, are his children according to the promise. Abraham was promised countless descendants. And so they were. But not mere fleshly descent from Abraham makes one his descendant, but especially this: to be of the same spirit as he; so that even fleshly descendants who do not have this spirit are not descendants, as the Lord said directly to the Jews (Jn 8:39); on the contrary, those who are not fleshly descendants but are full of this spirit are the descendants. Holy Damascene writes: “the Gentiles who have believed should boast in Abraham as their father by faith more than those who are of circumcision. Faith made Abraham God’s friend, not circumcision. Circumcision was already the seal and sign of faith. But a sign is less than that which it signifies; so that those of faith with greater right must be called children of Abraham than those of circumcision”.

Jerome explains this more fully and completely. “The Apostle says here that those are children of Abraham who believe in the same spirit in which the uncircumcised Abraham believed. Why the Lord also said to the unbelieving Jews: ‘if you were children of Abraham, you would be doing the works of Abraham’ (Jn 8:39). What works did the Lord expect from them besides faith, since He had said to them before: ‘believe in the one whom God has sent’ (Jn 6:29)? And in another place to Jews who hoped in their descent and the antiquity of their race, it was said: ‘and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham’ (Mt 3:9). By stones, as no one will doubt, are meant the wild and rough hearts of the Gentiles, who were then softened and received the seal of faith. So, prudent reader, enumerate the virtues by which Abraham pleased God before circumcision, and whomever you find similar to him in this, call him a child of Abraham, justified in uncircumcision”.

Gal 3:8. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations shall be blessed through you.

According to this law of God’s righteousness, which determined the only thing of value in God’s eyes—the spiritual kinship of Abraham—was also confirmed that promise to Abraham, that all peoples would be blessed through him. God foresaw (for by Scripture foreseeing, God who gives Scripture is meant) how the Gentiles, separated from the people of God and living without being subject to the Law, would believe in Christ the Lord who was to be born in the flesh from Abraham, and through this would enter into spiritual kinship with Abraham and come under the streams of blessing that rested upon Abraham; He foresaw all this and spoke that promise, that all peoples would be blessed through him.

“To you” – either because of the resemblance to you through faith (St. Chrysostom, Ecumenius, St. Cyril of Alexandria), or to you, because of the seed that was to come from you, that is, Christ (the same, blessed Jerome, and others). The Apostle does not intend here to settle this precisely. He does this later (in verses 15–16). There is no need to dwell on it. The chief point with the Apostle here is to impress the conviction that believers, apart from the Law, by the power of faith alone, are already Abraham’s and are included in the promise given to Abraham. “What does this mean (that is, the words spoken)?” asks St. Chrysostom. And he replies: “that the Lawgiver Himself, before He gave the Law, determined that the Gentiles should be justified through faith. And He did not say ‘revealed’, but ‘proclaimed the gospel’, – so that you might know that the Patriarch himself rejoiced in this way of justification and greatly desired that it be brought to fulfillment as soon as possible.” We are not only now proclaiming for the first time the power of faith: “long ago both appointed and foretold this, God did” (blessed Theodoret). This is the order divinely ordained from the beginning by God for His divine providence concerning mankind! And now it is being fulfilled in you! God’s good pleasure and blessing, every grace and salvation belong to faith alone, as in Abraham. God set apart a people for Himself and clothed it with the Law for a time for His providential purposes. But the Gentiles He allowed to walk in their own will, also for a time: for they too are His people, and He has preserved for them the blessing which they were to receive in their own time. Yet the law of receiving this blessing is always the same – faith, just as in Abraham. That time has been fulfilled. The Gentiles are called to accept the blessing of Abraham from God, and to accept it apart from the Law, directly through faith. This is the meaning of the present time! This is the significance of the faith handed down to you! The thought that should have been impressed on the souls of the Galatians from this was: therefore, by inclining toward the Law, we are withdrawing from under such a blessing from God, we are depriving ourselves of a good that cannot be compensated to others by anything, we are creating for ourselves an irreplaceable loss.

Gal. 3:9. So those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

This is the direct conclusion from the preceding. Believers, becoming equal to Abraham in spirit, and in God’s assessment of them become on the same line with him and are accounted worthy of the same blessing with which Abraham was blessed. “The Galatians were afraid, lest they fall under a curse if they do not partake of the Law. The Apostle shows that, on the contrary, those will be blessed who, apart from the Law, cleave to faith, just as faithful Abraham was blessed for his faith, not knowing the Law” (blessed Theophylact).

“Those who are of faith” – “those who are united with Abraham through faith, are reckoned in his seed and together with him are blessed” (Ecumenius)

One should not pass over without attention the word: “faithful”. Abraham was a believer not with mere faith, but such as was always accompanied by deed. He believed – and went out from his land, not knowing where he was going. He believed – and was prepared to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, all the while not doubting that God’s promise concerning offspring would be fulfilled. He was always faithful to his faith, and as he believed, so he acted. Therefore God Himself explains His extreme and preeminent good pleasure toward him by the fact that “he hearkened”, He says, “to My voice, and kept My commandments, and My statutes, My ordinances and My laws” (Gen. 26:5). Some insist: faith, faith. One must answer them: yes, nothing like faith; but only inseparable from steadfast faithfulness to faith. It is also timely now to make an exposition toward the clarification of the concept of justification. It was said earlier that God, foreseeing the justification of the Gentiles through faith, gave the promise to Abraham concerning the blessing of them in him. Consequently, the foreseen justification is the promised blessing. Therefore, in the conclusion from that, He did not say: so those of faith will be justified, but: “will be blessed”. In this way justification is explained by blessing; blessing, in turn, further down in verse 14, is identified with receiving the Spirit through faith. – Consequently, justification is not merely the declaration righteous of the one justified, but also complete sanctification of him through the grace of the Holy Spirit, his internal transformation and renewal. In this very action faith is the conditioning principle, not the productive power.

It comes to mind that this verse 9 is the end of the present argument and directly connects with verse 14. Verses 10–13, on the other hand, contain an inserted thought, which relates to the argument only indirectly; so that if these verses were not present, the argument would be complete even without them. This remark is made because verses 10–13 are very difficult to understand both in their content and in their connection with the preceding and following course of discourse. Thus, if we do not understand them as we should, this will certainly be a loss for our knowledge, but will not in any way harm the force of the argument which the holy Paul presents in this section (verses 6–14). The Apostle’s speech is very condensed. In a single proposition he embraces much and between one and another leaves a whole series of thoughts which must be reproduced to see their connection. What wonder is it if, not having the mind of the Apostle, we do not succeed in this?

We make an attempt at clarifying the content of these verses (10–14). Here it is not a new argument against the further necessity of the Law, but an explanation of the power of Abraham’s blessing through contrast with the legal curse, – as is evident from the end of this inserted section in verse 14, where blessing of Abraham is mentioned again. This makes clear that an explanatory discourse has been introduced and brought back again to what was said before the beginning of it in verse 9. Therefore, further on, in verse 15, the objection is made not to the thought in verses 10–13, but to that in verse 9. If one were to recognize in this section a separate argument against the necessity of the Law from the nature of the Law itself and the redemptive power of the Lord’s cross-death, then this would confuse the course of the Apostle’s thoughts without any necessity and without any benefit for understanding the Epistle.

This, we think, is the course of thoughts in this section: The Apostle speaks to the Galatians as if thus: faith has made you partakers of Abraham’s blessing, and you need nothing more. Be only faithful to what you have already received. But if you turn to the Law, – you will not only lose the blessing, but you will be near a curse: watch out, you will fall under a curse. Though the Law says that “the one who does them will live by them” (Lev. 18:5), no one is able to keep it (Acts 15:10). Therefore, on all who rest on the Law alone and are satisfied with it alone, lies a fearful curse, guarding the Law: cursed is everyone, and so on. You will say: what does this mean? It is as if the Law was given for the purpose of bringing a curse on those who obey it, and moreover by the command of God Himself. A whole people, through having the Law laid upon them, was brought under a curse and held under it for so much time. No; in the Law itself are contained ordinances how to prevent the curse falling on every transgressor of the Law, – namely, sacrifices. There are sacrifices for the sins of all the people, there are sacrifices for the sins of kings, princes, high priests, and every private person; for every sin there is its own sacrifice. Whoever offers the sacrifice corresponding to his sin is cleansed from sin and the curse no longer falls on him. You will say: ah! so then the Law gives all that is necessary; it shows how to live, and when we sin, it provides the means of cleansing through offering the sacrifice corresponding to the sin. That is true; but do not forget that the cleansing power of the sacrifices lies not in themselves but outside them, in the power of that sacrifice which was to be offered (and has now been offered) by Him whom all expect to come (and who has now come). The sacrifices cleansed through their union with faith in Him, the Blessed One, coming in the name of the Lord. Without it they are nothing in themselves. Therefore it is written: “the righteous by faith will live” (Hab. 2:4). If you remain with the Law alone without faith, you will not escape the curse: “there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Eccl. 7:20). Turn now to the present time. He whom all expect to come as a blessing, for faith in Whom even the sacrifices cleansed sins, has already come and offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of all. Those who sinned under the Law He redeemed from the curse of the Law through His death on the cross. We have no need now of sacrifices or any other cleansing and justifying actions of the Law. We believe directly in Christ the Lord who was crucified and thus prevent the curse and receive the blessing. In this way we, Jews, by rejecting the Law, are united through faith with Christ the Lord and restore in ourselves the blessing of Abraham, while you, Gentiles, apart from the Law, by believing directly in Him, appropriate to yourselves this blessing. We and you – the promise of the Spirit we receive by faith alone. Why then the Law – for you, when it is no longer necessary for us either?

Such is the course of thoughts aroused by the words of the Apostle in this section. Having assimilated it, we will more clearly understand the meaning of each verse and its connection with others. As for whether this is a new argument or an explanation of the preceding, there is nothing to argue about. In our opinion, here is an explanation consisting in the resolution of such a difficulty: you say, the blessing of Abraham is from faith; but is it not from the Law? No, he says, from the Law comes rather a curse than a blessing, if you remain with it alone. Its curse hangs over the head of the one under the Law; faith in the crucified Lord alone delivers from the curse.

After such a clarification of the content of the aforesaid verses let us turn to the necessary clarifications of each verse in parts.

Gal. 3:10. For all who rely on the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, to do them.

“Those of the works of the Law” – these are those who expect to please God and be saved by works of the Law, strictly observing the legal ordinances – concerning circumcision, the Sabbath, feasts, washings, sacrifices and the like. That such, insofar as they are such, are under a curse cannot be accepted unconditionally, otherwise it would follow that the Law itself was given for the purpose of bringing a curse. But one cannot reason thus: for the Law is from God; and God’s ordinances are all good and lead to salvation. Therefore it is written: “the one who does them will live in them” (Ezek. 20:11). And to those who keep the Law, great promises have been given (Deut. 28). The history of the people of Israel shows that when they were faithful to the Law, God was favorably disposed toward them, but when they turned away, they were subjected to punishments from God.

Under what conditions then were those under the Law subject to the curse? Before the coming of Christ, those under the Law were subject to the curse who did not keep the Law and, having violated it in some way, did not repent and did not hasten to be cleansed by the means appointed in the Law itself. The Law itself foresaw transgressions and itself prescribed how to be reconciled with it. Whoever did not avail himself of these means remained under the curse, both as a violator of the Law and as one obstinate in that violation, not hastening to reform and make amends in a lawful manner. Furthermore, since the means of atoning for guilt had power to do so not in themselves but through faith in that which they foreshadowed and represented; then under the curse also was the one who even used the lawful means but without the proper faith. Finally, since the entire Law was permeated with the prefiguration of the Coming One and led every law-keeper to Him; then in general any faithful keeper of the Law, as soon as he did not sanctify his life through faith in this Coming One, was not fully faithful to the Law, did not abide in all that the Law prescribed.

The holy Apostle Paul in this place could only have in mind the latter. He said before that those of faith will be blessed with faithful Abraham, apart from the Law, not knowing it, not partaking of it. Now he says: on the contrary, those under the Law, as soon as they remain with the Law alone without faith, are under a curse: for they do not fulfill that to which the Law leads them through its prescriptions.

Such a thought satisfactorily explains the connection of the verses, if we take the Law here abstractly, without reference to the circumstance for which the discourse concerning the Law is conducted. But if we take this into account, then we must accept that the Apostle speaks of the Law from the perspective of the New Testament, that is, after the coming of Christ the Savior, whom the Law prefigured. Those against whom the holy Paul wrote were believers in Christ, but who, along with faith in Him, demanded also the observance of the shadowy written Law (the old). Therefore the thought previously expressed cannot strike them and convince the Galatians of the wrongness of their new steps. We must therefore conclude that the holy Paul meant to say that those under the Law are under a curse after the coming of Christ the Lord. In this case the proposition expressed by him is unconditional. And the Lord said that the Law and the Prophets were until John, that is, until the coming of the Lord Himself who was promised. And this is prescribed in the Law itself, understanding it as the Old Testament guidance of God. Therefore, whoever still holds to the Law as a condition of salvation after the coming of Christ the Savior acts against the Law; and whoever acts against the Law is subject to the curse; therefore those under the Law are under a curse – those very ones who were seducing the Galatians.

The holy Paul brings as the reason for the subjection of those of the Law to the curse the fact that against every violator of something written in the Law a threat of curse is prescribed. It is not difficult to see that the reason does not directly follow from the stated proposition. The proposition says: those under the Law are under a curse, while the reason is: because those who violate the Law are threatened with a curse. If it had been said that those who hold to the Law are subject to curse, there would be a direct reason, but here it speaks of violators of the Law, who are, of course, those who depart from it – whether at the time or in the manner they violate it. If we accept directly that those of the Law are under a curse because violators of the Law are threatened with a curse, then in this respect the New Testament ordinance differs in no way from the Old Testament. And in it too are prescribed threats, even more fearful than the ancient ones. The same Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says: “If the word spoken by angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received just punishment, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was first announced by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard” (Heb. 2:2–3). In another place: “Whoever has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:28–29). And yet again: “For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned” (Heb. 6:7–8). And at the fearful judgment what will the Lord say to those who have violated His commandments of the New Covenant? “Depart from me, you cursed” (Matt. 25:41). Setting these threats alongside the words of the Apostle in the place we are considering in the Epistle to the Galatians, we come to a similar conclusion, that those of faith are under a curse because those unfaithful to faith are threatened with a curse, and moreover an eternal one.

How then should we understand this? We must allow that there are implied thoughts in the speech of the holy Apostle. Not only the thought that no one could keep the Law; for even in the new grace, “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). But especially this: that the Law, in case of violation of it, offers nothing in itself for the cleansing of the one who has sinned. It had sacrifices of purification; but they received their power from faith in the Lord, and therefore not from itself but from outside itself. Therefore when it stands alone, it leaves those who follow it without any help in case of violation, and it only bears down upon them with the full weight of its judgment. And in the New Testament ordinance the power of sin is the same: it takes away blessing and brings about a curse; but the very essence of the New Covenant consists in the covering of all sins that befall a believer through the mediation of Christ the Lord, who was crucified for us. “If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). The Law does not have this advocacy covering of sins when it stands alone without faith or when, after the coming of the Advocate, it is held as a condition of salvation while maintaining faith; for in such a case faith is not faith; the one who relies in this way on the Law diminishes the Advocate and loses thereby the power of His advocacy. In this way the thought of the holy Apostle stands on the truth that the Law alone without faith leaves those who follow it under the full severity of its curse. That this is indeed the thought of the Apostle is evident from the following verse, in which the salvific nature of the Law is made conditional upon faith. The Law justified, but only through faith; and apart from faith no one was justified by the Law; there were righteous people in the Old Testament, but they all were righteous because of faith.

Gal. 3:11. And that no one is justified before God by the Law is clear, because ‘the righteous by faith will live.

The Apostle impresses upon us the thought that the Law, even from its original institution, had no power to justify before God or to establish anyone in such a state as to be recognized by God as righteous. This is evident from the fact that it is written there: “the righteous by faith will live” (Hab. 2:4). This would not have been said if the Law by itself had the power to justify and make alive. And all the Old Testament righteous were saved not by the Law alone, but also by faith. Blessed Jerome writes: “What then? Were Moses and Isaiah and the other Prophets, who were under the yoke of the Law, also under the curse? To this we answer: Our Lord Jesus Christ with His precious blood redeemed from the curse of the Law both all of us and Moses and Aaron themselves, and all the Prophets and Patriarchs. And do not think that I am saying this from my own mind: Scripture itself testifies to it, saying: ‘Christ died for all’ (2 Cor. 5:14). If for all, then also for Moses and for all the Prophets, not one of whom was able to blot out the old handwriting that was against us and nail it to the cross (Col. 2:14). And they were justified and saved by faith.”

Before people, perhaps, those who kept the Law appeared righteous, as the Pharisees, who justified themselves before men, but not before God. Before Him there is no one righteous without faith. Faith both before the Law and after the Law was given blessed and justified (blessed Theophylact).

The Law, as soon as it stood without faith, became ranked with all the religions existing on earth and did not give what those who relied on it hoped to obtain from it. The same holds true of everything that a person might devise for his justification and on which he might hope to rely for his salvation apart from faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Works are necessary; but the truly purifying and life-giving power they receive solely from faith: without it they are nothing. Here are remarkable words of blessed Jerome on this thought: “It should be noted that the Apostle did not say: every man by faith will live, so as not to give occasion to despise works of virtue, but: ‘the righteous by faith will live’; so that the one who is to live by faith can come to faith, or live in it, only by having first become (or thereby becoming) righteous and having ascended to faith by means of the steps of purity of life. Therefore, someone can be righteous and yet not be alive, until he receives faith in Christ. Remember the words of the apostle Paul about himself – ‘as to the righteousness of the Law, blameless’ (Phil. 3:6). See, Paul was righteous by the Law, but he could not yet be alive, because he did not have Christ within him, who says: ‘I am the life’ (John 11:25). He began to live only after he believed. Let us make this application to ourselves, and just as it is said: ‘the righteous by faith will live,’ let us say: the pure by faith live, the wise by faith live, the strong by faith live, and concerning all other virtues let us express a judgment similar to these, in opposition to those who, not believing in Christ, think they are strong and wise and temperate, in general righteous. Let us understand that no one can live without Christ, without whom every virtue is not unblemished.”

The words: “the righteous by faith will live” – are contained in the prophecies of the holy Habakkuk; but they are brought there as a well-known proposition. Therefore, to explain the meaning of them from that place in the Prophet is not absolutely necessary, especially since that passage is rather obscure, while these words are very clear in themselves. And St. Paul cites them more than once in his Epistles. From this it may be concluded that they frequently circulated in the mouths of those who understood the meaning of the Law as it ought to be understood.

Gal. 3:12. The Law is not based on faith; rather, ‘the one who does these things will live by them (Lev. 18:5; Neh. 9:29; Ezek. 20:21).

The Law is not of such a nature as faith. Or: the Law does not promise life on the basis of faith, but says: do these things and you shall live. He is speaking here of the Law by itself, separately from faith. As before he spoke of the Law in its complete institution with the seed of faith hidden in it and fulfilling it; so now he speaks of it alone without faith. By itself the Law “insists on only this: keep the Law and you shall live. Whoever does not keep it is condemned; for he allowed that which he knew he ought to avoid” (Ambrosiaster).

Such is the essence of every law. The civil law demands the same, as does the law of conscience, and so does the written Law. And every law is a law precisely because it requires fulfillment and imposes an obligation to do so. All external laws are attached to the law of conscience; and conscience God in creating joined inseparably with consciousness and feeling, so that there is no person who does not feel the voice repeating within him: do these things and you shall live. And since there is no one who has truly acknowledged himself to be right in all things, there is no one who does not seek justification outside himself. The evidence for this is the arrangement of all religions on earth. Such an arrangement God has given to our spiritual nature so that in ourselves we might feel a constant impulse to have recourse to the shelter of the Lord, who has justified us by His death on the cross.

The Apostle’s attention is limited to the Old Mosaic Law alone, because it is he who is speaking of it. The present verse does not offer a new thought, but only clarifies the preceding one. The economy of salvation in the Old Testament, according to its spirit, generally says: the righteous by faith will live; but the Law, standing alone, separated from faith, insists: do these things and you shall live. Yet no one is able to do all that the Law requires; and thus those who rely on the Law alone find themselves without the possibility of attaining life. He is speaking to the Galatians as if thus: here is what has happened to you by inclining toward submission to the Law!

Where then is refuge? Here it is:

Gal. 3:13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming cursed on our behalf; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a pole.

The Apostle felt as though the Law was pursuing him and everywhere pressing upon him with its curse. Taking shelter through faith under the shadow of the cross of Christ, he breathes freely and in joy cries out: Glory to God! Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law.

In speaking of redemption from the curse of the Law, he makes clear that his attention is fixed on the Jews. For the curse of the Law, which he mentioned before in verse 10: that cursed is everyone who transgresses against the Law, rested only on the Jews. But the redemption of the Lord embraces all mankind, from the first person to the last, and its power extends into all eternity. It is the purpose of the discourse – the needlessness of the Law – that has restricted the Apostle to the Jews alone in this place. He has already explained above that the Law, the Old Testament ordinance, did not justify and did not save by itself alone, but only through faith in the coming Lord; by itself, standing alone, it only pressed down with a curse upon all. Now he says that the Promised One, faith in Whom gave strength to the Old Testament ordinance, has come and offered Himself as a sacrifice for all. We have turned to Him and through faith in Him are justified, sanctified, and prevent all curse of the Law. He offered Himself once and, living forever, forever makes intercession for us before the righteousness of God. Standing through faith under this intercessory shelter, we are safe from all penalties of the righteousness of the Law. This is precisely what has caused us to abandon the Old Testament ordinance and cleave to the new one in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is no longer needed now. Before, it still had strength on the condition of faith; but now even with faith, in its former sense, that is, in a Savior yet to come, it is nothing. For the Coming One has come, and to believe in one who is still to come, when He has already come, means to distort God’s order, to go against God and the Law itself, and deliberately to hold oneself under a curse. But us believing Jews, the Lord has redeemed both from the curse and from the obligations of the Law. All that – away! We go by a new and living way, straight to life, which is in Christ.

By such discourse we clarify the relation of this place to the preceding. But in itself it is clear. A curse lay upon us; the Lord, having been crucified on the cross, took upon Himself this curse for us, not being subject to it, as the holy and unblemished One: for “cursed is everyone who hangs on a pole” before God (Deut. 21:23). In Deuteronomy in the place indicated, there is prescribed that a son who is disobedient, a glutton, a drunkard – is to be put to death and hanged on a pole; at evening he is to be taken down and buried, so that he does not spend the night on the pole. For cursed before God is the one hanging thus. This hanging was a sign of the extreme wickedness of the one hanging, for which he was cursed before God. It was not the hanging itself that brought about the curse, but the sin that led to such a punishment. “Not everyone who hangs on a pole is cursed before God, but the one who has committed a sin deserving of death, was put to death for it, and hanged on a pole. He is not cursed because he hangs on a pole, but because he fell into such a sin that he deserved to be hanged” (blessed Jerome).

This place is a prefiguring prophecy; for as everything in the Old Testament is a shadow of what was to come, so this ordinance was a foreshadowing of the cross-death of the Lord. And He was hanged on a pole, and at evening He was taken down. There was no sin in Him; but since in the Law the hanging properly signified sin and curse, the hanging of the Lord likewise signified what it had the force to signify, only it did not touch Him Himself, as the spotless One, but all mankind. On the cross the very curse was hanged, so that it no longer exists for anyone who takes shelter under the shadow of the cross. St. Chrysostom speaks of this: “He who wishes to destroy a curse must himself be free from the curse, must take upon himself an undeserved curse – in place of the deserved one: such a curse Christ took upon Himself and thereby destroyed the deserved one. And as someone not subject to condemnation, having resolved to die for one condemned to death, thereby delivers him from death, so also did Christ. Since He was not subject to curse for breaking the Law, He took upon Himself – in place of what was deserved by us – a curse not deserved by Him, in order to free all from the deserved one. ‘He did no wrong, and no deceit was found in his mouth’ (Isa. 53:9). But as he who died for those condemned to death frees them from death, so also he who took upon himself the curse freed them from the curse.” “Let no one be troubled,” writes blessed Jerome, “that Christ became for us a curse. God, who made Him a curse, Himself made Him also a sin for us (see 2 Cor. 5:21). The Savior, from the fullness of Godhead, humbled Himself to take upon Himself the form of a slave (Phil. 2:7). But the humiliation of our Lord is our glory. He died so that we might live; He went down to Hades so that we might ascend to heaven; He became foolishness so that He might be wisdom. He diminished Himself from the fullness of Godhead, taking the form of a slave, so that the fullness of Godhead might dwell in us and we might become masters from slaves. He hanged on a pole so that the sin we committed on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil might be destroyed by hanging on a pole. He became also a curse, so that blessing might descend upon us and rest in us.”

Thanks be to the Lord, we all believing Christians are sheltered under the shadow of the cross from all the curse-bearing threats of the Law. But this is not unconditional. “There is now no condemnation,” – but how? if we do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:1) – in other words: if we abstain from every sin and strive to fulfill all the commandments of the Gospel, strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Without this, however, the curse stands in all its force even upon us. Let no one think that because the Lord has redeemed us from the curse and we believe, we can live as we please. No, as soon as we sin, an even greater punishment falls upon us. Our advantage is that when, striving to fulfill the commandments, we stumble and fall, then, having acknowledged, confessed, and lamented the sin, we immediately receive forgiveness and remission, because of the eternal intercession standing before the righteousness of God in our behalf of the crucified Lord, and because of the efforts we make toward atoning for sin, by which to us is grafted the power of that heavenly intercession, through faith in Him.

The curse of the Law follows at the heels of every transgressor of the Law. It is bound up with transgression of the Law, as blessing is bound up with its observance. In paradise it was said: “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). This is the curse which came into effect following the eating. In the Law the prescribed curse is well known. And the Gentiles too had a curse upon them, only not through the written Law, but through the law of conscience. For what is the remorse of conscience but an action of the curse, placed by the righteousness of God for every transgression of the Law? And even those under the Gospel are not free from the curse, as soon as they do not fulfill the commandments of the Gospel (blessed Jerome, at length). True life is in the rigorous, complete, and comprehensive fulfillment of the will of God, expressed in the commandments and prescriptions of the moral Law (Matt. 7:21). The entire economy of salvation in the New Testament – the Incarnation, the cross, the grace of the Spirit – all of this is for the purpose of fulfilling what was weak in the Law, not to set it aside or relegate it to a secondary place. To this our entire attention, all our strength, and all our care ought to be directed. The one who diverts his attention elsewhere slips from the essential point, loses the goal, adopts a misguided direction. Let faith turn here, let the mysteries turn here, let all the sanctifying and strengthening orders of the Church turn here, let all struggles turn here! All must be directed toward the goal that we show ourselves to be children of God, unblemished at the coming of the Lord.

Gal. 3:14. So that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

How is it that with the redemption from the curse of the Law the extension of the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus to the Gentiles is so closely bound that the latter is the direct consequence of the former? As already noted before, the discourse of the holy Apostle is very condensed here, and to understand the connection between the propositions he expresses, it is necessary to reproduce a whole series of supplementary thoughts. This must be done here as well. It is now very clear to us from a distance how the blessing of Abraham passed to the Gentiles. The ordinance under the Law given by God through Moses was the only true faith on earth. But this ordinance was so organized that it separated the Jewish people from all nations. The Law was a wall between the nations and the Jews. This in itself is not so significant; but it is significant in that through such a separation the Gentiles were separated also from the blessing which was hidden in the Law through faith in the Coming One. By this secret treasure the Law was strong before God and men. Abraham was promised a blessing through him for the nations, but this blessing was not to pass to them through the air. It was hidden in the Law so that in its own time it would be revealed and poured out upon them. Thus the Law both shut out the Gentiles and held within it the seed of blessing for them. How then could they taste the blessing? In no other way than through the abolishment of the Law as a Law. By this the barrier of the Law was broken down, and the blessing hidden in it became accessible to the Gentiles. The death on the cross of the Lord accomplished this work. It made unnecessary all the ordinances of the Law, for they were a shadow of the truth, now revealed in reality. But this death had such power because it was a redemption from the curse of the Law (both the written and unwritten Law properly speaking, but as regards the Jews – the written, for it is of this we speak). This is how it came about that with the redemption from the curse of the Law was joined the extension of the blessing of Abraham to the Gentiles. This redemption was accomplished by the Lord’s cross-death, – the cross-death made all the Old Testament justifying ordinances unnecessary, and with their abolishment the entire Old Testament ordinance was broken down, and the blessing hidden in it, through faith in the Coming One, became accessible through faith to all the world. For the blessing of Abraham was concerning his seed, that is, concerning Christ Jesus, the Lord, who according to the flesh came from his seed, faith in Whom constituted the mystical essence of both the Old Testament and the New.

“So that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” By these words is explained the power of Abraham’s blessing. Abraham was told only that in his seed all would be blessed. The Prophets afterward explained that this blessing is not fleshly, but spiritual and would consist in an outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh (Isa. 44:3; Joel 2:28; Zech. 12:10). This the holy Peter confessed and proclaimed aloud to all Jerusalem at the very hour of the descent of the Holy Spirit. The reception of the Holy Spirit and the tangible manifestation of His action in souls became the distinguishing mark of those who truly believed in Christ. And speaking generally, the essence of Christianity consists in the renewal of our fallen nature by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Where this renewal is not, there is no Spirit; where there is no Spirit, there is no Christ; where there is no Christ, there is falsehood and ruin. This renewal must be the aim of seeking for Christians. Faith in the Lord, with the resolve to follow His will, is the exclusive condition for receiving the Holy Spirit through the mysteries. But by this only the seed of renewal is laid; the renewal itself is accomplished by the Spirit through the labors of a person in keeping the commandments and the voluntary undertaking of whatever struggles are within one’s strength. There is no other way. Those who turn away from this latter condition cannot attain renewal, however wisely they may speak about Christianity.

As to the connection of these words with what precedes, just as, having spoken of redemption from the curse of the Law, the Apostle had in mind the Jews, and having spoken of the spreading of Abraham’s blessing to the Gentiles, had in mind these latter, there will be no inconsistency in supposing that, speaking of the reception of the Spirit, he had in mind both, and by the word “we shall receive” meant: we Christians from both Jews and Gentiles.

The holy Fathers do not attend to the grammatical flow of speech, but only to the relationship of the truths expressed here. “Since,” writes the holy Damascene, “the grace of the Holy Spirit could not descend upon the unclean and those under disfavor, they are first blessed with the removal of the curse; then, justified by faith, they draw down the grace of the Spirit: thus the cross destroyed the curse, faith brought justification, and justification drew down the grace of the Holy Spirit.” For, “to receive the promise of the Spirit,” according to Theophylact, “it was necessary to be justified by faith.” Concerning Abraham’s blessing upon the nations, the holy Chrysostom says: “It is evident that all this is said of Christ; for He was the seed of Abraham, and by Him all peoples are blessed and receive the promise of the Spirit. Pointing to this, the Apostle also says: so that we may receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Since, however, the grace of the Spirit cannot be poured out upon those deprived of grace and under a curse, they are first blessed through the removal of the curse; then, justified through faith, they receive the grace of the Spirit. Thus the cross destroyed the curse, and faith introduced justification, and justification brought down the grace of the Spirit.”

The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

From all that the holy Apostle had said up to this point, the Galatians clearly saw that they would certainly be granted Abraham’s blessing by faith alone, apart from the Law. And it is reasonable to suppose that for Christians from among the Gentiles this finally brought peace. But in Christians from among the Jews there might arise contrary thoughts, powerful enough to shake the convictions that had formed or even to hinder them from forming. They might have thought: 1) Promises were given to Abraham for faith’s sake, and their fulfillment was conditioned by faith, because at that time there was no Law. But then the Law came and changed the conditions; so that after its institution, obtaining the promise became conditioned not by faith but by the Law. The Apostle foresaw this objection and removes it. No, he says, the Law did not nullify the power of the promise for faith (Gal. 3:15–18). But from this there arose naturally another difficulty: 2) if so, then why the Law? It is a tutor to Christ. Why, when Christ the Lord came, should it cease? Now both we (Jews) and you (Gentiles) are one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:19–29).

In removing such difficulties, the holy Paul, it is reasonable to suppose, had in view chiefly the Jews, proving that the Law is not necessary even for them. But by this he also all the more convinced the Gentiles of the needlessness of the Law for them.

1) The Law does not annul the promise given to Abraham (Gal. 3:15–18)

And so they might think: let the promise be given to Abraham through faith, but afterward the Law came and perhaps annulled that promise. The holy Paul dispels this difficulty by comparing the promise to an ordinary testament among men. Just as a legally constituted and legally confirmed testament can neither be annulled by anyone nor altered by addition or subtraction, so too the promise given to Abraham, as a testament confirmed by God before the Law, could not be annulled by the Law that came so long afterward. The force of the argument lies in the word “no one”—meaning, a stranger, wherein the Law is personified. Agreeing with such an understanding, we shall encounter no difficulty, all the more so since in a comparison, as in a parable, one should not seek full correspondence of the compared objects, feature by feature. But one cannot overlook that a new difficulty naturally arises: a stranger cannot alter or annul a testament; but the testator himself, while living, can both alter and annul his own testament. The Law given through Moses is also a testament (covenant). It is given by the same Testator, God, who is ever living and has power to make every change in His promises of good to men. He gave a testament in Abraham, and it was in force; then He found it necessary to give a new testament through Moses, and perhaps only this latter became valid with the setting aside of the former. To this one may answer: the same testator can make different testaments, and as long as a subsequent testament, by no specific clause, does not annul all or part of the previous one, it remains in full force, especially when in their objects, in the persons, and in the conditions they differ from one another. The Mosaic Law is indeed a different covenant of God in relation to the covenant with Abraham; but there is no clause in it by which this latter would be annulled, as the Apostle’s words indicate: “the covenant previously established with Abraham, the Law which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not annul”—he does not say plainly that this Law destroys the promise to Abraham (Gal. 3:17). In its content, however, the covenant with Abraham and the covenant through the holy Moses are different. The promise to Abraham embraces all mankind; the Law, however, applies exclusively to one people, the Jews; the aim of the former is to unite all by pouring out Abraham’s blessing upon all; the aim of the latter is to set apart from all peoples the Jewish people, so that in it might be preserved the blessing promised to all of Abraham’s seed until the appointed time, hidden; the condition of the former is true faith; the condition of the latter is works, among other things, as means of separation (v. 18). Thus the Law neither explicitly (that is, by a specific clause) nor implicitly (that is, by its content) annuls the promise to Abraham, leaving it in all its force.

We preface such a general survey of the entire argument of the holy Apostle Paul in verses 15–18, following the holy Fathers, who also limit all interpretation of this passage to such a survey. Thus the holy Chrysostom says: “If a man,” says the Apostle, “makes a testament, will anyone dare afterward to change it or add something to it (for that is what the word ‘ordain’ means): how much less ought this to be done in God’s covenant. To whom did God make a covenant? To ‘Abraham,’ he says, ‘were the promises made,’ and so forth…. And thus God made a covenant to Abraham, saying that the nations would receive blessing of his seed. How then can the Law destroy this blessing? Since no example can fully express the subject it represents, he therefore said: ‘I speak according to man’s custom,’ so that from the example given you might not draw anything inconsistent with God’s majesty. Consider then from the higher point of view the example given: God promised Abraham to bless the nations of his seed. But his seed according to flesh is Christ. ‘And after four hundred and thirty years the Law came.’ So, if the Law distributes blessings, life, and justification, then that promise no longer has force. But how is this? No human testament is ever destroyed by anyone, but God’s covenant became ineffectual after 430 years? For if not that covenant gives what was promised, but another one instead, then clearly it was rejected. But is there any sense in this?” A similar survey is found in Theodoret and others.

This, however, does not make unnecessary certain remarks upon each text separately from verses 15–18.

Gal. 3:15. Brothers, I speak in human terms: nevertheless, even a human covenant, once established, no one annuls or adds to it.

“Brothers.” The Apostle’s heart is softened; from the severity of rebuke he turns to fatherly exhortation. “Opportunely said: ‘Brothers,’ to those whom before this he called senseless. One should not (to those being corrected) always speak with harsh and rebuking speech; one must also sweeten it” (Ecumenius).

For explaining his subject, he takes an example from matters common among men. He does not reach for lofty contemplations, but turns to universal experience, to lift men up through it to those heights; for a mind young in knowledge of divine things is not capable of dwelling in those heights. “What I have to say, I do not speak according to divine wisdom, I do not speak as from hidden wisdom, nor as to those who are able to take solid food, but as to those who, because of the tenderness of the stomach, are still nourished on milk and cannot hear of great things (1 Cor. 3:2)” (blessed Jerome).

“Nevertheless” – that is, indeed, behold, and yet.

The thought: you know that even –

“A human testament”. Not one established by man, but a human one, one that takes place and occurs among men. The thought is directed not to the fact that it is established by man, but that it is established as it occurs among men, made according to all customary requirements, and chiefly, that it has taken effect. “A testament, well drawn up with a good purpose and in all order, is not permitted to be perverted” (blessed Theodoret). κεκυρωμένην – in some manuscripts is read: προκεκυρωμένην, as also in our Slavonic (meaning: confirmed long ago), conveys the thought of a testament formally established by lawful authority, as, for example, in our country civil decrees established by the sovereign receive the force of law for fulfillment. “And ‘human,’ which is incomparably less firm than the divine. If the testator changes the testament, he changes it while it is not yet confirmed. The death of the testator finally makes the testament confirmed, because after that there is no longer the possibility to change his intention. In God this is replaced by the immutability of His determinations” (blessed Augustine). “For all the promises of God, in Him are Yes and in Him Amen” (2 Cor. 1:20).

“No one.” According to the flow of speech, rather: no one, a stranger. And the Law is presented as an outsider, appearing later. Or no one in general, that is, it does not happen among men that someone alters an established testament. The Apostle’s aim is to convince through comparison of the immutability of God’s promises. The force of the speech lies in: “established,” that is, in the sense of having entered into the force of law. All other circumstantial terms are not of great significance.

“Annuls or ordains.” “Annuls” means completely abrogates; “ordains” means adds new clauses that alter the meaning and significance of the earlier ones. This latter is presupposed according to the Apostle’s purpose in speaking.

Gal. 3:16. Now to Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed. It does not say ‘and to seeds,’ as referring to many, but as referring to one, ‘and to your seed,’ who is Christ.

In the holy Apostle at this place there is a complete syllogism. The previous verse contains the principal proposition, the major premise; the present verse, the subordinate proposition, the minor premise; the following one, the conclusion. Previously he said: a testament, long established and having entered into the force of law, no one annuls. Now he says: but to Abraham was given a testament. Then he will say: consequently, it cannot be annulled. But since the testament given to Abraham had a special form, namely, it was given as a promise, the holy Paul speaks of it thus, explaining at the same time what object the promise concerned, or what its essence was. Then in the conclusion he introduces these new explanatory concepts.

“To Abraham were the promises made.” “Promises” stands in place of testament, as expected according to the flow of speech. In substance both are one and the same. A testament makes an heir, that is, the possessor of certain goods; and a promise promises goods, of which the possessor becomes he upon whom the promise is fulfilled. What promises were made to Abraham has already been said, namely, that through him and his seed, or because of his seed, all nations would be blessed. Since the promise is fulfilled through the seed, this word required in the Apostle’s discourse a more precise definition. He does this. The seed, he says, here means not the entire people, not all the descendants of Abraham, but one Person from the descendants, namely Christ the Lord. But to explain this the Apostle does not make distant reasonings; he takes the very letter of the promise and from it makes his inference.

“It does not say ‘seeds,’ as if referring to many, but as referring to one, ‘your seed,’ who is Christ.”

Although the Apostle attaches his explanation to the letter; the letter itself is of such a nature that even in its place, in the text of the promise, it cannot be understood otherwise. The promises to Abraham were expressed thus: “I will multiply your seed, I will give you this land.” These are fleshly promises. But to this was always added: “and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:2–3, 7; Gen. 17:2; Gen. 18:18; Gen. 22:17–18). This could not be fleshly. Although in the word to Abraham it was not clear how this could be fulfilled, the power of speech was such that it of itself led to the thought of a certain Person of Abraham’s seed, standing out from the ordinary line, from whom blessing would be poured out upon all nations. The believing heart of Abraham’s most worthy descendants felt this truth and prompted them to await such a Person; the Prophets pointed to Him plainly; and all Israel in this seed beheld the Messiah awaited by all. The holy Apostle in his explanation takes the universal belief of Abraham’s most worthy descendants, sanctified by the Spirit acting in the Prophets. His word, in form, clings only to the letter; but in substance contains a fully sufficient explanation of the meaning of the promise given to Abraham.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “God promised to bless all nations by the seed of Abraham; and this seed is the Lord Christ Himself. For by Him this promise was brought to fulfillment, and the nations received the blessing. But all others, even those who attained the very highest virtue: Moses, Samuel, Elijah – in short, all who trace their descent from Israel by nature, although they are also called the seed of Abraham, yet are not the seed that brought forth the source of blessing for the nations. This the Apostle declares (in the words of verse 16). Not because they too trace their descent from Abraham, as though they are the seed meant. In the proper sense Christ has this designation, as the Only One who, according to the promise, was to bestow blessing upon the nations. God said: ‘in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed’ (Gen. 22:18). But from none other did the nations receive this blessing.”

Ambrosiaster expresses the thought that to understand this promise otherwise is to forge a testament. “This promise,” he writes, “is fulfilled in Christ, in whose name all nations are blessed through faith. By this reasoning the Apostle shows that those who, while believing in Christ, still hope for something from the Law, do as it were forge a testament, as though salvation were promised not in Christ alone, but also in the Law. Therefore he affirms that the promise of blessing is given in Christ alone.”

Gal. 3:17. Now this I say: the covenant previously confirmed with a view to Christ, the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not annul, so as to make the promise void.

Here is the conclusion from the two previous propositions. Now this I say – thus I wish to say that “the covenant previously confirmed,” long established and having entered into the force of law, “with a view to Christ,” – not about Christ, but directed toward Christ: all the promise aimed at Christ in its object, purposes, and power, and was given by God with foreknowledge that justification awaited the Gentiles through faith in Christ, in which consists the promised blessing of the nations, as the Apostle said above (verse 8), – this covenant the Law, which came so long afterward, 430 years, “does not annul,” οὐκ ἀκυροῖ – does not disannul, in opposition to προκεκυρωμένην, confirmed previously – “so as to make the promise void,” καταργῆσαι – which in application to buildings expresses the common phrase: to level with the ground, to destroy to the foundation, – to utterly annihilate the promise, to make it as though it did not exist.

In this conclusion it would have been sufficient to say: therefore, no one can annul or alter the promise to Abraham either. But the holy Apostle surrounds it with all related concepts, to present a fully rounded thought, according to his purposes.

The four hundred and thirty years God Himself determined when He gave the promise concerning Isaac. In what manner these years were actually fulfilled by the events of history is an unimportant matter. In Exodus, chapter 12 (verse 40), this number of years determines the time of the sojourn of the sons of Israel in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan (before the migration to Egypt).

Gal. 3:18. For if the inheritance is from the Law, it is no longer from the promise; but God gave it to Abraham through a promise.

Having established that the covenant given to Abraham in the promise cannot be annulled, the Apostle, to strengthen his conclusion, adds: but if, as you judge, the obtaining of the promise is made dependent on submission to the Law of Moses, then the promise is destroyed. For if obtaining what is promised as an inheritance depends on the Law, then it is no longer by virtue of the promise; but God gave Abraham this advantage, that through his seed all nations should receive blessing, apart from all conditions, by the sole gracious covenant promise.

Here the term “inheritance” is introduced because of the comparison of the promise to a testament. What is received by testament is called an inheritance; the holy Apostle calls an inheritance also what is received by the promise, which he has identified with a testament. The Gentiles now, by the will of the gracious God, enter through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ into the inheritance of what God bequeathed to their portion in the promise to Abraham. For the Law to have any participation or significance in this is wholly unsuitable, contrary to God’s intentions. And whoever does this destroys the entire arrangement of God. “If the promise declares that blessing will come through Christ, and yet instead of Christ the Law will give blessing, then God’s covenant with Abraham is destroyed – to no purpose” (Ecumenius). “How can the Law annul this covenant or promise, so that the nations receive blessing not through Christ, but through the commandments of the Law? This would be nothing but destruction of the promise, which is absurd” (blessed Theophylact).

Let us make two or three excerpts from the patristic commentaries, which clarify the entire reasoning of the holy Apostle set forth in these verses.

The holy Damascene writes: “The thought of the holy Apostle in these words is this: it was covenanted with Abraham that in his seed all nations would be blessed. This seed is Christ according to the flesh. After 430 years from this covenant, the Law came. So, if this Law gives blessing, life, and justification, then that covenant will be to no purpose. It follows that, whereas no one annuls a human covenant, God’s covenant became ineffectual after 430 years. For if that which the covenant promised is given not by it, but by another – namely the Law – then by this the covenant is annulled. And with what is this consistent?”

Here are the words of blessed Augustine: “When the promise was given, the Law had not yet been given, and after so long a time it could not be given in such a way as to make the preceding promise to Abraham void. This compels us to recognize also that all the ancients who were justified, were justified (not properly by the Law, but) by faith (acting in it covertly). We are saved by believing partly in the past, that is, in the first coming of the Lord, partly in the future, that is, in the second coming of the Lord. But they believed in all this, that is, in both comings, as future, by revelation of the Holy Spirit, so as to be saved. Thence also the following saying of the Lord: Abraham desired to see My day; and he saw and rejoiced (Jn. 8:56).”

Ambrosiaster reasons thus: “The Jews defend two contradictory positions. They cannot in any way be convinced that the promise to Abraham was not annulled by the Law; but they themselves, in contradiction to this, stubbornly maintain that justification is impossible without works of the Law, knowing that Abraham, the type of justification, was justified by faith alone without works of the Law. Being blinded by a kind of zeal, they do not understand and cannot grasp that if justification depends on the Law, then thereby the promise is destroyed; and if the promise is destroyed, then undoubtedly faith in Abraham becomes vain: which Jews cannot even hear to, knowing that the promise to Abraham came by faith. The heirs of the promise to Abraham are the successors of his faith, for the sake of which Abraham himself was blessed and justified. These successors are believers in Christ. The gift promised to Abraham is communicated to his children through faith in Christ.”

Was not the Law given so long after the promise precisely to show by this very interval between them that the Law is one thing and the promise to faith is another? From the course of events it is evident that the Law served faith: it was given so that the promise, which was conditioned on the faith of Abraham or faith like his, might in its time come to fulfillment. The Law could not have any independent significance.

Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

A question might have arisen: why was there need to give the Law so long after the promise, when on the one hand the establishment of the Law raised doubts about the power of the covenant of promise, and on the other hand, with the continuing force of the promise (and after it) the Law might seem useless and thereby undermine the zeal to be faithful to it? The Apostle now resolves this question (blessed Jerome).

Of all questions concerning the Old Testament, this is the most essential, and the solution the holy Apostle gives is most illuminating. Through it the whole divine plan of the economy of our salvation is lit up; and thereby the high significance of the Law and the beneficence for all humanity of the people under the Law, as guardian of the treasure uniquely salvific for all mankind, becomes clear. But all this only until the coming of Christ the Savior. After that, both the Law is to the ruin and the people holding to it—enemies of mankind (1 Thess. 2:15–16).

So then, why the Law?

The appointed time for the revelation of the Savior to the world was, by God’s plans, still far distant. Meanwhile humanity entered upon an adolescent period (the thought of the Most Reverend Metropolitan Philaret), when the stirring of the forces and needs of life, both of soul and body, does not allow reason and conscience to keep a person within proper bounds. A universal outpouring of manifold passions loomed. And with this necessarily came the loss of even the very thought of the Seed of the woman who was to heal all from the serpent’s wound.

That this might not come to pass, divine providence, leaving all nations to go their natural way, chose one people, organized it so that it would be held in check even from lawless impulses and would preserve faith that the Seed would come at last, to whom it was promised. For this purpose the Law was given and the Prophets were sent.

The Law restrained by laying on chains: “Do not touch, nor taste, nor handle.” But it did not remove the inward sinful urges, did not circumcise the heart, did not quicken it spiritually. By this outward restriction without inward transformation it disposed those under the Law to long for deliverance, that is, to desire the inward change which would make even the outward chains unnecessary. In this is the essence of salvation; and it could be bestowed only “through faith in Jesus Christ” (v. 22). Thus the Law, taking those under it by the hand, led them to Christ: it was a tutor to Christ.

In this respect, moreover, the Gentiles were not altogether forgotten. In their spirit were left indelible—the fear of God and the demands of conscience. These two spiritual forces, deeply troubling to a sinful heart, among those under the Law were in part satisfied through knowledge of the true God and worship of Him and through satisfaction of God’s justice by means God Himself appointed until that time. The Gentiles, however, were given over to the full action of these forces, so that despite the fact that it was extremely paralyzed by passion and ignorance, it never disappeared among them and drove them—each people in its own way—to seek various means of assuaging these troubling impulses. Thus these two spiritual forces were for the Gentiles the same as for the Jews the Law with its fearful punishments. And they drove them to seek deliverance, yet left the seekers in complete uncertainty regarding this seeking.

Only those under the Law, the Jews, possessed this definiteness. And in this lay their singular excellence, making them a people precious for all humanity. The Law itself, in its spirit, pointed to Christ the Savior; then the Prophets sent by God proclaimed Him in full detail. This was granted so that when Christ the Lord would come, He would be known by the Jews and by them pointed out to all nations. At that very moment both Jews, seeking with certainty, and Gentiles, seeking in uncertainty, equally met the One Sought and became all one. So it came to pass. Now there is neither Jew nor Greek; all are one in Christ Jesus (v. 28).

Such is the course of thoughts presented by the discourse of the holy Apostle Paul, expressing the significance of the Law for the Jews and for all people (Gal. 3:19–29).

Gal. 3:19. What then is the Law? It was added because of transgressions, until the Seed should come to whom the promise was made, ordained through angels by a mediator.

“Because of transgressions”—to restrain lawlessness, so that the people would remain in fear, not abandon themselves to vice, but live righteously and become worthy to manifest in themselves the One Promised (see Ambrosiaster). “The Law was given to move to carefulness regarding morality the people from whom the Seed of promise was to spring forth according to the flesh” (blessed Theodoret). And we see that despite all the deviations of God’s people into the paths of impiety and sin, among them there were always zealous keepers of the Law, pleasing to God and known only to Him. This holy remnant was the people’s mainstay. Therefore when the Lord came and all such adhered to Him, the rest of Israel’s remnant, though more visible in appearance, was scattered across the face of the earth, to its condemnation and as confirmation of God’s truth. The holy Chrysostom says regarding the words “because of transgressions”: “So the Law is not superfluous. Do you see how he (the Apostle Paul) reconciles everything and in how many ways he looks at all things? Since he has exalted faith and shown that it is older than the Law, so that no one might think the Law superfluous, he also resolves this doubt by saying that not in vain, but with very great benefit was the Law given, ‘because of transgressions’—that is, so that the Jews might not live without fear and not come to the utmost impiety, for this reason the Law was given to them as a bridle, for their instruction, chastening, and restraint from transgression, though not all commandments, at least some. So then, no small benefit comes also from the Law.”

“Appended”—to whom and to what? One can avoid having either object in mind and understand “appended” in the sense that the Law is something supplementary, does not have independent significance, does not stand by itself. Ecumenius writes: “He spoke well, saying ‘appended,’—to show that the Law is not a primary ordinance, but was given as something supplementary, and not for unlimited time, but until Christ should come, in whom blessing is promised to all peoples.” Or appended to the promise, to serve as the means to its fulfillment. This is the very purpose of the Law and of the people organized by it—that in its time the promise given to Abraham might come to fulfillment. Or appended to the people, in the sense that it was “imposed” on the people or that the people were clothed in it; for indeed the Jew in all the manifestations of his life was clothed in the Law—at home, in the temple, at work, on the road. If the Law were a remedial poultice for morals, a more fitting remedy could not be devised. But the first meaning is most direct.

“Until the Seed should come, of whom it was promised”—that is, that Seed of which the promise speaks, that through it all peoples will be blessed. He points to this limit intentionally, to make clear that if he insists on the abrogation of the Law, he does nothing unjust. This is the appointed end of the Law according to its original purpose. Since the Seed of the promise has come, it is evident that the Law has fulfilled its work and now must cease. “If the Law was given only until the coming of Christ, why do you continue it beyond the limit of that time?” (holy Chrysostom). “Ordained through angels”—The angels are not the creators of the Law, but ministers at its establishment. They spoke from God’s part, and Moses from humanity’s part. God moved them, they transmitted to Moses, and Moses to the people. God, appearing on Sinai, showed that the Law came from Him; but the Law had many details; it was more fitting to transmit and expound them through angels. Moses was told: “See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain” (Ex. 25:40). Since Old Testament service was entirely typological, Moses needed to see it in types. He saw the images of everything on the mountain, and the angels explained them—what each signifies and why each was needed. All was from God. Moses himself before his death testified: “The Lord came from Sinai… and came with ten thousands of holy ones, having angels at His right hand with Him” (Deut. 33:2). And all Jews believed that “God spoke to Moses” (Jn. 9:29), and at the same time held that the “Law” was received “through the arrangement of angels” (Acts 7:53), as the protomartyr Stephen spoke before all and to all. Therefore, in another place the holy Paul, writing to the Hebrews, did not think to say something offensive, contrary to their beliefs, saying that the entire Law is “the word spoken through angels” (Heb. 2:2).

Why did the Apostle mention this, when by his purposes he could have done without it? His statement of the secondary significance of the Law led him to it. The promise, he says, had primary, independent significance, while the Law “was appended”, and moreover for a time, “until.” Having such lower significance compared to the promise, it was also lower in its establishment. The promise was given face to face by God Himself to Abraham, while the Law was “ordained through angels”, and moreover “by the hand of a mediator.” Two intermediaries separated the people from God: Moses below and angels above, whereas God Himself gave the promise personally. From this an indication could follow regarding the superiority of the New Covenant over the Law, as the fulfillment of the promise. But the Apostle does not unfold it: he did this in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

“By the hand of a mediator”—through a mediator. This is a Hebrew manner of speech; for the hand is the most convenient organ of the broadest activity. But who is the mediator here? Most directly, the holy Moses. For the discourse concerns the Law, and in its establishment on the part of Israel, according to God’s choice, the mediator was Moses. He spoke to the people from God’s behalf: both God chose him for this and the people also chose him (Ex. 20:19). Moses himself attests to this in his final speeches to the people: “and I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the words of the Lord” (Deut. 5:5). For this reason the holy John the Evangelist compares the work of Moses with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying: “the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1:17).

Gal. 3:20. Now a mediator is not of one; but God is one.

This verse should be counted among those of which the Apostle Peter even wrote, that the Apostle Paul has places hard to be understood. Each statement by itself is plain. It is plain that a mediator is not of one; he comes between two sides or persons. It is plain that God is one, though worshipped in Trinity of Persons. But how these statements are connected here with each other and with the flow of the Apostle’s discourse—this is not plain. Our ancient interpreters did not delve into this, but having expressed the thought of each statement, went no further. The moderns began to guess how to understand this place in its connection, and they guessed. One of them notes that by the beginning of the present century there were already no fewer than 250 hypotheses; but they still continue guessing there. And it is unlikely there will be an end to it.

What should we do? It is best to say: we do not understand and we do not undertake to clarify what is not clear. Whatever we might guess, it is most probable that we would not guess a satisfactory solution. Better not to undertake it. There will be no loss to the understanding of the Apostle’s discourse from this: for these words, like the preceding ones—“ordained through angels, by the hand of a mediator”—are subordinate statements which, if understood, would enrich us with clearer and fuller knowledge of what is being proclaimed, but, if not understood, do not obscure the solution the Apostle gives to the question: “What then is the Law?”

Gal. 3:21. Is the Law contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not. For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the Law.

This verse is directly connected to “because of transgressions it was appended”; the words immediately preceding are explanatory to the word “Law,” not to how the Law is not contrary to the promises. Having answered the question “What then is the Law?” with the words “because of transgressions it was appended”—and then having posed a new question of his own, in which both question and answer are contained: “Is the Law then contrary to the promises?”—the Apostle said this: if the Law was appended because of transgressions, how can it be contrary to the promises? To “be contrary to the promises” means to replace, to abrogate, to destroy, as was expressed above. How this consequence follows from the given premise is not evident. The holy Apostle clarifies this immediately: if a Law had been given that could make alive, it would be contrary to the promises; but since this cannot be said (v. 22), neither can it be said that it is contrary to the promises. The power of the Apostle’s thought lies in the word: to make alive. The promise promises life; the Law does not give this life; therefore, it does not abrogate or replace the promise. If it made alive, then after it there would be no need to await the fulfillment of the promise. Its power would have passed to the Law. But since this cannot be said of the Law, the promise remains in force.

That the promise indeed promised spiritual life, the Apostle said above (in v. 14), expressing that the blessing of the Gentiles promised to Abraham is the reception of the life-giving Spirit of grace through faith. In this lies the essence of the whole economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ: in Him all promises and all prophetic proclamations are concentrated. The Lord came; those who cling to Him by faith are vivified spiritually by the grace of the Holy Spirit and begin to live a new life. If the Law did this, then there would have been no need for the coming of the Lord, nor His sufferings, nor His exaltation and sitting at the right hand of the Father, nor the sending of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of the New Covenant Church. All this took place because the Law did not have the power “to make alive.”

To understand this more clearly, let us recall what was said earlier, that the Law only restrained, holding back from transgressive deeds by fear, but did not extinguish the inner passions, did not make alive spiritually. Through this external restraint without inner transformation, it heightened the sense of sinfulness and compelled the seeking of the promised Deliverer. From these two aspects of the Law it follows that it not only is not contrary to the promises—that is, not only does not replace or abrogate them—but requires their fulfillment.

It is worth attending to the terms the Apostle uses. From the flow of discourse one would expect the Apostle to say: if the Law could make alive, then it would be contrary to the promises. But the Apostle says: if the Law could make alive, then righteousness would come from the Law. According to the principles of the holy Apostle, the bestowal of righteousness is the fulfillment of the promise in all its power. The fulfillment of the promise (v. 14) is the reception of the Spirit of grace, quickening and regenerating. Consequently, for the Apostle righteousness is gracious rebirth, imparting inward rectitude to the whole structure of a person’s spiritual life—when, cleansed from sins and having received power to resist sin, one serves God in righteousness, in exact fulfillment of His commandments, and has boldness to look upon Him as children with confidence in His goodwill and in hope of eternal blessedness in Him, in Christ Jesus our Lord, through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Blessed Jerome writes: “One should not think that the Law excludes the promise merely because it was given after it and appears to abrogate it. On the contrary, from the fact that it could not make alive, could not provide what the promise offered, it is clear that it was given to guard the promise, not to destroy it. If a Law had been given able to provide life and to fulfill (thus) what the promise offered, then indeed the promise would be excluded by the Law. But being given because of transgressions, it rather condemns those sinners to whom it was given after the promise, to guard them—since of their own free will they did not wish to await the Promised One in purity, so that, though bound by the chains of the Law and as it were enslaved to its ordinances, they were preserved to the coming of Christ for faith in Him, in which the fulfillment and end of the promise consists.”

Let us add also the words of wise Photius. “If the Law could make alive, then rightly someone might think that it stands”contrary to the promises“and deprives them of their right, claiming power to justify. But since it is powerless to do any such thing, neither to make alive nor to justify, it is evident that it was not given in place of the promises. These retain their power, as they alone save and justify those of faith. And not only was the Law not contrary to the promises, but in a certain way it even contributed to and served them. For by not saving and not justifying, it directed toward faith; and by directing toward faith, it contributed to the fulfillment of the promises” (according to Ecumenius).

Gal. 3:22. But Scripture has confined all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

“Scripture has confined”—that is, Scripture firmly affirms that all are under sin, or Scripture calls all sinners, convicts all of sinfulness (blessed Theodoret). If the Law justified, gave inward righteousness, made alive, then Scripture would not affirm this, but would say only that all except those under the Law are under sin. Since, however, it says that all are under sin, then even those under the Law are under sin; and consequently the Law did not make alive, righteousness does not come from the Law. “All”—in Greek: τα παντα; rightly understood as: εθνη—nations, all nations, all humanity. Or one can speak indefinitely: according to Scripture, all is under sin.

Or “confined”—held under sin, as in shackles, as in a dungeon. Then “Scripture” will be the Old Testament ordinance, transmitted in writing from God and laid as a yoke upon the Jews. For the center of Old Testament Scripture is the Law given through Moses; the Books preceding it are introduction to it, and the Prophetic writings following it are its exposition. Thus, “Scripture confined”—will mean the same as: the Law confined all under sin, all—that is, all without exception of those under the Law. This corresponds directly to the preceding thought: if the Law could make alive, it would replace the promise, would give righteousness. But it, he says, does not only refrain from this; on the contrary, it holds all under sin, as in confinement. It commands: do not do this, touch not that, or be such and such; but gives no power for it. All acknowledge its binding demands, but nonetheless all see that they stand guilty before it; guilty through the Law, yet they cannot free themselves from guilt through the Law. Thus the Law, Scripture, confined all under sin, held all in awareness of their sinfulness, and consequently in a state of culpability and accountability.

But such a result from the Law was by no means for evil and destruction, but for salvation. Thus God Himself ordained it—to use the instinct of self-preservation, which God Himself has placed in our nature, to lead those under the Law onto the true path of salvation. For who loves himself? Seeing that the Law brings only sinfulness, deepens awareness of universal sinfulness, every person under the Law was thereby moved to seek deliverance from sinfulness. How? To throw off the yoke of the Law? But that is even worse. No, to turn one’s hopeful gaze to the One to whom the Law itself pointed in shadow as coming, and whom the Prophets depicted more clearly. Such was the path until the coming of this Promised One; but after His coming, to cling to Him alone by faith and to receive from Him a life which the Law did not give, but only intensified the thirst for it, with the laying aside, of course, of the Law itself—as having fulfilled its temporary service.

This is precisely the meaning contained in the Apostle’s words: “that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” The Law, he says, confined all under sin so that when the Deliverer comes, all would turn to Him; so that until that moment all would experience every possible way of self-correction and self-justification and would tangibly assure themselves that nothing is able to give us this good, not even the Law given by God. It was preserved for faith in Jesus Christ and is given by it alone to those who believe. But in this is the very essence of the promise; consequently, the promise itself is fulfilled only through faith. The promise is Abraham’s blessing, consisting in the reception of the Spirit of grace through faith in the Lord, grace that regenerates, gives new life in Christ Jesus, and sanctifies.

The promise “from faith…will be given to those who believe.” Here the word faith does not have the same meaning but different senses. The words “from faith in Jesus Christ”—mean all that is the New Covenant ordinance, the whole economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, all spiritual goods which He has obtained for people and entrusted to His holy Church. He wishes to say: the promise is fulfilled not by the Old, but by the New Covenant. The words “will be given to those who believe”—point to the personal faith of each Christian by which he is deemed worthy of the goods with which the Lord Jesus Christ enriches him. One who hears the Gospel believes; the believer is baptized, and in baptism by water and the Spirit is born for new life in Christ Jesus, and begins to live in it with unwavering hope that He who has begun this work in him will also complete it to the end, with all possible attention, zeal, and effort on his part, of course.

From all that the Apostle has said, it follows that the Law in no way stands contrary to the promise; on the contrary, it both guarded those under the Law for the promise and prepared them for its worthy reception. The holy Chrysostom expresses the Apostle’s thought thus: “God gave the Jews the Law, which would open their wounds and impel them to seek the physician. The word”confined“—means the same as ‘convicted,’ and, convicting, kept them in fear. Do you see how the Law was given not only not”contrary to God’s promises,“but even for the benefit of the promises? If the Law had claimed the work and power of justification for itself, then it would rightly be said that it is contrary to the promises. But when it serves another and did all for another, how can it be contrary to God’s promises? If the Law had not been given, all would have sunk into lawlessness and no one of the Jews would have listened to Christ. Now, when the Law was given, it brought double benefit: first, it guided those who heeded it to virtue within their capacity; second, it awakened in each the awareness of his sins, which particularly moved them to seek the Son of God.”

Gal. 3:23. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, confined until the coming faith would be revealed.

This is not a new train of thought, but a further explanation and application of what has been said—that the Law was given because of transgressions; that is, as the holy Chrysostom said above, on the one hand to restrain sin and teach virtue within one’s capacity, and on the other hand, by opening awareness of sinfulness, to impel one to seek the Savior, to whom the Law itself pointed secretly and the Prophets later more clearly. With this in mind, one cannot fail to recognize that under the Law we were guarded and protected, as by a stern guardian, for the faith that was to be revealed.

“To the faith that was to be revealed”, that is, the Law did not guard us in order that we should remain under it forever, but so as to deliver us to the faith that was to be revealed. For this faith he guarded us, so that when it came we might receive it, having abandoned the Law as now unnecessary and having accomplished its work.

Or “to the faith that was to be revealed” presents this thought: so that the faith destined to come might be revealed, so that it might have the possibility of being revealed in us and through us to all the world. By keeping the Law, we preserved the promise of faith as a saving treasure for all humanity. Without it, faith would not have been. In this respect the Law has universal significance. We bore its yoke until the very coming of faith, which, when it came, was born in us and is now preached by us to all. And behold, this is the way by which the blessing of Abraham is now poured out upon all nations.

The blessed Augustine writes: “Someone will ask: Why did the Law bring no benefit to the Jews? It brought great benefit—incalculable benefit. What caused thousands of people suddenly to sell all they had and lay the proceeds at the feet of the Apostles? That they rushed so swiftly toward God, selling all as the Lord commanded those who wish to be perfect (Matt. 19:21), the Law accomplished this, under which they were kept in confinement as under a guard to the faith that was to be revealed. The fear of the one God held them in such confinement. And that they became transgressors of the Law, far from doing them harm, proved beneficial to those who believed; for knowledge of the gravest sickness makes one desire the physician more strongly and love him more ardently, because he to whom more is forgiven loves more.”

“The words: ‘we were kept’ and: ‘shut up,’ says holy Chrysostom, signify nothing other than the guardianship that the Jews experienced through the commandments of the Law. For the Law, keeping them in fear and in a life under the Law, as if within walls, thereby preserved them for faith.” Theophylact develops this same thought further: “The Law provided great security and protection to those under it, restraining them from many sins; it enclosed people within itself like a wall and led them bound toward faith. How so? By exposing sins and being unable to deliver from them, it, contrary to their will, turned their eyes toward justifying faith, which existed even of old, only hidden; later it was revealed when God appeared in the flesh.” Ecumenius concludes: “The Apostle expresses here the thought that faith in Christ was ordained from antiquity; now it is only revealed to men through the incarnation of God the Word.”

Gal. 3:25. Therefore the Law was our schoolmaster to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But when faith came, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

“Therefore”—thus, or from all that has been said, it follows that the Law, in relation to us, performed the office of a schoolmaster, a pedagogue, an educator. And here is the final answer to the question: What then is the Law? It is a guide to Christ. It demanded holiness and stirred in us the desire for it, but could not give it; it only pointed to the One who alone, the One foreshadowed by the Law, Christ, can give it. He it was who led us, taking us by the hand, so that we might be justified, might become righteous and holy through faith in Christ, which, by drawing the grace of the Holy Spirit, sanctifies all our inner being. But if this is the purpose of the Law—merely to guide us toward faith, to bring us to it—then when faith came, the Law’s guardianship must end; we are no longer to be under it. The Law had a temporary, passing significance. Having accomplished its work, it was meant to cease. All our obligation to it has ended.

Holy Chrysostom says of these verses: “A schoolmaster does not oppose the teacher but works with him, keeping his charge from every vice and with all diligence preparing him to receive the teacher’s lessons; when the charge becomes capable of this, the schoolmaster leaves him. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘when faith came,’ which makes a man a grown son, ‘we are no longer under a schoolmaster.’ Therefore, if the Law is a schoolmaster and guarded us when we were shut up under its watch, then it is not an enemy of grace but a fellow-worker. But if even after the coming of grace it continues to hold us under its yoke, then it becomes an enemy. For by restraining us when we should move toward grace, it will hinder our salvation. As a lamp that illuminates by night, during the day hinders the sight of the sun, not only fails to do its work but causes harm; so also the Law, when it hinders us from attaining something greater. Therefore those who keep it now greatly pervert it. For a schoolmaster makes his charge ridiculous if he keeps him with himself when, by the requirement of the times, he should have left him. Therefore Paul says: ‘when faith came, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.’ Thus we are not under a schoolmaster.”

Since this is the chief thought of the Apostle, for the sake of greater clarity and to imprint it more firmly on the memory, let us not spare ourselves the trouble of setting down, and let the readers have the patience to read, the words of the blessed Jerome: “A schoolmaster is assigned to the young, to curb their waywardness and restrain their lack of experience from vice, when youth are being taught disciplines and prepared for higher philosophy or government posts, being held back by fear of punishment. But a schoolmaster is neither teacher nor father, and the one being raised expects from him neither inheritance nor higher learning. A schoolmaster guards another’s son and departs from him as soon as he reaches the age legally entitled to receive an inheritance. So the Law was given through Moses to an undisciplined people, as if a schoolmaster, to guard it and prepare it for the future faith, which when it came and we believed in Christ, we are no longer under a schoolmaster; the steward and overseer has departed from us, and we have reached our majority and are called true sons of God, whom not the cancelled Law but the mother-faith, that in Christ Jesus, gives birth to us. Who upon reaching perfect age, having become an heir and a free son, would wish to be under a schoolmaster? This is now impossible, when the temple is destroyed and sacrifices have ceased. Whoever does this is neither under a father nor under a schoolmaster, since neither can the Law be kept after the coming of faith, nor is faith preserved, because all still desire the guardianship of the Law.”

Gal. 3:26. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

The Apostle’s discourse changes direction. Before he spoke in such a way that he included himself among those whom the discourse concerned; now, standing apart, he turns his words to those alone to whom he is writing. You are sons, and moreover all of you, all to whom I write, those who make up the Galatian Churches, and thus both Jews and Gentiles. From this it is evident that these verses, as well as the following ones, are the concluding inference from the preceding reasoning, for the instruction of the Galatians.

The Apostle’s discourse here makes such a sudden turn that its connection with what precedes is not at first clear. To see it, we must insert several explanatory thoughts. Having clarified the significance of the Law, the holy Apostle said above: we Jews are no longer under a schoolmaster now that faith, the new-covenantal arrangement of salvation, has come. It did its work, brought us to faith, by which we are justified, became righteous inwardly by the working of the grace of the Holy Spirit, in whom the power of the promise to Abraham resides. And Gentiles, apart from the Law, attached themselves directly to the Lord through faith and received the same promised good. Now I turn to you, Galatians, who have received my gospel of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit: do you not see that all of you, Jews and Gentiles alike, have become sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus; all of you have equally become Christ’s? If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring and, according to the promise, heirs—that is, heirs of Abraham or heirs of the good things promised to Abraham, according to the spirit of the promise itself. From this it follows of its own accord: therefore you have all things already through the single means of faith; there is no reason for you to bind yourselves to the Law and bind yourselves with it without any benefit.

Such is the content of this concluding section (verses 26–29). The discourse itself presents no difficulty in understanding. But since it concerns the most essential aspect of the arrangement of our salvation, to comment upon it is in no way unnecessary.

Sonship to God, according to the pattern of the arrangement of our salvation, is so essential to the work of salvation that it cannot be otherwise; for the chief thing here is birth from God according to the image of the Creator, that is, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the evangelist John writes: “As many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13). Without this new birth there is no salvation: “Unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). But those born of God in this way are by that very fact sons of God.

This is accomplished by the grace of the Holy Spirit on the condition of faith in Christ Jesus. The Apostle says: you are sons of God “through faith in Christ Jesus.” Coming into communities that had not known Christ the Lord, the Apostles proclaimed the gospel, saying: we have all sinned in our forefather and became subject to God’s wrath. God has shown us mercy, arranging our salvation in His Only-Begotten Son, Who, having become incarnate, by His death wiped away our sins, and ascending into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, Who, when received in the mysteries by the faithful, kills sin itself in them and gives them new life. When those who listened inclined toward faith in the gospel, they were told by the word of the Apostle Peter: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Those who did this were born into new life from God. And behold, they are sons of God.

Holy Paul, in explaining how those to whom he wrote are all sons of God, says—

Gal. 3:27. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Those baptized are by that very fact sons of God, because in baptism they are born from God. But the Apostle deepens the thought and shows the sonship of the baptized with the utmost intimacy in the words: “have put on Christ.” Birth from God, which is in essence the same as creation, does not necessarily unite the one born with God, as being created: he may remain very far from God. But he who has put on Christ, the Son of God, cannot be far from God. By becoming one with Christ, he is essentially united with God. Holy Chrysostom says: “Why did he not say: as many as were baptized into Christ are born of God? Because the expression he used is stronger and more magnificent. For if Christ is the Son of God and you have put on Him, have the Son within yourself and are conformed to Him, then you are brought through this into kinship with Him and into the same image.”

What does it mean to put on Christ? Let us compare two expressions: the one being baptized receives new life; and: the one being baptized puts on Christ. It follows that the new life is putting on Christ, or, in other words, new life is receiving the life of Christ, organizing our inner structure according to the image of Christ the Lord. In other places holy Paul speaks exactly thus. In his Epistle to the Ephesians he says that the truth about Christ consists in this: “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22–24). In his Epistle to the Colossians he writes again: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3:9–11). From all this it is evident that in baptism, which gives sonship to God or putting on Christ, an essential change takes place in man’s whole inner moral structure. He becomes Christ-like; and from that, thereafter, a Christ-imitating life begins. That such was indeed the change in the baptized was most palpably vindicated by actual results in the baptism of adults, with full faith and full consciousness. We are baptized as infants and, encountering neither in ourselves nor in others what is promised to baptism, we find it difficult to appropriate the thought of baptism’s power. But God’s gifts are irrevocable. Our baptism has the same power. For it to unfold in its fullness when its time comes, this depends on upbringing. And this is the chief thing to which education should be directed, though it is least of all taken into account. Thus the baptized, putting on Christ, receive obligations and the power to live the life of Christ, to think His thoughts, to desire His desires, to feel His feelings, to act His actions, in all things to manifest Christ in themselves.

Gal. 3:28. There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither slave nor free: there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

When all Christians are thus inwardly formed by the grace of the Holy Spirit according to one model—the Lord Jesus Christ—it is evident that they are all equal in spirit. As outwardly people have their type, distinguishing them from all other creatures, so inwardly Christians have one type of moral-religious structure, distinguishing them from all people. “All have one face and one image of Christ” (holy Chrysostom). Outwardness in Christianity is nothing. It has to do with the soul. External advantages and disadvantages have no influence whatsoever on true Christian dignity. Here everything depends on the strength of faith, devotion to Christ the Lord, and readiness for any sacrifice for His sake. The measure of these dispositions determines in the soul the measure of receptivity to the gracious powers that build up. From this one can see that a slave and a simple person often stand far above the wise and kings, and a weak woman above men.

The blessed Jerome writes: “When anyone puts on Christ and is embraced by the fire of the Holy Spirit, you cannot tell who is gold or silver. When fire penetrates and embraces the whole mass, then everything becomes one fiery light and every distinction of kind and condition of bodies disappears under such a garment. So also in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek. Neither is a Jew better because he is circumcised, nor is a Greek worse because he is not circumcised; but whether Jew or Greek, if one is better or worse, it is by the quality and strength of his faith. Likewise slave and free man may differ even in Christianity, but not in status—in faith. A slave can be superior to a free man, and a free man surpass a slave—but all by faith. Similarly man and woman differ in the strength and weakness of the body, but faith is determined by the disposition of the heart, and it often happens that a woman saves her husband, and a husband precedes his wife in faith. When thus every distinction by kind, status, and body is abolished through baptism into Christ and putting on Christ, then we are all one in Christ, as the Lord prayed, that as He and the Father are one, so we might be one in them (John 17:21).”

You are all one in Christ Jesus. “One”—in Greek it is: εἷς,—one. The thought is that you are all as one, or—what one has, the other has: what is given to one is given to the other. Because of external differences, no one is deprived of anything that belongs to him as a Christian.

Gal. 3:29. If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

“If you are Christ’s”—you have devoted yourselves to Christ and are owned by Him: you believed in Him and loved Him, and have been received into His favor, protection, defense, and close communion. “Christ’s”—put on Christ, inwardly organized by the grace of the Spirit according to Christ’s image and therefore born of Christ and in Christ.

“Therefore you are Abraham’s seed.” The offspring promised to Abraham was not only fleshly but especially spiritual, composed through resemblance to Abraham in faith, that is, when one enters into kinship with him by faith. The Apostle says: behold, you have become Christ’s, you believed in Christ. Know that through this you have entered the circle of Abraham’s offspring.

Or: you are Abraham’s seed, because you are spiritually born of Christ, Who according to the flesh descended from Abraham. The blessed Jerome writes: “Since the promises were given to Abraham and to his seed, which is Christ Jesus, it follows that those who are sons of Christ are His seed, that is, they are also Abraham’s seed, seed from seed. But when our Lord Jesus Christ is called Abraham’s seed, this must be understood in relation to His body, because He was to be born of his lineage; but when we, having received the word of the Savior, believed in Him and through this received the nobility of Abraham’s race, to which the promise was made, this must be understood spiritually. We are Abraham’s seed through the reception of the seed of faith and the gospel.”

“And heirs according to the promise.” The descendants of Abraham were promised the inheritance of the land of Canaan, which came to be called the promised land. But as his offspring is not only fleshly but spiritual, his inheritance is likewise not only fleshly but spiritual. Spiritual inheritance consisted of the goods in Christ Jesus—justification, receiving grace, holy life with victory over sin, and especially the kingdom of heaven. The inheritance of the promised land was a type of this spiritual inheritance. Into it enter both Jews and Gentiles through faith in Christ Jesus and grace of the Holy Spirit. Thus the blessing promised to Abraham is fulfilled for all his seed.

What follows from all this reasoning, the holy Apostle leaves for the Galatians to draw out themselves. You received the Spirit of grace, became Abraham’s seed, received his inheritance: what more do you desire and seek? And if all this, so high and precious, you received by faith alone in the gospel I proclaimed to you, what need have you to turn here and there, seeking new means to secure these goods, as if He who gave them to you forgot to provide all that is necessary? Therefore, abandoning all else, remain wholly in the one faith and in the life according to the spirit of this faith, not permitting yourself to waver in loyalty to the path of salvation you hold.

(B) Persuading or exhorting the Galatians to accept the proven truth about the needlessness of the Law henceforward and not to bind themselves to the Law (Gal. 4; Gal. 5:1–12).

The holy Paul proved that the Law is no longer necessary, especially for Gentiles, and in answering objections, clarified the Law’s temporary purpose alone, though clearly necessary in its time. Now he begins to persuade the Galatians not to bind themselves to the Law, and if they have already accepted anything, to cast it off, to keep themselves free from it. The Apostle draws his persuasions from those aspects of the matter from which such speeches usually draw theirs. In doing so he acts now chiefly (1) on the mind; now chiefly (2) on the heart; and now chiefly (3) on the will’s decision.

(1) Intellectual persuasions (Gal. 4:1–10).

Nothing persuades the mind to abandon its thoughts so much as reducing them to absurdity. The holy Paul places first among his persuasions those arising from the representation of the absurdity of keeping the Law after the coming of the Lord Savior. He speaks, as it were: (a) to the Jews: therefore, see that the Law was our schoolmaster. A father ordinarily gives his son to a tutor until a certain time. That time ends: the tutorship ends; the son enters into the rights of a son. How absurd it would be if this son still cowered under tutorship when already clothed in the rights of a son! So we were under the Law’s tutorship until a time. But that time has come; God sent His Son and through Him brought us into sonship, into the rights of sons. How absurd now for us to cower under the Law and rank ourselves with slaves when we are already sons! “And that you are sons, you have proof of this: God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, which creates in your hearts the feeling of sonship toward God, by which you dare cry out to Him: Abba Father!” (Gal. 4:6–7).

(b) Such is the discourse to the Jews, which extended in the end also to the Gentiles. But these latter could say: But how were we before brought into Judaism and completely associated only with those of us who fully submitted to the Law?! That was a different matter then, the Apostle answers them. Then Judaism was the only true faith on earth, and you were right to accept it. Now, however, when God Himself has claimed you apart from the Law, your turning to the weak elements of the Law has no meaning whatsoever (Gal. 4:8–10).

(a) Important to the Jew (Gal. 4:1–7).

The comparison of the Law to guardianship expresses very clearly both the necessity of the Law and its temporary significance. Since such a comparison is also very moving, the holy Apostle first and foremost stops upon it to draw out his persuasions to the Galatians.

Gal. 4:1–2. Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of all things; but he is under tutors and stewards until the time appointed by his father.

The holy Apostle takes up a significant example. He has a son. This son, by birth, is a son and an heir; but while he is small—a boy, a youth—he is placed by his father under the authority of guardians and tutors for education and training, so that when he reaches maturity, he may use both the rights of a son and his inheritance not haphazardly, but as is fitting, to the glory of his father. In this state of guardianship, the son is in no way better off than a slave, because he depends on his father, can do nothing on his own, but must do everything as the guardians command or permit. Let us note that the comparison used by the holy Apostle concerns itself especially with this trait—lack of freedom, bondage, a kind of subjection. Another trait: the guardianship lasts only until the appointed time (the set deadline)—it is not permanent but only until the time fixed by the father. This time ends, and this bondage ends as well. The son, now educated and trained, begins to act independently.

Gal. 4:3. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

The first trait of the comparison: just as that heir, so also we Jews, by God’s original choosing, were sons of God, as He Himself testified through Isaiah: “I have begotten sons” (Is. 1:2). We were chosen for this, but we were not at once manifested as such. True sons of God are those who are born of God; but one can be such only in Christ Jesus, when those receiving the Lord are truly born of God (Jn. 1:12–13). But at that time the people were not capable of receiving the Lord. They had to be trained for this. The Law was appointed as their educator. This very incapacity to receive the Lord, that through Him they might truly become sons of God, is what the holy Apostle calls the childhood of the Jewish people, which made guardianship necessary, as a kind of subjection.

The chief trait of the comparison the holy Apostle expresses with the word: “we were in bondage”. We were like slaves, in a state of unfreedom, bound on all sides: do not touch, do not taste, do not handle. A heavy hand guided us; grievous bonds lay upon us.

“The elements of the world” the Apostle calls the Law, as a service to God effected chiefly by material things—a material service. All the justifying, sanctifying, and propitiatory ordinances of the Law were carried out by means of elements, that is, material objects. Such were: circumcision, sacrifices, washings, fragrances, anointings, new moons, sabbaths, and the rest. And all of this was ordained down to the least detail as an inviolable law, the breach of which brought down God’s wrath. Whether you wished it or not, you had to do it; otherwise, punishment. This is bondage.

And yet, this was a kind of bondage that educated and taught. Therefore, one may also bear in mind a figurative meaning of the elements. Among the Greeks, elements meant letters, from which words are formed, and further—elementary instruction given to children. This is very applicable to the Law. It was, indeed, elementary instruction. We were enslaved, says the Apostle, to the Law for the purpose of elementary education, which was to end when the Teacher of true wisdom came.

Blessed Jerome writes: “The Apostle called by ‘the elements of the world’ those same ones whom he had before called rulers and guardians. One may understand by them letters as well, from which syllables and words are composed and which are learned not for their own sake, but for another purpose—namely, so that one might be able to read complex speech, attending no longer to the order of letters but to the meaning expressed by words. By letters, one may also understand the Law of Moses and the utterances of the Prophets, because through them the fear of God is received—the beginning of wisdom and guidance toward the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Holy Chrysostom brings the discourse to an application of this comparison, or a conclusion from it. “The Apostle speaks here of childhood not by age, but by understanding, and shows that God from the very beginning wished to bestow upon us His blessings; but since we were still in a state of childhood, He left us under the elements of the world, that is, in dependence upon new moons and sabbaths, for these days depend for us upon the course of the sun and moon. Therefore, those who now bring you under the yoke of the Law do the same thing—they return you, who have reached maturity, back to infancy. Do you see what the observance of days means? It brings a master, a householder who has full authority over all things, into the condition of a slave.”

Gal. 4:4–5. But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law: that He might redeem those under the Law, that we might receive adoption as sons.

The second trait of the comparison: the appointed time for the father has ended for us. God sent His Son, who removed the bonds of legal guardianship from us and brought us into the rights of sonship. All the traits and terms used here have, in themselves, the deepest meaning and may serve as the foundation for inquiry into the highest truths; but the Apostle’s purpose is only to sustain the comparison and to say that guardianship has ended: we are sons. There is no need for us to bind ourselves to the Law.

“But when the fullness of time came.’ ‘Fullness”—fulfillment; “time”—the appointed season. The time was fulfilled, the appointed time for the father was completed, the period fixed for education had passed, and the education itself had been accomplished to the extent possible: the term designated in the mysteries of God’s providence for mankind had drawn near. “What time had come to its fullness?” asks Ecumenius, and he answers: “The time in which Christ was destined to come. The time of Christ’s coming was determined beforehand by the prophet Daniel; it was fulfilled in the reign of Caesar Augustus, when the incarnation of God the Word was accomplished and Christ appeared.” Christ is the center of mankind’s movement through time. All before His coming in the flesh tends toward Him; and all after His coming flows from Him. In appearance this may not be palpable to some; but in the inner life it cannot be otherwise. All that is truly spiritual and divine comes from the Lord Jesus: external history may proceed in its own course; but in the midst of it, invisibly, God’s people is growing—the one precious thing, outside of which all is worthless.

“God sent forth His Son”. He speaks of the Son being sent in order to convey the bringing of those under guardianship into sonship. The Son is sent so that He might dismiss the guardian and those under him and bring them into the status of sons. God sent His Son; therefore, the Son existed before His birth in the flesh; He is not merely a man appointed for some particular purpose. It is not a mediator, nor an Angel, who is sent, but the Son—that is, neither from among humans as an extraordinary envoy by appointment, nor from among the Angels. Since apart from this only the Persons of the Holy Trinity remain, it was natural that in our Slavonic text the word “Only-begotten” was added—a word which does not appear in the Greek text—to signify that He is of one nature with God the Father, though this is already implied in the word Son. For when God sends forth His Son, He who is sent is, of itself, the Son of God.

“Born of a woman”. The Son sent is born of a woman, enters into the order of those born in this way—not being one with them in His Person before. The same Son, eternally existing, is born as a man and appears dual in natures, remaining one Person, the only-begotten Son of God—incarnate. The word “woman” is used here in the same sense as in the evangelist Matthew: “the virgin Mary” (Mt. 1:20) and in Luke: “his betrothed wife” (Lk. 2:5). Blessed Jerome writes: “The word γυνη by the nature of the Greek language means more a woman, a female person, than a spouse.” He is born of a woman; therefore, without a father. There was no need for the holy Apostle to say how he is born. But inasmuch as He is sent by the Father, the thought is fitting here that by His action He is born as a man. The Greek text does not contradict the translation “being born”, which gives the thought that the sent Son Himself arranged His birth in human form. If we remember the word of holy Luke, that what is born in the Ever-Virgin from the Spirit is holy, we arrive at the conclusion that, according to the spirit of Scripture, the Son of God is incarnate, but the very action of incarnation or the assumption of human nature is accomplished by the Tri-hypostatic Godhead: for the actions of the Godhead are indivisible in the Persons. For our salvation it was necessary that our Savior be a complete man, having all of human nature except sin. And He is born of a woman, as all men are, but not in that way by which sin is transmitted, so that He might clothe Himself in human nature, untainted by sin, though with all its weaknesses. In early times it was also significant that the Apostle used the preposition εξ rather than δια. For this reason the Apostle did not say δια γυναικος—through a woman—lest you think that the Son of God merely passed through the Theotokos, but said εκ γυναικος—from a woman—to show that the Lord assumed from her a true body. This without any particular intention on the Apostle’s part went against the Docetists, who appeared soon after.

“Born under the Law”. Consequently, He in Himself was not subject to the Law, but became subject to the Law according to the purposes of His being sent into the world, just as He was also born of a woman. The Apostle’s thought is: that this too was predetermined from of old. He took the nature common to men: “born of a woman”—and lived outwardly as a Jew; “born under the Law”—having been born among the Jews; and became the Redeemer not of Jews alone, but of all.

Taking in thought all this discourse, we see that by the word “Son” is defined the divine majesty of the Redeemer’s Person, His inner glory, while by the words “born of a woman, born under the Law” is defined His voluntary state of humiliation, through clothing Himself in human nature with its weaknesses except sin, and through subjecting Himself to the Law.

“To redeem those under the Law”. The Lord redeemed all men, but holy Paul, according to his purpose, stops at the Jews alone. We were, he says, under the guardianship of the Law, serving it, or bearing its yoke, like those sold into slavery. The Son of God came, abolished the Law, and brought us out to freedom, as those held captive are brought out to freedom, having been ransomed. The Son of God submitted to the Law so that He might destroy the Law, abolish its bonds, make it unnecessary. For all its purpose was in Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord came, and the Law must cease: its service is ended, just as the service of guardians ends when the full course of education is completed. Ambrosiaster explains this cleverly, ascending in thought to Abraham’s promise: “The Savior had to be under the Law, as a son of Abraham according to the flesh; so that He appeared circumcised, the One who, according to the promise to Abraham, was to come to justify the Gentiles by faith, having upon Himself the sign (circumcision) of Him to whom it was promised. But after Him, no one need be circumcised; for up until then the sign was passed on from generation to generation, until came the Promised Restorer of faith, by which Abraham was justified in uncircumcision, receiving circumcision only as a sign of faith (both justifying him and destined to justify all), so that believers would no longer need circumcision. Abraham was circumcised because he believed he would have a son, in whom all peoples would be blessed. Therefore the sign had meaning only until the Promised One came.” And circumcision, we may add, is the root of the Law. Where circumcision is, there is the whole Law.

“That we might receive adoption as sons”. Concerning the benefits of the incarnation of the Son of God the Apostle speaks here only in application to the comparison he has set forth—all with the thought of convincing that the Law has ceased already and has no binding force for the believers, by the very ordinance of God the Father. We are sons by God’s choosing; but until the appointed time, our Father God placed us under the Law, and we lived under its yoke, as if slaves. The appointed time has ended; the Father, who placed us under this guardianship, sent His Son to dismiss the guardian and bring us into the rights of freedom as sons. “By saying ‘that we might receive adoption as sons,’ the Apostle showed that it was from of old determined for us, our due portion of inheritance; we had not yet received it because of the immaturity of our mind” (Ecumenius. The same in holy Chrysostom and holy John of Damascus).

The Apostle sets forth as if only the external course of events in the dispensation of our salvation, nursing with milk rather than with solid food. But the following words (verses 6–7) suggest that he himself looked more deeply here, as everywhere, and disposed his readers to enter into that same depth following him.

The Son of God came and made us sons; He did not merely announce it, but made it—gave us the realm to be children of God because in Him we are born of God. Here sonship is not nominal but essential. Setting this thought in relation to the Law, we obtain the following course of thought: the Law, as a tutor, controlled externally, restraining impulses to sin; but the Son of God, having come, bestowed the Holy Spirit, who, regenerating believers to new life in Christ Jesus, cut off the very impulses, destroying sin within by grace. After this the external guardianship of the Law falls away of itself. The Law ceases as a cocoon is broken open when inside a butterfly has formed and come to life. The following words of the Apostle about the Spirit show that in the substance of the matter the Apostle’s basic thought, hidden beneath the external history of the matter, is this.

Gal. 4:6. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father!

Here too the holy Paul from “we” suddenly transitions to “you”—as in (Gal. 3:25–26). And there is no doubt that here also it is fitting to supply the same supplementary thoughts as were presupposed there. We (Jews), says the Apostle as if, by the course of God’s dispensation, having until now been under the guardianship of the Law and in no way, because of this yoke, different from slaves, are now introduced into the freedom of sons by the Son of God who came at the end of our period of guardianship and claimed us for Himself because of our faith in Him; but you—Gentiles—and never having been under this yoke of slavery to the Law, straightway by faith attached yourselves to the coming Son of God and received from Him not only the name but the essential quality of sons. Thus both we and you—all believers—have become sons.

And that you are truly sons, there is no need to seek far for proof. The witness to this is in yourselves—the Spirit dwelling in you, by whom all your inner being is disposed to call upon God: Abba, Father! For you could not have this Spirit if you were not sons. Because of this the Spirit is in you: that you are sons; and you are sons because the Spirit is in you. It is He who made you sons, regenerating you by His grace and setting you in the order of those born of God, who are His sons. Having regenerated you, He abides in you and holds you in the feelings of sonship toward God.

The Apostle’s expression suggests the thought that because you are sons, God sent the Spirit. In fact, the Holy Spirit through regeneration makes sons those who believe in the Lord. But these moments may not be distinguished: for they enter into each other. Does the Spirit of God make sons—by regenerating—all? Not all, but only those who believed in the Lord, resolved to follow Him in all things, and because of these dispositions were received into God’s favor, as though predetermined to be sons. After this the Holy Spirit, coming through the mysteries, makes them sons in truth, and having made them such, abides in them and teaches them to rise toward God as Father.

And according to the course of the arrangement of our salvation it happened thus: the time came to introduce spiritually the Jews and Gentiles into sonship—the Son of God came, accomplished all that was foreordained in God’s Council for our salvation, and having ascended to heaven, sent forth the Holy Spirit from the Father. This Spirit then made sons of all who believed. The holy Apostle’s thought was to convince: now you must abandon everything extraneous; see, the long-awaited time has come for men to be sons, as you can clearly see from the Spirit acting within you. The Spirit is; do not seek anything else, do not rely on anything else, do not bind yourself with anything else.

The Spirit cries in our hearts: Abba, Father! As if something mystical, hidden, acting apart from or deeper than consciousness in believers. No; it is in fact so and is truly perceived by believers who have in themselves the action of the Spirit of grace. In such ones the whole inner being is so attuned that they deeply feel themselves to be sons of God and perceive God as their Father. This is the possession of all Christians. And now those who have preserved the grace of baptism, living continually as befits Christians, feel themselves to be such. But those who have lost the grace of baptism cannot feel themselves so. They must restore this grace through repentance and then give grace to possess them through labors of self-denial, ascetical effort, and good deeds. Then in them too that same feeling of sonship toward God will be reborn. Thus teach all the spirit-bearing fathers. That this happens thus—take for comparison the feelings of a slave who grievously offended his master and expected nothing from him except death, and yet, returning to him with repentance, was received by him with mercy, embraced, and restored to his former status. Such a servant cannot help but cry out from the depths of his soul to his master: my own father! With this feeling he remains afterward. So it is in our spirit in relation to God. This is so essential in Christianity that whoever does not have such a feeling toward God has not yet become a true Christian; but either lives in negligence or has not yet reached the point where the efficacy of the Holy Spirit in the heart becomes manifest.

Since this matter is of first importance for us, I shall adduce the words of all the ancient commentators who gave it their attention.

Blessed Jerome writes: “That we are sons, the Apostle proves from the Spirit, which we have within us. We would never dare to call out: Our Father, who are in heaven! if we did not perceive in ourselves the living Spirit dwelling in us, who cries: Abba Father! From this it follows: just as he who has the Spirit of the Son of God is a son of God, so he who does not have the Spirit of the Son of God cannot be called a son of God.”

Ambrosiaster reasons thus: “When he called those Gentiles who had believed in Christ, once enemies, sons, there is no doubt that he calls the believing Jews the same, who, as is known, received this designation long ago. But they received this name as if only in form, so that it might afterward be established for them and essential through Christ. Without the Spirit it was not complete, not essential. So that we might have proof upon us that we are truly adopted as sons by God, He gave us His Spirit, who shows the sign of the Father upon the sons; and it is He who gives us boldness to speak to God what before, in weakness and unworthiness, we did not dare to speak—namely: Abba Father.”

Here is what blessed Augustine says: “The Apostle said that we—Jews—are redeemed from under the Law, that we might receive adoption. It remained to show that the Gentiles too, not having been under the Law, possess the same adoption. This he does by recalling the gift of the Holy Spirit given to all. This is why Peter defends himself before the believing Jews for baptizing the uncircumcised centurion Cornelius, saying that he could not forbid water to those who had manifestly already received the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:47). The holy Paul used this most important proof already above when he said: ‘Did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing of faith?’ (Gal. 3:2). And here he says: ‘Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father!’”

Ecumenius—speaking for all the Eastern fathers, for all say the same thing: “Whence is it evident that we have been deemed worthy of adoption? From the Spirit of sonship. He has overshadowed us and teaches (for this is what ‘crying’ means) us to call God Father; which certainly would not be the case if we had not been deemed worthy of adoption.”

Gal. 4:7. Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

The Son of God came in the flesh, you have attached yourself to Him by faith and have received rebirth from the Spirit of God, who now dwells in you and assures you in your sonship toward God; “therefore,” it is thus evident from this that you are not a slave but a son.

“You are no longer”—you; again a change in the person to whom the discourse is directed. First “we”—that is, the Jews; then “you”—that is, the believing Galatians, from Jews and Gentiles; now “you”: as if he addresses each believer among the Galatians—whoever you are, a believer, you are no longer a slave but a son. But what was the discourse about before, if not that every believer who has received the Spirit of God is a son? Therefore one may suppose that the Apostle wishes to convey: it is not proper for you, it is unseemly and impossible for you to be a slave. Before, the bondage to the elements of the Law had significance because it was so ordained by God the Father, and that for the Jews alone. Now that time has ended—and slavery has no sense at all, even for a Jew, much less for anyone else. For whom and for what are you doing this? God no longer favors that institution, that old one; it has done its work and been abolished. To obtain anything through this labor and this degradation to slavery, with God’s disfavor, you cannot hope; and there is nothing to hope to obtain when you are already a son, and therefore also an heir. You already possess what would be worth striving for under the yoke of service to the Law. Why, then, willfully and without any benefit or need, do you thrust yourself under this yoke!

“If a son, then an heir of God through Christ”. It is the direct right of a son to be heir of his father: and for one who has become a son of God to be an heir of God. As sonship toward God comes to believers through the Lord Jesus Christ, so the inheritance belongs to each believer through Him as well. This is why in another place the Apostle calls believers—heirs of God—fellow heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). Thus it is determined for those who believe in the Lord, who clothe themselves in Christ, to be where He is. There is no other way: such is the dispensation of our salvation. In another place holy Paul connects the inheritance appointed for believers with the Spirit of grace. The Spirit of grace, he says in the Letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 1:13–14), is the earnest of the inheritance. This same thought applies here as well. You are heirs because you are sons; and you are sons because you have been born of God by the Spirit, who cries in you: Abba Father! Know that just as your sonship is essential, not nominal, because you perceive in yourselves the Spirit of sonship, so your inheritance is undeniable, because in that same Spirit of sonship you have the pledge, the earnest that you will surely obtain it.

The discourse of the holy Apostle in this section proceeds in the same order as in (Gal. 3:23–29). But there he brought all things to the point that believers in the Lord became Abraham’s seed and by promise heirs; heirs, that is, of what was promised to Abraham; and what was promised him was the blessing through His Seed, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, for all peoples, by faith. Consequently, there is understood the inheritance of all the goods only of the Kingdom of grace. But here, clearly, the Apostle extends the thought further, beyond the limits of time, and, calling believers heirs of God, understands the blessedness awaiting them in the Kingdom of glory, to which participation in the goods of the Kingdom of grace serves as a pledge.

Let us conclude this section with the words of holy Chrysostom: “If grace has made us from slaves free, from infants mature, from strangers heirs and sons, is it not the height of folly and extreme ingratitude to abandon this grace and return to the former state?”

“Be bold, then, O man,” cries Ecumenius. “You are no longer a slave, but a son of God and His heir. Through the Only-Begotten Son of God, who became incarnate and bore all things for us, you are no longer a slave, no longer under the yoke of the Law. Heed the blessing of the Holy Trinity! The Father sends the Son, the Son becomes incarnate, the Holy Spirit cooperates and, entering into our hearts, teaches us to cry out: Abba, Father! How then is it not senseless for those who through Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit have become sons of God to turn back again to the Law?”

Turning Back to the Weak Elements: Observing Days and Seasons (Galatians 4:8–10)

The holy Apostle has shown the absurdity of turning to the Law after receiving grace, with the Jews in mind as they were formerly; now he draws the same conclusion regarding the Gentiles as they were formerly (Gal. 4:8–10).

This section, though not extensive, is somewhat obscure in the flow of the discourse and in its connection. In verse 8 the word is clearly addressed to the Gentiles who did not know God; but further on, in verse 9, the speech seems to shift and is directed toward the Jews; for only of them can it be said that they are turning back again to weak and poor elements. Moreover, it is unclear what the initial particle: “but” responds to, for it does not easily connect with the verses immediately preceding it. For this reason, among interpreters, both ancient and modern, there is no agreement. All agree that the speech is addressed to the Gentiles, but not all equally succeed in fitting all the terms used here to them.

“But”—This particle is a responsive particle: what does it respond to? Some say: to the words immediately preceding, as if thus: behold what grace and honor you have received! you have become sons of the true God; whereas before you served gods who are not gods or who do not exist in reality. These first words indeed fit well with this connection, but the further speech does not fit with it at all.

One can suppose an implied or actual objection from the Gentiles to the Apostle: but how is it that formerly you converted us to Judaism with such zeal, and moreover maintained close relations only with those of us who accepted circumcision and everything else; but now you teach that all this is entirely unnecessary? The holy Apostle answers them: but then you did not know God and served false gods; then there was only one true faith on earth—Judaism—and you did well in turning to Judaism: you were passing from falsehood and error to truth. But now, when the true God Himself has called you into communion with Himself, apart from the Law, as you see, why now should you turn to these weak elements, that is, the material worship required by the Law? This connection of the speech comes closer; only one term does not quite fit: “again,” for it does not fit easily with any other interpretation either.

Others hold that here a new discourse begins and the particle: “but” serves merely as a transitional particle, as if thus: but listen, I have yet something else to tell you! Then, in paganism, you served false, imaginary gods, and you served them through elements, offering sacrifices, performing washings, and the like. How then, now that you have come to know the true God and when the true God has received you into such intimate communion, do you now turn back again to those same weak elements to serve God through them?! This connection is more direct. The fact that the Galatian Christians from among the Gentiles were converting not to pagan but to Jewish practices does not create any problem here. For the Jewish practices were all elemental and externally no different from the pagan ones. They received their special value from the fact that they were instituted by God and contained the power of foreshadowing. Now, when they have lost their original significance, they have become entirely equal to pagan elemental worship. The Apostle does not say: you are turning to the same things, but: to like elemental, fleshly worship, implying that their worship should now be spiritual. Saint Chrysostom says: “here the Apostle is already addressing those who have believed among the Gentiles, and he says that the service of idols is the same as the observance of days, and that it now deserves greater punishment than before. The sense of his words is this: then you were so bound to the earth because you lived in darkness and delusion; but now, having come to know God, or rather, being known by Him, do you not deserve greater and harsher punishment when, spurning such great care for you, you willingly subject yourselves again to that same disease from which you suffered before?”

So also all the Eastern commentators—Saint John of Damascus, Ecumenius, Theophylact, and Theodoret. In Theodoret’s words there is a certain overtone. He writes: “The Apostle attempts to prove that the observance of days according to the Law is idolatry. For before you were counted worthy of the calling, he says, you served gods ‘not by nature being gods,’ deifying elements. But from this delusion the Master Christ freed you. Now, however, for some reason, you are returning to that same delusion. For in observing sabbaths, new moons, and other days, and fearing to violate this, you have become like those who deify elements.”

Such is the general thought in these three verses (8–10). We shall make some remarks on them in parts.

Gal. 4:8. But then, not knowing God, you served gods that by nature are not gods.

“Then,”—when you were in paganism, you did not know, he says, God, that is, the true God, who is One. To be without God is impossible: such is our nature that it requires God, and those without God fall outside the order of their nature. For this reason all peoples have had and have a god or gods; but not all know the one true God. The Apostle says: the true God you did not know. But since it is impossible to be without God, you invented false gods and served them.

“You served gods that by nature are not gods. ‘Not by nature being’” μη φυσει ουσι — not by nature, not physically, not really (in reality), not truly being gods at all, but invented ones you served, the fancies of your imagination. Or you served gods who, though they might exist in fact, were not by their nature gods, but: either men who had achieved some distinction and were deified, or heavenly or earthly creatures, or idols, or demons.

The Apostle does not specify what they served. Those to whom the address was made knew what they served: there was no need to speak of it. But we need to bring it to mind: through sacrifices, washings, festivals, and the like. Religions throughout the world naturally clothe themselves in the same form. Everywhere there are temples, or special places; everywhere there are sacred persons; everywhere there are sacred actions; everywhere there are appointed hours, days, and months. Without all this no religion can exist. But only in the true faith does all this express truth and lead to true worship of God and communion with God; in false faiths or those mixed with falsehood, all of this is false and does not lead to what is sought through them.

Gal. 4:9. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and poor elements, to which you desire to be enslaved once more?

“Having come to know God.”—I came to you with the proclamation, dispelled the darkness of your delusion, pointed you to the true God: behold, you know Him now. This privilege is far from being universal, as you know! But who brought me to you? Who gave me authority to speak among you? Who gave this word such power that it overcame your age-old, ingrained delusion and enabled you to understand the truth? Who converted you yourselves and gave you the strength to depart from the old lie and submit to the new truth? All—God. Therefore it is more fitting to say that it was not you who came to know God, but He who came to know you. He turned His benevolent attention upon you and granted you such an indescribably lofty good. “You did not seek God through your own efforts, for you were living in delusion; but He Himself found you and drew you to Himself” (Saint Chrysostom).

God knows all things and sustains all things in being. But He is said especially to know those whom He calls to the true faith, who hold this faith as they should. For this reason in another place the Apostle says: “the Lord knows those who are His” (see 2 Tim. 2:19). In the same sense also the first Psalm says: “the Lord knows the way of the righteous” (Ps. 1:6). By this is signified God’s special benevolence, attention, as it were a special acquaintance. Blessed Jerome writes: “The Galatians are called known by God not because God fails to know anything, but because He is said to know only those who have replaced delusion with true piety.”

Such a reminder was most moving for those who had received such mercy from God and then began to turn away from truly pleasing Him. It is such for all people. The Apostle himself brought it to mind (1 Cor. 13:12). And it is not without profit for us to do the same, confessing the great mercy in the fact that we are born among Christians; and immediately upon birth we are born again through grace in the waters of baptism, and then are raised up in the Christian way. What thanksgiving shall we render to the all-merciful Lord for this? May He deliver us from the like misfortune of the Galatians—from turning to weak and poor elements (I mean materialist worldviews)!

“Indirectly, the words: ‘known by God’ may also suggest this thought: you have come to know God; but you have not remained without response from God; He too has known you, and even more. In the true faith it is not the case that there is seeking and striving on the part of men while on God’s part there is nothing. In false faiths, where one turns to gods that do not exist, this is inevitable; for what can one expect from those who do not exist. But in the true faith the true God always answers those who seek Him. They seek after Him, and He draws near to them—indeed, enriching them with spiritual blessings. And there comes about a mutual living union, in which the very essence of faith consists. In Theophylact we read: ‘known…’ received by God (into communion)”.

“Weak and poor elements.” Here the holy Apostle has in mind the same thing that was previously expressed by the words: “the elements of the world.” He means the external ordinances of the legal institutions, which all can be called elemental service to God; because in this service all the elements had their part—fire, water, earth through its produce and animals, air through birds and atmospheric changes, influenced by the courses of the moon and sun, and similar things.

“Weak and poor”—feeble, scanty, had become this legal service after the coming of Christ the Lord; whereas before this service was pleasing to God and produced what God was pleased to connect with it. He who offered a sacrifice for sin departed forgiven; he who received anointing became a sacred person, and so on. The pagan religious actions of a similar kind produced nothing; they were empty, like all their religion. After the coming of Christ the Savior, the Jewish sacred actions too became empty, produced nothing, and became contrary to God, because they were observed against His manifest will. This is what Saint Paul means in the words: you turn back to the weak and poor elements. He says to them, as it were: your former elemental service was empty—it produced nothing. But so too the Jewish elemental service became empty when the time appointed for its existence came to an end. Consequently, in inclining now to the acceptance of the Jewish law, you are doing the same as turning back again to empty, producing-nothing elemental service. How then do you allow yourselves to do this after such great divine benevolence toward you?

Blessed Jerome writes: “The weak and scanty elements—this is the Law. And such it has become for those who turn to it now after the manifestation of the grace of the Gospel. Before the coming of the time appointed by the Father, before the proclamation of the Gospel throughout the world, the legal ordinances had their splendor. But after the greater light of the grace of the Gospel has shone forth and the sun of righteousness has risen over the whole world, the light of the stars is hidden and their rays grow dim. The Law of Moses, rich and abundant and bright before the Gospel, after the coming of Christ the Lord became weak, poor, and entirely nullified by Him who is greater than Solomon, Jonah, and the temple.”

“To which you wish to be enslaved again.” “To be enslaved,” δουλευειν — to work, to serve as slaves. The Apostle is saying: you turn to empty elements, which can give you nothing, and meanwhile you give yourselves into slavery to them, you become slaves. In the Law everything was determined down to the smallest details; through the traditions of the elders these details became so restrictive that it was impossible to take a step without fear of violating something. In accepting the Law, the Galatians would have had to, willy-nilly, submit to all these restrictions, enter into the bonds of slavery. And this, as the Apostle reminds them, after the freedom with which the Lord clothed you through adoption by the grace of the Holy Spirit?! He says: again anew you wish to be enslaved. This is because pagan elemental service too was all determined and represented a kind of slavery to the elements. Although the Galatians were turning now not to pagan but to Jewish elemental service, as they had now come to stand on the same level, they were doing the same as returning to their old—not the same, but similar in meaning and sense.

Gal. 4:10. You observe days and months and seasons and years.

This verse adds nothing new to the thought already expressed, but merely provides a clarifying example of elemental service, slavery to the elements.

“You observe days”—you religiously observe “days,” for example the Sabbath; “months”—new moons; “seasons”—festivals of many days, such as Passover, the Feast of Booths, which also remind of the times of year; “years,” the Sabbatical year or the jubilee of fifty years.

Why did the Apostle touch upon only religiously observed times, and not other things? Either because these times determine everything else; so that in saying this, the Apostle said, as it were: you observe days and of course all that is connected with their observance, that is, the entire Law. Or because the Galatians, inclined toward Judaism, had for the time being begun only to observe days, while not concerning themselves with other things. By these words the measure of their apostasy is defined—to what point the seducers had already succeeded. Circumcision had not yet been accepted; the Galatians lacked the boldness to accept anything else. But the observance of times did not present great difficulties. It was accepted. Although the Galatians may have managed to offer religious observance in the Jewish manner only for the Sabbaths and new moons, or some other fitting festival, the Apostle enumerates the entire circle of religiously observed Jewish times.

Blessed Jerome asks at this point: but do not Christians too have their own days which they honor—what then? Are they also subject to the same reproach? And he answers: among Christians all is spiritual, and all is accomplished in the spirit of freedom.

Let us add to this that Christians have not only religiously honored days, but also their own sacred actions, their own sacred persons, and their own places of worship. And everything connected with this is determined by ecclesiastical tradition. Is not this a bond, fetters, slavery? All this exists among Christians because without external expression we cannot manifest our reverent relations toward God; whether one person alone pours out his soul before God, or many gather together for this in one place—in churches. And Saint Paul the Apostle rejected all the external Jewish institutions not because no external things are needed in Christianity, but because the Jewish external forms no longer corresponded to the spirit of the new faith in Christ, and therefore had to be rejected. Saint Paul, like all the Apostles, in rejecting the Jewish elemental worship, instituted everywhere his own Christian worship—a rational, spiritual, reasonable service. The outline of all our external order was given by the Apostles; the details were determined later: time has hallowed them. Thus we have the ecclesiastical tradition!

Yet this is still a bond; where then is Christian freedom? It is here. The tradition, though it determines: act in this and this way, does not say that when you have fulfilled everything according to what is written, you have completed the task, and that is enough. On the contrary, it prescribes entering into the spirit of what is prescribed, so that you act from the spirit, as it were from yourself, with full understanding and full willingness, and consequently freely. Mere external action is indeed a bond and fetters; but when that for which this action is prescribed has been received by mind and heart, then the action ceases to be binding—it develops freely from the spirit. And all our Christian external order flowed forth from the spirit. Judaism proceeded from the external to the internal. Christianity flows forth from within and clothes itself in beautiful external form, like a living plant clothed with leaves and flowers. The fact that all this has been established in a definite form does not prevent it from being living everywhere and in every person, flowing forth from the spirit, free. One need only hold to one law: enter into the spirit of what is prescribed, unite it with your mind and heart, and, always fulfilling it, you will act from yourself freely, feeling no bondage from the external form.

Thus the tradition does not bind Christian freedom, requiring that all that is prescribed be fulfilled in the spirit. But it does not bind because there is nothing in the Christian external observances about which, as about Jewish observances, one could say: do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, except for the unchanging form of the seven Divine mysteries. We have external forms because as humans we cannot be without external forms. We honor reverently the established external observances because they have been sanctified by antiquity and have testified to their fittingness and value by forming and conducting into the heavenly dwellings so many multitudes of saints. But the established observances among us are not of such a kind that the Church is bound by them as by bonds of slavery and can change or abolish nothing in them. The Church, Christianity, is completely free in regard to them; and if it finds that something has ceased to be beneficial, it can either abolish it entirely, or replace it with something new, as well as introduce something new that it deems necessary. And whoever would assert that our observances are completely sacred, except for the form of administering the mysteries, would have fallen into Judaism with its: do not touch. The Church of God has always enjoyed and enjoys such freedom; only not in such a way that one day it is one thing, the next day another.

Reverently, with fear and trembling, every prescribed action must be performed—reading, singing, gesture; but not because such action—in its place another could be performed—but insofar as it is directed toward God. He who does God’s work with negligence is cursed. Whoever would assert that fear and trembling should be directed toward the very actions themselves and they should be performed in this spirit would display in himself a Judaizing spirit.

In reverently performing the prescribed observances, we believe that we are drawing God’s regard upon us, God’s benevolence toward us; but not because we have performed this particular observance: the power is not in the observance itself, but in our filial, full of faith and devotion to God raising of mind and heart. Whoever would ascribe special power to the observances themselves, insofar as such, apart from the Divine mysteries, would begin to Judaize.

Some people wish (and there are sects of this kind) to strip Christianity of all external form; and this desire they think to justify by the teaching of the Apostle Paul concerning the needlessness of the Jewish Law for Christians. They have not paid proper attention to the fact that that same Saint Paul, who set aside all Jewish observances, instituted his own Christian observances everywhere. It appears to them that any external form at all is already Judaism, and they cry out: Judaism, works-righteousness! But they refuse to understand that Judaism consists not in the existence of external forms, but in the fact that these external forms are performed and honored in the Jewish manner.

They themselves imagine that they have stripped themselves of all external form and serve God in spirit, purely in the Christian manner. Meanwhile, when they turn to God, they adopt a certain posture and conduct special speech toward God. What is this if not an observance? An observance, only a self-prescribed one. Such wise men cannot have common assemblies: they do not recognize them as necessary and cannot grasp the understanding of the Church of God as one body. It is remarkable that they do not even make the sign of the cross. Is it not evident that the spirit that teaches them and dwells in them fears the cross, which has crushed all the power of the enemy.

We who are temporarily spatial cannot be without external observances. Even the Angels have their own orders. And in the age to come there will be their own. And everything in them has its own time, place, and order. Only in the spirit can the service to God be and should be continuous, not bounded by time, place, or position.

The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20)

The demonstration of absurdity compels even the most obstinate mind to yield; and once it perceives this absurdity, it is always ready to abandon its positions. But the heart may resist. Therefore, for complete victory it is necessary to touch the heart also: this prepares the way for the decisions of the will. This is what the holy Paul now does, gathering various considerations that might erase from the heart the sympathy for Judaism that has formed there and incline it toward renunciation of the Law. This was necessary also to soften the harsh effect of the preceding rebuke of the absurdity that the Galatians allowed. The method of reducing something to absurdity is strikingly powerful; but it always reverberates with bitterness in the hearts of those it touches, and this delays the actual life-change that is required. The holy Paul now sweetens it by awakening encouraging feelings. Here each verse brings its own particular feeling. Therefore one cannot point to any particular order in this section (Gal. 4:11–20).

Gal. 4:11. I fear concerning you, lest perhaps I have labored among you in vain.

“This is a father’s voice, befitting one who remembers his labors and does not see the fruit” (blessed Theodoret).

“I fear for you”. “It is as if the Apostle sees that they have gone so far in the wrong direction that they may completely fall away from Christ” (Ambrosiaster). Evil has already begun, been taken up, and produced certain fruits: “you observe days”. What wonder that the decline into Judaism continues further? In some, decline into Judaism could even end in a fall into paganism. For Judaism, after the coming of grace, is as much a superstition as paganism is, without power or meaning. And it is a faith rejected by God.

Should something like this happen, my labor would be lost. The Apostle seems to express it even more urgently: has not my labor already been lost? Have you not become such that you cannot even be called Christians, and must be converted anew? I fear—has the matter gone that far? He does not say this decisively because he did not know definitively what their state was—he was troubled about them (v. 20).

The Apostle does not grieve for his labor, but for them, that they will again be plunged into that darkness from which it cost him so much labor to draw them out, knowing that he is obligated to all, both distant and near; he grieves also that God’s work is thereby arrested. He would have directed his labor to others, but now he must toil again over those same people who seemed already to be established.

The reminder of the labor over the Galatians, which the holy Paul undertook in converting them and establishing their churches, must produce great contrition and tenderness, given the proven love of the holy Apostle for them and the attachment they had shown to him before. He “speaks as if saying: remember how much sweat was poured out over you, and do not allow my labor to become vain” (blessed Theophylact). Needless loss is pitiable. Therefore before he had also mentioned their loss, when he said: you suffered in vain (Gal. 3:3–4). Now he speaks of the loss of his labor. Further on (v. 19) he writes that he labors again, and it is a labor of pain. Practical men well understand how impressive all such reminders are.

Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see the Apostle’s genuine concern? They are troubled; but he fears and trembles for them. Therefore his words: ‘I have labored among you’ contain so much that is crushing. It is as if he said: do not make vain so many of my labors. And with the words: ‘I fear’ and: ‘lest perhaps’ he arouses anxiety in them also and at the same time breathes into them good hope. For he did not say: ‘I have labored in vain’, but said: ‘lest perhaps I have labored in vain’. That is: this is not yet shipwreck, but I see in it only a dangerous storm and therefore I fear, but I do not despair. You can still set everything right and return to your former peace”.

The same also blessed Jerome with a particular application: “If he wished to rebuke them decisively, he would have said: I have labored in vain. But now (with this form of expression; ‘lest perhaps’?), seeing that they have zeal for God but not according to knowledge, and not despairing completely in their salvation, deceived by their immaturity of faith, he leaves them also not without rebuke, so as not to give them cause to remain at ease in their delusion, and to keep others from safely giving way to a like delusion. A teacher labors in vain when he strives to lead them to what is better and higher, but they through negligence fall into what is worse and lower”.

Gal. 4:12. Be like me, for I also became like you, brothers, I ask you; you have not wronged me.

Having awakened pity for the labor spent over them, having pointed out the danger of their condition and the hope of deliverance from it, “then, as if stretching out a hand of help to those in danger of shipwreck, he presents himself to them as an example, saying: ‘Be like me’ (Saint Chrysostom). All knew the former burning zeal of the holy Paul for the Law; and all also knew his present freedom from it. If at times he did observe something lawful, he did so as an indifferent matter, only for the sake of peace and to advance the success of the Gospel. Therefore he could boldly speak thus of himself. He speaks here in imitation of military commanders who, seeing soldiers standing in indecision or wavering, cry out to them: Follow me! Nothing is so encouraging as an example, and nothing is easier than to follow in the obvious footprints of another.”

The words: “for I also became like you” are not entirely clear. For the Galatians, inclining toward the Law, were no longer as he was, and consequently neither was he as they were. Therefore various interpretations became necessary, and commentators have differed. Some think that when the holy Paul spoke thus, he had chiefly in mind the Jews, as if to say: I also was like you. “Once I too had this zeal, I loved the Law. But see how I have changed. Therefore do you also rival me in this change” (blessed Theodoret). Others think that when the holy Paul spoke thus, he had chiefly in mind the Gentiles as they were before, completely free from the Law—as if to say: I am a Jew, but I became like you, Gentiles, free from the Law, leaving everything lawful and appearing everywhere as one without the Law (1 Cor. 9:21). See what a sacrifice to God’s truth was made on my part; return to this truth and do not bind yourselves with the Law; for you this is all the easier because it requires no sacrifice on your part, given your nature unbound by the Law and your faith that obligates you to nothing in it.

But it seems that the holy Paul had in mind neither pagans nor Jews, but the Galatian Christians who had inclined toward Judaism. He persuades all the local Christians to abandon their attachment to the Law, not only Jews or pagans. Having received the faith of Christ, they were all free from the Law: Jews abandoned it, and pagans never knew it. Then they inclined toward it, seduced by false teachers. It is this condition he has in mind and urges them: abandon the Law, as I abandoned it. For I too was attached to the Law, as you are now, but I abandoned it. In this Epistle, the holy Paul has many places where the discourse is abrupt and seems to be left unfinished. Such it is here as well. To the words: “for I also, as you” the most natural completion would be: I was, as you are now, a zealot—that is, of the Law—but I fell away from it. Blessed Jerome writes: “I too was once like you are now, when I rigorously kept these [Jewish] customs and as a persecutor laid waste the Church of Christ because it did not do the same”.

Saint Chrysostom is chiefly occupied with drawing from these words all the persuasive thoughts that would move the Galatians. He says: “He speaks this (the Apostle) to believers from the Jews [one can substitute: to those inclined toward Judaism] and by his example persuades them to abandon the ancient customs. If, he says, you had no other example, it would suffice for you merely to look at me to decide fearlessly upon such a change. Look at me. I too once held the same thoughts as you and burned with intense zeal for the Law, but afterward I did not fear to abandon the Law and to change my way of life according to the Law. You know well both the zeal with which I formerly kept Judaism, and how with even greater readiness I afterward abandoned it. And it was very fitting that the Apostle offered this example after everything, for many people are more readily swayed by the example of one of their own brothers than by countless proofs, however just they may be; and when they see another doing something, they more readily incline to do the same themselves”.

“Brothers, I beseech you”. Some relate these words to what precedes: “Be like me”; others to what follows: “you have not wronged me”. Lovers of the letter spend much time determining which is better. But Saint Chrysostom turns all attention to clarifying how much these two words mean for the Apostle’s purpose in this section. Let us confine ourselves to that. “See how he again calls them by a respectful name, and thereby reminds them also of grace (that is, “of the grace of baptism, by virtue of which we are all brothers, born of one Father”). Since up to now he has attacked them from all sides—with strong rebukes, strict examination of their deeds, and conviction that they are transgressors of the Law—he now again softens his speech and comforts them, speaking in a more tender and gracious manner. For just as uninterrupted caresses weaken, so rebukes without mitigation harden. Therefore moderation and a middle way are always good. See how he justifies the rebuke he has made, showing that everything he has said to them was spoken not out of hatred but out of love for them. Having made such a deep wound, he at once pours the oil of comfort upon it. And to assure them that all that has been said to them was not spoken from hatred or enmity toward them, to remind them of his love for them (in the word: ‘brothers’), he adds in his own justification and in their praise, saying: ‘I beseech you, you have not wronged me’.”

“You have not wronged me”. He turns away the thought that might arise in the Galatians, that the Apostle is speaking so severely because of some offense, as Saint Chrysostom notes. And he turns it away by assuring them that he has seen no wrong from them, and consequently it is unfitting that he should be offended with them. “Even an ordinary man would scarcely wish to harm a person who has done him no wrong, or to offend him without cause. But you not only have not wronged me, but have also shown toward me a great and extraordinary affection. Therefore it cannot be that one who has received such comfort from you would speak to you in malice. Thus I speak not in annoyance, but in excessive love for you and concern for you. ‘I beseech you, you have not wronged me’. What soul is more gracious, more merciful, and more full of love than this holy soul!” (Saint Chrysostom).

In assuring them that there was no occasion for offense, the Apostle at the same time hints that such occasion will arise, and very strongly so, if they Judaize. You have done me no wrong so far, but things have gone such a way that you might deeply wound me. You were always attentive to my teachings, always did whatever I commanded you: and everything between us went so peacefully. Do not break this peace, do not begin strife, do not raise the barrier of Judaism between us. Given the Apostle’s love, tested by the Galatians, and their love for him, proved by deeds, this reminder is a very sharp sting, piercing and wounding powerfully. How well this worked toward the Apostle’s goal! Blessed Jerome seems to have had this thought in mind when he adds: “The disciple wrongs the teacher if through negligence he forgets his lessons and thereby renders his labor vain”.

Someone may say: they have not wronged, but will wrong. Did the Apostle stand up for himself? No, for the Lord and His work. But he had the work of the Lord so knit to himself that it was the work of his life. What harmed that work pierced the pupil of his eye. The holy Paul was not indifferent to preaching and to the progress of his disciples. What was favorable to them gladdened him; what was unfavorable grieved him…

But again: the fear of wounding a beloved person, by awakening which the Apostle wishes to act upon the Galatians, is an earthly, human feeling. Is it fitting in God’s work? This feeling is a good feeling, implanted in our nature by God as a regulator of our relations, along with other feelings. Therefore, as God’s, it could be directed also to God’s work. Devices of this kind in the holy Apostle are reduced to one rule, which he always followed: “I became all things to all, that I might by all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).

Gal. 4:13–14.
You know that on account of a weakness of the flesh I first preached the Gospel to you, and your trial in my flesh, you did not despise or spit upon, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

“The heartfelt concern for the Galatians causes the Apostle often to change his manner of speech, now to rebuke, now to beseech—sometimes to accuse, and sometimes to lament. Here he says to them: in nothing have I suffered wrong from you; on the contrary, I have received the greatest possible services from you. I have not forgotten the honor you showed me. Though I bore great dishonor upon my body, having been mocked, tormented, and endured a thousand ills—yet you did not regard the dishonor but honored me, ‘as an angel of God’. And why do I say: as an angel?—‘as Christ Jesus’; because you thought that in serving me, you were serving Christ” (blessed Theodoret).

Why does the holy Paul remind them of this? Partly to continue and more fully present the thought he had begun—namely, that having received no displeasure from them, he could not speak to them so sternly from a sense of offense, but speaks to them from love alone and desire for their good, as if to say: “And what do I say: ‘you have not wronged me’? On the contrary, you have shown great and heartfelt attachment to me. For ‘you know’ and the rest. Believe then that what I have said to you was spoken not from foolish anger and passionate disturbance of soul, but from care for your souls alone” (Saint Chrysostom).

But more particularly, he reminds them of this to rekindle in their souls how the first preaching went among them, how their souls changed, how, leaving all, they clung to the Lord, and received the Apostle himself as one sent from above, and in him beheld the Lord Himself who sent him, as it is customary to receive ambassadors as those who sent them. The holy Apostle knew that if that same (initial) fire of zeal for the pure faith of Christ were kindled in their souls, it would cast out from their souls everything foreign to this faith, as molten metal expels from itself all extraneous matter. Therefore he wishes to renew it, compelling the Galatians to pass through once more in their hearts the whole history of their conversion, forgotten and obscured by subsequent events. In the conversion of the Galatians, one must suppose, there was something extraordinary. For when outwardly the holy Paul appeared so humiliated that one could spit upon him, he was received so highly, and such fervent faith was shown in his word. The memory of this extraordinary manifestation of God’s power among them was powerful in sustaining, and surely did sustain, in the Galatians the same spirit of faith, both in strength and in substance, like a banner in the ranks that always inspires warriors. Surely this was so, but then gradually it was forgotten. This forgetting gave the false teachers occasion to creep into their souls. The holy Apostle now restores it, to once more cast them out and expel everything they brought in.

The words: “weakness of the flesh”—which he at once calls “trial in my flesh”—there is no great need to define with precision. The holy Apostle wishes only to say: remember what I was like before you outwardly? Such that by human relations and understanding I could be despised and spat upon. But my teaching was luminous, exalted, divine. Were you able then to discern the substance of such a precious work beneath such an unprepossessing appearance of mine? And this substance of the work—my Gospel—was it such as you now understand it? Where has your keen sight gone that saw so clearly in the darkness what now appears so dimly in the light of day?

Commentators, however, strive to determine what weakness of the flesh the Apostle had. And some think it was some bodily illness, while others think it was persecutions, mockings, wounds, which are more fittingly called “trial in my flesh”.

Blessed Jerome writes: “We can guess that the Apostle fell ill when he first came to the Galatians; but despite being afflicted with illness, he did not cease preaching the Gospel. There is a tradition that he often suffered from headache; and it was this that was the angel of Satan given to him to torment him, lest he be exalted (2 Cor. 12:7). This weakness was a trial for those to whom the Gospel was proclaimed—would they not despise one who promises such a lofty thing, yet is himself so weak in body? It is not unfitting either that when the Apostle came to the Galatians at first, he suffered mockings, persecutions, and wounds from those who resisted the Gospel. It must have been a great trial for the Galatians when they saw the Apostle being struck.”

The Eastern commentators give to the words: “weakness” and: “trial” exclusively the latter meaning. Saint Chrysostom says: “What is he trying to say by this? When, he says, I was persecuted, beaten, threatened with thousands of deaths while preaching to you, you did not despise me even then. For this is what the words mean: ‘your trial in my flesh, you did not despise or spit upon’.”

With this one can also discern here a hidden rebuke of the Galatians, which could not have been insensible to them. It must at once have come to their minds: the Apostle suffered so much for us, and we have now turned our backs on him; and is it not strange that in the beginning we received and honored the humiliated one, and afterward we fell away from him. We should be ashamed! “By this the Apostle brings them to shame,” writes Theophylact, “reminding them how much he endured for them from those who opposed the truth.” Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see the Apostle’s spiritual wisdom? Even in his own justification he does not cease to rebuke them, when he sets before them how much he suffered for them; and when he says: yet this in no way scandalized you; you did not spit upon me in these sufferings and persecutions. For by weakness and trial he means sufferings and persecutions. ‘But you received me as an angel of God’. How then is it not strange that you receive one who was persecuted and hunted as an angel of God, but do not receive his teaching on what is necessary?”

“As an angel, as Christ Jesus you received me”. This was because of the impressiveness of their preaching, by the power of which Christ Jesus was so vividly portrayed in their mind that He seemed to hang crucified before their eyes. The word of the Apostles proceeded from their lips not by their will and deliberation, but by the moving of God’s Spirit. The extraordinary vividness of speech among the Galatians remained memorable to the holy Paul. It could not have failed to be memorable to the Galatians as well. To this the Apostle leads them with these words. For they received him so highly because of the power of the preached word. This was bound to stir up in their souls all that had happened in them at their first conversion, which, as indicated earlier, was very important for the purpose of the holy Apostle.

One also pays attention to the preposition δια—δι ασθενειαν—“on account of weakness”. It seems as if I preached because of weakness of the flesh. I had no plans to preach; but illness stopped me, and I began to preach. It may be so. But better to translate it as we say: by main force or through tears. It will mean—despite illness, if there was one; or: despite persecutions and wounds, or amid illness and wounds: they continued, and I did my work, moving amid them, through them, as one goes through thorns, through thorns.

Gal. 4:15. What then was your blessing? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.

“What then was your blessing”—not everyone understands it the same way. Some: How blessed you were then! Others: How you blessed me then! A third way: How you were blessed then? From the flow of the discourse, only the middle meaning is fitting here: How did you bless/honor me then? Μακαρισμος means: blessing, acclamation. Clear evidence of this can be found in the church service, where certain verses on the beatitudes are called μακαρισμοι—blessings: for there various virtues, essential in life, are blessed/acclaimed. And the Apostle’s discourse both before and after is entirely about how he was received, how the Galatians related to him, not about the Galatians themselves. You received me, he says, as an angel, as the Lord Himself. And how you honored me, exalted me, blessed me then! You were ready to do everything for me, to give me everything, to sacrifice everything for me. A figurative expression: to pluck out (put out) the eyes and give them to someone means: to be ready for any sacrifices for someone. The Apostle speaks of this to make them reflect on the source of the change in them, when he is still the same in himself and in his relationship to them. The words of blessed Theophylact can be thus translated: “What has become of that (former) blessing you showed? Now I do not see it, since you now relate to me in a completely opposite way.” Saint Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle is bewildered, marveling at their change, and tries to learn from them themselves the cause of it. Who has bewitched you, he says, and changed your disposition toward me? Did you not serve me and heal my wounds and value me more than your own eyes? What then has happened? Whence such hostility? Whence this suspicion? Has it come because I spoke the truth to you? But for this you ought to honor and love me even more.”

For the purpose of the holy Paul in this section, this thought serves to awaken shame or self-shame in their inconstancy and to make them reflect whether they are doing well in turning away from the lessons of such an enthusiastically received teacher of faith, whom they did not know at all before his preaching. From this, a natural transition to suspicion of the new teachers follows: Are they perhaps not telling us the truth? Are they benefactors to us or is the first teacher of truth? Is there nothing bad in them? Therefore, right after these words the Apostle speaks directly to them about the bad intentions of the false teachers.

The interpretation: How blessed you were then!—though it does not fit the flow of the discourse, is not unfavorable to the purpose of the holy Paul in this section—to trouble the feelings of the Galatians. Therefore it is accepted by some. A mode of thinking does not remain without influence on the heart, all the more so belief, and still more so belief accompanied by action. In true faith the Lord unites Himself with the heart and blesses it. The depth of the union depends on the power of faith, its purity, and the corresponding determination on appropriate action. The purity of faith is diminished, or the life corresponding to it, the closeness to the Lord is diminished, and in proportion—the blessing of the heart. The Galatians, receiving the faith with such warmth, were in an indescribable, as it were, rapture. This rapture was not from frivolous excitement, but from the fact that they truly felt themselves blessed; and they felt themselves blessed because the Lord was in them, blessing them for their sincerity in cleaving to Him and the purity of their faith. Now their faith has been darkened by inclination toward Judaism; and Judaism has begun to distance them from the Lord and the Lord from them (v. 19). The measure of this distancing was necessarily accompanied by a corresponding measure of diminishment in the inner blessedness in the Lord. Knowing that this is so, the holy Paul says to the Galatians: Compare what is now in your heart with what was then, and you will see that you have taken a wrong step. Remember what blessing you felt then: where is it now? (Blessed Theodoret, Saint Damascus, and others read: που μακαρισμος—where is the blessing? The moderns have also adopted this reading. But not for the better.) With this he said as if to them: Remember, from what a height have you fallen?

It is needless to say how impressive and edifying such an admonition could be. Despite all this, one should consider it in this present place only as incidental and conjectured, not as the one the flow of discourse requires. One can unite these two understandings into one: the Galatians blessed the holy Paul because they felt themselves blessed with the blessedness that was given them by the faith preached to them by the holy Paul. The third interpretation, then: How you were blessed/praised?—does not fit either the flow of discourse or the purpose of this section. It appears, however, among some of the ancients as well.

Gal. 4:16. So have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?

In the Slavonic translation and in holy Chrysostom, this clause is affirmative; in the current Greek text and in Russian it is a question: am I then your enemy? This does not change the thought; but the affirmative form indicates it more directly than the question. Here is the conclusion from what has been said before, as shown by ωςε, – “so that”. The Apostle speaks as though: consider the rapture into which you have fallen over the truth I have communicated to you! You have felt it and valued it properly; you have honored me as God’s messenger, so there can be no doubt of my good will toward you. Speaking the truth before you (αληθευων υμιν), sincerely, conscientiously, self-sacrificingly offering you the pure truth, I have thereby proved to you my true love for you, for the sake of the truth you received. For this you have repaid me with your love and honor shown to me. But now your attitude toward me is different, because false teachers have explained things differently to you. They have turned the truth into falsehood and turned your hearts away from me and from the truth. And it has come to pass that I have become your enemy for speaking the truth to you, while they have become your friends for leading you away from the truth. And what does this accord with? Come to your senses, look at the matter as it is. Consider who these new teachers are – and you will see that they are zealous for you and so forth.

Gal. 4:17. They are zealous for you, not in a good way; they want to cut you off so that you will be zealous for them.

With the previous verse, holy Paul was directing the Galatians only to doubt the true good will toward them of the false teachers; but in this one he speaks directly of their malicious intent. They do not wish you well, he says as though, but only try to turn you away from me, so that you would go over to their side and call them: teacher, teacher!

The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

“They are zealous for you” – so eagerly they busy themselves around you, as though they are the most sincere friends, desiring only your good. But do not be deceived by appearances. Look into their intention and you will find that they are zealous for you “not in a good way” – not for your good and not from good will toward you. Their zeal is not good, but evil. “Good zeal draws toward good paths, while evil zeal turns one away from them” (holy Chrysostom). And so they are zealous, but unwisely. What efforts do they exert to gain proselytes? But if they should succeed in gaining them, they bring them not benefit but final ruin, as the Savior himself said (Matt. 23:15). Judaism was the one true faith before the coming of the Lord, but after his coming it is opposed to God and ruinous, and those who follow it are children of Gehenna.

“They want to cut you off” – like wolves, cunning shepherds cut some sheep from the flock so as to strangle them afterward. He does not say from whom to cut them off: for this is clear. From Apostle Paul, from following his teaching, and through this from the Lord and from his flock, the holy Church of God, – from salvation into ruin.

“So that you will be zealous for them.” It does not appear that the Apostle is accusing them of mercenary motives, but points only to what seems to be a teacher’s pride: that you would go over to their side, would honor them, stand with them, be zealous with them about the Law in the same way. “They are concerned,” says holy Chrysostom, “trying to deprive you of perfect knowledge and bring you to superficial and false understanding. And they do this only so that they themselves might take the rank of teachers, and you, who are now above them, be placed in the position of pupils; for this is what the Apostle meant when he said: ‘so that you will be zealous for them.’ But I, on the contrary, wish,” he says, “that you be better than them and serve as an example for the more perfect, such as you truly were during my stay with you.” – One can extend this saying also as follows: they are drawing you to themselves, while I am not drawing you to myself, but to the Lord; they seek that you be zealous for them, while I seek that you be zealous for the Lord and your salvation in him; I seek nothing of yours, but you, and not for myself, but for you, so that you may be saved. Look then, and you will see where the truth is.

At this reminder of the zeal of the false teachers, which they wish the Galatians to emulate, it came to the mind of holy Apostle Paul to pour out before the Galatians all his fatherly love for them. Remembering their zeal, he also remembered their perfection in faith, and that good state in Christ Jesus the Lord in which they had been and which they were now losing or beginning to lose. His heart was moved, his spirit grieved, and he was kindled with intense concern for their restoration to their former rank. And so he cries out: my children!

Gal. 4:18. Indeed, it is good to be zealous for a good thing always, not only when I am present with you.

The Apostle seems to hear an objection from the Galatians themselves: but in Christ were we not zealous? Are you not a witness to it? Yes, yes! – the Apostle answers. You were fervently zealous, but I am not speaking of what was, but of what is. You were zealous and then stopped. And such changeable action has nothing praiseworthy in it. That is good, that zeal is good and honorable, which is always zealous for what is good, and is zealous because it is good in itself. You were zealous when I was with you, but then grew weak. Therefore your zeal was flowing from human considerations, not from love of what is good. That is why, when the considerations that stirred you up ceased, you immediately turned away from it, as soon as the seducers appeared to you. Are you then not steadfast? Are you then not lovers of what is good – “my children!”

Holy Apostle’s thought rests on zeal for what is good, inasmuch as it is good, and zeal that is constant. In this is the unfailing beginning of Christian life. Whoever has it, clinging to the Lord and always bearing him alone in his heart, has one aim – always to be faithful to him in word, deed, and thought. Through this, Christ, beheld by faith, is formed in the believers not only mentally, but actually, in the manifestations of their spiritual life. By this path, and toward this end, the Galatians were journeying while they followed the guidance of holy Paul. But false teachers came and threw them off the path. The image of what ought to be was disturbed in their minds, because the false teachers cast a shadow over the very principal thing – the face of Christ the Savior. Having turned away their gaze of faith from him, they have disrupted the image of him in themselves, and then ceased the very real formation of him in them through their life. Seeing such substantial loss in the spirit of the Galatians, the Apostle, grieving over it, extends to them a word of compassionate parental comfort:

Gal. 4:19. My children, for whom I am in labor again until Christ is formed in you.

Holy Paul gave them birth through the Gospel; but now, turning away from the substance of the Gospel, they are beginning to grow faint. Therefore he again exerts himself to kindle in them the fire of new life and cares about this with heartfelt labor – not mild, but such as equals the pains of one in childbirth. The comparison is very expressive: it presents the matter vividly and portrays the Apostolic zeal brightly. What a close and living union the holy Paul entered into with those he converted! And how fully did their condition reflect itself in his heart in comfort or sorrow! Yet, calling himself as one in labor of childbirth, holy Paul expresses thereby the hope that the Galatians will again be reborn in that same spirit, having abandoned the death-dealing elements they had embraced.

The previous passage gave holy Apostle occasion to pour out before the Galatians all his fatherly love for them. Remembering their zeal, he also recalled their perfection in faith, and that good state in Christ Jesus the Lord in which they had been and which they now had lost or were beginning to lose. His heart was moved, his spirit grieved, and he was kindled with intense concern for their restoration to their former rank. And so he cries out: my children!

“Until Christ is formed”. By faith and baptism Christ was formed in them. They had clung to him, vividly beholding their deliverance through his death and the gift of new life through his grace. By inclining toward Judaism, they allowed the vision of this bright image of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ to be darkened and disrupted in them, allowed the very likeness of Christ, given to souls in grace, to diminish. Enlightening them, the Apostle draws them back to that former vision of salvation in the Lord and to the formation of the likeness of Christ in their souls. Hoping for this, he labors and, laboring, suffers as one in childbirth, assuring them that he will not cease to suffer thus until they once again become as they were before.

This is the measure to which those zealous for the salvation of others should bring those they guide, and once they have brought them to this measure, they can say with confidence that they have set them on their feet!

“Portrayals of such strong love, which breathe through these words, ought to have acted victoriously upon the Galatians, which is what holy Apostle seeks in the present section. “See how he is troubled; how he is disturbed,” says holy Chrysostom. ‘Brothers’, he says, ‘I beg you: my children, for whom I am in labor again’. This is the voice of a mother who fears for her children. ‘Until Christ is formed in you’. Do you see both the fatherly love and the sorrow worthy of an Apostle? Do you hear the cry, far more bitter than the cry of one in childbirth. You have destroyed, he says, the image, you have lost the high kinship, you have changed the likeness; you need another birth, a new creation. Yet I still do not cease to call you children, you, your aborted offspring. Yet he does not speak thus, but otherwise; for he spares you and does not wish to harden you by laying wound upon wound. But as skilled physicians treat those who have suffered prolonged illness not all at once, but with intervals, so as not to bring them to despair and not destroy them: so also does blessed Paul act. And these sufferings were all the more painful for him than bodily sufferings, the stronger his love was and the more serious their sin. Yet, as I have always said and will not cease to say, even a small transgression has damaged and disfigured all the beauty and image of God in man”.

Gal. 4:20. I would like to be present with you now and change my tone, because I am puzzled about you.

This expresses the irrepressibility of love. As parents, hearing that some misfortune has befallen their children, cannot sit still, but in their anxiety hurry to them so that with their own eyes they might see the calamity and its extent, and there, by their advice and assistance as much as they can, repair the misfortune, or if they cannot, grieve together with full knowledge of wherein the grief lies: so also holy Paul, hearing that the Galatians, his spiritual children, have suffered calamity in the matter of salvation, the most essential matter in life, feels compelled to hurry to them personally so that he himself might see and feel the calamity in all its force; and there too turn it aside by the means available to him. In fact he was not with the Galatians at that time; but he felt the urge to do so and spoke of it so as to convey how he is not indifferent to what is happening among them. Yet this alone was capable of having an effect. The Galatians did not know that he would not come, but could not help but expect: he might come at any moment. This expectation ought to have restrained them and stopped them from further deviation. For when he was with them they were zealous for what is good, as it truly is without any alien admixture. The personal presence of the Apostle was very influential. Its expectation ought also to have exerted some measure of influence.

What does it mean: “change my tone”? Change it in accordance with what he would see with his own eyes. Perhaps he would not find such great evil among them as he imagined, or perhaps even greater. Moreover, it is probable that, when some had inclined toward Judaism, others remained steadfast in faith, and on both sides in different degrees and shades. Having arrived to them, the Apostle would have spoken in accordance with all of this. To some severity, to others strengthening, to others comfort; now rejoicing, now weeping.

“Holy Chrysostom says: “Observe his impatience and irrepressibility, which he cannot hide in himself. For such is the nature of love. It is not satisfied with words from afar, but seeks also to meet in person. “And change my tone”, – that is, change it to a sorrowful one and shed tears and make you all weep too. But in a letter one cannot weep and wail, therefore he burns with desire to see them. – “‘I am puzzled about you’. I do not know, he says, what to say, I do not know what to think, from which you, having reached such heavenly heights, whether through grievous trials which you endured for the faith, and through signs which he worked according to your faith, now suddenly descended to such humiliation and such poverty, that you turn to circumcision and Sabbaths and unite with the Jews? This very thing is what forced the Apostle to say also at the beginning of the Letter: ‘I am astonished that you are so quickly turning to a different gospel’ (Gal. 1:6) – and here: ‘I am puzzled about you’. As though he is saying: what am I to say, where shall I begin, what am I to think? I am at a loss. Therefore all that remains is to weep. This is what the Prophets also did in hopeless cases. For such a method of healing is not unimportant, that is, not only to exhort, but also to weep”.

3) Exhortations that move the will (Gal. 4:21 – 5:12)

Mind and feeling, passing over to the side of truth, draw the will after them. After them, the will inevitably yields; but it may delay, postpone its decision – at once to begin and act according to the indication of truth. In order to give it tension, to rouse it to this energy, truth turns to it from special aspects, the perception of which is able to exert such kind of influence on it. To this the holy Paul now turns. He shows: a) how glorious it is to remain in freedom from the Law (Gal. 4:21 – 5:1); b) how necessary this is (Gal. 5:2 – 6) and: c) how easy it is for them (Gal. 5:7 – 12). Three aspects which, when understood, move both hands and feet to act in the matters in which they are seen. Gloriousness attracts by its excellence; necessity compels by its unavoidability; ease gives wings by its manageability. In short, holy Paul speaks – in the first respect: do you wish to be children of the Jerusalem above, free, heirs of God, – abandon the Law; in the second: one of two things is unavoidable, either abandon the Law and be with Christ in grace among those being saved, or, holding to the Law, be without Christ and grace among those perishing; in the third: and what does it cost you to do this? You have already been walking as you should and have not yet become tangled up in things alien to truth. Resume the former path – and the matter is done. The false teachers are leading you astray? Turn them away from yourselves. And you will go again straight without all quarreling.

a) The glory of the matter (Gal. 4:21 – 5:1)

The glory of life in the spirit of faith, holy Paul presents by clarifying the superiority of faith over the Law. These superiorities are – childhood of the Jerusalem above, birth according to Isaac into freedom, and the inalienable inheritance of heavenly blessings. What is more glorious than such kinship? What is more attractive than freedom? What is more precious than such an inheritance? – that all this belongs to the believers, he has proved above. Now he simply presents it more prominently before the consciousness of the Galatians, showing how all this is reflected even at the very beginning of the division of the providential arrangements of God concerning mankind. He speaks, as if, you wish to be under the Law, hoping thereby to become children of Abraham. But look into the history. Abraham had two sons: one from Hagar, the other from Sarah; the first – born according to the flesh, the other – by promise; the first from a slave woman – a slave, the other from a free woman – free. In this simple history lies a deep meaning: two covenants are depicted here. Hagar with Ishmael depicts the Old Covenant, given on Sinai, around which the tribe of Hagarites settled and gave it a name consonant with Hagar. As Hagar the slave woman bore slaves, so also the Law of Sinai gives birth into bondage and enslaves with its children, ruling in the present Jerusalem, the center of the life under the Law. And Sarah with Isaac depicts the New Covenant of the Gospel, coming forth from Zion concerning Christ Jesus and proclaimed by us. As Sarah the free woman bore the free one, so the Gospel gives birth into freedom and constitutes with its children the Jerusalem above, – the Kingdom of Christ. Its children are we, all the believers. We are children of Isaac, we are the free, we are heirs. Those who hold to the Law are carnal children, they are slaves and, what is chief, – will not inherit with the children of the free woman. These privileges are given to all of you in Christ Jesus. – Stand firm then and do not give yourselves over under the yoke of bondage of the Law

Gal. 4:21. Tell me, you who want to be under the Law, do you not hear what the Law says?

“Having softened their hearts with his tears (in the previous words) and brought them closer to himself, he again begins a dispute, proposing for consideration a matter still more important, showing that even the Law itself requires that it not be observed. If you wish, he says, to be obedient to the Law, abandon it, for even it itself requires that. Yet the Apostle does not say this directly, but by another path brings them to the same thing, making use of history” (holy Chrysostom).

By such an unexpected question he sharpened the attention of the readers. By then proposing a simple history, well-known to all, he did not weaken, but brought it into even greater tension, with the desire to guess what he means to say. When finally the matter was clarified and the comparison of things presented itself so vividly, the impression from it could not but be striking.

By saying that they wish to be under the Law, it suggests the thought that they are not yet fully ensnared by it – they are inclined, but have not yet been inclined. At the same time it offers hope that as they wished, so they can unwish; because if they are attempting it, it is not rational requirements that are driving them to it, but only a whim of desires. Holy Chrysostom says: “Well did he say: you who wish. For the matter depended not on the demand of things, but on an unseemly zeal that was already present”.

In the words: “you who want to be under the Law – and: do you not hear what the Law says?” – the word: Law – does not have one meaning. In the first case it means all the arrangement of life under the Law, and in the second – everything that occurred in the period under the Law according to particular dispositions of God and recorded in Scripture for the instruction of subsequent generations. He takes an event from the Book of Genesis, because it was necessary; but he would have taken what was necessary from any other Book, if something else had been required, and would have spoken in the same way: “do you not hear what the Law says?” do you not hear what God himself, who established the life under the Law, says to you through events? In this “do you not hear” will mean: do you not perceive the meaning and inner significance, do you not take lessons and instruction for yourselves from it and do not follow it. Blessed Jerome writes: “The one who hears the Law, according to the Apostle, is he who sees not merely its surface, but sees through to its heart. The one who does not hear the Law is he who, like the Galatians, stops at its mere outer skin”.

Gal. 4:22 – 23. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. The one by the slave woman was born according to the flesh; the one by the free woman was born through a promise.

By the previous question he roused only their attention. Here he points to the very event from which, if one perceives it, they themselves can draw a lesson that teaches them. This event is well-known to all. The Apostle does not even recount it in detail. This, moreover, was not necessary. It was necessary only to distinguish certain features from this event, which serve as the starting point for the subsequent conclusion. On them does holy Paul dwell, not distracting attention with other circumstances. These features are the following: of Abraham’s two sons – one from a slave woman a slave, the other from a free woman free; one according to the flesh, the other by promise, that is, one – born by a natural way, the other – formed by a Higher power, though from elements of nature; that one of lower, earthly origin, and this one of higher, heavenly. Already by this reminder alone the Apostle conveys to the Galatians: by submitting yourselves under the yoke of the Law, you wish thereby to become children of Abraham by right. The matter is good, worthy of care and zeal. But see that you do not make a mistake in the way to attain it. Abraham after all had two sons, completely opposite. And you are faced with the need to determine more precisely: in the spirit of which of these two sons you wish to become children of Abraham. An error in choice is so significant that you, thinking yourselves to be sons of Abraham, will in fact be nothing more than slaves.

Holy Chrysostom says: “Again he refers to Abraham; yet it is not mere repetition. But since this patriarch was greatly esteemed among the Jews, the Apostle shows that images had their beginning in him, and in him were also prefigured the present events. And first he shows that they (the Galatians) are sons of Abraham. But since the sons of this patriarch did not have equal dignity, for one was born from a slave woman, and the other – from a free woman, then further he says that they are not only sons of Abraham, but such sons as his free and wellborn son was. Such is the power of faith!”

What the spoken history means and what it teaches is clarified by the Apostle next in detail. But the words cited can by themselves, even before the interpretation of their mysterious sense, give rise to thoughts significant in the matter under consideration. According to holy Chrysostom, here the question is decided: how do we become children of Abraham, not being descended from him according to the flesh? In the same way as Isaac was descended from him, not according to the flesh, but by promise, that is, by the power of God. “Before he said that faith unites us with Abraham. But since it seemed unclear to those listening that those not descended from Abraham he calls his sons, he shows that such an extraordinary deed had already been done by God at the very beginning. For Isaac, though a natural son, was – not according to the natural order, and not according to the law of marriage, and not from fleshly strength; inasmuch as he was born from faded bodies and a barren womb. Not flesh brought about conception and not seed made the fruit, for the womb of his mother was dead both from age and from barrenness, but the word spoken by God formed him. On the other hand, the slave was born in the usual way, according to the laws of nature and marriage. And he who was born not according to the flesh was preferred to him who was born according to the flesh. So do not be troubled that you were not born according to the flesh from Abraham. For it is precisely because you were not born according to the flesh from him that you stand in kinship with him. Birth according to the flesh does not increase, but diminishes dignity. On the other hand, birth not according to the flesh is a wondrous and spiritual birth; and those alone produce it who themselves are born from above. Ishmael was born according to the flesh, but was a slave, and not only a slave, but even cast out from his father’s house. And Isaac, born by promise, since he was a son both of a free woman, remained the master of all”.

Gal. 4:24 – 25. These women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children into slavery. Hagar is, moreover, Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

Having pointed to the event, he now interprets what it means, what it teaches. “These are to be understood in an allegorical way”. He speaks not in the sense: this is allegory, but in the sense: in this there is also allegory, or: this can be understood also allegorically, or: there is here also a hidden divine meaning. “The divine Apostle said: ‘allegorized’, – that is, can be understood also differently. For he does not reject the historical sense, but explains what is prefigured by the history” (blessed Theodoret). “With these words he wished to say that this history depicts not only what appears at first glance, but expresses also something else; wherefore he called it an allegory” (holy Chrysostom).

The mysterious sense is not obligatory, for not everyone can perceive it. The holy Apostle perceives it; others did not perceive it, but will only now begin to perceive it from his words. Therefore one cannot prove it to them. The Apostle does not prove it here, but only clarifies what has already been proved. He has proved his truth before; now he simply presents more prominently the advantages of those holding to it, by pointing to its reflection in the very first events that paved the way to the life under the Law. Such a turn of speech is the same as a comparison, which does not prove, but the stronger the reflection of the truth in it, the greater force of persuasion it gives to the already proved truth.

“Now these are the two covenants”. Earlier in: “which are allegorical”—there stands: ατινα,—indefinitely or in general, this, that, this event. But here stands: αυται,—that is, the women. Upon them he directs attention, because he intends to clarify what the Law brings forth and what the Gospel brings forth, what fruit comes from each. “Who are these—‘these’ (αυται)? The mothers of the mentioned sons—Sarah and Hagar. What do they mean? Two covenants, two laws. And since in history these were the names of Abraham’s wives, the Apostle, adhering to the general meaning of these titles, from the names draws forth an important and great consequence” (St. Chrysostom). “Abraham had two wives and became the father of two sons; but one of them was born of a slave woman, the other of a free woman. And this accords with what is accomplished in us. For as there is one father, but two mothers and two sons; so also here one God, but two covenants and two peoples” (blessed Theodoret).

First Hagar’s meaning is clarified, so that after the dark picture of bondage under the Law, called Hagar, the mind’s eye the more readily and joyfully rests upon the picture of the spiritual freedom of the Gospel, depicted as Sarah, and the more persistently fixes attention upon it and draws the heart there as well through affection.

Hagar depicts bondage under the Law. A striking feature of their likeness—Hagar the slave bore a slave into slavery; the Law, given on Sinai, also brings forth slaves; that is, those upon whom it was laid and who follow it, it binds as slaves who dare not take a step without the master’s will, and moreover under deadly fear for breaking anything whatsoever. Expressive is the word: “bringing forth to slavery”. Bondage under the Law develops persons with a spirit of slavery, by which they are so permeated that freedom does not even occur to them as a thought. The Law cannot bring forth anything else while someone is wholly devoted to it, insofar as it is such.

The likeness stands out vividly; so much so that one could leave it without further comparisons. But the holy Apostle goes further and shows that such comparison is not arbitrary, but that the thought of Hagar necessarily brings to mind Sinai’s legislation. For this he uses the name by which Sinai is called in Arabia, that is, among the Hagarenes, and the topographical relationship between Sinai and Jerusalem—the center of life under the Law and of all the forces governing it.

How does the name Hagar relentlessly bring to mind the thought of the Law? It does so because “Sinai in the language of the Arabs is called Hagar” (Ecumenius, blessed Theophylact). “For Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia”. Sinai, in Arabia, among the inhabitants of Arabia, descendants of Hagar, bears the name Hagar. Therefore, having remembered Hagar, you recall Sinai, and having recalled Sinai, you remember the Sinai legislation. St. Chrysostom explains this connection of names and the combination of thoughts thus: “Hagar was called a slave woman; and Mount Sinai in the language of that land also means a slave woman.” The Vulgate and others read not: “Hagar is Mount Sinai”,—but, without “Hagar”,—“Sinai is a mountain in Arabia”. The thought is that Mount Sinai is located in Arabia, where the Hagarenes, descendants of Hagar, dwell. Why, at the thought of Sinai, one thinks also of Arabia, from it passes to its inhabitants, the Hagarenes, and from them to Hagar; as also conversely, by that same path from Hagar, thought following thought one reaches both Sinai and the Sinai legislation. However one explains it, this thought must be held: that, according to the Apostle, the relationship of Hagar to Sinai is providential, and that, consequently, in indicating the reflection of the character of Sinai’s Law in the properties of Hagar, he acts in accordance with the intentions of God.

How Sinai topographically points to Jerusalem, the center of bondage under the Law. “And corresponds to the present Jerusalem”. “Corresponds”, — αυστοιχει: “that mountain corresponds to this earthly Jerusalem” (blessed Theodoret). “It is akin to it and closely points to it” (St. Chrysostom). One may also say it stands opposite (vis-à-vis).

At about half a day’s journey from Mount Sinai begins a level plain and stretches to the very mountains of Judea, where immediately Jerusalem stands,—so that if one could rise above this plain, then, looking to the south, one would rest one’s gaze on Sinai, and turning to the north, one would meet Jerusalem. In the interval nothing would arrest attention; Sinai seems to escort toward Jerusalem, and Jerusalem toward Sinai. In this respect the other saying of Chrysostom is not without truth: “Jerusalem in location is not at a far distance from this mountain, whose name means a slave woman.” The actual distance between them is twelve days’ journey. Thus does Sinai correspond to Jerusalem! God so arranged it that the Sinai legislation found its seat in Jerusalem and reigns there. By all this, says the Apostle as if, must one come to understand. All this is pointing to us the finger of God.

“And serves with her children”. Who is it that serves or is enslaved, is in a state of subjection? One may understand both Hagar with her offspring, and the Law with those under the Law, and Jerusalem with her inhabitants and the inhabitants of all Judea, for whom Jerusalem is the metropolis or civic mother. In the original it is not clear to what exclusively to refer these words; but since Jerusalem stands above and what follows is about Jerusalem itself, though opposite to the present one, but by reason of it, it is nearer to refer them to Jerusalem. The slavery of Jerusalem is understood here not as civic—not that he was at that time under the power of Rome,—but as a religious and moral slavery to the Law, whose weight was felt most of all in Jerusalem, full of such zealots for the Law as the Pharisees and from among them the Zealots. The Apostle himself had more than once experienced this burden; and later he suffered for his unwillingness to be enslaved as they were.

Gal. 4:26. But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

The holy Paul said that these two women, Hagar and Sarah, depict two covenants; then he explained in detail that Hagar depicts the Old Covenant, given on Sinai, demanding slavery and bringing forth into slavery, whose realization the present Jerusalem represents, serving with her children. One would expect him to say: and Sarah depicts the other covenant, the Evangelical, demanding free service to God and bringing forth into freedom, whose full realization the heavenly Jerusalem represents, the Church of Christ, free with all her children, that is, with all of us, believers in the Gospel of Christ. But the holy Paul decided to shorten such a comparison, so simple and obvious that anyone can easily make it himself; and he stopped only at his last word about the present Jerusalem, the center of slavish bondage under the Law, in order the more quickly to set against it the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy Church, the seat of evangelical freedom, not obscuring this contrast with other images, for the stronger impressiveness of the comparison.

The heavenly Jerusalem, set in opposition to the present one by the holy Paul, evokes the thought of what is to come. All that was bright in the future then merged into one representation of the promised Kingdom of the Messiah. It is nothing else that the holy Paul means by this word. This is for him the Kingdom of the Messiah, formerly promised, and now realized and represented by the holy Church. “The heavenly Jerusalem is the Church, and those born in it are not slaves” (St. Chrysostom). She is the heavenly Jerusalem, not because she is in heaven, but because she is heavenly in her sublime perfections, in the heavenly powers working in her, in her close union with heaven, with which she forms one whole, because she has no earthly aims and because, being filled with heavenly elements, she forms heavenly citizens in herself.

“Free” by her very nature, “that is, has no yoke of the Law upon her” (blessed Theodoret). If she is opposed to the present enslaved state, then she must be free and by you, as well as by all, must be recognized as such. Or thus: and the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy Church is free. He, as if pointing to her, says: and the holy Church is free. Look! So it ought to be. He sets against the actual Jerusalem not something conceived, ideal,—but an actual community of persons, freely serving God and free from every tie of bondage under the Law. His thought is that this is indeed how it should be, as follows from the comparison of covenants he has presented. That one could point to such a community as actual, the Galatians themselves are witnesses, who until now were completely free and only now have begun to bind themselves, without any necessity, contrary to all the indications and signs of God.

Children of the Free Woman: Stand Fast in Freedom (Continued) (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

“which is the mother of us all”. These words are set in opposition to the words: “serves with her children”. The present Jerusalem, the synagogue, the Law bring forth slaves and serve with their children. But the holy Church, being free, brings forth into freedom and is free with her children, born of her. These children are all of us who believe. If we hold ourselves free from every bond of the Law, it is because it cannot be otherwise. Such is our mother, free, bringing forth the free. If we bind ourselves by the Law, we become unfree, we renounce our mother who brought us forth. By this was also suggested: you are the same, and were and are. Why then bind yourselves?

Gal. 4:27. For it is written: Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear; break forth and cry out, woman who is not in labor. For the children of the desolate woman are more than those of the one who has a husband.

In confirmation of what is this prophecy brought forth? Not that the childless woman bears and that she has more children than the one who has a husband—these are subsidiary thoughts—but that the children of the new Jerusalem, the Church, are born not in the flesh but spiritually, by power from on high, as Sarah bore according to promise. “The Apostle is not satisfied with mere images alone, but in confirmation of his words brings forth the testimony of Isaiah (Is. 54:1). For having said that the heavenly Jerusalem is our mother, and calling the Church by this name, he points to the Prophet who says the same thing that he said” (St. Chrysostom). By this prophecy the Apostle explains how the holy Church is our mother. According to this prophecy she brings forth without a fleshly husband, without fleshly seed (barren), without the pangs of bearing and without fleshly birth itself (not bearing, as they bear according to the flesh): she is empty of all this, has nothing of this fleshly thing; and yet she has more children than the one who has all this, because spiritual birth is hindered neither by time, nor by place, nor by other contingencies. It can happen always, everywhere, in an instant and in great quantity. Ambrosiaster writes: “the earthly Jerusalem the Apostle calls having a husband, because it brings forth according to the flesh; but the heavenly Jerusalem, mother of us all, he calls barren, because it does not bring forth according to the flesh, nor does it suffer the pangs of birth, but brings forth without suffering, spiritually.”

Understanding the prophecy thus, we have no need to point out specifically who this barren woman is from among the actually existing religious communities. The Prophet beheld the Church of God spiritual, having nothing fleshly, and yet having many children. It is neither the Jewish Church, even if one understands the better, hidden part within it,—nor a pagan assembly, barren of all good and truth; but the future Church, which did not then exist, but which was promised and hoped for. Not some actual barren mother who suddenly became rich in children, but a new mother appears and brings forth many children, altogether not according to the laws of fleshly birth. Here neither does the Jew have an advantage, nor does the Greek encounter rejection; but whoever he may be, he is born anew independently and becomes a child of the new Jerusalem.

Both heaven and earth rejoice in this. This is why the Prophet beholds it under the image of solemn rejoicing. “Rejoice, break forth”—burst forth in joyful exclamations—“cry out” from the abundance of joy. He takes as comparison the condition of a woman just having given birth or a mother having borne many children, all so fine that she cannot cease to rejoice, looking upon them. Such are all true Christians. And they are a joy to one another, and to the Angels sent to minister for those who will inherit salvation, who also rejoice at the conversion of sinners, and to God worshipped in Trinity, Who reposes in them with His good pleasure, saying as it were to them: here is My rest, here I will dwell.

There is no need to dwell upon the occasion on which the prophecy was spoken; for this would in no way help the understanding of it in the present place. But we cannot fail to attend to the interpretation of the holy Fathers, who all understand the barren woman as the Gentile church, and the one who has a husband as the Jewish Church, the former of which through the action of the grace of the Gospel became richer in children than the latter. St. Chrysostom says: “who are these ‘barren’? Who are these desolate? Is it not evident that this is the church of the Gentiles, deprived beforehand of knowledge of God? And who has a husband? Evidently the synagogue of the Jews. But the barren surpassed it in abundance of children. The synagogue embraced only one people; but the children of the Church filled Greece and barbarous lands, land, sea and the whole universe. Do you see how Sarah in deed, and the Prophet in word, pre-wrote our future? But observe—Isaiah said that the barren woman before became rich in children afterward. This happened in type with Sarah; for she also, having been barren before, afterward became the mother of numerous posterity.” Blessed Theodoret adds: “just as Sarah bore in old age beyond all human expectation, so also the Gentiles at the very end of their life were deemed worthy of knowledge of God, and the barren woman by many born surpassed the one who had been rich in children before.” Here is another word of Ecumenius: “he calls the synagogue of the Jews the one having a husband, either because it had the Law, or because in ancient times it enjoyed the favor of God.” Thus all the other ancient interpreters except, as we have seen, Ambrosiaster.

The Church, which the Prophet causes to rejoice, did not consist of Gentiles alone; therefore, strictly judging, one cannot assume that the prophecy refers to them. But by accommodation such an interpretation is not out of place. First, because of the ease of understanding; but more because of the vividness of the matter. The Church of Christ truly was constituted mainly of Gentiles, so that the Jews disappeared among them, both because of their small number and because, casting off Jewish particulars, they merged with others almost without a trace. The holy Fathers, beholding the Church pointed out by the Prophet, beheld it in this form pure of everything Jewish, as though none of her children had ever been Jews beforehand. Therefore they pointed to the mother prophesied of outside Jewry. But that in the prophecy the holy Paul wished to point precisely to the spiritual birth of the children of the Church, this is justified both by the preceding discourse or its course and by the subsequent words:

Gal. 4:28. But we, brethren, are children of promise like Isaac.

Having said that we are children of the new Jerusalem, he then brought forth the prophecy, causing our mother to rejoice as she brings forth us; now he says we are children according to Isaac, that is, we are born as he was born; as he was born not according to flesh but according to promise, by the action of God’s power, so also we are born by the gracious action of the Holy Spirit. Is it not evident that the prophecy set in the midst of these indications points to nothing else but spiritual birth?

“St. Chrysostom sees in these words precisely the image of the spiritual birth of Christians. He says: “not even this is sufficient for the holy Paul” (the prophetic indication); he shows further how the barren woman became a mother, so that from this also he might show how close the image is to the contemplated truth. Therefore he adds: ‘But we, brethren, are children of promise like Isaac.’ For just as Sarah became a mother not according to nature but according to the promise of God; for He Who said: ‘At this time I will return to you, and Sarah will have a son’ (Gen. 18:10, 14), He Himself having come, formed an infant in Sarah’s womb: so also in our regeneration nothing belongs to nature; but the divine words, pronounced by the priest, these very words in the bath of water, as it were in the womb of the mother, build up anew and regenerate the one being baptized.”

Regarding how these words cohere with the preceding, it is from this verse that the holy Apostle begins the application of the indicated (verses 22–23) event and the proposed (verses 24–27) explanation of its mysterious significance—an application in which, as noted above, the excellence or glory of faith before bondage under the Law is shown, for drawing and inclining the will toward it. The first mark of this glory is the spiritual, supernatural birth of the children of faith. Therefore the turn of speech: “But we”—may be understood both as a consequence: so, behold who we are!—and as a subsumption under the preceding interpretation. He explained that Hagar, bringing forth according to flesh, is an image of the Sinai covenant, of slavish bondage under the Law, now operating in Jerusalem; and Sarah, bringing forth according to promise, is an image of the new, Evangelical covenant and of complete spiritual freedom, now operating in the new Jerusalem—the Church of Christ. Now he decides, as it were, the question: to which then should we belong, tend, cleave? To that to which we belong by birth. By our birth in the Church, which each of you has received in deed and knows by experience, having been deemed worthy of the grace of the Spirit, we in no way can belong to the fleshly, slavish, Hagar kind and, consequently, be enslaved in bondage under the Law, as is done in Jerusalem, from whence came the false teachers who have confused you. We are children according to Isaac, Sarah’s offspring, brought forth by power from on high, as was Isaac. Consequently, there is nothing for us to direct our eyes in that direction, being in such a glorious position and at risk of losing it if we turn that way.

Gal. 4:29. But just as the one born according to flesh then persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so also now.

The second mark of the glory of faith and the faithful is the right to a certain inheritance, about which in the following verse. This verse also, clarifying the parallel of the faithful with the childhood of Sarah, serves as a transition to that. The Apostle says as it were: Hagar with Ishmael depicts those under the Law; and Sarah with Isaac—the believers. By what has been said before this you ought to be convinced of this. But you can also see this tangibly now. Then Ishmael the fleshly wronged Isaac the spiritual. And now the same: the false teachers, those under the Law foreshadowed by Ishmael, who serve the elements, persecute us, foreshadowed by Isaac, who serve God spiritually, persecute us for the reason that we, spiritually born of God, serve God spiritually, and not according to the elements. You ought therefore to have no doubt whatsoever that we, the believers, are indeed according to Isaac children of promise. And if such we are, then to us, and not to those under the Law, belongs the right to the inheritance, as it belonged to Isaac and not to Ishmael.

Gal. 4:30. But what does Scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.

Do not regard their persecution. Isaac was wronged by Ishmael; but what came of it? The inheritance all the same fell in full to Isaac alone. So also those under the Law persecute us and oppress us, but this means nothing. The inheritance prepared by the Father in Heaven belongs to those whom He brings forth spiritually, according to Isaac, to us, if we remain faithful to the principles of the new, grace-filled life placed in us. Those under the Law are excluded from it; they, the sons of the slave synagogue, will not inherit with us, the sons of the free, grace-filled Church.

The expulsion of Hagar with Ishmael was demanded by Sarah, with the addition also of the words which the holy Paul cites here. But when this word seemed harsh to Abraham, then God confirmed the demand of Sarah, and consequently also her word about the inheritance (Gen. 21:10–12). This word became the word of God. Therefore the Apostle says: what does Scripture say?

St. Chrysostom places these two verses (29th and 30th) in such relation to one another and to the general course of discourse: “So if we are children of the barren woman, then we are also free. But what kind of freedom is this, someone may say, when the Jews everywhere rule and beat believers with scourges, and those considering themselves free are everywhere persecuted? Indeed it was so at that time, when the faithful were persecuted everywhere. But neither should this disturb you, says the Apostle. For this too was prefigured in that same image. Isaac, being free, was persecuted by the slave Ishmael. Therefore he says further: ‘but just as then’—and so on. What then? Is the comfort only that the free will understand they will (in prefigurement) endure persecution from slaves? No, answers the Apostle. I do not dwell on this; but listen further, and then you will obtain sufficient comfort and will not lose heart in persecutions. What then is further? ‘Cast out’ the son of the slave woman: ‘for the son of the slave shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.’ Do you see the recompense for brief tyranny and for senseless presumption? The boy is deprived of his father’s inheritance, cast out from the paternal home and wanders together with his mother. But mark the wisdom of what is said: he did not say he was cast out only because he persecuted, but so that he would not be an heir. He suffered punishment not for temporal persecution, for this is unimportant and in no way touches the matter,—but because God did not permit him to be a participant in what was prepared for the son, showing thereby that this was ordained for him, even had he not persecuted Isaac,—and it depended not on his persecution, but on God’s determination.”

Gal. 4:31. Therefore, brethren, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.

This is both the conclusion of the preceding discourse and the indication of a special mark of the glory of faith, consisting in freedom from every tie of the external ceremonies of the Law—such a mark which runs through the preceding two as well. The believers are free from all this because, having received from the Spirit a new spiritual birth, they also serve God spiritually. They are heirs of the promised blessedness from God, because they are sons; but insofar as they are sons, they are also free: they work in God’s house not by compulsion, as slaves under the whip and rod, but of themselves, caring for the house as owners in a house—all doing it to the glory of God. This is the most attractive mark of the advantage of faith and the faithful; neither time, nor place, nor any other external thing binds them; always and in everything they have God and His glory.

The turn of speech is such: so we are not sons of the slave woman, to be under the yoke of bondage under the Law, but sons of the free woman, to act freely in God’s house. So this is ordained and prefigured from the beginning, as you see from the type presented. What sense is there for you, possessing such dignity, to voluntarily crawl under a useless yoke?! “Is it not foolish, after so many centuries earlier to be chosen and now already to have received freedom, to voluntarily subject yourselves under the yoke of slavery?” (St. Chrysostom).

“Therefore what do you command?” (blessed Theodoret).

Gal. 5:1. Stand firm, therefore, in the freedom by which Christ has set us free, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

The thought of the preceding verse continues with the application of new representations that compel one to value freedom. Freedom is so dear to all; it suffices to point out that one or another thing takes away freedom, to turn from it; but here is presented, moreover, that it is also a high gift from God, which it would be even impious not to value, and not merely unprofitable, offensive, and debasing for oneself.

Freedom from bondage under the Law is the gift of Christ the Lord. For all bondage under the Law, as its ultimate end, was directed toward Christ the Savior. When the Lord Jesus Christ came, the course of life under the Law was to come to an end. Believers in Christ Jesus the Lord do not look back, behind Christ, but, concentrating their gaze on Him in faith and all the desires of their heart in love and obedience to His will, live by Him alone, by the new life proceeding from Him. In this, says the Apostle to the Galatians, stand firm, and do not go behind Christ, turning around Him and making a detour, to voluntarily lay upon yourselves the now purposeless yoke of slavery to the Law, which has lost its force.

“Again under the yoke of slavery be held.’ – Again” – either refers to the Jews who were among the Galatian churches and, having received faith in Christ, abandoned the Law, but now, by the promptings of false teachers, have turned back to the Law; or expresses this thought: the Law has lost its power and legalism has no significance, yet you raise both these up again, you bring Law and legalism forth into the midst. In this sense: “again” – embraces all persons who made up the Galatian churches.

Holy Chrysostom speaks on this text: “By freedom then, by which Christ has set you free, stand firm. Have you yourselves obtained your freedom, that you now strive again under your former despotism? Christ has redeemed you, another has paid the ransom for you. Do you see how many means the Apostle employs to turn the Galatians away from Jewish delusion? First, he shows here that it is utterly senseless for those who have become free from slavery to desire to become slaves again from freedom; second, he makes them understand that, despising their Liberator while loving their enslaver, they will prove to be cruel and ungrateful against their Benefactor; third, he impresses upon them that it is already impossible to go again under the despotism of the Law, for the Law has lost its dominion once another redeemed us from it once for all. In short: ‘stand firm’ – he exposes their instability and shaking. In the word: ‘yoke’ – he depicts the weight of the Law, and saying again, he exposes their great folly. If you yourselves had not experienced, he says, this weight, you would not yet deserve such reproaches; but when you know by experience the full weight of this yoke and again submit to it, how can you deserve any excuse?”

Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

After the persuasiveness of faith, which awakens and draws desire, holy Paul points to its necessity – an inescapable one, which compels one to decide on the proposed action whether you wish it or not. What is absurd to the mind, this inevitability is to the will. Awareness of it fills one with the feeling of being trapped, forcing one to act at once and to the deed, whatever sacrifice it may cost. When a house is engulfed in flames and a person trapped in it has only one window for escape, he does not deliberate but hurls himself through it. So powerfully and decisively does the evidence act upon the tension of the will – that either ruin or act according to the proposed instruction. To clarify this, the Apostle now turns. He speaks as though to the Galatians: one of two things lies before you – either Christ the Lord with salvation, or the Law with perdition. You have turned to the Lord Jesus Christ in the conviction that there is no salvation save in Him. In Him it is granted you fully and completely. When, however, you turn to the Law as a means of salvation, you then have a different savior, and thereby remove yourselves from what you once confessed. Since He alone is the one true Savior, removing yourselves from Him, you lose the salvation that comes from Him, and your new savior, the Law, does not grant it. Thus you, turning to the Law, deprive yourselves of the salvation you sought and which was in your hands and remains so still, and fall into the universal ruin of all, everywhere outside of Christ and grace.

Gal. 5:2. Behold, I, Paul, say to you, that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.

“Behold, I, Paul, say to you”. He wishes to speak a decisive and at the same time authoritative word, to pronounce a final judgment. At the beginning of the Epistle holy Paul already said that he was appointed an Apostle by God the Father Himself and the Lord Jesus Christ – to proclaim to the peoples the truth of God. These words point to this and were meant to dispose the Galatians to receive the following decision not as Paul’s but as the Lord’s Himself. For the Lord Himself determined: “the one who listens to you listens to me” (Lk. 10:16). And Paul himself was aware that in him not only lives but also speaks Christ (2 Cor. 13:3). Therefore this turn of speech will correspond to the prophetic: “thus” – or “thus says the Lord” (blessed Jerome, in brief).

What decision then does he issue? If you become circumcised, then Christ will be of no benefit to you, that is, the fact that you call yourselves believers in Christ, Christians, will be of no use to you. He softens the judgment. He says only: you will not receive what you hope to receive; but in essence this is the same as saying you are lost. For from Christ comes salvation. If Christ will profit those who are circumcised not; then he will not give them salvation. Consequently, they will remain in that same perdition in which all those remain who are outside Christ the Savior.

The false teachers certainly persuaded the Galatians, as they had previously persuaded the Antiochians: you will not be saved unless you are circumcised (Acts 15:1). Directly against this the Apostle sets his Apostolic determination: I, as an Apostle, in the name of the Lord who gave me power and strength to proclaim His truth, say that if you are circumcised, then you are lost. He singles out circumcision alone for the reason that it is the beginning; after it all the rest will necessarily follow, as the following, third verse explains, placed there expressly for this purpose. And for this reason he mentioned circumcision first, to warn against it. The Galatians have already accepted something of Judaism, but they have not yet been circumcised. Let them permit circumcision to themselves, and then inevitably they will become entangled in all the rest, will become full Jews. Seeing that such a calamity lies ahead, yet they have not yet plunged into it, the Apostle cries out to them as quickly as possible: do not be circumcised, do not be circumcised; otherwise you will perish.

If you are circumcised, Christ will not profit you in any way. Those who cling to Christ as to the one Savior are saved without doubt. And you did well to resort to Him; but if you are circumcised, you will have no benefit from Christ whatsoever. Circumcision will destroy the good received in Christ and received by you. Everything that you hoped to receive in Christ and truly have received will disappear at once as soon as you are circumcised. There is no fellowship: either Christ and salvation, or circumcision and the ancient perdition in which you were. Those would say: believe in Christ, but most importantly – be circumcised. The Apostle says: no, circumcision has no place where Christ is; and the salvific power of Christ does not enter into those who rely on circumcision.

Circumcision formerly served as a seal of God’s election, but now has become a cause of rejection. Even among physicians there are compositions which at one time (in illness) bring health; but at another time (when one is healthy) disturb it. The same happened with circumcision: before the coming of the Lord to earth it was good, but after this condescension it became harmful. Not in itself is it such, but by the hopes connected with it. When they rely on circumcision, believing that as soon as they are circumcised they have entered the number of the saved, they do the same as those who lean on a bruised reed, which breaks at the slightest pressure upon it and wounds the hand of the one leaning on it. If circumcision is still necessary with Christ, then according to their conviction Christ is not complete and not the one Savior. This scarcity of conviction comes from scarcity of faith. But faith impoverished empties the soul of all the graces sent down into it by faith in Christ the Lord.

“Christ does not profit those who are circumcised if they place their hope of salvation in circumcision” (blessed Augustine) “The one who is circumcised (in this spirit) belittles the grace of Christ, believing to be saved by the Law. But whoever does not fully believe in Christ cannot receive salvation from Him” (Ecumenius) “Because such a one rejects grace and resorts to the Law as a benefactor; but does not at all believe in Christ, as though He did not at all bestow benefits on him. But the one who does not believe will receive nothing from Him in whom he does not believe” (blessed Theophylact).

“See,” cries out holy Chrysostom, “what danger threatens! Therefore rightly did he anathematize even the angels themselves (Gal. 1:8). In what way does ‘Christ’ profit them ‘nothing’? He did not set out to prove this, but simply said it, because the dignity of his person is more persuasive than any other proof. For this reason he said beforehand: ‘Behold, I Paul say to you’. For it is fitting to speak thus when one is confident in the goodwill of those one addresses. But we, as far as we are able, will from ourselves set forth something as an explanation of why Christ profits nothing to one who is circumcised. The one who is circumcised is circumcised as though fearing the Law; and the one who fears the Law does not believe in the power of grace; and the one who does not believe receives no benefit from grace in which he does not believe. Furthermore, whoever is circumcised makes the Law his master, and whoever considers the Law his master, though he violates most of it while observing only a small part, again subjects himself to the curse; and being subject to the curse and rejecting freedom from the curse, brought by faith, how can he be saved? And one might even say, though it is frightening, that such a one believes neither in Christ nor in the Law, and has placed himself in the middle between the two, and, wishing to gain benefit from both places, obtains nothing from anywhere.”

In this (2nd) verse the main thought of the Apostle is expressed clearly enough. The following two verses (3–4) only express more broadly what is said here. The third verse shows how wide are the consequences of circumcision; and the fourth describes more fully how one who is circumcised is deprived of the salvific power of Christ.

Gal. 5:3. But I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole Law.

When you are circumcised, then you must keep the whole Law. For circumcision is the door into legalism, is an obligation to the whole Law. This is clear in itself and was known to all. But why does holy Paul say this here, and with such intensity: “but I testify again” – that is, I, Paul, again affirm with that same Apostolic authority? Either to explain that to be circumcised is certainly not so difficult; but when you are circumcised, then you must keep the whole Law, and we nor our fathers were able to keep it; whoever does not keep all the Law is under a curse (Gal. 3:10). Thus through circumcision you will go straight under the curse and instead of benefit will receive ruin from it. Or, perhaps, to oppose this truth to the assurances of the false teachers, who perhaps were saying: you just be circumcised, and all the rest you can leave alone, as we ourselves do not keep everything (he reproaches them for this in holy Paul (Gal. 6:13). No, the holy Apostle says against this: this is not so. Whoever is circumcised, whoever he may be – not only a Jew, but also a Gentile, every man without exception must keep the whole Law. Thus it is established in the Law itself; on this it stands. If they interpret it differently to you, then it is to deceive you; they lie and hide the truth. And circumcision itself alone, for its completion, how much does it require? A special day, washings, sacrifices, a special manner of performance, and a priest to perform it. This warning needed to be made by holy Paul out of fear that the smallness of the deed might lead the Galatians astray. They might have thought: it is not a great thing – we will be circumcised. To be circumcised, the Apostle speaks as though to them, is truly not a great deed in itself, but see where it will lead. To complete Judaism, and Judaism has been definitively ended by the coming of Christ.

Holy Chrysostom speaks on this place: “Having said that it profits ‘nothing’ – further, though not in a direct and brief way, he brings proof to that by speaking thus: ‘I testify…’ and so on. So that you may not think that this is said from hostile disposition; it is not only to you, he says, that I testify this, but ‘to every man who is circumcised that he is obligated to keep the whole Law’. For the commandments of the Law are closely bound together. And just as one who, having been free, has given himself into slavery, now does not do what he wishes but is subject to all the laws of slavery: the same must be said with respect to the Law. If you accept even one part of it and submit yourself even somewhat to its yoke; you will thereby draw upon yourself all its power. – And not in this way alone, but in another way too one can prove the truth of what is said about the Law. The commandments of the Law are bound together. For example, circumcision is connected with sacrifice and observance of days; sacrifice is also bound to observance of days and place; place with various kinds of purification, purifications are inseparable from many different rites; and it is not permitted to the unclean to offer sacrifices, or to enter into sacred places, or to do anything else like that. Thus the Law requires much for one commandment. So if you were circumcised, but not on the eighth day, or even on the eighth day but without sacrifice, or with sacrifice but not in the place that is appointed, and not according to the prescriptions of the Law, or according to the prescriptions of the Law but unclean, or clean but purified not by the prescribed rites: then all your labors are lost. Therefore he also says: ‘he is obligated to keep the whole Law’ – that is, not part of the Law but the whole Law; and if it no longer has dominion, then neither does any part of it need to be kept.”

Gal. 5:4. You have been severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the Law; you have fallen away from grace.

Here is explained how “Christ profits nothing” to those who hold to the Law – with emphasis. He profits nothing because He departs from you and leaves you idle, empty. The condition of fellowship with Christ the Savior with souls is faith, expressing itself in such dispositions: I am perishing by my own guilt and there is for me no other hope of salvation save You alone, O God incarnate and crucified for our sake; to You therefore I flee and cling with all my thoughts and feelings and dispositions: save me too, O only Savior of all. The one who thus flees to the Lord is received by Him and in baptism receives the grace of regeneration and power for new life in Christ. Continued clinging to the Lord and the placing of hope in Him alone sustains and preserves such a life, and the Christian proceeds in this way as appointed until he passes from death into life and is crowned with the crown of righteousness. In this order nothing can be added or taken away without destroying everything. But the chief thing here is the hope of salvation solely in Christ Jesus the Lord. This is the heart of Christianity. Whoever strikes at it ends the life in Christ. Christ the Lord is present only in the one who is such. In whom the hope in the Lord alone grows weak, in him the bond with the Lord is weakened. Whoever leans with hope on something else besides Him, from Him He departs as unnecessary, not required by the needs and sighs of a contrite heart. Here is the calamity that befell the Galatians. They have not yet been circumcised and have not yet bound themselves to the Law, but their will was already inclined to it (blessed Augustine) and the hope of salvation in the Lord alone was shaken. For this the Lord departed from them. “You have been severed”, he says, “from Christ”, emptied by Him, become void, He is no longer in you. God’s judgment does not tarry. Deeds have not yet followed, only internally in their thoughts have they settled to Judaize; but God’s judgment has already been rendered on them, and punishment by deed is produced: Christ has departed from them. Or here the Apostle expresses only the general principle, that those who seek justification in the Law are severed from Christ, threatening that the same will happen to them if they lean their hopes on the Law.

“You have fallen away from grace”. This can be considered both as a consequence and as a cause of the preceding. Christ departed from you, who before fulfilled and sustained you; and you remain without Him; fell from Him and from all the grace granted in Him. Or thus: since you have fallen away by hope from grace and began to hope to receive salvation apart from it, Christ has therefore departed from you: for in Him is all grace.

Grace is either God’s favor, by which all that is needful for a believer’s salvation is poured out, or the very power itself for salvation, sent down into the heart and working there the structure of salvation and sustaining it. Both are inseparable in reality; both – in the one Lord Jesus Christ. Both loses whoever has been severed from Christ. By the fact that they have hoped in the Law, the Galatians have internally fallen away from grace, from that law of salvation by which it is given only to those who hope in God’s favor in Christ Jesus; in consequence of this the very favor itself was withdrawn from them, and with it the powers for salvation – and they remained with nothing. “By this the Apostle shows the extreme danger of their position. If the one who resorts to the Law does not find salvation in it, and meanwhile falls away from grace, what remains for him but inevitable punishment, when the Law has no power and grace does not receive him?” (holy Chrysostom).

Gal. 5:5. For by the Spirit we wait for the hope of righteousness through faith.

Having shown the Galatians the danger of their position, the Apostle now points out how to escape from it. It was not enough to say: see, fire all around; or your ship is breaking up; it was necessary to show also the window to throw yourself from the fire, or the lifeboat and harbor where to be saved from drowning. This is what the Apostle does with the aforesaid words. Into such a relation to the preceding verses does holy Chrysostom set this verse: “Having thus strengthened (that is, by the words: ‘you have been severed from Christ, you have fallen away from grace’) fear in them, shaking their thoughts and pointing to the threatening shipwreck, he then opens to them the nearby harbor of grace, as he always does, promising here the surest and most reliable salvation: ‘for we’, he says, ‘by the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness through faith’. That is, we have no need of any provisions and rites of the Law; for faith is sufficient to give us the Spirit, and through Him justification and many other great goods.”

But one can also see in these words the reason for the severity of the judgment pronounced. So it has happened or will happen to you (that is, that you are deprived or will be deprived of grace and Christ), because by your inclination toward the Law you cease to be what you ought to be. For “we”, true Christians, Christians by the ideal of Christianity, this is what we are, this is what we rely on with our hopes. And you entered into the fellowship of Christians; and you ought to be the same. As long as you are such, you remain partakers of all the goods of true Christianity; you cease to be such, you are deprived of everything.

What are we or should we be by the ideal of Christianity? We lean our hope on nothing, base our salvation on nothing save faith in the Lord the Savior, who was incarnate and suffered for our sake, who because of faith through holy mysteries sends down His grace of the Holy Spirit to us, making us righteous, holy, pleasing to God, and worthy of eternal blessedness.

“The words: ‘we wait for the hope’ – do not point to the future but to the present sought and mean: we are firmly assured that we will receive. This firm assurance lies at the foundation of life in Christ, just as in the trader there is assurance in the success of his operations at the foundation of his commercial activity. And truly the one who thus hopes is one who has found the treasure hidden in a field, or a pearl of great price. – In what is he firmly assured? In that he will be saved. For the hope of righteousness is the hope of righteousness, of pleasing God, of holiness and salvation. What productive forces of this good in us and for us are there? Faith and the grace of the Spirit, as the words indicate: ‘by the Spirit through faith’ we await salvation. Faith is from us, the Spirit of grace is from God; the heavenly and the earthly, the natural and the supernatural, combined together in a way beyond our comprehension, make us righteous before God, pleasing to Him, saved. Theophylact says: “It is necessary that faith precede; then by the descent of the Holy Spirit in baptism there is obtained the cleansing of sins and new life.” “It is well said,” adds Ecumenius, ‘through faith’. For we must contribute our faith and thus through the mediation of the Spirit obtain justification and salvation.”

The Western ancient interpreters see, moreover, in the word: “Spirit” – the opposition of the Spirit to the letter and of spiritual service to elemental, fleshly service. Blessed Jerome writes: “the word: ‘Spirit’ – is placed here in opposition to the letter.” Blessed Augustine: “on spiritual service our hopes rest, not on fleshly service.” Ambrosiaster: “in faith we spiritually serve God with the reverence of the mind and the purity of the heart. Therefore the Lord said to the Samaritan woman: ‘God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth’ (Jn. 4:24).” Such a thought is not contrary to the course of the Apostle’s speech. Previously he spoke that the Galatians are turning toward the Law, which commanded elemental, fleshly service; and for this they are deprived of grace and Christ. Now he says: and rightly so; for we, true Christians, serving God spiritually, with inner dispositions and movements of the heart and resolutions of will, firmly hope to be saved. But this understanding can easily be united with the previous one, because spiritual service to God is impossible otherwise than under the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Gal. 5:6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any force, but faith working through love.

A continuation of the preceding thought and a more precise definition of the essence of Christianity. As though holy Paul hears the inquiry of the Galatians seeking understanding: in what then consists this spiritual service to God, opposed to elemental service under the Law, or in what consists that inner disposition which by faith through the grace of the Holy Spirit is built up in the spirit of a Christian. And he answers: in faith working through love. Have this, and you are saved. Do not be concerned with anything else: do not think that you are closer to Christ the Lord by being circumcised (beforehand, that is, before faith); and do not be troubled, as though something is lacking to you because you were uncircumcised. Both one and the other before the face of the Lord have no significance, no value, and He gives neither one nor the other any weight. He does not draw near with more favor to the circumcised because he is circumcised, and He does not turn away His face from the uncircumcised because he is uncircumcised. With Him everything is decided by faith joined with love. You have come to the Lord, have been enlightened by holy baptism, have received the pledge of the Spirit that builds you: preserve now your faith and live in love – that is all that is required of you. By this path you will attain the end of life and pass over to the Lord, so that dwelling in His abodes, you may be eternally blessed with Him. Why should you bind yourselves with these statutes of legalistic life? All away with them. Serve God in the Spirit and please Him spiritually, entangled in nothing external. In the Christian, built up by the Spirit of God, everything proceeds from a heart full of faith, breathing love. This inner necessity expresses itself outwardly; but this external thing in itself is nothing before God. Its value comes from the spirit with which it is done; so that if you take all life together, if you have only the inner, though it is impossible to act correspondingly externally, you have everything; if you have only the external, by custom or imitation, without the inner, you have nothing. All your external deeds, however beautiful they may appear, profit nothing in Christ Jesus.

So here is who is Christ’s chosen one, here is who is God’s beloved in Christ Jesus: the one who is full of faith and breathes love. But circumcision and uncircumcision are nothing here. Holy Chrysostom says: “See how he has rejected circumcision by placing it on the same level as uncircumcision. For only faith makes the distinction. If someone is gathering wrestlers, whether they are black or white, this makes no difference in the selection; but one must seek in them that they be strong and skilled in their craft. So also to one wishing to enter into the New Covenant, the fact that he has not observed all those bodily rites does not harm him in the least; and it will bring no benefit either if he has observed them. Here everything is decided by faith with love.”

“Faith working through love” – ενεργουμενη. This word can mean: “working and being worked upon”. The first meaning gives the thought that faith leads to love, awakens and vivifies it; the second – that faith is awakened and enlivened by love. Both show that faith and love in the life of a Christian are inseparable. Love in faith, faith in love find vivifying principles. Hearing the Gospel, they believe in the Lord; having believed, they love Him and all for His sake; having loved, they believe even more and are established in faith; faith strengthened in its turn elevates love. Thus the life of a Christian ripens. From the moment of their separation the true life will begin to fade; and with complete separation the life grows quiet altogether. The Christian remains only in name Christian and by certain external works; in reality he has become a Jew, expecting to be justified by external belonging to the Church of God.

“Ecumenius writes: “It is not enough merely to believe in Christ, but it is necessary that this faith be worked upon, kept, and as it were warmed by love toward Christ. Those who believe in Christ but are not filled with love for Him, these pass over to the Law” (one may also understand: become numbered among those under the Law).”

Whom is love here understood to refer to? Since it is not added – to whom, one must understand both love toward the Lord and toward fellow Christians. By the grace of the Spirit, joined with the Lord by faith, the Christian draws from Him the fullness of love, which, by its very nature requiring outpouring, all pours forth upon the members of the one body in Christ, the brotherhood of Christians, with self-forgetfulness or self-denial. Everything here builds itself and joins together. Not external precepts force it, but the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is such.

Holy Chrysostom speaks only of love toward Christ: “What does ‘working through love’ mean? By these words the Apostle strongly wounds them, showing that this deviation of theirs from the truth came about because they did not yet establish themselves in love toward Christ. For here not only faith is required, but also abiding in love. As though he said: if you loved Christ as you ought, you would not have turned to slavery, you would not have abandoned the Redeemer, you would not have insulted the Liberator.” Blessed Theophylact also points to love of neighbor: “Or the Apostle also impresses upon them love of neighbor, saying as though: know that faith is worked by love, that is, shows itself alive through love. But faith that does not have love is without power. This is the same as the words: ‘faith without works is dead’ (Jas. 2:26).” And blessed Jerome understands by love the whole sum of virtues: “Those wishing to live in Christ must seek all virtues and flee all vices. The Apostle Paul in another place says: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying: You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (see Rom. 13:9). So if all commandments are contained in one: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ – then, inserting this concept into the words: ‘faith working through love’ – we clearly see that this working of faith by love embraces the fullness of all commandments. Conversely, just as by the Apostle James faith without works is dead, so good deeds without faith must be considered dead. Those not believing in Christ but good in their conduct – what do they have besides the works of virtue (that is, consequently, they are nothing before the Lord, being unbelievers)? An example of faith working through love is presented by the sinful woman of the Gospel, concerning whom, when she washed the feet of the Lord with tears in the house of the Pharisee and, wiping them with her hair, anointed them with ointment, the Lord said: ‘Her many sins have been forgiven her, because she loved much.’ But to her herself He said: ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace’ (see Lk. 7:47, 50). It is evident that by this it is shown that the woman had faith working through love: which alone has value in Christ Jesus.”

You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

The inevitability of a certain kind of action compels one to decide on it, however difficult it may be. But if it is shown that it is very easy and manageable for us, then the determination to do it becomes all the more prompt and lively. This manageability of the deed, in moral necessities, must necessarily be clarified, because moral necessity, though it may be understood, does not act so decisively and irresistibly as physical necessity. With it there still remains room for deliberation. Holy Paul now turns to this method. He speaks here as though: see how necessary it is for you to reject the Law and not touch it anymore: decide then. Decide all the more readily because in this there is not nearly any sacrifice ahead for you. You began life in Christ without connection to the Law; consequently, you know this life free from the Law. What does it cost you to return to it, restoring your former convictions? (verses 7–8). You have not yet managed to become entangled much. You have only accepted something. But this something is as dangerous to leave – for it spoils everything – as it is easy to cast off, by the very fact that there is little of it and it is insignificant (verse 9). Besides, I indeed know you, I know the liveliness of your moral and religious feelings and your readiness for all that is true and good. It is only necessary to point out to you the straight path, and you are already ready for it. Therefore I am confident that you will cast off false thoughts and strictly hold to the truths I have set forth (verse 10). They are leading you astray, assuring you that I preach circumcision. I do not preach it; for otherwise why am I persecuted? Oh, if only these troublemakers were cut off from you! (verses 11–12). In this is the final means to their peace and security for the future time.

Gal. 5:7. You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?

The proper course of life in Christ Jesus has been indicated above. In this way, he says, you proceeded, and not only proceeded, but ran—you walked swiftly—which signifies zeal and earnestness toward the divinely prescribed order of life, and at the same time showed real and visible progress in it. “You worshipped the Father in spirit and in truth, and having received from the fullness of Christ, you knew that the Law was given only to the people through Moses, but was not fulfilled. Grace and truth were not merely given, but were perfected by Jesus Christ. So when you were running so well, serving the truth rather than the shadows of truth, how is it that, corrupted by such perverted teachers, you have begun to follow the shadow of the Law and have abandoned the truth of the Gospel?” (Blessed Jerome).

“Who hindered you?” He expresses wonder, as he marveled at the beginning that they are turning away so quickly (Gal. 1:6–7). “Hindered”, ενεκοψε, means cut off your path, or undermined you as you were running. “Not to obey the truth”, τη αληθεια μη πειθεσθαι, means not to believe the truth any longer, not to hold to your former convictions in it, not to stand in it with firm and unshakeable steadfastness. “These are the words not of one questioning, but of one in bewilderment and sorrow. How has such a course been abandoned? Who had such power? You, who were above all and stood in the place of teachers, have not even remained in the place of learners. How did this happen? Who was so powerful? This is the voice of one more bewildered and grieving, which he expressed earlier in similar words: ‘who bewitched you?’ (Gal. 3:1).” (Saint Chrysostom).

The word “who hindered you” may convey not only this one thought of the Apostle’s wonder. Ambrosiaster sees in it an exhortation, that they should repent and believe no longer in any of those who will seek to draw them toward works of the Law, contrary to the truth of the Gospel. Indeed, the Apostle knew who hindered; the Galatians surely knew as well. Why then the question? To instill the thought of the worthlessness of these hinderers. What important persons are they? Was it worth listening to them and on account of them changing the convictions you had received and put into practice? But if it was not worth it, then understanding the matter by my explanation, you ought to turn away from them and restore your former convictions: which surely will present no difficulty for you.

It seems that the more direct sense of this question is the same as in the common expression among us: but who is guilty? Who is guilty that you stopped—that you changed or confused your former convictions and went against the truth? No one is guilty. You yourselves became convinced of the truth, you yourselves departed from those convictions. It is for you yourselves now to return to them. For conviction cannot be forced upon anyone by compulsion. Those who seek to persuade propose, explain, and incline, but the conviction itself and the inclination do not come from them. It is a work of freedom. Was your former conviction not from him who called you (Gal. 5:8)? No, he called; you became convinced and agreed to follow the truth. And then you became unconvinced and went elsewhere. If everything in this matter depends on you, then what can hold you back in falsehood? Cast it off and return to the truth. Restore your former convictions, and begin again to run the same course, already proven. You ran well: what prevents you from entering again into that same good running?

Gal. 5:8. The persuasion is not from him who called you.

Persuasion, πεισμονη, means conviction, corresponding directly to the preceding μη πειθεσθαι, not to hold to one’s conviction, not to continue to maintain conviction; the thought is: the persuasion is not from him who called you, not from God, who called you into his grace. Blessed Jerome writes: “(in conversion) one thing is the work of God, and another the work of men themselves. God’s work is to call; the work of men is to believe or not to believe. Whether we incline in a good or bad direction, the cause is neither God nor the devil. Our persuasion always comes not from the one who calls, but from us, who by ourselves agree or disagree with the one calling us.”

Since persuasion is placed here in relation to God who calls, we must understand by it persuasion concerning the truth of the Gospel; and not the false persuasion that came afterward regarding the significance of the Law in salvation—this the Apostle wishes to impress upon the Galatians: were you not convinced of the truth of the Gospel? It was not forced upon you by violence—God sent me to you, I preached the Gospel to you, you heard, considered, and were convinced. This was a work of your freedom. The persuasion does not come from him who called you.

What then followed from this? This: you yourselves became convinced of the truth, you yourselves wavered in this conviction; you yourselves now must return to it. There is no difficulty, no obstacle to this. Cast off the new lie, take up your former truth completely, as it is and was taught to you; it is known to you, and you have been convinced of it. The turning is easy. This thought appears in Saint Chrysostom, who says: “he who called you did not call you for this, that you might waver so—he did not give you a commandment to judaize.”

Gal. 5:9. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

To the Apostle’s reproach—you were indeed convinced, why did you change your convictions? return to the former—the Galatians could have said: but we are still convinced, and the fact that, having listened to others, we have adopted something Jewish, is it such a big thing? So little that it is not even worth mentioning. The Apostle answers this: a little leaven leavens the whole mass. You adopted little of Judaism, but it has leavened everything with Judaism, corrupted the integrity of the faith, and now it cannot bear its full saving power for you. Moreover, this little will lead to more and will draw you into Judaism in all its breadth. Evil is contagious. Saint Chrysostom says this: “lest anyone say: why do you make such a big deal and present the matter so gravely? From the Law we kept only one commandment, and you are making such a fuss?—then listen, as he frightens them not with their present action, but with the consequences that will follow from it: ‘a little leaven,’ he says, ‘leavens the whole mass.’ So this small transgression of yours, left uncorrected, can completely overcome you and draw you into Judaism, just as leaven leavens all the dough.” So also all the Eastern Fathers; so also the Western. Ambrosiaster says: “the Apostle added this so that they would not think that the faith of grace will suffer no harm if they observe some small part of the Law.” Blessed Jerome first expresses the same thought, saying “the Apostle teaches by this parable that the spiritual bread of the Church, come down from heaven, should not be corrupted by Jewish subtleties. The Lord himself commanded his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and the Evangelist, in explaining this, added that he said this to them about avoiding the teaching of the Pharisees (see Mt. 16:12). And what is this teaching of the Pharisees but insistence on the observation of the carnal law?” But he also mentions how a few people with false teaching can damage the whole local Church, when first two or three, then tens, and so on begin to become infected with their teaching. This evil works like a spark fallen on combustible material, like gangrene that has found nourishment. A clear example of this is Arius.

But this thought about the number of those seducing and seduced can only be subsidiary to the main idea, according to which Jewish teaching is understood here. But placing this thought in connection with the following words “I trust in you”, we must admit that the Apostle was hinting at the ease with which they could rid themselves of Judaism. He speaks as though: did you adopt little? That makes it all the easier for you to cast it off. So cast it off, and I trust that you will do so.

Gal. 5:10. I am confident in the Lord concerning you, that you will think nothing otherwise; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.

This kind of hope both inspires and obligates one to correction. It is the usual practice among people, whose power, when it comes from a sincere heart, everyone experiences. Saint Paul employed it at the end as an all-conquering instrument of his word. The force of the word lies in the expression of hope for them. Commentators occupy themselves chiefly with this. But what he hopes for from them has not been the object of their attention. It is enough to note that the words “nothing otherwise you will think” cannot be limited to what immediately precedes, that is, that you too judge as I do, that a little leaven leavens the whole lump, and therefore hasten to remove this leaven. But from this we must ascend to all the rest that the Apostle explained. He tells them: I trust that you will think as I do, that you will adopt my way of regarding Judaism and act accordingly.

Concerning the hope, some think that it naturally arose in the Apostle, knowing as he did the Galatians’ love of truth and that they had been led astray by deception, having accepted in simplicity of heart what was not true for what was true. After the explanations he made to them, he had no doubt that they would abandon the falsehood and return to the truth. Others believe that this hope of the Apostle proceeded from his firm trust in God, who desires all to come into the knowledge of the truth. Still others ascend higher: that the Apostle spoke thus in a prophetic spirit. The Spirit of God granted him to see the sobering of the Galatians, and he expresses this in his hope for them.

So Ambrosiaster writes: “the Apostle hopes this of them because they did not themselves deliberately choose the path of delusion, but were deceived. Therefore, having shown them the true path, he expects that they will easily return to it.” Saint Chrysostom says: “he did not say: you understand, but ‘you will think’, that is, if you correct yourselves. How do you know this? But again he did not say: I know, but: I trust God, he says, and with firm confidence I call upon him to aid your correction. With boldness and not simply did he say ‘I am confident in you’; but he added ‘in the Lord’ (he everywhere loves to temper reproaches with praise); as if he said: I know my disciples, I know your readiness to be corrected, but nevertheless I trust in this through the Lord, who desires the destruction of no one; and through him I trust also in you, who can easily return to your former state. But at the same time he persuades you to apply your own effort, since it is impossible to receive anything from God if we bring nothing on our part.” Blessed Jerome reasons thus: “not by supposition, but in a prophetic spirit did Saint Paul pronounce that the Galatians would return to the truth which they had abandoned. Foreseeing in the spirit that they would not otherwise believe except as he teaches them in the Epistle, he says ‘I am confident.’ And the addition of the name ‘Lord’ indicates the same thing. For if he were only supposing this, he would have said: I am confident in you. But having added ‘in the Lord,’ he showed that he prophesied of that which, being led by the Spirit of God, he knew would come to pass.”

How does the second half of this text relate to the first? “He who troubles you shall bear his judgment”. By the usual course of our speech, we might expect a threat against the Galatians themselves, something like: I am confident that you will correct yourselves, but if you do not, expect no mercy. Saint Paul turns this threat not on the deceived Galatians, but on the seducers: for these knew the truth, while those in simplicity of heart took their false interpretation for the truth, suspecting no deceit. They are guilty only in that they did not turn to Saint Paul, their teacher and spiritual father, who had been with them twice and had brought them to spiritual life in Christ. But even this could have happened through inexperience, without any diminishment of their love of the truth. Saint Paul does not turn his threat toward them. But at the same time he makes it understood that if they remain obstinate in error, together with the false teachers they will bear the same punishment. Until now they were innocent; but after such a full explanation of the truth as Saint Paul has given them, they will no longer be innocent, but will be grouped with their new teachers.

Our commentators, however, dwell primarily on the direct sense of these words, without making application to the Galatians themselves. Thus Saint Chrysostom says: “on both sides Saint Paul urges them to reform—both by hope for them and by threat, or prediction of punishment for the disturbers. But observe that he did not name any one of the evildoers by name, so as not to make them even more shameless. And the sense of his words is this: although you will not think otherwise, nevertheless this will not spare from punishment the authors of the deception; they will be condemned. For it is impossible that the piety of some should alleviate the fate of others who are wicked. He speaks thus to prevent the false teachers from making another assault on others. And he did not simply say ‘he who troubles,’ but strengthened the expression by adding ‘whoever he is.’”

This last addition gives the thought that among the false teachers there may have been persons of weight and influence. It makes known that neither wealth, nor nobility, nor any other visible distinction will spare them from deserved punishment, as he said at the beginning: whether we or an angel from heaven preach otherwise, let him be accursed.

“What did the threat consist of? He shall bear judgment—in Greek: κριμα—judgment. To bear judgment means not only to be condemned, but to bear the punishment assigned for it. ‘He shall bear judgment’ is the same as in another place: each one shall bear his own burden” (Blessed Jerome). What then is this burden, or what is the nature of the punishment? Perhaps it threatens punishment from God, as it were: God will not leave him without punishment. Such a threat was previously uttered by the Saviour himself, so that in his Kingdom, just as he who turns another away saves his own soul from death and covers a multitude of sins (Jas. 5:20), so conversely, woe to him through whom offense comes. “Whoever troubles and leads astray anyone in the Church, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung about his neck and to be drowned in the sea, than to lead astray any of those small ones, to whom the Saviour points (Lk 7:1–2).” (Blessed Jerome).

But perhaps Saint Paul was hinting at such a judgment as he, not long after, employed in Corinth, that is, ecclesiastical judgment, excommunication, anathema, as he had already pronounced at the beginning of the Epistle. It seems as if he is saying: I will come and deal with them.

Gal. 5:11. But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the offense of the cross is done away.

These words clear the path and remove the last obstacles to the operation of the convictions that Saint Paul has presented to the Galatians. The path could have been blocked by slanders against the Apostle, that he himself keeps the Law and even circumcises. Lodging in their memory, this accusation could rob of force both the threats and the hopes and all the exhortations of Paul. At least anyone, thinking: but what are you yourself binding yourself to the Law for?—might be held in doubt. Saint Paul dispels this light fog with a single question: for what am I being persecuted? That the Jews persecuted the Apostle was known to all. It was also not difficult for everyone to understand that if he were favorably disposed toward circumcision and the Law, no one would say a word against him. But if they insult him, dishonor him, persecute him everywhere, then it is a clear sign that the teaching he set forth about the cessation of the power of circumcision and the Law, and their needfulness no more for believers, is the constant and universal subject of his preaching. Having heard slanders against Saint Paul, the Galatians might have wondered: what then is the Apostle doing? But having read his question, they ought to have exclaimed: indeed it is so; what then have they told us? It is they who deceived us. What is the wisdom of the Apostle! He does not send them to investigate by following the tracks of his preaching, but by one clear fact he quiets their minds, confused by the slanders against him.

Saint Chrysostom says on this passage: “since they spoke of him, that he often himself observes Jewish rites and preaches the unnecessary nature of circumcision insincerely; see how he showed himself pure from this slander, calling them themselves as witnesses. You yourselves know, he says, that the cause of my persecution is that I taught you to abandon the Law. But if I were preaching circumcision, for what reason would they persecute me? The Judaizers, moreover, can accuse me of nothing else. And if I allowed them to believe according to the ancestral customs, then neither those who believed nor those who did not believe among them would have plotted against me, as against one who rejects nothing from their customs. But what then? Did he not preach circumcision, did he not circumcise Timothy? He did. How then does he say ‘I do not preach’? Note his carefulness here as well. He did not say: I do not perform circumcision, but I do not preach it, that is, I do not teach people to believe thus. And you, he says, should not take my action as the foundation of doctrine; for although I did circumcise (Timothy), nevertheless I did not preach circumcision.”

“Then the offense of the cross is done away.” If it were so, if I were preaching circumcision, then the cross would not present offense to the Jews. The circumcision is so precious to them that if I did not touch it, they would see no offense in the cross, but now they see it because the cross abolishes circumcision and the whole Law. Ambrosiaster writes: “the preaching of the cross was an offense to the Jews because by it the Sabbath and circumcision were done away. If it allowed circumcision, there would be no offense and the Jews would be at peace with us. And concerning the Saviour they said: ‘this man is not of God, because he does not keep the Sabbath’ (Jn. 9:16).” Saint Chrysostom sets forth the same thing at greater length. “If what you say is true, then the barrier and enmity that divide us are removed. For the Jews are not so much offended by the cross as by the teaching not to follow the ancestral customs. When they brought Stephen before the Sanhedrin, they did not say that he honors the Crucified, but that ‘he speaks against this holy place and the Law’ (Acts 6:13). And they themselves accused the Lord Jesus of breaking the Law (Jn. 5:18). Why Paul says: if we allow circumcision, then your struggle with us has ceased, there is no more enmity against the cross and its preaching. But if we are killed daily, is this not for a reason? You yourselves see that nothing provokes such enmity against us as circumcision. Would I have been so unwise as to subject myself to suffering and lead others into offense without any reason? He said: ‘the offense of the cross’ because the teaching about the cross commands us to abandon the ancestral customs, which especially offended the Jews and kept them from accepting the cross.”

Gal. 5:12. Oh, that those who trouble you would cut themselves off.

“Cut themselves off” means completely separated (Blessed Theodoret), so that there is no more fellowship between you and them, and between them and you. “Those who trouble you”, αναστατουντες, those who incite you against the truth, those who stir you up to rebel against the truth. The Apostle has proved that you must no longer bind yourselves to the Law, he has convinced you that all fellowship with it must cease, and he firmly hopes that the Galatians will do so. But the Apostle’s concern for them extends also to the future. He is anxious as long as false teachers are among them, and he expresses the wish that they be cut off. In the Greek it reads οφελον και αποκοψονται, “oh that they would also be cut off”. You are convinced, you will correct the error; but if you drive away the false teachers from among you, then I would be completely at rest concerning you. As long as they are with you, I will not cease to fear for you.

Why does the Apostle act as though so weakly? He does not cut off the seducers, but only expresses the wish that they be cut off by the Galatians themselves. Saint Paul perhaps expected their conversion to the truth, and for that reason spoke thus irresolute; in case of their stubbornness and continuation in seducing, perhaps he reserved for himself the freedom to issue a directive about it later. Or perhaps he was convinced that the Galatians themselves would do it, would drive them away from themselves, would cease communion with them, would not allow them to approach them; but by his exclamation “oh that!” he wished only to show that this was not contrary to his desire, that there was also his apostolic prayer for this. In every way one cannot fail to see here the law of the life of the body of the Church—to reject and cast out those who do not obey the truth and teach contrary to it.

Saint Chrysostom sees in these words the apostolic severity: “observe what severity the Apostle expresses here even toward their seducers. At first he rebuked those who were seduced, more than once calling them senseless. But having sufficiently instructed and made them understand, he now turns to their seducers. And you too should note the wisdom of the Apostle here. The Galatians he makes understand and persuades, as his children, as those still capable of correction; but their seducers he cuts off, as foreigners and hopelessly diseased. To the latter he points when he says ‘he shall bear his judgment, whoever he is’; and to the former when he threatens them, saying ‘oh that those who trouble you would be cut off’. And he rightly said: ‘those who trouble you’ (that is, those who incite you to abandon the order and structure of Christ’s Church, which is a new fatherland to your spirit). For they forced you, abandoning your own fatherland and freedom and heavenly kindred, to seek a strange and unknown fatherland, and having driven you from the Jerusalem above and free, they made you wander as captives and exiles. For this reason the Apostle rises against them. The sense of his words is this: I do not concern myself with them at all: ‘reject a heretic after the first and second warning’ (Tit. 3:10).”

In the time of Saint Chrysostom there were people who endeavored to justify castration by the Apostle’s word “cut themselves off.” For the Castrators were called αποκοποι; but in the Apostle stands οφελον και αποκοψονται. Saint Chrysostom does not make efforts to refute such an interpretation, because its falseness is evident in itself after the opinion he expressed before. But he uses this opportunity to rebuke the Castrators in prevention of castration, which has no sense. There appears in him the thought that even if one were to see in the Apostle an indication of castration, still it is a punishment, a condemnation, a curse; and those who dare to mutilate themselves incur the Apostle’s curse upon themselves. Then he says: “the Manichaeans alone say that the body is malicious and composed of evil matter, but these by their very deeds give occasion for the absurd interpretations of the Manichaeans, cutting off a member as though it were hostile and malicious. It would be far better to put out the eyes, because through them lust enters the soul. But neither the eyes nor any other member is guilty in this; the sole culprit is the evil will. And if you cannot restrain yourself, why do you not cut off the tongue for blasphemy, the hand for theft, the feet for their inclination toward evil, and why not, so to speak, cut off the whole body? For hearing at the sound of the flute often loosens the soul, and the nostrils in the perception of fragrance allure the heart and draw it toward pleasure. So let us cut off everything: ears, hands, nostrils. But this is the height of impiety and satanic instigation. One needs only to correct the disordered inclination of the soul. The evil demon, who always takes delight in murders, he alone could have suggested that one should destroy the organ itself, as though a great artist had made an error. How does it happen, someone might say, that from the fattening of the body lust is kindled? But in this too the sin is of the soul. The fattening of the flesh depends not on lust, but on the soul. If it wishes to reduce it, it has full power to do so. But you act as if someone, seeing one laying a fire and setting a house ablaze, were to blame the fire for the conflagration, not the arsonist, because the fire had supposedly grown so intense from the fact that it had itself seized many beams of the house. The culprit is not the fire, but the arsonist. Fire is given for the cooking of food, for lighting, and for many other needs, not for burning houses. Similarly, desire is given for childbearing and the preservation of the race, not for adultery, fornication, and lust; it is given so that you might be a father, not an adulterer; adultery depends not on natural desire, but on unnatural excess.”

It has been considered not unnecessary to quote this passage because these tares grow also among us.

Blessed Theophylact

Blessed Theophylact

Moral Part (Gal. 5:13–6:10)

Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

In approaching the interpretation of Gal. 5:13, holy Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle turns to the moral part of the epistle. However, in the epistle to the Galatians something is singular, which does not appear in any of his other epistles. All his other epistles he usually divides into two parts: in the first he expounds on dogmas, and in the second he sets forth rules for living. But in this epistle, having turned to moral teaching, he then again joins dogmatic teaching to it; for moral teaching again has need of dogmatic teaching.” The blessed Theodoret understands the turn of thought in the same way: “The Apostle now turns to moral counsels and commands that care be taken both of practical virtue.”

In the actual exposition of moral lessons it is not difficult to discern three divisions. In the first is indicated the general principle of Christian activity for the whole of life (Gal. 5:13–25); in the second is defined the proper character of those more perfect in the Christian community who are leaders, in their relation to those less perfect, with a brief indication of the relation of these latter to them (Gal. 5:26–6:6); in the third is shown the strongest incentive to spiritual life and to every good deed (Gal. 6:7–10).

1) The general principle of Christian life (Gal. 5:13–25)

From the words of the Apostle in this passage, this principle can be expressed thus: persevere in active mutual love and conduct spiritual life in struggle against passions and desires. To such a general rule the preceding discourse on freedom from the Law brought us. The Apostle speaks as if saying: in Christ Jesus you have been freed from the yoke of the Law, but not so that you might walk in the desires of your carnal heart; here a yoke is laid upon you—the yoke of love—a good yoke. You are freed from bondage to the Law because you have received the Spirit, who writes his spiritual laws in your heart: live therefore by the Spirit and do not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

Gal. 5:13. For you were called to freedom, brothers; only do not let your freedom become an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

The Law defined every step of a Jew. A Jew walked by habitual rules, as if along a narrow path. When these barriers are broken down, it is not surprising that questions might arise about how to act now. Freedom after constraint leads to licentiousness; there is a strong impulse to taste more and broader sorts of pleasures. Since sensual pleasures are nearer and more familiar, freedom is given over to them. But here a new bondage begins—a destructive one. To prevent this from happening, the Apostle warns: beware lest your freedom become an excuse for the flesh—that is, lest it serve as a pretext for indulging sensuality. “It is not for this,” says the blessed Theodoret, “that you are freed from bondage to the Law, in order that you might sin without fear.” “But through love serve one another.” There is a fitting occupation for you—to serve one another: to help one another, to assist one another in your deeds, to correct and console one another. This will be the best use of freedom and will provide you with ineffable consolation more to yourselves than to others; only take care to act in this way through love. Be filled with love toward one another. Then this love will give you no rest, compelling you unceasingly to do something for others, both according to your strength and beyond your strength. “Whoever truly loves does not refuse to serve the beloved,” says the blessed Theodoret. And not only does he not refuse, but he himself seeks ways to serve others, and grieves when he is unable to do anything for them.

Holy Chrysostom says: “Christ, says the Apostle, has freed us from the yoke of bondage and given us freedom to do what we wish; only that we use this freedom not for evil, but as a means to obtain greater reward, ascending to a more perfect wisdom, and inasmuch as the Apostle above and below calls the Law a yoke of bondage and mentions deliverance from the curse of the Law, in order that no one suppose that he persuades us to abandon the Law so that we might live lawlessly, he anticipates such a thought, saying: Christ freed us from the Law not so that we might live lawlessly, but so that we might attain a wisdom higher than the Law: because the bonds of the Law are loosed; and I say this not so that we might further abase ourselves, but so that we might further exalt ourselves. For both the fornicator and the virgin transgress the bounds of the Law, but not equally: one has fallen into what is worse, the other has risen to what is better; one transgressed the Law, while the other surpassed the Law. Thus holy Paul says: Christ removed the yoke from you not so that you, like horses, might leap and rage, but so that, freed from the burden, you might run in better order. Further the Apostle shows the easy way to attain this—what is it? ‘Through love,’ he says, ‘serve one another.’ So that, freed from the yoke of the Law, they might not become disorderly, he lays upon them another yoke—that of love, which, though greater and stronger than the first, is far easier and more pleasant.”

Gal. 5:14. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

“Having examined the Law from all sides, he says: if you wish to fulfill the Law, then do not be circumcised; for it is fulfilled not in circumcision, but in love,” says holy Chrysostom. The Apostle speaks as if saying: thus it turns out according to the spirit of the new life in Christ Jesus, that you serve one another through love; but the same thing comes out according to the very essence of the Law itself. If you are a zealot of the Law, then love your neighbor as yourself, and the whole Law is fulfilled by you. For the Law is fulfilled through love. Every precept of the Law in regard to the brethren pointed to a work of love. Whoever fulfilled it displayed love. But only in that time did he display it. But whoever has kindled love in his heart bears in his heart at all times readiness for all works of love. The particular acts of love do not exhaust the entire source from which they flow. It is both more powerful and more abundant than they. The zealous legalist displayed intermittent acts of love, having an empty heart all the time when it was not occupied with a work of love. In Christ Jesus it is not so. Here love does not run dry, but is constant. It does not come into being and manifest itself only when some occasion prescribed by the Law presents itself; but it acts constantly in the heart and does not wait for an occasion determined by the Law, but seeks it out itself and, when it acts, does not act according to the measure of the Law, but according to its own breadth, which has no measure. The difference is great, and especially in this: that then works of love came from external precepts, but now they come from the prompting and drawing of the heart, with self-initiative. Now the Christian is completely free, and yet is a fulfiller of the Law, more perfect and more complete. For the love of God is poured into his heart by the Holy Spirit, given to us. The blessed Jerome writes: “what we formerly did out of necessity of the Law, now that we are free from the Law, we should do out of love. Love is so great a good that the whole Law is contained in it.”

The blessed Augustine asks at this point: “Why does the Apostle speak of love only toward one’s neighbor, when the whole Law and the Prophets rest not on this love alone, but rather on love for God?” And he resolves this question thus: “love for God and love for one’s neighbor are inseparable. Whoever loves God with all his heart necessarily also loves his neighbor, because there is a clear commandment from Him whom he loves with all his heart. Love properly is one: it loves God and for God’s sake loves one’s neighbor. Inasmuch as in this lies all the essence of saving disposition, it was necessary to point out the most reliable sign for a sure determination of whether one has such love or not. In love for one’s neighbor everyone can quite clearly know; therefore can tangibly determine whether he has it or not. Love for God might someone falsely suppose himself to have without having it. That is why only love for one’s neighbor is set forth by the Apostle: for whoever has it has also love for God. From the negative side it is even more certain: whoever does not have love for one’s neighbor cannot at all boast of love for God.” (given not word for word). And the Savior Himself set the true sign of His disciples in their mutual love for one another. His beloved disciple and teacher of love says: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that whoever loves God loves also his brother.” (1 Jn. 4:20–21). And the purpose the Apostle has here prompted him to do this. The disagreement that crept in among the Galatians led them to strife and discord. It is evident that love was growing cold. The Apostle, by pointing out the great importance of love in the matter of pleasing God, wishes to bring them to the realization that they took a wrong direction when, because of false teachings, they allowed the bonds of love to weaken in themselves. With this purpose he speaks further.

Gal. 5:15. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another.

Although one might suppose, by placing these words in direct connection with verse 13, that holy Paul wanted to present in them an exhortation to mutual active love and from the destructive consequences that mutual hatred ordinarily brings; yet one cannot fail to see that through this concepts are introduced to which there has been neither prior occasion nor subsequent similar mention.

In order for these words to connect coherently with verse 13, one must introduce into it the following thought—serve one another through love, and through this raise your well-being. Then it will follow directly: if there is hatred among you and you do evil to one another, beware lest you destroy one another. In this way the verse will be connected not directly to verse 13, but to the supposed consequence of the way of life it prescribes. But is it right to proceed this way?

Thus it is not at all an unnecessary question: why did holy Paul speak this way, or give such a turn of speech?

Holy Chrysostom understands these words to mean that they do not express a general thought, but tacitly expose the unworthy condition of the Galatians, to enlighten them and, by indicating its source in the heresy that came among them, thereby also represent the heresy itself in an unfavorable light. Even under verse 13, to the words: “serve one another through love”—he said: “The Apostle makes it understood that the cause of their delusion was love of contention, disagreement, love of power, and pride, for the mother of heresies is the passion for power. And by the words: ‘serve one another’—he showed that the evil arose precisely from this vanity and pride. Therefore he presents a remedy corresponding to it. Since, he says, you have divided among yourselves, each wanting to rule over the other, serve one another, and you will be united again. However, he does not explicitly name their sin, but simply proposes a means of correction, so that from this they might know their sin themselves, just as if someone, without directly telling a dissolute man that he is dissolute, merely persuaded him to self-control.” This same thought Chrysostom carries through under verse 15: “he did not state his thought here directly so as not to grieve them, though he knew that this is what was happening among them; but he says the same thing, only with the appearance of some doubt. For he did not say: since you are ‘biting’ one another—nor did he say directly further: ‘you will be consumed by one another.’ Such speech is fitting for one who only warns and advises, not for one who condemns. But he used the most striking and harsh words. For he did not only say: ‘biting,’—which sometimes an irritated person does—but added: ‘devouring,’—which is characteristic of one hardened in malice. The one who bites only satisfies the passion of anger, while the one who devours reveals in himself the utmost degree of brutality. However, he does not mean physical biting and devouring, but something far worse. For one who devours the flesh of a man does not harm as much as one who bites the soul. For, inasmuch as the soul is more precious than the body, the evil caused to it is more grievous. ‘Beware lest you be consumed by one another.’ Since deceivers and malicious men come in order to destroy others, beware, he says, lest the matter come to you. Divisions and quarrels corrupt and consume both those who accept them and those who sow them, and even more than moths they eat away at everything.”

The blessed Jerome carries through a different thought. “One must,” he says, “interpret this passage so that it does not seem that holy Paul suddenly turns to unexpected instructions that stand outside all connection with the content of the epistle. He wants to tell them: having received freedom from the Law, serve one another through love. And this will be the very best fulfillment of the Law itself. And if you remain with the Law, then you will already have to receive, to take ‘an eye for an eye.’ Following this, you will bite and devour one another. Beware! See what the Law will lead you to! You will be destroyed by one another.” (not word for word)

Gal. 5:16. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

Let us pass over this introductory explanation and return to the main thought of the Apostle: freed from the Law, live in active love toward one another. Standing in this thought, we cannot but ask: in what relation to that law of love does the present rule stand—to walk by the Spirit and not to fulfill the desires of the flesh? Holy Chrysostom answers: in the relation of means to end. “Thus he shows another way, which facilitates virtue and contributes to the fulfillment of what was said above, which produces love and is sustained by love. For nothing makes us full of love as much as life according to the Spirit, and nothing persuades the Spirit to dwell in us as much as the power of love.”

“But I say”—not the thought: in prescribing to you the law of love, I speak the same thing as: “walk by the Spirit”; but this: to this, or alongside this, I say to you: walk by the Spirit. In order that you might remain in mutual love, “walk by the Spirit, and do not fulfill the desires of the flesh.” Why thus? Here is why: the desire of the flesh is the same as sin dwelling in us; it is called in another place the mind-set of the flesh. This “mind-set of the flesh does not submit to the Law of God, nor can it” (Rom. 8:7). But love is the fulfillment of the Law. It turns out that these are incompatible opposites. The desire of the flesh is a negation of the Law, and love is a negation of all lawlessness. Where love acts with power, there is no place for the desire of the flesh; and where the desire of the flesh is, do not look for love. Whoever heeds the promptings of love will not heed the temptations of the desire of the flesh. But in order not to heed the temptations of the flesh, one must receive the grace of the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. Thus it is evident that holy Paul wanted to say to the Galatians: having been freed from the Law, you are obliged to walk in love, and in order to walk in love, walk by the Spirit and do not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

What does it mean to walk by the Spirit? We have our own spirit—a godlike power breathed into man by God, whose purpose is to lead man into life in God and keep him in it. The elements of our spirit are: the consciousness of Godhead with the feeling of complete dependence on Him in all respects, the fear of God, the consciousness of obligation to please God, and confidence in blessed eternity. With all these elements the spirit impels man away from himself and from all creation toward God as the ultimate goal, turning everything else into a means to that end. When man fell, he fell away from God and stopped at himself, setting himself as the chief goal of life. The spirit lost its power over him, and in its place self-love began to hold sway in him. From self-love were developed pride, selfishness, sensual desire, and from these then—all the multitude of passions. All of them in different shades became the rulers of human life. The spirit fell silent, and if it sometimes gave voice, no one listened to it.

The Lord and Savior brought down to earth the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, which along with the preaching of the Gospel went forth over the face of the earth. The power of the Gospel’s preaching comes from grace. Together with the word, through hearing, grace enters the heart and awakens man’s spirit. The Gospel preaches: “Awake, sleeper” (Eph. 5:14). When grace acts upon the spirit, it rises. Together with it arise and come alive all its elements: fear of God, obligation to please God, and expectation of a better life. Whoever submits to these demands of the spirit, enlivened by the Spirit of God, renounces himself, tramples on self-love and all the multitude of passions, and begins to labor zealously for the Lord in defiance of all earthly considerations. From this moment there begins in him life by the spirit or by the Spirit, with the trampling of self-love and all passions. Life by the spirit or by the Spirit can therefore be described thus: whoever, being stirred and sanctified by the grace of God through the sacraments, enters into himself and, standing before the Lord in his heart, directs all his deeds, both inner and outer, toward pleasing God through steadfast walking in His will as set forth in the Word of God and received into conscience, in hope of blessed eternity in God, with the trampling of self-love and forgetfulness of earthly interests—such a one lives by the spirit and by the Spirit.

From this explanation the question is itself resolved: which spirit does the Apostle mean in this place—ours or the Holy Spirit? Both of them in combination. Our spirit does not have the power to give us spiritual life by itself. And the Spirit of God will not give it if it is not received by our spirit. But when they are united, then our spirit becomes strong from the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God through our spirit acts upon us and upon all that we are and sanctifies and perfects all things. The one who walks by the spirit—walks by the Spirit of God, but walks according to the elements of the spirit originally breathed into man.

From this same explanation it is evident what the desire of the flesh is. It is self-love together with all passions. It is called the desire of the flesh because the primary seat of self-love and passions is in the flesh. It happened that since the norm of human life, according to its original constitution, is spiritual life—in God—when man fell, he fell into the opposite of the spirit and God, into fleshly life with gratifying himself through creatures in this life, with forgetfulness of God and the life to come. When the spirit is awakened and takes strength, then self-love with passions, or this desire of the flesh, is rejected, and the law is received—never in anything to heed the promptings, demands, and impulses of this desire: “let sin” not “rule over you, so as to obey it in its desires” (Rom. 6:14, 12). The appointed lot of this old man is to be crucified, “so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing” (Rom. 6:6). That is where it will end. But until that time, the wisdom of God has allowed it to stand against the spirit within us, yet in the capacity of something foreign to us, unloved, persecuted, and rejected. Through consciousness and freedom man turns to the side of the spirit and there performs all his deeds; while self-love with passions, though within him, approaches him as if from without, draws and tempts him. The work of the Christian, being attentive to himself and standing by the spirit before the Lord, is to notice the unrighteous movements and suggestions that approach and tempt him from self-love or the desire of the flesh and to repel them in the name of the Lord. This is precisely what the Apostle expressed in the word: walk by the spirit, and do not fulfill the desires of the flesh. To make this desire completely dead—that is the work of God: our work is not to accept any of its movement or suggestion and, no matter how much it may trouble us, to do nothing to gratify it. In this is the whole life of the Christian! It is a constant struggle, as the Apostle says right after this.

Gal. 5:17. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not able to do what you want.

Is the Apostle writing natural psychology or describing the state under grace? The state under grace; for in the natural—fallen—state, the spirit, although not destroyed, has no power over self-love and passions. Sometimes the fear of God, sometimes conscience, sometimes remembrance of life to come speak something against them, but although this voice is heard because it cannot be unheard, it is left unheeded, despised, trampled on, sometimes even with hostile hardening against it. Therefore there is no true struggle. The struggle begins when our spirit is awakened and gains strength from the Spirit of God. After this the spirit stands on one side, and self-love with passions and desires on the other. The latter strives to recover its lost prey, while the former strives to keep it for itself. Thus the struggle. Self-love with passions stirs up sinful thoughts, impulses, and sympathies; and the spirit, with fear of God and zeal in pleasing God, repels them by the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit. “The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit”—can be paraphrased either thus: the flesh, that is, self-love with passions, generates desires contrary to the spirit, or thus: the flesh rises up in hostility against the spirit; similarly “the Spirit desires what is contrary to the flesh”—means either: the Spirit generates desires contrary to self-gratification, or: the Spirit stands in hostility to them. Regarding the latter meaning it is remarkable that the rule of the holy ascetics: when temptation approaches from self-love and passions, hasten to stir up aversion and anger against it, and it will flee in the twinkling of an eye.

“They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not able to do what you want.” The Apostle speaks as if saying: this is what happens within you if you stand as you should in the spirit! A struggle takes place. When self-gratification intends something contrary to God, the spirit does not allow you to fulfill its suggestion and desire; but when the spirit requires something in defiance of self-gratification, the latter binds your hands and feet so that you do not do what the spirit requires. Neither side wants to allow you to do anything in defiance of it, to please the opposite side. In this is the purpose of the struggle, the purpose of each of the warring sides. But what then? And you stand in the middle, neither one way nor the other! What is the one standing in the middle to do, drawn now this way, now that way? The Apostle does not say; for this is evident of itself; and besides, it has already been indicated above: “walk by the Spirit, and do not fulfill the desires of the flesh.” Here, having pointed out the struggle that takes place within, he does not say which way to incline; but it is obvious that he wishes that you would heed not the flesh but the spirit. He suggests as if: and you yourselves see which way you ought to incline. If you must walk by the Spirit and not fulfill the desires of the flesh, then it is evident that you must always go in defiance of self-love to gratify the demands and impulses of the spirit, stopping before no sacrifice of self-denial.

All our interpreters understand the words: “you are not able to do what you want” directly as an exhortation that believers not fulfill the desires of the flesh and strictly resist them. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle has pointed here to the struggle of evil and good thoughts. But to will and not to will—is a matter of the soul. Therefore he says: ‘They are in conflict with each other’—so that you do not allow your soul to walk in its evil desires. He said this as an instructor and teacher, stirring up fear.” The blessed Theodoret writes: “By flesh the Apostle means the inclination of the will toward the worse; by spirit—the grace dwelling there; for it guides the soul toward the better. How then is it possible to overcome the passions of the flesh? ‘You are not able to do what you want.’ Do not follow unseemly thoughts, that is, overcome them, having the aid of the grace of the Spirit.”

Gal. 5:18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

If in the internal struggle you will always take the side of the spirit and act to gratify it in defiance of the suggestions of self-love, then you will be led by the Spirit. If you are led by the Spirit, then you are not under the Law.

Again the Apostle has an unexpected coupling of concepts. This has given rise to many guesses. But it seems most straightforward to suppose that the Apostle intends to connect moral teaching to doctrinal teaching. Just as there, in proceeding to prove that the Law is unnecessary for Christians, the Apostle began with the question of receiving the Spirit and from the fact that they received Him apart from the Law drew the conclusion: why then do you need the Law? (The force of the proof lies in this: the Law was necessary to restrain passions; but the Spirit of God, having come, burns up passions: why then do you need the Law when you already have more than the Law can give?) So here, having set forth the struggle with passions and shown that they overcome them by being led by the Spirit, he concludes: you are already not under the Law. The Law restrained passions from without, but you have cast them out of your heart and pursue them, which means the Law has already fallen away from you, as the shell falls away when the chick is hatched, or the scaffolding falls when the house is built. Holy Chrysostom says: “What sequence is there between these concepts? The most strict and evident. For whoever has the Spirit extinguishes in himself, with its help, every evil desire. And whoever is freed from evil desires no longer has need of the help of the Law, having become far above its teaching. He who does not become angry—why should he hear: ‘do not kill’? He who does not look with lustful eyes has no need of the instruction—‘do not commit adultery.’ And who will speak of the deeds of evil to one who has uprooted even the very root of evil? For the root of killing is anger, of adultery—the inquisitive and lustful look. Therefore he says: ‘if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.’ If the Law before the coming of the Spirit took the place of the Spirit as much as it could, then there is no need now to remain under a tutor. Then we were rightly under the Law, that, impelled by fear, we might restrain our desires until the Spirit appeared; but now, when we have been given grace, which not only commands us to abstain from them, but itself dries them up and raises man to a more perfect life, what need is there for the Law? If someone does more by himself, what need has he for a tutor? A philosopher has no need of a teacher of grammar. So why do you so abase yourselves? You showed readiness at first to serve the Spirit, but now you again heed the Law.”

Gal. 5:19–21. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, wrath, selfish ambition, dissension, faction, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelry, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The Apostle advised that in our internal struggle we must resist self-love and self-gratification and always follow the demands and impulses of the spirit. Now he shows the realm and field of spiritual struggle—from what to abstain and what to resist.

In enumerating the deeds of self-gratification, the Apostle does not bring forth everything and in what he sets forth does not indicate subtle shadings, but only names the most prominent deeds of self-gratification and in their most crude and repulsive form. This is because fleshly pagan life manifested itself in such most prominent deeds, as everyone saw and knew; and because when aversion is stirred up to disapproved deeds, there is also formed a rejection of their thoughts and desires, and in the first one cannot succeed well without having the second.

“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident.” “Evident,” φανερα—manifest, known to all by the general moral sense and the voice of conscience. Or evident to you as Christians: and an honest citizen will not approve them, let alone a Christian reborn by grace. Or evident: this is the disgrace of rational creation before your eyes; look at how the pagans and all impenitent sinners live, in forgetfulness of God and their future lot. “The deeds of the flesh”—are the deeds of self-love, self-gratification, that principle ruling human life which attached itself to him as a result of the fall and causes him, instead of pleasing God, to please himself, instead of following the impulses of the spirit to follow the impulses of the flesh, instead of loving and tasting the eternal goods to love and taste only the temporal.

Eighteen kinds of sinful deeds the holy Apostle enumerates; but evidently they divide into two groups: deeds of the faculty of desire and deeds of the faculty of anger. I borrow such names from the writings of the Fathers who are ascetics, under whom all unsuitable movements of the soul are subsumed under these two faculties, which they sometimes call more briefly—desire and anger. They oppose to them the intellect, which is the same as what we have called the spirit; and they reduce all internal struggle to the struggle of the intellect-spirit with desire and anger, or with the movements of the faculty of desire and the faculty of anger of the soul. It is evident that their teachings are completely in accord with the indications of holy Paul. And everyone can notice in himself that he is constantly moved between these two, passing from desire to anger and from anger to desire, when he does not have in view what is better—that which the spirit indicates.

First the Apostle enumerates the unseemly deeds of the faculty of desire or desire, when it does not listen to the suggestions of the intellect or spirit. He presents the most shameful. “Sexual immorality”—fleshly sins, more in the marriage union, “and impurity”—fleshly sins outside that union; “indecency and debauchery”—fleshly sins contrary to nature. Under indecency, however, may also be understood the defilement of the soul by shameful thoughts with gratification and desire for the deed; and under debauchery—an overflow of lustfulness to shamelessness and mania, when one is not even ashamed before people. “Idolatry” relates here in that aspect in which lustfulness appeared as most active. The pagans had deities to whom service was performed through the satisfaction of this passion. “And sorcery” is mentioned here because part of it was directed to aid fleshly sins, such as compositions of herbs and roots and various incantations, with the aim of producing mutual enchantment, or, as we say, bewitchment. In the life of Cyprian and Justina one can see how this was done (see the Menology, October 2).

The works of the wrathful power, or anger, are indicated thus: “enmities”—when one person with another, or household with household, or clan with clan are in enmity—they do not see each other, do not meet, do not speak, and if they do not scheme evil, they wish it to befall the other side and are glad when it does; “strife”, ερεις,—quarrels, brawling, cursing, disputes, when they will not yield to another in anything and want to assert their will at every point; “jealousy”—not the same as envy, but rather: ζηλοι,—when one contends with all one’s strength so that another does not surpass oneself in something, in honor, in wealth, in things, in positions, in whatever, and this presupposes ill will toward the one who stands out, with a desire to trip him up: this is rivalry perverted by selfishness; “rage”, θυμοι,—hot-temperedness, irascibility, when one is like gunpowder, prone to outbursts of anger at the slightest thing, brawling and even fighting; “selfish ambition”, εριθειαι,—when one vexes others, sows discord, incites some against others, kindles all manner of disorder in society, in households and among private persons; “divisions”, διχοστασια,—a splitting in two or disintegration, when one is at peace with no one, is not a peacemaker, is a troublemaker, or when one creates factions, an unpeaceful factious spirit; “dissensions”—these are not in the Greek—scandals or making scenes, as they say: such-and-such a person made a scene for me; “heresies”,—it may be that this is not division in matters of belief, for the Apostle writes a picture from pagan life, where divisions of this sort did not occur; rather, it is division in general, of whatever kinds, but only with a hostile, inimical spirit, requiring the expulsion or death of one’s opponents; “envies”, φθονοι,—when one begrudges another’s happiness and is angered at anyone who has good fortune, with a deadly, nonetheless, enmity toward them, from which flows hatred breathing murder; “murders”, (φονοι),—it is not by mere sound similarity that it is placed after φθονοι,—but by the nature of the matter itself it happens so: φθονοςis fully satisfied in φονος. This is the height of hostile relations with another. The example is Cain.

The last two: “drunkenness and carousing”—are set forth not in the sense that the Apostle wished to complete the works of lust with them, but in the sense that in these two both lust and rage find their satisfaction. They are as it were houses in which they dwell. The drunk man is ready both to commit shameful deeds and to foment discord. Likewise at feasts both lust and anger are played out widely. Carousing, κωμοι,—feasts arranged only for the sake of amusing oneself and making merry noisily.

The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25)

“And the like” in both kinds of sinful deeds, both in the lustful and in the wrathful. One can complete this list, following the example of what has been said, by oneself.

“Which I declare beforehand”—concerning them I am speaking in advance, that is, before the judgment comes; “as I have also said before”,—as I have already said, likewise in advance, probably when I personally taught them instructions about the Christian manner of life. “That those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God”. They will definitely not inherit the Kingdom of God, which will be revealed at the second coming, unspeakably blessed and eternal. The judgment over them seems already pronounced and sealed. But when the Apostle says: “those who do such things”,—he gives to understand that this judgment over them is in force as long as they remain in this kind of deeds. If they depart from that circle, the judgment will not fall on them. This blessed change is expected of them until the last breath. Until then the promise holds—to lift this sentence from them. But when death opens the door to the other life and departure from here closes it, then all is at an end.

Blessed Augustine writes: “those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God”. Indeed, these things are done also by those who, yielding to the desires of the flesh, lust after their works, even though they do not have the power to carry them out. But those who, feeling the onslaught of fleshly movements, remain unyielding to them and not only do not place the members of their body as instruments for doing sin, but do not even by a gesture give consent to it, these do not do such things and, consequently, will inherit the Kingdom of God. For clearly, in their deadened body sin no longer reigns so as to be obeyed in its lusts, although it still dwells in it. It is one thing to sin, and another to have sin. In the one in whom sin does not reign, that is, who does not obey its lusts, he does not sin; but in the one who would have no sinful desires at all, he not only would not sin, but would have no sin at all. This, however, in this life can be attained only to a certain degree; in perfection it will appear after the resurrection.

Gal. 5:22–23. Now the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control: against such things there is no law.

Having renounced once and for all, in the acceptance of faith and in baptism, and then constantly renouncing, in life, the suggestions and impulses of selfishness along with the passions, the zealous Christian, always faithful to his calling, under the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit develops in himself and fosters, in opposition to passions and lusts, good and God-pleasing dispositions and strivings, which, having become the structure of his heart, constitute in him that hidden in the heart of man, which is predestined to be the man of blessed eternity.

Lusts and passions, works of the flesh, have come into us and multiplied from selfishness, that evil seed sown by the tempter; but good dispositions are akin to us: they are inseparable qualities of a God-pleasing spirit. When grace, having descended within us, quickens our spirit, all the dispositions and strivings akin to it come into motion. Not at once, however, do they come into force. They are fostered by the labors of acting according to the impulse of the spirit. For the rejected selfishness with its host of passions stands there against us, face to face, and hinders them from flowing freely. Against each good disposition stands its own passion. In the measure that the passion is mortified, the good disposition arises. Here the same happens as when a person extricated from a mire or from tenacious clinging weeds frees one arm, then another, then one leg, then another. Thus with the Christian and his passions. Through struggle with himself, by the labors of ascetic effort, he purifies from passions one good disposition after another, until he purifies all, and they will appear in their proper fullness, force and beauty.

Without this labor and struggle you will not attain it. But both the labor and sweat give nothing firm and lasting by themselves. The desire, the seeking and the labor are ours, but the fruit—the Spirit of God produces in the heart secretly, beneath the covering of our barren labor. For example, the irascible man struggles with himself and seeks meekness; but the very meekness he fosters and strengthens in his heart through the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is why Saint Paul entitled this list of good dispositions as follows: “the fruit of the Spirit is”. Spiritual—in Greek: πνευματος,—of the Spirit, that is, fruit of the Spirit. Saint Chrysostom says: “evil deeds come from us alone, therefore the Apostle calls them works of the flesh; but good dispositions require not only our effort, but also the loving-kindness of God (that is, the grace of the Spirit).” “For by the cooperation of the Spirit the soul makes progress in each of these deeds” (Blessed Theodoret). So too all our commentators.

In enumerating the very virtues by which the Spirit adorns the heart of the faithful Christian, the Apostle does not set them in direct correspondence with the passions and lusts enumerated above. But here too there are two kinds of them, as there are above. Against anger and its offspring the Apostle sets several kind dispositions; and against all the works of lust—one self-control.

Our commentators do not enter into a detailed examination of these virtues. Only Blessed Jerome makes several remarks on each of them.

“Love”. As all passions come from self-love, which draws everything to itself; so all good dispositions come from love, which has trampled selfishness and is ready to sacrifice all for the good of others without thinking of itself. “And what virtue is it proper to hold the first place among the fruits of the Spirit if not love, without which the other virtues are not counted as virtues and from which all good things are born? And in the Law and in the Gospel it is given the place of primacy: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might: and your neighbor as yourself’ (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37, 39)” (Blessed Jerome). Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians, having said that without love everything is nothing, then describes the deeds of love thus: “Love is patient, and kind: love does not envy: love does not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil. Rejoices not in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth: covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:4–8). All the subsequent virtues point only to different aspects of love.

“Joy”. Joy, of course, in the Holy Spirit, in the order of the spiritual life: for “it is not given to the wicked to rejoice” (Is. 57:21). Ordinary joy comes from the acquisition of earthly goods. Spiritual joy comes from the feeling of well-being in the spirit. As the feeling of health is inseparable from the healthy; so spiritual joy is from the one living in the spirit and not committing the desires of the flesh. This is the joy of the saved, who sees clearly that he has escaped ruin. It cannot be manufactured; it arises and stands by itself. The Apostle’s command: “always rejoice” (1 Thess. 5:16),—may be even more a sign that if you are not rejoicing, then you are not standing in the true order. According to the assurance of Palladius of Helenopolis in the “Lausiac History,” in the monastery of Abba Apollos there were about 500 brothers, and they all always rejoiced, despite the great deprivations of the desert, and they rejoiced with such joy that no one here on earth could point to such joy and bodily gladness. Among them there was no one bored or sorrowful, and Abba Apollos was accustomed to say: “those who are to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven must not grieve on the way of salvation; let the pagans groan, let the Jews weep, let sinners sorrow, but those who walk the right path ought to rejoice” (Lausiac History, 47).

“‘Peace’. The one who has trampled the passions has a peaceful disposition of heart, undisturbed by anything, a bright state of spirit standing in the heart in consciousness before God, abhorring all that is wrong and walking in what is alone right. This inner peaceful disposition appears also outwardly in peacefulness with all and in the spreading of peace around. There are such graceful persons who, as soon as they appear in a circle, immediately establish peace and concord. “These are the blessed peacemakers, whom the Lord distinguished by calling them sons of God. They are peaceable even with those who hate peace” (Ps. 119:6). And for that reason God dwells in them: ‘for His place is in peace’ (Ps. 75:2)” (Blessed Jerome, not word for word).

“Patience”. It, as an unbreakable wall, guards peace, joy and love, itself receiving from them both tempered strength and inseparable cement. The world lies in evil. Living in it, one cannot escape being wounded by evil. Sorrows and privations strike less than slander and attacks from evil people. To the enemy these are the strongest weapons for disturbing those who live in the spirit. He usually approaches them with this weapon when he sees that they are no longer yielding to any of the desires of the flesh. Seeing that he cannot take them this way, he directs evil people against them, so that, if someone has departed from the flesh, he may hold him back through anger and hatred toward his offenders and thereby deprive him of the salvation he is working out: for “whoever is angry with his brother is liable to judgment” (Matt. 5:22). Against these snares the grace of God raises in the heart an unassailable wall—patience, by which all the arrows of the evil one are repelled. Patience stands on the conviction that slanders and attacks from others are not their doing, but the doing of the enemy; therefore it does not rise up in anger against people, but arms itself with enmity toward the enemy, preserving good disposition toward people. By this patience outwits the enemy. Why the Wise One says of it: “the patient man is rich in understanding: but the short-tempered man is greatly foolish” (Prov. 14:29).

“Kindness”, χρηστοτης,—“pleasantness, a manner of conduct that inclines toward fellowship, sweet speech, attractive ways” (Blessed Jerome). Those who live in the spirit bear a special mark upon themselves. How orderly is everything in them, everything fitting in time, place and persons, both in word and in deed! And this is not determined by the mind, but comes straight from the heart. They are pleasing to all, for all they are like oil on wounds. And this almost always without any external advantages: neither nobility of birth, nor education, nor means have any part in this quality. It comes from the riches of the spirit, covered by profound humility.

“Compassion”, αγαθωσυνη,—heartfelt sympathy and compassion, with readiness to do all for the good of another. As a mother grieves for her children, so compassion for all Christians. Their good is its good, forgetting itself. It is ready to undress itself to clothe another, to leave itself hungry to feed another, to give its healthy body to the sick person and to take the sick one for itself. It will be praised above all virtues in the judgment.

“Faith”—not the holding of dogmas, but confidence in God, that He will never abandon in anything, that He holds and leads by the very best way and will bring to a good end, that all is from Him and all is for the good, even if unpleasant, that no one can say or do anything to which God has not consented, that in everything His holy will reigns, therefore one lives peacefully in dedication to God’s will. This faith gave rise to martyrs, and after them to voluntary sufferers and desert ascetics. And it everywhere inspires piety and life in the spirit.

“Meekness”—“is opposed to anger and all irritability. For it the servant of God Moses received such a testimony: ‘Moses was very meek, beyond all the men who were on the earth’ (Num. 12:3). And of David it was said: ‘Remember, O Lord, David and all his meekness’ (Ps. 131:1), which was especially shown in him in his relations with Saul, Absalom and Shimei” (Blessed Jerome). This is not insensitivity of heart, but a disposition formed in the heart by the Spirit, who mortifies the deeds of the flesh, for which the Lord promised the inheritance of the earth of the good: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:4). And in Himself the Lord pointed out meekness most of all for imitation: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Matt. 11:29).

“Self-control”—not only as the beginning of chastity, but as the bridling of desires regarding food, drink and every other lust (Blessed Jerome). There is self-control at the beginning, when, having loved this virtue, one seeks it. Here thoughts and desires are aroused and often produce sympathy and inclination, but are rejected by the force of will, strengthened by the spirit. The self-control of the perfect, however, is a rooted virtue, when the arising thoughts no longer waver. Strict life in all things becomes then a constant norm. The object of self-control is the training of the body and its adaptation to spiritual life, through the habit of satisfying its necessary needs with the least expenditure. The ascetics say: train the body, and it will be your best helper in life according to the spirit. Every pleasure—from satisfying the body with sleep, food, clothing and shelter—only then loses its attraction when the consolations of the spirit arise and grow.

“Against such there is no law”. Κατα τοιουτων—against such, that is, against these virtues or against those who have these virtues. The thought remains the same. The Law is presented as a persecutor of all sin and as a preserver of people from it. But whoever possesses the fruits of the Spirit shown, in him not only is all sin driven out of the circle of deeds, but also every passion from the heart. Consequently, there is nothing for the law to drive in such a person, and no need to guard him either. The Law is not for such persons. Saint Chrysostom says: “Who can teach the one who has everything in himself, and love as the most perfect teacher of wisdom? As gentle horses, which by themselves do all things, have no need of the whip, so too the soul, which does good by the action of the Spirit, has no need for the prescriptions of the Law. Thus the Apostle also here with marvelous wisdom rejects the Law, not because it is bad, but because it is below the wisdom given by the Spirit”.

And here it is as before, where he said: “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law”. He said that those led by the Spirit are not under the Law; now, having enumerated the fruits of the Spirit, that is, having shown who are led by the Spirit or in what this leading is revealed, it fell to him to say: here is who are not under the Law. But he says it in other words, in the same thought, however: against such there is no law. The Law does not concern such, does not have them in view. In general, where the discussion concerns laws of virtues, although it is spoken of the needlessness of such laws, yet not at all because virtues are not binding for Christians, but because they already carry them in their hearts; these laws are written anew in their hearts, as was promised also through the Prophets.

Gal. 5:24. But those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Who are Christ’s? Those who have believed in Him and cleaved to Him in love and whom He for that reason has accepted into communion, has taken as His own or recognized as His. Such crucify their flesh at the very moment of approaching the Lord: without this it is impossible to approach Him. The flesh—here is understood, as above, the sin living in us or selfishness and self-pleasing, from which come all passions and lusts. And who approaches the Lord, his first step is determined thus: “let him deny himself, and take up his cross” (Matt. 16:24). Denial of self is precisely the trampling of selfishness, or the crucifixion of the flesh. This kind of action is as a covenant concluded with the Lord in baptism, when the baptized renounces Satan and all his works and is joined with the Lord. This moral act is then sealed by grace in baptism, and the baptized is given strength for its sake to no longer serve sin, but to reject, hate and pursue it. This means that the baptized dies to sin and lives for new, graceful life in the Lord. Otherwise, the Apostle speaks of the same thing as the crucifixion of the old man and the abolition of the body of sin, that is, the whole corpus of sin,—selfishness with its passions. This is how the Christian, at the very moment he becomes Christ’s, crucifies his flesh with its passions and lusts. Why does the Apostle mention this here? Everything is for the sake of the fullest elucidation of the subject under discussion, that is, life in the spirit. Life in the spirit, as was understood, is to be conscious in the heart before the Lord and to direct all one’s deeds, both internal and external, toward pleasing God, to the glory of the Lord, with the rejection, trampling and pursuit of all wrong movements in thoughts and desires. This rejection of wrong things within is itself the crucifixion of selfishness, from which all wrong comes. Thus, the crucifixion of selfishness—of the flesh—is an inseparable attribute of spiritual life. Saint Chrysostom says: “Lest they ask: who then are they (that is, those against whom there is no law) such?—he points them out from their deeds: those who have crucified the flesh. For though passions harass them, they rise up against them in vain and without success”.

When it is said: “crucified”—once and for all—by this is understood that moral turning in which the one approaching the Lord makes a vow not to yield to sin to the end of life; and for this strength is given in baptism. Selfishness is trampled, rejected, crucified. After that, though it may approach, it obtains nothing. Every time it is trampled with contempt and crucified. The whole life of the Christian is a crucifixion of the flesh of sin; but this is the fruit and realization of that first act by which selfishness is cast out of consciousness and freedom and deprived of all right to exert determining power over deeds. Without this first and subsequent acts cannot be: they are linked as root and trunk with branches. Therefore the Apostle says: crucified—once, but there is such power in it that it will suffice for a whole life.

That this crucifixion is not mechanical but moral, Blessed Augustine expresses well. He derives the crucifying force from the fear of God being reborn in the spirit, by which the beginning of conversion is set and the right life of the convert is then supported and maintained. “By what were they crucified, if not by the fear of God, pure, abiding forever and ever (Ps. 18:10), in which we fear to offend the One whom we love with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind? The Prophet also desires to be crucified by this fear when he says: Nail my flesh with Your fear (Ps. 118:120). But fear crucifies on that cross of which the Lord speaks: ‘Take up your cross and follow Me’ (cf. Matt. 16:24).”

Gal. 5:25. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

This is the conclusion from all that precedes. The Apostle speaks as if to say: if we live by the Spirit, that is, if we have abandoned elementary ways of pleasing God, shaken off the yoke of the Law, received freedom from it, in order to please God by moral dispositions coming from the Spirit; then we must also walk by the Spirit, that is, we must conform our way of thinking, our feelings, our dispositions, our words, our deeds, our whole conduct to its demands. “Be guided by”, στοιχωμεν,—which means: let us be in harmony, let us accord with it. The demands of the Spirit he has already portrayed under the guise of its fruits. And it is clear what it means to walk by the Spirit: it means to show in one’s life those qualities which are the fruit of the Spirit, so strictly that nothing of what is a work of the flesh—selfishness—enters into it. This cannot be accomplished without struggle with oneself. Therefore here too is concluded the law of this warfare, whose starting point and driving force are indicated in the preceding verse. Spiritual life is an inexhaustible source of consolations; but they are not gained for free. Someone expressed it: give blood, and receive the Spirit.

Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Although the holy Apostle does not say it directly, his manner of speech suggests that he is addressing the leaders of the Churches here. For he says—you, spiritual ones, correct those who sin, bear one another’s burdens… And in the last verse (see Gal. 6:6) he determines the relations of the taught to the teacher. To correct, to teach and to bear the burdens of others is not fitting for everyone. There must be special persons for this; otherwise disorder in society is inevitable. In the Church this is the duty of the leaders. The Apostle Paul, wherever he founded Churches, everywhere established both pastors and teachers. Of course, they were appointed by him also in the Galatian Churches. To them he now turns his speech. Why did he not call them by name directly? Surely because they were guilty of that which the Apostle speaks against. So, to soften his rebuke, he speaks generally. Or perhaps, along with the leaders, other prominent persons proved to be at fault in the same way. All of them the holy Paul brings under a general view; and meanwhile the teachings are such that some aspects of them could apply to all Christians in general.

To the more perfect and leading the Apostle says: do not boast (Gal. 5:26); be attentive to the needs of the falling and weak (Gal. 6:1–2); and do not trumpet yourselves, thinking yourselves to be something (Gal. 6:3–5).

Gal. 5:26. Let us not be conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Vain is the seeking of glory when one thinks to be glorified by what cannot give true glory, or strives to catch glory and praise from those whose praise and glorification are nothing, as is the case with all people in general. Those suffering from this weakness are usually people-pleasers and are reluctant to intentionally provoke anyone. But the very striving to achieve that which will be trumpeted about them, especially when there is also success in this, against their will, awakens envy in others and irritates them against them. Likewise, they themselves, when someone surpasses them in this empty pursuit, envy him and redouble their efforts. This rivalry in both word and deed establishes discord among the rivals, which from them extends to those who come in contact with them. The brotherhood is torn apart and dissolution threatens society. “In vanity lies the cause of many evils,” says Saint Chrysostom, “for from it is born envy, and from envy comes an innumerable number of evils”.

Such is the general sense of the text; but if we take into account the circumstances of the writing of the Epistle, it will take on a special tint, which some of our commentators give it. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Perhaps those who were firm in faith, constantly condemning those who wavered, aroused disputes. It is these whom the Apostle exhorts to extend a hand to those who were inclined toward the Law.” Blessed Augustine understands this place similarly: “After teaching them how to resist those who deceitfully wanted to subject them to slavery under the Law, he warns them that, having become more learned and already having the strength to answer the reproaches of carnal people, they should not fall into useless quarreling from mere vanity, and, having been freed from the yoke of the Law, become slaves to glory-loving desires.” One dwells on these thoughts the more willingly because the word: provoking—in Greek: προκαλουμενοι—means: “challenging”,—which Blessed Theophylact explains thus: “challenging one another to disputes and contentions, as happens, for example, when someone says to his opponent: Come on, let’s measure our strength, if you have as much power as I do”.

Perhaps such an error had already been made when diversity of opinion arose in the Christian community. Those upon whom lay the obligation to guard the faith of the believers looked down upon those who were led astray, and in defending the truth were guided not by love of it and for the brothers being scandalized, but by envy of the false teachers, who seemed to be robbing them of their glory and dignity. That is perhaps why they labored in the struggle, but had no fruit; on the contrary, they only inflamed irritation and increased discord. Something like that must have occurred. The holy Apostle had to mention it and does mention it. But, fearing that the touching upon this wound might be too sensitive, he puts himself in the ranks of those being instructed, as if he himself needed such a lesson. Not “let us be”, he says, “conceited” and the rest.

Gal. 6:1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual restore such an one in a spirit of meekness; considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.

It is as if saying: here is how you should act; but since the matter is already past, make it a rule from now on to correct the discouraged with gentleness. “Since the Galatians (it is thought—the greatest, the leaders) under the pretext of rebuke avenge others for their own passions and deceive themselves that they are doing this for others’ sin, when in truth they only wish to establish their own dominion, the Apostle speaks to them thus” (St. Chrysostom).

To whom is the word addressed? To the spiritual: “you who are spiritual”. Who then are these spiritual? According to the Apostle, from the preceding discourse, all Christians are spiritual; for they have received the Spirit of grace and serve God in spirit and truth, in opposition to the material service of Jews and Gentiles. Does the Apostle then wish all to correct all? But this never happens in any society. It is impossible to expect such a rule to come from the lips of the Apostle Paul. Let us take another interpretation: all Christians have received the Spirit and ought to be truly spiritual; but since the manifestation of the Spirit in power is not revealed all at once, but requires certain labor, and consequently time; it is natural that not all Christians possessed that spirituality which was evident in power and who properly should be called spiritual. So is it not these more perfect whom the Apostle means? Put yourself in their place and decide: would anyone take on the work of correcting others when it was not entrusted to them? We must suppose not. Therefore it is more likely that St. Paul means by “the spiritual” those persons to whom he entrusted the care of others and the guardianship of both faith and life according to faith among the believers. They, of course, were the most perfect among all; but the duty of correcting the fallen did not rest upon them because of their perfection, but because of apostolic calling to this work, which in St. Paul’s case was usually accompanied by the laying on of hands.

From among many duties that rested on such persons, the Apostle focuses on one: how they should regard those who fall. This was demanded by the circumstances of the Galatian Churches and perhaps by the errors of these very persons.

With what tenderness does St. Paul regard those who fall? Grave falls are possible; but he already disposes us toward forbearance toward them as well, calling all falls accidental slips, not proceeding from evil intent but from enticement and external force; that is, either from the sin dwelling in us or from our enemy of salvation. For he says: “if one is overtaken”, προληφθη—seized will be, drawn away suddenly, before reckoning the matter as it should be. “He did not say: commits some transgression, but: προληφθη,—that is: will be drawn into some sin” (St. Chrysostom). In the same spirit, the sin itself he called: παραπτωμα—a passing, accidental falling, a slip.

The Apostle teaches to regard transgressions of others with such eyes, so that merciless, senseless zeal might not arise first, but rather the spirit of forbearance, compassion, and love might meet and embrace the fallen. When this is present, then it is easy to fulfill the Apostle’s command: “restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness”. He does not say: pay no attention, as if he did nothing. “He did not say again: punish or condemn, but: ‘restore’. But he did not stop there, for, wishing to show that they ought to be extremely forbearing toward the sinning, he adds: ‘in a spirit of gentleness’ (St. Chrysostom).”

In a spirit of gentleness are contained both humility and compassion, prudence and zeal for salvation. The blessed Jerome writes: “The Apostle commands the spiritual man, when correcting the sinning, to use a spirit of gentleness, so that not with severity, not with anger and vexation he would deal with him, but with love would he summon him, pointing to salvation and promising forgiveness in the words of Christ the Lord Himself, Who calls all burdened with sins to His easy yoke and light burden, that they may learn that He is meek and humble of heart, and shall find rest for their souls (Matt. 11:29). One might raise against us what is written to the Corinthians: ‘What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?’ (1 Cor. 4:21). If there he says that he comes to sinners not in a spirit of gentleness but with a rod, how here does he command that those who shall be overtaken in some sin be approached not with a rod but with a spirit of gentleness? But there the discourse is to those who, after committing sin, not feeling their guilt, refused to submit to their leaders and to correct themselves through repentance. But where the sinner, understanding his wound, gives himself to the physician for healing, not a rod is needed but a spirit of gentleness. We might also propose another question: if one who corrects another is to do so in a spirit of gentleness for fear of being tempted oneself, then a righteous man, confident in his steadfastness, knowing that he might not fall, as if he should not correct another in a spirit of gentleness? To this we say that a righteous man, even if conscious of being a conqueror, will show all the greater forbearance to the sinner, knowing with what difficulty he himself overcomes the passions. And the Savior for this reason was tempted in all things like us, except sin, that He might suffer with us and be weak with us, knowing by experience what labors mortals in the flesh bear. (So it is here.) Whoever has remained a virgin to old age, he will doubtless show forbearance to one who is sometimes swept away by the heat of youth, knowing under what difficulties he himself passed through that age.”

The words of the blessed Augustine may serve as a continuation of this discourse to our passage: “Nothing so proves anyone’s spirituality (perfection of spiritual life) as how he treats the sins of another, namely when he, in this case, plans how soonest to free him from sin, and not fall upon him, how to help and not heap reproach upon him, and not only plans but at once proceeds to the work—as far as he is able. Having said: ‘restore in a spirit of gentleness’,—the Apostle impresses that no one should think he restores rightly when he mercilessly torments the sinner, mocks him, turns away from him in pride as from one incorrigible. Why he adds: ‘watch yourself, lest you too be tempted’. For nothing so disposes to mercy as the sight of one’s own danger (if mercy be not shown). However, the Apostle does not wish that no correction be done to the brethren, but that through this no discord be spread. Peace and love shall be kept in the heart, by acknowledgment of the equal danger of sin for all; and the manner of corrective conversation, that is, when to speak more sternly, when more gently, should be suited to what the salvation of the one being corrected demands. In another place the Apostle says: ‘the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, apt to teach, forbearing, correcting opponents with gentleness’ (2 Tim. 2:24–25). Thus showing that we should not refuse the correction of the errors of another, and should do this with gentleness. But how will you correct with gentleness if not by tempering the bitterness of the medicine in the corrective word with heartfelt sympathy and tenderness? And one should never take up the work of healing the sinning if first, with strict examination of conscience before God, we are not assured that we approach this in a spirit of love. Therefore, when your soul is vexed by something from the one you are correcting, and you still hope somehow to heal him, say nothing to him until you yourself first are healed, lest the bitter word break forth in the form of revenge and your tongue become an instrument of unrighteousness to sin (Rom. 6:13). Whatever you say in a spirit of vexation will be the attack of one who punishes, not the love of one who corrects. Love, and say what you will.”

“Watch yourself, lest you too be tempted”. “You are a man, your nature is easily changed, sympathize with one who is seized by sickness” (the blessed Theodoret). “In order that one who corrects another not become proud, he frightens him with the danger of a similar fall. As the rich give alms to the poor so that, if they themselves should fall into poverty, they might receive the same from others, so should we do. And he defends the sinner, first, with the words: if one is overtaken (προληφθη—will be drawn away),—by which he points to the great weakness of the soul; second, with the words: ‘lest you too be tempted’,—blaming rather demonic temptation than the negligence of the soul” (St. Chrysostom).

“Whether in temptation to be overcome or to overcome—that is in our power; but to be tempted—that depends on the will of the tempter. If even the Savior was tempted, who can be sure that he will cross the sea of this life without temptations?” (the blessed Jerome).

But in the words: “lest you too be tempted”,—it seems the Apostle presents the danger of a fall similar to that of the one being corrected. He indicates not merely the enticement of sin: for what is there to speak of this, since without it everyone knows he is not free from it,—but the fall into sin itself. Whoever is unmerciful to the sinning, grace abandons him, and for this he himself falls. Examples of this are everywhere. If one stands, let him not forget that this is God’s mercy. And what is more fitting for the one shown mercy than to show mercy to another? And how quickly will he lose mercy except through mercilessness to others? “In the Lives of the Desert Fathers we often find that those of them who too severely exacted payment from disciples for their faults were themselves subjected to the danger of falling, from which they were delivered only by recognizing their own wrongdoing and repenting of it” (Philaret of Chernigov).

The Apostle says this to the spiritual, those in whom the activity (energy) of the spirit has already begun to manifest itself in power. Since he does not define the measure of spirituality in which this is possible, but speaks generally of the spiritual, one must see here an assurance that, however much one might appear to be graced, for him both temptation and falling from temptation are possible. There is a story of how the enemy pursued a certain saint and attempted to arouse self-conceit in him, even on the way of the toll-houses, crying after him: you have defeated me; but the saint answered him nothing. When he had passed all the toll-houses and entered the bright Kingdom of God, he said: now I see that I defeated, but yet not I, but God’s grace in me.

Gal. 6:2. Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.

The first incentive to mercy toward the sinning the Apostle took from the danger of his own fall, and the other he takes from the common law; “bear one another’s burdens”,—which flows directly from the law of love and serves as its immediate manifestation. The Apostle speaks as if to the leaders: if all are bound by the duty to bear one another’s burdens, how much more you, who are chosen precisely to be servants of all, and this means: not only to bear burdens but also to fulfill their desires. But if you do not wish to show such perfection in your relations to the brethren, keep at least to the minimum in this—bear the burdens of others along with all.

Our commentators chiefly explain this common law. Theodoret writes: “You have one deficiency, and he does not have it. He, on the other hand, does not have the deficiency that you have, but has another. You bear his deficiency, and let him bear yours. Thus is the law of love fulfilled. For the Apostle called love the law of Christ. These are Christ’s words: ‘I give you a new commandment, that you love one another’ (John 13:34)”.

Here are the words of St. Chrysostom: “Since it is impossible, being a man, to live without blemish, the Apostle persuades us not to be strict judges of the faults of others, but patiently to bear the deficiencies of our neighbors, that others also may bear our deficiencies. That one is quick-tempered, and you are sluggish and dull: bear his quick-temperedness so that he may bear your dullness and sluggishness. Thus, offering each other a helping hand when the danger of falling threatens, fulfill the law with your joint strength, each supplying the deficiencies of his neighbor by his forbearance. If you do not act thus, but each begins only to judge the deeds of his neighbor, you will never attain what you ought to attain (active mutual love).”

The blessed Jerome applies his interpretation to the state of the Galatian Christians of that time. “Burdens—are sins, as the Psalmist testifies: ‘as a heavy burden they weigh upon me’ (Ps. 37:5). This burden the Savior bore for us, teaching us by His example how we also should act. He bears our iniquities and grieves over us (Isa. 53) and calls those burdened with sins to His easy yoke of virtue (Matt. 11:30). Therefore, whoever, not despairing of his brother’s salvation, extends to him a hand of necessary help and, as he is able, weeps with the weeping, is weak with the weak, and makes the sins of others his own, through such love fulfills the law of Christ. Whoever does not have mercy and is not moved in the bowels of compassion and sympathy, he, even if spiritual, does not fulfill the law of Christ. But we must harmonize this place with the preceding. In this respect the Apostle speaks as if: if anyone is weak in faith and is still nourished by milk of infancy and cannot swiftly pass from life under the Law to spiritual mysteries, you who are stronger, bear his burden, so that through your knowledge the brother does not perish, for whom Christ died.”

Gal. 6:3. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself with his mind.

In this and the following two verses the Apostle heals the self-conceit of spiritual leaders, which is usually born when, thinking of themselves, they compare themselves not to the norm to which they ought to approach, but to the weaknesses of others. The blessed Theodoret writes: “By this he cast down the arrogance of those puffed up by some small advances.”

Whoever thinks he is something, that he has some perfection, weight, and worth, errs in thinking thus. For whatever he has, it is not his own. Both natural and divine gifts are from God, and all the more the gifts of grace. Therefore, give glory to God. You in yourself are nothing, neither in being nor in perfections. That you are, you are by God’s grace. Why then deceive yourself?

“With his mind,” he says, “he deceives himself”. He deceives himself, wrongly directing and interpreting the witness of his own consciousness about himself. If there is something in a man, he cannot hide it from his consciousness; but examine how it is and whether it exists to the degree it ought to, and you will find in it not a matter for self-exaltation but an occasion for self-condemnation, as of a wicked servant and unfaithful in little. If you add to this consciousness of what you have the consciousness of what is lacking, and all the more the consciousness of what ought not to be in you at all; where can the spider-web of self-conceit stand before the fire kindled by such self-exposure? If you establish in yourself such a view of yourself, self-conceit will never arise. And it will not appear, and if it does, it will at once flee, driven away by the conscience condemning itself. If it happens that someone thinks himself something, it is because he has not taken pains to determine well how utterly nothing he is in himself, and falls into this sin through the deception of the mind, to which arrogance is customary. “Such lightheartedness the Apostle presents as the first evidence of the nothingness of such a person” (St. Chrysostom).

Gal. 6:4. Let each one test his own deed, and then he will have reason for boasting in himself alone, and not with respect to another.

“If you wish to boast, examine your life, and if you find it worthy of praise, boast of yourself, if only you ought to do so” (the blessed Theodoret). “Here the Apostle shows that we must be judges of our own life, examining what we have done, and not lightly but with diligence. So if you have done a good deed, see whether you did it not out of vainglory, not out of necessity, not out of hypocrisy or some other human motive. For as gold seems bright even before it is put in fire, but is fully known in fire, when every alloy is separated from pure gold; so our deeds will appear in their true form only when we examine them with diligence; then we will see that we ourselves are guilty of condemnation for much” (St. Chrysostom).

One may understand here not each individual deed but the whole work of life in general. The work of life is the work of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. That we believe in the Lord, that we receive grace through faith in the mysteries, as aid for living by faith or for fulfilling the Lord’s commandments, this was done once for all by the economy of salvation, and constitutes the beginning of the work of accomplishing salvation. And we are in this work if we are aware that we have zeal for it and labor earnestly over it. Of course, this too must be examined—whether all is as it should be, whether our moral and religious state is such as it ought to be in a Christian. But we cannot limit all examination to this alone. In this we only arm ourselves for the work of salvation; but how much the work itself has been accomplished, you cannot know from this alone. We must, as mentioned, keep in mind the norm of the perfection of Christian life and compare our life with it. A builder has a plan of the temple, and he builds the temple according to it, and sees whether the building proceeds rightly and how much it fulfills the plan. So too for Christian life there is its own all-encompassing plan. Know it, apply it to your life, and you will see how much the work of your own salvation has advanced.

Someone will say: but this is too general a rule, and therefore indefinite. It can be reduced to something very definite and tangible. Let us recall that man, by creation, is a very good creature—the image of God. But egoism came with the passions and spoiled everything, broke and disturbed it all. Drive all this out, and you will become as created, and you will be saved. What are self-love and passions, everyone knows. So watch—to the extent that self-love and passions have diminished in you, to that extent has your work of salvation advanced. There is no escaping indefiniteness by saying the opposite: the works of passions are tangible. But since they are many, so as not to become confused, the Apostle, as we have seen, reduces them all under two main ones—lust and anger. If you grow angry, if you crave something, if you are attached to something created so that others cannot touch it, then you have a passionate heart, and your work of salvation is in doubt. These kinds of signs you can meet constantly.

It is necessary to distinguish here between passionate external deeds, passionate internal movements, and above all—the relation to them of freedom and will, and even more—of the heart. One can refrain from passionate deeds and yet be stirred internally by passions. This is almost the same if there is also delight in the passions. Within, in relation to passions, there is thought, sympathy, attraction, and inclination. From inclination begins the path of passion. Attraction, sympathy, and thought can be involuntary. The free will may not allow itself to reach inclination; but attractions will keep appearing, sympathies will break out, and thoughts will be thrust in. When the rational-free will holds the rule—in no way to incline toward the suggestions of passion, and does not incline in reality, enduring its fast through inner struggle; then this is a decisive sign that the person so disposed has entered upon the path of salvation and walks in it. But if he feels within not merely passionate thoughts but also breaking forth sympathies toward them and attractions; then he must recognize and continue to recognize that his mind or spirit has not remained and does not stand in its proper place and the soul and heart are still unclean, in them still dwell the seeds or deposits of passions. This is like a city shut up and defending itself against enemies, but with traitors hidden within. Consequently, the work is only begun, and it is unclear whether it has advanced. Here are the signs of its advance—by constancy and decisive unyieldingness in inner struggle it is achieved first that attractions begin to diminish, then cease altogether: this is the first stage. Then sympathies also diminish and completely cease: this is the second stage. And when aversion, dislike, and anger against the passionate thoughts themselves begin to appear in the heart; then this will be the third stage, the final one. This is the sign that the ore has been melted and has cast out from itself all that is foreign to it. By these signs everyone can very accurately determine his own work of salvation—whether it advances, and how it advances, and how much has been accomplished. It is very easy to notice how, on looking at the object of passion or when thinking of it, sympathy breaks forth from the heart toward it. So when you notice this, know that passion dwells in the heart; if passion dwells in the heart, the heart is unclean; if it is unclean, what place has it in another life? Reflect on all this, and then boast in yourself, if you have the nerve to do so.

“And then he will have reason for boasting in himself alone, and not with respect to another”. What is the thought? If it means: boast of yourself to yourself, and not to another, this will contradict what was said above: “if someone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself with his mind”. For boasting of yourself to yourself is indeed counting yourself as something. Under such a thought, the Apostle would be favoring self-conceit, whereas he is actually arming himself against it here. More directly it is this: take your boast not from comparing yourself to the weakness of a weak brother, but from comparing yourself to the norm of Christian perfection. If upon strict examination you find that you correspond to that norm, then have your boasting in this correspondence, not in the fact that another is somewhat weaker than you. Thus the Apostle spoke, concealing his intention. We all desire to boast. The Apostle seems not to abolish this but merely points out the way one can arrive at rightful and true boasting in oneself. But the way he proposed is such that, if you proceed by it to determine yourself, you will never have occasion to boast, and rather through it will keep yourself in constant self-condemnation. For if the Apostle said of himself that he had not yet attained but was only striving to attain; then who would dare to say of himself that he has attained? And if he dares not, what has he to boast of?

St. Chrysostom understands “with respect to another” as: “before others”—and expresses the Apostle’s thought thus: do not boast before others, but to yourself. The intention of the Apostle is, he says, to disaccustom people first from boasting before others, and when someone is disaccustomed to this, he will cease to boast even before himself. “By these words the Apostle does not prescribe a rule but only shows indulgence, as if saying: boasting is not good; and if you wish to boast, do not do so before your neighbor, like the Pharisee. For whoever learns not to boast before his neighbor will soon cease to boast before himself. Therefore he makes them this indulgence, gradually to destroy the evil in them. For whoever has grown accustomed to boasting only before himself and not in others will soon correct this deficiency also. For whoever does not count himself better than others (this is what the words mean: ‘and not with respect to another’), but boasts only of himself, examining himself alone: he will finally cease to do even this. And that the Apostle indeed had this goal in mind you can see from how he humbles such a one with fear, and after first saying: ‘let each one test his own deed’,—and then adding: ‘for each one will bear his own burden’. He seems to give a commandment forbidding boasting in another; but at the same time he corrects the one who boasts, so that he does not think much even of himself, bringing him to consciousness of his own sins and striking his conscience with the terms ‘burden and load’.”

Gal. 6:5. For each one will bear his own burden.

“Do not be curious to know the affairs of others. For each of us will give an account of his own sins” (the blessed Theodoret). “Why do you boast against your neighbor? Both you and he will bear (to judgment) your own burdens, and then the deed of each will be tested. So since you too have a burden—and a heavy one—do not boast against another, nor trumpet about your own good deeds before yourself” (the blessed Theophylact). “At first sight this seems contrary to what was said above: ‘bear one another’s burdens’: for if each will bear his own burden, then to bear one another’s burdens is no longer possible. But there the instruction is that we, sinners, in this life should bear with one another and help one another; but here it is said of the judgment of us by the Lord, that He judges us not by the sins of another and not by comparison with worse, but by our own deed (the labor of all life) to be sinners or saints: and by this deed each will receive his reward” (the blessed Jerome).

By speaking thus, the Apostle sets the attention of each before the face of God’s judgment. Occupy your mind with this, and you will forget to elevate yourself over others, and will forget to trumpet about yourself even to yourself. For God’s judgment is not like the judgment of men. It may decide completely contrary to our judgment and understanding: for it sees us more deeply than we see ourselves. And the decision of God’s judgment is such that you cannot expect a reversal of it. It will set a seal upon your fate, which will remain unchanged forever and ever. Therefore, if the decision is such that we ourselves cannot predetermine a favorable decision in our favor; then better not to predetermine at all, but having this fear of an unfavorable judgment for us, let us strive all the more to do deeds and dispose our heart such that by the infallible word of the Lord, condemnation is not pronounced upon them—forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead (Phil. 3:13).

Memory of the judgment is the most powerful remedy not only against self-conceit and arrogance, but also against every other passion and every passionate thought. All the holy ascetics taught this and placed the lesson on remembering the judgment first in their teachings, alongside the remembering of God’s omnipresence and omniscience.

Gal. 6:6. Let the one who is taught the word share in all good things with the one who teaches.

Up to this point, from (Gal. 5:26) to (Gal. 6:5), the Apostle gave teachings to the most perfect, the spiritual, the leaders.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians

Introduction

1. The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born George Govorov on the tenth of January, 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Orlov province of central Russia, the son of a village priest. He was schooled first at Livny and then at the seminary in Orel, and from 1837 to 1841 studied at the Kiev Theological Academy, within reach of the ancient Monastery of the Caves. While still a student he received the monastic tonsure and the name Theophan, and it was there that an elder gave him the counsel he carried for the rest of his life: that the one thing needful is to pray, and to pray unceasingly in the mind and the heart. The whole of his later work can be read as an unfolding of that single charge.

Ordination led him through a succession of teaching posts—rector of church schools in Kiev, of the seminary at Novgorod, professor at the Saint Petersburg Academy—and through a term with the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem and the Near East, where he came to know the manuscripts and the living tradition of the Christian East at close hand. In 1859 he was consecrated bishop of Tambov, and in 1863 was translated to the see of Vladimir. He proved a diligent pastor, founding schools and preaching tirelessly; yet the summons he had received as a young monk pressed on him, and in 1866 he asked to lay down the burden of a diocese and withdrew to the secluded Vysha Hermitage. From 1872 until his death he lived in strict reclusion, serving the Liturgy alone, giving away nearly everything he received, and pouring himself into prayer, into a vast correspondence with those who sought his guidance, and into writing.

Those years of silence were, paradoxically, the most productive of his life. From the cell at Vysha came the works that made him one of the most beloved teachers of the Russian Church: guides to the interior life such as The Path to Salvation and What the Spiritual Life Is, his Russian rendering of the Philokalia, and the long series of commentaries on the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, of which the exposition of Ephesians is one. He reposed on the feast of Theophany, the sixth of January (Old Style), 1894, having spent some twenty-eight years at Vysha. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints in 1988, and he is honored across the Orthodox world as a teacher of prayer whose particular gift was to set the wisdom of the Fathers in language that ordinary Christians of his own age, and of ours, could take to heart.

2. The Work: Occasion and Purpose

Theophan’s commentary on Ephesians belongs to the great exegetical project of his reclusion, in which he worked patiently through the Pauline corpus, letter by letter, alongside expositions of several Psalms. He did not write for scholars. His readers were faithful people who wished to understand the Apostle and to follow him, and his aim throughout was double: to open the sense of the sacred text with all the care of the Church’s learning, and to press that sense home upon the conscience and the prayer of the one reading. The result is a book that instructs and examines at once—as much a school of the Christian life as a study of a single letter.

Ephesians gave him an unusual occasion. Alone among Paul’s major letters it answers no crisis and rebukes no scandal; the Apostle is not putting out a fire in a troubled congregation but, as Theophan puts it, is “wholly absorbed in the great mystery of God.” Paul writes as a prisoner—“the prisoner of the Lord,” bound in chains—to the church of Ephesus, among whom he had labored longer than in almost any other place. Theophan opens his commentary with a full account of that labor drawn from the Acts of the Apostles: the founding of the Ephesian church, the two years of daily preaching, the burning of the books of magic, the tearful farewell to the elders at Miletus. He does this deliberately, so that the reader should feel the depth of affection out of which the letter is written. Paul wishes to share with his “beloved spiritual children” the contemplations that fill him, “that they too might become partakers of this knowledge and be gladdened by it.”

On one point of introduction Theophan takes a considered position. Ephesians is one of the “captivity” letters, written from prison, and the Apostle’s imprisonments were two—the first at Caesarea, the second at Rome. Theophan weighs the question at length and judges that the letter was most likely written from Caesarea, soon after Paul’s parting from the Ephesians, reasoning from the letter’s silence about any change in the Ephesian church and from the Apostle’s request that they pray for boldness of speech, which he thinks fits the stricter Caesarean confinement. Here he differs from the many interpreters who assign all the prison letters to the Roman captivity; the letter itself names only the Apostle’s chains, and Theophan presents his conclusion as the more probable reading rather than a settled certainty. The disagreement is worth noticing because it shows his method in miniature: he reasons from the text, canvasses the tradition, and states his judgment plainly while leaving the reader free.

3. Argument and Structure

Theophan divides the letter in the ancient manner, and his outline is a reliable map for any reader. After the inscription and greeting (1:1–2), a long doctrinal part unfolds the whole economy of salvation and the mystery of the Church (1:3–3:21); a moral part then draws out the manner of life worthy of that calling (4:1–6:18); and a brief conclusion closes the whole (6:19–24). The hinge between the two halves is the Apostle’s own “therefore”: I beseech you, walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called. Everything Paul has contemplated in the first three chapters becomes, in the last three, a summons to live.

The doctrinal half begins with a single soaring sentence of blessing that gathers up the entire plan of God—election before the foundation of the world, adoption as sons, redemption through Christ’s blood, the sealing of believers with the Holy Spirit, and the design “to gather together in one all things in Christ.” Paul then prays that his readers may have the eyes of their heart enlightened to know the hope of their calling and the surpassing greatness of God’s power, the same power that raised Christ from the dead and set him as head over all things to the Church. The second chapter descends from that height to the human condition: dead in trespasses, we are made alive by grace through faith; and the two peoples, Jew and Gentile, once divided by a wall of enmity, are reconciled in one body through the cross. In the third chapter Paul unveils “the mystery” entrusted to him—that the Gentiles are fellow heirs—and closes the doctrinal part with a prayer that Christ may dwell in his readers’ hearts and a doxology to the God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.

The moral half applies all this to the texture of a life. Its keynote is unity: one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. From the diversity of gifts given for the building up of the body, Paul turns to the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new, and to a series of concrete exhortations—truthfulness, honest labor, wholesome speech, kindness, the imitation of God, walking as children of light. There follows the ordering of the Christian household—the mutual duties of husbands and wives, children and parents, servants and masters—in which the marriage bond is lifted up as an image of Christ and the Church. The letter then rises to its famous close, the summons to put on “the whole armor of God”—the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit—for the Christian’s struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual powers of wickedness. Theophan follows each of these movements at his characteristic pace, a verse or two at a time, so that the letter’s long and freighted sentences open out one clause at a time.

4. Theological and Spiritual Significance

The commentary’s deepest theme is the one Paul announces at the outset: God’s eternal purpose “to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.” Ephesians is the letter of the great design, the plan hidden in God from before the ages and now made known—and Theophan reads it as such, never letting the reader lose sight of the whole even while lingering over a phrase. Election and adoption stand at the doorway, and here he is especially careful. To be chosen “in Christ before the foundation of the world” is not, on his reading, the arbitrary selection of some and rejection of others, but God’s eternal resolve to save the human race through the Incarnation of his Son; God chooses us in Christ, the head of redeemed humanity, and time and history only fulfill that pre-eternal election. The sealing of believers with the Holy Spirit, the pledge of the inheritance, he treats as the very mark of the Christian, the grace from which the name itself derives.

From this design flows the letter’s crowning subject, the Church as the body of Christ. God gave him “as head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all”; and because the dignity of the head is shared with the body, Theophan dwells with wonder—following Saint John Chrysostom, whom he cites above all others—on the height to which the Church has been raised, seated with her Head, “for where the head is, there the body is also.” Bound up with this is the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile, which he presents not as a bygone episode but as the reader’s own story. Christ “is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition,” creating “in himself one new man” out of the two. The Gentiles, once “strangers to the covenants of promise,” are made “fellow citizens with the saints”—and this, Theophan insists, is a word for every later believer who is not from the Jews, “consequently, for us as well.”

The doctrine of grace he holds in the balance Paul himself keeps. “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Salvation is wholly God’s gift, owed to no work of ours; and yet faith is genuinely asked of us, so that we should not be altogether passive in the matter of our salvation but might be found to contribute something of our own—a formula he takes from Chrysostom and presses without either diminishing grace or excusing the will. And when the moral part reaches the household, he reads the marriage of husband and wife as the icon of a deeper union still: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for her.” The bond between Christ and the Church, he explains, is more inward than any natural tie—“not an external one, of one alongside another, but the most inward, of one in the other”—and marriage is honored precisely because it images that mystery.

What gives the commentary its particular character is the meeting of two things that are often kept apart. Theophan reads Ephesians as the Church has always read it, with the Fathers open beside the text. His pages are thick with citation—Chrysostom first, and with him Theodoret of Cyrus, John of Damascus, Ecumenius, Theophylact, and the Latin commentator known as Ambrosiaster—assembled in the manner of a catena, the old “chain” of patristic excerpts, weighed one against another until their common sense emerges. What reaches the reader is thus not a single modern opinion but the long consent of the tradition. To that inheritance he joins the temper of Russian spiritual writing, which will not let a truth remain merely admired. Election, grace, the unity of the one Church—each is turned back upon the reader’s own soul, its prayer and its struggle against sin. Exact exegesis and ascetical earnestness meet in these pages, and it is their meeting that makes the book more than a study of doctrine. The closing image of the armor of God is, in his hands, no mere metaphor but a description of the Christian’s daily warfare, and the whole letter becomes what he takes it to be: a call to live worthily of so high a calling.

5. Reception and Influence

Ephesians has held a place of honor in Christian teaching out of all proportion to its length. Its vision of the Church as one body, its confession of “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” and its portrait of marriage as a great mystery have shaped the theology, the liturgy, and the prayer of Christians East and West for as long as the letter has been read. The exegetical tradition on which Theophan chiefly draws—above all the homilies of Chrysostom—stands among the most influential patristic expositions of any New Testament book. Theophan’s own contribution belongs to a nineteenth-century renewal of Russian biblical and spiritual writing, and his interpretations of the Pauline letters were quickly recognized as a valuable addition to Russian scriptural learning; in his last years the theological academies elected him an honorary member, and Saint Petersburg conferred on him a doctorate in theology. In the generations since his glorification his commentaries and spiritual writings have continued to be read and reprinted widely, and a number of them have reached English-speaking readers, for whom his gift of translating the Fathers’ wisdom into plain and searching counsel has lost none of its force.

6. The Text and This Edition

This edition presents Saint Theophan’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians in a fresh, modern English translation made directly from his Russian. The underlying text is his own verse-by-verse exposition, composed during the years of reclusion at Vysha and published in the closing decades of the nineteenth century; the translation was prepared from the public-domain Russian text as transmitted in the collected edition of his works, The Works of Our Father among the Saints Theophan the Recluse: Interpretations of the Epistles of the Apostle Paul (the Athonite Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery edition), in the modern re-typeset digital form served by azbyka.ru. It is an English edition throughout, not a bilingual or parallel one; the Russian is its source, not a facing column.

The translation aims to render Theophan’s Russian faithfully and readably, keeping the movement of his thought and the warmth of his address while presenting it in natural contemporary English. Scripture is given in a dignified modern register consistent with the Slavonic and Synodal tradition Theophan himself used, so that the verses he expounds read as he read them; his quotations from the Fathers are preserved as he gives them. Chapter and verse citations, and the numbering of divisions, are set in the ordinary Arabic style now familiar to readers (for example, Eph. 2:14–16). In keeping with the conventions of this series, the author is named as the Church receives him—Saint Theophan the Recluse—and those who have carried his work into English are credited as translators, never as authors. Doctrine-critical passages—the opening blessing on election, adoption, and the seal of the Spirit; salvation by grace through faith; the two made one in Christ; the confession of one body and one Spirit; and the great mystery of marriage—were checked against the Russian to keep the sense exact. The reader may therefore take this volume as a trustworthy presentation, in readable English, of what Theophan wrote for his own spiritual children.

7. Suggestions for Reading

Ephesians moves in long, weighty sentences that fold whole doctrines into a phrase, and its opening chapters can overwhelm anyone who hurries. Theophan’s practice of pausing over each small portion is precisely what allows them to open out one clause at a time, so it rewards a slow reading. Keep the Epistle itself at hand, and turn to the commentary only after the Apostle’s own words have been heard; then let Theophan lead you back through them. The many quotations from Chrysostom, Theodoret, and the rest are not a detour but the exposition itself—the Church remembering, across the centuries, how these words have been understood. Read this way, the commentary asks not only to be admired but to be inhabited: it is, finally, a guide to the reader’s own place within the one body of Christ, and an invitation to give thanks for a salvation prepared before the world was made and to walk in the unity, humility, and love to which the whole letter calls.

Introduction

The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Ephesus is a coastal city in Asia Minor, on the Cayster River, surrounded by a valley ringed by mountains. Across from it the sea forms a broad inlet, on the southern side of which lies the island of Samos. The favourable position of Ephesus made it a centre of trade, and from ancient times it held primacy in the region of the Ionians. In the early days of Christianity it was the metropolis of the proconsular province of Asia.

Besides trade, the arts also flourished there; it was a centre of learning as well. St. Chrysostom writes of it: “Ephesus is the chief city of Asia. It was dedicated to Artemis, where she enjoyed especial veneration as the supreme goddess. The reverence of her worshippers was so great that they refused to make known the name of the man who burned her temple—and it was burned. Many philosophers came from there; and even now one can still find many philosophers there.”

Here too was the seat of pagan magic, which derived from the mysteries of Artemis. Certain words were written—in fragments or in phrases whose meaning no one understood, yet to which great power was attributed. Clement of Alexandria mentions them in his Stromata. They were called εφεσια γραμματα, which some committed to memory, while others carried them written on scraps of parchment as a kind of amulet, as Plutarch writes in his Symposiaca.

A considerable number of Jews lived in Ephesus and they had their own synagogue there, but there is no evidence that they gained any dominant position in any regard. Among the great multitude of Gentiles, amid the variously developing life of paganism, they were nearly invisible.

Judging by all this, St. Paul had no small labour and struggle before him; yet the grace of God, which was working in him and guiding him, helped him and taught him to overcome everything and to establish here the famous Christian Church, the heir to the glory and influence of the Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch.

When St. Paul first visited Ephesus, there were as yet no Christians there. This was at the end of Paul the Apostle’s second missionary journey, after his year and a half’s stay in Corinth, on his way from there to Jerusalem, when he had occasion to stop in Ephesus. Having some free time and not wishing to waste it, St. Paul went down into the city and, entering the synagogue, reasoned with the Jews—doubtless concerning the hopes of Israel. The word sown by the Apostle found favourable soil there. Those who heard him and truly grasped the force of it asked St. Paul to remain with them longer. But he, needing to be in Jerusalem for the approaching feast, did not agree to this, but promised to come back to them again deliberately, if the Lord should will it (Acts 18:19–21).

This was the first proclamation of the Gospel heard in Ephesus. Whether anyone was converted by it is not noted; but when St. Paul arrived there a second time, he found both Christians and semi-Christians. The ones who continued the preaching he had begun were Aquila and Priscilla, who had come with him to Ephesus and been left there by him. As zealots for the glory of Christ the Lord, they certainly did not keep silent, but extended the word about Him wherever opportunity presented itself and success seemed likely.—To their word was soon added the bold and powerful speech of Apollos, a Jew, an eloquent man well versed in the Scriptures, who had come at that time from Alexandria to Ephesus. He had been instructed in the rudiments of the way of the Lord, and, fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught about the Lord accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. Hearing him, Aquila and Priscilla took him in and explained to him the way of the Lord more accurately. This circumstance, of course, served not to weaken but to kindle more greatly the teaching zeal of Apollos. But he could not remain long in Ephesus, and he, without waiting for St. Paul, sailed off to Corinth. The Ephesian brethren gave him letters of commendation to the Christians there, to dispose them to receive him in a brotherly manner (Acts 18:24–27).—Already, then, there were brethren in Ephesus, by whom one ought not understand only Aquila and Priscilla, though, it must be granted, they stood at the head of the others as personally acquainted with the brethren in Corinth in Christ.

Meanwhile, as this was taking place in Ephesus, St. Paul, having visited Jerusalem and Antioch and passed through Phrygia, Galatia, and the upper regions, finally arrived in Ephesus as he had promised, and was of course met and received with gladdened hearts by those who had understood him the first time and had already come to know the way of the Lord. The Apostle’s labours in the proclamation of the Gospel then began at once.

First of all, he completed those who were incomplete. Among the believers there were about twelve men who, like Apollos, knew only and had received the baptism of John. It is not surprising that these were disciples of Apollos. Perceiving what they were, St. Paul taught them what they did not yet know and gave them what they did not yet possess. The distinguishing mark of Christians is the grace and gift of the Holy Spirit, from the anointing of Whom they derive their very name. Yet those disciples had not so much as heard that there is a Holy Spirit, having been baptized only with the baptism of John. St. Paul explained to them that the baptism of John is but the vestibule to the Kingdom of God. The door into it is baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus, and the completion of the sons of the Kingdom is the grace of the Holy Spirit. Having received the Apostle’s word with full faith, they were baptized with Christian baptism and, upon the laying on of the Apostle’s hands, received the descent of the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues and to prophesy (Acts 19:2–7).

After this began the preaching of the Gospel to the Ephesians. At first St. Paul, according to his custom, turned to the Jews. For three months he went to the synagogue, preaching boldly and convincing all that the Kingdom of God had come in the Lord Jesus Christ. But as there was little success—on the contrary, people disputed with him, hardened themselves against him and his holy teaching, and reviled the way of the Lord—St. Paul left the synagogue, separated out those who had believed, and turned to the Gentiles with the proclamation, which he offered daily in the school of a certain Tyrannus (Acts 19:9).

For two years the Apostle taught there. Jews and Greeks came to him—local and from afar, near and distant—so that all the inhabitants of Asia heard the proclamation about the Lord Jesus. The Church of God spread wide its branches (Acts 19:10).

Surely the holy Apostle spared no effort or word in proclaiming the will of God and expounding the deepest mysteries of the faith, as St. Chrysostom notes. But success comes not from verbal persuasion, but from the power of the Spirit that set the Apostolic word in motion—and especially from striking signs and wonders. What St. Mark says—“they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the signs that followed” (Mk. 16:20)—was repeated with every Apostle. This was the case with St. Paul too, as in all the places of his preaching, so also in Ephesus. St. Luke notes in the Acts: “God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out of them” (Acts 19:11, 12).

And the name of the Lord Jesus, proclaimed by St. Paul, was magnified, so much so that certain exorcists began to use this adorable name over those who had evil spirits, in order to cast them out. There were probably effects from this, just as there had been during the Lord’s own lifetime on earth, as St. John reported to Him (Lk. 9:49). This may have come about through the terror of the demons, who, having been utterly smitten by the Lord, did not know where to turn at the mere sound of His name—in accordance with the word of Scripture: “The wicked man flees when no one pursues” (Prov. 28:1)—and all the more so the demon, as St. Antony the Great observes in the discourse preserved by St. Athanasius the Great in his life. The Lord Himself bore with this for a time. But then it was necessary to show everyone that in God’s domain it is not words and names that are fearsome, but above all the spirit of faith with which they are uttered. Therefore He permitted the demon in one possessed man to rise up against these exorcists, and he, with the words: “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?…” “rushed at them… and, overpowering them, gained such mastery over them that they fled out of that house,” where the possessed man was—naked and wounded. There were seven of them (Acts 19:13–16).

When news of this spread among the Jews and Greeks, fear fell upon all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. From this the spell of sorcery vanished, and the are of magic lost its value. The sorcerers themselves, gathering their books together, burned them before everyone. It was no small sacrifice. The combined value of the books came to fifty thousand drachmas. This showed that paganism here was broken and its root shaken. The number of believers grew, and those who were converted came and confessed their evil deeds—of course with a pledge to refrain from them, as was required of everyone approaching baptism, in hope of receiving also the gift of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of the Apostolic hands. “So mightily did the word of the Lord grow and prevail” (Acts 19:20).

The activity of St. Paul during so long a stay in Ephesus was not, it must be supposed, confined to this city alone, but extended throughout Asia and even beyond its borders. The Asian Churches mentioned in the Apocalypse—besides Ephesus: Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea (Rev. 1:11), as well as Colossae and Hierapolis (Col. 4:13)—in all likelihood received their beginning at this time, either directly from Paul himself or through his coworkers, by his direction and guidance. In this respect it may be said that Ephesus now became for the Apostle what Antioch had hitherto been—the point of departure for his Apostolic activity. It is also known that from here St. Paul wrote his Epistles to the Galatians and First Corinthians—the former at the beginning of his stay in Ephesus, and the latter just before the very end.

At length, seeing that very firm foundations had been laid for Christianity here, St. Paul proposed to leave Ephesus and, after visiting the churches of Macedonia and Achaia, to spend time in Jerusalem, and then make his way to Rome. He had already made arrangements to this end, having sent Timothy and Erastus ahead of him into Macedonia, when a considerable riot against the way of the Lord broke out in Ephesus, stirred up by Demetrius the silversmith. This hastened St. Paul’s departure from Ephesus, and he, once the riot had been quelled by the wisdom of the local keeper of order, gave the necessary instructions to the disciples, bade them farewell, and went into Macedonia (Acts 19:21–40, 20:1).

Having visited the Macedonian churches and given the believers everywhere abundant instruction, he came to Greece, where he was able to stay only three months, because a disturbance against him stirred up by the Jews forced him to leave that country (Acts 20:2, 3).

The Apostle returned from there again through Macedonia. The route then lay past Ephesus, but St. Paul decided not to stop there, so as not to be delayed in Asia, for he wished to reach Jerusalem in time for Pentecost. The ship stopped at Miletus, a little south of Ephesus. Time permitted, and the Apostle invited from Ephesus and, in all likelihood, from other places the leaders of the churches, in order to give them final instructions and bid them farewell (Acts 20:14–17).

When they arrived, he said to them: you know how I conducted myself among you from the first day that I came into Asia. I taught you publicly and from house to house, and kept back nothing that was profitable—declaring to Jews and Greeks “repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there; only the Holy Spirit testifies in every city that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry “I received from the Lord Jesus” Christ—“to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.” You will see my face no more. But I have declared to you the whole counsel of God. Guard what has been entrusted to you and continue to be built up on the foundation that has been laid. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the Church of the Lord and God, which He purchased with His own blood. After my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves men will arise speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be vigilant, remembering that for three years, night and day, with tears I taught every one of you. From now on may God and His grace build you up more and more, to bring you to completion to the inheritance with all those who are sanctified.—Having then recalled how, while living among them, he not only took nothing from anyone but, supporting himself and those with him by the labour of his own hands, gave also to those in need, remembering the word of the Lord, that it is more blessed to give than to receive—St. Paul, falling on his knees, prayed with them all. All wept and, falling on his neck, kissed him, grieving especially because, as he had said, they would see his face no more. Thus they accompanied him to the ship and bade him farewell (Acts 20:17–38).

Such was the end of St. Paul’s personal dealings with the Ephesians; but not the end of his care for them nor of his spiritual communion with them, as the Epistle written to them bears witness.

The Circumstances of the Writing of the Epistle

Where was it written?

This Epistle was written by St. Paul while in bonds, as is mentioned more than once in the Epistle itself (Eph. 3:1, 4:1, 6:20). But St. Paul’s bonds began shortly after his farewell to the Ephesians. Immediately following his departure from Miletus, in the places where he stopped, the prophets spoke definitive words about the inevitable bonds awaiting him, which he himself also foresaw (Acts 21:4, 10–14). And as soon as he appeared in Jerusalem, he was seized within a few days by Jews from Asia and delivered over to the fury of the people, who would have taken his life had not the pagan authorities intervened on his behalf. They took him and kept him in bonds—first in Caesarea, and then in Rome. Thus it was that the Gentiles preserved, for the time appointed from above, the preacher of Gospel truth who had been destined for them!

So St. Paul’s bonds began in Jerusalem, lasted about two years in Caesarea, and ended after a further two years in Rome. The composition of the Epistle might be attributed to any of the Apostle’s places of imprisonment. But in Jerusalem there was no time to write; it must have been in Caesarea or in Rome. Where, then?—It is better to suppose Caesarea. What leads to this supposition is that it makes it easier to resolve certain difficulties that arise from the peculiarities of the Epistle, as we shall see. But some hints of this may also be found in the Epistle itself.

In the Epistle there is not the slightest indication of any changes in the Ephesian Church, for better or for worse. It sees her as the same as she was when St. Paul left her. If anything worthy of note had occurred there, the Apostle would not have failed to mention it, as he did later in the Epistle to the Colossians. Judging by the changeableness of human affairs, one must admit that if the Ephesians were still the same when St. Paul wrote this Epistle, it was surely because there had not yet been time for them to change—and that, consequently, it was written to them soon after St. Paul’s departure from there. If so, it was written from Caesarea, for writing from Rome would not be soon, but in the third or fourth year after the Apostle’s parting from them. In so great an interval of time, how much might have happened in Ephesus, as we see in the cases of Thessalonica, Corinth, and Galatia!—And the Apostle would not have kept silent about it.

This may also be suggested by the fact that the Apostle asks the Ephesians to pray that speech may be given to him, to open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel (Eph. 6:19). This prayer fits the Caesarean imprisonment better than the Roman: for in Rome the Apostle enjoyed greater freedom, while in Caesarea he was truly confined, with only certain people allowed to come to him (Acts 24:23).

Moreover, the following may be taken into account. During the two years in Caesarea (Acts 24:27), did St. Paul really spend the time doing nothing? He could not have sat there with his hands folded; but since he had no opportunity to enter personally into dealings with those he had converted to Christianity or to work toward the conversion of others, he was likely writing. Perhaps some of those Epistles that are counted as lost were written by him during this time. But first and foremost he wrote to the Ephesians, from whom he had only just parted and whose memory was pressing upon his mind.

The Epistle indicates no particular occasion for its composition, as has already been noted. But judging by the inspiration and lofty tone of the entire Epistle, it may be considered probable that what disposed St. Paul to write it was his desire to share with the Ephesians those sublime contemplations into which he had been led by the Spirit of God during his imprisonment and which were filling his spirit with wonder.

Let us enter the cell of this prisoner guided by God. He endured bonds for the sake of Christian freedom and for the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles, to which he had been called by the Lord Himself, Who had confirmed this calling not long before in Jerusalem (Acts 23:11). St. Paul’s attention had not been able to turn away from this subject even before; but now he was chained to it by his very bonds. Since in the Caesarean imprisonment only certain close persons were permitted to come to St. Paul, and even they only for his care (Acts 24:23), he was almost entirely alone with himself. It was natural for him, standing before the face of the Lord in inward converse, to plunge more deeply into the work that had been laid upon him. The calling of the Gentiles had already begun, by the manifest will of God and by divine direction. Simple faith illuminates every event by placing it within the plans of God’s Providence. But the actual contemplation of the place and significance of current events in the sequence of the acts of divine Providence is not granted to all, nor does everyone strive to enter into it. The finger of God was visible in the calling of the Gentiles, and the Apostle touched it. But into the very mysteries of God concerning this he had not yet entered, and the Spirit of God had not yet led him there: for even to God’s chosen ones, truths are not disclosed all at once and comprehensively, but gradually, according to the need for them and the readiness to receive them. And so now only the Spirit of God—the same Spirit that had drawn the Apostle to Jerusalem for his bonds—leads his spirit into a full contemplation of the mystery of God in the calling of the Gentiles alongside the Jews and the formation of a single saving Kingdom of Christ from both. That the Jews are called is not surprising: they were chosen for this from of old. But what is the calling of the Gentiles?—Entering into this, the Apostle did not stop at the outward appearance of this event, but ascended to its very beginning in the eternal counsel of God, set it in relation to the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, to the angelic world, to the human world, and to all created things, and followed its movement through all the ages—to the recapitulation of all things in Christ Jesus in eternity.

And he was a minister of this mystery. Through him God in Christ united Jews and Gentiles, so that from both He might form a new race which, being united with God in the Lord Jesus and remaining united within itself by the spirit of love and brotherly communion, might grow in perfection—like a healthy body developing harmoniously, or a solid building wisely constructed.

It was natural for an Apostle’s spirit filled with such contemplations to wish to share them with his beloved spiritual children and to communicate them in fitting words. The last church over which he had laboured so greatly was the Church of Ephesus. To her he communicates this portrayal of the fullness of God’s wisdom in the ordering of the Church and the salvation of all—for no other reason than that they too might become partakers of this knowledge and be gladdened by it. That is why he touches on no particular incidents in the Ephesian Church, nor on his own time among them. All of that presented nothing special that would harmonize with what was occupying his spirit. The sublimity of his contemplations did not allow him to descend to lower things. He is wholly absorbed in the great mystery of God—now as it exists in God, now as it is realized in the Lord Jesus Christ, now as it is received by earthborn humanity, now as it is perceived even by the heavenly ones, now as it will finally be revealed in eternity in all its glory. Only in depicting the obligations of Christian community life does he descend to earth, but even there you see that he views everything from the perspective of that same mystery of the union of all into one body under Christ as the Head.

That he sets all this forth to the Ephesians with such inspiration in order that they too might come to know the mystery of God’s wisdom and rejoice—this is stated directly in the Epistle. Thus at the beginning St. Paul prays that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give” them “a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance among the saints” (Eph. 1:16–18). And at the end again he “bows ‘his knees before the Father of our Lord… that He might grant’ them…‘to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height’ (of this mystery)… ‘and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge’ (manifested in calling them into His Kingdom) (Eph. 3:14–19). How palpable is the Apostle’s desire in these words—that the Ephesians too should enter into the contemplation of that same mystery and be filled with the same blessed wonder that overshadowed him.”

But while such reasoning sufficiently explains the origin of the Epistle to the Ephesians from a human standpoint, the Spirit of God working in the Apostle’s spirit could not have been limited to this. One may further infer that He disposed the Apostle to set forth the revelations communicated to him as a guide for the whole Church for all subsequent time, to leave as it were a memorial book about the great work of building the Church of God from Jews and Gentiles.

Let us consider the course of affairs in the Church at that time. The Apostle Paul, wherever he preached, always turned first to the Jews and only then moved on to the Gentiles. The first believers everywhere came from the Jews. To them were added believers from among the Gentiles as well. But everywhere the matter went in such a way that the latter soon surpassed the former in number, so that the Jews seemed to disappear in the mass of them. So it was in Thessalonica, so in Corinth, so among the Galatians, so finally in Ephesus and throughout Asia. Everywhere within the range of the Apostle’s activity, the Greeks absorbed the Jews. But if this was so then, at the beginning, all the more must it have taken place in subsequent times. The Apostle could not but see that afterwards the distinction between Jew and Greek would be completely effaced, and everywhere only Christians would be visible without such external marks. But for all that, the truth that the root of Christianity is in the Old Testament and that the Greeks were grafted onto the tree of Israel must always be known and held by faith. Were it to be forgotten, Christianity would appear as something detached. The Gentiles, out of a sense of gratitude, must never forget that they entered as though into another’s inheritance, solely by the mercy of God. And it was becoming easy to forget this, as before their eyes the very persons who could remind them of it by their mere presence (that is, the Jews) were more and more fading away. Hence the need arose to make known to future generations who they had been and how they had come to share in so many blessings—so that they might remember this and, remembering, give thanks to God, and strive in every way to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of so high a calling. This is what St. Paul does in the Epistle to the Ephesians. That is why he concludes his explanation of the mystery of the calling of the Gentiles into the Kingdom of Christ with the injunction: remember, you Gentiles, that you were once without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ… you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and members of God’s household (Eph. 2:11–19). This is a lesson not only for the Ephesians, but for all believers of subsequent ages who are not from the Jews. Consequently, for us as well.

“Remember!”—Had St. Paul noticed that they were in fact beginning to forget; that in forgetting, they were no longer maintaining the proper relation toward the Jews, either setting themselves apart from them or despising them; and that further, perhaps, they were forgetting the greatness of God’s gift of calling to the grace of Christ, and hence were no longer specially concerned with living in a manner worthy of their calling? The removal of all such distortions may well have been one of St. Paul’s concerns. In the Epistle to the Romans he had already admonished the Gentiles about this. Now he gazes more deeply into this truth, in order to act more powerfully upon their minds and to seal it indelibly in their hearts.

Nor should we pass over without attention what the Apostle further says: “I ask that you not lose heart over my afflictions for your sake, which are your glory” (Eph. 3:13).—Was his imprisonment unsettling some of the believing Gentiles—some because he was suffering on their account, others because they could not understand how a person of such eminence, armed with such signs, could be in bonds?—This unsettlement he dispels with a single word: “do not lose heart…”—without dwelling long on it, given the insignificance of the matter and the small number of those disturbed. After explaining to them the mystery of the ordering of the Church, it followed of itself: when there is such good from the preaching, is it worth paying attention to my afflictions? What sacrifices ought one to begrudge in order to communicate it to my brethren?

From such a view of the origin and purpose of the Epistle to the Ephesians, the peculiarities that sharply distinguish it from all others are explained of themselves.

The first of these peculiarities is the sublimity of the content, together with the corresponding rapture of speech and the all-embracing sweep of thought. St. Chrysostom writes: “It is said that when St. Paul was still orally instructing the Ephesians, he had already entrusted them with the deepest truths of the faith. At any rate, the Epistle itself is full of sublime contemplations and doctrines… It is full of lofty and boundless contemplations; in it he expounds what he has written almost nowhere else.” Anyone will verify this for himself as soon as he begins to read the Epistle. The vision of the infinite blessings of which we have been made partakers in Christ Jesus enraptures the Apostle and swarms within him with holy thoughts and feelings in such abundance and with such swiftness that he cannot quite catch them in words. Thought after thought flows on unrestrained, until the whole subject that animated the Apostle is exhausted. And the words multiply: for the Apostle wished only to outline each object of contemplation, without pausing specially on any one of them, but marking it in the general succession of intellectual visions passing through his consciousness. Judging by such a character of the Epistle’s content and by the tone of its speech, it stands among the other Epistles of the Apostle Paul as the Gospel of John stands among the Gospels.

The second peculiarity of this Epistle—a direct consequence of the preceding—is its universality. The Apostle depicts the nature of Christianity in general—how from eternity God purposed to save us in His Son, how the Son of God came to earth and accomplished this salvation, how we all become partakers of this salvation, and how in consequence we ought to live and act. He refers to no historical incidents. Everything he says can apply to any Christian society. One distinction of persons is visible, under the words “we” and “you.” This “we” means Jews, and “you” means Gentiles, whose fusion into one body of the Church in the Lord was the point of departure for all the contemplations that carried the Apostle away. Founding upon such universality of the Epistle’s content, some have called it a universal Christian catechism. And new missionaries may indeed take it as a norm in the first instruction of those of other faiths.

From the first two arises a third peculiarity of the Epistle—namely, that it contains no references to any historical circumstances either of the Apostle himself or of the Ephesians to whom he wrote it, and that it does not include greetings to any persons, especially those of note in the Ephesian Church and close to the Apostle, as he does in all his other Epistles. The only mentions there are concern the Apostle’s bonds and his appointment to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, and Tychicus, the well-known companion of St. Paul and bearer of his Epistles.—The Apostle had no wish to descend to any ordinary matters amid such extraordinary and all-embracing contemplations, in which he naturally continued to dwell even after setting them forth in words. It is noted of philosophers too that when they chance to enter deeply into certain metaphysical speculations, these long afterwards occupy their soul, and they are reluctant at such times to occupy themselves with anything passing.

Was This Epistle Written to the Ephesians?

Such peculiarities of the Epistle, together with certain expressions in it, cause some to wonder and waver as to whether it was written to the Ephesians. That it was written by St. Paul is doubted by almost no one, or the doubters are so few and the grounds of their unbelief so trifling that they do not merit attention. But many say: this Epistle was written by the Apostle Paul—only it was not written to the Ephesians.

A) St. Paul had recently left Ephesus, where he had stayed so long, where he was so sincerely loved and honoured, and where he himself, in turn, certainly had many persons toward whom he bore a special affection. Is it possible that in writing an Epistle to them, he would not say a word to any one of them?—But this is sufficiently explained by the state of spirit in which St. Paul found himself while writing this Epistle, as noted above. And it is conclusively explained by the circumstance that the Epistle was written from Caesarea, where the bonds were more confining and the enemies nearer and more bitter. For the first time St. Paul found himself in such prolonged and severe bonds. Enemies furious with him surrounded him on every side. Humanly speaking, he could not but fear various injustices and unpleasantnesses from them. The Jews were surely watching him sharply and were ready to do anything to cause him harm in some way. Knowing this, he, in writing the Epistle, mentions no one from among either the Jews or the Gentiles, fearing that the Epistle might fall into the hands of his enemies and they would cause trouble to him and to those mentioned—whether these were Jews or Gentiles: Jews, because they still remained hierarchically dependent on the authorities of Jerusalem; Gentiles, because with regard to them, the Jews could say to the governor: “He is seducing even your people, drawing them away from Caesar and subjecting them to a certain Christ.” Moreover, the governor was already expecting a ransom from the Apostle Paul (Acts 24:26), and upon learning how wide was the circle of his admirers and how influential they were, would have resorted to something even more than idle waiting. For all these reasons, St. Paul considered it necessary not to mention in the Epistle any persons from the Ephesian Church to which he was writing. If the Epistle were seized, no one could be singled out except the Apostle Paul and Tychicus, who were present and well known to all as to their character. The same need to convey special greetings to individuals could be fulfilled verbally by Tychicus, who was there with the Apostle and knew everyone well.

B) By this same circumstance one can also explain the second difficulty, which is drawn from the Apostle’s words: “having heard” “of your faith” (Eph. 1:15). How, they say, could he have written this to the Ephesians, whom he himself had converted and whose faith and works he knew personally? Surely he was not writing to them but to some others—the Laodiceans, for example, or elsewhere.—But—apart from the fact that this “having heard” can be understood not as referring to the initial conversion, but to steadfastness and growth in faith and love, as Theodoret also interprets that passage—and apart from the fact that in the word “having heard” one may discern the sense of “being assured”—this manner of expression may be supposed to have been compelled from the Apostle by the same circumstance of the severity of his bonds and the proximity of evil enemies. For the same reason that he made no greetings, he said “having heard,” so as to keep all at a distance and give no occasion for interrogations and questions. If these had been put to him, St. Paul could now say: I wrote to all those whom I have not even seen. If you need them, seek them yourselves, if you wish.

C) A third difficulty arose from the fact that in certain manuscripts the superscription of the Epistle lacks the phrase “in Ephesus”—in the words: “to the saints who are in Ephesus”—and reads only: “to the saints who are and faithful in Christ Jesus.” If this indication of Ephesus is absent from the text, then the Epistle was surely not written there, but rather to all Christians. This, they say, is a circular epistle to the Greeks or Asians, like the Epistle to the Hebrews.—In content it is indeed of such a character; but if its original destination from the Apostle had been of such a kind, then the superscription would have used quite a different form: “to the saints who are and faithful,” but rather: “to the saints who are everywhere,” or, as in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, “‘who are in all’ Asia”, or as in the First to those same Corinthians—“to all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus,” or as in the Epistle to the Galatians: “‘to the churches’ of Asia” (2Cor. 1:1; 1Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:2). In the form as it stands in the manuscripts cited—“to the saints who are,” without designation of place—the word “who are” hangs in the air. Upon hearing it, one immediately expects an indication of location, as in all other Epistles—for example, “who are in Rome, who are in Philippi, who are in Colossae,” and so forth.—And when such an indication is absent, one cannot escape the desire to fill this gap with a similar indication. The words “in Ephesus” fill it and restore proper order to the flow of the text.

But is it worth paying attention to this omission in two or three manuscripts?—If only in these two or three manuscripts was this word missing, one truly could pass over the case without dwelling on it, especially given the universal testimony of antiquity that this Epistle is the Epistle of St. Paul and was written by him specifically to the Ephesians. But in antiquity itself there are found oscillations regarding the reading of this word in the text, and this circumstance especially requires explanation. Indeed, antiquity presents two instances from which it is apparent that some even then wavered as to whether to read “in Ephesus” in the text.—But in those same instances, by the very persons who mention this, it is attested with full assurance that both they and the whole Church regard this Epistle as unquestionably written by St. Paul to the Ephesians. The conclusion from this will be: the Epistle was unquestionably written to the Ephesians, but for some reason certain copies do not have “in Ephesus” in the superscription. The question reduces not to whether the Epistle was written to the Ephesians, but to how it came about that in some copies “in Ephesus” does not appear after “who are,” when all of antiquity acknowledges this Epistle as written to the Ephesians, and the form of expression in the text is such that it necessarily makes one expect an indication of place.

It thus turns out that the whole dispute here is over a letter. And one can, without detriment to the cause of truth, answer the proposed question: how this came about, we do not know.

Some insist on proving that this word was in the original Apostolic Epistle, not noticing that it is far harder to explain how it, having been in the original, subsequently fell out in certain copies, than how it, not having been in the original, came later to be inserted into it—and moreover in such a way that eventually this manner of writing became the dominant one. The possibility of the latter case is easily explained by the same circumstance that helps to resolve the other difficulties—namely, that the Epistle was written from the bonds of Caesarea, under fear lest the enemies, by means of an indication of the locality of its destination, cause harm to those to whom the Epistle was written. The Apostle Paul instructed the copyist of the Epistle not to write “in Ephesus” after “who are,” explaining the reason for this to Tychicus and entrusting him, along with other verbal commissions (the conveyance of greetings to the most distinguished persons), to explain also why this was done—and leaving the Ephesians free to insert this word or not. Of those who copied this Epistle, those who knew of such an arrangement of the Apostle inserted “in Ephesus,” while those who did not know omitted it. Thus the general conviction spread that this Epistle is addressed to the Ephesians, while in the copies some had “in Ephesus” and others omitted it.

The first hint of the absence of this word in certain ancient copies is seen in the words of Tertullian against Marcion, the well-known distorter and bold corruptor of the New Testament Scriptures. In Book 5 against Marcion, chapter 2, he says that the Epistle which among us bears the superscription—“to the Ephesians”—the heretics inscribe as addressed to the Laodiceans. And below, in chapter 17, he adds: “By the indubitable testimony of the Church, that Epistle was written to the Ephesians, not to the Laodiceans, but Marcion changed its superscription.”—From this it is inferred that neither Marcion nor Tertullian had the words “in Ephesus” in the text of their copies of the Epistle. If Marcion had “in Ephesus” in the text, he could not have placed above it the superscription “to the Laodiceans.” If he did this, it was surely by taking advantage of the circumstance that he had come upon a manuscript without this word in the text. If Tertullian had “in Ephesus” in the text of his copy of the Epistle, he would have attacked Marcion not as one who had altered the title, but as one who had corrupted the text of the Scriptures. This last inference is not entirely strict. Tertullian mentions this in passing and may have limited himself to a light indication of the change of title without entering into detailed examination of the whole matter. Tertullian used the Latin translation Itala, in which one reads “in Epheso.” In this circumstance what is precious to us is Tertullian’s testimony about the universal voice of the Church regarding the Epistle. As for Marcion’s action—and it is well known how arbitrarily he treated God’s Scripture—it is of no great importance and only hints that he had a manuscript without Εν Εφεσω.

The second instance that gives occasion to suppose that in antiquity there were copies in which “in Ephesus” was not read is found in the words of St. Basil the Great against Eunomius. Eunomius denied the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having gathered against him a great number of proofs from Scripture that the Lord Jesus Christ is the true God, without beginning, eternally living—the “I AM” (Ex. 3:14)—he among other things adduces the following: “In one place the Apostle calls the Gentiles non-being, because they lacked knowledge of God: ‘God chose what is not’ (1Cor. 1:28). Indeed, since God is the One Who Is, and Truth, and Life, people not united by faith with God Who Is, and having become akin to the non-existence of falsehood through their error regarding idols, are rightly called, as I think, non-being—for lack of truth and for alienation from life. On the other hand, the same Apostle, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, named them, in a special sense, those who are, as those sincerely united by means of knowledge with the One Who Is, saying: ‘to the saints who are, and faithful in Christ Jesus’ (Eph. 1:1). Thus did those who came before us transmit this, and we ourselves found it in ancient copies. So even the servants of Christ share in this name; but Eunomius refused to grant this name to our very God, and called Him non-being—Him Who brought creation from nothing into being.” (Works of the Holy Fathers in Russian Translation. Vol. 3. Against Eunomius. Book 2.)

From this passage it is apparent of itself that the attention of St. Basil the Great is occupied not with the question of how to read the superscription of the Epistle—with εν Εφεσω or without it—but with how those of the ancients who did not read this word interpreted the word “who are,” without entering into consideration of whether it ought to be read thus or not. Finding it possible to make use of this interpretation against Eunomius, St. Basil adduces it. But lest it should appear that he believes every rumour, he says that he has seen manuscripts in which the word “in Ephesus” does not stand, but only “who are.” It is not apparent that St. Basil the Great attached any importance to the reading or non-reading of “in Ephesus;” he simply did not miss the opportunity to turn this too into a weapon in his struggle with Eunomius. St. Basil himself is convinced that the Epistle was written to the Ephesians, for he says: “the Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesians.”—And the list of St. Paul’s Epistles in the Church of Caesarea evidently had “in Ephesus,” and likewise all the churches of neighbouring regions read this word: otherwise St. Basil would have appealed to them.—Thus, if one extracts from the words of Basil the Great only what pertains to our subject, the conclusion is: read it or read it not in the text—“in Ephesus;” only hold the conviction that the Epistle was written to the Ephesians.

Blessed Jerome, adducing this interpretation of the word “who are,” calls it too subtle, deriving it from Origen. He himself retains the simple and straightforward understanding of this word: “who are,” that is, “in Ephesus.”

Thus antiquity does clearly attest that in certain copies “in Ephesus” was not read. But this had no effect on the conviction that the Epistle was written to the Ephesians. This conviction remained universally unchanged. And because of it, copies with “in Ephesus” almost entirely displaced copies without this word. This is evident from the most ancient translations—the Peshitta and the Itala—in which “in Ephesus” stands.

Two or three manuscripts have, however, come down to us, from which one may infer vacillation regarding the reading of this word. In the Sinaitic manuscript this word is absent; in the Vatican manuscript it stands in the margin and has been added—some say by the same hand, others by a different one; in the manuscript numbered 67 it stands in the text but has been subsequently crossed out.—One manuscript is definitive; two others are uncertain. But even if all three spoke decisively—what are they in comparison with the entire number of the other reputable manuscripts, in all of which this word is read? Yet since, for all that, one cannot fail to pay attention to this omission in a few manuscripts either, it is sufficiently explained by the supposition we advanced above regarding the possibility of both readings arising, without prejudice to the certainty that the Epistle was written to the Ephesians.

On the basis of this omission of the words “in Ephesus,” some have supposed that this Epistle was an encyclical—not destined for one place, but for all or many. But in that case nothing would have prevented the writing “to those who are everywhere,” or “to all who call upon the name of the Lord,” as has been noted. And as the text stands in those manuscripts—after “who are” a definite place is necessarily required. This is also required by the notification at the end that Tychicus will tell them all that concerns the Apostle. There must have been a definite place to which Tychicus was sent with the Epistle; otherwise such a commission would be difficult to fulfil literally.

Even less tenable is the supposition that after “who are” a blank was left so that Tychicus could write in the place to which he was bringing the Epistle. Several copies of it were written. And one cannot imagine any need for such an absurd procedure.

As for the opinion that this Epistle was written to the Laodiceans—the omission still requires explanation in that case too. But for it to have been written to the Laodiceans, there stands in the way the impossibility of explaining how, if so, the Epistle came to be acknowledged by all of antiquity as an Epistle to the Ephesians—when besides the Laodicean Church, testimony to that effect would also come from the Colossian Church, to which St. Paul wrote that they should read that Epistle.—As for Marcion’s arbitrary action, it is not worth paying attention to.

Let us therefore hold to the thought that the omission of the place did indeed occur, for the reason stated above, but that the Epistle was destined for the Ephesian Church. Such was the recognition given to it by all of antiquity; and copies were made, some with “in Ephesus” written in, and others without it.

Place and Time of Writing

We set out our view on the place from which the epistle was written at the very beginning, since that view conveniently resolves certain distinctive features of the epistle and the questions they raise. Having settled on it, we must now bring the date of composition into agreement with it. St Paul arrived in Ephesus in the year 55 or 56. He remained there three years. Several months were then spent travelling through Macedonia and staying in Achaia. After that came the attack on the Apostle in Jerusalem, which was immediately followed by his imprisonment in Caesarea. The writing of the Epistle to the Ephesians thus falls in the years 60 or 61.

Contents and Division of the Epistle

It has been said more than once already that the principal subject of the epistle is the mystery of the calling of the Gentiles to salvation—salvation which has been wrought for the whole human race in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, promised to the Jews—and the mystery of the fashioning of all peoples into the one Church of God, whose head is Christ the Lord. Having expounded this at length and with great fervour, St Paul then sets forth the rules of Christian life: in what spirit those who have been called into such a union as one body ought to live, and in what actions that spirit ought to express itself in all the orders of life in which every person is ordinarily placed. The first subject occupies the first three chapters; the second, the last three. To these are joined, at the beginning, the address and greeting (Eph. 1:1, 2), and at the end a brief conclusion (Eph. 6:12–24).

A more detailed development of the thoughts of each part will be offered in the commentary itself.

Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2)

The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2)

Eph. 1:1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.

“Paul.” The Apostle’s proper name was Saul. But as a Roman citizen he bore another name as well—Paul—which he began to use exclusively once he plunged into the mass of the Gentile world with his preaching about Christ Jesus. He places this name at the head of all his epistles. Under it he has remained known throughout the Christian world, which consists chiefly of converted Gentiles.

“Apostle.” Apostle is the rank of St Paul in the gracious Kingdom of Christ—the highest rank of all. The Lord Himself so named His twelve disciples (Lk. 6:13), choosing them in order that He might “send them out to preach” (Mk. 3:14). St Paul confesses elsewhere that he too has been appointed an Apostle and a preacher, in order that he might everywhere carry the testimony to that truth that “there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6). The significance of those who are envoys is well known from common usage, and it is no different in the gracious Kingdom. The difference lies in the person of the one who sends, in the authority granted to the one sent, and in the object of the mission. The Greeks called ambassadors πρεσβευς — representatives of a sovereign, executors of his will, and guardians of the interests of their state. Such too are the Apostles—God’s ambassadors, executors of His will and guardians of the interests of the Kingdom of grace. This is why in this same epistle St Paul, asking the Ephesians to pray that freedom might be given him to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel with boldness, adds: “for which I am an ambassador,” — πρεσβευω,—“in chains” (Eph. 6:20). His whole concern is for the spread of the Kingdom of Christ, as he says elsewhere: “We therefore serve as ambassadors for Christ,” — πρεσβευομεν,—“as God making His appeal through us… be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

“An apostle of Jesus Christ”—but “by the will of God.” The Lord Jesus chose and sent him, yet in such a way that this was also the will of God the Father. The Son does what He sees the Father doing. What the Father ordains, the Son carries into execution—seeing those decrees by virtue of His consubstantiality with the Father, His abiding in Him, His knowledge of all that belongs to the Father, and His participation in those very decrees. “By the will of God” the Father—which is also the will of the Son, by the one counsel of the persons of the Most Holy Trinity.

The decree that St Paul should be an Apostle was settled in heaven and brought to fulfillment on earth in due time. God’s will in this matter was made known to St Paul not through inward movements of feeling but visibly and tangibly, and moreover with such a powerful shaking of his whole being that it at once shook off all the prejudices that had settled over his keen mind, prejudices he had gathered from the Pharisaic sect. That he had been counted worthy of this gift by the special will of God, and above all that an extraordinary grace and mercy had been shown to him in transforming him from an enemy of Christ into an Apostle—this lay so deep in his heart and stood so constantly before his consciousness that he always made mention of it whenever he had occasion to say anything about his Apostleship. He was moved to do so both by a sense of gratitude for the mercy received and by a desire to assure those to whom he wrote or spoke that they were hearing from his lips undoubted divine truth, since he had not taken the preaching upon himself of his own initiative and had not been appointed to this work by men, but had been sent directly by the Lord Himself.

One commentator notes in this connection: the holy Apostle makes such frequent mention of his election to preach by the will of God in order to impress upon the souls of believers that the work of preaching, and more broadly every ministry in the Church, must not be arrogated to oneself by self-will, but must always be received by election—by the means established in the Church of God by God Himself, in the exercise of which the will of God is made manifest. This may also serve as an incentive for those who currently hold every degree of sacred ministry to examine themselves: whether everything in their election proceeded according to the pattern instituted by God—having regard not only to the outward order but to their own inward state and the testimony of their conscience.

“To the saints who are in Ephesus”—to the Christians living in Ephesus. A saint is a person pure and blameless, adorned with every virtue and free from every sin—not only as committed in deeds but as operating in thoughts and feelings as well—and therefore standing in the favour of God, near to God and accessible to Him. Were the believing Ephesians truly such? There is nothing surprising in this, given the liveliness of faith and the fervour of zeal with which people then drew near to the Lord, and still more given the abundance of grace poured out upon them in consequence. Sinners in the Church are an exception; the essential characteristic of the Church is that all her members should be holy. The local churches of that time were like pure virgins, having neither spot nor blemish—holy and without reproach (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:27). St Chrysostom says in this vein: “Observe—he calls saints even those who have children, wives, and servants… Such great carelessness now takes hold of all! How greatly zeal for virtue has weakened today! And how many virtuous people there were then, when even ordinary people were called holy and faithful!”

Among us today things have reached such a pass that sinfulness has become, as it were, the accepted norm of life for Christians, while holiness—or zeal for a good life—is the exception, which seldom passes without disapproving looks, and even mockery and opposition. Taking their cue from this, some interpret even the Apostle’s word “to the saints” as signifying nothing more than consecration to God—much as in the Old Testament tabernacle all the vessels were holy by reason of being dedicated to God, though inwardly they had neither holiness nor sinfulness. We cannot suppose that the Apostle by the word “saints” meant only this outward belonging to the Holy Church. At that time, in actual fact, all were holy and pure before God; if there were those who fell into sin, they disappeared into the general mass of the holy, and moreover, being surrounded on every side by the spirit of holiness, they immediately repented, corrected themselves, and again took their place in the ranks of the other, unfallen saints. And Christians as a whole were zealous not only that they themselves should be holy, but that all others should be holy as well, so that the entire community should bear not a single stain on account of any individual. Such ought all Christian communities (in their particular expressions) to be.

“And to the faithful in Christ Jesus.” The holy and the faithful are not two classes of persons—as if some were higher and others lower—but the same persons viewed from different sides of Christian life. Holiness is the goal of life; faith is its producer, its guard, its support, and its completion. “Faithful” means both one who believes and one who is faithful to the faith—both at once. The believer, having believed the good news of salvation in the Lord, forsakes his former evil life, repents, comes to baptism, and, reborn in it by the overshadowing of the grace of the Holy Spirit, goes forth to a life in the spirit of that faith, strengthened by that grace—being sooner ready to accept any kind of death than to abandon the confession of the faith or to transgress in any way the demands of the faith in his life. Such a disposition, representing the distinguishing characteristic of the “faithful,” is the producer of holiness, its keeper, and the one who brings it to its ultimate perfection. Thus by the word faithful St Paul showed how the holy come to be holy.

St Paul added “in Christ Jesus,” showing the source of faithfulness, and through it of holiness. Let no one think to accomplish anything spiritual by himself that would be fitting for the gracious Kingdom of Christ. Everything suited to that Kingdom is accomplished by the Spirit of God in Christ Jesus. But let no one think either that the Spirit of God will do anything in you and through you that is fitting for the Kingdom of Christ, as long as you yourself do not labour and exhaust all the powers that God has given you in your nature. In the work of salvation the two go together. Ambrosiaster writes: “The faithful are truly faithful only when they are also in Christ Jesus. For a good life has its full value and is truly holy only when it is so in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” By adding the words “in Christ Jesus,” St Paul reminded the Ephesians that if they are faithful, it is not by their own power, but that they owe this to their communion with the Lord Jesus, without whom they can do nothing worthy of the faith—and in doing so he cut off every occasion for pride in their faithfulness, while at the same time showing them where to seek faithfulness and holiness when they feel these to be failing.

Let us cite the thoughts of one commentator on these words: “One cannot fail to impress upon Christians that, by their high calling, they must be truly holy and untouched by sin—notwithstanding that they live in the midst of a world that serves sin and is given over to passions. Holding this up to view is, on the one hand, humbling: for who can say of himself that he is holy and measures up to the ideal of Christianity? On the other hand, it is inspiring: for who does not desire what is better? And which Christian is a stranger to the faith that he too has received the sanctifying grace of the Spirit, always ready to help and to guide? Both together will dispose one to flee the spirit of self-satisfaction, which leads to carelessness, and the spirit of timidity and indecision, by which one’s hands droop and one’s feet do not move, because they cut off all energy.”

The conjunction of holiness and faithfulness in the Apostle’s word—in the same persons—points to the inseparability of dogma and moral teaching in Christianity, and of faith and virtue in the life of every Christian. Faith, as soon as it is sealed in the heart by the Spirit of God, becomes a source of holiness for the regenerate person. But conversely, the more the zealot for holiness advances in it, the more his faith is purified and grows luminous within him. And this is the light of Christ!…

To keep the faith and to advance in holiness—this is both the yoke and the crown of the Christian. Remember where you begin and where you are going—the point of departure and the goal—these two poles of every movement. The beginning lies in your being graced through communion with the Lord by faith; the end lies in a God-like holiness. Neither the one nor the other is accomplished without living, personal communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The quality of holiness and the character of faithfulness are present in a Christian in no other way than from Christ the Lord. Each is present in him to the degree that he stands in living union with Christ. What, therefore, ought to claim all one’s attention?—The preservation of this communion with Christ, and growth in it. In this lies the key to the mysterious power of Christianity—the truth, the way, and the life—and not in learning and wide knowledge.

Eph. 1:2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Grace and peace!” In these two words the Apostle encompasses all the spiritual treasures of Christianity. Grace stands in relation to peace as a leaf or a root stands in relation to flower and fruit. Divine grace is the chief condition of Christian life, whose highest flower and fruit is peace. Grace comprises all the powers that belong to life and godliness; peace is the unshakeable possession of these gifts, their preservation and use. Peace with God in the conscience—inward peace—arising from the awareness of having found a firm foundation for life and firm hopes, and from bringing all one’s strivings into harmony and holding them in that harmony. There is also outward peace; but it is a providential outward aid, not a necessity for the interior life.

Thus the Apostolic good wish encompasses the highest and best that humble and reverent Christian feeling can hope to receive from a well-wisher. The highest—grace, which opens to the condemned sinner the way of approach to the merciful God the Father and unlocks for him the treasuries of His boundless love. The best—peace, which is established when, in the struggle of light and darkness within the innermost centre of personal life, the advantage remains with the light; when the troubling anxieties of conscience are stilled, and the heavy sense of unanswered guilt and condemnation finds a hopeful resolution.

In the fact that grace is always with the Christian, and that the promise of peace belongs to him—guaranteed by God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who are unfailing in word and deed—he finds consolation in sorrow and the courage for the inevitable struggle that is his lot. Where grace is, there too is peace, although the Christian does not always feel it in its full force while he remains engaged in the struggle with sin, with the powers of darkness, and with outward opposition to his good endeavours.

One may say that holiness and faith—spoken of above—stand in correspondence with grace and peace. Grace is the source of holiness; peace is the goal of faithfulness to the faith. Having received grace through faith, remain faithful to the faith, so as to keep grace always present, and with its help, advancing in holiness, to attain the peaceful disposition of heart in which God reposes—the sweet goal of the labours of a God-pleasing life.

The one who bestows grace is chiefly God the Father, and the peacemaker is God the Son in the Holy Spirit. This is why it is said: “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Blessed Jerome writes: “Either both belong to both together—that is, grace and peace to God the Father as well as to our Lord Jesus Christ; or one must be assigned to one and the other to the other—grace to God the Father and peace to the Lord Jesus Christ, as is indeed said a little further on: in ‘the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved’ (Eph. 1:6). The grace of the Father consists in His having willed to send His Son for our salvation, and the peace of the Son—in our being reconciled through Him to God the Father.” St Chrysostom says: “He said ‘grace’ and calls God Father, for that name is the mark of grace. How so?—Hear what he says elsewhere: ‘And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father’ (Gal. 4:6).” Blessed Theophylact sets forth the same thought more fully: “Having said ‘grace’ he adds ‘from God our Father’, to show what grace has accomplished for us—namely, that it has made the Master and God our Father. But the Lord, that is, God the Son, by grace toward us, became both Jesus and Christ; for by becoming incarnate for our sake He received the name Jesus and anointed humanity with the Godhead.”

To believers is given the right to become children of God, because they, having received the Lord, are born of God—they do not merely bear the name of sons, but are truly sons in essence (Jn. 1:12, 13). The Spirit of God, who accomplishes this, also implants the feeling of sonship, by reason of which the truly regenerate person addresses God as Father with the same disposition as a natural son addresses his natural father.

Jesus Christ is Lord not of us Christians only, but of the whole world; for to Him, as Mediator and Redeemer, all things have been handed over by the Father, and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given Him (Matt. 28:18), which He will exercise until the complete fulfilment of the entire plan of the economy of our salvation, when He will deliver up His Kingdom to God the Father (1 Cor. 15:24)—and “God will be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).

The Dogmatic Part (Ephesians 1:3–3:21)

A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

The subject of this part is the economy of our salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. St Damascene writes: “The chief subject (in this part) of the epistle is to set before the Ephesians the teaching concerning the grace of Christ. This grace is our restoration and sanctification in Him, inasmuch as we have become His body and have received Him as our head. The source of such grace is the goodness of God, praised with hymns throughout the ages. The way to it is redemption by the blood of Christ.”

The aim the Apostle had in setting forth this economy was to draw the Ephesians into contemplation of it, and thereby to give them—and in their person all Christians from among the Gentiles—reason to bear in mind the great benefaction of God shown to them through the calling of them also to participate in salvation. In order to achieve this more effectively, he first:

A.—gives a general survey of the economy of salvation, — Eph. 1:3–14, and then

B.—draws the Ephesians into contemplation of it, — Eph. 1:15–3:21.

A. Survey of the Economy of Salvation (Eph. 1:3–14)

In this survey the foundation is laid not only for the following section of the doctrinal part, but also for the moral part.

St Paul opens it with the exclamation: “Blessed be God” etc. This thanksgiving and doxology burst from the Apostle’s heart after his mind had surveyed the whole economy of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the mystery of the Godhead it had been ordained from eternity that the ordering of our salvation should come to pass; when the time came, the Son of God became incarnate, suffered, died, rose again, ascended into the heavens and sat at the right hand of God the Father; and to the earth He sent the Holy Spirit, who through the Apostles established upon it the Holy Church, the guardian of truth and grace; those who enter within its bounds partake of grace, are cleansed and sanctified, labouring in good works, until they pass through the gates of death from here and enter the heavenly dwellings “where Christ sits at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). This is the new and living way! Having surveyed it, the Apostle could not refrain from crying out: Blessed be God! That this exclamation was indeed a consequence of this survey is shown by the verses that follow, in which is set forth a) how from eternity in God the plan of our salvation was drawn up, vv. 3–6; b) how it was fulfilled by the Lord Jesus, vv. 7–10; and c) how we all become partakers of this salvation by the grace of the Holy Spirit and await the inheritance of eternal blessedness, vv. 11–14.

Eph. 1:3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

“Blessed be God!”—He begins with a doxology to God, arising from the fullness of grateful feeling for the great work of salvation, whose power he felt and whose greatness he encompassed in the contemplation of his mind. The greatness of these blessings raised him to a sense of the greatness of God who bestows them, which drew from his heart this doxological exclamation. Begun with the blessing of God, all the subsequent discourse rests upon it, developing and defining it. The holy Apostle sees the great work of salvation already at work in people through the preaching of the Gospel and the grace of the Holy Spirit. The sight of this enraptures his spirit, and he sketches all that he mentally contemplates in an inspired utterance—brief, yet all-encompassing. Is there another passage in Scripture equally brief yet all-encompassing? Somewhat akin to it are the eighteen verses of the Gospel of John the Theologian.

“The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“God and Father”—a majestic expression found not only in St Paul but also in other Apostles (Rom. 15:6; 1 Cor. 15:24; 2 Cor. 1:3, 11:31; Col. 1:3; Jas. 1:27, 3:9; 1 Pet. 1:3).—But what is the meaning? Some say: He is our God and the God of every creature, and the Father of our Lord. So blessed Theodoret: “He is clearly our God, and the Father of our Lord.”—Others refer both “God” and “Father” to the Lord Jesus Christ, saying that He is God to Him according to His humanity and Father according to His divinity. So blessed Theophylact: “Thus He is both God and Father of one and the same Christ—God, as of the One who became incarnate; Father, as of the divine Word.”

Blessed Jerome says that either understanding of these words is admissible. “One may read it in two ways: ‘Blessed be the God and Father’—our Lord Jesus Christ. Either thus: blessed be God, who is the Creator of all things, with the addition: ‘who is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’. Or thus, that both ‘God’ and ‘Father’ are referred to our Lord: Blessed be the God of the humanity assumed in the incarnation, and the Father of the incarnate God the Word, who was in the beginning with God—not as though the assumed humanity were one person and the Word that assumed it another, but inasmuch as one and the same, by reason of the distinction of natures, is called now by exalted names and now by lowly ones.”

In view of the fact that it is not contrary to the dogmas of the faith to confess God the Father as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ according to His humanity, there is no need to insist on the first interpretation, either of this passage or of all similar passages noted above. Further on, in v. 17, St Paul directs his prayer explicitly to “the God ‘of our Lord, the Father of Glory’ (Eph. 1:17). And the Lord Himself, in His words to Mary Magdalene, confessed God the Father as His God, saying: ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God’ (Jn. 20:17). One caution only is necessary in this regard: not to divide the Persons, following the guidance of blessed Jerome, but to confess one and the same Lord Jesus, for whom alone God the Father is both God and Father. It was fitting for the holy Apostle, as he blessed God for the greatness and abundance of His graces, to use such a turn of phrase. For the source of all of them is in fact this: that God the Father was pleased, and God the Son consented, to become incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Ever-Virgin Mary.—God is the Lord, and He has appeared to us. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Who has blessed us.” The Apostle’s gaze rests on what actually already is. He does not point to God’s general goodness, but to a specific great act of His goodness—the one in which God has blessed us through the already-accomplished work of our redemption in Jesus Christ the Lord. Together with Him He has also raised us up and made us sit in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6).

“With every” “blessing.” This includes both the abundance and the greatness and the unfailingness of the blessings—everything that has been granted to us through the incarnation of God the Word, His death, resurrection and ascension, and the descent of the Holy Spirit who acts in those who believe: the forgiveness of sins, sanctification by grace, sonship to God, the eternal inheritance, and the crown of all—the reception and indwelling of God Himself. “What more do you lack?” exclaims St Chrysostom. “You have become immortal, free, a son, a brother, a co-heir; you will reign together with the Lord and will be glorified together with Him. When He Himself is given to you, everything is given to you in Him. ‘How shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?’ (Rom. 8:32). ‘He has imparted to us the gifts of the divine Spirit, given us the hope of the Resurrection, the promise of immortality, the pledge of the Kingdom of Heaven, the dignity of adoption’” (blessed Theodoret).

God has blessed us with every blessing—and so we ourselves have become blessed as well, not with a notional blessing but with one that is truly received: just as by receiving goodness we become good, and by receiving holiness we become holy. Blessed Jerome writes: “By nature and essentially, God alone is good; but by communion with Him He makes us good as well. In the same way He makes us holy, which is why He says to Israel: ‘Be holy,’ for ‘I am holy’ (Lev. 20:7). Likewise, being Himself blessed, He makes us blessed as well. The Lawgiver gives the blessing, and ‘the blessing of the Lord is upon the head of the righteous’ (Prov. 10:6). Moreover He blessed us not with one blessing but with every blessing—not so that each received every single one, but so that when each person has one or several from the whole, all of us together, in our parts, possess the whole (meaning the gifts of the Holy Spirit).”

“With every spiritual blessing.” Having enumerated, as quoted above, the blessings granted to us in the Lord, St Chrysostom notes: “Not a word here about bodily things. The Saviour Himself said: ‘In the world you will have tribulation’ (Jn. 16:33), so as to turn away every thought from the bodily and direct all our attention to the spiritual. Those who cling to the bodily cannot even hear about the spiritual; and one who seeks the spiritual cannot receive it unless he first forsakes the bodily.”

Whether St Paul had in mind here to contrast the Christian blessing—spiritual—with the Jewish blessing—carnal—cannot be asserted with certainty. But this expression may lead the reader to such a thought. St Chrysostom says: “The Apostle here alludes to the blessing of the Jews, for they too received a blessing, but not a spiritual one. What in fact was said to them?—‘God shall bless you and shall bless the fruit of your womb’ (Deut. 7:13), and shall bless your going out and your coming in.”

“In the heavenly places.” “As if explaining how our blessing is spiritual, he says: ‘in the heavenly places.’ The blessing of the Jews was earthly, and for that reason bodily (blessed Theophylact). He speaks thus to show that we are blessed not with a worldly blessing but with a heavenly one—not with a perishable one but with an eternal one; for the glory of Christians is not on earth but in heaven and in Christ, as the Lord says: ‘Where I am, there My servant will be also’ (Jn. 12:26) (Ambrosiaster).—In the heavenly places,‘says St Chrysostom,’means the same as: not earthly blessings have been given to us, as to the Jews, who were promised that they would eat the good things of the land, that they would inherit a land flowing with milk and honey, and that God would bless their land (Ps. 127; Ex. 33; Num. 13, 14; Deut. 11:27, 31).—Here nothing of the kind is promised. What then is promised?—‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word… and My Father and I will come to him and make Our abode with him’ (Jn. 14:23). Also: ‘Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven’ (Matt. 10:32). Elsewhere: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God… Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 5:3, 8, 10). Do you see? Everywhere it is heaven, and not a word anywhere about earth or earthly things. This is why it is said: ‘Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Phil. 3:20). And again: ‘Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth’ (Col. 3:2).”

Some commentators give to the words “in the heavenly places” this meaning: in the heavens—before the earth or any creature existed—in the eternal counsel of God. But as was intentionally noted above, the Apostle here gives thanks to God for what he beholds as already truly accomplished in Christ Jesus, whereas of the pre-eternal decrees of God’s counsel he speaks in the next two or three verses. Our holy commentators, as their words cited above show, see in this phrase only an explanation of the “spiritual” blessing. In their understanding, “in the heavenly places” is equivalent to “heavenly.” The beginning of the blessing comes down from heaven, and there it receives its final completion.

Blessed Theodoret, having enumerated God’s blessings to us in the Lord, says: “This is what the Apostle called spiritual blessings, and he added: ‘in the heavenly places’—because all of these are heavenly gifts.” Blessed Jerome writes: “We are blessed not with earthly but with spiritual blessings. There are also earthly blessings—for example, to have children, to abound in wealth, to be held in honour, to enjoy good health. Earthly blessing extends even to animals; of them also it is said: God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:22).—But spiritual blessings are in the heavenly places, because the earth is not capable of containing a spiritual blessing. Even those blessings that are promised in the Law to those who keep the commandments (Lev. 26; Deut. 28) we do not see fulfilled in the prophets, who ‘went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated… wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes of the earth’ (Heb. 11:37, 38). So everything must be understood spiritually, and the spiritual must be sought not in earthly places but in heavenly ones.—The question arises: how then, while we are still on earth, has He blessed us with a heavenly blessing?—We are called blessed with a heavenly blessing either because our citizenship is in heaven, and we are not of this world, but having put off the image of the earthly we bear the image of the heavenly, and no longer live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, and are laying up treasure in heaven, where our heart also is; or because every heavenly blessing, though it comes about (is received) on earth, is sent from heaven.”

He blessed us “in Christ.” This phrase itself shows that the thanksgiving and doxology burst from the heart after a survey of all that has been accomplished by the Lord and all that He has prepared for believers. But truth and life exist only in this; outside of it is delusion and ruin. Whatever descends from God to us comes entirely through the Lord Jesus Christ; and our ascent to God is possible by no other way than through the Lord Himself. “Every gift of divine grace is in Christ. Whoever, despising Christ, thinks to be blessed by God, let him know that he is in error” (Ambrosiaster).

St Chrysostom draws from this a lesson about the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old. “In Christ,” that is, through Christ Jesus, and not through Moses, is this blessing; and therefore we surpass the Jews not only in the quality of the blessing but in its Mediator as well. Moses is a servant; Christ is the Son (Heb. 3:5, 6).

Let everyone therefore hold in mind and heart that Christ the Lord is the sole Mediator through whom every divine blessing descends upon us; every spiritual gift is given to us through Christ and for the sake of Christ. And conversely—Christ is the Mediator through whom every thanksgiving and doxology of ours must ascend to God. Just as God through Him and in Him blesses us and grants all spiritual gifts, so too through Him and in Him and with Him shall we give thanks, glorify, and bless God, who so abundantly bestows grace upon us. Just as God grants us nothing apart from Christ the Lord, so He receives nothing from us if we offer it apart from Him. Through Christ the Lord, therefore, let us both seek new gifts from God and render thanks for what has already been granted. Let us be united to Christ both when we petition and when we give thanks.

Eph. 1:4. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.

“Just as,” χαθως — “because.” There follows the reason for what was said above. In the preceding verse God is blessed for His abundant blessings to us in Christ Jesus. Regarding this, two questions may arise: Was it only now that God saw fit to enrich us so greatly? And what was the need to expend so many divine treasures upon us?—The Apostle answers in the present verse: No, it was not only now determined that it should be so, but from all eternity; it is only now that it has been brought to fulfilment. And the reason so many spiritual treasures have been poured out upon us is that otherwise we could not be holy. God purposed to lead us back to holiness and blamelessness and directed everything toward this end. It was necessary to justify us—and behold, the Lord took upon Himself death on the cross for our sake; it was necessary to quicken us, who had been put to death by sin—and behold, the grace of the Holy Spirit was sent down upon the Apostles, so as thereafter to be poured out upon all believers and to quicken all; it was necessary to prepare a place for those being saved—and behold, the Lord ascended into the heavens to prepare places, so that where He is, His servants also may be. Three principal moments in the life of Christians: the forgiveness of sins, sanctification by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and eternal blessedness in the Kingdom of Christ. All the blessings are contained in these. But all of them are directed toward making us holy and blameless. This is the centre of all the gracious institutions of the New Covenant.

“Just as He chose us.” The holy Apostle does not intend to dwell long on the election. It is a most important moment for each person being saved, but it is not here fully unfolded—it is only mentioned in passing, to explain further how it was natural for the Apostolic doxology to burst from the heart upon surveying the blessings in Christ Jesus the Lord. It is not only the abundance of these blessings that moves one to bless God, but especially the fact that they were ordained from all eternity. This was part of the general plan of the world’s existence. St Chrysostom says of this: “In almost all his epistles (St Paul) strives to show that what has been done for us is not something new, but was foreshadowed from of old; and that it did not come about because of any change in God’s purpose, but was precisely thus pre-ordered and predestined: it is the work of God’s long-standing solicitude.” Theodoret sets this thought of the pre-eternal election in relation to the Old Testament institution and writes: “Since some thought that the preaching (of the Gospel) was something new and despised it on the grounds that it appeared after the life under the Law, the Apostle corrects this as well: ‘just as He chose… before the foundation of the world.’ For from the beginning, before the ordering of the world, God both foreknew and foreordained all that comes to pass with us.”

The spiritual blessing of us that has been accomplished in time is the work of redemption accomplished by the Lord. The spiritual blessing in relation to this or that individual is that person’s entry into participation in the redemption. Both take place in time; but their foundation is not in time but in eternity. From eternity God ordained that there should be redemption; the time came, and it was accomplished. From eternity likewise those who are to be saved were ordained; the appointed moment comes, and those who were ordained receive salvation. The foundation of this latter is the pre-eternal election of God.

“He chose us in Him.” “Us”—all Christians, all who have already believed and all who will believe until the end of the world. The Apostle’s gaze encompasses all who are saved from among humanity. What this election is may be understood from the election of the people of God. Israel was chosen from among the nations to be the people of God, consecrated to God and to the work of God. But that election was temporary, though for eternal purposes encompassing all humanity. When the purpose was fulfilled, the significance of the temporary election came to an end. It was replaced by another, higher election—spiritual in its purpose and eternal in its significance. Here it is not one tribe that is chosen from all peoples, but from all peoples one people is chosen, consisting of persons of one spirit, serving one goal. And it is of this election that he says it was accomplished before the foundation of the world: time and history only fulfil that pre-eternal election. The Apostle ascends beyond the limits of time and sees the beginning of this election in the pre-eternal act of God’s will.

He chose “in Him”—that is, in Christ. Christ is the recapitulator of all redeemed humanity, as Adam is the recapitulator of fallen and perishing humanity. From the whole mass of those who perish in Adam, God chose us for Himself through faith in Christ Jesus. All who descend from Adam are sinners before God and lack grace. Such God beholds them. This dark covering is lifted, and God’s blessing extends only to that portion of them which takes shelter beneath the protection of Christ. Through Christ—the supremely blessed One—He not only beholds them as blessed but also fills them with blessings.

God chose us in Christ. Consequently, Christ was chosen first. The decree that salvation should come through redemption in Christ was the original, entirely free decree of the divine will. Christ is the first-chosen. But since He was chosen not for His own sake but for the sake of those being saved, in His election they too were elected. The blessing of God rests entirely upon Christ, and for His sake upon all who believe in Him. In them everything is from God through Christ. Those being saved need faith, grace, holiness, and for all this—eternal glory. All of this comes to them from Christ and through Christ. When Christ was chosen, those whom He saves were chosen as well, and all the means for salvation were chosen. How any individual enters by deed into his pre-election, or takes up his appointed portion—this is an incomprehensible hidden mystery in God. The Apostle here only states that all such persons have been chosen and chosen in Christ—before the foundation of the world. Through communion with Him by faith and through being graced in the sacraments, the eternal election receives its temporal fulfilment or realisation. And in the one who works out his salvation there is added to it also the assurance of actual, living communion with Christ. Together with the maturing of assurance in this communion, the assurance of pre-eternal election in Christ matures as well, in the one who is in actual fact being saved.

He chose before “the foundation of the world”—that is, from eternity, for before the foundation of the world there was no time. St Paul does not use such an expression elsewhere. In a parallel passage—in 2 Thess. 2:13 — it reads: “God chose you from the beginning.”—St Chrysostom draws from the phrase “the foundation of the world” a point about the manner in which the world came into being. “Foundation,” καταβολη, means a throwing downward. From the infinitely great God this world was cast into space and time at an infinite distance from Him—in terms of dignity. Or—the world was cast by the Word of God into space and time. He spoke—and they came into being; He spoke—and they came into being. Each word that went forth from the mouth of God brought worlds into existence, worlds that we cannot even count. These are the words of St Chrysostom!—“How aptly the Apostle called the creation of the world χαταβολη — a casting down from on high. Truly great and ineffable is the height of God—not in relation to place, but in relation to the boundlessness of the divine nature; and great is the distance between the creature and the Creator.”—The same observation is made by all the ancient Eastern commentators and by blessed Jerome. In their day there was at times a struggle with materialist and fatalist philosophers; that is why they felt it necessary to make such a remark. It is not without value in our own day either. It is remarkable that in the contemplation of the saints the world, however immense, vanishes in their consciousness before the consciousness of the greatness of the Godhead. This is because, passing beyond the world, they lived in God.—By contrast, for those who dig in matter with forgetfulness of God, the world with its forces seems something incomprehensibly great and powerful, and in their consciousness it eclipses God and, as it were, drives Him out of it. One must marvel that the latter, “beholding the works,” “do not recognise” “the Craftsman” (“Gazing on the works, they did not recognise the Author” (Wis. 13:1))!

He chose—“that we should be holy and blameless.” The immediate goal of the election is holiness and blamelessness, which in their turn become the means to a higher goal—adoption (Eph. 1:5), and this in turn leads to a still further goal—the inheritance. Such is the goal!—But the centre of everything is holiness and blamelessness. Since we are chosen to them in Christ, and Christ is the accomplisher of the whole economy of salvation, the entire purpose of that economy lies in our holiness and blamelessness. Man was created holy and blameless. Having fallen, he lost holiness and blamelessness. Being restored from the fall, he is restored again to holiness and blamelessness.

God did not choose those who were already holy and blameless, but chose sinners so that they might become holy and blameless. Whoever is pure and blameless in himself—he is holy. Every person who has received baptism, or absolution of sins in repentance, is cleansed from every defilement, both in God’s sight and in his own conscience—though it does not always follow that he possesses full holiness in every aspect of his nature. He is holy because all his sins are forgiven and he has taken upon himself the obligation of holiness, has been clothed with the gracious power for it, and is zealously resolved to lay down his life, if need be, to stand firm in good, however strong the assaults of the contrary may be. This inward disposition is essential to the spirit of Christians. To it all Christians are elected. If, then, holiness is not given all at once but requires labours, sweat, and struggle, those elected to holiness are elected also to this narrow path toward it, fully realised in the ascetic life. Christian, chosen one, saint, combatant, ascetic, and toiler—all these titles are of one meaning. St Chrysostom says: “Lest you should think that faith alone suffices, the Apostle points also to life. God chose us, he says, for this purpose—that we should be holy and blameless. The election testifies, on the one hand, to the love of God for humanity, and on the other, to the virtue of the chosen. Without doubt He chose those who are worthy of it. He made us holy, but we too need to be worthy of being holy. Holy is every person who partakes of the faith, and blameless is the one who leads a blameless life.”

God chose us to be holy and blameless “before Him”—that is, before God—not merely outwardly and in the eyes of men, but before the face of the all-seeing God, and therefore in very truth. “He requires not a superficial holiness, says St Chrysostom,—and not a superficial blamelessness, but such as shall be found to be so before Him. For there are holy and blameless people who are esteemed as such by men, who however are in reality like whitewashed tombs, or are ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing. But He does not choose such, but those who resemble the Prophet who said: ‘And the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness and according to the cleanness of my hands before His eyes’ (Ps. 17:25). Do you see what holiness He seeks?—Holiness before His eyes, that is, such as the eye of God can acknowledge.”

“In love.” Commentators attach this phrase to different words in the sentence. Oecumenius refers it to “He chose”; St Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Theophylact refer it to what follows—“having predestined” (from the Greek—having foreordained). St Damascene and Ambrosiaster refer it to “that we should be holy and blameless.” To which word this phrase is to be joined depends on whether one understands the love here to be divine or human. Blessed Jerome says that one may understand either human love here or divine. If the former, the meaning is that we were chosen to be holy and blameless out of love for God and for our neighbour; if the latter, that God chose us and foreordained us out of His love for us.

Judging from the fact that these verses speak of election and predestination—the highest of God’s beneficent acts toward us, flowing from His love for us—it seems better to understand here the love of God. But taking into account that immediately before this word stand holiness and blamelessness—whose true beginning in us is not a cold sense of obligation toward them, but a living and active love—and that immediately after it comes the mention of predestination to adoption, whose essential mark is a warm love for the Heavenly Father and acting according to His will not out of fear but out of love, one is also inclined to see in this word human love—our own. It must be supposed that the one and the other converge here into one.

Ambrosiaster writes: “Those steadfast in faith were chosen by God in Christ before the foundation of the world, that they should be blameless before Him in love—that is, that love for God should render their life holy. No one obeys another better than the one who submits to him out of love.”

And holy Chrysostom says: “Having spoken of the necessity of virtue, he passes on to grace and says: ‘in love having foreordained’ (predestined) ‘us’. For this (election) does not come about only by reason of good works, but through love (toward him), and moreover not through love alone: for then all would have to be saved; if, on the other hand, our virtue were sufficient, then His (the Son of God’s) coming into the world and all His economy would have been superfluous. Thus this takes place neither through love alone nor by our virtue alone, but on condition of both together.—Were it not for God’s love, virtue would save no one.—Or in other words: the bestowal of such great gifts is the fruit of (God’s) love (toward us), not of our (own) virtue alone. To be virtuous, to believe, and to draw near to God—this, though it is also the work of the One who calls, is nonetheless also ours. But to count those who draw near worthy of such great honors, to transfer them from a state of enmity into a state of adoption—this is truly the work of an overabounding love.”

Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9)

Eph. 1:5, 6. Having foreordained us to adoption through Jesus Christ in Him, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He has graced us in the Beloved.

“Having foreordained”, προορισας,—having predestined—which is the same thing, for God’s determination was, of course, expressed in a divine utterance; besides, to name something for something is the same as to appoint and determine it for that thing.

The foreordaining of us to sonship, according to the Apostle, preceded the election to holiness; for he says: God chose us to holiness, having first foreordained us to sonship—and therefore after having foreordained us to this. This suggests the thought that the course of eternal predestination concerning the ordering of our salvation was as follows: having been pleased to save man, God was pleased to choose as the means for this the Incarnation of His Only-begotten Son—God the Word. As a result of this, all who are saved had to become sons of God. But to be sons of God one must be holy, as the Son of God Himself is holy. Therefore, having resolved to adopt us, God also chose us for holiness. Without holiness it is impossible to be sons of God. As soon as this latter resolve was made, the former was required as an inevitable condition. But in actuality the one and the other are inseparable. At the very moment when, in the resolve to serve God through faith, the beginning of holiness and blamelessness is laid down, there is also laid upon the brow of the spirit, secretly, the mark of sonship toward God.

— “To adoption through Jesus Christ”—through Jesus Christ. Adoption is mediated through Jesus Christ. Believers become one spirit with the Lord. As He is the Son, so also they are sons. Only He is Son by nature, while these are received into sonship for the sake of the Only-begotten Son. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (Jn. 1:12). This adoption is not merely a naming as sons, but a birth from God (Jn. 1:13). By reason of this birth they are led by the Spirit of God, and in Him cry out: Abba, Father! (Rom. 8:14, 15), having received in Him also the obligation to be conformed to the image of the Son of God (Rom. 8:29).

“Do you observe,” says holy Chrysostom, “how nothing is without Christ and nothing without the Father?—The latter predestined, the former brings it to pass. This the Apostle (holy Paul) affirms, exalting what has been done, as he says in another place too: ‘and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 5:11). Great gifts have surely been bestowed, but they become far more precious because they were bestowed through Christ; because to us—to slaves—God sent not one of the slaves, but His Only-begotten (Son).”

Blessed Jerome writes: “Of the Son of God, that is, of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is not said that He was forenamed or predestined; because He always exists with the Father, and the Father’s will did not in the slightest precede His being. The Father always exists, the Son always exists; for, having one nature, They are co-eternal. But concerning us—before we came to be, it was decided how we were to be, and then we also received being itself, in order to become what we were predestined to be.—From this it follows of itself that, although God has already predestined us to adoption through Jesus Christ, we cannot be sons of God before having received faith and the knowledge of His Son Jesus Christ. He is Son by nature, and we by adoption. He was never not the Son, whereas we, before becoming sons, were predestined for that, and only then received the Spirit of adoption, when we came to believe in the Son of God.”

He foreordained us to sonship—“according to the good pleasure of His will”. Here is the ultimate basis of our predestination to salvation! God predestined us to be sons because such was the good pleasure of His holy will. There was no determining necessity for this in man, nor in anything created apart from man. This is the fruit of the immediate, unconditional counsel of God’s will. “Yes, Father,” “for so it was well-pleasing before You”—so our Lord and Saviour confessed (Matt. 11:26).

Good pleasure denotes the will’s resolve toward something willing, with delight, with love (Jerome). “‘According to the good pleasure of His will’—that is, because He had a strong desire, or, if you will, in other words, because this constituted His chief aspiration. Ευδοχια(good pleasure) everywhere denotes the chief desire (the ground of other desires)… By it the Apostle understands the first will, the strong will, the will with longing, the irresistible will… This means, then, that God strongly desires, strongly wills our salvation. Why does He love us so, and where is the source of such grace of His? The source is solely His grace, because grace comes from goodness. It is for this reason that He foreordained us to adoption, desiring and strongly desiring this, so as to manifest the glory of His grace” (holy Chrysostom).

The election to holiness and adoption are here contemplated by the Apostle as God’s pre-temporal acts of love toward us. God resolved to save us through His Only-begotten Son made incarnate. As a result of this, those to be saved had to be received into sonship, made holy, and furnished with everything necessary for this. The essence of predestination to salvation is the adoption of those to be saved into God the Father through Jesus Christ, following their sanctification by the grace of the Spirit. But since holy Paul was writing to Christians already chosen and sanctified, he at the same time points to what was present in them, explaining this temporal reality in terms of the pre-temporal. How much consolation and spiritual joy must pour into the soul through the consciousness of such good pleasure of God!

God chose us for holiness and predestined us to fellowship with Himself, to sonship with Himself. The one is inseparably bound with the other in the present order of salvation, but bound by God’s good pleasure and not by any necessity. God could have chosen us for holiness and yet not have willed to adopt us. This latter is the work of God’s good pleasure, decreed, however, at the same time as the determination that our salvation should be accomplished through the Only-begotten Son of God. In this lies the richness of grace.

Whether to save us or to leave us to perish was in God’s will. Having decided to save, to save in one manner or another—that too was in God’s will. Everything done toward this end God does according to the good pleasure of His will. But when God determined to save us through the death of His incarnate Son, then the entire structure of salvation—its whole economy—had to be ordained in accordance with the requirements of this founding determination; and all of this constitutes the plan of the economy of our salvation, outlined in eternity, being fulfilled in time, and destined to appear in all its greatness in eternity.

The pre-temporal determination of God’s counsel concerning salvation was the fruit of an entirely free good pleasure of God, proceeding from love. But through this free act of God’s will the pre-temporal plan of the economy of salvation laid itself as the foundation of the temporal course of being and the events of the material and immaterial world. For all that, or by reason of that very fact, the blessings poured out upon humanity together with the fulfillment of that plan can be appropriated by each individual only through free faith. And the hymns of praise that should burst from the heart must also arise freely, from the consciousness of the greatness of the salvation being appropriated.

In actuality adoption is accomplished through communion with the Son of God by the grace of the Holy Spirit, who is the executor in men of the work of salvation. How is this accomplished?—Through the word of the Gospel concerning Christ, which is followed by faith, grace, communion with Christ, and in Him sonship. The word of the Gospel, having descended to earth, moves through the earth. It is heard by the whole mass of humanity; but some are taken up and others are left. Those are taken up who have hearkened to the word and followed it in faith. How this interior hearkening and inclination comes about is a mystery of the spiritual-gracious life. No one comes to Christ unless the Father draws him. But the Father draws the one who extends his hand to Him. For God could create us without us, but He cannot save us without us. In the ordering of salvation, freedom and grace are wondrously combined.

And we too are foreordained for this. From the very moment of birth, this good pleasure of God’s goodness toward us meets us. God hopes that we will prove fully worthy of such mercy and will strive to be holy, so as to correspond to the foreordination to sonship with God. As glorious as it is to fulfill such a calling, so shameful and bitter is it not to answer to it.—For now the one and the other are not evident to all. But the one and the other are evident to God, the Angels, and the saints, and to the whole world they will be openly revealed on that day when God judges all and declares the heart’s counsels of each. How great a good lies in our hands—and how bitter to suffer the loss of it!

“To the praise of the glory of His grace”. This is the ultimate goal of the entire economy of our salvation!—The glory of grace here is the same as glorious grace, and the thought in this expression is the same as in our ordinary phrases: a glorious thing! gloriously done! Glorious grace—grace that is full, most perfect, leaving nothing more to be desired. When a small man gives a gift, even a modest gift fulfills its purpose; but when a king gives, a small gift does not answer the occasion: from him a kingly gift is expected. So also from God—grace is divine. God graced us in a divine manner.—What more can be expected? He received us into sonship with Himself, and in order that we might worthily bear this most exalted title, He commanded us to holiness, and for the attaining of it arranged everything.

The praise of glory is that feeling which bursts involuntarily from the heart at the sight of an excellent thing or deed. Such full grace did God show toward us that all who understand it cannot refrain from praising both the grace and the very One who bestows grace—cannot help but cry out: most glorious grace! Such are all the works of God. They are not done in order to be praised, but they are so done that they extort praise. Not this praise is aimed at, but the full perfection of the work; praise is the consequence, the amazement involuntarily produced in the soul at the beholding of the perfection of a thing or deed. In this lies the blessedness of rational creatures. For the sense of perfection in what surrounds us is the sweetest feeling.—Holy Chrysostom says: “He foreordained us to adoption for this—to show the glory of His grace.—‘To the praise of the glory of grace’; what does this mean? Does it mean that He needs everyone to praise Him, that we, the Angels, the Archangels, and all creation should praise and glorify Him?—No! The Godhead has no need of this. Why then does He wish us to praise and glorify Him?—So that through this He might make our love for Him the more fervent. He requires of us no service, no glorification, nothing else; He desires only our salvation and does everything for it. Indeed, the one who glorifies and stands in awe before the grace manifested in Jesus Christ will be more attentive and diligent (in respect of his salvation).”

“With which He has graced us”. The first thought at these words is—He poured grace upon us. Grace upon grace He gave us—a full cup, overflowing. Such “excess of beneficence, (once perceived,) moves even the tongue of the ungrateful to gratitude (and praise)” (Theodoret). Such is the thought suggested to us by the word “He graced”; but the Greek expression leads us to look further, beyond grace, to what is imparted by grace—that is, to the spiritual perfection communicated by grace to those who have received grace, by reason of which they become estimable, attractive, so beautiful that it is a joy to look upon them. It is precisely this that the most merciful God makes of all in Christ Jesus. Holy Chrysostom says: “He did not say: grace which He granted us — εχαρισατο, but grace with which He graced us — εχαριτωσεν ημας, that is, not only did He deliver us from sins, but He also made us estimable to Himself. Let us imagine: if someone, taking a sick man covered with sores, bent with age, worn down by illness and poverty and famished with hunger, were suddenly to transform him into a comely youth whose outward appearance would draw all hearts to itself, whose cheeks glowed with beauty, whose eyes, at their every glance, cast forth rays of sunlight; and then were to leave him forever in this flourishing age; and thereafter were to clothe him in a diadem and all royal ornaments—so precisely did God transform our soul, making it beautiful, attractive, and estimable, so that such a soul the Angels, Archangels, and all the other (heavenly) powers desire to behold. So He made us estimable and desired by Himself: and ‘the King shall desire,’—it is written,—‘your beauty’ (Ps. 44:12)! Note what bitter truths we were speaking before (those mournful words about the state outside of Christianity) and what gracious words we utter now! We marvel not at earthly treasures, not at what is here, but at heavenly (goods) and at what is in the heavens.—Of a child who, possessing a beautiful face, also knows how to speak pleasantly, do we not say: what a sweet child! Such are the faithful. Hear what words they speak when they are communicants of the mysteries. What can be more desired than those lips which, uttering wondrous words, with great beauty and boldness, with a pure heart and undefiled lips, receive communion at the mystical table? What can be more desired than those words by which we renounce the devil and join ourselves to Christ? What more desired than that confession—before the font and after the font?—Let us consider (at this) how much we have corrupted the grace of baptism, and in repentance let us sigh, that we may receive it again.”

“He graced us in the Beloved”—that is, in His Only-begotten Son, who became incarnate for our salvation. Christ the Lord—the archetype of our perfection—is in the highest degree the object of God’s love, in whom He rests with His full good pleasure (Matt. 3:17). Only insofar as we become one with Him through faith and faithfulness, and God sees us in Him, do we also become estimable to God. But we are in Him only by having become a new creation, having been re-formed according to His image. Therefore in the words “in the Beloved” one can see the entire economy of salvation. God made us estimable to Himself by this: He sent to us His Beloved Son, who, having come and accomplished all things on earth, ascended into heaven, from where He sent the Holy Spirit, who gave life to all the world through the establishment of His holy Church in its midst, in which to this day He accomplishes wonders—in the bestowal of grace and salvation upon us. All who enter into this God-established order become estimable to Him. There is no other way for God to look upon us with good pleasure. All is in Christ and through Christ, in His Holy Church.

Let us briefly summarize the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm in Christ that have been indicated so far. The summit of all is adoption; the condition for it is holiness and blamelessness; the producer is Christ the Lord by the grace of the Holy Spirit; the true beginning of all is the good pleasure of God’s will; the motive is love; the goal is the glory of grace. In a few words, how many mysteries of God are indicated! But this is not yet all. b)

Eph. 1:7. In whom we have redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness of transgressions, according to the riches of His grace.

How did He “grace us”—make us estimable?—Through redemption by blood and the forgiveness of transgressions. Created in the image of God, we were by nature beautiful. But sin came and darkened this beauty. Redemption removes this alien covering, and the beauty of our nature appears in its original light. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The death of the Lord made us worthy of love. For through it, having put off the defilements of sin and being freed from the bondage of the tyrant, we recovered the features of the divine image.”

“Redemption” — ατολυτρωσις — properly the ransoming of captives for a known price. Christ the Lord redeemed us from the captivity of the prince of this world, in which we were held on account of the ancestral sin, and the price which He gave for the ransom is His blood.

To whom was the price of blood paid for our redemption?—Christ the Lord paid it to the eternal righteousness of God, which could not release us from guilt and punishment for sin until satisfaction had been rendered to it. Following upon the satisfaction of God’s righteousness and the restoration of peace with God, the power of Satan over us fell. Grace came and destroyed the fortress of Satan—sin. His power clung only to this sin and because of it. It was not a natural power, but an accidental one, a predatory seizure.

“And the forgiveness of transgressions” we have through the same blood as redemption; both the one and the other “according to the riches of His grace”.—We were redeemed from inherited sinfulness, guilt, and liability to God’s wrath, and we received the forgiveness of the sins which we ourselves committed. Or put another way: redemption is a divine act, universal in scope, while the forgiveness of sins is the application of that redemption to each individual believer. Each believer is manifested as redeemed through the remission of his sins, by faith in the Only-begotten Son of God, crucified for the sins of the whole world. His blood cleanses us from every sin and thereby accomplishes redemption in us. This is how the pre-eternal blessing is realized in us and what calls forth the glory of grace.

The Apostle says: we have in Him redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Christ the Lord is a ceaselessly flowing living fountain of redemption and the forgiveness of sins. The work accomplished once on the cross abides in His person as eternally active. This is why we have in Him an ever-present Mediator, and He intercedes for us, being eternally alive, or having obtained an eternal redemption. On earth the continuation of the work of Jesus Christ proceeds through the mediation of the Church, which is the dispenser of the gifts of redemption, of the forgiveness of sins, and of regeneration.

In all of this lies the riches of grace—an inexhaustible treasury of every kind of mercy from God, acquired by the blood of the Lord. “Not only this is wondrous here,” says holy Chrysostom, “that He gave up His Son, but also that the Beloved Son was slain. What great overabundance of love! He gave up the Beloved for those who were hated!—See how He esteems us! If, when we were still enemies, He sacrificed the Beloved for us, what then, one might ask, will He not grant us when we are deemed worthy, through grace, of reconciliation with Him?… Nothing is so great as the shedding of divine blood for us;—that God spared not His own Son, this is greater than adoption and all other gifts. Forgiveness of sins is undoubtedly a great thing, but it becomes still greater when it is accomplished by the blood of the Lord. That this is far above all, see how powerfully Paul expresses it here, saying: ‘according to the riches of His grace…’”

“According to the riches of grace”. Our redemption and salvation could have been arranged differently. That it was arranged through the blood of the Son of God—this is according to the riches of grace, and at the same time for the sake of the riches of grace. The deeper the Apostle penetrates into the contemplation of what has been granted to us in Christ Jesus the Lord, the more irresistible his tongue becomes in depicting and glorifying the abundance of God’s mercies manifested in Him.

For sinners there is no more perceptible good than the consciousness that all their sins are forgiven. This assurance alone of being pardoned and received back into the love of God the Father is for the sinner a perennial richness of grace. Sins are forgiven to the penitent and believing because the blood of the Son of God washes them away and makes the sinful soul white as snow. Sins are not merely overlooked in the penitent and believing—they are blotted out in him. For there is laid as the foundation of his moral constitution a resolve as firm as death to walk from now on according to God’s will, holily and blamelessly. The one who approaches the Lord in the sacrament of baptism or repentance, if he fulfills all the conditions as required, becomes holy and blameless in every way. The remnants of sinful corruption in him are no longer his, though they are in him; for they are not consented to, are rejected, are driven out. They are branches on the tree of the man’s newly enlivened life in Christ, sentenced to wither—because the juices that could nourish them are not allowed to reach them.

We have all been redeemed and forgiven through the blood of the Son of God. Glory to God’s grace—for what is more worthy of glory than this?! Attend to this and enter deeply into these mysteries. See how greatly God loves you, and yourself love Him who has loved you so. And glorify Him not with words but with deeds, manifesting in yourself the working of His glorious grace. We were bought at a great price. Having been bought so dearly, do not sell yourself for nothing, do not surrender yourself again into captivity—do not abase the grace that saves you, and do not offend it by a manner of life and conduct unworthy of it, you who are obliged by everything to glorify it.

Eph. 1:8. Which He caused to abound in us in “all” “wisdom and understanding.”

And all that has been mentioned up to this point—redemption and the forgiveness of sins, adoption and the bestowal of holiness and blamelessness—all of this is already a great richness. After all this one might say: here is what has been done for you; appropriate it and you will be saved and receive eternal blessedness. But God’s goodness was not satisfied with this, and found the possibility of making even this richness of grace still more abundant. So says holy Chrysostom: “Even that was wealth, but this is far greater. The wealth was already there, and He increased it further—that is, He poured it out in unspeakably abundant measure.” After this our holy father adds with deep feeling: “It is impossible to express in words what has been done with us and for us. We have been given wealth—wealth immeasurable, wealth not human but divine, so that words are utterly powerless to express it.”

In what did this increase consist?—“In” “all” “wisdom and understanding.” “That is, (in the fact) that He made us wise and understanding in true wisdom and in true understanding” (holy Chrysostom). By these words one may understand in general all divine revelation—everything which it pleased the Lord to reveal to us concerning creation, providence, redemption, and the hopes to come (blessed Jerome). The increase of grace in this may be expressed thus: here is what has been done for you! Believe—here is grace for you, here are the rules of life: live thus in faith, with the help of grace, and you will be saved. But as to what is and happens and what will be—do not inquire. It is not your concern! And one would still be saved. But God was pleased to increase this grace, by enlightening our minds with clear conceptions of all things, from the beginning to the last days of the age and even of eternity itself. He has told us all things clearly and definitively. We do not walk in darkness, as others, but in the light of divine understanding. Ambrosiaster writes that wisdom and understanding are an addition to grace. “To the enumerated goods (that is, holiness, adoption, redemption) is added the gift of wisdom and understanding in spiritual things.” We might have been left to walk in the twilight of faith; but we have been given the light of knowledge concerning all things, and especially concerning how to save one’s soul and how it is saved, passing through the various degrees of spiritual perfection. This may be regarded as a superabundance of grace.

But it is better, understanding by the increase of grace the fact that what is communicated to us from above is not grace alone but also knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, to take by this not the whole domain of the knowledge communicated to us, but only the enlargement of it. To have knowledge of God and divine things is necessary for those being saved; therefore it is not a surplus of grace but a necessary part of it. When God resolved to save us through His grace, the bestowal of knowledge—or revelation for the enlightenment of the mind—had necessarily to enter into that determination. But in the domain of knowledge there are subjects which it is necessary to know, as conditions of salvation, and there can also be subjects about which information is given only for the completeness of knowledge, as it were for the adornment or finishing of the house of wisdom represented by divine revelation.—All knowledge, divine knowledge, is boundless. The tiniest portion of it, the most indispensable part, God has revealed to us concerning Himself and His works. But He was not limited to what is necessary, and told us also what must be regarded as an increase of His grace toward us.

And what precisely is that?—That which is spoken of immediately after, namely the recapitulation of all things in Christ Jesus. The mind of the Apostle was full of the contemplation of this; the rapture arising from this contemplation impelled him to write the epistle itself; to it, as to the ultimate boundary, he brings every discourse.

Eph. 1:9. Having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Him beforehand.

Here and following is an explanation of what constitutes the increase of grace in the communication to us of wisdom and understanding: namely that God was pleased to tell us “the mystery of His will”. “Or, in other words, He revealed to us what is in His heart” (holy Chrysostom). “He called it the mystery of His will, referring to His hidden will” (Theodoret).—No one could have surmised this most hidden will on his own, but God was pleased to reveal it. And in revealing it, He thereby showed His most abundant good pleasure and love toward those to whom He revealed it, for secrets are disclosed only to the near and sincere. Holy Chrysostom exclaims: “O what great love and trust!”

What is this mystery?—That God resolved to gather together / recapitulate all things in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God came, became incarnate, suffered, died, rose again, ascended into heaven, and became, as the God-man, the head of all—both of things in heaven and things on earth. Of these acts of the incarnate Son of God almost all are evident in themselves, so that there is nothing remarkable in their telling—all is evident from the Incarnation to the sitting at the right hand of the Father. What, then, is not evident?—The recapitulation of all things in this God-man who sits at the right hand of the Father. This is precisely the mystery hidden in God—the one that could have been left undisclosed without detriment to the work of salvation, and which God revealed only out of the superabundance of His grace, thereby increasing through this disclosure the already great richness of His grace. The Apostle is chiefly occupied with this mystery throughout the entire epistle: it is what he has in mind here as well. Holy Chrysostom says: “The mystery is that man is seated on high.”—And by this very fact the recapitulation of all things is accomplished.

“According to His good pleasure”. By this is expressed either the same thing as above by the words: “according to the good pleasure of His will”. There was no necessity compelling the disclosure of this mystery. God’s good pleasure alone was pleased to disclose it. Holy Chrysostom says: “It was His strong and heartfelt desire to tell us somehow the mystery of His will.”—God resolved to bestow upon us so many goods in the Lord Jesus Christ. Taken together they express or constitute God’s good pleasure toward us. And out of this same fullness of good pleasure He also disclosed the mystery of His will concerning the recapitulation of all things in Him—according to that law of goodness of which the Apostle speaks in another place: “how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).

Or, since such good pleasure was already spoken of in this same passage (for it is all one continuous passage), it is permissible here to read it thus: with respect to, or in the matter of, His good pleasure, which God set forth in the Lord from the beginning, from before the ages. Almost all that God resolved to accomplish through the Lord for our salvation is evident and took place before the eyes of all. But the mystery of God’s will within all this good pleasure toward us—what in the end must arise from all of it, having been outlined from the beginning—the ultimate goal of it all was hidden in God. This mystery, relative to all of His good pleasure toward us, He disclosed—out of the superabundance of grace—namely that all this is done in order to “gather together / recapitulate all things” in the Lord.

The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

Eph. 1:10. For the dispensation of the fullness of times, to gather together / recapitulate all things in Christ, both the things which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.

“Dispensation” — οικονομια— economy in general; the ordering of the entire course of affairs in a household, in which everything is directed to one goal—the wellbeing of all. There is a special economy of the Lord in the ordering of the salvation of the human race. The plan—what is to be and when—was outlined in the divine counsel from before the ages; but each thing comes to pass when its proper time arrives. This arrival of the time is called by the Apostle here “the fullness of times” — πληρωμα των καιρον,—and in the Epistle to the Galatians — πληρωμα του χρονου,—the fullness of the time. By such an expression one could designate the time of any special divine disposition in the ordering of our salvation; but in the Apostle it signifies exclusively the coming of the Only-begotten Son of God to earth, as he directly indicates in the Epistle to the Galatians: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son” (Gal. 4:4). Here is the same thought, only it is not the sending of the Son of God that is spoken of, but the significance which this sending holds within the whole circle of all that exists.

“By the fullness of times the Apostle means the time appointed by God (for the coming of the Lord to earth)” (Theodoret). Holy Chrysostom, having said that the fullness of times was His coming, or the economy itself, adds: “Note how precisely he (the Apostle) expresses himself. Showing that the beginning of our salvation, the proposal, the first desire and impulse—are in the Father, while the fulfillment of it in deed is through the Son, he nowhere, however, calls Him (the Son) a servant.—The Father willed. The Son fulfilled the will. But if the Father had not willed, the Son would not have acted; likewise, if the Son had not acted, the Father would have been deprived of His will, for between Father and Son all things are common. ‘All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine’—says the Son (Jn. 17:10).”

The Apostle mentions this fullness of times here not in order to dwell upon it specially, but only for the completeness of his depiction of the whole work of the ordering of salvation in the Lord. Having said that God showed the overabundance of His grace toward us by revealing to us the mystery of His will—the chief hidden goal of all the good pleasure set forth in the Lord Jesus Christ—he now shows what this mystery is and what this hidden purpose of God is; namely, that by virtue of the divine economy, or the pre-eternal arrangement of God that the appointed time should now have come,—to gather together / recapitulate all things in Christ.

But for us, in reading these words, it is never superfluous to pause and attend to the thought they express. It introduces us into the mysteries of divine wisdom, the contemplation of which is always edifying. Holy Paul points here to the foreordained time of the appearance of the Son of God on earth, expressing at the same time that this time was already fulfilled in the appearance of Jesus Christ—God incarnate. Humanity, and in particular the people of God, had lived through that period of time which divine Providence had appointed for preparing them to receive the redemptive powers. All of history before Christ the Lord was of a pedagogical character. Everything there tended toward preparing humanity for the greatest work of God manifested in Christ. The experience of five and a half thousand years was sufficient to make man understand that from his own efforts and his own wisdom no salvation was to be expected. He could not attain it either by the path of the Law, as Judaism showed, or by the path of purely human striving, as paganism showed. Thus was formed the consciousness of one’s own powerlessness—the felt need for deliverance from outside, for seeking and awaiting a Deliverer from on high. This is the foreappointed fruit of the course of events—the fullness of times… Holy Chrysostom depicts this thus: “The fullness of times was His (the Son of God’s) coming. So, when He had done everything through Angels, Prophets, and the Law, and had accomplished nothing, but was on the contrary still in danger (of regretting) that He had created man to no purpose, had brought into existence one who was too advanced in evil; when all without distinction were perishing, and in greater numbers than at the flood—then He found the means of saving man in grace, a means by which it is shown that He did not create him thoughtlessly or to no purpose.—Thus men were saved at the very time when they were most doomed to perish.”

The calamitous condition of man had reached its extreme limits.—And the Lord came; and was received, as rain by a parched earth. With His appearing, the preparation for Him came to an end, and a new era of the spiritual life of humanity began, which the holy Apostle characterized as the recapitulation of all things in Christ. Humanity rightly regards this moment of the fullness of times as the central point of its history, from which it looks back and also sees forward. To it the entire course of events gravitates, as the periphery to the center; to it all the radii of the circle of times converge.

“To gather together / recapitulate all things, both the things which are in heaven and on earth, in Him”.—Here is the goal of all God’s good pleasure toward us, the ultimate limit to which the economy of our salvation extends—the mystery, by the revelation of which the Lord increased His grace toward us, which was already very full even without this! Christ the Lord is the head of saved humanity, foreordained from before the ages. But since sin introduced discord and dissolution among earthly and heavenly creatures, the Lord, by destroying sin, removes the wall of partition, reunites all, restores all to peace in Himself, and becomes the head of the earthly and the heavenly (Col. 1:20).

“The things which are in heaven”—the Angelic world; “the things which are on earth”—the human race and the material world. These three worlds were originally in perfect manifest harmony and formed one Kingdom of God. The sin of man, his falling away from God, shattered this harmony. Man, by his very idea, was meant to be the center of all worlds—of the whole domain of created being, of both Angels and the material world. With his fall, the center of the bond was gone, and everything fell into discord. The world, whose powers and elements he encompasses in himself, he drew into a downward fall through his own person, and it groans, according to the Apostle, for deliverance (Rom. 8:22). And the Angels themselves became estranged from what had come about, because man took an entirely different path. In Christ Jesus everything is now again being drawn up into union, and the original harmony of creation is being restored. Into the world He introduces life-giving powers through His human body, and holds and permeates the whole world—through its own powers—from within Himself. And the Angels He also draws to Himself through the human spirit, giving them scope to act and thereby blessing them. Through sin they had been fenced off and constrained, as if enclosed within their own sphere by a barrier. Now in the person of the Lord the door to the domain of man and nature is opened to them once more, and they are welcome everywhere, rejoicing in the return of the full circle of their beneficent activity, for which they were destined from the very beginning.

But the full recapitulation of all things will be accomplished, or will appear in power and glory, at the end of the ages. For now it is only seeded in the person of the Lord and is destined to ripen in the course of the events of the world and of humanity, until the end of the world.

Since this subject is of the first importance, we will make somewhat more extended quotations concerning it from the holy fathers.

Holy Chrysostom says: “The heavenly and the earthly were severed from one another and had no single head. This head was to be none other than God—the Creator and Provider; but in actuality it turned out otherwise, because men severed themselves from obedience.”

Then, having explained the other words contained in this verse, holy Chrysostom returns again to “recapitulate” and says: “What does ‘recapitulate’ mean? It means—to unite. Among us recapitulation — ανακεφαλαιωσις — commonly means the presentation in brief terms of what would require a long time to say; or a condensed exposition of all that was said at length. Thus the word can also mean the following: what has been in preparation for so long (the economy of our salvation) He recapitulated in Himself—that is, brought together; or, to speak briefly—while preserving the truth—He both encompassed what was already there and added what is new.”—All prophecies and prefigurations were fulfilled in Him (at length—blessed Jerome), and the Law came to an end. New gracious powers were established which, like leaven, began to permeate, enliven, and rebuild all things.

But this thought is not the primary one for St. Chrysostom. The primary thought is the reunification of all created beings.

“But there is something else as well, he says, that is signified by this word. In Christ, according to the flesh, God has placed one Head over all—over Angels and men alike; that is, He has given one supreme Beginning to both Angels and men: to the latter, Christ according to the flesh; to the former, God the Word. It is as if someone were to say of a building that one part of it had rotted while another remained sound, and were then to restore it—that is, make it stronger by laying a firmer foundation; so here too He has brought all things under one Head. Only then is union possible, only then will there be this perfect bond, when all things, having some necessary connection on high, are brought under one Head.”

Blessed Theodoret supplements this thought by introducing created nature itself into the restorative act accomplished in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ: “To gather together all things…” He sets this forth more clearly in the Epistle to the Romans, saying: “the whole creation… groans and travails in pain together until now” (Rom. 8:22); and again: “For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19). He says the same in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “that he” apart from God “should taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:9). “The divine nature alone has need of nothing; but every created thing had need of the healing that the economy of salvation provides. For even the elements, created for the use of mankind, God made subject to corruption, since transgression was to render man mortal as well. And the invisible powers too were surely grieved at beholding the wickedness taking root among men. For if they rejoice ‘over one’ ‘sinner’ ‘that repents,’ as the Lord said (Lk. 15:7), it is plain that they grieve when they see the contrary. But the incarnation of the Only-begotten, having crushed death, revealed the resurrection, and given the pledges of the general Resurrection, dispersed this gloomy cloud. Therefore the Apostle calls this sudden transformation of all things ‘the gathering together.’ For by the economy of the Lord Christ, human nature is restored and clothed in incorruption, the visible creation, freed from corruption, attains incorruption, and the hosts of the invisible powers will from now on abide in joy, for ‘sorrow and sighing shall flee away’ (Isa. 35:10). This is what the divine Apostle teaches in the words under consideration. For he did not say simply ‘heaven and earth,’ but ‘things in heaven and things on earth.’ And, revealing the mystery of the economy, he added: ‘in Him,’ that is, in Christ.”

Cornelius a Lapide cites the words of blessed Augustine: “In Christ there is restored also that which is ‘in heaven,’—in that what was lost among the fallen angels is recovered from among men (who are saved in the Lord); and there is restored also that which is ‘on earth,’—in that men, predestined to eternal glory, are renewed, escaping the corruption of the old nature” (from Enchirid. LXII).

And from St. Gregory the Great: “Men are raised through humility to the place from which the apostate angels fell through pride. Now both men and Angels are called together into one house, under one Head. This house was destroyed through Adam’s sin. One wall remained intact: these are the Angels; and the other fell: men fell away from fellowship with the Angels and were brought under the yoke of demons. Christ has now restored this fallen wall, and through this He has restored the whole house. He has reestablished the fellowship of Angels and men, and the house is whole again, as it was before the fall” (Moral., lib. XXXI, cap. XXXV).

And from St. Irenaeus: “In Christ all things are gathered together, because in human nature all the elements and powers are contained. Why is man called a microcosm? When God the Word assumed human nature, He united within Himself, as in a compendium, all that exists, and restored it to Himself—their Creator” (lib. III, cap. VIII).

Thus heaven and earth—all that exists—are harmoniously joined together in Christ Jesus. Moreover, all that unfolds in time finds its center in Him. He is therefore the key to understanding the mysteries of the creation and governance of the world. Having entered into the contemplation of this and been rapt by it, St. Paul cried out: Blessed be God!—and from the opening of his discourse to this point, concisely yet fully, he has depicted the whole picture of this divine goodwill toward us in Christ and all the abundance of the blessings poured out upon us in Him. From here he descends from heaven and shows how on earth men—Jews and Gentiles—have entered and continue to enter under the beneficent streams of these gracious blessings.

Let us conclude this section—on the blessings of God, vv. 3–10—with the exhortation of St. Chrysostom: “Having been deemed worthy of so great a gift, so great an honor, so great a loving-kindness, let us not put to shame our Benefactor; let us not render vain so great a grace; let us display an angelic manner of life, angelic virtue, and an angelic pattern of living. And I ask and beseech that all this may not be to us for judgment and condemnation, but for the receiving of those blessings of which may we all be deemed worthy by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom together with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory and power.”

Eph. 1:11, 12. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first hoped in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.

Verses 11–14 describe the movement on earth of the work of salvation—that is, how the economy of this salvation, foreordained from eternity and brought to manifestation and fulfilment by the Lord Jesus Christ, touched Jews and Gentiles, and in what manner and sense both were brought into possession of what salvation has prepared.

Verses 11 and 12 contain one thought and refer to one group of persons, designated by the words “we” and “us.” Since these are described as having first hoped in Christ, it is evident that by them we must understand the Jews. These two verses show how they became partakers of salvation. In verse 13 another group of persons is introduced, designated by “you.” From this juxtaposition it is plain that by “you” the holy Apostle means the Gentiles.

Proceeding from the thought that verses 11 and 12 speak of the Jews, the word “we have obtained an inheritance” — εκληρωθημεν — must be given this sense: we entered into an inheritance, or, as if by right of inheritance, we were received into God’s portion, into the kingdom of those saved in Christ, brought into possession of that to which we were of old chosen and appointed. The inheritance in the Apostle’s usage is preeminently participation in the Kingdom of the Messiah. The Jews had already been foreordained to this participation, and those who, having believed and received the Messiah, thereby fulfilled the condition for entering His Kingdom, naturally entered it as into a foreordained portion, or were received by Christ as His rightful inheritance.

Having indicated this preeminence of the Jews with the words “we have obtained an inheritance”—brought into inheritance—the Apostle goes on to indicate the ground of this their election and its purpose.

The ground lies in the free resolve and determination of God, who works all things according to the counsel of His will; and the purpose is that they, as the first, should serve for the glory of the Messiah-Saviour who had appeared—as indeed they did serve, being the place of the Saviour’s appearing and the point of departure in His glorification. For where did the Saviour appear? Among the Jews. Where was His saving activity unfolded, and where was the economy of salvation accomplished by Him? Among the Jews. Where did His glorification begin, and from where did it go forth? From the Jews, with the holy Apostles as the first heralds of the Gospel and of the preaching concerning the Saviour. Such they became as a result of their prior election by God for this work from among all peoples. This election was followed by particular divine providential arrangements for preparing them for the proper fulfilment of their calling. Hence they had already hoped in Christ beforehand, had awaited Him; and when He came, they served as the soil for the growth of the Kingdom of Christ and as the instrument for drawing other peoples into it.

The election of the Hebrew people for this work depended on the will of God. It pleased God—and He chose. Although certain features of the Hebrew character can be pointed out by which one might judge that they were better suited to this work than others, yet it can equally be supposed that any people, in their place, had so many immediate divine benefactions been done for it, would have proved fit for it. The Apostle points to nothing of the sort, but says only: according to the purpose of God—in Greek προθεσιν — according to the proposal, resolve, and determination of the divine will. Such was God’s good pleasure.

Did the Jews fulfil this vocation? They did. Among them the first Church flourished. And it had already spread its branches throughout the whole world. That Christ was not received by the entire body of the nation may perhaps not have been part of the features of their calling. A fledgling, hatched within the egg, draws out of it all that is suitable for itself. Whatever remnants and shell there are get scattered here and there, while the fledgling flies freely over the face of the earth. So it was with the people of God. Whatever was fit within it all entered into the Kingdom of Christ, the Church; whatever was unfit was scattered over the face of the earth.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “Having predestined us in the beginning, He who does all things as He wills appointed us to life. The Apostle further indicates more plainly to what lot we have been predestined: ‘that we might be to the praise of His glory.’ For all, beholding us who have believed in the Lord, hymn Christ as the author of these blessings.”

“The praise of ‘glory’—of the glorious work accomplished by Jesus Christ. They were its first heralds. One may even say that to this day unbelieving Jews are for the praise of the glory of Jesus Christ, for they possess the prophetic books which proclaim Christ. The former glorified Christ by faith, while these glorify Him by their unbelief, without noticing it or willing it. They fulfil, against their own will, the divine appointment.”

The glory of God in general from the work of salvation accomplished by the Lord was spoken of above, in v. 6; here it is indicated more specifically how the Jews served and were meant to serve this glory, through glorifying Christ the Lord by their faith. They were able to do this because they were those who had hoped in Christ and awaited Him. The Gentiles, by contrast, lived “having no hope” (Eph. 2:12). Only for the first time did they begin to come alive with the good hope of salvation through receiving the Gospel proclamation that went forth from the Jews. For the first time they heard of a Deliverer, of whom they felt the need but of whom they had previously known nothing, and could therefore have had no definite hope in Him.

St. Chrysostom dwells here above all on how God does all things according to eternal foreordinations: “Since the One who chose is God, we owe our election not to chance, but have received an inheritance according to His purpose. He foresaw us before He made us heirs. How wondrous is the divine foreknowledge, seeing all things before their fulfilment! Moreover, note how the Apostle strives everywhere to explain that all events came to pass because they were foreordained of old in precisely this way, and that everything was accomplished by Him (the Lord) in accordance with this foreordination… He foreordained all things from the beginning and beyond this did nothing else. He acted to the end according to the counsel of His will. It follows that He called the Gentiles not at all because the Jews (not all the Jews) had not obeyed Him; He was not led or compelled to do so by the latter…”

Eph. 1:13. In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

“In Him,”—through Him and for His sake, having cleaved to Him, united with Him and become one with Him and in Him—“you also”—Christians from among the Gentiles, who previously knew nothing of Christ, but for the first time heard of Him in the preaching of the Gospel, and having believed in Him, were received into the same fellowship in the blessings that are in Him as we who had hoped beforehand: of which the proof is that you too have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. We—the Jews—were already elected and appointed beforehand to be Christ’s portion, while you, though not directly appointed, yet having believed, were received into the same portion; and Christ laid His seal upon you as well—the gift of the Holy Spirit—so that all, both heavenly and earthly, might know that you already belong to Him and to no other. Thus you are in no way disadvantaged in comparison with us; you have received the same as we, through your faith and submission to the Gospel.

“The word of truth”—the teaching of Christ, the word of faith in Him, which is beyond all doubt true and contains the chiefest and most needful of all truths—how to be saved; and whoever receives this truth in his heart, even if he knows nothing else, will possess the truth of life, which along its true path will lead him to true blessedness.

“The Gospel of ‘salvation’—the glad tidings of salvation—explains the content of ‘the word of truth.’ This was the whole substance of the preaching. The Apostles said to all: you are perishing and will remain in perdition if you continue as you are. If you wish to be saved, here is the one means: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ crucified. “What else did the preaching contain but the glad tidings of salvation—that is, that He no longer destroys those who deserve destruction?” (St. Chrysostom).”

Instead of “our salvation,” that is, of all people, some read “your salvation”—the Ephesians’. The sense would then be: of yours as of ours. Or more directly, the Apostle is drawing them back to the memory of how they came to believe. Hearing the preaching, they recognized that they were truly perishing; they felt their own ruin, and together with it felt that there was nowhere for them to be saved save in the Lord Jesus Christ; and this preaching became for them the pointing out of the one salvation, to which they clung with all their strength. And in each person saving faith begins to show its power when he appropriates to himself the universal salvation in the Lord—not by reasoning, but by feeling.

“And believed in Him.” Hearing is not enough; believing is necessary. Faith is the door to receiving all the blessings from the Lord. Just as, having ascended into heaven, He sent down the Holy Spirit into the world, so those who cleave to Him by faith He at once, through the sacraments, fills with the Holy Spirit. The path is this: first hearing, then faith from hearing, and finally the sealing with the Spirit in baptism and the laying on of hands, or chrismation. These are the steps by which those who were far off come near and are brought into the inheritance of Christ.

“You were sealed with the Spirit.” Of the Jews he said: we have obtained an inheritance, we entered into the inheritance of the blessings in Christ, or into Christ’s portion and lot; but of the Gentiles—“you were sealed with the Spirit.” And this is one and the same thing. For to be sealed with the Spirit meant precisely that they too had been received into Christ’s portion; just as for the Jews to partake of the blessings in Christ, or to enter into Christ’s portion, was in no other way possible than through the outpouring of the Spirit—in fulfillment of the promises to pour out the Spirit upon them and thereby make them new. Theodoret writes: “Not only did you hear, but you also believed. Hence you were also deemed worthy of the grace of the All-holy Spirit. ‘You were sealed’ is like the prophetic saying: ‘the light of Your face has been signed upon us, O Lord’ (Ps. 4:7); that is, as a kind of seal you received the gift of the Spirit.” St. Chrysostom says: “This sealing (with the Spirit) reveals great providential care. As if someone were to mark with a distinctive sign those who had fallen to his lot by lot, so that he might recognize them afterward, so too God, having set them apart for receiving faith in Him (Christ), sealed them (with the Spirit as a sign of belonging to Him, and) as an inheritance of future blessings… The Israelites also received a seal, but through circumcision, like irrational animals; we too have been sealed, but as children, with the Spirit.”

In the receiving of the Holy Spirit, by whom love is poured into our hearts and faith becomes life-giving, in the receiving of the Holy Spirit whose presence, in the earliest times, was attested by manifest and wondrous operations of grace, the Christian receives both for himself and for others a sign, a seal, an assurance that he belongs to Christ (Rom. 8:16). Blessed Jerome writes: “The seal of God consists in this: that just as the first man was created in the image and likeness of God, so in the second re-creation he who is deemed worthy of the Holy Spirit is sealed by Him in that he receives the image of his Creator. I consider that by this is signified that the Holy Spirit makes holy the one upon whom He is poured out: the spirit of wisdom makes him wise, the spirit of understanding makes him understanding, the spirit of counsel makes him counselled, the spirit of might makes him mighty, the spirit of knowledge makes him knowing, the spirit of godliness makes him godly, the spirit of the fear of God makes him God-fearing, working out his salvation with fear and trembling.”

“The promised Spirit.” Why did St. Paul so call Him? Both because He Himself was promised—both by the prophets and by the Lord—and because He serves as the earnest of future promises. St. Chrysostom says: “What does ‘the promised Spirit’ mean? It means that we received Him according to promise. There were two promises: one through the prophets, the other through the Son. I said, through the prophets; hear what Joel says: ‘I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your elders shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions’ (Joel 2:28). Hear then also what Christ says: ‘you shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).”

Oecumenius and Theophylact, having expressed the same thought, add: Oecumenius: “‘The promised Spirit’ is so called also either because He promises innumerable blessings, or because through being sealed by Him you will obtain or be deemed worthy of the promises.” Theophylact: “Or also because (He is the Spirit of promise) in that the Spirit confirms the promise of future blessings. Having been given, He thereby gives assurance also of the future. Hence He is also called the earnest.”

The Earnest of Our Inheritance (Ephesians 1:14)

Eph. 1:14. Who is the earnest of our inheritance, to the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Before this the Apostle spoke separately about the Jews and separately about the Gentiles. Now he unites both in speech through the unity of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is given equally to both and makes them of one kind. We, he says, received the Spirit as an inheritance; you were sealed by Him through the calling. Both we and you have become anointed by the Holy One—Christians. The anointing of the Spirit is the distinctive mark of Christians, a preeminence which nothing in the world can give, save faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through His Holy Sacraments. But this does not exhaust all that the Lord is pleased to bestow on His faithful. This is still only an earnest; what then will follow?

The Apostle extends his gaze into the future and sees in the gift of the Spirit only a first instalment toward the receiving of the full eternal inheritance. As in ordinary transactions an earnest means that the bargain has been struck, the purchase decided, and the earnest given as assurance that all the remainder will also be paid, so too God, having been pleased to enter with us into a Covenant, with the promise of eternal blessedness to those faithful to the Covenant, by giving the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Christ gives only an earnest as assurance that He will also give the whole promised inheritance, or grant eternal blessedness. For we believe in Christ for this very reason, and cleave to Him and sacrifice everything for Him, in order to have in Him eternal life. St. Chrysostom says: “Although one should believe Him as God (that He will give eternal life), the Apostle does not press this very strongly, but conducts the enquiry as if about a man. As in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 6:18) he says: ‘that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation,’ so here too he presents what has already been given as proof of the fulfilment of the promise concerning future blessings. Therefore he calls the Holy Spirit the earnest of our salvation. The earnest is the surety for everything. He purchased our salvation for us and for now has given only the earnest. Why did He not grant everything at once? Because we on our part have not yet fulfilled everything. We have believed—this is only the beginning—and He gave the earnest (that is, the beginning). But when we show our faith in works, He will then grant us everything.”

This same truth is confirmed in the moral ordering of the Christian life. For the Spirit of God pours out love, in which faith receives its living activity; and the labours of love implant the feeling of God’s goodwill, from which is born the well-grounded hope of all-encompassing eternal blessedness (Heb. 11:1). On the other hand, the Spirit of God brings into the soul a peace which nothing else can give and which is the true beginning and foretaste of eternal blessedness. St. Chrysostom continues: “Those who have partaken of the grace of the Holy Spirit know, without a doubt, that it is the earnest of our inheritance. Such was Paul, who even here already had a foretaste of what is there (in heaven)—who strove and desired to depart this world, and groaned, for he had already transferred his whole mind there and gazed with different eyes. Whoever does not justify faith by works, excludes himself from the words (of promise). If we all partook of the Spirit as we ought to partake, we would already see heaven and our future state there.”

“To the redemption of the purchased possession.” In these words one may see an explanation of the preceding thought about the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance. The words themselves are obscure. Let us compare them with the Greek in order to draw out the appropriate meaning. “Possession” suggests the thought of what God has purposed to bestow on believers, what He intends to give them in Christ, wherewith to fill them with blessedness. The Greek word signifies care, protection, solicitude for someone, that all may be well with him. “By ‘possession’” — περιποιησιν — “the Apostle designates God’s care and solicitude for us” (Theophylact). Modern Greeks use this word to mean hospitality—doing everything so that the guest may remain entirely satisfied with all. What is the future blessedness if not the unending banquet of the Lord with His faithful? There He will satisfy them in all things, fill them, gladden them, and fill them with blessedness. Taking the word in this sense, let us now apply to it the first—“redemption.” In Greek this is απολυτρωσις, which signifies payment, recompense, and thereby “redemption.” One pays for a slave and thereby redeems him from slavery. So too the Lord redeemed us, paying our debts for us. Let us take here its proper meaning: payment. Εις απολυτρωσιν περιποιησεως — to the redemption of the possession—will then mean: as assurance that everything which God has purposed to bestow on the faithful and to fill them with blessedness in the future will be delivered to them, repaid—understanding: if they faithfully labour in the work to which they are called and with which they are armed by the powers of grace. Nothing will be lost in vain; all will be repaid.

There is something worth labouring for: all will be repaid. And how great that repayment will be, judge by the earnest. If the earnest is such, what then will be the very good whose reception the earnest assures? Theodoret writes: “By this the Apostle showed the greatness of what is awaited. For if the grace that was given, by which miracles were wrought, the dead raised, lepers cleansed, demons cast out, and other like things done—if this constituted only an earnest, it is plain that the faithful will obtain a far greater grace.” Blessed Jerome makes the same point: “From the earnest one judges the worth of what is purchased. If the earnest of the inheritance is such, what then is the inheritance itself?”

The Russian translation of these words is apt here as well: “for the redemption of the possession”—without the addition of “His.” By “possession” one may understand either God’s possession or our own. God’s possession is all the faithful who live according to faith. Our possession is eternal blessedness. We think that here it is closer to understand our own possession, with this thought: the Holy Spirit has been given to us so that, labouring with His help in pleasing God, we might be able to purchase for ourselves eternal blessedness. As a poor man is given money so that, entering into commerce, he might become wealthy, so the gift of the Spirit, as a talent, is given to us so that through its proper use we might acquire all that is possible here and prepare something greater for there. What does this work consist in? In the cleansing of the heart from the passions and its adorning with all the virtues. In the reception of the Spirit in holy baptism and chrismation only the seed of the spiritual life is sown. This must be followed by the labour of conducting the Spirit into all the domains of our being, as leaven into the whole lump. This cannot happen mechanically in a free being. The work of freedom here is not to consent to evil wherever it shows itself in us, and to desire the good, in whatever part it is to be accomplished. Following upon these orientations of freedom, grace enters inward and accomplishes what freedom only seeks but cannot accomplish. Thus at last grace penetrates all of man’s nature and makes him spiritual, luminous, pure, and fit to enter into the Kingdom of glory, into which nothing impure shall enter. In whomever this has been accomplished to any degree, that person has redeemed his possession. Since he could not have attained this without the grace of the Spirit, it is evident of itself that grace is given in order that each one might redeem his possession. In this sense St. Chrysostom also says: “The perfect redemption will be accomplished in the future life, for now we live in the midst of the world, and much that is worldly enters into us, and we associate with the ungodly.”

“But when there are no more sins or human passions, when the ungodly are no longer together with the saints, then perfect redemption will come; for now only the earnest has been given. Nevertheless, even now we must withdraw from what is earthly, for our homeland is not on earth; even now we must be free from what is here, for we are still strangers.”

One may also understand here God’s possession. God’s possession is all the faithful from among Jews and Gentiles. How many are to enter into God’s possession has been foreordained from on high. The Apostles, filled with the Spirit, went throughout the world and gathered those worthy to enter into it. Every believer was sealed with the Spirit and entered into God’s possession with this sign. What happened then and continues to happen to this day is the same as when some master purposes to gather a flock of sheep: his agents go about and purchase them, placing the master’s seal on each purchased sheep. When the number is complete, the purchasing comes to an end: the flock is deemed full, in accordance with the master’s intention. So it is also with respect to the gracious Kingdom of Christ. It is His possession—and consists, according to His word, of sheep. The Apostles were sent to make the purchase; after them, their successors continue the same work. When all is complete—when those also of whom the Lord said: “them also I must bring…” (Jn. 10:16) have been brought, and the spiritual flock is full according to the foreordained purpose—then the end of all things will come. The purpose of the present order of things will be fulfilled. And all of this is accomplished by the grace of the Holy Spirit, who abides on earth in the Church—and He abides for the redemption of God’s possession.

“To the praise of His glory.” The Apostle began with the blessing of God, but, not content with that, repeated three more times that all that is done for us is done to stir us up to the praise of God (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). This is the one thing we are able to render to God for His unspeakable mercies; and this is what God requires of us. It flows naturally from the heart when the heart comes to feel the blessings of God through tasting them, or through making them genuinely its own. Let us therefore glorify, give thanks to, and praise the most merciful God. Let us not prove insensible. For God is jealous for His glory (Nah. 1:2).

“St. Chrysostom draws from this frequent repetition about the praise of God an assurance of the unshakeable firmness of our hopes and the certainty of the fulfilment of the promises. He says: ‘To the praise of His glory’—why does he constantly repeat this? In order to fully convince those who hear. If He had redeemed us for our own sake, as it were—so the Apostle seems to say—our redemption would not yet be beyond doubt. But if He did this for His own sake, that is, to show His goodness, then this already serves as a foundation, or as it were a guarantee, that what is promised will come to pass exactly as promised. We see that among the Israelites too such expressions are often found: ‘deal with me for Your name’s sake’ (Ps. 108:21). In another place God Himself says: ‘For My own sake I will do it’ (Isa. 48:11). And Moses cries: ‘Do for us for Your name’s sake,’ if for no other reason. Thus he most effectively convinces and encourages those who hear, teaching them that God, for the sake of His own goodness, will fulfil all that He promises. Yet let us not give ourselves over to carelessness on account of this. Certainly He does all things for His own sake; but He also requires corresponding actions from us. If He says that ‘those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed’ (1 Sam. 2:30), we must understand that something is also required on our part. The praise of His glory consists in saving enemies; but these enemies, once they have become friends, must also remain friends; if, however, they return again to their former enmity, then all will be useless and vain for them. There is no second bath of regeneration; no second bringing in; but there is ‘a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fiery indignation that will devour the adversaries’ (Heb. 10:27). This precisely awaits us as well if we, who always warred against Him and were deemed worthy of forgiveness, even after that do not cease to war against Him, to be intoxicated by lusts, and to become worse than before.”

With this the holy Apostle concludes his survey of the whole economy of our salvation and of all the blessings bestowed upon us from on high in Christ Jesus, our Lord. He began from the counsel of God in eternity without beginning and passed through to the indication of the inexpressible inheritance in eternity without end. And all of this he has encompassed in a single passage, concisely but expressively, fully, all-embracingly.

Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

The Apostle had in view here to impress upon the minds of the Ephesians the whole greatness of the economy of our salvation in the Lord, so that, having recognized the greatness of God’s beneficence toward them in calling them to participation in this salvation, they might remember it, and for it give thanks and praise to God. In guiding them toward this, he:

I. prays that God may give them the Spirit of wisdom to behold the greatness of the economy in the greatness of the blessings given and promised to them—(Eph. 1:15–19);

II. points to it in the exaltation of the Accomplisher of our salvation—(Eph. 1:20–23);

III. and in the exaltation together with Him and in Him of all who believe in Him—(Eph. 2:1–10);

IV. for the Ephesians and in their person for all the faithful from among the Gentiles, especially in the fact that it made those who were far off into those who are near—(Eph. 2:11–22).

V. This particular point the Apostle reinforces by presenting it as a hidden mystery only now revealed, of which he is a minister—(Eph. 3:1–13).

VI. And he concludes again with a prayer that the Ephesians may abide as partakers of the blessings of salvation, and thereby rise still higher in understanding the greatness of the mysteries of salvation—(Eph. 3:14–21).

It is not difficult to notice that these points proceed in correspondence with the content of the preceding survey of the economy of salvation.

I. The Apostle prays that God may give them the spirit of wisdom to behold the greatness of the economy in the greatness of the blessings given and promised to them (Eph. 1:15–19)

Eph. 1:15–16. For this reason, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.

Having surveyed the greatness of the blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord, having briefly depicted the whole economy of salvation, St. Paul, with his heart rapt in contemplation of this, desires to bring the Ephesians into it as well. Although he does not say “enter into it,” but rather prays to God that He Himself might enlighten their minds with the knowledge of all this, this is self-evident, for there is one law for the receiving of spiritual blessings, pronounced by the Lord Himself: “seek, and you will find” (Matt. 7:7). He says to them as it were: ascend in your minds to reflection on this and remain in the remembrance of it; as for me, I pray that the Lord may enlighten and continue to enlighten you. A solid beginning has already been laid: you have already become partakers of these blessings through your faith and your life according to faith, expressed in love toward all the saints, for which I give thanks to the Lord.

“For this reason.” For what reason? If we take into account only what immediately precedes, then—for the reason that they were sealed with the Holy Spirit and in Him received the earnest of hope. But since this last point in the Apostle stands in inseparable connection with what came before, as the crown of all the blessings in the Lord, one may say that it is also for the sake of all that the all-generous God was pleased to do for our salvation. St. Chrysostom also says: “For this reason”—that is, for the sake of the future blessings that await those who believe rightly and live piously. Moreover, one should equally give thanks to God for all that He has done for the human race before this and for what He will do afterward—one should therefore give thanks also for the faith of those who believe.

St. Paul gives thanks not for these blessings in general, but for the fact that the Ephesians have been deemed worthy of them. Since they were deemed worthy of this through faith working by love, it is precisely the filling of the Ephesians with these that he places here as the occasion of his thankful feelings toward them. “Having heard,” he says, “of your faith and love… I do not cease giving thanks to God.” “For having believed, you were sealed with the Spirit, and in Him received the earnest of future blessings and of perfect redemption, and you are to obtain what is laid up for those who believe rightly and live rightly” (Theophylact).

“Having heard of your faith and love…” “Everywhere St. Paul joins and combines faith and love as a certain wondrous pair” (St. Chrysostom).

If he had only heard of faith, he might perhaps not have hastened to give thanks, for although faith brings one to God, yet having united with Him in heart, it goes forth from Him no longer alone but mingled with love. A faith that is truly one—without love—never exists, nor does love without faith. Faith is one leg, love is the other. As one cannot walk on one leg, so one cannot live the Christian life or be deemed worthy of Christian blessings without both faith and love. Love “toward all the saints,” that is, toward all Christians, and not only toward the Ephesians or those nearby. The love that is poured into the hearts of Christians by the Spirit loves all people; but it loves Christians as members of one body, with a family bond, feeling a living connection with them in Christ. But however natural it is in Christians, it can nonetheless be weakened and extinguished by self-seeking impulses. Hence its presence alongside faith is a sign both of the sound ordering of believers and of special divine grace, for all comes from it. Hence too St. Paul writes: “in Christ Jesus,” which must be referred both to faith and to love. The Lord Jesus Christ is the inexhaustible source of both faith and love for all who cleave to Him. Faith here is the feeling of the heart that reposes in Christ, certain of every help and protection from Him—faith that rests in the bosom of Christ.

He heard of faith and love; but he gives thanks not for faith and love, but for what is given on account of faith and love: “for the fact that, on account of these, they are evidently numbered among those being saved, and will undoubtedly be deemed worthy of the blessings appointed for those who believe and love” (Oecumenius).

The Apostle says: “I also” give thanks, thereby placing himself among the number of others who give thanks. Who are these others? The Ephesians and other Christians. Having true faith and love, the Ephesians tasted in their hearts all the blessings in the Lord—heartfelt joy and the sweet burning of the spirit from God’s grace, kindled by assurance of God’s goodwill and of adoption by Him. Such an inward disposition could not fail to manifest itself in the luminous condition of their outward deeds and life. Seeing this, other Christians could not but rejoice and give thanks to God. To their song of thanksgiving the Apostle also adds his own voice, thereby showing humility in not placing himself as the primary one who gives thanks and who stirs others to thanksgiving.

The Apostle knew of the faith and good character of the Ephesians from having lived with them so long; but in saying “having heard,” he indicates that since the time he departed from them, they have not only remained unchanged but are keeping what was sown in them and advancing in it, building their salvation upon it as upon a firm foundation. Blessed Theodoret writes: “From this (from the fact that he said ‘having heard’) some have concluded that the Apostle wrote this epistle without having yet seen the Ephesians. But one must know that he also wrote an epistle to the Corinthians, having heard something unpleasant about them. For he says: ‘it has been reported… to me about you, my brothers… by those of Chloe, that there are contentions among you’ (1 Cor. 1:11). Therefore, as there, having learned something unpleasant, he writes with grief, so here, having heard something joyful about the Ephesians, he composes praise for them.”

Hearing of the good condition of the Ephesians and foreseeing what they will be deemed worthy of in return, the Apostle rejoices with them and, counting their good as his own, gives thanks to God. This is his apostolic response; he was moved to it by his apostolic heart, caring for his converts with fatherly solicitude. “There was nothing comparable to the apostolic compassion,” says St. Chrysostom, “nothing like the sharing and the tender love with which blessed Paul was filled, as in all his prayers he made mention of entire cities and peoples. ‘I give thanks to God for you, making mention of you in my prayers.’ He was accustomed to write thus to all. Consider then how many he had in his thought. It was even difficult to remember them all, so many were the people for whom he prayed, giving thanks to God for all of them, as though those greatest benefactions which they received he himself had received.”

So too must all give thanks to God for others, seeing their progress in faith and love. For their spiritual perfection one should give thanks to God, and not envy it, seeing in their perfection the glory of the Church. For the diminishing of such persons one should grieve and sorrow, and pray to God that they may not decrease in the Church but multiply, that those who believe strongly, know the faith deeply, and act abundantly according to faith may always predominate in it.

“Making mention of you in my prayers.” Every time I pray, I remember you; and every time I remember you, I give thanks to God for you, that He gave you to believe and live according to faith, so as to be partakers here of all the blessings in the Lord, and in the life to come. But for one thing the Apostle gives thanks, and for another he asks. What exactly he asks is set forth in the following verses—that God might lead them more deeply into the contemplation of the mysteries of salvation in the Lord. But even the thanksgiving itself is already a petition. One who gives thanks values the gift; one who values the gift will make proper use of it; and one who knows how to make use of gifts disposes the Giver to pour out still more mercies upon him. One may limit all prayer to thanksgiving, in the faith that both what is given and what is not given are alike according to God’s goodwill toward us. He alone knows that one thing is good to give, while it is better not to give another. Such a person stands reverently before the Bountiful Giver in ever-thankful feelings, for there is no moment in which we do not benefit from His mercies, and he does not dare to ask for more, not venturing into the mysteries of God’s goodwill toward us.

So it is with regard to oneself. To express goodwill toward others and to pray to the Lord for them is not out of place even in such a disposition of soul. This is the fruit of love and inflames God’s own love, and therefore it is quickly heard and fruitful. But let it also be known that one who intercedes for others does not become the cause of the gift, but only its co-worker. The gift is still entirely from God’s goodwill and is conditioned upon the proper disposition of those who receive. When the latter have no receptacle, all of heaven cannot obtain anything for them. There is nothing in which to place what is asked for. God already wishes all good things for all without any asking, and if not all possess those things, this is not from Him.

Eph. 1:17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

What does the Apostle pray for on behalf of the Ephesians, thankfully remembering them in his prayers to God? He prays that God would grant them an ever deeper knowledge of God and of the mysteries of the economy of salvation. They already possessed knowledge, having received the Apostle’s preaching and believed; yet Christian knowledge has no end—not because its subjects are complex, but because those same subjects, whose knowledge is received by faith at the first fruits of salvation, have inexhaustibly many dimensions. In expressing his desire for growth in Christian knowledge, the Apostle points to the productive forces of this knowledge—the grace of the Spirit and the heart (Eph. 1:17, 18)—and to its objects, which may be summed up thus: what is the significance and what is the power of Christianity (Eph. 1:18, 19). Although the productive forces of knowledge already point to the objects of that knowledge, the holy Apostle also designates those objects separately. It is not enough to say in praise of a person that he knows much and is a man of great mind; one must define the subjects of his knowledge and the direction of his mind.

“That the God of our Lord”. The Saviour Himself said to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection: “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God” (Jn. 20:17); so likewise holy Paul calls God the Father the God of our Lord, having in view His human nature. Although the Person in the Saviour is one—the Person of the incarnate God the Son—yet lest His humanity be absorbed in our thoughts by the radiance of His Divinity, He Himself was pleased to speak of Himself not infrequently as a man, and the Holy Spirit prompted the Apostles to do the same. “This is said in a dividing sense,” writes Theodoret, “of the undivided God-man, Who after the incarnation could not but recognize Himself as a man, being at the same time God.” “The God of our Lord—that is, as a man like us according to the flesh,” Theophylact explains. Or: “the God of the assumed man,” as blessed Jerome expresses it.

Proceeding from this thought, some interpreters apply also the following words—“the Father of glory”—without departing in thought from the Lord, understanding that God the Father is here so named as the Father of our Lord according to the Divinity, since our Lord as God the Son is “the radiance of glory and the express image of His substance” (Heb. 1:3). Thus blessed Theodoret: “The Apostle called one and the same Person both the God and the Father of Jesus Christ—His God as man, and His Father as God; for he named the divine nature ‘glory.’ So also in the Epistle to the Hebrews he said: ‘Who being the radiance of glory’ (Heb. 1:3), that is, of the divine nature.” Blessed Jerome and Oecumenius understand it in agreement with this. Theophylact cites the opinion of St. Gregory the Theologian: “Gregory the Theologian understands by ‘glory’ the Divinity of the Only-begotten, so that one and the same Christ has one and the same God and Father: of Christ as man He is God, and of His glory—that is, His Divinity—He is Father.”

Others, at the word “the Father of glory”, turn their thought away from the Lord Jesus Christ and fix their attention on the glory of the Godhead in general. “Father of glory” is an Eastern expression, meaning “most glorious,” glory itself—which, taken together with what precedes, yields: the God of our Lord—the most glorious, the supremely great, infinite and ineffable in perfections; for the glory of God is the fullness of the divine majesty, of God’s infinite perfections. In other places God is called the God of glory (Acts 7:2) or the King of glory (Ps. 23:7), as the God of all things, replete with glory and majesty. But since we know God chiefly through His works, we ascend to the comprehension of His glory from the knowledge of His glorious deeds. The Father of glory in this regard is the source of all that is most glorious which we perceive in the works of God—God, who always does only what is most glorious, most perfect, and most excellent, and who in the future purposes the same most glorious things alone. God is the Father of glory as the One who has revealed and continues to reveal His glory to rational creatures through His most glorious works: creation, providence, redemption, the ordering of the gracious Kingdom, and the preparation of eternal glory for believers.

“St. Chrysostom says: ‘The Father of glory’, that is, the Father who has granted us great blessings. He always calls Him the God of glory on account of the blessings that proceed from Him—for example, when he says: ‘the Father of mercies and God of all comfort’ (2 Cor. 1:3), and as the Prophet also said: ‘The Lord is my strength’ ‘and my refuge’ (Ps. 17:3)! ‘The Father of glory’—the Apostle finds no conjunction by which he could fully depict the blessings prepared by God, and everywhere calls them glory, as a word denoting for us every kind of greatness.‘Oecumenius similarly:’Depending on the subjects under discussion, the Apostle names God differently: now the God of mercies, now the God of peace, now the God of powers. Here he names Him the Father of glory—on account of the fact that He has bestowed the greatest glory and honor upon the human race (and spiritual blessings of every kind), which by a common name he calls glory. He calls Him the Father of this glory, as it were its Creator and Ordainer.”

Thus, since the Apostle is here praying for the gift of the knowledge of God—wondrous and most glorious both in Himself and in His works—who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, and who therefore cannot be known as He ought to be, except by those to whom He wills to reveal Himself—for this reason the Apostle has called Him the Father of glory.

“That He… may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation”. The first productive force of Christian wisdom is the Spirit—the gift of wisdom and revelation from the Holy Spirit, infused into the pure hearts of believers. Wisdom may be understood as the comprehension of the Christian truths that the Apostle has outlined above, while revelation may be the penetrating insight into the mysteries of the faith. Or revelation denotes the manner in which Christian knowledge or wisdom is given: a light dawns within, and all becomes clear, whereas before, no matter how one wracked one’s mind, little fruit was gained. The Spirit of wisdom is the source, the teaching power, while revelation is the mode of communication, of instruction from the Spirit. There are moments when it pleases God to open the eyes of the mind to this or that mystery of the faith; though it may have been known beforehand in word and in rational concept, it was not yet received into the heart’s understanding nor fused with the mind.

“In the knowledge of Him”—either of God, or of the Lord Jesus Christ; but since they are inseparable, of Both—that is, of God in Himself and in His works, and most of all in the work of salvation, which has just been discussed. But did the Ephesians not already know? They did, yet knowledge has different degrees, and spiritual subjects have different dimensions. Some dimensions are closer to us and more manifest, while others are more remote and hidden. The former are grasped upon first hearing the Gospel; the latter are revealed gradually, as one advances in the Christian life and the heart is purified. Even now the beginnings of knowledge can be read from the Gospel and the Apostolic writings, but true Christian knowledge still has only one source—the gracious Spirit of wisdom. No one can seize by his own effort what is given only by this Spirit.

St. Chrysostom says: “That He may give you” (the Spirit of wisdom)—that is, may lift up and wing your mind, because otherwise one cannot know these things. For “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him” (1 Cor. 2:14). It follows that to understand spiritual things and to see what is hidden, spiritual wisdom is needed. The Spirit reveals all things, clarifies even the mysteries of God. Knowledge of the mysteries of God belongs to the Spirit alone, who “searches even the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10); and neither Angel nor Archangel, nor any other created power, can supply—that is, furnish you with—this gift. If this is a fruit of revelation, then all speculation is superfluous. For one who has plunged into the contemplation of God and come to know Him will doubt nothing, will not say: this is possible but that is impossible; he will not reason as to how one thing or another could have occurred. If we too had come to know God as we ought, if we too had been taught this by the Holy Spirit, from whom alone it ought to be learned, then we would doubt nothing further. One taught the knowledge of God by the Holy Spirit will neither doubt the promises nor show unbelief in what has already come to pass. This is why the Apostle prays for the gift of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation for them.

Eph. 1:18. The eyes of your heart being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance among the saints Eph. 1:19 “and what is the exceeding greatness…”

The second productive force in the work of Christian knowledge is the pure heart, in which, through the action of the gracious gift of wisdom and revelation, the eyes are opened to see. Whoever is deemed worthy of this receives enlightened eyes of the heart. Holy Paul prays that God may grant these to the Ephesians.

The Spirit of wisdom and revelation and the purified heart are distinct: the former comes from above, from God; the latter depends on us. Yet in the act of forming Christian knowledge they are joined inseparably and only together yield true knowledge. The heart, however much one purifies it (if one could do so without grace), will not give wisdom; and the Spirit of wisdom will not come if a pure heart has not been prepared as a dwelling for it.

Heart is not used here in the ordinary sense, but in the sense of the inner man. There is within us an inner man, in the words of the Apostle Paul, or a hidden man of the heart, in the words of the Apostle Peter. This is the God-like spirit breathed into the first-created man. It remains unshattered even after the Fall. Its functions are the fear of God—at the foundation of which lies the conviction of God’s existence together with the consciousness of utter dependence upon Him—conscience, and dissatisfaction with anything creaturely. These manifestations of the spirit are visible in people at every level of their development and throughout the whole earth. The calling of the spirit, as its functions suggest, is to hold a person in relation to God and the divine order of things, apart from everything that surrounds and flows around him. To fulfil such a calling as it ought to be fulfilled, the spirit must naturally possess knowledge of God and the divine order, and of that better mode of being whose intuition is witnessed by its dissatisfaction with everything creaturely. We may suppose that this knowledge existed in the first-created man before the Fall. His spirit clearly beheld God and all that is divine—as clearly as one sees with sound eyes an object before him. But with the Fall the eyes of the spirit closed, and it no longer sees what it was natural for it to see. The spirit itself remained, and the eyes are within it—but they are closed. It is in the same condition as one whose eyelids have grown together. The eye is intact, it thirsts for light, it seeks somehow to see the light, sensing that it exists; but the fused eyelids prevent it from opening and entering directly into communion with the light. That the spirit is in such a condition in the fallen man is palpably evident. Man sought to replace the vision of the spirit with rational speculation, the most abstract constructions of the mind, with idealism—but nothing ever came of it. The testimony to this is the whole of philosophical metaphysics. Surveying them all, one obtains only the assurance that there is something higher, better, and more perfect than what the eye sees and what can be reached by the operations of reason, but what exactly this is remains beyond the reach of the mind. On that point we have only conjecture, which does not present spiritual and divine things as they are in themselves. The spirit exists in all, but in all it is closed and buried to varying degrees, depending on the predominance over it of bodily and soul-directed impulses and habits, and upon their guidance and allure. Divine grace, which calls to salvation in the Lord, acts directly upon the spirit. And the spirit, strengthened by the action of grace, is set in motion, rises above the soul-bodily nature, draws it after itself, and causes a man with his whole being to resolve to be with the Lord and to walk according to His will. Grace reaches the spirit through the word of the Gospel. Afterwards, when within a man has been accomplished what must be accomplished by his spirit awakened by grace, then by God’s institution on earth for our salvation he is deemed worthy of the sacraments—of baptism or of repentance—and the grace of God takes up its dwelling in him, blending with his spirit and joining with it into one.

From the moment of grace’s first action upon the spirit, its eyes begin to open; and upon the reception of grace in the sacraments, they become fully opened. Observe how vivid is the newly baptized or newly repentant person’s relation to God; how sensitive is his conscience, how truly he appraises everything present and, passing beyond it, beholds with hope only the invisible future. The spirit has begun to see what is spiritual and divine, as one whose eyelids have been surgically separated and whose eyes are opened begins to see his surroundings. Yet bodily sight itself has degrees; how much more so spiritual sight. The exercise of sight enables one to see more and more, to survey ever more broadly, further and further. So too with the spirit: the first outline of the spiritual, received in the initial proclamation of the faith in broad strokes, is ever more clearly discerned; details become visible; objects are noticed that were concealed by others in the first glance. When will the spirit reach the point of beholding all things and walking in this vision, as in paradise?!

Everything that our spirit can behold, under the utmost exertion of its powers and under the most abundant action of grace, is all disclosed to us in the Apostolic and Prophetic writings. It is disclosed: yet not everything is visible to everyone the moment they open the Bible. The beholding of one thing or another, even in words often read and pondered, is produced by the grace that guides the one being saved. But if our spirit, under the action of grace, were to behold everything it is possible to behold in our present state, all of this would be, compared with what and how things shall be seen in the future, only a vision resembling a view through a dim mirror. “It has not yet been revealed what we shall be” (1 Jn. 3:2).

We have deliberately set forth this whole history of spiritual vision, so that what holy Paul desires for the Ephesians when he prays that God might give them enlightened eyes of the heart may be more precisely defined. He desires that they be raised to a clear vision of the spiritual and divine order of things—the economy of salvation—to the extent possible for us on earth; for he desires that what he himself beholds, they too may behold—but there was and will be no vision higher than the Apostolic vision.

Three subjects does holy Paul desire the Ephesians to behold with enlightened eyes of the heart: 1) what is given to Christians immediately upon their responding to the voice of the calling, and in general here on earth; 2) what glorious and rich inheritance awaits them in the future; 3) how great a measure of power God expended on ordering salvation by faith and forming believers. Thus blessed Theodoret: “I pray that the sight of your mind (spirit) may be illumined by the intelligible light, and that you may be able both to know to what we are called (1), and to have a foretaste of the greatness of the promised blessings (2). But, speaking in carnal language and being unable to glorify the Master as he would wish and to show the greatness of the gifts, the divine Apostle gathers together many names, striving as best he can to express this. Therefore he joins together the phrases: ‘the hope of the calling, the riches of the glory of the inheritance,’ the good pleasure‘of His will’ and other like expressions. He also said: ‘the exceeding greatness of power,’ having before his mind the dishonour of the cross and pondering what was accomplished by it. For this is what he added: ‘according to the working of the strength of His might’—and so forth.” (3).

“All these are subjects that no one can know and hold with benefit to the soul except those in whom the grace of God makes the eyes of the heart (the inner man) enlightened. Blessed Theophylact writes: ‘The eyes being enlightened… that you may know…’—that is, may He grant them the gift of being enlightened through the Spirit. For if the Spirit does not open the hidden mysteries, it is impossible to learn them by any other means. For He alone—and no other, neither Angel nor Archangel—‘searches all things, even the deep things of God’ (1 Cor. 2:10). ‘The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God’ (1 Cor. 2:14). Therefore, when the mysteries are opened to us by the Spirit, we enter into the state of the knowledge of God, our eyes are enlightened, and we are no longer shaken by doubts, but see all things as they are.” That is, it is then that the apostolic wish is fulfilled over us: “that you may know.”

“What is the hope of the calling” and “what the riches of glory” can be referred to one and the same thing, namely the future glorious state of believers. But they can also be distinguished, referring “the hope of the calling” to what is immediately promised to those called by the preaching of the Gospel—and immediately given upon their believing and receiving the sacraments of baptism and chrismation—and referring the riches of glory to the future glorification of believers. What is promised to those who are called, if they respond to the calling? The forgiveness of sins, the grace of the Holy Spirit for the attainment of holiness, and adoption as sons—as a pre-election to eternal blessedness. All of this is given immediately as soon as one responds to the calling, and may rightly be called the hope of the “calling” in distinction from the hope of glory, signified here as the riches of the glory of the inheritance among the saints. Here the same thing happens as with a master who calls workers and gives them something even before the work begins, as soon as they agree to work for him, assuring them that full payment will be made at the end of the work. So too the Lord calls to Himself for work—to live according to His will—and immediately grants forgiveness of sins, grace, and adoption. One who labours as he should receives in the next life full payment, or full reward, which will be not according to the labour but according to the breadth of God’s mercy, which will use the labour merely as an occasion for enriching those who have worked with inexhaustible blessings.

These inexhaustible blessings the Apostle calls “the riches of glory” of the inheritance, or the rich glory of the heritage, or, as St. Chrysostom expresses it, “…glory ineffable. Indeed, whose words could represent the glory with which the saints will one day be made worthy?—No one’s, certainly. To understand this, the human mind truly needs grace—it needs to receive even a small ray (of spiritual light).”

It is called an inheritance insofar as it has been prepared for those who have been adopted as sons (Theophylact). By which at the same time the certainty of receiving it is also confirmed, for a son, as long as he is a son, is without doubt an heir and will receive the inheritance as an undisputed possession. One need only preserve within oneself, or for oneself, the quality of sonship to God. This is why the Apostle added: “among the saints.” Those who are called, if they remain holy and blameless and thereby maintain the dignity of sons of God by grace, will without doubt inherit the rich and ineffable glory in eternity.

The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Eph. 1:19. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of the might of His strength.

“Exceeding”—surpassing measure, word, the comprehension of the mind, boundless, ineffable, incomprehensible. The greatness of power signifies not merely the multiplicity or magnitude of power, but also that this great power is majestic, divine, illustrious, most resplendent, magnificent. And such power God has manifested upon us who believe, or has instilled within us who believe—the third subject beheld with enlightened eyes of the heart, after the beholding of the excellences of Christianity and the rich glory awaiting Christians in the future.

Look at the Christians. For them everything is there; here below there are only difficulties, sorrows, and sufferings. What a weak and despised faith, one might think! So it seems from the outside; but in spirit there is nothing stronger than the faith. And the sense of such strength is given to the enlightened heart. It feels the power within itself, in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the whole community of Christians, or in the Church of Christ. Conversion to the Lord is accomplished by a sign of God’s power, which has struck the spirit of man with deep impression. The preservation of the faithful in the faith is likewise accomplished by God’s power, which not infrequently reveals itself openly. The Lord declared: “no one” “shall snatch them from My hand.” My Father, who has given them to Me, “is greater than all” (Jn. 10:29). The presence of a special power among Christians was at first so palpable that it struck awe into all who were round about. The more this power is revealed to the heart, the stronger the faith. For this reason the Apostle desires the Ephesians to come to know it, and to know it ever more and more.

The greatness of power was manifested by God in the ordering of our salvation, for to this end the Son of God was incarnate, suffered, died on the cross, rose again, and sat at the right hand of God the Father and received all authority in heaven and on earth; for this the Holy Spirit descended and through the Apostles established the Church of God, in which He works without ceasing and will not cease to work until the end of the age. The greatness of His power is manifested also in the conversion of people to faith in Christ the Lord, when He makes idolaters into worshippers of the true God, drunkards into sober men, fornicators into chaste men, the proud into the humble, the wrathful into the meek; when He takes a heart that is coarse, carnal, and bestial, and makes it tender, spiritual, and angel-like (Jerome).

It is to this power—manifested in the ordering of salvation, in the calling to faith, and in the preservation of believers—that holy Paul points here, praying that God would grant the Ephesians to comprehend it fully and to hold it in their hearts.

“Before this the Apostle mentioned what is to come (‘the riches of the glory of the inheritance’); now he speaks of what has already been accomplished, in order by this latter to confirm the former. And what is this?—The very thing that we believe; for in truth, that we, so wild and brutish in character, should have come to believe in God and to seek wisdom concerning heavenly things is a proof of great power of God” (Oecumenius, Theophylact). “The boundless greatness of His ineffable power is shown also upon us who believe. How?—In that He raised and quickened us, whose every sense had been deadened by the passions and whose very thought was buried in them, making us worthy of receiving the light of faith. Truly in this is the might of His strength. Therefore the Apostle prays for the Ephesians to know this through the Spirit of wisdom. For when we understand how we have been shown grace, we shall prize the gift more highly and shall nourish greater gratitude toward the Giver” (Photius, in Oecumenius).

“To arouse faith in souls is far more difficult than to raise the dead. How so? I shall endeavour to make this clear. Hear, then: Christ said to the dead man: ‘Lazarus, come forth’ (Jn. 11:43)—and the dead man obeyed. Peter said to Tabitha: ‘Tabitha, arise’ (Acts 9:40)—and she did not resist. The Lord will speak on the last day—and all will rise, and will rise with such swiftness that those still alive will not precede those who have died, and all of this will take place and be concluded in the briefest possible time, in the twinkling of an eye. But it is not so in the matter of conversion to faith. Then what?—Hear again what the Lord says: ‘How often did I desire to gather your children together… and you were not willing’ (Lk. 13:34). Now do you understand what is more difficult? For this reason the Apostle proves everything by faith. Indeed it is far more difficult—even by human reckoning—to persuade the freedom of a man than to create a nature. The reason for this is that God desires that we ourselves should voluntarily become good. Thus the Apostle is quite right to see ‘the exceeding greatness of’ God’s ‘power in us who believe.’ When the prophets accomplished nothing, when the Angels, the Archangels, when all visible and invisible creation proved incapable of helping to save mankind, then God Himself was pleased to appear, showing thereby that in the matter of conversion to faith, divine power is required” (St. Chrysostom).

“According to the working of the might of His strength.” “Might” — κρατος in God—is sovereignty over all; “strength” — ισχυς — is power; the might of strength is sovereign and powerful authority, or omnipotence, or the all-sovereign power of God. “Working” — ενεργεια — is the manifestation of this power in deeds. “According to the working of the might of strength”—according to the operation of God’s sovereign omnipotence.

What does holy Paul intend to say by these words? This is resolved by determining to what we refer them. If we refer them to what stands immediately before—“in us who believe”—we obtain a thought explaining how we came to believe. Namely: in ordering our salvation God manifested His all-powerful sovereignty. The knowledge of such a manifestation of God’s power for our sake, acting upon the heart, arouses faith, while the remembrance of it sustains faith, constantly rekindling it. The meaning would be: “in us who believe” through the action upon our mind and heart of the exceeding power that God manifested in the ordering of our salvation. The following verses explain in what precisely this power was manifested.

If we refer these words to “what is the exceeding greatness of power,” we obtain a thought explaining in what this greatness of power is to be seen. It is to be seen in the operation of God’s sovereign strength. The third subject which the holy Apostle prays the Ephesians may behold with enlightened eyes of the heart is the knowledge of the boundless greatness of power expended upon believers. How may they attain the beholding of this?—By judging from the manifestations, or by tracing the manifestations of His sovereign strength, “which He wrought…” manifested in the resurrection and the seating at His right hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Lord’s headship over the Church.

Oecumenius cites the words of blessed Photius the Patriarch, which explain in detail this Apostolic saying. “The words: ‘according to the working…’ and so forth, either signify that our resurrection from spiritual death and the resurrection of Christ our God from bodily death are the work of one and the same power and operation.” “Or he says ‘according to the working…’ to show the cause of our quickening—that is, the cause by which we came to believe and rose from spiritual death. For the operation… ‘of strength, which He wrought in Christ, raising Him’ and so forth, was the cause of our coming to believe and rising from our former delusion. He rose because He died; He died because He was incarnate; He was incarnate in order to adopt us to God. And all this is the operation of the One who raised Him from the dead. Thus he says ‘according to the working’ to mean: on account of the operation of the might of His strength. For by it and through it we both believe and are saved.” “Or, by speaking thus, he explains ‘what is the exceeding greatness of His power in us who believe’—by the fact that, having raised Christ and seated Him at His right hand, He has seated our First-fruits above every Principality and Power and Authority and Dominion. For in this truly is revealed the exceeding greatness of power—to exalt earthly nature above the heavens, to make it worshipped by the bodiless orders. Having understood the sense of the Apostolic saying in this way, the whole of the ensuing speech will become clear.”

The last interpretation follows the flow of the discourse more closely. The Apostle explains in what the exceeding power of God has been manifested, and indicates how, by these manifestations as by tracks, one may ascend to the beholding of this power with fully opened eyes. And is it not the Apostle’s chief intention to arrest the attention of the Ephesians upon this and to fix their mind in the contemplation of it? He desires to impart to them what he himself has contemplated. What he himself contemplated, he briefly outlined at the beginning, blessing God for every spiritual blessing in Christ—for our election before the foundation of the world to holiness and blamelessness, for our adoption to Himself, and especially for the wondrous recapitulation of all things in the Lord. Now he expresses a strong desire that the Ephesians too might enter into the same contemplation, and he asks God to open their eyes of the heart—to behold the high dignity of Christianity, the ineffability of the blessings prepared for believers—and most of all the boundless power manifested in the ordering of our salvation. Having mentioned such a manifestation of power, he then explains how precisely it was manifested—in the Person of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:20–23)—and in the persons of all believers (chs. 2 and 3).

II. He points to this greatness in the exaltation of the Accomplisher of our salvation (Eph. 1:20–23)

Eph. 1:20, 21. Which He wrought in Christ, having raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above every principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come: and He put all things under His feet…

Setting forth his own contemplation, he spoke of how God bestowed grace upon us in the Beloved, especially through the recapitulation of all things in Him. Leading the Ephesians into the same contemplation, he points to the same boundless greatness of God’s power within it. Perhaps for their weaker minds it was easier by this path to ascend to the contemplation of the abundance of God’s grace as well.

The Apostle speaks here of the resurrection of the Lord, His sitting at the right hand of the Father with the subjection of all things heavenly and earthly, and the Lord’s headship over the Church—but only in the respect in which all of this manifests the sovereign strength of God. It is primarily from this side that our commentators view this section (vv. 20–23).

Blessed Theodoret writes: “It is evident that the Apostle said all this of Christ as man. For it is this that moved him to wonder. That God should sit enthroned with God, and the Son should reign with the Father, is not at all surprising, for with the identity of nature goes the communion of authority. But that the nature taken from us should receive equal honour with the One who took it, and that no distinction should appear in worship—that in the worship of the visible nature, worship should be rendered to the invisible Divinity—this is above every wonder. Therefore the divine Apostle, marvelling at this, hymns first the ‘exceeding greatness of power’ and then the ‘working of sovereign strength,’ and seeks out names that could express the extraordinary nature of the deed. For he says: first He raised Him from the dead—clearly as a man—then He seated Him, and, showing the greatness of the honour, added: ‘at His right hand.’ He points to the royal chamber: ‘in the heavenly places’—and then to those who are subject: ‘far above every principality and power’—and, having enumerated all the names of the invisible Powers known to us, added that if there are others we do not know but shall come to know in the life to come, they too are all subjected to Him. He also added the prophetic testimony: ‘He put all things under His feet’ (Ps. 8:7). And the Prophet too said this of Christ as man, for he says: ‘What is man, that You are mindful of him? Or the son of man, that You visit him?’ (Ps. 8:5).”

St. Chrysostom says: “Do you see what He accomplished?—He raised Christ. And this is no small thing; but look, what else did He do?—He seated Him at His right hand. What words could adequately depict this? One who was of the earth He suddenly raised to such a height. Truly, the incomprehensible greatness of His power!—And see where He raised Him?—He seated Him ‘in the heavenly places,’ above every created nature, above every principality and power. Therefore truly one needs the Spirit of grace, one needs an enlightened mind to know this—in a word, revelation is needed for this. Consider how great is the distance between man and the divine nature: yet from that (human) smallness He raised Him to that (divine) honour. Not one, not two, not three steps are needed for this. Therefore the Apostle did not say simply: above, but—far above. Above the highest Powers is God alone. And to such a height He raised one who is from us—the humiliated One He raised to the highest degree of authority, beyond which there is no other, more excellent dignity. All this the Apostle says of the One risen from the dead, and in no way of God the Word—he speaks of Jesus, who proceeded from us. Truly great and wondrous is this, that from the lowest parts of the earth He raised Him—He made Him above all, ‘not only in this age, but also in that which is to come: and He put all things under His feet.’ He did not simply say: He made Him above all others, so as to prefer Him over them—He did not use this word in a comparative sense; but He granted Him such honour as a master has over his servants. Oh, truly wondrous works! Through the fact that God the Word clothed Himself in our nature, the whole of created power has been made subject to man.—But perhaps there is someone above Him, who, while having no subjects, yet possesses greater dignity?—Here too this does not apply: ‘all things,’ the Apostle affirms, ‘all things He put under His feet.’ And He did not merely subject them, but subjected those subjected to Him completely, so that a greater subjection cannot be. Therefore the Apostle said: ‘under His feet.’”

These two passages fully explain the meaning of verses 20 and 21. It remains to clarify certain expressions.

The resurrection and the seating at the right hand are spoken of here as acts of the manifestation of God’s ineffable power in the ordering of salvation. The Saviour remained in a state of humiliation on earth; He ended His earthly life in humiliation. This was necessary according to the economy of salvation. But do not look at this—look rather at the height to which He was raised by means of this humiliation. The more humiliated He appeared on earth, the more manifest is the sovereign strength of God in raising Him above all. The resurrection stands as it were at the transition to this. The seating at the right hand is the investiture of the Saviour, as God-man, with full sovereign authority.

The resurrection and the seating at the right hand are here attributed to God the Father; but it is the inseparable act of the Godhead—the Most Holy Trinity. The Son Himself participates in it as much as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The seating at the right hand is the investiture with divine, all-sovereign authority. God the Son, even in the incarnation, did not cease to be the Sovereign over all, as He was also the Creator of all. The Apostle wishes to say that into this sovereignty the human nature has also been introduced, in the Person of Christ the Lord, having been glorified in the resurrection. Not as God did the Lord become above all and Lord of all—for He had never ceased to be such—but as God-man. The Person of the Saviour is one. And even in the incarnation itself He was the Sovereign over all as man. But in order to introduce human nature into this dominion, it was first necessary to glorify it by the resurrection. Man is a small world; he concentrates within himself all creaturely powers. In the glorified humanity of the Person of the God-man, these powers became the reins of governance and at the same time channels for the passage of the Saviour’s restorative powers into all regions of creaturely existence. All of this is the necessary consequence of the incarnation of God the Word. Once this had been resolved in the divine counsel, all had to follow of itself.

The Principalities, Authorities, Powers, and Dominions above which human nature has been raised in the Lord are not earthly powers—kings, high priests—as it occurred to some, but heavenly. The Apostle does not enumerate all the angelic orders—for that is not the subject of discussion—but mentions some, indicating through these the same understanding with regard to all the rest. He is saying, as it were: above these, but also above all others; above all that exists, apart from God—as the words show: and above “every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come.” Name here means dignity, as we say: a man of renown. The Apostle understands all that has a name, all that stands out from among others. Above all of this is the Saviour, who has been seated at the right hand of the Father. Here too is visible the thought that He has become above all known to us—Principalities, Authorities, Dominions, Powers (and also Thrones, as he adds in the Epistle to the Colossians — Col. 1:16)—and above all now unknown to us, which will be revealed to us hereafter—here or in the age to come (St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius and others)—above all, in a word, that anyone might name.

Eph. 1:22. And He put all things under His feet.

This signifies either that He has not only become above all but also become Lord of all—as it were a reinforcement of the same thought already expressed in the seating at the right hand of the Father—or that He has also subjected all visible things under His feet. In the preceding words he spoke of the invisible world; here he speaks of the visible, physical world. This may be suggested by the borrowing of this expression from the psalm, which speaks of the exaltation of man in creation above all creatures (Ps. 8:7). All things were subject to man on earth. In the Fall he lost this authority. In the restoration of the fallen it is returned to him, as many instances have shown. But in the Restorer this authority has become inherent not only with respect to the earth, but with respect to the whole visible world. So it had to become, by the force of the wondrous economy of salvation through the incarnation of God the Word.

Eph. 1:24. And gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Someone might think: let human nature in the Person of the Lord have become above all things—yet what does that mean for us? It means that God, having so exalted our nature in the Person of the Saviour, did not sever Him from us, but gave Him as Head to the Church, which is His body. If the dignity of the head is reflected in the body, then the exaltation of the head is the exaltation of the body as well—that is, of all of us believers who make up the body of the Church. What inspiration for those who have come to understand this! St. Chrysostom exclaims: “Ah! And to what height has He raised the Church? As if by some great mechanism lifting her up, He raised her to a great height and seated her on the same throne; for where the head is, there the body is also.”

“Over all things” — υπερ παντα. Understanding παντα as all classes of beings, one may read it thus: all things are subjected to Him; but He is Head only to the Church. Passing by all other creatures, God made Him Head only of the Church, entering into a living union only with the Church. Or υπερ παντα means the same as in another place: “above all these things” (in the sense of επι). Having enumerated the virtues, the Apostle concluded: “And above all these things put on love” (Col. 3:14). So also here. God exalted humanity in the Person of the Saviour; but above all this is the fact that He gave Him as Head to the Church. St. Chrysostom says: “What do the words ‘over all things’ mean? Do they mean that Christ is above all visible and spiritual things, or that the highest of all the benefits He bestowed is that He made His Son the Head, leaving above Him neither Angel nor Archangel nor anyone else? Not only by that one honour did God glorify us—by raising up the One who is from us (that is, Jesus Christ) on high—but also by predisposing the whole human race to follow after Him, to possess the same as He possesses, and to inherit His glory.”

Earlier, in the words: “to gather together all things” (Eph. 1:10), the thought was given that the order of existence disordered by the Fall—the structure of all classes of beings—has been restored in the Person of the Saviour-God-man. In Him all things found the centre of mutual union. And He became the all-encompassing Head. Since verses 20–23 stand in parallel with verses 7–11, the Apostle probably held the same thought in mind also with the words: “He gave Him as Head over all things to the Church.” By virtue of the incarnation He is Head of the Church; but as the incarnate One is God, He is also Head of all that exists—yet in such a way that above every headship He is nonetheless Head of the Church above all.

The words: “which is His body” point to the living union with Him of all believers who make up the Holy Church. Just as the members of our body together with the head form one living organism, guided by the head, so believers, incorporated into Christ as Head through baptism, form with Him one bodily-spiritual organism.—“Do you not know,” the Apostle says in another place (1 Cor. 6:15), “that your bodies are” “members of Christ?” Those who are baptised into Christ are clothed with Him, becoming one spirit with Him.

He works in them—both collectively and individually—and moves all things, as the head: the creative and life-giving power. It could not be otherwise, given the economy of salvation that the Triune God was pleased to accomplish. We fell away. God the Word assumed humanity in order to reunite it with God once more. In Him humanity already subsists in all-sided communion with the Godhead. People enter into this communion through Him, uniting with Him inwardly and essentially. This union of each one with Him adds members to Him one by one. The number of those united with Him multiplies around Him members who, being filled by Him—the one creative and life-giving principle—are also united among themselves, forming a union perfectly analogous to the union of members in a body. Those who truly believe in the Lord are necessarily a body—and His body.

“The fullness of Him who fills all in all.” These words are somewhat obscure and admit of different meanings. To whom should we refer “fullness”—to the Church or to the Lord? It may be referred to the Lord, for it is He who is under discussion. It may also be referred to the Church, because it is mentioned immediately before. If referred to the Lord, the meaning would be the same as in another place, in the words: “for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). “Fullness” there is in Greek το πληρωμα, as in our present passage. Instead of “Godhead” our text has “Him who fills all in all,” for this is proper to God alone. The thought would then be: God gave the Church a Head who is above all things, for He Himself is the fullness of the Godhead, the fullness of the One who fills all things.

If referred to the Church, the thought divides in two, depending on whether we understand by “Him who fills all in all” God the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ. If God the Father, or the Godhead in general, the thought would be: God fills all things, but the souls and hearts of fallen people He does not fill, for they have closed themselves to Him. Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ they are opened, and the Godhead enters into them and fills them. All believers make up the Church, and, having been filled by God, they make it filled by Him. Blessed Theodoret understands it thus: “By Church the Apostle calls the assembly of believers; he named it the body of Christ and the fullness of the Father, because the Father has filled it with every gift, and in it, according to the prophetic word, He dwells and walks (Lev. 26:12). This will be fulfilled with complete precision in the future life. Thus the Apostle taught us in the Epistle to the Corinthians. For having said: ‘the last enemy to be destroyed is death’ and ‘He has put all things under His feet’ (1 Cor. 15:26, 27), he finally added: ‘that God may be all in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28).—God is even now in all, since His nature is uncircumscribed; yet He is not all in all, because some are impious and others are lawless, whereas God dwells in those who fear Him and in those who hope in His mercy. But in the future life, when mortality ceases, immortality is given, and there is no longer any place for sin, God will be ‘all in all.’”

If by “Him who fills” we understand the Lord Jesus Christ, then the words “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” are a continuation of the same thought as is contained in “which is His body,” explaining it and carrying it further in development and application. St. Chrysostom says: “Lest, having heard the word ‘head,’ you take it only in the sense of authority but not in the proper sense—lest you count Him merely a ruler and not see in Him the actual head—the Apostle adds: ‘the fullness of Him who fills all in all.’ The Apostle considers the name of head as it were insufficient to show the kinship and closeness of the Church to Christ.”—To show kinship and closeness… that is, to show that in the Church and in Christians everything is Christ’s. She is full of Christ; He fills her entirely, in her whole constitution and in all her members individually—and in her, and in her members, He fulfils all things. In that case these words may be rendered thus: “which is His body,” “—His fullness”, “the One who fills” “all things” “in all” (her members). His is the light of the knowledge proper to the Church, with which He fills those who are knowers. His is the holiness with which He fills those who strive after holiness. His are the acts of charity, with love for which He fills those who do charitable deeds. His are all other spiritual gifts visible in the Church, for He fills with them those believers who are capable of receiving them. In the Church—“Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11).

This thought takes on a particular nuance if one understands “fullness” as completion, or supplementing. In that case the Apostle’s words suggest that the Church completes Christ. How so? Here is St. Chrysostom’s resolution: “But what do his final words mean (that is, ‘fullness’ and so forth)?—They mean: the Church is the fullness of Christ, just as the body completes the head and the body is completed by the head. You see that the Apostle disdains no comparison, makes use of every turn of phrase, to present God’s glory. Fullness, he says—that is, as the head is completed by the body, for the body is composed of all the members and each member is necessary. You see the Apostle presents it as though all the members generally were needed by Christ as Head… His body is perfectly constituted of all the members. And this means: the head will be complete only when the perfect body is formed.”

So also Oecumenius and Theophylact. The latter writes: “Christ is filled and as it were completed by His members through believers—by the hand He is completed in the merciful man, by the foot in one who walks to preach or who visits the sick; by each other member in other believers.”

The Church as the fullness of Christ may be understood in a way analogous to how a tree is the fullness of a seed. What is contained in the seed in a contracted form appears in full development in the tree. And Christ the Lord said of Himself: “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies… it produces much fruit” (Jn. 12:24). After His death, resurrection, and ascension, how abundantly did believers begin to cleave to Him, whereas before that He was as if alone. And indeed—humanity saved and deified in the Lord Jesus Christ, even as one, contains all. But since it is such not for itself alone, but for people, so long as it is alone, all seems as yet not full, inasmuch as that for which it is such has not yet been fulfilled. The cleaving of believers to Him fulfils that for which it is such, and thereby completes Him. Since believers are the Church, it follows that the Church is the completion of Christ, her Head. In Himself He is full and all-perfect, but He has not yet drawn all humanity to Himself in full completeness. Humanity is gradually communing with Him more and more, and through this as it were completes Him—bringing His work thereby to fullness of fulfilment.

We cannot pass over without attention the applications that St. Chrysostom draws from this passage: “Let us honour the Head,” he says. “Let us consider what Head’s body we are. We are the body of the Head to whom all things are subjected. In accordance with this Head, we ought to be better than the very Angels and higher than the Archangels, since we have been granted an honour greater than all of theirs. For God did not take upon Himself the nature of Angels, as the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but ‘of the seed of Abraham’ (Heb. 2:16). Not the nature of Authorities, not of Principalities, not of Dominions, not of any other power, but our nature did He take and exalt. And what am I saying—exalt? He made it His own garment, and not only exalted it, but also put all things under its feet.—Let us honour the bond of kinship; let us fear lest any be cut off from this body, lest any fall away or prove unworthy of it. If someone placed a diadem upon our head, a golden crown, tell me, what would we not do to show ourselves worthy of those lifeless stones? Here no diadem adorns our head, but Christ Himself has become our Head—which is, without doubt, far greater—and we attach no value to it at all?! Angels, Archangels, and all the heavenly Powers stand in awe before our Head, and we—His body—shall we not honour Him? What hope of salvation then remains for us? Imprint upon your mind this royal throne; remember always the exceeding greatness of the honour. This, one may say, ought to frighten us more than hell itself. For even if there were no hell, for us who have been granted so great an honour and have then proved unworthy of it, the loss of this honour would be the highest punishment—a torment beyond all comparison.—Consider, near whom your Head is seated (this alone is entirely sufficient for everything); at whose right hand it is. It is seated far above every Principality and Authority and Power.—But since the subject of the Body of the Lord has arisen, let us also recall that Body which is sacrificed (in the mystery of the Body and Blood). Partaking of it and drinking His Blood, let us firmly remember that in the mystery of communion we partake of the Body in no way different from that Body which sits on high and before which the Angels worship, which is near the incorruptible Power—it is that very Body which we eat. Oh, how many ways of salvation have been opened to us! He made us His body, He gave us His Body—and yet none of this deters us from evil? Oh, the blindness! Oh, the great degradation! Oh, the shamelessness! ‘Seek the things above,’ we are commanded, ‘where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God’ (Col. 3:1, 2), while some of us are preoccupied with wealth and others are drowning in passions!”

Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

The glorification of the saved together with and in the Accomplisher of salvation is revealed in their spiritual quickening, in their co-resurrection and co-enthronement at the right hand of God in the person of the Lord and Saviour (Eph. 2:1–10). This is at the same time the second manifestation of God’s sovereign might, testifying to the surpassingly abundant greatness of His power in the economy of our salvation. Having begun to speak of this power (Eph. 1:19), the Apostle showed how it was manifested in the person of the Saviour—in His resurrection, His sitting at the right hand of the Father, and His heading up the Church. Now he continues to indicate the same power at work in those being saved: in their spiritual quickening, and thereby in their co-resurrection and co-enthronement at God’s right hand with Christ. These latter things are accomplished by virtue of the former, which have their ultimate goal in them. The manifestation of the surpassingly abundant greatness of power in the person of Christ the Saviour would have been for nothing if the same power had not also passed over to those who believe in Him. Therefore it was necessary that there should follow the quickening, co-resurrection, and co-glorification of those who cleave to Christ through faith. Great is God’s power in the economy of our salvation, the Apostle seems to say, judging by the sovereign might revealed, first, in the Lord Jesus Christ, and second, in those who believe in Him (Eph. 2:1–10). The first is the foundation of the second; the second is the natural fruit and requirement of the first. Both together are a mirror of the ever-increasing majesty of God’s power.

The Apostle’s thoughts here can be expressed briefly as follows: God manifested great power in the Lord—and not only in Him, but in this: that He quickened you also (vv. 1–2) and us (v. 3)—both of us, though we were dead (vv. 4–6). But since it was necessary to explain why we were dead and to characterize the features of our deadness, the Apostle introduces subordinate clauses that round out and fill in the discourse, so that the manifestation of God’s power in our quickening in Christ may be seen more clearly. And so one may rightly see in these verses a depiction of the bitter state of sin and the radiant state of gracious quickening—in the manifestation of the riches of God’s grace and goodness toward us (vv. 7–10).

Eph. 2:1. And you, who were dead in transgressions and your sins.

The particle “and” connects this utterance with what precedes it: “which He wrought in Christ, having raised Him…” Now he continues: and He wrought this also in that He quickened you. “You” depends on “He quickened together” with Christ (Eph. 2:5). Between them stands an explanatory passage depicting the deadness of sin. Blessed Theophylact writes: “He said above that God raised the Lord Jesus Christ and seated Him above all things. Now he says that He also quickened and raised you who were dead—not with bodily death but with the death of the soul—so that by the same power He raised the Lord from bodily death and us from the death of the soul through sin; though to give life to the soul is a greater thing than to raise a dead body.”

By “you” he means the Gentiles, placing them first, since sin raged most freely among them and displayed all its destructive power. Then he joins himself—that is, the Jews—to the same category of those spiritually dead (v. 3). Finally he unites both together: “and having quickened us together who were dead” (v. 5).

“Dead in transgressions and sins…” Although one can point out a distinction between transgressions and sins, this does not yield especially valuable insights and is never free from a degree of arbitrariness. It suffices to know that both sin and transgression—every violation of God’s will, whether expressed in the conscience or depicted in the written Law—produces spiritual death. “The wages of sin is death,” says the same Apostle elsewhere (Rom. 6:23). By this death the Apostle calls dead, first of all, the Gentiles. They were alive in body, alive in soul—they thought, deliberated, and advanced in the arts and in civic and civil order. But they were dead in spirit, dead to God and to the life of pleasing Him. Sins had separated them from God, and they became dead.

Sin, once it becomes master over a man, kills his spirit. As bodily death is the cessation of bodily life, so with the entry of sin into a person the root of the inner life—the life of the spirit, which comes from God—is cut off. In a sinner given over to sin, the sensual inclinations and passions of the soul increasingly gain the upper hand over the higher spiritual demands and suppress them to the point where the light of spiritual life is finally extinguished entirely. At the same time, bodily life also withers through the disruption of the integrity of human life and the severing of its proper relation to the supreme source of being and life. Hence come diseases, sufferings, and early death. Thus sin kills not only spiritually but also bodily—and not one person alone, but often an entire line, once it dedicates itself wholeheartedly to serving sin. (Hence the extinction of lineages.)

All this is the more bitter in that there is no excuse, especially for us today. St. Chrysostom writes: “There is bodily death, and there is spiritual death. To suffer the first is not sinful and not terrible, for it is (now) natural; having appeared as a consequence of the Fall, bodily death subsequently became as it were necessary for our nature—though it too will soon be abolished. But the other death, the death of the soul—since it proceeds from our own will—makes us answerable and admits of no excuse.”

Eph. 2:2. In which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience.

Having pointed to the sinful deadness of the Ephesians in their former state, he now brings forward the producers of this sinfulness—so that, as St. Chrysostom notes, he might not grieve them too deeply by pointing to the dark condition in which they had previously kept themselves of their own will. “Do you notice the gentleness of the Apostle Paul, with what mildness he exhorts his hearers, without frightening them in the least? Having told his hearers that you have reached the utmost extreme of evil (for to be dead is precisely the utmost extreme of evil), lest by this he should grieve them too deeply—for people are generally troubled when their former transgressions are pointed out to them, whether those transgressions be ruinous or not especially dangerous—he now indicates to them a helper who assisted them in reaching such a degree of evil, and a powerful helper; and he does this with the purpose that they should not think that they alone are to blame for everything.”

Or he introduces these evil powers—the producers of sin—in order to show the greatness of the power and the wealth of the goodness of the God who saves them, saying as it were: See in whose hands you were! But God snatched you out of them and brought you into a better life. St. Damascene writes: “You, he says—you Gentiles, held in death on account of sin, in which you lived under the evil devil who ruled over you by means of evil thoughts—God has deemed worthy of mercy and grace, and has transformed your deadness in sin into life through communion with Christ.” To this may be added from Theodoret: “The Apostle spoke thus reminding the Ephesians of God’s benefaction—namely, that He deemed them worthy of salvation when, on account of sin, they were still dead and under the power of the devil.”

Sins were killing you and holding you in deadness because you walked in them. The love of sin was the ruling orientation of your free activity. Although you were under the action of powerful enemies—the world and the devil—you nonetheless walked in those sins yourselves; they acted upon you, tempted you, but by no means compelled you. You yourselves followed their deadly suggestions. Theodoret writes: “The devil, having lost his dignity, became a teacher of impiety and wickedness; yet he does not lord it over everyone, but only over those who do not receive the divine pronouncements.”

The first productive force of sin is the “age of this world.” “This age” and “this world” are equivalent in New Testament Scripture. Here they stand together, perhaps for a fuller expression of their harmfulness. “Age” properly means a period of time, a long succession of years, and hence in general the course of time and of what is in time. “World” is the totality of corrupting customs and of the persons who are subject to them. “The age of the world” is the course of pernicious worldly customs established over a long time and holding sway over all world-lovers—customs by which they all walk, though involuntarily, as a cart rolls along a worn rut from which there is no possibility or strength to turn aside. The distinguishing mark of this manner of walking is care for temporal things alone, without regard for another life; care for securing happiness on earth, without regard for the demands of the moral law and the promptings of the fear of God. Hence the world lies in evil. Or “world” and “age” are equivalent to sinfulness, subjection to sin, the tyranny of sin. Blessed Theophylact writes: “The Apostle calls the corrupt life, the life in sins, ‘the age of this world,’ because the present life abounds in sins.” The Apostle wishes to point out: this was the yoke under which, these were the fetters in which, you were held—“once,” that is, before you cleaved to Christ through faith. But now, abiding with Christ, you are no longer conformed to this age (Rom. 12:2)—you have the strength to withstand the pressure of its corrupting influence, for you have received new principles and new powers to walk by these principles, in defiance of your former customs. Do you see the sovereign power manifested in you also?!

The second productive force of sin is the devil, whom the Apostle names “the prince of the power of the air,” the prince of “the spirit” “that now works” “in the sons of disobedience.” Holy Paul did not stop at pointing to the age or the world, but passes further, to the very source of sin. The arena, the stage on which sin unfolds, is the world; the one who sets everything in it in motion is the devil. Whoever walks according to the age of the world walks according to the devil, whom the Lord called the prince of the world and of the age (Jn. 12:31, 14:30).

“The Apostle called him ‘the prince of the power of the air’: ‘prince of the power’—a powerful prince; ‘of the air’—dwelling in the air. Or by the word ‘power’ one may understand the rank of evil spirits, just as among the holy Angels there is a rank called ‘powers.’ Generalizing this name, one can understand by the word “powers” collectively all spirits—or the kingdom of evil spirits, whose prince is Satan, and who, all together with their prince, dwell in the air. Further in this epistle the Apostle calls them ‘spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places’ (Eph. 6:12). Cast down from heaven, having no firm footing on earth, they hover homeless and scattered in the air, from which they mount all manner of disorderly attacks upon men and draw those who yield into evil. This well expresses the unsteadiness and inconstancy of satanic power—and perhaps also its ephemeral nature, that is, that it is entirely illusory, founded not on anything substantial but on deception, delusion, and phantoms. St. Chrysostom says: ‘according to the prince of the power of the air.’ The Apostle says this to show that the devil dwells in the lower air, that the aerial spirits are incorporeal powers that help him in his activities.”

You walked, says the Apostle, according to the prince of the power of the air. Our folk saying captures this well: to dance to someone’s tune. He suggested—and you followed his suggestions. Since he can suggest only evil and sin, by walking according to him you became ever more and more entangled in sins and consequently sank ever further and further into the deadness of sin, which always follows in the wake of sin. By such willing submission to him, he became the prince of sinners. “He is a prince because people have subjected themselves to him of their own accord” (Theophylact). “Because human nature has given itself over to him almost entirely, and all serve him voluntarily and willingly. No one heeds Christ, though He promises an abundance of good things; but him—though he promises nothing of the kind, and on the contrary conducts them to hell—all obey. He holds sway in this age; he has more servants than God, and men obey him more willingly than God; only a few are the exception; and all of this comes from our negligence and carelessness” (St. Chrysostom).

“The spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience.” One would expect: “according to the spirit,” as above: “according to the prince.” You walked in sins according to the prince of the power of the air—that is, according to the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. Some commentators understand it this way, and this understanding pleases them so much that they would be ready to correct the very text of the Apostle. Such an attempt may be called not altogether judicious and altogether unnecessary. The word “spirit” depends on the word “prince,” as does the word “power.” He is the prince of the power of the air, and likewise the prince of the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience. This indicates the source of the spirit of opposition to truth, which the Apostle encountered everywhere in his preaching ministry, not excepting even the Ephesians themselves. Satan with his spirits has implanted it in the souls of the Gentiles and constantly sustains it by his influence. By this spirit one may understand in general the evil principle going forth from Satan and working in unbelievers—the spirit of falsehood and self-deception, which with a certain deceptive confidence stands against all the persuasions of truth. Or, just as by the word “power” one can understand collectively all the evil forces, so by the word “spirit,” standing in a similar grammatical relationship, one can understand collectively all evil spirits, who under the guidance of their prince, by their deadly breath, act upon men, and habituating them to passions and vices, make them stubbornly resistant to the truths aimed at freeing them from those passions, and thereby from the power of the spirits themselves, the fomenters of those passions.

Sons of disobedience—stubborn opponents of Gospel truth. The word “son,” in connection with a virtue or a vice, denotes a person given over to that virtue or vice, to signify that he is filled to the full with one or the other, as of a son one says: the very image of his father. Satan is an adversary of God, of all truth and all good. And those who oppose the truth of the Gospel are his sons—stubborn opponents like Satan himself. The Greek word — απειθειας,—means sons of unconvincedness, those whom nothing will convince. Say what you will to them, they stubbornly resist every argument and every piece of evidence. But unconvincedness in one thing presupposes a counter-conviction in another. Therefore, although the word “spirit working in the sons of disobedience” points to influences from without, there is nonetheless nothing compulsory here. Rather, Satan proposes, inclines, persuades. They agree and stand by their agreement… and the spirit of opposition is born. St. Chrysostom says: “Do you see that not by force, not in any tyrannical way, but through persuasion he draws them to himself? Pointing to disobedience (απειθεια), the Apostle seems to say (by way of contrast) that the devil leads all astray by flattery and persuasion.”

“Now”—means either this age, until the future restoration of all things, or now, when the preaching began and the Gospel started to spread through the earth. This spirit was acting before as well, but since he was not disturbed, he did not reveal his presence. When the heralds of Christian truth began to press him, he made himself heard, and strives to maintain his power by stirring up opposition to the truth and non-submission to the faith. The Apostles saw this action of the opposing force everywhere.

St. Paul brings this forward as a sign of the deadness of the soul, or of the deadly power of sin, and of its producers working among the Gentiles. By all of this the Apostle makes clear how great is the power that overcame these forces of sin, broke the bonds of sin, snatched them from the deadness of sin, and granted them true life. Truly, in this also the action of the sovereign might of God is manifested—of God who saves all who desire to be saved.

Eph. 2:3. Among whom we all also once lived in the desires of our flesh, carrying out the will of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest.

“Among whom we all also…” “We” “all”—the Jews; no exceptions whatsoever; spiritual deadness from sins was universal.

“‘Among whom’ — εν οις,—to what should this be referred? The nearest preceding noun is ‘sons of disobedience.’ If referred to them, it will mean: among them, in the midst of them, that is, the sons of disobedience; in support of which the Greek “lived” — ανεστραφημεν,—properly means “moved about.” But of the Jews in general one cannot say that they moved about among the sons of disobedience. Their distinguishing characteristic was to live apart from all; and so they kept themselves, not only at home in their own land, but also when they lived in the diaspora. Therefore it seems better to refer εν οις to παραπτωμασι — to “transgressions.” He attributes spiritual deadness to two causes—transgressions and sins. Applying this principle further to the Gentiles and the Jews, to the former he says: εν αις — that is, αμαρτιαις — ‘among which’—that is, “in sins”; and applying it to the Jews, he says: εν οις — that is, παραπτωμασι — ‘among whom,’ that is, “in transgressions.” So blessed Jerome understands this connection. ‘Among whom’ should be referred to ‘transgressions.’ Above he sets out two subjects—transgressions and sins. Turning then to sins, he said: ‘among which you once walked,’ but said nothing there to explain and apply the transgressions; now he says: ‘among whom we all also lived’—that is, in transgressions—lest it appear that out of pride he excludes himself (that is, the Jews) from the number of sinners.”

It is noteworthy that, when speaking of the sinful deadness of the Gentiles, the Apostle explains that they were held in sins, or drawn to them, by the allurements of the world and the machinations of the prince of this age. But when placing the Jews under the same deadness, he says that these sank in transgressions because they lived in the desires of the flesh—they were not dragged to those sins by some outside force but fell into them by their own corrupted will, carrying out the will of the flesh and of the mind. The thought conveyed is that neither the world nor the devil had such power over the people of God as they displayed over the Gentiles. Indeed, all the ordering of personal, family, church, and civic life among the Jews was established according to a heavenly design. All of it was sanctified by God’s will and led to the improvement of morals and drawing near to God. The corrupting customs of the world could penetrate into their midst only surreptitiously, by unlawful means; whereas among the Gentiles these customs constituted the very substance of their life—born from passions, they nourished passions and inflamed them. Likewise the prince of the world lost his power over the Jews once they received the seal of God’s election, by virtue of which they constituted God’s own portion. The prince of the world with the customs of the world could enter into the circle of the Jews only at their own invitation, when they, casting off the yoke of God’s good will, voluntarily gave themselves over to his alien yoke. This is what the Apostle points to when he says that we all also were in sins, living in the desires of the flesh. The world and the prince of this age had no power over us, but we ourselves sank in sins by living in desires; we were our own enemies—our desires served for us in the place of the corrupting force of the world and its prince.—But if this could be said of the Jews, how much more must it be said of Christians?!—There would be no place among us for the world and the devil, if it were not for our susceptibility to desires.

By “the desires of the flesh” or “the desiring flesh” one understands here in general all sin-loving strivings of the heart, whose distinguishing mark is self-gratification—a disposition of the soul by which it does everything only to please itself, in defiance of the demands of conscience and the promptings of the fear of God, loudly and definitively declared.

Self-gratification has two modes of expression—the will of the flesh and of the mind, sinful of course; in other words: carnal passions and soul-passions and inclinations. “Carrying out the will of the flesh and of the mind”—that is, whatever the flesh desired and whatever the soul conceived to please itself, that alone, or all of that, we did; we followed, that is, the demands and impulses of bodily and soul-passions and inclinations—self-serving ones. St. Chrysostom says: “We all lived without giving thought to anything spiritual—‘all,’ because one cannot say that anyone formed an exception in this case. But lest anyone begin to suspect that this is said with the intention of slandering the flesh, or think that its guilt in this is altogether too great, notice how the Apostle forestalls all such suspicions and thoughts: ‘carrying out,’ he says, ‘the will of the flesh and of the mind’—that is, (of one’s own free will), being carried away by desires and pleasures.”

Theodoret sees in the word “of the mind” how sin first germinates in sinful thoughts, and then, through the joining of the will with them, is produced also in deed through the body. “The Apostle,” he writes, “showed that not the flesh alone, but the soul itself is deserving of accusation; for it is the soul that first receives within itself the inclination toward what is worse, and then, with the help of the flesh, puts into action what was conceived by the mind.”

But, someone might think—why does he not call himself “dead,” as he called the Gentiles?—This is already self-evident. Once in sins, one is also dead, for where there is sin, there is spiritual death. But besides this, further on he directly numbers the Jews among the spiritually dead when he says: “and having quickened us together who were dead in transgressions”—where under “us” he includes both Jews and Gentiles.

“And were by nature children of wrath.” Since, carrying out the will of the flesh and of the mind, we sank in sins, we were therefore also under God’s wrath for this state. “We angered God, we provoked His wrath—we became nothing but objects of God’s wrath, and nothing else,” says Chrysostom. Theodoret writes the same: “The Apostle said ‘by nature children of wrath,’ that is, worthy of wrath and the utmost punishment. So too he named the Antichrist ‘the son of perdition’ (2 Thess. 2:3), that is, worthy of perdition.” According to Oecumenius and Theophylact—they became children of wrath as those doing deeds worthy of wrath. Basil the Great, in the 268th short rule, says: “One becomes a child of wrath insofar as he has made himself worthy of wrath. For just as the Apostle named those who are worthy of the Lord and do the works of light and day ‘sons of light and sons of day’ (1 Thess. 5:5), so one must understand the words: ‘we were children of wrath.’”

“The word ‘by nature’ stands in place of ‘truly, genuinely’ — αληθως και γνησιως” (Oecumenius, Theophylact).

“Like the rest.” “This means no one was free (from wrath), but we all, by our deeds, were worthy of God’s wrath” (St. Chrysostom).

Sin has leveled all, as St. Paul describes at greater length in the Epistle to the Romans, gathering various Old Testament testimonies to this effect (Rom. 3:10–18). What a gloomy picture of the state of sin! The sinner is spiritually dead, is under the tyranny of the devil, is dominated by the spirit of the world, is uncontrollably drawn by the movements of the flesh, enslaved to the passions of the soul, troubled by sinful thoughts—and for all of this he is a son of wrath, and consequently a debtor of eternal punishment. How can those who have been delivered from such a calamity not glorify the sovereign might of the Deliverer, who by His grace raises the sinner from the death of sin and brings him into the bright life of pleasing God and holiness!

Eph. 2:4, 5. But God, who is rich in mercy, by reason of His great love with which He loved us, even us who were dead in transgressions, quickened us together with Christ: by grace you are “saved.”

After the rich digression in verses 2 and 3, the Apostle returns to the interrupted discourse: “and you who were dead…” in order to say—but what about “you?” Before saying this, however, the great perniciousness of sin—voluntary and therefore inexcusable—made it necessary to point to the source of mercy toward such lost ones, which the Apostle does by beginning his speech: “But God, who is rich in mercy.” Then the turn of phrase in the inserted speech made it impossible to say “you”—and required “us,” since all have been recognized as sinners needing to be quickened—not the Greeks only—“you”—but also the Jews—“we.” This is why the holy Apostle joins both under “us”: “and us also”—both of them… “He quickened together.”

“But God, who is rich in mercy…” Such as we were—slaves of the world, of the devil, and of our own desires, dead to God and objects of His wrath—what could be expected but punishment, retribution, and judgment? Yet the outcome was different: not only were we not punished as we deserved; on the contrary, we were enriched with such graces as the most self-loving desire could never have imagined: “He quickened together, raised together, enthroned together.”—Whence such generosity?—From the boundless mercy of God, and not only from this, but especially from the fact that God loves us, His people, exceedingly. As a certain merciful man helps every person in need, but helps more willingly and more generously those whom he loves—so also God would have spared us simply because He is rich in mercy, as one who is compassionate; but His love for us increased this generosity to superabundance. St. Chrysostom writes: “He does not say simply ‘being merciful,’ but ‘rich in mercy.’ Similarly in another place it is said: ‘according to the multitude of Your mercies, look upon me’ (Ps. 68:17), and again: ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy’ (Ps. 50:3).—Here the Apostle points to the source of God’s love for us. All our deeds were worthy not of love but of wrath and the most severe punishment; it means that if He loved us, it was solely by reason of His great mercy.”

“By reason of His great love with which He loved us.” God loves all His creatures, but shows a preferential love for man. In creation He honored him with His divine image and appointed him lord over all creatures; and when he fell, He did not abandon him, but set all in motion—both heaven and earth—to restore him, and restored him through the wondrous economy of salvation, by which man becomes greater than he was in creation. Truly all of this is the great love with which God has loved us. He loved us from eternity. Even when—speaking in human terms—the plan of creation was being laid, even then God loved man in a special way, for man was placed at its center, where it pleased God to gather all together, so as afterwards to act beneficently on all the rest through him. From this proceed the unceasing and inexhaustible nature of God’s benefactions and gifts to man. Ambrosiaster writes: “God’s love for us is shown in this: that since He created us, He does not want us to perish. For He loves the work of His hands. He created in order to love what He had created.”

One would have expected the Apostle here to mention the greatness of God’s power, since this is the subject of the entire section; yet instead he points to mercy. But that in our restoration God’s great power was manifested—this was implied by the course of the discourse. In these words, however, the Apostle goes further and indicates by what path this great power reached us, when our guilt was barring its access to us.

“And us who were dead in transgressions…”—this refers to spiritual death. Sin, having entered us, kills our spirit. The soul remains actively alive, but all in service to sin; in the thoughts of the mind, in the feelings of the heart, in the undertakings of the will—and the body moves nimbly when it hastens to satisfy its own desires. But activity toward God is forgotten, there is no sympathy or willingness for it—and in the body neither hand nor foot is willing to move according to it.—From such deadness God delivered us in Christ… “He quickened us together with Christ.”

In this quickening of us through the Lord Jesus Christ, two moments must be distinguished: the first, when humanity was quickened in the person of the God-man, and the second, when each believer becomes a participant in this quickening. In the person of the Saviour, humanity was shown newly quickened, in the full force of that word, in His resurrection and ascension. In Him was laid the foundation of the quickening of all who would thereafter cleave in faith and love to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him all who were afterwards personally quickened—who are being quickened and will be quickened until the end of the age—were potentially quickened as well, so that these latter are nothing other than the realization of the first; that is the seed, and these are the tree that has grown or is growing from it, overshadowing the whole universe with its branches. This personal quickening of each person—through faith and the renunciation of all impious and vicious life—is accomplished in baptism. In this gracious mystery man dies to the sinful life and comes alive—receiving zeal and power—for the spiritual life, becomes a participant in Christ’s quickening, and continues thenceforth to walk in the renewed life (cf. Rom. 6).

What quickening does the Apostle have in mind here?—Since he says “He quickened together,” he doubtless means the quickening in the person of Christ the Lord; but since he says “He quickened us together who were dead,” pointing to himself and the Ephesians—actual persons who have already become partakers of Christ’s quickening—there is no doubt that he also means the actual quickening, whose foundation was laid in Christ’s quickening, confirming the former by the latter.

The Apostle does not write a theory but depicts the economy of salvation, accomplished in deed and showing its power in deed. Therefore in the word “He quickened together” one need not distinguish whether this is meant in the person of Christ the Lord alone or in those who believe in Him. Both—for both had already been accomplished and were in operation; and though they might be distinguished in thought, in practice they merged: the quickening of believers was Christ’s quickening in its application.

After “He quickened together,” the natural sequence would be “raised together and enthroned together,” as the further movement of the manifestation of God’s power in the economy of our salvation. But the Apostle interrupts his speech and arrests the attention of the Ephesians on the contemplation of God’s immeasurable grace toward them. He seems to say to them in an aside: Mark this—you have been saved by grace. The aim of the first part of the epistle is to lead the Ephesians, and with them all the Gentiles, into the knowledge of God’s great mercy toward them—shown in that they too were received into participation in the blessings gathered together in the person of the Saviour for us, on an equal footing with the Jews, who enter into this participation as into an inheritance by right of the ancient election of their people. Having finished his discourse on God’s power in the economy of salvation, the Apostle immediately reminds them of this (vv. 11 ff.).

“By grace you are saved.” Two verses later he repeats the same thing, and two verses after that he expresses it even more forcefully: “remember that you…” So greatly did he desire to fix this truth in their minds!—And one may suppose that, with this aim, he himself was moved by the contemplation of the greatness of God’s grace and spoke thus from an irrepressible feeling of astonishment: “by grace you are saved”—“by grace you are saved”—remember, then, what you were and what you have now become.—Let us note in passing that this word is addressed to us (Russians) as well, for we too are from among the Gentiles. Blessed Theophylact writes: “These words the Apostle inserted in the middle of his speech from profound astonishment—struck by the ineffable nature of God’s gift.”

The meaning of the words is evident. You, says the Apostle, presented nothing that might have attracted God’s good pleasure toward you. He Himself, moved by His love, looked upon you with favor and brought you within the enclosure of salvation. But judging from the fact that you were dead in sin, you should have been cast further away from His face, as dead corpses are cast aside. “By grace, and not for your labors and your merits, are you saved” (Oecumenius). “As for works, you were deserving of every punishment. Grace has saved” (Theophylact). But in saying “you,” the Apostle does not exclude the Jews from the same law of salvation by grace. He is only striving to impress this truth most of all upon the Ephesians, while he regards all—both Jews and Gentiles—as saved by grace. Theodoret does not even distinguish persons, but understands this passage in general, saying: “It is not for our virtuous life that we were called to salvation, but by the love of the One who saved us.”

By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

Eph. 2:6. And with Him He raised us up and enthroned us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

In “He quickened together” one need not distinguish Christ’s quickening from the quickening of believers through Him—because of their merging in reality and in power; but in “raised together and enthroned together” one cannot but make this distinction. In the person of Christ the Saviour we were raised and seated in the heavenly places, but this has not yet been accomplished in actual fact—it will be accomplished in due time. Yet it will be accomplished without doubt; so that since Christ has risen, one may count us as also risen; and since He has sat down in the heavenly places, one may count us as already seated there. “Since He has risen, we too have risen in hope; since He shares the throne with the Father, we share in this honour as well; for our head shares the throne, our first-fruits reigns together. He clothed Himself in our nature” (Theodoret).

Previously the Apostle showed that God manifested the greatness of His power in raising Christ and seating Him at His right hand (Eph. 1:20). Now he intensifies this manifestation of God’s power, showing that in Christ Jesus we too are all raised together and enthroned together in the heavenly places. Whoever should lift a heavy piece of magnet would have shown his strength; but if at the same time he lifted all the bits of iron clinging to it, he would have shown thereby still greater strength. So also here. Great power was manifested in the resurrection and enthronement at the right hand of Christ the Lord; but still greater power was manifested in this—that together with Christ and in Christ all who have cleaved and will cleave to Christ through faith are co-raised and co-enthroned in the heavenly places.

“Raised together and enthroned together.” These words show at the same time the close union of believers with Christ, as members with the head, and above all the destiny of humanity glorified in Christ. All that was accomplished in Him was accomplished not for Him but for the human race. Therefore, when He rose for the sake of man, one can say that our race rose in Him; and when He sat down at the right hand of the Father, one can say that our race was enthroned in the heavenly places in Him. Christ is the possibility, the source, the power. What belongs to believers is the realization of this possibility, the drawing from this source, the filling with this power. Saved humanity—the Church—is the development or unfolding of Christ—His fulfillment.

The Apostle does not say that God intends to co-raise us through Christ and to enthrone us in the heavenly places, but that He has already co-raised and co-enthroned us. All that in due time will belong to the redeemed human race, the Apostle sees already accomplished in Christ at one stroke. Christ, as the head of redeemed humanity, is the archetype being realized in the lives of the saints and to be realized until the end of the world. The gracious life of those being saved is the comprehensive application of all that is in Christ Jesus as the fullness of all. What was accomplished in Him was accomplished for all, and is accomplished in deed in all who follow Him by faith. In the first Adam we all sinned and died; the sin and death of Adam, in time, only unfolded and found their application through the sins and deaths of his descendants. In the same way, in the second Adam we are raised and enthroned in heaven. In believers, what is comprehended in Christ finds its application. The resurrection and ascension of Him as Head show their effect in us, His members. This begins already here spiritually, in rebirth or co-quickening in Christ, and will be completed at the end of the ages in the universal Resurrection and glorification, after the judgment, of all who will have been found worthy of it.

What the Christian will receive in its full power and perfection at the time of the restoration of all things—this he already possesses now, though in first-fruits, as it were in seed, or in its foundations. He lives—by virtue of communion with the risen and glorified Lord—by His life even on earth; and though under the cross, even here he has a foretaste of the blessedness of future glorification; already from here he is a citizen of the heavenly kingdom. There he is enrolled. And faith gives him a firm foundation for hope when it suggests to him: Christ—my head—has risen; I too shall rise—His member. Christ—my head—has ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father in glory; I too shall go there, partake of the glory of my head, and find rest with Him and in Him. For not false is His word, who said: “where I am, there shall My servant be also” (Jn. 12:26).

St. Chrysostom concludes: “Do you see the surpassingly abundant ‘greatness of His power in us who believe?’ He quickened those who were dead, who by nature were children of wrath. Do you see ‘the hope of His calling?’ ‘With Him He raised and enthroned us’ (God). Do you see the glory of His inheritance?—Yes, you will say, that He co-raised us—this is plain; but how does the Apostle prove that He ‘seated us in the’ ‘heavenly places’ ‘in Christ Jesus?’—By the same means by which he proves that He co-raised us. No one would ever have risen if the head had not risen; but when our head rose, we too were raised. In exactly the same way He also enthroned us. When the head sits, the body sits together with it—that is why the Apostle added: ‘in Christ Jesus.’ But how did He enthrone us?—‘If we endure’ with Him,’ says the Apostle, ‘we shall also reign with Him’ (2 Tim. 2:12). If we died together, we shall also live together.—Truly, one needs the gift of the Spirit and of revelation to comprehend the depths of these mysteries!”

Eph. 2:7. That in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in goodness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Just as previously the Apostle set forth the “praise of the glory of grace” (Eph. 1:6) as the purpose of the whole economy of salvation, or of the whole eternal plan of God concerning it; so too in the realization of this plan he sees no other purpose than the manifestation of the “riches of grace.”

“The ages to come”—the same as the future age, after the second coming of Christ—the time of the matured Kingdom of Christ. Even now this wealth of grace is visible to those who have eyes to see, but not all see it—not only among unbelievers, but also among believers. But then this ineffable wealth will be openly revealed before the eyes of all, in all its greatness and splendor. “It does not yet appear what we shall be” (1 Jn. 3:2), and we cannot comprehend the full breadth of God’s goodness toward us in Christ Jesus. Only in part does everyone see—and the Apostles no less than other believers.

“The riches of grace”—denotes the treasury of divine gifts to us; and “by His goodness toward us in Christ Jesus”—points to the manner of the opening of this treasury for us. In Christ Jesus the Heavenly Father said: This is My beloved Son, in whom all My good pleasure rests. This good pleasure extends through the Lord Jesus to all who believe in Him. He who rests in good pleasure upon Christ Jesus rests with it upon those who cleave to Him. This good pleasure is the goodness toward us in Christ Jesus, by virtue of which all the riches of grace are poured out upon us. It is the key to God’s treasury.

Is not even what is received already now—enough? Forgiveness of sins, the grace of the Holy Spirit, overcoming of passions, growth in virtues, sanctification, adoption, the shining forth of extraordinary gifts—is this not enough? But all of this now manifests itself in earthen vessels, piecemeal and under the covering of external disorders all around. Then, however, there will be revealed in full glory not only this, but also much else that we cannot even imagine—and revealed in the complete totality of all believers. In this age, a building of astonishing beauty is being erected invisibly, covered however by protective scaffolding. When all that obscures the beauty of the building is removed in the age to come, the beauty of the building will astonish both human and angelic minds, which will then behold all the riches of grace expended in the construction of such a building.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “The greatness of the hoped-for blessings is now entirely unknown to unbelievers; but even believers see them ‘as through a glass, darkly’ (1 Cor. 13:12). For they ‘walk by faith,’ ‘and not by sight’ (2 Cor. 5:7); but then they will see face to face. Then believers and unbelievers alike will see the adorable nature that was taken from us for the sake of all creation, and the saints reigning together. ‘For if we have died with Him,’ says the Apostle, ‘we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him’ (2 Tim. 2:11, 12).”

St. Chrysostom sees this manifestation of the riches of grace in the co-enthronement of believers with Christ, as the course of the discourse requires. He says: “Since he had previously spoken of Christ, and in all that was said there was nothing that directly concerned us (you may ask—what is it to us, in fact, that Christ has risen?); having shown beforehand that this must also be applied to us—because the Saviour is united with us—he now speaks of what directly concerns us. ‘And us also, who were dead in transgressions, He raised and enthroned.’ So believe that He has enthroned us with Himself, being convinced of this truth by what was said before—that is, by what was said about the head—and also by this: that He wishes to manifest His goodness toward us. For how, in fact, will He manifest it, if this is not so, that is, if He has not enthroned us with Himself?—‘He will manifest it in the ages to come.’ But what will He manifest?—That the blessings He has prepared are both great and entirely worthy of faith. Now these blessings seem impossible to unbelievers; then all will know them. If you wish to know also how He enthroned us, hear what Christ Himself says to the disciples: ‘you shall sit… on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel’ (Matt. 19:28). And in another place: ‘to sit at My right hand and at My left hand… is not Mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father’ (Matt. 20:23). So it is already prepared. And well did the Apostle say: ‘by His goodness toward us in Christ Jesus.’ To sit at the right hand—this is an honour above all honour, beyond which there is no further honour. In saying this—that is, ‘by goodness toward us’—the Apostle shows that we too shall sit. To sit with Christ—this is truly an ineffable wealth, this is truly the surpassingly abundant greatness of His power! If you had a thousand souls, would you not lay them down for the sake of being worthy of such honour? If it were required to go into fire, should one not be completely ready for even this trial? Christ Himself says: ‘I desire that where I am, there they may be with Me also’ (Jn. 17:24). For such honour, even if one had to be cut in pieces every day, one ought to bear even this with joy. Consider where He sits—‘Far above all rule and authority’ (Eph. 1:21). Consider with whom you shall sit—with Him. But who are you?—Dead, a child of wrath by nature. What right have you done?—Nothing. Now it is truly the right time to cry out: ‘O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!’ (Rom. 11:33).”

Eph. 2:8. For by grace you have been saved through faith: and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

In verses 8–10 St. Paul proves, or explains, why through the glorification of those who believe in the Lord Jesus there will be manifested nothing other than the riches of grace. Because what elevates a man to such a state as makes him fit for such high honour—co-enthronement with Christ—is grace alone. He calls this state here salvation and says: therefore in our co-enthronement the riches of grace will be manifested, because you have been saved, placed in a state to make use of this gift—by grace. After this he explains that salvation is indeed wrought by grace. For salvation, faith and holy virtuous life are needed. But faith also is from God (v. 8), and for good works we are ourselves fashioned by Him through regeneration and the bestowal of grace (v. 10). Faith and virtue make Christians saved, pure, holy, pleasing to God, and thereby fit for co-enthronement with Christ. Since these are wrought in the Christian by grace, it is evident that through this co-enthronement nothing but the riches of God’s grace will be manifested.

“By grace you are saved”—“you are,” you Ephesians. All who are saved are saved by grace; but the Apostle addresses the Ephesians because he had in mind to impress this truth upon them more forcefully at this moment. His general argument proceeds with “we”; but as soon as he needs to fix the attention of the Ephesians more particularly on something, he directs his speech as though exclusively to them.

These same words he had already uttered above (v. 5), but there they burst forth as if unexpectedly from the heart—as an exclamation, perhaps with the aim of stirring up feelings of thanksgiving. Here the discourse is calm, perhaps with the aim of moral instruction and the lesson: “that no one may boast.”

By salvation one may understand both the economy of salvation and each person’s individual salvation. The economy of salvation—that is, God’s eternal counsel concerning it and its fulfillment: the fact that the Son of God came to earth, became incarnate, suffered, died on the cross, rose again, ascended to heaven, sat at the right hand of God the Father, sent down the Holy Spirit and established the Church on earth as the vessel of all saving means concentrated in the Word of God and the sacraments—all of this is the independent work of God’s grace. Man contributed nothing of his own either as means or as motive. Each person’s individual salvation begins from the preaching of the Gospel. The preachers were sent by God and guided by God as to where to go and what to say. All of this too is the work of grace. When a sermon is preached, whether to hear or not to hear, whether hearing—to attend or not to attend, whether attending—to agree and desire to believe or to disagree and not desire—this is a matter of freedom. But further, once the heart has expressed its consent and a desire for salvation through faith has been formed—faith itself is impressed and transformed into a living, unshakeable conviction again by the working of God’s grace upon the heart. After this, grace settles in the heart through the sacraments and becomes the inexhaustible and guiding principle of life according to faith.

Thus the ordering of salvation is entirely wrought by God’s grace; each person’s individual salvation also is entirely from grace; from man there is only the consent to faith and the desire to be saved in this way. And this is in keeping with the character of a free creature. All the rest is accomplished by grace, for consent and desire, of themselves, lead nowhere unless all-powerful grace comes.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “God’s grace has deemed us worthy of these blessings, and we on our part have contributed only faith; but in that too, divine grace is at work alongside us. For we did not believe of ourselves, but being called, we drew near—and from those who drew near the Lord did not require purity of life (as a condition for receiving them), but, having received faith alone, He granted forgiveness of sins.”

St. Chrysostom expresses the same truth with a closer application to moral improvement, saying: “Lest the greatness of the benefactions should puff you up, see how he humbles you, saying: ‘by grace you are saved.’ But, lest he destroy your part in it, he adds also what is required of us: ‘through faith.’ Then once more he as it were annuls this free participation of ours, when he says: ‘and that not of yourselves.’ Faith also, he teaches, is not from you. If Jesus Christ had not come, if He had not called us, how could we have believed? ‘How,’ it is written, ‘shall they believe unless they hear?’ (Rom. 10:14). Thus, according to the teaching of the Apostle, faith is not our own possession, but a gift of God. Faith is not sufficient for salvation, but—lest He save us without any participation on our part—God requires it of us. He said that faith saves, but not by itself, but through God: God wills it, and faith saves.”

The last thought of St. Chrysostom is expressed more clearly by Oecumenius and Theophylact, who say that faith in itself has no particular power, but possesses it because God was pleased to unite this power with it. It is God’s good pleasure that we be saved through faith—and faith saves. It is a gift of God that we are saved through faith. Oecumenius writes: “This is a gift of God in this sense, that faith of itself would not have had the power to save if God had not willed to save through faith. So both our believing is a gift of God, and our being saved through faith is also a gift of God.” Blessed Theophylact, having said that faith is a gift of God because if the Lord had not come and called us we would not have believed, then adds: “Or otherwise: he does not call faith itself the gift of God, but that we should be saved through faith—this is what is the gift of God. For granted that faith is also ours—yet how could it alone save if God had not been pleased to receive us for the sake of it, so that we might not be altogether passive in the matter of our salvation, but might be seen to be contributing something of our own as well.”

Eph. 2:9. Not of works, lest anyone should boast.

He confirms that God arranged this mode of salvation through faith, and our calling to faith for salvation, by His own goodness alone—not for any works of ours. What works brought the Son of God to earth? Not works, but our idleness brought Him. What works had the Ephesians shown, that they were called to faith? God sent the Apostle, equipping him with the gifts of grace. By the power of his gracious word and miracles, he turned them to faith and brought them within the fold of the saved, with all the privileges both present and laid up for the future. The Ephesians brought nothing of their own to merit such mercy, except obedience to the faith—and even that was completed by grace. And not only the Ephesians, but no other nation and no individual is admitted into the rank of the saved for any works, but by God’s grace alone. We (Russians)—what have we deserved, that we stand within God’s saving Church? Each of us is born within the enclosure of faith and immediately upon birth becomes a member of the body of the Church. This is a great grace of God! What works do we bring? None whatsoever. Works are required afterward. When one has been called and has received grace, his task from then on is simply to act. So the ordering of salvation and the calling to it is one thing; the life following the calling and the bestowal of grace is another. In the first, works play no part; in the second, works alone are required—faith has done its part; now act—and you will be holy and blameless, for that is the essence of Christianity.

The Apostle’s words: “not of works, lest any man should boast” refer to the first moment, while the following words—that “we are created for good works, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10)—refer to the second.

St. Damascene writes: “Even with works, salvation is not from them; to believers, participation in salvation has been granted apart from works.” Oecumenius says: “Not because God did not wish us to be saved by works, but because no one could be saved by works—only by faith.” “So then,” cries St. Chrysostom, “did the Apostle himself forbid the seeking of justification through works? By no means! He only says that no works justify anyone, and he says this in order to show the grace and loving-kindness of God. Those who have works God does not repel from Himself; but those who would have perished even with their works, He saves by grace—so that after this, absolutely no one has any right to boast.”

Eph. 2:10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

He has just said: “not of works”—so how does he here say: “created for works”? Salvation was arranged for us and we were called to receive it not for any works, but by grace alone. But we were called not in order to do nothing on our own part, but to work out our salvation, growing rich in good works which God has appointed for us—advancing in every virtue; though even this is not by our own strength but by the power of grace, by which we have been re-created for such works and have received the ability, with its help, to perform and to be perfected through them. This is why the Apostle joins this statement to the previous with “for”—showing here, too, the ground for why he considers the glorification of believers to be a manifestation of the riches of grace. For both faith and good works—two conditions for admission into the Kingdom of glory—both come from grace.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle said here ‘created,’ meaning regeneration—that is, God called us by His ineffable goodness, we obeyed and, believing, received salvation. But just as before baptism He required no active virtue from us, so after baptism He commands us to take care of it. For this is what the words mean: ‘for good works, that we should walk in them.’”

“For we are His workmanship.” Just as at the beginning God breathed His breath into a body formed from clay and man became man, so now into us who have been made earthly by passions and lusts—who have become less than human—at our calling to faith, He breathes the Spirit of grace, and we become human once more. Without the spirit, man is not man. But after the Fall, the spirit is smothered by passions and lusts and every kind of sin. The Spirit of grace descends, quickens the spirit of man, and man is man again—only now bearing a different name: a Christian, as one anointed by the gracious Spirit.

“Created in Christ Jesus”—that is, through faith in Christ Jesus, through the gracious economy of salvation established by the Lord Jesus Christ. “If anyone is in Christ,”—he alone is—“a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). This is accomplished in baptism, in whose font the old nature is buried and in its place newness of life is received, that we might walk in it brightly, as the risen Lord is bright (Rom. 6). He who is baptized into Christ puts Him on; and as, by the Lord’s word, without Him no one can do anything truly good, so having put Him on, one cannot but do good.

“For good works.” As leaf, blossom, and fruit are witness to the life of a tree, so doing good is witness to the quickening in Christ. Holiness and every virtue is the character of the newly born—or newly created—the very breath of their life. A Christian carries within his conscience the obligation to this and is zealous to be faithful to it. Grace descends through the sacraments, but its vessel in the soul is readiness for every good—expressed in baptism by the renunciation of Satan and his works and by union with Christ, and in repentance by the vow to sin no more. This readiness, the grace that descends in the sacrament makes strong and fruitful. Hence the one faithful to his calling and vow grows rich in good works. Inextricably bound to this are the labors of asceticism, by the law that whoever is obligated to an end is obligated to the necessary means. In the one who has received grace, holiness is consciously held as the norm of life. But when grace comes and dwells in the heart, it drives sin out from there—yet it does not drive it out all at once from the whole of man’s nature. Sin remains there as a tempter, acting from outside in relation to the heart. It is driven out by combat with it—free combat, though with grace’s help and under its guidance. Where there is combat, there are ascetic labors of every kind: self-mortification aimed at restraining the rise of sin as temptation, and the strengthening of good as its antidote. This is why “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). Asceticism is inseparable from Christianity. Its laws permeate the entire rule of the Church. All of this is because Christians are created for good works alone.

“Which God prepared beforehand.” How did He prepare the works? He appointed them for us who believe, according to the idea of the new life, and established means for receiving the strength to perform them—with which He clothes all who draw near to the Lord in faith and are sanctified by the holy sacraments. This preparation is from God, not from us.

“That we should walk in them.” By the bestowal of grace—or regeneration—an obligation to constancy in good is laid upon us. Regeneration, the indwelling of grace, is given so that we might walk in good works—and only in good works. But is it we who walk? Grace is in us, and without grace we can do nothing good; yet it is we who walk in good. A tool is given, but we ourselves must wield it. Arrows and a bow are given, but they will not shoot the enemy on their own. Take them up, prepare yourself properly, and shoot. Just as in faith one’s consent to believe and desire to believe are required so that grace may stamp a living faith in the heart, so in doing good one needs the conceiving of good (which is itself prompted by grace), consent to do it and desire to do it with corresponding personal effort and a cry for help, so that grace—coming to the aid—may help complete in deed what has been conceived and resolved upon, completing it blamelessly, overcoming all obstacles without and within. This is the law both for each individual act and for the whole of life.

Therefore, for a Christian to grow rich in good works is an essential matter. There are systems of doctrine in which good works are placed in shadow and asceticism is wholly excluded—all out of fear lest some notion of merit be introduced into the work of salvation. But surely one can devote every effort to both without any thought of merit, simply from a sense of obligation. How much this teaching enfeebles moral strength and virtue, and deflects one from inner purity toward outward propriety, is known by experience to those who have lived among such people. Decent outward conduct there takes the place of genuine moral goodness; while all inner impurity, in their view, is supposedly covered by faith. “What is to be done?” they say. “I see another law…”—and they renounce all resistance to it. It is said that their first ringleader (Luther) frequently uttered his wise word: “Sin more boldly, but believe more boldly too, and do not doubt that you will be saved.” Yet he did not explain how it is possible to have faith while serving the passions, when the very beginning of faith demands: let us deny ourselves and take up the cross.

Let us hear what St. Chrysostom says on this passage: “Lest, having heard that our salvation is accomplished not by works but by faith, you remain at ease—observe what the Apostle goes on to say: ‘For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…’ Note that this is proclaimed by the same Apostle (that is, the one who had just been speaking of salvation through faith). Here he alludes to re-creation. In truth, our salvation is a second creation: through redemption we have genuinely been brought from non-being into being. In the state we were in before—the state of the old man—we were dead; but now we have become what we were not before. Hence the work of our regeneration is indeed a creation—and moreover, a creation far more excellent than the first. By that creation we were called to life; by this one we are made capable of good life.—‘For good works, which He prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them’—that is, a virtue that is constant, uninterrupted, continuous to the last hour of life is required of us. If we had set out on a journey to the royal capital and had completed the greater part of it, but then grown slack and stopped before finishing it, what benefit would that journey have brought us? In exactly the same way, what benefit will the hope of our calling bring us who share in it, if we do not walk worthily of Him who called us? We who are called for good works must also abide in them until we have completed all our good endeavors. We are called not, to be sure, to perform some single good deed, but to be virtuous at all times. Just as we must use all five senses in a proper manner, so too must we perform all the virtues. If someone is chaste but not merciful, or merciful but a usurer, or does not take what belongs to others yet does not give away what is his own—for such a one, everything is in vain. One single virtue does not give us the right to stand with boldness before the throne of Christ; for that we need many and various virtues, virtues of every kind—or rather, all the virtues. Hear what Christ said to His disciples: ‘Go… make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you’ (Matt. 28:19, 20). And in another place: ‘Whoever shall break one of these least commandments… shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 5:19). So we must keep all the commandments.”

The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Such is the greatness of the economy of salvation in general for all; but for the Ephesians—and through them for all believers from among the Gentiles—it was manifest also in this particular feature: that they, who had once been “far off,” by its power became “near” (Eph. 2:13). In order to impress this more fully upon their souls, the Apostle depicts:

A) how far they were—vv. 11–12;

B) by what means they became near—vv. 13–18; and

C) how near they became—vv. 19–22.

D) How far away were the Gentiles? vv. 11–12.

The holy Apostle had already spoken earlier of how they were dead in sins and made alive together with Christ—which constitutes the inner power of life in Christ. Now he depicts the outward order of relationships in the spiritual, gracious economy of salvation. According to the hidden plans of the divine providence for our salvation, one people was chosen, to whom the promise concerning Christ the Saviour was entrusted, and in accordance with that, their entire way of life was ordered—ecclesiastical, civil, and family—which set them apart from all other nations. The seal of their election was circumcision. Those who were circumcised were thus, so to speak, God’s own; all others were as it were strangers. These knew the One True God, stood in His favor, knew without doubt that among them Christ the Saviour would appear, and were blessed with consoling promises. The Gentiles had none of these things—they were without God, without Christ, without promises. This, says the Apostle to the Ephesians, was the bitter state you were in.

Eph. 2:11, 12. Therefore remember that you, who were once Gentiles in the flesh, called uncircumcision by what is called circumcision, made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

“Therefore remember.” “The Apostle again calls to mind what is past, to show the greatness of God’s beneficence” (Theodoret). He calls it to mind because “when we pass from great poverty to an opposite state, or are deemed worthy of some greater honor, we, enjoying the glory of our new condition, generally recall our former state unwillingly” (St. Chrysostom). The holy Paul feared lest the Gentiles, by their numbers in the Church and by outward advantages, might begin to look down on the Jews, and so he commands them to remember what their former place was in God’s ordering of the salvation of all—so that, remembering it, they might not exalt themselves above the Jews nor estrange themselves from them. When addressing the Jews, where necessary, he reminds them that they did indeed have their advantages—but only for a time: now all of that no longer matters. He strove in every way to smooth over the inequalities between Jews and Gentiles, so as to fill them all with a single brotherly spirit through the union of all in Christ.

“You, who were once Gentiles…” The import of the remaining words of verse 11 is simple: you were the uncircumcised, if you set yourselves in relation to the circumcised Jews. Why was it the holy Apostle’s pleasure to use such a circumlocution? Because circumcision served as the gateway to participation in the promises of the people of God. Intending to point out what the Gentiles were deprived of by being estranged from the Jews, he points to the original principle of the division between them—circumcision and uncircumcision. But with the words “called uncircumcision by what is called circumcision,” he at the same time gives to understand that this distinction was not, and still less now is, anything essential. It is an outward sign. The Jews held aloof from the Gentiles as uncircumcised, regarding them as unclean and rejected by God; the Gentiles, for this very reason, looked unfavorably upon the Jews and, being sometimes willing to believe in the God of Israel, could in no way reconcile themselves to circumcision. The Apostle now suggests to them (having in view perhaps to humble the Jews as well): the uncircumcision so called from the circumcision so called—that distinction is not so very important if viewed externally, but what does matter is what was bound up with it: the deprivations connected with it were very keenly felt.

“You, who were once Gentiles in the flesh…” Blessed Theodoret takes “in the flesh” as belonging to “called uncircumcision” in the flesh, and places a stop after “Gentiles.” The sense is that “both circumcision belongs to the flesh, and uncircumcision likewise to the flesh.”

“Called uncircumcision.” “Circumcision and uncircumcision are a bodily characteristic (a distinguishing mark). But what is bodily is not essential; hence he said: ‘called’ (St. Damascene).”

“‘By what is called circumcision:’ “The honor was in name only, and the advantage of circumcision pertained to the flesh alone, for neither uncircumcision nor circumcision means anything (any longer)” (St. Chrysostom).”

“Made in the flesh by hands.” Circumcision was performed by another’s hands and went no further than the flesh. The heart remained uncircumcised even so. Therefore, looked at from outside, this added nothing and took nothing away in the spiritual sense. “The Apostle knew the true circumcision, by which the unclean desires entering the heart are circumcised. But if that is the true circumcision, then the true uncircumcision will be the impurity of the heart” (St. Damascene).

“That at that time you were without Christ.” “At that time”—before the coming of Christ, and more precisely, before the reception of faith in Christ. For those who do not believe in Christ suffer the same spiritual deprivations even now. These deprivations the holy Paul now enumerates, to make it more evident what blessings they have now been deemed worthy to receive. Looked at externally, it was no great thing that they did not have circumcision, were not associated with the people of God, and did not know the ordinances of their life; but terrible is what was bound up with that. “Do not think,” he says, “that there is any importance in the fact that you did not receive circumcision and are in uncircumcision; it is not that which is terrible, but this: to be without Christ, to be estranged from the commonwealth of Israel (and the former point concerns life), to be outside the covenant of promise, to have no hope, and to be godless in the world—which is precisely what the Gentiles were. That is terrible. Earlier the Apostle spoke of heavenly things (how, being dead, they were made alive together with Christ); now he speaks of earthly things, since the Jews prized these highly” (St. Chrysostom).

But were not the Jews also without Christ before?—Without Christ, but only because He had not yet come; yet He was promised to them so certainly, and they expected Him so certainly, that they already possessed Him as it were in actual fact. The whole structure of the faith under the Law was permeated with Christ. He was the body, and the Law was the shadow (Col. 2:17). The Jews therefore possessed Christ hidden within. This hiddenness was ever more and more disclosed by the prophets, so that faith in the coming Christ the Lord constituted the spirit of the piety of the Jewish people. Christ was all in all to them—from Him alone they awaited everything that was good. This advantage the Gentiles did not have. They sensed only that all was wrong with them; but how and by whom it might be set right, they did not know, though some by a certain intuition did hazard guesses on the matter. This is why Christ appeared among the Jews; from them came the first Church, and by them the Gospel was preached. Therein lies the power, the advantage, and the significance of the Jews for all humanity.

“Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.” Commonwealth — πολιτεια — the ordinances of life, established by God Himself. Israel was given commandments showing how to please God and how to purify oneself in case of breaking them and provoking His wrath. Everything was sealed by the manifest will of God, so that those who lived thus could not but be assured that they were God’s and were under His protection and favor. The ordinances of the commonwealth of Israel were significant precisely in that they showed that Israel was the kingdom of God, in which God was king. And He tangibly reigned among them, manifested wondrous signs, and preserved this people for the great purpose of the salvation of the human race in Christ Jesus. The Gentiles were estranged — απηλλοτριωμενοι — from this commonwealth. In this expression lies the hint that originally they too were destined to belong to it. The Gentiles also belonged to the same tree of humanity—as it was organized by God after the Fall and after the Flood—they received the original promises and commandments as well, but then broke off. Like the foolish son, they fled from their Father’s house taking with them a small share of the inheritance—and God left them to walk in their self-chosen ways. They were estranged—they estranged themselves. Who is to blame? The Apostle gives them to understand: now God forgives you your self-will and brings you back to Himself.

“Strangers to the covenants of promise.” The Mother of God in her song magnifies God for that He remembered at last the “mercy which He spoke to our fathers—to Abraham and to his seed” (Lk. 1:54, 55). These mercies were the promises, confirmed by special covenants. There were covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with all the people at Sinai, and with the prophet David. All of these are covenants of promise. God required faithfulness from the people, and Himself promised them His everlasting protection, defense, and preservation. But the substance of the promises was the promise of the coming of the Messiah, or His appearance among them. For His sake were given also the promises of protection and safeguarding, and they were indeed manifested in actual fact—for otherwise the Messiah could not have appeared among them either. That this is exactly so is seen in the fact that as soon as the Lord came and the formation of the new Israel began, the ancient one was scattered: its preservation ceased as no longer needed, and it ceased to be a distinct people, but wanders through the world, bearing witness to the truth by its very opposition to it. The Gentiles had become estranged from the commonwealth, carrying with them the original Noahic promises and commandments—but from the promises they were “strangers.” In this they had no part at all, for the promises were given apart from them—though in the end they too were hinted at: that they also would come to the mountain of God and to the house of God on the top of the mountains, and would entreat that they too be taught the Law of the living God. But this report did not reach them; it was spoken for the spiritual quickening of that same Israel to which the chief promise had been granted.

“Having no hope.” Since they had no share in the promises, they naturally could not nourish the hope that the promises aroused. And it is of this that the passage speaks. The Apostle does not mean here the hope that the Israelites had by virtue of the promise of the Messiah coming in the name of the Lord, but the general hope by which a person feels himself secure by reason of his relationship to God, from whom all things come. In Greek this word stands without the article, to show that no particular hope is meant here, but hope of any kind.

Life without hope is a comfortless life. The Gentiles were in a hopeless condition. Their inner sense made this known to them through the anguish of heart that oppressed the entire pagan world. In some, this undefined anguish reached a point of definiteness. One man would set out to attain knowledge of the truth, but would struggle and struggle and then let his hands fall—for truth showed no face, and no path to it could be seen underfoot. Another would set out to reform his character, but would struggle and struggle and give up—for everything slips from the hands, and no progress is made and none is in sight. So it was with all the rest. Such men could know clearly that they were in a kind of hopeless situation; others carried it as an indefinite feeling, expressed in a universal anguish.

They did not clearly know God, did not know the laws of His providence, did not know how to please Him or to be cleansed before Him from their sins. And then there was death—a fearful event for those who vaguely supposed whether they would live after death and, if they would, what their lot would be there. Uncertainty and obscurity everywhere: the Gentiles were like a man sinking into a bog ready to swallow him.

But it is impossible to live without hope. Whoever loses all hope usually deprives himself of life. How then did the Gentiles remain alive? They fashioned hopes for themselves—though illusory and deceptive ones. Is it not precisely this that the Apostle means—that the Gentiles had no true hope, hoping to receive true and lasting good? This seems probable, for he calls them godless too, on the grounds that they did not know the true God but served gods that are not by nature gods.

“And without God in the world.” “Although the Gentiles worshiped gods, they were nevertheless godless, because the idols to which they bowed signified nothing” (St. Chrysostom). It is impossible for man to be without God. Having lost the knowledge of the true God, the Gentiles invented gods of their own and, venerating them, found a certain rest. But in actual fact they were serving a phantom, not God. They did not know the true and living God and were outside communion with Him. However many other gods one may devise—it is all empty. This merely changed the glory of the incorruptible God—not without guilt and not without accountability. “Without God”—not condemned to godlessness, but they placed themselves in such a state.

Hopelessness is closely joined by the Apostle with godlessness. In the latter is the source of the former. In an evil world, a strong hope is urgently necessary—a hope that stands firm, established on unshakeable foundations—hope in the living, loving, and mighty God. Outside communion with such a true God, where will hope find its support? Those who are estranged from the true God therefore naturally sink into hopelessness.

By adding the words “in the world,” did the Apostle perhaps intend to say: in a world that loudly proclaims the true God? “For His invisible attributes, since the creation of the world, being perceived through the things that are made, are clearly seen—His eternal power and Godhead” (Rom. 1:20). Here, then, there is a word of reproach—and it is not without relevance even in our own day, for those who live in the world, see the world, even investigate it, yet do not wish to know the true God.

B) By what means did they become near? vv. 13–18

One might have expected that the holy Paul, having depicted what spiritual deprivations the Gentiles suffered by being estranged from the Jews, would now say: but now you too have been introduced into participation in these blessings—that is, joined to the Jews and made their equals, become as Jews. But he says something different: he says that the wall dividing you from the Jews has been torn down, you have been merged with the Jews—but not in order to become Jews, but in order to be together with them remade into a new humanity, for which the Jews too were destined. The Apostle intends here to present the greatness of God’s beneficence toward the Gentiles from their relationship to the economy of salvation. He seems to say to them: God, in ordering human salvation, chose one people for Himself, whom He nourished with hopes and promises and preserved by special protection, setting them apart from all nations by institutions that encompassed their entire life; you were deprived of such a beneficence, and that deprivation was very significant. But the Jewish institutions were only temporary; their end too has come, and the Jews are now being brought into possession of the higher spiritual goods of which the former served only as a type, being now subject to the new gracious institutions. All of this is done according to the plan of the economy of our salvation, decreed from eternity. If even now God had kept you far from this economy, as He did before, the measure of your deprivations could not be described. But God disregarded your guilty estrangement from Him and, while ordering the final ways of salvation among and through the Jews, called you also to enter upon them—that you too, together with the Jews, forgetting the ancient division, might travel the same path, the new and living path, by which both are brought in one Spirit to the Father. Now you too have become near.—Near to whom and to what?—To God, to the Lord the Saviour, to the sole path to salvation in Him, to the Kingdom of Christ and to all the sweetest hopes within it—near not to that from which you were formerly far and which has already passed away, but to that which has been newly and definitively established for our salvation. Remember then that you have been so greatly benefited—you have leaped over a step, been advanced past a grade, and not only have not been left behind, but have even been given the possibility of outstripping those who were near before.

Eph. 2:13. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

“But now in Christ Jesus”—when the promised Christ has come and has accomplished our salvation, which was formerly only hoped for; when the gracious Kingdom has been established by Christ the Lord and is proclaimed to all—now, in the New Testament economy of salvation. “You who were once far off”—you who were estranged from the former, temporary, and preparatory economy through your estrangement from the Jews and thus stood at a distance—“have been brought near”: you are not estranged from the new economy, the true and final one, but have been introduced into participation in it, on equal terms with the Jews, among whom and through whom it was prepared by the former mode of the economy. How have you “been brought near”? “By the blood of Christ.” A brief but all-encompassing answer. All the subsequent passage (vv. 14–17) serves as its explanation—ampler and fuller. Its substance may be expressed thus: all the Old Testament institution was shadow; but the body belongs to Christ. When the Lord came and offered Himself as a sacrifice by His death on the cross, everything that had been only a reflection of that sacrifice ceased—lost its significance and force. All force passed now into the death on the cross. Thus the blood of Christ, shed on the cross, put an end to the Old Testament institution and itself took its place—the body in place of the shadow, the truth in place of its foreshadowings. That by which the old was abolished itself became the new institution for salvation. But the Old Testament institutions were the wall dividing Jews and Gentiles. Consequently, the blood of Christ, which put an end to the significance of the Old Testament institutions, also tore down the wall of division between Jews and Gentiles. And since it itself became the New Testament institution for salvation, it also became the center of unity for all who enter upon this newly opened path of salvation. The Jews cast off the old and put on the new through the blood of Christ, which abolished everything old; while the Gentiles, being directly anointed by the blood of Christ, put on everything new. Both find in the blood of Christ the center of their mutual unity and at the same time the means of communion in the gracious institution through which, intimately joined to Christ, they draw near to God—both equally, without the advantage of one over the other.

Eph. 2:14–16. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition: the enmity, in His flesh, having abolished the Law of commandments in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, having slain the enmity by it.

“For He Himself is our peace”—peace between you, the Gentiles, and you, the Jews, who now together constitute the Church. Already in the Old Testament the Saviour was called the Prince of peace (Isa. 9:6). The angels greeted His birth with peace on earth (Lk. 2:14). Certainly in both cases a comprehensive peace is meant, for there is inner peace in the conscience, peace with God, the calming of all the soul’s stirrings. In the Apostle’s present word, while one may also understand peace with God in the conscience as a condition, his direct thought is about the union of divided humanity. In its most essential, religious regard, humanity had fallen into two halves, sharply distinct, existing in irreconcilable hostility, and unable to be united in the form in which both had been shaped by the course of history, according to God’s will and permission.

These two—Christ the Lord “has made one”—one society, bound by a firm bond, a living bond, heartfelt and soul-deep, in which all members are mutually sympathetic and compassionate. How did He accomplish this? By abolishing what served as the cause of division, and by filling both with new, common principles and powers of life according to God, which fused their souls into one.

“Having broken down the middle wall of partition.” The fence of the people of God was the Law, by which they served and pleased God, and by which they were justified before Him in their sins and drew near to Him. But this same Law served as a wall, fencing off the people of God from all other peoples, so that neither side could mingle with the other in any way. The Lord Jesus Christ broke down this middle wall. How? By His coming in the flesh and by His death on the cross. The Law was a shadow of what was to come; the body is Christ’s. When the body appeared, the shadow ceased. All the Old Testament justifications were abolished by the sacrifice of the body of Christ. The blood of Christ replaced everything former. And having abolished the Law, the Lord tore down the partition—this cause of the disharmony between the two halves of the human race. The sense of the passage is: the middle wall of partition—the Law—this “enmity,” or cause of disharmony, the Lord broke down “in His flesh”—the same as above: by His blood.

But having abolished or torn down one thing, the Lord introduced another in its place: “having abolished the Law of commandments in ordinances”—having replaced the outward order of pleasing God with a spiritual, inward one, enacted in the mind and heart, fulfillable and to be fulfilled at all times and in all places. The “Law of commandments” declared: observe days, times and years; or: do not touch, nor taste, nor handle, and so on—it consisted of the whole body of prescriptions that regulated every entry and exit of Israel’s life, at home, in the Temple, and in society. But all of this was outward—fulfilled bodily through material elements. This “Law of commandments the Lord abolished through ordinances” — εν δογμασι. He requires not elemental worship, not outward propriety, but has established that we offer to God, as a sacrifice, the God-pleasing ordering of the inner life, composed of one’s mode of thought, feeling, and disposition. This new law of life in Christ Jesus is wholly contained in one word: only believe, and you shall be saved—with this clarification: but let your faith be aided by love, by love in which is the fulfilling of the Law. This is the δογμα — the substance of life in Christ Jesus. Faith is a thing of the mind; love likewise. No outward circumstance of any kind shakes this rational worship. And this is the worship of God in spirit and in truth.

The Gentiles too had their own outward religious order. They too had to abandon it, and they did abandon it when coming to the Lord in faith. Thus everything outward was abandoned by both Jews and Gentiles alike, and thereafter both received an identical ordering of inner life. Inwardly they were joined by unity of mind, unity of feeling, unity of character—and therein a firm peace was established among them. But in this they also received new principles of life for both of them, merged into one. Thus the new spirit of life in Christ Jesus, permeating both equally, made peace and out of both built up “one new man”—a new humanity, whose first father and head is Christ the Lord.

But this is still the lower kind of peace. There is a higher one—peace with God, which is the source of the first. The Apostle says: “and might reconcile both to God”—saying this after speaking of their mutual reconciliation with one another, not because the one is the beginning of the other, but because in depicting the peace-making work of redemption he moves from the lower to the higher. The final goal of reconciliation is peace with God, beyond which there is nowhere further to go. But in actual fact—this is the beginning of everything. Having been reconciled with God, believers find peace within themselves, and through this peace they are reconciled with one another as well. Peace with God is established by the cross, by the death of the Lord on the cross, through faith, by the power of which the believer appropriates to himself the propitiation of God accomplished for all by that death. But what does it mean: “might reconcile both in one body”? If this were speaking of the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles with one another, then “in one body” would directly indicate the body of the Church; but since it speaks of reconciliation “to God,” these words suggest no other meaning than: to reconcile in His one body, by offering it as a propitiatory sacrifice for all on the cross. Likewise, “having slain the enmity” does not refer to the enmity spoken of above in the words “the enmity, in His flesh,” but to the enmity that sin set up between men and God. This enmity was slain by the cross; and believers, “having been enemies” (Rom. 5:10), are reconciled through it with God.

Such is the content of these verses! But since they present the most important subject of our faith, let us linger over them a little longer to hold the attention of those who love to attend to the truths of faith, and bring together here all that our holy Fathers and teachers have said on their occasion.

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one.” “He is our peace; He has arranged that those who believed from among the Israelites and from among you form one body” (Theodoret). “What does ‘made both one’ mean? By this the Apostle shows not that God has granted us the same nobility as the Jews, but that He has elevated both us and them into a better state. Moreover, God’s beneficence toward us is even greater: to them—the Jews—promises were given, and they were nearer to God than we were; to us no promises were given, and we stood farther from God. This is why it is said: ‘the Gentiles glorified God for His mercy’ (Rom. 15:9). The Israelites received promises but proved unworthy of them; but to us nothing was promised, we were strangers to the promises; we had nothing in common with the Jews, and yet He united us together—not, however, by attaching us to them, but by joining both us and them into one. Let us take an example: suppose one is a slave and another is an adopted son; both were to serve Him (that is, God), but one was declared disinherited, the other fled away, and then both were made heirs and legitimate children. They were deemed worthy of the same honor; the two became one—with only this difference: that one came from afar, the other from nearby, and the one who was nearer arrived at the Father’s house first” (St. Chrysostom).

“Having broken down the middle wall of partition.” “He put an end to the Law which, like a certain wall, divided you from one another; and having done this, He destroyed what kept you apart from them” (Theodoret). “The wall that stood in the middle and placed a division between the religion of the Law and paganism he called a hedge or fence (Greek: φραγμος), and not a solid and massive wall. For neither was paganism anything firm, being a human invention, nor were circumcision with new moons, distinctions of foods, sacrifices, and sabbaths a permanent and unchangeable institution—they were given with the intention that they should cease when Christ came. Although God gave all of this, He gave it for a time; but the proclamation of the faith is unchanging and without succession (Ambrosiaster). The Law was also a fence—a fence for confirmation in good; and it is called a fence because it could fence against evil. Hear what the Prophet says: ‘I fenced it with a fence’ (Isa. 5:2). And again: ‘You have broken down its wall, and all those who pass by the way pluck it’ (Ps. 79:13). And again: ‘He gave the Law as a help’ (Isa. 8:20). And in another place: ‘The Lord executes acts of mercy and judgment for all who are wronged. He made His ways known to Moses, His will to the sons of Israel’ (Ps. 102:6, 7)” (St. Chrysostom).

“The enmity, in His flesh.” “Before the Incarnation there was great enmity between the circumcision and the uncircumcision; now we have been reconciled, having become one through faith. We are characterized no longer by circumcision and uncircumcision, but have one distinguishing mark—faith” (Theophylact). St. Chrysostom and the other Eastern Fathers understand here the enmity toward God that sin raises. Blessed Photius, in Oecumenius, understands two enmities—both that which existed between the Jews and the Gentiles, and that which both groups had toward God on account of their sinfulness. “Both the one and the other,” he says, “Christ our God abolished.” But more directly one should understand here the first enmity, though one may also supply the second in this way: the division between Jews and Gentiles was destroyed by the abolition of the Law, and the Law was abolished by Christ’s reconciling us with God through His blood.

“Having abolished the Law of commandments in ordinances.” “He replaced the legal prescriptions with dogmas. Circumcision, the Sabbath, the Passover, Pentecost, and the requirement not to appear before the Lord empty-handed—He taught us to understand these more deeply than the sound of the words suggests, and, departing from the letter that kills, to follow the Spirit that gives life” (blessed Jerome). “That is, the law given to the Jews—concerning the observance of circumcision, new moons, sacrifices, and the Sabbath—He abolished, because it served only as a burden, and thereby brought peace (between Jews and Gentiles). This is why the Apostle Peter said in Acts: ‘Why do you place a yoke upon the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?’ (Acts 15:10) (Ambrosiaster). O what great loving-kindness! He gave us the Law so that we might keep it; then, when we had not kept it and were liable to punishment on that account, He even abolished the Law. This is like someone who entrusted his child to a tutor and then, noticing that the child did not obey the guardian, freed him from the tutor. God showed great loving-kindness in this!—What then does ‘having abolished in ordinances’ mean? The Apostle draws a great distinction between commandment (εντολη) and teaching (δογματα). By teaching he means here faith, because we are saved by faith alone… So—if you believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, you shall be saved. And again: ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart… say not… who shall ascend into heaven… or who shall descend into the abyss…’ or who would have raised ‘Christ from the dead’ (Rom. 10:6–8). In place of works He introduced faith, so that the work of salvation should not be in vain; He Himself bore the punishment, and from us requires faith in the dogmas” (St. Chrysostom).

“That He might create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace.” “You see, the Gentile did not become a Jew, but both came into a new state. He did not abolish the Law in order to transform the one into the other, but to re-create both. And well does the Apostle use the word ‘create’; he did not say ‘transform,’ in order to show the peculiar power of this action—and to show that although this creation was accomplished invisibly, it is nonetheless no less than the first creation—and so that in the face of such evident proofs no one could remain an unbeliever. ‘That He might create both,’ he says, ‘in Himself’—that is, through Himself. He did not send someone else, but Himself—having first, as it were, melted down the one and the other, that is, the Greek and the Jew—created one wondrous being, namely the Christian—Himself becoming the first specimen of this kind of creation, a creation far superior to the first. ‘In Himself’ may also mean that He was the first to present to us the pattern and example of the new creation. Standing Himself in the middle, He draws the Jew with one hand and the Greek with the other, and having mixed them together and destroyed everything that estranged them from one another, refashioned them from above. He refashioned both the Jew, who was circumcised and was under a curse, and the Greek, who was outside the Law, into ‘one new man,’ superior to both—both the Jew and the Greek—making peace both in relation to God and in relation to one another. Remaining Jews as Jews and Greeks as Greeks, they never could have united with one another. Without leaving their own situation, how could either of them have come into a better state? A Jew draws near to a Greek only when he becomes a believer. This is like two people occupying two separate rooms on the ground floor, while above they have one common, beautiful, and spacious room: they cannot see one another until they go upstairs” (St. Chrysostom). By the new man He means the one who is renewed day by day and has his dwelling in the new world, when there shall be “a new heaven and a new earth” (Isa. 65:17)—who has to drink the new cup of Jesus in the Kingdom of God (Mk. 14:25) and to sing the new song (Ps. 32:3; Ps. 97:1). The beginning of renewal is laid down here; but the perfect and full renewal will follow in the age to come. As we see here in a mirror dimly, but there shall see face to face (1 Cor. 13:12), so the building up of the new man will appear full and perfect when heaven and earth are united (blessed Jerome).

Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

“And might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.” “He slew the enmity on the cross, offering an unblemished sacrifice. He reconciled both—that is, those who believed from among the Gentiles and from among the Jews—in the one body offered for all, that they might form one body. The Apostle called all believers ‘one man,’ because all have one Head—the Lord Christ—and the body is constituted by those counted worthy of salvation” (Theodoret). “By slaying the enmity through His death, Christ first reconciled the peoples with one another, and then made them at peace with God the Father as well, so that men who are of one nature, having been divided on account of sin and error, might become members of one new body, whose Head is Christ” (Ambrosiaster). “He did not say: ‘reconcile’ (καταλλαξη), but ‘might reconcile’ (that is, fully reconcile — αποκαταλλαξη), showing thereby that even before this, human nature was capable of reconciliation with God, as for example in the saints who lived before the Law. ‘In one body,’ he says, ‘his own, to God.’ How did He accomplish this?—By bearing on the cross the punishment that was owed. ‘Having slain the enmity thereby.’ There can be no more vivid and precise expressions than these. His death, as the Apostle is saying, slew, pierced through, and destroyed the enmity; He did not entrust this work to another, but carried it out Himself, and to this end He not only acted but also suffered. He did not say: ‘having dissolved’—nor did He say: ‘having removed’—but ‘having slain’—the strongest word of all, so that the enmity may never rise again. And how could it rise again? Only through our own malice? But as long as we remain in the body of Christ, as long as we abide in union with Him, it will not rise again but will lie dead. Strictly speaking, it will never rise again, and we can only produce another enmity—but certainly not the former one, which is slain and put to death forever. And this—whether to be or not to be in enmity with God—depends on you. ‘The carnal mind,’ it is said, ‘is enmity against God.’ If we do not think carnally, then this new enmity will never be born, and there will always be peace. But consider how terrible it would be for us to come again willingly into enmity with God after He has done so much for our reconciliation and has truly reconciled us! This new enmity awaits not the baptismal font but Gehenna, not forgiveness but punishment” (St. Chrysostom).

Eph. 2:17. And coming, He proclaimed peace to you who were far off and to those who were near.

In explaining how the Ephesians were brought near, the Apostle first spoke in general terms of how the Jews and Gentiles, who had previously been at variance, were brought close to one another, and how both were drawn near to God (vv. 14–16); now he speaks of how this blessing touched the Ephesians themselves, though here too one may understand him to be speaking of the Gentiles in general.

“And coming, He proclaimed.” First the Lord laid the firm foundations of peace in His own person through the death of the cross: He abolished the Law and thereby demolished the middle wall of partition between the Gentiles and the Jews, and by that same cross reconciled both with God. Then, after the resurrection, the ascension into heaven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, He sent the holy Apostles to carry throughout the whole world the good news of this peace and to establish peace itself. The Apostles carried the proclamation of peace, but through them the Lord Himself was at work, as He had promised: “lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). And again: “I have other sheep which are not of this fold: them also I must bring” (Jn. 10:16). The Lord Himself walked in the person of the Apostles, turning individuals, villages, cities, and entire nations. He Himself, in the person of St. Paul, came to the Ephesians and converted them, bringing them the proclamation of peace and establishing it among them.

“He proclaimed peace.” The subject of the proclamation was that the Son of God became incarnate and, having suffered on the cross, reconciled us with God. Forsake everything and cleave to Him alone. Those who received this proclamation with faith received in holy baptism the grace of the Holy Spirit, which established peace in their hearts by calming the conscience and giving assurance of God’s goodwill—and through this it united all believers and bound them into a strong unity through oneness of spiritual disposition. The proclamation of the Gospel was the proclamation of all-embracing peace and its confirmation.

“‘To you who were far off and to those who were near…’ By ‘the far off’ he means the Gentiles, and by ‘the near’ the Jews” (Theodoret). Since the preceding discourse was entirely about the far and the near, these expressions were self-explanatory. It must have been of great comfort and edification to the Ephesians to know that the Lord Himself had come to them, even though they had heard the proclamation from the lips of the Apostle. It is consoling to be assured of this for every people and for every person who turns from negligence and sinfulness to a zeal for working out their salvation in the Lord.

Ambrosiaster writes: “The Lord Jesus Christ slew the enmity when He died for all—both Jews and Gentiles. The death of the Saviour was salvific for all. Rising from the dead, He showed what hopes those who believe in Him may cherish. And then He arranged the proclamation of the Gospel to call all to God the Father in one Spirit, cutting off division, so that—whether Jew or Gentile—all would receive faith in Christ and through it become one.”

St. Chrysostom, and after him Oecumenius and Theophylact, do not distinguish the Lord’s personal proclamation from His proclamation through the Apostles, and by the words “coming, He proclaimed” they understand the whole economy of salvation in the person of the Lord, who through the incarnation came to earth. St. Chrysostom says: “God did not send another to announce this to us, but announced it Himself. He chose neither Angel nor Archangel for this, because only He Himself, appearing on earth, could set right so great an evil and announce what had been accomplished—no one else could. The Lord took upon Himself the office of a servant and almost of a slave, came and proclaimed, says the Apostle, peace to you who are far off and to those who are near—that is, to the Jews, who compared with us were nearer (to God), and to the Gentiles, whom, as strangers to the covenants of promise, he calls ‘the far off.’ By ‘peace’ the Apostle means peace with God, for Jesus Christ reconciled us with God. He Himself taught this when He said: ‘Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you’ (Jn. 14:27). And in another place: ‘if you ask anything in My name, I will do it’ (Jn. 14:14). And again: ‘the Father Himself loves you’ (Jn. 16:27). All of this is a token of peace—both for us and for them.”

And is not such an understanding the closer to the matter? In that case the words “coming, He proclaimed” will connect with what precedes in this way: it was precisely for this that He came—to proclaim this all-embracing peace.

Eph. 2:18. For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

If the Lord had not come in the flesh, and if, having come, He had not arranged the proclamation of the Gospel, we would have no access to the Father. He is the only door, and only the one who enters through Him is saved. This is why He says: “no one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6). What is understood here is not only that, by generally reconciling us with God through the death of the cross and by granting the Spirit of grace, He placed us in a relationship of sonship toward God—on account of which we can cry out: “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15; Jn. 4:23), and pray: “Our Father, who are in heaven” (Matt. 6:9)—but also and especially this: that He takes each soul, as one person takes another by the hand, and leads it to the Father. This is why He said that it was fitting for Him to bring also those other sheep that were not of the fold of Israel. Every soul He brings—by ordering its first conversion, by helping it in every way in its struggle with sin, and by raising it to the highest degrees of perfection, until He has brought it to where He Himself is—seated at the right hand of God.

“In one Spirit.”—How is this to be understood: in the one spirit of faith and love, or by the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit that is the same for both?—One need not distinguish between the two: for both faith is from God, and love is poured into hearts by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, overshadowing the soul, does not reconstruct and transport it mechanically from one state to another, but stirs up the moral powers, which, in the kingdom of grace, are concentrated in faith and love. “Both in one Spirit.” Formerly the Jews had access to God, but it was external, and God revealed Himself to them outwardly as well—by God’s dispensation, as a foreshadowing of what was to come. The Gentiles had none of this. Now that is abolished, and in its place a new and living way to God is opened to all. The Lord comes and, taking the soul by the right hand of the Spirit’s grace (through regeneration), leads it to the Father (by effort and virtuous living).

“St. Chrysostom says: “We are not saved any less and they are not saved any more; both we and they are counted worthy of the same grace: for He destroyed the enmity through His death, and made us beloved to the Father through the Spirit. Through Himself and through the Spirit He brought us to God.” The blessed Theodoret writes the same: ‘Through Him we have access.’ This is like what the Lord said: ‘no one comes to the Father except through Me’ (Jn. 14:6). He brought us to the Father, the Apostle says—and He brought us by counting us worthy of grace.”

C) How near have they become? vv. 19–22

They have become fellow citizens of the saints, members of God’s household—and more than this—they have become the very dwelling of God. What greater or more intimate nearness could one desire or expect?

Eph. 2:19. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

Having begun to urge the Ephesians to remember the greatness of God’s benefaction toward them, the holy Apostle spoke in general terms: you were far off, and now you have been brought near (vv. 11–13); then, having explained how they were brought near (vv. 14–18), he now draws the conclusion: see how near you have become! He leaves it to the Ephesians themselves to make the application: how, then, can one fail to remember such a great benefaction? Ambrosiaster writes: “He urges them to remember God’s benefactions—that when they were so far from the knowledge and fear of God, they have now by His mercy been brought near, to be partakers of those who were close to God, having been made fellow citizens of the sons of God.”

The Apostle uses three comparisons to explain how near they have been brought: they have been brought near as fellow citizens are near to one another and to their prince; as members of one household are near to one another and to its head; and as the parts of a building are near to one another and to the one who dwells in it. These comparisons correspond to the earlier-stated grounds for separation from God and His people (Eph. 2:12). “There he says: ‘strangers from the covenants of promise’ and ‘alienated’ ‘from’ ‘the commonwealth of Israel.’ Here against the first he says: ‘you are no longer strangers and aliens,’ and against the second: ‘but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God’ (blessed Jerome).”

You were like foreigners living far off in other lands, or like those who, though dwelling in the same place, did not possess the rights of citizenship — παροικοι — temporary and casual sojourners; but now you have become fellow citizens — συμπολιται. “Now you share the same city as the saints—the heavenly Jerusalem” (Oecumenius). “You are enrolled in the same city, the one that is in heaven and remains forever, which they too yearned for with ardent longing” (Theophylact). “Do you see? We are enrolled, made fellow citizens not merely of Jews, but of men great in holiness—such as Abraham, Moses, and Elijah. This is the city in which we are enrolled; this is where we shall one day appear!” (St. Chrysostom).

The gracious Kingdom of Christ was depicted under the image of “a city whose builder and maker” is “God” (Heb. 11:10). The Old Testament saints knew that they were foreordained citizens of this city, but they did not see the city itself; yearning ardently to see it, they greeted it from afar. In this respect they too were strangers and pilgrims, as those who seek their own city and fatherland—which is precisely what they confessed themselves to be (Heb. 11:13). From this St. Chrysostom draws the following inference: “those who say such things” (that is, those who called themselves strangers and pilgrims), it is said, “show that they are seeking a fatherland” (Heb. 11:14); “but you are already fellow citizens of the saints, and no longer strangers and pilgrims.” “You have been counted worthy of very great honor in that you have been made fellow citizens of the saints” (Theodoret).

Fellow citizens of the saints—members of one kingdom of grace, all of whom are holy, and are members precisely because they are holy. This includes not only those who came after Christ, but also those who came before Christ: for both the one and the other are in Christ. The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of all ages. Just as the former saints were holy through faith in Christ who was to come, so the new saints are holy through the same faith in Christ who has come. This faith united them both with Christ and with one another. Believers have one Lord, and wherever they live they are all fellow citizens. Those who wished to acquire Roman citizenship paid a fee and purchased it. In the gracious Kingdom of Christ they bring faith in the Lord—and are numbered among its citizens (Ambrosiaster).

The Apostle employs another comparison to explain the nearness into which the Ephesians (and all the Gentiles) have come by grace: the nearness of members of one household. “Members of God’s household”—God’s own. This is still closer. Fellow citizens share one spirit and one love for their fatherland, but are not children of the same father; within a household, however, all are kinsmen, relatives. So too all believers have one Father—God—“born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Pet. 1:23). To whatever tribe one belongs, grace makes all God’s own. Thus through faith in the Lord—by receiving whom, believers receive the right to become children of God—they are not merely counted among the children but truly become children, as those born of God. This is why they are God’s own, and they carry this kinship in the feeling of their heart, as a reflection of all that grace brings about in them. Members of God’s household—what an exalted title! What a comforting and sweet dimension of Christianity! And this is no illusion of self-deception, but is so in very fact.

It should be noted that, though in a comparison one can mentally distinguish fellow citizenship and kinship as degrees of nearness, in the kingdom of grace in actual fact the two converge. Spiritual citizenship comes from unity of spirit, and this unity is produced by the same Spirit through whom all receive the same birth—or are placed in kinship with one another and with God. Citizens of the Kingdom of Christ are all kinsmen as well. This is how they know themselves to be in their hearts and in their mutual relations.

Eph. 2:20. Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the cornerstone.

The thought of household members—kindred, God’s own—led to the thought of a house as a place of dwelling. The Apostle dwells on this image in order to raise still higher the degree of nearness into which the Gentiles have been brought by faith. Believers are God’s own also because He holds them as His own and they are His; because they stand in such deep communion with God that He dwells in them. Thus they are both members of God’s household and His dwelling. This is even closer still.

The holy Apostle, however, does not fix his attention on how they are still nearer when represented under the image of a house (for that is self-evident), but on how they come to be such a house—for from this a still greater benefaction of God toward them is revealed. They had been cast far off, like stones lying scattered in the distance; but now they have been taken up, dressed, and set into the structure of the house.

The Church of God, both in the Old and in the New Testament, is represented under the image of a building—a house or a temple.

The Church is the temple of faith. The Apostles founded and established faith on earth, leaning on the prophets. The Apostles are closer to us and saw the truth tangibly; the prophets are more distant and saw the truth from afar, in figures that represented the truth well but also veiled it, leaving room for conjecture even for the prophets themselves as to how and when all that was foretold would come to pass. This is why the Apostles are placed first. The Apostles delivered the word in the name of the Lord, but at the same time appealed to the prophetic word as the better-known authority. We now rest our faith on the apostolic word, supported also by the prophets.

“Built upon”—built up, forming the body of the structure. What do masons do?—They take a stone, dress it, and place it in the building, where and as it fits. So the Apostles together with the prophets, with the hand of preaching, take souls and peoples, shape them with the axe of the Spirit’s grace, fitting them to the character of the building and placing them in the building of the Church, joining them to it.—Thus stone by stone is laid, course by course is added, and the building rises. Oecumenius writes: “Wishing to show the holy union of believers with the prophets and Apostles, he says: ‘built upon.’ The Apostles and prophets are laid as the foundation, while you complete the rest of the building. This is what it means to be built up above the Apostles and prophets.”

“Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets.” “That is, on the Old and New Testament. What the Apostles proclaimed, the prophets foretold would come. In the epistle to the Corinthians he says: ‘God has appointed in the Church first Apostles,’ then ‘prophets’ (1 Cor. 12:28). But there they are different prophets, for in that passage the Apostle is discussing the order of the Church as it stands, whereas here he speaks of the foundation of the Church. The prophets prepared what was needed for the building and laid it out in advance (prefigured the plan), while the Apostles laid the foundation (and raised the building by drawing people to faith). This is why the Lord says to Peter: ‘upon this rock I will build My Church’ (Matt. 16:18), that is, upon this confession of the universal faith I will establish and confirm believers to life. So once David prepared everything for the building of the house of God and designated the place where it was to stand, while Solomon founded and completed it” (Ambrosiaster).

“Jesus Christ Himself being the cornerstone.” Not one corner only, but all corners—both of the building and of the foundation—is the Lord Christ. He joins the prophets and the Apostles together. The prophetic word is fulfilled in Him; He is likewise the content of the apostolic word. In this unity of the revealed word, from the beginning until the Apostles, lies the strength of the foundation of faith. In Him the walls of the building—that is, all believers—are likewise joined and have their strength; this is why they are called established upon the Apostles and prophets, because they believe in the Lord; and this is why they are brought into the Church and joined to it—because they are joined to the Lord. The direct meaning of the Apostle’s calling the Lord the cornerstone is that in the Church all things are from the Lord, not excluding the Apostles and prophets themselves. So St. Chrysostom: “The Apostle added ‘being the cornerstone…’ to show that Christ holds all things together, for the cornerstone is that which supports both the walls and the foundation, on which the whole building rests. Note that the Apostle sometimes presents the Lord from above—holding and governing the whole body—and sometimes from below—bearing the whole building upon Himself—as the chief foundation. The Apostle said above ‘created into one new man’ to show that all are re-created in Him. ‘Firstborn,’ it is said of Him, ‘of all creation’ (Col. 1:15). Thus He bears all things, holds all things together (and builds all things up).”

But since the believers who made up the walls of the building consisted at that time of Jews and Gentiles, and the Apostle in the epistle explains their mutual drawing together—it is no wonder that in the words “being the cornerstone” the Apostle wished to show how, through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Jews and Gentiles are joined in the building of the Church as two walls. So too St. Chrysostom, among other things; and so all our commentators. Theodoret writes: “Just as the Apostle called the Lord the head of the body, so he calls Him the cornerstone of the building, because He joins the two walls and, like a corner, unites those who believed from among the Jews and the Gentiles.”

The Lord was called the cornerstone already in Old Testament prophecies, which He Himself applied to Himself, foretelling at the same time what would befall those who would not receive Him. Blessed Jerome sets out all of this: “The chief cornerstone, which joins and holds together one people and the other (one may also understand: both the heavenly and the earthly), is Christ our Lord—the stone cut from the mountain without hands—concerning whom the Psalmist also bears witness, saying: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes’ (Ps. 117:22, 23)—rejected by the Pharisees, who, counting themselves learned in the Law, thought they could complete the building of the spiritual temple to God with elemental ordinances alone, yet received by God as the head of the corner, to join and bind as two walls the two peoples, He Himself standing in the midst, so that through Him both peoples might have access to God. This same cornerstone is for unbelievers a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense: everyone who falls upon it will be broken, and upon whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder (Lk. 20:18).”

Let us not pass over without attention the remark of St. Damascene, to what further thought the word stone may lead. “By saying ‘stone,’ the Apostle pointed also to its jointing with those who are built upon Him—that is, His consubstantiality with us through the birth in the flesh of the Only-begotten. ‘Since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same’ (Heb. 2:14). Without this He could not have been the cornerstone.”

In a building the foundation, the cornerstone, the walls, and everything are joined and form one whole. How aptly, therefore, has the Apostle chosen this comparison with the aim of expressing the drawing together of the Gentiles with the Jews, with God, and with God’s ordinances!—“See,” says St. Chrysostom, “how the Apostle mingles all together: Gentiles, Jews, Apostles, prophets, Christ—and, to show the close bond between them all, presents them all sometimes as a body, sometimes as a building.”

Eph. 2:21. In whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

“The whole structure”—not creation in general, but a building — οικοδομη. “Being joined together” — συναρμολουμενη — being harmoniously fitted together, being compactly framed. “Grows”—rises ever higher and higher. “Into a temple” — ναον. The Apostle presents the general idea of the Church—which is growing—comparing it to a building. Just as a building, receiving successive courses—layer upon layer—increases continually and moves toward its end and completion according to the plan laid out for it; so the Church of God, receiving persons and peoples into itself and transforming them according to its own norm, moves toward its fullness and perfection, until it is completed and becomes a perfect temple to God, requiring no further addition or building up.

“In whom”—in the cornerstone, who is Jesus Christ, for in the Church all things are from Him, according to His plan, by His power and activity. “The whole structure”—more precisely, the whole building as a single whole, for the Apostle is speaking of one building, not of many constructions. “Being joined together”—being harmoniously fitted together. The materials that arrive are not thrown in haphazardly, but are arranged according to one plan, so that the building turns out well ordered, with every part in its proper place. “This points to the care (attention and fidelity to plan) of the construction” (Oecumenius). It also points to the different parts of the building, which are all joined together into one in that same cornerstone Jesus Christ. “Whatever you point to—the roof, the walls, or anything else—He holds all things, bears all things upon Himself” (St. Chrysostom). This is the same as what he says below without metaphor: “And He Himself gave some to be Apostles, some prophets… some pastors and teachers… for the perfecting of the saints… for the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11). In another place the Apostle also distributes the saints—that is, the believers who make up the body of the building—as the various organs of the body are distributed, where every member has its own significance and its own function. In the Church of God all is harmonized, yet it is diverse in its parts, and one cannot say that in it all are as one and each is as all. Where all are identical and equal, what harmony can there be? Only on the condition that the members of the Church are varied and are brought into harmony does it “grow”—it grows by being compactly framed together.

What arrives first is raw material, which in its natural state is unsuitable for a building. Therefore it is first reworked and fitted to the character of the building, and then placed into the building itself. Through these successive additions the building grows. Individual persons and entire peoples, called by the preaching, are transformed by the grace of the Holy Spirit and in this way are fused with the whole—the Church.

“Grows.” Even in the time of the Apostles it was said to be growing; and to this day one can say nothing other than that it grows. Until the end of the age it will continue to grow. The building is not yet finished; it will be finished at the end of the ages. Both those who have departed to the other life are in the Church, and those who are alive are in the Church. The Apostle draws no distinction between them. The Church is one. One may only imagine that the earthly Church prepares the material, while the building itself, in its finishing, is being constructed in heaven. Hermas in a vision saw the construction of a temple. Some were bringing material; others were building. The builders, receiving what was brought, examined whether it was suitable and for what it was suited. If it was suitable, they placed it in the proper position; if not, they cast it aside; and though it lay right there, it was not placed in the building. This is an exact image of what happens to those who depart from here. When the building is completed, all these stones lying scattered around will be removed to another place; but until then they still remain nearby. Their fate is not yet decided.

“Grows into a holy temple”—a holy sanctuary. Everything is moving toward the end when God will be all in all. But until then, is the Church not a whole building, though lacking a roof, windows, and doors? How can one dwell in such a building? Yet God dwells in the Church, as He promised: “I will dwell in them and walk among them” (2 Cor. 6:16). This is why the Apostle used the word grows, presenting the Church as a living building that already possesses everything necessary for its existence and life. Just as a tree, however small, already has everything needed for life, but then grows—not acquiring new parts, but expanding and enlarging in each of its already existing parts—so also the Church is now a complete building, inhabited, yet it increases until it attains the measure of the temple as God has conceived it.

The Church is a temple “holy,” because all its members are holy—sanctified by the Holy Spirit and zealous to be holy—and because the holy God dwells in it. “In the Lord”: the temple is holy in the Lord, and it grows in the Lord, and it is compactly joined in the Lord. In the Church all things are in the Lord, whatever you take up, as St. Chrysostom said. St. Paul both at the beginning said “in whom,” meaning the Lord, and at the end added “in the Lord,” to keep our attention fixed on Him alone. However beautiful the building of the temple may be, do not forget the temple’s builder while gazing at it. This is why he does not expand here on the details of the temple’s construction. His aim is to impress upon the Ephesians that they too are included in the common building—but for no other reason than faith in the Lord and faithfulness to Him. They too have been brought near to all—but in the Lord.

The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Eph. 2:22. In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

“Earlier he spoke of the building of the whole—universal—Church; now he speaks of the building of the Church in Ephesus” (Oecumenius). Just as the universal Church is being built in the Lord into a temple to God, so every particular Church is being built into a dwelling place of God—the same as a temple to God—all in that same Lord. The relationship of particular Churches to the universal Church is expressed by the word συνοικοδομεισθε — you are being built together. The universal Church is being built as a single whole, a distinct entity; while particular Churches are not being built separately but in connection with the universal Church. The universal Church is being built, and they are being built along with it, being so deeply and essentially united with it that they cannot be built separately, in isolation. Particular Churches live the common life of the whole Church, just as in the body each function seems to operate on its own—breathing, circulation, nourishment—yet in reality it operates only because it is connected to the whole body; cut it off and it immediately ceases, just as any external limb withers when severed from the body, or any branch when cut from the tree.

In other places the Apostle says that each believer individually is a temple of God and a dwelling of God; and here, though he does not say so explicitly, one can arrive at that conclusion by inference while reading this passage—as St. Chrysostom does, saying: “This temple in which God dwells, as in a body, is each one of you and all of you together.” Every member in the body contains all that is in the body: in it there is blood, muscle, nerve, and other fluids—it is an epitome of the whole body. In a tree this is still clearer: every branch is the same as the whole tree with its root, trunk, and leaves, and every leaf is the same as the whole branch. So too every believer possesses everything that the Church has: the truth of the word, the grace of the sacraments, and communion with God in Christ Jesus. He is a miniature church. But he is such only because he is united with the whole Church. The forces and life of the Church flow into him and he lives by the life of the Church. Separatism is utterly contrary to the spirit of Christianity.

This building up into a temple and dwelling place of God—of each believer, of particular Churches, and of the whole Church—is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Both each person individually and entire peoples are in themselves unfit to be a dwelling of God. The grace of the Spirit, through faith, enters the soul through the sacraments, transforms it, spiritualizes it, and makes it fit for God to dwell in. If God is in each believer by grace, then by that same grace He is in the souls of an entire community of believers, and then in all believers—that is, in the whole Church.

You, he says, are a dwelling of God—in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Spirit. In you are all the persons of the Most Holy Trinity—the undivided Godhead itself. To what nearness has the Apostle raised them! From afar, through citizenship and kinship, he has led them to this. God is in them and they, in turn, are in God—for He encompasses all. Beyond this there is nowhere further to go to indicate still greater nearness. It was therefore fitting for the Apostle to cry out at the beginning: remember, Ephesians, how far off you once were and how near you have now become.

But let us draw for ourselves a few lessons from this passage.

Everything that the Creed teaches us to believe about the Church is stated here: that she is one—having been founded on the one cornerstone (vv. 14, 16, 17, 20); that she is holy—being built by the Holy Spirit into a holy temple (vv. 21, 22); that she is universal—embracing all times and peoples (vv. 14, 20); and apostolic—built upon the foundation of the Apostles (v. 20).

The holy Church is the city of God, the house of God, the living temple, the living dwelling of the living God. The most intelligible image for us is that of a temple and a dwelling. The cornerstone of the building is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Church stands firm, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. On the cornerstone lie first the Apostles and prophets, upon whom then the whole building is raised. From them comes the word of truth; from them also comes the grace of the Spirit, which is imparted through the sacraments they instituted and kept alive through all the other ranks and orders of the Church. Nothing here may be touched with any intention of altering or abolishing it—otherwise you will destroy the Church. The apostolic teaching and the apostolic institutions are inviolable. The body of the building is composed of all believers, of every sex, age, and condition. They are dressed, like stones, and made fit for laying in the building by the Holy Spirit, from whom the love that pours out joins them all together as with cement, merging them, as it were, into one. “For what purpose is such a building raised? So that God Himself might dwell in it, as in a temple” (St. Chrysostom). Holy is this temple, majestic and worthy of veneration.

If such is the temple, how ought every believer who forms part of it to be!—Blessed Jerome writes: “If ‘the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,’ then, sparing no effort, one must strive to become such stones as are spoken of: ‘holy stones are strewn’ (meaning: found in abundance) ‘upon his land’ (Zech. 9:16). When we become living stones—dressed, cleaned, and polished on every side—then we shall be built into a temple and become a dwelling for God. And the ark of the covenant, the guardian of God’s Law, shall be established in us; and the Cherubim—the abundance of knowledge—and what lies within our breast shall go forth in a new word (what is in the heart shall be expressed in a new word); and we shall be called ‘Debir,’ which means an oracle, or an answer, or more precisely a speaking place—so that we can say with the Apostle: ‘or do you seek proof of Christ speaking in me’ (2 Cor. 13:3).”

V. The Apostle reinforces this distinction with the representation that it was a mystery hidden from the ages, only now revealed, of which he is the minister (Eph. 3:1–13)

In depicting that peculiarity of the economy of salvation for the Ephesians—as those who had believed from among the Gentiles—namely that they, though once far off, have been brought near through Him, the Apostle had in view to dispose them to remember this benefaction with the warmest memory. This is why at the beginning of his discourse on the subject he said: “therefore remember” (Eph. 2:11). Now, to the same end—that is, to dispose them to remember what has been done for them and to hold it dear—St. Paul sets forth yet another distinctive feature of their calling and drawing near to God’s ordering: that it had been a mystery not only for men but also for Angels. He is saying to them, as it were: God had kept this mystery to Himself until now, and has only now revealed it both to earth and to heaven; this means it is a rarity that is not always and not to everyone disclosed. How then can you fail to remember it, when it concerns you yourselves? The Angels marvel at it, yet you would remain indifferent? Even in this alone there was already much added to stir up remembrance; but the Apostle, in setting forth the manner of the revelation of this mystery, brought forward yet another distinctive feature—that the preaching of it was entrusted especially to him and is attended by suffering and bonds. From this it followed: the Lord suffered to demolish the middle wall and to draw you near; and the one who called you to share in this is in chains—yet will you remain heedless of this and fail to remember? Such is the content and significance of the first thirteen verses of chapter 3. After this, to the end of the chapter (vv. 14–21), the Apostle prays that the Ephesians, abiding in deep communion with God, might understand how great this benefaction is. He began this part of the epistle with prayer (Eph. 1:16) and closes it with prayer as well. For all things come from God—both the clear explanation of truth in words and the clear understanding of the word when heard or read.

Regarding the grammatical structure of the discourse in this chapter, the commentators have advanced many different hypotheses. The occasion for this was the apparent fact that the Apostle, having said “for this reason I, a prisoner,” did not finish the sentence and went off into a digression in order to explain how he is a prisoner for them, the Gentiles. The digression begins with verse 2, but where does it end?—Some say at verse 3, others at verse 8, others at verse 13, others at verse 14. The last is the most probable of all, and has in its favour blessed Theodoret. The flow of the discourse is as follows: “for this reason I, a prisoner—for you Gentiles…” Then, having explained how he is a prisoner for the Gentiles, he resumes the interrupted discourse: “for this reason I bow my knees…” (Eph. 3:14). But there is no extreme necessity to adopt this construction. What forces one to resort to hypotheses is the fact that the word “prisoner” in Greek stands with the article — δεσμιος — in which form it seemingly cannot serve as a predicate (giving the sense: for this reason I am a prisoner), but must be taken as the subject. Once it is taken as the subject, the predicate is lost. He said “I, the prisoner,” yet what “I, the prisoner” amounts to—is not clear. Hence the construction of hypotheses began. But other commentators find that the article before “prisoner” does not prevent one from taking this word as a predicate and reading: I am a prisoner. It is indeed not contrary to the character of the Greek language to take certain words standing with the article as predicates. One is inclined to accept this by the example of St. Chrysostom, St. Damascene, and Oecumenius with Theophylact, who of course knew the peculiar requirements of their own language.

“Let us, however, cite the words of blessed Theodoret, since, though he allows for the digression, he defines the meaning of verses 1–13 in the same way as we have set out above—namely, to set before their eyes once more “the greatness of the benefaction.” “The Apostle,” he writes, “wishes to say: having learned of this your calling, having come to know precisely who you are, how, and to what you are called, I ask and beseech the God of all to establish you in faith and to grant you the salvation flowing from faith. But he inserted a great deal into this thought, indicating once more the greatness of the benefaction.” He then recounts (in the inserted discourse) how he himself was called, how he was counted worthy of divine grace and appointed a preacher to the Gentiles, thereby making known that it is entirely fitting for him to preach, and that he is not arrogating a foreign work to himself but fulfilling what was commanded.”

Eph. 3:1. For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.

For what reason?—For the sake of all that has been said—for the sake of the fact that you who were far off have been brought near, and so very near. “Of such grace manifested upon you I am a minister and strive for it even to the point of bonds” (St. Damascene). “Previously the Apostle spoke of the great providential care of Christ; now he speaks of his own zeal, small and insignificant in comparison with the Lord’s providential care—for that of itself is sufficient to bring about salvation. ‘For this reason I,’ he says, am in bonds; for if my Lord endured crucifixion for you, so much the more ought I to endure bonds. Not only did our Saviour Himself submit to being bound, but He was pleased that His servants too should suffer bonds for you Gentiles. These words of the Apostle carry a profound meaning: not only do we not turn away from you, he says to the Gentiles, but we even endure bonds for your sake” (Chrysostom). “Therefore I am a prisoner for you” (Theophylact).

How is he a “prisoner of Jesus Christ”?—In the same way as he is an Apostle of Christ and a servant of Christ. I am in bonds for faith in Him, for the preaching of Him, for His work—the ordering of people’s salvation. These outward bonds suggest the thought of inner bonds. The Apostles said: we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard. They were therefore bound inwardly. And the Apostle Paul was compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, and though the same Spirit announced everywhere that bonds awaited the Apostle, he could not refrain from going there—to those certain bonds—because he was inwardly bound. All the Apostles were led and carried by the Spirit as if bound, as if being conducted. The Apostle implies that his bonds had a specific providential purpose on the part of the Lord Himself, who governs the preaching of the Gospel.

That St. Paul fell into these bonds on account of the Gentiles is directly indicated by the circumstances of his arrest. Those who attacked him cried out: “This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against the people and the Law and this place” (Acts 21:28). The Apostle preached the pure Gospel as it is, making no mention of the Law of Moses and explaining only when necessary that its time had passed. But he treated everything of the Old Testament order with due respect and demonstrated that all of it had been necessary and had universal significance. Only now, he taught, all of that has been fulfilled. But those who did not understand the matter rose up against him as a slanderer of the Law and of the place where the legal observances were chiefly carried out. The Apostle acted as he did because he was commanded from above to do so, and from above he was so commanded because otherwise one cannot attract the Gentiles, and otherwise the faith of Christ cannot be established on earth in all its purity. Having been bound for such teaching, he was bound for the work of Jesus Christ—which is why he was a prisoner of Jesus Christ; but on this particular occasion he was placed in bonds on account of the Gentiles—which is why he was in bonds for their sake. Oecumenius writes: “It is possible to be a prisoner of Jesus Christ only—that is, to be bound and beaten for not renouncing faith in Him—but not also for the Gentiles, that is, not on account of the teaching and preaching spread among them. Thus many martyrs were tormented not for teaching the Gentiles the faith, but for not renouncing faith in Christ. Paul, however, was a prisoner both for Christ and for the Gentiles.”

Eph. 3:2. If indeed you have heard of the dispensation of God’s grace that was given to me for you.

“If indeed you have heard”—but you have heard. This turn of phrase is equivalent to the following: since you have heard. The particle if does not indicate doubt or ignorance, but complete certainty. You have heard that the preaching of the Gospel among you has been entrusted to me; therefore, even without special explanation, it should be clear to you why I am a prisoner “for you Gentiles.”

They heard not from anyone else, but from the Apostle himself. It is impossible to suppose that he had been silent about this, especially after writing to the Galatians. For the disturbances in the Galatian churches arose partly because there it was not fully known what St. Paul was and why he preached without being one of the Twelve.

“The dispensation of grace”—the gracious dispensation, οικονομια. Just as in a well-ordered house prudent economy assigns what each person is to do and how, so in the gracious Kingdom of Christ, according to the economy—the dispensation of salvation—everything was apportioned from the beginning: who was to take up which task and how to carry it out. To St. Paul, called directly by the Lord Himself, it was also the Lord Himself who entrusted the task of going to preach among the Gentiles: “Depart,” “for I will send you” “far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:21). It is this gracious dispensation and arrangement of the Lord that St. Paul mentions here. You know that the preaching among you has been entrusted to me. I diligently carried out my work, but this provoked an unreasoning zeal, and now I am in bonds.

St. Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle alludes to the prophecy announced to him through Ananias in Damascus, when the Lord said: ‘Go, for this man is a chosen vessel of Mine, to carry My name before the Gentiles and kings’ (Acts 9:15). By ‘the dispensation of grace’ he means precisely this revelation. Thus the Apostle’s words mean the following: not from a man did I learn this, nor did a man honor me with being your chief herald, but God Himself said: ‘Depart, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles’ (Acts 22:21).”

St. Paul mentions this not with dogmatic aims, as in the epistle to the Galatians, but in order to give the Ephesians yet another incentive to remember what grace has done for them. The gracious dispensation concerning him, the Apostle, was directed toward them. Having them in view, showing especial care for them, the Lord Himself directly chose and formed the Apostle for them, and told and revealed to him everything—how and why each thing is done—all for their sake. How could one fail to remember all this? On this forming of the Apostle as a special act of God’s dispensation, St. Chrysostom fixes attention: “And rightly did the Apostle call this a dispensation, for it was indeed a great dispensation, when the one who could not be persuaded by any means was called from above with the words: ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?’ (Acts 9:4), and thereupon loses his sight from the ineffable light!”

Eph. 3:3. How the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly above.

“That”, οτι— not “because,” but “that.” He has heard of the economy, namely that “by revelation the mystery was made known to me.” “By revelation” is the same as “through revelation” (Gal. 1:12). He means to say that just as he was called to preach directly by the Lord, so also he was taught the truth directly by the same Lord. He did not devise it himself, nor did men teach him, but the Lord Himself revealed everything to me. “He shows that everything comes from God” (Chrysostom). And moreover, for them—the Gentiles. He therefore suggests: see what care the Lord has for you! “Was made known…” εγνωρισθη— the mystery was given to me to know, was instilled, was placed in my mind. Not only was it revealed, but it was revealed in such a way that I came to know it and understood it as I ought. The very One who reveals it watched over this, so that no distortion might enter my word. “The mystery” is that of which he speaks in verse 6—that the Gentiles should be co-heirs and fellow partakers of the promise. “The Apostle rightly calls this a mystery, for it is truly incomprehensible how the Gentiles were suddenly brought into a nobility greater than that of the Jews!” (Chrysostom).

“As I wrote before…” “As” — καθως — not about what, but how, in the manner, in the sense and meaning in which I wrote briefly earlier. “I wrote before”—“does not mean, as some have supposed, that he wrote another epistle (before this), but, he says, he wrote now (earlier in this letter), since he has been discussing this from the very beginning up to this point” (Theodoret). Earlier he does not mention how the mystery was revealed to him, but rather depicts the mystery itself—how the Son of God came, became incarnate, suffered, rose again, ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God the Father, and in Himself co-seated all humanity, which He draws to Himself through preaching and grace, which through the Holy Spirit work in people, converting and sanctifying all without distinction, Jews and Gentiles, forming them all into the one body of the Church, a dwelling place for God through the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. He expounded all this earlier; now he says that everything written before was revealed to him, and as it was revealed, so it was written. But what has been written thus far, although it contains the whole substance of the economy, does not encompass everything revealed to him. I have written to you briefly, a little out of much, though in the little there is much. “And indeed, whoever rightly considers all that was written before will see what mysteries were revealed to him, of which he placed a small part in his preceding discourse, wishing not so much to say everything he knew as to show by this little how much he passed over in silence” (Jerome). Nevertheless, “the word is brief and the teaching condensed, but in few words I have taught you much, having only sown the seed of truth. I have written as much as you were able to understand—to understand through deep and attentive reading, not by running through what was written in passing” (holy Damascene).

Eph. 3:4. Whereby, as you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ.

“Whereby” — προς ο,—judging by which, judging by what has been written, you can conclude how clearly and fully I understand the mystery of Christ. Although little has been written, it is nonetheless sufficient for you to draw such a conclusion about the depth of my knowledge of the mystery. And who among those who read would not draw such a conclusion?! But to what end is this conclusion? The Apostle did not wish to display his own wisdom, but to suggest to them: as you read what is written, you cannot but see how clear and definite it all is, and at the same time how sublime and all-encompassing. Could I have comprehended all this on my own? But if it is “by the” finger “of God,” by divine revelation that I know this: “then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12:28). God has drawn near to you; He has shown special care for you; He has opened the treasury of His mysteries. Blessed Jerome writes: “No epistle contains as many mysteries as this one. He speaks of his own understanding in order to glorify the grace given him among the Gentiles, and to urge us to read this epistle with the utmost attention.” The mystery of the calling of the Gentiles he here calls “Christ’s,” because it was founded in Christ the Lord, and the revelation of it was given by the Lord, and it is brought into effect by the Lord Himself. It is fitting to call it Christ’s also because it stands in essential connection with the entire work of ordering the salvation of the human race accomplished by Jesus Christ the Lord, the crown of which is His sitting at the right hand of the Father, as the recapitulation of all things. Holy Chrysostom says: “You can know how I understood and comprehended either the revelation of God in general, or specifically that truth that He sits at the right hand.” Theophylact continues the same thought: “You can see how well I know the mystery of Christ—namely that He sits at the right hand of the Father, that He co-seated us there as well, that in Him both have been built into one new man, and so forth pertaining to this.”

Eph. 3:5. Which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy Apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit.

“Which”—the mystery of Christ and the economy of salvation in Christ Jesus in general, and especially its power to embrace all humanity. “The mystery of Christ encompasses the Incarnation, the cross, the Resurrection, the sitting at the right hand, the calling of the Gentiles, the Church of those saved by faith, the setting aside of the carnal Jew, the union of two peoples into the one body of Christ, the Second Coming and the rendering to each according to his merit” (Oecumenius). “In other ages,” that is, generations, which come and go, as Solomon expresses it, and thereby mark off periods of time. “Age” may be taken as equivalent to “generation.” “Other”—not those who were then on earth when the Apostle wrote this, but those who had gone before. Since “other ages” is contrasted with what is now taking place, this expression means: in the preceding centuries. “Was not made known” — ουκ εγνωρισθη— was not brought to their knowledge, was not given to be known. “To the sons of men,” that is, to people in general—neither to Jews nor to Gentiles “was it made known.” Why such a turn of phrase, when in speaking of revelation no one would have thought of the Gentiles at all, but only of the Jews?—Perhaps because the other ages—the preceding centuries—encompass all time before the coming of Christ and therefore the period when there was no division, when all were one. The division began with Abraham. In order not to exclude the generations prior to him, the Apostle said “to the sons of men it was not made known,” so as to convey—neither from Adam to Abraham nor after. Moreover, the Apostle is addressing the Gentiles here. The Gentiles did not consider themselves to be outside the providence of God, though they did not understand it as they ought, and holy Paul himself did not regard them as outside it. The Apostle’s gaze encompasses the whole human race, and he says: “God, who left not Himself ‘without witness’ in previous ages” (Acts 14:17), nevertheless was not pleased to make this mystery known to anyone. Such a thought is more intelligible to Gentiles, who did not know how or to what degree revelation had proceeded among the Jews. Furthermore: the Apostle says here not that it was entirely “not made known,” but that it was “not made known” to such a degree “as it has now been revealed.” But among the Gentiles there was their own measure of knowledge about Christ the Redeemer. After the division of the nations and the separation of the Jews, the Gentiles carried with them all the preceding revelations and held to them; yet since these remained with them without renewal or explanation, they corrupted them. The general expectation of the renewal of humanity, however, remained even among them, and became more vivid when Jews were scattered among them in the last age. Thus, intending to speak about the measure of prior revelation, the holy Apostle could not fix his attention on the Jews alone, but saw fit to encompass all people, saying: “to the sons of men it was not made known.”

“As it has now been revealed.” The Gentiles had but a dim surmise; to the Jews the mystery of Christ was given to be known more specifically—both concerning the person of Christ the Saviour and concerning His work in ordering salvation, and concerning those saved by Him, even regarding the fact that the Gentiles too would be called; but all of this is insignificant in comparison with the present revelation, says the Apostle. Already by this very fact is it so—that to perceive something by the spirit, and to see that same thing accomplished in actual deed, produces a great difference in the definiteness of knowledge. This is why many prophets and kings desired to see what pertained to the Lord and did not see it (Lk. 10:24). Why is John the Forerunner greater than the other prophets?—Because he touched salvation with his own hands, which the others only beheld from afar (blessed Jerome). So it is in general regarding the economy of salvation. But with respect to the mystery of the calling of the Gentiles, this is most evident of all. The prophets foresaw that the Gentiles also would come to know the True God—as, for example, Isaiah says: “The nations ‘that knew You not shall call upon You’ (Isa. 55:5). But that they would be called to equal participation with the Jews in the Kingdom of Christ—this was not only unknown to those of the Old Testament, but was not immediately understood even by those of the New Testament. “Despite the fact that the prophets had spoken of the calling of the Gentiles, this remained a mystery. Hence, those who were with Peter (at Cornelius’s house) were astonished. And Peter himself came to know through a revelation of the Spirit that God had also accepted the Gentiles. Until then the words of the prophets still lay in obscurity, seemed enigmatic, and awaited clarification from the very fulfilment of events” (holy Damascene).”

“Now revealed to His holy Apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit.” By “prophets” he means here not Old Testament prophets, for together with the Apostles he contrasts them with the latter; rather, he means New Testament prophets. “For in the time of the Apostles many possessed the prophetic grace” (Theodoret). In saying that the Holy Spirit has now revealed this more clearly, the Apostle means either the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in general, as their final and ultimate guide in the understanding of the work of salvation and its establishment on earth, or more specifically that indication which was given from on high to the Apostle Peter—to receive the Gentiles without hesitation into the fellowship of grace. Holy Chrysostom says: “Peter would not have gone to the Gentiles except at the direction of the Holy Spirit. For listen to what he says: ‘they (the Gentiles) received the Holy Spirit even as we did’ (Acts 10:47). The word of the Apostle Paul, ‘by the Holy Spirit,’ means that God through the Holy Spirit deemed them worthy of participation in such grace. The prophets had spoken of this, but people would never have come to know it with such clarity as they came to know through hearing the Apostles, who surpassed every human mind and common expectation when they said: ‘that the Gentiles should be co-heirs,’ and so forth.”

The Apostle’s purpose in saying all this is to heighten their attention to the divine benefaction shown them, through the very extraordinariness of the mystery now fulfilled among the Gentiles, and thereby to reinforce his charge: “Remember,” “then!”

Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Eph. 3:6. That the Gentiles should be co-heirs and of the same body and co-partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

“What then is this mystery which was not made known to former generations as it is now?—That of which the following speaks: ‘that they should be…’” (Jerome). “This is that mystery (of which he has mentioned so many times above)—that the Gentiles together with Israel should be co-heirs and co-partakers of the promise” (Theophylact). “That the Gentiles would be called—this the prophets knew; but that they would be co-heirs and co-partakers—this they did not know” (Oecumenius). “The Israelites became partakers of the promise as a holy people; but the Gentiles, who had until then been unclean, became co-partakers of it together with them. The Apostle was not content to say that they also became co-heirs and co-partakers, but, wishing to show their even greater closeness and union, said ‘of the same body.’ For the Gentiles together with holy Israel became one body, ordered and held together by one head—Christ” (Theophylact).

One may not seek to determine what in particular each of these words signifies—“co-heirs, of the same body, co-partakers.” They all mean the same thing—the utmost closeness of Jews and Gentiles in the Kingdom of Christ, where every difference between them disappears. And whichever aspect of the privilege of the Jews, set forth previously, one might take, every one of them now belongs to the Gentiles as well—not received separately, but together with the Jews. Blessed Theodoret explains why certain of these expressions are used: “Since he has called the faithful one body, he says that the Gentiles have become ‘of the same body.’ And since the inheritance was considered to belong to the Jews, he further calls the Gentiles co-heirs. And since the Jews thought that the promises were given to them alone—as the Apostle also says in the Epistle to the Romans: ‘whose are… the promises’ (Rom. 9:4)—he also calls the Gentiles ‘co-partakers of the promise.’”

Holy Chrysostom does not explain why one or another expression is used, but gives them all a single meaning—the designation of the close union between Jews and Gentiles. “What does it mean to be co-heirs, co-partakers of the promise, and of the same body?—The meaning of these words is lofty: they signify that the Gentiles and Jews are united into one body, they signify the close bond between them. That the Gentiles would be called was known even before; but to what exactly they would be called, no one knew until then. This is why the Apostle calls it ‘the mystery of the promise of God.’ The Israelites were formerly partakers of the promise; now the Gentiles have also been made co-partakers of this promise.”

But one may also see in each of these words certain distinct aspects. Thus one may think that the word “co-heirs” signifies the reception of what was of old promised to Israel as an inheritance; the word “of the same body” signifies what has been newly received in the gracious Kingdom of Christ; and the words “co-partakers of the promise” signify what all are yet to receive in the future. A ladder of blessings flowing from the person of Jesus Christ upon our race is here depicted.

The blessings of the Old Testament—both those received by the people of that time and those promised to future generations—form the first step; the blessings received from the Lord after His Incarnation, in His holy Church, in the present period of existence until the Second Coming, form the second step; and what is promised in the age to come and will be received after the renewal of all things—this is the third step, unspeakable. The Apostle wishes to say to the Gentiles: you have been excluded from nothing; what was promised to Israel you have received together with him; what was given beyond that promise to faith is bestowed upon you through faith; and what is prepared in the future shall be yours. All of this is the wondrous mystery which no one could have grasped, and which could barely be contained in the minds of the chosen Apostles—even then only through a special external action and inward working of the All-Holy Spirit. See what you have been deemed worthy of! Remember, then!

“In Christ Jesus through the gospel.” To such a height have you been raised, to such blessings have you been found worthy, so closely have you been united with Israel—“in Christ Jesus” through faith in Him and through the grace of the Holy Spirit received by faith, which, recreating all, makes all alike. And you were drawn to participation in this through the gospel, for faith comes by hearing. “The Gentiles became co-partakers of the promise through the fact that preachers were sent to them and they believed. They did not simply become co-partakers of the promise, but through the gospel” (Chrysostom). “Through faith in Christ they became co-partakers, but faith came to them through the gospel” (Theophylact).

But the entire impulse toward: “Remember,” “then!” For the gospel would not have come of itself. It was necessary to choose and train preachers, and, equipping them with every power, to send them forth to preach, guiding and assisting them in every way in this proclamation. The Israelites had all of this close at hand in their own home; but to you it was necessary to send a special messenger from so great a distance. Hinting at this, the Apostle now says:

Eph. 3:7. Of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me according to the working of His power.

“Of which”—of this gospel—“I became”—not by my own doing, but I was made, chosen, and formed—“a minister” — διακονος. The Apostles appointed deacons in the early Church to supply each person with what was needed. Holy Paul considers himself such. He is a deacon, while the one who ministers sacramentally in the Church is the Lord Himself. Wherever He sends me, I go; whatever He commands me to say, I say. “According to the gift of grace”—I received this ministry as a gift of grace, having contributed nothing from myself that was worthy of receiving it (Oecumenius). “The Apostle refers everything to God, saying that even his Apostleship is a gift of grace, and that by the power of this gift he was deemed worthy of the honour of suffering bonds for the conversion of the Gentiles” (Chrysostom). The grace of God sought him out and called him not merely to faith, but to Apostleship. Grace converts every Christian, but it is a special gift to become a minister of the gospel. In the Apostle Paul both were combined in a single act of grace, though one may distinguish the act of conversion from the commission to preach. That I am a minister of the Gospel—this is a gift of grace, but it is not for me; it is for you. And in this lies God’s special mercy toward you—that He formed a preacher for you through a special, extraordinary working of His grace. This is what the Apostle suggests with the words: “according to the gift of grace given to me according to the working of His power.” In order to make me an Apostle for you, God employed a special power, manifesting thereby the working of His grace. “On me He showed the working of His own power, calling me—the unworthy one—and entrusting to me the instruction of the Gentiles. I am a preacher and minister of the Gospel by the unspeakable generosity of the One who called me and by His ineffable power” (Theodoret).

Blessed Theophylact understands the gift of grace according to the working of God’s power as the gift of abundant grace—such as it is fitting for the All-powerful God to pour out—the measure of grace being determined by God’s power: “The grace was given to me not simply or sparingly, but generously (in a manner befitting God), as is proper for the All-powerful God.”

Holy Chrysostom, moreover, sees here a reference to the power that customarily accompanied the Apostle’s preaching, strengthening him and confirming the gospel. “The gift would have been insufficient if the power of God had not been infused along with it, for in truth human zeal alone is not enough for preaching—a higher power is needed. The Apostle displayed in the work of his preaching three qualities: a fervent and fearless zeal, a soul ready to endure absolutely everything, and understanding and wisdom (knowledge and prudence). But natural resolve would not have been enough, a blameless life would not have been enough, had he not received the power of the Spirit.”

I was called, says the Apostle, and formed into an Apostle, and filled with every power—all so that the gospel might go forth successfully among you, and that through the gospel the door might be opened for you into the treasury of those graces of which he has spoken. But the Apostle says this not to exalt himself, but to depict the surpassing measure of God’s mercy. This is why he adds:

Eph. 3:8. To me, the least of all the saints, was this grace given—to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

“To me, the least…” He deliberately draws attention to the insignificance of the instrument, in order to show that in their calling and drawing near to salvation there is nothing human. Here God Himself was at work. Look at me, he says as it were—how insignificant I am, yet the work of God keeps growing and expanding! Who is at work here, if not the power of God? For no human power could have produced what is being accomplished; and yet all of this is being accomplished by so small a person as I. Do you not see that God has drawn near to you and chosen you?

As the Apostle Paul, so too all the Apostles and all chosen workers in the fulfilment of their calling forgot themselves and were occupied with nothing but how best to accomplish the work of God. For this reason God’s power had free scope to act in them and through them, and the fruits of their work were astonishing even to themselves. It was natural for them to see how small they were in comparison with the greatness of the work they accomplished… There is therefore no doubt that the Apostle’s words are filled with sincerity. Holy Chrysostom says: “Listen to what holy Paul says. Intending to speak of the greatness of God’s grace, he speaks thus: ‘to me, the least of all the saints, was this grace given.’ He showed much humility already by the fact that he mourned over his former sins—already corrected—always remembered them, and was so modest as to call himself a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an injurious person; but with what he now says, nothing can even be compared. Before, he says, I was such-and-such, and calls himself an abortion; but now, having fully reformed, still to humble himself and call himself the least of all—this is truly great and extraordinary modesty! ‘To me, the least of all the saints.’ He did not even say: less than the Apostles—but ‘all the saints’ (that is, all Christians). But for him to consider himself less not only than the Apostles but than all the saints—that is exceedingly great self-abasement! In one place he said: ‘I am not worthy to be called an Apostle’ (1 Cor. 15:9); but here he calls himself even the least of all the saints.”

“Grace was given—to preach the unsearchable riches.” The riches are incomprehensibly great, while their dispenser is so small. Who would not see the finger of God here?! “And it was an act of grace that the greatest truths were entrusted to the least, so that he might become their preacher” (Chrysostom).

With the words “grace was given,” he repeats what he expressed above—that he is a minister of the gospel by the gift of grace. “To preach among the Gentiles” is the same as saying that God’s grace has chosen me as Apostle to the Gentiles.

“The unsearchable riches of Christ” is the salvation of all humanity through the sacrificial death of the God-man. God did not spare His own Son. And if only that—but He also delivered Him up to death! This is incomprehensible. Yet when it seemed as though all had been lost by this, it turned out that through this very path all were granted forgiveness of sins, the grace of regeneration, sonship to God, eternal inheritance, and co-seating at the right hand of God. Truly riches, and unsearchable riches! The Apostle wishes to say that the riches of Christ are not for the Jews alone, but for all peoples. He—the least of all—was chosen as their dispenser. What he here calls the riches of Christ, he expressed earlier with the words: that the Gentiles should be co-heirs, of the same body, and co-partakers of the promise.

Eph. 3:9. And to enlighten all as to what is the economy of the mystery hidden from ages in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ.

“To preach among the Gentiles”—and “to enlighten all”—not Gentiles only, but all people, and even all created beings possessing reason and capable of receiving enlightenment through knowledge, as the following verse shows. When he was preaching, he was simultaneously enlightening, for enlightenment is the imparting of luminous understanding of all things, which constitutes the content of the Gospel. Why then does he speak separately of “enlightening?”—He wishes to say: to make all understand, to clarify and expound to all what is the economy of this mystery—the extension of the riches of Christ to the Gentiles as well, the calling of them also to participation in it, the merging of them together with the Jews into one body, whose head is Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father, in whom all who constitute His body are also co-seated there. To make this particular aspect of the economy especially clear, while proclaiming the economy itself. This is why he says: “‘to enlighten as to what is the economy of’ this mystery.” Why was it pleasing to God to make such an arrangement regarding this—to keep it secret until now and only at this time to reveal it in all its greatness and fullness?—God wished to astonish all with the riches of His goodness, so as to bind all more powerfully to Himself and to the mystery of salvation itself. Or—“what is the economy of the mystery” means: to tell all what flows from this calling of the Gentiles to co-heirship, co-corporeity, and co-participation. What flows is the majestic and glorious body of Christ, composed of persons from every place and every age, harmoniously joined together. Herein lies the direction of the entire economy of the mystery of salvation of the Gentiles together with the Jews. This is the subject of the Apostle’s entire discourse in the epistle. But he enlightened all about this not only by word, but also by deed—by deed itself uniting all into one. And this union was everywhere the direct result of his preaching.

“This ‘mystery’ was ‘hidden from ages in God.’ No one knew of it, and no one could have guessed it. And even now, after its disclosure and manifestation in deed, it remains a mystery—all the more was it so before.—“That the Gentiles would be called was known; but that they would also be seated on the throne of God—this no one expected, no one anticipated” (holy Chrysostom). The Apostle’s thought holds to one thing throughout—the union of all in Christ as the head, whose foundation is laid in His sitting at the right hand of the Father. Holy Damascene writes: ‘The unsearchable riches’ of Christ he calls the salvation of the whole world, and ‘the economy of the mystery’—the exaltation (co-seating at the right hand) of all people in the one Christ.”

The mystery was hidden in God—it was not devised by His goodness only now; from the beginning it entered into the plans of God, and has only now been brought into effect. That this mystery is called hidden in God who created all things suggests the thought that even while the world was only being created, the mystery of salvation in the Lord of all humanity, and of the formation from all of one body in Him, was already in the mind of God—present, of course, not without influence upon the very ordering of the world. This thought is found in holy Damascene: “This mystery was not devised by God in the last times, for with Him there are no newly arising acts of will (determinations of will), but all is eternal. Together with the creation of the world, He was already laying the foundations of salvation.”

“Through Jesus Christ.” Since Jesus Christ is the Word who became flesh—that Word by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made that was made—therefore the phrase “who created all things” naturally drew with it “through Jesus Christ.” Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle did well to say, in recalling creation, ‘through Jesus Christ.’ For He who created all things through Him also revealed this through Him: ‘without Him,’ it is said, ‘nothing was made’ (Jn. 1:3). The hypostatic Word, the image of the hypostasis of the Father, in creating the world made man in the image of God, and the same Word through the Incarnation restores in man the image of God lost through the Fall. These truths are bound to one another by an unbreakable chain, each calling forth the other.”

Eph. 3:10. That there might be made known now to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.

Not only was this mystery not revealed to people (v. 5), but the Angels too did not know it. They too will come to know it afterward, from the very act of its manifestation in humanity, from the very formation of the Church. The Apostle wishes to say that this work is so majestic and wondrous that when the Church was established from Gentiles and Jews under Christ as head, even the heavenly powers were astonished, beholding in this the manifold wisdom of God—just as, according to the word of Job, when the stars were created, all the Angels of God praised God with a great voice. In another place, the same Apostle, speaking of the great mystery of godliness—that “God” “was manifested” “in the flesh”—includes among the marks of its greatness that He “was seen of angels,” and this after being preached among the Gentiles and received up in glory (1 Tim. 3:16). The Angels beheld the Head of the Church in all the glory of the God-man when He sat at the right hand of the Father and began to draw all things to Himself—both earthly and heavenly. It was then that the manifold wisdom of God was made known to them, in the ordering of the Church and the recapitulation of all things in Christ. The Apostle Peter likewise testifies that into the mystery of the salvation of all in the Lord, not only did the prophets inquire with diligent searching, wishing to understand its hidden aspects, but the Angels too desire to look into it (1 Pet. 1:12). Not everything is clearly known even to them, even after it has been brought to pass, but it only evokes their wonder at the manifold wisdom of God.

This wisdom is made known to them not through the preaching of the word among them on the part of the Church, but through the very formation of the Church itself. They behold how the Church is being ordered and how all things are being reunited in the Lord who sits at the right hand of the Father—and in this they discern the manifold wisdom of God. Theodoret writes: “The invisible powers did not know this mystery, but from the economy of the Church they came to know the unspeakable wisdom of God.” “Let us ask,” says holy Chrysostom, “‘Was this not revealed to people—but do you truly enlighten even Angels, and Archangels, and Principalities, and Powers?’—‘I do enlighten them,’ he says. For in God this wisdom was hidden—‘in’ ‘God,’ ‘who created all things through Jesus Christ.’—‘And you dare to say this?!’—‘Yes, I dare,’ he says. But how did this become known to the Angels?—Through the Church. And moreover, he did not simply say that the various wisdom of God would be made known, but ‘the manifold wisdom.’—So then, did the Angels truly not know it?—Yes! For if the Principalities did not know it, still less was it known to the Angels. And the Archangels did not know it?—They too did not know it. How could they have come to know it? Who could have revealed it to them? When we came to know it, then they too came to know it through us.”

So then, the knowledge of the Angels increases, and they take this increment from the earth, from the Church?! But surely they came to know about the redemption and salvation of all not from the Church—since in both the Old and New Testaments they were servants of this mystery?—The answer to this is suggested in the words: “the manifold wisdom of God.” The Angels, dwelling in blessed contemplation of the Godhead, know many of the mysteries of God’s wisdom—but not all; only those that are revealed to them. The plans of God’s wisdom in the governance of the world and in redemption are hidden in God and are revealed to the Angels as much as is necessary for the fulfilment of the commands given to them. Much of this, however—especially the hidden causes, the further purposes, and how things will be once the plans are fulfilled—remains hidden from them. They come to know this from events themselves. Events reveal to them also the mysteries lying at their foundation. In confirmation of this, holy Chrysostom cites the example of how the guardian angel of Persia opposed the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, not knowing what pertained to the return of the Israelites (Dan. 10:13). And he then concludes: “If they did not know this and things like it, what is surprising in their not knowing the riches of Christ’s love as it was revealed through the Gospel.”

Of course, the Angels knew of God’s counsel to save the human race through the Incarnation of the Only-begotten Son of God and His death on the cross. But in the manner of its fulfilment in the person of the Lord and further in the Holy Church, much remained unknown to them and was learned by them for the first time from events themselves. Such was also the mystery of the calling of the Gentiles into fellowship with the Son of God and the recapitulation of all things in His person. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Angels knew only that ‘the Lord’s portion is His people’ (Deut. 32:9). And what does the Angel say to Joseph? ‘And you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins’ (Matt. 1:21). His people—that is, Israel. Here nothing is said of the Gentiles; the Holy Spirit reveals this separately.”

This passage is one of the most significant in the New Testament. It shows that the earth with man, and especially the Church of God, is the chief scene of God’s great and wondrous works—the spiritual center of the universe. In her events all orders of beings participate—Angels participate as well, both in sympathetic contemplation and in action at the direction of God. “We” “have been made a spectacle”—says the Apostle—“to the world, and to angels, and to men” (1 Cor. 4:9). The present epistle has this distinctive feature—that in it the Apostle does not confine the work of God in Christ Jesus to the reconciliation of God with man alone, but extends it to the harmonizing of the whole world through the abolition of the division between earthly and heavenly brought about by sin (Eph. 1:10).

The Angels too are now being brought into the living union that is being restored, and this union is for them the most sublime and sweet object of contemplation—one they are experiencing and beholding for the first time. Herein lies the end of the redemptive works of the God-man. In it the mystery of God’s governance of the world is resolved; in it the purpose of the creation of the world is attained.

Eph. 3:11. According to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“According to the purpose” — προθεσιν— the intention, the predetermination, preserved in the divine omniscience and hidden within it. “Eternal…”—from ages, of the ages, of ages, pre-eternal. From eternity God predetermined all things as they were to be; now in Christ Jesus this has been brought to fulfilment. “God purposed this before the ages, and accomplished it through the economy of the Master Christ” (Theodoret). “Now it has come to pass, but it was not determined now—it was predetermined from of old. ‘According to the eternal purpose,’ that is, according to the foreknowledge of the ages—foreseeing the future, He determined it thus” (Chrysostom).

“Which”—in Greek ην — may refer either to the purpose of the ages — προθεσιν — or to the wisdom — σοφια. This makes no difference in meaning. In the divine predetermination of all that was accomplished by the Lord, the manifold wisdom was contained; and the Lord, in fulfilling this predetermination, revealed nothing other than the manifold wisdom. He Himself testified of Himself that whatever He says, He says as He has heard from the Father, and whatever He does, He does as He sees the Father doing (Jn. 5:19). There, in the eternal council, He too presided as God; and what all the persons of the Most Holy Trinity then determined with one accord—all of this was fulfilled in the Incarnation by the Only-begotten Son of God, God the Word, according to that eternal determination.

The thought of this verse completes what was said above—the whole discourse begun from verse 8. God has laid upon me, says the Apostle, a special ministry: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make known to all the economy of this mystery, which God from eternity hid within Himself in order now at last to reveal it—even to the Angels through the Church—all in accordance with the eternal purpose now accomplished by Jesus Christ.—See how great is what has been done for you, O Gentiles.—Heaven and earth have been set in motion; the minds of Angels are being enlightened, gladdened, and filled with wonder at the contemplation of this. Remember, then.

Or—“according to the eternal purpose”—the pre-eternal determination—expresses especially that aspect of the matter concerning how it has been revealed to the Angels. Having said that through the Church—through all that is accomplished in her, what has been entrusted to her and what she attains—the manifold wisdom of God is made known to the Angels, he now indicates as it were a programme for the making known of this wisdom: what plan this making-known follows, what its subject concerns. As if to say: the wisdom is made known to the Angels through the Church, in accordance with the subject of the eternal purpose accomplished by the Lord—or in relation to this. With this the subsequent words are in complete agreement.

Eph. 3:12. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.

The meaning of the verse is clear. It is the same as above in Eph. 2:18: “for through Him we both have access in one” “Spirit” “to the Father.” Through the Lord we have boldness; without Him, like the publican, we dare not lift our eyes to heaven. Through Him we also have access to the Father, from whom our sins separate us—sins which the Lord removes. The Lord takes away our sins, and we receive the boldness and confidence to draw near to the Heavenly Father. “With confidence” — πεποιθησει — meaning conviction and assurance. It expresses that disposition by which one who is weak says to one who is strong: I trust in you, I know you will not abandon me. We receive such assurance in God through the Lord Jesus Christ; having believed in the Lord, we receive certainty that God receives us into fellowship, and, having received us, will never abandon us and will never leave us in any need. For if “He did not spare His own Son, how will He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).—Such a blessed disposition flows directly from faith in the Lord, is inseparably joined to it, and serves as its testimony. The Apostle says that it comes “through faith” in the Lord — δια της πιστεως.

“Holy Chrysostom says: ‘We have boldness… with confidence,’ that is, we draw near with boldness. Why is this so?—Through faith in Him.” “For,” Theophylact adds, “having dissolved our sins, it gave us boldness and assurance.”

In a few words the Apostle has sketched the entire course of our reunion with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith in the death on the cross we receive forgiveness of sins; through grace conferred in the sacraments, given by faith, we are united with the Lord, and through Him we are made God’s own. So it is for each believer individually; so it is for all believers together. All are united with the Lord, and through Him with God the Father, constituting one body under Him—the one head.

It is clear, after this, why the holy Apostle has cited these words. They explain what exactly the Lord has accomplished in the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose for our salvation, and in the contemplation of what exactly the Angels now behold, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. The Apostle’s thought holds throughout to one and the same image—the recapitulation of all things in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

Eph. 3:13. Wherefore I ask you not to lose heart “at my tribulations on your behalf, which are your glory.”

This is said as if in passing. The goal of the Apostle’s discourse in this section is not to console the Ephesians, but to persuade them to remember the greatness of the divine benefaction shown to them in calling them to faith. Above, he inclined them toward this through the greatness of the blessings received by them through faith (Eph. 2:11, 12). In this chapter he likewise inclines them toward it through the rareness of the mystery of their calling—of which until now no one knew, either on earth or in heaven—yet in its beneficence and wisdom it fills even the minds of Angels with wonder (Eph. 3:1–12). In explaining this, he also brought forward the fact that God had chosen him as an instrument for bringing them into the reception of such blessings. And since for this reason he was now in bonds, and had previously suffered so much in Ephesus itself and in Asia, he adds one word—in case any should be troubled by his sufferings: see how many blessings have been granted to you, and this through my preaching to you. Let me suffer for it—but do not be troubled; rather look to what is being given you through these sufferings. Looking at this, you ought not to be troubled, but to rejoice, for you see what glory comes to you from it.

Were there those among the Ephesians who were troubled by this?—Blessed Jerome finds this very probable. Everyone, he says, is troubled by the fact that sinners are for the most part prosperous while the righteous suffer. Even holy David says of himself that his feet nearly slipped, “seeing the prosperity of sinners” (Ps. 72:3). And how much did the Apostle Paul suffer? This is evident from the Acts and even more from the epistles to the Corinthians—one of which was written in Ephesus, the other immediately after his departure from it. He says he fought with wild beasts (1 Cor. 15:32), that they were “pressed out of measure, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life” (2 Cor. 1:8). The Ephesians could well have been troubled by all this, and the Apostle did well to speak this word of comfort, lest their faith fail at the sight of such afflictions of the Apostle (summarized from Jerome). Holy Chrysostom likewise supposes there were those who were troubled. “How were they losing heart when another was the one who suffered?—This means they were becoming fearful, confused. He writes the same to the Thessalonians, saying: ‘that no one should be shaken by these tribulations’ (1 Thess. 3:3). For we ought not only not to grieve, but to rejoice. We endure tribulations here because God has so commanded.”

Why are the Apostle’s tribulations the glory of the Ephesians?—One can answer thus: because they are the glory of the Apostle, and the reflection of this glory falls also upon those who believed through him. It is fitting for disciples to boast of their teacher, saying: see what a teacher we have! And that the tribulations were the glory of the Apostle followed from the fact that he remained unconquered under them. It is not a diminishment of honour when a person endures attacks and hardships for the good he does; it would be a diminishment if he collapsed under their weight. To stand firm under hardships is to conquer them, and this victory is the glory of the one who stands firm (Jerome). Thus the tribulations gloriously endured by the Apostle are his glory—and through him, the glory of the Ephesians.

But more directly, these tribulations are the glory of the Ephesians on account of the glory they receive through the gospel—for the sake of which holy Paul suffered and was put in bonds. As holy Chrysostom says: “Why are his tribulations their glory?—Because God so loved them that He gave His Only-begotten Son for them and delivered His servants—the Apostles—to suffering. Indeed, Paul too was in bonds so that they might receive such great blessings. So great is God’s love for them!”

VI. And he concludes once again with a prayer that the Ephesians may remain partakers of the blessings of salvation, and through this may be raised still higher in their understanding of the greatness of the mysteries of salvation (Eph. 3:14–21).

As the Apostle began by introducing the Ephesians to the contemplation of the economy of salvation by praying that a spirit of wisdom might be given to them for its knowledge, so now, in conclusion, he prays for the granting of understanding of the mystery of salvation and of God’s great love for us. Such was the Apostle’s aim—to lead the Ephesians to the contemplation of the whole economy of salvation. For this purpose he led all the preceding discussion, and he now prays for the same, desiring above all that the power of salvation might dwell in them, live and act in them. “For what the holy Apostle prayed at the beginning, he asks now as well. At the beginning he prayed: ‘that God… the Father… may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him’ (Eph. 1:17). And now he says the same: ‘that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints’ (Eph. 3:18)” (Chrysostom).

Eph. 3:14, 15. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

“For this reason.” Having called to mind all that was said about the mystery of the economy of salvation and about the calling of the Gentiles to participation in it, the Apostle says: since you have been called to participation in such blessings, I therefore pray fervently that you may truly receive them and always possess them.

“‘For this reason…’—because you are so beloved by God” (Oecumenius). “Since you are so beloved, since the blessings you have been found worthy of and shall yet be found worthy of are incomprehensible, I pray, he says, that the grace of the indwelling Christ may be given to you—to understand this and to comprehend how greatly you are loved” (Theophylact).

“I bow my knees”—not at the very moment of writing, but every time I offer prayer, he says, I make special prostrations for you, or I never fail to include in my prayer for all things a prayer for you as well. He said “I bow my knees” and not simply “I pray,” thereby “expressing his intensified intercession for them… showing that he asks blessings for them with persistence” (holy Chrysostom). “With compunction and contrition” (Theophylact). Or in saying “I bow my knees,” he is saying the same as: I always pray earnestly, I always lift to the merciful God a warm and reverent prayer. Kneeling is a symbol of reverent fear and humble confession of mercies.

“To the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Since he is praying for blessings, he has employed the most tender name of God the Father—which is the sign of all loving care—adding to it the most sweet name of Jesus Christ our Lord, for whose sake the Father is ready to give everything that anyone asks in His name. He prays to God the Father, who did not spare His own Son and who—“how will He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32)!

“From whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” More than one thought may be joined to these words. They may mean: I pray to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Father of Angels and of human beings. He has fatherly care for both Angels and people; and on the other hand, both Angels and people find in Him alone their true Father.

One may suppose that the holy Paul had in mind the relations of fatherhood and sonship which it pleased God to establish among creatures. The world is so ordered that the higher and elder care for the lower and younger and set them in good order. The former are in this respect fathers to the latter. The higher angelic orders, who transmit to those below them the light they receive from God, are in this respect their fathers. Among human beings, those who exercise the most attentive care for the lesser—natural fathers, grandfathers, patriarchs, then kings, rulers, and in the spiritual realm, shepherds of the Church—are called fathers by people, not only those of the first kind but also those of the last. This fatherhood is attributed to them on the model of the Heavenly Father’s, because they manifest in themselves His providential care for all—He grants them a share of it. He also deigned to yield His name to them and to bestow that for the sake of which He Himself deigned to receive such a name. Just as God alone essentially IS, yet deigned to grant others both the name and very being, so also with regard to paternal providence—He is essentially the Father, yet was pleased to establish among creatures such relationships by which some are called and in reality are fathers in relation to others (the thought of blessed Jerome). Blessed Theodoret writes: “God is Father in the proper and genuine sense. For He was not first a son and then became a father, but He is always the Father, and Father by nature. Other fathers, both carnal and spiritual, have borrowed this name from on high. The Apostle calls ‘fathers on earth’ those who are fathers by nature, and names as ‘fathers in heaven’ the spiritual fathers. Such was the blessed Apostle himself. He made this clear when writing to the Corinthians, for he says: ‘For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel’ (1 Cor. 4:15). Thus he declares: asking and imploring, I bow my knees and pray to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who truly is the Father, who did not borrow fatherhood from another, but Himself communicated it to others.”

Eph. 3:16. That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.

In verses 16–19 the objects of the holy Apostle’s prayer and good wishes for his disciples are set forth. In these few words is contained everything a Christian can desire and seek.

“That He would grant.” What God does not give can be found and obtained nowhere. “Every” “good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17). A mark of spiritual wisdom is to know where to turn for the needs of the spirit, and to ask from the Source of all good what is worthy of Him. “The Apostle asks for great things, in keeping with the greatness of the Giver, teaching us to ask of God what is worthy of His glory—not earthly things, but heavenly ones” (holy Damascene).

“According to the riches of His glory.” If by “glory” we understand the boundless perfections of God in their inexhaustible fullness, then “according to the riches of His glory” means: in proportion to the overflowing abundance of the divine attributes. According to St. Gregory the Theologian, this was a motive for the creation of the world. Indeed, God created all things and provides for all, because He is immeasurably rich in all things and loves to enrich all. Or “according to the riches of His glory” defines the measure in which the Apostle desires spiritual blessings to be granted to them. From a small giver it is fitting to be content with small gifts; from a greater giver it is fitting to expect greater ones. The Apostle prays that God grant them what he asks in a measure as great as His glory—that is, abundantly. “That He would grant you”—“as one who is rich and desires to be glorified” (Theophylact)—that is, so that the gift would not fall short of His glory.

“With power.” Various interpretations are given: some say “powerfully, mightily, strongly”; some say “with supernatural power given by the Holy Spirit”; others say “with moral strength raised up by the Holy Spirit.” The last two can be combined, and this may more directly express the Apostle’s thought. “The riches of glory” would point to the sources of God’s mercies, while “power through the Holy Spirit” would be the manner of their outpouring. “The Holy Spirit gives power” (Theophylact). “One cannot become established in good in any other way than by the power of the Holy Spirit, with the assistance of God’s grace” (Chrysostom). For all is from God, who “has both inexplicable wealth and immeasurable power” (Theodoret).

“To be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man.” This is the first object of prayer—the very thing with which life in Christ Jesus truly begins. “To be strengthened” — κραταιωθηναι, from κρατος — dominion—from which comes autocrator, meaning sovereign: the sense is to take sovereign power into one’s hands, and since this is within the inner man, to take sovereignty over oneself, to become a self-ruler within, to establish inner sovereignty. What is this sovereignty and why is it desired above all?—Let us call to mind the structure of human nature.

Having fashioned the lower part of human nature in a manner distinct from His creation of other creatures, God breathed into man’s face the breath of His own divine life. This is the human spirit—the higher side of our nature—where consciousness and rational freedom reside, together with the impulses of the fear of God, conscience, and dissatisfaction with anything created. The spirit is appointed to dwell in God and to draw all things to God—everything in man and around man. For this purpose it was given authority over the lower parts of human nature. Receiving strength from God, in whom it lives, it draws into that same life the soul with its reason and its intellectual works—the fruits of its labor; with its will and its endeavors—the expressions of that will; with its taste and the arts—its productions; and with its lower faculties of imagination and memory; and likewise the body with its needs. It also casts the reflection of that life over all its external affairs. When this is the condition of a man, he is a true human being, a man answering to his norm and his idea. He is evidently lord over himself and over all that is in him and around him. Yet it is equally evident that he receives this sovereign power from God, through self-surrender to God and life in Him, characterized by the fear of God, sincere conscientiousness, and detachment from all that is created.

If the spirit separates from God, this power is taken away. Then it can no longer govern the impulses of the soul, the needs of the body, or the demands of external circumstances. It is given over to the pull of soul-and-body desire and to outward worldly vanity, though always in pursuit of self-gratification. Compare these two orders of life and you will see that the first lives entirely within itself before God, while the second lives entirely outward in forgetfulness of God. This latter order of life is greatly worsened by the passions, which, rooting themselves in self-love, penetrate the entire soul-and-body life and give everything there an evil direction—contrary to the spirit, to the fear of God and to conscience—a direction not of building up but of destroying, which makes man yet more outward.

This last is the man in the fall—outside the order for which he was set in creation. God did not wish to leave the fallen in their fall, and He arranged for them a means of rising from it. The Son of God became incarnate, suffered, died on the cross, rose on the third day, and, ascending into the heavens, sat at the right hand of the Father. By this ascent He opened the way for the descent to us of the Holy Spirit, who, having descended through the Apostles, came to dwell in the Church of God through the Holy Sacraments. The Spirit of grace passes everywhere and awakens all human spirits to the spiritual life. The rays of awakening grace fall directly upon the spirit of man and revive within it its natural movements—the fear of God, conscience, and dissatisfaction with the created. Through this action a man comes to himself for the first time and enters his inner house from the wandering in which he had strayed until then. This action causes him to reflect. With a favorable turn of affairs, having reflected, he resolves no longer to give himself over to distractions but to live within himself according to the promptings of the fear of God and conscience, with self-denial. In response to this resolve, the grace of God—which had hitherto acted from without—enters within through the sacraments, and makes the spirit of man, which was weak, strong. Consciousness and freedom pass entirely over to this side, and the man begins an interior life before God—a life truly free and rationally self-directing. The needs of soul and body and the demands of outward circumstances no longer distract him; on the contrary, he begins to direct them, as the Spirit gives. Like a sovereign he sits upon the throne of his heart and from there gives commands as to what should be and how things should be done.

This sovereignty begins with the first moment of inner transformation and the indwelling of grace; but it does not appear in its fullness all at once. Former masters often break through and not only create disturbance in the inner citadel but sometimes even lead the ruler of that citadel away into captivity. Such occurrences are frequent in the beginning; but the strength of earnest zeal, constant attention to oneself and to one’s task, and wise patience in its labors—aided by God’s grace—make them ever less frequent. At last the spirit becomes so strong that the assaults of former adversaries upon it are like a speck of dust against a granite wall. The spirit abides within itself without withdrawing, standing before God, and rules with divine power—untroubled and firm. And it is precisely this that the Apostle desires for the Ephesians, praying that God grant them to be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man.

Eph. 3:17. That Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts; being rooted and grounded in love.

The indwelling of Christ in the heart is simultaneous with being strengthened in the inner man. They begin together, increase together, and appear in perfection together. One may understand it thus: “to be strengthened in the inner” “man” means “that Christ would dwell in your hearts.” Yet since the interior life has its own aspects, these may be discerned in these two expressions. Being strengthened in the inner man is the preparation of a dwelling within us for Christ the Lord. When someone is strengthened in the inner man, it is as though the master of the house has set everything in order, has cleaned, consecrated, and perfumed it with fragrance, and awaits his guest. And the Lord is glad to come to such a person, and the master is joyful and ready to meet and receive the Lord. For the one strengthened within is he who, having mastered himself, has overcome and driven out the passions and become established in every virtue. Of such a person the Lord Himself says: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him” (Jn. 14:21). And somewhat further: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (Jn. 14:23). “From these words understand,” says holy Chrysostom, “in what manner Christ dwells in hearts.” Blessed Theophylact writes: “He desires for them not only ‘to be strengthened,’ but that which is greater and higher than this—‘that Christ would dwell’ in their inner man, that is, in their hearts, dwelling not superficially, but in the depths of the heart. He desires two goods for them—to be strengthened by the Spirit and that Christ would dwell in their hearts; or he desires that they be strengthened so as to become capable that Christ might take up His dwelling in their inner man”—“that they might be a temple of God,” Oecumenius adds. The words “in the inner” “man” and “in the hearts” indicate a deep indwelling, as it were a growing together.

The Lord Himself likens His communion with believers to the joining of branches to grapevines, concluding from this comparison that no one can either truly live or bear true fruit unless he is so united with Him. Therefore He adds: “Remain in Me, and I in you” (Jn. 15:1–8). This is the law of life in Christ Jesus. As soon as one is baptized, he is clothed with Christ (Gal. 3:27). In baptism the grace of the Holy Spirit regenerates to new life; but this new life exists only under the condition that one be “in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17). At the moment when the grace of the Spirit raises up our spirit, its union with Christ and Christ’s union with it takes place. The indwelling of Christ is the very strengthening in the inner man. Our spirit lives in Christ, breathes Christ.

Let us look a little higher and we will see that the Apostle prays that the Father would be pleased to strengthen the Ephesians by the Holy Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ would dwell in them. The three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity work inseparably for the salvation of all and each. To the Corinthians too the Apostle expressed his good wishes from the Most Holy Trinity, saying: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:13). The same we see in the Apostle Peter, who wishes grace and peace to multiply among the Jews scattered everywhere, “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2). The spiritual life in all persons comes by the good will of the Father; its norm is Christ the Lord; its producer is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when we pray “Our Father,” or “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,” or “Spirit of Truth, come and dwell in us”—let us not in our spirit divide the unity of divine action, but let us lift up the one work of salvation to the One God in Trinity of Persons, who, undivided in nature, inseparably works our salvation through the threefold action of the one saving grace.

Christ the Lord dwells in hearts through faith, when those hearts are rooted and grounded in love. “That Christ may dwell,” he says, “through faith in your hearts, you being rooted and grounded in love.” “He prays,” it is said, “that you too might attain this—that your souls might be made, by the goodness of the Spirit, a dwelling of Christ who saved you. At the same time he shows what they must contribute from themselves toward the building of this temple. Faith and love are needed, he says, so that you might flourish in them, having immovability as though on a certain foundation and root” (Theodoret). For “Christ the Lord dwells only in the hearts of believers who are established and do not waver in love for Him” (holy Chrysostom), “who are not pulled and carried this way and that” (Theophylact).

It should be noted that the words “rooted and grounded in love”—all our commentators place alongside faith as a condition for Christ’s indwelling in hearts, so that in the following words “that you might be able to comprehend,” this comprehension flows from Christ’s indwelling and not from being rooted in love, as those would have it who arrange the text thus: “that you, rooted and grounded in love, might be able to comprehend.” The grammatical structure of the sentence is restored by this arrangement, but the manifestations of the spiritual life are disturbed and presented without their proper order. The holy fathers paid no attention to this (the grammatical structure) and interpreted these words as though they stood: “‘that Christ might dwell through faith in the hearts’ of those who are ‘rooted’ and grounded” in love, as holy Chrysostom in fact paraphrased it.

Christ dwells, on account of faith, in those who are rooted in love. This is what the holy Paul proclaims in all his epistles as the indispensable condition of salvation—faith working through love. Faith is the beginning; love is the end, or the summit. Faith denotes such conviction of the truths of the Gospel as that with which we are assured of our own existence. Only such faith is firm and steadfast and provides a firm foundation for life. Without such faith, to live is like walking on a swamp or being tossed by waves. Everything is confusion, disorder, and fear. In such a condition, how can one do any good, still less become established in a good life?

Faith does not at once become so strong, but grows from weak beginnings to the full stature of the perfect man; yet even from its first beginnings it illumines the whole path of life and shows what is required of man and how he can attain it. Though all this in the beginning is seen as one sees objects in a light we describe as barely glimmering, still it is visible and intelligible. The poverty of nature and the ruin of sinfulness are visible; the riches of Christ are visible, along with the fact that no one is forbidden to possess them. This evokes the resolve to turn and cleave to Christ. And Christ the Lord is generous in sharing Himself. As soon as one takes a step toward Him, He gives Himself entirely to the one who approaches. In the sacrament of baptism or repentance, the grace of the Holy Spirit effects the union of Christ the Lord with the human spirit, which from that moment becomes vital and self-governing, receiving from Christ’s grace the strength to master itself and all that is in man and around him. Having made a covenant in union with Christ to walk in His commandments and to do the will of the Heavenly Father in all things, the spirit, now strengthened within, begins to direct everything there and to bring under this yoke all the actions of the soul, all the needs of the body, and all the affairs of external life—rejecting all that is wrong and compelling itself toward what is right alone, through struggle with all the inward resistances arising from the passions, which have already been struck at their root by self-denial. This entire labor is the laborious walking in works of love. So are things ordered within, by the principle and spirit of faith. But the spirit of life in Christ Jesus does not at once fill the heart. The one who has believed or repented walks uprightly, but at first only through self-compulsion and self-resistance. The life welling up from the heart comes later. Active love leads to the love of feeling. And this is already love rooted and grounded.

Human nature, being Godlike by creation, is by nature disposed to love. Self-love, entering through the fall, cooled it. In the initial act of self-denial, self-love is cast off; the subsequent labor of struggling with the passions—which sprang from self-love—and the concurrent labor of doing good, which confirms the goodness of heart, dissipate self-love along with the passions. The degrees of this dissipation are the degrees of the warming of the heart with the warmth of love. At the end of this lies the burning of the heart with all-embracing love, such as is the love of God. And this is love rooted and grounded.

Through a life that does not fall away from Christ, faith grows and love grows. Along with their growth, communion with Christ deepens—or Christ’s indwelling in the heart deepens. The maturity of faith and love and the fullness of Christ’s indwelling in the heart are simultaneous. Yet the communion of the soul with Christ and of Christ with the soul begins from the first moments, in the act of sanctification through the sacraments. Having begun, it abides—but is hidden both from others and from the believer himself; it is revealed only rarely. Upon the purification of the heart, it becomes evident to all. Then the gifts of grace are revealed.—And it is precisely this that holy Paul desires for the Ephesians. You have, he says in effect, the good will of the Father, the grace of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of Christ—contribute your own faith and the labor of love. When you have brought yourselves to the love of feeling, or when love has taken root in you, then the fullness of Christ’s indwelling will be manifested in you—He will fill you as fire fills iron. And all will behold Christ living in you. This is what I desire for you; for this, bowing my knees, I pray to the Heavenly Father.

To Know the Love of Christ; the Doxology (Ephesians 3:18–21)

Eph. 3:18, 19. That you might be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Here is the fruit of the indwelling of Christ the Lord in hearts—perfect comprehension! Where Christ is, there is the mind of Christ. And as the Apostle says of himself: “But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16)—a mind that discerns all things and perceives the mind of the Lord Himself (1 Cor. 2:15)—so likewise a share in the Lord’s mind is granted to everyone in whom the Lord has dwelt, in the measure He wills. There is no other path to comprehending the spiritual realm. “That you might be able,” he says—that is, much strength is needed; and why is this strength needed? To “comprehend” (holy Chrysostom).

The holy Apostle attaches such importance to comprehension in Christianity that he directed the entire epistle toward its unfolding and the indication of the sure path to it. And so it is; for one who does not comprehend is like a blind man—he does not know where or how to go. Yet one cannot help distinguishing degrees of comprehension. Already in the first proclamation of the Gospel, when it is received by hearing alone, a certain comprehension of it is given. One who believes and is baptized enters a higher degree of comprehension. One who walks the path of faith in good deeds and spiritual labor has this comprehension growing ever more. But when, after the purification of the heart, Christ dwells in it, comprehension is raised to the very highest degree. The holy fathers call this degree contemplation and prescribe the way to it as that same path described above—the path of laboring in the fulfillment of the commandments and in the struggle to overcome the passions, for the purpose of purifying the heart and establishing love in it. St. Isaac the Syrian writes of this in detail in his 55th discourse, or epistle to the wonderworker Simeon, in its later sections, from page 373. We will cite a few of his statements on this below.

The words “with all the saints” must not pass without notice. Perhaps the Apostle wished to say simply: with all Christians, since it was his custom to call Christians saints. But since, by the nature of things, Christians are only called to holiness, strive for it, and are equipped with the means toward it—while they become saints properly speaking only by advancing in the life in Christ Jesus, when Christ Himself, the source of all holiness, dwells in them—nothing prevents us from understanding “saints” here as the advanced and perfect Christians. The Apostle desires that the Ephesians, having entered by faith into the community of Christians, should not fall behind others in comprehension, but should be counted worthy to attain such a degree of it as the most perfect Christians possess. He says, as it were: may you be able to comprehend, alongside all the saints, in the manner in which the holy and perfect comprehend.

At the same time it is suggested that, as life, so too comprehension in Christians does not ripen in isolation, separately from others, but matures and appears in its fullness only under the condition of communion with all. Communion in life is love; communion in comprehension is a sharing of understanding—that each person should understand as all do, and not step outside the circle of common understanding. Particular, original views are foreign to the spirit of Christ. The Apostle says, as it were: I desire for you a higher comprehension, but not in such a way that you drift away somewhere, cut off from the saints—rather, that at the height of comprehension you should stand on a level with all the saints, or enter into the strength and circle of their comprehension, for beyond it there is none, and none can be.

What is the object of comprehension? The Apostle does not specify it, but from the flow of the discourse it is clear that what is spoken of here is the mystery of the economy of our salvation in Christ Jesus. All our commentators understand it thus. Holy Chrysostom writes: “That you might be able to comprehend… what is the breadth…”—that is, that you might precisely know the mystery of the economy of our salvation. A general outline of the work of salvation everyone knows without special effort, for it is clearly delineated. But one who has attained the indwelling of Christ, or in whom Christ manifestly reveals His indwelling, actually experiences his salvation, and therefore understands it perfectly—as one who has recovered understands health more perfectly than one who still hopes for health while lying ill and receiving treatment. In such people the economy of salvation itself is seen more clearly, and all its aspects are defined more exactly, for it enters into all spheres of being, extends its power throughout the whole expanse of time, and embraces eternity. Consequently, in it lies the answer to all that exists and all that happens, to all creatures and the course of all events. All this is disclosed to the minds of those most intimately united with the Lord, though it cannot be contained in words and ordinary turns of speech, but is only clearly perceived. As the Apostle, who in heaven heard words and saw things that he could not convey in words, so it is with all Christian contemplatives. By their minds, in the mystery of salvation, much is seen which they have no power to express in words.

This is what the Apostle indicates here with the words “the breadth and length and depth and height.” These signify either the greatness of the work of salvation and the fullness of God’s love for us manifested in it, or the various aspects of this economy. Blessed Theodoret writes: “By faith and love it is possible for us to attain the spiritual grace—of its action and manifest working—and through it to know the greatness of the accomplished economy. For the Apostle depicted greatness by breadth, length, depth, and height, since these dimensions signify magnitude.” Holy Chrysostom says: “By breadth and length, depth and height, he names the knowledge of the riches of God’s love—that is, how it spread everywhere. He describes it in bodily terms, accommodating himself to human notions; hence he says that it embraced what is above and below and on every side. We have said, he declares, that not our words but the Holy Spirit can teach this.” Blessed Theophylact notes that holy Gregory of Nyssa sees in these features the depiction of the mystery of the Lord’s Cross, which is the center of the economy of salvation. And Oecumenius cites a detailed explanation of these features made by Patriarch Photius. “Of what is this the breadth and length, depth and height?—Either of the mystery of salvation, or of the knowledge of Christ itself. The knowledge of Christ is the clear representation of the economy He accomplished. The knowledge of Christ is the understanding of how and why this wondrous work of salvation was accomplished by Him and not by another, and the acknowledgment that He Himself is the Bestower of this understanding and that only by this path do we truly know Christ. This is what constitutes the knowledge of Christ. Its length is the knowledge that the economy of salvation was foreordained from eternity. Its breadth—that its beneficence extends to all: to those who lived before the Law, those under the Law, and those after the Law; to the living and the dead; to Jews and Greeks; to barbarians and all peoples; to heavenly and earthly things. For Christ made peace for all of them, whereas before, Angels and humans had been at variance with one another. The Apostle prays that they might comprehend all this, and not only this, but also the depth and height of it—the depth, being that its ineffable power and beneficence descended to the very depths of hades, shattering and despoiling hades, and redeeming and freeing those whom it had held captive; and the height, being that He who descended is the same as He who ascended, who raised our first-fruits above the heavens, above every Principality and Power, Might and Dominion. Do you see the ineffable height of the economy of Christ and of its knowledge?—The Apostle prays that they might comprehend and understand all this.”

“And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.” Along with the disclosure before their consciousness of the work of salvation in such fullness, the love of Christ will also be disclosed in its fullness. For all this it produced. The love of Christ is incomprehensible to the mind; but when Christ dwells in a person, that person feels in his heart the greatness of this love and contemplates it with his mind, even though it remains inexpressible and inexplicable. Holy Chrysostom says: “Although the love of Christ surpasses all human knowledge, yet you will know it if Christ dwells in you.” Or the Apostle wishes to say that you will comprehend not the extent of the love of Christ, “but the very fact that it surpasses all understanding” (Theophylact). As long as the love of Christ has not been felt, one can still suppose that one understands it at least somewhat. But once felt, one knows at the same time that there is no measure to its greatness, and that the mind is not given to comprehend it. “Holy Paul does not search out the measure of love and does not wish to measure it—and how could he? But he says that a distinguished and great thing is to know the riches of love. Let us strive then, beloved, to know the love of Christ. This is of great importance to us: nothing else brings us so much benefit, nothing so much exalts us. The knowledge of this love can act upon the soul more powerfully than the fear of gehenna” (holy Chrysostom). Being strengthened in the inner man by the grace of the Spirit prepares a house in the heart for the indwelling of Christ; the indwelling of Christ brings knowledge of the economy of salvation and knowledge of the love of Christ; and this knowledge in turn acts back upon the strengthening in the inner man. Thus proceeds the circling movement of the spiritual life, through which it becomes inexhaustible.

“That you might be filled with all the fullness of God.” “There are two ways of understanding this: either that you may know that God is worshipped in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—for the fullness of God is the Trinity; or that you may be filled with every virtue with which God is filled. Better, it seems to me, to understand it thus: that you may be perfect in every perfection that is according to God, knowing all that belongs to God, so far as that is possible” (Theophylact). There is a norm for Christian perfection. The Apostle desires the Ephesians to rise to its measure. I desire for you, he says, that on account of faith and love Christ would dwell in you, and that through this you would know all the economy and all the love of Christ, so that in this way you would be filled with everything with which God intended to fill Christians. When you have received all that is prescribed, you will lack nothing and will be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Jas. 1:4). For when Christ is in you, then with Him is all. What more could be desired?—Blessed Theodoret even paraphrases this text thus: “That you may have Him dwelling perfectly in you.”

Gathering up all that the Apostle has said, we will see that the fullness of Christian perfection, according to him, is the state of contemplation. This state belongs to one who, having freed himself from all attachment to anything, enters the realm of God and sees all things there as we see all that surrounds us. Contemplation seems to be only a work of the mind; but for it to open in the mind, one must enter through labor and toil into the state required for it. We cite below the words of holy Isaac the Syrian on this, as we promised.

“From the beginning our nature received renewal in the Incarnation of Christ… and then, after renewal… became capable of receiving the new and perfect commandments” (p. 374). (From the Ascetic Discourses of our holy father Abba Isaac the Syrian, ascetic and hermit, who was bishop of the Christ-loving city of Nineveh. Moscow, 1854.)

“…the new and spiritual commandments which the soul keeps, with an eye to the fear of God, renew and sanctify the soul and secretly heal all its members. It is plain to all what passion each commandment silently heals in the soul, and their effect is perceptible both to the one healing and to the one being healed, as it was with the woman who had a flow of blood” (ibid.).

“If the passionate part of the soul is not healed… the soul will not acquire health… This healing is accomplished by the practice of the commandments and the laborious works—struggles—of the true life. One who has acquired the health of the soul, has cut off the former disposition and been reborn, has become visible in the realm of the spirit, and he has been received into himself by the new, simple world” (p. 375).

“When the mind is renewed and the heart sanctified, then all the concepts arising within it are aroused in accordance with the nature of that world into which it has entered. His mind perceives the spiritual knowledge of creatures, and the contemplation of the mysteries of the Holy Trinity dawns in it, as also the mysteries of the economy accomplished for us and worthy of all worship” (ibid.).

“If the passions are removed from the soul, the mind is illumined and set in the pure place of its nature, and has no need of questions; for it sees clearly the good things found in their proper place. As the external senses do not perceive things by means of instruction… in a similar manner conceive of spiritual contemplation. For the mind that looks into the hidden mysteries of the spirit, if it is in its natural health, fully contemplates the glory of Christ and does not inquire and does not learn, but enjoys the mysteries of the new world, above the freedom of the will” (p. 376).

“To desire to know such mysteries by means of inquiry and questioning is foolishness of soul. For even the blessed Paul did not say that he saw and heard the mysteries and ‘unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter’ (2 Cor. 12:4) by learning or by any material means, but was caught up by rapture into the spiritual realm and saw the revelation of mysteries” (p. 378).

“If you desire that your heart become a dwelling of the mysteries of the new world, first enrich yourself with bodily works—fasting, vigil, service, ascetic labor, patience, the casting down of thoughts, and the rest. Bind your mind with the reading of the Scriptures and deep meditation upon them, and write the commandments before your eyes. By ceaseless communion in prayer, root out from your heart every image of things and every likeness previously received into it. Train your mind always to penetrate the mysteries of the economy of the Saviour, continuing the practice of the commandments and the labors in the acquisition of purity. Ask of the Lord in prayer, inflamed as with fire, for all-encompassing care—that it may flow into your heart and that you may be counted worthy of the life of the mind. The beginning, middle, and end of this life consist in the following: the cutting off of all things through union with Christ” (p. 379).

“Words that are incomprehensible to the understanding are made intelligible to us by faith, and knowledge of them we receive in contemplation, which comes through purification. For the spiritual mysteries that surpass understanding and are perceived neither by the bodily senses nor by the rational power of the mind, God has given us faith, by which we know only that these mysteries exist—for they are known in another manner, as has already been said. And from this faith there is born in us hope concerning them—to attain their contemplation. By faith we confess that God is Lord, Ruler, Creator and Maker of all things; and by reason we determine that we must keep His commandments out of love. And this leads to blessed contemplation. ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter’ (Jn. 14:15, 16), said the Lord. By the coming of the Comforter He signifies the gifts of the revelation of spiritual mysteries; therefore in the receiving of the Spirit which the Apostles received lies all the perfection of spiritual knowledge. And the Lord promised, having prayed to His Father, to give them the Comforter, so that He might abide with them forever while they practice the commandments and purify themselves. Do you see that for the keeping of the commandments out of love, the mind is counted worthy of the grace of mystical contemplation and revelations of spiritual knowledge?” (pp. 381–382).

“The lawful door that leads into this is love. If we acquire love, it leads us into this. ‘I am the door,’ said the Lord. Through Me a man will enter into life and ‘will find pasture’ for his spiritual life. Then at all the ascents of revelations of knowledge and mystical divine contemplations, divine love leads him in and leads him out, as it does for those who possess the freedom of Christ” (pp. 383–384).

“As according to the measure of natural age the soul receives new and ever new knowledge within itself, perceives what exists in the world, and from day to day is more and more instructed in this—so also in the spiritual life, a man receives within himself spiritual contemplation and divine perception, and is instructed in this to the degree that the mind grows in the life of reason and advances forward. But when he comes into the realm of love, then he contemplates what is spiritual in its proper place. Yet as long as a man uses effort to make the spiritual descend to him, it does not submit. And if he presumptuously imagines and raises his gaze toward what is spiritual, and approaches it by understanding at an untimely moment, his vision quickly grows dim, and instead of reality he perceives phantoms and images” (p. 385).

“If the mind is not purified by the practice of the commandments, does not acquire love in its perfection, does not advance in maturity in the renewal of Christ… it will not be able to become a true beholder of divine contemplation. And all likenesses of what is spiritual which the mind thinks to form for itself are called phantoms, and not reality” (p. 387).

In the excerpts offered above all the teaching on true contemplation is contained. In keeping with the greatness of the subject, the excerpt is lengthy. But as there was no reluctance in making it, let there be no reluctance in reading it and pondering it. This subject is of the first importance, although our scholarship pays it little attention.

Eph. 3:20, 21. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the Church in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, age after age. Amen.

“The Apostle closes his doctrinal discourse with a doxology” (Theodoret). “I pray, he says, but He, even without my prayer, will do more than our petitions—and not simply more or more abundantly, but ‘exceedingly abundantly’—an expression that shows the particular greatness of the gift” (holy Chrysostom). “I praise Him because He both can and wills and grants more than we ask” (Theodoret).

It was St. Paul’s custom, in the midst of his discourse, to be caught up into prayer and doxology. For he lived by what he wrote: all of it he bore in his heart; and from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks its praise. Just before this, the Apostle had expressed the desire that the Ephesians be filled “with all the fullness of God.” This fullness of God—or fullness of the good things descending to us from God through Christ Jesus—was partly depicted by the Apostle in the epistle, partly expressed in this prayer, and partly known and understood by the Ephesians themselves. The Apostle now says: what I wrote to you about, what I have prayed and do pray for, what you yourselves perceive and seek—all this is great, but it by no means exhausts the treasury of good things given to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. They are incomparably greater than what we can perceive or ask for. And all of them the Lord is able to pour out upon anyone it is His good pleasure to favor. What has already been poured out, you experience yourselves, you see in me, you hear of as accomplished in the other Apostles. You see how it works—power comes in an unknown manner and shows its action: either in the soul alone, illumining and purifying, or also outwardly, working miracles. This is not from us: it is God’s gift. And no measure can be set to it. If one were to measure it by our capacity, a measure might still be defined. But since the measure of it is God’s boundless goodness and all-efficacious power, who can set it a measure and boundary? God’s treasury is without measure, and He is ready to empty the whole of it upon us. With such a thought, could the Apostle not cry out: “To Him be glory!”

“Above all”—one should say: above everything—which together with “exceedingly abundantly” expresses: incomparably more than all that we ask or understand. “According to the power that works in us”—this states the ground on which the Apostle speaks thus. He is as it were answering the question: “But how is this evident—that God can do this for us?—From the power, he says, working in us, for we never asked or expected this” (holy Chrysostom). In us—in whom?—Either primarily in the Apostles, or in all believers in the Church, so as to say: Christianity—faith in Christ—has given and continues to give much to all, and what it can still give has no measure. In another place the Apostle says: all things are yours (1 Cor. 3:21, 22).

With this thought in mind, the Apostle is caught up in a doxology, saying: “To Him be glory!” “The Apostle did well to conclude his discourse with prayer and a doxology, for one ought to glorify and bless the One who has granted us such good things” (holy Chrysostom). Glory to God!—an exclamation that arises of itself from the heart when the mind begins to enter even a small and initial comprehension of the divine attributes and actions, and especially of God’s beneficent relations toward us. Glory and thanksgiving converge together, and beneath them ripens—or warms into life—petition as well. In this lies the whole essence of our relationship to God, which is always expressed in every prayer when it proceeds in the right manner.

The same occurs in natural religion. The distinctive feature of this manifestation of the spiritual life in Christianity is that here it takes place “in the Church and in Christ Jesus.” “In the Church:” for all blessings are received through her, are recognized and defined through her, and are communicated by her to all her members. From her goes up the one voice of glory to God. As the Apostle showed above—in the words “to comprehend with all the saints”—that the solitary individual in knowing is not acceptable before God, so now he shows that the solitary individual in prayer and praise is likewise not acceptable before Him. Praise God with the voice of the Church, or together with the whole Church, even when you pray alone. We express this by drawing near to God with the prayers of the Most Holy Mother of God, the assembly of Angels, and all the saints. “In Christ Jesus:” for all that we have and can have, we have and can have only through the Lord Jesus Christ, through faith in Him and through living union with Him, by which everything that is His descends upon us. Through Him in return the doxology must also ascend to God. Only in this form is it pleasing to God, as we ourselves are pleasing to Him only for His sake, by virtue of our being clothed in Him. He is the head, and the lips by which one can offer praise are found in the head. Holy Chrysostom observes: “It is also worthy of wonder that for the gifts received by us from God, the Apostle praises God in Christ Jesus.” Theophylact adds: “He does not simply say ‘To Him be glory,’ but also ‘in’ ‘Christ Jesus,’ that is, through Christ Jesus. For indeed no one can worthily praise God except by the grace and power of Christ. He both awakens us to praise and teaches us how to perform it as it ought to be performed.”

The words “throughout all generations, age after age” express the unbroken continuity of the doxology. Generation after generation will succeed one another in the course of time, age after age will pass—but that great work of God accomplished in Christ Jesus, represented and maintained by the Church, will remain unchanged, enriching our race with ever greater heavenly gifts, and will always move lips to praise. Glory to God is unceasingly offered in the Church. She alone can offer it with the continuity the Apostle specifies.—To Him be glory throughout all generations—either let it be, or it shall be. By the first, an obligation is laid upon us to praise God for the work of salvation (Theodoret); by the second, it is declared that if glory to God will always be in the Church, then the Church will always endure—or: the Church will always endure, and glory to God will always be offered. Holy Chrysostom says: “It is very fitting that this too is said—‘glory in the Church,’ for it is known that the Church will exist forever; and since she always abides, the Apostle desires that we too glorify God until the end of the world, which he made clear by saying ‘throughout all generations of the age.’”

The two final verses of the dogmatic section of the epistle are finely paraphrased by blessed Jerome. We cite his words. “By this the Apostle shows that in his petition he is confined to human measure and asks for what he finds beneficial to the Ephesians; but in reality God is able to grant more than is asked of Him, and to surpass our hopes with His beneficences. We ourselves do not know what and how to pray, and we often ask for what is not beneficial to us. A fornicator, for example, prays for health, whereas it is far more beneficial for him to be ill and weakened by infirmity, so that he may lack the strength to make the temple of Christ into members of a harlot. God is able to grant not only more than we ask, but more than we understand. It happens sometimes that we do not express our thoughts in words, but in silent reflection, with inexpressible groanings—as the same Apostle says—we ask for what we cannot express. God grants even this; He grants more than this too, and all ‘according to the power that works in us.’ As now, not according to our deeds and beyond our expectation, He grants us much of what we would not dare to ask, so also He can grant us much else of a kind the mind cannot conceive and the tongue cannot express. So to the good God be glory: first, in the Church, which is pure, without spot or blemish, and which alone can receive the glory of God, because she is the body of Christ; second, in Christ Jesus, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and whose members are all who believe in Him. This glory is not limited to the present time and the ages to come, but extends to all generations, and through ages of ages it abides, grows, and multiplies, and fills all boundless eternity.”

The Moral Part (Ephesians 4:1–6:18)

Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

In the preceding chapters the Apostle thoroughly explained how all things are summed up in the Lord Jesus Christ, striving in every way to lead the Ephesians to the contemplation of this truth and praying for it to God. Now, from this main thought as a starting principle, he derives how Christians, so united and so renewed in Christ, ought to live and act. First he depicts A. the general order of life in Christ Jesus — Eph. 4:1–16; then he proposes B. rules of life: 1. general — Eph. 4:17–32; 5:1–21, and 2. particular, according to one’s state of life — Eph. 5:22–33; 6:1–9; and finally, on the ground that life of this kind is a struggle, C. he clothes the Christian in the whole armour of God: here is an outline of asceticism — Eph. 6:10–18.

A. The General Order of Christians’ Lives. Eph. 4:1–16.

The outline of this order is very simple: keeping 1) the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace — Eph. 4:1–10; 2) under the guidance of God-ordained shepherds — Eph. 4:11, 12; 3) grow up in all things into Christ — Eph. 4:13–16.

1. The unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

This is the principal thing for Christians—that each person be as all are, setting himself apart in nothing. Previously, in passing, the Apostle had already noted that the understanding of Christians proceeds in harmony “with all the saints” (Eph. 3:18), and that their prayer to God ascends from the face of the whole Church (Eph. 3:21); now he teaches that their whole life also flows together—in heartfelt union with one another and in self-denying mutual cooperation.

The foundations of such heartfelt communion are the dispositions that oppose self-love: humility, meekness, patience toward one another, unity of mind and soul (Eph. 4:1–3). Without these virtues it is impossible to sustain a firm communion and a bond of peace.

Eph. 4:1–3. I therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling to which you were called, with all humility and meekness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The first verse—on walking worthy of the calling—may be taken as a heading and general starting principle for all the moral teaching, in the sense of: walk worthy of the Christian calling. Whatever moral rule one takes, it will fall under this principle and flow from it. But, judging by the flow of the discourse, the Apostle had in mind a specific manner of walking worthy of one’s calling, namely: the loving mutual communion of all. For he had just shown how all are united in the Lord and have become one—in Him and through Him. Now he says: you have been called to this; walk worthy of it, that is, abide in loving mutual communion. Holy Chrysostom, approaching the exposition of this verse, cries out: “And again our Head is Christ”—that is, again the Apostle directs us to the same thought about the summing up and uniting of all in Christ, so as to dispose all toward mutual union with one another.

The terms with which the Apostle surrounded this lesson on walking worthy of the calling—“I urge, a prisoner in the Lord, in which you were called”—are all directed toward animating, stirring into motion, and intensifying this disposition.

“I urge.” He could have commanded; he could have imposed obligations by Apostolic authority—but he urges, calling forth submission to the commandment of humility by his own humility, and counting their right conduct a personal favor to himself. And everyone knows how such speech binds one to right conduct with soft but nonetheless firm bonds (Theophylact).

“A prisoner.” How fittingly the holy Paul mentions his imprisonment here too, as he proceeds to set forth the commandment of loving mutual communion. For the bonds of St. Paul were the fruit of the bonds of love—love for the Lord, for His teaching, and for all believers. Loving mutual communion also imposes bonds and demands self-sacrifice. By recalling his own bonds he powerfully disposed his readers toward these (Oecumenius). Could a word about the bonds of love, spoken by one who was himself held in bonds for love’s sake, have remained without effect? Blessed Theodoret writes: “The mention of bonds is sufficient even to rouse those afflicted by the most extreme insensibility to virtue.”

Discerning this thought of the Apostle, holy Chrysostom draws from it a lesson for all regarding the moral bonds of love, saying: “But do we not wish to bind ourselves?! I counsel you to accept imprisonment—not Paul’s imprisonment, for the times are different now—but there are other bonds (of love): bind your mind. There are yet other bonds (of punishment); and he who does not impose upon himself the moral bonds of virtue will experience the latter, for hear what Christ says: ‘bind him hand and foot’ (Matt. 22:13). That we may not suffer that imprisonment, let us lay upon ourselves these bonds.”

“Prisoner” “of the Lord”—that is, for the Lord’s sake, for His cause and teaching. What I have said and will yet say is not such that one might retreat from it at the sight of danger; even if a thousand deaths were to face you, retreat from it you cannot. My bonds for the Lord speak this to you. Therefore my word is for you an inviolable law. Do you wish to be with the Lord?—Then by all means fulfil what I write to you. “Be ashamed of my bonds” (Theophylact). “It is good to be a prisoner, but not simply so, but for Christ’s sake; that is why he said: ‘prisoner of the Lord’, that is, for Christ’s sake; only such bonds carry so great a significance!” (holy Chrysostom).

How deeply holy Paul loved the Lord Jesus Christ! His most sweet Name was unceasingly on his lips. Open his epistles and simply run your eyes over the pages—you will see them strewn with the Name of the Lord. And this is especially so in the Epistle to the Ephesians.—Was it not in imitation of him that lovers of the Lord so acquired the habit of calling upon the Name of the Lord that it ceaselessly repeated itself on their lips and in their hearts, like a murmuring stream?

Otherwise it could not be, for all we have is from the Lord. But in the Apostle’s present case there is this particular quality: that he is even in bonds with the Lord, and his bonds for the Lord’s sake he holds forth as a banner of victory, as a royal distinction. Theodoret writes: “What is worthy of admiration in the blessed Paul is that he glories in his bonds for Christ more than a king glories in his diadem.” Holy Chrysostom presents the spectacle of Paul’s imprisonment as the most pleasing of subjects for contemplation: “The bonds of Paul, drawing us away from the present theme, attract us to themselves, and I have no power to resist this attraction. Holy Paul rejoiced in his bonds, gave himself over to chains, and was led away under guard with other prisoners. Great is the power of Paul’s bonds! Instead of all spectacles, it is enough for one to see Paul bound and being led out of prison. What can surpass the pleasure of seeing him in bonds and sitting in the dungeon? How shall I reckon this pleasure? Do you not see kings and consuls carried in chariots, adorned in gold, with their bodyguards likewise clad all in gold—golden spears, golden shields, garments trimmed with gold, their horses in golden trappings? Yet how much more pleasing is the former spectacle than the latter! I would sooner look once upon Paul going out from prison with the other prisoners than see those men a thousand times with their lance-bearers. How many Angels, do you think, went before him when he was led out in this manner?—If Elisha was surrounded by a host of Angels (2 Kgs. 6:17), what shall we say of Paul? The prophet David says: ‘The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him’ (Ps. 33:8), and again: ‘They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone’ (Ps. 90:12). But what do I say of Angels? The Lord Himself was with him when he went out (from prison).—He Himself gave the promise: ‘I am with you always’ (Matt. 28:20); and, appearing to Paul, said to him: ‘Do not fear… for I am with you’ (Acts 18:9, 10).—Thus the wondrous servants of God are always full of great grace, and most especially when they suffer danger for Christ’s sake, when they become prisoners for His sake! As it is pleasant to look upon a soldier faithful to his duty at any time—and most of all when he stands and fights at the side of the king himself—so too picture Paul to yourself: one could see him teaching even in bonds.”

“Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” “What do I pray for?—Not for myself, but for you—that you should walk worthy of your calling, for you have been called to something great: to be seated together with Christ, to reign together with Him. You ought not to shame the dignity of your calling by deeds unworthy of Christ” (Theophylact). “He has co-raised us and co-seated us in the heavenly places—us who were so hostile to Him and did so much evil. This is a great calling, and to great things it calls! It is great not because He called us out of such a condition, but because He called us to such deeds and in such a manner” (holy Chrysostom). “He called us that we might have Him—Christ—as our Head, and be sons of God” (Oecumenius). “Love therefore the manner of life befitting your calling; do not dishonour the gift of grace by a lawless life” (Theodoret).

This manner of life worthy of the calling is here, as already noted, the loving mutual communion and mutual cooperation of all. This is clear from the fact that, having begun to explain how to walk worthy of the calling, the Apostle reduced everything to striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And from the calling itself the same conclusion follows. All things, both earthly and heavenly, are gathered together under Christ as Head; by faith you have been brought into this common bond of all; live therefore in loving communion. Having laid down this beginning, the Apostle goes on to explain how it is possible to attain to walking in this manner. Our nature is sociable and communal by creation. But sin came and cooled it. The freezing force within it is selfishness, the source of division and separateness. The slaying of selfishness is the return to the warmth of communal love. This is why the Lord defined the first step in following Him as self-denial: “Let him deny himself, whoever wishes to follow Me”, He says (Matt. 16:24). The Apostle does not set forth this primary principle explicitly, but enumerates the virtuous dispositions contrary to self-seeking impulses, and these he lays as the foundation of loving mutual communion.

In the first place he sets humility. The Lord also placed it first in the beatitudes, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3). Just as pride is the foremost expression of selfishness, which divides and isolates, so conversely humility is the foremost expression of self-denial, which makes communion possible. For if self-denial requires self-forgetfulness, where is that more manifest than in humility? The humble person accounts himself as nothing, considering all others to be his masters and offering himself to them as a servant. Hence he has thought only for others, just as the self-seeking person has thought only for himself. “I am not about to labour and spend myself for him,” is the habitual saying of the proud. The humble person could not bring his tongue to say such a thing, nor his mind to think it. He regards every other person’s concern as his own, and is ready for any effort and sacrifice on its account. He is like a member of the body. No member of the body lives for itself, but entirely for the others. So too the Christian has this disposition, united with all as one body under Christ the Head. A given member of the body might seem capable of exalting itself above the others, yet there is no time for that, being unceasingly occupied with serving the others. So it is in the body of the Church. One may receive greater gifts, yet he does not exalt himself by them, knowing that they are not his own and were not given for him alone; on the contrary, he fears greatly lest he err against them and nullify their worth by directing them toward himself alone, confining them to himself alone, shutting them within this tiny space, like a single point.

Holy Chrysostom therefore says: “How then is one to walk worthy of the calling?—‘With all humility.’ He who is such walks worthy of this calling: humility is the foundation of every virtue. If you have humility and remember how you were saved and from what condition, the remembrance of this serves as your incentive to virtue. You will take pride in nothing, but, knowing that everything you have is a gift of grace, you will humble yourself. A humble person is like a servant who remembers the kindnesses done to him and is grateful for them. ‘What do you have,’ said the same Apostle, ‘that you did not receive?’ (1 Cor. 4:7). And likewise of himself he said: ‘I laboured more than all… yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me’ (1 Cor. 15:10). He did not simply say: ‘with humility,’ but ‘with all’ humility—that is, not in words and deeds only, but in all outward manner and tone of speech. Do not treat one person with humility and another with arrogance; preserve humility with everyone, whether your friend or your enemy, whether a person of rank or of no account: this is what humility consists in. Also in other matters maintain humility; for Christ says: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’—and this beatitude He places before all the others. This is why the Apostle also said: ‘with all humility.’”

Blessed Jerome writes: “He who acknowledges himself to be earth and ashes and remembers that in a little while he must return to dust will never be lifted up by pride. And he who, contemplating the eternity of God, sees that the span of human life is brief, resembling a single point, will always have his end before his eyes, and will be humble and self-abasing. ‘For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle burdens the mind full of cares’ (Wisd. 9:15). Therefore let us speak with all humility: ‘Lord, my heart is not lifted up, neither are my eyes raised aloft’ (Ps. 130:1). Humility, moreover, is not in words but in the disposition of the soul. Be humble in conscience, so that God too may see that neither in thought nor in feeling do you esteem yourself at all.”

In the second place the Apostle sets gentleness. The foremost offspring of pride is anger, irritability, and offensiveness; the foremost fruit of humility is gentleness. The proud person thinks, feels, and speaks to another with contempt: “How dare you treat me in this way?” If he dislikes an action, or a word, or even an expression on someone’s face, he takes offence. The humble person does not perceive that there is anything in others’ treatment of him that falls below his dignity, and indeed cannot even notice such a thing, for he considers himself nothing, and any manner in which others relate to him—a kindness beyond his deserts. Therefore he meets everything not only without displeasure, but with gratitude, as an act of kindness and honour, even though to others it may seem that he is being humiliated and insulted. Hence there is in him no movement of displeasure, not even the shadow of offence. He is gentle before all, like a lamb. For this reason all likewise relate to him peacefully, warmly, and with respect, even if he is not of high rank. Here then is the bond, here is the cement! Nothing can separate the gentle person from others or others from him; and the more gentle souls there are in any place, the stronger the bond among them there, and the more peace and joy there is. The Kingdom of Heaven is the land of the gentle, as the Saviour said: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Blessed Jerome writes: “Gentleness is a disposition of the soul in which it is not disturbed by any passion, and above all not by anger and wrath. He who possesses it will attain the blessedness promised by the Lord.”—“On the contrary,” Ambrosiaster continues, “agitation and irritability at anything engender quarrels and drive people to defend even what they themselves recognize as bad and wrong. From this comes strife, which severs the bond of peace.”

In the third place the Apostle sets long-suffering. Patience encompasses all that is to be endured: troubles, injuries, persecutions, deprivations, and every labour and burden involved in doing good and fulfilling one’s duties. Here the Apostle points to that patience which is exercised in mutual relations and encounters. The word he uses is μακροθυμια — long-suffering, or magnanimity. The magnanimous soul is so strong and vigorous that no offence from others produces any disturbance or change in him. Look at water that has grown calm: its surface is smooth as a mirror. But cast even the lightest object into it, and at once it is set in motion, agitated at a single point, sending out a wave that spreads across the entire surface. This is an image of faint-heartedness, which, at the slightest encounter with something unpleasant, is immediately troubled and grieved. But behold—a cliff! Waves beat against it, and it stands unmoved, paying them no heed, as though none of it concerned it at all. This is an image of magnanimity and long-suffering. Look at the magnanimous person!—All around him is turbulent and affects him greatly, yet he is at peace. It is as though he had no soul. One might think that such a state is characteristic of those whose hearts are hard. On the contrary, the magnanimous are the most tender-hearted: warmth emanates from them. What is the secret of such a state?—It is the grace of God. This gift is given for the ascetic struggle against oneself, which elsewhere holy Paul expresses thus: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21). The experience of overcoming evil with good produces invincibility by evil. In prescribing long-suffering as the means of preserving loving mutual communion, holy Paul says as it were: strive in this ascetic effort, and you will not stumble in your walking worthy of your calling.

“Bearing with one another in love.” Magnanimity and long-suffering endure injuries and offences with composure; but in mutual relations and encounters, beyond these, there may arise unpleasant things that repel, even without any intention on the part of others to cause annoyance. These may include defects of soul and body, tangles of circumstance by which one person becomes an impediment to the affairs and progress of the common life, various kinds of friction, and the like. The Apostle enjoins that all this be endured and borne. “Bearing with one another” might seem like an attitude of indifference toward others. But the Apostle removes this impression and commands that we bear with one another in love, as a mother patiently endures everything in caring for her child. Holy Chrysostom says: “How can one bear with another?—The Apostle has shown the way, saying: in love. Patience in all things exists only where there is love. Bind yourself to your brother with the bonds of love: everything is easy for those who are bound to one another by the bonds of love.” One may even say that there will be no burden of patience at all, for love does not notice its labours. Only those on the outside can marvel at how one can endure such and such a person. But not everyone ripens quickly in love. At first this bearing with one another is what it is—one endures with gritted teeth; the expression of displeasure is ready to break forth, but is checked by force of will. These are the first fruits of bearing with one another. He who diligently continues to restrain himself and strain toward love acquires first the habit of enduring calmly all that might disturb him, and then of covering and absorbing everything in love. At this level, bearing with one another passes into the supporting of the strong by the weak—in spiritual matters and in everyday life alike. The Greek word means not merely to endure, but also to support. This means: to comfort the grieving, to instruct the foolish, to correct the sinning, to supply the needy with what they require, to defend the wronged—in a word, to help and assist one another in every way. Love cannot remain calmly at rest at the sight of another’s need, for it feels itself to be blended with others and takes their feelings upon itself. Another’s need is its own.

Blessed Jerome writes on these words: “Taking the phrase ‘bearing with one another’ at its literal sound, one might think that this commandment does not apply to holy men—for the saints have nothing to bear with in one another—but only to those who are still overcome by some passion. And it is no wonder that the Ephesians hear this, since among those who believed from among them there were still some who needed to bear with one another. This same thing seems to me to be what is written to the Galatians: ‘Bear one another’s burdens’ (Gal. 6:2). But both of these testimonies can also be interpreted differently—namely, that by them the rich are urged to relieve the needs of the poor. He who helps and ministers to a sick brother bears with him in love. He who, living the blessed celibate life, helps in some way or brings consolation to another who has a wife and children, bears the burden of the other. It happens that a man sees his mother or sister, a widow in extreme poverty and need, yet he cannot help them: whoever extends to him a helping hand bears with him in love. Whether we take the first interpretation or the second, it is clear that whoever does not support a sinning brother and does not comfort one in need has no love and despises the words of the Apostle, who commands: ‘We who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those who are weak, and not to please ourselves’ (Rom. 15:1).”

“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Everything would seem already to be in place: humility is there, gentleness is there, magnanimity is there, bearing with one another is there—what more is needed for the strength of the bond of communion? There is need, he says, to strive further to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” What is this unity of the Spirit? If we understand by the spirit the human spirit, the unity of the Spirit will be an interior, heartfelt unity, as distinct from an outward bond. To be humble, gentle, to endure unpleasantnesses, to bear with one another and to help one another—all of this is a manner of conduct capable of sustaining peace among you. But do not strive for peace alone; strive that together with this peace, within this bond of peace, there may be among you also a unity of spirit—that you may be united in heart, that you may have one spirit, one soul.

“Unity” — ενοτης — properly means oneness, unity, sameness. If we analyse the spirit into its spiritual constituent parts—thoughts, strivings, tastes—then unity of spirit will point us toward unity of mind, unity of disposition, and unity of soul; and in the Apostle’s word we shall receive a commandment to preserve among all a single way of thinking and of viewing things, a single set of dispositions, intentions, and desires, a single range of feelings and sympathies—to find pleasure in one and the same things; in a word, that there be no interior separation or isolation from others, but that each one have only what all have in common. This oneness of inner disposition will bind all together and establish the bond between all — συνδεσμον — which will provide a solid foundation for inviolable peace. The bond of peace is the outward aspect; its soul is the unity of spirit. Only in this way can all become one body.

Holy Chrysostom says: “What is the unity of the Spirit?—As in the body the soul embraces everything and imparts a certain unity to the diversity arising from the difference of the bodily members, so too here. But the soul is given also that it may unite people. The elder and the youth, the poor and the rich, the child and the adult, the man and the woman, and every being endowed with a soul, form something one; and this unity is greater than bodily unity. The first kinship is higher than the last: there is more perfection in spiritual unity. As fire, when it falls upon dry timbers, turns them into a single blazing mass, yet has no effect upon wet ones and does not unite them to one another, so it is here: coldness of soul does not conduce to union, whereas warmth of soul for the most part draws each one toward itself. From this comes the warmth of love. The Apostle desires to unite us all in the bonds of love. He desires that we be bound not merely by peace alone, but that all may have one soul. These are beautiful bonds: they unite us both with one another and with God. These bonds do not burden or constrain the hands of those bound by them; on the contrary, they give them greater freedom, open to them a wider sphere of activity, and make those bound more joyful than the free. This bond can be broken by no distance of place, no heaven, no earth, no death, nor anything else: it is above and stronger than all things. Flowing from oneness of soul, it can at one and the same time embrace many. Hear what Paul says: ‘You are not restricted in us’ (2 Cor. 6:12).”

But some understand by the Spirit the Spirit of God, or the grace of the Holy Spirit. In that case the thought here is: “You have all been granted one and the same grace; a single source pours out its varied streams. Therefore, being guided by humility and gentleness, bear with one another according to the law of love, and preserve the bond of peace” (Theodoret).

The bond of peace will make of all of you a single, firmly compact vessel, capable of retaining the streams of grace poured into you. The one Spirit of God fills you all: strive to preserve Him within you, and for this purpose preserve among yourselves by every means the bond of peace. When peace is no longer among you, you will be like a broken vessel. The Spirit of grace will depart from you, and you will become carnal once again as before. The Apostle says elsewhere: “For where there are among you envy and strife and divisions, are you not carnal and walking according to man?” (1 Cor. 3:3). Blessed Theophylact expresses this thought thus: “As in the body the spirit is the principle that unites and binds everything together, though the members may differ, so also among believers the Holy Spirit is He who unites all, though we differ from one another in race, disposition, and occupation. Through this Spirit we are made one body. Let us therefore strive to preserve this unity through mutual peace among ourselves. If we do not maintain the bond of love and do not keep peace with one another, we shall destroy the unity which the Spirit has granted us. Then it will be with us as if a hand or foot were cut off from the rest of the body and severed its connection with the other members—we shall no longer be held together by the one Spirit.”

That the Apostle says “endeavouring to keep”—this “gives us to understand that the matter is neither easy nor a thing that just happens of itself” (holy Chrysostom). Nothing encounters so many obstacles as the preservation of the bond of peace and the unity of spirit. Much prudence, exertion of will, self-command, and all-round vigilance are needed for this. “Without particular effort and labour we shall not preserve peace” (Theophylact). So it is at the beginning; but in time peacefulness becomes character and disposition, and it is no longer easy to disturb it by anything.

Having thus laid the firm foundations of loving communion for all in the virtues of the heart that oppose selfishness, holy Paul sets forth the most powerful incentives toward this (vv. 4–6), so that this holy work might be accomplished not mechanically but freely—by rational resolve of the will, by reasoned convictions. Otherwise, he says, it cannot be. You must be in loving communion with one another, for all among you is one. This is demanded of you by the unity of the body of the Church, of which you are members; by the unity of the Spirit, whom all of you receive and who, penetrating all the members, imparts to each spiritual life and movement; by the unity of the blessedness to whose inheritance all alike are called; by the unity of the Lord—Redeemer and Saviour; by the unity of Baptism, through which you are born into new life; by the unity of God the Creator, Provider, and Father, who embraces all with one love, governs with one omnipotence, preserves with one providence—being everywhere present and filling all things.

Every word is an incentive to unity. The Apostle has depicted the whole order of Christian relations as it exists according to the idea of Christianity. From each feature of it one and the same conclusion follows: therefore, be one with one another. I am showing you what you are by vocation. But in order to be such in deed, you must apply your own effort as well. Strive therefore to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Holy Chrysostom, entering upon his discourse on these verses (4–6), speaks thus: “When the blessed Paul desires to dispose Christians toward something especially lofty, being filled with the wisdom and grace of God, he moves them to it by heavenly things—by the example of the Lord Himself. Thus in one place he says: ‘Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and gave Himself for us’ (Eph. 5:2), and again: ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God’ (Phil. 2:5, 6), and in the same way here as well. And he does this rightly, for when great examples are pointed out, there arises in a person a strong zeal and desire to imitate them. What then does he say in urging us to unity?—‘One body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling,’ and so on (Eph. 4:4).”

Such is the essence of Christianity, that those who profess it are one, that all believers form “one” living and vitally united “body,” in which there dwells “one Spirit” who fills it and sets all things within it in motion—which is therefore one, because it is animated by this one Spirit. Here then is the first incentive toward loving unity in the bond of peace. And this should be all the more compelling in that, together with the unity of body and spirit, you have also one hope. As all societies are united by unity of aims and hopes, so you too are called to one thing, you labour with a common purpose, you strive toward one goal. To all alike the one Kingdom is promised; its door stands equally open for you all. Blessed Theodoret writes: “One Spirit you have received, one body you form, one hope of the Resurrection and of the Kingdom of Heaven is given to you.” From this the conclusion follows of itself: why then should you hold yourselves apart from one another, break the unity of the Spirit, sever the bond of peace?!

Holy Chrysostom sets this forth at length, directing the whole discourse primarily toward disposing believers to unanimity. “What is ‘one body’?—The faithful of every place in the world, those living, those who have died, and those yet to come into the world, as well as those who pleased God before the coming of Christ—all form one body. Among us it is customary to say of things that are joined together and have a close connection: they are one body. In exactly this way we also form one body. The body, although it is composed of different members, important and unimportant, yet neither does the better member take up arms against the insignificant one, nor does the latter treat the former with contempt. Although not all members have the same function, they are equally worthy of respect. The Apostle Paul demands from us such a love as would bind us together, making us inseparable from one another, and such a perfect unity as if we were members of one body, for only such love produces great good. By the words ‘one body’ he demands that we have compassion on one another, not covet the goods of our neighbor, and share in one another’s joys—all of this he expressed together. Then he very fittingly added: ‘and’ ‘one Spirit,’ teaching that together with one body we should have unity of mind. He wished to urge by this a mutual agreement, as if saying: since you have received the one Spirit and drank from one source, there must be no divisions among you. Then the Apostle says: ‘even as you are called in one hope of your calling.’ That is: God has called all of us to one and the same thing; He has granted nothing more to one person over another: to all He has given immortality, to all eternal life, to all unfading glory, to all brotherhood (from the one sonship to God), to all an inheritance; for all He has become the common Head; all He has co-raised and co-seated. So then, having such equal honour in spiritual things, why do you think highly of yourselves? Because one of you is rich and another powerful? But is this not absurd?! For tell me: if a king were to choose ten men and clothe them all in purple, seat them on the royal throne, and bestow upon them all one and the same honour—would any one of them dare to revile another because he is richer or more distinguished? Not at all! So then, shall we, being equals in heaven, boast before one another on account of earthly distinctions?”

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Eph. 4:5. One Lord, one faith, one Baptism.

“Here is yet another incentive to loving communion!” (Oecumenius). Previously he said that we must abide in this communion because all are one body with one spirit—not for time only but for eternity. Now he sets forth as an incentive the fact that every Christian, taken individually, is the same as every other; in the manner by which people become Christians, all are equal, none having an advantage over another, none at a disadvantage; just as all are born into the world by the same path—neither king nor the poorest pauper differs in this—so all are made Christians in the same manner. The Lord accomplished salvation and made a beginning of the new life as the Firstborn. To Him one draws near by faith and gains access to communion in the one life contained in Him—by Baptism. In whomever this has been accomplished, that person has become a Christian. And in this the Lord is one for all, and faith is one, and Baptism is one. They have neither more nor less significance for anyone—they are equal for all, and impart their power equally to all. “One Lord”—Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God—true God of true God, begotten, not made—for us men descended from the heavens, became man, suffered, was crucified, died, was buried, rose again, ascended into the heavens, and sat at the right hand of the Father, uniting all in His own person with God. But in order for all to be actually reunited with God, it is necessary to be united by a living bond with the Lord, as the Lord Himself prayed: “that they all may be one: as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in us” (Jn. 17:21). Or as He had explained before this: “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (Jn. 14:20). The path to this union is opened by faith, which here is completely one for all and speaks, as it were, with one voice. Each confesses: I am perishing; there is no salvation for me except in the Lord; to Him I cleave and to Him I surrender and consecrate myself. This confession opens the door to the Lord. No one brings anything extra besides this, and nothing besides this is taken into account: neither lineage, nor education, nor deeds, nor previous religion. All else aside: only this one confession needs to be presented for access to the Lord. He who has presented his faith is united with Him by a living bond through Baptism, in which everyone is immersed into the death of the Lord and is made a partaker of His Resurrection, is grafted into the Lord and becomes a member of Him. The Apostle says as it were: here is how each of you became a Christian. Look then: has anyone in any respect something more than another, that he should hold himself apart from him? Is the Lord more the Redeemer, Saviour, and Reconciler for you than for another? Did your faith combine with some advantage so as to have greater power than others’, or was it one and the same as that of all? Was your Baptism not performed by three immersions with the invocation of the name of the Most Holy Trinity, just as for every other? And do not the words apply equally to all who have been baptized: “as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried with Him by baptism into death” (Rom. 6:3, 4); and: “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27)? Holy Chrysostom says here: “One and the same is He for all. Was He named greater for you and lesser for another? Were you saved by faith, and he by works? Were your sins forgiven in Baptism, and his not?—Far be such a thought from us!”

Eph. 4:6. One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all of us.

We are united with the Lord Jesus Christ in order that through Him we might be reunited with God, from whom we fell away by the transgression of the commandment in paradise. And the Lord retains no one in Himself alone, but escorts all to God the Father, with whom He Himself is also one, as is the Holy Spirit. Behold the golden divine chain!—The Lord is in the Father, we are in Him, and He is in us. Thus far has the Apostle raised the unity of all. Now nothing remains, either in heaven or on earth, that could serve as grounds for separation from others or division from one another. He has raised all to God the Father and speaks of Him as being “above all and through all and in all of us,” making it understood that for one who clearly comprehends the matter of Christianity, any separation from others is inconceivable, for he must behold the one God—Father of all, filling all, inseparably with the Son and the Holy Spirit. That what is said here of God pertains to how He has been pleased to relate to us through the economy of salvation is shown by the words “Father…” and “us;” and that it is said of Him inseparably from the Son and the Holy Spirit is evident from the fact that, as already noted, the whole body of believers is filled by the one Spirit, and all who are baptized by faith in the one Lord put on that Lord. How could God the Father be above all, and in all, and through all separately, when in all of them there is already both the Spirit and the Lord? Therefore the words “above all, through all, and in all” express the relation of the Godhead to humanity reconciled with it through the economy of salvation. “Above all” means that God especially oversees all believers, extending His special care and love over all of them as over sons; “through all” means that God, filling them all, acts through them—they are a willing instrument that has consciously surrendered itself to His all-working, whereas all others attempt to do everything themselves and give God no room to act in them; “in all” means that God rests in them with His favour, love, and peace: He is at rest in relation to them, for His purposes are accomplished in them. And at the Last Judgment, the person who gives rest to another will receive recompense from that one. Holy Chrysostom says: “Above all,” that is, higher than all; “through all,” that is, He provides for all things and governs all; “in all,” that is, He dwells in all. Blessed Theodoret writes: “And this: ‘above all’ denotes sovereignty, ‘through all’—providence, ‘in all’—indwelling.” So too Oecumenius and Theophylact.

Others divide this inseparable relation of the Godhead to believers—though not in a divisive sense—and refer the first clause to God the Father, the second to God the Son, and the third to God the Holy Spirit, so that in the last two the Father acts through the Son and the Spirit. Thus holy Damascene: “One above all is the Father, who is through all—through the Word that proceeds from Him—and in all through His Spirit. Wishing to show how the likeness of the divine unity shines forth in us, the Apostle proclaimed the distinct properties of the Trinity in the one God” (or, the distinct workings in us of the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity he referred to the one God). Blessed Jerome likewise writes: “Some refer the words ‘above all and through all and in all’ to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: ‘above all’—to the Father, because He is the Cause of all; ‘through all’—to the Son, because all things were made through the Son; ‘in all’—to the Holy Spirit, because He is given to believers, and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit: both the Father and the Son dwell in us.”

The conclusion from all of the above is this: “We have one Lord, we have received one Baptism, we have brought one faith, we have one God and Father. Therefore it is fitting for you, as brothers, to be of one mind with one another” (Theodoret).

Holy Paul has pointed out the virtues upon which the loving communion of Christians is founded, and has set forth the most powerful incentive toward it; now he shows in what this communion manifests itself, or what it looks like in action. It manifests itself in mutual assistance and cooperation—in serving one another, each with what he has and according to the gift he has received. Even in the natural order one cannot say that anyone is wholly without gifts; everyone is capable of something. And in the order of grace, everyone in the sacrament of Chrismation receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. So then, whatever each has received, with that let him serve others. The holy Apostle Peter expresses this commandment thus: “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Pet. 4:10). And how precisely to serve, holy Paul describes in the Epistle to the Romans, saying: he who has received prophecy, let him prophesy; he who has received ministry, let him minister; he who has received teaching, let him teach; he who has means, let him give with simplicity; and so on (Rom. 12:6–8). Here, however, he says only that each has received grace, leaving it to the Ephesians themselves to draw the conclusion: you have received it—so serve others with what you have received.

Eph. 4:7. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

As in the body there are different members and every member has its own particular function, through the performance of which it works for the whole body, so it is in the body of the Church, whose Head is the Lord Christ. But in the natural body the head does not produce the members and does not assign them their functions, whereas in the body of the Church the Lord Jesus Christ, its Head, is also its producer—the producer of each member. Each member receives its spiritual existence from Him; from Him likewise the place assigned to it in the body of the Church and the gift of grace for its service are given to it. This is precisely what the Apostle here mentions. Each has received from the Lord grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit in the measure that it pleased the Lord. Serve others with it—and you will find yourself in living and active communion with all.

Such, it seems, is the purpose for which holy Paul speaks these words here, since he had been speaking of the body throughout what preceded, and immediately after this will speak of the body again—specifically from the perspective of how it is built up through the harmonious interaction of all the members (Eph. 4:15, 16).

Those things which all must equally possess, those things by which Christian life itself is conditioned—belonging to the body of the Church, faith, hope, Baptism, having God as Father and the Lord as one’s Head—all of these all possess alike. But this sameness does not produce perfect equality in all or eliminate distinctions. Each one has everything that another has, yet in a different degree, and beyond that each receives a particular grace and gift. Under the condition of such diversity, and by means of the interaction and communion that this diversity makes possible, the one many-membered body is built up, harmoniously compacted together. Perfect equality would not allow a body to be formed, “for ‘if they were all one’ ‘member, where would the body be? But now they are many members, yet one body’ (1 Cor. 12:19, 20).”

But the diverse grace and diverse gift given to each is not given for his own sake, but for the body of the Church. Therefore to take occasion from this to separate from others or to exalt oneself above them when the gift is greater, or to envy others when it is lesser, is utterly senseless. Holy Chrysostom says: “That one receives more and another less is of no account, but is a matter of indifference, for each of those who receives contributes to the building up of the whole. It is not for the sake of one’s own merit that one receives more and another less, but for the sake of others—in whatever measure Christ Himself has distributed to each. As he says elsewhere: ‘God has set the members, each one of them, in the body as it pleased Him’ (1 Cor. 12:18). If another has something more in his gift, do not grieve at this, for his labours are also greater. Remember also that from the one who received five talents, five were required in return, while the one who received two brought two and nevertheless received no less a reward than the first. The Apostle says of himself: ‘Woe is me,’ as indeed to everyone who has received the gift of Apostleship, ‘if I do not preach the gospel’ (1 Cor. 9:16). But it is woe to him because he has received; whereas you are free from such a danger.” Oecumenius reasons in a similar way: “To each was given grace—that is, the gift of the Holy Spirit—according to the measure of Christ’s gift. The Apostle says as it were: if He (Christ) measured it out, He certainly measured well, in the way that is suitable and beneficial for you. And if all is gift, then give thanks for what you received, and do not envy what you did not receive, for that too is a gift. The Distributor and Giver knows what is best and most beneficial: and so He has done.”

When is this particular gift given to each?—In the sacrament of Chrismation. In this sacrament the natural capacities receive a gracious seal, and some of them are raised to a height which in the natural order they could not have attained; but its particular quality is that in it a gift is bestowed for the needs of the Church. The Lord is the performer of all the sacraments. The gift communicated to each in Chrismation is from Him. Christian communities that have deprived themselves of this sacrament are devoid of gifts.

Eph. 4:8. Therefore it says: ascending on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.

Holy Paul has said that the dispenser of grace to each is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he clarifies and proves this. Whoever knows the course of the work of salvation accomplished by the Lord sees this for himself. For it is an article of the confession of faith to believe that the Son of God descended to earth, was incarnate, suffered, died on the cross, rose again, ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father. But He did not leave those who believe in Him as orphans; rather, as He had promised before His Passion, He sent them the Holy Spirit—the source of all gracious gifts. There was no Spirit until the Lord was glorified. But when He was glorified, having received the glory that He had with the Father before the world was, the Holy Spirit descended upon earth in its wake. The Holy Spirit is the source of the gifts of grace; but since the Lord—the Head—builds up the body of the Church for Himself, it is He who determines the measure of gift for each: to one, one talent; to another, two; to another, five. This divine working for our salvation is self-evident from the structure of the faith. But holy Paul sets it alongside the foreshadowings of the Old Testament and thereby invests it with the force of an eternal predetermination.

The Holy Spirit pointed out to holy Paul a foreshadowing of how the Lord, having ascended into heaven, distributes grace to each according to the measure of His gift—in the march of God, who led the Israelites out of Egypt, led them through the wilderness, then conquered the Promised Land for them and distributed it among the sons of Israel. This march is celebrated in Psalm 67: “Let God arise…”—whose content may be seen in the following words: “They have seen Your processions, O God” (Ps. 67:25). The event of how God distributed the conquered land among the twelve tribes of Israel is depicted in the psalm thus: “You ascended on high, You led captivity captive; You received gifts among men” (Ps. 67:19). These words the Apostle applies to the Lord to show how He, having ascended into heaven, took into His authority all gracious powers and distributes them to the faithful. This application is self-evident; the correspondence between the type and the antitype is obvious and requires no explanation. That the Prophet uses the second person while the Apostle Paul uses the third is because the Prophet was depicting the march of God in the form of a prayer, while holy Paul speaks of it as a past event. His words may be read thus: Scripture says that He, ascending on high, led captivity captive. It says this, that is, in the form of a type. As for the discrepancy between the Psalm’s “You received” and the Apostle’s “He gave”—this is explained by the fact that in the original text there stands a verb that means: to receive, or to take, in order to give. Thus in Ex. 25:2, God says: let them take for Me the firstfruits—that is, let them take and give to Me. In 3 Kgs. 17:10, the prophet Elijah says to the woman: take me some water in a vessel—or, take me some bread—that is, take and give me. In both these instances the same verb stands as in the psalm. “You received”, therefore, means: received and distributed, or took and distributed the gifts among men. Holy Paul, instead of saying: led the captivity captive, took and distributed the gifts, says directly: “led captivity captive and gave gifts.”

This reference to such a type suggests a new thought: that the state of humiliation of Christ the Saviour was only apparently such; in reality it was a triumphant march toward victory with rich spoils. The more humiliating something appears, the more devastating the victorious blow concealed within it. What is more humiliating than death on the cross? Yet it was precisely the cross that was the chief victory. By it, death was trampled down, eternal Justice was satisfied, heaven was reconciled with earth, and the treasury of the mercies of God was opened. From it came the very Resurrection itself—which could not but follow such a death.

What captivity did the Lord lead captive?—When we speak of captivity, we ordinarily mean the captive persons, but that is the primary sense; the spoils are always implied as well. Whom then did the Lord lead captive, and what spoils did He take?—He led captive our enemies—the devil, death, sin, and hell—and took from them all whom they had taken prisoner and held under their tyranny. From the cross the Lord descended into hell and led out from there all the patriarchs, prophets, and righteous ones, and brought them into His Kingdom. After the Lord’s Ascension, they were the first to form the heavenly body of the Church under the Head, the Lord. And over the whole human race these enemies lost their power; so that as soon as anyone believes in the Lord, they immediately withdraw, or are repelled from the one who has believed. But since in this passage the Apostle speaks of the Lord’s distribution of grace and by way of explanation cites the text about the captivity He led captive, it is more directly fitting to understand by this captivity “all the divine powers that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3)—all that was obtained for us by the Lord through the economy of salvation He accomplished: the forgiveness of sins, new life, gracious gifts, adoption, and eternal blessedness. These gifts He gives to all who draw near to Him in faith and who remain ever faithful to the faith.

All that is indicated here under the image of captivity is named by the holy fathers and teachers—one by one, and some by others. Holy Chrysostom says: “Of what captivity does the Apostle speak?—Of the captivity of the devil. For the Lord led captive this tyrant—I mean, the devil, and death, and the curse, and sin.” “And us,” Theophylact adds, “who were under the devil and held by those enemies.” Oecumenius supplements this: “He led us captive—a gracious and saving captivity. Having conquered the Devil in invisible warfare, He took us captive—not in order to enslave us further, but to deliver us from the bitter tyranny of the evil one.” Blessed Jerome writes: “We were taken captive by the devil and distributed among his underlings. The Lord came, freed us from the bonds of our enemies, and to the liberated—whom as Conqueror He wrested from the hands of the enemy—distributed various gifts of grace. This is the captivity He led captive. All of this the Apostle recalls for the following reason: since he had previously said ‘endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,’ he wishes to teach that, in spite of the diverse gifts, the Church is harmoniously in agreement within itself, and that no occasion for divisions and discord is provided by the fact that each has received gifts according to the measure of Christ’s gift, and not all the same gifts.” Ambrosiaster speaks of the leading out of those who were in hell as of a captivity: “He harrowed hell when He led out of it the captives who were held there in bondage on account of Adam’s transgression and their own sins, and having ascended from there, brought them up to heaven. Some of them rose then and appeared to many as a testimony to the victory over death (Matt. 27:52). Captives are usually strangers and are taken captive against their will. But the Saviour took His own captive, and not against their will. He led them captive by kindling in them, through His appearance among them, the desire to be freed.”

Eph. 4:9, 10. Now that He ascended, what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same One who also ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.

In the words cited from the psalm the Apostle indicated that the Lord distributes gracious gifts according to His own will, because He, as the spoils of victory, acquired for us all the divine powers that pertain to life and godliness. Now he explains the same thought more fully, adding that He has authority so to act, for He was everywhere, set His seal everywhere, and fills all things. He did not only ascend into heaven from earth, but first descended to earth and passed into the very lowest regions, lower than which there is nothing, and then ascended higher than all the heavens—so high that there is nowhere higher to ascend. This, then, is who He is!—He who fills all things, holds sovereignty over all things, holds all things in His hands. Therefore He has the authority to distribute grace according to the measure of His gift. Holy Chrysostom says: “From the concept of ascending he leads to the thought of descending. He descended, he says, into the very lowest regions of the earth, beyond which there are no others. And He ascended higher than all, beyond which there is nothing else. This denotes His power and authority (as the God-man). For (as God) He filled all things even before. What he says in another place, ‘Therefore God also has highly exalted Him’ (Phil. 2:9), he also expresses here with the words: ‘He who descended is the same One who also ascended.’”

“Now that He ascended, what does it mean but that He also first descended?” Hearing the word “ascended,” do not stop at it, but bring to mind that He also descended. Strictly speaking, an ascension into heaven can only be attributed to one who has also descended from heaven, as the Lord Himself said: “no one has ascended to heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven” (Jn. 3:13). Photius, quoted by Oecumenius, writes: “Having said ‘ascended,’ he explains how this word ‘ascended’ is to be understood. Not as if He had begun His movement with this ascension, or as if He had begun His existence here below. No! From the beginning He was in the heights of the divine majesty and the Father’s glory; but through the economy of salvation He descended—descending even to hell—and then ascended again to the divine height befitting Him. This is what is meant when ‘He ascended’ is said of Him.”

What do the words “the lower parts of the earth” mean? Some think that by this is simply denoted His descent to us, to earth, below. Earth can indeed be called, in comparison with the highest heaven, the lower region. But the holy fathers do not stop at the surface of the earth but descend into its lowest depths. “He descended,” says holy Damascene, “not only to earth but also beneath the earth.” Blessed Jerome writes: “The lower parts of the earth—hell, into which our Lord and Saviour descended in order to draw out from there the souls of the saints and lead them with Himself to the heavens.” Likewise Photius, quoted by Oecumenius, says that the Apostle points to hell with these words. The same conclusion is required by the words that follow—“that He might fill all things”—and by the earlier passage: “that you might be able to comprehend what is the height and the depth.” The Apostle’s intention is to say that the Lord, even as the God-man, penetrated everywhere and set everywhere the seal of His beneficent influence. By this He drew all things to Himself, united all things in Himself, and restored all things, becoming the source of every good for all that exists.

“He who descended is the same One who also ascended.” He was not exalted as a reward for earthly labour, but received back what He had with the Father before the world was. “It was not another who descended and yet another who ascended; but one and the same—although He descended without flesh and ascended with flesh” (Theodoret). “This passage strikes down Ebion and Photinus. For if He who ascended into heaven is the very same who had previously descended from heaven, how can it be said that our Lord Jesus Christ did not exist before Mary, but came into being after her? It also strikes down those who in their folly invented two sons—the Son of God and the Son of Man. For here it is stated very plainly that the one who ascends and the one who descends are one and the same” (Jerome). This last impious teaching belongs to Nestorius.

“Far above all the heavens.” This is the same as what was said earlier: “far above all principality and power and might” (Eph. 1:21), for it is not the place that matters, but what is in the place. And such a high priest was fitting for us—one who… was made higher than the heavens (Heb. 7:26) and surpassed all in perfections, authority, power, and the richness of His gifts. He descended lower than all and ascended higher than all—not merely to visit every place, but to leave everywhere the traces of His action upon those who dwell there and are capable of receiving it. This action reached those in hell and those who fill the heavens. Blessed Jerome writes: “We cannot know how the blood of Jesus Christ was beneficial for the Angels and for those who were in hell, but we cannot fail to know that it was beneficial for both. He descended to hell and ascended to the heavens, that He might fill those who were in those regions in the measure in which they were capable of receiving Him. From this it must be concluded that before the descent and ascension of Christ, all things were empty and stood in need of being filled by Him.”

“That He might fill all things.” In addition to what the Apostle says—that He descended lower than all and ascended higher than all—Ambrosiaster applies to the Lord the following further words of the prophet David: “His going out is from the end of the heaven, and His circuit to the ends of it” (Ps. 18:7). Let us add on our own: “and there is nothing hidden from His heat.” Sitting on the throne of glory at the right hand of the Father, He is seen by all as Lord of the whole world and Judge of the universe, and He fills all things with authority, might, glory, majesty, universal sovereignty, universal governance, and the abundance of gracious gifts, signs, and wonders. All things in the spiritual world are built up by Him, both in heaven and on earth; all things in the physical world are ordered by Him; all things are directed toward one end—that all may at last appear in the renewed form He has given them. Now all of this is accomplished in a hidden and invisible manner. But there will be a time when everything will come to pass openly and visibly. This hidden all-working is the filling by Him of all things. By faith we see this; it cannot be touched.

The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

In the community of Christians, every person has his own natural abilities and receives his own distinctive gift of grace. Although these gifts spring from one and the same source and need not work in opposition, they may not operate in harmony with one another and may therefore fail to advance the common goal of all. Hence arise disorder, disarray, and confusion—even when people strive to act as they ought. There is need, therefore, of directors of the common activity, of governors and guides—for all and for each. If we add to this that, even though the Christian community is a community of grace, freedom and personal initiative are not removed from anyone, and one may therefore expect that anyone might sometimes act wrongly and stray entirely from the right path—then this necessity becomes even more evident: the strong must bear the infirmities of the weak. Moreover, not all the world is yet Christian, nor were they in the beginning of Christianity, nor are they to this day. And the words of the Lord, “and them also” “I” “must bring” (Jn. 10:16), are not false. There must therefore be among Christians these bringers of non-Christians to the Lord. For just as in the beginning He was pleased to bring them not in person but through the Apostles, so He acts always.

For these reasons the Lord, the head of the Church, was pleased to establish in the Church a special order of persons, laying upon them the care for the advancement of existing Christians and for the conversion of non-Christians, and equipping them with the appropriate gifts of grace. In each of his epistles the holy Paul calls them to mind—so essential are they to the community of Christians that one cannot address that community without turning to them. In the present epistle the holy Paul gives a fuller portrayal of their significance in the Church: a) by enumerating their kinds, b) by setting out the duties that rest upon them, and c) by indicating the goals toward which they must direct their labours.

Eph. 4:11. And He Himself gave some to be Apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

What is said here about the Lord’s giving is not the same as what is meant in v. 7. There the subject is what is given to each Christian in the sacrament of chrismation, whereas here the subject is the special gifts of grace given to particular persons appointed as guides of the community. In other passages the Apostle indicates that these gifts are communicated through ordination (1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6; Heb. 6:2). Here he states only that persons of this kind in the Church derive not from the Christian community itself but from the Lord Himself. “He Himself gave” all those who were then in this order; He has continued and continues even now to give such persons to the Church, through the grace transmitted in succession from one to another, and sometimes with the aid of immediate, extraordinary indications. In this word “gave” we must see both the divine institution of leadership in the Church and the divine appointment of its leaders. The holy Paul speaks of them in this way throughout, though he sometimes attributes their appointment and election to God the Holy Spirit, as in his final address to the same Ephesians: “in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers (bishops)” (Acts 20:28); sometimes to God the Father, as in the epistle to the Corinthians: “God has appointed in the church first Apostles” and so on (1 Cor. 12:28); and here to God the Son. For the actions of the most holy Trinity are inseparable (holy Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact).

In first place the Apostle sets the Apostles: for they possessed all things (holy Chrysostom). These are properly the Twelve, together with the holy Paul himself—eyewitnesses of the Lord, witnesses of His resurrection, sent by Him directly, and filled to overflowing with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They were prophets, they were evangelists, they were pastors, they possessed gifts of healing and all knowledge—everything was combined in them and through them deposited into the Church. Upon them the Holy Spirit descended in the fullness of His being, and through them went forth into the Church and fills it. They are the channels of grace that has poured out upon the whole world. The order of Apostleship in the power it had in the first Apostles is not to be repeated. Nor does this appear necessary, for the Apostles placed everything into the Church. They handed down to her all the truth that the Spirit of God revealed to them; they handed down to her the sacraments for the sanctification of the faithful, and within her they established the pastorate—the direct succession of the Apostleship—whose duty is to preserve what the Apostles placed in the Church, to keep it active over all and throughout the entire Christian community. The Church lives by apostolic treasures and by the grace that poured from them and flows ceaselessly from generation to generation. Where this stream is cut off, there is no true life in Christ the Lord.

In second place the Apostle sets the prophets—not those of the Old Testament, but those who appeared in the new grace: persons with a special gift of foreseeing the future. “At that time there were those who were granted the gift of prophetic grace. The history of Acts mentions the prophet Agabus (Acts 11:27, 28, 21:10) and others who prophesied in Antioch, among whom was the most blessed Apostle Paul himself (Acts 13:1)” (Theodoret). On the basis of certain references to them one may infer that together with foreknowledge of the future they were given the ability to perceive the secrets of the human heart and what is hidden in Scripture, and sometimes to speak an instructive word by a special impulse of the Spirit of God—a word most needful for the Christians present. Their existence in the Church has not ceased and does not cease; but the manifestation of their gift is not always public or evident to all. The gift itself is not bound to any position in the Church or society, and it not infrequently belongs to persons on whom, by the ordinary standard, no one would deign to look. Judging by the fact that only the pure in heart behold God, and that prophetic perception is possible only in God and through God, one must conclude that this gift takes up its dwelling in souls that have striven above all for purity of body and soul and have made progress therein.

In third place the holy Paul sets the evangelists. “These are those who did not travel through all countries, but only preached, like Priscilla and Aquila” (holy Chrysostom). That is, they proclaimed the Gospel as and where occasion arose, without having proclamation as their exclusive occupation. But this does not apply to all those known by the name of evangelists. Philip, one of the seven deacons, is called an evangelist (Acts 21:8); and he, having left Caesarea, subsequently travelled with his daughters through Asia Minor and proclaimed the Gospel, though under the guidance of the holy John the Theologian. And alongside other Apostles there were persons who laboured in preaching at their direction. All of them may be numbered among the evangelists. In the work of preaching they were second after the Apostles; only the Apostles were the originators, while those depended upon them and were sent by them wherever need required. The holy Chrysostom adds: “Perhaps by evangelists he also means those who wrote the Gospel.” The holy Damascene writes: “One person in the Church performs the proclamation of good news by word, another by writing—as, for instance, Philip proclaimed by word and those who wrote the Gospels by writings.” And there is no basis whatsoever for supposing that the holy Paul did not have them in mind as well, since by that time the first three Gospels were already circulating among Christians—and among the apostolic companions, the evangelists, were the holy Evangelists Mark and Luke. In these two modes of proclamation, evangelistic ministry has always remained in the Church. Some were sent by the pastors, successors of the Apostles, to preach in lands that do not know God and His Christ; while others, with their blessing and guidance, wrote, setting forth the truths of God. To the former belong all those equal to the Apostles—such as Cyril and Methodius for the Slavic peoples—and to the latter belong all ecclesiastical writers. In our time and in our land the evangelists are our missionaries, who would more fittingly be called evangelists. May God’s blessing rest upon their heads and accompany all their labours!

In fourth place the holy Paul sets pastors and teachers, “to whom the entire people was entrusted” (holy Chrysostom) and “who were appointed by the Apostles in cities and villages” (Theodoret). These are bishops and priests—last in the Apostle’s list but first in the labours of building the Church, then and afterward and now. Bishops as successors of the Apostles, and priests as their close assistants. To the bishop souls are entrusted; but since he cannot be everywhere himself, he shares his labour with others capable of bearing it. Priests are the eyes, feet, and hands of the bishop. The bishop together with his priests is one undivided pastorate. It sometimes happened that the Apostles, having sown the faith in some place, would leave it and move on, committing the believers to pastors whom they had chosen and ordained, who then, by God’s grace, caused the seed planted by the Apostles to grow into a great tree—building up the existing believers and gaining new ones, in the same locality or even in the surrounding regions. We see the pattern of this in the labours of the holy Paul. In Acts it is recounted that, after having preached the Gospel in succession in Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, the Apostle once again passed through all those places—“strengthening” “the souls” “of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and when they had ordained elders for them in every church, and had prayed with fasting,” they commended“them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (Acts 14:22, 23). And on another occasion the Apostle visited there—but only to oversee whether everything was proceeding as it should. The churches, however, grew by God’s grace from what had been placed in them at the beginning under the guidance of the God-given pastorate. What took place in those localities was repeated in all others, throughout the entire world. The Apostles then passed on. In the churches everywhere there remained the successors they had appointed—the pastors; and it was these who remained as the chief guides and executors of the work of Christ, yet not as originators but as those acting according to the principles laid down by the Apostles. The apostolic authority and power remained in the Church, yet it belongs not to particular individuals but to the entire body of bishops, which, acting in council, is the legislator and ruler of the Church. Thus the pastorate became the chief office in the Church, after the beginning, in her subsequent life. And it is to the pastorate above all that what the Apostle says next about the duties and goals of those who lead in the Church is primarily addressed.

Blessed Jerome lingers longer than others on the subject of pastors, stating first that pastors and teachers are one and the same; then offering lessons to pastors, which it is fitting for us to hear from the lips of a man of such strict life. “One must not think that just as in the preceding words—some Apostles, some Prophets, some evangelists—the Apostle designated different persons, so also in the words ‘some pastors and teachers’ he designated different persons. For he did not say ‘some pastors, some teachers,’ but ‘some pastors and teachers,’ giving us to understand that these are one and the same persons, and teaching that whoever is a pastor must also be a teacher, and that in the churches no one who is unable to teach those in his care must take upon himself the pastorate. Every head of a church must be both pastor and teacher—pastor of sheep, teacher of human beings. I believe that today in the churches, just as there are prophet and evangelist, pastor and teacher, so there may also be an Apostle with all the marks of Apostleship. And conversely, just as outside, so also within—just as in the Church, so also in heretical assemblies—there are many false apostles and false prophets, false evangelists, false pastors and false teachers. As for the heretics, there is no doubt whatsoever that since their faith is false, everything in them is false. But do you not see even in the Church false pastors who feed the sheep not as pastors but as hirelings, caring neither for the salvation of the flock nor for the conversion of the straying or the recovery of the lost, but only for gathering from the sheep milk and wool—that is, food and clothing?”

Eph. 4:12. For the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.

Such are the God-appointed occupations and tasks of the heads of the churches!

The first and chief obligation is the equipping of the saints. The faithful are called saints (Oecumenius). Their equipping is expressed by the word καταρτισμος, which means bringing a thing into its proper order and arrangement, placing it in such a state that it becomes what it ought to be according to its significance and purpose. Applying this meaning to the faithful, we must understand their equipping as bringing them into order and keeping them there, so that each person is in his proper place and performs his proper work as he ought. This is the outward dimension. The inward dimension is the ordering of their minds and hearts, their thoughts, feelings, dispositions, and entire life—in the manner that Christianity requires, or as befits those whose characteristic mark is life in Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Keeping Christians in outward order is governance; the right ordering of their inner life is soul-edification, or the care for their salvation. If someone is zealous, direct him to what is best; if someone has grown slack, rouse his zeal; if someone has gone astray, restore him to the right path; if someone is crushed by grief, console and encourage him; if someone has taken up what is not fitting for him, instruct him; if there has been a quarrel, reconcile; if an offence has occurred, adjudicate rightly; if poverty oppresses, arrange relief; if something is not understood, explain it; if passions overwhelm someone, show him how to overcome them. Thus at all times—now by word, now by deed, now with severity, now with gentleness, now alone, now together—keeping one thing in view: that all may be “perfect and entire, lacking nothing” (Jas. 1:4).

Everything pertaining to this includes: in a time of general peace, bringing all to a more perfect knowledge of the faith and to a holy life in accordance with the faith, so that each of those whom they guide and build up may be “complete,” as“a man of God, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (εξηρτισμενος— 2 Tim. 3:17). To achieve this: “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2).

The second duty of the representatives of the Church is “the work of ministry.” The holy Paul calls his own apostolic labours a ministry (Rom. 11:13; 2 Cor. 4:1, 6:3). When he came to any place, he converted persons and communities, consecrated them through the sacraments, established the ordering of common or ecclesial assemblies, explained everything pertaining to the life of Christians, ordained heads for the administration of all the orders and for leading Christians toward further advancement—and then departed to another place. The continuation of the apostolic ministry for each local Church remained entirely with the heads. Part of this ministry they fulfilled by leading the saints toward perfection, as was said already. What remains is: the sanctification through the sacraments, the conduct of the ecclesial assemblies so that everything there proceeds decently and in order, the kindling in all of the spirit of prayer, the keeping of everyone in noetic and heartfelt communion with God. And this is what the Apostle calls in the present passage the work of ministry. It encompasses everything that is performed in the Church—all the ecclesial rites: those of prayer, of sanctification, and of completion (the sacraments). This is the heart of pastoral labours. The word, by which one chiefly acts in fulfilling the first-named duty, does act, to be sure; but if it is not secured in the heart by the power of God, its action will evaporate and the soul will again be empty. What is sown by the word is united with the soul by the grace of the sacraments, and further developed by the prayerful rites of the Church. The spark cast by the word is implanted by the grace of the sacrament (it takes hold, as one commonly says of fire), and is fanned into a flame by prayer. Grace builds up. Consequently, the work of ministry in the sense described must occupy the greatest share of pastoral cares and solicitudes—as indeed it does in the Orthodox Church. Conduct this part worthily of God, O pastor, and you will see the wondrous fruits of your pastorate: the invisible, mysterious tending of your flock.

The last duty of the pastors he called “the building up of the body of Christ.” The body of Christ is the Church—universal and one. The Apostles built and have built it. How? By converting persons and communities and adding them to the common wholeness of believers; and the Church grew as a building grows when course upon course of new stones is laid upon it. The Apostle uses here the word οικοδομη— not the inner arrangement of a house (economy) but the building of it, the structure. In relation to the Church, this means the addition of new believers, the spread of the faith, the expansion of the boundaries of the Church. How the Apostles did this is evident; but how can and must the heads of each particular Church fulfil this? The good order of their small church they accomplish by leading the saints to perfection and rightly performing the work of ministry; yet this is not the building up of the whole body of the Church but of its smallest member. The Apostle, however, lays upon them the duty of building up the whole body of the Church alongside the building up of their own small part of it. This they could not and cannot fulfil otherwise than by gaining new believers. And how is this done? By sanctifying the children being born in the midst of the Christians; by converting to the faith the non-believers living in the same locality—in the same settlement or roundabout; by undertaking, when possible, further missionary circuits, or by preparing from among their own Christians those capable of this work and sending them wherever they are needed. From history it is evident that the heads of the churches endeavoured to fulfil not only the first two duties but this last one as well. It was also fulfilled in our Russian Church. A more decisive move toward its fulfilment has been made in recent times through the establishment of a society for this purpose—with central and diocesan branches.

Our holy fathers and ecclesial commentators, in expounding the content of this verse, speak in general of the ministry for the salvation of souls. The holy Chrysostom sees three works in each of those who have received a special ministry and special gifts in the Church: “Do you see—each one builds up, each one orders, each one serves.” The holy Damascene writes: “These gifts are given so that those consecrated in the faith may be directed toward perfection, through the ministry of those in the community who have received these gifts.” In Oecumenius it is stated that special persons with special gifts are established in the Church “for the equipping—that is, the final completion of the saints, or what is the same, the faithful—so as to serve in the Church and build it up.”

Eph. 4:13. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Just as a person assigned to some task or who has taken it upon himself, in order to sustain his zeal for the work and bring it to completion rather than stopping halfway, must keep in view the goal to which he must bring the work—a kind of measure and standard of his task—so the holy Paul sets before the pastors the goal, the limit, the measure to which they must strive to bring their pastoral work. And just as he previously laid three duties upon them, so now he points to three limits, three measures and goals for the fulfilment of those duties.

He speaks as if to say: the duty rests upon you to build up the body of the Church by adding new believers to her—go on adding more and more, until not one unbeliever remains; until we all, as human beings, attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. “Unity” — ενοτης— oneness—until we attain to the point where all share one faith and an equal knowledge of the Son of God: one faith, so that no non-Christians remain; one knowledge of the Son of God, so that even among Christians there may be no diversity of opinion, but all understand equally what the Son of God is and what is the work of salvation accomplished by Him on earth, and how each person can and must appropriate it to himself. The holy Chrysostom says: “Until we all prove to have one faith, for that is what the oneness of faith means—when we shall all be one, when we shall all understand this union in the same way. And until then must you labour, if you have received the gift of building up (οικοδομης) others. When we believe the same—that is the unity of faith.”

Further: the duty rests upon you to perfect the saints; and labour tirelessly at this without ceasing, until you have made every one of them a perfect man. Every believer at the beginning, like a child, is imperfect in knowledge and unsteady in the rules of life. Establish him firmly in both respects; bring it about that all his active powers are in full development, so that every person, whatever task he meets, may be able and strong enough to perform it as he ought, to perfection. By the words “a perfect man” we must understand perfection, or the ultimate limit of the active life. This is defined as follows: in the mind, the ripening of sound understanding in all things—in the sphere of faith and beyond it, under its guidance; in the will, the establishment of good principles and the rooting of true Christian dispositions in the heart—humility, love, meekness, temperance, peaceableness, self-denial, and every other virtue; in the heart, the cultivation above all of a taste and sympathy for everything spiritual and truly Christian, bringing it to the point where it finds pleasure in nothing other than in the circle of things belonging to salvation and life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Beyond this, active perfection cannot go; yet it is not itself the ultimate limit.

Finally: upon you rests the work of ministry—to raise all through prayerful, sanctifying, and sacramental sacred rites into spiritual communion with God, so that God may be in all and all in God; and continue to perform this work of ministry worthily of God, until, having renounced everything and been fully purified by an active preparatory life, all may enter into the state of perfect repose in God and, having made of themselves a dwelling worthy of God, possess Him dwelling within them. This is the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Of Christ Jesus the Apostle says that in Him the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. And of Christians the Lord Himself says: whoever loves Me and keeps My commandments, him My Father will love, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him (Jn. 14:23). Such is the measure of stature that corresponds to the fullness of Christ. Active life in love according to the commandments prepares one for this. The communion with God itself is accomplished in the sacraments, through prayerful repose in God. The spirit of prayer is cultivated by the ecclesial rites; and it is in those same rites that the sacraments are performed. It is evident, then, how the performance of the work of ministry raises one to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And this is the summit of perfection to which Christianity raises one. Nothing higher can even be imagined. For if God is in someone, what more can that person desire? And this is what every Christian must keep as his goal, striving toward its attainment with all his might, sparing himself nothing. If the promise of the Lord is not false—if it has already been vindicated an untold number of times in Christians—is it not reasonable to press forward in accordance with it?

Growing Up Into Christ the Head (Ephesians 4:14–16)

The Apostle has just said: here are your guides, here are their works and goals! They must raise you to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. But they are merely pointers; without your own labour they can do nothing for you. So that they may be able to raise you to such a stature, be zealous yourselves to grow up in all things into Christ (Eph. 4:15). This is the chief lesson of these three verses (Eph. 4:14–16). To kindle zeal for this more powerfully, the Apostle first sketches briefly yet fully the bitter state of souls outside the true faith—v. 14. And afterward, in v. 16, he points to the decisive moral necessity of precisely this kind of activity. You have entered into a community where everything comes from Christ. One thing alone remains: either to be in this community and grow up in all things into Christ, or, by not acting thus, to cease to be in this community (Eph. 4:16). The holy Apostle speaks in the name of all people, or of the entire human race, and therefore places himself in the ranks of those being taught and instructed—as is customary in sermons when one says “we.”

Eph. 4:14. That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, in the cunning craftiness of men, in their deceitful scheming.

God has established in the Church persons of order and guidance. For some of them the first task—though not the last for all—is to turn unbelievers to the faith and thereby raise higher and higher and build wider and wider the edifice of the house of God, the Church. This labour must not cease among them until all of us, as human beings, come to believe equally in the Lord Jesus and to know Him—until the entire human race is of one faith. This great act of God’s beneficence toward us, wrought through their mediation, is arranged so that we may no longer be children, no longer be in falsehood, no longer be in cunning scheming. Enough of wandering, of vain agitation, of being the plaything of the enemy’s craftiness. God has taken pity on us, has turned His merciful eye upon us, and delivers us from this disordered life. Let each one confess this mercy; receive the beneficence; and, seeing from what evil you have been delivered, cleave more firmly to the One who delivered you.

Let us recognise in these words a depiction of the state of those outside the faith of Christ, outside communion with the Lord—following blessed Jerome, who, comparing them with the words of the preceding verse, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith,” infers that outside this faith there is nothing but childish inconstancy and storm-tossed agitation. “The question is asked: whom does the Apostle mean by ‘all’ when he says ‘until we all attain to the unity of the faith’: does he mean all people, or only all the saints (that is, the believers)?—It seems to me that he speaks of all people, because among them there are many winds of doctrine, the waves raised by whose breath cast people here and there, drawing them into various errors and into heaven-knows-what directions of life. Therefore, with every care one must take pains to attain the unity of faith and through it the knowledge of the Son of God. When we obtain firm possession of these, we shall cease to be children.”

The Apostle says: “no longer.” Consequently, they were so before. “By this expression he indicates that they had once been such” (holy Chrysostom). And where were the Ephesians before faith?—In paganism. Paganism was precisely this. Today the same applies to all unbelievers. Outside the true faith there are no definite conceptions of anything—everything is shaky, everything is shaken by doubts. When someone believes, his conceptions become settled. The divine authority of revelation sets its seal upon them. But until then the unbeliever rocks like a light skiff on sea-waves, and is carried here and there like light down on the wind. “Carried about” — περιφερομενοι— being borne this way and that. Every wind of doctrine is outside the Church. There is no unity there: one says one thing, another says another, and the unbeliever does not know what to cling to. Everywhere semblances of truth present themselves to him; he attaches himself now to one teaching, now to another. Since none of them contains the truth, none of them gives him rest. The holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle used this comparison (of being tossed by every wind) wishing to show what danger every soul committed to doubt is in.” By the winds of doctrines one cannot understand the disagreements within the Church, for these did not yet exist; rather one should understand the pagan opinions that circulated in Ephesus under the banner of all kinds of schools. But in our time this can be applied to all who are outside the true faith and the Church, including heterodox Christians.

“In the cunning craftiness of men” — Εν τη κυβεια των ανθρωπων. “Κυβεια derives from a verb meaning to play at dice” (Theodoret). Κυβευται is the name given to those who play chess. “These are crafty people. They keep moving and shifting everything” (holy Chrysostom). So to be in the cunning craftiness εν τη κυβεια will mean either to be a plaything of human craftiness, or to be oneself engaged in such play—that is, to be carried away by empty vanity, to give oneself over to chance, to act on a whim, having no fixed rules of life, but drifting along according to established human customs. Judging by the fact that being tossed childishly by winds of doctrine means also accepting these doctrines, one must recognise that being “in the cunning craftiness of men” — εν τη κυβεια των ανθρωπων — means for the Apostle also to be oneself acting according to the character of action common to all people, which may rightly be called a game. All chase after fortune by chance; they bustle about in their pursuits, chase illusory goals, live in inconstancy, without definite and reliable hopes. Such is life without Christ; even among Christians who have no Christianity in their hearts, it is such. It is from this kind of life, says the Apostle, that faith delivers us—faith that the Lord has ordained, instituted persons of grace to preach, to convert to, and to hold in it, so that we may no longer be as we were. The holy Chrysostom also says at this expression: “The Apostle has here touched on worldly customs.” If “that we should no longer be children” corresponds to what was said before—“until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God”—then “that we should no longer be in the cunning craftiness of men” — εν κυβεια…—must be recognised as corresponding to the words “to a perfect man.” The activity of a perfect man—by firm principles, by reliable plans with considered aims—is precisely the opposite of the vanity and emptiness of worldly life.

“In deceitful scheming,” ´Εν πανουργια προς την μεθοδειαν της πλανης. Πανουργια— all-villainy, all-encompassing, unceasing craftiness that stops at no means. Its aims — προς μεθοδειαν (Μεθοδεια — circuitous stratagems, wiles, snares; Πλανη — deceit, seduction)—are to draw someone into vice, or error, or a life-mistake. Πανουργια— all-villainy employs every stratagem, cunning, and trap in order to deceive, to confuse, to seduce and draw on toward evil. The Apostle says that, so that we may no longer be in such a state or under such wiles, the Lord established the wondrous faith and calls to it through His chosen ones. But here two thoughts are possible. Either the Apostle here has in view that part of the unbelievers who live according to the spirit of the world and have reached the extreme degree of moral depravity—not merely remaining in evil themselves, but having become the directors of evil in their circle, the ringleaders of others on this path. This is the ultimate degree of sin, when a person becomes satanic and begins to work for Satan in the midst of people. So that we ourselves may not act in such a spirit, or be entangled in the snares of others who so act, God gave us the holy Christian faith and called us into it. Or perhaps what is meant here is Satan himself—the source of all villainy, all wiles, and all seductions. The Apostle has gathered here such terms as suggest the thought of Satan, under whose authority and influence all those who are outside Christ the Lord are subject. In that case the Apostle’s meaning will be: the Lord established the holy Christian faith, calls to it and holds people in it through certain persons—for the very purpose of delivering us from the dark power of the primordial all-villain, the devil, who with his all-encompassing villainy ensnares all and holds all in his delusion, under appearances. Thus blessed Theodoret understood it: “By ‘deceitful scheming’ he named the cunning means. For the devil does not openly command adultery, but either ensnares through the eyes, or takes captive through the hearing; he does not openly urge apostasy from God, but makes people resort to augury by birds, to omens, to the use of protective amulets.” Agreeing with this, and at the same time with the fact that the first two thoughts of this verse correspond to the first two thoughts of the preceding verse, we are naturally led to infer that this too—that we should no longer be “in deceitful scheming”—corresponds to “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Just as outside Christ, under the action of Satan, those given over to sin become satanic—so in the faith of Christ, faithful to Christ’s guidance, they become Christlike, are filled with Christ, and have Him dwelling within them.

Such, the Apostle says as it were, are the evils from which we have been delivered; and although he speaks of this as a consequence of the God-established guides in the Church attaining the goals for which they were appointed—yet in such a way as to convey: you have been delivered! See, then, that you do not return to the old ways; but, confessing the beneficence and sensing its fruits within yourselves, cleave with all your hearts to the One by whom you were delivered. What exactly must be done?

Eph. 4:15. But, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.

“Speaking the truth in love” may be taken as expressing one thought: having true, sincere, genuine love. So Theodoret: “This the Apostle said also in the epistle to the Romans: ‘Love without hypocrisy’ (Rom. 12:9), and in the epistle to the Corinthians: ‘in sincere love’ (2 Cor. 6:6). So here he commands us to have true love and by it to increase the treasure of virtue in the Master Himself. For it is said: every branch in Me that bears no fruit is taken away and cast into the fire (Jn. 15:2).”—But one may also separate the two, understanding by “speaking the truth”—holding to the truth, and by “in love”—abiding, or living, in love.—Such a separation is glimpsed in Oecumenius and Theophylact, who, contrasting non-Christian life with Christian life, say that in the former there is nothing true—everything is semblance and falsehood—whereas among us there is truth and love alone. “We speak truth in dogmas, in life, and in word” (Oecumenius). “We no longer hold to false dogmas, we no longer live in hypocrisy (for here he seems to be giving them lessons for life)” (Theophylact). Accepting this distinction, we obtain: “speaking the truth”—standing in the truth, as those who have received faith and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and are no longer tossed about by every wind of doctrine; “in love”—together with truth, also abiding in works of love, by which one comes to the stature of a man and gives evidence of the maturity of a character established in its principles—in contrast to non-Christians living in vanity, empty fussiness, and mutual craftiness.

To speak truth and to abide in love might seem sufficient, but the Apostle adds: speaking the truth in love, let us grow up in all things into Christ—that is, let us order everything within ourselves: our own person, all our powers and functions, according to the spirit of Christ and grow into His measure; whereas, in contrast, non-Christians act according to the spirit of Satan and grow themselves into his measure—the measure of the all-wicked trickster. Oecumenius expresses the growth of all things into Christ thus: “all that is ours: both life, and word, and dogmas—let us build up in Christ (superstructed upon Christ).” Theophylact: “Let us grow into Christ all that is ours—both life and dogmas. For with Him, as our head, we must harmonise everything of ours, so as to introduce nothing discordant or inharmonious with the head, but to have everything grown in conformity with Him.” The holy Damascene: “Let all of us attain such a height as to be harmonised (harmonically joined) with Christ, our head.”

Holding to truth and advancing in works of love is only preparation of a dwelling for Christ the Lord. One must seek that He take up His abode and dwell in this house. This will come about when everything within us is in accord with Christ, when nothing alien to Him remains. To this end we clothe ourselves in Christ from the very beginning, and then act in Christ—receiving impulses from Him, turning everything to His glory, and acting after His example. Acting in this spirit gradually brings one into accord with Christ and makes Him dwell ever more deeply within us. When, by the labour of ascetic struggle and good works, everything alien to Christ is driven out—and, on the contrary, everything is ordered according to Him, since He Himself is the all-effecting agent here—then, together with the fact that everything proves to have grown up into Christ, He will prove to fill us entirely and to dwell within us. But for this to be so, for the end to be crowned with such success, everything must from the very beginning be directed toward Christ, lest labour be in vain. For the Lord says: “he who does not gather with Me scatters” (Lk. 11:23). Many people can be met who speak fittingly and are blameless in life, yet are empty of Christ—because they do not grow up in all things into Him and live without having Him even in their thoughts. It is from precisely this danger that the Apostle wishes to deliver us, saying as it were: everything among you must accord with Christ’s purpose, by His power, for His glory. Only in that case will you attain the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Eph. 4:16. From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, according to the working of each individual part in its measure, produces the body’s growth for the building up of itself in love.

He wishes to say: it cannot be otherwise; one must necessarily grow up all things in oneself into Christ—for such is our faith. The Christian faith unites the faithful with Christ, and in this way constitutes from all a single, well-ordered body. Christ makes this body, imparting Himself to each and bestowing upon him the Spirit of grace efficaciously and perceptibly, so that this Spirit of grace, descending upon each, makes him what he ought to be in the body of Christ’s Church. The body of Christ, being fittingly joined together by this bestowal of the Spirit, then grows within itself, in proportion to the degree that each member answers to his calling or acts for the good of the Church with the full measure of the gift of grace he has received: “according to the working of each individual part in its measure.” The body of Christ thus grows and builds itself up through the purposeful mutual action of all members or parts. The force that everywhere draws all toward labours of this kind is love—love for the Lord, with whom each is united and from whom each receives the gift of grace, and love for all other Christians, so as to return to the Lord through them what has been received from Him. In this lies the circulation of the life of the body of Christ, in which everything proceeds from Him and everything returns to Him. This last point is what the Apostle wished to say—namely, that it is necessary to grow up all things into Christ, for the Christian faith is such that in it all believers constitute a single body under Christ as head, and, receiving everything from Him, must return everything to Him through loving mutual action upon one another, according to the measure of the powers received from Christ the Lord.

It would have been simpler to say: from whom the body produces its growth; but the Apostle said “the body… produces the body’s growth,” because many intermediate thoughts had been inserted and it was possible to lose track of who produces this growth. The first added words—“joined and knit together fittingly”—point to the characteristic feature of an organism, in which several organs, each in its place with its particular function, are harmonically combined into one and accomplish what makes the body live. In this way the Lord fittingly joins together His body—the Church. What is distinctive here in comparison with material organisms is that in these the life-force builds up and causes growth of everything, including the head itself; whereas in the Church the Lord is the head, and does not produce another head, but arranges the entire body Himself for Himself, member by member, joining it with Himself and growing the body from Himself for Himself.

The words “by every joint with which it is supplied” show how the Lord makes His body. The “supply” is the gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit—the grace of regeneration in baptism, where the Christian receives his Christian being, and the grace as a Gift for the service of the Church, by virtue of which each person in the Church is, as it were, a hand, a foot, and so on. The “joint of this supply” signifies that grace is truly received perceptibly and penetrates the one being graced tangibly; while at the same time it joins member to member, who, touching one another, feel and sense one another mutually. Thus the body of the Church is built. It is evident that these words supplement the preceding: “joined and knit together fittingly.” And the words “according to the working of each individual part in its measure” relate to “produces the body’s growth,” and show how the body of Christ, constituted by every joint of supply, continues to grow and to be built up. This the Church accomplishes “according to the working of each individual part in its measure,” when each member acts as grace has made him capable of acting—according to the measure of his gift, according to his own measure. Each, having been received into the Church, received a gift and became what he now is in the Church. But the Church will receive increase from him when he acts by his gift for her good—when he does not contain and lock it within himself but devotes it to all. Thus the material body grows—in which not a single member lives for itself—and thus the spiritual body of the Church grows. But whereas in the material body everything happens mechanically, by the law of necessity, in the spiritual body of the Church everything must happen by free choice. The Apostle qualifies this with the word “in love.” Love, poured out in the hearts of believers by the same Spirit of grace, ensures that not one member of the body of the Church can hold the gift to himself alone, but transmits its efficacy to all brothers in Christ—to the whole Church. And thereby she grows and is built up.

This text is somewhat difficult to understand. For its fuller clarification, the patristic interpretations of it are cited below.

The holy Chrysostom, approaching the interpretation of this text, says that the holy Paul in it “expressed his thoughts rather obscurely—because he wished to say everything at once.” He then adds: “Here is what his words mean: just as the spirit, descending from the brain, does not simply impart sensitivity to all members through the nerves, but does so according to each of them—imparting more to the one that can receive more, and less to the one that can receive less (for the spirit is the root of life)—so also Christ. Since our souls are dependent on Him just as the members are on the spirit, His providence and distribution of gifts, according to the measure of each member, produces the growth of each.—But what is meant by ‘the joint of supply?’ That is, by means of sensation (αισθησεως). For this spirit, distributed to all members from the head, touching each of them, thus produces its effect on them. One may also say: the body, receiving this influence of the spirit in proportion to its members, thus grows. Or otherwise: the members, each receiving its share of the spirit, thus grow. Or yet again: the spirit, flowing abundantly from the head and touching all the members and distributing itself among them as much as each of them can receive within itself, thus causes growth.—But why did he add the word ‘in love?’—Because this spirit cannot be communicated otherwise. Indeed, if it happened that the hand were severed from the body, the spirit flowing from the brain, seeking its continuation and not finding it there, would not tear itself from the body and transfer to the severed hand; but if it does not find it there, it does not communicate with it either. The same happens here, if we are not bound to one another by love… Love reconstructs, unites, brings close, and joins us to one another. Therefore, if we wish to receive the Spirit from the head, let us be in union with one another. There are two kinds of severance from the Church: one, when we grow cold in love, and another, when we venture to do something unworthy in relation to this body (the Church).”

Blessed Theophylact, repeating the thoughts of the holy Chrysostom, adds something new as well. Thus, on the word about love: “It is for this very reason that the Apostle said of the body ‘joined and knit together,’ to show that the members are not simply placed beside one another, but are united with one another and each occupies its place. Therefore, it is our task to harmonise ourselves and to be joined through love, whereas to send down the Spirit is the grace of Christ, our head. And the words ‘by every’ ‘joint of supply’ show that the Spirit, given from the head, touches all perceptibly. The body grows and is built up through the fact that the bestowal of the Spirit touches the members, and He acts in them, or provides them with the power to act.” Theodoret said these words on this passage: “The Master Christ, as head, distributes spiritual gifts and through this joins the members of the body into a single, well-ordered body.” The words of the holy Damascene may be considered a continuation of this speech: “Christ, ruling over us as head, imparts Himself to us and thereby joins us with Himself and with one another; as a result of which we have mutual harmony, although each receives the bestowal of the Spirit in such measure as he can hold.”

Such is the general ordering of the life of Christians. Keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace under the guidance of God-established persons, grow up in all things into Christ. As for the first and last points, no Christian community disputes them. But in the second some err greatly. It is remarkable that the holy Chrysostom spoke of the joining of the body of the Church as though he had them in view. “The words ‘the whole body joined and knit together fittingly’ mean that everything in it must occupy its place without intruding into another place that is not proper to it. Reflect on this. The Lord from above orders all things. But just as in the body there are receptive organs, so it is with the Spirit, who is entirely the heavenly root of life. Specifically, in the body the heart is the root of the vital spirit, the liver of blood, the spleen of bile, and other organs of other elements; but all of them are dependent on the brain. In accordance with this, God has also acted, honouring man with special honour: not wishing to abandon him, He Himself became for him the cause of everything (salvation), while establishing co-workers for Himself and entrusting to some of them one thing, and to others another.”

Having spoken further about persons of leadership in the Church, he turns to those who err in their judgment about the indispensable necessity of such persons. “Tell me: do you consider it sufficient that they also believe, when among them the grace of ordination has dried up and perished? What use is everything else, if this last thing has not been preserved among them?—One must stand equally firm for the faith and for the grace of the priesthood. For if every person is permitted, by the old proverb, to fill his own hands, if every person is permitted to be a priest, then let all come forward—and in vain has this altar been constructed, in vain has the ecclesial order been established, in vain is the rank of priests: let us overturn and abolish all of this.”

From this it is evident that where such an important member of the ordering of Christian life is lacking, can one see the Christian life as it ought to be?—No, it is not there, even if much is said about it.

Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Having set out the ordering of the life of Christians, the Apostle writes rules for it: first 1) general rules for all Christians, in whatever state they may be, and then 2) particular rules, according to the various states.

1. General Rules Eph. 4:17–32, 5:1–20

In approaching the presentation of these rules, the Apostle places at their head: a) the chief principle for their derivation, and as a guide to life according to them — Eph. 4:17–24; and then sets forth b) the actual rules of the moral life of Christians as Christians — Eph. 4:25–32, 5:1–20.

A) The Chief Principle Eph. 4:17–24

This chief principle flows for him from what was just said before. He said before that the Lord gave to the Church and to the entire human race special persons for teaching people salvation and for guiding them on the path toward it—so that we, as human beings, might not be swept away by every wind of doctrine, might not live in human falsehood under the deceitful scheming of wiles, but, speaking the truth in love, might grow up all things into Christ, the head of the Church, since otherwise one cannot be a Christian. Following the flow of thought, it would have been natural to add: you have been called to this salvation and have entered upon the direct path to it. But since he had already mentioned this repeatedly, and hints at it here as well, and not lightly (v. 20 and following), he draws directly from it the conclusion: therefore you must no longer hold to those patterns of life from which you have been delivered, but must grow up all things into Christ. Since they had been pagans, the Apostle sketches briefly yet fully the wretchedness of pagan life in its moral and religious aspect—in order to clarify precisely what must be avoided (vv. 17–19). And what it means to grow up all things into Christ he clarifies through the change that grace works in the faithful at the very moment of their entry upon the path following Christ, through the sacraments that lay the beginning of life in Christ (vv. 20–24). Both come down to this: put off the old man and put on the new. This is what it means to put off paganism and to act as befits Christians. Such is the chief principle!

Eph. 4:17. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you walk no longer as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind.

“This I say therefore…” As if to say: the whole point of my discourse is this. The purpose of my words is that you yourselves should see how you ought to live now. And so that no doubt should remain in you that this is indeed how it must be, I call the Lord as witness—“I testify in the Lord.” “I declare this with the Lord as witness” (Theodoret). “I set the Lord as witness that my word is not false” (Theophylact). Receive it therefore not as mine but as God’s—as though it proceeded from the very lips of the Lord. “Thus, in delivering true teaching, one must not only persuade, but also instil awe and commit the hearers to God” (Oecumenius)—reminding them that God Himself stands before them (Theophylact) and beholds where the dispositions of their heart incline at the teaching; and that therefore a mere outward nod of assent is insufficient—what is required is the reception of it with the whole heart.

“That you walk no longer as the rest of the Gentiles walk.” “Walk no longer”—“remembering the calling which is a call to holiness, do not return to the life you lived before the calling” (holy Damascene)—and which the uncalled Gentiles continue to lead. The Apostle could have said directly: do not live in such and such a way; but he pointed to the example of the Gentiles, because in an example the matter is clearer, and the speech can be briefer, leaving it to the hearers themselves to call to mind much that words have not captured—especially for the Ephesians, who knew by experience all the wretchedness of pagan life. This could also serve the purpose that, if anyone still held to something deserving reproof, he would take the lesson to heart under such a covering without bitterness (Oecumenius and Theophylact). The holy Chrysostom says: “He did not say ‘walk no longer as you yourselves walk,’ for that could have stung them; but he pointed to others, though he expressed the same thing. He does the same in the epistle to the Thessalonians, when he says to them: ‘not in lustful passion like the Gentiles’ (1 Thes. 4:5). You have abandoned pagan beliefs, he says—but that depended entirely on God; what I require is what depends on you—namely, a life and a walk according to God. This is your duty, and I call God as witness to my words—precisely to the fact that I have not kept silent, but have spoken as to how you must conduct yourselves.”

“Walk no longer… in the vanity of their mind.”

The mind is the highest aspect of human nature—where consciousness and will reside, or where freedom and self-activity are. This word encompasses the entire ordering of moral and religious life: that in which a person acts by his consciousness and freedom—the established pattern of his thoughts, the rules of life, hopes, aims, undertakings, means and methods, the whole circulation of life beyond which a person does not go either in thought or in desire. Looking at the Gentiles from this side, the Apostle finds that vanity of mind is what characterises them. The mind, by its original purpose, ought—by cultivating the fear of God—to move a person to be faithful to his conscience in the hope of a blessed future life. But after the Fall, whose power was revealed in its full extent among the Gentiles, the mind did not fulfil this purpose. Among the Gentiles God was forgotten, customs took the place of conscience, and present goods were pursued instead of future ones. They sought to build paradise on earth—a sensory paradise, of sensory goods, by their own available means. Everything was directed toward this. Since this is illusory, it is rightly called vanity of mind. The mind began to pursue what is empty, unstable, and unsatisfying, instead of what is essential. It bustles about, yet to no avail—not only for the future, but even in the present, in which it chases to grasp a phantom of happiness that always eludes it.

The holy Chrysostom gives a fine portrayal of this state. “What is vanity of mind? Occupation with vain things. And what is vain, if not what is present, of which Ecclesiastes says: ‘Vanity of vanities… all is vanity’ (Eccl. 1:2)?—But someone may say: if such-and-such is vain and leads to vanity, then why does it exist? And if it is moreover the work of God’s hands, how can it be vain? And there are many similar objections on this subject. But listen, beloved! Ecclesiastes did not call the works of God vain—by no means: the sky is not vain, the earth is not vain—no!—Neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor our body. For all this is ‘very good.’ What then is vain?—Let us hear what Ecclesiastes himself calls vanity: ‘I planted vineyards for myself… I provided singers and singing women for myself… I made pools of water for myself… I acquired herds and flocks, more than all who were before me… I gathered silver and gold for myself… and’ I saw ‘that all was vanity’ (Eccl. 2:4, 6–8, 11). Hear also what the Prophet says: ‘He heaps up riches and does not know who will gather them’ (Ps. 38:7)! Therefore, vanity of vanities—splendid buildings, abundance and excess of gold, crowds of slaves noisily running after you in the public square, pride and vainglory, haughtiness and arrogance—all of this is vanity, for it did not come from God but was produced by people. Why, however, is it vain?—Because it has no good purpose. Money is vain when it is squandered on pleasures, but not vain when it is used to help the poor. When you use it for pleasures, let us see what consequence follows: obesity of body, headache, sloth, internal fever, weakness throughout the body. As one who poured water into a vessel full of holes would labour in vain, so the person who gives himself over to pleasures pours water into a vessel full of holes.—Further, impossible ambitious schemes are called vain; and they truly are vain, unreliable, senseless; in general, what is good for nothing is called vain. Consider now, are not human affairs of this kind?—‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ (1 Cor. 15:32). And what follows from this, tell me?—Corruption. We clothe ourselves in costly garments and adornments: and what use is this?—Nothing. Some even among the Greeks thought this way—but to no effect. They led a strict life, yet pointlessly, having no useful goal in view, acting so out of vainglory, to gain honour from the crowd. But what is honour?—Nothing.—Do you see that all is vanity?—Therefore the Apostle said (of the Gentiles): ‘in the vanity of their mind.’”—After this the holy Chrysostom depicts the vanity of the pagan faith—that they worshipped as God trees, stones, fire, water, the sun. All of this, he says, is the Gentiles’ vanity of mind.—“Moreover,” he then adds, “here the Apostle expressed himself thus about their life. The Gentiles give themselves to fornication and adultery—which is just what one ought to expect from their faith. Having invented such gods for themselves, they act accordingly in everything. If they can conceal their actions from human eyes, there is nothing left that can hold them back from evil deeds. Can the teaching of the resurrection have any force for them, when they consider it a fable?—And what of the torments of hell?—For them this too is a fable. And note the satanic suggestion here. When people tell them of the licentiousness of their gods, they do not call this a fable, but believe it. But when they are told of punishments, they say that poets invented all such fables in order to disturb the happy order of life everywhere. But the philosophers, they say, have invented something fully worthy of attention and better than these fables. And who are these philosophers?—Surely not those who invented fate and assert that everything exists without Providence, that there is no creative Providence, that everything was composed of atoms? But, they say, others recognised God. Who are these others, tell me?—Is it not those who derive human souls from the souls of dogs and assure people that at a certain time one or another of them was a dog, a lion, a fish?—How long will you not stop your babbling?!”

Eph. 4:18. Darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts.

When the mind—the spirit—thus fell and became wholly entangled in vanity, it was natural that all the powers of the soul, whose life, by the ordering of our nature, is in the spirit, should not only take a perverted direction but should become numb. And numb they did become. The life of the rational power is the light of knowledge. When the mind fell into vanity, this light was extinguished and the understanding was darkened. Sound conceptions of oneself fell away from it—of one’s final goal, of what this present life is for, of what awaits one in the future: all this was forgotten, and God Himself was forgotten, and one’s own relationship to Him. In their place crept in convictions—not expressed in words, but all the more strictly held—that the present life is everything, that its means are ready to hand, that a person is himself, with his own reason and powers, the maker and guardian of his own lot, and that nothing more is needed: stand for yourself, protect yourself, feed yourself—and that is enough. Such and similar convictions form the guiding principles for those in whom the mind has fallen into vanity, in whom the spirit has fallen and been stifled. The holy Chrysostom says that whatever kind of life a person lives, dogmas of the same kind are devised to match. And since all such dogmas are false, and falsehood is darkness, they surround a person with darkness. “Just as, having plunged deep into water, we cannot see the sun—because the water above us forms, as it were, a kind of wall—so also in the mind’s eyes” darkening occurs from the perverted conceptions filling the head. And at the same time “the multitudinous press of worldly affairs darkens the clarity of the mind and keeps us in darkness.”—Such is the meaning of: “darkened in their understanding.”

This darkening manifests itself especially in the matter of preserving and securing one’s life. Having taken it upon themselves to guard themselves and to provide for themselves, those whose mind has fallen into vanity are, despite all their powerful means, in a constant state of fear. The holy Chrysostom gives an extended portrayal of this condition—the fruit of darkening superstition placed in the stead of divine Providence. “Those who have fallen into vanity of mind say and do everything, both in their dogmas and in their life, as though they were in darkness. A person surrounded by darkness sees nothing before him: he takes a rope for a creeping serpent; or, entering a dark place, he thinks that a man or a demon is about to seize him. And how much fear and agitation there is!—And the (Gentiles) fear similar things. ‘They were afraid,’ it is said, ‘where there was nothing to fear’ (Ps. 13:5); yet what they ought to have feared, they do not fear. Just as children in the arms of their nurses thoughtlessly reach out their hands to fire and boldly grab at a lighted lamp, yet are afraid of a man dressed in goat’s-hair cloth—so these Greeks are like real children, as someone said of them: ‘Greeks are always children.’ They fear what is not a sin—such as bodily uncleanness, a bed on which a dead man has lain, the burial of the dead, ill-omened days, and the like. But what constitutes real sin—such as passionate love for boys, adultery, fornication—they do not think to count as sin. You may see how a pagan washes himself after (contact with) a dead body, but from dead deeds he never washes himself. He takes great pains to acquire money, and at the same time thinks that a hen crowing like a rooster can influence his fortune. So they are ‘darkened in their understanding.’ They have many omens that frighten them. For example, one says: such-and-such a man was the first I met when leaving the house—a thousand misfortunes will surely come upon me. Today the hateful slave, handing me my sandals, offered the left one first—great disasters and calamities are in store. As I myself was leaving the house, I stepped over the threshold with my left foot—this too portends misfortune. These are the domestic mishaps. When I had gone out of the house, my right eye twitched—that portends tears. Likewise the women—when in weaving one thread catches against another, or a sound is made—they count this as a presage of misfortune. And a thousand other laughable superstitions they have. Whether a donkey brays or a rooster crows, whether someone sneezes—whatever happens, everything disturbs them, so that they, as I said, seem to be bound by a thousand chains and dwell in darkness and in far greater bondage than slaves. But let us not be such; rather, laughing at all such superstitions, as children of light, as citizens of heaven who have nothing in common with earth, let us count as dreadful only sin and offending God. And if we keep away from sin and strive not to offend God, we shall laugh at everything else, as well as at the first author of sin—the devil.”

“Alienated from the life of God”—that is, “from life according to God” (Theophylact). “The Apostle denounces the lawlessness of their life, for by ‘the life of God’ he named the virtuous life” (Theodoret). When the light of truth illumines the rational sphere of a person, the path of true life is made plain by that light, and this powerfully arouses the energy of the active powers to press forward along that path. But when the understanding is darkened, the path of true life is closed off, and the energy to walk along it falls away. Those darkened in their understanding naturally do not live the true life either—they become estranged from it, they abandon it.

By the life of God the Apostle could not have meant the life of grace; rather he meant that life according to God which the Gentiles could have had, had they followed the indications given them by the remnants of the image of God in fallen humanity. The mind—or spirit—of a person is originally appointed for life in God and according to God. After the Fall it was weakened, but not destroyed. The conviction that God exists and that one ought to please Him remained in all, and where it was not stifled it bore its fruits. All Gentiles were capable of living under the influence of the fear of God, according to the requirements of conscience, in hope of future reward.—In this consists the essence of natural religion and the life in God possible for all outside of grace. And whoever does not have it is guilty. In this guilt the Apostle convicts all, because the predominant spirit of pagan life was such. They forgot God, paid no heed to conscience, and lived only for the present—as though God and another life did not exist. Such also is the life of those who serve sin and the passions even among Christians. Entire cities and communities can be such. And then the apostolic word will apply to them as well: “alienated from the life of God.”

“Because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts.” Some say: the darkening of understanding is because of ignorance, and the alienation from the life of God is because of hardening of hearts. But the darkening of understanding and ignorance are one and the same. It is therefore better to refer both to the alienation from life—as its cause, contributing factor, or punishment. Alienation from the life of God followed from ignorance and hardening of heart as its consequence. When such alienation began, ignorance and hardening of heart helped to entrench it; and when it had become entrenched, God also confirmed it upon them as a punishment: “God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done… He gave them over to the lusts of their hearts… He gave them over to dishonourable passions” (Rom. 1:28, 24, 26). But, properly speaking, all three of these—darkening of understanding with ignorance, alienation from the life of God, and hardening of heart—go together as the direct consequence of the mind falling into vanity, or of the spirit being stifled. The clarity of understanding, or the knowledge of truth, falling upon the heart, arouses in it sympathy for itself and forms in it motivations toward life according to truth, or according to God. When the understanding is darkened and truths fall away from it, the heart, receiving no impressions, gives forth no impulses toward life—and life comes to a standstill, and its paths are closed. The alienation from life thus begun hardens the heart; and the hardening heart in turn strengthens the alienation from life and thickens the darkness in the understanding. Thus each is maintained by the other, and the circulation of life—not according to God—ripens. What belongs to God becomes incomprehensible, unwelcome, and does not enter into one’s plans. The spiritual life has frozen. This deadness is most evidently expressed in the hardening of the heart, yet everything else is present there as well. The holy fathers express this condition as the concurrence of ignorance, negligence, and insensibility. Those who awaken from such a life suffer most of all from insensibility.—O when will the deadened heart come back to life!

Such is the inner life of the Gentiles, and in general of persons without grace—those who have not received grace or who have stifled it within themselves by a life incompatible with it. But as is the inner ordering, so is the outward life—the deeds and conduct. The holy Apostle depicts it thus:

Eph. 4:19. Who, having become callous, gave themselves up to licentiousness, to the practice of every kind of uncleanness in greediness.

“Having become callous”—in Greek among the holy fathers this is expressed by a word that signifies hardening in evil—the extreme limit of negligence and carelessness about what is good. “Having become callous” — απηλγηκοτες — “that is, having grown utterly slothful, unwilling to do anything good, having lost all fear and compunction, as though they had gone numb” (Theophylact). Every feeling—both moral and religious—had died away. “He grew fat, he became thick, he was enriched; and” he forgot “God” (Deut. 32:15). “There is no fear of God before his eyes” (Ps. 35:2). “The fool has said in his heart: there is no God”—and gave himself over to every kind of depravity together with others: “they were corrupt and behaved abominably in their deeds” (Ps. 13:1). The holy Chrysostom says: “The heart becomes hardened when no fear troubles the soul. This comes from insensibility. When any member of the body becomes insensible, you may burn it or cut it—whatever you do to it, it feels nothing. So also the Gentiles—after having fallen once and for all into carelessness, whatever you say to them, threaten them with fire or sword—nothing will affect them, nothing will persuade them. For their heart has died once and for all. And until you destroy this insensibility in it, until your touch upon it is as perceptible as upon healthy members—until then all your efforts will be in vain.”

Having arrived at such a state, they “gave themselves up to licentiousness, to the practice of every kind of uncleanness.”—They gave themselves over to every manner of satisfying fleshly lust. There are two opposites within us—spirit and flesh. When the spirit dies away, the flesh runs wild. A person gives himself over to every kind of sensory pleasure and gratification. “They first suffered from lawlessness; then, having slipped into a lawless life, they soon began to suffer from insensibility. Then, fearing nothing, they boldly ventured upon every sin, giving themselves over to a depraved life to the point of satiation” (Theodoret).

The holy Chrysostom says: “Their life was such by their own carelessness and negligence. ‘They gave themselves up,’ he says. So when you hear that ‘God gave them over to a depraved mind’ (Rom. 1:28), recall also the present saying, that they themselves ‘gave themselves up.’ How then did God give them over, when they themselves gave themselves over? And if they themselves gave themselves over, how did God give them over?—You may think there is a contradiction here. But the word ‘gave over’ means ‘permitted.’—‘To the practice of uncleanness’ they gave themselves up. Do you see how the Apostle deprives them of excuse by speaking of the practice of uncleanness? Not by external compulsion, he says, did they sin; they themselves contrived and carried out all these criminal actions. ‘In every kind of uncleanness’ they lived. Uncleanness encompasses all adultery, fornication, passionate love for boys, and every form of intemperance.—Among them, he says, this manner of life became as it were a rule.”

The word “in greediness” is understood by some as meaning that alongside their impure deeds they gave themselves over to the passion for acquisition as well—which in the vain worldly life is no less powerful than the first. The holy Damascene writes: “Love of gain is a necessary consequence of love of the flesh. They desire acquisitions so as to have wherewith to spend on pleasures.” Others understand by this word a thirst for ever greater and greater pleasures—the insatiability of fleshly self-indulgence. “By ‘greediness’ the Apostle named lack of measure” (Theodoret). In the flow of his speech, this means lack of measure in self-indulgence of the flesh.—But in the holy Chrysostom one finds the thought of lacking measure in anything—whether in the acquisition of money or in an effeminate life. “They could have made moderate use,” he says, “both of money and of pleasures and of every gratification. But since they did not maintain moderation in this, they ruined everything.” The same thought is found in Theophylact.—Oecumenius writes: “He says ‘in greediness’ to indicate that they gave themselves over to two passions: licentiousness and love of gain—which more than other passions stand out in sinful life and govern it; or to indicate that they gave themselves over to licentiousness and uncleanness excessively and greedily.”

Eph. 4:20. But you have not so learned Christ.

Having pointed to the shameful life of the pagans and shown what must not be found in the life of Christians, the Apostle now shows what must be there; and since everything in the Christian life comes from Christ the Lord, he directs our attention to Him. “But you have not so learned Christ.” To have learned—that is, to have believed, to have cleaved to Him, to have been united with Him in the mysteries, to have received His commandments and entered upon the path of life according to Him—to have already learned by experience what it means to be a Christian, to be with Christ. “Have learned”—in Greek stands εμαθετε,—studied, mastered, as one studies and masters lessons. This denotes not a bore, intellectual knowledge of Christ, but a familiarization with Him, a living acquaintance with Him. “You have not,” he says, “so learned Christ in such a manner”—your knowledge of Christ does not bind you to the kind of life I have just described among the pagans; nothing of that sort can be tolerated in you. “You did not come to know Christ for such works” (St. Chrysostom).

Or “not so” means—not in vain. He points to the great promises in Christ Jesus, as if to say: you have been received into the Church of Christ, His truths have been communicated to you, holy baptism has been given, the forgiveness of sins has been granted, and the sure promise of the Kingdom has been secured for you—was all this given to you for nothing? Having received all this, do you not wish to lift a finger? Are you all too ready to go on living as before?—No, this cannot suit you. “You did not receive Christ on such terms as to remain in your former life” (St. Chrysostom). In this lies the whole essence of Christianity (the truth concerning Jesus)—to put off everything old and begin to live entirely according to the new law and order.

Eph. 4:21. If so be that you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus.

“If”—“if so be”—does not mean that the holy Paul did not know whether they had heard of the Lord Saviour: for otherwise, how would he have written to them all that has been written so far? Rather, it means that the conclusion: “you have not so” learned “Christ”—along with all that follows from it—they themselves ought to draw and hold in mind from what they had heard about Christ and from what they had been taught by Him directly; and still more from what they themselves had heard from Him and had been taught by Him directly, having received Him into themselves in the mysteries and having felt in their hearts what the truth in Him is. All this may be expressed thus: if you have rightly heard and been taught, you yourselves know that you must not live as the pagans do. It is understood, of course: but you did hear and were taught as you ought, and therefore you know how you ought to live. St. Chrysostom says: “The expression ‘if so be that you have heard Him’ does not indicate that he speaks with doubt; on the contrary, it shows his full confidence; in a similar way he expresses himself in another place: ‘Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you’ (2 Thess. 1:6). The knowledge of Christ consists precisely in living a righteous life. For he who lives an evil life does not know God and is not known by Him. Concerning this the Apostle says in another place: ‘They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him’ (Tit. 1:16).”

The expression used here by the Apostle—“you have heard Him, have been taught by Him”—gives his thought a particular nuance of great importance, for it shows that Christians hear the Lord Himself and, in Him—by abiding in living communion with Him—are taught in Him. Not everyone who hears and is taught about the Lord from another person hears His word within himself and is taught in Him. For this, many additional conditions must supplement the first hearing—living faith, baptism, and readiness to live by the Lord’s commandments, sparing not even one’s life. But that in truth the Christian who fulfills all the ordinances does indeed hear Christ speaking within him—of this St. John the Theologian bears witness in the passage where he speaks of the anointing, that it teaches all things; for though the Holy Spirit is spoken of there, the Spirit and the Lord are one (1 Jn. 2:27). Whoever has attained to such a state that he can discern and understand the voice of Christ within himself has reached the full renewal and sanctification of his nature. Sin no longer has dominion over him; he walks in the newness of a luminous life—as luminous as the Risen Christ—and, by the very order of the life dwelling in him, is alien to everything pagan; the old man has already been put off, and the renewal of the mind in him is in full force. Holding this thought, we can see in the word “if so be…” the proper condition, without needing to have recourse to outside explanations.

Such is the thought of blessed Jerome. “If all those who appear to be obliged to hear Christ were truly to hear Him, the holy Apostle would in no way have said to the Ephesians, and to all in general to whom he disclosed the mysteries of Christ: ‘if so be that you have heard Him.’ To have learned Christ is the same as to know how to practice virtue, and the expression ‘to hear Him’ is no different from what one might say: to hear wisdom, righteousness, courage, temperance, and all else by which Christ is named. Whoever has thus heard Christ and studied Him will no longer walk in the vanity of his mind, will not walk with darkened understanding, will not be alienated from the life of God, but will have knowledge, and all blindness will fall from the eyes of his heart, because the light admitted into the inner darkness will dispel all ignorance within him. When he has attained this, he will no longer give himself over to debauchery, nor commit every kind of impurity in covetousness, transgressing the boundaries granted to him within marriage. But if it should happen at times that he is overcome by some passion, he will grieve over his wound and suffer the torments of conscience—for having lost his bold freedom and the purity of an undefiled mind. Let us therefore learn from Christ and listen to Him. Christ speaks to us in the Church through His word and through the shepherds of the Church. But we must not despair of reaching the point where He Himself will one day speak in our hearts and personally teach us, without employing any outside instrument for this: only let us not yield to sin, let us not permit lustful pleasures to gain mastery over our body.”

“As the truth” “is” “in Jesus.” “As” — καθως— how:—they were taught as the truth is in Jesus, “as the truth is in Christ Jesus” (St. Chrysostom); and what does it consist in?—In putting off the old man and putting on the new. The truth in Jesus is not a theory, but life and deed. Whoever has put off the old man and put on the new—that person has the truth in Jesus. In whom this is absent, in him the truth of Jesus is likewise absent. And the witness of this truth lies in the putting off of the one and the putting on of the other. This is accomplished in baptism—and not nominally, but actually. Whoever has received the power of baptism experiences in very deed that everything that was before in him has died, and something new lives—something he had not known or felt. The Kingdom of Christ—that which is given in Christ—is not word, but power. Here it is accomplished in deed: “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17). What then remains to be done after this?—To guard what has been given and to give it free scope to act and be realized, just as the duty in relation to Paradise was—to cultivate and to keep.

Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26)

Eph. 4:22. That you put off, concerning your former manner of life, the old man, who is corrupted according to the deceitful lusts.

Since this putting off has already taken place in the baptized, and the old man has died, the phrase “put off” must be understood not as a command but as a notification of something already accomplished. That is the truth concerning Jesus—that you put off the old man the moment you draw near to Him and are baptized.

In this regard the opening words—“But you have not so learned Christ…”—will carry yet another meaning: you have not learned Christ for nothing, you have not merely received knowledge about Him or borrowed His name alone, but you have been utterly changed, utterly made new; that old man by whom you used to live has died in you, you have put him off. And this seems to be the Apostle’s direct thought, flowing from the very obligation to grow up into Christ in all things. For after saying this, he immediately added: “This” I “say”—that you should not live as the pagans do. Why not?—Because that life, he says, has already died in you the moment you drew near to Christ. You did not come to know Christ “just so”—with nothing at all—but something happened to you: you put him off.

But this does not happen in any sort of mechanical way. It is preceded by a decision of the will, which is then sealed by grace; from this flows moral renewal, both recognized and felt. One who feels this no longer submits to lust, but tramples it underfoot and repels it as something alien to himself. The Apostle was telling the Ephesians: this is what you have already experienced in Him. A moral lesson still follows from this: you see how unseemly it is for you to touch your former life again, for freedom is not taken away by the new birth.

What precisely was put off is clear from what has gone before. Two new features are added: corruption and deception. Or a third as well—oldness. “The old man” is defined by the former manner of life. “Manner of life” — αναστροφη— everything in which one formerly moved, both inwardly and outwardly, as St. Paul depicted above. If the Apostle had said only “you put off the old man,” someone might have wondered what this old man is; but when alongside that expression stands “concerning your former manner of life”—the manner in which every one of those who heard the word had himself moved—then it was plain to all what this old man is. Plain to them also is what it means to “put off,” for they were conscious and felt how that oldness had fallen away from them—fallen away, as the scales of leprosy fall from a healed leper—and their notions, tastes, impulses, plans, everything former, had fallen away as though it had never been. They looked back and regarded it as a cast-off garment—as something almost foreign to themselves.

St. Paul defined the former life in paganism as a life in the vanity of the mind, in blindness, carelessness, and insensibility, and in complete slavery to the passions, especially carnal lust. This is the old man. He now adds that such a man is being corrupted. The egotistical life of self-indulgence and passion decomposes, exhausts, and consumes human nature. For then a person is not in his own atmosphere. Just as one who breathes infected air corrupts his life more and more, so does he who lives in sin and passion destroy his own nature. Yet he corrupts, but is never fully destroyed. The gnawing corruption penetrates him ever more deeply, consuming and devouring him. So it is throughout all of life—and so it shall be throughout all eternity, if he does not repent and is not renewed in Christ.

The old man corrupts himself in lusts. The word “lust” suggests the thought of carnal pleasures, which in the old man stand out more vividly than his other weaknesses. But under this word one may also understand all the passions in which the habitually self-indulgent person lives. Lust is any self-gratifying desire in the satisfaction of which nothing is intended but to comfort and delight oneself. These lusts are deceitful because they entice, promising mountains of happiness, yet give nothing when one acts under their influence; and they are deceitful also, and especially, because they know how to conceal their deception, so that the one who is left unsatisfied does not blame the lust for the deception but reproaches himself for not knowing how to make proper use of it. It is this delusion that keeps everyone in the power of lusts, without noticing or feeling the ruinous nature of such a life and without feeling the weight of the yoke of slavery imposed by the passions. St. Chrysostom says: “Lust corrupts and destroys the very existence of man. The love of glory is ruinous, pleasures have destroyed many, lust has deceived. However, none of these constitute genuine pleasure; they are bitterness, deception, fraud, and shadow. The outward appearance of these things is alluring, but in themselves they are nothing other than a heavy burden, dragging after it great poverty, emptiness, and destitution. And if you strip away this mask from them and reveal their true face, you will see the deception. For deception consists precisely in this: when something appears to us as other than what it is, presenting itself as what it does not have—and this is what causes false judgments about one or another object.”

Eph. 4:23. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

The truth in Jesus is that in Him you put off the old and are renewed in the spirit of your mind. What does “the spirit of the mind” mean? Since he says “the spirit of your mind,” it is evident that St. Paul does not mean here the Holy Spirit, but something belonging to man himself. The higher aspect of human nature is called now the mind, now the spirit. Here both names are joined together: the spirit of the mind—that is, the spirit, the rational faculty within you. Man was created to live in God by means of the spirit, or mind. Had he not fallen away from God, he would have lived always in God by his spirit. God would have given strength to his spirit to reign over all the faculties of soul and body and to govern all their needs. But when man fell away from God, his spirit lost its strength, and the faculties of soul and body came to rule over it, multiplying a host of passionate lusts. If, as we have seen, for the Apostle this lustful, passionate, bodily-and-soulish life constitutes the old man who is put off in Christ Jesus, then clearly by renewal in the spirit of the mind he points to the restoration of our spirit to its rights according to creation—its liberation from the yoke of the passions and the return to it of authority over all the faculties of human nature, on the condition that it itself is now reunited with God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Toward the concept of what the spirit of the mind is, the expressions common among us may also lead—for example, “the spirit of a particular writing.” By this are meant the essential, characteristic features of that writing. One may suppose that the spirit of the mind likewise denotes the essential, characteristic properties of the mind. Judging by this, the Apostle’s words—“you are renewed in Christ Jesus in the spirit of your mind”—will mean: to your mind, in Christ Jesus, are restored the essential, characteristic features granted to it by God in creation and lost by it in the fall. Is this not what St. Chrysostom means when he says: “The spirit of the mind—that is, the spirit which is in your mind”? But in Theodoret it is stated directly: “By the spirit of the mind he named the spiritual striving of the mind.” The mind, or spirit, by nature is our highest faculty, wholly turned toward the Divine. In it is concealed an immediate knowledge of what God is, with a sense of total dependence upon Him from every side and with an awareness of the obligation to submit to Him through strict fulfillment of His will—which is also inscribed in that same Spirit, or mind, constituting the tablets of the law of conscience; by fulfilling which it hopes ever to be pleasing to God and ever to find blessedness in Him, not only in time but still more in eternity—wherefore it finds satisfaction in nothing created, even if it possessed the whole world. All these characteristics of the mind, or this spirit of the mind, were lost through the fall, but in the Lord Jesus Christ are restored—in other words: by this spirit of the mind, man is renewed in Christ Jesus and begins to live always before God, always in strict faithfulness to His will, by a conscience enlightened by the commandments, always with detachment from everything created and with the sure hope of blessedness in the future. The grace of the Holy Spirit restores it through union with the Lord. In this act there is also returned to it its natural authority over soul and body, by virtue of which it begins to govern everything that is its own—both inward and outward.

Eph. 4:24. And that you put on the new man, who after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

The truth in Jesus is that you do not merely put off the old, but also put on the new man. Who this new man is can be seen by contrast with the old—and also from the preceding reference to the renewal in the spirit of the mind. But the Apostle defines him more fully here: in his origin, in his properties, and in the directions of his activity. The new man is newly created, or re-created, regenerated through a supernatural path. Grace comes to the mind darkened by vanity and awakens in it the fear of God; the fear of God quickens the conscience; the awakened and troubled conscience strikes with hopelessness and compels it to seek reconciliation. The Gospel points to it in Christ Jesus: Christ is embraced by faith and united with the believer in the font of baptism; He fills him with the grace of the Spirit in chrismation. Thus, the one who has drawn near to the Lord is reconciled with God and consecrates himself to His service, feeling that he has received the power that pertains to life and godliness. So begins the new life—a life according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.

“Created according to God” is the same as created according to the image of God (Col. 3:10). Just as in the beginning man was created according to the image of God, so now he is re-created in that same image—re-made according to God—and afterward lives according to God; that is, in his life the first concern is the preservation of right relations with God, or the fear of God, so as always to maintain peaceful communion with God and have boldness and access to Him. The new man lives in spirit in God. Being grounded in God, he descends also into the sphere of life and appears there as fully righteous, zealously fulfilling every “righteousness”—every known determination of God’s will—so as not to err before Him in anything or cloud his conscience in any way. In this disposition he is “upright,” as the first man was originally created. It is said: “created in righteousness”—not “toward righteousness,” but already “in righteousness.” Thus, the new man comes forth from the font into the light with such an inner constitution as to zealously fulfill every righteousness, in the sense of the strength poured into him by grace. “In true holiness” means the same as “in righteousness.” Holiness befits one who in all perfection fulfills what is fitting. “What is holiness?” asks St. Chrysostom, and answers: “That which is pure and in accord with the demands of duty.” Or perhaps “righteousness” denotes more the active side of virtue, and “holiness”—more the inner purity and blamelessness of feelings and dispositions. “Of truth” relates to both righteousness and holiness, and shows that the new man is re-created in true righteousness and true holiness—not merely appearing to be such, but actually so, not only before men but before God as well. In the old man everything is deceit (v. 22), everything is illusory, but in the new man everything is true, everything is as it should be and as Truth itself—God—ordains.

Such is what Christians become in Christ Jesus by the truth of Jesus Christ.

“By the new and the old man is meant the moral and religious character of a person, not some special persons separate from the man himself. The man is one, but at one time he lives in self-indulgence and passions, and at another time consecrates himself to God and zealously seeks to please Him in all things. In the first case he is the old man, in the second—the new man. St. Chrysostom: “Lest someone should think that he is inventing a different person when speaking of the new and old man, he says: “be renewed.” Renewal takes place when what has grown old takes on a different form, so that the object remains one and the same, but a change occurs in its accidental properties.—“And put on the new.”—Do you see that the object is one, yet there are two garments: one that is put off and one that is put on?—Why does he represent man under the name of virtue? And also under the name of vice?—Because in order to define the character of a man, one must point to his activity. Thus, a man’s actions no less than his natural properties show whether he is good or not. Just as it is easy to undress a man, so too is it easy to see his character through his virtue or vice.”—The same thought is found in Theodoret: By ‘the old man’ the Apostle named not nature itself, but the working of sin. For the one being baptized does not put off his body, but the defiled garment of sin; and by the new man he named one who lives according to the evangelical law. And he called both virtue and vice ‘man’ because they are performed by men.”

Blessed Jerome says that to put on the new man is to put on Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14), for He is truly the new man. And he adds: “Therefore, whoever imitates His life and manifests all His virtues in himself—being meek as He was meek and humble in heart, and laying down his soul for his friends as He laid it down for His sheep; when struck, not answering back, and when reviled, not reviling in return, but overcoming pride with humility—such a one has put on the new man and can say with the Apostle: ‘I live… yet not I, but Christ lives in me’ (Gal. 2:20). And: ‘Be followers of me, even as… I also am of Christ’ (1 Cor. 11:1). Such a one fulfills also the words of John the Theologian: ‘He that says he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked’ (1 Jn. 2:6).”

St. Chrysostom, having explained what Christians are clothed in at baptism and how, adds that the Apostle’s intention in these words is to urge everyone “to live no longer according to the pull of deceitful lusts, but according to the commandments of God.—Our duty is to strip from ourselves no more this garment of justification, which the Prophet calls the garment of salvation (Isa. 61:10), so that we might become like God. The Apostle wants us to remain in virtue not for one day, not for two or three, but always, and never to take off this garment. For it is not as unseemly for a man to be naked in body as it is to be stripped of virtue. In bodily nakedness his unseemly condition is seen by fellow servants, but there—it is seen by the Lord and the Angels.—How then will God forgive us if we destroy this garment?—Let us strip ourselves of money, so that we may not be stripped of righteousness. The garment consisting in money damages the garment of justification. Sensual inclinations also deprive us of this garment, for they are fire, and such fire burns up this garment. Wealth too is a moth: and as a moth eats everything and does not even spare silk garments, so wealth does not spare our true garment. Therefore let us leave all this, so that we may be righteous, so that we may put on the new man. Let us keep nothing old, nothing transitory, nothing perishable. Virtue is not heavy, not impossible to fulfill. Do you not see those who pass their lives in the mountains?—They leave their homes, their wives, their children, and all their occupations, and withdrawing from the world, they clothe themselves in sackcloth, they shut themselves in narrow cells… They exhaust themselves with fasting and continual hunger. If I now proposed this to you, would not all of you refuse such a proposal?—But I do not say this… What more shall I say?—Use the baths, take care of your body, go to the market, have a house, have servants, use food and drink—only drive avarice away from everything. And do not say to me that those (hermits) had special strength for such a strict life, for many, far weaker than you, and richer, and more accustomed to luxury, entered into that austere life. But what do I say about men?—Virgins, brought up in luxury—these virgins, being suddenly seized by the fire of Christ, left all their luxury and splendor, and forgetting their delicacy, like brave wrestlers, entered the arena of struggle.—Such is the power of the fire of Christ, so far does a good resolution surpass nature itself!—Yet I require nothing of the sort from you, because you wish women to outpace you on the path of godly life. At the very least, do what is not difficult: keep your hand from what is forbidden, abstain from shameless looks. What is difficult about this, tell me? What is burdensome? Be just, wrong no one—neither the poor nor the rich, neither the seller nor the hired hand. Enter into marriage, have children. Great indeed is the struggle (of the hermit), high is that cliff… and you are unable to climb it?—Then at least have something less and attain to a lower level. You cannot give away your money?—Do not steal what belongs to others, at least, and do not wrong anyone else. You cannot fast?—Do not give yourself over to self-indulgence, at least. You cannot lie on a reed mat?—Do not furnish yourself with beds overlaid with silver, at least, but use a plain bed and a couch made not for show but for rest; likewise, do not set up beds of ivory; restrict yourself. If you live a modest life, you will fear nothing: neither envy, nor thieves, nor intrigues.—I am not telling you: serve the sick yourself; at least instruct your servant to do so. Do you see how little this is?”

B) The specific rules of moral life for Christians as Christians in general Eph. 4:25–32, 5:1–20

Eph. 4:25. Therefore, having put away lying, speak truth, each one with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

St. Paul places truthfulness in speech in the first position. He connects his words with what has gone before. There he said: you have put on “the” “new” “man, created according to God in righteousness and true holiness.” Now he takes occasion from those words and speaks about truthfulness in speech: “Therefore, having put away lying, speak truth.” The basis for this rule he takes not from what preceded, but from the fact that we “are members of one another.” There is a rule in logic that thought cannot form itself if the mind does not represent every object as identical (the law of identity), always equal to itself, one and the same. Likewise, a human community cannot come into being if each person in practice is other than what his words say. The chain binding people together is mutual trust. This trust cannot take root if there is not truthfulness in speech among all. To the degree that the confidence in mutual truthfulness is strong—to that degree the union of people is also strong; and, conversely, to the degree that untruthfulness is tolerated—to that degree the union is weak. Christians form one living, intimately joined body. Consequently, truthfulness in speech already characterizes them: otherwise such a union could never have come together. The Apostle speaks as if to say: do not place yourselves in contradiction with what you are. This reference to mutual membership also suggests the thought that if we are members of one another, then each one should regard another as himself. And who lies before himself?—Even if one wished to, he could not, for the conscience is the same both in the one who lies and in the one before whom the lie would be told. And the Apostle used such a word: speak “truth to your neighbor”—to the one who is close to you, and to whom you are close. Can the tongue bring itself to say a lie to such a person? But members ought to stand in precisely such a relation to one another.—To say “you are members of one another” is the same as to say: among you sincere love must reign. Where there is love, a lie is impossible.

St. Chrysostom says: “Having set forth the general teaching concerning the old man, the Apostle then describes it in detail, because teaching about any subject that touches its particulars is more readily understood. What then does he say?—‘Therefore, having put away lying.’ What lying? Does he mean idols?—No. For although idols too are a lie, the speech here is not about them, since the Ephesians had no fellowship at all with idols. He speaks to them about falsehood in relation to one another—that is, about guile and deception: ‘speak truth, each one with his neighbor,’ he says, and presents the chief motive for this: ‘for we are members of one another.’ Notice how everywhere the Apostle puts them to shame by pointing to the mutual faithfulness of the bodily members. The eye, he says, does not deceive the foot, nor the foot the eye… If the eye sees a serpent or a wild beast, will it deceive the foot? Will it not immediately give it warning? And the foot, having learned this from it, will then go more cautiously. Likewise, when neither the eye nor the foot has the means to detect a harmful poison, but everything depends on the sense of smell—will the sense of smell lie to the mouth?—By no means. Why?—Because in that case it would destroy itself as well. On the contrary, it reports exactly what comes to its attention. Does the tongue deceive the stomach? Does it not cast out what it finds disagreeable? Such is the mutual exchange of services and the mutual assistance among the members of the body. Observe how faithfully, and moreover, so to speak, sincerely, this mutual forewarning is carried out. So let us also not lie, if we are members of one body. This will be a sign of our friendship, and the contrary—of enmity.”

Eph. 4:26. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.

“Be angry.” One cannot suppose that St. Paul gives permission to anger—especially since a few verses later he says: “let anger… be taken away from you” (Eph. 4:31), that is, let it be banished from among you so that there is no place for it there. It must be supposed that the Apostle took the very phrase as it is read in Psalm 4:5 (Ps. 4:5), but attached to it a thought that forbids anger, as if to say: as for anger—do not sin by it.—The law of moral imputation with regard to anger is the same as with regard to all other passionate movements. The initial assaults of passion are not imputed as sin. Imputation begins from the moment when, having noticed the movement of a passion, one yields to it—not only failing to resist it, but actually taking its side, fanning it, and helping it mount to an ungovernable state. But as soon as someone, having noticed the assault of a passion, arms himself against it and by appropriate efforts of thought and bodily posture strives to drive it away—this is imputed not as sin but as virtue. The same applies to irritation and anger. In the continual collisions with others, there is no counting the occasions for irritation. But when someone suppresses and drives away every rising of anger, he is angry—and yet does not sin. Not to be angry at all and never to feel any irritation is a gift of grace and belongs to the perfect. But in the ordinary course of things, the duty of all is not to yield to anger, so as not to sin by it. Oecumenius and Theophylact say: “It would be good not to get irritated at all, but if irritation has already broken out, do not let it reach the point of sin.” Suppress it within, so that it does not break out into word, expression, or some impulsive action.

But it sometimes happens that anger seizes a person in an instant, and before he has had time to catch himself, it has already broken out into word and gesture. Here too non-imputation is appropriate—but only up to the moment when one comes to his senses. The very moment the lapse is recognized, one must hasten to set things right through brotherly reconciliation. Consider someone walking among various objects arranged in different positions, and who by an incautious movement happens to knock some over and push others out of place—what does he do?—He turns back and sets everything in its place again, with an apology to the owner. The same applies to the collisions that commonly occur among us. A flare-up and a quarrel have occurred—hasten to restore everything to its former state through reconciliation. Reconciliation may be restored at once, but there may also be moments that intervene to delay it. In any case, make a beginning immediately; God will help, and you will come to terms. External circumstances, personal characters, and prior relations all matter greatly here. But none of this can justify or legitimize prolonging the irritation and estrangement. Sin began from the moment the fault was noticed but no resolution was made immediately in the soul to take steps toward reconciliation. But once such a resolution is made, the imputation of sin is averted. Every danger of imputation passes, however, when steps have also been taken in deed and peace has been restored.

The Apostle commands us to hasten in this matter and to strive by every means that the sun not go down in anger—that is, to make peace on the same day. Yet there may be no small number of circumstances that prevent this from being accomplished on the same day, and the sun may set before reconciliation is reached. But the Apostle does not write about reconciliation, but about the mutual irritation felt toward one another. The breaking of irritation is an interior matter. It can be accomplished in a single moment, whereas reconciliation requires time. He desires that inwardly the anger should be suppressed immediately and that the movement toward reconciliation should be begun at the same time—or at the very least, before the setting of the sun. Perhaps the Apostle’s words need not be taken literally. In any case, however, as is observed, there is a danger that at night, in solitude, a small displeasure may flare up into a flame and render the estrangement irreconcilable. Concerning sleep in relation to the body, it is said that it fixes in the body the new elements received in food during the day. The same may be said of it in relation to the soul—that it fixes within the soul the movements and thoughts that it has nurtured and gathered during the day. And anger too can become fixed in it. Therefore it is necessary to dissolve it before sleep, so that it does not become fixed and turn into irreconcilable enmity.

We cite the reasoning of St. Chrysostom on this subject. “It is good not to be angry; but if one falls into this passion, then at least not for a long time: ‘do not let the sun go down’ ‘on’ ‘your anger.’ You cannot restrain yourself from anger?—Be angry for an hour, two, three: but let not the sun go down, leaving us as enemies. By the Lord’s goodness it rose—let it not set after having shone upon the unworthy. For if the Lord sent it by His great goodness and has Himself forgiven your sins, and yet you do not forgive those of your neighbor—consider what evil there is in this. Besides, another evil can arise from it. Blessed Paul is concerned lest the night, catching alone a man who has suffered offense and is still burning with anger, should kindle this fire still more. During the day, while much still irritates you, it is permissible for you to give place to anger within yourself; but when evening comes, be reconciled and quench the evil that has arisen. If night overtakes you in anger, the next day will no longer be sufficient to quench the evil that may have grown in you during that night. Even if you destroy the greater part of it, you will not be able to destroy all of it, and in the following night you will give what remains the opportunity to grow stronger. Just as the sun, if the warmth of the day is not sufficient to dry and purify the air that has become filled with clouds and vapors during the night, thereby provides occasion for a storm, when the night, having caught the remnant of those vapors, adds yet more new vapors to them—so it is with anger as well.”

Give No Place to the Devil; Grieve Not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:27–31)

Eph. 4:27. Neither give place to the devil.

The devil has no access to the soul when it harbors no passion. Then it is luminous, and the devil cannot look upon it. But when the soul allows the movement of a passion and consents to it, it becomes darkened, and the devil sees it, boldly draws near to it, and begins to make himself at home within it. Two chief sinful movements usually trouble the soul—lust and irritability. Whomever the enemy manages to overcome by lust, him he leaves with it, not troubling or only weakly troubling him with anger; but whoever does not yield to lust, him the enemy hastens to stir to anger and gathers round him much that is irritating. Whoever does not discern the devil’s wiles and gets irritated at everything gives place to the devil by allowing himself to be overcome by anger. But whoever suppresses every arousal of anger resists the devil and drives him away—and not only gives him no place within himself. When it comes to anger, place is given to the devil the very moment one’s irritation is acknowledged as justified and the satisfaction of it as lawful. At that same moment the enemy enters the soul and begins to put thoughts into it, each more irritating than the last. A man begins to burn in anger as in a flame. This is a diabolical, hellish flame. But the poor man thinks that he burns so from zeal for righteousness—whereas in anger there is never any righteousness (Jas. 1:20). This is a kind of delusion in anger, just as there is delusion in lust. Whoever suppresses anger immediately disperses this delusion and thereby repels the devil—just as one might vigorously strike someone in the chest in a burst of feeling. Which of those who have been angry, upon cooling down and examining the matter honestly, has not found that at the root of the irritation there was injustice? But the enemy transforms this injustice into justice and piles it into such a mountain that it seems as if the world cannot stand unless our indignation is satisfied.

“St. Chrysostom says: ‘Neither give place to the devil.’ Thus, to be hostile to one another means to give place to the devil. For while we ought to unite together and rise up against him, we, abandoning our enmity toward him, allow ourselves to turn against one another. Truly, nothing so helps the devil to find a place among us as enmity! As stones, so long as they are tightly packed together with no gaps between them, are hard to break apart; but as soon as a crack appears in them, however small—even as small as the point of a needle, or a fissure through which but a single hair can pass—they fall apart and crumble: so it is with the attacks (of the devil). As long as we are tightly united and close to one another, he cannot introduce into our midst even one of his (evil designs). But as soon as he separates us even a little, he bursts in among us like a rushing wave. Everywhere he needs only a beginning—that is what is hardest for him; but once a beginning is made, he himself drives everything forward on his own. Thus, as soon as he has opened your ear to slander, liars already win your confidence. For those who are hostile are guided by their hatred, which condemns everything, and not by truth, which judges rightly. For just as in time of friendship one does not wish to believe even truthful but unflattering reports, so in enmity, on the contrary, even false reports are taken as truth. One’s very mind is different then, one’s judgment different—hearing not with indifference but with partiality and prejudice. As a piece of lead placed on scales tips the balance completely, so does enmity, heavier than lead. It causes even words spoken in one sense to be taken in another, causes movements to be suspected and everything without exception to be construed in the worst light—and in this way hardens and irritates a man, making him worse than the demon-possessed, so that he does not wish even to name or to hear the name of the one against whom he is hostile, but always refers to him with abusive words. How then shall we soften our anger? How shall we extinguish this flame?—If we reflect on our own sins and on how much we ourselves are guilty before God; if we reflect that we are not taking vengeance on an enemy but on ourselves; if we reflect that by hostility we give joy to the devil—that enemy, that true enemy of ours—for whose sake we insult our brother. You cannot help but bear a grudge, cannot help being hostile?—Be an enemy, but be hostile against the devil, not against your brother. For this very purpose God gave us anger as a weapon—not that we should pierce our own bodies with the sword, but that we should drive all its point into the chest of the devil. Plunge your sword into him up to the hilt if you wish, press in the hilt as well, and never draw it out from there; on the contrary, drive another sword in there too. And this will happen when we spare one another, when we are peacefully disposed toward one another. Let me lose money, let me lose my glory and honor—my member is dearer to me than all. Let us speak thus to one another: let us not insult our own nature for the sake of gaining money or winning glory.”

Eph. 4:28. Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.

Among the Christians of Ephesus there may perhaps have been none who were falling into the sin of theft, but certainly there were those who, before their conversion, had lived by this practice in their paganism. According to St. Chrysostom, this is one of the features of the old man, along with lying and bearing grudges. Knowing this and fearing lest such persons, after his departure and the cessation of his personal oversight of them, should return to their former ways, he reminds them that this evil practice must be abandoned once and for all. Let none of them steal any longer. It is said that theft has a particular attraction for those who have been engaged in it. The bustling city presented everywhere favorable opportunities for it. How quickly might an old disease reopen? Like a wise and caring physician, he says to them: take heed, be on your guard!

“Since this sin is engendered especially by idleness, the Apostle rightly sets good labor against it” (Theodoret). “But rather let him labor.” “It is not enough to withdraw from sin; one must enter the path of the opposite good. Before they did evil, now let them do good, and not merely do it, but labor exceedingly in doing it” (Theophylact). In addressing these words to those who stole, the Apostle does not suggest that others may sit with folded hands, but rather that the former thief now enters the company of those who live by the labors of their hands. Therefore let him not only adopt a similar industrious way of life, but even surpass them all in labor, so as to demonstrate the sincerity of his reformation. In the civic order, the external court and corporal punishment restrain a thief; in the moral order, it is conscience that binds the thief’s hands. But conscience is not satisfied merely with the cessation of the evil deed—it demands restitution. This is required both by the conscience of the thief, that he may satisfy himself through opposite labor, and by the conscience of others, so that trust may be restored toward one who has lived dishonestly. St. Chrysostom says: “In order to remove condemnation from oneself, it is not enough merely to withdraw from sin—one must also do something good. See how sins must be blotted out. They stole—that means they committed sin. But when they stopped, that does not mean they blotted out the sin. How then are they to do so?—They must labor and help others. Those who have done so have thereby blotted out the sin.” And a little further on, under the following verse, he adds: “The Apostle gives this instruction not so much to show indulgence toward those (who stole) as to inspire meekness in those who suffered from it and to persuade them to be content with the fact that they will no longer be subjected to it.” Blessed Theophylact adds to this: “‘Let him labor’—partly in order to chasten the body, which previously, through idleness, was nimble for evil deeds; and partly in order to have sufficient means for life and sustenance, so as to give to others as well—and so that the one who formerly robbed others might now appear as a benefactor of others. Wonderful! … How the Gospel makes angels of those who before were almost like demons.”

In commanding here to do good, the Apostle means by this not the doing of good deeds in general, but some honest and useful trade or craft, for he says: “working with his own” “hands” “what is good”—which, together with the expression “let him labor,” points to manual work. Throughout all his letters the Apostle prescribes as a general law for all: to live by one’s own labors. Those in need among Christians are only those who cannot work. To supply their needs, the surplus left over from the sustenance that those who are able to work obtain by their labors is designated. This latter aim of labor, according to the Apostle, is so urgent that in obliging all to work, he does not even point to the nearer aim—providing for oneself, which is self-evident—but sets forth only this further aim—helping others—which was easily forgotten, so as to bring it to awareness and even place it in the foreground of attention, so that through it the former might also be seen. “The Apostle commands engagement in labor (handwork and trade) not for the sake of the stomach alone, but also for the needs of those in want” (Theodoret). This giving to the needy sanctifies also the portion used for oneself and brings God’s blessing down upon all one’s labor. Such is the godly ordering of the life of Christians! All things—toward God, and all things—from God.

Eph. 4:29. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good for the building up of faith, that it may give grace to those who hear.

“Corrupt word”—one must explain this from the concept of what is corrupt. “Corrupt” is said of wood—and in such a case it is good for nothing. Applying this to speech, one must count as corrupt every empty, idle, frivolous, and merely jesting word—witticisms, puns, trifling chatter about nothing. But there is another kind of body that when it corrupts not only becomes useless but also spreads stench and infection. Stinking words are slanders, gossip, libels, foul speech, flattery, crafty intrigues, and all manner of distorted talk. Words that are like an infection are those that undermine faith and unsettle good morals, sowing discord, suspicions, and popular unrest. The Apostle forbids words of all these kinds when he says: “let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth.” So all our commentators understand it. St. Chrysostom says: “What is this corrupt word?—That which in another place he calls an idle word, evil speaking, foul speech, foolish talking.” Theodoret writes: “A corrupt word—foul speech, evil speaking, slander, lying, and the like.” Blessed Jerome: “A corrupt word is one that disposes toward sin and leads to a fall.” Oecumenius: “By corrupt he means either an idle and senseless word, or one that is rotten and foul-smelling—such as evil speaking, slander, foul speech, buffoonery; for what is more rotten and foul-smelling than this?”—The same in Theophylact, who adds: “For we shall have to give account for every idle word.”

“A good word” is defined by itself, by contrast with what a corrupt word is. But St. Paul defines it directly—“good for the building up of faith.” Those who are commanded to work out their salvation with fear and trembling must direct everything there—especially the tongue, the most mobile and ungovernable of organs. We have a saying: a man talks about what ails him. Whoever wholeheartedly aches for one thing alone—how to save his soul—will not find his tongue turning to speak of anything beside. You may say: always the same topic, over and over?—But a gathering of Christians is supposed to consist—and must consist—entirely of persons filled with the same urgent concern for salvation. In such company it is not strange that all conversation is about salvation; what would be strange is if someone were to bring up anything other than this. St. Chrysostom says: “Speak only what edifies your neighbor, and nothing superfluous. God gave you a mouth and tongue so that you might give thanks to Him and edify your neighbor. If you are tearing down the building, it is better to be silent and say nothing. For the hands of a craftsman, designed for building walls but instead accustomed to tearing them down, would rightly deserve to be cut off. So also (concerning the tongue) the Psalmist says: ‘The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips’ (Ps. 11:4). The tongue is the cause of all evils—or rather, not the tongue, but those who misuse it.” Therefore one must not speak indiscriminately whatever comes to mind.

It should be noted that in our Slavonic and Russian text the phrase reads: “for the building up of faith.” So also in the Vulgate, and so in certain manuscripts. And it seems that this reading is the better one. Modern texts, however, have adopted a different reading: προς οικοδομην χρειας— for the meeting of need. Speak only what you need, or what is needed by those with whom you are speaking. But if by “need” one understands not only everyday or civic need—as indeed one should when dealing with those for whom there is but one thing needful, above and beyond such needs—then the sense comes to the same thing. What needs are more keenly felt by Christians than the needs of faith—the questions and perplexities touching upon dogmas and the ordering of Christian life according to Christ’s norm? In worldly matters everyone can manage on his own, and if something does arise, only a word or two is required: a word or two, and that is all. But the domain of faith and life according to faith is both vast and often obscured. To keep everything therein clear is a vital need of living faith. Indeed, wherever persons of living faith gather or happen to meet, the conversation is always about faith and faith alone. Judging by this, one may conclude that in those gatherings where there is not even a mention of faith and life according to it, faith has been pushed to the back of everyone’s mind.

In St. Chrysostom it is not clear how he read the text, but his whole discourse is directed toward instilling the lesson that one should always conduct conversations that are edifying for faith and morals. Theodoret understood the Apostle’s word as indicating that speech must be adapted to the occasion. “But even such a word (that is, a good one),” he says, “(the Apostle) commands to be spoken at the right time.”—Blessed Jerome writes: “A good word is one that teaches how to follow the path of virtues and avoid vices. Whenever our word benefits anyone and, by being adapted to the time, place, and person, builds up those who hear—a good word proceeds from our mouths. But when we speak either at the wrong time, or in the wrong place, or in a manner not suited to those who hear—then a corrupt word proceeds from our mouths. Therefore we must consider what to say, for on the day of judgment we shall have to give account for every idle word (Matt. 12:36). It turns out that even if we do no harm, yet if we do not build up, the guilt of an evil word still lies upon us.” Both Oecumenius and Theophylact read “need” in place of “faith,” but understood the need as purely spiritual. The former writes: “But only that which is good for the meeting of need — προς οικοδομην της χρειας. What need?—The present one, that is, the one under discussion. For it befits a spiritual man to direct every present conversation toward the building up of those present.” The latter thus: “Only what builds up our neighbor, being necessary for the present need—this alone we shall speak, and nothing untimely or unseemly.”

The words “that it may give grace to those who hear” directly convey the thought that a beneficial word should have an effect on those who hear it—that it should be like rain upon thirsty ground, or like oil that is healing for a wound. Just as grace, entering the soul, sets everything in order there, builds up and quickens, so let your word be beneficial to all and always. It is always the case that a good man out of his heart’s good treasury brings forth good things, and an evil man evil things. But prudent restraint nothing prevents anyone from always observing; and if you do not know how to build up so as to give grace, it is better to be silent, as Chrysostom says.

St. Chrysostom, however, understands by “grace” also gratitude, with the following thought: speak in such a way that another receives genuine benefit and is grateful to you for it. He says: “Since words are very many, the Apostle rightly expressed himself indefinitely, giving a command concerning their use and a rule for how to conduct speech. What is this rule?—‘That which is good for building up,’ he said.—In other words: speak in such a way that the one who hears you is grateful to you (having received benefit). For instance, your brother has committed fornication: do not revile him with insulting words, do not mock him. You will bring not the slightest benefit to the one who hears you, but will decisively harm him if you sting him with your witticisms. If, however, you exhort him concerning how he ought to act, you will earn great gratitude from him. If you also teach someone to use gracious words and teach him not to speak evil, you will thereby teach him much and certainly earn gratitude. If you speak with someone about repentance, about chastity, about almsgiving (and inspire him to these virtues), for all of this he will express his gratitude to you. But if you arouse laughter, utter an unseemly word, or worse still—praise vice, then you have ruined and destroyed everything. Such is how the Apostle’s words may be understood.”

“Some understand ‘that it may give grace’ differently. Theodoret understands by this the pleasantness or agreeableness of speech: “By grace he meant pleasantness—that is, so that the word should appear acceptable to those who hear it.” Oecumenius, together with Chrysostom, understands both gratitude and, literally, the grace of God: “That it may give,” he says, “God’s grace to those who hear.”—An anointed, grace-bearing word has a grace-bearing effect on others. It is said: grace is on your lips. And in every Christian there is grace. The grace-bearing word, having entered his soul, the grace-bearing action quickens the grace already present in him and brings him into a state of grace. The holy words of Scripture are all Spirit-moved words. Whoever conducts conversation by means of them transmits into the souls of others streams of the action of the Holy Spirit.—And it truly gives grace.” And St. Chrysostom adds to his previous words: “Or these words mean: so as to make those who hear grace-filled. For just as myrrh imparts grace to those anointed with it, so does a good word. Therefore someone also said: ‘Your name is as ointment poured out’ (Song. 1:2). It—the good word—fills those who hear with its fragrance.”

This thought is perhaps the chief one in this passage, for it stands in direct correspondence with the following text.

Eph. 4:30. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

The lesson about edifying speech continues here as well—and is reinforced by a threatening motive. Every Christian is a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in him, building up within him everything toward salvation. Whoever by his word edifies others comes into accord with the work of the Spirit of God in the hearts of believers and helps His building up of souls. On the contrary, whoever troubles the souls of others—dispersing them by idle talk and stirring up evil feelings by evil speech—tears down the work of the Spirit of God in believers and thereby grieves Him, the Builder. But the one who troubles another is himself also a dwelling of the Holy Spirit. If, in troubling others, he grieves the Spirit of God dwelling in them, then all the more does he first and chiefly grieve Him within himself, for evil words proceed from an ill-disposed heart, toward which the All-pure Spirit of God cannot look with favor. An ill-disposed heart is like a house filled with stench, smoke, and every kind of soot. Who would be glad to dwell in such a house? With respect to this, Theophylact says: “If you have spoken a corrupt word, unworthy of Christian lips, you have not insulted a man, but the Spirit of God, by whom you have been blessed, by whom your lips have been sanctified.”

“By whom you were sealed.” All Christians have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and have received the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit sealed us as a sign that we belong to the royal flock. He did not leave us among those subject to God’s wrath, but set us apart from them and laid His seal upon us, to deliver us from that wrath. Is it not then shameful to grieve Him? Your lips are sealed by the Spirit so that you speak nothing unworthy of Him. Do not break this seal” (Theophylact).

What day is meant by “the day of redemption”? Oecumenius says it is the day of baptism. “As a sign that we are the people of God, He sealed us in baptism, for baptism is the day of redemption.” Jerome understands by “the day of redemption” the final determination of each person’s fate at the Judgment, with its assignment to blessedness—and he expresses his thought thus: “Every believer is sealed by the Spirit so as to preserve this seal and present it on the day of redemption as pure and in no way damaged, and thereby be numbered among the redeemed.” This latter thought may be supported by the fact that in Greek it reads: εις ημεραν απολυτρωσεως,—as it were, for that day, toward that day. Then the full force of the sealing by the Spirit—which is also the earnest of the inheritance—will become manifest; but the sealing itself takes place in the initial mysteries—after baptism, in chrismation. By its power we are made Christians and are preserved until the future restoration of all things, and shall be kept through all eternity.

“We cannot pass over the words of St. Chrysostom on this passage. We set down what he said by occasion of it. ‘And do not grieve the Holy Spirit’—words that bring fear and trembling!—If you say an offensive word, if you offend a brother, you offend not him, but grieve the Holy Spirit. Alongside this the Apostle also points to the blessing received from the Holy Spirit, so that the accusation may be all the more forceful: ‘do not grieve,’ he says, ‘the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.’ The Holy Spirit made us a royal pasture, freed us from all former evils, did not leave us among those subject to God’s wrath—and you grieve Him? ‘Do not grieve the Spirit by whom you were sealed.’ Let these words, like a seal, rest upon your lips. Lips sealed by the Spirit utter nothing unseemly. Do not say: it is no great matter if I utter an evil word, if I offend one or another. It is precisely because you consider it a trifle that it is a great evil. For an evil that is considered trivial is easily left in contempt, and left in contempt, it will grow stronger; and grown stronger—it will become incurable. Your lips are sealed by the Spirit?—Then remember the dignity of your lips. And do not forget that you call God your Father.—You call God your Father, and at the same time you revile your brother?!—Do not dishonor your nobility—which you yourself received by grace—by harsh treatment of your brothers. You call God your Father and offend your neighbor?! This is not fitting for a son of God. The work of a son of God is to forgive enemies, to pray for those who crucify him, to shed blood for those who hate him. This is what befits a son of God: to make his enemies, the ungrateful, the thieves, the shameless, the treacherous, into brothers and heirs—not to offend his brothers. Consider what table your lips are counted worthy to approach, what they touch, what they taste, what food they receive. Consider with whom you stand during the sacred mysteries: with the Cherubim, with the Seraphim. The Seraphim do not speak evil, but their lips have only one occupation—to glorify and praise God. How then will you glorify God? How will you together with them say: Holy, Holy, Holy—after you have pronounced words of evil speaking with your lips? Tell me: if someone among the servants took a vessel belonging to the king—always filled with royal food and appointed for such use—and used it for filth, would he dare afterward to set it alongside the other vessels used at the royal table, that vessel now filled with filth?—By no means. Such is evil speaking, and such too is the offense against one’s neighbor! You have a Father in heaven: therefore do nothing and say nothing earthly.—You stand before the throne of God and utter words of slander?—Do you not fear that the King will count your action as an offense against Himself? When a slave before our eyes strikes another slave and reviles him, then even if he does so with justification, we are offended by this and take such behavior as an insult to ourselves; but you—placed together with the Cherubim before the throne of God—dare to revile your brother? Do you see these sacred vessels? They have one purpose: who would dare to use them for another?—But you are holier than these vessels—and far holier! Why then do you defile yourself and smear yourself with filth? You stand in heaven, and give yourself over to evil speaking? You live with the Angels, and give yourself over to evil speaking? You have been counted worthy to kiss the Lord, and you utter words of slander? God has adorned your lips with so many angelic songs, has counted them worthy of a kiss not angelic but surpassing the angelic—His own kiss and His own embrace—and you give yourself over to evil speaking? Let us then school our lips to gracious speech. From this comes great benefit, and from evil speaking—great harm.”

Eph. 4:31. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

The holy Apostle here addresses the continual collisions of daily life, in which, if it is not made a law to yield to one another and to forgive mutual offenses, harmony and peace in common life is impossible. Most commonly, the matter begins from trifles—with a slight grievance, a bitterness—which, if not destroyed at once, quickly passes into irritation; fail to restrain the irritation, and it will flare up into an outburst of wrath, into rage; after this, harsh words, quarreling, and along with it evil speaking—mutual reproaches and reviling—immediately begin. They quarreled and shouted at one another, parted without being reconciled, and now bear malice toward one another, even devising and muttering: I’ll do this to you, I’ll show you. This is vengeance on a larger or smaller scale. All of this is out of place among Christians. “Let it be taken away,” he says, “from you”—so that not even a breath of this quarrelsomeness should remain. He points to no measure whatsoever, not even the smallest, in which any of this might be tolerable among Christians, but decisively banishes all of it from the Christian community.

There are two evil impulses that disturb us—lust and irritation. Just as in lust the matter begins with a thought, so in irritation it begins with a grievance. The first thought, if not driven away, leads through attention, sympathy, and resolve to the act of lust. A grievance, likewise, if not driven away, proceeds along its own path—through irritation, wrath, and rage, shouting, quarreling, and mutual reviling—and finally malice arrives at discord, irreconcilable hatred, fighting, and murder. Just as one who drives away a thought thereby cuts off its further movement toward ripening into a deed, so one who drives away the first grievance thereby puts an end to its further movement—toward discord, fighting, and murder. Thus let grievance be taken from our midst, being driven away by mutual yielding to one another, and peaceful concord will never be disturbed.

Chrysostom speaks at length on this. “Just as a swarm of bees never settles in an unclean vessel—and therefore those experienced in beekeeping prepare a place for them by fumigating it with incense, mastic, and all manner of fragrant substances, and sprinkle the baskets into which the swarms are to settle with aromatic wines and various other compounds, doing all this so that an unpleasant odor offensive to the bees may not drive them away—so too all this applies to the Holy Spirit. Our soul is, as it were, a kind of vessel or basket in which swarms of spiritual gifts may dwell; but if it is filled with bile, bitterness, and wrath, these swarms fly away from it. This is why this blessed and wise householder (the holy Apostle Paul) so carefully cleanses our vessels, using for this purpose neither a knife nor any other iron instrument. See how he cleanses our heart: put away, he says, falsehood; put away wrath; and at the same time he shows how evil may be destroyed at the root: let us not, he says, be bitter in spirit.”

Chrysostom then describes the harmful effect of bile when it spreads through the body, and goes on to say: “But why do we speak of all this in such detail? In order that by comparison with physical bile we may better understand the full intolerable harm of spiritual bile—how it produces utter disorder in our soul and brings it to complete ruin—and so that, knowing this, we may be on guard lest we experience its harmful effects ourselves. Just as material bile produces inflammation in the body’s constitution, so spiritual bile inflames our thoughts and drags down the one it possesses into the pit of Gehenna. Therefore, let us hear the words of Paul: ‘Let all bitterness be put away,’—he did not say ‘let it be purified’—‘from you.’ Indeed, what need have I of it, and why should I keep it with me? Why should I keep within myself a beast that can be driven from the soul and chased far away?.. ‘Let all bitterness,’ he says, ‘be put away from you’—so completely that none of it remains in the soul. Otherwise this remnant, if stirred up, will, like a spark, kindle a whole flame within.”

“And clamor”: why does the Apostle forbid this as well? Because such is the nature of a gentle person—that is, one who does not shout. Clamor is a horse whose rider is wrath. Tame the horse, and you will defeat the rider. Let women take special heed of this, for they are particularly prone to shouting and making a noise about every matter. There is only one case in which it is useful to speak loudly—that is, in preaching and teaching; nowhere else, not even in prayer.

If you wish to put our words to the test in practice, restrain yourself always from shouting, and you will never fall into wrath. This is the method for taming wrath! For just as it is impossible for one who shouts not to fall into wrath, so it is impossible for one who refrains from shouting to grow angry. If, then, we train ourselves to refrain from shouting and abusive speech, this will greatly help us to tame wrath. Suppress the shout, and by this you will clip the wings of your wrath and quell the agitation of your heart. For just as it is impossible to engage in a fistfight without raising one’s hands, so it is impossible to give oneself over to wrath without raising a shout. Bind the hands of a fighter and tell him to do battle—he will be unable to do it: the very same may be said of wrath. And a shout can stir up wrath even when none is present.

Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

“‘And slander,’ says the Apostle, ‘be put away from you.’ Observe how evil progresses: bitterness gives birth to wrath, wrath to fury, fury to clamor, clamor to slander—that is, to abusive words—then slander to blows, blows to wounds, wounds to death. But the holy Paul did not wish to say any of this explicitly; he said only: ‘be put away from you, with all malice.’ What is meant by “with all malice”? Every malice leads to this end. There are people who resemble those crafty dogs that neither bark nor rush directly at passersby, but, feigning meekness and gentleness, seize the unwary and sink their teeth into them. Such are far worse than those who attack openly. Since there are those among men who resemble such dogs—who, without resort to shouting, anger, insults, or threats, lay secret snares and prepare a thousand evils for others, taking vengeance on them by deeds—the Apostle has indicated such persons as well. ‘Let it be put away,’ he says, ‘from you, with all malice.’ Do not avenge yourself in deeds either, if you spare words. I have restrained your tongue and held back your clamor so that no fiercer flame might be kindled within you. But if, even without shouting, you do the same thing—keeping a flame and live coals smoldering within yourself—what profit is there in your silence? Do you not know that fires which smolder inwardly and are not visible outwardly are the more destructive? And are not wounds that produce inward inflammation the same? So too is hidden wrath worse and more harmful to the soul. But it also, says the Apostle, ‘be put away from you, with all malice’—both great and small. Let us therefore obey him and cast out of ourselves all bitterness and all malice, lest we grieve the Holy Spirit. Let us uproot and cut off bitterness entirely. No good can come to a soul filled with bitterness, nothing of profit—but from it flow all misfortunes, all tears, all wailing and lamentation.”

Eph. 4:32. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you.

The Apostle prescribes a remedy against irritability, quarrelsomeness, and malice. Instead of these ungodly dispositions, cultivate good ones. Instead of all bitterness—by which you both grieve yourselves and grieve others—be kind, χρηστοί, sweet (blessed Jerome), pleasant, and warmhearted; instead of all malice, be tender-hearted, εὔσπλαγχνοι, compassionate. Dispositions of this kind will prevent you from being aggrieved by anyone or growing angry with anyone, let alone from grieving or angering others. Warmheartedness and compassion absorb all unpleasantness and spread around them a sweet, gentle peace. But someone may say: what is one to do when one has a bilious temperament? I would gladly cover everything with compassion and meekness, but I cannot control myself. Well for the one in whom sympathetic dispositions predominate—but one in whom egotistic feelings predominate cannot avoid irritation, discord, and vindictiveness. To this it must be said that in Christianity, under the action of grace, every bad natural temper is reshaped into a good one, provided a person takes this up earnestly and exerts every effort on his own part. He will not reshape himself by his own power, but grace will reshape him, working secretly beneath his own labor upon himself. In what does this effort consist? In forgiving everyone else, contrary to one’s unyielding disposition. Repeated acts of yielding and forgiveness—unwilling, reluctant—will in time lead to willing forgiveness of all things, and further to never taking offense—to not being grieved by anything at all. What should inspire such self-opposition? A vivid awareness that one was oneself irredeemably guilty before God and yet God forgave everything freely, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Bear with one another’s faults,” says the Apostle, “and be like the God of all things, Who through the Lord Christ has granted us the remission of the whole multitude of our sins” (Theodoret). The moving force here is gratitude; but if one also recalls the Saviour’s parable of the unmerciful creditor who was himself a debtor—who, after having himself received the remission of a great debt, refused to forgive his own debtor a comparatively trifling amount and was therefore stripped of all mercy and cast into prison—then to gratitude there is added fear, and together these are strong enough to rouse sufficient energy each time to prevent us from yielding to unmerciful treatment of those who cause us some offense or who prove themselves remiss in their duties toward us. And the Lord, in setting forth the pattern of constant prayer, placed within it: “Forgive us, as we also forgive” (Matt. 6:9)—so that constant awareness of one’s own need to receive forgiveness might always incline us to forgive others. For one who does not himself forgive places in his prayer, against his own will: “Forgive us not, as we do not forgive”—even if he reads it otherwise. Therefore, by the memory of the forgiveness of our unpayable debts in Christ Jesus—in baptism or in repentance—with fitting reflection, compel yourself to forgive, and the grace of God will help you to rise to the state of being no longer irritated by anything from those who oppose you, and of covering all things with compassion and meekness.

We take up once more the words of Chrysostom.

Having explained at length at the outset that to attain the Kingdom it is not enough to turn away from sin, but that one must also acquire the opposing virtue, he goes on to say: “What profit is there, tell me, if all the thorns are pulled up but no useful seeds are sown? The labor will again do us as much harm if it is left unfinished. This is why Paul, caring earnestly for us, gives us commandments not only about cutting off and putting away evil deeds, but also urges us quickly to show the planting of good deeds. For having said, ‘Let all bitterness, and wrath, and fury, and clamor, and slander be put away from you, with all malice,’ he added: ‘and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another,’ for these are habits and dispositions, and it is not enough to rid oneself of one habit in order to acquire another (opposing) one in its place—some fresh movement and striving is needed, no less swift than the turning away from evil deeds, in order to acquire good deeds. One who is not an enemy is not yet a complete friend: there is something intermediate between enmity and friendship, and it is in this intermediate state that most people chiefly stand in relation to us. One who does not weep does not always laugh—there is an intermediate state. So here too: one who is not offensive is not yet perfectly good, and one who is not wrathful is not perfectly compassionate. A new effort is still required to acquire this good. And see how, following the demands of sound husbandry, the blessed Paul cleanses and tills the land entrusted to him by the Master of the vineyard: he has cast out the rotten seeds; now he urges us to acquire the proper plants. ‘Be kind,’ he says. For if, once the thorns are pulled out, the land is left lying idle, it will again produce useless weeds. The Apostle has done away with wrath—he plants goodness; he has done away with offense—he plants compassion; he has uprooted malice and evil-speaking—he has sown mercy. For the words ‘forgiving one another’ mean precisely this. Be inclined to the forgiveness of offenses, he says. Such mercy is greater than that shown in financial matters. One who forgives a money debt to a borrower does a fine and admirable thing, but such mercy pertains to the body, though he receives in return spiritual and soul-related treasures. But one who forgives sins has benefited the soul—both his own and that of the one who received forgiveness—because by such conduct he has made not only himself but the other more gentle as well. For we do not wound the souls of those who offend us so much by pursuing them as we confound them and bring them to shame by forgiving them. Meanwhile, by acting vindictively we benefit neither ourselves nor them, but harm both them and ourselves. Therefore, if you wish to take revenge, take it by this means: return good for evil, so as to make him (your enemy) your debtor and win a splendid victory. Why do you think our Lord Jesus Christ says: ‘If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also’ (Matt. 5:39)? Is it not because the more magnanimous one is, the more benefit one brings both to oneself and to him? Therefore, let us not be resentful, but let us extinguish wrath, so as to be found worthy of mercy from God. For ‘with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and with the judgment you judge, you will be judged’ (Matt. 7:2).”

Eph. 5:1. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

These first two verses may be taken both as a continuation of the preceding thought and as a distinct commandment concerning love as the highest Christian law of mutual relations.

“Therefore”—this word directly connects what follows with what preceded. There it was said: “forgive one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Now it says: forgive, and: as children of God. Children imitate their father and take him as their example. Take your example from your heavenly Father, Who forgave not someone else but you yourselves—and forgive. But it is not cold forgiveness that the Apostle requires, but loving forgiveness, as was evident above where he derived forgiveness from the words: be kind and tender-hearted; and this is evident here as well, for immediately there follows: “and walk in love,” indicating what it is we are to imitate.—In true Christianity, actions done from cold rational requirement are not tolerated; it is required that everything proceed from the heart, and that the heart be full of love. God Himself has said: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). From the context in which this is said, it is clear that the God-imitating perfection required there is love and mercy, as the holy Luke plainly states in a parallel saying of the Lord: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Lk. 6:36). And the love the Saviour counts as true is that which is shown toward enemies. For He says: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you and drive you away, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and… the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your friends, what more are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” (Matt. 5:44–47). This is the test of love. Only such love is to be counted God-imitating.

Chrysostom discerns in this God-imitation an incomparable privilege of Christians.

“What can be sweeter than these words, ‘be imitators of God’? If you name the Kingdom, if you name anything else—none of it will be in any way equal to them! You imitate God; you are likened to God when you forgive along with Him. Sins must be forgiven more readily than money debts, because if you forgive money you will not by this be imitating God, but if you forgive sins you are imitating God.”

The blessed Jerome discerned a particular shade of meaning in the Apostle’s words. “Whoever understands in what sense it is said: ‘Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matt. 5:48), knows also in what sense it is said here: ‘be imitators of God.’—Writing to the Corinthians, the Apostle says: ‘be imitators of me, as I am of Christ’ (1 Cor. 11:1; 4:16). For they were not yet capable of becoming imitators of Christ directly, but it was already great for them if they could be imitators of the imitator. But to the Ephesians—as those whom he had already instructed in such mysteries—he does not say: be imitators of me or of Christ, but imitators of God. Not because being an imitator of Christ is less than being an imitator of God (for Christ is God), but because it is one thing to imitate according to the human nature, and another to imitate according to the Godhead—though we now no longer regard Christ according to the flesh, as some understood Him at first.—The Saviour Himself speaks, showing His humility according to the economy of salvation: ‘The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it; for whatever He does, the Son likewise does’ (Jn. 5:19). Not that the Father created one heaven and one earth, and Christ then created other similar heavens and earths by imitation, but that the Son does the very same thing the Father does (that is, indivisibly). In what precisely can we be likened to God—he has testified to this above, saying: ‘forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you.’ I do not think that in the other things God does, man can imitate God. But this is possible: that just as God is merciful and sends rain on the good and the evil, so also we should show our goodness to all people. When we fulfil this, we shall be beloved children—either of Paul himself, or, as I think better, of God.”

In the words “as beloved children” is seen an indication of the moral necessity of the dispositions proposed—a necessity that is exclusively Christian.—Theodoret writes: “You have been made worthy of adoption; you call God Father; therefore strive earnestly for this kinship.” “Beloved children”—either inasmuch as God loves them, or inasmuch as they love God, that is, as children who love God. The latter meaning is reflected in Chrysostom: “And here is yet another most beautiful exhortation: ‘as children,’ he says, ‘beloved.’ You have yet another reason to imitate Him—not only because you have been benefited by Him, but also because you have become His children. For not all sons imitate their fathers, but only the beloved ones; this is why he says: ‘as beloved children.’”

One may carry this inference further from these words—all the way to concluding that whoever is not such is no Christian at all. The right to be children of God is granted to those who are born of God; and they are born of God through the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, coming, pours out the love of God—that is, divine love—into our hearts (Rom. 5:5). The proof of such love, according to the word of the Lord, is love toward enemies—not merely forgiveness, but love. Going back the other way: whoever does not have such love does not have the Spirit; whoever does not have the Spirit has not been born of Him; whoever has not been born from above is not a son to God; whoever is not a son of God by grace is no Christian. From this it follows that in the words “as beloved children” there is concealed the thought: otherwise one is not a child—and if not a child, then it is well known what one is. This does not, however, give anyone who does not feel such love the right to say: “What am I to do, if it is not poured in?” and to sit with folded hands, waiting for God Himself to do everything within him. Despite the fact that all morally good dispositions exist in us in their true form only through the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit, no one is released from the deeds that belong to the sphere of those dispositions and serve as their expression. If the disposition is lacking, compel yourself to the deeds that flow from it—and it will come; the grace of the Spirit will come as well and bring to final perfection all that your own efforts could not bring to perfection.

Eph. 5:2. And walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma.

The flow of thought is as follows. Be imitators of God. In what are you to imitate? In love. And how are you to love? As Christ loved us. Having given Himself for us, He offered to God the most pleasing sacrifice; give yourself likewise to every labor and privation for the good of others, and you will both testify to your sincere love for all and present before God deeds that will be to Him as a sacrifice for a fragrant aroma. How wisely in the Apostle the entire Christian moral teaching is referred back to Christ!

“And walk in love.” Do not perform one, or two, or tens or hundreds of acts of love and think it sufficient; but walk in love—act constantly and without interruption in the spirit of love. God our Father is ever-present, inexhaustible love (1 Jn. 4:16). And we, to the measure of our strength, will show forth some fullness of love if we walk always in love. Chrysostom says: “And here is the foundation of everything: ‘walk in love.’ If love is present, there will be no fury, no wrath, no clamor, no slander—all of this will be destroyed. This is why he places the greatest thing at the end.”

The works of love—especially in the sense the Lord requires, that is, showing love toward enemies—inevitably demand sacrifice. Since this can undermine our energy, always weak, the Apostle sets before us for encouragement the sacrifice that Christ offered for us. He is saying, as it were: grasp the power of Christ’s sacrifice; enter into sympathy with it, and you will no longer halt before any sacrifice in your walk according to the spirit of love. Christ’s loving sacrifice for us is a second example of love for us—closer to us, more tangible. The love of God is invisible and all-encompassing; the love of Christ is visible and touches each one of us. Having tasted its fruits, it is natural to be kindled by it. Christ loved us and gave Himself for us; on account of this loving self-giving for us you also have been shown mercy, received into God’s love, and not only forgiven but made worthy of sonship to Him: love therefore this very love that gives itself over to every sacrifice, and walk in it precisely. Chrysostom dwells especially on this aspect: “Tell me—if someone had helped you when you were in a fever and struggling with death by some medicine, would you not have magnified that person above all things, and even the very name of the medicine? For if we cling to the times and places at which we received benefit as to our very soul, how much more to the very actions. Be attached to love, because through it you were saved, through it you were made a son (of God); and if you are able to save others, use the same medicine and exhort all: ‘Forgive, and you will be forgiven’ (Lk. 6:37); such conduct is the mark of grateful, free, and noble souls.”

And that love must extend to the point of self-sacrifice for enemies in particular is made plain by the example of Christ’s love for us. For He gave Himself for us, who were His enemies and God’s. If it is your duty to imitate His love, then love your enemies. “Otherwise, how will the word ‘as’ retain its meaning? Is it not clear that this is only the case if we do good to our enemies?” (Chrysostom).

The Apostle does not here reason about the significance and power of Christ’s sacrifice, but takes it as a known fact, with the particular aim of heightening our enthusiasm for imitating the love of Christ the Lord by pointing to its fruit—namely that the sacrifice, by the power it bore, offered to God, was “to God for a fragrant aroma.” He is saying, as it were: do not fear and do not hold back from sacrifices; by virtue of the love shown in them, they will be “to God for a fragrant aroma.” Who, taking this to heart, would not be ready for every labor and sacrifice out of love for his brethren?

The expression “for a fragrant aroma”—a most pleasing sacrifice, acceptable to God and precious before Him—is first encountered in the assessment of Noah’s sacrifice. There it is written: “And the Lord smelled the aroma of the fragrance. And the Lord God said… I will never again curse the earth on account of human deeds” (Gen. 8:21). The smelling of the sacrificial aroma is attributed to God to signify that the sacrifice reached God, was received by Him with favor, and merited God’s good pleasure. The sacrifice of Christ the Saviour, who offered Himself, was the most pleasing of all: no other such sacrifice is possible or required, for this one alone replaced all sacrifices. Christ Himself—not as man, but as the God-man—was both priest and sacrifice. He offered not as a man, but as the God-man, and offered not a man, but the God-man. Hence the infinite worth of His sacrifice! The fragrant aroma from this sacrifice arose not only on account of its boundless worth, but also because it was the fruit of a willing love: “He loved and gave Himself.” In this regard it is an example set before us: infuse sincere love into your acts of self-sacrifice for others, and from them there will ascend before God a fragrant aroma. The Lord gave Himself “for us”—not for the holy and the friends, but for sinners and enemies, in order to merit all-forgiveness for our sins—in order that, driving away, speaking humanly, the stench of our sins from God’s perception by the most pleasing fragrant aroma of His sacrifice, He might propitiate God, that He might pronounce to us all-forgiveness and all-mercy—might pronounce that the curse lying upon us has been brought to an end. From this sacrifice of Christ, offered for us while we were still enemies, let us learn to love our enemies, with readiness to sacrifice everything for them even to the laying down of our life, that we may always be well-pleasing before God.

Up to this point the holy Paul has been teaching how to set right the irascible part of the soul, placing self-sacrificing love at the summit of its purification. Now he points to the purification of another part of the old man—the concupiscent. At this point one may mark a turn in the Apostle’s general instructions on the Christian life.

Eph. 5:3. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints.

“He has spoken of the irascible passion—wrath, fury, and bitterness. Now he turns to the concupiscent passion—fornication. So also the Law, after saying: ‘You shall not kill’—which is the work of the irascible passion—also said: ‘You shall not commit adultery’ (Ex. 20:13, 14)—which is the work of the concupiscent passion. As bitterness, clamor, malice, and slander are the fruits of the irascible passion, so the fruits of the concupiscent are fornication, adultery, uncleanness, and love of money; for whoever does not lust after bodies lusts after money and possessions” (Oecumenius). So too all our commentators, and Chrysostom.

“Fornication”—every sin with a woman outside the marriage bond; all uncleanness—every other manifestation of the concupiscent passion: lustful thoughts, willfully stoked fires of the flesh, unnatural gratification of it; covetousness—the passion for acquisition, the insatiable desire to have more and more. That this too belongs to lust is shown by the holy John the Theologian, who attributes to it not only the lust of the flesh but also the lust of the eyes, by which is meant love of money—as everyone commonly says: your eyes are never satisfied. Chrysostom says: “One and the same passion drives us to love both money and bodies.” “Let it not even be named among you.” “He has sufficiently shown the repulsiveness of the enumerated vices by commanding that even their very names be erased from memory” (Theodoret). “For he knew that talk about these things is a kindling of the passion and a leading to deeds” (Oecumenius). “The Apostle wished them to be wholly pure and blameless, so that even their tongue might not be defiled by the pronunciation of such names” (Theophylact). Of the manifestations of the irascible passion he says: “let them be put away from you”; but of the works of lust he says: “let them not even be named.” The latter is a stronger prohibition, for he wishes that there be no mention of them at all, that even their names might be forgotten, so that when someone utters such names, the hearers would not understand what he is speaking of. “As is fitting for saints.” Thus it befits those who before the foundation of the world were chosen to be holy and blameless (Eph. 1:4), who, in receiving faith in the Lord, cleaving to Him, and receiving new life from Him, give a pledge of a clear conscience (1 Pet. 3:21), who are bound to strive for purity in every regard, who have been placed in a state of purity and strength for its preservation, and have received life in it.

Holiness is the filling of the heart with all virtues, but it is proved above all by purity from fleshly impulses and inclinations. This is why the holy Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, says: this is the will of God for you—“your sanctification.” And wherein does sanctification consist?—“keeping yourselves from fornication” (1 Thess. 4:3). So highly does he regard purity that he appoints it as the final goal of our very calling, saying: “God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness” (1 Thess. 4:7). And writing to the Corinthians, he urges them to flee fornication especially because our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us (1 Cor. 6:18, 19). Therefore he threatens those who defile this temple with punishment from above: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are” (1 Cor. 3:16, 17). The Spirit of God, coming, restores man to his original dignity—life in God. This life, received and felt, detaches one from everything sensual and fleshly, as if cutting one off from it. Thus life in God, holiness, purity, and being filled with the Spirit stand on one line in the Christian life, manifesting and operating simultaneously.

Eph. 5:4. And filthiness, and foolish talking, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting—but rather thanksgiving.

All this too must have no place among you. “Filthiness” — αἰσχρότης — properly speaking, shamefulness: shameful manners, glances, movements, dress, all shameful behavior, or licentiousness that testifies to impurity and provokes to it. But of course, the pre-eminent expression of this shamefulness is obscene speech—shameful talk, with which shameful deeds typically begin. “Foolish talking” — μωρολογία — stupid, senseless, empty talk. “Coarse jesting” — εὐτραπελία — a passion for witticisms, jokes, and buffoonery. “Which are not fitting”—this should be rendered: these improprieties—that is, they too must not even be named among you. Such things are not fitting for us. We have pledged to live holily, working out our salvation in fear of God. How can such talk be appropriate among us?! We have dedicated ourselves to God, sealed with the seal of the Holy Spirit; and when we give free rein to empty, buffoonish, and obscene words, defiling by them the souls of others and stirring up in them lustful thoughts and impulses, we commit sacrilege, we sin against God. It is the same as applying a sacred vessel to an unclean use. Let each one remember what was the fate of Belshazzar!

Among all the holy ascetics we find the indication that idle talk and buffoonery stand in direct connection with lust. One who plays the buffoon is himself in a state of lust, which through his idle talk he spreads to those around him. Chrysostom says: “Do not utter words, whether jesting or shameful—and you will quench the flame, for words lead to deeds. As there (above, speaking against the irascible passion) the Apostle destroyed quarrels that sustain wrath, so now he cuts off obscenity and jesting that lead to licentiousness.”

“But rather thanksgiving”—that is, let it be expressed in speech and let it be heard. This is what the conversation of Christians ought to be filled with! When something especially remarkable occurs, the talk in society is of nothing else. But what can be more remarkable than that which has made Christians to be Christians? God Himself bowed the heavens and descended, in order to raise us up to the heavens; we are all already called to this, and we live on earth for no other reason than to prepare ourselves better for life in heaven, where our prepared dwelling places already await us. Take this to heart—and you will find no desire to speak of anything else, moved by feelings of thanksgiving for the unspeakable mercies of God. One who has received a royal appointment—to appear at the palace in order to serve and live there—thinks of nothing but how to arrange everything for that life as quickly as possible, and his gratitude to the king knows no bounds. Both he and those who know him speak of nothing but his gracious appointment, and all give thanks to the king. Our position, all of us Christians, is exactly the same. It is therefore very natural to say that from our mouths ought to come forth above all thanksgiving to God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit, for the salvation granted to us and working in us—if we do not hinder it by our own foolishness.

No one will dispute this, nor that obscene and foolish talk is unseemly—but that jesting, witticisms, and laughter ought to be banished from Christian company—not everyone accepts this. Chrysostom noticed this and argues at length against such a judgment and practice. Let us transcribe some of his propositions.

“What is the use of telling a joke? It only stirs up laughter. Let there be not a single idle word, since from idle talk one can pass to indecent conversation. Now is not the time for amusements, but for mourning, grief, and lamentation. Yet you jest! What fighter, entering the arena, abandons his struggle with his opponent and tells jokes? The devil walks near you, roaring to devour you, stirring up everything and turning everything against you, devising how to drive you out of your refuge, gnashing his teeth, howling, fanning the fire against your salvation—and you sit there telling jokes, talking nonsense, and uttering indecent words?! Can you overcome him? We are playing like children, beloved!”

“Christ was crucified on the cross because of your evil deeds—and you laugh? He endured blows and suffered so much because of your miseries and the storm that had engulfed you—and you make merry? And do you not thereby offend Him all the more? Let us see what a saint ought to be like: he ought to be quiet, meek, sorrowful, weeping, contrite. Therefore, one who tells jokes is no saint, and such a person is ridiculous. This is only permissible for stage players. Where there is shamelessness, there are also jokes. Listen to what the Prophet says: ‘Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling’ (Ps. 2:11). Frivolity makes the soul weak, lazy, and sluggish. It is good when the soul is sober—it cannot be led astray; but who cannot lead astray a soul that is distracted? It will deceive itself, and the wiles and attacks of the devil will not even be needed. Many evils nest in a soul addicted to jokes—great distraction and emptiness; order is disrupted, well-being is weakened, fear disappears, godliness retreats. Your tongue was given you not to mimic others, but to give thanks to God. Let us banish this custom from our tables. Having banished this custom from everywhere, let us say what is fitting for us, and let not holy mouths utter words suited to dishonorable and shameful lips. ‘For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what communion has light with darkness?’ (2 Cor. 6:14).”

“Thus, having put these two states of the soul in order and subjected them to reason as obedient horses—I mean lust and wrath—let us set the mind over them as charioteer, so that we may receive the reward of the high calling, which may we be found worthy to receive in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Eph. 5:5. For this you know, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

To dispose us toward taming irritability and forgiving offenses, the Apostle appealed to the fact that we ourselves receive forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ, with the reminder that if we do not forgive, we also will not be forgiven. To dispose us toward quenching the lust of the flesh and of the eyes, he appeals to the danger of losing on their account the Kingdom of Heaven, offering, as it were, a choice: either the momentary pleasure of lust, or eternal blessedness in the Kingdom of Christ. Both cannot coexist. It is one or the other: either the temporary sweetness of sin and the loss of eternal blessedness, or eternal blessedness and the rejection of lustful pleasure. “For this you know”—a decisive verdict, without any exceptions or qualifications: that those who have the misfortune of being enslaved to the aforementioned passions have no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ—they are already excluded from it, and those who only fall into them, as soon as they fall, are excluded by the very act of falling. So incompatible is the Kingdom with the indulgence of lust.

The Apostle brings under this verdict only fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness, while he has passed over obscene speech, foolish talk, and coarse jesting. But this does not mean that, according to the Apostle, one may enter the Kingdom with them—rather, it means that in his view they have no independent standing and are merely instrumental actions in relation to those chief passions, so that they do not exist when those passions do not exist, and conversely, where those passions are, there these are too. With those passions, therefore, they will share their fate. Idle talk and buffoonery appear, on the surface, not so serious; but since behind them lurks the passion of fornication, which sets the tongue in motion, in light of this kinship their gravity is very considerable. A glance too seems insignificant; but one who has “looked at a woman to lust after her” (Matt. 5:28) is condemned as a fornicator.

“Fornicator” and “unclean” are used by the Apostle in the same sense as “fornication and uncleanness” earlier; but the covetous man is characterized by a particularly weighty description: “who is an idolater.” In the Epistle to the Colossians too he calls covetousness idolatry (Col. 3:5). And the Lord said that one cannot serve God and mammon (Matt. 6:24). Therefore, one who serves mammon—that is, who is enslaved to the passion of love of gain—does not serve God. Mammon has become his god. To it he is given over with his whole soul, his whole heart, his whole mind, and all his strength. Just as he ought to have been disposed toward God, so he has disposed himself toward wealth. Such, indeed, is every passion—when it overcomes someone, it swallows him whole; which is why the Apostle called the belly a god (Phil. 3:19). But in the passion for wealth there is a particular feature that places one possessed by it on the same level as idolaters—namely, trust in riches. One ought to expect everything from God and to rest all one’s hopes in Him. But one possessed by covetousness expects everything from money and wealth, resting and reposing all his hopes in them. Where God ought to stand, mammon stands for him. He is therefore a direct idolater.

“Has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Inheritance — κληρονομία — what is assigned to each as their portion. The unsearchable riches of Christ are all distributed according to virtues, and to each virtue belongs its own place and its own portion of Christ’s riches. When the Kingdom of Christ arrives, each one will be assigned to the place corresponding to the virtue by which he was especially distinguished, where the portion allotted to that virtue awaits. All who have labored in virtues by faith will be in the Kingdom, and for all it will be ineffably blessed to dwell there—but each in his own place and rank. Among these bright dwelling-places there is no room for any passion. “Outside are… fornicators… and idolaters…” (Rev. 22:15).

This is self-evident, but the Apostle recalls it with particular emphasis, saying: “for this you know.” Evidently it was necessary to stress this. Perhaps there were certain thoughts circulating that were undermining confidence in this. This is why, further on, cautioning the faithful against misinterpretations, he writes:

Eph. 5:6. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Take care lest anyone beguile you and lead you into error by deceit. Regarding what? Not regarding any new matters, but the very same ones: deeds of lust, covetousness, idle talk, buffoonery. Who these empty talkers were, the holy Paul does not indicate. Ephesus was full of diverse schools and communities. Among them, the Epicureans did not judge strictly on matters of fornication—as among the Jews the Sadducees did not. They say that the Simonians too were very lame on this score. And as for taking so strict a view of covetousness as the holy Apostle takes and as the spirit of Christianity required—this occurred to no one. The Apostle, of course, knew this; he knew what all these empty talkers might say, and, without entering into a detailed examination of their empty talk, cuts off the temptation with a single word: take care—whatever anyone may say against this, do not be beguiled: those are empty words. Nor is it surprising that when the Apostle was in Ephesus he refuted all these empty sayings before the Christians in person; now he merely reminds them, lest they forget the lessons of his personal presence and continue to keep themselves on guard.

And then, of course, every person could have their own thoughts arising—that lustful deeds are natural; that to have is impossible not to have; that joking and buffoonery are trifling matters. This is why, writing to the Corinthians, the holy Paul wrote: “Do not deceive yourselves… fornicators… the unclean… the covetous… will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9). Evidently, in those days, as today, empty sayings were circulating everywhere that undermined confidence in the gravity of the passions rejected by the Apostle, and thereby weakened the vigilance of Christians faithful to their duty over themselves. Chrysostom said of his own time: “When we say that everyone who calls his brother a fool is subject to Gehenna, some say: ‘Can one really be subject to Gehenna for calling his brother a fool?—No!’ they say. And when we say that the covetous man is an idolater, they laugh at this too, saying that the expression is exaggerated—and in this way they belittle all the commandments. It was with these very people in mind that the blessed Paul then wrote to the Ephesians, saying: ‘Let no one deceive you with empty words’—calling ‘empty words’ those that are not sound, yet at the same time seductive and leading into error.”

“For because of these things”—on account of the multiplication of precisely these vices—fornication, uncleanness, covetousness—“the wrath of God comes”, that is, the Last Judgment. The Last Judgment is appointed to come. When it will be, no one knows. But time flows on and brings it nearer. It is natural—it is coming toward us. But the multiplication of the vices mentioned hastens its approach. The Lord compares the moral state of the last days with the moral state of those who lived in Noah’s time. At that time there was a terrifying flood of sensuality. They are all flesh, God said of them. The same will be the case before the end of the world. Fleshly deeds—together with covetousness—will prevail over everything. It seems that the Apostle Paul is pointing to this likeness here as well—and “the sons of disobedience” he leads us to see exemplified in those who resisted at the time of Noah. For the sons of disobedience — υἱοὶ τῆς ἀπειθείας — are the sons of unpersuadability: people who cannot be persuaded by anything; whatever is said to them, they do not believe God Himself, they disbelieve and resist—stubborn unbelievers. Such were those who lived at Noah’s time. How often did he declare on God’s behalf that they should repent? They would not listen. Such will be the people before the end of the world. The Gospel will become known to all; everyone will hear the lessons that to live impurely is ruinous, but no one will listen, soothing their conscience, no doubt, with some kind of empty words similar to those against which the Apostle warned the Ephesians.—This is what the holy Paul brings to the minds of the Ephesian Christians, in order to inspire them both to flee those vices and to turn their ears away from all misinterpretations that diminish their gravity with empty words. He wished to fill their souls with fear of the Last Judgment and thereby place them in a state of tense sobriety and watchfulness—over their own hearts and over their external relations.

Eph. 5:7. Therefore do not be partakers with them.

“With them”—that is, with the sons of disobedience. They will become partakers with them if they come to resemble them; and they will resemble them if, heeding the empty talkers, they grow lax in their strict watch against the aforementioned vices, and, having fallen into them, prove themselves resisters of the word of God which the Apostle proclaimed to them and now sets before them. Beware, he says, of coming to resemble them by your resistance to the truth and your indulgence of impurity and covetousness. If you allow this, you will share their fate. And their fate is the fire of judgment and torment!—Therefore, take heed, and always rouse within yourselves a sober watchfulness by setting before your minds the scene of the Last Judgment, in order to keep yourselves pure—not only from lustful deeds but from lustful feelings and thoughts. We see in the ascetic writings that there is no more powerful means for driving away the assaults of lust than the remembrance of judgment. Some counsel one to stand at the judgment and not to draw one’s thoughts away from it. This keeps one in a fear that consumes everything impure.

The Apostle commands those struggling against the passions to hold two highly rousing images in mind and heart—the image of the Lord crucified for us on the cross, for the quenching of all the evil movements arising from the irascible faculty of the soul, and the image of the Last Judgment, for the quenching of the passionate movements of lust. By these every passion is driven out of the soul; and by them, once the good intention of pleasing God has been firmly established in the soul, the very arising of the passions is also forestalled. One in whom these images have been mingled with his consciousness has entered into the domain of dispassion.

The state of dispassion draws one near to the all-perfection of God, or to the divine luminosity. Having created man in His own image, God placed in him all His goodness that a creature—man—could contain. These qualities of goodness, after the fall, were darkened, covered, and perverted by the passions that entered with self-will, which was the source of the fall. In Christ Jesus, the incoming grace restores our spirit—in which the image of God resides—and teaches it and helps it to expel from human nature all the passions that darken it, laying as the foundation of this expulsion the trampling down of self-will through self-denial—which constitutes the first step in following Christ. When the passions are expelled, human nature enters into its predestined divine perfection, into God-likeness. “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 Jn. 1:5). This expresses His all-perfect all-perfection. And man, when he enters into God-likeness—or partakes of the divine all-perfections, or tastes the divine goodness—is called one who enters into the light of God and is clothed with it; and in very deed he then becomes light. And this is what the holy Apostle now begins to speak about. Up to this point he has been leading the Christian into battle against the passions arising from irascibility and lust, and has brought him to the state of dispassion—pure and luminous with divine luminosity. Now, turning the attention of the Christians themselves to this change that has been wrought in them, he says to them, as it were: you were once darkness, but now you are light. Beginning from this word, he goes on to depict the radiance of the active Christian life in itself (vv. 8—10) and its light-bearing quality for all who have not partaken of the light of Christ (vv. 11—14). The Lord said something similar to the Apostles: you are the light… be a light for all (Matt. 5:14—16).

Eph. 5:8. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light.

“He speaks of them thus because they were illumined by the divine light” (Theodoret).

“He reminds them of their former life in sin and the errors of paganism, saying, as it were: remember what you were and what you have become—from darkness, light. Before, both in your dogmas (in your manner of thinking and belief) and in your life, you were real darkness; but now you are light: you know the true God, and you do the works of light. This came about for you not from your own virtue, but in the Lord—that is, by divine grace. Therefore you ought no longer to be partakers of the sons of disobedience, upon whom the wrath of God comes. Once you too were such, and were worthy of the wrath of God on that account; but now you are no longer: do not run back again into darkness” (Theophylact, nearly word for word from Chrysostom).

Originally, all who were baptized and chrismated—or who received the laying on of hands—were visibly and tangibly filled with light, perceptibly for themselves and visibly to others. This is why the day of the Lord’s Baptism, on which the greatest number of those to be baptized gathered, was called the Feast of Lights. In those being baptized themselves, this was accompanied by a complete inner renewal—a state in which they felt that sin no longer had dominion over them (Rom. 6:12)—in other words, a state of dispassion which it remained for them only to preserve. Today we do not see this, being baptized in infancy. We cannot, however, fail to observe that among children entering the age of self-awareness, some are of a peaceful disposition of spirit and others of a turbulent one—each in varying degrees. This is a consequence of the preservation or non-preservation of the grace of holy baptism and chrismation. And in general today the order is this: in the initial sacraments grace is given in full; those who receive it at that time, by the faith and power of the Church, having come of age, take upon themselves the obligations that condition communion with grace—and from that moment become what the first Christians (and generally adults being baptized) became at the very hour of receiving the sacraments. Another difference now is that we, on entering the age of consciousness, find within ourselves passions that have developed to a greater or lesser degree despite the presence of grace: these are wild weeds growing in a field that the hand of the husbandman has not yet touched. They cover over the action of God’s grace as well. Therefore we always have before us the labor of struggle with the passions before the grace of God manifests itself in power. When the passions have at last been overcome through one’s own effort with the help of the same grace present within us, then the grace of the Spirit shines forth. And one who has attained this feels it, and others can perceive it. Then to such a person there fully applies: he was darkness and has become light—has become what the one who was originally baptized and received the laying on of the Apostles’ hands became at that very hour.

There is nothing mechanical in the spiritual life. At whatever degree of spiritual illumination a person may stand, there always lies upon him the duty to watch vigilantly and to labor diligently. As then, so now, for those who have received the action of the Spirit there is an imperative law, expressed in the following verse:

“Walk as children of light.” “Children of light”—that is, those who have been born anew by the grace of the Holy Spirit, in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the good will of God the Father. Children of light are children of God, worshipped in Trinity. Why?—On account of the God-likeness that grace restores in our spirit. To walk as befits children of light is to walk in God-likeness—manifesting in one’s walk, or in one’s life, the perfections or goodness of God. The holy John the Theologian, who also lived in Ephesus, defines this negatively as follows: “he who is born of God does not sin” (1 Jn. 3:9). And the holy Paul himself, in the Epistle to the Romans, after explaining the power of baptism, says: “let not sin have dominion over you… let not sin reign in your mortal body… your old man was crucified” in baptism; “that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin…” Now there remains for us one thing: “to walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:14, 12, 6, 4). Such is the state of the dispassionate!—But it is also the state of spiritual radiance, by reason of the manifestations of the activity of the Spirit, or the filling of the heart with the Spirit.—Therefore further on, explaining in what this walking as children of light consists, the Apostle points to the fruits of the Spirit.

Eph. 5:9. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.

The answer to one who might ask: what does it mean to “walk as children of light”?—It means to walk “in goodness and righteousness and truth.” For this is how those naturally walk in whom the Spirit dwells and acts; and these are precisely the children of light, born of God, Who is light. Therefore, to indicate the fruits of the Spirit is the same as to indicate how the children of light walk. The children of light are those born of the Spirit and filled with the Spirit. Where the Spirit is, there is life in goodness, righteousness, and truth. Therefore, whoever is a child of light walks thus and no otherwise. Chrysostom says: “He explains here what it means to walk ‘as children of light,’ and says: ‘in all goodness’—against the wrathful and the harsh—‘and righteousness’—against the covetous—‘and truth’—against false pleasure.” Thus, according to Chrysostom, followed by Oecumenius and Theophylact, goodness, righteousness, and truth, being established in us by the grace of the Holy Spirit, expel all passions—or they are established under the condition of the expulsion of the passions about which the Apostle has been writing up to this point. Having been established, they begin to act in place of the passions: for they are active forces, not dormant properties. If, then, where the passions have been driven out, goodness, righteousness, and truth take up their abode—it is evident that these determine the state of dispassion and purity. What precisely goodness, righteousness, and truth signify, another may explain differently from our commentators; but what cannot be otherwise interpreted is that they take root in place of the passions, and that they themselves encompass the whole radiant, God-like life.

What each of these foundational virtues means is clear from their very names. Goodness encompasses all love; righteousness—all justice, permitting nothing unrighteous not only in deed and word but also in thought. Love and righteousness are the clearest representatives of God-likeness, for God is love and righteousness itself.—What does truth denote?—Since it is impossible to live righteously and lovingly without knowledge of the truth, one may understand by this the knowledge of truth. This knowledge—a grace-given knowledge—illumines all the paths of life, indicating what is to be done and how in each case, in order to act in a manner pleasing to God. But there is nothing amiss in taking, together with Chrysostom, that what is here indicated is the tasting of the true good in the Lord, in contrast to deceptive sensual pleasures. Those who partake of the Lord taste that the Lord is good, and come to know that it is in this tasting alone that their true good lies. This knowledge, with the constant tasting of good things from the Lord, serves as the true and firm support of the spiritual life, preventing one from taking notice of the privations bound up with that life. Like a stream, the sweet true good flows into the heart from life according to God, when one tastes how good the Lord is.

To go into the details of what goodness, righteousness, and truth are would allow one to construct a whole system of Christian moral teaching and to present a complete and radiant image of the life of the children of light. One who wishes to be guided in this may refer to what is said in the extensive Catechism and in the Orthodox Confession in explanation of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”—“Blessed are the merciful”—“and blessed are the pure in heart.”—But the holy Apostle wished, it seems, to encompass all this with a single word as well, saying:

Eph. 5:10. Proving what is well-pleasing to God.

The children of light walk in goodness, righteousness, and truth—carefully examining, searching out, and ascertaining what, within the circle of deeds that fall under those virtues as their governing principles, is well-pleasing to God—and following that alone, not what their own will, tastes, and reasoning might prefer. For in the domain of the good, every good thing is truly good only in its proper place, at the proper time, in proper measure, and in proper application. What is in general well-pleasing to God is not difficult to know: in the word of God all such things are set forth in detail. What is written there the believer sincerely receives into his conscience, which, under the action of grace, from that point becomes a guide enlightened from above and a pointer to the will of God. Yet conscience indicates general principles at once, while how to determine the particulars of the good work at hand it does not always indicate clearly—for circumstances are many and tangled. God wills that even here one act according to His will, yet the interconnections of the matter prevent one from seeing that will clearly. The sons of light strive zealously to find the track of God’s will without fail, however tangled the contingencies of a matter may be. They search it out, and they approach a deed only when they have ascertained that it is God’s will for the matter at hand to be handled in precisely such and such a way. Theodoret writes: “You have been endowed with reason and have received the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. Therefore you can readily discern what is well-pleasing to God.”—Whether they always hit upon the track of God’s will, who can say? But this is beyond doubt: they search it out and always act with a clear awareness that the deed is pleasing to God. And life flows on in one and the same spirit; experience grows. If in the human arts men attain to such a degree that they can put together well, even perfectly, every part of the most skilled work, can it be that those trained by the Spirit of God do not at length reach such mastery in life as to be able to determine precisely what is well-pleasing to God, when, and in what measure? In persons guided by the Spirit of God, a right spirit is at last renewed within their inmost being. This right spirit ever dictates what is right before God, and he who possesses it perceives and recognizes that rightness directly.—This is the attainment of the perfect, in whom the passions that habitually lead us astray from the right path have been extinguished. But for those who have only begun a life well-pleasing to God, or who have reached even its middle stage, beyond the indications of conscience the counsel of the experienced is required. Under their guidance one’s own right spirit will mature, and the one who was guided will himself become a guide. So too is true Christian life mutually receptive, like grace and dogma.

Eph. 5:11. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even expose them.

The Apostle has depicted the radiant life of the dispassionate who have attained perfection, and has set forth the norm of their activity in always doing what is well-pleasing to God. Now he places before the eyes of those who live carelessly, heedlessly, in forgetfulness of God, seeking only the gratification of their desires and caught up in the vanities of this life, with no thought of salvation and no concern for their eternal lot, and says to them: take care that you do not in any way become partakers of deeds of that kind. He does not say: do not do such deeds—for those who have overcome the passions have no need of such a word, since they hate every sin and all that is impure and displeasing to God. But he says: have no fellowship—for one can, without doing evil oneself, become guilty of another’s evil through complicity in his deeds. How? When in any way one’s approval of another’s evil deeds becomes manifest. Occasions for this are many. The final limit is this: if you see, or hear, or know—and you keep silent. It is this that the Apostle has in view, and he says: do not keep silent, but expose them.

Must every Christian do this? Consider the course of the Apostle’s speech: it is addressed here to those who have overcome the passions, to the perfect, who know how to determine precisely what in any given case is well-pleasing to God. Such persons know how and when to direct a word of reproof so that it may be for the good of others. Reproof is a knife; one who does not know how to wield it may only inflict wounds, making the evil worse, yet never cut away the abscess or growth to bring healing to the sick. Blessed Jerome considers the matter from this angle: “To reprove others is a matter of great importance. Only he can worthily perform it to whom the following reproach cannot be applied: ‘Hypocrite, first take the beam from your own eye, and then’ you shall see ‘to take the speck from your brother’s eye’ (Lk. 6:42). Thus the prophets, unstained by any impurity of sin and keeping an undefiled conscience, were able to reprove others for their sins. From this it follows that he can reprove who is not himself reproved within (by his own conscience).” This applies only to perfect Christians, concerning whom the Apostle’s word is directed.

Yet everyone can—refuse to agree with one who acts wrongly, refuse to approve of him, decline even in jest to speak indulgently of what is evil; and one can say a great deal by a single look. The common and universally accessible form of reproving others is the reproof by the light of one’s deeds. He who withdraws from something shows by his very act that he does not approve of that from which he withdraws. This is why the life of the thoroughly God-fearing is always a reproof of the impious and sinful. One must stand firm in Christian rules of life and, by shining thus amid the surrounding darkness of deeds, expose them. Photius, as quoted by Oecumenius, says: “Expose them, he says, by the manner of your life. I do not say: expose them by listing their deeds and reproaching them for these—for I know that lovers of purity count even the mere remembrance of such things as a defilement. Yet they will be exposed no less—even more—when your deeds shine with virtue. Their deeds will be exposed, revealed, and brought to light by the light of your life. Brought to light, they will be illumined and transformed and converted to better things. The exposure of the shamefulness of their deeds by your life will bring them to self-awareness and self-condemnation, and this is the beginning of conversion and amendment.”—Thus the radiant life of Christians silently brings the unreformed to the very point to which the reproving word of the perfect is appointed to bring them.

Eph. 5:12. For the things that are done by them in secret, it is shameful even to speak of.

The thought is plain, but why it has been inserted here is not apparent. It is as though holy Paul distinguishes between the unfruitful works of darkness and what is done in secret by those same persons. The former, he says, expose; but the latter is so vile that it is shameful even to speak of it. And so it appears there is nothing to be said about it at all; those are self-condemned deeds, inasmuch as they are hidden even from those who themselves do nothing but the unfruitful works of darkness. The unfruitful works of darkness, in this case, would signify the common life of the impious and sinful—a life that is vain, sensual, without fear of God, with no thought of death and judgment—whose worthlessness and ruinous character those enmeshed in its current of affairs do not recognize. The Apostle says: strive to expose the worthlessness and ruinous nature of this life, but as for speaking of those shameful deeds done in secret, there is no need to defile the tongue. Their reproof already exists, and it will become even stronger once the reproof of the former has produced its effect.

Or thus: the unfruitful deeds of those who live in vanity and fearlessness are not always outwardly too blameworthy in appearance. This may restrain the tongue of one who would reprove them, out of consideration, as it is said, for human weakness. The Apostle says: do not look at this seemingly tolerable outward show—behind it are concealed such deeds that it is shameful even to speak of them; therefore reprove them without mercy.

But if one understands the reproof as being by deeds and by life, it will be more directly evident why holy Paul said this. Expose them by the light of your life, because if you were to reprove them by word, you would defile your tongue—for their deeds are utterly shameful. Holy John the Damascene writes: “It is not the same thing, he says, to reprove by word and to reprove by deeds. To reprove by word is shameful—it is shameful even to speak of what they do: they themselves hide it for shame. But if we are light and are able to expose the darkness of their deeds by the contrast of a radiant life, such a reproof is the very best.” Photius expressed this same thought, as we have seen.

Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

Eph. 5:13. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for everything that is made manifest is light.

The passage is somewhat obscure. It seems that holy Paul wished to show how the conscience of sinners and the impious is awakened through reproof. Their deeds are dark, their conscience has grown dim, and none of them sees how shameful and ruinous it is to live as they live. When, he says, you expose them by your radiant, dispassionate life and by your word, the full shame of their manner of life will be revealed, their own conscience will be awakened, and will in turn begin to expose them. In this way their shameful life will be seen in all its nakedness by everyone. Light has shone into this darkness, and everything hidden within it will be illumined. He wrote something similar to the Philippians: “Do all things without murmuring or disputing, that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:14–16). The life of perfect Christians—pure and blameless children of God—is indeed a luminary for a sinful generation. There are many books, many words, and everyone has his own mind: what is lacking?—The ability to live. Show how to live by your own life, and no word will be needed. All will be clear without a word. Without life, even a clear word remains somewhat obscure. But with life—the word is yet more powerful. An indication of how the word exposes the conscience we find in holy Paul’s description of the order to be kept in church assemblies, particularly regarding the use of the gift of tongues. In tongues, he says, if there is no one in the assembly who understands them, do not speak—unless there is someone who can translate and interpret your speech to the assembly. Otherwise it is better to keep silent. For in a church assembly everything must be directed toward the mutual edification of all. Let each person speak in an intelligible language and with intelligible speech. Suppose you have gathered in church and all have begun to speak in tongues. If someone uninstructed and unbelieving comes in at that moment, hearing you, will he not say that you have lost your minds? But if you speak in an intelligible language and with intelligible speech, then some unbeliever or uninstructed person who enters will be “convicted by all, [and] called to account by all, and thus the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so, falling on his face, he will worship God, declaring that God is truly among you” (1 Cor. 14:24, 25).—It is about this manner of exposing the conscience and revealing the secrets of the heart that holy Paul speaks in our present passage. Expose them, he says, both by word and by a contrasting manner of life. By the light proceeding from you, the ways of the impious and sinful will be illumined, and their impurity and shame—invisible to those who live according to them—will be disclosed and made manifest. Just as objects hidden in darkness, when light falls upon them, become manifest by that light, so too all the unfruitful works of darkness, being exposed by your word and your contrasting life, receiving this illumination from you, will be revealed and made known as worthless, and will be recognized as such by all. This is the meaning of the words: “but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light.” Further: “for everything that is made manifest is light”—this provides clarification of what precedes. An object is dark as long as the rays of light have not fallen upon it; but when rays do fall upon it, it becomes manifest, bright, illumined. The words “is light” mean the same as “is bright” or “is illumined.” Thus the life of the impious and sinful will become bright from your reproof and life—bright not in the sense of emitting light, but bright in its very darkness: it will be clearly visible how worthless that life is.

Holy Chrysostom says: “He said that you are light; but light reveals everything that happens in the dark, so that, he says, if you are virtuous and worthy of admiration, the impious will have no means of concealing themselves. For just as when a lamp stands, everyone is illumined, so when the light shines from you, the exposed wrongdoers will be struck down. Therefore one must expose them.—Just as a bodily wound, so long as it remains hidden, covered on the outside, and continues to go deeper, receives no treatment whatever, so also sin, as long as it is hidden as it were in darkness, continues to act with very great freedom and boldness; but as soon as it is exposed—it becomes light: not the sin itself—for how is that possible?—but the one who committed it. For if he is brought before the assembly, if he is admonished, if he repents, if he receives forgiveness—have you not dispersed the darkness that was his? Have you not then healed his wound? Have you not called forth fruit from barrenness?”

Eph. 5:14. Therefore it is said: Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

“Therefore it is said”—who is it that says it? No such saying is found in Holy Scripture. From where, then, does it come? Some say that holy Paul took it from some apocryphal book and, forgetting this, cited it as a scriptural passage; others say that such a saying came from the lips of the Lord Himself and reached holy Paul through oral tradition; others say that holy Paul heard such a voice in spirit and in heart and cites it as a word of the Lord; others hold that it was composed by holy Paul from various passages of Scripture. None of these explanations is satisfactory. Close to the truth, perhaps, is the conjecture of blessed Theodoret, that this is a verse from some liturgical hymn composed in those days by more perfect Christians or even by the Apostles themselves. That this was so, holy Paul himself attests in his epistle to the Corinthians: “each one of you has a psalm” (1 Cor. 14:26).—Or perhaps someone among the converted heard such words in an extraordinary way at moments of supernatural stirring—possibly from among the Ephesians themselves. Since this saying was known and circulated among the Ephesians as a word from on high, the Apostle expresses himself thus: “therefore it is said”—meaning: someone from on high, or a voice from on high, as you know.

Our other commentators do not concern themselves with indicating who said it, but take up directly the task of clarifying what is said.—What then is said?—A call to the sinner to turn in repentance to the Lord Saviour. Through the word and life of perfect Christians the conscience of the sinner has been awakened; he sees clearly his own worthlessness and is ready to seek salvation: what is he to do?—Rise from the sleep of sin, draw near to the Lord, and He will give you light. And in general, what else did Christians, by their manner of life and their confession of faith, say to those among whom they shone as lights, if not this: let every person arise from the sleep of sin and the death of sin and draw near to Christ the Saviour!

Natural sleep and natural death serve as expressions of sinful sleep and sinful death. The sleeping man, like the dead, does not hear, does not see, does not feel, does not move. So too the sinner is stricken in spiritual terms by heedlessness, insensibility, and blindness, and he has no movement whatsoever in the direction of saving his soul and attaining eternal blessedness through pleasing God.—Yet the spirit is in him, only stricken with a lethargic sleep. When a ray of grace passes through the anointed word of Christians or their radiant life and reaches the spirit, it at once opens its eyes and begins to display the movements proper to it—fear of God, the disquiet of conscience, condemnation of all former life and a demand for its change. Then the sinner himself hears within: arise, O sleeper!—But conscience alone will only torment him, without giving peace. Then comes the word about the Saviour, and it constrains the sinner to lay hold of faith in Him as the sole means of salvation. The sinner believes, is reconciled with God, and is illumined by Christ the Lord. Everything then becomes clear to him—what his life ought to be and what he may expect in the future. From that point he walks in the light of His countenance and rejoices only in His name.—Glory to the boundless mercy of God toward us sinners.

Eph. 5:15. See then that you walk carefully, not as unwise but as wise.

Having so high a calling—to be the light of the world—walk in such a way as to be equal to your station, so that no one may find anything blameworthy in you, except perhaps that you are Christians and wish all others to be Christians as well.—“Carefully” — πως ακριβως — precisely, correctly, punctually according to the obligations that rest upon you, exactly as is expected of you. But the commandments are known: act according to them—and that is all. What is the purpose then of the warning “see” and this norm: “not as unwise but as wise”?—The purpose is this: that even good deeds can be spoiled—sometimes by unseasonableness, sometimes by inappropriateness, sometimes by excessive zeal. Determining how to do a deed so that it falls precisely in its proper place, time, and measure is a matter of wisdom. Wisdom both sets and holds the general norm of conduct and examines each individual deed. Unwisdom acts headlong or, as it is also said, haphazardly. As a result it wastes both strength and time, yet bears little fruit—though it strives to do only good and not evil.—“See” moreover implies dangers, snares, and nets. And of these there is no lack. There are many entanglements in external circumstances capable of drawing one away from what is right and dragging one toward what is wrong; within oneself there is also much that can lead one astray; and the enemy does not slumber. There are so many reasons to be watchful and to walk with the utmost circumspection. Blessed Jerome writes: “Well is it said to the Ephesians that they, having their faculties trained for the discernment of good and evil, should walk carefully and, testing all things, hold fast to what is good. He who sees how he ought to walk and knows how to step carefully so as not to stumble against a stone, saying: ‘Your law is a lamp to my feet’ (Ps. 118:105), is certainly wise. And I do not think that some simple person, a man of limited mind, could fulfil this commandment, even if he wished to walk carefully. From this we must understand that even moral precepts—which many consider to be perfectly clear on the grounds that it is said: ‘the commandment of the Lord is radiant, enlightening the eyes’ (Ps. 18:9)—stand in need of thorough examination in order to find wise application. That radiant commandment enlightens the eyes of those who, having put aside foolishness, have devoted themselves to the active assimilation of the lessons of wisdom.”

Eph. 5:16. Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

He shows the way to fulfil the preceding commandment, to walk wisely and carefully. You will succeed in this, he says, by “redeeming the time.” But what does it mean to “redeem the time”?—Not to waste it to no purpose, but to strive in every way to make something of it that can serve the ends of our life. Blessed Theodoret says: “Redeem the time by using it as you ought.” Blessed Jerome writes: “When we spend time on a good deed, then we redeem it.”—The purpose of time lies in eternity; the present life is given as preparation for a blessed life in the future. He who directs everything toward this end, not allowing even small intervals of his time to pass in idle occupations, redeems all his time. The reason why one must hasten to redeem time in this way is that “the days are evil.” Evil can mean wicked; it can also mean cunning. A cunning person—you think you are about to catch him, but he slips through your hands. Such is time: it flows swiftly, so swiftly that you cannot lay hold of it. The Apostle says as it were: make haste; do what you can in every minute; do not let time pass by in vain—it will be gone, you cannot bring it back.

Or—“evil days” signifies the present evil age, full of evil and enticements. It seeks to take all our time from us, and we must strive not to allow this, strive to retain time for ourselves, to turn it to our own profit, for our eternal ends. Time is presented as the object of a struggle between us and the evil age. The latter pulls it toward itself, while we must pull it toward ourselves. Blessed Jerome writes: “By doing good, we redeem the time and make it our own, instead of selling it to evil. No one consumed by worldly cares and seeking riches redeems time for himself.—If we redeem the time as we ought, we in some sense transform it: we turn evil days into good ones and make them, out of days of the present age, days of the age to come.—One can also interpret this passage differently: O Ephesians, upon whom, having awakened from the sleep of this age, the Sun of Righteousness—Christ the Lord—has shone! Walk carefully and wisely, not yielding to the changeableness of the times, but on the contrary, striving, amid that changeableness, always to maintain yourselves invariably unchanged. Let persecution follow upon persecution—you hold to one course and care about one thing: not to change like the moon, as the foolish do, but to stand unwavering in what was once begun. I will explain my thought by an example from Scripture. Joseph had one aim—how to please God. And this remained unchanged in him amid the many changes of his life’s circumstances. It was not altered by his brothers’ hatred, nor by the state of slavery, nor by the enticements of his mistress, nor by the gloom of the dungeon, nor by power over all of Egypt. He was always the same, and by redeeming his time, he turned evil days into good ones. The same can be said of Job. He was subjected to various trials; but neither wealth nor poverty, neither wounds nor the reproaches of friends, nor abandonment by all, nor the subsequent restoration of his prosperity—nothing changed him. He redeemed his time and turned evil days into good ones.”

Eph. 5:17. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of God is.

Here is the means both for walking with wise circumspection and for redeeming the time as one ought!—Find out what God desires of you in any given situation, and fulfil that. He has already said earlier: “proving what is well-pleasing to God”; now he says the same again: “understand what the will of God is.” So important and so necessary is this, in order not to distort the proper mode of action through one’s own prudence, which is always insufficient. Our prudence—very often, if not always—distorts a matter, being deflected from rectitude by self-pity, desire to please others, and many other causes that seem respectable by human reckoning. But understanding the will of God disperses all the mists that hang over the paths of our life, and clearly points out the straight way, and thereby safeguards and establishes the rightness of our action, or brings it to light in life—on condition, of course, that the original covenant—to walk unwavering in the will of God, sparing not one’s life—is vividly present to the mind, so that this awareness, and not something else, governs the plans of our life. Blessed Jerome writes: “Since the time is evil and it is necessary to redeem it, one must first ask for wisdom in order to understand what the will of God is. We cannot walk carefully unless we first understand God’s will. In every situation one must first consider what God wills, and only after due deliberation do that which shall be recognized as well-pleasing to Him.”

Eph. 5:18. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.

On this bitter earth it is natural for a person who cannot forget that he was created for a life in paradise to seek diversions. Everyone seeks and finds them in his own way. Every people and every person has its own consolations. The most universally cheering element is wine. But being sensual, it provides a sensual kind of cheer. For Christians, who are born of the Spirit and are a dwelling-place of the Spirit, whose life is hidden with Christ in God, diversion of this kind is inappropriate. What is proper to them is joy in the Holy Spirit. The Apostle therefore writes to the Ephesians—to avoid the former and seek the latter.

“Do not be drunk.” But how is one to set the limit at which drunkenness begins? For Christians it is more fitting to abstain entirely—except in extremity, for medicinal purposes. Of course it is not wine that is blameworthy, but drunkenness; yet even a small quantity of wine kindles a fire in the blood, and the carnal cheerfulness that arises from it scatters the thoughts and undermines one’s moral steadfastness. What need is there to put oneself in so dangerous a situation? Especially when one recognizes that every minute of time must be redeemed, whereas by this act it is not minutes but whole days that are surrendered free of charge to the enemy—and not even free of charge, but at a cost?—Judged strictly, therefore, the drinking of wine ought to be entirely banished from use among Christians.

Holy Chrysostom, while permitting the use of wine for cheer, does so not for everyone, but only for those in sorrow and illness. “Do you want to know,” he says, “that wine is good?—Listen to the words of Scripture: ‘Give strong drink to those who are perishing, and wine to those who are in bitter distress’ (Prov. 31:6). And rightly so: for it has power to soften affliction and anguish and to drive away sorrow. ‘Wine gladdens the heart of man’ (Ps. 103:15).—The other sensible use of wine is drinking it for health. This is, according to Chrysostom, its primary purpose. ‘Wine,’ he says, ‘was given to us for nothing other than the health of the body. Listen to this blessed one (the Apostle Paul), who writes and says to Timothy: ‘Use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments’ (1 Tim. 5:23).—For this reason God created our bodies as temperate, requiring little to fill them, in order to teach us by this very fact that we were created for another life. He wished to grant us that life from the beginning, but since we made ourselves unworthy of it, He deferred it, and during this period of deferral He does not allow us to enjoy ourselves without measure. A small cup of wine and a piece of bread is sufficient to satisfy the human stomach. The Master of all irrational creatures God created as needing far less in comparison with them; He gave us a small body, indicating by this that we should strive toward another life. ‘Do not be drunk,’ says the Apostle, ‘with wine, in which is debauchery’: it does not save, but destroys not only the body but the soul as well.’”

“Debauchery” — ασωτια — dissoluteness, a riotous life, all-round licentiousness and depravity. Drunkenness is the mother and nurturer of all vices; it inflames also the irascible part of the soul. Holy Chrysostom says: “It makes us hot-tempered and brazen, reckless, irritable, and intolerable.” But most directly of all—it multiplies acts of fornication. For “the belly, exceedingly inflamed, seethes with lust,” as blessed Jerome expresses it.

“But be filled with the Spirit.” “As it is impossible to serve two masters, God and mammon (Matt. 6:24), so it is impossible to be filled both with the Spirit and with wine” (Jerome). This is why “the holy Apostle, having rejected the harmful intoxication, introduced in its place the spiritual one” (Theodoret). “Do you want,” he says, “to rejoice? Do you want to spend the day cheerfully? I give you spiritual song. Drunkenness destroys the harmony of our speech, causing one to stammer; in the same way it distorts the eyes and everything else. Learn to sing psalms, and you will see the sweetness of this occupation, for those who sing psalms are filled with the Holy Spirit, while those who sing satanic songs are filled with an unclean spirit” (holy Chrysostom).

How different are the consolations of carnal and spiritual people! The former are filled with wine, while the latter are filled with the Holy Spirit; wine arouses in the former a carnal merriment, while the Holy Spirit bestows upon the latter a spiritual and divine gladness; wine inflames the former to all manner of lustful acts, while the Holy Spirit teaches the latter to praise God and give thanks with every kind of good work. Come, O Comforter, Spirit of truth, and dwell—even in us!

What is the meaning of the words: “be filled with the Spirit”?—The Spirit of grace has dwelt in Christians from the time of baptism and chrismation. And is not the approach to the sacraments of repentance and communion the reception of the most abundant influxes of grace? To those who already possess the Spirit it is fitting to say: “do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19). But how is it possible to say to those same persons: “be filled with the Spirit”?—The grace of the Holy Spirit is given to Christians because such is the power of the Christian faith. But the Spirit dwelling in Christians does not accomplish their salvation alone, but together with the free acts of the Christian himself. In this respect a Christian can both grieve and quench the Spirit—and can also contribute to the Spirit’s perceptibly manifesting His workings within him. When this occurs, the Christian is aware of an extraordinary state within himself, expressed as a quiet, deep, and sweet joy, rising sometimes to an exultation of the spirit. Here is spiritual intoxication! Contrasting it with intoxication from wine, the Apostle says: seek not the one, but this intoxication—calling it being filled from the Spirit. Thus the commandment—to be filled with the Spirit—is nothing other than the instruction to conduct oneself, or to employ those actions on one’s own part, which would assist or give the Holy Spirit opportunity and scope to manifest Himself perceptibly: to work tangibly upon the heart.

In the writings of men of God who were counted worthy of such grace and even dwelt continually under its overshadowing, we find an indication of two things in particular required of a person for this end—the cleansing of the heart from the passions, and the turning of prayer toward God. These same means the Apostle Paul has also indicated. Earlier he taught how to cleanse the soul from the passions of lust and anger, and here—immediately following the words: “be filled with the Spirit”—he points also to prayer. Holy Chrysostom introduced these two methods into his commentary as well. That prayer opens to the Spirit of God the freedom to act upon the heart, he has already said in the passage quoted above, saying: “Those who sing psalms are filled with the Spirit.” And that purity from passions leads to the same end, he says immediately after: “Is it within our power to be filled with the Spirit?—Yes, within our power. When we shall cleanse our soul from falsehood, cruelty, fornication, impurity, and covetousness; when we shall become kind-hearted, compassionate, and attentive to ourselves; when there shall be no buffoonery in us—when we shall have made ourselves worthy of it, then what will prevent the Holy Spirit from drawing near and flying to us?—And He will not merely draw near, but will fill our heart.”

Eph. 5:19. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.

In what connection should these words be taken—in this way: when you have been filled with the Spirit, then sing with lips and heart? Or in this way: if you wish to be filled with the Spirit, then sing?—Is the singing with lips and heart presented here as a consequence of being filled with the Spirit, or is it indicated as a means toward that end?

The visitation of the Spirit is not within our power; it comes as the Spirit Himself is pleased to grant it. And when it comes, it brings the powers of our spirit into a state of intense stirring. A song to God then weaves itself of its own accord. Freedom is possible only in this: whether to allow this song to be sung within the heart, or to give it outward expression also in voice, audible to all. In the latter case, the Apostle has laid down as a rule that in the church everything is to proceed decently and in order.

From this it is evident that both being filled with the Spirit and singing under His action and visitation cannot be the subject of a commandment, but only of desire and seeking, together with the use of appropriate means. The guidance on the prudent outward expression of the song formed inwardly is not part of the content of the present text. Consequently, these words must be taken not in the first connection but in the second. Be filled with the Spirit; and for that purpose sing. Singing will stir the Spirit, or bring one into a state of the Spirit’s visitation, or of His perceptible action. Blessed Theodoret writes that the Apostle introduces spiritual intoxication when he says: “be filled with the Spirit,” and shows how to attain to it, namely: “by unceasingly praising God in song, by recollecting oneself, and by always stirring the mind.” This amounts to saying: by means of singing with tongue and heart.

It is not difficult to understand that in this matter the chief thing is not the beauty of the singing but the content of what is sung. And it works in the same way that a speech written with inspiration inspires the one who reads it. The feeling placed in the word passes through the word into the soul of the one who hears or reads it. So it is with the songs of the Church. Psalms, hymns, and odes of the Church are Spirit-moved outpourings of reverent feelings toward God. The Spirit of God filled His chosen ones, and they expressed the fullness of their feelings in songs. One who sings them as one ought can, conversely, enter into the feelings expressed in them and, being filled with them, bring himself nearer to the state capable of receiving the workings of the grace of the Spirit, or fit himself for that state. Such is precisely the purpose of ecclesiastical songs: through them to kindle and fan the spark of grace hidden within us. This spark is given by the sacraments. To fan it and transform it into a flame—for this purpose psalms, hymns, and spiritual odes were introduced. They act upon the spark of grace as the wind acts upon a spark that has fallen into combustible matter.

But let us recall that such an effect belongs to them on the condition that the use of them goes hand in hand with the cleansing of the heart, as holy Chrysostom said, following the course of the speech of holy Apostle Paul himself. Further conditions are indicated in this very passage, namely: first, that the songs be spiritual; and second, that they be sung not with the tongue only but also with the heart.

The Apostle indicates three kinds of songs: psalms, hymns, and odes. All of these were certainly used in the apostolic age and differed from one another in some way. Not having examples of them, we will not undertake to define what kind of songs those ecclesiastical songs bearing these names were, and will understand by each of them a song of the Church in general. And that these were indeed ecclesiastical songs—that is, songs sung in the assembly of Christians—is evident from the fact that the Apostle commands them to speak these songs to themselves, εαυτοις, which all commentators understand as: to one another mutually.

Thus, in order for the singing of ecclesiastical songs to lead to being filled with the Spirit, the Apostle requires that these songs be “spiritual”—by which one must understand not merely that they ought to be spiritual in content, but that they ought to be Spirit-moved, to be themselves a fruit of the Spirit, or to have poured forth from hearts filled with the Spirit. Otherwise they will not lead to being filled with the Spirit. This is according to the law that what has been placed into a song is what it will give to the one who sings it. If human thought has been placed into it, human thought is what it will produce; if a gracious element has been placed into it, grace is what it will stir up also in the one singing. But if it is a mere collection of words, it will produce nothing.

The Apostle’s second requirement is that the songs be sung not with the tongue only but also with the heart. It is not enough merely to understand the song; one must enter into sympathy with it, or receive its content into the heart, and sing it as though it were flowing from one’s own heart. From a comparison of the present passage with others it is evident that in the apostolic age only those sang who were in such a disposition, while others entered into a like-minded disposition with them—and the whole church assembly sang and made melody to the Lord only from the heart. What wonder that as a result the whole assembly was filled with the Spirit? What treasure is hidden in the songs of the Church, when they are performed as they ought to be!

Holy Chrysostom says: “What do the words mean: ‘singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord’?—This means: approach this task with attention, for the inattentive sing without profit, uttering only words, while their heart is wandering elsewhere.” Blessed Theodoret adds to this: “He sings with the heart who not only sets the tongue in motion but also stirs the mind to understand what is being uttered.” Other holy Fathers, writing about the turning of prayer toward God, hold that it is performed in the best manner when it is performed by the mind, established in the heart.

What the Apostle says here about the church assembly applies equally to private psalmody, which each person can perform separately at home. And the fruit of this can be the same, when it is performed as one ought—that is, with attention, understanding, sympathy, and from the heart.

Let us also note that although the Apostle’s words speak of singing, his thought points to the turning of prayer toward God. And this, properly speaking, is what stirs the Spirit.

Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

Eph. 5:20. Giving thanks always and for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalms, hymns, and odes presuppose primarily the praise of God—the depiction of the infinite perfections of God worshiped in the Trinity, and of His immeasurable works of creation, providence, redemption, and the awaited consummation of all things. But enter into the contemplation of all this, and you will see that the chief object of God’s care was, is, and shall be mankind—placed high in creation, fallen deeply in the fall, and raised exceedingly high in the restoration; that this blessing of restoration is already at work, and that those who sing have already been made partakers of it—not merely called to it, but already tasting its fruits. From this thanksgiving arises of itself—thanksgiving in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has saved all and saves each one; thanksgiving to God the Father, to whom by the economy of salvation we are adopted—not in name only, but in substance, becoming one with the Lord and being reborn by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Thanksgiving is so essential in the turning of prayer toward God that without it one cannot even approach this undertaking. For everything in us is God’s—even this very mind that turns to Him, and even the very boldness of turning to Him; everything in us is God’s—and our entire lot, both temporal and eternal, is in His right hand. Everything has been prepared by Him for us, and everything has been so arranged and adapted that every person has within his power the possibility of attaining eternal blessedness in Him. The perception of all this in particular by each person in relation to himself naturally places him in a state of thanksgiving that cannot be fully expressed. True thanksgiving is a grateful astonishment at the boundless goodness of God. Much impedes the growth of thankfulness—the failure to understand how all the contingencies of life serve our eternal good, especially unpleasant ones. To perceive this seems to be granted to no one. Living faith acknowledges that this is so, and disposes one to give thanks for all things. By everything that happens to us, God is ordering our salvation. So it is, even though it is not visible how. Holy Chrysostom, in illustration of this, says: I will bring you into a carpenter’s workshop. What will you see?—He cuts, he chisels, he planes. And what all of this is for, you do not see. Yet you do not say that he does all this without purpose; you assume that out of parts scattered about in disorder something useful will emerge—a table, a chair, a box. And so it turns out. Believe, then, that God too wishes to make something fitting for His Kingdom out of you. And so, when you find yourself in situations resembling planing, chiseling, and sawing, believe that all of it is necessary in order for something to come of you, and in accordance with that faith—bear it with good cheer and give thanks.

2. Particular rules of Christian life according to one’s station (Eph. 5:21–33; 6:1–9)

Holy Paul takes into consideration only the relations of members of a household, and determines the Christian mode of conduct for each class of them. Perhaps this is so because the Ephesians who constituted the Church stood in no other relations; or perhaps because these relations are the chief ones among people, and one cannot find anyone who does not stand in them in some capacity; or also because one who is proper here will be proper everywhere. First the Apostle determines the relations of the principal members upon whom the household itself rests—husband and wife — Eph. 5:22–33; then—of children and parents — Eph. 6:1–4; and finally—of servants and masters — Eph. 6:5–9. Since this whole household bond is held together by the submission of some to others, he places the lesson of submission at the head — Eph. 5:21; and thereafter applies it to those members of the household who are especially bound to practise it, namely: wives—“wives, be subject to your husbands” — Eph. 5:22; children—“children, obey your parents” — Eph. 6:1; servants—“servants, obey your masters” — Eph. 6:5. After the lessons for these members, he indicates the mode of conduct of the corresponding persons who hold the pre-eminent dignity of husbands — Eph. 5:25, fathers — Eph. 6:4, and masters — Eph. 6:9. It might seem that on the part of these latter not submission is rendered but authority exercised; but when they are commanded to attend with love to the needs of the corresponding subordinates and to arrange their well-being in every way, this says without words the same thing that the Lord said: let the greater be everyone’s servant (blessed Jerome). And the Apostle depicts the mode of service of the greater to the lesser within the household, characterizing their authority as a capacity for the broader doing of good. The Apostle Paul also touches upon the mutual obligations of household members in other epistles. In the Epistle to the Ephesians the distinctive feature is that the significance of the marital union is here more essentially defined. Nowhere else is it placed so high, and nowhere else is its dignity so deeply contemplated, as here, where the ideal of this union is pointed to in the union of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Church.

A) The principal lesson of mutual submission

Eph. 5:21. Submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Grammatically this text is connected to what precedes, but in content—to what follows. There is nothing surprising in this, for such transitions are not foreign to holy Paul. “Submitting” stands in a series with “giving thanks, singing, speaking.” But these latter are in connection with “be filled with the Spirit,” whereas “submitting” cannot be placed in connection with this. Holy Paul placed this word in a row with the others at the transition to the lessons that follow. We should receive these words as though it were said: “submit to ‘one another in’ the ‘fear’ of ‘God.’”

This lesson concerns not only the members of a household, though their relations flow from it; it encompasses all Christians. Let each one submit to another—that is, never insist on one’s own way, but bend one’s will under the will of another. Accordingly, having no will of one’s own is the foundational law in the mutual relations of Christians. The Apostle places no restriction on this law; unless one takes in this sense the words: “in” the “fear” of “God.” This means: not out of desire to please others, not in hope of some advantage, not for any other external considerations, but out of the “fear” of “God” alone—out of the certainty that it is God’s will, not in a general sense only, but in each particular case. In order to have such certainty, one must see in each case that the desire or demand of another, before which our will is to bow, will—if it is satisfied—bring him genuine benefit, temporal or eternal. Submission under this condition will flow from the Christian duty of self-denial and love, which is commanded to extend to the laying down of one’s soul for a brother. The binding force of these obligations rests upon the fear of God. How to fulfil this commandment of mutual submission perfectly amid the most varied combinations and entanglements of circumstances—therein lies Christian wisdom. This much is beyond doubt: he who sacrifices himself and what is his for others is never the loser, if he does all in the fear of God. For there is an All-seeing Eye, and a cup of water will not go without its reward in due time—the needful time for each one.

Holy Chrysostom says: “If you submit out of subjection, out of money, or out of shame, all the more (submit) out of the fear of God. Let not one occupy the place of a free person and another that of a slave; but let yours be a society of friends serving one another, where there is no anger, no vexation, no irritation, where all act by free choice and out of love for one another. Serve all as masters, and soon you will have them as servants. You will gain them even more if, receiving nothing from them, you give them your own. ‘Submitting to one another in the fear of Christ’ means that we should bridle all the passions, serve God, cherish love for one another—and then we shall be worthy of God’s loving-kindness” (abridged).

B) Application of this principle to the members of a household

Eph. 5:22. Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

He begins with the marital union, showing special solicitude for it, as holy Chrysostom observes. “And this is not without purpose, because if marital relations are in order, the children are also well brought up, the servants are well-behaved, and the neighbors, and friends, and kinsmen (rejoice)—all are pleased by their happiness, as by a certain fragrance. But where the opposite prevails, there is disorder and confusion in everything.” He began with wives either because “submit” applies more directly to them, or perhaps to show the high significance of the wife in family life. For as soon as she is in order, everything in the house is in order. The force of the Apostle’s speech lies not in pointing to the duty of submission—for this was already observed everywhere without him—but to the spirit in which this submission ought to be rendered, namely: “submit, as to the Lord.” A wife’s submission to her husband in Christianity takes on a higher character, as being one that flows from the fear of God and is equated with acts of pleasing God, as though rendered directly to the Lord Himself. She submits to her husband in the assurance that the Lord receives such submission as though it were rendered directly to Him; or she submits to him, not as to one who is stronger and dominant by the order of nature, but as to a representative of the Lord. Holy Chrysostom says: “Having said: ‘submit, as to the Lord’—the Apostle means either the following: as those who know that you are serving the Lord, as he says elsewhere, that they should submit if not for the sake of their husbands, then above all for the sake of ‘the Lord’ (Col. 3:18); or: if you submit to your husband, think that you are submitting as one serving the Lord. For if he who resists even the external civil authorities resists ‘the ordinance of God’ (Rom. 13:2), so much more does she who does not submit to her husband. God has required this from the beginning.”

Eph. 5:23. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the Church; and He is the Saviour of the body.

“The husband is the head.” It seems that holy Paul wished by this to remind his readers that the ancient decree—“your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen. 3:16)—has not lost its force in Christianity either; only here the husband is presented as the greater, not as the bearer of predominant authority, but as the all-round guardian and protector of the wife, and only in this sense—not in any other—as her head, to whom she, as the body, must turn. The husband, according to the Apostle, stands in the marital union in the same relation to the wife as Christ to the Church in the order of grace, or according to the economy of salvation. The husband is compared with Christ, the wife with the Church. The point of comparison is headship: the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is head of the Church. But the Apostle writes not of what is, but of what ought to be. Therefore in his words one must see this thought: the husband is the head of the wife in the same sense in which Christ is head of the Church. But Christ is head of the Church as the Saviour of this, His body. Then let the husband too be the head of the wife by virtue of his being her saviour. And let this be for the husband the basis of his headship, and for the wife—the motive for her submission. Having said: the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is of the Church, the Apostle had only to draw the conclusion: therefore let wives be subject in everything to their husbands as the Church is to Christ—which is what he does in the following verse. But he deliberately added the clause in which he indicates why Christ is the head of the Church, in order to give the husband’s headship a Christian foundation and the wife’s submission a most moral motive—namely: “He is the Saviour of the body.”

Christ is the head of the Church because He is the Saviour of this, His body. He became head through the salvation of the saved, and the saved became members of Him through salvation. In placing the headship of the husband over the wife on a level with the headship of Christ over the Church as her Saviour—does this not indicate that the husband ought to show himself the saviour of the wife, so that the wife may see in him her saviour, and on that feeling that he is her defender, keeper, and shelter, and that she is under his protection as under a mountain, she ought to maintain and enliven her submission to him? Theophylact writes: “As Christ, being the head of the Church, cares for it and saves it, so too the husband is the saviour of the wife, his body. How then should this body not submit to the head that cares for it and saves it?” “In this way,” says holy Chrysostom, “he proposed to both husband and wife, as the foundation of their happiness, mutual love and care, pointing each of them to what is fitting for each—the one to authority and solicitude, the other to submission.” The same thought is in blessed Theodoret: “Most wisely did the divine Apostle propose this example. For it is sufficient both to instil respect for their husbands in wives and to place tender love for their wives in husbands.”

Eph. 5:24. But as the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

This text is plain in itself both in content and in the way it stands here. It is a direct inference from what precedes and presents nothing new that was not said above. Our commentators say almost nothing on it. Only blessed Theophylact addresses the question: “How is one to submit in everything? Must one even submit when he strays into unbelief and begins to draw her toward the same?—But,” he says, “the Apostle’s word here is not about unbelieving husbands, but about believing ones. Christ, the head of the Church, is God; He gathers and leads His Church to eternal glory. This she knows, and without wavering submits to Him in everything He is pleased to do in her and with her in her inner ordering and external lot. But in the case of a man, doubt is always appropriate, and therefore so is a limitation upon this ‘in everything.’ This, moreover, is very strongly limited in the Apostle’s own speech by the words: ‘as to the Lord,’ which also convey this thought: in the purposes and aims of the Lord, as is said in the Epistle to the Colossians: ‘as is fitting in the Lord’ (Col. 3:18), and still more by the comparison of the husband’s headship with the headship of the Lord, which flows from salvation. What kind of saviour is a husband if he saves the body only on condition of destroying the soul?!”

Another observation is made by blessed Jerome—concerning the sanctity of married life. “If the wife is to submit to her husband as the Church to Christ, then the bond between husband and wife must be holy, and they must never serve the passions of the flesh.” The same thought is in holy Damascene: “The Apostle obliges the wife to submit to her husband after the manner of the Church’s submission to Christ, in order that this submission may be not of a carnal but of a spiritual character.”

Eph. 5:25. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her.

Having given wives a commandment and an example of submission, he now gives husbands a commandment and an example of love—in the love of Christ the Saviour for the Church. In the marital union the chief duty of the wife is to submit to the husband; the chief duty of the husband is to love the wife. But just as in the husband the duty of heeding the reasonable counsels and wishes of the wife is not excluded, so in the wife—the duty of loving the husband. Everything between them must be mutual. Holy Paul, in setting forth the relations pleasing to God, insists especially on what is more likely to be violated by either side. That the wife loves—of this there is no need to speak, but she is more likely to forget herself. That the husband loves to subordinate the wife to himself—this happens of its own accord, but he may carry it further than is proper. The holy Apostle guards against these possible deviations on both sides. The wife must above all maintain submission to her husband, because a wife’s attempt to take the upper hand disrupts family peace. The husband must above all love his wife, because selfishness on his part makes the prosperity and sweetness of family life impossible.

If one compares upon whom the Apostle lays the heavier burden, it will prove to be upon the husband. Having accepted in all its strictness that wives, after the manner of the Church’s submission to Christ the Lord, must be subject to their husbands in everything, one must accept in equal strictness the love that is obligatory for husbands—in the measure of Christ the Lord’s love for the Church. But the Lord gave Himself for the Church; consequently, husbands must extend their love for their wives to the point of readiness to sacrifice their very lives for them. Where love truly exists, this comes about of itself. But justice too demands it: for if one takes submission in its full force, one sees that it is a continuous dying—a cutting off of one’s own desires and reasoning. It is only just that, for such a prolonged death on the part of the wife, the husband should, when need arises, die but once.

Holy Chrysostom understands the husband’s love for his wife in this full force. Turning to the husband, he says: “You have heard of great obedience, you are pleased with Paul, who as some wonderful and spiritual teacher teaches us the order of life. Very well! But hear also what he requires of you—he brings forward the same example further: ‘Husbands,’ he says, ‘love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church.’ Have you seen the measure of submission?—Listen then also to the measure of love. Do you want your wife to submit to you as the Church submits to Christ?—Then take care of her yourself as Christ cares for the Church. Though it should be necessary to sacrifice your life for her, or to endure and suffer whatever it might be, do not refuse; and though you have endured all this, do not think that you have done anything comparable to what Christ did. Know how to make her submissive to you by your great care for her, by love, by friendship. There are no bonds stronger than these, especially for husband and wife. A servant can sometimes be bound by fear; but the companion of one’s life, the mother of one’s children, and the source of all family joys must be bound to oneself not by fear and threats, but by love and affection. What kind of marriage is it where the wife trembles before the husband? What pleasure can a husband enjoy who lives with his wife as with a slave and not as with a free woman? If it should happen that you suffer something on her account, do not complain—Christ did not do so.”

Eph. 5:26, 27. That He might sanctify her, having cleansed her with the washing of water by the word; that He might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

When mentioning these salvific acts of the economy of our salvation, the holy Apostle Paul does not do so in order to expound them—he does that elsewhere; but his soul was always full of the contemplation of these mysteries, and he could not let pass any occasion that presented itself without touching on them. He wished to weave them through every order of life, so that, in whatever combinations of relationships life might flow, it would not draw one away from contemplating them but would rather quicken and sustain that contemplation. In this regard one may suppose that the Apostle’s intention was to carry further the parallel of a Christian husband’s obligatory duties to his wife, drawn from the relation of Christ the Lord to the Church.

The very content of these verses is clear. The Lord gave Himself for the Church, graciously bearing death on the cross. He gave Himself in this way so that He might sanctify the Church—that is, all believers, through the sanctification of each individual Christian. How? “Having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word”—that is, through holy baptism, in which, with the threefold immersion in water, the words are pronounced: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” These are the visible actions of holy baptism. Invisibly, however, the one being baptized is plunged into the death of Christ, receives the forgiveness of sins, and dies entirely to a sinful life; then, rising up out of the water, he partakes of the power of Christ’s resurrection and is reborn to a new, spiritual, holy life. The baptized person is pure and holy, not merely in name but in very truth. This happens to each individual, and consequently to all who draw near to the Lord, to the whole Church. The entire Church is holy, having passed through the cleansing and sanctifying bath of regeneration. “That He might present her to Himself.” These words show why it has been so ordained that all must pass through the font of baptism. For this reason, the Apostle says, the Lord acts in this way: to present the Church before Himself—that is, all believers—glorious, adorned with inner perfections, lacking any deficiency, pure and without blemish. A bride to be presented to her bridegroom, and even more so to be led to the altar, is washed, cleaned, and adorned in every way. This is precisely what Christ the Lord does with the Church. Having purposed to be united with her, He adorns her with every virtue. For it is not fitting that anything should be united with what is most pure and perfect while remaining in impurity and with defects. In the words “that she might be holy and without blemish,” one may see an indication of the continuation of the sanctification received in baptism throughout one’s whole life. There, everything old and disfigured dies and everything new and pure is given, so that one may be able to be united with Christ; and then, having been vouchsafed this great blessing, to preserve oneself in holiness and blamelessness throughout life, so as to preserve that union with Christ.

Such is the relationship of the Church to Christ. The Apostle Paul does not draw the parallel of a husband’s similar relationship to his wife, leaving that for each reader to make. His chief aim—to dispose a husband toward every loving solicitude for his wife—is achieved even by this simple reference. Our commentators develop this parallel at length. Blessed Jerome mentions that certain heretics abused this passage, attempting to prove that marriage in the ordinary sense is not permissible for Christians. “To such persons,” he says, “one must give a brief answer: what the Apostle forbids here is passions, impurity, and sensual lust—not the holy union. The begetting of children within the marriage bond is permitted, whereas desire of the sort found in fornication is condemned in spouses. Let every husband and wife, reading this, understand that after conception they ought to exercise themselves more in prayer than in marital pleasures. In animals this is fulfilled by the law of nature, but in Christians the same must be a work of freedom, so that self-restraint may have moral worth and deserve a reward.”

Blessed Theodoret sees in this passage a call to general solicitude for one’s wife. “Imitate the Lord’s solicitude, and show toward those who dwell with you in marriage the same care that the Lord showed toward the Church. For Christ the Lord did not refuse to die for His Bride, so that He might cleanse her, make her glorious, wipe away the marks of her former age, and present her free from every blemish. Therefore we too must have the same love for our spouses and care for them as for our own bodies.”

“The holy Chrysostom urges a husband to attend above all to the moral character of his wife, both in choosing her and throughout life together. ‘That He might sanctify her, having cleansed her.’ This means she was unclean; it means there were filthy stains upon her; it means she was disfigured and of no worth. Yet whatever wife you may take, your bride will not be as the Church was when Christ found her; she will not differ from you as much as the Church differed from Christ. And yet He was not revolted by her, nor did He hate her for her extreme ugliness. Do you want to know how ugly she was? Listen to what the holy Paul says: ‘For you were once darkness’ (Eph. 5:8). Do you see her blackness? What is blacker than darkness? What more can be said? She was also foolish and blasphemous. Yet notwithstanding all these faults, He gave Himself for the ugly one as for a beautiful one, as for a beloved, as for one worthy of wondrous praise. And having received her in that state, He adorns and washes her, and does not refuse this work. And not only did He adorn her, but He also made her glorious, having no spot or blemish or anything of that kind. Do not demand from your wife what she does not have. You see that the Church received everything from the Lord? Through Him she became glorious; through Him she became blameless. Do not therefore turn away from your wife because of her unattractiveness. She is God’s creation; it is not her you are reproaching but the One who made her. What fault is the wife’s? Do not praise her for beauty either. Such praise and such hatred, and even the most passionate love, are characteristic of depraved souls. Seek beauty of soul; imitate the Bridegroom of the Church. Bodily beauty produces great insolence and much that is unreasonable; it stirs up jealousy and often gives rise to suspicion of shameful conduct. But it gives you pleasure, you say? For a month or two, and at most a year; but after that, not at all—on the contrary, the wonder of it quickly loses its charm through habit. And what is bad in it remains forever: blindness, folly, pride. But in the pleasure given by a different kind of beauty there is nothing of the sort; there the love that began in the right way remains constant, as love for beauty of soul rather than of body. Let us therefore seek in a wife prudence, moderation, and gentleness; these are the marks of true beauty. But let us not seek bodily beauty, and let us not reproach her much for what does not depend on her—or rather, let us not reproach her at all, for that is characteristic of insolence—and let us not be grieved or indignant. Do you not see how many there are who have lived with beautiful wives and yet ended their lives miserably? And on the contrary, how many there are who had wives of no great comeliness, yet lived to ripe old age in complete prosperity? Let us destroy the inner defilement, cleanse the inner defects, and blot out the stains of the soul. God desires such beauty. Let us make her (our wife) beautiful for God, not for ourselves. Let us not seek money or outward nobility, but nobility of soul. Who, tell me, would neglect what is more important and busy himself with what is trivial? But alas, we always act in this way. If we have a son, we do not strive that he be virtuous but only to find him a wealthy wife; not that he be well-mannered, but that he be rich. And if we plan a way of life, we likewise do not concern ourselves with how to live without sin, but with how to gain more profit. Money has come to mean everything. This is why everything has gone to ruin—because we are possessed by this passion.”

The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Eph. 5:28. So ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies: he that loves his own wife loves himself.

He puts forward a new, stronger, and clearer incentive to love. What was said before could have been understood obscurely and might have seemed remote. So he speaks as if to say: perhaps what was said is not so plain to you—I will put it more directly and nearer to home: “love your wives as your own bodies”; for in very truth they are your bodies, and in loving them you are not turning toward someone else but toward yourself, since in loving your wives you love yourselves. The holy Chrysostom traces the flow of the argument thus: “The Apostle passes to a stronger example; and not only that, but to one nearer and clearer, and to a new reason. For that previous example did not seem altogether necessary—lest anyone should say, He was Christ, He was God, and He gave Himself—the Apostle proves the same thing by another means, saying: ‘so ought they to love, as their own bodies.’ This, then, is not a favor but a duty.”

What follows from the duty of loving one’s wife “as one’s own body” is self-evident. “But in what way is a wife the flesh of her husband? Listen: ‘Behold, now,’ said Adam, ‘bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh’ (Gen. 2:23). Eve is flesh from Adam’s flesh” (the holy Chrysostom). This foundation the Apostle does not state here, presuming it to be known. For whoever knows how the woman was originally formed cannot wonder how a wife is the body of her husband. The first mother Eve was taken from the first father Adam, and Adam straightway defined her by saying: “Behold, flesh of my flesh.” But what was then accomplished physically is afterward, by the law established by God, accomplished between husband and wife morally. After marriage, a husband has his wife as part of himself in his own feeling; and in her own feeling a wife has herself grafted onto her husband, so that in very truth they are both one flesh—one being, one person. The Apostle speaks as though to say: there is no need to teach you how to love your wife; love her as a part of yourself. Certainly love for a wife requires sacrifices (as was implicit above in the reference to the relation of Christ the Lord to the Church), but these sacrifices are not made for someone else—they are made for yourself. He who loves his wife loves himself. Therefore, he who sacrifices anything for his wife sacrifices for himself.

Eph. 5:29. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ “the church.”

If a husband’s love for his wife is so natural, there would seem to be no need to speak of it. Love is indeed always present, but it often loses its true meaning. It happens that a husband loves his wife and yet treats her as an object. The Apostle reminds such a man: take care—she is a part equal to yourself, for you and she together form one whole. It happens that a husband looks upon his wife with too carnal an eye. The Apostle reminds such a man: she is your body, but not for bodily pleasures; have for her a rational love, as the law commands us to relate to the body rationally. He who relates to his body rationally nourishes and cherishes it not for the sake of fleshly pleasures, but because it is the necessary instrument for fulfilling the purposes of life (Blessed Jerome). Guard, nourish, and cherish your wife as an instrument—not a mechanical one, but a self-acting one—as a helper and fellow-worker.

The Apostle’s aim in these words is not to dispose husbands to love their wives—that happens of itself—but to transform this love from a natural instinct into a moral law and duty, which must not be violated by any caprice of the heart but must retain its force throughout life, as the union of soul with body; and especially to transform it from carnal love into spiritual love—to spiritualize it—which he does by pointing to the rational care of the body, and most of all by the example of Christ the Lord’s relationship to the Church.

Everyone nourishes and cherishes his own flesh: nourish and cherish your wife also, but as Christ the Lord nourishes and cherishes His Church. By the words “to nourish and to cherish” the Apostle has indicated an all-round solicitude, and by referring to Christ’s nourishing and cherishing of the Church he has defined the character and aims of that solicitude. In what way does Christ exercise care for the Church? “That she might be holy and without blemish,” as was said above. One must suppose that the Apostle has in view similar aims in the nourishing and cherishing of a wife, and not merely feeding, clothing, and shoeing her. Blessed Jerome suggests the thought: let wives also strive toward full pleasing of God, so as to grow up into a perfect man—and to cease being women. Then, taking the Apostle’s words in a figurative sense and seeing in the husband the soul and in the wife the body, he says: let the soul so train its body that it too may see the salvation of God. Finally he brings both together and says: “Let husbands cherish wives, and souls bodies, so that wives are transformed into husbands and bodies into souls—and that the distinction of sexes might cease. But as among the Angels there is neither male nor female, so we also, who are to be equal to the Angels, let us from now on begin to be that which we are promised to be in heaven.”

Yet one must not lose sight of the fact that the Apostle is elucidating the duty of love solely from the Christian point of view. The example of Christ the Lord’s love for the Church he sets forth both as a model and, perhaps, in order mutually to illuminate the relationship of Christ the Lord to the Church as well, by applying what is known in the natural order to the orders of the supernatural. But it is also true that there is nothing like, nor can there be anything like, the way Christ nourishes and cherishes the Church in any natural order whatsoever. What is meant here is not what the Lord said about His care for the Old Testament Church: “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings” (Matt. 23:37; Lk. 13:34)—though this also has its place—but something more particular, more intimate, more essential. For between Christ and the Church the union is not an external one—of one alongside another—but the most inward—of one in the other. Eve was from Adam; but she became separate from him, and their union remained of the soul, as is the union of husband and wife. The Church also is from Christ, but she does not become separate from Him; rather, she has Him within her, penetrating all that is in her and living within her wholly. This the Apostle expresses in the following verse:

Eph. 5:30. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

We—all believers—are members of His body; we constitute His body, which is the Church. Each believer is reborn from Christ and enters into His body without being separated from Him. “Of His flesh and of His bones”—a figurative expression of the fact that Christian being is derived by us from Christ. The holy Chrysostom says: “As the Son of God is of our nature, so we are of His substance; and as He has us in Himself, so we have Him in ourselves.” This is accomplished in baptism and sustained by communion: for “as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27)—these are not mere words but a real transformation according to the image of Christ, and on account of such likeness a real union with Him. Likewise, what is said of the communicant—“He abides in Me, and I in him” (Jn. 6:56)—is a matter of real substance.—This is how we are of His flesh and of His bones, and how we are His members.—The holy Chrysostom says: “What does ‘of His flesh’ mean? It means, truly from Him. But how do we thereby become members of Christ? In this way: we were born like to Him. How from His flesh? You who partake of the mysteries know this, for through it we are forthwith transformed.” Blessed Theodoret writes: “As Eve was formed from Adam, so are we from the Lord Christ. With Him we are buried and rise again in baptism; we eat His body and drink His blood.”

This is how Christ the Lord nourishes and cherishes His Church—all believers. The matter is accomplished more essentially and more deeply than general providence.—So it is, though it is beyond comprehension and perhaps even exceeds some people’s faith. O Lord, increase our faith!

Eph. 5:31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

The meaning of the passage is clear. “Honor this first law, which was given at the creation of woman and is implanted in human nature. For he who enters into marriage, leaving his parents, is united to his wife, and the bond becomes so close that two are regarded as constituting one flesh” (Blessed Theodoret). But for what reason is this law cited?

All the commentators relate these words to verse 28, as proof of why a husband, loving his wife, loves her as his own body and as himself. For this reason, the Apostle says, this is and must be the case: they become one flesh. But it seems closer to relate them to the immediately preceding discourse on the close, living union of believers with Christ the Lord. It was said: we are of His flesh and of His bones. Therefore, that law which God proclaimed following the same words spoken by Adam also applies to us. Adam said: “Behold, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” and God sealed this with a law: for this cause a man shall leave, and so forth. So shall it be from now on through all generations of the age. The holy Apostle, having cited Adam’s words to illuminate the union of believers with the Lord, also cites that law concerning the joining of husband and wife. But if the words “of His bones and of His flesh,” taken from Adam’s speech, must be understood as referring to the union of believers with Christ, then why should the law proclaimed immediately after Adam’s words be understood in a literal, rather than an applied, sense—as referring to the union of believers with Christ? There is no necessity for this, all the more since immediately following, the Apostle himself defines the direction of his discourse: “this I say with reference to Christ and the Church.”—Therefore, nothing prevents us from understanding the words of this verse as pointing to the law by which Christ the Lord is united with believing souls and believing souls with Christ the Lord. And it seems the Apostle had especially in view this latter aspect of the union, namely the union of souls with the Lord—and the aim of his words “two shall be one flesh” is: believers and the Lord are one. For this reason the Apostle uses: αντι τουτου — for this cause. Before, he said: the Lord nourishes and cherishes us, since we are flesh from His flesh and bone from His bones. Now he says: for this cause—we must be so cleaved to Him as to constitute one. For He has already so shared in us as to give Himself wholly to us. A pointer to such a thought may be found in the words of the holy Chrysostom: “Thus also we become with Christ one flesh—by communion.” And a little later: here there takes place “a spiritual union in which the soul is joined to the Lord by an unutterable bond, as He alone knows. Hence it is also said: ‘he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit [with the Lord]’ (1 Cor. 6:17). Of this the Psalmist also says: ‘Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget also your own people and your father’s house: so shall the King greatly desire your beauty’ (Ps. 44:11, 12).” This is likewise suggested by the words of Blessed Jerome: “These words in their figurative sense refer to Christ and the Church. Adam prefigured Christ, Eve the Church. As from Adam and Eve all the human race was born, so from Christ and the Church all the multitude of believers was born and continues to be born—and this multitude, constituting one body, is again inserted into the side of Christ and fills the place of the rib, having become one flesh with Him, as with a husband. Of this the Lord Himself prayed in the Gospel: ‘that they all may be one: as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us’ (Jn. 17:21).”

With this understanding, the words that follow also become clear:

Eph. 5:32. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

It is evident that the Apostle cited the preceding words in order to turn the readers’ minds to the relationship of Christ the Lord to the Church and the Church to Christ. This he now confirms, speaking as if to say: these words I cite in their highest, mystical significance; they directly indicate the close union of husband and wife, but they also express the great mystery of the communion of Christ the Lord and the Church. How this is to be applied to that mystery the Apostle does not explain, leaving that for the believers themselves to work out; but as a guide he has already said several words above, namely: Christ nourishes and cherishes the Church, we are of His flesh and of His bones. After this it is not difficult to carry the correspondence further and to see in the words expressing the essence of marriage and its indissolubility also an expression of the mystical union of Christ the Lord with the Church. The Son of God in the Incarnation, as it were, left His Heavenly Father (without being separated from Him) and entered into a mystical union with redeemed humanity—the Church—which is also from His side and together with Him constitutes one.

The holy Chrysostom, while pointing to the great mystery in the marriage union as well, holds that the true mystery—even in his reading—is in the Lord’s condescension and His union with the Church. He says: “Truly this is a mystery—that a man, leaving the one who begot him, bore him, raised him, and leaving her who conceived him, suffered with him, gave birth to him in pain—leaving those who did him so much good, to whom he was accustomed—is united with one whom he had not previously seen, who has nothing in common with him, and prefers her to everything. Truly this is a mystery. And parents are not grieved—on the contrary, they grieve when this does not happen—and as a sign of joy they do not spare money or expenses. Truly this is a great mystery, containing a hidden wisdom.”—But the holy Chrysostom said this after having already pointed to in these words the mystery of the union of Christ the Lord with the Church. “I speak,” the Apostle adds, “concerning Christ”—as He also, leaving the Father, descended and came to His bride and became one spirit with her (and she with Him). “For ‘he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit [with the Lord]’” (1 Cor. 6:17). The same is written by Theodoret: “Christ Himself, leaving the Father on high, was united with the Church. But He left according to the notion of the Incarnation, because as God He is inseparable from God, since He Himself also has an uncircumscribed nature.” In this lies the mystery.—Blessed Jerome expounds this truth more fully: “Not everything that is narrated about Adam and Eve, written in the book of Genesis, can conveniently, as some think, be applied to Christ and the Church, but only what is said in the present passage, namely: ‘for this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.’ The first man Adam, as the first prophet, foretold this of Christ and the Church—that our Lord and Saviour would leave His Father God and His mother the heavenly Jerusalem, and would come to earth for the sake of His body the Church, and would form her from His side: for this purpose the Word became flesh. And as not all mysteries are equal but one mystery is greater and another lesser, he now says: ‘this mystery is great’; and showing at the same time a sign of his own humility, he adds: ‘but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.’ Gregory the Theologian, a most eloquent man and deeply versed in Scripture, when we were discussing this passage with him, said more than once: see how mystical is that little section (apparently in the book of Genesis), since the Apostle, interpreting it with reference to Christ and the Church, does not assert that he has expounded it as the dignity of the text demands, but speaks as if to say: I know that this passage is full of unspeakable mysteries and requires a divine heart of its interpreter; but I, in the smallness of my understanding, think it should be understood with reference to Christ and the Church—not because anything could be greater than Christ and the Church, but because it is very difficult to interpret everything said about Adam and Eve with reference to Christ and the Church.”

Eph. 5:33. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

It seems to have occurred to the Apostle that someone might misuse his words about the cleaving of believers to the Lord until they become one with Him, and begin to teach that for Christians the conjugal love of husbands for their wives is altogether out of place, and consequently marriage itself as well. Hence he qualifies his words: “Nevertheless…” Yet this does not prevent each of you from loving his own wife; let every man love his wife as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. One should add: only let all things be in the Lord—so as not to allow such love to become an obstacle to cleaving to the Lord. The holy Chrysostom says: “As if he had said: this allegorical proof does not abolish the necessity of love.” “Although I received those words in a mystical sense, yet this does not annul that literal law stated here, which defines the relationship of husband and wife” (Theophylact). The same is said by Theodoret and Oecumenius.

The words “and the wife see that she reverence her husband” do not presuppose the fear of a slave, but oblige a wife to honor and respect her husband—as it were, to hold him in reverence. Thus Blessed Jerome: “Let her fear, that is, let her honor her husband and hold him in reverence.” In this sense, the same is said here as was said above: “submit yourselves”—that wives should not depart from their husband’s will but honor his arrangements and carry them out faithfully. The holy Chrysostom says: “A wife is the second authority; therefore she must not demand equality with her husband, since she is under the head, nor must he look upon her with arrogance as upon a subordinate, for she is his body. If the head neglects the body, it will perish itself; but in return for her obedience, the head—the husband—must bring love: as the head, so the body. But what kind of love can there be where there is fear?—It is precisely there that it will be found. For she who fears also loves, and she who loves also fears, as a head, and loves as a member: for the head is a member of the whole body. For this reason he subjected her to him and exalted the husband above her, so that there might be peace. The Apostle showed the pattern of love, but not the pattern of fear. Why is this? Because he wants love to predominate. If it is there, everything else will follow; but if only fear is there, not fully so. He who loves his wife, even if she is not very obedient, bears everything; but if spouses are not bound by the power of love, harmony between them is a difficult thing. Fear in that case does not produce the same effect. Therefore the Apostle dwells especially on what is stronger. And the wife, although she seems to be assigned the worse part in that fear is prescribed for her, loses nothing thereby, because what is especially important is prescribed to the husband—he is commanded to love her.—And you, husband, hearing of fear, require the fear that befits a free woman, not as from a slave: for she is your body. And if you act otherwise, you will disgrace yourself, dishonoring your own body. What is this fear? That she should not contradict, that she should not step outside your obedience, that she should not strive for the preeminent place. It is enough to stir up only this kind of fear. But if you love as you ought, you will gain far more respect for yourself, and will gain it not so much through threats as through love itself. The female sex is very weak; it needs great help and particular indulgence. Indulging her weakness, provide her with everything, do everything for her, and bear with her: this is necessary for you. Although the wife also has authority in the home—the second authority; although she has governance and is of equal honor with the husband, yet for all that the husband has something more, namely, the foremost care of the house. Corresponding to Christ, he also received the charge not only to love his wife as he ought, but to order her life aright. ‘Let her be,’ he says, ‘holy and without blemish.’ If you make her holy and without blemish, everything else will follow from this. Seek what is of God, and what is human will follow very easily. Rule your wife, and your home will be well-ordered.—Remember Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, the three hundred and eighteen members of his household: how well-ordered was their home, how wholly full of godliness. Sarah fulfilled the apostolic commandment and feared her husband (calling him lord). And Abraham so loved her that he listened to her in everything she rightly desired.”

Eph. 6:1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

“As artists, when depicting bodies, begin with the head, then move to the neck, and finally to the feet, so does the blessed Paul proceed in his discourses. Having spoken first of husband and wife, he now comes to speak of children, because the husband holds authority over the wife, and over the children the husband and wife together. Listen, then, to what he says: ‘children, obey your parents in the Lord’” (the holy Chrysostom).

Obedience is the fundamental duty of children toward their parents, the natural consequence of the physical and moral dependence in which children stand in relation to their parents. It takes on a Christian character when, in addition to all this, it is rendered “in the Lord”—that is, in Jesus Christ, in the spirit of Christ, for Christ’s sake, proceeding from a comprehensive prior obedience to Christ the Lord—or, as was said at the outset, in the fear of the Lord.

The words “in the Lord” both indicate that this obedience is well-pleasing to the Lord, and also suggest that in the event that the will of the parents conflicts with the will of the Lord, children may refrain from obeying them so as not to disobey the Lord. The holy Chrysostom says: “In the Lord—that is, this is the Lord’s will. God, he says, has commanded it so. But what is one to do if the commands are immoral? Although it is very difficult to expect any father, even the most dishonorable, to command his children to do anything immoral, nevertheless for such a case too the Apostle gives instruction by saying: ‘in the Lord’—that is, in such a way that by fulfilling your parents’ will you do not offend God. For example, if a father is a pagan or a heretic, one ought not to obey him in everything, because this is not ‘in the Lord’ (that is, obeying him in matters pertaining to paganism or heresy).”

“For this is right.” This is the first foundation of this commandment and the first incentive for it. The natural law of justice requires this as well. What can be more just than to obey those from whom one has received existence, upbringing, and the direction of one’s life? An equal return for this cannot even be made. Let perpetual obedience be offered in return. In order that this natural duty be hallowed by faith, children must see in their parents the representatives of the Creator and Provider, through whom He declares His will concerning them, and in that capacity obey and honor them. The holy Chrysostom says: “Note what a firm foundation for a virtuous life the Apostle lays—and rightly—in the honoring and respecting of parents. Having forbidden bad conduct and intending to set forth the teaching on good works, he commands above all honor to parents, since they are, after God, the chief authors of our life; therefore they too are the first to have the right to our honor, and after them all other people. But if someone is not respectful to his parents, will he ever be so toward strangers?!”

Eph. 6:2. Honour your father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise.

The Apostle draws the second foundation and incentive for obedience to parents from the commandment of the Law to honor father and mother. Who, if he sincerely honors his parents, could bring himself to show them disobedience? And who could believe, of one who shows no obedience, that he honors his parents? Honoring parents is an inward feeling; acts of obedience to them are the outward expression of that inward honor. But since obedience is possible even apart from honor—out of fear, or for some calculation, such as inheritance—the Apostle did well to make the law of honor the foundation of obedience, so that it might be clear who is a true exhibitor of obedience.

“But in what sense is it said: ‘which is the first commandment’? The Apostle calls this commandment ‘first’ not in reference to order but in reference to the promise” (the holy Chrysostom).

Eph. 6:3. That it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.

“Here the Apostle does not speak of Christ or of other lofty subjects, because the minds he is addressing are still tender; for this same reason he keeps his exhortation brief, since children cannot follow a lengthy discourse; and for this same reason he does not say a single word about the Kingdom of God, for such an age is not ready to hear of it. Rather, he speaks of what the childlike soul most of all desires to hear, namely, that it will live long. And if anyone should inquire why the Apostle does not speak to children of the Kingdom of grace but offers them a commandment from the Law of Moses—to such persons we say that he acted thus toward them both because they are still very young, and also because he well understood that if husband and wife are faithful to the law he has set before them, it will not cost them great effort to bring their children under the same law. When a thing has a good beginning and a sure and firm foundation, it proceeds very easily, successfully, and steadily. But to lay a foundation and set a support—therein lies no small difficulty” (the holy Chrysostom).

Eph. 6:4. And, you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

“You fathers.” He makes no mention of mothers—not because they have no share in the care of children, but because this labor is undivided between father and mother, and what is said to one falls upon both. “Fathers” here means the same as “parents.”

“Provoke not your children.” By the manner of your dealings with them, do not bring them to the point where they could feel displeasure, irritation, annoyance, or anger toward you. Anger in general is sinful; anger toward one’s parents is still more sinful. Do not lead them into this sin. This happens through excessive strictness, indiscriminate severity, and various injustices, all of which sometimes make children more oppressed than slaves. Hence in the Epistle to the Colossians, as the incentive for not provoking children, it is stated: “lest they be discouraged” (Col. 3:21). Before Christianity, fathers exercised too great a power over their children; this had become customary. To cut away this excess, the Apostle writes thus, so that among Christians what is customary among the Gentiles might not be repeated.

Having required them “not to provoke”—by which one may say he has forbidden every mode of dealing with children contrary to the spirit of Christianity—he requires them “to bring them up.” What the Apostle insists upon, however, is not so much the fact of bringing them up, since this is already done everywhere by the law of nature, but that they should bring them up as they ought. The Apostle defines this by two words: “in nurture and admonition” — παιδεια and νουθεσια. If one considers the manner of upbringing, the first word suggests pedagogical strictness and the second the heartfelt, maternal guidance and persuasion. Hence: to bring up in strictness, with meekness and tenderness. If one considers the subjects or aspects of upbringing, the first word points to the formation of character and the second to the instilling in the mind of sound conceptions of all things.

The norm for both is the spirit of Christianity, so that both nurture and admonition be of the Lord. The Apostle therefore requires of parents that, balancing strictness with meekness, they teach their children both to live in a Christian manner and to look upon all things with Christian eyes—that is, to judge all things with a Christian mind.

The holy Chrysostom says on this passage: “He did not say: love them; nature itself draws them to this even if they do not wish it, and therefore it was superfluous to lay down a law on this matter. But what does he say? ‘Provoke not your children to wrath’—as many parents do, disinheriting their children, leaving them without care, treating them harshly like slaves. Therefore he says: ‘provoke not your children to wrath.’ Then, pointing to what is especially important, he shows how to make them obedient, and says that this depends on the head and the ruler. Just as he pointed to the husband as the cause of the wife’s obedience, and therefore addressed him at length, urging him, among other things, to draw his wife to himself by the power of love, so also in the present case he lays the cause of the children’s obedience in the husband, when he says: ‘bring them up’ ‘in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.’ Do you see that when there is spiritual good, the bodily good will follow as well? Do you wish your son to be obedient? From childhood bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Do not suppose that hearing the Divine Scriptures is a superfluous thing for him. There he will hear: ‘Honor your father and your mother’ (Ex. 20:12)—words directed to your own benefit. Do not say: ‘This hearing of the Scriptures is a matter for monks; am I to make him a monk? There is no need for him to be a monk!’ What is this fear within you—are you afraid of something full of many advantages? Make him a Christian. For laypeople too have great need to attend to the teaching contained in the Scriptures, and especially children, since at that age they are still ignorant of so much. But, not knowing the divine truths, they nevertheless know something from pagan writings, learning from them the lives of heroes deemed admirable by pagan estimation—heroes who served their passions and present no good example for emulation. Your son therefore needs this saving guidance—‘in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.’”

Is it not senseless to teach children skills, to send them to school, to spare nothing for their education of this kind, yet to take no care for their upbringing “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?” For this very reason we ourselves are the first to reap the fruits of such an upbringing of our children, seeing them insolent, intemperate, disobedient, and dissolute. Let us not act in this way, but let us heed the exhortation of the blessed Paul: let us bring up our children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” let us give them an example of godliness, and let us accustom them from an early age to the reading of the Scriptures. Alas, I keep saying this; it only seems to me that perhaps I am spending my words in vain. But for all that I will not cease to speak of it: this is my duty!

“How long shall we remain people of the flesh? How long shall we crawl upon the earth? Everything else must be secondary for us in comparison with the care for our children and with bringing them up ‘in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.’ He who above all learns to be a lover of wisdom thereby acquires a wealth surpassing all other wealth and the greatest glory. It is not so beneficial to form a son by teaching him sciences and external knowledge, by means of which he will earn money, as it is to teach him the are of despising money. If you want to make him rich, act in this way. Rich is not the one who strives after great accumulation of property and possesses much, but the one who has need of nothing. Instill this in your son; teach him this: this is the greatest riches. Do not concern yourself with making him distinguished through outward learning or gaining him glory; strive rather to teach him to despise the glory of this present life—from this he will be more glorious and more renowned. This is possible for both rich and poor; this is learned not from worldly teachers and not with the help of sciences, but from the Divine Scriptures. Do not strive that your son live long here below, but that there he be vouchsafed a life boundless and unending: give him what is great, not what is small. Attend to the words of the Apostle Paul: ‘bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.’ Do not strive to make him an orator, but teach him to love wisdom. If he does not become an orator, no harm will come of it; but where wisdom is lacking, the most abundant oratory will be of no use. Upright conduct is needed, not wit; morality, not the force of speech; deeds, not words: these win the Kingdom, these bestow true blessings. Do not sharpen the tongue but cleanse the soul. I say this not to forbid secular education, but that we should not be exclusively attached to it.”

Servants and Masters (Ephesians 6:5–9)

Eph. 6:5. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ.

“Of necessity he lays down a law for slaves as well. For the body of the Church encompasses all—husbands and wives, fathers and children, slaves and masters, rich and poor, rulers and ruled” (Theodoret). “So not only the husband, wife, and children, but also the servants with their virtues, constitute the household and determine its good order. Therefore the blessed Paul has not left this part of it unattended to, but comes to it last, since it also occupies the last place in dignity. And with them (the slaves) he reasons at much greater length, and no longer as with children, but on a far loftier level. He does not give them a promise here, but points to consequences: ‘knowing,’ he says, ‘that whatsoever good thing any man does, the same shall he receive of the Lord’ (Eph. 6:8). He even teaches them to love wisdom. For although they are lower in dignity than children, they have more reason than they” (the holy Chrysostom).

Slavery was widely prevalent in the ancient world. The holy Paul, sent not to restructure civic life but to transform human character, takes the civil conditions as they are and infuses into them a new spirit of life through instruction in a mode of conduct befitting Christianity. The outward order the Apostle leaves as it has been established, and turns to the inward alone, giving it a new structure—so that if the outward also requires reform, it should come from within, as a consequence of the free development of spiritual life. Transform the inward, and the outward, if it is absurd, will fall away of itself. Centuries, however, had to pass before the spirit of paganism was abolished, shattered at the root, and the spirit of Christian freedom gave birth everywhere to the conviction of the incompatibility of slavery with Christian relations among people and with Christian life. One cannot suppose that slavery presented no hindrance or obstacle to the truth of the Gospel and the development of Christian life. On the contrary, it was a hindrance, as were many other arrangements of Jewish and pagan life, but Christianity was strong enough to overcome it.

“A change in the view of slavery can be seen in the fact that the Apostle teaches slaves to regard their masters as masters only ‘according to the flesh.’ Slavery is limited to the outward aspect of slaves. Masters exercise dominion only over their physical strength, while their spirit is not bound, their conscience is free, spontaneously devoted to the heavenly Lord Christ. By this free service to Christ the Lord, the Apostle also illumines the involuntary service to men. ‘Servants,’ he says, ‘be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh.’ Immediately he has comforted a troubled soul; immediately he has consoled it. Do not grieve, as if he were saying, that your lot is lower than others’: this is slavery only in name and dominion only according to the flesh—consequently, a dominion temporary and not lasting. For everything of the flesh passes quickly” (the holy Chrysostom). The Apostle qualifies the obedience of slaves itself by three characteristics: “with fear and trembling,” “in singleness of heart,” and “as to Christ.”

“With fear and trembling.” “Do you see that he does not require the same kind of fear from a wife and from slaves? There he simply said: ‘let the wife reverence her husband,’ but here he intensifies the expression and says: ‘with fear and trembling’” (the holy Chrysostom). Blessed Jerome explains that if it had said only “with fear,” one could understand this as reverence and awe, in the way the word regarding the wife “let her reverence” may be understood. But when “and trembling” is added, we must certainly understand here genuine slavish fear (loosely speaking).—Taking these words in the same sense, the holy Chrysostom asks: “What are you saying, blessed Paul? He (the slave) is a brother to his master; he has received equal blessings with him, is of the same nature, and what is most important—he has become a brother not only to his master but to the Son of God Himself, enjoying equal blessings with Him—and you say: ‘with fear and trembling’?—But for this very reason I say so, the Apostle answers. For if I command free men to submit to one another out of the fear of God, as was said above: ‘submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God’ (Eph. 5:21); if I command a wife to fear her own husband, though she is of equal honor with him—does not all this apply still more to a slave? In this there is no dishonor; on the contrary, it is a high nobility to know how to humble oneself, to conduct oneself modestly, to yield to one’s neighbor—for even free men served free men with great fear and trembling.”

Moreover, when the Apostle says “obey with fear and trembling,” nothing prevents us from seeing here an indication of a requisite fear and trembling not before the masters as though they were something terrible, but before the very duty of obedience—so as to fulfill it as it should be fulfilled. The Apostle admonishes: when receiving orders from masters, do not receive them carelessly or indifferently, and do not carry them out anyhow, with distraction and inattention, but with fear and trembling, lest you err in some way against the masters’ wishes and prove to be a negligent fulfiller of your duty. The fear and trembling are before the duty of obedience. Blessed Jerome suggests yet another thought—that the Apostle gives this commandment with an eye to moral formation. Slaves could not immediately become perfect in obedience to the will of God. The Apostle presents the Lord to them in the person of their masters and commands: “Serve them with fear and trembling, as to the Lord, and by this learn how you ought to serve the Lord Himself.”

“In singleness of your heart”: with undivided thought, with full conviction that this is as it should be—therefore bearing obedience without second thoughts, with a free resolve to be ever diligent in this way of life, having come to love the very service of a slave. “He commands that slaves serve their masters rightly and be free from malice. This he expressed by saying: ‘in singleness of heart’” (Theodoret). “Well said: ‘in singleness of heart’—since one can serve with fear and trembling, yet not with good disposition, but in the worst possible manner. There are many who inwardly do very great harm to their masters. It is precisely this bad conduct that the Apostle strives to remove by speaking as he does” (the holy Chrysostom).

“As to Christ.” Slaves also, having cleaved to the Lord, have conscientiously taken upon themselves the obligation to walk from now on in every good work. Having this on their hearts, a slave could fall into perplexity: what good work is there for me, when bodily—that is, in all outward activity—I do not belong to myself? The Apostle says to him: serve your master zealously, and this will be service to the Lord. In this the entire scope of the good works obligatory for you is encompassed. Christ the Lord Himself requires this of you. Having placed obedience to masters in such close connection with obedience to the Lord, the Apostle has elevated the incentive to submission to masters to the level of the principles of faith, and has given moral strength to slaves to bear the entire burden of their service. For after this they could not but be certain that in showing obedience to their masters in all things, they show it not to them alone exclusively, but through them to the Lord Himself as well. And for the Lord, what is a true believer not ready to do?

Eph. 6:6, 7. Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.

As soon as the Apostle established that, in serving their masters, slaves are serving the Lord—he at once transferred to their service all those qualities by which service to the Lord must be distinguished. The Lord sees the heart. One cannot show Him only an outward service while not having it in the heart. Slaves must keep this in mind when serving their masters: not to work only before their eyes while inwardly cursing them or plotting something evil, but to work from the soul, as one ought to serve Christ—to work in the conviction that by this they are fulfilling the will of God, not merely for show or out of men-pleasing. Here are two defective traits: the first is eyeservice—when the work goes properly while the master is looking, but when he is out of sight everything goes contrary: this condemns laziness, “working under the lash”; the second is men-pleasing—when the work is not the aim but only pleasing the master, whereby the work itself may be done crookedly and one may err in the kind of work done, agreeing to do even improper things to please the masters. All this the Apostle negates, requiring work not only from the soul, but also with “good will” — μετ εὐνοίας, with good-mindedness, with a good disposition—with that sound understanding of one’s work that in it you are not serving men but the Lord. This one good thought alone, if slaves make it their own, will set right the inner order and will give outward diligence in all things, so that their slavery will not be a burden but a free and willing service, performed with joy, whole-heartedly, with gladness. Εὔνοια can also be translated as “goodwill” or “benevolence.”

The holy Chrysostom says on this: “Do you see how much the Apostle requires? He suggests perfect goodness, for many, as you see, serve their masters truly with fear and trembling, and much of this is impelled by the master’s strictness; but show, he says, that you serve as a slave of Christ and not as a slave of man; make it so that your service occupations are a virtue in you and are not performed out of necessity. Just as Christ persuades and teaches one who suffers wrong from another to receive the wrong as a good for himself and to endure it of his own free will, so too the Apostle teaches slaves. Show that you bear slavery voluntarily and not as a men-pleaser. A men-pleaser is not a slave of Christ, and a slave of Christ is not a men-pleaser. For who, being a slave of God, would wish to please men? On the contrary, who, pleasing men, can be a slave of God? ‘From the soul,’ he says, ‘with good will’ (with good-mindedness, with good disposition) ‘doing service.’ Well said, since one can serve with singleness and without malice, yet not with all one’s strength but only fulfilling the duty. Therefore he says: with zeal, not out of necessity—of free will, not under compulsion. If you serve in this manner—namely, of free will, with good-mindedness, from the soul, for Christ’s sake—then you are no slave. Do you see how the dishonor is taken away from your slavery?”

Eph. 6:8. Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man does, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.

With this the holy Apostle resolves all the doubts and questions that might arise among servants regarding their burdensome service. The most common complaint on their part usually runs like this: “You serve and serve, and no one takes any notice!”—St. Paul has already said: serve your masters as you would the Lord; fulfil their will as the will of God; labour for them as though in the sight of the Lord. Now he says: if you are disposed in this way, then the One for whose sake you serve your masters will not forget a single one of your acts, however small, and will leave none of it without reward. If you were serving your masters alone and wished only to distinguish yourself in their eyes, your complaint would be reasonable; but if, through them, you intend to serve the Lord, then do not waver—the Lord will repay everything.—What inspiration for worthy servile service the servants should have drawn from these Apostolic words! If only they would take this to heart. “Slavery and lordship are confined to the present life; when we depart from here, there will be a distinction not between slavery and lordship, but between virtue and vice” (Theodoret). And servile work itself, through the dispositions the Apostle has indicated, is transformed into a field of virtue. Will not every servant say: I will therefore serve willingly and zealously, since even servitude does not bar the path to rewards. St. Chrysostom also encourages such a one, saying: “Masters who are indebted to your services, if they do not reward you, by that very fact procure for you a greater reward, by making God your debtor.”

All that the Apostle said to servants is now applicable to hired workers, who, although they enter service voluntarily, should draw from this not an occasion for negligence but a stronger incentive to conscientious and zealous service. They too should obey their employers in all things, honour and respect them, fulfil their will as it is given—simply, without second-guessing—and do all their tasks to the best of their ability, in good conscience, with the certainty that by so doing they are fulfilling the will of God and doing what is pleasing to Him; in nothing indulging laziness, but serving as in the sight of the Lord, from whom they will not be deprived of a worthy reward for their faithful service.

Eph. 6:9. And you masters, do the same things toward them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

How can masters do “the same things” toward their servants?—This cannot apply to the actual tasks, for the work of servants is to serve, while it befits masters to command and demand compliance. Therefore this word accurately defines the spirit of the masters’ relation toward their servants. Your servants serve you as to the Lord and in the sight of the Lord—so you give commands in the Lord; they show you goodwill—so you show care for them; they see the Lord in you—you see brothers in them; they honour you and fear you—do not domineer over them; they serve you with goodwill—be kind and gracious toward them in return. St. Chrysostom especially emphasises this last point, and further lays upon masters the duty of caring for their servants, warning them lest God condemn them for negligence toward them. Blessed Jerome finds the following exhortations addressed to servants to be applicable to masters as well: “‘in singleness of heart,—doing the will of God,—from the soul,—and with’ good understanding”—graciously—but he does not explain in detail in what sense. In general there is one commandment here: you too, masters, relate to your servants in a Christian manner.

The holy Apostle himself insists especially that masters should moderate their strictness—not abandon it altogether, but relax their threats—thereby obliging them to deal with their servants “with kindness and gentleness” (Theodoret), “not to be fearsome to them, but to be as fathers to them” (Jerome). “Do not be harsh and cruel” (St. Chrysostom).

To keep the authority of masters within proper bounds, the holy Apostle found no better incentive than to point to the Lord in heaven, who sees all and will repay both servants and masters alike without any partiality. He seems to say: “As you wish your Master to be toward you, such be yourself toward your servant, for God does not recognise a difference between slave and master; He created all alike” (Theodoret). “He wished to awaken fear in the masters as well. How?—By this: ‘with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you’ (Matt. 7:2; Mk. 4:24; Lk. 6:38), that is, lest they hear: ‘you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt’ (Matt. 18:32)! ‘And’ ‘partiality,’—it says,—‘is not with Him,’ that is, lest anyone suppose that an injury done to a slave will be forgiven by God because it was done to a slave. External laws, being human laws, still allow for distinctions between classes, but the law of the common Master knows no distinction at all, since He bestows His benefits on all alike and endows all with the same gifts” (St. Chrysostom).

The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14)

The Christian life is a ceaseless struggle—a struggle with the sin dwelling in us, a struggle with the allurements and hostility of the world, a struggle with the devil and his servants. Our champion is Christ the Lord; the opposing side is commanded by the demons. Nothing sinful occurs without the participation of these latter. Everywhere they surround the warrior of Christ and avail themselves of every occasion to do him harm. The flesh entices, the world seduces and oppresses—yet in all of this the demons are ever pressing in. Their interference in our affairs is more extensive than we can imagine. This is why St. Paul regards the whole of spiritual warfare as warfare with them alone.—He has already taught at length how to overcome the passions—first of anger, then of lust—and has taught also what manner of persons Christians should be in the midst of the world. Now he arms them against their chief enemies.—These enemies usually show themselves openly in battle only after the flesh and the world have proved powerless against the zealous Christian.

Eph. 6:10. Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the might of His power.

“Finally.” I have now said everything; what remains is to encourage you for battle and arm you. “My brothers.”—You are not alone—I am with you. It is as if he said: come now, brothers, let us stand firm! “Be strong,” — ενδυναμουσθε,—this can mean both: be filled with strength, clothe yourselves in strength—and: gather your strength, take courage, dare, go out to battle without fear. This is the same as what the Apostle says elsewhere: “Be of good courage, and let your heart take strength” (Ps. 30:25), or as the Lord Himself encouraged the Apostles: “Take courage, for I” “have overcome” “the world” (Jn. 16:33). Relying on Him, the Apostle likewise teaches us to be strong, saying: be strong.

“In the Lord, and in the might of His power.” Here is where strength is found! In the Lord and in His mighty power, in His all-ruling authority by which He holds all things and governs all. Such is the Lord—and He is our Lord, and we are His. He will not let His own be injured.—The Lord is our helper; we will not be afraid! What can they do to us?! If God is for us, who can be against us? Let us be bold and courageous. With such a Leader and Defender, what hostile power can overcome us?—“Be strong in the Lord,” that is, in hope in Him, through His help; he speaks as though saying: “Do not be afraid; place your hope in God, and He will lighten everything for you” (St. Chrysostom). “Set aside all fear, guarded by the power of God” (Theodoret).—When the Apostle says: “be strong in the Lord,”—he does not command us to seek help, but to take courage, trusting in ready help. The Lord is already with you and ready to defend you and scatter the enemies. Only do not be faint-hearted. Faint-heartedness would mean a weakening of hope in the Lord—an inner betrayal of Him—as though diminishing His power before the face of the enemies. After this diminishment follows a diminishment of help and protection, and as a result, stronger attacks from the enemies. Whereas for one who trusts fully in the Lord and is surrendered to Him, a single gesture from the Lord scatters all their hosts.

Eph. 6:11. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Trust—trust firmly; but do not sit with folded hands. God’s help is ready, but it comes not upon your inaction, but upon your feeble effort. Exhaust all your own resources—which are themselves a gift of God—and then, have no doubt, God’s supporting assistance will immediately begin, and it will make your feeble powers all-victorious. What exactly must be done on your part, the Apostle describes below; here he speaks of it in a general statement, under the image of putting on the whole armour.

“Put on”—not clothing yourselves each time that battle approaches, but always being clothed; put on the whole armour and do not take it off, for our warfare has no appointed time or place, but is everywhere and at every moment.

“The whole armour” — πανοπλια — the complete armour—as though it were one complex weapon, so tightly joined in its parts that nothing of it can be set aside. Not one, but all the weapons must be put on, so as to be protected on every side—and so that at the slightest movement one immediately encounters some piece of armour.

“Of God” these weapons are called because they are appointed and designated by God, given by God, and made powerful by God: God conquers the enemy through them by means of us. One must arm oneself with all the weapons, for if any one of them is lacking, standing firm against the enemy is doubtful. This is why the Apostle says:

“That you may be able to stand” — προς το δυνασθαι — in order to be able to stand. As soon as a weapon is absent or lacking, the fitting thing is not to stand but to flee or surrender. “To stand”—to advance to the struggle, to take up a martial posture—or, inasmuch as the battle goes on continually without ceasing, to stand in such a posture fearlessly, face to face with the enemy; or not merely to stand, but to withstand—so that you may be able to yield to the enemy in nothing.

“Against the wiles of the devil.” Wiles — μεθοδειαι — stratagems, devious manoeuvres. The Apostle gives encouragement, speaking as if to say: the enemy is not mighty—he conquers only by cunning. We too have a saying: “such a one has outmanoeuvred me.” The chief snare of the enemy is to present to the mind as true what is false—to present in deeds and endeavours as good what is evil—in one’s desires to carry one away with deceptive hopes. All this he knows how to present in such a way that the inattentive fall into his nets and become entangled. In this regard, “to stand” is inseparable from “to be watchful.” Stand and look keenly in every direction. If you do not let your guard down, the enemy will accomplish nothing.

“St. Chrysostom says: “He did not say: ‘to stand against battles, against wars,’ but ‘against wiles.’ For our enemy does not wage war against us simply and openly, but with guile. What is guile?—To be guileful means to deceive, to trick by cunning: this happens in words, in deeds, and in combat—whenever we happen to deal with deceivers. The enemy never proposes obvious sins, but, by his guile, arranges things differently—namely: availing himself of a pretext, he puts forward a plausible reason. By this the Apostle encouraged the soldiers and made them sober, urging them to caution. He does not wish to discourage the soldiers who stand against the enemy (the devil), but to stir them up against him. By speaking of the enemy’s stratagems, he teaches attentiveness. If he had pointed to the power of the enemies and stopped there, he would have brought them to despondency. On the contrary, both before and after this he shows that it is possible to overcome the enemy, and by this he especially encourages them.” Theodoret also points to certain wiles: ‘Wiles’—the Apostle called the enemy’s stratagems wiles, for he often prepares vice under the guise of virtue; in some cases, for example, he mingles vainglory with fasting, prayer, and care for the needy, and inserts a blameworthy pride into chastity.” Blessed Jerome sets forth other enemy wiles. “If he fails,” he says, “to ensnare by lust, he offers avarice; if this fails to capture him, he leads him to make his belly his god. In general he acts like a skilled military commander. He notices the weak point in a man, and directs all his forces against it, reckoning that by seizing the weak point, he will take the strong ones into his hands as well” (abridged).

Eph. 6:12. For we do not wrestle against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against powers, against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

He shows the reason why he commands us to be always clothed in the whole armour and to remain in constant vigilance and caution. It is necessary, he says, because such are our enemies and such is the war—the malice and invisibility of the enemies demands it.

“For we do not wrestle” — παλη,—our struggle, our combat and grappling, is not with “blood and flesh,” “not with people who are like us and of equal strength to us” (blessed Theophylact). In the Epistle to the Galatians also, when the Apostle said that after his conversion he did not immediately confer with flesh and blood—this phrase denotes people. The Apostle means to say that our warfare is not such as takes place between people. There, enemies see one another; each sees what the other is attempting against him, and the other opposes a corresponding resistance, as in a fencing match. Our enemies are invisible, and their wiles are invisible. We must therefore place ourselves in such a state that whatever they attempt, their stratagems find no success in us. This is indeed what happens, for although we do not see them, our whole armour is such that even without this sight one can stand against them. Yet it should be noted that those experienced in spiritual warfare attain to an understanding of the cunning one’s stratagems; from his first assaults they discern where he aims, and oppose him accordingly. And St. Paul said of himself that he was not ignorant of Satan’s devices. Having noticed them, he immediately gave them resistance. But this belongs to the perfect; for the most part we fight against the spirits as one fights in the dark.

Blessed Jerome looked at blood and flesh in this passage from another angle. He says that we do have warfare with flesh and blood, when the flesh lusts against the spirit. The Apostle does not deny this, but gives us to understand that behind flesh and blood one must discern other forces acting through them and fighting against us. For there are spirits of lust, as the prophet Hosea mentions some who were seduced by a spirit of fornication (Hos. 4:12); there are spirits of anger, enmity, hatred, and every passion. The Apostle wishes to teach us that the passions in us do not arise from the nature of the body, not from flesh and blood, but are stirred up by the spirits of wickedness; hence he speaks in this way (abridged).

Such a thought cannot but carry weight. For it is entirely true. And everyone can tangibly verify it by observing the manifestations of the passions, when they reach the level of mania—such as drunkenness, fornication, theft, and gluttony.—Should we not even give this understanding preference over the first?

“But against principalities and against powers”—and so on. In addition to being invisible and hidden, our enemies are also numerous, and all of them are so powerful, so highly ranked. By the words “principalities” and “powers,” the ranks of the unclean spirits are designated. In whatever ranks they fell, those they retained in their fall. As among the pure Angels there are nine orders, so there are their own ranks also among the unclean. The Apostle here named only two. So St. Chrysostom: “Principalities and powers he named them by analogy with the way that among the heavenly spirits there are Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers.” Theodoret adds: “The evil demons were numbered among the holy orders, but for their wickedness were deprived of that rank. Yet even to this day they bear these names as a reproof of their corruption.”

Our enemies are not only numerous and powerful, but are also masters of their craft, which is why the Apostle titles them: “world-rulers of the darkness of this age,” “spirits” “of wickedness.”

World-rulers not of the world created by God and subsisting in His all-governing power, but of the world that lies in evil and in which there is nothing but the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—with a sufficient number of people carried away by these lusts and with a multitude of customs for their satisfaction. In this world, people mill about according to these customs, inflamed by lusts and inflaming them ever more. From the milling and confusion, no one can make out anything—what comes from what, for what end, and how. Darkness covers all this domain and is the direct cause of why this world still stands and holds some value in people’s eyes. It is of this world that the evil spirits are the rulers. They seduce people, and it is they who hold them in that seduction. Their authority does not belong to them by nature, but by the foolishness of people who are prone to lusts. People themselves surrender to their bondage and are enslaved. Satan became, as it were, a prince by accident—by the election of sinful people. But as soon as someone refuses to live according to lusts and passions, he immediately passes out from under the devil’s authority. If all were to come to their senses, Satan’s authority would collapse entirely, and the demons would cease to be world-rulers. But it is so ordained that people will sin to the end of the age—and to the end of the age the world-rulership of the demons will persist. This is why they are called world-rulers of the darkness of this age only. St. Chrysostom says:

“The Apostle called demons world-rulers not because they hold the world, but because they are the true authors of evil deeds. For Scripture ordinarily calls sinful deeds ‘the world.’ Perhaps by the world he also understands evil people, for the demons extend their dominion over them in particular.” Theodoret writes that the demons became world-rulers because people living negligently have voluntarily embraced their bondage (abridged).

The other title of the demons is “spirits” “of wickedness” — πονηριας,—of malice. Malice has become so deeply embedded in them that it has, as it were, become their very nature: they have become, as it were, malice itself—and expect nothing from them but malice.

Our word “in the heavenly places”—in Greek stands as — εν επουρανιοις. Επουρανιος — does not mean “in the under-heavens” but “in the super-heavens,” and therefore this word cannot refer to the spirits of wickedness, for they were cast down from heaven. Nor can it grammatically be applied to the spirits. Our commentators all refrain from applying it to them, and understand by it the spiritual heavenly blessings, holding that the preposition ενhere stands in place of υπερ— for the sake of, on account of—for which they also cite examples. The sense then is: our warfare with the spirits of wickedness is waged for heavenly blessings. So St. Chrysostom says: “The struggle takes place εν επουρανιοις,—not over money, not over glory. Εν επουρανιοις is the same as υπερ επουρανιοις — for heavenly things. Our enemies do not war against us in order to profit from something after victory, but only to deprive us of heaven.” So also Oecumenius and Theophylact. The common manner of translating and understanding this word: “in the heavenly places,” means that the spirits hover between heaven and earth, in the air, and as air encompasses us on every side, so the spirits of wickedness surround us everywhere and unceasingly assail us, like midges in a damp place.

For the Apostle’s purpose, both senses are appropriate here. Theodoret seems to have wished to combine both thoughts, for he says that the struggle takes place with those in the heavens, but for the sake of heaven. “The Apostle also points to the benefits of victory, in order to make the soldiers more zealous—for the struggle, he says, is with those in the heavens, that is, with the heavenly orders, and the Kingdom of Heaven is prepared as the reward for this struggle.”

But all of this, the Apostle says, is to show how necessary it is to be always in the whole armour, to be vigilant and sober. This is evident in itself from the invisibility and hiddenness of the enemies, and also from the fact that they are spirits of wickedness—of malice—and that they are numerous. But how is it evident from the fact that they are world-rulers of the darkness of this age, when Christians are exempt from their authority?—By the very fact of being exempt, they provoke the enemies’ malice and arm them against themselves. If this is so, then we too must arm ourselves against them.

Blessed Theodoret states one general thought in this regard: “The divine Paul imitates the valiant general who, in order that there should be no laziness in his army, describes the courage of the enemies.” St. Chrysostom attaches his own thought about this to the words: for heavenly things. “Note what vigilance the power of the enemy arouses in us, and what sobriety results from our knowing that real danger threatens our great good, and that we must likewise strive for victory for the sake of the great good, because the enemy strives to cast us down from heaven.”

Eph. 6:13. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

“Therefore.” It might have seemed unclear why he had earlier commanded to put on the whole armour of God. Now, having shown both the hiddenness of the enemies, and their number and strength, and their skill in waging war against us, he says: this is why! There is no other way to wage this warfare, let alone to hope for success in it. “Take up” — αναλαβετε,—take, lay upon yourselves—the same as before: clothe yourselves. “That you may be able to withstand” — αντιστηναι — and stand against, to oppose and hold firm—not to yield to the enemy, to remain victors. “In the evil day”—most directly, in the moment of temptation, whether external or internal, when it descends with such force as to put one in danger of falling and thereby losing everything. So Theodoret: “The evil day” he calls the day of battle, giving it this name — πονηρα — from the devil who is active on that day. “In their time they were openly subjected to warfare, being persecuted, tormented, and suffering every form of death.” But since there is no time free from temptation, so that the whole life of a person on earth is temptation, it is not inappropriate to understand by the evil day the whole of life in this present evil age, full of temptations. So St. Chrysostom: “The evil day”—the Apostle calls the present life thus, because of the evils that occur in it and that require us to be constantly armed. “He called it a day to encourage us. The time is brief—as if he were saying this—so it is possible to stand bravely during the battle.” Furthermore, from St. Chrysostom’s words it is evident that, in naming the whole of life the evil day, he also names every individual temptation, for he says that after a victory one should not relax—which is the same as: having stood firm in the evil day, one should not abandon vigilance but stand, awaiting a new evil day. So also Oecumenius and Theophylact.

Nothing prevents us, beyond all of this, from understanding by the evil day the particular decisive moments in our life, such as death and judgment. So blessed Jerome: “By the evil day he means either the present life, as he also said earlier: ‘redeeming the time, for the days are evil,’ or the time of our end and judgment, when the devil—our enemy and accuser—will strive with all his might to hold us on his side. Therefore, in order to stand in that day against the devil who will then come forward as our accuser, one must take up the whole armour of God, do everything, and become filled with every virtue. A third interpretation of these words is also offered by some, who say that death does not end the warfare with the devil, but that when we depart from this life, a fiercer warfare with him awaits us—open warfare, face to face.” This evidently refers to the toll-houses, which, however much our reason may shy away from them, no one can escape, as the many visions of the saints—credibly attested—make plain.

“And having done all, to stand.” “Having done” — κατεργασαμενοι,—which means both: having done everything that is in our power, and: having worked through everything, having destroyed and annihilated all. In the first sense the meaning is: when temptation comes, take up a martial posture and begin to employ your weapons—one after another—until the enemy withdraws. The injunction is not: go through your weapons mechanically, but: go through them so as to stand firm. Therefore, when all weapons have been used and the enemy still stands, it does not mean: throw down your weapons and flee or surrender—but: keep employing all the weapons until you overcome the enemy and hold your ground. In the second sense the meaning is: while struggling with temptations—the assaults of the passions—when you see that the enemy has already withdrawn, do not cease your labours upon yourself, but strive to erase from the heart every trace of the temptation, so that the peaceful state of the heart which existed before the onset of the temptation may be fully restored. This last method is especially emphasised by the holy ascetics as advice for warriors, for by it the recurrence of the past temptation is cut off—which, if its trace is left in the heart, can quickly return.

“‘All,’—he says,—‘having done’—and not in such a way as to fulfil one thing and not another” (St. Chrysostom). And having done all in this way, “to stand.” When temptation begins, one must withstand it, and when it is driven away, to stand—not with folded hands, but in the same vigilance, watching with all one’s eyes and in all directions, so that the enemy does not creep up again from somewhere. The Apostle means by this: do not lay down your weapons; continue to stand always in the whole armour. Or he intends to show that victory consists precisely in holding one’s ground. Such is our enemy that we cannot slay him; and his aim is not to slay us, but to draw us over to his side. Therefore, when we have held our ground, this means that we have overcome the enemy.

“Both thoughts are expounded at length by St. Chrysostom. ‘All,’—he says,—‘having done, to stand’—that is, to stand after we have overcome the passions, the desires, and everything that causes us harm. One must not only overcome, but also, having overcome, to stand; for it has happened that many, having gained a victory, immediately fell. After victory, vigilance is also required, otherwise what you managed to lay low can rise again. If we do not stand, that which we have overthrown rises up. But when we stand, it does not rise from its fall. As long as we are watchful, the enemy we have defeated will not revive. Stand bravely when the struggle is over, and you are the victor. One should not relax even after a victory. Indeed, if we are at war; if such hosts are arrayed against us; if they consist of incorporeal principalities and world-rulers and spirits of wickedness—then tell me, how can one give oneself to ease? How can one be distracted? Can one overcome without being armed?—Let each one reflect on this every day, when anger seizes him, when lust overcomes him, when he desires that soft and disorderly life. He who struggles still meets with obstacles; yet how happy he is if he does not fall! Victory is more brilliant when there has been a struggle. For example, if some evil desire has seized you, you will do a very glorious thing if you extinguish it. But even if this cannot be done to perfection, we must still struggle and always restrain ourselves. If we do not fall during this struggle, we shall be victors. Here it is not as with athletes. There, you do not become the victor until you have thrown your opponent to the ground; but here, simply do not be thrown down yourself, and you are the victor; you have already overcome if you have not been knocked down. And indeed! There, both fight for the victory, and if one falls, the other receives the crown. But here it is not so; here the devil strives to strike us down. So, if we deprive him of what he is concerned about, we have conquered. He strives not only to throw us down, but to throw us down together with himself; thus he is already defeated, since he is already cast down and in a state of perdition; he strives for victory not in order to receive a crown afterward, but with the aim of destroying me. Therefore I am the victor in that case when I am not overthrown by the devil, even if I have not overthrown him myself. What then is a brilliant victory?—To trample upon the enemy with utmost contempt. One who is fighting does not know what the end of the battle will be, and may still think: if only I myself am not defeated and wounded! But one who tramples upon his enemy has clearly already won the victory. Let us therefore trample upon the power of the devil by trampling upon sins: anger, lust, pride, and all the passions—lest, when we depart from here, it turn out that we have renounced the authority we received from God (that is, to tread upon all the power of the enemy). If anyone has an adversary, if anyone suffers an injury, if anyone harbours malice in his heart, let him gather and pour out all that fury and anger upon the head of the devil. In this case, anger will be a good thing, indignation—useful, grudge-bearing—praiseworthy. Keep evil against the devil in your heart, and never cease your enmity with him. Be always his enemy, always wrathful, always implacable toward him. From this he will become humbler and less dangerous.”

Eph. 6:14. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.

“Having formed such an army, roused its martial spirit, and encouraged it, St. Paul at last arms this army as well. For no benefit will come from weapons if the soldiers have not first been assembled and courage awakened in their souls. They must first be armed from within, and only then from without. If this is so with soldiers fighting against external enemies, it is all the more so with spiritual warriors, for whom there is nothing fitting in external armour, but all their armament must come from within. And the Apostle has roused the martial spirit in the soldiers he has assembled, inflamed it, given them boldness, set them in good order, and now arms them. But mark how he clothes them in the very armour.”

“‘Stand therefore,’ he says. The first duty of troops is to know how to stand well: much depends on this. Hence the Apostle not infrequently speaks of the need to stand. For example, in another place he says: ‘stand firm, be watchful’ (1 Cor. 16:13). And again: ‘so stand firm in the Lord’ (Phil. 4:1). Or again: ‘let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall’ (1 Cor. 10:12). But mark that he speaks not of some ordinary standing, but of orderly standing. Those experienced in military matters understand what it means to know how to stand. One who stands upright stands without distraction and without inclining toward anything. In standing, exact uprightness is visible. So indeed, the upright stand. But those who do not stand cannot maintain an upright posture; they are distracted and given to dissipation. One who seeks pleasures is not in an upright position, but in an inclined one; likewise the lover of money and the sensual person. For one who knows how to stand, the very standing can serve as a kind of support, and everything pertaining to the struggle will appear easy to him” (St. Chrysostom).

Who then, in a spiritual sense, can be considered one who stands? Let us recall what was said above: “Awake, O sleeper.” This call is addressed to the sleeping sinner. When he awakens and, desiring something better, resolves to devote his entire life to pleasing God in Christ Jesus our Lord—holding this alone as needful, and directing all his gaze, all his powers and cares toward that alone—such a one is indeed standing! Only such a one becomes the target of the enemy’s arrows and attacks. Only such a one can be armed, because he burns with the desire to do everything to attain what he has set before himself. But for one who lacks this, whatever you say is useless. He will not lift a hand or move a foot in this direction, because his mind and heart are occupied with other things.

To one who has taken this upright position and directed all the thoughts of his mind and all the desires of his heart toward God—what does St. Paul first counsel him to do?—To gird “his loins” with “truth.”

The holy Apostle Peter likewise enjoins upon Christians the girding—calling it a girding of the thoughts—and equates it with sobriety (1 Pet. 1:13). The thoughts of a sinner wander ceaselessly and never rest on any one thing. This wandering of thoughts renders him morally powerless and at the same time lays him open to all the assaults and wiles of the enemy. Together with the wandering thoughts and images in the mind, the enemy also slips in and begins to construct his illusory schemes and to draw one into the passionate and sinful. The sinner thinks that all this is his own construction, but it is all the enemy’s; and in carrying it out, he serves the enemy. When a person repents and takes his stand, as described, his first concern must be to stop the wandering of thoughts, so as to bar the enemy all access to himself—for it is through thoughts that the enemy approaches. The wandering of thoughts is arrested by sobriety, which is the constant attention of the mind to the movements of thoughts, with the aim of not admitting even one bad thought. This is the girding of thoughts of the holy Apostle Peter.

St. Paul commands that they be girded with truth.—This is the most effective means! Why does the mind wander in empty thoughts and fantasies?—Because it is empty. It is empty—and yet it is by nature quick-moving and cannot remain without occupation. Having nothing worthwhile to occupy it, it sets off into empty thoughts—a vain wandering of thoughts and fantasies. Fill it with truth, and instead of empty fantasies, it will pass in contemplation from one truth to another. Then the swift movement of thoughts will also cease, for every truth will hold the attention not for a single moment, but for a long time—sometimes for hours and days, months and years; and the enemy will be cut off from access, for he is a liar and cannot show himself where truth reigns; its rays strike him down like lightning.

How is the mind to be filled with truth?—Go through all the content of Christian teaching; make each truth clear, surround it with fitting foundations, raise it to the level of conviction, and deepen it in the mind. Thus truth after truth will be placed in the mind and penetrate it; finally all will enter in, and the content of the mind will be identified with the content of divinely revealed truths. From this it will be filled with sound concepts and judgments about everything that is and happens, and will become strong within itself, so that nothing can upset it. By what means does the enemy take hold?—He presents a phantom of truth and good and carries one away. But one who knows truth fully will immediately unmask the illusory nature of the lie and thereby repel the attack. One thus filled with truth is strong—like one who is girded. People gird themselves in order to become stronger. And one who is filled with truth becomes strong, as though girded. This is indeed the purpose of the Apostle’s word. The spiritual warrior is invincible when he is full of truth.

St. Chrysostom says: “The Apostle is not speaking of a sensory girding; in this passage he speaks allegorically. What then does it mean?—A person who is distracted, given over to desires, whose thoughts are directed downward—him he restrains by means of a girding. When he girds the loins, he thereby strengthens our soul, because he means not bodily loins, but loins in a spiritual sense. And just as the bodily loins serve as the support binding together the lower and upper parts of the body, so also the spiritual loins. So that we may run more easily, we gird ourselves: this safeguards our strength. Let the same thing, says the Apostle, be observed in relation to the soul, and then in all our affairs we will have more strength. The bodily loins we gird with a belt; but here with what?—With the head of our thoughts, that is, with truth.—Therefore let us abandon all falsehood, and let us act in all things according to truth. Are we seeking glory?—but true glory; or desiring life?—but true life. If we fence ourselves about with this, that is, if we gird ourselves with truth, no one will overcome us.—One girded with truth will, first, never feel exhaustion; second, even if he grows weary, he will find support in the same truth. Indeed, will poverty cause him suffering?—Not in the least. The thought of true wealth will comfort him, and poverty will remind him of true poverty—spiritual poverty. Will bondage seem heavy to him?—Not at all. For he knows true bondage.—Illness?—That too, no.—To be girded means to have a vigilant soul. To stand bravely, one needs to be girded. Let us also gird ourselves (like the Israelites before the departure from Egypt, who ate the Passover girded). For we too wish to depart, and we will have many hardships ahead. As we pass through this sinful domain, the devil immediately appears and begins his wiles, employing every means to seize and destroy those who have been delivered from Egypt (of sin and the passions), have crossed the Red Sea (in the tears of repentance), and have been freed from the demons and countless evils. But let us not be disheartened. We too have a pillar of fire. This is the grace of the Spirit. Our exodus is led not by Moses, but by Jesus.—Let us walk well girded, so that we may overcome the enemies.”

The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

“Having put on the breastplate of righteousness.” Soldiers put on a breastplate—composite armour plates. An enemy’s blow, falling upon it, does not pass through to the body and causes no wound. This is a most helpful weapon! The spiritual warrior must also clothe himself in it. What then is the breastplate here?—Righteousness. Righteousness here means rectitude—every good and holy disposition of the heart. To see how the sum of such dispositions constitutes a breastplate that deflects blows, let us recall how enemy temptations operate. The swing of the enemy’s sword is the planting of a thought, in the hope that the heart will respond with a sympathetic feeling, on the basis of which he will then construct a powerful temptation. A face that has given offence presents itself, for example: this is the enemy’s sword-stroke. When the heart responds to this with a feeling of ill-will toward the offender: the sword has passed through to the soul’s body and has wounded it. The enemy then rushes at the soul and stirs up within it a whole storm of hostility and vindictiveness. But when a constant disposition to forgive offences resides in the heart—and to keep itself always in quiet gentleness and peaceableness toward all—then however much the enemy may strain to present in thoughts the faces of those who have given offence, no echo will arise in the heart, and consequently the enemy will have nothing to attach his temptation to. His sword-stroke will rebound from the heart, as from a soldier clothed in armour. Now imagine that all the good dispositions are placed in the heart, loved by it and constituting the object of its tenderness and keeping as treasures: then whatever wiles the enemy may employ to sow stirring thoughts in the soul, he will gain nothing from them, because no trace of them will remain in the soul. Thoughts, despite all the girding of them by sobriety, attention, and vigilance, may still slip through—this is why the Apostle was not satisfied with the girding alone, but commanded the putting on of the breastplate as well: to plant all holy dispositions in the heart, so that even if thoughts somehow steal in, no harmful effect will result from them in the heart.

This spiritual breastplate—composite spiritual armour—St. Paul often depicted in his epistles. So in the Epistle to the Colossians he writes: “Put on… tender mercies, kindness, humility, gentleness, longsuffering… forgiving one another… above all these… put on love… and let the peace of God rule in your hearts” (Col. 3:12–15). Similarly the holy Apostle Peter links together such spiritual armour: “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness love” (2 Pet. 1:5–7). And in general, one who is clothed in the breastplate of righteousness thinks only upon “whatever things are true, whatever things are honourable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report—if there is any virtue and if there is any praise” (Phil. 4:8).—Who that is thus protected need fear the enemy’s hosts?!

Such good dispositions are all implanted in our nature, as St. Macarius teaches, from the very moment of its creation, but the passions that have entered in have darkened them and covered them over. They need only to be cleansed again by casting off the shameful covering that has settled upon them. This is accomplished already in the first resolution to please God by loving every virtue. Although they may not yet be deeply implanted, the desire for them takes the place of implanting, and however painfully, still deflects every blow and presents the warrior as unconquered. In this sense St. Chrysostom speaks of it: “As armour protects against wounds, so righteousness saves us.” By righteousness he here understands every virtue in general—as if one were to say: “Having planted righteous intentions and undertakings in one’s heart.” Of such people Christ also says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6). “One who has fenced his heart with righteousness is as strong as the very armour.”—As for those in whose hearts all the good dispositions are already truly planted, St. Chrysostom says further: “The righteous man is bold as a lion” (Prov. 28:1). “One who is clothed in such armour has nothing to fear from the hostile hosts. On the contrary, he can boldly march into the very midst of his enemies.”

Eph. 6:15. And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

“This expression is not entirely clear,” St. Chrysostom observes. If St. Paul were writing instructions for preachers of the Gospel, these words would be self-explanatory. But since he is writing general rules of warfare for all Christians, and preaching the Gospel cannot be set forth as a universal obligation for all, it should not be understood that way here. And St. Chrysostom does not insist on it, but presents it only as a supposition: “Here the Apostle means either readiness for the Gospel proclamation.” “Or”—that is, perhaps.—Nor can one understand here the virtue of peaceableness, as though to say: be ready and always zealous to preserve peace with all—for peaceableness is already contained in the breastplate of righteousness. One could understand the word “peace” not as indicating a particular virtue, but as describing the quality of the Gospel as a message of peace-making, and therefore as already contained in the word “Gospel,” so that this single word alone would be sufficient to express the thought—one could understand here a readiness to live according to the Gospel. St. Chrysostom and our other commentators dwell especially on this thought. So St. Chrysostom says: “By the preparation of the gospel is meant the very best manner of life.” What this best manner of life consists in, he states below: “Let us conduct ourselves worthily of the Gospel; let us act so that our whole life and deeds may be pure throughout the whole course of our earthly journey.”—But the firm resolution for such a life—readiness—is already contained in the command: stand, and constitutes an essential feature of standing. The particular virtues in which this readiness is expressed are already contained in the breastplate of righteousness.—One must therefore either leave undecided what exactly St. Paul means here, or propose yet some other conjecture.

We venture on the latter and take as our guide the words of St. Chrysostom, who says: “Or—if this explanation”—that is, the understanding of readiness for the Gospel proclamation—“is incorrect—(the Apostle) wishes to say that they (the Ephesians) should prepare for departure.”—The remembrance of departure, or of death, with its careful preparation, maintained by all the ascetics—those tireless warriors against the enemies of our salvation—is regarded as the most powerful means for deflecting the enemy’s arrows. Is it not precisely this that is meant here? Only all the spiritual-life manifestations connected with this remembrance must be clarified.—The remembrance of death is not a bore memory. It contains within itself a migration of the heart from this life to another. People remember death not merely to frighten themselves, but so as to become attached to nothing temporal—because, however great it may be, it must be left today or tomorrow. A heart attached to nothing here has cast off all earthly tastes, and finds its savour only in what is not of this earth, and delights in that. One whose heart is such lives bodily here, but in heart is in heaven, in another life. But such a disposition is the very substance of the Gospel. For the Lord says that His Kingdom is within us, and that it is not of this world. One who is inwardly so disposed is within; and one whose heart lives in another world is already not of this world. Is he not then in that Kingdom which the Saviour indicated and of which the Gospel proclaims good news?

Let us take another somewhat different train of thought. What does the Lord command first to those who resolve to follow Him?—“Let them” deny “themselves” (Mk. 8:34). In the flow of the speech, this word means: to love the Lord’s way and to resolve to remain faithful to it even to the laying down of one’s life. It requires readiness for every sacrifice, for every kind of privation and suffering, and even for death. The holy ascetics often pronounce this counsel: do you wish to run successfully on the Lord’s way?—Die first.

We gather all these thoughts into one and say: such is the spirit of life according to the Gospel, that it requires a dying to all that is earthly and a migration of the heart into another life, with readiness for every privation and even death. One who is thus disposed has prepared himself for life according to the Gospel—has fulfilled what the Apostle suggests in commanding to shod the feet with the readiness required by the Gospel. One who is such is unreachable by the enemy’s arrows.—What arrow can reach that heart which is in heaven? Or what sensitive wound can be inflicted on one who is dead—and keeps himself in an unwavering deadness to the world?

The very structure of the Apostle’s speech compels us to stop at such an understanding of his words. Having girded the spiritual warrior with truth, he has transformed his mind; having clothed him in the breastplate of righteousness—he has transformed his will. One expects him to speak of the transformation of the heart. The disposition we have indicated is indeed its true transformation, and together with the first two—the most powerful means for repelling the enemy. But that all three weapons must be interpreted so that the concepts placed in them stand in correspondence (are coordinates) with one another—this is demanded by the form of expression: “having girded, ‘—having put on,—having shod.’”

Let us apply the indicated disposition of the heart to the footwear. One who is barefoot or poorly shod steps timidly, fearing pain from the unevenness of the path. But one who is well shod steps boldly—along rough ground, along stony paths, along paths strewn with thorns. Such is one who has died to all that is earthly and lives in heart in heaven, with readiness for privations and death. He walks boldly, fearing nothing, for he has already prepared himself for everything, and nothing can be thought of for which he is not ready. But one who still lives upon the earth and nourishes earthly tastes, interests, and hopes—such a one continually groans and cries out, as though treading on thorns.

Eph. 6:16. Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery arrows of the wicked one.

A new series of spiritual weapons follows—the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit. These too, judging by the structure of the speech, must be interpreted so that the concepts they convey stand in correspondence (are likewise coordinates) with one another. And not only this—but also in a definite relation to the three preceding ones. One may suppose that the shield of faith corresponds to the shod feet with the readiness described, the helmet of salvation—to the putting on of the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit—the word of God—to the girding with truth. They proceed in ascending order. If the first set of weapons as a whole points to what must come from us, the second will point to what comes from God and from the order of salvation instituted by Him. We will conduct our commentary accordingly.

“Above all”—over and above all three of those preceding ranks of weapons, lay a new rank, one particular weapon for each. First, “take up the shield of faith.” “By faith the Apostle here means not the confession of the truths of the faith (knowledge of dogmas), but that which without doubt believes in things future as if they were present, can work signs and move mountains” (Theophylact). “Let faith serve you as a shield, for it points you to the all-powerful God; it reveals to you the rewards for battle, the proclamation of victory, and the crowns for valour” (Theodoret). One might also define it thus: a childlike confidence in God that unites one so intimately with Him that it does not separate itself from Him nor Him from itself. Hence it is all-powerful, for in it God Himself is the one acting—He who also gives it. Holy Chrysostom speaks of such faith: “Most fittingly does the Apostle call faith a shield. Just as a shield covers the entire body, becoming like a wall, so faith defends us in the same way. For everything yields to it. Nothing can tear this shield apart. Hear what Christ the Lord says to His disciples: ‘If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: Move from here to there, and it will move’ (Matt. 17:20).”

In order to understand more clearly what this faith is, let us excerpt several passages about it from St. Isaac the Syrian. “By faith we mean not the foundation of the confession common to all, but that intellectual power which, by the light of the mind, strengthens the heart and, by the testimony of conscience, awakens in the soul a great hope in God, so that it is not anxious about itself but casts all its care upon God without worry” (Discourse 44). “A soul that has once with faith surrendered itself to God and has many times experienced His assistance no longer worries about itself, but is held in wonder and silence… Whoever follows such faith soon becomes free and self-governing, and as a son of God makes use of everything with sovereign freedom. Whoever has loved this faith governs, as God does, every created nature… Many by faith have entered fire, restrained the burning power of flame and passed through it unharmed, and have walked across the surface of the sea as though on dry ground… The treasures of faith neither earth nor heaven can contain. He who has his heart strengthened by faith never loses anything. Even when he has nothing, he holds all things by faith (2 Cor. 6:10), as it is written: ‘Whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive’ (Matt. 21:22); and again: ‘The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing’ (Phil. 4:5, 6). ‘All things are possible to one who believes’ (Mk. 9:23), because for God nothing is impossible. What unspeakable riches!” (Discourse 25). “Faith says: for every work, He to whom I once entrusted my soul is sufficient for me. I am not here; He knows it. Upon such a person grace follows and reveals its power in various aids—first in the visible things that concern the body, and then also in hidden matters: it uncovers before him the tangled web of thoughts and their delusion, and puts to shame before his eyes all the malice of the demons” (Discourse 49). Holy Chrysostom says that such faith commands the demons. Behold what a protecting shield it is!

It is difficult for us to receive such judgments about faith. So far is it from us, or we from it. Yet we can surmise that faith is such as a result of the blending of one’s consciousness with the Lord, with the holy Church, and with all the saints. It feels within itself that it is not alone, but that the Lord is with it, and with it the Angels and the saints of God. Hence it feels itself to be as strong as the Church is strong, and as mighty as the Lord is mighty. “By my God,” it says, “I leap over a wall… Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me… If God is for us, who can be against us?” (2 Sam. 22:30; Ps. 22:4; Rom. 8:31).

Nor can we fail to understand that such faith cannot be stuffed into oneself merely by thinking about it or desiring it. It is the fruit of the Lord’s actually receiving the soul into His right hand, actually filling it with His power, actually grafting it living onto the living members of His living body. The power of the Lord, the Head of the Church, and the power of His whole body the Church, is reflected in it. Thus it is strong. This is the true shield!

“The fiery darts” are inward and outward temptations—powerful and decisive, as if they were the enemy’s final efforts, concentrating all his malice. They cannot be precisely defined, for they vary according to the individual and his circumstances. For one person one thing is a fiery dart, for another it is something different. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle called the darts of the evil one both temptations (outward) and furious desires, and by the word ‘fiery’ he indicated their character. Many thoughts agitate the soul, many doubts and unresolvable questions—but true faith gives a calming answer to them all. There are many suggestions by which the devil, inflaming the soul, casts it into all manner of perplexities. For instance, people ask: Is there a resurrection? Is there a judgment? Is there a recompense?—Only keep the shield of faith, and you will extinguish the darts of the devil by it. Has some furious desire risen up in you? Have evil thoughts blazed within you like fire?—Show the enemy your faith in the blessings to come, and he will no longer appear; and more than that, he will perish. ‘All,’ it says, ‘the darts’—not so that some are quenched and others are not. Do you see how many darts the righteous once quenched? Thoughts wage war within us—let us send faith ahead. Furious desires surge within us—let us call faith to our aid. We find ourselves in difficult circumstances and misfortune—let us seek consolation in faith. Faith is that by which every weapon is guarded. If we lose it, then every weapon is immediately shattered. ‘Above all,’ it is said, ‘take up the shield of faith.’ ‘Above all’—above what precisely?—Above truth, above righteousness, and above the preparation of the gospel. This means that those need faith.”

This shield of faith stands in direct correspondence to the preceding footwear—that is, readiness for everything, with detachment from everything. That readiness opens the way to the receiving of this faith, and this faith in turn seals that readiness.

Eph. 6:17. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

“The placing of the helmet on the head is interpreted in the Epistle to the Thessalonians as taking up ‘the hope of salvation’ (1 Thess. 5:8). If that same interpretation is applied to the present passage, then the helmet of salvation would be the same as the preceding shield of faith. Holy Chrysostom understands it this way. He says: ‘And take the helmet of salvation’—that is, you cannot attain final security and escape every calamity except through faith. Just as a helmet protects the head from all blows and wounds by covering it from every side, so faith, beyond serving as a shield, also takes the place of the helmet of salvation.”

But if, as one cannot help but agree, each of the weapons proposed by the Apostle is a distinct weapon, then under the helmet of salvation one must also understand something different from the shield of faith. And holy Chrysostom himself was not satisfied with his previous interpretation and offered a new one. He takes the head of the soul and determines for it what the helmet is. The head of the body is covered by a helmet, while the mind—the head of the soul—is covered by divine contemplations, which one enters upon after being cleansed from the passions, that is, after quenching all the fiery darts of the evil one. Here are his words: “When the darts of the evil one (evil thoughts) have been extinguished, in their place we shall have thoughts that will guard what is sovereign (the mind) in us and will not allow it to suffer from any sickness. For when you extinguish the hostile thoughts, others necessarily arise in us in their place that save us and inspire hope. And, as a helmet covers the head, so they will shelter what is sovereign in us.” Oecumenius and Theophylact repeat the same. In the rules of St. Basil the Great, against each passion the most powerful remedy prescribed is divine contemplation—that is, the memory or awareness of God’s omnipresence, and reflection on the divine attributes and works, and especially on the dispensation of our salvation—all of which may be called saving meditation on God. It envelops the entire soul in a light upon which the devil cannot look and through which he cannot see the soul in order to strike it.

But let us look at all the Apostle’s expressions. When he says “gird your loins with truth,” we understand: the belt is truth. When he says “put on the breastplate of righteousness,” we understand: the breastplate is righteousness. When he says “shod your feet with readiness,” we understand: the footwear is readiness for every sacrifice and even for death itself. When he says “take up the shield of faith,” we understand: the shield is faith. Coming after all this to the words “take the helmet of salvation,” it seems we ought likewise to understand, by analogy with the preceding expressions: the helmet is salvation. It only remains to state more precisely what salvation is.

Salvation is, of course, salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. It consists in union with Him, as He Himself said: abide in Me and I in you—otherwise nothing will come of you. “Without Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). Union with the Lord is accomplished through the sacraments. The first grafting of Him onto us and of us onto Him is accomplished in the sacrament of baptism. This union is maintained and deepened through the sacraments of repentance and communion. The essence of communion is this: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (Jn. 6:56). Let us apply these truths to our present passage and we obtain: the helmet is salvation—that is, union with the Lord the Saviour in the sacraments, and specifically through frequent confession and communion. Whoever does this cannot fail to come to the awareness that he stands under the Lord—the Head—who covers him more firmly and securely than a helmet covers the head. Earlier it was said that the shield of faith is the power flowing from union with the Lord and the holy Church, with the Angels and the saints. Now it turns out that the necessary means and condition for this union and its deepening is the reception of the Holy Mysteries. And this is what is meant by salvation in the Apostle’s word: the helmet of salvation. Therefore the Apostle did not use the customary form σωτηριας, but rather σωτηριου — “of what saves.” What is salvific for us? Nothing is more salvific than the sacraments! Taking the Apostle’s word in this sense, we obtain a distinct, powerful weapon against the enemies. And it is operative in practice for all who struggle.

“Was this not also the understanding of blessed Theodoret? For he writes: ‘And take the helmet of salvation.’ The Lord Christ Himself, says the Apostle, will cover your head, and as with a helmet will surround it with salvation, so that you may not receive the blows dealt by the hostile ones.”

In this understanding, the helmet of salvation will stand in correspondence with the breastplate of righteousness, under which is understood the whole sum of virtues. Each virtue bears one inscription: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). And to whom is this more applicable than to one who is more deeply united with the Lord through the sacraments, receiving through them also special grace for the doing of every good?

“And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

What the sword of the Spirit is, the Apostle himself explains, saying that it is the word of God—that is, the divinely revealed word. How one can smite the enemy with this word, the Lord Himself showed when, being tempted in the wilderness, He cut through all the devil’s cunning stratagems with the sword of the word of God. To take up such a sword means to know the divine sayings by heart and to bring them forth from the heart at the right moment, in opposition to the devil’s suggestions. The condition for the effectiveness of such a weapon is not only faith and love for the word of God, but also the ordering of one’s life according to it. Since such a state is produced by God’s grace, the one who speaks a word that is both beloved and enacted in his life also brings forth in it a gracious power that scorches the enemy. Those experienced in the battle against the devil—the ascetics—say that if in an hour of temptation one begins to read the Psalms, especially those that speak of something relevant to the temptation, it will immediately vanish, as smoke disappears at a breath of wind. Others say: gather and keep ready in memory passages of Scripture against every passion, and when you happen to be tempted by one of them, recall and read aloud, if possible, these passages—and the temptation will depart.

Holy Chrysostom says of this: “We need to take not only a shield and helmet, but also the sword of the Spirit, so that we may not only secure ourselves from the darts hurled at us by the devil, but also strike him himself. Indeed, possessing this sword, the soul—having also been protected from the fiery darts—can stand against the enemy with full boldness and need not fear for its success; it will be able, having pierced through the enemy’s armour, to slay the dragon and cut off his head. And Paul himself, with this same sword, scattered and took captive the devil’s schemes. By the word of God he means here the commandment, or the teaching, that Jesus Christ entrusted to the Apostles and which they everywhere proclaimed, performing miracles in His name. Let us take heed of one thing: how to keep the commandments of God in everything. For their fulfilment will lead us to the point where in this way we shall overthrow and slay the devil—that cunning serpent.”

In this understanding, the sword of the Spirit—the word of God—will stand in correspondence with the girding with truth, providing an abundant source from which to draw truth. So these three new weapons form a parallel with the previous three: that is, union with the Lord in the Church (which is the same as belonging to the Orthodox Church), the reception of the sacraments, and the word of God. All of this is readily at hand for everyone, and by the power of all of it one can prevail over the enemy’s assaults.

We cannot pass over without attention the particular understanding of the sword of the Spirit expressed by blessed Theodoret. He says that by “the sword of the Spirit” (τοθ πνευματος — of the Spirit) the Apostle meant the power of the Spirit by which the spiritual man rebukes the devil and puts him to flight. “The thought is this: the spiritual person, in whom the grace of the Spirit has begun to act openly, after the purification of the passions, receives a special power over the demons. Hence he says to them: ‘In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I command you—go out and do not enter again’—and the demons flee. This is the power of the Spirit. The fire of the Spirit scorches them. To perfect Christians such authority has always belonged and still belongs.”—Was this not indeed what the Apostle meant? This thought is also cited, among others, by Oecumenius and Theophylact.

Eph. 6:18. Praying at all times with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

The two preceding ranks of spiritual weapons St. Paul concludes with prayer. Grammatically, this last weapon is joined with the first three: there—“having girded your loins, having put on the breastplate, having shod your feet”—and here—“praying.” But by its very nature it pertains no less to the last three as well. It accompanies all of them and imparts divine power to each. In another place St. Paul said that the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God. This power is drawn down into them from God through prayer. Holy Chrysostom presents the matter in precisely this way. He has armed the soldiers, he says; now he leads them to the King with a petition for aid. “Notice the wisdom of blessed Paul. There he was arming the Ephesians, teaching them all precautions. And here, in conclusion of everything, he teaches how they must come to the King and ask, so that He may send them His help. For having said, ‘with all prayer and supplication’ pray, he indicated that if in any matter they have need of God’s help, it is above all in this one. He as much as said: you will achieve this, and indeed you can accomplish everything, only on the condition that you pray.”

In pointing to the necessity of prayer, the Apostle at the same time indicates what prayer must be like in order to be heard. First—pray, he says, with all prayer and supplication—that is, with complete zeal, with heartfelt anguish, with a burning movement toward God. Holy Chrysostom points to Anna, the mother of Samuel, as a model of such prayer. “She shed many tears, he says. Let us be ashamed before such a woman! She prayed for the gift of a son and wept, while we ask for the Kingdom of Heaven—and do so with a kind of carelessness!—‘And she stood,’ it is said, ‘before the Lord and prayed: O Lord God of hosts’” (1 Sam. 1:11). “But tears fell before she could say anything. By them she hoped to move the mercy of God toward her. Where there are tears, there is complete contrition; and where there is contrition, there is much wisdom and watchfulness.—Then observe what reverence also in the fact that ‘her lips moved, but her voice was not heard’ (1 Sam. 1:13). With such a disposition does a man come to God who sincerely desires to receive what he asks. Sloth, inattentiveness, distraction, carelessness, and indifference have no place in him.”

Second—“pray,” he says, “at all times.” By this he enjoins unceasing and unwavering prayer. Prayer must not be the occupation of a fixed time, but a constant state of the spirit. “See that you do not limit yourself to a certain hour of the day. Hear what he says!—At all times draw near to prayer, as he also said elsewhere: ‘pray without ceasing’ (1 Thess. 5:17). Have you not heard of the widow, how she prevailed over the judge through her persistence? Have you not heard of the friend who at midnight importuned and obtained what he sought from his friend? Have you not heard of the Canaanite woman, how her persistent plea moved the Lord to compassion?—These people obtained what they desired, each because of persistence in asking” (Holy Chrysostom).

Third—“pray,” he says, “in the Spirit”—that is, prayer must not be merely outward, but also inward, offered by the mind within the heart. In this lies the essence of prayer, which is the lifting up of mind and heart to God. The holy Fathers distinguish mental-heartfelt prayer from spiritual prayer. The first is performed through the conscious self-activity of the one praying; the second comes upon one and, though perceived, moves of itself apart from the efforts of the one praying. This is Spirit-moved prayer. The latter cannot be prescribed, for it is not in our power. It can be desired, sought, and gratefully received, but not performed whenever one wishes. Yet in purified persons prayer is for the most part Spirit-moved. One ought therefore to suppose that the Apostle prescribes mental-heartfelt prayer when he says: pray in the Spirit. One may add: pray with the mind in the heart, with the desire to attain also Spirit-moved prayer. Such prayer holds the soul consciously before the face of the omnipresent God. Drawing to itself and reflecting a ray from God, it disperses enemies. One can say with certainty that a soul in such a state is inaccessible to the demons.—Only in this way can one pray at all times and in all places.

Fourth—“and watching thereunto with all perseverance.” By this the laboriousness of prayer is enjoined—that is, wearing oneself out in prayer. Experiences of answered prayers, both communal and private, show that Christians who hoped to obtain what they needed through prayer did not approach prayer lightly or as an easy matter, but appointed fasting and vigils, long liturgical services, and numerous prostrations. Such painful labour in prayer drew God’s swift aid. It is precisely this kind of exertion in prayer that St. Paul enjoins here. “Watching thereunto”—that is, for this very purpose, to receive help from above, keep vigil in prayer with perseverance. Perseverance in Greek is expressed by a word indicating patient abiding in labour, sitting at one and the same task, or steadfastness.—Theodoret writes: “The divine Paul commands one to be watchful and to pray without ceasing, and not to slacken bodily labour, but to persist in it with great patience.”—How fittingly, then, in accordance with the Apostolic command, the long liturgical services are conducted in our holy Church!—Since we are always surrounded by enemies, and therefore always in need of swiftly answered prayer, the prayer offices that weary us are necessary for us. And such they are among us. Of this self-exertion in prayer the ascetic Fathers often make mention. There are sayings among them to the effect that a prayer in which one has not laboured bodily and spiritually is not a good prayer. Or: let ease be banished from your prayer rules.

Labour in prayer is an outward matter; but it is not introduced to replace inward prayer. Equally, inward prayer is not introduced so that the practice of outward prayer might be abolished. Both are needed. Holy Chrysostom says: “And watching thereunto,” it is said. “Whatever St. Paul understands here—whether all-night vigils or soberness of soul—I accept both.” Chrysostom then points once more to the Canaanite woman, the widow, and others as examples of prayerful labour, showing how much labour they undertook before they attained what they desired.

“And” in “supplication for all the saints.” This may be taken as a fifth property of prayer necessary for it to be heard. The Apostle writes to the entire Church and enjoins it to pray not for itself alone, but also for all the saints—for every other church of believers, for the well-being of the holy churches of God. He enjoins, that is, that in prayer no one should keep to himself alone, whether one person is praying or an entire assembly of the faithful, but that, since our spiritual needs are the same for all and the enemies warring against us are the same, we should always, in praying, pray also for all. What would come of this?—If the Ephesians pray for all, then all pray for them. And through this their prayer becomes as powerful as the prayer of the entire body of the Church. Let us call this the communal character of prayer, and set it also among the conditions for swiftly answered prayer.

Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

Eph. 6:19. And for me…

St. Paul has finished clothing the spiritual warrior in the whole armour of God, and with that has concluded the subjects he had intended to address in the letter. He now writes the conclusion. Grammatically, this passage is closely linked to what precedes, but in meaning a new section begins here. He as much as says: that is all I intended to say to you. Now I ask you to pray for me, that God may help me be freed to proclaim the Gospel without hindrance. Holy Chrysostom says: “Finally he also mentions himself. What do you want, blessed Paul, by placing your name in the conclusion?—This is what, he answers: ‘that utterance may be given to me.’”

In this conclusion St. Paul first: a) requests prayers for himself, Eph. 6:19, 20; then b) informs them of why he is sending Tychicus, Eph. 6:21, 22; and finally c) expresses his good wishes, Eph. 6:23, 24.

Eph. 6:19. And for me, that utterance may be given to me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.

“And for me”—that is, pray. This is not mere formality or merely a testimony to St. Paul’s humility, but a showing of the holy Apostle’s faith that the prayer of the Church is powerful before God. In the Acts of the Apostles it is told that the liberation of the Apostle Peter from prison at night, just before he was to be put to death in the morning, was the fruit also of the prayer of all the faithful (Acts 12).

But on the part of the Ephesians, such prayer was a duty owed to the one who had enlightened them in the true faith. This also indicates to us that we should pray for our spiritual fathers and for all who in any way have contributed and continue to contribute to the work of our salvation.

For what does St. Paul ask them to pray?—For freedom to proclaim the Gospel. He was in chains and could not freely go about with the good news, and he was so constrained in his place of confinement that he had no one before whom to open his mouth. Holy Chrysostom says that the holy Apostle does not ask them to pray that he be given what to say—for in this regard the promise was always fulfilled in the Apostles: “it will be given to you in that hour what you are to speak” (Matt. 10:19)—but rather that he be freed from his chains, just as when holy Peter was bound in chains there was unceasing prayer for him (abridged).

This is what he expresses with the words: “that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth”—that is, with open mouth, “with boldness”—freely, without constraint, without fear of being watched or overheard—“to make known” — γνωρισαι — to announce, to bring to people’s knowledge, to make it so that they know. To whom to make it known he does not say, but this is obvious—to all, to all the world, or to make it known everywhere; “‘the mystery’ of the gospel”—the mystery of the Gospel, or the economy of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, which he has expounded in the letter. This was the purpose of the Apostle’s life. He thirsted to labour in this work, and for such a zealot to be held in inaction for days and weeks is burdensome, let alone for months and years. So he asks for prayer. But what about himself? What about faith in Providence, and for the Apostles a special Providence at that?—He of course prayed himself, and one cannot suppose that he wavered in his faith in God’s special care for him; and yet he asks for prayer. And not only these but every other objection against the efficacy and fruitfulness for us of others’ prayer is refuted by this word of the Apostle. The deeds of the Apostles are normative for us. They acted as they should. According to their example we too ought to act, and not take into account the vain questions produced by idle speculation.

Eph. 6:20. For which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

“Am an ambassador” — πρεσβευω; and this word in ecclesiastical Greek is used in the sense of earnest intercessory prayer. Thus to the Mother of God, to the Forerunner, to the Apostles and all the saints it is said: πρεσβευε υπερ ημων — pray for us, intercede for us. The same meaning is present in the Apostle’s present words: “for which I am an ambassador” (υπερ ου πρεσβευω)—for which I earnestly pray in chains. There he asked them to pray, and here he says: I too am praying myself. He asks them so that he is not praying alone, but as it were as two: himself and the Ephesian Church, as one person. And so it was, according to the word of the Saviour, that if two or three pray together, it will be granted them according to their prayer. Among sincere men of prayer the rule is maintained that when something is especially needed, one invites another to pray, so that two may pray together. This is according to the Lord’s commandment and the example of the Apostle.

Another meaning of the word πρεσβευω is “I am an ambassador.” If this meaning is accepted, it should not be translated as: “I carry out the work of an ambassador or Apostle even in chains,” for St. Paul did not have the freedom to carry out his apostleship as he should. And so, grieving over this, he asks for prayers for his release. Rather it should be understood thus: concerning that—the matter of which I am an ambassador—I sense myself to be an ambassador, obligated to carry out the work of an embassy, and even in my very chains I sense myself as such, and I grieve that I cannot act as I ought to act. Help me in this, then, with your prayer. In what precisely?

“That in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak”—so that in this gospel proclamation I may speak boldly, freely, without constraint, openly, everywhere and before all, as is fitting for me to speak, as an Apostle of God. The word “speak” ought to be joined with “I may speak boldly.”

But one cannot fail to see that if “I am an ambassador” is taken in the sense of “I am an ambassador,” then the flow of the speech will prove not entirely coherent: for in that case “that in it I may speak boldly” would be dependent either on “‘and for me’ pray,” or on “that utterance may be given to me.” Both are distant—and the speech becomes disrupted. But if “I am an ambassador” — πρεσβευω — is taken in the sense of “I pray,” then “that in it I may speak boldly” will directly depend on this “I pray.” And I pray for the same thing for which I ask you to pray—that is, that I may speak boldly in the gospel proclamation, as it is fitting for an Apostle to speak, “so that I might declare all that I was sent to proclaim” (Holy Chrysostom). The same purpose he also assigned to their prayer—namely, that with open mouth, with boldness, I might declare the mystery of the gospel everywhere. If “I am an ambassador” is not taken in the sense of “I pray,” then in the words “that utterance may be given to me” and “that in it I may speak boldly” there will be a needless repetition of the same thing in relation to the same persons.

Eph. 6:21. But that you may know my affairs also, and how I am doing, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything.

“The Apostle himself only mentioned that he is in chains; as for a detailed account of his situation, he entrusts this to Tychicus. He explained in his letter everything that pertains to dogmas and the ordering of morals; but as for information about himself, he left that to the one who would deliver the letter. Hence he added: ‘that you may know’—that is, so that you might be informed of ‘what concerns me.’ And by this he both showed his love for them and gave occasion for their love for him to be made manifest” (Holy Chrysostom).

To draw any inference from the words “you also” does not seem well-founded—as though if it says “you also,” one should suppose some other person as well. The words “what concerns me, what I am doing” explain each other and mean: everything that you wish to know about me—all that Tychicus will tell you. To assign a separate subject to “what concerns me” and a separate one to “what I am doing” is unnecessary effort that can produce nothing positively certain, except a multiplication of words.

Who Tychicus is, the Apostle does not describe in detail either here or in the other epistles. In the Acts it is said that he was an Asian by birth (Eph. 20:4), from the region where Ephesus is and where the Apostle laboured so long in the proclamation of the gospel. It is easy to infer that this was a believer who had sincerely attached himself to the Apostle and been chosen by him to assist the Gospel however he could. It is evident that he carried letters. But since he was also entrusted to supplement them in many ways, one must suppose that he possessed both the understanding and the character that made him capable of faithfully fulfilling such an important commission. These qualities the Apostle indicates in him when he says “a beloved brother”—that is, a Christian worthy of all love for his understanding and character, and loved by me. This is high praise. But what follows is even higher: “a faithful minister in the Lord.” A minister—not a servant, but a διακονος — an executor of assigned commissions, or of one entrusted task, like the seven deacons in the Jerusalem Church. By this St. Paul wished to express: my helper and co-worker in the work of the gospel. “Faithful.” As I rely on him in everything, so may you also, who already know him. He is faithful, therefore he will tell you the full truth, exactly as things are; and if you needed to communicate something through him, you could rely on him completely. “In the Lord.” He is faithful, and he takes upon himself the labours of serving the Gospel not for human reasons but in the Lord; he acts in the fear of God, before the face of the Lord, for His glory and the glory of His holy Gospel, without any calculation.

Eph. 6:22. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may comfort your hearts.

“For this very purpose.” There were, consequently, no other aims. For this—the sending of Tychicus, not the writing of the letter. With respect to the letter, one can only infer from this that neither was there any particular occasion for writing it, but only the single desire: to show his love to them and to renew in their memory the whole economy of salvation. Both by writing the letter and by sending Tychicus, the Apostle wished only to show his fatherly love and his desire to be in communion. St. Paul could not have failed to suppose that news of his imprisonment had reached them. From this circumstance they themselves could surmise a great deal, and ill-wishers both of the holy Apostle and of the Gospel itself could say still more. Lest any confusion arise from this, and to dispel the grief his spiritual children could not but feel upon hearing of his chains, he sends Tychicus to them to tell them of the Apostle’s affairs and circumstances, and thereby console them, assuring them that there is no danger to their father, who loves them so tenderly and is loved by them. The one thing that weighs on him is that he cannot freely proclaim the gospel. Let them pray about this.

“How much love there is here (in this word and deed)!” (Holy Chrysostom).

Eph. 6:23. Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

These are good wishes that are purely moral in character, flowing from the spirit of Christian faith. “Peace to the brethren”—that all may live together in concord, without any disturbances; “love”—that they may not merely live outwardly at peace, but have a heartfelt bond of love with one another. Where there is love, peace is inevitably present—a lasting peace that nothing earthly can disturb. Let love be hallowed by faith. “There is no benefit from love without faith; or, more precisely, without faith love cannot exist at all” (Holy Chrysostom). Here also is a prescription: let love be none other than love in the spirit of faith; and a warning, lest love lead to a violation of faith. “He wants them to hold love not simply, but with discernment, and not to mix with those of different faith” (Holy Chrysostom). The keeping of faith is the root of everything. From it—love; from love—peace.

“From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Everywhere the Apostle shows that to human freedom belongs only the seeking, while the bestowal of the very virtues is from God. However hard one may strive, one will succeed in nothing by oneself. But if one does not strive at all, one will receive nothing. Both are needed. God, seeing the earnest desire and seeking, bestows; and seeing the zealous keeping of what has been bestowed, retains the gift for the one to whom it was given.

Here is the paraphrase of this text made by blessed Theodoret. “He placed peace first, but added love, showing that the latter produces the former. Together with love he also joined faith, prescribing love according to the law of the Gospel. He indicated also the giver of these gifts—not only God the Father, but also the Lord Jesus Christ, and with Them the All-Holy Spirit. For he added: ‘grace…’”

Eph. 6:24. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption. Amen.

There are two parts to the good wishes. In the first, what was wished for depended more on the recipients themselves; here it is more what proceeds from God’s bounty, though this too is not unconditional, but conditioned on love. “Those who love the Lord” he calls all who have believed in Him, cleaved to Him, and walk in His commandments. “Grace”—both the goodwill of God and every perfect gift descending from above, necessary for each person’s salvation. Not to you alone, the Ephesians, but to all who everywhere love the Lord, I desire grace. The turn of speech presupposes a certain movement of the Apostle’s heart, which always embraced all.

What does the word “incorruption” mean? Physical corruption is the decomposition of the body. Moral corruption is sin. The Apostle wishes that no Christian be subject to this latter corruption, for otherwise they will no longer have love, and they will lose grace. Theodoret writes: “Grace is given not to all unconditionally, but to those who love the Lord, and even to them not unconditionally, but to those who together with love also keep His life-giving laws.”

Abstaining from every sin and fulfilling every commandment are already presupposed in one who loves. But perhaps someone may be found who mistakenly thinks that it is possible both to love the Lord and to sin in some way. The Apostle requires uncorrupted, full, perfect love. He requires that the heart belong wholly to the Lord and not be divided between Him and something else. A heart that turns toward something else is a damaged heart—unfaithful, treacherous. The purity of motives is implied as well. In a word, the Apostle requires love that is blameless in every respect.

Holy Chrysostom understands “incorruption” as sinlessness. We present his words, which at the same time can serve as a fitting conclusion to the entire commentary:

“Tell me, in what does the corruption of the body consist? Is it not in the body’s decomposing entirely and its composition falling apart into pieces? The same happens with the soul when sin gains dominion over it. Chastity and righteousness—this is the beauty of the soul; and courage and prudence—this is health for it! That sins produce corruption is evident directly from the fact that they make people shameful and feeble, and cause various sicknesses. Hear what Scripture says: ‘All flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth’ (Gen. 6:12). And in another place: ‘people corrupted in mind’ (2 Tim. 3:8). Our body is corruptible, but the soul is incorruptible. Oh, that we should not subject it also to corruption! Original sin has made this possible. Even after baptism it can corrupt the soul and make it prey to the undying worm. But on the other hand, the worms cannot even touch the soul when they find it incorrupt. See to it, then, that you do not corrupt the soul. Corruption itself will one day be clothed in incorruption. But what by nature is not subject to corruption (the soul) cannot by itself be destroyed. Thus there can be incorruptible corruption, without end, and immortal death. This is precisely what will be, when the bodies have become incorruptible. Therefore if you depart there with corruption in the soul, it will become incorruptible for us and will have no end. To burn continually and to be ever the food of worms—this is surely incorruptible corruption. I beseech you: let us be afraid of these words!”

“Let us too keep these laws (of incorruption) and burn with love for the Lord, so that we may become partakers of the Apostolic blessing by the grace of Christ who has saved us. With Him be glory to the Father, with the All-Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages! Amen” (Theodoret).

Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians

Introduction

1. The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilievich Govorov on the tenth of January, 1815, in the village of Chernavsk, in the Oryol province of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. He was schooled in the seminaries of his native region and then, from 1837 to 1841, at the Kiev Theological Academy, one of the great centers of Russian church learning, close by the ancient Monastery of the Caves whose ascetic memory shaped him. Before completing his course he received the monastic tonsure and the name Theophan; ordination followed in 1841. There opened before him the ordinary career of a gifted churchman of his day: rector of church schools in Kiev, teaching posts and rectorships at Novgorod and at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, where he lectured in moral and pastoral theology. A period with the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem widened his horizon; there he studied the languages of Scripture and of the Christian East, learned iconography, and began the labor of translation that would occupy much of his life.

Academic administration did not answer the deepest bent of his soul, which was contemplative. In 1859 he was consecrated Bishop of Tambov, and in 1863 translated to the see of Vladimir; in both dioceses he governed conscientiously and founded schools, including schools for girls. Yet the pull toward stillness only grew, and he had come to love a small, secluded monastery in his Tambov diocese, the Vyshensky Hermitage. In 1866, after only a few years as a bishop, he asked to be released from the administration of a diocese and was permitted to retire to Vysha. There, in 1872, he withdrew into strict reclusion, closing his cell to visitors and giving the remaining years to prayer, the Liturgy, and an immense correspondence and literary output. He wrote unceasingly on the inner Christian life — The Path to Salvation, the Letters on the Spiritual Life, guidance on prayer of the heart—and produced the standard Russian rendering of the Philokalia, the Dobrotolyubie, the anthology of ascetic Fathers that formed generations of Orthodox Christians. Alongside these he composed a series of verse-by-verse commentaries covering nearly the whole of the Apostle Paul’s epistles. He reposed on the sixth of January, 1894, having lived some twenty-two years in seclusion. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints in 1988. He is honored across the Orthodox world, and increasingly beyond it, as one of the surest guides to the interior life that the modern age has produced.

2. The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians belongs to Theophan’s Vysha years and to his great project of expounding Saint Paul; it dates from the early 1870s, when he was applying his settled method, one epistle at a time, to the letters of the Apostle he loved. Its subject is the shortest and warmest of the “prison epistles,” the letter Paul wrote to the Christians of Philippi from his captivity at Rome.

Theophan opens, as he does throughout, by setting the scene, and he devotes his prologue to the history that the letter presupposes. Philippi was a city of Macedonia near the Thracian coast, refounded and named by Philip of Macedon and later dignified by Rome with the jus italicum after the battle fought there between the heirs of Caesar and the last defenders of the Republic. Its church was the first the Apostle planted on European soil, born on his second missionary journey after the vision at Troas of a man of Macedonia pleading, “Come over and help us.” Theophan retells from the Acts the conversion of Lydia the seller of purple and her household, the casting out of the spirit of divination from the slave girl, the beating and imprisonment of Paul and Silas, the midnight earthquake and the jailer who believed with all his house—the whole vivid founding narrative that binds the Apostle to this congregation more tenderly than to any other.

That bond is the occasion of the letter. Learning that Paul was a prisoner, the Philippians had sent one of their own, Epaphroditus, with a gift for his support, which Paul received “as a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God.” Epaphroditus then fell gravely ill, nearly to death, and word of it reached Philippi; when he recovered, the Apostle sent him home, and, as Theophan puts it, “on this occasion wrote to them.” The purpose is therefore first of all one of thanksgiving and reassurance—to acknowledge the gift, to set the Philippians’ minds at rest about the Apostle’s own state and about their envoy, and to answer love with love. But because it was Paul who wrote, he could not send a letter of mere courtesy. Into it he wove what he judged his beloved children still needed: encouragement not to fear their adversaries, a summons to concord and humility, a warning against the Judaizing teachers who might yet reach them, and the setting before them of an ever-higher goal. The result, Theophan observes, follows no “preconceived plan” but the movement of the Apostle’s heart, and this is the key to reading it aright.

3. Argument and Structure

Because the letter was written “as the heart prompted,” its order is affective rather than schematic, and one of the services of Theophan’s commentary is to make its coherence visible without imposing a false system upon it. After the opening greeting and thanksgiving, in which Paul assures the Philippians of his constant prayer and confidence in them (1:1–11), the letter moves through several loosely joined movements.

The Apostle first speaks of himself and of the progress of the Gospel, telling them how even his imprisonment has served to spread the word, and confessing that he is torn between the desire “to depart and be with Christ, which is far better” and the need to remain in the flesh for their sake (1:12–26). From his own example he draws an exhortation to them: to stand fast, to fear no adversary, and above all to be of one mind and one love (1:27–2:18). It is here, grounding the call to humility, that Paul sets before them the great hymn of Christ, who, “being in the form of God,” emptied Himself and was obedient unto death, and was therefore exalted above every name (2:5–11)—the doctrinal summit of the letter, to which we shall return. The Apostle then turns to practical arrangements, announcing that he hopes to send Timothy and is now returning Epaphroditus, whose devotion he warmly commends (2:19–30).

A fresh movement opens in the third chapter with a warning against the Judaizers, those who would bind the Gentile Christians to the works and boasts of the Law. Paul meets the danger not with argument but with his own testimony: whatever advantages he once counted gain—his lineage, his zeal, his blameless legal righteousness—he now counts loss “for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,” desiring to be found in Him “not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ” (3:1–11). From this he presses on to the image of the runner who forgets what lies behind and strains “toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (3:12–4:1). The letter closes with personal admonitions—the plea to Euodia and Syntyche to be of one mind, the charge to “rejoice in the Lord always,” and the counsel to fill the mind with whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report (4:2–9)—before the Apostle’s grateful and delicate acknowledgment of the gift itself, with the confession that he has “learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (4:10–20), and a final benediction.

Through all of this Theophan proceeds in short steps, taking a verse or a clause at a time, laying open its sense, meeting its difficulties, and drawing each point toward the reader’s own soul. The commentary thus reads at once as exposition and as a rule of life, tracing the letter’s argument while never letting it remain a matter of the page alone.

4. Theological and Spiritual Significance

At the center of the epistle, and of Theophan’s exposition, stands one of the loftiest passages in all of Scripture: the hymn of Christ’s self-emptying. “Let this mind be in you,” Paul writes, “which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant… and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (2:5–8). Paul offers it to the Philippians as the pattern of the humility he is urging on them; Theophan expounds it as nothing less than “the dogma of the incarnation and the redemption, and of the person of Jesus Christ as the God-man.” The “form of God,” he explains with the Greek Fathers, means that Christ’s “very nature is divine”—He is God by nature, equal with the Father. To “empty Himself” is not to cease to be God but voluntarily to lay aside “the visible glory and majesty proper to the Godhead” and to take a created human nature; and He took it “as God,” so that “after the taking He remained God, the One who took the form of a servant.” This self-abasement reached its depth in the death of the cross and was answered by the exaltation at which “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.” Theophan handles this passage with special care, for he knows that over its words a single misjudged term has bred whole controversies; he weighs the Fathers against one another precisely where they part, so that the reader is neither confused nor misled.

Around this doctrinal center the letter’s practical treasures gather, and Theophan draws them out one by one. There is the joy for which Philippians is famous—“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice” (4:4)—a gladness commended, astonishingly, from a prison cell, and rooted not in circumstance but in the Lord Himself. There is the contentment Paul has learned in abundance and in want, the peace of God “which passeth all understanding” set as a garrison over the heart. And there is the righteousness of faith, unfolded in the third chapter, where the Apostle renounces his own legal righteousness for “the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Theophan reads this in the mind of the Church: the legal righteousness was “outward and material,” while that which faith bestows is “spiritual and inward, which is built up in the spirit” through the grace of the Holy Spirit. He is careful to add that in setting faith over against the Law the Apostle “does not deny the obligation to live a righteous life,” but calls the believer past mere outward correctness to a real inward holiness—and then onward, forgetting what is behind, “toward the prize of the high calling.”

What gives Theophan’s commentary its distinctive savor is the marriage of two things not always found together. On one side is a scrupulous fidelity to the exegetical tradition: he expounds this letter almost entirely through the Greek East, taking Saint John Chrysostom as his chief guide and gathering with him Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, Saint John of Damascus, Ecumenius, and Theophylact, comparing their readings and weaving them into a single continuous thread. On the other side is the unmistakable note of Russian ascetical teaching, the pastoral realism of a man who had spent decades in prayer and the direction of souls. Theophan will not leave humility, joy, or righteousness standing as fine ideas; he presses each into the reader’s own labor of repentance and prayer. Close reading and spiritual warmth are held together throughout, and that union is the commentary’s signature.

5. Reception and Place in Theophan’s Work

The commentary on Philippians is one panel of a larger achievement. During his years at Vysha, Theophan set himself to expound nearly the whole Pauline corpus—Romans and the two letters to the Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, the letters to the Thessalonians, and the Pastoral Epistles—verse by verse, in the same manner throughout. Among modern Orthodox interpreters he stands out for the sheer scope of this labor and for the skill with which, as later readers have said, he weaves disparate patristic comments into a single tapestry with an aim that is above all pastoral and devotional. His Scriptural commentaries became a lasting resource for the Russian Church and beyond, drawn upon by later expositors and prized by clergy and laity alike as a way of acquiring the mind of the Fathers without a scholar’s apparatus. The Philippians volume, treating the most personal of Paul’s letters, shows this gift at its most attractive: warm where the Apostle is warm, exact where he is doctrinally exact, and everywhere turned toward the reader’s own growth in Christ.

6. The Text and This Edition

Theophan wrote his commentary in Russian, for Russian believers, in the prose of the later nineteenth century. This edition presents it in a fresh, readable modern English translation, made from the public-domain Russian text of his exposition of Philippians as issued in the pre-revolutionary editions of his collected works (the printing of the Russian Saint Panteleimon Monastery of Mount Athos). The aim has been faithfulness to Theophan’s sense and to his voice—his patient step-by-step movement, his gathering of the Fathers, his turn toward the soul—in clear present-day English that keeps the substance intact without archaism.

A few conventions of this edition should be noted. Scripture is quoted in an English register consonant with the Church’s traditional text, following Theophan’s own citations; where he cites the Fathers, their words are given as he gives them, carrying the exposition rather than interrupting it. Scriptural references are set in the modern form familiar to readers today—book, chapter, and verse in Arabic numerals (for example, Philippians 2:5–11)—for ease of use. In keeping with the practices of this series, the author is named as the Church receives him, Saint Theophan the Recluse; those who have rendered his work into English are credited as translators, never as authors; and no critical or dismissive labels are attached to the tradition he transmits. This is an English-language edition intended for study and devotion, offering to the wider Christian world a commentary long treasured in Russia but until recently little known outside it.

7. Suggestions for Reading

Philippians reads like a letter from a friend, and Theophan’s commentary keeps that intimacy while opening the letter’s depths. The reader is best served by keeping the epistle itself at hand and reading Theophan’s comment only after the Apostle’s own words on each short passage; the exposition is meant to accompany the text, not to replace it. The one place that asks for slower attention is the hymn of Christ’s self-emptying in the second chapter, where a little patience with the Fathers Theophan cites repays itself many times over. Above all, the commentary asks to be read as it was written—not only to be understood but to be lived. Taken so, the letter teaches the soul, in Theophan’s hands, to go down with Christ into humility and to rise with Him into joy, seeking no righteousness but the one that is of God by faith.

Introduction

The City of Philippi

Philippi is a city of Macedonia, on the Thracian border, not far from the sea, with two rivers. The area was rich in springs, whence its original name was Krenides. Philip of Macedon, in 358 BC, enlarged it, fortified it, and gave it his own name. Across the sea from it stood Neapolis with its harbor. Near Philippi were gold mines. When, almost on the very eve of Christianity, the army of the Roman triumvirs, led by one of them, Antony, gained victory over the republicans Brutus and Cassius—thereby putting an end to republican aspirations—a great many Italians were resettled in Philippi as a result, and Octavian granted the city jus italicum. Such distinctions kept the city in higher esteem among the people than even Amphipolis, the chief city of that region. It was for this reason that St Luke called it “the foremost city of” that “part of Macedonia” (Acts 16:12). Among the inhabitants, besides the local Greeks (perhaps also Slavs) and the Roman settlers, there were also Jews—not in great numbers, however; so they had no synagogue, but only a place of prayer outside the city, by the river. Notwithstanding this, they had managed to draw some pagan women, and probably pagan men as well, to confess the one true God. Among them, Lydia the seller of purple was the first to believe in the Lord and was baptized with her entire household.

The Church of Philippi (Acts 16)

The Church of Christ in Philippi was founded by St Paul on his second missionary journey. When St Paul and his companions and fellow-workers Silas, Timothy, and Luke passed through Galatia and Phrygia on that journey, the Holy Spirit did not permit them to go either southward into Asia or northward into Bithynia, but directed them through Mysia to Troas. There, during the night, a vision appeared to St Paul: a certain Macedonian man stood before him and besought him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” This was the guardian angel of those who were to become Christians there. Receiving such a sign, St Paul immediately set out by sea to Macedonia and arrived at Philippi by way of Neapolis.

There they remained for several days, doing nothing. But when the Sabbath came, they too went outside the city to the Jewish place of prayer and, sitting down, conversed with the women who had gathered there. This was no idle talk, but a word concerning the faith. Among those who were listening was the aforementioned Lydia, a woman of Thyatira, a dealer in purple cloth, who worshipped the true God. The seed of the word fell into her heart, which the Lord had opened to attend to what St Paul was saying. She sincerely believed in the Lord; and after her all her household likewise believed. And her whole house was baptized. She persuaded St Paul and his companions to lodge in her home. They did so, and from there they began to reach out to others. This house became both the gathering place for the believers and the place of instruction for those who wished to believe.

But the holy preachers of truth did not cease to visit the places of prayer as well, in the hope that in those circles there remained not a few souls ready to receive the word of the Gospel with open hearts. It is reasonable to suppose that the work of preaching was going on very successfully; in which even the enemy of our salvation, though indirectly, gave assistance. There was a certain slave girl there, possessed by a spirit of divination—a prophetess—who, encountering St Paul and those with him, followed after them and cried out: “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” This continued for many days. So long as it did not hinder the Apostolic work, St Paul endured it; but when it became apparent that this proclamation from a spirit of deception might harm the proclamation from the Spirit of truth, he turned and rebuked that spirit and cast it out of the slave girl in the name of the Lord. Because of this the enemy stirred up a storm; but the Lord turned it to the glory of His own name.

The masters of that slave girl, having thus been deprived of the income which she had brought them through her fortune-telling, rose up against the Apostles and, seizing Paul and Silas, dragged them to the rulers in the marketplace. But when they stood before them, they did not speak what was truly in their hearts; instead they presented themselves as guardians of the city’s safety and Roman honor. These men, they said, are certain alien Jews who are disturbing our city and proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us Romans to receive or observe. The people gathered—and all repeated the same accusations. It may be supposed that the conversions to the faith had become very conspicuous. All the unbelievers were seized by a spirit of vengeance. The magistrates, tearing the clothes off the Apostles, ordered them to be beaten with rods. The holy men suffered greatly—to the point of wounds. But for the enraged crowd even this was not enough. They were plotting still more against the Apostles. So they sent them off to prison, ordering the jailer to guard them securely. The night, however, dispersed these schemes; and the suffering of the Apostles was crowned with a greater success of the Gospel.

The jailer, having received his orders, threw the Apostles into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But the power of God cannot be bound. The holy Apostles, whose souls had not grown faint but were inwardly lifted up even more through suffering—not from bodily pains, but from the inner fire of God burning in their hearts—could not sleep. It was already around midnight, and they were praying and singing praises to God. The other prisoners were listening to them. And God, wishing to dispel the unfavorable impression that the flogging and such public dishonoring of the Apostles might produce on weaker believers, was pleased to manifest how great they are before Him and in what favor they stand with Him. Suddenly a great earthquake occurred, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; at the same moment all the prison doors were opened, and the chains fell from all the prisoners. The jailer, waking and seeing that the prison doors were open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. But St Paul stopped him, calling out loudly: “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before the Apostles; and having led them out, he pleaded with them: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said to him: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they proclaimed the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. All believed and were baptized that same hour. Sleep was forgotten; the remainder of the night was spent in spiritual joy by the whole household.

Meanwhile the Spirit of God, who passes through all rational spirits, also changed the intentions of the authorities. They had decided only to expel the holy Apostles from the city, doing them no further harm. So in the morning they sent orders to the jailer to release them. But when the jailer told the Apostles this, St Paul—with the sole purpose of turning even this circumstance to the erasure of the unfavorable impression made by their public dishonoring—demanded that the authorities themselves come and lead them out with honor, since he was a Roman citizen. This declaration had its effect. The authorities came and apologized to the Apostles, asking them to leave the city only; this was meant to restore their honor before the eyes of the whole city.

But the Apostles did not rush to flee at once upon receiving their freedom; there was something in the city dearer to them than freedom itself or even life. This was the young Church of believers. So from the jailer’s house they hastened to the home of Lydia, where the brethren had already gathered awaiting them. The Apostles instructed them one final time and, in all likelihood, put their religious life in order—appointing for them guides and overseers of the faith and of life according to the faith, as St Paul used to do in Pisidia, in Lycaonia, and everywhere. Having arranged all things, they departed further on their way.

But the relations of St Paul with the Philippians, and of the Philippians with St Paul, did not end there. The Philippians sent aid to St Paul more than once in Thessalonica (Phil. 4:16); and they also, in all likelihood, sent it to him in Corinth (2 Cor. 11:8–9). Each time, of course, the envoys did not return from the Apostle without the word of edification and encouragement that was needed; and these words, accumulating in the hearts of the Philippians as a treasury of Apostolic sayings, contributed together with them to the growth in them of the Church of God in the Lord. But St Paul also never missed an opportunity to visit them in person when the occasion arose. After his stay of a year and a half in Corinth, he was returning to Jerusalem by ship, going straight to Ephesus, and had to pass by Philippi. And when, after this, on his third missionary journey, having spent three years in Ephesus, the Apostle determined to visit Achaia, he directed his path through Macedonia. He could not pass by Philippi then, and there, as in other places, he “gave” the “believers many exhortations” (Acts 20:2). On his return journey from Greece, moreover, he sent his companions ahead and purposely remained in Philippi somewhat longer (Acts 20:6). All this points to the heartfelt bond between the Philippians and St Paul, and his with them, and presents a faithful testimony to the perfection of the Christians of the Church of Philippi. Such as these the Epistle also portrays them.

Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle

On this journey from Greece through Philippi, Troas, past Ephesus, and onward through the coastal cities, St Paul was hurrying to Jerusalem—not unaware that bonds awaited him there, which indeed met him soon after his arrival. Having spent about two years in bonds in Caesarea, he appealed to the judgment of Caesar; and so was conveyed to Rome, where he likewise spent two years. Throughout all this time the Philippians kept striving to assist St Paul, as he himself hinted, “but” their “circumstances did not allow it” (Phil. 4:10). Only toward the end of his imprisonment in Rome did they manage to send Epaphroditus to him with a contribution, which he received “as a fragrant offering” and “a sacrifice acceptable to God” (Phil. 4:18). This gift greatly delighted the Apostle—not because he was in need, but because it showed him that the Philippians were still the same simple-hearted and sincerely believing Christians. But this joy was soon overshadowed by grief. Epaphroditus fell ill—and so gravely that he was near death, which the Philippians also heard. At last God had mercy on him; and not on him only, the Apostle notes, but “on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow” (Phil. 2:27). When the recovered man had regained enough strength to endure the hardships of travel, the Apostle hastened to send him back to his own people—and on this occasion wrote to them.

Given this occasion, one might expect the Epistle to contain expressions of gratitude to the Philippians as benefactors, of love as to beloved children, and of praise as to those faithful and sincere in the faith. The content of the Epistle is indeed chiefly that. But since it was the Apostle who wrote, he could not but also weave into his letter what pertained to the faith and to sound morality—if not to teach something new, then to confirm what had already been imparted; if not to expel some error that had crept in, then to guard against one that might creep in; if not to correct faults in their lives, then to set before them a more perfect manner of life, to arouse zeal and point out a goal capable of ever keeping their energies in unabated tension. All of this has been placed by the Apostle into the Epistle—yet not in a way that would allow what is written to be given, as we are accustomed, some deliberately devised and preconceived plan. St Paul wrote as his heart prompted him, having in mind one thing: on the one hand, to testify to the Philippians his gratitude and love; and on the other, not to deprive them of his Apostolic instruction in the faith and in life according to the faith. It may be that some of St Paul’s admonitions had reference to the current circumstances in which the Philippians found themselves, as he could have learned from Epaphroditus; others, to the weaker aspects of their character. For example, the encouragement not to fear those who oppose them was surely given because such people actually existed and were causing difficulties (Phil. 1:28); likewise the exhortation to concord and humility was surely addressed to them because there were occasions among them to call this to mind (Phil. 2:1–5). Both topics, however, are touched upon almost in passing. The fact that the Apostle warns them against the Judaizers does not mean that these were already among them; only that they might still make their way to them. For this reason he merely says: beware—and instead of any arguments against them, sets only his own example before them, speaking as if to say: look to me (Phil. 3:2). It does, however, come to mind that the Judaizers were either approaching or already among them—and that Euodia and Syntyche, who are more specially than the others urged to be of one mind (Phil. 4:2), if they had not inclined to that way of thinking, were somehow connected to it.

Let no one suppose that this Epistle is therefore of lesser significance. On the contrary, it is entirely—from beginning to end—full of life and of an otherworldly power. The mouth of the Apostle spoke from the fullness of the heart; and everyone knows what the Apostolic heart was full of. Even on the most ordinary subjects he gazes with the eye of faith, as it were in the light of the face of God. But as soon as he touches upon doctrine, his speech becomes no less lofty than in the Epistle to the Ephesians. For our sake the Saviour humbled Himself; yet “God highly exalted Him and gave Him the Name which is above every name, that at the name” of Jesus “every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil. 2:9–10). When he touches upon our ultimate hopes, he says: “I desire to depart and to be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23); “I press on toward the prize of the upward calling in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14); He “will transform the body” of our humiliation, that it may be “conformed to His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). When he proposes models for life, he says: “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5); or: imitate me (Phil. 3:17); and of himself he says: I have not attained it, but I press on and strive. Toward what? To know the Lord, and the power of His resurrection, and fellowship in His sufferings, “being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10). And further: “whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good repute, if there is any virtue and if there is any praise—think on these things” (Phil. 4:8). And in general, if one were to gather together the sayings of the holy Apostle in this Epistle, one would obtain a compact yet lofty and powerful portrait of Christianity in faith and life. All this, moreover, is written not in the tone of formal reasoning, but in such a manner as, for example, the following words: “if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any compassion and mercy, fulfill my joy: be of one mind, have the same love, be of one accord and of one purpose” (Phil. 2:1–2); or again: “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.” “And I ask you also,” “true companion, help them”—and so forth (Phil. 4:2–3).

Thus, if one looks at the outward form of this Epistle, no letter of St Paul so closely resembles the form of an ordinary letter as this one; if one considers its tone and spirit, in no other Epistle did the Apostle express so much warmth and intimacy as in this; and if one dwells on its content, it is, for all its simplicity, divine, elevated, and all-encompassing.

Division of the Epistle

The Epistle, as has been said, was written not according to a preconceived plan but as the heart prompted. St Paul had in view only to say everything that he considered necessary in the circumstances of that time, without concern for a precise order of exposition. He is sending Epaphroditus, the envoy of the Philippians, back with the contribution they had made to him. Since this was the chief occasion for writing the Epistle, it could not fail to be mentioned in it. And so mention is made of the sending back of Epaphroditus—at the end of the second chapter, with the added notice that St Timothy will also soon be sent to them; and of the receipt of what was sent—at the end of the fourth. But the Apostle also had to say something comforting to his beloved Philippians about himself and the progress of his preaching; and so this is said. Beyond this, he considered it necessary to warn them of the danger—at that time widespread nearly everywhere—from the side of the Judaizers; and this warning is given. It also proved necessary to offer fitting admonition to certain individuals; and this is done. The first matter is placed before the discussion of the future sending of St Timothy and the present departure of Epaphroditus; the second and third—before the discussion of the receipt of the contribution. After each of these three subjects the Apostle appends moral instructions which, though not essentially derived in content from the mentioned circumstances, are linked to them directly in the exposition. That is the entire arrangement of the Epistle, which we trust is not difficult to present.

After the usual preface (Phil. 1:1–11), which includes:

1) the superscription with greeting (Phil. 1:1–2) and

2) the opening of the Epistle (Phil. 1:3–11)—St Paul

A) informs them about himself (Phil. 1:12 – 2:18),
namely:

1) about the progress of the gospel and his own dispositions and hopes regarding it (Phil. 1:12–26), drawing what is said to the following exhortation: only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel—after which he

2) gives instruction on such a manner of conduct (Phil. 1:27 – 2:18).

B) After this the Apostle speaks of the intended sending of St Timothy and the present return of Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:19–30). C) Further (Phil. 3:1 – 4:1) St Paul gives:

1) a warning against the temptation posed by the Judaizers, encouraging resistance to it by his own example. The Jews are accustomed to boast of their advantages. All of those, he says, I have counted as nothing in comparison with the inexpressibly greater promises of Christ (Phil. 3:1–9).

And now

2) I have one thing in view—to attain these promises. Run also in my footsteps, detaching yourselves from everything earthly and sensory (Phil. 3:10 – 4:1)

D) Then (Phil. 4:2–9) the Apostle

1) addresses an admonition to certain individuals (Phil. 4:2–3) —

2) and gives to all a lesson—to manifest in their lives the characteristic traits of the Christian life (Phil. 4:4–9).

E) Finally, he gratefully recalls the contribution that was sent, pointing especially to the spirit in which it was received (Phil. 4:10–20).

The Epistle concludes with the customary postscript (Phil. 4:21–23).

Place and Time of Writing

From what has been said about the occasion on which the Epistle was written, it is evident that it was written from Rome. There are direct indications of this within the Epistle itself. The fact that the Apostle speaks generally of his bonds (Phil. 1:7) could still be referred to Caesarea; but when he says that his bonds have become known throughout the whole praetorium, with the indication of how many of the brethren, emboldened by these bonds, began to proclaim the word of God with greater boldness (Phil. 2:13–14), this cannot in any way be referred to Caesarea—and since the Apostle, apart from Caesarea, was in bonds only in Rome, it must be referred to Rome.

If one adds to this that the Apostle in the Epistle conveys greetings from members of Caesar’s household, there can be no further doubt that it was written from Rome. Specifically, from his first imprisonment there; for the Epistle places St Timothy at the Apostle’s side (Phil. 1:1; 2:19), who was not present during the Apostle’s second imprisonment in Rome (St Chrysostom).

From the fact that St Paul promises the Philippians to send St Timothy to them at once as soon as he learns what will happen to himself (Phil. 2:23), and then hopes to come to them himself soon afterward (Phil. 2:24), one cannot but conclude that the Apostle’s first two-year imprisonment in Rome was already drawing to a close. On this basis, the time of writing the Epistle must be placed in the year 63 or 64.

Preface—Inscription, Greeting, and Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:1–11)

Inscription and Greeting (Philippians 1:1–2)

Phil. 1:1. Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.

At that time there were also other fellow-workers of St Paul in Rome, as may be seen from the greetings in the Epistle to the Colossians. But he makes no mention of them; instead he places beside himself only St Timothy—perhaps because the others were not with him at that moment, having been sent somewhere; or perhaps because Timothy had a closer relationship with the Philippians, having labored with St Paul in their first conversion. When writing to the Thessalonians, he placed Silas and Timothy beside himself, because with them he had preached among them; here he places only Timothy, because Silas was not with him. Had he been present, he would likely have included him as well. One may also suppose he did this because, as he writes below, he intended to send Timothy to them soon (St John of Damascus). St Timothy was greatly attached to the Philippians; and they to him, of course. They would have been glad to receive him—but it was precious to them to know whether he stood in the same relation to St Paul as before. By placing him beside himself, St Paul gave them to understand that he still loved and esteemed St Timothy as much as when they had been together among them and when he had sent him ahead from Ephesus into Macedonia (Acts 19:22).

“Servants of Jesus Christ.” When writing to the Colossians, the holy Apostle said: “Paul—an Apostle… and Timothy—the brother”; but here he places himself and Timothy on the same level, calling them servants of Jesus Christ. Servants of Jesus Christ—all Christians are such; for they were bought with the price of His blood and pledged to serve Him without wavering, walking in His will to the laying down of life, and moreover in such a way that even when fulfilling all that is commanded, they count themselves unprofitable servants. St Paul applied this title to himself in no other sense. By doing so he places himself in the same rank as the Philippians and as all Christians—showing thereby that he “writes to them as to those of equal honor with himself, not putting forward his own dignity as a teacher” (St Chrysostom). There is nothing diminishing in that name itself; on the contrary, “to be a servant of Christ—to be, not merely to be called—is truly a great dignity and the height of perfections. For he who is Christ’s servant is without doubt free from sin; and a true servant would not consent to be a servant of anyone else: otherwise he would be Christ’s servant only by halves” (St Chrysostom). It may be supposed that St Paul named himself thus and did not distinguish himself either from St Timothy or from them, in order to show by his own example the way of humility. He sets before them in the Epistle a very striking motive for humility (Phil. 2:3). In all likelihood this was a pressing need. If it was pressing, nothing was more fitting than to frame even his opening words in such a way that it would be evident how one ought to “esteem each other as more important than oneself” (Phil. 2:3). Having done so, he could the more boldly write afterward: imitate me, and take note of those who walk as you have us as an example (Phil. 3:17).

“To all the saints.” A saint is not merely a virtuous person—but, chiefly, one sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit and made His dwelling-place. Among the pagans too there were virtuous people, but they were not saints; for they did not have the Spirit. This is the privilege of Christians, who are so called because they have an anointing from the Holy One. Such a state can be attained only in Christ Jesus. Those who believe in the Lord draw near to His sacraments and in them are born again (baptism) and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (chrismation). The power of the sacraments derives entirely from union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who are baptized are clothed with Christ; and as the Spirit of God rested upon Him in all fullness, so through Him the gift of the Holy Spirit descends in chrismation upon believers. They are the dwelling-place of the Spirit, for they are one spirit with the Lord. This is the basis on which Christians are holy—and only they are holy. “It was fitting also for the Jews to call themselves ‘saints’ on the basis of the ancient prophecy in which they were called ‘a holy people, a chosen people’ (Deut. 7:6; 14:2). This is why the Apostle added: ‘saints in Christ Jesus’—to show that now these alone are saints, while those have become unclean” (St Chrysostom).

“With the bishops and deacons.” Were there then many bishops in a single city? No—the bishop in each city, if there was one, was one. And among them, surely, there was one bishop—Epaphroditus, as Theodoret supposes. But there could be many presbyters alongside a single bishop; and in Philippi there was certainly more than one. These are the ones whom St Paul here calls bishops. This is the understanding of all our commentators following St Chrysostom. For in the beginning, although bishops were clearly distinguished from presbyters, they were sometimes called bishops and sometimes presbyters; and conversely, presbyters were called sometimes presbyters and sometimes bishops. So in the present passage, those who are clearly presbyters are called bishops. And in other places, bishops are called presbyters. Thus St Timothy was a bishop; for St Paul writes to him: “lay hands suddenly on no one” (1 Tim. 5:22), which it belongs to a bishop alone to do. And how did he become a bishop? “By the laying on of the hands of the presbytery” (1 Tim. 4:14). But how could presbyters ordain a bishop? Evidently because in that place the word “presbytery” is used in the sense of “episcopate” (St Chrysostom). Likewise, writing to Titus, the Apostle commands him to appoint presbyters in every city, meaning bishops by this; for after saying so, he immediately adds: “for a bishop must be” (Tit. 1:5–7) (St Chrysostom). It is thus evident that bishops and presbyters in the early time, in the age of the Apostles, differed in dignity, but were designated interchangeably sometimes as presbyters and sometimes as bishops. In the present passage the presbyters are called bishops because it was also their responsibility to watch over the believers, to build them up in the faith, to correct morals, to sanctify them through the sacraments, and to defend them from the enemies of the faith.

The word “deacons” is used here in its usual sense and refers to those who assisted the presbyters and bishops in their labors and works in the pasturing of the flock.

But why did the Apostle make special mention of the clergy here? In his other Epistles he writes generally to all the saints, or the faithful, or the beloved, or those called of God; but here, having mentioned all believers in the words “to all the saints”—he separately singles out the clergy, adding: with the “bishops and deacons.” “The Apostle did this because it was the clergy who wrote, who were beneficent, and who sent Epaphroditus to him” (St Chrysostom and Oecumenius with blessed Theophylact). Such deeds could certainly not have been done without the participation of the clergy; and if the clergy were a special instigator and guide in this, then justice required showing them a special attention as well. But was there not also, in the relations of the believers toward the clergy in Philippi, some ground for lifting their standing by a special Apostolic notice, or for encouraging greater deference and submission toward them than was actually being shown? The Apostle’s exhortations in the Epistle concerning concord, humility, and peaceableness make this supposition probable.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:2)—the customary greeting. To say “grace to you and peace” is the same as to say: I wish you all good things from the Lord. “Peace” means peace in the conscience before God, the quieting of the heart from passions and the assaults of the enemy, and mutual concord within the family and in relations with others. “Grace” denotes the power granted from above for the enlightenment of the mind, for guidance and strengthening in the God-pleasing life, and for the most intimate communion with God. Whoever possesses all of this possesses everything that the one who thirsts for salvation can ever desire.

Here, as everywhere, the Apostle presents the Lord Jesus Christ as the source of all good, placing Him closer to us, while behind Him pointing also to God the Father—or God worshipped in the Trinity. So God was pleased to ordain: that we should draw near to Him, and that every good should descend to us from Him—only through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sole Mediator. Apart from Him no blessing comes from heaven to earth, and there is no other way of ascent from earth to heaven.

The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Here St Paul: a) gives thanks to God for the Philippians’ remembrance and fellowship in the gospel, cherishing hope that God will preserve to the end the good begun in them (Phil. 1:3–6); b) testifies that he himself always remembers them by reason of his deep love for them (Phil. 1:7–8); and c) expresses his prayerful good-will that they may abound in works of love and be enriched with the fruits of righteousness (Phil. 1:9–11).

A) The Apostle gives thanks to God for the Philippians’ remembrance and fellowship in the gospel (Phil. 1:3–6)

Phil. 1:3. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.

Opening his Epistle, the Apostle gives due appreciation to the good that the Philippians had done him. But he does not ascribe this directly to them—he ascribes it to God, the source of every good and the first establisher and guardian of the gospel—from his very first words teaching them also not to attribute their own good to themselves, but to God, without Whom nothing truly good comes to pass. “I thank,” he says, “my God.” God is the God of all; but the Apostle appropriates Him to himself by reason of his most intimate and sincere communion with Him, and of that assurance—never leaving his attention and feeling—that God especially keeps and watches, covers and guides him. The consciousness of God as one’s own God belongs to those who have attained maturity in the spiritual life.

“Upon every remembrance of you.” These words stand in the same grammatical construction as the words that follow: “upon your fellowship”—both in Slavonic and in Greek—that is: I thank God upon your remembrance—I thank upon your fellowship. Judging by this, these words must be seen as mutually explanatory. Therefore, if the words “upon your fellowship” refer to the Philippians’ act, then the words “upon your remembrance” must also be understood as referring to their act—that is, one must take the remembrance here to be not the Apostle’s remembrance of the Philippians, but the Philippians’ remembrance of him. His own remembrance of them he speaks of below (in verse 7), but here he glorifies their remembrance of him. The Philippians manifested their remembrance through their contributions to the Apostle. These contributions were a token of remembrance on their part, which in turn disposed the Apostle to remember them. Since through this they assisted the work of God and were moreover moved to it by God, the Apostle thanks God for their deed. For without Him they would not have done such a thing.

Phil. 1:4. Always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy.

I thank God for your remembrance, he says, “always in every prayer of mine.” That is: always, whenever I pray to God, I also thank Him for this. I let no prayer pass without thanking God for your remembrance. The Apostle had many persons, many communities, many concerns for which he prayed. Each subject of prayer required its own particular word of prayer, corresponding not only to its importance but also to the relation in which it stood to the Apostle. In the latter regard, some subjects called forth gladness before God, while others called forth grief and anguish. The Philippians gladdened the Apostle by their devotion to the faith and their readiness to assist in every way in the spread of the Gospel. Therefore, when in his prayer he reached them, he prayed for them all with joy. Every time I pray, he says, I thank God for your remembrance and pray for all of you with joy. Prayer for you is for me a consolation and a delight. Such is the measure of love and sincere heartfelt communion with the Philippians!

Phil. 1:5. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.

The words “for your fellowship in the gospel” explain the words “upon your remembrance.” I thank God for your remembrance, he says—that is, for your fellowship in the gospel. He called fellowship in the gospel the assistance they had sent him; and this same thing he also called remembrance. Your remembrance of me, the Apostle gives to understand—expressed in the assistance you rendered me—is your fellowship in the gospel. I labor in the gospel; but since you, by helping me, give greater scope to the gospel, you also participate in the gospel. The fruit of the gospel that I am acquiring is at the same time your fruit as well. The Philippians began sending assistance to the Apostle as soon as he departed from Philippi—which was at the very beginning of their conversion to the Christian faith. This is what he has in mind when he says: “from the first day.” They sent to Thessalonica, they sent to Corinth; and now, as soon as the opportunity arose, they sent also to Rome. And it turned out that they had truly been helping the Apostle right up to the very hour when he was writing the Epistle. And he says of this: until now.

The words of St Chrysostom on this passage are remarkable. “Here the Apostle says much in praise of the Philippians—indeed very much—as much as another might say about Apostles and Evangelists. For you, he says, do not concern yourselves with only the one city entrusted to you, but take every care to share in my labors, everywhere cooperating with me and participating in my preaching. And not for one, two, or three years, but always—from the time you received the faith even until now—you preserve Apostolic zeal. They shared in his tribulations even from a distance, sent men to him, served him as best they could, and left him destitute in nothing. To help the Apostle means to share in the gospel. For when he preaches and you serve the one who preaches, you share also in his rewards. The services rendered to the saints are no small thing, but a great one. For this makes us participants in the rewards prepared for them. For example: one man has abandoned great possessions for God’s sake, always relies on God, strives greatly in virtue, observing great strictness in everything, even in words and thoughts. But you, even without such strictness, can participate in the rewards prepared for him for such struggles. How? By serving him—by providing him with what he needs. For in this way you make the difficult road lighter for him. Therefore, if you admire those who live in deserts—who have chosen the angelic life—and those who in the midst of society struggle like them; if you admire them and regret that you fall far short of them, you can become participants in them by another means—through service, through zeal. And this is an act of God’s love for mankind, that even those who are less zealous and unable to lead a harsh, difficult, and austere life, He leads by another path to the same height. This is what Paul calls fellowship! They, he says, share with us their material things, and we share with them our spiritual things (Rom. 15:27). For if God grants the Kingdom for something small and trifling, then His servants also repay something small and sensible with what is spiritual; or rather, through them God Himself gives both the one and the other. You cannot fast, live in solitude, sleep on the ground, keep vigil through whole nights? You can receive the reward for all of this by another means: if you are zealous to serve those who struggle in this; if you give them rest and lighten their toil. He stands in battle, he also receives wounds; but do you serve him when he returns from the field of battle, receive him with open arms, wipe his sweat, give him rest, console him, encourage his wearied soul. If we serve the saints with such zeal, we shall be participants in their rewards. This is also what Christ says: ‘make for yourselves friends from the mammon of unrighteousness, so that they may receive you into everlasting dwellings’ (Lk. 16:9).”

Phil. 1:6. Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

“Being confident,” πεποιυως — being convinced, assured. The Apostle speaks as if to say: “I believe that He who has granted you this good zeal will preserve it unharmed until the coming of our Saviour” (blessed Theodoret). “He who has begun” is God, from Whom every good proceeds. “A good work” is either salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ in general—faith and life according to the faith—or that good work by which the Philippians were especially distinguished: participation in the spread of the Gospel. The Apostle’s thought up to this point has been dwelling on this latter. It is natural to understand it here as well. But since this zeal proceeded from faith and love for the faith, the Apostle may also have included under “a good work” the work of salvation through faith in the Lord—not exclusively, however, but insofar as it expressed itself in the beneficence that distinguished the Philippians and animated it. The Apostle’s exclusive desire for their progress in the Christian life and the work of salvation he expresses below (in verses 9–11); here the entire discourse concerns one thing—the well-known fellowship in the gospel.

The “day of Jesus Christ” is His second coming, which every Christian ought, by the word of the Lord Himself, to await from hour to hour and to prepare to meet by the multiplication of good works—each one whichever is most fitted and habitual to him. Since the Philippians had begun to support the gospel by a special prompting of God, the Apostle, judging by such a source of their good work, expresses confidence that it will continue until the Day of the Lord, that God will give them strength to remain constant in it and “to offer it as a pure sacrifice to the Lord at His coming” (St John of Damascus). That he confines himself here to this one thing contains nothing inappropriate; for of the total sum of God-pleasing works, not all can or must do everything—but let each one please God with that to which he is most fitted. This holds true in application both to individual persons and to whole communities. The Philippians proved most suited to the work of supporting the gospel—and for this God inspired them; and the Apostle expresses his well-wishing confidence that He will not cease to inspire them in this to the very end. In this lies their salvation.

But what is the connection of this verse with the preceding? It is that in it is expressed the reason why the Apostle rejoices especially in his prayers for the Philippians and thanks God so fervently for their remembrance. If they had done their good work once or twice and then stopped, it would have vanished in the sum of other deeds and been forgotten even by themselves, leaving no trace behind. There would have been nothing to mention it for or to hold it in such high esteem. But it became especially precious in the eyes of the Apostle through the assurance that, with God’s prompting and assistance, they would not cease to exercise it to the end and with it would greet the Lord. It will be for them, consequently, a bridge to paradise. This is what gladdened the Apostle and called forth his thanksgiving to God.

St Chrysostom perceived in the Apostle’s words a subtle indication of the relationship between grace and freedom, and expressed it thus: “See how he teaches them humility. Since he had ascribed great praise to them, so that some passion natural to man might not take hold of them, he immediately instructs them to attribute both the past and the future to Christ. How? He did not say: being convinced that as you have begun, so you will also complete; but—what? ‘He who has begun a good work in you will complete it.’ Yet he does not deprive them of their virtues either. For it is no small praise that God is at work in someone. If He is impartial—as indeed He is—and helps us in good works in accordance with our disposition, then the reason He inclines toward us lies within us. Thus even in this way the Apostle does not deprive them of praise. For if God acted unconditionally—if He moved us like wood and stones and required no participation from us—nothing would prevent Him from acting in pagans too, and in all people. Therefore, in the words ‘God will complete’—again there is praise for them; because they drew the grace of God to themselves, which helped them to rise above human nature. And on the other hand, it is also to their praise that you possess such virtues as are not the work of man but require Divine cooperation. And if God will complete it, then on our part not much labor will be needed—rather one must hope that with His help we shall accomplish everything easily.”

B) The Apostle testifies that he himself also always remembers the Philippians (Phil. 1:7–8)

Phil. 1:7. Even as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of my grace.

The Apostle has glorified the Philippians’ good regard toward him; now he sets forth his own regard toward them. You remembered me, he says in effect, and I have not forgotten you either; I have carried you always in my heart—both in bonds and in my defense and in the establishment and confirmation of the Gospel. He gives this declaration such a turn that it serves as a confirmation of the confidence he has just expressed—that He who has begun in them the good work will also complete it. It is right, he says, for me to think this of you, because I hold you in my heart. But from this alone it would follow not that it is right for me to think this of you, but only that it is desirable to think so. This is why he added how he holds them in his heart—he holds them as partakers of his grace. In this lies the unshakeable foundation of the said confidence. Since you are partakers of my grace, to the same degree that I am confident concerning myself that God will not abandon me, to that same degree am I confident that He will not abandon you either and will complete the good work begun in you.

Such is the flow of thought in the Apostle here. His chief purpose, however, remains what it was—to say that he also remembers them, out of his deep love for them. Thus St Chrysostom: “In these words the Apostle expresses great love for the Philippians; for he had them in his heart—even in prison, even in chains, he remembered them. And not only this, but he says, even at the time when I was led into the court to give an answer, you did not leave my mind. So strong is spiritual love that it is overcome by no circumstances, but always holds the soul of the lover and permits no grief, no anguish to overcome it. As in the Babylonian furnace, amid such a fierce flame, there was dew for those blessed youths, so also love, having taken hold of the soul of one who loves and pleases God, extinguishes every flame and produces a wondrous dew.”

With the word “in bonds” the Apostle indicated only the place of his sojourn, while by the words “in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel” he designated his occupations and labors. Defense, απολογια — may refer both to how the Apostle defended himself before the court and to how he defended the Gospel before the unbelieving Jews and pagans who were, perhaps, disputing it.

Confirmation, βεβαιωσις — proving, convincing demonstration—signifies not only that in defending the Gospel he was also at the same time establishing it; but also that he was seeking every means to make the Gospel known to a greater number of persons, and for those persons to be assured of its truth and to be confirmed in faith in it.

Amid all such labors and occupations, I, he says, hold you in my heart. How did he hold them? As being partakers—partakers of grace. Their fellowship in grace is understood from the preceding fellowship in the gospel. They are the Apostle’s partakers because they lightened his labors in the gospel. Participating thereby in the Apostle’s labors, they participate in that grace which constituted the undoubted heritage of the Apostle. The word “grace” may be understood as all that God has ordained to bestow on the Apostle for his labors. Everything God has given me and will give—in all of that you too have a share. What exactly “grace” signifies here one need not pursue; for the force does not lie in that, but in the fact that, through their material assistance to the Apostle, they became sharers in his spiritual, grace-endowed wealth. Let us rather listen to what St Chrysostom draws from this: “Therefore, since it is possible to participate in the grace of the gracious: let us also strive to be partakers thereof. How many of those standing here—or rather, all of you—would wish to be co-partakers with Paul in the good things prepared for him? And this is possible, if you are willing to cooperate with and assist those who have taken up his ministry, those who suffer some misfortune for Christ’s sake. Do you see a brother in temptation? Stretch out a helping hand. Do you see a teacher in struggle? Help him. Did the Philippians earn their praise by cooperating with Paul? No—but by cooperating with the one who had taken upon himself the preaching. Paul was worthy of honor because he had suffered so much for Christ. Help those who endure things for Christ in the preaching of the Gospel, and you will be Paul’s co-partaker.”

Phil. 1:8. For God is my witness, how greatly I long after you all in the tender mercies (bowels) of Jesus Christ.

I love, επιπουω,—I hold all of you as most longed-for. “With compassion,” σπλαγχνοις,—with the bowels of Jesus Christ, with the heart of Jesus Christ. – Since he had expressed so strong a love toward them; lest anyone suppose there is something fleshly or self-interested in this, he calls God to witness that, though he truly loves them intensely to the point of longing, that love is the same as the love with which Jesus Christ loves us all—pure, self-denying, desiring good for them more than for himself. “St. Paul calls God to witness not because they distrusted him, but does so out of his great affection for the Philippians. Since he had said that they were his partners (through their alms), lest they suppose he loves them for that reason and not simply for their own sake, he adds: ‘with the compassion of Christ’ (with the heart of Christ). What does this mean? The same as ‘in Christ’: because you are faithful, because you love Christ, because of love according to Christ. He did not even say: with love, but far more emphatically: with the heart of Christ, as if saying, I love you as your father, by kinship in Christ. For that kinship gives us a heart that is warm and ardent. Such a heart is given only to His true servants.– With such a heart, he says (I love you); as if he said: I love you not with an ordinary heart, but with the most ardent heart, the heart of Christ. I love, he says, all of you; and how strongly I love, it is impossible even to express. For with words I cannot express my love. Therefore I leave it to God, who penetrates hearts, to see it” (St. Chrysostom).

C) The Apostle expresses a prayerful blessing that the Philippians might abound in works of love (Phil. 1:9–11)

Phil. 1:9. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all perception.

St. Paul had already shown his love for the Philippians sufficiently—by recalling their devotion to him with such joy and thanksgiving to God, and by always keeping them in remembrance. Now he testifies to that same love through a prayerful blessing for the Philippians’ progress in Christian perfection, defining it both in its constituent parts (verse 9), and in its manifestation in the active life (verse 10), and in its end, or completion and crown (verse 11).

“I pray.” At the beginning he had already said that he prays for them with joy in every prayer. But there he did not indicate what, precisely, he asks of God for them in prayer. He does that now. The Apostle asks in prayer that their “love” may abound “in knowledge and in all perception.” Love is the active force of Christian life, embracing both heaven and earth. It is poured into the hearts of Christians together with the reception of the grace of the Holy Spirit and immediately begins to move them toward corresponding deeds. The farther it goes, the more deeds it produces; but the more deeds, the more ardent love becomes.– The measure of love is infinity (St. Chrysostom). Thus, by the natural course of Christian life, it abounds in Christians.

St. Paul wishes that love, while abounding in itself, should abound also “in knowledge,” εν επιγνωσει,—in understanding. So he expressed it; yet his thought is this: I pray that you may abound not in love alone, but also in knowledge. Love has need of the light of understanding so that it may act “with discernment and reflection: for there are those who love without reason” (St. Chrysostom). Knowledge here embraces all Christian understanding, whose object is not only the commandments but also all the dogmas and all other subjects related to Christianity. Only the knowledge of everything rightly illumines all the paths of life and safeguards the active force of love from erroneous deviations. The Creed already outlines the whole domain of Christian understanding. A life lived in reflection and self-examination, with the word of God and all-illumining grace, develops each point of it into a complete system. Finally, the whole of it is clearly formed in the mind with proper detail. Embrace it all and you will see that here is an inexhaustible source of light. When this is attained, the mind becomes not only enlightened but also luminous.– And this is what St. Paul desires for the Philippians—in desiring that they abound in knowledge.

And this is not enough. It is still necessary to abound in perception, εν αισυησει. The outer senses are also called by this same word; but St. Paul evidently means the spiritual sense. The outer senses examine things and give knowledge of their qualities. Similarly, the spiritual sense in its own domain examines spiritual things and determines their qualities. As in the one case, so in the other, the distinguishing property of sense is touch and taste. The multiplication of experiences through the outer senses gives outer experience; the multiplication of spiritual touches and tastings of spiritual things gives spiritual experience. And it is an abundance of this that St. Paul desires for the Philippians, when he prays for an abundance of perception. In another place he expressed this perfection as having the senses trained in the discernment of good and evil.

These are all the aspects of Christian perfection! Love—the driving force; knowledge—the illumination of the path; perception—the skill of knowing where and how to step along the path. More than this one could not wish for.

Phil. 1:10. So that you may discern what is best, that you may be pure and without offense until the day of Christ.

The manifestation in the active life of the perfections mentioned is one thing: that by means of them the Christian can always rightly determine what is best, accomplish it in the best possible manner, and taste the fruit thereof. All of this is contained in: “to discern what is best. To discern”—means to point out what is best by knowledge, to fulfill it by love, and to taste its fruit by perception. Let all of life pass according to this norm—what will be the result? It will be pure and without offense (and yet more, full of the fruits of righteousness).

Pure: “that you may be pure”—sincere, doing everything according to a clean conscience, without any guile or duplicity. Whatever is recognized as right and pleasing to God, that is to be done: for the life of such persons flows before the face of God; and here conscience is the guardian of God’s will, which will permit no falsehood. The purity here is comprehensive—in its object, its motives, and its circumstances.

Without offense: “that you may be without offense”—free from scandal, so that neither do they themselves stumble, nor do they cause anyone else to stumble. They themselves will not stumble; for they understand all the paths of life well and know exactly from where each thing proceeds. They will not cause others to stumble, for “trained senses” impart to those who possess them a special tact, by which all their deeds and words are always at the right time and in the right place, and, edifying all, offend no one; on the contrary, they earn the approval of all. Even those who are reproved and rebuked by them will hear them with sweetness.

Phil. 1:11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Filled with the fruits of righteousness, like “a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season” (Ps. 1:3). In those who possess the perfections described, there are no unrighteous deeds, words, or thoughts. Standing in their consciousness before God, they take every step in such a way that it is pleasing to Him. For this they have their own spiritual discernment, which is the same as “trained senses.” It tells them truly what ought to be done. The sober, watchful, unfatigued, and wholly attentive zeal of love immediately takes that indication as its law—and fulfills it. So every moment—from the time consciousness opens upon awakening from sleep to the time it closes in sleep. And even their very sleep is turned into a work of righteousness. So it is until the grave. How could they not be filled with the fruits of righteousness?!

“Through Jesus Christ.” From Him come all the fruits of righteousness. For He Himself said: “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine; so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. For without Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:4–5). Those baptized into Christ are clothed in Him. And by receiving the Holy Mysteries of Christ, they have Him dwelling within them. Thus, one who cleaves to the Lord becomes one spirit with the Lord. How then could his fruits of righteousness not be the fruits of Jesus Christ?! “It is God who works in us both to will and to do according to His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). This is something that perfect Christians perceive very deeply and sincerely.

“To the glory and praise of God.” This is the ultimate end both of individual actions and of all of life. Even eating and drinking ought to be conducted so that they too redound to the glory of God. No one knows how to accomplish this so well as those whose life is hidden with Christ in God. In them everything proceeds from God and everything returns to God. They themselves disappear. The consciousness of the all-seeing God does not allow them to seize anything from their deeds for themselves or to turn it to anything other than God’s glory. And how can one appropriate anything for oneself who is conscious that it is not he who acts, but the grace that is with him, and that if he feels himself mighty, it is because he can do “all things” through the Lord who strengthens him? Conscious of this, he gives everything back to Him. The theft of God’s glory is possible only as long as one has not stood before God in one’s consciousness. From that moment, it ceases.

The whole life of a perfect Christian passes in such a way that he is pure, without offense, and filled with the fruits of righteousness through Jesus Christ, to the glory of God. But he himself is not aware of this. God’s grace does not allow him to become aware of it, lest he consume himself with self-regard. On the contrary, it often places him in a condition in which he feels himself filled with every kind of wretchedness. The memory of these states does not allow him to acknowledge anything good or worthy before God’s eyes. God knows, but does not reveal it.—The manifest test for all is “the day of Christ.” To that day the holy Apostle refers the crowning of all—and with it he concludes his prayerful blessing for them. Only let you appear on the day of Christ as pure and without offense, filled with the fruits of righteousness. And what comes after that I do not concern myself with. If on that day you are found in good order, then after it there will be for you what cannot even be described. This is why all those who strive earnestly for the spiritual life have established it as a law—not to go beyond the thought of God’s judgment. Stand at the judgment and wait for what the Lord will say concerning you: Come!… or Depart! But who will it be that He says this to?! And so—weep.—Some have not ceased to weep thus their whole life long.—This is what the Apostle’s desire leads to—that we may appear pure on the day of Christ.

Part One—The Apostle’s Account of Himself (Philippians 1:12–2:18)

The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

St. Paul places first: 1) a report on the successes of the gospel and his own dispositions and hopes regarding it (Phil. 1:12–26)—with the addition of: 2) instruction to the Philippians on a manner of life worthy of the gospel (Phil. 1:27–2:18).

1) On the Successes of the Gospel and His Own Dispositions and Hopes Regarding It (Phil. 1:12–26)

St. Paul writes, first of all, about himself, reporting how the preaching of the Gospel is going and what his own state of spirit is. It is likely that the Philippians, when sending Epaphroditus, expressed a desire to know about this as well. And the Apostle answers them. It was natural that a question should have arisen for them. The Apostle, sent by God, is in chains: what then of his work, the work of preaching? The Apostle: a) writes them that his chains have not hindered the work of preaching but, on the contrary, have served as an aid to it (Phil. 1:12–20). But, having said this, and out of his love for the Philippians: b) he also disclosed to them what had always been on his heart and what constituted the purpose of his life—namely, that nothing binds him to life, and that the one thing that occupies him on earth is to further the salvation of people through the preaching of the Gospel (Phil. 1:21–26).

A) The Apostle Writes to the Philippians about His Bonds (Phil. 1:12–20)

Phil. 1:12. But I would have you know, brethren, that the things concerning me have fallen out rather to the advancement of the gospel.

“I would have you know”—I want you to know. Perhaps even of his own accord, without a question from the Philippians, St. Paul wished to tell them about himself. By this he testified to his love for them. Those who love one another conceal nothing from each other, and by this mutual openness they nourish their love.

“It is the mark of a loving person to explain his circumstances when those who love him are troubled on account of them. The Apostle likely supposed that the Philippians, having heard that he was in chains, were grieved and thought that the preaching had ceased. What does he do? He immediately dispels this supposition” (St. Chrysostom).

“The things concerning me”—my circumstances, or my situation, “have fallen out rather to the advancement of the gospel.” That word “rather” means: they intended to hinder or cut off the preaching by putting me in chains, but it turned out otherwise—the chains did not hinder the preaching of the Gospel; “rather” they served its advancement and spread. He says: “the things concerning me… have come.” As though events flowed on of their own accord and have come to this outcome. But his thought is: God so arranged it. Though he does not say this directly, his words lead directly to it. The Gospel is from above—and is protected from above. It cannot be bound or held back by chains. It goes its own way, in spite of all the efforts of men. “What are you saying? You are in chains, you are being hindered—how then does the Gospel advance?” (St. Chrysostom).

Phil. 1:13. So that my bonds have become manifest in Christ throughout all the praetorium and in all other places.

“God so arranged it, says the Apostle, that my bonds in Christ and for Christ have not remained unknown in ‘all the praetorium.’ This is what they used to call the imperial palace. And not only in the praetorium, but in the whole city” (St. Chrysostom). The Apostle did not remain silent while in chains, but, as St. Luke testifies, “welcomed all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning our Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, without hindrance” (Acts 28:30–31). The word of the Gospel spread both from him personally and from his co-workers; and those who heard passed on to others what they had heard. Going farther and farther, it reached even Caesar’s household. And there it became known, as throughout the whole city, that there was a man in chains—an extraordinary man—who had ended up in chains not for any crimes, but because he proclaimed to all the God-appointed way of salvation. By this not only was the scandal of the chains averted; but the chains received a certain heavenly light that drew people rather than repelled them.

The words “my bonds have become manifest in Christ” convey more than one thought. Most directly of all is the thought that Christ made them publicly known, with something of a glorious, renowned quality. Who needs to know about a prisoner? But Christ brought it about that everyone came to know of my chains, and everyone began to speak of them—naturally with an explanation of the nature of these chains. By this very fact they themselves became a proclamation of Christ the Lord. Oecumenius adduces this and similar interpretations. Here are his words: “my bonds have become manifest in Christ”—means either that they were in Christ and for Christ: that is, by the blessing and dispensation of Christ, since St. Paul, whether he suffered or succeeded in anything, referred it all to Christ; or that those bonds in Christ become manifest which are not performed for show, but in which everything is done in such a way that those who see them receive profit and glorify God who is in the Heavens.

“In the praetorium,” εν πραιτωριω. Some say that in Rome itself the imperial palace was not called by that name, but outside Rome, in the provinces, it was sometimes called so. But that St. Paul here means the imperial household is evident from his greeting on behalf of those who are of Caesar’s household (Phil. 4:22).

“And in all other places”—places, or parts of the city, simply throughout the whole city, as St. Chrysostom said.

Phil. 1:14. And many of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my bonds, dare all the more to speak the word of God without fear.

“My bonds not only did not shut the mouths of others or make them timid, but, on the contrary, made them yet more bold. Even before this they acted boldly and spoke with confidence; but now much more so” (St. Chrysostom). “Many”—that is, there were a great number of preachers; there had been many before, but after Paul’s bonds became so well known, there were far more. In this one can see the Apostle’s own assurance that the city had indeed been thoroughly proclaimed to throughout.

“In the Lord”—either brothers in the Lord, that is, believers, those most devoted to the Lord among them, who understood the truth about the Lord more fully; or “those who had placed their hope in the Lord.” The brothers were inspired with hope in the Lord on the occasion of Paul’s bonds having taken such a turn. Or the Lord inspired them with hope through Paul’s bonds. “Since it would have been saying a great deal to assert that my bonds produced boldness in them, he first said: ‘in the Lord.’ Do you see how the Apostle, even when he must boast, does not abandon modesty?” (St. Chrysostom). “In the Lord,” that is, through the Lord (Oecumenius).

“Having become confident”—emboldened by my bonds: either by the fact that they had received such renown, or by the fact that St. Paul bore them cheerfully. In the first respect the thought is this: seeing that the Apostle’s preaching, despite his being in chains, had not only attracted no harm whatsoever, but on the contrary had made him known even among the most distinguished persons—that everyone knows of this and no one has taken any action against him, though he is in their hands—seeing this, they laid aside all fear and began to proclaim the word of God with confidence. In the second respect: “In many of the brethren, because of my bonds, boldness was born; for, seeing that I bore my suffering with gladness, they preached the Divine Gospel without fear” (blessed Theodoret). “Had the one who was bound borne his chains with grief and remained silent, it would naturally have put them in the same condition; but because the one who was bound acted all the more boldly, he gave them more boldness than if he had not been bound” (St. Chrysostom).

“They dare all the more.” “Even before this they acted boldly and spoke with confidence; but now much more so” (St. Chrysostom). “Boldness seized them; for Paul’s bonds inflamed their faith. If this preaching were not divine, they said, Paul would not have consented to endure such bonds for its sake. The bonds of St. Paul served to strengthen the preaching” (Oecumenius).

“To speak the word of God.” The preaching that went forth was not human; the teaching being spread was not Paul’s, but through Paul, from God Himself, the surest path of salvation was being proclaimed to all. In this lies the power of the Gospel! The lips were human, but what they uttered was divine, by the power that worked within it.

Phil. 1:15. Some indeed preach Christ even out of envy and strife, and some also out of goodwill.

Where God’s sowers were sowing, the enemy had also hastened with his tares. Among the good and well-intentioned preachers, ill-intentioned ones had also mixed in. Who were they? They were not persons holding wrong doctrines—the Judaizers, for instance. For in that case the Apostle could never have said: in whatever way Christ is preached, I rejoice. How could he have rejoiced at the spread of wrong teaching? And in particular, St. Paul could never speak with equanimity about the Judaizers. To accept their teaching, in his view, is to fall away from Christ. What joy could there be in that for him? In describing them he does not hint at any error in their teaching, but only portrays their wrong dispositions, saying that they preach out of envy, out of strife, out of a desire to cause grief to the one in bonds—in a word, impurely, with impure intentions and motives. And the preachers who stand opposite to them he describes not from the angle of preaching the truth, but from the angle of preaching with a good heart, out of goodwill, out of love.

How could such persons have arisen among the believers? Where virtue is, there sin lurks alongside. Among the Jewish believers there may have been persons of rank and learning who would naturally have envied St. Paul—especially if one supposes that they had accepted Christianity not so much out of heartfelt conviction as because they had already grown away from Judaism and, by their upbringing, held paganism in contempt, while they could not remain without faith. Christianity appeared, and with it the Jewish mind could easily make peace. They accepted it as a system, while remaining with the same unchanged heart. As long as St. Paul’s preaching successes were modest, they went along with the others; but when that preaching attained renown and stirred envy in true preachers, they too rose up and, having no purified heart, carried on the preaching with impure dispositions—perhaps even without the Apostle’s knowledge, and in opposition to him. Even though they proclaimed Christ, it was not for the glory of Christ but for their own; might they not also have entertained the thought of eclipsing the Apostle? St. Paul says they preached out of envy and strife—out of rivalry, out of a desire to outrun the Apostle. “Envying my glory and my good beginning, or in order to be honored themselves, thinking to diminish my glory somewhat” (St. Chrysostom). The Apostle speaks of them calmly, being fully assured, of course, that no harm to the holy faith could follow from them.

Over against these ill-disposed persons he sets the good-hearted preachers, who proclaimed Christ “out of goodwill”—that is, with good will, out of love for the Lord, for the holy faith, and for the Apostle himself. Out of goodwill, that is, without hypocrisy, with full earnestness (St. Chrysostom); “out of ardent devotion to piety” (blessed Theodoret); “out of faith, out of love, out of conviction, out of good will” (Oecumenius); “without pretence, with an upright disposition of heart” (blessed Theophylact).

Phil. 1:16. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds.

The first group proclaims Christ “out of rivalry”—out of competitiveness, wishing to outrun me, to leave me behind, or acting against me, against my plans and arrangements. Therefore they proclaim not sincerely—which denotes not that their teaching was adulterated with falsehood, but that they acted without a good heart, in a morally impure manner, not blamelessly—thereby lacking purity of heart.

“Supposing to add affliction to my bonds”—that is, hoping to cause grief to me who am in bonds. By what means could they hope to grieve St. Paul? If they preached falsehood, it would be obvious how they could have grieved him. But since they were not in error regarding the doctrine, only regarding their motives and manner of action, one may surmise—by acting against the will of St. Paul, without his knowledge, not according to his direction, and even in opposition to him. And this could grieve the Apostle, who was zealous that in the Church, among the circle of believers, everything should proceed in an orderly and fitting manner. St. Chrysostom says: “Thinking by this to plunge me into greater trouble, they add sorrow to sorrow. O cruelty, O diabolical conduct! They saw that he was imprisoned in chains and still did not wish him well; they wanted to increase his misfortunes. Well did the Apostle say: ‘supposing’; for it did not turn out that way. They thought by this to cause me grief; but I rejoiced at the success of the preaching.—So it is possible to do even a good deed with a bad intention; for which not only will there be no reward, but there will even be punishment. For since they proclaimed Christ for the purpose of plunging the preacher of Christ into greater troubles, they will not only receive no reward, but will be subject to punishment and torment.”

Phil. 1:17. But the latter out of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.

The second group proclaims Christ “out of love”—both for the Lord and for me (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact); one may add: for the holy faith and the gospel concerning it. Though from what follows it is evident that their love was directed chiefly to the Apostle, it could not have stood alone, without love for the Lord and for the cause of salvation accomplished by Him.—“Knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.” The responsibility for the gospel may be understood as being before God and before Caesar. If the latter, the thought is: knowing that a responsibility before the authorities rests upon me, they act cautiously in their preaching, according to my direction and guidance, so as not to provoke the authorities by reckless conduct and thereby stir up a storm against me. Everyone knows that the preaching proceeds from me. Should anything happen on account of it, the authorities would immediately lay hold of me, which cannot end well. Knowing this, they, out of love for me, act in their preaching according to my direction. To be understood further: while those first ones act without discernment. They care nothing if I am thereby made to suffer or even to face death. If the former understanding is taken, the thought is: “They lighten my responsibility before God and in some measure assist me in giving account. As it were the Apostle says: I have been commanded to preach; and I shall have to give account and answer for the task entrusted to me. Therefore they help me in such a way that it has become easier for me to answer. For if many are found who have been taught and have believed, it will be easy for me to answer” (St. Chrysostom and all our commentators).

Phil. 1:18. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.

“What then?” Well then? Let them preach. “What does it matter to me, one way or the other?” (St. Chrysostom). Their intentions and motives cannot be approved. But, looking at the actual work of gospel preaching, abstracting it from the dispositions with which it is done, one cannot but rejoice in it. Whatever the manner, whatever the heart in which Christ is proclaimed—whether “in pretense,” under the pretext, under the guise of love for the Lord and for truth, hypocritically—or “in truth,” with the disposition of spirit with which this holy work ought to be done—I rejoice in this, and not only do I rejoice now, but I will always rejoice afterwards, and with a joy greater than now; or—I will rejoice, “if they were to keep doing so more and more” (St. Chrysostom). For those who preach impurely destroy the good of their own work, and that is to be lamented; but those who hear them and believe in the Lord through them receive salvation and glorify the Lord—how can one not rejoice in this? The glory of the Lord spreads; and my work prospers. “Against their will they assist me; though for their labors they will suffer punishment. And I, without helping them in the least, will receive a reward. Is there anyone more malicious than the devil, who devised the means of turning the very act of preaching into a cause of punishment for those who agreed to assist him? Do you see into what trouble he plunges his own? For their preaching and labors he contrives punishment and torment for them. And what other enemy and foe of their salvation could have so arranged everything?” (St. Chrysostom).

From this passage it is evident that the persons of whom St. Paul here speaks were not heretics. “They preached soundly; only the aim and intention with which they so acted were perverted, while the preaching itself was unchanged” (St. Chrysostom). “He censured them not for teaching what is evil, but for teaching what is good in an evil manner, having as their aim not piety but extreme hostility” (blessed Theodoret). Let no one suppose that St. Paul approves of bad motives, provided only the work is good. “One must bear in mind that in St. Paul this is expressed not in the form of a command, but as a statement of fact; he did not say: let it be proclaimed, but ‘is proclaimed’” (blessed Theodoret). “He stated what was” (St. Chrysostom)—and is examining an accomplished fact, not giving a commandment. Having detached himself from all the entanglements of the matter, even from the side by which it touched him personally and painfully, he says: one cannot but rejoice in such a work. St. Chrysostom, on the occasion of these words, marvels at the loftier character of St. Paul, saying: “No sorrow occurring in the present life—no enmity, no censure, no slander, no calamity, no punishment—can disturb a great and philosophic soul; for it has, as it were, fled to the summit of some lofty mountain, where it is safe from all the arrows shot from below, from the earth. Such is the soul of St. Paul, which has found for itself a place higher than any summit—the place of spiritual philosophy, of true philosophy.—They caused him various griefs, and yet what does he say? Not only do I not grieve at this and am not downcast, but I even rejoice and will rejoice—not only now, that is, but I shall always rejoice at this.”

Thus St. Paul sacrifices neither doctrine for the sake of morality, nor morality for the sake of doctrine.

Phil. 1:19. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

“‘For I know’—indicates the reason why he says he will always rejoice. For I know without any doubt, he says, that even this manner of preaching will serve for my salvation. By ‘this’—though both manners of preaching may be understood—that is, ‘whether in pretense or in truth’—yet since from the well-intentioned preaching carried on under the direction of St. Paul himself he feared nothing harmful, and only says that the reckless, unguided, ill-intentioned preaching might add affliction to his bonds; it is evident that this latter is more directly meant here. I am confident, he says, that even this latter will serve for my salvation. ‘This’—either the fact that those men proclaim Christ in this manner, or even the very fact that they plot against St. Paul” (Oecumenius). “If some dangers should arise from this, those very dangers will serve for my salvation” (blessed Theodoret).

The word “salvation” is understood variously. It is neither temporal nor eternal salvation, but stands in place of the common expression: “for good.” Whatever may come of their reckless conduct—together with what is well-ordered—all of it will serve me for good. On what does such confidence rest? On faith in the power of the prayers of the saints and on God’s providential care for him: “through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”

“Through your prayer.” Since he was writing to the Philippians, he mentioned their prayer. Writing to others, he would have said the same about their prayer. The Apostle was confident that the prayer of the Philippians, as well as of all whom he had converted, and indeed of all believers, was continually ascending to God on his behalf and was asking for him all that was needful; and God hears His holy ones. Therefore he had no doubt that everything that was to happen would serve him for good. What he said was not mere words, but an expression of what was in his heart. Such is the spirit of life in Christ Jesus that in it no one feels himself alone. This the Apostle also expressed in the words: “this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer.” “Mark the humility of this blessed one. He had labored on a difficult course; he had performed a countless multitude of deeds; he was already standing near the very crown. And yet he who by countless virtues had won salvation writes to the Philippians: I can be saved by your prayer” (St. Chrysostom). So deeply does the conviction of the power and necessity of common prayer enter into consciousness that even an apostolic heart is not exempt from it.—Or rather, truly it was in such a heart that it was meant to dwell in perfection. For they are our model in all things.

“The supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”—He does not say that the Spirit of Jesus Christ will be given to him; for who was more filled with that Spirit? But rather—that the Spirit of Jesus Christ will grant him, together with the prayer of the faithful, that all things will turn to his salvation. He means the Spirit—the guardian, guide, and enlightener of all the Apostles, and of Paul in particular—Who was sent down upon them by the Lord Jesus Christ from God the Father and abode in them inseparably, overshadowing and protecting them. The Apostles were wholly surrendered to His guidance and were confident that all their ways and all the contingencies of their lives turned and would always be turned to their good as Apostles, for the good of their apostolic ministry. This confidence is what the Apostle expresses here. It abode unwaveringly in their hearts, animated them, and filled them with hope.

Phil. 1:20. According to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

The prayer of the faithful and the all-effective power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ will turn all things, he says, to my good—but not of themselves. They are outside of me. I draw them to myself and appropriate their power by my earnest expectation and hope. They will do this for me according to my earnest expectation and hope. “According to my earnest expectation,” καραδοκιαν.—This word denotes a firm, unshakeable, and unwavering hope, expressed by the position of the head, kara, and a confident gaze, as for instance: “and I shall look upon my enemies” (Ps. 117:7). Such was the powerful hope and the strong confidence that the Apostle bore in his soul! And possessing them, he says with assurance that he will not be ashamed. For “hope does not put to shame” (Rom. 5:5), as he himself teaches. And indeed, “who has trusted in the Lord and been put to shame?” (Sir. 2:10).—“That in nothing I shall be ashamed.” “Such is the hope of Paul; I hope that I shall never be put to shame. Do you see what it means to hope in God? Whatever may happen, he says, I shall not be ashamed” (St. Chrysostom).

“But with all boldness.” By boldness here one must understand what he spoke of above (verse 14)—that the brethren, having taken confidence from St. Paul’s bonds, began to proclaim the word of God with boldness. Some of them dared in a well-intentioned manner, while others did not with a good heart. The Apostle says that in “all” such “boldness”—both the well-intentioned and the ill-intentioned—“as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body.” The aim of the Apostle’s life is Christ the Lord. I, he said in the Epistle to the Galatians, have died. But what I live, it is Christ who lives in me; to Him I am wholly devoted and to the glory of His name I consecrate all the days of my life and all my cares and labors. If shame consists in one choosing a goal and failing to attain it, then my shame would consist in anyone’s succeeding in turning anything in me or around me away from the magnification of the Lord and toward His diminution. But this no one will manage to do. For He who acts in me is the Lord Himself, who will not allow His glory to be dimmed in vain; and I, in whatever I do, do it for Him. Therefore, whatever may come of current affairs, by all of it the Lord will be magnified. And in this consists the aim of my life. Consequently, I shall be ashamed in nothing.—Shall I live? The Lord will be magnified by my life. Shall I die? He will be magnified by my death. “Often I found myself in such dangers in which not only did all despair of us, but we ourselves despaired of ourselves: ‘we ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves’ (2 Cor. 1:9); but the Lord delivered us from all: so ‘now also He shall be magnified in my body.’ And lest anyone suppose and say: but if you die, will He be magnified then? Certainly so, he says, I am confident. This is precisely why I did not say that He shall be magnified by life only, but I added: and by death also—by life, because He saved me; by death, because death did not compel me to deny Him, because He granted me so much zeal and made me stronger than death; in the first case because He delivered me from calamities, and in the last because He did not allow me to fear violent death. So the Lord shall be magnified both by life and by death.”

“He said: ‘shall be magnified’—that is, the greatness of His power shall be made manifest. And the Apostle says: whether I escape mortal danger or am given over to death, equally will the might of my Master Christ be made manifest. For if I overcome the dangers, all will marvel at Him who snatched me from so many nets; but if I am delivered up to death, all will be astonished at the power of the preaching, which compels its preachers to despise death” (blessed Theodoret).

“In my body”—that is, in me, or in my life—whether it continues or is cut short. The Apostle expresses this in view of those reckless ones who dared to proclaim the word of God without proper order. Acting against the Apostle’s will and even in opposition to him, they might have overstepped the bounds of prudence, stirred up trouble, drawn the eyes of the authorities to what was taking place; and the Apostle was liable to be called to account for it. He could have been expecting a storm to break over him at any moment. A weak soul this might have alarmed: but the Apostle was at peace, resting in the Lord. He says as it were: whether I am to live or to die, I will accept either with equanimity (St. Chrysostom). I have already irrevocably placed my life in the hands of the Lord. What He wills, He will do. But whatever He is pleased to do, by all of it His name shall be magnified.

B) The Apostle Discloses to the Philippians That the One Thing That Occupies Him Is to Further the Salvation of People through the Preaching of the Gospel (Phil. 1:21–26)

These last words served the Apostle as a transition to disclosing to the Philippians how he views his own life and what he sets as its ultimate goal. By this he testified to a special closeness and friendship toward them.

To Live Is Christ, and to Die Is Gain (Philippians 1:21–26)

Phil. 1:21. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

I trust, he says, that through your prayers and God’s ordering all things will be for my good—whether I remain alive or am put to death. For “to live is Christ”: to Him I devote everything, and this is a great good; and “to die is gain”: not any kind of loss, but also a good, because to die for Christ is supremely glorious, and because after death I shall immediately see Christ the Lord face to face, in which lies all our blessedness. In this last respect I may say that for me it would actually be better to die. Living here, I only labor for Christ, toil for Him; but there—I shall immediately begin to enjoy communion with Him. That life for him is Christ contains both the thought that his spiritual life is from Christ and in Christ, and the thought that the primary object of his cares and strivings is to please Christ and to fulfill His commandments (St. Chrysostom, Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact, blessed Theodoret). But in the present passage the Apostle chiefly wished to express by this that his whole life is devoted to the work of preaching the Gospel, with the aim of teaching all that our salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and of disposing all to seek and find their salvation in Him (St. John of Damascus). This does not exclude the first two meanings, but on the contrary encompasses them within itself.

“Death is gain” for all, because it delivers from the burden of the present life with its many tribulations and introduces into a better one. But in this sense death is a gain not in itself, but because the Lord was pleased to associate this with it. In itself it is neither a loss nor a gain and occurs according to God’s order. If, therefore, St. Paul specifically calls death a gain, he means by it not ordinary death, but death as a martyr—death for Christ and for the Gospel. Such death truly is gain, for it in itself crowns the sufferer with a most glorious crown. And it was precisely such a death that the Apostle was expecting.

Phil. 1:22. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor; yet what I shall choose I do not know.

It would be better for me to die—both for the worth of a martyr’s death and for what naturally follows it. But here, as a counterweight to this advantage in my situation, stands another advantage: the “fruit of my labor”—my apostolic labor—if I remain alive: the spreading of the light of the Gospel and the salvation of so many souls. When, he says, I set these two advantages over against each other, I do not know what I desire—what I would prefer, what to choose.

“What philosophy! He both rejected love of the present life and did not slander it! For by the words: ‘to die is gain’—he rejected love of this life; and by the words: ‘to live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor’—he showed that the present life is also necessary. How? If we make use of it as we ought, if we bear fruit. If it is fruitless, then it is no longer life. Trees that bear no fruit, as well as dry ones, we throw away and give over to fire. To live is something intermediate and indifferent; but to live well or badly is in our power. Therefore one must not hate life. For it is possible to live well. But if we misuse life, even then one must not accuse it. Why? Because life is not the cause of it, but the will of those who misuse it. God gave you life that you might live for Him; but you, by inclination toward evil, living sinfully, bring every fault upon yourself” (St. Chrysostom).

When the Apostle says: “what I shall choose I do not know”—he conveys the thought that the choice of life or death lay within his power. But life and death are in God’s hands. In what sense, then, did the Apostle say this? Perhaps he had in mind a choice of the heart. Reviewing the contingencies that his present situation made possible, he could not but suppose the possibility that he might be given over to death. To this the heart might respond with a desire, for the sake of the brightness of the martyr’s crown and for the sake of the sooner personal communion with the Lord. But at the same time, conscience might present to him that he is an Apostle and, while strength remains, ought to desire to live in order to spread the Gospel of Christ. Devoted to his apostolic duty, he could not but desire that things should go according to this righteous prompting. And it is of this contest of good desires that he speaks—that, standing in the midst of them, he does not know what to desire.

But one may also understand quite directly that here the choice is not of desire or preference, but of the event itself—of life or death—by virtue of the fact that he might have prayed for it, and God would have done according to his prayer. Hezekiah prayed, and God added years to his life. And in the lives of the saints there have been many instances where some died and others had their life prolonged by prayer. In this sense the Apostle could have said: I do not know what to choose, for what to pray, that God might do it for me. St. Chrysostom understands these words thus: “Here the Apostle discloses a great mystery—that it was in his power to die. For where there is a choice, it means we are masters. ‘What I shall choose’, he says, I do not know. Does this mean it is in your power? Indeed, he says, if I wish to ask this grace from God.”

Phil. 1:23. For I am pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

“I am pressed between the two”—I am pulled in both directions; it is not thought against thought that contends in me, but desire against desire, sympathy against sympathy, inclination against inclination. I have the desire to “depart from the body” by means of whatever death it shall please God to send me. And this “would be far better,” because through it I would immediately “be with Christ” and find blessedness in Him. Such is the direct hope of all Christians who have remained faithful to the faith, and all the more so of the Apostles. Where else should those dwell after death who from the very moment of first coming to Christ have been clothed in Christ and all their life have lived in such a manner that they did not live, but Christ lived in them—where else should such persons be but with Christ? St. Chrysostom draws from this: “Death is a thing indifferent. Since death is not an evil, but it is an evil to be tormented after death; so also death is not a good, but a good is to be with Christ after death. What happens after death is good or evil. Therefore we ought not to mourn for all who die, nor to rejoice for all who live. How then? We ought to weep for sinners—not only when they die but also when they live—and to rejoice for the righteous—not only when they live but also when they depart. For the former, even in life, have died; and the latter, even after death, live. The former are pitiful to all even in this life, since they offend God; and the latter, having departed there, are blessed, since they have gone to be with Christ. Sinners, wherever they are, are far from the King, and are therefore worthy of tears; but the righteous, here or there, are together with the King—and there they are far nearer to Him, not by contemplation, not by faith, but, as it is said, ‘face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12).”

Phil. 1:24. Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

The other counterweight to the desire is: “it is more necessary for your sake.” The sense of apostolic duty compels him to desire to remain yet a little while in the flesh—to strengthen those who have believed, to convert those who have not, to lead all to Christ. Between dwelling with Christ in the other life and the present life there could not even be a comparison. It is not this latter life as such that the Apostle sets in counterweight to the former, but rather what he can still do in this life. The aim of the present life lies in the future. The future is bright; but if in the present life the opportunity yet remains to accomplish much more, through which the future will be all the brighter—then one cannot but desire the prolongation of life, not for its own sake, but for the sake of what can be attained through it. When the Apostle perceived that remaining in the flesh “is more necessary” and that he still has the strength to fulfill what is most necessary, then within him the better future and the best future came into contention—the latter being one for which the prolongation of the present life serves as the means—and then the resolution came of itself: “I shall remain and continue with you.” However hard the present life, I must desire its prolongation, and I do desire it.

St. Chrysostom marvels both at this wavering of desires in St. Paul and at this resolution: “What are you saying? You are departing from here to heaven and will be with Christ, and yet you do not know what to choose? No! This is not characteristic of Paul’s soul. For who would not have chosen this (that is, to be with Christ), if someone told him of it and firmly assured him of it? Certainly no one. But it is not in our power either to depart and be with Christ, or to remain here still when the time for that comes. For Paul, however, and for a soul like his, both were possible. What then are you saying? You know and are confident that you will be with Christ, and yet you are perplexed, saying: ‘I do not know what I shall choose?’ More than that, you even decide to remain here, that is, to remain in the flesh. Why so? Do you not lead a bitter life? Are you not in calamities, in hunger, thirst, and nakedness? And you still desire this passing life? Even if none of this had happened to you, but you had accomplished all your work safely and pleasurably—even then, ought you not, fearing the uncertainty of the future, to have hastened toward the safe harbor? Even if the present life were filled with countless goods, even in that case one ought to desire to be released from them for Christ, whom you have loved. No, he says, this also (that is, to remain in the flesh) is for Christ—so that those whom I have made His servants may be still more firmly established in a good disposition, so that the field I have planted may become fruitful. Have you not heard that I could wish to be separated from Christ, if only many would turn to Him? If I was resolved upon this, shall I not with still greater readiness resolve to sacrifice my delay and remaining here, if only it may serve somewhat for their salvation? This is why: ‘to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.’—Paul could have departed to Christ and chose not to go to Christ—to Christ, whom he loved so much that for His sake he was ready even for hell, yet remained to strive here still for the sake of men. With what, then, shall we justify ourselves?”

Phil. 1:25. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy of faith.

“It is worthy of wonder in the divine Apostle that for the sake of the salvation of men he preferred this life with its labors and dangers. I know, he says, that I shall escape the present danger, so as to furnish you again with abundant benefit and joy, as those who have attained what they desired” (blessed Theodoret).

A difficult struggle took place in the soul of the Apostle. In it one may see a faint likeness of the struggle of Christ the Saviour in the Garden of Gethsemane. At first, in the face of the imminent danger of death, there arose the natural feeling toward life—so alive in all. It was sacrificed in the readiness to die for the Lord Jesus Christ. This sacrifice was made sweet by the certainty of nearness and communion with the Lord, and not only had nothing painful in it, but on the contrary became something longed-for. But this peace was again disturbed by the consciousness of apostolic duty, and in its turn was sacrificed in the readiness and desire to live still longer, amidst privations, tribulations, calamities, and ceaseless dyings without death, in order to glorify the name of Christ more through spreading the light of the Gospel on earth. The conviction of the necessity of this last thing gave rise to certainty of the prolongation of life in the soul of the Apostle, which was surrendered to God’s will—the hidden resolutions of which the Spirit of God dwelling in him did not fail to know. This is the source of: “And being confident of this, I know.” “The initiate of ineffable and super-heavenly mysteries saw that his life was not in danger and that he would still live; and so he spoke thus” (Photius, cited in Oecumenius).

“I shall remain and continue with you.” “If this is needed, then I shall indeed remain, and not simply remain, but with you. For such is the meaning of the word: ‘I shall continue with you’—that is, I shall stay, I shall see you again. For what purpose? ‘For your progress and joy of faith.’—What then? Did he remain for the Philippians alone? No, not for them alone; but he says this to them in order to comfort them. How did this serve their progress in faith? In this way: that they might be strengthened, like nestlings that need their mother until they have grown feathers. This is proof of great love. In a similar way we also encourage others when we say: I stayed for your sake, to do you good. By these words he stirs them to be attentive to themselves, as if saying: since I remained for your sake, see to it that you do not put my remaining to shame. Having the ability to behold Christ, I resolved to remain here for your progress. Since my presence promotes both your faith and your joy, I resolved to remain” (St. Chrysostom).

“The progress of faith” is an ever-greater understanding of the dogmas of faith and an ever-greater perfection in living according to the spirit of faith. And “the joy of faith” is both the joy that this progress will bring them, and the joy that the meeting with the Apostle will bring—who, when he comes to them, will enrich them in the knowledge of faith and dispose them to a more perfect life. This joy awaits both the Philippians and the Apostle Paul himself—just as, in writing to the Romans, he said that he desired to be with them that he might be “comforted together” with them through their common faith—both his and theirs (Rom. 1:12).

Phil. 1:26. That your boasting in Christ Jesus may abound in me, through my coming to you again.

The consequence of the Apostle’s renewed time with them is progress and joy in faith, and the consequence of both of these is the increase of the Philippians’ boasting in Christ Jesus. They were already praised for their steadfastness in faith and their zeal for works according to faith; but when the Apostle comes to them and, imparting to them new instruction in both, advances their faith and morality, their praise will be heightened by this as well. “Boasting in Christ Jesus”—that is, in His spirit, or such boasting as the Lord Himself will praise them for. But the word “in me” also suggests the thought that this boasting will pass from them to the Apostle as well. For him, as their teacher, the praiseworthiness of his disciples will mean more praise. Or that their praise will be all the more eloquent on his lips as well—and he will have reason to boast of them (St. Chrysostom).

All of this is expected to result from the Apostle’s coming to them again. “What then? Did he come to them? Judge for yourselves whether he came” (St. Chrysostom). “This prophecy was fulfilled” (blessed Theodoret). These words contain a decisive confirmation that St. Paul was set free from his first imprisonment and visited the churches he had previously founded, including the church at Philippi. He spoke in the unerring spirit of prophecy.

Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30)

In setting forth these instructions, the holy Paul first indicates together the points he intends to address; then explains in turn what he would desire of them, as Christians, on each point: a) he says to them in general: live worthily of the gospel of Christ—striving together with one spirit—against our enemies (Phil. 1:27); b) these three points he then explains at greater length (Phil. 1:28 – 2:18), proceeding in reverse order: aa) first he encourages them to fight against adversaries (Phil. 1:28–30); bb) then he teaches how to preserve mutual harmony of soul (Phil. 2:1–11); cc) finally, he shows how to live worthily of Christianity, working out one’s salvation with fear and trembling and shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Phil. 2:12–18).

A) The Apostle’s general indication of the aspects of Christian life he intends to address (1:27)

Phil. 1:27. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one soul striving together for the faith of the gospel.

“Therefore I implore you to embrace a manner of life in accordance with the Gospel, so that whether I come to you or dwell somewhere else, I may be gladdened by the praises reported of you; and this gladness will be given me by your concord, your unity of mind in divine things, your common struggle in the cause of truth, and by the fact that your adversaries do not trouble you in the least!” (blessed Theodoret)

“Only.” All that he promised will come to pass, and joy will be, and praise will be—only fulfil the condition he sets before them; and if they do not fulfil it, everything will be to the contrary. “What does ‘only’ mean? It means that this is the one thing I desire, and nothing else.—See how everything he said before was said in order to urge them on to progress in virtue” (holy Chrysostom).

“Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Conduct, πολιτευεσυε — live as citizens—live as it befits citizens of the Kingdom of Christ. And how is that? Look to the Gospel. Live as the gospel of Christ requires. “The Gospel requires: ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me’ (Mk. 8:34)” (blessed Theophylact). In this lies the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24). Strict ascetic life is the seal of evangelical life. True evangelicals are only strict ascetics.

“So that whether I come and see you, or am absent, I may hear of your affairs.” This circumstance is introduced in order to stir their zeal, by reason of their affectionate bond with the Apostle; but it adds nothing to the substance of the instruction. As a father to his children, as a beloved teacher to beloved pupils, he says to them: take care not to be the cause of sorrow for me; your progress is extremely dear to me, and nothing is so desirable to me as both to see and to hear that you are perfect in everything. “Whether I come… or am absent”—“he says this not because he changed his intention and no longer wished to come to them, but adds: even if it happened that I am not yet with you, I can still rejoice: ‘if I hear that…’” (holy Chrysostom). ‘Whether’ stands for ‘when.’ When I come and see—or while I have not yet come, but am making preparations or am on the way—may I hear of you, so that both when I see and when I hear, what I learn of you is altogether good.

Indicating what good thing he desires both to see and to hear, the holy Apostle returns to his instruction: “that you stand fast in one spirit and with one soul. ‘In truth’”—this word is not in the Greek original. If it is accepted, its meaning here, apt in context, would be: you are not merely appearing to stand, but truly stand—sincerely; as you appear outwardly, so remain also in your heart. “You stand fast”—this points to firmness of faith and of a life lived by faith. Like some pillar deeply set in the ground that stands firm and cannot be shaken: so they are steadfast in a manner of life worthy of the Gospel. “In one spirit and with one soul.” “Having told them to live worthily of the Gospel, he now points out the manner of such a life. And this is: sincerity in faith—for otherwise it is impossible to be in one spirit. He then also commands them to be of one soul, which is evidence of the greatest mutual love” (holy St John of Damascus). ‘In one spirit and with one soul’ may be taken without distinction, meaning complete agreement in all things and a loving union. Or ‘spirit’ may be understood as their common relationship toward God, and ‘soul’ as the other expressions of the inner life. “In one spirit” means: all equally, by faith in the Lord, standing before His face in the heart and equally zealous to appear pleasing to Him in all things. “With one soul” means: holding to the same pattern of thought, cherishing the same good dispositions, intentions and purposes, having the same tastes in all things. Both together constitute a strong bond of love among them, unconquerable by enemies whether external or internal.

Holy Chrysostom says: “this especially unites the faithful and sustains love. Therefore Christ said: ‘that they may be one’ (Jn. 17:11). ‘For a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand’ (Mt. 12:25). Therefore Paul everywhere urges agreement with great force. And for the same reason Christ says: ‘by this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another’ (Jn. 13:35). What does ‘in one spirit’ mean? It means: in the one and the same gift of unity of mind and zeal. Likewise, ‘to stand with one soul’ means unity of mind. In this sense many souls are called ‘one.’ So it was in ancient times. ‘All’, it is written, ‘were of one heart and one soul’ (Acts 4:32)”.

“Striving together for the faith of the gospel.” “This means: assist one another in the struggle for the evangelical faith” (holy Chrysostom). The word “willingly” is not in the Greek original. If accepted, it would mean: gladly, with firm resolve not to yield, with the will to stand firm whatever the cost.

“The faith of the gospel”—evangelical faith never took root anywhere without a struggle. Everywhere it met with opposition; for it arose in the midst of a world whose spirit was utterly contrary to it and which it expelled from its own domain. For this the world hated it, resisted it, and persecuted it. Therefore every community of believers found itself inevitably engaged in the struggle of self-defense. For success in this struggle the Apostle commands them to stand in one spirit and with one soul—so that all might be as one soul. Who could prevail against such? Invincibility does not mean not suffering anything, but not abandoning the faith, even if death must come. How much courage does the soul draw when all are supporting one another? It is then as strong alone as all souls together. So it is in faith—as the martyrs have shown. So it is also in life—as brotherhood communities, uniting for progress in Christian perfection, demonstrate. Example, counsel, prayer—these at once put every enemy to flight.

B) A more extended explanation of the points indicated (Phil. 1:28–2:18)

aa) Encouragement to fight against adversaries (Phil. 1:28–30)

The Apostle encourages them to this through the salvific character of suffering (verse 28), through the superiority of faith combined with suffering over mere faith (verse 29), and through his own example (verse 30).

Phil. 1:28. And not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation. And this is from God.

Stand “without being terrified,” without fear, without wavering through fright—courageously. This is the same as what the Saviour said: “Do not fear those who kill the body” (Mt. 10:28). Hold to the conviction that your enemies can never essentially harm you, and never allow yourself the thought that they occupy a more advantageous position than you; on the contrary, from the very fact that they take up arms against you, draw the sure conclusion that they are on the path of destruction, while you are on the path of salvation. God has so ordered it that truth and goodness suffer oppression in the world: which is why the Lord promised to all who hold fast to Him, not paradise on earth, but what? “In the world you will have tribulation” (Jn. 16:33). Once you are convinced of the salvific character of suffering, you will not only not fear your enemies, but will desire their attacks, in order to partake of the salvific quality of suffering for the Lord and His faith.

The adversaries here are not some persons of differing opinion, but unbelievers in general—such as surrounded them, whether Jews or Gentiles. Their hostility is not merely anticipated by the Apostle, but is presented as actual. Epaphroditus may have informed him of it. By saying “in any way”—in nothing—he makes clear that the unbelievers were pressing the believers from more than one side and coming against them with more than one weapon. Whatever they do and whatever they contrive, fear nothing; they will not harm you; on the contrary, in acting thus they are storing up destruction for themselves while smoothing your path to salvation.—“Salvation” here means that the outcome of your courage will be salvific for you, while their attack upon you will be ruinous for them. And not only will it be so, but it already is so. You are working out your salvation while they are perishing. Holy Chrysostom says: “well said: ‘without being terrified’—without fear; for the actions of enemies are such as only to terrify. He says ‘in any way’: whatever happens, whether dangers or punishments. For such is the character of courageous men. Enemies can do nothing to them.”

Phil. 1:29. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.

The Apostle points to a second source of encouragement—to stand courageously against enemies—namely the fact that suffering for the faith is a special gift of God. Even faith is a gift, but faith combined with suffering for it is a higher gift. Our salvation was accomplished by the death on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. This salvation is appropriated to each individual through co-suffering with Christ. This co-suffering is ordered in all true Christians voluntarily, when they crucify their flesh with its passions and desires. But when someone is led into this co-suffering by a special act of God’s will, this surpasses that voluntary form, both because it comes against one’s will, and because it is more demanding, requiring not part but all as a sacrifice—as in loss of property, exile, and martyrdom. The holy martyrs always regarded the call to the martyr’s crown as a special gift of God. They did not venture upon it without a sign from above; but on receiving such a sign, they entered this contest with joy.—In this sense the Apostle also tells the Philippians that God has granted them not only to believe in the Lord, but also to suffer for the faith. He seems to say: “therefore be not ashamed of this gift; it is far more wonderful than the gift of raising the dead and working miracles. Not only should you not be ashamed of it—on the contrary, you should rejoice” (holy Chrysostom).

Phil. 1:30. Having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.

And yet another source of encouragement. “You also have an example” (holy Chrysostom). For disciples it is highly encouraging to walk in the footsteps of their teacher. They had seen the Apostle’s struggle among themselves in Philippi, where he suffered beatings and imprisonment for the gospel—and heard that in Rome he was in chains for the same cause. Recalling this, he says to them as it were: your path is the right one; you are walking in my footsteps and contending with the same contest as I. It is partly evident that “here he also praises them” (holy Chrysostom), saying as it were: well done, well done!—for so it should be. For they had already been enduring, and what lay before them was not a call to endurance but encouragement in it.—Like a craftsman who, teaching a pupil his craft, first works some piece himself before the pupil’s eyes, then requires the pupil to do the same; and then, seeing that the pupil is acting correctly according to the pattern shown to him, praises him and thereby encourages him to greater diligence in imitating him—so does the holy Paul. Having given them the example of courageous and serene endurance for the faith, and then seeing that they have been brought to enter the same contest in his footsteps and that they are holding to it faithfully, he speaks to them a word of approval, to encourage continued courageous standing and fearless meeting of hostile persons and their scheming against them.

bb) Guidance toward loving harmony of soul (Phil. 2:1–11)

In this guidance: α) first the holy Paul draws and attracts the Philippians toward harmony of soul (Phil. 2:1–2); β) then he removes the obstacles to humble mutual love and fellowship (Phil. 2:3–4); γ) finally, he presents the pattern of all the virtues that dispose one toward these things in Christ the Saviour, who humbled Himself for our sake (Phil. 2:5–11).

An Appeal to Unity of Mind (Philippians 2:1–2)

A) The Apostle draws and attracts the Philippians toward harmony of soul (Phil. 2:1–2)

Phil. 2:1–2. If then there is any consolation in Christ Jesus, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfil my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

The holy Apostle does not gather abstract motives for harmony of soul and unity of mind—he takes the Philippians straight by the heart and leads them toward it. The turn of speech the Apostle employs here is the same as people ordinarily use when they say, for instance: if you love me, or if you remember my benefit to you, then do such and such for me. In the Apostle, however, everything is extraordinary: extraordinary is what he places under this ‘if,’ and extraordinary is what he desires—for he takes their tender feelings toward him and uses them to persuade them of what is so salvific for their own sake.

The subjects through which the holy Paul reaches the hearts of the Philippians have not been gathered by chance. Yet not all explain their meaning and appropriateness here in the same way. It seems that the holy Paul takes the bonds that unite Christians and, applying them to the Philippians and to himself, obliges them to heed him and to fulfil what he desires of them. He begins from afar. All Christians are united with one another in the Lord; and though they may never have met personally, one only need say that such a Christian is in need of consolation, and every Christian is ready—feels the prompting—to help him as he can. The Apostle says as it were: let us suppose that you and I do not know one another, but are only united in the Lord, and I am a person in need while you are in a position to assist me. I turn to you as Christians; I have need of consolation—console me for the Lord’s sake. If you acknowledge the obligation to console a Christian who is in need of it, if such consolation exists and you belong to the circle of those among whom it is active—then obtain it for me.

If Christians, beyond their fellowship in the Lord, have also entered into mutual relations and shared active love with one another, they naturally find refreshment both in mutual communion and in mutual assistance. The Apostle takes this case secondly and says: if you have tasted the refreshment of active Christian love and know how much blessedness it bestows on both parties, I beseech you by this very refreshment—grant it to me.

The fellowship of love may touch only the external sides of life. But there is a fellowship in the spirit—spiritual, higher, and deeper. Such, for example, is the fellowship between a disciple and a teacher, and still more, the fellowship between a proclaimer of the Gospel and believers. The spirit of the proclaimer is communicated to all and unites all within itself. Here there arises a spiritual kinship—indissoluble. This fellowship is taken by the holy Paul thirdly, and he says as it were: are you acquainted with spiritual fellowship? Do you know how closely it binds those who enter into it? By this fellowship I beseech you—give me joy.

The final form of fellowship is “affection and mercy.” Here the holy Paul, leaving that ladder of fellowship among Christians, turns to the natural feeling of compassion, saying as it were: if you have any heart. Or else he ascends higher along that same ladder and has specifically in mind the mercies and kindnesses which the Philippians had shown him up to this time. By these they had demonstrated that they were ready to share everything with the Apostle. And he says to them as it were: by this your tender-heartedness, by this your readiness to do everything for me, I beg you to gladden me. The latter interpretation is more fitting.

Since this passage is somewhat difficult, let us bring in paraphrases of it from the holy Fathers, for its further clarification. Holy Chrysostom says: “see how the blessed Apostle implores the Philippians regarding what is beneficial for them. See how eloquently, how persuasively, with what deep feeling he speaks: ‘if then there is any consolation in Christ’—that is, if you have any consolation in Christ. As if to say: if you attend to me at all, if you love me, if you have ever received any benefit from me, then do such and such.—We employ this manner of speech more often with an appeal to natural feeling. For instance, a father would say to his son: if you have any respect for your father, then do this and that. But Paul speaks differently. He makes mention of nothing natural, but all of things spiritual. The sense of his words is this: if you wish to give me any refreshment in my trials and encouragement in Christ, any fellowship in the spirit, if you have any mercy and tenderness of heart—then fulfil my joy. Or again: if I, he says, am able to receive some refreshment from your love, if I may have fellowship with you in the spirit and fellowship with you in the Lord, if I may hope for mercy and compassion from you—then repay all this with love. All this I receive, if you love one another.”

Holy St John of Damascus writes: “wishing to draw them toward harmony of soul, he binds them as though with an oath, saying: I adjure you by that consolation with which Christ has consoled us, I adjure you by the love and fellowship of the Spirit, by the mercies and compassion of God—fulfil my joy, that is, be of one mind.”

These are the words of Oecumenius: “if you wish to give me consolation in my trials, or any refreshment, moved by love; if you have fellowship with me in the Holy Spirit and if there is in you any measure of mercy and kindness—fulfil my joy, love one another; as if to say: if you are to repay me for my labors on your behalf, repay me thus—be of one accord and one mind.”

However the terms used here may be understood, it is clear that the holy Apostle presents subjects dear to the Philippians themselves and makes clear that they would wrong them if they failed to do what he enjoins on them. At the same time it is evident that if they do for him what he points to—if they fulfil his exhortation—they will give him both consolation in the Lord, and the refreshment of love, and show forth spiritual fellowship with mercies and kindnesses.—The Apostle’s words are paternally moving.

“Fulfil my joy.” Notice: lest it appear that he exhorts them as though they were failing in their duty—he does not say ‘do this for me,’ but “fulfil” (complete): that is, you have already begun to comfort me (by your progress in faith), you have already set my heart at rest, but I desire to reach the end. What is it that you desire? Tell me. That they rescue you from dangers, that they provide you with something? Nothing of the sort, he says, but “that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” O, how often he repeats the same thing, out of great affection! “That you be like-minded,” he says—that you think one and the same thing. For this he also explains further with the word “of one mind,” which is stronger than “that you be like-minded.—Having the same love”—that is, be united not only in faith but in everything else as well. For it is possible to think the same thing and not to have love. “The same love”—he means the love with which others love them: love as much as you are loved. When you enjoy great love from others, yourself also show no less to others, so that in this too you may not be self-serving. Let some allow this, but do not you. “Of one accord,” he says—that is, let there be one soul in all bodies, not in essence, for that is impossible, but in will and thought. Let everything proceed as if from one soul. And “of one mind”—means: let there be one thought in all, as in one soul (holy Chrysostom).

The holy Paul desires of them perfect mutual unity—unity of mind, unity of soul, the same bond of love. Since he prefaced this with such a moving and persuasive turn of speech, one must suppose that there was a pressing need for such instruction. Most probably, in some respect disagreement had crept in among them and there were persons who were violating the law of peace and love. Blessed Theodoret holds this view. The Apostle does not touch on what exactly this consisted in; rather, he hastens to remove the causes that ordinarily produce division among people, and thereby to lay a firm foundation for the brotherly bond of love among them.

Removing the Obstacles to Humble Mutual Love (Philippians 2:3–4)

B) The Apostle removes the obstacles to humble mutual love and fellowship (Phil. 2:3–4)

What produces discord? Contentious rivalry, when someone strains with all his might to get ahead of others and to stand first, in full view of all; when they look down on others from above and therefore without the proper attention and respect due to them; when they care only for themselves and seem to have no concern for others. These moral causes that corrode loving mutual fellowship—the Apostle casts out from the Christian community of Philippi and, through it, from every such community.

Phil. 2:3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility counting others better than yourselves.

“The Apostle required unity of soul; now he says how to attain it” (holy Chrysostom).

“‘Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.’—Selfish ambition: when someone strains with all his might to get ahead of others; and what fans this is conceit. ‘Ambition’—here is what it is: when someone says to himself: I will exert myself so that such and such a person does not surpass me. The Apostle identifies conceit as the fuel of such rivalry. What will not a man do for the sake of human glory when he seeks it?” (blessed Theophylact).

Conceit inflames one more and more to distinguish oneself in that by which one thinks to earn human glory. When only this is in view, one has no time to look upon the people around one, and so one frequently wounds them to the quick—and there follows offense and discord. “I always say,” says holy Chrysostom, “that this is the cause of all evils. From here come quarrels and strife, from here slanders and contentions, from here the cooling of love, when we love human glory, when we are slaves to the honor given by the crowd. For a slave to glory cannot be a slave to God.—How then can we escape conceit? ‘Hear what follows: but in humility counting others better than yourselves.’ What a rule filled with every wisdom, and what a guide for our salvation he has set before us! If you think, he says, that another is better than you, and you convince yourself of this—and what is more, if you do not merely say this but are altogether persuaded of it and give him honor—then you will feel no displeasure at seeing another honor him. Count another, therefore, not merely better than yourself, but also higher (which implies great superiority), and it will be neither strange nor painful for you to see another honored; even if he should wrong you, you will bear it with magnanimity, since you have acknowledged him to be better than yourself. Should he rebuke you, you will endure it; should he do you some harm, you will bear it in silence. For when you have once thoroughly convinced yourself in your soul that he is better than you, you will not be angry at whatever harm he does you, and you will not envy him. For no one envies those who are far superior, since everyone thinks that everything belongs to those who are higher.—So it will be if you are humbly disposed toward another. But when that other, having received such honor from you, is in a like disposition toward you—then imagine what will be formed as a twofold bulwark of mutual forbearance. While you consider another worthy of honor and he considers you equally so, nothing unpleasant will ever arise. For if such conduct on one side powerfully destroys all irritability, then with this mutual disposition, who will overthrow such a fortress? Not the devil himself. For a triple, fourfold, and even greater fortification will be formed. For humility is the cause of all good.”

Phil. 2:4. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Here the chief source of discord is cut off and egoism is eradicated. Self-will makes itself its own end and considers all others a means; and so it deals with them. Christian love, born of self-denial, makes others one’s end and considers itself the means; and so it acts. From the first comes complete division; from the second—a living bond. Just as in a living organism no organ is occupied with itself but only does what is needed for the others, so also in a community, when each person cares for the good of others, there is an organic, living combination of all, where each cares for all and all for each. Consequently, the holy Paul here points to the most powerful means toward unity of soul. “When each person, setting aside his own concerns, cares for the good of another, so that the outcome is: I care for yours and you for mine—from this proceeds not human but angelic life” (Oecumenius). “Where this is the case, there is no longer any place for conceit, or contentious rivalry, or any evil whatsoever: there the divine life takes up its dwelling” (blessed Theophylact).

The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

C) The Apostle presents the pattern of all the virtues that dispose one toward these things in Christ the Saviour, who humbled Himself for our sake (Phil. 2:5–11)

Phil. 2:5. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

“Our Lord Jesus Christ, urging His disciples to great feats, sets before them as an example now Himself, now His Father, now the Prophets. So in one place He says: ‘for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you’ (Mt. 5:12); in another: ‘If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also’ (Jn. 15:20); and: ‘Learn from Me, for I am meek’ (Mt. 11:29); and in yet another: ‘Be merciful, just as your Father’ in heaven (Lk. 6:36). The same does the blessed Paul. For urging the Philippians toward humility, he sets Christ before them as an example. And not only here, but also when he speaks of love for the poor. For he says: ‘for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, for your sakes He became poor’ (2 Cor. 8:9). For a great and truly philosophical soul nothing so encourages it to good deeds as the knowledge that by this it becomes like God. What could be equal to this as an incentive? Nothing. Knowing this, Paul, in exhorting the Philippians to humility, first besought and implored them, then persuaded, and finally added: ‘let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus’ (holy Chrysostom).”

This example, through the word “for”—for—is directly linked to what immediately precedes—namely that “one ought to look not to one’s own interests but to the interests of others.” From the example it is plain that as soon as the good of one’s neighbor requires some active assistance, one must on no account shrink from it, however humbling it may appear. The Apostle says as it were: it is your duty—your urgent obligation—to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord, being God by nature, was pleased to humble Himself to the reception of the form of a servant when this was necessary for the salvation of man. And not only this, but He humbled Himself “even to the death of the cross”—to the last extreme of self-abasement, below which there is nowhere left to descend. Enter into the compelling power of this example, and you will never look only to “your own interests” while ignoring those of others; you will never exalt yourselves over others, but on the contrary will in humility count one another better than yourselves, and will be filled above all with self-denying love for one another—a love that separates itself from no one among the brethren but lives with all as one soul and one mind. Thus in this example all the virtues indicated before shine forth and all the vices mentioned are condemned. But above all, the humility that bestows good on others shines most brightly.

To point to this example, a brief word would have sufficed: “let this mind be in you.” But the holy Paul, whose mind was always plunged in contemplation of the great and unsearchable economy of our salvation, could not touch upon this mystery without his speech flowing in an unrestrained torrent. Therefore he did not let pass this opportunity to trace—concisely, yet all-embracingly and from every side—the whole work of the Lord for our salvation. He brings down the Son of God from above the heavens, clothes Him in the man Jesus, leads Him down to the death of the cross, and raises Him again above all things to receive the worship of every knee of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. The dogma of the incarnation and the redemption, and of the person of Jesus Christ as the God-man, is here set forth with such precision that this one passage strikes down all the heretics who have erred in this regard.

Holy Chrysostom, approaching his homily on this passage, is moved and says to his hearers: “attend, I beseech you, and be wakeful. Like a sharp sword with two edges, wherever it is directed—though against countless troops—it readily cuts them down and destroys them, because it is sharp on every side and nothing can withstand its blade; so too are these utterances of the Holy Spirit. For by these utterances He has overthrown the followers of Arius of Alexandria, and of Paul of Samosata, and of Marcellus of Galatia, and of Sabellius of Libya, and of Marcion of Pontus, and of Valens, and of Manes, and of Apollinarius of Laodicea, and of Photinus, and of Sophronius, and all heresies in general. Therefore, wishing to see such a spectacle and so many hosts falling from a single blow, be wakeful—lest you be deprived of the pleasure of this spectacle, the pleasure of our refuting—by God’s grace—all heretical opinions and all the devil’s constructions along with their authors, at once and in one stroke.”

Phil. 2:6. Who, being in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God.

Who is our Lord Jesus Christ? God by nature, who humbled Himself to the reception of human nature, so that in outward appearance He was like any other man. The present verse speaks of His Godhead; the next verse speaks of His becoming man.

“Who, being in the form of God.” The form of God here is not in the sense in which man has the image of God—traits of likeness to God; but in the sense that His very nature is divine. For every kind of being there is its own norm of existence, by which we at once determine: ah, that is such and such. Everyone knows the norm of man, the norm of an animal, the norm of a tree; so that at a single glance we say at once: that is a man, that is a tree, that is an animal. Analogously, speaking in human terms, God too has His own norm of existence. Whoever possesses this norm of divine existence is God, just as whoever possesses the norm of human existence is a man. Concerning the Lord Saviour, the Apostle says here that He, by the norm of His existence, is God—His being, His substance, and His nature is divine.

Holy Chrysostom clarifies this by comparing the expression “being in the form of God” with the expression “having taken the form of a servant.” Here the form of God is μορφη, there the form of a servant is likewise μορφη. But the form of a servant there denotes human nature; consequently the form of God here denotes divine nature.—Against Arius he directs his argument thus: “Arius says that the Son has a different substance.—But tell me, what do the words ‘having taken the form of a servant’ mean? They mean, he says, that He became man. Consequently, ‘being also in the form of God’ means that He was God. For in both cases the same word ‘form’ stands. If the first is true, then so is the latter. To be in the form of a servant means to be man by nature, and to be ‘in the form of God’ means to be God by nature.‘Considerably further on he returns to the same point and says:’I said that the form of a servant is true and nothing less; so also the form of God is perfect and nothing less. Therefore the Apostle did not say ‘having been in the form of God,’ but ‘being.’ This expression is equivalent to the words ‘I am who I am’ (Ex. 3:14). A form, as a form (norm), shows perfect likeness. And it cannot be that someone possesses the substance of one being while having the form (norm) of another. For instance, no man has the form (norm) of an Angel; no irrational creature has the form (norm) of a man.—So also the Son.—Only since we are composite, the form (norm) in us relates to the body (most of all), whereas in what is simple and perfectly non-composite it relates to the substance (spiritual and intellectual).”

“Did not count it robbery to be equal with God”—did not consider it robbery to be equal with God—His being equal with God, ισα υεω, level with God, on the same plane as God, was not by usurpation of what was foreign to Him, but because His own nature and substance was divine. Holy Chrysostom says: “the dignity of being equal with God was His not by seizure but by nature. This is why the Apostle did not say ‘He did not seize it,’ but ‘did not count it robbery’—that is, He possessed authority not seized but natural, not given but perpetually and inalienably His.” The heretics, Chrysostom further observes, have perverted this passage and render its meaning corruptly. They see in it the thought that, according to the Apostle, the Lord—being lesser than God—did not venture to place Himself on an equal footing with God. “They say: being a lesser God, He did not wish to be on a level with the great, most high God.—So you introduce into the Church’s doctrine a pagan teaching? Among the pagans there is a great and a lesser God. Whether we have such, I do not know. But in Scripture you will nowhere find this. The great you will find everywhere, but the lesser nowhere. For if He is lesser, what sort of God is He? Whoever is lesser is no God. In Scripture, the true God is everywhere called Great: ‘Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised’ (Ps. 47:2) and the like.—But they say: this is said of the Father, and the Son is the lesser (God). So you say, but Scripture says the opposite: it speaks of the Son in exactly the same way as of the Father. Hear what Paul says: ‘looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God’ (Tit. 2:13). Is this said of the Father? Not at all. The words the Apostle immediately adds do not allow this: ‘the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.’ Behold, the Son too is great.—Why then do you speak of lesser and greater? Know that the Prophet also calls Him ‘Angel of great counsel.’ Is the Angel of great counsel not great? ‘The mighty God’ (Jer. 32:18)—is He not great, but lesser? How then do the shameless and the brazen say that He is a lesser God? I often repeat their words so that you may keep all the further away from them.”

Phil. 2:7. But emptied Himself, having taken the form of a servant, having come in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man.

“But He emptied Himself,” εκενωσεν — He emptied Himself. This word is used in contrast to “did not count it robbery.” Knowing Himself to be equal with God, He did not seize what was foreign to Him; but, remaining such a non-usurper, He voluntarily stripped Himself—emptied Himself, laid aside His own, divesting Himself of the visible glory and majesty proper to the Godhead and belonging to Him as God. In this respect, some understand “emptied Himself” as: He concealed the glory of His Godhead. “God by nature, possessing equality with the Father, He concealed His dignity and chose the most extreme humility” (blessed Theodoret).

The following words explain how He emptied Himself.—“Having taken the form of a servant”—that is, having taken upon Himself a creaturely nature. Which one exactly? Human: “having come in the likeness of men.” Did human nature thereby receive any distinction? No. Just like all men, so was He: “being found in appearance as a man.”

He took the form of a servant. Who did? He who is in the form of God—God by nature. If He took it as God, then after the taking He remained God, the One who took the form of a servant. “The form of a servant” is not a characteristic mark but the norm of a servant. The word “servant” is used in contrast to the Godhead in the words “being in the form of God.” There, the form of God denotes the norm of the divine nature—the Creator’s Godhead; here, the form of a servant denotes the norm of a servant-nature, a creaturely nature, subordinate to God. “Having taken the form of a servant”—having taken creaturely nature, which, whatever rank it may stand at, is always subordinate to God. What followed from this? That the One without beginning—acquired a beginning; the omnipresent—was confined to a place; the eternal—lived out days, months, and years; the all-perfect—grew in stature and wisdom; the One who sustains and enlivens all things—was fed and sustained by others; the all-knowing—knew not; the all-powerful—was bound; the Source of life—died. And all this He underwent, being God by nature, by means of the creaturely nature He had taken upon Himself.

What creaturely nature did God take? Human nature. “For He did not take on Himself the nature of angels, but of the seed of Abraham.” He became in the form of a servant, “having come in the likeness of men.” Holy Chrysostom says: “the Marcionites, seizing on the words, say: He was not a man, but only in the likeness of man.—How then can one be in the likeness of man? By clothing oneself in a shadow? But that is a phantom, not the likeness of a man. There is a similar expression in the holy Paul elsewhere. He says: ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’ (Rom. 8:3) (that is, His flesh was the same as everyone’s, only that flesh is sinful, while His was sinless; in every respect it resembles sinful flesh, except for sin). What then do the words ‘having come in the likeness of men’ mean? They mean that He possessed much of what we have, yet some things He did not have. For example: He was not born in the natural manner of birth; He committed no sin.—Behold, He had things that no man among men has. He was not only what He appeared; He was also God. He appeared as a man, but in many respects was not like us, though according to the flesh He was like us. Therefore He was not a mere man. For this reason it is said: ‘in the likeness of men.’ We are soul and body; He, however, is God, soul, and body. Therefore it is said ‘in the likeness.’ And lest, on hearing that He emptied Himself, you imagine change, transformation, or some kind of annihilation, Scripture says that He, remaining what He was, took on what He was not; and, having become flesh, remained the true God the Word.”

By the words “having come in the likeness of men” it is determined that He took on human nature; and by the words “and being found in appearance as a man” it is indicated that He subjected Himself to the entire manner of human life—appearing to live as all men do, so that in this outward appearance He was in all respects as a man. Holy Chrysostom says: “since in this respect He resembles man, the Apostle also says ‘in appearance’—by which he expresses not that the nature was changed or that any mingling took place, but that He became man in ‘appearance.’—Well said by the Apostle: ‘as a man.’ For He was not one of the many, but as it were one of the many. Since God the Word was not transformed into a man and His substance was not changed—yet He appeared as a man, presenting to us no phantom, but teaching humility.—Note: when speaking of the Godhead, the Apostle uses the expressions: ‘being in the form of God—did not count it robbery to be equal with God,’ and does not use the words ‘became’ or ‘received.’ But when speaking of the humanity, he uses the words ‘received’ and ‘became’: ‘having taken the form of a servant, was found in appearance.’—This He became, this He received; that He was. So let us neither confuse nor divide (the Godhead and the humanity). One God, one Christ—the Son of God. And when I say ‘one,’ I express union, not confusion; for one nature was not turned into the other, but only united with it.”

Phil. 2:8. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross.

The incarnation is the first degree of self-abasement in the person of God, who was pleased to conceal the glory of the Godhead under the veil of humanity. But the sojourn within it could have been glorious. And this the Lord did not will. He chose the most inconspicuous manner of life: He was born in a manger, grew up in poverty and laborious work, lived amid privations, having nowhere to lay His head. Thus “He humbled Himself.” This “He humbled Himself” denotes the voluntary choosing of such a life—it defines the character of the entire life. The word “obedient” then encompasses the very course of that life with all its contingencies. The holy Evangelist says of Him that He did not break a bruised reed. He did not resist anything in the course of events but submitted to all as it unfolded. As God, He governed all things; and the course of His own life He could have directed Himself, but He renounced His authority and humbly accepted all that befell Him and submitted to it. Only once—with the word “I am”—and on two further occasions by becoming invisible when they sought to stone Him, did He, as it were, stand athwart the advancing malice; but this only for a moment, and only in order to show that He was surrendering Himself into its hands voluntarily. This was decreed in the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. The Lord Himself called this obedience to the will of His heavenly Father.

“Becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross.” Even to death He did not resist, and to such a humiliating death at that. To be subject even to ordinary death would have been humiliating; but to submit to such a death was the uttermost extreme of self-abasement. Death approached through the customary interweaving of human designs and wills. He saw this—from afar and in every detail—yet resisted nothing and voluntarily accepted the death which envy and injustice had devised. And in all of this He was obedient not to human malice, but to the decrees of God worshipped in the Trinity, expressed through the will of the Heavenly Father. In the mystery of the Godhead it was decreed that the Lord should submit to such a course of life and to such an end of it. The very course of events proceeded according to the common laws of divine Providence—sometimes determining, sometimes permitting and allowing.

Holy Chrysostom says on this passage: “see, they say, He was obedient—therefore He is not equal to the One to Whom He was obedient. O senseless and foolish ones! This in no way makes Him lesser. We too often obey our friends, but this in no way makes us lesser. He, as the Son, obeying the Father voluntarily, did not fall into the condition of a slave, but by this very great honor shown to the Father He especially preserved the honor of kinship with Him. The Son honored the Father not so that you might dishonor Him, but so that you might honor Him all the more and from this recognize that He is the true Son; since He honored the Father above all others. No one has ever honored God in this manner. As great as He was, so deeply did He humble Himself. Since He is greater than all and none is His equal, He also surpassed all in honoring the Father—not by compulsion and not under constraint. And this is a work of His virtue, or I know not how to express it. Ah, even to become a servant is a great thing and utterly ineffable; but to undergo death is far greater! But there is yet another thing still greater and more wonderful than this. What is it? That not just any death was like His death. For such a death was considered the most shameful of all and accursed. ‘For cursed,’ it is written, ‘is everyone who hangs on a tree’ (Deut. 21:23). For that reason the Jews took pains to put Him to death by such a death, and thereby to make Him an object of contempt—so that this manner of death would turn everyone away from Him, if mere death had turned away no one. For that reason also two robbers were crucified with Him, so that He might share their dishonor and so that it might be fulfilled what was said: ‘and He was numbered with the transgressors’ (Is. 53:12). But truth, the more it shines, the more brilliant it becomes. For when there are so many plots against His glory and yet it shines, the honor appears all the greater. Not by ordinary execution, but by an execution of precisely this sort they thought to make Him contemptible and to present Him more reprehensible than all; yet they did not succeed in the least.—This in no way diminished His glory.”

Phil. 2:9. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the Name which is above every name.

“Therefore”—for the reason that He so humbled Himself, even to the death of the cross. And “God”—God the Father, or God worshipped in the Trinity, the Godhead. “Has highly exalted Him”—has so exalted Him that beyond this exaltation it is impossible to go. Whom? The same One who, being in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God, yet emptied Himself and humbled Himself to the death of the cross. For the person is one—the person of God incarnate. He was exalted—the same One—yet not as God but as man. This exaltation signifies that His humanity also was brought into the glory and power of the Godhead. And it is ascribed to Him; for the humanity in Him is not a separate person but His humanity. It is impossible to exalt His humanity separately in such a way that this exaltation would not refer to Him, just as the preceding self-emptying and humiliation—though they were according to the humanity—were His own. For this reason the exaltation has also taken on infinite power. God has exalted the humanity in Him, but since this humanity is His own, in exalting that, He has exalted Him. Holy Chrysostom says: “if this is said of the One who was incarnate, if it is said of God the Word (apart from the incarnation), then how did He ‘highly exalt Him’? Did He give Him something greater? In that case He would have been imperfect and through us would have become perfect. For if He had not bestowed good upon us, He would not have received the honor. (Such reasoning is inadmissible).” Here too are the words of blessed Theodoret: “it is evident even to those of little understanding that the divine nature is in need of nothing, and that in the One who became man it was not the divine nature that was exalted as though it had been humbled—even though it was exalted by nature and humbled itself voluntarily (in the incarnation). Not as the Son of God did He receive what He had not before; but as a man He received what He had as God. In humbling Himself, He not only did not lose what He had as God, but received it also as man.”

“And given Him the Name which is above every name.” The Son of God possessed a Name that did not leave Him through the incarnation; but now it is received by Him also as a gift—as man. Up to this moment, as God, He possessed this Name; but not as man. Now it is given to Him also as man. It is “given”—for humanity, even when taken up by the Godhead, cannot merit such a Name; it cannot reach the point of this Name belonging to it by right of justice. “The Name above every name.” What is this name above every name? Here are the names that are above all names: God, the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit—these are above all names and all are equally honorable. Which then of these was given to the One who is in the form of God and who humbled Himself to the death of the cross? God, Son (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact), or God the Son, Son of God.—By this Name He was called before the world existed; now this same Name is transferred also to the humanity. In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is written that He inherited a name “more excellent” than that of the Angels. And the Apostle immediately explained what that name is, saying: “for to which of the angels did He ever say: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You’? And again: ‘I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son’” (Heb. 1:5–6) (blessed Theodoret).

The exaltation and the giving of the Name above every name is the same as what is expressed elsewhere as being seated at the right hand of the Father. Just as this signifies participation in the power and authority of the Godhead, so also does that. In other terms, this may be called the deification of humanity in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ—our Redeemer and Saviour. It was brought into this order from the moment of the incarnation; but in actual fact became such after the death of the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension—at the moment of the seating at the right hand of the Father.

Phil. 2:10. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth.

As soon as the exaltation was accomplished in the manner described and sealed with a corresponding special Name, the consequence of this had to be the divine worship of all creatures—heavenly, earthly, and those under the earth. In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said that when God brought the Firstborn again into the world (“again” in His God-manhood), He commanded: “let all the angels of God worship Him” (Heb. 1:6). Is it not this command that the Angels, in the Apocalypse, together with those who are with them, with thousands of thousands of voices cry out fulfilling: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever’” (Rev. 5:12–13).

“That every knee should bow”—with divine worship, on account of the hypostatic union of humanity with the Godhead in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. By the words “of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth” the whole of creation is expressed: the heavenly—Angels; the earthly—men who are living; those under the earth—men who have died (blessed Theodoret). But holy Chrysostom says: “that is, the whole world—both Angels and men and demons, both the righteous and sinners.”

All this followed of itself—for the One who became incarnate is God the Son.

Phil. 2:11. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

“Every tongue”—again every creature that has reason and speech. “Should confess”—and should acknowledge, and should proclaim and glorify. “That Jesus Christ is Lord”—that Jesus Christ is Lord and God (blessed Theophylact). “To the glory of God the Father.” “So that all should say this (that is, that He is Lord God). And in this is the glory of the Father” (holy Chrysostom). Or: “so that He may be glorified in the same way as the Father, as equal to Him and like Him” (holy St John of Damascus). That is, “every tongue should confess” that, inasmuch as Jesus Christ shines forth and is known as Lord and God, this moves all to unceasing glorification of God the Father; or that Jesus Christ is Lord in equal glory with God the Father, to the measure of the glory of God the Father.

Holy Chrysostom concludes his exposition of these last verses with the following exhortation: “therefore, let us believe to His glory and live to His glory. For one without the other is useless. So that when we confess rightly but live wrongly, we greatly offend Him—since, acknowledging Him as Lord and Teacher, we despise Him and do not fear His terrible judgment. The unclean life of pagans is not at all surprising and does not deserve great condemnation; but a similar unclean life in Christians, who share in such mysteries and enjoy such glory (called to such glory), is worst of all and most intolerable.”

cc) Instruction on how to live as a Christian (Phil. 2:12–18)

It is not indicated here by what commandments the true Christian life is defined, but rather how to abide in those commandments—how to live worthily of Christianity. The Apostle defines this with the following words: with fear and trembling—doing all things without murmuring and disputing—holding fast the word of life. The word of God declares what must be done; having learned this, do it with diligence and zeal, without murmuring and disputing, enlivening this zeal with the fear of God; and always keeping in view that in all things you are to be blameless children of God, and to glorify the name of God through yourselves, shining in the world like lights.

Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18)

Phil. 2:12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

The purpose of these words is to impress upon them the need to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Yet St Paul surrounds the exhortation with a touching reminder of his relationship to the Philippians, so that by warming their hearts with this he may find a more ready entrance for his admonition. This is why he says: “my beloved”—showing how dear they are to his heart, and how earnestly he desires that they be perfect in everything. To this he adds: “you have always obeyed me.” As you have always obeyed, so obey now also—or rather, I trust that you will obey now as well. “He points to their own zeal and says, as it were: I ask you to imitate not others but yourselves” (St Chrysostom). But the Apostle also sets before them a further, more compelling motive for diligence when he says: in my presence you were always zealous; for that very reason, in my absence you ought to be all the more zealous. Otherwise it would appear that you were such not for God’s sake, but for mine; and that once I was no longer present, you became otherwise. This is the manner of one who seeks to please men, not God—who acts from the fear of God. St Chrysostom says: “Why ‘much more in my absence’? Then it might have seemed that you were doing everything out of respect for me and out of shame; but now there is no such occasion. Therefore, if it appears that you are now zealous, it is clear that even then you were such not for my sake, but for God’s.”

Having framed his lesson thus, he finally presents it: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”—And this is the chief concern not for them alone, but for all people. Whoever has acquired the fear of God will assuredly be found correct in all things—not merely outwardly, but inwardly as well—not only out of regard for external pressures, but moved by the heart’s own impulse. “What do you want, O holy Paul? Tell me,” St Chrysostom asks, and answers in his words: “That you should not only obey me, but work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For without fear it is impossible to accomplish anything noble or admirable. And he did not simply say: ‘with fear,’—but added: ‘and with trembling,’—which is a higher degree of fear—wishing to make the Philippians more attentive. Such fear Paul himself had. Therefore he also says: ‘I fear, lest, having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified’ (1 Cor. 9:27). For if earthly matters cannot be managed without fear, how much more is this true of spiritual ones? Tell me: who learned letters without fear? Who became skilled in a craft without fear? But if, where the devil does not lie in wait and only laziness weighs upon us, such fear is needed to overcome mere natural negligence—in the midst of such warfare, such obstacles, how can anyone ever be saved without fear? How then is this fear to be born? If we keep in mind that God is everywhere present, hears all things, sees all things—not only words and deeds, but all that passes in the heart and in the depths of the soul. For He is ‘a discerner’ of ‘the thoughts and intents of the heart’ (Heb. 4:12). If we so order ourselves, we shall neither do, nor say, nor think anything evil. For tell me: if you were always standing close to your ruler, would you not stand in fear? How then, standing before God, do you laugh, lean against the wall, and feel no fear or trembling? Do not take advantage of His longsuffering; He is longsuffering in order to lead you to repentance. Therefore, whatever you do, do it with the thought of God’s omnipresence. For He is truly everywhere present. Whether you are eating, lying down to sleep, or doing anything else—call to mind the presence of God, and you will never give yourself to laughter, never be inflamed with anger. If you hold this thought constantly, you will be constantly in fear and trembling, as though standing before the King Himself. A builder, however experienced and skilled, still stands in fear and trembling, afraid of falling from the structure. And you have believed, have accomplished much good, have ascended to the heights: hold yourself firmly, stand in fear, and watch with vigilance, lest you fall from there. For many spirits of wickedness seek to cast you down. ‘Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling’ (Ps. 2:11).—Note also that the Apostle did not say: accomplish your salvation, but: ‘work it out’—that is, with great diligence.”

Phil. 2:13. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure.

As a motive for the fear of God, the Apostle sets before them the fact that God Himself is at work in them—both in their good desires and in their good deeds. This is yet stronger than what St Chrysostom says: remember that God is everywhere, and therefore with you and near you. Here it is said that He is not merely near us, but within us; and not as a power at rest, but as a power actively working in all things. One who does what is displeasing to God in the presence of the omnipresent God resembles a man who defies a king to his face and openly resists his commands; but one who does what is displeasing to God as He works within his desires and deeds resembles a man who tears himself from the king’s hands when the king, having taken him by the hand, leads him to some task—and not only tears himself away, but strikes the king’s hands. Even the first is not safe in such conduct; but the second faces evident danger. Every sinner is in some sense a fighter against God; but one who goes against the will of God working in the heart and conscience, urgently drawing him toward what is right—his opposition to God is of an incomparably higher degree of guilt. And all Christians are of this kind. They are united with the Lord and have Him working within them. Their reverence and fear should know no measure.

These words may also be connected with the preceding ones in another way. If we place the force of meaning in the preceding verse not on “with fear and trembling,” but on “work out,”—then the present verse may be understood as the Apostle’s encouragement, speaking as it were: work out your salvation, for you are not alone; God Himself is working in you. If, with so great a worker as this within you, you still fail to work out your salvation, then there will be no measure to your folly, your inattentiveness to yourself, and your carelessness—and consequently no measure to your punishment for failing to work out your salvation. St Chrysostom says: “Do not be afraid that I said: ‘with fear and trembling.’ I said it not to discourage you, not so that you would regard virtue as something inaccessible; but so that you would be attentive, so that you would not be distracted. If this be present (attentiveness and zeal), God will do everything. Take courage: ‘for it is God who works in you.’ Therefore, since He Himself works, we (on our part) must show our intention (to please Him)—steadfast, concentrated, undistracted. When you desire, then He also works, ‘to will’ (raising the desire to firm resolve). Do not be afraid and do not grow faint. He will give us both zeal and activity itself (when we begin to act, He will give the strength to carry the work through to completion). For when we desire, He further strengthens our desire. And when we wish to do something good, He brings that good to completion.—By this, free will is not taken away, but is left in us. For look: have you given alms? You have disposed yourself more toward doing so. Have you not given? You have disposed yourself less. Have you lived a day in temperance? You have an incentive for the next day also. Have you been lazy? You have strengthened your laziness.—From this, one ‘having fallen into the depths of evil, takes no heed’ (Prov. 18:3). But as one who has fallen into the depths of evil takes no heed of himself, so one who has come to the depths of good strives of himself. ‘God works not by compelling and constraining, but because, finding zeal within us, He strengthens it by grace’ (blessed Theodoret).”

“According to His good pleasure.” God so works in us because it is His good pleasure to do so—because His entire good pleasure toward us tends to this end: that we should live and act according to His will, and since we are ourselves powerless to do so, He comes to us with His help. St Chrysostom says: “according to His good pleasure”—that is, out of love for God, to please Him, so that what is pleasing to Him may be accomplished and done according to His will. Here the Apostle shows and assures us that God truly does work. Since He desires that we live according to His will, and if He desires this and at the same time works toward it Himself, then assuredly He will also bring it about—because He wills that we live righteously. “Good pleasure”—the Apostle used this word to denote the good will of God. Now God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4) (blessed Theodoret). Or, “according to His good pleasure”—means: as, when, and to the degree that it pleases Him—measuring, of course, this good pleasure also in accordance with the direction of our own free will.

Phil. 2:14. Do all things without murmurings and disputes.

This is not speaking about enduring troubles that befall one without complaint, but about doing one’s work without grumbling. This brings to mind a lazy servant who is placed under the unavoidable necessity of doing what he is commanded, yet has no desire whatsoever to do it—so that whatever he is made to do, he does it, but always with grumbling, or as we say, with muttering: he mutters against other people, against the master, against the task, against his own lot, even though he does the work all the same, shuffling from foot to foot. It is precisely this kind of doing that the Apostle forbids the Philippians. “Do all things”—embraces the entire range of deeds and dispositions that are obligatory for a Christian. The Apostle says: recognizing this obligation, fulfill everything without grumblings and mutterings (the Greek stands in the plural), which conceal dissatisfaction and displeasure at having to act in such a way; taking the opposite of this, it means: do all things willingly, with pleasure, joyfully, and with animation. With us, for example, when a fast comes, how much grumbling there is! And not only that—even if one is called to church in such a way that a few minutes must be taken from sleep, that also is not done without grumbling. Some give alms, yet inwardly grumble: “they come wandering here, there is no peace”—and the like. Judging from this, one can understand what the Apostle means when he enjoins that all things be done without murmurings. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Bear with readiness both the labor for the sake of virtue and the dangers for the sake of the gospel, not being troubled by the tribulations that befall you, not being led about by various thoughts—for you are laying up treasure for yourselves; and no one, in gaining great profit, grieves and grumbles.” St Chrysostom speaks at greater length on this: “Do you see that the Apostle is teaching not to murmur? For murmuring is the act of ungrateful and insensible servants. For tell me: what son grumbles while laboring in his father’s affairs and laboring for himself? Consider, he says, that you are laboring for yourself, that you are gathering for yourself. To grumble is proper to servants, since they labor for others, since they work for others; but one who is gathering for himself—why should he grumble? It is better to do nothing than to do with grumbling. For the very deed loses its value. Grumbling is close to blasphemy. Grumbling is ingratitude. One who grumbles is ungrateful to God; and one who is ungrateful to God is truly a blasphemer.”

“Without disputes,” διαλογισμων — deliberations. In the previous verse, unwillingness and displeasure at having to act was rebuked—a poor condition of the will and heart; here what is rebuked is a poor condition of the mind. Every task must be undertaken with discernment and deliberation, yet without wavering deliberations. One who grumbles acts, but with displeasure; one who deliberates and wavers has not yet begun to act, but stands at the threshold of the task wondering whether to abandon it. He is aware that there is a commandment, but deliberates whether he needs to fulfill it, whether to such a degree, whether in such a manner, whether perhaps it might be done better in some other way—and so forth. This wavering reveals the instability of his will’s resolve to do every recognized good in a manner pleasing to God. One whose resolve is firm takes up every task with fervor, as soon as he recognizes that it is good and that it lies before him to do—he burns with ardent zeal. But one who deliberates is neither hot nor cold—and always looking to see whether he might somehow excuse himself from the work.—Do not waver—press forward boldly! “Though labor lie ahead, though tribulation, though anything else—do not deliberate” (St Chrysostom). “In saying ‘without disputes,’ the Apostle forbade the wavering of thoughts and doubt in the fulfillment of the commandments; so that when it lies before one to fulfill some commandment, no one should say: will there be a reward for me if I do this? Is this good? For such doubtful thoughts must not be entertained, but one must act with confidence” (blessed Theophylact).

Phil. 2:15. That you may be blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

“That you may be”—so that in this way you may be, or become, “blameless and harmless.” You are obliged to be blameless and harmless; but you cannot attain to this in any other way than by acting as directed above—that is, by working out your salvation with fear and trembling, in hope that the grace which works all things in you will sustain you, and by doing everything willingly and with pleasure, without grumbling or wavering, in full assurance that you are doing right. If you act thus, you will be “blameless and harmless”—or, which is the same thing, you will walk worthily of the gospel of Christ. “Blameless,” αμεμπτοι — without reproach, so that there will be nothing for which you can be accused; “and pure,” ακεραιοι — unmixed—as gold, for example, when nothing foreign remains in it, is perfectly pure, so you too shall appear pure, without any admixture of elements alien to you, un-Christian elements, in thoughts, words, deeds, feelings, and dispositions—you will be pure, as pure as a ray of sunlight. And best of all, you will be “children of God without fault,” unstained by anything. Having been reborn in the font of baptism, you became by this new birth from God children of God, and you are obliged to manifest this in fact, in your life. And you will manifest it, if you act in the manner I have indicated. How dear to you it is to be such, so earnestly must you act as I have told you. “In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” As well-bred children of noble parents, even if they have mingled in a crowd of other children of a lower class, are immediately visible by their words, their manners, their conduct and deeds—so, he says, you, though you live among other people descended from Adam, by your spiritual birth are an altogether different race; and being a different race, you must appear different in life as well, so that all who look upon you would say: they are like us and yet unlike us; everything about them resembles ours, yet their manner of thinking, their principles of life, their purity of character, their aims and hopes are not ours. A different spirit of life breathes in them and points to a different birth.—Such you will be, if you act as I have said.

“‘Among whom you appear as lights in the world.” “Among whom’—that is, amid the persons of ‘the crooked and perverse generation.’—‘You appear’—either asserts that they truly are so and thus praises them by way of encouragement toward something greater; or points to their significance in the world, and through them to all Christians, by way of arousing a sense of obligation to this end, as though saying: among whom you are obliged to appear as lights in the world. The night of ignorance and corruption covers the world. You, as Christians, have been set by God in the midst of it to be lights of knowledge and holiness. Such is your calling—let your light shine before men. “Stars shine at night and are visible in the darkness, and lose nothing of their beauty—indeed, they appear more brilliantly; whereas in the light they are not so visible. So also you shine more brightly when you remain upright in the midst of the corrupt. It is a wonderful thing to be blameless!” (St Chrysostom). “Such are those who can say: “The light of Your countenance has been marked upon us, O Lord” (Ps. 4:7)” (St John of Damascus). “Strive therefore to shine with righteousness and blamelessness amid the corrupt, as lights shine in the darkness. “You appear”—seems to be said imperatively (that is, appear as lights)” (blessed Theophylact).”

Phil. 2:16. Holding fast the word of life, to my glory in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain nor labored in vain.

“‘The word of life’—meaning the Gospel word” (St John of Damascus). “‘Holding fast the word of life’—means: attending to the word of life; for so the Apostle said in the Epistle to Timothy: ‘Take heed to yourself and to the teaching’ (1 Tim. 4:16), that is, be attentive to yourself and to the teaching. And he called the preaching the word of life because it leads to life” (blessed Theodoret). St Paul explains how they shine as lights in the world: by holding the word of life they appear as lights. To hold the word means not merely to receive it by hearing with the ear, or to keep and remember it in one’s thoughts, but to make it so that according to it the whole inner and outer life of a person is formed—so that what is written in the word is realized in them in deed, and so that to look upon them is the same as to hear or read the word of life. Of those who faithfully fulfilled the Apostolic word, the Apostle said: you are my epistle, written not with ink (2 Cor. 3:2).—In a similar sense he called the Apostles the fragrance of Christ (2 Cor. 2:15). As from the fragrance of a rose one surmises that somewhere a rose is present, so from the Apostles and all faithful Christians one recognizes that Christ is—and what He is. All this and the like is what St Paul brings to mind in saying: “holding fast the word of life.” It is as though he said: and you will truly be lights if you embody in yourselves the Gospel word of life, if you live in a manner worthy of the gospel. St Chrysostom expressed this thus: “having within you the seed of life, holding the pledge of life, holding life itself—this is what we call the word of life.”

“To my glory in the day of Christ.”—In saying this, the Apostle expresses the hope that they will continue to hold the received word to the end and order their lives according to it. In what does the glory consist? In having formed such disciples and established them so firmly that they remained steadfast to the end. The Apostle was not concerned with his own glory, but with stirring in them a zeal for constancy in good and faithfulness to the Christian calling. Through these words he conveys an admonition: see to it, then, that you stand in the word to the end.

“That I have not run in vain, nor labored in vain.”—The Apostle calls his apostolic labors his course. If you, he says, remain always in the word, then my labors in converting you and sustaining you in the faith will not be in vain. In the day of Christ I can point to you as my glory—that I did not labor over you in vain, or that I did not bear the apostolic title in vain. The aim of the Apostleship is to bring people to Christ and make them saved; if you prove to be such, you alone will redeem my entire course. Even if no others are found, and you alone remain, I shall not be deprived of approval. For in that case—that no others are found—it will mean that the failure did not depend on me but on those who heard the word. You yourselves will prove that I knew how to teach; for if I had not known, I would not have made even you true followers of Christ.

The Apostle inserts a word about himself because of the Philippians’ love for him, knowing that out of love for him they are ready to do anything. They will begin to live as they ought, motivated by this—and through it they will arrive at the other grounds for why one must live in this way and no other.

But one may also place a full stop after: “to my glory in the day of Christ,” as in our Slavonic translation; and render “for” not as “that,” but as “because”—or “for.” For I have not run in vain, nor labored in vain. The thought will be the same as in the Epistle to the Corinthians: “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so I fight, not as one who beats the air” (1 Cor. 9:26)—that is, I run in full, clear, and unshakeable assurance that I shall receive the incorruptible crown (1 Cor. 9:25). Likewise here—St Paul expresses assurance that the Philippians, by fulfilling all that has been prescribed and holding fast the word of life, will be to his glory in the day of Christ; for, he says, I have hitherto run in the apostolic office not uncertainly, not without a definite aim and hope, and I have not labored in my preaching at random. I fulfill a definite will of God and I know with certainty that I do what is pleasing to Him and that the work of my ministry will have a blessed end. By setting this forth regarding himself, he also inspires them with the same blessed hopes: for if his labor in preaching will be crowned, then their following of that preaching will also be crowned.

The following two verses correspond more closely to this interpretation.

Phil. 2:17. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering over the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and rejoice with you all.

Phil. 2:18. Likewise also you rejoice and rejoice with me.

Having such assurance, the Apostle says, nurturing such definite and certain hopes, I—though I must suffer for bringing you to faith—rejoice within myself and rejoice with you all, that I have succeeded in setting you on the right path of salvation toward the attainment of eternal blessedness. But as I so rejoice within myself and rejoice with you, so rejoice also within yourselves that you are walking on the right path to eternal blessedness, and rejoice with me that through you my inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ is increased. The Apostle wishes to say: our path is true; we walk according to God; there is no cause to be troubled by trials; let us rejoice and mutually rejoice, looking toward the inheritance that awaits us. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle said ‘of your faith’—instead of the faith of all those who, through his ministry, have believed. I rejoice and am gladdened, as a sacrifice offered to God for your faith. It is fitting that you also share in my rejoicing.” St Chrysostom concludes his words on this thus: “Therefore let us entirely cease from grieving, entirely cease from weeping; let us give thanks to God in all things; let us do all things without murmuring—let us rejoice, let us please Him in all things, so that we may receive the good things to come.”

By the words “being poured out as a drink offering” the Apostle means not only what he was then suffering, but what he had suffered before and what he would suffer in the future. The thought is: even if it falls to me to suffer in the course of preaching and to face death, I am glad of it—I bear it with joy and will continue to bear it. “Over the sacrifice and service of your faith”—for what I make of you through faith, a sacrifice to God, I perform a service to God. “He calls their being brought to faith a sacrifice. Truly, to offer a soul as a sacrifice is far better than to offer bulls” (St Chrysostom).—“In saying: ‘rejoice and rejoice with me also,’ he likewise encourages them to endure sufferings. I am glad, he says, of both what I have already endured, and what I am enduring, and what lies ahead for me to endure; I am ready with joy for all manner of death, because of the certainty of our hope. Be animated by the same spirit and be ready with joy for everything” (Photius in Oecumenius).

Part Two—The Apostle’s Account of His Intentions (Philippians 2:19–30)

Sending Timothy to the Philippians (Philippians 2:19–24)

In the second part, the Apostle speaks: 1) of his intention to send Timothy to the Philippians shortly (Phil. 2:19–24); and 2) of sending Epaphroditus back to them (Phil. 2:25–30).

1) Sending Timothy to the Philippians (Phil. 2:19–24)

Phil. 2:19. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your circumstances.

“I trust to send shortly.”—This shows that the preceding words, “even if I am being poured out as a drink offering,” were not said by the Apostle with reference to his present imprisonment or a death that threatened him, but in a general sense, denoting the hardships, difficulties, and persecutions that accompanied his preaching. And his present mention of the intention to send Timothy to them is not in order to dispel the anxiety that those words about being poured out might have caused—by suggesting that the Apostle’s life was in danger—but because it followed naturally in the course of the Epistle.

“I trust in the Lord Jesus.” “See how he relates all things to Christ—even the sending of Timothy. By this he said: I am confident that God will help me” (St Chrysostom). His inner sense could also assure him of this, for the Apostles were led in the most immediate way by the Spirit of God, who directly imparted to their hearts what was necessary. This confidence too was thus given, and the Apostle expresses it without wavering—for he knew how to distinguish his own surmises from the indications of the Spirit.

The purpose of sending him: “so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your circumstances.” To be encouraged—to be at peace regarding someone. Epaphroditus will tell you about me; but who will tell me about you? Epaphroditus at least reported something; yet he was ill here for a considerable time, and until he makes his way back to you, and until you yourselves manage to send word—much time will pass. I cannot remain so long without news of you. This silence will trouble me. Therefore I will send Timothy to you: he will bring you news of my coming release or of its already having been granted, and will bring me from you reliable tidings of what is happening among you, so that I may be at peace regarding you.—“Oh, how tender a love he had for Macedonia! It is a sign of the greatest care that, being unable to come quickly himself, he sends a disciple—unwilling to remain in ignorance of what was happening among them even for a short time” (St Chrysostom).

In saying “so that I may be encouraged when I learn of your circumstances,” the Apostle expresses confidence that Timothy will bring him comforting news. Knowing that what gladdened the Apostle was not so much outward prosperity as inward order and progress in the Christian life, the Philippians should have taken from these words a prompt “to be more attentive to themselves and more diligent” (St Chrysostom)—so that the news, instead of bringing encouragement, would not bring the deepest anxiety to their beloved Apostle. Herein lies the wisdom of a teacher: to keep the attention and zeal of those he teaches in constant readiness.

Phil. 2:20. For I have no one like-minded who will sincerely care for your state.

“He explains why he is sending Timothy: because no one can act so faithfully in the spirit of the Apostle as he can, and because he is close to the Philippians, sincerely disposed toward them, and cares for their good. ‘Like-minded’—no one has so assimilated the spirit of the Apostle as he; and in his disposition toward the Philippians he is no less than the Apostle himself. ‘Like-minded,’—that is, caring and concerned for you just as I am. Another, he says, would not so readily resolve, for this reason, to make so long a journey. But Timothy loves you as I do. Others could be sent, but no one like him: ‘who will sincerely care for your state’—that is, with the care of a father” (St Chrysostom).

Phil. 2:21. For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus.

“All”—not all believers in general, but all those whom he might have sent. It is probable that of those who accompanied him, none remained with him at the time except Timothy; and among the local believers, though there were some who were especially devoted to the Apostle, they were still young in the spiritual life. “Seek their own”—that is, they had not yet risen to complete self-denial—so as to be ready to sacrifice everything for the work of the gospel: rest, property, and life. St Chrysostom defines them as seeking “their own ease and safety.” “Not the things which are of Christ Jesus.” That which is pleasing to the Lord encompasses a broad realm—all of life in all its manifestations. Those who were with the Apostle undoubtedly did everything they could do diligently in their own place; but they lacked the strength to resolve upon such an obedience as this because of self-sparing. This is what the Apostle sets forth—as a commendation of Timothy and as a lesson for us all: that if we genuinely resolve to seek “the things which are of Christ,” we “must be ready for every labor, for all that is burdensome” (St Chrysostom).

Phil. 2:22. But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he has served with me in the gospel.

“Proven character”—both experience and tried faithfulness. The Apostle conveys that he can be relied upon in all things. Whatever he may say, receive it as though I myself were speaking; and whatever you pass on to him, do so freely—it will be the same as passing it on to me. He says “you know,” yet considered it necessary to mention this, in order to let them know that Timothy is still the same and still stands in the same relationship to him. They knew how he had served St Paul until the last time the Apostle visited them, just before his imprisonment; but what had happened since, they did not know. The Apostle tells them: he is the same as ever; as he then labored with me in the gospel, as a son with a father, so he continues to act now. It would not be surprising if St Paul here also has in mind Timothy’s particular labors in proclaiming the gospel within Rome itself.

Having thus held Timothy up in such a favorable light before the Philippians, the Apostle Paul goes on to say:

Phil. 2:23. Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how things go with me.

It is he whom I hope to send. By sending Timothy, the Apostle both testifies to his most heartfelt love for the Philippians and does them honor (St Chrysostom). “As soon as I see how things go with me”—“that is, when I see what my situation will be and what outcome my affairs will have” (St Chrysostom). “It is evident that he had not yet fully escaped the first danger” (blessed Theodoret). “I am awaiting, he says, what verdict will be pronounced on me in court” (St John of Damascus). Yet it is clear that he expected a favorable outcome. This is why he added:

Phil. 2:24. But I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly.

“I am sending Timothy not because I myself will not come, but so that I may be encouraged upon learning of your circumstances, and so as not to remain in ignorance during this interval. As for coming myself—I still hope to do so” (St Chrysostom). “I trust in the Lord.” “He knew through the Holy Spirit that his first imprisonment would end favorably and that he would soon receive his freedom” (St John of Damascus). In the Apostle’s assurance there is no trace of wavering. He was confident that he would be released from his bonds and would direct his path so as to visit the Philippians as well. He speaks of this in order to keep them in a constant state of keen attentiveness toward himself. Now they await Epaphroditus; when he comes, they will await Timothy and prepare to receive him in such a way that he could in good conscience bring favorable news of them to the holy Apostle; after Timothy’s return, they will await St Paul himself—which will call for an even greater degree of attentiveness. Herein lies the wisdom of a guide: to sustain those he guides in strict attentiveness to themselves.

The Sending of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25–30)

Phil. 2:25. Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need.

“I considered it necessary”—I reckoned it more urgent. Although the Greek literally reads differently—the text there has αναγκαιον, meaning “I considered it necessary”—the flow of speech more readily suggests the Slavonic rendering. Until the mission of Timothy is accomplished and I come to you myself, in the present moment it is more needful to send Epaphroditus to you. Why it is more needful is explained below; here only a passing mention is made of it.

Of Epaphroditus nothing is known beyond what is written in this Epistle. Epaphras, mentioned in the Epistle to the Colossians and to Philemon, is an entirely different person, and there is no reason to confuse them: one is a Colossian, the other a Philippian.—In sending him back to his own people, St Paul praises him no less than Timothy (St Chrysostom). He sets forth five commendable qualities in him: “brother”—as a Christian, and perhaps also as one who had grown closer to the Apostle than others through repeated meetings; “fellow worker”—as a co-laborer in the preaching of the gospel and the spreading of the faith: evidently he had assisted St Paul in confirming the faith and establishing the Church in Philippi; he may have been entrusted with continuing what the Apostle had begun after his departure from there; and he contributed to the fact that the Philippian Church proved so devoted to St Paul and to the faith; “fellow soldier”—already by virtue of being a fellow worker, since the spreading of the gospel is a true struggle against the darkness of impiety and wickedness; but more directly this signifies that he had suffered together with the Apostle for the gospel—a fellow soldier as a sharer with the Apostle in trials and hardships (St Chrysostom). Where and when is not evident. Perhaps the Apostle had in mind here that he had been exposed to the danger of death in matters of faith and the Church while there in Rome; or perhaps he also suffered considerably in Philippi itself. If of all the Philippians it is said that to them it was granted not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for His sake, then outstanding individuals such as Epaphroditus would certainly have had a far greater share in this. “Your messenger”—in the immediate flow of the sentence, this conveys the meaning that he was sent by the Philippians to the Apostle: he is your envoy—that is, your delegate. So Oecumenius. But he may also be called their Apostle in the sense that he taught them, continuing among them the work of Paul’s Apostleship. So St Chrysostom and Theophylact.—Or because the care of them was entrusted to him. So Theodoret.—“Who ministered to my need”—as the one who brought from the Philippians what was necessary for St Paul. The word used for him here, λειτουργος, suggests that St Paul regarded this kind of service as a sacred ministry—fittingly so, because it contributed to the success of the gospel proclamation, which is elsewhere in St Paul called a priestly service (Rom. 15:16).

Phil. 2:26. Since he was longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was ill.

This is why St Paul considered it more necessary to send Epaphroditus quickly—to set at rest both Epaphroditus himself and the Philippians. There was great anxiety on their part regarding him, and on his part regarding them. They, noticing that he had been gone a long time, inquired into the reason, and when they found out that it was due to illness, they naturally grieved that he had fallen into such danger in fulfilling their wish. He, for his part, grieved both at not having seen them for so long, and at their grieving over him because of his illness. In all this is revealed the intensity of their mutual love. The Apostle expresses this from Epaphroditus’s side, saying that he was longing with deep longing to see them—he yearned for them, he strained toward them irresistibly—and that he was “distressed” that they had heard of his illness: he grieved bitterly, his soul ached to the point of exhaustion. Beneath both of these must be assumed the most sincere and deep bond of love.

Phil. 2:27. For indeed he was ill, near to death; but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

The illness was serious and threatened to cut short the days of Epaphroditus. “But God,” he says, “had mercy on him.” How did God show mercy? Since all things are from God, the favorable outcome of an illness that ran its natural course is itself the mercy of God. But one must suppose that in this case the mercy was of a special kind. It may be assumed that the Apostle Paul did not look on this illness with indifference but turned to God with a prayer for healing; and Epaphroditus, of course, had sufficient faith to be a worthy recipient of the highest mercy. Therefore one need not doubt that God showed mercy on him through a miracle wrought through the Apostle Paul. In Ephesus, handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched the Apostle’s person healed diseases and drove out evil spirits (Acts 19:12). Something similar took place here as well. St Paul, however, expresses this in a general phrase: “God had mercy on him,” since he was speaking of himself.—Yet he clearly recalls it with full gratitude, calling the healing of Epaphroditus a great mercy toward himself as well. As he had taken the illness to heart, so he rejoiced wholeheartedly at the recovery. If he had died, he says, it would have been sorrow upon sorrow.—He already had sorrow, being in bonds. The death of Epaphroditus would have been sorrow upon sorrow. He would have grieved at having been deprived of such a fellow worker, and at the death having grieved the beloved Philippians, and at its having come about through his service to the Apostle’s need. And so he is glad. He sincerely regarded the restoration of Epaphroditus’s health as a great mercy of God toward himself as well.

Phil. 2:28. Therefore I sent him more eagerly, so that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful.

“What does ‘more eagerly’ mean? Without delay, without procrastination, with great haste—bidding him leave everything and go to you, so as to deliver you from grief. For we rejoice not so much when we hear that our beloved ones are well, as when we see them to be so—and especially if this happens beyond our expectation, as happened then with Epaphroditus” (St Chrysostom). And so the Apostle hastened to bring joy to the Philippians, confident that Epaphroditus’s arrival would dispel the grief they had felt because of his illness and fill them with joy. “And I may be less sorrowful.” By this the Apostle said that their grief is his grief, and that when they are delivered from grief, he too will be delivered from it. Yet he did not say: I shall be entirely without sorrow, but: I shall be less sorrowful, αλυποτερος — that is, this grief will fall away, but others will remain. “His soul was never without grief. For when was he free from grief who says: ‘Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?’ (2 Cor. 11:29)” (St Chrysostom).

Phil. 2:29. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such people in honor.

“Receive him in the Lord”—that is, in the spirit of faith in the Lord, “spiritually” (St Chrysostom), or as one preserved for you by the Lord and sent to you by Him, or “receive him in a manner pleasing to God, according to God” (blessed Theophylact). “Receive him with all joy, as it is proper to receive holy persons” (St Chrysostom). All of this would have followed naturally of itself. By recalling it, the Apostle bestows his blessing upon them for it, and by this blessing sanctifies what is on the surface a simple act.

“And hold such persons in honor among you.” This is a commandment—to treat with special respect those who have labored in the work of God. “Hold such as these in honor, as it is proper to honor holy persons” (St Chrysostom), “not for their sake, but for your own, since you receive them with honor—for this will increase the reward that is prepared for you” (Oecumenius). He says: hold all such persons in honor, not Epaphroditus alone—of this he had no doubt. “He exhorts them to honor all in general who display such virtue, so that it might not appear that he favors Epaphroditus alone” (blessed Theophylact).

Phil. 2:30. Because for the work of Christ he came close to death, risking his life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me.

This is why the Philippians were to receive Epaphroditus with joy and always hold him and those like him in honor—because he labored in the work of Christ to the point of laying down his life. The work of Christ here is understood as the work of advancing the spread of the gospel of Christ by aiding its proclaimer—the Apostle. Or the work of Christ is the work of the Church. Epaphroditus went to the Apostle from all the faithful, bearing aid to him; and this is already a work of the Church. But if he also had in view the clarification of certain questions concerning the faith and Christian morality—as the content of the Epistle in part suggests—then it is all the more directly and profoundly the work of Christ. In this, then, we have a lesson: to hold in honor all those who labor in the affairs of the faith and the Church.

But Epaphroditus had in this regard a quality not every laborer in the work of Christ is able to possess—namely, that for this work he “came close to death.” Here one may understand both the dangers of the journey and in particular the fact that, while fulfilling the commission entrusted to him by the Church, he fell ill and was “near to death.” Yet this is not so great as what is greater still—that even before this chance event, he had surrendered himself wholeheartedly to the work of Christ, so that had he suffered incomparably greater hardships, tribulations, and even death itself, this would not have been unexpected for him, but simply the fulfillment of what he had resolved in his soul—to lay down his life for the work of Christ. From this self-denying resolve the labors endured on the journey and his being “near to death” drew special value. For because of it he accepted all of this willingly and joyfully, freely and not under constraint—even though it all happened against his own will. The words “risking his life” in Greek read: παραβολευσαμεος τη ψυχη. This is difficult to render word for word. In our Slavonic, a marginal note adds: “having despised his own soul”; in Russian it is rendered: “exposing his life to danger.” The sense is that Epaphroditus devoted himself to the work of Christ without sparing his life, with readiness to die for it. It is precisely for this that St Chrysostom especially praises him: “The fearless Epaphroditus despised every danger—if only he could come and minister to Paul and do all that needed to be done. The Apostle did not say: for my sake, but says: ‘for the work of God.’ For it was not for me but for God that he was ‘near to death.’ What then? Although he did not die, by God’s arrangement—yet he faced danger and surrendered himself in such a way that he would not have refused to serve me, whatever he might have had to suffer. And if for the service of Paul he surrendered himself to death, how much more would he have done so for the preaching of the gospel—or rather, to die for Paul was the same as to die for the preaching. For not only by refusing to sacrifice to idols can one receive the martyr’s crown—such circumstances as these also make a martyr; and if anything is to be called admirable, the latter is more so than the former. For one who resolves on death for a lesser matter will all the more do so for a greater. Therefore let us also, when we see holy men in trials, not spare ourselves. For one who is irresolute can never do anything noble; and one who seeks safety here necessarily loses it in the life to come.”

“To supply what was lacking in your service toward me.” Here St Paul turns Epaphroditus’s same service into a credit to the Philippians themselves. He speaks as though saying: what you yourselves ought to have done for me in person (but could not—“your lack of service”), he did on your behalf. “The city was not with me, but rendered me every service (that was due to it) through him, by sending him. Consequently, he supplied the deficiency of your (personal) service. And therefore he has the right to receive great honor, since he alone did on your behalf what all of you ought to have done.—Do you see the Apostle’s lofty feeling? It comes not from pride, but from great concern for them. He calls what they did ‘service’ and ‘a lack’ (that is, an obligation, whose non-fulfillment is a deficiency in them)—so that they would not be lifted up, but remain humble; so that they would not think they had done something great, but would be modest” (St Chrysostom).

Part Three—A Warning, with Applied Lessons (Philippians 3:1–4:1)

Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9)

In the third part, the Apostle gives the Philippians: 1) a warning against the Judaizers, dissuading them from being carried away by their teaching by his own personal example. He enumerates the advantages that Jews customarily set forth in enticing others to follow them. He then says: all of these I possessed more than others, yet I counted them as nothing compared with the inexpressibly exalted promises and hopes of the Christian faith (Phil. 3:1–9). This gave him occasion to add: 2) it is precisely toward these that I now strive with all my heart. Strive likewise after me, clinging to nothing earthly or sensuous—for our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:10–4:1).

1) Warning Against the Judaizers (Phil. 3:1–9)

Phil. 3:1. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not irksome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.

“Grief and anxiety, when they overwhelm the soul to excess, take away its strength. For this reason Paul encourages the Philippians, who were in great grief. They grieved because they did not know what the Apostle’s circumstances were; they grieved because they supposed him dead; they grieved over the preaching, over Epaphroditus. And so, having given them satisfactory news of all this, he adds: ‘finally, my brothers, rejoice.’ Now, he says, you have no reason to grieve: Epaphroditus, over whom you were sorrowing, is with you; Timothy also is (soon to be) with you; and I am on my way; and the gospel is advancing. What more do you lack? ‘Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord.’ Well said: ‘in the Lord,’—not with worldly joy; for that is not what rejoicing means. Even tribulations for Christ’s sake, he says, contain within them joy” (St Chrysostom).

“To write the same things to you.” “He had not written another epistle to them, but in this single letter set forth many instructions” (blessed Theodoret).

“The same things.” If this is referred to “rejoice,” the meaning is: to keep repeating to you: “rejoice,”—for the Apostle had already written this to them: “rejoice and rejoice with me” (Phil. 2:18); and he repeated it once more: “rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). Some give the word “the same things” the meaning of “such things” and refer it to everything written up to this point. To write all such things to you is not irksome for me, and for you it will serve to strengthen you in faith and in a life according to faith. He speaks as though saying: it is not irksome for me to write you such things—that is, all things concerning faith and life according to faith—for this serves to confirm you in both. To complete the thought, one may understand here: and I will add to you now also this!

Phil. 3:2. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation.

“Whom does the Apostle call dogs here? Those to whom he alludes in all his Epistles—the vile, shameless, covetous, and power-seeking Jews who, wishing to draw away many of the faithful, preached both Christianity and Judaism, corrupting the gospel; and since it was difficult to recognize them, the Apostle says: ‘beware of dogs.’ The Jews are no longer children. Once the Gentiles were called dogs, and now they are. Why? Because as the Gentiles were once estranged from God and Christ, so now they are estranged. And by this he points to their shamelessness, their insolence, and their great distance from the children. That the Gentiles were once called dogs—hear what the Canaanite woman says: ‘Yes, Lord, for even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table’ (Mt. 15:27). But since dogs are at the table, so that (those Jews) might be excluded even from this, (the Apostle) adds the reason by which he excludes them, saying: ‘beware of evil workers.’ The words ‘beware of evil workers’ are worthy of admiration; for they not only act (with zeal, labor, face dangers and privations of the journey—all out of zeal), but they act to do harm, and their activity is far worse than inactivity itself.—They destroy what is well ordered” (St Chrysostom).

“Beware of the mutilation.” By “mutilation” the Apostle designated circumcision—a somewhat deprecatory and ironic term, entirely un-biblical—so as to show that the Jews, though they continue to circumcise, their circumcision no longer has the significance and force that it once possessed; formerly it was the seal of the chosen people, but now it is a mere cutting of the flesh, without any meaning (St Chrysostom). He says “beware” of the “mutilation,”—that is, of circumcision; but if he obliges them to beware of circumcision, all the more of everything else contained in the Law. By this single word he commands them to keep away from all things Jewish. “The Jewish circumcision was of importance because the Law itself yielded to it—the Sabbath was lower than it; for to perform circumcision the Sabbath was overridden, but the Law of circumcision was never overridden to observe the Sabbath. Take note of God’s economy. Circumcision is placed above the Sabbath. It was not set aside at any time. Therefore, when circumcision is abolished, how much more the Sabbath” (St Chrysostom); and how much more the entire Law, the whole of Judaism. The Apostle repeated “beware” three times—to show how necessary this is, and to stir up zeal to keep away from it in every way.

Phil. 3:3. For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.

“We are the circumcision.” The circumcision to which the Jews cling—the Apostle did not even call circumcision, but named it mutilation. In the Law of the shadow (the tabernacle) it was of importance, but since the entire Law was a shadow of good things to come, it too was a foreshadowing—a prefiguration of “circumcision of the heart in the Spirit” (Rom. 2:29). When this circumcision came, the former lost its force. “Those who perform it now do nothing other than cut the flesh. For when this act ceased to be lawful, it is nothing other than a cutting of the flesh. If one must seek the true circumcision, you will find it among us: ‘who worship God in the Spirit,’—that is, those of us who serve God spiritually” (St Chrysostom). “We serve with soul and mind. One who is circumcised in soul and serves God with it—this is the one who has the true circumcision—higher and more noble, insofar as the soul is better than the body” (blessed Theodoret).

This spiritual circumcision consists in the cutting away of the passions from the heart and in the granting to a person of the strength to withstand them and always, contrary to their pull, to remain faithful to the commandments of God. Having been established in the heart before the face of the Lord by the grace of the Holy Spirit, a Christian allows himself to do nothing according to self-indulgence and lusts, but directs all things—both his inner life and his outer life—according to the will of God, to His glory. In this both circumcision and the service of God in the Spirit consist. They are inseparable, or form one and the same spiritual state.

We serve God thus, he says, and “glory in Christ Jesus.” For whence comes this grace? From Christ Jesus the Lord. He came, offered Himself as a sacrifice, and tore up the bond of our sins; and having ascended into heaven, He sent down the Holy Spirit, for whom He had opened the way to us by satisfying the infinite justice of God. The Spirit of grace produces in us both the circumcision of the heart and the spiritual service of God. This is why we glory only in Christ Jesus—for from Him we have everything. The Jew says: I am of Abraham, I am circumcised—both of which are fleshly. But we say: we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and by virtue of this faith we receive through the sacraments the grace that gives us new and spiritual life and makes us children of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. These are our hopes! They rest on nothing fleshly. Descent from Abraham and circumcision had their significance in their time; now they are nothing and must be left behind. St Paul proves this by his own example.

Phil. 3:4. Though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so.

I too, he says, could have boasted in the fleshly privileges of Judaism, no less than anyone else, and rested my hopes upon them, as I once did—but now I do so no longer, having come to know the worthlessness of such supports. “The Apostle fittingly added this. For if he, being of Gentile origin, had found fault with circumcision—and not only circumcision, but with those who receive it out of season—it might have seemed that he attacked it because he lacked the noble heritage of Judaism, did not know its great privileges, and had no share in them; but when one who does have a share in it finds fault, it means that he does so because he has come to know (the worthlessness of it all)—not from ignorance, but from perfect knowledge” (St Chrysostom).

“If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so.” By this turn of phrase he gives very great weight to the fact that he afterwards cast all of this aside. I, he says, am not one of ordinary Jews. The Jews have common privileges on which they base their hopes; but St Paul had more than others. What exactly? Of the privileges he enumerates below, only one peculiarity is distinctive to him—his persecution of the Church of God. This placed him in the ranks of the defenders of the Law. Therefore he could justly say: if any Jew thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. For such persons rightly have special worth both before the Church and before God. He too would have had such worth for his deeds—if what he had fought for had been the truth.

Phil. 3:5–6. Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the Law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the Church; concerning the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

“He enumerates in detail all that was held in honor among the Jews” (blessed Theodoret). “Circumcised on the eighth day.” “First he sets forth that of which they especially boasted—circumcision” (St Chrysostom). By this he showed that he was neither a stranger nor a proselyte—those who were circumcised in adulthood—but was born of one who was circumcised and was himself circumcised on the eighth day. But one might think: your parents were foreigners who came over. No, even the parents were not foreigners. Our lineage comes from Israel. I am “of the people of Israel.” But perhaps you are from one of the ten tribes that were scattered and mixed with others in an unknown way. No, I am from the “tribe of Benjamin,” which remained a faithful ally of the tribe of Judah and together with it guarded the hope of Israel—the Temple, all its ordinances, and all the promises. In a word, I am “a Hebrew of Hebrews,” “of pure Hebrew descent” (St Chrysostom).

“Next he passes to what was a matter of his own free choice. All that was said above was not a matter of free will—it was not within his power to be circumcised, to be of the people of Israel, or of the tribe of Benjamin. Yet even in these things he had more advantages than others, though many shared in them. In what, then, does the ‘more so’ consist? Certainly in the fact that he was no stranger, that he was from the most honorable tribe, from such ancestors as few have had from of old. But since all this was not a matter of free will, he passes to the acts of the will, in which this ‘more so’ is evident: ‘concerning the Law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the Church of God.’ He says this because what was said above alone does not sufficiently explain the ‘more so.’ For one can be a Pharisee without being a great zealot for righteousness; one can venture into dangers and do so out of love of power rather than zeal for the Law, as the high priests did; but he was not such—‘concerning the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.’ Therefore, if I, he says, surpassed all in noble descent, in zeal, in character and in life—why did I abandon these high privileges, except in order to acquire those of Christ, which are greater and far greater?” (St Chrysostom).

The Pharisees were zealots for the Law. Out of this zeal he persecuted the Church of God. But while persecuting the Church and standing for the confession of the Law, he neglected none of the legal observances—he strictly kept the Sabbaths, the new moons, offered sacrifices, and everything else; so that in regard to the righteousness of the Law there was nothing with which he could be reproached.

Phil. 3:7. But what things were gain to me, those I have counted loss for Christ.

“Gain,” κερδη — profit, advantage; “loss,” ζημιαν — damage, detriment. While the Law was in force, all the aforementioned privileges that St Paul possessed by right of being under the Law were a profit to him; but when the Law was brought to an end by the coming of Christ and St Paul came to know this and believed, then to cling to the Law would have been for him not profit but loss. Therefore, he says, I resolved to accept the loss of the Law and all its privileges in order to be with Christ, for Christ’s sake. He expresses by this: having come to know Christ, I cast aside these privileges. Others, looking at this, might say to him: what a loss, what damage you have sustained! Yes, I chose this loss freely, for Christ’s sake.—Or he is setting profit and harm in opposition. The Law was profitable before the coming of Christ the Saviour, but after His coming it became harmful. I, he says, reckoned it to be so—for Christ’s sake.

But in this one must not forget that the Law in its time was the sole path of salvation and of drawing near to God—and this by God’s will. Only its suitability was temporary—likewise by God’s decree. Those who followed the Law in its time pleased God; and those who left it when its time had ended also did what was pleasing to God. Therefore the Law must be given its due: it did its work and accomplished it. St Chrysostom says: “Think what it cost to transform people who had become like beasts back into human beings! (This the Law did, taming the customs of the Jews.) If there had been no Law, grace would not have been given either. Why? Because the Law was, as it were, a bridge to grace. For when one cannot ascend from a very low place to a high one, a staircase is placed; and one who has climbed it, though he no longer needs the staircase, does not therefore despise it, but still remains grateful to it. For it brought him to such a state that he no longer has need of it; and for this very reason—that he no longer needs it—he considers it right to express gratitude to it, for without it he could not have climbed. The same must be said of the Law. It raised us up to the heights, and therefore it was profit (useful); but now we count it as loss (as something detrimental)—why? Not because it is in itself a loss (harmful in itself), but because grace is far greater than it. A starving pauper, as long as he has silver, feeds himself on silver; but when he finds gold, and cannot use both at once, he counts the possession of the first as a loss and, casting it aside, takes the gold—he casts aside the silver not because it is a loss (harmful or unprofitable), but because he cannot take both at once and must necessarily leave one behind. So it is here.—Therefore the loss is not the Law itself, but the forsaking of Christ out of attachment to the Law; therefore when the Law leads us away from Christ, it becomes a loss (harmful and detrimental), but when it leads us to Him, it is not a loss. This is why the Apostle calls the Law a loss—that is, ‘for Christ’s sake.’ But if ‘for Christ’s sake,’ then it is not a loss by nature.” St Chrysostom says this against the heretics who taught that the Law of Moses was not from God, and who turned the Apostle’s words about the Law being “loss” and “refuse” into a confirmation of their teaching. Similar thoughts are expressed by blessed Theodoret: “In comparison with what is higher, the Apostle called what is lower a loss; for a lamp is superfluous when the sun has shone, a tutor is superfluous for those who have received perfect wisdom, the milk of a nurse is useless for those who partake of solid food.”

Phil. 3:8. But indeed I count all things to be loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

“But indeed I count all things to be loss.”—In the original, before “count” stands the word “also.”—“But indeed I also count.” The meaning is either this: but even now I count all things loss, just as I counted them from the first moment of my enlightenment by grace, and I continue to count them so. Or this: but I count all things loss—not the Law only, but everything earthly. The latter is the interpretation of St. Chrysostom, who says: “Why do I say I apply this to the Law alone? Is the world not a good? Is the present life not a good? But I account even these as rubbish, lest they draw me away from Christ. Whether the Apostle here again calls the Law rubbish is unclear; it is probable, however, that he means the things of the world.” Yet St. Chrysostom then adds that, if one wishes to apply even these words entirely to the Law alone, one may do so. The course of the argument—both before and after—is indeed entirely about the Law. It is therefore more natural to have the Law in mind here as well. But the other interpretation—that he continues to count them loss—is meager; there was nothing worth saying there. More likely the Apostle intended to express this thought: I do not reckon all those things as rubbish for nothing, but “for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,” which explains the preceding phrase “for Christ’s sake.”

“For the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.”—“For the excellence,” το υπερεχον — the surpassing quality of this knowledge.

“Because of a higher knowledge, I call the lower things rubbish and despise the lesser for the sake of the greater. It is not that I flee because these things are bad, but because I prefer what is more important; and having received the grain, I count the chaff superfluous—for ‘rubbish’ denotes the coarsest and hardest part of the straw. It holds the grain of wheat, but once the wheat is gathered, it is thrown away. So the Law points to Christ; but when Christ came, the Law became superfluous.” (blessed Theodoret)

By “knowledge” one may also understand the system of Christian teaching, which is centered entirely in Christ Jesus, yet proceeding from Him, embraces all things—past, present, and future—and explains everything in the most satisfying, edifying, and consoling way. The light of knowledge concerning Christ Jesus captivated the Apostle’s expansive mind. The framework of knowledge given by the Law, however, is narrow. Having compared the two, I abandoned the Law and cleaved to Christ. In His light, the Law appeared to me as nothing but darkness.

Or by “the knowledge of Christ Jesus” he means what was granted concerning Christ Jesus—the experiential taste of spiritual goods through faith in Him. Circumcision, sabbaths, sacrifices, washings and purifications, and all the rest purified the body, while the soul remained without any benefit; nothing found its way into it. But in Christ Jesus grace descends into the soul, drives out the passions, bestows power for every good, fills the soul with consolations, prevents one from feeling the bitterness of privations and tribulations, illumines all the paths of life, and strengthens the heart with an unshakable hope. All this I know, as he says, by experience, and I see how it surpasses what the Law gives. Therefore I cannot remain with the Law, but willingly abandon it and all its advantages, for the surpassing excellence of what I come to know and experience in Christ Jesus.

The addition of “my Lord” to the words “Christ Jesus” breathes warmth and tender sweetness. He counts Him as his own, for he carries Him in his heart. And he carries Him in his heart because he feels how much he has received from Him and continues to receive—how he was personally converted by Him, and thereafter constantly preserved, guided, consoled, and illumined by Him, and is even now kept by Him, despite the hostility that surrounded and still surrounds him.

“For whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things”—I have been deprived of everything, abandoned everything, renounced everything: both the legal justifications and sacrifices, and pharisaic zeal, and my own kinsmen; and all this and the like “I count as rubbish,” I regard as refuse, as nothing—“that I may gain Christ.” He did this in order to gain Christ, for the gaining of Christ. And this gaining is not something hoped for in the future; it is already a present possession. He abandoned all those things, and in their place gained Christ Jesus my Lord. If you weigh the exchange, you will see that this is not loss but gain. I suffered loss of what was truly costly, and I gained that in which is the source of inexhaustible acquisition. For to gain Christ is to have everything.

Phil. 3:9. And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

“And be found in Him.” He who gains Christ, as it were, makes Christ his own possession; and yet he himself is found in Him, encompassed by Him, becoming, as it were, a part of Him. Christ the Lord gives Himself to all believers and clothes each one with Himself; yet He is not monopolized by any one believer, not seized exclusively by any single person to the exclusion of others. On the contrary, giving Himself to all as their portion, He encompasses all and contains them all within Himself. For this reason all—as many as have been, are, and will be—form one whole in Him.

Do you wish to gain Christ? Then be found yourself in Christ. How? Strip off your own righteousness, following the example of the Apostle, who says: “and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the Law.” The righteousness from the Law: you have offered a sacrifice—and you are righteous; you have performed a washing—and you are clean; you have paid tithes, observed the sabbath, fulfilled all the other requirements—and you have pleased God; you are descended from Abraham—and you are a child of God, an heir of the Kingdom. This legal righteousness, outward and material, the Apostle abandoned, and received in its place, in Christ Jesus, another righteousness, spiritual and inward, which is built up in the spirit through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ grants the forgiveness of all sins and, bringing down the grace of the Holy Spirit into the heart through the sacraments, sanctifies and purifies it before the eyes of the all-seeing God Himself. This is the essential righteousness. The Apostle received it. Everyone must receive it.—Do not rely on your visible outward deeds; seek this inward holiness built up by grace in the spirit, for in it is everything; without it, everything is nothing. By the righteousness of the Law one may understand, in general, outward correctness of conduct; and by “the righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ,” the inward purity of feelings and thoughts before the face of God. When the Apostle sets faith over against legal righteousness, he does not deny the obligation to live a righteous life; he only charges us not to rest content with merely outward correctness of life, but to seek that inward gracious sanctification given through faith in Jesus Christ. This is what he means when he says: “and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the Law, but (having the righteousness) which is through faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” He did not say: and be found in Him, together with the Law’s righteousness plus faith—but: with a righteousness, only such as the faith of Jesus Christ bestows, which proceeds from God upon faith, or on the condition of faith. And this righteousness is well known how it comes: to the repentant who draws near to the Lord, sins are forgiven, and, as one who has received mercy, he is given the grace of the Holy Spirit, which both teaches him how to walk always and in all things holy before God, and gives him strength to do so.—Good qualities and good principles are laid in our nature; and by following and being prompted by them, a person can perform much good and appear virtuous; but all this has no value before God until it is sanctified by faith and until grace, coming in, has refashioned everything according to its own spirit. St. Chrysostom says that the Apostle here means specifically “that righteousness which comes from the faith of God—that is, which is given by God: this is the righteousness of God, wholly a gift of God; but the gift of God is far superior to the trifling good deeds accomplished by our own diligence.”

With this, we may conclude, the warning against the Judaizers is finished. The Apostle does not labor to explain in detail the absurdity of their teaching, but exposes it briefly yet forcefully; and by his own example he decisively forestalls any possibility of the Philippians—who so love him and are loved by him—turning toward them. Confidence in this also abbreviated his words: he knew that the Philippians would always be where he was. Having accomplished this, the Apostle judged it more necessary and profitable to expand upon what the essence of righteousness in Christ consists in: how to be in Him, what to keep in view, and what hopes to cherish.

Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15)

Phil. 3:10–11. That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

All our Eastern commentators see in this passage an exposition of the essence of righteousness in Christ Jesus—the essence of the Christian faith. St. Chrysostom, having expounded the opening words, says: “This is what constitutes our (that is, Christian) righteousness!” St. John of Damascus begins his explanation thus: “The Apostle teaches what the righteousness which is from God consists in.” And likewise Theodoret: “This righteousness consists in knowing by faith”—and so on.

In what, then, does the essence of our saving faith—or righteousness in Christ Jesus—consist? In this: that, having come to know the Lord Jesus Christ through faith, we enter into communion with His sufferings, and thereby become worthy to attain the glorious resurrection in Him. The heart of the thought lies in co-suffering with Christ the Lord. The death on the Cross of the Lord replaced all the sacrifices of the Old Testament and all its rites of justification. It alone replaces all sacrifices. Whoever enters into co-suffering with the Lord thereby appropriates to himself the power of His death on the Cross, and by that one act accomplishes what all the sacrifices together accomplish—that is, appropriates to himself full justification before Divine righteousness.

“That I may know Him”—that is, the Lord Jesus Christ.—We know by faith that “He is God and Creator of all, and took upon Himself our nature, accomplishing our salvation.” Here is meant the knowledge of the Person of Jesus Christ—of His divine-humanity, with all that pertains to it: the eternal purpose of our salvation in Him, the ordering of the world according to the idea of that purpose, the promises concerning Him after the Fall, the preparation of the human race for His coming, His manifestation in the flesh and the accomplishment of our salvation through His death on the Cross, His resurrection and ascension. All this we know from the Creed from our earliest days; yet to know it fully and essentially would exhaust all our strength and life. It is an inexhaustible object of knowledge for all eternity.

“And the power of His resurrection.” From among all the objects of knowledge concerning the Lord, the holy Apostle singles out in particular the grasping of the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. The power of Christ’s resurrection has not yet been fully revealed. We know the act of the resurrection; but its significance within the order of being is still hidden from us. If the Risen One is God, and the human nature raised in Him is the center of all creation, then the power of Christ’s resurrection, falling most directly upon humanity, must through it descend into all regions of existence. How all this is, remains hidden—for humanity still awaits its resurrection and has not yet partaken of it. When that resurrection is accomplished, then in all its magnitude will the significance of Christ’s resurrection be revealed throughout all creation; and until then, creation too awaits and groans for freedom from corruption.—The moral power of Christ’s resurrection we know more nearly: it is the first article in the Christian’s convictions, and its light illumines the entire realm of Christian knowledge; it points to the ultimate goal of Christian hope, and the glory of it is the stimulus of energy in every manifestation of Christian activity. He who contemplates the resurrection and grasps, in his measure, the power of it, in that same measure burns with faith and zeal for a life of faith.

“And the fellowship of His sufferings.” Christ the Lord was destined to suffer in order to enter into His glory, which was expressed in the resurrection, after which, as an inseparable consequence, followed the ascension and His sitting at the right hand of the Father. There the risen Lord is enthroned. Around Him there gather all His faithful servants—according to His word—into a foretaste of sharing in His glory. But just as the Lord entered His glory through suffering and the Cross, so all who ascend to Him enter into the sharing of His glory only by passing through a like path of suffering. These sufferings make them partakers of His sufferings and open to them the way to the place where the Lord entered by the way of the Cross. As it was for them, so for all. This path was explained and shown by St. Paul in himself and through himself.—Thus the first essential feature of active Christianity—or, what is the same thing, of the work of salvation—or, again, of justification by faith, of which the Apostle speaks—is fellowship in the sufferings of Christ. More simply put: the Lord gained salvation for you through suffering; if you wish to receive your salvation from Him and make it your own, suffer together with the Lord. Whether the suffering is voluntary or involuntary, without suffering there is no salvation. How is this to be done?

“Being conformed to His death.” St. Chrysostom says on these words: “Being conformed, he says, to His death—that is, sharing in it; for just as He suffered at the hands of men, so also I. This is why the Apostle said: ‘being conformed’; and in another place: ‘I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ’ (Col. 1:24)—that is, my persecutions and sufferings constitute this image of His death; for the Apostle was not seeking his own benefit but the benefit of many. Therefore persecutions, sorrows, and tribulations ought not only not to dismay you, but should even bring you joy—because through them we are conformed to the death of Jesus Christ and, so to speak, represent Him in ourselves, as the Apostle says in another place: ‘always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus’ (2 Cor. 4:10).—And this proceeds from faith. We believe that Christ rose and after the resurrection has great power; therefore we walk the same path He walked—that is, we become brothers to Him in this, and so, as one might say, become christs in this respect as well. O, how great is the dignity of sufferings!”

This is one form of co-suffering—through external sorrows and deprivations endured for the faith in the Lord. Another form of co-suffering is given by the struggle against the passions and lusts, of which the Apostle speaks in another place: “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). And again: “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:27). By this is meant all acts of self-mortification, voluntary privations—external, and a merciless self-compulsion toward every good thing and self-resistance to every sinful impulse. In all this there is no less pain than in external involuntary sufferings. Therefore here too, in the full sense, there is co-suffering with the Lord, conformed to His death.

Holy Baptism, in which we are buried together with the Lord in death, makes us partakers of the death of Christ the Lord (Rom. 6). This is accomplished sacramentally; but to what end? To this end: that the one who is baptized, drawing near to the Lord, vows to be faithful to Him to the laying down of his life. This resolution is a self-offering to death for the Lord’s sake, and therefore a direct union with His death. It is upon this resolution that the regenerating grace descends. Thereafter, what is here laid down as the resolution of the will is enacted throughout the whole of one’s life. External sufferings do not always come; but the inward painful struggle against the passions for the sake of the Lord’s commandments is always present. By this path, he who has once and for all died in Baptism for the Lord’s sake continues thereafter to die for Him, for His will and His holy commandments—throughout his whole life. The life of the true Christian is the way of the Cross. And this is how he is conformed to the death of the Lord. St. Chrysostom speaks of this mode of co-crucifixion with the Lord also, though his words are recorded somewhat obscurely.

“If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” The resurrection from the dead is not a matter of one’s own will; it cannot therefore be the object of a moral aim. All will rise, whether they wish it or not, whether they have expected resurrection or not; but some will rise to glory, and others to torment. To attain, after the resurrection, to glory—this one may seek. This is what the Apostle meant when he expressed the desire to attain to the resurrection. He is speaking here of a resurrection that leads directly to Christ. His underlying thought is this: if you do not die—as indicated above—you will not attain such a resurrection. (All of the above reflects the thought of St. Chrysostom.)

Glorious resurrection can be attained only through co-suffering with the Lord, being conformed to His death—either through external involuntary sufferings, or through the crucifixion of the flesh with its passions and lusts. How does this means relate to the stated goal? Let us recall the expression frequently found in the holy Fathers: to rise in the soul before that glorious general resurrection. The soul is dead through sin, which operates in the passions. The seed of its quickening is planted in Baptism, on the foundation of the Christian’s moral resolve to resist sin to death. The whole of life lived after Baptism is nothing other than the development of that seed. But that seed evidently consists in overcoming the passions and establishing the virtues in their place. Together with this, quickening spreads throughout every part of the soul. The more passions that are overcome, the greater the part of the soul that comes alive. When all the passions are expelled and virtuous dispositions established in their place, the soul comes fully alive—as if rising from the dead. This is the resurrection before the universal resurrection. And it is evident that whoever rises thus in this life will assuredly be counted worthy of the glorious resurrection; or, after the resurrection, will go directly to Christ. What, then, does the Apostle desire when he expresses the wish to attain such a resurrection? He desires to attain in this life the resurrection of the soul, through the overcoming of the passions and the establishment of the virtues, by way of voluntary or involuntary sufferings and privations in the struggle against the passions and lusts—through which he is altogether introduced into conformity with the death of the Lord and into fellowship with His sufferings.—And this is the direct meaning of St. Chrysostom’s words: “If you do not so die and come to life, you will not attain the glorious resurrection.”

“But why does he say ‘if by any means I may attain’—as though uncertain that he is on the right path? He was certain that he was on the right path; but he could not rely on himself to be always walking it—whether he would reach the end, whether he might turn back or stray from the road.—“I, as it were, say thus: I have believed in Christ and in the power of His resurrection, I share in His sufferings and am conformed to His death; but for all that I am not yet fully assured”—which he also says in another place: ‘let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall’ (1 Cor. 10:12). And again: ‘lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified’ (1 Cor. 9:27)” (St. Chrysostom).

If so great an Apostle could not rely on himself, who would dare to do so? Therefore to all applies: work out “your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Watch keenly, attend with all diligence, for there are many snares. On the other hand, it is certain that our path is sure and leads straight to a glorious resurrection; but who can say that he has precisely fulfilled and continues to fulfill all the conditions required for this? This is why in all the great holy ascetics there runs the law: labor, sweat to the point of exhaustion—in hope, but without presumption. Do not presume in advance the glory of the resurrection; seek it, work for the acquiring of it—with full hope, yet do not presume it as a settled matter. If you presume, you enter into a state of self-delusion, which is enervating and puffing up—the state in which the whole company of the self-confident is sunk.

Phil. 3:12. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, if I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

I cannot say, he says, that I have already attained. Attained what? That state to which, as its sure reward, the glorious resurrection belongs. Applying what was said above, we obtain: I cannot say that I have already attained the state of full freedom from passion. This is akin to what he wrote earlier to the Romans: “I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind” (that is, of the spirit)“, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Rom. 7:23). Thus the words “not that I have already attained” are evidently explained by: (not that I have already) “been perfected.” I am not yet perfected, not yet advanced in all things as I should be. But I do not sleep, I do not give way to despair, but I press on and press on, “if I may lay hold.” “If I may lay hold” does not express uncertainty but points to a goal, in the sense of: in order to lay hold. Or thus: the measure of our perfection is exceedingly great, while our life is short; therefore I strive with all my might, whether I may in this brief span of time reach the final limits of the perfection appointed for us.

“That for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”—“That for which”—upon what basis, on what terms, with what offer and in what hopes and purposes. The Lord Jesus Christ laid hold of him on the road to Damascus with the purpose of making him the Apostle of the Gentiles. But the Apostle does not have this in mind when he says “that for which I was laid hold of”; rather, he means the common Christian goal toward which every Christian must strive. He says, as it were: I press on to attain that to which I have been called by the Lord as a Christian—together with all Christians.—St. Paul has his attention fixed on his own spiritual and moral side, not on his apostolic rank; he stands in the same place he stood when he said: “lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” Since he does not state directly what he strives to attain, his words may be paraphrased thus: I strive to attain the ideal of spiritual and moral Christian perfection. There is no end to this, for the Lord says: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). Closer to hand: whoever, having been laid hold of by the Lord, wishes to follow in His steps, “let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Him” (Mk. 8:34). Only by this path does one arrive where the Lord is—seated at the right hand of God. By “press on” the Apostle can mean nothing other than the intensifying of the labors of self-denial, with the aim of ever more completely purifying and perfecting one’s nature, in order thereby to be found worthy of the glorious resurrection—as is clear from the course of the argument.

St. Chrysostom says on this: “What do the words ‘if I may lay hold’ mean? Shall I attain His resurrection—if I could suffer as much as He, if I could become like Him, if I could be made conformed to Him? Thus Christ suffered greatly—was spat upon, struck, scourged, and at last died. This is the course; through all this must all His athletes attain to His resurrection. The Apostle says, as it were: if I complete all the labors, then I shall also attain His resurrection and rise with glory. Now, he says, I am not yet worthy of this: ‘but I press on, if I may lay hold.’ My life is still in labors; I am still far from the goal, not yet near the rewards, I am still running, still pressing on. He did not say: I run, but: ‘I press on’—and rightly so. For you know with what effort the one who presses forward in the races strains: he looks at no one, with great exertion thrusts aside all who hinder him, and directs mind, gaze, strength, soul, and body toward one thing alone, having nothing else in view but the final mark. But if Paul, pressing on thus, having suffered so much, still says: ‘if I may lay hold’—what shall we say, who lie on our sides? Further, wishing to show that this is an obligation, the Apostle says: ‘that for which I have also been laid hold of by Christ Jesus’ (to that end was I called, to strive thus, pressing toward perfection. Pause upon the word: ‘laid hold of.’) The Apostle expressed by this word both the zeal of God who wills to lay hold of us, and our great aversion from Him, our wandering, and the fact that we had gone far from Him. He says, as it were: I was among the perishing, I was sinking, I was near to destruction; but God saved me—for He pursues us who flee from Him with great swiftness.” The like writes also Theodoret: “He first laid hold of me, caught me in His net. I was fleeing from Him, greatly averse to Him, but He overtook me in my flight. Therefore I press forward after Him, wishing to overtake Him, that I may not be deprived of salvation.”

Phil. 3:13–14. Brethren, I do not count myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do—forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the mark for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.

“I do not count myself to have laid hold.” “The Apostle says this to those who think highly of the progress they have already made, humbling their high opinion of themselves” (blessed Theodoret). “Nothing so renders our virtues vain and puffs us up as the recollection of the good we have done. It produces a twofold evil: it makes us more careless and proud. Therefore Paul, who knew that our nature is very prone to carelessness and who had given the Philippians much praise, see how he restrains them from pride—by many other means mentioned above, and especially by the present words. For what does he say? ‘Brethren, I do not count myself to have laid hold’; but if even Paul has not yet laid hold and has no full assurance of his (glorious) resurrection, it is hardly possible for those who have not accomplished even a small part of his virtues. The Apostle says here: I do not yet consider myself to have attained full perfection; I have not yet done everything. True, in another place he says: ‘I have fought the good fight’ and so on (2 Tim. 4:7), and here: ‘I do not count myself to have laid hold’; but whoever reads both passages will understand the reason for each: the present words were spoken long before, those later words shortly before his death. ‘I do not count myself,’ he says, ‘to have laid hold,’ but think of one thing only—how to press forward; for that is the meaning of his words: ‘forgetting what lies behind, and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the mark.’ See how clearly he showed by these words what impelled him to press forward. Thus, whoever thinks of himself that he is already perfect and lacks nothing for the fullness of virtue will stop striving, as one who has attained everything; whereas whoever thinks that he is still far from the goal will never cease pressing toward it. This we too must always think, even if we have done very much good; for if Paul, after countless deaths and so many hardships, thought thus of himself, how much more must we. I have not lost heart, says the Apostle, nor fallen into despair because, having run so great a course, I have not yet arrived; but I still strive, still labor. My only thought is how truly to advance. So must we too act—forget our good deeds and leave them behind us. The runner thinks not of how much of the course he has run, but of how much remains. So let us think not of how many good works we have done, but of how many remain yet to be done. For what good is what we have done if something still remains undone? And the Apostle did not say: I do not think of, I do not remember, but: ‘forgetting’—so as to make us more attentive. For we become more zealous, we devote all our diligence to what is not yet done, when we consign what is done to forgetfulness. When we reach forward, it means we try to take hold of something before we have arrived. For he who reaches forward tries to outrun his own feet, still in motion, by stretching out the rest of his body and extending his hands. But this proceeds from great eagerness and from intense desire. So must we strive.—In heaven abides He who gives the reward; in heaven the reward is stored. See how vast the distance: this is what must be run; see how great the height: there one must soar on the wings of the spirit, for otherwise it is impossible to fly through that height.—Train your feet to step firmly, for there are many slippery places; and if you fall, you will lose much; yet even if you fall, rise up again, for even then it is possible to overcome. Never step on what is slippery, and you will not fall; run on firm ground, head toward heaven, eyes toward heaven.—Look upward, where the reward is: the very sight of the reward strengthens one’s resolve. Fear of punishment prevents one from feeling weariness, and the long road seems short. What is this reward? Not a palm branch—but what? The Kingdom of Heaven, eternal rest, glory with Christ, and innumerable blessings which it is impossible to express in words” (St. Chrysostom).

To this inspired discourse of St. Chrysostom nothing need be added for a proper understanding of these texts. One remark—on the translation: “with all diligence”; in Greek it reads: κατα σκοπον. — Σκοπος is the mark, the goal toward which those who race against one another must run, and upon which they fix their eyes, straining all their strength toward it so as to reach it before the others. I press on toward this mark, or by this mark—by its direction, in the direction where it stands. “For the prize”—in Greek reads: επι βραβειον. — Βραβειον is what we today call the prize in races. Επι denotes: because of, for the sake of. The Apostle, drawing upon the customs of the race course, says: I press on toward the mark for the sake of such-and-such a reward. And what is the reward?—“The upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.” And what is that? The Kingdom of Heaven.—The Apostle strives not toward the Kingdom itself, but toward a certain mark; and if he reaches it, he will receive the Kingdom of Heaven, or, by the course of the argument, will be counted worthy of the glorious resurrection. And what is the mark? Christian spiritual perfection, which consists in the cleansing of our nature from sin and the passions through the labors of self-mortification and the bearing of involuntary sorrows—labors that make the ascetic and warrior a partaker of the saving sufferings of Christ. Whoever reaches this mark, to him belongs the Kingdom of Heaven. For nothing impure shall enter there. To this end is directed the entire economy of our salvation—to equip us with all that is needed to attain it. Through communion in the sufferings of Christ, the grace of the Holy Spirit overshadows the one who has communed. And he becomes wholly penetrated and enveloped by its fire, like heated metal. This is the image of the pure—or the one free from passion. To him belongs also the glorious resurrection, together with the Kingdom of Heaven.

Phil. 3:15. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this mind; and if in anything you think differently, God will reveal even this to you.

The Apostle has just said that he has not yet attained, has not been perfected—and now he says: “as many as are perfect”—and numbers himself among them: “let us have this mind.” What is his thought? Either this: those of you who think you are already perfect. The Apostle had learned that among the Philippians there were some who thought highly of themselves, and he brings them to humility. Earlier he had already instructed them by the example of the Lord who humbled Himself for our sake, and now he instructs them by his own example—by showing how he, for all that he is God’s chosen Apostle, thinks precisely as he has just described. He says as it were: those of you therefore who count yourselves already perfect—let us change our opinion of ourselves and think as I have set forth. And he inserted himself among those being instructed, in order to soften the rebuke and the corrective counsel.

Or the word “perfect” is used by him not absolutely, but relatively: those who are more perfect than others. In any assembly of persons, all are never at the same level; always some are better, others worse, and some very good—standing out from the rest. To these the Apostle says: you who are better than others, do not allow yourself the thought that you have already reached the end, but think as I do—that you have not yet arrived, not yet been perfected, and, forgetting what lies behind, press ever forward and forward.

Or by “perfect” he designates those who are striving toward perfection and zealous to attain it—as if saying: you who strive for perfection, if you wish to attain it, never think that you have attained it, but press on and press on after it—and you will attain it. And indeed it is the very sign that someone is striving for perfection and has attained it in a certain measure, that he counts himself imperfect. In the earliest steps on the path toward perfection, a person might still think himself perfect; but having gone on a little way, he will inevitably see that the path is long, and the more swiftly and far he goes, the more the final goal seems to recede further and further away. The Apostle expresses it as: however perfect we may be—let us think thus. There is no point even in ascribing perfection to ourselves, when the law is such that those who are making progress see themselves as less and less perfect. St. Chrysostom says that “it is precisely perfection not to count oneself perfect. What is the meaning of ‘this’? That what lies behind must be forgotten; therefore the property of the perfect is not to count oneself perfect. This is what constitutes perfection.”

“And if in anything you think differently, God will reveal even this to you.” Somewhat obscure. The most direct meaning would seem to be: if you reason about this otherwise than I have set forth, I am confident that God will reveal to you that you are reasoning wrongly and will lead you to the manner of thinking I have expounded—“He will reveal even this.” One may supplement: I pray that He will reveal it, or: pray, and God will reveal it, or simply: reveal this to them also, O Lord. The Apostle had it to say: if you reason differently, be corrected; but he gave such a turn to his words that he also awakens in them a desire for correction. St. Chrysostom says: “and if in anything you think differently”—that is, if anyone thinks he has accomplished all the virtues. The Apostle warns the Philippians, but did not say it so; rather, what? “God will reveal even this to you.” See how modestly he has said it. God will instruct you—for though Paul teaches, it is God who enlightens. However, the Apostle did not say “will enlighten” either; but: “will reveal”—so as to show that such an opinion arises chiefly from ignorance. This was said not concerning dogmas, but concerning perfection of life and not counting oneself perfect; for whoever thinks he has already attained everything has nothing.

Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1)

Phil. 3:16. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.

This passage too is somewhat obscure. Our Russian translation—“however, to what we have attained, we must think in the same way and live by the same rule”—yields the following meaning: let us at least stand firm in what we have attained, on the level to which we have risen, in the way of thinking in which we have become established, and in the rules of life in which we have become confirmed. It is as if a concessive allowance: if for you it is too much to press always forward and forward with no end in sight—at least do not fall back; remain as you are, as you have been formed, without swerving either to right or left, be faithful to yourselves.—Or the meaning may be: we must conform our way of thinking and rules of life to what we have attained and understood, to what has been impressed upon us as conviction. This is akin to the rule that one must follow one’s conscience in all things, and, as it recognizes something to be true or obligatory, so must one conform one’s deeds and life to it. The Apostle says to them, as it were: although I said that if you think otherwise about anything, God will enlighten you—yet even without this, you certainly know the rule that one must follow what one has acknowledged as true and good; and I have clearly explained to you that you must not consider yourselves perfect, but always strive only forward, as ones who have not yet attained the required measure. Therefore you need not wait for special enlightenment from the Lord; take to conscience what I have clearly taught and enjoined, and act accordingly.—Or again: let us live and think as we have attained, as the matter of Christianity has unfolded in our consciousness, in no way offending our conscience, which always stands for the good that has been known.—What follows from this the Apostle leaves unspoken. But what will follow is the same as he has urged: life faithful to the known good will more and more unfold before consciousness the domain of the good and thereby expand the activity and strivings—and so we shall always press forward and forward.

To these same thoughts one can also turn the Church Slavonic translation: to what we have attained—“the same”—that very thing—that we have attained—“let us have in mind, and by the same”—that very same—as we have attained—“rule let us walk.”

So Oecumenius: “until God reveals it, let us stand firm in the measure we have attained, so as not to lose what has already been attained.” He also cites Photius: “until God reveals this truth to you, let us not destroy what we have attained. And how is it destroyed? If we relax from our former zeal or turn aside from the right path. We must live by one and the same rule—that is, strive with the same ascetic effort, show the same character, think the same concerning both life and doctrine. For just as he who changes anything in doctrine destroys all his previous right belief, so he who changes in the rules of life and does not keep the same fidelity to the commandments takes away the value of all that went before.”

Phil. 3:17. Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.

“Lest it seem that he enjoins something unfeasible and difficult, teaching them to labor all their lives in virtue and piety, he says: ‘be imitators of me, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.’ To walk here means to live. Before you, he says, are many ways of life. That you may distinguish who walks rightly and who does not—look at those who walk in the same manner as we walked, and follow them” (Photius, in Oecumenius).

“Fellow-imitators”—be co-imitators of them.—“Although I am not with you, yet you know the manner of my walk” (St. Chrysostom). Look there, and among yourselves, at those who imitate me, and together with them be co-imitators of me. It is not on you alone that I urge the pressing ever forward, not on you alone that I lay the burden of strict living. Look at me, look at others who go the same path. All run alike: there is no other path or manner of walking. Be animated, you too, for the same.

“Thus the Apostles were a pattern, preserving in themselves a kind of original image. Consider how strict was their life, since they were set as the original image, model, and living law! For what Scripture spoke, that very thing they manifested in all their deeds. This is the best method of teaching! But if someone speaks and reasons well, yet acts badly, he is still not a teacher; for to reason in words a pupil too can readily do; but instruction is needed, guidance in deeds as well. This both makes the teacher worthy of respect and disposes the pupil to obedience. How so? When a pupil notices that the teacher only reasons in words, he will say that the teacher demands the impossible; and that the teacher demands the impossible, the teacher himself first proves by his own non-fulfillment of it; but if the pupil sees that virtue is accomplished in deed, he cannot say this” (St. Chrysostom).

Phil. 3:18–19. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their minds on earthly things.

All that has been said hitherto—his own example and the example of his other imitators—St. Paul brings forward in order to instill how necessary it is to live in strict self-denial and self-mortification, so that, having thereby communed in the sufferings of Christ, one may be counted worthy also of the glorious resurrection. But just as in paintings the shadows make the bright parts of objects stand out, so St. Paul, in order to make more evident how high a life the bearing of the Cross for the Lord’s sake raises Christians, sets before them the baseness of a life of ease and fleshly indulgence.

Live, St. Paul was saying, as I and many like me do; but by no means be drawn by the example of those who live only for their own pleasure. Example is captivating: choose what is better, what befits the spirit of your faith. When I was with you, I told you more than once that many live in such a way that they must be called enemies of the cross of Christ. And now I repeat the same with tears, because the evil does not diminish but grows, and many Christians are drawn into such a way of life. They are enemies of the cross of Christ because they not only bear no labors of self-denial and self-mortification, but cannot even bear to hear of them, and revile those who live strictly under this cross of Christ, amid privations and hardships. Their end is destruction; for those who seek ease have no part with Christ the Lord, who suffered and was crucified and commanded all His disciples to walk the narrow way; outside Christ the Lord is perdition. Their way is broad, but its “last things” look into the depths of hell. The center of such a life of fleshly indulgence is the belly. Everything is sacrificed to it; it is like a god to them; their only care is how to satisfy it. And such a base life they not only do not find shameful, but even count it to their glory. Or their glory is in their shame, because such persons, if they are glorified at all, are glorified only by shameful deeds. For a belly amply fed inflames the lower parts; and hence come shameful deeds of which it is not lawful even to speak. “Who set their minds on earthly things.” The concluding feature: all their aims and hopes are bounded by the earth. The goods above the earth are unknown to them. As a person cannot do without paradise, they hope to build their own—on earth.

Here is what St. Chrysostom says concerning such a way of life: “Nothing is more unseemly and inappropriate for a Christian than to seek repose and ease—a dissolute and indulgent life: nothing so contradicts our calling as a strong attachment to the present life. Your Lord was crucified, and you seek ease? Your Master was nailed to the Cross, and you give yourself to pleasures? Is this the conduct of a grateful soldier (of Christ the King)? Therefore Paul too says: ‘for many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.’ Since there were people who outwardly adhered to Christianity yet lived in idleness and luxury, which is contrary to the Cross, the Apostle therefore speaks in this way. The Cross belongs to a soul that has entered into combat, that is ready for death and seeks ease not at all; but they live in the very opposite way. Thus, although they call themselves Christ’s, they are nonetheless enemies of the Cross: otherwise, if they loved the Cross, they would strive to lead a life fitting for the Crucified One. Was your Lord not crucified? If you cannot be crucified as the Lord was, you can imitate Him in another way. Crucify yourself, even if no one crucifies you: crucify yourself, I say—not so as to kill yourself, for that would be lawless—but crucify yourself according to Paul’s word: ‘the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Gal. 6:14). If you love your Master, die His death. Know how great is the power of the Cross, how beneficial were and are the effects it has produced.—Christ usually calls sufferings by the name of the Cross, when He says: ‘he who does not take up his cross and follow Me’ (cf. Mt. 10:38)—that is, whoever is not ready for death. And sensual people, lovers of life and of the flesh, are enemies of the Cross; and indeed everyone given to pleasures and earthly ease is an enemy of the Cross—that Cross of which Paul boasts, which he embraces and with which he strives to be closely united, as is evident from his words: ‘the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.’—‘And now,’ he says, ‘even weeping, I tell you.’ Why? Because the evil has grown worse, because such persons are worthy of tears. Indeed they are worthy of tears—those who pass their lives in pleasures, who fatten the garment of their soul (that is, the body) and have no thought at all of the punishments in the life to come. Here you live in pleasure, here you revel today, and tomorrow, and ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred years—though that is impossible; yet let us grant it, if you like. What then is the end? What profit? None whatsoever. And therefore is such a life not worthy of tears and weeping? God has set us on this course to crown us, while we quit it without having done anything brave. So Paul weeps over what others laugh at and take delight in.—‘Whose god is their belly.’ Therefore their god is: ‘let us eat and drink’ (1 Cor. 15:32). See how vile is pleasure? Some have money for their god, others have the belly. Are such persons not idolaters—or even worse than idolaters? ‘And whose glory is in their shame.’ Some say that by these words circumcision is indicated; but I say something quite different—namely, that they boast of that which they ought to be ashamed of. The Apostle says the same in another place: ‘What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?’ (Rom. 6:21). To do what is shameful is a grievous sin; yet the sin is somewhat lessened if the doer is ashamed of it; but when one even boasts of what is shameful—that is the height of insensibility.—But has this been said only of them? Does no one among us fall under this accusation? Is there truly no one among us who deserves it? No one who makes the belly his god? No one who places his glory in his shame? I earnestly wish—I deeply desire—that nothing of the sort could be laid to our charge, and I would even prefer not to know anyone to whom what has been said could be applied as a reproach; but I fear that Paul speaks more to us than to his own contemporaries. For if anyone spends all his life in drinking and eating, and gives little to the poor, and more of his means goes on the belly, does it not befit him too to apply what has been said? Nothing can more powerfully arouse shame and be more piercing than this saying: ‘whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame.’ Who are these? Those ‘who set their minds on earthly things’—those who say: we will build houses. Where? On earth. We will buy fields—again on earth; we will get power—on earth; we will attain glory—on earth; we will grow rich—all on earth.—Here are those ‘whose god is their belly!’ For those who do not think about the spiritual, whose every care and thought is limited to the earth, truly have the belly for their god, saying: ‘let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ (1 Cor. 15:32).—You laugh and amuse yourself, while by pleasures you are dragging the soul down to the dust. What forgiveness will you receive, having cast yourself into such insensibility, when even the body must be made spiritual? For this is possible, if only you wish it. You were given a belly in order to nourish it—not to expand it; to govern it—not to be subject to it; that it might serve you in nourishing the rest of the body’s parts—not that you might serve it; not so that you would overstep all limits. An overflowing sea does not cause so much harm as the belly does to the body and to the soul together. The sea floods the whole land; the belly floods the whole body. Set a boundary for it—sufficiency—as God has bounded the sea with sand. And if it surges, if it rages, forbid it with the authority given to you. See how God has honored you with reason, that you might imitate Him—and you are unwilling! But seeing the belly overfull and upsetting all your nature and turning itself into a swamp, you do not dare to restrain it and make it moderate.”

Phil. 3:20–21. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly await the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself.

Imitate me, he says, in walking the narrow way of the Cross, but by no means be drawn by the example of those sensual pleasure-seekers, whose god is the belly and who think of nothing but earthly things. It does not become us to live as they live. “For our citizenship is in heaven.” “Let us not seek repose here, on earth; let us desire to be glorious there, where also our citizenship is” (St. Chrysostom).

“Citizenship,” πολιτευμα — citizenship, fatherland, our city, the heavenly Jerusalem. Toward it we must strive, for it we must prepare, to its laws and customs we must accustom ourselves—not set our minds on earthly things. Πολιτευμα also means the manner of life and occupation, as one says: his whole life consists in such-and-such—to signify that he is occupied with that alone. We must be occupied with heaven, be there in heart, be there in mind; let our treasure be there, and all our hopes there. We stand in complete opposition to those who rise no higher than the earth.

“From which we also eagerly await the Saviour.” He brings to completion the speech he began at the start of this section—that he desires to attain the glorious resurrection through communion in the sufferings of Christ. He had explained in every aspect the necessity of this communion and had stirred up zeal for it. Now he wishes to place everyone in a state of intense and unceasing continuance in this communion through a life of bearing the Cross and of self-denial—by lifting our gaze to heaven, where our citizenship is, and disposing us to await the Saviour from there. When he says that we await, by this he brings everyone into the state of those who wait—and consequently of those who are preparing to meet. Here is the same thought as in the parable of the steward.

“We await the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” We await the Judge of the living and the dead. But the Apostle, in accordance with the purpose of his speech, names the One awaited only as Saviour and Lord, and sets the purpose of His coming as the resurrection alone. After the resurrection comes the judgment. Speaking thus, the Apostle wants them to conduct themselves always so well that, when the Lord comes, His judgment will not touch us, but only the one glory of the resurrection will shine upon us.

“Who will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of His glory.” In this lies the goal of the whole discourse.—The body of Christ is glorified; but it suffered beforehand. Let us enter into co-suffering with it through voluntary labors and privations and through involuntary sorrows. And the Lord, when He comes, will transform our body—which on earth was being made like His body in suffering—into a glorious body, even as His glorified body is glorious. “Will transform”—He will not give it a new form, but will clothe it in new properties: from corruptible He will make it incorruptible, from weak—strong, from gross and dark—refined and radiant. It will become such as the body of the risen Lord. Ah, this body will be conformed to that body which sits at the right hand of the Father; before which the Angels bow, before which the bodiless powers stand; which is above every principality, authority, and power—to that will it be conformed. But what do you say, Paul? Conformed to that body?! Yes, he says, to that one. If then the whole world will weep bitterly over those who have lost this hope—will it weep adequately over the fact that, even with the promise given to us of being conformed to the body of Christ, our body departs together with the demons?! (St. Chrysostom).

“According to the working by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself.” According to that authority of which the Lord Himself said after the resurrection: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Mt. 28:18)—and by virtue of which “He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:25). The Apostle mentions this not in order to prove that the Lord, as the God-man clothed with divine omnipotence, is able to do this, but to remind us that this will come at the same time as all enemies of the Cross of Christ are abolished. For the thought of the Cross and of the necessity of bearing the Cross for those who are being saved and who hope for the glorious resurrection runs through this entire section.

“Therefore, though you see the worldly-minded in joy, though you see them in glory—stand firm, be not tempted by their example and do not fear. The hope of the glorious resurrection is powerful enough to rouse even the most slothful and drowsy.—Those who run, who strive, and who are conformed to the death of the Lord, as Paul said, can be counted worthy of it; but those who sleep in no way can. Those who sleep cannot accomplish even worldly affairs, still less spiritual ones; those who sleep can receive nothing from friends, still less from God. Parents do not honor the sleeping, still less does God. Let us labor a little, that we may enjoy rest always. It is altogether necessary to suffer; and if we do not suffer here, we shall suffer there. Why do we not resolve to suffer here, that we may find rest there?” (St. Chrysostom).

Phil. 4:1. Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, beloved.

“Therefore,” ωστε — a concluding and inferential particle. The Apostle draws a conclusion from what was said before concerning advancement in the Christian life, which must consist in taking up the Cross of the Lord and following in His steps, in the hope of attaining—through communion in His sufferings—the glorious resurrection at His second coming.

“So stand firm in the Lord.” Stand thus, as I have explained to you; be steadfast in faith and in life according to faith, as I have known you to be until now. Stand thus “in the Lord”—in hope in the Lord, in a manner pleasing to the Lord, in the work of the Lord, praying to the Lord for this.

With what tender names does the Apostle surround this exhortation! Not only “brethren”—but “beloved brethren”—and not only “beloved”—but also “longed-for”—that is, those toward whom his soul is drawn irresistibly, with whom he would always wish to be and to dwell inseparably in the embraces of love. “My joy”—because they gladdened him with the sincerity of their faith and the purity of their morals; “my crown”—because they adorned his apostolic ministry by their perfection in Christianity. These two titles bestow great praise upon the Philippians. And at the end, again: beloved—as if his soul were insatiable in expressing its warm and tender love. In no other Epistle are such manifestations of heartfelt union with those to whom he writes made so frequently.

Part Four—Brief Admonition to Certain Persons, with General Instruction (Philippians 4:2–9)

A Brief Admonition to Certain Persons (Philippians 4:2–3)

In the fourth part, St. Paul writes: 1) a brief admonition to certain individuals (Phil. 4:2–3), with the addition of 2) a general instruction for all the Philippians to manifest in their lives the characteristic marks of the Christian life (Phil. 4:4–9).

1) A brief admonition to certain individuals (Phil. 4:2–3)

Phil. 4:2. I implore Euodia, and I implore Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord.

Euodia and Syntyche were evidently very distinguished persons in the Church of Philippi (St. Chrysostom)—both by their outward station and by their influence upon the faith. But something had arisen in them that called for an address: “I implore them to be of the same mind in the Lord.” An exhortation to oneness of mind in the Lord does not point to some worldly disagreement between them, but to some divergence in faith—not of the two women with each other, but of both of them with everyone else, with the principles of faith preached by the Apostle. Perhaps this indicates that Euodia and Syntyche had come under the influence of the Judaizers—whether in Philippi itself or somewhere outside—and, if they had not inclined toward their false teaching, had at least begun to wonder, and not merely wonder privately but had expressed the thought before others: perhaps it is indeed so? The matter had perhaps not gone further than this; therefore St. Paul considered it sufficient merely to hint at it, without dwelling on it at length. Having then set forth on what basis the Christian’s hopes must rest, he appends in conclusion a brief admonition addressed only to these women, singling them out from the whole body. He does not expand upon it here either, but contents himself with one word: “I implore them to be of the same mind in the Lord”—because the thought in them had not gone far but had only, as it were, slipped to the tip of the tongue. He mentioned it nonetheless, for falsehood is infectious; and he not only reminded them, but also asked someone else to help them, if the matter should go further with them.—All this expresses, moreover, the extreme solicitude of St. Paul—not any particular danger to the faith of those women or to the faith of the Philippians.

The words “to be of the same mind in the Lord” mean: to understand the matter of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ in the same way as all—to think the same as all, or as he had taught everywhere; for if all think thus, they think so because they were taught by St. Paul.

Phil. 4:3. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.

The exhortation to oneness of mind in the Lord, which those women were to hear before the entire Church—for the Letter was addressed to all and was to be read by all together—was in itself already very powerful and persuasive. But St. Paul loves to bring every matter to completion, so as to have the assurance that he has done everything necessary and that there is no longer any reason to doubt the outcome, since no opening has been left for falsehood and error. Therefore he also asks someone to help them. Help, συλλαμβανου — take hold, as it were by the hands, of both of them and bring them to oneness of mind, if that should be required, if it should prove necessary—adding your efforts to my word—enter into their religious state and help them.

Who is this person to whom St. Paul addresses himself? “True companion.—Companion”—one who pulls the same yoke. The yoke of the Apostle was the preaching of the Gospel and the building up of the churches. In every place where he founded churches, the first believers, as firstfruits, were his co-laborers in the further spreading of the Gospel. To them he entrusted the young churches when he departed from their localities. Someone of this sort was this true companion to whom St. Paul now addresses himself. He does not name him, because to him and to all it was clear to whom the words were directed. Perhaps it was the jailer (blessed Theophylact). St. Chrysostom says of him: “It seems to me that those women were prominent in the Church of Philippi—and the Apostle entrusts them to a man who is certainly worthy of admiration, whom he also calls a fellow-laborer; to whom, perhaps, he was accustomed to entrust, as to a co-laborer, co-participant, and brother (the church there).”—As for other opinions on the matter, St. Chrysostom says: “there is no need to investigate with full exactness who this person is.” It is enough to know: “a true brother, a genuine man.”

Let us, however, cite one opinion refuted by Theodoret and others, and by St. Chrysostom himself. “By the word ‘companion’ some foolishly understood the Apostle’s wife, not having paid attention to what is written in the Epistle to the Corinthians—namely, that the Apostle counts himself among the unmarried; for he says: ‘I say to the unmarried and to widows: it is good for them if they remain even as I’ (cf. 1 Cor. 7:8). And it is clear that whether he was unmarried or widowed, he did not have a wife—and it is more probable that he was unmarried, having been called when he was still a youth. Therefore the Apostle calls a companion one who pulls together with him the same yoke of piety, and asks him to become a helper to the worthy women and to bring about oneness of mind in them.”

The women themselves the Apostle exalts with great praise, showing as it were that it is worth the effort on their account, and that it is lamentable if persons of such standing should remain with such a blot upon them or should bring into question even their being inscribed in the Book of Life.

“Who labored with me in the gospel.” “What do you say? Women labored together with you? Yes, he says—and they contributed not a little. Though he had many co-workers, yet among the many, women too assisted.—The fact that distinguished persons—both men and women—enjoyed such honor produced much good. First, because others were stirred to equal zeal; secondly, through the honor they (those who honored) received benefit; thirdly, they themselves (the praised co-workers) became more zealous and earnest. Therefore you see that St. Paul everywhere strives to bring such persons to prominence.”

Where and how they labored with the Apostle is not evident. Perhaps it was in Philippi itself or in the vicinity, during the Apostle’s first stay there and his repeated visits to that city.—But their being placed alongside Clement and the other fellow-workers suggests the conjecture that either they were in Rome for a time and had returned from there to Philippi, or that they were themselves Roman women who had only recently settled in that city. Having been in Rome, they assisted the Apostle together with Clement and others in spreading the faith throughout Rome. For the Apostle, being in bonds, could receive those who came to him at his lodgings, but could not go out himself. Those sent out by him as helpers—Clement and others—took his place in this; and among them these women too labored. “Whether it was so or otherwise”—the highest praise for these women is that the Apostle calls them sharers in the bearing of dangers for the Gospel (blessed Theodoret). If the conjecture set forth be accepted, then identifying the Clement mentioned here with St. Clement of Rome presents no difficulty.

“Whose names are in the Book of Life.” I am not recording their names here, he says—they are recorded in a better book, from which their glorious names will never be erased throughout all eternity—and not only the names of Clement and the other fellow-workers, but of those very women as well. This is precisely why it is especially to be lamented if they should be in danger of losing this surpassingly high prerogative. The loss would be one that nothing could compensate. Those women heard this—and what could have more powerfully drawn them to oneness of mind in the Lord, if any trace of lack of oneness still remained in them?! “See how he attests to their virtue? What Christ said to the Apostles—‘do not rejoice that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven’ (Lk. 10:20)—that same testimony does St. Paul give to the persons mentioned, with the words: ‘whose names are in the Book of Life’” (St. Chrysostom).—That is, all of them are already counted from this time among the certain heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. Such is the esteem in the sight of the Lord of service toward the spreading of the holy Christian faith.

Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7)

Having given this particular admonition to individuals—which seemed to arise as if by chance, yet most likely had its own special significance—St. Paul turns to all the Philippians, teaching them to follow such rules as express the characteristic marks of the Christian life (Phil. 4:4–9).

Phil. 4:4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

About what are they to rejoice? About the fact that you are Christians, that your sins are forgiven, that you have the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you live in holiness by His power, that you are entering into co-suffering with the Lord and have therefore a sure hope of being counted worthy also of the glorious resurrection. This is what to rejoice about! Freed from evil, and filled with every good, and yet nourishing the sure hope of receiving such blessings as cannot even be imagined—how can one not rejoice? Joy in the spirit is the constant companion of Christians, both amid voluntary privations and amid involuntary sufferings. This is why the Apostle was not content to say “rejoice” once—but added “again”—“rejoice.”—How reproved you are by the absence of spiritual joy! For it is an unmistakable sign: that our Christianity is very deficient, that much is lacking in it. Most of all this joy is undermined by earthly hopes, earthly tastes—and by the lack of eagerness to do every good that presents itself: life is sluggish, we live anyhow, shuffling along.

St. Chrysostom says on this passage: “The Lord says: ‘Blessed are those who mourn’ and: ‘Woe to those who laugh’ (Mt. 5:4; cf.: Lk. 6:25)! How then does Paul say: ‘rejoice in the Lord always’? The Apostle does not contradict Christ—not at all. For ‘woe to those who laugh’—said the Lord—meaning the laughter of the world, which is laughter over the things of the present; and He called those blessed who mourn—not those who grieve only over the loss of property, but those who sorrow and weep for their own transgressions, meditating on their sins or the sins of others. This weeping is not only not opposed to that joy—it is precisely from this weeping that the joy is born. For he who weeps over and confesses his sins and transgressions—rejoices. In other words, one can weep for one’s sins, and at the same time rejoice in the Lord.”

“Rejoice in the Lord.” “These words mean this: live in such a way as to have cause for rejoicing. Therefore rejoice when the things done for God are accomplished among you without hindrance. ‘Again I will say, rejoice!’ To say this is proper for one who is firmly convinced and who shows that a person who abides in God always rejoices. If such a one is sorrowful, if he suffers something—he always rejoices. For hear what Luke relates concerning the Apostles: ‘they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for His name’ (Acts 5:41). If stripes and bonds, which appear above all else to be burdensome, produce joy—what else could cause us grief?” (St. Chrysostom).

Phil. 4:5. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

Gentleness is the virtue opposed to irritability and anger. He who has acquired it has driven out a whole half of the passions. Gentleness together with purity is the bulwark of full and perfect freedom from passion. This is why the Lord counted it blessed (Mt. 5:5). St. John of the Ladder defines it thus: “Gentleness is an undisturbed condition of the soul that remains the same in dishonor as in praise” (St. John Climacus. The Ladder, Step 8, 3). “A mark of gentleness is to preserve, toward the one who provokes us and even in his presence, the pledge of love in a tranquil heart” (ibid., Step 8, 13)—“and to pray for him purely” (ibid., Step 24, 3). “In gentle hearts the Lord reposes” (ibid., Step 24, 7); “a gentle soul is a throne of simplicity” (ibid., Step 24, 9).

St. Chrysostom places this instruction in connection with what was said earlier about their sufferings for the Lord’s sake. He considers that, out of concern lest the Philippians should become hostile toward those who caused them sorrows, “the Apostle exhorts them that they should have nothing in common with such people and not pursue them with hatred, but should deal with them with great gentleness—not only with the brethren, but even with enemies and adversaries.” Theodoret writes the same: “bear the attacks of your opponents with courage, and do not repay evil with evil.”—But Oecumenius and Theophylact see the occasion for this lesson in the strong rebuke of the pleasure-seekers that the Apostle has just expressed—likewise out of concern lest the innocent should turn in a hostile attitude toward them.—“But one can connect the present lesson with that rebuke also in another way. By that rebuke, the Apostle turned the Philippians away from lust, which is the first source of the passions; and by this lesson he turns them away from irritability and anger—the second source of the passions. By both he leads them toward freedom from passion.” The enemy usually assails us either with anger or with lust—whichever is the more convenient at any given moment. But one whom neither anger nor lust troubles—who has acquired gentleness against the former and purity against the latter—the enemy has no access to.

“Let your gentleness be known to all men”—not so as to display it only before people, but the meaning is this: that all people may experience your gentleness in their dealings with you. This is the same as saying: be gentle toward all people—both your own and strangers, both great and small.

“The Lord is at hand.” This saying can be applied both to what precedes and to what follows. It offers two thoughts—both that the Lord is present and near to all who call upon Him, and that the second coming of the Lord is near. Confidence in both equally assists in driving away anger and establishing gentleness, if this saying is placed in close connection with the preceding lesson. Equally, too, both thoughts assist in fulfilling what the Apostle enjoins in what follows—that is, to have no anxiety about anything.

As to how the thought of God’s omnipresence restrains anger, St. Basil the Great writes: “How can one avoid coming to anger? If one is always in the thought that one stands before the eyes of the watching God and of the Lord who is near you. For what subject would dare, in the eyes of his sovereign, to attempt something displeasing to him?” (St. Basil the Great. Short Rules, 29). In another place he writes: “If the gaze of a man, equal to us in nature but superior to us in rank, restrains one from passion (of anger); how much more will he be restrained who is steadfastly assured that God is the observer of our own inner movements—since God, who searches hearts and minds, sees the movements of the soul far more than a man sees the changes of a face” (ibid., 127).

How the thought of the nearness of the Second Coming and the Judgment restrains anger and the desire for revenge is confirmed by universal experience. For what does the person who has been wronged commonly say to console himself? “There is a God who is Judge; He will repay.” If one adds to this the conviction that this very Judge is about to appear—then no better means of calming a troubled heart can be found.

Phil. 4:6. Be anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

“Be anxious about nothing.” St. Chrysostom, connecting this instruction with the preceding—“The Lord is at hand”—with the sufferings of the believers in Philippi in mind, draws from the Apostle’s words this consolation for them: “The Lord is at hand. Be anxious about nothing.” For tell me, why are you despondent? Because enemies rise against you? “Be anxious about nothing.” Judgment has already come: soon they will answer for their deeds. You may be in tribulation—but it will soon end. They may scheme and threaten—but this too will not long be permitted them; judgment is already near, the time of recompense has already come, when everything will be reversed. “Be anxious about nothing.”

But one may see in these words a lesson—not only in times of tribulation, but in all circumstances of life—to cast all one’s care upon the Lord, for He cares for us. The Apostle instills complete surrender to the will of God and cuts away ruinous over-anxiety, which habitually so wearies the soul and robs the heart of all peace. He sets forth here the same teaching as the Lord, when He said: “Be not anxious about your life” and “your body… be not anxious for tomorrow” (Mt. 6:25, 34). For there is a Heavenly Father—just as in the Apostle’s words here: “The Lord is at hand.”

This does not encourage idleness, but cuts away the evil anxiety that adds nothing to one’s works or their success, and only wearies the soul and gnaws at the heart. The Saviour was exposing precisely this passion when He said that just as one cannot add a cubit to one’s stature by worrying, so also in one’s affairs—one cannot add prosperity by it. Labor—by all means labor; but as for what will come of the labor, leave it to the Lord to determine, and accept what He gives. For though you labor, it is the Lord who grants the fruit of your labor. Cast upon Him all your care.—And again: because He is at hand.

Having received this thought, we will find in the Apostle’s words a complete guide to attaining the peaceful disposition of the heart and securing success in the spiritual life. He has already cut away, as we saw, lust—by reproving those who live for bodily pleasure; anger—by the commandment of gentleness; and now he cuts away evil anxiety, animated by love of money. Whoever has cut away these three things has cut away all bonds and entered the realm of spiritual freedom. But whoever still allows them a determining power over him—however slight their hold—does not yet know what freedom in the Lord is (St. Isaac the Syrian, Ascetic Homilies, Homily 90).

Having surrendered yourself in all things to the will of the Lord, who is at hand, cultivate a vigilant and attentive thought toward the Lord. The Lord is at hand. Enter consciously into this truth. When you have entered it, can you, pondering the greatness of Him who is near, fail to stand in awe? And pondering the fact that He is the Father of mercies, can you fail to pray? Into prayer the Apostle now leads us. “But in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” The Lord is at hand; leave your anxieties—and tell Him what you need. These, then, are the conditions for success in prayer!

First—pray “in everything,” that is, on every occasion, for every need—outward and inward, spiritual and temporal. Do not suppose that in one matter you can succeed on your own, while in another you should ask the Lord. That is double-mindedness—the mark of a disordered spirit. Everything comes from the Lord, great and small alike. Turn to Him in everything; receive everything as from His hand, even when you yourself have labored. This is the essence of surrender to God—and this is also the first condition for success in prayer.

Second—pray “with prayer and supplication,” that is, from the depths of the soul—not uttering the prayer-word merely with the tip of the tongue. Whatever you pray about, you must feel the need of it and be conscious that you can receive it only from the Lord. If everything comes from the Lord, then with respect to everything you must so dispose yourself. Prayer will then always be from the depths of the soul. The foundation of this is faith and hope.

Third—pray “with thanksgiving.” St. Basil the Great counsels that every prayer begin with thanksgiving. Give thanks for what has been received; then ask for something new. St. Chrysostom says: “The Apostle desires that in our prayers we not only ask, but also give thanks for what we already have. For how shall he ask for the future who cannot give thanks for the past? Thus one ought to give thanks for everything, even for what seems grievous. For this is the mark of a truly noble soul. The first (giving thanks for all we have) is required by the very nature of things; the latter (giving thanks even for what is grievous) proceeds from a soul that is well ordered and completely surrendered to God.”

Fourth—pray by “making known” your own “requests.” You feel a need; you believe and hope that you can receive it only from the Lord—tell Him so, as you know how and are able. Many fine words are not required. Speak as you feel; speak in your own words. The very act of speaking in prayer demonstrates your faith that the Lord is at hand and attends. “Let them be made known,” γνωριζεσυω — let God be informed. Make God aware of your needs.

Fifth—pray, making your requests “before God.” If you are conscious that God exists, then in praying before God you will not dare to utter a request for something you know to be displeasing to God. Pray for things worthy of God. “Such prayers are pleasing to God; to others He does not attend. Therefore pray for what is pleasing to Him” (St. Chrysostom). Or “before God” means: with an undistracted mind, reverently—being conscious that you stand before God and are delivering your requests into His very ears.

Phil. 4:7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

“The peace of God”—either peace with God, which God established with mankind by not sparing His Only-begotten Son so as to be reconciled with us; or the Divine, Godly peace—that peace in which God abides within Himself and which He sends down into the souls of those who sincerely believe and faithfully live by faith, as the Saviour also said: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you” (Jn. 14:27). (Both meanings are accepted by St. Chrysostom and our other Fathers.) The two are one and the same, or they converge in one. The peace in the hearts of believers is built through reconciliation with God in our Lord Jesus Christ. In the person of the Lord, reconciliation was accomplished for all and for ever; but each person appropriates it to himself under specific conditions. When he fulfills those conditions, the peace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ overshadows him and fills his whole interior. There is a path to this peace that must be traversed in order to taste it. Since not every believer traverses it, or has not yet traversed it fully, not everyone tastes this peace. Therefore the Apostle desires that all might taste it, that it might overshadow all—that all might be granted this inexpressible good, having fulfilled all that is required for it.

“Shall guard”—shall guard, shall keep watch, shall be a sentinel. This also conveys the thought that what is expressed here is not merely a good wish, but a consequence of what precedes—as if to say: do all that has been set forth, and the peace of God will encompass you and be your guardian. If peace is the consequence, then all that precedes is the means to it. What does this mean? When you, having overcome every form of self-indulgence, enter upon the cross-bearing path of merciless self-denial; when you have quenched every irritability within yourself and clothed yourselves in gentleness; when, casting off evil over-anxiety, you surrender your souls and bodies, your entire temporal and eternal lot, into the hands of the Lord—who is at hand and within you—and in all things, at every time, in every place, on every occasion, you lift yourselves up to God in warm, reverent, and undistracted prayer: then the peace of God will overshadow you and will keep watch over your hearts and your minds. Put in other words: drive out self-indulgence, irritability, and evil anxiety—and you will drive out all that disturbs; surrender yourself to the Lord and stand before Him in prayer—and you will receive all that calms and brings peace. The result is plain: the peace of God will guard you. While the passions are not overcome, while the soul has not found its rest in God—do not expect the peace of God. It may visit you from time to time—drawing you ever forward and onward on your good path by its sweetness.

The peace of God, when it comes, will keep watch over “hearts” and “minds.” “Minds”—conceptions, thoughts, reflections. “Hearts”—feelings and dispositions. In our ordinary condition, thoughts swirl about like motes of dust, and the heart is perpetually agitated—now under the influence of thoughts, now under the demands of self-indulgence, irritability, and anxiety. The more these enemies of ours are subdued, the calmer the heart becomes and the less the thoughts churn. When they are entirely driven out, the heart comes completely to rest and the thoughts settle. But this does not happen in any other way than by this: in leaving one thing behind, you must attach yourself to another. Neither thoughts nor the heart can exist without activity or feeling. In weaning them from one thing, you must at the same time accustom them to another, an opposite. That accustoming produces the weaning. To what precisely one is to be accustomed, the Apostle explains in the following verse. Here we will say only: to everything divine. The divine, even while in unceasing activity, abides in peace.

This peace surpasses all understanding, and because it is inexpressible, it cannot be conveyed in ordinary terms or described to another in such a way that he might comprehend it. It can only be tasted; and one who tastes it understands it, but can compare it to nothing so as to explain it. It also surpasses all understanding for this reason: that it comes apart from the understanding; the mind does not know how to attain it; it is given—but how and why is beyond comprehension.

It is given “in Christ Jesus.” Only true Christians can possess it. The sole path to it is true Christian faith. Whoever realizes it in himself becomes one spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ; and through Him—one with the Godhead. To taste the peace of God is the same as to taste communion with God. When God communicates Himself to the spirit of a man, that man is then overshadowed with peace. God is the God of peace. And communion with God is possible only in the Lord Jesus Christ—through the way that is held by the Orthodox faith alone.

Whatever Is True and Honorable; Put It Into Practice (Philippians 4:8–9)

Phil. 4:8. Finally, my brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think on these things.

“Finally” means either: I will no longer enumerate in detail what rules you must observe; I will say to you in general—think on these things and do this! Or: however, having heard of peace, do not suppose that this means remaining in idleness. No, this peace demands intensified activity, only of a different kind. Think on these things—and not only think, but also do them. If you conduct yourselves thus, the peace of God will not depart from you; for then the God of peace will be with you without ceasing.

“Whatever things are true.” True is everything that God has been pleased to reveal to us. Study these truths and fill your mind with them, so that whenever it reasons, it reasons by nothing other than these truths. Then, whatever you speak about, you will speak in accordance with them as well. “I ask you to adorn your words with truth” (Blessed Theodoret). In the practical sense: everything in the world is illusory; it beckons but does not deliver, and therefore deceives—it is falsehood. Christianity both promises true good and gives it; it is true. Put otherwise: in sin and the passions there is falsehood and deception, while in Christian life and virtue there is truth. So St. Chrysostom: “What is perfectly true is the same as virtue, and falsehood is the same as vice; for the pleasure of vice is a lie, and the glory of it is a lie, and everything in the world is falsehood.”

“Honorable, just, pure”—honesty, justice, purity of heart. Here is a gradation of activity: honesty and justice encompass outward conduct; purity pertains to inner dispositions and intentions. “By ‘honorable’ is meant the outward, and by ‘pure’ the inward dignity” (St. Chrysostom). “Illuminate your life with honesty and justice” (Blessed Theodoret). Honesty and justice, though they manifest in outward conduct, proceed in the Christian from inner requirements and are not observed merely for outward considerations. Since his conscience is purified and enlightened by the commandments and by grace, not only his deeds are honest and just, but his very character is honest and just. These qualities belong not to education or social standing, but to the Christian manner of life. A Christian, however low he may stand in society by outward circumstances, is always honest and just: these virtues shine upon his brow; and nothing will cause him to act dishonestly or unjustly, so long as he is a true Christian.

Such is he in his deeds; but no different in his intentions and feelings—for he walks before God, that is, he does not depart from God in his consciousness; and therefore not only in deeds, but also in interior movements, he permits nothing that is displeasing to God. “Whatever things are pure” is said in contrast to the expression: “who mind earthly things” (St. Chrysostom). By this the Apostle exhorts to “do what is well-pleasing to God” (Blessed Theodoret). The chief matter here is intentions and aims: nothing for oneself, everything for God; nothing merely before men, but all as before the eyes of God. Nothing for oneself—neither for pleasure, nor for some benefit, nor for glory and honor. Nothing merely before men—not out of vanity or people-pleasing. In one in whom all proceeds thus, the qualities of self-denial and love for God and neighbor hold sway—the two most essential elements of which purity is composed, or the two foundations upon which it stands.

“Whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report”—as though to say: what pleases people and earns their praise—that is, people-pleasing and vainglory. But since one cannot expect the Apostle to condescend to such motives, one must conclude that it is possible to think and do what is lovely without people-pleasing, and what is praiseworthy without vainglory. The holy Apostle said of himself that he never allowed himself to live at another’s expense, but supported himself by his own labor—he would by no means allow this glory and praise of his, this praiseworthiness, to be abolished. But for what reason did he act so? So as not to place an obstacle before the Gospel, so that the preaching might not be spoken against. He is imitated by one who does what is praiseworthy not for his own praise, but so that no one might dare to speak ill of Christianity—that Christianity might be praised, or the Christian people, as the people of Christ. How much strength, and at the same time self-denial, is in one who is ready for everything so that the name of Christian might be glorified! Such a person does not live for himself alone, but lives in the whole body of the Church and, having received everything from it, sacrifices everything to it. And he lives in the Lord: for the glory of the Church is His glory, and the glory of the Christian people is the glory of Christ.

Likewise: “whatever things are lovely”—this admits nothing of people-pleasing; on the contrary, one may go counter to others and tell them the truth bluntly, yet all this is received lovingly. Loveliness denotes the tenderness of Christian love, by which, while making no concession to the vices and passions of others, it yet repels no one—being able, in a form not bitter, to reach to their hearts and lay there corrective impulses. It has in view not itself, but the true good of others, and grieves for them; but out of deep sympathy with them it does not allow itself, in the manner of its action upon them, to produce anything painful in their hearts—acting rather as a poultice which, though it may sting a little at times, at the same time imparts the pleasant sensation of healing. The model of loveliness is the actions of a mother who tenderly loves her children. This indicates only that aspect of loveliness in which it acts for the correction of others. In the ordinary course of things it is impossible to describe how lovely is a person filled with the true spirit of Christianity. The mere appearance of such a person establishes a sweet peace and draws everyone to him. It is impossible to define rules for loveliness. It flows of itself from the spirit and life in Christ Jesus, as the fragrance of a rose flows from the rose-flower.

“If there is any virtue and if there is any praise.” To speak generally once more—or, more briefly still—only what is virtuous and praiseworthy should be the object of your thoughts, undertakings, and labors. Praiseworthy, as said above, means not allowing oneself anything by which the glory of the Christian name might be diminished. Virtue denotes every good deed and every good disposition required by the commandments of God. This one word encompasses everything: stand before the Lord in your heart, and to His glory, to His pleasure, perform every good to which you are bound—as you discern—by the combination of circumstances surrounding you, without any sparing of self or self-pity. This determines what appear to be particulars, but they all proceed from one all-encompassing spirit of zeal for blameless service to God.

“Think on these things.” “Do you see that he wishes to drive every evil thought from our souls? For from evil thoughts evil deeds are born” (St. Chrysostom). The proper ordering of thoughts is a matter of great importance in the moral life. Our mind is swift-moving and cannot be idle; it therefore produces thoughts without ceasing. Material for them is supplied by every part of our nature and the whole range of our activity. Therefore, as the whole person is, so are his thoughts; and, conversely, as the thoughts are, so is the person. When a person turns from sin and the passions toward virtue and purity, his intention, though firm, does not have all of him suddenly obedient to it. That by which he formerly fed the passions and sin within him long continues to arouse sympathy in him and to call up desires. Although, having resolved not to serve sin, he does not yield to it, he cannot but experience anxiety, disturbance, and apprehension on account of it. And in this, thoughts are his first enemies—for from them everything begins. The objects of sin and the passions have already been removed, but the memory of them still crowds the consciousness. Memory together with imagination composes entire histories for the purpose of temptation; the enemy settles beside them; and from this a whole army is formed, fighting against the good aims of one who is correcting himself and striving to make progress. His first task, for this reason, is to disperse this hostile army—to gain mastery over his thoughts and make them not enemies but helpmates. The means for this is to occupy the mind with good thoughts. For as from bad thoughts bad desires are born, so from good thoughts good desires are born. And this is precisely what the Apostle now counsels. Amid good thoughts, good intentions will be formed; after intentions, deeds will follow. And a life pleasing to God will advance and be perfected.

But “think,” λογιζεσθε — may have another meaning as well, namely: take into account, reckon as valuable, worthy of attention and care. St. Chrysostom also gives the word this sense, saying: “The Apostle desires that they dwell in these things unceasingly, strive after them, make such deeds their aim.” Though even this amounts to thinking; yet it means thinking with the intention of at once putting into practice—the thinking here being a deliberation about how best to act. However, the two meanings are not far from one another; and there is no need to strain to distinguish them strictly or to draw a line of division between them, or to say that this meaning fits the present passage and that one does not: both fit; for both converge in the single person who is zealous for good.

Phil. 4:9. The things which you both learned and received and heard and saw in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Not as though what was said before is to be thought upon, while what is now indicated is to be practiced. Rather, “think on these things” there and “practice these things” here—it is all one and the same, what was spoken of there. Here he adds only: this is what I taught you by word and by deed—this is what you received. Now then—do it: and the God of peace will be with you.

The Apostle takes every care to ease their minds, so that they need not rack their heads deliberating what exactly to do—what the true, the honorable, the pure, all virtue might mean. Do as you heard from me and as you saw in me. I am not saying anything new, but the same thing you have already been taught and have received; if you cannot recall my words, look at the deeds, which are harder to forget. “Both in words did I teach you this, and in deeds did I show you the same” (Blessed Theodoret). “What an excellent instruction! In all his exhortations the Apostle holds up himself as an example. Just as above he says: ‘as you have us for an example’ (Phil. 3:17), so here too he says: ‘and heard and saw in me’—from words and from actions and from the manner of life you learned. Since it was impossible to speak in detail about everything, he spoke briefly and in general: ‘you heard and saw in me’—that is, when I was among you; as if to say: I guided you both by words and by deeds. So act accordingly” (St. Chrysostom).

“And the God of peace will be with you.” God is everywhere; yet He is not with all and not in all—because not all are with Him. Self-indulgence and the passions remove us from God—to the point that we forget Him entirely. But as soon as we choose to please God instead of pleasing ourselves, and virtues instead of passions, then we begin to be with God. And God has long been with us already. It was only sins that separated us. As soon as sins are removed, He is there. Through repentance and the resolve to please God we are reconciled with Him. He receives us as we turn to Him, graciously covers us with His love, and fills us with every power. “When we have peace with God, all the more will He abide with us. If He spared us when we were turning away from Him, how much more will He show us His love when He sees us turning back to Him?” (St. Chrysostom).

Part Five—The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Fifthly and finally, St. Paul gratefully recalls the aid that was sent, pointing especially to the spirit in which it was received (Phil. 4:10–20).

He had already mentioned this earlier, calling it a ministry to his need and a work of God (Phil. 2:25–30). Now he returns to the same subject again, explaining more fully the significance of their giving and his receiving.

Phil. 4:10. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your concern for me; wherein you had been concerned, but you lacked opportunity.

Approaching the discussion of this passage, St. Chrysostom says: “I have often said that almsgiving was instituted not for those who receive, but for those who give. For the latter are the ones who gain very great benefit. Paul demonstrates this very thing here. In what way? The Philippians, after a long time since previous gifts, sent him something again—even to Rome—entrusting it to Epaphroditus. Therefore the Apostle, intending to send him back with this Epistle, see how he praises them and shows that what was sent benefited not him who received, but them who gave. He does this so that benefactors may not become proud, yet be zealous for beneficence—since through this they benefit themselves most of all—while those who receive benefactions may not rush to receive without a measure of fear, lest they incur condemnation. For it is written: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35). What then does he show by the words: ‘I rejoiced in the Lord greatly’? I rejoiced, he says, not in the way the world and the present life rejoice, but in the Lord; not because I was relieved, but because you made progress—for that is my relief. And that is why he said ‘greatly’; for he did not rejoice in his own comfort, but in their advancement.”

The words “that now at length you have revived your concern for me” carry in our Church Slavonic translation a tone of reproach; but this is not visible in the original. “Have revived”—the Greek is ανεθαλετε — which means: you have blossomed again, budded again, put forth a new shoot. The holy Apostle presents the virtue or beneficence of the Philippians as a tree which, after winter, in the springtime, under the favorable breath of the sun and warmed air, is clothed again in leaves, puts forth shoots and new buds. The Philippians had been helping him; then circumstances prevented them from doing so. As soon as opportunity opened, they sent him aid again. The Apostle says to them: I am very glad that after the winter, the unfavorable circumstances, you have again put forth a shoot of concern for me.

“Wherein you had been concerned.” Lest it seem to them that he was reproaching them for having forgotten him, the Apostle sets this aside by saying: I do not mean it in that sense; for I know that though you could not help me, you were thinking of me, εφρονειτε. You were thinking of me—not simply thinking, but devising how to help; but: ηκαιρεισθε — you lacked opportunity, which in our translation reads: “you were constrained by an unfavorable time.” Lack of opportunity may also be understood as pointing to a scarcity of means—there was nothing to share. Thus St. Chrysostom: “What does ηκαιρεισθε mean? This depended, he says, not on your negligence, but on necessity. You had nothing at hand; you yourselves were not wealthy. That is the meaning of ‘lacked opportunity’—you were constrained by inopportunity. This is borrowed from common usage; for thus do most people speak when the necessities of life come to them not in abundance, but scantily.‘But it is more fitting here to see a reference to the inconvenience of the time. Thus Blessed Theodoret:’Long had you wished to attend to serving me, but you had no convenient time.”

Phil. 4:11. Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

What do I mean by “speak”? By expressing such joy. I do not rejoice thus because poverty had been crushing me and you relieved it. To that I am already accustomed; I have already learned to be content with what I have, with whatever I happen to possess. He does not say that there was no poverty—but he declares that it did not weigh upon him, that he did not feel it, that it was not a grief that crushed him. “I have learned”—learned through the experiences of life and through a reasonable understanding of its course, in surrender to God, who orders our ways. “In whatsoever state I am”—in whatever circumstances I find myself, whether I have little or plenty, I accept all of it as from the hand of the Lord, and I am content with all of it. All glory to God.

Phil. 4:12. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

“To be abased”—he said this in place of “to suffer need.” For need humbles. “I know, he says, how to make use of little, to endure hunger and poverty, and how to abound. He was neither elated nor rejoiced at his abundance, but remained the same in both scarcity and plenty—neither oppressed by the former nor made proud by the latter. ‘I know both how to be full and how to be hungry.’ Many do not know how to bear plenty, as did the Israelites, for ‘they ate… and rebelled’ (Deut. 32:15). But I, says the Apostle, am always in the same disposition of spirit. By this he shows that he neither rejoiced now nor grieved before. ‘Everywhere,’ he says, ‘and in all things I am instructed’—that is, in the course of so long a time I have experienced everything and been perfected in all things” (St. Chrysostom). This means: he had altogether forgotten about the bodily life, and no concern for it arose in his heart. He had but one care—the work of preaching, the success of the Gospel: everything else—whether it was there or not was all the same. A grace-filled disposition of spirit! And therefore the Apostle adds:

Phil. 4:13. I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.

“This, he says, is not my perfection, but that of Him who gave me strength” (St. Chrysostom). The grace of God brought it about that even without eating I did not hunger; and having nothing, I was as one who is rich. Moses, having gone forty days without food, did not grow weak. Is not the Lord of the Apostles the same as the Lord of Moses?! Where the power of God is, infirmities vanish. Fire often did not burn the martyrs, water did not drown them, and torture did not wound them. Is it a great thing to keep the Apostle’s hunger always satisfied, so as to leave him free to turn all his care to the Gospel? The infirmities of nature were the same in them as in us, but the strength of spirit was not the same.

Phil. 4:14. Nevertheless you have done well that you shared in my tribulation.

It might have appeared, judging by the preceding words, that St. Paul set little store by and disregarded the aid. No, he says, I was not speaking in that sense—I only wished to comfort you, so that you would not grieve, imagining that all the time you were unable to help me I had been overwhelmed with sorrow. No—I was of good cheer, being strengthened by my Lord. That is what I wished to express to you. But the fact that you have now sent aid—you did well, because by this you have shared in my tribulation. As “he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward” (Mt. 10:41): so also they, having intended to relieve the Apostle’s tribulation—even though there was none—will receive the reward of those who relieved tribulation. The Apostle is dealing with their soul, with what was in their heart. They supposed the Apostle was in distress and sent help. This distress on his behalf gives worth to their aid. The Apostle says as it were: you will receive the same reward as is due to me for bearing want for the sake of the preaching of the Gospel (St. Chrysostom). Your deed is very beneficial and saving for you.

Phil. 4:15. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, but you only.

“What a commendation! For the Corinthians and the Romans are touched by what they now hear from the Apostle. The Philippians, at a time when not a single Church was yet established (in Europe, at the very beginning of the preaching of the Gospel there), showed such zeal for this saint that, having absolutely no example before them, they were the first of their own accord to begin such a bearing of fruit. And one cannot say that they did this because Paul had remained long among them, or because they had received some benefaction from him” (St. Chrysostom).

They did this out of their own particular goodness of heart, because they saw that the Apostle was in need. Therefore they were ready to share with him everything that God had given them.

The expression “shared in the matter of giving and receiving” is taken from commercial transactions or dealings. In trade, both the merchant and the buyer mutually give and receive. One gives goods and receives money, while the other gives money and receives goods. This is a fellowship between them in trade in the sense of giving and receiving. The Apostle applies this to himself and the Philippians and says that from the very beginning they entered into fellowship with him in the sense of a transaction—“in the matter of giving and receiving”—meaning thereby that they did not merely give, but also received. They contributed the bodily, and received the spiritual—as if a transaction were taking place between them in which the bodily was used to purchase the spiritual, the earthly to purchase the heavenly. “Do you see what kind of fellowship they had? By the giving of bodily things and the receiving of spiritual ones. For just as those who sell and buy communicate mutually, receiving from and giving to one another—this is fellowship—so here too. And nothing is more profitable than this purchase and this trade; it is transacted on earth, but concluded in heaven. The purchasers are on earth, yet they buy and enter into agreements concerning heavenly things, setting an earthly price. Do not, however, accuse me: the blessings of heaven are not sold for money; they are not bought with money, but with the will of the one who distributes the money, with love of wisdom, with elevation above worldly things, with love of humanity, and with almsgiving. For if those blessings could be bought with silver, the woman who placed two mites would have received little; but since it was not silver but the will that had power, she, having shown her complete readiness, received everything” (St. Chrysostom).

Phil. 4:16. For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to my need.

He explains that truly at the very beginning of the preaching of the Gospel—there, in their lands—they entered into fellowship with the Apostle in giving and receiving. For from them he went to the Thessalonians, and no sooner had he gone than they sent to his needs—and then sent again a second time. They saw that he had nothing and had gone from them empty-handed. Their tender-heartedness could not endure leaving him in such a helpless condition: for they did not yet know whether the Thessalonians would receive him as they had. And so they sent. In this is great praise of their goodheartedness. “To my need,” εις την χρειαν — for the needs. It was not the Apostle who demanded—rather they themselves, supposing him to be in need, sent. “My” is not in the original. St. Paul the Apostle maintains here also what he said before—that even in need he did not feel want, but reckoned himself content. And therefore he does not say “for my needs”; but that they themselves, imagining him to be in need, hastened to relieve him of this burden (St. Chrysostom).

Phil. 4:17. Not that I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.

I say this not because I seek donations from those I have converted, and am pleased when they give—but because this testifies to their fruitfulness. From this it is evident that the seed of my word fell on good ground, grew up into a tree, and has begun to bear fruit. Such fruit, he says, is what I seek, and I rejoice when I see it; but it is not for me—it is for you. Loving you, I rejoice that you are fruitful. “Do you see that the fruit grows for them? I am saying this, he says, not for my own sake, but for yours, for your salvation. For in receiving from you I gain nothing: the grace belongs to those who give; for to those who give the reward is preserved there, while to those who receive what is given is distributed here. By this the Apostle expresses his concern for their inner state” (St. Chrysostom).

Phil. 4:18. But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.

“‘But I have received all’—not as an assurance that Epaphroditus concealed nothing, but expressing that he received it with an open, joyful heart. He said this so that, having heard ‘I do not desire a gift,’ they would not suppose that they were pressing their gift upon him and burdening him. For the same reason he says: ‘I am full, I abound.’ In these words too he has their good in view. ‘You have not only supplied what was lacking in the past time, but have done even more’ (St. Chrysostom). Thanks be to God! Now there is an abundance of all things. But this gladdens me not because it brings me comfort, but because what you sent is a sacrifice well-pleasing to God, and was received by Him as an odor of a sweet smell. What delicate gradations of Apostolic feeling! How he teaches us to look at everything as it stands before God, and at the same time to refer every deed to Him! ‘Ah, how he exalted their gift! Not I received it, he says—not I, but God through me. Therefore, although I have no need, nevertheless pay no heed to this; for God too had no need, yet He received it, so that the Divine Scripture did not refuse to say: God’smelled ‘a sweet savor’ (Gen. 8:21)—meaning that it was pleasing to Him. It was not the smell or the smoke that was pleasing, but the will of the one who offered it” (St. Chrysostom). The Apostle expresses the same thing here. God sees your soul, your good disposition and readiness to give, and graciously receives it as a fragrant sacrifice to Him. And such is every act of beneficence when it is done with the right disposition of heart—not out of vainglory, but for God.

Phil. 4:19. But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

“My God”—whom I serve, to whom I refer all that befalls me, from whom I always receive what I ask. God, who holds me in His right hand, may this “God of mine supply all your need.” Need, χρεια — wants, the necessities of life. “Since he had previously said ‘you were constrained by an unfavorable time’ (you were without means—yourselves in poverty); here he adds the same as in the Epistle to the Corinthians, saying: ‘He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, may He supply and multiply your seed’ (2 Cor. 9:10). For he prays for them, that they may have abundance and have something to sow. And he prays not simply that they may have abundance, but ‘according to His riches.’ He did this in view of their condition. For if they had been like Paul, equally lovers of wisdom and equally crucified to the world, he would not have done this. But since they were tradespeople, poor, had wives, were raising children, managing households, and gave to him out of little—and moreover still had some attachment to the things of the present—he therefore so prays, condescending to their condition. For there is nothing unseemly in praying that people who have so used their possessions may have sufficiency and abundance. See, then, what he prays for: he did not say—may God make you rich and exceedingly rich, but what? ‘May He supply all your need’—so that you might not be in want, but have all that is necessary. For Christ commanded prayer for this very thing in the prayer He gave us, teaching us to say: ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ (Mt. 6:11)” (St. Chrysostom).

“According to His riches” means: either richly, abundantly—so that you have plenty of everything and all live in sufficiency, as it was in the Church in Jerusalem where there was not a single poor person (Acts 4:34); or “according to His generosity, inasmuch as for Him all things are easy and possible to accomplish, and moreover quickly” (both meanings from St. Chrysostom). “In glory”—either gloriously, that is, abundantly; or to the glory of His name, because the glory of His name required that He should bestow prosperity upon such as they—those who know how to employ their possessions to the glory of His name; or “in glory,” so that you, enriched by His mercies, might glorify Him still more by your deeds, according to the word of the Lord: “So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16).

“In Christ Jesus”—for the sake of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the fact that they believed in Christ the Lord, clung to Him, and walked in His commandments. For in obstinate unbelievers even acts of beneficence count for nothing before God.

From all of this, St. Chrysostom draws the following lesson: “If Paul prays for those who give, all the more must we, when receiving benefactions, not be ashamed to act in this way. We must not receive as though we ourselves were in need; we must rejoice not for ourselves, but for those who give. In this way we will have a reward even when we receive, if we rejoice on their behalf. Likewise, we must not be displeased when they do not give, but rather grieve for them. In this way we will make them more zealous as well, having shown them that we do this not for ourselves (that is, we receive—if we grieve when we do not receive).”

Phil. 4:20. Now to God and our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

This is a conclusion not only to the preceding thought, but to the entire Epistle. “To God”—our God—not only great and unsearchable and unapproachable, but also “our Father,” approachable, who drew near to us in His incarnate Son and drew us near to Himself in that same Son, as sons by grace, born of the Holy Spirit—to such a God and Father be “glory” for all things and from all, “forever and ever,” not only now but throughout all eternity. “Amen”—so be it; may all come to know His mercies and glorify Him with lips and heart both in this life and beyond the grave.

Afterword (Philippians 4:21–23)

Salutations and Final Blessing (Philippians 4:21–23)

St. Paul concludes his Epistle with general greetings (Phil. 4:21–22) and his customary subscription (Phil. 4:23).

Phil. 4:21. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you.

“Greet”—convey my greetings, my bow, my good wishes. “Every saint”—every believer, consecrated in the waters of baptism, who has made a vow to live in holiness and for that reason has received the grace of the Holy Spirit, so as to be able to fulfill this vow faithfully—throughout his whole life not allowing not only deeds, but also words and thoughts, that are displeasing to God and contrary to His holiness and our own.

“In Christ Jesus.” No one can be holy in any other way than in Christ Jesus. For the sake of faith in Him, the forgiveness of sins is granted; through baptism into His death, a new life is born; and the grace of the Holy Spirit is given by Him; and all subsequent holy life is the fruit of His working in us—when we surrender ourselves to Him entirely, expecting nothing from ourselves without His cooperation and all-working, and relying on ourselves in nothing.

He expresses a general good wish to them; but “even this is no small thing; for to greet them even in this way is a sign of great love” (St. Chrysostom).

“The brethren who are with me greet you.” He does not name them, probably because they were not known to the Philippians. From his earlier account it is evident that his most well-known companions were not with him—apart from St. Timothy; and those of the newly converted who were there had not yet advanced far in self-denial. This did not, however, prevent them from being brethren of all Christians—and sincere brethren, well-disposed toward all Christians and ready to be in fellowship with them. Having become acquainted with Epaphroditus, they also became acquainted with his compatriots. Therefore they were able to convey their good wishes to the Philippians genuinely; and this is what the holy Apostle does—for he writes not on his own initiative as though merely for form’s sake, but at their desire and request.

Phil. 4:22. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.

There he conveyed a greeting from those who were constantly with him; here he sends a greeting from all the believers throughout the city. In those days the fellowship of believers was most sincere. Gathering at St. Paul’s side for prayer, for holy Communion—for that was always the first thing, and all strove to receive Communion every day when possible—and to hear the Apostle of the Lord’s instructions, they all became acquainted with Epaphroditus, and through him with all the Philippians as well; and when they heard that Epaphroditus was returning, they expressed to the Apostle their wish that he should greet the Philippians in their name. Not only did all the believers send greetings—but also those from Caesar’s household. And these last, “especially.” Why especially? Because they had evidently come to love the Philippians more than the others, on account of their generosity toward St. Paul; or because they had heard more praises of the Philippians from the Apostle than others had; or for some other reason. Evidently they expressed more insistently their desire to greet the Philippians and showed a warmer goodwill toward them. The Apostle therefore added: “especially.” Who were those from Caesar’s household? Perhaps some of Caesar’s relatives, perhaps some who merely lived in his house. But evidently they were such that it was worth mentioning them separately.

St. Chrysostom says of this: “The Apostle encouraged and animated the Philippians by showing that the teaching had reached even the royal house. For if those who lived in the royal palace had despised everything for the sake of the heavenly, all the more were the Philippians obliged to do the same. And it was a proof of Paul’s love that he recounts and speaks of them many important things, by which he also stirred in the courtiers the desire to greet those whom they had never seen. Since the believers in those days were under oppression, there was great love among them. How so? In such a way that those who were far apart from one another were mutually united; and those who were at a distance greeted one another as though they lived nearby; each was disposed toward the others as toward his own members. The poor person was disposed toward the rich, just as the rich toward the poor; and there was no superiority, for all were equally hated and persecuted, and for the same cause. For just as prisoners from various cities, gathered into one city, form close friendships because a common misfortune unites them—so too did the believers of that time, when common hardships and tribulations united them, have great love for one another.”

Phil. 4:23. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

“At the end the Apostle added his customary blessing. May we too attain it, through the intercession of him who wrote this and through the assistance of the Lord Christ.”

“To Him be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and to the ages of ages” (Blessed Theodoret).

Commentary on the Epistle to the Colossians

Introduction

1. The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born George Vasilievich Govorov in 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Oryol province of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. He was schooled in the seminary at Oryol and then at the Kiev Theological Academy, where, before completing his studies, he received monastic tonsure and the name Theophan, in memory of Saint Theophanes the Confessor. Ordained a hieromonk, he spent his first years teaching and governing schools—rector of church schools in Kiev, rector of the seminary at Novgorod, professor and assistant inspector at the Saint Petersburg Academy—and served for a time with the Russian ecclesiastical mission in the Holy Land and at the embassy church in Constantinople, where he came to know the manuscripts and the living monastic tradition of the Christian East at first hand.

In 1859 he was consecrated bishop and given the see of Tambov, and in 1863 he was transferred to Vladimir. He was, by every account, an energetic and beloved pastor, a tireless preacher, and a shepherd attentive to the poor and to the many who had drifted from the Church. Yet his heart drew him elsewhere. In 1866 his petition to be released from the burdens of a diocese was granted, and he withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov province, a quiet monastery he had loved from his first years as its diocesan. There he laid down every administrative office in order to give himself to prayer, study, and writing. From 1872 he entered upon a strict reclusion: he ceased to leave his cell for the monastery church, built a small chapel within his own quarters, and for the remaining two decades of his life saw almost no one except his confessor. This seclusion was not a retreat from the Church but a more concentrated service to it. He received and answered twenty to forty letters a day, guiding countless souls he never met; he translated, compiled, and composed a library of spiritual books; and in the intervals he worked with his hands at carpentry and the painting of icons. He reposed at Vysha in 1894, and is commemorated on the tenth of January. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints in 1988.

Two labors of his reclusion shaped Orthodox piety for generations: his Russian rendering of the Philokalia, which carried the ascetical and contemplative teaching of the Eastern Fathers to a wide lay readership, and his running expositions of the letters of the Apostle Paul. Alongside such classics as The Path to Salvation and What the Spiritual Life Is, the Pauline commentaries form the great scholarly monument of his hidden years—an attempt to place the whole mind of the Apostle within reach of an ordinary believer. The commentary on Colossians belongs to this set.

2. The Work: Occasion and Purpose

Theophan’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Colossians is a verse-by-verse exposition of one of the shortest and most concentrated of Saint Paul’s letters. It was composed during the years at Vysha and published, with its companions on the other epistles, in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Its purpose is exactly the purpose Theophan assigns to all his biblical work: to open the Apostle’s meaning for readers who are not scholars but who wish to understand the sacred text and to live by it. He writes for the conscience as much as for the mind, and he assumes a reader who has the Epistle open before him.

To interpret the letter, Theophan first reconstructs its occasion, and here he follows the account the letter itself suggests. The church at Colossae, a city of Phrygia in Asia Minor, had not been founded by Paul in person—whether the Apostle ever visited it, Theophan leaves an open question—but through his fellow-workers, chief among them Epaphras. When strange teachers began to unsettle that young and flourishing community, Epaphras carried his alarm to Paul, then a prisoner, and the Apostle answered with this letter, sent (Theophan holds) from Rome about the year 61 or 62, in the early days of that imprisonment, and dispatched by the hand of Tychicus together with the note to Philemon.

The danger at Colossae, as Theophan reads it, was a would-be higher wisdom—a mixture of Jewish observance with the speculations of Eastern religion and Greek philosophy—that promised access to God by a road running around Christ. Its adepts sought the divine through the mediation of angels, through reverence for “the elements of the world,” and through a harsh discipline of the body, as though the Saviour were not enough and had to be supplemented by a secret knowledge and a rigorous asceticism. Because these tenets were still unformed and shifting, Theophan observes, Paul does not trouble to refute them one by one. He strikes instead at their single root, the attempt to reach God apart from Christ, and he overturns it by unfolding the boundless sufficiency of the Saviour. Every promised benefit of the new wisdom, the Apostle answers, the believer already possesses in Christ, and possesses it in the surest and most perfect form. The whole letter is built to make that one point unanswerable.

3. Argument and Structure

Theophan expounds the Epistle in the divisions the ancient commentators had marked out, and his own commentary follows them like a map. After introductory chapters on the Colossian community, the reason for the letter, its content, and the time and place of its writing, he takes the text in four movements.

A short preface (Colossians 1:1–11) carries the greeting, the Apostle’s thanksgiving for the faith and love reported of the Colossians, and his prayer that they be filled with the knowledge of God’s will and grow in every good work.

The doctrinal part (Colossians 1:12–2:23) is the heart of the letter and of the commentary. Here Paul sets forth the person and work of Christ in language of unmatched height: the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, the one in whom and for whom all things were made and in whom all things hold together; He is the head of the body, the Church; in Him the whole fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell, and through the blood of His cross all things are reconciled. From this summit the Apostle turns to the Colossians’ peril directly, warning them not to be taken captive through philosophy and empty deception, and reminding them that in Christ dwells all the fullness of deity bodily, so that they are complete in Him. The elaborate scruples of the false teachers—questions of food and festival, the worship of angels, the mortifications of a self-made religion—are only a shadow, he argues, of which the body is Christ.

The moral part (Colossians 3:1–4:6) draws the consequence for daily life. Since the believer has died with Christ and been raised with Him, he is to seek the things that are above, to put to death what is earthly in him, to strip off the old self and put on the new, renewed after the image of its Creator, and to clothe himself in compassion, humility, forbearance, and love, the bond of perfection. Theophan follows the Apostle as the counsel descends into the ordinary textures of life—the mutual duties of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants; perseverance in prayer; wise and gracious conduct toward those outside the faith.

A brief conclusion (Colossians 4:7–18) commends the messengers Tychicus and Onesimus, conveys greetings from the Apostle’s companions, gives final charges about the reading of the letter, and closes with Paul’s own hand: “Remember my chains.”

4. Theological and Spiritual Significance

The abiding weight of Colossians lies in its confession of Christ, and Theophan brings the whole force of his exposition to bear there. Against every attempt to approach God around the Saviour, Paul answers with the great declaration that the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Theophan weighs each phrase with care, because each had become, in the centuries after the Apostle, a contested word. “Image,” he explains, does not mean a lesser copy but signifies that the Son is the Father’s exact likeness, of one being with Him, differing in nothing. “Firstborn of all creation” does not enroll the Son among creatures; it means begotten before every creature, and one who is begotten shares the nature of the one who begets Him. Had the Apostle meant that the Son was made, Theophan argues, he would have written “first-created”; he wrote “firstborn,” and the difference is the whole of the faith. Because this verse had been pressed into the service of the Arian denial of Christ’s divinity, Theophan reads it in company with Saint Athanasius the Great, and shows how the words that were made to serve error in fact exclude it.

The confession reaches its height where Paul declares that in Christ the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. Theophan takes the word in its full force: not merely the divine energy or operation is present in Christ, but the very essence, God Himself in His entire hypostasis, and present in a real human body. From this fullness the practical argument of the letter follows of necessity. If all the fullness of God is in Christ, and the believer is complete in Him, then to seek some further mediation—through angels, through the elements, through a rigorous knowledge or a punishing asceticism—is not devotion but subtraction; it turns from the fullness to a shadow. This is why Theophan can say, with the Apostle, that the entire heresy was answered in advance the moment the supremacy of Christ was truly seen.

Yet Theophan never lets the doctrine remain a matter of debate. As everywhere in his writing, the truth is turned toward the reader’s own life. The believer has died and risen with Christ, and the new life is the practical form of the letter’s theology. To “seek the things that are above” is not, he explains, a matter of place but of dignity and desire—to strive to remain always in living communion with God, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. The stripping off of the old self and the putting on of the new, the mortifying of the earthly members, the clothing in love, are the outworking in conduct of a death and resurrection already accomplished in baptism. Even the counsel to households and the charge to persevere in prayer are shown to flow from the same source. The whole letter, in Theophan’s hands, becomes a single movement: from the fullness of Christ confessed, to the fullness of Christ lived.

5. Theophan’s Method and Place in His Pauline Set

Theophan does not expound Colossians alone. He reads it, as he read every epistle, shoulder to shoulder with the interpreters the Church had received before him. He cites Saint John Chrysostom continually, and with him Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, Ecumenius, Theophylact of Ohrid among the Greek commentators, and the Latin expositor known as Ambrosiaster; and where the argument turns on the person of Christ, he calls in Saint Athanasius against the Arian misreading. He arranges these voices as a catena — a linked chain of excerpts—but he is no mere compiler. He weighs one witness against another, binds them to the sequence of Paul’s own reasoning, and renders the result in plain Russian for a reader of his own day. To this inherited learning he adds the distinctive note of the Russian ascetical tradition he had drawn from the Philokalia: the habit of pressing every truth toward the conscience, toward repentance, and toward the practice of prayer.

The commentary on Colossians is one panel of a larger work. During his reclusion Theophan set out to expound the whole Pauline corpus in this fashion, and the resulting series—running from Romans through the Corinthian letters, Galatians, and the prison epistles, to the Pastorals—stands as the most sustained work of biblical interpretation produced in nineteenth-century Russia. Colossians, brief and Christological, occupies a natural place beside its close companion Ephesians and beside Philippians and Philemon. Read within that set, it shows Theophan’s governing conviction in miniature: that Scripture is one continuous school of salvation, and that the task of the interpreter is to make its saving sense audible to the ordinary faithful.

6. The Text and This Edition

This edition presents a fresh, modern English translation of Saint Theophan’s Russian commentary, prepared for study and for continuous reading. It is an English-only edition. The translation was made from the public-domain Russian text of Theophan’s exposition of Colossians—the exposition as gathered in the collected editions of his interpretations of the Pauline epistles and preserved in the digital archive at azbyka.ru—and it aims throughout at clear, contemporary prose that keeps the substance and the pastoral warmth of the original while setting aside the archaisms that can distance a present-day reader.

Scripture is handled as Theophan himself handled it. He read and quoted the Bible of the Slavonic and Russian Church, whose Old Testament follows the Greek Septuagint tradition; the Scripture in this edition is rendered faithfully to the readings he cites, in the same register as the surrounding commentary, rather than conformed to any one English version. The many voices of the Fathers that Theophan weaves into his exposition—Chrysostom, Theodoret, Athanasius, and the rest—are carried over as he presents them.

The edition follows the house conventions used across this series. The author is named as the Church has always received him, Saint Theophan the Recluse; those who have rendered his words into English are credited as translators, never as authors. Chapter and verse citations and internal numbering are given in the ordinary Arabic style familiar to modern readers—“Colossians 2:9”—for ease of reference. The commentary’s own architecture has been preserved: the introductory chapters, the fourfold division into preface, doctrinal part, moral part, and conclusion, and the verse-by-verse headings that guide the reader through the Epistle. The result is intended to let an English reader follow Saint Theophan exactly as a Russian reader would—one small stretch of the Apostle at a time, with the whole tradition of the Church attending the words.

7. Suggestions for Reading

Colossians is short but densely woven, and it rewards patience. The most fruitful way to use this commentary is the way its author intended: keep the Epistle open beside you, read the Apostle’s own words first, and only then turn to Theophan’s exposition of them. Because so much of the letter’s meaning gathers around a few great verses—the Son as the image of the invisible God, the fullness of deity dwelling bodily, the believer raised with Christ to seek the things above—a reader new to the letter may find it helpful to sit longest with the doctrinal chapters before following the moral counsel that flows from them.

The many patristic citations are not digressions to be skimmed. In Theophan’s design they are the substance of the exposition, the Church’s long memory of how these words have been understood, and they repay slow reading. Above all, the commentary asks to be received as Theophan wrote it: not as information about an ancient controversy, but as a guide to the reader’s own road. Colossians tells the believer who already has all things in Christ to seek nothing outside Him—to rise with Him toward the things that are above, and to let that risen life show itself in the plainest duties of every day.

Introduction

Information About the Christian Community in Colossae

Colossae is a Phrygian city (in Asia Minor) on the river Lycus, not far from where it flows into the Maeander. Ancient historians called it a large and wealthy city. In the Middle Ages it came to be called Chonae; today it is a small town. Near it were the cities of Hierapolis and Laodicea.

The faith of the Colossians in the Lord Saviour came from the Apostle Paul; but probably not directly, rather through his disciples. It appears that first Saint Paul converted Epaphras, then Philemon with his household; and they subsequently spread the holy faith not only in Colossae, but also in Hierapolis and Laodicea.

Colossae maintained constant commercial relations with Ephesus. Therefore it can be supposed that the aforementioned persons were converted by Saint Paul in that city, or during one of his two passages through Phrygia. Epaphras, it may be supposed, was converted before the others and, remaining with Saint Paul, received from him complete instruction in matters of faith, so that he was esteemed capable of teaching others as well. When Philemon was later converted and was returning to his homeland, the Apostle did not hesitate to send Epaphras with him to those regions and entrust to him the preaching of the Gospel there—which he fulfilled and for which he is called by Saint Paul a fellow-worker (Col. 1:7). Philemon’s household helped him in this. Therefore in the Epistle to Philemon the Apostle calls Philemon his co-worker, and Archippus, his son, a fellow-soldier (Phlm. 1:2).

Having spread the faith, they also guarded it. In Philemon’s house there were common gatherings of believers, and Archippus presided over them, for the Apostle writes of him at the end of the Epistle: tell Archippus: “See that you fulfill the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may complete it” (Col. 4:17). Epaphras, for his part, oversaw all three cities, going from one to another and strengthening all in faith and life according to faith. About this he had “great zeal and concern” and “always strived in his prayers” (Col. 4:12, 13). God blessed his labors and those of his co-workers, and Saint Paul testifies concerning the Colossians that among them faith flourished, life was holy, and all the order of matters pertaining to faith and piety were excellent (Col. 2:5). Probably the Laodiceans and Hierapolites were the same.

Whether Saint Paul himself was in those places or not cannot be asserted with certainty either way. Those who say that he was not there and did not see the Christians in person base themselves on the fact that Saint Paul said of their faith: “having heard of your faith” (Col. 1:4), and on the fact that he wrote: “I want you to know what a great struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen my face in the flesh” (Col. 2:1). But neither of these provides decisive grounds for asserting what they wish to establish. Regarding Philemon, Saint Paul also wrote “having heard of your faith” (Phlm. 1:5); yet later he says to him: “you owe me even your own self” (Phlm. 1:19). Therefore we must suppose that in both places the Apostle meant that he had heard of the state of their faith, not that they had begun to believe. Epaphras told him in what good condition the faith and life according to faith were among the Colossians; the Apostle gives thanks to God for this; and that they believed, this he could see with his own eyes. Likewise, from that place where it is said about those who did not see the face of the Apostle, one cannot directly conclude that the Colossians and their neighbors did not see him either. The passage reads thus: “I want you to know what a great struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and at Hierapolis, and for all who have not seen my face in the flesh” (Col. 2:1). It can be understood in this way: I have a struggle not only for you, but also for all who have not seen my face; and also: I have a struggle both for you and for those who have not seen my face. By the first interpretation, it would follow that the Colossians and their neighbors did not see the face of the Apostle, but by the second, that they did. And it cannot be said that the second conclusion is more straightforward. Thus Blessed Theodoret understands it. According to him, the passage has this meaning: “I have great concern not only for you, but also for those who have not seen me.” Others wish to prove that Saint Paul was not in Colossae and the neighboring cities by the fact that in the Book of Acts it is mentioned twice that the Apostle passed through Phrygia, on his second and third journeys; but nowhere is it mentioned that he stayed there to preach. But in Acts it is also not mentioned that Saint Paul, passing through Galatia, stopped there to preach; yet in the Epistle to the Galatians he says directly that they learned the faith from him. And Blessed Theodoret, from the fact that in the Book of Acts it is mentioned about Saint Paul passing through Phrygia, draws the conclusion that he also planted the faith there—namely in those places of which we speak: for, he says, Laodicea is the principal city of Phrygia, and Colossae (with Hierapolis) is in close proximity to it. If, going to Ephesus on his third journey, Saint Paul visited the churches planted on his first journey, he could not have avoided these cities: they are on the way from Iconium to Ephesus. Nothing hindered him from stopping in them. But suppose he did not stop; he could have visited them from Ephesus. He did not stop on the road; but when Epaphras and Philemon were converted in Ephesus and then planted the faith in their own and neighboring cities, then Saint Paul visited them: and it is not far, and communication was convenient. It is said that the Colossians learned the faith from Epaphras (Col. 1:7). So it is supposed that Epaphras planted the faith, and Saint Paul could have visited those cities when the faith had already spread among them.

So, none of the proposed bases gives a decisive conclusion about Saint Paul not being in Colossae and the neighboring cities. This can be suggested only by the fact that in the Epistle there is no indication of it. If Saint Paul had seen them, he would somehow have alluded to it in the Epistle. A hint can be seen in the following words: “by which” (the Church) “I became a servant according to the stewardship of God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God” (Col. 1:25); but this hint cannot be considered definite, because under “for you” one can understand Gentiles in general. And in general, the tone of the entire Epistle inclines more toward one who has not seen the Colossians than toward one who has seen them.

On what then should we settle? Let us settle on the probable: it seems he was not there, but perhaps he was. Blessed Theodoret, who asserts that Saint Paul was in those places and himself planted the faith there, concludes his inquiries thus: “However, let each one understand this as he sees fit, for to speak one way or another about this makes no difference in doctrine.” We too can proceed in this way. However, other of our commentators hold that Saint Paul did not see the Colossians.

The Reason for Writing the Epistle

The faith of the Colossians and their neighbors was in a good state; but it was threatened with danger from certain false teachers. Epaphras, not trusting or seeing his own weakness to defend his flock from them, had recourse to help from Saint Paul, his teacher, when he was in chains, probably in Rome. Learning of such danger to the Christians there, the Apostle writes an Epistle to the Colossians, and through them to all their neighbors (Col. 4:16). What these false teachers were and what false teaching it was, is not entirely clear. Let us read the passages of the Epistle about this and draw from them what inferences we may.

Saint Paul writes: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,” with smooth words (Col. 2:4). Here only the general method of the false teachers is indicated—to cover falsehood with eloquence and sophistry.

Further we read: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Col. 2:8). From this it is evident that there was some philosophizing contrary to the faith, which considered itself following from ancient tradition through human transmission, as for example among the then-contemporary Kabbalists, theosophists, theurges, and in which great significance was given to the elements of the world, perhaps as instruments for communion with spirits, about which the Apostle speaks further, similar to what existed among astrologers, magi, and spirit-raisers, like the modern spiritualists.

Then it is said: “Let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day” (Col. 2:16). It is evident that the false teachers were from among the Jews, holding to the ordinances of their law concerning food and festivals, also concerning circumcision and everything else which the Jew held dear, as can be concluded from the preceding speech of the Apostle (Col. 2:11–15).

Then: “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you… puffed up by his unspiritual mind and not holding on to the Head” (Col. 2:18, 19). Here we can see the embryo of the doctrine concerning mediating powers between the hidden Godhead and visible creatures, which later developed into a complete system among the Gnostics. With these powers—invisible spirits—they thought to commune, perhaps by means of incenses or other things, similar to modern séance tables, and by this, as if by some service, either to satisfy their religious needs entirely, or to use it as a means of communion with God apart from Christ the Lord. They regarded such pondering of theirs as the height of wisdom and, being puffed up by it, they looked with contempt on Christian teaching, although outwardly they maintained a humble appearance.

Finally, in verses 20–23 of that same chapter, after: “Do not touch! Do not taste! Do not handle!”—there is mention of harsh treatment of the body in general. This is some sort of austere life, not being maintained in the proper spirit and not being directed as it should be, as for example among our Khlysty and Dukhobors, and therefore blameworthy, because of the admixture of superstition.

Drawing together all the characteristics shown of the false teaching creeping in among the Colossians, we conclude that it was some mixture of Judaism with Eastern superstitions and superstitions of Hellenic paganism, having points of contact also with Christianity and through this able to gain access to Christians, but not to the benefit of the faith of Christ, but to its destruction. It is evident that by the time the Epistle was written, this false teaching had not yet been formed into a system, but already clearly showed that it went completely contrary to Christian truth. It established approach to God apart from Christ the Lord, somehow through Angels, with participation of elements and bodily mortifications. But this clearly nullified the cross of Christ. Thus our commentators depict this false teaching. Theophylact writes: “There was beginning to penetrate among the Colossians some impious teaching, in which it was held that not through the Son of God, but through Angels do we have our access to God.” Ambrosiaster completes this: “Those false teachers attempted to corrupt the simplicity of the faith of the Colossians with some philosophical speculations, in which it was inculcated, among other things, to view with respect even the elements of the world, as if by them is managed human life. Therefore the Apostle cautions the Colossians through the Epistle, so that they would not allow themselves to be deceived, supposing that they can rely on anyone or anything, save Christ the Lord, with their hope.”

The Content and Purpose of the Epistle

Since the particular points of the false teaching were not clear, what was clear was only that it could turn them away from Christ the Lord; therefore Saint Paul does not refute these particulars in detail, although he mentions them in general terms, but arms himself against one main point—that they want to come to God and be saved apart from Christ the Lord. Therefore, having delineated the divine dominion of Christ the Lord over all that exists and the manner of our reuniting with God in Him alone (Col. 1:12–23), he in refutation of the false teaching speaks generally: what does this false teaching promise you, and everything else that it might still promise, all of this you already have in Christ the Saviour—in the most reliable way and in the most perfect form. There is no reason for you therefore to open your ears to this sophistry. Stand firm in what you have received, and you will abound in all spiritual blessing (Col. 2). From this main position—that our life is hidden with Christ the Lord in God—Saint Paul later draws his lessons on the life that should be lived.

Both the indications of the Apostle and the tone of his speech clearly show that the false teaching has not yet been accepted by the believers, but only heard by them. Therefore the Apostle only cautions: see that you are not deceived by the sophistry of these wise men. It can be supposed that some Christians engaged them in debate, as shown by the reproach: “why do you submit to its rules as if you still belonged to the world?” (Col. 2:20). “Why do you submit to rules,” δογματιζεσυε—can mean both: why do you allow yourselves to be proclaimed such decrees? and: why do you engage in discussion about such decrees? As soon as you heard such absurd teaching, you ought to have turned away your ear from it. But you listen and engage in dispute and discussion. There is nothing to dispute about: the matter is clear, that apart from the Lord Saviour you will obtain nothing. Only this is evident, but that anyone has already inclined to the false teaching is not evident. Then the Apostle’s speech would be quite different. The purpose of the Epistle was only to caution against inclining toward falsehood.

The Time and Place of Writing

It is certain only that the Epistle was written in chains. But in Rome or in Caesarea? More probably in Rome, before the Epistle to the Philippians and at the same time as the Epistle to Philemon. That the Epistle to the Ephesians was written at the same time cannot be supposed, because of differences in the greetings and salutations. The Epistle to the Ephesians was written from Caesarea. Tychicus, after delivering it to its destination, could have arrived in Rome by his own route. With him could have arrived Timothy, Luke, Mark, even Epaphras, and others mentioned at the end of the Epistle. The similarity of the Epistle to the Colossians with the Epistle to the Ephesians depends on the similarity of the subject, not on the simultaneity of their writing. Therefore, the Epistle to the Colossians was written from Rome in 61 or 62 AD, at the beginning of Saint Paul’s stay there—“in the early days of imprisonment in Rome” (Saint Chrysostom), and was sent with Tychicus, who was accompanied by Onesimus, carrying another Epistle—to Philemon.

Division

The Epistle has the customary divisions of those written by Saint Paul—a preface (Col. 1:1–11)—and a postscript (Col. 4:7–18)—between which are placed doctrinal (Col. 1:12–29, 2:1–23)—and moral teaching (Col. 3:1–25, 4:1–6) sections. More detailed subdivisions will proceed in the course of the Commentary.

Preface (Colossians 1:1–11)

Inscription and Greeting (Colossians 1:1–3)

Col. 1:1, 2. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ who are in Colossae.

All the terms employed here by the Apostle are customary to him. But in application to the Colossians each of them takes on a particular nuance of thought—“an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.” By the will of God, I am an apostle of Jesus Christ. This is by the unity of will between God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; and this unity is because “all that the Father has is mine” (Jn. 16:15)—says the Lord. If such is the indivisibility of the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father, then what other means apart from the Lord could be better for us to have access to the Father? “Thus the Apostle from the very first words cuts short the reasoning of the false teachers” (Blessed Theophylact). And the holy Paul conveys yet another thought. He speaks as if to say: I am an apostle of Jesus Christ and by the will of God; but those—where are they from? If I am “by the will of God” an apostle, then I teach, revealing the direct will of God. Listen to me, then, and not to those who expound to you something according to human tradition, something according to their own reasoning. And again, if you seek the way to God, and it cannot be known truly in any other way than through the revelation of God’s will; then hold to that path which I have proclaimed to you and upon which you have entered. What is this path? The Lord Jesus Christ; apart from Him all ways lead astray. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Saint Paul added: ‘by the will of God’—teaching thereby that what he proclaims is pleasing to God the Father.” Blessed Theophylact completes this thought: “if I am ‘by the will of God an apostle,’ then clearly I preach the truth. What truth is this? That we have access to God the Father through the Son, and not through Angels, and that by Him we have been freed from all customs, both Jewish and pagan.”

“and Timothy our brother”—brother not only in Christianity, but rather in fellow-labor and co-apostolic work, though subordinate and under guidance; yet in Christianity he is his son. “It turns out that he also was an Apostle,” says Saint Chrysostom. If Saint Paul puts his name when writing to the Colossians, then “it is probable that the saints in Colossae also knew him” (Saint Chrysostom).

“to the holy ones in Colossae.”—“Holy”—the same as Christians: for, according to the Apostle, Christians must necessarily be holy; and those who are not holy are, it must be, not true Christians. The only holy ones in the world are true Christians. Consequently, whoever hopes to become holy apart from Christianity cherishes a vain hope.

“and faithful brothers in Christ Jesus.” Faithful in Christ Jesus, and brothers in Christ Jesus. For if they are faithful, it is only by the power of Jesus Christ; and if they are brothers, it is only because they have been born again in the one womb of baptismal grace and by one Spirit, and have been clothed in the one Lord Jesus Christ. “Tell me, how did you become holy? Was it not because you were sanctified by the death of Christ (in baptism)? Why are you called faithful? Is it not because you believe in Christ? How did you become a brother? Through deeds or virtues? By no means, but in Christ Jesus. How then do you ascribe to Angels what we have as access to the Father?” (Saint Chrysostom and Blessed Theodoret).

Saint Chrysostom, and after him Blessed Theophylact, draw attention to a special significance of the word faithful—which if it came to mind of the Colossians upon reading it, would convey a very poignant suggestion. “We are called faithful not only because we believe, but also because God has entrusted us with mysteries which even the Angels did not know before us” (Saint Chrysostom). And they have been entrusted to you. Why? Because you have been counted worthy of trust. “It is He Himself who is both the author of that which has been entrusted to you, who has made you worthy of trust” (Saint Chrysostom). Show yourselves to be so indeed, guard the mysteries of faith unbroken. The Angels should not be introduced here; for that which you have received and possess is above their strength; unless you should take it into your head to abandon what is greater and secure and grasp at what is lesser and uncertain.

Although Saint Paul did not say: the Church of God, but simply: holy ones and faithful brothers; yet this does not mean that the believers in Colossae were not built into the holy Church of the Lord. There was Epaphras, the Apostle’s fellow-worker (Col. 1:7); there was Archippus, who had received a ministry in the Lord (Col. 4:17), and a well-ordered brotherhood of believers (Col. 2:5). This can be doubted all the less because the Laodiceans are called a Church (Col. 4:11).

Col. 1:3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace, as the source of all spiritual blessings; peace, as its fruit. Grace, descending within and transforming all there, reconciles with God and unites most sincerely, makes peace within all, and binds all with the bond of brotherhood. All of this is given, preserved, and abounds from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Both grace and peace the Colossians already had as believers. The Apostle wishes them: may they remain in you and abound to you (Ambrosiaster). Since this happens only from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, these words should have led those who heard them speaking of other ways to reflect: but these new ways certainly do not lead where those who boast of them claim they do.

Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8)

Here the Apostle: aa) praises the faith and love of the Colossians with hope (Col. 1:3–8); and: bb) assures them that he does not cease to pray for their progress in the knowledge of truth and in the works of pleasing God (Col. 1:9–11). By both of these he demonstrates his warm affection toward them, and in them he awakens earnest attention to what he has to say, kindled by the assurance that whatever he says will be the fruit of his love and sincere good will toward them.

First he praises. For “it is the Apostle’s custom to anoint the ear beforehand with praises, and only then to set forth the proper teaching. Therefore he also said here that he gives glory in prayers to God for that faith which they have in the Lord Christ, and for that love which they continue to show toward all their fellow believers” (Blessed Theodoret).

Col. 1:3. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.

“We thank”—I and Timothy. Or he speaks in the singular from himself, displaying quiet humility, which more readily penetrates to the heart. The Apostolic heart gives thanks for the perfections of the believers. I rejoice that all goes well with you, and I thank God for your perfection in spirit. It is so great that it calls forth thanksgiving, because of the consolation which you bring to those who know you. By giving thanks himself, he teaches them and all together, and disposes them to thank God.

“We thank God and the Father of our Lord.” He brings everything to unity (Saint Chrysostom), showing at the same time that the one true God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and that there is no mediation between God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, just as there is none between believers and the Lord Christ. Believers are one with the Lord Christ, and He is one with God the Father. Behold the golden chain bound together by God Himself. The Father of our Lord is also our Father by grace, and by this name all the more does He delight to be called by His children, born in the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Our Father!—cry the believers; and the Spirit moves their hearts to cry: Abba, Father! With sweet words the Apostle began his Epistle, begetting sweet thoughts and feelings.

“when we pray for you always.” Whenever I pray, I pray for you, and praying, I thank God for you. “He shows his love for them not only by thanksgiving, but by unceasing prayer” (Saint Chrysostom). Continually he nourished a benevolent disposition toward them, wishing from God to bring down upon them every good thing. And such a disposition can justly be recognized as unceasing prayer.

Col. 1:4. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints.

“The Apostle testified here to their perfection, saying that they shine forth in faith and love” (Blessed Theodoret). For in Christ Jesus the height of perfection is “faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6). “Having heard”—from Epaphras. Concerning the fact that they believed, the Apostle could have known even before, perhaps even personally; but what their faith is like, he has now heard from Epaphras, and hearing, gave thanks to God: since I have heard from Epaphras what your faith is like, I do not cease to thank God for it. “the faith in Christ Jesus,” πιστιν εν Χριστε Ἱησου—not the same as faith in Christ Jesus. Here is shown how it exists in them. Faith came to them, and they heard of it, by the mercy of Christ Jesus; hearing, they yielded to it and received it in their heart by the working of Christ Jesus; and having received it, they place their hope of salvation in the one Lord Jesus Christ, in Him alone they rest by faith. By inculcating such thoughts without special refutations, beforehand he turns them away from false teachings. Above he spoke of the “Lord of us,” but here of “Jesus Christ.” He, he says, is our Lord, not His slaves (that is, not the Angels). These names: “Christ” and “Jesus”—are the signs of God’s great benefactions toward us, according to the economy of salvation in Christ Jesus. He for our sake received anointing (became Christ); He also “saved (is Jesus) His people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21) (Saint Chrysostom and Blessed Theophylact). The love you have for all the saints extends to all saints, that is, to all Christians, not only your fellow citizens, but also neighbors, and wherever they may be. It takes only the name of Christian to awaken your love and for it to be warmed by you. He points to the spiritual union with all, born from consciousness and feelings of spiritual kinship with all who believe in the Lord. He praises love that is active—naturally hospitality, almsgiving, and all kinds of fellowship—the work of love, not mere feeling.

Col. 1:5. For the hope laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel.

By hope is understood that which is hoped for, namely the future blessings (Saint Chrysostom), stored up and appointed for them in heaven. They are called hope because they are appropriated to them, and with such certainty as if they were already possessed. Above he spoke of the work of love, and work needs support. The strongest support for it is hope of future blessings. “You,” he says, “love the saints, not for the sake of anything human, but for the sake of hope of future blessings” (Blessed Theophylact). “You do this diligently, looking with the eyes of faith upon the Kingdom of Heaven prepared for you” (Blessed Theodoret). But hope influences not only love, but also faith. Faith cannot be without promises; and promises draw to it. When the heart has embraced the promised blessings with certainty of receiving them, then faith becomes unshakable. Faith proclaims the blessings and assures of their certainty; but hope is born separately and, when born, gives rest to faith itself. It then stands as on a rock. Therefore—“for the hope” must be referred both to love and to faith. But one must remember also that faith, love, and hope stand in inseparable connection and in perpetual mutual influence.

However, “for the hope” it seems fitting to refer to: we thank. We thank God for your faith and love, because on account of this great blessings are certainly laid up for you in heaven. Regarding your good as our own, we rejoice for you on this account and thank God. Thus Saint Chrysostom understands it: “we rejoice,” says the Apostle, “that you have acquired great things for yourselves in heaven.” The same Theophylact repeats: “or (thus it must be understood) we thank, because you certainly will inherit the incorruptible blessings.”

By the words: “laid up for you in heaven”—both the certainty of receiving and the security of what is laid up are signified. They are called laid up, βραβεια,—prizes in contests. You only reach the goal, gain the victory, and what is due to you for this is already ready: there it lies set aside, reserved for whoever reaches it; and if you reach it, it is yours. But that he said: “in heaven,”—“he points to something secure” (Saint Chrysostom). “Not laid up on earth, where it would be subject to corruption, but ‘in heaven,’ where it is both whole and secure. Therefore, do not waver in your hope: for what is laid up for you is in a safe place” (Blessed Theophylact).

“which you have already heard”—concerning which you have heard before, received prior knowledge. Where and when? “in the true message of the gospel.” At the same time that you heard the word of truth of the gospel, you also heard about the blessings laid up for believers. The gospel is a gospel precisely because it proclaims great blessings to those who receive it. The promise of blessings goes before, stirs faith, and attracts the heart. For what does the gospel say? You who are perishing; salvation for you is only in the Lord preached to you. Believe, and you will be saved and will receive eternal life. This is what those being instructed by the gospel first hear. This the Colossians also heard. And the Apostle reminds them of this, causing them to pass through in their thoughts how they yielded to the faith, hoped for what was laid up, and found rest in it. For the purpose of the Epistle it was very important that they more clearly restore all this in their memory: for then between their heart and the Lord there would be nothing mediating, just as between them and God the Father there would be no other mediator except Christ the Saviour.

The very expression: “in the true message of the gospel”—means: in the truest word of the gospel. “But if this is the word of truth, then there is no falsehood in it. How then do you wish to make it false by opening your ear to hear the speeches of those who attempt to shake your faith that salvation is only in the Lord Jesus, as the gospel originally taught you?” (Blessed Theophylact).

Col. 1:6. Which is in you, as also in all the world; and it is fruitful and growing, as it is also in you, from the day you heard and came to know the grace of God in truth.

“‘that has come to you,’ παροντος,—he spoke metaphorically, representing the gospel as a living person. It did not merely reach you and then, passing by, depart, but remained in you, abides and rules over you” (Saint Chrysostom and Blessed Theophylact). What it proclaimed to you at the beginning, it proclaims now as well; and this is not only in you, but also “throughout the whole world.”

“In the same way, this gospel…throughout the whole world.” What an enormous fellowship! And all alike believe, having been taught the one same gospel. “The Apostle added this because many are more confirmed in the teaching when they learn that they have many companions in accepting it” (Saint Chrysostom and Blessed Theophylact). Then it was not yet everywhere, but in the principal places it had already been firmly sown, and it only required time for it to gain strength and grow. This is what happened, as the Apostle at once says.

“this gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you.” It is in you as it is throughout the whole world, and throughout the whole world it bears fruit and grows as it does in you. “It abides everywhere, rules everywhere, stands everywhere. And not simply stands, but ‘is bearing fruit and growing.’ It bears fruit in works; it grows by receiving many. But neither of these would occur if it did not remain unchanged: for plants too are vigorous when they stand firm in the earth” (Saint Chrysostom and Blessed Theophylact). The Apostle expressed himself in such a way as to give the thought that the fruitfulness and growth of the gospel is an inseparable property of it. Let it but take root in even a few hearts somewhere, and there it will proceed of itself to bear fruit and to expand. These qualities of it can be described thus. “Bearing fruit”—it enlightens, sanctifies, blesses; “growing”—it expands in depth, height, and breadth, internally in each person, and externally in drawing many persons.

“just as it has been doing among you.” “With praises he wants to occupy them beforehand and gain possession of them, so that, even if they wanted to, they would be ashamed to fall away” (Saint Chrysostom and Blessed Theophylact). But this also gave them strength: for if you have already received fruit, what sense is there in abandoning what is clearly fruitful and casting yourself upon something new and unknown?

“since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.” “The gospel has been bearing fruit and growing in you since the day you heard it and came to know God’s grace. How? Not in appearance, not in deceptive words, but in truth, that is, by the working of signs and wonders” (Blessed Theophylact). “And what showed its power at the very beginning, is it difficult now to believe in?” (Saint Chrysostom). You heard the gospel and believed, and believing, you received God’s grace, which by its enlightening, sanctifying, and blest working in hearts gave each one to perceive tangibly that the faith proclaimed by the gospel is certainly true. From that time you have not ceased to bear fruit and to grow, yourselves being perfected in spirit and drawing others to the faith. At first, how many were you? Epaphras and Philemon with his household. But now among you are many believers, and besides you in Laodicea and Hierapolis: all from one seed. And all of you are wise and holy and skilled in all works. And all this continues to grow and will grow. And what bears such fruit and grows, how can one stop believing? The Apostle wanted to imprint on their minds two pictures—the universality of the faith and its beneficence—the very strongest proofs of the truth of the faith. Saint Chrysostom says: “See, the whole world is turning to the faith. And is there need to speak of what is happening elsewhere? What is happening with you is sufficient proof in itself; for you ‘truly understand God’s grace,’ that is, from the very works; so that the faith is confirmed by two things—by the fact that all have believed, and by the fact that you have experienced it.”

“truly understood God’s grace”—can mean this: by actual experience you have come to know how great is the grace brought by the gospel to those who receive it with faith.

Col. 1:7. As also you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you.

In praising the Colossians for their faith, the Apostle felt the need to praise the faith itself still more, elevating its truth: which he does in an imperceptible manner. Having mentioned before this two characteristics of it—its universality and its beneficence—he now traces it to its true beginning, that is, to Christ the Lord. Saint Paul was sent by the Lord Himself, and Epaphras was sent by Saint Paul. Thus the preaching of Epaphras, through Saint Paul, traces back to the Lord Himself as its source and giver, and through this it is sanctified by divine authority and gains the power that obligates to believe. With precisely this aim—namely to restore in their consciousness the obligation to believe steadfastly as they received at first—and he mentions Epaphras here, setting forth not his personal merits, but his significance according to the economy of salvation on earth; he is my fellow servant, and for you the faithful minister of Christ. From him you learned, εμαθετε; he guided you to that which you have experimentally tested—God’s grace. And this would be enough to keep you in faithfulness to the faith; but to this I will add that he did not teach you from himself. The Lord Himself sent me, and I sent him in the name of Christ the Lord. He is a fellow servant, συνδουλος,—to me of Christ. We are slaves and workers of one Lord. Therefore, what he taught you is from the Lord. Do not waver therefore in faith in what you received from him.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle adorned Epaphras with many praises, calling him beloved, fellow servant, faithful minister of Christ, so that the Colossians might hold him in greater respect.” Blessed Theophylact clarifies: “The Apostle called him a ‘beloved’ fellow servant, showing that he is a man worthy of all credence, for Saint Paul would not have loved him and called him his fellow servant if he were not a true preacher. He called him ‘faithful’ ‘minister of Christ,’ giving to understand that among them he served in their good in matters befitting Christ.” That is, the economy of salvation accomplished by Christ the Lord, he conveyed so faithfully as if Christ Himself accomplished it. “a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf”—together expresses also that he is an intercessor and mediator for you before Christ.

Col. 1:8. Who has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

Blessed Theophylact believes that Epaphras set out to Rome on behalf of the Colossians to serve Saint Paul in his chains. Upon arriving there, he gave Saint Paul trustworthy information about the warm faith of the Colossians, their good Christian life, and special love for the Apostle himself. At the same time he informed him also of the false teaching with which certain sophists were approaching them (Blessed Theophylact). From the Epistle it is not evident that the Colossians (and their neighbors) have been corrupted in their way of thinking. Therefore the Apostle limits himself to a light indication of false teachings, considering it sufficient to turn them away from them by restoring in the memory of the Colossians how they believed, what grace they received through faith, and how they lived and grew in faith—adding to this a reminder of their heartfelt affection toward him. Love is stronger than arguments. To convince one who loves, a loved one need only hint that such and such a way of thinking is displeasing to him. With this aim he mentions their love here, so that, grasping this love as a bridle, he can lead them where he wishes.

The Apostle called their love toward him love in the Spirit, showing that it was born in them not as human loves are ordinarily born, but under the working of the grace of the Holy Spirit, in the spiritual order and for spiritual purposes; and it is moreover pure, faithful, and strong. “This is a wondrous and firm love, while others bear only the name of love” (Saint Chrysostom).

The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11)

Col. 1:9. For this reason we also, from the day we heard it, do not cease praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in “all” “wisdom and spiritual understanding.”

“For this reason”—on account of what? “On account of the fact that we heard of your faith and love” (Saint Chrysostom). Of course, their love for the Apostle also played a part here, which was mentioned before; but this was the main reason. The Apostolic heart rejoices, seeing such solid beginnings of God’s work in them. But since beginnings, however good, are still beginnings, he prays that God would carry them forward to perfection. He speaks as if to say: “we have good hopes concerning you (on account of these good beginnings), and this good hope impels us to pray also for your future progress. As in competitions we especially encourage those who are close to victory, so Paul especially hastens to help these who have shown great progress in virtue and encourages them” (Saint Chrysostom).

“since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking.” Constantly, he says, with all diligence and earnestness in our prayers we beseech God for you for spiritual perfection. “Not for a day, not for two, not for three have we spent time in prayer, but constantly we pray. By this the Apostle shows both his love for them and lightly hints that they have not yet reached the end” (Saint Chrysostom) and have need of mighty help.

“to fill you.” “He neither calls them wholly imperfect; nor does he call them wholly perfect, but speaks as if to say: you have something, but not everything” (Blessed Theophylact). “This is what the word expresses: ‘to fill you.’ And mark the wisdom of the Apostle: nowhere does he say that they lack everything, but everywhere—that they lack something. This is what this expression means: ‘to fill you,’—and again: ‘in every act of pleasing him and in every good work’ and so forth. For the word—‘in every’—is testimony that they have accomplished something, though not everything. And he does not say: that you may receive, because they have received; but reminds them of what is lacking, saying: ‘to fill you.’ Thus both the rebuke (indication of imperfection) was not burdensome, and the praise did not cause them to fall (into conceit) and become careless, as if everything were accomplished” (Saint Chrysostom).

“with the knowledge of his will,” την επιγνωσιν,—that you might be full and perfect in knowledge, or by knowledge of God’s will. Ἑπιγνωσις—means knowledge, and knowledge that penetrates its object, and even more knowledge that penetrates the mind and heart. He desires full, thorough knowledge that is so firm as to allow no wavering or even objections. This they lacked; for they had opened their ear to receive interpretations capable of undermining the very foundations of faith. Blessed Theophylact understands by this word the application of most complete knowledge.

What will of God is knowledge of which being sought? It must be supposed—all of God’s will concerning the salvation of men, so that here would be combined knowledge both of what comes from God for our salvation, and of what is required of us for this, namely—that God did not spare His only-begotten Son, but delivered Him up for us; and He, having come and been incarnate, died by crucifixion and, removing the curse from us, opened to us in Himself access to our Heavenly Father; then, having ascended to heaven and sat at the right hand of God and Father, He opened the way for the Holy Spirit to come down to earth, whom He sent from the Father, “that He might be with us forever” (Jn. 14:16); and He through the word of the gospel stirs up faith, causes the believing to be born again to new life in the water of baptism, and, having filled them with His grace, makes them strong to accomplish every known will of God, living holy and in a manner pleasing to God. Others hold that here the Apostle means only the last part of God’s will; that is, the will that determines how we should live as Christians. But besides the fact that proper knowledge of this latter will requires knowledge also of the former will or of how God was pleased to arrange our salvation, the Colossians had need of completion and strengthening of knowledge—precisely of this. Therefore it cannot be thought that Saint Paul did not have it in mind when praying that the Colossians be filled with knowledge of God’s will.

Thus our commentators understand this. Oecumenius writes: “What is this will of the Father? That men should have access to the Father through the Son, and not through Angels.” The same in Theophylact: “God’s will and God’s good pleasure is that the Son should be given for us, and not the Angels. And the Apostle prays for completion of knowledge of this very will.” Here are the words of Saint Chrysostom: “what does it mean: ‘to fill you with knowledge of his will’? That we must have access to Him through the Son, and not through Angels. That we must have access to Him, you have come to know; now it remains for you to learn, for what did He send the Son? For if we were to be saved through the Angels, He would not have sent nor delivered up the Son.”

But in speaking thus, they do not exclude the thought that here is meant also the will that determines life and actions. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle always unites both faith and life.” Ambrosiaster explains this aspect more fully: “The Apostle, having learned of the warm and ready disposition of the Colossians toward faith in Christ, prays for them that they might be given the fullest knowledge of God’s will, so that they might be able to satisfy their piety in a more intelligent manner than they learned to do when they first heard of this faith: for however great the power of faith might be, yet if they do anything unreasonably and unskillfully, the fruit of their labor perishes through this. Not only zeal is required, but zeal tempered with wisdom.”

Therefore let us understand here knowledge of all of God’s will, both regarding the manner of the arrangement of our salvation, and regarding the accomplishment of this salvation by us. The false teachers attempted to confuse the faith of the Colossians in both respects.

“‘in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,’ εν παση σοφια και συνεσει πνευματικη. These terms are difficult to define with precision; but it is evident that they signify different aspects of complete knowledge of God’s will, or the forms in which it manifests itself in reality. By wisdom, it seems, is meant more the penetration into the matter of knowledge, and by understanding more the penetration of it into the heart and mind: for συντσις—properly consciousness. Since we have determined to understand by the will of God both the manner of the arrangement of our salvation by God (dogma), and the manner of accomplishment of salvation by us ourselves (life); so we have the duty to indicate what significance should be ascribed to wisdom and understanding in both respects. Wisdom in the first respect, it seems, will mean the ability inherent in complete knowledge of truth to explain, prove, defend, refute all falsehood, and in the second—the ability inherent in complete knowledge of the manner of Christian life to order one’s life according to this norm, adapting both to oneself and to one’s external situation, both generally and in particulars, to see what furthers and make use of it, to see obstacles and remove them, to see divergent paths and avoid them, to walk straight and directly to the goal, not deviating to right or left and not stopping. Understanding, συνεσις—in the first respect, will be the reception of the known into consciousness and feeling, tasting it, and in the second—the reception of the norm of Christian life into conscience and under the working of the fear of God the establishment of the movement of all the powers of nature according to this norm; in other words, the Christian moral-religious order within.”

Both wisdom and understanding are called spiritual, as fruits of the grace of the Holy Spirit. For they cannot appear and dwell in anyone except through the bestowal of grace upon him. And here they do not manifest themselves all at once in power, but grow and strengthen gradually. Perhaps Saint Paul intentionally added this word to point out beforehand the insufficiency of that reasoning of the false teachers, according to which they taught the use of certain elements and certain bodily practices as means of communion with the spiritual world.

Col. 1:10. That you may walk worthily of God in “all” “well-pleasing and” “in every” “good work, bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God.”

“‘so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord.’ The Apostle prays for the granting of knowledge of all of God’s will, yet in such a manner that it not remain mere knowledge, but pass into life. Saint Chrysostom says: ‘We do not pray only that you might know, but that you might show this by deeds as well; for he who knows and does not act will be punished. ‘Live a life worthy’ he says, that is, always, not once, but at all times. As it is necessary for us to walk, so too is it necessary to conduct ourselves rightly.’ This stands with the Apostle either as an exhortation to the Colossians: see, do not remain in mere knowledge,—or merely as a showing: and thus it is possible for you to walk worthily of God, or so that you might be able to walk in this manner. For to walk worthily of God, or to live according to God, is impossible except by being filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and understanding which the Apostle seeks—and this under the working of the grace of the Holy Spirit.”

To walk worthily of God, or, as all our commentators read, worthily of the Lord, is obligatory for us as God’s children, appropriated by God and the Lord to Himself. We have taken upon ourselves the name of God and Lord; therefore it is obligatory for us to walk and live in such a way that the name of God called upon us is not blasphemed, but rather glorified. “Let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Mt. 5:16). “He who knows God and has been counted worthy to be a servant of God, even a son, is required to live a life most particular, far exceeding the old” (Saint Chrysostom). How to do this the Apostle determines immediately following.

How to walk worthily of the Lord God? By walking “in every good work” εν παντι επιω,—and “to please him in every way,” directing all of them toward pleasing God, εις πασαν απεσκειαν. Every good work is either every deed required by commandment, or pre-eminently deeds of love, goodness, and mercy, as the Lord commanded: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Lk. 6:36). “And walk in love, as Christ loved us” (Eph. 5:2). Then “all will know that you are my disciples,”—says the Lord (Jn. 13:35). That all of this be directed toward pleasing God is said to prevent wrong directions toward pleasing oneself or men and the world. For even in that direction not only what is manifestly evil is done, but what is good is done as well; only it loses all its value before God then. True Christian life, as it comes from God the Father, in Christ Jesus, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, all of it is directed there—toward its source. Every step of a true Christian is taken with the assurance that it is pleasing to God. Blessed Theophylact writes: “Thus,” says the Apostle, “live so as to please God in all things. How shall this be? In no other way than by doing every good work. Where there is every good work, there also is every pleasing of God.”

“bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” Where will you arrive living thus? To knowledge of God. Walking thus worthily of God, you will bear fruit in the knowledge of God and increasingly grow in it. Blessed Theophylact writes: ‘See, he said above that they have need of knowledge to walk worthily of the Lord; but now he suggests that if you walk worthily of God in good works, then at the same time you will grow in knowledge of God: for these two moments mutually influence one another.’ Knowledge of God’s will, both regarding the economy of salvation and regarding the accomplishment of salvation by us, is at first theoretical, and God is held at that time in the mind chiefly as an idea. Later, when one goes by the known path, then life according to God brings him into living communion with God and gives him to taste God. God by His mercy gives to the heart abundantly to taste Himself and through this reveals Himself as the living God; and revealing Himself to the heart, He also reveals Himself to the contemplation of the mind, or spirit. The experiences of spiritual life lead into true knowledge of God. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8).

In the holy Apostle here in brief words is depicted completely the chain of manifestations of spiritual life, beginning with knowledge of the revealed will of God and ending with knowledge of God through communion with God, or directly immersion in God.

Col. 1:11. Being strengthened with all might according to the power of His glory, in “all” “patience and longsuffering with joy.”

The good wishes of the Apostle would be incomplete if he stopped at what has been said. Both faith in Christ and life in Christ are destined to be accompanied by sorrows. “In the world you will have tribulation” (Jn. 16:33), predicted the Lord. But nowhere in the word of God is there even a hint that it is permissible to enter into conflict with those who offend; on the contrary, everywhere is commanded: endure and endure. “By your endurance you will gain your lives… the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Lk. 21:19; cf.: Mt. 10:22), says the Lord. But for this a strength is needed, no less than that required to build oneself up inwardly in spirit. Since all strength comes from the Lord, the Apostle now adds the wish for this strength: “being strengthened with all power,” εν παση δυναμει δυναμουμενοι,—being strengthened with all strength; not strengthening yourselves by every effort and working yourselves up to strain, although this too is fitting, but appearing strong with the power descending from above. In what measure? “according to his glorious might,” κατα το κρατος,—whatever the measure of God’s glorious sovereignty, or the measure of God’s glorious almightiness, with that very strength may you be strengthened. Here is not apt such limitation as—as much as your nature can contain, for the strength that aids endurance can work even apart from this nature, as if wrapping itself about it from without, not according to its measure, but according to its own, or according to what is needed.

And thus being strengthened with such power, walk “with great endurance and patience,” with rejoicing. Not only in endurance, but also in long-suffering, and not only in this, but also with rejoicing. He who is strengthened from above overcomes even the heaviest sorrow with all endurance. If heavy sorrow continues and no end to it is seen, he easily bears it with equanimous long-suffering. The sorrow increases, the power of God conquering it increases, and finally dispels it entirely in joy. The presence of God’s power in sorrows is witnessed to by equanimity, while joy signifies that the merciful Lord, besides strengthening, gives something also to taste of His all-blessedness.

Blessed Theophylact writes: “The Apostle says, ‘We pray that you be filled ‘with all power according to His glorious strength.’ For what? So that you not become weak and not fall into despair in trials and persecutions. ‘according to his glorious might.’ Let Him give to you such strength as is befitting for Him to give, that is, unspeakable and boundless. Everywhere does His glory rule. Do not be faint-hearted; in afflictions and misfortunes you will be upheld, as is befitting for those who serve such a ruling and all-glorious Lord. ‘with great endurance and patience’: in endurance of what comes from without, and in long-suffering of what happens in mutual relationships. And one endures patiently when he has the opportunity to repay and does not repay; whereas he merely bears when he is unable to do so. ‘with all endurance,’ not so as to endure now and not later, but always to endure” (Blessed Theophylact in agreement with Saint Chrysostom).

Doctrinal Part (Colossians 1:12–20; 2:1–23)

Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

The purpose of the Epistle is to caution the Colossians against the false teachings creeping in among them. But in order for Saint Paul to accomplish this purpose, on the one hand he had to show why he undertakes this matter with such care, and on the other hand to set forth such truths as would serve as the foundation for his cautions; therefore he precedes the caution with: a) a brief exposition of the economy of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ (Col. 1:12–23) and: b) a showing of how, in the application of this economy to men, namely to the Gentiles, God was pleased to give a share to Saint Paul (Col. 1:24–29); and then he writes: c) the actual cautions (Col. 2), having in the last—that is, in his calling to serve in the establishment of the salvation of the Gentiles—motivation for himself to write, and in the first—that is, in the exposition of the economy of salvation in the Lord—drawing the grounds for the caution of the Colossians. The truths set forth here are such that it need only be pointed out to strike down any false teaching and turn away from it.

Let us note beforehand that the first verse of the doctrinal part, the 12th, begins with the word: giving thanks, and so forth. Some connect this thanksgiving with: “walk” (Col. 1:10) and say: The Apostle seeks for the Colossians knowledge of God’s will so that they might walk: 1) in every good work toward pleasing God, to attain knowledge of God, 2) in all endurance with rejoicing, being strengthened from above, and: 3) giving thanks to God, and so forth. But our commentators connect this “giving thanks” with: “we have not stopped” (Col. 1:9). By doing so they suggest that here one should see not an exhortation to the Colossians to give thanks, but a statement by the Apostle of giving thanks to God and Father, that He called “us” to share in the inheritance of the saints, that is, into the Kingdom of the Son “of his love.” And this seems all the more fitting because from this verse the Apostle changed the persons to whom he addresses his speech: before he said: “you,”—that is, to the Colossians, but now he says: “us,”—giving us to understand that he begins to speak of the common Christian matter, as is shown also by the content of this and the following verses. This also causes us to recognize that Saint Paul from this verse transitions to the exposition of the economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

a) A brief exposition of the economy of salvation (Col. 1:12–23)

In depicting this economy, the Apostle first: aa) shows wherein consists the essential power of the economy (Col. 1:12–14); then: bb) portrays the Divine character of the Saviour Himself (Col. 1:15–20) and finally: cc) presents the Colossians themselves as participants in this salvation (Col. 1:21–23).

Col. 1:12. Giving thanks to God and Father, Who has called “us” “to a share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

“giving thanks.” If we connect this word with: “we have not stopped,”—the result is: “we have not stopped giving thanks”—we give thanks without ceasing. So Saint Chrysostom: “The sequence of the Apostle’s thought is thus: we do not cease to pray for you and to thank God for what has been before. Do you see how he enters into discourse about the Son?” Saint Chrysostom holds that here begins the discourse about the economy of salvation. So also our other commentators. Blessed Theodoret writes: “We praise the merciful Lord, that He has made us, unworthy, participants of the light of the saints. By thanksgiving the Apostle shows the ineffableness of God’s loving-kindness and the magnitude of God’s economy concerning us.” So also Blessed Theophylact: “Having said: I pray that God would grant you such and such blessings, now he says: I thank you for what was granted to us before. Thus imperceptibly he introduces them into discourse about the Son.”

Thus shall we understand “giving thanks”: “we give thanks”—and see here the beginning of the discourse about the economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Fittingly does the Apostle begin this discourse with thanksgiving: for only consider the hopelessness of our state, and set against it into what a blessed condition and what glory we have been raised up, we who hoped for nothing and were worthy of nothing, and by what a wondrous economy, too, and receive all this into feeling; you will not find words to express your grateful feelings: you will only cry out: “Glory to you, O God! Glory to you, O God!” If only we had been delivered from evils and by some servile spirit; even that would be the greatest good. But the Son of God descends, takes upon Himself our poor nature, and having led it through redemptive suffering and death and having raised it up, seats it at the right hand of God and Father; after which came the grace of the Holy Spirit, which makes all believers sons and daughters to God with the promise that they too will all be there, “where Christ sits at the right hand of God” (Jn. 12:26; Col. 3:1). Who will find sufficient words to thank worthily, not according to the measure of good, but according to the measure of feeling, our most compassionate God?

“We thank,” he says, “God and Father.” The economy of salvation has been accomplished by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit; the salvation of each, according to this economy, is accomplished by the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit. Why then do we thank only God and Father? The false teachers who led the Colossians astray had as the starting point of their false teaching, probably, the position that God is completely separated from creation. Creation, they said, cannot endure the action of God. Therefore from God proceeded a multitude of mediating powers—spirits, which, descending lower and lower, finally became such as to be able to enter into relations with creatures, to create them and support them. Among these powers, according to them, were also the Son, and Jesus, and Christ. To show that the starting point of the false teachers is false, the Apostle turns with thanksgiving to God the Father, thus suggesting that God the Father is not only not separated from us, but on the contrary, He called us, delivered us from “the authority of darkness” and transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son. Concerning the Son, then, he will say next that He is not only not among the created powers, but on the contrary, is the Creator of all of them, Himself remaining one with the Father.

He thanks “God and Father, who has qualified us.” Let us note about the reading: in Slavonic it stands: “you”; but Saint Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, and almost all others read: “us.” Also all of our commentators and all others read not: “called,” καλεσαντι,—but: ικανωσαντι,—“qualified,” made worthy or made capable. Very few read both words. Let us read: “who has qualified us.” Saint Chrysostom makes the following observation upon this word: “Such,” he says, “is the gift given, that it not only was given, but also made us strong for the sharing of what was given (or, as Theophylact: ‘that it not only made us rich, but also gave us ability and strength to appear worthy of having received it’).”) And so the word: “qualified,” ικανωσαντι,—making us capable, has here great significance. Suppose, for example, a king entrusted to a man of small abilities some position of leadership; but honor he gave him, yet the ability to conduct the business of leadership he could not give. Therefore such honor turns to ridicule for such a man. But if he had given him both honor and made him capable of holding the position and fit for ruling; then this would be true honor. The same thing is said here—that God not only granted us honor, but also made us strong to receive it; for a twofold honor is—to give and to prepare in man the capacity to receive the gift.

Having said this, the Apostle shows further what honor we have been counted worthy of and through what we became capable of it, saying: “to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” To share in the inheritance of the saints—this is the honor, and how we became worthy of it is shown by the word: “in the kingdom of light.” What is “the inheritance of the saints”? The Kingdom of Christ, the Kingdom of grace, which leads into the Kingdom of glory. In the following verse it is said that God transferred us into “the kingdom of the Son he loves.” In his farewell address to the Ephesians the Apostle said: “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Act 20:32). Here it seems more the Kingdom of Heaven is seen. In his address to Agrippa, the Apostle concerning what the Lord called him to do, speaks thus in the words of the Lord Himself: “to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Act 26:18). Here again the Kingdom of grace seems more evident. Both Kingdoms are inseparable. The Kingdom of Christ is one Kingdom.

In this Kingdom to have a part God and Father has made us capable. “Who has qualified us ‘to have a part,’” εις την μεριδα,—making us worthy to have a part or enter into fellowship. With respect to the Kingdom of glory it is more fitting to say: to have a part, that is, each one his own, while with respect to the Kingdom of grace it is more fitting to say: to enter into fellowship, for although even here each has his own part according to his strength, this is not visible; what is visible is that everyone entering into it has all that is needed, no less than all others. With respect to that it is said: “In my Father’s house are many rooms” (Jn. 14:2), and with respect to this: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither male nor female” (Gal. 3:28).

How we became worthy to enter into the Kingdom of Christ is shown by the word: “in the kingdom of light,”—under which is understood the light of knowledge, communicated through the gospel and received by faith and dispelling the darkness of ignorance,—and the light of grace, given through the mysteries and driving out the darkness of sin by the power of rebirth. Truth in the word of God and grace in the mysteries—these are two saving powers at work on earth in the Church for believers, and outside it for unbelievers. Some refer “in the kingdom of light” to the future inheritance, meaning that it will be bright. But it is better to refer it to “who has qualified,”—as the manner; yet the power of light can be extended even to the future Kingdom—here light, and there brighter light; but both are chiefly spiritual, consisting in knowledge and holiness from being filled with the grace of the Spirit. The external light will only be a reflection of this. Blessed Theophylact writes: “‘in the kingdom of light,’ both future and present: for even now God has enlightened us, revealing to us such mysteries, and in the future will give us an even more abundant and wondrous light.”

Col. 1:13. Who delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son.

“Who” (Ὁς), that is, God the Father, has delivered us from “the dominion of darkness.” What is this dark dominion? The devil and Satan, who is a dark and unclean power. “The dominion of darkness” the Apostle named the dominion of the devil (Blessed Theodoret). “Delivered,” he says, “from the dominion of darkness,” that is, from the deception and dominion of the devil. He did not simply say: from darkness, but: from dominion; for the devil has great power and dominion over us. It is grievous to be simply under the devil, but to be under the devil with his power is even more grievous. He did not say: withdrew, but: snatched away, showing on the one hand our misery and the strength of our captivity, on the other the ease and facility with which the power of God accomplished this (Saint Chrysostom).

How did God the Father snatch us from such dominion? By sending His only-begotten Son and through Him establishing such an economy of salvation as destroyed the works of the devil. On what does the devil’s power over us rest? On sin. The Lord by His death blotted out all our sins, and every believer in Him receives forgiveness of his sins. But within remains the power of sin, which as a law leads to sins. The believing receives the grace of the Spirit, which cuts off this power of sin. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin… so that I am no longer enslaved to sin” (Rom. 8:2, 6:6). Thus, according to the economy of our salvation, the reins of dark dominion are wrested from the devil’s hands, he has nothing with which to seize us, no instrument for violence.

“And brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.” This is accomplished in one act. Such is the economy that in delivering from dark dominion it at the same time brings into the bright Kingdom of the Son, or through bringing into this Kingdom delivers from that dominion. “Having delivered us from darkness, He counted us worthy of the kingdom of the Son” (Blessed Theodoret). So God showed His loving-kindness not merely in freeing us from darkness. Great indeed is the deed to free from darkness: but to be brought into a Kingdom is yet greater. See then how manifold is the gift! “And brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.” He did not simply say: into the Kingdom of Heaven, but gave the word great importance, calling the Kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of the Son; for there is no praise greater than this, as he says also in another place: “if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2Tim 2:12). He has counted us worthy, he says, of what even the Son is worthy, and not only this, but added further: beloved: from enemies shrouded in darkness He suddenly transferred them to where the Son is, clothing them with the same honor as Him. Thus to show the greatness of the gift, He did not consider it sufficient to say: into a kingdom, but added further: of the Son; and even this was not enough, He joined: beloved (Saint Chrysostom).

“Son of his love”—means the true Son, the Son by nature, consubstantial. For “God is love” (1Jn 4:16). The substance of God is love. “Son of His love” is the Son of the Father’s substance, co-essential, consubstantial. Therefore the Son is entirely love and is beloved of God the Father. “The Apostle called the Lord Christ ‘Son of His love,’ teaching that He is beloved by the Father, not as a creature and slave, but as a Son. He is the beloved Son, that is, the true Son. Thus God named even Isaac, saying: ‘Take your son, your only son, whom you love’ (Gen 22:2), that is, your true son, the son of your own nature, who is dearer to you than others” (Blessed Theodoret).

Col. 1:14. In Whom we have redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness of sins.

This is an explanation of how we have been delivered from “the dominion of darkness”: delivered through forgiveness of sins and liberation from the power of sin dwelling in us—both through the blood of the incarnate Son of God. By this all dominion of the devil over us is cut off and all his attempts to seize us again are thwarted. The Apostle clarified only one half of what was said—how we are delivered from “the dominion of darkness,” and the other half—how we are brought into the Kingdom of the Son, he did not consider necessary to clarify, because in reality both happen together and one does not occur without the other. Blessed Theophylact, following Saint Chrysostom, writes on this: “Lest you hear that the Father delivered us and think that the Son is excluded from this and shows us no good, the Apostle now gives all to the Son, as he formerly gave to the Father. For the reason that we are brought into the Kingdom is the Son, who has given us redemption by His blood and forgiveness of sins. For if we had not been redeemed and had not received forgiveness of sins, we would not have been brought into the Kingdom either. So the Son has paved the way for the Father’s gift. It is impossible that He would give the Kingdom to those who remain in sins. By delivering from sin, the Son opened the entrance to the Kingdom. Thus the Son delivered, and the Son also brought into the Kingdom.”

But one can see in this passage not an explanation of what precedes, but its supplement. It was said that we are delivered from “the dominion of darkness” by the fact that our sins are forgiven and power to overcome them is given. But there is nothing mechanical about this. Power to overcome sin is given; but it must be used, and one must apply one’s own diligence. If one becomes careless, the power given will remain inactive. Sin will come and overcome. What happens when this occurs? We find the answer in Saint John the Theologian: “I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” (1Jn 2:1). The latter is the same as what Saint Paul says: “In him we always have redemption by his blood, and the forgiveness of sins.” The price of the blood of the Son of God is continually efficacious, and the way to share in the power of it is always open: come and use redemption by its power if you have need.

Until now (Col. 1:12–14) Saint Paul has shown what we have in Christ Jesus our Lord or wherein consists the essential power of the economy of salvation. Now he proceeds to show Who is this establisher of our salvation (Col. 1:15–20).

This was necessary for refuting the false teachings with which evil sophists attempted to disturb the pure faith of the Colossians. They placed Christ the Lord in the ranks of high but created powers. Therefore Saint Paul puts forth the truth that our Saviour is the true God, God by nature, which He did not cease to be even when incarnate for the accomplishment of the economy of our salvation. The Apostle’s thought is established on the Divine visage of Christ the Lord, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, worshipped by all the powers of heaven. To the contemplation of this he raised us, having said before that in the Lord Jesus we always have redemption and forgiveness of sins. For the cause of this, not here but in other places revealed by him, is that He sits at the right hand of God the Father and intercedes for us (Rom. 8:34). Therefore at these words our thoughts naturally ascend to this height, so that together with the Apostle, fixing the gaze of the mind on the Divine visage of Christ the Saviour, we may hear his words about the Godhead of Jesus Christ the Lord.

The Divine majesty of Christ the Saviour, unreachable and incomprehensible to any creature, Saint Paul portrays, presenting what the Lord Jesus is: α) as God, in Himself, apart from the incarnation (Col. 1:15–17); and what He is: β) as the God-man, according to the incarnate economy of our salvation (Col. 1:18–20). This division, determined by the flow of thought, is evident also externally in the form of speech: “He is” (Col. 1:15); “and He is” (Col. 1:18).

The Lord Jesus Christ, according to His Godhead, is: αα) consubstantial with God the Father, the Son begotten before all ages (Col. 1:15); ββ) the Creator of all that exists (Col. 1:16) and: γγ) the Sustainer of all (Col. 1:17).

The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16)

Col. 1:15. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

“Image”—indicates consubstantiality with the Father; by virtue of what? by virtue of the fact that He is begotten. Inasmuch as He is begotten, He is consubstantial; being consubstantial, He is the image.

“The Son is the image of the invisible God,” an essential image, exactly like, differing in no way. What the Father is, so is He. Look upon the Father, look upon the Son,—no difference save generation. Saint Chrysostom says: “the word ‘image’—indicates απαραλλακτον, exact likeness, difference in no way; therefore He (the Lord) is απαραλλακτος, exactly like (the Father), differing in no way (from Him).” Blessed Theodoret writes: “‘image’ signifies consubstantiality. Inanimate images do not possess the essence of what they are images of, but a living image differing in no way has one nature with the original.” We read the same in Oecumenius: “The Apostle calls the Son the image (of the Father) because of difference in no way from Him and complete likeness and equality, like εκμαγιον(to speak in modern terms, like a photographic print of the original beauty).” Let us add also Theophylact’s word: “Saying: ‘The Son is the image of God,’ the Apostle here represents the Divine glory and majesty of the Only-Begotten. ‘Image,’ he says, there is, that is, exactly like, differing in no way. There is no measure for His greatness so that (having measured it) you could say how much He lacks (in comparison to the Father). If He were an image like a man, you would have something to say (in this respect), because this image (human) never reaches the original. But inasmuch as He is the image as God and as the Son of God, that is, an image of God completely like Him.”

To a clearer understanding of how God the Son is the image of God the Father, the following passages of Scripture can lead: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;” (Phil 2:6); and: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebr 1:3). The latter passage gives the thought that God the Father sees in God the Son the reflection of the glory of His Godhead, which is why He is also “the exact representation of his being.” As in a mirror, to use a human comparison, all that looks into it is reflected in its entirety exactly as it is: so entirely as it is, essentially, with all His Godhead the Father is reflected in the Son. The first passage suggests that God the Son, eternally being in the form of God, or being the essential image of God, is equal to God the Father, stands on the same level, if one may so express oneself of the Divine Persons, on the same level of Divine majesty with God the Father; which cannot be otherwise than by consubstantiality.

“‘The Son is the image of the invisible God.’ This expression generates the thought that the invisible Divine nature becomes visible in the Son, in His eternal mode of existence. But one should not think thus. If the Son is the exact image of the invisible God, then He also is invisible: otherwise He would not be the exact image. He is the image of the invisible God, but an invisible image. Invisible is God worshipped in the Trinity: the Father is invisible, the Son is invisible, the Holy Spirit is invisible. Saint Chrysostom says: ‘if He (God) is invisible, then His image also is invisible, because otherwise it would not be an image.’ Blessed Theophylact concludes: ‘therefore join together the two, holding that the Only-Begotten is both—both the image and invisible.’”

And in the incarnation of God the Word the invisible Godhead did not become visible, but only His presence became in a sense tangibly known, yet still to the mind and not to sight. Thus the holy Apostles perceived in their mind in the Lord the Saviour the invisible Godhead and confessed: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16); thus after the resurrection blessed Thomas, as if touching the invisible Godhead, in a mental perception of it, cried out: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28); thus when the Lord ascended visibly into heaven, to the invisible Godhead in Him the Angels bowed, and do even now bow to Him sitting at the right hand of God, Christ the Saviour (Hebr 1:6; 1Pet 3:22). And the invisible Godhead will yet be seen in the Visible, coming to judge the living and the dead. Ambrosiaster writes: “The Lord said to Philip: ‘If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?’ (Jn 14:9, 10). The consubstantiality of the Father and Son is the fact that they are one, so that he who sees the Son sees the Father. But how could Philip, seeing the Son, see the Father? With the eyes of the mind, seeing the Divine works of the Son. What the Son did, he spoke of as being the Father’s, showing the unity of Divine power. In the same manner Jacob also saw God; which is why he was called Israel, that is, a man who sees God (Gen 32:28). Therefore the Lord is called the image of the invisible God to give understanding that He Himself is God, who is seen in Him to the mind. But the Father never in any way appeared visibly, as is said in the Gospel: ‘No one has ever seen God’ (Jn 1:18).”

“‘the firstborn of all creation,’ that is, begotten before every creature” (Blessed Theodoret). If begotten, then from the essence and nature of the Father; consequently, He is consubstantial with Him; in which is the direct basis also for His being His image.

“‘the firstborn of all creation.’ By these words two relations of the Son are determined: to God the Father, that He is begotten of Him, and to creatures, that He is before all of them, not created but begotten. This signifies the infinite distance from Him of all creation.” Blessed Theophylact writes: “The Apostle shows that the Son is before every creature. How is He? Through generation. See how wise is the Apostle’s wording: he did not simply say that He is before all creatures, so that hearing this you might not think that He is separate from God the Father; but he said: begotten before all creatures, teaching you that He has a Father and is begotten of Him. And by this he showed at the same time that He is different, and all other things are different from Him: He is the Son from the Father, while all else is creature, namely created by Him.”

The Arians thought they had great support for their false teaching in this passage. “the firstborn of all creation,” they interpreted, means that He stands at the head of creatures and, as the first of them, is Himself a creature. But in that case the Apostle would not have said: “firstborn,”—but—first-created (Saint Chrysostom). “But if you consider the word ‘firstborn’ equivalent to ‘first-created,’ then the Apostle would have said: ‘firstborn’ (in the sense of first-created) of other creatures, besides Him, begotten (in the sense of created) before them” (Saint Athanasius the Great). But the Apostle says: “firstborn.” Begotten; consequently, He is of one nature with Him who fathered Him, God the Father, and through this is infinitely distant from creation. Begotten before all creatures, therefore eternal: for time, as an inseparable form of created existence, came into being together with creation. Before creation is eternity; and He who is begotten before creation is eternal; by which again infinite distance of the Son of God from creation is established. Moreover, the firstborn of all creation is then called the Creator of all things. But when something is created, it is created from nothing. To create from nothing can only He who Himself is Being; but he who is himself from nothing, as a creature, cannot create. Therefore, if the firstborn of all creation created all things, then He Himself cannot be a creature.

Col. 1:16. Because by Him all things were created, things in the heavens and things on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers: all things were created through Him and for Him.

“For”—indicates that what is here said proves what precedes. Inasmuch as all things were created by the Son, it is evident that He is before all creatures and that He Himself is not a creature but is Being; otherwise He could not create from nothing; yet He is not separate from the Father, but is from Him and in Him by generation, not separating Himself from Him, however. “in him,” εν αυτω,—and at the end of the verse it is said: δι αυτου και εις αυτον,—all together: in Him, through Him, and to Him or for Him. The Apostolic mind, illuminated by God, certainly saw clearly what nuances or aspects of creative work are signified by each of these expressions. But we can confess that we cannot with certainty assert that by one expression is meant precisely this, by another that, by a third that. It is better for us to suppose that by such many turns of phrase is expressed merely: whatever anyone might conceive as necessary in the work of creation, all of that is in the Creator Son, shown forth by Him and put into the work of creation. God the Son created all by Himself, by His own power and for Himself. Nothing from without came to assist in this.

“‘For in him all things were created,’ that is, as before, the ‘firstborn,’ and as yet higher above, the ‘Son of God.’ The work of creation is the work of God Trihypostatic, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, indivisibly. Saint Athanasius the Great expresses this repeatedly thus: all things were created by the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit, or by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Therefore God the Father is Creator, God the Son is Creator, God the Holy Spirit is Creator, yet not three Creators, but one Creator. The Prophet David so confesses this: ‘By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth’ (Ps 32:6). If in the writings of the New Testament we encounter more passages in which creation is ascribed to the Son; this is because the holy Apostles had the greatest need to prove the Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, since in Him the visibility of human nature hid His invisible Godhead; and the strongest proof of Godhead is creatorship: for He who creates from nothing is Being, His essence is—to be, encompassing in Himself all the fullness of perfections. Thus also in the present Epistle the Apostle needed to set forth the Divine majesty of Christ the Saviour—and he says that by Him, as the Son of God and God, ‘all things have been created,’ certainly not excluding from his mind the Father and the Holy Spirit.”

Let us note in this that all attempts to determine exactly what belongs to the Son in the work of creation should not be considered worthy of full agreement, respect and attention. For example, such expressions are considered as explaining much, that the Son is in the work of creation causa instrumentalis or causa exemplaris: the first means that the Son is the instrument of creation, the second that He, as wisdom, is the holder of the ideas of all creatures. Both expressions seem to explain something; but both remove the Son from creatorship: for if the Son is an instrument, then it is not He who creates, but the Father creates through Him; and if He is only the holder of ideas, He appears as something resting, not acting. Besides, is it reasonable to say that in Persons of God equal in all things, one is the instrument of the other? And is it fitting to think that the ideas of creatures are only with the Son, and not also with the Father and the Holy Spirit? And if they are with Them too, why then philosophize: the Son as causa exemplaris? If it is fitting to apply the work of creation to the activity of our soul; see then how it acts. Whatever it does, it always works with all its powers: with mind, will, and feeling. But begin to examine and distinguish what belongs to each power in the work, and you will not make out with precision. So if in our own work we cannot discover such distinctions; how could we conceive what in the work of God Trihypostatic belongs to which Person? And this all the more because the likeness of three powers in a single soul to three hypostases in a single God is extremely weak, although it can be considered when thinking of God: for in it is the image of God.

“all things”—all that exists. Then he enumerates: “things in heaven and on earth,”—the earth with all creatures on it and heaven with all that exists in it. Then, since upon the word “things in heaven” another might limit his thinking only to the sun, moon and stars, but the Apostle needed to indicate not only these; he added: “visible and invisible,”—as if to say: I mean not only these, but also what is hidden in them; I mean not only the visible world but also the invisible, spiritual. Finally, so that no one might exclude anyone from the host of spirits in this spiritual world from the number of those created by God the Son, the Apostle recounts by name the multitudes of them: “whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities,” and concludes: “all things have been created through him and for him,”—all, all, whatever you might conceive and recognize as existing, all was created by Him.

It was especially necessary for Saint Paul to fix attention on this invisible world of heavenly spiritual powers, because the false teachers who led the Colossians astray speculated about them improperly and placed Christ, Jesus, and the Son in their ranks. The Apostle says that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, incarnate, is not only not among them, but on the contrary, is their Creator and God. He lists only four hosts of them, it must be supposed, only by way of example. One can complete: these and all other hosts, as many as there are. There was no need to list all the ranks of angels. The discourse is not about them, but about the Godhead of the Lord Saviour, which is proved chiefly by creatorship. Having said: “all things have been created through him and for him,”—the Apostle gives to understand that nothing remains uncreated by Him, except of course the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father (Blessed Theophylact).

He Is Before All Things; Head of the Body, the Church (Colossians 1:17–18)

Col. 1:17. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

“He often repeats the same thing in order, by the repetition of words, as if by many blows, to cut out root and branch the impious teaching. And note, he did not say: He came into being before all, but: ‘He is before all,’—which is proper to God” (Saint Chrysostom, Blessed Theodoret, Blessed Theophylact). “Whatever you might conceive, you will find that He is before that, pre-exists that, dwelling eternally co-with the Father and Spirit” (Oecumenius). “He is before all; for He alone is begotten of God the Father, from the unbegotten nature of God. But all else exists by His power, which He has from the Father through generation; and it is not so that the created has any fellowship with Him by nature, but so that, having received existence from nothing from the Son, acting at the bidding of God the Father (or by mutual will, of one mind), it is held by Him in existence” (Ambrosiaster). “It received existence by Him, and continues to be by Him” (Oecumenius).

This is the Apostle’s aim in this place—to show that the Lord is also the Sustainer of all. “‘in him all things hold together.’ For He is not only the Creator of all, but also cares for what He created, and rules the creation, and by His wisdom and power it stands” (Blessed Theodoret).

“All is held by Him. He not only brought all this from non-existence into existence, but now sustains all this, so that if anything were removed from His providence, it would be destroyed and perish. On Him, he says, all is established, because it is sufficient to rely on Him, and He will support and firmly hold. So that you might not think that here He is a serving instrument (that is, in providence, to which Angels serve as instruments), the Apostle says that He Himself sustains all this (by His ever-existing power), which means no less than the very creation” (Saint Chrysostom).

The Apostle has shown what the Lord Jesus Christ is according to His Godhead; now he begins to speak of what He is according to the incarnate economy (Col. 1:18–20). “Having spoken of His dignity, he then speaks of His loving-kindness” (Saint Chrysostom). “He passed from theology to the economy” (Blessed Theodoret). Here are revealed two contemplations: αα) the height of the God-man (Col. 1:18, 19) and: ββ) His chief work—the reconciliation of all things with God (Col. 1:20).

Col. 1:18. And He is the Head of the body, the Church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence.

“He is the head”—He, of whom it was proclaimed before, the Son of God, begotten before all ages, who created all things, who sustains all things and cares for all things, that very One “is the head of the body, the church.” The body of the Church is a harmoniously joined together multitude of believers in Christ the Saviour, clothed in Him, vivified and reborn by the Holy Spirit, and standing in a living union with the Lord—the totality of restored humanity. It was restored first in Him, in His Person, and according to Him and through Him by the Holy Spirit all believers are restored and, being restored, are joined to Him essentially, become one with Him, and are held by Him: so that He is their Head both as the source and as their sustainer. There by the order of nature He created all, and ‘by Him all things hold together’; but here by the economy of grace all is transformed by Him and again will be held by Him—it abides and stands. Thus the whole Church is one with Him, and through Him with God the Father. All is brought to unity of origin. “The Church here stands in place of all mankind,” says Saint Chrysostom. This is by the power of the incarnate economy and its purpose. If not all enter into its body for union with its saving Head, it is not at fault, but those themselves who do not enter are at fault. “Having said: ‘Head,’ the Apostle wishes to show the closeness of the Lord to us and at the same time the greatness of God’s loving-kindness—that He who is so high and above all was pleased to unite Himself so closely with our lowliness” (Saint Chrysostom). Upon this, believers should continually reflect in grateful feelings.

“He is the beginning,” αρχη,—the beginning of restored humanity. It was first restored in Him, and then according to Him and by the power of His economy all those being restored are restored, clinging to Him by faith. He is the beginning as the source from which flows the restorative power, and as the progenitor of those being restored and the norm of restoration. “The Apostle represents Him as the beginning, expressing the thought that and the others are the same as He,” says Saint Chrysostom.

“the firstborn from among the dead.” “The first to rise from the dead; the first to loose the pains of death and to come forth from its womb as a newborn” (Blessed Theodoret, Blessed Theophylact). “And there were indeed others who rose before; but died again, showing that they did not have in themselves the power of resurrection. But He, having risen, dies no more, containing in Himself the power of resurrection” (Blessed Theophylact). “This power is such that it serves as the foundation and source also of the general resurrection of all” (Blessed Theodoret). “He began; after this all, like Him, will come forth from the bosom of death as newborns” (Blessed Theophylact). Wherefore He is named the firstborn from the dead. “‘the firstborn from among the dead,’ as having risen before all, whom all others will also follow” (Saint Chrysostom, Blessed Theophylact). Ambrosiaster writes: “Since ‘all things were created by Him’; so also all things, after they fell and were corrupted by sin, had to be restored through Him, so that if it had been restored through another, some shadow would not fall upon Him. Therefore as He was begotten before all from eternity, so again He is the first to appear and the first in resurrection from the dead, returning to it through this its original life. Begotten first of all from God, He created all things from non-existence; and being born again from the Virgin with the flesh He took, He destroyed sin, which entered into the world through the virgin Eve, and with sin also death. And thus being born and having died, He rose, so that what was created in the beginning and fell into death through sin might be recreated again.”

Restored humanity, as it ought to be in this state, was manifested in the risen Lord. Therefore properly did He become the beginning of it—such—through resurrection, or as the firstborn from the dead.

“so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” “For as God, He is before all and eternally with the Father, but as man, ‘the firstborn from among the dead’ and head of the body” (Blessed Theodoret). “He is first in all things, first among the celestial beings, first in the Church as its Head, first also in resurrection” (Saint Chrysostom). “For He was begotten before all ages from the Father, and before all men rose from the dead—a resurrection not having seen death and bringing incorruption to all” (Oecumenius, Blessed Theophylact).

“in everything”—in all respects; in whatever respects one might contemplate Him, everywhere one finds Him having supremacy. But according to the flow of the Apostle’s speech, attention is paid only, on one hand, to the natural order of things, on the other to the order of grace. There He is first as Creator and Providence, but here as Redeemer and Restorer.

“‘So that He might have supremacy.’ Thus it was established in the Eternal Counsel of God—for there to be One and the same Who is Creator, Providence, Redeemer, and finally also Judge. But the Apostle sets this forth with the aim that believers’ mind and heart might be established in the One and cling to the One. This is against the false teachers who introduced many powers (aeons) and through this many rulers. Those listening to them scatter their attention and hopes in various directions, yielding nothing. Truly there is One our hope—and in Him is all.”

Col. 1:19. Because in Him it pleased all the fullness to dwell.

He proves that truly from eternity it was established that our Saviour would have supremacy in all: for thus did God will that in Him alone all fullness would dwell—everything complete, all that is needed for anyone and for anything, both in time and in eternity. The reason why He is such is that He is the God-man. Therefore the dwelling of all fullness in Him means also that “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9). “By ‘all fullness’ the Apostle named the fullness of Godhead. As He is the Son and Word as God, so He dwells in Him—not His action dwelt, but He Himself, by His essence or by His full hypostasis” (Saint Chrysostom, Blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius). For this reason all that is needed is encompassed in Him: apart from Him nothing exists or is obtained, and nothing reaches God. Ambrosiaster writes: “All fullness is in Him and abides, He always can do all: He created and recreated, raises up what has fallen and quickens what is dead. Therefore He says: ‘As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.’ And again: ‘For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it’ (Jn 5:26, 21). What is so just as that God should commit judgment to Him over what He created through Him? That all the fullness of Godhead dwells in Him is evident from the fact that, as we have said, He has all authority and power; and this means that He is perfect God, for whoever lacks this is not God.”

God the Father testified from above concerning Christ the Saviour at His baptism and transfiguration: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17, 17:5)—or in whom is all My good pleasure. Why? Because by Him and in Him all God’s will is accomplished, all of God’s plans and intentions, all of God’s good pleasure comes to completion in Him. And all appointed to be accomplished by Him and in Him is accomplished; because He is the Son of God and God incarnate. Therefore God the Father rested and rests upon Him with His good pleasure.

In Him All Fullness Dwells; Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:19–23)

Col. 1:20. And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross, through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

“‘and through him to reconcile to himself all things’—this is the main thing which God was pleased should be accomplished through His incarnate Son. ‘Reconciliation’ suggests enmity (Saint Chrysostom), and as it seems, between God and creation: for he says: ‘reconcile to himself all things,’—that is, God was pleased to reconcile all things with Himself through His incarnate Son. What is this enmity? God does not contend, for He is impassible; and creation would not dare to think of waging war against its Creator and God. What then is this enmity, cut off by reconciliation? It is a departure from the law of God’s will. Saint Paul, writing (to the Romans) about the mind of the flesh, said that it is ‘hostility to God”; and immediately added an explanation why he called it so: “for it does not submit to God’s law’ (Rom 8:7). Thus according to him, hostility to God is disobedience to the law of God’s will. He who has departed from the law of God’s will and remains in his disobedience to it, he wages war against God. Such is fallen man. The Son of God was incarnate to reconcile him with God, that is, to bring him into the order of life according to God’s will.”

But this would be reconciliation of man only, while the Apostle says: “reconcile all things,”—by which he understands all—both earthly and heavenly. How does the word “reconcile” apply here? In the same way as in relation to man. When man departed from God’s will, all went not as God had willed from the beginning—not according to God’s will: for all came into discord. The heavenly powers could not be at peace with man because of his disobedience to God (Blessed Theodoret), and all creation rose up against man. For it remained in God’s will, as having no free will, while he departed from this will, yet being essentially connected with creation. And it opposes him as one going against the God-appointed order. By God’s intention all was to remain in harmonious accord. The Son of God came and was incarnate to abolish this discord of all things. Therefore the Apostle, having said: “reconcile all things,”—added: “by making peace” both earthly and heavenly. “One here indicates enmity, namely: ‘reconcile,’—while another indicates war and discord, namely: ‘by making peace’” (Saint Chrysostom). But this peace is also made by the same path, that is, by bringing man into the order of life according to God’s will. For if discord comes through departure from this will, then the cessation of discord comes through entering into it and remaining in it.

How then was this accomplished? “by his blood, shed on the cross.” By it reconciliation with God, by it peace of all things, by it restoration of what has fallen. All the work of the incarnate economy is thus: the Son of God, incarnate, underwent crucifixion and thereby removed from man the guilt of sin; then, having risen and ascended to heaven, opened to the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life, the way to descend into humanity. And He, having descended upon the Apostles and through them established the holy Church, remains in it, through the holy mysteries rebirthing all, giving life, and holding in the will of God by His guidance and gracious power every one who with faith clings to the Lord Saviour. Thus each one is brought into the order of life according to God’s will; consequently, thus is he reconciled and thus is he brought to peace. Since the Holy Spirit would not have come down if the guilt had not been removed from man by the death of the Son of God on the cross, and without the grace of the Holy Spirit man would not have entered into the order of life according to God’s will and consequently would be neither reconciled nor at peace; therefore the Apostle refers all this good to the blood of the cross as the sole source. This blood both washes and by the grace of the Holy Spirit quickens for life according to God.

The Apostle writes: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things,”—as of a work completely accomplished. And such it is by its power and before the all-seeing eye of God. In reality, by the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, His death on the cross, His resurrection, ascension, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, only a beginning has been established, living and rich in action. From the moment of the descent of the Holy Spirit, the reconciling and peace-making power of the incarnate economy has begun to work, continues to work, and will work until the end of the age, through the bringing of believers into the orders of life according to God by the quickening of the Holy Spirit. But this is visible only to the eyes of faith. At the present time, all who are counted worthy of this blessing are gathered round the risen Christ, sitting at the right hand of God. If our eyes were opened and we saw this, then in deed we would understand what is the reconciliation of all things with God and the making peace of the earthly and heavenly. At the end of ages, when there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, all this will be manifestly seen and understood by all.

It is possible, or rather should be supposed, that the power of reconciliation and peace-making through the incarnate economy began to work immediately after the fall. And it would have been proper for the heavenly powers and all creation to rise up against man as soon as he departed from God’s will. If creation after sin did not subdue him, if the heavenly powers did not rise up against him as soon as he sinned, if the anger of God did not strike him in the very act of sin, all this is because reconciliation was already predetermined—there was already the Reconciler, who undertook the work of reconciliation, which began to work immediately as soon as there was need.

We cannot know how the Angels would have regarded us had there been no reconciliation; but we can guess from the Angel who stood with a sword at the entrance to paradise, and from the instances when they later struck sinners. We cannot know either how the rest of creation would have treated us had there been no reconciliation; but we can guess from the Flood, the burning of Sodom, the engulfing in the sea of the Egyptians, and similar events. But since reconciliation was predetermined, the Angels and creation began from the very beginning to serve this work—the former helping more inwardly, the latter admonishing more outwardly: for through it was imposed penance upon those who sinned. Therefore we see Angels singing joy at the birth of the incarnate God the Son, the Saviour, proclaiming His glorious resurrection, accompanying Him with exclamations to heaven and there worshipping Him and glorifying Him. Why? Certainly also because they perceived in Him their reconciliation with their brethren in spirit, bearing flesh, which is destined at its appointed time to be revealed in power. We also see that at the hour of the shedding of blood on the cross, creation gave up certain dead raised to life, was not this perhaps because she received the expectation of the revelation in glory of the sons of God, when she too will appear in the glory of her reconciliation with her Head, for whose sake she was subjected against her will to futility and decay.

Thus God was pleased to reconcile all things to Himself through His incarnate Son, making peace by His blood shed on the cross, both earthly and heavenly. Let us quote what has been said about this by our commentators. Saint Chrysostom says: “It is a great thing to reconcile, and that it was through the Son is yet greater, and that this was greater still, by His blood, and not only by His blood but, what is yet greater, by the cross; so that here are five things worthy of wonder: He reconciled—with God—by Himself—by death—by the cross. How wisely Saint Paul combined all this in a few words! He wished to show especially that the Son of God accomplished the work of reconciliation not by a word spoken (as in creation: ‘He said and it was so’ (Ps 32:9)), but through the surrender of Himself (as a sacrifice of reconciliation).”

Blessed Theodoret writes: “He accomplished our reconciliation by enduring saving suffering, by shedding His blood, by offering Himself as a sacrifice for us; and He united heavenly and earthly.” We read also in Ambrosiaster: “in order to restore what was created by the Son through the Son as well, God the Father, when disorder had entered the midst of creatures through sin and they came into discord not only with each other but with their Creator, was pleased for His Son to be humbled through the incarnation, so that, becoming man, He might show and teach how what exists in the heavens and on earth can be reconciled with its Creator. And the Son of God, to bring this to completion, endured a bloody death on the cross for men.”

Thus are explained the words: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Concerning the words: “whether things on earth or things in heaven”—we read in Saint Chrysostom: “What does it mean: ‘(by making peace with) things in heaven’? As for ‘things on earth,’ this is understandable, because here everything was filled with enmity, each one of us was in discord with himself and with many others. But how did He make peace with ‘things in heaven’? Was there discord and disagreement there? No; but earth was cut off from heaven, and the Angels rose up against men, seeing their Lord insulted by them. And this enmity the Lord cut short. How? By transferring man to heaven. He not only made peace on earth, but raised man to the Angels, raised to heaven he whom they did not love. Behold this—a deep peace! The Angels began again to appear on earth, because man appeared in heaven. God brought them down to men, and raised men up to them. First He brought the Angels down to us, and then raised man to the Angels; the earth became heaven, because heaven was to receive what from earth. Now heaven is no longer barred from us by an impassable barrier; and every believer has his Angel. Where is this evident? Hear the words of Christ: ‘See that you do not despise one of these little ones… for their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven’ (Mt 18:10).”

Having shown both the height of the economy and the manner of its accomplishment, Saint Paul finally reminds the Colossians that: α) they themselves have been counted worthy of this great gift (Col 1:21, 22); and encourages them that it will remain their eternal possession if: β) they keep the necessary conditions—firm faith and unshakeable hope (Col 1:23).

Col. 1:21, 22. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—

This is either an application of what has been said, or an example explaining it. Behold, God has reconciled you to Himself, has not denied you this great gift. Or thus: so that it might be clearer to you what reconciliation is and in what it consists, look upon yourselves, what you were and what you have become by the economy of salvation in Christ the Lord. Blessed Theodoret makes such a paraphrase of this passage: “Learn from yourselves and judge all by it. For you, living in wickedness and impiety and being entirely deprived of the light of knowledge of God, became close to God, because the Master Christ paid your debt, giving His body to death, so that you, having received the calling, became holy and free from all defect.”

“Once you were alienated from God”—alienated from God and from the life of God. It is not explained how this came about, because it was known to them: through the fall they departed from God, alienated themselves from Him, and remained in this alienation; they came to love life outside God and chose it as a permanent way of life, in which they remained until then. Saint Chrysostom understands the words “you were alienated” as: you were alienating yourselves. “So that,” he says, “you might not imagine some kind of necessity (in such alienation), the Apostle says: ‘and you—alienating yourselves.’ It is not the same thing to deliver from evil a man who has necessarily suffered evil, and a man who has voluntarily subjected himself to it: the first is deserving of pity, while the second of aversion. Yet God, despite this, reconciled you to Himself, you who were departing from Him not by force, not by compulsion, but voluntarily. And long have both Angels and God desired your reconciliation; only you did not wish it.” In the word “alienating yourselves” there is also the thought: you not only did not expect, not only did not desire it, you even did not think of it—you deliberately turned away from God and fled from Him.

“and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” Enmity in relation to God, as was explained before, is a departure from God’s will and remaining obstinately in it, against God. “Alienation” suggests only inattention and coldness; but “enmity” forces one to suppose a certain hostility and irritated resistance, perhaps not directly to God, but to life according to God, and through that to God. He who has loved sin finds all that is of God displeasing, and if he stands in the ways of sin, it irritates and provokes hostility. When one turns to God, such dispositions are transformed; hostility is turned against sin, while toward God and things of God warmth begins to grow and good disposition. “in your minds,” τη διανοια,—by which is meant the whole internal order: both thoughts, feelings, dispositions, plans, sympathies, the whole person with consciousness and freedom—by all this, he says, you were given over to evil deeds, to wicked and lawless acts, and you walked in them, not even in thought departing from their circle. Since such an order of life is opposed to God’s will, by your whole essence you were permeated with opposition to God or enmity toward God. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle writes: ‘and were enemies in your minds in your evil behavior,’—showing thereby that their alienation was not only in intention, but what? ‘in your evil behavior,’ that is, you were enemies and acted as enemies.” What is within, appears without: from the abundance of the heart not only the mouth speaks, but also the feet walk and the hands act.

Such then is what you were once, that is, before your belief and clinging to Christ the Lord. Yet, notwithstanding such your alienation from God and enmity toward Him, He now reconciled you to Himself. He has given you the same good He established for all mankind. How did He reconcile you? In the same way He determined to reconcile all: “by Christ’s physical body through death.” God was pleased for His only-begotten Son, having come down to earth, to take upon Himself a physical body, visible and tangible, and in it dying by crucifixion, to remove from men the guilt of sin and to open for them the path to new life in grace. All who cling to Him by faith receive, for the sake of His death, forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and a new, holy life. How and to whom to run to Christ the Lord, God Himself arranges all; and if anyone, being called, believes and is established in faith, He reconciles him to Himself and counts him worthy of all the blessings of reconciliation. Behold, He has counted you worthy of all this. The gospel reached you without your seeking. This God brought to you; and your calling to faith seemed to come from His mouth. When you inclined toward faith, He strengthened you in this faith, and in the water of baptism, making you partakers of the cross-death of His Son, He removed your sins, was reconciled with you, and gave you a new life. Thus did God the Father reconcile you, who were alienated from Him and showed yourselves to Him as enemies disposed toward the sinful life displeasing to Him, through the death of His incarnate Son.

But He reconciled you, alienated and enemies, not leaving you as enemies and in alienation from Himself; but He reconciled you in this: He transformed you from enemies into friends and from strangers into His own sons and daughters to Himself. This is expressed by the words: “to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” “To present”—to show and to make: for one usually presents something already made. “in his sight”—before His all-seeing eye. What kind of holiness should it be? Such that not even a speck of uncleanness remains in them. God Himself presents you before Himself holy. If, in presenting work to others, one strives for it to have a perfect appearance; is not this all the more so when one makes something for oneself? If God, desiring to present you before Himself holy, Himself makes you such, and He knows and can do this in the most perfect manner; then who can measure your holiness, and not only find something imperfect in it? The words “holy, without blemish and free from accusation”—signify in total the fullest holiness, comprehensive and complete. If one distinguishes them, it may be thus: free from accusation—one from whom guilt has been removed; without blemish—one who is in himself pure; holy—one who besides this is enriched with all kinds of good and pleasing-to-God works. Saint Chrysostom, interpreting this passage, explains the bright state in grace of the Colossians as their appropriation of what was done for all by the Lord Saviour. “The Lord Saviour not only freed us from sins (justified, removed guilt), but also placed us in the number of the deserving and beloved. He endured so much not merely for our freedom from evil, but also to raise us to the original state, as if someone, freeing a condemned man from punishment, also raised him to a state of honor. He placed us in the number of those who have not sinned in anything, or rather, not only in the number of those who have not sinned, but even in the number of those who have accomplished the greatest feats.” This, done for all, God the Father assigned and gave to you, Colossians, said the Apostle.

“To present” shows the goal. God became reconciled with you, enemies and estranged ones, in order to present you, or make you so perfect. But how is not stated. He became reconciled through the death of His Son; but in this only the possibility, beginning and starting point for presenting you holy. But how does this sanctification actually come to its end? Thus: the believer sets intention and resolution to live the rest holily and blamelessly. God’s grace in holy baptism strengthens this resolution and makes it powerful, “so as from now on not to serve sin.” Coming forth from the font prepared for every good work and then begins to grow rich in all good works, struggling with sin both within and without. This struggle continues unceasing, and holiness ripens. Finally all both within and without is filled with holiness; and the believer can be honored standing before God in perfection, holy, not as having made himself such by himself, but as made such by God the Father Himself, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, in virtue of the cross death of His Son, by the good pleasure of the Father, in the sanctity of the Spirit, through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:2). But although perfect holiness is only in the goal, nevertheless, because of zeal for it in deed, God holds those who so strive to be perfectly holy: for He sees the end of each one’s path.

Thus presentation as holy is for each one still in the goal, requires struggle and time. Therefore the word: “to present”—cannot be considered foreign to the thought that this will finally be revealed at the last judgment. Ambrosiaster points to this among other things.

It is evident from this that presentation as holy, and likewise reconciliation is not unconditional. As before alienation and sin were not against the will; so now reconciliation and holiness are not without will. What then is required?

Col. 1:23. If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, proclaimed to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

“If you abide.” If we set this speech in connection with the preceding, we get: God became reconciled with you that He might present or make you holy. He will indeed present or make you so, if you remain firm in faith and unmoved from hope. This is what is required, if with the word: “to present”—we hold in mind how this will be accomplished at the end of all things. Something similar to this writes the blessed Theodoret: “And you will be holy, blameless and without reproach, if you hold fast to what you were taught at the beginning, and keep firm the teaching delivered to you.” But if with this we hold in mind how holiness ripens in reality under God’s action, then it will be: He presents or makes you holy, if you remain firm in faith and unmoved from hope,—makes you so, though you do not notice it. Your faith and hope give Him space to act in you with all the power of His grace. And He acts, and speedily leads you to the predestined perfection in holiness. Whether one or the other is taken, it is evident that holy Paul “with these words, as holy Chrysostom says,—protects them from carelessness.”

Holy Paul mentions only faith and hope as conditions of progress in holiness. But where is love? How is it separated from its inseparable companions? Love is already indicated as working in the striving toward holiness under the action of grace. Zealousness for progress in works of goodness that build holiness is love in action. But faith and hope are to him what air, moisture and warmth are to a developing seed. Both the one and the other bring forth from themselves a multitude of good thoughts, which by their influence are powerful to keep zeal in constant tension; and as long as faith and hope themselves remain in strength, so long zeal for holiness, or active love, cannot grow weak. Here then is the reason why the Apostle mentioned them only as conditions of working out holiness, clearly expressing that they must be kept in strength. He expressed the strength of faith in the words: “founded and firm,”—and the strength of hope in the word: “unmoved.” All these expressions mean one thing—unshakability. Holy Chrysostom says: “and he did not simply say: ‘you abide,’—because there is abiding that is unsteady and wavering and there is standing and abiding that is firm. But he says: ‘if you abide founded, firm, unmoved,’—that is, not only not wavering, but immovable”.

Faith teaches: we are perishing; but the Lord came and saved us. Believe in Him and you—and you will be saved. Whoever holds this in his heart with such conviction as he is certain that he exists, in him faith is firm, has deeply put down roots into the heart and stands like a tree firmly rooted. Hope is inseparable from faith. Faith reveals that our Saviour is God, Who is true, wise, good and all-powerful. And these are the foundations of hope. The believer necessarily and already hopes. The first movement of hope is hope of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, assuring that apart from Him there is no salvation and that He will not abandon the believer by His help and guidance, will keep on the path of salvation, will assuredly save and grant eternal life. Hope overshadows the present life and extends to the future, all under the influence of faith. “The Apostle speaks as if: if you remain in faith, then the hope of receiving future blessings is certain” (holy Chrysostom). Therefore He combined hope with the gospel. The gospel preaches faith. But to awaken faith, it gives promises. Assurance in the promises completes the formation of faith, and faith strengthens hope. Whoever is firm in the faith of the gospel, he is unmoved also from the hope given by the gospel. Speaking thus, the Apostle impressed that on nothing else should they base the hope of salvation, but on that on which the gospel bases it, that is on the Lord Jesus Christ, and mix nothing with this one foundation. Holy Chrysostom says: “Who is the hope of the gospel, if not Christ? ‘He is our peace’” (Eph. 2:14). Therefore, whoever on another or something else bases his hope, he is shifted from the true foundation of it; and destroys all, because he does not stand on Christ (paraphrase from holy Chrysostom). Ambrosiaster writes something similar: “for this reason holy Paul showed above how great and boundless is the might of Christ the Lord, to teach that in Him alone must one place hope. For all is His, and nothing can live without Him, neither in heaven nor on earth. ‘And He is before all things, and all things in Him hold together.’ He holds the first place in everything: so that, if anyone thinks that he ought to show reverence (divine) before any elements or Angels, let him know that he is mistaken. For He alone is the Son of God, Head of all principality and power, the gospel concerning Whom has gone throughout all the world. Therefore, He alone ought to be heard and honored, and alongside Him no one ought to be placed. For as the head is, so the whole body is held; and he who is separated from the head, by whom the whole body is held together in life, is a corpse”.

Since both faith and hope as are born, so are nourished by the gospel; therefore holy Paul displays special price and high significance of it, stopping the minds of the Colossians on its universality, as he does also at the beginning. This gospel, he says, not you alone heard, but all creation under heaven heard and accepted it,—understanding by this creation rational creation, that is people. Having read this, everyone could not help making such an inference: if, as I heard and believed, and everywhere thus is preached and believed, and this by God’s command and arrangement; then there will be no sense, if I allow myself in any way to deviate from the promptings of received faith or be shifted from the foundations of hope on which I stand. Holy Chrysostom says: “holy Paul brings them themselves as witnesses again, and then the whole universe. He does not say: the gospel being preached, but preached and believed. He did this also at the beginning, wishing to confirm them by the testimony of many”.

“To which I Paul became a servant.”

“I became”—was not, but became, was made, was appointed. Holy Paul was appointed to serve the gospel among the Gentiles, who filled all the universe. Therefore, having said that the gospel was preached and believed throughout the universe, he mentioned also himself, using such a turn as a transition to the exposition of what he needed to say about his service. Holy Chrysostom says: “and this he does for assurance; for it had great weight, as he was celebrated everywhere and was the teacher of the universe.” And the blessed Theodoret makes such an inference here: holy Paul would not have said this if he had never seen them. They would have noticed to him: if you are appointed preacher to the Gentiles, why did you neglect us and not impart to us the teaching of the gospel?

The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29)

Having moved to showing his service to the gospel at the end of the preceding verse, holy Paul continues speaking about this until the end of the chapter. Directly: bb) this is spoken of in verses 25–27, namely: to me is appointed to serve the Church through the proclamation of God’s mystery concerning the calling of the Gentiles and their very calling. To this: aa) a brief introduction serves verse 24; and: vv) in verses 28–29 it is said: and this I am doing diligently.

Col. 1:24. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is lacking in the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the Church.

“Now” can be recognized as a consequential particle: why. He said: I am a servant of the gospel, through which you were deemed worthy of such blessings. Now he says: why I rejoice, despite sufferings, or amid all sufferings, I rejoice in the successes of the gospel, and I rejoice because of you, that you have been deemed worthy of the evangelical promises. Or “now”—a particle of time; now, in my position, in my sufferings. In that case the connection with the preceding is not visible. A new speech begins; and if anyone wishes to set it in connection with the preceding, then he must establish it mentally,—think it through. Holy Chrysostom does this thus: “what is the connection here? As if not apparent, but in reality great. I, he says, ‘am a servant,’ instead of saying: I introduce nothing from myself, but proclaim the teaching of another. In the truth indeed of what is proclaimed I am so assured that even I suffer for it, and not only suffer, but also rejoice in sufferings.” So also Oecumenius with Theophylact.

“I rejoice” not in the sufferings, but: “in the sufferings.” Joy has another source. I rejoice, seeing that the work to which I am appointed proceeds successfully; I rejoice that you are partakers of the Gospel and its blessings; I rejoice also because of the certainty of hope in the future. Thus our commentators set forth this. I rejoice in sufferings: “I rejoice, looking upon what we await in the future” (holy Chrysostom); I rejoice, “knowing that by this life is acquired” (blessed Theodoret); “the Apostle makes known that he rejoices in the sufferings which he endures; because in the faith of believers he sees his success. Moreover such suffering is not in vain, when through it is acquired He for Whom it is endured, and is acquired to life” (Ambrosiaster).

“In sufferings for you.” By sufferings the Apostle means the chains which he endured, and endured because he taught the Gospel to the Gentiles in its pure form, mixing nothing from what pertains to the Law and not indulging it. Therefore, saying: “in sufferings of theirs for you,”—he certainly meant: for you, as believers from the Gentiles. If we admit that the Apostle meant suffering directly for them, then we must accept that he saw them and they are his personal disciples. Thus blessed Theodoret: “what would be the ground for him who had not seen them and not directly imparted spiritual teaching to them to say directly that he subjects himself to various dangers for them?” Oecumenius and following him Theophylact understand by: “for you”—for you, for your benefit: “I suffer for you, so that by this I may benefit you, bring you benefit.” Suffering for the gospel testifies that the preacher is so assured of the truth of the gospel as of the fact that he exists; therefore he does not hesitate to sacrifice even his life for it. And how powerfully does this influence the firmness of faith of the believers?!

But it seems better to join the word: “for you”—with: “I rejoice”: I rejoice for you, that you believe, stand in faith and are partakers of the blessings of faith. Although the Greek expression is not in favor of such understanding; but the flow of speech through this acquires greater clarity and order. I am your Apostle; therefore I rejoice in your successes and by this joy fill up the lack which I experience in sorrows for Christ the Lord.

“Because I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.” This place is rather difficult and is interpreted differently, depending on what thoughts one connects with the words: “the sufferings of Christ, what is lacking, I fill up.” The flow of speech, it seems, justifies most of all such a thought: I rejoice for you in sufferings and thereby replenish what is taken from me by sorrows for Christ’s sake. It is simple, introduces into the flow of speech naturalness and ease for representing its content and is more in accord with the Apostle’s intent. How more can love be testified to, as when saying: joy for you replenishes all the lacks to which I am subject?

In the original there stands not: “because I fill up,” but: “and ‘I fill up’.‘All our commentators read thus. This’and”—obliges one to see in the following position a thought equivalent to the preceding, one which would serve it either in explanation or in application. “I fill up,” ἀνταναπληρόω. I fill up, ἀναπληρόω,—when something is wanting to the fullness of a whole; and ἀνταναπληρόω—means that from a whole something has been torn away and in place of that something new is acquired, by which the formed lack is replenished. The lacks of his own, or what was torn away from him, the Apostle expresses by the word: ὑστερήματα—lacks, combining under this everything of which he was deprived by the sufferings of Christ. “What is lacking in the sufferings of Christ” means not a lack of sufferings, but lacks from the sufferings of Christ, caused by these sufferings. “The sufferings of Christ”—not the sufferings which Christ the Lord Himself endures, but sufferings which are endured for Christ,—the same as the sufferings of Christ in the following place: “as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ does our consolation overflow” (2 Cor. 1:5). The sufferings or sorrows of Christ deprived the Apostle of much: communion with the brethren, comforts of preaching, freedom, the feeling of security of life, peaceful sleep, food and drink and much else. They caused him great loss, produced great devastation, formed a great emptiness. But, says the Apostle, no matter how great the emptiness, however numerous the losses and lacks may be, all of them I fill up with joy for your faith and firmness in it. All that has been said together gives: I rejoice for you, for your faith and firmness in it,—in my sufferings, and by this joy I fill up all the lacks which are caused to me by these sufferings, or sorrows for Christ the Lord. What strong joy is expressed! And what firm love is testified toward the Colossians! This is what the Apostle wished to show, so that he might then have grounds to say: “what great struggle I have for you” (Col. 2:1).

The words: “in my flesh”—indicate sufferings, lacks and sorrows external, in the body and in external position caused. And the words: “for His body”—must be recognized as clarifying—“the sufferings of Christ.” With joy for you I fill up the external lacks from sorrows for Christ the Lord and for His body, which is the Church, so that it might stand, expand and enjoy well-being.

But, recognizing such interpretation as best, we do not avoid the other, most acceptable, by which “the sufferings of Christ” are recognized as sufferings which Christ endures, but not in Himself, but in the person of believers, in the present place—in the person of holy Paul,—“in my flesh; what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ” is understood as a lack of these sufferings, as if Christ the Lord has not yet endured all that is necessary, and continues to endure it, not in the sense that the sufferings and cross death of the Lord do not contain sufficient redemptive value, but in the sense that the application of the work of redemption to men requires suffering, which Christ endures in the body of the Church through mysterious, but nonetheless living union with it, as Head. The sense of the Apostle’s words therefore is thus: what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, that I fill up by sufferings in my flesh for the Church—His body. Here are the words of holy Chrysostom on this: “‘and I fill up,’ he says, ‘what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ in my flesh.’ It seems he has said something great; but this is not a result of forgetting his measure, but the fruit of great love which he nurtures for Christ. He does not wish to recognize the sufferings as his own, but recognizes them as Christ’s and speaks as if: what I endure, I endure for Him or for His sake; therefore do not render thanks to me, but to Him: for it is He who suffers this (in me). Clearly, the Apostle expressed himself thus, wishing to attach (draw and bind) the Colossians to Christ. As if someone, being sent to someone, asked another: I beg you, go for me to such-a-one; and that one then would say: I do this for such-a-one (so also here). Therefore the Apostle is not ashamed to say that even these sufferings (which, that is, the Apostle endures) are His: for He not only died for us, but after death is ready to suffer for us. The Apostle persistently strives to show that Christ by His own body suffers for the Church, and leads the Colossians to that thought (so that they should hold in mind): not we bring you to Him, but He Himself brings you to Himself, though (apparently) we do this: for we have not taken up our own work, but His. And this is all the same as if some general, having under his command a special army, led it into battle and then was forced to leave his post; then the wounds which he ought to receive, the sub-general would receive until the end of the battle. And that in the Apostle’s case it is truly the thought that he is doing this for Christ (that is, enduring), listen: ‘for His body,’ he says, wishing thereby to say: not to you do I give this (the sorrows), but to Christ: for what ought to be suffered by Him, I suffer for Him. Behold how powerfully he expresses himself and what strong love he shows! As in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians he said: ‘in us He placed the service of reconciliation’ (2 Cor. 5:19, 18); and again: ‘on behalf of Christ we are ambassadors, as if God were pleading through us’ (2 Cor. 5:20): so also here he says the same thing: for Him I have undertaken to suffer, so that by this I might attract them more to Christ. That is: if He, having departed (through the ascension), remained still somewhat in debt, I for Him pay (the payer). Therefore he also said: I fill up ‘what is lacking,’ to show that, in his opinion, Christ has not yet endured all. For you, he says, and even after death does He suffer, if something remains lacking in this. In the Epistle to the Romans he does this in another way, saying: ‘who also intercedes for us’ (Rom. 8:34) (having said beforehand that He died, but rose and sits at the right hand of the Father), showing thereby that He was not satisfied with death alone, but even after that does infinitely much. So, he speaks thus, not exalting himself, but wishing to show that Christ even now cares for them.‘—Here are the words of Ambrosiaster:’The Apostle says that the sufferings caused to believers are inflicted on Christ Himself; because they are persecuted for His teaching,—and he speaks thus in order, on the one hand, to aggravate the guilt of the cruelty of the unfaithful, on the other—to present to believers the abundance of God’s love for them in the fact that the Son of God even now endures reproaches for them.”

The blessed Photius, in Oecumenius, interprets somewhat differently what is the filling up of the sufferings of Christ. According to him, the sufferings of Christ are filled up not by Christ’s sufferings, but by ours. Christ suffered for us; we ought to repay Him for this by our sufferings for Him. But to do this fully there is no possibility: for Christ’s suffering has infinite value, and ours—what?! Nevertheless, the more we suffer, the more we approach the measure of Christ’s sufferings, and every new suffering of ours ever fills up and is filled up with what is still lacking in our sufferings to the measure of Christ’s sufferings. And this very thought is in holy Paul in the present place. Here are his words: “Christ, who bore insults, mockery and scourgings and was crucified for us, not only paid all for us, but paid in infinite measure, beyond word and reason. Through this we also became debtors to Him, that is, we ought, instead of those infinite and world-saving sufferings, ourselves to endure and bear all sufferings and sorrows for Christ and His body, so as to repay what Christ suffered for us. But to repay this fully, so that our sufferings also be like and equal to Christ’s and no lack be in them against those, is impossible. However much and whatever we might have suffered, there will still be much remaining that is lacking against the sufferings of Christ. For how can it be repaid that the Master suffered for the servant by the servant suffering for the Master? Clearly how unequal and uneven this is. Or how can sinless suffering for sinners and their offenders be repaid by sinners suffering for their benefactor who is sinless? Therefore, however much one might suffer, wishing to pay for the sufferings of Christ, he will always be only filling up the lack of the sufferings of Christ (that is, what is lacking in his sufferings against the sufferings of Christ).”

Col. 1:25. Of which I became a minister according to the dispensation of God given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God.

“To which”—the Church of God, for which, by love for the Lord and His work, I suffered so much and bore such lacks. “I became”—was made, was appointed “a servant.” Before he said he was appointed a servant of the gospel, but here he says he was appointed a servant of the Church. At first there was no Church; there were only chosen ones and supplied with all things necessary, the builders of it; supplied with the word of the gospel and grace: “Go and teach, baptizing” (Mt. 28:19). The gospel gathered material for the building of the Church, and grace worked upon this material, adapted it for the building of the Church and placed it in its place in the building itself. Thereafter the formed Church the gospel—refreshed, vivified and strengthened. Thus, service to the Church was not and is not without service to the gospel. Therefore also here holy Paul says that he was appointed a servant of the Church: “to fulfill the word of God,”—in this fulfillment placing the chief work of his service. “To me, he says, the salvation of the Church is entrusted and committed the service of preaching, so as to fill all of you with divine teaching” (blessed Theodoret). Our other commentators make such an inference here: I am a servant, and I do nothing of myself, but fulfill what is commanded not by man; but by God. Therefore you must unquestioningly obey the servant appointed by God. Why then do you introduce Angels here? about this I did not give you a commandment (holy Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius).

“According to the economy of God given to me in you.”—“According to the economy,” κατὰ τὴν οἰκονομίαν,—according to the economy of God, according to the dispensation of God. The house of God is the holy Church. The Master of this house is Christ the Lord with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Stewards and overseers—the holy Apostles. To each of them is given his own work; given also to holy Paul his own work: “Having ascended to heaven, the Lord left us successors in the service in the work of the dispensation of the Church” (holy Chrysostom, Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). About this distribution of services according to the dispensation of the Church the Apostle speaks here. What exactly is entrusted to him, this he indicates immediately after: “to fulfill the word of God in you,”—that is in the Gentiles. When doing this, both in the Apostle and in those reading who knew him, there could not but be reproduced in memory also how this was entrusted to him: which in the present case was so important that one cannot but suppose that the Apostle intentionally mentioned about the special arrangement of God concerning him. I am your Apostle, by God’s economy: why then do you allow others to come to you? Such a reminder of the Apostle’s special election vivified the conviction in the truth of his preaching and made it still more powerful this: why? Such an inference does holy Chrysostom make here, and following him our others.

“The word of God”—the word concerning salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.—“To fulfill”—to fulfill or complete the work of preaching concerning this salvation, or to fulfill by it all the universe, as Apostle to the Gentiles, with whom all the universe was full. Joining the word: “to fulfill”—with the word: “according to the economy,”—we get the inference that the Apostle wished to impart: if this is according to God’s economy, then know that, only by God’s grace, as I am sufficiently able to enlighten you with the word, so also you—capable of receiving this enlightenment. Without this grace neither could I convince you,—so darkened and plunged in such ignorance,—nor could you receive such high dogmas. Not Paul’s and not your strength is this work, but God’s,—God’s economy (holy Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact).—“In you”—is placed in such a connection with the Apostle that it can be referred both to the given “in you” service, and to: “to fulfill the word of God in you.” The thought is one, wherever this word is placed: for both the service given in them is the fulfillment of the word of God,—and the fulfillment in them of the word is the perfecting of the given service.

The scope of the word: “in you”—is such: either “in you”—all Gentiles, or “in you”—Colossians, as one of the Gentiles. One need not strain to establish one definition; because the matter is not in this, but the thought both one and the other is fitting. Blessed Theodoret does not here pass up the occasion to make an inference that the Apostle himself saw the Colossians: “it is evident from this that, having seen them, he wrote the Epistle.” But by the word: “in you”—blessed Theodoret understands not only the Colossians, but the faithful throughout the whole universe.

Col. 1:26. The mystery hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

Clarifies what is meant by the word of God which was entrusted to him to fulfill,—means “the mystery, hidden,” and so forth. The construction of the speech requires adding the pronoun: which, or after: “mystery,”—or before: “now.” The first is better. It will be: “the mystery, which was hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to the holy ones.” Or, if not to add: which, then “has been revealed” must be changed to: “being revealed”; so that it would be: “but now being revealed.” This mystery is the salvation of mankind in the Lord Jesus Christ. This mystery was hidden in God eternally and placed together with God’s counsel concerning the creation of the world. But the Apostle speaks not of this hiddenness, though indirectly it can be understood, but of hiddenness from ages and from generations, that is, as ages and generations began, it was always hidden; if you go back in thought, you will pass through all generations and all times and ages and nowhere find that it was known to anyone. God alone knew it; of the other beings, capable of knowing, that is, of rational creatures, no one knew it. But how did no one know it? Knowledge of it began to be opened from the very fall and then ever more and more was it being revealed? It was revealed and yet remained veiled. By God’s purposes it was not to be revealed in such definiteness in which it appeared in its fulfillment. It remained only the expectation of something great, without clear vision. And this only in the least part of mankind, in the Jewish people. As concerns the other nations, they did not even have this. But it seems holy Paul understands here especially that aspect of this mystery which concerned the Gentiles, as the following speech suggests about this (“the mystery of this among the Gentiles”). Predictions about the Saviour coming were as spoken into the ears of the Jewish people, so were assigned by them only to themselves. Participation of the Gentiles in this salvation was foreshadowed; but it was not clearly seen how this would come to pass. Therefore it might be and was thought that they could in no other way be deemed worthy of this blessing save by passing through Judaism. That the Gentiles could directly, without all things, even without circumcision, become partakers of it, was incomprehensible to any human mind. This part of the mystery was decidedly hidden and came into no one’s mind until it appeared in its actual reality. “But now has been revealed to His holy ones.” The actual revelation of the mystery preceded its understanding. And after that not all understood it, but only the holy ones, and those not by themselves, but by special revelation: “has been revealed,” ἐφανερώθη,—became evident, or clearly opened. In Acts it is told how this was accomplished, in the story of the conversion of Cornelius. Holy Chrysostom says: “‘has been revealed’; therefore this too is a work of God’s economy. ‘Has been revealed to the holy ones.’ If to the holy ones alone, then it means it is still even now hidden (from many).”

Col. 1:27. To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

“Which God was pleased to make known.” It is given the thought that even from the holy ones this mystery was not revealed to all, but only to those of them to whom God was pleased to reveal it. Blessed Theophylact writes: “so that you do not ask why to the holy ones alone is the mystery revealed, and even then not to all, the Apostle added: ‘which God was pleased.’ And God’s will is always supremely wise.—He could, of course, the Apostle might have said: to the worthy, but did not say, wishing to teach humility to those who were deemed worthy of this, so that they, knowing that they received revelation by God’s blessing or grace, would humbly think about themselves and not highly, as if having received according to their worth.” By holy ones the Apostle calls all Christians. Experience showed that not all Christians, at the beginning being exclusively from Jews, understood this mystery, even after God Himself by His special action led into the Church through Apostle Peter a whole heathen family. After this began to see into it those capable, first, of course, the Apostles, but then also other believers. After this the Apostle to the Gentiles was also raised up,—and the mystery became almost universally known. Blessed Theodoret writes: “‘mystery’ the Apostle called the preaching concerning the economy, as formerly to all unknown and known to God alone. And so this, says the Apostle, which was hidden from former generations, God has now revealed ‘to the holy ones, which He was pleased,’ that is, to the Apostles, and through them to those who believed. And thereby shows that before the Law and before the ordering of the world God of all things predetermined this economy, and to us holy ones, continues the Apostle, made it known.”

“Which is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles.” “Most excellently expressed the Apostle his thought and, wishing to show the whole weight of the appropriation of the economy of salvation to the Gentiles, from the excess of feeling seeks explanation upon explanation” (holy Chrysostom). How rich and overflowing is the glory of the mystery or economy of salvation when you look upon it in its application to the Gentiles! One must take the viewpoint from which the Jews then looked upon the Gentiles,—from which holy Paul also did not depart,—and then imagine what they became in becoming Christians,—so as to come close to the thought of the Apostle. This does holy Chrysostom: “and in others appears the great glory of this mystery (that is, of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ); but in them (Gentiles) much more. For people more insensible than stones to suddenly be brought to the dignity of Angels, solely by means of simple words and faith alone, without any labour,—this is indeed the glory and riches of the mystery, just as if someone a dog dying of hunger and mange, vile and abominable, no longer able to move and abandoned, suddenly made him human and showed him on a royal throne. Look: they worshipped stones and earth, were captives and prisoners of the devil—and suddenly they trampled on his head, dominated over him and scourged him. Servants and slaves of demons became the body of the Lord of Angels and Archangels. Not knowing even that there is God, they suddenly became co-enthroned with God. Do you wish to see the countless steps which they crossed? It was necessary for them, first, to know that stones are not gods; secondly, that not only they are not gods, but that neither earth, nor animals, nor plants, nor man, nor heaven nor what is above heaven also is not God; thirdly, that neither stones, nor animals, nor plants, nor elements, nor the higher, nor the lower, nor man, nor demons, nor Angels, nor Archangels, nor any other of those higher powers should be worshipped by human nature. As if drawing from some deep, it was necessary for them to know that the Lord of all—He is God, that to Him alone should one serve, that the wondrous ordering of life is good, that the present death is not death, and the present life—not life, that the body will rise, will become immortal—and man will dwell with Angels. A man who stood so low, after he leaped over all these steps, Jesus Christ set on the heavens, on a throne. He who was lower than stones, placed higher than Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Dominions. Truly well said: ‘what is the riches of this mystery’? The matter is like as if someone stupid suddenly made him a philosopher. But better to say: no matter what one says, one cannot explain as it ought the thought of the Apostle.”

“Which is Christ in you.”—“Which”—stands in place of “that which,”—which the arrangement of Greek speech allows. “That which,”—that is “the riches of the glory of this mystery,—is Christ in you.” As if wishing to say: there is no need to multiply words: it is enough to say: “Christ in you.” For if He is in you, then with Him and the countless blessings, in Him given to mankind, all these are in you. In one word to say: “Christ in you.” Or thus: all this riches of the glory of this mystery consists, or is seen, in the fact that Christ is in you. “Christ in you” with His blessings. This you experience and in deed see how great and glorious this blessing is. This it is then that is “the riches of the glory of this mystery.” “Explaining what is ‘riches’ and what is—mystery, he says: ‘Christ in you,’—that is, that you have known Christ and He is in you” (blessed Theophylact).

“Christ in you – the hope of glory.” “‘By hope of glory’ the Apostle named the glory awaited” (blessed Theodoret). “For through Him we hope to obtain eternal glory. Our hope most glorious and unashamed is Christ the Lord” (blessed Theophylact). The Apostle impresses: the glory manifested upon you through this, that you have been made partakers of the economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, is certainly great, rich and overflowing; but it is only the beginning of glory. The true glory in its full splendor and magnificence is awaited in the future. The guarantee, however, that it will indeed be revealed and that you will be partakers of it, is the fact that “Christ is in you.”

Col. 1:28. Whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching “in all” “wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

“Him,”—that is Christ the Lord,—“He, Who is above all, Who dominates over Angels and has authority over other powers, descended low, became man, endured countless torments, rose and ascended,—it is Him that ‘we proclaim,’ having received Him from on high” (holy Chrysostom). “We proclaim,” καταγγέλλομεν,—downward we announce Him Who sits on high at the right hand of the Father in glory and dominates over all, “as if bringing Him down from on high” (blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius). We, Apostles,—the true teachers of the universe, appointed by God and the Lord Jesus Christ, supplied with grace of the Holy Spirit and sent throughout all the earth. There is no other true preaching on earth except the one which we proclaim. Such an impression was very needful for the Colossians.

“Admonishing and teaching,” νουθετοῦντες καὶ διδάσκοντες. By this are meant the teaching methods by which first one explains the truth and then persuades of it, implants it in mind and heart; one does not stop at merely pointing out the truth, but inclines toward it and makes it submit to it. That the latter stands in the first place can be explained either by the importance of this work, or by the fact that the Apostle considered the indication of the order of these two activities of teaching to be a matter of indifference: for below (Col. 3:16) these words stand in reverse order.—Or perhaps these words show the order of bringing to Christ: first by admonition one brings to a sense of fear of God and repentance before God, and then by teaching one points out the way of reconciliation with God through faith in the Lord, Redeemer and Saviour. Or, finally, “under: ‘admonishing’—you can understand lessons of practical life, and under: ‘teaching’—the exposition of dogmas” (blessed Theophylact).

“With all wisdom,” ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ. All our commentators read thus and understand by this not the subject of admonition and teaching, but the manner: with all wisdom. Holy Chrysostom says: “with all wisdom, that is, with all wisdom and understanding, or: speaking all things in wisdom. All wisdom is required here; for not everyone can comprehend this.” Oecumenius cries out: “is not extreme wisdom required in order to persuade savage Gentiles?” Blessed Theophylact adds to this also something else: “in order to teach this successfully, all wisdom is required, drawing what is needed sometimes from Scripture, sometimes from reason, sometimes from Greek writers: as holy Paul did in Athens.” The Apostle has testified concerning himself that he was all things to all, that he might save some by his preaching. Both the degree of education and the character and external circumstances of those receiving the teaching require special attention. To be able to use everything for the success of teaching is the wisdom of the teacher.

“So that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”—“Every man”—this is already being said for the third time: for also after: “teaching”—the same stands: “every man.” All our commentators read thus. Surely, the Apostle felt the need to direct the attention of the Colossians to this more, impressing that for no one among men is there any other teacher besides us, nor any other teaching. We alone are teachers for all, and one teaching for all is entrusted to us, which we strive to impart to each one, admonishing each one and teaching each one, so that we may present each one perfect in Christ Jesus. Or perhaps holy Paul wished to express the breadth and impetuousness of his love for men and their salvation. “Insatiable was his holy soul and desired to bring every man to Christ” (Oecumenius). “What do you say: ‘every man’? Yes, he says, we are concerned about this. If this is not fulfilled, it is not our fault. The divine Paul strove to make perfect every man” (holy Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact).

“So that we may present every man perfect”—the goal of admonition and teaching with all wisdom. What does “present” mean? A teacher has in view to present his students successfully at examinations; but before that he is concerned in every way to prepare them for it. The same applies to the Apostles. They also had in view to present every man perfect before the face of God at judgment; but before that all their concern was directed to making every man such. That is the further goal, and this is the immediate one. And more likely, the Apostle, saying: “so that we may present,” meant: so that we may make. To this immediate goal were directed all the labors of their admonition and teaching with all wisdom; and that—the further goal, by the achievement of this immediate one, was achieved of itself.

What is the perfection of man in Christ Jesus? Whoever, having acknowledged his utter guilt before God, repented and, fleeing by faith to the Lord Jesus, as the only Saviour, cleaved to Him with all his soul, determining to walk in His commandments without deviation, then, having been sanctified by grace through the sacraments, truly walks this path, making progress in every good work, yet placing all his hope of salvation in the one Lord alone; he stands on the true and reliable path to true perfection in Christ Jesus, and if he does not depart from it, he will assuredly reach the degree of perfection possible for him. This was all the concern of the Apostles, so that, having imparted to each one the true teaching concerning salvation in the Lord Jesus, they might turn him from sin and passions, inspire him to a pure and holy life and, arming him with the grace of the Holy Spirit, truly direct him to such a life and then keep him in it. Thus—perfect in Christ Jesus is he who believes correctly and lives according to faith blamelessly, placing all his salvation in the Lord and burning with love for Him.

Col. 1:29. For which I also labor and contend according to His working, which works in me in power.

Before the Apostle spoke of himself together with the other Apostles, but now about himself alone, showing how he is concerned with the general Apostolic work—by means of admonition and teaching to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.—How then? “For this I also toil,” εἰς δ,—to this exactly my labors are directed, and labors not of some kind, but intense, accompanied by struggle and effort. “I am not simply concerned, he says, not as it happened; but: ‘I toil,’ ἀγωνιζόμενος,—‘I struggle,’—that is with all diligence, with all vigilance” (holy Chrysostom), “with all kinds of struggles” (blessed Theophylact), “struggling with enemies visible and invisible” (Oecumenius). Struggle presupposes both all inner effort—cares, prayers, concerns, and all external fighting and overcoming of obstacles both in those receiving the teaching and in its opponents. “In a word: I struggle—the Apostle showed that many are fighting against him” (holy Chrysostom). But, he says, “assisted by the grace of God, every labor and struggle I take upon myself willingly, so that by the teaching of the gospel I might make all men perfect” (blessed Theodoret).

“According to His working which works in me.”—Κατὰ τὴν ἐνεργουμένην,—according to His action, working in me. He stirs me up, He guides me, He strengthens me and brings every work to completion. He is the one working in me; I am only an instrument. He works; I only do not resist and refuse no labor or struggle to which He stirs me up and directs me. “The Apostle shows that everything in him is God’s work; and this not only from humility, but from truth” (holy Chrysostom). Having said: “I toil and struggle,”—he refers all his labor and struggle to Christ, speaking as if: this is not my work. He who makes me strong and sufficient for such labors and struggles with opponents, Christ is the one supplying me with effectual power.

“With power,” ἐν δυνάμει,—powerfully,—not only perceptible to the Apostle, but also visible to all. If the help of the Lord was not limited only to internal action in the Apostle, but manifested also outwardly, as external struggles lay ahead; then there is no ground not to admit that by the word: ἐν δυνάμει—is indicated also the miraculous power, which accompanied the Apostolic preaching everywhere and manifested itself in signs, as soon as necessity required. Ambrosiaster writes: “the struggle against the enemies of the gospel I led, he says, assisted by the power of signs. For whoever dared to contradict the verbal teaching, by the suggestion of the cunning devil, had to yield with shame to the power of signs.”

The last verse concerning the labors and struggles of the Apostle in the work of teaching and bringing believers to perfection serves as a transition to admonishing the Colossians.

The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

In this admonition the Apostle first makes: aa) an introduction to it (Col. 2:1–7), then proposes: bb) general admonition against any philosophy other than the teaching of faith (Col. 2:8–15), and finally: cc) indicates definite errors which must be avoided (Col. 2:16–23).

In introducing the admonition to the Colossians, the Apostle, after: α) expressing his care for them and their neighbors (Col. 2:1–3), indicates β) their good state in faith and life, which, however, is threatened by danger from word-twisters (Col. 2:4, 5); therefore he impresses: γ) to be firm and not to alter what has been received (Col. 2:6, 7).

Col. 2:1. For I want you to know what a great struggle I have for you and for those in Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.

Before this he mentioned his labors and struggles generally concerning every believer. Now he expresses that he has the same concerning them: by which he testifies his love for them, so as to dispose them to listen with obedience and attention to salvific, yet somewhat rebuking impressions and admonitions.

“I want you to know”—a usual turn of speech for the Apostle, as is also another: “I do not want you not to know” (1 Cor. 10:1). I want that you know. This is not the same as the cold: I inform; but expresses the need of a loving heart, so that the beloved does not doubt that it considers his well-being as its own and cares about him sincerely. “I earnestly wish to assure you” (blessed Theodoret). “What great struggle I have”—what care, what concern and heartfelt pain, with readiness to undertake every kind of labor for you. “He shows at first great love for them, so that the following speech might be received more favorably” (blessed Theophylact). But such a word could resound with bitterness in the heart from the thought: if his heart aches for us, it means he is anxious about us. To ward off this blow, the Apostle joins to them the Laodiceans, the Hieropolitans and others. “So it might not appear that the cause of such anxiety—their weaknesses (perhaps theirs alone), he added also others” (holy Chrysostom). He wished to say: “what great care I have both for you and for the Laodiceans, and not only for you and the Laodiceans, but for all, even those who have not yet seen me” (blessed Theodoret). “And in Hierapolis”—not all our commentators read. By the word: “in the flesh”—the Apostle did not have in mind to show anything particular, but merely to express more vividly that they had not personally seen him. It does not necessarily follow from this place that the Colossians and Laodiceans also had not personally seen the Apostle, as was mentioned in the introduction.

Col. 2:2. That their hearts may be comforted, knit together in love and in all “the riches of the full assurance of understanding, in the knowledge of the mystery of God and Father and Christ.”

What is the care about? “So that their hearts may be encouraged.”—“Their,”—according to the flow of speech, must be taken in the sense: your. It is said that the Hebrew language permits this. The Apostle took advantage of this because he needed to keep somewhat the attention of the Colossians on the indefiniteness of the reference, which is greatly aided here by: “their.” But in what sense “may be encouraged”? There is no mention of any sorrow in the Epistle. But there was danger of diverging in convictions, which could not but disturb mutual peace and not deprive the heart of the tranquility supplied by complete agreement in all things. Therefore, saying: “so that your hearts may be encouraged,” the Apostle could have had in mind to express the desire that their hearts always remain in an encouraging state, always taste encouragement,—implying that encouragement which proceeds from unanimity, as the following speech shows.

“Being fitted together,” συμβιβάζοντες. This Greek word is used when those who have become disharmonious again arrange matters between themselves and restore agreement. “Being fitted together”—will be: having made peace, or arranged between yourselves what was disrupted, ἐν ἀγάπῃ,—in love. But this would give the thought as if discord had already occurred among them, whereas there is no hint of this in the Epistle, and at the beginning, where benevolence is gained, holy Paul could not speak of this. Therefore, retaining for this word the same meaning of fitting together, the thought with it, as with: “may be encouraged,”—should be connected thus: may you remain in encouragement, remaining in accord, implying the harmony of unanimity; ἐν ἀγάπῃ,—in loving harmony or friendly accord. With the Apostle the concern is not about love, but about unanimity. Thus the Apostle, not reproaching them for discord, gives a strong hint of its possibility and clearly expresses his good desire for them that this not happen, and thereby already gives, in the spirit of fatherly love, a hidden admonition. Blessed Theophylact writes: “now he also touches on the dogma; but neither condemns them, nor fully absolves them from blame (these words are from holy Chrysostom). ‘I have,’ he says, ‘a struggle.’ What is he wishing to achieve? So that they not think differently, but all be fitted together and united in the single faith. How? Not by compulsion, but in friendly accord. The Apostle said this because convictions disagreeing with faith commonly produce divisions.”

In what are they fitted together, remaining in friendly accord? “In all riches of full assurance of understanding.”—“Full assurance,” πληροφορίας,—conviction; “understanding,” συνέσεως,—consciousness, conscience. It will be: fitted together, remaining in conscious, conscientious, rational conviction, and not simply in some conviction, but in conviction rich, strong, all-encompassing. I desire that you all be filled with all riches of rational conviction,—in the single one,—and thereby fitted together. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle desires that they doubt in nothing, that they be convinced in all things. He speaks of that conviction which proceeds from faith. There is conviction also resulting from reasoning; but it has no value. I know, he says, that you believe; but I wish that you be convinced, and convinced richly, convinced in all things and firmly. You know how I am concerned that you be convinced rationally, and not without reason.”

Concerning what does he desire them to be fitted together in their convictions? Concerning the knowledge of the mystery of faith. “To the knowledge of the mystery of God and Father and of Christ.” What is the mystery of God the Father and Christ? The mystery of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, arranged according to the good pleasure of God the Father. “The Apostle showed by these words that the mystery of the economy is a work common to the Father and the Son” (blessed Theodoret). The essence of the economy is in this, that “access to God and the Father we have only through the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Oecumenius). We have fallen away from God and the Father, and access to Him cannot be had otherwise than through His Only-Begotten Son, Who became incarnate, suffered, rose, ascended to the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father in humanity. Thus is the path to God opened to us again! And herein is the mystery of the economy of our salvation! In the acknowledgment of this, εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν,—come together with firm convictions and, having come together, remain fitted together in this, allowing no discord, so as always to remain in a joyful encouraging state. Such is the object of the benevolent concern of holy Paul for the Colossians.

Col. 2:3. In Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and understanding.

“In Him,”—that is in Jesus Christ. As God, He knows all things, like the Father, and “nothing is unknown to Him of that which the Father knows” (Oecumenius).

“By the word: ‘treasures’—the Apostle shows abundance (great value), by the word: ‘all,’—that He knows all things, and by the word: ‘hidden,’—that He alone knows all things” (holy Chrysostom). “He alone knows all things; but this exclusivity is understood only in relation to creatures, not in relation to the Holy and Most-Blessed Trinity” (Oecumenius). “The Apostle expresses something especially great here. ‘In Him all treasures.’ He is self-wisdom and self-knowledge” (blessed Theophylact). Thus the first thought at these words is that the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son of God and God, Himself knows all things. And this is very suitable for the Apostle’s purpose, for it taught: “if this is so, then from Him should everything be sought; He gives wisdom and knowledge” (holy Chrysostom).

But according to the flow of speech, it seems there is also possible in the Apostle the thought that in the knowledge of the Lord Saviour all wisdom and all knowledge are. Whoever knows Him as the Saviour, in that very knowledge acquires all wisdom and all knowledge. The knowledge of the Lord as Saviour is the knowledge of the economy of our salvation in Him and through Him, or, what is the same, the knowledge of God’s mystery, which was mentioned before. In that case: “In Him,” ἐν ᾧ,—must be recognized as referring to: “mystery,” μυστηρίου,—and: ἐν ᾧ—should be rendered: in which,—which the Greek language permits. The thought of the Apostle will be: in the knowledge of the mystery of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ all wisdom and all knowledge or all understanding is. By this it was impressed: do not treasure and seek after anything as you do the knowledge of this mystery; when you know it, then, even if you know nothing else, you are wise and understanding and all-knowing; therefore, if anyone approaches you in the capacity of wise and begins to propose to you wisdom disagreeing with the knowledge of God’s mystery concerning Christ Jesus, do not listen to him: he is not proposing wisdom to you, but absurd reasoning. In this sense Ambrosiaster understands these words: “The Apostle desires that the Colossians know the mystery of God in Christ, being convinced that in this is all the riches of wisdom and knowledge, to confess Christ in the fullness of the Godhead worthy of worship. In Christ is all the hidden mystery of God. He is the one Saviour, to Whom, if any human flesh does not hope, will perish. Whoever knows Him will also have true knowledge of all things. Therefore it is rightly said that in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; so that whoever knows Him needs nothing else to be recognized as wise and understanding, as one who has known Him in Whom is all wisdom. Whatever knowledge anyone thinks to find anywhere, in Him will find it abundantly. For unbelievers it is incomprehensible how in Christ is all wisdom and all knowledge; because they do not read astrology in the Gospel, nor geometry in the Apostle, nor arithmetic and music in the Prophets,—which we believers do not pursue because they do not belong to salvation, but rather lead into deception and turn from God: for, having occupied themselves with them and the intricacies of their reasonings, they forget to care for the soul. What wisdom is more sure and true than to recognize what is saving and turn from what is destructive? Destructive indeed is that which hinders the soul from caring about its salvation. Therefore it is not unjust to assert that whoever has known Christ has found the treasure of wisdom and knowledge: for he has known that which is saving for him.”

Having expressed such benevolence and goodwill, the Apostle says then: with you all is well, but I fear lest word-twisters deceive you.

Col. 2:4. This I say in order that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments.

“I say this”—what is this? All that I have said. I have expressed to you my goodwill, so that you all remain fitted together with firm conviction in the one truth, in the knowledge of the mystery of salvation in the Lord Jesus, because in this is all wisdom; but I have expressed this so as to warn you against word-twisting deceivers. I am afraid and troubled in soul lest they deceive you. As if beseeching them. Thus blessed Theodoret: “all this speech I conduct with you, beseeching you not to be carried away by seductive words.”

But rather, “I say this” should be referred to what immediately precedes, to that all wisdom is in Christ Jesus, or in the knowledge of the mystery of salvation in Him. If all wisdom is in this knowledge, and you have it; then it follows of itself that there is no need to accept any other teaching, no matter what fine name it is called by and what fine words it is covered with. With this purpose, that is so that you not be carried away by word-twisting, I have presented to you that in Christ Jesus is all wisdom, so that, being convinced that you already possess wisdom, you may reject all other reasoning, not being deceived by it. Thus holy Chrysostom: “I have said this to you, he says, so that you do not seek knowledge from men.” Thus blessed Theophylact: “I have said this, that in Christ is all knowledge, so that no one deceive you. What if he speaks eloquently? Know beforehand that if he does not speak according to Christ, then he speaks only paralogisms and sophisms.”

“Deceive,” παραλογίζηται,—so that anyone should not paralogize you, not entangle you with paralogisms, that is false reasonings, such as the falsity of which is covered by sophistry and which through such deception arouse conviction; “with persuasive words,” ἐν πιθανολογίᾳ,—with convincing words, insinuating. Ambrosiaster writes: “the Apostle admonishes that by intercourse with those not thinking well, craftily covering up their wrongness, they not turn their understanding: for the wise men of this world know how by subtlety of reasoning artfully to ensnare, as with a net, the minds of the simple, so as to turn them from the hope which is in Christ Jesus for the sake of worldly things.”

Col. 2:5. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

As if wishing to sober their mind with the authority of his apostolic power: I am with you. If I were personally with you, would you allow yourselves to be carried away by the empty speeches of others? So hold always in mind that I am with you, and you will not be carried away. To hold this in mind is not a dream, but truth. “Although I am absent in body, nevertheless I know deceivers. He placed himself between them, so that they might fear him, as if he were present with them” (holy Chrysostom). Ambrosiaster writes: “The Apostle says that he is always with them in spirit, so that, always holding before their spiritual eyes his face and reverencing him, they may turn away from such people. For if the spirit of the prophet Elisha saw how Gehazi pursued after Naaman the Syrian to take from him by deceit a gift in his name, and how Naaman hastily descended from his chariot and gave him more than he requested (2 Kings 5:26); is it not all the more so that the Apostle could in spirit see what he said? In the Apostles was greater grace than in the Prophets.—Further, to make them more zealous zealots of evangelical truth, he says that he rejoices, seeing that all is well with them: so that, knowing what has made them so pleasing before God, they might stand more firmly in it and ever more give themselves over to growth in faith.”

I am with you, he says, “and I rejoice.” For what reason? “Seeing your good order,”—that is the seemly arrangements of life both among yourselves and in relation to those without, non-Christians, and in families, and in church gatherings, and in spiritual disposition, and in outward behavior,—“and steadfastness,” στερέωμα,—firmness of “your faith in Christ,”—seeing, that is, that your faith is firm and is not disturbed by anything from adversaries. What high praise! The Apostle expressed it not for nothing. This is the second weapon against deceivers: pity yourselves. So all is well with you now. But it will not be well if you are carried away by the deception of other reasoning. Falsehood, creeping in, will scatter all of this. “Again he mixes praise with the teaching, softening the ear and preparing for his admonition a free access” (blessed Theodoret). Holy Chrysostom says: “now he ends with praise. By good order he means arrangement. This is the highest praise. And of their faith he did not simply say: ‘faith,’—but: ‘steadfastness,’ firmness of ‘faith’; as if speaking to soldiers standing in good order and firmly. Whoever is firm cannot be shaken by either blandishments or temptations. You, he says, have not only not fallen; but no one has disturbed even your good order.” “This he said both as praise, and as an impression that that faith is proper which is distinguished by rootedness and immovable firmness” (Oecumenius). “Faith in itself is a firm establishment, because it does not allow other thoughts to creep in, which, introducing division, shake the inner order” (blessed Theophylact).

γ) “Therefore stand firm in what you have received”

Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10)

Col. 2:6. As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.

“You received Christ Jesus the Lord”—is in the same sense as the Lord Himself: “Whoever receives you receives Me” (Mt. 10:40). They received the Lord when, having heard the gospel concerning Him, they believed in Him, believed, that is, that in Him alone is salvation, and hoped to be saved in Him. Having believed thus, they received holy baptism and in it were clothed in Christ the Lord. This is the most sincere reception of Christ the Lord, the reception of Him not in His word, but substantially. All of this the Apostle reminds the Colossians of when he says: “As you received the Lord.”

“To walk in Christ Jesus” is to walk in faith in Him, in the hope of salvation in Him alone, in His commandments, under the sanctification by grace through His sacraments, to walk in the whole order of Christian life.

Therefore, says the Apostle, as you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, hoped to be saved in Him, accepted upon yourself all the obligations conditioning this salvation, so also remain in all of this, not departing by a hair, by this order let your life flow in all its manifestations, in thoughts, words and deeds. “Keep unimpaired the teaching which you have received, and follow the evangelical ordinances, showing in yourselves firm faith” (blessed Theodoret). “The Apostle persuades and admonishes that they not allow a diminishing of their piety and not depart from the faith into which they were deemed worthy to enter, and, having turned in their thoughts to absurd fables, come not to receive Christ otherwise than as they learned. For at that time many ravagers of faith wandered about, craftily and wickedly proclaiming Christ to deceive the simple. Them—to avoid with all care—the Apostle here teaches” (Ambrosiaster).

Col. 2:7. Rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

He indicates specifically what he means when he says: “so walk in Him.” He does not indicate the manner and means, but the form of walking in the Lord. How do you remember, he reminds, that you received Christ the Lord? With all your soul, and with mind and feeling you were comforted in Him, and there was no wavering in you, all in you was one Lord Jesus; to Him was your love, in Him was your hope. So, as you received Him, so be in Him in all your life: “rooted, built up, established, abounding.”

“Rooted and built up”—give two comparisons: “rooted”—with a tree, “built up”—with a building. A tree deeply drives its roots into the earth and stands firm, not moving, by those same roots drawing for itself the nutritive juices from the earth. As, he says, a tree deepens its roots into the earth, so also you, with all the roots of your life, remain deeply rooted in the Lord Jesus and draw from Him the juices of spiritual-graceful life. Do not be torn from Him by these roots so as to transplant yourselves to something else. A tree transplanted will take root elsewhere and grow as it should. But if you, being torn from Christ the Lord, take root in something or someone else, then you cannot live as you should, you will seem to live, but you will not really be living, for the source of spiritual-graceful life is Christ the Lord alone. Whoever does not abide in the Lord cannot live or bear fruit (Jn. 15:1–6). But the chief point which the Apostle wishes to impress is immovability in faith and convictions. Holy Chrysostom says: “‘Rooted,’—that is, established; do not be carried away now this way, now that way, but be ‘rooted’; and a rooted thing never moves. See what precise expressions Paul employs!” “Do not do so as to walk in Christ one time and then in another” (Oecumenius). Therefore it means: “hold firm faith in Christ the Lord” (blessed Theodoret).

“Built up,” ἐποικοδομούμενοι,—being built up, being constructed. Another comparison with a building, but not with one already completed, but still being built. Spiritual-graceful life in the Lord is not immobility; it is in unceasing movement, always forward, and ever higher and higher, so that, as soon as such movement stops, life itself stops. But this movement is not motion or change, but growth in itself. And this growth too is worked in Christ Jesus. Holy Paul could have said to himself: rooted and growing in Him; but another thought came to mind, which is usual for him, the comparison of the believer with a building,—and he said: being built up,—not disturbing thoughts, but enriching them more, raising two comparisons before the eyes of the mind and leaving it to the readers themselves to complete what is lacking in each for the fullness of thought: there growth, here foundation: building for the first comparison gives the thought of growing, and rooting for the second—of foundation; for what the root is to a plant, the foundation is to a building, and what building is to a building, growth is to a tree.—Being built up in Him, that is in the Lord Jesus, for He is the foundation; He is also the builder, for without Him we can do nothing; He is also the plan of the building, for “His image we ought to be conformed to” (Rom. 8:29), “into His image to be transformed” (2 Cor. 3:18). He is also the necessary bonds of the building. Only the material is supplied by the will from nature, but even it does not remain in its natural (unworked) form, but is transformed by the grace of the Lord. Thus truly to be built, as also to grow, can only happen in the Lord. Whoever is in the Lord by faith and hope, he is already being built: for as soon as anyone enters into communion with the Lord, the building power of the Lord begins to work in him. Oecumenius writes: “ἐποικοδομούμενοι,—that is, growing on the foundation of Christ.” And Theodoret: “by the word: ‘built up’—he expresses the acquisition of virtue.” Holy Chrysostom: “by inner striving to reach to His measure.”

These two comparisons in the following words are given an interpretation or application to Christian life: “rooted”—is interpreted in: “established,”—and: “built up”—in: “abounding.”—“Established,” βεβαιούμενοι,—with strong, deep conviction standing unshakably in the faith as you were taught. This is what “rooted” means.—“Abounding”—ever more and more growing rich in it, or growing and being built up. This is what “built up” means! “Have perfect faith, that there be in it no lack, but let it flow abundantly and overflow in you” (blessed Theodoret). “‘Established,’—that is, allowing no doubt, no wavering. ‘As you were taught’: you learned the faith, so you must also abound in it, growing daily and acquiring fervent faith” (Oecumenius). “He says: ‘as you were taught,’—so that they, if nothing else, shame at least themselves. In this the Apostle laid a foundation, as it were, and in: ‘abounding’—he points to the building. Do not change the teaching once received, but make progress in it, making it a point of honor to show something abounding in your faith, giving thanks to God that He deemed us worthy of such great grace, and not ascribing such progress to yourselves” (blessed Theophylact).

The words: “abounding in it with thanksgiving”—can be understood thus: abounding in faith with thanksgiving, that God deemed us worthy of such great grace and, being so far away, brought us near to Himself (Oecumenius), as is evident in all the places cited before. But it can also be understood thus: abounding alongside faith with thanksgiving. The Greek text permits this. Holy Chrysostom says: “‘Abounding in it with thanksgiving’: for so do the right-thinking people act. I do not say: simply give thanks, but with great abundance and great zeal.” Thanksgiving presupposes tasting the fruits of faith and, consequently, a higher state of life in the realm of faith.

bb) General admonition against all kinds of views opposed to Christian faith (Col. 2:8–15)

Col. 2:8. Beware that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.

To the Colossians approached certain thinkers, dangerous to Christian faith. What were the points of their philosophizing—is not clearly visible, but it is clearly seen that it was inconsistent with the faith. It presented itself as philosophy, reasoning of human mind and composed according to tradition from wise men, in the composition of which entered, on the one hand,—the significance of the elements of the world, and on the other—the influence of the world of spirits. Outwardly it was covered by Jewish observances with the application to this of harsh self-denial. But in general it presented itself as seductive and promised its followers something great. As the content of this philosophizing had not yet been clarified, the Apostle speaks of it in general terms, especially striving to impress: whatever it promises, all of that, in the most perfect and truest form, you already have in Christ Jesus. There is nothing for you, therefore, to listen to them and allow them to discourse among you.

“Brothers”—is placed intentionally and could have special force, giving in the admonishing words to hear the voice of love and reminding of the common bond of brotherhood, which was formed by unity in definite views, beliefs and convictions, from which to deviate—means to break up brotherhood, so beloved and sweet.

“See to it,” βλέπετε,—watch, as a good master watches over his house, that no thief, or wolf, or bird of prey creeps near. Watch, “that no one takes you captive.” “Takes you captive,” συλαγωγών,—the root of such a word means: to go in search of prey, to carry on hunting. A robber takes prey by violence, a thief gets it by cunning, a hunter—by are. There could be no violence from the part of the reasoners, but without cunning and guile they could not do without. As these sorts of dodges and approaches are usually hidden, the Apostle says: watch. And to arouse keen watchfulness, he presents that they are being approached by certain ill-wishers, who by cunning and stratagems seek to profit from them, to get prey for themselves from them, not from their possessions, but counting them themselves to become their prey. This one word alone was strong enough to sharpen the eyes of the Colossians; but the Apostle also used such a turn of phrase which at once made them look around: μή τις ἔσται συλαγωγών,—watch, lest there be anyone, lest someone appear there in the capacity of hunting for you. “Do you see how he showed the thief, foreign and entering quietly? As one, undermining from below (under the wall) the rampart, does not let himself be noticed, and the rampart keeps falling and falling (opening him an entrance inside the house from under the wall), so, he says, does this thief act. So watch” (holy Chrysostom).

But this thief does not creep up for your possessions, but “intends to rob your mind” (blessed Theophylact). Therefore it is added: “through philosophy.” The Apostle “shows also the path by which the thief attempts to approach: this is philosophy” (Theophylact). Philosophy was held in great esteem. It undertook to present and did present views explaining all that exists, what God is, what the world is, what man is and so forth. To seek the solution of such questions is not shameful, but praiseworthy (holy Chrysostom); but what solutions one accepts can be very shameful. That philosophy was shameful with which they were creeping up to the Colossians who had invented it. Therefore with the Apostle stands before this word the definite article, to show that he means that philosophy which they come to hear, speaking as if: this philosophy is for you the same as nets are for the hunter for birds; they will ensnare you with insinuating words, draw you from the faith to themselves and destroy you. And that their philosophy is indeed such, he shows by naming it “empty deception.” Deception, ἀπάτη,—delusion, beguiling. Surely, the whole philosophy had an attractive appearance, but in essence was empty, κενή; its content was served by the fantasies of imagination, as with the Gnostics later, which corresponded to no reality; and it was like a soap bubble, attracting children by transparent beauty, but empty and fragile. “Since philosophizing (at first) seems like a praiseworthy affair, the Apostle added: ‘empty deception’” (holy Chrysostom),—giving to understand that the philosophy of which he speaks “teaches some novelties that accord with nothing” (Oecumenius), the absurdity and unsoundness of which is evident in itself.

Such an evil quality of this philosophy was sufficient already to turn away from it, but the Apostle for greater success points also to its sources, which too cannot inspire great confidence: “according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world.” By the words: “according to the tradition of men”—the Apostle, perhaps, wished to indicate generally the human origin of that philosophy, in contrast to knowledge communicated from above through revelation, which the Colossians already possessed. It was impressed: that—is human reasoning; do not listen to it when you possess wisdom come from on high. Or perhaps that philosophy in reality or wholly, or in some parts rested upon tradition going from time immemorial. What comes from deep antiquity presents itself as something sacred, evoking respect, attention and faith. Something of this sort they wove into their reasoning, and those deceivers approaching the Colossians, to give it importance and thereby attract to it. Among the Jews were Kabbalists, who led their teachings from the ancients through oral tradition to the worthy. And among Eastern sages tradition was respected.

What is to be understood by “the elements of the world?” If this were being said in our time, it could be answered: this is matter, the aggregate of simple elements from which the world was composed by itself. But, as it appears, that philosophy recognized the existence of the world of spirits, sought communion with it and taught to serve spirits. Therefore such absurd reasoning cannot be ascribed to it.—In those times astrology was in force, which subjected the fates of men to the influence of the stars. That such propositions could be contained in that philosophy cannot be denied. There were then in use certain material means of entering into communion with the forces of the spiritual world, like those which our spiritualists use, and others, even more crude. It is possible also to admit this in that philosophy. It is possible also that this alludes to Jewish material worship of God; but, to affirm that it was exactly thus—cannot be done: for it speaks not of any elements (as, for example, see Gal 4:9, 10), but of the elements of the world,—which gives an all-encompassing representation. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle speaks of the whole present world, to show its worthlessness. For if the whole world is nothing; then even more worthless are its elements.”

Generally it is safer not to assert with decisiveness what was contained in that philosophy, but only to suppose that it was a mixture of Greek reasonings, divinations of Oriental peoples and Jewish superstitions; how all this was brought into one system,—to leave undecided. Holy Chrysostom says that the Apostle here “shakes the superstitions of the Greeks, destroys also those of the Jews: among Greeks and Jews there were many superstitions.” And it is still safer to hold the thought that this was, to speak in present-day terms, a worldview inconsistent with the truth preached concerning Christ Jesus, as the Apostle also impresses by the words: “and not according to Christ.” This was such a teaching which Christians ought not to accept. Holy Chrysostom teaches: “whatever they say, one ought not to believe; and even now one ought to avoid those (elemental reasonings).”

Ambrosiaster thus interprets these words of the Apostle: “The Apostle speaks of earthly philosophy, by which those wishing to seem wise in this world are usually deceived. It is formed by the force of reasoning and is not free of trivial subtleties; it investigates physical causes, mixing in also certain lessons about virtuous life; it speaks of measures, numbers, qualities and quantities of elements. Whoever once enters into these ponderings, rarely frees himself from them, being held by probabilities and deceptive arguments and gaining the habit—to consider nothing as true as that which is seen and understood in the elements and by means of the elements. Since what is present to the eyes and seen by them seems pleasant and at once brings pleasure; such ponderers deceive others from those who despise the spiritual and do not expect the future, attributing all power to stars with their carnal minds and rejecting God’s omnipotence and providence, though they know that, as is read in the Divine Hebrew Books, much was accomplished by Moses such as the human mind does not grasp, likewise also in the New Testament Books it is written that much was accomplished by the Lord and holy Apostles which carnal reason does not wish to believe. Such reasoning the Apostle calls lying and empty philosophy, according to the tradition of men; because it is not from God, but from the weak reasoning of man and limits God’s power within the narrow bounds of its knowledge, not allowing that He could do anything more or differently than carnal reason grasps. Therefore he admonishes to beware of such philosophy, because it is a worshipper of the world, not of God and does not lead to Christ, but turns away from Christ.”

Col. 2:9. Because in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

He begins to set forth why they ought not to listen to those deceivers, and thereupon hints at a new feature in their fanciful teaching. This new feature must be brought to mind so that it becomes clear how it follows: do not listen; for in Christ Jesus—is all the fullness of the Godhead. In the second century the teaching of the Gnostics was in force, who invented between God and creation many mediating powers, spirits—of various degrees. Among them was also the pleroma, which means fullness. It must be supposed that the Colossian reasoners also had something like a pleroma, and they displayed it as the conquering banner of their false teaching, promising to their followers much and very much from it. The Apostle speaks against this; do not listen to their vain talk; their pleroma—fullness is empty, the fruit of sick imagination, a dream; the true fullness, not in dream, but essentially—is in Christ Jesus. Why? Because in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead,—not some part of the Godhead, not only the power of the Godhead, but the very Godhead itself in all its fullness. And where the Godhead is, there is all. The Godhead dwells in Him “bodily,” that is, incarnate. For Christ Jesus is God in the flesh, God the Word, Who became flesh. “This is said of Him as of a man, bearing in Himself all the Godhead. Christ received not some particular grace, like Moses, but He is the God-man, and with this visible is united all the Godhead of the Only-Begotten” (blessed Theodoret). “In Him, he says, dwells God the Word. But do not think that He is confined in a body—held, limited. For He was wholly incarnate, and is wholly with the Father, being bodily described and by the Godhead indescribable. ‘Bodily,’—that is, essentially, not figuratively; as the soul dwells in the body, so also He dwells in the assumed man. And how does the soul dwell in the body? Unconfusedly and indivisibly. Since he said: ‘dwells,’ κατοικεῖ; so that you do not think that God only acted in Him, as in the Prophets (for God also dwelt in them, as it is written: ‘I will dwell,’ ἐνοικήσω, ‘in them and walk among them’ (2 Cor. 6:16; Lev. 26:12), the Apostle added: ‘bodily,’—that is, essentially, as the soul in the body. So also holy Cyril understands it. Or perhaps by: ‘bodily’—he means: in incarnate form. Not so, he says, that, having dwelt in Him, the Godhead again departed, but remains in Him incarnate, having one hypostasis with His flesh, though consisting (He) of two distinct natures” (Oecumenius). “The Apostle says that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him, so that the Colossians be convinced that, whatever anyone might devise concerning heavenly powers, all of that exists in Christ in the most complete form, and in no way should they be inclined to honor anyone else. For whatever is devised concerning another, in Him will be found incomparably more than that” (Ambrosiaster).

Col. 2:10. And in Him you have been made full, Who is the head of all principality and power.

“And you have been,” καὶ ἐστε. The Slavonic translation took this for imperative and translated: “be,”—that is: and be filled in Him, as if: be satisfied, be content with the fullness which you receive from Him, and do not seek it in anyone else. Or: be filled in Him,—in this sense: and seek in Him alone all fullness, and turn not to anyone else. But the Russian translation took this for indicative and translated: and you have fullness in Him, you are already filled in Him. The latter translation gives a stronger thought and is more in accord with the flow of speech. Our commentators follow the thought expressed by such translation. You are already filled in Him; this is the second reason why you ought not to listen to the seducers. The first—that in the Lord Jesus Christ—is all the fullness of the Godhead. Wherever those philosophers direct you, all of them are below the Lord; there is nothing for you, therefore, to listen to these empty speakers. But with this another might think: let there be all fullness in the Lord: but that is in Him, and what about us? These well-wishers promise us much. The Apostle, as if in answer to this, says: you are already filled in Him. They are still promising, but in the Lord you are already filled. All your spiritual needs, the greatest and most troubling for the heart, are already satisfied in Him. What do we need? Remission of sins? You have it. New life? It is given. Graceful help? The Spirit of God dwells in you. Blessed life in eternity? You are already raised together, seated together in the heavenly places, crowned and recognized as heirs.—And all this is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only this, but we are filled in Him with the very Godhead itself. For He is one with the Father, and we are one with Him. Through Him, therefore, we too are not estranged from the Father, we enter into union with Him and receive the gift of adoption. “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (Jn. 14:20),—says the Lord. And holy Apostle Peter, having enumerated all by which we are filled in the Lord, concludes with the fact that we in Him become partakers of the divine nature. Here are his words: “all things which pertain to life and godliness have been given to us through the knowledge of Him Who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these you may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:3, 4). Rightly after this to cry out: “And from His fullness we all have received, and grace for grace” (Jn. 1:16).

All that is said here is a more extended exposition of what holy Chrysostom said on these words of the Apostle: what do these words mean (that is: and you are filled in Him)? That you have as much as He does; as the Godhead dwelt and dwells in Him, so also in you. Holy Paul constantly strives to bring us close to Christ. For example, when he says: “with Him He raised us up, and made us sit together” (Eph. 2:6); and: “if we endure, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2:12); and: “how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). And he calls us “heirs together” (Rom. 8:17). The same thoughts are also in our other commentators. Blessed Theodoret writes: “‘in Him you are filled.’ For from Him you have tasted grace and received from thence the rays that proceed from it.‘And blessed Theophylact clarifies why this is so:’because in Him our nature is united with God, and through this we in Him became partakers of the divine nature.”

Already such a reminder was sufficient to turn the Colossians away from being carried away by any philosophy which might deceive them with deceptive promises: you already have this—great and glorious; and there is nothing more to promise beyond this. So why listen to these deceivers? But he further strengthens his impression. Those seducers promised much in the name of heavenly powers. The Apostle now adds: and what are these heavenly powers before the Lord? They are His creation and His servants. No matter how well-disposed they are toward you, they cannot give you as much as the Lord can. And how can they give you anything without the Lord’s will? They are servants: what the Lord commands, that they do. To impart such thoughts, the Apostle added: “Who is the Head of all rule and authority.” Under: “rule and authority”—the Apostle encompasses all ranks of the angelic world; and by the word: “Head”—he signified that the Lord is their Creator and Master, Who holds them in His right hand and dominates over them. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Master Christ according to His humanity is our Head, but over Angels and Archangels He dominates according to His divine nature.” “By the word: ‘Head,’—applying the words of Oecumenius,—the Apostle signified causation. For of all created things—both heavenly and earthly—the cause is Christ, as Creator and Arranger of all things. ‘Without Him nothing was made that was made’ (Jn. 1:3). By Him the heavenly powers were created. Thus all is from Christ and through Christ, according to the good pleasure of the Father and with the cooperation of the Comforter Spirit.‘From this blessed Theophylact draws such a conclusion:’how then do you, abandoning the Lord, think to resort to the Angels, of whom He is the Head? By all that has been said, the Apostle completely defeats the false teaching about Angels,” which, as a dogma, the newcomer-philosophers attempted to impose on the Colossians.

Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Col. 2:11, 12. In Whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism.

The Apostle said: and you are filled in the Lord Jesus with all spiritual blessings which God was pleased to unite in Him for us. Now he specifically indicates what blessings they became partakers of. The most necessary blessing for us is deliverance from sins and renewal of our corrupted nature. It is the foundation of all other blessings, adoption, graceful indwelling of God, future glorification. Without it, nothing else can be obtained, even if God Himself wished to give something: for there would be no way to receive it and nothing to apply it to. Of this fundamental and source blessing the Apostle now speaks: having put off, he says, the body of sin, buried with the Lord by baptism, you were also raised together in Him. This is the same as: you died to sin and came alive to new life according to God, you were renewed. The last blessing from God the Apostle expresses in one word: “you were raised together” (Col. 2:12); but the first he expresses in various ways: by “burial” with Christ the Lord, by “putting off” the body of sin, by “circumcision not made with hands.” It must be supposed that all such expressions were needed in opposition to the reasonings of the philosopher-seducers,—all, and not just one: “circumcision not made with hands.” It is evident that they held to circumcision; but they did not cover their deception with it alone, but with many other things, against which it was necessary to set both the putting off the body of sin and burial with the Lord. And about circumcision they reasoned not from respect for the Law (about the Law there is no mention throughout the Epistle in holy Paul), but according to some philosophical views. It is not surprising that they attributed to it some mystical significance apart from that given it in the Law,—the same as the eating and drinking, feasts, new moons and Sabbaths mentioned below.

“In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands.” In the Epistle to the Romans this circumcision not made with hands is called “circumcision of the heart by the Spirit” (Rom. 2:29). Those, he says, propose circumcision; but you have already received the higher and more perfect circumcision. Their circumcision is circumcision of the flesh, but that which you have received is circumcision of the heart; theirs is made with hands, and yours is not made with hands; theirs is accomplished with a knife, and yours by the Spirit in Christ Jesus. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle points out the difference of circumcision and says: your circumcision is not fleshly, but spiritual, not made with hands, but divine, not the cutting away of a small part of the body, but the freeing from all corruption.” Oecumenius adds: “not the hand of man, but the Holy Spirit circumcised you of your sins,”—which he borrowed from holy Chrysostom, who says: “now circumcision is not from a knife, but from Christ Himself; not a hand, as there, accomplishes this circumcision, but the Spirit; not a part is circumcised, but the whole man.”

In what does this circumcision not made with hands consist? “In the putting off the body of the flesh of sins,” τοῦ σώματος τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τῆς σαρκός,—the body of the sins of the flesh, or—sins proceeding from the sin dwelling in us, called also the flesh. The casting off the body (corpus, mass) of such sins is repentance, which gives remission of sins or removal of their guilt. But the circumcision not made with hands or the circumcision of the heart means more than the forgiveness of sinful desire itself. Therefore in “the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh,” as an expression explaining the circumcision of the heart, one must see the putting off of sinful desire itself, or the sin dwelling in us, which is sometimes called simply—the flesh. Others read only: in the putting off the flesh of the body, which more closely expresses the needed sense: for such expression directly points to the putting off of fleshly nature, or fleshly reasoning and desire. Below (Col. 3:9) the Apostle called this same putting off “the old self with its deeds,” that is not just the mass of sins, but the very producer of them.

To clarify to some extent in what the spiritual circumcision consists, one must take into account how matters proceed in a fallen man. In him sin reigns, and reigns with the pleasure of sin. On this pleasure the fallen is so greedy—that, only lured by it, he at once runs after it. Sin displays pleasure, and in the fallen there is the passion for this pleasure. By this passion, as by a leash, sin, luring with pleasure, takes hold of the fallen and leads him to its deeds. It is evident that as long as the passion for the pleasure of sin is not taken away, sin will not cease to reign in the fallen, and there is no possibility for him, poor one, to be freed from the tyranny of sin otherwise than through the cutting off in himself the greedy appetite for sinful pleasure. The grace that saves the fallen first has this cutting off as its work and accomplishes it by giving the fallen to feel all the bitterness of sin and to taste the inexpressible sweetness of life according to God. When this is accomplished in the heart of the fallen, thereafter, no matter how much sin reminds of its pleasure, in the heart is aroused not the passion for it, but the memory of its bitterness and of the sweetness of life according to God, with the corresponding feelings. As a result, the will naturally rejects sin and rushes toward the opposite. Thus each time. The tyrannical power of sin is evidently cut off, and cut off because that leash has been severed, by which it always pulled the fallen to its deeds. This is the true sense of the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit. Expressing this, the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans says to those who have received grace: “Sin will not have dominion over you… reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God” (Rom. 6:14, 11). Think of yourselves thus: you are dead to sin and alive to God. And this is not a deceptive thought, but the essence of the work of salvation in Christ Jesus. Therefore the Apostle called such circumcision the circumcision of Christ, as such circumcision which is accomplished according to the economy of salvation, accomplished by Christ the Lord. It can be said differently: here is Christian circumcision,—the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in which man casts off from himself the tyranny of sin.

Where and how is this Christian circumcision accomplished? In the font of baptism. You were circumcised, he says, with the circumcision of Christ,—“buried with Him in baptism” (Rom. 2:12): when you were baptized, you then cast off the body of sin, then you were circumcised. All these actions were accomplished in one moment. The blood of the Lord, bathing you through the baptismal water, washed away all the uncleanness of sin from you and opened the entrance of the grace of the Holy Spirit into your nature, Who, coming, cut off that by which sin held you in its power, and the body of sin fell away from you. Behold the power of baptism! You are buried with Him in it; for you mystically receive the redemptive power of the blood and death of Christ and at the same time die to sin. Death to sin is the establishment in the heart of hatred and aversion to it, on account of the feeling of its bitterness and destructiveness, accompanied by the feeling of the inexpressible sweetness of life according to God. Both are reborn in the believer before baptism, at the time when he is inclined to faith. But these are only predispositions and presentiments. In the sacrament of baptism grace descends upon them and gives them the divine power of unchangeableness and strength for all time, as it remains on their side and the will.

Col. 2:12. In Whom also you are risen through faith in the working of God, Who raised Him from the dead.

“You were raised together” there, where you were also buried, that is in holy baptism. “Baptism is not a grave only, but look at what he says: ‘and you were raised together’” (holy Chrysostom). But as the burial was spiritual, so also the rising is spiritual. That is death to sin, and this—revival to life according to God,—to walk “in newness of life,” as holy Paul says in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 6:4). “In which,” ἐν ᾧ,—can refer both to baptism and to the Lord Saviour. Wherever it is referred, the thought does not change; but the flow of speech requires referring it to the Lord, because everything is spoken about Him. “You were raised together”—blessed Theodoret and Oecumenius refer to the resurrection from the dead, and blessed Theophylact to both, that is both to rising in the spirit and to the future resurrection. The first writes: “The Apostle proclaims resurrection, since we still have mortal nature.” The same Oecumenius: “believing that God is able to raise from the dead, you also were raised. For in baptism we are raised, though only in possibility, not in actuality.” Here are the words of blessed Theophylact: “We rose in two ways in the Lord: both by the hope of resurrection, so certain that we seem already to have obtained it, though it is yet to come; and spiritually, casting off the deadness of sin and receiving vivification by the Spirit.” According to the flow of speech it is more direct to understand spiritual resurrection here, or the reception of the power to live according to God in renewed life. For afterwards (Col. 2:13) it is said that God “made you alive” with Christ, evidently because He vivified them for life opposed to sin.

“Through faith in the working of God, Who raised Him from the dead.” If in: “you were raised together”—we see the future glorious resurrection, received by certain hope; then it will be: “by faith in the working of God,”—in the omnipotence of God, that He is able to raise, as He showed by the example of the resurrection of the Lord Saviour. Thus blessed Theodoret: “believing in God’s power, we await the resurrection, having as a pledge for ourselves the resurrection of Master Christ.” The same blessed Theophylact repeats. But if in: “you were raised together”—we see resurrection by the Spirit, or vivification for life according to God, then it will be: you were raised together, by reason of your faith, by the working of God, Who raised Christ Saviour from the dead. You were raised spiritually by the divine working, received by faith; and this working is the same as that by which Christ the Lord rose from the dead. Holy Paul compared them also in the Epistle to the Romans: “We are buried with Him in baptism to death, that just as Christ rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). Thus in part Ambrosiaster understands this.

Blessed Theophylact makes the observation here that although the resurrection of Christ is attributed to God the Father, nevertheless it is also the action of the Lord Jesus Himself: “Christ, says the Apostle, having received bodily death, was vivified by the Father; and he says this not because Christ the Lord Himself was weak to vivify Himself, but to refer all to the one source. And that the resurrection of the Lord is also His own action, about this He Himself says: ‘In three days I will raise it up’”—the church of His body (Jn. 2:19). And in Acts it is said that after suffering He Himself set Himself alive (Acts 1:3).—And our spiritual resurrection is not accomplished by the action of God the Father alone, but “according to the good pleasure of God the Father, in the holiness of the Spirit, in obedience and by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2). Oecumenius, explaining spiritual circumcision, makes an observation about the action of the Most Holy Trinity in it.

Col. 2:13. And you, being dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all trespasses.

It was already said before: “you were raised together”; why is it said again: “He made you alive”? The Apostle here brings to attention a circumstance that strengthens the proposed conviction—not to listen to those urging circumcision. He said: you have no need of circumcision of the flesh, because you already have the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, which fleshly circumcision serves only as a sign. This spiritual circumcision was accomplished in the baptismal font, where you died to sin and lived for life according to God. Descending into the font, you descended into the death of Christ, died with Him to sin; and ascending from the font, you clothed yourselves in the risen Lord, rose together with Him for life according to God. God made you alive with Him. This death and vivification are not attributed to you only in name, but truly work in you, you feel them and truly display them. Now I ask you: in order to be deemed worthy of such grace, was circumcision of the flesh proposed to you as a necessary condition? Did God, through those who baptized you, declare to you that if you were not circumcised, you would not receive grace vivifying the spirit, and would not even be admitted before baptism? Nothing of the sort happened. God even in your uncircumcision made you alive with Christ the Lord. Your uncircumcision did not prevent the life-giving grace of the Holy Spirit from descending into you in holy baptism and vivifying you, dead in sins. The words: “and the uncircumcision of your flesh”—must be joined with: “He made you alive,”—in this sense: and in your uncircumcision, and in spite of your uncircumcision He made you alive. And the word: “in your trespasses”—must be referred to: “being dead,”—in the usual sense, as all people are dead in sins, both ancestral and their own: for the wages of sin is death; and after these expressions place a stop; and between: “the uncircumcision of your flesh”—and: “He made you alive”—not place a stop, so as clearly to show which expression refers where.

Those who refer the words: “the uncircumcision of your flesh”—to: “being dead,”—are forced to give them a figurative meaning, because uncircumcision does not make one dead, but sin, and namely they understand by it uncircumcision of the heart, or sinful lust, the source of all sins. No other interpretation can be admitted in such case.

Our commentators speak thus of this place, so that their words can give thought of both correlations of these words. Blessed Theodoret understands by uncircumcision of the flesh sinfulness in general. But the thought of the Apostle he expresses thus: “The Apostle teaches that bodily uncircumcision does not harm those who have it, but uncircumcision of the soul harms both body and soul; and by this proves that bodily circumcision brings no benefit to those circumcised, but the removal of sinfulness brings true salvation.” Oecumenius thus renders the Apostle’s thought: “you, who are dead in sins, on account of passivity or immobility toward good, and uncircumcised, God circumcised in spirit and made alive, making you alive together with Christ.”

“Having forgiven us all our trespasses.” This determines not the manner of vivification, but the path to it. The vivifying grace of the Spirit has no access to those on whom the guilt of sin rests. But when the guilt is removed and sins are forgiven, then grace, having gained access, enters the soul and vivifies it. This the Apostle points to here. “Having forgiven trespasses”—means: “having granted us the remission of sins” (blessed Theodoret). Before the Apostle said: “you,”—now: “us.” Perhaps this had no special significance with the Apostle. He wished perhaps to say only: us with you, that is generally all people. Not for you alone does the path to spiritual vivification lie through the forgiveness of sins, but for all. And forgiveness of sins is obtained by repentance with faith in the Lord, Who offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Repentance both precedes baptism and for its sake sins are washed away in the font with faith. At the same time vivification is also given by grace. One act accomplishes two works: removes sins and gives new life.

Col. 2:14. Having blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.

Having mentioned the remission of sins, he continues to explain how it was granted. As above (Col. 2:11, 12) he explained the removal of the power of the sin dwelling in us, calling it now a circumcision not made with hands, now a putting off the body of sin, now a burial and rising together with Christ in baptism; so here he explains in various ways the arrangement of the remission of sins by the cross death of Christ the Saviour, calling this the blotting out of the handwriting, its removal from the midst and the nailing it to the cross or tearing it up. Both he does so that, presenting the same subject from different sides, he may depict it more clearly and impress it more deeply on the attention. From this we understand also that the arrangement of the remission of sins is a special work in the economy of salvation, equivalent to the arrangement of the circumcision of the heart and graceful vivification.

“Having wiped out the handwriting against us.” “Having wiped out,” ἐξαλείψας,—blotting out, as is blotted out traces of something on sand, wax and similar, as letters written in some way on something are blotted out. There is a handwriting against us. God blotted it out by the cross death of Christ. What is this handwriting? A handwriting, properly, is an autograph debt note. What are our debts? Sins, as we read in the Lord’s Prayer: “forgive us our debts.” So by the cross death of Christ God blotted out our sins, blotted out the original sin, blotted out all the sins of each man from the beginning of the world and to its end. Such is the power of the death of the Lord. Each has his own handwriting of sins, and it lies upon him and itself demands satisfaction, like the cry from Sodom for the vengeance of sins. God’s justice suffered, suffers and will suffer each one, being satisfied by the redemptive and intercessory death of Christ. But through this, each one’s handwriting does not lose its power. If it is not blotted out and torn up, then in its time payment will be required for it. How then is the blotting out and tearing up of this handwriting achieved? They repent with faith in the cross death of the Lord, and when they then descend into the baptismal font, the baptismal water or rather the graceful power of baptism blots out the sins, and the handwriting presents one clean page on which nothing remains written. This is what the Apostle says: God forgave us our sins, blotting out the handwriting of our sins. Holy Chrysostom says: “and what then? Did He permit them to remain? No; He destroyed them; not only forgave, but completely destroyed them, so that they never appear again.” The same blessed Theophylact writes: “since he said that God ‘forgave us our trespasses’; so that you do not think that He left them to exist somewhere and to be visible, he says: no, not so; He completely blotted them out, wiped them away.” All who are baptized are deemed worthy of this; and if no one sinned after baptism, then no such handwriting would be on anyone. But as they do sin, the paper is written over with sins again and can be blotted out only by the tears of repentance. But the power blotting out all is one—the cross death of the Lord. In the death of the Lord the handwritings of all people were blotted out, which the Apostle unites and presents as one handwriting of all mankind. In effect it is so; but in reality each one’s handwriting is blotted out in holy baptism or repentance by faith in the Lord Who died for us by cross death.

Therefore the Apostle added: “by ordinances,” δόγμασιν. Our commentators all understand by this word faith. Holy Chrysostom says: “‘by ordinances,’ he says. What ordinances? Faith. Therefore it is enough to believe. Paul does not blot out the works of the law through works, but blots them out through faith.” Blessed Theodoret writes: “God the Word (instead of the Old Testament ways of cleansing from sins) gave us evangelical dogmas, and for keeping them promised us salvation.” Oecumenius: “δόγμασιν,—that is, by faith or by the dogmas of our piety (Christian faith). And namely the handwriting is blotted out in baptism.” The same in Theophylact.—And it is evident that “by ordinances” stands with the Apostle as an indication of the manner or form of blotting out the handwriting. Therefore every interpretation by which “by ordinances” would be joined with “handwriting” must be considered improper here.

“Which was contrary to us.” The handwriting was against us, condemned us, demanded satisfaction. Where was it? Somewhere in the midst. Where in the midst? In the midst of all that exists. All creatures—both earthly and heavenly, both material and spiritual—saw this handwriting which was against us, agreed that it was righteous to require from us payment of the debts according to this handwriting, and, consequently, were also against us. And God’s justice required the same—even more. Meanwhile we could present nothing in payment,—and extreme calamity lay upon us. What did the many-compassionate God, Who resolved to save us, do? “He took it away from the midst”—He took our handwriting out of sight, so that no one any longer saw it. “He took it,” ἦρκεν,—from: αἴρω. The meaning of this word is precisely expressed by our usual phrase: take or receive this away, out of sight. So our handwriting was taken from the midst and no longer caught anyone’s eye. “Taken from the midst means—made so it could not be seen” (blessed Theophylact). Where did the God mercifully saving us put it? “He took it from the midst, but perhaps hid it somewhere else. Therefore fear takes hold, lest He sometime demand payment from us according to this handwriting. Now He forgave, but how if He repents that He forgave, and begins to demand payment: the handwriting is whole. The Apostle removes this fear, saying: ‘having nailed it to the cross.’ Taking it from the midst, God did not set it aside for safekeeping, but tore it up: the tearing up is signified by the nailing to the cross” (paraphrase from Oecumenius). “Taking it from the midst, He neither gave it to us nor kept it for Himself, but, having nailed it to the cross, tore it up” (blessed Theophylact). This is a metaphorical expression. Its meaning is this: “since all of us were under sin and punishment; He, having endured punishment, freed us from both sin and punishment. And He endured punishment on the cross. There He took the handwriting and nailed it with Himself, and later, as having authority, completely tore it up” (holy Chrysostom). “By this holy Paul expressed the certainty of forgiveness and the irrevocability (of demand)” (Oecumenius). All who are sheltered by faith under the shadow of the cross are safe from demand for sins according to God’s justice. The blood of Christ cleanses them from every sin. And they are anointed with this cleansing blood in baptism and repentance.

Col. 2:15. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in Himself.

Holy Paul began from verse 10 to depict what fullness is received from the Lord Saviour by those who believe in Him. He showed first that by His grace the sin dwelling in us is cut off (Col. 2:11, 12); then he depicted, under the image of the tearing up of the handwriting, the granting of forgiveness of sins (Col. 2:13, 14). Is everything exhausted? Not yet. There are still leaders of sin—Satan with his host of demons. If to leave them in power; then there will be no end to sin, and the indicated gifts from the treasury of the fullness of Christ—will amount to nothing. And He destroyed their power, taking from them all authority over us: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities.” “The Apostle speaks of the powers of the devil, because human nature was as if clothed in them” (holy Chrysostom). By means of sin and passions demons cling to the soul, and it, while in sin, is encumbered with them and appears as if clothed in them. Such a garment, sewn from demons, the Lord removed from our nature. How? Already by the very fact that the sin dwelling in us is cut off and new life is granted to us, the points of contact or adhesion of demons to us are taken away and, on the contrary, power resisting them is poured in. Leeches stick to a living body and suck living blood from it; but if the body is bathed with salt water, the leeches at once fall off. So the Lord salted our nature with the salt of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the demons had to leap away from it, struck by divine power and the light of faith with love of holiness. And here, it can be supposed, the Apostle speaks of the same thing. Blessed Theodoret writes: “since by means of bodily passions demons had dominion over us, but Christ, clothed in a body, became the conqueror of sin; He crushed the dominion of the adversaries and showed to all men the evident weakness of them, by His own body giving to all of us victory over them.” We also read in Oecumenius: “the enemy had many bridles and bonds, leashes and holds, by means of which he dominated over us. This began with Adam’s transgression, and then was increased because of our own sins. The Only-Begotten Son of God, becoming man, removed from our nature all these bridles and holds (understanding passions) and freed us from such bonds. Bound tight with chains of our sins, we served the enemy. But the Lord, forgiving us our sins, freed us both from these bonds and from the tyranny of the wicked one.”

The last words of Oecumenius lead also to the thought that the metaphor: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities”—means that the Lord deprived the unclean powers of authority over us, and precisely by nailing to the cross the handwriting of our sins and tearing it up. The demons presented their claims upon us, holding in their hands the handwriting of our sins, made by their suggestion, and pointing to this handwriting wherever it was. It signified that we ourselves voluntarily acknowledged the authority of demons over us, because every sin is the fruit of obedience to them and disobedience to God. The enemies pointed to the handwriting, saying as if: look, they are ours, they do our will. When the handwriting was torn up and destroyed, they had nothing more on which to base their authority; by the tearing up of the handwriting it was taken from them.

Thus both by cutting off the sin dwelling in us with the granting of new life and by the remission of sins or tearing up of the handwriting, about which the Apostle reasoned above, the dark forces cloaking us were cast down and their authority over us was taken away. But the words following show that they themselves were disgraced and struck down by the cross. “He made a public example of them, triumphing over them.”—“Made a public example of them,” ἐδειγμάτισεν,—which word means: to expose someone before all to disgrace. “Triumphing over them,” ἐν παρρησίᾳ,—boldly, openly, right—dominantly. It means, on the cross the dark forces were exposed to shame and disgrace. They provoked the Jews against the Lord Saviour and brought it about that He was delivered to a shameful death. They thought that, subjecting Him to such disgrace, they would turn all away from Him, the work of salvation would be frustrated and their authority would remain in force as before. But everything turned out opposite. On the cross it was not the Lord Who was disgraced, but they, and it was not His work that was destroyed, but their kingdom was destroyed.

That the Lord was not disgraced but glorified on the cross was evident to all: the sun was darkened, the church veil was torn, the earth quaked, stones were split and many bodies of dead saints rose. Those who had eyes could not help but see from this that the cross is not shame but a throne of glory. But even those who did not have them were opened, and what was accomplished on Golgotha made them confess: “Truly this was the Son of God” (Mt. 27:54). This was already disgrace: they expected one thing, but something quite different came about; the cross does not repel, but attracts. This is visible, but more significant is the invisible disgrace, namely that they themselves set up the cross, yet the cross destroyed their kingdom: they themselves with the cross undermined the foundations of their own kingdom. For by the cross heaven and earth were reconciled, the Spirit of grace was brought down for the sanctification of all and for clothing all with the power to tread upon all the strength of the enemy. Therefore demons cannot look upon the cross since then; at the very sight of it they flee as before the face of wind. The sign of the cross is a protection of believers and a victorious weapon against invisible enemies.

The Apostle also expresses this yet more powerfully by the words: having celebrated a triumph of victory over them in it, that is on the cross. In Slavonic this reads: “having exposed them in Himself.” This is an inaccurate translation of the words of the original: θριαμβεύσας αὐτοὺς ἐν αὐτῷ. Therefore a parenthetical translation is added: “having triumphed over them on it.” Θριαμβεύειν—means to celebrate or receive a triumph of victory. From this the thought in the Apostle will be thus: the Saviour on the cross celebrated the triumph of victory over the spirits of wickedness, or received the solemn glory of such a victory.—The cross was a solemn chariot, similar to that on which victors were carried, glorifying them for their victory. But it was also the power of victory and the sign of victory. It was that by which, as foretold in paradise, the seed of woman crushed the head of the serpent-deceiver. And the Lord, approaching cross death, said: “Now the ruler of this world will be driven out” (Jn. 12:31), that is, cast down from his throne and deprived of power.—The Lord descended from the cross into hell and destroyed hell, bringing out those held in it; and to those on earth by the power of cross death He gave authority over the spirits of wickedness, not only the power to ward them off, but authority to domineer over them and subject them to oneself, as slaves. Holy Chrysostom says: “the devil hoped to seize Christ, but lost even those whom he had. At the time when the body of Christ was nailed to the cross, the dead rose. Then the devil suffered defeat, receiving a mortal blow from a dead body. As a wrestler, counting his opponent overcome, receives a mortal wound from him; so Christ showed that to die with boldness and dominantly—means to disgrace the devil.”

By this is concluded the general admonition, whose thought is this: whatever the seducers promise you, do not listen to them. You already have everything—both forgiveness of sins, and new life, and authority over unclean forces. What more do you desire?

cc) Admonitions against definite deviations from the truth (Col. 2:16–23)

There are three: α) not to agree to certain Jewish customs (Col. 2:16, 17); β) not to be deceived by the false humility of false teachers and the worship of Angels (Col. 2:18, 19); γ) not to be carried away by some teaching of men about unreasonable abstinence (Col. 2:20–23).

Let No One Judge You; the Shadow and the Body (Colossians 2:16–19)

Col. 2:16. Let no one judge you in eating or drinking, or regarding a feast or a new moon or sabbaths.

“At first he spoke in general terms: beware (Col. 2:4, 8). Now more specifically he indicates what you must beware of, after he has set forth before this the description of the blessings in Christ Jesus. He, as it were, says: if you have received so great things, why then do you subject yourselves to such small things?” (from holy Chrysostom and blessed Theophylact). “The hope of life is in Christ Jesus, and the hope of salvation in Him does not allow us to mix with it submission to some superstition or legal custom. Therefore one should not pay attention to those who make a noise among you and whisper something inconsistent with faith in Christ” (Ambrosiaster).

The false teaching was covered by Jewish legality, and the false teachers probably were of Jewish descent. Perhaps they were descendants of those Jews whom, according to the testimony of Josephus Flavius, Antiochus transplanted from the east to South Phrygia, numbering 2000 families. They could have brought from there also Eastern reasonings, to which, mixing Greek philosophizing here, they from all three glued together a particular system of false teaching, adapting it also to Christianity. From Jewish customs they retained, it appears, only the rules about eating and drinking and the observance of festivals yearly, monthly and weekly and, as is very probable, circumcision. The Apostle, as if in passing, spoke above about the unsuitability of circumcision for Christians. Now he directly speaks against Jewish customs with respect to foods and festivals.

“Let no one judge you.” Let no one judge you for not observing such and such Jewish customs. But what then should we do, someone would ask? Observe them to avoid judgment? No, not observe them, but not take such judgments to heart and not pay attention to them. Let them judge; you do not look at that.—Probably among the means of persuasion these reasoners used irony or mockery, which can act powerfully and, when it meets with weak conviction, can completely dispel it. The Apostle admonishes: do not yield to the impression of judgment; it is empty. “Do not submit, he says, to those who judge you” (holy Chrysostom). “Do not in the least be carried away by those attempting to sow in you legal observances” (blessed Theodoret). “He, as if, praises them as keeping themselves from Judaism” (blessed Theophylact) and thereby encourages them to resist those who draw into it.

“In eating or drinking.” In the Law it was specifically prescribed what to eat and what not to eat. The prohibition was based on the usefulness and non-usefulness of foods according to the climate there; and moral lessons flowing from the properties of forbidden animals and birds were kept in view. But as those reasoners went into falsehood, it is very probable that they wove into this some absurd divinations according to the spirit of their false teaching. The Law speaks only of foods; concerning drink a rule was set down only for Nazarites. Therefore it can be inferred that those reasoners acted as perpetual Nazarites and made the rules of Nazaritehood obligatory on all. The Essenes seemed to be perpetually observing Nazaritehood. Perhaps the Colossian reasoners were from this sect.

“Or in respect of a feast.”—of some of the great annual festivals: Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles and others. These festivals they could not observe fully: by distance they could not go to Jerusalem every year, and at home, celebrating, they could not perform all that constituted the festival. Therefore the Apostle said: “in respect of a feast.” “He did not say: (in observance of the festival) of Tabernacles, or Unleavened Bread, or Pentecost, but: ‘in respect of a feast’; for they did not dare to keep all; and if they did keep, not as festivals. He speaks of a part, showing that the greater part was already abandoned, they did not retain all of old” (holy Chrysostom). But it can also be inferred that the reasoners restructured all related to this in their own way, so that from the old they took only some things.

This “in respect of a feast” was taken from the arrangements of celebration and new moons with Sabbaths. Not all related to this could they observe. Despite the fact, however, that such celebration, cut short and changed, was no longer fully Jewish, the Apostle does not want the Colossians to touch it. It is so contrary to the spirit of Christianity. The Apostle does not generally turn away from festivals, but from celebrating on certain days in the spirit of Judaism or that false teaching which went about among the Colossians. To have festivals and celebrate them is an inseparable part of faith, inasmuch as faith exists, whatever it may be. We are so constituted. All faiths have them, but each in its own spirit. And Christianity has its own festivals, but in its own spirit.

Col. 2:17. Which are shadows of things to come, but the body is of Christ.

“Which” directly points only to what was said before, to festivals and foods; but the thought of the Apostle is general. He spoke thus in the same sense as we say: this is all, meaning not only the types indicated, but the entire class to which they belong, that is the whole Law, all the ordinances of the Old Testament. “A shadow”—a shadow of things to come or blessings, in general what was to be and what was awaited. As one seeing a shadow rightly concludes that there is a body giving this shadow, and from the outlines of the shadow draws conclusions about the form of the body itself, kindling by all this desire to see the body itself; so the Old Testament ordinances were so drawn as to point to the future, to foreshadow it as much as possible, and to arouse desire to soon see the fulfillment of what was portrayed by them. To nourish this desire and expectation was the chief purpose of all ordinances. Consequently, they themselves had nothing essential in themselves, as shadow does not have it, and significance they had only temporary. But though they are shadow, still they should not be abandoned until the body comes. The Apostle adds: the body has come—Christ the Lord. The body, from which the shadow fell and gave being to the ordinances of the Law, is Christ the Lord. Everything there pointed to Him. And consequently, with His coming it should cease. He came—and the shadow ceased. Whoever sees the body will not look at the shadow, and if he were to do so, he would offend the body itself and clearly show his foolishness. So also here. The Lord has come; look upon Him, and let the shadow pass by, as something transient. Here is what our commentators said about this. “The Apostle called the Law ‘a shadow of things to come,’ teaching that by it was prefigured the grace of the New Covenant. The Gospel life presents the body; the Law—‘a shadow’; the shadow, with the appearance of light, precedes the body. The Law is shadow, grace is body, but Master Christ is light” (blessed Theodoret). “The Old Testament was shadow; the body, that is the truth, is Christ’s. What need then to seize upon the shadow when the body is present?” (blessed Theophylact). “All given through Moses was a shadow or image of things to come, so that when the truth appears, the image ceases. As in the absence of an emperor his image has weight, but in his presence does not; so also this (given through Moses) before the coming of the Lord ought to have been observed, but in His presence it now has no significance. Can anyone who acts as a substitute for his master in his absence, even when the master is present, act as master? If the vicars of prefects (governors), when they themselves are present, become as private citizens; how much more a slave (who was substituting for his master), when his master is present, should appear himself alongside others in obedience to him?” (Ambrosiaster).

Col. 2:18. Let no one cheat you of your reward, delighting in humility and the worship of angels, puffed up without cause by his fleshly mind.

“Disqualify,” καταβραβεύετω.—Βραβεῖον—the prize for victory on the racing tracks, in modern terms a prize. “Judges of the competitors are called βραβευτάς; for they determine who won the victory. Καταβραβεύειν—means to incorrectly βραβεύειν, to incorrectly determine who owns the victory” (blessed Theodoret). “This word is used when one gains victory, but another receives the prize,—when the victor is wronged, deprived” (holy Chrysostom).—Otherwise it can be expressed thus: to cause someone not to receive a prize. Καταβραβεύειν,—in structure, looks like: καταργεῖν. This means: to destroy or ruin what has been made, but that means: to un-reward, to cause one not to receive a reward. The Colossians are represented as running as on a race track. The Apostle admonishes them: beware lest someone cause you not to receive a prize. You are running—will run, but when you reach the finish, you will not be given a prize. How can they do this to you? By teaching you not to run correctly. For one running incorrectly, competing unlawfully, is not crowned (2 Tim. 2:5). But how could they do this? By disturbing the faith of the Colossians, drawing them from true faith and teaching them to believe incorrectly. The Colossians were running correctly, hoping to receive the Kingdom of Heaven; running correctly because they ran after the Lord Jesus Christ, relying on Him alone by their faith and hope. If someone should suggest to them, and they accept—to rely by faith and hope on someone else or on something else—then they will begin to run incorrectly. They will still be running and bearing the labor of running, and having the expectation that they will receive a crown; but when they reach the end, they will not receive what they expected; they will be told: on whom you placed your hope, go to him to receive crowns. But no one has these crowns except the Lord. His is the Kingdom, His are the crowns. All others, whoever might be proposed in His place,—are nothing. And there will be bitter and most bitter deception. Holy Paul imprints this entire picture on the minds of the Colossians in one word: “Let no one καταβραβεύετω—disqualify you.” How strongly it must have repelled them from the false teachers, when the thought formed in their minds what deception, what malice toward them was hidden in their teaching? Holy Chrysostom among other things explained this word by: ἐπηρεάζετω,—which means: to ruin, to harm, to pour in evil; and concluded that holy Paul intended by this word to arouse indignation in the Colossians toward the false teachers. And success was assured. He wished to impress upon them: do not allow yourselves to be deceived or tricked by such a bitter and destructive deception. Who consciously would go to deception and to destruction?!

But the Apostle would not have accomplished everything if, having said: do not yield to deception, he had not indicated who and how approaches them with deception. Who then? He who approaches with false humility and worship of angels. “With false humility,” θέλων ἐν ταπεινοφροσύνῃ,—a difficult-to-translate expression.—Oecumenius writes: “let no one deceive you, wishing to do this, that is to deceive by humility.” Theophylact so paraphrases the whole place: “after he fills them with indignation, showing that they wish to deal wickedly with them, deprive them of reward,—the Apostle sets forth the very heretical dogma, saying: they wish to deprive you of reward, deceiving by false humility.” It comes out: let no one deceive you, wishing to deceive by humility. Θέλων they refer to the preceding words, not to: “humility.” One can refer θέλων also to: “no one,”—in the sense: no one, whoever wishes; do not allow anyone who wishes to deceive you. The strength of the speech, however, does not lie in this word: θέλων; therefore one can not pursue an exact translation of it. The strength of the speech is in the false humility.

What is this false humility? Perhaps these deceivers also appeared to be humble in outward appearance, poorly dressed, poorly fed, poorly living, uncombed, unwashed, speaking quietly and timidly, with eyes cast down. All this and similar can be supposed of them, knowing that among their convictions stood harsh treatment of the body. Such an appearance indeed deceives, riveting attention to the speeches of those appearing in it, on the supposition of something higher in such persons.

But our commentators all understand the humility as a part of the teaching of these deceivers, and the initial part. They began thus: it is too much for us for the Son of God to descend to us to bring us to the Heavenly Father. It is enough for us to be brought to Him through Angels. And they arranged, as a consequence of this beginning, some special worship of Angels, θρησκεία. Holy Chrysostom says: “what does: ‘by false humility’ mean? Some said that we should be brought (to God) not through Christ, but through Angels; because bringing through Christ is greater than how much is necessary for us.” The same we read in blessed Theophylact—“it is unworthy, they said, of the dignity of the Only-Begotten (to teach) that the Only-Begotten brings us to the Father, for this is more than accords with human littleness. Therefore it is more becoming (to hold) that Angels served our being brought (to the Father). Proceeding from this thought, they introduced special worship of Angels and persuaded the simple-hearted to turn to them as to our saviors.” Blessed Theodoret expresses the same thought more generally: “being guided by false humility, they said that God of all is invisible, inaccessible and incomprehensible, and that through Angels one ought to acquire God’s favor. This is what the Apostle means in the words: ‘by false humility and worship of angels.’”

This position, that God is inaccessible and that between Him and creatures, even in the matter of creation, there must be mediators, was the starting point for the Gnostics, and later for Arius. If indeed this constituted the false humility of the Colossian deceivers, then it cannot be not seen in them the seed of Gnostics, which developed in the second century, and from the known teaching of Gnostics about heavenly powers to explain in what consisted also the unknown teaching about Angels of the Colossian reasoners. The Gnostics taught that God is infinitely powerful. A creature cannot withstand His action. Therefore, for a creature to come into being, there first had to come into being a whole series of heavenly powers, which, beginning from those nearest to God, all the more diminished in dignity and strength and approached creatures known to us on earth. Among them are encountered names: both Christ and Jesus and Church and demiurges—builders of the world. They called them zones, but evidently these are heavenly powers, or Angels, the significance of which in the chain of creation was incorrectly understood.—If one recognizes the kinship of the Gnostics with the Colossian reasoners, then these positions can somewhat clarify how they viewed Angels and why they especially taught to turn to them.

Whatever this worship of Angels consisted of, it is evident from history that it took strong root in those places and persisted there for a long time. So that the Fathers of the Local Laodicean Council in Phrygia (365 AD) had to pay attention to it and in the 35th canon forbade it. This canon reads thus: “Christians ought not to abandon the Church of God and depart and call upon Angels and hold assemblies. This is rejected. Therefore, if anyone is found engaged in such secret idol-worship, let him be anathema: because he abandoned our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and turned to idol-worship.” In our edition of the canons a note is appended to this: “condemned are heretics who do not pray to God and Christ, but only to Angels, as if to creators and rulers of the world.” The kinship of these angel-worshippers with the Colossians is pointed out by blessed Theodoret in the commentary on the Epistle to them: “this attachment (to angel-worship) long persisted in Phrygia and Pisidium. Therefore, the Council which convened in Laodicea of Phrygia, by a law forbade prayer to Angels.” The Council canon calls the angel-worship that was there secret; probably the assemblies were also secret, and in them something was done by which they hoped to enter into communion with Angels. Was not this something similar to the gatherings of our spiritualists, and with some procedures and actions similar to those which are among the latter? Every way the spirit is one and there and here: those drew away from Christ the Saviour, and these do the same. If thus one places our spiritualists in kinship with the angel-worshippers condemned at the Laodicean Council, and these—with the angel-worshippers whom holy Paul condemns in the Epistle to the Colossians; then here is the Apostolic judgment against spiritualists.

“Which have not seen, claiming to have seen.”—“Have not seen,” μὴ ἑόρακεν,—what they did not see. “Claiming to have seen,” ἐμβατεύων,—into that entering. Ἐμβατεύειν—to enter: to enter into something with the mind—to investigate, to teach; to enter into something by word—to narrate. The Colossian reasoners, if they were akin to the Gnostics, spoke as if first from God issued such a power, from this then such another, from the combination of them—such and such, and from the combination of these—still other and still other. They spoke as if they walked in heaven and told what they saw there, whereas in reality they saw nothing. Holy Paul exposes them, that “they, never having seen Angels, assert about them this and that, as if having seen them” (blessed Theophylact in accord with holy Chrysostom).

“Puffed up without cause by his fleshly mind.”—“Without cause,” εἰκῇ,—vainly puffed up, when there was nothing to be puffed up about, “not being puffed up by something real, but by his empty opinion” (holy Chrysostom).—“By his fleshly mind,” “by carnal, not spiritual mind” (holy Chrysostom), by a mind reasoning according to fleshly principles, carnalized, coarsened, unable to rise to the height of contemplating Christian dogmas such as the Son of God and God, one in substance with the Father, was incarnate and wrought the salvation of our race. “Does not the coarseness of their mind appear from the fact that they cannot grasp and receive the clearly stated truths about the Lord?” “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (Jn. 3:16); and again: “for them I sanctify Myself” (Jn. 17:19); again: “I lay down My life for My sheep” (Jn. 10:15–17). Many and other similar places (blessed Theophylact). Such truths they do not grasp, but are puffed up. The inventions of their mind seemed to them higher than divinely revealed truths; and they were puffed up by their reasoning, looking down on believers who believed in simplicity of heart, without intellectual prying. Puffedness led to stubbornness, and they probably resisted every admonition. “They were puffed up, as stubborn dogmatists not even permitting that true teaching be proposed to them” (blessed Theophylact).

But how did they presume to deceive by false humility, while at the same time being puffed up? “This shows that everything in them proceeded from vainglory” (holy Chrysostom). “There is no contradiction here; for by false humility they only covered themselves, while in reality they were possessed by the passion of pride” (blessed Theodoret). “Their humility was apparent, not true. They did not have humility, but only spoke humbly: the Only-Begotten would be sacrificed for us,—this is more than is required for men (not in their measure, not befitting them)” (blessed Theophylact).

Col. 2:19. And not holding the Head, from which all the body, being supplied and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase of God.

They went to Angels but turned away from the Lord Saviour, whereas the body of the Church is both constituted by the Lord and stands and lives by Him, that is, everyone who is saved is saved only in the Lord. From this it is evident that those reasoners both perish themselves and will lead you to perdition. “As soon as you separated from the Head, you perished” (holy Chrysostom).

By the Head evidently the Apostle means Christ the Saviour, the Son of God and God incarnate, of Whom even in the first chapter he said that He is “the Head of the body, the Church” (Col. 1:18). To hold fast to this Head one can do by faith in the Lord, by conviction of the truth concerning Him, by love, by devotedness, by hope of salvation in Him, in general by being in living, conscious and rational communion with Him and by placing one’s salvation in Him alone. Those who turned to Angels lost all this: through that they fell away from Christ the Lord, and further from God the Father, and stand outside the order life-giving,—which by the very Saviour was determined thus: “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (Jn. 14:20).

“From whom the entire body.” “The Apostle again named Master Christ the Head, and the composition of the Church—the body. And he spoke everything in a transferred sense” (blessed Theodoret). To understand the sense of the figure of speech, one must first clarify the figure of speech itself. What happens to the body? That it “grows with the growth that God provides.” How? “By joints and ligaments supplied and held together.” By itself? No; all this comes from the head. The words: “by joints and ligaments supplied and held together” are difficult to understand; for this reason it is difficult to understand what they mean. The general thought of the figure is this: the body of the Church, under the action of its Head, grows within itself the growth that God provides, that is, living the divine life, it multiplies, strengthens and increases this life. The words: “by joints and ligaments supplied and held together”—indicate the manner in which this is done. What could this mean? To understand this, one must determine what these words could mean when applied to our body. Let us distribute the words thus: “ligaments supplied,”—“joints held together”: for it is evident that this is how they must relate. “Joints held together,” διὰ συνδέσμων συμβιβαζόμενον,—is not so hard to understand. Σύνδεσμοι—ligaments by which different parts of the body are joined; and: συμβιβάζειν—means to fit one part to another, to fit together one with another. It will be: different parts of the body, fitted and fitted together, are bound by ligaments and held in this complex form. This directly points to the system of bones and muscles which determine the structure of the body. But the words: “ligaments supplied,” διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν ἐπιχορηγουμένον,—are somewhat obscure. Ἁφή—does not have one meaning alone; it means—touch, contact, the action of taking and a bond. Which meaning to take in the present place depends on: ἐπιχορηγουμένον.—Ἐπιχορηγεῖν—has one meaning: to supply, to furnish, to add to what has already been supplied or given. Ἐπιχορηγουμένον—will be: being supplied. To this from the meanings of ἁφή can only apply the action of taking, the receiving by which what is supplied is taken. It will be: the body, what is supplied to it, it takes and assimilates—and thereby lives and grows. This points to the system of nourishment. But both these systems would remain inactive if they were not animated by nerves: from the head go nerves, spreading throughout the whole body, and, animating the organs of nutrition with muscles, make them act according to their purpose and thereby maintain the life of the body.

Accepting such interpretation as sufficient, we will not have difficulty in understanding it figuratively. The system of bones with muscles determining the structure of the body in the Church of God corresponds to its visible structure: under the Apostles and Prophets, pastors and teachers of the Church stand all Christians, each with a special gift for the benefit of the Church; all are bound by mutual submission, love and zeal for the common spiritual good. “What in the body are joints, that in the composition of the Church are Apostles, Prophets and teachers,”—says blessed Theodoret. The system of nourishment in the Church corresponds to all the ways by which knowledge of divinely revealed truths and the outpouring of divine grace are communicated to believers, especially by the preaching of God’s word and the divine sacraments. By them is supplied what alone can nourish the Church and cause it to grow with the growth that God provides, namely: grace and truth. The nerves going out from the head and pervading and animating the whole body are Christ the Lord Himself, Who both holds together the composition of the body of the Church and pervades it with His life-giving power. Blessed Theodoret writes: “as in the body the brain is the root of nerves, and through the nerves the body receives sensation; so the body of the Church from Master Christ receives both the sources of teaching and the instruments of salvation.”

The entire figure can be paraphrased thus: those reasoners do not hold fast to the Head, that is to Christ the Lord, from Whom all the body of the Church, being supplied and receiving the nourishing elements spiritual—grace and truth, and being held together in its composition closely united by the spirit of peace and love, grows with divine life, acquiring ever greater and greater numbers of members and raising all to the highest perfection in life according to God.

To the words cited above of blessed Theodoret let us add what others said on this place. Oecumenius writes: “Christ is the Head both of Angels and of men, as Creator and Arranger of all things. From Him, that is from Christ,—all the body of the Church. Having said: ‘body,’—the Apostle adds what is proper to a body. All, he says, the body of the Church,—being, through receiving from Christ, supplied with all grace and being fitted together and united through joints and ligaments, that is being made peaceful both in itself and in relation to Christ,—grows with growth according to God. What is this growth according to God? Growth not in body, but in life according to God.” Here are the words of blessed Theophylact: “The Head of the Church is the Son of God, Christ the Lord; and the Church is His body. From Him the body of the Church has both simply existence and good existence. Whoever falls away from Him perishes. As from the brain the sensitive spirit through the nerves is transmitted to the whole body,—and from the head all feeling and all movement; so all the body of the Church from Christ is supplied, that is, receives what (or so that) to live and grow spiritually. When does it have this? When it is united (when it is well fitted together) with Him (and itself in itself). For only in such a case does the Holy Spirit supply the body with what to grow: so that if the body is not united by a living union both with the Head and with itself or in itself, then there is neither supply of the Spirit nor growth that God provides, that is the best life according to God.”

Dead With Christ to the Elements of the World (Colossians 2:20–23)

Col. 2:20. If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances?

The Apostle begins to offer the last admonition,—not to be carried away by some unreasonable self-denial to which the false teachers obliged their followers. What their falsehood in this regard consisted of is not evident. It could consist both in the excess of self-denial and in the price set on self-denial, or in the false meaning attributed to it in the matter of salvation and of drawing near to God. The final limit of self-denial is—not to go beyond the line beyond which self-denial begins to disorder the health of the body, and further—not to extend self-denial to exhaustion that deprives of strength to fulfill the duties laid upon one. Observing this measure, self-denial can appear in very strong degree and not be blameworthy. Only blameworthy here can be if someone makes one measure of self-denial an obligatory law for all; because according to the different bodily strength of men this requirement can prove destructive for some. Therefore it was always and is left to freedom. Perhaps the Colossian reasoners erred in this regard, as can be concluded from the harsh treatment of the body, condemned in them by the Apostle below. But more, it seems, they erred in that they ascribed too great a price to self-denial, and not so much to it as to the substances approved and disapproved for use, as though in them, in their very nature and properties, lay something promoting or hindering spiritual progress, or communion with Angels, which they preached as the only path to knowledge of truth and to communion with God, or to receiving help in the matter of life. From this it came out for them: touch not, nor taste, nor handle. And all this was presented as if with some kind of wisdom.

Against all this the holy Paul now admonishes the Colossians. He does not concern himself with the details of the error, but takes the general thought lying at its foundation, as if material things by themselves can give something spiritual, and he turns them away from accepting it not with intensified proofs, but by one indication of what the Colossians have become in Christ Jesus. You died, he says, to the rudiments of the world; why then would you engage in reasoning about them with those who ascribe some special value to them? You ought at once to have turned away your ear and your eye from them; but you allowed them to propose such teaching and yourselves to listen to them, as if you were living in the world, not turning away from material things and not having looked into and entered the spiritual realm.

“You died with Christ to the rudiments of the world.” By the rudiments of the world some understand Jewish material worship of God. But the Colossians did not live under the laws of this worship; therefore when they died to the rudiments of the world, they did not die to it, but rather, must be supposed, to something else. To what then? This the chief characteristic feature of life in Christ Jesus indicates. Life in the Lord Jesus is—a transferring both in thought, and in feeling, and in desires from material to spiritual, from earthly to heavenly, from perishable to imperishable, from temporal to eternal,—from created to God. Death in Christ Jesus is directly death to sin; but with this death are also severed all bonds with material things. All these bonds the one who dies in Christ in the very act of death casts off like a garment that restrains him, and freely enters or ascends into the spiritual world to the goods immaterial, which he then and there tastes,—and cleaves to them. This is what holy Paul means by: “you died to the rudiments of the world.” And consequently, “the rudiments of the world” with him means all that is material, earthly, perishable, to which every true Christian dies in Christ Jesus.

In the eyes of such a one all material things lose all value,—it becomes alien to him, falls out of his attention: his mind and heart are occupied with other things. Speak to such a one of something material, it cannot occupy him, there is no taste for this in him, and he will turn away from it; for his heart is full of other things. And who of such would listen to your words, would act against the spirit of his life, showing that material things can still occupy him. And to such a one it is just to turn with a reproach: why are you listening? As if your soul is bound with the material, finds taste in it, lives in the world. This reproach holy Paul makes to the Colossians: “why do you live as though you still belong to the world?” “Are you subject to the regulations,” δογματίζεσθε.—Δογματίζειν—means to set forth dogmas; and: δογματίζεσθαι—to be taught by dogmas, to listen to the exposition of them. Why, says the Apostle, placing yourselves in the rank of taught disciples, do you allow these reasoners to expound their teaching about material things as if material things could have any significance for you? They tell you: such a substance means this, and such another that. Use that in this way and this way, at such a time, in such a place, and do not touch this. If you listen, they will fill your head with the conviction that material things have some great value for you, and heap up in your attention a whole mountain of material things which will hide from your intelligent gaze God and Lord Jesus and all things spiritual. And again you will be drawn into the material. But you died to it, and you should keep yourselves dead to it, as if it did not exist for you. Your inner being should be clear of all material clouds, so that in it clearly shines one sun—God.

Thus Ambrosiaster reasons about this: “he who is baptized into Christ dies to the world; for he renounces all superstitious errors and begins to live by the one faith in Christ the Lord,—to live in such an order in which one ought to live who lives in God by the hope which is in Christ Jesus. By virtue of this renunciation are man and the rudiments of the world called dead to each other. In saying: world (in the phrase: ‘to the rudiments of the world’), the Apostle means all fleshly reasoning; for all visible things are counted as fleshly. Therefore also the Apostle John says: ‘Do not love the world, nor the things in the world’ (1 Jn. 2:15),—that is, neither the rudiments of which the world is composed, nor the errors which human tradition invented regarding them; but Christ alone, Who died for us, so that from the perishing, which we were, to unite us into His body—living. Therefore, those buried with Christ died to the rudiments, so as to pay no attention to them at all; for they learned to strive toward what is higher, which alone can supply unceasing life. But these (rudiments) do not supply the present, and hinder achieving the future. Whoever therefore after baptism wavers in thought concerning certain things, thinking that they have some special power, he shows that he is still alive to the rudiments of the world, which either he determines to value highly or is in doubt whether to despise. Such a one remains in the circle or in the realm of the world; for, still clothed in the old man, he cannot free himself from what is fleshly and material.”

Col. 2:21. Do not touch, nor taste, nor handle.

What high wisdom they impart to you! And you, like children in school, sit modestly with folded hands and allow them to teach you, δογματίζεσθε,—such trifles, as if incapable of understanding, as what one should judge and how to live (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). “And see how the Apostle ridicules them: touch not and the rest. Those reasoners, expounding this, made it seem that to act so is something great” (holy Chrysostom).

These words: “do not touch” and the rest—seem to point to Jewish prescriptions about food; but the Apostle has already dealt with properly Jewish ordinances (in verses 16–17). There eating and drinking are mentioned. Here one must understand something else, namely: some superstitious reasonings concerning foods and something else material,—reasonings proceeding from incorrect views in general about the world and its rudiments. Before this the Apostle warned against the incorrect views of those reasoners about the spiritual world, and now warns against such their views about the material world. But he does not concern himself with the views themselves, only with the conclusions from them. From them it came out that one cannot regard substances indifferently, but that they have significance in the matter of spiritual life, some help, others hinder. From this came the rule: do not touch that, do not taste this, do not handle that. These are negative precepts; but it is of course implied at the same time: touch that, taste this and handle that. Such superstitions drew away hope from God and persuaded them to rely on what is material—perishable and unstable. Ambrosiaster writes: “The Apostle forbids all manner of hope in material things; for it is vain.”

Col. 2:22. Which things all perish in their use, according to the commandments and doctrines of men.

He presents the reasons why one should not listen to such lessons: first—the worthlessness of the subjects which they concern themselves with; second,—that this is not God’s commandment, but human teaching.

The worthlessness of the subjects: what is material that is firm and permanent? All flows. Take food: what happens to it? “It turns into slime” (blessed Theodoret). “Which all perish with use.” “To put to shame the pride of those dogmatists (false teachers), the Apostle says that all this is nothing great, but ends in corruption in those using it; corrupting in the belly, it is then cast out through the bowels, so that for the soul in this, as it is in itself, there is neither benefit nor harm” (blessed Theophylact). The thought here in the Apostle is the same as in the Saviour when He taught that not what enters the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the heart. And he impresses upon them: do not attach importance to these trifles and do not rely on them; but direct all attention to the state of the heart and its dispositions. They are enduring and have eternal value, but all this is trifles, vanity.

Already for this reason one should turn away from these reasoners; but even more because their teachings are not from God, but are human inventions. You have received teaching from God, and you should not open your ears to these strangers whose teachings are composed “according to the commandments and doctrines of men.” These words must be joined with: δογματίζεσθε: why do you allow yourselves to be taught such dogmas which are inventions of men? And even the Jewish ordinances, inasmuch as they were burdened with various rabbinical additions, had already turned from God’s commandments into human precepts. But more directly the Apostle had in mind the superstitions of the Greeks or some theosophists.

Col. 2:23. Which things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed worship and humility and severity toward the body, but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

“Which”—directly relates to the immediately preceding, to the lessons: “Do not touch” and the rest,—“according to the commandments and doctrines of men.” But from the content of the text it is evident that the Apostle had in mind all that was said about the errors of the false teachers from verse 16. Therefore this text can be considered the conclusion to the whole last section (verses 16–22).

“Which have indeed the appearance of wisdom.” Those reasoners knew so well how to present their reasoning that it seemed very wise, supporting such an opinion of it also by their humble and strict appearance. The Apostle says: all this only appears wise. What it actually is, he does not finish saying, because after this word it itself becomes clear. Holy Chrysostom says: “‘appearance of wisdom,’ not power, therefore, not truth. Therefore we should turn away from one who has only the appearance of wisdom. For another may seem and pious and modest and despising the body; but in reality he is not such.” We take also from Theodoret some words: “The Apostle pointed out those having appearance but not reality, who deceive by the grandeur of words.” Let us add one also from Oecumenius: “they have only the appearance of wisdom, but not the works or, better, they have only naked (empty, void), but insinuating words.”

If indeed these reasoners explained all existence as the Gnostics afterwards did; then illusory wisdom is the most fitting title for their reasoning. They presented themselves as walking in heaven and told, as eyewitnesses, how all came to be, building a ladder of spiritual powers, one degenerating from another and all drawing closer and closer to earthly creatures. In the imagination of listeners an attractive picture was drawn and could attract if one did not ask why and how. So even now the narrative of the self-formation of the world from misty clouds draws in the imagination a very sweeping picture, seeming something majestic, and attracts; but it has nothing solid under it, and this soap bubble at once bursts as soon as one begins to ask why and how. The Colossian reasoners proceeded from the spiritual world, ours from the material. But the spirit of teaching there and here is one, and its value is one—a soap bubble.

Self-imposed religion, false humility and harsh treatment of the body constituted the external practical side of the reasoning. The reasoners, it seems, acted thus themselves and thereby gave an illusory appearance of wisdom to their reasoning, which produced wonder and attracted.

“In self-imposed religion,” ἐν ἐθελοθρησκίᾳ,—in voluntary worship. Worship—an image of external worship of God. These reasoners built their own faith and for it devised a special order of worship. It is called self-imposed perhaps because it did not conform to any of those then known; consequently, not to the Jewish. Or: is it not for this reason it is called ἐθελοθρησκίᾳ, that they left it to everyone’s freedom to worship God externally as one wished, not establishing one obligatory order of worship for all? Both could attract: the one—by novelty and some kind of display, and this—by the liberty to which is there anyone unwilling? Our Khlysty have their own worship. They even go to church, but their own worship is sweeter to them, though it is composed very grotesquely. It pleases because it is voluntary. The same is beginning to be established among spiritualists. Some of them turn their own séances into something like worship, only they do not relate it to God, but to spirits (more directly—to demons). Something similar could have been with those reasoners and their disciples.

“In humility.” Earlier, “the false humility” (Col. 2:18) could be explained as the starting point of all their supposedly wise teaching: what fellowship with God, even with the Angels, might we have? But here it is evident that he is pointing to the external appearance—how these false sages conducted themselves and how they compelled their disciples to conduct themselves. Tattered clothing, quiet speech, downcast eyes, unkempt hair—here was their “humility”! Turkish dervishes are like this. However insignificant it may seem, it has always attracted and continues to attract, not only the simple folk. It is somehow difficult to shake off the thought that people of this sort possess something special, some higher spirit. From this comes their honor and obedience.

“Not sparing the body.” Poor nourishment of the body is also a kind of not sparing it, but the Apostle’s word expresses something more thereby. Perhaps they even tormented themselves in some way. The flagellants have always existed. Even now they exist: both in enlightened Europe and among rough Turks, and among us among the Khlysty. In itself, not sparing the body in reasonable measure and with holy aims is not blameworthy but praiseworthy. “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh” (Gal. 5:24). If the Apostle speaks of it here with reproach, it is certainly because it, apart from the grotesque form in which it appeared, in its direction and spirit was evil and was mixed with certain superstitions. The Manicheans too did not favor the body; but because they considered it the work of something other than God, and in its very nature they saw evil. Not sparing the body in this spirit and similar spirits cannot be spared from reproach.

“Not to the honor that satisfies the flesh.” What these words mean in this place is difficult to determine. It seems that, as the Apostle is clarifying here what deceptions the false sages used and what thoughts they generated about their high wisdom, these words too should be referred to the same thing. They attracted by their self-willed service, by humility-play and not sparing the body. The Apostle adds to this: and all of this could deceive the more because they did not seek honor in order to turn that honor into a means of eating abundantly. For “satiety,” πλεσμονη, means not merely the satisfaction of the flesh by food, but abundant—oversatiation. Writing to the Corinthians, the Apostle pointed out in certain teachers similar forms (2 Cor. 11:20). But in these men, he says, there is none of this; wherefore they could deceive the more easily. “Not to the honor”—they did not present themselves in representations that would excite honor, but appeared as humble folk; thus they always conducted themselves, not troubled by lack of honor. In truth they resembled the true Apostles. “To satiety,” προς πλεσμονην, indicates the goal of those who seek honor. In them, he says, this does not exist.

At the same time another thought is possible. They do not spare the body and do not give it the honor due to it by nature; they do not show care for its maintenance and the satisfaction of its natural needs. God, having created the body, did not appoint an enemy to the soul, but a co-worker and helper; but they treat it as though it were an enemy, torment it, do not nourish it. Our commentators pursue this thought. Holy Chrysostom says: “God gave honor to the body; but they used it not to honor it. They, he says, dishonor the flesh by depriving it, taking away from it strength.” And Oecumenius writes the same: “God, having honored mankind, created its body with His hands and gave it necessary food; but they did not regard the given provisions as honorable, but as though harmful, which ought to be avoided.” And here are the words of the blessed Theophylact: “God honored the body and gave provisions so that the flesh, nourished by them, might exist. But they do not keep the body in honor; they deprive it of what is due.” “To the satiety of the flesh” will with this interpretation mean: to the nourishment of the flesh—they do not show due care for the body to satisfy its needs.

There is also another interpretation, by which “not to the honor” is opposed to the words: “having the appearance of wisdom.” Their teaching has only the appearance of wisdom, it produces only talk as if they were wise, but in reality it serves not to their honor; not honor but blame do they deserve for such teaching. And: “to the satiety of the flesh”—with this another sense is given: the flesh is taken as the sin living in us, our damaged nature, lust, selfhood. Their teaching does not serve to their honor; it only satisfies and abundantly gorges their selfhood, feeds this sinful weakness. How far and how discordant such an interpretation is, is evident of itself.

Moral Part (Colossians 3:1–25; 4:1–6)

The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Here the holy Apostle first: A) presents Christian life as it ought to be in itself, without relation to the external circumstances of the believers (Col. 3:1–17); and then: B) indicates what it ought to be in Christians in their various external circumstances and conditions (Col. 3:18–25, 4:1–6).

A) Christian life apart from the external circumstances of Christians (Col. 3:1–17)

Here the holy Paul indicates: a) the essence of life in Christ Jesus—that it should be separated from all earthly things and absorption with Christ in God (Col. 3:1–4); in consequence of this, in reality it manifests itself as: b) the mortifier of passions and the acquirer of every virtue: this is its work, by laboring in which, it finally attains the ultimate limit of active perfection: love and peace (Col. 3:5–15); c) the means to advancement in such a life are offered as the enriching of the mind with knowledge of the word of God, prayer, and doing all things in the name of the Lord Jesus (Col. 3:16, 17).

a) The essence of life in Christ Jesus (Col. 3:1–4)

This essence consists: aa) in the seeking of what is above—the heavenly, the eternal, the divine, with separation from what is earthly, temporal, and created (Col. 3:1, 2); bb) the foundation why it ought to be thus—in the fact that believers die to all things and their life is hidden with God in Christ the Lord (Col. 3:3); and: cc) the incentive to such detachment is drawn from the conviction that otherwise one cannot appear in glory when Christ the Lord appears (Col. 3:4).

Col. 3:1. If therefore you were raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

“If” means if. The Apostle does not raise the question of resurrection with Christ with any doubt in his thought, but asserts it certainly and places it as the foundation for the conclusion—seek what is above, think on heavenly things. “Then” is a particle indicating conclusion. Whence is it concluded that we have been raised with Christ? From Col. 2:12, where it was said that in holy baptism we were buried with Christ and were raised with Him. From this position the Apostle previously drew: “If you have died with Christ” (Col. 2:20); but now he makes another conclusion: “if you have been raised.” But the first conclusion was concerning knowledge: if you died with Christ to all material things, why then seek supports for your convictions and hopes in anything material? But this second concerns the practical side—Christian life: if you have been raised with Christ, seek what is above. That we have been raised with Christ is derived from the power and significance of the mystery of baptism; from the same fact that we have been raised, a new conclusion is made: “seek the things that are above.”

What it means to seek what is above is determined by what it means to be raised with Christ. In the Epistle to the Romans the holy Paul defines resurrection with Christ thus: “As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). To walk in newness of life will mean to seek what is above. But what does it mean to walk in newness of life? To walk in opposition to the old way of life. The old life began with the fall, when man departed from communion with God, for which he was destined, and descended into self-will, sensuousness, and love of creation. The renewal of life is to enter again into living communion with God through the rejection of self-will, sensuousness, and love of creation. To remain in this order of life will be to walk in newness of life, and further—to seek what is above. To seek what is above therefore means to strive with all effort to remain always in living communion with God. For what is higher than God? And having sought and found God, what higher can the seeker seek? Wherefore the prophet David cries out: “Your face, Lord, I seek; do not hide Your face from me” (Ps. 26:8); and invites all: “Seek the Lord, and your soul shall live” (Ps. 68:33).

The very word “seek what is above” means to seek that which is on high, to seek the heavenly; which is customarily expressed as seeking the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. But what is this Kingdom? It is that when God begins to reign in the soul. Through the Lord Jesus Christ the communion of the soul with God, broken by the fall, is restored. Entering anew into communion with the soul, God dwells in it and, giving it life and directing all its movements, restores to it the lost wellbeing. And behold the Kingdom of God. It will also constitute eternal blessedness. Wherefore one may conclude that it embraces in itself all that anyone might conceive under the name of things on high.

Another thing that determines in the Apostle the sought-for thing on high is shown by the words: “where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Ambrosiaster writes that the Apostle also calls “those raised with Christ in baptism” those who seek what is beyond heaven, where the throne of Christ is, where God the Father gave His right hand to His Son, that He might reign and judge. “Where has he led our mind! with what a great thought has he filled us!” exclaims the holy Chrysostom. The seeking of what is above will be therefore the seeking of that to which the seating of the Lord Saviour at the right hand of the Father directs us! The seating of the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father is the holding of all things in His power or the actual manifestation of what He Himself said concerning Himself: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Mt. 28:18). Together with this it is the abiding in glory and divine fullness of joy, or blessedness. Here is what the seating of the Lord at the right hand of the Father directs us toward! Our seeking can here have as its object only the last two—glory and blessedness. As for the almighty rule of Christ, seeking in relation to it can have this meaning only: that the Almighty Christ might hold dominion over us as well. This is the same as seeking to be obedient and most devoted servants to Christ the Lord or for Him to make us such. We are enrolled as servants to Christ the Lord when in baptism we renounce Satan with all his works and are joined to Christ. But we become truly servants when we fulfill His commandments with all zeal and are zealous not to depart in any way from His holy will. This sets us on the right path and toward the other two goods to which the seating of Christ at the right hand of the Father directs us, that is, to His glory and blessedness and with Him. For He has promised: “Where I am, there My servant will be also.” And His servant He has determined thus: “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me” (Jn. 12:26). And to follow Him means to walk in His will and commandments to the laying down of life. Thus the glory and blessedness of Christ already belong to His servants, by His promise. One need only show himself a true servant to Him, walking in His commandments. And this is the same as seeking the dominion of Christ the Lord over us. It turns out that all three objects of seeking, pointed to by the seating of the Lord at the right hand of the Father, converge in one—in seeking to walk unswervingly in the commandments of Christ. This is not far from that which was pointed out to us by resurrection with Christ. Resurrection with Christ pointed out to us the seeking of what is above in the seeking of communion with God; the means to this that cannot be neglected is the walking in the commandments of Christ. For the Lord speaks thus: “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.” And a little later: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him” (Jn. 14:21, 23).

Thus the sought-for thing on high is not far from us. But as concerning the Kingdom of God the Lord said: “Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you” (Lk. 17:21); so also the thing on high which the Apostle commands us to seek is within us. When we hear the Apostle saying: “Seek the things that are above,” we ought not direct the gaze of the mind toward an undefined height, but enter within ourselves and there in our heart establish an ascent to the living God, through the Lord Saviour, in the Holy Spirit. In a word: by “things above” is indicated not place, but dignity.

Col. 3:2. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of the earth.

The previous commandment is repeated with a small addition. Having raised the Colossians on high, to the right hand of God the Father, the Apostle “gave them to understand that from there they should not look upon the earth. Your present life, he says, is not yours; your life is another. He already hastens to carry them away from the earth, strives to show that they are in heaven, making it clear that they should not seek what is here. If you are in heaven, then you ought not to seek what is earthly” (holy Chrysostom). “To set one’s mind,” φρονειν, means to think, to hold in one’s thought, to consider, to reflect on how best to arrange something. Two objects offer themselves for this—heaven and earth. So long as a man lives in self-will, all his thoughts are only about how to arrange his earthly wellbeing better, or his earthly happiness. But when the grace of God awakens in him the sleeping spiritual needs, then his thoughts too move to another realm, are torn from the earth and turned toward considering how more surely to arrange his eternal wellbeing, or to attain eternal blessedness and be accounted worthy of the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven. The latter is to set one’s mind on things above, while the former is to set one’s mind on things of the earth. The latter occupies true Christians, while the former occupies those who are not Christians in spirit, though they are called so. These two frames of mind draw a sharp line of distinction between them.

If by “things above” we understand the same as we defined to understand by “things that are on high”—that is, living communion with God through walking in His commandments with rejection of self-will, sensuousness, and love of creation—then here are the subjects of constant and careful Christian thoughts: the Christian reflects on how not to slip again into self-will and sensuousness and not to cleave to any creature more than to the Creator; how to fulfill more precisely the will of God in all the course and in all the contacts of his life; and especially on how to remain inseparably with the Lord in thought and heart, and with fear and trembling before Him to work out his salvation. These are the subjects worthy of the Christian’s thinking! The earthly is not worthy of occupying him. It goes with him as something external—an appendage, not the main work.

Col. 3:3. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Here are the reasons why Christians should seek what is above and set their minds on things above, not on earthly things! The first is that they have died; the second is that they have a life hidden with Christ in God. “On both sides he urges them not to seek what is here—both from death and from life. You have died, he says, to what is below; wherefore you should not seek it. Again, your life, he says, is on high; therefore set your minds on things above. The Apostle strives to show that they abide on high and live another life, which is in God and invisible to the eyes of the flesh” (blessed Theophylact).

“You have died,” that is, in baptism. Here Christians die to sin—to self-will, to passions, to love of creation; they die also to all the objects that satisfy them, so that all these ought to be as though non-existent for them. How then could there be reason to occupy oneself with such things? Holy Chrysostom says: “The present life is not our life. We are strangers and pilgrims. ‘You have died,’ he says. But who would be so foolish as to buy slaves for a dead and buried body, or build houses, or prepare precious garments? No one. Therefore we too should not act so. We ordinarily wish only one thing: not to be naked; and here we will seek only this one thing. Our old man has died and been buried; not buried in the earth, but in water; death did not conquer him, but the Conqueror of death buried him. And nothing is more blessed than this burial. All rejoice in it: the Angels, men, and the Lord of the Angels. For this burial there is need neither of garments nor of a coffin nor anything of the kind.” Do not raise up again, we add, this so beneficially buried one with your unprofitable thoughts and cares about something self-willed, passionate, and creature-loving.

“Your life hidden with God” can be understood in two ways: both because it is such by its very nature, and because it is invisible to others until its time, often even to those who share in it. The preceding discourse requires the first thought, and the following one requires the second.

That our life should be hidden in God is determined in the very creation itself. For such is our purpose, to remain in living communion with God, for us to be in God and God in us—which properly means the hiddenness of our life in God. Into such communion man was placed at the very moment of his creation through the breathing into his face of the spirit from God. Sin broke this communion and became a wall between man and God. The Son of God came through His incarnation and tore down this barrier. Those who believe in Him receive the forgiveness of sins and are clothed with the power to overcome sin—both through union with the Lord. Those who believe in Him are clothed in Him and become one spirit with Him. And He is one with God the Father. In consequence of which they too through Him and with Him enter again into unity and communion with God, from which they had fallen away—or, what is the same thing, their life becomes and is hidden with Christ in God. Such is the mystery of life in Christ Jesus. The Lord set forth this mystery thus: “I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you” (Jn. 14:20). Such is the golden chain! The Lord also explained how it is linked: “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6), and again: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him… Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me” (Jn. 6:44, 45). God the Father draws all to the Son, and the Son brings them to the Father. And the communion with God of those who believe is established; their life becomes hidden with Christ in God. The holy Paul reminds us of this mystery of Christian life in confirmation of the fact that Christians should always set their minds only on what is above. You have died, he says, to all things—to yourselves, to the world, and to every creature; there is no reason for you to think about all such things. You have come alive with a new life—and your life has become hidden with Christ in God; think about God and set your minds on things divine. Where your life is, there your heart and your mind should also be.

But this life, hidden in God through the Lord Saviour, remains hidden—concealed, invisible—to others. Men do not see it, for it is wholly accomplished in the spirit and heart. The “spiritual” one, though, according to the Apostle, “judges all things” (1 Cor. 2:15), yet he certainly only determines whether someone is of God, and sometimes at what stage he stands, but the very working and movement of this life, as well as its meaning and power, he does not see. Not everything does the one who has partaken of this life see either. He does not see how it began, for the Lord says: “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:8). Once begun, this life grows also unknowingly to him, until the palpable workings of the grace of the Holy Spirit begin to appear. But even after this he does not see everything and know everything, for, according to the Apostle, those who have received the Holy Spirit—that Spirit makes intercession for them before God with groanings too deep for words, and they do not even know it (Rom. 8:26). They do not know either how and in what way it will all end, for “what we will be has not yet been revealed” (1 Jn. 3:2). And much here is hidden even from the Angels; only the general condition of souls is clear to them, not the very essence of life according to God in each one. Only God alone knows “those who are His” (2 Tim. 2:19). For all others it will be revealed at the second coming of Christ, when, to the great astonishment and irreversible sorrow of many, even those who considered themselves God’s and were held as such by others will learn that they are not God’s—for they will hear: “I never knew you” (Mt. 7:23).

This other aspect of hiddenness, or concealment and invisibility of life according to God, moved the Apostle to add to what had been said.

Col. 3:4. When Christ, Who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Now it is not seen how you are in God and how glorious this is; but then it will be revealed, and all will see it. By this assurance the Apostle kindled a fire in those who were eager to live in God and removed much that might weaken the power of his words. They might have thought: Leave all things, think of nothing earthly, be God’s; but what is our position in the meantime? The Apostle assures them: This is only for a time; your triumph too will come—you will also be revealed in glory. Be of good courage and do not cease to set your minds only on things above and to keep your life hidden in God. But this same assurance also aroused the thought: We will be revealed—and nothing hidden will remain; but what if it is revealed that we are not what we think we are and what others consider us to be! Let us therefore make every effort to truly have our life hidden with God in Christ the Lord. “Now we have the promise of good things in hope only, but then what is invisible now will be made visible” (blessed Theodoret). “Christ is not yet revealed; therefore your life has not yet begun—it is in God, in heaven. So then, what? When will we live? When Christ is revealed, your life; then seek also for glory, and life, and joy. So if we will be revealed then, we will not grieve if we do not now enjoy glory. If the present life is not life, if life is hidden, then we ought to live the present life as the dead. ‘Then,’ he says, ‘you also will be revealed with Him in glory.’ He said ‘in glory’ not without purpose; for even a pearl is hidden while it is in its shell” (holy Chrysostom).

That we “will be revealed in glory” when Christ the Lord is revealed, this the holy Paul places in direct dependence on the fact that Christ the Lord is our life. Having our life in Him, we are in an essential, inseparable connection with Him, so that where He is and what He is, there we are and such are we. He will be revealed in glory; this revelation of Him in glory will draw us all into His glory. As what belongs to the head passes over to the whole body, and as the condition of the vine is at the same time the condition of all the branches; so those on the Vine—Christ, as branches, or those of His flesh and of His bones, will be revealed in glory at His revelation in glory. From this it follows: if this revelation in Christ’s glory is glorious and desirable, then one must be zealous and strive for one thing only—to have one’s life in Christ and from Christ; and glory will then come of itself. By this conclusion the Apostle’s word turns attention back to what he impressed before—to seek what is above, to set one’s mind on things above. It is very fitting at this point to recall: “You have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:21–24).

That the Apostle here calls Christ the Lord our life is not inconsistent with what he said before about the hiddenness of our life in God. For it is hidden in God precisely because it is Christ’s, although it is in us and belongs to us. But it is Christ’s in us not merely by origin, but also by an essential living union with Christ the Lord, who Himself is one with the Father.

Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8)

“Shun evil and do good” (Ps. 33:15) are two subjects on which all the attention and all the efforts of those who desired to have their life in Christ the Lord are directed. Just as the one who is going somewhere moves forward by shifting the center of gravity from one foot to the other; so the one going to Christ and running with Christ accomplishes his course by these two—shunning evil and doing good. Otherwise this is called resisting oneself in evil and compelling oneself to good: self-resistance and self-compelling are two legs. Where do they lead? They lead to the point where evil and passions are completely driven out, and all good appears in strength and fullness of perfection. All this the Apostle now describes, teaching: aa) how to shun evil (Col. 3:5–11), and: bb) to grow rich in good (Col. 3:12, 13), and: cc) pointing out the final limit of perfection in love and peace (Col. 3:14, 15).

aa) The Apostle teaches shunning evil (Col. 3:5–11)

The shunning of evil is required to be so strong and so decisive that the Apostle calls it the mortifying of the members that produce sin and the putting away of all that is not good. There are two sinful things in us—lust and anger, in their various forms. Against them the Apostle arms Christians, persuading them: α) to mortify all that is lustful (Col. 3:5–7), and: β) to put away all that is angry and hostile (Col. 3:8–11), and to each of these struggles he adds his own persuasions: there the wrath of God and a testing of the destructiveness of a life of lust (Col. 3:6, 7); here the putting off of the old self and the putting on of the new self, according to the image of the Creator (Col. 3:9, 10).

Col. 3:5. Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

“Put to death.” But he already said: “You have died”; what more is there to mortify in the dead? “What are you saying? Did you not yourself say: You are buried, buried together, circumcised, stripped off the body of sinful flesh? How then do you again say: ‘Put to death’? There is no contradiction here. If someone, after cleaning a defaced statue or even recasting it and making it completely bright, said that rust still eats and destroys it, and began to advise him to make an effort again to clean it from rust, he would not contradict himself; because he would advise to clean it not from the rust that he had already scraped off, but from the rust that appeared afterward. So Paul speaks not of the former mortification, not of the former transgressions, but of the subsequent ones” (holy Chrysostom). “The first mortification was the gift of baptism, which took away the original sin existing in us; but now the proposed mortification is the work and intention of ourselves, consisting in wiping away the sins that occur after baptism, and even more in not allowing them to come alive in us, cutting off their germination by mortifying fleshly reasoning” (blessed Theophylact). “The Lord gave us life from the first death, in baptism washing away our sins; but for us there is need also of another mortification—not that we mortify ourselves, but that we mortify the passions, not allowing them to act in us” (Oecumenius). To die to sin in baptism is only in intention and resolve, strengthened by God’s grace, but after baptism there must follow a keeping of oneself in this death, or a constant mortifying of oneself by the strength of that first mortification, directed against passions and sinful movements and impulses that arise again. That is in intention and resolve, but this is in actuality and in life. For even after the spirit is given life by God’s grace, has come to hate sin and to love a life holy according to God in righteousness and holiness, the soul and body are still full of disorders from long habit of sinful deeds, which have twisted their natural needs. From this the soul and body do not cease even after that to pull toward sin or to offer sinful things, recalling in the passions the former self-will. One who has accepted the resolve to live not according to passions must strictly watch what the soul and body propose, and, meeting something passionate in their proposals, must reject it. This rejection of passionate and sinful proposals is the mortifying of the members which the Apostle commands here. The rejected passionate proposal will come again; and again it must be rejected. Thus always. By this frequent and constant rejection, which is each time a strike against the passion, the passion will finally die away. Thus one, then another, then a third; thus finally all. And here is the goal which the holy Paul desires for us to attain—that all passions finally show themselves dead, and all human nature appears passionless, pure, and bright. Only under such a condition can one hope to appear in glory when Christ the Lord is revealed. Wherefore the holy Paul said: “Put to death therefore.” Therefore, mortify all passions in yourselves and cleanse yourselves from them, if you wish to appear then in glory.

“Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth.” By “members on the earth” the Apostle means the passions which he then enumerates. He called the passions our members because they present themselves as though they were inseparable parts of our nature. And they captivate us precisely because they seem to be parts of nature, and because, in rising up against them, we seem to be rising against nature itself. In cutting off the passions, as though we were cutting off our own limbs. But in reality the passions are not our natural members, but foreign ones, grafted onto certain natural parts and having twisted them. And this can be counted as the second reason why the holy Paul called them our members. Because of this entanglement of certain passions with our members, in acting against the passions, one cannot at the same time avoid acting against the members to which they have clung. And then self-pity is brought in or is brought by the enemy, which cuts short the ascetical effort and then allows the passion to arise again. To prevent this from happening, the Apostle writes: Cut off your own members without pity; otherwise you cannot appear in glory with Christ the Lord. So as not to fall into this temptation of self-pity, the one striving must keep in mind and conviction that, in mortifying certain members of his, he is not killing them, but the passion grafted onto them. The passion, having grafted itself, kills the members; but you, by mortifying the passion through some mortification of the members, will free them from the killing power of the passion and give them life.

“Members which are on the earth” are the passions so called because all passions rest on the earth and are nourished only by earthly things. They act according to earthly thinking and find satisfaction on the earth. Earthliness is the distinguishing mark of those living by passions (holy Chrysostom). And so long as these passions are strong, they will not allow one to set one’s mind on things above or to seek what is on high.

This applies generally to all passions and therefore also to those produced by anger. But the holy Paul first enumerates the lustful passions, and then the angry ones. From the lustful he sets forth various forms of bodily uncleanness and avarice. He passed over sensual living, conducted in sensual pleasures: eating, drinking, making merry, living in general in worldly pomp, because this is not a general possession, and perhaps also because such a life is understood under avarice. For those who have much usually also live “rejoicing all their days brilliantly” (Lk. 16:19).

Bodily lust gives rise to “fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire.” The word “fornication” points to specific sinful deeds; but what the others mean is left to the judgment of each one reflecting. Our commentators suppose that the first word means the deeds of the lustful passion, while the others mean the properties of that passion—that it makes a person unclean more than other passions, or more disturbs him, and is truly παθος—a sickness, like burning fever (blessed Theophylact), wherefore it deserves to be called evil desire. But perhaps it can also be understood this way: “fornication” means certain criminal liaisons with women; “impurity” means unnatural deeds in satisfaction of lust; “passion” means lustful mania; “evil desire” means infatuations with a jealousy that dries up and seeks death both in others and in oneself. But whatever one understands by them, it is clear that the holy Paul commands us to mortify bodily lust in all its manifestations, so that it and its deeds might not even be named among Christians. It opposes the spirit of Christianity more than anything else; wherefore everywhere in the Apostle’s writings, it stands first among the things to be rejected.

“Greed” is the desire that never ceases to have more and more, an insatiable passion for wealth. The Apostle does not arm us against possessions, but against avarice. We have need for food, clothing, and shelter, and we cannot avoid having the means to satisfy them. But the measure of possessions should be set at the satisfaction of need, which should indicate the boundaries of acquisition and efforts toward it. But whoever, exceeding necessity, loves the acquisition itself or possession, is sick with the passion of avarice, which, taking possession of his heart, becomes the mistress of all his deeds, thoughts, plans, and undertakings. Then all is forgotten, both in oneself and in others, both earth and heaven; one thing alone is in view—to have and to have. In such a frame of mind, possession becomes a god precisely because it takes possession of the whole man. But it is especially a god for the avaricious man because he places all his hope in it. His life, his status, the course of his affairs—all stands firm for him because he has much. He rests in hope on mammon, and what should be expected from God alone he expects from wealth. It is for him an idol, whom he serves and works for and on whom he hopes. Wherefore avarice the holy Paul called idolatry. The blessed Theodoret writes: “He called ‘greed’ ‘idolatry’ because the Saviour named mammon as master (Mt. 6:24), teaching that one enslaved to the passion of avarice honors wealth as a god.‘The captive of this passion’serves and worships silver and gold. ‘And the idols of the nations are silver and gold’” (Ps. 113:12) (blessed Theophylact).

One must keep in mind that the Apostle is concerned not with the quantity of possessions but with the passion of having and acquiring. Job, Abraham, David, and many others were very rich, but did not suffer from avarice. What the Apostle commands us to mortify in ourselves in this respect is attachment to possessions and the placing of hope in them—to which one can be subject even with little acquisition, as one can be free from this even with much.

Col. 3:6. For which the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

“On account of these” means on account of what? On account of the passions and deeds mentioned—on account of lustful and avaricious living. The wrath of God has already more than once fallen on those guilty of these passions and deeds. The Flood was brought because all men then became “flesh” (Gen. 6:3). For the same reason fire consumed Sodom and Gomorrah. Hezekiah suffered somewhat—because he gave himself too much importance on account of his great treasures. And in the parable, the one whose fields “produced abundantly,” hears: “Your life will be demanded of you tonight,” because he thought that “his life consisted of his possessions” (Lk. 12:15, 16, 20). But all such manifestations of God’s wrath are only foretellers of the coming wrath of which the holy Paul reminds us here, namely the wrath that is to be revealed at the dread judgment. The Apostle holds our thought on that decisive moment, as above with the words: “you also will be revealed in glory,” so here with the words: “the wrath of God is coming”—impressing upon us that whoever does not mortify his passions will not only not appear in glory, but on the contrary, will meet the wrath of God. Then the final reckoning. Even now God’s wrath is at work; but that is temporary, corrective, while this will be decisive, irreversible. The same thought is here with the Apostle as in the Epistle to the Romans in the words: “God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18).

The Apostle calls “sons of disobedience” the unbelieving, both from among the Jews and from among the Gentiles, who, seeing, do not see and hearing, do not hear. Whatever one tells them or persuades them with, nothing touches them. A thorough preaching is offered: they do not heed. Signs are added to the word—and this does not persuade them. They are like stone that no tool can work. Wherefore they are called sons of disobedience, απειθειας,—of stubbornness, as though their nature is to be persuaded by nothing, not to wish to be persuaded. The blessed Theophylact writes: “He calls them sons of disobedience, depriving them of all leniency and showing that they remain in passions not out of ignorance, but out of stubbornness, εξ απειθειας,—to which they have so given themselves that they have as it were made it their own nature, having received from it their distinguishing and characteristic marks.‘And something fearful is brought to bear from the words of the Saviour—namely: they do not listen because they are not of the truth; for’everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice” (Jn. 18:37), says the Lord. They are not of the truth, and there is no truth in them, as in him who “was a murderer from the beginning” (Jn. 8:44). There is no truth in them, and truth is not received by them, is not contained in them, finding nothing akin to itself in them. The truth of God walks upon the earth and has faithful witnesses to itself. Whoever sincerely desires will always find it. If there are those who do not find it, it is because they do not seek; and they do not seek because they do not want the truth; they do not want it because they are not of the truth. But there is nothing fateful in this: all is a matter of free will.

In reminding the Colossians of the coming wrath, the Apostle offers them a motive for mortifying the passions. And reminder of God’s benefits is sufficient to keep one from passions and sins, but the presentation of God’s wrath is the mightiest motive of all (holy Chrysostom). “The Apostle deemed it necessary to add the threat of punishment to his persuasions” (blessed Theodoret). Why so? Perhaps by the nature of the passions from which he ordered withdrawal and which he commanded to mortify. Lustful passion and avarice are poorly responsive to the action of remembering God’s benefits. While these passions are not in motion, this remembrance works; but when they are stirred, nothing works so powerfully to bring one to one’s senses as a vivid presentation of the coming wrath of God. And in general, to keep one’s attention fixed on the judgment is the best place for one striving; but it is a uniquely suited place when lustful passion is in motion.

Col. 3:7. In which you also once walked, when you were living in them.

“In these” means in the passions and sins mentioned—you too once walked and acted according to the impulses of passions and habits in sins and vices, when you lived “among them,” among the Gentiles, according to their spirit, rules, and customs. He reminds them of the time preceding their conversion to faith in Christ the Lord, at the same time bringing to mind a comparison—to see how they now feel and how their former state appears to them—how before all was dark in them, unclean, restless, and how now all is bright, clean, peaceful. “Thus also in the Epistle to the Corinthians he said: ‘And some of you used to be like that. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified’” (1 Cor. 6:11) (blessed Theodoret). And these words also made them feel what extreme danger they had escaped by renouncing the works of passion and separating themselves from the Gentiles—namely, the wrath that is coming upon the sons of disobedience. This wrath is about to fall; but it will not touch them, because they have come out of that environment at which this wrath will be directed. Both one and the other—both the reminder of the former dark and present bright state, and the feeling of deliverance from a threatening disaster—represent a powerful motive for withdrawal from the passions which even now disturb those given to them and threaten irreversible disaster in the future. Ambrosiaster writes: The Apostle does not pass over how great a benefit the grace of God in Christ Jesus has brought them, so that, gratefully remembering the avoidance of the wrath about to suddenly come upon the unbelieving of all the earth, they might always show themselves as zealous fulfillers of the commandments of Him through Whom they are so certainly delivered from the second death.

Col. 3:8. But now put off all these things: wrath, anger, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.

“Now” means after accepting faith in Christ the Saviour and abandoning paganism. “Put away.” You have already put away; for, coming to the baptismal font—the bath of regeneration and rebirth—you said: I renounce Satan and all his works and all his service; by which you accomplished what the holy Paul now commands by the word “put away.” Wherefore this “put away” should be understood in the sense of “keep putting away,” just as the earlier “put to death” is in the sense of “keep mortifying.” In intention, indeed, everything that is required to be put away has already been decisively put away, and the power of grace has been received to keep this putting away in force; but circumstances for actual putting away are not thereby removed, nor is it so that when such a circumstance occurs, it will not require all our attention and the corresponding exercise of strength. The blessed Theophylact writes: “How is this? He just said: ‘When you were living in them,’ showing that now you no longer live so, and suddenly he again says: ‘put away all these things.’ How can they put away what they no longer have? To this one can answer that what was said ‘When you were living in them’ serves to clarify what is now said. For this conveys that once, that is before baptism, sin ruled in you, possessed your whole life, and tyrannized over you, and freedom from passions was impossible for you; but now, when through baptism sin is mortified in you, it has become easy for you to put away passions as one puts off clothes. And you cannot excuse yourselves on the grounds that you live under the tyranny of sin and passions: for you have died to them.”

Why, in arming us against lust, did he say “mortify,” but in preparing us for struggle against irritability, does he say “put away”? The force of the commandment is the same both there and here—to make our nature completely clean from passions, so that not even a trace of them remains within, and they become external to us, like a severed limb or a cast-off garment. But the struggle against them is not the same: struggle against lust is harder, for it seems to have roots in our nature; while struggle against anger is easier to manage, for it is entirely foreign to our nature, in the depths of which lies brotherly and social love. Struggling against the former is as though one were violating and torturing and mortifying oneself; but struggling against the latter, one is only rejecting what is foreign. It suffices only to call forth the consciousness and feeling of common brotherhood, and it will fall away.

“And you.” As all Christians, so you. A Christian is not truly a Christian if he does not keep himself undefiled by passions. Having entered the midst of Christians, keep yourselves too far removed from passions, as formerly, living in the midst of Gentiles, you lived by passions alone. But this is self-evident. Or was there perhaps something else the holy Paul wished to impress by saying “and you”? Is it not conveyed by this that in conversion, when the new man was being built and when the holy resolutions of the will were being formed, grace was acting chiefly, and the will followed it, not by force, but willingly, though with tangible being drawn? But after conversion, when the new man with new principles of life is completely formed, life begins to flow so that the will now leads the way, and grace, though inseparably present and not without a part in the very germination of the will’s movements, follows it, assisting and strengthening? At least one cannot deny that in this sense one can say: “and you.” It is not all grace; you yourselves must labor, must strain your own powers, to put away all passions.

“All these things” seems to point to the already-rejected passions of lust; but following this, in explanation of what “all these things” means, the passions of anger are enumerated. How is this? Perhaps the holy Apostle’s thought is: put away all things—both what has already been mentioned and what follows—all, as you lived and what you occupied yourselves with when you were among the Gentiles, according to the custom of all Gentiles. The Greek word τα παντα, “all,” gives the thought of a specific thing to be put away, which is the passions, all in general, both lusts and angers. Since the former have already been indicated, it remained only to point to the latter.

“Anger, wrath, malice” indicate the degrees of the growth of irritability: “anger” is the first stirring of annoyance—displeasure, indignation, vexation, the stirring of anger—which all stays within the bounds of seeming good sense and is hidden, though not always successfully. “Wrath” is an outburst of anger, not restrained within bounds and manifested in word and deed. But both of these—anger and wrath—are passing. Yet it happens that vexation settles deeply in the heart and, remaining there, plots and devises ways of vengeance, plans to do harm—it becomes malice.

Oecumenius distinguishes “anger” and “wrath” thus: “‘Anger’ is an outburst or vexing kindling of the irritable passion; and ‘wrath’ is, as a result of deep vexation, an irresistible desire to repay those who have wronged one immediately—the soul thirsts for vengeance. One should know that by both these movements men sin repeatedly, either irresistibly rushing at those who have offended them, or waiting with patience for an opportunity for revenge and plotting for that purpose (the latter is malice). All of this, we who have been taught humility must avoid.” And the blessed Theophylact distinguishes malice thus: “By ‘malice’ the Apostle means grudge-bearing, when someone holds malice toward another, so to speak, in order to avenge him.”

“Slander” and “abusive language” manifest in speech the heart’s irritation. Slander, βλασφημια, in relation to God means blasphemy, and in relation to men means evil-speaking, any reproachful speech, abuse, shaming someone by word, and sometimes revealing what has happened with embellishment and misrepresentation, and sometimes making up things based on seeming coincidences. Here the latter is meant. “It is about abusive speech that the Apostle speaks” (blessed Theophylact). “Abusive language” means foul words, abuse with unseemly words, which one overcome by anger cannot hold back.

“From your mouth” put away slander and abusive language. Both of these “defile the mouth, created for the purpose of praising God” (Oecumenius). Your mouths “are sanctified by the reception of the Lord’s body. Therefore it is extremely inappropriate for you to defile these mouths that receive Christ the Lord with evil-speaking and foul language.”

Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11)

Col. 3:9. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its deeds.

First: “do not lie” is a continuation of the indication of what must be put away; and second: “seeing that you have stripped off” at the same time as what is said in the following verse, presents a motive for fulfilling the proposed commandments.

“Do not lie to one another,” εις αλληλους, can be understood: do not speak lies to one another before each other; similarly as in the Epistle to the Ephesians: “put away falsehood and speak the truth to each other” (Eph. 4:25), where this commandment is drawn, as here, from the putting off of the old self and the putting on of the new self. The blessed Theophylact writes: “you have clothed yourselves in Christ, who said: ‘I am … the truth’” (Jn. 14:6). How then can you now clothe yourselves in another form (of dress), the form of falsehood? Then it will be evident that you are discarding that form (as though a uniform dress), which characterizes you with the mark of truth.“But it can also be understood this way: do not speak lies against one another, do not make false accusations, do not slander one another, as with the apostle James:”do not slander one another (Jas. 4:11). The latter is closer to the flow of the discourse; because the Apostle is here forbidding the feelings and deeds produced by irritability and mutual enmity, of which slander does not occupy the last place.

Having enumerated what should be put away, the Apostle now proposes the motives for doing so. The first is: “seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices.” All these are deeds of the old self which you have stripped off. Therefore you should not concern yourself with any such things. “By ‘the old self’ is meant corrupted will, expressing itself also in corresponding deeds” (blessed Theophylact). “He calls it ‘old,’ wishing to show its shamefacedness, deformity, and weakness” (holy Chrysostom). “This is a life in sins, aged, corrupted, exhausted, before regeneration and renewal in baptism through faith in Christ the Lord” (Oecumenius). A man, as he has become through the fall, is the old self. In him self-will reigns, compelling him to employ all his efforts to arrange his earthly wellbeing, placed in sensual pleasures, while everything else is turned into a means to this. In consequence of this, his direct passions are the passions of lust, of which the Apostle has spoken above. The passions of anger come as from without, or are conditioned by external circumstances. Men living with the character of the old self live together, each desiring to arrange only his own wellbeing and seeking it. Wherefore clashes are inevitable, from which arise anger and all the passions and deeds of enmity produced by it among men. Their foundation lies in selfishness; but the awakening, the manifestation, the variety, and the obsolescence depends on external clashes. But for this, the old self would only indulge in self-will, wallowing in lusts and living according to its own will without any anger.

But how does the Apostle present the stripping off of the old self, that is, the rejection of self-will, as the motive for putting away not the direct passions of self-will, but the accidental ones? There is nothing inconsistent in this. For after, with conversion to Christ, selfness and self-will are rejected, and this rejection is made firm and clothed with strength in the mysteries, all passions are rejected together with them—both those directly produced by self-will, namely the passions of lust, and those produced out of selfishness as a result of accidental clashes and resistances, namely the passions of anger. Wherefore from the stripping off of the old self it directly follows that Christians are obligated also to put away these passions and the deeds in which they are expressed.

Yet taking this into account, we can recognize that the Apostle continues here the exposition of the motives for withdrawal from passions begun above (Col. 3:6, 7) and as though unfinished. There he said: “You too once lived in these ways,” that is, in the deeds and passions of lust, when you lived according to the spirit of the old self. Here, after enumerating the deeds and passions of anger, he adds: “seeing that you have stripped off the old self.” You once walked in those passions of lust, but now you have ceased. Why? Because you have stripped off the old self from which they directly arose. Thus this motive—“seeing that you have stripped off,” as well as the following—“and have clothed yourselves with the new,” directed directly against the passions of anger, being in connection with the former, directed against the passions of lust, is directed also against these latter, as the very essence of the matter of stripping off the old self requires. From this it follows conversely that the motives indicated before against the passions of lust (Col. 3:6, 7) go equally against the passions of anger which are here directly in view. What in these motives is more specially directed against this or that passion? Against the passions of lust, there is: “the wrath of God is coming,” as has already been noted in its place; and against the passions of anger: “according to the image of the Creator,” as will be explained now.

Col. 3:10. And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its Creator.

This is the second action, inseparable from the first: one is cast off, the other is received. The self-willed selfness with all the passions born from it is cast off, and the resolve to live self-denying for the sole purpose of pleasing God is received. This resolve, embracing the whole nature of the one who has come to the Lord with faith and been baptized, is the new self. “The new self,” says the blessed Theophylact, “is the will toward God,” that is, the will that has resolved to live according to God and to please Him alone. But although this clothing with the new is inseparable from the stripping off of the old, nevertheless it presents a new motive not to give in to passions, not to clothe oneself in these rags. Having clothed oneself in the new, bright, fragrant, who, except one who has lost his mind, would agree to put on again the old rags, deformed and foul-smelling? If, having stripped off one thing, one had remained naked, perhaps he would be drawn to put on again what had been cast off, in spite of acknowledging its utter worthlessness. But since at the very same time that the stripping off occurs, the clothing with the new also occurs, such an action is unthinkable for those in sound mind, in full awareness of themselves and all that surrounds them. It does occur, but always as a result of darkening of the mind. The brightness of the state in grace, perceived and felt, has always been, is, and will be the strongest motive for putting away the passions that deprive us of this state. Wherefore this is given not merely to understand, but to feel by all who have recourse to the Lord, both in the mystery of baptism and in the mystery of repentance.

“Which is being renewed in knowledge.” You have clothed yourselves in the new—what further renewal? The new—how is it still being renewed? Clothing with the new is not a completed work. It is only a beginning, a seed, a germ, a root. From this moment of clothing with the new begins the very process of renewal and continues uninterrupted, unfolding more and more completely and striving to attain its original form, hidden in the Creator. This conveys that there is no end to renewal. “The new self does not grow old, but blooms and grows ever more through knowledge of God and divine things, always appearing youthful and yet becoming ever stronger, the more fully it acquires knowledge and the greater the things it is granted” (blessed Theophylact). “You have stripped off the old and clothed yourselves with the new in its place. Do not expect that the same thing will happen to this (that is, that it too will grow old). On the contrary, the more it lives, the more it approaches not to age, but to youth, which is better than before. For the more it acquires knowledge, the greater things it is granted, and the more it flourishes, and the more strength it has, not from youth alone, but also from the image toward which it is drawing near” (holy Chrysostom). “Such is the nature of a virtuous life according to God, that it is ever young; although it may appear old in body, yet it is always in bloom spiritually” (Oecumenius).

“Which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.” The renewal proceeds properly according to the image of the Creator, as is self-evident. What then is the phrase “in knowledge,” εις επιγνωσιν? It is an indication either of the goal of renewal, or of a consequence accompanying it; that is, the believer, recreated in baptism, is renewed according to the image of the Lord who here recreated him, with the goal of knowing, of becoming enriched with knowledge, or is renewed in this way and through this becomes enriched with knowledge. Neither the Lord who directs our salvation nor man who seeks salvation in Him have knowledge as their goal. Knowledge is one part; salvation embraces all nature in all its manifestations, and renewal also proceeds comprehensively. But this is certainly true: that knowledge, understood as spiritual knowledge having as its subject the orders of spiritual life in God, always follows upon spiritual renewal. And only such knowledge is true, firm, and reliable. But it is received, not sought. The spirit that encounters it rejoices as one finding great gain; but not as a merchant who receives profit on which he had calculated beforehand. It always appears suddenly. Here is how it proceeds: the one being renewed, in the course of being renewed, encounters something new. This new does not escape consciousness; it makes itself known. The acting subject, receiving it into his consciousness, becomes acquainted with it and begins to know it. The sensory eye saw a thing and knows it. So too consciousness is conscious of what is within it, and knows it. Every spiritual knowledge is gained only in this way. It is recognition—in which the knower says within himself: now I know. I see, I experience, I feel, and I know.

The new self is renewed “according to the image of its creator.” There is a question: what image is meant here—that according to which man was created, or that according to which he is being recreated? Are they not the same? Is not the Creator and the Recreator one and the same? And is not the image in both cases one and the same? Man was created according to the image of God; but he lost it. Now he is recreated in that same image and is continuously renewed to come to the measure of that image. The blessed Theodoret writes: “In the beginning God the Creator of all made us and impressed upon us the exact features of God’s image, which sin damaged (now in Christ Jesus they are recreated again). The Apostle spoke of this also in the Epistle to the Romans: ‘those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son’” (Rom. 8:29). And Oecumenius added his own words: “such a one (that is, renewed by grace) keeps the image of his Creator God always pure within himself, not allowing to mingle with it features borrowed from a lower realm, false and deceptive (that is, received as a result of deception).” In holy baptism we are clothed in Christ. This clothing is sacramentally graceful, a mystical reception in spirit of the original form. Then there follows a transfer of all the features of Christ the Lord to the corresponding members of our nature. In this is the labor of the will, the struggle of a whole life, the working of renewal, or, as in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the creation “according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). The blessed Theophylact writes briefly from holy Chrysostom: “according to the image of his Creator,’ that is, of Christ. Christ did not come to old age; but was always so beautiful that one cannot speak of it, ‘Fair beyond the sons of men’” (Ps. 44:3). For He committed no sin, which ages and corrupts. And we, made by Him according to His image, should cut off from ourselves every sinful corruption and aging. The Apostle means creation both that which happens in baptism and that which happens through the beautiful form of life.

Why did the holy Paul mention here the “image”? The flow of discourse required it. Previously he gave the commandment about putting away the passions of anger. The mightiest motive for suppressing the very arising of such movements is brought to mind by remembering that we are according to the image of the all-good and all-forgiving Lord. We see the same pairing of sickness and its remedy in the words of the Lord in the Gospel: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust… Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:44, 45, 48). That is: “Be merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Lk. 6:36).

Col. 3:11. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all things and in all.

“Here” means where? “In Christ, in faith” (Oecumenius)—in the new orders, principles, and rules of life established by faith in Christ, in His kingdom of grace. Here no distinctions are taken into account—neither national ones, whether one is Greek or Jew, nor religious ones, whether one is circumcised or uncircumcised, nor by education, whether one is barbarian or Scythian, nor by civil status, whether one is slave or free. Whatever one may be, if he has brought faith, he is received; if he has cleaved to Christ the Lord, he is saved. The grace of God in Christ Jesus unites all and from all constitutes one body. And here Christ is all and is in all. Not this or that Christ, but all, and not in this one or that one, but in all. From this all are one. How? We are clothed in Christ in baptism, the features of the image of Christ are then transferred to us, in the action of the continuous renewal that penetrates ever more deeply, to the corresponding parts of our nature. And all of this Christ accomplishes. He is the beginning and source from which, He is the image according to which, He is the producer by which all is made in all. He just as accomplished the incarnate dispensation of salvation, so He directs the salvation of each according to this dispensation. All Christians should bear this in consciousness and feeling. And in the realm of all that exists, all is given over to Christ the Lord; for He Himself says: “All things have been handed over to me… I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth” (Mt. 11:27, 28:18). The Apostle’s thought is that in Christ Jesus all natural differences disappear. Only what each one receives from Christ the Lord and takes to himself has significance and power. The blessed Theophylact writes briefly from holy Chrysostom: “And here is yet another praiseworthy distinction of the new person in Christ, that in him no external thing is taken into account: neither race, nor status, nor ancestors, but Christ is his distinguishing mark, his character. In all who have formed themselves through truly virtuous life in spirit, Christ is all—both race and status. Or it can be said otherwise: you are all one Christ, being His body.” Oecumenius continues this. “‘Christ is all and is in all,’ inasmuch as we all are one body, having Christ as our head. Wherefore it is right for us that Christ is all—Saviour, and Lord, and head, and High Priest, and sacrifice. ‘In all’ means either in all deeds, or in all the contacts of our life, or in all of us. For, he says, God has no partiality.”

Why did the Apostle mention here the distinctions among men outside Christ the Lord and the unification of all in Him? To present yet another motive for putting away the passions of anger. These passions produce division. The Apostle, having shown how all and everything is unified in Christ by grace, says as it were: Is it fitting for you, so comprehensively and so deeply unified in Christ, to allow within yourselves the movement of passions that produce division among you and violate your mutual unity, produced in you by the fact that Christ is all in you? In tearing the bond, you tear Christ.

bb) The Apostle teaches enrichment in good (Col. 3:12, 13)

Having separated the Christian from the passions, he now clothes him in virtues. And just as before he taught to put away the passions of lust and anger, so now by contrast he impresses the good dispositions, some of which work against the passions of lust, and others against the passions of anger.

Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15)

Col. 3:12. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

“Clothe yourselves.” I have said: put away the shameful garment of passions. What then? Remain naked? No; to be naked is also shameful: “clothe yourselves.” “By this word he shows the ease of virtue; for he gives the thought that just as we easily put on clothes, so we can readily take on virtue. And he also conveys by this that virtue should be held continually and used as the greatest adornment: the one who does not have it is ashamed and deformed” (blessed Theophylact from holy Chrysostom). “As the naked one covers his shame with clothes, so the one denuded of virtue; wherefore one should always have virtue inseparable from oneself, as one has clothes” (Oecumenius). Let us add to this: as clothes, covering the body all over, warm it and protect it from external painful attacks, so virtue warms the soul with spiritual warmth and makes it firm and invulnerable to demonic temptations. Saint Anthony the Great called the union of virtues an army that defends and routs enemies.

“Therefore” conveys that the following teachings are drawn from what preceded; but before it was said that it is not fitting for the one who has stripped off the old and clothed himself with the new self to give in to passions. What then is fitting for him? To clothe himself in every virtue. In this is the chief motive—to be zealous for such clothing. New is he who, having received strength in regeneration, continuously then renews himself, cutting off passions and in their place establishing the opposite virtues, or clothing himself with them. But the Apostle did not limit himself to this; he added: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved.” “Exhortation joined with praise; for from this it receives greater force” (holy Chrysostom). Praise urges one to display that for which one is praised, to hold it, and to bring it to greater and greater perfection. You are chosen, you are holy, you are beloved. What a fire of zeal is kindled if one receives such titles in feeling! You are chosen. Is there anyone but you among men? But from many God chose you, preferring you to others. He hopes that you will conduct yourselves worthily of Him who chose you. You are holy. God has sanctified you, forgiving your sins and giving you strength not to sin again, but rather to advance in all virtue. To this you are called: and be such. You are beloved. God does not hold you as strangers, but as His own, and loves you as His children. Show yourselves worthy of this love and establish within yourselves what God loves. God has loved you and chosen you; having chosen, He sanctified you; and as long as you remain holy, He will love you all the more. These titles obligate you to all virtue; but the Apostle by them urges you especially to be of good disposition toward your neighbors. Be merciful, as your heavenly Father, who chose you, sanctified you, and loved you, is merciful.

“Clothe yourselves with compassion.” “Compassion” is heartfelt mercy with suffering for every neighbor, as for one’s own kin. It is expressed by parental love toward children. As parents suffer for their children, so suffer you too for all brothers in Christ. “He did not say: you should have concern for one another, as brothers; but care for one another as fathers care for their children” (holy Chrysostom). “Clothe yourselves, he says, not simply with love (whatever kind), but with such love as naturally dwells in the hearts of parents toward their children” (Oecumenius).

“Kindness,” χρηστοτης, is benignity, readiness on every occasion to show in deed the suffering for the good of others that fills the soul, to do for others in deed all that they need and is beneficial.

“Humility.” Whoever is compassionate and benign forgets himself. The one without himself as his aim is naturally humble. A mother, suffering for her children and enduring all the difficult care for them, is humble; for her only concern is the children; she has forgotten herself. This humility is not acquired by reasoning, but naturally takes root in the heart. So too with the merciful one. Everything for others, nothing for himself. He considers himself obligated to serve others and, having served, does not exalt himself, but considers himself only as having fulfilled his duty—which duty, however, does not end with the service rendered, but remains on him in full force. The non-humble one, by contrast, in doing something for another, feels he is placing him in his debt, and, having done one thing, thinks that he has already done all for this person, and through a few such services, for all. He will say, “See, everything for others, now I must think of myself”—and closes his fists, because selfness has closed his heart. In general, where there is selfness, active benevolence appears reluctantly, if it appears at all.

“Meekness.” A comprehensive virtue, disturbed by nothing contrary and disturbing no one by anything. It is not hard-heartedness and indifference, but a strong heart, which more wisely than any wisdom sees and understands that disturbance, whether in oneself or in others, achieves no good, but only increases and grows evil. It is the direct daughter of humility, always accompanying it and strong through it—so that, if it departs even slightly from it, it immediately weakens and vanishes.

“Patience” means constant and unchanging endurance of unpleasantness, false accusations, attacks, insults, oppression, persecution, beatings, and slayings that come from men, at the instigation of the enemy. This is the external side, or visible manifestation of meekness. As compassion—inward—manifests itself outwardly through kindness, so meekness, implanted in the heart, is visibly manifested in patience.

The blessed Theophylact derives all these good dispositions one from another, placing “compassion” at the head. “Whoever is clothed,” he says, “with compassion, in him all the other virtues manifest themselves of themselves. For what father does not show kindness toward his son and practice humility, providing him with all without dispute? What father does not show patience? And note what a beautiful order there is in all this! Kindness (produced by compassion) begets humility, for he who is kind is also humble. From humility comes meekness, for the proud man is also angry. From meekness comes patience, which is magnanimity.”

But one can also place all these five in this relationship: humility is the root of all. It cuts down and drives out selfness, which is the source of all passions; for from it spring on the one side the passions of lust, on the other the passions of anger. When selfness is struck at its head by humility, all its offspring are struck—that is, both the passions of lust and the passions of anger. When the passions of lust are struck, compassion and kindness come into force. Lust wants to live only for its own pleasure; wherefore when it ceases, there remains in the soul a disposition not to live for its own pleasure, or there returns to it its natural good-will, which until now was suppressed by selfness. On the other hand, when anger is struck, the soul regains its natural peaceable disposition, which had been disturbed by the incoming anger. Good-will manifests itself in compassion and kindness, and the peaceable disposition in meekness and patience. Thus in a few words the Apostle has repelled and defeated an entire army of passions.

Col. 3:13. Bearing with one another and forgiving each other, if anyone has a quarrel against another: just as Christ forgave you, so also you do.

Since meekness and patience have great need of support, the Apostle adds for them both an indication of how to express them and the mightiest motive for doing so. It is as if the Apostle hears the question: living with one another, we continually have clashes that stir anger; teach us then how to conduct ourselves in meek patience. And he answers: bear with one another and forgive each other. Receive lovingly each one as he is, with all his weakness and shortcomings and with everything about him that displeases you in his words and undertakings. This is the same as bearing one another’s burdens. What displeases you in him, displeases him in you; endure one another. “Bearing, ανεχομενοι, means the same as carrying, βασταζοντες,—one another, you him and he you. Do not judge with keen strictness the faults and falls of one another; but, considering them trifles, pass over them without notice” (blessed Theophylact).

“Bear with” relates more to what displeases us in one another and troubles us, without relation to us. But “forgive” relates to what concerns us, what we can complain about, what is not only blameworthy in itself, but offensive and hurtful to us; which the Apostle expressed by the word μομφη—complaint. Now he has done something against which you rightly have a complaint; and tomorrow you may so act toward him. Meeting such occasions, forgive each other, χαπιζομενοι εαυτοις—give each other mutually such occasions as a gift, not starting disputes, quarrels, and discord because of them. To bear and endure one another is to bear more an external burden; but forgiveness has as its object what enters the heart; wherefore it manifests a merciful heart and gives to another what might have been held against him.

Simple as all this may seem in thought and word, in deed it is difficult to bear and forgive even a small thing, let alone something great. The Apostle strengthens his commandment with the mightiest motive—the forgiveness that each of us receives from the Lord. Why do they not forgive? A selfish movement comes to the heart: why should I forgive him? and forgiveness, often already ready, is driven away. This is the chief source of unforgiveness. The Apostle blocks it with a firm and heavy stone. As soon as selfness speaks in you: why should I forgive?—quickly bring to mind the all-forgiveness you have received from Christ the Lord, and selfness will be silent. For how dare it utter even the weakest voice when you consider how immeasurably great is the offense you have committed against the boundless God, how immeasurable a sacrifice was required for its satisfaction, and how His forgiveness is given to you, unworthy and despicable, for nothing at all? If you receive this in feeling—and how should you not?—then after this the thought in your soul will no longer be: why should I forgive this or that trifle?—but: let there be ever more for me that I might forgive.

The Apostle says: “just as the Lord has forgiven you.” He brings to mind the greater forgiveness in holy baptism. Consequently he assumes those to whom he writes have not sinned after baptism. To those who do sin after baptism, one should say: otherwise Christ God will not forgive you either. The Saviour presented clearly and with direct word, and in a parable, that the forgiveness of each one’s sins is entirely dependent on his forgiveness of his neighbor for what he holds against him. If you do not forgive, neither will you be forgiven. And here is the answer to selfness: why should I forgive? Because otherwise you yourself will not be forgiven. But if you are not forgiven, you will suffer something in comparison with which nothing of what you suffer from another and what requires your forgiveness can stand on even a hair.

Holy Chrysostom says: “And see how the holy Paul showed the insignificance of this (what one is required to forgive another), calling it a ‘complaint.’ Then he adds: ‘just as the Lord has forgiven you.’ A great example! Paul always does this—he persuades by the example of Christ. ‘Complaint,’ he says, by which he showed that this (what is suffered from others) is insignificant; but when he brought the example, he asserts that if we had even serious accusations, we ought to forgive. The words ‘just as the Lord’ mean this, and not only this, but also that one should forgive from the whole heart; and not only this, but also that one should love those who offend. For Christ, presented in example, teaches all of this and further that one should forgive wrongs even if they are great, even if we ourselves had not first wronged those who wronged us, even if we are great people and those who offended us are insignificant, even if they after forgiveness intend to offend us again, and finally—that one should lay down one’s soul for them. The word ‘just as’ requires this. It shows further that one should stand (for those who have wronged us) not only until death, but, if possible, even after death.”

Thus, “behold the loving-kindness of the Master—how many offenses has He forgiven you! Therefore imitate the Master, and let each one forgive the offenses committed against him by a brother” (blessed Theodoret).

cc) The final limit of moral perfection (Col. 3:14, 15)

This limit is love and peace. Through the rejection of self, having struck down selfness, one proceeds on the one hand by the path of compassion and kindness, on the other by the path of meekness and patience. By the former path one reaches love, by the latter—the peace of God. Comparing them with the passions, we see that love is established in place of all the passions of lust, while peace is in place of all the passions of anger. It is remembered that in this way somewhere Saint Maximus the Confessor distributes what occurs within us.

Col. 3:14. And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

“Put on” is not in the Greek; it simply stands: “above all these in love”; it is understood: “clothe yourselves.” Those were undergarments, and this is the outer garment, making up all the beauty. Over everything, he says, put on love. This is the uniform dress of Christians, by which they should be distinguished from non-Christians. If a general does not put on his uniform, no one will think he is a general. So too in us—whoever does not have love, no one with discernment will recognize him as a Christian: neither God, nor the Angels, nor the saints. Men may indeed call him so, but it will not be true. “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another,” said the Lord (Jn. 13:35).

But how, you might ask, is love “above all”? Before he already mentioned compassion and kindness. Is that not love? And what more does love have beyond this? Love is a certain divine attribute; while generosity and kindness are human dispositions implanted in our nature, only suppressed by selfness. Therefore, to display them means to show oneself a man; but to breathe love means to manifest God in oneself. For God is “love” (1 Jn. 4:16). Generosity and kindness, although they display the goodness of the heart, have their force more on the active side, while love embraces the very depth of the heart, from which is the source of life, and gives life to those very good dispositions, as well as to all good that is in us. True love is a gift of God. “Love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God” (1 Jn. 4:7). Only the one who has it understands it; but hardly can even he explain it in words. Therefore it is a subject worthy of seeking for all, and more than all else.

The holy Paul places love above all because it is the bond of perfection. Whoever has acquired love already has everything; he needs to seek nothing more, for, having love, he has God. How it is the bond of perfection, the holy Paul has set forth in the Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 13). Read it and you will understand. From what is said there it is evident that love casts out all passions from the heart and, on the contrary, dwells there with all good things. Holy Chrysostom explains it thus: “‘Above all these put on love,’ says the Apostle. Do you see what he says? Because the one who forgives and shows kindness may nevertheless not love, he says: no, and you must love, showing in this the way to true kindness and forgiveness. One may be good, and meek, and humble, and patient; but not breathe love. Therefore he said: ‘Above all these put on love.’ What does he want to say? This: from those virtues there is no benefit (while they alone exist); for all of them fall apart if love is not present. She binds them all tightly together. And whatever good you might name, in the absence of love it is nothing—scatters and vanishes. As in a ship, be the component parts ever so great, but if their fastenings are not strong, there is no benefit from them, just as in a house (there is no benefit from thick logs) if there are no reliable crossbeams and connections, and in the body there is no benefit from great bones if there are no ligaments: so whatever virtues one might have, they are all unstable if love is not present. The Apostle did not say she is the top, but, what is far more important: she is the ‘bond.’ This is more necessary than that. For the apex is the limit of perfection; but the ‘bond’ is the uniting and holding of everything that constitutes perfection, as it were a root.”

Col. 3:15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body, and be thankful.

“The peace of God” is either the peace given by God and established in the heart, or divine peace, like that in which God has peace within Himself. As God has peace within Himself, so too have peace within yourselves. Both should be combined. This peace is truly God-like; but such peace cannot come from anywhere except from God, or it is God-like precisely because it is from God, as the preceding love is.

Love, according to the flow of discourse, is established in place of all the passions of lust; but in such a way that it is the fruit of overcoming all the passions of anger as well. Peace is established in place of the passions of anger; but in such a way that it is the fruit of overcoming all the passions of lust as well. Both love and peace are established in the heart after the overcoming and expulsion of all passions. While they are not expelled, expect no rest and peace, for every passion brings turmoil to the soul; such is the nature of passions that they everywhere bring turmoil.

The scope of the peace finally established in the heart is all-embracing: it is peace with God—not merely in the feeling of all-forgiveness, but more so in the feeling of communion with God; and peace within oneself, in conscience and in all movements and actions, peacefully begun and ended, unfolding peacefully as a flower and fruit unfold peacefully on a tree; and peace with brothers, in the feeling and requirement of a living and heartfelt unity with them, permitting no discord. Yet in essence it is single—rest in God, absorbing all that could bring turmoil to the heart. Although in the present passage, apparently, one should understand more the peace with brothers, as the words show: “to which indeed you were called in the one body”; but as this peace is not firm without the other kinds or aspects of peace, and as it is here called God’s, it will not be foreign to the Apostle’s thought to understand here peace as rest in God, bringing peace to all within the hearts and bringing complete harmony and peace into the whole body of the Church.

“Let … rule,” βραβευετω. Βραβευειν means to award prizes to the winners on the racecourse. The holy Paul personifies peace, presenting it as a person within us awarding us for victory over the passions, especially anger, and awarding with itself, that is, with peace. You overcome anger, you receive peace as a reward; if you do not overcome, you do not get it, but remain with your anger that violates peace, losing peace more and more. But although the Apostle spoke thus, representing peace as established within and ruling, nevertheless his thought is the same here as regarding love. As there, having said: “put on love,” he called for our own efforts to establish love in the heart; so here, saying: “let the peace of God rule,” he calls for such efforts to acquire and preserve peace. “If anyone experiences something sorrowful from someone, let him hold peace in his heart, which both determines and awards prizes for labors and brings about that which pleases God, unanimity” (blessed Theodoret).

Holy Chrysostom says: “The peace of God is peace deeply rooted and firm. If you have peace for man’s sake, it will soon be broken. But if you have it for God’s sake, never. But why the Apostle, having spoken of love (which embraces peace as well [see: blessed Theophylact]), again comes to the same thing? For there is love without measure—namely, when someone out of great love unnecessarily reproves, disputes, and causes divisions. No, he says, this is not what I want; but as God made peace with us, so you make it. And how did He make it? By His own will, having received nothing from us. What does βραβευετω mean? When two thoughts contend in you, do not put anger or vengeance in charge of the reward, but peace. For example, suppose someone is unjustly wronged. From this wrong two thoughts are born in him, one commanding revenge and the other commanding endurance, and they fight one another. If in you the peace of God stands as the distributor of rewards, then it will give the reward to the thought commanding endurance and shame the other (the thought commanding revenge). How? By persuading you that God is peace, that He has been reconciled with us. The Apostle shows through this that the work of peace requires great struggle. Let there not be, he says, among you the judges of the contest and distributors of rewards anger, or contention, or human peace; for human peace comes either from what has been demanded and paid that was held to be just, or from the fact that nothing important was suffered. But I, he says, do not desire such peace, but such as Christ Himself left for us. Thus the Apostle set up within us both a racecourse and a struggle, and victory, and a distributor of rewards.”

“To which indeed you were called.” To what peace are we called? To peace with God; for the Apostles were sent into the world to call all: “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). But we were not called to this peace individually one by one, but all together—as a whole body, and not so that each would remain and live separately, but so that all would constitute one body, living together in living union and communion with one another. Wherefore the Apostle added: “you were called in the one body.” One cannot be at peace with God while not having peace with one another. It is evident that in these words the Apostle presents a motive for peace, as regarding love before he put forth as a motive that it is “the bond of perfection.” You, he says, are members of one body. As the members of a body are at peace with one another and constitute one body because they are at peace, so be at peace with one another; for otherwise how will you be a body? “By means of peace we are one body, and we are one body in order to be at peace” (holy Chrysostom). And in the Epistle to the Ephesians the holy Paul insisted: “Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Why? Because you “are one body and one spirit” (Eph. 4:3, 4). The same here. “God, having called all of you, made you one body; therefore do not shatter it” (blessed Theodoret). “In calling us to peace, Christ made us one body, becoming Himself the head. For why else are we one body but so that, being ‘members of one another’” (Eph. 4:25), “we keep peace among ourselves and do not divide?” (blessed Theophylact).

“And be thankful.” Thanksgiving here in the Apostle either stands alongside love and peace as a third highest spiritual perfection and condition accompanying, completing, and covering them, or in relation only to peace, as its support and guard. In the first sense, thanksgiving to God is a never-ceasing state. When the passions are driven out and good dispositions are established in their place, then the soul is in a peaceful condition and through love receives rest in God. When the soul rests in God, then God also rests in it. And where God is, there too is blessedness—there is joy in the Holy Spirit, the inseparable possession of those accounted worthy of having the Kingdom of God within themselves. The consciousness and feeling of such blessed joy, however strong it may be, does not absorb the consciousness and feeling that it is a gift of God’s grace and God’s favor toward us, and not only does not absorb it, but rather deepens it and covers it. From this there flows from the heart a never-ceasing thanksgiving to God for His unspeakable gift. This is the state of the Angels, continuously glorifying God worshiped in Trinity: Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts! It is toward this that the holy Paul directs thought here. And because he expressed this in the form of a commandment, when for one who has entered such a state no commandment is needed, because thanksgiving flows forth from the heart of itself, he did this either in confirmation, as though saying: yes, yes, be thankful; the feeling filling you is a fitting, good, and pleasing to God feeling, or as encouragement—to kindle this feeling ever more; for by the changeableness of our nature it can be now strong, now weak, now completely hidden. The Apostle encourages us so that, when such a feeling hides, we call it forth, and when it weakens, we restore it to strength.

In the second sense, thanksgiving to God is a spiritual work which should be performed in spirit in order to guard the peace of the soul and peacefulness with brothers. The peace of the soul is disturbed by sorrowful events of life, and peacefulness with brothers by offenses from their side. The Apostle says: be thankful to God, and neither the sorrowful events of life nor offenses from brothers will disturb your peace. Sorrowful events will not disturb peace thus: ascend to the conviction and receive in feeling that all is from God and all is for your essential good. Try to see the same in every sorrowful event. When you see this in the present sorrowful event tormenting you, immediately the bitterness of the sorrow will begin to diminish, and if you do not weaken the conviction that it was sent for your good, it will completely disappear, and thanksgiving to God, joyful, will be established in its place. But if by frequently awakening such a feeling you succeed in acquiring the habit of giving thanks to God for all, then the feeling of bitterness from sorrows will not appear in you at all; for the feeling of thanksgiving to God dwelling in the heart will not give it room. Thus “be thankful,” and the peace from the sorrows of life will not be disturbed in you. Neither will peacefulness with brothers be disturbed in cases of offense from them. This is as the Lord pictured in the parable of the debtors. How many times and how powerfully have you offended God with your sins! And He forgave you all freely, of Himself, by His goodness alone. But now your brother has incurred a small debt to you, having wronged you. Forgive him too, remembering how great and unpayable a debt the merciful God forgave you. Out of gratitude to God, who forgave you much and great, forgive your brother his trifle. And this is not to your loss; rather, for forgiving the trifle you will again receive incomparably more—the preservation and strengthening of the peace of the soul through the preservation of peacefulness with your brother.

The first aspect is clarified by holy Chrysostom: “‘And be thankful,’ he says. He requires this everywhere most of all; for this is the summit of good works. Therefore, let us give thanks to God in all circumstances; for in this consists thanksgiving. To give thanks in prosperity is easy; the circumstances themselves urge it; it is worthy of wonder if we give thanks in dire circumstances. If we give thanks for what others blaspheme, from which they fall into despair, look what wisdom is here: first, you have made God glad, second, you have shamed the devil, third, you have shown that what happened to you is nothing. At the very moment when you give thanks, God takes away your sorrow, and the devil departs. If you fall into despair, then the devil, as having achieved what he wanted, stands beside you; and God, as offended by blasphemy, abandons you and increases your calamity. But if you give thanks, then the devil, as having achieved nothing, departs; and God, as having received honor, in return rewards you with greater honor. And it cannot be that a man giving thanks in misfortune suffers. His soul rejoices, doing good; at the same time his conscience is glad—it delights in its own praise, and a rejoicing soul cannot be sorrowful. There, in despair, along with calamity, conscience also punishes; but here it crowns and proclaims. There is nothing holier than the tongue that in misfortunes gives thanks to God. It is truly no different from the tongue of the martyrs and receives the same crown as theirs. For the executioner also stands by it, compelling it to renounce God with blasphemy, the devil stands, tormenting it with torturing thoughts, darkening the soul with sorrow. Therefore, whoever endured sorrow and gave thanks to God received the crown of martyrdom.”

The second aspect is clarified by the blessed Theophylact: “Thankful is he who acts toward his fellow servants in the same way as God acts toward him. The one confessing the grace of God and thanking God for the forgiveness of his sins will not take revenge on one who has wronged him; conversely, the one taking revenge clearly does not remember what great kindness he himself received (in the forgiveness of his sins), like the one who received forgiveness of ten thousand talents and was unwilling to forgive a hundred denarius.”

The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17)

The means are set forth as: aa) enrichment of the mind with knowledge of divine truths (Col. 3:16); bb) prayer (Col. 3:16); and cc) doing all things to the glory of God (Col. 3:17). These are spiritual works of an ascetical character, embracing the whole realm of our inner life, giving it the proper direction and cultivating it.

Col. 3:16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing in your hearts to the Lord in grace.

“The word of Christ” is either the word proceeding from Christ the Lord, spoken by Him Himself and spread through the Apostles, or the word about Christ the Lord, our Saviour. In the first sense it embraces all the New Testament writings—the Gospel and the Epistles; in the second it indicates the content of these writings; for all of them are the word about Christ the Lord and about salvation in Him. Dwelling in the first sense is its intelligent study—knowledge, understanding, and remembrance; and in the second sense it is the actual reception of salvation in the Lord Saviour and making it one’s own. In the first it makes us wise to salvation; in the second it awakens, sustains, and kindles zeal for working out salvation with certain hope of receiving it. In both it is the mightiest means to advancement in Christian life.

However, both of these workings of the word dwelling, insofar as they converge in the same person, are inseparable when the working out of salvation proceeds in the proper way. Working out salvation is the active making one’s own of the word about Christ the Saviour. It is briefly: I am perishing, and I have no salvation except in Christ the Saviour, who came to save the lost. To Him do I cling by faith, hope, and love, in the confidence of being saved through Him. There comes a moment in life when such a decision is formed in consciousness. But as soon as it is formed, there immediately springs up a hunger for knowledge of the word of Christ and about Christ the Saviour; there begins eager reading of the Gospel and the writings of the Apostles, and all the words about the Saviour and salvation are laid up in the heart. The heart is then like parched earth, and the word of Christ is like dew and rain. Parched earth does not leave out a single drop of dew; it drinks all into itself; so too the heart thirsting for salvation drinks into itself all the word about salvation. And it dwells in it richly. But precisely because it dwells as a result of spiritual need and satisfies it, it nourishes spiritual life in Christ the Lord, bringing consciousness into lofty contemplations and capturing the heart with them. The heart is then no longer on earth but on high, where our life is hidden with Christ in God; and consequently, in us that is accomplished which the Apostle, at the beginning of the chapter, placed as the essence of Christian life.

“Let … dwell,” ενοικειτω—let it abide, let it live in you. How is this to be done? Memorize the words of the Lord Saviour and His holy Apostles and frequently review them in your mind, so that the enemy may not come stealthily and steal it, leaving forgetfulness in its place. If you do this, you will show that the word of Christ dwells in you. But the word about the Saviour and salvation will live in you if you constantly deepen in yourself the feeling of your own ruin and salvation through Christ the Lord. Make it so that this does not depart from your consciousness and feeling and forms their foundation. Then a contrite and humble spirit will not depart from you, and you will be in a saving frame of mind.

“Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.” The words “teaching and admonishing” indicate the way of the word of Christ dwelling, while “in all wisdom” determines how this should be done.

“One another.” Each teach and admonish yourselves with the word of Christ, or teach and admonish each other—one another. “To teach” means to explain, to make understandable and apprehensible a truth—intellectual or practical; to admonish means “to impress inwardly,” to implant, to persuade, to bring to the level of feeling and to call forth the corresponding good dispositions. Thus, let each teach himself and impress upon himself the truths of the word of Christ, and it will dwell in you. For this reason read, reflect, memorize, sympathize, love, and further carry it into life. This last is the limit of self-teaching. Until this exists, one cannot say of anyone that he has taught himself, even if he knows the word of Christ by heart and reasons well. In such a deficiency the holy Paul blamed the Jews in the Epistle to the Romans: “Then you, who teach others, will you not teach yourself?” (Rom. 2:21). In the one lacking this, the word of Christ has not dwelt and does not live. Or teach one another the truths of the word of Christ and impress them mutually upon yourselves, and it will dwell in you and will live in your whole community, directing all your works and undertakings. This mutual teaching in Christian society proceeds of itself: pastors teach the flock, elders the younger, parents their children, teachers their students, authorities their subjects. Deliberately to this end brotherly conferences with reading are established. There, without directly teaching each other, they learn and are admonished mutually, each receiving from what is being considered and read what suits him. But it is clear that all forms of mutual teaching bear fruit only when at the same time each one teaches and admonishes himself—that is, having heard or read something, persuades himself not merely to think so, but also to feel and act accordingly. Wherefore it seems the holy Paul had in mind this self-persuasion in the present place. For the word of Christ dwells in one only when he succeeds in persuading himself to believe and to live by it.

“In all wisdom”—with all wisdom, or wisely. By these words is indicated not the subject of teaching—that is already indicated—but the manner of it (the method). Wisely one should enrich oneself with the word of Christ, wisely teach oneself by it and admonish oneself with it. He does not act wisely who diligently reads the word of God but does not consider it, does not bring it to the level of feeling, and does not carry it into life. It flows through him like water through a channel, passes through him without settling in him and dwelling in him. One can know the entire Gospel and the whole Epistle by heart and yet not have the word of Christ dwelling in him, because of its unwise study. He also acts unwisely who only enriches his mind with the word of Christ while neglecting to harmonize his heart and life with it. It remains with him like sand poured into his head and memory and lies there dead, not living. It lives only when it passes into feelings and life; but this is lacking there. And it cannot be said that it dwells in such a one. He is especially unwise in enriching himself with knowledge of the word of God who, in understanding its meaning, trusts only his own mind and does not verify his thoughts by the common belief of all believers. Hence we have among us the Khlysti, the Khlysty [heretical sects], the Molokans and the Dukhobors, and everywhere—all heresies. Understanding the word of Christ with trust only in one’s own mind, though it may not lead one to heresy, will certainly not always build up and edify, but rather puffs up and teaches arrogance. Such a state is such that it is better to know nothing than to fall into it.

Here are the words of holy Chrysostom on this subject: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,’ that is, let the teachings, the dogmas, the convictions dwell—by the power of which, he says, the present life and its goods are nothing. If we saw this, no difficulties would seem insurmountable to us. ‘Let it dwell,’ he says, ‘in you,’ not simply, but ‘richly,’ with great abundance. Listen all of you, worldly people concerned about wife and children, how the Apostle even urges you to read Scripture more—and not simply as it happens, but with great diligence! And do not wait for another teacher; you have the word of God—no one will teach you as it will. Listen, I beg you, all attached to this life, acquire books—the medicine of the soul. If you want nothing else, acquire at least the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, the Gospel—our constant teachers. Should sorrow strike you, cling to them as to a vessel filled with healing substance. Should you experience loss, death, the loss of loved ones—draw comfort from them in your misfortune. Or better yet, do not just cling to them, but take them inside and keep them in your mind. From ignorance of Scripture comes all evil. We go out to war without weapons—how can we be saved? It is easy to be saved with the Scriptures, but without them it is impossible. ‘Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.’ By wisdom he means virtue. And rightly so; for humility, almsgiving, and all similar things are wisdom. Consequently, the opposite will be foolishness. Hence every sin is often called foolishness in Scripture. ‘The fool says in his heart” (Ps. 13:1). “And again: ‘My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness’” (Ps. 37:6). “For tell me, what is more foolish than a man who puts on expensive clothes while despising his brothers who lack clothing, feeds dogs while looking with contempt at the image of God in a hungry neighbor, is completely convinced of the worthlessness of earthly things yet is attached to them as though they were eternal? But as there is nothing more foolish than such a man, so there is nothing wiser than the ascetic of virtue. Look how wise he is! He gives from his possessions, shows mercy and kindness. So he has understood the common nature, has understood the significance of money—that it is worth nothing, that he should care more for his body and his brothers than for money. Likewise wise is he who despises honors; for he clearly knows human affairs, and in knowledge of God’s affairs and human affairs lies wisdom. So, knowing what are God’s works and what are men’s, he refrains from the one and performs the other. He knows this and gives thanks to God for all; he counts this present life as nothing and therefore neither rejoices in prosperity nor grieves in misfortune.”

The second means to advancement in life according to God in Christ Jesus is prayer. The Apostle speaks of it in the same verse 16 and it makes up the second half of it: “with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with gratitude in your hearts to God.” The words “with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” seem to relate to “teaching and admonishing one another”—teach and admonish yourselves with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. But in essence psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are attributes of prayer. It is true that both psalms and spiritual songs teach and edify, but this is their incidental action, not direct. Their direct work is the production of prayer. And study of the word of God leads to prayer and is often accompanied by it; but directly the word of God teaches and admonishes, while prayer is the connection, fruit, and result of its study. So here too psalms and hymns directly are the production of prayer, while teaching and admonishment are its good consequence and fruit. What the Apostle says here, he sets forth in the Epistle to the Ephesians thus: “Be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts” (Eph. 5:18, 19). Here one cannot relate the words “with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” to anything other than the production of prayer. Following this example, the present passage must be understood in relation to prayer. The words “with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” determine verbal prayer, prayer-speech; while the words “singing with gratitude in your hearts to God” mean prayer internal, mental and heartfelt.

Psalms, hymns, songs—psalms, hymns, odes—are different names for spiritual songs. It is very difficult to point out the differences among them, because both in content and in form they are very similar. All of them are expressions of the spirit of prayer. When the spirit is moved to prayer, it glorifies God, gives thanks, and raises its petitions to Him. All these manifestations of the spirit of prayer in spirit are inseparable and do not occur without one another. Prayer, when set in motion, passes from one to another, and often more than once. Express this in words and you have verbal prayer; call it psalm, hymn, or ode—all are one. Therefore we shall not strain to define the difference of these names. The Apostle wished with them to embrace every kind of prayer expressed in words. Under them will come all the prayers now in use among us. In use among us, besides the Psalter, are church songs—stichera, troparia, canons, akathists, and prayers contained in prayer books. You will not be wrong if, reading the Apostle’s words about verbal prayer, you understand these prayers now in use among us. The power is not in this or that verbal prayer, but in how you perform them.

How to perform verbal prayers, the Apostle indicates by the word “spiritual.” The word “spiritual” though grammatically connected with songs only, in the force of the discourse relates to all other designations of expressions of prayer. Whichever of them you use, it should be spiritual for you. Prayers are spiritual because they are first born and ripen in the spirit and flow forth from the spirit. And more so spiritual because they are born and ripen by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Both the Psalter and all other verbal prayers were not verbal from the beginning. But the coming of the word did not eliminate their spirituality. They are even now verbal only in appearance; in power they are spiritual.

In the words of the Apostle one can also see such a thought: sing from your hearts to the Lord prayers inspired by the Spirit. In the early Church it happened thus: when one in whom a prayer moved by the grace of God’s Spirit had been born and matured in the heart, he would ask permission to pour forth this prayer before all, and, obtaining it, would verbally raise to the Lord the prayer moving in his heart. This heartfelt prayer might sometimes be occasioned by someone in the gathering of believers in the Church; but more often it was formed at home during solitary home prayer and contemplation. Once formed, it filled the whole soul of the believer and sought expression. Pregnant with it, coming into the gathering, he could not contain himself and asked permission to speak what filled his soul. Obtaining permission, he would speak. And there you have a verbal prayer, or a Spirit-inspired psalm, flowing from the heart! The Apostle meant precisely such persons when he wrote to the Corinthians: “When you come together, each one has a psalm, a lesson, a revelation… Let all things be done for building up” (1 Cor. 14:26). By saying that the one coming to the gathering has a psalm, he gives to understand that this psalm has matured in him and seeks to come forth.

But this one, in whom the song to God had matured, pronounced the prayer; all the others listened to him. For him the song was properly Spirit-inspired. For all the others it was verbal—external. But, receiving it through hearing, they too entered into its spirit, came into a similar disposition, were moved in spirit to the same contemplations and feelings—and the prayer became general. The song, born of the Spirit and matured in the heart of one, having gone forth from his lips in words and having entered through hearing into the hearts of all, there generated in all a similar song—and all sang in a Spirit-inspired manner.

Let us apply this to us. All the prayers and hymns used in the Church are of Spirit-inspired origin. When we gather in temples, priests pronounce them, or deacons, or readers, or chanters. We receive them through hearing. If we do not stop at merely receiving the church hymns through hearing, but carry them to the heart, strive to enter into a similar disposition with them both in mind and feeling so that, having reproduced them in our hearts, from there, as if from an original source, they ascend to God, then in our gathering will be fulfilled what the Apostle commanded the Colossians—and we will sing to the Lord from the heart Spirit-inspired prayers and hymns. If moreover in home prayer we do the same, that is, enter into the spirit of the prayers being recited and, having reproduced them in our hearts, raise them to God from there, as though they were born and matured there alone, then in all respects we will become blameless singers to God—spiritual singers, singing in a Spirit-inspired manner.

From such explanations it follows that if we wish to turn the Apostle’s words about verbal prayer into a lesson for ourselves, we will gain the following: enter into the spirit of the prayers you hear and read, and, having reproduced them in your heart, raise them from there to God as though they were the product of your heart under the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is the law determining the essence of prayer pleasing to God. How to reach this? Study, feel, even memorize the prayers you are to read in your prayer book. Then, standing in prayer, you will not pronounce something foreign, but what lies in your own heart, as felt by you.

The words “with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,” as noted, directly relate to the production of prayer; but all these forms of prayer-speech, while moving the spirit of prayer, can also edify. Therefore these words can be joined with the preceding: “teaching and admonishing one another.” Holy Chrysostom does this: “‘Teaching,’ he says, ‘and admonishing one another, with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.’ See how considerate Paul is. Since reading is wearisome and may become tedious, he leads not to narratives but to psalms, so that along with teaching you might also gladden the soul with song and not notice the labor. ‘With hymns,’ he says, ‘and spiritual songs.’ But now your children love demonic songs and dances, imitating cooks, bakers, and dancers; no one knows even a single psalm. Now such knowledge seems improper, base, and ridiculous. This is the whole evil; for the fruit depends on what soil the plant stands in: sandy and rocky soil produces one kind, good and fertile soil another. And such teaching is like a beneficial fountain. Teach your son to sing psalms full of wisdom—first, for instance, about temperance, or before all about not keeping company with the wicked, that is, the psalm at the very beginning of the book; for the Prophet began with this for this very purpose, saying: ‘Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked’ (Ps. 1:1), and again: ‘I have not sat with the men of falsehood’ (Ps. 25:4), and further: ‘the wicked are loathsome to him, but those who fear the Lord he honors’ (Ps. 15:4). There you will find also about companionship with the good and much else; you will find rules on temperance of the belly, restraint of the hands, not possessing things, and that money, glory, and all such are nothing. If you teach him this from childhood, you will gradually lead him higher as well. The psalms contain everything; and hymns again are not something human. When he is skilled in the psalms, he will then understand the hymns as well; for hymns are a more holy work, since the heavenly powers sing hymns, not psalms. ‘Praise is not becoming in the mouth of a sinner’ (Sir. 15:9); and again: ‘My eyes are on the faithful of the land’ (Ps. 101:6); and again: ‘No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house’ (Ps. 101:7); and again: ‘whoever walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me’ (Ps. 101:6). So let us be concerned about this above all else—keeping children from the wicked. ‘I love those who love your law’ (Ps. 119:163, 165); so let us, imitating Him, love them too. And that children be temperate, let them hear what the Prophet says: ‘My loins are filled with a loathsome disease’ (Ps. 38:8); and again: ‘you have destroyed all those who are false to you’ (Ps. 73:27). Likewise, that they not be lovers of pleasure, let them again hear: ‘he struck down the stiffnecked… while the food was still in their mouths’ (Ps. 78:30, 31). Similarly, that they not be overcome by gifts, let them learn from the following: ‘If riches increase, do not set your heart on them’ (Ps. 62:10); they will find that one must stand above glory: ‘Their glory does not go down with them’ (Ps. 49:17); that one should not envy the wicked: ‘Do not fret because of the wicked’ (Ps. 37:1); that dominion should be counted as nothing: ‘I saw the wicked, powerful, and rising like a cedar of Lebanon. Again I passed by, and lo, they were no more’ (Ps. 37:35, 36); that the present should be counted as nothing: ‘Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall; happy are the people whose God is the Lord!’ (Ps. 144:15); that we do not sin without punishment, but there will be requital: ‘You repay to all according to their work’ (Ps. 62:12); why then does He not repay daily? Because, he says, ‘God is a righteous judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day’ (Ps. 7:11); that humility is good: ‘O Lord, my heart is not lifted up’ (Ps. 131:1); and pride is evil: ‘Therefore pride is their necklace’ (Ps. 73:6); and again: ‘God opposes the proud’ (Jas. 4:6); and again: ‘Their iniquity comes out like fat’ (Ps. 73:7); that almsgiving is good: ‘He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever’ (Ps. 112:9); that mercy is praiseworthy: ‘It is well with those who deal generously and lend’ (Ps. 112:5); that one should not slander: ‘Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him I will destroy’ (Ps. 101:5). The faithful know what hymn the heavenly powers sing, what the Cherubim declare, what the Angels sang on earth: ‘Glory to God in the highest.’ Therefore, after psalm-singing, hymns are a more perfect work.”

The second kind of prayer is mental and heartfelt prayer. And the first should be of this kind too. But that one is born under the action of verbal—ready prayer; this one is born directly in the heart and from there ascends to God. Such was the prayer of Moses before the Red Sea. The Apostle teaches about it in the words: “singing with gratitude in your hearts to God.” “Sing from the grace of the Spirit,” he says, “not simply with your lips, but with attention” (standing mentally before God in your heart). For this means to sing to God, while the other is to sing to the wind; since the voice disperses into the air. Not to show yourself off, he says. You can even be in a marketplace and turn inward to God and sing, being heard by no one. So Moses prayed, and was heard. “Why do you cry to Me?” God says to him. But he spoke nothing in words, yet he cried out mentally, with a contrite heart. Therefore God alone heard him. It does no harm even while traveling to pray in your heart and be on high (holy Chrysostom). Such prayer is alone true prayer. And verbal prayer is prayer only inasmuch as mind and heart pray with it.

It is built in the heart by the grace of the Holy Spirit. One who turns to the Lord and is sanctified by the mysteries immediately receives in himself a feeling toward God, which from that moment begins to place in his heart ascents on high. Whoever does not stifle this feeling with something improper—with time, perseverance, and labor—turns it into a flame. But whoever stifles it with the improper does not find the path of approach to God and reconciliation with Him closed; yet that feeling is not given again freely and suddenly. There lies ahead sweat and labor in seeking and imploring it. To this end are appointed the ascetical labors of repentance after a sinner’s conversion to God. Their work is to rouse the dormant feeling. Whoever places at the foundation of this labor contrition and humility and without self-indulgence begins to bear the appropriate labors without interruption—to him God soon restores the lost feeling toward Him. Whoever has fallen away from God more than once finds this more difficult and does not get it so quickly. But no one is denied it. For all have grace; it suffices to give free rein to its action. Grace gains free rein in proportion to the wearing away of selfness and the rooting out of passions. The measure of the purification of the heart is the measure of the quickening of the feeling toward God. When the heart becomes pure, then the feeling toward God becomes burning. The feeling toward God awakens in these ones far before complete purification from passions, but it is still like a seed or a spark. Once born, it grows and ignites; but it is not constant—it awakens and fades; and when awakened, it is not always of the same strength. But in whatever measure it awakens, it always ascends to the Lord and sings to Him a song. Grace arranges all; for grace is always present in the believers. Those who have given themselves to it irreversibly are guided by it; and it, as it knows itself, builds them up. And this is what the Apostle’s word concerns. He wants believers, remaining under the action of grace, to come alive in feeling toward the Lord and, ascending to Him mentally, to sing to Him from the heart prayers and hymns. According to his word, this should be the constant state of Christians; but as experience shows that not all are such, even among those who have abandoned the ways of sin and passions, in this word of the Apostle one should see an indication of the norm of the prayerful state of Christians, as an obligatory object of their seeking. It should be an object of seeking both because it is high and because it is an indispensable condition of advancement in spiritual life and of drawing near to God—and it is its measure and true indicator.

Col. 3:17. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and Father through Him.

The third method that ought to be used to show one’s life hidden in God is to do all things in the name of the Lord. The first two—reading Scripture and assimilating revealed truths—drive out vain and unclean thoughts and fill the mind with wholesome thoughts about the Divine; prayer establishes the habit of always remembering God or walking in the presence of God. Both keep attention and feeling hidden in God. It seems this should suffice. It seems so, but it is not. If we leave only these two methods in practice, they will not bring us to the goal proposed. Man is not merely thought and feeling, but rather deed. He is a being always in motion, constantly acting. But every deed draws attention and feeling. One engaged wholly in a deed becomes wholly in that deed. Therefore, the one seeking God, because of deeds which he cannot avoid, inevitably turns from God in thought, and thought leads feeling along with it. Deeds draw him from heaven to earth, or lead him out of hiddenness in God into visible relations: for nearly all our deeds are visible, they proceed in the order of creation, amid sensible things. From this it follows that if man’s deeds are not directed so that they too serve as a means to preserve life hidden in God, then the first two methods will remain fruitless, or they themselves cannot be performed as they ought. Deeds will constantly disturb both the work of studying Scripture and the work of prayer. Therefore, the Apostle teaches in the proposed words how to turn deeds also into a means of keeping life hidden in God—namely, do all things in the name of the Lord. If you set yourself to this, you will not depart from the Lord neither in thought nor in feeling. For to do all things in the name of the Lord means to do all things to His glory, in the desire to please Him, faithfully fulfilling His known will even in small things. And in this the members of the body, as instruments, will perform the deed, while thought and feeling are turned toward the Lord with care, so that what is done may be done in a way pleasing to the Lord and serve to His glory.

This method is more powerful for the proposed goal than the first two, and success in those depends on success in this. For they are of a mental character. But the mental enters into the very substance and blood through deed. Deed settles and fixes the imagined into the nature of man. When the deed being done is sanctified by directing it to God, then a certain Divine element enters into all the powers and organs participating in its performance. The more such deeds, the more Divine elements enter into man’s nature. And eventually they fill all of it; and thus all of his nature becomes immersed in the Divine, or hidden in God. As such a directing of deeds is established more firmly, so prayer and God-thinking and wholesome thoughts are established more firmly. They influence the establishing of the directing of deeds to God’s glory, and this directing, in return, strengthens them and makes them more capable.

The Apostle has embraced all that we do with two terms: “word” and “deed.” Words are spoken with the mouth; deeds are performed by the other members. From waking to sleep, both are in constant use. Our speech flows almost without ceasing; and the other movements of the body do not stop either. What a rich sacrifice to God, if all this were directed to God’s glory! By turning word to God’s glory, not only evil speech is driven out, but also idle speech, and only what serves to build up the brethren remains, or at least does not serve to destroy them. To this we must add prayer. Likewise, by turning deeds to God’s glory, not only evil deeds done from lust and irritation are removed—these ought to have no mention among Christians—but the spirit is indicated in which all proper, permitted, and beneficial deeds ought to be done. In this way all self-seeking and serving the world and its evil customs are driven out from the sphere of activity.

To do all things in the name of the Lord means to direct all things to His glory, to try to do all things so that they please Him, with awareness of His will for this, and moreover to surround every deed with prayer to Him, to begin with prayer, to perform it in a prayerful manner, and to end with prayer, asking for blessing at the beginning, seeking help in the course of it, and at the end offering thanksgiving as to the Fulfiller in us and through us of His own work. Saint Chrysostom says: “If we conduct ourselves thus, then where Christ is invoked, nothing abominable or unclean will be found. Whether you eat or drink, marry or travel, do all things in God’s name, that is, calling upon God for help. Undertake the deed, first of all having prayed to God. Do you wish to say something? Put this first. Eat? Give thanks to God with the resolve to do the same afterward. Sleep? Give thanks to God with the resolve to do the same afterward. Go to the marketplace? Do the same. Let nothing be worldly, nothing of this life: accomplish all things in the name of the Lord, and all will go well with you. Whatever you seal with God’s name will turn out happily. If it drives out demons and removes diseases, how much more will it ease the performance of deeds. Listen to how Abraham sent his servant in God’s name, David slew Goliath in God’s name. Great and wonderful is His name! Then again, Jacob, sending his children (to Egypt), says: ‘May God grant you mercy before the man’ (before Joseph, that is [see Gen. 43:14]); for whoever does this has God as his helper, without whom he dare not do anything, for the God honored by invocation repays honor by granting prosperous success to deeds. Call upon the Son, give thanks to the Father; for in calling upon the Son you call upon the Father as well, and in giving thanks to the Father you give thanks to the Son. Let us learn to fulfill this not in words alone but in deeds. To this name there is nothing equal: it is always wonderful. ‘Ointment poured out’ is,” he says, “Your name” (Song 1:2). And whoever uttered it was suddenly filled with fragrance. “No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). So much is accomplished by this name! By this name the universe has been transformed, tyranny destroyed, the devil trampled, the heavens opened. But why do I speak of the heavens? By this name we have been born again, and if we do not abandon it, we shall shine. It begets both martyrs and confessors. We ought to hold it as a great gift, so as to live to God’s glory, to please God, and to be deemed worthy of the good things promised to those who love Him.

Here the Apostle commands us to do all things “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” while in another place he commands us to do all things “to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). This is one and the same: for the Lord Jesus Christ is God. God is one. The incarnation of God the Son introduced no change in the mystery of the Triune God, one in essence. And our union with God through the incarnate economy is accomplished by the Triune God. God the Father, by the grace of the Spirit, draws us to the Son; and those drawn to Him through Him—and only through Him—come to the Father. Thus all in us is in the name of the Lord Jesus, but inseparably with the Father and the Spirit. In prayer turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is our Saviour, but in thought do not separate Him from the Father and the Spirit. And do all your deeds in the name of the Lord Jesus, for without Him you can do nothing; but do not exclude from this the thought of the Father and the Spirit. Likewise, turning to the Father and the Spirit, do not diminish or set aside from your awareness and conviction the exclusive necessity of the mediation of the incarnate economy.

To such inseparability in the thought of the Persons of the Holy Trinity the holy Paul pointed when he added: “giving thanks to God and the Father through Him.” Do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus, but do not let His countenance hide the countenance of God the Father; rather, through Him raise thanksgiving to God the Father, who has deigned to accomplish for us in Him sure and certain salvation. Earlier the Apostle placed thanksgiving as a commandment: “and be thankful;” here his mention of it is made for no other purpose than to guard us from the error of letting the Son’s countenance hide the Father’s countenance in our thinking (and likewise the countenance of the Holy Spirit). God the Father through the incarnate Son stretches forth to us the arms of His paternal benevolence, and those who throw themselves into these arms He receives through the Son. All in us comes from the incarnate Son, but so that through Him we may ascend to the Father. We dare not come to God the Father, neither with petition nor with thanksgiving, by ourselves alone, apart from the incarnate Son of God; but being in the Son, together with Him as sons we must be raised up to the Father. That is what it means for us to be in the Son—if we have a grateful heart toward the Father.

Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

The stations to which the holy Paul now turns our attention are: a) family life (Col. 3:18–25, 4:1); b) church life (Col. 4:2–4); and c) civil life (Col. 4:5, 6). The Apostle does not address all aspects of these stations, but only the chief matters, or those which he deemed it necessary to address given the condition of the Colossians.

a) Life of Christians in the Family (Col. 3:18–25, 4:1).

The Apostle dwells more on family life, because nearly everyone spends life chiefly in the family. The Apostle considers the situation of all persons commonly found in a family and determines by rules how they ought to relate to each other: aa) wife and husband (Col. 3:18, 19); bb) children and parents (Col. 3:20, 21); cc) slaves and masters (Col. 3:22–25, 4:1).

aa) What the Relation of Wife and Husband Ought to Be (Col. 3:18, 19)

Col. 3:18, 19. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.

Wives are commanded to obey; husbands are commanded to love. The aim of this word is to establish lasting peace and order in the family. When husband and wife are in agreement in the family, all is peaceful and everything proceeds in the best manner. But as soon as they become discordant, everything in the family turns upside down. Peace and harmony between husband and wife are disrupted and discord arises chiefly in two ways: on the wife’s side through disobedience shown to her husband, and on the husband’s side through lack of love shown to his wife. The husband does not doubt that his wife is his, devoted to him, and that he possesses her, until he notices some disobedience, inattention, or disrespect from her. The wife does not doubt that her husband is hers, devoted to her, and that she possesses him, until he shows some coldness toward her and lack of love. Whatever the husband commands, she will willingly carry out everything from love for him and from confidence in his love for her; but as soon as some trace of lack of love toward her appears in the husband, her hands fall, and things will no longer proceed as they usually did. To prevent these essential causes of discord between husband and wife, the Apostle urges the wife to obedience above all and the husband to love. A wife, loving her husband and confident in his love, may sometimes forget herself and permit something beyond what is proper in relation to her husband, something that might appear as disobedience; and a husband, conscious of his superiority and his authority, may sometimes conduct himself toward his wife in a way that naturally appears to her as lack of love. The feelings of the wife toward the husband and of the husband toward the wife are very tender. The Apostle warns: take care not to disturb the peace; you—wife—do not forget obedience, and seek rather to act in its spirit; and you—husband—do not forget love and endeavor to hold and manifest it toward your wife. Peace and harmony will never depart from you, and with them comes family well-being.

The Apostle prescribes to wives an obedience such as is fitting for them as Christian women; and such it will be when it is “to the Lord,” that is, either for the Lord, or in His spirit, or according to His commandment. Obey your husbands, wives, so as to do what is pleasing to the Lord, fulfilling His commandment and serving to the glory of His name. Saint Chrysostom says: “Obey—to the Lord: that is, in the words: ‘obey for God,’ for this, he says, adorns you, not them. But I understand this obedience not as slavery, as if to masters, nor as something dependent on nature, but that which is for God’s sake.” A wife naturally feels herself weaker than her husband and from this feeling obeys him. So it is everywhere; in ancient times husbands turned this natural submission into law, and wives were like slaves to them. The Apostle says, as it were: so it was done before, but now you do the same “to the Lord,”—“that is, as the law of the Lord commands” (blessed Theodoret). “Not to please men and not with pretense, but in the fear of the Lord” (Oecumenius). Perhaps for this reason the Apostle added “to the Lord,”—because as it was then for many wives to remain in marital union with unbelievers, the Apostle, so that it would not occur to the wives that they, on account of their superiority over their husbands, which their holy faith gave them, could refuse obedience to them, reminds them: no; you must still obey your husbands, and obey completely as you should, having only changed the spirit of obedience—obey to the Lord (blessed Theodoret).

In prescribing love to husbands, the Apostle did not add “to the Lord,” because this was understood of itself. In Christian marriage nothing should be carnal, but all pure, holy, and sober. But he deemed it necessary to add only: “do not be harsh with them,” μη πικραινεσθε προς αυτας—do not be bitter toward them, do not display your authority and your headship in such a way that it would be bitter for your wife like an unbearable yoke and burden, but let your very commands and orders be given in such a way that they testify to your love and breathe with it. It is not always what is commanded that becomes bitter for the wife, but the tone in which it is pronounced, the expression or gesture that accompanies it. When all this is loving, then love calls forth love and obedience comes with complete willingness and good will—not from external pressure, but from her own inner desire. Then even the weightiest-seeming will of the husband is carried out imperceptibly; but when there is no love, even a light wish of the husband becomes bitter and heavy. Or by this the Apostle means to counsel husbands to be forbearing with their wives when they happen to displease them in something. If a wife always tries to do as her husband wishes, then when the husband notices some oversight or negligence, it would be wiser not to pay attention to it, as if nothing had happened, and if it becomes necessary to remark upon it, to do so in such a way that the wife does not even notice that a remark is being made, but rather that there is a discussion about a better order of affairs in which she also participates and offers her own suggestions. Or did not the holy Paul also have in mind certain natural shortcomings in women, which, when they appear, sometimes irritate husbands in moments of forgetfulness and give them cause to attack their wives on account of them and distress them thereby? If even a deliberate error is worthy of forbearance, how much more worthy is that which does not depend on choice?

Saint Chrysostom draws such instruction from the words of the Apostle: “Thus, to love is the work of husbands, and to yield is the work of wives. Therefore, if each fulfills his duty, all will be firm; for seeing herself loved, a wife becomes friendly, and meeting obedience, a husband becomes gentle. Behold, so also is this arranged in nature, that the husband should love and the wife should be obedient; for when the ruler loves the ruled, everything is well. Love is not as much required from the ruled as from the ruler toward the ruled; for from the ruled obedience is required. And moreover, that beauty is in the woman and desire in the man shows nothing else but the arrangement for love. Therefore, when the wife submits, do not boast; and you, wife, when your husband loves you, do not grow proud: neither should the husband’s love arouse pride in the wife, nor the wife’s submission inflate the husband. God subjected her to you so that she might be more loved; and to love you, woman, He inspired your husband so that it would be easier for you to obey. Do not fear submission; for to submit to one who loves you is not difficult at all. Do not grow cold in love (you—husband); for your wife is compliant before you. Union is otherwise impossible. You have the necessary authority by nature; have also the union by love. This union allows you to endure the weaker one.”

bb) What the Relation of Children and Parents Ought to Be (Col. 3:20, 21)

Col. 3:20, 21. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, that they might not lose heart.

Children are commanded to obey their parents; parents are commanded not to provoke their children. It is clear that the Apostle does not determine everything here either, as he did before, but removes only that by which good relations between parents and children are most disturbed. Parents naturally care for their children with all their soul, and children are naturally devoted to their parents with all their soul. Resting on these feelings, their mutual relations proceed peacefully and are not disrupted as long as these feelings remain strong. While children are obedient in all things, parents are peaceful toward them and at ease about them; but as soon as disobedience begins to appear, the eyes of the parents no longer look upon the children with love and their hearts are not at peace with them. This will not delay in being reflected in the hearts of the children as well—and discord has begun. Likewise, while parents conduct their children in a spirit of love, the children rest in their love, and whatever they command, whatever they forbid, all this is accepted with warm readiness, from the confidence that the parents’ orders are made solely for their good. While this confidence remains strong, neither reproaches nor measures of correction nor anything else shakes the warm devotion to parents. But as soon as children see that their parents command and forbid only to show their own authority, this immediately produces an unpleasant feeling in them, distresses them, irritates them, even if what is forbidden or commanded does not directly harm their own good. In consequence, the peaceful, heartfelt relation to parents in the children is disrupted, and a wall is raised between them: life under parents becomes hard for the children, and they lose heart. Family peace is gone. The Apostle prevents this by prescribing to children constant obedience and to parents not to provoke their children.

To each of these commandments he attaches special motives. To keep children in complete constant obedience, he puts forward as a motive that this is “well-pleasing to the Lord.” Children are understood to be living in the fear of God and striving above all to please the Lord, as befits children of Christian parents. The Apostle is confident that pleasing the Lord is more precious to them than all natural motives. Obedience based on natural feeling is not as firm as that which is based on the desire to please the Lord. If some contrary feeling arises there, also based on nature (such as irritation from the sense of self-preservation and concern for one’s own well-being), then obedience loses its foundation. But here—whatever may arise, obedience never loses its foundation; for it is based on that which is above nature. Saint Chrysostom says: “See how he wants us to do all things not merely from nature, but, beyond that, according to the will of God, so that we may receive reward from God.” The one who obeys his parents from a desire to please the Lord will not be turned aside from this obedience even by the most unjust conduct of parents toward him: for in obeying, he is not trying to please them, but the Lord. From this it follows of itself that only that which is displeasing to the Lord can compel such a one not to obey, when parents demand something displeasing to God. And blessed Theophylactus writes: “Addressing the children of godly parents (that is, believers in the Lord), the Apostle said: ‘in all things,’ for to ungodly fathers (unbelievers in the Lord) one should not obey in all things; one ought not to listen to them when they begin to forcibly draw you into their impiety.”

In addressing parents, the Apostle “did not say: love your children; for this would be a superfluous word; nature itself draws to this” (Saint Chrysostom). The word of God holds parental love so high that it uses it everywhere to explain God’s love for us. “It does not present [in explanation of this] an example of the love of husband and wife, but what? Listen to what the Prophet says: ‘As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him’ (Ps. 102:13). Look again at what Christ the Lord says: ‘What man is there among you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?’ (Mt. 7:9, 10)” (Saint Chrysostom). Therefore, when he commands “do not provoke,” he does not assume the absence of love, but removes unwise conduct toward children, conducted in love and even because of that love. He speaks as it were: through your manner of conduct toward the children beware of arousing in them unpleasant feelings toward you, which might distance their hearts from you. Or: through your manner of conduct do not place your children in a position to enter into dispute, quarrel, and even disobedience with you. “Do not make them contentious. There are times when you ought to yield to them” (Saint Chrysostom). “Do not pursue with bitterness all that they do. Some things you must pass over without notice, so as not to make them contradictory” (blessed Theophylactus). And not only this, but “to do what is proper and to their gratification” (blessed Theodoret). Not indulgence does he advise, but wise forbearance that moderates the necessary strictness without removing it.

To incline parents to this manner of conduct, the Apostle puts forward as motive: “that they may not lose heart,” ινα μη αθυμωσιν—so that the children do not fall in spirit, do not go about with drooping head. “What is especially felt by fathers he sets forth; by this he awakens the parental feeling and softens their hearts” (Saint Chrysostom). “Behold what wisdom; how he bends the hearts of parents and how he moves their bowels! For all the care of fathers is that their children do not lose heart” (blessed Theophylactus). The children he protected from disobedience through the fear of God and their zeal to please the Lord; but “to the parents he gives the commandment in a friendly manner, not reminding them of God” (Saint Chrysostom). Why is it so? Because even in seeing that they provoke their children, they might think they are not acting against God’s will. But in seeing that the children lose heart and go about with drooping head, parents cannot help but be moved by parental feeling to examine the matter more carefully and, considering their manner of conduct, to adjust it so that the children cease to lose heart.

cc) What the Relation of Servants and Masters Ought to Be (Col. 3:22–25, 4:1)

How slaves ought to conduct themselves and how they ought to act—on this Saint Paul speaks more than about the proper conduct of other members of the family. This is because their condition was more difficult and dark than all the others; therefore it needed to be illuminated by Christian views on their work and they needed to be strengthened with comforting promises.

Col. 3:22. Servants, obey in all things your earthly masters, not serving only when being watched like men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.

Slaves at that time were purchased and existed under the complete power of their masters, possessing no rights. They were managed like things. Beaten down, they bore their yoke in silence, never imagining a brighter state. But Christianity opened their eyes and gave them not only to know but to feel something better. From this their condition could become more unbearable, especially when the masters remained in pagan impiety and were not partakers either of that bright and all-illuminating faith, or of those sanctifying workings of grace, or of those promises of which the slaves became partakers. It was natural for them to come to the question whether this spiritual superiority of theirs before their masters did not free them—or if the masters were believers too, whether equality with them did not free them from their power and obedience to them. The Apostle writes to them: No; “obey.” You have received something better in spirit; yet your body remains under the power of the masters. And “obey your earthly masters.” And he not only does not lighten but seemingly burdens the yoke of slavery by saying: “not only when their eye is on you.”

Pagan slaves, if diligent under their masters’ eyes, did not consider it a sin to act otherwise when unseen and not even to their masters’ advantage. The Apostle says: such as you are before their eyes, be such also when not seen. For so act the men-pleasers. And concerning men-pleasers “listen to what the Prophet says: ‘God has scattered the bones of the men-pleasers’ (Ps. 52:6). Therefore, if you work only before their eyes, you act to your own harm” (Saint Chrysostom, blessed Theophylactus). Work “with sincere heart,”—holding in your heart that you are slaves, work for your masters not with a divided mind and not with a divided heart, everywhere and in all things preserving their benefit. “For to have one thing in your heart and another in your deed, to appear one way in the presence of the master and another way in his absence, is not sincerity but pretense” (Saint Chrysostom). Therefore slavery is heavy, because the heart is not invested in the work. These deeds under such a disposition are as something foreign, a yoke lying upon you from without. But if you invest your heart in them, then they will be your deeds, issuing from your own heart. To guard your heart from all wavering and deviation from such an arrangement, take on the fear of God; work, “fearing the Lord.” “Make it so that the work obligatory for you by law proceeds in you according to the fear of God. Then, let your master not see you, you will still do what is due and what pertains to his honor and benefit, for the sake of the sleepless eye of God” (Saint Chrysostom). This sleepless eye, which you are aware of, will be a guardian of your heartfelt faithfulness to the duty of slavery and will illumine your work with a certain light coming from above and will sanctify it by dedicating it to God; so that your work will cease to be work for men but will truly become work for God. You yourself will be aware of it as such and will labor in it as, having the fear of God, you labor to please God. This follows of itself from: “fearing the Lord.” But the Apostle deemed it necessary to overshadow the slave’s work with this Divine illumination by a special word, saying:

Col. 3:23. And whatever you do, do it from the soul as to the Lord and not to men.

What could especially trouble Christian slaves was this: they have given themselves over to serve the Lord, yet here is unavoidable work for men, and again—they have transferred all their aims with the Lord from the temporal to the eternal, yet here their work is turned toward the temporal, the passing, and the perishable. The Apostle removes these two naturally possible disturbing thoughts: the first in the present verse and the second in the following. In working for your masters, do not think that you are working for men but for the Lord, and this—whatever your work may touch upon. Therefore, whatever you happen to do, do it with all your heart as for the Lord, to whom your whole life is dedicated. The Apostle does not explain how to come to the conviction that even the performance of, for example, such a command as: go fetch this, bring that—is doing for the Lord; but he prescribes the law: do as for the Lord. It is understood not only that what you then do will be received as such by the Lord, but that it is such in its very essence. To conviction in both respects one can come: in the first—through this, that the worth, power, and significance of such works are determined by the soul and sense in which they are performed, and in the second—by raising the mind to God’s providential determinations of each person’s lot, by which all that is essential in that lot is sealed by God’s will, so that faithfulness to it is faithfulness to God and service in it is service to Him. But the Apostle does not enter into these explanations, but writes a law: do all things with all your heart, as for the Lord, and not for men. And you will faithfully fulfill the vow given by you at baptism: to be wholly devoted to the Lord and to seek to please Him alone.

One might think that the force of the Apostle’s thought lies in “heartily,”—not in “as for the Lord.” But in the spirit of the Christian these two aspects of the deed are inseparable. He cannot act heartily except by acting for the Lord; for his heart is devoted to Him. However, it is also probable that the Apostle wished to guide them to how they, remaining slaves in slave work, could be free—acting freely. In such a case the force of the thought will be in “heartily,”—and “as for the Lord” will be its foundation and support. Working heartily, you will work not as slaves, by necessity and compulsion, but as free men by your own will. Saint Chrysostom says: “Through this the Apostle makes them, instead of slaves, free. For ‘heartily’ means with good will, not with slavish necessity, but with freedom and voluntary choice.”

Col. 3:24. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.

In general, purchased slaves are naturally troubled and every spark of energy is cut down by the thought: what should I exhaust myself with work for; everything goes to them, nothing to me. But in the Christian, not this selfish but rather the truly Christian, self-emptied, thought could bring trouble: I ought to seek the things above, to mind the things of heaven; yet here I am made to work for vanity and corruption. The Apostle comforts him: do not be troubled; in working, as you say, for vanity and corruption, you lose nothing in the heavenly and incorruptible; on the contrary, you gain that very thing. Only do not depart from that disposition of heart: working for masters, work for the Lord. If you work thus for the Lord, from the Lord you shall receive a reward—that very thing above and heavenly which you consider yourself obliged to seek. And this is more certain than any other rewards you might expect from the course of earthly things, without even mentioning that this is lofty and incomparable to anything earthly. For the Lord is true in His words and promises. Thus your slave work will not distance you from your higher spiritual aims, but on the contrary, will be the direct path to them. For you serve the Lord Christ. And He said: “where I am, there shall my servant be also” (Jn. 12:26).

“Knowing”—being convinced. On what does such conviction rest? On this—that you serve the Lord Christ. Why it was wrongly translated: “Serve Christ the Lord”? This was already said. What was previously said in the word: “as for the Lord”—is now laid as the foundation for the certainty of hope that you shall receive a reward. The words: “you shall receive the reward of the inheritance,” κληρονομιας—the heritage—went directly to the wound of bitter slavery. They work and work; yet neither they nor their family nor their offspring receive anything. The Apostle says to them: if you work as I command you, “as for the Lord,” then the Lord will give you an inheritance of higher blessings than those your masters could make you heirs of. With the Lord you are already heirs; already part of your inheritance is set aside for you and credited to your account: for you serve the Lord, and He does not leave His servants empty. Blessed Theophylactus writes: “Masters do not often make slaves heirs, even if they serve them exceedingly well. But the Lord will surely give you in reward an inheritance in the heavens, if you keep a good disposition toward your masters.”

But it is well to keep a good disposition toward masters when they are just; but if they are unjust, how then to remain within the bounds of wholehearted service to them? Do not be troubled by this injustice, says the Apostle further. There is a Judge who in His time will render to all what is due. With Him there is no partiality; He will not spare masters, however great they may be.

Col. 3:25. And he who does injustice will receive what he unjustly did, and there is no partiality.

“The Apostle has offered sufficient comfort to the slaves by making it known that they serve not men but the Lord. Since, however, masters are sometimes unjust men, the Apostle necessarily added: ‘but he who does wrong shall receive for his wrong’ and so on. If the masters, he says, do not repay you for your service with goodness; yet there is a righteous Judge who does not distinguish between slave and master, but pronounces a just judgment” (blessed Theodoret). This is general comfort for all who suffer injustice. There is an Eye that sees the wrong side, which will be repaid in its time according to the measure of its wrong. But the aim of our life is not earthly well-being but eternal blessedness, in the attainment of which a not small part is played by patience in suffering slander and injustice. Therefore, do not look at men’s wrongs; do your work, trying to please the Lord in all things and bearing all things patiently. Such instruction is entirely in accord with the course of the Apostle’s speech and must have been great comfort to the slaves, whose lot was at that time very bitter and their lack of rights was on all sides.

But the words of the Apostle can also be understood differently: that in them is given not comfort to slaves in the event of injustice from masters, but a threat to slaves in the event of wrongful conduct by them toward their masters. The Apostle said earlier that you shall receive the reward of inheritance if you diligently work for your masters as for the Lord. Now he takes up the same from the opposite: but if you work poorly for your masters, violate their rights over you and commit wrong in relation to them, then you shall be repaid according to your wrong. The Lord will not consider that you are faithful while they are unfaithful, or that you are the weaker party and they the stronger. But He will repay all justly: for there is no partiality with Him. Thus all our other interpreters do, except blessed Theodoret. However, having set forth such a thought, they at the end add a supplement that these words are equally instructive for masters. We present for all the words of blessed Theophylactus: “A slave who acts wrongly toward his master, either by working negligently or by diminishing and stealing his master’s goods, will receive from God the due reward for it. For God shows no partiality, to have mercy on a slave as the weaker party, when even in the Law He commanded not to favor the poor in judgment” (Lev. 19:15). Or thus: a Christian slave who wrongs a Greek master should not think he will escape judgment. For Christ shows no partiality to leave his sin against a Greek master unpunished simply because he is a Christian. Yet though, as it seems, the Apostle speaks to the slaves: God shows no partiality; the masters ought to take these words as very fitting for themselves.

Col. 4:1. Masters, give to your servants what is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

The Apostle determines the manner of conduct of masters toward slaves with the words: “supply what is just and fair.” “Fair” does not mean that masters should come down to the level of slaves or raise them to their own level; nor does it mean to treat all slaves the same; but it obligates masters to conduct themselves toward their slaves at a level corresponding with their condition as slaves and with their work and labor. This word is equivalent to justice. “By ‘fair’” writes blessed Theodoret, “the Apostle did not call equal honor, but the necessary care with which servants ought to be provided by masters.” “What is justice? What is fairness?” asks Saint Chrysostom and answers: it is one and the same thing: “to provide slaves with all they need in sufficient quantity and not to allow them to come to others with their needs, but to compensate them for their labor. You should not, because I said they receive their reward from God, think that you are permitted to deprive them of what should be given to them from you” (likewise blessed Theophylactus).

To encourage masters to such conduct, the Apostle points out that they also have a Master in heaven—it is understood—and a righteous rewarder. Masters allow themselves wrongs toward slaves chiefly because of the false feeling of their complete independence: who has authority over me? and they act without accountability. The Apostle cuts short their boldness, assuring them that they are not independent; they too have a Master, before whom they are answerable and who will require an account from them for their deeds (as they require it from their servants for their deeds), including their relation to slaves. Thus you are equal with slaves in accountability and dependence. “And you, he says, that is, you as well. Here the Apostle makes slavery common to all” (Saint Chrysostom). “Therefore you ought to treat them as fellow servants. As they have you, so also you have a Master. Thus, ‘in whatever measure you measure, it will be measured back to you’ (Mt. 7:2)” (blessed Theophylactus).

Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4)

The holy Paul does not address everything relating to this, but only the chief matter—namely prayer. The Church is the symbol of prayer. Christians gather chiefly to pray together. They themselves form the body of the Church; and their soul is prayer. Of it alone does the Apostle speak when there was no need to mention other matters.

Col. 4:2. Continue steadfast in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving.

Private prayer of each person was already spoken of separately (Col. 3:16). Here corporate prayer must be understood, though what is said here can be applied to the private prayer of each one, just as what was said before about private prayer can be applied to corporate prayer.

When he commands to be steadfast in prayer, at the same time he urges that prayer must be not brief. “Devote yourselves to prayer” means: pray much and long. Brief prayer leaves no room for the exercise and manifestation of steadfastness. Long prayer, on the other hand, creates weariness, and because of weariness comes the desire for it to end quickly, or the desire to leave the church assembly. The Apostle writes: be steadfast to the end and do not give in to idleness.

When steadfastness weakens, on one side idleness and drowsiness or sleepiness attack, on the other side the spirits’ alertness departs, attention scatters, thoughts wander. The Apostle writes: “keeping alert,”—keep both spirit alert and body awake, and let both body and spirit remain in constant tension throughout all the time of prayer. Relax the members of the body, relax your thoughts, and there is no prayer anymore; you will stand like a pillar and nod your head like a doll. Alertness points to prayer’s liveliness—a strong and warm striving of mind and heart toward God. It is unsurprising that by this word the Apostle points to the all-night vigils that began in the Church from apostolic times; an example of which was shown by the holy Paul himself, who spent the whole night with the believers in teaching and prayer in Troas.

“With thanksgiving,” ευχαριστια. This means satisfaction and pleasantness—it also means thanksgiving. Its original meaning is the first. Therefore one can believe that the Apostle in the present place had this in mind. And by the course of the discourse it is very suitable here. The Apostle has driven out the feeling of weariness by steadfastness, the temptation to indulgence and idleness by alertness and strain. But one can both be steadfast and hold oneself in tension—and at the same time be discontented with such labor, sustaining it with some murmuring. Such a thought or feeling takes away all value before God of steadfastness and watchfulness in prayer. As in almsgiving God “loves the cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7); so in prayer He loves only the one who steadfastly watches in it with satisfaction of heart, is glad to stand in prayer however long it may last.

This understanding is offered as an opinion; for all interpreters, both ours and foreign, understand by ευχαριστια thanksgiving. Thanksgiving should adorn every prayer. Without it one should not approach the Lord: for insensibility to benefits received obstructs the way to receiving new ones, cutting short the giving hand of the Lord. Therefore in the composition of our prayers thanksgiving indispensably takes its place. The great Archbishop Basil teaches to begin every prayer with it. Given such significance of thanksgiving in prayer, it is fitting to believe that in the present place the Apostle, in speaking of prayer, means it by ευχαριστια.

Let us adduce what our commentators have said. Blessed Theophylact writes: “the devil knows what great good prayer is, and strives in every way to make us recoil from it. Therefore the holy Apostle says: ‘persist in prayer’ (προσκαρτερειτε — cleave to it, labor over it). Since one who cleaves (to prayer) is often subject to assault from sloth and weakness, he adds: ‘watch in it,’—that is, remaining sober, always striving diligently in the work of prayer. And in thanksgiving, that is, with thanksgiving, he teaches us to perform it. For that prayer is truly genuine which contains thanksgiving for all kindnesses, known to us and unknown, and for that which has brought us well-being and joy, and for that which was accompanied by sorrow—for all benefactions in general.” The holy Chrysostom says: “since persistence in prayers often brings tedium and sloth, he says: ‘watching,’—that is, remaining sober, not letting your thoughts wander here and there. For the devil knows, knows how great a good prayer is, and therefore weighs heavily upon the one who prays. And Paul knows, how many grow weary and slack during prayer, and therefore he says: ‘persist in prayer,’ as in something laborious. ‘Watching in it with thanksgiving.’ Let it be, he says, your practice to give thanks—for manifest and hidden benefactions, for that which He has done for our good and according to our wish, and contrary to our wish, and for the Kingdom, and for hell, and for sorrow, and for comfort. Thus the saints are accustomed to pray, giving thanks (to God in prayer) for all the benefactions. I knew a holy man who prayed thus. Having said nothing beforehand, he began directly: ‘We give thanks for all Your benefactions shown to us, the unworthy, from the first day until now, known and unknown, manifest and hidden, done by deed and by word, according to our will and contrary to it—for all that has come to us, the unworthy, for sorrows, for comforts, for hell, for torments, for the Kingdom of Heaven. We beseech You, keep our soul holy, possessing a pure conscience, and grant us an end (worthy of Your compassion). You who have loved us and given even Your Only-Begotten Son for us, make us worthy to be worthy of Your love. Give us wisdom in Your word, and in Your fear, Only-Begotten Christ, breathe Your power into us. You who gave for us Your Only-Begotten Son and sent down Your Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of our sins, if we have sinned in anything, willingly or unwillingly, forgive and count not against us. Remember all those who call upon Your name in truth. Remember all who wish us well and ill; for we are all men.’ Then, adding the prayer of the faithful, thus he concluded, having made a prayer for all, as it were a crown and a summary of all. God does much for our good, though we do not seek it; much such that we do not even know (that it is good for us), and far more of such kind. For when we ask for one thing, and He does the opposite (and this proves good for us), it is evident that He bestows kindness upon us, not knowing (what is good for us)”.

Col. 4:3. Praying also for us together, that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds.

“Praying also for us”—together with other objects of prayer, such as: for spiritual enlightenment, for the increase of grace, for steadfastness in good, for peace, prosperity, and so forth, pray “also for us.” For whom—for us? It is supposed that the Apostle meant by this not only himself, but Timothy and even Epaphras; but since he soon begins to speak of his own person only, it is better to hold that, speaking of “us” and “to us,” the Apostle means himself alone. In saying “and for us together,” he does not suggest that prayer for him, the one who had brought them enlightenment by faith, is an accessory to prayer, left to discretion, which on that account one can well omit; but he reminds them of the duty always to pray for him who had begotten them in the word of truth for life according to God. His thought is this: look, do not forget to pray also for us. By this he establishes the duty of spiritual children to pray for their spiritual fathers.

But in inviting them to pray for him, the Apostle does not use a word of mere propriety and does not merely reveal his humility, but expresses confidence that their prayer is powerful before God both as the prayer of believers, and all the more as prayer offered in common. The Lord Himself gave such promises to the prayer of believers: “All things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive” (Mt. 21:22). “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done to you” (Jn. 15:7). “All things, whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive, and it shall be to you” (Mk. 11:24). “‘Truly I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about” any “thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven: for where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them’” (Mt. 18:19, 20). With such a privilege every believer is endowed, and all the more is the society of believers, to which the holy Paul appeals here, clothed with it. By this word he establishes the power of the common prayer of the Church, at the same time providing the Colossians no small comfort, bringing to their remembrance that they are not deprived of this privilege of believers in the Lord. Blessed Theophylact writes: “He asks them to pray for him, not only humbling himself, but also showing the power of fraternal prayer. He also had need of help from on high, which the prayer of the brethren was to provide him in greater measure. By this word the Apostle wished to lead them into the labor of prayer. For if prayer is necessary for him, all the more—for them themselves.”

Let us add that if he felt the need to resort to the common prayer of the faithful brethren, who would dare to be so presumptuous as to suppose he could manage without the help of fraternal prayer, remaining with his own alone? The Apostle thereby expressed in deed the duty of Christians both to pray for one another and to ask one another for prayer. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle showed customary humility; but he also teaches us not to rely on ourselves alone, but to seek mutual help from one another.”

“That God would open to us a door of the word.” The opening of a door for the word signifies the unobstructedness of preaching, so that no one hinders or closes the mouth of the preacher. The Apostle desires that they pray to the Lord for him free entry and freedom of proclamation of the word everywhere. But perhaps he also expressed by this the desire that his word everywhere receive free entry into hearts, that an ear everywhere be opened for hearing and a heart for receiving the word. To such an opening of the door for the word the Apostle points when he speaks of the success of his preaching in Troas. There he presented the gospel “when a door had been opened” (2 Cor. 2:12)—which means: a multitude of people gathered and all eagerly listened to the word. The unbelief of the listeners binds the tongue of the preacher. From this difficulty the Apostle asks prayer to be made. Otherwise, how can he proclaim the mystery of Christ? Is it not for this reason also that in the Church the faithful pray for those being converted to faith: that the Lord may enlighten them with the word of truth and reveal the Gospel of righteousness? Opening here is understood to be for the eyes of the mind and the heart.

“To proclaim the mystery of Christ.” He does not ask for prayer for freedom from bonds (the holy Chrysostom and others), but that the word concerning the mystery of Christ should go forth from him, ever louder and louder, drawing an ever greater number of listeners and eagerly receiving this word; and whether he be bound or free in the meantime, he is not concerned. One care, not departing from his heart,—that the word concerning the mystery of Christ should spread; all else does not occupy his mind. Since the Epistle was written at the beginning of his bonds in Rome, we can confidently suppose that his discourse here concerns the success of the gospel among the Romans.

What “mystery of Christ” does the Apostle have in mind? Not merely the mystery of salvation in general in the incarnate Son of God and God, but rather the mystery of the calling of the Gentiles to the spiritual inheritance of the great patriarchs and the composition of Jews and Gentiles into one Church of God, built upon the Lord Saviour. He had already mentioned it above (Col. 1:26), calling it “‘the mystery hidden” from ages and from generations. For this mystery especially is the holy Paul bound. In Jerusalem they bound him because he destroys the ancestral laws, that is, preaches freedom from the prescriptions of the Law and makes the Gentiles equal with the Jews. Were it not for this, there would not have been such fierce exasperation against him by the Jews, and perhaps there would not have been these bonds. Therefore, in saying “for which I am bound,” he certainly meant that mystery which he speaks of everywhere, that it was entrusted to him, namely: “‘that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise” in Christ Jesus’ (Eph. 3:6).

Col. 4:4. That I may reveal it as is fitting for me to speak.

We may read it thus: “bound, that I may make it manifest.” The word concerning that mystery became louder when the holy Paul was bound for it. To the questions: why was he bound? why?—everywhere the answer was spread and heard: because he announces salvation to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. The mystery in this way was made manifest by the very bonds. The Apostle “pointed out the cause of his bonds; for he says: the bonds make the preaching more manifest” (Blessed Theodoret). The holy Chrysostom says: “See how bonds reveal, they do not hide. He was bound, and from all churches they had recourse to him, and he, while bound, edified thousands of Christians. Then was he sooner released from bonds (than bound). He was in bonds; but then his course was all the faster.”

Or thus: pray that God would open to me a door to proclaim the mystery of Christ, that I may make it manifest as is fitting for me to speak. He asks for prayer for the removal of all obstacles to revealing the mystery of Christ as is fitting for him. And it is fitting for him to speak of it as he has been commanded, that is, directing all things toward breaking down the middle wall of partition that divides Jews and Gentiles, and composing the Church from both of them, free from external legal ordinances, but pure and undefiled, serving the Spirit of the Lord. With this view especially it is fitting for him to reveal the mystery of Christ, the mystery of salvation in Him of all humanity. Under “as is fitting” we may also understand the quality of preaching,—that is, “with great boldness, hiding nothing” (the holy Chrysostom), “without pretense or evasion” (Blessed Theophylact), openly, loudly, fearing nothing in speaking of the salvation of the Gentiles equally with the Jews.

Christian Life Toward Those Outside (Colossians 4:5–6)

The civic life then was pagan. Going out from church or home, a Christian inevitably entered into relations with unbelievers, whom the Apostle calls external—such as those outside the society of the faithful. This encounter is what the holy Paul has in mind in determining the social relations of Christians of that time. In other Epistles he enters more fully into this subject, but here he directs attention to only one point which has been indicated.

Col. 4:5. Walk in wisdom toward those outside, redeeming the time.

“Toward those who are outside,”—that is, “toward those who have not yet believed” (Blessed Theodoret). “For such are outside, that is, not ours, not of one household with us; although they live in the same world with us, yet they are outside, being far removed both from the Church and from the Kingdom of God” (Blessed Theophylact). And in this sense one can consider them external, that, however wise those who live outside communion with Christ the Lord may be, their life is essentially external; whereas the life of those cleaving to the Lord is wholly essentially internal, built and growing in the heart. It forms the hidden one in the heart of man.

The wisdom of walking with such is prudent bearing toward them, when, by the orders of social and civic life, it becomes necessary to enter into relations with them. “Wisdom here the Apostle calls prudence, and he commands to conduct oneself prudently in relation to those who are outside” (Blessed Theophylact).

In what such prudence should consist is indicated by the words: “redeeming the time.” To redeem time means to act prudently, conforming oneself to circumstances and the demands of the age. More directly one can express this thus: let each act so that, on the one hand, by the manner of your action you do not irritate the pagans against yourselves, and through yourselves against the whole society of Christians; and on the other, do not miss the opportunity to draw to the faith those showing predisposition toward it, those who may believe. “Give them no cause, says the Apostle, for harm (to yourselves and the Church), but employ all means toward their salvation” (Blessed Theodoret).

The holy Chrysostom says: “What Christ said to the disciples, now Paul the Apostle also teaches. What then does Christ say? ‘Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves’ (Mt. 10:16); that is, be cautious, giving them no cause to catch you. For this reason it is also added: ‘toward those who are outside,’—so that we might know that in relation to our own members we have less need of caution than in relation to strangers; for among brothers there is more forbearance and love. But even here caution is needed, and all the more is it needed among strangers, because to live among enemies and foes is not the same as among friends. ‘Time,’—he says,—‘redeeming.’ He said this not wishing them to be unstable and hypocritical; for these qualities belong not to wisdom, but to folly. But what? You do not give yourselves, he says, to be caught in such deeds, which you can perform without harm to yourselves. This he also says in the Epistle to the Romans: ‘Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; honor to whom honor’ (Rom. 13:7). Let conflict with them arise only on account of the preaching: it should not arise from any other cause; for if we have enmity with them on account of something else also,—for example if we do not pay taxes, if we do not render proper honor, if we are not humble,—then we shall have no reward, and they themselves (that is, our enemies) will become worse, and their accusations against us will appear to have the semblance of justice. Do you not see how compliant Paul himself was when it in no way harmed the preaching? Listen to his words spoken to Agrippa: ‘I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you this day, especially because you are expert in all the customs and questions which are among the Jews’ (Acts 26:2, 3). But if he had considered it necessary to speak insulting words to a magistrate, he would have spoiled the whole matter. Listen also, with what moderation those who were with the blessed Peter answered the Jews: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29). Although those men, having resolved to lay down their lives, could have spoken more boldly; but since they were resolved to sacrifice their lives not from vanity, they spoke humbly, keeping all their boldness for the preaching alone.”

Col. 4:6. Let your speech be always in grace, seasoned with salt, knowing how you ought to answer each one.

The means of intercourse with others is speech, almost exclusively. For it the holy Paul lays down rules. Let your speech always be “in grace,” let it be heartfelt, let it always proceed from the heart and breathe good disposition and love, as the speech of a friend sincerely desiring your good. With all this, however, let it be “seasoned with salt,” not frivolous and joking, but reasonable and edifying, containing either an explanation of the truth required, or an indication of the rule of needful worldly prudence, or an exposition of the laws of the higher and more perfect life, if that is desired. “Your affability must not go so far as to be employed indiscriminately: one can speak affably, but this must be done with proper propriety” (the holy Chrysostom). “Adorn yourselves with spiritual prudence. For the Lord also commanded the Apostles to have ‘salt in themselves’ (Mk. 9:50) and called them themselves ‘the salt’ (Mt. 5:13)” (Blessed Theodoret). “Let your speech be agreeable, having a gladsome and cheering tone; but let it not fall into indiscriminateness and unbridledness, but let it be restrained. For this is what ‘salt’ means. Let it not be overjoyed, nor overly stern. For food, if not salted, is unpleasant, and if over-salted, it is impossible to eat—in both cases it is inedible: so also with speech. Do you not see how Daniel heals a wicked man with a word? Do you not see how the three youths also, showing such courage and boldness, uttered not a single harsh or insulting word? For such speech does not indicate bold (in trust in God) courage, but self-confident presumption (arrogant).”

“That you may know how you ought to answer each one.” He points out where the qualities of speech indicated above find their application, namely in meeting with someone. When meeting, the first thing we do is speak to one another. See, says the Apostle, in beginning and carrying on speech as has been shown, from the soul and wise in content, do not forget to adapt it also to the person with whom you begin to converse. “To answer”—means not only to reply to a question, but in general to speak with and to someone. “Not with all ought one to speak in the same way, that is, both with Greeks and with the brothers; no—this would be great foolishness” (the holy Chrysostom). “For one must present teaching otherwise to an unbeliever, and otherwise to a believer, otherwise to one mature, and otherwise to one immature, in one way to the weak, and in another way to the strong” (Blessed Theodoret). “Otherwise to the rich, otherwise to the poor. The soul of the former, being weak, has need of greater forbearance; and that of the poor is stronger, therefore can bear it if you treat him somewhat more severely. When also there is no necessity, do not call a pagan unclean and do not reproach him. If you are brought before a magistrate, show him due honor. When the Greeks ask you about their beliefs, do not fear to say that they are unclean and impious. But judge this by circumstances. The holy Paul in Athens speaks graciously (about paganism, setting forth what is good in it), but he rebuked Elymas directly, because he deserved it (Acts 13:10)” (Blessed Theophylact).

On both these texts Ambrosiaster writes: “Since it is necessary for us to converse among unbelievers and conduct conversations with them on account of worldly matters, here is what the Apostle enjoins for such cases—that our conversation be with wisdom, so that the pagans may not be scandalized and not find in it cause to slander our faith and be stirred up to persecution of the faithful. What need is there to speak with one whom you know to be stubborn, of unyielding mind and ready to cause trouble? Therefore the Apostle counsels that speech about the faith be begun in a fitting place and at a favorable time; and if there is among those listening a contentious man, it is better to be silent. Otherwise also should you conduct yourselves with the mighty of the world, otherwise with men of middle rank, otherwise with the lowest class. If at the time when men rise up against the word of God, you restrain your boldness for a time, then you redeem the time. But when the king is favorably disposed, then is the time to speak the word of God, with gentleness, drawing them to the good path. Before those who rise up with fury, it is better to yield (for a time to restrain boldness). In such a case, yielding you conquer.”

Conclusion (Colossians 4:7–18)

Tidings: Tychicus and Onesimus (Colossians 4:7–9)

Col. 4:7. All things concerning me will be made known to you by Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord.

The Epistle is finished. But since it was all about doctrine and rules of life, certainly the Colossians would want to know also about the condition of the holy Paul himself—especially after he, having mentioned his bonds, said nothing about how he fares in them, and according to the customs of that time it could be very hard for him; therefore the Apostle, to satisfy such a natural desire, informs them that Tychicus will tell them all concerning him. And so that they would receive him more warmly and believe his word, he points out the praiseworthy features of his character. “See the wisdom of Paul! He does not place everything in his Epistles, but what is necessary, what is essential—and this for the first reason, that he did not wish to make them too lengthy; second, to give more honor to the person departing with the letter, so he would have something to tell them; third, to show how he himself is disposed toward him, for otherwise he would not have entrusted him with so much; finally—there was probably something that did not need to be set down in writing” (Saint Chrysostom).

“A beloved brother”—a believer, yet one who succeeded in earning special love from Saint Paul through his devotion to him and his readiness to do all that pleased him and to calm his spirit; for which he himself enjoyed the full confidence of Saint Paul, who hid nothing from him. “A faithful minister,” διακονος—not merely a believer but one who has a role in the ordering of the Churches, not independent, however, but executive, in which the chief thing required is faithfulness, that is, acting exactly as commanded; in which Tychicus distinguished himself. “And fellow servant,” συνδουλος—a fellow slave—working together with me, therefore a participant not only in the labors and trials but also in the apostolic intentions. “Of the Lord.” He does not work for me as a man-pleaser but works with me to the Lord; therefore he is faithful not only when observed but also when unobserved, as one seeing the all-seeing eye of the Lord turned upon him. Saint Chrysostom says of him: “If beloved, then he knew everything and Paul hid nothing from him; if faithful, then he will lie in nothing (but will be truthful in all [see Oecumenius]); if fellow worker, he participated in trials. Thus the Apostle set forth everything that made him worthy of trust.”

Col. 4:8. Whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that he may know how things are with you and comfort your hearts.

To inform another about yourself and to desire to know how things are with him is a sign of living communion, sincere love, and trust. “Here the Apostle shows strong love, for he sent Tychicus to them for precisely such reasons. He says the same when he wrote to the Thessalonians: ‘So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left alone in Athens, and we sent Timothy, our brother’ (1 Thes. 3:1, 2)” (Saint Chrysostom). Tychicus is the mediator of such communion. He will tell of me and learn how things are with you to tell me afterward about you. One must believe, however, that “that you may know how we are” has in the Apostle’s mouth the close relation to the content of the Epistle. The Apostle was guarding against false teachers and urging not to listen to them. “That you may know”—points to the Apostle’s concern: have not the false teachers already sown tares, and moreover, will the Colossians listen to and to what extent will they listen to his admonitions. It is not external conduct that is the chief matter for the Apostle but how the work of salvation progresses. He wished to direct their attention and zeal precisely to this matter—to look carefully that all is well and to correct what needs correcting. The whole fruit of the Epistle ought to be precisely this. Ambrosiaster writes: “Although he said earlier that he is present with them in spirit, yet non-spiritual mediators and messengers are also necessary. Everyone becomes more careful about himself when he sees that someone has come precisely to see how he is conducting himself; and, being aware that there is an eye watching his deeds, he becomes more cautious. God sees all and we know that all is known to Him; but since we do not see that He sees us, we do things contrary to Him.”

“And that he may encourage your hearts.” In the Epistle it is not seen that the Colossians suffered anything unpleasant. Therefore the encouragement that Tychicus was to provide them should be understood as coming from reliable news about Saint Paul and Epaphras. Saint Paul is not a stranger to them. It could not be but grievous for them that he, their true Apostle, was in bonds, and still more that while in bonds he was sent so far away and nothing was known of him. They had sent to him their nearest enlightener, Epaphras, to be with him and serve him (so blessed Theodoret says)—and nothing was known of him. With what joy must they have welcomed the faithful messenger, not only seeing them but sharing their fate! In his person they received their own dear fathers and could not help being filled with great comfort. And this all the more because the news brought contained nothing exceedingly grievous. The bonds, which in themselves were terrible, were lightened for the Apostle by certain indulgences by which he could receive whom he wished and write to whom he wished. However, there may have been also in the homes of the Colossians, as Epaphras might have conveyed, certain unpleasantnesses requiring comfort, though not so great as to deserve special mention in the Epistle; it was enough to instruct Tychicus about them. Our interpreters believe that the Colossians were under trial and needed encouragement.

Col. 4:9. With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother who is from you; they will make known to you all things that are happening here.

Onesimus, the slave of Philemon, who fled from him, was converted by the holy Paul while in bonds, and is now being sent back to his own master. More is said of him in the Epistle to Philemon, which is now being sent. Here he is mentioned only to inform the whole Christian community that he is being sent, but no longer as they knew him before. Now he is “our faithful and beloved brother.” Tychicus is not only a brother but also a minister and fellow worker; this one is only a brother, that is, a believer, worthy, however, of love and beloved, and not as before—an evil slave—but a faithful brother. “Faithful”—one should suppose has here reference also to his character as a slave, not only as a believer. “Who is one of you”—not as a reproach; on the contrary, the Apostle “added this in praise of the city, so that they not only would not be ashamed but would account it an honor to themselves” (Saint Chrysostom). In what sense? You Colossians are so good that even your servants willingly receive the gospel, showing themselves capable of understanding its power, such as Onesimus, who is from you, turned out to be.

“They will tell you of everything here”—that is, “of my bonds and all else holding me here. Were it not for this, I would have come to you myself” (blessed Theophylactus). “One cannot help but see the wisdom of the Apostle in entrusting the information about him to both, but leaving the encouragement to Tychicus alone. Since they knew that Onesimus was a slave and probably would have been grieved that someone who yesterday was and only just now a slave should suddenly be recognized as capable of comforting and teaching the whole Church, the Apostle said that Tychicus alone is sent for this. But to inform about the Apostle he found fitting for both, both honoring Onesimus in this way and not offending the Colossians” (blessed Theodoret).

Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Col. 4:10. Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner, greets you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, receive him.

Aristarchus of Macedon from Thessalonica, as it appears, became attached to Saint Paul and did not wish to be separated from him. We see him with Saint Paul in Ephesus, where during the popular uprising against Saint Paul he suffered an attack together with Gaius and probably suffered something, though this is not mentioned (Acts 19:29). When Saint Paul made his journey from Ephesus to Macedonia and Greece and from there to Jerusalem, Saint Aristarchus did not leave him. For we see him among those accompanying Saint Paul on his return from Greece (Acts 20:4). It is very likely that he did not leave Saint Paul during the whole journey to Jerusalem, in Jerusalem itself, and during the bonds in Caesarea; for when the time came for Saint Paul to be sent to Rome and he boarded a ship, Aristarchus was with him (Acts 27:2). But now he is in Rome with Saint Paul at the beginning of his bonds, when the Epistle to the Colossians was written. It must be believed that he was known to them since he sends them greeting. “The Apostle called him his fellow prisoner as a sharer in the endurance of sufferings” (blessed Theodoret). In Rome Saint Paul was permitted to “remain in lodgings of his own, with the soldier guarding him” (Acts 28:16), and he lived there at his own expense for a whole two years, receiving those who came to him and preaching the gospel without hindrance (Acts 28:30, 31). Thus he did not sit locked up, all the more so Aristarchus. If he is called a fellow prisoner, it is because he did not leave Saint Paul in his bonds and served him in all his needs, remaining constantly with him as a voluntary captive. And from all this it is evident that Aristarchus was both in character and manner of life worthy of all approval, devoted to the work of the gospel, willingly sharing the labors for it with Saint Paul (Ambrosiaster). Therefore the latter called him his fellow worker in the Epistle to Philemon (Phlm. 1:23). Holy Aristarchus is numbered among the Seventy Apostles, and tradition holds him to have been a bishop of Apamea in Syria. His memory, besides January 4, is on September 27.

In calling Saint Aristarchus a fellow prisoner, clearly Saint Paul considered himself a prisoner. Saint Chrysostom draws from this the following conclusion: “The Apostle said more than the Prophets; for they called themselves strangers and sojourners, but he calls himself even a prisoner; for he was hunted and dragged like a prisoner, and everyone could offer him insults. Or rather, it was even worse for him than for prisoners; for when enemies capture them they give their attention to them, caring for them as their own property; but him they all hunted and persecuted as an enemy—with beatings, torments, insults, and calumnies.”

“Mark, the cousin of Barnabas.” In Acts, Mark is mentioned more than once, also called John. From this we must conclude that he was very well known during the apostolic age both to Christians and to those laboring in the gospel. The house of his mother Mary was a gathering place for Christians and a place of hospitality. Saint Peter, after his wonderful deliverance from prison, came by night to the house of Mary, the mother of John called Mark, where many were gathered together in prayer (Acts 12:12). At that time Saints Barnabas and Saul were in Jerusalem bringing relief from the believers in Antioch. Returning to Antioch, they took with them John, called Mark (Acts 12:25). When after returning to Antioch Saints Paul and Barnabas, moved by the Spirit, set out on a preaching mission to various places, they took with them this John to serve them (Acts 13:5). But he soon left them and returned to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13), either from Cyprus or after crossing over to Perga in Pamphylia. The Apostles continued their journey alone and, returning from it, soon set out for Jerusalem for a decision regarding the way to receive the Gentiles, on which occasion the Apostolic Council took place there. From Jerusalem, Judas and Silas came with them to Antioch by order of the elders in the Church. John Mark is not mentioned. But when, a little later, on the proposal of Saint Paul to visit the churches they had founded, they were preparing to depart, John Mark was there, probably having come from Jerusalem with them. For Barnabas proposed to take him with them again. From this time until the present mention in the Epistle to the Colossians, nothing is said of Mark in Acts. It must be believed that he turned up in Rome with Saint Paul at the beginning of his bonds there, not by chance but on behalf of Saint Barnabas. One can broaden the supposition, believing that he, on behalf of his mother, at the direction of Barnabas, served Paul in Jerusalem and in Caesarea, and when Saint Paul was sent to Rome, his mother and Saint Barnabas sent him to Rome by another route, where he met Saint Paul, delivered greetings from his family, and, having fulfilled what was needed for his assignment, was preparing to return home. His route could have been through Ephesus, Colossae, Laodicea, and further to the sea at Myra of Lycia, and from there to Cyprus and Jerusalem if needed. It appears that his mother was the sister of Saint Barnabas. They were from Cyprus by origin and had family property there.

This holy Mark is numbered among the Seventy Apostles. By tradition, he later was a bishop in Byblos of Phoenicia. His memory, besides January 4, is on September 27, together with Aristarchus. According to our tradition, it appears that he did not write the Gospel.

Saint Paul mentions that the Colossians received instructions concerning him. They received instructions, though it is not said from whom, yet it is obvious that from Saint Paul himself. But how they received them is difficult to establish by probable conjecture. If it is not fitting to believe that these are the verbal commands of the holy Apostle that Tychicus and Onesimus were to convey to the Colossians, then it must be believed that Saint Paul’s desire was previously conveyed to them in some way not in writing. Was not this done when Saint Paul, having sailed from Cyprus, arrived at Myra of Lycia on his way to Rome? (Acts 27:5). There Colossians could have met him by chance or design and received instructions from the Apostle; and the Apostle could have had reason to give such instructions, having received occasion perhaps in Cyprus from Saint Barnabas or his sister, Mark’s mother, perhaps at that time being sent to Rome by another route.

“If he comes to you, welcome him.” This is not an explanation of the instructions. The instructions concerned other matters. Receive him as a brother, receive him with confidence—perhaps it was understood at the same time: listen to what he says as a man experienced in the faith. “But what? Would they not have received him without this? They certainly would have; but the Apostle expresses the desire that they do this with great enthusiasm, and thereby shows that this man too was a great man” (Saint Chrysostom). “He commands that when he comes they should honor him with the honor befitting a teacher” (blessed Theodoret).

Col. 4:11. And Jesus called Justus, he who is of the circumcision: these alone are my fellow-workers for the Kingdom of God, who have been a comfort to me.

“Jesus called Justus.” Saint Chrysostom says “perhaps this was the Corinthian,” the one into whose house Saint Paul moved after the Jews refused to listen to his preaching in the synagogues in Corinth (Acts 18:7). But that one is called “a worshipper of God,” that is, a Jewish proselyte, while the one mentioned here, together with Mark and Aristarchus, is described as “from the circumcision.” Saint Dimitry of Rostov (under January 4) identifies him with Josias or Joseph Barsabas, “who was called Justus” (Acts 1:23), who together with Matthew was chosen in place of Judas who fell from the number of the Twelve, and adds that he later was a bishop in Eleutheropolis. His memory, besides January 4, is on October 30, together with all who are numbered among the Seventy Apostles.

Having enumerated these three, probably specially known to the Colossians for some reason, Saint Paul in praise of them attributes to them the fact that they were a comfort to him. “Here is the greatest praise—to become the cause of joy and comfort for the Apostle” (blessed Theodoret and Oecumenius). “From this it is evident that these were great men, since they were a comfort to Paul” (Saint Chrysostom).

The words “the only ones” should be understood as meaning especially before the others. They cared so much and with such love for comforting Saint Paul that they surpassed all others. Saint Paul, while in bonds, enjoyed many privileges, as is evident; but bonds, as bonds, could not but require comfort, which all those with him and those from outside who knew him were ready to provide; but these three comforted him more than all.

“These are the only ones from among the circumcision who are working with me for the kingdom of God.” They were not the only fellow workers, but of all the fellow workers, they alone were especially a comfort to him. “Fellow workers for the kingdom”—collaborators in the work of establishing the Kingdom of God or the holy Church. That they are collaborators in this work is mentioned incidentally; the main point is that they were a comfort to him. It is added also so you do not think they are worthy of praise only for alleviating the unavoidable deprivations of the Apostle in bonds. No, he says, they are also my fellow workers in the work of establishing the Church. But they were not the only ones to be such; the Apostle had many fellow workers. He knew how to choose capable ones and, employing them in God’s work, provided them with crowns.

Why is it mentioned that they are “from the circumcision”? Blessed Theophylactus believes this is in praise of them: “At that time it seemed a great matter to be from the Jews.” Saint Chrysostom, on the other hand, says: “He is humbling the pride of the Jews and encouraging them (the Colossians—Christians from the Gentiles) by the fact that not many of the circumcised are, but the greater part of believers are from the Gentiles.” And Ambrosiaster reasons thus: “thereby he bears witness to them alone; for these, being of the circumcised, were helpers to him, always agreeing with his opinion and sharing his convictions and preaching that circumcision ought no longer to be done; therefore he calls them his participants in the Kingdom of God (that is, they will receive the same reward with him). To preach that one ought to be circumcised and keep the Sabbaths and new moons is not spiritual but earthly.” One can also respond with ignorance—not doubting that it was necessary for Saint Paul to mention this because of the circumstances of the time, only not knowing exactly why.

Col. 4:12. Epaphras, who is from you, a servant of Jesus Christ, greets you, always striving for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all “the will of God.”

Saint Chrysostom says: “And at the beginning of the Epistle the Apostle recommended this man to the Colossians from the standpoint of the love for them that he showed by speaking of them in praise, ‘and he showed us,’ he says, ‘your love in the Spirit’” (Col. 1:8). Love also shows and makes him worthy of love, and that he prays for them. The Apostle presents him as such to the Colossians in order to open a wider door for his teaching (“so that they may listen more eagerly to his teaching” [blessed Theodoret]); because when a teacher is attentive and respectful toward his students, this brings great benefit to them (“they will more willingly believe his words” [blessed Theophylactus]). And again by the words “who is one of you”—he urges upon them that they should consider it an honor to have such a man, and be comforted that such men come forth from them. (“It is also a great praise for him that he is a servant of Christ” [blessed Theophylactus].) “Always struggling on your behalf in his prayers.” He did not simply say praying, but “struggling in his prayers,”—praying with fear and trembling (“with toil and sorrow of heart” [Oecumenius], “not only on one day but always” [blessed Theophylactus]).

For what does he pray? “That you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.” “Here he at the same time both rebukes them, gently admonishes them, and gives counsel” (Saint Chrysostom).

“That you may stand,” ινα στητε—that you stand firm. Recalling the motive for writing the Epistle and its aim—the danger from false teachers and the desire to prevent falling away after them—it must be believed that the main subject of his prayer is: “that you stand firm.” Epaphras, who pointed out to me the danger in which you find yourselves and moved me to write this Epistle to avert it, now struggles in prayers that you might stand—remain firm in the teaching you have received and the rules of life you have adopted, not yielding to the suggestions of the false teachers. “That you stand firm”—is the same as in other places: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, be strong, be steadfast” (1 Cor. 16:13); “Stand firm and hold to the traditions” (2 Thes. 2:15); “be steadfast, unmovable” (1 Cor. 15:58); do not be “children, tossed about by waves and carried along by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Eph. 4:14).

The words “mature and fully assured in all the will of God”—show how to stand without wavering. How? By remaining mature and fully assured in all the will of God. And this is the subject of prayer, but as a means of standing. May God give you both to hold complete conviction in the truth of all the will of God revealed to you and to fulfill it unfailingly, or to live by it, arranging your thoughts, desires, and feelings by it. The word “mature”—points to active walk in the will of God, and “fully assured”—to conviction that the teaching received is undoubtedly the true expression of God’s will. Now some have begun to read instead of πεπληρωμενοι—fully assured—πεπληροφορημενοι—fully convinced. Saint Chrysostom combines in this word “fully assured”—both things: fulfillment and conviction. “It is not enough,” he says, “to do the will of God simply, some will or other. He who is ‘filled’ with God’s will does not allow any other will in him besides this; otherwise he would condemn himself for not being convinced of its truth.”

If “mature” and “fully assured” are not distinguished as pointing to the active and contemplative aspects of Christianity, then the indication of these aspects can be seen in the words “in all the will of God;” for God’s will encompasses both doctrine and commandment, to which man’s conviction and life correspond on his side. In any case, one must see in the Apostle’s words an indication of both these aspects. His words more point to the active aspect, while the needs of the Colossians were more of a contemplative character. Therefore it must be believed that he had this aspect in mind in speaking thus; yet he expressed himself as if meaning the first—because the active aspect, through its influence on standing, surpasses the contemplative and even conditions the full conviction that should form the soul of the latter. Whoever walks out the path indicated by the incarnate economy through deed will in this very course receive living assurance of the truth of the economy itself and can no longer be shaken in his conviction, like one who has been healed by a certain medicine—confident in the medicine’s healing power. Those who waver in the truth of Christianity and afterward abandon it are only those who have not undertaken to walk its path and regard it as some theory—but it is life, and by the gift of life it convinces that it is truth. Whoever has tasted of its life is unshakable in faith; for him no other convictions are needed besides this tasted life. All of them are below this.

Col. 4:13. For I testify about him that he has great zeal for you and for those in Laodicea and for those in Hierapolis.

“I testify.” “A witness is worthy of all credence” (Saint Chrysostom). But why was such assurance added? For this reason: the warnings given before against false teachers, of whose danger the Apostle could learn from no one but Epaphras, could breed division between him and his flock, on the assumption that he presented it as so weak and so in need of warnings, from coolness or disposition against it. The Apostle prevents this assumption, assuring them that if Epaphras explained to the Apostle the condition of affairs in Colossae and neighboring cities, he did so from zeal for their spiritual good, so that they would remain steadfastly in the doctrines and rules of life once received—in which is salvation. He acts in the same spirit in which he labored to turn you to the Lord Saviour. “He has a great zeal for you.” The word “great concern” does not appear here. It was added by Slavic translators to express more exactly what Saint Paul meant when he said: he has ζηλον—that is, that he has deeply sincere zeal. Such is love everywhere. The Apostle points to this in Epaphras by this word. He speaks as it were: “Epaphras loves you ardently, has a strong attachment to you. He has,” he says, “zeal,” and moreover “great” zeal; here every word has weight. Thus also of himself in the Epistle to the Corinthians he says: “I am zealous for you with God’s own zeal” (2 Cor. 11:2) (Saint Chrysostom). One can also allow another motive for such testimony, namely, the desire to make those who will read this more zealous for their own salvation; for if others have such care for them, then for them to remain in carelessness is utterly inexcusable. Thus Ambrosiaster: “to make them more careful about their own salvation, the Apostle shows how great is the care others have for them. For everyone becomes more careful about himself from shame when he sees that another is more concerned about him than he himself is.”

“For those who are in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.” For Epaphras this was one flock. He founded Churches in all these cities and was a bishop over them. He remained with the Apostle Paul perhaps because he still had need of something. He was sent by those Churches to serve Saint Paul in his bonds, as blessed Theodoret supposes. Or he wished to await what Tychicus would learn about the state of affairs there, to see if it would be necessary to receive from Saint Paul any further instructions and orders as a result.

Col. 4:14. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you.

“Luke.” “This is the Evangelist Luke” (who wrote both the Divine Gospel and the history of the Acts [blessed Theodoret]). He places him after Epaphras, not lowering him, but wished to exalt and honor Epaphras before his own flock (according to its needs). He added “the beloved,”—which is no small praise: for to be beloved by Paul is a very great honor (Saint Chrysostom). Luke was beloved by Saint Paul because, leaving all things, he always followed this Apostle (Ambrosiaster). During the voyage to Rome Saint Luke was inseparable from him. Saint Luke later founded the Church in Thebes of Boeotia, where he also reposed at more than 80 years of age. Under Constantine (360 AD) his relics were transferred to Constantinople. His memory is on October 18. Demas, as it appears, had not yet left his teacher (blessed Theophylactus). For later he did not hold firm and abandoned the Apostle, as is spoken of him in the Epistle to Timothy: “Demas… abandoned me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10).

Col. 4:15. Greet the brothers in Laodicea and Nymphas and the church in his house.

The Apostle, in sending greeting to the Laodiceans as brethren through the Colossians, joins them in the love of brotherhood. “See how he brings them close together and how he binds them to each other; and not only by this greeting, but especially by then commanding them to pass on for reading the Epistle itself” (Saint Chrysostom). The relation of Saint Paul to the Laodiceans expressed in these words shows that they were personally known to him, as was Nympha. He does not mention the people of Hierapolis either because he did not know them personally, or because they did not require special support either in the matter of life or in the matter of faith.

Nympha, it must be believed, was a guardian of that Church—a presbyter taking the place of Epaphras in his absence. His whole family consisted of believers who were all also known to Saint Paul. He certainly had church gatherings in his house. “Saint Paul shows special disposition toward Nympha by mentioning him separately; and does this not without purpose, but to awaken emulation in others also. For it is significant that he is not placed on the same level with others. See how great he shows this man to be if his house was a church” (Saint Chrysostom). “He, as is probable, having adorned his own house with piety, turned it into a church” (blessed Theodoret). Tradition has preserved nothing more about this Nympha. It is likely that he served as a priest there and reposed.

Charges and Directions (Colossians 4:16–17)

Col. 4:16. And when this letter is read among you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you also read the one from Laodicea.

“It seems to me that something was written here (in the Epistle to the Colossians) that had to be heard also by these (Laodiceans); and for them there arose all the greater benefit when from the rebuke directed against others they learned their own shortcomings” (Saint Chrysostom). The needs, dangers, and weaknesses of both Churches were the same; therefore he commands both to read this Epistle, as profitable to both. The Apostolic writings belonged to all Churches or to the one Church of Christ. They all spread throughout the Church through copying. And special orders about this were not required. If the Apostle makes a special order, it is in this sense: do not wait until they think of copying this Epistle for themselves; send them the original quickly so they will read it quickly, because what is written to you is extremely necessary also for them. He does not mention the Hierapolitans because they were out of danger and could obtain a copy of the Epistle by the usual way.

“And see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.” Without doing violence to the text, one cannot believe that here is meant the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Laodiceans; but either the Epistle of the Laodiceans to Saint Paul, or an Epistle of Saint Paul from Laodicea, written by him to someone or somewhere, as Theophylactus supposes, thinking that the First Epistle to Timothy is meant here. All our other interpreters hold the first opinion. Saint Chrysostom says: Some rightly affirm that here is meant not an Epistle of Paul to the Laodiceans, but their Epistle to Paul; for he did not say: the letter written to the Laodiceans, but says: “the letter from Laodicea.” In the same sense blessed Theodoret writes: “Others supposed that Paul wrote also to the Laodiceans, and for that reason present a forged Epistle. But the Divine Apostle said: the letter not to Laodicea but from Laodicea. For the Laodiceans wrote to the Apostle about something; probably they either accused the Colossians for what happened among them, or suffered from the same disease as they. Therefore the Apostle also commanded the Epistle to be read to them.” Thus Ambrosiaster, Oecumenius, and Photius via Oecumenius.

The Apostle writes indefinitely: την εκ Λαοδικειας—and the letter from Laodicea, read also yourselves. In speaking of the reading of his Epistle in the Church of Laodicea, he expressed it as εν τη Λαοδικεων—that is, in the Church, having believers in mind; but here he says only την εκ Λαοδικειας—the letter from Laodicea, not indicating persons or a person definitively. One can suppose that someone from Laodicea wrote anonymously to Saint Paul, depicting the calamity threatening the Church of Laodicea and Colossae from the false teachers. Epaphras, sent by those Churches to help Saint Paul, confirmed this. The Apostle writes the Epistle, directing it to the Colossians, but having in mind also the Laodiceans. The letter written to Saint Paul from Laodicea was entrusted by him to Tychicus, so that he would have it read to the Colossians, to clarify the content of his Epistle, for which reason it addressed these and those matters.

Col. 4:17. And say to Archippus: Take heed to the ministry which you received in the Lord, that you complete it.

Archippus, the son of Philemon, was probably a priest in Colossae. Wishing to make the Colossians more attentive to him, through them he delivers his admonition to him: “See that you complete the ministry,” that is, watch over the Colossians more carefully, do not spare them, but what requires correction, correct and improve: for you are doing God’s work, not your own. You received the ministry from the Lord; fulfill it as before the Lord, directing everything according to His will and to His glory. “And tell Archippus.” “Why does he not write to him? Probably because there was no need, but a simple reminder was sufficient to make him more diligent in his ministry, and them more obedient to him” (Saint Chrysostom, blessed Theophylactus). “To their leader through them themselves he urges that he care more about their salvation. Since the Epistle is written according to the needs of the flock, the Apostle directed it to the Church rather than to its pastor” (Ambrosiaster). “It is altogether for this reason the Apostle writes to them: ‘Tell Archippus,’—that when he begins to rebuke them for something, they not have grounds to murmur against him as a severe man filling them with bitterness, knowing that he was given such a command by Saint Paul and that their own mouths delivered to Archippus what Paul demands of him in relation to them. Thus to seal their mouths, Paul did most wisely by saying ‘Tell Archippus;’ although it is known to all that it is not fitting for disciples to speak about the affairs of the teacher” (blessed Theophylactus from Saint Chrysostom).

“See that you complete,” βλεπε—watch over. “This is everywhere a voice of warning and admonition, as for instance when he says: ‘Beware of dogs’ (Phil. 3:2); ‘See that no one takes you captive’ (Col. 2:8); ‘Be careful that this right of yours does not become a stumbling block to the weak’ (1 Cor. 8:9). And in general the Apostle always expresses himself thus when he wishes to caution or warn. So also here” (Saint Chrysostom, blessed Theophylactus).

“See that you complete the ministry,” διακονιαν. “After Epaphras, who had watered the Colossians with the truths of faith, the care of the Church was entrusted to Archippus, and he accepted it” (Ambrosiaster). “Perhaps he was a bishop among them or bore some other ministry in the work of saving souls” (Photius via Oecumenius).

“The ministry that you have received from the Lord.” “From the Lord”—that is, through the Lord. He, that is, laid this obligation upon you, not we. “That you complete it,”—by keeping day and night zealous concern about it (Saint Chrysostom). See, fulfill as you should the work which you have accepted from the Lord. What is this work? To watch over the Colossians and care for them. The Apostle makes two admonitions with one word: “from the Lord:” it makes him more careful to fulfill his ministry as the Lord’s work; and it inclines them to submit to him more willingly, showing that the Lord has given them into his hands (blessed Theophylactus).

By tradition, Archippus was a bishop in Colossae after Epaphras. He suffered there as well from the Ephesian governor in the reign of Nero. His memory is on February 19 and November 22.

The Apostle’s Autograph Conclusion (Colossians 4:18)

Col. 4:18. The greeting is by my own hand, Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you all. Amen.

“I write this greeting with my own hand”—a customary subscription that Saint Paul used to prevent attempts to compose forged Epistles under his name. For all that, it could have special significance for the Colossians of some particular affection of Saint Paul toward them. “This is a sign of special closeness and sincere fellowship. Seeing his handwriting, they felt the breath of special affection of Saint Paul toward them and themselves became especially disposed to him and to what is written in the Epistle” (paraphrase of Saint Chrysostom).

“Remember my chains.” He does not feel shame about his bonds. They are his adornment and the triumph of truth. Remember, he says, my chains and inspire yourselves with courage to stand for truth in the same way. “This was enough to make them ready for all and inspire them to great deeds” (Saint Chrysostom). “To know that the Apostle is in bonds and to remember this constantly was very stirring for the Colossians to bear all temptations for truth and brought them very close to the Apostle” (Photius via Oecumenius).

“Grace be with you.” The Apostle is in bonds, but grace is not bound; rather it flows still more abundantly through the bonds. “He sends them grace by which they could fulfill all that is commanded in the Epistle. Both for salvation and for accomplishing all that brings salvation, grace is necessary: for without grace what can man do by himself?” (Photius via Oecumenius). He speaks as it were promising them: “when grace is present with you, whether you have sorrows or endure bonds, nothing such will overcome you” (blessed Theophylactus). “And it is also the work of grace to be bound and in chains for truth. Listen to how Luke says that the Apostles returned ‘from the council, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus’ (Acts 5:41). To receive bonds and dishonor for Christ, even this must be deemed worthy of” (Saint Chrysostom).

“And we also must always remember these bonds, and from this remembrance gain profit, and pray that we may not fall into temptation; and if this comes upon us, to love God’s economy, and to show our own courage, and to call upon the help of God’s grace. For in this way it will be possible both to struggle and to win and to be deemed worthy of praise in Christ. With Him be glory and majesty to the Father with the All-Holy Spirit, now and always and to ages of ages! Amen” (blessed Theodoret).

Commentary on the First Epistle to the Thessalonians

Introduction

1. The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815–1894) is among the most beloved spiritual teachers of the Russian Church, and one of the great expositors of Scripture that century produced. He was born Georgy Vasilievich Govorov in the village of Chernavsk, in the Oryol region, the son of a parish priest. Schooled first at the Oryol seminary and then, from 1837, at the Kiev Theological Academy, he was tonsured a monk in 1841 and given the name Theophan, “manifestation of God.” Years of teaching and administration in the Church’s schools followed, and in 1859 he was consecrated bishop of Tambov and Shatsk, moving in 1863 to the see of Vladimir.

He might have remained a diocesan bishop to the end, honored and busy. Instead, in 1866, at his own request, he laid down the pastoral staff and withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov region. After a few years of ordinary monastic life there he took a further and decisive step: about 1872 he entered strict reclusion, shutting himself into a small suite of rooms, building a chapel where he served the Liturgy alone, and receiving almost no visitors. He was not idle in that solitude. For more than twenty years his pen never rested. An immense correspondence went out from Vysha—by his own account some tens of letters a day—answering the questions of bishops and peasants alike; and alongside the letters came the books on which his fame rests: works of ascetical theology such as The Path to Salvation and What the Spiritual Life Is, the great Russian Philokalia he translated and edited, the adaptation known as Unseen Warfare, and a sustained labor of biblical commentary.

That commentary was the crown of his exegetical work. Over the years of his reclusion Theophan expounded, verse by verse, nearly the whole body of the Apostle Paul’s letters, together with certain of the Psalms. The commentary on the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, composed in the early 1870s, belongs to this Pauline series and shares its character throughout. Theophan died at Vysha on the feast of the Theophany, in January 1894, and was numbered among the saints by the Russian Church in 1988. He is remembered, with his contemporary Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, as one of the two teachers who carried the ancient patristic tradition of prayer and inner watchfulness into the modern age and made it speak to ordinary Christian lives.

2. The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The letter Theophan sets out to explain is, by the common reckoning of readers ancient and modern, the earliest of the Apostle Paul’s surviving letters, and so among the oldest Christian documents in existence. Its occasion is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles and rehearsed by Paul himself in the letter’s opening chapters. During his second missionary journey Paul crossed from Asia into Europe and, after his beating and imprisonment at Philippi, came down the great Roman highway, the Via Egnatia, to Thessalonica, the wealthy and populous chief city of Macedonia. There he preached, first in the synagogue and then more widely, and in a short span of weeks a church was gathered—some Jews, a great number of God-fearing Greeks, and many of the leading women. The success provoked a hostile faction, which raised a tumult, dragged Paul’s host Jason before the magistrates on a charge of proclaiming “another king, Jesus,” and made the Apostle’s continued presence impossible. He was hurried away by night, first to Berea and then to Athens, cut off from converts he had scarcely finished teaching.

Distance did not cool his care. Twice, he tells them, he tried to return, and twice was hindered. At length, unable to bear the suspense, he sent Timothy back from Athens to strengthen the young church and bring word of it. Timothy rejoined Paul at Corinth with news that was, on the whole, deeply consoling: the Thessalonians stood firm under persecution, held their teacher in loving memory, and had become a byword for faith throughout the region. Out of the joy and relief of that report the letter was written, from Corinth, in the early fifties. Modern scholarship, anchored by an inscription that fixes the proconsulship of Gallio at Corinth to the year 51, places it about 50 or 51. Theophan, weighing the same evidence from Acts and the Roman historians, sets it a little later, in the closing months of 53 or the beginning of 54; the difference is small and turns on the chronology of Paul’s arrival at Corinth.

Timothy’s report had also disclosed shadows. Some converts had not wholly shaken off the habits of their pagan past—a few in the matter of bodily purity, some in covetousness, some in an idleness that neglected honest work. And a graver perplexity had taken hold: the Thessalonians were grieving over fellow believers who had died, fearing that the dead would somehow miss the glory of the Lord’s return. The letter answers all of this. Its purpose, as Theophan draws it out, is threefold—to confirm the church in faithfulness amid affliction by recalling the grace of God shown in their conversion; to correct the faults left over from their former life and to give order to the new one; and, above all, to quiet their fear for the departed by a precise teaching on the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. Among Paul’s letters this one is the most personal and the most tender. It argues no great controversy and lays no doctrinal foundation in the manner of Romans or Galatians; it is the letter of a father to children lately won and suddenly parted from, and its warmth is its substance.

3. Argument and Structure

Theophan reads the letter as falling cleanly into two halves, with a greeting set before them and a cluster of blessings appended at the end. The first half, chapters one through three, he calls the historical part; the second, chapters four and five, the moral and dogmatic part.

The historical half is almost wholly taken up with the bond of love between the Apostle and the church he had begotten. Paul gives thanks for their faith, their labor of love, and their patience of hope; he recalls how the gospel had come to them not in word only but in power; he reminds them of his own conduct among them—how he had worked night and day so as to burden no one, dealing with each of them as a father with his own children. He speaks of his grief at being torn away, of his repeated longing to return, of the relief Timothy’s news had brought. Theophan lingers here with evident pleasure, finding in these chapters the truest portrait of a shepherd’s heart, and drawing from them a pattern for all who must care for souls.

Out of this bond of love the second half raises its moral demand. “This is the will of God,” Paul writes, “your sanctification”—and the word governs everything that follows. The Thessalonians are called to holiness of body, keeping themselves from the sexual license that saturated pagan life; to a brotherly love that already marks them but must abound yet more; and to a quiet, industrious life, working with their own hands, so that their conduct commends the faith to those outside. Then comes the passage that is the letter’s doctrinal heart, and the reason many of its first readers most needed it: the teaching on the resurrection and the coming of the Lord. They must not grieve for the dead, Paul says, as those who have no hope; for as surely as Jesus died and rose, so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. The dead in Christ will rise first; then the living will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so—this is the whole comfort—they will always be with the Lord. These are words, the Apostle adds, with which the faithful are to console one another.

Because that day comes like a thief in the night, unannounced, the letter turns from comfort to vigilance. Christians are children of the day, not of the darkness; they are to keep awake and sober, armed with faith, love, and the hope of salvation. The closing chapter gathers a shower of short commands—to esteem their leaders, to be at peace, to warn the idle and support the weak, to render no one evil for evil, to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything, and not to quench the Spirit or despise prophecy but to test all things and hold fast the good. The letter ends with the prayer that has become one of its treasures: that the God of peace would sanctify them wholly, and keep their whole spirit and soul and body blameless at the coming of the Lord. Theophan carries the reader through all of this in short, ordered steps, pausing at each turn to settle what is difficult and to press the sense home upon the conscience.

4. Theological and Spiritual Significance

The lasting weight of this small letter lies in two places, and Theophan gives his fullest attention to both.

The first is its teaching on the last things. First Thessalonians is the earliest written witness to the Church’s hope in the resurrection of the dead and the return of Christ, and it frames that hope not as speculation about dates but as consolation for those who grieve. The Thessalonians’ fear—that death might sever a believer from the promised glory—is answered by the plain assurance that death has no such power: the departed are not lost but asleep, and will rise first of all. Theophan handles the passage as pastoral medicine, exactly as Paul intended it, drawing out the tenderness by which mourning is turned to hope without being forbidden. At the same time he insists, with the Apostle, that the very uncertainty of the day is a summons to readiness. The Christian does not calculate the hour; he lives so as to be found awake at any hour. In an age already curious about prophecy and prone to alarm, Theophan’s steadiness here—hope without fever, watchfulness without fear—is itself a theological correction.

The second is the letter’s vision of sanctification. If the coming of the Lord is the letter’s horizon, holiness is the road to it. Theophan seizes on Paul’s threefold naming of the human person—spirit and soul and body, all to be kept blameless—and reads it in the light of the ascetic Fathers, for whom the whole of a person, and not the soul alone, is called to be made holy. The commands of the last chapter, so easily passed over as a list, become in his hands a rule of daily life: unceasing prayer, constant thanksgiving, sobriety, brotherly forbearance, obedience to those set over the Church. Here the exegete and the spiritual director are one and the same man. The reclusion at Vysha, the Philokalia he was editing in those same years, and this commentary all breathe a single conviction—that doctrine is given to be lived, and that the expectation of Christ’s coming is meant to shape the ordinary hours of a working, praying, waiting Christian.

5. Reception and Influence

Theophan did not read First Thessalonians alone, and he did not wish his readers to. His commentary stands consciously within the stream of patristic interpretation, and its authority is in large part the authority of the tradition it gathers. Above all others he leans on Saint John Chrysostom, whose homilies on the Thessalonian letters are the great patristic treatment of them; alongside Chrysostom he cites Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, Oecumenius, Theophylact of Ohrid, and Saint John of Damascus. He does not merely stack their opinions; he weighs them, notes where they differ, and binds their remarks to the thread of Paul’s argument for a reader of his own century. The result is that a modern reader receives, through Theophan, not one man’s reading but the settled memory of the Church.

The commentary itself has become a standard of Russian biblical exposition. Together with Theophan’s other Pauline volumes it marked a significant contribution to the biblical scholarship of nineteenth-century Russia, and it has been read ever since as much for its spiritual counsel as for its learning. In the Russian tradition his name is spoken in the same breath as Ignatius Brianchaninov’s, the two of them the recognized masters of the interior life for the modern Orthodox world; and his exegetical works remain in print and in devotional use to this day.

6. The Text and This Edition

Theophan wrote this commentary in Russian, for believers rather than for specialists—for anyone who wished to understand the Apostle and to order a life by him. The present edition offers a fresh, modern English translation made directly from that Russian text, in the pre-revolutionary edition of his collected expositions of the Pauline epistles. It is an English-only reading edition: the translation aims to carry Theophan’s clarity and pastoral warmth into readable contemporary prose, without archaism, while keeping the substance and the ordered, verse-by-verse movement of the original intact.

A few editorial conventions should be noted. Theophan quotes Scripture in the Church Slavonic and Russian Synodal forms familiar to his readers, which follow the Greek Septuagint tradition of the Old Testament; where his exposition turns on the wording of a verse, the translation renders that wording faithfully rather than substituting a standard English version, so that the point he is making remains visible. Chapter and section numbers and scriptural citations are given in the ordinary modern style. In keeping with this series’ practice, the work is presented under the author’s name as the Church has always received him—Saint Theophan the Recluse—and those who have prepared the English text are credited as translators, never as authors. Nothing of Theophan’s own argument has been abridged; the modernization touches the language, not the content.

7. Suggestions for Reading

First Thessalonians is short, intimate, and quickly read, and its strength lies as much in its affection as in its teaching. The commentary is best approached with the letter itself open beside it: read a passage of Paul first, then Theophan’s remarks on it, and the exposition will fall into place. The quotations from Chrysostom, Theodoret, and the rest are not digressions to be skimmed but the very substance of the reading—the Church’s long memory of how these words were understood. Above all, the book asks to be read as its author wrote it: not only to learn what Paul taught the Thessalonians, but to be shaped by it. The holiness to which that young church was summoned, and the hope by which it was comforted in the face of death, are held out to the reader no less than to them.

Introduction

Information About the City of Thessalonica and Its People

Thessalonica, formerly Therma—now called Salonika by the Greeks and Thessalonica by us—lies amphitheater-fashion on a hillside in the northwestern corner of the Thermaic Gulf. During the period of apostolic preaching this city was the chief city of the second district of the Macedonian province and the residence of the Roman praetor and quaestor. Its geographical situation—on the seaward side along the bay, and on the landward side along a great trade road known as the Via Egnatia—made Thessalonica a flourishing, commercially active, wealthy, and populous city. But luxury naturally developed there as a result, and its consequence everywhere is a decline in morals. The native population consisted of Greeks; after the Roman conquest, Roman settlers were nearly equal to them in number; later a large community of Jews settled there who, by reason of their shrewdness in trade—which they had taken largely into their own hands—enjoyed a certain standing in the city and had not a mere house of prayer (προσευχη), as for instance at Philippi (Acts 16:13) and elsewhere, but a synagogue (Acts 17:1). It is likely that there were active proselyters there as well, who administered the whole of that region.

The Founding of the Thessalonian Church

Twenty years after the Lord’s Ascension, Thessalonica had surely heard about Christianity more than once, and may have had Christians within its walls. But the Church of Christ was established and fully organized there by the holy Apostle Paul, during his second missionary journey, when he first set foot on the European continent, accompanied by Silas and Timothy. Called by a vision of a certain man (Acts 16:9) from on high to Macedonia, and having already proclaimed the Gospel in Philippi, the holy Paul arrived in Thessalonica by way of Amphipolis and Apollonia—apparently with Silas alone, without Timothy, who had probably been left in Philippi to strengthen the Christians there and joined them later in Berea. Following his custom, the Apostle began his preaching in the synagogue—the only place where one could address a large crowd calmly, and on matters of faith at that. His discourse proceeded from Old Testament premises but was directed toward the confirmation of the New Covenant. Drawing on prophetic writings, he depicted before his hearers the face of the foretold Messiah—not from the side of the invisible glory of His spiritual Kingdom, but from the side of the outward humiliation He was to undergo Himself—proclaiming “that it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.” He then showed that all that was foretold had been precisely fulfilled in Jesus, whom he was preaching, and that therefore “this Jesus,” whom he proclaimed, “is the Christ” (Acts 17:3). For an unprejudiced mind—not only Jewish but also non-Jewish—the evident fulfillment of the prophecies in the person of the Saviour is the most compelling proof that He is from God. A word on this draws one to obedience and plants the seed of faith. Thus the preaching of the Apostle Paul, though it was not without “disputes,” nonetheless bore abundant fruit. There believed “some” of the Jews, from among the “devout” (God-fearing) Greeks, or proselytes, “a great multitude,” and of noble women “not a few” (Acts 17:4).

For three Sabbaths the Apostle disputed with the Jews in the synagogue. But one cannot suppose that his preaching was confined to the synagogue alone. This would be inconsistent with the way the Apostle himself describes his preaching, when he says that day and night he proclaimed the gospel of God, and urged and encouraged each one like a father his child (1 Thess. 2:9–12). Moreover, in the synagogue one could only speak according to Jewish principles, which could not but constrain the discourse and limit its power of influence over the Gentiles, before whom one could speak forcefully without involving Jewish considerations. It is well known that the Apostle Paul knew how to approach the Gentiles. If the number of converts included more of the latter, one cannot but agree that the Apostle addressed them outside the synagogue. Probably those who had believed from among the proselytes opened the way to the other Gentiles who were concerned about matters of faith, and arranged for them the possibility of hearing him at private gatherings in homes. Likely, even apart from such meetings, the Apostle visited homes where he expounded at greater length what had been briefly said, repeated what had not been fully heard, and restored the force of what had been shaken by doubts. And certainly the number of those converted and confirmed in the faith by this means considerably increased the total number of believers.

While preaching, the holy Apostle, in addition to expounding the truths of the Gospel—the subject of faith—surely did not conceal the dangers that are always ready to meet Christians for the sake of the Gospel on the path of Christ (1 Thess. 3:4), and in order that these might not shake their faith, he raised the hopes of believers beyond the bounds of the present earthly life—and especially to that time when the Lord will come again to complete His victorious kingdom among mankind, which He Himself commanded them to await at every hour. This point of doctrine, which by circumstances received its fullest exposition here, later became the occasion for troubling perplexities, as we shall see. But in itself it is not a cause for fear, but a welcome and most consoling subject of the deepest expectations that animate Christians in a laborious life. The day and hour of this final event the Lord did not determine, and He rejected the possibility of anyone doing so. But He commanded all to be ready for it. This readiness consists in a wholly God-pleasing life, concerning which the Apostle gave commandments on the Lord’s behalf that were, it appears, very detailed (1 Thess. 4:2). “How one ought to walk and please God” (1 Thess. 4:1)—depicting this perhaps took from the Apostle the greater part of his time and labor. For in this lies what is paramount—not merely to announce, but to establish the order of a new life according to the spirit of the new faith. The Apostle surely impressed upon them that it is not enough to say, “I believe in the Lord Jesus,” but that one must bear witness to that by one’s whole life; he demanded a complete change of conduct and morals, a complete alienation and purification of oneself from all the vices that held sway in the pagan or Jewish world (1 Thess. 4:5–6).

Following the new rules had to begin at once, and having begun, it set a division between those who had believed and those who had not. The holy Luke marked this division with the words: “they joined Paul and Silas” (Acts 17:4). Those who had separated needed to be organized in a religious sense. This was done. They were given overseers, to labor among them and instruct them (1 Thess. 5:12); for which purpose, of course, certain directives were given, defining the manner of this labor, and its time and place.

Thus over the course of three weeks, or perhaps somewhat more, the Church of Christ was formed from the Thessalonians—for which the preparation of minds among the inhabitants was an aid, since they, themselves having traveled to various places and seeing people from various lands among them, had probably long known of the teaching of Christ and regarded it favorably; what had been lacking was only an authoritative person to give shape to these already-prepared materials. One may suppose that in a city populous, preoccupied with affairs, and so deficient in morals, the best minds, hearts, and consciences were languishing and thirsting for an outlet to freedom; and now, when a breath of the divine, the pure, the greatly consoling came from the Apostle’s lips, they all gathered swiftly around him and formed a new, many-membered community of those who had found rest in the Lord and had begun “always to rejoice” (1 Thess. 5:16). All this, however—even granting the tirelessness of the Apostle’s labor and the particular manner of his way of life that disposed people in his favor—can by no means explain the swift conversion of the Thessalonians or the swift and firmly established formation of a populous Church among them. This was accomplished by an extraordinary action of divine grace that manifested itself among them; and the holy Apostle sees in this a special election of God, of which he bore witness in the Epistle (1 Thess. 1:4), saying that both his speech had proceeded in an extraordinary manner and the hearing of those who listened had been extraordinary (1 Thess. 1:5–6; 2:13). Might not the Macedonian man who in the vision invited the Apostle to come and help him have been the appointed Angel of the Thessalonian Church? Once assured of this, we would have no need to resolve the puzzle of how a populous Church could have been formed so quickly and in such full perfection. Where the extraordinary power of God is present, in one day is accomplished what by the ordinary course of events would require a thousand years.

Despite all this, the Apostle had no intention of being satisfied with his first success, but, seeing the great harvest, intended to remain there longer—as is evident from the fact that he had found himself work and was laboring (1 Thess. 2:9). So it would certainly have been, had not the restless Jews interfered. Of the Jews, not many had attached themselves to Paul and Silas, but of the proselytes—a very great multitude, if not all. This could not but provoke those who had a stake in it—presumably the agents of Jewish proselytizing—both because of the immediate loss, and because their prospects for future success were now cut off. Hence they stirred up a tumult among the people—apparently the pagan population—while hiding themselves behind it and concealing their personal motives for doing so.

Through wicked agitators they gathered the people—perhaps an idle crowd—and “made an uproar throughout the city,” as if ringing an alarm. Attacking the house of Jason, they searched for the Apostles in order to drag them out and hand them over to the crowd, but did not find them. So, seizing Jason and some of those who had believed, they dragged them before the city magistrates, crying: those who have turned the whole world—the Roman Empire—upside down have come here too, and Jason has received them, despite the fact that they go directly against the decrees of Caesar, proclaiming that another king must be recognized—Jesus. Occasion for such an accusation could have been provided by the Apostle’s preaching about the Kingdom of Christ and the constant expectation of the coming of Christ the King. Or perhaps this was a rehearsed speech of the Jews, prepared for the purpose of handing over preachers of the Gospel to the civil authorities, on the model of what the chief priests and the people used before Pilate. The resemblance to the latter was so striking that the holy Apostle recalled it in the Epistle to comfort those who had suffered (1 Thess. 2:15). Be that as it may, the agitators succeeded in disturbing the people and the magistrates, though not to the same degree. The unthinking crowd could see itself under the threat of the authorities on account of opponents of Caesar having been found in its midst—and acted wholeheartedly, whether out of a sense of loyalty to Caesar, or more likely out of a desire to free itself from the imputation of complicity in such a dangerous affair. The magistrates, though initially yielding to the impression, nevertheless, upon looking at those brought before them and hearing their explanation of the matter, were satisfied that there was no danger here; they did not fail, however, to take advantage of the occasion as their custom and understanding required. Hence, having “taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go” (Acts 17:9). Notwithstanding so favorable an outcome, the brothers judged it best to send Paul and Silas to Berea. Perhaps this was required by the personal safety of the Apostles, or perhaps the magistrates had extracted a promise from Jason and the others that those on whose account such a commotion had been raised would be in the city no more.

The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

Thus the holy Paul was compelled to leave the young Church—warm in faith though it was, yet under the threat of persecution, which after the Apostles’ departure was bound to turn upon it: for those who had believed could no longer be seen either in the synagogue or in the temples. And this, a casual matter at another time and unworthy of notice, could not now fail to arouse in observers thoughts that inflame religious fanaticism and move them to take vengeance for the honor of their faith. Hence the Apostle, though he had to leave the believers in body, could not leave them in heart; he could not but agonize over them—not only from the feeling of love with which he was bound to them, but also from the duty of the apostleship entrusted to him by God. He therefore firmly resolved to return to them as soon as an opportunity arose. And indeed he made attempts once and twice to come to them—the first time perhaps from Berea, and the second time from Athens; but “Satan hindered” him, he says (1 Thess. 2:17–18), through those same instruments of his. The exiles soon arrived in Berea and were received there with greater cordiality than in Thessalonica. Life in cities that are not noisy does not sharply arouse selfishness and passions; a peaceful soul is more open to truth. A calm investigation, on the basis of Scripture, as to whether “these things”—the Apostle’s preaching about the fulfillment of the prophecies in Jesus, proving that He is the Christ—“were so,” convinced them that the Apostle’s word was true, and disposed them to receive it with all diligence. Many of the Jews believed, and of Greek women of high standing and men—not a few. There was yet another Church! God’s blessing upon the preaching surely consoled the Apostle, all the more so since, dwelling peaceably there, he could also act on the Thessalonian Church from Berea and visit it in person. But his enemies were not at peace. As soon as word reached Thessalonica of the Bereans’ reception of the Gospel, those who had risen against him there hastened there too, stirred up the people there as well, and forced the Apostle to depart from Berea—where, however, for the completion of the work, Silas and Timothy were able to remain, Timothy having probably come there from Philippi (Acts 17:10–13).

The faithful, out of concern for the Apostle Paul’s safety from the hands of the agitators, did not let him go alone. Chosen men among them accompanied him all the way to Athens. The holy Apostle was now even farther from the Thessalonians; but this did not diminish his concern for them—it only intensified it. Hence, when sending back his escorts to Berea, he gave orders that both, or at least one, of his co-workers should hasten to him in Athens. He desired in this way to receive definite news about the state of affairs in the Thessalonian Church, so as to act accordingly. Timothy came to him; Silas remained there, detained by the needs of the Christians. But the holy Timothy, it seems, brought no reassuring or definite news—beyond perhaps that they were enduring. It was necessary to strengthen those who were enduring. And this was perhaps the second occasion when the holy Paul resolved to go to Thessalonica himself; but he was again restrained by uncertainty as to whether anything good could come of it, given the unpredictability of the informers. Hence Timothy was sent—unknown to the Thessalonians and able easily to conceal himself from the envious vigilance of the enemies of the Gospel—“to strengthen” the faith of believers, and “to comfort” the sorrowful, “lest” some “be moved” by those who were testing them, and, having ascertained the state of things, to report back to the holy Apostle (1 Thess. 3:1–5). Meanwhile, as Timothy was carrying out the difficult mission entrusted to him, the Apostle Paul, after his not unsuccessful preaching in Athens—which had won for the Church the holy Dionysius the Areopagite, Damaris, and many others (Acts 17:34)—moved to Corinth and lodged with Aquila and Priscilla, fellow tentmakers, who had recently left Rome by the command of Claudius. He was still disputing in the Jewish synagogues on the Sabbaths and persuading Jews and Greeks—it was only the beginning of his year-and-a-half sojourn in Corinth—when Timothy, whom he had sent to Macedonia, and Silas, who had remained there, returned to him from Macedonia (Acts 18:1–5).

The news that Timothy brought was very encouraging. The Thessalonian Church, despite attacks and afflictions, remained unshakably firm in the faith (1 Thess. 2:14; 3:6–8), so much so that it could be held up as a model for Christians throughout Macedonia and Achaia, and reports of its heroism had spread everywhere (1 Thess. 1:7–8). At the same time, it was distinguished by brotherly active love (1 Thess. 4:9–10), and in general by faithful observance of the moral rules given to them on the Lord’s behalf by the Apostle (1 Thess. 4:1), whom they always remembered with love (1 Thess. 3:6). For all that, however, the holy Timothy had something to say about their imperfections and perplexities as well. Not all among them had yet completely broken free of pagan and Jewish vices; some were carried away by sensuality, some succumbed to the allure of greed, others neglected the duties of their calling and gave themselves to idleness. All those who had believed, moreover, were greatly troubled about the fate of their deceased relatives—now also Christians—supposing that the blessings of Christ’s (second) coming would be granted only to those who were alive at His appearing, and not to those who had already died. Do not the instructions which the Apostle gives them at the end of the Epistle (1 Thess. 5:12–22) also hint at the news about the Thessalonians’ shortcomings brought by the holy Timothy? Was there not disobedience toward the rulers of the Church (1 Thess. 5:12)? Were some not carried away by a desire for revenge (1 Thess. 5:15)? Were they not treating everything indiscriminately as equally permissible (1 Thess. 5:21)? Was there not some erroneous conduct regarding the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of prophecy in particular (1 Thess. 5:20)? It is also worth noting that the extended account of the Thessalonians’ conversion and of the Apostle Paul’s manner of dealing with them (1 Thess. 1–2:13) is directed against unfavorable reports concerning the Apostle and the Gospel that Timothy had heard. Was someone spreading the rumor that this faith has nothing divine about it (the response to this is 1 Thess. 1:4–10); that the preachers are only looking after their own interests (the response is 1 Thess. 2 and following); that if there were truth here, the Jews would rather believe it, yet they persecute it (1 Thess. 2:14–16); that the Apostle only appeared, got you into trouble, and then himself went into hiding (the response is 1 Thess. 2–3:13 — I suffered for you no less than you did)?

Such was the condition of the Thessalonian Church that moved the Apostle to write an epistle—the very first time since the beginning of his apostolic ministry. For he, like all the Apostles, was not sent to write but to preach the gospel—to write as well, let us say, but on the tablets of the heart with the pen of grace-filled speech. Wherever there were no insurmountable obstacles, the holy Apostle resolved and arranged everything in person. With the Thessalonians he had to extend his formative work from afar. The holy Timothy had, of course, addressed, corrected, and clarified many things. But even if all that was needed had been done, what had been done still required confirmation by apostolic authority. So the holy Apostle writes an epistle in which he embraces everything that had taken place with the Thessalonians from the first moment of his arrival among them to the time when the sent Timothy returned from them, and he sets his apostolic view upon all of it—with the aim of strengthening them in the faith, comforting them in their sorrows, pacifying their perplexities, and safeguarding them on all sides with rules for their conduct and the moral disposition of their hearts. The Apostle converses with them with tender warmth of heart, without any distrust of them or lack of confidence in them amid the troubles pressing upon them, wisely combining encouraging consolation with the strictness of corrective lessons.

The Purpose of the Epistle

The Apostle’s purpose in writing this Epistle was threefold: 1) rejoicing in how well they had conducted themselves until now, to confirm them in faithfulness to the holy Gospel despite outward adversities on account of it—by recalling the goodness of God manifested in their conversion, his own preaching among them, and his own care for them, while setting aside those unfavorable opinions about the holy Gospel and about himself that ill-will might spread; 2) to command them to forsake those deficiencies that still remained in them from their former life, and those that had arisen from not yet knowing how to conduct themselves in the ordering of the new life; and 3) to set their minds at rest concerning the fate of the departed by a precise exposition of the teaching about the Second Coming of Christ.

Division

The last two aims are fulfilled in the last two chapters, the fourth and fifth; the first is fulfilled in the first three chapters. The entire Epistle thus visibly falls into two parts, of which the first may be called historical, and the second moral-dogmatic. Prefixed to these at the beginning is the salutation with greeting; appended at the end are the concluding benedictions. A more detailed subdivision will follow in the commentary itself.

Distinctive features.

The Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians are distinguished by the loftiness of their contemplation of life in Christ; the Epistles to the Corinthians put in order the ways of earthly life according to the principles of Christian life; the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians lay the foundation of faith through sound reasoning about what was and is in those who live under the Law and outside the Law. The Epistle to the Thessalonians presents nothing of that kind. In it the heartfelt bond between the preacher of the Gospel of Christ and those who have believed is vividly depicted, and in this respect it is very close to the Epistle to the Philippians—likewise addressed to Macedonians. The Macedonian Christians did not display higher gifts. By the simplicity of faith and the warmth of love they drew from the Apostle speech full of fatherly tenderness and solicitude. What fullness of apostolic spirit was in the holy Paul, that he was able in such diverse ways to be all things to all—giving each what was needed!

The Time and Place of Writing

The Epistle to the Thessalonians cannot be placed far from the beginning of the Thessalonians’ conversion. In it the Apostle is visibly still under the vivid impression made on him by the conversion of the Thessalonians and by his sojourn among them; it is clear that no other events had yet intervened capable of weakening the force of that impression; the Apostle is entirely—in thought and feeling—with what had taken place in Thessalonica; all this is written about as one can only write about events that occurred in the recent past. This is further indicated by the fact that the desire to see the Thessalonians, born in the holy Paul immediately upon his separation from them (1 Thess. 2:17), was still alive in him when he wrote this Epistle, as likewise in the Thessalonians—to see him (1 Thess. 3:6): consequently, having parted after their first fellowship, they had not yet seen each other again. Finally, the entire moral-dogmatic section shows that the Thessalonian Church, despite all its fame and glory, still consists of newly converted persons, to whom the most basic rules of life and order are being imparted. From all these features, so evident in the Epistle, the origin of the Epistle cannot be placed far from the founding of the Church in Thessalonica. The one followed the other after a very brief interval of time. Consequently, the determination of the time of its composition and the place of writing must be reconciled with the history of the founding of the Church in Thessalonica as depicted in Acts. The holy Apostle in the Epistle clearly gives us to understand that he writes it immediately after the return of the holy Timothy from the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 3:6). And in Acts it is recorded that the holy Timothy, returning from Macedonia together with Silas, found the Apostle Paul already in Corinth. Consequently, the Epistle must be recognized as written from Corinth. The time of its composition may be determined by the following reasoning.

Coming from Athens to Corinth, the Apostle Paul lived with Aquila and Priscilla—Christians from among the Jews who had been expelled from Rome by Claudius. The edict of their expulsion, mentioned by Suetonius and Tacitus, falls in the year 52. Aquila was already settled in Corinth when the holy Paul arrived and lodged with him. Hence this circumstance must be placed in the year 53, and the composition of the Epistle in the late part of that year or the beginning of 54.

But other difficulties arise, namely: if the Epistle was written so soon after the conversion of the Thessalonians, how could their faith have become renowned throughout Macedonia and Achaia in such a short time (1 Thess. 1:7), and how could their charity have spread across all of Macedonia (1 Thess. 4:10)? This seems to require placing the time of composition later. Both things could, however, have occurred quite naturally even within several weeks, let alone several months. Thessalonica was a maritime city situated on a great overland trade road. People from all lands entered or left it daily in great numbers, and any remarkable event that occurred there could be said to have been carried throughout the whole world. Since the conversion of the Thessalonians to faith in the Lord was extraordinary—as the holy Apostle attested—those for whom this was precious could not but tell of it, nor could others but hear of it eagerly and with excitement. And so the fame of their faith spread throughout all Macedonia and Achaia. As for charity—it always follows in the footsteps of sincere faith. Those who believe always have one soul. The Thessalonians could not but immediately enter into relations with the Bereans and Philippians and help those in need among them, by reason of their greater prosperity. And that was already a large territory.

For others a difficulty arises from the circumstance that the Thessalonians are troubled about the fate of those who have already died as Christians. Less than a year had passed from the founding of the Church in Thessalonica to the writing of the Epistle. Were there at that time any who had died? And if so, could they have been so numerous in so short a time as to cause general anxiety?—But in order for such anxiety to arise, there is no need for many to have died; indeed, there is no need at all for any to have died. The mere thought suffices: since all good things are awaited from the Second Coming of Christ, and the time of that coming is indefinite, what will happen if some among us die, or if we ourselves die, before He comes? What will become of the departed? If even one person had died at that time, this question could have flared up with even greater intensity; but even apart from that, since persecution was pressing upon them, death hovered constantly before everyone’s eyes. As for the place of composition, the difficulty is raised not by the Epistle itself or the circumstances of the Thessalonian Church, but by ancient headings, which state that the Epistle was written from Athens. Doubtless this notation arose from a confusion of the place from which Timothy was sent to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 3:2) with the place of composition, or even from the assumption that Timothy, sent from Athens, also carried the Epistle itself. But the former cannot be conflated, as the sequence of events shows; and certainty about the latter is unwarranted when the Epistle clearly distinguishes the sending of Timothy from the sending of the Epistle.

Preface—Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

1 Thess. 1:1. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The ancients did not begin their letters as we do. We customarily place only the name of the person to whom we write at the beginning, while the good wishes and our own name come at the end. With them, all these indispensable elements of a letter were indicated at the beginning. The holy Apostles followed this custom. The holy Paul follows it too, in all his Epistles as well as in the present one. Only with him everything is filled with a different spirit. Everything is written and wished in God and the Lord, and from God and the Lord. As he lived in Them, so he illumines all his deeds and relationships with Their name.

In the specific features of salutations and greetings, the holy Paul did not follow one fixed form but acted in this with complete freedom, as he found best, in accordance with circumstances or prompted by the Spirit of God who guided him in all things. For all that, however, in certain cases one may suppose there were reasons that led him to write in one way rather than another. Thus in the present Epistle the holy Paul places beside himself Silvanus and Timothy, because they had been his co-workers known to the Thessalonian Church. He presents his co-workers in the work as co-participants in the Epistle as well, because though he alone uttered the word, it was composed on the basis of the information furnished by Silas and Timothy. Moreover, Silvanus and Timothy had been there in person, teaching and giving directions. By placing them beside himself, the Apostle lends authority to everything that was said and done by them there, conveying the thought that all of it ought to be received as if said and done by himself—he confirms it with his apostolic authority. And this was not without purpose for the aims of the Epistle. All three persons had become dear and precious to the Thessalonians; all three had, as it were, with one mouth proclaimed to them the saving Gospel. As they had orally preached Christ together, it was fitting that the written word should go forth from all, as a confirmation of the ongoing unity among them—testifying to the unbreakable unity and firmness of the teaching they had set forth, which had gone out as one from two and three mouths (cf. Mt. 18:16, 20) and continues to this day unchanged in three witnesses (2 Cor. 13:1). In general, that which is individual in the Church of Christ is of little worth. Hence the Apostles in Jerusalem resolved even the difficulty of the Antiochians in council, and their letter to them was written not from one person but from all—and not Apostles only, but also elders and the whole brotherhood (Acts 15:23). The holy Paul took his example from them; for he himself had been there, and that conciliar letter was continually in his memory, since on this his second journey, which followed shortly after that council, he, passing along his previously laid path, was delivering to the Churches the decrees to be kept that had been determined by “the Apostles and elders who are in Jerusalem” (Acts 16:4). Had there been more co-workers with him at that time, he would certainly have included them all; and if at other times he named no one, it was doubtless because no one was with him. Silvanus—the same as Silas in Acts—is placed first as the more senior. He was already among the most eminent and advanced in the Jerusalem Church when the holy Paul and Barnabas came there to resolve the question that was troubling the Antiochian Church, and after its resolution, on behalf of the Antiochian council, as a leading man among the brothers (Acts 15:22), he was sent together with Judas to accompany the Apostle Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, where, as a prophet, he encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words (1 Thess. 15:32). He then remained there permanently and was chosen by the holy Paul to accompany him on his second apostolic journey (Acts 15:40), when Paul and Barnabas parted ways. Thus together with the holy Paul he traversed all the churches of Asia Minor, crossed over into Macedonia, together with him preached and suffered in Philippi and Thessalonica, and together with him at length organized the Corinthian Church (2 Cor. 1:19). At that time, therefore, he appears as the closest and most powerful co-worker of the holy Paul, from whom he was separated, probably, by the Apostle’s imprisonment, which for a time put an end to his missionary activity. After this, history places him beside the Apostle Peter, who sends him to carry his Epistle to the churches of Asia Minor, as a “faithful brother” (1 Pet. 5:12) known to them from his earlier activity there with the Apostle Paul.

The holy Timothy displayed his gifts and was called to co-labor in preaching only on this second journey, on the testimony of the brothers who were at Lystra and Iconium (Acts 16:2). Although even in this short time he had already proved trustworthy to the point of being entrusted, as a servant of God and a fellow-worker in the Gospel, to comfort and strengthen the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 3:2); yet his devotion to the preaching of the Word and to the holy Paul was fully revealed in later years, and the holy Paul bore witness that no one had labored with him so sincerely and selflessly as Timothy, who had worked with him as a son with a father (Phil. 2:22). Hence he always spoke of him with especial praise, calling him not only a brother in general (2 Cor. 1:1; Col. 1:1; Phlm. 1:1), not only a fellow minister and co-worker in the Gospel (Rom. 16:21; 1 Cor. 16:10) and a servant of Jesus Christ on equal footing with himself (Phil. 1:1), but also his true, beloved, and most dear child (1 Cor. 4:17; 1 Tim. 1:2, 18; 2 Tim. 1:2).

The holy Paul does not distinguish himself here with any title—perhaps because it had not yet been established how best to write, since this was the first Epistle; or perhaps the state of the Thessalonians required it, as the holy Chrysostom notes: “They were still newly instructed and did not know him well.” “Hence it was not fitting to display his dignity before them,” Oecumenius continues, “lest they somehow be scandalized by that as well.” Or perhaps the holy Paul did not want to engage the Thessalonians’ attention with his apostolic authority, because he already had a firmer hold over them through the force of the love with which he had been drawn to them and by which he had bound them to himself. Hence he judged it more fitting even in the Epistle to appear before them in the same spiritual light in which they had seen him among them—in “power and the Holy Spirit and with great conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5). Perhaps in omitting his apostolic dignity, the holy Paul had in view not the Thessalonians but Silas and Timothy, and concealed it so as not to appear to be arrogating to himself any preeminence or superiority over them, though he was truly an Apostle “not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father”—chosen and called (Gal. 1:1). One cannot say for certain that he acted thus with precisely this aim; but one cannot deny that in this omission he manifested his humility; and it is all the more attractive here for being manifested so simply and unstudied. In only one respect did the holy Paul distinguish himself from the others—he placed himself first; and he placed himself first because humility too must have its limits. A true model for ecclesiastical and civil authorities in their relation to subordinates—not to dominate, but not to demean oneself either!

“To the Church of the Thessalonians.” The word “Church” leads us to suppose that in Thessalonica there were not only believers but also a corresponding hierarchy—stewards of the mysteries and ministers of the word. Although the holy Paul does not mention here, as in other Epistles, bishops, presbyters, and deacons, this does not mean they were absent; for at the end he writes a commandment about obedience to their leaders who labor among them and instruct them—by whom, of course, we must understand sacred persons (1 Thess. 5:12). Is it not to them that at the end the holy Paul commands that this Epistle be read before the whole Church (1 Thess. 5:27)?

“In God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” To the Church of the Thessalonians, he says, which is in God. For there are assemblies of Jews and pagans, but they are not in God. “Great and incomparable is the dignity of the Church, if it is in God,” says the holy Chrysostom. The Church in God is the one gathered by the will and cooperation of God, organized according to His plan and for the glory of His name—the Church that worships the true God, bows down before Him, and pleases Him according to His commandment. In this lies the distinctive mark of the true Church. By the word “in God” is meant not merely communion with God through profession of faith, but actual, life-giving abiding in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Jn. 15:4; 17:21; 1 Jn. 2:5; 5:20). Before, the Thessalonians were outside God and Christ, where everything lies in evil. The Jews did not know Christ; the pagans did not even know the true God. Now, however, from among them there was formed a community of those who are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This transformation is a miracle of God’s goodwill toward them, for which Paul then offers praise and thanksgiving—as in all his Epistles. By recalling this, the Apostle Paul instills: take care not to make yourselves unworthy of this lofty perfection, and in every way keep yourselves pure from every sin; for “of one who is a slave to sin, it can no longer be said that he is in God,” says Chrysostom.

“Grace to you and peace.” In all of the holy Paul’s Epistles the salutation is expressed in these words. Only in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus is there added: “grace, mercy, and peace.” The same is seen in the other Apostles as well. The first form of expression appears in both Epistles of the holy Peter, and the second in the two Epistles of John. The salutation of the holy Jude differs from all: “mercy, peace, and love.”

“Grace” — χαρις— recalls the Greek form of greeting — χαιρειν(see Acts 23:26), which was retained by the Apostles in their conciliar letter to the Antiochians (Acts 15:23) and used in the Epistle of James (1 Thess. 1:1).

“Peace” is the customary Hebrew (and Arabic) form of greeting (Gen. 43:23; Judg. 19:20; and so on). The Saviour commanded the Apostles to use it when He sent them out to preach (Lk. 10:5–6). He Himself used it when appearing to the Apostles after the resurrection (Jn. 20:19, 21, 26). And even before, in His farewell discourse, He left to His disciples peace as a sign of His victory over the world, as an inheritance for them, as the distinctive mark setting them apart from those whom the world beguiles (Jn. 14:27; 16:33).

Both words, taken from ordinary Jewish and Greek speech—where they referred to earthly life and outward well-being—have been elevated by the holy Apostles to signify the fullness of blessing and salvation in Christ Jesus. A noteworthy example of the formation of the Christian biblical language!

“Grace”—in general—means goodwill, favor, and caring solicitude; in which sense it is said also of the child Jesus: “the grace of God was upon Him” (Lk. 2:40). But more specifically, grace—as opposed to the Law, works, and duty (Rom. 4:4; 6:14; 11:6)—is the gratuitous, free, and unconditional manifestation of God’s love toward those who not only have no right to it whatsoever, but, by all justice, deserve the contrary (Rom. 3:23–24; Eph. 2:3–5). This is the New Testament saving grace manifested to sinners in Christ Jesus (Tit. 2:11; Jn. 1:17). It is not only the once-for-all accomplished redemption and deliverance of sinful humanity in the Lord Jesus, but also the life-giving power that draws each person to Christ, giving birth and nurturing new life in him—a life which in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, is communicated and sealed, at times accompanied by particular gifts (Jn. 6:44; Rom. 5:5; Eph. 1:17). What grace, then, does the Apostle wish for the Thessalonians?—both kinds: as goodwill and as living communion with God through faith in the Lord; for in the first lies the source of the second; and he wishes above all for its continuation, increase, and growth, since both kinds of grace have already been manifested to them.

“Peace” is the immediate action of God’s grace in human hearts—an inner harmony of life and its joyful experience, after the inner dissolution and disintegration that characterized the sinful life—proceeding from and resting upon the fact that sin, which had been dissolving everything, troubling the conscience, and separating from God, has now been expelled; and the person, inwardly pacified and healed, once again enters into the living communion with God for which he was destined. Thus peace in the Christian is both the fruit of the sense of health and vitality filling him in the new life, and the echo of the hidden feeling of the prodigal who has returned to his father’s house and been received back into full sonship. Being such as it is, it possesses within itself a compelling force to dispose a person to make every effort to remain forever in this blessed ordering of life. For all that, however, since it too is sown and grows, it is very fitting to wish for its increase and speedier growth—with which the holy Paul greets the Thessalonians.

“From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”—as the one source of grace and peace. In the holy Paul, God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are joined together in countless places. By this he loudly proclaims Their consubstantiality. According to the economy of our salvation, the Father is the Source of the counsel of salvation, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the Accomplisher of that salvation, having redeemed us at the price of His blood. Therefore through Him there come to us from God all the powers “that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3), whose Giver is the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:4).

Part One—Historical (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3:13)

The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

In the first part of the Epistle the holy Paul recalls all the historical events pertaining to the Thessalonians from the time he gained entry among them until the time he is writing the Epistle, in order—by pointing to the finger of God in everything—to root in them the conviction that the faith they have received bears the palpable seal of divinity, and thereby to inspire them all the more to stand firm in it despite sorrows and privations. He achieves this by depicting: 1) the radiant state of the Thessalonian Church—in itself, in God’s relation to it, and in its relation to all others (1 Thess. 1:2–10); 2) his sojourn among them, marked by a high moral character that they themselves acknowledged (1 Thess. 2:11–16); and 3) his fatherly and heartfelt care for them (1 Thess. 2:17–3:13).

1. The radiant state of the Thessalonian Church in spiritual regard (1 Thess. 1:2–10)

The Apostle depicts the radiant grace-filled Christian state of the Thessalonians by pointing to: b) the perfection in them of the foundational Christian virtues (1 Thess. 1:3); c) God’s goodwill toward them, manifested in their election (1 Thess. 1:4–7); d) the salutary effect of the glory of their conversion and faith on all other Christians (1 Thess. 1:8–10). Recalling all this, the holy Paul a) expresses his feelings of gratitude to God (1 Thess. 1:2), attributing to Him all the good he has seen in the Thessalonians; so that the content of this chapter may be expressed as follows:

a) Joyful thanksgiving to God for the manifestation of grace-filled Christian life among the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 1:2)

1 Thess. 1:2. We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers.

Having received from the holy Timothy the pleasing news about the Thessalonians, the holy Paul was gladdened by it (1 Thess. 3:9) and in his joy gives thanks to God for all the good with which it pleased Him to endow the Thessalonians. From the very first word he turns their minds to God and, pointing to Him as the Author of their progress, instills in them that they are God’s and that the work of their faith is the work of God. Almost all his Epistles the holy Paul begins with thanksgiving, some with nearly the same words (Rom. 1:8–9; Eph. 1:16; 2 Thess. 1:3; 2 Tim. 1:3); this, however, is not a mere turn of phrase or a matter of custom, but the expression of genuine feelings with which his soul was full (see 1 Thess. 1:3, 8–9). Called to the work of God, he could not but rejoice at its successes and, palpably seeing the finger of God in everything, could not but thank God. “Always,” he says, “we give thanks to God.” And this is no exaggeration. The Apostle lived in God and prayerful turning to Him did not depart from his face. Such is the force of the apostolic spirit, the bearer of the Spirit of God. Thanksgiving in words, of course, was not constant, but it was always present in the feeling of his heart, ready to pour forth in words as well. That he gives thanks for all of them seems to be intentional. Although the Apostle knew that not all were perfect, he does not narrow the scope of his thanksgiving—so that by this he might open in advance the way of his word to the hearts even of those who are imperfect, when the time comes to touch on their correction. The words “making mention of you” and so on define the act of thanksgiving when it is expressed also in words during prayer. The Apostle speaks as though saying: in our prayers, calling you to mind, we pour out feelings of gratitude to God. But what were the prayers of the Apostles like? They constituted half of their apostolic labors. “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word,” they said at the election of deacons for the Jerusalem Church (Acts 6:4).

The holy Chrysostom says: “The thanksgiving to God for the Thessalonians is a testimony to their great progress; for the Apostle not only praises them but also thanks God, as the Author of all their advancement. Moreover, he teaches them humility, as if saying that all this is the work of God’s power. Thus he speaks of thanksgiving on account of their good works, and of remembrance of them in prayers—on account of his love for them.”

In other Epistles the thanksgiving stands as a kind of introductory passage, followed by the introduction of other subjects. Here, however, the thanksgiving is closely connected with what follows and forms the subject of the first chapter. The holy Paul thanks God for the Thessalonians, reflecting on the perfection of their Christian character and on God’s election of them. These motives—or subjects of thanksgiving—are also highlighted in the structure of the discourse by the words: “constantly remembering” (1 Thess. 1:3) and “knowing” (1 Thess. 1:4).

b) The perfection in them of the foundational Christian virtues (1 Thess. 1:3)

1 Thess. 1:3. Constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith, and labor of love, and steadfast endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here is the first aspect of the Thessalonians’ radiant state. The Apostle, “wishing to show that he remembers the Thessalonians not only in prayer but also apart from prayer, says: ‘constantly remembering’” (the holy Chrysostom). The Apostle has said that whenever he calls them to mind in his prayers, he always gives thanks to God. For what reason? Because the image of their Christian perfection stands constantly in his soul. This constant remembrance of their good state—which is from God—is what causes him always to thank God for them in his prayers.

The holy Paul recalls those perfections which he himself saw and about which the holy Timothy told him, and speaks of them with such expressiveness because he intends afterward to speak well of his own activity among them. “He speaks first of their labors, and then of his own, so as not to appear to be boasting” (Chrysostom). He speaks thus not in order to ingratiate himself with them and thereby prepare the way for his subsequent words, but as a father rejoicing at the perfection of his children. For all that, however, one may allow that the Apostle had also in view to sketch what they ought to manifest in their lives in ever greater perfection. By depicting the beginnings of perfect life as perfections, he stirs zeal to attain the indicated limit of perfection.

The singular remembrance of the holy Apostles is threefold in its objects. This threefold character is formed by the three principal Christian virtues: faith, hope, and love. These are the forces, principles, and elements of the grace-filled Christian life that in the act of regeneration in Christ are poured into the hearts of Christians by the Holy Spirit, and without which no truly Christian disposition or action is possible. Hence the holy Paul often introduces them into his discourse in his Epistles (compare: 1 Thess. 1:5, 8; 1 Cor. 13:3; Col. 1:4). Here the discourse about them has the distinctive quality that the Apostle does not merely mention them, but characterizes each by particular marks defining how they were actually manifested in the lives of the Thessalonians, affirming that he remembers their “work of faith, labor of love, and steadfast endurance of hope:” not just work, labor, and endurance alone, nor just faith, love, and hope alone, but both together in their mutual interpenetration—as if saying: endurance full of hope and hope that endures, labor full of love and love that labors, faith full of works and works full of faith. For in reality they mutually give birth to one another, sustain one another, and preserve one another.

The work of faith is more difficult to define precisely than the other two terms. The work of faith is both the first act of believing—itself no small or easy task—and the beginning and root of all other manifestations of Christianity. Faith is not formed at once: first comes the thought—should I not believe? This thought enters into conflict with what is within and what is without. When all is overcome, a resolution is spoken in the heart: I believe—and the work of faith is accomplished. Whether we understand this act as a divine working or as the inclination and resolve of the heart, it is always something noteworthy. The Apostle is saying: I remember how you came to believe. The work of faith in this sense is the work that the Saviour demanded of the Jews who asked what they should do: “that you believe in Him whom God has sent” (Jn. 6:29).

But this act is more or less invisible; whereas the work of faith here, by its correspondence to the labor of love and the endurance of hope—which are visible—must be something visible. The visibility of faith is its manifestation in what signifies faith. Faith has its own sphere of expression: the reception of the sacraments, its own confession, communion with those of the same faith in one spirit with them, and separation from those of false belief and from all that manifests false belief. Whoever shows all this is performing the work of faith. The work of faith in this sense is the constant, steadfast, fearless manifestation everywhere and in everything of the identity of a believing Christian—and it corresponds to the performance of the work of the Law written on the hearts (Rom. 2:15).

Close to this is the third meaning of the work of faith pointed out by the holy Chrysostom—namely, steadfastness and constancy in faith despite hardships. “What is the work of faith? It is that nothing has shaken your constancy. If you believe, stand firm; if you do not stand firm, you do not believe. Faith is justified by constancy and zeal.” In this sense, the work of faith is believing energetically begun and constantly maintained, despite sorrows, attacks, persecutions, and afflictions—as an occupation, a profession, the work of a whole life, giving it its character. But this is not the same as the endurance of hope, for the latter is entirely directed toward the future, while the former is occupied with the present, resting on what has been.

In what sense, then, are we to understand the work of faith in the present passage? In all of them; for in all these forms the work of faith was indeed manifested by the Thessalonians. A closely equivalent term for it may be found in the good fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:12).

“Labor of love”—the cares and sacrifices of the Thessalonians in relieving the lot of fellow Christians and helping them in every way—what the Thessalonians did “for all the brothers throughout Macedonia” (1 Thess. 4:10). The holy Paul rejoices that even in this difficult time, when they themselves were subjected to attacks on every side, the Thessalonians not only preserved love among themselves but also extended its sacrifices everywhere, embracing all the saints. Labor presupposes action with weariness, burden, and toil. But the labor of love does not notice this and seems not to feel it. There is endurance in it too, but the endurance of love—endurance absorbed by love. This is, one might say, a laboring that is without toil, or a labor that does not weary.

“Endurance of hope”—the unwavering standing beneath the cross, the immovability under suffering, manifested by the Thessalonians in the persecution that came upon them (Acts 17:5 and Acts 17:9), as the fruit of hope which in the present sorrow knows how to point out the surest path to the attainment of eternal glorification in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:18). “In these events”—the persecutions of the Thessalonians—“was expressed,” says the holy Chrysostom, “not only their courage, but also the fact that they believed with full conviction in the promised rewards.” Endurance is the constant companion of hope: for even hope itself, as hope, endures (Rom. 8:25); it is not only the bearer of hope, as a body enlivened by it, but itself gives birth to hope (Rom. 4:5). Hence in certain passages of Scripture endurance is visibly used in place of hope (Tit. 2:2).

The work of faith embraces the relation to God; the labor of love defines the relation to one’s brothers—fellow Christians; the endurance of hope outlines the personal lot of each believer in this present life, with a view into the life to come. The work of faith fills life with vitality, strength, and readiness to act; the labor of love opens a field for living and fruitful action; the endurance of hope completes and crowns the labors—and is something higher and more self-transcending. Patient endurance pleasing to God is more difficult than active labor pleasing to God; yet it, through its final testing, leads—in the footsteps of the Lord—into ultimate perfection and glorification. In these three the root, stem, and ear of the new life in the Lord Jesus Christ manifest themselves. Faith receives grace and is the seeding of Christian life, the transplanting through Christ the Saviour into God, the grafting into Him. From this proceeds love, as the reflection of God’s love in the heart of man, or the response of the human heart to the love of God felt toward it—the soul of each Christian and of the whole body of the Church of Christ. Hope knows that the future belongs to the Lord Christ and the Holy Church of Christ. It is as though it already migrates there and lives there not only by contemplation but also by feeling, in the certainty that the spiritual life is most glorious—a life that, proceeding from the glorified Lord, now dwells within the members of Christ still only inwardly, but in its own time will be gloriously revealed outwardly as well, will permeate everything, and the present adversaries to it—the flesh, the world, and the devil—will be removed from the scene of life by the new appearing of the Lord, when all that exists will be purified by fire. Such are the agents of the inner life in Christ. The holy Paul rejoices and in his joy gives thanks to God that He was pleased to manifest in the Thessalonians this fullness of the life-forces that characterize a Christian.

The holy Chrysostom explains all three of these distinguishing marks of the foundational Christian virtues—work, labor, endurance—from the difficult circumstances in which the Thessalonians then found themselves, and sees in this the seal of the divinity of the faith they had received. “God,” he says, “allowed persecution to come upon them immediately, so that no one should say that the preaching of Christ had taken hold among them by chance; but rather, that it might be manifest that not human persuasion, but the power of God gave such strength to the souls of the believers.”

The words “our Lord Jesus Christ” may be referred to all three virtues, pointing to the Lord as their object and source; or to hope alone: the latter seems more fitting. The Lord Christ is directly called our hope (1 Tim. 1:1; Col. 1:27) and is the essential object of hope—not only because all our hopes rest and are grounded upon Him, but also because He Himself is awaited, and through His Second Coming and the associated unfolding of the glory of Christ’s Kingdom, the hope of glory will be fulfilled, and hope itself, as it were, will be glorified (Tit. 2:13). It is not hard to notice that by this addition the holy Paul from the very beginning brings hope to the fore above its companions, because later he was to speak about its principal object—the Second Coming of Christ.

“Before our God and Father” may be referred to “remembering” or to the three Christian virtues. The holy Chrysostom, blessed Theodoret, and Oecumenius say that it may be referred to either, but they incline more to the latter, which is to be preferred. For if we take the former—that is, that the holy Paul was constantly remembering the Christian virtues of the Thessalonians before God and the Father—then there is the same thought as in the preceding verse, where he said that he thanks God, making mention of them in his prayers. Yet from the flow of thought it is clear that what was needed was not a repetition of the same idea in plainer words, but an indication of what moved him to thank God for the Thessalonians. And this will be clear of itself when we connect the words “before our God and Father” with the virtues mentioned above. What moved him? The perfection of their Christian virtues before God and the Father. What is worthy of praise and thanksgiving is that the Thessalonians displayed their work of faith, labor of love, and endurance of hope before God and the Father—dedicating them to Him with thought of Him, performing them in His presence, and consequently with all care and zeal, with all sincerity and purity of motive. The Thessalonians kept in mind that “over all this the God of all things keeps watch” (blessed Theodoret), that “He sees all and that with Him nothing of what they do is forgotten” (Oecumenius). Therefore they strove to manifest the aforesaid virtues in such strength. Here the holy Paul sees in the Thessalonians that same perfection, greater and greater advances in which he then desires for them at the end of the first part of the Epistle, praying that the Lord “may establish” their “hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father” (1 Thess. 3:13). And it was very fitting to note this, since immediately after this expression of the Thessalonians’ relation to God, the Apostle wishes to speak of God’s relation to them—as if saying: you do everything before God—and it is right to act so; for God too has shown great mercy to you, having chosen you.

God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7)

1 Thess. 1:4. Knowing, brothers beloved of God, your election.

“Knowing” stands in direct correspondence with “constantly remembering” and points to the second reason that moved the holy Paul to give thanks to God for the Thessalonians—namely, their election to participation in the kingdom of grace. Election is indeed a sign of great divine goodwill, for which one cannot but give thanks. As ancient Israel was chosen from the whole of humanity to be the people of God, so now from Israel and from all nations a new people is chosen for God—“a holy nation,” people renewed through the calling from darkness into the wondrous light revealed by the Gospel (1 Pet. 2:9). Those elected are called; those called are justified; those who have preserved justification are glorified (Rom. 8:30). Seeing clearly that the Thessalonians have been brought into this wondrous way of God, the holy Paul in his joy for them gives thanks to God. He could already see this from the fact that they were called to the Gospel, for that calling is an indication of election. But he draws a particular assurance of this from the fact that their very calling was accompanied by extraordinary manifestations of God’s power. In this peculiarity of the calling he sees a peculiarity of the election as well; hence he adds the address: “brothers beloved” by God. He recalls all this to their memory both to console them in their sorrows and to assure them that in both believing and standing firm in faith they are accomplishing the work of God—what God wills for them, what He has chosen them for.

To what does “of God” refer—to “brothers beloved of God,” or to “your election of God?” Our commentators do not address this; in expounding their interpretation of this passage they use both expressions. Theophylact writes: “We know that you have been chosen by God”; Oecumenius: “We know that you have been chosen by God and beloved.” There is no need to trouble one’s head over this. In meaning, “of God” applies equally to both. They are chosen because they are beloved, and “beloved” because they are chosen. Israel was called beloved (Ps. 59:7; 107:7), according to election (Rom. 11:28). And Christians are beloved as those who are chosen (Col. 3:12). “Beloved” is more intelligible and more consoling. Was it not for this reason that the holy Paul placed this term before election—so as to bring what is somewhat abstract in election closer to the heart and thereby enable it to produce its proper effect? Gracious election is the actualization of God’s love toward certain persons—a love by which He, having set in motion through Jesus Christ the plan of salvation for sinful humanity that has been present in Him from eternity, successively brings individuals into participation in it by calling them to faith in the Gospel. Through the calling the act of election is accomplished. Those who follow the call enter into the condition and rank of the elect. In the holy Paul here both are understood; for further on he describes both how their election drew near to them (1 Thess. 1:5) and how the Thessalonians entered into the rank of the elect and stand in it (1 Thess. 1:6). In the holy Paul, Christians are everywhere called the elect as those in whom, through the call to faith, the eternal purpose of God concerning salvation is being fulfilled.

1 Thess. 1:5. For our gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

Having pointed to the election of the Thessalonians, the holy Paul now points out the basis of his conviction of their election. He finds the basis for it both in their calling—through which God’s election was presented to them—and in their response to that calling, in the manner in which they entered into the rank of the elect and stand in it. In both he sees the finger of God palpably and from this draws his assurance of the Thessalonians’ election. The first constitutes the content of 1 Thess. 1:5, the second of 1 Thess. 1:6–7.

I know, he says, that you are chosen, because our gospel came to you not in word only. Having said “not in word only,” he naturally intends to say something besides word afterward. Hence the words “in power and in the Holy Spirit” must by no means be understood as particular qualities of the word itself, but as something that existed besides the word, though accompanying it. The living word is a necessary means for the spread of the Gospel, but by itself it is insufficient. Power was given to it by a special divine cooperation, as the Evangelist Mark bore witness of the Apostles—that they, going forth, preached the Gospel everywhere; but the Lord worked with them and confirmed their word by the signs that followed (Mk. 16:20). The holy Apostle says the very same thing here—that their gospel was not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit: “in power”—in the signs manifested in Thessalonica by God through the holy Paul; “in the Holy Spirit”—in the sending of wondrous gifts of the Spirit, such as the gift of tongues or prophecy and others, so common in the early Christian churches—to which he hints when at the end he says: “Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophecy” (1 Thess. 5:19–20). Blessed Theodoret says on this passage: “You yourselves are witnesses of the power of the Gospel. For we not only offered you instructive discourse, but also confirmed the truth of the words with miracles. We also imparted to you the grace of which we ourselves are partakers: for this is what the words ‘and in the Holy Spirit’ mean.” “From this it is evident,” adds the holy Theophylact, “that you are chosen—that God glorified the preaching among you. For we did not preach merely of ourselves; there were also signs, because God blessed that you should believe, as those elected and foreordained to Him.” By the words “with much conviction,” the holy Paul wishes to say that their preaching, being accompanied by miracles and the distribution of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, penetrated into the hearts of the Thessalonians and produced in them full and perfect conviction, or poured into their hearts the wealth of the certainty of understanding (Col. 2:2). The Saviour Himself said that without signs and wonders one cannot expect faith from people (Jn. 4:48). The palpable presence of God’s power softens the heart, opens and unlocks it for the reception of truth. But in these words one may also see a reference not only to conviction but to some special manner of it. Besides the signs proceeding from the Apostle and the gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed by the laying on of his hands, various individuals could, by the mercy of God, receive various personal assurances and confirmations of the truth of the Gospel—one a dream, another a vision, another an inner illumination—much as the holy Paul himself had been specially notified not to go to Asia but to Macedonia. This is suggested by comparing these words with the words “in power and in the Holy Spirit.” As in these the right hand of the Most High is evident, so nothing prevents seeing its indication also “in much conviction.” The conviction and faith of the Thessalonians are spoken of in the following verse.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that such remarkable things accompanied the proclamation of the Gospel in Thessalonica. This was to be expected. The Spirit did not permit the holy Apostle to go to Asia or Bithynia, and a man who appeared called him to Macedonia. This indicates both that the time of the calling of the Macedonians had arrived and that the hand of God cooperating with the word would not be withheld. How natural it is that when the holy Paul, guided by this invisible man and the Spirit, after the miracles in Philippi, reached Thessalonica and extended to them the word of the Gospel, that word was confirmed by subsequent signs from above and by assurances.

“As you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.” Since the Apostle’s aim is to restore in the Thessalonians the conviction of the divinity of the holy faith they have received—through the conviction of their election—having pointed out the basis of his own conviction of their election, the holy Paul now introduces those same facts into the consciousness of the Thessalonians, so that, by weighing all that had taken place among them during the preaching, they themselves might draw the same conclusion: yes, here the finger of God acting in our midst is palpably evident—and the great mercy of God toward us, signifying election, is beyond doubt. The holy Paul does not say how we preached among you, but what manner of men we were—as if saying: you know what signs were manifested by God in you through us, what gifts you received, how God gave you assurance that our word is true. So do not doubt God’s goodwill toward you and the divinity of the faith. “What manner of men we were among you for your sake.” All that went forth from us was for your sake. We are the instruments; the source is God; you are the recipients. Looking past the instruments, look upon the source and be assured by all this that “the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Lk. 11:20), by God’s good pleasure, by His love toward you and His election of you. From this came of itself what the Apostle was leading them to: stand firm in the faith, therefore, counting all losses and attacks as nothing.

1 Thess. 1:6–7. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

The holy Paul points to the second ground for assurance of the Thessalonians’ election in the fact that they received the Gospel with joy, despite outward adversities—thereby resembling the Apostles and the Lord and becoming a model for all believers. Just as the Lord and the holy Apostles proclaimed the word of truth amid hostile attacks from without, so the Thessalonians received this truth and became its bearers amid sorrows, with a joy proceeding from the Spirit. This joyful, swift reception and firm holding of the truth, despite all outward pressures, is a clear indication of the supernatural, beyond-human origin of their faith—and further, of the divinity of the faith itself, and beyond that, of a special divine goodwill toward them.

The force of the proof for the apostolic thought lies not in the reception of the Gospel, but in the manner of that reception. As my word to you—the Apostle seems to be saying—was accompanied by manifestations of God’s power, so your reception of my word was also not according to the ordinary order; for it took place amid persecution from without, and moreover with joy. God’s goodwill toward you and God’s election of you is visibly apparent. The Apostle reinforces the conviction of election through this extraordinariness by comparing the Thessalonians to himself and to the Lord, placing this comparison at the fore to illuminate his discourse. Election lies also in the fact that the Lord was pleased to make you like us, and even like Himself—in that just as we preach the truth beneath the cross, so you received it and hold it while bearing the cross. You have thus entered upon the way of God, the way by which the Lord walked and by which His Apostles walk.

Here are a few words on this from the holy Chrysostom: “See what praise! The disciples at once became the equals of their teachers. They not only heeded the teaching, but attained a height equal to Paul’s. But what is this compared to what follows? Look, indeed, to what height he raises them, saying: ‘you became imitators of the Lord.’ In what manner?—‘Having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit.’ Not merely with tribulation, but with much tribulation. It was not enough to say: you suffered, and amid misfortunes did not cease to believe; but: you believed with great joy. The Apostles too acted in this way: ‘rejoicing,’ it is said of them, ‘that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of the Lord Jesus’ (Acts 5:41).—How did they become ‘imitators of the Lord?’—In that He too, enduring great sufferings, did not give Himself over to grief but rejoiced. He came voluntarily for this very purpose, for this He humbled Himself for our sake—to endure spitting, buffeting, and crucifixion; and therefore, enduring all this, He rejoiced.”

How is it possible to receive the word with joy amid sorrows? When, during the preaching of the Gospel, the heart perceives the truth and desires salvation with the hope of receiving it, it cannot but feel joy, as one who has found a treasure. Such is the ordinary order. But when outward pressure prevents even the formation of conviction, let alone the advent of hope of salvation and rejoicing because of it, and yet in such circumstances there appears a living, strong faith accompanied by joy—this is a clear sign that a special action from on high was present. The Spirit of God gave a taste of the goodness of salvation and, filling the heart with joy, did not allow it to be oppressed by sorrows; He arranged it so that the heart was open to receive the truth and closed to the feeling of grief. Thus the reception of the word in sorrow was mediated by the joy which is from the Holy Spirit—here is a palpable indication of goodwill from above, and at the same time of the divinity of the faith and the salvific character of belief. “If even to endure sorrows somehow is no small thing,” says the holy Chrysostom, “then to endure them with joy is proper to those who are above human nature, who had a body as if without passion. ‘With the joy,’ he says, ‘of the Holy Spirit.’ Lest someone should say: how do you speak of sorrow and at the same time of joy, how are the two compatible—he added: with the joy of the Holy Spirit. The sorrow is in them as in those who are bodily, and the joy as in those who are spiritual. How is this?—The circumstances are sorrowful, but what they produce is not such; for the Spirit does not permit it.—You were being afflicted and persecuted, he says (the Apostle), but the Spirit did not leave you even then—and as the three young men were refreshed in the fire, so too were you in your sorrows. As there the refreshing was the work not of the nature of fire, but of the cooling Spirit, so here it is not the nature of sorrow that produces joy, but the Spirit, who refreshes and through the furnace of temptations brings to coolness and rest.”

“So that you became an example.” In what sense an example?—In the zealous reception of the Gospel, in unwavering faithfulness to it, and, as is evident from what follows, in the complete transformation of their lives according to its spirit. The perfection of their faith was evident to all. And acknowledged perfection calls forth imitation. But the Apostle wishes to say more—to suggest that even this is from God, that even in this there is a sign of the divinity of their faith, of the supernatural character of their belief, and consequently of a special divine election. No one spread word of it intentionally. The light of divine glory on their faith was seen because it exists and could not but be visible to those who were capable of seeing. How and in what this was manifested—that they had become a model—the Apostle develops further in 1 Thess. 1:8.

“So that you became an example to believers.” The holy Chrysostom says: “He did not say: so that you became an example to those who are about to believe, but to those already believing—that is, you, having entered the contest from the very beginning, taught by this how one ought to believe in God. Do you see how great a thing zeal is? With zeal, one does not need much time, delay, or postponement—one needs only to take up the matter, and everything will be accomplished. That is why they, having received the preaching after others, became teachers of those who had received it before them.”

The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10)

1 Thess. 1:8. For from you the word of the Lord sounded forth not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything.

In the last three verses—1 Thess. 1:8, 9, 10—the holy Paul depicts the third aspect of the Thessalonians’ radiant state, namely their renown among all the then-existing Christians in Macedonia and Achaia and in every other place. This was not some vague, muffled rumor. Reports of their faith spread with precise definiteness, with an account of who preached among them and how, how they believed and in what exactly. It was, as it were, apostolic preaching without the Apostles, resounding throughout all lands.

In verse 8 the Apostle indicates what became renowned, the extent of that renown, the manner of its spreading, and its fullness. What became renowned? “The word of the Lord” sounded forth… “Your faith” went out. The report of the Thessalonians’ faith spread; but since faith comes from the word, together with this the word of the Lord itself spread—or the word of the Lord rang out, as it had been preached by the Apostles and believed by the Thessalonians. The word of the Lord running swiftly (2 Thess. 3:1) is no special word but the same as the word of Christ, dwelling richly in hearts (Col. 3:16).

How did this spread? “Sounded forth… went out.” They sent no special heralds or preachers. Apart from them, of itself the word about their faith and the glory of their belief spread everywhere; εξηχηται — it resounded, like an echo. The word goes forth from the Lord and turns toward people; and in people the faith—the receiver of the word—responds to the word of God; then faith, borrowing from faith, spreads the word of the Lord across the earth. The word rings from heaven like the sound of God’s trumpet; its sound is received by some, and from them these sounds spread everywhere, undiminished in force. On this the holy Chrysostom writes as follows: “Just as fragrant myrrh does not retain its perfume within itself, but diffuses it far and wide, and filling the air with it, delights the sense of those standing near; so too noble and honorable men cannot conceal their virtues within themselves, but through the reports about them that spread abroad, they benefit many and make them better. This very same thing happened then (with the Thessalonians). Hence he (the Apostle) said of them, as it were: you provided for those living near you a teachable example and filled the whole world with amazement. And he did not say: the word of the Lord was disseminated, but: it sounded forth, it rang out, it resounded, εξηχηται — suggesting thereby that just as the voice of a sounding trumpet fills all the surrounding places, so also the glory of your valor, so loud as a trumpet-blast, filled the whole world and reached everywhere equally and with equal force. Great deeds are loudly glorified where they are performed, but at a distance they are glorified, though not so greatly. With you, however, it was otherwise: the glory of you has spread across the whole earth with equal force.”

How widely did the report spread?—It sounded forth throughout Macedonia and Achaia, and went out to every place. The holy Chrysostom says that “every place” means “the whole world.” Corinth was the central city connecting East and West. People from all over the world gathered there. And it was no wonder that the holy Paul heard from Christians visiting Corinth how everywhere people were speaking of the conversion of the Thessalonians and their steadfastness in faith. One can see how loud was the Apostle’s preaching in Thessalonica, accompanied by signs and wonders and the distribution of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; how marvelous was the conversion of the Thessalonians; how tumultuous was the uprising of the unbelievers against them; and how courageous was their steadfastness in persecution. All this was the cause of the swift spread of the report everywhere. Thessalonica by its position opened the paths for this, and Corinth provided the means to hear of such news.

How complete was the report?—“So that we have no need to say anything.” “Nowhere,” says the holy Chrysostom, “does anyone wait to hear our own account of you, but people who have not visited you and have seen nothing anticipate with their own stories those who were with you and saw your labors. So universally by report has your faith become known! And we have no need to recount your deeds in order to stir up in others a like emulation; for what they ought to have heard from us, they, outrunning us, recount themselves.” What consolation, what animation, and what steadfastness these words were capable of pouring into the souls of the Thessalonians! If the glory of you has spread so widely, then take care not to darken it—not only by apostasy, but by any deeds contrary to Christian life. And if moreover your conversion served as an occasion for the conversion of others, continue to stand as a candle on a candlestick, and give light to all. You stand courageously in the faith—a noble thing. But now all eyes are on you, all sympathize with you and commend you. Take courage! You are not alone; all are with you.

1 Thess. 1:9–10. For they themselves report concerning us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

The Apostle indicates what subjects the report about the Thessalonians touched upon—namely, what manner of welcome he had among them and how they were converted: to whom, from what, and for what purpose. Here is the complete program of apostolic activity and of the transformation it effected in those who believed.

“What kind of welcome we had among you”—this recalls not only the cross he bore among them from the very first days, or how warmly and cordially he was received by those who wished to hear the word of truth; but especially what manner of Apostle he proved to be among them—namely, with a preaching confirmed by subsequent signs, though pressed upon from without. “And how you turned”—how wonderfully the transformation of the hearts of the Thessalonians was accomplished, how easily and with what readiness they turned, as though without needing any particular effort, to serve the living and true God (Chrysostom)—likewise despite outward pressure. In this “how,” on the lips of those who recounted it, one hears the joy of other Christians at the news of the conversion of the Thessalonians, as at the multiplication of the common, universal brotherhood in Christ and the spreading of the glory of the Christian faith. “How you turned to God from idols” is the same as in other passages: “from these vanities to the living God, who made heaven and earth” (Acts 14:15), or “from darkness to light,” “from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18, 20). It is evident that the conversion consisted not merely in a change of confession and manner of worship, but was accompanied by an inner transformation, after which the former state compared with the new was as darkness compared with light. There was, therefore, something to announce; and the Thessalonians knew what a joyful and blessed event the holy Paul was recalling to their memory when speaking of these reports.

“To serve the living and true God, and to await His Son from heaven.” Two fundamental feelings and dispositions governing all the deeds and all the life of the converted! The latter provides patronage for the former and strengthens it against all inconveniences and hardships. Serve! Any moment now the Lord will come and bring everything into a blessed order and arrangement!—To serve God. God is the supreme Lord. Man is a rational creature obligated to serve Him unconditionally, yet consciously and willingly. In this relation there is, however, no cruelty or coldness of slavery. Those who serve God are His own. The servant of God is a man pleasing to God, and service to God is God-pleasing. The sonship attained in the new grace does not abolish this, but on the contrary elevates, expands, and strengthens it. The holy Paul qualifies the service to God that he proclaimed with the words: “to serve the living and true God”—“living,” in contrast to lifeless idols; “and true,” in contrast to imaginary gods, “who are reputed to be gods but are not” (Rom. 1:25; Acts 14:15) (blessed Theodoret). It is mistaken to suppose that the Apostle speaks here only from an Old Testament perspective, or only from the principles of rational natural faith, as it were in deference to those recently converted from Jews and pagans, without pointing to the marks that distinguish service to God in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian marks of service to God are faith in the Lord the Redeemer who cleanses from sins, and regeneration in Him, or reception of the grace of the Holy Spirit to resist sin and overcome it. But of the Lord the Saviour and of the Holy Spirit the holy Paul had been speaking continually, as we have seen. And even in these very words one may discern an allusion to that. In order to serve the living and true God, one must first draw near to Him and be reconciled to Him. But one can be reconciled to Him only through Jesus Christ, having cleansed one’s conscience from dead works by His blood (Heb. 9:14). And not this alone; but one must also receive the strength for genuine service to Him, and these strengths proceed from the Holy Spirit in the holy mysteries. Surely all this was explained to the Thessalonians at the first preaching, and now only a hint of it is given in the single general phrase of serving the living and true God. Christianity does not place a person in a new order, but in the order in which he ought to be by nature—from which, however, he has fallen. Moreover, when the holy Paul here also says “to await His Son,” by this one statement he briefly encompasses the whole of Christian dogma. It follows that the Thessalonians already knew that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God—our redemption, sanctification, and resurrection.

“To await His Son.” The holy Paul defines the aims of the converted by two marks: “to serve”—the work of love—and “to await”—the work of hope. If in the word “you turned” one sees the work of faith, then here again are all three Christian virtues: faith—in the conversion, love—in the service, hope—in the awaiting of the Son of God from heaven. But one cannot fail to notice that here too the work of hope is given preeminent development. This is in keeping with the character of this Epistle, as also of the second, both of which are notably occupied with the Second Coming of Christ. This subject, however, is set forth clearly in all other writings of the New Testament as well, so that the awaiting of the Son of God from heaven is, one might say, the distinctive mark of the inner disposition of Christians. The Second Coming has been so described by the Lord Himself that it is impossible not to hold it in mind at every hour and moment.

“To await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead.” In his very first Epistle we encounter the holy Paul’s designation of the Saviour as the Son of God. By this the Apostle defines His eternal relation to the living and true God of whom he has just spoken. So the holy Paul preached to the Thessalonians about the living God—not only as one in essence, but as not one in persons—pointing out that God has from the beginning a Son who is God, consubstantial with Him, and that this Son is the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save us sinners. “To await from heaven.” This means He has risen and ascended; He ascended to where He had come from. “Whom He raised from the dead.” This is the chief subject of apostolic preaching—the hallmark of Christianity. Every discourse of the holy Apostles, in Jerusalem and everywhere, came down to this. For it was impossible to say a word in the name of One who was crucified without saying that He had risen, ascended into heaven, and would come again from heaven. “You see all at once,” says the holy Chrysostom, “the resurrection, the ascension, the Second Coming, the judgment, the reward for the righteous, and the punishment of the wicked. The chief proof that Christ Jesus is the Son of God is His resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4). This is what the holy Paul puts forward.”

“Jesus, who delivers us.” After the divine name He places the human name Jesus—for no other reason than to signify the two natures, which are the condition of our deliverance; and hence he immediately adds: who delivers. He did not say: who delivered, or who shall deliver, but: who delivers—to signify the continuousness of the deliverance He accomplished, or its eternal significance as the Deliverer, foreordained from before the ages. How consoling it was to hear that those who had believed were henceforth already being delivered from the wrath that will strike all those not sharing faith in the Lord! “Here is both approval, and consolation, and instruction for them. If God the Father raised Him from the dead, if He is in heaven and will come from there—and you have believed that this is indeed so—then in this alone there is already sufficient approval” (the holy Chrysostom).

“From the wrath to come” the Lord delivers those who believe—that is, from condemnation at the Last Judgment. This action of righteousness is called wrath on account of the severity of the judgment and the irrevocability of its decree—and more so on account of the feeling with which those who will be subjected to it will receive the condemnation. The terror that will seize them will be, as is customary for the guilty, to behold the Judge as wrathful, even as He calmly pronounces the decree of eternal justice. From this judgment the Lord Jesus Christ delivers those who believe in Him. In Christ Jesus the judgment upon the world has already been accomplished (Jn. 12:31). Only he who forsakes the world and cleaves to Christ by faith is taken out of the realm struck by this judgment, and shelters under the shadow of the cross, through which the blows of God’s wrath will not pass when the sentence of judgment—already pronounced upon the world—is being carried out. Whoever believes will not be condemned (Jn. 3:14–18; 5:24). “God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9).

The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

In the second section of the first, historical part of the Epistle, the holy Paul describes his sojourn together with his co-workers in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 2:1–16), touching on two principal points: a) the characteristic marks of his preaching and conduct (1 Thess. 2:1–12); and b) the faith and courageous perseverance in faith of the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 2:13–16).

In approaching the exposition of this section, we inevitably encounter the question: what led the holy Paul to touch on this subject and to depict it in such detail? The holy Paul opens his speech with the words: “for you yourselves know.”

The particle “for” — γαρ — indicates in the following speech a reason for what precedes—as if saying: this is what they report about my preaching among you and about your conversion. And so it is, for you yourselves know how everything happened. The two halves of this section correspond precisely to what the holy Paul had heard (1 Thess. 1:9)—namely, “what kind of welcome we had among you” (1 Thess. 2:1–12) and “how you turned” (1 Thess. 2:13–16). But if the holy Paul truly had in mind only to confirm and clarify what was being told by outsiders, then, since all this is already known to the Thessalonians, a mere hint would have sufficed—not so detailed a depiction. The reports of other Christians may be taken as the occasion for the holy Apostle’s speaking on this subject, but the reason for his speaking of it so broadly was surely something else. The first possible reason here could be the desire—by refreshing in the memory of the Thessalonians all that had occurred during their conversion—to strengthen their hope… Had Paul deceived you? Or is he himself not deluded, under some impure influence? How many Jews do we have? And they are reluctant to believe. And he himself appeared only briefly and left—and has no concern… Such words could not, of course, trouble everyone, but one cannot say they troubled no one—especially among those who had believed after the holy Paul’s departure from Thessalonica. Those who were wavering could be undeceived by the more skilled and firm; but their undeceiving required apostolic confirmation. And so the holy Apostle writes. It is evident only that he wishes to remove actual, not imagined, disturbances. The very manner of the speech does not admit the conjecture that the holy Paul, foreseeing that here too, as in other places, agitators of believers’ peace would appear, was preemptively preparing against them a refutation in the proposed interpretation of his actions.

a) The preaching and conduct of the Apostles

The characteristic marks of aa) the preaching and bb) the conduct of the holy Apostles in Thessalonica—1 Thess. 2:1–12.

1 Thess. 2:1. For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain.

“For you yourselves know.” The preceding discourse provided the occasion, or served as the transition, to what follows. The holy Paul connects the latter with the former, recounting the same things that outsiders told and that the Thessalonians themselves knew—only with a particular aim of his own. “Our coming.” This is not merely the arrival in Thessalonica and the first appearance among the Thessalonians, but the whole of the holy Paul’s sojourn there, from his coming until his departure—the entering into spiritual fellowship with the Thessalonians, how he preached to them, how they believed, how the Church was formed from them and organized.

“Was not in vain.” This is against the first accusation. “Not in vain” — ου κενη. Κενος — empty. They were surely saying: these people wander to no purpose—idle wanderers, dreamers, deceivers or deceived. The Apostle says: we are not such. Whoever is such will not submit to suffering; but we suffered in Philippi, and having come to you, had immediately to enter into struggle and contest. From this alone you may judge that our coming to you—our work accomplished in you—is not a work of idleness, something empty, aimless, or deceptive. The word has a similar meaning in 1 Cor. 15:14, where the holy Paul says that if Christ has not risen, then “our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain.” Such a thought fully corresponds to what is said in 1 Thess. 2:3: “not from error.” The holy Chrysostom interprets: ουκ ανθρωπινη, ουδε η τυχουσα — not human (a coming), of the kind that happens for ordinary worldly purposes, and not accidental, not casual, not aimless, not trivial. Oecumenius clarifies Chrysostom’s thought, saying: “not in vain,” that is, our preaching discourses were not false fables or idle dreams, empty words or vain babbling — ου μυθοι ψευδεις και ληροι. How is this evident?—It is evident from the fact that, having just escaped dangers, we again dared to expose ourselves to new ones—which we certainly would not have resolved to do had we not been convinced that our preaching is divine. For, according to Theodoret, “those who take to deception wear a mask only until dangers come, and as soon as they see them they at once betray themselves—and the lie is exposed.”

If we set this word “not in vain” in correspondence with what was said in 1 Thess. 1:5—“not in word only, but in power”—then it will mean: our coming to you was not ordinary, we did not act among you by word alone, but our word, by a special mercy of God toward you, was accompanied by signs and wonders. Such a thought will stand in correspondence with what precedes as well, pointing in the divine signs that accompanied the Apostle’s preaching to the reason why people everywhere spoke about the Thessalonians. The holy Chrysostom also leads us to this, when, approaching the interpretation of the second chapter, he speaks generally of its content: “Here (the Apostle) wishes to express what he also said above—namely, he shows the character of (Christian) preaching, both from the side of the miracles and the resoluteness of the preachers, and from the side of the zeal and earnestness of those who received the preaching.”

In application to what the holy Paul says below, 1 Thess. 3:5—“lest somehow our labor should be in vain”—one may give this word in the present passage the sense that the Apostle’s coming to the Thessalonians was not fruitless but bore abundant fruit: the conversion of so great a number and such zealous Christians. In that case it will correspond to 1 Thess. 2:13–16, which speaks of the Thessalonians’ conversion. Blessed Theodoret says that after the sorrowful circumstances in Philippi the holy Paul was filled with greater zeal, because he foresaw the benefit of his labors. Which of these three thoughts to prefer may be left to each reader’s discretion, as they do not contradict one another, nor do they contradict the flow of the apostolic discourse.

1 Thess. 2:2. But having first suffered and been shamefully treated, as you know, in Philippi, we had boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict.

In the very fact that the Apostles, having suffered beforehand, again enter into the work of preaching for which they had suffered, one must see something great, extraordinary, and beyond human. The unswerving commitment to their cause, and the fearlessness with which the teaching—which brings not joys but sorrows—was offered, shows in the holy Paul and his co-workers men of whom one need only be reminded in order to dispel the accusation leveled against them and their work. This is what the holy Paul does. You know yourselves, he says, what happened to us before our coming to you, and what happened among you; and from how things were, judge the significance of our preaching. The holy Chrysostom says: “Do you see that from the steadfastness of the preachers is borrowed proof of the divinity of their preaching! If,—the Apostle seems to be saying,—our preaching were not such, we would not have exposed ourselves to such misfortunes as give us no room to breathe freely.”

How the Apostles suffered in Philippi is recounted by the Acts of the holy Apostles in Acts 16:12–40. The Thessalonians learned of it either from the Apostles themselves or from the Philippian Christians, with whom they entered into fellowship immediately upon their conversion. The holy Paul outlines in two words what happened to them in Philippi: “having first suffered and been shamefully treated.” By suffering he means the fact that their clothes were torn from them, they were beaten with rods, and after many stripes they were sent to prison, where they were placed in the inner cell and their feet were fastened in the stocks (Acts 16:23–24). By the shameful treatment (υβρις — reproach, dishonor, indignity), apart from being publicly stripped and beaten, certainly not without words of reproach, he doubtless also means the fact that in the holy Paul not even the right of a Roman citizen was respected, as he himself said to the magistrates in Philippi (Acts 16:37). What exact agreement between the Epistle and Acts, even in such details!

“We had boldness in our God.” Boldness — παρρησια — is the courage, the undisturbed fearlessness in proclaiming truth to the face of unbelievers, and moreover hostile ones. It comes not from conviction of the truth alone, but also from the certainty that the preaching is accomplished by God’s personal commission, and that God’s help is always at hand. This is the distinguishing property of all the Apostles. The Lord Himself commanded them to be such and gave them the strength for it. “Before governors and kings you will be brought,” He says. But do not fear. “It will be given to you what to say. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking in you” (Mt. 10:18–20). The boldness of the holy Apostle Paul is frequently mentioned in Acts, beginning from the very moment of his conversion. In Damascus, in Jerusalem, and then everywhere he boldly and fearlessly proclaims the truth of the Gospel (Acts 9:27–28; 13:46; 14:3; 19:8; 26:26). What inspired this boldness in him, as in the other Apostles, was not only deep conviction of the truth, but especially the fact that he had personally received from the Lord Himself a commandment to do so and a promise of help ever ready from on high. The Lord Himself appeared to him and sent him to preach in His name to all nations (Acts 9:6; 15–16; 22:17–21). So he is bold—trusting not in his own strength but bold “in” his “God,” whom, through palpable experience, he acknowledged as his helper and protector, and with whom, being most intimately united in the depths of his heart, in all that he did he acted in the light of spiritual vision of Him, receiving from Him guidance as to what, how, and when to do, and inspiration for the very action itself. As this relation to God is constantly felt, so it is expressed involuntarily. By reminding the Thessalonians of this, the Apostle at the same time also raises their minds to see the source of the teaching imparted to them not in man but in God, and to hold to it as something given directly to them by God. By affirming that he is bold in God, he suggests that he preaches before God with the consciousness of being manifested to Him, and thereby wishes to dispose them also to acknowledge him in their consciences as manifested to them (2 Cor. 5:11)—that is, to acknowledge him as a sincere preacher of the teaching entrusted to him by God, as they had already acknowledged him from the beginning when they received his word “not as the word of man, but as it truly is, the word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13). Hence he adds that he dared to proclaim to them not something of his own, but “the gospel of God.” In this lies the principal thought of the second verse, as the word “not in vain” is the principal thought of the first. All other words merely indicate the circumstances that lead to this thought. Both verses may briefly be rendered: our coming to you, our work among you, our preaching was no empty thing, but we brought you from God the glad tidings of salvation—we imparted to you the gospel of God.

“In much conflict.” As previously he said of the Thessalonians that they “received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Spirit,” so now he says of himself that they too dared in God to impart to them the word of the Lord in much conflict. A similar comparison of his own contest with the contests of the converted is made by the holy Paul in the Epistle to the Philippians (1 Thess. 1:30). By conflict, moreover (αγων — struggle), one may understand here not only the overcoming of outward obstacles and sorrows, but also the wrestling with the minds of those who listened—as may be concluded from the fact that the holy Paul contended with the Jews from the Scriptures (Acts 17:2); as well as the untiring labor in preaching in general, of which he speaks below (1 Thess. 2:9–11). Whoever wishes to review what contests the holy Paul undertook in the preaching of the Gospel in other places as well, let him read 1 Cor. 9:2–9; 2 Cor. 4:8, 11; 23–30; 2 Tim. 4:7.

1 Thess. 2:3. For our exhortation does not come from error, nor from impurity, nor in guile.

Our exhortation is—that is, continues to be, not was—as is indicated by “we speak” in the following verse, with which this one forms a single statement. In this third verse, in connection with the following fourth, the holy Apostle confirms what was said in 1 Thess. 2:1–2 by a general proposition about the divine origin of the Gospel teaching. He gives, as it were, an answer to the question: how is it evident that your work is not empty, that you offer the Gospel of God—as it were inspiring you to speak, despite the adversities that result—and the answer is this: for all this there is one reason—namely, that our teaching is not some error in which we have become entangled, like philosophers; it is not the work of unclean powers or some cunning device, but was directly entrusted to us by God. God’s commandment inspires us to preach, and we are convinced that we preach the truth, just as we are convinced that God is true. But since this testimony of the holy Apostle about himself and his work could be called into question by some, he immediately after points to his conduct among the Thessalonians—which is known to all (1 Thess. 2:5–9)—and from which there can be only one conclusion; as if saying: if you do not believe in words, then believe in deeds, as the Lord also said to the Jews (Jn. 10:38; 14:11).

The word “consolation” — παρακλησις— means invitation, calling, or generally a speech addressed to another. Depending on the content of the speech, παρακλησιςmay be teaching (Acts 15:31), exhortation (1 Tim. 1:9), or consolation. In the present passage, the Apostle named the Gospel proclamation by this term, and fittingly so, for the Gospel proclamation encompasses all three aspects. It is teaching, since it sets forth pure and immutable truths about God, man, and all that exists; it is also exhortation or entreaty (2 Cor. 5:20), since it consists not only in presenting truth but also in urging a change from a former disorderly manner of life to a good and God-pleasing one; and it is also consolation, since it promises the highest comforts to suffering humanity in reconciliation with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the preparation of the Kingdom of Heaven for believers. One may therefore say that the holy Paul used this word in place of the term “the gospel” of God spoken just before.

“Not from delusion,” ουκ εκ πλανης. Πλανηmeans both the deceiving and seduction of others (Mt. 27:64; Eph. 4:14) and one’s own error, or self-deception. In both senses it is the opposite of “truth” (1 Jn. 4:6), whether as love of truth and integrity or as certain knowledge of actual truth. In the present passage it stands in the latter sense. The holy Paul declares by this: in so persistently preaching the Gospel, we do not stand in delusion, in an error into which we ourselves have fallen or been drawn by others, as philosophers and similar men were carried away by their own fantasies, but we know tangibly that we preach the truth, for we personally received the command to do so from God Himself (Acts 22:21), who is truth itself. Our work, says the holy Paul, according to Chrysostom, “is not a deception into which we ourselves have fallen”; according to Theodoret, “the teaching we offer bears no resemblance to the fables of poets, full of many falsehoods”; according to Oecumenius, “our preaching is not something erring — πεπλανημενον— the fruit of deep-rooted self-deception.”

“Nor from impurity.” Some see in this phrase a denial of impure motives; the Apostle seems to want to say that their preaching is carried out not from vainglory or self-interest. But since he will speak of this immediately in 1 Thess. 2:5, it is unnecessary to assume the same thought here. Therefore there is no need to depart from the meaning that the ancient Fathers and teachers of the Church give to this word—namely, that the holy Paul denies that his work derives from unclean power, as in pagan superstitions, magic, and sorcery. This interpretation is consistent with the holy Paul’s purpose in these two verses—1 Thess. 2:3 and 1 Thess. 2 — to indicate the source of his preaching and his courage. In the third verse he refutes false opinions about this that may have circulated among the Thessalonians, while in the fourth he points to the true source. The first source of human error is a shortsighted and proud mind that invariably considers everything it devises to be true. That the apostolic preaching does not derive from this source the holy Paul stated in the words ουκ εκ πλανης. The second source of human error is the father of lies, who has taught people all manner of dark deeds and vices. This, in relation to his own preaching, the Apostle denied: ουδε εξ ακαθαρσιας. By the word “impurity,” says the holy Chrysostom, is expressed the fact that the Apostles’ work was not of the kind belonging to dark deeds, such as are the works of sorcerers and enchanters. “The apostolic teaching,” says Oecumenius, “is not something impure, magical, resembling the spells and magical verses employed by certain priests.” The same thought is found in blessed Theophylact together with blessed Theodoret. That people could think this way about the work of the Apostles, and that the Apostles were pressed to deny it, is not at all surprising, for the same charge was brought against the Lord Himself, and He refuted it. This slander against the Apostles could have arisen from the fact that their preaching everywhere was accompanied by miracles and they established the sacraments, which produced extraordinary effects in those who received them.

“Nor” yet “in guile,” ουδε εν δολω. This too is equally denied, but with a particular nuance that comes from the preposition εν. It is necessary, however, to understand this word in a way that does not depart from the Apostle’s general aim in these verses—the denial of the sources from which the apostolic work is falsely said to derive. Δολος means craftiness, cunning, maliciousness—that which, cloaking an intended evil with sweet words and a fair appearance, conceals it. In ordinary life this is conscious deception or scheming, in which, armed with flattery and people-pleasing, as they say, the crafty circumvent the simple. In a broader sense it is conspiracy or sedition, when δολοςmoves from private relations into the political realm and plots intrigues destructive to established order. It might seem that a charge of this last kind was least of all needed against preachers of the Gospel—yet even against the Lord such an accusation was raised, and against the Apostles as well. It is this that the Apostle has in mind here. He recalled the accusation leveled against him and Silas in Thessalonica, that they were doing everything contrary to the decrees of Caesar, “saying that there is another king, Jesus” (Acts 17:7), and he refutes it. Perhaps there were those in Thessalonica who elaborated this charge more extensively, and the Apostle felt it necessary to address it. Only with this meaning, in harmony with the flow of the discourse, will εν δολωdesignate yet another false source of the apostolic work—from a political standpoint—which is likewise denied by the holy Apostle, as are the others. This meaning is given to it by the holy Fathers and teachers. According to the holy Chrysostom, the Apostle says by this that their work is not a malicious work, not some seditious deed like the affair of Theudas — δεδολωμενον; according to Oecumenius—it is not a crafty thing, the fruit of mature scheming; performed, according to Theophylact, from a drive toward sedition and upheaval, and capable, according to Theodoret, of plunging those who accept it into disaster. Some here depart from the holy Fathers and see in ουδε εν δολωa denial of deceit and cunning in the Apostles, or of the opinion that the Apostles said and did one thing while intending another—preached a faith they did not believe themselves, for self-interested ends, having chosen flattery as their instrument. But this confuses the flow of the discourse, because one verse later the Apostle will again deny in himself fawning flattery. The evident order of the discourse here is as follows: in 1 Thess. 2:3 the Apostle repudiates the false sources of his work; in 1 Thess. 2:4 he points to its true source in God; then in 1 Thess. 2:5 and 1 Thess. 2:6 he repudiates the wicked aims and methods falsely ascribed to them.

The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

1 Thess. 2:4. But as we were approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak—not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts.

“We were approved” — δεδοκιμασμεθα. Δοκιμαζεινmeans to test, to ascertain by experience, to examine (1 Thess. 5:1; 1 Tim. 3:10), then, as a result of testing, to acknowledge as fit and capable for something and therefore to choose for some task (1 Cor. 16:3), and in general—to count worthy, to deem deserving. People test and, after testing, choose. God has no need of testing (Chrysostom), but simply sees. Therefore the Apostle says here: God saw, or acknowledged us as fit (as if having proved our fitness, goodness, and faithfulness), so as to entrust us with the Gospel. He entrusted us with the Gospel because He saw our fitness—the fitness to receive the sacred trust committed to us, with the aid of grace, purely, to preserve it purely, and to transmit it to others purely, without any admixture from the corruption of our mind and heart. “God tested us and chose us so as to entrust us with the Gospel” (Theophylact); He would not have chosen us if He had not found us worthy; if there were something bad in us, God would not have found us fit and approved. Proof of such worthiness is that the gospel was entrusted to us (Chrysostom). But the purpose for which the holy Paul mentions this here is not to recall his own worthiness, but to assure others of his faithfulness to God’s command. Since such trust has been placed in us, we cannot prove unfaithful. But as we were entrusted and as, at the time of entrustment, we were commanded, “so we speak”—that is, in the same spirit, by the same norm and intention. Our preaching of the Gospel fully corresponds to the trust. God tested us and entrusted us with the gospel. But such as He tested us and found us, such we remain. We speak as befits those who have been tested by God and found worthy to preach the gospel (Chrysostom). The conclusion that follows: therefore, believe our word as the word of God. We speak to you not for any of the reasons previously mentioned and denied, but we speak God’s word, by God’s command, without any admixture of anything unworthy before God.

“As we were approved… so we speak—not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts.” We have no aim, he says, to please men; all our concern is to be found pleasing to God, who tests our hearts. “We did not appoint ourselves as teachers—rather, the Gospel was entrusted to us by God. Therefore we both speak and do everything as if with God as witness; for we know that not a single movement of the soul is hidden from Him” (Theodoret). Though the holy Paul says that they only strive to make their work pleasing to God, it is evident that they cherish the assurance that it truly is so; for their conscience testifies that in all things they are faithful to the One who entrusted it to them and act entirely according to His intentions and desires. By this the Apostle forestalls a charge damaging to the success of the Gospel—that they act out of people-pleasing. For in such a case there is always room for suspicion of distorting the truth. But this is impossible when one acts before God and for His pleasure. God sees this unwavering faithfulness, and we with fear strive to manifest it to Him, serving as if in His very presence, lest for unfaithfulness He should remove us from the work. If He does not remove us, it means He sees us as faithful. The conclusion here is the same: therefore, do not waver in your faith in our word, for it is fully such as God Himself is pleased for it to be.

By “men,” whose pleasure the holy Paul denies seeking, one may understand either those who might have led them into error and persuaded them to spread a false teaching, or who had formed some plot and instructed them to act according to their plan; or one may understand those to whom the Gospel is being preached—showing that the Apostles do not accommodate themselves to their desires but speak God’s truth directly, without being deterred by the fact that it may be unpleasant for the hearers to receive (cf. Gal. 1:10).

1 Thess. 2:5–6. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext of greed—God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others.

The holy Paul now passes to describing the spirit, intentions, and methods of his preaching. Three charges—possible or actual—the holy Paul repudiates here: flattery, greed, and love of glory. This is indicated also by the structure of the sentence: “never… nor” as a pretext… “nor” seeking—in Greek ουτε… ουτε… ουτε. The holy Paul first of all repudiates the charge of flattery: “never came with words of flattery to you.” This flattery or fawning is an exceedingly repellent manner of conduct. Not only is it unpleasant to deal face to face with a flatterer, but even one who gave no appearance of being a flatterer in personal dealings loses much as soon as the suspicion or charge of it is brought against him. It is precisely this charge that the holy Paul hastens to repudiate. For it could serve as a barrier between him and the Thessalonians. Moreover, by deflecting this charge, the holy Apostle thereby already weakened the other two (of greed and seeking glory), in which one cannot succeed without flattery. The holy Chrysostom places them in exactly this dependence, saying: “We did not flatter—as do people seeking profit or power. One cannot say that we flattered to attain power, or that we resolved to do this for money.” The Apostle says: we were not with you in words of flattery, εν λογω κολακειας, we did not address you with a flattering word. Our word to you was free from flattery, both in its manner of speech and in its content. But λογοςalso means the sense of a matter, a motive, a reason. If this is accepted, the Apostle’s thought will be: we did not address you or conduct ourselves among you in the spirit of flattery. In that case “with words of flattery” εν λογω κολακειας εν προφασει πλεονεξιαςwill embrace the whole activity of the Apostles, whereas in the first interpretation it concerns only the word, the conversation, the preaching.

“Nor with a pretext of greed.” We did not conduct ourselves among you in pursuit of gain either. We came to you to benefit you through the preaching of the Gospel, not to exploit you for gain. “With a pretext of greed” — εν προφασει πλεονεξιας. Προφασιςmeans a pretext and an intention. The Apostle wants to say: under the fair appearance of preaching and apostolic work, we were not concealing self-interested aims. He does not mean to say that no one can convict them of this, that nothing of the kind has come to light, but that they had no such covetous designs even in their hearts, that it never even entered their minds (Oecumenius). Why does the Apostle call God as witness to this? Because of the gravity of the charge, which could do great harm to the work of preaching if not repudiated; meanwhile it is impossible to see that the Apostles indeed have no such aims, since they are hidden in the heart. So the Apostle calls as witness God, who searches hearts, before whom and from whom they act (cf. Rom. 1:9; Phil. 1:8). He wants not even the shadow of such a dark suspicion about them to remain, and invites men to look into their conscience in the light of God’s omniscience.

“Regarding flattery,” says blessed Theodoret following Chrysostom, “the Apostle called the Thessalonians themselves as witnesses, because flattering words are evident to those who hear them; but regarding greed—not only them, but the One who oversees the whole universe, because the aim for which something is done is often hidden from men.”

“Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others. We were not seeking”—that is, we were not seekers of human glory either; we acted without requiring honor, without vainglory—and this not only among you, but everywhere and before all. “The Apostle did not say: we endured dishonor, or: we received no honor—which would have been a reproach to the Thessalonians—but: we did not seek glory” (Chrysostom). “Although they were glorified by men, they themselves did not seek glory and took no pleasure in it” (Oecumenius). In this the holy Apostles were like the Lord, who not only did not seek glory from men (Jn. 8:50), but did not even receive it (Jn. 5:41). Love of glory suppresses love of truth (Jn. 5:44). But God’s glory is not like that. “He who seeks the glory of the One who sent him, this man is true and there is no unrighteousness in him” (Jn. 7:18). This conviction the holy Paul wished to plant in the hearts of the Thessalonians. The calling of God as witness to assure them of freedom from greed extends also to this point—assurance of freedom from love of glory as well. “The same witness is also for the fact that we preach not seeking glory from men” (Oecumenius).

Up to this point the holy Paul had put forward the subject matter of his preaching, the source of the teaching he was preaching, and the spirit of his preaching—that is, his motives for it. Now he turns to describing how they conducted themselves during their preaching of the Gospel among the Thessalonians. In three distinct denials (1 Thess. 1:2, 3:4, 5:6) he repelled the charges leveled against him, assuring them that his teaching is not some empty superstition but the Gospel of God—from God and not from any corrupt source—and that he himself, in preaching it, was moved not by any impure motives of greed or vainglory and taught not with the dishonest methods of flattery and cunning, but as before God, who searches hearts. Now he outlines his activity from a positive standpoint in brief but powerful expressions.

1 Thess. 2:7. Though we could have asserted our authority as Apostles of Christ, yet we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishing her own children.

“To have asserted our authority” could be understood—as it might seem at first glance, by reference to what the Apostle says in 1 Thess. 2:9: “that we might not burden you,” and to his use of this word in other places (2 Thess. 3:8; 2 Cor. 12:16, 11:9)—as meaning to burden with one’s own support. The Apostles, by the Lord’s command that those who proclaim the gospel should live by the gospel (1 Cor. 9:14), could blamelessly receive support from those who had accepted the Gospel. As this required new expenses not previously incurred, it could seem burdensome. Is it not this burden that the holy Paul has in mind here, as if saying: we could have burdened you with supporting us, but did not? No, not this. For then it would have been necessary to add “to you” and to say, instead of “to assert authority” εν βαρει, “to be a burden” εις βαρος — that is, to say: we could have been a burden to you. But the main reason this interpretation cannot be accepted is that it does not correspond either to what precedes it, where the Apostle speaks of not seeking glory, or to what follows, where he speaks of his own gentleness. It is better to interpret “though we could have asserted our authority” as in the Russian translation: though we could have appeared with dignity, as Apostles. Chrysostom says on this passage: “If the messengers of kings enjoy honor, how much more may we. Those who are sent to men by God ought, like heavenly messengers who have appeared, to enjoy all the greater honor—but despite such an excess of right, we do nothing of the kind, so as to stop the mouths of adversaries.”

One may allow that the holy Apostle has in mind here the repudiation of a new particular charge, similar to the one that was later leveled against him in Corinth (2 Cor. 10:10), namely that the holy Paul acted too weakly. A messenger of God should have shown more dignity. The Apostle says: we could have appeared in such a manner, but we were gentle. Our love for you prompted us to act thus.

“But we were gentle among you.” “But” answers directly to what was said above—“though we could have asserted our authority”—together with which it forms a distinct, complete thought: as though to say, we could have appeared with dignity, but we were gentle—that is, we did not hold a lofty tone, we were not domineering (1 Pet. 5:3), but as servants, by the command of the Lord, we were ready to do everything ourselves for you (Mt. 20:26). “Gentle” — ηπιοι. ‘Ηπιος means meek, quiet, tenderly loving, gracious—and is used precisely in the relations of those higher to those lower: a king toward his subjects, a superior toward those under him, parents toward children, physicians toward their patients. “Among you”—in our dealings with you we were the same as you; as though we had nothing special, as if we had received no special appointment and significance (Chrysostom); we appeared among you, surrounded by you, as teachers by disciples, as mothers by children, as a hen by her chicks. This condescension may have served, for some, as a reason for charging the Apostles with flattery, and for others—with weakness of character. The Apostle answers: all this is the fruit of love for you, not flattery or weakness.

“Like a nursing mother who cherishes her own children.”

The first characteristic of the Apostles’ manner among the Thessalonians is gentleness; the second is motherly love. “Nursing mother” here does not mean a wet nurse, as is clear from the fact that she is depicted as nourishing her own children. This is a mother in the period of nursing her child—a mother giving suck (breastfeeding). The holy Paul compares himself to a mother also in the Epistle to the Galatians (1 Thess. 4:19). He also frequently calls himself a father in relation to those who came to faith through him (here — 1 Thess. 2:11; 1 Cor. 4:15). The comparison with a mother proved more apt here, because the Apostle wished to express his exceedingly tender love for them—love on the side of feeling; the love of active works of love he expresses below (1 Thess. 2:9) by comparing himself to a father. By it the Apostle also wished to cast a concluding light on his previous apologetic thoughts against the charges. Thus the holy Chrysostom: “Does a nursing mother flatter her child to gain glory from it? Does she seek money from little ones? Is she arrogant with them and harsh? Here the Apostle reveals his tender love.”

“Cherishes her own children” — θαλπη. This is said of birds that warm their young by covering them with their wings. So too a mother wraps her little child at her breast, thereby both protecting it and giving it vitality. The comparison points to a love poured out, ever ready to do everything for the beloved.

1 Thess. 2:8. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own souls, because you had become dear to us.

“Affectionately longing for you” — ομειρομενοι υμων. This word means a strong desire to unite oneself with someone, to enter into fellowship and heartfelt union with him, and in relation to the absent—a desire to see them and be together again. The Thessalonians were formerly strangers in the faith, as those living in a foreign land. The Apostle expresses by this how he desired to draw them to himself, desired heartfelt union with them, desired specifically them and not something of theirs—as he said in another place (2 Cor. 12:14): “I seek not yours, but you.”

“We were well pleased” — ευδοκουμεν. This word means a willing, joyful, and gladly undertaken free resolution of good will. It is used to express God’s good pleasure concerning the salvation of the human race and of each person (Col. 1:19; Gal. 1:15; 1 Cor. 1:21), and of the good impulses of human desires (Rom. 15:26; 2 Cor. 5:8; and others).

“To impart to you” … our souls — μεταδουναι— to transmit, to share. There are those who wish to see here only δουναι— to give, to lay down—understanding “souls” as “lives,” so that the meaning would be: we were gladly willing not only to preach the Gospel to you but to lay down our lives for you, if it had been required (cf. Mt. 20:28). But in that case the phrase would have said “for you,” not “to you.” Moreover, to interpret it in that way means dividing within a single phrase the meaning of one and the same word μεταδουναι. In relation to souls—to give up. Though to give up one’s soul for someone in the sense of sacrificing one’s life does show strong love, it is still weaker than what the Apostle wishes to express. He wishes to say that he eagerly desired to transmit his very soul to them. Just as a mother—with whom the Apostle compares himself—is ready not only in danger to lay down her life for her children, but is ever ready to pour out and does pour out her soul into them, living in them as it were by her very soul; so too the holy Paul assures them that he was ready to pour his very soul into them. According to the holy Chrysostom, the Apostle expresses: “We love you so much that, if it had been necessary, we would have given you even our souls,” because we were wholly devoted to you. We did not merely preach the Gospel to you, but along with the words which, sparing no strength, we sowed abundantly in you, we were well pleased to transmit to you our very souls—as a mother’s soul passes, as it were, into the child she nourishes not with something external but with the elements of her own life. Strong love is ready to transmit, or to carry over, everything into the beloved. Thus Christ the Saviour, in a demonstration of His boundless love for us, gives us His very self in Holy Communion. Such is the character of Paul’s love as well. Only what the Saviour bestows in deed, the Apostle transmitted by his good will.

“Because you had become dear to us.” Having expressed such an affection and at the same time reminded the Thessalonians that it was real and had been shown as such, the Apostle hastens to characterize it, pointing to its true source—not in anything external, but in love alone. They might then have thought, or might now think, that the Apostles were seeking something from them. To deflect such a suspicion the Apostle says: all this was not for any other reason, but “because you had become dear to us” (Chrysostom, Theophylact).

The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

1 Thess. 2:9. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.

The third characteristic of the Apostles’ manner is complete self-denial. “For you remember…” This provides the reason for what was said before, answering as it were the question: from what is it evident that the Apostles were to the Thessalonians as a mother, ready to transmit their very souls to them, as to beloved ones? From the way we conducted ourselves among you. Remember how we behaved among you, and you will be assured how we loved you and were ready to give you everything.

“Our labor and toil” — κοπον και μοχθον. He did not say: remember our benefactions—but something more impressive: our labor and toil (Theophylact). These two words appear together also in 2 Thess. 3:8 and 2 Cor. 11:27. The latter intensifies the former, and together they express the single thought that the Apostles did not merely touch upon labor lightly but applied themselves to it strenuously, engaging in labor that was memorable (Chrysostom). Yet it is not right to distinguish them so as to refer κοπονto preaching and toil (μοχθον) to the manual trade. Both words encompass both activities.

“Night and day.” This is a common phrase expressing the uninterrupted continuance of something throughout the full day. We say “day and night,” as do the Latins: diu noctuque (for a long time, for a very long time). The same usage is found in Scripture (Lk. 18:7; Acts 9:24; Rev. 20:10). Night is placed first because among the Jews (and Athenians) the day began at sunset and ended at sunset. There is no basis for dividing them, assigning night to the manual trade and day to preaching. The holy Paul preached at night as well (Acts 20:7). By this the holy Apostle merely wishes to say that they were not idle for a single moment, were continuously in labor: at times making tents, at times preaching. Theodoret says: “(The Apostle) showed the extreme intensity of his efforts, not only by pointing to ‘labor and toil,’ but by adding the nighttime hours to the days.”

Working — εργαζεσθαι— the usual expression for bodily labor and especially handwork, the working of hands (1 Cor. 4:12; Eph. 4:28). The holy Paul refers to his trade—tent-making, the making of tents for travelers, soldiers, and gardens (Acts 18:3). The grammatical form shows that the manual work is not the main point in the Apostle’s speech but subordinate; the main point is the preaching.

“That we might not burden any of you”—understood as: with our support. But to the Corinthians the holy Paul wrote: “I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to serve you” (2 Cor. 11:8). One cannot therefore conclude from this that the Thessalonian Christians were poor. The Apostle acted in this way everywhere, out of fear of placing an obstacle to the spread of the Gospel if he required support from those being converted. “See what zeal this is and what care not to scandalize anyone” (Theophylact). “Observe how Paul conducted himself! Being a preacher and Apostle of the universe, and having been counted worthy of such high honor, he worked with his own hands so as not to burden those who were being instructed” (Chrysostom).

“We preached to you” — εις υμαςis similar to υμιν in its general sense, but has its own nuance—not merely that they preached “among them,” but also that the preaching entered into them, or sowed seeds of divine truths within them.

1 Thess. 2:10. You are witnesses, and God, how devoutly and righteously and blamelessly we conducted ourselves toward you who believe.

From this tenth verse the text speaks of how the holy Apostles conducted themselves after the conversion of the Thessalonians. This is indicated by the words: “toward you who believe”—that is, after you had come to faith. Consequently, 1 Thess. 2:11 and 1 Thess. 2:12 tell how and in what the Apostles taught those who had already believed. Everything said up to and including 1 Thess. 2:9 relates to the activity of the Apostles in the conversion of the Thessalonians, while 1 Thess. 2:10, 11, 12 relate to their conduct after the conversion.

“You are witnesses, and God.” He places witnesses at the outset, so as to dispose the listeners more impressively to receive the word without hesitation or doubt, “providing thereby a greater degree of credibility to his words and adding what could most particularly persuade them” (Chrysostom). Since the speech is about to touch not only on the external—visible to all and easily observed and judged by all—but also on the innermost feelings and dispositions, especially in relation to God, the Apostle calls as witnesses not the Thessalonians alone but God as well. Of devotion—that is, piety and the fear of God—God alone can know with certainty. This is why the Apostle says, as it were: I call to witness your conscience and God, who is the witness of my conscience. “You are witnesses of what you saw, and God is the witness of what you could not see” (Oecumenius). “For what is visible is known to men, but what is hidden from men is known to God” (Theodoret).

“Devoutly”—that is, piously, reverently, with the fear of God, always mindful that we are performing God’s work and under the eyes of God, and therefore “without cunning, without deception, without people-pleasing, without ungodly motives” (Oecumenius).

“Righteously”—wronging no one, rendering to each his due, in general conducting oneself in relation to others according to the full breadth of the commandments that govern such conduct.

“Blamelessly,” αμεμπτως — irreproachably, soberly, chastely, temperately, decorously; in general in such a way that no one can complain that we indulged ourselves in anything, that we were not strict with ourselves. It is clear that by the word “blamelessly” the holy Paul points to a lawful, God-pleasing manner of conduct in relation to one’s own self. This interpretation requires no forcing to satisfy the customary division of human duties according to the three specified relationships. Here it may mean the same as “soberly” in Tit. 2:12. But in no way can it be taken as a concept encompassing both of the foregoing—devoutly and righteously—and still less as a determination of the same thing expressed by “righteously,” only from the negative side. For it stands in the sequence with the first two as a distinct part equal to them, and should not be conflated with them.

“Toward you who believe”—that is, after you had received the Gospel and come to faith. According to the holy Chrysostom, the Apostle Paul speaks here of his conduct among the Thessalonians, defines the character of his behavior among them, and says: devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly we conducted ourselves—or held ourselves—before you who believe. These are the characteristic features in which the image of their conduct was to have imprinted itself on the souls of the Thessalonians—how radiant, pure, and attractive it was to their eyes, illumined by faith.

1 Thess. 2:11–12. As you know, how we exhorted each one of you as a father does his own children, and comforted and charged you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

First of all the grammatical structure of the passage must be established. “As you know, that…”—because, or inasmuch as you know, each one… “exhorting and comforting” and the rest. The governing verb is lacking for these participles: “exhorting” and the rest. To supply it, some supplement the text with the addition of ηγαπησαμεν or εφιλησαμεν, so that it would read: because you know how we, as a father with his children, loved each one of you, imploring and so forth. This addition is entirely arbitrary! Others supply more directly the word ημεν — so that it would read: you know, how each one… we were imploring, or implored. Agreeing that this is permissible, still others say that no such supplement is necessary, since a similar verb already occurs above—namely at the end of 1 Thess. 2:10: “toward you who believe” — εγενηθημεν. The Apostle was mentally repeating it here and did not write it out again, so as not to overshadow “exhorting” and the rest, in which, together with “walk worthy of God,” all the force of the discourse lies. Those who have believed must live according to faith. Since this life is not only interior but must also find external expression, and since the former external customs—pagan in many respects, even in substantial ones—did not accord with the Gospel, the Apostles, having converted the Thessalonians, occupied themselves with ordering the life of the new Christians in their domestic and civic existence, in addition to the religious, which is the heart of the matter.

“Each one of you…” The holy Chrysostom: “He passed over no one, neither small nor great, neither rich nor poor—everyone who had need, without distinction.” Evidently there was occasion to speak with each one of the newly converted, and with some perhaps much was talked over and explained before he understood and agreed to order his life according to the spirit of the new life. Each person may have had circumstances of daily life requiring clarification on how to act in them in a Gospel-like manner.

“As a father does his children”—points to the source of such tireless care in fatherly love for them. Earlier, when the Apostle spoke of their conversion, when they were only just being born to the spiritual life, he compared himself to a mother; but now, when they have been reborn and need to be raised and led toward perfection, he compares himself to a father. In the correction of morals it was necessary to display not only the tenderness of maternal feeling, but also the firmness of paternal will and authority, the experience and wisdom by which fathers are usually distinguished and to which mothers are not quite equal.

“Exhorting you and comforting you and charging you.” If one considers primarily the persons toward whom all these verbal actions are directed, they should be understood as different rhetorical methods aimed at ordering the life of the Thessalonians. The Apostle wishes to say, as it were: we exhausted all means of persuasion to dispose you to walk worthy of God. In that case: “exhorting” — παρακαλουντες— will mean: we persuaded, urged, acted on the mind; “comforting” — παραμυθουμενοι— we stirred sympathy, disposed them to love the new manner of life as God-pleasing and salvific, acting on feeling and heart. “Charging,” μαρτυρομενοι — with testimonies of Scripture, with the words of the living God, we bound and adjured them, bringing the will to inspired resolution for a new way of life with readiness for all manner of sacrifice for its sake. But if one considers the object of these actions—to walk worthy of God—one may see in each of them a reference to particular aspects of that walking worthy of God. In that case: exhorting — παρακαλουντες— will mean: we implored and persuaded them to receive the faith and keep it; comforting — παραμυθουμενοι— we comforted them in the tribulations that were present and encouraged them to meet courageously those that were to come; charging — μαρτυρομενοι— in the name of God we bound and adjured them to live according to the Gospel.

“To walk worthy of God”—or worthy of the gospel (Phil. 1:27; cf. Rom. 16:2; 3 Jn. 6), or worthy of the calling (Eph. 4:1); in general in all pleasing of God and every good work (Col. 1:10), as befits those who have received new life (1 Pet. 1:23; Rom. 6:11 and following) and the children of light (Eph. 5:8). This is the chief concern and goal for those who have come to believe in the Lord. Faith does not accomplish everything. It gives entry into the kingdom of Christ—the Church. One who has entered has the chief obligation: to walk as befits the sons of the kingdom. To this, as is evident, the Apostles paid careful attention.

“Who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.” The kingdom and glory will be revealed at the resurrection (Rom. 8:17), but the Thessalonians are already designated as called into them, for the goal of the whole economy of salvation—of all the means of grace—is there. Through faith and grace they are designated for the inheritance of the eternal kingdom and glory; or in other words: they are called into the kingdom of grace, that they may inherit the kingdom of glory, if the conditions for receiving this inheritance are preserved—all of which are encompassed in the single phrase “to walk worthy of God.” They are called into the kingdom—to be under royal authority, that they may afterwards share in the reign. Those who are unconditionally submissive to the will of the Lord here will reign with Him there. In the future the glory of human nature restored will be revealed. But just as here it is purified by the power of God, so there it will be glorified by the glory of God: in all things the glory of God will shine. It is into this glory that believing Christians are called.

This section too concludes with a turning of attention to the future life, just as the first did (1 Thess. 1:10)! So strongly was the Apostle occupied with that thought, and so powerful a support for the Christian character in Christians did he see in it.

The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Having pointed to the signs of the divine character of Gospel teaching in the circumstances of his sojourn among the Thessalonians, the Apostle now passes to depicting how the word of preaching was received by the Thessalonians, indicating here too the signs of its divine dignity. (aa) You yourselves, he says, received our word as divine, and therefore had grounds to be assured of this at the time; (bb) the received word is at work in you—this is a continually ongoing assurance of its extraordinary power and superhuman dignity (1 Thess. 2:13); (cc) your lot, after receiving the word, places you in the same rank as all the confessors of the divine character of the Gospel—a sign that it is not of human origin, for otherwise no one would be persecuted (1 Thess. 2:14). The conclusion from all this is one: stand firm in faith, as indeed you do. Verses 1 Thess. 2:15 and 1 Thess. 2:16 appear as an appendix. But since they, though briefly, yet fully and powerfully depict the ever-present character of the stubbornly unbelieving Jews and determine their final fate, one cannot but presume that the holy Apostles had a particular motive for saying this—namely, to cut off that wavering of faith which was occasioned by the following thought: the Jews are your own people; they should be the ones to believe you, yet they persecute you. The Apostle says to this: do not look to them; they have always been like this; that is why their end will be what it will be.

1 Thess. 2:13. For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.

“For this reason.” What reason? If related to what stands immediately above, it will be—for the reason that God has called you into His kingdom and glory. At this everyone should rejoice. We too rejoice, giving thanks to God, that by this calling you believed our word as the word of God, without which one cannot be partakers of God’s saving economy for mankind, proclaimed by us. By this thought the Apostle continues to testify to his fatherly love for the Thessalonians. But it is better to relate it to all that preceded (1 Thess. 2:1–12). “You know our entrance to you”—you know how many sacrifices were made by us, how much labor, attention, and heartfelt care was expended. You believed and crowned our efforts with success; we rejoice at this and give thanks to God. Such a connection of the words “for this reason” is seen by the holy Chrysostom, and after him by Oecumenius and Theophylact. Chrysostom writes: “It is impossible to say, he says (the Apostle), that we alone in all things behaved blamelessly, while you did something inconsistent with how we treated you—for you listened to us not with the disposition with which one listens to men, but you heeded us as if God Himself were instructing you.”

“We give thanks to God.” The Apostle’s aim is to point to the Thessalonians’ conviction of the divine character of the word as a proof of that divine character. He gives thanks to God for such conviction, in order to show that it was placed in their hearts by God Himself; and thus, by attributing an unworldly origin to their conviction, he sets forth its superhuman importance and awakens in them an obligation to remain faithful to it.

“Because when you received the word of God’s hearing from us, you welcomed it…” “By ‘the word of hearing’ he means the preaching in which one believes by means of hearing. For, ‘how will they believe if they have not heard?’ (Rom. 10:14)” (Theophylact). Since “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17), God was pleased that there should be preaching and sent preachers. It pleased God that all should hear His word. Those who are granted this are granted to hear the utterance proceeding from God and heard by God’s arrangement. The holy Apostle thanks God for the Thessalonians: that they received the word, that they were given it, that it reached them and they agreed to hear it—for this too is from God; and that, having received the word in this way, they received it “as the word of God”—which again is evidently from God. Having received the word by hearing—the word that came to you from outside—you received it into your heart not “as the word of men,” though it came through men, but as the word of God. “From us you received the word—yet it is not ours but God’s, for God speaks through us” (Photius, cited by Oecumenius). In hearing our word, you felt the extraordinary power of the word, and acknowledged that it is not of the earth but divine. Together with the word, light entered into your souls and drove out the darkness; an invisible power entered and awakened in you the energy of your dormant spiritual forces. This was “God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who shone in your hearts” (2 Cor. 4:6). You recognized this and became convinced that our word was the word of God, and received it as such.

“Which also effectively works in you.” The action of the word was not momentary; having begun once, it continues without interruption. Just as in the Saviour’s parable the seed cast into the earth then of itself brings forth the blade, the stalk, the ear, and the grain; so too among the Thessalonians the Gospel word, having been received into the heart by faith, of itself, without external intermediary, more and more developed, more and more widely occupied the soil of the heart, illumined the understanding, corrected the feelings, ordered the character. Like a medicine taken, it healed what was sick and restored the sound powers of nature. When the word is received not only by the mind and hearing but by the heart, it does not remain idle but enters into life and works in it (2 Pet. 1:8) as a force that moves everything and governs all.—Nevertheless, the holy Apostle had in mind not only this single inward action of the word, but also the extraordinary gifts of grace that everywhere accompanied the Gospel word. Of course, the Thessalonians, having been granted prophetic grace, prophesied, spoke in tongues, and performed extraordinary miracles (Theodoret and Oecumenius). The Apostle says, as it were: all this you are experiencing; consequently, you have living assurance of the unworldly action of the word, testifying that it too is not earthly, not ordinary, not human. Stand firm, therefore!

“In you who believe”—because you believe—inasmuch as you believe—on the condition of faith. Without faith the word will not enter the heart and cannot work in it. If it entered and works in you, it is only because you believed and do believe. The power of faith lies in this: when the heart, on every point of faith and every question concerning it, answers without any deliberation—“so God has commanded.” This conviction is what imparts unwavering steadiness of thought and the moral firmness of submission to the will of God. When all the powers of the spirit are united by faith, the spirit receives its wholeness and its native strength. At the same time it becomes a firm vessel for holding the gifts of grace. The Apostle says to the Thessalonians: because of your faith you see what fruits you have received; therefore cherish it.

1 Thess. 2:14. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Jews.

Writing to the Philippians, the Apostle said that it had been granted to them not only to believe in the Lord but also to suffer for Him. Here too, after speaking of the faith of the Thessalonians, he mentions their sufferings as the necessary companions of faith. “For to this we are appointed,” as he says later (1 Thess. 3:3).

Previously he said: “you became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 1:6). Here he says: “you became imitators of the churches” of Judea. He wishes to establish in them the thought that in the economy of salvation all suffer: the Lord, His Apostles, and all believers. Such is the law of the manifestation on earth of the truth concerning Christ Jesus—the division of men and the rising of some against others (Mt. 10:35–37). Against those who receive and carry the word of God, those who do not receive it arm themselves and persecute them. So it was in Judea, so it is everywhere, so it is with you. In the fact that people rose up against you, there is no reproach upon the word and no undermining of its truth; on the contrary, it is proof that the word stands outside the common order, is not of the earth—it is divine. The particle “for” (gar) shows that the Apostle here is giving a reason. For what? For what he said just before—that the word preached by them and received by the Thessalonians is divine and shows divine power and action in them. In what way do hostility and persecutions from one’s own people serve as proof of this? In this way: the received word, by the action of grace, changed the pattern of thought, the morals, and the conduct of those who believed. This set them apart from their own people and armed those people against them. Persecutions prove the divine character of the word in that they point to the essential change that took place in the minds and hearts of those who believed—a change that could not have occurred if the word were not divine. On the other hand, the persecuted endure and stand firm on what they believe. Where does this come from? From the same power of the word received with faith. Thus the divine character of the word is proved both by the existence of persecution and by the fact that those who received the word remain faithful to it despite that persecution. The holy Chrysostom says: “He proves by the trials they underwent that they received the word in the right way. How, he says, would you have endured such dangers if you had not heeded our words as the very words of God?” Oecumenius adds: “That you received our word as the word of God is evident from the fact that you were able to bear such tribulations. Just as from what he himself suffered the Apostle proved above that he preaches what is divine, so from what they suffered he now proves that they received his preaching as the word of God.” The same thought is in Theophylact.

By comparing the Church of Thessalonica with the churches of Judea, he confers greater honor upon it and encourages it toward endurance. Proselytes from the Gentiles were already accustomed to look upon Jerusalem and Judea as the sanctuary of divine truth. Christians from the Gentiles therefore had all the more reason to look upon the believers there with reverence. The Lord had worked there; the Holy Spirit had descended there; the first churches had been established there; from there the Apostles had gone out to the whole world. The churches there were exemplary, and to be likened to them was an honor for Christians living far away. Here was fulfilled the prophecy of the holy Isaiah concerning the glory of Zion and the eager striving of the nations toward it for enlightenment and truth (Is. 2:2–3).

Having referred to the churches in Judea, the Apostle characterized them thus: “churches” “of God in Christ Jesus”—to show that not all the assemblies there are true churches. “Since the Jewish synagogues too were, apparently, of God, the Apostle says of the churches of believers that they are not only of God but also of Christ Jesus, for he who has denied the Son has also denied the Father” (Oecumenius; Theophylact similarly). Here too the Apostle’s aim is the same—to hold the attention of the Thessalonians on the thought of the division everywhere brought about by the word of truth which they preach. And this was necessary for him to remove the perplexity caused by the unbelief of the Jews. How is it that the Jews, worshipers of the true God, guardians of His revelations, do not believe you? Does it not mean that your words are not from God? The Apostle dispels this perplexity by saying that not all are unbelieving, and then describes with dark colors the unbelieving Jews in 1 Thess. 2:15, 16.

The better part of the Jews believed and formed the glorious churches of Christ Jesus. And they suffer from their own Jewish kinsmen, just as you suffer from your own countrymen. If all Jews were unbelieving, the perplexity would remain strong; but since whole churches have been formed from them, this is powerful proof of the truth of the word. For those who believed suffer from their own, and to endure this one must have stronger reasons and grounds for faith than for unbelief, since unbelief would have left them in peace, in the old ways which they themselves formerly valued highly. The holy Chrysostom says: “If Jews too resolved to endure everything with patience for the sake of faith, this is no small proof that the preaching is true.” Theophylact continues the same thought: “It is no small proof of the truth of the Gospel that Jews willingly suffer for what they themselves formerly persecuted.”

Having thus distinguished the believing Jews from the unbelieving, the holy Apostle presses down with the full weight of judgment upon the latter.

1 Thess. 2:15. Who killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are hostile to all men. 1 Thess. 2:16. “Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as to always fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.”

Both these verses are an appendix to the preceding. In them the Apostle expresses, as if in passing, his thought about the unbelieving Jews. But since they so fully define the character of the unbelieving Jews and prophetically indicate their final fate, one cannot but see that they were attached by the Apostle intentionally—and specifically for the final dispelling of the perplexity which some might draw, and perhaps actually did draw in Thessalonica, from the unbelief of the Jews. In Thessalonica, among the believers, Jews were far fewer than Gentiles; but the persecution raised against Christians was instigated by Jews, though they hid behind the Gentiles. Their unbelief could therefore cause great disturbance. The holy Apostle now says that the unbelief of the Jews is no cause for disturbance. They have always proved disobedient to God. God sent prophets to them, and they killed them; the Lord Jesus came, and they killed Him; the Lord sent us to them, and they expelled us; when we turned from them to the Gentiles, they hinder us from proclaiming the word of truth to the Gentiles as well. Thus throughout all of history they are enemies of God and haters of mankind. Do not be troubled, therefore, by their unbelief, the more so since their end is already near. God had long been merciful to them; now the wrath of God—final wrath—is ready to fall upon their heads. Such is the thought in the verses in question! We will add a few notes on particular expressions.

“Who killed the Lord Jesus…” He begins his portrayal of Jewish wickedness with deicide, and deliberately names the Saviour “Lord,” to say that they “crucified the Lord of glory” (Acts 3:15; 1 Cor. 2:8). How they killed the Lord had certainly been told during the evangelization in Thessalonica. For the first preaching in Thessalonica proceeded in such a way that it extensively proved from Scripture “that it was necessary for Christ to suffer thus” (Acts 17:3).

“And His prophets”—whom they likewise killed. The holy Chrysostom draws consolation for the persecuted Thessalonians from the mention of the Lord’s own death and then adds: “But perhaps the Jews did not recognize Him (the Lord)? On the contrary, they knew Him very well. But what? Did they not also kill and stone their own prophets, whose Scriptures they carry with them everywhere? Certainly they did not act so out of love for truth. Thus he (the Apostle) not only offers consolation in trials, but also persuades them not to suppose that the Jews acted so out of love for truth—and not to be troubled by this.” Theophylact adds: “Whereby it is evident that they do nothing as zealots for truth, but rather raging against truth.”

“And have persecuted us.” The occasion for such speech may have been the recent expulsion of the holy Paul and Silas from Thessalonica (Acts 17:5–9). But since the Apostle intends to depict in general the truly hateful character of the Jews, he here evidently means all the Apostles in general, the heralds of the New Testament, in correspondence with the Old Testament prophets (cf. Acts 5:17 and following; Acts 6:12 and following).

“And do not please God and are hostile to all men.” The conjunctions “and… and” show that each of these phrases expresses new features of Jewish wickedness. What then do the words “do not please God and are hostile to men” express—when it goes without saying that those who did what was said before do not please God and are hostile to men? The Apostle wishes to point to the source of the misdeeds shown. They act in this way because in their hearts there lies no sincere intention to please God and no warm love for people. They do not love God, and pleasing Him is not the chief goal of their life. Their heart, not loving God, does not love God’s truth either—it rises up against it. Not loving God, they are also ill-disposed toward men and always go against what God sends for their benefit. But how is it that they uphold all the divine institutions? They have zeal, but “not according to knowledge” (Rom. 10:2). “They think they are offering service to God” (Jn. 16:2), yet in fact they oppose Him.

“Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they may be saved.” These words serve as an explanation of the preceding. Their failure to please God and their hostility to men are plainly visible in the fact that they hinder the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles. In this they become enemies of God and haters of mankind. God has commanded, yet they hinder; the preaching is salvific, yet they do not want it to reach the Gentiles and save them. “If the whole world must be evangelized, and they oppose this, then they are the common enemies of the world” (Chrysostom).

“So as to always fill up the measure of their sins.” The word of God always speaks thus of God’s judgments—that terrible punishments overtake people for filling up the measure of sins (e.g. Gen. 15:17). God admonishes sinners in every way, but when they stubbornly reject His salvific provisions for them, then God gives them over into the hands of their own will. And then, adding sins to sins, they both fill up the measure of sins and exhaust the divine longsuffering. Merciless judgment follows. The Apostle says, as it were: they act in this way so that it can be said of them that they were filling up the measure of their sins “always”—at all times, in every period of their historical life, both before the Lord Jesus and in His time and after Him, throughout all their history. They have been permitted to rise up against us and against the Lord Himself, so that even in this period they should not be without a godless deed (Photius, cited by Oecumenius). So much evil did they do to the ancient prophets, and in our day to Christ the Lord and to us, so that sins might always be in the filling. Since they always acted thus, they always filled up their sins. “Or the Apostle wishes to say: they sinned before also, but it was still bearable. But when at last they rose up against God Himself and His holy Gospel, the measure of their sins was thereby filled to the full. It is no longer possible to endure them. The Lord said: ‘You also fill up the measure of your fathers’ (Mt. 23:32)—fill up what was lacking in them. In that case ‘always’ will mean ‘once and for all,’ as we say ‘once for all’—that is, finally.” Theophylact writes: “This they were doing to the ancient prophets, then to Christ, and finally to us as well—and are doing—so as to show that they hasten to reach the full measure of sins, their extreme limit.”

“But wrath has come upon them” to “the uttermost.” “Has come to the uttermost”—the measure of longsuffering is filled; the final decree of God’s judgment upon them has been issued; their fate is decided. Thus Chrysostom: “Having said ‘wrath has come,’ the Apostle showed that it must inevitably follow, for it was foreordained and foretold.” Or thus: the wrath of God was always following them; now it has caught up with them, has drawn close—it is on the very point of striking. Or “to the uttermost” means final wrath; it will strike finally, there will be no restoration—expect no mercy. Evidently the Apostle has in mind the Lord’s prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the people. They sinned before, and God punished them with a view to correction. But now there follows the finally wrathful punishment for opposition to the purposes of God—so manifest, so salvific both for them and for all people, that without these purposes men cannot attain their own goals. They go contrary to the God-ordained course of the restoration of humanity; they are therefore not worthy of being preserved. When the Apostle wrote this, the beginnings of pressure from the Romans had already appeared. They gave to understand that what the Lord predicted was near its fulfillment. The holy Chrysostom says on this: “There will no longer be for them what there was before. There is no time for repentance; there is no place for divine longsuffering, but inevitable wrath approaches. How is this evident? From Christ’s prediction.”

Oecumenius paraphrases this apostolic charge against the Jews with particular feeling: “The Apostle brings a great accusation against the Jews. For he says that all that the Jews did, they did with the aim of sinning—that is, they took pleasure in sins and sinned so as to keep their sins from being incomplete, as it were: they sinned as if paying a debt by means of sins. Suppose they killed the Lord in ignorance—why did they stone the prophets, who were held in honor? Why did they expel us? Why do they do evil to you? For what reason do they hinder the Gentiles from being saved? If the conversion of the Gentiles to Christ is a good thing, why, not converting themselves, do they place obstacles to the conversion of others? And if they do not consider it a good thing, then why do they envy those who are converting? And what concern are the Gentiles to them?—You see how they sin from sheer love of sin, and do everything to fulfill their sins—that is, so as never to be without sins. For this, he says, ‘the wrath of God has come upon them to the uttermost.’ Wrath always pursued them when they sinned, but it was held back, giving place to repentance; but now it has overtaken them. The wrath — η οργηwith the article—shows that here is meant that very wrath which should have fallen upon them long before. ‘To the uttermost.’ It will no longer be as before—slavery and then liberation again, captivity and then return, the wrath of God and then mercy again—now the wrath of God is upon them to the uttermost; there will be no more deliverance from distress.”

The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

The holy Paul has depicted what he was to the Thessalonians during his sojourn with them — 1 Thess. 2:1–16. Now he depicts what he was and is to them after his departure from them. And here, as there, his aim is the same—to show that his manner of conduct can cast not the slightest shadow upon his preaching, but on the contrary, vindicates its truth and serves to confirm it. Very simply he expresses to all: I seek not what is yours but you yourselves, and you not for my own sake but for yours, that you may appear perfect before the Lord and worthy of the inheritance of His eternal kingdom. The activity of the Apostle in founding the Church of Thessalonica and in his care for it is of the highest dignity.

In this third section of the historical part of the epistle the Apostle witnesses to his exceedingly warm, fatherly, caring love for the Thessalonians: (a) by his grief over separation from them and his desire to see them, 1 Thess. 2:17–20; (b) by his concern for them, which compelled the sending of Timothy to them to strengthen and reassure them and to bring back news of them, 1 Thess. 3:1–5; (c) by his joy upon receiving satisfactory news, his thanksgiving to God for it, and a renewed expression of desire to see them — 1 Thess. 3:6–10; (d) and by his good wishes for them — 1 Thess. 3:11–13.

a) Grief over separation from the Thessalonians and desire to see them (1 Thess. 2:17–20)

If there were anyone capable of thinking about the holy Paul: here he is—he turned us to his side, plunged us through this into tribulations, yet slipped away himself, and has no sorrow for it—such a person could no longer persist in such thoughts once he had been assured of the feelings which the holy Paul experienced after his departure from Thessalonica. Having departed, he felt himself an orphan (1 Thess. 2:17); once and again he made attempts to return to them but could not (1 Thess. 2:18); and all this not from any calculation whatsoever, but solely because his apostolic dignity required it, because in this lies his joy and eternal glory — 1 Thess. 2:19–20.

1 Thess. 2:17. But we, brothers, having been bereaved of you for a short time, in presence, not in heart, endeavored more earnestly to see your face with great desire.

“But we”—as for us. He had been speaking before of how the preaching progressed, how the Thessalonians believed and how they began to suffer for faith, to their glory and particular standing before the Lord. He continues, as it were: at that point we were obliged to depart—and this is what was in our hearts.

“Having been bereaved”—this word is used properly of unsettled children who lose their parents; but it applies also to parents who lose their children. The Apostle regards himself as a father bereft of his children. “Having been bereaved”—a tender expression for the state of the soul when separated from the beloved. Having parted from the Thessalonians, the holy Paul feels himself an orphan. We too say: “he looks like an orphan,” or “such an orphaned look.” Throughout this entire chapter the Apostle applies to himself the most intense family feelings: the feelings of a mother (1 Thess. 2:7–8), of a father (1 Thess. 2:11), and here—of an orphan. “First the Apostle likened himself to a mother who nurses and cherishes an infant, then to a father who is tenderly disposed toward his children; now he is like a youth who mourns an untimely orphanhood” (Theodoret). One would have expected to say that they became orphans, deprived of him—their spiritual father—but the holy Paul considers himself bereaved, wishing to show that not so much they as he himself lost through the separation from them. It was not you who became orphaned, but we. As little children who have lost their parents feel the greatest grief—not only from nature but from loneliness—so precisely do we. In this he shows the longing that oppressed him because of the separation from them.

One may suppose, however, that the Apostle used this word not merely to express his own feeling, but also to hint that this feeling tormented him for no other reason than because he had left his spiritual children not yet grown up, not fully educated, not fully established in the principles he had taught them. This is suggested also by the following words: “for a short time.”

This phrase expresses brevity of time — προς καιρον ωρας— for the length of an hour. We say: “for a little while.” But what does the Apostle wish to say? Either that he was parted from them for a short time—when he departed from Thessalonica and became bereaved, he had no intention of remaining long in separation from them; he departed for a short time, only until the disturbance should subside. So in the Russian translation. Or that not much time had yet passed since he became bereaved. “They did not have to wait long, but a short and small amount of time—as if only one hour” (Theodoret). That is, little time had passed since the separation, yet I already miss you. “One cannot say that time raised his grief over the separation to such a degree—but love did. Do you see what love is! He longed for them, having been separated for an hour—and only in outward presence” (Oecumenius). Or that he was separated from the Thessalonians all too soon. So soon was I bereaved of you—I had not had time to speak with you to the full, had not had time to transmit to you all that was needed, when I was obliged to depart from you. Paul complains that through the machinations of the Jews he was so quickly torn away from the Thessalonians, as from children not yet grown and not yet firm. Torn away from you against my will so quickly, without managing to transmit everything to you and to establish you, I therefore desired all the more eagerly to see you again. But might not προς καιρον ωρας mean “according to the circumstances of the time”?

“In presence, not in heart.” “Outwardly I was torn away from you, but in thought I was ceaselessly occupied with you, and my heart was inseparably with you” (Chrysostom). Let no one say that I left and abandoned you. I thought of you constantly, I carried you in my heart. In that there was not even a moment of separation. “I am deprived of the sensory sight of you, but I ceaselessly contemplate you in spirit” (Theodoret).

“Endeavored more earnestly.” “More earnestly”—above every other concern; we cared about nothing as much as about you; everything else was as something peripheral, while the main thing was you (Chrysostom). Or, “more earnestly”—all the more so. Being so quickly torn away from you, we strove all the more to see you. “Endeavored”—we sought out means, devised plans, figured out how this might be arranged.

“To see your face.” Of course, it was not feeling alone that drew the Apostle, but the acute spiritual need of the Thessalonians. But it is also evident that the Thessalonians had bound him to themselves by their sincere faith and love—and he desired to see their faces. “Though he always had them in his heart, he also desired their personal presence. Such is the nature of ardent love—it desires to see and to hear the beloved and to speak with them” (Chrysostom). This is why he added: “with great desire”—it was not only by the reasoning of my mind about the need for my presence with you that I desired to see you; my heart itself drew me to this. “Paul loved as if to the point of ecstasy, and in the feelings of friendship was unrestrained and ungovernable” (Chrysostom). Ambrosiaster writes on this passage: “For their greater instruction he also desired to see their faces. Concerning divine things, not everything can be imparted all at once. There are mysteries in our faith that should not be disclosed immediately, lest they give rise to scandal because of the uncleansed sensory understanding of the hearers. Not everything should be said to all, but the word must be proportioned to the capacity of each. And so the Apostle desired to see them once more, in order to complete the imparting of truth.”

1 Thess. 2:18. Therefore we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, once and again—but Satan hindered us.

“Therefore”—under such circumstances, impelled by such ardent desire to see you, “we wanted to come.” Before we only devised plans and sought means; now we actually resolved upon it, attempted it, made preparations, and wanted to bring into action what had long been lying on our hearts.

“I, Paul myself.” The holy Paul singles himself out especially because for some time he was indeed alone, without Silas and Timothy. And he now says that at that particular time he was preparing to go to them—perhaps from Athens and from Corinth. Or he says this to show that he personally wanted to come to them, and not through Silas and Timothy, who were there, near the Thessalonians.

In the words “once and again,” some see an indefinite number—in the sense of: more than once we attempted. Others see a definite number, specifically two times; we had a constant concern to see you, and once and again we attempted to come. The Apostle wishes to say that the concern to see them was not momentary but constant, compelling him on more than one occasion to make preparations to visit them.

“And Satan hindered us.” Going earlier to the Romans was hindered for the Apostle by the obligations of his apostleship (Rom. 15:23). To the Corinthians he did not go at one time by the reasoning that it was better for them (2 Cor. 1:15, 23). Into Bithynia the Spirit forbade him to go (Acts 16:6). Here the hinderer is designated as Satan. Having feelings trained to discern both good and evil, the Apostle knew how to distinguish accurately the causes and forces at work in events: in one place God—by the providential arrangement of the course of affairs; in another place the Spirit—by inspirations; in another the dark power—by scheming. Thus, according to the Apostle, Satan has influence over the course of affairs—by God’s permission, of course, for all is from God. But some things are directly arranged by God; others are only permitted by Him. God permits Satan to act because of the freedom given to men. Men freely incline to the suggestions of Satan and, becoming his instruments, carry out his plans. These actions of Satan and evil spirits are mentioned throughout all of Scripture. In the present case, the matter seems small—to come or not to come to Thessalonica; but since through this the kingdom of Christ was to be strengthened, and correspondingly the domain of darkness diminished, Satan raised obstacles to the Apostle’s visit to the newly converted believers—not personally himself, but through the executors of his will, people obedient to him. The Apostle saw the one who was acting from behind the people—and though he believed that God was the nearest helper in preaching, he did not consider it fitting to go contrary to the will of God, lest he be tempting God. God-illumined prudence prompted him to yield for a time to the obstacles raised. And he accomplished what he considered necessary for the Thessalonians by another means—he sent Timothy, and then wrote the epistle. In what precisely this Satanic hindrance consisted is not evident. The holy Chrysostom says these were “sudden and powerful trials.” Theodoret says that the Apostle’s zeal was obstructed by continuous trials that the common enemy is wont to raise; Damascene—that the Apostle was hindered from going to Thessalonica by the tribulations and hardships arising from preaching, which come from Satan, since it was he who stirred up the unbelievers against the Apostle. Ambrosiaster writes: “Satan placed obstacles before the Apostles, that they might not spread the light of truth among men. He stirred up the unbelievers to hinder the Apostles with blows and chains, that they might not speak the word of God. Thus the Jewish elders said to the Apostles: ‘Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name?’ (Acts 5:28).”

So all authorities limit themselves to pointing to obstacles, tribulations, and trials in general without specifying them. One may conjecture that the Apostle was held back by the evil intentions of the unbelieving Thessalonian Jews. It is very probable, and in keeping with the spirit of the Jews, that they were already making attempts on his life and laying snares. Their pursuit of the holy Paul even into Berea betrays strong irritation against him. Perhaps in Berea, in their rage, they made plain what they were after; his own people heard it and conveyed it to him. From Berea the Apostle would certainly have returned to Thessalonica, if not for the plots of these enemies. They forced him to flee further to Athens. From Athens the Apostle certainly again yearned to spend time in Thessalonica, but prudence compelled him first to inquire into the state of affairs there—for which purpose the holy Timothy was sent.

For the practical application of this passage of Scripture, we cite the words of the holy Basil the Great concerning these Satanic hindrances. “Can Satan,” he asks, “hinder the intention of a holy person, since it is written: ‘I, Paul, once and again wanted to come to you, and Satan hindered us?’” And he answers: “Of what we do in the Lord, some is accomplished according to the soul’s intention and judgment, while other things are carried out with the help of the body, or by diligence, or by endurance. And Satan cannot hinder what consists in the soul’s intention and judgment. But what is put into execution with the help of bodily activity—to that God often permits some obstacles to be made; for the testing and disclosure of one who encounters the obstacle, either to expose one who has changed a good intention, like those sown on rocky ground, who for a short time received the word ‘with joy,’ but ‘when trouble comes’ quickly fell away (Lk. 8:13; Mt. 13:21); or to reveal one who perseveres in good—now to those zealous for good deeds, such as the Apostle himself, who, having many times intended to go to the Romans and being hindered, as he himself acknowledged, did not abandon that desire until he accomplished what he had purposed; now to the patient, such as Job, who, having suffered so much from the devil compelling him to say something blasphemous or to prove ungrateful before God, did not even in extreme distress depart from pious judgment and sound thoughts about God. For of him it is written: ‘In all this… Job did not sin with his lips before God and did not charge God with wrongdoing’ (Job 1:22).”

1 Thess. 2:19. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, before our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?

The Apostle points to the source of his solicitude for the Thessalonians, assuring them that his concern and love for them are called forth by his apostolic calling and hope. The particle “for” gives the proof. The Apostle expressed his grief for the Thessalonians. Now he says: for how could I have acted otherwise, when you are my hope before the Lord? The holy Paul is the Apostle of the Gentiles. The conversion of every people is the fulfillment of his calling. At the coming of the Lord it will be shown: these and those and those were converted by the holy Paul. The talents with their increase. And it will be said: enter into the joy of your Lord. This is why the holy Paul values every conversion and watches over those who have been converted! It is connected with his eternal lot and constitutes his calling in this life. Together with this he expresses that in his labors and cares for believers he is guided by no earthly calculations.

To those who, taking advantage of the holy Paul’s quick departure, were disturbing the Thessalonians by saying: “He only brought you grief and abandoned you”—these words are a powerful refutation. The Apostle answers: how could I have done this, when in their faithfulness to the faith lies my eternal glory? Transporting himself in thought before the face of the Lord at His coming and presenting Thessalonica together with himself, the Apostle, on the one hand, assured them: here is the moment until which our bond will last—is it conceivable that such minor accidents as you encountered should break it? On the other hand, he impressed upon them: my future glory and joy are not mine alone but yours as well. Together we shall be gladdened and glorified; therefore keep yourselves faithful to the Lord until His coming.

“For who”—a phrase that leads one to posit the Apostle’s future glory as conditionally dependent on the faithfulness of the Thessalonians; but since it then says “is it not even you?” the Apostle, speaking thus, was not singling them out from among the other converts who would contribute to crowning him with glory at the Second Coming of Christ. Chrysostom says: “Are the Macedonians alone your hope, tell me, blessed Paul?—Not they alone… That is why he added: ‘Is it not even you?’ So this is not flattery, for he did not say simply ‘you,’ but ‘even you,’—together with others.”

And indeed, for him the Philippians too are “joy and crown” (Phil. 4:1), and the Corinthians too are “boasting in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 1:14). Such are all the churches planted and established by him. “Imagine,” says Chrysostom, “as far as you can, the whole Church planted and established by Paul; who would not rejoice over such a multitude of beautiful children?” “Hope, joy, crown of exultation”—different aspects of one and the same moment—that of standing before the Lord at His Second Coming. “Hope”—the foundation of the boldness to dare to stand before Him, rather than falling prostrate and crying “mountains, fall on us”—on what does it rest? On the conscientious, self-sparing fulfillment of the works to which one is called, on the proper use, to the glory of God, of the talents entrusted by the Lord to each one. “Joy” defines the state of heart at the time of standing before the Lord. For the Apostle there will be not fear but joy—from the awareness that his conscience is clear before the Lord in all things. The conscience will testify that everything possible was done without omission or falsity, and will overshadow the heart with well-grounded hope. Hence the gladness of spirit. “Crown of exultation”—the reward that crowns the gladdened heart with a radiant position in the company of the glorified saints and angels. “Crown of exultation”—not something one can especially boast of, but something for which one will especially be praised: a praiseworthy, most glorious crown, brilliant glory. All three of these aspects the Lord expresses in His parable in a single saying: “Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your Lord” (Mt. 25:21). Theophylact paraphrases the speech of the holy Paul thus: “I hope that on your account I shall be granted great boldness before Christ the Lord and joy, for this very reason—that you are and shall then be for me a crown of exultation, that is, a crown of brilliant glory.”

1 Thess. 2:20. For you are our glory and joy.

The answer to the question posed above is already contained in the question; but the Apostle also expresses it separately, saying, as it were: yes, you—so as to hold the attention longer on the thought expressed and to confirm it. Do not think that in speaking thus I was carried away by a special affection for you, or merely employed a figure of speech. No—in reality it is so, and it cannot be otherwise. Does the Apostle here mean future glory and joy, or present? By the flow of the discourse, the Apostle’s thought remains throughout before the face of the Lord at His coming. But the form of expression is so general that it gives no hint as to time. This is why the commentators do not specify, but speak only in general. “How glorious it is to bring such a church to Christ, and one so well-approved” (Theophylact). Or: “For one appointed to be a teacher, the crown and joy is the progress of his disciples” (Damascene). Or: “The perfecting of the disciples is the joy and crown of the teacher. Teachers shall taste the fruit of their labors. The fruit of a teacher is an obedient disciple. When the good life of the disciple shall prove beneficial to the teacher, then the teacher will taste the fruit of his labors. The progress of disciples in goodness will give the teacher a crown at the Judgment of Christ” (Ambrosiaster).

The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

1 Thess. 3:1. Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone.

“Therefore”—denotes a conclusion from the preceding. The Apostle desired to be with the Thessalonians himself, but since there was no possibility of this coming about, he resolves to accomplish the desired communion with them through another trusted person. Or thus: since your standing in faith is so important to me that in it lies my joy and crown of exultation, and since I do not know what condition you are in, I hasten to send word to you—to find out what is happening with you and to you. Not knowing about you became unbearable for me. It had been eased by the hope of being with you soon; but since this proved difficult to accomplish, I could endure it no longer. And the conclusion — 1 Thess. 3:5 — agrees with this: since you are my crown, I sent—so that “our labor should not be in vain.”

“Could no longer endure” — μηκετι στεγοντες. This verb has various meanings. Properly—to cover, hence to shelter, protect, hence to sustain, bear, and endure: one might render it: no longer being able to conceal my desire to see you, no longer having the strength to suppress it in silence. But since from the flow of the discourse it is evident that the Apostle was greatly anxious about the Thessalonians, and then was extremely gladdened when the holy Timothy, upon returning, informed him of the Thessalonians’ steadfastness, it is more pertinent to give here the meaning of “endure, bear.” No longer being able to bear the anxiety caused me by not knowing about your condition, I resolved to send Timothy to you.

“We thought it good”—denotes not only willingness, but a resolution determined by deliberation; we considered it good—and desired it. Chrysostom: “We thought it good—meaning: we resolved.” Theophylact: “We chose, deliberated, preferred.”

“To be left alone.” “These words are testimony of great love for the Thessalonians” (Damascene). To remain alone for so long could not have been pleasant for him, and moreover, in Athens there lay before him great labor that made the assistance of a co-worker necessary. But despite this, he resolved to send Timothy. So greatly was he occupied and troubled by the condition of the Thessalonians.

1 Thess. 3:2. And we sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God and our fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith.

Being unable to visit the Thessalonians himself, the holy Paul sends Timothy to them. “Such is the manner of action of this holy Apostle,” remarks Oecumenius, “that when, because of trials and the constraint arising from them, he cannot himself go to some of his disciples, he sends others to them and through their mediation is present with them and converses with them. So he acted regarding the Philippians, so regarding the Corinthians, sending this same Timothy to them and through him conversing with them.”

Since the holy Timothy was likely not personally known to the Thessalonians, and yet was to strengthen and comfort them—to act with authoritative words—the holy Apostle tells them who this messenger is, and thereby suggests that he is capable of taking the place of the Apostle Paul himself, and that they may with confidence and indeed in conscience must listen to him as to the Apostle Paul himself. At the same time he showed that in sending such a messenger he has very serious concern for them, concern that touched on the most important aspects of their life, and thereby obliges them to give their full attention. The holy Chrysostom says that the holy Paul praises Timothy thus—“not to exalt Timothy, but to honor them by sending to them a co-worker and minister of the gospel, saying as it were: drawing him away from other affairs, we sent to you a minister of God and our fellow worker in the gospel of Christ.” (The same in Oecumenius and Theophylact.)

“And we sent Timothy, our brother.” Christians called each other brothers, as those reborn from one Spirit in one font, joined with one Lord, and forming one Church. But the Apostle, calling Timothy thus, wishes to say that he is the closest person to him, that they are bound by sincere love, and that he is to them what the Apostle himself is—a brother to whom the Apostle entrusts everything, whom they too can trust, for his brother is their brother.

“Minister of God.” By this is indicated the special appointment of the holy Timothy by God Himself. A minister of God is an executor of God’s special purposes, one entrusted by God to accomplish something for the glory of God, in the fulfillment of the plans of Providence. Such too was Tychicus—“a faithful minister in the Lord” (Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7). And Apollos, and even Paul himself—what are they but “ministers—as the Lord gave to each” (1 Cor. 3:5).

“Our fellow worker…” Defines what precisely Timothy’s service to God consists in. He is appointed to be a fellow worker with the holy Paul in the preaching of the Gospel. He is so called also in the Epistle to the Romans (1 Thess. 16:21), where the Apostle calls himself serving “God in his spirit in the gospel of His Son” (Rom. 1:9). He so names also Epaphroditus the Philippian (Phil. 2:25).

“To establish and to encourage”—the purpose of the sending. Both words together encompass all the aspects on which the holy Timothy could and should act. So too Silas and Judas, sent from Jerusalem to Antioch, “with many words encouraged and strengthened the brothers,” after the troubles caused among them by zealots of the Jewish law (Acts 15:32). The task of the holy Timothy was to strengthen still more those who were standing in faith, to inspire the weak and those ready to waver to steadfastness, to comfort those who were grieving because of persecution, so that no one should fall or apostatize. “The Thessalonians had need of strengthening and encouragement, so as not to abandon the faith” (Theophylact).

If one examines each word separately: “to establish”—to strengthen the spirit in its pattern of thought and principles of life, to lend strength to the convictions received by faith and to the resolution to live according to faith’s demands. “To establish, as those who are wavering” (Oecumenius). “Not to propose new teaching to you, but to establish you in the former teaching” (Theodoret). To encourage—to calm the heart that is troubled, ailing, and grieving because of the unpleasantnesses in which the Thessalonians had been placed by reason of accepting the Gospel. On another occasion the Apostle wrote to them: May the Lord “comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word” (in thought and conviction) “and work” (in the principles of life according to faith) (2 Thess. 2:17).

“Concerning your faith”—can be related only to “to encourage.” The heart was in grief and turmoil because of the circumstances brought on by faith. The grief of the heart thereby cast a shadow over faith itself. By giving a God-befitting interpretation of the hardships they had encountered, the holy Timothy could comfort their hearts and thereby restore the radiant face of faith in the consciousness of the believers. “Concerning your faith” will then mean: regarding your faith in these circumstances, called forth by your believing.

1 Thess. 3:3. That no one should be shaken by these tribulations; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.

The work of establishing and encouraging by word was directed toward preventing the shaking of faith by the action of tribulations (Oecumenius)—so that no one should waver in these tribulations. The Apostle points to specific, known, and moreover continuing tribulations, referring, of course, to those that were the consequence of preaching the Gospel and of faith in it. Since these tribulations touched both those who had believed and the Apostles, both are meant here. It is very natural that the young Christian community, which had so recently come to know the principles of faith, could be strongly shaken by troubles and oppressions, which struck the heart all the more painfully the more immediately they followed the acceptance of the Gospel and the closer were the other persons who, not having accepted the Gospel, were enjoying life in peace as usual. This is why the Apostle used the word “shaken” — σαινεσθαι— which implies a wavering induced by some lure, or by flattering promises and hopes. He wished to express precisely: that no one, because of tribulations on account of accepted convictions and principles of life, should waver in loyalty to them through the lure of a peaceful life and flattering expectations. The blessed Theophylact writes: “The Apostle here indicates what benefit the strengthening and encouragement from the holy Timothy was meant to bring them. This, he says, is that they should not be thrown into confusion, not lose heart and weaken. For the devil, when he finds a favorable moment for temptation, shakes the unstable by recalling their former peace, so that they might abandon what was the cause of their tribulations.” Their wavering might also be caused by the tribulations of the Apostles: how is it that God’s messengers suffer such attacks and encounter such obstacles?! Even though they work miracles, they are at the same time found weak and utterly humiliated, endure beatings and are imprisoned and put in chains. “Disciples,” says the holy Chrysostom, “are distressed not so much in their own trials as when they see the trials of their teachers, just as a soldier is not so much distressed by his own wounds as when he sees his leader wounded.” (The same in Oecumenius and Theophylact.)

“For you yourselves know,” from the words of the holy Apostle during his stay in Thessalonica, as he himself says immediately after, “that we are appointed to this.” Who is this? All who cling to the Lord by faith, and the Apostles themselves. So it is determined from above; such is God’s plan! So it was, is, and will be, for darkness cannot be on peaceful terms with the light that is brought into its midst by the Gospel and by believers. Chrysostom says: “We are appointed to this”—the Apostle refers this to all Christians. He also declares in another place that “all who wish to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). And Christ Himself says: “in the world you will have tribulation” (Jn. 16:33). He did not say simply: we endure trials, but “we are appointed to this”—meaning: we were born for this. Oecumenius adds: “For this we have been allotted (κεκληρωμεθα), for this we have been inscribed.” “Let us hear that Christians are appointed to suffer tribulation: for he did not say this only of the Apostles” (Theophylact). And throughout all of Scripture the thought is variously impressed that tribulations are inseparable from the Apostles and from Christians. To the Apostles the Lord said that He sends them “as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Mt. 10:16), that the world will hate them as it hated Him (Jn. 15:18–19), to the point that everyone who kills them will think that he is thereby rendering service to God. The Apostles were conscious of this and expected nothing but hardships and tribulations. This is why they called themselves “doomed to death” (1 Cor. 4:9)—that is, condemned to death—and were well pleased in distresses, in straitnesses, and in tribulations (2 Cor. 12:10). But also for all Christians “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22)—by this narrow and sorrowful path (Mt. 7:14; Lk. 13:24)—and when they were in trials, they were instructed not to think that something strange was happening to them (1 Pet. 4:12).

Oecumenius very aptly remarks here that by this word the holy Paul gives the Thessalonians consolation not only for the present tribulations but for future ones as well. For if they are appointed to suffer tribulation, there is nothing to wonder at or be troubled by when tribulations come.

1 Thess. 3:4. For indeed, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were going to suffer tribulation, even as it happened, and you know.

He indicates how the Thessalonians know of the inevitability of tribulations. The Apostle had told them of this beforehand. And he told them of it so that they would not be troubled when tribulations came. The Apostles did not entice with flattering earthly hopes but disclosed the work of faith in all its nakedness, with all its unpleasant consequences, so that if anyone believed, he believed by conviction in the truth of the Gospel alone and not by any lure. When he says further “even as it happened”—all occurred exactly as we predicted—by vindicating the accuracy of the prediction of the consequences of believing, he also sets faith itself in a supernatural light and thereby strengthens conviction in its truth. “They should not be troubled by tribulations,” says the holy Chrysostom, “because nothing unusual and unexpected has happened to us in this. And this was sufficient for their encouragement. Do you see, even Christ said to His disciples: ‘And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it does come to pass, you may believe’ (Jn. 14:29). For it is greatly consoling to disciples when they hear from their teachers what will happen to them. Just as a sick person, if he hears beforehand from the physician what will happen to him, is not too troubled, but if something happens to him unexpectedly, so that even the physician is at a loss and the illness exceeds his skill, then the sick person grieves and is troubled: so it is here.”

“We would suffer tribulation”—all of us: both you who believed and we who proclaimed faith to you. What consolation for the Thessalonians, when the Apostle calls their tribulations his own as well, apart from those he himself was enduring!

1 Thess. 3:5. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, lest somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

“For this reason”—because of such calamities and tribulations that have overtaken us. “Even I”—presupposes another. Who else? Some say it is the Thessalonians; others say it is the Christians surrounding the Apostle; still others say the holy Paul spoke this way simply to single himself out, as in verse 1 Thess. 2:18. If this way of explaining is used, the first supposition is the closest. The Apostle says, as it were: I told you beforehand that we would suffer tribulation; the tribulations immediately followed, as you know. They separated us, and thereby further increased their weight. You were certainly anxious about me—what was happening with me and where I was. No less was I anxious about you—and, bearing it no longer, I sent, and so forth. But it will be more direct if we accept this translation: “for this reason,” in these circumstances, “even I sent” to you.

“Being unable to bear it, I sent.” “He does this from an abundance of love; for those who love, from ardent zeal, fear even for what is safe. Although he said: ‘we are appointed to this,’ the excessive multitude of evils frightened me. He did not say: having noticed something bad in you, I sent—but ‘I could no longer bear it’—which specifically proceeds from love. In tribulations we set aside the remembrance of all, but he so feared and trembled for his children that even Timothy—who was his consolation, his companion and co-worker—he sent to them” (Chrysostom).

“To learn about your faith”—the state of faith—whether you are firm, whether you have yielded to temptation, whether you are standing firm. “Since I could no longer endure the thought that was troubling me, I sent, wishing to ascertain whether any harm had befallen you from the trials and whether the labor we took up for your sake had been wasted” (Theodoret).

“Lest somehow the tempter had tempted you.” Anyone who by his corrupt words might have shaken the recent convictions of the Thessalonians and drawn them away from faith in the Lord could be called a tempter. But in the Apostle’s thought it is evidently Satan who is meant here—whom he already mentioned in 1 Thess. 2:18. Acting in the sons of disobedience (Eph. 2:2), he is the tempter κατ’ εξοχην (Mt. 4:3, 10; 1 Cor. 7:5). The Apostle knew that the Thessalonians suffered after his departure, or were subject to external temptation; but he did not know what effect these tribulations had on the hearts of the Thessalonians. It was about this he wished to know: had Satan shaken them? Tribulations and persecutions of themselves are not temptations. They are part of the order of things and serve for good. Out of them, or on occasion of them, Satan contrives temptations when, approaching the heart, he implants doubts and shakes faith. “Do you see that being troubled in tribulation is the work of the devil and his cunning? He calls wavering the temptation from the devil. He alone is truly tempted who is already wavering, who has already received the bewitchment of the devil” (Chrysostom).

“And our labor would be in vain.” If it turns out that he has tempted—that is, shaken—then all our labor expended on you is for nothing, wasted. Properly speaking, the labor of the Apostles, even without success, could not be wasted when everything possible was done. But the Apostle is looking not at rewards from God but at his own intentions in apostolic labors. He does not labor merely for the sake of laboring, but always with the fruit of labor in view—the glory of the Gospel and of faith in the Lord—so that when this does not come about, he counts the labor as no labor; it is all the same as if he had not labored—for such labor, in his view, one can expect nothing from the Lord either. Earlier he said: you are joy and crown—implying: if you stand in faith. The Apostle here touches on the Thessalonians’ love for him, having experienced his fatherly solicitude. Love makes good a common thing, and the loss of one calls forth the sympathy and assistance of others. It is on this that the Apostle strikes, by mentioning the futility of his labor. In this he gives a motive for standing firm in faith, saying, as it were: you would not resolve to offend me by depriving my labor for you of its fruit. Theophylact writes: “If they had gone astray—what is that to you, Paul? Your labor will not remain without full reward from God.” The holy Chrysostom paraphrases more fully: “For if they had even gone astray, it would not be through your fault or your negligence. But in that case, he says, because of the strong brotherly love, I would have counted my labor lost.”

Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

1 Thess. 3:6. But now Timothy has come to us from you, and brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always have good remembrance of us, longing to see us, as we also long to see you.

With what sincerity and love breathes the expression of joy at receiving good news about the Thessalonians! This joy was all the more vivid the more unexpected the tidings were. The Apostle had feared that they might have wavered and destroyed his labor—regarding this as possible, given the known weaknesses of human nature. But the opposite had proved to be the case: both faith and love were in full force, and the memory of the Apostle was warm. The tidings exceeded expectations—and the Apostle’s joy knew no bounds. How personally he took to heart everything relating to the success of the Gospel!

“Having come…” This return of the holy Timothy coincides with the one mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles: “when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia” (Acts 18:5). At any rate, no other occasion known in Scripture can be pointed to. Accepting this makes unnecessary all conjectures about some other time. And however many such conjectures have been built up, they are all incompatible with the circumstances of the writing of the epistle, which are mentioned in the epistle itself.

“Brought us good news.” “Do you see Paul’s joy? He did not say: ‘reported,’ but ‘brought good news.’ So great a good did he consider their steadfastness in faith and love” (Chrysostom). The joy was so great that he called the news of it “good news”—a word that in the New Testament customarily means the good news of the salvation of the world by the Lord Jesus Christ. This news touches on the domain of the economy of salvation, similar to the news of the birth of John the Forerunner (Lk. 1:19). The Apostle’s joy over it flowed from the spirit of apostleship. This spirit zealously strove to plant everywhere the salvific faith in the Lord and was satisfied only when it saw that those who heard the preaching believed, clung to the Lord, and remained faithful to Him. The assurance that the Thessalonians were such calmed and gladdened the spirit of the Apostle, and he could not name this news other than a gospel to himself.

What was the good news brought by Timothy? About the truly Christian disposition of the Thessalonians, expressed in faith and love, and about the preservation of good relations with the Apostle, testified by their remembrance of him and their desire to see him.

“Bringing good news of your faith and love.” Faith and love, for the Apostle, are the essence of Christianity. Faith without love is not worthy of praise, nor is love without faith of any worth. This is why, when he teaches, he teaches that all should hold faith working through love, affirming that without these everything else is nothing before the eyes of God (1 Tim. 1:5–6); when he praises anyone, he praises them for faith and love—as at the beginning of nearly all his epistles. In the words “bringing good news to me of your faith and love” the Apostle said the same as: he announced to me that you continue to be true Christians.

“And that you always have good remembrance of us.” Good remembrance—remembrance with goodwill, warm, heartfelt—a fruit and testimony of love for the Apostle. Or good remembrance—favorable memory in the sense that we say: he left a good memory of himself behind—they remember the Apostle with kindness, regarding him as their true benefactor, as a true messenger of God. “You commemorate me with praise and approbation,” explains Theophylact. What gladdens the Apostle in such remembrance is not the remembrance as such, but the fact that it signifies attachment to the faith that he transmitted to them. The holy Chrysostom says at this point: “In this lies the praise—that not only when we were with you and when we worked miracles, but also now, when we are far from you and suffer blows and bear countless calamities, you ‘have good remembrance of us.’”

“Always longing to see us.” “Always” some relate to “have good remembrance,” as in the Russian translation; others relate it to “longing to see us,” as in the Slavonic. This does not change the meaning in the least, but it reads better in Slavonic. The good remembrance was sustained by a constant desire to see the Apostle, and this flows from love for him. The remembrance of the heart, expressed in the desire to see the Apostle, is more enduring and unshakeable than the memory of the mind. The latter was grounded in the former—and if it was constant, it was because the desire to see him, born of love, was constant.

“As we also long to see you.” If the Apostle had not added this, the depiction of his sympathy for the Thessalonians would have been incomplete. Mutuality is the soul of heartfelt communion. It was certainly consoling for the Thessalonians to know that the Apostle had been assured of their love for him: “for it is very pleasant for one who loves that the beloved should know he is loved” (Chrysostom). But incomparably more consoling must have been the assurance that he too feels toward them as they feel toward him.

All these expressions of affection from the Apostle were not mere customary turns of phrase in written correspondence, but expressed the very truth and were all directed toward one aim—inspiring the Thessalonians to value the faith they had received, to love it, and to stand firm in it.

1 Thess. 3:7. Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and tribulation we were comforted by you through your faith.

“Therefore”—would not grammatically have been expected at this point; but since several gladdening thoughts had preceded, the Apostle, summing them up and bringing them together, inserted “therefore”—for the sake of all that Timothy had announced, everything he said. And the “through your faith” that stands at the end will serve as an explanation of “therefore.” In all this, through your faith we were comforted—for faith encompasses all.

“We were comforted, brothers, concerning you.” The Greek εφ’ υμιν— “concerning you”—as though we rested upon you, we were calmed regarding you, all our anxieties about you passed, and this filled our heart with consolation. “We were afraid lest temptation had overcome you, and we grieved over this. But when Timothy announced to us what was happening among you, not only did we cease to grieve, but we were filled with joy. Not even the feeling of any sorrow remained in us, because of the joy concerning you” (Oecumenius).

“In all our distress and tribulation.” Distress and tribulation encompass everything that was pressing upon the Apostles. “Distress” points more to external straitness, and “tribulation” to the straitness of the heart. The joy was so great that in it the Apostle forgot all the unpleasantnesses that weighed upon him, despite the fact that they were both great and numerous. By distress and tribulation the Apostle means both those he had already endured and those he was enduring at that time. Here also are included those tribulations borne for the sake of the Thessalonians. In this regard the thought will be: thanks be to God, we did not suffer and endure on your account in vain—you are steadfast; our labor has not been in vain. With regard to the straitnesses in which the Apostle found himself when he received the good news, the thought will be: “we no longer feel tribulations, but we were comforted not in one tribulation only but in every tribulation. Our joy over you became the counterweight to all our distresses” (Theophylact).

“Through your faith.” Faith here means everything: both the Christian teaching and the life conforming to it, and all the Christian standards, and the remembrance of the Apostles together with the desire to see them. “Through your faith”—the same as: through your Christianity, through the fact that, as you received the faith and began to live according to its spirit, so you continue to this day. The holy Chrysostom says: “Who can be compared to Paul, who counts the salvation of his neighbors as his own, having the same relation to all as the body has to its members? He did not want them to thank him for the trials he bore on their behalf, but he thanks them for the fact that they were not shaken by the trials that befell him, saying, as it were: there was more danger for you from the trials than for us; you were more exposed to temptation than we, although you did not suffer during our sufferings. Since Timothy brought us the glad news, we feel no bitterness at all. A good teacher cannot be troubled by anything as long as the affairs of his disciples are going according to his wish. ‘We were comforted concerning you’—that is, you strengthened us, you anointed us, you gave us breath, you did not allow us to fall under the weight of trials.”

1 Thess. 3:8. For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.

“We live.” Thus speaks anyone over whom a calamity had hung and then passed: the uncertainty about the Thessalonians had caused the Apostle a mortal sorrow; now that had passed, a weight had fallen from his heart, and he feels himself revived. Or thus: my circumstances are as heavy as death, so that I can say, “I die daily” (1 Cor. 15:31). But having received good news of you, I am alive again. All is forgotten, all is as nothing, when you stand firm… Life breathes upon us. Or thus: the life of the Apostles is the advance of the Gospel and of faith in Christ; therein lies their soul. Hearing of the Thessalonians’ unshaken faith, the Apostle says: that is our very life, when we are faithful to the Lord. “He did not say: we were heartened, but what? – ‘Now we live,’ thereby showing that what we count as death for ourselves is nothing other than their stumbling, and what we count as life is their progress” (Chrysostom), “their steadfastness in faith and their standing in Christ” (Theodoret, Oecumenius).

“If you stand fast in the Lord.” To stand in the Lord means to believe in Him unwaveringly, to cleave to Him, and to follow His commandments without deviation. “Those who stand in faith are they who keep their faith in Him unshaken and lead a life consistent with that faith” (Oecumenius). The Lord is the source and element of life. Those who stand in Him are rooted in Him, united and bound together with Him, hidden in Him in heart and thought.

“If” – this does not express doubt, but on the contrary full assurance that the Thessalonians not only stand but will continue to stand in the Lord—confidence in their unshakeable steadfastness. Were there no such assurance, there would be no outpouring of joy mentioned above. Doubt would kill it in the very bud. It may nonetheless be supposed that in using this turn of phrase the Apostle covertly introduces an exhortation as well: see to it, stand firm, do not shake my confidence in your steadfastness—otherwise you will slay me.

1 Thess. 3:9. For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God.

The first fruit of the news brought by holy Timothy was joy for the Apostle Paul; the second was thanksgiving to God. The gladdened man gives thanks to God, from whom every good thing comes. The spirit that lives in God turns to Him first of all, whether in joy or in sorrow.

“For” – an explanatory particle, in place of: and what thanksgiving indeed can we render? Or—retaining the usual force of this particle as indicating a cause—one may allow that “for what thanksgiving can we render” stands in place of: for this is for us the greatest, inexpressible good. This good is from God. Instead of setting forth the greatness of the good, the Apostle speaks of the impossibility of giving God worthy thanks for it. As if to say: your steadfastness in faith was so greatly desired, and how much I feared for it! The news has surpassed my expectations. This is a great benefaction of God toward me. And I have not the strength to give God worthy thanks for this good. My joy on your account knows no measure. Holy Chrysostom says: “Expanding what was said above (that is, we live…), the Apostle says: ‘for what thanksgiving’ can we render… You have been for us the cause of so great a joy that we have not the power to give God worthy thanks. Your progress we count as God’s gift. You have so greatly benefited us that we count this as an act wrought by divine prompting, or rather as the act of God Himself. Sentiments so lofty as yours are not the work of human effort.”

“Can we render.” One renders a debt. Counting himself as one who has received the greatest benefaction, he feels the obligation to thank God, yet finds not the strength to give Him worthy thanks. So great is the good of being gladdened. “The greatness of the joy surpasses the song of lips, for we are not able to raise to God a song equal to the joy you have brought us” (Theodoret).

“For you.” He speaks only of his own gladdening on their account, as an expression of his strong and irrepressible love for them.

“For all the joy” – either this points to the various objects that have produced the joy, or it signifies in general the fullness of joy—thus: for all this joy, to which also belongs: “wherewith we joy for your sakes.” To rejoice with joy means to rejoice fully, in the highest degree—the same as what is said elsewhere, “they rejoiced” with “great” “joy” (Mt. 2:10).

“Before God.” – This elevates the worth of the joy: he rejoices with such joy as it is fitting to rejoice in before God—a holy, reverent joy, born and ripening in the spirit of faith and devotion to God. Here too is the assurance of the joy’s sincerity, as it were: before God, the all-seeing witness of all that is hidden within.

1 Thess. 3:10. Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith.

The third fruit of the good news about the Thessalonians is the desire to see them—a desire so strong that holy Paul poured it forth in prayer before God day and night, with utmost earnestness. When he gives thanks for his joy, one might think he is thanking God for himself, for his own happiness. But by adding a prayer that he might see the newly-converted disciples, he makes clear that this joy alone is not all that lies upon his soul. The joy is on the surface; deeper lies love. The joy springs from his love for them. Love produced the gladness at the news of their good standing in faith. It is also the cause of his not being satisfied with joy alone, but desiring to see them as well. Both merge into one feeling and prompt him to pray day and night that God would grant him to see them once more. “As a farmer, hearing of his field which he has tilled that it abounds with fruits, longs impatiently to see for himself what gives him such pleasure—so Paul longed for Macedonia” (Chrysostom).

He prays to see them not merely for the sake of seeing, but in order to supply what is lacking in their faith. The Apostle’s feelings are always subordinate to the chief aim of his apostolic ministry—that the converted might stand in faith and know it to perfection. During his brief stay in Thessalonica much had been left unsaid. Hence his desire to visit them, so as to say what remained. In like manner, writing to the Romans, he says that he had always desired to see them, so as to “impart” to them “some spiritual gift, to the end that they may be established” (Rom. 1:11).

“Perfect that which is lacking in your faith.” Faith as a disposition of soul was strong in them, but the content of the faith had not all been imparted to them. The strength of faith was great, but not the knowledge of its objects. Faith may appear in full intensity from the first moment of belief, but time and teaching progressively unfold the domain of faith. Holy Chrysostom writes: “Perfect that which is lacking in your faith”—what does this mean?—That they had not yet profited by all the teaching, and had not learned everything they needed to learn. Perhaps there were disputes among them concerning the resurrection, and many who troubled them not by temptations and dangers but by setting themselves up as teachers. This is what he calls the lack in their faith. Why did he not say: establish, but: “perfect”—which relates more to instruction than to establishment, just as in another place he says: “make you perfect in every good work” (Heb. 13:21). Oecumenius adds: “Of those who are wavering in faith he says: ‘establish’ (1 Thess. 3:2), but of those who are steadfast in faith yet have some lack in its teaching—‘perfect,’ he says, that is, supply what is missing. The teaching of the faith was not fully known to them. They had incomplete knowledge of the resurrection and, perhaps, of related matters. In faith in Christ they were steadfast, despite temptations and sorrows. But they needed to learn all the dogmas of our faith” (so also Theophylact).

The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

The Apostle has now said all that pertained to himself. He closes his discourse with a prayer: that he might reach the Thessalonians, and that they might grow in Christian perfection and appear as such at the Second Coming of Christ.

1 Thess. 3:11. Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you.

God the Father, as the Almighty and Creator of visible things, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things were made (Jn. 1:3), to whom “all power is given in heaven and in earth” (Mt. 28:18)—a sovereign power to order all things for the good of the faith and of the faithful—and who promised to be with believers “all the days, even to the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20) and to fulfil their every petition. “This teaches the equality of the Father and the Son, making known that the Father and the Son govern the same economy, as they also create the same” (Theodoret). That is why direct stands in the singular.—The Triune God acts in us to salvation through the incarnate Only-begotten Son of God and the Holy Spirit who has descended, by the good pleasure of the Father.

“Direct our way to you. Direct”—let the time be shown, the obstacles removed, and all that favours a peaceful journey arranged. The Apostle lived in self-surrender to God and directed all his steps according to indications from above, whether expressed inwardly—by the heart being made fully ready in an unobstructed way—or outwardly—by a confluence of circumstances calling him to certain undertakings and affording all conveniences for them. He presumed nothing of his own accord, but ordered all things as God directed.

Holy Chrysostom says of this passage: “To pray not only inwardly but to set forth one’s prayer in a letter is the mark of extraordinary love, the mark of a soul ardent and truly irrepressible. He speaks as if to say: may God Himself bring the temptations to an end that on every side block our direct way to you,” “may He fulfil our desire and remove the difficulties encountered” (Theodoret), “may He drive away Satan, who everywhere through temptations lays obstacles before us—from coming to you” (Oecumenius).

1 Thess. 3:12. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you.

Benedictions for the Thessalonians in the spirit of faith and hope.—He wishes them perfection in love, which alone has the power to keep them unshaken in faith and pure in life until the very Second Coming of Christ, in which the eternal lot of each is decided.

“And the Lord.” Before he said: “God and the Father, and the Lord…” but now only “the Lord.” This is because the Lord and the Father are one, by the word of the Lord Himself: “I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:30), and because what follows are benedictions according to the economy of our salvation, which the Triune God accomplishes through the incarnate God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Make to increase and abound in love”—this is the same as: may He fill and overfill with love. Holy Chrysostom expresses the meaning of both words in one: “may He cause to grow.” Blessed Theodoret, however, separates the meaning of each word, relating the first to an increase in the number of believers and the second to the uniting of all of them in love. “He prays that He would augment them in number and make them to abound in love—that is, to have attained perfect love, so as to lack nothing in it.”

“In love one toward another, and toward all men.”—He desires love above all else because it is the bond of perfection (Col. 3:14), it is the fulfilment of the Law (Rom. 13:10). Christian progress is progress in love (1 Tim. 6:11). As the Lord Himself, as the other Apostles, so also holy Paul places love above all else in Christianity (1 Cor. 13).—But whom does the Apostle mean by “toward all?”—If by “one toward another” he means only the believers, the Thessalonians, then “toward all” will mean toward all other Christians. So Theodoret: “That they should show love not only one toward another, but toward all of one faith, wherever they might be.” But if by “one toward another” one understands Christians in general, then “toward all” will mean all people. So Oecumenius: “It is the business of Christians not only to love the brothers, but all people, both believers and unbelievers.” Holy Chrysostom understands love toward all without reference to faith. “See how he wishes to extend this love!—Not only one toward another, but toward all. For therein is truly shown love according to God, that it strives to embrace all within itself. But if you love one and not another, your love is merely human.” Holy Apostle Paul often inculcates love toward all people—as in Tit. 3:2; 1 Tim. 2:1; 1 Thess. 5:15; and the like.

“Even as we do toward you”—the implied sense being: we are full and abound in love. The expression is abbreviated and requires supplementing. One may read it thus: having spoken of love toward all, he gives a hint as to himself as well, saying as it were: toward all, and toward us… After this it is natural for: “even as we do toward you” to follow—or directly: love one another and all, as we love you—that is, selflessly, ready for every sacrifice, as he speaks of himself in 1 Thess. 2. His love, known and proved by the Thessalonians, he sets as a model: “Take us as the measure and example of love” (Theophylact). To set himself as an example is characteristic of holy Apostle Paul (2 Thess. 3:9; Phil. 3:17). Yet he does not let Christians rest in himself, but from himself leads them up to Christ the Lord, saying: “Be you followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Thus he leads all to the One. In the work of moral formation, example is stronger than any word.

1 Thess. 3:13. To the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. Amen.

He desires love because it is the sole support of full moral purity, which even now appears as such before the eyes of the all-seeing God and will appear as such at the coming of the Lord, when all things—even what is hidden—will be laid bare and revealed before all. “Love makes blameless, and indeed it alone truly makes blameless. Love toward one’s neighbour shuts every entrance to sin. And there is absolutely not a single sin which the power of love, like fire, would not consume. It is easier for weak brushwood to withstand a strong fire than for the nature of sin to withstand the power of love” (Chrysostom).

This is why, desiring steadfastness in moral blamelessness and purity, he desires love. Love is the means to unshakeable purity—to firm and irreproachable morality—and this latter is the condition of justification at the Second Coming of Christ. In another place he writes: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). Here he says: if you wish to be so pure and blameless, seek and pray for perfect love. Holy Chrysostom writes: “I want, he says, this love to abound in you to such a degree that there be no fault in you. He did not say: establish you, but ‘your hearts.” “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts’ (Mt. 15:19). One can be evil while doing no evil—as in: harbouring hatred, unbelief, being crafty, rejoicing at the misfortunes of one’s neighbours, being unfriendly, holding perverted teaching—for all this is a matter of the heart. To be pure from all of this constitutes holiness. For although holiness is chiefly and pre-eminently called chastity, since impurity is fornication and adultery, yet in general every sin is impurity and every virtue is purity. ‘Blessed,’ says the Saviour, ‘are the pure in heart’ (Mt. 5:8)—meaning by the pure those who are pure in everything.”

“Before God, even our Father”—this may be referred both to “unblameable in holiness,” in the sense that their hearts should prove blameless and pure before the very all-seeing eye of God, in which case purity is true purity only—and to: “the coming of the Lord,” in the sense that judgment too will take place before the face of the Father. So holy Chrysostom, Oecumenius, and Theophylact. Chrysostom writes: “The judge then will be Christ, but we shall stand not before Him but before the Father at the time of judgment.—Or here the Apostle means that we ought to be blameless before God. Of which I always tell you: we must be blameless not in the sight of man but in the sight of God, for therein consists true virtue.”

“At the coming of the Lord.”—To this decisive moment the Apostle has already more than once directed the attention of the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 1:10; 2:12, 19). Now again he presents it as the ultimate limit of hopes and expectations, and at the same time as the strongest incentive to sustain in themselves energetic efforts toward the deeds and dispositions that may win approval at that time. Whatever is then determined concerning any person will seal his lot with an unchangeable seal for all eternity—either for blessedness or for torment.

“With all his saints.” Some hold that the Apostle here wishes them blamelessness together with all the saints, on a level with them, like them—so as to be in their company at the meeting of the Lord (Theodoret). But more directly these words refer to the coming of the Lord with all His saints. What saints?—“Most immediately, the angels. For everywhere the coming of the Lord is thus described, that He will be surrounded by hosts of angels (Mt. 25:31; Mk. 8:38; Lk. 9:26; Acts 10:22; Mt. 16:27; 2 Thess. 1:7). But since it says—with His saints and moreover with ‘all,’ one may understand also perfected Christians, who are His in a special sense, as those bought by His blood and joined to Him in one spirit. The first among them—the Apostles—were promised to sit upon twelve thrones and to judge (Mt. 19:28).”

“Amen.” Not infrequently in the course of his discourse the Apostle introduces prayerful appeals and cries to God, which he often confirms with the word: Amen. As if to say: may it be so—so be it, so be it. He wishes to convey that his prayerful benediction is not the result of a momentary impulse, but the fruit of his constant and firm desire for their essential good in Christianity.

Part Two—Moral-Dogmatic (1 Thessalonians 4–5)

Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

Chapters 4 and 5 contain chiefly moral instruction, into the midst of which is inserted the teaching on the Second Coming of Christ and the resurrection of all — 1 Thess. 4:13–18, yet in such a way that even this teaching is directed toward stirring up and strengthening moral vigilance and sobriety — 1 Thess. 5:1–11. For this reason the content of these chapters falls into three sections: 1) first come lessons on chastity, brotherly love, and diligence. One must suppose that these are lessons prompted by the moral condition of the Thessalonians, as it became known and was reported to the Apostle by holy Timothy, 1 Thess. 4:1–12.

2) Then follows the exposition of the teaching on the Second Coming of Christ, with the moral lesson drawn from it, 1 Thess. 4:13–5:11. Here too, no doubt, the perplexity that had been tormenting the Thessalonians is resolved.

3) Finally, there is an enumeration of moral lessons that define the moral order of Christian communities and of every Christian at all times and in all places — 1 Thess. 5:12–24.

1. Lessons according to the particular moral needs of the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 4:1–12)

The Apostle Paul had praised the Thessalonians. But since there are no perfect people and one cannot expect any community to be as if of one accord, he writes them lessons for life—to confirm those who are in good order in their good principles, and to correct those who are not.

There is no doubt that these lessons correspond to what the Apostle Paul had heard from holy Timothy; but in the course of the Apostle’s address they stand as a direct consequence of what precedes. He had prayed that God would more and more fill the hearts of the Thessalonians with love for one another and establish them in chastity and purity. But since the formation of the Christian life depends not on grace alone but is also the fruit of one’s own efforts, he invites them to care for this themselves as well. And he places first a) the exhortation to chastity, fortifying it with the strongest possible motives. The lack of chastity was common to all pagans; moreover, it barred the entry of God’s grace and placed a decisive obstacle before every advance in the Christian life. Hence holy Paul speaks of it at the outset and with such urgency. And it may be that this vice was displaying itself among the Thessalonians with particular lack of restraint, 1 Thess. 4:1–8.

Then the Apostle recalls b) brotherly love, 1 Thess. 4:9–10; and finally adds the lesson c) on diligence, 1 Thess. 4:11–12.

a) Exhortation to chastity (1 Thess. 4:1–8)

1 Thess. 4:1. Furthermore then we beseech you, brothers, and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more.

“Furthermore then.”—He has just set forth prayerful benedictions. Now he invites them to strive to become worthy of the blessings wished for them, and therefore begins his address with “furthermore then”—in consequence of this—you should live thus and thus.

“We beseech and exhort.” He does not speak as one clothed with authority from above, but as one equal to them, their sincere well-wisher. He imposes no bonds but entreats, giving to understand that, out of his strong love for them, their life pleasing to God is for him the greatest good. But when he adds: “in the Lord Jesus Christ,” his word there takes on a binding force. Whoever believes in Christ the Lord and loves Him receives with reverence everything proposed in His name and submits to it without objection.

The Apostle speaks as one devoted to the Lord and having consecrated his life to Him, addressing them as those likewise devoted to the Lord and having in conscience taken upon themselves the obligation to live according to His will. In another place he expresses the same thought thus: “we pray you in Christ’s stead” (2 Cor. 5:20). This is an exhortation against which no believing heart can hold out. We beseech you by Christ God, for Christ’s sake do thus and thus. By fulfilling our request you will do not what is pleasing to us but what is pleasing to Christ Jesus the Lord. “‘In the Lord Jesus Christ’ we beseech you as by God” (Chrysostom).—“See what humility! He does not count himself worthy of trust, even in matters of exhortation, but presents the word from Christ. I beseech you, he says, through Christ” (Oecumenius).

“As you have received of us”—as you were taught by us and learned from us. “Received” refers not to words only but to deeds as well (Chrysostom). So also in common speech we say: to receive and to take over. The Apostle says: as you received from us through the words of our preaching, and as you took over from our way of life. “As the Apostles themselves lived, this became the model for the Thessalonians” (Oecumenius). Everywhere the Apostles immediately brought order to the lives of the newly converted, giving them the necessary rules suited to the character of the people and the customs established among them—approving some things and setting aside others—so that faith might not remain for a single moment bare faith, but would at once pass over into life, changing and transforming it according to its own spirit. It is to these instructions that the Apostle now recalls them.

“How you ought to walk and to please God. “How you ought to walk”—points to the whole manner of life” (Chrysostom). ‘Walk and please’—stand side by side as inseparable companions. In practice, pleasing God is inseparable from walking rightly before Him, for the first is the goal of the second. Walking encompasses the particular deeds, acts, and conduct; ‘pleasing’ indicates what should be in the heart at the same time. The one is the body of life, the other its spirit. One is the practice, the other is the moving force. Together it may be said thus: to walk pleasing God, ever keeping God before one’s eyes, directing one’s steps with all attention, circumspection, and reverence, fearing to offend Him in any way, taking care to do everything in accordance with His will. Here the same is said as previously—‘walk worthy of God’ (1 Thess. 2:12). And toward this all the Apostles directed everything!—An upright life is not maintained for its own sake, but for the pleasing of God, and they themselves did everything ‘not as pleasing men, but God, who proves our hearts’ (1 Thess. 2:4).

“So you would abound.” The same he says to them below: “for you do it” (1 Thess. 4:10), and later: “even as you do” (1 Thess. 5:11). He considered it necessary to encourage them by the beginnings of an upright life already manifested, and therefore speaks thus. Or he spoke thus so that his lessons would not appear as a reproach for being in disorder. In every respect these words are in place here and should not be omitted, as was done in the Russian translation. Apart from the fact that they are read in the Sinaitic and Vatican manuscripts, and in many others—without them, “that you abound” will not be altogether in harmony with the flow of the speech.

“Abound more and more”—more and more let you advance in the God-pleasing life you have begun, let you appear day by day more perfect. Christians are not suited to stand still in one place but to ascend ever higher, “from strength to strength” (Ps. 83:8). By their calling they are “zealous of good works” (Tit. 2:14), “created in Christ Jesus to good works… that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Moreover, the Christian life is such that it cannot be all at once appropriated and quickly expressed in deeds. It gradually fills the heart until, having transformed it wholly in its own spirit, it makes it an inexhaustible spring of God-pleasing deeds. The way to this is the fulfilment of particular prescriptions. Through habitual practice of these there is formed a goodness of heart as a permanent character of the person. Whoever reaches this no longer needs prescriptions and commands. Holy Chrysostom says: “Abound”—that is, so that you, as zeal increases in you, would not stop at the fulfilment of commandments but would ascend higher and higher. In the preceding chapter he praises the steadfastness of their faith, and here he teaches them to advance in virtuous life. And advance consists in doing more than commandments and ordinances require, for then everything is accomplished not by compulsion from a teacher but by one’s own free will.

1 Thess. 4:2. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

“For you know”—there is no need to repeat; you know. So recently has all of this been imparted to you—how you ought to order your life in the spirit of faith in Christ—that it is superfluous to explain it again. “His commandments he has left written in their memory” (Oecumenius).

“By the Lord Jesus”—the same as “in the name of the Lord Jesus” (2 Thess. 3:6), or in the name of “the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 1:10). On His behalf, by His authority given to us. For He chose us and sent us, indicating what to preach and ordain, and continues to indicate. We give commandments not of ourselves but from the Lord Himself. He is the Lawgiver, and we are the proclaimers of His ordinances. He refers everything to God, so as to clothe his word with heavenly authority and to plant in hearts an unquestioning submission to it.

In these two verses is expressed the general law of the Christian life. Live as commanded, having in view only the pleasing of God, and do not stand still but advance more and more.

Particular rules then follow, set down not according to an abstract system but according to what the Thessalonians needed.

1 Thess. 4:3. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication.

“For”—for. He adduces proof for what he said before, that the commandments given them are given on behalf of the Lord. As if to say: for that on which I insisted when I was with you, and on which I shall now remind you again, is not my counsel, but the direct will of God.

The words “for this is the will of God”—either stand as a heading: for this is the will of God—sanctification and the rest. In that case they will be a condensed expression of the general law already stated; or they refer directly to sanctification. In that case they raise the commandment of purity to the level of a particular and exclusive will of God, as if to say: nothing does God require of you so much as sanctification—purity. This latter seems to have been the Apostle’s intent. He intensifies the obligation to purity because of the difficulty of weaning away from impurity, which in paganism was so universal that it was not even considered a sin. The corruption of fallen human nature has made man above all else prone to sins of the flesh. The pagans were dissolute in fornication; among them the Thessalonians, perhaps more openly than others, if not more than others. Hence the Apostle had spoken more about it verbally, and now in writing places instruction on this matter in first place and hallows it with the will of God. Holy Chrysostom says concerning this word: “Note that he never hints so often at anything else as at this. And writing in another place, he commands: ‘follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’ (Heb. 12:14). And to Timothy he said: ‘keep yourself pure’ (1 Tim. 5:22). And in many places we shall find this, both in the Epistle to the Romans and in all the others. And indeed this evil is ruinous to all.” Oecumenius adds: “In each epistle his word offers much on the subject of chastity. For he knew that there is no passion more unruly and harder to correct.” “Sanctification” — αγιασμος — sometimes denotes the sanctifying action of God’s grace in the sacraments (1 Pet. 1:2); sometimes the purifying action of grace received by freedom, as moral sanctification, purification, correction of the soul (1 Cor. 1:30); sometimes the state of moral purity, the established disposition to live purely and blamelessly according to all God’s commandments: “be you holy, for I am holy,” the Lord requires (1 Pet. 1:16). In the present case, clearly the Apostle understands sanctification in the last sense, and moreover in relation to the purity of soul and body from the passion of lust, as the following words show: “abstain from fornication,” which in the flow of the discourse are the direct explanation of the word “sanctification.” General moral purity can only be understood as implied in this text on the ground that without it, chastity—in its full meaning and force—cannot be formed or maintained.

“That you should abstain from fornication”—this explains sanctification. “He said that God’s will requires sanctification, then makes known which virtue he calls sanctification” (Theodoret).

“Abstain”—in the Greek: to restrain oneself, to hold oneself back from something, to keep far away. By fornication he understands every kind of carnal impurity. “There are many forms of licentiousness, the pleasures of lust are manifold and various—and it is intolerable even to speak of them. (He cuts them all off with one word: ‘abstain from fornication’)” (Chrysostom).

1 Thess. 4:4–5. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles which know not God.

The meaning of the text depends on how one understands the word “vessel.” Every person is, according to Scripture, either a vessel of God’s mercy or a vessel of wrath (Rom. 9:22–23). The body is also called an “earthen vessel” (2 Cor. 4:7). And a wife is the “weaker vessel” (1 Pet. 3:7). The first meaning is obviously inapplicable here. Among the two remaining, some adopt one interpretation, others the other. This has been so since the time of Theodoret, who writes: “His vessel” some interpret as: his own wife. Among the ancients, blessed Augustine understood it thus, seeing in the Apostle’s words a lesson not only not to touch another’s wife, but to treat one’s own wife honestly and holily. Setting him aside, all the other known ancient commentators understand by vessel—the body. If therefore one is to settle the disagreement by the majority and weight of concurring opinions, this latter view must be given precedence. Moreover, on the basis of the letter alone, one cannot hold the view that wife is meant here, for certain expressions the Apostle employs do not apply altogether conveniently to a wife. Blessed Theodoret, after saying that some understand vessel to mean a wife, adds: “But I think the Apostle calls the body of each person a vessel, because he gives a law not to the married only”—“but presents the lesson to the unmarried and the widowed as well” (Oecumenius). The same thought is found in holy Chrysostom, Damascene, and Theophylact. The body is called a vessel either as the container of the soul and together with the soul of the gifts of grace (2 Cor. 4:7), or as the instrument for taking in what is needed from without and for making manifest what is within. Let the body be pure as an instrument, so as to perform God-pleasing deeds purely; let it be pure as a container, for an impure vessel spoils even pure wine. Let everything in the Christian be pure—from the thoughts and feelings of the soul to the last stirrings and impulses of the body—and let his life, bodily, soulful, and spiritual, being united, flow purely, as purely streams the bright, translucent water of a clean spring, flowing through pure places.

“Know how to possess.” To possess—to make one’s own, to use, and simply to have. The Apostle instils the habit of mastering the body, of using it and maintaining it in sanctity and purity. Whoever gives himself to fornication surrenders the body to sin; whoever puts an end to this sin redeems it from that captivity, masters it again, and begins to use it for his own purposes rather than at the impulse of lust. Holy Chrysostom writes: “When the vessel (the body) is pure, we possess it and it abides in holiness; but when it is impure, sin possesses it. For then it does not what we will, but what sin commands.” Such mastery of the body requires labour, struggle, and the training of the body. Hence the Apostle writes: “know how to possess.” Know—not in the sense of theoretical knowledge, but in the sense of practical experience—to be able to master the body. “Consequently, much learning is needed, lest one give oneself over to impurity” (Chrysostom). “Chastity therefore requires training and struggle” (Oecumenius). In this—the struggle is not only for the unmarried, but also for those living in marriage. This passion is very disorderly and unrestrained.

“In sanctification and honour.” Sanctification here is the same as holiness above—that is, purity. But if one takes into account the Apostle’s words about the body in other places, one may see here the lesson to maintain the body as the sanctuary of God’s Spirit, to relate to it reverently as to a temple of God. “Know you not”—he writes to the Corinthians—“that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?” (1 Cor. 6:19). And again: “know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” Accordingly he prescribes to them, as “temples of the living God,” not to “touch uncleanness” (2 Cor. 6:16–17), threatening that “if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy” (1 Cor. 3:17). The meaning of the word “in honour” also fits with this. He maintains the body in honour who does not permit himself to fall into “vile affections” (Rom. 1:26). Deeds of fornication are pre-eminently deeds of shame. Whoever gives himself to them covers his brow with shame.

“Not in the passion of lust.” One must distinguish the manifestations of unlawfulness in this passion. Carnal stirrings are natural in the body, and in them there is no sin. The sin lies in how a person relates to them with his freedom and conscience. Whoever takes pleasure in these stirrings, deliberately arouses them and is ready to satisfy them—that person lusts. Whoever by frequent satisfaction of this lust forms in himself an inclination toward its pleasures, that person is afflicted with the passionate lust that weighs upon, torments, and tyrannically tortures him.

In this state lust takes hold of the whole person, and he begins to spend his life only amid those arrangements that can nourish and gratify it. For the sake of the pleasure afforded by its satisfaction. The Apostle Paul in his instructions condemns the whole domain of this passion, beginning with the first gratifications of the stirrings of the flesh and embracing the entire expanse of deeds, habits, and conditions in which it holds sway. Holy Chrysostom writes: “Here the Apostle shows the means by which one ought to attain chastity—namely, by cutting off the passions of lust”—that is, its first stirrings, impulses, and urgings. Blessed Theophylact adds: “By the passion of lust the Apostle means everything that inflames lust: pleasures, diversions, idleness, luxury, and the like. And from all of this that inflames lust one must abstain, if one desires to be chaste.” By its destructive effects on soul and body this passion is for the Apostle “evil concupiscence” (Col. 3:5), and by the degradation it inflicts on the rational creature it is a “vile passion” (Rom. 1:26).

“Even as the Gentiles which know not God.” It is well established that in those times Romans and Greeks openly surrendered themselves to all the unbridledness of this passion. And even today, persons and peoples returning to pagan views of life are pre-eminently enslaved to this passion. In explanation of why pagans and all who imitate them are such, the Apostle points to ignorance of God. Here the ignorance of God is understood not as intellectual but pre-eminently as ignorance of the heart and conscience. In the latter case, even with a good theoretical understanding, the fear of God departs from the heart—and with it the only strong guardian of purity. What good can be expected from such a state? Whoever does not remember God and has no fear of God is already without restraint given over to shameful deeds. “Pagans are such because they do not anticipate future punishment” (Chrysostom). “Not knowing God, they do not expect the due recompense for their deeds, and do everything only for their own pleasure” (Oecumenius).

By placing those who indulge the passion of lust on the same level as pagans who know not God, the Apostle provides a powerful motive for self-restraint in Christians, who have come to love Christianity and have recognized its great worth. Christians, from the moment of their belief, had separated themselves from the pagans both in their conceptions and in their conduct. They counted it a matter of honour that they had become different from what they had been before. The danger of returning to the old ways powerfully stirred in them the energy to avoid such deeds and occasions. This is what the Apostle holds up before them. “Powerful too is this to turn one from fornication—that the fornicator is ranked among those who know not God” (Damascene). “The Apostle speaks as if to say: you were freed from delusion, you came to know the true God—do not then imitate those who live in the darkness of ignorance and do not submit to the passion of lust” (Theodoret).

1 Thess. 4:6. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

According to holy Chrysostom, blessed Theodoret, holy Damascene, Oecumenius, Theophylact, and many other commentators, the Apostle here continues the instruction on the restraint of the passion of lust, and in the words “go beyond” and “defraud” they see a lesson not to touch another man’s wife. The flow of the discourse compels one to hold this same view. In the following, seventh verse, it is said that God has called us not to uncleanness but to holiness. And this is stated as the ground of what was said in verse six; consequently, both verses carry the same thought—a warning against impurity—the same as throughout the entire section, 1 Thess. 4:3–8.

“Go beyond” and “defraud”—these correspond to: “abstain from fornication” and to: “know how to possess his vessel in sanctification,” and together with them they trace out the entire circle of fornication forbidden by the Apostle. “Go beyond”—the limits set by the law in this regard; “defraud his brother”—to seize what is his, drawing his wife to oneself. Holy Chrysostom writes: “Before, the Apostle spoke of fornication in general; here he speaks of adultery. One must not commit fornication with another man’s wife or with unmarried women. ‘Go beyond’—for God has given each man a wife and set a limit for nature, namely union with one. Therefore union with another is already transgression, robbery, and fraud—indeed more dreadful than any robbery, for we are not so grieved when money is stolen from us as when our marriage is violated.” Theodoret amplifies this: “The Apostle here called adultery fraud, because he who undermines the marriage bond of others touches what does not belong to him, and seizes the bed granted to another. He intensified the accusation by making clear that the one wronged is a brother.” Why the Apostle did not use direct speech, holy Damascene explains: “With a decorous word he covertly designated adultery, calling it the defrauding of a brother.”

“Because that the Lord is the avenger.” The Thessalonians were evidently weak on this side. Hence the Apostle sets before them strong and fearsome motives for restraint. For the same reason, surely, he writes to them so much on this subject. God is the avenger of all lawlessness, but especially of deeds of fornication, because through them man degrades most of all the image of God in which he was created. At this point, however, the Apostle only recalls what he has said, for when he was with them he had expounded this to them at length and “testified” with assurance that so it is—that this transgression is very great, abominable before God, degrading and destructive for man. Holy Chrysostom sets out the Apostle’s thought thus: “First he implored, made them blush, saying: ‘even as the Gentiles;’ then through arguments he showed the ugliness of this, using the expression: ‘defraud his brother in any matter;’ and then he adds the main point: ‘because the Lord is the avenger.’ Doing this, we do not go unpunished, and we experience no such pleasure as would equal the torment awaiting us.” The Apostle here “points to punishment as a curb against lawlessness, setting fear against it” (Theodoret). By the words “of all such” the Apostle gives to understand that God is the avenger not of adultery alone, but of all deeds of fornication, as if to say: “Do not think I say this only concerning the wives of brothers. No—concerning the wives of other men also, and concerning unmarried women, and concerning women of common life. God avenges intercourse with all of them” (Theodoret).

1 Thess. 4:7. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.

“God has not called us.” We are called to the profession of the Gospel, to faith in Christ, to Christianity. In saying “us” he places himself in the same rank as the Thessalonians and all Christians. After the threats he recalls the spirit of Christianity. Such is the calling of Christians, by eternal appointment—to be pure. “For”—indicates the reason why God is the avenger especially of deeds of fornication. Because they are directly opposed to God’s calling and trouble not so much the right relations with brothers and with oneself as they offend God Himself. “God will punish you,” says holy Chrysostom, “not in order to avenge a brother, but because you have offended God Himself. He called you, and you offended the One who called you.” This is why Christianity begins with a vow of purity and a renunciation of deeds of lust. Pagans, on receiving baptism, were obligated to turn away from such deeds and to embrace chastity. On this condition, God grants them the grace of the Holy Spirit, which requires that the vessel of their nature be pure. “The devil,” writes blessed Theodoret, “filled the dogmas of non-existent gods with licentiousness, impelling people to enter this way (that is, of licentiousness); but the true God commands us to turn away from this way and prescribes walking in the way of chastity.” Christians were sharply distinguished from pagans in this regard, so that the latter marvelled that they did not “run with them” into the “same excess of riot” (1 Pet. 4:4).

1 Thess. 4:8. He therefore that despises, despises not man, but God, who has also given to us his holy Spirit.

To despise—to cast aside with contempt, to show no due attention or respect, to disregard. The Apostle says that whoever despises this commandment and is negligent about its exact fulfilment shows no disrespect and contempt toward a man, but toward God Himself. Not toward “man”—either the brother whose wife he would seize, or the Apostle who gave the commandment of purity. In the first case he despises God because God called him to purity and he gives himself to impurity; God says: I am the avenger of such, but he goes his own way. Consequently, he sets the threat of God and God Himself at nothing. In the second case—because the Apostles gave not their own commandments but God’s; accordingly, whoever disobeys them shows disobedience to God Himself: “he that despises you despises me; and he that despises me despises him that sent me,” says the Lord (Lk. 10:16). Both thoughts are found in holy Chrysostom. “God avenges, he says, not the persons you have offended, but Himself. You defiled yourself—you offended God. Even though the harlot has no husband, God will still avenge you, for He avenges Himself. In doing this (adultery), you show contempt not so much to a person as to God. This is evident from the fact that at least from the husband you hide it, but about God, who sees, you do not even think. Tell me: if a king had honoured someone with the purple robe and many other distinctions, and that man, having been commanded to live in accordance with his dignity, went and defiled himself with some woman—whom would he have offended, the woman or the king who had honoured him with the reward?”

“Who has given to us his holy Spirit. To us”—to us. To whom?—Either to the Apostles, who did not speak of themselves but were taught by the Holy Spirit. “For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you,”—the Lord said to the Apostles (Mt. 10:20). Hence whoever resists them sins not against men but against God, as Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:4). In this sense the cited words will contain an explanation of why he who despises the commandment of chastity despises not man but God; or to us—to all Christians, who, having received the grace of the Holy Spirit and having Him dwelling in them, must give Him rest and not grieve Him (Eph. 4:30). He is grieved above all by impurity. Hence on another occasion the Apostle, as a motive to purity, sets forth especially the fact that Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them (1 Cor. 6:19). Whoever gives himself to fornication despises, offends, and drives out this heavenly guest of his. Oecumenius writes: “God gave us the Holy Spirit, and we drive Him out by impurity. How then do we not offend both the Giver and the Gift?”—In this sense the cited words provide Christians with the strongest motive for keeping themselves in purity.

On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

1 Thess. 4:9. But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write to you: for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

The brothers, love for whom is mentioned here, are Christians, as is clear from the following verse (1 Thess. 4:10). “He does not speak of love toward all, but of love toward the brothers” (Chrysostom). And moreover of love not as a feeling but as loving activity in deed: “The Apostle here pointed to generosity in monetary giving” (Theodoret). If deeds of this kind immediately came to characterize the Thessalonians, it is evident how fully they had received the spirit of Christianity. All Christians, on receiving the Spirit of grace, become one. And being united in spirit, they share in mutual charity, directing it especially toward the needy. Nevertheless, brotherly love is commanded to Christians everywhere in the epistles (Rom. 12:10; Heb. 13:1; 1 Pet. 1:22), sometimes as a reminder, sometimes as guidance in the manner of fulfilling it.

“You need not that I write.” The Apostles measured their word according to the needs of those who were to read their epistles. They wrote not in order to say as much as possible, but to satisfy the spiritual needs of their disciples. In speaking thus, the Apostle employed a form of expression that is encouraging and stimulating for the Thessalonians. He not only softens the rigour of the moral instruction, but also stirs up energy and imposes a certain obligation—to stand firm in what has been begun. Holy Chrysostom writes: “What does it mean that the Apostle sets aside, as it were, love—the foundation of every virtue—saying: there is no need to write about that? This proceeds from his great prudence and spiritual wisdom. By this he accomplishes two aims: first, he shows that this virtue is so necessary that there is no need even to teach it, for what is of special importance to all is known to everyone; second, by expressing himself thus, he instructs them more than he would if he turned to them directly with exhortation. For by supposing that they are living righteously—even if they are not—and therefore not pressing them toward it, he more readily brings them to such a life. Of course, if there were no need to write, one should remain silent and say nothing; but now, by saying there is no need to write, he has done more than if he had said there is a need.” Oecumenius adds somewhat to this thought: “By saying they are exemplary in this (brotherly love), he stirs them toward it even if they were not exemplary, so that they might uphold such an opinion and reputation of themselves.”

“Taught of God.” When and how?—Along with the receiving of the Spirit of grace. By the Holy Spirit, given to Christians, love is also poured into their hearts (Rom. 5:5). This Spirit instils not only the feeling of love, but also the ability to show love. He stirs up desires corresponding to the promptings of feeling, adds motives to them, shows the means, and inspires moral strength. The Apostle speaks as if to say: the Holy Spirit is in you, and He teaches you and disposes you to love one another. And so you do love—love has become a natural feeling in you.—There is nothing to teach. Of this inner instruction from the Spirit, holy John writes as of the fruit of the anointing (1 Jn. 2:27). Where God teaches, let man be silent. “See what honour he renders them, saying that God Himself teaches them this. You have no need, he says, to learn it from a man. Of this the prophet also speaks: and all your children shall be taught of the Lord (Is. 54:13). This serves as a powerful motive to fulfil the duty of love” (Chrysostom).

1 Thess. 4:10. And indeed you do it toward all the brothers which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brothers, that you abound more and more.

“You do it.” That there is indeed no need to write to them about brotherly love, as those taught of God, their deeds of love toward the brothers throughout Macedonia make clear. By referring their deeds to God as their source, he hallows them and thereby gives them a motive to continue. The Thessalonians were doubtless benevolent by their natural disposition. Having been with them personally and giving them lessons face to face, the Apostle gave a God-pleasing direction to this natural inclination. After receiving the grace that sanctified and transformed their nature, even that came to be from God.

“Abound more and more.” You know and you do it. There is no need to teach you how to live or to set before you motives for it. What remains is to wish you and beseech you to advance more and more in what you have begun. The purpose of the address is to remind them of the need to ascend ever higher in the perfection of brotherly love. That this reminder was not in vain, the Apostle testified later, writing to the Corinthians, where he says that they appeared “willing beyond their power,” not merely offering but even begging to be allowed to share in the grace and fellowship—and this not merely toward the Macedonians, but toward the saints, the Christians living in Judea and Jerusalem. The Apostle traces such a disposition in them to the fact that they had given themselves to the Lord. They were ready to give all they had for the brothers, placing their own lot in God’s hands, trusting that He who had commanded them to act thus would not leave them also without His providential care (2 Cor. 8:3–5).

c) On diligence (1 Thess. 4:11–12)

1 Thess. 4:11. And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.

Holy Paul mentioned brotherly love only in passing, as it were, merely to tell them: advance in it more and more. Now again he continues his discourse about those things in which there were disorderly persons among the Thessalonians. The Apostle had learned that among them some were restless, fond of wandering about the market-place; to such he prescribes quietness and staying at home. Others were neglectful of their own affairs; to these he commands to attend to their own business. Others were unwilling to work—idle and consuming what belongs to others, unable not only to help others but even to provide for themselves; to them: “work with your own hands.” That such persons were indeed among the Thessalonians is evident from the second epistle to them, where the Apostle writes: “for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread” (2 Thess. 3:11–12). The faults rebuked in the second epistle are precisely those against which the first epistle had written rules of good conduct, so as to avoid the necessity of rebuking them later. But since what is bad is not corrected all at once, rebuke proved necessary as well.

Although all of this regulated only the outward conduct of Christians, the Apostle nonetheless insists strongly on its being set right. For when the outward is disorderly, it is very doubtful that the inward is in order. Hence he urges them “to study”—to strive for this with all earnestness (cf. Rom. 15:20; 2 Cor. 5:9) — φιλοτιμεισθαι: to account it an honour, to pursue as a point of honour the conduct proposed.

“To be quiet”—not to flee to the desert for silence, but to shun rumour, noise, and agitation, and not only not to stir them up but not to participate in them either—to sit at home in order to avoid unpleasant conflicts with anyone, and in general to show a quiet, calm, peaceable disposition.

“To do your own business”—to do only what concerns each person at home and in his external dealings, what constitutes his duty and obligation according to his position. There is a moral weakness by which some, never at rest for a moment, busy themselves entirely with other people’s affairs while neglecting their own without attention. If everyone attended properly to his own affairs alone, according to conscience and with the fear of God, there would be more contentment, happiness, and order among people.

“Work with your own hands”—to labour, to have a craft, occupation, and bodily work by which one can earn one’s subsistence; not to live at another’s expense but to eat one’s bread in the sweat of one’s face; not to abuse others’ charity. Blessed Theophylact writes: “It happened that some were giving generously to the needy what they required, and the recipients, relying on their generosity, were negligent about engaging in work. And the Apostle rightly praised the one group and gave useful counsel to the other.” Holy Chrysostom expounds the thought at greater length: “Here he gives to understand how many evils idleness occasions, and, conversely, how many goods diligence brings. The duty of love toward one’s neighbours consists not in receiving from them, but in giving to them. And this depends on diligence—not to live in idleness but, by working, to give to others; for it is said: ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35). Poverty had come upon them from the plundering of their possessions. If he commands those whose property was plundered for Christ’s sake to support themselves by their own labour, how much more does this apply to others.”

“As we commanded you.” We commanded them not only to work, but also to attend to their own business and to lead a quiet life. But if he commanded it, it means those faults were noticeable among the Thessalonians, so that the Apostle had marked them at once and warned against them when he was with them and was teaching them personally.

1 Thess. 4:12. That you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing.

The goal of the proposed good conduct is to walk honestly before those who are without. Those without—that is, non-Christians, at that time pagans and Jews. The Church is the house of God. Those who are not in it are outside it—the outsiders. The Apostle commands them to conduct themselves properly among them and in their regard, so that even the visible behaviour of Christians may be pure, bright, worthy of general approval, and so that no one might have anything bad to say about them. So obligatory is it for Christians to appear visibly as a model for the life of all bystanders, to be lights for them. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven,” the Lord commanded all Christians in the person of the Apostles (Mt. 5:16). Honest conduct before those who are without is defined by the Apostle through all the rules set out before; and here he seems to gather them all into one, adding: “and that you may have lack of nothing”—so as not to ask anything from anyone, not to trouble anyone with one’s needs. “The words: ‘that you may walk honestly toward them that are without’ the Apostle interpreted by adding: ‘and that you may have lack of nothing.’ It is shameful, he says, to live in inactivity, not to provide what is needed by one’s own labour, but to love a beggarly life and to await others’ generosity” (Theodoret). Holy Chrysostom writes: “He did not say: do not shame yourselves by begging; yet he hinted at this, although he used a more lenient manner of expression, so as both to make them feel it (how unseemly this is) and not to grieve them too much. For if our fellow brothers are offended by such things, the outsiders, who seek a thousand charges and reproaches, are all the more offended when they see a man who is healthy, capable of feeding himself, begging for alms and needing others’ support. Because by this ‘the name of God is blasphemed’ (Rom. 2:24). But he laid none of this before them—only what could especially move them, namely the unseemly behaviour.”

The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Nothing is so powerful to bring to order the one who lives disorderly and to confirm in uprightness the one who walks rightly, as the conviction that the Lord will come again in glory to render to each according to his deeds. This was perhaps the Apostle’s motive for inserting the teaching on this article of the Christian faith into the midst of the moral lessons that needed to be given to the Thessalonians, since he had other reasons for writing about it as well. In this, certainly, lies also the reason why he did not leave this teaching as a bare intellectual representation, but immediately set it in motion within the moral-Christian life, pointing to it as a motive for vigilance and sobriety—those levers of self-governance in those who strive to please God by advance in virtue.

a) Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thess. 4:13–18)

It is supposed that the Thessalonians, on hearing from the Apostle the preaching about the Second Coming of the Lord, had imagined that it would inevitably take place within the bounds of their lifetime, and that only those who would be alive at that moment would be partakers of its blessings. From this thought arose the question: what then will happen to those who have already died? And from not knowing how to answer it—anxiety about their lot, together with anxiety about their own, since any one of them might die beforehand. The Apostle writes in accordance with this: the Lord will come, but His kingdom will not be on earth. He will descend from heaven; and to meet Him there shall be caught up both the living and the dead, who for that purpose will rise beforehand—and there they shall always be with the Lord. By this, the aspect of the Second Coming that had remained obscure to the Thessalonians was clarified and all anxiety about the dead was dispelled. But the Coming itself was not depicted in its full picture, which was not the Apostle’s aim; here only two moments of it are indicated—the beginning and the end. The middle—the carrying out of the judgment—the Apostle did not touch. What was said was sufficient to bring peace to those who were troubled.

1 Thess. 4:13. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

“I would not have you be ignorant”—the usual turn of phrase for holy Paul when he wishes to draw his readers’ particular attention to some matter, whether he is reasoning about it anew or only reminding them of it.

“I would not have you be ignorant”; consequently, I wish you to know—I wish to give you a precise understanding of the condition of the dead, for your consolation. During his stay with them he had not had time to impart everything on this subject. Now he supplies what was missing and was causing disturbance among the Thessalonians. By clarifying the matter the Apostle wishes to bring them comfort.

“Concerning those who are asleep”—in relation to the dead, who are named here (from the Greek) “those who are asleep,” as it is fitting to name them when writing to those who believe in the resurrection, of which the discourse now begins. By the dead, in the flow of the discourse, the Apostle here understands the believers, the Christians; although of course he taught everywhere that all people—not Christians only, but Jews and pagans as well—are not only immortal in soul but shall also rise in the body, to receive due recompense for all that they did in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10). But here the discourse is not about all, but only about believers, for the others were not the concern in this case.

“That you sorrow not.” The desire to dispose the Thessalonians to bear the death of their close ones with good cheer was what moved the Apostle to write. His aim is to remove immoderate grief over the dead, into which the Thessalonians were plunged by not knowing how those who have died will become partakers of eternal blessedness in Christ. He speaks as if to say: I will explain this—and you will have nothing to grieve about. “For,” as Chrysostom says, “many things cast us into grief only because we do not know them; but when we come to know them well, we lay grief aside.” There is no trace of ignorance or unbelief about the resurrection among the Thessalonians; and the Apostle “speaks to them thus not because they did not believe in the resurrection, but because, notwithstanding this, they were lamenting the dead” (Chrysostom).

“Even as others which have no hope.” These others—and some among the Jews as well, since even among them the Sadducees denied the resurrection of the dead—and all the pagans, who had no conception of the resurrection, and as for life beyond the grave, encumbered it with grotesque fantasies that gave many occasion to deny immortality altogether. Hence the Apostle calls them those “which have no hope” (Eph. 2:12). Their writers say: hope is the portion of the living, but the dead are without hope (Theocritus). The sun sets and rises; but for us, once the ray of life is quenched, there lies before us the eternal night of unawakening sleep (Catullus). No one has yet returned from those whom once the cold pause of life has seized (Lucretius).—It is fitting for such people to lament the dead, “for all the dead are nothing to them” (Chrysostom). But Christians, who look forward to a better mode of existence after death, should not grieve but rejoice over those who depart—that they have completed their course and go to receive the crown prepared for them (2 Tim. 4:8).

What is the Apostle’s thought in this comparison: “even as others?” Does he wish to remove all grief, saying: that you may not grieve at all, as those who have no hope grieve? Or does he only say: that you may not grieve to such a degree and in such a spirit as they do? Blessed Theodoret accepts the latter: “The Apostle does not altogether forbid grieving, but rejects the immoderation of grief and consoles with the hope of the resurrection. For those who have no such hope may be excused for indulging in moderate grief. Therefore he did not say: concerning the dead, but concerning those who are asleep—placing consolation in the very name: for after sleep comes awakening.” Holy Chrysostom insists on the former: “To grieve over the dead belongs to those who have no hope. And indeed, a soul that knows absolutely nothing of the resurrection and counts this death as death (that is, as annihilation) naturally grieves over the dead as over those who have perished, and laments and weeps inconsolably; but you, who hope for the resurrection—why do you weep?”

In the spirit of Christian faith and hope, the latter is more fitting for Christians; for death has lost its sting for them. And whoever clearly and with conviction contemplates what awaits Christians after death will not weep over the dead. The former is more indulgent toward our infirmities. One may say it thus: begin with moderate grief and ascend to good cheer in the face of death, bidding farewell to the departed as one bids farewell to those setting out for another country to a better life.

1 Thess. 4:14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

Grief over the dead arises, first, from separation from them, and second, from uncertainty about what will become of them. The first cause of grief the Apostle weakens in the present verse, saying that when the Lord appears, God will bring the dead back to us into mutual fellowship; the second—in the following verses, saying that they, having risen, will together with the living be caught up on the clouds to meet the Lord and will be always with Him there.

The Apostle’s aim in this verse is not to prove the resurrection of the dead, but only to bring to mind the whole truth and present it more clearly, so that the conclusion would come of itself: so then what is there for you to grieve about? He clarifies and quickens this truth in the mind by placing it in connection with the Lord’s resurrection and expressing it in a brief saying that, like a flash of lightning, illuminates the whole domain of life and death. The resurrection of the dead, not only here but everywhere, holy Paul places in dependence on the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:12–23; 6:14; 2 Cor. 4:14). The risen Christ is the First-fruits (1 Cor. 15:20). His resurrection is the pledge of the resurrection of all. Those held under the fear of death are raised through faith in the risen Lord to the hope of resurrection and eternal life. “If the resurrection of Christ seems to us worthy of belief, we cannot but believe that we too shall obtain the resurrection, because the mystery of the Incarnation is administered on our behalf” (Theodoret). But the resurrection of Christ is not only the ground of belief in the resurrection of all; it is also the cause of the resurrection itself. For Christ the Lord and all who believe in Him constitute one body, living in union. Where the Head is, there too are the members; the Head has risen, and He will draw the members to Himself. “But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Cor. 15:23). “He raised all people by His flesh (laid the foundation for this resurrection), which is why He is also called ‘the firstborn from the dead’ (Col. 1:18)” (Damascene).

It was not in vain that holy Paul also mentioned the death of the Lord. His death enters into the content of hope. He died for our sins, which are cleansed by faith in His death on the Cross. This is what adorns faith in the future life with bright hopes. This life is darkened by the fear of punishment for sins; but the death of the Lord drives away this fear. The death of the Lord is not accidental but necessary, just as is the resurrection. By the one and the other the spirit is disposed toward hope and abides in it.

After the words “if we believe” one would have expected: we must believe that God and so forth. But holy Paul says directly: even so “will God bring with him them that sleep in Jesus.” In his unshakeable assurance of this he does not say that we must believe or hope, but sets forth the very fact that is hoped for and believed. He needed to draw not faith from faith, but fact from fact. The Lord Jesus died and rose again; those who believed in Him died—and will rise again. But of the Lord he says that He “died” “and rose again”—Himself: He died by His own will and rose by His own power; believers, however, will be raised by the power of God. Hence he says: “even so will God bring” them.

“Will bring”—either into the circle of the living: they are not here now, they have departed from us, but then God will bring them back to us and we shall see them. “The words: ‘will bring with him’ give to understand that they shall be gathered from many places” (Chrysostom). Or—will bring into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, that they may be with Him where He is, as partakers of the blessings He has acquired for those who believe in Him by His death and resurrection. Comparing this word with what precedes, one cannot but see that it stands in place of—will raise; will bring through resurrection, or having first raised them. “Will bring—either before His own face, or to the resurrection” (Oecumenius). The words of our translation, “them that sleep in Jesus,” stand in Greek as δια `Ιησου — through Jesus. Explaining this expression, our ancient commentators, following holy Chrysostom, connect the words δια `Ιησου either with “sleep,” in the sense of: those who have fallen asleep in Jesus—that is, in faith in Jesus Christ—or with “will bring,” in the sense that God will bring the dead to life in the body through Jesus Christ, for “the Son is the author of the resurrection and of our beholding the Father” (Oecumenius); “He will be the mediator of the resurrection of the dead and will present them before the face of the Father” (Theophylact). Holy Chrysostom, having adduced both explanations, seems to give preference to the first, for, passing over the second, he dwells his attention only on the first, saying: “How then do the faithful die in Jesus?—Clearly, by having Christ in themselves.”—This is more in keeping with the structure of the text, and its equivalent expression is found below in 1 Thess. 4:16: “the dead in Christ.”

The Apostle’s words, that God will bring those who have died in Christ, give occasion for the question: what then will happen to those who died not in Jesus—that is, to unbelievers? Oecumenius resolves it thus: “What then, someone will say—is the resurrection not universal, as though unbelievers will not rise?—No, that is not it—but not all will be brought. For to be brought means the rapture on the clouds and the presentation before the face of the Judge. The faithful, those who truly bear this name, shall be caught up on the clouds to meet Christ, while the unfaithful will await His arrival below, not being worthy to meet Him.” This thought he took from holy Chrysostom, who writes: “The Apostle here speaks not only of resurrection but of resurrection and the honour with which believers will be surrounded in the state of glorification. In the resurrection, he says, all will share; but in the glory—not all, but only those who have fallen asleep in Christ. And since he wishes to console them, he consoles them not only by speaking of the resurrection, for they already knew of it, but also of the great honour and the speed with which the resurrection will follow.”

1 Thess. 4:15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent those who are asleep.

The Apostle said that those who have died in Christ will again be brought into the circle of life in the body—into mutual fellowship with all; now he shows how this will take place, 1 Thess. 4:16. But in explaining this, he discloses new features of the events of the last days that had until now been unknown. The Lord said that in due time the elect would be gathered from all the ends of the earth to be blessed with Him (Mt. 24:31; Mk. 13:27); but what would happen to those whom the Second Coming of the Lord would find alive had not been said anywhere. This the Apostle now discloses, speaking not of himself but in the name of the Lord and with His words: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord”—by the word heard from the Lord—we speak thus as the Lord commanded.

What is this word of the Lord?—Some hold it to be the same word by which the Lord Himself depicted His Second Coming as recorded in the Gospel. But there nothing is said about the circumstances of which the Apostle writes here. Others understand by the word of the Lord a word that went forth from the Lord but was not preserved in the Gospel—like: “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). This view could well be accepted, were it not known from the Apostle’s own lips that he received immediate revelations from the Lord (1 Cor. 11:23; 2 Cor. 12:1; Gal. 1:12). This last must be recognised as the only truly correct interpretation of the words “by the word of the Lord.” And this is all the more obligatory because the Apostle himself points to a circumstance related to this same event as to a revelation: “Behold, I shew you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51). But a mystery—how else can it be known than by revelation? Holy Chrysostom writes: “Intending to say something extraordinary, he added an assurance: we say this not of ourselves, but having heard it from Christ. The prophets, wishing to show the truthfulness of what they were about to say, say before all else: ‘the vision which Isaiah saw’ (Is. 13:1); or: ‘the word of’ the Lord, ‘that came to Jeremiah’ (Jer. 1:1); and yet again: ‘thus says the Lord’ (Is. 8:11). Many saw God Himself sitting on a throne (Is. 6:1), so far as it was possible for them to see Him. But Paul, who did not see Him seated but had Christ speaking within him, instead of saying: ‘thus says the Lord,’ said: ‘since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me’ (2 Cor. 13:3), and again: ‘Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ’ (2 Cor. 1:1), and by this showed that he said nothing of himself, because an apostle conveys only the word of the one who sent him. And again: ‘I think also that I have the Spirit of God’ (1 Cor. 7:40). Thus he proclaimed all things by the prompting of the Spirit. But what he now says, he heard from God (who spoke to him in distinct words).”

“We who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord.” These words give occasion for thinking that the Apostle was convinced that he and all believers of his time would live to see the Second Coming of the Lord—that it would take place during their lifetime on earth. But such a conviction in him cannot be supposed, for this would mean determining the time of the Lord’s coming, while he himself says that the time of this coming should not be determined. He would thus be in contradiction with himself. Hence some understand the word “remain” as if it were: having remained—in the event that we remain, if we live to see the Second Coming of the Lord. The structure of the Greek permits such a rendering. And the holy fathers, seeing that the Lord’s coming did not take place within the bounds of the Apostle’s lifetime, hold that in speaking thus “he was not speaking of his own person, but of people who would live to that time” (Theodoret). “In using the expression ‘we,’ he had not himself in mind, but understood the faithful (Chrysostom). Since he was speaking of the living (who will be alive at the coming of the Lord) and was himself still alive, he used the usual common expression: we who are alive” (Damascene). Others do not allow the conditional sense and see in the Apostle an absolute and unconditional statement. This too may be agreed to. The Lord said: watch, “for you know not what hour the Son of Man comes” (Lk. 12:40). Because the hour is unknown, no one could determine it; but by that very reason everyone must await it, be ready, hold himself in such a state as though the last day were about to overtake him this very moment, and think and speak of himself as of one who is already caught by that day, as though already present at the coming of the Lord. In this sense the Apostle speaks of himself and of all believers as of those overtaken by the coming of the Lord. As at that time the Apostle with the believers of that day, so at all times all believers ought to hold themselves inwardly in like manner. The Lord is coming—and with us, who remain to the coming of the Lord, this and this will come to pass.—That until now, under no generation of believers, this has happened, does not mean that it will not come to pass in our lifetime, and our duty—to hold ourselves in our hearts as those overtaken by the coming of the Lord—loses none of its binding force thereby. In this sense in the New Testament the last day is everywhere presented as imminent (1 Cor. 15:51–52; 1 Pet. 4:7; 1 Jn. 2:18; Jas. 5:8).

“Shall not prevent those who are asleep”—shall not go before them so as to taste the blessed life with the Lord more quickly or more fully than they do, as happens in a race, where the one who outstrips the others and reaches the appointed mark first receives the prize to the exclusion of the others.

The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

1 Thess. 4:16. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

That those who remain alive at the coming of the Lord will not go before the dead, the Apostle demonstrates by presenting the chief moments of that great final event: the Lord will appear, the dead will rise, and they together with those who remain alive shall be caught up on the clouds to meet the Lord. In this, the most precious privilege of believers, the living will be given no particular precedence over the dead.

“The Lord himself.”—The Person in whom all the strivings and hopes of Christians are centred—the beginning and Perfecter of the new creation, the final Arbiter of the lot of all.

“With a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God.” In this, either there are depicted merely aspects and features of the majesty, splendour, and glory of the Lord’s appearing on the last day—in contrast to His humble descent for the Incarnation and in correspondence with God’s appearing at Sinai—or there are depicted the various divine actions in the ordering of all things in a renewed form. “With a shout”—by which God, worshipped in Trinity, will pronounce the decree that time is ended, that the moment has come for the dead to rise and for all to appear in a renewed form. “With the voice of the archangel.” The divine command will be received by the chief Archangel—certainly Michael, the guardian of the people of God, first of Israel, then of Christians (Dan. 9:21; 10:5, 13, 21; 12:1). The received command will be proclaimed by the “voice” of the Archangel to the other heavenly hosts, who through “the trumps of God” will proclaim the command of God to all the ends of the earth. By the trumpet here is meant not one trumpet: “there will be many trumpets; the Lord will descend at the last trumpet” (Chrysostom). It is called “God’s” because it conveys God’s command and acts with God’s power. The trumpet will be the conduit of the power of God, penetrating all things and quickening all things; it will rouse the dead and gather them together with the living into one. The trumpet also in the Old Testament was the instrument for summoning the people of God to hear and fulfil the will of God (Lev. 25:9; Num. 10:2; 31:6).

“And the dead in Christ shall rise first.” The Apostle says the same in another place: “the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible” (1 Cor. 15:52). The word “first” does not mean that those who died in Christ—that is, believing Christians—will rise before non-Christians, as though some interval of time would remain between the one resurrection and the other, which some extend even to a thousand years, for there is no hint of that here. The Apostle wishes to say only that first the dead will rise, then will follow their being caught up together with the living on the clouds. Unbelievers are not mentioned here because the discourse was not about them; the Apostle’s word to believers was only concerning the resurrection of believers. But by this the general resurrection of all is not excluded.

Photius, quoted by Oecumenius, says: “The Lord will descend at His own command, the Archangel’s cry, and the trumpet’s blast. The Lord commands; the Archangel proclaims the Lord’s command; all the heavenly orders transmit it as an echo. The Lord gives the command, the Archangel relays it to those below him, and they sound it to the ends of the world.—And the dead will rise and be gathered from throughout the whole universe. He thus depicts the resurrection of the dead in such detail so as to imprint it more deeply in the souls of Christians. The voice of the Archangel will command all the angels to assemble and prepare all things for the reception of the Judge who is about to appear. That the earth should return what it has received, changed into incorruption—this the command of Christ will accomplish; but that the scattered should be gathered from the ends of the earth—this the angels will do, at the voice of the Archangel, by means of the trumpet of God. The foreshadowing of these trumpets were the trumpets of Sinai. And when the King approaches, the trumpets sound.” Holy Chrysostom: “What is the significance of the voice of the Archangel?—The same as what was said of the virgins: arise, the bridegroom comes. ‘Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him’ (Mt. 25:6). Either he is speaking of this here, or of the fact that when the angels minister at the resurrection, something will take place similar to what happens in the presence of a king. Namely, God will say: let the dead rise! And this will be brought to fulfilment not by the power of the angels but by the power of His word—as if a king were to command and say: let the prisoners come out, and let the servants bring them forth; the servants would carry this out not by their own authority but in consequence of the royal command. Of this Christ also speaks in another place: ‘he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other’ (Mt. 24:31).—And everywhere you will see angels hastening to fulfil the command of God. To raise is the work of the Almighty God, commanding the earth to return what was entrusted to it, without any assistance from servants—just as it was when the Lord cried to Lazarus: ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ (Jn. 11:43)—but to gather the risen together will be the work of the servants.” Theodoret: “The Lord of all will first of all appear descending from heaven, and will command the Archangel to cry out and raise the dead. And the trumpets will sound everywhere something great and wondrous.—If at the sound that at Sinai was proportioned to the hearing of those who lived then, the people could not endure the excess of fear but said to the great Moses: ‘speak you with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die’ (Ex. 20:19)—who will endure the voice that will sound at that time?—‘And the dead in Christ shall rise first:’ the Apostle calls the faithful the dead—not only those who believed the Gospel, but also those who shone under the Law and before the Law.”

1 Thess. 4:17. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

“Then we who are alive…” The dead will rise—but what will happen to the living, correspondingly to the resurrection of those, this the Apostle does not say here, hastening to say that both the one and the other will be together. In the Epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle writes that at the time when the dead rise, the living will be changed into the same mode of being that the risen will receive: “Behold, I shew you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51–52). After some have risen and others have been changed and all are gathered into one, the judgment and the separation of the good from the evil will follow. The Apostle does not touch on this, for it was not his aim, and he carries attention as quickly as possible to the last, most consoling for believers, moment of this awesome final event—the meeting of the Lord and the eternal abiding with Him. Having been brought equal in their mode of being to the dead, the living will share equally with them the privilege of meeting the Lord on the clouds.

“Together with them”—equally with them; we shall have nothing more than they. “Shall be caught up”—we shall be lifted up to the place befitting those who have risen in their renewed nature. This is said to denote the swiftness of the movement, corresponding to the longing and irresistible desire of those who love the Lord to be with Him. “Caught up in the clouds.” On the clouds the Lord ascended (Acts 1:9), and on the clouds He will come again (Acts 1:11; Mt. 24:30); and on the clouds He will grant believers to meet Him. “As the Lord Himself ascended on a bright cloud, so those who believed in Him—both those raised from the dead and those still living, carried on the clouds—will meet the Judge of the universe and will abide with Him for endless ages” (Theodoret). “To meet the Lord.” The Lord will descend from heaven to take His own; and they will run from the earth to meet Him, as the virgins in the parable (Mt. 25:1–6). The place of meeting can only be “in the air”—on high, in the upper spheres of the atmosphere, at the transition into the heavenly dwelling-places. But here they will only meet, not abide. They will be with the Lord, but not in the air—there where He is. He is at the right hand of the Father, and they are around Him, each in his own order. “And so shall we ever be with the Lord”—as partakers of His glory and blessedness. Having met the Lord, drawn near, face to face, in blessed converse, we shall be separated from Him no more. This is the summit of the hopes that inspire Christians!—Thus the Lord Himself promised: “I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (Jn. 14:3). Of this He prayed to the Father: “Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me” (Jn. 17:24). With this the holy Apostle consoled believers in their tribulations for the sake of the holy faith: “and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:17–18; similarly Col. 3:3–4; 2 Tim. 2:12). Holy Chrysostom writes: “If the Lord intends to descend, why shall we be caught up?—For the sake of honour. For when a king enters a city, the honourable citizens go out to meet him, while the criminals within await the Judge; and when a loving father returns, the children and those who bear the name of children ride out in a chariot to meet him, to see and greet him, while those of the household who have offended him stay at home.—We shall ride in the Father’s chariot. For as He (the Father) lifted up the Lord Himself on the clouds (Acts 1:9), so we too shall be caught up in the clouds. See what honour awaits us! We shall meet the One who descends, and—what is most joyful—‘so shall we be’ with ‘Him. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? who can shew forth all his praise?’ (Ps. 105:2). To what blessings has He counted the human race worthy! First the dead will rise, and thus all together will meet Him. Abel, who died before all, will go forth to meet Him then together with those who remain alive—so that the living will have no advantage over him in this; but the one who has lain mouldering in the earth for so many years will meet Him together with the living, as will all the rest.”

Photius, quoted by Oecumenius, resolves the question that naturally arises here—why the Apostle speaks only of the lot of believers on the last day, making no mention of the lot of unbelievers and the wicked. “Do you notice that in describing the resurrection the Apostle does not mention those who will rise for punishment and torments? He does this, as I think, for three reasons.—First, he writes to the Thessalonians about the resurrection for their consolation. And for one who writes with the aim of consoling, it was inappropriate to make mention of bitter and grievous things. By this he would have increased their grief rather than provided consolation. Second, he was writing about the resurrection to believers—and it was fitting not to mention those who are to be led away to torment. For believers, who live according to the Lord’s commandments, will be subject to no punishment, but will abide in eternal joy and eternal blessedness. Therefore there was no need to mention the torments of extraneous persons when writing to believers about the glory, blessedness, and joys prepared for the faithful. Third, he is here expounding the resurrection itself as it is in itself and for what purpose it is. The resurrection God appointed to be to the salvation of people, that they might partake of eternal blessings in ineffable glory; and hell He prepared for the devil and his angels—as the Gospel says—not for people. If some, by their own iniquities, choose in place of the blessings prepared for them what was prepared for the devil, this comes about against the will of the man-loving Lord. Therefore holy Paul, writing about the very essence of the resurrection and about the purpose for which the Creator of all appointed it, justly makes no mention of those who will go into eternal punishment.”

1 Thess. 4:18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Such is the purpose for which the holy Apostle Paul touched upon the resurrection of believers and their blessed lot after the resurrection! “Comfort one another”—so that you may not grieve over the dead as others do who have no hope. Comfort “one another”—those who are less troubled and more at peace should convey to others the words of faith concerning the resurrection, repeating them before them with heartfelt conviction and so dispersing the darkness of grief in those others. Comfort “with these words”—with these words that I have transmitted to you, with this teaching, with this depiction of the bright lot of the risen faithful, saying to one another: this is what shall be! Is it right for us to grieve?—One may comfort oneself with this not only in grief over the dead, but in every other sorrow as well. For nothing has such power to dissolve the bitterness of sorrows as the certainty that this present life is not the final one, that there will be another in which those who sorrowed here will be recompensed with an ineffable blessedness—so long as those who sorrow are sincere in the true faith and upright in their lives. This is especially comforting to those who suffer unjust wrongs.

Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Having depicted the coming of the Lord and what will then happen to the dead and to those who remain alive, the holy Paul now turns to the lessons that flow naturally from this teaching. The chief lesson (bb) is vigilance and sobriety—attentiveness to oneself and one’s deeds, by which an upright life is governed (1 Thess. 5:4–11). As a force to arouse and sustain vigilance and sobriety, the teaching about the Day of the Lord can have effect only when one continually remembers that day and continually awaits it; and this latter is sealed in the mind by the certainty (aa) of the suddenness of the Lord’s appearing. It is this thought, therefore, that the holy Paul places first, as a transition to his lesson (1 Thess. 5:1–3). The time of the Lord’s final appearing is unknown. Do not push it far off, and do not draw it near. Stand watch, for the Lord will come suddenly—and will render to each according to his deeds.

1 Thess. 5:1. But of the times and the seasons, you have no need that we write to you.

The Lord also said to the holy Apostles in response to their question about His Second Coming: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power” (Acts 1:7).

“Times” and “seasons”—both words are used as synonymous (compare Lk. 1:57 with 2 Tim. 4:6; Acts 20:18 with Lk. 21:36). Yet more subtle connoisseurs of language distinguish between them, understanding by “time” χρονος — any indeterminate duration, and by “season” καιρος — a definite time, at which it is fitting or needful for some deed or event to occur. Here the Apostle has in mind the definite moment of the Lord’s appearing, as if to say: as for precisely when the Lord will appear, there is no need to write to you about that.—Both words frequently stand together in Scripture (Acts 1:7; Dan. 2:21; Eccl. 3:1). They stand here in the plural in order to signify, as commentators conjecture, the circumstances surrounding the Lord’s appearing and preparatory to it, each of which has its appointed moment—or more directly, on account of the indefiniteness of the day and hour of this event.

“You have no need that we write”—this does not mean that there is no need at all to speak and know of this, but that there is no need to write to them, no need to write again now, because it was spoken to them in person and they already know it. And what they know is this: that no one can know anything about this, and therefore nothing definite can be written.

There is no indication that the Thessalonians had any dispute or perplexity or mistaken opinion about this. The reminder is given in order to draw the lesson of sobriety and watchfulness, and of walking in the light of hope. The Apostle speaks as if to say: it was necessary to write to you in consolation about the lot of the departed at the coming of the Lord, and I wrote it. As for when that coming itself will be, there is no need to write to you about that. For, as you know, nothing definite can be said about it, and to inquire into it would be empty curiosity not worth satisfying. This is why the holy Chrysostom, when approaching the interpretation of this passage, places reproach of curiosity at the very outset. “In no human nature, it seems,” he says, is there such curiosity and avidity for knowledge of the unseen and hidden as in human nature. This commonly shows itself when the mind is still imperfect and unformed. So inexperienced children incessantly trouble their tutors, their teachers, and their parents with a multitude of questions that contain nothing more than, for example: when will this happen and when will that happen? The same thing happens with adults who are either pampered or lack a definite occupation. Thus our mind strongly desires to know and even to comprehend many things, but above all the time of the world’s end. And what wonder if this preoccupies us, when it preoccupied even the holy Apostles themselves most of all? For before the (Christ’s) Passion they came to Christ with the words: “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world?” (Mt. 24:3). And after His Passion and resurrection from the dead, they likewise said to Him: tell us, “do You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). And about nothing else did they first ask Him. But after that it was otherwise. When they were deemed worthy of the Holy Spirit, they not only ceased to ask themselves, but also restrained others who suffered from such misplaced curiosity. Hear what the blessed Paul now says: “but of the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that we write to you.”

1 Thess. 5:2. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

“Yourselves”—not by your own independent grasp of this truth, but from the earlier instructions of the holy Apostle (Theodoret). “Know perfectly”—you know precisely, with such definiteness as admits no doubts or wavering; you know not the time, but the untimeliness of the Lord’s coming: “suddenly” He will appear. “The Day of the Lord”—in the holy prophets it is the day on which God promised to manifest in a particular way His goodness, omnipotence, and righteousness (Joel 2:31; Mic. 4:6; Ezek. 13:5; Is. 2:12). In the New Testament, the Day of the Lord refers exclusively to the day of the Second Coming of Christ, when Christ the Lord will appear again on earth in His glory in order, after the resurrection of the dead, to execute judgment over all people and to bring to final completion the ordering of His eternal kingdom—including here also the terrible signs in heaven and on earth which, according to the Lord’s own word, are to accompany this appearing. It is called, besides “the Day of the Lord” (2 Pet. 3:10), also: the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:8; 5:5, 2 Cor. 1:14); the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6); and simply the day of Christ (Phil. 1:10; 2:16; 2 Thess. 2:2).

“As a thief.” This comparison is taken from the words of the Lord Himself and is common to more than the Apostle Paul alone (2 Pet. 3:10). “Only the suddenness of the Master’s coming is likened to a thief” (Theodoret). When all are asleep in confidence that there is no danger, the thief creeps in. So shall the Day of the Lord creep in. Yet this is not hidden from us; it is frequently urged upon us so that that hour may not overtake us suddenly, as a thief overtakes a careless householder. The thief’s opportune time is the dead of night. It may be that the Lord too will appear at midnight, like the bridegroom in the parable of the ten virgins. Some of the teachers of the Church thought that this might perhaps occur at midnight on the night of the bright Resurrection of Christ, just as the angel appeared during the first Passover of the Jews in Egypt. Is it not from this that the all-night vigil on the feast of the bright Resurrection of Christ and on other Sundays derives (as on Athos)? “So He will come”—the Greek reads “He comes,” corresponding to the expectation of His sudden appearing, at every moment one may say: He is coming—or to express the certainty of His coming, a thing already settled: He comes, just as in the Epistle to the Romans: “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven” (Rom. 1:18). The Day of the Lord may in a proper sense also be understood as the hour of each person’s death. For it too overtakes one suddenly, and immediately after it there follows the preliminary determination of each one’s lot, just as at that final day the definitive determination follows. Morally, let each person apply to himself the sudden onset of the Day of the Lord as the sudden onset of the hour of death, examples of which are everywhere and not few. Await the Lord, whether He comes during your lifetime or not. Even if He does not come, death will come nonetheless—and death is for you the decisive moment. If the Lord’s long delay can weaken the conviction that He is coming any moment, nothing else has such power to renew it as the conviction that death is coming any moment. Reminders of this are very frequent. Await death then. And with it comes for you the Day of the Lord—the terrible judgment of the Lord upon you. The holy Chrysostom writes: “Hear what Paul says: ‘for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night’—not only the universal day, but each person’s own. For this latter is likened to the former because it has resemblance and kinship with it. What the former signifies for all together, the latter signifies for each individually. (A little earlier.) Does not the end of a man’s life constitute for each person the end of the age? Why do you inquire so curiously about the universal end, and why do you cause yourself grief by this?—But what happens to us in other matters, we observe here as well. As in other matters we, paying no attention to our own affairs, scrutinize those of others, saying: this one is a fornicator, that one an adulterer, another has stolen, another has wronged someone—while we say not a word about our own affairs, and on the contrary care more about the conduct of all other people than about our own—so here too each of us, not caring about his own end, desires to learn about the common end. If you prepare well for your own end, you will suffer no evil from the universal one. Whether it be far off or near, this will not in the least affect the determination of our lot. This is why Christ did not say anything about it. Hear what He says to the Apostles: ‘It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power’ (Acts 1:7). After this, what need is there for you to inquire? This is what those who were with Peter heard when they desired to know more than they needed to know.”

1 Thess. 5:3. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

The Lord comes so unexpectedly not because He deliberately intends to catch everyone off guard and unprepared, but because this is how it will be on account of people’s carelessness. In prophetic spirit the holy Paul is transported to the last time and sees that people will then conduct themselves just as they did in the days of Noah, with no thought at all that a terrible storm is ready to burst over their heads. The Lord says: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away—so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be” (Mt. 24:37–39). We may suppose here in the Apostle a hidden comparison of the sudden appearing of the Lord with the sudden raid of enemies and with all cases of sudden disasters—earthquakes, storms, and the like. “When they shall say”—who shall say this? Those who are alive before the coming of the Lord, but who have evidently forgotten about that coming, who despise the truth, are negligent of salvation, indulge their passions, and do not think about the imminent judgment and determination of their final lot. “They shall say”—that is, they will settle in their minds and hearts and rest in the conviction that “peace and safety” are secure; all is calm within and the defenses without are firm, the foundations of prosperity and security are solid—like people living peacefully on their estates and thinking of nothing other than: eat, drink, and be merry. Such boasting on the part of false prophets is set before us by the prophet Ezekiel, together with God’s judgment upon it (1 Thess. 13:10 and following).

“Then sudden destruction comes upon them”—a disaster that overwhelms everything, destroys everything, and moreover admits no escape, from which there is nowhere to flee: “and they shall not escape.” The only means would be utter annihilation: “mountains, fall on us;” but even that is out of reach, and there will remain only terror and despair. In the Second Epistle the Apostle depicts how the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven will come with the angels of His power, in flaming fire, to render “vengeance on those who know not God and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:7–9). The Apostle presents the Second Coming of Christ in its terrifying aspect, giving the Thessalonians a motive for a watchful life, so that they too may not fall into the carelessness of the people of this world, expressed here by the words “peace and safety”—the carelessness of those in whom sin reigns, drawing the wrath of God upon them, though the careless do not perceive this through their self-delusion. All will be nursing other hopes and desires, and will encounter—this!

“As travail upon a woman with child.” This expresses the suddenness, the inescapable extremity, and the extreme painfulness of the disaster. A woman in labor knows that the birth is near, but the moment of delivery seizes her all at once—unforeseen; such will be the coming of Christ (Theodoret and Oecumenius). All the signs will already be clear, but the moment of the appearing will not be known and will descend suddenly. “In such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man comes” (Mt. 24:44). “For as the lightning comes out of the east and shines even to the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be” (Mt. 24:27).

The holy Chrysostom raises at this point one difficulty, which he then resolves: The following circumstance deserves attention: if Antichrist is to come, if Elijah is to come, then how is it that “when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them?” These events, as signs of Christ’s coming, will give notice of that day. But Christ will not give forewarnings about Himself; He will come suddenly and unexpectedly. So too for a pregnant woman the time of delivery does not come unexpectedly, the Apostle says, for she knows that after nine months there will be a birth. And yet this time is very uncertain for her, because some give birth after seven months and others after nine, while the day and hour of delivery are in any case unknown. So this is what Paul means in saying this. Indeed, he uses an apt comparison! There are not many signs of birth; because of this, many, not foreseeing it, have given birth on the road and out of doors. But the Apostle wished to indicate by this comparison not only the uncertainty of the time, but together with it the cruelty of the suffering. For just as a woman in labor, playing and laughing and foreseeing nothing at all, is suddenly seized by inexpressible sufferings and is tormented by the pangs of delivery, so too will the souls of those people be stricken when that day arrives. “And they shall not escape.”

Departing somewhat from the thread of the argument, we may on the occasion of the words about the travails of a woman in labor enter upon the thought concerning the significance of humanity’s present condition. It resembles the formation of a child in the mother’s womb. When the moment of its complete formation comes, then the end of the present mode of existence of all things will come as well: something new will be born.—With respect to each Christian, baptism is the beginning of a new life; the labors of virtuous deeds, the efforts of self-correction, the sorrows of bearing with adversities represent the period of being carried in the womb and of the formation of the new man—and death will be the birth. The entire present period up to the end of the world is, for all and each, a period of being carried in the womb.

1 Thess. 5:4. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Having spoken of the suddenness of the Lord’s appearing, the Apostle draws from it the obligation to a watchful and sober manner of life, under the influence of the constant expectation of the Day of the Lord, in the awareness that Christians are sons of light and of the day. He could have said directly, after the words cited (1 Thess. 2:3), what the Lord said: “Watch therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord comes” (Mt. 24:42). But the Apostle places first the characteristic mark of Christians—their sonship to light, by virtue of which they ought to live watchfully and soberly even apart from the expectation of the sudden coming of the Lord, acting as people act in the daytime.

“You are not in darkness.” Darkness here is either ignorance of divine things, as the source of errors and vices. So Theodoret: “By darkness the Apostle means ignorance, and by day he means knowledge. He speaks as if to say: having received the ray of the knowledge of God, flee the counsels of darkness, lest judgment and punishment be suddenly pronounced upon you.” Or it is life in sin, in dark deeds. So the holy Chrysostom: “Here he speaks of a dark and impure life, since dissolute and wicked people do everything by night, hiding from everyone and surrounding themselves with darkness—for tell me, does not the adulterer wait for the evening and the thief for the night? And does not the one who robs graves carry out his scheme at night?” One must take both meanings, and moreover in the Christian sense, according to which both knowledge and goodness of life—all comes from Christ, in Whom is light, and outside Whom is darkness. The Apostle speaks as if to say: you are not outside Christ, you are not in the darkness of the fall, not in the bonds of sin and the devil, not in the domain of the prince of darkness, where neither the Lord nor His will is known and there is no power to fulfill it; and (tracing the darkness of sin back to its sources)—you are not in a state of carelessness, insensibility, and blindness, not darkened by worldly vanity, not sunk in sensual pleasures (Jn. 3:19; 8:12; 12:35; 12:46).

“That that day should overtake you as a thief.” Here one may find two meanings: either—you are not such that the day could overtake you as a thief overtakes. A thief creeps in at night, when it is dark and all are asleep; but you have come out of darkness and night and are in the condition of a householder keeping watch over his house—the day will not overtake you as a thief would, it will overtake you, but not as a thief overtakes a careless householder. Or, in saying that they are not such, he means: you ought not to be such that the day overtakes you as a thief, finding you unprepared; it is unbecoming for you to allow yourselves to come to that—it would be contrary to your essential character, which is freedom from darkness and sonship to light.—Either interpretation leads to the same conclusion: “let us watch and be sober” (1 Thess. 5:6).

The holy Chrysostom asks at these words: “What then? Will the last day not overtake them as a thief? Will it not come upon them unexpectedly? Will they foreknow it?”—And he answers: “Here he hints not at knowledge of the time, but at the misfortune associated with it—that is, the last day will not come to their misfortune, for it will dawn upon them suddenly as well, yet it will bring them no sorrow. As a thief can do no harm to those who are awake and abide in the light, even if he should succeed in entering—so too will that day be to those who live as they ought.”

Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

1 Thess. 5:5. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

He said that the last day will not overtake them, or should not overtake them, as a thief, because they are not in darkness. Now he explains why they are not in darkness, or ought not to be in darkness—because they are sons of light. Scripture is accustomed to call sons of something those who bear the characteristic marks of what they are sons of, who are essentially akin to it, filled with its spirit. Sons of light—of Him Who is the light of the world—are those who have been enlightened by the Gospel’s teaching, regenerated by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and who live in the light of God’s countenance and according to His will; they are bright in knowledge, in life, in hopes. Sonship to light denotes not merely belonging to the realm of light, but receiving it into oneself, being penetrated by it, and a kind of light-bearing quality, though a borrowed one. “You were once darkness, but now are you light in the Lord,” the Apostle says (Eph. 5:8; compare: Mt. 5:16; Jn. 3:21; Lk. 16:8; Jn. 12:36; Eph. 2:2–3). “As sons of God are those who do what is pleasing to God, so sons of the day are those who do the works of light” (Chrysostom). “As sons of Gehenna are called those who do what is worthy of Gehenna, and sons of disobedience those who stubbornly resist the will of God, so sons of light and of the day are called those who do the works of righteousness and light” (Oecumenius).

What the Apostle stated positively he then expresses negatively, and in such a way that he encompasses both himself and all believers in a common proposition: “we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” Just as in paintings shadow throws the light portion into sharper relief and gives the whole figure a three-dimensional quality. Night and darkness are synonymous here; but the Apostle seems to distinguish them by degree: we are not only not of the night, but not even of darkness. In that case, darkness would signify a lesser gloom, an accidental, transitory dimming. So the holy Paul elsewhere depicts the holy Church as having no “spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Eph. 5:27). In the expression: “we are not of the night…” some supply the word “sons,” while others paraphrase: we do not belong to the realm of night and darkness. The Apostle wishes to say: we are not nocturnal, not dark, not obscured.

1 Thess. 5:6. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

Such is what we are by our meaning and calling. But in order for each of us to be such in deed as well, we must not sleep, but watch and be sober. “Let us not sleep”—let us not live in carelessness and forgetfulness of the day of judgment, as others do who do not know Christ. “Let us watch and be sober”—let us attend to ourselves and to what we ought to be and how we ought to act; and watchfully—energetically—let us conduct ourselves accordingly, not permitting evil thoughts, impure sympathies, sinful inclinations, passionate impulses, or vicious deeds. The Saviour commands: “what I say to you I say to all, Watch” (Mk. 13:37). Elsewhere: “But take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be weighed down with excess and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you suddenly. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch you therefore, and pray always, that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Lk. 21:34–36). All the holy Apostles urge the same: “Be sober, be vigilant,” the holy Peter writes (1 Pet. 5:8). The holy Paul elsewhere clarifies his meaning: “Watch you, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (1 Cor. 16:13). “Here,” writes the holy Chrysostom, “the Apostle shows that it is within our power to maintain the light of day. In the ordinary day and night this is not within our power—night comes against our will; but with that spiritual night and sleep it is otherwise: one can keep watch continually, one can abide perpetually in the midst of day. To close the eyes of the spirit and yield to sinful slumber is an act not of nature but of will. ‘Let us watch,’ he says, ‘and be sober.’ For even one who is awake, if he does not do good, may be asleep; therefore he added: ‘and let us be sober.’ Truly, even in the daytime, if a man is awake but not sober, he may fall into countless dangers. Sobriety is the intensification of watchfulness.” Explaining this last thought, Oecumenius adds: “It happens that someone, even while awake, is no different from one who is asleep. The Apostle spoke as if to say: let us soberly do good and order our lives.” In the writings of the ascetic Fathers, sobriety is sometimes the detachment of the heart from attachments and passions, while watchfulness is the tension of the active powers.

1 Thess. 5:7. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

He has obligated them to watchfulness and sobriety. Now he says that they cannot rightly act otherwise. For the absence of watchfulness is sleep, and the absence of sobriety is drunkenness; but sleep and drunkenness occur at night, not in the day—and you are sons of light and of the day; sleep and drunkenness ought not to come near you. But as he understands watchfulness and sobriety in the moral sense, so sleeping and drunkenness must also be understood in the moral sense. Here he means those who sleep through carelessness, insensibility, and blindness, and those who are drunk with passions, sensuality, and desires—who through intoxication with all these things lose their Christian consciousness. He illustrates his thought with examples from everyday life. People ordinarily sleep and drink at night, while in the daytime they work and attend to their affairs. The implication is: we too, as sons of light, ought not to sleep and act disorderly in the moral sense, but to live as Christian duty demands—not carelessly, not without concern for the salvation of the soul, not permitting earthly cares to absorb all our time and sensual pleasures to hold us as if in a stupor; both the one and the other drives out of memory the eternal lot that awaits you.

Ancient commentators understand sleeping and drunkenness thus: “By the sleeping the Apostle here means those who remain in evil, as those who are unmoved toward virtue and sunk in the delusions of fantasy” (Theophylact); “those who lack energetic zeal for the doing of good works and abide in sin. He spoke as if to say: sinners live in the darkness of sin; but those who have resolved to perform works of righteousness ought not to be negligent of virtue—to sleep—and ought never to cease doing good works. Their distinguishing mark is abiding not in the night of sin but in the light of virtuous deeds and righteous conduct” (Oecumenius). “But why does he call sin sleep?—First, because the sinner has not the strength needed to perform good deeds; further, because he is constantly carried away by imagination and sees nothing in its true light; on the contrary, he is full of dreams and often of senseless fantasies, and even if he sees something good, he draws nothing firm and unchanging from it. The sleeping man does not see what exists and is truly real, while of what does not exist at all he dreams as if it existed. Such is sin and such is sinful life! It does not see what exists—that is, the spiritual, the heavenly, the unchanging—but sees only what flows, flies away, and soon leaves us” (the holy Chrysostom). “By drunkenness the Apostle here means not intoxication with wine, but the clouding and darkening of the mind with sins” (Oecumenius)—not what comes from wine, but what comes from the passions, since they cloud and dislodge from its proper station the ruling faculty (of the soul, that is, the mind). “You ought not to be such, for you are not sons of night and darkness but sons of the day through baptism and the reception of the yoke of God’s commandments” (Theophylact). “The soul’s drunkenness is constituted by love of gain and attachment to money and carnal love, and everything else you might mention of this kind—all this is drunkenness of the soul” (the holy Chrysostom).

1 Thess. 5:8. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

The reminder about watchfulness and attention brought to mind the military sentinel standing watch, and the sentinel—armor. The Apostle now passes to this new comparison, which he particularly loves and uses frequently (2 Cor. 10:4; Rom. 6:13; 13:12; Eph. 6:11). Just as a soldier on guard attentively watches whether an enemy is approaching, and is armed for the repulse of the enemy in case of attack, so we too ought not only to watch for the devices of our moral enemies, but also to be ready to repulse them at all times, having armed ourselves as befits a Christian. “It is not enough to watch and be sober—one must also be armed. For if a man has no weapons, though he be vigilant and sober, robbers can kill him instantly. So if it is necessary both to watch and to be sober and to be armed, and we should remain without weapons, naked, and moreover asleep, what will prevent the enemy from plunging his sword into us? This is why the Apostle arms us” (Chrysostom). “This is what he said elsewhere: ‘the night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light’ (Rom. 13:12). Let us be guarded, he says here, instead of a breastplate by faith in God and love toward our neighbor, and let the hope of the promised salvation be for us an unbreakable helmet” (Theodoret). Faith together with love guards the entire constitution of the soul, not allowing right thoughts and movements of the heart to escape, while hope will protect the head of life—energy, which immediately falls as soon as despair steals into the soul. Faith, love, hope—the chief functions of the Christian life—are at the same time powerful weapons for repelling the attacks of the enemy: faith repels the arrows of falsehood, unbelief, and error; love repels the lures and seductions of sin and the passions; hope repels all wavering of fidelity in the face of present afflictions and sorrows and the hiddenness of the future, assuring us that the Lord will never forsake us if we do not forsake Him, that He will keep and protect us and will assuredly bring us into His eternal kingdom. One who is filled with faith, love, and hope is a son of the day. His vision of all that exists and occurs is bright through faith; his conscience is bright through works of love never omitted; all around him and before him is bright through hope and surrender to the will of God: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).—Here is a true watchman and sober man!

The holy Chrysostom writes: “Putting on,” he says, “the breastplate of faith and love”—commanding thus both to lead a righteous life and to confess right dogmas. See how he has explained what it means to watch and to be sober—namely, to have the breastplate of faith and love. Not any faith, but a fervent, sincere faith that renders invincible those who are protected by it. Just as no one can quickly cut through a breastplate, and it serves as a rampart for the chest; so do you also guard the soul with faith and love, and not one of the fiery darts of the devil will be able to penetrate it. Where the strength of the soul is guarded by the weapon of love, all the assaults of those who plot against it are in vain and futile, because neither malice, nor envy, nor flattery, nor hypocrisy, nor anything else will be able to touch such a soul. He did not simply say: into love, but said that one must put it on like a strong breastplate. Having said this, he further adds: “and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.” As a helmet guards what is most vital in us—that is, the head—surrounding and covering it on all sides, so also hope will not allow our mind to fall, but holds it upright like a head, not permitting anything extraneous to fall upon it. And as long as nothing falls upon it, we do not bow down. In truth, one who is protected by this armor can never fall. For “there abides,” it is said, “faith, hope, charity, these three” (1 Cor. 13:13).

1 Thess. 5:9–10. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

Some think that here are set forth the truths on which the hope of salvation—one of the proposed spiritual weapons of Christians—is exclusively based and by which it is nourished. Others see in the truths presented the source of all three weapons—faith, love, and hope. It is true that for the Thessalonians the most needful thing was the strengthening of hope, and the holy Apostle may have had the aim of acting especially upon this foundational Christian feeling. But hope cannot stand alone: it is born of faith and ripens under the influence of the works of love. Therefore it is more accurate to say that he wished to enliven by these truths the entire structure of the inner Christian life. The holy Chrysostom understands it thus: “Having said: put on and arm yourselves, the Apostle prepares the weapons and shows whence faith, hope, and love are born, and how they become the most powerful armor, when he adds: ‘for God has not appointed us’—and so on.”

“God has not appointed us.” It was not with this in view that God willed us to be Christians, believers in the Lord—such is not God’s determination and intention concerning us, such is not our calling. “To wrath.” This refers either to the coming wrath (1 Thess. 1:10; Mt. 3:7)—that is, after judgment, condemnation to eternal torments: “God did not call us in order to deliver us to punishment” (Theodoret); or, in general, a state under God’s disfavor: “God did not appoint us for this, that we should bear His wrath” (Theophylact), “that we should experience His wrath” (Oecumenius). “But to obtain salvation.” So that we might obtain salvation. The Greek περιποιησις, in its current usage, means a feast—a banquet. “To obtain salvation” would then mean: for the feast of salvation. This is the same as what we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “to the saving of the soul” (Heb. 10:39). According to ancient usage, however, this word means rather: acquisition, gaining by purchase. “To obtain salvation means: to acquire salvation. He acquired us for Himself, He bought us, having paid for us the highest possible price—the blood of His Only-begotten Son. Having such proof of God’s love toward us, let us have faith in Him, love toward Him and toward our neighbors, and good hope that He will save us, who have been bought at such a price” (Oecumenius). “By our Lord Jesus Christ.” For “there is no salvation in any other” (Acts 4:11). All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Now, if any are saved, they are saved “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past” (Rom. 3:23–25). “Who died for us”—either for our benefit, or in our place. The Lord died in our place—we who were condemned to death—and thereby opened for those who believe in Him and walk according to His commandments the entry into the treasury of the blessings of God’s boundless goodness.

“So God called us not to destroy us, but to save us. How do we know that He wills precisely this?—‘His Son,’ it is said, ‘He gave’ for us (Jn. 3:16): He so desires our salvation that He gave His Son—and not simply gave Him, but gave Him to death. From such reflections hope is born. Do not despair, then, O man, when coming to God, Who did not spare even His own Son. Do not dread present calamities: He Who gave up His Only-begotten in order to save you and snatch you from Gehenna—will He withhold anything else for your salvation? Consequently, we must expect all that is good and great, for we have received the chief thing if we believe.—But we see an example; let us therefore also love Him. Otherwise it would be the height of madness not to love the One Who has loved us so much” (the holy Chrysostom).

“Whether we wake or sleep.” Waking and sleeping here mean something different from above. There, waking meant moral watchfulness, and sleeping meant carelessness and negligence of the virtuous life. “But here sleeping means bodily death, and waking means life” (the holy Chrysostom). The Apostle speaks as if to say: whether the coming of Christ finds us alive, or whether we die before it—we shall all be counted worthy to be with Him eternally. “Both after death and while still alive, we share in life with Him. For the Apostle called the living those who are awake, and those who have departed—those who are asleep” (Theodoret).

“We should live together with Him. Together”—either: so that all of us in common, both the living and the dead, should then enter into the blessed life with the Lord and abide in Him always. Or: together with Him. The meaning is one and the same.

“What is said here has this meaning: do not fear dangers; if we even die, we shall be alive. Do not fall into despair because you suffer affliction: you have a sure pledge. He would not have given up His Son had He not had extraordinary love for us. Consequently, even if you die, you shall be alive—for He Himself died and behold, He is alive. So whether we die or remain alive, we shall live together with Him. I find not the slightest difference in this; it is all the same to me whether I am alive or whether I die—because with Him we shall live. Let us therefore do everything for that life, let us fulfill everything, fixing our gaze upon it” (the holy Chrysostom).

1 Thess. 5:11. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you do.

The holy Apostle says these words a second time. Having spoken of the comforting lot of the departed at the coming of the Lord, he added: comfort yourselves with this (1 Thess. 4:18). Now, having drawn from this the lesson of watchfulness and sobriety, he again adds: comfort and edify one another mutually. By the first—comfort; by the second—edify. Comfort in sorrow; edify when the soul is disturbed by perplexities and evil movements of the heart and flesh. Exhort one another mutually, in accordance with what has been set forth, toward a watchful and sober life in faith, love, and hope—edify your thoughts, feelings, dispositions, and deeds. “Even as also you do.” With this commendation he encourages the continuation of this same manner of mutual edification and advancement in it. Such mutual instruction of one another in the spirit of faith and mutual encouragement to a life according to faith is an apostolic institution in the Church. “Since teachers are unable themselves to instruct everyone in everything, the Apostle gives them a rule that they should comfort and instruct one another mutually” (Oecumenius). “Do you see?—So why do you excuse yourself saying: I am not a teacher?” (Theophylact).

At this text the holy Chrysostom dwells chiefly on arousing attention to one’s deeds and feelings and to the path along which one must walk. His discourse is thorough and powerful; it may be recommended for frequent reading by anyone who does not wish to fall asleep on the way. It is at the same time an example of mutual encouragement to a sober life. We shall present it in abbreviated form.

“Therefore I beseech you,” he says, “let us always conduct ourselves in such a way as never to fall asleep. Have you not seen how often prolonged standing on guard proved useless because the sentinels yielded to sleep for a brief time? For through that short sleep they lost everything, giving the would-be thief much greater boldness. For just as we do not observe thieves as closely as they watch us, so the devil above all follows, lies in wait for us, and gnashes his teeth. So let us not fall asleep; let us not say: nothing threatens us from this side, nor from that. We are often robbed from where we did not expect it. So too with respect to evil: we can perish from where we did not anticipate.—Let us examine everything carefully, let us not be drunk—and we shall not fall asleep; let us not gorge ourselves—and we shall not slumber; let us not throw ourselves madly at outward goods—and we shall remain sober. Let us guard ourselves on all sides. As those who walk on a tightrope cannot afford to be even slightly careless, since from that slight carelessness a great evil results—if they misstep, they fall straight down and perish—so we too must not remain careless. We walk a narrow way, surrounded on both sides by precipices, on which both feet cannot stand at once. Do you see how much care is needed? Do you not see that those who travel a path surrounded by precipices not only step cautiously with their feet but also look attentively with their eyes? Even if a traveler appears to step carefully in a given place and his foot stands firm, yet an eye dimmed by looking into the abyss can throw him down: he must think both about himself and about how to step; this is why it is said: ‘turn not to the right hand nor to the left’ (Prov. 4:27). The abyss of evil is deep, the precipices are great, thick is the darkness below, narrow is the path. Let us attend to ourselves with fear, let us walk with trembling. Traveling such a path, no one gives himself over to laughter or burdens himself with drunkenness, but walks that path soberly and attentively. Traveling such a path, no one carries anything superfluous. Happy is the one who, being well girded, can pass through it safely. No one in such a case binds his own feet, but leaves them free. We, however, binding ourselves with countless cares and loading upon ourselves countless burdens of this life, being inattentive and scattered—how can we hope to pass along so narrow a path? The path is narrow, for when we must give account for our words and thoughts and deeds and everything, then truly such a path is narrow. And we make it still narrower by fattening and broadening ourselves and walking with a careless step. A narrow path is hard for anyone, but especially for one who is fat; on the contrary, one who slims himself will not even feel the narrowness—he who has learned to confine himself will not complain of confinement. Let no one, then, expect to see heaven while indulging in ease—this is impossible! In luxury let no one hope to pass through the narrow way—it cannot be done! Let none of those who walk the broad way hope to reach life. If you see someone gratifying himself with baths, a sumptuous table, or numerous servants, do not consider yourself unfortunate because you lack these things, but pity him, because he walks the path of destruction. Let us count happy not those who live in luxury but those who do not live in luxury. These latter hasten toward heaven, while those hurry toward Gehenna. At some point we must rouse ourselves, must open our eyes, awaken, occupy ourselves with eternal life, interrupt our long sleep. There is a judgment, there is punishment, there is a resurrection and an examination of deeds! The Lord comes on the clouds; ‘a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him’ (Ps. 49:3). A river of fire flows before Him, the undying worm, the unquenchable fire, the outer darkness, the gnashing of teeth! There is eternal unrelieved torment—there will be no defender! ‘Who will pity’ Scripture says, ‘a charmer that is bitten with a serpent?’ (Sir. 12:13). When we ourselves do not take pity on ourselves, tell me who will take pity on us? When we have the ability to correct ourselves and do not do so, who will pity us?—No one. Let us then take pity on ourselves. When we pray to God saying: ‘have mercy on me, O Lord,’ let us say this also to ourselves and take pity on ourselves! It is within our power that God should have mercy on us. He Himself has granted us this. If we do what is worthy of mercy, worthy of His love for mankind, then God will have mercy on us. But if we ourselves take no pity on ourselves, who will pity us?”

Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

Although the holy Apostle here sets forth general instructions on how to live, they are not thrown together haphazardly but have their own order. By them the whole of the Christian life is sketched in its essential features and directions. It is not surprising, moreover, that the Apostle had in view the condition of the Thessalonians as well, although it did not determine his thoughts to the same degree as at the beginning of this section.

It is not difficult to see that in these lessons the holy Paul (a) first sets forth the virtues on which rest the order, firmness, and well-being of Christian communities — 1 Thess. 5:12–15; (b) then depicts the characteristic marks of a truly Christian life in each Christian — 1 Thess. 5:16–22; (c) finally points to the ultimate goal toward which all must strive (in the form of a prayer, with the assurance that such a goal is attainable) — 1 Thess. 5:23–24.

a) The virtues on which rest the order, firmness, and well-being of Christian communities (1 Thess. 5:12–15)

The virtues on which rest the order, firmness, and well-being of Christian communities are: (aa) a firm union with the pastors and among themselves — 1 Thess. 5:12–13; and (bb) mutual maintenance among themselves of a truly Christian life through the correction of faults that appear, general forbearance toward one another, and active goodwill toward all — 1 Thess. 5:14–15.

The union with the pastors is determined by recognition of their dignity and authority, by honoring them and by love for them. The union among themselves is expressed by the common peace within. By these two unions the work of the Church is constituted and sustained.

1 Thess. 5:12–13. And we beseech you, brothers, to know those who labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.

The pastors are called by the holy Apostle those who labor, who preside, and who admonish. These words designate not different persons but different occupations of the same persons in the discharge of their duty. Elsewhere the Apostle calls them directly presbyters and bishops, set by God’s Spirit to tend the Church of the Lord and God (Acts 20:17, 28; cf.: 1 Tim. 3:1; Tit. 1:5, 7).

The pastors labor in satisfying all the spiritual needs of their flock: they instruct with the word of truth, toiling in word and teaching (1 Tim. 5:17); they baptize, hear confessions, administer the Body and Blood of the Lord, perform all other liturgical rites, in general devoting themselves to the ministry of the saints—that is, of Christians, called to holiness and being sanctified by grace (1 Cor. 16:15). The Apostle says of them to the Thessalonians: they labor among you—that is, either in your midst or over you, in forming you according to the spirit of the new life in Christ Jesus, in developing the seed of that life planted in you by faith and baptism, in raising you to “a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).

The pastors preside—they watch over the moral and religious order in the Christian communities, govern everything, guide everyone, whether in the assemblies of the Church or in the common life of Christians outside them. In the Greek—those who “stand before,” in the sense of primacy and authority, not in the spirit of the world but in the Lord, by His institution, by His Spirit, proving their primacy by intensified service to all, with awareness of accountability before the Lord. This word “stand before” may also mean “intercede,” to indicate that among the obligations of a pastor there is also intercession for all the faithful before the Lord. Theodoret writes: “Know,” he says, “those who stand before you,” that is, those who pray for you and intercede for you before the Lord. The blessed Theophylact combines both meanings: “They do not intercede for you in worldly matters, but in spiritual ones, which are in the Lord—they pray for you, watch over you, admonish and heal you.” (The same in the holy Chrysostom and Oecumenius.)

The pastors admonish—they instruct—in various circumstances peculiar to each person that require admonition and guidance, whether because someone is perplexed about how to act, or because he has already acted carelessly and deviated from the common order of the Christian life and requires correction.—This fulfills what was later enjoined upon the holy Timothy: “be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort” (2 Tim. 4:2). Such admonition—instruction and guidance—goes beyond the general toil in word and teaching already indicated by the word: those who labor.

By these three occupations of the pastors their principal work is defined—care for the salvation of their flock, or “watching” over their “souls” (Heb. 13:17).

The relation of the flock to the pastors the Apostle expresses in the words: “know” and—“esteem them very highly in love.” “Know”—acknowledge their dignity and authority and your subordinate relation to them, with awareness of the duty to listen to them in all things and to obey them. (In ordinary speech this meaning of the word “to know” is very vividly expressed in its negative form in the phrase: “I do not wish to know him.”) Theodoret writes: “Justice demands that the teachers be accorded every honor by you, that you render them their due reward and not contradict what they say.” To the Corinthians the holy Paul writes: “submit yourselves” to such as these—that is, to those who devoted themselves to the ministry of the saints—and—“acknowledge them” (1 Cor. 16:15, 16, 18).

“Esteem them very highly in love.” As thus expressed, the Apostle’s word obliges the flock to love the pastors superabundantly for the love that they themselves show toward their flock, toiling for their salvation. He speaks as if to say: know and obey them, but not out of fear, but out of love, of which they are wholly worthy.—But if we take into account the Greek word corresponding to the Russian “esteem,” ηγεισθαι — honor, it appears that the Apostle also commands a high regard for them. “Deem them worthy of the great honor rendered by sincere affection” (Theodoret). In the Syriac Bible this passage is rendered: let them be honored by you with the fullest love.

Thus three duties rest upon the flock in relation to their pastors: to acknowledge their authority over them, with readiness to obey them in everything; to deeply honor them; and to love them.

All this “for their work’s sake”—for the labor of ministering to the saints, for their presiding and interceding, and for their admonition and guidance; in other words, because they “watch over your souls” (Heb. 13:17). The Apostle merely lists the works of the pastors while issuing the commandment about the duty of the flock; and although he says “we beseech,” yet he uses for this beseeching a word that carries a note of stern admonition — ερωτωμεν. One should not presume with too much confidence that the Thessalonians were at fault in this regard. More likely he writes this to prevent faults, since the due relations of the flock to the pastors are the most easily disrupted. So the holy Chrysostom understands it:

“A presider necessarily has many reasons for grieving others. Just as physicians are often compelled to grieve their patients, preparing food and medicine for them that are in no way pleasant, though they bring great benefit; or just as fathers are often stern in their dealings with their sons—so too teachers, and indeed far more so. One who is rebuked and reproached, whatever his character, generally feels irritation rather than gratitude. The same will happen with one to whom we address advice, admonition, and entreaty. This is why in various places the holy Paul recalls this. In the epistle to Timothy he writes: ‘let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor’ (1 Tim. 5:17); and in the epistle to the Hebrews he says: ‘obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves’ (Heb. 13:17); and again: ‘and we beseech you, brothers, to know those who labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you.’ Since he had said before: ‘edify one another’ (1 Thess. 5:11), so that they might not conclude that he was elevating them to the dignity of teachers, he added these words.”

Then the holy Chrysostom explains how such a demand of the holy Apostle is legitimate: “If someone intercedes for you before a man, you do everything for him, you show him full gratitude. But this one (the priest) intercedes for you before God—and you will feel no gratitude toward him?—But how does he intercede, you say?—By praying for you, by conferring upon you the spiritual gift communicated through baptism, by watching over you, by teaching and admonishing you, by going at midnight if you call. Let no one resist, let no one contradict! Whoever loves Christ will love the priest, whatever he may be, because through him he was counted worthy of the awesome mysteries. Tell me—if you wished to see the royal chambers, glistening with gold on all sides and gleaming with precious stones, and found a man who had the keys to them, and he at your request immediately opened them and let you enter—would you not prefer him above all, would you not love him as your own eyes, would you not kiss him? But this one (the priest) has opened heaven to you—and you do not love or honor him? So if you love Christ, if you love the kingdom of heaven, then honor those through whom you shall receive it.”

The heartfelt union with the pastors is the first foundation of the standing of Christian communities; the second is the living union of all Christians among themselves, expressed by the common peace. This is why, having spoken of the first, the Apostle adds: “be at peace among yourselves”—be peaceful with one another. Under a pastorate that is honored and loved, mutual common peace makes many into one body, well-ordered and firm.

“Be at peace among yourselves” — εν εαυτοις — may also have this meaning: let each of you be at peace within himself, at peace with God and with his conscience, at peace in thoughts, feelings, and dispositions, not permitting falsehood and unbelief, passions and infatuations to disturb his inner peace. This is not contrary to the first understanding, but is presupposed by it. One who is not at peace within himself will find it hard to keep peace outwardly, and all violations of peace with others have their beginning in inner discord. On the contrary, what can compel one who is inwardly at peace to violate external peace?—Moreover, in commanding mutual peace, the Apostle of course wished to suggest that all should have peace with one another not only externally but also heartfelt.—He therefore requires peace with others not without inner peace.

In some manuscripts instead of “among yourselves” there stands: “in them”—that is, in the pastors. In that case, the thought here is either: be at peace with respect to them, the same as: be at peace with them; or: be at peace among yourselves under their influence, guidance, and oversight. The latter is closer to the flow of the argument. Being under authority and pastoral oversight is the protection of mutual peace. With the weakening of authority, the mutual bond disintegrates and all manner of disorder arises. But the former interpretation is also not out of place. Above, the Apostle said to know, honor, and love the pastors. Now he adds: take care, then, not to disturb the peace with them when they rebuke you for something or admonish you. “Do you see,” says Oecumenius, “how he anticipated the possibility of displeasure at the teachers arising? By rebuking evil and restraining from wrong, they bring dislike upon themselves, even though the duty of loving them rests upon all.” Theophylact gives a new shade to this thought, saying: “One must be at peace with them (that is, with the pastors), and moreover not merely outwardly, but within oneself.” It is very likely that the text of the holy Chrysostom, which reads: “be at peace among yourselves in them,” gave occasion for such a reading. One may therefore say that no one errs who sees in the Apostle’s word a commandment of all-encompassing peace—peace with the pastors, and under their guidance and oversight, peace among themselves and within oneself.

The union of the flock with the pastors and among themselves serves as the foundation of the constitution and standing of the Christian community, while its well-being depends on the mutual support and cooperation of all for each and of each for all. The Apostle now speaks of this especially, though in the spiritual and moral regard, since the Christian community is built on spiritual principles and with spiritual aims.

1 Thess. 5:14–15. Now we exhort you, brothers, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil to any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.

This “we exhort” has a different shade in the Greek from the preceding one. There it had the note of a stern admonition, while here it has the note of a beseeching appeal (παρακαλουμεν). The reason for this lies in the subjects of the discourse. There, works of righteousness were commanded, while here, works of brotherly spiritual love are urged.

But to whom does the holy Apostle address his words?—To “brothers,” to the whole body of the Thessalonian Church, and through it to all Christians. Mutual edification of one another, mutual support of one another in the Christian life, and mutual correction are commanded by the Apostle in other epistles as well (Rom. 15:14; Col. 3:13, 16; Heb. 3:13; 10:24). This, however, does not remove the preeminent duty of the pastors to fulfill all that is prescribed. Moreover, in the Church of God everything must proceed decently and in order. One cannot therefore suppose that the Apostle had in mind to leave these lofty works of brotherly spiritual love to random discretion—works, moreover, for which not everyone may be capable. They could not and cannot bear fruit without the guidance and leadership of the pastors. It is more accurate to suppose that the commandment is given to the whole Church, while the fulfillment of this commandment rests on the pastors, and under their leadership on others, Christians more advanced in life. The holy Chrysostom, and after him Oecumenius and Theophylact, hold that the Apostle’s words here are addressed to the pastors, though they do not deny that it is not only fitting but also necessary to admonish and edify one another mutually, as is evident from their thoughts on the verse.

“Warn them that are unruly.” “By the unruly the Apostle means those who act contrary to the will of God” (Chrysostom); “those who act not according to the order established by God” (Theodoret and Oecumenius). “God has appointed to each person his own order; he who transgresses it is disorderly” (Theophylact). These are the same persons whom the Apostle in the Second Epistle called those who walk disorderly, not after the tradition which they received from us, as also those who work not at all but walk about disorderly (2 Thess. 3:6, 11). In general, these are those who are negligent of their duty and by their disorderly conduct disturb the common peace and tranquility and bring shame upon the Christian community before non-Christians. “The order of the Church is more disciplined than that of the army; accordingly, the mocker is disorderly, the drunkard is disorderly, the lover of gain, and all who sin—since in the formation they march not in order but in disorder, and so disrupt the formation” (Chrysostom). The Apostle commands that they be admonished—that is, “not to rebuke them with sternness and arrogance, but with condescension, with meekness. For one who receives harsh rebukes becomes hardened and grows more defiant and despises them; the remedy, therefore, must be made agreeable through exhortation” (Chrysostom)—persuading them to understand the incongruity of their conduct with their calling and to reform.

“Comfort the feebleminded.” “Feeble-minded is he who sinks in spirit from unpleasantness, misfortunes, from oppression, persecution, and deprivation, from sorrows and illnesses; faint-hearted is he who cannot bear offenses; faint-hearted is he who cannot bear temptations for Christ’s sake. He is precisely the one sown on stony ground” (Chrysostom). As one who is on the verge of falling away, the duty of love obliges everyone to support him, comforting and encouraging him to endurance with the great promises of the blessings laid up for true Christians who, notwithstanding their sorrows, remain faithful to their calling. And the faint-hearted, as Christians, know all this themselves; but in the hour of sorrow and faint-heartedness all the consoling Christian truths slip from the memory and heart. To revive them in the consciousness and bring them close to the heart again is to point out the source of comfort and encouragement to those who are faint-hearted.

“Support the weak.” Those who are weak include both those who are weak in faith (Rom. 14:1–2) and those whose “conscience is weak” (1 Cor. 8:7, 11–12)—those who are weak in knowledge of the faith, in convictions, in the principles of the Christian life, and who are ready either to fall from the faith or to fall into sin. Christians who are more advanced and firm are bound by the duty of love to support such persons. “Sustain those who do not have firm faith” (Theodoret), “who are weak with respect to it,” since weakness is possible even with respect to faith. “But see how he does not permit them to be despised. So in another passage he wrote: ‘him that is weak in the faith receive you’ (Rom. 14:1); just as in our own bodies we do not allow a weak member to perish” (Chrysostom). But perhaps those who are here meant are also those who in cases of injustice cannot defend themselves, though there are means of doing so. The Apostle commands to take up the cause of such persons and to support their just case with one’s counsel, assistance, and intercession.

“Be patient toward all men.” One who, when encountering unpleasantness and insults from another, does not allow himself to be moved against that person to discord, anger, and hostile feelings—he endures; but one who preserves inviolate a peaceful disposition toward another, notwithstanding that the latter continues to act in such a way that his conduct constantly shakes that disposition—he is long-suffering. In communal life one cannot pass without collisions. In prescribing long-suffering, the Apostle forbids every feeling of displeasure toward anyone on this account. But since our soul is very quick to displeasure, the Apostle frequently urges the virtue of long-suffering (Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:12), pointing to love as its source (1 Cor. 13:4). In the word “toward all,” the Apostle has in mind everyone from whom unpleasantness comes or who causes trouble, without regard to whether he is a believer or an unbeliever. Do not look at who is stirring up trouble in your heart, but at the trouble itself, so that, by restoring your inner peace, you may prove capable of long-suffering. Here also are included all the persons mentioned just before—the disorderly, the faint-hearted, the weak—and perhaps they are meant above all, to urge that one must act toward them with the patience of love, without any heat or irritation. For those who wish to act beneficially upon others, this “is the most fitting quality, powerful enough to restrain the most brutish of men” (Theodoret), “to conquer the most unyielding” (Oecumenius), “to convert and put to shame the most rough and shameless” (Chrysostom).

“See that none render evil for evil to any man.” Long-suffering cheerfully bears all unpleasantness from others. But within the range of such unpleasantness there are especially provocative ones—such as humiliation, personal insult, deliberate harm, and the like—which call forth self-defense or, more directly, under cover of it, revenge. Our fallen nature is inclined to vengeance, so much so that it has become as it were a matter of natural right. This specious quality of vengeance—whose essence consists in repaying evil for evil—moved the holy Apostle to single out from the general circle of subjects of long-suffering the unpleasantnesses that provoke revenge, in order to place everyone on guard against these especially unjust movements of the irritated heart. It is hard to restrain the impulses of vexation, anger, and revenge; this is why the Apostle places this virtue under the general oversight of all: “see to it”—and of course under the particular oversight of those upon whom rests the duty of watching over all the moral and religious states of the Christians. Revenge casts a stain upon the whole Christian community before the pagans. This is why it is rightly laid upon all to watch that it does not break through. Let the meek and calm restrain and steady the hot-tempered. In forbidding Christians to take vengeance, God takes vengeance upon Himself: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). For Christians themselves it is permissible to repay only with good: “if your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:20–21).

“But ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.” Apart from the context, this word of the Apostle commands not only always to be ready to do good to others when occasion presents itself, but also actively to seek out such occasions, as it were to pursue them as the most profitable prize. In the context, however, it points to a manner of acting that is the opposite of revenge. One who wishes to take revenge seeks means of repaying evil for evil; but you, the Apostle says, do not trouble yourself about this—concern yourself rather with how to do good instead of evil, and concern yourself earnestly, with zeal, so as to assuredly achieve this goal and thereby extinguish the destructive enmity. “The highest wisdom consists not only in not returning evil for evil, but in returning good for evil. Truly, this is such a vengeance as brings great benefit both to you and to the other (the enemy), if he is willing” (Chrysostom). This rule recalls the commandment of the Saviour: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt. 5:44–45). And the holy Peter taught: not to render “evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing” (1 Pet. 3:9). And the Apostle Paul repeated the same instruction in other places: “bless those who persecute you: bless, and curse not… Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men” (Rom. 12:14, 17).—The words “among yourselves, and to all men” mean either the same as: to the whole body of the Church and, particularly, to each Christian; or: “among yourselves” means to Christian brothers, and “to all” means also to unbelievers (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact). Such conduct toward those who give offence raised Christians in the eyes of the pagans more than beneficence itself. For in the latter, natural goodwill of heart was satisfied, while there things proceeded contrary to the heart—which unregenerate pagans could not comprehend by their own principles, and marveled at it as at something extraordinary, as indeed it is.

Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Having indicated the virtues on which rest the order, firmness, and well-being of Christian communities, the holy Paul now turns to the depiction of the characteristic marks of the Christian life in each Christian — 1 Thess. 5:16–22.

Here he first designates the highest manifestations of the spiritual life in Christ Jesus, namely: joy, unceasing prayer, and ever-present thanksgiving — 1 Thess. 5:16–18; then he defines (bb) the producers of this life, which are: α) divine grace, manifest in all through the burning of the spirit, and in some additionally through particular gifts such as the gift of prophecy (1 Thess. 5:19–20), and β) each person’s own efforts, shown in the discernment of what is good and what is evil, and in compelling oneself toward good and resistance to evil (1 Thess. 5:21–22). The course of the spiritual life in each person is as follows: having come to his senses and repented, the Christian makes a resolve to serve the Lord unswervingly and, having received grace through the sacraments, begins—burning with the spirit—to strive for pleasing God, turning away from every evil and doing every good. When, as a result of labors and efforts in this order, the soul begins to be purified from the passions, there comes to it a feeling of health and salvation, which fills the heart with joy—the joy of a sick person who is recovering. At the same time the heart more and more cleaves to the Lord and, keeping attention constant, gives birth to unceasing prayer, in which not petitions alone are expressed, but petitions together with thanksgiving—for all that has been received, is being received, and is yet to be received (Col. 4:2). All this the holy Paul designated in brief but all-embracing propositions; only in his presentation he moves not from below upward, but from above downward.

1 Thess. 5:16. Rejoice evermore.

— with joy “in the Lord” (Phil. 3:1; 4:4) and “in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17), which is established in the heart under the influence of living faith, warm love, and firm hope, and is so deep that no outward adversity can disturb it. In the Christian such joy is as natural as the joy of a son who has been received again into the embrace of a father’s love after having offended him, as the joy of a captive and prisoner who was awaiting execution and death and has received freedom, as the joy of an insolvent debtor from whom the bonds of debt have been removed, and in general as the joy of a man who was in the most extreme strait and has suddenly and unexpectedly received complete happiness. What happens outwardly in these cases is accomplished in the Christian in the spirit at a higher level. Man was created for joy—for life in paradise; he lost it through the fall; now in the Lord Jesus Christ, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, he is restored to his original state. Though outwardly he is not yet in paradise, inwardly he already receives a paradisaical constitution. This is why he rejoices. In everyday life people are in a glad frame of spirit when needs do not weigh upon them, relations with others are peaceful, affairs go smoothly, and no misfortune threatens ahead. For Christians, sins are forgiven, the moral powers are restored by grace, peace with God is established, the conscience is kept pure toward all and everything, the assurance that the Lord keeps and will preserve him to the end without reproach is unshaken, the hope of the blessedness of eternal life is deep. Living in such a gladdening atmosphere, he cannot but be in a constantly heartening state of spirit. But the essential foundation of the Christian’s joy is the renewal of fallen nature. In regeneration is planted the seed of new life, after the image of the risen Lord (Rom. 6:4). Having begun from this moment to walk in the renewed life, he more and more frees himself from the bonds of sinful corruption and is filled to the full with the feeling of spiritual health. This feeling is almost the same as the feeling of resurrection. Hence the ever-present joy of life in the Lord. From all that has been said it is clear that the Christian’s joy is a reflection of his spiritual state and is therefore not a voluntary feeling. How then is it prescribed?—It is prescribed to keep oneself in such a spiritual state as brings unceasing joy, to surround oneself with such convictions as breathe consolation into the soul, not to deprive oneself of the enjoyment of all the spiritual blessings offered in the Lord, which cannot but gladden the heart, never to shun labors and efforts which, though by a narrow way, lead to life. The Apostle does not want the Christian to cultivate joy in himself through fantasies, but through deed—by entering into the gladdening realm of light and life. And as the latter is inescapable for the true Christian, so joy is inseparable from true Christianity. This is why it is repeatedly prescribed in the Word of God (Phil. 3:1; 4:4; Rom. 12:12; 2 Cor. 6:10; Rom. 14:17; Jas. 1:2). When there is peace and joy within, outward adversities and sorrows do not affect the Christian, so that he may be regarded by others as sorrowful, while inwardly he always rejoices (2 Cor. 6:10).

1 Thess. 5:17. Pray without ceasing.

In other epistles the holy Paul commands to “continue” (Rom. 12:12) and to “continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (Col. 4:2), to “pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit at every season” (Eph. 6:18). Constancy and perseverance in prayer are also taught by the Saviour Himself through the parable of the widow who by the persistence of her petition moved the unjust judge (Lk. 18:1 and following). It is evident that unceasing prayer is not an incidental prescription but an inalienable mark of the Christian spirit. The life of the Christian, according to the Apostle, is “hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). In God he must abide unceasingly in attention and feeling—and this is unceasing prayer. From another side, every Christian is a “temple of God” in whom “the Spirit of God dwells” (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Rom. 8:9). This “Spirit,” ever dwelling in him and interceding, always prays in him “with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26), teaching him himself unceasing prayer. The very first action of God’s grace in turning a sinner to God is manifested in the directing of his mind and heart toward God. When afterwards, following repentance and the consecration of his life to God, God’s grace—which had been acting from without—descends into him through the sacraments and abides in him, then that directing of mind and heart to God also becomes constant and ever-present in him—which is the very substance of prayer. It manifests itself in different degrees, and like every other gift must be stirred up (2 Tim. 1:6). It is stirred up according to its nature: through the labor of prayer, and especially through patient and purposeful attendance at the prayers of the Church. Pray without ceasing—labor in prayer—and you will acquire unceasing prayer, which will then perform itself in the heart without special effort. It is evident to everyone that the commandment of the holy Apostle is not fulfilled by performing the appointed prayers at set hours, but requires constant walking before God, the consecration of all deeds to God who sees all and is everywhere present, and the stirring up of a warm turning of the mind in the heart toward heaven. All of life in all its manifestations must be penetrated with prayer. Its secret lies in love for the Lord. As a bride who has loved her bridegroom does not part from him in memory and feeling, so the soul that has united with the Lord in love abides with Him uninterruptedly, directing warm conversations to Him from the heart. “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17).

1 Thess. 5:18. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

For one who is gladdened by the reception of the inestimable blessings in the Lord Jesus and who stands unceasingly before God in prayer, it is natural to express grateful feelings toward the One who has bestowed these blessings upon him. Consequently, wherever there is joy and prayer in the heart, there is also thanksgiving. Nevertheless, just as joy and prayer, so also thanksgiving is prescribed to Christians in many places of Scripture as a reminder not to leave this natural movement of the spirit turned toward the Lord without attention. Thus, to the Ephesians the Apostle commands to stir up in their hearts spiritual songs, “giving thanks always for all things to God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20); the Philippians he teaches to “be anxious for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving” to make their requests known to God (Phil. 4:6); the Colossians he urges: “be you thankful… And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Col. 3:15, 17); and again: “continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (1 Thess. 4:2). When it is commanded to give thanks “for all things,” in view are either the blessings of which the Christian is made worthy in the gracious kingdom of Christ, or, beyond these, also the blessings that each one receives from the all-good Providence according to nature, such as existence and all that is needed for well-being. The Greek expression εν παντι — “in all things”—suggests that one ought to thank God in all circumstances of life, in joy and in grief, in fortune and in misfortune. For the all-good God through all things educates a person for eternity, intending to develop all his good sides. And a childlike surrender to the will of God is able to see in all circumstances of life the fatherly providence of God over oneself, and to be thankful not for pleasant things alone, but also for what is unpleasant. The holy Chrysostom writes: “To give thanks always is the property of a soul that loves wisdom. You have suffered some evil? But if you wish, it will be no evil at all. Thank God, and the evil will be turned to good. Say as Job did: ‘blessed be the name of the Lord for ever’ (Job 1:21).”

“For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” In what respect is this the will of God? Only in giving thanks, or also in rejoicing and praying without ceasing?—In all three of these manifestations of the spiritual life. For they are inseparable and constitute one constant disposition of the spirit in those who are being saved—a disposition of joyful, prayerful thanksgiving. Unceasing elevation of mind and heart to God, in joy of spirit with thanksgiving—these are the inalienable fruits of the Spirit in the hearts of true believers. When the Apostle says: such is the will of God, he wishes to say that this is not my counsel, but the direct will of God in Jesus Christ, revealed to you. By this he hints that even if such commandments had nowhere been directly expressed by the Lord, the very economy of our salvation which He accomplished is such that one who is made worthy of it, who enters into the order of life that brings salvation, and who is assured that the Lord Who has received him into His communion will not forsake him, and having begun His work in him will undoubtedly bring it to completion—such a one recognizes in his spirit the obligation resting upon him to abide with the Lord always in joy and in grateful prayer. The will of God is “in you”—not exclusively in you, but in you as Christians; consequently, in you alongside other Christians. Such is Christianity: one who has received it and tasted its fruits always rejoices, prays without ceasing, and gives thanks for all things.

1 Thess. 5:19. Quench not the Spirit.

From the heights of the spiritual life the Apostle now descends to its very source and spring. Ordinarily a person lives in carelessness and negligence regarding piety and salvation. The grace that calls to salvation awakens the sleeping sinner; he, having heeded that call in the feelings of repentance, rises to the resolve to devote the remainder of his life to deeds pleasing to God and thereby to work out his salvation; this resolve manifests itself in zeal, which becomes powerful when God’s grace is joined to it through the divine sacraments. From this moment the Christian begins to burn with the spirit—that is, to strive unswervingly to fulfill everything that his conscience indicates to him as the will of God. This burning of the spirit can be maintained and intensified; it can also be extinguished. It is kindled above all by deeds of love toward God and neighbor—love that constitutes the essence of this spirit—by fidelity in general to all God’s commandments with a peaceful conscience, by merciless efforts of soul and body, by prayer and contemplation of God. It is extinguished by turning attention away from God and the things of God, by excessive preoccupation with worldly affairs, by indulgence in sensual pleasures, by gratifying the flesh in its lusts, and by passions. Let this spirit be extinguished, and the Christian life will also be extinguished. The person again becomes as he was—negligent and careless—and begins to live as he pleases, not caring firmly whether he is falling into evil or into good. Warning against this ruinous step, the Apostle urges not to quench the spirit—that is, this spirit of zeal—by yielding to what is contrary to it, but on the contrary to kindle and nourish it with what is akin to it. What the holy Paul expressed here so briefly, he expounds in the Epistle to the Romans in three propositions: (be) “not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord” (Rom. 12:11). “Not only be diligent, but untiring; not only have spirit, but be aflame with spirit—that is, be earnest and zealous” (Chrysostom on this passage of the Epistle to the Romans). To burn with the spirit therefore means to strive with all earnestness to please the Lord, fulfilling His holy will without omission, as servants do in relation to their masters; and not to quench the spirit means not to quench this zeal. The holy Chrysostom discourses at length about this burning of the spirit. We cite his words briefly:

“A kind of thick fog and darkness and cloud is spread over all the earth. Pointing to this, the Apostle said: ‘you were sometimes darkness’ (Eph. 5:8). We are surrounded by night, so to speak, a moonless night, and in the midst of this night we walk. But God has given us a bright lamp, having kindled in our souls the grace of the Holy Spirit. But having received this light, some have made it brighter and clearer—such as Paul, such as Peter, such as all the saints; while others have quenched it—such as the five virgins, such as those who made shipwreck of the faith, such as the Corinthian fornicator, such as the apostate Galatians. Therefore Paul now says: ‘quench not the Spirit,’ that is, the gift; for he commonly calls the gift of the Holy Spirit by this name. A life of impurity quenches it. For just as when someone pours water or throws earth upon a lighted lamp, or even does nothing of the kind but simply pours out the oil from it, the light goes out—so too the gift of grace goes out. If you have introduced something earthly, if you have given yourself over to cares about worldly affairs, you have already quenched the spirit. The flame goes out also when oil is lacking—namely, when we do not perform works of mercy. Since it itself came to you through God’s mercy, when it does not find this fruit in you it departs from you. For it does not abide in a merciless soul.—Let us therefore not quench it. Every evil deed quenches this light: slander, offenses, and everything of the kind. As happens with fire—that everything foreign to it destroys it and everything akin to it intensifies it—so it is with this light.”

Such is the common Christian spirit of grace, which descends into the soul of each person upon repentance and faith in the sacrament of baptism, or is restored in the sacrament of repentance. The fire of zeal constitutes its essence. But it may take different directions depending on the persons. In one, it is wholly directed toward self-correction in rigorous efforts; in another, chiefly toward deeds of love; in another, toward the ordering of the Christian community; in another, toward the spreading of the Gospel’s teaching through preaching—as for example in Apollos, who “being fervent in the spirit, spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord” (Acts 18:25). In all these directions, not to quench the spirit means not to suppress its demands, promptings, and impulses, but to satisfy them prudently, turning all to the glory of God, to one’s own salvation and to that of one’s brothers in the Lord.

Some understand by “spirit” here a particular gift of receiving sudden illuminations of the mind, of entering into the contemplation of divinely revealed truths—whether already known or new—with an irresistible desire to communicate these illuminations and inspirations of the Spirit to others in powerful and animated speech. Not to quench such a spirit means not to hinder it from manifesting and acting in oneself and others, for the benefit of the Church. But in that case it would mean the same as: “despise not prophesyings.” Since the Apostle writes moral lessons in brief propositions such that each contains its own distinct rule, there is no occasion to see in these two sayings (1 Thess. 5:19–20) one and the same thought. It is more accurate to suppose that the holy Paul, having spoken of the preservation of the common Christian spirit of grace—the spirit of life in Christ Jesus—made mention also of the prophetic spirit, toward which at that time not everywhere was the proper attitude shown; he mentioned it as it were in passing, having no need to say much about this particular gift, or about other gifts of grace. This is the more readily accepted since immediately after “despise not prophesyings” follow lessons that define the proper use of the common spirit of grace—the spirit of life in the Lord—in compelling oneself toward every recognized good and in resisting every recognized evil.

1 Thess. 5:20. Despise not prophesyings.

In the primitive Church there was a particular gift of prophecy (Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:10), and those who possessed it were called prophets. The name this gift received derived from insight into the future and the foretelling of it, but its operations were not confined to this alone. “He that prophesies speaks to men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Cor. 14:3)—thus the holy Paul defined it elsewhere. Consequently, prophecy encompassed divine truths of every kind and set them forth—but always as immediate divine revelation. The consciousness of immediate revelation is the distinguishing mark of the prophetic spirit; hence the one who has prophecy is credited with knowledge of all mysteries (1 Cor. 13:2), and prophesying is employed synonymously with the setting forth of revelation (1 Cor. 14:6, 30). It is evident that this gift was not always the exclusive possession of certain persons, but it could and did come upon any believer. The believer moved by this spirit was conscious that he had received a revelation and felt the impulsion and capacity to set forth animatedly to other believers the truth contemplated by him through revelation and to inspire them with it, as he himself was inspired. Whoever in a general assembly of believers, being conscious that his mind was seized by a new and important truth inwardly implanted from above—which therefore he considered it contrary to God’s will to conceal from others—rose and set it before the assembly, he was prophesying: whether it concerned the future, or the present and past, or whether something hidden of permanent value was being set forth, or whether it was something he had not previously recognized so clearly, or had not known at all. All this, however, was of such a character that believers could draw from it only edification, exhortation, and comfort (1 Cor. 14:3). In this state the speech also flowed in a more elevated tone, with greater vividness and energy, than in the usual, more calm manner of teaching.

It is evident that to despise this gift—that is, to count it for nothing and therefore to restrict or altogether remove its manifestation and operation in the assembly of Christians—means to deprive the Christian community of the always necessary influx of vivifying gifts of grace, not to mention that this is plain resistance to the Spirit of God and an offense against Him (Eph. 4:30). The holy Apostle therefore forbids this.—But on what occasion? Later in the Church at Corinth, improper relations toward this gift manifested themselves, and the holy Paul was compelled to give special directives and ordinances on this account (1 Cor. 14). Whether anything similar occurred in Thessalonica is not apparent. It may be that the holy Apostle was only forestalling what was possible, or had in view simply to attract more earnest attention to the manifestations of this spirit, so fruitful especially in the young Church, where much needed to be supplemented and clarified. The holy Chrysostom explains it thus: “In those times many prophesied—some truly, others falsely. The devil, being cunning, wished on the occasion of the gift of prophecy to overturn everything in the Church. As a result, both the one and the other foretold the future—both the demon and the Spirit, though the former prophesied falsely and the latter truly, and there was no sign to be found by which one could be distinguished from the other; for both sorts of prophets taught without giving account of their words, like Jeremiah or Ezekiel. Since at this time many among the Thessalonians were prophesying, he aptly added the following words, after saying ‘quench not the Spirit:’ ‘despise not prophesyings.’ He wishes to express the following thought here: for the reason that there are some false prophets among you, do not on their account oppose the true prophets or turn away from them.” The same thought in the blessed Theodoret, Oecumenius, and Theophylact.

1 Thess. 5:21–22. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” If these words are placed in connection with those immediately preceding—“despise not prophesyings”—that is, do not on account of false prophets despise the true ones—then they must be seen as apostolic guidance on how to deal with false prophets. He seems to resolve the difficulty: “What then? Surely we are not to receive false prophets too?—No. But prove all things—that is, examine both the false and the true with discernment, and then receive the prophecies that prove to be good—that is, consider them genuine and take heed of them” (Theophylact). When someone speaks as a prophet, “prove whether it is truly prophecy” (Chrysostom). “Discern what is from the Spirit of God and what is from the adversary; and, rejecting what comes from delusion, hold to what comes from truth” (Theodoret). For the discernment of whether what is spoken in the prophetic spirit is from God or whether it is the speaker’s own fantasy and the enemy’s delusion, the primitive Church had a special gift of discerning of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10). In our time, for discerning whether speech—however inspired and compelling—is from the truth, the positive teaching of the Church serves as the criterion. This is the touchstone of all teachings. What accords with it, receive; what does not accord, reject. And this can be done without lengthy deliberation. The gift of discerning spirits, living and operating in the Church, has definitively demarcated what is true and what is false. By following the indications of the Church, you will do the same as if you were following the gift of grace for the discernment of spirits.

But if these words are placed in connection with the words “quench not the Spirit,” then one must see in them a continuation of the depiction of the originating active principle of the truly Christian life. The spirit of life in Christ Jesus, generated by the union of grace with freedom, manifests itself in the heat of zeal for pleasing God and for salvation. What this spirit strives and seeks for, the Apostle elsewhere defines thus: “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8). That one who is zealous in this spirit could consciously incline toward something directly evil—this is beyond suspicion. But in the inner movements and in the entanglements of outward circumstances there is much that appears good only in appearance while in the substance of the matter is not good, and by following which one can deviate from the path of truth and goodness. The Apostle therefore adds discernment to the spirit of zeal—discernment that must determine what in a given case one should hold to and what one should turn away from. In another epistle he depicts this more fully, saying: “be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:2). The object of consideration and examination is the will of God—what God wills of you in these or those circumstances. The general will of God is already expressed in the commandments and is known to all. There is no need to investigate it. But the application of the commandments may be various, and which application precisely should be chosen in the given combination of circumstances—this each person must determine for himself, on the spot, in the moment of acting. It is the mind renewed by grace that makes this determination. External, written revelation already enlightens the mind and purifies the conscience. Grace, however, having descended in the holy sacraments and united with the human spirit, forms a spiritual sense of the will of God, which silently but nonetheless surely determines what course of action will be pleasing to God. This is the same as what in the holy John is called the “anointing from the Holy One” (1 Jn. 2:20, 27), and what in the Epistle to the Hebrews is called “senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). To this perfection discernment arrives by “long use” (there), but its beginnings are given and opened from the very start. The experiences of life for one who is attentive to himself, with the help of the recorded experiences of the saints and the counsel of like-minded persons, under the invisible guidance of God’s grace—these are the school of training. The zealous spirit alone, by itself, can be blind. The eyes for it are discernment, indicating where it should direct itself and which side it should take.

When discernment has determined what is good and what is evil, the zealous spirit naturally already holds to the good and withdraws from the evil. Only one who is negligent and careless can still heed the suggestions of evil and deliberate whether to indulge the impulses of the passions this time. But one whose spirit burns with zeal, who therefore has the fear of God, whose conscience is alive, who is full of love for his Saviour—such a person may feel the assaults of evil passions, but indulge them—never. For this, the burning spirit must first be extinguished—that burning spirit which is the counterweight to the flame of the passions. Thus, “holding fast” to what is “good” and “abstaining from” every form of “evil”—or, what is the same thing, “turning away from evil” and “doing good” (1 Pet. 3:11)—are two operations of the single vital Christian principle, always inseparable, like two feet of one who walks in the footsteps of the Lord along the path of His holy commandments.

“Hold fast that which is good”—receive the good that has been recognized into your heart, embrace it with love, and hold to it not once, but throughout all your life, as the unchanging rule of your activity. “Abstain from all appearance of evil”—“not from this or that alone, but from every kind” (Chrysostom). From the Greek—from every form of evil: that is, from evil in words, deeds, thoughts, and feelings, or from every even shadow, every slight trace of evil. The will of God is the norm. What is contrary to it is not to be permitted on any account; and whenever a difficulty presents itself, it is better to omit an action than to do what is doubtful, so that the consciousness of fulfilling the precise will of God may always be clear before the face of the all-seeing God. The word “abstain” is notable. It causes one to picture the person who is walking the path of the Lord’s commandments as resembling one who walks through thorns or dense sticky grass which at every step hinders the free movement of his feet and compels him, before stepping from one foot to the other, to clear his way, shaking off the clinging grass or the thorny briers that have caught on him. This comparison suggests that in one who is zealous for pleasing God and for salvation, against every good undertaking an evil thought arises—and sometimes even a pull—emanating from the heart still not purified of its passions; and that in fulfilling the former one cannot avoid having to struggle with the latter. One must despise them, reject them, hate them, and thus shake free of them, in order to hold more freely to the good.—Here is an allusion to what the holy Paul writes in the Epistle to the Romans: “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Rom. 7:21–23). Thus, one burning with the spirit, strengthened by God’s grace, now turns himself away from evil, now inclines himself toward good. Resistance to evil and the compelling of oneself toward good—these are his two constant occupations, which become easier as the passions weaken and progress in the good advances. The aim of his striving is to reach the point where good alone reigns in the entire constitution of his nature.

The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24)

What every Christian must keep in view, while working on himself in the spirit of zeal for pleasing God and for salvation—in compelling himself toward good and resisting evil—is the purification of himself from all passions, so that in no part of his nature there should remain anything impure, but that he should become wholly pure and blameless before the face of the all-seeing God Himself.—For this very purpose Christians were chosen even before the foundation of the world, to “be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4). The fallen man received into himself the seeds of evil passions, which grafted themselves to all the operations of his life and poison them all with their venom. When by God’s grace he rises again and makes the resolve no longer to indulge the passions but to live henceforth according to the will of God, and actually begins to act in this way, then the passions, receiving no nourishment, begin to weaken and weaken until they are wholly extinguished. Conversely, the natural operations of the powers, being freed from the corrupting action of the passions, under the action of gracious influences, efforts, and pious exercises, begin to recover their original goodness—the goodness for which they were destined in creation and in which they came forth from the hands of the Creator. When everything in the Christian has become pure and perfect, he becomes holy; while he is making his way toward this degree, he is being sanctified. God leads His chosen one to this perfection, though not without the participation of the person’s own efforts and the strivings of his spirit that is zealous for salvation. This is why the holy Paul prays for this to God, thereby teaching the Thessalonians themselves as well to sigh unceasingly for this toward His goodness.

1 Thess. 5:23. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

With a burning spirit, fulfilling every recognized good and turning away from every shadow of evil, the Christian sets himself on the path toward complete purification. One who has attained such a disposition stands at the threshold of holiness. The holy Paul sees the Thessalonians as such, and, as it were having equipped them for the good journey, speeds them on their way with the blessing that God would help them reach the end as well. He expresses this in a prayer to God, from Whom is every good and every perfect gift.

“The very God…” Do not put your trust in your own efforts and labors; they will not bring you to the goal unless God Himself takes you under His protection and care. But at the same time be assured that when you do everything on your part, God Himself also will not forsake you—He will come to your aid and by His cooperation will crown your labors with success. When He thus acts within you, do not doubt that you will attain what you seek—“the God of peace.” Sanctification both begins with the establishment of the first fruits of inner peace with God and conscience, and, as it matures, strengthens this peace. This is the preeminent fruit of sanctification. It is customary to honor benefactors with the titles of the blessings received from them; and the Apostle, knowing that the highest blessing from the salvation which God has ordered within us is peace, names Him the God of peace—not only here, but in many other places as well (Rom. 15:33; 16:20; Phil. 4:7, 9, and others). “Sanctify”—make “holy and unblameable and unreproveable” before Himself (Col. 1:22), so that nowhere in you there remains any “spot, or wrinkle” or anything “of such things,” but that you may be “holy and without blemish” in everything (Eph. 5:27), cleansed from every “filthiness of the flesh and spirit” (2 Cor. 7:1). “Wholly”—from the Greek, in all parts — ολοτελεις (as also in the Slavonic parenthesis—“in all things”). Just as sin and the passions have penetrated all parts of human nature and interwoven themselves with them, so the Apostle desires sanctification also in all parts, so that the grace of God—guided everywhere by the person’s own efforts—might fill everything with itself and purge from everything all that is sinful, and transform all the members, which were formerly slaves “of uncleanness and of iniquity to iniquity,” into slaves “of righteousness to holiness” (Rom. 6:19).

The following words explain what all-encompassing sanctification in all parts means: “and your whole spirit” and the rest.—“Whole”—from the Greek ολοκληρον υμων — the whole of you, all of you, your entire constitution. And what is this all of you?—Spirit, and soul, and body. All these constituent parts of human nature, may they be preserved in blamelessness until the coming of the Lord. Just as having acquired some property one must still guard it, so one must guard the purity and freedom from passions acquired through toil with the help of grace. At every moment the danger of enticements and falls threatens, from which only God’s help can preserve. This is why it does not say: preserve yourselves, but “be preserved”—by that same God of peace, Who also produces the all-encompassing sanctification. Whatever degree a person stands on, the fear of falling does not leave him, and consequently help from above is needed for his protection. And this continues until the very departure from this life, or until the coming of Christ.

“Spirit and soul and body”—a divinely revealed indication of the constitution of human nature. As a small world, man combines within himself all the modes of life that appeared in his predecessors on the ladder of creation. He has both vegetative-animal life, and animal-soulish life together with soulish-human life, and spiritual life, which belongs exclusively to him and characterizes him. These are designated by the words: body, soul, and spirit. The body is our animal-vegetative organism, with all its operations and needs. The soul is the principle of those inward conscious phenomena in us that begin with sensory perceptions, inclinations, and sensations, and end with scientific constructions, wide-ranging initiatives and enterprises, and productions of taste. The spirit is the organ of communion with God—the power that is conscious of God, seeks God, and lives by God. Its essential features are consciousness and freedom; its moving principles are faith in God, the feeling of all-round dependence upon Him, and confidence in Him. Its manifestations of life are the fear of God, the actions of conscience, and the thirst for communion with God, expressed (from the outward side) in dissatisfaction with anything creaturely. This is that breath of God-like life which God breathed into the first-created at creation. Having united in man with the animal soul, it transformed it into the human soul, which therefore in its actions shows a basic kinship with both animals and the spirit. Since the spirit is the distinguishing mark of man, this spirit has been granted the predominant position in man over soul and body, on condition of its own full obedience to God. The normal constitution of man is: the spirit in God, under its governance the soul, under both the body. When man fell from God, the spirit lost its power over the soul, and the soul lost its power over the body. The life of the fallen man became chiefly carnal—sensual—with a weak soulish life and an even weaker spiritual life. The prevenient—calling—grace of God, drawing near to man, acts directly upon his spirit and, quickening its elements—the fear of God, conscience, and the thirst for communion with God—turns him to the Lord the Saviour, Who, uniting grace with it forever in the sacraments, restores to the spirit its predominant position in man. From this moment the grace-endowed spirit begins to authoritatively govern the soulish powers and actions, with a view to transforming the soul entirely according to its own principles—or to spiritualizing it. Accustomed to occupations and tastes of another kind, the soulish man does not yield at once; hence the struggle that is the inevitable property of the truly Christian life. The body is the passive instrument of the soulish-spiritual life. The fallen life—sinful, passionate, sensual—forms its throne, dwelling, and stronghold chiefly in the body. The grace of God, guiding the spirit in the labors of the restoration of man from the fall, teaches it first of all to take this stronghold, in which everything sinful and passionate takes shelter and from which it receives reinforcement. Hence, immediately upon conversion, rigorous bodily efforts—the crucifixion of the flesh with its passions and lusts—to expel all corruption from there and thereby deprive it of its support. The aim of this labor is to sober the body and make it a submissive instrument of the spirit in its aims and strivings.

From all this everyone can understand when spirit, and soul, and body are blameless. The spirit is blameless when it is wholly in God, does not submit to the soul but subjects the soul to itself and directs and orders it according to its own principles. The soul is blameless when, suppressing within itself every passionateness, it follows in all things the contemplations, inspirations, and tastes of the spirit and permits nothing contrary to these—neither in learning, nor in the arts, nor in undertakings—and governs the body, not obeying it but making it its instrument. The body is blameless when one does not gratify it in its lusts, but keeps it in the strict measure of nature, cutting off all that is lustful.

The holy Chrysostom, Theodoret, the holy (John of) Damascus, Oecumenius, and Theophylact understand by “spirit” the divine grace communicated to believers in baptism, and understand the prayer for the preservation of the spirit in blamelessness as a prayer for the preservation unextinguished of this grace, which renders us blameless. This does not refute the thoughts set forth above. The spirit of fallen man, by itself, cannot act in accordance with its calling. The power to do so it receives from God’s grace descending upon it, without which its actions are not visible, and it is as if it does not exist. So that to preserve the spirit is the same as to preserve grace, and to preserve grace is the same as to preserve the spirit. The holy Chrysostom confirms this by saying: “When we preserve the gift (of the Holy Spirit) wholly in us, then our spirit too will remain unharmed.”—Oecumenius expresses the same thought when he says: “If we do not quench the grace of the Holy Spirit through evil deeds, it will be preserved in us whole, brightly kindling our own lamp (that is, our spirit). And if the spirit abides safely whole in us, then soul and body too will be kept blameless.”—Grace, having come into us, does not create new powers but restores those that are fallen and disordered. If, through grace, spiritual actions manifest themselves in us, they do so only from our spirit, restored by grace. And grace itself is not something separate from God, but is the restoration of communion with God—interrupted by the fall and now restored again as a result of the turning of the spirit to God and its self-surrender to Him, which God Himself brought about. The increase of grace in us is the broadening and deepening of communion with God. Its summit the Saviour indicated when He said: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him” (Jn. 14:23). And it is the Holy Spirit Who disposes one to keep the word of the Lord and gives the power to do so, and thus prepares a habitation fitted for God’s indwelling—this supreme good is immediately connected with the blamelessness of spirit, soul, and body.

Having expressed such lofty aspirations, the Apostle hastens to remove every wavering of hope in their fulfillment, restoring in the consciousness of the Thessalonians the assurance of God’s faithfulness to Himself.

1 Thess. 5:24. Faithful is he that calls you, who also will do it.

He will do all this—all that I wish for you—and such as I command you to be, such He will make you, so that you will assuredly stand before the Lord at His coming, blameless. This is as certain as faithful is He Who called you. He called—He will not abandon. Since He called you into His kingdom, into which nothing impure shall enter, He Who called you for the kingdom will also purify you for your entrance into it. “He who has begun will also complete it” (Phil. 1:6). “If He called you to salvation, and He is true, then He will certainly save you, for He desires this” (Chrysostom). Herein lies the foundation of hope of salvation for every Christian. Who could approach God, or utter before Him a vow to serve Him alone, if the assurance did not descend into his heart that He Who desires not the death of the sinner will never forsake him and will by whatever ways He knows lead him to the desired end (compare: 1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13; 2 Thess. 3:3; Heb. 10:23; 11:11).—Do not waver. The Lord will fulfill His promises—only be faithful to Him and diligent in everything required of you. Seek, strive, labor without slackening—and it shall be. Man is weak and changeable; his resolutions are unsteady. But God, through His grace, in those who surrender themselves to Him, knows how to bring the unsteady will of man into agreement with His own will and to fulfill through people, by their own powers, His intentions for them.

Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

In conclusion, the holy Apostle expresses several heartfelt wishes. The expressions here are brief, but full of deep meaning and feeling. Here the whole soul of the holy Paul is visible—his inner constitution, the Spirit that directed his words and deeds. You see that he is wholly devoted to God and expects everything from His all-working power and goodness, asking for prayers on his own behalf (1 Thess. 5:25); you see that he breathes love for his children and desires to express it in the most tender way (1 Thess. 5:26); you see that nothing interests him so much as the fruitfulness of the teaching he preaches (1 Thess. 5:27). Finally, as in him, by his own awareness, the grace of God labors and produces all things (1 Cor. 15:10), so this same grace he desires for the Thessalonians above every other good (1 Thess. 5:28).—And almost all his epistles close in this manner.

1 Thess. 5:25. Brothers, pray for us,

— that God would preserve health, grant strength, and arrange favorable circumstances for the preaching of the Gospel. In other epistles he expresses this more directly: “strive together with me in your prayers to God for me” (Rom. 15:30); “praying… that God would open to us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ” (Col. 4:3); “that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you” (2 Thess. 3:1). His entire care is for the success of the Gospel, and everything needed for this he expects from God alone.

But for what reason does the Apostle ask for prayers for himself, when with him—as with all the Apostles—by His own promise the Lord Himself is present, cooperating with them and confirming their word with signs (Mk. 16:20; Mt. 28:20)?—This was prompted by him not only by the humility with which he was filled, and not only by the desire to teach others through his own humility the humble frame of mind about themselves (Chrysostom, Theodoret), but especially by his awareness of the power of common prayer. Such is the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that each one separately considers himself nothing, and if he has or hopes to have anything, it is only by virtue of communion with the whole body of the Church, whose Head is Christ. This is why Christians always pray for one another—and although each knows that the Heavenly Father is his Father too, yet his tongue cannot pronounce: My Father, but always cries out in accordance with the commandment: Our Father. Mutual prayer is the direct fruit of brotherly heartfelt love and a testimony of the living communion of all with one another, by virtue of which what touches one, touches all. It constitutes the soul of Christian communities and of the whole Church—both earthly and heavenly.

If then the Apostle asks prayers from the brothers, who can do without them?—Aware of this, the holy Chrysostom says to the Christians listening to his homily: “If the Apostle said this (that is, pray for us) out of humility, then we—not out of humility, but for great benefit and out of the desire to receive something great through you—say: pray also for us; and we say this not merely to be saying it, but sincerely desiring your prayers. For if I have taken upon myself the obligation to intercede for all of you and shall have to give account for this, then your prayer becomes all the more necessary for me. For your sake I have taken on greater responsibility; consequently, you too must render me greater help.”

1 Thess. 5:26. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

“Oh, what warmth (of love)! Since he, being absent, could not himself greet them with a kiss, he greets them through others. So we too do this when we say: give such-a-one a kiss from me” (Chrysostom). Love draws toward mutual embraces and kisses. The grace of God, pouring out into the hearts of believers, poured love into them (Rom. 5:5)—and they all loved one another not merely by intention and desire, but carried within themselves the very power of love, living and active, which drew them toward each other. The embrace and kiss were the outward expression of the inward union of souls. The Apostle, moreover, wished to embrace and kiss the Thessalonians as children born of his gospel (1 Cor. 4:15). Being unable to do this in person, he entrusts it to his successor-pastors, as well as the reading of this epistle before all. We can picture this affecting scene when the pastors of the Thessalonian Church, having gathered all the Christians together and having read the epistle before them, began to embrace and kiss them all on behalf of the Apostle. In other epistles the Apostle asks all to greet “one another” (Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Pet. 5:14). Perhaps this mutual greeting of all had its place here as well, out of joy that the Apostle is alive, remembers them and loves them, and continues to confirm them in communion with the Lord. So it is at the bright Resurrection of Christ, as a witness to the joy common to all in the resurrection of Christ the Lord.

The Apostle commands the greeting to be given “with a holy kiss”—such as the holy may give to the holy, and such as befits the holy to receive from the holy: in purity of heart, with respectful regard for one another as persons who carry God within them. Or by a holy kiss he means a “kiss of love,” as the holy Peter says (1 Pet. 5:14), in contrast to a treacherous kiss, such as Judas’s (Oecumenius).

The holy Chrysostom sees in this word of the Apostle a motive for all of us to preserve mutual love, which makes inseparable even those who are separated by distance: “Preserve in yourselves also the fire of love, for distance is no obstacle to it; on the contrary, it fills with itself all the space that separates it (from the beloved object) and is found everywhere.”

1 Thess. 5:27. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brothers.

Since the epistle was addressed to “the Church of the Thessalonians,” there was no need to mention that it should be read by all. But it might have been read by each person individually, to which naturally attaches private interpretation and private understanding of what is written—and this ought not to be so in the Church of God. The Apostle is not mentioning that it should be read by all, but rather before all, in the general assembly, so that its interpretation too, wherever needed, should be common, and the understanding the same for all. By this he also indicates that he considers everything written to be legislation for the Thessalonians; and laws were customarily read in public squares, publicly before all. But just as this epistle must be read in the general assembly of all on this first occasion, so of course it would be read on every subsequent occasion when there was the desire or need for it. In this one cannot but see an indication that the reading of the apostolic writings in church is an apostolic institution.

But why the adjuration?—Clearly, the holy Paul foresaw that for some reasons or considerations the pastors might not read this epistle before all. To forestall this he adjures them by the name of the Lord to read it before all—thereby removing the force of whatever motives and reasons the pastors might put forward for not reading it publicly. Read it before all, whatever may come of it. Such is the Lord’s will, and there is nothing to deliberate about. Acting otherwise, you will be estranged from communion with the Lord. Before such an awesome pronouncement no considerations could stand.

What precisely might have deterred the pastors from public reading is not evident. One need not inquire into this, being content with the thought that the Apostle either knew or firmly presumed something of the kind.—Could it be that the epistle contained reproaches which of course touched upon certain known individuals? Pitying them or fearing to provoke them, the pastors might have refrained from reading the epistle before all. Though in any case everyone would have learned of them even without the public reading, yet for those being rebuked it would have been easier this way. Declining this specious consideration, the Apostle adjures them to read the epistle before all. The rebuke would thereby prove more effectual for those rebuked and more beneficial for others. Those rebuked before all must reform before all. All the others would learn from this that such and such conduct is disapproved, and that in avoiding it they had not been doing something exceptional, but fulfilling the apostolic prescription. Moreover, the adjuration protected the pastors. Those being rebuked might say: why were they so shamed before everyone? The pastors had something to stand on: we could not have done otherwise; the Apostle charged us by the name of the Lord.

“How fearful were adjurations to the ancients! But alas, they are not such today—not such for us” (Theophylact). An adjuration by the name of the Lord lays the strongest obligation upon one to fulfill what is asked of another. It binds the conscience, touching the living bonds of communion with the Lord and threatening the rupture of that communion in case of non-compliance. The holy Chrysostom discourses at length about the importance of adjurations by the name of the Lord and gives an example of how the fulfillment of what is asked under such an adjuration is precious in the eyes of the Lord Himself. A slave woman, finding herself in the most extreme strait, besought not her own but another noblewoman to intercede for her before her masters; having exhausted all arguments of persuasion, she finally added an adjuration: “Do not despise my petition, lest Christ also despise you on the day of judgment.” Alarmed by this adjuration, that lady hastened to the slave’s masters and arranged her affairs. And that very night she beheld the open heavens and Christ Himself. She was counted worthy of such a vision, the holy Chrysostom concludes, precisely because she paid heartfelt attention to the adjuration.

1 Thess. 5:28. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

Such is the concluding benediction—as also the “Amen” that confirms this prayerful benediction—found in all the epistles of the holy Paul with small variations. At the beginning of the epistle he wishes grace, and at the end as well, because grace is the beginning and end in the work of our salvation; it is always and in all things so needful that without it no one can do anything worthy of the kingdom of Christ. As people become sons of the kingdom through a new birth by grace, so their life and activity in the spirit of this kingdom can be ordered only by grace. A Christian, a son of the kingdom, one endowed with grace—these are one and the same thing. As, on the contrary, one without grace is no longer a Christian and no longer a son of the kingdom. In writing to Christians, the Apostle wrote to those endowed with grace. If he wishes them grace, it is with the thought—may it be preserved, may it increase, may it grow. A better benediction for Christians cannot be found. Where the grace of Christ is, there all the blessings of Christ are as well.—From another side, the desire of grace is a reminder of the duty to fulfill the conditions under which grace takes up dwelling in the hearts of believers and abides in them. Be yourself faithful to grace, and grace will never withdraw or diminish. In this regard the Apostle speaks to the Thessalonians as if to say: “Endeavor to attract to yourselves more abundant grace, by living worthily of what has already been granted to you” (Theophylact).

“May this grace guard us also from every path of unrighteousness; may we live to the glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen” (the same).

Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians

Introduction

1. The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815–1894) was born Georgy Vasilievich Govorov in the village of Chernavsk, in the Orel province of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. Trained in the seminary at Orel and then at the Kiev Theological Academy, he was tonsured a monk and ordained in 1841, and spent his early years teaching and administering in the Church’s schools, with a formative period of service on the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem and the Christian East. Those travels left a lasting mark: he came home steeped in the ascetic literature of the Greek Fathers, and much of his later labor would be given to making that inheritance speak plainly to ordinary Russian readers. Consecrated Bishop of Tambov in 1859 and translated to the see of Vladimir in 1863, he governed both dioceses with energy, founding schools and preaching widely.

In 1866 he asked to be released from active administration and withdrew to the quiet Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov province. There he remained for the rest of his life—some twenty-eight years, the last two decades of them in strict reclusion, confined to a pair of small rooms and giving his days to prayer, correspondence, and writing. Out of that seclusion came the works for which he is best loved: the great Russian recension of the Philokalia (the Dobrotolyubie), Unseen Warfare, the Path to Salvation and Letters on the Spiritual Life, and a full set of commentaries on the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. He reposed in 1894 and was numbered among the saints by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988. His enduring gift was to carry the mind of the ancient Fathers into a modern idiom without diluting it—patristic depth in a voice a nineteenth-century layman, and a twenty-first-century one, could follow.

2. The Work: Occasion and Purpose

This volume is Theophan’s verse-by-verse exposition of the Second Epistle of the holy Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians, composed in his Vysha years (the Russian text dates from the early 1870s) as one member of the connected series in which he expounded, one after another, the whole Pauline corpus. It belongs to a project he understood as service to the ordinary faithful rather than to the academy: to set the Apostle’s words before the reader in small portions, to draw out their reasoning with the help of the ancient interpreters, and to press their lessons home upon the conscience.

The letter he takes up is brief but weighty. Paul had written to the young church at Thessalonica once already; now, still in Corinth and not long after, word reached him that the community—flourishing in faith and love, and holding firm under persecution—had been shaken by a rumor that “the day of the Lord had already come.” The alarm had been given a false authority, Paul warns, by some prophetic utterance, or by a word attributed to him, or even by a letter forged in his name (2 Thess. 2:2). Two disorders followed from it. The first was doctrinal: minds unsettled by the conviction that the End was upon them. The second was moral: an idleness that had crept in before now returned with force, as some abandoned their work in the excitement of that expectation and lived off the labor of others. To steady the anxious, to correct the error, and to rebuke the idle, the Apostle wrote again.

Theophan treats the two letters as companions and, following what he calls the settled judgment of Christian antiquity, holds that the second was written after the first, from Corinth, within the same span of the Apostle’s stay there—he reckons it around the year 54. (Modern scholarship generally places both letters a little earlier, near A.D. 50–52; the small difference of reckoning does not touch the exposition.) The occasion, in any case, is plain from the text itself, and Theophan lets the letter’s own three concerns set the shape of his commentary.

3. Argument and Structure

After the opening salutation, Theophan divides the Epistle into three short parts that answer to its three purposes, and his commentary follows that division through to the closing benediction.

The first part (chapter 1) is what he calls an encouraging sketch of the Thessalonians’ bright side. Paul gives thanks for their growing faith and love and for their steadfastness under affliction, and then steadies them with the promise of God’s righteous judgment: rest for the persecuted, and just recompense for their persecutors, at the Lord’s appearing “in flaming fire” (2 Thess. 1:5–10). Theophan reads this not as a threat held over enemies but as consolation for the suffering—the assurance that the present order is not the last word.

The second part (chapter 2) is the doctrinal correction and the heart of the letter. Here Paul dispels the false alarm. The day of the Lord will not come, he insists, “unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition”—one who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god, and takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God (2 Thess. 2:3–4). For now this lawless power is held in check by something, or someone, that “restrains” it; only when that restraint is “taken out of the way” will the lawless one be revealed, “whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth” at His coming (2 Thess. 2:6–8). To this Paul joins a bright contrast—the sure salvation of the faithful, chosen “from the beginning” and called through the Gospel—and a summary charge that governs the whole: “stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught” (2 Thess. 2:13–15).

The third part (chapter 3) is the moral correction. Paul asks for the Thessalonians’ prayers, expresses his confidence in them, and then turns to the disorderly. He points to his own example—he had worked with his hands among them, taking no man’s bread for nothing—and lays down the rule that has passed into proverb: “if anyone will not work, let him not eat” (2 Thess. 3:10). The idle are to be admonished, and if need be avoided, yet counted not as enemies but as brothers. The letter closes with a prayer for peace and the Apostle’s own signature.

Theophan notes, with the tradition behind him, where the Epistle’s center of gravity lies. Blessed Theodoret gave no one of its subjects the first place; but Saint John of Damascus, and after him Oecumenius and Theophylact, rightly saw the teaching on the signs preceding the Second Coming as the letter’s chief aim. It is there, accordingly, that Theophan’s own exposition is richest.

4. Theological and Spiritual Significance

Short as it is, Second Thessalonians carries the fullest concentrated teaching in all of Paul’s letters on the last things, and it is on this ground that Theophan’s commentary earns its distinct value. The prophecy of the apostasy, the man of lawlessness, and the restrainer has tried its readers in every age and has been a standing invitation to speculation. Theophan’s governing purpose is to keep the reader inside the mind of the Church, and his method throughout is to gather the Fathers, set their readings side by side, draw a sober common conclusion, and refuse to go beyond what has been revealed.

On the man of lawlessness he reports the range faithfully. He treats the figure as a real person to appear at the end—the Antichrist of the tradition—who will exalt himself against all worship and usurp the place of God. The “temple” in which he seats himself Theophan reads chiefly of the sphere of divine worship that the deceiver will arrogate to himself, without pressing a single literal identification. He is careful to note where the Apostle himself grows deliberately reticent—the figure of aposiopesis, the sentence broken off—and he declines to complete what Paul left unspoken.

It is on the mysterious “restrainer” that his restraint is most instructive. He lays the patristic opinions out plainly and lets the reader weigh them. Saint John Chrysostom records the two classic readings: some understood the restraining power as the grace of the Holy Spirit, others as the Roman Empire—the settled civil order whose removal would open the way for lawlessness. Theodoret, Oecumenius, and Theophylact repeat these and add their own weight; Theodoret himself inclines to a third sense—that it is simply the decree of God, who has appointed the end for its own time and will not permit the adversary to appear before it, and who first wills the Gospel to be preached to all nations. Photius and Severus, cited through Oecumenius, sound the same notes of the appointed time and the withdrawal of grace. Theophan does not adjudicate among these as though he could name the restrainer with certainty; he holds, as he says, that “for us it is safest to hold to the patristic opinions,” and he lets their convergence—that a divine ordering, not human calculation, governs the hour—stand as the lesson. The reader looking for a decoded prophecy will be disappointed; the reader looking to be made watchful will be well served.

On the deception itself Theophan follows Paul closely and soberly. The coming of the lawless one will be marked by counterfeit power, signs, and wonders—a false mirror of the true—and by “every deceit of unrighteousness” among those who are perishing, “because they did not receive the love of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:9–10). The Apostle’s hardest words, that God “sends them a strong delusion, that they should believe the lie” (2 Thess. 2:11), Theophan reads with the Fathers not as God authoring the error but as His just withdrawal, permitting those who have first refused the truth to be given over to what they preferred. The accent falls on moral responsibility: men are deceived because they have not loved the truth, and the guard against the deceiver is not clever calculation but a heart fixed on what is true. Here again the prophecy is turned toward the reader’s present duty rather than toward the naming of names.

Around this central mystery stand the letter’s plainer graces, and Theophan gives them their full pastoral weight. The righteous judgment of God is offered as comfort to the afflicted rather than as a weapon. The charge to “stand firm and hold the traditions” becomes, in his hands, a defense of the received deposit of faith against the private novelty that had unsettled the church. And the rule “if anyone will not work, let him not eat” he expounds as a word for every age: the expectation of the Lord’s coming, rightly held, does not excuse a man from his labor but summons him to it. Watchfulness, endurance under trial, and honest work are set before the reader not as ideas to be admired but as a discipline to be practiced. This union of exact interpretation with practical seriousness is the signature of the book.

5. Reception and Influence

Theophan wrote at the end of a long line, and part of the commentary’s usefulness is that it opens that line to the reader. For Second Thessalonians his chief guide is Saint John Chrysostom, whose homilies remain the fountainhead of the Greek exegesis of this letter; with him he draws on Theophylact of Ohrid, Oecumenius, Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, Saint John of Damascus, and, from the Latin side, Ambrosiaster. The commentary is thus a compact catena as much as a fresh exposition: to read it is to hear the tradition’s several voices on a passage that has divided interpreters, gathered and weighed by a careful pastor.

Theophan’s own commentaries on the Pauline Epistles were received in Russia as a landmark of nineteenth-century biblical study, and they were among the works commemorated on his tombstone—the Russian Philokalia, the interpretation of the apostolic Epistles, and his outline of Christian moral teaching carved together as the labor of his reclusion. Because he wrote so near our own time, and with the express aim of clarity, readers have long found him a more approachable door into patristic exegesis than the Fathers he cites. His exposition of this letter continues to be valued precisely for its temperance on questions where temperance is rare.

6. The Text and This Edition

Theophan composed this commentary in Russian, and it is from the Russian that the present edition has been made. The base text is his exposition of Second Thessalonians as preserved in the pre-revolutionary collected edition of his commentaries on the Epistles of the Apostle Paul (issued by the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon on Mount Athos) and transmitted through its public-domain digital text. This is a fresh, modern English rendering prepared directly from that Russian original—an English-only reading edition, not a bilingual or parallel one.

The aim has been readable contemporary English that keeps faith with Theophan’s manner: his short lemmata, his habit of quoting the Fathers by name, and the devotional turn by which each point is brought to bear on the reader’s own life. Scripture is rendered in a modern register consonant with the Slavonic and Synodal text Theophan himself expounds, so that the wording he comments on and the wording the reader sees agree; the older liturgical cadences are respected rather than replaced with a single fixed English version. Citations of chapter, verse, and division are given in the house’s standard Arabic-numeral style (for example, 2 Thess. 2:3), and section headings have been supplied to guide the reader through the argument.

The edition follows the house’s attribution conventions. The author is named as the Church receives him—Saint Theophan the Recluse—and those who prepared the translation are credited as translators, never as authors. Nothing in the underlying work has been abridged in substance; the intent is to present Theophan’s full exposition, faithfully and accessibly, to an English-reading audience for the first time in this form.

7. Suggestions for Reading

Read the commentary with the Epistle open beside it. Theophan works in small portions, and his exposition is meant to be taken after the Apostle’s own words, a few verses at a time; the excerpts from Chrysostom, Theophylact, and the rest are not digressions but the substance of the reading. Those who come chiefly for the prophecy of chapter 2 will find its best use is not to settle who the restrainer is or when the End will come, but to be schooled in the tradition’s sober reticence—to learn what has been revealed, to leave hidden what remains hidden, and to be turned from alarm toward watchfulness. And the whole is meant, as Theophan reads it, to change the reader rather than merely to inform him: to make him steadfast under trial, faithful in the plain duties of daily labor, and awake for the Lord’s coming. Taken so, this small letter, and this small book upon it, are finally about the reader’s own way to salvation.

Introduction

Occasion for Writing and Contents of the Epistle

It is not known how much time elapsed after the dispatch of the first epistle to the Thessalonians, though it was very probably not long, before the Apostle Paul received fresh tidings concerning the state of the Thessalonian Church—tidings worthy of attention and requiring his involvement. Someone among the believing Thessalonians had come, either on his own affairs or as a deliberate envoy of the local overseers of the Christians, and reported what was taking place there. Although this was hearsay, for he writes: “we have heard” (2 Thess. 3:11), it was accompanied by such assurances that the holy Paul had no grounds to doubt its truthfulness and therefore could not but concern himself with the condition of the Christians there.

What precisely this report touched upon can be surmised from the content of the epistle, as all commentators do. It was said that the Thessalonian Christians comported themselves admirably in the Christian rules of life, that their faith was firm, their love burning and expanding, and that they, despite persecutions and afflictions, remained unshakeably devoted to the Gospel of Christ; but that among them false thoughts were circulating regarding the Second Coming of Christ, which were troubling and disturbing them. Previously they had been anxious about the departed, not understanding what would happen to them at the coming of the Lord. The epistle of the holy Apostle had dispelled those anxieties. Yet they found for themselves another source of disquiet. There arose the opinion that the Lord’s coming was already imminent—that the day, even the hour, was at hand. This, in some, probably struck them with fear, from the thought of those awesome events that were to accompany that coming, while in others it perhaps inflamed an intense desire to behold the glory of Christ’s kingdom as quickly as possible; and it put them all in such a state of mind that of them it could be said: they were “shaken in mind” (2 Thess. 2:2). This opinion gained all the more hold and was all the more disturbing in that people appeared who assured others that they had received a revelation of this kind; some claimed they had heard this from the mouth of the Apostle himself; while others even produced a letter, purportedly written by the Apostle Paul himself. It is no wonder that even the first epistle had made this idea at least plausible, where the Apostle speaks of the unexpectedness of the Lord’s appearing. At the same time, it was also said that the old failing of the Thessalonians—the passion for a careless, idle, and restless way of life, which had been noted by the Apostle during his personal residence in Thessalonica and whose correction he had then pressed for and also written about in the first epistle—remained among the Christians. Some were giving themselves over to it as before, with no thought of reforming their conduct.

Receiving such tidings, the holy Paul could not but concern himself with bringing order to the prevailing disposition there, calming minds, dispelling false thoughts, and correcting a bad habit of life. This is why he writes a second epistle to them. What moved him to do so was apostolic zeal and fatherly love for those he was converting. He could not bear for any blemish to be visible on Christians, and he was zealous to present every Church to the Lord as pure, without any stain or defect.

Such is the occasion for writing the epistle. But since we infer it from the content of the epistle itself, there is no need to note that the content corresponds to what this occasion presupposes. In it, the holy Paul: 1) giving thanks to God for the Thessalonians’ progress in Christian virtues, encourages them toward further growth, especially toward patience in persecutions and tribulations through the hope of future blessings (chapter 1); 2) dispels the false thoughts that the Day of Christ is already at hand, foretelling that the Day of the Lord will not come until the enemy of truth—Antichrist—appears (chapter 2); and 3) urges the correction of those who walk in a disorderly manner both by persuasion and by the strictness of apostolic authority (chapter 3). Yet it is not difficult to observe that the principal theme of this epistle is the establishment of precise concepts concerning the signs of the Second Coming of Christ. The commendation of the Thessalonians’ good qualities and the encouragement of them toward patience serves as something of an introduction to the exposition of these concepts, while the instruction on correcting the disorderly is a particular addition—edifying for all, yet not affecting everyone, since only certain individuals were at fault. Blessed Theodoret assigns no preponderance to any one of the topics mentioned, but St John of Damascus, and after him Oecumenius and Theophylact, regard the teaching on the signs of the Second Coming of the Lord as the principal subject and chief aim of the epistle. By this arrangement the other subjects and aims naturally fall into the order described.

Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written

Christian antiquity not without reason has handed down to us that the second epistle was written after the first—and the content of the epistle irresistibly stamps upon one the conviction of this. Nevertheless, certain individuals have ventured a conjecture that the second epistle was written before the first. How much weight this conjecture carries can be judged by the grounds on which they seek to establish it. One, for example, says: in verse 17 of chapter 3 of the second epistle, in the words “thus I write”, (2 Thess. 3:17), a mark is indicated by which the genuine epistles of the holy Paul were to be distinguished from spurious ones; and such an indication would be appropriate in a first epistle, not a second. But this mark was indicated by the holy Paul for the reason that an attempt had been made to circulate under his name letters not his own (2 Thess. 2:2), and such an attempt necessarily presupposes the existence of at least one genuine epistle—which was precisely the first. Moreover, the Apostle himself in this second epistle gives notice that one of his epistles had already been in the hands of the Thessalonians when he says: “hold fast to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or by our epistle” (2 Thess. 2:15). For this reason the second epistle can in no way be counted as the first. Another seemed to think that the very content of the second epistle might suggest that it was written before the first. Setting aside his representations to that effect, we remind everyone that it is precisely the content of the second epistle that most tangibly demonstrates that it was written after the first—as a supplement to it, as a further elucidation and more precise definition of certain matters contained therein. Whereas in the first epistle there is merely a mention of how and amid what circumstances the Thessalonians received the Christian faith, in the second their progress in Christianity is spoken of—the exceeding growth of their faith and the multiplication of their love (2 Thess. 1:3). Whereas in the first epistle the unexpectedness of the Lord’s appearing is spoken of, and the consequent necessity of always being ready to meet Him, since the time of His coming is unknown, in the second the false inference therefrom—that the Day of the Lord is already at hand—is refuted, thereby defining the indefinable time (chapter 2). Whereas in the first epistle only the general rule of a quiet, peaceful, and industrious life was stated (1 Thess. 4:10 and following), in the second the contrary conduct of certain individuals is at length exposed (2 Thess. 3:6–16). Furthermore, when the holy Paul says in the second epistle: “we entreat you, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord and our gathering together to Him, not to be soon shaken” “in mind” (2 Thess. 2:1, 2), without any explanation of what “our gathering together to Him” means—one must conclude that he did so because this gathering had already been described precisely elsewhere; and it was described in the first epistle—(1 Thess. 4:16).

Thus by every indication the second epistle to the Thessalonians was written not before, but after the first, as has always been accepted by all. When precisely?—Not long after the first, in the same year, while the holy Paul was still in Corinth, and probably toward the end of his stay there. That the holy Paul was at that time still in Corinth is evident from the fact that in the salutation of this epistle he places alongside himself his travelling companions—Silvanus and Timothy—and both of them were with him together only in Corinth. After the holy Paul’s departure from that city, the holy Timothy is found with him in Ephesus (Acts 19:22); but of the holy Silvanus there is no further mention thereafter as a companion of the holy Paul. It is therefore impossible to assign the writing of the second epistle to the Thessalonians to any time after the holy Paul’s stay in Corinth, or to any place other than Corinth. That it was written toward the end of the holy Paul’s stay in Corinth may be inferred from the fact that in it (2 Thess. 3:2) the Apostle asks for prayer for his deliverance from evil and wicked men—hinting, presumably, at the uprising against him in Corinth (Acts 18:12–17); and this occurred toward the end of his stay there (Acts 18:18). Thus, if the first epistle was written in the year 54, there is no reason to assign the writing of the second to any time later than that year.

Division

From the content of this epistle its composition and its several parts are already evident.

After the customary salutation and greeting—(2 Thess. 1:1, 2)—the holy Paul first commends what is good in the Thessalonians and encourages them toward patience—(2 Thess. 1:3–12); then he dispels their false thoughts about the Second Coming of Christ with moral lessons drawn therefrom—chapter 2; finally he rebukes those who walk in a disorderly manner and urges them to reform, weaving this rebuke into the concluding discourse—chapter 3. These parts may be designated thus: the first part—an encouraging sketch of the bright side of the Thessalonians; the second—doctrinal correction; the third—moral correction.

A more detailed development of the thoughts of each part will be set forth in the Commentary itself.

Preface (2 Thessalonians 1:1–2)

Inscription and Greeting (2 Thessalonians 1:1–2)

2 Thess. 1:1, 2. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This salutation and greeting correspond word for word to the salutation and greeting of the first epistle to the Thessalonians. Let the reader refer to what was said on this in the Commentary on that epistle. Here we shall add only a few remarks of our commentators, which they make, in addition, on certain individual expressions.

“Paul and Silvanus and Timothy.”—By this second placing of his co-workers alongside himself in a series, the holy Apostle gives one to understand that this epistle too is written in the same spirit and in the same circumstances as the former one. From this, apart from historical considerations, it is rightly inferred that it was written not long after the first.

“In God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” If these words are referred to the greeting, the sense will be: we greet the Church of Thessalonica from the person, in the name, and by the goodwill of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So blessed Theodoret: “The expression ‘in God the Father’ is similar to what we too write in letters, for we also customarily write: such and such a person wishes such and such a person to rejoice in the Lord.”

If, however, they are referred to the words “the Church of the Thessalonians,” they will indicate the spirit of that Church—that it has not been gathered in some alien name, but in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. “For there are gatherings not in the Father and the Son, such as the gatherings of pagans and heretics” (Oecumenius). The Jews may say that their synagogue is in the name of God, but it is not in the name of God the Father, and still less in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—and is therefore nothing. All true blessings descend to us by the good pleasure of God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. Therefore those who do not gather in their name assemble in vain: there is no truth in them, they do not walk the way of God and have no share in the promises of grace. To say “the Church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” is the same as to say: the truly Christian Church. For this means the same as saying: the Church which has come into being and continues to exist by the grace of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ—that is, the Church which God, the Father of believers, has adopted as His own, and which the Lord Jesus Christ, the Author of our faith and the Saviour of souls, has called to faith, has vitally united with Himself in baptism, has made partakers of His body or constituted as His body, and has filled with the Holy Spirit. But only such a Church is the truly Christian Church—the Church that is in God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise, the truly Christian person is known by this: that he is in God the Father by the grace of adoption, is united with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as a member with his head, is filled with the Holy Spirit and is guided by Him. Let everyone therefore remember that through baptism he became a son of God, a member of Christ, a dwelling of the Holy Spirit—and, keeping this in mind, let him hold it on his conscience that he must live as an adopted child of God and act always in the Holy Spirit, or be guided by Him in all things.

“Grace to you.” “Most people do everything and undertake everything with the aim of earning the goodwill of those who are set over them and of those who are greater than themselves, and they set great store by this goodwill and count themselves happy when they attain what they desired. But if the goodwill of those who are like us is so important to a person, what value ought that to have for us when we are counted worthy of the grace of God? That is why the Apostle in the opening of all his epistles sets forth this kind of benediction of grace and prays for it to God” (Chrysostom).

“Grace to you and peace.” “When God bestows grace upon someone, nothing becomes unbearable for him; everything is borne with ease and passes away. Knowing, therefore, what a great blessing in life grace is, the blessed Paul wishes it to the Thessalonians in prayer. For as soon as it is present in them, they will not only not feel the burden of temptations, but will also, enjoying the peace of God, remain undisturbed and at rest. He also mentions grace to them so that, even if temptations should come upon them, they, remembering the grace by which they were saved, might be comforted and, fortified in spirit by the precious blessings already received, might not despair when they encounter temptations and insignificant privations” (Theophylact); or (as the holy Chrysostom says) so that “remembering the grace of God by which they were saved from greater evils, they might not fall into despondency when subjected to lesser ones, but might find comfort therein.”

“From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Let no one conjecture from this that the Apostle’s meaning is that God is our Father and the Lord of Jesus Christ. That is not what the Apostle’s words should lead one to think; they should lead one to see that God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are equal in honor and equal in authority. He speaks as if to say: from God, Who is our Father, and from Jesus Christ, Who is our Lord. The words God and Lord point to the divine nature which is one in the Father and the Son. In the epistles to Timothy it even stands: “from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord” (1 Tim. 1:2)—that is, from Christ Jesus, Who is our Lord and God. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Here the Apostle has taught us also the equal power of the Father and the Son; for having said: ‘in God our Father,’ he added: ‘and the Lord Jesus Christ,’ and again, after the words ‘from God our Father,’ he appended: ‘and the Lord Jesus Christ’—because one and the same blessings are bestowed upon us by the Father and the Son.”

Part One—An Encouraging Sketch of the Thessalonians’ Bright Side (2 Thessalonians 1:3–12)

The Thessalonians’ Praiseworthy Qualities (2 Thessalonians 1:3–4)

After the first epistle had been sent to the Thessalonians and received by them, the holy Paul received fresh tidings concerning the state of that Church—in general very encouraging; but in certain particulars the Christians there required correction, both in matters of doctrinal belief and in matters of conduct—and this moved him to write a second epistle.

He begins it with what is encouraging—with praise for what is good in them, with an exhortation to steadfastness in good, and with prayer to that end—beginning thus in order to open the way for words of correction as well, and to dispose them to receive such words with love. The Thessalonians had been progressing in the virtues which the Apostle had already noted in them previously and by which every Christian community ought to be distinguished (1 Thess. 1:3). Rejoicing in this, the Apostle 1) gives thanks to God that their faith is exceedingly growing and their love is increasing, so that he could not but boast to others both of these their virtues and, especially, of their patience amid persecutions and tribulations (verses 3, 4). Since this bright inner condition had been overshadowed by an adverse outward situation, and the Thessalonians consequently stood in need of support chiefly from that side, the holy Paul next 2) sets forth those truths which could encourage the Thessalonians to patience and to reckon as nothing all the attacks upon them—namely: there will be a judgment at which unbelievers, those who persecute, will be put to shame and condemned to eternal torments, while believers, those who are persecuted, will be glorified (verses 5–10). Then, since this blessed resolution of their lot at the judgment depends on their steadfastness in faith and constancy in a good and Christian life, the Apostle adds 3) a prayer that God would grant the Thessalonians to hold themselves to the end as the Christian calling requires, so that on that day the Lord may be glorified in them and they in Him (verses 11–12). Judging by this content of the first part of the epistle, it is altogether fitting to entitle it: an encouraging sketch of the bright side of the Thessalonian Church.

1. The Praiseworthy Qualities of the Thessalonians’ Christian Life (2 Thess. 1:3, 4)

2 Thess. 1:3. We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith is exceedingly growing, and the love of each one of you all toward one another is increasing.

“The Apostle presents praise in the form of thanksgiving, and as he marvels at their faith toward God, so he marvels at their love toward their neighbor, and by both he bears witness to the perfection of their virtue” (Theodoret).

“See what progress the Thessalonians have made, that the Apostle sends up thanksgiving for them to God—not for the simple fact that they believe, but because their faith is exceedingly growing; and not for the simple fact that they love, but because they are growing rich in love” (Damascene).

“We give thanks to God…” He wishes to commend them for their progress in Christian life, but recognizing that this progress is from God, he turns first to Him with thanksgiving, inclining the Thessalonians to do the same. In this way he both praises them and cuts off any impulse toward self-congratulation. At the same time, by pointing to God as the source of their perfections, he lays upon their conscience the obligation to guard these as a gift from above and to cultivate them as a talent entrusted to them.

“We are bound.” “He acknowledges himself a debtor to God for the progress made” (Ambrosiaster). The apostolic conscience obliges one to this. The Apostles took every advance of the Christians deeply to heart. They did not relate to the cause of Christianity merely externally, but devoted themselves to it with all their heart. Not in such a way that the preaching was proclaimed, the Gospel was announced, and then each could do as he wished. They considered it their duty not merely to proclaim Christ, but to root Christianity in hearts and to bring it into life. For this reason they labored with all zeal and prayed unceasingly, and then rejoiced when their desire was fulfilled and gave thanks for it to God. He had also prayed for the Thessalonians that God would fill them with Christian virtues (1 Thess. 2:12, 3:12). Now, seeing that his good wishes and prayers are being fulfilled, he gives thanks for it to God.

“As it is fitting.” Either—we are bound to give thanks as is due, as duty dictates, “in all justice.” Recognizing that your progress is from God, it is in justice and duty that we are bound to thank God, for your progress is also our good. Or—we are bound to give thanks “worthily,” in due measure, to such a degree as we account your progress to be a great blessing, “so that for an inestimable gift the greatest possible thanksgiving might be rendered” (Ambrosiaster).—Both can be united in the following thought: as the bright state of your life in Christ requires—which state is from God. It would be wrong to separate these aspects and, accepting one, to reject the other. In life they are inseparable. One who has not felt the blessing will not give thanks; while one who has felt it simultaneously recognizes himself as obliged to give thanks and strives to express his gratitude in proportion to the sense of the blessing received. The ancient commentators do not separate them but accept both. Oecumenius: “Or ‘worthily’ means ‘abundantly’—to give thanks as one should to Him Who has bestowed such great blessings.” Theophylact: “He said this so that we should not be lifted up even by our very thanksgiving, as though we were doing something special, for in it we are only doing what we ought to do; which is why he called this act (thanksgiving) a ‘duty.’ Or he speaks thus in order to suggest that one must give thanks both in word and in deed, for only such thanksgiving is true thanksgiving.”

From this action of the holy Paul—that he thanks God for the Thessalonians’ progress in Christianity despite tribulations and persecutions—blessed Theophylact draws the following lessons: “Three things does the Apostle teach us here: if anything is found to be right in us, we ought not to honor ourselves for it but to give thanks to God and, attributing everything to Him, not to be lifted up thereby; if anyone suffers, that is not worthy of weeping and tears but of thanksgiving to God—and such a one ought to rejoice rather than be cast down in spirit; one ought not to envy those who appear to have made progress, but to rejoice in it and to give thanks to God for one’s brethren—so that those who are stung by the good they see in others are thereby dishonoring God Himself.” “If Paul gives thanks to God for the blessings of others, what is to be said of those who not only do not give thanks but are even tormented with envy?” (the holy Chrysostom).

Thus the Apostle lifts the minds of the Thessalonians toward God in order to draw their attention away from outward tribulations. With the same aim he points them, not to anything else, but to faith and love within themselves, saying as it were: do not look at outward things, whatever they may be, but look rather at the treasures ripening in your heart beneath that outward burden. Faith and love are indeed the treasures of the Christian heart, and their increase and preservation ought to be the first and greatest concern of Christians.

Faith grows exceedingly, love increases or grows rich, expanding the range of its activity in the variety of works of love and in the number of persons it warms and benefits. Faith, abiding in itself, is the foundation, the point of support and departure for love—it grows by remaining unshakeable amid temptations and trials. Love spreads out on the foundation of faith, multiplying like flowers in good soil.

In saying “faith exceeds all measure,” the Apostle conveys the idea that it rises above every adverse circumstance, outgrows them, and stands like an unshakeable rock amid the waves. Trials endured for the faith drive it deeper into the heart and render it immovable. Here it enters into the very blood and marrow and becomes an inseparable element of life. Therefore it is held precious and guarded as life itself, and cannot be lost or taken away even together with life. The Apostle accordingly treats the multiplication of trials as a sign of the growth of faith. St. Chrysostom writes: When the gusts of wind grow fierce, when torrential rains fall, when a violent storm rises on every side, when the waves surge high, and yet you remain unshaken—this is a sign of nothing other than that your faith has grown and exceeded all measure and become more exalted. Just as in a flood all low-lying places are covered with water while the higher ground remains beyond its reach—so also faith, once it has attained a certain height, no longer falls. Therefore the Apostle did not say ‘it grows,’ but: “it exceeds all measure.”

It should be noted that the faith of the Thessalonians was growing in strength and intensity; yet this did not prevent certain articles of faith from being misunderstood by some. The Apostle knew this was the case, and yet he bears witness that their faith exceeds all measure. Faith can be strong even when its content is incomplete. Strong faith, standing immovably in the truths it has embraced, nurtures a readiness to receive and hold every truth that is in Christ Jesus. Such faith may, by mistake, accept certain erroneous ideas as true, yet it is altogether free from the stubbornness of clinging to what it has once held, even when that error is exposed—it abandons the falsehood at once, as soon as it is made clear. The Apostle writes to them as to people of this kind.

“Love abounds.” Common afflictions draw closer together those who suffer for the same cause. Moreover, afflictions give rise to compassion, compassion to mutual assistance and support, which is precisely the work of love. Thus afflictions strengthened love; and love in its turn alleviated the suffering and imparted courage. “Do you see,” says St. Chrysostom, “that in afflictions we are helped also by mutually guarding and sustaining one another? This too affords great consolation.”

“Of every one of you toward one another.” So many expressions are employed in order to convey that in love none of them yielded to another; all burned with it equally, each emulating the other in it. And it bound them all closely together, as brothers or members of one family. “The Apostle showed thereby,” says Oecumenius, “that their mutual love one toward another was equal in all of them, and no one had more or less of it.” Pointing to the same thing, St. Chrysostom draws from it also a very instructive lesson on the impropriety among Christians of exclusive love toward some. “Consider the love of the Thessalonians. They did not act in such a way as to love one and not another; on the contrary, their love was equal toward all. For this is what the Apostle indicates when he says ‘of every one of you toward one another’; because their love extended equally to all as to members of one body. It is true, even in our own time we find love among many people, but such love as is the cause of discord. For when we unite in twos or threes among ourselves, and these two, or three, or four are in greater agreement with one another while separating themselves from all the rest—so that between one group and the other there is no longer mutual cooperation and full confidence—this is a rupture of love, not love. If the love that ought to spread throughout the whole Church of God we concentrate on one or two persons only, we thereby harm both ourselves and them and everyone in general. What profit is there in loving such-and-such a person very intensely? That is human love. But if it is not merely human, but you love him for God’s sake, then love all the others as well. For God has commanded us to love even our enemies. And if He has commanded love toward enemies, all the more toward those who have given us no offence.”

2 Thess. 1:4. So that we ourselves glory in you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations which you endure.

“Having learned of the greatness of the afflictions that have come upon you and of the steadfastness with which you repel them, we glory in you, extolling your courage also in other churches” (Theodoret). With this, St. Paul completes his depiction of the praiseworthy qualities of the Thessalonians. In the first epistle he noted in them, as their distinguishing features, “the work of faith, the labor” “of love,” “and the patience of hope” (1 Thess. 1:3). In the second epistle he attests that these qualities have not only been preserved in them but have risen to a higher degree of perfection. That faith exceeds all measure and love abounds he has said just before. Now he says that patient endurance rooted in hope is not behind those two virtues in perfection; but he expresses this not directly, but by holding up the wide renown of their lofty patience and the universal praise it has earned. The report of it is everywhere, so that its reflection falls upon us as well, and we cannot restrain ourselves, but, swept along by the praise that is everywhere given you, we ourselves also begin to glory in you. Thus the thought of this passage is to indicate the surpassing quality of their patience; all the other expressions serve as the fitting setting for this central idea.

“We ourselves glory in you.” Perhaps there is also this thought: on account of your lofty patience, the report of which has gone everywhere, we too are praised and accorded great honor in all the churches. But the commonly received interpretation is that the Apostles themselves glory in the patient faithfulness of the Thessalonians in the face of every attack upon them. “We ourselves glory.” It is not our custom to boast, but the greatness of your patience makes us forget our reserve. Or thus: others give praise. That is not enough—we ourselves could not hold back and have begun to glory in you, counting your steadfastness in the faith as an honor to ourselves. The Apostle had already called them previously his “crown of boasting”—but before the Lord at His coming (1 Thess. 2:19). Now he glories in them already here below—not, of course, in so many words declaring “behold what disciples we have,” but hinting at it in every way—and not in order to exalt himself, but to display the power of the Gospel truth and the grace of God, which exercise such authority over the heart that for their sake believers are ready to endure every privation, having in mind thereby to encourage and inspire others to do the same (Ambrosiaster). That it is not himself the Apostle glories in but grace, we may be assured by his own confession that he is “by the grace of God” what “he is” (1 Cor. 15:10). He who forbids boasting in anything except the Lord (1 Cor. 1:31; 3:21) here also, of course, glories in the Lord, showing what the Lord has accomplished and is accomplishing in the Thessalonians and what He makes them by His grace. It is possible, then, to boast without offending God—to boast with a boasting that is free from pride and refers all that is good to the grace of God, which alone accomplishes in men, through all their personal labors, every true and God-pleasing good.

“Among the churches of God”—those in the vicinity of Corinth, for instance in Athens and other places. In writing the second epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle mentions the many saints who are“in Achaia” (2 Cor. 1:1). The sphere of the Apostle Paul’s activity during his year and a half in Corinth was certainly not confined to Corinth alone.

“For your patience and faith.” Here he indicates that much time has already passed since the beginning of their sufferings, for patience becomes evident in the course of a long period of time, not in two or three days. And he does not speak merely of patience in the simple sense. Patience is indeed expressed even in the case of one who does not yet enjoy the blessings promised to him; but in the present instance he speaks of a greater patience. What kind of patience?—That which is born of persecutions. That he is hinting at this very thing is evident from what he adds further, saying: “in all your persecutions and” “tribulations” “which you endure” (Chrysostom). “Patience exists also when the promised good is slow in coming, but patience in trials and afflictions is loftier and more wondrous” (Oecumenius).

The height of patience lies in the fact that, despite calamities, all stand firm in the confession they have received. This is why under patience the Apostle also includes faith, pointing to the reason they endure and likewise to the source from which they draw the strength to endure. You endure, and yet you hold fast the faith, having come to love it, being convinced that it is the one true faith, and from that conviction drawing the impulse to endure and calling down from above the strength for endurance. Of the surpassing growth of the Thessalonians’ faith the Apostle has spoken above; here, of course, he points to those aspects of faith by which patience is especially sustained—namely, that through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace received from Him, God has become their God and they His own; they have received the right to be children of God and thus stand under a special mercy of God, under His protection; and if they do not enjoy happiness here, it is in order that through this the true and eternal blessedness awaiting them in heaven may be increased. One may therefore say that “patience and faith” in this passage is the same as “the patience of hope” in the first epistle (1 Thess. 1:3). By the word “faith” the Apostle has pointed to the spirit of patience. For patience is not valuable in itself in the eyes of God, but for the disposition with which one endures.

Persecutions and tribulations embrace the external and internal dimensions of the Thessalonians’ distressing situation. Persecutions press from without. These include various grievances and oppressions in daily affairs, the loss of their former standing in society, the confiscation of property, and the like. Enduring all this not for any fault of their own but solely for the faith, the Thessalonians could not but feel that they were suffering unjustly; and the sense of unjust suffering makes deprivations most keenly felt. Nor does the Apostle suggest that they should remain insensible to these losses. He saw that they grieved, yet did not fall in spirit from grief, but overcame it through faith and, amid all their misfortune, remained cheerful in spirit. It is on account of this cheerfulness, which swallowed up the outward hardships, that the Apostle neither grieves nor laments over the sufferings of the Thessalonians—though he loved them as a father—but glories in them before others. To the Thessalonians themselves he writes of this in order to encourage them yet further in their steadfastness in the faith, by the conviction that what they are doing is praiseworthy not for themselves alone, but for their teachers and for Christianity itself; by which it was implied that if they wavered, they would cast a shadow over the Gospel itself and through it over the Lord Himself. On the other hand, it was also implied that their sufferings are not humiliating on every side. If the Apostle values them so highly, how much more does God. There is an Eye that ever gazes with favor upon those who suffer, approving and encouraging them.

The words “which you endure” give us to understand that the afflictions were still continuing at the time the Apostle wrote this epistle; and at the same time that the Thessalonians bore them willingly, neither evading nor resisting them, but consenting to them gladly. By this they might have disarmed their enemies, but those proved insatiable. St. Chrysostom writes: “They lived constantly among enemies who strove on every side to do them harm; and yet they displayed unyielding and unshakeable patience.”

“Let those be ashamed, therefore,” he adds, “who change their convictions for the sake of human patronage. For even at the very beginning of the apostolic preaching, poor men who lived by the day’s labor entered into conflict with those who governed the state and occupied its highest positions—when not a single king and not a single ruler was yet among the believers—and they endured an irreconcilable enmity and, for all that, did not renounce their convictions.”

Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

The Thessalonians were making progress inwardly, in their good Christian dispositions and feelings, yet their outward situation was not comforting. The Apostle hastens to console them in their afflictions and to encourage them toward endurance. To this end he sets before them those truths that are most powerful to accomplish it. For one who suffers unjustly, consolation and support are one thing: there is a God Who sees my righteousness and, alongside it, the weight of my afflictions, and there will be a time when He will render to each according to His justice. Anyone who has endured even some slight injustice will attest that this is so. These are the truths that St. Paul now sets vividly before them. With particular force he first awakens in their consciousness: (a) the assurance of the certainty of recompense, verses 5–7, and then (b) he depicts the circumstances in which it will be accomplished, and especially what it will be, verses 8–10. Since the Thessalonians had already demonstrated their cheerful endurance, these convictions, under the influence of which it had ripened in their hearts, were certainly present in their spirits. And St. Paul does not wish to kindle them for the first time, but to revive them, to give them greater force and life-giving effect upon suffering hearts, by confirming their truth with his apostolic word and thus lending them divine authority.

(a) Assurance of the certainty of recompense (2 Thess. 1:5–7)

For the assurance that there will be a judgment and a righteous recompense, the Apostle does not go far afield. He draws it from the very situation of the Thessalonians. From the fact that you endure such injustices, he says, it is plain that there will be a judgment at which you will receive your due and your persecutors will be punished. The righteousness of God demands it. St. Paul here employs the same argument by which the immortality of the soul, or the existence of life beyond the grave, is most powerfully confirmed. The righteous suffer here while the lawless prosper. If God exists, and is a righteous God—and He does exist—then there is assuredly another life, in which the former will receive their due reward and the latter their due punishment.

2 Thess. 1:5. A manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer.

“A manifest token”—grammatically, not “as a token” or “as a proof,” but “what is a token,” “what serves as proof.” The thought is: the persecutions and afflictions which you bear with cheerful endurance point, as with a finger, to the righteous judgment that is to come, at which it will be decreed for you (or that you may receive therein as your reward) the blessed heavenly kingdom. “A manifest token of the righteous judgment of God.” Now, what points to such a judgment—your cheerful endurance, or the persecutions and afflictions? Both one and the other. Cheerful endurance points to a conviction in those who endure that there will be a judgment at which their righteous cause will triumph. This conviction gives them the strength to endure, not to sink under the weight of calamities. That this was indeed the case with the Thessalonians ought not to be doubted, for otherwise endurance would not have come to pass in them at all. Blessed Theodoret paraphrases the Apostle’s thought thus: The afflictions you endure show that you clearly know the rewards for enduring dangers and await the heavenly kingdom, knowing the righteous ordinance of the Lawgiver. For this is the meaning of the words: “a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God.” But how does the conclusion follow from this personal conviction that there will in fact be a judgment and a righteous recompense?—This conclusion is mediated by that truth requiring no proof, namely that there is a God, good and righteous. This truth every person bears in his heart with a conviction of its inviolability that surpasses all argument. No single argument attains the force of this immediate conviction. Cheerful endurance for a righteous cause of God is born and ripens in the heart only under the influence of this immediate truth, firmly held by the very heart that both endures and remains cheerful in endurance. Therefore, as from the fact that there is a God, good and righteous, it follows with certainty that He will not permit the unfaithful to triumph forever over those faithful to Him, but has absolutely determined in His counsel a day when He will glorify some and put others to shame—so also from cheerful endurance, formed in the heart under the certain truth of the existence of God, good and righteous, it equally follows with certainty that there will be a judgment and a righteous recompense. This is how it appears when we consider only what was occurring in the hearts of the Thessalonians and for their benefit. But how could others draw the same conclusion from this?—The unjust persecutions and afflictions directed them toward it. They might not see what was in the hearts of the Thessalonians, but they could not fail to see that they were suffering, and suffering for a righteous cause. And from this alone the conclusion arose in them at once of itself: therefore there will be a righteous judgment; it cannot be that things should remain so forever—that is, the righteous should suffer while the unrighteous triumph. The time will come when each will be rendered what he deserves. But in them too this conclusion is mediated by the same indubitable and self-evident truth that there is a God, good and righteous, whose essential attribute is to render to each according to his works. Thus, whether endurance is taken into account or persecutions and afflictions, from both the conclusion follows that there will be a judgment and recompense, and it follows through the mediation of the truth of the existence of the righteous God. The Apostle sets this forth in the following verse, the sixth. And in other places of Scripture these subjects are brought together. Thus in one passage it is said that whoever desires to please God must be prepared for every kind of trial (Sir. 2:1); and in another: “he who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). Inseparable from a God-pleasing and righteous life are both trials, or afflictions and persecutions, and faith in recompense, that is, in the existence of the righteous judgment of God. The Apostle’s thought may be expressed thus: the persecutions and afflictions which you—believing and living by faith in a spirit of love—endure, while your enemies and persecutors enjoy happiness and indeed at your expense, prove that there will be a day when the righteousness of God will recompense you with blessedness for your present deprivations. Or thus: your cheerful endurance and steadfastness in the faith amid persecutions and afflictions is a pledge of that blessedness with which God will one day count you worthy, rendering in His infinite righteousness what is due to your self-sacrificing faithfulness.

“That you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God.” The purpose and meaning of the judgment is to render to each according to his works. As for you, the judgment will be to the end that you receive the kingdom. For you the judgment is not fear and trembling, but comfort and consolation. That you suffer unjustly already shows that you will be counted worthy of the kingdom. God has already adjudged it to you; it is already yours—the judgment need only arrive. “For which you also suffer.” You endure persecutions and afflictions in that hope, taking comfort and encouragement from the certainty that for your endurance you will without fail receive the kingdom. Look through the lives of the martyrs, and you will be assured that, with the strength of faith and love toward the Lord, in all of them there lay deep in the heart the certainty of receiving ineffable blessedness for brief sufferings. The splendor of the kingdom with Christ the Lord awaiting them after their torments in the other life obscured from them the horrors of the tortures prepared by their tormentors. “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us,” the Apostle attests (Rom. 8:18). All were inspired by the hope: “if we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him” (Rom. 8:17).

Or thus: you suffer, for this is the only path by which one can enter the kingdom. Narrow is the way and strait is the gate that leads to life (Matt. 7:14). The Lord suffered, the Apostles and the prophets suffered, and for all who walk in their steps afflictions are inevitable. In the world the Lord foretold only tribulations for His own (Jn. 16:33). As they persecute Me, He says, so will they persecute you (Jn. 15:20). But “blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:10). St. Chrysostom writes: “Therefore the cause of their sufferings lies not in the fact that their persecutors are stronger than they, but in the fact that by this very path they must enter the kingdom: ‘through many,’ he says, ‘tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God’ (Acts 14:22).”

Besides what has been said, our commentators discern in the words “a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God” also other shades of thought that are not without edification. St. Chrysostom writes: “The Apostle seems to say here: in order that the righteousness of God may be revealed in the fact that He crowns you and punishes them.” Oecumenius expresses the same thought more fully: “You endure these things in order that, in counting you worthy of the heavenly kingdom, the righteousness of God may be manifested. God therefore permits you to be in affliction, so that when He rewards you with the heavenly kingdom for your endurance, He may reveal His righteousness therein”—“as a token that the judgment of God will in righteousness count you worthy of the kingdom” (Theophylact). It is as though He were saying: you will have deserved to be counted worthy of the kingdom—you will have won it through your sufferings. “The Apostle consoles them by showing that they will be crowned for their labors and struggles, in accordance with the demands of justice” (Chrysostom). “See, suffering for Christ wins the heavenly kingdom by right, and not by grace alone. By this he lifted the gaze of their minds on high and inspired them to despise afflictions” (Oecumenius). Or: “He afforded them great consolation, showing that they will be crowned not by grace but by right, receiving the kingdom as recompense for their own labors and toils” (Theophylact).

To all that has been said one may also add the following thought: believers, with all their striving to be pure before God’s eyes, cannot boast of it—for who is free from defilement? They hate sin and pursue it within themselves, yet it continually breaks through and calls down upon them the righteous judgment of God. This judgment is accomplished in that they are subjected to temporal sufferings as a deliverance from eternal torment—so that, having satisfied in their regard the righteousness of God here below, the entrance into the kingdom may be opened to them without hindrance there. “When we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world,” says the same Apostle in another place (1 Cor. 11:32). But from this very fact one may also see how unyielding the righteousness of God is: even small sins it leaves not without punishment. To the righteous, because of their constant zeal to fulfill the will of God, it repays their falls into sin—as it were against their will—with temporal sufferings here below. What then must those expect who do not believe and take no care whatsoever for the things pleasing to God, but give themselves over to every unrighteousness and impurity? Their torments must be without measure. To this very thing the sufferings of those who believe in the Lord and walk according to His will point. The holy Apostle Peter, writing in consolation to those enduring persecution, says: “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Pet. 4:17–18).

2 Thess. 1:6–7. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to those who trouble you, and to you who are troubled rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of His power.

The conclusion drawn from unjust suffering for God’s cause—that there will be a judgment and recompense—is mediated, as was said above, by the concept of a righteous God. This truth the Apostle now sets forth as the beginning and foundation for what he has said before. There will be a judgment, and by it you will receive the kingdom, because the righteousness of God demands it. It is righteous with God to render to each according to his due. By this law of righteousness, you will receive rest in exchange for tribulation, while those who trouble you will receive tribulation. But this will take place not in the present order of things, but at the glorious Second Coming of the Lord from heaven with hosts of angels—to execute judgment upon all who dwell upon the earth.

In verses 6 and 7 the thought is continued that has been sufficiently explained above. We shall make only a few observations on the expressions used here.

“Seeing it is” (in Greek, ειπερ, is not found everywhere) “a righteous thing”—if it is righteous—“expresses not doubt, but strengthens the truth that is being asserted” (Theodoret). The condition is such that upon it one immediately implies: but it is beyond doubt righteous. Such is the turn of phrase, while the thought is as though the Apostle had said: since it is righteous. In other passages, in similar speech, the Greek conditional particle “if” — ειπερ — is translated directly into Slavonic as: “forasmuch as,” “seeing that.” So it is in (Rom. 8:9, 17; 1 Pet. 2:3).

“If” is used here in place of “for,” just as we ourselves use such an expression when speaking of matters we regard as indubitable and incontrovertible. Instead of saying “for it is entirely just,” he says “if it is just.” He used “if” in speaking of something on which all were agreed (Chrysostom). “In the hearers the inference naturally arose of itself: but this is righteous” (Theophylact). The Apostle had it in mind to call forth the Thessalonians’ own judgment, naturally arousing in them the sense of justice common to all, and thereby raising up in the minds and hearts of his readers a defender and confirmer of the truth of righteous recompense. “Such a manner of reasoning removes all doubt, because they themselves knew that this was just. For if it is just before men, how much more before God” (Chrysostom).

“With God”—with God, in His counsels and determinations, if we take into account His essential attributes—with God, Who is Justice itself, Who sees both your sufferings and your cheerful endurance for Him personally, for His cause upon the earth, the cause of faith in Him and in His Son, to which He Himself has called you, which He Himself has helped your minds and hearts to receive, and to which He now helps you to stand firm. Judge for yourselves: is it righteous, with such a God, to recompense you with rest and your enemies with torment?

“To recompense.” This word denotes both resolutions and acts of the righteous judgment of God: reward (Lk. 14:14) and vengeance (Rom. 12:19). Recompense also takes place in the present period of existence, but not in full and not universally. Here it serves the purpose of correction and purification. The full recompense will follow after the resurrection, as a consequence of the universal Last Judgment. Recompense presupposes correspondence to deeds and merits. “What then? Will the recompense be equal to the deeds?—No, on the contrary; see how from what he says afterward it becomes clear that the punishment will be far more severe, and the reward far greater” (Chrysostom).

“Tribulation to those who trouble you.” Justice repays in kind—with what each one has done unjustly. “What is so just as that those who oppress the good in this age should in the age to come suffer what they now inflict upon others?” (Ambrosiaster). But what will this tribulation be?—Below (verse 9) it is called eternal destruction.

“And to you who are troubled, rest.” Rest is not merely liberation from outward pressures and hardships, as when we say: at last God has given us room to breathe freely; but also positive blessings—consoling and gladdening—as we also say among ourselves: in this is my consolation, my comfort, my joy. But what will this rest be?—Below (verse 10) the thought is conveyed that it will be an object of wonder for all—both for those who receive it and for those who only behold those counted worthy of it. This tribulation and rest are depicted in more vivid relief in Rev. 14:10–13.

“With us”—that is, with the Apostle Paul and his companions, or with all the Apostles in general, laboring for the establishment of Christ’s kingdom upon the earth amid such calamities and dangers that in another place he calls himself and them “appointed to death” (1 Cor. 4:9). For this reason the Apostle entertains no doubt that he and all the Apostles have a great rest laid up for them in heaven, being assured of it by the word of the Lord, Who says: “I appoint to you” (you who have continued with Me in My trials) “a kingdom, as My Father appointed to Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom” (Lk. 22:29–30). If this promise of the Lord was also known to the Thessalonians, what comfort that single word—“with us”—must have filled their hearts with! And what greater convincing force the argument known to the Apostle for the truth of righteous recompense thereby acquired!—“He consoles them by presenting them as sharers of the Apostles” (John of Damascus); “sharers both in the labors and in the crowns of the Apostles” (Oecumenius); “thereby making them equal in their crowns to those who have accomplished countless and far greater feats” (Chrysostom).

The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

The Apostle, consoling the Thessalonians in their endurance and encouraging them toward steadfastness in it, has—as we have seen—assured them of the certainty of recompense for those who are troubled and for those who trouble. But when will this recompense be?

“At the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with the angels of His power.” With these words from verse 7 of chapter 1 of the epistle, St. Paul begins to depict the circumstances in which the judgment and recompense will be accomplished. He does this because nothing is so powerful, on the one hand, to keep from falling away and apostasy, and on the other, to encourage cheerful endurance of every injustice for the sake of a righteous cause, as the contemplation of the scene of the future righteous judgment and recompense. St. Chrysostom writes: “The Apostle here points to the time of the recompense, and (further) through the description (of the event itself) lifts their thoughts on high, as if by his word he were opening the heavens and presenting them to their gaze, surrounding the Lord with an angelic host, thus sketching a brilliant image both of the very place and of what is found there, in order thereby to grant the Thessalonians the possibility of somewhat recovering themselves” (2 Thess. 1:7)—that is, to breathe from their pressures, to take comfort, to taste in anticipation the hoped-for rest.

“In the revelation.” What is hidden is revealed. And the Lord is now hidden. He was hidden also during His earthly life. The Resurrection for a moment disclosed His glory, but the Ascension hid Him again. It was fitting that “heaven receive Him until the times of the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). And although He sits at the right hand of the Father in glory and, as Head of the Church, works all things in it and in its members, yet all this is accomplished invisibly and is grasped only by faith, or by the sense of a purified heart. But then, at the end of the ages, He will be revealed manifestly to all in glory, as King and Lord of all, by descending from heaven and being visible to all. “Now the Lord is hidden—but do not lose heart; He will be revealed” (Theophylact).

“With the angels of His power.” Everywhere in Holy Scripture the Second Coming of Christ is depicted such that hosts of angels accompany and surround Him. Here they are called the angels of His power as heralds of the Lord’s power, or executors of His commands, through which His boundless power will be revealed—as, for example, they shall sound the trumpet and the dead shall rise, and the like. Others understand the angels of His power to be the same as the angels of His host, just as it is common among us to call an army a “force.” The Lord will appear accompanied by angels who form His host. Others interpret the angels of power as mighty, powerful angels (Oecumenius, Theophylact).

2 Thess. 1:8. In flaming fire rendering vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“In flaming fire” is either an attribute of the Lord’s appearing, if these words are joined with the preceding: “in the revelation of the Lord from heaven,” or it is the instrument of punishment for sinners, if joined with what follows: “rendering vengeance.” In other places of Scripture both the appearance of the Lord is accompanied by fire and the torments of sinners are placed in the fiery gehenna. In this passage the flow of speech allows these words to be joined with both what precedes and what follows. The ancient commentators likewise accept now one, now the other interpretation, and sometimes both together. Blessed Theodoret writes: “He first presented the coming Judge, then the power of the angels who serve Him, and after this the very manner of punishment: the condemned are handed over to a flame of fire.” “Fire will be the instrument of recompense” (Ambrosiaster). Oecumenius is of a different opinion: “In the revelation,” he says, “of Christ, which is to be ‘in flaming fire,’ as David also says: ‘Fire goes before Him and burns up His enemies round about’ (Ps. 96:3).” Photius in Oecumenius and Theophylact retain both interpretations. Photius: “In flaming fire”—either conveys the manner of punishment that those who are ignorant of God and who reject the Gospel will bear, or it points to the very coming of the Lord, which will be in blazing fire. So those who came before us interpreted it. Theophylact: “In flaming fire” must be referred either to “rendering vengeance”—as if to say: punishing unbelievers with gehenna—or thus: “in the revelation of the Lord from heaven,” which will be in flaming fire, as David (Ps. 96:3) and Daniel say: “a river of fire flowed before Him” (Dan. 7:10).

(Theophylact adds below: “Note that ‘in flaming fire’ he says in place of: in a fire that burns but does not illuminate. For sinners the fire will only burn but not give light; for the righteous it will give light but not burn.”—Author.)

“Rendering”—the present tense in place of the future, signifying an unchangeable determination that things must be so and not otherwise, or with the purpose of rendering vengeance. “Vengeance”—not as personal revenge, but as a just, deserved punishment, which satisfies not the sentiment of the Judge but the demand of justice, which repays according to merits. The appearing of the Lord is depicted as the appearing of a Judge who punishes the ill-wishers of Christians and of Christianity—not only in order to console those who suffer and to relieve their troubled feeling: why then do we suffer while those are in happiness? But also in order to give a warning to them themselves—not to fall away from the faith and not to falter, for the judgment will be without any partiality.

“Those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel.” Above, the Apostle said that those who afflict the believing Thessalonians will be repaid with tribulation; then he added that this will be when the Lord appears to render vengeance on “those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel.” It follows, by the flow of speech, that those “who afflict” are either the same as these “who do not know and do not obey,” or constitute a part of them more deserving of punishment. Theophylact writes: “Those whom he previously called ‘those who afflict,’ he now calls those who do not know God.” St. Chrysostom intensifies this: “If those who do not obey the Gospel will undergo punishment, what will those not suffer who, in addition to this disobedience, also afflict you?” (So also Theodoret and Oecumenius). If, for the consolation of the persecuted, assurance was needed that the unbelievers who press upon the faithful would not always triumph, then by this turn of speech such a purpose was fully achieved. “Note, I pray you, the wisdom of the Apostle,” says Chrysostom. “He did not say here: to those who afflict you, but: to those who do not obey the Gospel. That is, he says: if not in vengeance for you, then in vengeance for Himself (the Lord) must necessarily subject them to punishment. Thus this was said for greater assurance that in every case the persecutors must be punished.”

Those who do not know God and those who do not obey the Gospel encompass the entire circle of persons who will be subjected to the wrath of God and to punishment. Not only those who do not know God will be condemned to eternal torments—for even such persons are without excuse (Rom. 1:20)—but also those who do not submit to the Gospel. At the judgment no such plea will be accepted as justification: I knew God, believed in His creative power and providence, acknowledged the obligation to obey conscience, and hoped for the life to come. Even such a person will be found guilty if he did not believe the Gospel. By this word the Apostle condemns not only atheists, materialists, and pantheists, but even the most enlightened deists. Eternal salvation will be the portion only of those who believed the Gospel and have been transformed by divine grace. It is also evident that by “those who do not obey the Gospel” the Apostle means not only those who do not accept the Gospel and do not subject their reason to the yoke of faith, but also those who, though they accept the Gospel, do not live according to its demands—who do not subject their will and feelings to the precepts of the Gospel. This latter meaning is suggested by the verb “do not obey,” which encompasses both aspects of obedience.

In the times of the Apostles those who showed themselves to be ignorant of God were chiefly the Gentiles (1 Thess. 4:5; Gal. 4:8; Rom. 1:28; Eph. 2:12), and those who showed themselves disobedient to the Gospel were chiefly the Jews (Rom. 10:3, 1:21; 1 Thess. 2:15, 16). Perhaps the holy Paul meant exactly this. But if we look at our own time with the word of the Apostle, and even more at the time of the judgment, we will be compelled to acknowledge that the Apostle here designated not these or those nations, but rather the moral and religious qualities and states that deserve God’s vengeance—states by which those who ruin themselves are possible among all nations. This is all the more permissible in that even the Gentiles did not obey the Gospel, and the Jews proved to be ignorant of God, not having recognized the work of God in Christ Jesus (Jn. 8:54, 55, 15:21).

The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10)

2 Thess. 1:9. Who shall suffer punishment, eternal destruction, from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His power.

Here the Apostle explains what the vengeance will consist in and how it will overtake them. “They will receive punishment”—they will bear just punishment according to their deeds, which will be exceedingly painful, so that it cannot be better characterized than by being called “eternal destruction.” The words: “tribulation to those who afflict”—point only to something painfully unpleasant; “rendering vengeance”—causes a presentiment of the severity of the pronouncement of punishment but does not define it; “in flaming fire”—if these words are understood as the instrument of punishment—defines more fully what that punishment will be. But here there is still room for the expectation of an end to the torments. But when he said: “they will receive punishment, eternal destruction,” thereby completing the depiction of the bitter lot of unbelievers and sinners, he delivers the final blow, condemning them to eternal desolation.

“Eternal destruction”—previously (1 Thess. 5:3) “utter destruction”—is eternal perishing. They will feel that they are finally perishing, yet bear the conviction that they will never perish, being reborn at every moment, as it were, for fresh torments: “They will suffer and not be exhausted; the very fire will in some manner regenerate them, only to devour them again” (Ambrosiaster).

“There are many people who build good hopes not on the fact that they abstain from sins, but on the supposition that gehenna is not as terrible as they say of it, but milder than they threaten us with, and moreover temporary rather than eternal; and they reason much on this subject. Meanwhile, I can produce proofs from every side that it is not only not milder than it is represented in the threats, but far more terrible. To confirm this, the very fear aroused by mere words about gehenna suffices, even if we do not unfold their meaning. And to be assured that it is not temporary, hear what the holy Paul says here about people who do not know God and do not believe in the Gospel—namely, that they will receive eternal destruction. In what manner, then, can what is eternal become temporary?” (Chrysostom). “Where, then, are the Origenists who fable about the finitude of punishments?” (Theophylact).

“From the face of the Lord”—according to the Hebrew idiom (a turn of speech that cannot be translated literally), the same as “from the Lord,” from the Lord Himself, and not through intermediaries—to hear from Him personally the verdict, and by His power to be cast into gehenna. A similar meaning occurs in Acts, where the expectation of times of refreshing from the face of the Lord is expressed (Acts 3:20). Nor did he simply say: from the Lord—but from the face of the Lord, to signify the fearfulness of the Lord the Judge for unbelievers and sinners, and therewith the impartiality of the judgment and the vengeance. It will be dreadful for them to look upon the face of the Lord: it will drive them away, or they will flee, only to avoid meeting His face. For His eyes are “a flame” of fire (Rev. 19:12).

“From the glory of His power”—from His glorious might, or from His mighty glory. This expresses the awesome majesty of the Almighty Judge as God. “He will not simply come, but with mighty glory. And His glory will not be without power, and His power will not be without glory; that is, He will appear as an All-powerful King” (Theophylact). “The face” denotes fearfulness; but fearfulness without power is nothing. In the Judge on the last day both will be manifest. Unbelievers and sinners will see on the face of the Lord the Judge not only a wrathful and inexorable anger, but also boundless power, which will punish them by casting them into a torment from which no one will ever deliver them. Both they will feel—penetrated by the sense both of His fearfulness and of His boundless punishing power—and, overwhelmed by this sense, they will be repelled from Him as by lightning, the moment His fearful verdict on their fate issues from His lips: “Depart from Me” (Mt. 7:23), and they will be cast down into gehenna. But that same face and that same power will pour ineffable comfort into the hearts of all who have believed and have remained faithful to the faith. St. Chrysostom writes: “The Apostle wishes here to express that the punishment of sinners will be accomplished easily, that for this no great effort is needed, but it will suffice only for the Lord to come and appear, and punishment and torment will overtake all the guilty. His coming will bring joy to some and torment to others.”

The words: “from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His power”—some heterodox Western commentators paraphrase thus: being removed from the face of the Lord and from His glory—supposing that eternal punishment will consist in this. This idea, by the structure of the speech, is inappropriate here, and is generally incorrect. Indeed, future punishments will be made heavier by the fact that sinners will be removed from the face of God, whose vision the righteous will enjoy; but they will not consist in this alone. The external condition of sinners will also be desolate not merely because of the absence of good things, but also because of positive torments. Just as the blessedness of the righteous, amid the all-beatifying vision of God, will also have an external setting wholly fitting to that vision.

2 Thess. 1:10. When He comes to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed, in that day.

Behold the purpose of the Second Coming of the Lord! He comes for this: to be glorified and to be wondrous in His saints and in those who have believed. The rejection of unbelievers and sinners will occur, as it were, in passing. The majesty and fearfulness of the Lord’s appearing will repel and strike them. But all the Lord’s attention will be directed toward making His mercy marvelous in the glorification of His faithful. What a warm and comforting consolation for those who suffer for their faith in the Lord!

Corresponding to what precedes—eternal destruction for unbelievers, but for you wondrous glory—though he does not speak directly of their glory, but of the Lord’s glorification in them, he by this very fact increases yet more the brightness of the state awaiting them in the future, giving to understand that their glory will be a certain share of the glory of God—a divine glory.

The Lord is in Himself always glorious and wondrous, but in His saints and in those who believe He is not always and not fully glorious and wondrous at the present time. In their persons He is disparaged and not revered. But then He will show what His saints and those who believe in Him truly are, what gracious power they carry within themselves on earth, and with what spiritual glory the souls beneath the covering of a mortal body and an outwardly unbecoming state are clothed. What is now hidden will then be manifested to all. The Lord will clothe them with the glory with which He Himself is clothed, so that not only those who are strangers to Him but even the believers themselves and the angels will marvel at this and will glorify Him. “It has not yet been revealed what we shall be” (1 Jn. 3:2). And it has not entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9).

God is wondrous in His saints (Ps. 67:36), and makes marvelous His purposes in them (Ps. 15:3), often even here. This is necessary for the purposes of the economy of the salvation of the human race. The Lord Himself appeared wondrously on earth; wondrous were the holy Apostles, who in frail vessels carried the great grace of God that subjected the whole world; wondrous were the holy martyrs, who endured dreadful torments with rejoicing—even frail women, young maidens, and children; wondrous were the venerable ones, who found paradise in severe deprivations. Especially wondrous are the moral transformations: from drunkards into sober men, from fornicators into the chaste, from the wrathful into the meek, from the miserly into the generous, from the proud into the humble. But here these things are not seen and honored by all. Then before all will shine the light of the glory of the grace of God—and it will be plain what perfections each person has acquired through his labors on earth, and in which the divine glory manifests itself. For that glory will not clothe them from without, but will break forth from within, from those holy qualities that constitute the very fabric of their souls.

And this is the Apostle’s purpose in these words—to drive away the gloomy thoughts to which the persecutions and tribulations could give occasion. The holy Fathers direct most of their attention to this side in their commentary. Here are their thoughts. Theodoret: “The Apostle showed the greatness of the punishment of unbelievers, calling it eternal destruction; now he lets us see also the glory of those who have believed, saying that God Himself will be glorified in them and will appear wondrous. In the present life some remain in suffering and labor, while others, living wickedly, enjoy abundant good things; but in the day of judgment—the righteous will be glorified and deemed worthy of crowns, while those who lived wickedly will be given over to torments.” St. Chrysostom: “When the persecutors see that those very ones whom they tormented, despised, and subjected to mockery have become close to Him, then His glory will be revealed, or, more properly, in this will consist both His glory and the glory of the latter; His glory because He did not forsake them but surrounded them with greater splendor—their glory because they were deemed worthy of such honor.” He also says: “When those who were wretched and abased and endured a thousand sufferings, and through it all preserved faith in Him, He deems worthy of such glory, then the power of God will be manifested, because, though the believers here seemed to have been forsaken by Him, they will be deemed worthy of glory there. In this above all will be revealed all the glory and power of God.” Oecumenius: “to be glorified”—can be understood in two ways: it is glorious for Him that there will be many saints whom He fills with His good things; or thus: He will be glorified by the saints, at the sight of Him seated at the right hand of the Father in the Father’s glory, as the God of all. A third meaning may also be allowed: that the saints will move the incorporeal powers to glorify Him, at the sight of how many and how great are the good things He bestows upon His faithful. “To be wondrous”—as the saints will give occasion for Him to be glorified, so also to appear wondrous—because those who in this life seemed so abased and rejected that they were driven out and killed, He deemed worthy of so many and such great good things (Theophylact has the same thoughts).

“For our testimony was believed.” Some see in these words an explanation of the word “who have believed”—as if to say: the Lord will come to be wondrous in those who have believed—understood: in you, or: and in you—since you also believed our testimony, that is, the testimony about Christ Jesus, or the preaching of the Gospel—since this testimony was received by you with faith, was believed by you. In that case—“in that day”—will refer to the glorification and wondrousness of the Lord in the saints: when He comes to be glorified and to be wondrous in that day; and the words: “for our testimony was believed among you” will constitute a parenthetical clause, as if standing in brackets. Theophylact writes: “God will be wondrous in that day, because our word and preaching were believed by you—that is, because you believed and made yourselves worthy of those good things which will then be granted to the faithful.” So also Theodoret: “In that day” must be referred to what was said above, that is, the Lord will be wondrous in all who have believed in that day. He called the preaching a testimony; and said that they believed this testimony.

St. Chrysostom, who always had moral purposes in his homilies, sees here among other things also this thought: “Since many pretend to be believers, do not count anyone blessed before death, for only in that day will it be revealed who has truly believed.” This same thought is retained by Oecumenius: “In that day” it will be evident that you have believed, for now many pretend to be believers. With this interpretation too, the words: “for our testimony was believed…” explain the preceding: “who have believed,” only in a different regard. With this interpretation there is no need, however, to suppose that “for our testimony was believed…” is a parenthetical clause and to move “in that day” to another place.

But it seems close of all to the flow of the speech will be the interpretation of St. John of Damascus, according to which “for our testimony was believed…” reveals not the sincerity of the faith of those who believed, but the divine dignity of the faith itself. He says: “That truth which we now preach, in that day — πιστευθησεται — will prove undeniably true.” Now unbelievers have the boldness to say: in whom do you believe, and in what, and for what purpose?—treating with words of contempt both the faith and the Lord Himself who is the object of faith, and those who believe. And they seem to triumph, exalting their wisdom over the simplicity of the believers’ faith. Then will shine the glory of the faith, and it will be solemnly revealed before all that this is the one and only guide, given by God to those living on earth for all the time the earth shall stand, and that those who followed it, despite the multitude of oppositions, were not mistaken in their hope. The testimony of the Apostles, that they preach not their own but what was delivered to them by God and the Lord and was inspired by the Holy Spirit—will prove true, and all will acknowledge this. And the Lord will be wondrous in the believing of those who have believed—He shall be justified “in His words,” and shall overcome “when He is judged” (Ps. 50:6). That the word “was believed” stands in the past and not the future tense does not hinder this interpretation. The Apostle places our attention at that moment when this will be accomplished, and as it were says: the Lord will be wondrous in those who have believed—for behold, see—our testimony has proved true.

With this the holy Paul concludes his depiction of the future judgment and recompense. He held the attention so long on this subject because there is no other subject that has the power to so sober the mind and impart such alertness and energy to the moral powers as the contemplation of what the end of all things will be. The cold strictness of moralism—to act from mere consciousness of duty alone—is foreign to the divine teaching. It surrounds a person with motives to which human nature responds sympathetically at all levels of its development. St. Chrysostom teaches on this matter as follows: “The thought of the kingdom moves us to lead a virtuous life. True, one who is fully virtuous is guided not by fear (of punishment) nor by the desire to gain the kingdom, but by Christ Himself, as Paul did. But let us think about the goods in the heavenly kingdom and about the torments in gehenna, and at least in this manner let us rightly form and educate ourselves, let us in this manner move ourselves to fulfill what we ought to fulfill. When in the present life you see something good and great, then think about the heavenly kingdom, and you will be persuaded that what you have seen is of no account. When you see something dreadful, think about gehenna, and you will laugh at what seemed dreadful to you. When fleshly lust takes hold of you, think about the fire, reflect on the very pleasure of that sin—that it is of no account and does not even bring pleasure. If the fear of transgressing the laws enacted here has such power as to restrain us from evildoings, then how much more—the remembrance of the future, unceasing torment, eternal punishment. If the fear of offending an earthly king restrains us from so many crimes, then how much more the fear of offending the heavenly King. If the mere sight of a dead man so humbles our mind, then how much more—gehenna and the unquenchable fire, how much more—the undying worm. If we constantly thought about gehenna, we would not quickly fall into it. For this very reason God threatens with punishment. If reflection on gehenna brought us no great benefit, God would not have uttered this threat; but since the memory of it can help us rightly to fulfill great deeds, He has as it were sown in our souls a salutary medicine—the thought of it that arouses dread” (on verse 8).

The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

Such great promises has the Apostle spoken to the faithful! But their reception does not depend on faith alone; it is conditioned on faithfulness to the faith to the end and the precise fulfillment of its demands—of everything to which the Christian calling obliges. Since success in this is acquired not by human effort alone but is given preeminently by the grace of God, the holy Paul adds a prayer, that the Lord may deem the Thessalonians worthy of this.

2 Thess. 1:11. For this reason also we pray always for you, that our God may deem you worthy of the calling and may fulfill every good wish of goodness and the work of faith in power.

“For this reason”—“that God may also be glorified and wondrous in you” (Oecumenius). As verse 12 below indicates. “And we pray always for you.” Taking to heart both the temporal and the eternal lot of those he had converted, the Apostle prays tirelessly for them, as a compassionate father for his children, wishing that they may truly be deemed worthy of all good things in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“May deem worthy of the calling.” The calling, in Holy Scripture, is either the call to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 2:12); or the state corresponding to this call, when a person is such as the Christian calling requires (2 Pet. 1:10; Eph. 4:1); or the fruit of the calling—that to which the call leads—“the hope of the calling” (Eph. 4:4), “the heavenly calling” (Heb. 3:1). Since the Thessalonians are already called to faith, the Apostle surely desires for them here either that God may deem them worthy to prove themselves worthy of this calling—to maintain themselves to the end as it requires—or that He may deem them worthy to receive what is laid up in heaven for this calling, to bless them with the full abundance of good things that the goodness of God has deigned to prepare for those who believe. Both may be accepted—both what is required here and what is promised there. For in essence they are inseparable. What is required here is the necessary condition of what is there. When what we are obligated to here is present in us, what is there prepared will also be given; but when what is here is absent, do not expect what is there. Blessed Theophylact writes: “What then—were they not called? Indeed they were. But it is not of that calling the Apostle speaks, for by that many are called. Even he who lacked the wedding garment was called, and the five virgins were called, but they did not enter. The calling the Apostle here means is that which is confirmed by deeds and which is properly speaking the calling, just as true faith is active faith.”

And what is needed for the Thessalonians to walk worthy of the calling—this the holy Paul then desires: “and may fulfill every good wish of goodness.” “Good wish of goodness”—what the goodness of God wills for people, all the good things given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ: the grace of regeneration, sanctification, communion with God, adoption—which is directly called by the Apostle the “good will of the will” of God (Eph. 1:5). The Apostle desires that all this may be fulfilled in the Thessalonians—that, having received the forgiveness of sins, they may strive to cleanse themselves also from the passions, and, having developed in themselves good dispositions and feelings, may become a worthy dwelling of the triune God. Oecumenius paraphrases this passage thus: “We pray that God may fulfill in you His every good will. And the will and good will of God is that all people be saved and attain eternal blessedness.” Theophylact adds: “That every good will of God—that is, all that is well-pleasing to Him—may be fulfilled in you, and that you may prove to be such as God desires you to be, lacking nothing.” Both took these thoughts from St. Chrysostom, who says: “That God may be fully satisfied that you now lack nothing more in order to become such as He desires.”

And having raised the Thessalonians by His grace and good will to such moral perfection, God will fulfill in them also “the work of faith in power.” The work of faith—in general, that for which the faith of Christ was founded and established on earth. The Apostle desires that this may be accomplished in the Thessalonians. Or the work of faith—the demonstration of one’s believing by deed (St. John of Damascus) before others, regardless of their hostility for it; consequently, the work of faith—the fruits of faith in general and in particular the endurance of persecutions for the faith. In Theodoret we read: “We beseech the God of all that He may fill you, who have been deemed worthy of the calling, with all good things, and that you may bring forth the fruits of faith.” According to St. Chrysostom, the work of faith is the bearing of persecutions, and, according to Theophylact, the Apostle desires “that God may make perfect in the Thessalonians the endurance of persecutions. Endurance is the work of faith, so that he who has no endurance shows no work of faith.”

“In power”—either in all fullness, according to all the greatness of the good wish of goodness and according to all the significance of faith, in the most perfect manner. Or by His power, sent down from above—the power of grace, which strengthens people for all the works of faith and especially for endurance. “In power”—that is, having strengthened and fortified you (Theophylact). “That He may fulfill the work of faith in you by His own (divine) power. For from the latter the former is born. If He gives the power to fulfill the work of faith, He will certainly fulfill His good will in us as well” (Oecumenius).

Both—the good will of God’s goodness and the work of faith in people—encompass everything that is required in order for us to be deemed worthy of the calling, or to prove to be such as the calling requires us to be, or, what is the same thing, to walk worthy of the calling (Eph. 4:1). The first points to what is from God; the second—to what is from people. In the former is all the economy of salvation and the gracious powers; in the latter is our own activity, labor, and effort in the spirit of faith, or in the fulfillment of the obligations of faith—though all this has significance only when strengthened by power from above. The Christian calling is fulfilled not by grace alone and not by human effort alone, but by both together. St. John of Damascus writes: “The Apostle prays thus in order to make them more zealous. He does this not in order to remove from us what must come from ourselves, but that we may not think too highly of ourselves; and, on the contrary, that even in all those things for which we have received capability from the grace of God, we may call God to our aid—for if we rely on ourselves, all our labor will come to nothing. By the words ‘that He may fulfill’ he shows that they are not yet perfect. For perfection comes when the time of the contest has passed. But while one is still contending, let him fear, lest he fall. Therefore it is said: ‘before’ the end ‘do not’ call anyone blessed” (Sir. 11:28). St. Chrysostom concludes from this: “See how imperceptibly the Apostle humbles them. Lest they, as persons who have accomplished great feats, become proud from the abundance of praise and fall into sloth, he says that as long as they remain in this life, they still lack something. Similarly, in the Epistle to the Hebrews he says: ‘You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood, striving against sin’ (Heb. 12:4).”

2 Thess. 1:12. That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is why the Apostle desires for the Thessalonians that all of Christ be realized in them—he desires for them full perfection in the Christian calling! For the glorification of the Lord in them and of them in Him.

This glorification is either here already, or there hereafter. If there, then the Apostle’s meaning is this: we pray for the fullness of your perfection in the Christian calling, so that when the Lord comes to be glorified and to be marveled at in His holy ones and in those who believe, He may appear glorious and marvelous also in you, having glorified you and displayed the wonder of His mercy upon you. So Oecumenius: “If it be so (that is, as we pray), then just as God is glorified in the saints, as said above, so also in you. He is glorified by accounting His servants worthy of such great blessings. And for them it will be glorious to be accounted worthy of this.”

If here, then, according to St. John of Damascus, “the Apostle’s words are like the Lord’s saying: ‘So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven’ (Mt. 5:16). The Apostle speaks as it were: ‘If all that has been said is present in you, then even in this life the name of the Lord will be glorified in you and you in Him’” (Theophylact). How this comes about, St. Chrysostom explains: “In what way is the Lord glorified in us?—In this, that we prefer nothing to Him. In what way are we glorified in Him?—In this, that we receive from Him the strength not to weaken when misfortunes overtake us. For when any trial befalls us, at one and the same time God is glorified and we are glorified. Specifically, He is glorified because He has made us so strong, and we are admired because we have made ourselves worthy of this.” Theophylact resolves it in his own way: “When they see you enduring every trial out of love for your Master, this will be to His glory—that He is so good that His servants are ready to die for Him, and so powerful that He strengthens you to endure. And you too will be glorified in Him, in that you are found so faithful that you endure all things. For the glory of a servant is to be faithful to his Master.”

“By the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” If we are accounted worthy that God be glorified in us and we in Him, all of this is God’s, not ours—all is the grace of Christ. “That is, God Himself has granted us this grace, that He be glorified in us and that we be glorified in Him” (Chrysostom). “We ourselves are not sufficient for this, nor are we worthy of it; but all is wrought in us by the grace of God” (Oecumenius). “It is the grace of God both when the Lord is glorified in us—in that we prefer nothing to Him as the sweetest of all things—and when we are glorified in Him—in that we receive from Him the strength to bear all trials” (Theophylact).

Along with news of the bright aspects of the Thessalonians, St. Paul received information about their failings as well, one of which darkened their Christian understanding and another their Christian conduct. The first consisted in their having allowed themselves to be carried away by the notion that the Day of Christ was already at hand; the second, in the fact that certain of them continued to give themselves over to idleness and to live at others’ expense. Such significant deviations from the truth the Apostle could not leave without reproof and correction. He corrects the first in chapter 2 and the second in chapter 3, inserting in both places other moral lessons and his benedictions for the Thessalonians. Let us distinguish them, calling one the doctrinal correction and the other the moral reproof.

Part Two—Corrective of Doctrine (2 Thessalonians 2)

Correcting Wrong Thoughts on the Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2)

A conviction had spread among the Thessalonians that the Day of the Lord was already at hand. Some spoke of this in a prophetic spirit, others appealed to a word they claimed to have heard from the Apostle; there were even those who pointed to an epistle supposedly written by St. Paul, in which the same idea was confirmed. Hearing this, the Thessalonians did not trouble to verify what they had heard against what they had personally received from the Apostle himself, but as soon as they heard it, they believed it and were thrown into confusion: some from fear, others from joy at the prospect of soon beholding the Lord and being gathered to Him. The Apostle now writes to them that they should not have allowed themselves to be so unsettled for any reason, vv. 1-2—knowing in advance that the coming of the Lord must be preceded by the appearing of Antichrist, together with the attendant circumstances, as had been told them personally by the Apostle during his time with them, vv. 3-5. You know, and hold fast to this knowledge, that there is something that restrains the appearing of Antichrist. When that which restrains is removed, then Antichrist will appear, and after him the Lord, to slay him with the breath of His mouth and to destroy all his work, vv. 6-8.

Such is the order of world events, by God’s foreordained purpose, by the plan of His providence for the human race. Here is visible both the inner, hidden law governing them and the ultimate end toward which everything moves.

By this, the mistaken thoughts of the Thessalonians were fully corrected, and their agitation ought to have been calmed. But St. Paul judged it wise to resolve yet one more related question, which could naturally arise in connection with the prophecy concerning the appearing of Antichrist, and might again disturb the brotherhood now being set at ease—namely: if this Antichrist is to be such a fighter against God, will he not pose some danger to us as well, to our very faith and our hope? Might he not destroy us too? The Apostle answers this possible question: have no anxiety. The man of lawlessness will indeed come armed, by the working of Satan, with everything that can deceive; but he will truly deceive and draw away only those who “received not the love of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:10). In these, God will permit the spirit of delusion to work, and they will believe the lie, vv. 8-12. But you who have believed and have come to love the truth have nothing to fear. You are chosen for salvation and for the obtaining of the glory of the Lord, because you believed and were sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, vv. 13-14. Only remain faithful to the teaching delivered to you by us, which the Lord will also grant you, vv. 15-17.

St. Chrysostom says that St. Paul here touches upon “great mysteries.” When beginning his discussion of the Second Coming of the Lord in the first epistle, the Apostle wrote: “this we say to you by the word of the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:15). Here, though he does not say this, everything he says is not his own personal view but is without doubt a divine revelation. The Apostle writes in the prophetic spirit. In the apostolic writings, inspired by the Spirit of God, one is permitted to see the authors’ own personal opinions and counsel only when they themselves say so; when they do not say so, everything they have said must be recognized as divinely inspired truths. Such also is this passage of the holy Apostle Paul. This observation is prompted by certain Western heterodox commentators.

All the thoughts indicated in the brief survey of this chapter set out above may be gathered under the following headings: a) the correction of mistaken thoughts about the Second Coming of the Lord and the revelation concerning Antichrist, vv. 1-8; b) a depiction of the machinations of Antichrist and an indication of whom he will deceive, vv. 9-12; c) the bright lot of believers, insofar as they remain faithful to the faith.

a) The Correction of Mistaken Thoughts about the Second Coming of the Lord and the Revelation concerning Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:1-8)

2 Thess. 2:1, 2. Now we beseech you, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you be not quickly shaken in mind, nor be alarmed, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of the Lord is already present.

“We beseech.” He beseeches, yet through this beseeching a reproach is visible. Everything had been explained in detail; yet then came extraneous words, and all was forgotten, they were instantly carried away. The Apostle now says: we ask you not to permit this of yourselves, as a forbearing teacher might ask a student who has proved himself inattentive. The Greek ερωτωμεν suggests such a tone of speech: as though asking, implying: why was this allowed to happen?

“Concerning the coming of the Lord… and our gathering together to Him.” “Concerning”—with respect to the coming… and the gathering… “The coming of the Lord”—in St. Paul, this always means His personal arrival from heaven to bring His gracious kingdom to completion in the kingdom of glory and to pronounce judgment upon those who have resisted the truth. “Our gathering together to Him”—the same here as in the first epistle—when all the faithful and holy ones will be caught up on the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17). “To Him”—the Greek επ᾿, to Him, around Him. He is the center; all who are His will be disposed around Him, each in his own rank, and will form a single whole, living by the One Lord, all-blessed and all-radiant. Such a consoling and luminous picture the holy Apostle sets before the minds of the Thessalonians at the outset, on account of what he was about to say concerning the dark figure of Antichrist and his deeds, so that these latter things might not disturb them, and also in order to impress upon them that they ought not to be concerned about the moment of the Lord’s appearing, but about becoming worthy to meet Him in the air—a point he had impressed upon them at the end of the preceding chapter.

“Not quickly.” Not immediately upon hearing a word, not at once, not without reflection. They had already permitted themselves to fall into agitation. Therefore the Apostle’s meaning is: why was this permitted? He covertly expresses his reproach to them, that as soon as they heard, without examining who was speaking or whether what was said was true, they fell into confusion.

“To be shaken in mind”—to be dislodged from one’s standpoint or foundation of mind, to lose one’s reason, to be at a loss. The Greek word is used of agitations caused by fear, joy, or grief.—“Nor be alarmed”—from the Greek, to be frightened by a sudden crash. Having believed that the Lord was about to appear at any moment, they fell into a panic, as though struck by thunder, not knowing what to begin or where to turn.

“Neither by spirit.” He means not the spirit of falsehood, but that spirit which manifested itself in members of the Church—the spirit of prophecy, or of revelation and discernment of the mysteries of God. So all the holy Fathers: Chrysostom, Theodoret, Damascene, Oecumenius, Theophylact. In the assemblies of Christians, a spirit would come upon certain individuals—they would rise and begin to speak with inspiration. Such speech bore chiefly upon the edification of the Church in faith and love; but it could also embrace the past and discern the future. There were persons especially distinguished for their discernment of the future. When St. Paul said of himself that the Spirit in every church was saying that bonds and afflictions awaited him (Acts 20:23), he meant this prophetic spirit that manifested itself in the churches of that time, owing to the purity of faith and life of the first believers. Whether anyone at Thessalonica actually spoke in this spirit about the approaching Day of the Lord, one cannot say with certainty. Perhaps no one spoke thus at all, and St. Paul, merely anticipating such a case, says: even if someone were to speak to you in the prophetic spirit, do not believe it—so as to cut off every possibility of delusion. So St. Chrysostom: “Even if someone possessing the spirit of prophecy were to say this to you, do not believe it. For when I was with you, I explained to you everything pertaining to this matter, so you ought not to change your views regarding what you were definitively taught.” From the fact that an epistle supposedly written by the Apostle and a word supposedly spoken by him were actually adduced to confirm the idea of the approaching Day of the Lord, one might with some probability conclude that assertions were actually made about such promptings of the prophetic spirit as well. But the evident fact that while “word” and “epistle” here are presented as belonging to St. Paul, the expression “by spirit” in no way can refer to him—this considerably weakens that probability, obliging one to see a distinct nuance even in the meaning of that expression. The Apostle wished to express something like this: not only when (falsely) someone adduces a supposed word of mine or a supposed epistle of mine should you not believe, but if any person known among you as a prophet were actually to teach in that manner, do not receive his words. This is similar in meaning to the Apostle’s words to the Galatians: “though an angel from heaven” (Gal. 1:8). If anyone chooses to accept that the Thessalonians actually heard promptings from those who spoke in the prophetic spirit, one must then understand it as: “as though” in the prophetic spirit, not truly in the prophetic spirit—for the genuine spirit of prophecy does not lie. St. Damascene writes: “Let no one alarm you, not even one who seems to speak by the spirit of revelation.”—Theodoret puts it more sharply: “If they present themselves as diviners and prophets, we do not bid you believe them.” And this could have happened without any particular malicious intent. Meditating on the fact that the Day of the Lord will not come with outward observation, and having resolved, in accordance with the Lord’s word, to wait for His appearing at every hour, a person might pass to the conclusion that things are in fact already as such: the Day is at hand—and then, becoming animated by this thought, might speak a word to that effect in the assembly. Such a person might seem to be speaking in the Spirit, while in fact speaking from himself. Not every inspired utterance comes from the Spirit. In order that believers might not be exposed to the danger of error on this account, the Church possessed the gift of discerning spirits.

“Neither by word,” nor “by letter.” “Word”—here, some hold, means a word of the Lord Himself, handed down by tradition, or His word as written in the Gospels (Mt. 24; Mk. 13; Lk. 21). But it is evident that by “word” here one must understand a word proceeding from the Apostle Paul, just as the letter—but words and letters falsely attributed to him, as the words “as from us” make clear. The Apostle presents his own word and letter below, in verse 15, as the sole source of divine revelation for the Thessalonians. And now, in connection with the false notions about the approaching Day of the Lord, some were saying: the Apostle himself said so; others: it is so written in his letter. Or one said: I heard it; and another: here, look—there is even a letter. The word “sent” does not appear in the Greek text; only “as from us” stands there. Which is why nearly all commentators apply this phrase not to the letter alone, but also to the “word.” Some relate it even to “spirit” as well, but this muddles and obscures the sense.

“As that… is already present”—from the Greek: as though it had already come—“the day” of the Lord, the last day, the day of the final decision of the lot of all and each. In this lies the entire error of the Thessalonians’ views. To await the Lord’s coming is always obligatory, by the commandment of the Lord Himself; but to determine the moment of His coming is not permissible, because no one except God can know it. The Thessalonians had determined it, and thereby sinned, arrogating to themselves a divine prerogative. The Apostle admonishes them, saying as it were: it is not possible to decide thus, and you must not do so, whoever may urge you to it. It is not evident that there were any malicious spreaders of falsehood; otherwise the Apostle’s word would have been both stronger and more specific. The idea could have spread as if by accident. Someone in the assembly said: the Lord is coming at any moment! Another confirmed: yes, and the Apostle seemed to say so too; a third added: yes, and so it is written in the letter—or: there is even a letter about it. And the rumor spread everywhere and threw everyone into confusion. Yet no one thought to examine the matter. The Apostle’s words about the suddenness of the Lord’s appearing seemed to justify the conclusion that it was imminent, right at the doors! Oecumenius notes that they were agitated out of ignorance and timidity.

The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

2 Thess. 2:3-5. Let no one deceive you in any way: for that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?

“Let no one”—either expresses his wish for them, or gives a warning: take heed, be on your guard—or directly commands that they listen to no one.—“Deceive.” They had already yielded to deception. Now, having corrected their way of thinking, he tells them to hold themselves firm in the right way of thinking from now on, not yielding to deception. “In any way.” By none of the means that have been shown and censured, or by any other means whatsoever. “In this way he guarded them against error from every side” (Chrysostom). With this single expression “he rejected at once all forms of delusion” (Theodoret).

“For unless…” For if “the apostasy does not come first…” What must follow from this is not stated. The reader must supply it himself, and it supplies itself: that is, if the apostasy does not come first, neither will the Day of the Lord come. Oecumenius writes: “After these words one must understand: ‘neither will the coming of the Lord occur.’” Why did the Apostle omit such words?—Not because, becoming absorbed in describing the qualities of Antichrist, he forgot; but because he judged it fitting to employ the customary figure of aposiopesis, as is evident from verse five. “Do you not remember?…” the Apostle said: if the apostasy does not come first, and the man of lawlessness, of such and such a character… And perhaps something further in this vein ought to have been added; but he cuts short the speech and says as it were: but why write so much about this? Remember what was said… And in remembering what was said, they ought to have brought to mind also the fact that, until this man of lawlessness appears, the Lord will not come. “Here he discloses to them, and through them to us, the greatest sign of the Lord’s coming” (Theodoret).

“The apostasy does not come first.” The word “apostasy,” standing alone, without explanation of what kind or from what, does not yield a definite concept. Thus the question naturally arises: what does the Apostle mean here?—The ancient commentators all hold that “the apostasy” is used here in place of “the apostate” and designates Antichrist himself. St. Chrysostom writes: “Here he speaks of Antichrist and discloses great mysteries. What is the apostasy?—He calls Antichrist himself the apostasy, for he is destined to destroy many and bring them to apostasy: ‘so as to deceive,’ as it is written, ‘if possible, even the elect’ (Mt. 24:24).” Theodoret says the same: “The Apostle called Antichrist himself the apostasy, giving him this name on account of his deeds, because he will attempt to bring everyone to apostasy from the truth.” So do all the others; only Oecumenius afterward adds conjecturally: “Or by ‘the apostasy’ he means the departure from God—the act itself (and not the person).”

Heterodox Western commentators understand here not a person but a particular phenomenon in the life of humanity—though not all the same phenomenon. Closer to the truth, of course, are those who, like Oecumenius, understand it as an apostasy from God, from faith and truth, which is mentioned in other passages of Scripture as well. Since this word is not clarified here by any additional qualifying word, its meaning must be determined from the flow of the discourse. The words that follow it—“the man of lawlessness who exalts himself above every god” and so on—suggest that the apostasy, too, will be of the same character, that is, it will take place in the religious and moral sphere. To see in this apostasy anything political—for example, a Jewish revolt or the fall of the Western Roman Empire—means to deviate from what St. Paul intended to say. The defection of the Pope with his followers from the true Church, and then of Luther and Calvin in an even deeper fall from the truth through their defection from the already-defected Papal Church, although these took place in the religious sphere, cannot be understood here, because in the Apostle’s text the apostasy is closely connected with the appearing of Antichrist—and Antichrist has not come.

The Apostle evidently speaks of that apostasy which will take place in the last days, before the Second Coming of the Lord. He mentions this in other epistles. In the first epistle to St. Timothy he writes: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). Something similar appears in him (2 Tim. 3:1); and in St. Peter (2 Pet. 3:3). St. Jude testifies that all the Apostles spoke of this alike: “Remember the words spoken beforehand by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: for they told you that in the last time there would be mockers, following their own ungodly passions. These are they who cause divisions…” (Jude 1:17-19). And the Lord Himself foretold that at the end of the age “many false prophets will arise and will deceive many; and” that “because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Mt. 24:11, 12), so that when He comes, “will He find faith on the earth?” (Lk. 18:8).

From these testimonies, a most disquieting picture of the moral and religious state of people in the last days takes shape in the mind. The Gospel will be known to all. But one part will remain in unbelief; another—and the larger part—will lapse into heresy, following not the teaching handed down by God, but constructing a faith of their own devising, though on the basis of the words of Scripture. These self-devised faiths will be without number. The Pope laid the foundation for them, Luther and Calvin continued his work; and the principle they laid down—of each individual’s personal apprehension of faith from Scripture alone—gave a powerful impetus to the invention of faiths. There are already very many of these now, and there will be still more. One faith per kingdom, then one per region, then one per city, and at the end, perhaps, one per head. Where people construct their own faith rather than receiving the one delivered by God, it cannot be otherwise. And all such will appropriate to themselves the name of Christians. There will be a portion that holds the true faith as it was delivered by the holy Apostles and is preserved in the Orthodox Church; but even among these, a considerable part will be Orthodox in name only, without in their hearts possessing that disposition which faith requires, having come to love the present age. Such is the wide domain of apostasy that is to be expected. Although the Christian name will be heard everywhere, and churches and ecclesiastical orders will be visible everywhere, all of this will be only outward appearance, while within there will be true apostasy. On this soil Antichrist will be born and will grow up in the same spirit of appearance without substance. Then, having given himself over to Satan, he will openly apostatize from the faith and, armed with Satan’s seductive machinations, will draw all those who do not hold Christianity in truth into open apostasy from Christ the Lord, compelling them to venerate himself as god. The elect will not be drawn away, but he will attempt to deceive even them, if possible. In order that this not come to pass, those evil days will be cut short. The Lord will appear and will destroy Antichrist and all his work by the manifestation of His coming.

Such, one must suppose, is the apostasy the Apostle has in mind! It is indeed an event, a fact, and not a person—but such as stands in close connection with a person, with the man of lawlessness and the son of perdition. This will be the apostasy into which the chief apostate—Antichrist—will draw people. The apostasy of people into false faiths and into unchristian dispositions of heart will prepare the soil for the emergence of Antichrist and the arena for his activity. But it is not this apostasy that is meant here, but rather that which Antichrist himself will produce. He, having appeared and grown powerful, will consummate the inner apostasy by means of that visible apostasy. This will be a manifest and resounding apostasy, the one fully worthy of such a name—which is why it stands in the Apostle’s text with the definite article. For the same reason it is perhaps not further clarified by any additional qualifying word—just as Julian was later called “the apostate” without any explanation of from what. Thus, in the Apostle’s words “unless the apostasy comes first and” the “man of lawlessness appears,” two distinct periods are not signified, but one and the same last time, in which both will come to pass together. The holy Fathers expressed this by understanding under “the apostasy” the apostate—Antichrist—who is destined to bring about the general apostasy. The Apostle Paul himself places the apostasy in dependence upon Antichrist, as is evident from verse 9 and following, and so does St. John the Theologian in the Apocalypse (Rev. 13:4) and following. The heterodox Western commentators departed from the thought of St. Paul, understanding here that preparatory apostasy.

“The man of lawlessness”—utterly lawless, steeped in lawlessness, whose very essence is lawlessness. He will be born in lawlessness, will live in lawlessness, himself committing lawlessness and spreading it in every direction, and will perish in lawlessness. He will be the full embodiment of lawlessness, and there will be nothing in him except lawlessness. Not only godlessness will mark him—though that will be the most obvious feature—but every sin. “He is called the man of lawlessness because he will commit a thousand lawless acts and will bring others to commit them” (Chrysostom). “He himself will sin greatly, and will lead many others into many sins” (Oecumenius).

Yet he will be a human being like any other, composed of soul and body, only the perfect instrument of Satan. Not Satan in the form of a man, and not an incarnation of Satan, but a man in whom Satan will dwell and act through him as his wholly obedient instrument. St. Chrysostom asks: “Who then will he be? Surely not Satan himself?” And answers: “No, but a certain man who will take into himself all his power (energy).” Oecumenius says the same: “Antichrist will not be Satan but a man, possessed and actuated by Satan (satanized). He will be some Jew, skilled in magic and the compounding of potions.”

“The son of perdition”—one destined for destruction, who has given himself over to ruin of his own free will and walks toward it with full knowledge that he will perish. We have similar phrases: a lost man, or a desperate one. Such was Judas (Jn. 17:12); such also is this beast from the abyss, who after warring against God will go to destruction (Rev. 17:8–11). The phrase “the son of perdition” can also signify extreme depravity, but in relation to Antichrist this is already stated in the words “the man of lawlessness”; here his wretched end is indicated. Yet not only will he himself perish—he will lead many others to ruin as well. He will entice them to follow his will and teaching, and thereby destroy them, as is said below (verse 12). He will take pleasure in drawing others along his ruinous path; his entire concern will be how to destroy as many people as possible. “He is called the son of perdition because he himself will perish” (Chrysostom); “he will both perish himself and plunge others into ruin” (Oecumenius); or “he will serve as the cause of their destruction” (Theodoret).

“The adversary.” It is not specified to whom or what he will be an adversary. The following words and the whole course of the discourse make this clear. From them it is evident that he will be an adversary to God and to Christ the Lord. One may say: an adversary of every truth, and especially of Christian truth, and consequently of the salvation of the human race—but this is one and the same thing. St. Chrysostom calls him αντιθεος — the adversary of God; in St. John the Theologian he is called Antichrist (1 Jn. 2:18, 22, 4:3; 2 Jn. 1:7). Αντιθεος can also mean one who sets himself in place of God, just as Antichrist can also mean one who puts himself forward in place of Christ. The subsequent words of the Apostle confirm this. He will be an adversary to God and Christ in every respect, to everything divine and Christian, in order to place himself in their stead, or to compel people to regard him as god and christ. Here are the words of St. Chrysostom: “He will be a kind of adversary of God — αντιθεος τις — he will reject all gods and command that he himself be worshipped in place of God.” Theodoret speaks at greater length: “The destroyer of men (Satan) imitates the incarnation of our God and Saviour; and just as the Lord, having taken on human nature, accomplished our salvation, so he, having chosen a man capable of receiving the full force of his power, will attempt to deceive all people through him, calling himself Christ and God, exposing the falsity of those so-called gods whom he himself had sustained throughout the ages past.”

“Who exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship.” Writing to the Corinthians, Paul used the phrase “so-called gods,” in the sense that they are called gods but are not gods. There his purpose was to set forth the truth that “there is no other God but one”—that “for us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things and we for Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through Him” (1 Cor. 8:4–6). Here the Apostle has a different aim. He wishes to show not the truth of the one God over against all false gods, but the spirit of exaltation of the anti-god and Antichrist above everything that is counted as god. Therefore “so-called god” here signifies every being that people at that time will count as god. Since at that time there will be true worshippers of the one God worshipped in Trinity, He too is comprehended under the same concept. Over all of this Antichrist will exalt himself, making it plain, of course, that every god who is worshipped is as nothing compared with him, and that he alone is to be honored as God. The Apostle may have borrowed these expressions from the prophet Daniel, who writes: “he will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods… He will pay no heed to the gods of his fathers” (he will give them no attention)… “and he will not heed any god” (he will not wish to know him), “for he will exalt himself above them all” (Dan. 11:36, 37). An “object of worship” is the object of reverent religious veneration—an object that is either worshipped as divine, or venerated for the sake of God; that is, either a deity, or a temple, sacred objects and rites, everything that falls within the order of external divine worship. In the first sense, “object of worship” is the same as “so-called god.” The Apostle speaks as if to say: “exalting himself above every so-called god,” or, which is the same, above every “object of worship.” In the second sense a new trait of exaltation is given: that the anti-god and Antichrist will count unworthy of himself every form of divine worship that he finds among people, will despise and reject it all, and will finally introduce his own new order—for he will set himself up as god, and a god without divine worship does not exist. The first meaning is more fitting here, yet the second need not be set aside; for that he will sit in the temple as god is already a part of the order of divine worship—apparently the chief, though not in all respects complete, part, by which all else will be ordered; and by which all other forms of worship will be replaced.

“So that he sits in the temple of God, as God.” “Temple” here means a building, a sanctuary. But which temple? Here are the answers of the ancient commentators. St. Chrysostom: “He will be enthroned in the temple of God—not the Jerusalem temple alone, but in churches everywhere.” Theodoret: “By the temple of God” the Apostle means the temple in which Antichrist will seize the seat of preeminence, attempting to pass himself off as god. Theophylact: “He will sit in a temple—not the Jerusalem one specifically, but simply in the churches of God and in every temple of God.” There will be some central place where Antichrist operates, and there will of course be a definite moment when he will reveal himself as such. It is the chief temple of that place that the Apostle has in mind. In that temple he will be enthroned as god; and then will seat himself in the same capacity in every other temple he personally visits. Or perhaps he will be personally enthroned in one temple, and in others will attest his enthronement by some other means. In the Apocalypse mention is made of the image of the beast. Is it not this image that will be set up in temples everywhere? It goes without saying that if he produces a widespread apostasy from Christianity, he will seize the churches along with the Christians. Since it would be unseemly for the Christian order and manner of worship to remain in them thereafter, something new will be introduced, in keeping with the spirit of the new god. And the chief place there will be occupied by whatever signifies the enthronement of Antichrist in the temple. In whatever place he personally comes, there he will be enthroned in person, as god. In every way the Apostle’s words foretell a fact, not express an idea.—It is therefore inappropriate for some to think that Antichrist’s sitting in the temple simply signifies that he will declare himself god and all will acknowledge him as such. “Showing himself that he is God.” He will surround himself with such pomp in the temple and furnish himself with such an apparatus of illusory signs, that all who have joined him will see in this display what appears to be a god—just as Herod of old, having clothed himself in royal apparel and sat in the judgment seat before the people, appeared to them as something extraordinary, so that his voice seemed not human but divine (Acts 12:21, 22). St. Chrysostom says: “He will strive to show himself as god, for he will perform great deeds and display great signs.” Oecumenius: “He will employ every kind of effort—by deeds, signs, and wonders—to show that he is god.”

“Do you not remember that while I was still with you I told you these things?” The Apostle interrupted his discourse, as has already been noted, and, without completing his thought—namely, that the Lord will not come until all this has taken place—he directs the attention of the Thessalonians to what he had personally told them, leaving them to supply the unfinished thought themselves. “I told you these things”—spoke of this, of these circumstances that are to precede the coming of the Lord. He spoke, and they forgot—and in this there is both a rebuke and a lesson to treasure the word that proceeds from lips inspired by God. They forgot, or perhaps misinterpreted it, having been thrown into confusion by the false reports that had spread, and having conflated the notions of hourly expectation of the Lord with the decisive arrival of the Day of the Lord. Thus St. Paul, in all that he mentioned concerning the manifestation of Antichrist, said nothing new. He had explained all of it in his first preaching. Consequently, the teaching about the end of the world with the circumstances preceding and following it—that is, the discourse on the Second Coming of Christ, the Judgment, Paradise, and Hell—constituted an indispensable part of the initial proclamation of the gospel and a subject that could not be deferred from the very first act of faith. Consequently, one cannot from now on treat these subjects with levity, and, while holding to other articles of faith, permit oneself to construct one’s own private views on them, bypassing the teaching handed down by the Apostles and preserved by the Church.

Let us note in passing that Antichrist is nowhere spoken of with such definiteness as here. But had the Thessalonians not fallen into perplexity, St. Paul would not have written about it at all, being content with his personal conversation with the Thessalonians and trusting that they remembered well and accurately what had been said to them. If now the Apostle’s word concerning Antichrist had reached us not in Scripture but through tradition from the Thessalonians—a word truly apostolic and God-inspired—and we held this teaching by that tradition alone; with what profoundly speculative gravity would those who do not accept traditions—the heterodox—have risen against us, reproaching us for believing in an ill-defined oral report of tradition, as they are accustomed to put it? They have already managed to contrive certain fancies from their own reasoning here. St. Paul speaks here with such definiteness, yet in other epistles makes no mention of it. Therefore, they say, the Apostle changed his manner of instruction from the first preaching and thereafter refrained from speaking about the circumstances of the Second Coming. But in fact all that follows from this is that the Apostle did not write with such definiteness again—though he alluded to it in many places—and did not write because he had explained everything in detail in the first preaching, mentioning also the possibility of deviation from the truth such as that of the Thessalonians, thereby forestalling error, and thus removing the occasion to write about it further.

What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7)

2 Thess. 2:6. And now you know what restrains him (Antichrist) “from being revealed in his own time.”

“And now”—some read it as: you know that now, at the present time, something prevents Antichrist from appearing; others read it as: now you know what restrains him. The first reading is supported by the fact that in verse 7 a similar statement is made—“he who restrains now,”—and moreover this seems plainer and clearer; the second is supported by the structure of the Greek text, which does not permit any other rendering of this passage than: “now ‘you know.’ Whichever reading one adopts, the principal meaning of the text remains the same, for the force of the passage does not depend on this. Our Slavonic and Russian translations follow the second reading: “now “you know.” Now, that is, having recalled what was said in person and bearing in mind what has been written above, “you know.” There is, as it were, a certain reticence on the part of the holy Apostle here. Having given the Thessalonians time to reflect both on what was just written and on what was explained in person, he draws from this the conclusion: and so now you know what restrains him; and from there the transition to the chief subject of this part of the epistle is easy: what restrains him is the very reason the Lord defers His appearing. By this one statement he already dispelled all their perplexity.

“That which restrains”—“that which hinders, that which impedes” (Oecumenius). “What then is this that restrains his appearance, or impedes it?” (Chrysostom). The question is not superfluous. In this expression lies the Apostle’s central thought (together with the other: the mystery of lawlessness is already at work). Yet taken alone it yields no definite concept and opens a wide field for conjecture. For us it is safest to hold to the patristic opinions. Let us cite them and draw a general conclusion from them. St. Chrysostom writes: “Some hold that by this one must understand ‘the grace of the Holy Spirit,’ and others ‘the Roman Empire.’” Theodoret, Oecumenius, and Theophylact repeat the same, though some of them also put forward other opinions. Thus Theodoret writes: “By ‘that which restrains,’ some understand the Roman Empire, and others the grace of the Spirit—that is, Antichrist will not come as long as the grace of the Spirit remains.” And further: “I hold as true what others affirm. It pleases God that Antichrist should appear at the time of the end of the world. Therefore God’s decree does not permit him to appear now. But I think this passage contains yet another meaning as well. Since the divine Apostle knew what was said by the Lord—that the Gospel must be preached to all nations, and then the end will come (Mt. 24:14)—but also saw that the worship of idols still prevailed; he said, following the teaching of the Lord, that first the power of superstition would be shattered and the saving proclamation would shine forth everywhere, and then the adversary of truth would appear.” Photius in Oecumenius: “He will appear in his own time, that is, when the time appointed for him and permitted or willed by God shall have come.” Severus in the same Oecumenius: “It is the Holy Spirit who restrains and does not allow the lawless one to appear. When He, by reason of the multiplication of evil among people, withdraws and retreats, then the lawless one will be free to reveal himself and come forward—there will be no one to hinder him.”

The conclusion from the opinions cited any reader can easily draw for himself: when the Gospel has passed through all the nations dwelling on earth and has gathered from them all who are capable of receiving it, and by that means of being sanctified and reborn by the grace of the Holy Spirit, then the present order of things will no longer have any reason to continue; the end of the world will come, or the last days, in which the Lord has ordained to come again to execute judgment upon all who dwell on the earth—to lead some into the kingdom of His glory, and to consign others to the bitter lot they have chosen. The coming of the Lord, according to the Apostle, will be preceded by the manifestation of Antichrist, in which God will permit evil to unfold in its full breadth and power, so that those who belong to it may be revealed and expose themselves. Thus, after or simultaneously with the moment when the whole of those who are God’s from the human race has come forth—when there is no longer any reason to wait for more of them—and all who are not God’s stand openly exposed, having cast off their mask; then the harvest will be ready. The Lord will send the reapers, and after that comes the end of everything. As the ripening of a harvest has its appointed time, so also these last events have their own time, appointed by God. Both good and evil are already seeded, are developing, growing. Each will ripen in its own time. Before that appointed hour this cannot be. Now, as to the question why the reapers have not appeared in the field, the plain answer is that the time has not yet come, the harvest is not yet ready; so also to the question: why are those long-expected world events not yet visible? the plain answer is: the time appointed by God for their manifestation has not yet come. But the manifestation of Antichrist also belongs to this. Therefore he too does not appear for the same reason. And this is what restrains him: the decree of God, as blessed Theodoret and blessed Photius after him said—which alone brings events onto the stage of the world or holds them back, not to please anyone, but according to its own governance of the world, incomprehensible to us.

Some of the ends of God’s governance of the world it has pleased God to reveal to us in His Word. Applying them to our subject, we can see in them as well the “that which restrains” Antichrist. The world endures in order that the power of salvation—placed by the Lord into our race as leaven in dough—may accomplish its work. The power of salvation is the Divine Word and grace, received through faith and lived out in a life of selfless zeal for pleasing God. The Word of God goes forth throughout the earth, arouses the sleeping and brings them to the sources of grace—and they, having been reborn, become workers of their own salvation to the glory of the Lord, who has ordered salvation for all. These kinds of manifestations occur everywhere—among unbelievers, among those who have gone astray, and among the right-believing—for not all who are called are chosen, just as not all fish caught in the net are fit for the table. To these who are born from above—“who were born not of blood, nor of the desire of the flesh, nor of the desire of man, but of God… is given the right to become children of God” (Jn. 1:12, 13). From these the Lord builds His spiritual kingdom. They are the material being prepared on earth for heaven by the Word of God and grace, when their free will is surrendered to it. When these powers have gathered from the earth all the suitable material and the kingdom of God is fully built up, then the salvation of the Lord will have accomplished its work, and there will no longer be any reason for the present order of things to continue. The world endures because not all those who are fit for the kingdom of Christ have yet entered it, or not enough of them have entered. “I have other sheep,” said the Lord, “that are not of this fold; them also I must bring… and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (Jn. 10:16). When this is accomplished, then comes the end; and then also the manifestation of Antichrist. From this it follows that what restrains his manifestation is the fact that the power of salvation, placed by the Lord into our race, has not yet fully accomplished its work. Its continuing action restrains him. When it ceases to act, then he too will come forward. Breaking this general principle down into its components, we obtain: what hinders Antichrist from appearing is the fact that the Gospel has not yet been heard by all and received by all, and that the grace of the Holy Spirit still remains and still has work to do in the human race.—Among the holy fathers and teachers of the Church, as we have seen, some pointed to one side, others to another side, of the power working to our salvation, as what restrains the manifestation of Antichrist. But this is the same as if each of them had indicated both sides, for they are inseparable.

Our commentators have, among other things, considered the Roman Empire to be the force restraining Antichrist. In their time, when the Roman Empire still existed, one could point to it, relying on the prophecy of Daniel. In our time some weight can be given to such a thought only in the event that by “the Roman Empire” one understands royal authority in general—and in the following manner: royal authority, having in its hands the means to restrain popular movements, and itself adhering to Christian principles, will not permit the people to deviate from those principles and will hold them in check. Since Antichrist’s chief business will be to draw all men away from Christ, he will not appear as long as royal authority is strong. It will not allow him to deploy his power; it will impede him from acting in his own spirit. This, then, is “that which restrains.” When royal authority falls, and peoples everywhere adopt self-governance (republics, democracies), then Antichrist will have room to act. It will not be difficult for Satan to prepare voices in favor of renouncing Christ, as experience showed during the French Revolution. There will be no one to pronounce a binding veto. A humble profession of faith will not even be heard. And so, when arrangements favorable to the unfolding of Antichrist’s aims are established everywhere, then Antichrist will appear. Until that time he will wait, be restrained. Such are the thoughts prompted by the words of St. Chrysostom, who in his own time represented royal authority under the form of the Roman Empire. “When,” he says, “the existence of the Roman Empire ceases (that is, royal authority), then Antichrist will come. For so long as fear of that empire (of that royal authority) exists, no one will quickly submit to Antichrist; but once it is destroyed (once that authority ceases), anarchy will set in—and he will rush to seize all power, both human and divine.”

One might reasonably object that the people themselves will guard their faith. But, as has already been said earlier, it is difficult to admit that faith would grow ever stronger and more powerful with the passage of time. The bright portrayals of Christianity’s future offered by certain writers are pleasant to encounter, yet have nothing to justify them. The gracious kingdom of Christ does indeed expand, grow, and fill out—but not on earth, visibly, but in heaven, invisibly, being composed of persons prepared for it here and there, in earthly kingdoms, by the saving power of Christ. On earth, however, the dominance of unbelief and evil is foreordained. It is visibly expanding as well; and when it has gained very great sway, things will stand on the verge of a beginning. Let but one influential person give an example, or let a powerful voice be raised, and the apostasy from the faith will begin to take place. This impulse will be given by Antichrist. From this one may conclude that what restrains Antichrist is also the fact that there is not yet the necessary readiness in people to receive him; unbelief and ungodliness have not yet gained the upper hand, and there is still much faith and goodness in the human race.

After all that has been said, the words “from being revealed in his own time” are of themselves understandable. “To be revealed” refers not to the Lord and not to the falling away, but to the man of lawlessness—Antichrist. “His own time”—not the time he himself would wish to choose, but the time appointed for him by Divine Providence. He will appear not against the will of God. In God’s plans for the governance of the world, he too has his place, as does his preparation and its consequences. Not because God desires such evil for people, but because people will bring themselves to it by their own will. God has pushed back that moment to the furthest limit of possibility, waiting to see whether anyone else might yet wish to turn to Him and serve Him. When there is no longer anyone to wait for, the Lord will withdraw His restraining hand, evil will pour forth, and Antichrist will appear. God has given freedom and does not wish to take it away, only surrounds it always with such signs that, heeding them, it may choose the good direction. But He does not compel; He waits for freedom to choose the good of its own accord. If it chooses evil, the fault is its own. This, however, does not frustrate God’s good purposes. The Lord will take all that is His and will suffer no loss on account of the defection of many. And they will receive their due: they loved destruction, and it will come upon them.

2 Thess. 2:7. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

Lawlessness, sin, had been at work in the human race since the transgression of Adam; and although it is not entirely intelligible—whether in its origin or especially in its power to deceive people—yet all have experienced it and have come to know what a great evil it is. Therefore it must be supposed that by the words “the mystery of lawlessness” the Apostle means something particular. Satan has his own depths (Rev. 2:24), his own hidden designs and plans, all in the satanic spirit. His ruinous actions are visible, but his ultimate aims are concealed. The Apostle seems to hint: what Satan has striven toward up to now has been visible, has already been revealed. But what he has now devised is not yet visible. The mystery consists in the fact that his designs have not yet come to light. Formerly he acted in one way, now he acts in another—but how?—it is not yet apparent. And he began to act differently because God too acted differently toward the human race in the Lord Jesus Christ. Before the coming of Christ, Satan had already adapted himself in his methods of leading people astray; but now, seeing how the cross of Christ presses upon him from every side, he has only begun his countermeasures. If we take into account the “mystery of godliness” of which the same Apostle speaks elsewhere, then by contrast we can trace wherein the mystery of lawlessness consists. The mystery of godliness lies in the incarnation of God: “God” “was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16)—that Jesus, called Christ, is God the Word who took upon Himself human nature. Faith in this destroys the kingdom of sin of Satan. The mystery of lawlessness, devised by Satan, will be the cunning of Satan to undermine and pervert this faith. To this end, he kept the pagans in their delusions in the face of Christianity, presenting Christ to them from the most abased side—as one crucified on the cross. In the accounts of the martyrs this was always the first objection against the faith, and the reproach leveled at believers by the pagan mind. And in those who, seeing in Christ not a mere man, turned to Him, he strove in every way to obscure and pervert the mystery of the incarnation of God the Word in Him. This he had already begun to bring about among the Judaizing Christians, the Ebionites, the Docetists. And afterward he did not stop, but in every age invented a new stratagem for the seduction of believers and the weakening or perversion of their faith in the incarnation of God. At the present time in the West there is an abyss of those who oppose Christ, and however different they may be in their particular views, they agree on one point—in disbelief in the incarnation of God the Word in Christ Jesus. This evil will grow, and when the Son of Man comes, He will scarcely find faith on earth (Lk. 18:8). Such is the mystery that will then be revealed and come openly to light! The mystery of lawlessness, of course, presupposes moral corruption, and its predominance in the last times is represented in the Apocalypse under the figure of the great harlot woman, on whose forehead is written: “mystery” (Rev. 17:5); but the moral corruption of Christians is outward, while inwardly lies disbelief in the Lord. By moral corruption they are brought to unbelief; and when unbelief has gained mastery over the heart, the flood of immorality knows no bounds. Unbelief is the hidden driving force of lawlessness, the mystery that lurks within it.

This is how the ancient commentators of our Church understand the mystery of lawlessness. Blessed Theodoret writes: “I think that the Apostle signified by this the heresies that have arisen, because through them the devil brings many to apostasy from the truth. He named them ‘the mystery of lawlessness’ because in them the snare of lawlessness is concealed. For this reason the Apostle above called the coming of Antichrist a ‘revelation.’ For what he has always been preparing in secret, he will then proclaim openly and manifestly.” St. John of Damascus says the same: “By the mystery of lawlessness the Apostle means the teachings of heretics and their false dogmas. For they precede him, preparing the way for him and preparing the time of deception. And heresies went out into the world from apostolic times. John the Evangelist says something similar: ‘As you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come’ (1 Jn. 2:18), meaning the heretics.”

“The mystery of lawlessness is already at work”—pointing to the cunning of Satan already in action, antichrists who are forerunners have already appeared. The Apostle wishes by this to suggest: the chief Antichrist too might have appeared, but there is one who restrains him. Who?—God and our Lord Jesus Christ. His incarnation has not yet accomplished its work. The saving power of His incarnation only began to act from the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit. It must be given time to penetrate everywhere and to quicken all who are capable of receiving its life-giving action. When it has accomplished its work, then that son of perdition too will be permitted to come forward. These moments are concealed in the counsels of God’s providence. It may therefore be said that these counsels of God and His decrees are what restrain the manifestation of Antichrist.

Earlier he said “that which restrains;” here he says “he who restrains;” yet he means one and the same thing, only from two sides: there—the decree of God, and here—God Himself and the Lord, who brings His decree to fulfillment. The words “is taken out of the way” do not mean: will be destroyed, will cease to exist, but will withdraw, will step off the stage, will cease His restraining activity. “Now”—not only in the time of the Apostle, but throughout all the time “while it is still called ‘Today’” (Heb. 3:13). By this the Apostle embraces all the time during which the restrainer will restrain. Oecumenius writes: “And so, when the limit of God’s decree arrives—and the decree that now restrains is seen to be fulfilled—then the lawless one will be revealed without any further hindrance.” Theophylact says the same: “When God’s decree, which now restrains the manifestation of Antichrist, is fulfilled and the appointed time for him arrives, then he will be revealed.”

The Lawless One Destroyed by the Lord (2 Thessalonians 2:8)

2 Thess. 2:8. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to nothing by the manifestation of His coming.

“And then,” when the restrainer is no more, or when he withdraws and steps off the stage, there will be revealed, will come forward, will be born and begin to act, “the lawless one”—one who wishes to know no law and acts solely at the prompting of the destroyer of the human race, in gratification of his own corrupt, evil, and proud nature; he will appear as a universal sovereign to whom all will bow down, as indicated above. The Apostle does not describe the whole course of events by which he will achieve this, though he does indicate below the methods he will employ. Here he says only in advance that however great he may appear, the Lord will but breathe—and he will be no more.

“Whom the Lord Jesus will slay,” will deprive of life, will strike dead, as a mortal man deserving every punishment. “With the breath of His mouth”—either by word, or by breath: He will speak a word, or merely breathe, and the life of that one will be cut off. According to Oecumenius, the breath of the mouth is a command and decree, and as it were a mere exhalation. Already Isaiah foresaw that “the rod from the root of Jesse… will slay the wicked with the breath of His lips” (Is. 11:1, 4). And in the Apocalypse, Christ the Lord, named the Word of God, is depicted thus: “out of His mouth” “proceeds” “a sharp sword,” evidently as a sign of the decisiveness, swiftness, and mercilessness of the righteous judgment of God and the wrath that accompanies it; as a result of which He will also cast the beast and his false prophet, who deceived many by his signs, into “the lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Rev. 19:15, 20). One may therefore conclude that in the Apostle here as well, the slaying by the breath of the mouth signifies the final determination of the lawless one’s fate by his being cast into hell.

“And will bring to nothing”—will make his place empty, will exclude him from the number of the living—the same as “will slay.” The Greek word also suggests that along with the bringing to nothing of the lawless one, the Lord will dissolve and undo his works as well. All his pomp, all his deceptive illusions, will vanish, and everyone will see the emptiness and falsity of his show. “By the manifestation of His coming”—by the act of His coming, by His coming itself, or by the manner in which it takes place. Either way, it signifies that as wax melts before the face of fire, as smoke vanishes before the wind, so before the face of the Lord coming to judgment, the lawless one and all his work will not stand—all will be scattered like dust. So majestic, so almighty, and so dreadful for the man of lawlessness and all sinners will be the coming of the Lord! Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle showed, as far as possible, the greatness of the Lord’s power. For, coming from heaven, he says, He will speak but a word and will deliver the destroyer to final destruction. This was also foretold by the prophet Isaiah; for, having said: ‘there shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse’ and described what kind of rod it is, he added: ‘and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked’ (Is. 11:1, 4).”

But it seems that in this depiction one may also see the all-purifying power of the Second Coming of the Lord “in flaming fire,” as was mentioned above (2 Thess. 1:8). Now every sin and lawlessness walks the byways of the world with head held high, commingled with virtue and righteousness, and even predominating over them. But then the righteous will be separated from the sinners, and the latter will be enclosed in one place from which there is no exit. On the stage of the world only purity, holiness, and righteousness will remain. This coming purification of all that exists is what the Apostle depicts under the figure of the bringing to nothing of the lawless one and his work by the manifestation of the Lord’s coming. The Lord will come—and as light drives out darkness, and wind disperses fog, so He will drive back and confine every unrighteousness and sin to the place appointed for them. And the all-radiant kingdom of truth and goodness will begin.

The Apostle speaks of the insignificance of the lawless one and all his illusory pomp before the majesty and power of the Lord, prior to his depiction of the cunning and dangerous stratagems of Antichrist, so as to keep hope and trust in the Lord alert and strong, and thereby to prevent the subsequent depiction of Antichrist’s stratagems from casting despondency and terror upon the Thessalonians. He urges them: the son of perdition will come—but do not fear; behold in what a Lord you believe! St. Chrysostom writes: “The lawless one will appear. What then?—Immediately after this the Apostle adds consolation, saying: ‘whom the Lord will slay.’ Just as fire, when it approaches, even before it draws near, benumbs and destroys the small creatures that are still at some distance; so too Christ, by His very appearance and coming, will slay Antichrist. It is enough that He appear, and all this will perish. Scarcely will the Lord appear, than He will put an end to the delusion.”

The Wiles of Antichrist and Whom He Deceives (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

What has been said would already be sufficient to set the Thessalonians at peace. But the Apostle saw the possibility of drawing from it a lesson and an incentive to hold firmly and sincerely to the received divine truth. He therefore continued his discourse on Antichrist, depicting his falseness and the love of falsehood of those who will join him to their own destruction. Here the following questions are resolved: how will Antichrist achieve success?—Through false signs and deception (verses 9, 10). Why will people believe him?—They will believe the lie because in themselves there is no truth and no sincere relation to it (verses 10, 11). What will come of it?—All unbelievers and the unrighteous will receive judgment, will be condemned and punished, and will go to destruction (verse 12). The conclusion from this: rejoice that you have received the truth and hold to it. This alone will deliver you from Antichrist’s stratagems, from being drawn after him, and from the ruinous consequences thereof. Under Christ the Lord you are in a safe haven. Only hold fast.

2 Thess. 2:9, 10. Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, “and” “with every deception of unrighteousness among those who are perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth so that they might be saved.”

Such will Antichrist be! He will appear in the full armament of false signs and every kind of deception—in flattering speeches, fabricated tales, in clever juxtapositions of persons and things.

“Whose coming.” The speech is not about the coming itself, but about what it will be like. “Is” stands in place of an assured future. It is a settled matter that his coming will be as it is here depicted. Thus the all-governing God has judged and willed.

“According to the working of Satan”—not his coming itself, for he will appear in the world according to the common law of human birth, but his arming with signs. He will act by the power of Satan. In the Apocalypse as well it is said that the serpent (of old) will give “him his power and” “his great” “authority” (Rev. 13:2). Satan will expend all his power upon him, for his own end is near as well.

“With all power and signs and lying wonders.” All of this is one and the same—illusory, astonishing marvels. He will imitate the Lord and the holy Apostles; only in them everything was true and in the service of truth, whereas in him everything will be illusory and false, and in the service of falsehood, so as to give it currency. In the Apocalypse certain of these marvels are indicated by way of example: “he will make fire come down from heaven before men,” he will make an image of the beast and give it breath, so that it will speak (Rev. 13:13–15), and the like. But all of that will be magical marvels and tricks. St. Chrysostom writes: “He will display great power, but in all this there will be nothing true. “With “lying wonders,” he says—either deceptive (apparent), or leading into deception. The aim of it all will be delusion; the Apostle foretold this, so that those who are to live at that time would not be deceived.” Theodoret adds: “The wonders will not be genuine; such wonders are also produced by those who deceive by sleight of hand, because they show what is not gold at all as gold, and do something else which is soon exposed.” Oecumenius is somewhat more specific: “The signs will be false either because he will show them by illusion and divert the eyes, or because through them he will lead into falsehood—he will represent things in such a way as to be able to deceive even believers.”

“And with every deception of unrighteousness.” This is another kind of his method—deceiving, drawing into deception by words and various artifices and cunning. He will set into motion every kind of seduction, both by word and deed—unrighteous seduction, putting one thing forward while another exists in fact. By his marvels he will produce enchantment, and by these blandishments will dispose people to believe the lie and to abandon the truth. “Deceit is in his hand,” according to the prophet Daniel, “and by deceit he will destroy many” (Dan. 8:25).

“Among those who are perishing.” However great and varied the efforts and methods of Antichrist in seducing and drawing people into his falsehood may be, he will have success only within the circle of those who are of one spirit with him—that is, who have fallen away from God and the Lord, who in their hearts despise His commandments and, knowing that their path leads to destruction, do not leave it, having abandoned themselves to their fate in despair. As he himself is the son of perdition, so he will succeed in drawing to himself only those who are perishing. And these perishing ones will perish not by God’s decree, but because they have loved a ruinous way of life and disposition. God employs every means to bring sinners to their senses and to convert them, and when they can no longer be reached by any means, and there is no prospect that they ever could be, He then delivers them into the hands of their own free will. And in life everyone meets people whom one can say whatever one will, and they remain as they are, as if turned to stone and petrified. In the course of their preaching, the holy Apostles everywhere encountered such people and testified through the mouth of St. Paul that “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18), and that they themselves are to some “(the perishing) a fragrance from death to death, but to others” (the saved) “a fragrance from life to life” (2 Cor. 2:15, 16). During the time of Antichrist, his folly will appear to those who are perishing as wisdom, and his ruinous stench as a sweet fragrance. The same will occur then as in cholera epidemics, which seize only those who have a predisposition toward them.

“Because they did not receive the love of the truth so that they might be saved.” This is why they are among those who are perishing! Because they did not receive the saving truth. God saw that people were perishing, having fallen into the abyss of sin and into the ruinous bonds of slavery to the passions and to their sower, the devil. For this reason He sent His Only-begotten Son to open for them a way of escape and to point it out in faith in Him and in the grace received through faith. News of this was carried everywhere by the holy Apostles. Those who received it entered the number of those who are being saved; those who did not receive it remained in destruction. Such were they in the time of the Apostles, such they have remained until now, and such they will prove to be in the last days. All this multitude the apostolic, God-enlightened mind surveys and inscribes with the title: “those who are perishing.” Before the Thessalonians stood these perishing ones, perishing because of unbelief. The Apostle speaks as if to say: it is in this domain of those who have not received our saving word that he will have success, and not among you who have believed, and those who will believe as you have. It is worthy of note that the Apostle’s words embrace not only those who did not receive Christian truth as if they had no wish to hear it; but also those who heard it, understood what it was about, and did not receive it, and even those who received it with the mind but did not come to love it in the heart; they embrace not only unbelievers—non-Christians, but also those who are Christians in name but not in heart, who are indifferent to the faith they profess and do not strive to be obedient to its demands, to become what they are called, who are indifferent to it. For he says: “they did not receive the love of the truth”—they did not come to love the truth, it is not in their hearts, though they see it. They see the truth, yet keep their hearts on the side opposed to truth. Therefore in themselves they are falsehood, and being such, they will love falsehood.

The essential saving truth is that God sent His Son into the world—the Saviour of the world. The holy fathers therefore interpret the words “they did not receive the love of the truth” as follows: they did not receive Christ the Lord. For He is both boundless love and all-perfect truth. St. Chrysostom writes: “By the love of the truth he means Christ. For Christ was both the one and the other, and He came for both—out of love for us and to reveal the true meaning of all things.” Theodoret and all the others say the same. But this is one and the same thing. For one must not only receive the Gospel, but be united with the Lord, or in such union consists the proper receiving of the Gospel truth. Only he is drawn out from the mass of those who are perishing who cleaves to the Lord Jesus Christ, becomes one spirit with Him, is grafted onto Him as the one true living Vine.

2 Thess. 2:11. And for this cause God shall send them the working of delusion, that they should believe the lie.

This is a dreadful moral punishment from God! “He shall send”—not in the sense that He will purposely dispatch something they do not desire, but rather that He will allow to reach them what they themselves have desired and sought. The evil spirit of delusion and falsehood constantly strives to seize hold of everyone, to darken all minds and drag them into the lie; but God does not permit him to do so, as long as among those who do not follow the truth there remain some who still give hope of conversion—who have not yet wholly surrendered themselves to false ways, who sometimes think of turning from the lie and taking their stand on the side of truth. He does not permit it, lest they suffer violence from that spirit in their inmost being, for he is capable of shaking even the firm, to say nothing of the weak. But when at last they entirely let go and abandon themselves to the ruinous path they have chosen, when they align themselves with it and unite their hearts to it, and cease even to think of departing from it—then God will withdraw His restraining hand from the evil spirit of delusion, and he, now let through, will rush upon them, enter into their hearts, and there begin to work the working of delusion, to draw them to the lie—and will draw them. They will receive the lie with their whole heart, and will then manifest it outwardly, visibly joining themselves to Antichrist. But by this, only what was hidden within will be brought to the surface. St. Chrysostom asks: “Why, you say, will God permit all this to happen?—Fear not, beloved, but hear what the Apostle says: (Antichrist) will have power only over those who are perishing—who, even had he not come, would not have believed.” Theodoret adds: “And the words ‘God shall send them the working of delusion’ are spoken by the Apostle in the sense of ‘He will permit delusion to appear, so that lovers of wickedness may be revealed. For God will not send this delusion, but will destroy it with the breath of His mouth.’” Oecumenius: “He shall send”—do not take this to mean that God Himself sends it, but such is the Apostle’s customary way of expressing God’s permission. Theophylact: “He shall send”—stands for ‘He will permit him to come.’ See—first they rejected the truth; and then God abandoned them, and the lie took possession of them.

2 Thess. 2:12. That they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

“That they might be judged”—they will be justly brought to condemnation. God will permit it—their evil moral and religious disposition will be laid bare, and they will ripen for judgment. Falsehood is self-incriminating; and those who follow the lie condemn themselves. They will be without excuse at the judgment, precisely because they believed in a manifestly ruinous lie and refused to believe in a manifestly saving truth.—“All who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” From the Greek—“all” of these, the unbelievers and others who did not receive the truth of the Gospel into their hearts with living faith, who did not order their lives, their feelings, and their inclinations according to its demands—but who, on the contrary, lay with their hearts set on unrighteousness: who found pleasure in every form of unrighteousness, in crooked thinking and crooked morals, who took delight in dwelling and sinking ever deeper into these iniquities.

The clearest proof against them will be that they will have believed in Antichrist. St. Chrysostom writes: “The mouths of those condemned to perdition will be stopped. How?—They would not have believed in Christ even had Antichrist not come; but he will come for the express purpose of exposing them. For, that they might not then say: because Christ (who appeared visibly as a man) called Himself God, for that very reason we did not believe in Him—since we had heard that God is one, from whom are all things, and therefore we did not believe—Antichrist will remove this their excuse. For when he comes, and notwithstanding that he commands nothing righteous but only lawlessness, they believe in him solely on account of his false wonders—then their mouths will be stopped. For if you do not believe in Christ, you ought far less to believe in Antichrist. The former said He was sent by the Father, whereas this latter will say something altogether different. For this reason Christ Himself says: ‘I came in My Father’s name, and you receive Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive’ (Jn. 5:43). But we, they will say, saw signs?—Many great miracles were also wrought by Christ; therefore one ought rather to have believed in Him. Moreover, much was foretold concerning Antichrist: that he is a lawless one, that he is the son of perdition, that his coming (with pomp) is by the working of Satan; whereas of Christ, on the contrary—that He is the Saviour and will bring innumerable blessings.”—The same thought is found in Theodoret, Oecumenius, and Theophylact.

The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14)

Above (verses 11–12) the lot of those who do not believe the truth of the Gospel and take pleasure in unrighteousness was described: because they do not believe, they will be given over to the spirit of the lie, will be led by it to worship Antichrist, and will then be condemned to eternal torment. To the believing Thessalonians, however—and through them to all Christians—a different lot has been appointed. They are beloved of God, chosen and called to salvation and to eternal glory with the Lord. The Apostle, as it were, conveys: “You have nothing to fear. Your future is so bright and full of joy that we can only give thanks to God for it.” St. John of Damascus and blessed Theophylact place this section, verses 13–17, in such a connection with what precedes it. St. John of Damascus: “Having set forth what concerns the unbelieving Jews, and having shown what their end will be (saying: ‘that they might be judged’), he now sets forth what concerns those who have believed.” Theophylact: “Since he has said something terrible that might trouble a weak soul, he now reassures the heart, teaching that all this is terrible for others—for the perishing, for whom it has been appointed. But for you we must give thanks to God—because He chose you and foreordained you to salvation, foreseeing that you would be worthy.” The order of thoughts in the Apostle is as follows: first, a testimony and assurance that the Thessalonians have a bright future laid up for them by God in their election and calling, verses 13–14; then, the indispensable condition for attaining it is named—fidelity to the faith, verse 15. But since God’s promises alone are immutable, while the condition of fidelity, depending on the unstable human will, cannot be considered necessarily fulfilled, the Apostle adds a prayer for the strengthening of believers both in sound teaching and in the good works that Christian faith requires, verses 16–17. In brief, the Apostle’s thought is this: you, however, have nothing to fear. You have been chosen for salvation and glory; only stand firm. And may the Lord help you!

2 Thess. 2:13. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth.

“We…”—that is, St. Paul together with his fellow workers—“are bound to give thanks.” They feel themselves obliged to give thanks to God for the bright present condition of the Thessalonians and for the still brighter future awaiting them—out of love for the Thessalonians, counting their good as their own, and out of devotion to the duty of apostleship, the success of which is visible in their conversion and faith. Instead of saying: things will go well for you, he says: we are bound to give thanks to God. We ourselves often express things this way when we wish to speak of our own or another’s well-being: there is no reason for grief—give thanks to God, or: we give thanks…

“Brethren beloved of the Lord.”

He begins the description of the good promises and hopes by pointing to the love that warms them on every side—both his own, as he calls them brethren, and the Lord’s, as he reminds them that they are beloved of the Lord. This is a sweet title; but sweet not for the pleasantness of the sound, but for the substance of the thing itself. The Lord testified His love toward them by choosing and calling them to faith and gracious sanctification. But once they had believed and been sanctified by grace, their hearts began to feel the warm breath of this love. Such are all true Christians. They are encompassed in the arms of the Lord’s love, as plants in a greenhouse. It nourishes them, causes them to grow, strengthens them, brings them to perfection.

“Because God has chosen you from the beginning.” He gives thanks for the primordial election. For “from the beginning” here is the same as in other passages—“from the ages” (Eph. 3:9, 11): “from the ages and from the generations” (Col. 1:26), or “before the ages” (1 Cor. 2:7), “before the times of the ages” (2 Tim. 1:9). He offers a similar thanksgiving to God in the Epistle to the Ephesians: “according as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4). See to what heights he lifts the minds of the believing Thessalonians! And he speaks as if to say: there was as yet nothing; only the one triune God existed, and this all-blessed God was already at that time thinking of you, had you in His regard and was disposed toward you, willing to choose you and to make you His own. He chose you, of course, “according to foreknowledge” (Rom. 8:28), knowing that you would prove worthy (Theophylact); but the very fact that you proved worthy is itself the work of His goodness (Oecumenius). If you have been so honoured by God and surrounded by such care of His, what cause have you for distress? “Has chosen… to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief” (from the Greek: ‘in belief’) “in the truth.” For those others—unbelievers—there is destruction; but for you salvation has been laid up, and to it you have been chosen. This salvation will be revealed in all its power in eternity, as will their destruction, yet its beginning is laid and its attainment is accomplished here below. The initiators, producers, and completers of salvation are the grace of the Holy Spirit and faith. Hearing the preaching of the truth, they believe; having believed, they are accounted worthy of the grace of the Holy Spirit through the reception of the sacraments; and, renewed by this grace, they begin to work out their salvation, remaining faithful to the holy will of God. This saving order is already the vestibule of eternal salvation, or its beginning; for death changes nothing in it. In the eyes of God, and in the faith of believers—this is already eternal salvation.

Some express the whole thought thus: from the beginning God chose you to salvation, appointing at that same time to sanctify you through the Spirit and to grant you belief in the truth. The fulfilment of this divine predetermination they see in the words of the following verse: “to which He called”—that is, to sanctification through the Spirit and to faith, which are indeed in you, as you can see: for you both believe and are sanctified by the Spirit, and this is the testimony of your primordial election. But St. Chrysostom, without this circular movement of thought, writes: “How did He choose to salvation?—The Apostle explained this when he said: ‘through sanctification of the Spirit’—that is, He sanctified you through the Spirit and through true faith—He sanctified you through the Spirit, for upon this our salvation depends, not upon works or labours, but upon true faith.” The same is said by Oecumenius: “He chose you to salvation, and chose you through sanctification by His Holy Spirit and through true faith.”

There are two agents of our salvation: grace and faith—one from God’s side, the other from ours. First we believe, then we are accounted worthy of the grace of the Holy Spirit; yet even faith itself is not without grace. That the Apostle places sanctification by the Spirit before faith does not alter either the order or the significance of the saving acts. In the work of salvation, grace and freedom are inseparable. From the moment when salvation is begun, and throughout all the time it is being accomplished, to the very end, they are not parted for a single instant—and this is true both in the general accomplishment of salvation and in each particular act that pertains to salvation; so that the moment either of these agents ceases to work, the work of salvation itself comes to a halt. Our minds are not subtle enough to define precisely which of them precedes and which follows at any given moment. The safest course of all is to hold in general that in those who are being saved, grace and freedom always work together: neither can freedom accomplish anything salvific without grace, nor can grace work to salvation without freedom.

Our ancient commentators had in view, in the present passage as well, to indicate what is ours and what is from God in the work of salvation. Thus blessed Theophylact writes: “By the words through sanctification of the Spirit, the Apostle showed that God saved us by sanctifying us through the Spirit. Then, lest anyone say: What then? did we contribute nothing?—he added: and in belief of the truth—that is, He sanctified us who brought faith in the truth, that is, in true things. For we did not believe in some falsehood, but in truth itself.” Oecumenius says the same of faith: “We contributed only this one thing, and He sanctified us through the Spirit.” So it is at the beginning of salvation, so also in its continuation. St. Chrysostom asks: “Why did he speak first not of faith, but of sanctification?” And answers: “Because even after sanctification we have great need of it, lest we fall away.” Theophylact answers the same. But this does not mean that they considered faith itself to be present in us without the action of grace. In the words already cited, the thought is already implied, though not stated, that faith itself is the fruit of the all-sanctifying Spirit. But Oecumenius expressed it explicitly: “For this reason he first said: through sanctification of the Spirit—to show that we would not even have believed, had the grace of the Spirit not been sanctifying us.” So, is there then nothing from us?—From us there is the desire and the earnest seeking, while the work is always from grace. The desire for faith, the assent to it, the choosing of it—these are ours; but living faith itself is the work of grace.

2 Thess. 2:14. To which He called you through our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“To which”—to what, toward what, He called. To what, then? Some say: to salvation; others: to sanctification and faith. But this is one and the same thing, for salvation is inseparable from its agents. Where there is gracious sanctification and faith, there is salvation.—“He called you through our gospel.” God called you through us. We spoke the word to you; but in this you must see nothing merely human. God brought us to you, God gave us the word, and He imparted such power to that word that, hearing it, you received it and agreed to answer the call. “Do you see,” St. Chrysostom asks, “how the Apostle lets them know that nothing depends on them, but all on God?” “Lest, upon hearing of faith,” Theophylact writes, “they should grow proud, as though they themselves had contributed something, he gives them to understand that this too is from God. ‘To which He called.’ To what?—That they might be saved through sanctification and faith, so that even if you did believe, this is the grace of Him who called. For if He had not called you through our gospel, how would you have heard?” “For the obtaining of the glory.” The beginning of the saving path is the calling; the middle—the working out of salvation through the action of sanctifying grace and faith; the end—the obtaining of eternal glory. In the first epistle he said that God appointed us for “the obtaining of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:9); here he says: He called us “for the obtaining of glory.” When we obtain glory, it will be fully revealed that we are saved and what is the power of that salvation. Glory and salvation are inseparable. Yet here this glory is hidden within, like a treasure in earthen vessels, while there it will shine forth outwardly as well. For this reason the Apostle says elsewhere of himself that he undergoes all labours and afflictions in the gospel with the good desire that those who have believed may attain “salvation” in the Lord “with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10). The obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is the obtaining of that glory with which He Himself is glorified, sitting at the right hand of God the Father. Thus He Himself assures us: “Where I am, there also shall My servant be” (Jn. 12:26). And for this very thing He prayed to the Father in His last prayer: “that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me” (Jn. 17:24). It should be noted that in our Slavonic translation the words “for the obtaining of glory”, and in the Russian: “for the attainment of glory”, contain precisely the thought that the saved are called to a share in the Lord’s glory. But the Greek word περιποιησις means not receiving but furnishing—and not so much for oneself as for another; not so much obtaining as bestowing. Therefore all our ancient commentators, following St. Chrysostom, understand this passage to mean not that believers will receive glory, but that through believers the Lord will be glorified—that is, believers are called through the gospel to the glory of the Lord, for the glorification of the Lord. With this the most ancient Syriac translation also agrees, in which the thought is: “That you may be an adornment to the Lord—that is, that through you the Lord may be glorified.” Such are the words of the holy Fathers! St. Chrysostom writes: “One cannot regard it as a small thing if Christ considers our salvation to be His own glory. For the glory of the Lover of mankind is that as many as possible should be saved. Great therefore is our Lord, if He desires our salvation to such a degree. Great also is the Holy Spirit, who accomplishes our sanctification.” Oecumenius: “The glory of Christ is that many shall be saved through faith in Him, as he also said above: ‘He shall be glorified in His saints’ (2 Thess. 1:10). See how highly man is esteemed, when Christ counts our salvation as His own glory.” Theophylact speaks in the words of St. Chrysostom and adds: “Who would not love such a Lord? And who would not be zealous for His glory—that is, for his own salvation?” Theodoret only alluded to the future glorification of believers, and at once invited them to glorify the Lord: “This will be in due time (that is, the obtaining of glory), but let us now glorify the Giver of good things, because He has accounted us worthy of salvation and bestowed upon us the Holy Spirit, so that all glorify Him on our behalf.”

Those who accept this ancient interpretation must bear in mind that in that case one ought to understand here not only that the Lord is glorified through the salvation of believers, but that believers must count it their duty to glorify the Lord and to do everything so that His name may be glorified in them, and not blasphemed—as the Apostle also enjoins elsewhere: “You are bought with a price. Glorify God therefore in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20). This last reminder is very fitting for us, who are called to salvation not by a special act of preaching, but by the very fact of our birth; because we often forget what a great mercy of God is thereby shown to us, and not only do we not glorify the Lord, but we do not even honour our own faith as we ought.

Stand Fast and Hold the Traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:15–17)

2 Thess. 2:15. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word, or by our epistle.

“Therefore”—having such a calling, namely the glorification of the Lord or the obtaining of the Lord’s glory, being armed with such mighty means as faith and the all-sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit, being covered by such divine benevolence as is expressed in your primordial election to salvation—“stand fast…” Thus does a commander speak to soldiers who are armed and arrayed against the foe, pointing to the crowns of reward before them. And in the Apostle too one sees the thought: there is something worth standing firm for. You are among those being saved—in contrast to those who are perishing. See to what rank you have been placed by the Lord who loves you. Stand firm, then, or you will lose everything. “It is necessary for you, who have been accounted worthy of such blessings, to be steadfast” (St. John of Damascus). God chose you from the ages, brought you to faith, bestowed grace. Do therefore, on your part, the effort to stand unwaveringly in the order of the new life that has been established among you. The personal effort to stand firm is an indispensable condition of salvation. It is the chief driving force of the Christian life. Everything else is means! Should this effort cease, life itself will stop. The words “hold the traditions” explain wherein one must stand: one must strictly hold, guard, and keep everything that was delivered to them by the Apostles. Be not only hearers, but also doers. You have heard and received; perform it then, so that all may see that you are not Christian in name only, but in very deed—true Christians.

“Tradition…” in our ordinary speech means a saying, or a custom, or a belief passed down from ancestors to descendants from time immemorial. As such, it borders on an indefinite report, subject to deliberation and criticism. In the word of God, in the mouth of the Apostle Paul, it signifies the handing down of divine teaching, and is taken from the practice of teachers who deliver (παραδιδουν) lessons in classrooms, and when they go to class say that they are going εις την παραδοσιν — to give a lesson. Thus “tradition” here is equivalent to Divine Revelation of the New Testament, and encompasses everything that has been brought into humanity in fulfilment of the Lord’s commandment: “Go and teach” (Mt. 28:19). Blessed Theodoret writes on this passage: “Let that which has been delivered to you by us be your rule of teaching—what we preached to you when we were with you, and what we wrote when we had left you.”

“Word or epistle” are means of delivering the divine Christian faith. And a writing is the same kind of tradition as a word. But in Church usage, Tradition came subsequently to be called exclusively the teaching delivered orally by the Apostles and preserved by the Church. This was required by the course of Church life. When the apostolic writings became generally known and were gathered into a single body, all drew that portion of Divine Revelation which was contained in them from those writings. Meanwhile, much was believed and practised in Christian communities that is not in those writings. To the question: whence, then, does this come? the answer was: thus the holy Apostles taught orally and personally established and instituted; or: thus it was delivered by the Apostles; or simply: it is tradition. And in this way, what was not written of the apostolic teaching, or Divine Revelation, came to be called Tradition, while what was contained in the apostolic writings was called Scripture. Both were held in equal reverence; both were equally prized. St. Chrysostom writes on the present text: It is clear from this that the Apostles did not deliver everything to believers through their letters, but communicated much also without writing; and yet both are equally trustworthy. Therefore we must acknowledge the authority of Church tradition as well. ‘There is a tradition—seek nothing further.’ So spoke the teachers of the Church who came before St. Chrysostom, and those who came after him.

Much of what was orally delivered by the Apostles and personally established by them was later committed to writing by their successors, the pastors of the Church; while much remained unrecorded even by them, and was preserved in hearts, in practice, in the ordering of Christian life. Some things were intentionally not committed to writing—such as, for example, the manner of celebrating the sacraments, as Cyril of Jerusalem notes, in order to conceal them from unbelievers, who are unworthy either to hear or to read of them until they believe. From this it is evident of itself how groundless it is for those of other confessions to reject Church teachings and ordinances not mentioned in Scripture. Nor is their objection of any value, that they fear receiving something non-apostolic, and therefore reject everything not contained in Scripture. Gold-miners collect not only what is obviously gold, but often earth and sand in large quantities, for fear of missing even a grain of gold that may not be visible. So it was that such people also ought to have acted. Much, certainly, was introduced after the Apostles; but on the basis of apostolic tradition and in the same spirit. And within this common mass the directly apostolic is hidden. Is the apostolic dear?—It is dear to everyone. So one ought to hold everything that the Church holds, out of serious concern not to trample on the apostolic while fearing to receive the non-apostolic. To trample on the apostolic is already a ruinous thing; whereas to receive with respect what is not directly apostolic, but accords in all things with the apostolic and is permeated by its spirit, can cause no harm. The only legitimate concern is not to receive anything contrary to the apostolic. But this the Church herself guards against, having as her permanent law the rejection of every tradition which, appearing under the name of apostolic, would be contrary to apostolic teaching.

In planting Christianity on earth, the Apostles did not deliver a theory but established a way of life. Coming to any given place, they delivered to the people the Christian teaching, sound understanding of all things, gave commandments as to which virtues ought to adorn the heart, established the ordering of outward life and determined Christian conduct—before believers and unbelievers alike—prescribed how God is to be worshipped in common assembly and privately at home, how to celebrate the sacraments, how to maintain the teaching received; they appointed persons to oversee all this and to carry out certain duties, consecrated them, and then departed to another place. The Christian life in its full scope began at once. So it was in the second place, and in the third, and everywhere; so did one Apostle, so did another, so did all. And in every corner of the earth wherever the beautiful feet of the evangelists reached, the Christian ordering of moral and religious life was established—of family, ecclesial, and civic life—all in one spirit and according to one plan, drawn up not on earth but outlined in heaven, like the plan of the tabernacle. From this it follows that as the Church came forth from apostolic hands and appeared before the whole world, such she is by the will and determination of God Himself, and such she must remain in order to accomplish the salvation of perishing humanity. And so we see everywhere, from the earliest times, in the Church of God, laypeople and ordained ministers—deacons, priests, bishops—upon whom lay the duty to preach the word, to sanctify through the sacraments that bestow grace, and to guide in life; we see the seven established sacraments and the orders of prayer and divine worship: vespers, matins, and the Liturgy; we see that for Christians not all days were equal, but some were set apart exclusively for prayer and the satisfaction of religious needs, and that meat-eating was not continuous, but there were days—and many of them—on which strict abstinence was appointed, and this not for a time only, but for all times; we see that among Christians in all the particular Churches there were special zealots who, having abandoned everything and renounced everything, devoted themselves exclusively to prayer and contemplation of God, with strict abstinence and mortification of the flesh, in the sure confidence that by this path they would more swiftly root out the passions, attain purity, and be accounted worthy of perceptible communion with God—promised to all Christians—through the power and action of the all-sanctifying grace by which they were guided along this arduous path. Such, in general, is the ordering of Christian life from its earliest times. Whatever was added afterwards was added to this same order not as a new institution, but as an expansion or better adaptation to place and time of what the Apostles had established. That all Christians should fast in common at a certain appointed time is an apostolic law. From the Apostles the fasts on Wednesday and Friday were undoubtedly established, and the fast in commemoration of the Lord’s Passion. On this basis all other fasts were subsequently instituted in the Church, and all the rules of fasting. That there should be strict ascetics, the Apostles ordained, and their general rule is even written in Scripture (in the Epistle to the Corinthians); and from this grew all the monastic orders. To assemble together for prayer and to praise God and lift prayer to Him with one mouth is an apostolic institution. In their time also some hymns of the Church were introduced, and perhaps some were given by them. But from this beginning the whole varied hymnography of the Church developed. So it is with everything. The whole ordering of Christian life, in its general outlines, comes from the Apostles. Nothing has been added to this general ordering since then; only the particulars have developed more broadly and variously. But within this there are hidden also the apostolic particulars themselves. And all of this—both what has been applied over time and what was delivered by the Apostles—is preserved by our holy Orthodox Church. All of it is precious to us in the Church. And all careful and reverent Christians strictly keep the prayerful and sanctifying orders that characterize our ecclesial life, seeing in this the necessary support of the inner moral and religious Christian life.

2 Thess. 2:16, 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, “comfort” “your hearts and establish you in every good word and deed.”

The Apostle said that the believing Thessalonians were chosen for salvation, as their faith and grace clearly testify. Then, lest they think that after this they themselves have nothing more to do, he added: “stand fast and hold…” That has been granted you from God’s goodness; now the effort is yours. Faith and grace have been given for salvation, but the salvation itself you must still work out, armed with faith and grace. If you do not strive to be firm in faith and in life according to faith, you will fall away from grace and lose your salvation. Finally, lest they again turn aside to wrong thinking—as though they could continue and bring to completion what God had begun in them by their own unaided efforts and labours—he adds a prayer for their establishment in faith and in a good life, thereby teaching them too to ask God’s help for everything they undertake and do as Christians with a view to salvation. The efforts are ours, but the success of those efforts is from God. God sees the efforts and grants help. Help is proper for one who is striving but unable to do the work as it should be done—not for one who lies in carelessness and makes no effort to move so much as a single limb. St. Chrysostom says: “Again, following the exhortation, comes a prayer.” Theophylact adds: “As if to say: I said, stand fast; but all is from God.”

In his prayer the Apostle first calls to mind the mercies of God, as is done in all our liturgical prayers—for one who prays must always quicken within himself the hope of receiving what he asks, which is accomplished by calling to remembrance the mercies of God. The subject of the prayer is the very same thing he enjoined just before. He said: “stand fast and hold the traditions.” Now he says, as it were: May the Lord help you in this, establishing you in every good word and deed—in right doctrine and in a virtuous life.

“Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father…” He begins with the Lord the Saviour, the incarnate Son of God, and ascends to God the Father. For such indeed is the path of our ascent—we who have fallen away—to God the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Mediator between God and men, the intermediary who restored the union of men with God. From the Lord all things come to us. He is in us, and we in Him. But in Him and with Him, God the Father is also present, seen, and felt. So it is in fact, so it is in word. St. Chrysostom, in the circumstances of his own flock, draws another application here, which we too cannot fail to keep in mind: “Where now,” he says, “are those who belittle the Son because He is named after the Father (in the conferring of) baptismal grace? For here, on the contrary, the Apostle first says: ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’, and only then: ‘God and Father’”—“not teaching,” Theodoret adds, “that the Son is greater than the Father, but showing their equal honour by the change of order. He here refutes the blasphemy of Arius and Eunomius, and makes it clearly known that the order of the names does not indicate a difference of dignity.” Let us add to this that, having mentioned two persons of the Godhead—God the Son and God the Father (God the Holy Spirit having been spoken of earlier, in the words: “through sanctification of the Spirit”)—the Apostle addresses Them as one God, saying: “who has loved, has given, may He comfort” and “establish.” When mentioning two, or all three, persons of the Godhead, the Apostles in their consciousness did not divide or triple the one God, thereby teaching us also always and in everything to contemplate, inseparably yet without confusion, in the one God three hypostases, and to believe that the grace which saves us is the grace of the one God, worshipped in Trinity, working inseparably yet without confusion in believers—since the work of each person’s salvation is accomplished “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit,” “through sprinkling of the blood” “of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2).

To quicken the hope of receiving what is asked, the Apostle first sets forth God’s love toward us—the source of all God’s mercies, unceasingly pouring out upon us blessings of every kind: “who has loved us”—and then the munificence already shown to us in deed: “has given.” What has God already given?—“Everlasting consolation and good hope.” But “everlasting” refers the mind beyond the bounds of time, and “hope” is the expectation of what is to come. On what then can one ground the assurance, within the heart, that even though this gift belongs to the future, it is as certain as though it were already possessed in very fact?—On the grace of the Holy Spirit, received and held by all believers from the time of baptism: “through grace.” In giving grace, God gave both everlasting consolation and good hope. Grace is the pledge, or earnest, of receiving also what is to come (2 Cor. 1:22). In the grace received there is a guarantee of the certain reception of everlasting consolation and good hope. Just as elsewhere, pointing to the fact that God did not spare His own Son for our salvation, the Apostle exclaimed: “how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32), so here too, pointing to the grace already received, he means to instill that after this, all that is promised we must understand as already actually possessed.

“Everlasting consolation and good hope” stand in the following relationship to each other: the grace of the Holy Spirit, having descended into the heart, fills it with consolation and joy, for the fruit of the Spirit is joy and peace (Gal. 5:22). This gladness of heart, occurring within time, is not itself from temporal things but from the divine realm, which is beyond time; moreover, having begun, it is destined not to end, but to continue throughout all the ages and all eternity; and finally, having been born and unfolding ever more fully, it points ahead in the future to goods “which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor. 2:9). Thus from “everlasting consolation” there develops, as its fruit, “good hope”—which is either a consoling hope, acting on the heart well, pleasantly, and sweetly, or a hope of consoling goods that gladden the soul. From the consolation already received, hope is born which in turn heightens the consolation. This mutual action makes them inseparable. Our ancient commentators also understand them as expressing one thing—the hope of eternal goods. Theodoret paraphrases these words thus: “Having given hope of future goods.” Oecumenius and Theophylact ask: “What is everlasting consolation?” And both give one answer: “The hope of future goods, which the Apostle therefore calls good.” And that the Apostle sets this before us here precisely in order to quicken hope of receiving what he desires in this prayer, is pointed out by St. Chrysostom, who says: “You see how through prayer he endeavours to encourage their hearts, presenting to them pledges and tokens of God’s unspeakable providence toward them.”

“May He comfort your hearts and establish.” Having recalled God’s mercies toward all believers (for he says: who has loved “us”—and, consequently, given likewise “to us,” that is, to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in general), the holy Apostle prays that God would make the Thessalonians partakers of these same gifts. What exactly does he ask?—“May He comfort your hearts and establish” them—your hearts, or you, as some supply. Comfort is needed for those who grieve, and establishment for those who are weak and may waver. Both were needed by the Thessalonians. As those who had been subjected to persecutions and oppressions, they grieved; and as those newly begun, they might not yet be firm in Christianity. The Apostle prays that God would comfort them as those who grieve, and establish them as those who are not yet firm. He desires establishment “in word and in good deed.” He desires establishment in word, so that when they speak they may speak in a Christian manner—and for this, that they may have Christian understanding of all things, or may know and firmly hold all Christian teaching; consequently, establishment in word will be the same as establishment in right faith, in right doctrine, in its true understanding and unshakeable maintenance. He desires establishment in “good deed”, so that they may do only good, and whatever good they do, may do it in a Christian manner—with Christian feelings and dispositions; he desires, that is, firmness for them in Christian conduct and in the Christian disposition of heart. “What is said,” St. Chrysostom observes, “pertains both to the doctrines of the faith and to the rules of conduct.” Theodoret writes something similar: “May He establish you in the faith, so that you may shine forth in good word and in deeds worthy of the word.” “By deed,” says Oecumenius, “the Apostle here signifies life, and by word—right doctrine.” Theophylact then paraphrases the whole passage thus: “May He establish you in right doctrine and in good deeds.”

The desire for consolation is linked by the Apostle with the desire for establishment in faith and in life according to faith—not by chance, but because the first is impossible without the second. He who is not firm in faith and is disordered in life must not expect consolation in sorrowful circumstances. Consolation flows from the testimony of conscience that you are right before God, and that if you suffer, you suffer without cause. For those who suffer without cause, God is always a rampart, consolation, and deliverance. Our ancient commentators devote more attention to this side of the matter. Oecumenius writes: “To be firm and steadfast in every good word and deed is for Christians a true consolation before the receiving of future goods. And what can compare with the consolation afforded by the testimony of conscience that we are pleasing Christ through our life and conduct?” Theophylact likewise holds that the Apostle desires for the Thessalonians establishment in right doctrine and virtuous life in order that they, finding consolation therein, may not waver or fall under the weight of their sorrowful circumstances. “One who is established (in faith and life), whatever he may suffer, bears it manfully and does not waver, for the preservation of right doctrine assures him of obtaining future goods, while a good life gladdens him with the thought that he suffers not as an evildoer but as a servant of God.” Both borrowed this thought from St. Chrysostom, who writes: “In this consists consolation—that we remain unshaken. For he who is not shaken bears with great patience whatever he may have to endure; whereas he whose mind wavers is unable to accomplish any good and noble act, because, like any weakened person, the soul wavers when it has no conviction that it is attaining a good end.”

Part Three—Corrective of Morals (2 Thessalonians 3)

Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

The corrective address of St Paul begins at verse 6. The preceding words, from verse 1 to verse 5, form a preface to it. And yet in both form and content they resemble more a conclusion to the entire Epistle. For “Finally”—with which this section opens, meaning “at last,” “in the end of everything,” as if to say: there remains only one more thing to tell you—points directly to a closing address. The thoughts expressed here: pray for me—I hope you will carry out my instructions—may the Lord direct your hearts—are appropriate only to a conclusion, so much so that if verses 16–18 followed immediately after, no break or disturbance of the order of the discourse would be apparent. It is evident that the strict lesson concerning the correction of the fault that had crept in among the Thessalonians was inserted here, as it were, by chance. And yet it is equally evident that it was necessary, and that St Paul could not pass it over. Why, then, was it arranged this way? One cannot suppose that the Apostle, having already reached the end of the Epistle, remembered that he ought to give such a lesson and appended it as an afterthought. On the contrary, one should rather conclude that St Paul acted so deliberately. From the very beginning he had intended to give them corrective instruction; but in order to soften the impression of a rebuke—always somewhat unpleasant—he arranged his discourse so that it would seem as though he were touching on the matter almost by accident. The rebuke, moreover, did not apply to all, and to state it sharply was not fitting; it was better to place it as a passing remark. And so the Apostle began his address as though hastening to finish the Epistle, and immediately inserted his lesson. Thus what appears to be the conclusion of the Epistle became the preface to its final corrective part. And yet, in these few words of verses 1–5, the Apostle found room for such admonitions as prepared the way for the gracious reception of the reproof and gave promise of success in amendment. This is how St Chrysostom understands all of this, when he says: “Since he intended afterwards to proceed to rebuke them, he first softens their hearts—both by saying: I am confident of your obedience, and by asking their prayers for himself—and again by praying himself for the bestowal upon them of countless blessings.”

a) Concluding: petition, hopes, and benedictions (2 Thess. 3:1–5)

2 Thess. 3:1, 2. Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified, even as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men; for not all have faith.

He asks them to pray for him. “He requests an equal return, as it were” (Damascus). “Previously he had prayed for them, that they might be established in faith. Now he turns to them with a request, asking that they pray for him” (Chrysostom). “At the same time he both encourages and inspires them, counting them worthy to pray for their teacher” (Oecumenius), or presenting them as possessing such boldness before God that their prayer can advance the success of their teacher’s own preaching (Theophylact).

He asks them to pray for him, yet not about anything temporal, but about the success of the word—the proclamation of which he regarded as the task of his life, a work dearer to him than life itself. The Apostle’s love for the Gospel and his zeal for its spread extended to the point of self-forgetfulness. For this purpose he had from the first given himself over to death, and so reckoned himself as one appointed to die (1 Cor. 4:9). There was therefore no need to concern himself with anything required for life’s sake, or with life itself—only let the word prosper. “He asks for nothing that is properly his own, but all that belongs to God” (Theophylact); he asks not to be spared from dangers, for to this he has consecrated himself, “to this end he is appointed,” as it is written in the First Epistle (1 Thess. 3:3), but “that the word” of God “may run” (Chrysostom), “that the preaching of the Gospel may run its course and be received by all with faith” (Oecumenius).

“The word of the Lord”—“the word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13), that which the Lord Himself imparted to the Apostles, commanding them to teach it to all nations—the same as the Gospel: you are under the wrath of God because of your forefathers’ transgression and your own sins; behold, we bring you glad tidings of joy: the Son of God died for us and turned away from us the wrath of God. Believe, and you shall be received into the mercy of God and His grace for the doing of what is pleasing to Him.

“May run”—spread freely and swiftly, meeting no obstacle, hindered and stopped by nothing (2 Tim. 2:9). As some great and majestic river flows in a broad stream, so may the preaching of the Gospel flow through the lips of the Apostles and water all the earth.

“Be glorified”—may it manifest its glorious and beneficial effects upon minds, hearts, and morals, and may it be honoured as something great, wondrous, and divine—first by you, and then through you by all. An unearthly glory accompanied the word of God everywhere, “the Lord working with them, and confirming the word through the signs that followed” (Mk. 16:20). But this is outward glory. More glorious still was it when those who believed the word received grace and were renewed. Since in this lies the purpose of the word, and the path to it is faith, in asking their prayers for the glory of the word the Apostle asks them to pray that all hearts would be opened to receive the word “in faith,” and thereby attract the wondrous overshadowings of grace. This is the true glory of the word—less brilliant to outward appearance, but rich in its working. Those who were granted this experience themselves marvelled, saying: see what the word has wrought in me! And others, marvelling too, would say: look at what the word has made of them!

“Even as it is with you”—“as it ran with you and was believed,” says he (Oecumenius); “that all might yield to it just as you have” (Theophylact). This is St Paul’s own testimony that among the Thessalonians his preaching spread rapidly, drew many, and produced glorious effects—so that he was glorified both by the Thessalonians themselves and by outsiders who observed their faith. Here is a commendation of the Thessalonians (Chrysostom) for their swift conversion and attachment to the faith. What high praise! Recalling how quickly and readily faith had taken root among them, and how, on the contrary, it was encountering many contradictions in Corinth, he lingers with delight on the former, longing to be freed from the latter. He speaks as it were: you are better than the Corinthians; God grant that the Corinthians and those round about, and indeed all everywhere, were as you are. Every reader can see how fitting this commendation is in the context of the Apostle’s purpose to dispose the disorderly to amendment. The thought is plain: so glorious are you—do not then allow those who are disorderly to remain among you, dishonouring the whole community by their unruly conduct.

“And that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men.” “There appear to be (in connection with verse 1) two petitions here; but they form one; for when the wicked are overcome, then the word of preaching will also run unhindered” (Theodoret). So that the word of God might spread in Corinth and round about, the Apostle wishes to be delivered from the enemies of that word in general, who hinder its progress. He calls them “wicked” and “evil.” The word rendered “wicked” comes from the Greek ατοπων, meaning out of place—and as applied to persons, one who does not know how to conduct himself according to the circumstances of time, place, and persons: absurd, senseless. Here it may carry the sense of a stubborn troublemaker who, heeding no argument, merely contradicts and at times clamours without ceasing, producing confusion and preventing others from taking in the force of the word. “Evil” is from πονηρων, which implies craftiness and malicious intent. These may be those who said less but acted more, laying snares and placing obstacles in the way of the Apostle’s activity at every turn. St Chrysostom understands here the gainsayers and opponents: The Apostle speaks here of those who contradicted his preaching, rose up and were hostile to the articles of faith, of men who spoke against and acted against his preaching, such as Hymenaeus and Alexander the coppersmith. “For greatly,” he says, “do they withstand” “our words” (2 Tim. 4:15).

Some wished to define more precisely who these persons were, relying on the words that follow: “for not all have faith.” But since faith can carry more than one meaning, they diverged in their opinions. “Not all have faith” can be understood as: not all have the Christian faith—indicating those who do not believe at all. Or: not all have right faith—indicating those who, though they have accepted Christian teaching, do not hold it rightly but distort it with their own speculations. Or: not all have genuine faith—indicating those who, though they believe rightly, do not live according to faith; their faith is weak and lacks the vigour to order their morals according to its spirit. From this it follows that the persons of whom St Paul speaks may be understood as either unbelievers, or holders of false and corrupt beliefs, or those who bear merely the name of believers (perhaps the indifferent). Persons of the first sort may be taken as fanatical Jews, who, rising up against the Gospel everywhere themselves, not infrequently stirred up the Gentiles to do the same. Persons of the second sort may be taken as Judaizers, who, accepting the Gospel, were unwilling to depart from the Old Testament Law; or those who, accepting the apostolic preaching, refused to accept its chief article concerning the divinity of Jesus Christ the Son of God made flesh—such as the Ebionites; or those who attempted to mix their prior errors with Christian truth, like Simon Magus. These two sorts of wicked and evil men had already made themselves known by the time the Epistle was written. They could have appeared, or seemed to appear, in Corinth as well, and St Paul may have had them in mind. But whether he specifically had them in mind cannot be affirmed with any certainty, since there is not even the smallest indication of this. It is therefore safer to hold to the view of St Chrysostom and other ancient commentators, that the Apostle has in view simply the gainsayers and opponents in general, such as he had already encountered in Thessalonica and such as were openly rising against him in Corinth (Acts 18:12 and following). Persons of the third sort are unsuitable here, because they could easily have been dealt with either by a word of admonition or by the strictness of judgment—as was subsequently done in Corinth with the incestuous man, and as the Apostle here threatens to do if those who “do nothing but go about as busybodies” refuse to obey his command (2 Thess. 3:11).

“For not all have faith.” The thought is not that faith is not for all, not intended for all—as though God did not will all to believe, having appointed some to unbelief and perdition. For the Lord is the Light that enlightens every man who comes into the world (Jn. 1:9); which is why, sending the Apostles to preach, He commanded them to enlighten all nations with faith “of all nations” (Mt. 28:19). The Apostle simply meant to say that not all believe. Not all believe because not all wish to believe. And why any person desires or does not desire something is not always possible to understand and explain, for the heart of man is deep. But with regard to faith in Christ one may say without error: they do not wish to believe because they have no care for the salvation of their soul. They have no care for salvation, and will not hear the word concerning that salvation. Their interests are elsewhere, their cast of mind and character is otherwise; and the word that cuts across this cast and demands their transformation is unwelcome to them. That they have become so disposed has its cause, of course, in their past life and present circumstances. But each man always forms himself, and always retains the power to conduct his affairs as he judges best. However much he is corrupted by the universal Fall and by his own personal evil deeds, there always remains in him a sound capacity—to bow before the evident force of truth. And the evidence of the divine truth of the Gospel was everywhere presented by the Apostles with irresistible and palpable clarity. Unbelievers are therefore without excuse. Certainly there is much that is incomprehensible in the fact that when the preaching is one and the same, and the persons preaching are the same, and the heavenly testimonies accompanying it are the same—yet of the multitude who hear, some believe, others do not believe, and others actively oppose and resist. But there is nothing fatalistic or unconditionally predetermined here; the cause of everything is human free choice. In the word of God we do indeed encounter expressions that suggest there are some who are destined for perdition and unbelief—who are accordingly called “those who are perishing”—and others who are appointed to faith and salvation, as those “ordained to eternal life” (Acts 13:48), who are called “those who are being saved.” But in the same word of God it is also explained that this comes to pass “according to the foreknowledge” of God (1 Pet. 1:2) and “according to foreknowledge” (Rom. 8:28). God foreknows whither a man will incline, and so determines that it shall be. And He does this not passively, but arranges all things to lead the man to choose the good path; and when nothing avails, He leaves him to the hands of his own free will. All this is known to God from eternity and is decreed; and it is decreed because one has loved perdition and another salvation. God gave man freedom and does not violate its rights. We have a certain tendency to attribute much to fatalistic decrees and to resolve many things thereby for ourselves. But in reality everything is built by the free choice of man and by the strictest laws of divine righteousness and goodness. Thus in the present case, at the words “not all have faith,” one might say: not all are fit for faith, not all are capable and worthy of it—in the same way that of soldiers not all are admitted to serve in the royal palace, but only the capable and trustworthy, as Oecumenius and Theophylact say, following St Chrysostom. But the true truth is one: faith is not theirs because they did not wish to believe. This the same commentators express in many other places; and in the present place blessed Theodoret says: “To call—this is God’s work; to obey—this is ours. So also the Lord said in the sacred Gospel: ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and’ ‘drink’ (Jn. 7:37); and: ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me’ (Lk. 9:23); for He does not compel by necessity, but seeks the free will.”

2 Thess. 3:3. But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.

In the midst of the opposition he was encountering in Corinth, it was so heartening and consoling to recall the swift and willing reception of the Gospel by so many in Thessalonica. But since all things on earth are changeable, and Christianity is ever threatened by dangers from the ancient enemy of every truth, the Apostle desires that the good state of the Thessalonians in faith should not merely continue, but grow ever stronger and stronger, without yielding to evil—he desires and trusts that it will be so, by reason of his unshakeable confidence in God’s faithfulness to His promises, and that it will come not from the Thessalonians’ own efforts and resources, but from God, who chose and called them. In the first verses the Apostle expressed the thought: you are better than the Corinthians—going on to affirm that they served as a pattern to all Achaia (1 Thess. 1:7). Now he says: God grant that you will be the same hereafter.

“The Lord is faithful”—but had He promised? He promised by the very fact of calling them. The act of calling signifies that the Lord turns all His gracious promises toward them. He promised to be with believers “to the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20), and sent the Comforter Spirit, that He might abide with them forever (Jn. 14:16), and said in general that those who remain faithful to Him no one shall snatch out of His hand (Jn. 10:28). St Paul ever abided in the confidence that He who “has begun” “will also complete” (Phil. 1:6). This, of course, is not unconditional—it is understood: if you do not cease to give yourselves up to Him, if you always seek His help, if you remain faithful to His holy will. This condition the holy Apostle expresses plainly in the following, fourth verse. St Chrysostom writes: “In praying for them, St Paul sets forth also the ground of confidence in the success of his prayer—namely, that promises have been given—and says: ‘the Lord is faithful’: for since He has chosen you for salvation, He will not lie, nor will He allow you to perish utterly.”

“Who will establish you”—in what, he does not say. But this can be taken as self-evident without elaboration. In that which is the whole concern of the Apostle: that they, having believed and been renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit, might live as those renewed. “He will establish you, as we have prayed, so that you will not be shaken” (Theophylact). And the Apostle had prayed that the Lord would establish them “in every good word and work” (2 Thess. 2:17). So the Apostle trusts that the Lord will heal the natural instability of their will in what is good, will sustain in them the moral energy already awakened, and will fan the flame of zeal for pleasing God—in which their whole life consists—into an undying fire.

“And guard you from the evil one”—either from every evil in words, deeds, thoughts, and feelings, or from the devil, who teaches every evil and incites the unwary to it. The latter is more direct—as in the Lord’s Prayer: “deliver us from the evil one” (Mt. 6:13)—from which the Apostle likely took these very words. It is from the devil that believers renounce at Baptism, and from that moment they enter into combat with him. And without ceasing he assails them all—himself, and through evil men. “He will guard”—this does not mean that the arrows of the evil one will not touch you, but that He will give you the strength to repel them and will bring you to the point where they are as nothing to you. How is this? By kindling the energy of the spirit, the fire of zeal for a perfect Christian life. This fire scorches the demons and renders the zealous one untouchable. In it the power of God is concealed—terrible to the evil one. Therefore one may say: He will guard by establishing. He will establish you, and you will be like a rock, unharmed by the waves. Oecumenius writes: “Since He has chosen you for salvation, as was said above, He is confident that He will truly establish you who are being shaken, and will guard you, that Satan may have no power against you.” St Damascus says: “That for which he had asked them to pray for himself, that same thing he now prays for them. He had asked them to pray that he might be delivered from evil men, enemies of the faith; and this same thing he now intercedes for them, that they may be guarded from the evil one.”

Confidence in the Lord; the Apostle’s Wish (2 Thessalonians 3:4–5)

2 Thess. 3:4. And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you both do and will do the things which we command.

What is of God in the work of salvation will, without question, always be accomplished by Him in you—yet on one condition: that you yourselves also always do His holy will, communicated to you through us. “As if to say: God is faithful, and will certainly complete what He began in you—the work of salvation—but only if you also act” (Theophylact). As I am confident that God will do His part, so I trust that you will do yours. But even this trust is grounded in the Lord, who is always everywhere ready to be the all-worker of salvation, as soon as He finds hearts opened to Him in faith and devotion to Him. What remains as if unspoken is: I earnestly beseech you, therefore, to fulfil faithfully all that we have commanded you. And your salvation will then be subject to no doubt whatsoever. The Lord saves the one who seeks and strives, not the careless and negligent. “Lest they should think that everything will come to them from God, who called and chose them for salvation, and thereby become negligent and careless, he also requires their own activity. As if he had said: God is true, who chose you for salvation. But deeds on your part are also necessary” (Oecumenius).

“We have confidence in the Lord concerning you.” The Greek text also admits the rendering: we trust concerning you in the Lord; but the meaning is one and the same. Theophylact writes: “In the Lord,” that is, we trust in God’s love for mankind, that He will fill you with strength—in order to show them that everything depends on God. And again he did not simply say: in the Lord; but: “concerning you, that you do” and the rest—lest they, referring everything to God, should become idle. All must be committed to God, but in such a way that one also acts oneself.

“The things which we command you”—we refer not only to the present instructions, but embrace all the commandments, ordinances, and regulations that proceed from the Apostles, the entire will of God, whatever we may have said to you. To be resolved to act precisely in this way constitutes conversion; and on this resolution stands Baptism itself, before the administration of which one is asked: “Do you renounce Satan and all his works?” and: “Do you unite yourself to Christ?”—meaning, readiness to fulfil His every will.

“Both do and will do.” “There is no need,” he says, “to exhort you at length. You have already shown your obedience in deed. And you are not content with what has already been done, but are ready to add yet further deeds after this” (Damascus). It is not merely: you already do the commandment, and whatever else we may command, you will do; rather, the Apostle sees in them an obedience that is ready, while they live, to fulfil faithfully whatever may be commanded. For from the beginning they resolved to obey the will of God—which alone the Apostles had ever proclaimed to them. “He was not content to say ‘you do,’ but added ‘you will do,’ showing that we ought to be zealous for virtue to our last breath” (Theophylact). He sets forth here their perfect obedience in order to dispose them to the fulfilment of what he was about to command immediately after—laying the groundwork for the corrective lesson. “He said this to encourage them, so that, learning what opinion the Apostle holds of them, they might confirm it by deed” (Theodoret).

We consider it not superfluous to cite in full the extended exposition of the thoughts hidden in this text, as given by St Chrysostom. “See how the Apostle, in order not to bring them to inactivity—and so that they themselves, supposing that everything depends on God, should not give themselves over to slumber—also requires cooperation on their part, saying to them: ‘we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you both do and will do the things which we command.’ He speaks as it were: True, God is faithful, and having promised to save you, He will without fail save you—but He will save you as He promised. And how did He promise? If we ourselves wish it, if we obey Him, if we also do not remain inactive like trees and stones—not unconditionally. The Apostle rightly used also this expression: we trust in the Lord, that is, we trust in His love for mankind. Again he brings them low in their pride, showing that everything depends on God. For had he said, we trust in you, that would have contained great praise for them—but he would not have shown that they place all things in dependence on God. On the other hand, had he said: we trust in the Lord that He will preserve you—and had not added the expression ‘concerning you’ and the other: ‘that you both do and will do the things which we command,’—then, placing all hope solely on the power of God, he would have made them more given to idleness. For though in all things we must rely on God, yet we ourselves must also be active; we must resolve upon labours and struggles. Here the Apostle also shows that our virtue must attain the proper degree and perfection and abide with us to our last breath.”

2 Thess. 3:5. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

What he hoped for the Thessalonians from the Lord, and what he expected of them in the Lord, he now entreats the Lord to grant. He hoped that the Lord would keep them steadfast in faith and virtue and firm against the evil one—and prays that endurance may be given them; he expected of the Thessalonians in the Lord that, as they had been fulfilling and would continue to fulfil every will of God revealed to them through the Apostles—and prays that love may be given them, in which lies the fulfilment of the Law and the durability of endurance itself; he prays also that their hearts be directed towards both—not merely outwardly correct and steadfast, but inwardly so, in the very depths of the soul. Thus hope does not remove the necessity of prayer; rather, it is hope itself that gives birth to prayer, keeps it warm, and makes it untiring.

“Direct”—from the Greek, lead straight: “make you to walk straight toward true love, without straying to the byways” (Theodoret). “Direct your hearts.” How?—By the working of grace in the depths of the soul. And yet it is evident that grace does not produce everything, but only guides. The journey itself is made by the soul, seeking and striving—though always with the help of God’s grace. Theodoret writes on this passage: We need both—a good intention and help from above. The prophet too prays to obtain this help: “Make my steps firm in Your paths, that my feet be not moved” (Ps. 16:5).

“Into the love of God”—into love for God and for all that is divine, or into the embrace of God’s love, from which shall be kindled love both for Him and for every person and for every good thing—or into divine, great, pure, and heavenly love. The forms of expression differ; the substance is one. But why is the journey toward this love assumed to be long and subject to the danger of deviation? Because love does not all at once take up its dwelling in the heart, on account of the passions and passionate attractions and sympathies that remain in it. The seed of love is sown in the soil of the heart at the moment of conversion, but it grows strong and ripens as the heart is cleansed of the passions. The labour of cleansing the heart is crowned with love in its fullness. It is in the course of this inner labour upon oneself that deviations from the right path to love are possible—and do occur. “Many things turn one aside from the right path of love: love of money, vainglory, sorrows, temptations. These and many other things prevent us from walking straight to the love of God and from loving Him as we ought” (Theophylact). St Chrysostom expounds this at greater length, saying: “There are many objects that turn us away from love, and many paths that forcibly drag us thence. First, the vice of covetousness—as though seizing our soul with its, so to speak, shameless hands, and holding it fast, it drags it and draws it away from there even against our will. Then vainglory and sorrows turn us aside from love, and often also temptations. We therefore need the help of God as a kind of wind, so that our sail, as if by a strong gust, may be moved toward the love of God. In consequence, do not tell me that you love God even more than yourself. These are mere words: prove it to me by deeds, that you truly love Him more than yourself. Love Him more than money, and then I will believe that you love Him more than yourself. For how can one who does not account money as nothing for God’s sake deny himself? If you do not turn away from covetousness—which you ought to do even without God’s command—how will you turn away from yourself?”

“And into the patience of Christ”—either endurance for Christ’s sake, or endurance after the pattern of Christ who suffered for us—such as Christ Himself showed when He took on suffering and death for our salvation—or the patient waiting for the Second Coming of Christ, when He will reward those who endure with glory and blessedness: an expectation that, after love, alone sustains endurance. In endurance, when it is genuine, all these qualities are combined. The Apostle combined them all in one expression, calling endurance the endurance of Christ. He prays for only two moral powers—love and endurance. Love is the innermost motive force of Christian life; endurance is likewise an interior force, but one that guards that life from without. Endurance is sustained by hope, but receives its indestructible strength from love. Whoever does not love will hardly long maintain endurance. And whoever does not endure—his love is hardly firm. “The Apostle’s prayer,” says St Damascus, “touches upon matters of great import—namely, to love God and to endure sorrows with patience for Christ’s sake; that with love there may be joined endurance, or rather, that love may be crowned with endurance. For as soon as we love but fail to show endurance, love itself is dissolved.” Theophylact writes the same: “The words ‘into the patience of Christ’—understand them either thus: that we may endure as He endured; or thus: that we may await Christ with patience and not despair, but firmly believe that He will fulfil what He has promised. He joined endurance with love because to love God is precisely to endure all things for His sake, without murmuring, with a good heart.” Both borrowed their thoughts from St Chrysostom, who explains this at greater length.

With this the holy Apostle concludes what was his ostensibly closing address—in which, however, he found room for such benedictions and expressions of hope that the untroubled reception of the reprimand that followed could not be in doubt. By all this he “showed fatherly care for them; since he intended to reprove certain among them, he first anointed their hearts, that they might not doubt that his admonition proceeded from great love” (Theophylact).

Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9)

The failing rebuked here had already been corrected by St Paul in the First Epistle (1 Thess. 4:11, 5:14). But there it was briefer and more lenient, whereas here it is more strict and more extensive. Evidently this deep-seated vice was common among the Thessalonians before their conversion and was not regarded as a sin; hence they were slow to correct it. But it was conspicuous and stood out in such a way that St Paul noticed it during his first stay in Thessalonica and gave the necessary commandments and instructions at the time (1 Thess. 4:11; 2 Thess. 3:10). In confirmation of those instructions he issued a charge in the First Epistle. Since they were falling into the same pattern again, here, in the Second Epistle, he devotes an entire section of ten verses to the rebuke, setting forth the grounds for the inadmissibility of the conduct rebuked, giving a strict commandment against it, and appointing a penalty for those who disobey—should there be any. The train of thought runs as follows: following my example, verses 7–9, and remembering the commandment I gave in person, believers ought to conduct themselves soberly and live by their own labours, verse 10. But certain of you act otherwise—they do nothing, only going about to and fro, verse 11. I command them to amend, so that by labouring they may eat their own bread. As for those who will not obey this word of mine—report them to me; in the meantime, have no fellowship with them, verse 14—not with feelings of hostility, but with a view to their amendment, verse 15. The Apostle’s evident desire is to cut off quickly the spread of the evil, or to hasten the amendment that has begun. To this end he prescribes with particular insistence that those who are orderly in this regard should break off fellowship with those who are not. By this two benefits were achieved: the orderly were delivered from the contagion and were more firmly established in orderliness, while the disorderly were put to shame and, over and above other incentives to labour, received a new and tangible one—namely, that because of their idleness everyone shunned them and made them as outcasts in the midst of the community. Regarding this measure as so powerful, St Paul insists upon it especially—mentioning it both at the opening of his address, verse 6, and at the close, verse 14—and elevates it to an inviolable law, pronounced in the name of the Lord Himself.

There is no indication anywhere that this idleness—this idle and parasitic way of life—manifested itself in such force among the Thessalonian Christians as a result of the false conviction that the Day of the Lord had arrived. If this love of leisure bore any relation to the expectation of the Lord’s coming, the Apostle would have marked it by some detail. But he gives no such indication whatsoever. It is rather to be supposed that this was a general vice of pagan life. In crowded cities a noisy, merry, idle, and dissolute life meets the eye everywhere. Such it remains among us today. Were the Apostle to appear in any of our great cities, he would see there what he saw among the Thessalonians, and he would say to us what he said to them: they do nothing, only bustle about, run from one end to the other, chase after pleasures and make merry. Christians are not to live this way. They ought to conduct themselves soberly, stay at home, engage in work, so as to have the consolation of eating their own bread. A pleasure-seeking, leisure-loving life is so contrary to the spirit of Christianity. And so the Apostle wishes to wean Christians from it, that not a trace of them might remain on these paths of pagan life.

2 Thess. 3:6. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks in a disorderly manner and not according to the tradition they received from us.

Here the Apostle sets out a general law for the maintenance of Christian good conduct; to the particular case of which he will speak below there is only a light hint here. The Apostles, in preaching the Gospel, established from the very beginning new Christian ways of life among the faithful—how they were to comport themselves in the family, in society, in the Church—and from the Lord’s authority gave an unalterable law: whoever does not live in this way, withdraw from him. By this a silent judgment was enacted and those at fault were cut off from the Christian community, for when others withdrew from them, they naturally became the excommunicated. From this it follows that, according to the intentions of the Lord and the holy Apostles, Christian communities—all of them, in their full composition—are to be strict keepers of the commandments and blameless in their morals, and that the maintenance of such purity is the affair of the whole community, as a law of self-preservation.

“Now we command you.” He had previously said: we trust that you, whatever we command, both do and will do. Now he says: “we command you”—here is what. This is a direct reference to what preceded. Consequently, that was said with this in view: he now makes an application of that hope, or indicates an occasion to vindicate it.

“In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The name stands in place of the person. “In the name”—the same as: by Christ the Lord Himself, or from the Lord’s own person, by His authority given to us for the ordering of His kingdom on earth. As if to say: “It is not we who say this, but Christ” (Chrysostom). “He enacts this law through us” (Theodoret). “For what I say, He says” (Theophylact). The Apostle speaks thus “either in this sense: let Christ be witness that we have given you such a commandment, or in this sense: the word I speak is not mine, but His” (Oecumenius). In any case, the commandment given is the direct will of God—an inviolable law that cannot be evaded or subtly reinterpreted. “By speaking in this manner, the Apostle shows with what fear this commandment is to be regarded” (Chrysostom). At the same time there is a clear intimation that departure from this commandment would cast a shadow upon the Gospel itself—and as it were upon the Lord Himself. Hence the sternness, that outsiders should not be able to say: see what they are taught, see what their faith is, see who their Christ is.

“To withdraw”—“to separate” (Theodoret), “to stand apart, to keep away” (Oecumenius), “to turn away” (Chrysostom). Further on he says: “do not associate”; yet in such a way that the disorderly brother is not to be treated as an enemy, but admonished as a brother by such a manner of relating to him (2 Thess. 3:14). It is evident that this is something more than a mere withdrawal from sharing in his activities or way of life. Even this much could convey the message: we do not walk your road and we do not advise you to, which could act as a sobering influence on the disorderly person. Seeing that participation does not encourage him while non-participation rebukes his conduct, the brother might come to his senses and reform. The Apostle says something more—namely, that in withdrawing from the disorderly brother one should exclude him from fellowship, so that he might see himself cut off from the Christian community. In this lies the whole force of the corrective measure established by the Lord through the Apostles; we shall cite below a lengthy passage from St. Chrysostom on this subject.

“Every brother”—that is, every Christian, and insofar as he is a Christian. In the Epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle likewise commands not to associate with various persons of disorderly conduct, but only with those who belong to the Christian community, that is, to the brethren. For, he says, if the rule were to keep away from all such people in the world, one would have to leave the world altogether (1 Cor. 5:10).

“Walking in a disorderly manner”—“that is, one who lives” (Chrysostom); “one who lives without any order, not according to the laws of God” (Oecumenius). Judging by the kind of disorder spoken of below, those who “walk in a disorderly manner” here are understood to be idlers who do nothing, who avoid useful labour and spend their life only in merriment and amusement. This is how all our God-wise commentators understand it. Yet nothing prevents us from understanding by such persons all violators of the order of Christian life in general—all those who live contrary to the traditions received from the Apostles. The Apostles everywhere established new moral-religious, domestic, and civil orders of life, and demanded their fulfillment without exception. Those who violated these ordinances deviated from the order, proving themselves disorderly, walking in a disorderly manner. To withdraw from all such persons and thereby exclude them from fellowship—this was the universal apostolic law, of which the Apostle makes mention in many epistles. Writing to the Romans, for example, he commands to avoid everyone “who causes divisions” (Rom. 16:17); and in the Epistle to the Corinthians he enumerates all such persons, saying: “But now I have written to you not to associate, if anyone who is called a brother is a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—with such a one not even to eat” (1 Cor. 5:11). How beneficial was such a law then, and how one could wish it had remained in force in our own times—on this subject St. Chrysostom writes at length: “The Apostle desires that we should withdraw from every brother who walks in a disorderly manner. To be excluded from the whole fellowship of the brethren was counted a great calamity in those days. Therefore the Apostle subjects everyone to this punishment. So in another place, namely in the Epistle to the Corinthians, he said: ‘with such a one not even to eat’ (1 Cor. 5:11). But now the greater part of people regard this as nothing of importance, and everything has melted together and fallen into confusion: we enter into fellowship indiscriminately, as occasion offers, with adulterers, fornicators, and the covetous. If it was necessary to keep away from one who, through idleness alone, needed the support of others, how much more from the rest. And that you may learn what fear the exclusion from fellowship with the brethren inspired, and what benefit it brought to those who received such punishment with a good spirit—hear how that man who had boasted of his sin, who had descended to the last degree of depravity, who had committed a fornication not even named among the Gentiles, who had remained insensible to his wound (for this is the extreme of corruption)—how this very man, so vicious as he was, was so humbled and subdued that Paul afterward said of him: ‘Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many… therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him’ (2 Cor. 2:6, 8). For such a man at that time was as a member cut off from the rest of the body. The reason why this inspired such fear then was that it was counted a great blessing to be in the society of believers. For at that time in each Church they lived as people dwelling in one house, who are subject to one father and share in one table. Therefore this misfortune meant for each person removal from so great a love. But now this does not seem of any importance, because we do not count it of any importance even to be in mutual fellowship. What formerly was reckoned among punishments, now, through the cooling of love, happens among you not as a punishment—we withdraw from one another out of indifference. For the cause of all evils is the absence of love in us; it has destroyed and abolished all that was great and glorious in the Church, all that for which one should rejoice.”

It must be noted that in the words “not according to the tradition which they received from us”, tradition, as is evident, signifies not doctrine but the orders of life established by the Apostles, and it encompasses all such orders. These orders were received by the Christian communities and were preserved inviolably, under the title of an immutable law. From the immediate recipients of these orders—directly from the Apostles—they passed unchanged to their successors. Such as the Church came out of the apostolic age, such she was shaped by the holy Apostles themselves. Teaching was given by word and confirmed, where necessary, by writing. Orders were established in practice, by direct arrangements, though they were sometimes also mentioned in epistles. In the present passage, the tradition is understood as something actual, introduced into life by deed. Theodoret writes: “The tradition here is understood not by words, but by deeds.” Other commentators understand by tradition here also the example of the Apostle, for through this his injunction concerning a life of diligence more readily entered into the life of Christians and acquired greater force. “By tradition,” says St. Chrysostom, “the Apostle calls what they saw in his conduct.” Oecumenius thus: “The tradition which I delivered to you by my deeds, having been an example for you.” “For this properly is tradition,” Theophylact adds.—It is therefore in vain that the wisdom of non-Orthodox Christians takes an unfavorable view of this patristic interpretation.

Having stated the general law, the Apostle now turns to its application among the Thessalonians. He might have said directly: to withdraw from those walking in a disorderly manner is an inescapable law; you have the disorderly among you, so withdraw from them. But the Apostle first clarifies the culpability of these disorderly persons (vv. 7–10); then he specifically identifies the fault of the disorderly persons being reproved (v. 11); after that he urges them to reform (v. 12). And only then, if they will not listen, does he command withdrawal from them (2 Thess. 3:13, 14).

The Apostle established the culpability of the disorderly by the force of the motives they had for living in order. These motives were present for them in the example of the Apostle himself—in how he lived and acted while he was among them (vv. 7–9)—and in the direct commandment given to them (v. 10). The motives drawn from the Apostles’ example are set forth thus: you ought to imitate us; but we, while living among you, were not disorderly and did not sponge on anyone, but passed day and night in labour and toil. You likewise ought to act in this way.

2 Thess. 3:7–9. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, for we were not disorderly among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but in labour and toil, working night and day, so that we might not be a burden to any of you. Not because we do not have the right, but in order to make ourselves an example for you to imitate.

“You yourselves know.” A pupil naturally inclines to imitate his teacher, and children their parents. This remains always in their consciousness. And the Thessalonians, as disciples of the Apostle and as children born through his preaching of the gospel, could not but feel drawn to imitate him. But the Apostle speaks of imitation not as a matter of the heart alone, but as a morally obligatory duty. Not to the Thessalonians only, but to others as well he urged: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). The Apostles were the mirror of Christianity. By word they interpreted it, and by their life they displayed it in practice. To imitate them is for the believer the same kind of duty as being faithful to the faith in all things. Even in ordinary life it happens that whoever first establishes a certain order, everyone imitates that person; and such imitation passes from generation to generation.

“How you ought to imitate us.” How pure was the apostolic conscience! How blamelessly they conducted themselves in everything, in full accordance with the demands of the Christian spirit! Living openly, before the eyes of all, they could say: live thus! They were confident that so many eyes could detect nothing reprehensible in them; and this was because they saw themselves as pure also before the eyes of God, for they never consciously and willfully inclined toward anything of which conscience bore witness that it was contrary to the will of God. This mutual confidence gave them the boldness to speak in this way. They were wholly offered to God and to God’s purposes, and they spoke thus, moved by the Spirit, as men wholly consecrated to God in all things. St. Chrysostom writes: “The thought that he can, by appealing to his own righteous deeds, give exhortation to his disciples—this gives the teacher great boldness. Therefore Paul also said: ‘you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us.’ For the teacher ought to instruct more by his life than by his word. Let no one think that the Apostle said this out of a desire to praise himself immoderately, for necessity compelled him to say it, and moreover for the sake of the common good.”

Then, from the whole sum of his deeds worthy of imitation, the Apostle draws attention only to those which, by their very contrast with the disorderly conduct of some Thessalonians, sternly reproved their failure. “We were not disorderly,” he says, “nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it.” He denies in himself the reprehensible characteristics of those being rebuked. Therefore those persons were disorderly and ate bread without paying for it. And this ought not to have been, just as it was not the case with the Apostles. “We were not disorderly”—in Greek, ουκ ητακτησαμεν — we did not live without discipline. Consequently those being rebuked lived without discipline, without regard for time, place, or persons—or, they lived in disorder (for ταξις means order), that is, not according to the ordering of life that their calling obliged them to, for example as husbands and heads of household—they lived carelessly, in idleness, wandering aimlessly through the squares and markets, given over to public amusements, strolling, and a merry life. “By disorderliness the Apostle here means being without labour and work, as above. For God ordained that man should live in labour and equipped him with limbs fit for that purpose; so that one who remains idle steps outside the order of God” (Theophylact).

“Nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it”—we ate bread for nothing from no one, although “if we had eaten at someone’s table, it would not have been for nothing: ‘for the worker is worthy of his wages’ (Matt. 10:10)” (Chrysostom). Consequently those being rebuked ate bread without paying for it—they were spongers, living at others’ expense. Perhaps they even caroused, going from house to house to eat and drink, thereby draining one another or those among their circle who had some means. Having the strength to work and thereby earn their own keep, they were not ashamed to wheedle their way into others’ households by every sort of pretense and consume their resources.

“But in labour and toil, working night and day.” We did not eat bread for nothing, but “working”—that is, obtaining it by the labour of our hands. No outsider maintained us freely; we fed ourselves by our own toil. “Having brought the gospel to you, we took nothing from anyone, but night and day we laboured to thereby obtain what was necessary for sustenance” (Theodoret). “Night and day”—the sense is not that we did nothing but work, for there was a need also to eat, to sleep, to preach in the synagogue and from house to house. The Apostle wishes to say: neither by day nor by night did anyone see us idle. All our time, beyond satisfying the natural needs of the body, was given—apart from preaching—to labour. And this is precisely what some among the converted Thessalonians lacked: the willingness to sit quietly at home and carry out patiently whatever work had been entrusted to them.

“So that we might not be a burden to any of you.” The believing Thessalonians would certainly not have considered it a burden to support the Apostles, since, as the first epistle states, they showed generosity even to those living in other places. “A burden is reckoned when someone takes something from another against his will” (Theodoret), or even “when someone gives to another not with great eagerness” (Chrysostom). But neither the first can be expected of the Apostles, nor the second of the Thessalonians. What would they not have done for St. Paul, whom they had loved with a strong love, as he himself bore witness? Yet the Apostle sets forth what especially moved him to act in this manner. His fatherly love for those he was converting would not allow him to trouble them in any small way. It impelled him to expend all things for them, requiring and accepting nothing from them. In the Epistle to the Corinthians he cites as his motive the concern lest the preaching of the gospel be hindered; but here—the delicacy of his fatherly feeling. He brings this to the fore with the particular aim of thereby more sharply marking the unseemliness of sponging. He wished to convey, as St. Chrysostom notes, this lesson: “If I, a preacher of the words of instruction, feared to burden you, how much more ought that man to fear this who brings you no benefit whatsoever.” “Not because we do not have the right.” And the Lord commanded “those who preach the gospel to live from the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:14), when, sending the Apostles to preach, He said to them: “In the same house” (in which they receive you) “remain, eating and drinking what is theirs” (Lk. 10:7). All the Apostles acted thus. In all likelihood St. Paul also made use of this rule at times. He could have availed himself of it among the Thessalonians as well, and of course no one would have dared say anything against it. But he did not do this. The Spirit of God, who guided him, suggested to him a different manner of acting—perhaps on account of the character of the peoples among whom he was appointed to spread the gospel.

“But to make ourselves an example for you to imitate.” Writing to the Corinthians he advances a different goal, as already noted—namely, that the gospel preaching might be received more impartially; but here, to give an example. Of what?—Of diligence, of staying at home, of sobriety, and of good order. This again leads to the thought that idleness, sponging, carousing, and roaming about were in all likelihood a distinguishing feature of the Thessalonians’ life (in paganism). St. Paul noticed this from the very first and at once began urging them toward diligence and sobriety (v. 10 of the first epistle). But in order to act upon them more powerfully, he himself began working with untiring effort to provide for his own sustenance and that of those with him. Example in this regard could indeed act more powerfully than any word. The conduct of St. Paul could not fail to trouble the conscience of the idle and sluggish, and to dispose them toward diligence. “For if,” as St. Chrysostom notes, “St. Paul, who had no need to labour—having, on the contrary, the possibility of exempting himself from such occupations—yet, having taken upon himself so great a work, laboured nonetheless, and not simply laboured, but laboured night and day, so that he could also provide assistance to others—then how much more ought others to have acted thus.”

He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15)

2 Thess. 3:10. For even when we were with you, we gave you this commandment: if anyone is not willing to work, neither let him eat.

The disorderly brethren had a second motive for living in order—in the explicit commandment given to them personally by the Apostle himself. Example might still be explained away, but a direct commandment imposed an obligation, removing any possibility of evasion. The commandment laid the duty; the example disposed toward its fulfillment, pointing the way, as it were leading along an already-laid road. Together, both should have acted victoriously to correct a disposition previously bent in the wrong direction. Both were employed by the Apostle. The example given was powerful, and the commandment was presented in a very stern tone: “if anyone is not willing to work, neither let him eat.” He wishes to say: such a one deserves no feeding at others’ expense; he forfeits, as it were, his right to eat, and if he does eat, it is without any right—either through his own shamelessness or through the mercy of others. See then how obligatory is labour! Man is born for toil as the bird for flight (Job 5:7). This was decreed immediately after the Fall. Labour is the common penance laid upon all in Adam: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread” (Gen. 3:19). Only on the condition of sweat is bread given him to eat. Therefore labour—whether bodily or spiritual—is inescapably obligatory for everyone. The Apostle exempts no one from it. Whoever will not work, be he rich or poor—“neither let him eat”—if he eats, he eats with violence to his conscience, in sin. At the same time, however, we must not lose sight of the fact that the Apostle’s word is addressed here to idle sluggards, so as to rouse their conscience—not to others, so as to cut off their charitable giving. He does not mean: do not give him food. He gives this judgment and sentence to no one. On the contrary, he speaks directly against this a few lines below, urging that in doing good one should not weary of giving even to spongers (v. 13). Theodoret writes: “Now these words—‘neither let him eat’—the Apostle said not to those who give, but to those living in idleness. To those who give, a few words later he gives counsel not to look at their bad conduct, but without hesitation to show their customary generosity.”

2 Thess. 3:11. For we hear that some among you are walking in a disorderly manner, doing nothing, but acting as busybodies.

Having clarified the grounds for the culpability of those being rebuked, he points out the very fault itself, saying as it were: yet among you, notwithstanding such compelling motives for orderly conduct, there are persons who conduct themselves not at all as they ought. What the failure of these persons consisted in has already been indicated. They are those “walking in a disorderly manner”—that is, living without discipline, in disorder, not according to the order established by the Apostles, contrary to that seemly manner of life which he had required in the first epistle (1 Thess. 4:12); “doing nothing”—not sitting with folded hands, but roaming about without occupation, to whom it is not agreeable to sit at some serious and steady labour, but pleasant to pass the time in self-indulgence, gratifying their senses of sight, hearing, taste, and the like;—“but acting as busybodies”—in Greek, prying into everything, what is here or there, what is being done, what such and such are saying, what others are planning, and so on. These are gawkers, gossips, and quarrelers. Wandering about squares, markets, streets, and houses, they snoop into everything, and it is no wonder that they deliberately spy, enter into disputes—whence come provocations, quarrels, brawls, and all the disorders in communities. “To those living in idleness,” writes Theodoret, “are proper empty talk, talkativeness, and useless curiosity.” Oecumenius even points to the cause of this. “God gave us an active mind,” he says, “and so, when we withdraw it from godly works, it—not being able to remain inactive—gives itself over to the works of the devil: to prying, chatter, slander, buffoonery, and the like.” Theophylact writes the same: “Our mind is ever in motion; therefore, when we do not engage it in needful works, it gives itself over to useless ones—to prying into how others live, and from this to gossip, idle talk, and empty chatter.” There is no indication at all that these were people of manifest vice; otherwise the Apostle would not have restrained himself from rebuking this, as he does in the Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 5:11); or that they were the poor who could support themselves by the labour of their hands but who simply did not like to work and lived at others’ expense by begging or deception—though perhaps there was someone of that kind. These were all idle people, killing time to no purpose. But their number was presumably not large either, for the holy Apostle says: “some.” Their number was so insignificant that they did not prevent the Thessalonian Church—the whole community of believers there—from being distinguished by those fine qualities which St. Paul so highly praises in both epistles. He writes of them with such strictness, and at such length, because even losing one soul is grievous, and out of concern lest indulgence toward them or inattention to their disorderliness should dispose others also to look lightly on such an unseemly way of life and give them occasion to be drawn into imitation. Moreover, the Apostle writes: “we hear”—a report is going about. He does not say who brought the report, or who frequently brought it, but it is evident the report was not idle, and St. Paul believed it. And he was so zealous that he could bear no defect in his churches with equanimity. He sought to present them all to Christ as pure and blameless brides (2 Cor. 11:2).

2 Thess. 3:12. Now such persons we command and urge in our Lord Jesus Christ, that working in quietness they eat their own bread.

One might have expected that following immediately upon the identification of the disorderly, the Apostle would say at once: withdraw from these very persons. But since his purpose is not judgment and punishment, but correction, he first offers the disorderly persons the opportunity to return to the right path, and only then, as they will not listen, does he command the orderly not to associate with them.

The commandment now given was already known. Here it is only repeated, with fatherly persuasion, in the name of the Lord Himself, to fulfill it exactly. One can see how ardently the Apostle desires that no one should prove disobedient, that all should become orderly in their conduct, and that there might be no need to withdraw from anyone or to make anyone subject to withdrawal. For this reason he both commands as an Apostle and entreats as a father—both on behalf of the Lord Himself. He commands with the authority given by the Lord; he implores with the love of Christ. By both together he makes his discourse at once formidable and winsome, pressing them from every side toward compliance. Strictness combined with love is always victorious. “Since,” writes Theophylact, “he had maintained somewhat stern speech above, saying ‘we command you to withdraw’ (2 Thess. 3:6), he now turns to them with greater mildness and says: we entreat in the Lord. But by this very entreaty the injunction becomes still weightier and sterner.”

“That working in quietness they eat their own bread”—that they should not wander idly here and there, but sit at home, and at home sit not with folded hands, but at their work. A modest, secluded, diligent life is enjoined, in contrast to idle wandering and the empty killing of time. “We command not only that they live in quietness (peacefully, without disturbance), but also that they work” (Oecumenius). “He demands two things of them: as from the disorderly—that they be quiet; as from the idle—that they work.” Ησυχια, quietness, is the opposite of noise, turbulence, fuss, and bustle, as well as of restlessness, a distracted and aimless life. From this every person can picture the pattern of family and domestic life which St. Paul holds up as an example for believers.

“That they eat their own bread”—either that they should not sponge, not live at others’ expense, but earn their sustenance with their own hands; or, that even if they have some means of their own, they should still work—so as to eat bread earned by their own toil, for such bread is sweeter and, one might say, more sacred. This evidently also includes the point that they should not live on charity or begging, but maintain themselves by their own labour when they have the strength. On these last points St. Chrysostom lays greater weight, for he writes: “Why did not the Apostle say: if they are not disorderly, let them be fed by alms from you; but instead requires both things—that they be both modest and diligent?—Because he wants them, by working, to feed themselves. For this is the meaning of the words: ‘that they eat their own bread’—that is, from their own labour, and not another’s obtained by asking for charity. He speaks of those who by their own choice belong to the ranks of the destitute. Indeed, why do you not work? God gave you hands not to receive from others, but so that you yourself might give to others.‘Theophylact then lays out his further thoughts more precisely:’Therefore one must have labour, working with one’s own hands. And one who has the strength to work but gives himself over to idleness should not beg for alms. You say: I pray and fast. But this is not work of the hands. You can have manual work alongside these things. And if you neglect this, you are subject to judgment as one who loves idleness. Someone will say: then why is the one who teaches (by which St. Chrysostom means the Apostles and teachers of the Church) not compelled to work with his hands?—He has a more important and more difficult work which does not permit him to engage in manual labour. But on you, a private person, no such obligation rests, and you sin by neglecting labour.”

2 Thess. 3:13. But as for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.

He has given the disorderly a commandment to reform, and now he urges those who were orderly to remain in their orderly conduct. The instruction would seem incomplete without something said to them as well. What precisely does he urge upon them?—That they should not grow weary, not be burdened, not grow faint in “doing good.” And this “doing good” — καλοποιουντες — has two senses: it means either living well, maintaining good conduct and a good manner of life; or doing good to others, showing beneficence. If the first meaning is taken, then in the Apostle’s words we must see an encouragement to the orderly to continue a life opposite to that of the disorderly—a tranquil, secluded, diligent life. Sitting at home all day at their work, depriving themselves of public diversions and pleasures, denying their senses their customary gratifications, they were like prisoners of a sort, as if losing something, while the others seemed to have the better position in public view. Some of them might naturally have thought that such a life was rather dull. The Apostle therefore encourages them: you who lead a good, sober, and diligent life, having left behind that disorderly, idle, and empty one—do not grow weary or burdened by this, do not envy those idlers, and do not be tempted by their situation as though it were more advantageous. If the second meaning is taken, then the Apostle’s exhortation would be: but you, who have until now been showing beneficence even to these spongers accustomed to eating others’ bread—do not discontinue this manner of acting, do not alter your attitude toward them, continue to do good for them, without growing weary or burdened by it, and without entertaining the thought that your goodness is thereby spent in vain. Your goodness does not in the least cease to be goodness from the fact that in our estimation those persons are unworthy of mercy. God “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”; “be” also yourselves “merciful, as” “your heavenly Father is merciful” (Matt. 5:45, 48; Lk. 6:36). One must see the need in the one who asks, and not focus on his disorderliness.

The first meaning is not without place, but the second is closer and preferable—because the holy commentators of old understand this passage in that way, limiting the circle of the disorderly to those who live on charity while having the strength to work. They presuppose in the Apostle a concern lest Christians, hearing the stern rebuke of the idle and the commandment to them to live by the labour of their hands, might cut off their charitable giving to them, while these had not yet reformed and grown accustomed to work—and, being left without help, might die of hunger. All that the good Christians were required to do was “to withdraw”—not to associate—and thereby to urge the disorderly to reform; but charitable giving to them was not to be discontinued.

“Do you see the fatherly tender-heartedness?” exclaims Oecumenius. “He did not carry his strictness far, fearing lest these disorderly persons die of hunger. Although he commands to withdraw from them and thereby admonish them, he says: in the meantime, while they are reforming, give to them so that they do not suffer from hunger. It is punishment enough for them that you separate from them.” To this blessed Theophylact adds: “Even if one of them does not reform even after this, you still do not grow weary in doing good.” Theodoret expresses the force of this and the preceding verse concisely: “Having prescribed by law for some the pursuit of work and quietness, he counsels others to follow a spirit of benevolence: ‘do not grow weary in doing good.’ Let their disorderly conduct not overcome your generosity.”

St. Chrysostom here resolves the usual objection: “What then, someone will say: if the idle man continues to receive everything from us in abundance, will he remain idle forever?—Against this, he says, I have pointed out to you an easy remedy—namely, withdraw from such a person, that is, do not embolden him, show the appearance of being angry with him. This is no small thing. For thus must we punish a brother, if we truly desire that he be corrected. We must know in what manner we are able to punish. For tell me, if you had a brother according to the flesh, would you leave him without help when he was dying of hunger?—I think not; rather you would in all likelihood take care for his correction.”

2 Thess. 3:14, 15. But if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, take note of that person, and do not associate with him, so that he may be ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

The Apostle therefore rebuked the disorderly so sternly and gave them such commandments so that they might reform and not disgrace the Christian community, which ought to be pure and holy in all its members and in all respects. But if in the end they do not show obedience and remain in their disorderly state, then here is the order given: “note” them and do not associate with them, yet without harboring hostile feelings toward them—rather admonish them as brothers.

The first thing that was to be done was to “note” them. What is this noting, and for whom? For the Apostle Paul, or for the Thessalonians? The ancient Slavonic translation conveys the meaning that the Thessalonian Christian community, or their leaders, having announced the Apostle’s commandment to and concerning the disorderly and seeing that they were not reforming, were to inform St. Paul of them by a special letter, naming them individually in that letter, for his further directives—similar, for example, to those he later made in Corinth regarding the incestuous man. The naturalness of this, its correspondence with the flow of the discourse and with the Greek text, compels one to take the side of this translation and interpretation. For if word had been given to the Apostle about the disorderly, and if afterward it was necessary to declare to them what the Apostle was writing about them, then they must have been known to everyone, and there was no necessity to point them out to the Thessalonians. From the moment of declaring the apostolic will to them, the non-association with them would begin—without any special directives being needed for it, and it would cease toward some as soon as they showed themselves reformed. And merely noting them would have been a matter leading nowhere. Something more stern was expected. The disorderly had been found; word had been given about them, or the Apostle had learned of them and was writing a stern rebuke and exhortation; all this was declared to the disorderly; if they reformed—good; if they did not reform, what is next expected?—It is expected that word about them will be given to the Apostle, for further directives. This is the simplest and most natural course of the matter. And there is no doubt that such was the Apostle’s meaning: give me word about him by letter, and in the meantime do not associate with him—not with hostile feelings, but so as to put him to shame and admonish him as a brother, with love.

Others understand “noting” as for the Thessalonians: mark him for yourselves, or keep him under observation. In this case the word “in this epistle” — δια της επιστολης,—is connected not with “note” but with “our word”, thus: whoever does not obey our word spoken or communicated through this epistle to you—mark him for yourselves, or note him. But such a combination of words may not be accepted, for in that case one would expect λογω… τω δια… Since this is absent, the translation becomes forced and arbitrary. With it, one must supply the meaning “spoken” or “communicated” to arrive at the sense; whereas with “note” it connects naturally and requires no supplements: “note by letter.” This interpretation would be given special weight by the commentary of our ancient exegetes. But the words of St. Chrysostom on the phrase “take note of that person”—“consequently he commands this to be done, so that such conduct or such persons may not be concealed”—cannot be decisively turned in favor of that interpretation, especially if one takes into account that he read “word” not as “our” but as “your”; with that reading, δια της επιστολης would naturally go with “note.” Blessed Theodoret, St. John of Damascus, and Theophylact make no remark on this. Only Oecumenius wrote: “Note him, so that he may not escape your notice.” It is evident that, given this relation of our ancient commentators to this passage, understanding it in the latter sense is not obligatory and may at the very least be left as a matter of freedom. For us, however, the Slavonic translation and the thought connected with it ought to prevail. We therefore incline toward it.

“And do not associate with him.” Write word to me, and do not have fellowship with him. “Do not associate”—in Greek the word used signifies the way one mingles with a crowd and merges with the common mass, as, for example, wine with water. The Apostle does not merely want that no one should see Christians in the company of these disorderly persons, but that strict Christians should make evident to the disorderly persons themselves that they are shunning them for the reason that they consider their conduct incompatible with the calling of Christians—and by this estrangement stir up conscience in them and bring them to shame: “so that he may be ashamed.” This is a silent reproof and admonishment without words. “But, according to the Apostle’s thought, such a relation to the disorderly is prescribed as a punishment to the latter. And it is indeed no small punishment” (St. Chrysostom). “This punishment to the disobedient seems moderate; yet in fact it is one of the heaviest. What is heavier than to be as if in a desert, though one lives in a city?” (St. John of Damascus). “The shame is very great when everyone turns away from someone” (Oecumenius).

“And do not” regard “him as an enemy, but admonish” “him as a brother.” Not associating with the disobedient person and turning away from him—yet do not harbor hostility toward him, do not feel indignation, do not despise or condemn him, but admonish him as a brother. “Admonish” — νουθετειτε — means: to put something into someone’s mind, to bring to reason. “Bring to reason,” he says—either by this reproving manner of turning away and not participating in his unseemly deeds, or not by this alone, but alongside this also with reasonable, brotherly, love-warmed speech, expressing sorrow for him—why is he thus, why does he so demean and disgrace himself. One can see how St. Paul desires to kindle in all hearts a concern for moral purity—not each one’s own alone, but of the whole community for the entire body. But of course the expression and fulfillment of such concern was to be carried out by the leaders, to whom was entrusted the care for the salvation of souls. On them the Apostle presumably laid the fulfillment of all these directives as well.

Here are the words of St. Chrysostom, breathing love for the weak, on this passage: “Thus (the Apostle) does not permit the punishment to extend beyond its proper measure. For, as above, having said ‘if anyone is not willing to work, neither let him eat,’ out of concern lest those persons perish of hunger, he added: ‘but as for you, do not grow weary in doing good’; so also now, having said: ‘withdraw and do not associate with him,’ then, out of concern lest this very thing should cut him off from the fellowship of the brethren—for, having then doubted of himself, he might soon perish, if encouragement were denied him—(the Apostle) added: ‘and do not as an enemy regard him, but admonish him as a brother.’ By this he shows that he has appointed a great punishment for the guilty one, such as could deprive him of all boldness. Admonish as a brother, said the Apostle—and not insult as an enemy. One who admonishes his brother does so not publicly, does not exhibit him openly to shame, but carries it out in secret and with greater care, grieving and being afflicted, with tears and with weeping.”

Final Blessings, Salutation, and Prayer (2 Thessalonians 3:16–18)

Having said what was needed for correcting the conduct of certain disorderly members, the Apostle returns once more to his closing words, which he had deliberately interrupted, and hastens to finish them. He does indeed hasten: for, having expressed the wish for peace and having pointed out the distinguishing mark of the authenticity of his epistles, he concludes with his customary benediction—the prayer that God’s grace may abide with them.

2 Thess. 3:16. Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every “way: the Lord be with you all.”

The wish for peace at the close of an epistle is customary to the holy Apostle Paul. Here it may be considered as prompted by what has gone before. The directive he has given could produce discord, even though the Apostle’s aim was to bring all into unity of spirit through those corrective measures by means of love. So he prays that the Lord will preserve and confirm among them a strong and all-encompassing peace. By his corrective measure the Apostle may seem to cause division; but not so that discord may result—rather, so that those who are set apart, coming to their senses, would turn from their wrong way and, entering by like-mindedness into fellowship with all, would enable all the faithful to enjoy warm peace. St. Chrysostom writes: “See how, when he enjoins upon them what they must do, he seals his exhortations with prayer, placing prayers and supplications as a kind of seal upon these treasures. ‘May He give you peace.’ Since disputes were likely to arise from this—that is, from the way he told them to treat the disobedient, because some would be more insistent and others less yielding—he is not without reason in praying for this.” Oecumenius explains: “He knew that from rebukes and admonitions disputes are born, when those upon whom they fall remain stubborn. This is why he asks peace for them from the God of peace.”

“Peace always in” every “way.” “So that you may be at peace with the Lord and with one another, and be delivered from the snares of adversaries. For this is the meaning of: in every way” (Theodoret). “So that they may have no cause for strife from any quarter, neither from words nor from manner of conduct. For in this way they will without difficulty make even those (the disobedient) better. Nothing contributes so much to the correction of what we wish to correct as peaceful, tranquil intercourse and admonition without anger” (Theophylact).

“The Lord be with you all.” This is the highest of Christian benedictions: for if the Lord abides with them, then with Him every good thing for salvation will abound richly in their midst. “If, he says, He is with you all—that is, both with those who need correction and with those who have been corrected—then all will be for good. Those who are unwilling to work He will heal, and those who love labour He will confirm in diligence” (Theophylact). St. Chrysostom gives at this point the following lesson: “This too we may ask for ourselves, if only we fulfil what the Lord has commanded. For hear what Christ says to His disciples: ‘behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ (Mt. 28:20). This was said not only to them (the Apostles) but to us as well, for from the words: ‘even to the end of the age’ it is clear that this was promised not only to them, but to all who would follow in their steps. The Lord promised: ‘behold, I am with you,’ but this comes to pass only when we ourselves desire it. For He will not be with us at all if we ourselves choose to withdraw from Him. With you, He says, will I abide forever. Let us not, then, drive from ourselves this grace.”

2 Thess. 3:17. The salutation by my own hand—Paul’s—which is a sign in every “epistle;” “so I write.”

By “salutation” he meant the blessing and prayer expressed in the following verse. It is present in the first epistle as well, but there it was written by the same hand that transcribed the letter. Here, however, the holy Paul writes it himself and promises from now on always to write it in his own hand in every epistle. This was a precaution against deception by forgery.

Since certain persons had managed to unsettle the minds of the Thessalonians by showing them an epistle supposedly written by the Apostle, which was not in fact written by him, so that this same thing might not happen again among them or elsewhere, the holy Paul resolved to mark his authentic epistles with his own handwritten final benediction: “the grace of the Lord,” and so forth. As if to say: whatever epistle has these words not written in my hand is not mine. And so that you may verify this the more reliably, here is the handwriting of my hand: “so I write.” This sign will from now on be present “in every” “epistle”—whether it may be sent to you, perhaps, or in any epistle to anyone whatsoever (Theophylact).

2 Thess. 3:18. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

This is the same as the foregoing: “the Lord be with you all.” “With prayer he began, and with prayer he concluded, enclosing what was said (in the epistle) on both sides as with great walls; having laid a firm foundation, he added to it likewise an unshakeable end. ‘Grace,’ – he says, – ‘to you’ and ‘peace.’ And again: the grace of the Lord … with you” (Chrysostom). He seemed to wish to express this benediction: “If the grace that saves us abides with you, it will heal all your infirmities, for such is the power of grace. And it will abide with you, if you do not drive it away. Grace dwells in souls that are well-disposed, filled with simple faith and brotherly love. May it be granted to us also to have such souls, so that we too may be guarded on every side by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who received us (into the number of believers) and brought us to the Father in the Holy Spirit” (Theophylact). Thus, “having received the apostolic blessing, let us glorify Christ the Lord, who spoke through the Apostles. With Him to the Father with the Holy Spirit be glory and majesty, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen” (Theodoret).

Commentary on the First Epistle to Timothy

Introduction

1. The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born George Vasilyevich Govorov on 10 January 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Oryol province of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. He was schooled in the seminary at Oryol and then at the Kiev Theological Academy, one of the great centers of Russian ecclesiastical learning, and there, on the eve of completing his studies, he received monastic tonsure in 1840 and the name Theophan, “revealer of God.” He taught and served as rector in a succession of seminaries and academies, spent formative years with the Russian ecclesiastical mission in the Holy Land and at Constantinople—where he immersed himself in the Greek Fathers and the manuscripts of the ascetic tradition—and in 1859 was consecrated bishop, first of Tambov and then, from 1863, of Vladimir.

In 1866, at the age of fifty-one, he asked to be released from the cares of a diocese and withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov province. For six years he lived there as an ordinary monk; then, in 1872, he entered strict reclusion, shutting himself into a few small rooms, serving the Liturgy alone in a chapel he built with his own hands, and giving the remaining twenty-two years of his life to prayer, to a vast correspondence of spiritual counsel, and to writing. He died on 6 January 1894, on the feast of the Theophany whose name he bore. Those years of seclusion were the most fruitful of his life: from them came The Path to Salvation, his Russian rendering of the Philokalia, the adaptation of Unseen Warfare, and—at the center of his labors on Scripture—a series of running commentaries covering nearly the whole body of the Apostle Paul’s letters. The Russian Church numbers him among its teaching saints and glorified him in 1988; he is commemorated on 10 January. His authority has never been confined to one communion, and readers across the Christian world have come to him as to a sure and gentle guide. The commentary on the First Epistle to Timothy belongs to his Pauline set; the Russian text our edition follows carries the date 1882.

2. The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The First Epistle to Timothy is the first, and the fullest, of the three letters the Church has long grouped together as the Pastoral Epistles—1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus—so named because they are addressed not to congregations but to individual shepherds, and are taken up almost wholly with the care and government of the Church. The letter presents itself as the Apostle Paul’s, written to his own disciple, and it is as Paul’s that the Church has always read it and that Theophan expounds it throughout; a strand of modern criticism has questioned that authorship, but the tradition in which this commentary stands receives the letter as it stands, from the Apostle’s own hand.

Theophan sets the letter carefully in the life of its recipient. Timothy was a native of Lystra in Lycaonia, the son of a Greek father and a devout Jewish mother, Eunice, whose own faith—with that of the grandmother Lois—had shaped him from childhood in the Scriptures. From the second missionary journey he became Paul’s inseparable companion, sharing his labors and journeys, carried on his errands to Thessalonica, to Corinth, from city to city, until, near the end, Paul ordained him bishop and left him at Ephesus to hold and order that great church. It is at this point that the Epistle is written. Following the ancient reckoning, Theophan places the letter after Paul’s release from his first Roman imprisonment—about the years 64–65—when the Apostle, travelling on toward Macedonia, had left Timothy behind at Ephesus and wrote to him, most probably from Philippi, a detailed guide for the work that now lay on him alone.

Theophan is unusually attentive to why such a guide was needed, and here his own pastoral heart shows. Timothy had never before acted independently; he had always worked at Paul’s side and under his eye, and now the whole weight of a church’s governance rested on him, and he was left alone. Paul, Theophan says, bearing a fatherly love for him, could see how his disciple’s soul must be cast down, and how hard it would be to carry out demanding tasks under the pressure of grief; and so, not long after their parting, he wrote—partly to comfort and strengthen a lonely man by the assurance that his spiritual father remembered him, and chiefly to set down in writing what he had had no time to say, or needed to confirm, about the exercise of the pastoral office. The letter thus freed Timothy from having to guess how to act, steadying him to keep good order without hesitation or fear of erring. The occasion, in other words, was not a single crisis but the permanent need of a young shepherd for a rule; and this is why the letter reads, from beginning to end, as a handbook of the pastoral life.

Theophan did not compose his exposition for scholars. He wrote it for believers—and here especially for pastors—who wished to understand the Apostle and to live by him. He works through the letter in small portions, a verse or a few verses at a time, giving the plain sense, gathering what the Fathers before him had said, clearing away difficulties, and then turning the passage back upon the conscience. Before the verse-by-verse exposition proper he sets, in the manner of the ancient introductions, several chapters on the life of Saint Timothy and on the two Epistles addressed to him—where and when they were written, their occasion, their content, and their division—so that the reader comes to the first verse already knowing the man and the situation into which the Apostle speaks.

3. Argument and Structure

Theophan divides the letter as he divides all the Epistles: between an opening greeting (1:1–2) and a brief closing charge (6:20–21) lies the main body of instruction, and that body he shows moving through three great concerns.

The first is the guarding of the faith against error (chapter 1). Paul opens by charging Timothy to silence those who “teach a different doctrine” and give their minds to “myths and endless genealogies,” and then, lest zeal against error harden into a wooden legalism, he sets out the right use of the Law—good if used lawfully, as a curb for the lawless, but not the gospel—and grounds the whole charge in his own case, the chief of sinners saved by mercy, so that sound doctrine is bound from the start to the mercy that is its heart.

The second concern is the order to be kept among Christians (2:1–3:13). Here Paul turns to the assembly and its worship: prayer is to be made for all men, and first of all for kings and those in authority, because God “desires all men to be saved”; men are to pray lifting up holy hands without wrath, and women to adorn themselves with modesty and good works and to learn in quietness. From the conduct of the assembly the Apostle passes to those who are to lead it, laying down the qualities required of the man who would be a bishop—blameless, temperate, apt to teach, well governing his own house—and of the deacons, grave, tested, and holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

The third and longest concern is how the shepherd is to bear himself toward the various sorts of those he shepherds (3:14–6:19). It opens at the letter’s summit—the Church as “the pillar and ground of the truth” and the “great mystery of godliness” it guards—and then unfolds into the most practical counsel of the whole Epistle: warnings of those who in latter times shall depart from the faith, forbidding marriage and foods; the charge that Timothy be himself an example in word and life and give heed to reading, exhortation, and teaching; directions for dealing with the different states of the flock—older men and younger, widows truly in need and younger widows, the presbyters who rule well, servants and masters; and, at the close, the great counsels on contentment and on the love of money, before the final charge to the man of God to fight the good fight and keep the commandment without spot. Holding this threefold shape in view—faith, order, pastoral conduct—is the surest way through a letter that can otherwise seem a string of loosely joined directions.

4. Theological and Spiritual Significance

For all its practical bent, the letter carries at its center some of the most concentrated doctrine in the New Testament, and Theophan expounds it with the Fathers close at hand and the reader’s soul closer still.

Its first great burden is sound doctrine against false teaching. From the opening charge Theophan draws out the Apostle’s own rule: what is merely “different” from the faith once delivered is, by that very difference, not the truth. This is no abstract principle for him. He shows it worked out concretely when Paul warns that “in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,” forbidding marriage and commanding abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving—and Theophan, with Chrysostom and the others, reads such counsels as measures of a discernment the shepherd must keep alive, testing every teaching against the mystery the Church confesses and rejecting whatever is inconsistent with it, whether it has appeared already or is yet to come.

That mystery is the letter’s doctrinal summit, and Theophan gives it his fullest attention. “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (2:5): here he expounds, with Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Oecumenius, how a mediator must partake of both sides he would reconcile, so that the Son of God, the eternal Word, became the one Mediator precisely by becoming incarnate—God of God and man of men, yet one Person, one Hypostasis of two natures. Against Arius and Eunomius he presses the point that unless Christ shares fully the nature of the Father, He cannot mediate at all; the confession of “the man Christ Jesus” affirms not that He is only man but how He became our Mediator. The same confession returns, compressed into a single verse, at “great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh … received up into glory” (3:16), which Theophan reads as the whole Christian faith in miniature. The Word who is God “became flesh and dwelt among us,” taking our nature into His own Person without ceasing to be God. “This is truly a great mystery,” he quotes Chrysostom, “for man became God, God became man”; and with Theodoret he finds “the two natures” of the one Christ named in the Apostle’s words. From this mystery, he teaches, the believer’s whole life takes its light and strength.

Bound up with this Christology is the reach of God’s saving will. God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”—yet, Theophan insists with Oecumenius and Ambrosiaster, “God does nothing here by compulsion.” He saves no one against his will; He offers salvation to all and grants it to those who freely turn to Him, as a physician stands ready to heal all who will come to him. This is the synergy—the working together of divine grace and human freedom—that runs through the whole of Theophan’s teaching, and it is why he can command the faithful to pray even for unbelievers, whom God still desires to save.

The letter’s practical wisdom Theophan expounds with the same seriousness, refusing to let it fall beneath the doctrine. “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (6:6) he reads not as godliness plus a sufficiency of goods but as godliness together with the felt contentment that so fills a man’s heart that he needs nothing—the godly man rich because he is satisfied with all things, the wealthy man poor when he still feels a lack. And over against contentment stands the letter’s most quoted warning, that “the love of money is the root of all evils” (6:10), on which Theophan sets down a searching homily of Chrysostom’s on how covetousness arms the soul with countless swords and devastates the world like fire through a forest—and how, since it was kindled by our own will, by our will it may be quenched. Throughout, the mark of Theophan’s reading is that no doctrine is left as mere information: the “example” required of Timothy in word, conduct, love, faith, and purity becomes a summons to every reader, and the ordering of the household of God becomes a map of the ordering of the soul.

5. Reception and Influence

Theophan writes from within the tradition rather than over against it, and his commentary is a work of transmission as much as of interpretation. At nearly every step he calls up the Church’s earlier readers of the Apostle—Saint John Chrysostom most of all, and with him Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, Blessed Theophylact of Ohrid, Oecumenius, and the Latin commentator Ambrosiaster—quoting them at length and setting one beside another until their common mind appears. This is the old art of the catena, the patristic “chain” of excerpts; but Theophan is no mere compiler. His own work is to fasten the Fathers’ comments to the movement of Paul’s argument, and then, in the manner of Russian spiritual writing, to carry each doctrine past the understanding and into the conscience, into prayer, and into the daily struggle against sin.

The letter he expounds has left deep marks on the Church’s life and self-understanding. Its portrait of the bishop and the deacon has shaped the qualifications for ordination in every age; its charge to “hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience” and its confession that God “was manifested in the flesh” fed the Church’s Christological reflection; and its counsel on the care of widows stands near the root of the Church’s ordered charity. The Apostle Timothy himself, to whom it is addressed, the Church honors as one of the Seventy and as the first bishop of Ephesus, martyred there while opposing a pagan festal procession, his relics later translated to Constantinople and laid in the Church of the Holy Apostles beside those of Saint Andrew and Saint Luke. So woven is this letter into the pastoral office that in Russian practice the reverse of a priest’s cross is inscribed with its very words: “Be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (4:12). Theophan’s exposition gathers up the Church’s long memory of how these words have been read and hands it on—to a nineteenth-century Russian readership, and through this edition to a modern English one.

6. The Text and This Edition

Theophan wrote his commentary in Russian, as part of his multi-volume exposition of the Pauline epistles composed during his reclusion at Vysha and first published, in the pre-revolutionary era, by the Russian monastery of Saint Panteleimon on Mount Athos. That Russian text—long in the public domain—is the basis of the present volume. What is offered here is a fresh modern English translation made directly from the Russian: a clean, readable rendering that aims to carry Theophan’s voice, at once learned and pastoral, into contemporary English without the archaism of an older ecclesiastical style, while keeping intact the substance of his argument and the many quotations from the Fathers that form its body.

A few conventions of this edition are worth noting. Names of authors and saints follow traditional usage, and the persons who prepared the translation are credited as translators, never as authors of the work. Scripture is quoted in a register faithful to the text Theophan himself used, following the wording and versification of the Slavonic and Septuagint tradition where his exposition depends on it, so that the reader meets the verses as the commentator read them—including his frequent recourse to the Greek words of the Apostle, which he weighs and turns as part of the exposition. Citations of chapter and verse are given in the ordinary modern style—“1 Timothy 3:16,” and so on—for ease of reference. The result is meant to stand on its own: an English reader with no Russian and no Greek can follow the whole of Theophan’s exposition, and the Apostle’s letter through him, from the opening greeting to the closing charge.

7. Suggestions for Reading

Though addressed to a bishop, this is not a book only for the clergy. Theophan reads the Apostle’s directions for the household of God as directions for every Christian conscience, and his comments on order, prayer, contentment, and the love of money speak straight to ordinary life. His habit of taking a little at a time is the reader’s best safeguard against being swept past the turns of a densely packed letter; it helps to keep a copy of the Epistle open alongside the commentary and to come to Theophan’s comment only after reading the Apostle’s own words for the passage. The frequent citations of Chrysostom, Theodoret, and the rest are not digressions but the very matter of the commentary, and are worth slowing over. Above all, the book asks to be read as Theophan wrote it—not merely to learn how the Church is ordered, but to be formed by the faith she guards; for the charge laid on Timothy is finally laid on every reader: to keep whole “that which is committed to your trust,” and so to walk oneself in the way of salvation.

Introduction

On Saint Timothy

Saint Timothy was the beloved disciple of Saint Paul, praised by him with the highest commendations in many places throughout his Epistles. Timothy himself loved Saint Paul with deepest sincerity, as a father, and never left him from the time he was chosen and taken along as a companion in the labors of preaching. The Apostle Paul, as the book of Acts records, first encountered Saint Timothy on his second apostolic journey—after the Council held in Jerusalem, when, accompanied by Silas, he was visiting the churches he had previously founded and arrived in Lystra of Lycaonia. There the believing brethren bore witness to him—those of Lystra and those of the neighboring city of Iconium (Acts 16:2)—and they witnessed not only to his moral uprightness, but also to the fullness of his knowledge of the Gospel and his zeal to spread, defend, and establish it. On this occasion the Spirit of God pointed Timothy out to Saint Paul as a worthy helper in the work of evangelism, and Paul chose him and took him along.

Tradition, however, traces the first meeting of the Apostle Paul with Saint Timothy back to the time of Paul’s initial planting of the faith in Lystra, adding that it was then that the intention to employ him in the work of evangelism first arose. When Saint Paul and Barnabas, driven out of Iconium, fled to the cities of Lycaonia and healed in Lystra a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb, the people of Lystra thought they were gods in human form and were about to offer sacrifice to them. But when the Apostles persuaded them that they were not gods but messengers of God, sent to turn people from false faith and to bring them to the true faith—and when they explained what this true faith consisted of—many of the people abandoned their former impiety and believed the Gospel (Acts 14). Among them—as Saint Dimitri of Rostov writes (St. Dimitri of Rostov, Chetii-Minei, January 22)—were the grandmother and mother of Saint Timothy, who was widowed after the death of her husband. They were among the first to believe; Saint Timothy believed together with them, as may be gathered from the words of Saint Paul in which he recalls the beginning of Timothy’s faith: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that it dwells in you as well” (2 Tim. 1:5)—that is, that you too did not lag behind them. Overjoyed by coming to faith, they received the Apostles into their home and provided them with every comfort and refreshment. There, the mother entrusted her only child, Saint Timothy, to Saint Paul—as a gift of gratitude for the miracle wrought in their city, and even more for the brilliant radiance of godliness they had received. Saint Paul accepted him and, seeing in the young man a good mind and gentleness, and discerning the grace of God in him, loved him and resolved to take him along—not immediately, but later; for he was still young and needed to be prepared for the work of preaching. Leaving him for a time in their home, Saint Paul entrusted him to the wisest among the believers, so that they might guide him in understanding the Scriptures and train him in the labors of the faith both among believers and unbelievers.

As it turned out, this time was not wasted. When Saint Paul returned here a second time, after several years, accompanied by Saint Silas, he found Saint Timothy to be a skilled student of the Divine Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:15), advancing in virtue and having obtained a good testimony from all the Christians (Acts 16). He had not been ignorant of the Scriptures before—his mother and grandmother, being pious women, would not have allowed for that—but now he had learned to read in them the foreshadowing of the Gospel’s teaching. He had doubtless been taught every good work by his God-fearing guardians from before; but now he had been taught to direct the labors of good deeds toward another aim—namely, to serve the progress of the Gospel. Seeing this, Saint Paul now resolved to take him along “into the apostolate and to make him an inseparable companion and sharer in all his labors and journeys, and a faithful fellow-servant in the Lord.”

Having resolved this, Saint Paul also resolved to circumcise Timothy—not because circumcision was necessary for salvation, but because it was expedient for the success of the preaching. An uncircumcised man would not have had free access to the Jews—in their homes, much less in their synagogues, and still less for teaching them how one ought to believe and be saved. Since the order in which preaching was conducted at that time required this, the Apostle decided to circumcise Saint Timothy. On Paul’s part this was a measure of prudence, according to the principle he always maintained: “I have become all things to all people” (1 Cor. 9:19–22); and on Saint Timothy’s part it was an example of complete submission to his teacher, of imitation and devotion to him, and a first sacrifice of love for his neighbors and zeal for their salvation.

Thus prepared, they set out further on their preaching journey. In the early days Saint Timothy is not seen as an active agent; he only watched and learned. He witnessed the conversion of the Galatians, and perhaps of the Colossians, Laodiceans, and Hierapolitans. He saw how the Spirit of God did not permit them to go either into Asia or into Bithynia, but directed them through Troas into Macedonia (Acts 16:6). He observed the success of the preaching in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, accompanied by signs and wonders. He probably played some part in all these places as well.

But the first express mention of him appears in the account of events in Berea—specifically, that when Saint Paul was compelled to move on to Athens, Timothy was left there with Silas, for a time that was certainly not without a definite purpose of continuing the work of preaching. Those who escorted Saint Paul to Athens were given instructions to Saints Silas and Timothy that they should hasten to join him. It was probably Saint Timothy alone who hurried to him and reported what the Macedonian brethren were suffering and what was troubling them. This prompted Saint Paul to write the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, to console and instruct them, and to send it with Timothy, charging him also to establish and comfort them in the faith (1 Thess. 3:2). There Saint Paul already calls him his “brother” and “God’s servant and fellow-worker” with him “in the Gospel of Christ”—which was, of course, not a word of flattery but the truth of the matter. Saint Timothy returned together with Silas and found Saint Paul in Corinth, to which he had moved from Athens (Acts 18:5).

After this, during Saint Paul’s year-and-a-half stay in Corinth, his journey to Jerusalem for the feast, his time in Antioch, his second visit to the churches of Asia Minor in Cilicia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, and Galatia, and his nearly three-year stay in Ephesus, no mention is made of Saint Timothy. But he was certainly with Paul throughout all this time; for that was the very purpose for which he had been taken along—to be with him and to work alongside him, under his direction and guidance.

He is mentioned again toward the end of Saint Paul’s stay in Ephesus. The Apostle Paul heard of certain disorders in the Church of Corinth and resolved to visit them; but since there were still a few things to be done in Ephesus, he sent Saint Timothy on ahead there, to settle affairs as he saw fit. While Saint Timothy was making his way to Corinth through Macedonia, representatives came to Saint Paul from the Church of Corinth bearing a letter. Learning precisely what the disorders there consisted of, Saint Paul wrote the First Epistle to the Corinthians and sent it with Saint Titus. In this Epistle he mentions that he had sent to them “Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord,” to remind them of his ways in the Lord (1 Cor. 4:17); and afterward he adds: “When Timothy comes to you, see that he is with you without fear; for he is doing God’s work, as I also am” (1 Cor. 16:10).

Shortly afterward, an uprising of unbelievers in Ephesus compelled Saint Paul to leave that city earlier than planned, and he made his way toward Corinth through Macedonia. He traveled there unhurriedly, for he needed to meet with Titus before arriving in Corinth, in order to learn how the Epistle had been received and what effect it had produced among the believers. Not finding him in Troas, he crossed over into Macedonia and met Titus there. He also found Saint Timothy there, who had not yet managed to set out for Corinth. Having learned from Titus how things were going in Corinth, Saint Paul wrote them the Second Epistle, in the salutation of which he places Saint Timothy alongside himself. The Epistle was again sent with Saint Titus, while Saint Timothy traveled there with Saint Paul, after him. For we see Timothy there while Saint Paul was writing the Epistle to the Romans from that place, in which he also sends greetings from Timothy, his “fellow-worker” (Rom. 16:21). And on the return journey from there, after a three-month stay, we see Saint Timothy among Saint Paul’s other traveling companions (Acts 20:4).

Saint Paul was making his way to Jerusalem. On this journey he was in Philippi, Troas, Miletus, Rhodes, Tyre, Caesarea, and many other coastal cities where there were believers—most likely disciples of Saint Paul. In Jerusalem, Saint Paul was arrested by the authorities following a Jewish uprising, and spent two years in bonds at Caesarea; from there he was sent to Rome, still as a prisoner, where he again spent two years in bonds. Throughout all this time Saint Timothy is mentioned only at Troas and in Rome. But there is no doubt that he was inseparably with Saint Paul throughout—such was his calling.

That he was in Rome is evident from the salutations in the Epistles written by Saint Paul from Rome to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Philippians, where Saint Paul names Saint Timothy alongside himself. In the Epistle to the Philippians, Saint Paul writes that he intends to send Saint Timothy to them as soon as he learns of his own release. This promise was most likely fulfilled; and when Saint Paul himself sailed from Rome to Asia Minor, as he had promised Philemon, passing through Crete, Saint Timothy, it may be supposed, made his way to Macedonia in order to spend time in Philippi and then rejoin Saint Paul—which likely took place in Nicopolis of Cilicia, where Saint Paul spent the winter. Meeting him there, Timothy reported to him how affairs were going in Macedonia and how desirable and necessary his presence there was.

After wintering in Nicopolis, Saint Paul set out in spring for Macedonia through Ephesus. To remain long in Ephesus, as noted, and perhaps for other reasons as well, was not possible for him. Seeing that certain matters there required a firm hand to set right, and that a firm hand was needed to maintain proper order among the believers, he ordained Saint Timothy as bishop—by prophecy, with the laying on of hands of the presbytery (1 Tim. 1:18; 1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6)—and left him there, while he himself departed for Macedonia, embarking at Miletus (where he left Trophimus on account of his illness), intending to travel through Troas (where he left his cloak and perhaps some books with Carpus) and arrive in Philippi. From there he wrote the First Epistle to Saint Timothy, giving him instructions for the salvation of his flock and encouraging him in the labors of this important work.

In this Epistle the Apostle expressed his intention to return soon to Ephesus, presumably after visiting the churches of Macedonia and Achaia. But circumstances developed in such a way that he was unable to carry this out. Tradition relates that in Corinth he met with Saint Peter (Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, 2, 25) and traveled with him to the West. Saint Peter went directly to Rome, while Saint Paul first went to Spain and then to Rome, where both were taken into bonds and crowned with a martyr’s death. From these bonds Saint Paul wrote the Second Epistle to Saint Timothy on the same matters as before, inviting him to hasten to Rome to him, abandoned by all, and entrusting him with certain other commissions. There is no doubt that this wish of the divine teacher was swiftly fulfilled by the beloved and loving disciple.

After the martyrdom of Saint Paul, Saint Timothy returned to Ephesus and governed the Church there until his own death, which was likewise a martyr’s death, benefiting also from the guidance of Saint John the Theologian, who lived there and guided the pastors of all the churches of Asia. During the exile of Saint John the Theologian on Patmos, Saint Timothy carried on the work of guiding all the churches—so writes Saint Dimitri of Rostov.

His martyr’s death (according to the account of Patriarch Photius of Constantinople) came about in this manner: the pagan Ephesians were celebrating some festival in which men and women, dressed in disguise and wearing masks, went through the streets of the city carrying idols and clubs in their hands, amid disorderly songs and shouts, attacking those they encountered in a murderous fashion and killing them. Saint Timothy came in their path and, perhaps seizing the occasion, offered them words of exhortation. But they not only refused to listen to him—they fell upon him and beat him nearly to death. When the crowd had passed, leaving Saint Timothy lying there, faithful Christians came, and finding him still breathing, lifted him and carried him outside the city (into the open air, or to a dwelling—either his own or that of another believer). There he died shortly afterward and was buried in a place called Pion. His relics were translated by the holy martyr Artemius from Ephesus to Constantinople in the reign of Constantius, and were placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles, together with those of the Evangelist Luke and the Apostle Andrew the First-Called.

In some villages in our country there persists a pagan custom: on certain summer nights people go out with shouts, songs, and even a plough—to drive away the cattle-plague (livestock disease). At such times no one should cross their path; they will kill whomever they meet, taking the one they encounter to be the cattle-plague in disguise. Something similar may have been taking place among the pagan Ephesians.

On the Epistles to Saint Timothy

After what has been said in the general introduction to the Pastoral Epistles and in the outline of Saint Timothy’s life, very little remains to be said about the Epistles addressed to him by Saint Paul.

A) On the place and time of their composition.

Let us repeat what has already been said. The First Epistle was written from Macedonia, most likely from Philippi, where Saint Paul had promised to come and where he therefore had reason to stay for some time. The time of its composition falls between the first and second imprisonments, as does the Epistle to Titus. If the Apostle was released from his first imprisonment in 62–63 A.D., then, allowing a year and a half to two years for his stay in Crete, in the churches of Asia Minor, and for wintering in Nicopolis, we arrive at the years 64–65.

The Second Epistle was written from Rome, when Saint Paul was in bonds and awaiting a martyr’s end (2 Tim. 4:6). This martyr’s death, which occurred in 67–68 A.D., likewise determines the date of this Epistle’s composition.

B) The occasions and motivations for writing them.

Saint Timothy had almost never been separated from Saint Paul since the time he was taken into Paul’s company, and even when sent on some errand he had always been under Paul’s close supervision and guidance. Now he was left to act independently, with the full breadth of church governance resting upon him—and above all, left alone. Saint Paul, who bore a fatherly love for him, saw how distressed Timothy’s soul must be, and how difficult it would be, under such feelings, to carry out tasks requiring full attention and exertion of energy—energies not sapped by grief. For this reason, not long after their parting, he wrote him an Epistle which, even if it contained nothing particularly remarkable, would have been a comfort and encouragement to him, bearing witness to how much his spiritual father remembered and thought of him. But the Epistle’s content is far from commonplace; it provides a fairly detailed guide for Saint Timothy as a pastor—how he ought to act in the various parts and aspects of good pastoral ministry. This guide freed him from guessing whether to act one way or another, strengthened him in maintaining proper order without deliberating, wavering, or fearing that he might act wrongly—and thus emboldened him for deeds approved by his conscience and by his conviction of their unmistakable appropriateness. How much consolation this holds, and how greatly it furthers good pastoral service!

One may add the following: when leaving Saint Timothy as ruler of the Church, Saint Paul had doubtless spoken to him at length about this; yet it is possible that he had not had time or opportunity to say everything. During the journey to Macedonia, always occupied with ordering the churches, he must have reflected on what lay before Saint Timothy and what guidance had been given him. This may have shown him what had been left unsaid, and what of what had been said needed to be clarified and confirmed. He could have added these supplements upon his return, as he had hoped; but he had learned from many experiences that things did not always go as planned. Often the course of events, or special directions from above, directed his steps in ways quite different from what he had supposed. Keeping this in mind, he could not but think that his return to Ephesus might be delayed, or might not come about at all. This consideration was a powerful incentive to sit down and write to Saint Timothy what he deemed necessary to add, clarify, and more precisely define regarding his pastoral work. The content of the Epistles bears this out in a tangible way.

What has been said applies more to the First Epistle, in which no specific circumstance is indicated that could be regarded as the immediate occasion for writing. As for the Second Epistle, what compelled the Apostle to write it was the need to have Saint Timothy with him, and to recover certain belongings left by him along the road in expectation of a speedy return. “Everyone has left me,” he writes. “Hurry to me, and pick up such-and-such things on the way.” It may be that this alone was what was intended to be written. In that case the Second Epistle would resemble the Epistle to Philemon by the same Apostle, or the Epistle of Saint John to Gaius and a certain lady. But since the Apostle was in bonds and his fate lay in the hands of a man from whom death could be expected at any moment, Saint Paul considered it fitting to add to the Epistle something further on the subject of good pastoral ministry. As this is a matter of the greatest importance, it was treated first—and at some length, so that it became the main subject of the Epistle, while what had prompted the writing appeared in the form of an addendum or postscript.

C) The content of the Epistles.

The content of both Epistles is one and the same: instruction to a pastor on good pastoral ministry—“so that you may know how one ought to conduct oneself in the house of God” (1 Tim. 3:15), how to live and act in the Church of God, which is the house of God. The difference between them is this: whereas the First Epistle deals more with the practical side of pastoral ministry and its various aspects and parts of activity, the Second portrays the spirit and character of this ministry and activity in broad, all-encompassing strokes. This will become clear of itself in the course of the commentary.

D) Division.

The division of these Epistles, as with all others, follows the same pattern: between the preface and the postscript the main subject of the Epistle, or its principal content, is set forth. These sections will be indicated in the course of the commentary. Let us note only that the postscript of the Second Epistle, as mentioned, points to the occasion and motivation for writing it; while the First Epistle has almost no postscript, nor indeed any circumstantial details to speak of. This makes it palpably evident that the occasion and motivation for writing it was the desire to provide detailed instruction on the matters of pastoral activity.

Preface (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

1 Tim. 1:1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour and of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope.

This address is similar in spirit to the addresses of all Saint Paul’s other Epistles, and in its expressions recalls the address of the Epistle to Titus. It is briefer than the latter and may be considered an abbreviated form of it. There too it is stated that the preaching of the Gospel was entrusted to the Apostle by the commandment of God our Saviour, though there it is attributed more to the Lord Jesus, while here it is attributed more to God the Father, or to God worshipped in the Trinity. There too a reference to hope is introduced, as here, with the only difference that, whereas there the foundation of hope is set in the promise of a God who cannot lie, here the foundation of the promise itself is presented in the Person of the Lord Jesus, in whom also the fulfillment of what is hoped for and promised is to be seen.

“Paul, an Apostle”, αποστολος. “Since he intends to set forth ordinances for Timothy (and through him for the whole Church), he proclaims himself an Apostle, so as to make his word worthy of unquestioning acceptance. It is not my own words I shall speak, he says, but those of the One who sent me; take care therefore not to disobey” (blessed Theophylact). “And throughout his Epistles Saint Paul adds the name of Apostle to his own, thereby teaching his hearers that they should not suppose what he says is a human word; for a messenger speaks nothing from his own person; consequently, by calling himself a messenger, he at once turns the hearer’s mind to the One who sent him. For this reason he places this name at the forefront of all his Epistles, thereby lending his words the highest degree of credibility” (Saint Chrysostom).

“An Apostle, by the commandment of God.” “He did not say: ‘called,’ but: ‘by the commandment.’ The expression ‘by the commandment’ is stronger than the expression ‘called’” (Saint Chrysostom). “The Apostle lets his disciple know that he did not seize the apostolic calling for himself, but received a commandment from God to offer the saving proclamation to all” (blessed Theodoret). “The calling of an Apostle was great, lofty, and worthy of honor; and so we see that Paul everywhere points to the grounds of this calling of his (wishing to show) that he does not seize honor for himself but receives it (as rightly belonging to him) and that he acts thus out of necessity (‘I have an urgent duty, I am fulfilling the commandment of the Master’ [blessed Theophylact]). Moreover, when he calls himself ‘called’ (Rom. 1:1) and when he says: ‘by the will of God’ (1 Cor. 1:1) and the like—by all of this he removes every thought of ambition and pride. For just as one who lays claim to an honor not given to him by God is subject to the severest condemnation, so one who sets aside and rejects it becomes guilty of sins of another kind—of disobedience and insubordination. Therefore Paul here too, at the beginning of the Epistle to Timothy, speaks of this in these words: ‘Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God’” (Saint Chrysostom).

The Apostle is such by the commandment of God. “But where was such a commandment given? In the Acts, where the Holy Spirit says: ‘Separate for me Barnabas and Saul’ (Acts 13:2), and where the Lord Jesus says to Paul himself: ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles’ (Acts 22:21). But what the Son or the Spirit commanded, Saint Paul signifies as commanded by the Father. For the will of the Most Holy Trinity is one” (Oecumenius). Here Saint Paul presents the commandment for the apostolate as proceeding from God the Saviour and the Lord Jesus, “regarding such authority as belonging equally to Both” (Saint Chrysostom). “Together with God he also named the Lord Christ, showing their equal honor, and called God ‘salvation’ and Christ ‘hope,’ not thereby dividing the names and assigning one to the one and the other to the other, but understanding both of each; for the blessed David also ascribed both to one Person: ‘Hear us, O God our Saviour, the hope of all the ends of the earth’ (Ps. 64:6)” (blessed Theodoret).

To the word “God” is added here: “our Saviour.” When the word “God” stands alone, it most commonly refers to God the Father; while the word “Saviour” always calls to mind the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, who was incarnate for our salvation. They are joined here by reason of the inseparability of the Father and the Son, by which all that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son, and all that belongs to the Son belongs to the Father. One may also understand by the word ‘God’ here God worshipped in the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For as the entire economy of salvation is ordered, so too the salvation of each believer is accomplished according to the foreknowledge and “elect according to the foreknowledge of the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience” and “sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2). God is indivisibly our Saviour, for all the actions of the Triune God are indivisible.

The Lord Jesus Christ is named our hope, because He is with us “to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20); and if He is with us, then “who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31). But chiefly the Lord Jesus is so named because in Him the fulfillment of what is hoped for is contemplated, which cuts off all wavering of hope. He is the one who descended and ascended: He descended, was incarnate, died on the cross, rose again, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. All of this was accomplished in our human nature and for our sake. He led our human nature along this path—new and living—so that all might see with their own eyes where the path of following the Lord leads, and all might burn with unwavering hope that where He is, there His servants shall be also (Jn. 12:26).

The Apostle leads us to these thoughts about God the Saviour, worshipped in the Trinity, and about the incarnate Son, our hope, in a unified way—not indulging the bad habit of mentally separating the incarnate Son from the Tri-hypostatic Unity, but on the contrary teaching us to contemplate the incarnate Son as inseparable from this Tri-hypostatic Unity: for He was incarnate while ‘not departing from the bosom of the Father,’ and neither added to, diminished, nor changed anything in the mystery of the Divine Trinity. He teaches us this by the following reasoning: the Tri-hypostatic God is Saviour; yet the hope of salvation is the Lord Jesus—the incarnate Son. But how can God be Saviour if there is no hope of salvation placed in the incarnate Son? Consequently, the incarnate Son is present there, in the Tri-hypostatic God, and the thought that He is Saviour is confirmed of Him.

Why does Saint Paul here especially impress upon the mind these names—God as Saviour, the Lord Jesus as hope—and, in doing so, include himself together with Timothy under the shelter of both? It appears that there was a need to be encouraged. It may be that Saint Paul had been driven from Ephesus by hostility, and had left Saint Timothy there in danger from its malicious machinations. He therefore seasonably turns Timothy’s thoughts to the Saviour and to hope: thereby “he cheers his spirit, speaking as it were: we have a Saviour—God, and a hope—Christ. We suffer greatly, yet we have great hopes; we face dangers, plots are laid against us, but we have a Deliverer—not a man, but God. Consequently, neither will our Deliverer grow faint, because He is God, nor will any dangers that threaten us overcome us; nor will our hope put us to shame, because our hope is Christ. We endure misfortunes, sustained by these two things—either by the assurance that we shall soon be delivered (saved) from our troubles, or by nourishing ourselves with better hopes. Whatever we may endure (here), he says, all that is present amounts to nothing” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Tim. 1:2. To Timothy, my true child in the faith: grace, mercy and “peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“True,” γνησιω,—genuine, real, authentic. “In the faith”—shows in what respect and by what means he became a child—not by nature, but through faith, by which he spiritually fathered him, just as he said of the Corinthians: “in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel” (1 Cor. 4:15), and just as Saint Peter says of Christians in general: “born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of the living God, which endures forever” (1 Pet. 1:23). Saint Paul says all this to express his warm love for Timothy, as a father for a son—to praise him as one who showed such faith as to resemble Saint Paul himself, as a son resembles his father—and to encourage him to endure the hardships that he was inevitably bound to encounter at that time in Ephesus.

Such thoughts are found in the holy Fathers expressed in various ways. Saint Chrysostom says: “A similar expression the Apostle used also in the Epistle to the Corinthians, when he said: ‘in Christ Jesus I have begotten you’—that is, he fathered him through faith. He added the word ‘true’ wishing thereby to express that he has with him a more perfect and greater resemblance than others have; and not only this did he wish to express, but also his love and great affection for him. Note also what praise this contains (for Timothy), that the Apostle calls him not only his son, but his true child. In faith there was no difference between them. Among men it happens by the laws of nature that a son resembles his father, but not to the same degree as when such resemblance has its basis in God (through faith); for then the resemblance is more perfect. Here, although they are the same in nature, they yet differ from one another in many other respects—in color, appearance, mind, age, disposition, and other qualities of soul and body, outward and inward; but there (in God, through faith) none of these differences has any place.” Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle very fittingly combined the word ‘faith’ with the name expressing goodwill (child); for it was not nature but faith that made Timothy a child (of Saint Paul); by believing in the Divine proclamation, he was counted worthy to call the Divine Apostle his father.” Let us add also what blessed Theophylact says: “A child in the faith”—that is, one born of me through faith. And in praising him, he calls him not only a child but a “true” child—“true” because Timothy above others preserves the likeness to him in faith, and because Saint Paul sincerely loved him. Very wisely did he add “in the faith,” so as to encourage Timothy most of all in it. For if from the beginning he showed such faith as to be worthy to be called Paul’s child, and a true child, how much more should he now clothe himself in faith as in full armor, so as not to be troubled or to lose heart (amid the present pressures). To display courageous boldness is the work of faith.

“Grace, mercy” and “peace.”—“Mercy” is the original source; for having had compassion on us, the Tri-hypostatic God arranged for us a wondrous way of salvation; “grace,” as the power working to salvation in every believer, received through the holy mysteries in the holy Church by faith; “peace,” as the most desired fruit in us of the mercy and grace of the God of loving-kindness.

And all of this “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He does not say only “from God our Father,” lest someone, contemplating the all-merciful God’s work in ordering our salvation, should exclude from his mind the incarnate Son of God, without whom no one comes to the Father. Nor does he say only “from the Lord Jesus,” lest someone, surveying the work of ordering our salvation, should stop his ascent at the thought of the incarnate Son and not extend himself higher and deeper—to God the Father, into the mystery of the Tri-hypostatic God. But he joins both, to teach us that in the work of ordering our salvation we are to contemplate the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit acting inseparably as one God, and not to hide the Father and the Spirit behind the incarnate Son, and much less to rest upon His human nature alone, or upon the man Jesus alone.

Why is the prayerful good-wish here, as in the Epistle to Titus, augmented by the addition of “mercy?” Because pastors and teachers have need of greater help and of God’s more fervent goodwill (Saint Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius).

The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject

Charge all to avoid devoting themselves to other teachings and fables, and to direct all their attention and zeal toward what is essential—the holy Christian life through faith.

1 Tim. 1:3, 4. As I urged you when I was going into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the economy of God that is by faith.

“As.” The corresponding particle to this “as” is not present in the text. It must be supplied by one’s own thought, thus: as I urged you to remain in Ephesus to do such and such, so go and do it. I will set out for you some instructions and rules for this. These rules are the content of the Epistle.—“I urged.” “It was not fitting for a son to be entreated by his father; but out of warm love for him, and also to show him an example of humility, the Apostle entreats him” (Ambrosiaster). There may also have been an element of mutual love at work here. Saint Timothy wished to go with Saint Paul, fearing for him on account of the difficulties and dangers he might encounter on the road ahead, given the hostility of unbelievers toward him—the very hostility that had probably driven him from Ephesus as well. For this reason, Timothy had to be entreated to separate himself for a time from the beloved teacher-father whom he so carefully watched over. And Saint Paul could not but see the labors and dangers that Saint Timothy would face by remaining in Ephesus. Therefore he does not command him authoritatively: remain, but entreats him, so that it might be an act of Timothy’s own free will—which would give him more strength to bear the labors and dangers, and would remove any possibility of discontent. Saint Chrysostom says: “Listen to how gentle the speech is, how he addresses him not as a teacher but as a servant. He did not say: I commanded, or—I ordered, or even—I persuaded; but what? ‘I urged you.’—Yet we ought not to deal in this way with all disciples, but only with the gentle and well-disposed; with others—the corrupt and not entirely devoted—differently: just as he himself, writing elsewhere, says: ‘rebuke with all authority’ (Tit. 2:15).”

“To remain in Ephesus,” προσμειναι,—to wait through a little while, to stay for a short time without me; for the Apostle intended to return soon, unless some need to delay should arise (1 Tim. 3:14, 15).

“Going into Macedonia.” Saint Paul would not have left Ephesus without setting everything in order there, had not some pressing need compelled him. This need may have concerned him personally, as on the first occasion even before his imprisonment, when the believers urged him to withdraw because his life was threatened. Or the need may have come from the Macedonian churches. Something there urgently required the personal presence of Saint Paul. And so he departed there, leaving Saint Timothy as his deputy in Ephesus, confident that he alone would be able to handle what needed to be handled there.

“That you may charge certain persons,” παραγγειλης; which means both simply to announce, and to announce a command and precept, to order, to bind with authority to something. “He did not say: entreat, but: ‘charge’—which carries a tone of authoritative strictness” (Saint Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact). “Certain persons.” He does not name specific individuals, because they were of course known to Saint Timothy. Or perhaps by this he is suggesting to Saint Timothy: when speaking to the believers, do not name the teachers of different doctrine by name, lest this provoke them still further. Saint Chrysostom says: “He does not list them by name, so that the public exposure of the rebuke should not make them still more shameless.” Nevertheless, further on he names two of them—Hymenaeus and Alexander, handed over to Satan (1 Tim. 1:20).

“Not to teach any different doctrine,” μη ετεροδιδασκαλειν,—which means: “to introduce other teachings” (blessed Theophylact), to teach “differently,” not as commanded. The standard of Christian teaching had been given by the Lord, confirmed and completed by the Holy Spirit, and constituted the “pattern of sound words” (2 Tim. 1:13) that the Apostles everywhere transmitted to the newly enlightened. Since the divine origin of this teaching—from God, who is truth itself—was so palpably evident to the Apostles, they rightly considered every teaching that was not only contrary to it, but merely different from it, to be incompatible with the Christian faith—and this conviction they handed on to all believers. They did not permit believers to enter into debate, but straightforwardly, at first glance, turned away from every teaching that was “different.” You have the certain truth, they said; therefore everything “different” is not truth, and there is no reason to defile your hearing by opening it to such discourses. As soon as someone appeared who, having picked up “different” teachings elsewhere, began to speak of them openly before the believers, they stopped his mouth, forbidding him to speak, or expelled him entirely from the company of the faithful if he refused to submit to such a prohibition. As they themselves acted, so they commanded those whom they left in the churches in their place to act—and so Saint Paul now commands Timothy: do not allow anyone to introduce different teachings.

Saint Paul does not specify what this different teaching was or who the teachers of different doctrine were. It is enough that the teaching was different and that those who taught it taught differently—reason enough to turn away from both them and it. If this rule had always been maintained among believers, how many departures from the truth might have been prevented by this alone!

These teachers of different doctrine could have come from among the Gentiles, who, attempting to reconcile the Christian faith with pagan philosophies, were composing some kind of mixed teaching and beginning to preach it. But it is more probable that they were from among the Jews, for at that time Jews were the only ones who could speak on matters of faith with any degree of tolerance. Our commentators say exactly this—that they were Jews. Saint Chrysostom says: “There were certain false apostles here from among the Jews, who wanted to draw the faithful back to the (Mosaic) Law; this is what the Apostle reproaches them for everywhere. Meanwhile they did this not so much out of conviction of conscience as out of vainglory and desire for disciples; for they were rivals of the blessed Paul and bore envy toward him.” And the other commentators say the same.

“Nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies.”—“Nor to devote themselves”—to pay no attention, to keep nothing in mind, not to occupy oneself, not to treat these as subjects one typically says ‘I can’t get this out of my mind,’ but rather as those about which one says: is it even worth thinking or speaking of this? Saint Paul makes it a law that as soon as any teaching is different from the divinely transmitted teaching, one should immediately turn away both ear and mind from it, without entering into arguments and debates.

“Myths and genealogies” existed both among the Gentiles and among the Jews. “Myths,” μυθοι,—the pagan kind—were all the speculations of the pagans, especially their mythology, the content of which consisted of genealogies of their gods. Blessed Theophylact writes: “It is very likely that the Apostle here is alluding also to the Greeks; for they too have myths and genealogies, in which they catalogue their gods” (likewise in Saint Chrysostom). Genealogies among the Jews were what “they would customarily list—their grandfathers and great-grandfathers—imagining thereby to claim some historical glory for themselves” (blessed Theophylact). “They traced the list of grandfathers and great-grandfathers all the way back to Abraham, thinking to adorn themselves thereby, while themselves doing nothing worthy of praise” (Oecumenius). The Jewish myths are “not the very teaching of the Law, but the Jewish interpretation of it, called among them the Mishnah” (blessed Theophylact). “Endless” (απεραντοις, from περας — limit, aim, end)—the Apostle so describes these myths and genealogies either because the discussions about them have no end, or because these discussions have no worthy aim and yield no benefit, or because they are tangled, lack precision, and are hard to grasp with the mind (Saint Chrysostom, Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). In our own day, the myths from which one should turn away both ear and mind may be said to include the fantastic account of the world’s self-formation, without the creative action of God.

“Which promote speculations.”—“Speculations,” εκζητησεις,—inquiries, investigations, disputes, probings. “A speculation inquires what, from what, for what, how, in what manner such and such a thing came to be and is—which does not assist but rather hinders salvation” (Ambrosiaster). The aforementioned myths and genealogies, being human inventions, do not bear the seal of an authoritative guarantee of truth; they therefore stimulate curiosity and engender speculations or investigations, forming a habit of this. One who has acquired this habit occupies himself with nothing but probing; and as a result the realm of faith is overshadowed, grows dim, is forgotten, and the soul fills with empty and fruitless notions and reasonings. Faith then falls dormant; and if in this state curiosity produces self-invented definitions and conclusions that are inconsistent with faith, then faith is entirely destroyed.

Thus speculations do not promote “the economy of God that is by faith.”—“Economy,” οικονομιαν,—stewardship. Stewardship is concerned with the household’s good—its acquisition, increase, and employment, so that all in the house should have everything in sufficient measure. The house of God is the Church, which orders the salvation of believers. God has filled this house with every good thing for our salvation. God’s economy in this house consists in ensuring that all may freely benefit from every good thing contained in it and thereby arrange their salvation. Everything here is administered by God’s grace; the hand that receives from it the necessary good is faith. Whatever promotes faith promotes the reception of every good from grace for the completion of salvation, and thereby favors God’s economy; and whatever does not do so does not favor God’s economy. The Apostle affirms that speculations generated by human inventions are unfavorable to God’s economy—“the economy of God that is by faith”—they undermine faith, that sole hand appointed and fitted to receive the good from God’s economy dispensed abundantly by grace, and thereby cut off the work of salvation that is built by grace through faith. Our commentators especially draw attention to this harmful effect on faith that comes from speculations and investigations. Blessed Theophylact writes: “God introduced such an economy that in it everything is to be received by faith; but these people introduce speculations that undermine this economy of God.” Oecumenius asks: “What is God’s economy?”—and answers: “That His good things be received by faith, for they are incomprehensible; and to engage in speculation regarding each of them is contrary to God’s arrangements for His household.” Blessed Theodoret clarifies this: “Excessive speculations are foolish, whereas faith enlightens the mind and opens up the Divine economy.”

Saint Chrysostom discusses this subject at greater length, and reading his judgments is not without profit at any time. We cite them here.

“Do you see how he condemns untimely investigation? For where there is faith, investigation is not needed; where there is nothing to investigate, why engage in investigation? Investigation destroys faith: one who investigates something has not yet arrived at (the knowledge of) it; it is impossible that one who engages in investigation should believe. Therefore the Apostle says: let us not engage in investigations, for investigation is no longer faith; for faith brings the mind to rest. But (someone may say), did not Christ the Lord Himself say: ‘Seek, and you will find’ (Matt. 7:7) and: ‘Search the Scriptures’ (Jn. 5:39)? In the first place, ‘seek’ means petition, earnest desire; while in the other, ‘search the Scriptures’ not only imposes no obligation to investigate but even removes it; ‘search’ means: study and learn the genuine meaning of Scripture, not in order to be perpetually engaged in investigation, but to put an end to all investigation. God willed to give us many things, but our mind does not comprehend the greatness of His economy. Therefore what constitutes the greatest medicine for our souls must be accomplished with the aid of faith: our investigations are not in keeping with the economy of God. And what is accomplished with the aid of faith? That we receive God’s benefactions, become better, doubt nothing, are perplexed about nothing, and come to perfect rest. Meanwhile, what faith accomplishes and orders, our curiosity destroys, raising a multitude of questions and overturning faith.—Let us not therefore engage in investigations; for we are called believers precisely in order that we should believe without question what has been told us, and doubt nothing. If what has been said to us came from men, then one ought to investigate it; but since it comes from God, one need only revere it and believe it. If we do not believe it, we shall not be persuaded even that God exists. For how can you know that God exists, when you subject His words to investigation? The first sign that you know God is that you believe what He has said, without requiring either explanations or proofs. It is right to subject the teaching of the Greeks to investigation, for it was invented by human wisdom; but our teaching has been revealed to us by the grace of the Holy Spirit.”

1 Tim. 1:5. The aim of our charge is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

Having said above what one ought not to occupy oneself with, here he indicates what all attention and zeal should exclusively be directed toward. The chief thing here is love, and its qualification, enlivening, and direction come from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. And all of them are inseparable—each enters into the other, each supports and nurtures the other. Love is the abundant fruit-bearing tree of paradise, while purity of heart, the peace of conscience, and sincere faith are the soil, atmosphere, warmth, light, and moisture necessary for its nourishment and growth. This is what one ought to strive for, and this is how all care and exertion of energy must be directed! This is the end of all things.

For the flock, this is the ultimate goal of moral striving; and for the pastor, it is the “aim of the charge,” παραγγελιας,—of pastoral exhortations, counsels, commands, labors, and cares. Direct your activity toward this, and when you succeed in making those under your care such that the aforementioned virtues—wholehearted, conscientious love penetrated by faith—form the distinctive features of their character, then you will appear as a good shepherd, a worker who need not be ashamed. “It is your task, Saint Paul says to Timothy, to teach them to love God their benefactor sincerely and to have a pure faith supported by the witness of conscience” (blessed Theodoret). Then no different teaching will penetrate them, and they will not busy themselves with any myths. Different teaching produces division. When the bond of love is strong enough that no divisive influence can break it apart, then, not yielding to the dividing force of different doctrine, it will also repel the different doctrine itself. “If you plant love in them, no corrupted dogma will find a place among them,” writes blessed Theophylact. And Saint Chrysostom says: “Nothing does such harm to the human race as the neglect of friendly relations and insufficient care to preserve them; while again nothing can give such a good direction to life as the effort to maintain them with all one’s strength. Such neglect was the source of all heresies.—Therefore Paul, having said: ‘charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,’ points to love as the path by which this can be achieved.”

“The aim of the charge is love.” What kind of love? All-encompassing—both toward God and toward neighbors. Love toward God is zealous for the glory of God, and consequently for the reign of God’s truth everywhere; such zeal will not allow falsehood—which is opposed to God’s truth—to raise its head anywhere. Love toward neighbors is zealous for their temporal well-being, and even more for their eternal blessedness; and since the latter depends on preserving faith pure and undefiled, it is zealous that no different teaching should damage the purity of their faith.

“Love from a pure heart”—for there is also love from an impure heart (Oecumenius), and love that makes the very heart impure. This is carnal love. There is also egotistical love, which loves not for the good of the beloved but for one’s own sake; so that as soon as a sacrifice of self-denial is required, it fails the test and draws back. True love fills the whole heart and loves without any calculations, not limiting itself to mere feeling but always hastening to action. Saint Chrysostom interprets: “What kind of love does the Apostle speak of? Sincere love—which is not limited to words alone, but flows from a disposition of the soul, from good understanding and compassion. ‘From a pure,” he says, “heart’—that is, from straightforward mutual fellowship, or sincere friendship.”

“Love from a good conscience”—either such love as does not allow conscience to reproach one for not having done everything it demanded for the beloved, or such love as, with all its readiness and effort to do everything for the good of another, nonetheless does not permit anything contrary to the demands of conscience or to the direct commandments of God. It loves a brother, but not more than God—rather, for God’s sake, for whose will conscience always stands as its bearer. Or love from a good conscience is that love, of whose presence in the heart conscience bears witness—love of which not a word or an outward display speaks, but “the inner thought, which cannot lie even to itself. For is there anyone who would dissemble before himself, or attempt to hide from himself?” (Oecumenius).

“Love from sincere faith.” Mutual love is planted in the heart; it is a natural feeling in us. All would naturally love one another if egoism had not entered as a consequence of the Fall. After this, alongside the sympathetic feelings that flow from love, there also stand egotistical feelings that quench sympathetic love. In the natural order, some are dominated by egotistical feelings, and then the demands of love have no room; while others are dominated by sympathetic feelings, and then love has greater scope. This latter love, acting by the natural disposition of sympathy and compassion, is a quality worthy of esteem; yet it does not have full value or weight unless it is hallowed by its relation to God—that is, unless it is penetrated by faith, from which to draw its original impulse, inspiration, and strength. Only then does love rise to the level of love that is strong as death; for without this there is nothing to sustain the self-denial, the sacrifices of which the works and labors of love demand at every moment.

Sincere faith encompasses all the dogmas; and they are indeed all such that, as soon as they are held sincerely by the heart, they inevitably call forth feelings and works of love and inspire them—especially the dogmas of Providence, redemption, and future blessedness. God sees all things and accepts everything done out of love for Him for the brethren as though it were done directly for Him; how will one who believes this not hasten to place what is required through a brother’s hand into God’s hand? The Son of God, having been incarnate, gave Himself for us; will one who believes this begrudge offering to Him the required sacrifice in aid of brethren in the Lord? Faith suggests that what is sacrificed for a brother is laid up in God’s eternal dwelling-places, there to serve as, so to speak, an eternal provision in the Kingdom of Heaven for the very one who makes the sacrifice; so which believer who holds this sincerely will be stingy about sowing “bountifully,” in order also to “reap bountifully” (2 Cor. 9:6)? Thus love is inspired, hallowed, multiplied, and strengthened by sincere faith.

1 Tim. 1:6. Certain persons, having swerved from these things, have wandered away into vain talk.

“Having swerved.” αστοχησαντες. “The word αστοχειν is used of those who shoot unskillfully” (blessed Theophylact)—who aim their arrows not at the target but beside it. The Apostle has pointed out the goal of pastoral and teaching labors—love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith; now he speaks of the bad consequences when some among these fail to direct their cares and efforts toward this, and of the consequences for them personally as teachers. Some, he says, not directing their teaching labors toward this goal, have wandered into vain talk—that is, toward what he condemned just before: myths, genealogies, and fruitless speculations. “Have wandered away,” εξετραπησαν,—have strayed from the straight road, have turned aside. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle expressed it correctly: αστοχησαντες; for skill is needed in order to aim blows straight at the target and not beside it. It is therefore necessary that they be guided by the Holy Spirit; for there are many causes that turn one from the straight path—yet only one goal must be kept in view.” There is one standard of truth—divinely transmitted; whatever lies outside the domain it circumscribes cannot bear the seal of truth, and whoever speaks of it speaks emptily. And what kind of teacher is one who speaks empty words? Thus one who departs from the stated goal thereby loses the title of a true teacher.

1 Tim. 1:7. Desiring to be teachers of the Law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

Having said that they strayed from the straight path, he now explains wherein this straying consists (blessed Theophylact)—namely, in their wanting or conceiving the idea of teaching the Law when the time of the Law had already passed. There was a time for the Law, and then whoever taught the Law did not speak emptily; but now, when the force of the Law has already ceased, to come forward as its teacher means laboring in vain, speaking emptily. Acting in this way, the Apostle continues, they “understand not what they say”—they do not know what they are saying—they convict themselves of the fact that “they do not know the goal of the Law, nor the time for which it was destined to hold sway” (blessed Theophylact). “If they had known the Law, they would have believed in Christ; for knowing the Law as they ought, they would have seen that it leads to Christ” (Oecumenius). The words “say” and “make assertions” do not point to different subjects but to degrees of intensity in teaching. They assert, they persistently insist, that without such and such things determined in the Law there is no possibility of salvation. Blessed Theophylact writes: “What is it they assert? Perhaps things concerning purifications and various other bodily acts observed under the Law.” He derived this from Saint Chrysostom, who says: “They were probably discoursing about the Law and speaking much about purifications and other external rites.”

But who were they? As it appears, they were among the believers, but did not understand the power of faith and discoursed about the force of the Law. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle gives us to understand that he is speaking not of open adversaries, but of those who claim to have believed in the Lord yet corrupt the Gospel’s teaching, having supposed their foolish reasonings to be wiser than the words of God. And that they were from among the Jews is made clearly evident by the words: ‘desiring to be teachers of the Law.’”

Saint Chrysostom here makes a general observation on the darkening of the mind that comes from departing from the chief goal—wholehearted and conscientious love in the spirit of faith. “Ignorance,” he says, “has its origin in the departure from love. When the soul gives itself over to fleshly things, its perceptiveness is dulled; and when it departs from love, its intellectual sight is darkened. One in whom attachment to passing things takes root, being in a state of intoxication from the passions, can no longer be an impartial judge of truth.”

Part One: On Faith in the Lord Jesus (1 Timothy 1:8–20)

The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

He is charged not to allow empty and vain-talking rumors and teachings to circulate among the believers, but to direct all attention to building up and strengthening the believers in a holy life full of love in the spirit of faith. Now particular instructions are given on what precisely he must exert the power of his word and pastoral authority toward, working in this direction. This is the content of the whole Epistle, in which one may distinguish the following parts: 2) what orders ought to be established and maintained among the flock (1 Tim. 2:1–15, 3:1–13); 3) how to act among them and guide them (1 Tim. 3:14–6:19); 1) both of these in the spirit of Christian faith (1 Tim. 1:8–20). Since this last—“the spirit of Christian faith”—is evidently meant to serve as the guiding principle in this, faith in Christ the Lord is mentioned more than once in the course of the Epistle as the confirmatory and enlivening principle of the prescribed rules. At the very beginning a special section is devoted to it—all the remaining verses of chapter 1. Thus the first instructions deal with:

1) Faith in the Lord Jesus

This section may be considered a continuation of the preceding words; at least it is attached to them by the flow of discourse. Having said that those who, leaving behind what is essential—love in the spirit of faith—attempt to assert the significance of the Law, do not themselves understand what they are saying, he now explains this, saying: a) the time of the Law has already passed (1 Tim. 1:8–10); b) the time of the Gospel has come, which has been entrusted to me (1 Tim. 1:11–14); c) therefore—if you wish to be saved, believe in the Lord (1 Tim. 1:15–17); and d) he concludes: this is what I charge you to teach above all else (1 Tim. 1:18–20).

A) The time of the Law has already passed (1 Tim. 1:8–10)

This thought is not expressed literally, but constitutes the inner meaning of these verses, without which they cannot be understood.

1 Tim. 1:8. We know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully.

The Apostle seems to soften the preceding reproach against those who assert the significance of the Law—that they do not know what they are doing—by conceding: “the Law is good.” But he immediately adds a condition that is powerful enough to remove every boldness from those who come forward with teaching about the force of the Law: “if one uses it lawfully,” χρηται,—uses it in a lawful manner, that is, in the spirit of the Law itself, according to its inner meaning and significance. I know, he says, that the Law is good; but you are teaching about it wrongly. You present its significance as unconditional, whereas it is subject to a condition: “if.” Now examine this condition, and you will find that its fulfillment must lead to perceiving the passing away of the Law. The Law is a tutor toward Christ—it is the shadow, while the body is Christ. Follow this tutor, walk along this shadow—and you will arrive at Christ, the promised Deliverer. While Christ had not yet come, you were all under the tutor’s care, walking in the shadow; but when Christ came, the tutorship is ended, and the shadow must be left behind. Yet you keep repeating: the Law, the Law. Consequently, you are using it unlawfully—using it contrary to its significance and spirit; and so you do not know what you are saying.

Given the special significance of this passage, we transcribe what the holy Fathers and teachers said in commenting on it. Blessed Theodoret writes: “I do not censure the Law, but the bad teachers of the Law. For I know that the Law is profitable for those who have resolved to observe the purpose of the Law. This is what the words mean: ‘if one uses it lawfully’—that is, if one follows the purpose of the Law. And the purpose of the Law is to lead us to Christ the Master, and after His coming the Law no longer has force. This is what the Apostle said also in the Epistle to the Galatians: ‘I through the Law died to the Law, that I might live to God’ (Gal. 2:19). For in obeying the Law itself, he says, I do not keep the Law.” The same is found in Ambrosiaster: “The Apostle does not deny that the Law given through Moses is good, but only so that its meaning and the purpose for which it was given should be acknowledged and accepted. But the one who knows the Law and the purpose for which it was given is one who, upon hearing the proclamation about Christ, leaves the Law. One uses the Law lawfully who can distinguish in it what was given for a time from what is permanent, and acknowledges that what in it pertains to the mystery of Christ need no longer (after Christ’s coming) be observed in the future; for this would mean believing that He who has already come is yet to come.” And in blessed Theophylact: “One uses the Law lawfully who is led by it to Christ. The Law, being unable to justify, leads the one seeking righteousness to Christ—and this is its purpose: so that one uses the Law lawfully—that is, as the Law itself commands—who prefers Christ to the Law.” This was taken from Saint Chrysostom, who says: “If you use the Law as you ought, it will lead you to Christ. For since the purpose of the Law consists in the justification of man, yet it is not able (to accomplish this), it leads to the One who can (fulfill this).”

1 Tim. 1:9, 10. Knowing this: that the Law is not laid down for the righteous person, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, “for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those who practice homosexuality, for enslavers, [for slanderers, for those who practice bestiality,] for liars, for perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.”

The words “knowing this: that the Law is not laid down for the righteous person” explain who uses the Law correctly or relates to it correctly, indicating that this is the one who holds the conviction that the Law is not laid down for the righteous—that he is already free from it. By “righteous” here we must understand the Christian who, having believed in Christ, has received justification—that is, has received the forgiveness of sins and gracious renewal, manifested in a holy life. For such a person the Law is evidently not needed as a pointer to what is right; he is guided by the grace of the Holy Spirit, a higher law. “The Law is not laid down for the righteous,” says Saint Chrysostom, “because he does not wait for the Law to teach him what must be done, having within himself the guiding grace of the Holy Spirit—one who lacks nothing in the way of a guide has no need of instruction.” Since he is brought to this—that is, to faith in Christ and His grace—by the Law, for such is its purpose; it follows that the one who uses the Law lawfully is the one who, having reached the Law’s goal, lays its yoke from himself, in full conviction that it is no longer laid upon him. In other words, “the one who uses the Law as he ought is the one who knows that he has no need of it”—as Saint Chrysostom says. On the contrary, upon those who have not yet come to justification through faith and grace and remain in sins, it lies with all the weight of its yoke—obligation, condemnation, and fear—in order that by the effect of such a heavy yoke upon them it may move them to seek the relief and freedom that the Gospel proclamation sets before them.

One may suppose that Saint Paul, in making his qualification about the goodness of the Law under the stated condition, had in mind those Jewish believers who had not yet managed to free themselves from the Law. He says to them, as it were: never mind; this will not work to your harm, if you continue to relate to the Law lawfully—that is, if you hold the conviction that it is not the Law that saves and enlivens you to righteousness, but grace through faith, while the Law is something external and extraneous to you. Only such a relation to the Law is the correct and lawful one, maintained according to the meaning of the Law itself. Those who present the significance of the Law as unconditional do not know what they are doing; do not listen to them.

But it may also be taken that the Apostle is expressing a general principle—under what condition the Law is good. For it is the very purpose of the Law that the one who under its guidance arrives at where it leads should leave it behind, in the conviction that it is no longer laid upon him.

Oecumenius writes: “One uses the Law lawfully who knows that he has no need of it for a righteous life.” And who are such persons? Ambrosiaster answers: “They are those who, having received the forgiveness of sins, have become righteous, so as no longer to live under the Law, from which they have been freed by the grace of God through faith in Christ, but, fulfilling in their hearts what was written by the Creator (and now restored and enlivened by grace), to await from now on the Day of Judgment, when the righteous will receive their righteous reward.” Ambrosiaster also explains that originally the pattern of righteous life was written in the nature of man, so that by living according to it, people would appear righteous and pleasing to God. Then, when people, having given themselves over to the passions, began to trample upon that law of nature, God gave as a guide the written Law through Moses—so that, had the law of nature retained its force, the written Law would have had no place. Therefore now, when grace through faith restores in force what was written by the Creator in nature, the Law—which came in as a consequence of the disruption of this writing—is no longer needed for those in whom it is being restored by grace through faith. Something similar is written also by Oecumenius: “The Law was added because of transgressions” (Gal. 3:19); so that for a righteous person, who lives rightly out of love for virtue and not from fear of the Law, it is not needed; but it is needed for those who are not drawn to virtue of their own accord, and who, if they do anything, do so only from fear of the Law’s threats.

The Law, he says, does not rest upon the righteous person, because, having believed in the Lord and received grace, he bears the Law fulfilled within himself; but it rests upon the unrighteous, who have yet to fulfill the Law’s purpose. Having said this, the Apostle further identifies who such unrighteous people are, using first general names and then passing on to particulars. And even among the general names there is a noticeable movement from the more general to the less general.

“The lawless and disobedient.” The lawless person is one who fearlessly violates the moral law; while the disobedient, ανυποτακοις, is one who refuses to submit to established orders—civic and social. Such people live by their own will, being a law to themselves. In this respect they resemble righteous people, for these too are a law to themselves. Only the righteous are a law to themselves for every good, while those are a law to themselves for every evil, following the pull of self-indulgence and the passions.

“The ungodly and sinners” may be distinguished as follows: the former are violators of commandments in relation to God, who have no fear of God and honor nothing sacred; while the latter are violators of all the other commandments—in relation to themselves and to their neighbors.

The latter, in relation to others, violate every form of righteousness, and provide themselves with every indulgence through lusts, thereby defiling themselves. The Apostle calls them the unholy and the profane.

The following specific enumerations of lawbreakers are distributed between these two categories. To the first belong: those who strike their fathers and mothers, murderers, enslavers, slanderers, liars, perjurers; and to the second: the sexually immoral, those who practice homosexuality, those who practice bestiality. Who these people are is clear from their names. Some names, however, will be better understood if we point to the roots of the corresponding Greek words. “Those who strike their fathers and mothers,” πατρολωαις, μητρολωαις,—people who beat their father and mother severely, as threshers beat the grain being threshed. ’Αλοαις — from αλοαω — I thresh. “Enslavers,” ανδραποδισταις,—people who reduce others to slavery by force or by cunning.

“And whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.” Sound doctrine suggests the idea of teaching of a more theoretical character, in which there is nothing false—nothing that should be recognized as error. Falsehood and error are diseases of teaching; they are foreign to sound doctrine. The Christian teaching proclaimed by the Apostles is sound in all its substance.—But Christian teaching, though it proceeds from theoretical dogmas, is directed above all to the ordering of a good, holy, and righteous life. Therefore, understanding by sound doctrine the Christian teaching, one may interpret it as a teaching setting forth the rules of holy and righteous life, together with means of advancement in it. Contrary to sound doctrine will be whatever is contrary to pure, holy morality. The Apostle uses this expression (sound doctrine) in other places as well (2 Tim. 4:3; Tit. 2:1)—always either in rebuke of evil morals or in guidance toward good ones. In the present passage, having enumerated several categories of lawbreakers upon whom the Law rests, he finally states a general principle (blessed Theophylact): and in general, the Law rests upon all those who in any respect live contrary to sound doctrine, or to the sound rules of holy and righteous life. Those who follow sound doctrine have also a sound soul; while those who live contrary to it are afflicted with “the sickness of a corrupt soul” (Saint Chrysostom).

Such people need a physician and a remedy. The Law rests upon them for this very purpose—to convict, threaten, and crush them, bringing them to an awareness of their sickness and its danger, and thereby moving them to turn to the one Physician and His remedy. When they do this, the Law will also become superfluous for them: for then in them too it will have attained its goal and will yield its place to another master and guide.

B) The time of the Gospel has come (1 Tim. 1:11–14)

This too the Apostle does not express word for word, but makes it clearly understood through the entire structure of his speech. For he says: the Law does not rest upon the righteous person—by the Gospel: aa) by virtue of the Gospel, which is now being preached and received everywhere (verse 11). That this is happening by God’s arrangement: bb) be assured from my own life. I was on your side and persecuted the Gospel. Yet God so transformed me that He not only made me a believer but entrusted the preaching of the Gospel to me (verses 12–14). From this you can clearly see that the time of the Law has passed and the time of the Gospel has come. Such is the will of God.

Aa) The Law does not rest upon the righteous—according to the Gospel (1 Tim. 1:11)

1 Tim. 1:11. According to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.

“According to the Gospel”—refers to the whole preceding discourse, and chiefly to the fact that the Law does not rest upon the righteous. The Law has ceased because the Gospel is now being proclaimed. But the proclamation of the Gospel was not limited to words alone; it immediately established among those who believed new orders of life, by God’s command. It is now evident that God is introducing a new economy of salvation. By virtue of this, the Law no longer rests upon the righteous—that is, upon the one who receives justification and righteousness in the faith of the Gospel. “According to the Gospel,” says Saint Chrysostom, “means that for those who believe in it the Law is no longer needed.”

“According to the glorious Gospel”—the same as: according to the Gospel that is glorious; and it is glorious because it bears the seal of Divinity, because above all else it proclaims the glory of God’s boundless mercy toward us, and because it clothes those who receive it here with spiritual glory, and in the age to come promises to clothe them with a wondrous visible glory.

The reason why, of all the qualities of the Gospel, the Apostle chose to mention chiefly its glorious character, is that he wished to turn the attention of those who would read his Epistle away from the outward ingloriousness of the Gospel and of those who believe in it, and to direct it toward perceiving the glory of both—inner, essential, unfading. This was also needed as a counterweight to the Law, which still continued at the time to enjoy prestige, so that those who were leaving it would not consider themselves covered with shame for having believed the Gospel, as though passing from what is glorious to what is inglorious. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle called the Gospel ‘glorious’ for no other reason than on account of those who are ashamed of the persecutions and Christ’s sufferings. And he calls the Gospel the Gospel of glory because he wished to show that the suffering of Christ the Lord constitutes His glory—or even that he is hinting thereby at what is to come. For although our present life is full of shame and reproach, the future is nothing like that.”

To this same end serves also the Apostle’s naming God “blessed,” pointing thereby to the source and purpose of the Gospel’s economy. God, all-blessed within Himself, graciously willed to create rational creatures for participation in this blessedness; and when they through foolishness turned aside from this goal of their creation, He graciously willed to return them to this purpose by a certain wondrous means, which is proclaimed by the Gospel. Faith in the Gospel is the path to participation in the divine, all-encompassing blessedness. Therefore one cannot better extol it than by calling it the work of the blessed and all-beatifying God.

The words “with which I have been entrusted” serve as a transition to the second moment of the present section. By them Saint Paul suggests that in saying that the Gospel has now come, he speaks as one who knows the matter. For if the Gospel has been entrusted to him, then he knows its power and, in attributing to it the significance he has shown, presents it as it essentially is. This suggestion ought to seem all the more persuasive in that the Gospel does not have its origin in him, but has been entrusted to him—and entrusted from on high, because it is God’s.

Bb) Be assured, from my own life, that this comes about by God’s arrangement (1 Tim. 1:12–14)

I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

1 Tim. 1:12. I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.

In giving thanks to God for his calling to the apostolate and for the strengthening he received in the labors of preaching the Gospel, the Apostle shows that if the passing of the Law and its replacement by the Gospel had not been by God’s good will and arrangement, then God would not have torn him away from the Law—him, so zealous for the Law, which he had defended with such fervor—would not have entrusted the preaching of the Gospel to him, and would not have strengthened him in the labors of this work. For the Apostle himself this served as an encouraging conviction that the new Gospel economy, in place of the old, came directly from God. But it could not fail to produce the same impression on others; and therefore Saint Paul mentions it everywhere with the aim of presenting this as a tangible proof that if the Gospel economy is now being established in place of the Law, this is not from men but from God, that God is at work here and people serve only as His instruments. Saint Timothy knew all of this, and there would have been no need to speak of it to him; but although the Epistle was written to him, it was not intended for him alone.

“I thank him who has given me strength,” ενδυναμωσαντι,—who strengthened, who gave strength, or who was strengthening, who was giving strength. The first would point to the conversion of Saint Paul, how the Lord gave him the strength to believe; the second to the labors in preaching the Gospel, in which the Lord strengthened him, for they were beyond human strength. The first thought is expressed by Ambrosiaster: “Every unbeliever suffers from weakness of spirit, being bound by a carnal mind, so as not to believe spiritual things. Therefore the Apostle here expresses his gratitude to Christ the Lord, that by the manifestation of His Divine majesty He gave his weak mind the strength to believe; for until then he had considered incredible what was preached about the Divinity of the Lord, His twofold birth, His resurrection, and the hopes placed in Him.” The second thought is expressed by all our other commentators. Blessed Theodoret puts these words in the mouth of Saint Paul: “It is not by my own power that I offer this teaching to men, but being upheld and strengthened by the One who saved me, who made one who had dared to rage against Him a faithful servant of the Gospel.” Saint Chrysostom sees in the Apostle’s words a confession of the great assistance given him from above. “For consider how difficult it was to stand firm against daily mockeries, reproaches, plots, dangers, disputes, censures, and deaths, and not to fall into despondency, not to lose heart, not to waver—and yet, although from every side thousands of arrows were hurled at him every day, to stand with a firm and fearless countenance. This was beyond human strength.”

“Christ Jesus our Lord.” In the consciousness of Christians, the first thing perceived is the Person of Christ the Lord, the incarnate Son of God; and behind the veil of His flesh, the Tri-hypostatic God is contemplated—the One who in one of His Persons was pleased to become incarnate. This is imprinted in consciousness by faith, but afterward life provides also experiential confirmations that everything in us is from Christ the Lord. No one who is attentive to himself lacks such confirmations. But Saint Paul constantly felt the nearness of the Lord who was strengthening him; and just as he had previously confessed with fervor: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13), so here he gives thanks to the same One, the One “who has given him strength.”

He gives thanks to the Lord who strengthened him, and consequently attributes all his success to Him. But since strengthening is properly given to one who is already active and exerting his own efforts, this at the same time suggests that alongside faith in the All-Strengthening One, his own utmost efforts were also at work. Looking at the matter from these two sides, Saint Chrysostom sees in the Apostle’s words, on the one hand, a testimony to his humility and, on the other, a confirmation that in a life according to the spirit of faith not everything comes from the Lord but that the participation of one’s own will is also required. He says: “The Apostle said that the Gospel of God’s glory was entrusted to him, and since by this he had exalted himself and praised himself openly, he immediately afterward humbles himself, so that you might not think he speaks this out of pride. ‘I thank,’ he says, ‘the Lord who strengthens me.’ Do you see how he always conceals his own merits and attributes everything to God—yet in such a way that by this he does not abolish free will! For an unbeliever might perhaps say: if everything belongs to God and we ourselves contribute nothing, but God turns us from vice to love of wisdom as He would trees and stones, why did He make Paul such as he was, but not Judas? Therefore see, with what wisdom the Apostle speaks, preventing this objection. He says: ‘I thank Christ Jesus who strengthens me’—this is attributed to God; then he points to what belongs to himself: ‘because he judged me faithful’—evidently because he himself was disposed to contribute to this.”

“Because he judged me faithful.” He gives thanks that God counted him worthy of trust, having foreknown that he would be faithful to Him. And proof of this is that God entrusted to him the service of proclaiming the Gospel: “appointing me to his service”—setting him to serve the Gospel. For what master would entrust the stewardship of his house to a person whose faithfulness he was not assured of? So also the Lord entrusted the Gospel to Saint Paul, knowing by foreknowledge that he would be faithful. “And to be convinced that God chose him foreseeing what he would be, hear what God Himself says even before the Apostle came to preach: ‘He is a chosen vessel of Mine to carry my name before the Gentiles’ (Acts 9:15)” (Saint Chrysostom). Perceiving this in the Lord’s providential dealings with him, the Apostle gives thanks to Him. By this thanksgiving he expresses not so much joy at being recognized as faithful as he magnifies the service of the Gospel entrusted to him; and this because the Gospel economy itself is of surpassing greatness. Because of its greatness, it is also a great thing to be counted worthy of the trust of being placed in its service and of being honored with confidence in this matter. Thus the Apostle sets forth the pre-eminent exaltedness of the Gospel, without expressing this in literal terms. Ambrosiaster writes: “The Apostle was honored as worthy of being entrusted with the administration of the Lord’s mystery (that is, the Gospel), so that through the Law he might confirm the truth of what he had previously, out of love for the Law, considered incredible.” He confirmed this not only by teaching but by the very fact of his being chosen for the service of the Gospel. No one else would have confirmed this as much as Paul, the zealot for the Law, transformed into an even more zealous servant of the Gospel he had once persecuted.

But let us pause and attend to the very matter of trust placed in Saint Paul and of his election. For Saint Paul as a persecutor of the Church, it would have been a great thing if he had merely been brought to faith; but he was not only brought to faith but also appointed as its servant and its propagator—like a guilty servant who is not only received back into the household but placed in charge of the household. The Apostle sees in this an excess of mercy toward himself and gives thanks. Saint Chrysostom puts the following words in the mouth of Saint Paul: “I thank the Lord for counting me worthy of this service; for this is a sign that He considers me faithful. For just as in a household a steward is not only grateful to the master for his confidence, but takes this as a sign that the master considers him more worthy of trust than others—so in a similar way it was here.”

Saint Chrysostom connects with the words “he judged me faithful” also the further thought that “he was not unfaithful to the Lord in anything, said that everything belonged to Him, even called what was his own God’s, not appropriating God’s glory to himself.” In this he resembled a good steward who, forgetting himself, cares only for his master’s good and attributes all success to his master’s wisdom. “Saint Paul’s was only this—that he was fit for preaching; but to accomplish in deed what he was found fit for—for this he received strength from above, without which he would not have succeeded in anything” (blessed Theophylact). This is what Saint Paul confesses—here and in many other places. “For hear what he says: ‘Men,’ why are you looking at us? ‘We are men subject to the same passions as you’ (Acts 14:15). And again: ‘I labored more than all of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me’ (1 Cor. 15:10). And further: ‘God is at work in’ us ‘both to will and to work’ (Phil. 2:13). This is what the words mean: ‘he judged me faithful’ (Saint Chrysostom)—that is, He foreknew that he would appropriate nothing to himself, but would attribute everything to the Lord as the source of understanding and strength.”

Ambrosiaster senses in these words of the Apostle his joy in suffering for the Lord, against whom he had once waged war. These words are spoken at the end of a course of entrusted service, traversed amid afflictions, deprivations, and persecutions. The Lord foreknew that, in spite of all this, he would be faithful. Seeing this confirmed, the Apostle gives thanks to the Lord. “Such faithful devotion did the Apostle show to the Lord whom he had previously denied, that he rejoiced more in his sufferings for preaching faith in Him than he had previously exulted in his persecutions of the faithful.”

1 Tim. 1:13. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.

He calls himself “a blasphemer”—because he blasphemed the Lord Jesus Christ and was in truth a blasphemer of God; “a persecutor”—because he persecuted those who believed in the Lord and disturbed their communities and churches; and “an insolent opponent”—because he abused and reviled in every way both the faith and the believers. How mercilessly he sets out his former wickedness! But this is in order to display in all the brighter light the mercy of God toward him—the mercy shown nonetheless. “See,” says Saint Chrysostom, “how in describing his former life he extols God’s mercy and loving-kindness: ‘formerly I was,’ he says, ‘a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent opponent.’ Do you see his humility, how he is not self-loving, what a humble soul he has? He is not content to call himself a blasphemer and a persecutor; but he shows also that he did this with particular ferocity. For, he says, I did not keep the evil hidden within myself and was not content to be a blasphemer alone, but I also persecuted those who wished to live piously. I brought blasphemy to the utmost frenzy. For this I was worthy of every punishment, but I was not punished, for I received mercy.”

And he received mercy because “I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.” I did not know that by persecuting Christians I was raising myself against God and destroying His work, for I did not believe that Jesus Christ is God and that the Gospel economy replacing the Law is the work of God. “I was blind, did not see the light—it was not hatred that moved me to wage war, but zeal for the Law” (blessed Theodoret). “He confesses his ignorance, which sprang from unbelief” (Saint Chrysostom). “He acted thus not out of malice but out of error, which readily receives pardon as soon as repentance follows. But one who knows that what he is rejecting is true does not act out of error but out of evil will, and such a one’s wound is incurable. For he, moved by hatred, calls false what he knows to be true” (Ambrosiaster). Saint Paul’s heart was not corrupt and damaged by any passion. He was so actively zealous for the Law because he saw in the glory of the Law the glory of the God who had given the Law. Therefore it was enough to change his conviction—that now the glory of God lay not in the glory of the Law but in the glory of the Gospel—in order to change his course of action and transform him from a persecutor into an even more zealous propagator of the very Gospel he had been persecuting. This was accomplished by the manifestation of the Lord to him.

1 Tim. 1:14. And the grace of our Lord [Jesus Christ] abounded exceedingly, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

“Grace abounded exceedingly”—an exceeding great grace was shown to me, which surpassed all measure and all expectation—it was “grace upon grace” (Jn. 1:16). The Apostle wishes to say that he was not only not punished for his blasphemy and persecution, but was shown mercy; and beyond that, was abundantly and superabundantly graced—by which one may understand both all the spiritual blessings given to every believer, such as regeneration, the power working to salvation, sanctification, adoption, and the Kingdom of Heaven, and also the special grace of the apostolate. That this last should not be excluded from the circle of gifts of the grace that abounded toward Saint Paul is evident from the fact that these words stand in direct connection with the preceding speech, where the Apostle expresses his thanks to the Lord for the trust placed in him and the commission to serve the Gospel economy—which is the apostolate. Our commentators primarily fix attention on the gifts of grace common to all Christians. Saint Chrysostom says: “‘I received mercy,’ he says. But was only this (what you received), did mercy extend only as far as that you were not punished? No, (it extended to) many other great (benefactions). For God not only freed us from the threatened punishment, but also made us righteous, and sons, and brothers, and friends, and heirs, and co-heirs. Therefore he says: ‘grace abounded exceedingly’—expressing the thought that these gifts surpassed (the bounds of) mercy. For thus to act is the property not only of one who has mercy, but of one who loves and is entirely devoted.”

Grace abounded, he says, “with faith and love.” The one called believed; having believed, he loved; faith and love drew down abundant grace; they made of the heart a spacious vessel for the reception of superabundant grace. “By these words the Apostle showed what he himself contributed from his own side. For, having received grace from above, he contributed faith and love; he believed sincerely, loved with all warmth, and did not cease to burn with this love.”—Saint Chrysostom here, as above, makes an inference concerning the participation of free will in the work of salvation. He says: “Having said much about God’s loving-kindness—that He had mercy on him, though he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an oppressor—and not only limited himself to this but counted him worthy of many other great (benefactions)—the Apostle again confirms what has been said against unbelievers—namely, that one should not say that free will does not exist—by adding the following words: ‘with faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus.’ From our side, he says, we only contributed this: that we believed that He is able to save us (and loved Him). For we need not faith alone, but love also. (I add this) because there are now many who believe that Christ is God, yet do not love Him and do not act as those who love Him ought to act.”

“In Christ Jesus”—relates both to love and to faith, and signifies that those—faith and love—were in the Spirit of Christ, according to the Gospel economy, Christian. According to Saint Chrysostom, “in Christ” is the same as “through Christ”; but “through Christ” he understands as: according to the economy of Christ. “What does ‘through Christ’ mean?” he asks—and answers: “That He, and not the Law, was the cause of this for us”—namely, that grace might abound exceedingly for each one with faith and love: for such is the economy of Christ. Wherefore Saint Chrysostom further concludes: “Do you see what good things Christ was the cause of for us, and what the Law was?”

Let us add to this: consequently, the Apostle was right to pour out his thanks to the Lord—for making him not only a Christian but an Apostle of Christianity—and by pouring out such thanks to suggest to all that now no one ought to turn to the dried-up source of the Law, but hasten to the superabundant source of grace in Christ Jesus.

C) Therefore, if you wish to be saved—believe in the Lord (1 Tim. 1:15–17)

Believe; for: aa) Christ the Lord came for this very purpose—to save sinners—and there is no other way of salvation (verse 15); bb) the pattern of salvation by this path is myself, for I was shown mercy precisely so that all might see where those who wish to be saved should direct their steps, and hasten there with full hope (1 Tim. 1:16). Remembering this simple and effective means of salvation, cc) I cannot refrain from crying out: “Honor and glory to the wise God!” (1 Tim. 1:17). Blessed Theodoret expresses the content of these verses thus: “The Apostle, having revealed what happened to him personally, proves that this grace is offered to all.”

Aa) Christ the Lord came for this very purpose—to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15)

1 Tim. 1:15. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save “sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

The Apostle does not say in so many words: if you wish to be saved, believe; he only points to the most reliable means of salvation. One who desires salvation will himself hasten toward it. “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance”—the saying about the salvation of sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. He Himself testified: “I came from the Father and have come into the world” (Jn. 16:28). For what purpose? Not to call “the righteous,” but sinners “to repentance”—saving repentance (Matt. 9:13). The proclamation went forth: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk. 1:15), and all those with broken hearts and humbled spirits came running to this voice. They came running, and are being saved. The salvation proclaimed in the words of the Gospel is fulfilled in them as a fact. Not one who has truly believed and sincerely sought has been deceived in his hope. All are being saved. And whoever would wish to come to the Lord will be saved. I confirm this by my own example. I am the foremost of sinners, and I have been saved. What sinner after me, then, could fail to be saved? Therefore I confirm that the “saying” about this “is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. Trustworthy”—“that is, not false and untrue” (blessed Theodoret). “Deserving of full acceptance”—worthy of being received with an open heart, without the slightest shadow of doubt or wavering. “Since it seemed incredible that a man, in spite of having spent his entire preceding life (without bringing any) benefit and having squandered it fruitlessly on evil deeds, could afterward be saved through faith alone—for this reason he says: ‘the saying is trustworthy.’ And in proof of this he adduces himself: me, a blasphemer and a persecutor, God had mercy on, and not only had mercy on, but also made a believer. He is not only unashamed to call himself a sinner but even particularly rejoices in it; since by this he could best show the great miracle of God’s care (for sinners)” (Saint Chrysostom).

The Apostle calls himself the foremost of sinners. This comes from a feeling of contrition and repentance that he had formerly blasphemed the Lord and persecuted His Church. Though there was some excuse here in ignorance, a contrite heart does not like to set forth mitigating circumstances, but has recourse only to mercy, counting itself guilty without defense; and having received pardon, attributes it all entirely to mercy as the sole source. Already in this the Apostle presents a true pattern for all who repent; but even more so in his speaking thus of himself and feeling thus about himself after so many labors for God’s glory and after so many mercies shown him by God. The heart does not cease to ache if it is aware that it has offended the Beloved—even if the offense was committed before he came to love Him. Blessed Theodoret writes that “the Apostle, in calling himself the foremost of all sinners, goes beyond the very limits of humility.”

But others propose a somewhat different line of reasoning here. Saint Chrysostom says: “How does the Apostle, having said in another place that he was ‘blameless as to righteousness under the Law’ (Phil. 3:6), here say that he is a sinner and the foremost of sinners? This is because, in comparison with that righteousness of which God has made us partakers (in Christ Jesus) and which is truly to be sought, even those who were righteous under the Law are sinners: ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Rom. 3:23). Therefore he did not simply say: as to righteousness, but: as to the righteousness that is under the Law. For just as a man who has acquired a great deal of money may seem rich by himself, yet when he compares his possessions with the royal treasures he sees himself very poor and the foremost of the poor—so here also, comparing the one (legal) righteousness with the other (gracious) righteousness, Saint Paul shows the worthlessness of the former. And not only does he say this, but he even reckons as sinners those who have acquired righteousness of the first kind.” The same thought is expressed by blessed Theophylact, with a somewhat distinctive shade. “Saint Paul places himself among sinners, because before the righteousness that is in Christ, the righteousness that is according to the Law is now sin, since its time has already passed. While its time was in force, it was righteousness—just as in the night both the moon and a candle are light. But when Christ appeared as the sun, He eclipsed it. So he who uses the candle (of legal righteousness) when the sun (of Christ’s righteousness) has risen errs and acts foolishly.”

Bb) The Apostle himself is the pattern of salvation by this path (1 Tim. 1:16)

Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

1 Tim. 1:16. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

What deep humility! What a contrite awareness of his former guilt! I am, he says, so great a sinner that the Lord, being patient with me, exhausted upon me all His patience. And this He did not because He found anything worthy in me, but because no one more than I made possible the presentation of a pattern of mercy such that every sinner, looking at the mercy shown to me, might not waver, but be assured that he too will receive mercy and boldly come to believe in the Lord in undoubting hope that he too will receive eternal life. If even I have received mercy, who can doubt that he too will receive it?

Saint Chrysostom develops this at length: “Do you see how the Apostle again humbles and abases himself, adding something still more abasing? For having said that he received mercy on account of his ignorance, he indicates that one who has received mercy in this way is not a very great sinner and ought not to be severely condemned. But the expression that he received mercy in order that no sinner might ever despair, but might be assured that he will receive the same—this is a very weighty and very powerful (self-abasement). So that when the Apostle said of himself: I am the foremost of sinners, a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent, and ‘I am not worthy to be called an Apostle’ (1 Cor. 15:9), and the like—even then he said nothing as abasing as this. Let us illustrate with an example. Let us imagine a great city whose every inhabitant was wicked—some more, some less, but all deserving condemnation; and among these many, one who more than all the rest deserved condemnation and punishment, a man who had experienced every kind of crime. If, let us suppose, someone were to say that the king wished to pardon them all, they would not easily believe this news until they saw that the most criminal of all had already received this pardon. For then no doubt would remain. The same thing Paul also says—that God, wishing to assure people that He forgives everything, showed mercy to the one who sinned most of all. For if I, he says, have received forgiveness, let no one doubt that others will receive it too. And by this the Apostle shows that he did not deserve forgiveness, but for the sake of others’ salvation was the first to be counted worthy of it. Therefore, he says, let no one doubt their salvation when I am saved. And notice the humility of this blessed man. He did not say: that He might display patience in me, but: ‘his perfect patience’—as if to say: in no one else has God displayed more of His patience than in me, and He did not find another such sinner who required all His mercy, all His patience and not merely part of it, as those who sinned only in part. ‘As an example,’ he says, ‘to those who were to believe in him for eternal life’—that is, for their encouragement and incentive.”

Blessed Theodoret, to clarify what the Apostle has said, offers another comparison, in which he shows that from the Lord one receives not only mercy and forgiveness of sins, but also healing of sinful wounds. “As a physician,” the Apostle seems to say, “when in one house and at the same time there are many sick and all despair of recovery, takes the one most gravely ill, gives him healing remedies, and restores him to complete health—by this very act inspiring confidence in himself among all the other sick—so also the Lord Christ, physician of souls, who was made man for our salvation, bringing me forth publicly, the most lawless of all, not only freed me from former defilements but showered me with the greatest gifts, thereby showing to all people His immeasurable patience, so that no one among the greatest lawbreakers, looking at me, might despair of salvation. But the divine Apostle said this with a humble estimate of himself. It should be known that it was not his (moral) life that he acknowledged as lawless; but he spoke thus in recalling his attacks on the Church, as he writes in the Epistle to the Corinthians: ‘I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God’ (1 Cor. 15:9).”

“To believe in him for eternal life.”—“For eternal life” shows that the expectation of this life is an inseparable attribute of faith in the Lord Saviour. “Faith in Christ exists in the hope of obtaining eternal life” (Oecumenius). Eternal life is the crown of faith in the Lord. Faith in the Lord is the mystery of the restoration of the fallen. This restoration begins immediately as soon as one approaches the Lord in faith. But it ripens and is completed for the most part in a hidden manner. In all its brightness it will appear in the future life, where it will also receive its corresponding outward position and state. The hope of this encourages believers in the labors of restoration, while the first-fruits of restoration nourish and enliven the hope itself. This is why the Apostle, whenever he touches on the general features of faith, never fails to mention eternal life.

Cc) Honor and glory to the wise God! (1 Tim. 1:17)

1 Tim. 1:17. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

“Having recalled God’s benefactions, the Apostle turns his tongue to praise” (Theodoret). It is the custom of the Apostle Paul, in the course of expounding the work of the economy of the Incarnation, to be lifted up to God in thanksgiving and doxology. So also here, having ascended to the contemplation of the inexpressible wisdom and goodness of God—that by abolishing the Law He opened a wide door of salvation in the Lord Jesus for all who wish to believe in Him—he praises God. Honor and glory to God, who graciously wills to save sinners!

Having mentioned that in faith God has opened to all the door of salvation with the promise of eternal life, the Apostle names God the King of the ages and immortal, showing that the fulfillment of such a promise God holds in His own hands. Being immortal—having within Himself life that is unceasing, unborrowed, and inexhaustible—He gives also to believers life; as King of the ages—eternal life; and as invisible—such an eternal life as has no likeness in anything visible. The wisdom of God, so clearly manifested in creation, is seen as shining most brightly in the economy of the Incarnation. Therefore the Apostle, moved to praise by the contemplation of this economy, magnifies God here—as everywhere—as the only wise. Honor and glory—divine worship and doxology—be or be offered.

Our commentators particularly direct attention here to the question of to Whom this doxology is addressed. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Since the Apostle has shown that the Lord Christ is the giver of so many good things, wishing to teach that this was done by the good pleasure of God the Father and the cooperation of the Spirit of God, he passed from a single Person to the common nature and offered a hymn to the Trinity, and, keeping silence about the Persons, gives praise to the divine nature. For it is not difficult to see that what has been said belongs not to God the Father alone, but also to the Son and the Holy Spirit. For the King of the ages is not the Father alone, but also the Only-begotten Son—since He is the Creator of the ages—as well as the Holy Spirit—since the divine Apostle also called Him eternal, saying: ‘who through the eternal Spirit’ (Greek: αιωνιου — eternal) ‘offered himself without blemish to God’ (Heb. 9:14). Likewise, immortality and invisibility belong to the Son and the Spirit as well. And since this has been thus made clear, the name of God is truly the name of the One Trinity. For besides It there is no other God by nature.”

The same is found in the others. Blessed Theophylact adds something to the interpretation of the words “the only wise.” “This,” he says, “is said to show that although Angels and men also have wisdom, yet truly wise is God alone, as the source and author of wisdom; all other creatures that have wisdom become participants in it.”

Saint Chrysostom draws from the words “honor and glory” the following application: “Honor and glory are rendered not by words. Therefore, since He also honored us not with words but in actual deed, let us too render Him honor by actual deed.” Blessed Theophylact continues this application: “Glory and honor rendered in word show us only as thankful; but rendered in deed they make us imitators of Him—which is far greater. God requires of us the glorifying of Him in word as well, so that we might love Him, attend to Him, and obey Him, and thereby ourselves receive benefit—just as one who marvels at the glory of the sunlight does himself a benefit by enjoying the light and using it in his works, while one who does not use it brings loss and deprivation upon himself.”

D) This is the charge I entrust to you (1 Tim. 1:18–20)

1 Tim. 1:18. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.

“This” — ταυτην, such a, this very “charge.” What charge? That which was described before: both himself to turn aside, and to turn others away from all empty talk, and to fix all attention on the one thing—that salvation is only in the Lord Jesus Christ, for which purpose He came into the world.

“I entrust to you, child.” He gives a command, sets down a law—an act that is in some measure authoritative (blessed Theophylact), which weighs upon one and pushes one away. To soften it, the Apostle says: “I entrust,” παρατιθεμαι,—I put before you—and adds: “child.” “He gives the command as to a son, as to one of his own—not commandingly, not authoritatively, but as a father: ‘Timothy, my child’” (Saint Chrysostom). Moreover, “I entrust” means: I hand over—in the sense that the Apostles received from above the deposit of faith, which they transmitted to their successors. In this there is an obligation—to receive with reverence and to guard strictly. Saint Chrysostom says: “The expression ‘I entrust’ shows that what has been entrusted must be carefully guarded and did not originate with us. For we did not invent it, but God granted it to us. But what He granted to us we must guard. It is as if he were saying: it is not I who charge you, but the One who chose you.”

By the “prophecies” made about Timothy, the Apostle most likely means either the general voice of approval for Saint Timothy from the believers in Iconium and Lystra, heard by Saint Paul as the voice of God, together with some special prompting given to him from above at the same time; or certain prophecies about Saint Timothy from Prophets who were in the churches at that time, similar to their prophecies about the bonds awaiting Saint Paul; or intimations from above given to Paul himself, known also to Timothy, one of which may perhaps have been repeated at the very time of his appointment to replace the Apostle in Ephesus (blessed Theodoret). In any case this should be seen as testimony to the care with which the Apostle chose successors for himself, and as an indication of how this should always be done in the Church. Saint Chrysostom draws particular attention to this aspect of the matter. “The calling of a teacher (of the faithful) and of a priest is very great and worthy of admiration, and a truly divine indication is needed in order that a worthy man be chosen for it. Such was the way in ancient times; and such it is now too, when we make the choice without human partiality, when we look neither at worldly matters, nor at friendship, nor at enmity. For although we do not participate in the Spirit to the same degree, a good intention is sufficient to draw down from above an indication of one worthy to be ordained. And the Apostles, when they chose Matthias, were not yet participants in the Spirit; but, having entrusted the ordering of the matter to prayer, they numbered him among the Apostles. For they did not look at human friendship. This is how it ought to be done among us now too. But we, having reached the utmost degree of negligence, pass over without attention even what is perfectly obvious. But if we do not discern what is obvious, how shall God reveal to us what is unknown? ‘If,’ He says, ‘you were not faithful in little, who will entrust you with much?’ But in those times, since nothing was done from human partiality, a priest was appointed through prophecy. What does ‘through prophecy’ mean? By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For prophecy consists not only in predicting the future, but also in pointing out the present. For God reveals His will to the righteous. The words: ‘Separate for me Barnabas and Saul’ (Acts 13:2) were a prophecy. Thus also Timothy was chosen.—But here the Apostle speaks of many prophecies, meaning perhaps both the one by which he received him to himself at the beginning, and this one, when he ordained him, as he himself writes further on: ‘Do not neglect the gift you have’ (1 Tim. 4:14).”

The Apostle chose Saint Timothy to take his place and entrusted to him the Church of Ephesus, in full confidence that he would rightly carry out the task laid upon him, being assured of this by the previous indications from above. He speaks of this to Saint Timothy in order to inspire him with zeal and courage. Saint Chrysostom says: “In order to rouse him to zeal and to make him sober and watchful, he reminds him of the One who chose and ordained him, speaking as it were thus: God chose you, He entrusted the Church to you; it was not by human choice that you became a servant of the faith: do not offend, do not put to shame the divine choice.”

“That by them you may wage the good warfare.” The governance of the Church, the safeguarding of the faithful together with guiding them in the work of salvation, the Apostle compares to the waging of war or to a campaign. For here there is an unbroken war with unbelief, superstition, empty rationalism, blind hostility—war both with men and with the dark powers rising against the truth through men. Therefore the Apostle writes to Saint Timothy: “wage warfare”—saying, as it were: “you must prove yourself worthy of your election, bring the prophecies to fulfillment, and enter courageously into battle with the adversary demons” (blessed Theodoret). “A mighty war has been raised up, and in general against all, but especially against teachers; therefore we must always keep ready strong weapons—namely, sobriety, watchfulness, unsleeping vigilance; we must be ready for bloody battles, must be armed and have not the least softness within us” (Saint Chrysostom).

“Wage warfare by them.”—“By them” refers to the prophecies and means: in fulfillment of them, by virtue of them, in their spirit—drawing from them both the inspiring motivation and the enlightening direction. “They (these prophecies) chose you for what they chose you for; heed them therefore, be obedient to them, rightly fulfill the good service of a soldier” (Saint Chrysostom). “Because of which (prophecies) you were received and for the sake of which you were chosen—in them and through them wage warfare, by the power of the Holy Spirit, from whom also the prophecies come” (Oecumenius).

“Wage the good warfare”—gives either this thought: maintain this warfare, for it is good; since what can be better than to assist others in salvation, furthering the fulfillment of that for the sake of which our Lord came into the world? Or this thought: maintain the warfare in a good manner, so that it may be recognized as good; for even a good thing can be done in a bad manner, when bad aims are pursued and bad means are used. Saint Chrysostom points out here what in the moral order generally constitutes bad warfare. “The Apostle said: fulfill the good service of a soldier—good, for there is also a bad service of a soldier, of which he says: ‘As you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness’ (Rom. 6:19)—as weapons for sin and impurity. These too fulfilled a soldier’s service, but under a tyrant’s authority; but you—under the authority of the King.”

1 Tim. 1:19. Holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith.

What at the beginning he indicated as the standard for the teaching and guidance of the flock, he now lays as a moral duty upon the teacher himself. There he said: “the aim of the charge is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5); here he suggests: “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.” The chief thing for both the flock and the shepherd is faith and a good conscience. Faith embraces all that is believed—God the Trinity, Creator, Almighty, Provider, Redeemer, Sanctifier, and Judge worshipped; and chiefly this: that He, who wills the salvation of every sinner and has arranged a wondrous way of salvation for all, will also receive me as I come to Him in faith for salvation, and will save me as He Himself knows how. A good conscience requires “a life adorned with chastity and righteousness (love and piety). Such a praiseworthy life must be joined to faith” (blessed Theodoret). And this is so for the flock, and all the more for the shepherd. And the Apostle here seems to say to Timothy, appointed to shepherd and teach: “Do not think it enough that by the prophecies you have been set to exercise priesthood; but you must have right faith, so as rightly to dispense the word of truth, and a good conscience—that is, an unblameable life, from which a good conscience flows—so that you may also exercise a beneficial oversight over others” (blessed Theophylact). “A good teacher abstains from all that is contrary to truth and thereby lends the greatest credibility to his preaching. By the example of good deeds alone he draws many to belief, disposing them to rely on his word” (Ambrosiaster). “Therefore the teacher must first teach himself. For just as a military commander, if he had not first been an excellent soldier, would never have become a commander—so also one who teaches. This the Apostle says also in another place: ‘lest, after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified’ (1 Cor. 9:27)” (Saint Chrysostom).

“By rejecting which, some have made shipwreck of their faith.”—“Which”—the conscience—“by rejecting”—pushing away, despising, trampling on—they have fallen away from faith. So greatly does the rightness of faith depend on a good life. The Saviour placed even the coming to faith, or the understanding that His teaching is from God, in dependence on the fervent desire to do the will of God (Jn. 7:17). But as its beginning, so also the continuation of belief—or the firmness and rightness of faith—depends on a good conscience. One who tramples on conscience clearly does not value faith either. Therefore, if he is a teacher, he preaches his teaching hypocritically (Ambrosiaster). Moreover, one who neglects a good conscience, allowing himself license in the domain of life, acquires the habit of tolerating and admitting license also in the domain of thought, which in a believer is held in order by faith. This license readily receives all sorts of suppositions inconsistent with faith; these, not being rejected, soon pass into probabilities, and finally are held with conviction, in opposition to faith. This happens especially with respect to those points of faith which strongly trouble one on account of an evil life. One who has reached this point has already fallen away from faith, though he lives among believers. Thus, “if life is impure, then from this also perverted dogmas are born” (blessed Theophylact). “A dissolute life often serves as the foundation of ungodliness. Some, unable to bear the reproaches of conscience, together with it also rejected the all-encompassing Providence of God, and attributed what happens to fate and fortune” (blessed Theodoret). “When life becomes worthy of condemnation, then similar teaching also arises. And one can see many who, having fallen into the abyss of sins, swerved into paganism. They, in order not to be tormented by fear of the future judgment, try to persuade themselves in their soul that those threats are false. And all this comes from indulging the mind greatly (as they indulge the heart) and subjecting everything to rational investigation. Rationalism causes shipwreck (in the soul), while faith is in a certain sense a reliable ship—and those who deviate from it inevitably suffer shipwreck, of which the Apostle also gives an example” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Tim. 1:20. Among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

“Among whom.” Consequently, there were not only two such persons; these two are singled out presumably because of the uncontrollable nature of their tongues, by which they spread blasphemous words about the economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus everywhere. For this they also incurred a special punishment—spiritual, but visible to all and not without fear: namely, being handed over to Satan. This was not the first time the Apostle employed this punishment; in Corinth the incestuous man had been subjected to the same (1 Cor. 5:5). But what is this handing over to Satan?

There are two realms—the bright realm of faith and virtue, living in God and enlivened by God; and the dark realm of opposition to God and sin, ordered and maintained by our enemy Satan. The first is the Church of God’s saints; the second is everything outside the Church. Thus whoever steps out of the Church or is excluded from it inevitably falls under his power and influence. Saint Chrysostom says: “If you want to know how the Apostle handed the guilty over to Satan, listen. ‘When you are assembled,’ he says, ‘and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one to Satan’ (1 Cor. 5:4, 5). Consequently, the guilty one was immediately cast out of the general assembly, excluded from the flock, left alone and naked, given over to the wolf. For just as a cloud covered the Hebrew camp, so the Holy Spirit covers the Church. Therefore whoever was expelled from it was scorched; and the guilty one was expelled from it by the judgment of the Apostles. So also the Lord gave Judas over to Satan. For immediately ‘after the piece of bread, Satan entered into him’ (Jn. 13:27).”

But the punishment of being handed over to Satan was not limited to this invisible calamity, accomplished in the spirit alone. Certain guilty persons were punished for the instruction of the rest; therefore the punishment had to be visible, consisting either in bodily sicknesses and deprivations or in fits of mental disturbance that occurred from time to time. And one must suppose that just as in Corinth the guilty man was handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so something similar was suffered by those punished in the same way in Ephesus. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle handed them over to the devil as a harsh executor of punishment. For (at that time it was customary that) those excommunicated from the Church and deprived of grace were subjected to fierce blows from the adversary, falling into grave illnesses, sufferings, losses, and other calamities. Satan takes pleasure in inflicting these on people, since he is, according to the word of the Prophet, both enemy and avenger (Ps. 8:3).” In clarification of this Ambrosiaster adds: “This is why it is said in the Gospel, among other things, to the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years: ‘Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you’ (Jn. 5:14), showing that on account of sin the body sometimes falls into illness. And that the devil serves as the instrument for this, the Lord explained when in one case He said: ‘And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?’ (Lk. 13:16).”

To such punishment Saint Paul handed over those two guilty persons during his stay in Ephesus—personally and solemnly, in the presence of all the believers and perhaps of unbelievers as well. The purpose: “that they” may learn “not to blaspheme.” Who? Not these two alone, but all who were partaking of the same fault, though less bold than they—such was their blasphemy. “The Apostle did not disclose the nature of the blasphemy itself; because he was writing to one who knew the matter” (blessed Theodoret). But evidently it was directed against the work of God—the economy of salvation in the Lord. To cut short such blasphemy, the Apostle solemnly punished the chief offenders, both to correct them and to bring the rest to their senses. “Those being instructed, on seeing the harm arising from blasphemy, would naturally change their way of thinking” (blessed Theodoret). Saint Chrysostom says here: “But how does Satan teach one not to blaspheme? For if he teaches others not to blaspheme, he should all the more teach this to himself. But if he cannot to this day teach himself, he cannot teach others either.—The Apostle did not say: that they might teach them not to blaspheme, but: ‘that they’ may learn ‘not to blaspheme.’ He does not do this, but it is the consequence (of his actions). In a similar way the Apostle also says elsewhere of the fornicator: ‘to hand such a one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh’—not with the aim of saving the body, but: ‘that his spirit may be saved’ (1 Cor. 5:5). That is, this is said impersonally. How then does this come about? Just as executioners, being themselves full of countless crimes, bring others to their senses—so here (the same is said) of the evil demon.—But why, Apostle, did you not punish them yourself, as you did Bar-Jesus, as Cephas did Ananias, but handed them over to Satan?—In order to combine with the severity of the punishment a stronger condemnation of their guilt; besides, it was no small thing for the Apostle to show that he had the power to command the devil. For by this it became evident that the devil submits and is already subjected against his will to the Apostles (in carrying out their verdicts). Therefore this greatly contributed to the manifestation of the grace-gifts.”

Part Two: What Order to Establish and Keep Among Christians (1 Timothy 2:1–3:13)

On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

The orders that St. Paul addresses here are the orders of the Church. Two subjects occupy the Apostle here: A) instructions regarding church assemblies (chapter 2) and: B) instructions regarding those chosen for the church clergy (1 Tim. 3:1–13).

a) Regarding church assemblies

Christians gather together in temples for prayer. The instruction concerns prayer, namely: a) for whom to pray (1 Tim. 2:1–7) and: b) what order to maintain in this (1 Tim. 2:8–15). These are the subjects that the condition of the Ephesian Christians required to be addressed.

A) For whom to pray in church assemblies? (1 Tim. 2:1–7)

The Apostle commands prayer: aa) for all people—even for the Gentiles, and among them especially for the authorities (verses 1–2); bb) the incentive for which prayer he sets forth as: α) “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life” (verse 2) and: β) especially that this is pleasing to God, Who “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (verses 3–7); as is evident: αα) from His institution of one mediation between Himself and all people, not excluding the Gentiles (verses 5–6); and: ββ) as this is confirmed by the appointment of a special Apostle for the calling of the Gentiles—St. Paul himself (verse 7).

Aa) For all people (1 Tim. 2:1, 2)

1 Tim. 2:1, 2. I urge therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for the king and for all who are in authority.

“Therefore”—a concluding particle. Above he urged that St. Timothy should turn everyone away from empty talk and direct them toward a life in the spirit of faith with a pure conscience, assuring him that by acting thus he would wage his warfare well. Now he says: with these aims in view, do such and such.

Above all, he asks that care be taken for the proper conduct of prayers in the assemblies of the faithful. And in requiring this, the first thing he brings to attention is—for whom to pray—to pray for all people, including the unbelieving, and among them for the king and the authorities.—Why? Probably because this was the thing most needful to remind the Ephesians of: for the subject—prayer for all and for the authorities—though not unimportant, is not the primary one. Or perhaps such an order of prayer in church assemblies needed to be introduced and publicly declared to all, to counteract the widespread rumor spread by their enemies that Christians were misanthropists—as was evident from the fact that they shunned all people and human (pagan) customs, and that, meeting separately from others, they were plotting sedition. The Apostle therefore established as a rule that the Ephesians, and through them all Christians, when gathering for prayer, should above all pray for all people and for the authorities. After this, Christians could show everyone: “See how we are prescribed to pray, and judge whether we are misanthropists and agitators.” This order of prayer has been preserved in the Church to this day. Is it not at the direction of St. Paul?

“I urge”—a humble turn of speech that persuades but in no way diminishes the force of the legislation. This does not leave it to individual discretion whether to pray in this manner or another, if one should wish to do so. Such a mild form for urgent commands is observed also in ordinary social relationships.

“To make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings.” The last—“thanksgivings”—is distinguished from the others in its object, its feeling, and its word. As for the first three, they appear synonymous and were perhaps gathered together by St. Paul simply to express: pray in every way, pray with all your heart. So blessed Theophylact holds: “‘prayers, supplications, intercessions,’ as synonymous, were gathered by the Apostle to stir up the energy of prayer and to express, by insisting through these terms on one thing, the requirement to act without delay as he commands.” But the same blessed Theophylact then says: “Some, however, have been curious to find a distinction among these terms.” This was first done by blessed Theodoret, from whom he borrows the indication of the very marks of distinction.

One can see in these terms indications both of the various objects of prayer and of the qualities of prayer or the various states of the one praying. Thus “prayer,” δεησις,—from: δεω — by its object is “a petition for deliverance from what is grievous” (blessed Theodoret, blessed Theophylact)—that which causes grief, holds one in straits and extremity; and by the state of the one praying it is the feeling of need and want for the object of prayer, from which feeling the prayer itself is born; the absence of which makes the one praying an indifferent reciter of prayer, while its presence determines by its measure the measure of prayerful fervor. One who desires to pray must above all arm himself with this feeling and not approach prayer without it.—“Supplication,” προσευχη,—by its object is “the asking for good things” (blessed Theodoret, blessed Theophylact); and by the state of the one praying it is an impassioned prayer wrenched from the heart, giving rise to the offering of vows and readiness for every sacrifice, and in some cases accompanied by fasts, vigils, and other forms of self-denial.—“Intercession,” εντευξις, (from: εντυγχανω — to speak on behalf of someone before another)—is by its object an intercessory cry on behalf of others, with a complaint against visible and invisible enemies and an asking of help against them (blessed Theodoret, blessed Theophylact); and by the state of the one praying it is, on the one hand, a hopeful boldness before God, and on the other, an importunity in prayer, parabolically commanded also by the Saviour. According to St. John of the Ladder, an intercessory cry to God on behalf of others is fittingly taken up by the friends of God and consequently requires high moral perfection and great nearness to God; while importunity is not unseemly for anyone.

But the common element in all three of these is the asking of God for what is needful, whatever its kind; from which thanksgiving is directly distinguished, being directed customarily not toward hoped-for blessings but toward blessings already received, savored, and being savored. Basil the Great teaches that every prayer should begin with thanksgiving, assuring us that thanksgiving for blessings received intercedes more powerfully than any petition for the granting of new blessings. In the Apostle it is placed here after the petitions, perhaps so that, had it been placed before them, we might not think that for “all people” one should only petition and not also give thanks. The Apostle requires that we give thanks for others, in the conviction that nothing testifies so powerfully to our mutual love, enlivens it, and strengthens it as thanksgiving for blessings received by others. This is why he placed “thanksgiving” before: “for all people.”

“For all people”—for all people, not only the faithful but also the unbelieving. St. Chrysostom says with feeling regarding this: “Those who are initiated into the mysteries know how it is at our daily worship service, each day both morning and evening—how we offer prayer for the whole world.—The priest is as it were the common father of the whole universe; therefore it is fitting that he care for all, just as God cares for all, in Whose service he has been set. Accordingly the Apostle also commands prayer for all.—From this flow two good consequences: on the one hand, through this the hatred is dissolved which some harbor toward outsiders (those not belonging to the Church); for no one can harbor hostile feelings toward one for whom he makes supplication. On the other hand, those outsiders also become better—partly because prayers are offered for them (by the invisible influence of prayer), and partly because they, hearing that prayers are offered for them, lay aside their hardness toward us. For nothing so much promotes the success of teaching as to love and to be loved. Consider also what it meant for those who plotted against, struck, expelled, and killed the Christians—to hear that those who endured such sufferings offered diligent prayers to God for those who inflicted these sufferings on them! Do you see to what degree, in accordance with the Apostle’s desire, the Christian must stand above all? For just as love toward small children is not at all diminished even when the child, taken in one’s arms, strikes its father on the face; so we too must not diminish our love toward outsiders in the least, even if we endure blows from them.—‘I urge,’ he says, ‘that… thanksgivings be made for all people.’ Because one must thank God also for the blessings sent to others—for example, that He ‘makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust’ (Matt. 5:45). Do you see that He unites and binds us to one another not only through prayer but also through thanksgiving? For one who is obliged to thank God for blessings sent to his neighbor is also obliged to love him and be favorably disposed toward him.—And if one must give thanks for what is sent to one’s neighbor, how much more for what happens with us ourselves, both in secret and according to our desire and against our will, and even for what seems unpleasant to us; for God arranges all things for our good.”

“For the king and for all who are in authority.”—“Those who are in authority”—not those who are in the hands of authority, that is, the subjects, but those who themselves hold power over others in their own hands, rulers of various ranks; των εν υπεροχη οντων,—those who are at a height, standing above others—likewise all of them, that is, of every rank. “Even if the kings (and the other authorities under them) are unbelieving, one must nonetheless pray for them: for at that time they were all such” (blessed Theophylact). “So also the Jews captive in Babylon wrote to those remaining in Judea that they should offer prayer for Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar” (blessed Theodoret). But why did the Apostle not say directly: for the king and for the authorities, but first said: for all people, and only then for the king together with the authorities? In order that no one should consider him a flatterer, speaking not because the truth of God requires it but out of some external deference. If he had first said: for the kings or for the kings alone, then perhaps someone would have suspected him of this. This would have cast an unfavorable shadow generally on his words (St. Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact).

Bb) The incentive for prayer (1 Tim. 2:2–7)

In praying for all, and especially for the authorities, what should one keep in mind, what should one wish for them? α) Peace and well-being, so that amid their peace we too may quietly advance in godliness and purity (verse 2). But since immediately following this the Apostle mentions the thing most pleasing to God—namely the salvation of all—he thereby suggests that in praying for the outward good of all, one must also pray: β) for their inner good, namely that all may come to know the one path of salvation and enter upon it, which is most pleasing to God (1 Tim. 2:3) (verses 3–7), as is evident: αα) from His institution of one mediation between Himself and all people—including the Gentiles (verses 5–6)—and as: ββ) is confirmed by the appointment of a special Apostle for the calling of the Gentiles, St. Paul himself (verse 7).

α) That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life (1 Tim. 2:2)

1 Tim. 2:2. That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

This amounts directly to: pray for all and for the authorities, so that we may fare well. But how can we fare well if all do not fare well? Therefore one must see in these words a prayer for peace and well-being for all: that the authorities may have strength internally and possess means of protection for all from without; that, wielding power within, they may uphold justice, not give free rein to evildoers, and multiply the means of well-being (Ambrosiaster); and that the subjects, enjoying the order maintained by the authorities, may live peacefully and happily. When in this way all enjoy peace, then it will be possible for us too to live a peaceful and tranquil life.—Furthermore—since, when others around us are at peace, our own peace is not a necessary consequence but a contingency more or less probable—in placing our peace and tranquility in such close connection with prayer for all and for the authorities, does not the Apostle hint that prayer for them should also contain this point: dispose their hearts toward us, O Lord, so that, looking favorably upon us, they may not hinder us from living peacefully and tranquilly?

St. Chrysostom holds that the desire to forestall a possible perplexity among the faithful at the command to pray for unbelievers during the celebration of the sacraments prompted the Apostle to say these words. He says: “Since it was probable that the soul of a Christian, hearing this (to offer prayer for all), might fall into perplexity and not agree with this instruction—that during the celebration of the sacraments prayers must be offered for a pagan—see what he says and what advantages he proposes, in order that at least in this way he might incline them to accept his counsel. ‘That we may lead,’ he says, ‘a quiet and peaceable life’—that is, their salvation brings rest to us; just as also in the Epistle to the Romans, urging them to obey the rulers, he says: ‘not only because of wrath but also for the sake of conscience’ (Rom. 13:5); since God has appointed the authorities for the common good. For would it not be incongruous if we—when others go out on campaign and put on armor with the aim that we might remain safe—did not even offer prayers for those who face danger and bear the burden of military service? Therefore this is not at all flattery, but is done out of a requirement of justice. For if they did not escape danger and did not succeed in wars, then our affairs too would of necessity fall into confusion and disorder; then—after they had suffered defeat—we ourselves would have to go to war, or flee and wander everywhere. They constitute, he says, a kind of rampart set in front, guarding the peace of those dwelling within it.”

Did the Apostle not have in mind to make the exclusive object of prayer for all and for the King their conversion to the faith, so that, being thereby united in spirit, all might live tranquilly in peace and harmony, advancing in godliness and purity? With this thought the words that follow—“for this is good” and the rest—would be in complete accord. However, the apparent self-interest in the incentives for prayer—“that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life”—is entirely removed by the transformation of this quiet and tranquil life into a means for moral advancement: “in all godliness and dignity.” Peace and tranquility are the outward side; within, godliness and purity must reign. The Apostle desires the former for the sake of the latter. Behold—the image of a truly Christian society! When it does not turn its well-being to pleasures and every kind of self-indulgence in lusts, but to the flourishing of a life pleasing to God in godliness and purity. “Godliness,” guarding right faith, directs one toward God, compels one to please God, and teaches one to turn all things to the glory of God; purity demands purity of body from fleshly lusts and purity of soul from the passions of the soul. It is indicated by the Apostle with the word: σεμνοτης,—which denotes a life that is in all respects restrained, dispassionate, soberly dignified, and commanding general respect. Peaceful and tranquil life, according to the Apostle, receives its value only from the general spread of such virtues in society; for the sake of which it ought to be desirable and constitute an object of prayer. Blessed Theophylact writes: “These words (‘that we may live in godliness and purity’) the Apostle added because for many a life that is peaceful, undisturbed by conflicts, serves as an occasion for mere pleasures and mutual dissatisfactions, from which also arise false dogmas. ‘That we may live,’ he says, not in pleasures and mutual offenses, but: ‘in all godliness’—in all: not only in the purest orthodoxy, free from every heresy, but also in life according to the faith (for there is also ungodliness manifested in life, of which it is said: ‘They profess to know God, but’ by their ‘works they deny Him’ [cf.: Tit. 1:16]). Likewise: that we may live in all purity, σεμνοτητι,—means: let us live not only in abstinence from acts of fleshly lust, but in every virtue. Therefore, when we enjoy outward peace, we must also be at peace within, living in godliness and purity: for only in that case shall we truly live a life that is peaceful and tranquil. There are three kinds of conflicts that disturb peace: from the barbarians, from those who plot against us who live in the same place as we do, and from the passions that rise up against us from within. The conflict with the barbarians is ended by the vigilance and courage of the kings, whom we too must support with our prayers; the other two conflicts we must ourselves subdue—that which comes from those who hate us, by gentle yielding and prayers, as the prophet David gave the example, saying: ‘with those who hate peace I was peaceable’ (Ps. 119:6); and: ‘they spoke against me falsely, but I prayed’ (Ps. 108:4);—and that which rises up within us ourselves—with all the weapons of righteousness‘(the same also in St. Chrysostom). Only when one suppresses this inner conflict does outward tranquility also receive its full value. St. Chrysostom says:’What benefit will it bring you that the whole world enjoys peace, if you have a conflict within yourself? One must have this inner peace. If we have it, then nothing outward can do us harm. But if someone, when peace reigns without, is in turmoil within, then he is a most miserable man.—When our body rises against the soul, stirs up the fleshly passions against it, and within the soul itself there arises now anger, now envy—then it is impossible, without having put an end to this conflict, to taste the blessing of outward tranquility. Therefore the Apostle, having said: ‘that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life,’ did not stop there, but added: ‘in all godliness and purity’—in order to prompt the establishment of inner peace. For it is impossible to remain in godliness and purity if this peace is not established. For when inquisitive speculations shake our faith, what peace can there be? When the spirit of ungodliness disturbs us, what calm can there be?”

β) This is pleasing to God, Who desires all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:3–7)

One God, One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:3–6)

1 Tim. 2:3, 4. For this is good and acceptable before God our Saviour, Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

“Acceptable”—before God, and “good”—in what sense? One could understand “good” also as good before God; but one may also see in the word “good” an indication of the inner moral goodness of the act of prayer, as a testimony of love toward all.—God is “our Saviour” not only in that He desires salvation, but because He has arranged the manner of salvation and actually saves all who are being saved by that manner, actively helping them to make use of it.—God, Who desires the salvation of all, desires that all should come to the knowledge of the truth concerning salvation, namely that it is only in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is an indispensable condition of salvation. The prayer of the faithful for the salvation of the unbelieving is pleasing to God precisely because it promotes the fulfillment of this condition.

The thought grows ever more firmly established that the Apostle, in commanding prayer for all people and for their rulers, had in mind prayer for their salvation. Only to this thought do the present verses fully correspond. Pray for the salvation of all, because this is pleasing to God, Who desires all to be saved. But even if this thought is not recognized exclusively, it must in any case be recognized as the second chief thought alongside the first: for this is the one on which the Apostle dwells with particular attention. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The divine Apostle commands prayers for kings to be offered not only for this reason (‘that we may lead a quiet life’), but also that, laying aside ungodliness, they might be instructed in godliness.” Oecumenius continues: “For to pray for all people, even the Greeks (the unbelieving), that they may be converted, is good and pleasing to God.” “What does this mean (that is, good and pleasing)?” asks St. Chrysostom and answers: “That it is pleasing to God and He desires that prayers be offered for the salvation of all. For He ‘desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.’ Therefore imitate God. If He desires that all should be saved, desire the same yourself; and if you desire this, then pray for it; for it is proper for such people to pray. Do you see how the Apostle by every means persuades the soul that one must pray even for the pagans? This, he says, is pleasing to God; through this we become like Him, because we desire what He desires.”

God the Saviour desires all to be saved. Why, then, are not all saved, and why do not all continue to be saved? Because God, Who desires all to be saved, does not work out their salvation by His omnipotent power alone, but, having arranged and offered to all a wondrous and unique manner of salvation, desires that all should be saved by freely and willingly approaching this manner of salvation and making rational use of it. This is why the Apostle, having said that God our Saviour “desires all men to be saved,” added: “and to come to the knowledge of the truth”—placing in the latter the condition for the former. “To come to the knowledge of the truth”—that is, to come into the knowledge of the truth. “What truth? Namely, faith in Him” (St. Chrysostom)—faith that there is no other salvation than in the Lord Jesus Christ, as is said immediately (verse 5). The preaching has gone out into the world. Those who hear give heed, lay up in their heart what they have heard, understand the truth, arrive at the decision to follow it, follow it, and are saved by the God-ordained manner. This entire path is the path of free, rational will, which grace accompanies, confirming its movements.

And here is, on the one hand, the reason why not all are saved, and on the other, the place for the influence of the prayer of the faithful for the salvation of the unbelieving.

Not all are saved because not all hearken to the word of truth, not all incline toward it, not all follow it—in a word, not all desire it. “If God desires (all to be saved), then why does what God desires not come about?”—asks Oecumenius—and answers: “Because they do not desire it; for God does nothing here by compulsion.” We read something similar in Ambrosiaster: “If God, Who is called Almighty, desires all men to be saved, why then is His desire not fulfilled? God desires all men to be saved, but only if they come to Him. For He does not desire this in such a way that even the unwilling should be saved; but desires their salvation only if they themselves also desire it. Just as He deprives no one of salvation by His omnipotent power, so He saves no one by it. A physician announces to the community that he is ready to heal all—but, of course, if the sick come to him. So also here: those who come to the Physician of souls are saved. The salvation would not be true if it were given against one’s will. And the one who received it could not rejoice in the salvation received, if it were possible to receive it compulsorily; not to mention that here the one sick in spirit cannot receive the spiritual medicine unless he surrenders himself wholeheartedly to its action. Here not a bodily but a spiritual healing takes place, which brings no benefit either to those who doubt it or to those who do not desire it. For faith, which gives salvation, if the soul does not receive it with all desire, will not only bring no benefit but will even harm (will serve to greater condemnation). The grace of faith has the power to pour the saving medicine only into those who surrender themselves to it wholeheartedly.”

There is room for the influence of the prayer of the faithful for the salvation of the unbelieving at all the turning-points of the movement of free will along the path of salvation, from the first hearkening to the word of truth to the reception of salvation. It influences the first hearkening to the Gospel, the understanding of what is at stake, the inclination toward it, and the decision to follow it. How? This cannot be pointed out tangibly; but that it exists is suggested by the present passage. It is pleasing to God, he says, when the faithful pray for the salvation of the unbelieving—certainly because this promotes their salvation. Since this salvation is conditioned by the knowledge of the truth or the full reception of faith, which free will attains by making several turnings in its movement, it is evident that the prayer of the faithful which assists in the salvation of the unbelieving exerts its influence on the successful completion of all these turnings of the will and finally on the very reception of salvation. The holy Church believes this, expressing her faith in the prayer for the catechumens, who are those on their way toward the reception of salvation.

αα) This is evident from His institution of one mediation between Himself and all people (1 Tim. 2:5, 6)

1 Tim. 2:5, 6. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself as a ransom for all: the testimony at the appointed time.

The particle “for” connects this passage with what precedes it as a reason. To what precisely does it refer in this force? One may relate it to what stands immediately before: “to come to the knowledge of the truth”—thus: God desires all to be saved through the knowledge of the truth—namely this: that salvation is in the Lord Jesus, and only in Him, because there is no other path to salvation. As there is one God, so also there is one mediator between God and men. People, in Adam, fell away from God, in Whom is their life—they fell away and sank into the realm of death. Before them lay either to remain in this death forever, or to open the path to reunion with God, without Whom the power of death could not be cut off and their life could not return to its true condition. Since neither they themselves nor any other creature, even the highest, had the power to open and arrange this, the boundless love of God for mankind intervened on their behalf. God’s counsel decreed that the Only-begotten Son of God should become incarnate for the deliverance of men from their extreme misery, without departing from the bosom of the Father, so that, having died in the flesh, He might destroy the power of death and, having quickened human nature in Himself through the resurrection, become the living unifier of men with God. The Son of God came to earth, became incarnate, suffered, died on the cross, rose again, ascended into heaven—and sits at the right hand of God the Father in human nature, which, having been united with His Divinity in His Person, remains united with God the Father, with Whom He never ceased to be one. Thereafter—those who believe in Him, and are mystically joined to Him, are made one with Him and through Him are united with God; as He Himself testified, speaking with His disciples: “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (Jn. 14:20). There is no other path to reunion with God, in which reunion is salvation. “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6), says the Lord. “The Apostle here speaks as he spoke in another place: ‘one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. 8:6)” (St. Chrysostom). There is no other mediator and there can be none. As God is one, so also the mediator between God and men is one. Seek no other, and if anyone should offer to point one out to you, do not follow him. Consequently, there is no other salvation either—than in a living union with the Lord Jesus. This is the truth that God, Who desires all to be saved, desires all to know—to know, receive, and through it attain salvation.

The mediator, μεσιτης,—is not one who speaks an intercessory word in defense, but one who actually stands in the middle and unites those between whom he mediates—a unifier, “one who has joined together in Himself what was divided” (blessed Theodoret), and a living unifier. Such is His essence.

Since, in saying “one God” and “one mediator,” the Apostle had in view only to show that there is no other salvation than in the Lord Jesus—as God is one, so also the mediator between God and men is one—all other questions that may arise in this connection can be passed over without loss to the understanding of the Apostle’s words. It is permissible, however, to reflect in passing that when it is said: “there is one God,” this is said not to the detriment of the truth of God’s triunity, but to show that the incarnation of one Person of the Triune God gave rise to no division in the one Nature of God. The incarnate Son did not become external to God, as the word “mediator” might suggest: for in the mediator between God and men there is God of God and man of men. Having become such through the incarnation, the Son did not stand apart from the Father; but took up, accomplished, and sustains the incarnate mediation without departing from the bosom of the Father. Arranged for our salvation, this mediation did not divide God. God remains One even with it.

Likewise when it is said “one mediator,” this is said not to the detriment of the truth of two natures in the mediator, but to show that the two natures in Him do not make two mediators. Even with two natures He is one. As mediator, He is God of God and man of men; but there is one Person—the incarnate Son of God. Oecumenius writes: “Since one who is to be a mediator between God and man had to partake of both, so as to be able to mediate between them, the Son of God, the eternal Word, came (to us on earth) by becoming incarnate, being thus from two natures, Divinity and humanity, but after their union understood and worshiped in one Hypostasis.”

Therefore, when what follows says “the man Christ Jesus,” this does not affirm the unity of nature in Him—it does not affirm that He is only man and not also God—but only shows how He became the mediator; and He became the mediator through the incarnation. So blessed Theodoret: “The Apostle called Christ Jesus a man because he called Him a mediator, and Christ became the mediator by becoming incarnate.” One may therefore understand the word “man” as meaning “the One who became incarnate,” thus: one mediator, the One who became incarnate—meaning, the Son of God named Christ Jesus.

Our commentators direct their words above all to clarifying the meaning of the mediation. Blessed Theodoret writes: “As one who intends to reconcile two persons who are at odds with each other, standing between them and holding one with his right hand and the other with his left, brings them into friendship: so Christ, having united humanity with His divine nature, established an inviolable and indissoluble peace. But if Christ, according to the teaching of Arius and Eunomius, is without share in the substance of the Father, then in what sense is He a mediator? With us (in that case) He would be united, since He is consubstantial with us in His humanity; but with the Father He would have no union, if, as they teach, He is separated from the divine nature. But the divine Apostle called Him a mediator—meaning therefore that He is in union both with the Father according to Divinity, and with us according to humanity.” St. Chrysostom says: “The mediator must partake of both sides in relation to which he is the mediator; for it is proper to a mediator, possessing what belongs to each of the two sides for which he is the mediator, to bring them into mutual communion. But if he possesses what belongs to one side and is separated from the other, then in such a case he is not a mediator at all. Consequently, if Christ Jesus has no share in the nature of the Father, He is not a mediator but is separated from Him. Therefore we acknowledge that just as He became a partaker of human nature because He came to men, so also of the divine nature He is a partaker because He came from God. Since through Him two natures were being united, He had to be close to both natures. For just as some place occupying the middle (between two locations) touches each of them; so also the one who unites two natures must be a partaker of both natures. Consequently Christ Jesus, just as He became man, was also God. Being only man, He would not have become a mediator; because He had to speak (in a divine manner) with God. Likewise, being only God, He would not be a mediator; because those (Oecumenius: would not have endured Him; better: He could not represent the persons of those) for whom He serves as mediator would not have received Him.”

“Who gave Himself as a ransom for all.”—“Ransom,” αντιλυτρον,—redemption price. The mediation was no easy matter; it did not consist only in an intercessory word, but in deed, and required sacrifice. This was because of the condition of those on whose behalf the mediator took up the mediation. The latter had fallen away from God through sin and stood under the wrath of God for the guilt of sin—because of sin they were subject to the tyranny of Satan, and through both of these—to death. God was pleased to be reconciled with those who had fallen away; but in order that those who had fallen away might rise to the capacity for entering into reconciliation, it was necessary to free them from all the bonds that held them in base slavery—namely the offended justice of God, sin, the devil, death. The mediator undertook to accomplish this, bearing without guilt what lay upon the guilty ones for whom he mediated. Having become incarnate, He took upon Himself human nature, pure and sinless, and by surrendering it to death on the cross He thereby satisfied the justice of God; the satisfied justice of God opened the gates to the outpouring of mercy and grace upon the guilty—who, being received into mercy and sanctified by grace, break the bonds of sin, and through this also cast off the bonds of slavery to the devil; thus they at last become sons of the resurrection, over whom death has no power. By all of this together the ransom is accomplished, and the mystery of the mediation enters into force. The root and beginning of all is this: that the incarnate Son of God, as mediator, gave Himself—gave Himself to death on the cross. Therefore the Apostle encompasses the entire work of mediation in this one thing: “Who gave Himself as a ransom.”

Blessed Theodoret writes: “When all were under the dominion of death, Christ was not subject to death—both as God, because He had an immortal nature, and as man, because He had committed no sin that causes death. But He gave Himself up (to death) as a kind of redemptive price, and freed all from the slavery of death.”

Let us also note here in passing: is it not for this reason also that the Apostle first said of the mediator that He is “the man Christ Jesus”—because he was about to say immediately after: “Who gave Himself as a ransom?” For in order to offer such a sacrifice, He had to have something to offer—namely humanity—and to become man. “He must have something also to offer” (Heb. 8:3), the Apostle says in another place. And what is this? Flesh and blood. “Since… the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might bring to nothing him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death… were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14, 15).

“The testimony at the appointed time.” These are subsidiary words. And it is difficult to determine what thought the Apostle had in mind here. Let us set these words in relation to what precedes. The Son of God, having become incarnate for the mediation between God and men, gave Himself to death as the redemption of all—of all, not only Jews but also Gentiles. This act of the boundless love for mankind of God the Father, Who gave up the Son, and of God the Son, Who gave up Himself, is a testimony. A testimony to what? To this: that “God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”—not only Jews but also Gentiles. Therefore you, the faithful, in praying for the unbelieving Gentiles, do something pleasing to God, because thereby you assist in the fulfillment of what God desires, namely the salvation of all—and of the Gentiles. That this is the direct will of God is evident from the fact that the mediation He instituted between Himself and men embraces all men, and that the mediator, in giving Himself to death, gave Himself as the redemption of all people without distinction or exception. St. Chrysostom sees this train of thought in the Apostle: “Who gave Himself as a ransom for all.” What then—does this mean for the Gentiles also, tell me? Yes.—And in spite of the fact that Christ died also for the Gentiles, will you not consent to pray for them? So why, you will ask, did they not believe? Because they did not desire to (he said above: because the world had not yet attained the truth), but on His part everything was done. Of this His passion testifies, he says.—For all—and for the Gentiles—to be saved was appointed from eternity. Such is the eternal will of God; but the testimony concerning it was given at the proper time: “at the appointed time”—that is, “at the fitting or proper time” (St. Chrysostom), “when men had already been made capable of believing” (Oecumenius),—“in the times foreordained and predestined by the most blessed Trinity” (Clement in Oecumenius). This testimony, manifested at the proper time, is the very institution of this salvation of all. By this is expressed the same as what we read in the Epistle to the Galatians: “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son… to redeem those under the Law” (Gal. 4:4, 5).—To interpret and spread abroad this testimony, the Apostle further says, has been laid upon me.

ββ) This is confirmed by the appointment of the Apostle himself for the calling of the Gentiles (1 Tim. 2:7)

The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

1 Tim. 2:7. For which I was appointed a herald and an Apostle—I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

“For which”—as a testimony. The testimony was defined above as testimony to the fact that God desires all—and the Gentiles—to be saved. This testimony was given by the fact that the incarnate Son of God became the mediator between God and men—for all men—and that He gave Himself to death for the redemption likewise of all men—and the Gentiles. To interpret and spread this testimony everywhere I have been appointed, says the Apostle; appointed expressly, in which appointment you must see a new confirmation that God desires all—and the Gentiles—to be saved. For, having arranged the wondrous manner of the salvation of all in the incarnate economy—in the cross-death of the Incarnate One—He did not permit it to remain unknown, but chose a special herald for it and sent him throughout the whole world to teach the Gentiles—to believe in this. St. Chrysostom sees precisely this as the Apostle’s incentive for mentioning his appointment. “The Apostle,” he says, “said of himself that he was chosen as a teacher of the Gentiles—hinting at the fact that now grace has spread throughout the whole world.” He also places this suggestion in connection with the commandment to pray for the Gentiles: “Since Christ suffered for the Gentiles and I was chosen as teacher of the Gentiles, why do you not pray for them? Do you see the grace poured out abundantly? For among the Jews no prayers were offered for them, but now grace has extended over them as well.”

In the words “herald, Apostle, teacher” our commentators note a certain gradation, though the matter was one. Blessed Theophylact writes: “For this testimony I was appointed as a herald, to proclaim it, that is, the cross and death of Christ the Lord. And I was appointed not simply as a herald, to preach in only one place, but also as an Apostle—a messenger—to go everywhere with the proclamation.” Oecumenius adds: “Since one can also preach in passing, he added: ‘teacher;’ I, he says, was not content to deliver a single sermon, but taught without ceasing until I had taught them. By this I also showed the special care of God for the Gentiles.”

Why did the Apostle insert into his account of his appointment the assuring words: “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying?” St. Timothy was the beloved disciple of St. Paul and knew everything; so there was no need to address him with such assurances. But the Apostle could have said this with the implied sense of: as you know; and said it for the same reason that persons who live soul in soul with one another sometimes recount to each other what they know and have already recounted many times, because it is pleasant to remember and recount it. But one may also suppose that the Apostle, in writing this, had in mind the Ephesians, from whom St. Timothy, of course, was not to conceal the letter. And for the Ephesians it was in no way superfluous to say this: for not all of them had yet believed, and of those who had believed, not all were converted by St. Paul—many believed after him. For such persons these words placed the seal of divine authority: for some—upon truths already believed, and for others—upon truths proposed for belief.—It is not superfluous to note that this assurance relates not to the fact that St. Paul had been appointed an Apostle in general, but that he had been appointed to be an Apostle and teacher specifically of the Gentiles. This could not but be pleasant and attractive for the Gentiles, of whom the Ephesian Church was predominantly composed, and could not but act in a reassuring manner on their faith—being settled in which they could without wavering withstand doubts cast in from without, from the widespread pagan vain philosophy in Ephesus.

The words “in faith and truth” point either to the object of the preaching and teaching: I am a teacher of the Gentiles, appointed to teach them faith and truth (Ambrosiaster); or to the character of the teaching: I do not teach through reasoning but through faith, and I do not prove my teaching by arguments but offer it to faith, assuring them that it is true. “I preach, not arming myself with syllogisms or logical proofs and not clothing my teaching in rhetorical cunning, but offering it to faith. But so that no one should think that what is offered for belief is some kind of delusion, he added: ‘in truth.’ Though I offer it to faith, what is offered is true. What is taught, though it is taught to faith, is taught in truth. And those capable of faith believe—by which the power of the preaching is proved” (a paraphrase from St. Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius). Blessed Theodoret writes: “Of this mystery (that is, the salvation of all by the cross-death of the Lord) I have been appointed herald and Apostle, says Paul, and I present this to all with appropriate faith and truth; because I confirm my words with miracle-working.” The thought is the same as that set out above, with a certain nuance—that the teaching is not only faithful and true but also evidenced: I also present documentary proofs.

B) What order to maintain in church assemblies (1 Tim. 2:8–15)

The entire word of the Apostle here is devoted to: bb) the ordering of women (1 Tim. 2:9–15); only one verse is given to: aa) the general outline of church prayer services, from both the outward and inward side (verse 8).

Aa) A general outline of church prayer services (1 Tim. 2:8)

1 Tim. 2:8. I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without anger and disputing.

They gathered for prayer not in one place but in several; in every such place the Apostle commands that prayers be offered or the divine service conducted by men, while women are to listen and pray in silence; but at the same time all who pray must be blameless, have a pure conscience, harbor no ill-will toward others, and hold no doubt that God will hear. Such is the general outline of church prayer services.

“I desire therefore.” The Apostle desires with apostolic desire, equivalent in force to legislation. “Therefore” connects the beginning speech with what precedes it, specifically with the first verses of this chapter (1–2). There the command was given to offer prayers for all, to which it was needful to add clarifying propositions (3–7). Now he returns again to the instructions concerning prayer and says: in general, conduct the church prayer services in such and such a manner.

“I desire that the men pray.” When assembled together, they sang the psalms of the prophet David and new hymns composed under the movement of the Spirit, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity, of Christ the Lord, of His death and resurrection, and of the other Christian mysteries. Certain prayers were read aloud before all, most from those already in use, and some new ones—about which it must be noted that, after the disorders in the Corinthian Church, they were not permitted without the knowledge and authorization of the presiders of the Church. All such prayers, read and sung in the general assembly of the faithful, must, says the Apostle, be offered by men. By men—not of course by all who had gathered, nor by each one in turn. For the gifts were various, and it was as obligatory for those who had received gifts to use the received gift for the good of the Church (1 Pet. 4:10), as it was obligatory not to take up work for which one had received no gift. Therefore one must suppose that prayers in the assembly of the faithful were also offered by men who had received the gift for this. How were they designated? Those who had a disposition toward reading and speaking prayers were evident to all. They were commissioned by the community of the faithful to offer prayers, and entered upon the work—some through prayerful consecration, others through the mystery of ordination. Both groups constituted the clergy. St. Paul had the custom of establishing it everywhere where he founded the Churches of Christ (Acts 14:23). He probably has this in mind also by “men.” Every assembly of the faithful in Ephesus naturally had both its celebrant of the mysteries—the presider—and its prayer-reciters. It is about them that the word is spoken—that they should offer prayers, and that others should not intrude arbitrarily into this matter; otherwise in the Church everything cannot proceed decently and in order (1 Cor. 14:40). What he says—“in every place”—has no special significance in the present regulation; for the Apostle’s concern is not with the place of prayer but with “how one ought to pray” (St. Chrysostom). These words suggest, however, some incidental reflections. There were as yet no temples; people gathered for prayer in houses that were given over for this holy purpose by those who loved God. When one house could not hold all the believers in a city or village, another was appointed, then a third, and so on. So also in Ephesus there was not one house. The Apostle prescribes: in every place where the faithful gather for prayer, prayer must be offered by “men”—meaning specified men, τους ανδρας.—“In every place.” Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of the Lord: “the hour is coming when neither on this mountain” (the Samaritan), “nor in Jerusalem will men worship the Father” (Jn. 4:21)—and the prophetic vision: “in every place incense is offered to My name and a pure offering” (Mal. 1:11). The Jews had one place for worship; it was not permitted to them to offer sacrifices to God in another place. “The Apostle introduces regulations contrary to these and, having freed them from this necessity, says that our customs are not such as those of the Jews. For just as he commands prayers to be offered for all, because Christ died for all, and for all, he says, I preach; so likewise for us to pray everywhere is good” (St. Chrysostom, blessed Theodoret).

“Lifting up holy hands.” “Lifting up the hands and praying was characteristic of the priests of the Old Testament” (blessed Theodoret). The same thing the Apostle commands Christian men who conduct public worship to do as well. But it is also an Apostolic tradition, as Basil the Great says, for Christians, when performing prayers, to make the sign of the cross upon themselves. In our worship service both are combined: both the lifting up of the hands and the sign of the cross, accompanied by prostrations and full prostrations to the ground. Lifting up the hands raises the mind to God, while the sign of the cross shows the path of ascent to God: for the door of approach to God is the cross of Christ.

But the Apostle here turns his attention not so much to outward form as to the state of the soul; therefore he did not simply say “lifting up… hands,” but: “holy hands”—that is, hands not stained by any vice. St. Chrysostom says: “What does ‘holy’ mean? Pure. And what does pure mean? Certainly—not washed with water, but clean from covetousness, murders, plunder, and wounding.” Blessed Theodoret expresses the same thought thus: “The Apostle commands this (lifting up of hands) to be done ‘holily’—that is, having freed oneself from all injustice and all iniquity”—or “having purified them by almsgiving” (Oecumenius), “which would gush from them as water gushes from a spring” (blessed Theophylact). Thus this word requires one to approach prayer with a pure conscience and a pure heart. “For hands are holy and sanctified only when the heart is pure” (Ambrosiaster).

“Without anger and disputing.” In a state of anger it is impossible to pray. “And does anyone actually become angry during prayer?” (St. Chrysostom). But one can bear a grudge in memory even while praying; for this feeling is quiet and hidden. When prayer is on the surface, the remembrance of wrongs may be quietly concealed beneath it. All our commentators understand this here as referring to the nursing of grudges. “Let the soul of the one praying be pure and free from every passion; let no one approach God with enmity; let no one approach with indignation” (St. Chrysostom). “So also the Lord ordained: ‘If you come to bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you: leave your gift there before the altar, and go… be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift’ (Matt. 5:23, 24)” (blessed Theodoret). And also: “whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone” (Mk. 11:25) (St. Chrysostom). “Therefore the Apostle teaches that in prayer one must be at peace in spirit, if we desire it to bear fruit” (Ambrosiaster).

“Without disputing,” χωρις διαλογισμου,—without wavering, without a fluctuation of thought about whether God will hear. To one who asks something in prayer, St. James prescribes: “let him ask in faith, doubting nothing: for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Let not… that man think he will receive anything from God” (Jas. 1:6, 7). So all our commentators understand it. St. Chrysostom: “What does ‘without disputing’ mean? Let us listen. It means that one must not doubt at all that we shall be heard. For the Lord says: ‘whatever you ask… believing, you shall receive’ (Matt. 21:22).” Theodoret: “‘Without disputing’ means: without doubt, believing that you will certainly receive what you ask.” Oecumenius: “‘Without disputing’—that is, without wondering whether God will hear me; whether I am praying in vain or to no purpose. For one must be confident that God will hear, if we ask of Him what is pleasing to Him, being pure.” Theophylact: “By ‘disputing’ the Apostle meant doubt, and teaches that the one praying should pray without doubt and wavering of thought about whether he will receive or not receive what he asks; only let him ask for what is in accordance with the will of God—for what is spiritual, without anger, and with pure hands.”—“If you thus approach, you shall in any case receive what you ask. For ‘if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him’ (Matt. 7:11)” (St. Chrysostom).

Bb) The ordering of women (1 Tim. 2:9–15)

Having given this general outline of order in the church prayer services, the Apostle then occupies himself with how women ought to conduct themselves in these assemblies. This subject probably required special attention, owing to certain irregularities that had crept in. And these irregularities doubtless gave the Apostle occasion: α) to prescribe what he prescribed. Namely: αα) to pray in the same spirit as the men (verse 9); ββ) to appear at the assemblies in appropriate attire (verse 9), taking care: γγ) to adorn themselves not with elaborate dress but with good works (verses 9–10); δδ) not to interfere in the work of teaching and in general to be in a position of subordination in relation to men (verses 11–12). Since this last suggestion might have seemed not entirely welcome, the Apostle: β) softens it by: αα) setting forth the reasons why it must be so and not otherwise (verses 13–14)—and: ββ) consoling the women that the door of salvation has also been opened for them (verse 15).

α) The prescriptions (1 Tim. 2:9–12)

The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Tim. 2:9, 10. Likewise also that women adorn themselves in respectable attire, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly clothing, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.

αα) To pray in the same spirit as the men (1 Tim. 2:9)

“Likewise”—shows that the Apostle continues to teach about the orders in prayer assemblies. Therefore, although he does not explicitly say that he desires women to pray in the same manner, he makes his desire clearly visible. He desires that women too pray without anger and disputing, and with a pure conscience not stained by any vice. St. Chrysostom says: “In like manner, he says, I desire that women too come to God without anger and without disputing—with holy hands, not defiled by covetousness and robbery, and not following their own desires.” So also Theophylact and Oecumenius. If one does not infer such a desire of the Apostle here, then the speech of verses 9 and 10 will be detached from the general content of this section (1 Tim. 2:8–15) and will be entirely about how women are to dress. Whereas, if one acknowledges that the Apostle’s primary intent was to give instruction on prayer, the speech about women’s adornment will be only supplementary, showing how women ought to be attired when they appear at the assemblies for prayer.

ββ) To appear at the assemblies in appropriate attire (1 Tim. 2:9)

They must appear “in respectable attire, with modesty and self-control.” St. Chrysostom, having said how women must pray like the men, adds: “Moreover, St. Paul requires something more from women as well. What precisely? That they should come to pray to God ‘in respectable attire.’ What does he call respectable attire? A dress that covers them decently on all sides—proper, but not elaborate; for the former is fitting, while the latter is not considered becoming.” “Attire,” καταστολη,—a garment that descends to the feet, covering the whole body, and in general any dress, but modest and unassuming; to which “respectable,” κοσμιος,—beautiful, but in accordance with propriety and appropriateness to the person, place, and surroundings—also points, and therefore excludes all ostentation. The Apostle requires that women come to the assemblies for prayer “in attire that is proper but not showy, so as to draw the gaze of beholders” (Oecumenius); “so that the very clothing may display the integrity of the soul” (blessed Theodoret).

The words “with modesty and self-control” point to the form of dress or style, requiring that they not violate the modesty proper to the female sex and the chastity with which they must adorn themselves everywhere. But one may extend the sense of these words to include bearing, movement, expression, gaze, posture, and bow; for all of this can bear the mark of modesty and chastity and, conversely, can betray the absence of them—which is reproachable in women. Ambrosiaster writes: “The Apostle exhorts that women pray while maintaining a humble posture (and dress), and not proudly. One who wishes to be heard must bow the head, casting aside all pomp, so as to attract the mercy of God. A proud posture does not win what is asked for, and gives cause to think ill of the one asking. What sensible person is not repelled by a woman adorned lavishly and proudly? How much more is God repelled by her when He sees that the body He created free is wrapped and weighed down with metals?”

γγ) To adorn themselves with good works (1 Tim. 2:9, 10)

“Let them adorn themselves.” Supplementing the speech after “likewise” with the words: “I desire that they pray”—and relating to the outward manner of performing prayer: “in respectable attire, with modesty and self-control”—one must necessarily continue reading: “and let them adorn themselves.” This is a general lesson extending also beyond the walls of the prayer assembly. Women cannot but adorn themselves, and one cannot impose on them the obligation: do not adorn yourself; but one can redirect the inclination toward adornment from empty ornaments to significant and essentially valuable ones. This is what the Apostle does here. Let women adorn themselves, he says, not with “braided hair”—with fashionable braiding of the hair, as St. Peter stated directly (1 Pet. 3:3)—not with “gold”—something made of gold, just as to this day women in the East hang golden coins all around themselves—“or pearls”—in earrings and necklaces, “or costly clothing”—dresses of expensive fabrics, as the Saviour said of the rich man: “he was clothed in purple and fine linen” (Lk. 16:19)—with none of such things should they adorn themselves, because all of this is here today and gone tomorrow; but let them adorn themselves with what is imperishable and precious not only before men but before God, not only in time but in eternity, namely: with “good works”—good works of every kind: almsgiving, hospitality, caring for the sick, voluntary and humble service to all, good management of household affairs, prayers, fasts, reverence—and so consistently that such virtues should constitute their distinctive character, and that when any of the women enters the assembly, those looking on might think: here comes the almsgiving one, here comes the hospitable one, here comes the compassionate one, here comes the serving one, here comes the praying one, here comes the fasting one, here comes the reverent one, and the like—rather than what they think when a finely dressed woman enters: what diamonds, and so on.

As the incentive for this, St. Paul sets forth the vow to be godly: “as is proper for women who profess godliness.” What vow is meant here? One must suppose—not a private one, such as was perhaps taken by, for example, deaconesses, but the general one made when approaching faith in the Lord and publicly spoken at baptism. Here a commitment is taken by the one administering baptism, and a vow is given by the one being baptized: having renounced ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live from now on in godliness, chastity, and righteousness (Tit. 2:12). It is of this that the Apostle reminds them, giving them to understand how after such a vow it is unseemly to adorn oneself with empty ornaments rather than with good works, as is fitting. “You, he says, promise (in baptism) godliness and virtue” (blessed Theodoret). “With these it is fitting for Christian women to adorn themselves when they appear to honor the true God” (blessed Theophylact). “But the woman who appears in the house of God with pomp does not enter it for God’s sake but for the sake of men, in order to be glorified by them; for which she receives nothing from God but reproach. The more brilliant she appears to men, the more contemptible she is before God” (Ambrosiaster).

St. Chrysostom extends a powerful word of reproach to elaborately dressed women. “You come to pray to God, and yet you surround yourself with golden ornaments and headdresses. For you have not come to dance, nor to take part in a wedding celebration, nor to appear in a festive procession. There golden ornaments are appropriate, there headdresses, there costly clothing. But here none of this is needed. You have come to petition, to pray for your sins, to bring prayer for your transgressions, to entreat the Lord so as to move Him to mercy. Why then do you adorn yourself? This adornment is not fitting for one who prays. How can you sigh? How can you weep? How can you pray fervently, being dressed in such attire? Even if you do weep, your tears will appear laughable to one who sees them; for one who weeps ought not to wear gold. Her weeping will be hypocrisy and pretense. And indeed, how is it not hypocrisy when the very same soul from which this vainglorious pomp in dress was born—that same soul also sheds tears? Remove this pretense from yourself: for God is not mocked. This is proper for actors and dancers who spend their days on the stage; but to an honorable woman all of this is unseemly.—The Apostle commands you to dress modestly, ‘with modesty and self-control.’ Therefore do not imitate the harlots who through such adornment attract lovers to themselves.—Note that the Apostle, in speaking of modesty in dress, banishes from it even what serves merely as a sign of wealth—gold, pearls, costly clothing. But if this is so, how much more should what serves as a sign of mere empty vanity be banished—cosmetics, painted eyelids, an affected walk, an effeminate voice, a moist and wanton-filled gaze, the studied way of throwing on a veil or putting on a dress, a belt arranged with the greatest are, elaborate footwear. To all of this he points by saying: ‘in respectable attire’—as well as by the words: ‘with modesty and self-control.’—Be indulgent with me, I beseech you; for my word contains such sharp reproach not with the aim of wounding or grieving you, but of removing everything foreign from my flock.”

δδ) Not to interfere in the work of teaching and to be in a position of subordination in relation to men (1 Tim. 2:11, 12)

1 Tim. 2:11, 12. Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. But I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in silence.

In church assemblies, teaching was joined with prayer. The Apostle forbids women from conducting either in the church. You may pray—that is why you have come; but conducting prayer is not your business. Likewise, receive instruction—but do not dare to take up this work yourself; do not even venture to ask questions, as is said in another Epistle (1 Cor. 14:35). Learn in silence—in “silence”—and carry out this work “with all submission”: which means either submission to this law of silence in the church, or submission to the teaching offered by the men appointed for this. In the first respect, the impulse toward talkativeness must be curbed; in the second, the passion for questioning (for which passion the Apostle provided an outlet in the Epistle to the Corinthians, saying: at home let them ask their husbands). Both are a struggle; but subdue yourself. And the means of this and the testimony to it is silence. “Great modesty does blessed Paul require of women, great dignity. Therefore he directs attention not only to their outward appearance and clothing, but also to their voice. What exactly does he say? ‘Let a woman learn in silence.’ What does this mean? That a woman, according to his words, must not speak in the church; the same he said also in the Epistle to the Corinthians: ‘it is shameful… for a woman to speak in the church’ (1 Cor. 14:35). He says that a woman must be so silent that she should not speak in the church not only about worldly matters but about spiritual subjects as well. In this consists propriety for her; in this, modesty; this can adorn her more than any clothing. If she thus conducts herself, she will be able to perform her prayers with every decorum” (St. Chrysostom).

“But I do not permit a woman to teach,” ουκ επιτρεπω — more than not giving permission, but in the same force as what we would say: it is forbidden—definitively prohibited—“I forbid.” This is in the church; but at home, women can both ask their husbands questions and in some cases teach—their children, for instance, or unbelieving husbands and others who do not believe quite rightly. Blessed Theophylact writes: “Know, however, that the Apostle does not forbid women from teaching in general, but only in the Church; outside the church this is not forbidden to her. Thus Priscilla (together with Aquila) catechized Apollos in sound doctrine; thus a believing wife is not forbidden to catechize an unbelieving husband”—“but to teach children is even commanded to them” (Oecumenius).—“Nor to exercise authority over a man”—this too is understood here as: in the church, though such a rule has a general significance as well. “To exercise authority,” αυθεντειν,—to be the mistress of a man, to treat him as a servant, to command him. Just as by “woman” here is meant a woman in general, so by “man” is meant a man in general, and not the husband of her who might take it upon herself to direct the teaching in the church. The Apostle’s thought is that no woman should allow herself in the church to direct the teaching in the church, or to shout at one appointed to teach: do not say that, do not touch on this, but speak about such and such—still less to demand: be silent, I will speak; but that she should be “in silence,” sitting silently and quietly, neither speaking nor moving.

What was the occasion for such a prescription? Blessed Theophylact writes: “Since women too were deemed worthy of the prophetic grace, it was of necessity that he also establishes a rule concerning this, and does not appoint women as teachers in the church.”—This gives a hint that the learned women of Ephesus, like the Corinthian women before them, perhaps without the prophetic gift but guided only by their learning, were stepping forward as teachers in the church and making errors in teaching. To forestall the harm that would arise from this, the Apostle completely forbade women from holding discourse in the church. But St. Chrysostom gives as the occasion for this commandment the Apostle’s desire to cut off the talkativeness characteristic of women: allow them to speak—and they will raise such noise as you would not find even in the marketplace. “The Apostle, wishing to remove from them every occasion for conversation, said: let them not teach, but let them conduct themselves as befits those who are learning. In this way they will also show submission. In general their sex is given to much speaking; therefore the Apostle uses every means to bridle them.”

β) The Apostle softens the counsel (1 Tim. 2:13–15)

Not only here but everywhere in Scripture it is said that women must be in a subordinate relationship. Such is already the order of their nature—“this is required by nature itself” (blessed Theodoret). The Apostle sets forth here as the foundation of his prescription this very order of nature, deriving it from the history of the creation of man and woman. But he is not content with this, and directs toward the same conclusion also the inference from the history of the fall.

αα) The grounds for submission (1 Tim. 2:13, 14)

1 Tim. 2:13. For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

Since the woman was created after the man, she must always be behind him. For this prior creation shows that the man also has something pre-eminent in his nature. The woman was created from one part of the man; therefore, naturally, she does not have everything to the same degree that the man has it. What she was created from was taken from the man’s side, so that she should always be beside the man, at his side, as a helper and not as a mistress. “The Apostle gives preference to the man over the woman, because the man was created first: so that the woman should be lower than the man, because she was created after the man and from the man” (Ambrosiaster). “He speaks as if to say: the male sex is endowed with greater advantage, as having been created first. And in another place he elevates him further still, when he says: ‘man was not created for woman’s sake, but woman for man’s sake’ (1 Cor. 11:9)” (St. Chrysostom). “Since in the very creation the male sex was honored with priority, and Eve was created second, all women after this must occupy secondary places after men and be submissive to them. For the force of what was then done with regard to Adam and Eve extends over the whole male and female sex” (blessed Theophylact).

1 Tim. 2:14. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and fell into transgression.

Besides the order of nature indicated by the manner of the creation of man and woman, the Apostle also sets forth as the ground for the subordination of the woman to the man the fact that in the matter of the fall she was first deceived and deceived Adam; for which it was pronounced: “your desire shall be toward your husband” (Gen. 3:16). By creation she was, though secondary, yet honored with a certain equal dignity with the man; but by the fall she lost this. Therefore the subordination of the woman to the man is as it were a penance laid upon her for the progenitress’s deception of the first father Adam. In Eve the whole female sex became guilty of this—and not merely by imputation, but because it also inherited the very deed of Eve—to deceive the male sex; which is still done by it not incidentally, but according to the impulse constantly at work in it to please and to entice. To diminish the evil arising from this inclination, the woman was subordinated to the man.

St. Chrysostom applies this to the preceding speech to women: let them not teach. A woman, he says, once undertook to teach and overturned everything, thereby clearly showing herself unfit to be a teacher. He says: “Why does the Apostle say this (‘Adam was not deceived’ and the rest)? In order, on the basis of many reasons, to assign primacy to the man. For, he says, the man must have primacy: first, because he was created first; second, on the basis of what happened in the course of time. A woman once taught and overturned everything, and made him guilty of disobedience. For this God subordinated her, because she made ill use of authority—or, rather, of equal dignity. ‘Your desire shall be toward your husband’—this was said; but before this event it was not said.—Adam transgressed the commandment not because he was carried away by passion, but only in obeying his wife. So—a woman once taught and overturned everything. Therefore the Apostle said: let her not teach.”—But how did Adam not get deceived? Did he not sin? He sinned; but in a different manner than the woman. The woman was deceived by the words of the serpent, or the devil who spoke through the tongue of the serpent, and ate of the forbidden fruit; while Adam ate, having listened to the woman. If the enemy had addressed himself to Adam, perhaps Adam would not have been deceived by his words, but would have discerned the lie hidden under them and the ruinous deception, and the fall would not have occurred. But the enemy easily beguiled the woman, and she beguiled the man—and the fall took place. Thus she proved to be easily deceived. “This sex is light, easily impressionable, easily deceived” (blessed Theophylact). Therefore the Apostle’s words: “Adam was not deceived”—may be understood as the history of the fall gives one to understand: it was not Adam who was deceived by the devil. So Ambrosiaster: “The devil did not deceive the man but the woman; the man was brought to transgression by the woman—for which she should not be given latitude but should be kept in a humble position.”

St. Chrysostom also holds that Adam is called undeceived in comparison with the woman. To the question: how then was Adam not deceived?—he answers: “Listen carefully. The woman says: ‘the serpent deceived me’ (Gen. 3:13); while Adam does not say: the woman deceived me, but: ‘she gave to me and I ate’ (Gen. 3:12) (this is the same as in Ambrosiaster).—Moreover, it is not the same thing to be beguiled by one of the same kind and kin as oneself, and to be beguiled by a beast, a slave, a subordinate: the latter is properly called deception. Therefore the Apostle speaks of him only comparatively with the woman, that he was not deceived; because she was beguiled by a slave and subordinate, while he was beguiled by a free person. Again it is not said of Adam: ‘she saw that the tree was good for food’ (Gen. 3:6), but of the woman: and that she ate and gave to her husband.”

Blessed Theodoret interprets it thus. This “was not deceived” the Apostle said in place of: was not the first to be deceived—and in this he followed Scripture. For the woman, when an account was demanded of her, said: “the serpent deceived me, and I ate;” but Adam does not say this, but: “the woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12, 13). And Eve, having listened to the serpent, has no excuse; while for Adam there serves as a small excuse the fact that, having been beguiled by the woman, he did not himself pluck the fruit from the tree, but the woman, having first eaten, gave it also to the man. Therefore the Apostle also said: “Adam was not deceived.”

ββ) The consolation of women (1 Tim. 2:15)

1 Tim. 2:15. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

Having thus burdened the woman both with guilt and consequently with a subordinate position toward the man, the Apostle consoles her with the fact that all that has been said does not close the door of salvation before her: “she will be saved.” By its grammatical structure this speech relates to Eve; but in meaning it encompasses the whole female sex. The progenitress sinned and for this came under the punishment of God. But since it pleased the merciful God to arrange a wondrous manner of salvation for the fallen, salvation was opened also to her, and in her person to the whole female sex. Every woman, says the Apostle, will be saved. How? For women—the conditions of salvation are not special but the same as those appointed for mankind in general: faith and love—“if she continues in faith and love: in faith” in the Lord Saviour, of Whom the first woman heard the Gospel proclaimed, indicated in the future seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15); “in love” toward God and neighbors—the mother, nourisher, and sustainer of all the virtues. What the Apostle added to this—“and holiness with self-control”—is not some special condition of salvation, but is only the outward or visible garb of the woman who saves her soul by believing and loving. “Holiness”—in the Apostle’s usage denotes both a holy and righteous life in general and in particular bodily holiness, purity from fleshly lusts and sins. In the present passage, the general holiness of women has already been indicated by faith and love; therefore what remains to be understood by holiness is a particular holiness—purity—in which sense it would be synonymous with self-control. The distinction between them can perhaps be drawn thus: holiness may be taken as faithfulness to the marriage bed, or the innocence in body and soul of the married woman, while self-control denotes sharing the marriage bed with the husband not to satisfy lust but out of submission to the law of nature given by God, with the intent of dedicating its fruits to the glory of God. Blessed Theophylact writes: “By ‘holiness’ the Apostle means purity of body. But since not all are virgins, he added: ‘with self-control.’ For self-control is not denied to those who make lawful use of marriage.” There is also a pure marital self-control—when married life is conducted soberly and not in lustful pleasures. Both words the Apostle used in order to set forth more clearly what the woman who saves her soul must visibly show. So blessed Theodoret indicates the conditions of the salvation of women. “If they desire it,” he writes, “they will not only suffer no harm from Eve, but will acquire very great benefit by their faith and love, maintaining holiness and self-control.” He does not touch on the question of why the Apostle said: “she will be saved through childbearing.” What salvation comes from childbearing—this is resolved by our other commentators.

It goes without saying that childbearing in itself cannot produce salvation, like any other natural act—eating, drinking, sleep. But just as eating, drinking, and sleep can be used in such a way as to either assist or harm salvation, so also childbearing. How then can childbearing be turned into an aid to salvation? One might say: childbearing was given to the nature of the primordially-created pair, and, as an act of nature, it should have occurred not only easily but pleasantly. But the fall intervened and introduced into this act of nature the pains: “in pain you shall bring forth children” (Gen. 3:16). The pains are a punishment—the natural penance of women. If a woman now, suffering the pains of birth, endures them in precisely this sense—that is, as a punishment reminding of sin and calling to repentance—then her childbearing will take place in the order of salvation.—But this alone is not sufficient. Being undertaken in such dispositions, the burden of childbearing will merely not hinder salvation; but it needs not only not to hinder but to assist salvation. How can it do this? If, after birth, there is joined to it the upbringing of children—in the fear of God, to the glory of God. St. Chrysostom says: “The Apostle speaks as if to say: you, women, do not grieve that your sex has fallen under condemnation; God has granted you a special means of salvation—namely the upbringing of children, so that you can earn salvation not only by yourselves but also through others.”—And a little further: “Childbearing is a work of nature. But not only this (which depends on nature) has been granted to the woman, but also what pertains to the upbringing of children.—In this there will be no small but very great reward for them, that they have raised warriors for Christ.” Oecumenius writes: “By childbearing the Apostle means not only birth but also the upbringing of children.—What then, someone will say: have virgins, childless widows (deprived of their husbands before the birth of children), and barren women perished? By no means! The Apostle does not say that women will not be saved (without childbearing) by their own virtue, but that childbearing will also be an aid to salvation for them, if—which goes without saying—they work out salvation by their own virtue.” Blessed Theophylact adds something particular to this: “One must not only bear children but also bring them up. And this is true childbearing; otherwise it is not childbearing but the corruption of children. The upbringing of children, however, assists the salvation of women not without their own virtue. A virtuous woman also brings up her children in virtue. The virtue present in her passes through upbringing into the children as well. It seems to me that the Apostle, having above forbidden women to teach in the church, now in consolation gives them someone to teach. If you wish to teach, teach your children.—Some, however, somehow understood childbearing as the birth that came from the Most Holy Theotokos. She, they say, having given birth to the Saviour, saved women. But such an understanding is not in accord with the speech that follows.”

On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

St. Paul said that church assemblies and prayers within them must be conducted by “men” (1 Tim. 2:8)—of course, not every man, but men chosen and consecrated for this. He now shows what qualities must distinguish those chosen for this work, for the clergy in general. There was a need for such persons. Christians had become numerous and gathered in various places; it was necessary to determine who should look after them. St. Paul himself did this everywhere (Acts 14:23). They had been appointed by him for Ephesus as well, as for all of Asia (Acts 20:17, 19:26). But now those appointed by him proved to be too few. Not having time to do this personally, because the needs of the faithful had called him quickly to Macedonia, he entrusted this to be carried out by St. Timothy—as in Crete he entrusted it to St. Titus—and he writes what kind of persons should be chosen for this, namely: a) bishops (1 Tim. 3:1–7)—and: b) deacons and deaconesses (1 Tim. 3:8–13).

A) The qualities of those worthy of the episcopate (1 Tim. 3:1–7)

The Apostle determines that one chosen for the episcopate must take up this ministry: aa) with all zeal (verse 1); bb) must be distinguished by good character and praiseworthy conduct (verses 2–3); cc) must first prove his capacity for governing the Church by good governance of his household (verses 4–5); dd) must not be one of the recently baptized (verse 6); ee) must be held in respect also among the unbelieving (verse 7).

Aa) Zeal (1 Tim. 3:1)

1 Tim. 3:1. The saying is trustworthy: if anyone aspires to the episcopate, he desires a good work.

“The words ‘the saying is trustworthy’—our commentators refer to the preceding speech, that is, to what was said about the salvation of women through the good upbringing of children, along with the fulfillment of the general conditions for salvation—that this salvation is very reliable, because, besides their own works toward their salvation, the good works of their children will also be credited to them. Wishing to show that he says this not merely to say something consoling to the women but that it is truly so, the Apostle adds the assurance: ‘the saying is trustworthy.’ And this is very appropriate. Meanwhile the subsequent speech requires no assurance: here instructions are being written whose justice and aptness are self-evident. St. Chrysostom, followed by Oecumenius, both in reading and understanding connects these words with the preceding speech, and begins chapter 3 with ‘if anyone aspires to the episcopate.’ Blessed Theophylact, though he begins chapter 3 with ‘the saying is trustworthy,’ refers it by interpretation to the preceding speech. St. Chrysostom says: ‘the saying is trustworthy’—refers to this (what we are speaking of, that is, the assistance to the salvation of women through the upbringing of children), not to that which follows: ‘if anyone aspires to the episcopate.’ Since uncertainty could arise about this, he says: ‘the saying is trustworthy’—that fathers and mothers can reap the fruits of their children’s virtue when they have raised them well.” The same is found in Oecumenius and Theophylact.—And this is how it should be understood.

“If anyone aspires to the episcopate.”—“Aspires,” ορεγεται,—denotes such a desire as is the desire for food in one whose appetite has been aroused. The work of the episcopate is full of labor and full of danger. One who approaches it indifferently cannot carry it out as he should. Therefore zealous desire for the episcopate is required—not desire to be a bishop and to enjoy authority and honor, but desire for the very work of the episcopate, that is, the oversight of those being saved and the guidance of them toward salvation. People were chosen for the episcopate. Therefore one must suppose that the Apostle indicates here such a zealous desire after the election and calls it the desire for a “good work,” because its object is good—to enlighten with truth, to purify concepts, to correct morals, to guide toward higher perfection in the spiritual life, to repel false teachings and false teachers, to console the sorrowful, to arrange assistance for the poor and the sick—to be an attentive and well-ordering father. One who, burning with zeal for all such works, desires the episcopate, desires a good work—he seeks not the satisfaction of a base lust for honor and glory, but desires to labor for the good of others, to be the servant of all, sparing himself nothing. St. Chrysostom says: “I do not reproach such a person, says the Apostle. If someone has such a desire and moreover seeks not merely authority and power but the fulfillment of the duties of governance (of the flock) (‘desires to serve, to preside, to guide’ [Oecumenius]); then I do not reproach him. For he desires a good work. Let whoever thus desires it desire it, for the episcopate is so named because it has oversight over all (those entrusted to it).” Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle does not condemn the mere desire, but the love of authority, and teaches one to care not for honor but for virtue—not to desire the rank but to strive after the work required by the rank.”

What is meant here by the Apostle under episcopate? The presbyterate—answers blessed Theodoret. “By ‘bishop’ the Apostle here means the presbyter, as we have demonstrated in interpreting the Epistle to the Philippians. But it is not difficult to discern this also from here; because after the laws for bishops he writes laws pertaining to deacons. At that time the same persons were called both presbyters and bishops; sometimes those now called bishops were also named secondary Apostles. But in the course of time, the apostolic designation was left to the actual Apostles, while the episcopal designation was assigned to those formerly called (secondary) Apostles. Such Apostles were Titus for the Cretans and Timothy for the inhabitants of Asia.—However, although the divine Apostle has legislated this also for presbyters, it is evident that bishops are the first who must observe these laws, as having received the greater honor.”

Bb) Good character and praiseworthy conduct (1 Tim. 3:2, 3)

1 Tim. 3:2. Therefore a bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, [reverent,] respectable, hospitable, able to teach.

“In speaking of the episcopate, the Apostle shows in general what a bishop ought to be, not directing his exhortation specifically to Timothy, but conversing with him as if with all, and through him instructing all” (St. Chrysostom).

The first thing proper to him is: “to be above reproach,” ανεπιλημπτον,—“blameless, giving no substantial or just occasion for censure and accusation” (blessed Theodoret). But he cannot be such if he is not adorned with all the virtues. “Having said: ‘above reproach,’ the Apostle named every virtue.—Thus, if anyone is aware of being guilty of any transgression, he does not do well to desire such a calling from which he has removed himself by his own deeds. For such a one ought not to command but to obey. For a superior must be brighter than any lamp and lead a blameless life, so that all might look to him and by his life order their own” (St. Chrysostom).

“The husband of one wife”—not that he should not have two wives simultaneously, for this is forbidden to every Christian; but that he should have been married once, a one-woman man. One who is married to a second wife should not be chosen as bishop. Ambrosiaster writes: “Although it is not forbidden to have a second wife, one worthy of the episcopate must abstain even from what is permitted to others, because of the loftiness of this rank. One who desires it must be incomparably above all.” Equally this does not mean that he must necessarily be married. Blessed Theophylact writes: “In saying this, the Apostle does not legislate that a bishop must necessarily be married. How could he command this, he who said: ‘I desire that all men were even as I myself’ (1 Cor. 7:7)?” Just as a man married twice is unfit for the episcopate, so an unmarried man is even more fit than a man married once. Therefore even then, whenever the possibility existed, not only to the episcopate but also to the priesthood were unmarried persons chosen—those who in freedom from worldly cares served God. Such persons were provided by the order of the ascetics, which was born together with Christianity and blessed and established in the Church by the Apostles.

But how can a bishop be married? Well, first, here, as Theodoret understands, bishop means presbyter. The true bishops were the (secondary) Apostles, such as Titus and Timothy; and they were celibate. Likely in other places as well, persons similar to them were appointed to the actual episcopate. Secondly, necessity compelled it; for at that time celibacy had not yet spread to such a degree that one could everywhere find a celibate, though a beginning had been made. Meanwhile bishops were needed; therefore they were chosen from among those who, though married, lived continently. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The pagans did not practice celibacy; the Jews did not permit it because they regarded fruitfulness as a blessing. Therefore, since at that time it was not possible without difficulty to find those who maintained bodily purity, the Apostle Paul commanded ordaining from those who had been in the married state those who honored chastity.” St. Chrysostom had said even before him: “If a man bound by the bonds of marriage (inevitably) cares about worldly matters, while a bishop should not care about the worldly, why did the Apostle say: ‘the husband of one wife?’”

“Some suppose that here he is pointing to that bishop who would be free from the bonds of marriage. And if not this (is what should be understood here), then—that he, having a wife, can live as though he has none.”

“Sober-minded.” Sobriety watches sharply over all that takes place in the soul, gives place and passage to what is good, and rejects and expels what is not good, and in this way governs well the course of the inner life, by which the outer life is also well-ordered of itself. Episcopal sobriety watches over all that takes place in the flock and confirms the good, while correcting the bad; the bishop watches with special sharpness to see whether any wolves who do not spare the flock are creeping in, so that when he sees such, he may drive them away with the staff of his pastorship. He is set as the guardian of the house of God; therefore he must guard this house vigilantly. “He must be watchful and capable of foreseeing how he ought to act” (blessed Theodoret); “to be sharp-eyed, always unwearying, attentively observant, so as to see everything and always be ready for any necessary work” (blessed Theophylact). “Sober-minded”—that is, “he must be far-sighted, having a thousand eyes on every side—must be penetrating and not cloud his mental vision with anything. For there are many contingencies that do not allow one to see clearly how one ought to act. Therefore he must be unwearingly watchful, having care not only for his own affairs but also for what concerns others—he must be watchful, burning in spirit and, as it were, breathing fire, bearing the labors and obligations (of his office) with greater zeal than a general who makes his rounds of the army day and night—having care and concern for all things” (St. Chrysostom).

“Self-controlled.” Since bodily chastity has already been spoken of in the words “husband of one wife,” by self-control here one must understand “soul’s advancement” (blessed Theodoret), namely—soundness of mind, or prudence, both in one’s own conduct and above all in the conduct of affairs in the governance of the flock. Just as neat attire fits the whole body well, so that everything is in proportion and in its place and suited to the person, so prudently conducted affairs should decently adorn the countenance of the bishop—let him be κοσμιος (blessed Theophylact).

“[Reverent,] respectable.” These two words translate a single Greek word: κοσμιον, which blessed Theophylact explained as: σεμνοπρεπη. And it is likely that our Slavonic translation sought to express more fully the meaning of this last word, which signifies: worthily honorable, and shows that the countenance of the bishop must shine with such a sacred dignity as calls forth general respect. Blessed Theodoret writes: “He must be dignified in speech, in appearance, in gaze, and in walk, so that the decorum of his soul may be visible also in his body.”

“Hospitable”—“gladly receiving strangers” (blessed Theodoret). “For if he is gracious, welcoming, and charitable only toward the local residents, he is ailing with partiality. But toward strangers he must be even more generous; for this bears more manifest witness to his brotherly love” (blessed Theophylact).

“Able to teach.” “The qualities mentioned before this (‘prudence, reverence, and hospitality’ [Oecumenius]) are possessed by many also among the subordinates—for in this respect they too ought to be equal to their superiors. Therefore the Apostle, in showing the advantage of the bishop, added: ‘able to teach.’ This is not required of the subordinate; but it is required above all of the one entrusted with this office of the episcopate” (St. Chrysostom). “The Apostle means by this not one who excels in eloquence, but one who is trained in divine things and capable of giving appropriate counsel” (blessed Theophylact). “Able to teach,” διδακτικον,—expresses that the bishop must be so filled with teaching capacity that at the first opportunity teaching should flow from his lips like a river—that he might always fulfill and did fulfill what the Apostle wrote later in the Second Epistle: “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2).

1 Tim. 3:3. Not given to wine, not violent, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money, but gentle, [not contentious,] not covetous.

“Not given to wine.” “This the Apostle himself explained in the prescription for deacons: to be ‘not addicted to much wine’ (1 Tim. 3:8)” (blessed Theodoret).

“Not violent,” μη πληκτην,—not a brawler, as one “addicted to much wine” frequently turns out to be. But in relation to the performance of the superior’s duty, which involves the punishment of the unruly, this may also mean: not harshly exacting, not hot-tempered, not cruelly punishing. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle forbids by this not the imposing of punishment at the proper time, but doing so in an improper manner. But that he commands punishment to be imposed, about this—as we shall hear shortly—he will himself say: ‘Those who sin… rebuke in the presence of all’ (1 Tim. 5:20); and further: ‘reprove, rebuke’ (2 Tim. 4:2). And writing to the Galatians he said: ‘O foolish Galatians’ (Gal. 3:1)—and further: ‘Are you so foolish?’ (Gal. 3:3).”

“Not quarrelsome,” αμαχον. In Greek this word stands where in Slavonic stands: “[not contentious]”—which is absent from the Greek. It means: “not fond of starting lawsuits” (blessed Theodoret)—and in general disputes and quarrels—non litigiosum—not given to strife, according to Ambrosiaster.

“Not a lover of shameful gain,” μη αισχροκερδη,—Theodoret and Theophylact do not read this; but St. Chrysostom and Oecumenius do. It points to one who does not use means generally disapproved of in the acquisition of wealth—such as, for example, usury; and perhaps also to one who will not agree for any reason to conceal anything disgraceful for the sake of gain, and still less to turn all his ministry to this end.

“But gentle.” “This teaches how one can be non-violent and non-quarrelsome. One who is gentle will not be such” (blessed Theophylact). The gentle person bears personal unpleasantness and insults in a peaceable spirit. Such above all the bishop must be. “He must know how to bear wrongs done against him personally (but only those). For to take no notice of what injury others suffer is not a sign of the modesty proper to a bishop. It is said: ‘{he who leads,} with diligence’ (Rom. 12:8)” (blessed Theodoret).

“Not covetous. The Apostle did not say: without possessions, because he is giving moderate laws, but: not loving money. For it is possible to have money and dispose of it as one should, and not to be enslaved to it but to be its master” (blessed Theodoret). In addition, he must also be charitable, “for which it is necessary to have something from which to be charitable, but to have it without attachment to what one has, so that the hand of beneficence may not be shortened. ‘Since he said above that he must be hospitable, he now adds: not covetous—showing that he will be hospitable if he is not covetous, and at the same time teaching that under the pretext of hospitality he should not be gathering treasures’” (blessed Theophylact).

“St. Chrysostom marvels that St. Paul mentions here such vices as are intolerable in any Christian and even in any non-Christian—“very coarse” (Oecumenius). Therefore he interpreted the words ‘not given to wine, not violent’ not in their literal sense but in a figurative meaning: ‘not given to wine.’ The Apostle is not speaking of one who gets drunk on wine, but of one who is contentious and insolent. ‘Not violent.’ The reference here is not to those who strike with their hands; but since there are people who untimely disturb the conscience of the brethren, it seems to me that he here hints at them.” The same is repeated by Oecumenius and Theophylact. Finally, St. Chrysostom addresses the Apostle thus: “And yet, what are you saying, tell me? Speaking of a bishop, you said that he must not be a drunkard, whereas something more important should have been said. Why, for example, did you not say that a bishop must be like an Angel, subject to none of the human passions? Or why did you not express those great demands of which Christ spoke and which even subordinates must fulfill—that one must crucify oneself and always be ready to lay down one’s soul for others? ‘The good shepherd,’ He said, ‘lays down his life for the sheep’ (Jn. 10:11); also: ‘whoever does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me’ (Matt. 10:38)—but you said: ‘not given to wine?’ One can have good hopes if it is necessary to instruct a bishop in this! But why did you not say that he must be detached from the earth, and even failed to command a bishop what you commanded laypeople? To them you said: ‘Put to death… your earthly members’ (Col. 3:5)—and also: ‘those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh’ (Gal. 5:24). Why then did you not say this to the bishop also? Because such persons could not be found in large numbers, while many bishops were required who would preside in distant cities. Therefore, since in the course of time attacks against the Church might arise, the Apostle speaks of moderate virtue, and not of this elevated and lofty one, because it is possible for many to be sober-minded, respectable, self-controlled.” Ambrosiaster was occupied with the same question and writes: “The Apostle has indicated lower virtues here so that, if anyone is found to have the higher ones, there can be no doubt that he is worthy of the episcopate. If anyone, drawn by higher aspirations, dedicates both his soul and body to God, such a one is all the more worthy.”

Cc) Good governance of his household (1 Tim. 3:4, 5)

1 Tim. 3:4. He must manage his own household well, having his children in submission with all dignity {respectability}.

The Church is the house of God, to govern which the bishop is chosen. Whether the one chosen is capable of this ministry can be judged by how he governs his own household. From one who governs his household well one can expect that he will also govern the Church well. Though the latter task is broader, its subjects of governance more complex, and its aims more lofty, governance as governance requires the same approaches. True, the conclusion from good household management to good governance of the Church does not follow of necessity; but every good manager of a household, when chosen as a presider in the Church, cannot but have an advantage over others, giving good hopes. “The same say also the outsiders—that a good household manager can more readily become a good administrator of civic affairs” (St. Chrysostom). The household encompasses both the persons living in it and its property and its external relations to the government and to private individuals. All of this is present also in the Church: persons of every condition and age—property of its own, designated for the maintenance of the poor, the sick, the aged, widows, and orphans, besides the houses of assembly—and its own relations to those outside. One who in the household has given proof of good governance in all its parts, on entering into the governance of the Church, will not be entering into a work entirely new and wholly unknown to him. Therefore he will more readily find how to act in this or that situation. St. Chrysostom says: “The Church is the same as a small household, and just as in a house there are children, a wife, and servants, over all of whom the husband towers with his authority; so in the Church there is nothing other—the same thing (we find)—children, women, servants. If the presider of the Church has partners in his authority, so too in a household the husband has the wife as a partner in authority. But here one must care for the nourishment of widows and virgins? In the household too the husband has slaves and daughters on his support.”

“Having his children in submission with all {respectability}.” Of all the subjects of governance in the household, the Apostle presents to the special attention of those who are choosing the conduct of the children—not in the sense, of course, that a man whose children are good is a good governor, because here everything may depend on natural causes, but especially in the sense that if the children are not good, what kind of governor can the father be? “At home he must show a good example of governance. For who will believe that one who did not know how to keep his own son in submission will make a stranger obey him?” (St. Chrysostom).—Of the virtues commending the children, the Apostle points to submission and all respectability: submission to the parent as the head of the household, and respectability before all, both within and outside the home. It can therefore be said that these two traits encompass all the good conduct of the children. Therefore blessed Theodoret interprets “having children” with such qualities as: “teaching the children every virtue; for which it is required that not the children’s own disposition alone be at work, but also his own will.” Blessed Theophylact writes: “with all {respectability}” means: “in word and in deed and in dress—and moreover before all and at all times”—and concludes: “How can one hope to make strangers respectable when he has allowed his own blood relations to live without respectability?”

1 Tim. 3:5. But if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s Church?

The word “does not know how” points to a lack either of prudence or of character, while the word “care for” betrays laziness, a lack of zeal for the well-being of the household. If, judging by household management, neither zeal nor character nor prudence in the governance of the Church can be foreseen in someone, how can one expect good governance of it from him—expect that he will concern himself with its welfare? From the lesser the Apostle draws a conclusion to the greater. “One who does not know how to manage something small—can the care of what is more important and divine be entrusted to him?” (blessed Theodoret). “To govern a household is easier. How, then, can one govern church affairs, when he cannot even order his own house well?” (St. Chrysostom). “If he was unable to be a good governor of what is neither great nor hard to determine, how should he govern the characters and thoughts of so many souls—incomprehensible thoughts?” (blessed Theophylact).

Dd) Not a recent convert (1 Tim. 3:6)

Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

1 Tim. 3:6. Not a recent convert, lest he become puffed up “and fall into the condemnation of the devil.”

A recent convert, however fervent in spirit, is nonetheless a novice in the matter of faith and the life of faith. Therefore he naturally stands in many respects below others who are equally burning in spirit but have long since entered upon the path of following the Lord, who both know more and have experienced far more. Though later he may surpass all, at present he is behind many—and it is not fitting for him to become the guide and teacher of all, including such persons. But the Apostle does not present this unfitness as the reason why the recent convert should not be appointed bishop; rather he presents the moral danger to the convert himself—that he will become puffed up with pride and thereby fall under the same condemnation as the devil, who was cast down from heaven for pride. For a newcomer in the society of the faithful, “one who has not been previously instructed in divine things and, enrolled in the list of disciples, has not yet been exercised in virtue—upon receiving the presidency, it is no wonder that the passion of haughtiness should find a place in him” (blessed Theodoret). But what condemnation does the Apostle threaten him with? Into what condemnation, sentence and punishment by judgment, will he fall, and where? The Apostle does not indicate this; therefore one may think that he wished only to say that such a one will be worthy of a judgment similar to the judgment of the devil—that he will stand in that rank, both before the face of God and in the opinion of the faithful—without defining how such a judgment and its sentence will be declared. The Apostle limits the evil consequence of pride to the moral state of the proud person himself—that he will fall from the height of the radiant state in which the grace of the Holy Spirit had placed him through the holy sacraments performed on him. For pride strips away this grace, closes its entrances within, and places the person puffed up with pride again in that evil spiritual state in which he was before faith, or even lower; and then he falls again into the hands of the devil, from whose power the grace of God through faith had delivered him. Some understand this last consequence of pride as the “condemnation of the devil.”

“Not a recent convert,” μη νεοφυτον,—not a newly planted one, not a newly grafted one. The expression is taken from the parabolic speech of the Saviour, where He calls Himself the olive tree and all the faithful branches, shoots, and grafts of this tree. Those who are baptized are grafted onto the Lord—through baptism they are clothed in Him, filled with His life, as grafts with the sap of the tree to which they are grafted. Therefore the newly planted one is the same as the recently baptized. But this word does not refer to one who is young in age. St. Timothy himself was young—and “the divine Paul himself, in his youth, was deemed worthy of the calling” (blessed Theodoret). But this did not prevent St. Paul from being the chief Apostle or St. Timothy from being the secondary Apostle. St. Chrysostom says: “The Apostle adds: ‘not a recent convert,’—meaning here not one who is young in age, but one newly catechized, just as he says in another place: ‘I planted’ (1 Cor. 3:6). He said this wishing to indicate the latter (the newly planted). For what prevented him from saying: not one who is young? Moreover, he himself appointed Timothy as bishop, despite the fact that he was young, as he testifies, saying to him: ‘Let no one despise your youth’ (1 Tim. 4:12),—(showing that youth does not prevent this when one is worthy). The Apostle knew that St. Timothy possessed many virtues, that he had attained great perfection in life, that he was very learned: ‘from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures,’ (2 Tim. 3:15) the Apostle says to him in his letter. And that he observed the strictest fast is clear from the following words of the Apostle: ‘use a little wine… for the sake of… your frequent ailments’ (1 Tim. 5:23). If the Apostle had not known of his such high virtues, he would neither have written thus nor entrusted so lofty a ministry to his disciple. (Thus, ‘not a recent convert’ does not mean: not one who is young in age.) But since at that time many (distinguished) pagans were being converted and baptized, the Apostle says: do not elevate one recently baptized, that is, recently catechized, at once to the height of authority. For if, before he has been instructed in all things or has become a perfect disciple, he is suddenly appointed as teacher, he will fall into arrogance; if, without having learned to obey, he takes the place of authority, he will become haughty. Therefore he added: ‘lest’ he become puffed up ‘and fall into the condemnation of the devil,’—that is, lest he fall under the same condemnation as the devil incurred through his pride.”

Blessed Theodoret writes: “By ‘condemnation’ the Apostle here meant punishment,” similar to that which the devil suffered. So too all the other commentators. But Ambrosiaster sees something different here. He writes: “It truly happens that one untested in the faith becomes puffed up with pride, especially if he receives ordination. For, having formed a high opinion of himself on account of the newness of the rank and authority, he begins to think that he also stands above others in his perfections. Moreover, seeing that in the first year of his birth into the new life he has been honored with such honor, he falls into the thought that he has been called not for his own advancement but for others’ sake—as if he were conferring more benefits on the faith than he received from it. But having become puffed up as a result of such thoughts, he is caught in the snares of the devil. For Satan, taking advantage of the occasion of his pride, casts him into the abyss. In this sense Solomon says: ‘God resists the proud’ (Prov. 3:34). And the same Apostle in another letter says: ‘For if… anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself’ (Gal. 6:3). And the Lord said: ‘everyone who exalts himself will be humbled’ (Lk. 14:11).”

Ee) Respect also among the unbelieving (1 Tim. 3:7)

1 Tim. 3:7. Moreover, he must have a good testimony from those outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the enemy.

“He did not say: he must have a testimony, but ‘also have a testimony,’—that is, among other things also this, and not only this alone” (St. Chrysostom). Having said that the bishop must be above reproach (1 Tim. 3:2), and having described the various aspects of such blamelessness among the faithful, he now adds to all of that also a “good testimony from those outside”—that is, from those who do not belong to the Church of the faithful, Jews and Greeks. To have a testimony does not mean that it is necessary to obtain a formal testimonial from outsiders and present it to one’s own; but that the one chosen for the episcopate should enjoy a good reputation also among the unbelieving. In what respect? Certainly not in regard to external position, but in respect to universally known good morals and the virtues of daily life. St. Chrysostom, applying to this the words of the Saviour: “‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who” is “in heaven’” (Matt. 5:16), says: “Let his deeds be brilliant. For just as no one calls the sun dark, even the completely blind, because he is ashamed to go against the common view—so no one will find fault with one who is completely righteous. True, the pagans often slandered them (bishops or Christians in general) on account of their beliefs, but did not censure their righteous life; on the contrary, along with others they marveled and were filled with amazement (when they beheld it). And the Apostles were slandered; but how? As deceivers and impostors—that is, on account of their preaching—and this they did because they could find nothing to reproach in their life. For why did no one say of them that they were adulterers, impious, covetous—but rather deceivers, which referred only to the preaching? Was it not because they led a blameless life? Of course it was. Therefore we too (bishops) must live thus; and then no one will speak ill of us either, even if he be our enemy or an unbeliever. For one who leads a righteous life becomes worthy of respect even among the unbelieving: the truth stops even enemies’ mouths.” St. Chrysostom, as is evident, has in view here the good testimony of outsiders primarily concerning the moral life of the one chosen; while Ambrosiaster has in view primarily his good everyday qualities: “Following the word of the Lord, the Apostle says that the one who is to be bishop must have a good testimony also from outsiders; because one who is faithful in the lesser will be faithful also in the greater. One who in the lesser—that is, in worldly matters and everyday relations—proves unfaithful, will doubtless be unfaithful also in relation to divine things. On the contrary, one who shows faithfulness to men will all the more show it to God.”

Whether the good testimony of outsiders is based on the former conduct of the one chosen, when he himself was an outsider, or on his new conduct, after he became an insider—the Apostle does not indicate. Therefore there is no point in speculating about this. Let there be a good testimony from outsiders, and when and how it was formed is of no consequence. At that time among those being converted there were many who had previously lived disreputably; but having become Christians, they began to live blamelessly and consequently acquired a good opinion of themselves also among those who had previously found fault with their lives. Such persons were even more to be chosen: for thereby the beneficial effect of the Christian faith could most clearly be presented to the view of all.

“Lest he fall into reproach and into the snare of the enemy.” This would be the case if one without a good testimony from outsiders were chosen, and all the more one with a bad testimony. But what business is it of insiders what outsiders say, when by conscience they recognize the one chosen as worthy? Outsiders may not know him well or may maliciously slander him. As if one should sacrifice truth to their untruth! It is not because of their testimony that one must take it into account, in order to sacrifice truth to their untruth; but, keeping truth as truth for oneself and in itself—that is, not changing one’s good opinion of one who has no good testimony from outsiders—it is better not to choose him, so as to avoid the bad consequences that may follow. St. Chrysostom says: “But what if he is slandered and incidentally falls under an unjust accusation? This too can happen.—But in such a case he should not be chosen from among others; for this gives rise to great apprehensions.”

There are two dangers: “lest he fall into reproach and into the snare of the enemy.”

“Lest he fall into reproach.” But he is already in reproach, if he has no good testimony. What further reproach is there to fear? Perhaps the Apostle by “lest he fall into reproach” means: lest he be crushed under its weight, as in: “lead us not into temptation” (Lk. 11:4)—meaning: do not let us fall under its weight. While remaining a private person, he heard unfavorable reports about himself and easily bore them, letting them pass by without heed. But when they appoint him as head of the community of the faithful, it will not be easy for him to remain indifferent to that. He will begin to be weighed down now by shame—before himself, before his own, before strangers, so that he is reluctant even to appear among people—now by vexation, anger, and malice. These unpleasant movements of the heart are themselves already a “snare of the enemy”—in Greek: του διαβολου — of the devil. But they may serve as an occasion for the enemy to weave an even more dangerous snare. Weighed down and weakened, he may, under the action of the unwearying enemy, abandon both the episcopate and Christianity itself and “return to his former lawless life” (blessed Theodoret).—Since such a danger is very possible—a great danger, while it is very easy to avoid—it is more prudent to act in such a way as not to expose anyone to it.

Or “lest he fall into reproach”: lest he fall into even greater reproach, which from him may pass to the whole community of the faithful and thereby cut off the successful action of the Gospel (blessed Theophylact). Which can likewise be called the snare of the enemy: for snares are laid either for casting into sin and ruin, or for hindering the expansion of the sphere of good. A stumbling-block for the unbelieving from the reproach of the bishop of the faithful is also a snare of the devil.

B) The qualities of those worthy of the diaconate (1 Tim. 3:8–13)

Deacons were introduced by the Apostles from the very beginning of the founding of the Church. Initially they were assigned to meet the material needs of the faithful; but matters did not stop there, for soon we see St. Stephen preaching the word of the Gospel. If the preaching of the word was permitted or entrusted to them, then all the more could ministry at the celebration of the divine mysteries not be foreign to them. From this one may conclude that deacons were chosen to be assistants to presbyters and bishops in their ministry to the Church in all its parts—and as such, like them, received a special grace through ordination. Judging by this, one cannot but see how necessary it was that worthy persons also be chosen for this ministry; all the more so since, having entered upon this degree, they were entering upon the path of advancement to higher degrees of ministry to the Church, as is indicated here as well. As a result of this last circumstance, the qualities required of those chosen for this ministry are similar to the qualities required of those chosen for the episcopate or presbyterate. The particular features are visible only in a few traits—namely that they must first be tested and hold the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience, being animated for good ministry by the expectation of receiving a higher ministry. Of bishops this is not said, because in the first they already appear tested at the time of election, and the latter they receive.—Part of the ministry in the Church could more conveniently be performed by women—as for example at the baptism of women and in caring for sick women among them; for the performance of such ministry deaconesses were appointed. The Apostle did not forget to say a word about them—brief, in a single verse, but encompassing much.

1 Tim. 3:8. Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.

Blessed Theodoret, as we have seen, holds that above the word “bishops” denotes presbyters. But St. Chrysostom affirms that by this word bishops are meant, while the Apostle passed over the presbyters, leaving one to judge of them by the bishops. “Having spoken of bishops, and having drawn their image, and having shown what they must have and what they must avoid, the Apostle skips the order of presbyters and passes to the deacons. Why so? Because the distance between presbyters and bishops is not great. The former also received the gift of teaching and are likewise presiders of the Church; therefore the very same things he said about bishops are applicable also to presbyters. For the former differ from the latter in only one thing—that they perform ordination—and in this one thing consists their advantage over presbyters.” Oecumenius and Theophylact hold the same view.—The thought comes to mind: was it not so that the Apostles ordained only bishops, who alone performed all things in the Church, and that bishops chose and consecrated presbyters to assist themselves only in such a case when they themselves alone could not manage everything?

“Deacons likewise.” “That is, they too must have the same things as bishops. What is this same thing? That is, to be above reproach, self-controlled, hospitable, gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous” (St. Chrysostom). “Let them too be governed by the same rules” (blessed Theodoret).

“Dignified,” σεμνους,—respectable. “They must, he says, in addition to what has been said, also have respectability” (blessed Theophylact). Σεμνος — from: σέβω — I honor, I revere, in a religious sense—denotes both one who is worthy of a certain sacred and reverent veneration, and one who is himself reverent, filled with the fear of God—God-fearing. What is meant is not respectability in the worldly sense, but moral dignity and religious reverence.

“Not double-tongued,” μη διλογους,—not saying two things—“not saying one thing to one person and another thing to another, but adorning the tongue with truth” (blessed Theodoret); or “not holding one thing in mind while saying another” (blessed Theophylact). Since speeches of this kind betray, besides insincerity, also a certain craftiness, St. Chrysostom says: “not double-tongued”—“that is, not crafty, not cunning. For nothing makes a man so dishonorable as craftiness; and nothing brings such harm to the Church as cunning.”

“Not addicted to much wine.” One who is addicted to much wine loves to drink. But “those to whom the ministry in the Church is entrusted must above all free themselves from this passion” (blessed Theodoret). “He did not say: not drunkards (those who get drunk), because that would be already extremely coarse and base, but: not heavy drinkers. For even if one does not get drunk but drinks a great deal, the disposition of his soul becomes good for nothing. The ancients, upon entering ministry in the sanctuary, gave up the use of wine altogether” (blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius).

“Not greedy for dishonest gain.” “A lover of dishonest gain is not one who, as was supposed, does not abstain from receiving any sort of profit, but one who is eager to collect profit from shameful and utterly improper things” (blessed Theodoret)—or “one who does not refuse any profit, wherever it may come from. Take the lover of dishonest gain here as a stingy lover of money and covetous person” (blessed Theophylact). “Dishonest gains are also properly called those that are carefully acquired under the guise of godliness” (Ambrosiaster). The latter was all the more to be feared in deacons, since their business was to provide for the needs of the faithful from the Church’s property.

1 Tim. 3:9. Holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.

The “mystery of the faith” is that of which the Apostle speaks below: “confessedly great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh… was taken up in glory” (1 Tim. 3:16). God descended to earth in the incarnation and arranged for us a wondrous manner of salvation. This is a mystery, because it is incomprehensible to us both in its revelation and in the very arrangement of salvation in act—incomprehensible both in how this was accomplished by the incarnate God, and in how it is effectively appropriated to us and saves us. This mystery is received by faith: that it is undoubtedly so, since God Himself both accomplished all of this and interpreted it for us, and that the one who receives and does all as has been determined in this manner of salvation, undoubtedly receives salvation.

To hold such a “mystery of the faith with a pure conscience” means to believe in this wholeheartedly, with all one’s conscience, without wavering or being divided in thought, nurturing a deep conviction in all things and not admitting any thoughts contrary to it. Or thus: the conscience is pure when someone strives with all his might to do everything required by the commandments, or fulfills every known will of God. Such a conscience sanctifies and brings peace to the whole soul—and makes it a vessel fit for the reception and preservation of the divine and heavenly mystery of the faith. The Apostle urges that the one chosen for the diaconate hold the mystery of the faith in such a pure conscience—that is, both believe and live purely and blamelessly, both in outward conduct and in inner feelings and dispositions. St. Chrysostom says: “By this the Apostle shows what it means to be above reproach.” Blessed Theodoret adds: “to confirm the faith by works. For by a pure conscience the Apostle meant good works. The one who does them is not wounded by conscience.” Blessed Theophylact explains: “holding together with the keeping of right doctrine also a blameless life. For conscience becomes pure with a blameless life.”

1 Tim. 3:10. And let these also first be tested, and then let them serve, if they are found above reproach.

“And these therefore,”—being such or having been recognized as such—that is, “holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience”—and the other good qualities shown above—“let them be tested,” let them be submitted to a test in which they would show that all the good qualities visible in them lie deep in the heart, constituting the features of their established character, and are not something apparent and accidental. Perhaps this testing concerned them especially from the side of their capacity for the performance of the duties of the diaconate—whether they are prudent, competent, attentive: for many persons, while possessing good qualities of heart, are very unskilled in managing outward affairs. This requirement of testing is equivalent to what he will say below: “Do not be hasty in laying hands on anyone” (1 Tim. 5:22), and to what he already said about bishops—that he must not be a “recent convert.” So St. Chrysostom: “See—he also says here: ‘not a recent convert.’ For the expression: ‘let these also be tested first’ means the same thing as what he said about bishops.” Theophylact writes the same: “As, he says, I required of the bishop that he not be a recent convert, so I require also that these not be admitted to ministry without being tested, but only after having been sufficiently tried under testing and found blameless—just as (in ordinary life too) no one would entrust a newly purchased slave with any supervisory position before he has shown himself fit for it over the course of time.”

“And then let them serve,” διακονειτωσαν,—let them be admitted to service, or rather, let them be ordained as deacons—be made deacons. So blessed Theodoret: “It is necessary that their life first be tested, and that only then they be deemed worthy of the spiritual grace.” “Being above reproach”—not “if they are above reproach,” but being in this way, or appearing after this to be blameless in all respects, having nothing in themselves that the conscience of anyone in the whole community of Christians would not approve.

1 Tim. 3:11. Women likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, [not tattlers,] sober-minded, faithful in all things.

By “women” here are meant neither women in general—for why would speech about them be inserted in the middle of the discussion of those who serve in the Church?—nor the wives of deacons, for then it would say: their wives. But since the discourse concerns persons serving the Church, by “women” here must be understood similar persons of the female sex. Such were deaconesses; it is about them that the word is spoken. So St. Chrysostom: “Women”—“that is, deaconesses. Some suppose that this is simply said about women in general; but this is not right. For what could the Apostle have had in view in inserting a few words about women in the middle of his discourse? But he is speaking here about women who are invested with the calling of deaconess. About them it was appropriate to say what has been said. For this calling is very necessary, useful, and worthy of respect in the Church” (St. Chrysostom).

“Likewise.” “What he established as a rule for the men, nearly the same thing he establishes also for the women. As he called deacons ‘{dignified},’ so he also calls deaconesses dignified; as he prescribed to the former to be ‘not double-tongued,’ so he also makes it the duty of the latter to be not slanderous; as he ordained for the former to be ‘not addicted to much wine,’ so he commanded the latter also to be ‘sober-minded’” (blessed Theodoret).

“Dignified”—here too, as above “{dignified},” σεμνας,—worthy of respect and reverent.

“Not slanderers,” μη διαβολους,—not tattlers, not spreading false rumors about others, “those who, as is customary with old women, go from house to house and whisper to one about another” (blessed Theophylact).

“Sober-minded,” νηφαλιυς,—attentive to themselves and watchful. “Since this sex is light and easily deceived, they must not, he says, slumber, but be vigorously vigilant” (blessed Theophylact). This applies both to themselves and to the works entrusted to them.

“Faithful in all things”—“that is, steadfast both in word and in deeds” (blessed Theophylact), such persons as can be relied upon in everything, who will faithfully and precisely carry out everything entrusted to them and as it has been entrusted, who will not betray anything confided to them and will never in any way break their given word.

1 Tim. 3:12. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.

“Husbands of one wife.” “Do you see that the Apostle requires of deacons the very same virtue (as of bishops)? Though they are not equal to the bishop in rank, they must be equally above reproach, equally pure” (St. Chrysostom). “This must be understood according to the earlier interpretation” (blessed Theodoret).

“Managing their children and their own households well.” “This he established as a rule also for those he calls bishops” (blessed Theodoret). “Everywhere he speaks of the management of children, so that the rest might have no occasion for stumbling” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Tim. 3:13. For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

The Apostle encourages the deacon toward good service in the diaconate, promising good fruits from this—both external and internal, both in the Church and in the heart’s relation of faith toward the Lord Jesus. It is as though one word has been passed over before this. He said that one worthy of the diaconate must be such and such, and that whoever proves to be such, having been tested, should be appointed as deacon. One would have expected either: and urge him also to serve well in the diaconate—or: you, deacon, serve well. But this is left to be understood of itself, and only this is said: for those who have served well in the diaconate will not have labored without fruit. Such encouragement was considered necessary for deacons because their ministry is full of trouble and toil, both in soul and body.

“Those who have served well,” διακονησαντες,—those who have performed the diaconal duty well, “gain for themselves a good standing”—in the church ministry, that is, it goes without saying—after the diaconate they will be found worthy of the presbyterate, and then of the episcopate. St. Chrysostom says: “He is as if saying: those who have shown themselves vigilantly zealous in the lower ranks will soon attain the others (higher ones) as well.” At the beginning he said that whoever desires the episcopate desires a good work. Now he indicates the road that leads there—namely, good service to the Church in the diaconate. And experience showed that those who served well in the diaconate were afterwards distinguished also in the ranks of the presbyterate and episcopate (blessed Theophylact).

This is the fruit of good diaconal service in terms of one’s position in the Church. By way of inner advancement, from this will come “great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus”—that is, great boldness before the Lord, by virtue of faith in Him—they will attain “great perfection (in spirit) and boldness in faith in Jesus Christ” (St. Chrysostom). “And who can attain such boldness except the one who both believes and lives righteously?” (Oecumenius). The righteous life of the deacon is good diaconal service. The Church is the house of the Lord Jesus. Serving the Church, they serve the Lord Himself. But just as in ordinary life one who faithfully and zealously serves the master of the house both has access to him and is not afraid to say the appropriate word before him—so those who serve faithfully in the Church are authorized by their very conscience to look boldly toward the Lord and to utter before Him the desires of their heart—for themselves and for the faithful. One who has attained this by zealous labor in the diaconate is already worthy to stand in the rank of presbyter and bishop, so as to offer to the Lord with boldness the intercessory prayers for the company of the faithful.

Part Three: How to Act Toward Those Shepherded (1 Timothy 3:14–6:19)

The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

Here St. Paul first gives instructions: A) concerning proper pastorship in general—teaching, edification, and guidance, primarily from the perspective of how the shepherd should prepare himself for this and, as it were, form himself (1 Tim. 3:14–16, 4:1–16); and then he indicates: B) how to teach and guide those shepherded, according to their various conditions (1 Tim. 5, 6:1–19).

a) In general—concerning proper pastorship

We shall not indicate the particular subdivisions of this section beforehand, but shall mark them as we follow the course of the Apostle’s word.

A) The sole guide for the teacher of truth—the holy Church (1 Tim. 3:14–16)

In the first place the holy Apostle indicates that the sole guide for the teacher of truth in the truth is the holy Church, and that the first truth of his teaching is: “God was manifested in the flesh.”—But before this he sends forth a certain consolation to his beloved disciple, so recently orphaned by his departure.

1 Tim. 3:14. These things I write to you, hoping to come to you soon.

“These things I write”—not only what precedes, but also what follows, this epistle I write, “hoping to come to you soon.” These last words did not suggest to St. Timothy the thought that St. Paul was writing only certain things suitable for the time until he came, and that when he came he would communicate something more important and complete. For the Epistle contains important and detailed instructions. On the contrary, these words were meant to serve as consolation in the sorrow that this very fullness and detail of the instructions might have cast upon him. Seeing this, St. Timothy might have thought: surely my dear father and beloved teacher will not return—and having thought this, might have begun to grieve. To forestall such a thought and such sorrow, the Apostle assures him: “these things I write”—not as a farewell testament, but I hope to return to you soon myself. St. Chrysostom says: “So as not to plunge the disciple into sorrow by giving him instruction on such subjects, the Apostle says: I write this not because I shall no longer come to you; on the contrary, I will come. However, if it should happen that I am delayed, do not grieve over this. Thus he writes this to Timothy with the aim of relieving his sorrow; as for the rest (the Ephesians who were to read the Epistle, this served) to rouse them from inactivity and make them more zealous. For his presence, even if only promised, could do much.”

1 Tim. 3:15. But if I delay, I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct oneself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth.

What I am giving as detailed instruction is for the case that I am delayed. You need to know how you should live and act among the faithful, as chief shepherd. About this I am writing to you in detail. Though you know almost everything, having seen how we together ordered the Churches of God; yet you too need a reminder, so that, refreshing in thought how everything in the Church is done decently, you may act more confidently in accordance with that, not falling into confusion at the entanglement of circumstances and not being turned thereby from the proper path. But more than you, others need this—so that they may see that you have received the commandment to act precisely thus and not otherwise, and are not acting according to your own arbitrary will.

“In the words: ‘I hope to come… but if I am delayed’—the Apostle reveals ignorance; because this is how one speaks who does not know” (St. Chrysostom). St. Paul, like all the Apostles, acted zealously and tirelessly in carrying out the work laid upon him: he made plans, deliberated on means. But at the same time the course of affairs and success in them he committed to the will of God, appending to every intended step: if it be God’s will, I shall prosper. He committed everything to the guidance of God, which might give his movement quite a different direction than he thought to have—as he had already experienced more than once. “Therefore, since he was guided in all things by the Spirit and by his own will did none of the things he did, he also spoke in such an undecided way” (St. Chrysostom). Blessed Theodoret writes: “Neither the divine Prophets nor the God-wise Apostles foreknew everything. What served for benefit—that the grace of the Spirit revealed to them. This is also indicated by the ignorance expressed in the present words of the Apostle. For, having said: ‘I hope to come,’ he added: ‘but if I am delayed.’ For some necessity (or communication from above) would often detain him. Therefore he says: I write this, teaching how those to whom the care of others has been entrusted ought to conduct themselves; for the assembly of the faithful is what he called ‘the house of God and Church.’”

“How one ought to conduct oneself,” αναστρεφεσθαι,—to behave, to hold oneself and to relate to others and act upon them, “in the house of God”—in the Church or community of the faithful. The shepherd shepherds. A shepherd who does not shepherd—what kind of shepherd is he? His work is to be among those he shepherds and to act: to teach, edify, correct, console, sober, protect—“to order the Church” (Ambrosiaster), or the flock of the faithful. To this the Apostle’s instructions are now directed. What was said before this is as it were a preface to the instructions that follow.

“The house of God, the Church of the living God,” is the community of the faithful. God is everywhere, but in the Church He is present in a special manner—He is within each of the faithful, and thereby also in the entire company of them—not outwardly but inwardly, quickening, animating, and uniting them all, both with one another and all with Himself. God the Father promised: “I will dwell in them and walk among them” (2 Cor. 6:16). God the Son assured: “behold, I am with you always” (Matt. 28:20). Concerning the Holy Spirit witness has been given: “you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you” (1 Cor. 3:16). The Triune God—living and creative—dwells in the company of the faithful, in the body of the Church. The Saviour revealed this mystery, saying: “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (Jn. 14:20)—let us add from other places: by the grace and action of the Holy Spirit. “Do not say that people assembled the Church. It is the work of God—the living and awesome God, not the dead and powerless (gods), such as are the gods of the Greeks” (blessed Theophylact). “It is ordered by God, consecrated to God, and has God dwelling in it” (Oecumenius).

But the Church too has God dwelling in her in a special manner—not as a material house has its owner. The house is not in union with the one dwelling in it and does not feel how he lives. But the Church, quickened by the God who dwells in her, is joined to Him in a living union and feels Him dwelling in her, feels also that she lives by Him—and that therefore she is all the more His house. God makes for Himself a house from souls, turning them toward Himself, purifying, sanctifying, and filling them to the full, and, filling all with Himself, joins all into one—both the living and the departed—and holds all in a living unity with one another.

This Church is the pillar and buttress of the truth. For she is the Church of the living God, Who is the God of truth—or truth itself. Therefore all in her is true: true is the confession of faith, true is the sanctification through the mysteries, true is the bestowal of grace, true is the life according to God, built by God in her, true is God’s help, true are the promises that quicken those who labor in the house of God—all is true in her; and nowhere else seek the truth. There are certain likenesses of truth outside her; but the true truth is only in her. Rejoice and bless God, Who is truthful in the Church and has made you a sharer in His truth and a fellow-initiate into it!

The words “pillar and buttress” express the firmness, immutability, and unchangeableness of the truth. But the Church is an assembly of human beings, who are customarily changeable: how then is she the pillar and fortress of truth? The Church is such as the house of the living God, the sole truth-giver, and as a union of deified human beings. The true children of the Church are human beings, but not as human beings. All human beings are not true human beings—as a result of the fall; but those who enter the Church are made true human beings by the grace of God. Truth is established in their entire being. Therefore from them only truth must proceed. All this is accomplished by the living and true God who dwells in them. The Church is the pillar of truth, as standing firm and unshaken in the truth and preserving it—she is the buttress (of truth), as the steadier of minds when they have been disturbed by an intrusive falsehood. Therefore it is obligatory to count as true what the whole Church holds, and to resolve arising perplexities by the voice of the Church, expressed in the council of the shepherds.

Our commentators, among other things, carry through here the thought that the holy Christian Church is the truth in relation to the Old Testament Church, in which everything was its shadow.—Blessed Theophylact writes: “The Church is the containing of truth. For all that is accomplished in her is true and not shadowy (allegorical, prefigurative), not figurative, as was that which was in the Church under the Law: instead of bells—the brilliantly resplendent preaching; instead of the costly adornments of the (sacred) vestments—a most glorious life, rich in inward fruits; the high priest in her—the Son of God; the great sacrifice—His divine body” (condensed from St. Chrysostom and Oecumenius).

1 Tim. 3:16. And confessedly great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit, appeared to angels, was proclaimed among the Gentiles, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.

Behold what truth the Church is the pillar and buttress of: “God was manifested in the flesh!” This truth the holy Church proclaims and confirms by her very existence. For she is a building whose foundation is Christ the Lord (1 Cor. 3:11); she is a body whose Head is He also—God the Word, who became flesh. Just as one who sees a living body has in this very fact an assurance concerning the head, and one who sees a solid building has an assurance concerning the foundation: so one who sees the Church is assured that beyond all doubt “God was manifested in the flesh.”

In mentioning this, the Apostle had in mind to bring to attention that this truth is not such as hides in some obscure corner, but is a truth that is everywhere, proclaimed and acknowledged everywhere—in heaven among the Angels, on earth among all peoples—throughout all creation it is preached, believed, glorified. This needed to be set forth so as to imprint in the mind of St. Timothy the non-negotiable requirement: this is the truth—hold to it! By it measure every teaching and reject all that is inconsistent with it.

But before this he considered it necessary to point out that what is everywhere proclaimed is not something trivial, presenting no difficulty for its acceptance, but on the contrary is a mystery—and a great mystery: by which he also aroused strong attention to it, taught one to treasure it, and gave one to understand that nothing greater could anyone else open up or show.

“And confessedly great is the mystery of godliness.”—By “godliness” the Apostle named our Christian faith (Oecumenius); and by the “mystery of godliness”—the fact that the essence of our faith is hidden, both because of its incomprehensibility and because of the hiddenness of its operation in us. It was conceived in the mystery of the Triune God before the ages, and was brought to fulfillment in a manner most incomprehensible to all created minds, and is appropriated—or makes the faithful partakers of itself—also in a hidden manner: for as “the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but do not know where it comes from or where it goes: so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:8). Hidden also is that in which such a beginning of new birth finds its completion—namely, living communion with God through the Lord Saviour by the grace of the Holy Spirit, a communion in which “God is the one who works all in all” (1 Cor. 12:6), yet without violating freedom and without taking away the value and dignity of its acts.

“Great” is this “mystery” of our “godliness”—both by reason of the Person who arranged it, and by reason of the powers and means employed for its appropriation, and above all by reason of the end with which its action will be consummated—that is, the renewal of heaven and earth and the dawning of the blessed Kingdom of God—and great “confessedly;” for as soon as anyone comes to know of it and surveys with the eye of the mind all that it proclaims and promises, he cannot restrain himself from crying out: great is the mystery! Its greatness is uncontradictedly and irresistibly confessed by all. Even the very unbelievers, though they do not acknowledge the truth of our faith, cannot but acknowledge that its content is supercelestial, lofty—higher and more majestic than anything the greatest, angelic minds could devise.

Or—great is the mystery as a mystery, in that it is deeply mysterious and incomprehensible—and this is “confessedly” so: that is, it is uncontradictedly acknowledged by all to be incomprehensible, inconceivable, unsearchable, “not subject to scrutiny”—as St. Chrysostom says. Gazing upon it as it has been revealed, marvel—as did all the saints who rose to such contemplation—confessing at the same time both its greatness and its impenetrable mysteriousness. But do not attempt to penetrate to its depths and do not strain your small mind, lest you lose even it.

“God was manifested in the flesh… was taken up in glory.” The Apostle describes—or depicts—this mystery not from the side of its essence, but from the side of its manifestation; he presents the entire course of that manifestation. God moved from heaven and, descending to earth, took upon Himself human fleshly nature, performed great signs and miracles, even in death itself, that compelled belief that He is truly God; He ascended into heaven, met, accompanied, confessed, and glorified by Angels; from thence He sent down the Divine Spirit, by Whom the Apostles—enlightened, strengthened, and inspired—traversed the whole earth and proclaimed to all peoples this wondrous event—the manifestation of God in the flesh—and everywhere planted faith in the world; and this planting gave birth to the Church, “which is the pillar and ground of this truth.” In these few words the Apostle compressed the entire confession of our faith.

“God was manifested in the flesh”—not such a manifestation as He showed to the forefathers, but one in which “the Word,” who is God, “became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14)—He lived with human beings as a human being, having taken our fleshly nature into His hypostasis, in order to accomplish the incarnate economy of our salvation and thereafter to remain forever as God not unclothed and as man not merely a man, so as always to intercede for us. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The one who is God and the Son of God, having an invisible nature, when He became man, became visible to all. The Apostle clearly taught us of the two natures, saying that the divine nature appeared in the flesh.” “This is truly a ‘great mystery,’” says holy Chrysostom, “for man became God, God became man.” All saw a man, yet could not but confess that He is God. So irresistibly did He impress upon everyone’s consciousness that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9).

“Therefore immediately after this the Apostle says: ‘was justified in the Spirit.’ It was acknowledged that He truly—or rightly—is what He called Himself, namely the Son of God and God. He openly told all that He is the Son of God, equal to God the Father. In this His word He ‘was justified.’ How? ‘In the Spirit’—through manifestations of divine omnipotence, omniscience, and holiness—by authority over visible nature and over invisible spirits. The word ‘was justified’ cannot in any way be applied to the incarnate God in the same sense as it is applied to human beings being justified. “With what righteousness is Righteousness itself “justified”—the “Sun of righteousness,” as Malachi calls Him (Mal 4:2)—which signifies the most manifest and purest righteousness? As such, He does not receive justification but gives it. Therefore the Prophet also said of Him: ‘Who “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth’” (Is 53:9)” (Oecumenius).—‘Was justified in the Spirit’ means that He performed miracles by the Spirit of God, as He Himself says: ‘But if I… by the Spirit… cast out demons’ (Matt. 12:28). By miracles it was proved and made manifest that Christ is the true God and Son of God. Thus also the centurion at the cross, seeing that the earth shook and the universe was filled with darkness, cried out: ‘Truly this Man was the Son of God’ (Mk 15:39)” (blessed Theodoret). Therefore holy John testifies: “and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father” (Jn. 1:14). How this came about in all people, holy Paul speaks of in another place—affirming that He who was of the seed of David according to the flesh was declared—acknowledged by all—to be the Son of God “in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4).

“Was seen by Angels.”—“Was seen,” ωφθη,—He was beheld. For Angels too do not see the divine nature as it is, but only in its manifestations. The Saviour’s words, “Angels… always see the face of My heavenly Father” (Matt. 18:10), point to an intellectual vision of God, or to seeing Him in what He is pleased to manifest to them of His invisible presence. But in the Lord Saviour they beheld Him more tangibly. In the eyes the soul is seen. In the eyes of the God-man God can be beheld to such a degree as the eyes looking upon Him are capable of receiving the rays of the radiance of the Godhead. Holy Chrysostom says: “Consequently, Angels together with us saw the Son of God, having not seen Him before. Truly a great mystery!”—Blessed Theodoret writes the same: “The invisible divine nature was not seen even by Angels, but they saw what was incarnate.” For from the very birth of God in the flesh until the Ascension they were present with Him; at the Ascension they accompanied Him; and after the Ascension they surround His throne. Blessed Theophylact writes: “O mystery! Together with us even Angels saw the Son of God, not having seen Him before. For the Gospel says, ‘Behold, Angels came and ministered to Him’ (Matt. 4:11). And not here only, but from His very birth until the Ascension they ministered to Him. At His birth Angels sing a hymn to Him and bring the good news to the shepherds; and at the Ascension they likewise minister to Him.”

Or perhaps holy Paul here means some special manifestation of the Lord Saviour to the angelic world after the Ascension—a manifestation in which they beheld the God-manhood in all its supra-heavenly glory. That something of this sort very likely occurred in heaven is indicated by the words of the Apostle Paul: “And again, when He brings the Firstborn into the world, He says: ‘And let all the Angels of God worship Him’” (Hebr. 1:6)—which was appropriate to occur only after the state of humiliation had passed and He had entered into the glory that was had “before the world was” (Jn. 17:5)—and by the words of the Apostle Peter: “who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, with Angels and authorities and powers made subject to Him” (1Pet. 3:22).—Such a thought is found in Ambrosiaster: “was seen by Angels”—no longer in a humbled form, but in the majesty of power and authority. For He had been seen until then in a humble appearance on account of the flesh, until, having conquered death, He rose from the dead—and the majesty of the One who, having been born as a man, was not wholly a man, was beheld. And the Angels, having come to know the mystery formerly hidden and now manifested in the flesh, bowed the knee before Him as before God, offering thanksgiving.

“Was preached among the Gentiles”—by the Apostles, who were given the command to “teach all nations” (Matt. 28:19) and who, “going out, preached” everywhere, “the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the signs that followed” (Mk. 16:20). By the time this Epistle was written, scarcely a people remained that had not heard the good news of the Gospel. The nations—somehow cast aside and brought to despair, a non-people—were called into the people and, alongside that people, enriched with all the treasures hidden in the incarnate economy, which through this is revealed as the blessing of all humanity.

“Was believed on in the world.” “Throughout the whole universe they heard of Him and believed in Him. The Prophet points to this when he says: ‘Their sound went out into all the earth’ (Ps. 18:5)” (holy Chrysostom). “He was not only ‘preached’ but believed in; and from those who believed He receives divine worship” (blessed Theodoret). “Which is a great sign of the power of the One proclaimed and of the truth of the proclamation” (blessed Theophylact).

“Was taken up in glory.” “Although this happened before the preaching; yet the Apostle placed it at the end, teaching that faith in the proclamation was well-founded, because the One who commanded to preach is in heaven and is seated at the right hand” (blessed Theodoret). But in what glory was He taken up? Although “the very act of ascending is most glorious” (Oecumenius), one must suppose that the Lord’s Ascension was accompanied by some special glory not seen by human beings but beheld by Angels and sung in their doxology. At the moment of the Ascension, Angels are seen to be present; they announced to the Apostles only the future coming of the Lord in glory, while they themselves, of course, were both beholding it and singing it at that very moment. They were drawn away for an instant from the celebration that was taking place in the angelic world at that moment. That it did take place is suggested by all the passages speaking of the Lord’s glorification after the resurrection and ascension. The angelic world was now receiving a new order and was celebrating His entry into it. The Spirit of God revealed this to the Apostles—and they declared it to us.

Such is the great mystery of our godliness and at the same time the power of the incarnate economy, proclaimed, confessed, and wondrously at work throughout the breadth of the universe. It is the foundation of the Church, which by virtue of this mystery entrusted to it is the pillar and ground of truth. It is the foundation of the salvation of every believer. Salvation begins with its reception, matures under its influence, and is completed by the saved person’s entry into its very heart. A believer ought to call it to mind more often than he draws breath. This will bathe both his life and all that exists in supra-heavenly light; from this comes inspiration, from this comes moral strength, from this comes hope that gives wings. But, as holy Chrysostom notes, believers—not to their credit—are not altogether faithful in this regard. “Note,” he says, “that holy Paul everywhere calls God’s providential care for us (in the incarnate economy) a mystery—and rightly so. For it was not known; it was not even revealed to Angels; it was declared only through the Church.—Let us then live in a manner worthy of the dignity of this mystery. Those to whom mysteries are entrusted are in a certain sense great people. If a king were to entrust us with some secret, tell me—would we not regard this as a mark of his great favour toward us? Yet now God entrusts us with His mystery—and we, as if no great benefaction had been done for us, remain ungrateful to our Benefactor. Let us tremble at our remaining insensible to this benefaction!”

The Apostle reminded holy Timothy of this mystery, pointing him to it as an inexhaustible subject for conversations with the faithful and at the same time a powerful instrument for their moral guidance. But from the flow of the discourse it is also evident that he needed to mention it in order to give his representative a norm of truth—as a measure for evaluating teachings that would come in—saying as it were: everything incompatible with it, in whatever respect, reject without mercy as falsehood or an admixture of falsehood. That such was holy Paul’s intention can be surmised from the fact that immediately after this he foretells the false teaching that was to appear.

B) On the false teaching (1 Tim. 4:1–6)

In foretelling this, the Apostle: aa) characterizes the false teachers (1 Tim. 4:1, 2); bb) indicates certain subjects of the false teaching (verse 3); and: cc) having exposed its groundlessness (verses 3–5), dd) lays upon holy Timothy the duty of arming the faithful against such future false teaching through the explanation of these matters (verse 6).

Aa) Characterization of the false teachers (1 Tim. 4:1, 2)

In the Latter Times Some Shall Depart From the Faith (1 Timothy 4:1–2)

1 Tim. 4:1. But the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, heeding deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.

In this verse the intellectual aspect of the false teachers is defined—specifically, whence they will derive their false teaching—while in the next verse the moral aspect is given: what they are with respect to conscience. Both, though extremely incriminating, may be applied to all false teachers, with rare exceptions.

The “Spirit” who speaks expressly is the Holy Spirit, who dwelt in the Apostles, abundantly filling them with His holy gifts, reminding them of what had been and foretelling what was to be—all in relation to the Kingdom of God. He revealed to holy Paul what was to come; and holy Paul judged it necessary to communicate to believers what the Holy Spirit had revealed. The words “the Spirit says” are “equally fitting to God as the (prophetic) expressions ‘thus says the Lord’ and ‘thus says the God of Sabaoth’” (blessed Theodoret). “The Apostle does not pass over in silence what the Holy Spirit has revealed about the future, for the edification and warning of the Churches—so that the Churches, forewarned of this, might maintain careful watchfulness lest such people circumvent them” (Ambrosiaster).

To whom does the Spirit speak—to holy Paul, or everywhere throughout the Churches? There were occasions when the speaking of the Spirit went through the Churches of God, and the Apostle heard it already from the Churches. Such was the testimony of the Spirit concerning the bonds awaiting the Apostle in Jerusalem, hearing of which the Apostle said: I do not know what will come of it (Acts 20:22, 23, 21:11). But there were occasions when the Spirit spoke expressly to the Apostle himself.—Thus He forbade him to speak the word in Asia and did not allow him to go into Bithynia (Acts 16:6, 7). In the present case one may allow for both: this word went through the Churches, and holy Paul also heard it from the Holy Spirit. And he heard it “expressly,” ρητως,—as a word uttered in articulate speech. How? It may have resounded in his ears and been impressed directly on his mind and heart, but still as a definite word. The Apostle added this word ρητως to make known that the Spirit’s testimony on this matter is “evident, clear, unambiguous, so that there remains no room for doubt whatsoever” (holy Chrysostom).

Know then for certain, he says, that “in later times some will depart from the faith.”—“Later times” are not those that will come before the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ, but those that will come after us—the subsequent times. “Will depart”—literally means: they will abandon the Christian faith and become non-Christians, like Julian the Apostate. But, judging by the subjects of the coming false teaching indicated below, one may conclude that this departure will be from the purity of the Christian faith. The false teaching will arise among Christians and from Christian principles, wrongly understood and crookedly interpreted by human vain wisdom apart from the voice of the Church. Both the false teachers and those carried away by them will count themselves Christians, and even the most perfect of Christians—as proved to be the case afterward.

And will those who are to depart themselves be false teachers, or will the false teachers be separate persons, characterized below, while here it speaks only of those who will be carried away by their false teaching? “Will depart”—points directly to those who are to fall away through being carried away by others; but in the explanation of how they will depart, one cannot fail to see a depiction of how the very seducers into apostasy will also depart. Both will occur. In some, vain-minded ones, false teaching will arise; having fallen away from unity of faith because of it, and thereby from the one body of the Church, they will also carry away others who are not firm in the faith. This holy Paul had foretold to the Ephesians much earlier, in the speech he delivered to their presbyters when taking leave of them at Miletus: “savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from your own number men will arise speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves” (Acts 20:29, 30). Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle showed that some, having first joined the body of the Church, will subsequently become teachers of falsehood. For this is what the words mean: ‘some will depart from the faith, heeding deceiving spirits.’” And holy Chrysostom says: “There will be a time, says the Apostle, when those who have become partakers of the faith will act in a manner worthy of condemnation, giving harmful counsel not only concerning food, but also concerning marriage and everything of the sort.”

“Heeding deceiving spirits.” This is how the false teaching will arise and apostasy take its beginning! Two forces will draw toward apostasy: deceiving spirits and demonic doctrine—one from within, the other from without. They will give heed to deceiving spirits, will receive false views, will acknowledge them as true, and will depart from the faith that proclaims truth regarding the matters on which they have received false views and convictions. The visible departure from the faith, expressed by falling away from the Church, is preceded by an inward falling away from it, arising from consent to suggestions of deceiving spirits that are incompatible with the faith. Deceiving spirits are the unclean powers—servants of the father of lies—demons. They are called “deceiving” because they draw into falsehood through guile, seduction, and deceit. They cover falsehood with the appearance of truth and draw people in. But how? Directly themselves, or through other people? The Apostle does not distinguish this, but only indicates the source of the falsehood. They will heed, he says, deceiving spirits and will depart from the faith. One may suppose it thus: noticing persons more susceptible to novelties, the spirits of falsehood will inwardly lead them astray from the path of truth into apostasy, and will then begin to carry away others through their agency—outwardly, through their false-teaching word, and inwardly, through seduction in their thoughts. Since the enticement of the latter as well—or their final consent to the falsehood—also does not occur without the inward working of deceiving spirits, the Apostle sets this out beforehand as the ultimate source of the falling away from true faith into falsehood. Here the same thing occurs as in falls into sin. Toward sin both the examples of others and one’s own inclinations draw; but the actual enticement and fall do not occur without the participation of unclean powers. They cloud the mind and surround sin with phantasmal delights; and the will inclines to sin. This inward fall is then followed by the outward one. So too in falling away from the faith—whether complete or in certain points only—one’s own reasonings and the words of others both play a part; but the final consent to receiving the falsehood and following it does not occur without the clouding wrought by spirits of falsehood, who, covering falsehood with a seductive semblance of truth, extort this consent to it. This is what the Apostle expresses in the words: “heeding deceiving spirits.”

“Doctrines of demons”—the Apostle called by this name that mode of viewing Christianity which is formed within under the action of deceiving spirits and then, clothed in corresponding expressions, circulates among people in the form of a certain special teaching—as a temptation and enticement to depart from truth into falsehood. Demons attack, in the consciousness of believers, first one particular side of the faith—the one where it is easier for them to present an apparent inadequacy of the truth and an illusory adequacy of the opposing falsehood. Having succeeded in this, they then teach how to restructure the whole of Christian teaching in the spirit of that falsehood.

When this is accomplished and the formed viewpoint receives its expression and structure—the false teaching is ready. Demons thereafter inflame those they have instructed with a zeal seemingly for the truth of God—and they rush irresistibly to spread the false teaching suggested to them by deceiving spirits. Whoever heeds it heeds demonic teaching, for it received its origin from them. Meanwhile demons do not slumber but hasten to act directly and seductively on the soul to which the attention shown toward their false teaching opens them an entrance. Such is the second agent in drawing believers toward apostasy from the faith. What an unflattering origin for false teaching and for the zeal of false teachers! “Heeding the demons,” Theophylact writes, “the false teachers found fault with certain foods and with marriage. However, the Apostle has in mind here all other heresies as well; for all of them derive from the delusion of spirits of falsehood and from demonic teaching.” Ambrosiaster infers from this: “What better could have been said beforehand about false teachers and false teaching to move people to avoid or rather condemn them, than by calling their view a delusion and their teaching demonic? After this, hearing words contrary to the truth, everyone already knew that this is a teaching composed by demons, as the Holy Spirit foretold through the Apostle.”—And in this, of course, they had the strongest motive to turn their ears away from it.

1 Tim. 4:2. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared.

How do the propagators of demonic teachings succeed in drawing people after them? By hypocrisy. They assume the appearance of persons somehow special, who have grasped all wisdom; they clothe themselves in a mask of holiness—and, having thereby disposed their hearers toward themselves, cause them willingly to drink the poison of their false teaching and to be carried away. This the Apostle expressed in the words: “speaking lies in hypocrisy.” Holy Paul called them “liars” because in their teaching, as something false, there are only words and words, with nothing corresponding to reality—as in phantasms. Further: since falsehood cannot maintain moral forces in due tension, these liars naturally give themselves much latitude in many things, even in those matters which, as impermissible, are forbidden by their own teaching—which, however, they cannot do openly, because this would undermine their authority as teachers and the teaching itself. Hence hypocrisy is inevitable in them—the concern to appear holy and blameless while living an unholy and far from blameless life. This is one side of hypocrisy. To it, one may say, another is inevitably joined, namely: when deeds contrary to the teaching are admitted, the conviction of the viability of the teaching itself is weakened or entirely disappears in the soul of the one who preaches it, and he becomes a preacher without conviction—a hypocritical teacher. This latter side is what our commentators especially bring out in connection with these words of the Apostle. “In hypocrisy,” writes Oecumenius, “means: in craftiness and cunning evasiveness, whereby, even knowing that the dogmas they have fabricated are false, they contrive to present their false-speaking as truth.” The same is in Theophylact: “What they falsely speak, they falsely speak not out of ignorance, but, knowing it to be false, they teachingly pretend it is true” (from holy Chrysostom). Blessed Theodoret takes the general sense: “having taken upon themselves the name of Christians, they teach what is entirely contrary.”

Holy Paul mentions such hypocrisy as a preventive against future departures from the faith. For nothing repels people from teachers so much as the discernment of hypocrisy in them.

“Having their own conscience seared.” Hypocrisy is partly visible from without, while the searing of conscience is an entirely inward matter. Only in its final stages does it manifest itself in a kind of brazen shamelessness in the pursuit of goals recognized as evil. In any case, however, the Apostle has placed before us this characteristic trait of false teachers as a preventive against being carried away after them, with this thought: you will notice the hypocrisy—look closer and you will see the searing of conscience; and once you notice that, what good can you expect from such people?

The searing of conscience suggests two ideas: either that their conscience is burned out, or that they are burned by their conscience. Conscience itself never burns out; but the soul may reach such a state of insensibility to its promptings and reproaches that it is as though there were no conscience—as though it had burned away. The Apostle presents the false teachers as people who live contrary to their teaching and who teach in words contrary to their conviction. Conscience could not leave this without reproach, and undoubtedly reproached them. If now, despite this, they continue to live and act in the same spirit, it is evident that they have already silenced conscience, or have become deaf to its promptings—which is the same as being seared. Blessed Theodoret writes: the Apostle called them “seared in conscience,” “showing their extreme insensibility; for the place that is cauterized, having become deadened, loses its former sensitivity.”

One may also understand the searing of conscience as being branded—or more precisely, marked—by conscience. This is suggested by the Greek: κεκαυστηριασμενον. — Καυστηριαζειν means: to burn in a mark. In the East, owners brand animals with marks by which both they themselves and others recognize that these are their animals. Similar marks on the forehead of consciousness are branded by conscience in the false teachers, so that those who have eyes to see can see and recognize that they belong to the number of the guilty—worthy of condemnation here, and ready for condemnation there, at the judgment of God—and that they carry condemnation within themselves. Blessed Theophylact writes: “since they knew of much that was unclean in themselves, conscience had in them the brands of their unclean life” (likewise in Oecumenius). Ambrosiaster clarifies this: “as a brand damages the skin and impresses a mark, so conscience marks out the false teachers for ruin, on account of their deceitfulness—whereby they craftily hold one thing in mind while expressing another in word. The Apostle gives to understand that such people cannot change for the better so as to be saved; for as a brand (on animals) cannot change, so their soul cannot be corrected. There is nothing worse than hypocrisy.”

Bb) Certain subjects of the false teaching (1 Tim. 4:3)

1 Tim. 4:3. Forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from foods.

Only two subjects from the whole of the false teaching are indicated, probably because they, being more visible, were to stand out more sharply from among others less visible, and moreover to point clearly to the principles on which the entire false teaching would be built; with them, perhaps, the false speakers were to begin their seductive discourse; and, having succeeded in confusing people on these points, to move on to presenting the whole false teaching and especially their evil principles.

Abstaining from marriage and from certain foods is not blameworthy in itself; it can be blameworthy only on account of the thoughts with which it is done. Evidently, by the principles of those false speakers it turned out that marriage and certain foods are impure. Whoever abstained from them in this spirit would be uttering a blasphemy against the Creator of all things. Blessed Theodoret writes: “they call marriage and most foods abominable—in mockery of their Creator, who made these things for (blameless) use.” For this reason the Apostle calls abstinence of this sort blameworthy and warns against it.

In what spirit and with what motives believers may abstain from marriage is indicated by the Apostle in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (chapter 7). There he also indicates that an athlete ought to abstain from everything, giving himself as an example of this (1 Cor. 9:25–27). The false speakers erred not in recommending celibacy and abstinence, but in turning both into an obligatory law, and moreover on false principles. This is what the Apostle condemns. He “does not reject celibacy and abstinence, but reproaches those who compel others to regard these as a legal obligation” (blessed Theodoret)—as though those who partake of these things are for that very reason already unclean and ranked among the perishing.

Blessed Theophylact raises the question: “But what? Do we not forbid marriage?”—and answers: “By no means. But those who do not wish to marry we guide toward the keeping of virginity, teaching that it is more honourable. This does not mean, however, that marriage is dishonourable; just as the fact that gold is more honourable does not mean that silver is dishonourable. And generally, the more honourable is more honourable precisely because it is more honourable than what is honourable, and the better is better than the good—not than the bad. So, let him who is able take hold of the gold of virginity; and he who cannot, let him receive the silver of marriage.”

Who are these false teachers? The Jews abstained from certain foods. But they had a specific commandment about this, and as long as they remained Jews they could not act otherwise. Holy Paul in his other Epistles does not reproach them for this, but only teaches that the observance of this law is no longer timely. But evidently, in the present passage the Apostle has in mind not them, but those who abstained not on account of God’s commandment but on account of their own vain wisdom—though it may be considered probable that the example of abstaining from foods they borrowed from the Jews and even built their false teaching on that occasion. Thus the prohibition of foods may, in some small measure, be considered as resting on Judaism—but not in the Jewish spirit. As for the prohibition of marriage, neither Judaism nor paganism could have given it occasion or support. This is something entirely new. Where, then, did it come from? Is it perhaps the offspring of the false teaching that was creeping into Colossae and spreading through Phrygia, in which the severe treatment of the flesh stood as a prominent point (Col. 2:23)? To it the prohibition of marriage would very naturally have been added—and this is what the Ephesians did.

From the word “forbidding” one cannot directly conclude that this was already occurring in practice at the time of writing; for, in connection with the preceding discourse, this can also mean: those who are about to forbid. But one cannot deny that the beginnings were already there; such a teaching was already circulating, but was still weak, both because of the small number of adherents and perhaps because its whole system had not yet been established. Both the one and the other were still expected in the future; and the Apostle warns against them. Among the heresies that appeared afterward, one may see indicated here the Manichaeans, the Encratites, and the Marcionites. So holy Chrysostom and all our other commentators.

Grammatically: “forbidding… to abstain from foods” would directly mean: requiring people not to abstain from foods—that is, to partake of all food without scruple. But this would be contrary to the Apostle’s meaning. Therefore it must be understood as if it read: “forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods” (blessed Theophylact). Oecumenius cites several examples from Greek writers to show that the Apostle’s words contain no error, but that it is characteristic even of Attic speech to express itself in this way.

Cc) The groundlessness of the false teaching (1 Tim. 4:3–5)

Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7)

1 Tim. 4:3. Which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

Having indicated certain subjects of the false teaching, holy Paul immediately refutes its groundlessness—briefly but decisively—dwelling his attention, however, only on the last point: the prohibition of foods. The first matter—the prohibition of marriage—he does not deem worthy of attention, probably because its absurdity is self-evident to everyone: for if it were generalized, it would lead directly to the extinction of the human race. Ambrosiaster writes: “they do not grieve that they were born, yet they prohibit marriage”—thereby showing themselves to be misanthropes. Perhaps the Apostle also passed over this subject of the false teaching because it was only just beginning to emerge, coming forward timidly, whereas the error regarding the use of foods was already circulating openly through the Churches—introduced, however, by the Judaizers in a different sense than by these Ephesian false teachers. It is on this that the Apostle presses, leaving the former aside. Holy Chrysostom notes incidentally that “the Apostle acted thus because he did not wish to plant prematurely in the souls of believers the idea about that (that marriage is impure); but he refutes only what had already begun, namely the error concerning food.”

He refutes it by pointing to the purpose for which foods were created: “which God created to be received.” God implanted in human nature, as something animal, the need for food, and around man among the creatures He scattered those which can satisfy this need by being eaten. He permitted this already in paradise; He confirmed it at the expulsion from it and extended it in the commandments and blessings given to righteous Noah after the flood. God arranged it thus so that human beings, seeing in His preparation of the food they need around them a sign of His providential care for them, might acknowledge His solicitude and partake of food “with thanksgiving.” This thanksgiving was meant to nourish religious feelings toward God and, in the points of belief about God, to illuminate His countenance with bright, attractive, and stirring features. Thus in this seemingly most simple act—the eating of food—God placed the most instructive and at the same time unceasing school of faith and godliness.—The false teachers, however, by suggesting that there are foods which make a person unclean, perverted this divine order and diverted people from God’s intention in granting to man the need for food and the food itself: they cast a kind of darkness over God’s creation and silenced this unceasing school of right knowledge of God and the feelings due to Him. It is evident that they are impious: “they prompted evil thoughts about the Creator of man and, by suggesting that there are impure foods worthy of revulsion, disposed people to believe that they have another creator—one who is not good” (Ambrosiaster).

Thus, with this brief reminder of the purpose of the creation of foods, the Apostle sufficiently exposed the groundlessness of the false teaching about them. But of course such a refutation could be comprehensible and convincing only to those who have a living religious sense and sound concepts of God. This is why holy Paul added: “by those who believe and know the truth.” He did not say this in the sense that God created foods for the use of such people only, but in the sense that such people eat them in accordance with God’s intention in creating them—that is, they partake of them with thanksgiving. Since he was writing to those who believe and know the truth, his words conveyed this: you, who believe and know the truth, by partaking of foods with thanksgiving, accurately and fully fulfill God’s intention in creating them; your thanksgiving hallows every food; partake of it then, with no doubting, and do not yield to the confusion that the false speakers wish to plant in you by claiming that there are impure foods. The Apostle’s words may be paraphrased thus: those (foods) which God created so that believers might receive them with thanksgiving, doubting nothing. Of unbelievers there is not a word; they partake of food without any good thoughts—merely to eat and take pleasure, like unclean animals. They, if one is to distinguish pure and impure foods, make even pure foods impure by their ungrateful hearts and by the mere sensual gratification of the throat and belly. “Foods are impure for one who partakes of them without thanksgiving and praise to the Creator” (Ambrosiaster).

One might ask: is the enjoyment of food then forbidden? Enjoyment naturally accompanies the eating of pleasant food; but in those who receive it with feelings of thanksgiving to God, the enjoyment loses its character of sensuality—it is spiritualized and hallowed. When people eat food to take pleasure in it, gratifying the flesh in desire, they show themselves to be sunk in sensuality; but when they receive food in satisfaction of an unavoidable need, with thanksgiving, then they feel its sweetness without becoming sensual. The lifting of the mind and heart to God in this makes even the sweetness itself somehow detached and de-materialized. Such people receive food but do not indulge the flesh in it. The word for eating, μεταληψις,—reception, partaking. Oecumenius writes: “See how with the word μεταληψις the Apostle has expelled indulgence, τρυφην? Μεταληψις denotes a moderate receiving of food.” “Μεταληψις,” Theophylact writes, “preserves moderation; τρυφη knows no measure. Yet even the enjoyment of food is not unclean in itself, but because it weakens the soul of those who surrender to it” (both drawing from holy Chrysostom).

By “truth” in the words “knowing the truth” is meant the Christian faith—the only one that contains true and sound views of all that exists. Into this is also comprehended the truth concerning foods: that they should be received with thanksgiving in moderate satisfaction of the body’s need. Those who view the matter thus act in this regard with full conviction that they are acting rightly, in accordance with God’s will. Such conviction imparts brightness and holiness even to the simple act of eating food, and surrounds it with a certain special sense. Or perhaps here is prefigured “that truth of which mention will be made directly, namely that every creation of God is good” (blessed Theophylact).

1 Tim. 4:4. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.

There he adduced an argument from the moral-religious order; now he takes up the matter from the side of dogma. Everything that came from God’s creative hands is good. Every food designated for human eating is likewise good. Consequently, those false speakers lie when they forbid certain foods on the grounds that they are supposedly impure. Nothing is impure in itself; all is good and fit—that is, may be used as food without scruple. “The words ‘every creature of God is good’ the Apostle borrowed from the Mosaic Scripture. ‘And God saw,’ it is written, ‘all that He had made: and behold, it was very good’ (Gen. 1:31). And what is good, when ‘received with thanksgiving’ in remembrance of God, proves to be holy” (blessed Theodoret). “By the expression ‘every creature of God’ the Apostle here means what may be used as food. If all such things are God’s creatures, then they are good: for ‘all things were very good’” (holy Chrysostom).

“Nothing is to be rejected”—nothing edible should be rejected, nothing treated with disgust or loathing as impure and contrary to God; on the contrary, everything of the sort should be received as a benefaction and gift from the hand of the Lord. This is why it must be received with thanksgiving. Whoever receives edible foods with thanksgiving—for them all foods are pure and holy, by virtue of that very thanksgiving. “Thanksgiving purifies everything; but the ungrateful person is himself impure and defiled” (blessed Theophylact). “Ingratitude makes even what is clean unclean. That disposition is impure which does not give thanks to God” (holy Chrysostom). “To the pure all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure” (Tit. 1:15).

1 Tim. 4:5. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

“Is sanctified by the word of God”—may be understood thus: “is sanctified”—has been sanctified once and for all—“by the word of God”—by that word which God spoke at the completion of creation, that “all things are good.” By this word everything, including all that is edible, is declared and offered as holy. Therefore it should be received with a blameless conscience—as clean and holy—with full conviction and without the least doubt. Or else—“is sanctified” now, at the hour of eating, and is sanctified “by the word of God”—by the invocation of the name of God; so that “and prayer” merely explains “the word of God.” The invocation of God’s name and the turning to God in prayer makes holy every food received by one who receives it in this spirit. But why is there need of a special sanctification, when, as was said above, every food is good and none is to be rejected? One may answer thus—that this only indicates how the condition is fulfilled under which, according to God’s determination, nothing is to be rejected—namely: the lifting of grateful feelings to God for the gift of foods, with a petition for His blessing to receive the food set before one. Whoever receives food in this way enters the ranks of those for whom everything received as food is holy and clean.

Or perhaps holy Paul is here making a kind of concession: let us grant, suppose, that there is something impure; but even such a thing is all sanctified when you invoke the name of God. So holy Chrysostom: “If ‘all things are good,’ what does it mean: ‘is sanctified by the word and prayer?’ For evidently what is sanctified is regarded as impure.—These words must not be understood in that way. Here the Apostle speaks against those who considered certain foods to be something defiling. Therefore he sets forth two main thoughts: first, that there is no creature that is defiling; and second—that if something were defiling, you have a remedy against it: make the sign of the cross, give thanks, render glory to God—and all impurity will disappear.—What then, you will say, can even food offered to idols be cleansed in this way? (Yes; but only) when you do not know that it is food offered to idols; whereas if you know it and partake of it nonetheless, you will become impure—not because it is food offered to idols, but because, having received the commandment not to partake with demons, you entered into communion with them by doing so. Therefore, (food offered to idols) is not impure by its nature, but becomes such through your volition and disobedience.—What then? Is swine’s flesh not impure? Not at all, when you eat it with thanksgiving and with the sign of the cross; and in the same way everything else is not impure. It is the disposition that is impure—the disposition that does not give thanks to God.” The same in Theophylact and Oecumenius.

In these words of the Apostle one can see the beginning of the prayers before and after meals, as well as of the sacred readings during the course of the meal.

Dd) The duty of arming the faithful against false teaching (1 Tim. 4:6)

1 Tim. 4:6. In setting all this before the brethren, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ.

“All this”—what exactly? That which he had been speaking of from verse 15 of chapter 3 onward—that the Church is the pillar and ground of truth; that the great mystery of godliness, around which all other truths of the faith are grouped, is “God was manifested in the flesh”; that, holding firmly to this mystery and to every other truth proclaimed by the Church, one must reject everything inconsistent with it—both what already exists now and what is to appear later—as demonic teaching; and in particular, the teaching that one ought not to marry and ought to abstain from certain foods as impure (holy Chrysostom, Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact).

“In setting before,” υποτιθεμενος,—in proposing. “Do you see that here he shows no exercise of authority, but only condescension? ‘In setting before’—he says. He did not say: commanding; he did not say: enjoining; but: ‘setting before’—that is, as it were advising: propose this and engage in discourse about the faith” (holy Chrysostom). This concerns the manner of instructing the flock; but the instruction itself lies upon the shepherd as an inseparable duty, from which if he withdraws or which he fulfills without zeal, he is already not what he ought to be according to the intention of the Lord who instituted the pastorate in the Church. This the Apostle impresses by saying immediately after: “you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ.” In setting this before them, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ; by not setting it before them, you will be a poor minister—an unprofitable servant. He is called “minister,” διακονος, because his duty is not to rule and to glory, but faithfully to “carry out what is commanded and to transmit to fellow believers the Master’s instructions” (blessed Theodoret). And minister “of Jesus Christ”—because the pastorate derives from the Lord Jesus Christ, and every shepherd receives ordination from the hand of the Lord through the hands of fellow-shepherds. Therefore, while labouring in the tending of the flock, he ought to hold in mind and heart that he serves not himself or men but the Lord—carrying out His work and fulfilling His will. In this passage, only one aspect of the good service of a shepherd is indicated—service through the word. “He serves the Lord well, teaching those he shepherds what Christ wishes them to be taught” (Oecumenius). From the flow of the discourse it is evident that this aspect of service is fulfilled not only by proclaiming the pure truth, but also by rejecting impure teachings—and not only by rejecting those impure teachings that are current, but by foreseeing those that are to appear and preparing the flock to repel them. But even this last cannot be better accomplished than by full exposition and impressing upon the minds of believers the pure truth—the pattern of sound words. “What can be more prudent and protective for the flock than to have Christian doctrine taught to it—completely and uncorrupted—so that, having taken firm root in the Lord’s field, it might bear fruit abundant and lasting, such as even on the day of judgment would endure the test of fire and not be burned by it. Such is the duty of a good teacher and faithful minister of Christ” (Ambrosiaster).

C) On the self-formation of the shepherd (1 Tim. 4:6–10)

While holding the truth of God and rooting it in the minds and hearts of his flock, the shepherd must not forget himself either, but, attending to himself, must build himself up and set himself in order—both: aa) in knowledge (1 Tim. 4:6, 7), and: bb) in true godliness (1 Tim. 4:7–10).

Aa) In knowledge (1 Tim. 4:6, 7)

1 Tim. 4:6. Nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have followed.

The shepherd’s good service to the Lord in setting truth before the flock and protecting it from demonic teachings—the Apostle places under the condition of the shepherd’s own nourishment by the words of faith and good doctrine. In acting thus in this matter of instructing the flock, he says, you will be a good minister, drawing the power to do so from nourishing yourself with the truth. If the shepherd is obliged to act as prescribed, he is obliged to fulfill the condition for the prescribed proper action. Therefore “nourished” carries the meaning as if it were said: nourish yourself as well. The force of the Apostle’s word here lies in the word “nourished.” “Not only instruct others, but also exercise yourself in this” (holy Chrysostom). “It befits you above all others to apply yourself diligently to spiritual doctrine and to be enriched by it” (blessed Theodoret). “He said: propose this to others. Now he says: but also let yourself be nourished (by the same truths), turning them over in your mind and as it were chewing on them. For, urging unceasing attention to them, he said: ‘nourished’” (blessed Theophylact). That is, “feeding spiritually on them as food: for ‘man shall not live by bread alone’ (Matt. 4:4). You must not only propose this to the brethren but nourish yourself thereby” (Oecumenius). “Nourished,” he says, pointing to constant attention to subjects of this kind. For, just as we take this (bodily) food every day, so must the word of faith always be received and always be fed upon. “What does ‘nourished’ mean? Chewing on it, constantly repeating (in the mind) one and the same thing, always meditating on the same thing” (holy Chrysostom).

“The words of faith” are the good news of the Gospel, encompassing the entire incarnate economy—constituting our faith and received and held by faith. This is also “the good doctrine”—as coming from a good source, as being of good quality in itself, and as beneficial now to those who receive it and leading them to a good end. But it seems the Apostle had in mind to fix attention above all on the words: “which you have followed.” You already know it and hold it firmly with your whole soul. Nourish yourself with what you already hold, renewing it in your consciousness by recollection and quickening it in your heart with sympathy and love for it. But this comes of itself. The Apostle’s exhortation goes further: nourish yourself with that doctrine which you already hold; but do not run after any new kind, and on the contrary reject it at once, as something alien, as soon as you hear it. What has been entrusted to you—hold; from what has not been entrusted, coming from elsewhere, turn away your ear and attention.

1 Tim. 4:7. But reject profane and old wives’ fables.

“Profane,” βεβηλους,—vulgar, things to be avoided with disgust. The Apostle recalls what he said at the beginning of the Epistle: “nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies” (1 Tim. 1:4)—that is, to the circulating empty discourses and teachings of the false speakers. Neither there nor here does he specify what these fables consist of—perhaps because they were not worth mentioning, or because, since the norm of truth is known, everything foreign to it was of itself determined and known to holy Timothy. He speaks generally only to encourage rejection and resistance. Our commentators, however, consider that here the Apostle has in mind Jewish persuasions—or that part of Judaism which entered into the composition of the teachings of the false speakers. Theodoret writes: the Apostle called the Jewish teachings “old wives’ fables”—“not the Law, but the deceitful misinterpretation of the Law and its untimely observance.” Holy Chrysostom gives the reason for this name: “What fables does he mean here? Jewish computations and observances? Does he call these fables? Yes—either because they are fabricated, or because they are out of season. What is seasonable is beneficial. But what is only temporal is not only not beneficial but harmful.—Moreover, consider: if a man of twenty years of age were to cling to the nurse’s breast, how greatly would he be deserving of mockery for being out of season? You see that he calls this both profane and womanish. He calls it so partly because it is already old, and partly because it is an obstacle to faith.”

But Oecumenius allows that perhaps the Apostle here has in mind also “the ravings of the Greeks and of the heretics of that time. For truly they resemble the empty words raved by old crones—such sayings, for example, as those of the Greeks: Zeus lay with Hera; Ares committed adultery with (Aphrodite); Hephaestus was hurled from heaven.”

It is very probable that the teachings of the false speakers were drawn in part from the Jews, in part from the Greeks, and in part from other Eastern religions. Since believers, in the very act of coming to faith, reject all of these—after coming to faith there is nothing more for them to occupy themselves with such things. This is why the Apostle does not write: refute—as if entering into controversy—but: “reject.” “By this he shows that one must definitively avoid them. His words have precisely this meaning: do not even take upon yourself the trouble of ever entering into conversation with them—except perhaps in the case when you foresee some harm from the fact that we, as if through our weakness, decline to converse with them” (holy Chrysostom).

Bb) In true godliness (1 Tim. 4:7–10)

1 Tim. 4:7. But train yourself in godliness.

By “godliness” the Apostle means life in the spirit of the Christian faith. Although this life encompasses not only the fitting relationship to God—which is godliness in the strict sense—but also all ascetic endeavours and the whole range of right action; yet since both these sides of it, or parts, are observed by Christians for the sake of God and are dedicated to Him, so that their “life” is wholly “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3), the Apostle called all of life according to the faith godliness. “‘Train yourself in godliness’—that is, exercise yourself in pure faith and righteous life, dispose yourself toward the best conduct; for in this godliness consists” (holy Chrysostom). “It is the zealous care for a life pleasing to God, joined to right faith” (Oecumenius).

But what the Apostle wishes to impress here is summed up in the word “train yourself. Train,” γυμναζε,—exercise yourself in the deeds of Christian godliness, so as to become a skilled practitioner of them—as athletes exercise themselves in various bodily movements to acquire habit and skill in them. The body is capable of very dexterous movements, but it must be trained in them by exercises. So too the believer, after baptism and the reception of grace, is capable—that is, both ready and empowered—for every deed and endeavour in the spirit and according to the demands of the holy faith; but in order to do all this properly and fruitfully, one must exercise oneself in deeds of this kind. Yet the athlete first exercises in various bodily movements alone, by himself, only as practice—and these movements will serve him afterward in actual action; but the Christian athlete enters directly not into practice but into real deeds, and by their performance trains himself toward performing them ever better. Therefore “train yourself” means: do not let pass a single occasion on which you can do a deed in the spirit of your faith—or even more: seek out such occasions, so as to become more quickly established in the deeds of our faith and thereafter without difficulty show yourself before God and men as a “worker who does not need to be ashamed” (2 Tim. 2:15). Experience has already shown that such self-training is necessary for the attainment of perfection in life—and training that is comprehensive, both in how to conduct one’s outward affairs and behavior, and in how to keep in order the various inner movements that arise within. Zealous training in both is always crowned with success—that is, with a habit of life pleasing to God, both inward and outward. This perfection does not come of itself: one must train oneself. So for every believer, and all the more so for the shepherd of the faithful. Therefore it was not unnecessary to say to holy Timothy: “train yourself in godliness.”

Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

1 Tim. 4:8. For bodily training profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

What bodily training is spoken of here? The strengthening of the body by gymnastic exercises and the accustoming of it to quick and dexterous movements—for he says σωματικη γυμνασια — bodily exercise. Why then is it brought to mind here? In order by this to stir up greater zeal to exercise oneself in the deeds and labours of godliness. The Apostle speaks as if to say: those who wish to receive crowns at the games exercise diligently in bodily gymnastics, to strengthen their bodies and accustom them to dexterous movements. But if people expend so much effort in bodily gymnastics for perishable crowns, how much more effort should be spent in spiritual gymnastics—that is, in training oneself in godliness for imperishable crowns! That “bodily training” or exercise “profits a little”—that is, is useful for something small or for a small time—“that is, only for the body and only for the present life” (Oecumenius). It is useful for something small—namely, the strengthening of the body, the accustoming of it to agile movements, and thereby the winning of crowns in contests at the public games; and both are of little significance. It is useful for a small time—only for the present life, and not even all of it. But godliness is “profitable for all things”—that is, both for prosperity in the present life and for eternal blessedness in the life to come—“having promise” of the life that “now is and of that which is to come.” “Having promise” indicates that God Himself, by His immutable righteousness and inexhaustible goodness, was pleased to join to godliness—to life in the spirit of the Christian faith—both temporal prosperity and eternal blessedness. By “life” is meant not life as mere life, but the quality of life—a life that is desired, happy, and blessed, without which life is not life. If such is godliness, then the exercise in it must correspondingly be conducted with proportionally greater zeal, by as much as its fruit surpasses the fruit yielded by bodily exercise.

By “bodily training,” apart from the context, some—especially the ascetic Fathers—understand bodily ascetic labours and see in the Apostle’s words a definition of their relative value compared with spiritual labours. But in context, in the flow of the discourse, gymnastic exercises of the body are meant here. Holy Chrysostom says: “Some suppose that this is said of fasting. But this cannot be agreed to: fasting constitutes not a bodily but a spiritual exercise. For if it were a bodily exercise, it would nourish the body. But since it exhausts, thins, and desiccates the body, it does not constitute a bodily exercise. Therefore he is not speaking of this, but of bodily (gymnastic) exercises, which some practice even outside the time of contests and, like athletes, do everything, abstain from everything, bear heavy labour. But for what purpose, you ask, does he mention bodily (gymnastic) exercise here? In order to show by comparison the superiority of the spiritual labours (of godliness); for the former (bodily gymnastics), being joined to great labours, does not bring great benefit—nothing worth speaking of; whereas the latter (the labours of godliness) bring unfailing and abundant benefit.—The first kind of exercise brings no gain, but only a little benefit to the body. But the exercise in godliness bears fruit for the life to come as well: it brings comfort both here and there.” Explaining this latter point, blessed Theophylact adds: “and here also, he says, godliness provides for a person. For, not reproached by his conscience for anything evil, he also rejoices in spirit here, having sure promises of the good things to come; and there he will live the truly true life in very deed.” The first part of this explanation, however, he took from the same holy Chrysostom, in whom it is more fully set forth: “and here we abide in good hope. For one who knows of no transgression in himself and does good works rejoices even in the present life. Whereas a wicked person endures punishment not only there but even here—living perpetually in fear, not daring to look anyone in the face with boldness, trembling, paling, languishing. Are not the covetous and thieves such—uncertain about what they possess? Do not adulterers and murderers lead the most burdensome life, eyeing even the sun with distrust? Is this really life? It is not life, but rather the most grievous death.”

1 Tim. 4:9. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance.

“That is, this word is true and worthy of all receiving it as certain. What is this word? That godliness is profitable both here and there” (blessed Theophylact). “Since he mentioned the life to come—which is something unseen—he necessarily added the assurance that the word about this is faithful, as worthy of belief and adorned with truth. It befits the one who appoints the contest to encourage the contestants with the assurance that the rewards are reliable” (blessed Theodoret).

A second time in this Epistle the Apostle utters this assurance-formula: above, concerning the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), and here concerning the fact that one must exercise in godliness—in life according to the spirit of the Christian faith—even more than wrestlers exercise in bodily gymnastics, since godliness has behind it the promise of temporal happiness and eternal blessedness. He does this in order to impress upon the minds and hearts of the readers of the Epistle the conviction that both faith in the coming of the Lord Jesus to save sinners and zealous exercise in godliness—in life according to the spirit of the Christian faith—are equally obligatory for the followers of Christ, and that only on the combination of both can the hope of salvation and the attainment of eternal blessedness stand firm. Inspired by this unshakeable hope, we also endure all things for the sake of Christ the Lord.

1 Tim. 4:10. For to this end we both labour and suffer reproach, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe.

The truthfulness of the promise and the certainty of receiving what is hoped for, the Apostle confirms by his own example (blessed Theodoret). That faith and life according to the faith bring eternal life—the conviction of this constitutes our strength. For the sake of what do we take upon ourselves such labours and give ourselves over to every reproach? For nothing other than the certainty of receiving eternal life as a reward. And on what does this certainty stand? On the fact that we have set our hope (ηλπικαμεν) on God—have become fully assured of the truth of His word and have placed ourselves entirely upon Him. This application suggests the thought that the Apostle wished to say something like this: the word of promise we heard from the mouth of God Himself; we became fully assured of Him and placed ourselves upon Him, that what was promised will unquestionably be fulfilled. Without this addition of thought, the example of the Apostles alone would not have been convincing. But when behind this example we see the face of the living God giving the promise, it—becoming the representative of the action of the word of the living God—proves to everyone the certainty of their hope with equal force, as if they themselves had heard the word from the mouth of the living God. Holy Paul not only here but in other places as well sets forth his assurance of the certainty of his hope—and it was for him a life-giving power in bearing apostolic labours. I run, he says, not toward something unknown; “I fight, not as one who beats the air” (not into the wind) (1 Cor. 9:26).

This is written to holy Timothy, who shared with the Apostle Paul all his labours and was undoubtedly filled with the same spirit of hope. Therefore “we” (“we labour, we have set our hope”)—here sounds like “you and I together.” And in their persons, of course, the thought is also drawn to all the Apostles and to all who labour in the proclamation of the Gospel. This is recalled to holy Timothy in order to evoke and restore the same spirit of hope that always animated him—saying as it were: be as you have always been. For holy Timothy now faced bearing alone the labours he had previously shared with holy Paul. Holy Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle stirs up holy Timothy to endure dangers, lest he lose heart, having in God so powerful a Helper, and lest he need the assistance of others, but willingly bear all things with courage.”

God is called the living God to express that our hope is not ideal—not founded on the idea of God—but on the word of the living God who has in very deed accomplished and arranged everything needed for the reception of what is hoped for. We have seen the living God face to face and have known Him effectively, which is why we hope without wavering. Or else this word “living” is added because God, as the one who IS, can always fulfil what He has promised. People—even princes—exist today but not tomorrow. God, however, is ever living, that He may grant what He has promised. Blessed Theophylact writes: “here royal soldiers, after enduring many labours and dangers, often receive no fitting reward when the king happens to die in the meantime; but our King is ever living and will ever give His reward.”

God “is the Saviour of all men”—because He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4)—and not only desires all to be saved, but has also devised a wondrous way of salvation, open to all and always powerful to save everyone who wishes to make use of it. But why is He the Saviour “especially of those who believe?” Because God’s saving will, God’s saving power, and God’s saving arrangement (the economy of salvation) extend to all and are sufficient for the salvation of all; but in fact only the faithful are saved—that is, only those who have believed the good news and, after receiving grace, live in the spirit of the faith. So that God, who always desires and is always able to save all, is in actuality Saviour only of the faithful. Μαλιστα means also: precisely, exactly so. Therefore “especially of those who believe” may be rendered: precisely of those who believe. The particle “especially,” δε, is absent from the Greek. Holy Paul needed to add “precisely of those who believe” because he was writing about the hope of eternal life, of which the unbelieving cannot be partakers. “God here is the Saviour of all, but there not of all—only of those worthy to be saved” (Oecumenius). But here too God shows special care for the faithful as Saviour: for if this were not the case, those against whom all wage war would long since have been wiped from the face of the earth (Oecumenius). Holy Chrysostom says: “In what way, you ask, is God Saviour especially of those who believe? In that He shows great concern for the faithful. If He were not their Saviour, nothing would have prevented those against whom all wage war from perishing long ago.”

D) On the edification of the flock (1 Tim. 4:11–16)

Having indicated how to build oneself up, holy Paul gives holy Timothy lessons also on how to edify the flock. Two main points appear here: live exemplarily and teach zealously—attend to yourself and to your teaching; the rest is added as an inducement to zealous pastoral work (1 Tim. 4:11–16).

1 Tim. 4:11. Command and teach these things.

These words appear to be a conclusion of the preceding discourse; but it is better to take them as a transition to what follows, understanding them thus: not only nourish yourself with the words of faith and train yourself in godliness, in hope of eternal life, but also teach your flock the same things and charge them to act accordingly.

“These things”—“that is, to train oneself in godliness, to await rewards, to look to the One who appointed the contest” (blessed Theodoret).

“Command and teach”—these words may both be referred to the same thing, namely to teaching—teach, exhort, persuade—and understood such that the word “teach” denotes instruction while the word “command” denotes the authoritative directive of the shepherd. Such a distinction between these words is proposed by our commentators. Holy Chrysostom says: “In managing human affairs, sometimes instruction is needed and sometimes command. If therefore you were to issue commands where you should be teaching, you would be deserving of mockery. And conversely, if you began to teach where you needed to command, the same thing would happen to you. For example—that one should not be wicked (that one should not steal [cf. blessed Theophylact])—this should not be taught but commanded and forbidden with special force; so too it should be commanded that one should not hold to Jewish errors. But if you intend to speak about distributing one’s possessions, or about the keeping of virginity, or if you plan to discourse about faith—in such a case instruction becomes necessary. This is why holy Paul uses both of these expressions: ‘command and teach.’—Likewise, if someone wears amulets (superstitiously, as a protection against evil) or something of the sort, and does so knowing that it is evil—in that case only a command is needed; if he does not know—instruction.—Do you see that a priest must both give commands and speak with authority, and not always teach?”

1 Tim. 4:12. Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

That is, edify your flock by your good character, good life, and good deeds, so that it may follow you despite your youth. “You wish, says the Apostle, that no one despise you when you give commands—then be a living law, show in yourself the advancement of the laws, let your life testify to your word” (blessed Theodoret). “Holy Timothy was young in years but in character a venerable elder. The Apostle exhorts him: remain such, so that your progress in everything may present a model of good works; so that in you, young as you are, there may be seen a discipline worthy of respect and admiration; so that your deeds may not reveal your age, and all may regard you not as a young man but as an elder; so that those older in years may blush for not showing themselves, like you, dignified in conduct and character, while those young may have a peer as their teacher.—Wondrous is this youth—most holy Timothy—when his example had power to bridle untrained youth and to rebuke an old age that did not preserve the dignity befitting it” (Ambrosiaster).

“Let no one despise,” μη καταφρονειτω,—let no one despise your youth, or you on account of your youth. Since one cannot compel people not to despise, the sense of the Apostle’s exhortation is this: do not bring yourself to the point where you are despised; do not give occasion for contempt and disrespect toward you. How to succeed in this, the following words show: “but be an example.” “Show a life adorned with good character, and your youth will not be despised but will on the contrary attract universal admiration” (blessed Theophylact). “As long as you lead a life befitting (your rank), no one will despise you for your age; on the contrary, everyone will only admire you the more” (holy Chrysostom).

There may also be this meaning here: on account of your awareness of your own youth, do not be silent and do not let pass without attention those occasions when you must speak, rebuke, correct, and act with authority; for if you allow this, those who are disorderly before your eyes will begin to misbehave, counting your authority as nothing. At that point it is no longer you, Timothy, but in your person the bishop—the apostolic authority entrusted to him to build up the holy Church—that will be despised. This can in no way be permitted. “A teacher must not be held in contempt” (holy Chrysostom). “A bishop, acting as a bishop, must speak and deliberate with authority” (Oecumenius). “Command what is proper with authority, and no one will despise you” (blessed Theophylact).

But how then is the bishop to show the gentleness enjoined upon him above (1 Tim. 3:3)? To this holy Chrysostom says: “Where then, you ask, is gentleness, if he is never to experience contempt? In matters that concern him personally, if subjected to contempt, let him bear it—for in this way his long-suffering will promote the success of his teaching; but in what concerns (the salvation of) others—no, for this would be not gentleness but indifference. When he takes revenge for wrongs done to himself, or for slander, or for intrigues—then he may rightly be accused. But when it concerns the salvation of others—then command and act with full authority. Here gentleness is not needed but authority, lest this prove ruinous for the community.”

“But be an example to the believers.” “In all things present yourself as an example of good works. That is, be yourself the prototype in life—appearing before others as a living law, a rule and norm of good life. For such a teacher must be” (holy Chrysostom).

“In word”—either the word of a teacher, that is, “in saying what a teacher ought to say. You see that a teacher must prepare the word, or have it prepared” (Oecumenius)—“so as to speak with ease” (blessed Theophylact)—“so as to enter into conversation without difficulty” (holy Chrysostom). Or in the ordinary word of daily intercourse—in conversations and discussions—so that both the content and the manner of speech may be edifying. In that case, what is recalled here is the same as what is said in another place to all: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only what is” good for edification “…that it may impart grace to the hearers” (Eph. 4:29). This latter sense is closer to the flow of the discourse.

“In conduct,” εν αναστροφη,—in mutual intercourse, or in the manner of holding oneself in encounters and dealings with others—in accordance with the place, the time, the persons, and one’s own rank. The application of this is fitting in the ordering and relationships of everyday, civic, and ecclesiastical life—“in ordinary life and in the church order” (blessed Theophylact). The general rule here is: to meet everyone with respect toward them and readiness to do them every good in word and deed, not permitting any familiarity in conduct.

“In love”—embracing all as brothers and sisters (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). Love must breathe also in mutual intercourse; but there, one kind of conduct may appear loving without being so. Therefore the Apostle goes inward to the heart and there enthrones love as queen of all actions—love as feeling, so that from it loving deeds may flow. A shepherd, taking the flock into his hands, must receive all as his own blood-children and family—and care for all as for his own.

“In spirit”—“either in spiritual disposition, or in the gift of grace of the Holy Spirit” (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). In the first respect, what is required is to be detached from everything created and sensual, and to have one’s life hidden in God (Col. 3:3)—doing all things for His glory, according to His will, in His presence, with fear and reverence. In the second respect—“not to exalt oneself on account of the gift of grace of the Holy Spirit” (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact), but rather to humble oneself, fearing that one may not prove as active and fruitful as would be fitting, given the gift received.

“In faith”—“right and unwavering, when one believes God even in what is (naturally) impossible” (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). There are two kinds of faith: right faith, which without any doubting thought receives everything revealed to us by God; and faith confident in God—that He will not abandon one who has given himself to Him and will lead him to the desired end of eternal blessedness, whatever his situation here on earth may be. The first faith reigns in the intellectual sphere; the second in active life. By means of the second come enlightenments, strengthening of moral energy, and deliverance from circumstances dangerous to the purity of heart and conscience. The height of it is the faith of which the Saviour speaks: “he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also” (Jn. 14:12). And again: “all things whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Matt. 21:22), or: “whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mk. 11:24).

“In purity,” εν αγνεια,—in blamelessness—“in virginal purity and chastity” (holy Chrysostom, Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). Holy Timothy was a virgin in body. What is here instilled in him is only the virginity of the heart, which one may lack even with bodily virginity—when one is not indifferent to feminine beauty, though without lustful desires. One living in the spirit, as indicated in the word “in spirit,” must be detached from this as well—regarding all women as sisters—by which means all preference for any one of them for reasons other than her spiritual dignity, and attachment to her on account of her outward attractiveness alone, is removed.

Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

1 Tim. 4:13. Until I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.

“He said: be an example in everything for those you shepherd, so that they may hear your word and obey it submissively. Now he indicates what occupations should be pursued with them to edify them and lead them to perfection—namely reading, exhortation, and teaching; ‘give attention to reading’ of the Divine Scriptures, ‘to exhortation’ of those who have need of it, ‘to teaching’ addressed to all in general” (holy Chrysostom). Blessed Theodoret distinguishes exhortation from teaching thus: “teaching, without holding anything back, sets forth various instructions (generally—‘to all the people’ [Oecumenius]); while exhortation either encourages the despondent or calms the angry with counsel.” Blessed Theophylact, repeating this, adds to the explanation of “exhortation” that its object is “the persuasion and stirring up of those who feel in themselves a flagging of moral energy.” Ambrosiaster writes: “when we dispose others to good action by a gentle word—this is exhortation; but when we impress something hidden (the mysteries of the faith) on the minds of the hearers—this is teaching.”

As for the reading of the Divine Scriptures, by this may be understood reading in church assemblies, and private reading as preparation for reading in the assemblies, and the gathering of a store from which to draw material for exhortation and teaching (Ambrosiaster). From this our commentators draw the following lessons. Holy Chrysostom says: “He enjoins Timothy to occupy himself with reading. Let us all hear this and learn not to neglect the study of the Divine Scriptures. This was not said to Timothy alone, but to all. If the Apostle gives such instruction to one who raised the dead, what shall we say against it? Christ too points to teachers when He says that ‘the Kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure new things and old’ (Matt. 13:47, 52). The same is instilled by blessed Paul when he says: ‘that through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope’ (Rom. 15:4).—He himself fulfilled this more than all others. Being trained in the Law at the feet of Gamaliel, he certainly continued to occupy himself with reading it afterward. Do you not see how often he cites testimonies from the Prophets and examines them? Therefore, if Paul occupies himself with reading—for no small benefit flows from the Scriptures—shall we be lazy and listen to it inattentively?”—Let us add also the brief word of blessed Theodoret: “Even to thrice-blessed Timothy, however spiritual he was, the teacher commands attention to reading. From this we may learn that even we must bring our own effort to smooth the path toward the reception of the grace of the Spirit.”

The words “until I come” are added both as comfort—that, remaining alone, he will not be orphaned for long—and to drive away fear when encountering difficulties, as if to say: if you encounter a difficulty, seek its resolution in Scripture; what you cannot find there, I will come soon and resolve. Blessed Theophylact writes: “he comforts holy Timothy by saying ‘until I come’—for this gave hope of seeing his teacher soon, since, being left an orphan, he was surely seeking Paul in his heart. And there is still another reason for saying this: since holy Timothy, being young, certainly did not know many things and needed the presence of his teacher to learn them from him—holy Paul says to him: until I come, read the Scriptures, and there you will find the needed precepts. And when I come, I will pass on to you the rest as well.”

1 Tim. 4:14. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery.

“Do not neglect”—standing after “give attention to reading,” exhortation, and teaching—gives to understand that if he does not fulfil these, he will prove negligent, and that this negligence will be negligence toward the gift living in him. Since this gift is evidently the gift of the episcopate or pastorate, it follows that a shepherd who is negligent in reading, exhortation, and teaching is a negligent shepherd—one who despises the gift of the pastorate given to him and abiding in him. He buries his talent in the earth (Matt. 25:25) or wraps his “mina” in a cloth (Lk. 19:20)—and gives himself to sleep. Ambrosiaster writes: “if the shepherd of the people (of the faithful) neglects this (reading and the rest), he neglects the grace given to him. For he is made a guide of the people precisely in order to care for its salvation, by exhorting and teaching, so that his appointment to this order may bear fruit; for God raised him to this rank that he might further the salvation of His people. Therefore whoever, having been deemed worthy of such dignity, proves negligent, will be regarded as a despiser of God and ‘shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven’ (Matt. 5:19). Moreover, one who does not care about teaching—will he care about doing?”

This was also the purpose for which the Apostle here said “do not neglect the gift.” He wished to present a motive for the pastoral occupations indicated just before, making it understood that the chief work of a shepherd is to teach and to lead through teaching the souls entrusted to him along the path of salvation. A shepherd who does not teach is no shepherd.—But to strengthen this motive still further, the Apostle judged it necessary to remind holy Timothy of how this gift of the pastorate was received by him.

“Which was given to you.” He did not appropriate it to himself, did not seek or strive for it directly or indirectly—but it was “given.” Holy Timothy was chosen by the common voice and common indication of the faithful. But the electors were not content with this alone, but waited for an indication from above. And it was given “by prophecy”—that is, either by a special revelation concerning the worthiness of the one to be chosen, given to holy Paul, or by the utterance concerning him by one of the prophets—who were usual at that time in the Church—or by some other indication from above. The prophecies that had been made concerning holy Timothy had already been mentioned by holy Paul earlier (1 Tim. 1:18). This had likely happened more than once. But here reference is made to what took place in Ephesus. “Prophecy,” Ambrosiaster writes, “is an indication from above that the one chosen will be a worthy teacher.” Therefore, having said “by prophecy,” the Apostle testified that holy Timothy was ordained bishop “by the command of the Holy Spirit” (blessed Theophylact). And in general at that time “bishops were appointed by the command of the Spirit, not in any haphazard manner. And it is a special kind of prophecy when the present is pointed to from above—as there in Antioch: ‘Separate for Me Barnabas and Saul’ (Acts 13:2)” (Oecumenius). Indication from above concerning the worthiness of the one to be chosen occurred repeatedly in the Church; not seldom did those choosing not dare to complete their election without an indication from above.

The election was the preparation; the actual installation as bishop was then accomplished by ordination: “with the laying on of hands of the presbytery,” του πρεσβυτεριου,—properly of the eldership, the body of elders and senior persons in the Church. Priests were chosen from among such persons, and it is probably them that holy Paul means here. Since there were not a few of them in and around Ephesus, he designated them all by the common name πρεσβυτεριου — which in Slavonic is rendered “of the priesthood”—the assembly of priests. But then—does it follow that priests ordain a bishop? Holy Chrysostom answers: “He is not speaking of presbyters (of priests) here, but of bishops; for presbyters do not ordain bishops.” Oecumenius and Theophylact agree. But blessed Theodoret writes that by “priesthood” the Apostle here means “those deemed worthy of apostolic grace.” And consequently, holy Paul means here himself alone. This is in complete accord with what he says in the Second Epistle to Timothy: “I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands” (2 Tim. 1:6). There “gift” and here “gift” denote the same thing. Consequently, the mentioned “gift” was given by the laying on of the hands of holy Paul, as one possessing apostolic grace.—But in that case the word “priesthood” would receive not a direct but a figurative meaning. To retain the direct meaning of this word, and at the same time to understand by the laying on of hands that imparted the grace of episcopacy the laying on of hands of holy Paul and not of presbyters, it may be allowed that in the present passage the laying on of hands of the priesthood was indeed performed, but not as the performance of the sacrament of episcopal ordination—rather as an expression of assent to the election, and perhaps even separately from the consecratory laying on of hands by holy Paul—earlier, as the conclusion of the election indicated by revelation from above. In that case the sense of the whole passage would be: do not neglect the gift given to you by the laying on of my hands, by prophecy, with the assent of the whole priesthood, which expressed it by its own laying on of hands upon you. It gave the hands of assent.

1 Tim. 4:15. Meditate on these things; be absorbed in them, [understand these things,] so that your progress may be evident to all.

“In these things”—in all that has been said to him above, that is: “be an example to the believers” and “give attention to reading, to exhortation, to teaching”—or even further back: feed yourself with the words of faith and train yourself in godliness, in hope of eternal life. But one may narrow the scope of meaning: “in these things”—referring chiefly to what concerns the building up of oneself as a shepherd and the pastoral edification of those shepherded. “Meditate,” μελετα,—think on these things, keep them constantly in mind and ponder them, be wholly and zealously occupied with them.—“Be absorbed in them”—be entirely in this; let nothing else even come to mind; be wholehearted and wholly devoted to this alone. As a soldier is wholly in his military service, a craftsman wholly in his craft, a scholar wholly in his science—so be you wholly in your pastorate. For this is the essential condition for appearing perfect in the work one undertakes or to which one is called. This is why the Apostle adds immediately after: “so that your progress may be evident to all.”—“Progress”—success, perfection. “May be evident”—so that it may be clear that you are perfect in all things, both in life and in teaching; or so that it may be evident to all that you are perfect in your work and rank—that is, in the pastorate. In this way it will arrange itself that no one will neglect you on account of your youth. Oecumenius writes: a “great” progress is indicated; for if it were not very great, it would not be visible. The word “in all” means: either to all people, or in all things. Theophylact completes this: “in all”—“that is, not in life only but in the teaching word as well. See how great and wondrous he desires him to be even in this!” The words “[understand these things]” are not read by any of our commentators.

From verse 14 to the end of the chapter, the Apostle presents persuasive incentives as exhortations to good pastoral work: in verse 14: “do not neglect the gift”; here: “so that your progress may be evident to all”; and further: “you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” “See,” says holy Chrysostom, “how persistently he urges him to the same thing, wishing to show that a teacher must above all strive for this (that is, to be an example and to teach).”

1 Tim. 4:16. Take heed to yourself and to the teaching; continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

“Take heed to yourself and to the teaching.” “That is, be attentive to yourself and teach others” (holy Chrysostom). But this has already been spoken of; therefore one may suppose that here the Apostle had in mind to instill not so much the subject of the work as the manner of doing it. An occasion for this supposition is provided by the verbs used here: επεχε and επιμενε. Επεχε — press upon yourself. To have one’s mind on oneself means to attend to oneself; but one can also press upon oneself a tension of will—to compel oneself, to bear down on oneself. The meaning would then be: επεχε σεαυτω — press hard on yourself and on the teaching of others; spare no labour; compel yourself to an exemplary life and to untiring teaching. To this same sense the following is also close: “continue in them.”—“Continue,” επιμενε,—with effort, diligence, and patience continue in this—in these labours and occupations of the pastorate; know no weariness. This επιμενε also points to inspiration toward patient labour and exertion—and to hope of success; so that “continue in them” means: be indefatigable in the labours of the pastorate, in expectation of the saving fruit of success—of which mention is made immediately.

“For in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.”—“You will save yourself”: for if you act thus, there is nothing further that can be required of you—you will have done your work as you ought, whether those shepherded by you obey you or not. But the Apostle promises even more than this—namely that those who hear him will be saved as well. They will inevitably follow after you, and since you, acting in the manner described, will certainly attain salvation, they too, following after you, will attain the same. It seems that holy Paul had in mind especially to bring out the victorious power of teaching that is justified and confirmed by life. In that case, he says as it were, no one will withstand your word and conviction—all will obey you, will follow your teaching and your example and will be saved. And the fruit of this will be felt in you. Ambrosiaster writes: “the Apostle urges that holy Timothy present himself to all as a model in good works and be exemplary in the labours of teaching. Progress must be shown not in teaching alone but also in deeds. For as a good tree bears good fruit (Matt. 7:17), so good teaching cannot produce bad fruit. When good deeds are visible, those who hear, being convinced that this is the fruit of good teaching, cannot fail to benefit from the teaching. For what is set forth in the word of instruction is always recognized as true and received with fear and reverence, when it is evident that all of it is reverently observed by the one who teaches. Thus a good shepherd of the people will receive a twofold fruit—both for his own good deeds and for the salvation of those he shepherds—those who hear him; conversely, if he is negligent, he will give account to God both for himself and for them.”

On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

One must not act the same way toward everyone, but must take into account the distinctions of each person according to age, position in the Church, position in society, and outward condition. How to do all this, holy Paul indicates in the last two chapters.

c) Toward elders and elderly women

Holy Paul takes into account only the contrasts of old man and young man, old woman and young woman. About the rest he leaves holy Timothy to draw his own inferences. And even these he mentions as if only by way of example.

1 Tim. 5:1. Do not rebuke an elder, but appeal to him as a father; to younger men as brothers.

By “elder” here holy Paul means not one honoured with priestly dignity, but one advanced in years (holy Chrysostom and all). To such a person, he says, “do not rebuke,” μη επιπληξης,—do not shout at him, do not scold or shame him. “But what is to be done if he needs correction? Approach him in such a case as you would an own father who has sinned—with respectful gentleness” (holy Chrysostom, Oecumenius). This is why he says “appeal,” παρακαλει,—entreat, beseech, persuade. “By the very nature of the thing, the receiving of remarks is burdensome—and especially when this happens to an elderly person; and if moreover the remarks are given by someone younger, this becomes triply unbearable. Therefore the burden of this must be softened by gentleness and kindness. For one can rebuke without harshness, if one wishes to acquire this habit; only it requires great prudence—yet it is possible” (holy Chrysostom). “The Apostle thus teaches how to dispose an elder toward goodness, on account of the deference called for by his age. In this attitude toward him, he will more readily receive the instruction offered: for, despite the deference shown to him, at the first admonition he cannot but fear that next time someone will shout at him—which is a shame to which it is disgraceful for an elder to be subjected, since old age is held in respectful esteem among all peoples. Therefore, like the synagogue, the Church also had elders, without whose counsel nothing was done in the Church. And I do not know how this fell out of use—perhaps through the negligence of shepherds and teachers, or rather through their pride, by which they wanted to be the only conspicuous figures in the Church” (Ambrosiaster).

“Younger men as brothers”—that is, exhort and incline them toward goodness. “Why does he enjoin this here too—that is, a gentle manner of speech? In order not to provoke the boldness characteristic of this age; therefore in this case also rebuke must be tempered with a spirit of gentleness and love” (holy Chrysostom). “The Apostle charges that young men be exhorted as brothers, with the warmth of love—so that, seeing they are being advised out of love, they may more willingly correct themselves; especially if they see that in the instructor himself his deeds in no way conflict with his lessons” (Ambrosiaster).

1 Tim. 5:2. Older women as mothers; younger women as sisters, with all purity.

Teach, exhort, and incline “older women” toward goodness “as mothers.” “The reason for this is the same as in relation to elders” (Oecumenius)—“the softening of the bitterness of corrective speech with the warmth of filial love and deference” (blessed Theophylact). “Older women, seeing that they are taught with gentle speech, will receive it without bitterness, since in doing so deference is shown to them. It is bitter for the old to receive instruction from younger persons. Therefore, when this is unavoidable, the Apostle commands that this action be softened with gentleness and deference, so that it may serve for the benefit of both teacher and listeners” (Ambrosiaster).

Teach, exhort, and correct “younger women”—that is, maidens or young wives—as “sisters.” The reason here is the same as in relation to young men, for they too are not without boldness and insubordination. “The Apostle commands that young women be taught as sisters, so that they may willingly submit to the discipline of good living. For, seeing that they are not commanded imperiously but are benevolently instructed in what good living requires, they agree to it without dispute, humbling themselves before the one who exhorts them. By kindness one can more quickly achieve what the authority of command does not always succeed in” (Ambrosiaster). “But since conversations with young women can with difficulty avoid suspicion, while the bishop must do this nonetheless, the Apostle adds: ‘with all purity’—showing thereby that one must speak with them with all purity. And if he enjoins this to Timothy, let all others consider what a bishop must be, so as not to give occasion for suspicion, nor even a shadow of justification for those who might wish to slander” (holy Chrysostom). But it seems that holy Paul has in view here not so much the suspicions of others as the prevention of heartfelt attachment to young women. This attachment, and thereafter attraction, is naturally aroused in encounters with women—especially young ones. But it is not inevitable, and still less so inevitable as to necessarily hold dominion over the heart. It can be cut off at its very inception or first stirring, and driven away when it breaks through against one’s will. It is of this detachment of attachments from the heart that the Apostle speaks here. “The Apostle added ‘with all purity,’” writes blessed Theodoret, “teaching that along with bodily chastity one must preserve the chastity of the soul, and not allow any harm to enter through sight or hearing.”

d) On the care of widows (1 Tim. 5:3–16)

Widows, from the very beginning of the ordering of the Church, were under the care of Christian communities. For the care of them in the first Jerusalem Church, special persons were chosen (Acts 6). Following this pattern, all other Christian communities likewise considered it their duty to provide for widows and orphans. That this continued in later times can be seen from the Epistle of holy Ignatius to holy Polycarp (Holy Martyr Ignatius the God-bearer, Epistle to holy Polycarp, 4), from the First Apology of holy Justin (Martyr Justin the Philosopher, First Apology, 67), and from the Church History of Eusebius (Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History, 6, 43). It is of these that holy Paul speaks here; and he speaks: aa) first of the care of widows in general (1 Tim. 5:3–8); and then: bb) more particularly (1 Tim. 5:9–15)—about widows: α) of advanced age (1 Tim. 5:9, 10) and: β) of younger age (1 Tim. 5:11–15); cc) recalling at the end once more what was said about the care of widows in general (verse 16). He writes at length—evidently there was need for this.

Aa) On the care and provision for widows in general (1 Tim. 5:3–8)

1 Tim. 5:3. Honor widows who are truly widows.

“Honor”—do not neglect them or be remiss concerning them, but take care of them. “Honor” stands for: “have mercy on them and provide them with what they need” (blessed Theophylact). But “honor,” he says, those who are true widows. Who are these true widows? Certainly those who live well (verses 5–7), but who at the same time have no means of living (verse 16). Blessed Theodoret writes: “widows who have no source of provision for their needs from anywhere, should, says the Apostle, receive assistance from the Church.” Holy Justin, in his Apology, says that “believers offered to the Church each what he could; and the heads of the Churches—the shepherds—then distributed what had been collected to the poor, widows, and orphans.” Widows who could support themselves, or who could be supported by their own families, were not to burden the Church (verse 16). “Such are not true widows” (Oecumenius).—Regarding them holy Paul enjoins the following.

1 Tim. 5:4. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness toward their own household and to make repayment to their parents, for this is pleasing and acceptable before God.

A widow, he says, who has children or grandchildren, should find her support within her family. Both justice requires this and God is pleased with it. Holy Paul lays this upon the children or grandchildren of the widow: “let them first learn to show godliness toward their own household.”—“Let them learn,” μανθανετωσαν,—may also be rendered: let them be trained, let them acquire the habit. “To show godliness,” ευσεβειν,—to be godly, to manifest or maintain a godly manner of life. “Toward their own household,” τον ιδιον οικον,—in their own house, at home, with the preposition κατα understood. The sense would be: the widow who has children or grandchildren—let these children and grandchildren support her, so that in this way they may be trained or acquire the habit of manifesting or maintaining a godly manner of life—first at home, in their own house. A godly manner of life they ought to manifest everywhere, before the whole Christian community. But first let them acquire this habit at home, showing diligent care for mother or grandmother. To honour and give peace to mother or grandmother is a godly act. One who does not do this at home but outside maintains the appearance of godliness—that person’s godliness is doubtful; it is doubtful whether it is sincere or only maintained for show. Moreover, to a godly manner of life one must also become accustomed. How? By performing acts of godliness. The Apostle says: when you have a widow at home—a mother or grandmother—do not go out past the gate looking for some act of godliness to perform and exercise yourself in. You have ready to hand such an act—giving rest and provision to mother or grandmother. Occupy yourself with that. And in saying to holy Timothy, as shepherd, “let the children and grandchildren learn this,” he instils: direct them to this, explain that it ought to be so, and persuade them to carry it out.

“And to make repayment to their parents,” αμοιβας αποδιδοναι,—to give back recompense, to repay. Mother or grandmother cared for and nourished the children or grandchildren when they were mistress of the household. Now it is the turn of the children or grandchildren to be in charge. Let them then repay them for their earlier care by providing them rest and every comfort—justice requires this, and their conscience must bind them to it.

Oecumenius writes: “the Apostle’s thought is this: let the children or grandchildren learn to show honour to mother and grandmother, nourishing them and doing every good to them. For this is what ευσεβειν — to show godliness—means. By this they will also make repayment to them.” The same we read in blessed Theophylact: “let the children and grandchildren learn to honour their mother and grandmother, providing them rest and maintenance. For ευσεβειν here means: to give rest to mother or grandmother in their old age. The dignity of parents is a divine dignity, so that to give them rest means: to be godly, just as, on the contrary, not giving them rest in their old age is impiety. At the same time the Apostle also brings forward the requirement of good conscience, saying: ‘and to make repayment to their parents’—to repay their parents, that is, mother or grandmother, for raising and bringing them up.”

“For this is pleasing and acceptable before God.” It is pleasing because through it the just requirement of conscience, inscribed by God on the heart, is fulfilled; and because, since parents reflect in a certain way the face of God Himself before their children, the honour and care shown to them by the children God accepts as if it were rendered directly to Him. And naturally, the proper relationship toward parents is suffused with religious reverence.

Some read not “let them learn,” but “let her learn,” μανθανετω. In that case the Apostle’s words would refer to the widow and prescribe that the widow who has children and grandchildren should remain at home and teach—by virtue of her experience and the authority of seniority in the family—her household, that is, the children and grandchildren, to be godly. How? By first showing proper honour and care for her own rest in every respect. The Vulgate retains such a rendering: discant.

1 Tim. 5:5. Now she who is truly a widow and left alone hopes in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

“Above he said: ‘honor those who are truly widows’; now he shows who is a true widow” (holy Chrysostom). One who has not only lost her husband but is also left alone, μεμονωμενη,—utterly alone, having no children or grandchildren to care for her. She has remained, or been left, all alone—abandoned by those close to her, to live as best she can (Ambrosiaster). What is left for such a one to do? To place all hope upon God and wait for whatever He is pleased to arrange. She who does this is the true widow. “Hopes,” ηλπικεν,—has set her hope, has placed all her hope upon God; “continues,” προσμενει,—she waits—and waits, of course, for help from above—abiding in prayer. At the end of the verse, it seems one must mentally add: this is the widow to honour; this is the one to care for; this is the one to provide with church assistance. So blessed Theophylact does: “the true widow is one who has no one to care for her—no son, no grandson—and who has placed all her hope upon God. This is the one to care for, the one to show mercy to—providing her with everything she needs!” Holy Chrysostom brings out more the moral-religious side of widows. “If any woman, being a widow, has not returned to worldly life—she is the true widow; one who hopes in God, who exercises herself in prayer, who spends day and night in patient prayer—she is the true widow. The Apostle here also comforts such a one in that she has no children, saying as it were—that in her being deprived not only of the comfort of a husband but also of the happiness that children bring, lies her advantage; for in exchange for all this she has God. Therefore she who has no children is not worse than others; but by this comfort (of hope in God) makes up for what she lacks from having no children.” Ambrosiaster likewise: “such widows it is right to honour—those who, having the possibility of remarrying, have rejected a second marriage, out of desire for a more perfect life and more convenient pleasing of God, emulating holy Anna, who in fasting and prayer served God day and night after she was widowed, having lived with her husband only a few years (Lk. 2:36). By such a life a widow must first commend herself, and only then be deemed worthy to be a widow of the Church (that is, to be on the Church’s provision). Likewise, a widow who has children or grandchildren should not immediately be taken onto the Church’s support. For if she formerly governed her household well, the members of it must in turn repay her, as she repaid them before. But if she is treated impiously by those for whom she formerly cared in godly fashion, and abandoned by them, such a one is worthy of being received into the care of the Church, as a faithful fulfiller of the law of the Lord.”

1 Tim. 5:6. But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.

“She who lives in pleasure,” σπαταλῶσα—one who is attached to the comforts and pleasures of everyday and worldly life, and given over to them. “Is dead while she lives”—in appearance she is alive, but in substance she is dead—dead to the true life proper to man according to his calling. Man was created in the image of God; he is to be made like God by detachment from all that is sensory. He was endowed with a spirit in creation—a power that cannot be satisfied by anything created, but only by God alone. He who, detaching himself from all that is created and sensory, seeks God alone—so as, abiding in communion with Him, to be vivified by Him—lives the true life. But he who is given over to sensory pleasures has no true human life, though outwardly he appears to live something resembling such a life. For his spirit is stifled and remains without movement. Such is also the widow given over to sensory pleasures: “she suppresses in herself the rational (spiritual) power and makes it remain motionless in her body as in some tomb” (blessed Theodoret). “In appearance she lives this sensory life, but in spirit she is dead” (blessed Theophylact). “She appears to live the present life, but has lost eternal life: for as regards that life, she is dead to it by reason of sin” (Oecumenius).

Ambrosiaster writes: “a widow worthy of this name is a person who, for the sake of obtaining the Lord, abides in prayers, serving Him day and night. By this she shows that if she has disdained a second marriage, it is in order to devote herself to a strict life for the Lord’s sake. But if any widow, hiding behind this name, gives herself over to sensory pleasures, she must be considered as dead while alive. It is a sign of evil pretence when one promises one thing and does another—wishing to enjoy the honour of being a widow while being unwilling to constrain oneself with the labours of pleasing and serving God, to which the vow of widowhood obliges. For the true widow, having disdained a husband, chooses the Lord—to serve Him with all her soul, in hope of eternal blessedness.” Holy Chrysostom writes an extended homily on this passage, depicting the spiritual deadness of those who lead a merry and dissolute life, sunk in sensory pleasures, banquets, strolls, amusements, and many other things. “Such people,” he concludes, “have neither soul nor spirit, but live only by the flesh. And Scripture calls them soulless, saying: ‘My Spirit shall not remain in these people… for they are flesh’ (Gen. 6:3). They had a soul, but a dead one; therefore they are called flesh.”

1 Tim. 5:7. Command these things also, so that they may be blameless.

“These things also”—may be referred both to what precedes and to what follows. Referring it to what precedes, one may limit that preceding material to the immediately preceding verse, in which she who lives in pleasure is so sharply reproached. This too—that is, that they should not give themselves over to worldly and secular pleasures, to food and drink—impose upon them strictly; make it an absolute law, so that they may appear blameless before all. Or thus: require this; otherwise they cannot remain blameless—that is, they will not only fall under reproach for intemperance, but will also fall into other vices. So blessed Theophylact: “you see that he wishes this to be a law. He does not leave it to each person’s discretion whether to indulge in pleasures or not, but forbids it as a sin. For such is the meaning of the word ‘command,’ παραγγελλε; it stands for: with all strictness forbid any boldness in this matter.” This interpretation he took from holy Chrysostom, who speaks of it more fully: “Do you see that this prescription takes on the form of a law? He does not leave this to each person’s freedom, but says: command that they not be satiated, for this is a manifest sin—so that one who leads a luxurious life cannot and it is quite inappropriate to be a partaker of the mysteries. ‘Command these things also,’ he says, ‘so that they may be blameless.’ Do you see that this is counted among sins? For what is left to each person’s freedom—even if not observed—does not at all prevent one from being blameless. Therefore let us too, obeying Paul, command that widows who are given over to pleasure-seeking be excluded from the number of (true) widows.”

One may, referring “these things also” to what precedes, join verse 5 to verse 6. The sense would be: require that the widow who has declined a second marriage not only not allow herself to seek pleasure, but also abide in prayers day and night. One may also join verse 4, including among those to whom the prescriptions are addressed the children and grandchildren as well, thus: command them to support and give rest to their widowed mothers and grandmothers—so as not to fall under reproach before the faithful. This thought connects directly with the following verse 8: and if anyone does not care for his own relatives, he is worse than an unbeliever.

Referring “these things also” to what follows—that is, to “so that they may be blameless”—we get: command this also, that they be blameless and irreproachable in every respect. For even while abstaining from sensory pleasures, they may manifest many other things in their conduct for which they will rightly be subject to reproach. Such a thought is found in Ambrosiaster: “the Apostle requires that the widow take such care of the goodness of her deeds and character that it be impossible to reproach her in anything. Having withdrawn from worldly life and freed from concern for the body, she has devoted herself to God precisely in order to lead a praiseworthy life. In this it is easy for her to succeed. For since the occasions that usually open the door to sins are removed from her, nothing stands in the way of her remaining unharmed in her good conduct.”

Let us add: there is no need to insist that this passage must necessarily be understood in one way rather than another. Holding to one such thought, do not drive away the others.

Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

1 Tim. 5:8. But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

If the preceding words are referred also to children and grandchildren, seeing in them this commandment: instill, require, and oblige them to give rest to mothers and grandmothers, so that they may be free from reproach—then the present verse, directly answering that thought, presents a motive for acting in accordance with the proposed exhortation, showing how out of place is conduct contrary to it. Care for your own; for he who does not care for them has denied the faith and has become worse than an unbeliever.

If in the preceding verse one sees some other of the thoughts proposed, then for the connection of the present verse with the preceding ones, one must insert this supplementary statement: as for what I have laid upon children and grandchildren as a duty—to care for the widows in their household, their mothers or grandmothers—this is so urgent that if anyone does not act thus, he has denied the faith and has become worse than an unbeliever.

By “his own” and “those of his household” are meant relatives in general, among whom “those of his household,” οικειοι, are those who live in the same house, while “his own,” ιδιοι, are all other relatives living separately. Thus the Apostle requires that relatives care for one another mutually and help those among their own who are in need. He who does not fulfil this, says the Apostle, by that very act “has denied the faith.” “His deeds are not the deeds of a believer” (blessed Theophylact)—or such deeds expose in him an unbeliever, showing that he is estranged from the faith; he confesses God with his lips but denies Him by his deeds (Tit. 1:16). Faith requires mercy not only toward one’s own blood relatives but toward all who are in need. “How can one be merciful toward strangers who despises people of his own kin and family?” (holy Chrysostom). It is true that sometimes a person, passing over his own, benefits strangers; but this is always done for show. “Do not all call it vainglory when someone, benefiting strangers, despises and does not spare his own—despite the fact that benefiting the latter would be both easier and more just for him?” (holy Chrysostom).—Thus one who is unmerciful toward his own evidently does not have a believing heart and is the same as an unbeliever. But the Apostle goes further and maintains that such a person is even worse than an unbeliever: “is worse than an unbeliever.” An unbeliever who acted thus would violate only the natural law, whereas this person, acting thus, violates both the natural and the written law (holy Chrysostom). And compare him with the unbeliever who cares for his relatives solely by the law of nature—how much worse will he prove to be?—“God established the bonds of kinship precisely so that we might have more occasions for benefiting one another. Therefore if you do not do what the unbeliever does, have you not denied the faith and become worse than the unbeliever? And if one who does not care for those of his household has denied the faith and become worse than an unbeliever—where must he be placed, and what position will he occupy, who wrongs those of his household? It is not the same thing to despise a distant person and one who is close. It is far more blameworthy to despise an acquaintance than a stranger, a friend than an enemy” (holy Chrysostom). And all the more so a blood relative.

Bb) How to deal more particularly with widows (1 Tim. 5:9–15)

From verse 9 to verse 15 the discourse concerns certain special widows; but from verse 11 it is visible what kind of widows are meant—namely the young. As for what is said in verses 9 and 10, it is not clearly visible what kind of widows are meant. That these are not simply widows cared for by the Church in general is evident from the conditions: not less than sixty years of age, the wife of one husband, having toiled greatly in service to others. For, as said above, any helpless widow deserves the care of the Church; and such a one may be not so old, may have had more than one husband, and may not have been able to serve others in the manner specified. So these are certain special widows. What kind? Are they not deaconesses? This seems likely, as one may judge from the good qualities and deeds required of them: the wife of one husband, having raised children, “has received strangers.” For such qualities are required, according to the Apostle, of persons chosen for the clergy (chapter 3), among whom deaconesses were also numbered. But the service of a deaconess required strength: for besides assisting at the baptism of women and overseeing order among them in the Church, it fell to them to visit the poor and the sick; and at sixty years of age, what strength do women have? If not deaconesses, then who are they? One is led to suppose that these are widows who have lived long and laboured much for others, and who have now spent their strength—and therefore need shelter, support, and care. This supposition may be completed thus: while all widows in general received assistance to supplement what they could earn by their own labours, these were fully provided with food, clothing, shelter, and care. Among their number deaconesses could and should also have been included.—Our commentators all do not see deaconesses here and understand the Apostle’s words as a continuation of the discourse about widows in general. Holy Chrysostom says: “Above the Apostle indicated what a widow ought not to have; now he shows what she ought to have.”

α) Elderly widows (1 Tim. 5:9, 10)

1 Tim. 5:9, 10. Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years old, having been the wife of one husband, well attested for good works: if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the feet of the saints, if she has helped the afflicted, if she has devoted herself to every good work.

“Be enrolled,” καταλεγεσθω,—let her be entered in the register of widows, or “let her be placed in the widows’ institution, εις το χηρικον” (Oecumenius). “It is just that she be entered in the church records who has shown herself worthy of this by her former life. She who previously devoted her labours to the Church is worthily received into the bosom of the Church (under its care)” (Ambrosiaster).

“Not less than sixty years old.” “In indicating what a widow worthy of the widows’ register ought to have, the Apostle places first her specific age—namely sixty. Nevertheless, as is evident from the following words, he does not approve a sixty-year-old woman simply on account of her age alone; for even such a one may prove unworthy” (blessed Theophylact). “What then, will you judge her by her years? But what merit is there in that? For it was not in her power to have lived sixty years. It is not by age alone (that one must judge), he says—so that even if she had passed that age but had no merits, she should not be enrolled (among the widows)” (holy Chrysostom). A young widow too may prove worthy of attention; but since she still has her strength, let her support herself. “Those who are in the bloom of youth and able to work and earn their livelihood should bridle the impulses of youth by their labours” (blessed Theodoret).

“Having been the wife of one husband.” This is cited as testimony that she did not love worldly pleasures and luxurious living, but led a strict and temperate life. “The Apostle requires monogamy from her as a sign of her dignified integrity and love of chastity” (blessed Theophylact).

“Well attested for good works.” One of whom all say only good things, testifying that they saw her only in the doing of good deeds. This is the general characteristic. After this “the Apostle enumerates in particular what specific deeds make a widow worthy of provision” (blessed Theophylact).

“If she has brought up children,” ετεκνοτροφησεν,—has fulfilled as she ought this first duty that rests upon a wife and mother. Praiseworthy child-rearing does not consist merely in feeding children, but chiefly in their godly upbringing (blessed Theodoret). “Truly, it is no small matter to bring up children. But bringing up children does not consist in simply feeding (raising) them, but in rearing them properly—as the Apostle said above, that a woman ‘shall be saved through childbearing, if they (her children) continue in faith and love and holiness’ (evidently having been grounded in this by upbringing) (1 Tim. 2:15) (holy Chrysostom). For this God approved Abraham as well, saying that he commanded ‘his sons and his household after him to keep all the ordinances of the Lord God’ (Gen. 18:19)” (blessed Theodoret).

“If she has washed the feet of the saints, if she has received strangers.” Above he pointed to domestic virtues—close and most at hand—and then to virtues toward outsiders who are not, however, strangers in faith. For “the saints” are Christians. “Do you see that he everywhere places above the benefaction done to those close by that done to strangers? For he says first: ‘if she has brought up children’—and then: ‘if she has washed the feet of the saints’ and so on” (holy Chrysostom). Washing of feet is the first act of receiving strangers. One must first receive the stranger, then wash his feet. Theodoret, Ambrosiaster, Oecumenius, and Theophylact read: first “she has received strangers,” and then—“has washed feet.” But holy Chrysostom reads first the washing of feet, and then the receiving of strangers. For if by receiving strangers one understands not merely letting them in to the house but their actual reposing, this followed the washing of feet. Both, however, constitute one virtue—hospitality—the solicitous care for giving rest to strangers. “Thus it was done in ancient times. Thus Lydia received the Apostle himself and those with him. Thus of Phoebe he said: ‘she has been a helper of many, and of myself also’ (Rom. 16:2)” (blessed Theodoret).

Holy Chrysostom makes an extended application from these words: “Do you see that the Apostle calls hospitality not simply good will, but good will combined with zeal, good intention, and eagerness that takes up the work as if preparing to receive Christ Himself? For he wishes them not to entrust the serving of the saints to maidservants, but to perform this themselves in person. ‘If I then,’ says the Lord, ‘have washed your feet… the Teacher, (how much more) you ought to wash one another’s feet’ (Jn. 13:14). For even if one of them were infinitely rich, even if she had attained the greatest fame and prided herself on the nobility of her ancestors—even then there would not be such a distance as there was between God and the disciples. If you receive a stranger as Christ, you have no reason to be ashamed—be rather proud of this deed; but when you do not receive him as Christ, it is better not to receive him at all. ‘He who receives you receives Me’ (Matt. 10:40), the Lord said. As soon as you do not receive him thus, you will receive no reward. Abraham, as it seemed to him, was receiving men—passing travellers; yet he did not entrust all the preparation for receiving them to his household servants, but himself personally performed most of the serving and commanded his wife to knead the flour—despite having three hundred and eighteen household servants, among whom there were presumably maidservants as well. He wished to receive together with his wife the reward not only for the expense but also for the serving. Thus we must fulfil the duty of hospitality, doing everything ourselves, that we ourselves may be hallowed, that our very hands may be blessed. This is hospitality; this is in truth the fulfilment of this duty for God’s sake.—Well did the Apostle say: ‘if she has washed the feet of the saints.’ He said this with the purpose of stirring all to imitation. Therefore let us too hasten to fulfil this, that we too may be praised for having washed the feet of the saints.—The feet of the saints have great power. Therefore they also bring down punishment when they shake off the dust. When a holy person comes to us, we must not be ashamed to do something of this sort for him (like washing feet, though it has fallen out of custom). And the saints are all those who have right faith and live in godliness: they are holy, even if they work no signs and cast out no demons.”

“If she has relieved the afflicted.” Bringing up children and receiving strangers are domestic virtues: children are always at hand, strangers come of themselves. Both can be fulfilled without going outside the door of the house and without particular personal initiative. There is labour in this too, but not greatly exerted. Therefore the Apostle, for the completeness of the widow’s virtue, moves the widow into the houses of mourning and poverty—which even Ecclesiastes named as a good thing to enter (Eccl. 7:2, 3)—and praises one who “has relieved the afflicted,” επηρκεσεν,—who has satisfied the afflicted, meeting the need that was the cause of their grief—“with money, or by intercession and mediation” (blessed Theophylact).

“If she has devoted herself to every good work.” This is either the same thing as what was said at the beginning: “well attested for good works”—only with a special trait: of quickness, irresistible eagerness for every good thing: as soon as an occasion to do good presented itself, she took it up at once with all her energy and did not step back until she had carried through what she had begun. “The Apostle has therefore encompassed all forms of virtue in this” (blessed Theodoret). Or “devoted herself” means: she followed the example of. What was indicated before she did on her own initiative; but not content with this, she also did every good that she saw other good Christians doing. Or this denotes assistance to others through labour. When someone performing some task could not manage it alone, she came with her services and helped him accomplish it. “What commandment does the Apostle give here?” asks holy Chrysostom, and answers: “He commands the giving of material help (‘bodily service’ [blessed Theophylact])—to take part in tasks, to serve—to make a bed, for instance, to give rest—things for which women are most suited” (the same in blessed Theophylact).

“Do you see,” let us conclude with the words of holy Chrysostom, “that in order to become a (true) widow, it is not enough to refrain from a second marriage—much else is needed as well? The Apostle requires of a widow such perfection as he does not require even of virgins—despite the fact that he required great perfection of the latter also: for, having said that a virgin must be honourable and devoted to the Lord without distraction (1 Cor. 7:35), he indicated in general terms every virtue. And moreover—he requires of a widow almost the same perfection as of a person clothed with the episcopal rank.”

β) Young widows (1 Tim. 5:11–15)

Holy Paul takes a strict attitude here toward young widows. Experience showed that some of them did not hold out in the vow of widowhood; and moreover, having weakened in their resolve to hold strictly to the vow they had given, they also allowed themselves generally reprehensible conduct. Therefore the Apostle expresses the wish that young widows would better enter into a second marriage, so as not to give occasion to the adversary—the devil—to mock them by luring them off the true path of widowhood.

1 Tim. 5:11, 12. But refuse younger widows; for when they have grown wanton against Christ, they want to marry, having condemnation because they have rejected their first faith.

“Refuse”—deny younger widows admission to the order of widows. “The Apostle forbids receiving young widows into this order, because an age always ready to stumble should not easily be trusted” (Ambrosiaster). “Young widows themselves gave occasion for this rule by not holding out in widowhood” (blessed Theophylact).

“When they have grown wanton,” καταστρηνιασωσιν,—when they have fallen under the irresistible impulses of the sensory life—pleasurable, pleasure-seeking, comfort-seeking. “What does καταστρηνιασωσιν mean? That is—when they become insensible, when having grown cold toward widowhood they neglect it, grow hardened toward it—when, conquered by the desire for pleasures, they only pretend to hold themselves aloof from marriage while in reality they desire it—and consequently with rude arrogance or insensibility turn their eyes away from Christ as their bridegroom” (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). “Widows too by their widowhood (when they resolve to remain widows) are betrothed to Christ” (holy Chrysostom). “Therefore they are placed in the same order of life as virgins. To them too may be applied the word of the Apostle: ‘I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a pure virgin to Christ’ (2 Cor. 11:2). Now however, when, despite having devoted themselves to Christ, ‘they want to marry’—they desire marriage and a husband—they evidently no longer wish Him alone to be their bridegroom, and preferring a man to Him, they act against Him with arrogance” (Oecumenius, holy Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact).

“Having condemnation because they have rejected their first faith.” “By faith he means the vow; as if to say: they have deceived Him, rejected Him, broken the vow” (holy Chrysostom). For “having resolved to live in widowhood chastely for Christ, they enter into a second marriage” (blessed Theodoret). “In adopting such a resolve—to remain widows for Christ—they enter into a covenant with Him, that they are betrothed to Him forever. Inclining now toward marriage with a man, they break this covenant and for this are subject to condemnation” (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). “Condemnation,” κριμα,—a transgression, liable to judgment and condemnation. “It is evident that they chose widowhood thoughtlessly, without proper consideration” (holy Chrysostom). To prevent such rash resolutions among believing widows, the Apostle writes the rule—not to rely on hasty vow-words. The Apostle wrote this also for the instruction of the widows themselves, “that they not dare what is difficult to fulfil. For it is unwise to give a promise whose firmness they themselves, on account of the youth of their age, should not trust. Having departed from it, they are justly subject to condemnation. For he is worthy of condemnation who departs from what he acknowledged as right and what, as right, he began to do. As praiseworthy as it is when one accurately fulfils what appears to exceed his powers, so blameworthy is he who, through unreasonable self-confidence, lays upon himself what he cannot bear” (Ambrosiaster).

1 Tim. 5:13. And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.

A true widow, who has sincerely embraced widowhood, devotes herself to a life of solitude and strict discipline and, keeping watch over her soul, abides in prayer and labor. The spiritual satisfaction drawn from such a life confirms her in it more and more and serves as her support and protection against temptations. But a widow who has not thought all this through and who has rashly resolved on widowhood soon grows weary of it and grows cold toward it. When that happens, the duties of widowhood no longer occupy her mind. Sitting in solitude, praying, and laboring—it is tedious. She is driven to seek distractions, and off she goes from house to house; and with this there inevitably come talkativeness, curiosity, and improper speech. This is the second reason why young widows must be refused. The Apostle speaks as if to say: let one of them perhaps have no desire to enter a second marriage after her vow not to do so; yet if she does not take hold firmly of the duties of widowhood—solitude, labor, and prayer—which is naturally what one would expect from a young woman—she will quickly become an idle wanderer, a gossip, and a busybody, a scandal to all, both her own and strangers. And this alone is sufficient reason to act with greater caution in their regard. St. Chrysostom says: “Not only this fault (breaking the vow) do they incur, but other sins as well (idleness, roaming from house to house). What profit is there if they refuse the care of husbands and take no pains about God? They will then surely become idle, talkative, and needlessly inquisitive; for whoever takes no care of his own affairs will inevitably take care of others’, just as one who tends his own affairs will not speak of another’s, nor have any concern for them. There is nothing so unbecoming to a woman as to pry into others’ affairs in every possible way—and not only to a woman, but to a man as well, for this is the greatest sign of shamelessness and impudence.”

The occasion or starting point for such a deviation of young widows from decorous conduct may be, as blessed Theodoret supposes, the very provision made by the Church. “Enjoying the Church’s support and satisfying their bodily needs without anxiety, they live in idleness; and idleness brings evil thoughts with it.” And from thoughts the conduct itself then loses its decorum: out of idleness they go about from house to house—they become “gossips”—that is, talkers, φλυαροι,—“and busybodies”—that is, inquisitive, περιεργοι. This is all the more reprehensible if at the same time they shelter behind the title of their widowhood. “Those who have means, out of respect for widowhood, receive them into their homes, and they, having learned what their hosts like to hear, gather it from other houses and carry it back to them; for this they receive gifts from them—and in this way they grow accustomed to living more by gossip than by the labor of their hands” (Ambrosiaster).

Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

1 Tim. 5:14. I desire therefore that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for reproach.

Not all young widows, of course, are unreliable. Among them there are not a few who both feel within themselves a very strong inclination to preserve their widowhood and are not considered by others incapable of doing so. Therefore the Apostle does not set down a universal and unconditional law for all, but says: “I desire”—as if proposing a counsel—yet one that, for those who do not feel themselves suited to the preservation of honorable widowhood, is a law. “Since what was said above concerning widows of this sort (the weak) is unlawful and contrary (to our sound faith), the Apostle gives them counsel and enjoins what is lawful (namely, to enter a second marriage rather than make a vow of widowhood)” (Ambrosiaster). “It would have been better, of course, if they, once having entered the choir of widows, had not turned away from Christ (as the Bridegroom) and had not broken that first pledge of theirs. But since some slip into this, it is better that, without entering into a covenant with Christ, without giving a vow to dedicate themselves to Him, they marry again. In this there is no sin, but that other course (to vow and then break it) is altogether indefensible” (Oecumenius). “Since they themselves desire it, I too desire that young widows marry, bear children, manage households, stay at home; for to do this is far better than anything else (improper). True, they ought to have care for the service of God (to please God), they ought to keep the faith (their vow); but if this is not to be, then the latter is better than the former; for in that case God is not being rejected, and they do not themselves learn these things (to be idle and the rest). For from such widowhood there will be no benefit at all, whereas from this marriage (one may expect) many blessings. As a consequence, their careless and slothful mind may turn (to good). But why, you will say, did the Apostle not say that since the widows were falling, they ought to make special effort so as not to experience what I spoke of, but instead enjoins marriage? Because marrying (again) was not forbidden, for it placed them in a position of safety—which is why he adds: ‘give the adversary no occasion for reproach’—no occasion whatever. Therefore he rejects these widows, wishing not that they not be young, but not wishing that they commit adultery, not wishing that they be idle, needlessly inquisitive, that they not speak what they ought not, not wishing that the devil find in them an occasion (for accusation), so that if this were not so he would not reject them.—‘I desire,’ he says, ‘for young women’—what? to gorge themselves? or to give themselves over to luxury? Nothing of the sort, but: ‘to marry, bear children, manage households.’ Lest you think he gives them license to live in pleasures, he added: ‘give the adversary no occasion for reproach.’ They ought to have been above the cares and anxieties of this life. If, however, they were below them, let them at least stand on the same level with them (that is, work out their salvation, living as they ought, amid the affairs of this life)” (St. Chrysostom). “It is better for them to manage their households, οικοδεσποτειν(to be mistresses of the house and maintain good order therein)—that is, to take care of their own home and bear its labors and tasks—than, going about others’ homes, to gossip and spend their time in idleness. But again, even in managing the home, one must not give oneself over to worldly pleasures, but conduct domestic affairs in such a way that, amid all care for them, one does not harm the soul. This the Apostle showed by the words: ‘give the adversary no occasion’ (‘the adversary,’ αντικειμενω,—the enemy, the devil). One may, however, also understand these words as showing the purpose and motive for which the Apostle makes such a concession to young widows. For this reason, he says, so as not to give the devil occasion to mock them, if, having become brides of Christ, they should afterward, through the inconstancy proper to youth, fall into impure deeds. For this reason I lead them under the yoke of marriage, so that, having neither time nor leisure, they may have no opportunity to commit a heap of the evil deeds described above” (blessed Theophylact). “The care and anxiety over domestic affairs will not allow them to yawn and grow bored from having nothing to do. Surrounded in this way on all sides and continually with necessary matters, they will, whether they wish to or not, grow accustomed to living prudently” (Oecumenius).

1 Tim. 5:15. For already some have turned aside after Satan.

“Have turned aside,” εξετραπησαν,—they have departed, deviated, strayed from the straight path which their vow of widowhood marked out for them, and have gone after Satan, that is, toward that unseemly conduct described above. “A law is established on the basis of experience” (blessed Theodoret). “The Apostle is answering here the question: Why do you make such a warning concerning young widows, as though you are more concerned for them than for virgins? For this reason, he says, that they themselves have given occasion for it by their turning aside after Satan. I make this rule concerning them not because I wish there to be no young women at all among the widows (who take the vow of widowhood), but because I fear lest (having taken the vow) they afterward leave Christ” (Oecumenius).

Bb) On the families of widows (1 Tim. 5:16)

1 Tim. 5:16. If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and let not the Church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are truly widows.

In conclusion the Apostle returns again to what he established at the beginning of his discourse on widows—namely, that they should be supported by the family to which they belong, while only those widows who are without any help should remain in the Church’s care. The difference perhaps is only this: that there the elder widow is in view and her supporters are the younger ones—children and grandchildren—whereas here, on the contrary, the supporters are the elder ones—father, mother, uncle, aunt, or others—and the widows are the younger ones—widowed daughters, or nieces, or others belonging to the family in whatever degree of kinship.

“If any believing man or woman.” “He directs the rule to believers, who, being faithful, are ready to heed the Apostolic word” (Oecumenius). He calls faith to mind, speaking as if to say: believers must not allow their own people to suffer need, and still less turn to unbelievers. “He appropriately added: ‘if any believing man,’ for believers ought not to receive sustenance from unbelievers, lest it appear that they are in need of them” (St. Chrysostom).

“Let them relieve them”—their own widowed relatives. “He did not say: let them provide them with lavish support, but: let them supply their needs” (St. Chrysostom).

“Let not the Church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are truly widows.” Take, he says, your own widowed relatives under your own care. For if you abandon them, the Church will be obliged to take them under its care, and then it will be difficult for it to support the true widows—that is, those who have no relatives at all. “Do you see that again the Apostle calls true widows, who ought to be on the Church’s care, those who are completely alone, with no comfort (support) from anywhere? (And those who have relatives, he orders their relatives to take.) And this was better. For two considerable benefits flowed from this: some found occasion to do good, others were well provided for, and the Church was not burdened” (St. Chrysostom).

e) How to deal with presbyters (1 Tim. 5:17–25)

The Apostle touches here on: aa) the support of presbyters (1 Tim. 5:17, 18); bb) their conduct (1 Tim. 5:19–21); and cc) ordination (1 Tim. 5:22–25).

Aa) The support of presbyters (1 Tim. 5:17, 18)

1 Tim. 5:17. Let the presbyters who lead well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

“Who lead,” προεστωτες,—those who preside—well, who govern well in the Church or in the Christian community. “Presbyters”—priests, who were chosen from those of more advanced age as being more dignified, experienced, and generally respected, and who received through ordination the grace of the priesthood to continue the Apostolic work by preaching the Gospel and the word of God in general, and by sanctifying believers through grace by means of the holy mysteries. By virtue of this they presided over Christian communities, guiding, admonishing, and correcting them. Whoever was zealous in this without sparing his strength or even his life led his community well. “Who are those who lead ‘well?’” asks St. Chrysostom and answers: “Let us hear what Christ says: ‘The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep’ (Jn. 10:11). Consequently, good leadership consists in sparing nothing for the sake of those over whom one presides.” On another occasion the Saviour, in a parable, depicted a good leader under the image of the faithful and wise steward whom the master of the house placed over his household “to give them their portion of food in due season” (Lk. 12:42)—that is, everything necessary for the support of each one. The good leader according to this parable is one who diligently distributes to the faithful the daily portion of the word of God and sacramental grace.

Such leaders, he says, “let them be counted worthy of double honor.” “By honor here the Apostle means care, the provision of all necessities—just as above, when he says: ‘honor widows,’ he speaks of the food necessary for them.—What does ‘double honor’ mean? Double in relation to the widows, or in relation to the deacons, or simply: ‘double honor’—that is, great” (St. Chrysostom). “Good and faithful stewards (administrators) of the house of God should be deemed worthy not only of high esteem but also of complete material provision, so that they may not be troubled by want of necessities, but may joyfully apply themselves to the teaching of the faith. One will be more steadfast in this labor who is not humbled by need, and his zeal will grow more and more when he sees that his labor bears fruit also in this present life—not to the point of abundance, but to the removal of scarcity and want” (Ambrosiaster).

“Especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” Three duties rest on the leader of the Church—to teach, to guide and correct, and to sanctify through the mysteries. The first two are fulfilled by labor in preaching and teaching. And this is the most important labor—both because it is more difficult and because it prepares people for the reception of grace through the mysteries. Therefore one who undertakes it is worthy of greater honor and greater provision. St. Chrysostom says: “The Apostle wishes that such be honored more than all others, and he states the reason: they, he says, undertake great labor. And rightly so. For while another neither keeps watch nor takes care, but remains without anxiety or concern, this man labors, takes care, and applies himself to study, especially when he is inexperienced in secular learning. Why should he not enjoy greater honor than all others, when he gives himself to so many labors? Moreover, he is the subject of countless conversations. One reproaches him, another praises him, another mocks him, yet another assails his memory and intentions—and he needs great inner support to bear this.—It is very important, greatly conducive to the good order of the Church, and of great benefit, when its leaders are skilled in teaching. And when this is absent, much harm results to the Churches. Therefore, among the other qualities of a leader—hospitality, gentleness, and blamelessness—the Apostle numbers this as well, saying: ‘apt to teach.’ Where now are those who say that preaching and teaching are unnecessary? Let them, they say, teach by their own lives.—Of course, this too is absolutely necessary. But do you not hear what St. Paul says: ‘especially those who labor in preaching and teaching?’ Is it not clear that he gives preference to leaders who are skilled in teaching? Besides, when the question concerns doctrines, what force has a life alone? Here the teaching word is needed.—Moreover, of what kind of preaching does he speak? Not of the boastful (not the ornate), not of that which excels in external refinement, but of that which is penetrated with spiritual power, full of understanding and wisdom. Therefore what is needed is not artistry and elegant expression, but thoughts—not scholarly exposition, but, as people commonly say, soul.”

1 Tim. 5:18. For the Scripture says: You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain; and: The laborer is worthy of his wages (Deut. 25:4; Matt. 10:10).

“Here the Apostle cites both a provision of the Law and a commandment of Christ—and both are in agreement with each other; for the Law says: ‘You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain.’ Do you see what labors he requires of the teacher? (Labors like those of the ox that threshes.) For there is, truly, no other labor equal to his.—But this is a provision of the Law. What commandment of Christ does he cite? ‘The laborer,’ he says, ‘is worthy of his wages.’ Therefore, one who gives himself over to luxury and ease is not worthy of them. One who is not a threshing ox, who does not patiently bear the yoke, paying no heed to heat and thorns, and who does not set it down before the fruits have been gathered into the barn—that person is not worthy of them.—Therefore it is necessary that all necessities be provided in abundance to teachers, so that they need not labor for these things themselves and, being occupied with trivial matters, neglect what is most important, so that they may exercise themselves in spiritual struggles and have no concern for the affairs of this life. Such were the Levites: they took no care for the things of this life, because the laity had care for them and the Law prescribed their income—tithes, firstfruits, and much else besides. But to them these were justly appointed by the Law, since they were seeking present things; whereas I say that leaders, having eternal hopes, ought to have nothing more than food and clothing, so that they may not be distracted by these things” (St. Chrysostom).

Bb) Conduct (1 Tim. 5:19–21)

1 Tim. 5:19. Do not receive an accusation against a presbyter except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

“Accusation,” κατηγοριαν,—condemnation, an accusation that may be true as well, and therefore not necessarily slander, which implies false defamation of a person. Our translators rendered this word as “slander,” prompting one immediately to suspect falsehood in any ill report about a presbyter, because, on the one hand, it is incongruous and unusual for one honored with this rank and of such years to slip into deeds worthy of censure, and on the other hand, persons of that order, having the duty to correct, easily incur the ill-will of those being corrected, which disposes them to watch the presbyter himself as well, to suspect him, and, not infrequently clothing their suspicions with an air of certainty, to present them falsely as established facts. Therefore “the Apostle did not say: do not condemn, but: do not even receive the accusation, and do not bring him to trial at all” (St. Chrysostom). “Since the rank of presbyter carries high honor, for these persons are vicars of Christ, an accusation against them must not be received lightly or at once. It should seem incredible that one who is a leader of God could behave criminally—just as, on the contrary, one can with probability expect every sort of vileness from an actor” (Ambrosiaster).

But, being human, they too can err, and when they do err they are subject to judgment and condemnation. Therefore, when it happens that two or three witnesses appear to corroborate and confirm the accusation, then receive that accusation. “To receive” does not mean: immediately pronounce judgment, but: take it into consideration, subject it to inquiry, and only after the inquiry pronounce judgment and impose the penalty (St. Chrysostom).

The Law commanded that there not be one witness “to testify against a man concerning any offense” but two or three (Deut. 19:15). “The Law commands this concerning all (the accused). But especially must one act thus with regard to a presbyter. For it happens that he, since the leadership of the Church is entrusted to him, may have offended one of those who sin, and they, being disposed toward him with ill-will for this reason, weave a slander. Therefore, in his case especially, this number of witnesses must be produced” (blessed Theodoret). “But what if two also lie? This rarely happens; moreover, it can be investigated at trial, and in this way it can come to light. The words of the Apostle indeed point to a strict inquiry” (St. Chrysostom).

1 Tim. 5:20. Those who sin, rebuke before all, that the rest also may fear.

The discourse continues to concern presbyters. If upon inquiry it turns out that one of them has truly sinned, rebuke him before all, so that the rest may fear and with greater caution refrain from sins. For if a presbyter is not spared, what will befall others? Ambrosiaster writes: “Although it is not right to believe easily an accusation laid against a presbyter, yet if it is proven or becomes evident that he has acted badly, then in that case the Apostle commands that he be rebuked publicly, so that the rest may also fear—which is very profitable not only for the ordained clergy but for the people as well. For when they see that even a man of rank is rebuked for sin, they will inevitably keep themselves in check.” The same we read in blessed Theodoret: “Do not condemn before reproofs, but those manifestly convicted of any lawlessness do not account worthy of mercy; but after conviction, pronounce sentence upon them in the presence of all, so that out of fear of punishment they may avoid sin.” St. Chrysostom reasons here about all who transgress generally, yet in such a way that his words may be applied more particularly to the judging of presbyters. “Do not cut off at once (that is, pronounce judgment and execute punishment), but examine everything with great exactness. When you have clearly learned the truth, exact strict penalty, so that others too may be admonished. For just as it is harmful to condemn rashly, so also not to punish those who have openly sinned means giving opportunity to others to do the same and attempt the same. ‘Rebuke,’ he says, showing that one must act not carelessly, but with strictness, for in this way others too will fear.—But will there not be greater scandal when you rebuke before all? How so? When they learn of the sin and see no punishment, then truly will they be scandalized. For from the fact that those who have sinned remain unpunished, many naturally themselves slide into sin; just as, on the contrary, from their being punished, many are corrected. So also did God act. He brought Pharaoh out into the midst (for all to see) and punished him; we also see that Nebuchadnezzar and many other people and cities received punishment (manifestly before all).—Therefore the Apostle wishes all to have fear before the bishop, and sets him over all.”

Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25)

1 Tim. 5:21. I charge you before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by partiality.

“I charge”—I call as witnesses. This is done both to show the importance of the law being set forth and to strengthen the resolve to fulfill it without delay. Thus Moses says to Israel: “I call as witnesses against you… heaven and earth” (Deut. 4:26); thus Micah cried out: “Hear… you foundations of the earth” (Mic. 6:2). This resembles the solemn adjuration: “I adjure you by the living God.”

But to which matter does such a solemn charge refer—to what preceded, that is, to judgment, or to what follows, that is, to the not hasty but circumspect laying on of hands? The matter of judgment is certainly important, but the laying on of hands is more important. Therefore it is more likely to refer to the latter than to the former. Among our commentators, only Ambrosiaster refers this adjuration to the laying on of hands; all the rest refer it to judgment. St. Chrysostom says: “Having spoken (simply, without a solemn charge) of bishops, deacons, men, women, widows, presbyters, and all the rest, and having shown over whom the bishop’s authority extends, when he came to speak of judgment, he added: ‘I charge you before God.’ He pronounces a fearful admonition. He was not ashamed to say this even out of regard for the fact that Timothy was his beloved child (fearing, as it were, negligence even on his part). But one who was not ashamed to say of himself: ‘I fear, lest, having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified’ (1 Cor. 9:27),—could well not be ashamed or embarrassed to say this to Timothy as well. He speaks as if to say: I call God and His Son and His servants as witnesses to what I have charged you; behold, before Them I charge you. He places Timothy in fear.”

The addition of the words “and the elect angels” prompts the thought that St. Paul, pronouncing this solemn charge, places himself together with St. Timothy at the dread judgment of God—at which, as the word of God represents, both the coming Judge and His throne will be surrounded by all the angels—and speaks to him as if to say: at the dread judgment of God I stand, or shall one day stand, with you; take heed that you do not despise the commandment given to you! “He calls the Father and the Son (and the Angels) as witnesses of what he has said so that on the coming day, if anything should be done contrary to duty, he may stand righteous before them—that is, as if removing all responsibility from himself” (St. Chrysostom). “He called the elect angels in distinction from demons, which are also angels but rejected ones” (blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius).

“That you observe these things. These things”—as noted, the Eastern commentators refer to judgment. The words of St. Chrysostom have been cited; here too are the words of blessed Theodoret: “He gives two commands: not to condemn by relying on the credibility of witnesses before personal inquiry; and, after manifest conviction, not to postpone (or conceal) the sentence out of mercy toward the one being judged, thus violating justice. (And that this be strictly observed, he calls as witnesses God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ together with the holy Angels.) The Apostle placed the Angels alongside God and Christ not as their equals but as their servants. I charge you, he says, before God and His Son and His ministers.”

But Ambrosiaster refers this to the laying on of hands. “He imposes an oath before God the Father and Christ His Son and His elect Angels, whom the Lord in the Gospel calls holy (Mk. 8:38). These (holy ones) are called elect to distinguish them from others who are rejected and are not God’s angels but the devil’s, as those who join with him in apostasy. Under oath the Apostle commands the observance of what pertains to ordination for service in the Church—he commands that in this matter there be no proceeding without prior strict deliberation and that no one receive an ecclesiastical rank without careful examination, until it has been ascertained what his life is like and what his character is, but that each be ordained to the priesthood or the ministry of the Church only when he has been found worthy of it—so that, if he should afterward prove blameworthy, the ruler of the people (the bishop) need not regret that he did not fully (to the point of clarity) investigate what the man was worth and ordained one who was not approved.”

“Without prejudice,” χωρις προκριματος,—without preconception, without a preconceived opinion concerning the one being judged or the one proposed for ordination, either in his favor or against him—an opinion formed without examination on the basis of appearance or rumor alone. Let everything be determined by strict inquiry carried through to full clarity—there (if this refers to judgment) concerning the deed of the one being judged; here (if this refers to ordination) concerning the life and character of the one being chosen.

“Doing nothing by partiality.”—“By partiality,” κατα προσκλισιν,—by inclining toward someone’s side, not according to the merits of the case but according to a feeling prompted from elsewhere, according to bias. Thus the Apostle strictly forbids the bishop to act out of prejudice or partiality, whether in rendering judgment or in selecting someone for ordination. Blessed Theophylact writes: “Be even-handed, ισος, (inclining neither to one side nor the other)—toward those whose case is being decided or examined—so that there be no προκριμα (a decision made before or without deliberation)—that is, so that no one should forestall you and, winning you to his side in advance, dispose you for this reason alone (before deliberation and examination) to pronounce judgment and render a decision. Do nothing by partiality, κατα προσκλισιν (from: κλινω)—that is, out of bias, leaning to one side. Even if it were spelled with an eta (προσκλησιν), the meaning would remain the same. It is as if one said: one side invites you to help it; so do not act according to this invitation (but according to reason and justice).” Oecumenius writes: “St. Basil in his commentary on the Proverbs reads: μη κατα προσκλησιν — that is, not inclining toward what is not right, but pronouncing a just judgment. He puts it this way: doing nothing by partiality, but pronouncing just and impartial judgments.”

Cc) Ordination (1 Tim. 5:22–25)

1 Tim. 5:22. Lay hands on no one hastily, nor share in other men’s sins; keep yourself pure.

“He has arrived at the most important thing, by which the Church is maintained above all else—namely, ordination” (blessed Theophylact). And concerning it he gives rules: “for he writes to a bishop” (Oecumenius): “lay hands on no one hastily.” “What does ‘hastily’ mean? Not after a first, not after a second, not after a third examination, but having considered repeatedly and investigated carefully; for this matter is not without danger” (St. Chrysostom). “One must first inquire into the life of the one being ordained, and then call down upon him the grace of the Spirit” (blessed Theodoret).

“Nor share in other men’s sins”—that is, the sins of the one being ordained, “by elevating the unworthy to the rank of minister of the mysteries for the people” (Oecumenius). If you ordain someone hastily, without the proper inquiry, it may happen that he proves unworthy. The sins which he then commits and the harm which he thereby brings upon the Church will be imputed to you. And you will become a partaker of another’s sins. “Having given him authority, you will be subject to punishment for the sins committed by him—both past and future. For by releasing him prematurely from his former sins, you become guilty also of those which he will commit in time to come—namely: you will be the cause of the latter, because you entrusted authority to him—and of the former, because you did not allow him to mourn over them and come to a state of contrition. You become a fellow-participant both in his good deeds and in his sins” (St. Chrysostom). “One must not ordain a person in whose case sins are suspected (whose blamelessness is doubtful), lest the one who ordains him be tainted with his sins. If his sins are completely hidden (no trace of them visible), the one who ordains is safe: his conscience is free. But suspicion ought to inspire fear. And then he sins, if he ordains without examining as he ought. The one being ordained must be better than the rest. It is not enough for him to be without fault; his good works must be manifest, so that he may be deemed worthy of ordination” (Ambrosiaster).

“Keep yourself pure.” Following the line of the argument, it is more natural to understand “pure” as meaning free from the imputation of the sins of the one being ordained. Thus blessed Theodoret: “do not make yourself liable to condemnation”—of course, by rashly ordaining one who was not worthy and whose sins will defile you yourself. Thus Ambrosiaster: “By observing this (that is, by ascertaining through strict inquiry the worthiness of the one being ordained), the bishop will keep himself pure, with respect to the faith and the Church—and in the age to come will receive his reward for it.”

But other commentators understand here a command to St. Timothy to preserve his own moral purity. St. Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle speaks of self-restraint.” Oecumenius and Theophylact write: “He gives a lesson on chastity; he exhorts to the guarding of chastity.” The connection with what precedes would then be this: but while discerning whether others are worthy of ordination, take care not to lose your own worthiness. Or: in order that you may more boldly examine whether this one is good or whether another is not, be yourself pure. Or again: if you yourself preserve your purity, you will have the eyes to see whether another is pure and worthy.—St. Chrysostom adds this observation: “If a man who was observing such fasts and had been drinking only water for so long a time that he was beginning to fall ill and suffer frequent ailments—if even to him the Apostle commands self-restraint, and he does not take offense at his counsel; then all the more ought we not to take offense when we hear anyone’s instruction on this subject. If we accept this interpretation, in it we may see the reason or occasion for the reminder that follows.”

1 Tim. 5:23. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

The words “keep yourself pure” could have prompted St. Timothy to greater abstinence and greater strictness regarding the body, as the most direct means for preserving purity. But St. Timothy was already constantly living a life of extreme abstinence, despite not enjoying robust health and being frequently ill—perhaps especially with ailments of the stomach. The Apostle recalled this and, moderating the lesson he had given, speaks as if to say: hearing these words—“keep yourself pure”—do not rush into greater feats of self-denial. Do not do this. You, given the condition of your health, need rather some relaxation, and from now on do not drink water alone, but use a little wine as well. He means grape wine, light, and moreover used mostly mixed with water.

“No longer drink only water,” μηκετι υδροποτει,—does not mean: do not drink water at all, but: do not drink water only, do not quench your thirst with water alone, as is your custom.—“Use a little wine,” οινω ολιγω χρω,—use a little wine. “By this he was not given permission to drink wine without measure, but was permitted to drink it as much as was necessary for health, and not for pleasure” (St. Chrysostom). “He did not simply say: use wine, but limited this use by adding: a little. For youth is ardent and is quickly moved by wine” (blessed Theophylact). “For your stomach’s sake”—points to ailments of the stomach. “But it seems that St. Timothy was afflicted not only with stomach ailments, but with ailments of other parts as well, as the words ‘and your frequent ailments’ suggest” (St. Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact).

Ambrosiaster reasons here: “Here the holy Apostle gives St. Timothy a personal (specifically concerning him) counsel, so that he may govern himself prudently. God desires that He be served according to one’s ability, and not so that one weakens oneself through excess and then has need to seek a physician’s help. The practice of abstinence must be conducted in such a way that it may, if possible and necessary, be gradually increased, and not so that it must afterward be diminished on account of excess admitted at the beginning. Excess (of bodily self-denial) renders even the soul weak, and the soul, troubled by the body’s exhaustion, is no longer so fervent in divine services. But the soul that is at peace in this regard is lifted up with its whole heart to God, with undivided attention beseeching Him to grant it what is needed for salvation.”

St. Chrysostom raises this question here: “Why did St. Paul not heal St. Timothy’s stomach?” And he answers: “Not because he could not, but because he wished to draw some important lesson from this; for the one whose garment raised the dead could without doubt have done this as well.—Why then did he not do it? So that we, when we now also see great and virtuous men afflicted with ailments, should not be scandalized thereby. And so this too was done for a purpose. Besides, if to the Apostle himself was given a messenger of Satan lest he be exalted, all the more (was such a safeguard against pride needed) for Timothy, because signs could easily lead him to pride. Therefore the Apostle allowed him to avail himself of the rules of medical science, so that he himself might think less of himself, and others might not be scandalized—and might understand that those holy men, performing what they performed (wondrous deeds), did not cease to be of the same nature as we.” “So that we might not think the ancients were above our nature, but might believe that they too were human beings (like us)” (blessed Theophylact).

1 Tim. 5:24. Some men’s sins are evident, going before them to judgment; and some men they follow after.

After what seems a brief digression, the Apostle returns again to the rules concerning selection for ordination, “again continuing his word on ordination” (blessed Theophylact).—When he said: do not ordain hastily, but first inquire whether a person is worthy, so as not to become a partaker of his sins—then St. Timothy could naturally have raised the question: but how is one to find out?! The Apostle forestalls this perplexity, speaking as if to say: how is one not to find out! There is no difficulty whatever in finding out. Some men’s sins go before them, reports of their deeds precede them, and before you have seen one of them face to face, it may already be known to you that he is, for example, impure in heart and body, impure in hand, impure in tongue, and the like. And this will already in advance guide you toward forming a judgment of whether he is worthy or not. All that remains is to verify whether it is indeed so in practice as is heard. And the judgment will determine itself. But some men’s sins are not evident. They are skilled at concealing them and appear to all in person as good and honorable. But their deeds all the same stand behind them and trail after them like the tail of a comet. They have not disappeared, but are still there, in their traces. Look closely and you will see. To this you are obliged, and the right to do so is given you, by my rule: “lay hands on no one hastily”—examine, consider, investigate. When you begin to examine, it will be difficult for bad deeds to remain hidden. If they are somehow concealed, then you will not be guilty, because you will have done everything possible on your part. “Evident,” προδηλοι,—manifest in advance, before you begin to examine. “Going before,” προαγουσαι,—leading you ahead, guiding, disposing, prompting. “To judgment,” εις κρισιν,—toward the pronouncement of a judgment. As if to say: here there is nothing even to examine. Other men’s deeds “follow” behind them, επακολουθουσιν,—they go behind them in their footsteps, step by step. By their outward appearance, by their seeming good conduct, these men conceal their deeds from the view of others; but there they still are, behind. Let someone look more closely and he will see.

Thus all our commentators understand this. They note, among other things, from the words “and some men they follow after” the following observation: in this life some people manage with such skill to conceal their evil deeds that they remain in good standing until the very moment of death; but after death their sinfulness is revealed there, in the other life, and exposes them to condemnation. Death does not annihilate their deeds, nor does it cause these people to pass into the other world while their deeds remain here. No—their deeds will follow after them and there will call forth righteous judgment upon them. But the deeds of others settle their fate here already, manifestly showing what awaits them there. Oecumenius, and after him blessed Theophylact, cite the opinion of St. Basil the Great, who in these words of the Apostle sees also this thought: the deeds of certain sinners that make them worthy of condemnation do not cease with their death, but continue to be committed even without them, yet are still imputed to them. These are specifically those deeds whose evil consequences do not cease with the death of those who committed them, but continue either to lead others into unbelief and false belief, or to draw them into an evil life. Such are heresies and heretical writings—and scandalous amusements and customs.

1 Tim. 5:25. Likewise also good works are evident beforehand, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden.

What was said of sins is equally applicable to good works. These too are evident in some persons—known in advance, going before a man and commending him. But in others they are “otherwise,” that is, not evident, they remain unknown, so that one cannot say at first glance what such a person is like, whether good or bad. But, he says, even such works cannot remain hidden: inquire and you will find. This is vividly illustrated by the history of the election to the episcopate in the city of Comana of the holy hieromartyr Alexander, a charcoal-maker. The election took place under the chairmanship of St. Gregory the Wonderworker of Neocaesarea. When several persons put forward for election had not been approved, someone exclaimed: Are we not to elect Alexander the charcoal-maker?! But St. Gregory began to examine him and found that he was more worthy than all the rest, and he was chosen by all (August 12th).

On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3)

Up to this point the Apostle taught how to guide various persons primarily according to their position in the Church. Now he turns to indicating the manner of dealing with persons according to their position in society. As there, so here St. Paul does not encompass everything, but touches only on: aa) slaves (1 Tim. 6:1, 2); and bb) the wealthy (1 Tim. 6:3–19)—because, of course, this was especially needed.

Aa) What to teach slaves? (1 Tim. 6:1, 2)

1 Tim. 6:1. Let as many as are under the yoke as slaves count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed.

“The Apostle says this of slaves whose masters are unbelievers” (blessed Theodoret). “Teach them, he says, and exhort them, that even though their masters are unbelievers, they should obey them, counting them worthy of all honor both in words and in deeds” (blessed Theophylact). Some slaves could have thought—and perhaps did think—that since they had received forgiveness of sins, been received into God’s favor, and had the freedom to draw near to the Lord, these privileges meant they should no longer serve unbelieving masters. The Apostle, to forestall this, commands St. Timothy to explain to each of them: “Do not think that because you are a believer you are therefore free” (St. Chrysostom). “You are free in spiritual nature (free from sins, you draw near to the Lord freely), but a slave in body. But this very thing is freedom—to serve, I say, in the name of Christ” (blessed Theophylact). Resolve to serve willingly, believing that such is the Lord’s will for you, and your work will become an act of freedom, pleasing to God, and not a yoke. This is precisely what the Apostle points to and urges; for he says: let slaves count their masters worthy of all honor. This is how it stands in Greek. Whoever has such a conviction in his heart will not feel the yoke of slavery. One who honors another willingly bows before him and submits to him.

But the counsel on how to make the yoke of slavery light for slaves is only hinted at in the words: let them count them worthy of honor. The Apostle’s chief intention is to inspire slaves to faithful service through the benefits of the faith. Instruct them, he says, that if they do not honor their masters with faithful service, their masters will form a poor opinion of our teaching and our faith, and they will thus give occasion for the name of God—called upon Christians—to be blasphemed. But if they serve them willingly and respectfully, especially after formerly reluctant and grumbling service, they will thereby give a high impression of our teaching and dispose them to turn to faith in the Lord and Saviour. “If an unbeliever sees that through faith people fall into conceit, he will often denounce it as a teaching that inclines to insubordination; but if he notices that they have become more obedient, he will all the more readily submit himself, will be more attentive to what is said (in the preaching of the Gospel)” (St. Chrysostom).—For a believer who loves and honors the faith, there can be no stronger incentive to calm and willing bearing of the yoke of faithful service to unbelieving masters.

1 Tim. 6:2. And those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brothers; but rather let them serve them, because those who benefit from their service are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things.

That was speech about relations with unbelieving masters; now it is about relations with believing ones. Believing masters are understood as not merely those who hold the faith, but those who live in the spirit of the faith, and consequently treat their slaves in a brotherly manner, not overburdening them beyond their strength, taking pity on them and caring for them. Seeing this, unwise servants could become presumptuous, indulge the feeling of equality with their masters, and as a result become negligent in their duties and disrespectful toward their masters. It is against this that St. Paul here gives instruction. Teach them, he says, that servants should not despise believing masters but serve them even more zealously. “Slaves whose masters are godly should not turn their masters’ godliness into an occasion for negligence, but should account them worthy of even greater service for this very reason” (blessed Theodoret). Say to them: “If you have been accounted worthy of such an honor as to have brothers for masters (or to have masters as brothers), then for this very reason you ought to be especially obedient to them” (St. Chrysostom). “It cannot be that, since you have come to have your master as a brother by virtue of baptism, you are therefore free to treat him negligently; on the contrary, find in this very fact an incentive to serve and to slave for him with even greater diligence” (blessed Theophylact).

The incentive put forward for this is: “because they are believers and beloved, who are partakers of grace.” Faith does not take away the right of lordship but adorns it. A servant who holds the faith in high esteem holds it in high esteem in his master as well, and for its sake holds his master in high esteem. Hence—not a lessening of the sense of obligation to serve, but its elevation and, as it were, sanctification. And serve all the more, he says, “because they are believers.” But by virtue of the faith they are also “beloved”—beloved of God (Oecumenius)—and beloved of the slaves, because to this both the faith obliges and disposes, teaching one to love even strangers, and not only one’s own, and above all those who are one’s masters. You cannot but feel how good it is for you to have masters who are believers and beloved. But “to the degree that you have been benefited by having your masters as brothers, to that same degree be yourselves grateful, serving them with greater zeal” (Oecumenius). “Having said ‘beloved,’ the Apostle drives out fear—under which servants often fall into hatred of their masters—and in its place introduces love” (blessed Theophylact), or “joins love with fear” (Oecumenius).

“Who are partakers of grace”—who are partakers of grace, who share in grace—that is, who have received forgiveness of sins, been received into the sonship of God, and endowed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Those who have been received into such favor of God and so honored by God—should they not also be more honored by their servants through the expression of greater submission and greater zeal in serving them? Such a meaning is suggested by the Slavonic translation, which is also permitted by the Greek text: οι της ευεργεσιας αντιλαμβανομενοι,—who receive the beneficence, or who are partakers of beneficence—namely, God’s beneficence to us sinners, the crown of which is the economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ—“grace upon grace” (Jn. 1:16).

But the Greek text may also convey the meaning: who care for and are zealous for the benefiting—understood as benefiting the slaves—“who diligently endeavor to do good to the slaves” (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). In Russian it is translated accordingly: who do good to them—the slaves. And all our commentators hold to this meaning. St. Chrysostom says: “Masters give more to slaves than slaves to masters; for the former both spend gold on them and take care to supply them with necessaries—clothing and everything else. And pointing to this here, the Apostle says: οι της ευεργεσιας αντιλαμβανομενοι,—who take care to do you good, O slaves. They trouble themselves and labor for your ease—and should they not enjoy great honor from their own household?” The same in blessed Theophylact: “Remember (O servant), that he (the master) is also your benefactor (not only a believer and beloved), he troubles himself and takes care for you, to feed you, to clothe you, and to satisfy every other need and want of yours—so that he has many claims upon you (upon your submission and service to him), besides having purchased you.”

It is assumed that the masters, having believed and been sanctified by grace, changed their despotic character and began to treat their slaves as their own kin—caring well for them and showing loving affection toward them. As a result, those who were beloved by the slaves through the faith are even more beloved through their benefactions to them. Therefore the latter naturally ought to serve them more zealously now than before. To believing masters, says the Apostle, slaves ought to serve more zealously, because they are believers and beloved, and all the more because they themselves do good to them—as if repaying them with kindness before they themselves have done anything for them; consider yourselves already benefited on the part of your masters in advance of your service to them (Oecumenius). By serving them you will be repaying a debt of gratitude for their benefactions toward you, which encompass and embrace you.

“Teach and exhort these things.” Teach as one who has authority; entreat—persuade, urge—as a loving father or brother. “Do the first as a teacher, the second as a father” (blessed Theodoret). “A teacher must employ not only authority but also great gentleness, and on the other hand, not only gentleness but also authority” (St. Chrysostom). “For he is a physician, and a physician sometimes prevails with gentleness and sometimes with firm compulsion” (blessed Theophylact).

In our text these words stand in connection with what precedes—that is, with what should be impressed upon slaves. This may indeed have been required, not so much because of the importance of the subject itself—the obedience of slaves to their masters—as because of the harm that their disobedience could bring upon the Church and upon believers. But it seems better to connect these words with what follows and to refer them to everything said above. St. Chrysostom detaches these words from this (second) verse and connects them with the following third verse.

Bb) What to teach the wealthy? (1 Tim. 6:3–19)

This entire section (1 Tim. 6:3–19) contains the following: α) the exhortation: “teach these things” (1 Tim. 6:2)—followed immediately by a censure of those who teach otherwise, whose final and most characteristic failing is that they “suppose that godliness is a means of gain” (1 Tim. 6:5) (1 Tim. 6:3–5). This provided occasion for: β) an indication (1 Tim. 6:6–16) of: αα) the ruinous consequences of love of money for faith and life (1 Tim. 6:6–10) and the exhortation: ββ) “flee these things” (1 Tim. 6:11)—and pursue godliness, faith, and the rest, with a solemn charge to observe this command without fail until the coming of the Lord (1 Tim. 6:11–16). After this follows: γ) what to teach the wealthy—namely, not to be proud, not to set their hope on riches, but to use them for good works, “laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future” (1 Tim. 6:19) (1 Tim. 6:17–19). Thus all of this speaks of love of money in its various aspects. It was therefore deemed fitting to entitle this section “what to teach the wealthy,” treating the indication of the harmful consequences of attachment to wealth and the exhortation to flee it and to pursue every virtue as an introduction to the main theme, and the indication of the unworthy qualities of those who teach otherwise as the occasion for it.

α) Teach these things (1 Tim. 6:3–5)

This occasion arose, as it were, unexpectedly. The Apostle had in mind only to urge adherence to sound teaching and to shun all deviation from it and all disputes—as he does repeatedly in this Epistle. But since the best incentive for avoiding the latter is knowledge of the unsoundness of those who teach otherwise, the Apostle describes it. And one of the most prominent characteristics of these false teachers at that time was that they acted “for the sake of dishonest gain” (Tit. 1:11). Having placed this characteristic at the end in the words: “who suppose godliness is a means of gain,” the Apostle then leads the entire discourse to the subject of passion for acquisition and wealth.

1 Tim. 6:3, 4. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the teaching which is according to godliness, he is proud.

St. Chrysostom, as noted, reads this in connection with “teach and exhort these things.” Teach thus—and from those who teach otherwise, turn away. As for turning away from their teaching, there was no need to remind St. Timothy of this. Turn away, he says, from the false teachers themselves—do not engage with them, “avoid them” (St. Chrysostom). For if you engage with them, disputes over words will follow, from which there is never any benefit, but only irritation and strife. They cannot yield to you, because through pride and self-conceit they think they know the truth and stand in it, whereas they know it not at all. This self-deception is what keeps them in their stubbornness and opposition to the truth. And there is nothing to be done with them. The best course is not to engage with them at all. Proclaim the one truth—and whoever is of the truth will listen to you (Jn. 18:37). Such is the content of this present Apostolic lesson.

Who these false teachers are, the Apostle does not specify in particular, but speaks generally: they teach otherwise, they do not consent to the wholesome words of the Lord and to the teaching that accords with godliness. Here one may understand all Christian teaching—both doctrine and the rules of life and sanctification through the mysteries. Whoever in anything departs from the words of the Lord and the sound teaching held by the assembly of the pious is a false teacher, a proud controversialist, unworthy of fellowship. Therefore also: “teach and exhort these things” (1 Tim. 6:2)—refers not to the obedience of slaves alone, but to everything set forth above, not excluding this point, of course.

The wholesome words of the Lord are those of which He testified: “all things that I heard from My Father… I have made known to you” (Jn. 15:15). They are the same as what the Holy Spirit inspired in the Apostles: for He also was to speak “whatever He hears” (Jn. 16:13), and of course whatever He spoke, He spoke as He heard. The wholesome words of the Lord therefore comprehend the truth hidden in the mystery of the Triune God, brought to earth by the incarnate Son of God, and spread among men through the Apostles by the Holy Spirit—truth that is wholesome, that is, pure, unmixed, unchangeable. They are wholesome both as containing pure truth and as imparting health to the soul that receives them. For truth brings health to the soul, while falsehood, even if small, weakens and enfeebles it.

“The teaching that accords with godliness” is composed of the wholesome words of the Lord and the revelations of the Holy Spirit. It brings together all the words and from all the truths proclaimed by them forms one whole, one pattern of contemplating the work of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, according to the good pleasure of the Father. The Lord spoke much; the Apostles also spoke much through the Holy Spirit. Those who heard and received it laid everything up in their hearts, which, as some architect guided by grace, organized that pattern of contemplating the work of salvation. And this pattern encompassed “the teaching that accords with godliness.” Established under the influence of the Apostles, this pattern was carried in the hearts of believers out of the Apostolic age, renewed and preserved by their successors, and handed down to subsequent generations of the faithful, from whom it has reached us by mutual transmission. Thus “the teaching that accords with godliness” is the teaching held by the Church—then, in the time of the Apostles, and now by succession from them.

In Greek the word is not “true faith” but godliness — τη κατ ευσεβειαν διδασκαλια. But this is not a departure from the Apostle’s actual word—it is a more precise expression of it. Godliness is the heartfelt relationship to God. Life according to godliness is life in the fear of God, for the glory of His all-holy name; teaching according to godliness is teaching held on the basis of unshakeable faith in the word of the God of truth. Such a holding of truth is genuinely true belief—and it alone is truly such.

Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8)

1 Tim. 6:4. He is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which arise envy, strife, slander, and evil suspicions.

“He is proud.” This is the one who does not come to the words of the Lord or who interprets them perversely. God speaks and sets down laws, while the creature does not listen or, when listening, interprets what it has heard not according to God but according to itself, subjecting the divine to its own judgment as something displeasing to it. Both courses of action express the attitude: go away, I have no wish to know your ways. Not only sinners but above all heretics and false teachers speak this in the face of God. Is this not pride? This is the very pinnacle of pride—a Satanic pride, with which all false teachers are ordinarily filled to overflowing. And naturally so, for not heeding the word of God, they follow only their own reason, and reason puffs up. All false teachers are therefore swollen with pride, although they sometimes conceal it with a very humble appearance—in sheep’s clothing, while being wolves. Τετυφωται — he has puffed up, says the Apostle, like a soap bubble. A soap bubble appears to be something, but in reality has no substance. The false teacher likewise, not conforming to the direct word of God nor to the teaching of the Church—which is the pillar and foundation of truth—having constructed in his own mind his own system of teaching on salvation, goes about with it, dreaming in self-delusion that at last he has grasped the truth that others do not know. And he is puffed up. Yet it is clear that he does not know the truth at all, but has deviated into falsehood. Falsehood asserts that something exists which does not. Therefore, although it presents itself as knowledge and may appear so to others, it knows nothing in reality—it merely puffs itself up as if it knows. And the Apostle notes that the one who teaches otherwise “is proud, knowing nothing.” Suppose someone deceived your eyes and presented a heap of rubbish to you as a heap of gold. You would see what appeared to be a heap of gold, while in reality it remained a heap of rubbish. Such is every system of false teachers; it seems as brilliant as golden truth—yet in reality it is a collection of fancies containing no truth. And one may take it as a sure sign that, as soon as vain self-conceit attaches itself to some intellectual construction, rest assured that falsehood lurks within it, that this is not a grasping of truth but a fantasy—a knowing of nothing. St. Chrysostom says: “Therefore it happens that we are inflamed with pride not from knowing (the truth) but from not knowing it; because the one who knows the teaching that accords with godliness is the most skilled of all in humility; the one who is trained in sound doctrine is not possessed by this disease (of pride). Therefore one who knows something (who thinks he knows) can know nothing (as he ought); for one who does not know what he ought knows nothing.”

Since the false teacher, having constructed his own system of teaching, is puffed up by it, he cannot tolerate anything that contradicts it—considering this an offense against himself in his most sensitive point and a belittlement of his loftily maintained role as teacher. Hence he stirs up disputes and arguments over words wherever he goes; passionate contentiousness accompanies him and follows in his footsteps. This is what St. Paul points out next: “and is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words.”—“Disputes,” ζητησεις,—investigations, the raising of questions—what is this, why is that, how does such-and-such exist, and the like. And on they go, talks without end. “Arguments over words,” λογομαχιαι,—war over words. Since the false teacher presents as truth what is not such—that is, what does not correspond to reality—his speech contains nothing substantial but is a collection of words; and in defending himself he does nothing other than quarrel over words—he is obsessed with word-battles. By saying “is obsessed,” the Apostle conveys the idea that an insatiable urge for disputes reigns in the false teacher’s soul. This contentious spirit sits within him like a chronic sore. And he is forever arguing.—But the Apostles had as their rule not to start disputes: “we,” he says, “have no such custom” (1 Cor. 11:16). And St. Paul writes both to St. Titus and to St. Timothy not to get involved in disputes. State or bear witness to the truth—and that is sufficient. Whoever is of the truth will listen. But whoever is not of the truth—argue with him as long as you like, you will accomplish nothing.—Dispute arises from anxiety about the stability of one’s thought; and this anxiety comes from not being convinced of the sufficiency of its foundations. The Apostles received the truth directly from God and rested immovably in faith in it. And they had no need of special arguments to establish the truth for themselves. And for others they did not invent them, but only set forth what God the Holy Spirit inspired in them.—This is what the false teachers lack, and they hasten to make up for it with a din of words.—What the Apostles did, the same is done in the Church to this day: she sets forth “the teaching that accords with godliness,” which she received from God through the Apostles and which she has guarded and guards. Whoever is of the truth listens; whoever is not of the truth goes away. The Church sees this, but does not raise disputes—she only prays. St. Chrysostom says: “Therefore—argumentation is a disease. And rightly so. For the soul engages in inquiry (ζητησει,—disputation) when it is inflamed (as with fever) by thoughts, when they toss it about (that is, when it is sick); but when it is in a healthy state, it does not inquire but rests in faith. Through inquiry and disputes nothing can be found. For when inquiry undertakes to clarify what is proclaimed by faith alone, it neither reveals it nor gives it to be understood—just as if someone, having closed his eyes, were to seek something he wished to find: he could not (succeed in this). Thus without faith nothing can be discovered, and disputes are bound to arise.” “Where there is no faith,” continues Theophylact, “everything is sick; there only a verbal war (over words) flares up and nothing more—wherein the one more skilled in wrangling strains to overthrow the other. Faith is an eye; one who has no eyes finds nothing, but only seeks.”

Knowing nothing, he is puffed up as one who knows all, and is obsessed with contentiousness—such is the character of the false teacher. What fruit comes from this? “From these” (disputes and arguments over words) “arise envy, strife, slander, and evil suspicions.” All of this is visible in every verbal dispute. Envy envies the fact that another has got the upper hand. It is accompanied by “strife,” ερις,—ardor, evoking intense effort not to let another get ahead or gain the advantage, and to overthrow the one who has gained it. From this ardor comes the heat of the dispute; and in the heat of the dispute “slanders and evil suspicions” inevitably burst forth. “Slanders”: they slander one another over turns of phrase, inconsistency, ignorance of facts and aspects of the case, inaccurate understanding of testimonies, and the like. This more than anything inflames irritation and, by implanting discord and enmity, bars every entrance of truth into the soul. But along with this, simple slander cannot but carry over into blasphemy. For the disputing false teacher goes against the truth—and the truth of God, and therefore against God. Therefore, in slandering God’s truth, he blasphemes God. Nor is it surprising that some slander even directly against God itself will burst forth—regarding, for example, the economy of salvation, the holy mysteries, and providence in general. “Evil suspicions,” υπονοιαι πονηραι. — Υπονοιαι — suspicions, thoughts that creep in and steal their way: and is it not so? The false teacher does not spare the conscience of one who disagrees with him, but showers him relentlessly with phrases that grow ever more cutting. Among them it is not surprising to find some that will leave an impression and sow doubt: is it not so? This “is it not so,” like a splinter, will enter the heart and cloud the peace of faith and the clarity of the soul’s condition. Here is an example. A young monk was sent somewhere by his elder. On the road a Jew attached himself to him and started a dispute in defense of Judaism, which ended with the monk saying: perhaps it is so. When he returned home, the elder saw him dark as soot. “Perhaps it is so”—that was his evil suspicion, and this is what it produced. As something evil, proceeding from the dark one, the evil one, it filled his whole soul and body with darkness—because, of course, it had admitted the dark one himself within.—Rest in faith, avoiding all disputes, and you will escape such misfortune. Evil suspicions seem to be nothing—a mere breath of air. So it seems; in reality, however, they are a true wound requiring treatment. They are in the matter of faith what thoughts that take hold of the heart are in the matter of life. Just as the latter must either be driven out by struggle or cast one into a fall, so with respect to the former one must either fight urgently to reestablish the point of faith against which they are directed, or, failing to do this, one inevitably falls under their power and deviates from the truth. In this way all errors spread and all apostasies from the faith are accomplished.

1 Tim. 6:5. Constant wrangling by men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw from such people.

“Constant wrangling,” παραδιατριβαι. — Διατριβη — a passing of time, filling it with some occupation; hence conversations, reasonings, and discourses. Παραδιατριβη — all this in a bad sense: an idle spending of time, conversations leading to nothing good and not toward the good, reasonings and discourses foreign to the truth. “Constant wrangling” is the precise rendering of this word. Here what is meant is not the dispute itself, but its character or consequence and contagious nature. The dispute waged by false teachers is an idle and harmful way of spending time—harmful because, as was said just before, it breeds “evil suspicions.” Διατριβη is from τριβω — I rub. Those engaged in conversation rub against one another. But rubbing from a healthy person strengthens health, or at least does not disturb it; while rubbing from a sick person can transmit disease and infect. So it is here—rub yourself through conversation with a false teacher, and you may be infected with his false teaching and fall sick with heresy. According to St. Chrysostom, the words “constant wrangling” have in the Apostle this meaning: “Just as sheep infected with mange, when they come into contact with healthy ones, transmit their disease to them as well—so are these evil men.” In blessed Theodoret we read: “Those who have departed from the truth (false teachers) and follow their own thoughts attempt to teach what is not proper.—Hence arise ‘evil suspicions,’ and from them there springs a kind of ruinous disease that infects those nearby. This is what the words ‘constant wrangling’ mean. For just as diseased sheep grazing alongside healthy ones transmit their disease to them, so these men fill their neighbors with infection.” Oecumenius states directly: “Constant wrangling”—“the transmission of the disease of evil doctrines—a metaphor drawn from mangy sheep.” “As mangy sheep,” Theophylact explains, “by rubbing among healthy ones, infect them with their disease; so do false teachers, by rubbing with their conversations, παραδιατριβομενοι,—with others, corrupt them (in mind and heart with their false teaching).”

Therefore their fruit is such because they themselves are “of corrupt minds.” So are all who do not come to the wholesome (uncorrupted by misinterpretation) words of the Lord and to the teaching faithfully held and preserved by the Church. Their mind, having accepted false principles and propositions—or doctrines—has been corrupted and has corrupted them. They have only themselves to blame. Why did they allow their mind to take up what was beyond its strength? They should have bent it under the yoke of faith, compelled it to receive obediently what had been revealed and handed down, to study and assimilate it; but instead they allowed it to invent and fabricate the faith itself. And it has made a mess of things; but having taken its invention for certain truth, it has corrupted itself and corrupted them—and they have become “men of corrupt minds,” infecting others with their corruption. What else is to be expected from them? “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things” (Matt. 12:35).

They are of corrupt minds because they are “destitute of the truth.” This is the cause of the corruption of the mind. Just as the possession of truth is the health of the mind, so being deprived of truth is its disease and corruption—just as the keeping and observance of the commandments is the health of the will, and deviation from them is its disease and corruption—and as sympathy with what is divine and heavenly, taste for it and delight in it is the health of the heart, while the absence of such sympathy, taste, and delight is its disease and corruption. What happens here is the same as, for example, with berries. Leave them as they are and they will quickly rot and decay; but saturate them with sugar, by boiling them in its solution, and they acquire the power to resist decay. So too the mind, left as it is, quickly corrupts; but saturate it with truth, and truth will impart to it firmness and power to resist all corruption. Deprivation of truth produces in the mind two evils—either the darkness of ignorance or corruption through heresy. The former is bad, but the latter is even worse. Darkness, deprivation of light, causes lethargy and even death; for nothing living can live without light—material things without material light, spiritual things without spiritual light. Truth is the light of the mind; without it the mind languishes or becomes deadened. This is a great evil; but for the deadened there may yet be hope that it will revive, come to itself, and live again. But one corrupted by heresy affords no such hope. It is damaged in its innermost and essential part; therefore it can be restored to the health proper to it by nature only by the power of God who created natures—that is, only by being re-created by a special grace of God.

“Who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.”—“Gain,” πορισμον. — Πορος — a sufficiency of all the necessities of life; πορισμος — the acquisition of these necessities and the means thereto. By “godliness” is meant faith in general. They, he says, regard faith as a means of acquisition—they turn it into such a means. This is the pinnacle of intellectual and moral corruption. There is no longer any faith here, still less any godliness or heartfelt disposition in the spirit of faith. Yet all their fussing is still about faith—and intense fussing at that, so that this business does not get along without disputes. Is this not the source of the disputes? Just as merchants argue over the price in their desire to increase their profit, so these false teachers start disputes everywhere, because otherwise they would not be able to get anything, and they would have to go hungry. “These disputants,” writes blessed Theophylact, “attracting disciples to themselves, profit from them and strive ever harder in disputes so as to draw ever more disciples to themselves”—of course, so as to gain ever more from them.

“Withdraw from such people.” “He did not say: grapple with them and fight, but: ‘withdraw’—that is, ‘after a first and second warning’ (Tit. 3:10). For when and with what can one persuade those who are fighting for profit and money? (blessed Theophylact). Otherwise you will not persuade such people except by giving them something; but even this will not satisfy their thirst for gain. ‘The eye of the covetous man,’ says the Scripture, ‘is not satisfied with his portion’ (Sir. 14:9). Therefore from them, as from the incorrigible, one must turn away” (St. Chrysostom).

β) An indication (1 Tim. 6:6–16)

The indication of the last unseemly characteristic in the false teachers gave St. Paul occasion to offer the necessary warnings against love of acquisition. Here he: αα) depicts the ruinous consequences of concern for gain, having first established the measure of needs and indicated the source of contentment with it (1 Tim. 6:6–10); and then: ββ) makes an address to St. Timothy appropriate to this subject (1 Tim. 6:11–16).

αα) The ruinous consequences of love of money (1 Tim. 6:6–10)

1 Tim. 6:6. Now godliness with contentment is great gain.

“Gain,” again: πορισμος,—acquisition, the having of what is needed, the possession of it. “Godliness”—true faith with a heart attuned in the spirit of faith and a corresponding life. Such godliness, he says, is in itself already an acquisition of necessities, or it brings with it the possession of what is needed—not because it gives wealth, but because it so disposes a man that he feels himself completely satisfied with regard to bodily needs, being content with what he has. Since godliness disposes him to be content with what he has, this very thing extinguishes every impulse toward acquisition. The godly man is rich because he is content with everything and feels no lack in anything—whereas, on the contrary, the wealthy man must be considered poor when he feels that he still lacks much. The words “godliness with contentment” do not carry the meaning: godliness along with having a sufficient quantity of necessities—though this too may be admitted—but rather: godliness together with the feeling of contentment, when godliness fills the heart of a man so fully that in spirit he feels himself content. “Those (false teachers, disputants) ‘wrongly suppose godliness is a means of gain’” (blessed Theophylact)—“because they deceitfully clothe themselves in the garment of godliness in order to have in it a means of acquisition” (Oecumenius). “In godliness too there is gain—but not as those suppose, but far higher. In it there is gain not when you have, but when you do not have: for it teaches contentment. And contentment is great and lasting wealth” (blessed Theophylact). “Godliness therefore is in itself true acquisition, because it is content with what exists and does not seek superabundance. Or (this may be understood thus) godliness is gain because in it one does not seek abundance, but is satisfied with having sufficient for what is needed” (Oecumenius).

Thus the spirit of godliness, making one content and therefore rich, extinguishes the thirst for acquisition. But every person can also be brought to the same conclusion by natural reason. What sense is there in spending care and labor on this, when you will take nothing with you when you leave?

1 Tim. 6:7. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out.

“This was also said by blessed Job: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return’ (Job 1:21)” (blessed Theodoret). “Thus, if we brought nothing and will carry nothing out, what need is there to care for having more than is necessary?” (Oecumenius). The false teachers are so sick with love of money that they even turn godliness into a means toward it. And by this they reveal all the more the weakness and corruption of their mind. For if their mind were sound, they would not be so concerned with material acquisitions. For “such acquisition means nothing, as is evident from the fact that it remains here and does not move with us (into the other world) and does not accompany us there. We came into this world having nothing, and we shall leave it having nothing as well. For the created being is born naked and departs naked. Therefore we need nothing superfluous, since we brought nothing with us and will depart having nothing” (St. Chrysostom). “In vain do mortal men strive to accumulate possessions and aspire to be rich, the Apostle openly proclaims, since they know that they can acquire nothing (inalienably) their own in this world. What does human greed serve, except perhaps to be its own enemy? Nothing is brought into the world by anyone, and nothing can be carried out. Why then burden oneself with cares and seek to gather wealth? You will go out the same as you came in. As Job also writes, confessing his conviction: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go there… Blessed be the name of the Lord’ (Job 1:21). If misers did not hold back what they have accumulated for themselves alone to their own ruin, how many of them, even with little, could benefit so many—with benefit for themselves as well!” (Ambrosiaster).

1 Tim. 6:8. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

Someone may say: although we bring nothing here and will carry nothing out; yet we must live while we are here. And to live we must have food and clothing. Therefore it is impossible to get along without having something.—But that, says the Apostle, is precisely all that is needed. There is food, there is clothing—and that is enough. “He determines here in what contentment, which he mentioned earlier, is to consist” (blessed Theophylact). “One must be fed by what and in such measure as is needed and sufficient for nourishment; one must be clothed with what can only protect us from the elements and cover our nakedness—and a simple garment can accomplish this. Nothing superfluous ought there to be” (St. Chrysostom). “Eat what nourishes you, and not only what pleases the palate, and dress in what covers and protects your nakedness, and not in what makes you soft or vain. Such is the meaning of the words ‘food’ and ‘clothing’” (Oecumenius). Moreover, “clothing,” σκεπασματα,—may include not only clothing alone, but also shelter. The Apostle’s meaning is: to limit the satisfaction of necessary bodily needs to what is most essential, so that care for them may not burden the head and the heart.

Having thus indicated the naturalness, reasonableness, and practicability of non-acquisitiveness for a Christian, the Apostle now vividly depicts the ruinous consequences for faith and virtue of love of acquisition.

The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10)

1 Tim. 6:9. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful desires which drown men in destruction and perdition.

The reproach is not against those who possess wealth in general, but against those who are attached to it, who thirst for it, who chase after it, and who employ it only for their own pleasure and the satisfaction of their desires and passions. It is possible to possess wealth blamelessly and to make praiseworthy use of it—on which the Apostle gives instruction further below, in verse 17 and following. Therefore he said: “those who desire,” βουλομτνοι,—those controlled by desire, ceaselessly drawn and consumed by it. “He did not simply say: those who are rich (who possess wealth), but: ‘those who desire to be rich.’ For if someone, having received wealth from his forebears, administers it according to divine laws, he is free from accusation” (blessed Theodoret). “The Apostle is not rebuking those who, possessing means, manage them well—without being attached to them and distributing them to the poor—but those who thirst for acquisition” (St. Chrysostom). “Spending one’s estate on the poor is not the deed of those who desire to be rich” (blessed Theophylact). “Such people will not give to others, fearing that they themselves will not have enough to satisfy their desires” (Oecumenius).

“They fall into temptation and a snare,” εις πειρασμον και παγιδα,—into temptation and a snare. Temptation is such a concurrence of circumstances as powerfully inflames the impulse toward some sin and as it were draws a person to it against his will. And this too is what a snare is. But a snare can also denote entanglement or enmeshing in sinful deeds, so that whether he wishes to or not, a person sins—things have become so arranged and intertwined. The one who chases after wealth cannot escape either the one or the other. He has constant occasions to bend his conscience for the sake of sordid gain and to trample the laws of justice and love prompted by his conscience; when he has grown accustomed to this way of acting, he becomes enmeshed in it as in a net from which he cannot step out. “One who, born of the poor and greedily striving for wealth, employs every means of acquisition without knowing satisfaction in this desire—such a one walks amid the nets of sin” (blessed Theodoret). The Apostle did not say: they are exposed to temptation, but: “they fall.” That is, temptation always overcomes them; as soon as a tempting occasion presents itself, they fall under it and cannot withstand it.

But here one may understand not only moral temptations and snares, but also external, worldly ones—various troubles and difficulties. And there are many of these for the one who chases after wealth: at home—dangers from thieves and fire; on the road—tribulations from robbers; in dealings—opposition; in the course of affairs—unforeseen disturbances and the like. St. Chrysostom says: “Into what temptations and snares do those who desire to be rich fall? Into these—that this removes them from faith, leads them onto a path of error, surrounds them with dangers, and deprives them of peace.” So also blessed Theophylact: “‘They fall into temptation and a snare,’ since they also sin against faith (and the commandments), and are surrounded by dangers on account of wealth, and fear everyone.” The same thought is expressed in our Slavonic translation: “fall into afflictions.”—And it would be wrong to exclude this meaning. The following words, serving as an explanation of these, speak both of internal and external harmful consequences of love of acquisition—which are the temptations and snares.

“And into many foolish and harmful desires.”—“Desires”—cravings of every kind for self-indulgence, contrary to conscience and to the explicit commandments of God. Therefore they are by their very nature foolish and harmful. There are no sensible or harmless desires. All of them are senseless and ruinous—both for the soul and for the body—only in varying degrees. When the Apostle says they fall into desires, he means: they submit to them, live according to them, they are a law to them. “Flowing wealth plunges one into base desires, because it provides the means for them” (Oecumenius). What specific desires, the Apostle does not enumerate; but they naturally manifest themselves in those who make improper use of wealth: to eat, to drink, to wallow in carnal sins, to offend others, to be vainglorious, to love power, always to have their own way, even if unjust, and the like. St. Chrysostom thus describes the foolish and harmful desires of the wealthy: “How not to call it a foolish passion when these people (the wealthy) keep jesters and dwarfs—not out of charity but for pleasure; when in their palaces they build fish-ponds; when they keep wild beasts; when they occupy themselves with dogs; when they adorn horses and tend to them no less than to their children? All this is foolish and excessive, utterly unnecessary and useless.—What passions are harmful? When people are inflamed by dissolute love; when they seek their neighbors’ goods; when they strive after pleasure; when they give themselves over to drunkenness; when they thirst for the murder and ruin of others.”

“Which drown men in destruction and perdition.” This is the end of the satisfaction of foolish and harmful desires. The lover of wealth, while he is enriching himself, though he too lives according to his desires, still moderates them somewhat, so that their overflow may not hinder the inflow of wealth; but when he has grown rich, he can no longer control himself and gives himself over to the full breadth of his cravings. This ends in utter ruin and perdition.

“Destruction,” ολεθρος,—total calamity; “perdition,” απωλεια,—ruin—“both in this life and in the life to come” (blessed Theophylact)—both temporal and eternal. “Well said: ‘drown’—so that even rising to the surface becomes impossible for them” (St. Chrysostom). Complete ruin here, and final perdition there. “They end their life enduring storms and shipwrecks” (blessed Theodoret); and they pass into that life in no better state, so that “love of money is not without danger here, and in the life to come is given over to condemnation” (Ambrosiaster).

1 Tim. 6:10. For the love of money is a root of all evils, which some, craving, have strayed from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

The love of money is a root of all evils, because it provides the means for living according to desires—which are evil and lead to nothing good, as was said above—and because, in order to satisfy this passion, the one possessed by it is ready, without hesitation, to commit “every evil deed, every crime and vileness, and actually commits them” (Ambrosiaster). “From this root spring murders, sorceries, thefts, falsehood, perjury, and all kinds of crimes” (blessed Theodoret). “It spares not the living, spares not even the dead—but robs them as well; it rises up against parents and brothers and sacrilegiously steals what belongs to God. Drive out the love of money and there will be neither wars nor enmity nor fornication; for a harlot gives herself over to debauchery for the sake of money” (blessed Theophylact).

“Which some, craving,” ορεγομενοι,—as irresistibly as one tormented by thirst craves water—“have strayed from the faith,” απεπλανηθησαν,—have stepped off the straight path of faith and gone a different way—and, without arming themselves against faith or even openly renouncing it, have deviated from it without noticing it themselves. All their attention was absorbed by acquisition—and they went wherever this passion led, giving no thought to faith, and, going thus, passed faith by and arrived where no trace of faith remained—neither in the manner of their views of things, nor in the manner of their feelings, dispositions, and life. St. Chrysostom says: “Well did the Apostle say: απεπλανηθησαν. For the love of money, drawing their eyes to itself and gradually closing them, does not allow them to see the way (of faith). Just as a man walking along a straight road, with his mind fixed on something else, although moving forward, nevertheless, without noticing it, passes by the object toward which he was hastening—because his feet are carrying him away unawares and unconsciously—so something similar to this is what the love of money causes (when, having drawn the eyes of the soul to itself, it causes the one possessed by it to pass faith by in his going).” The disposition of the heart in a money-lover is incompatible with faith: faith commands one to hope in God, but he hopes in riches; faith forbids being high-minded, but he is high-minded (below, verse 17); faith forbids having desires, but he multiplies desires, and so on. Thus the love of money by its very settling in the heart causes its lover to pass faith by. “For how will a lover of acquisition believe the Gospel, which introduces poverty (love of having nothing)? This is impossible” (blessed Theophylact).

But from the love of money there comes not only such an inward deviation of the heart from faith, but also a visible defection from it, or denial, when for the sake of faith one has to lose much in the pursuit of acquisitions. The lover of them defects from faith so as not to be deprived of them. No doubt in populous and far from impoverished Ephesus there were such instances. And the Apostle makes use of them for a most evident illustration of the harmfulness of the love of money.

“And have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”—“Sorrows,” οδυναις,—griefs, afflictions, very acute anxieties. “The Apostle mentions two harmful consequences (of the love of money): defection from faith and the piercing of themselves with griefs; but that which seemed to them the heavier he places here in the last position—namely: ‘they have pierced themselves with griefs.’ And this can be known to no one except one who lives in close proximity to the wealthy. How much they weep, how much they wail!” (St. Chrysostom). “The passion for enrichment not only hinders one from maintaining proper relations with God in faith, but also acutely wounds its own lovers with anxieties, sleeplessness, and fears” (Oecumenius). “Pierced themselves,” περιεπειραν,—they have wounded, transfixed themselves. St. Chrysostom says: “Do you see what he is hinting at when he says: περιεπειραν? What he wishes to express by this turn of phrase has this meaning. Passions are thorns; and just as with thorns—however one touches them, one wounds one’s hands to the point of blood and inflicts cuts upon them—so from the passions everyone who submits to their power will suffer the same—he will subject his soul to suffering. Tell me, how many anxieties, how many afflictions do those have who are wounded by them! This cannot even be expressed in words.”

Let us make a brief excerpt from the homily of St. Chrysostom delivered in connection with the exposition of the preceding texts. “Let us avoid this root of all evils (the love of money)—and we shall avoid every evil. For what evil does not come from money? Or, to speak more precisely, not from money but from the evil will of those who do not know how to use it. For money can be used properly; by its means one can inherit the Kingdom. But now what has been given to us for helping the poor, for glorifying God and pleasing Him, we turn not to the benefit of these unfortunates, but to the harm of our own soul, and thereby offend God.—So then, what evil does not come from love of money? Are not theft, clamor, enmity, strife, and contention its offspring? Do not those possessed by this passion stretch out their hands even to the dead, even to fathers and brothers? Do they not overturn the laws of nature, the commandments of God, and everything in general? Therefore, let love of money cease, and war will cease, strife will cease, enmity will cease, discord and love of contention will cease. Those greedy for gain ought to be banished from the world as its destroyers and wolves. Men greedy for money bring everything into complete disorder. A man greedy for money knows not a single friend. What am I saying—a friend? He does not even know God Himself.—Lay open his soul and you will find it armed not with one sword or two, but with countless ones; it respects no one, but rages against all—attacks all and barks at all; it slays not dogs but human souls and loudly belches blasphemies even against heaven. All has been destroyed by the frenzied love of money. And I do not know whom to blame; to such a degree has this evil seized hold of everyone—true, of some more, of others less, but still of all. And just as when a powerful fire is cast into a forest it overthrows and devastates everything—so does this passion consume the world: kings, rulers, private persons, beggars, women, men, children—all have been enslaved to this evil equally. As if owing to some darkness that has enveloped the world, no one emerges from intoxication. True, against love of acquisition countless accusations are made, both in private conversation and in public; yet we see improvement nowhere. What then? Is there no way to quench this flame? There is, even if it has risen to heaven itself. We need only to will it—and we shall without doubt quench this flame. For just as it blazed up through our willing, so through willing it will be extinguished. Was it not our free will that kindled it? Consequently free will will also be able to quench it. Let us only desire it. But how can such a desire arise in us? If we turn our attention to the vanity and uselessness of wealth; to the fact that it cannot accompany us there; that it leaves us even here; that although it has its place only here, the wounds from it go with us there; if we see how great are the riches that are prepared there—so that if we compare earthly wealth with them, it will appear more contemptible than mud; if we notice how it is exposed to countless dangers and how the very pleasure of it, brief and fleeting, is mingled with sorrows; if we fix our gaze on another wealth—that which is prepared in eternal life—and through this beget contempt for earthly wealth; if we reason that the latter, adding nothing to either glory or health or anything else, nevertheless plunges us into the abyss of ruin; if we take to heart the fact that even though here one may be rich and have many servants, when departing there, he departs alone and naked. If we frequently repeat these things to ourselves and hear them from others, perhaps health will return to us and we shall be freed from this heavy punishment.”

ββ) Flee these things (1 Tim. 6:11–16)

The depiction of the evil consequences of love of money was already of itself repelling from it; nevertheless St. Paul deemed it not superfluous to add: X) a direct exhortation: “flee these things” (1 Tim. 6:11)—and, as a counterweight to cares about vain acquisitions, to indicate: Z) the tireless (“pursue” (1 Tim. 6:11)) striving for the acquisition of every virtue in the hope of blessed eternity (1 Tim. 6:11, 12), adding: Y) a solemn charge in God’s name to fulfill this commandment without reproach until the coming of the Lord (1 Tim. 6:13–16). These instructions are given to St. Timothy not, of course, in the sense that he himself had need of them, but so as to give him guidance on how to turn those under his care away from love of money and where to direct them instead. One may also think that in the person of St. Timothy these instructions are addressed to all Christians, and above all to pastors and archpastors.

X) The direct exhortation (1 Tim. 6:11)

1 Tim. 6:11. But you, O man of God, flee these things.

“Man of God. Great dignity! True, all people are God’s, but the righteous are so in a special sense—not only because they are God’s creatures, but because of their closeness to God” (St. Chrysostom). “Man of God—this is a great commendation. So too was the great Elijah called; so are many of the Prophets called—not because others are not God’s men (for all are God’s creatures), but those who have preserved within themselves (or restored) the original traits of creation are truly called men of God. Thus all are servants of God as creatures; for even the impious Nebuchadnezzar is God’s servant; but he is a servant by nature, while Abraham and David and Paul and those like them are servants by devotion. For it is said: ‘for the sake of Abraham My servant’ (Gen. 26:24), and: ‘for the sake of David My servant’ (1 Kings 11:13), and: ‘Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 1:1)” (blessed Theodoret).

The man of God is guided by the fear of God and strives in every way to please God. Among such persons, those who are God’s men in a special sense are those to whom particular tasks are entrusted by God—who not only belong to God’s household and are His own, but are appointed as stewards in it. To such persons St. Timothy belonged. Hence he is called a man of God.

In this appellation there is already hidden an incentive for “flee these things”—for fleeing love of money and the injustices and anxieties associated with it. Since you are a man of God, it is entirely unbecoming for you to chase after acquisitions. You have a Master—rich in all things—and in Him a most solicitous Father. If you begin to chase after acquisitions, you will bring reproach upon your Master and Father. And you have no time for this. You have a task which ought to absorb all your attention and fill all your time. “If you are a man of God, do not seek what is superfluous and does not lead to God, but on the contrary, flee from it” (St. Chrysostom). “If you are a man of God, do not seek what turns one away from God (and from God’s work), but—what? Flee these things” (blessed Theodoret). “He urges and commands the man of God to flee love of acquisition, so that he may be safe here and receive a rich reward in the life to come. For it is not unjust to crown the one who despises what so many cling and are drawn to” (Ambrosiaster).—Thus it is unfitting for you, O man of God, to burden yourself with love of money, even if it were a permissible thing. But when you know that it is contrary to God, that God turns from it as from idolatry, then you ought not to withdraw from it quietly but to flee from it. When speaking of false teachers, he wrote: “withdraw” (1 Tim. 6:5). Mentioning “old wives’ fables,” he appended: “reject” (1 Tim. 4:7). But from love of acquisition and love of money, he says, “flee”—as from fire, as from certain ruin.

Ζ) The indication to strive for the acquisition of virtue (1 Tim. 6:11, 12)

O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 Tim. 6:11. But pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

“Flee”—not heading into emptiness, but rushing toward the opposite of what you are fleeing: “pursue righteousness”—and the rest. There: “flee”; here: “pursue.” “Do both with intense zeal” (St. Chrysostom). “He did not say: step back and step forward, but: ‘flee’ and: ‘pursue’” (blessed Theophylact).

“Pursue,” he says, and indicates various virtues as the goal of the pursuit. Since this “pursue” is opposed to “flee”—and it is love of money that one is commanded to flee—all these virtues are to be understood here insofar as they are opposed to love of money, or insofar as non-acquisitiveness provides a broad field for their manifestation and exercise, or insofar as their acquisition leads to non-acquisitiveness and confirms one in it. “The Apostle commands the man of God to flee love of money and to run after righteousness, godliness, and the rest of what he mentions, because it cannot be avoided without cleaving to what is its opposite” (Ambrosiaster).

“Pursue righteousness.” Be hungry and thirsty for righteousness, as the Saviour also commanded (Matt. 5:6). Strictly observe the laws of justice in all things—in your thoughts about others, in your relations with them by word, in your dealings and encounters with them, and still more in judgments. Render to each what is his due. Mercy knows no law; but justice has its own definite measure, from which even slight deviation introduces injustice. Such a manner of conduct is impossible for you when love of money is present. It will at every step bind your hands and entangle your feet. With it your scales of justice cannot stand upright but will always tip toward injustice. Only non-acquisitiveness will give you full freedom of action; only with it can your righteousness flourish and your deeds flow unhindered in its path. “He enjoins righteousness—so as not to defraud anyone, as those who desire to be rich do” (blessed Theophylact).

“Pursue godliness. Godliness”—the disposition of the heart toward God in the spirit of faith. Since it receives its orientation from faith, it encompasses also “the holding of dogmas” (St. Chrysostom, Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). But in itself it consists properly of feelings and dispositions toward God that arise and mature under the influence of sincere, heartfelt faith. Such a disposition comes naturally to the non-acquisitive person, while it cannot exist in the money-loving person—just as a bird cannot fly with frozen wings. In the non-acquisitive person the heart is detached from the material and creaturely and the spirit is free. Since by its nature it seeks to live in God, once freed it is drawn toward God and begins to live in Him, and, bending down from this height to the heart, fills it with reverent feelings toward God in many varied shades, depending now on the contemplation of God in different aspects (the divine essence, attributes, acts), now on one’s own various states before Him. The totality of all these is godliness—whose sign is nothing other than the presence and movement of those feelings. Love of money, by contrast, burdens the heart with “the cares of this life” (Lk. 21:34) and weighs down the mind with manifold care (Wis. 9:15). Attentiveness to the demands of the spirit departs and it grows deaf. Together with it all feelings toward God are stifled, and godliness remains only in the outward expressions established by the Church’s ordering. The entire inner structure of a person is then earthly: he crawls upon the earth with his chest and feeds on the earth.

“Pursue faith.” Faith here is not the confession of dogmas but the trust in God with which one who is filled with it believes that God will not abandon His servant who serves Him with his whole soul. Therefore he does not torment himself with anxiety about tomorrow, as the Saviour also commanded (Matt. 6:25–34). One who properly undertakes to serve God commits his life into God’s hands and no longer returns to care for himself. He is not idle; but he has no anxiety—he rests in God, content with whatever God provides—be it a piece of bread or even nothing at all. Care for oneself is the disease of an unbelieving heart. It develops out of the sense of necessary needs unguided by faith. It begins small, but does not stay at that—it grows and quickly grows into manifold care. As care grows, so love of money grows with it. When simple care becomes manifold care, at its foundation there is already full love of acquisition. In proportion to manifold care and love of money, faith is extinguished. In their final stages no trace of it remains. Faith does not take away labor and the obtaining of what is necessary, but sanctifies and guides them, keeping the heart free from attachment and clinging to obtaining and to what is obtained, while at the same time driving away sloth and idleness. In such a disposition, even if wealth flows in, faith will not allow the heart to cling to it. It will preserve the heart of the wealthy person in the feelings of a steward of God, a manager of God’s estate. It is in this spirit that the commandment to the wealthy is given below (1 Cor. 6:17–19).

“Pursue love.” Love “seeks not her own” (1 Cor. 13:5); therefore it will not pull to its own side what ought to belong to another, and to the request of one in need will not say: I need it for myself. Its nature is entirely opposed to love of money and acquisitiveness: for it does not love to gather and hold for itself, but to scatter and give away. Therefore, if you acquire love, you will extinguish acquisitiveness, or, if you drive out acquisitiveness, you will open a path for love. Begin to help others from your own and to do good—you will loosen the bonds of love of money and receive the seeds of love. Continue to be rich in good works (below: 1 Tim. 6:18)—the bonds of love of money will fall away entirely and love will reign. Whereas, on the contrary, if you begin to be miserly, you will draw tighter the bonds of love of money upon yourself and take on a hardening of heart. Continue such a life and the heart will grow stony toward everyone, and those bonds will begin to choke you yourself, bringing you to the point where you will even begrudge spending anything on yourself. And whence come envy, enmity, scheming, lawsuits, mortal hatred, murders, and all manner of disorders? All of these come above all from love of money. Where love is, there is no place for any of this. By melting the bonds of love of money, it removes all these evil consequences as well.

“Pursue patience.” One who does not seek much naturally is content with little; and this requires patience. Therefore one who has resolved to be non-acquisitive must equip himself with patience, making it the foundation of his good resolution. Why do people seek much? From self-pity, from reluctance to deny themselves—and they are reluctant to deny themselves because denial causes grief; and grief at denial comes from an inability, unreadiness, and unwillingness to endure. One who has resolved not to chase after much has already foreseen all these sorrows, deprivations, and burdens—and the attacks of self-pity that will arise on account of them—and has resolved to endure all of them. Therefore no sorrowful circumstances arising from the lack of much disturb him, but are borne with good cheer and ease. This is why the Apostle said: “pursue patience”—with the thought that if you catch it and take hold of it, you will cut away all the germs of self-pity, and thereby ward off every arousal of impulses toward possessing much.—But the demand for non-acquisitiveness is not a demand for having nothing, but only for not being attached to having and to the means of obtaining it. Even one who has much can be non-acquisitive. But for such a person, to maintain non-acquisitiveness within himself and to act in its spirit, patience is needed all the more. And here love extends to him the most powerful helping hand—for love “endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:7).

“Pursue gentleness.” Gentleness is opposed to anger, irritation, and all manner of feelings of displeasure at others for whatever reason. This feeling arises from everything that in any way troubles our self-love; but love of money provides the broadest field for the proliferation of this weed. Touch it not—this is mine. Such is the law of acquisitiveness. Let someone touch it, and off go displeasures, irritation, anger, enmity, hatred. But whoever is not attached to his possessions is free from all such disturbances, even though he passes through the same vicissitudes of life that greatly disturb others. It is clear, therefore, that non-acquisitiveness naturally goes hand in hand with gentleness. Therefore in the words “pursue gentleness” one must see also the lesson: be non-acquisitive, because otherwise you cannot be gentle. But gentleness can have other sources as well—love, submission to God’s will, and the like.—And having entered the heart, along with its parents it also cuts down love of money. Therefore in gentleness one may also see a means against this passion. Pursue gentleness, and it, having settled in the heart, will help you to maintain non-acquisitiveness without disturbance.

1 Tim. 6:12. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.

The lesson continues. Therefore these words too must be considered in the same direction as the preceding ones—that is, in their relation to non-acquisitiveness or love of money.—“Fight the good fight of faith.” A contest presupposes not only intense labor, but also struggle to overcome internal and external obstacles—when what is required is not only to accomplish some task, but also to overcome oneself and everything within oneself that rises against it, to stand firm against others, and to prevail over the course of circumstances. In relation to faith, the contest is the act of believing—because one must submit both mind and will under the yoke of faith, depart from one’s former belief, and part ways with one’s former co-religionists; still greater contest is it to order both one’s inner and outer life in the spirit of faith—which always requires no small reorganization of the established patterns of one’s life; and thereafter the contest consists in standing firm both in belief and in life according to faith—which contest is especially difficult and sublime in time of persecution and assault upon the faith and believers. All of these are contests common to all believers; but there are also particular contests of faith that rest on only certain persons—namely, the spreading of faith and guiding others in the matter of faith—the Apostolic and pastoral contest. What contest of faith is to be understood in this passage? All of the above, except the contest of the act of believing; but especially the last—the Apostolic and pastoral contest. St. Timothy had long since believed and come to know the faith in all its breadth; there was no need to mention that. But the contest of preserving the faith and living in its spirit, the contest of enduring temptations on account of faith, and for a pastor the contest of teaching and guiding the flock—these never cease. All of them may be understood in this passage, as our commentators do. St. Chrysostom speaks here of the contest of preserving faith and living in its spirit. “What is required is not only the confession (the acceptance of faith, the act of believing), but standing fast in it, so as to abide constantly in the confession that has been received; and for this very justly are great contests and no small labors needed, so as not to deviate from the right path; for many temptations present themselves, many obstacles. Consequently the path is narrow and grievous. Therefore one must guard oneself from every side, one must arm oneself properly from every direction. From everywhere spring countless enticements that attract the eyes of the soul—pleasures, money, deception, sloth, glory, pride, power, love of dominance—and they appear with a bright and pleasing face, capable of attracting those who yield to their influence and do not greatly love the truth, for the truth is hard and contains nothing pleasant. Why? Because it promises all conceivable consolations only in the future, while these objects promise honor, pleasure, and peace already now—not true peace, of course, but one that has only its outward appearance. Consequently every pleasure-seeker, every soft and faint-hearted person clings to them, fleeing from the labors joined to virtue.”—Oecumenius writes on enduring temptations for the faith: “The contest of faith includes everything that was said (in verse 11: righteousness, godliness, and the rest), as well as courage in temptations for the faith.” Blessed Theophylact mentions also the labors of the pastorate: “‘Fight,’ he says, ‘the good fight of faith’—that is, stand for the faith firmly and unshakeably, and be zealous for it both by the power of the word and by the purity of your life.”

That contests of this kind serve as an antidote to love of money and a firm foundation for non-acquisitiveness is self-evident. The spirit of life according to faith is detached from everything and therefore non-acquisitive; temptations for the faith, like fire which by melting purifies metals from foreign impurities, burn away all attachments to earthly things; and pastoral cares, besides this, leave no time even to occupy oneself with acquisitions. Therefore the Apostle wrote of contests: “everyone who competes for the prize abstains from all things” (1 Cor. 9:25), and: “no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life” (2 Tim. 2:4).

“Lay hold on eternal life.” This directly negates love of money. To take hold of eternal life means to seek it with all one’s soul and all one’s heart. To seek acquisitions alongside this leaves no means to do so: both thoughts and desires have entirely emigrated to the realm of eternal life; no strength remains for acquiring anything temporal. The Saviour Himself said that one cannot serve God and mammon. These services mutually exclude each other. Therefore take hold of eternal life—and you will extinguish love of money, receiving non-acquisitiveness in its place. Moreover, having taken hold of eternal life, one must direct all one’s deeds exclusively toward its acquisition—and they all rest upon self-denial and active love—both of which are a “consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24) for love of money.

“To which you were also called.” The promise of eternal life was among the subjects of the initial instruction given to those approaching faith. Preachers on the one hand presented to the mind: “the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven” (Rom. 1:18); on the other: “we proclaim to you eternal life” (1 Jn. 1:2). Fear from the one side, sweet hope from the other drew people to faith, offering in it the means both to be delivered from wrath and to become heirs of eternal blessedness. And at all times these two incentives have attracted and attract to faith, have kept and keep in it not cold but zealous lovers of it. The Apostle reminds St. Timothy: remember what drew you to the faith? The sweet hope of eternal goods. They were promised to you in the name of God, so that you were called directly into eternal life, and, having been baptized, enrolled among the heirs of that life—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). Being such, it is unfitting for you to love money—for this would mean exchanging gold and precious stones for rubbish and weeds.—This may be recalled to all. For “everyone who comes to baptism is called into eternal life” (Oecumenius).

“And have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.”—“Confession”—of faith is understood, which is good when it is made without fear, with boldness, without any wavering, with complete conviction in the truth. Of what confession does he speak? Confession is made at baptism; it is proclaimed before tormentors; it is also given before ordination. Which is it here? The last is least likely. The first is apt—it is suggested by the preceding: “you were called”—and by the circumstance that St. Timothy had been recommended to the Apostle Paul by all the believers in his homeland as an ardent zealot of faith (Acts 16:2). The second is even more apt. Accompanying the Apostle, St. Timothy everywhere showed forth his confession of faith—so that the whole world was witness to his confession. St. Chrysostom says: “The Apostle here praises the boldness and courage of St. Timothy; you, he says, everywhere showed forth your good confession.” Blessed Theophylact writes: “He praises his boldness and courage, as one who confessed Christ amid dangers. Or he speaks of the confession made at baptism, when we confess that we renounce Satan and are united to Christ.”

What is such a confession for love of money and for non-acquisitiveness? The same as the good contest of faith. Moreover, one who confesses Christ in the face of death is inwardly and essentially detached from everything; but at the same time is filled with inexpressibly blessed feelings from the active communion with the Lord that comes at that moment—for the Lord is near. The memory of this does not afterward depart; and deliberate recollection of it each time restores in full force both the complete detachment and the all-blessed tasting of the Lord. For one such as this—where would he find a taste for corruptible acquisitions?!

Y) A solemn charge in God’s name (1 Tim. 6:13–16)

1 Tim. 6:13, 14. I charge you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, to keep the commandment.

The charge is given in the presence of the omnipresent, all-vivifying God. This is equivalent to an adjuration in the name of God, which binds the conscience and obliges one to the exact fulfillment of what is charged. In this passage it is intensified further by the reminder of the second coming of Christ and of especially impressive attributes of God—His omnipotence, unapproachability, and invisibility—the All-seeing. St. Timothy hardly needed such an intensified injunction. It is made to show the importance of the matter—the non-acquisitiveness of pastors—in which context the Apostolic spirit, through the person of St. Timothy, embraced all pastors to the end of the age, and among them very many who stand in extreme need of such an injunction. Ambrosiaster writes: “With great impressiveness and far-sightedness does the Apostle give instruction to the pastor of the Church; for in his person lies the salvation of the whole flock. It is not about St. Timothy that he speaks so forcefully, but about his successors—so that, guided by the example of St. Timothy, they might faithfully observe what their ordination obliged them to, themselves passing this example on to the successors who follow after them.”

“I charge you before God.” “Again he calls God as witness, just as he did a little before (1 Tim. 5:21)—at one and the same time multiplying fear, rendering his disciple steadfast, and revealing that these are not human dispositions—so that St. Timothy, receiving this commandment as from the Lord Himself and always having in mind the witness from whom he heard it, might by the recollection of this shake his own soul” (St. Chrysostom).

“Before God, who gives life to all things.” The thought of God who is present everywhere, who contains all things, who gives being and life to all things, provides the most powerful stimulus to moral energy; for it enlivens the sense of total dependence on God, upon which the fear of God is established and by which it is nourished—the source of active wisdom. If we take non-acquisitiveness as the subject of the charge, we may hold that the reminder of the all-vivifying God is given in order to restore the conviction that “man does not live by bread alone” (Matt. 4:4), and thereby to remove the strongest prop of concern for acquisitions; for it is sustained above all by fears for one’s life when one has nothing. “The Apostle speaks here as if saying: do not fear death, for you are a servant of God who is able to give life to all things” (St. Chrysostom). If we take the faith of Christ and zeal for its spread and maintenance as the subject of the charge, then the reminder of the all-vivifying God is given “as encouragement in the dangers joined thereto: for if God gives life to all, what need we fear from contests for the faith?” (Oecumenius). Perhaps it was also intended to prompt the thought of the future resurrection (St. Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact) and to recall the word of the Lord: “he who believes in Me, though he may die, shall live” (Jn. 11:25). It is not inopportune to allow this as a prelude to what follows, where the second coming of the Lord is spoken of.

“And (before) Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate.” This is the second reminder for the arousal and strengthening of moral energy. Christians live and breathe in Christ the Lord. Therefore the reminder of the Lord and Saviour always evokes a most stirring and enlivening thought. With this aim it is made here. “He also takes a guiding instruction from the example of the Teacher. What he has said has this meaning: as He did, so you also, he says, ought to do. For He testified (the good confession) so that we might follow in His footsteps in (this) good confession. The same thing the Apostle enjoins also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying: ‘looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Heb. 12:2); and again: ‘For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls’ (Heb. 12:3)” (St. Chrysostom).

But toward what does this reminder arouse, and what does it present for imitation here? The good confession itself—that is, its content—or the unshakeable courage with which it was given in the face of death? Both. The content of the good confession of the Lord is the assurance that He is the incarnate Son of God, who came to establish truth among men. St. Chrysostom asks: “What does the Apostle here call the good confession of the Lord?” And he answers: “The fact that, when questioned by Pilate: ‘Are you then a King?’—He answered: ‘For this I was born and for this I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth’ (Jn. 18:37). Or he says this for this reason, or because, when asked whether He was the Son of God, He said: ‘You say that I am’ (Lk. 22:70). Such testimony was given before Pilate as well—only not in word, but by not answering the question or by silence and the words then spoken (Jn. 19:7–11).” Oecumenius directly understands by confession here the fact that the Lord “testified that He is Christ, the Son of God.” But in this lies the very substance of our faith, which accomplishes the salvation of men. Therefore blessed Theodoret writes: “By the good confession of the Lord, the Apostle called the salvation of the world. For it was for that salvation that the Lord endured suffering.” Hence Ambrosiaster draws the conclusion: “He recalls the suffering of Christ the Lord to instil fear, suggesting that the one who despises what Christ suffered for is justly to be held guilty of that suffering.” After this, the Apostle’s intention in the reminder of the good confession of Christ Jesus before Pilate may be expressed thus: confessing Christ Jesus as the Son of God incarnate and having suffered for our salvation, be yourself also ready to endure everything, even death, for faith in Him and for life in His Spirit. This is the same as what St. Peter writes: “since Christ therefore suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind” (1 Pet. 4:1). Applying this to the subject of the discourse, we see here the most powerful incentive both for non-acquisitiveness, and for fearless confession of faith in word and deed, and for good pastoral ministry. The last is what blessed Theodoret sees here—writing: “Such testimony (of Christ) the Apostle sets before his disciple (as an example), so that he too, with greater zeal, might instruct his own disciples”—fearlessly and tirelessly testifying before them and before all where the truth lies concerning Christ Jesus our Lord.

Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

1 Tim. 6:14. That you keep the commandment without spot and blameless until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Which commandment? This one—the commandment of non-acquisitiveness. The flow of the discourse requires this interpretation. Such a meaning may also be given to the words of blessed Theodoret, who writes: “that you keep the commandment”—that is, this very thing about which I am writing. And what is written—before this, the warning against love of money in the command: flee this, and pursue every virtue—and afterward, the instructions on the salvific use of wealth. Therefore it is entirely appropriate to understand by the commandment here the injunction to preserve oneself free from participation in this ruinous passion of love of money.

But all our other commentators understand by the commandment here the faith and life according to faith. Blessed Theodoret too, in the obligation to keep the commandment without spot and blameless, sees the lesson: “do not mix anything foreign into the divine teaching”—that is, keep the Christian teaching pure. Others add to pure belief also a blameless life. St. Chrysostom says: “that you keep the commandment without spot” means: so that neither for your beliefs nor for your life may you incur the slightest reproach. Oecumenius and Theophylact: “so that neither in doctrine nor in life may you stain yourself in anything.”

Accepting this meaning, one must recognize this entire testament of the Apostle (1 Tim. 6:13–16) as the concluding word of the Epistle; and the subsequent discourse of the Apostle—as an appendage, yet related to the preceding word against love of money. Having finished the testament with a prayerful address to God, the Apostle recalled that not everything had been said concerning acquisitions—namely, that acquisitions themselves are not to blame for their harmfulness, but the improper use of them, and he added instructions on how wealth should be used not to the harm of salvation but to its furtherance. Having said this, he repeats, as it were, the testament—saying instead of “keep the commandment”: “guard the deposit” (1 Tim. 6:20), which words may be understood as an interpretation of the preceding: “keep the commandment.”

“The commandment without spot and blameless.” The commandment is always pure, without spot and blameless, however much anyone may violate it. But whoever violates it defiles himself with what is contrary to the commandment, and thereby becomes blameworthy.

“Until the appearing of the Lord.” This does not mean that it was being foretold to St. Timothy that he would continue living until the coming of the Lord, but only expresses: forever, until the end of his own life; for each person’s passage from this life to the other is the moment of standing before the Lord and, consequently, of the Lord’s appearing, επιφανεια, to him. St. Chrysostom says: “until the appearing of the Lord”—that is, until your death, until your departure. He did not say it so (literally), but said: “until the appearing of the Lord,” so as to encourage him more—to “more fully enliven and arouse his zeal by the reminder of the appearing of the Lord, recalling also that fearful glory” (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact)—both that which will accompany the Lord appearing in judgment, and that which, after the judgment, will become the inheritance of believers deemed worthy of the blessed life.—Or the Apostle said this in the same sense in which the Lord said to the Apostles: “behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). In the person of the Apostles the Lord saw all believers and blessed them with that promise. And here the Apostle, in the person of St. Timothy, saw all archpastors and pastors and set it as a law for them to preserve this commandment (whether the faith of Christ or only non-acquisitiveness is meant here) by mutual succession until the appearing of the Lord, until His second coming, the universal resurrection, judgment, and final decision of the fate of all—instilling in them this warning: “watch, for you do not know at what hour your Lord is coming” (Matt. 24:42).

1 Tim. 6:15. Which He will manifest in His own time—He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Having mentioned the appearing of the Lord and thereby called to mind everything connected with it—resurrection, judgment, eternal blessedness and eternal torments—for the purpose of arousing vigilance and watchfulness in the observance of what has been commanded, the Apostle, for the same purpose, now depicts the most impressive attributes of God, at the same time deepening the conviction that this will most certainly come to pass. Why the Apostle does this, St. Chrysostom explains thus: “The Apostle did well in setting forth such a theology. This was what was needed. For since he called God as witness, he says much about this witness, in order more deeply to imprint the thought of Him”—and thereby intensify vigilance and zeal. And blessed Theodoret writes that by depicting “what is proper to and belongs to God, the Apostle intended to confirm the teaching on resurrection, judgment, and retribution”—to enliven and strengthen the conviction of it with the same aim—namely, to enliven zeal; for nothing is so powerful in sustaining moral energy as the remembrance of the last things.

The appearing of the Lord will be brought about by God—the Triune God. The incarnate Son will appear, according to the will and good pleasure of the Father in communion with the Holy Spirit, as was also the first appearing for the economy of salvation. “In His own time”—in the time held in the mystery of the Godhead and known to Him alone—“that is, the appropriate, due time” (St. Chrysostom)—“the foreordained time” (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). The Apostle said this to cut short the impulse—so natural to human weakness—to determine the moment of the Lord’s appearing, and instead to dispose one to await Him at every moment. The Lord will appear without fail and will decide your fate forever. What need have you to know whether He will appear today or tomorrow? Be ready—that is what is needed!

After this the most impressive attributes of the Godhead are depicted. In the first place is placed the blessedness of God. God is blessed in Himself and worthy of praise from all the diverse created beings—that is, He is all-sufficient, all-perfect, the fullness of all things, and therefore all-glorious. “He is blessedness itself” (St. Chrysostom). If He is all-blessedness, then He desires nothing more than to bless all, to make all blessed. The appearing of the Lord is fearful, for it will be accompanied by a fearful judgment; but it is also boundlessly joyful, for it will mark the beginning of all-blessed life, “where there will be no more sorrow or sighing” (St. Chrysostom). Only be ready—“do not look at the seemingly blessed goods of this life, but fix your gaze on Him alone who is blessedness itself” (blessed Theophylact), “from whose presence every sorrow and grief flees” (Oecumenius)—so that even here you will begin to taste the blessedness that will be fully revealed only at the appearing of the Lord.

“And the only Potentate,” δυναστης,—the one Ruler. All things are in His right hand. Therefore He is not only willing but also able to bless all. Taking into account all that is recalled by the appearing of the Lord, this means: He is able to resurrect all, to gather them together, to conduct the judgment, to divide some to the right and others to the left, and to bless some while consigning others to eternal torments—and to seal all this forever with His unchangeable decision and determination. For who can resist His will? There are even among creatures those who appear clothed with royal and lordly power, but they too are all in His authority. For He alone is the “King of kings and Lord of lords.” So be confident that every promise of God will be fulfilled without fail. Just as no one compelled His promises—they are the work of His free good pleasure—so no one can hinder their fulfillment; and God’s determination concerning them will not be changed, for God is unchangeable. So be confident; but at the same time fear. For if all things are in His power, then there is nowhere for you to slip away and hide from Him, if by misfortune you anger Him and merit condemnation. Therefore turn all your zeal toward doing only what is pleasing before Him, and at the end appearing acceptable to Him. “And have no fear of any earthly rulers or kings” (blessed Theophylact), if they come with threats to turn you away from what is pleasing to God.

1 Tim. 6:16. Who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.

“By ‘immortality’ he means perpetuity” (blessed Theodoret)—or, more fully—the fact that He is the Self-existent, the ever-living, having the source of life within Himself, borrowing nothing from elsewhere and never exhausted by anything. From Him everything else has its being and life. He is the one who “gives life and breath and all things to all” (Acts 17:25). Oecumenius raises the question: “How does he say of God that He alone has immortality, when the Angels, souls, and demons also have immortality?” And he answers: “These do not have immortality in themselves, but are partakers of the immortality of Him who alone is immortal by nature. For that—being immortal—has been given to them by God. God is He of whom we partake, as of everything else excellent, so also of immortality.” The Apostle mentioned this attribute, according to blessed Theodoret, in order to deepen, along with the indication of omnipotence, the conviction that the One who is such is able to accomplish both the appearing of the Lord and everything connected with it. But if we here raise our thought to the general content of the Apostle’s discourse—to non-acquisitiveness—we may say that he mentioned this attribute to impress this: here is the One to whom you should cleave, or whom you should strive to obtain, leaving behind everything corruptible.

“Dwelling in unapproachable light. This light is unapproachable, because, on account of its immeasurable brilliance, no one can approach it” (blessed Theophylact)—approach and gaze upon it; for the power of the light darkens vision. This does not point to material light—although it is possible to imagine that God, somewhere in the universe, manifesting to created beings His divine presence in such greatness as they can bear, manifests it in the immeasurable brilliance of light—but this is a figurative expression for the incomprehensibility of the divine nature: “on account of the impossibility of inquiring into the very nature of God, he pointed to the unapproachable light surrounding that nature” (blessed Theodoret). The holy prophet David expresses the same thing with the word “darkness”: “He made darkness His covering” (Ps. 17:12). St. Chrysostom says: “Is He Himself one thing, and the light in which He dwells another? (‘but this cannot be applied to God; His nature is uncircumscribable, and if He dwells in light, He would be circumscribed by light’ [blessed Theodoret]). Is He also defined by place? Not at all. Not with the aim that we should think this, but so as to show us the incomprehensibility of the divine nature, did the Apostle say that God dwells in unapproachable light—explaining the doctrine of God to the extent that was possible for him. Do you see how weak our tongue is when it wishes to utter something great? The Apostle, as much as possible, hymns God and extends his gaze as far as it is able to reach” (blessed Theodoret).

“If around Him the light is unapproachable, then how can He be seen? Therefore he added: ‘whom no man has seen or can see’” (blessed Theodoret). Not only men, but all the ranks of Angels—Archangels, Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim—do not see the divine nature. They too see only the manifestation of the divine majesty to the degree they can bear, but not the nature itself, which is hidden. God is present everywhere by nature and is hidden everywhere. When the Saviour says that Angels see the face of the Heavenly Father, by “face” He means the close and vivid manifestation to the Angels of the divine presence—to the degree receivable by them—and the intellectual, unceasing contemplation by the Angels of the Godhead, to the degree attainable by them. But His nature is visible to none. “No one has ever seen God” (Jn. 1:18). For all creatures He has “made darkness His covering.” St. Chrysostom adds: “And the Son no one has seen, nor can see.”—“That is, according to His divinity,” blessed Theophylact clarifies, “He was (and is) visible only according to His humanity. And the Godhead of the Holy Spirit no one has seen—as being of the Father and the Son,” Oecumenius supplements. The Apostle speaks of the attributes of the divine nature—or of God the Trinity, the One Undivided.

“To whom be honor and everlasting power”—let it be rendered and ascribed by us. “His honor always, His dominion always abides” (St. Chrysostom). Our duty is to honor Him reverently and to praise Him, surrendering at the same time entirely to His omnipotence—incomprehensible but always beneficent. “Glory to Him! We can only say this, only do this, without inquiring what He is in Himself” (St. Chrysostom). “This alone can we blamelessly do—that is, glorify Him, and not curiously inquire into Him” (blessed Theophylact). One may also think that with these words the Apostle transfers attention from the darkness covering the divine nature to the darkness hiding the ways of divine providence. He speaks as if to say: do not be troubled that not all honor the Triune God, and still more the incarnate Son of God. This does not diminish either the divine honor or the glory of the economy of the incarnation. There and here the divine honor remains unchanged. Do not be troubled either if in the universal events and in the course of human affairs and circumstances some do not see the dominion of God, and perhaps even to yourself the finger of God, which moves all things and governs all, is not clearly visible. The dominion of God is not cut short. Believe and rest in God, without multiplying unanswerable questions about why this, from which that. “Suppose that something in the present time is not being fulfilled—His everlasting dominion abides nonetheless” (St. Chrysostom).

γ) What then should the wealthy specifically be taught? (1 Tim. 6:17–19)

The Apostle’s word on this is brief but complete. Teach them, he says, that the wealthy should: αα) not be high-minded (1 Tim. 6:17); ββ) not set their hope on riches but on God (1 Tim. 6:17); and γγ) be rich in good works, thereby laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future (1 Tim. 6:18, 19).

αα) That the wealthy not be high-minded (1 Tim. 6:17)

1 Tim. 6:17. Command those who are rich in this present age not to be high-minded.

“Command,” παραγγελλε,—tell, order, enjoin—that is, use not persuasion alone, but also authority. For nothing is so contrary to the spirit of Christ as those evil dispositions which wealth implants in those who relate to it without discernment. And according to the Apostle, in the assembly of Christians all ought to be holy and full of the spirit of Christ. One lacking this was cast out. So that this might not have to be done with the wealthy as well, as was done with fornicators, the Apostle commands that this be forestalled—enjoining upon the wealthy not to allow in their hearts that evil which wealth engenders in those who are inattentive to themselves.

“Command not to be high-minded. This he enjoins knowing that nothing so stirs up insolence, pride, and haughtiness as money” (St. Chrysostom). High-mindedness is the first offspring of an unreasonable relation to wealth. Wealth is given by God, and if He does not see fit to give it, you will not become rich however hard you try. Yet the way in which God provides is invisible, while one’s own efforts are visible, tangible, and palpable. Fixing one’s attention on the latter—what is one’s own—and forgetting to look through it to the former—God’s part—some attribute everything to themselves and naturally begin to think highly of themselves.—Moreover, wealth provides the means to surround oneself with comfort and splendid appearances—in home, clothing, maintenance, and everything. This tinsel display, which has nothing substantial in itself, yet fills the mind with the notion that, since all this external splendor is good, the one who possesses it is himself good within. This thought then passes into a feeling of personal excellence, or self-complacency, from which there immediately springs a new shoot of high opinion of oneself—and from this all the manifestations of pride.—The honor involuntarily shown to wealth by everyone also leads to the same. For when others honor one, how not to honor oneself? Some begin to regard themselves as some highly distinguished personage and to look down on others. And there is high-mindedness. Thus wealth is a very slippery path and of itself presents many obstacles to maintaining the spirit of Christ—as the Saviour determined: “it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom” (Matt. 19:23). “Hard”—not: impossible. The Apostle guides him toward this—clears his path to the Kingdom. First: do not be high-minded. Wealth is not yours; it is transient—it exists today and tomorrow is gone; it is outside you and is not your personal merit. Therefore it is the height of foolishness to be high-minded on account of wealth, when it is nothing. Since it is difficult even for the wealthy man himself to hold on to such wise thoughts, it is the duty of the pastor to remind him of this more often. Sound the trumpet, good pastor: the wealthy must not be high-minded. Those who are wealthy in the present age—that is, in perishable goods that have their place only in the present age. But by adding this word, the Apostle hinted at a wealth that has its place beyond the present age, that is valuable beyond its limits, yet is acquired in this age. St. Chrysostom says: “Well did the Apostle say: in the present age; for there are other wealthy ones—in the age to come.” Blessed Theodoret adds: “for there are wealthy ones of the age to come, who possess abiding and lasting wealth.” These are “the righteous”—blessed Theophylact and Oecumenius complete the thought. How to acquire such wealth—for the wealthy as well—the Apostle indicates a little further below: namely, through perishable wealth, by turning it toward acts of charity.

ββ) That they not set their hope on riches (1 Tim. 6:17)

1 Tim. 6:17. Nor to set their hope on uncertain riches but on the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

The second offspring of an unreasonable relation to wealth is hope placed in it. Wealth gives the wealthy person power—both among people generally and before authorities—not by its own nature, but through that same weakness of love of money; and the wealthy man, having succeeded in arranging one thing or another through his wealth, begins to feel that wealth is power, that with it one can arrange everything and achieve anything; success repeated many times disposes him to lean upon wealth, and afterward to place his full hope in it. And wealth has become for him a god. There lies the ruin. For by this relationship to wealth the inner order—required and determined by human nature—is perverted: what ought to be at one’s feet is placed at the head. By nature a person ought to live in God and, having surrendered himself to Him, hope in Him entirely; while all that is creaturely ought to be held beneath him or around him—some things as quite unnecessary, others as a subsidiary means, a support. But the wealthy man has placed at the position where the one God ought to be what is unnecessary, worthless, something at one’s feet.—And he has come to resemble someone walking on his head with his feet in the air.

This is the inner harm from placing one’s hope in wealth—the thought of which is suggested by the word “to set their hope.” But the Apostle, in turning them away from it, further presents a more palpable incentive—the unreliability and impermanence of wealth: “nor to set their hope on uncertain riches,” μηδε ηλπικεναι επι πλουτου αδηλοτητι,—and not to rest all one’s hope on the uncertainty of wealth, or on uncertain wealth. Ηλπικεναι — to have placed all one’s hope, to lean entirely. Αδηλοτης — obscurity, invisibility, unclearness. Is it clearly visible what will happen to wealth in a day or even an hour? No one knows this; no one can say it with certainty. But in that case is there any sense in relying on it? That it is unstable and inconstant you see all around: “now it comes to one, now it passes to another” (blessed Theodoret), and at the door of the grave it leaves everyone. “Why then do you hope in something that is unstable? Why do you place your hope in what cannot be relied upon?” (St. Chrysostom).—Do you see how he convicts those who place their hope in wealth of senselessness? For who with sense would hope in something uncertain? (Oecumenius).—Our Slavonic translation expressed the Apostle’s thought well: “on perishing riches.” It is already perishing, though it appears to be standing firm: it is on the point of ruin. So let the wealthy man feel that he is walking as if across a bog, or on brittle ice, or on a weak plank over an abyss. Every moment there is the risk of collapse and being swallowed up. Wealth is an extremely fragile support—“unreliable, easily broken, unstable” (blessed Theophylact).—But the wealthy man’s eyes are blinded by wealth and he does not see this—opening his eyes to see it is the pastor’s task. Instruct him, he says, more frequently, so that he does not place his hope in riches.

But since a person cannot live without hope—for the sense of his own weakness lies deep within him—the Apostle does not leave the wealthy man without support and without help; but, having expelled hope in perishing riches, commands that it be transferred where it ought to be placed—“on the living God.” The soul is naturally inclined to hope in God, and if passions—especially attachment to wealth—do not disturb it, it always shows its hope in God. Such hope is awakened, sustained, and enlivened by attentiveness to how our life unfolds. It is to these experiences that the Apostle directs the thought, in order to persuade that he is proposing nothing difficult to believe when he says: let them hope “on the living God”—when He “gives us richly all things to enjoy.” “Well said: ‘all things richly’—pointing to heaven, water, air, light, diverse plants, and everything else. Do you see how abundantly and with what generosity He provides all this for us?” (St. Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius). From this given and received, reason about the rest as well. St. Paul more than once turned in his discourses to these natural bounties of God in order to enliven in his hearers faith in God and hope in Him. Thus, persuading the Lystrians to turn to the living God, he said that God “did not leave Himself without witness, doing good, giving us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17). So also to the Athenians he explained that God, though invisible, “gives life and breath and all things to all”—that He “is not far from each one of us” and cannot fail to be felt in the natural bounties flowing from Him upon us. “For in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:25, 27, 28). Coming into the world for temporal life, we are like a wanderer who enters the house of a wealthy proprietor where he finds shelter, food, rest, service, and all he needs—and where, in case of some particular need, he is told: if you need anything else, turn to the proprietor; he will provide everything. Seeing such care taken for him, what wanderer, in his right mind, would not be disposed to place full trust in such a proprietor? So also we, entering the world, find all necessities of life already prepared for us in advance, and we have the promise from the very Master of the world that He is ready to fulfill everything we ask. Is it reasonable after this to place our hope not in this most merciful and most generous Master, but in something else?

γγ) That they be rich in good works (1 Tim. 6:18, 19)

1 Tim. 6:18, 19. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, laying up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may take hold of eternal life.

Rising up thus against an unreasonable relation to wealth, the Apostle does not, however, say that they should throw away their wealth, but only urges them to turn it to good use—so as in this way to give the very habit of possessing much and being wealthy a different, soul-saving direction. If you are accustomed, he says, to being wealthy and having your coffers full, then be rich—but in good works; lay up treasure—but in heaven for the age to come. “If you wish to be rich, be rich in beneficence” (blessed Theophylact). “If you seek wealth, seek that which remains firm and unchangeable, which comes from the doing of good works” (St. Chrysostom). Both you will accomplish by turning your wealth toward acts of charity for your neighbors. To impress all this on the wealthy—this is the pastor’s task.

Urge them, he says, “to do good,” αγαθοεργειν,—to do beneficent deeds. Let them be ready for every good work and, as soon as an occasion presents itself, perform it. As a hungry person thinks of nothing but how to get something to eat and, seeing food, rushes toward it irresistibly—so let the wealthy man have no other thoughts than how and where to do good to someone, and as soon as he thinks of it, let him hasten to do it. This manner of conduct will make it so that he is continually “rich in good works.” Being rich in good works and doing beneficent deeds mean the same thing—increasing the sum of visibly manifested good deeds. But since beneath this good outward appearance unworthy dispositions may conceal themselves, the Apostle adds: “ready to give, willing to share.” “The first relates to money, the second to love” (St. Chrysostom). Let them do all this from the soul; let not only hands and feet be charitable, but above all the heart. One is ready to give who willingly gives in proportion to the need of the needy. His heart is detached from wealth and does not contract when he spends it, but rejoices. If he does not give everything at once and to one person, what causes him to act so is not the contraction of the heart, but prudence guided by good aims. Aware of himself as God’s steward, he gives each his allotted portion—that is, having looked into the need, he satisfies it willingly and with joy. The Apostle has: ευμεταδοτους — being ready to transmit, as if transmitting what belongs to another, without the heart clinging to what is being transmitted in order to keep it. “Willing to share,” κοινωνικους,—that is, “communicative, welcoming” (St. Chrysostom). “Condescending, warmly sympathetic” (Oecumenius). The one who is sociable not only considers everything his own as common, but also considers everyone in general as his own—he holds himself apart from no one, is estranged from no one; everyone is to him as a relative, he is cordial and welcoming to all, and gives to all not only things and money but his very heart—as witnessed by the tone of his speech, the look in his eyes, his expression, and every movement. And therefore all regard him as their own and turn to him as to a close relation—with warm trust and confidence that they will find heartfelt sympathy.

“Laying up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come.”—“Laying up,” αποθησαυριζοντας,—setting aside as into a treasury. One who places something in a treasury is confident that what is placed there will be preserved intact and safe. It is this safety and permanence of what is deposited that St. Paul had in mind when he used this word. Benefactors are laying up for themselves, placing firmly and reliably a good foundation for the future, εις το μελλον,—for what is to come, for their future lot. “Where there is a firm foundation, nothing is unstable, but all is firm, immovable, indestructible, abiding” (St. Chrysostom). “Since works of virtue assuredly secure the future, the Apostle mentioned the foundation here” (blessed Theophylact). “Laying up ‘a foundation’ is the same as laying a firm foundation” (Oecumenius).

“That they may take hold of eternal life.” Here is what that future is for which good works of charity lay a firm foundation—the reception of eternal, blessed life. The doing of good works, in the spirit of the faith of Christ, secures the inheritance of eternal blessedness. And this ought to be the final goal of our strivings and labors. “To this one must strive by every means—to lay a firm foundation for the future blessed life. How can this be accomplished? By laying this foundation through works of charity here, in this life. For the Apostle called the doing of good works the foundation of the future life, and it has the power to obtain for us the enjoyment of that life” (Oecumenius). “True life is that which we hope for in the age to come, which knows no setting and is not determined by time—for it is eternal—and is therefore justly called true. The present life is only an image of life, not its truth. But by the very fact that it is an image of true life, it is not altogether nothing (inanitas—an illusion), but rather is what gives the possibility of obtaining true life. The temporal is the means of acquiring the eternal, when by means of this we hasten toward that. How does this happen? When we are not attached to the goods of this life, but by means of them strive to be rich in good works. Therefore let us set as our goal to become rich in good works and by means of earthly treasures to acquire spiritual treasures; let us sow on earth so as to reap in heaven, where from the good sown on earth eternal treasure is formed” (Ambrosiaster).

Conclusion (1 Timothy 6:20–21)

Keep That Which Is Committed to Your Trust (1 Timothy 6:20–21)

Brief; it touches on nothing extraneous, only reminding of the most important thing—guard the deposit, shunning empty words dangerous to the faith—and imparts the Apostolic blessing in a fatherly manner. At the beginning of the Epistle this was set down as the chief task for all.

1 Tim. 6:20. O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you, turning away from profane and idle talk and the contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.

“The deposit,” παραθηκην,—what has been entrusted by someone (παρα) to another for safekeeping. Since the present passage speaks of faith, by the word “deposit” is understood all the teaching about the faith entrusted to St. Timothy. The Apostle commands him: guard this teaching as it was handed down to you. “Do not diminish it: it is not yours; you have been entrusted with what belongs to another; do not subtract from it” (St. Chrysostom). “Everything I have commanded you, guard, since these are the Lord’s commandments” (blessed Theophylact). “Guard the commandment of God, which God entrusted to you through me” (Oecumenius).—This is the law for all pastors of all ages—having received what was handed down, to guard it as it was handed down, so as to hand it on to one’s successors in the same form, without the addition of one’s own inventions. Vincent of Lérins writes on this passage: “Who is ‘Timothy’ today, if not the whole Church in general, or more specifically, not the entire assembly of leaders, who both ought themselves to possess and ought to communicate to others the unimpaired knowledge of the divine faith? What does it mean: ‘guard the deposit?’ It means: stand watch, for there are thieves, there are enemies, so that among the good wheat seed which the Son of Man has sown in His field, they may not, while men sleep, sow weeds (Matt. 13:37–39). ‘Guard,’ he says, ‘the deposit.’ What is ‘the deposit?’ That which is entrusted to you, not that which you have invented; what you have received, not what you have devised; a matter not of intellect but of teaching; a matter transmitted to you, not originated from you—in which you are not the originator (auctor) but the guardian, not the founder but the follower, not the one who leads but the one who follows. ‘Guard,’ he says, ‘the deposit’—that is, preserve the talent of the universal faith whole and untouched. What is entrusted to you, let it remain with you; let it be transmitted by you (to others after you as well). You received gold—give back gold. Do not substitute one thing for another; instead of gold do not shamelessly give me lead or deceptively copper. I desire gold not in appearance but by nature. ‘O Timothy’! O priest! O man of conversation! O teacher! If God’s grace has deemed you fit for this, by ability, labor, and learning; then be a Bezaleel of the spiritual tabernacle, work the pearls of the divine teaching, fit them faithfully, adorn them wisely, give them brilliance, grace, attractiveness. Let what was previously believed less clearly be understood more clearly through your exposition. May posterity, through you, have the joy and consolation of understanding clearly what antiquity formerly revered without understanding. Yet teach the same as what you were taught—so that in speaking what is new you may not teach what is new.’”

“Turning away from profane and idle talk and the contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.”—“Knowledge,” γνωσεως — knowledge; a knowledge that boasts of knowing when it does not know, and therefore falsely bears such a name—it is falsely named. Knowledge has become falsely named because reason has gone down a false road and gone astray, supposing, however, that it is going correctly, looking correctly, and seeing correctly; therefore it has become not what it ought to be—it has become unreason, and while being named reason, is falsely so named—it is a false name. How did this happen to reason? Because it has taken on what is not its proper task. To understand the things of this life has been given to it, but to comprehend what is divine has not been given. This it must receive by faith, as God reveals it. God has revealed it; receive it by faith, striving only to understand this revealed content as it has been revealed. When reason, even in revelation, attempts to understand everything in its own way and not as it has been revealed, it commonly confuses things and goes astray—as it does also when it attempts to comprehend the divine without revelation. And yet in this case too it regards its own comprehensions as unquestionable and strenuously contradicts not only those who, like it, interpret the revealed according to their own reasoning—but differently from it—but above all those who understand the revealed as it has been revealed. Contradiction is therefore its inalienable characteristic. But it contradicts in vain, for since it does not stand in the truth, it contradicts not with truth but with falsehood—and everything it produces is empty babbling, idle talk. Those, however, who hold the truth as it has been revealed do not like to contradict—they say only: this is how God has revealed it and this is how we hold it; if you wish to submit to God, hear us; if not, God is your judge. “We” have “no such custom,”—that is, of arguing—(1 Cor. 11:16). This is what the Apostle reminds St. Timothy: shun these idle words and contradictions. What these idle words and contradictions are, he does not specify; whatever they may be—as soon as they are inconsistent with what God has plainly revealed to us, shun them. Teach the flock the truth of God, and this truth will make it capable of repelling all idle talkers. St. Chrysostom says: “Do you see how again he commands not even to associate with such people. ‘Turning away,’ he says, ‘from contradictions.’ Therefore there are contradictions to which one should not even reply. Why? Because they remove one from faith; because they do not allow one to stand firm and steadfast. Therefore we must hold fast not to these things but to the faith, which is an immovable rock. For then neither rivers nor winds, rushing upon us, will be able to cause us any harm, because we have been immovably established on the rock. Empty words and contradictions he called the offspring of falsely named knowledge. And well did he speak thus. For where there is no faith, there is no knowledge (of divine things). When something is generated (in this regard) from our own reasonings, it is not knowledge.”

“Idle talk,” κενοφωνιας,—empty words. If instead of ε one puts αι, it becomes: new words. Oecumenius and Theophylact say that St. Chrysostom read it that way (evidently somewhere other than in his Commentary), understanding by this novelties in teaching. In the Vulgate and in the text it reads: vocum novitates. The venerable Vincent draws his conclusions from these words in his famous treatise on the guarding of what has been handed down—as is evident from the final words of the passage cited from him above.

1 Tim. 6:21. By which some, making profession, have strayed from the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

“By which, making profession”—of knowledge, boasting of knowledge. People of great ability, having acquired much knowledge of created things—having studied history, natural sciences, mathematics, medicine, jurisprudence, philology—frequently arrive at the false conviction that the objects of faith are not incomprehensible to them either, and begin to interpret them so that they may be rational, so that their faith may be a rational faith—that is, containing nothing that cannot be rationally comprehended, and everything in it understood naturally. But since faith, proceeding from the supernatural God and leading believers by a supernatural path toward supernatural communion with the supernatural God, cannot be naturally understood and interpreted, the clever men who set out to relate to it in this way inevitably deviate from it, interpret its tenets crookedly, and, presenting such interpretations as truth, err. This was always the case and remains so today—that those who boast of knowledge, επαγγελλομενοι,—professional experts in learning, when they undertake to understand the faith, err in the faith. Ηστοχησαν, says the Apostle—they have missed the mark of faith, they have gone in the wrong direction from where it was pointing. “For one who follows only human reasonings, it is inevitable to αστοχειν,—to miss the rhythm and target of faith. For faith does not permit rational comprehensions” (blessed Theophylact). St. Chrysostom says: “The Apostle says this, perhaps because at that time some were calling themselves Gnostics—that is, knowing more than others.” To this blessed Theodoret adds: “They called themselves Gnostics from Simon, saying of themselves: what Divine Scripture passed over in silence, God has revealed to us. And this is full of every impiety and depravity. This knowledge the Apostle rightly called ‘falsely named.’ They have the darkness of ignorance, not the light of the knowledge of God.” The Gnostics came into full force in the second century; but it is not surprising that their beginnings were already manifesting themselves in the time of the Apostles.

“Grace be with you.” “The Apostle appended the customary blessing” (blessed Theodoret). “As a seal upon everything, he wishes him the grace by which every good is given and preserved. May we all be richly partakers of it—not losing the goods received through it, but by it preserving them and glorifying Christ, the Giver of graces, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit” (blessed Theophylact).

Let us also cite the concluding word of blessed Theodoret on the whole Epistle: “This teaching all who have been accounted worthy of the priesthood ought to preserve with exactness; and, as a certain rule, always have it before them, and in accordance with it consider both what they should say and what they should do. In this way it is possible to be accounted worthy of the portion of the blessed Timothy, and even of the most divinely blessed Paul himself, by the grace and love of mankind of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ—with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory and magnificence now and always and to the ages of ages! Amen.”

Commentary on the Second Epistle to Timothy

Introduction

1. The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse belongs to the great nineteenth-century revival of Russian spiritual life, and he belongs to it as one of its quietest and most influential figures. He was born George Govorov in January 1815, in a village of the Oryol province where his father served as a parish priest, and the piety of that household went with him through the seminary at Oryol and on to the Kiev Theological Academy, where he studied at the end of the 1830s. He received the monastic tonsure while still a student, taking the name Theophan, and after ordination he passed through the ordinary stations of a gifted churchman of his day: teacher and rector in several theological schools, and a term with the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem, where he came to know the Christian East at first hand. In 1859 he was consecrated bishop, serving first the see of Tambov and then, from the early 1860s, the see of Vladimir.

He was, by every account, a conscientious and beloved pastor. Yet the labor that would make his name lay in another direction. In 1866 he petitioned to be released from the administration of a diocese and withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage, a remote monastery in the Tambov region that he had come to love. Six years later, after Pascha in 1872, he entered strict reclusion: he ceased to receive visitors, kept to a small suite of rooms with his own chapel, and gave the remaining two decades of his life to prayer, study, and the pen. From that seclusion came the writings for which he is remembered—his rendering of the Philokalia into Russian, his works on the interior life such as The Path to Salvation, his enormous correspondence of spiritual counsel, and the great series of commentaries on the epistles of the Apostle Paul, of which the present volume is one part. He reposed on the feast of Theophany, in January 1894, in his eightieth year. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints in 1988, and he is commemorated in January, near the day of his repose; but long before any formal glorification his books had already made him, in a phrase often repeated, a spiritual father to ordinary believers who never met him.

2. The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The Second Epistle to Timothy is, by the tradition Theophan received and expounds, the last letter the Apostle Paul ever wrote. He places its composition, with that tradition, in the years 67 to 68, during a second Roman imprisonment far harsher than the first. Paul is now not under the light custody of house arrest but bound “as an evildoer,” awaiting a capital sentence under Nero. Many of his companions have scattered; some, he says plainly, have deserted him; and he writes with the knowledge that his own end is near. “I am already being poured out as a drink offering,” he tells his disciple, “and the time of my departure has come.” Few pages of the New Testament are steeped so deeply in the atmosphere of a farewell.

The letter is addressed to Timothy, Paul’s most trusted disciple, whom the tradition remembers as bishop at Ephesus. Its immediate occasion is partly practical: the Apostle longs to see his son in the faith once more and summons him to come to Rome quickly, before winter, bringing the cloak and the books left behind at Troas. But the deeper purpose is unmistakable. Paul is handing on his work. The pastoral charge he has carried is now passing, whole, into younger hands, and he writes to arm the one who must carry it after him. Where the First Epistle to Timothy had laid out the practical business of church order—the qualities of bishops and deacons, the care of widows, the handling of disputes—this second letter, as Theophan observes, is less a manual of tasks than a portrait of the spirit in which the tasks must be done: the courage, endurance, and fidelity that must animate a shepherd when the times turn against the faith. It is a father’s testament to a son, and through that son to every generation of those entrusted with the Gospel.

That double character—intensely personal and yet permanently pastoral—is what gives the epistle its weight far out of proportion to its length. When Paul writes “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season,” or “Guard the good deposit,” the words carry the authority of a man who is about to seal them with his blood. Theophan reads the whole letter in that light, and asks his reader to feel the farewell tone throughout.

3. Argument and Structure

Theophan divides the epistle in a way that keeps this pastoral purpose in view. The opening verses form a warm, personal preface: the greeting, Paul’s thanksgiving and unceasing remembrance of Timothy in prayer, his longing to see him again, and his praise of the sincere faith that Timothy had received from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. Having so warmed his disciple’s heart, the Apostle reaches his first charge—to “stir up the gift of God” received through the laying on of hands—and Theophan treats this awakening of the grace of ordination as the hinge on which the whole letter turns.

From there the body of the epistle unfolds in two movements. The first and larger part Theophan calls the instructional section, and within it he distinguishes an instruction in preaching (from 1:7 through the end of chapter three) from an encouragement to steadfastness that follows (from 3:10 to 4:8). In the first, Paul sets before Timothy the spirit of the ministry itself: the Spirit given is one “of power and of love and of a sound mind,” not of fear; Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light; the sound words received are to be held fast and the good deposit guarded; the minister is to be strong in grace, to endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ, to labor as a farmer and to strive as an athlete lawfully, and to rightly divide the word of truth. Paul warns, too, of the “perilous times” of the last days, when men will hold a form of godliness while denying its power. In the second movement the note shifts from instruction to encouragement. Paul points Timothy back to his own example of persecutions endured, urges him to continue in what he has learned and in the Scriptures known from childhood, and then, in the letter’s most solemn passage, charges him before God to preach the word and to fulfill his ministry—for the Apostle’s own course is finished and his crown laid up.

A shorter closing part, which Theophan treats as a kind of postscript, gathers the personal matter: requests that Timothy come and bring certain persons and belongings, warnings against particular opponents, the account of Paul’s first defense at which every man forsook him but the Lord stood by him, and the final greetings and blessing. Even here, Theophan insists, the farewell tone never lifts; the last practical requests are the words of a man setting his affairs in order before death.

4. Theological and Spiritual Significance

Three great themes run through Theophan’s exposition, and each opens from the letter onto the whole Christian life.

The first is the guarding of the deposit of faith. “Guard the good deposit by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us,” Paul commands, and Theophan takes the deposit—the treasure entrusted—to mean the entire pattern of sound teaching and holy life handed down from the Apostles. In the single word “guard” he hears a standing rule for all who stand in the apostolic succession: to keep unchanged what has been received, to hand it on whole, and to introduce no novelty into it whatsoever. Yet this keeping, he is careful to add with the Fathers, is not accomplished by human vigilance alone but “by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.” Fidelity to tradition, in his reading, is itself a work of grace—a treasure guarded by the same Spirit who first gave it.

The second theme is the authority of Scripture. Timothy has known the holy writings from childhood, Paul reminds him, and they are “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus”; for “all Scripture is God-breathed, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.” Theophan dwells on this with particular care, referring it above all to the Old Testament: the veil that once lay over those writings, he says, is lifted by faith in Christ, so that the same Scripture now shines with a different and more perfect light and becomes able to make the reader wise unto salvation. The verse has become one of the classic patristic testimonies to the divine origin of Scripture, and Theophan reads it not as an abstract doctrine but as a summons: the God-breathed word is given to be used, for teaching and correction and the forming of a righteous life.

The third theme, which overarches the others, is endurance in suffering. Paul himself is the living illustration. Bound in chains, he can still declare that “the word of God is not bound,” and he holds his own constancy out to Timothy as a pattern. The whole letter presses toward a single certainty: that suffering borne faithfully for Christ is crowned. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,” the Apostle writes; “from now on there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day.” And Theophan is quick to draw out the clause that follows—the crown is promised “not to me only, but to all who have loved his appearing.” The reward held before the dying Apostle is held, by the same promise, before every reader who keeps the faith to the end. It is in this hope, and not as a bare demand, that Theophan sets the letter’s most famous charge to “preach the word.”

Taken together, these themes make the commentary at once an exposition of a short epistle and a compact manual of the Christian life under pressure—faithfulness to what has been received, nourished by the God-breathed word, and held to the end through every hardship.

5. Theophan’s Method and His Pauline Commentaries

This volume is one installment of a project that occupied much of Theophan’s reclusion: a commentary, letter by letter, on the epistles of the Apostle Paul. The Second Epistle to Timothy stands with his commentaries on the First Epistle and on Titus, the three so-called Pastoral letters, which he treated as a group during his Vysha years. Across the whole series his method is remarkably consistent, and it is worth naming, because it shapes every page.

Theophan does not comment as an isolated modern reader but as the spokesman of a tradition. Behind almost every verse he assembles the older interpreters of Paul—foremost Saint John Chrysostom, whose homilies he draws on most heavily, together with Theodoret of Cyrus, Theophylact of Ohrid, Oecumenius, and the Latin writer Ambrosiaster. He does not merely quote them; he sets their comments side by side, weighs them against one another, and reconciles them into a common judgment, so that the reader hears not one voice but a council of the Fathers speaking in concord. This is exposition as consensus, and it is deliberately so: for a commentator whose central theme is the guarding of what has been handed down, the form of the commentary enacts its content.

His own distinctive contribution is twofold. He binds this inherited material tightly to the actual thread of the letter, never letting the patristic riches scatter into disconnected notes; and he sounds the whole in the register of Russian ascetical teaching, which is never satisfied that a truth has been understood until it has also been felt, prayed, and put into practice. A doctrine, for Theophan, is always on its way to becoming a discipline of the heart. This is why his commentary reads as devotional as much as scholarly, and why it has been valued less as a work of reference than as spiritual reading—a book to be prayed through rather than merely consulted.

6. The Text and This Edition

Theophan wrote in Russian, for readers who were not scholars but ordinary believers—and here, above all, for the pastors to whom this last letter of Paul so directly speaks. He advances through the epistle a verse or two at a time, printing the passage and then opening its sense, untangling the hard places, and bending each text back upon the reader’s own soul.

The present edition is a fresh modern English translation made from Theophan’s Russian. Its source is the standard collected text of his interpretations of the Pauline epistles, the pre-revolutionary edition issued by the Russian monastery of Saint Panteleimon on Mount Athos, as preserved in the public-domain Russian text now available digitally. The translation renders that Russian directly into readable contemporary English; it is an English-only edition, not a parallel or bilingual one, and it does not attempt to reproduce the Slavonic or Greek columns of a scholarly apparatus. Where Paul’s own words are quoted, they are given in a faithful modern register consonant with the Slavonic and Septuagint tradition in which Theophan read them, so that the scriptural voice within the commentary keeps its proper weight.

The edition follows the conventions of this series. The author is named as the Church has always received him—Saint Theophan the Recluse—and those who have carried his Russian into English are credited as translators, never as authors. Chapter and verse citations, and the internal divisions of the commentary, are given in the clear Arabic style used throughout these volumes. The many quotations from the Fathers that fill the exposition are preserved as Theophan set them down, for they are not ornament but the substance of his reading of Paul. The aim throughout has been an edition that a reader today can take up simply and follow—the dying Apostle’s charge, and Theophan’s meditation upon it, carried across a century and a language without loss.

7. Suggestions for Reading

This short epistle carries an unusual charge, for it is the voice of a martyr taking his leave of a beloved disciple and of the Church. The reader will gain most by feeling that farewell tone throughout: the commands to guard, to endure, and to preach are urgent precisely because the one who gives them is about to seal them with his death. It helps to keep the epistle itself close at hand and to read Theophan’s comment only after the Apostle’s own words, and to treat the abundant patristic quotations not as digressions but as the exposition itself. Above all, the commentary asks to be read as Theophan wrote it—not merely to admire Paul’s constancy from a distance, but to be strengthened by it. For the deposit Timothy is charged to guard is the same faith the reader has received, and the crown promised to Paul is promised to all who love the Lord’s appearing. Read in that spirit, this is not the record of one man’s last days but a summons to the reader’s own faithfulness to the end.

Preface (2 Timothy 1:1–6)

Inscription, Greeting, and Thanksgiving (2 Timothy 1:1–4)

2 Tim. 1:1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.

The salutation resembles all the others: it indicates who writes to whom, and, as is customary for the holy Paul, contains certain terms prompted by the content of the Epistle, introduced in order to foreshadow it.

“An Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.” By the will of God the Father—an Apostle of the incarnate Son of God—owing to the unity of Their will. The Father’s will and the Son’s will are not two different wills but one and the same. Therefore, what the Father wills, the Son likewise wills. “The Lord God proposed me as Apostle (προεβαλετο); and Christ Jesus concurred with this (συμψηφισαμενου)” (Oecumenius).

“According to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.” In these words lies a foreshadowing of the content of the Epistle, which gave occasion for their inclusion in this salutation. The purpose of the Epistle is to animate the holy Timothy to courageous proclamation of the faith and to the keeping of the faithful in the faith, in the face of dangers and deaths. But in such circumstances, what could so animate as the promise of life—a life that even death does not take away, but rather opens its door? The Apostle points to this at the very beginning. “I am an Apostle,” he says, “according to the promise of life”—for the sake of proclaiming that promise of life. “The Lord God, with the concurrent will of the Son, appointed me Apostle, that I might proclaim to men the promised eternal life” (blessed Theodoret). He was appointed Apostle to announce this life to all people, but of course with the assurance that it belongs above all to the proclaimers themselves as a certainty—and therefore to the holy Timothy, as one of their number. That thought could not but serve him as consolation and encouragement. Thus the holy Paul “at the very beginning of the Epistle encourages his soul. Do not remind me, he says, of the afflictions here: they bring us eternal life, where there is nothing of that kind, where there is no sickness, sorrow, or sighing” (holy Chrysostom). Not only dangers—that is our lot—but death ready on every side; yet “we die so that we may live eternally” (blessed Theophylact). Although this is only a promise, the promise is so certain that it is as though we already possessed it. Yet for all that, it is still ahead of us. “If it is a promise, then do not seek it here; for ‘hope that is seen is not hope’ (Rom. 8:24)” (holy Chrysostom).

“Which is in Christ Jesus.” “The life that is ‘in Christ Jesus’—that is, with Christ—because He gives it to us and sustains it. Bodily life consists in food and drink, but spiritual life is sustained in Christ Jesus. He is everything to us” (blessed Theophylact). This life is received, developed, and strengthened here below; its manifestation in all its brightness and glory is what is promised. — Κατ᾿ επαγγελιαν — “according to the promise”—one may therefore translate it also as: according to the proclamation, for the sake of proclaiming the life that is in Christ Jesus—the life which, upon faith and the reception of the sacrament, is at once obtained, and of which eternal life is an inalienable part.

2 Tim. 1:2. To Timothy, my beloved child: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

“To Timothy, my beloved child.” “Not simply: ‘child’—but: ‘beloved’; for there can be children who are not beloved. But you are not such, he says, and therefore I do not simply call you child, but ‘beloved’ child. He calls the Galatians children too, yet he grieves over them: ‘My little children,’ he says, ‘of whom I travail in birth again’ (Gal. 4:19). By calling him beloved, he bears witness to his great virtue. In what manner? When love is not from nature, it is from virtue; those born of us are dear to us not only for their virtue but also from natural requirement; whereas those beloved in the faith are such for no other reason than virtue. How could it be otherwise, especially with Paul, who did nothing from partiality?” (holy Chrysostom). “Timothy, valiant in all things, was made a son and a beloved not by nature but by the heart” (blessed Theodoret).

“Grace, mercy, peace.” “What he wished him before, that he wishes him now also” (holy Chrysostom). “Grace”—power for one’s own salvation and for that of others; “mercy”—the source that pours out and overflows with grace; “peace”—the good fruit of grace, tasted immediately upon receiving this mercy—peace with God and the heavenly dwellers, peace within oneself with one’s conscience, and peace with all earthly inhabitants, undisturbed by any unpeaceful circumstances, but sustained in all its force even amid them.

“From God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord”—as from a single source common to both. “He wishes him grace, that it may assist him in his presence—wishes it from the mercy of the Father and of Christ Jesus our Lord; for God bestows His grace upon us richly through Christ, so that a single grace may be of both” (Ambrosiaster). The Lord Jesus Christ, after His suffering, death on the cross, and resurrection, ascended into the heavens and sat at the right hand of God the Father, thereby opening the way for the Most Holy Spirit to descend upon the earth—and He, having descended, bestowed grace upon all and continues to bestow it to this day, by the good pleasure of the Father, in virtue of the incarnate economy of the Son.

b) Opening of the Epistle (2 Tim. 1:3–6)

Having expressed his strong love for the holy Timothy (1:3–4), and having praised him and his family for their faith (1:5), the holy Paul reminds him to: stir up the gift of apostolic succession dwelling within him—which constitutes the main subject of the Epistle (1:6).

2 Tim. 1:3. I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as did my forebears, in that without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day.

The holy Paul, who taught everyone to give thanks to God in all things (1 Thess. 5:18), himself always gave thanks to God for everything—for the joyful and the sorrowful, for the outward and the inward, for every good movement of thought and feeling. So here he thanks God for the fact that he holds unceasingly in memory the holy Timothy in his prayers. The thought is this: unceasing remembrance of someone is a sure witness of love; the holy Paul, giving thanks for his remembrance of the holy Timothy, gives thanks for his love toward him. Thus holy Chrysostom: “I thank God, he says, that I remember you—such is my love for you. This is a sign of extraordinary love, when one loves so much that he himself delights in that love”—“when one sees in his love for someone a great honor and a beautiful adornment for himself” (blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius). But behind this lies another thought as well: the Apostle unceasingly remembers the holy Timothy because Timothy is worthy of remembrance; and in thanking God for this remembrance, he gives thanks that the holy Timothy is worthy of it—that he is such a person that one cannot help remembering him, and moreover in such a way that remembering him gives birth to thanksgiving to God. There are people whose memory likewise never departs, but oppresses the heart; whereas the memory of the holy Timothy stirred in the soul of the holy Paul joyful and God-thanking feelings. Thus, with a certain distinctive emphasis, Ambrosiaster: “Since it is fitting to remember the good, the Apostle thanks God that he remembered the holy Timothy, a wondrous man, recognizing that even this is a gift of God; for it is not without merit if one thinks of good men.”

“Whom I serve as did my forebears.” How from his forebears, when they did not serve God as he now serves, and when he did not learn from them this new manner of service? The mode of service is new; but the God served is one and the same, as is the spirit of service. The service he received from his forebears he held with his whole soul, in submission to God. When this same God commanded him to leave that and adopt the new, he began to hold the new with the same wholehearted devotion with which he had held the former—again by the same wholehearted submission to God with which he had been filled in serving Him the former way. Thus both the God and the spirit of service toward Him remained one and the same in the holy Paul. All my lineage, he testifies, believed wholeheartedly in the One true God and submitted to Him wholeheartedly in the service He commanded. The same I observe: I confess the One true God and serve Him as He has commanded. This disposition he expresses in the words: “with a pure conscience,” εν καθαρα συνειδησει — in or according to a pure conscience. Conscience is pure when in thoughts, feelings, desires, words, and deeds nothing is admitted contrary to what one recognizes as true, good, and right—nothing contrary to one’s convictions. The holy Paul, as formerly he served God in the Jewish manner out of conviction that the One God so wills, so now serves in the Christian manner from the same conviction—one not deceptively insinuated but tangibly impressed by God Himself who “appeared.” Therefore in the matter of his service there is not the slightest shadow of wavering: his conviction is radiant as the sun in a cloudless sky at midday; and so likewise is his conscience.

Ambrosiaster writes: “Since the God of Christians is the same who was the God of the Jews, the Apostle truthfully testifies that he offers thanksgiving to the same God whom he served from his forebears. If he confesses and proclaims the very thing his forebears hoped for, their faith is one and the same. Thus, inasmuch as he entered into the inheritance of his forebears’ service to God, and inasmuch as it was already in them when they served God, he rightly says: ‘whom I serve as did my forebears.’ But how does he say ‘with a pure conscience’—when he persecuted the Church? He persecuted the Church, but he did so out of love for God, not out of malice.” We read the same in blessed Theophylact: “How ‘with a pure conscience’—when at first he did not know Christ? He says this—either by conscience meaning his manner of life, for although he lived as a Jew, he was blameless in conduct—or because when he persecuted the Church, he did so out of zeal, and not from any human motives, as some take sides with heresy for the sake of glory, while fully aware of its rottenness. He says all this as if to suggest: do not suspect that I think one thing and say another; my conscience is pure, as always, so also now. Thus I do not lie when I say that I love you and always remember you.” (This is condensed from holy Chrysostom; the same also in Oecumenius.)

“In that without ceasing I remember you in my prayers.” “He says: ‘without ceasing I remember’—and not simply, but: ‘in my prayers’; that is, this enters into my prayer; at all times, unceasingly I fulfil this—for this is expressed by the words: ‘night and day’” (holy Chrysostom). Memory in prayer is a sacred memory—one held to be hallowed by God, and therefore entering into the work of the accomplishment of salvation. True worshippers of God admit nothing inconsistent with reverence before God—nothing of the sort they could not bring with a clear conscience before God in their prayers. Such also was the Apostle’s memory of the holy Timothy—pure, holy, containing nothing of the flesh.

2 Tim. 1:4. Desiring to see you, mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy.

The object of his prayer is to see the holy Timothy, because this was greatly desired — επιποθων — ardently longing for it. “Night and day, he says, I pray to God that He would fulfil my ardent desire to see you” (blessed Theophylact). “Do you see the fervent attachment? Do you see the exceeding abundance of love?” (holy Chrysostom). Perhaps this expressed desire to see him is set forth here as assurance that if the Apostle did not return to Ephesus to him, the reason was not any cooling of love, but the course of circumstances beyond his own will. Holy Chrysostom says: “Observe how at the very beginning he justifies himself before him for not having come to see him; for the words: ‘until I come’—and again: ‘I hope to come to you soon’ (1 Tim. 4:13; 3:14)—had led him to expect his speedy arrival. Therefore he immediately justifies himself. He does not, however, say at once the reason why he did not come, so as not to grieve him too greatly—the reason being that he was detained by the Emperor (Nero)—but only at the end, when he invited him to come, did he disclose it. At the beginning, then, he does not grieve him, but expresses the desire to see him.” By the words: “desiring to see you”—he leads him to the thought: “Could I have voluntarily deprived myself of the pleasure of seeing you, had I the possibility of coming to you?” (blessed Theophylact).

“Mindful of your tears.” The Apostle desired to see him not only for his own love toward him, but also for Timothy’s love toward himself, which Timothy had shown by shedding tears—most likely when, as the Apostle was departing, he said farewell to him. “The Apostle shows here that he does this (prays to see him) not simply or without cause, but: ‘mindful,’ he says, ‘of your tears.’ When parting from Paul, he probably wept and sobbed more than a child taken from the nurse’s breast and milk” (holy Chrysostom). Recalling this, the Apostle seems to say to him: I desire to see you, loving you. “But even if I were utterly unfeeling, harsh, and inhuman, I still could not lack this desire; for the tears of yours that I recall could soften even me” (holy Chrysostom).

Therefore, when the Apostle goes on to say: “that I may be filled with joy”—he at the same time conveys the thought: that I may also dry your tears. The tears of the holy Timothy could not but resonate with deep grief at the separation in the heart of the holy Paul as well. From this naturally arose both the desire to meet and the foreboding of joy from that meeting in both of them. Ambrosiaster writes: “The Apostle assures that he much remembers Timothy and longs to see him, on account of the remembrance of the tears which Timothy shed out of love for the Apostle when the latter, as is self-evident, was departing from him. Not without cause, therefore, does he desire to see one who loves him so much—that he might be filled with joy from the mutual gladness.”

By all this the Apostle bore witness to his most warm and fatherly love for the holy Timothy.

The Unfeigned Faith; Stir Up the Gift of God (2 Timothy 1:5–6)

2 Tim. 1:5. Having received a reminder of the sincere faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.

By expressing his love for Timothy, the holy Paul at the same time renewed Timothy’s love for himself; and having thus warmed his heart, made it ready to receive instruction, as warmed wax is ready to receive an imprint of a seal. He now prepares his hand to receive this instruction, reviving the strength of his faith by reminding him of it—as it is in him and in his lineage.

“Mindful,” he said, “of your tears”—I desire to see you still and I pray for it. Yet tears are a natural thing; and everything natural in spiritual relationships loses its force if it is not hallowed by faith, and only this hallowing clothes it with a certain conditional significance. Therefore the Apostle immediately adds: “having received a reminder of the sincere faith that is in you.” “Not for your tears alone (do I desire to see you), but also for your faith, since you are a servant of truth, and there is no hypocrisy in you” (holy Chrysostom). “And what gladdens me above all is the sincerity of your faith” (blessed Theodoret). The preceding words had awakened in the soul of the holy Timothy feelings and dispositions natural to those who have long lived together and become akin; the reminder of faith gives them a different tone and transfers them to a different sphere—detached, sober; and the praise of his faith as sincere and without pretense could not but revive his zeal for the faith, from the desire to hold himself to be precisely the person who had been praised.

In order to bring this zeal to an even higher pitch, the Apostle reminds him of the faith of Timothy’s lineage. In you, he says, dwells the faith “which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.” “You, he says, come from a house that has served Christ from long ago. You have had this blessing from of old; from your forebears you received the sincere faith” (holy Chrysostom). The reminder of the spirit and character of one’s lineage naturally disposes kinsmen to maintain that spirit and character—and this is what the Apostle had in view in speaking thus. “By honorable mention of the ancestors he strengthens the faith in his disciple” (blessed Theodoret). Since “the virtues of ancestors belong to us too if we imitate them, but if we do not imitate them, they have no force for us and indeed serve only for our condemnation” (holy Chrysostom)—the fear of falling behind one’s lineage and bringing shame upon it naturally stirred in the holy Timothy a zeal for its virtue, that is, faith; especially when such persons are held up as grandmother and mother, whose very name, when heard, warms the heart. If in general “nothing is so effective as a domestic example” (blessed Theodoret), the example of a grandmother and mother acts the more powerfully, the more tenderly it draws.

“And I am persuaded is in you also.” You too have not fallen behind them; faith settled in you long ago. “I am persuaded,” πεπεισμαι — “I do not merely conjecture, but am convinced and fully assured” (holy Chrysostom). A new incentive to be zealous in faith. For it followed that if, after this, you should grow slack in that zeal, you would be going against yourself—you would be a traitor to yourself. The Apostle mentioned his own forebears above, and now mentions the forebears of the holy Timothy, in order to suggest: our root has been hallowed by faith; it behoves us, therefore, drawing wholesome sap from that root, to blossom in keeping with the character of that sap. Or perhaps his words carry the same force as these words in the mouths of soldiers: you and I are old campaigners together.

2 Tim. 1:6. For this reason I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

Having so prepared the holy Timothy, the holy Paul now with full confidence enjoins him to perform zealously the task laid upon him—the task to which he was called by ordination—the task of pastoral ministry or apostolic succession. The active fulfilment of this the Apostle called the stirring up of the gift of God, which began to live in him by virtue of ordination. Pastoral ministry or apostolic succession is not a matter of external appointment, as is the case with civil offices, but is the result of an interior gracious making into a pastor, by virtue of which the one chosen becomes capable of pastoral ministry and is sealed as a pastor—so that whether he fulfils his duty or not, he is still a pastor, by the gift of grace living in him. He who fulfils the work of pastoral ministry as he ought stirs up and fans that gift; he who does not fulfil it quenches it. The same thing occurs here as with those who, in the parable, received talents: one puts the talent received into circulation, another buries it in the ground. Both expressions in the parable mean the same thing: it is not enough to receive the gift of grace; one must also stir it up, or develop it—by laboring in the doing of the work for which it was given. The Apostle expressed this by the word αναζωπυρειν — to fan, to give sufficient ventilation, to provide a current of air so that the fire does not go out but blazes more and more. What a current of air is to fire, that are the labors according to the gift of grace to that gift. This is what the Apostle reminds the holy Timothy of when he says: “for this reason I remind you to stir up the gift of God.” But for what reason? For the sake of the faith that lives in him and his lineage. That faith obliges him to stir up the gift of God. By faith the gift was given, by faith received; but faith also presents the most powerful incentives to zealous activity according to the gift. The Apostle speaks as if to say: since I have revived the faith in you by the preceding remembrances, I have no need to persuade you at length—it is enough merely to remind you to stir up your gift. But one may also understand additionally: since you believe sincerely, for that very reason be the more earnestly diligent in stirring up your gift; take care not to grow negligent—to have faith and yet not to stir up the gift is an inconceivable inconsistency. Holy Chrysostom says: “I know that you have sincere faith, and therefore I remind you: it is necessary to have zeal in order to stir up the gift of God. As fire needs wood, so grace needs our diligence in order to be kindled. ‘The gift of God’—that is, the grace of the Spirit, which you received for the leadership of the Church, for signs, and for every ministry. ‘To stir up’—for it depends on us both to quench and to kindle it. Therefore in another place he says: ‘Do not quench the Spirit’ (1 Thess. 5:19). Through carelessness and sloth it is quenched; through attentiveness and diligence it is kindled.”

c) Outline of the Epistle

The Epistle has two parts: the first, the larger and the more important, is instructional for the holy Timothy (1:7 – 4:8); the second, the smaller, is of the nature of a postscript and addendum, bearing on the personal circumstances of the holy Paul (4:9–22). One may, however, suppose that for the Apostle, who had been abandoned by almost everyone, the chief need was to summon the holy Timothy to himself—for which purpose it was necessary to explain also his own situation. But since he did not know for certain whether he would remain alive until Timothy’s arrival, he writes him these instructions on pastoral ministry as a supplement to those given in the First Epistle. He might have conveyed these instructions to the holy Timothy in person upon his arrival; but since he could not say with certainty that he would still be alive to greet him, he thought it right to include them in the Epistle. Thus, for the holy Timothy and for us, the first—the instructional—part stands as the most important. With it we shall confine our outline of the Epistle, calling the last, the circumstantial part, the Postscript.

Within this principal part two sections may be distinguished: A) In the first, the pastoral activity itself is spoken of. This is the properly instructional section (1:7 – 3:9).—B) In the second, the holy Timothy is encouraged to carry it out as he ought, in all its aspects (3:10 – 4:8). This is the encouraging section. Both sections, in their respective parts, correspond to one another.

The Instructional Part—Section A: Instruction in Preaching (2 Timothy 1:7–3:9)

The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

The subdivision of the instructions for the first section is itself indicated by the holy Paul in the seventh verse, where he defines the properties of the gift of God received through ordination.

2 Tim. 1:7. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound judgment.

“Us”—whom? Christians in general, and all the more Apostles and their successors. Since the spirit given by God is spoken of directly after the mention of the gift of God received through ordination, it is more precise to understand “us” here as the holy Paul together with the holy Timothy—as if to say: you and I both. But since the common Christian spirit is the same, there is no need to distinguish this in the commentary.

“He has not given a spirit of fear,” δειλιασ — of timidity, of faintheartedness. “We did not receive the spirit in order to be timid, but to be bold. God gives many a spirit of fear as well—for example, in war, as is read in Scripture. ‘And there fell,’ it says, ‘upon them a spirit of fear’ (Ex. 15:16), that is, God put fear into them. But to you, on the contrary, He granted a spirit of power” (holy Chrysostom).

“But of power.” “God gave us the grace of the Holy Spirit not so that we should fear dangers for the sake of godliness (for the faith of Christ), but so that we might confess it without fear and proclaim it, being filled with divine power (in the sense of gracious power from God)” (blessed Theodoret). The Saviour also said to the Apostles as He sent them out to preach: “you will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake, as a testimony to them”—and they will persecute you just as they persecuted Me: “do not fear them” (Matt. 10:18, 23, 26). He also encouraged the holy Paul: “do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent” (Acts 18:9). And he, in the sense of power from God, confessed: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). In the sense of this power every Christian likewise, having received grace, goes forth to his work—the work of life in Christ Jesus; and to the faint-hearted question: “who shall deliver me from the body of this death”—he hears within himself the answer: “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 7:24; 8:2).

“And of love.” The outpouring of love in the heart is inseparable from the bestowal of the grace of the Holy Spirit, as the same Apostle testifies in another place: “the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us” (Rom. 5:5)—the love of God: first, love toward God; for the Spirit of grace, having regenerated, instils a sense of sonship, by which the regenerated one confesses that God is his Father, and with filial love is lifted up toward Him, crying: “Abba, Father!” (Rom. 8:15)—with a love so strong and deep that nothing whatsoever, neither in heaven nor on earth, can separate him “from” this “love of God” (Rom. 8:39). “The love of God”—secondly—is divine, full, and all-encompassing love toward the brethren. The Spirit of God, having regenerated, instils a sense of brotherhood with all the regenerated, by which they confess with the heart that all are sons and daughters of one God—that they constitute one spiritual family of God; therefore they regard one another as of one womb, not in word but in the feeling of the heart, being ready for every sacrifice for their good. This feeling in the Apostles and their successors receives a special breadth, and they sincerely acknowledge themselves to be debtors not to the Jews only, “but to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise” (Rom. 1:14), always ready “to be all things to all people, that by all means they might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). Thus all our commentators understand it. Briefly gathering them all, blessed Theophylact says: “of love—both that toward Him (God), and that toward one’s neighbor. For both to love God as Father we have from the Spirit, who makes us cry: ‘Abba, Father!’ And to remain unshaken in love for one’s neighbor is a gift coming from divine power; just as, on the contrary, being scandalized by them (troubled by their unkind treatment of us) comes from timid fearfulness and faintheartedness.” The latter not only testifies to an absence of love, but extinguishes it, as holy Chrysostom explains: “love comes from strength and fearlessness; for ordinarily nothing destroys love so much as timid apprehensions and suspicion of betrayal.”

“And of sound judgment.” “By sound judgment he means either soundness of mind and soul, or that we should live soberly and sensibly, and he endeavors to instruct us and to turn us away from intemperance” (holy Chrysostom)—so that not only should we ourselves be self-controlled and wise, but also “should bring others to self-control and teach them wisdom” (blessed Theophylact). Usually by self-control is understood purity from every fleshly defilement. The Spirit of grace, having come and been received by the heart, detaches it from attachment to all that is sensual and extinguishes its taste for it. If this takes up its dwelling in the heart, what place can carnal desire find there? Those who have received the Spirit become pure in heart. But this same Spirit is also the Spirit of understanding, who, having come, teaches all things, both in knowledge and in life (Jn. 14:26). Therefore it is possible to take this last sense as the one intended here. The Apostle uses the word σωφρονισμου — the bestowing of prudence and sound-mindedness, both in general and particularly when need arises—what to say and how to act, as the Lord also promised: “it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak” (Matt. 10:19); in one hour you will be given what to say, in another, how you ought to act. Thus, here we may understand the practical prudence bestowed upon pastors.

This, then, is what the gift of ordination gives to the one ordained: a spirit of power, love, and wisdom—or, it makes one “strong, loving, and sound-minded” (Ambrosiaster). In keeping with these three aspects of the gift of ordination, the holy Paul gives his instructions to the ordained holy Timothy. As one who has received the spirit of power, he enjoins him: a) preach the Lord and Saviour without fear and without shame, holding firmly to what I have handed on to you (1:8–18); as one who has received the gift of love, he enjoins him: b) as a soldier, as a wrestler, and as a husbandman—labor among the brethren, that they too may obtain salvation (2:1–13); as one who has received the spirit of wisdom and sound judgment, he enjoins him: c) not to become entangled in verbal disputes with the adversaries of truth, but to correct them gently, not leaving without attention even those who live ill (2:14 – 3:9).

d) The instruction to preach the Lord and Saviour without fear and without shame (2 Tim. 1:8–18)

As one who has received the gift of power, do not be ashamed of the testimony concerning Christ the Saviour, but suffer together with Him, guided by: aa) above all, the lofty significance of the incarnate economy of salvation (1:8–10); and together with this: bb) my own example—for I too was not ashamed and am suffering (1:11–14); and: cc) the example of Onesiphorus, who was not ashamed of my chains and was not afraid to find me and minister to me—unlike the Asians who were with me (1:15–18).

2 Tim. 1:8–9. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor of me His prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel of Christ according to the power of God, who saved us.

“Therefore do not be ashamed.” Since you have received, in the gift of God through ordination, a spirit of power, do not be ashamed: for shame is a mark of powerless faintheartedness. “Do not be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus Christ”—of the testimony concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation, yet was crucified on the cross, and by that death on the cross saved us; do not be ashamed, troubled by the thought that Christ crucified is “to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness,” and that the word of the cross to some “is foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:18, 23); but proclaim the word of the cross with boldness, and with eyes lifted preach Christ crucified, being fully assured that by this shameful death on the cross the salvation of the world was accomplished. The testimony of Christ is here the name given to the entire gospel, as is explained immediately in the words: “but share in suffering for the gospel of Christ.”

Our commentators have said much that is instructive about this false shame. Since it is encountered among us in society as well, we do not consider it superfluous to cite here what they have said, beginning with the later ones and ascending to the foremost. Blessed Theophylact writes: “Many most wretched persons, judging by human notions about what is above our comprehension, regard it as a disgrace to declare that the Son of God was crucified, not knowing that by the power of this cross a condemned man became a son of God. But you, O Timothy, the Apostle says, do not be ashamed to bear witness to Christ and to His death on the cross, but proclaim it with boldness.” Blessed Theodoret enters into the matter more fully, saying: “What was preached was the cross, mockery, reviling, suffering, death. And this seemed to unbelievers to be full of shame. ‘The word of the cross,’ says the Apostle, ‘is to those who are perishing foolishness’ (1 Cor. 1:18). Therefore the Apostle himself said in the Epistle to the Romans: ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes’ (Rom. 1:16)—and here also counsels his disciple to proclaim it with boldness.” Ambrosiaster writes similarly: “The Apostle teaches that one must be firm and not tremble at the confession of the faith. For there is nothing in it that should cause shame. If Christ was seen as a man, by His deeds He showed Himself to be God: although He was crucified, He rose from the dead, and before the eyes of many, taken up by a cloud, He ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9). And this is not a sign of weakness, but a witness of power: for where weakness seems to be perceptible, there power appears. Therefore it is irrational to regard as weak the One who so demonstrably showed Himself a conqueror of all weakness.” Holy Chrysostom speaks more extensively and fully on this: “Nothing is worse than judging and measuring divine things by human notions; for in that way one may fall far from the rock of faith and lose the light. If one who wishes to embrace the rays of the sun with human eyes not only fails to embrace them and reach his goal, but even moves further away from it and suffers great harm, then much more will one who dares to behold the inaccessible light with his own reasonings suffer harm, offending the gift of God. Look at Marcion, Manes, Valentinus, and all who bring heretical and ruinous teachings into the Church of God—how they, measuring God’s works by human reasoning, were ashamed of the economy of our salvation. Yet it—I mean the cross of Christ—deserves not shame but great praise. Nothing serves as so great a proof of the love of God for humanity—not heaven, not sea, not earth, not the creation of all that exists from nothing, not anything else—as the cross. Therefore Paul also glories in it: ‘but as for me,’ he says, ‘let me not glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Gal. 6:14). But natural men, ascribing to God no more than to men, fall away from the faith, being ashamed of it. Therefore the Apostle, encouraging his disciple and through him all, says: ‘do not therefore be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord’—that is, do not be ashamed that you preach the Crucified, but glory in it. Although all these things—death, prison, chains—are in themselves worthy of shame and reproach; yet here, if one enters into the cause and attentively considers the mystery, they are worthy of great praise and great veneration. This death saved the perishing universe; this death united heaven and earth; this death destroyed the power of the devil, made men angels and sons of God; this death raised our nature to the royal throne. ‘Do not therefore be ashamed.’ He did not say: do not fear, do not be afraid, but with a stronger word encourages him: ‘do not be ashamed’—expressing thereby that the danger as it were does not exist, if shame is overcome. Shame is oppressive only when it overcomes us.”

“Nor of me, His prisoner, be ashamed.” “Do not be ashamed to have a prisoner as your teacher” (Oecumenius). It is true that the reproach of a teacher falls on the disciple as well; but my chains are not a reproach—they are the glory of Christ and my own. The Apostle found it necessary to encourage the holy Timothy from this side as well; for he, looking around and seeing how the teaching was reviled, how he himself was being pressed, and his teacher thrown into chains, could naturally have been troubled. Do not be ashamed, he says; there is nothing reproachful in any of this—neither in the teaching that is held in contempt, nor in my chains. Holy Chrysostom, continuing his discourse, says: “Do not be ashamed either that I—who have raised the dead, who have performed countless signs, who have traversed the whole universe—am now in bonds. I am bound not as an evildoer, but for the sake of the Crucified; if my Lord was not ashamed of the cross, neither am I ashamed of bonds. If our Lord and Teacher endured the cross (not in disgrace, but in glory), then all the more can we bear bonds without disgrace.” “Thus,” to continue this discourse in the words of Ambrosiaster, “neither is there anything shameful in the Apostle who is a prisoner; for while on the one hand his enemies, because of his chains and wounds, call him covered with shame and humiliation, on the other hand he puts his revilers to shame by appearing wondrous, performing signs and miracles by a single motion of his will; that they may understand that if he is subjected to humiliation, it is not from weakness, but by the will of God, for the multiplication of his crowns. For God permits His servants to be humiliated by the unrighteous so that it may be plain to all that He is not unrighteously preparing and awarding them their crowns.”

“But share in suffering for the gospel of Christ.” Not only do not be ashamed of the testimony or the gospel of Christ, but do not refuse to suffer for Him as well; alongside bearing witness and proclaiming the gospel of Christ the Saviour, be ready also to suffer for Him, and conversely—even while suffering for the gospel—do not cease to proclaim it. The Apostle represents him as already suffering something, and encourages him: bear with good cheer and with joy what you endure for the sake of godliness—suggesting by the manner of expression: by enduring thus you will be sharing in the sufferings of Christ the Lord and of me as well. Holy Chrysostom says: “share in suffering”—that is, even if you yourself must suffer this, do not be ashamed; not simply, “do not be ashamed”—but do not be ashamed even to experience it yourself. As I, he says, bear these chains not for my own sake, so you too will endure not something merely human, but will have a share in the same sufferings (of Christ). “Share in suffering,” he says, “for the gospel”—not in the sense that the gospel suffers, but he encourages the disciple to suffer for the gospel. “By trial and in deed show that you are not ashamed of the gospel—precisely by suffering for it; and show it the more willingly in that you thereby become a partaker in the sufferings of Christ the Saviour and mine” (blessed Theophylact). “The Apostle prescribes to the holy Timothy that he manfully and willingly bear sufferings” (blessed Theodoret)—giving this as a commandment, regarding it as obligatory. “For since death has been conquered by the power of God, that we might obtain salvation, for this cause it is fitting that we too should repay our Redeemer, at least in some small part, with sufferings” (Ambrosiaster).

“According to the power of God”—share in suffering. For this you have received strength from God, in the gift of ordination having received a spirit of power. You have received the spirit of power—exercise it, therefore, manifest it, stir it up, bearing with good cheer all that you must bear for the gospel. You have no reason to fear suffering; for the power to endure it already dwells in you. “The Apostle encourages by the reminder of the power of God” (blessed Theodoret). “Not by your own strength, he says, are you to bear this co-suffering. God has already given you such strength and will give even greater, if need be” (Oecumenius). “Your part is to resolve and show readiness; to lighten and give rest—that is God’s part” (holy Chrysostom).

Such is the meaning drawn for the words “according to the power of God” from what precedes—specifically from the fact that God gave us a spirit of power. But by the flow of the discourse, the meaning of these words may also be drawn from what follows: for directly after the words “according to the power of God” comes “who saved us” and the rest, drawing attention to see in these and subsequent words an explanation of which power of God is meant here—namely, that power which was manifested in the ordering of our salvation. Our commentators, after the explanation given above, express also this thought.

2 Tim. 1:9. Who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.

Holy Chrysostom on the meaning of these words says: “The Apostle sets forth also the proofs of the power of God”—and then draws the conclusion: if God manifested such power in ordering our salvation and calling, then “we must not fear; if even then, when He had to save us who were His enemies, He saved us by grace, will He not all the more cooperate with us when He sees our own activity (after the calling)?” The same in Oecumenius: “The Apostle sets forth proofs of God’s readiness, cooperation, and bestowal of the power capable of making us able to bear temptations with manfulness. He saved us, he says, from the death of sin, and called us with a holy calling, when we were turning away from Him and would not acknowledge Him—not because we were worthy of it, but He did this according to His own purpose and grace. Therefore, if (for such is the aim of these words in the Apostle) He showed such good will toward us when we were His enemies—will He not all the more, now that we have become His friends and willingly go into tribulations for His sake, give us the strength to bear them and to be delivered from them?” The same in blessed Theophylact.

These two understandings of the words “according to the power of God” are not in conflict with one another, but the one supplements the other. The spirit of power is received by all Christians, and all the more by the successors of the Apostles—and it is sufficient for bearing sufferings for the faith; but it must be stirred up, as the Apostle indicated together with his indication of its bestowal. By what means is it to be stirred up? Precisely by what is being spoken of now—that is, by the contemplation of the ordering of our salvation. The incarnate economy of our salvation vividly impresses upon the mind the incomprehensibly great power and majesty of God who saves us—and this in such a way that this power and majesty are reflected in the very action of the salvation of each person as his own. Contemplating this, be enkindled to bear willingly and manfully all things for the sake of the economy of salvation, already at work in you, and to the glory of God, who has saved you in so wondrous a fashion. “According to the power of God” will therefore mean: moved and drawn to this co-suffering by the contemplation and awareness of the power of God in the ordering of your salvation—as if to say: you are obliged to co-suffer in proportion to the power manifested in the ordering of your salvation. To fulfil this in deed is impossible; but to strive toward it as much as one’s strength allows, or as much strength as has been received, is both possible and obligatory.

The economy of salvation itself the Apostle depicts in full, as is his custom, beginning with the decree concerning it in the Eternal Council of God—when the Son of God was pleased to undertake its accomplishment through the Incarnation, and together with this all the graces consequent upon that were allotted and given to us. But all this was concealed in the mystery of the Godhead, and became manifest when, having come through the Incarnation, the Son of God destroyed death by His death, and by His resurrection shed the light of life and incorruption—first “in Himself, so as thereafter to impart it to all of us also” (holy Chrysostom). This is accomplished by grace through faith in the sacraments. Faith is stirred up and begotten by the gospel proclamation; he who has followed the proclamation with faith is the one called; the one called receives grace in the sacraments and enters the path of salvation according to God’s economy of it, partaking also of its power. All this the Apostle briefly seals in thought. And who, contemplating all this and all the more partaking of the saving power, would not be ready to endure all things for the saving faith?

“Who saved us and called us.” By the first word is meant salvation as it has been ordered by the Lord—the entire incarnate economy; by the second, how each person being saved enters into participation in it—namely, he enters by being called through the gospel proclamation. So it was in the beginning; so it has always been since, is now, and shall be. Salvation has been ordered, the feast is prepared. And the word of God goes everywhere, inviting all who are willing. Come, taste, and you will be a partaker of salvation. This calling is named “holy” because it comes from the Holy God the Father, is accomplished by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and leads to sanctification in the incarnate Son of God, who sanctifies and hallows all. Just as the economy of salvation itself has been accomplished, so also the calling to receive salvation within it is accomplished by God “not according to our works, but according to His” own “purpose,” κατα προθεσιν — according to His will, which, since it willed our good, is good-pleasure and benevolence. We—our race—presented nothing on our own side for which our salvation was worth ordering, save perhaps our utter incapacity for it and our complete helplessness, which called forth and drew the divine mercy. One may conjecture that it was necessary for the purposes for which the world was given existence and toward which it is led by ways incomprehensible to us. But even all that is the work of God’s good-pleasure. Likewise, that each nation and each person is called to participation in salvation comes to pass by the good-pleasure and grace of God. None of us can present anything for which we might deservedly be called to salvation, save perhaps the inevitability of perishing without it, which draws the mercy of God, which cannot bear that His creature should perish. So it is, and is experienced and acknowledged by all who are called to salvation. None of them can say from where and how the calling Spirit comes, and His voice is heard clearly by the heart with a certain compulsion—and to follow that voice. This is God’s “mercy, God’s good-pleasure.”—“From within Himself, drawn by His own goodness, God accomplishes this” (blessed Theophylact). Let us note in addition that the calling to salvation must not be confused with the actual working out of salvation, which does not come about without our own efforts as well. It is the fruit of the joint action of grace and freedom. For this reason not all who are called are saved, and the called are more numerous than the chosen—that is, those who have actually obtained salvation.—Such “grace” is said to have been given to us before the ages, because the bestowal of it upon us was decreed in the Eternal Council together with the Son of God’s good-pleasure to take upon Himself the work of the incarnate economy of salvation. Therefore it, given before the ages, is also given in Christ Jesus. “Before beginning and before eternity it was foreordained that this grace should be given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is no small thing for us that God was pleased concerning us before all eternity” (blessed Theophylact).

Christ Has Abolished Death; I Know Whom I Have Believed (2 Timothy 1:10–12)

2 Tim. 1:10. But now made manifest through the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.

“Now made manifest,” φανερωθεισαν — revealed, made apparent. How? “Through the appearing of our Saviour,” δια της επιφανειας — through the appearing of our Saviour, the Son of God in the flesh. Grace was decreed, allotted, and given to us before all eternity; but until now it remained hidden. The Prophets knew of it, yet they knew only that it would surely come—what it would actually be, they could only conjecture. And the angels of God did not know what it would be, but only strained to penetrate into it. Yet no one apprehended what it was until the Saviour appeared—the Son of God made incarnate. Only now has it been made manifest. Ambrosiaster writes: “The grace of God was from eternity hidden in mystery; it was openly revealed through the Incarnation and coming of Christ the Saviour.” Blessed Theodoret explains the appearing as fulfilment: “From of old and before the ages, the God of all foreordained this; but now He has brought that which was foreordained to fulfilment.” Oecumenius links the appearing with the proclamation: “From eternity God foreordained that we should be saved; this was announced when it became known through the Incarnation of our Saviour God. For the counsel of God—that the world should be saved through faith—was announced now, and not at any earlier time.”

In the word “made manifest”—revealed—both elements are combined: both the fulfilment and the proclamation of it. The fulfilment itself was already a revelation and proclamation. But since the fulfilment of the plan of the economy of salvation was accomplished not merely to be seen, but in order that, having seen and heard, men might believe and through faith become partakers of the very grace concealed within the incarnate economy—therefore it is openly proclaimed to all; so that proclamation is inseparable from the appearing of the Saviour.

“Who has abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.” How, and by what means, did the incarnate Son of God make manifest the grace that had been hidden from eternity? Thus, and by this: He “abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light.” Both were accomplished by the single act of the Resurrection, in which both death was abolished and incorruptible life shone forth; for the Lord and Saviour, having risen, rose manifestly through victory over death and its abolishment; but He who has conquered and abolished death no longer dies, and death has no dominion over Him—therefore in Him incorruptible life is brought to light. Both were accomplished in fact only in the person of the Saviour; in Him death was abolished, and incorruptible life shone forth; for the general abolition of death and the shining forth of incorruptible life, there was only laid a firm foundation and concentrated a perfecting power, which shall in due time accomplish this. The Lord and Saviour abolished death and shone forth incorruptible life in Himself not for His own sake, but for ours, for the human race. And we truly become partakers of this through a mystical yet living bond with the Lord by grace, by which also in us is laid the firm foundation both of the abolition of death and the shining forth of incorruption. But now this is accomplished in hidden fashion; it will come to light openly at the end of the ages; now only the seed of it is sown, but the tree of life will spring from that seed in due time. Yet as the grace of the economy of our salvation, previously hidden, is truly and effectively manifested in the Lord and Saviour, so also the power of the abolition of death and the shining forth of life, now hidden in us through communion with the Saviour, will undoubtedly be made manifest in due time. Holy Chrysostom says: “In the body of Christ both (life and incorruption) are already present, but in ours they will yet be. This is the object of our hope.” “Brought to light,” φωτισαντος, can convey two thoughts: both “having manifested in Himself” (Oecumenius)—having brought into the open, into the light, into view by all—and having enlightened through the teaching of it and faith in it. Thus blessed Theodoret writes: “The Only-begotten Word, having become man, put an end to the dominion of death and granted us the promise of eternal life; this the Apostle expressed by saying: ‘brought to light’—in place of: having pointed the way in advance.” Blessed Theophylact combines both—that is, that He both manifested it in Himself and enlightened us with hope; for the latter is believed on the basis of the former: “In His own body the Saviour by actual deed abolished death, rendering it incorruptible; and us He enlightened by the gospel—to hope for life and incorruption. For we are not yet incorruptible in actual deed, but we shall be so, and in this hope the gospel establishes us.”

“Through the gospel,” δια του ευαγγελιου — should, however, be referred to everything said about the economy of salvation. This great grace was appointed from eternity but was hidden; it was made manifest now in the Lord and Saviour. In Him is the entire fullness of the economy of salvation, and we can become partakers of it only through living communion with the Lord. This communion begins with faith, is at work in the sacraments, and comes to perfection and completion through life by faith in grace. But without a beginning and an end, there can be no expectation of it. Since the beginning is faith, and faith is the fruit of the gospel proclamation, the Apostle added: δια του ευαγγελιου — as the absolutely necessary means for participation in the grace of the economy of salvation.

Let us return a little. All this depiction of the grace of God in the ordering of our salvation—foreordained from eternity, set in motion through the Incarnation of the Lord, and extending in its operation through all eternity—this depiction of God’s benevolent work toward us, so majestic, all-encompassing, and joyful, has been made by the Apostle for the purpose of enkindling the holy Timothy not to be ashamed of the testimony concerning the Lord and Saviour, and willingly to give himself to suffering for the gospel, saying as it were: there is for what to suffer; “see what power, see what a gift has been sent down to us” (holy Chrysostom). “Therefore do not be ashamed, but share in suffering for the gospel.” Next the Apostle strengthens and warms that same enthusiasm by his own personal example. And I, he says, suffer for the gospel, but am not ashamed.

His own example the holy Paul presents briefly but fully, recalling: α) how the gospel was entrusted to him (verse 11), β) how fearlessly and undisturbed he fulfils this commission (verse 12, first half), and γ) how he nurtures the hope that his labor will not be in vain (verse 12, second half)—directing all this so that from it there may flow to the holy Timothy enthusiasm for sharing in suffering for the gospel (verses 12–14).

2 Tim. 1:11. For which I was appointed a herald and an Apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.

The Apostle is persuading the holy Timothy not to be ashamed, but to bear suffering for the gospel with readiness. The chief source of enthusiasm for such an exploit is the assurance that both the work of the gospel and its content come directly from God, and that he who labors in it is directly serving God—not fulfilling human orders. For the holy Paul, this assurance was impressed directly by the Lord Himself; but the holy Timothy believed this through the holy Paul. Although he knew how the holy Paul became an Apostle and how he received from the Lord Himself the commandment to preach, it was not superfluous to renew this in his soul by recollection—just as it is never superfluous to renew the recollection of all the mysteries of the faith, which naturally become covered over by new knowledge and impressions and pushed to the background of attention. This is what the holy Paul now does. Having said: “for which I was appointed,” he revived in the mind of the holy Timothy the vivid history of the conversion of the holy Paul, drawing to this the recollection also of the repeated appearances of the Lord to him with the direct command: go to the Gentiles. And by all this there could not but be revived the assurance that, in laboring in the gospel under the guidance of the holy Paul, he was continuing the work entrusted to Paul by the Lord, and therefore was himself serving the Lord. And the fruit of the revival of such an assurance could not but be the revival and enkindling of enthusiasm to proclaim the gospel boldly, without shame, with readiness also to suffer for it. This is precisely what the Apostle wished to produce by these words. Blessed Theophylact writes: “Why did the holy Paul call himself here a teacher of the Gentiles? In order to suggest to the holy Timothy that he too must proclaim the word of the gospel to the Gentiles, and not lose heart when meeting with opposition.” The words “herald, Apostle, teacher” are in meaning synonymous. Yet a certain distinction may be seen in them. “A herald” comes into the midst of a people unknown to him and not knowing him, and proclaims the gospel. To arouse faith, he, as an Apostle, assures those who hear that he does not speak of himself, but has been sent by the Lord and announces His will to them. Then he takes those who have believed under his care and instructs them both in knowledge and in life, as a guardian, entering into the circle of their life with direct oversight.

2 Tim. 1:12. For which cause I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed.

This should have enkindled still more strongly. Without this, cooling thoughts might have come after the first: it is easy for you to speak thus, being in honor and at rest. But when he who urges to suffering without shame is himself suffering and not ashamed, the reminder of this is like adding wood to a fire already kindled. If we call to mind in addition the strong love of the holy Timothy for his father and teacher, we shall be even more assured that it was so with him too. His enthusiasm, raised by the first reminder, grew and was inflamed still more. The Apostle says to him as it were: “imitate me, who am in bonds for the teaching of the gospel” (blessed Theophylact). “Do not be troubled at the thought of my sufferings. I suffer not as an evildoer, but for the instruction of the Gentiles. Are such bonds disgraceful? Are such sufferings disgraceful? Do not, therefore, be ashamed either” (holy Chrysostom). “See how he himself also shows by deeds what he urges upon the holy Timothy—that is, not to be ashamed of suffering” (blessed Theophylact).

2 Tim. 1:12. For I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him against that Day.

A new source of enthusiasm for suffering for the gospel without shame—namely, that nothing borne and done in this regard will be forgotten, but will be wholly preserved and presented to its bearer on the day of judgment, to be laid upon the scales of righteousness and for the determination of the recompense merited by one’s life. Here he expresses his hope concerning this—and consequently that by which his enthusiasm is nourished and sustained. But as before, when he said: I suffer and am not ashamed, he was suggesting: do not be ashamed to suffer yourself either—so here also, speaking of the hope that enkindles him, he has in view the same purpose of reviving this same hope in the holy Timothy, so as to kindle in him an enthusiasm like his own—to suffer and not be ashamed.

“What I have entrusted,” παραθηκη — signifies everything that is deposited with someone for safekeeping. Consequently, it is not right to assign one single fixed meaning to this word everywhere; its meaning must be found in the flow of the discourse. In the present passage it must signify all the labors and sufferings of the holy Paul for the proclamation of the gospel. To me, he says, the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles has been entrusted; and I labor in this, and although I suffer for it, I do not lose heart, being assured that nothing of what I have borne and done on that account will perish fruitlessly. The underlying thought is that no good deed done for the glory of God and the good of one’s neighbors perishes fruitlessly, but is kept in the memory of God, in the book of life, with the Lord and Saviour, and on the day of judgment will be taken into account in determining the lot of him who did it. The Lord instils this assurance through the parable of the unjust steward. The Apostle has made it his own and expresses it here. Everything, he says, that I deposit with the Lord remains and shall remain safely in His treasury until the day of His appearing for judgment. And what is all this? Everything done by him for the gospel—both the labor of preaching, and all the sufferings for it, and all its fruits—the founding and building up of so many Churches throughout the whole world.

By “what I have entrusted” one may understand also the very content of the gospel—the faith in Christ, in so far as it has been placed by the Apostle into the souls of believers, or entrusted for safekeeping to the Church of God, whose head is Christ. The Lord placed this faith into his soul, and it became his own possession; therefore he says: what I have entrusted. I pass on or entrust to others what the Lord passed on and entrusted to me—the unchangeable faith of God. This faith is not such that it stands today and will change tomorrow. No; it will abide until the end of the age and will appear at the judgment, determining the lot of each. There is, therefore, something for which to suffer, without shame.

Upon what does the Apostle’s such hope rest? Upon the fact that the Lord is able to accomplish what he hopes from Him. When someone deposits something for safekeeping with a powerless man, who cannot even protect and guard himself, he cannot be at ease for a single moment regarding his property. But when he deposits his property with a powerful man, whom no one will dare even to approach, he is in perfect peace regarding his property. So too here with the Apostle. God is able, he says, to preserve both the faith and my labors in proclaiming it. I know whom I have believed. That is the Lord; and face to face He has spoken to me more than once—both assuring me of the truth of the faith so tangibly, and sending and enkindling me to the labors of preaching. But the Lord is almighty—“He is God, the Creator and Lord of all things” (blessed Theodoret)—therefore I am convinced that He will both preserve His faith forever, and will not leave my labors without recompense. “See what boldness! What an unshakeable hope! I know, he says, and I am most firmly convinced” (blessed Theodoret).

Thus our commentators understand “what I have entrusted” and its preservation. Holy Chrysostom says: “What does ‘what I have entrusted’ mean? The faith, the preaching. He Himself who entrusted it, he says, will keep it unchanged. I endure all things that this treasure may not be plundered, and I am ashamed of nothing, so long as it is kept intact. Or by ‘what I have entrusted’ he means the believers, whom God entrusted to him or whom he entrusted to God, as he says elsewhere: ‘and now I entrust you to God’ (Acts 20:32).” “As if he were saying this,” blessed Theophylact continues upon holy Chrysostom, “I am not ashamed, hoping that I shall lead many to God, and He will preserve them, in order to glorify them for my sake. Or by ‘what I have entrusted’ the Apostle understands the future recompense: for everyone who does something good deposits it with God for safekeeping, so as to be crowned for it in due time.”

Verses 13 and 14 seem as though inserted into the flow of the discourse. But they only seem so; in reality they constitute the natural conclusion or application of what was said from verse 8 through verse 12. Do not be ashamed of the gospel, he said, but share in suffering for it; then, having sufficiently disposed and enkindled enthusiasm for this—by the beneficence of the economy of our salvation, of which the gospel speaks, and by his own personal example—he now adds in conclusion: proclaim the gospel without shame and without fear of suffering for it, but proclaim it according to the pattern that I have set before you; keep the testament or tradition I have bequeathed to you. This is applied for the purpose of both the First and this Second Epistle—to prevent entanglement in disputes with heretics, lest one absorb empty and false ideas and corrupt the pattern of sound words. Moreover, fearless proclamation of the gospel is nothing other than keeping the pattern of sound words and the apostolic testament—keeping it by implanting it in the souls of those who hear and believe. In view of this thought, these verses may be considered a continuation of what was said in verse 12 about the Apostle’s hope that his deposit will be preserved to that Day. The keeper is the Lord; the instruments are the Apostle’s successors, of whom is not the holy Timothy the first? To him it is said: keep it and hand it on intact to those who follow; and thus it will be preserved until the end.

Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18)

2 Tim. 1:13. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

“Pattern,” υποτυπωσιν — sketch, norm, archetype. “Of sound words”—of sound doctrine. I have set before you, he says, the sound teaching concerning salvation; hold it in your mind and heart as a model, and proclaim the gospel according to it. “As painters do, so I also have sketched for you the image of virtue and all that is pleasing to God, and have placed in your soul as it were a rule, an archetype, and a sketch” (holy Chrysostom). “Like a painter, I have painted and drawn for you an icon and archetype, so that, looking upon it, you too may paint from it the same sketch of my words (in the minds and souls of believers, as on a canvas). Keep this archetype within you, and when you need to paint something, take from it and paint—for everything is contained in it” (blessed Theophylact). “Imitate painters. As they, looking attentively at the originals, copy from them the images with exactness, so you also hold as your original the teaching on faith and love that I have imparted to you” (blessed Theodoret).

“Which you have heard from me.” “The Apostle instilled in his disciple what he ought to do not only by letters, but also by word of mouth. He expresses this in many other places as well—for example, when he says: ‘whether by word or by our letter’ (2 Thess. 2:15); but here it is much clearer. Therefore let us not think (judging by the written epistles) that the teaching he imparted was insufficient; he taught his disciple much also without writing, of which he now reminds him” (holy Chrysostom).

“In the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

“In faith and love”—this phrase may be combined in various ways: either—hold the pattern of my sound words, my teaching, in faith and love, keeping them as in a storehouse, in a believing and loving heart; or—keep the pattern of my teaching that embraces both faith and love; or—whether you are proclaiming about faith or love, take it from my pattern of sound doctrine set before you. The first may be seen in the words of holy Chrysostom cited above: “the archetype and pattern I have placed in your soul.” The second—there in the same Chrysostom: “I have sketched for you the image of virtue and of all that is pleasing to God”; in the words of blessed Theodoret cited above: “hold as your original the teaching on faith and love that I have imparted to you”; and in these words of blessed Theophylact: “my words contain teaching both on faith and on love—that is, on doctrine, and on the life required of us.” The third—in these words of holy Chrysostom: “whether you need to take counsel on faith, or love, or self-control—draw your models from there, that is, from my pattern; you will have no need to seek a model elsewhere, for everything is contained there.” And in similar words of blessed Theophylact: “whether you need to give instruction on what is right, or to speak, or to act—from there you ought to take everything.” There is yet a fourth understanding—that of Oecumenius—namely, that the Apostle uttered his words moved by faith and love. “His words,” he writes, “and teachings were in the faith and love given to him by Christ.” There is no necessity to insist on any one understanding, since all of them are admissible and were assuredly realized in practice. It was not otherwise than moved by faith and love that the Apostle imparted the teaching, and teaching about faith and love; not otherwise than by faith and love did the holy Timothy receive this teaching, and keep it, and impart it to others—and proceeding from his lips, it was about nothing other than faith and love.

“That are in Christ Jesus”—grammatically refers to love, but in the nature of things not to love alone, but to faith as well. It seems one should understand it thus, without being constrained by the form of expression. This phrase indicates both the source and the characteristic feature of faith and love: faith and love bestowed by the Lord and Saviour and sustained in His spirit.

2 Tim. 1:14. Guard the good deposit by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

“The good deposit,” παραθηκη — the tradition, what has been entrusted to you and committed to your keeping—is the same as “the pattern of sound words”—or what he expressed above when he said: “He is able to guard my deposit,” την παραθηκην. This deposit is “good” because it is good in itself, proceeds from a good—divine—source, is given for good, leads to good, and will be crowned with a good end. “Guard” it, he says, unchanged and whole, ordering thereby both the manner of your convictions and the manner of your conduct and life. “Keep what I have commanded you, both in regard to faith and in regard to life by faith” (blessed Theophylact). Keep it as my successor, and having kept it whole, hand it on to your successors, teaching them likewise to hand it on to those who will come after them. So until the end. In the word “guard”—said to the holy Timothy—may all who have received the grace of apostolic succession hear the lesson for themselves: to keep unchanged what has been received from their predecessors, introducing and admitting no novelty whatsoever.

“‘By the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.’ “But how shall you keep this? Not by human strength, but by the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us by virtue of baptism. If we preserve Him in ourselves and do not drive Him away by our carelessness and evil conduct, He too will preserve in us everything we have from God. Therefore, strive to preserve the Spirit, and He will preserve in you what has been entrusted to you” (blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius). Holy Chrysostom explains this more fully: ‘Guard the good deposit.’ How? ‘By the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.’ The human soul and human strength are not of themselves capable of preserving such great goods entrusted to them. Why? Because around us are many robbers, deep darkness, the devil stands and plots, and we do not know at what hour, at what moment he will attack us. How then can we preserve them? By the Holy Spirit—that is, if we keep the Spirit in ourselves; and He will be present with us if we do not drive away His grace. For ‘unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord keep the city, the watchman keeps vigil in vain’ (Ps. 127:1). He is our wall, He is our fence, He is our refuge. You will say: but if He dwells in us and Himself keeps us, why then the instructions? So that we may hold Him, preserve Him, and not drive Him away from us by evil deeds.”

“In us”—in whom and how? In whom? One may say: in you and me; or in all the Apostles and their close disciples, also called Apostles; or in the Apostles and all their successors, past, present, and future. How then? Upon the Apostles the Holy Spirit descended directly; but their successors received and receive Him through ordination. Blessed Theophylact, in saying that we have the Holy Spirit through baptism, suggests that by the Holy Spirit he understands the common Christian grace—and consequently by “in us” he means in Christians generally. But since a little above, speaking of παραθηκη and saying that this means the commandments on faith and life imparted to the holy Timothy, he added: “or the Apostle wishes to say: the gift you received, as he said above (that is, in verse 6)”—it cannot be denied that he understood here also the Holy Spirit received through ordination.

Having set forth his own example for the encouragement of the holy Timothy to suffer for the gospel without shame, the holy Paul sets forth another example—that of Onesiphorus, a person closer in standing to the holy Timothy, and even inferior to him in rank—all with the same purpose of enkindling enthusiasm. He suggests by this: if this man was not ashamed, who is below you—then all the more should not you be ashamed. But as a bright thing appears brighter when placed beside something dark, the Apostle, in order to heighten the value of Onesiphorus’s lack of shame, records how everyone had abandoned him—most likely out of shame and fear. He says as it were: all were frightened by the threatening danger and were ashamed to confess their faith; Onesiphorus alone held firm. Here is an example for you! Act as he did.

2 Tim. 1:15. You know this: that all in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

“You know.” Perhaps the Apostle was also communicating this to the holy Timothy for his information: for he, as the overseer of the Asian Churches, ought to know what the Asians were like, or what they were capable of showing themselves to be in the face of dangers. So says blessed Theodoret. But more likely, it is to be supposed, for the purpose already noted—to enkindle the holy Timothy, thereby strengthening the significance of the example of Onesiphorus, and not only his, but even the Apostle’s own—as the same blessed Theodoret further writes: “By this the Apostle persuades Timothy to bear with manfulness the troubles that come his way”—and as holy Chrysostom explains: “The Apostle speaks of temptations not to strike down (dishearten) the disciple, but to stir him up (enkindle him)—so that if at some point he himself should be subjected to similar temptations, he might not be troubled, looking to his teacher and remembering what befell him.”

“All have turned away from me.” They did not abandon the faith, but they withdrew from the Apostle. Surely the danger was great. The Apostle’s earlier imprisonments—both in Rome and elsewhere—had been lighter and less dangerous. Those who plotted against him were for the most part Jews, who sometimes incited the Gentiles; but the authorities took him under the protection of the law. But now Nero himself is against him. Those who showed themselves to be on his side could not expect mercy either. The danger of death looked them in the face, and all the Apostle’s acquaintances withdrew from him. Holy Chrysostom says: “He was then, most likely, taken into custody and abandoned by everyone—he saw no kindness, no mercy, no help from anyone, but was left by the very believers and friends. ‘All turned away from me,’ he says, ‘who are in Asia.’ In Rome there were then, most likely, many people from the Asian provinces; perhaps they even accompanied the Apostle to Rome (Oecumenius); but no one, he says, came to me, no one acknowledged me, all became estranged.” Blessed Theodoret adds: “They avoided meeting the Apostle, fearing Nero.”

“Among whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.” The course of the discourse gives this sense: even Phygellus and Hermogenes. They were probably closer to the Apostle, in greater contact with him, and better known both to him and to the holy Timothy. For after these words there naturally suggests itself the supplement: those known to you, who stood out so much from the others, who showed themselves such zealots—yet it turned out that even they were among those who in times of peace show themselves as believers, but when danger confronts them, they hide. Yet in the Apostle’s words there is no trace of reproach or condemnation, but rather something like compassion is heard. So holy Chrysostom: “And observe how philosophically the Apostle’s soul acts! He said only what happened, but reproached them not at all; the one who did him good he praised and wished him countless blessings, while on them he wished no evil whatsoever.” In any case, however, it is natural to see here also a hint to the holy Timothy: take care that you too do not prove the same; or—do not look at them, but at me, enduring this and not being ashamed—and at Onesiphorus, of whom I shall speak presently.

2 Tim. 1:16–17. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he sought me out diligently and found me.

He set forth the example not to be imitated, and now sets forth one that is to be imitated. The purpose of both, however, is one—to enkindle the spirit not to be ashamed of the gospel and not to fear its enemies. Onesiphorus, he says, was not ashamed of me and was not afraid of those persecuting me, but sought me out and refreshed me many times. For this the Apostle surrounds him with a prayer for the mercy of the Lord upon him—both in this life and all the more at the judgment of God. Here is whom to imitate! Blessed Theodoret writes: “He is admirable, worthy of emulation, and thrice-blessed who rendered so many services to the Apostle and received such a blessing from the Apostle’s lips. For those whom the Apostle mentioned above, even when they were with him, turned away from him; but this man came from Asia to Rome, neither wearied by the length of the journey, nor afraid of the most savage of emperors, and counted the Apostle worthy of every service. Therefore the Apostle did not to him alone, but to his entire household, repay with the mercy of God.”

“May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus.” Onesiphorus rendered service, but the prayer for mercy is for his whole household. This is either because for the head of a household the welfare of the household is dearer than anything, and a good wish for the household is the most pleasant good wish for himself personally; or because the members of his household also together with him refreshed the Apostle, and were, moreover, worthy in themselves of every attention and respect, both for the sincerity of their faith and for their virtues. “Such were they (the members of the household). So Onesiphorus raised them” (blessed Theophylact).

“For he often refreshed me.—He refreshed me,” ανεψυξεν — cooled, revived. The Apostle presents himself as scorched by grief and burdens, both on account of the chains and on account of being abandoned by everyone. The sympathy of Onesiphorus and his services to the Apostle were, in the midst of his grief, like water to one who thirsts and coolness to one oppressed by the heat. “He, he says, refreshed and strengthened me in my sufferings, as one might refresh an athlete exhausted by the heat” (holy Chrysostom).

“And was not ashamed of my chains”—he did not consider it degrading to have close and friendly fellowship with one who was held in bonds as a criminal. His conviction of the divine dignity of the Gospel proclaimed by the Apostle surrounded in his mind, heart, and conscience—as with a heavenly halo—the very countenance of the Apostle himself, and gave him strength to rise above ordinary human opinion concerning prisoners: he did not blush when entering the prison and leaving it to comfort the prisoner—the Apostle.

“But when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me.” At that time there were many prisons; for it seems that in those days they were private houses whose owners served as their keepers. Thus, anyone who wished to see a prisoner had first to find him. Onesiphorus, upon arriving in Rome and learning of the holy Paul’s imprisonment, immediately began to search for him—and to search σπουδαιοτερον — most zealously—and did not rest until he had found him. He was not afraid of Nero’s wrath: “Although the circumstances were full of danger, for the Apostle had then incurred the anger of Nero by converting someone close to him. But Onesiphorus, upon arriving in Rome, not only did not avoid meeting me, but sought me out with utmost zeal and found me (what courage! what faith! [cf. blessed Theophylact]). Such should all believers be (and especially pastors)—held back neither by fear, nor by threats, nor by shame” (St. Chrysostom).

2 Tim. 1:18. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. And how much he served me in Ephesus you know very well.

Mercy for mercy. “Onesiphorus, says the Apostle, showed me mercy, and for this he will receive his recompense on that dread and terrible day, when we shall all stand in great need of mercy” (St. Chrysostom). “On that day much mercy will be needed by all, even by the saints themselves. If Onesiphorus, who exposed himself to manifest dangers for Christ’s sake, is to be saved by mercy—how much more we?” (blessed Theophylact). The Apostle desires the most needful thing; for if we find no mercy there, all is lost—and lost forever.

“May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord.” Lord from Lord. “Are there then two Lords? By no means; ‘for to us there is one Lord Jesus Christ and one God’ (1 Cor. 8:6). Those infected by the Marcionite heresy appeal to this expression, but let them know that it is quite common in Scripture. In many other places one can often encounter this expression—for instance, when it is said: ‘The Lord said to my Lord’ (Ps. 109:1); and again: ‘The Lord rained from the Lord’ (Gen. 19:24). This demonstrates the consubstantiality of the Divine Persons, not a difference of essence; and the Apostle speaks thus not so that we might conceive of two essences distinct from each other, but of two Persons sharing one and the same essence” (St. Chrysostom).

“And how much he served me in Ephesus you know very well.”—This is high praise indeed! For in Ephesus, to show one’s closeness to the Apostle was no less dangerous and no less exposed one to mockery from others. Yet Onesiphorus is always the same. As he believed, so he became devoted to the faith and to those who teach it, neither ashamed of anyone nor afraid of anyone. “This manner of conduct had become habitual with him. He did not display it merely once. But as he was in Ephesus, as you yourself know, so he is here as well” (blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius). “Such ought every zealous and vigilant Christian to be—to do good not once, nor twice or three times, but throughout one’s whole life. Just as our body is not nourished once to sustain it for all of life, but requires daily food, so too here, in godliness, we daily stand in need of the assistance that comes from good works” (St. Chrysostom).

Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

The Apostle has explained what obligations the spirit of strength imposes on the holy Timothy. He now begins to set forth what the spirit of love imposes on him (2:1–13). This section opens with the encouraging word “be strong”—and thus seems, as it were, to continue the discourse on the spirit of strength. So it appeared—and had appeared—that the flow of the discourse, from (2 Tim. 1:8) to (2 Tim. 2:13), could be distributed as follows. The Apostle said in (2 Tim. 1:8): “be not ashamed, but share in suffering”—he then urges the reason for not being ashamed in (2 Tim. 1:8–18), and the reason for courageously sharing in suffering in the present section (2:1–13). But since further on—from (2 Tim. 2:14)—the Apostle speaks of sound-mindedness, and then from (2 Tim. 3:10)—offers general exhortations to right pastoral ministry and thus concludes the didactic portion of the Epistle; there remains no separate word for the spirit of love, as though it were forgotten—which is difficult to allow. This is why the Commentary found itself compelled to recognize that the present section speaks of the enkindling of the spirit of love, and agreed to this all the more readily in that the section treats not of courage but of zeal for the Gospel, which ordinarily is the fruit of love—love for what one is zealous about and for whom. We therefore hold that in this section the Apostle counsels the holy Timothy: act in the spirit of love, or enkindle the spirit of love—love: aa) for the Gospel itself (2:1–2) and: bb) for the labor of proclaiming it (2:3–13).

Loving the Gospel, not only guard it yourself as a treasure, but hand it on also to other trustworthy people who are capable of teaching others in turn—so that the Gospel, passing from generation to generation, may never be cut off from the earth.

2 Tim. 2:1. You therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

You—my child. As he turns to showing how to enkindle the spirit of love, he begins with a word breathing love: “my child!” “Not simply ‘child,’ but: ‘my child’” (St. Chrysostom). “See with what fatherly love he offers him his exhortation! With this word he seems to have poured his own loving soul into him” (blessed Theophylact). Be strong, ενδυναμου — grow strong, grow, come to maturity. In what respect? “In the grace that is in Christ Jesus”: in general, in the gracious order of life which the Lord Jesus has established on earth; more particularly, in that order of action to which you are bound by the special gift of grace given you through the laying on of my hands—the gift of archpastoral ministry, the grace of Apostolic succession. “Be strong in grace”—the same as what was said above: “kindle afresh the gift of God” (1:6). This gift is threefold—it encompasses the spirit of strength, of love, and of sound-mindedness. Since the spirit of strength has already been discussed, here we should understand the spirit of love. Or else “in grace” means: by the power of grace. Grow, come to maturity in Apostolic ministry—in the proclamation of the Gospel and in the ordering of life according to it. “In this the Lord’s grace will strengthen you” (blessed Theodoret). “Be sober, be watchful; the Lord’s grace wrestles alongside you and cooperates with you; but you too must perform your own work with full readiness and willingness” (St. Chrysostom). “Have it wrestling alongside you” (blessed Theophylact). How? By acting in the spirit of grace, according to its promptings and impulses. If you do not act thus, then this spirit, not being kindled and fanned by labors corresponding to it, will be extinguished. In this way both meanings are reconciled: strengthened by the power of grace, act in the spirit of that grace—and you will grow in the order of life to which it calls and binds you.

2 Tim. 2:2. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.

He said: “be strong”—grow and come to maturity; and then adds: “and what you have heard—hand on.” The second explains the first, or points to the means of achieving it. Grow and come to maturity by enkindling your grace through the power of that same grace. How is this to be done, or how can one succeed in it? You will succeed if you do not hide within yourself the treasure of teaching that has been entrusted to you—the saving mysteries of God—but share them zealously, spreading knowledge of them both by your own word and by the word of your other capable disciples. If you love this treasure, you cannot act otherwise; for it has no other fitting and proper treasury than human souls. If you hold it dear, hide it in those treasuries. “He did not say: speak, but: ‘hand on’—as if speaking of a treasure that is passed on and kept in a safe place” (St. Chrysostom).

“And what you have heard from me.” Into your soul, as into a treasury, I have deposited—through your hearing, opened by faith—the treasure of the mysteries of God. Do the same for others that I have done for you. Setting these words in relation to what is often repeated in both Epistles—do not enter into disputes, controversies, and speculations—we may see implied in them the admonition: hand on what you heard, and not what “you yourself have devised” (St. Chrysostom)—“not what you arrived at through your own investigation; for faith comes from hearing” (blessed Theophylact). “What you heard from me, that continue to preach” (blessed Theodoret).

“What does it mean: ‘in the presence of many witnesses’? He speaks as if to say: you heard from me not secretly and in private, but in the presence of many, openly” (St. Chrysostom). “Some (Photius in Oecumenius) understand by ‘many witnesses’ the Law and the Prophets. My word, he says, was composed of testimonies from Scripture” (blessed Theophylact). It is difficult to assign a definitive meaning to these words. Both are true: that the holy Paul loved to season his word with testimonies from the Law and the Prophets, and that he always spoke openly—not in a whisper, as if fearing refutation, but with boldness that testified to the depth and vividness of his conviction in the truth, ever ready to contend with opposing views, confident of victory. Perhaps this is said in order to breathe into the holy Timothy that same boldness. But can these words not be connected with “hand on”? Hand on in the presence of many witnesses. Such an arrangement was necessary for the preservation of the teaching without additions or subtractions, and provided a very reliable means for this. Witnesses cut off from those to whom the teaching was entrusted for transmission to others any impulse to weave their own inventions into what had been handed down.

“‘Hand on to faithful people.—Faithful’—that is, reliable, those on whom one can fully depend not to distort the teaching but to remain faithful guardians of the transmitted truths. ‘Faithful,’—meaning believers, not those who love to investigate and reason—those who will not betray (treacherously) what has been preached to them” (St. Chrysostom). “Not those who are skilled at composing syllogisms and weaving controversies, but those of whom you can be confident that they will not prove to be traitors to the commission entrusted to them” (blessed Theophylact).

“Who will be able to teach others also.” Faithfulness is a moral quality, while the ability to teach others is an intellectual or rhetorical one. The intellectual quality is taken into account in the selection of these persons only to the extent that they are capable of passing on to others what has been handed to them, in the form in which it was handed on, and thus are capable of assimilating what is entrusted to them. Otherwise the stream or chain of tradition—which has been chosen as the primary means of preserving divinely revealed truths—will be broken. “What good is it if one who has received the teaching is indeed faithful (‘and accepts everything without disputation’ [blessed Theophylact]), but cannot hand the teaching on to others—or if he himself does not betray the teaching, but cannot make others the same? A teacher must have two qualities: to be faithful and to be able to teach” (St. Chrysostom).

But of what persons is the Apostle speaking here? Not of all those to whom the Gospel is preached and who have believed; for among such there might be not only those incapable of teaching others, but also those who might prove unfaithful. Therefore one must conclude that the reference is to those chosen to be guardians of the tradition and keepers of the Church’s order—that is, bishops and presbyters. There is also an allusion here to the fact that what was handed on to them included certain things that did not enter the sphere of the general teaching of the faithful. Is there not a reference here to the transmission of the manner of celebrating the holy mysteries—which was transmitted secretly, as St. Basil the Great attests, though in the presence of witnesses from among the elder faithful, for more reliable preservation? “This pertains to the bishops and presbyters whom the holy Timothy was to ordain” (Photius in Oecumenius). “Such an arrangement is made with regard to presbyters and bishops, not with regard to all the faithful—and laymen. For this would be inappropriate, given that the holy Paul himself preached the word to all without distinction, both Jews and Greeks. I think, moreover, that this speaks of certain mystical matters which were to be communicated only to pastors—those who are faithful and capable of teaching” (blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius).

Loving the Gospel, love also the labors of proclaiming it; α) look at the soldier (vv. 3–4)—look at the contestant in the arena (v. 5)—look at the farmer (v. 6)—how they, loving their work, spare no effort for it and make progress—and let this inspire you (v. 7). Let another source of inspiration be: β) reflection on the Lord’s resurrection (v. 8)—my own example (vv. 9–10)—and the Christian hope (vv. 11–13).

2 Tim. 2:3. You therefore endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Endure hardship — κακοπαθησον. Hardship, κακοπαθεια, is the bearing of painful labors connected with the work one has undertaken, along with endurance of all the adversities encountered in the process. This is evident from the examples of the soldier, the arena-contestant, and the farmer that are offered here. And so, “endure hardship” here means: bear the labors of proclaiming the Gospel and endure the adversities attendant upon them, “as a good soldier of Christ.” How much a soldier must endure even in peacetime! And what he endures in wartime, those who have not taken part in war can hardly imagine. What inspires him? The desire to show himself a soldier as he ought to be—so that no one, on his account, may have reasonable grounds to think ill of the military. He loves the service and strives not to dishonor it through himself, but to glorify it and display the brightness of its dignity. The Apostle is saying to the holy Timothy: look at the soldier—and just as he is zealous for worthy service, so you be zealous for worthy proclamation of the Gospel, without retreating before the labors and adversities connected with it. And do this with all the greater effort, the higher the King you serve. A soldier strives to please an earthly king; but you are Christ’s soldier. Serve therefore in the work of the Gospel so much more tirelessly than all other soldiers as the Lord and Saviour surpasses all earthly kings. “Consider whose soldier you are, and bear the labors of warfare courageously” (blessed Theodoret). “Oh, what an honor to be a soldier of Christ! Recall how important it is considered to serve under the command of earthly kings—(how much more important and lofty is it then to be under the headship of Christ the Lord? And accordingly, be so much the more ready for every kind of labor and adversity in the work of proclaiming Him). If hardship (labor and need) is inseparable from the soldier of a king, so that to be free from hardship is evidently a kind of discharge from the military rank—then neither should you grieve that you endure labors and adversities (in the service of proclaiming the Gospel), for this is unavoidable for a soldier (of Christ); rather you should grieve if you do not endure them” (St. Chrysostom).

The comparison of the holy Timothy, as archpastor, to a soldier shows that he—like all pastors—is called to struggle against impiety, ignorance, and sin. He must not be indifferent to these enemies of man, but wherever he observes them, arm himself against them at once.

2 Tim. 2:4. No soldier on active service entangles himself in the affairs of civilian life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him.

He said: labor in proclaiming the Gospel, not sparing yourself, as a good soldier of Christ; now he explains who is a good soldier among ordinary soldiers, so that it may be more clearly seen what it means to be a good soldier of Christ as well. Among them, that soldier is good who is bound by nothing but, being free from everything, gives himself entirely to military duties. And here too, that one is a good soldier of Christ among pastors who gives himself entirely to proclaiming the Gospel, to spreading faith in Him, and to ordering life according to Him among believers—casting everything else aside without attention, not even touching it in passing.

“Being enlisted,” στρατευομενος — entering military service, becoming a soldier—agreeing and resolving to be a soldier. Having taken up the task, perform it as it ought to be done. Having set your hand to the plough, do not look back. By “the affairs of civilian life,” ταις του βιου πραγματειας, is meant everything pertaining to ordinary life—trade, commerce, crafts, all manner of transactions and cares; all this a soldier abandons. “Entangles himself,” εμπλεκεται — is entwined or enmeshed. “The Apostle has expressed himself vividly: εμπλεκεται — for affairs of life are indeed binding fetters and serpents that coil around and wound. By πραγματειας he makes visible all the cares, transactions, vanities, and burdens of life. These words admonish: why bind yourself? Why entangle yourself in these encumbrances and troublesome affairs? Be concerned with warfare alone, and in this way you will please Christ, who has chosen you for His service” (blessed Theophylact). “The commander,” στρατολογησαντι — him who enrolled you in the register of soldiers, who chose you and recognized you as worthy of this rank. Two incentives to vigilant and watchful pastoral ministry are given to the pastor here. In the word “being enlisted” the admonition is: you have taken upon yourself the work of a pastor—pastor then as is fitting, fulfill what your rank and your name oblige you to. In the word “commander”—him who chose you—the admonition is: you have been honored; render to the One who honored you service according to His will; you have received a gift—bring forth fruit. The labor is not small, but keep your gaze on the One whom you will please by laboring. He is the Lord of all.—Both duties are fulfilled by detachment from worldly cares.

2 Tim. 2:5. And if anyone competes in the games (enters into contest), he is not crowned unless he competes lawfully (conducts the contest lawfully).

The second example: look at one who has entered a contest (in the arena), and the second aspect of pastoral zeal. Through the example of the soldier it was impressed: having left everything, give yourself entirely to zealous pastoral ministry; while through the example of the athlete who has entered into struggle and contest it is impressed: be zealous with your whole soul for pastoral ministry, but be zealous lawfully, fittingly, with prudence. Zeal for pastoral ministry that is imprudent and oversteps its bounds brings no benefit and merits no reward—just as a wrestler who does not conduct his bout as he ought, who does not observe the rules established for it, is not crowned. “Even athletic competition (contests at the games) has certain rules according to which the competitors (athletes) must compete. And whoever does not conduct his struggle according to these rules does not receive the crowns” (blessed Theodoret). “For him it is not enough to come forward to compete, or to anoint himself, or to meet his opponent; but if he does not observe all the rules of wrestling—concerning food, abstinence, and purity, the very manner of wrestling, and in general if he does not fulfill everything obligatory for contestants—he will not receive the crown” (St. Chrysostom). “For it is not left to each person’s discretion to compete however he wishes; there are also laws governing this—contest laws” (blessed Theophylact). So too the pastor must minister not haphazardly, but with strict circumspection and prudent direction of affairs; he must adapt his actions to the place, to the person, and to the course of external and internal affairs—both the civic and the spiritually gracious—keeping in everything a single goal: the vanquishing of visible and invisible adversaries through the establishment of the light of truth, purity of morals, and gracious sanctification. Just as the whole crowd watches the wrestler and surrounds him with honor for his courage and victory, so the whole flock watches the pastor and holds him in reverence if he strives untiringly against falsehood, evil morals, and every form of disorder, and does not withdraw until he has gained the victory.

“Having thus shown that the valiant soldier is free from other cares, and that the courageous athlete competes lawfully and that the one who competes lawfully is crowned, the Apostle presented yet another example, in which labor is combined with benefit” (blessed Theodoret).

2 Tim. 2:6. The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive a share of the crops.

The third example—the farmer: for “farmer” in Greek is γεωργον. This inspires to the labors of pastoral ministry. There is labor, and no small labor; but it is not labor in vain—it is richly fruitful, and you yourself will be the first to taste of it, just as it is fitting for the farmer to be the first to taste of the fruits of the land he has tilled. The tasting of fruits is promised, of course, also in the future; but from the manner of expression it is evident that it accompanies the very labor and follows it immediately. Labor, and you will immediately see the fruit of your labor in your flock—in the enlightenment of their minds with the knowledge of truth, in the flowering among them of every virtue, in the overshadowing of them with gracious sanctification. You will see such fruits and taste from them spiritual consolation and joy that will nourish your soul more sweetly than honey and the honeycomb. Blessed Theodoret writes: “you have great recompense for your labors in cultivating the souls entrusted to you.” Or thus: at the very time when you teach others, you yourself will be illumined all the more with the light of truth; as you lead others on the path of virtue, you yourself will be anointed with it; as you graciously sanctify others in the sacraments, you yourself will the more fully partake of the grace of the sacraments. Only labor; if you cease to labor, truth will begin to grow dim in your soul, virtue will weaken, and grace will withdraw its overshadowing from you. The pastor who does not labor in teaching, in guiding his flock in virtue, in sanctifying them through the sacraments and other sanctifying rites, harms above all himself—just as, by laboring, he is the first to taste of the fruits of good pastoral ministry.

St. Chrysostom says: “Having spoken of what happens with ordinary people—soldiers and athletes—and having indicated their rewards: first, ‘that he may please the commander,’ second, that he may be crowned—the Apostle now brings a third example, which is especially close to Timothy (as archpastor). The example of the soldier and the athlete applies also to subordinates (the flock), while the example of the farmer applies to the teacher (the pastor), who must be not only a soldier and an athlete but also a farmer. The farmer does not care for himself alone, but for the fruits of the land, and in those fruits receives no small recompense for his labors.—Just as the farmer labors not without profit, but himself before all others enjoys the fruits of his labors; so too must it be with the teacher.” Let us continue this with the words of blessed Theophylact: “So too the teacher (pastor) does not labor in vain, but himself is the first to taste the fruit of his own toil; for God rewards him abundantly (straightway). Lest anyone grow weary and show discontent that the recompense is deferred to the future, the Apostle says: behold, in the very labor itself you already receive recompense; if nothing else, the benefit to souls is already great gain for you. And observe: the Apostle did not simply say ‘farmer,’ but ‘the hard-working one’—that is, not one who works lightly, but one who undertakes intense, sweat-drenched labor.” Do not give sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids, O pastor; but laboring day and night, apply without wearying all mental effort, heartfelt prayer, and the are of speech to the work of good pastoral care. Let us not pass over the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa, cited by Oecumenius: “Thus spoke the Apostle, suggesting that teachers must first show by deed in their own persons the fulfillment of what they teach. For this is what it means for teachers to be the first to taste the fruits of their teaching—when before all others they cultivate virtue in themselves.”

2 Tim. 2:7. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in everything.

The speech has been parabolic, and its meaning has not been spelled out; examples from ordinary life have been given, but what they signify in application to the pastor has not been indicated. The Apostle therefore adds: supply this yourself; reflect deeply and understand; and having understood, be such a one in very deed. “Since the mode of speech was parabolic, the Apostle of necessity rouses the holy Timothy to understand the hidden meaning, and prays to God to grant him understanding” (blessed Theodoret). He did not add his own explanation because it is not difficult to discern the meaning of the parabolic speech, and perhaps also because one’s own thought will more readily and directly light upon what is most needful for the one reflecting—not merely what is signified in general, in the abstract. And further: “I spoke thus (in parables), he says, in order to sharpen you (your mind)” (blessed Theophylact).

“May the Lord give you understanding in everything.” “In everything,” he says, “so that you may understand what has been said as you ought, and know how to do everything else as is fitting” (Oecumenius)—that you may be wise “in all words and deeds” (blessed Theophylact). The Apostle added this both to express his love for the holy Timothy and to incline him himself, when approaching the understanding of God’s words, to turn to the Lord in prayer: “for there is one Teacher—Christ” (Mt. 23:8)—and there never has been, is not, and never will be anyone who has properly understood and fully appropriated to his own soul the truth of God by himself alone. This the Lord grants to whom He will and when He will. Even those enlightened by God do not all know everything, and not everything they know do they learn all at once. Therefore for all, prayer—both for the increase of faith and for the multiplication of understanding—must be unceasing: for all, and most especially for pastors.

Up to this point (vv. 3–7) the Apostle, through examples taken from ordinary life, has been clarifying only the pressing necessity of zealous archpastoral labor in the work of faith, and to some degree its direction and gradation—namely: as a soldier, he, having left everything, enters into the work of pastoral ministry; as an athlete, he conducts the work purposefully; as a farmer, he keeps his gaze on the fruit or crowning of his labor. And all this is inspiring; yet the Apostle judged it necessary, for the kindling of pastoral zeal, to set forth also particular motivating considerations, such as: the resurrection of the Lord (v. 8)—his own example (2:9–10)—and the certainty of the Christian hope (2:11–13). This is analogous to how earlier he inspired courage that is not ashamed in the proclamation of the Gospel (1:8–18).

If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

2 Tim. 2:8. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my Gospel.

The Lord’s resurrection is the foundation of our faith: for since the Lord has risen, our belief that He is God, incarnate for our salvation, is not in vain. It is the foundation of our hope: for since the Lord has risen, He has also ascended and sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us and assuring us that with Him all things will be granted to us, and that truly where He is, there His servant will be also. It is the foundation of the very work of proclaiming the Gospel: for the risen and therefore ascended Lord sent down the Holy Spirit, through whom the Gospel is proclaimed through the chosen Apostles and their successors. Reflection on the risen Lord restores all of this in the awareness of one who ponders Him. And how inspiring this is to zeal for the flourishing of faith and the perfection of believers—which lie upon the archpastors! This is why the Apostle urges: remember the risen Lord, concerning whom we proclaim the Gospel, and be inspired thereby for the labors of proclamation and the ordering of believers. Christ Jesus has risen; consequently, our faith that He is the Son of God, incarnate for our salvation, is true—consequently, death is conquered and condemnation is lifted from our race—consequently, the way to heaven is opened to us—consequently, those who believe in Him, being one with Him, carry within themselves the ground on which they too will be where He is—consequently, those who labor to draw believers to Him through the Gospel are building up His body, which through this grows and comes to its fullness; and when it attains that fullness, it will bring the present order of things to an end and begin the future radiant Kingdom of God. See what order the Lord has graciously appointed you to work in! Be zealous then. Do you see what has been accomplished for us by the risen Lord? It would be unforgivable for you and for me not to labor in the proclamation of this, knowing that what all this was accomplished for can be attained in no other way than through the planting of faith in Him among men—faith born from hearing the proclamation. Labor in it therefore zealously, without retreating before the inevitable adversities and sufferings connected with it. The Lord Himself first suffered and then rose. So too bear first the humbling hardships, and then you will be crowned with a bright crown of success in your work. St. Chrysostom says: “Why does the Apostle here mention the Lord’s resurrection? In order to encourage the disciple and show the benefit of suffering, since our Teacher Christ Himself conquered death through suffering. Remember this, he says, and you will have sufficient consolation. Remember this, and you will not fall under the weight of afflictions (in the work of proclaiming the Gospel)” (blessed Theophylact).

Our commentators do not read “the Lord,” but only “Jesus Christ.” Yet since the very next word here is “risen,” this says the same thing as “the Lord”—that is, the Master of life and death and all things. The Apostle says the same in the Epistle to the Romans—that according to the flesh Jesus Christ is of the seed of David; but His resurrection from the dead confirmed that He is the incarnate Son of God. In connection with this, our commentators, in resolving the question of why the Apostle added “of the seed of David,” conjecture that this was inserted by the Apostle intentionally, to show that the Son of God took on truly human nature in its reality, and did not merely appear to bear it. “At that time some,” says St. Chrysostom, “had already begun to disparage the economy of our salvation, being ashamed of the greatness of God’s love for mankind (saying: is it possible that God should have taken on our lowly nature?). For the gifts of God to us are so great that men are ashamed to ascribe them to God and do not believe that He would have shown such condescension.” They could not deny that in the person of Jesus Christ shone the whole fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9). But, unable to believe that God’s omnipotence could or that God’s goodness would see fit to take on our nature in its substance for our salvation, and to dwell in it fully “bodily,” they “denied the taking on of flesh and said that the Incarnation was in appearance only”—as blessed Theodoret writes. “They considered it shameful,” continues blessed Theophylact in his explanation, “that the Son of God should suffer, and perhaps for this reason invented the apparitional character (of the Incarnation). God humbled Himself for us to such a degree that these people are ashamed to attribute such humility to God.”

“According to my Gospel”—the Apostle added this as a transition to the following discourse about himself; or to say: as I have proclaimed everywhere from the very beginning. In telling you that Jesus Christ is of the seed of David, yet at the same time, as risen from the dead, is the Son of God and God, I am proclaiming nothing new to you. This is my constant preaching, from the moment the risen Lord Himself appeared to me and taught me this. “There are also those who proclaim otherwise; but one must heed not them but my Gospel” (blessed Theophylact, from St. Chrysostom).

2 Tim. 2:9. For which I suffer hardship even to bonds as an evildoer; but the word of God is not bound.

“For which”—in the Gospel, in the work and labor of proclaiming it. “I suffer hardship”—I endure all the adversities and deprivations connected with this. And not only this—which every person who has willingly undertaken some enterprise must endure—but I have even been cast into prison, bound in chains, as though an evildoer—for the saving proclamation of the Gospel. In these words one hears: and I am not ashamed, and I am not afraid, and I do not lose heart—being inspired by that same remembrance of the risen Lord which I also enjoin upon you. Imitate me and, inspired by such remembrance, labor untiringly in proclaiming the Gospel. You may encounter bonds, as I have; but this is no obstacle to the course of the Gospel: bonds bind the body, but the word of God is not bound by these bonds; it flows and flows ever onward, watering and nourishing souls. Therefore take courage and be strong.

For one who loves the Gospel and is zealous for it, nothing can serve as a greater inspiration than this—the unboundedness of the Gospel proclamation by outward chains. St. Chrysostom portrays this vividly. “If,” he says, “we were worldly soldiers or were waging a sensory war, these bonds that bind the hands would have force; but now God has made us such that nothing conquers us. Our hands are bound, but not our tongue; nothing can bind the tongue except fear and unbelief; if these are not in us, then even though someone places chains upon us, the proclamation is not bound. He who binds the farmer hinders the sowing, for the farmer sows with his hand; but if you bind the teacher, you do not thereby hinder his word, for he sows with his tongue and not his hand. Therefore our word is not subject to bonds; and when we are bound, it is unbound and presses forward. How, you ask? Why, thus—we proclaim the Gospel (‘and write’ [blessed Theophylact]), even though we are bound. He says this to encourage those who are not bound: if we, who are bound, proclaim it, then so much the more ought you to do so, you who are not bound. You have heard that ‘I suffer hardship as an evildoer’? Do not be downcast; for it is a great miracle for one who is bound to do the same as those who are unbound—for one who is bound to surpass all, for one who is bound to conquer those who have bound him. What we proclaim is the word of God, not our own; human chains cannot bind the word of God.”

2 Tim. 2:10. Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

As an inspiration to the labors of proclaiming the Gospel, the holy Paul has set before Timothy the example of his own untiring pursuit of these labors, unbroken even by chains. What inspired him? Besides the truth, the divinity, and the radiant glory of what he proclaimed—sealed in mind and heart by the Lord’s resurrection—it was the desire for the salvation of God’s elect and an active love for them. But just as he has enjoined the holy Timothy to remember the risen Lord so that he might thereby be inspired for pastoral labors, as Paul himself was inspired for Apostolic labors: so too, of course, he mentions his own desire for the salvation of the elect—for whose sake he labors Apostolically—in order that the holy Timothy might kindle that same desire in himself and be moved by it to the labors before him. “With love,” he says, “I endure every kind of affliction, so that the worthy may be vouchsafed salvation and become partakers of that eternal glory; for the Master has not only vouchsafed salvation to believers but also promised them an imperishable glory” (blessed Theodoret).

The elect were chosen for salvation before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). But of themselves they can neither know the way of salvation nor set foot upon it. They learn of it through the proclamation of the Gospel and set foot on it through the call. This is accomplished by Apostolic preaching, in accordance with God’s command. The Lord sent the Apostles: “Go and teach” (Mt. 28:19). But He sent them “as lambs in the midst of wolves” (Lk. 10:3). Therefore, although they bring into the midst of men the essential and only true good, they inevitably suffer deprivations, oppressions, persecutions, bonds, and death itself. Just as one who undertakes to gather beautiful flowers growing among thorns inevitably scratches himself: so they too, gathering God’s elect from among men, inevitably suffer painfully. They suffer, yet do not draw back from the work that entails suffering—not merely out of submission to the will of God, but also out of love for these elect ones, “that they also may obtain salvation.” What an inspiring admonition for pastors! St. Chrysostom says: “Here is another exhortation: I endure this, he says, not for my own sake but for the salvation of others; if I sought only my own good, I could live without trouble, I could endure none of this; why then do I endure it? For the good of others, so that others might obtain eternal life. And what does he add? He did not simply say: for some, but: ‘for the sake of the elect.’ If God has chosen them, then we must endure all things for them, ‘that they also may obtain salvation.’ By the expression ‘that they also’ he explains and shows that they will receive it just as we do; for God has chosen us too. Just as God suffered for us, so we must suffer for them, so that they too may obtain salvation.” Blessed Theophylact continues this discourse: “Lest anyone say: what are you talking about—‘that they also may obtain salvation’? You yourself are in chains and on the verge of perishing, yet you boast of being the cause of salvation for others? I am not speaking, he says, of this bodily salvation, but of the one ‘that is in Christ Jesus’—the true and glorious (eternal salvation of the soul); whereas bodily salvation is not (unconditionally) glorious.”

By adding “with eternal glory,” the Apostle has indicated the inseparable consequence of obtaining salvation—its crown. One who obtains salvation heeds the Gospel, repents, forms a firm resolve to live in holiness, receives for this purpose gracious powers in the sacraments, and lives accordingly, guided by the successors of the Apostles. Such is the labor of working out salvation! It is not given for nothing. The economy of salvation has been established freely; people are called to salvation freely; but thereafter even the very first steps on the path of salvation already require one’s own efforts; even gracious powers must be sought and received in the God-established manner. From now on all the working out of salvation proceeds through the cooperation of grace and one’s own efforts. No one is carried along the path of salvation—everyone walks it, aided by grace and guided by the Church. So it continues to the end of life, after which eternal glory overshadows the one who has obtained salvation—in proportion to the labor he has borne in working upon himself. Eternal glory does not come from without, but unfolds from within. Within, it is conceived and ripens from the moment of entering upon the path of salvation. This is precisely why it is inseparable from the obtaining of salvation.

2 Tim. 2:11. Faithful is the saying: for if we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him.

Although the crown of glory is inseparable from the obtaining of salvation, the Apostle nevertheless found it necessary to confirm this with proof. “Faithful,” he says, “is the saying”—“that is, true, beyond doubt, free from falsehood” (blessed Theodoret). “What saying? That the elect will obtain salvation with eternal glory” (blessed Theophylact). And immediately he presents proofs. This single assuring word from the lips of a messenger of God would have sufficed. But since, “when death, torments, and bonds were at hand, and Paul told his hearers that they would go to eternal life—someone might not believe it, saying: what are you proclaiming? How can this be—when I am alive, I die, and when I die, I shall live?!—therefore, lest anyone think this, the Apostle presents irrefutable proof thereof” (St. Chrysostom).

This proof, as everywhere in the holy Paul, is taken from the Lord’s resurrection. Since the Lord, having died in the flesh, rose again and abides in glory, so too all those who become one with Him through faith, life according to faith, and gracious sanctification through the sacraments—though they die—will in their own time rise again (Jn. 11:25) and enter into the eternally glorious Kingdom. The Apostle’s attention is fixed on the risen Lord. He had already enjoined the holy Timothy to remember Him above—as an inspiration in the labors of pastoral ministry (v. 8). Now he points to another aspect of this same resurrection: as a stimulus both to faith and to inspiration for proclaiming faith—namely, that those who believe will rise with Christ to eternal glory; and if this awaits believers, then all the more certain is the hope of this for those who proclaim the faith.

“If we have died with Him,” συναπεθανομεν — if we have co-died with Him. In the hour of the resolve to cleave to the Lord through faith and to follow His commandments, something yet deeper, at the very foundation of that resolve, is the readiness to die at any hour for that faith and those commandments, should it be required—yet not to depart from them, and thereby from the Lord. Every one who has truly believed in the Lord has therefore already died with Him by an act of will. If thereafter one is actually called to suffer and to die, this is no new thing—only the meeting of what was foreseen and desired beforehand. Even if one is not called to meet anything of the kind, that first, inward determination to death is nonetheless, in the eyes of God and in conscience, a true death—and everyone who has cleaved to the Lord in such dispositions may with full sincerity, together with others who have actually died for the Lord’s sake, confess: “we have died with Him.”

“Then we shall also live with Him,” συζησομεν — then we shall also dwell together with Him, or live with Him—and since He is in glory, we shall live with Him an eternally glorious life, as He Himself promised: “Where I am, there My servant will be also” (Jn. 12:26). St. Chrysostom says: “Indeed, if we share with Christ in sorrows and sufferings, shall we not share with Him in good things? Not even a man would act so—that, having come to his rest, he would refuse to receive into fellowship with him one who had resolved to suffer and die together with him.” “And if a man would not do this, how much less would God, the source of righteousness and goodness”—blessed Theophylact adds to St. Chrysostom.

But what kind of death is meant here? Those who believe in the Lord die spiritually, by an act of will, when in baptism they die to sin with readiness also to die bodily for the Lord, for His faith and commandments—and they die bodily when, during persecutions, they suffer torments for the faith and are deprived of life. How then should “we have died” be understood here? Although given the circumstances in which the holy Paul and the holy Timothy found themselves, it would be more natural to the flow of speech to understand here bodily sufferings and death; yet since not all believers suffer and die for the faith, while the promise is expressed in general terms, one cannot exclude here the thought of spiritual death as well. Moreover, the holy Paul and the holy Timothy had not yet died bodily, but spiritually—that is, to sin, with readiness also for bodily death—they had died and constantly remained in that death, as the holy Paul testified of himself: “I die daily” (1 Cor. 15:31). Therefore it will not be wrong to think that “the Apostle speaks here both of death (spiritual) in baptism and of death (bodily) through suffering and martyrdom” (blessed Theophylact). So also blessed Theodoret: “This: ‘we have died with Him’—the Apostle said not only of those put to death, but also of those baptized; for they too, sincerely believing and showing a life conformable to faith, partake of the Lord’s life.” St. Chrysostom, though he admits in the Apostle’s thought also the idea of spiritual death, gives primary attention to the thought of bodily death. “When then did we die with Christ? The Apostle speaks of death both through the font of baptism and through sufferings. Thus he says: ‘we were buried with Him through baptism’ (Rom. 6:4) and again: ‘our old man was crucified with Him’ (Rom. 6:6)—this is spiritual death. And ‘always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus’ (2 Cor. 4:10) and again: ‘we have been united together in the likeness of His death’ (Rom. 6:5)—this is bodily death. Here he speaks of death through trials, and preeminently of this; for he was in trials when he wrote this. The meaning of his words is as follows: if for His sake we have died, shall we not for His sake also live? In this there is no doubt.”

2 Tim. 2:12. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us.

The first half of this verse should be joined to the preceding verse, and the second half to the following. For in vv. 11–13 the Apostle, setting forth the grounds of our hope, shows what will come to pass with us if, cleaving to the Lord by faith and love, we die and endure with Him; and what will come to pass if we turn away from Him through unbelief. Each point receives a verse and a half: the first—verse 11 and the first half of v. 12; the second—the second half of v. 12 and verse 13.

If, he says, we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure with Him, we shall also reign with Him. The force of the expression lies in the words: “with Him.” All shall rise and all shall live forever; but with the Lord shall live only those who died with Him—remaining in unbroken fellowship with Him and for His sake. Likewise, adversities, sorrows, and deprivations are endured by all—there is not a single person who endures nothing; but only those who endure with the Lord will reign—that is, will be admitted to the Kingdom of God as an inheritance, or will be vouchsafed eternal blessedness—those, namely, who endure on account of their unshakeable abiding in fellowship with the Lord through faith and love, and for that very abiding. This fellowship and the common endurance—that is, endurance of what lies upon all as a heavy burden—it transforms into a means of co-reigning with the Lord; for it imparts to this endurance as well the same spirit, teaching one to endure for the Lord’s sake.

In what relation do “we have died” and “we endure” stand, on the one side, to “we shall live” and “we shall reign,” on the other? One may think that these are two expressions of one and the same thing. He who dies with the Lord undergoes death with Him, and he who endures sorrows with Him is doing the same as dying with Him—in the sense that sorrows are bitter as death, and in the sense that one who endures them with good courage does so because he has already by an act of will given himself over to death for the Lord’s sake. Likewise, he who is to live with the Lord will co-reign with Him, and he who is to co-reign with Him will live with Him. Both expressions denote eternal blessedness with the Lord and in the Lord. The Apostle used two expressions to denote one and the same thing in order to engrave more powerfully on the mind the proposed ground of our hope—that where the Lord is, there those who truly believe in Him will unfailingly be; only let them abide in unbroken fellowship with Him throughout their life—believing, being graciously sanctified in the sacraments, and fulfilling His commandments.

If, however, by “we have died” one understands spiritual death to sin and the voluntary readiness for suffering and death; then “if we endure” represents a certain addition to that—namely: if not only have we died to sin, but also endure for the Lord’s sake—or: if not only have we by an act of will determined ourselves to death for the Lord’s sake, but also in fact endure sorrows and deaths—then not only shall we live, but shall also reign with the Lord. The first is expressed by Ambrosiaster: “The Apostle shows here that we shall enter into immortal glory with Christ, if we abide in the state into which baptism has placed us—where all our transgressions die, so that, being renewed, we may avoid former vices and passions and, following in the Lord’s footsteps, appear as dead to sin. But if to this is added that we bear with good courage sorrows and hardships for the Lord’s name—then, having borne them, we shall most certainly also reign with Him: for it is fitting that one who for His sake endures reproaches and exile should appear glorified in His Kingdom.” The second we see in St. Chrysostom: “He did not say simply: ‘we shall reign,’—but: ‘if we endure’—showing that it is not enough to die once (‘once for all to give oneself (by an act of will) to death’ [blessed Theophylact])—he himself the blessed one died daily (1 Cor. 15:31)—but much endurance is needed”—“always to endure, so as to be vouchsafed co-reigning with the Lord as well” (blessed Theophylact).

“If we deny Him, He also will deny us.” The Apostle sets forth also the other side of the matter—what will come to pass with us if we do not cleave to the Lord through faith and love—both to engrave the proposed ground of hope more clearly on the mind, and also to quicken zeal for fulfilling the conditions of that hope. These words of the Apostle produce the same effect as shadows in a painting, which ordinarily render its bright parts more prominent—and the same effect as the fear of imminent disaster, which sobers, rouses, and drives away all excuses in one tempted to slothfulness. “And from the opposite—from what will come to pass with us in the contrary case (that is, if we do not die, do not endure with Him)—the Apostle draws confirmation for his word. For the recompense will be not only for good relations toward the Lord but also for relations contrary to that” (blessed Theophylact). “If even the wicked could become partakers of the same (as what awaits the good), it would be no consolation; and if those who endured were to reign with Christ, while those who did not endure received only the punishment of not reigning with Him, then although even this is terrible, for many it would not be a sufficient threat. Therefore the Apostle says something more terrible: ‘if we deny Him, He also will deny us.’ Consider then what one will suffer who is denied by Him. The recompense is not equal to the act of transgression, though in words it appears so. We who deny Him are men, while He is God—need one say what the distance is between God and men?” (St. Chrysostom). From this conclude how much more terrifying and disastrous in its consequences is rejection by God than any human rejection. “Think what one who has denied Christ will have to suffer” (blessed Theophylact).

“If we deny Him.” The Apostle sets us face to face with deprivations, sorrows, sufferings, torments, and death—and says: even so, although leaning on such a press of circumstances one might appropriate to oneself some excuse for denying the Lord—yet what then? Weakness!—do not expect the verdict upon you to be more lenient on that account. Denial will be met with denial. Thus the Lord and Saviour Himself said: “whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny him before My Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 10:33). And He said this after: “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt. 10:28)—giving to understand that, however narrow it may be when death is before one’s eyes, yet whoever in such a narrow place, sparing his body, denies Him, will be denied by Him too, and will lose not only the body but the soul as well. Denial by the Lord means being cast into hell, into eternal torments.

2 Tim. 2:13. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.

These words are somewhat obscure. But let us keep in view the Apostle’s purpose, and this will shed some rays of light upon that obscurity. The Apostle is proving the certainty of our hope—that those who cleave to the Lord through faith and love will obtain salvation with eternal glory. The chief and essential proof of this is that the Lord Himself, having died, rose again and now abides in glory. Since those who believe in Him become one with Him, it is beyond doubt that this glory also belongs to them—eternal life with Him and co-reigning with Him. But of course not unconditionally, only under the condition that they remain faithful to Him, despite the sufferings and death before them. For if they deny Him in that hour, He will deny them as well. Yet for all that, it must be known that through this the promise of glory to believers is in no way shaken. This glory already exists, has been prepared, and awaits only those who would enter into it. Let some not enter, having been justly denied by the Lord. But the worthy will always have the possibility of entering: for this Kingdom is open and will eternally remain so. Let us even grant something impossible—let us grant that we all prove faithless and therefore worthy of being denied and deprived of the Kingdom of glory: yet this Kingdom still is and will eternally remain open. For it is contained in the Lord Himself; therefore while the Lord is, it too is. And the Lord always is—therefore the Kingdom of glory always is. The Lord cannot “deny” Himself—that is, cease to be what He is. Nor can the Kingdom of glory cease, for it is in Him. So certain is the promise of the Kingdom of glory, and so faithful is the Lord who gave this promise. For to prove faithless to Himself in this would be the same as ceasing to be what He is. He has taken into His Person our humanity and, uniting it in Himself with the Trihypostatic Godhead, has deified it. Humanity is already overshadowed by divine glory; and no one and nothing can now annul this. This is the glory promised to believers. Drawing from it, they too will be clothed in glory.

One may set forth the same thing in another way. “If we are faithless,” ει απιστουμεν — if we prove unbelieving, or, having believed, prove unfaithful to the faith. “We”—not all, but some of us; for the Apostle could not have meant all, believing himself with perfection and knowing many—indeed very many—others who believe in the same way. Let some of those who have believed, he says, prove faithless and therefore be denied by the Lord: this in no way violates the Lord’s promise concerning the glorification of believers. This promise is placed under the condition of faithfulness. They prove faithless—and do not receive the promise. The faithful, however, will always receive it. The Lord remains faithful toward them—clothing them with glory—and toward the faithless, depriving them of it and denying them. Unbelief and faithlessness do not disrupt His economy of salvation; they harm only the unbelieving and the faithless. Thus St. Chrysostom: “By denying the faith we harm ourselves, and by no means harm God, nor are we able to harm Him. And if He suffers no harm when we deny Him, it means that He requires our confession for no other reason than our own benefit. He remains one and the same whether we deny Him or not; ‘He cannot deny Himself’—that is, deny what He is.”

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14–19)

Finally, the holy Paul explains what the gift of sound-mindedness—or pastoral prudence—received through ordination imposes as obligation on the holy Timothy (2:14–3:9). The holy Paul expresses this generally in verse 15: “be diligent to present yourself approved before God, a worker who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” He then shows how, by his actions, the holy Timothy will prove himself a skilled and unashamed worker. Since at that time the danger came particularly from those who taught otherwise, the wise manner of conduct is indicated primarily in relation to them. Here is what the Apostle enjoins in this regard: aa) do not permit others to engage in wrangling over words, and yourself shun these empty disputations. This is dangerous for the faith, and prudence requires keeping away from it (2:14–22); bb) if some necessity does compel you to converse with those who teach otherwise, do not quarrel with them but gently instruct those who oppose (2:23–26); cc) at the same time do not fail to take note of those who live badly, who, having themselves been corrupted, lead others astray from the good path as well. Turn away from these also (3:1–9).—Let us note that in the last section (3:1–9) the Apostle speaks of future corrupters; yet action against them was needed now, as a precaution—and besides, it seems the beginnings of this were already visible. Hence it is written: “turn away from these” (2 Tim. 3:5).

In clarifying the first point—about keeping away from empty disputations—and pointing out how harmful they are to believers, the holy Paul cited an actual example of such harmfulness: behold, he says, Hymenaeus and Philetus have deviated from the truth and, claiming that the resurrection has already come, are overturning the faith of some. This disclosure could distress those who love the faith, giving rise to questions: how can this be? In this way the whole Church may be shaken—if some go astray from the truth themselves, while others are drawn by them into such errors; and besides—why these who err, who mislead, and who are misled? To dispel such troubling thoughts the holy Paul presents two consoling propositions about the work of faith and the Church, with lessons drawn from them for all and separately for the holy Timothy. Thus this brief section (2:14–22) has two parts: α) first he speaks about keeping away from empty disputations (2:14–18); β) then he presents certain consoling propositions, to guard against the disturbances that could be generated by the preceding disclosures (2:19–22).

2 Tim. 2:14. Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to wrangle over words, which is of no use, but only ruins the hearers.

Since disputes are harmful, it is senseless to give oneself over to them. Therefore just as for believers the prudent course is not to give themselves over to them, so for pastors the course of prudent pastoral ministry is not to inflame but to suppress quarrelsomeness in every way. There is a certain natural tendency of the soul toward controversy. Indulge this weakness—and there will be nothing but disputes and more disputes, while attention is diverted from what is essential. Disputes meanwhile bring no good but only harm; yet those who dispute always think they are doing something important. The result is something grotesque and senseless. This is why the Apostle urges the turning of believers away from this with such insistence—not only by pointing to the harmful consequences of disputing, but even by charging them in the Lord’s name.

The words “remind them of these things” serve as a transition to the next main subject—about turning away from quarrelsomeness—though not without relation to what precedes. “These things”—the immediately preceding word about the faithfulness of the promise of glory, with an implicit caution about the danger of losing it—not through any faithlessness on God’s part, but through one’s own weakness and negligence. One such form of negligence is then indicated immediately: namely, ruinous quarrelsomeness.

Since there is an inclination toward disputes and they are ruinous, a strong remedy for restraining from them is proposed. St. Chrysostom says: “What does it mean: ‘charge before the Lord’? That is, calling God as witness of his words and actions. If after this the hearers disregard the admonition, God is their judge. The Apostle knew that this is a common thing and that the human soul is always inclined toward contention and wrangling over words. Therefore, so that this might not be, he does not simply say: ‘do not wrangle over words’ (but also binds them to this by the name of God). It is a fearful thing to speak calling God as witness; for if no one would dare to break his word having called a man as witness, how much more so with God.”

“Of no use”—not “for no need” but: επ’ ουδεν χρησιμον — to no profit whatsoever. Charge them in the Lord’s name not to wrangle over words, if for no other reason than that disputes lead to nothing profitable. For, having been granted existence and now vouchsafed also faith and grace, we ought to direct every hour and minute of life toward what is useful—to the glory of God, our own salvation, and the good of our neighbors; disputation is empty talk—an arrangement of empty words, but such as can cause harm. And in this last fact lies the second incentive to restraint from disputes. “For from this comes not only no benefit, but great harm: ‘the ruin of the hearers’” (St. Chrysostom). The opponent of truth who disputes spares no one and, throwing words about at random, can cast into the minds of the hearers a multitude of thoughts and impressions that will begin to shake the faith—not through their own strength, but through the weakness of the hearers, who are not yet able to see the falsehood lurking behind fine phrases. Ambrosiaster writes: “Disputation can breed doubts in those not yet fully confirmed; for in disputation one commonly sets against the truth many things that can strike the souls of beginners with the honed sword of malice and evil speech.” In this way through disputes “the faith of the hearers is overthrown, as if by battering-rams of verbal warfare” (blessed Theophylact). For us “it is sufficient only to believe and not to turn discourse about this into an occasion for blasphemy, nor through our disputes to harm those who hear” (blessed Theodoret).

2 Tim. 2:15. Be diligent to present yourself approved before God, a worker who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

A general exhortation is expressed here, which, however, in its present context must be understood in its relation to the flow of the discourse. “Be diligent to present yourself approved”—in this respect, that is, insist that they not give themselves over to disputes; while you yourself with still greater intensity distribute the word of truth—the word of truth alone—so that believers, being filled full with it, may have no inclination whatsoever to open their ears to disputes, being as they are sated with the pure bread of truth and feeling revulsion at a mixture of the tares of falsehood—fodder unfit for human beings.

Be diligent to present yourself “approved,” δοκιμον — a proven master of one’s work who is wise, and this not in appearance only but by the inner worth of one’s actions: “before God”—who sees all things as they truly are in essence, not merely in appearance. Or “before God” suggests the thought: He who has chosen you and entrusted to you the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel; show yourself therefore a wise fulfiller of God’s will, justify His choice and His hope in you.

“A worker who need not be ashamed,” ανεπαισχυντον — which means both blameless and unashamed. Of skilled workers it is said even in ordinary speech: they will not find fault with their own handiwork. So, he says, conduct your work in such a way that you have no reason to be ashamed of it—neither before God, nor before men, nor before your own conscience. Act in the proclamation of the Gospel and in pastoral ministry according to the full breadth of your awareness of how one ought to act, not deviating in the least from the demands of that awareness, not diminishing or curtailing them by substituting something else. That something else, in the present context, is giving oneself over to disputes instead of setting forth pure truth. The Apostle says, as it were: do not disgrace yourself with these disputes—“calling those who give themselves over to disputes men of shame” (Ambrosiaster). “Unashamed” also means: not being ashamed of the work one has taken up and is doing. And this meaning too is applicable in the present context. The preaching was humble concerning Christ Jesus—the Crucified. There were not a few who taught otherwise, who, being ashamed of this, devised brilliant reflections—but instead of lending greatness and radiance to the Gospel, only distorted it and robbed it of all its power. On this account the temptation might arise to enter into dispute with them, in order to remove the supposed shame of extreme simplicity from the face of the Gospel. The Apostle says: be not ashamed, whatever they may say—do your own work as you ought, and do not listen to them. “Just as the worker (the farmer who knows his trade) labors without being ashamed of anything (ploughs and ploughs, sows and sows), so the worker of the Gospel must act. Be not ashamed in the least to do everything that pertains to proclaiming the Gospel, even if you must on account of it submit (not only to shame, but even) to bondage or suffer something else” (St. Chrysostom).

“Rightly dividing the word of truth,” ορθοτομουντα — cutting straight and severing—and cutting straight in order to distribute, as, for instance, one cuts bread to be shared. All these meanings are fitting here. “Cutting straight”: as is said even in ordinary speech of a person—he cuts the truth straight—so you too, he says, cut the truth straight, speak the one word of truth, pure and unmixed, without giving way to extraneous reflections of your own that add no firmness to the truth but only weaken it—and equally, do not be tempted to diminish its force because in its pure form it may perhaps prove too much for the mind of some respected person. Cut it straight: thus and thus God has spoken and commanded, and trouble yourself with nothing more. “We praise farmers who cut straight furrows; so too is the teacher who follows the rule of the divine words worthy of praise” (blessed Theodoret). One may also understand “cutting straight” in the sense of: cutting away, severing every willful admixture from the truth; and by what means? By that same straight cutting of the truth. St. Chrysostom says: “The Apostle did not say απευθυνοντα — directing straight, but ορθοτομουντα — cutting straight away. And he said this well; for many misuse and distort the word of truth, adding much that is wrong to it. He suggests by this: separate what is wrong and repel and cut away everything of that kind with great force; as if by a taut cord, cut away with the spiritual sword everything superfluous and alien to the Gospel.” “Like a sword, cut away superfluous and false teachings (‘like superfluous growths on skin’ [blessed Theophylact]) and lead (minds) on the straight path, or toward what is right, by the grace of the Holy Spirit” (Oecumenius). And all this without disputes, but by that same resolute straight cutting of the truth: thus it has been said, thus it has been commanded—and there is nothing more to interpret. The last meaning is also applicable: cutting straight the bread of the word of truth, so as to distribute it in sufficiency to the faithful for their satiation with truth and for the establishing in them of revulsion toward everything alien to it and superfluous. Just as a steward in a household is appointed to distribute to all in right measure grain and other necessities: so the pastor of the Church is appointed to distribute to all the pure bread of the word of God’s truth. You have been appointed to this, says the Apostle, and distribute therefore in right measure the right word of God, and in distributing it, nourish the souls of the faithful. Having been filled with it, they will naturally have revulsion toward everything extraneous, superfluous, and all the more toward what is wrong—as our ancestors used to say: no one, having tasted the sweet, will want the bitter.

2 Tim. 2:16. But avoid godless and empty chatter, for it will lead to ever-increasing ungodliness.

“Godless,” βεβηλους — impure, defiling—such as not only are themselves impure and defiling, but render impure and defiled everything that comes into contact with them—just as in Judaism a carcass defiles everything that touches it. “Empty chatter,” κενοφωνιας — not merely idle talk, but empty sounds containing no meaning—in plain language, hollow noise. With respect to the true faith, attested by God Himself, everything at variance with it is truly hollow noise. Let us note that St. Chrysostom read not κενοφωνιας — empty chatterings—but καινοφωνιας — novel chatterings, new expressions, new locutions, of course prompted by new teachings as well. Oecumenius follows him; and the Vulgate reads: vocum novitates. “Avoid,” περιιστασο — leave to one side, stand clear—or surround, encircle, and confine, giving no room to spread. Thus these words convey two thoughts: stand clear of empty chatterings, that is, of disputes in which there is much noise, much clamor and outcry, but no sense; and—contain the novel chatterings, that is, fence in the new teachings so that they do not spread, as one fences off a district where a contagious disease has taken hold, and not merely fence them in but press them, so as to suppress them. St. Chrysostom says: “Things do not stop there (at the emission of only novel sounds); but when something new is introduced, it constantly generates καινοτομιας — new cuttings (in the teaching and in what follows from it); the one who has left the calm harbor (of the teaching maintained by the Church) wanders without end and will never find rest.” Therefore “drive away everything introduced into the preaching from novel inventions, as contagious and defiling—press it so that it does not spread and ceases”—adds Oecumenius. This last thought is more in keeping with what is said immediately after.

“For they will progress to ever-increasing ungodliness,” επι πλειον γαρ προκοψουσιν ασεβειας — for they will make progress—advance, plunge—into a greater measure of ungodliness, if, of course, you do not cut them off, fence them in, and suppress them. On the one hand, novelty attracts attention and widens the circle of those who hear and heed it; on the other, the generation of one novelty stimulates the craving and need to generate further novelties, and new cuttings—new teachings—naturally multiply as polyps multiply when severed. “If something adulterous—counterfeit—is introduced (into the domain of faith), it steps further and further from absurdity to absurdity and daily increases” (Oecumenius). If truth were to spread in this way, godliness would spread through it; but since novelty in faith is therefore falsehood, and falsehood is always from the devil—the first adversary of God and the first teacher of opposition to God—through the spread of novelties nothing will spread but ungodliness. Novelties corrupt the faith, and attracting by their novelty the attention of the faithful, corrupt and plunge them too into ungodliness, placing them not in the right relation to God—instead of godliness, which is the right relation to God, the one in which faith maintains them. Novelty itself is ungodliness, for it sets its own invention above the divine ordinance expressed in God’s word. It is a repetition of the deed of our first parents, who, attaching a new interpretation to the commandment on the word of the father of lies, fell into extreme ungodliness and plunged all of humanity into it. Being what it is by its very nature, novelty in faith always and everywhere brings forth fruit after its kind—that is, it plunges into ungodliness and spreads it in proportion to its own spread.

2 Tim. 2:17. And their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus.

“Their”—refers to persons, namely to the spreaders of empty noise, or to the inventors and disseminators of novelties in the faith. Hence in the foregoing, at the word “they will progress,” the same persons are to be kept in mind, though there one may also think of empty chatterings and novelties, since it is fitting to say of them too: “they will progress.” “Gangrene”—cancer, a disease that, having arisen in one place, begins to destroy the neighboring parts and does not remain in one spot, but eats away more and more of the body until it has consumed it entirely. “Will spread” — νομην — pasture, feeding ground. Gangrene is likened to a voracious beast which, having found a meadow of rich grass, greedily begins to devour it and does not move on until it has consumed everything. So too cancer seems to have the soft parts of the body as its pasture, grazing upon them and consuming them until it has eaten away the whole body. “Will have,” εξει — will possess. What this cancer is to our body once it has taken hold in it—such too is the word of novelty to the body of the Church, or to the body of true teaching, to the sum of God’s truths, when it is admitted among them: one member of the Church after another it will corrupt, and one truth after another it will pervert, until it has corrupted all and perverted all truths. The members of the Church and the very truths of God will be for the word of novelty as a pasture which it will greedily consume until all is consumed. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Gangrene is a disease that continually spreads and corrupts healthy parts of the body. The Apostle has likened to it those who undertake to teach what is contrary to the truth; for they frequently corrupt even those who are free from disease.” This comparison alone is sufficient for a pastor to be kindled with zeal to resist every new teaching. St. Chrysostom says: “This is an uncontrollable evil that cannot be stopped by treatment but infects everything. The Apostle makes clear that καινοφωνια — novel speech, new teachings—is a disease, and even worse than a disease; he also expresses the incorrigibility of such people: they err not by chance but willfully (the contagion is not from without but from within themselves) and are therefore entirely incorrigible.”

“Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus.” Of Philetus nothing is known. Of Hymenaeus mention is made in the First Epistle (1 Tim. 1:20), that he together with Alexander was “delivered over to Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme.” They were of course known to the holy Timothy; therefore there was no need to speak at length of their persons, and the Apostle, having cited their names, hastens to indicate their chief error—which is precious knowledge for us.

2 Tim. 2:18. Who have gone astray from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already come, and they are upsetting the faith of some.

“Have gone astray from the truth,” ηστοχησαν. Αστοχειν — to miss the mark. They aimed at the truth but did not hit it; the flight of their minds took a wrong direction and, having passed past the truth, came to rest upon a lie. Their fault lies in the fact that they should never have undertaken to fly to the truth on the wings of their own minds. The bearers of divinely revealed truth were present; one ought to have turned to them with questions—but they themselves undertook to resolve those questions with their own intellect and made a muddle of things. Such is the general origin of heresies. Today one should turn to the Church for the resolution of questions; for the Apostles deposited all truth in her—and she has become in their stead the bearer of truth. Whoever turns to her for knowledge of the truth will not go astray; but whoever undertakes by his own intellect to hit upon the truth places himself in great danger of hitting upon falsehood instead.

In what did the error of these heterodox teachers consist? In saying that “the resurrection of the dead has already taken place.” According to the truth of God, uttered by the Lord Saviour and proclaimed by the holy Apostles, Christians await the resurrection of the dead—when their bodies, now separated from their souls by the action of death, will be reunited with them by the action of God’s boundless omnipotence, and will rise in a brightness like the brightness of the body of the risen Lord. The present period of the existence of the human race and the world is a transitional one. It will come to an end in its own time, and another period of existence will begin—in which there will be a new heaven, a new earth, and a new mode of existence for the human race, when people will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will live as God’s Angels live, an immortal and eternally glorious life. In the Gospels and in the Apostolic writings there is constant mention of this reconstitution of all things. Nourished by this teaching, Christians keep the gaze of their mind and the expectation of their heart fixed upon it, and are inspired by this hope in the hardships that are inseparable from true Christianity. To take away this hope is to take away the most essential support of Christianity. And this is precisely what those foolish speculators were demolishing—those who said that the resurrection had already taken place. For to speak thus was to say: expect nothing better—what you see now is the best there is. And from this, how many conclusions destructive of God’s truth followed: consequently, there will be no second coming of Christ, no judgment, no recompense.—You, virtue, are suffering; this is your reward. You, vice, are comforted; this is your punishment. What could be more ruinous to faith and virtue?! But moreover, if there will be no resurrection, then “neither has Christ been raised.” And if “Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain” (1 Cor. 15:13–14). It follows—everything is demolished by this small proposition: “the resurrection has already taken place.” How apt, therefore, was the Apostle’s comparison above of the empty noise or novel speech of those who teach otherwise with cancer—which, having arisen in one part of the body, then corrupts and consumes it all!

St. Chrysostom says: “Well did the Apostle say above: ‘they will progress even more.’ It appears to be an evil in itself only; but see what consequences flow from it. If the resurrection has already taken place, then the harm to us is not only that we have been deprived of great glory (‘we are deprived of the second coming of Christ—what could be more grievous than that? Christ is made a liar, He who proclaimed this; He will not sit on the throne as Judge of the living and the dead’ [Oecumenius]), but also that both judgment and recompense are abolished; the righteous have not received their reward for sorrows and sufferings; and the wicked have not been punished.” “The righteous have enjoyed sorrows and afflictions, and the wicked have been punished by wallowing in pleasures. What need then is there to hold to virtue, if such are the recompenses?” (blessed Theophylact). But when it is said that the resurrection has already taken place, one is thereby saying that the resurrection which Christians await—the glorious one, with the reconstitution of all things—will not come, that there is no place for it. But “if the dead are not raised, then neither has Christ been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain” (1 Cor. 15:16–17). And not only that; but “if (again the words of St. Chrysostom) Christ has not risen, then He was not born, and did not ascend into heaven. Do you see how opposition to apparently only one doctrine—that of the resurrection—entails many evil consequences?”

But how did these teachers understand their resurrection, when the absurdity of asserting that we have already risen is so obvious, and when the Lord so plainly announced the resurrection that is to come? The Apostle does not say; but in the second century there appeared heretics who understood by resurrection the spiritual resurrection—that is, the enlightenment of the soul by truth and its attainment of holy life. They taught that the soul, departing from the darkness of ignorance and falsehood and entering into the light of truth, leaving vice and beginning to live in holiness, rises to a new life. Of them write St. Irenaeus (St. Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies. 2, 31), Tertullian (Tertullian. On the Resurrection. 19; Against Marcion. 5, 10), and St. Epiphanius (St. Epiphanius of Cyprus. Heresies. 42, 3). It is not at all surprising that the fathers of these heretics were the Ephesian spreaders of empty noise and novelties; one may therefore suppose that these last understood by resurrection the spiritual resurrection, and thought that Christ the Saviour was speaking of precisely this resurrection—the one accomplished spiritually by grace.—But even if this is how they understood the resurrection, the falseness of their teaching is not thereby mitigated. For both the Lord and the holy Apostles speak of spiritual resurrection; but alongside this they also proclaim the bodily resurrection that is to come—at the end of the ages—which will be followed by judgment and universal recompense according to deeds, for some paradise, for others hell. Consequently they teach two resurrections, and to confound them into one is unjust and erroneous.

Blessed Theodoret maintains that these heretics called by the name “resurrection” the succession of generations—or the birth of children, in whom the parents supposedly appear again in the world. “These unhappy people,” he writes, “called the succession of generations by reason of child-bearing ‘resurrection,’ and deceived some into departing from the Apostolic teaching.” Ambrosiaster, also saying that these heretics saw resurrection in children, adds that he learned of this from certain books. It is not at all surprising that this was also the case; for to what other teaching could the name of empty chatter and old wives’ tales more fittingly apply? Those who treated of spiritual resurrection—the Gnostics—were idealists, not favorably disposed toward matter; but these were sensualists and materialists. One may conjecture that in their view there is no immortality either—just as modern-day materialists understand by immortality the memory of one’s deeds, deemed beneficial, preserved in posterity.

Despite its absurdity, however, this teaching did not remain without effect, but shook the faith of some. “And ‘they are upsetting,’ he says, ‘the faith of some’—not of all, but: ‘of some’” (St. Chrysostom), “of the more simple-minded and weaker” (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). “Upsetting,” ανατρεπουσιν — overturning, subverting. They do not merely sow doubt and wavering, but completely disrupt and destroy faith. “One cannot say that there were none who expressed agreement with their perverse teaching in opposition to the faith they had originally followed” (Ambrosiaster). It is incomprehensible how even the most absurd teachings cling to the mind and hold fast in it.

Having spoken of the upsetting or subverting of the faith of some as a result of the scandal caused by others who had erred concerning the truth, the Apostle—rightly supposing that sincere believers could be troubled by such incidents—hastens to prevent such trouble, elucidating in parabolic form the law governing the existence of faith and the Church. Two troubling questions could be raised by the preceding disclosures about those who had erred in the truth and about their shaking the faith of others: namely—how is it that people depart from the faith and are shaken in the faith? Could it be that all might be shaken and that the whole Church might therefore be disrupted? And the second: why are there those who err and those who are led away by them, and moreover so close to us? For they arise within the Church and mingle among the faithful. The Apostle answers the first—that faith, founded by God in the heart, will not be shaken, nor will the Church built upon such faith be shaken; and the second—that just as in a house there are vessels for honorable and dishonorable uses, so in the Church there are suitable and unsuitable members—interspersing these clarifications with strongly instructive moral lessons.

Vessels of Honour in a Great House (2 Timothy 2:20–21)

2 Tim. 2:19. Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.”

“Nevertheless,” μεντοι — however, for all that. For all that, however, the firm foundation of God stands, εστηκεν — has been established or is firmly established. Do not be troubled; it will not be shaken. Or thus: as regards deviations and waverings, know that what God has founded stands firm and will stand firm.

The words “the foundation of God” in themselves do not yield a definite meaning. They say only that, in general, the firm foundation laid by God stands, or what has been firmly founded by God is steadfast. But what exactly is this? Faith, planted by God in the heart of the believer, and the holy Church built upon such faith. Faith is formed in this way: God, having established the incarnate economy of salvation, calls to the receiving of salvation through this economy by means of the Gospel proclamation, through which—alongside the word—the gracious power of the Holy Spirit who governs the proclamation passes through the hearing of the ear to the heart, and awakens the dormant spiritual elements of life according to God that remain there after the Fall. If the one who has heard the Gospel inclines toward it and wills to follow it, God by the grace of the Holy Spirit assists him to receive faith, in proportion to his self-surrender to God. Whoever surrenders himself wholly to God’s guidance—in that person faith is established in all its force, not so much dogmatically complete as strong in its assurance in God. When this is built up in the heart, then faith by God’s grace restructures everything within, constituting the source and foundation of life according to God. This is the faith founded and planted by God in the heart—which serves as the foundation of life according to God. Not all faiths are faiths founded by God; but even God-founded faiths in the heart are not all equally strong and firm. The degree of firmness and strength of each person’s faith depends on the degree and force of his self-surrender to God. In one who surrenders himself wholly to God, God—encountering no obstacles from the side of man’s freedom—quickly builds up faith and the order of life according to faith, and establishes it deeply and firmly. But one who does not surrender himself wholly to God but reserves a portion of activity for himself, independent of God—in proportion as he reserves a larger portion for himself, in that same proportion he is deprived of God’s cooperation, for God does not intrude upon the sphere of independent activity and freedom. But in proportion as he is deprived of such cooperation, in that same proportion the formation of faith is slowed, and in that same proportion it proves weak and unsteady. Some of these, having been convinced by the trials of life how unreliable independent self-activity is in the matter of faith, in the end surrender themselves wholly to God—and then God quickly completes in them what was lacking, and faith appears in them in all its force, as wholly founded and planted by God. Others remain all their life with an admixture of self-made religion in their faith. Such are always unsteady in faith, each in his own measure. There are also those who hold to the faith externally, as a document or program, while building their whole life according to the faith by themselves. In such there is nothing of God—everything is self-made; and they do not belong to God’s own.—The Apostle in the present passage understands by the firmly God-founded faith the faith in the hearts of those who surrender themselves wholly to Him. Such faith stands firm and never falls. To it applies what the holy Paul said of love: “who shall separate us?” No one and nothing (Rom. 8:35–39). It is this faith that is that rock upon which the Lord promised to build His Church, and did build it (Mt. 16:18).

Ambrosiaster writes: “The foundation of God is the faith that firmly holds to what God has promised. Such faith cannot be shattered by the false reasonings of perfidious heretics.” As it was weak in some, they were shaken and drawn away after those who had erred concerning the truth. St. Chrysostom speaks of them: “Here (in the words: ‘the foundation stands’) it is shown that they were not yet firm even before they were shaken; otherwise they would not have been shaken by the very first assault. Those who are firm not only suffer nothing from deceivers but even merit admiration.—This is how we must be devoted to the faith.” Blessed Theophylact adds something to this: “Not all were led astray, but only those who were unsteady. For if they had not been so, they would not have fallen away either. Those who are thoroughly rooted in the faith stand firm and immovable. And observe—he says: ‘firm,’ and: ‘foundation.’ This is how we must hold to the faith.”

“Having this seal: the Lord knows those who are His.—The foundation of God” is the faith founded and planted by God in the heart wholly surrendered to Him—in all its force. This divine action within man restructures everything there and imparts its own character and its own imprint to everything—so that if someone from outside were to have his eyes opened and were to behold the inward countenance of a person who believes in this way, he could not hold back from exclaiming: this man is God’s. So brightly does God’s seal shine upon him. Since he surrenders himself wholly to God, by that very act he makes himself God’s own; and whoever makes himself God’s own, him God makes His own. For this was His intention in the creation of rational and free creatures—to have all of them as His own, on the condition of their free self-surrender to Him. Therefore, as soon as in a person this self-surrender to God is accomplished through wholehearted faith, God at once makes him His own. And a fellowship—living and strong—comes to be. It is sealed upon the inward countenance of the believer, and all rational creatures see it. In the Apostle’s words “those who are His”—reference is made to those who surrender themselves wholly to God in faith; for as soon as they surrender themselves to God, they at once essentially become God’s—truly His own. And the words “the Lord knows” mean that the Lord, as soon as such surrender to Him takes place in the soul of the believer, recognizes this. There is no need for anyone from outside to tell Him of it; He sees it Himself. He knows these ones better than anyone else. And as soon as He perceives this, He at once makes them His own, claims them as His, and begins to exercise particular care over them as His own.

Many think that once one has believed fully, this is everything accomplished, salvation is achieved, and paradise is to be claimed. In reality, however, faith—even at the degree of its force as described above—only sets the beginning of salvation or deepens its foundation; the actual working out of salvation follows upon this, amid the labors of doing good and the struggles of self-denial—which the Apostle immediately appends: “and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.” Such is the task of the life of the believer who, through faith and self-surrender to God, has received the seal of belonging to God. This seal alone does not accomplish everything and does not dispose the one who has received it toward rest, but toward the labor of departing from unrighteousness and walking the path of righteousness. Walking the path of righteousness is accomplished not only by rendering to everyone what is due, but also by doing every possible good to them; and departing from unrighteousness is accomplished not only by removing oneself from unrighteous deeds and words, but also by suppressing all unrighteous thoughts and feelings—which is fulfilled by the struggle of self-opposition and self-compulsion, with the addition of external self-restraints as well. All this is required of one who has received the seal of belonging to the Lord.

St. Chrysostom says: “Firm souls stand firm and unshaken. Upon their deeds such words are inscribed that God knows them; just as an inscription is made upon a stone so that it may serve as its identifying mark—in them this inscription is expressed in their deeds. The mark of this seal is: to do no unrighteousness. Therefore let us not deprive ourselves of this royal seal and mark, so that we may not remain unsealed and unsteady, but stand upon foundations—firm foundations—and not be swept away. Here is the mark of people who belong to God—to depart from unrighteousness! For how can one who does unrighteousness, who resists God by his deeds and offends Him by his conduct, belong to God, who is righteous?”

The two halves of this verse point to moments of spiritual life that stand in relation to each other as cause and effect and are inseparably bound together. The foundation—divinely-given faith, which receives in the spirit the seal of belonging to God—carries within itself a jealous resolve to stand in the righteousness of God and, having received the powers of grace, proves itself in action the co-worker of every righteousness, with departure from every unrighteousness. But one must remember that, since in the spirit all things are accomplished according to the laws of free will, the latter is not a mechanical consequence of the former, apart from freedom; rather, free will, drawing from faith the impulses toward every righteousness and the obligation to fulfill it, and through faith also receiving the gracious power for doing so, by free resolve determines itself toward the doing of every righteousness and accomplishes it in the sense of strength in the Lord. In whomever both are united, he will never waver. And this is the firm foundation of the Church!

The Apostle speaks here in the words of the Prophets. The first saying—“God knows those who are His”—is taken from the Book of Numbers, where, on the occasion of the uprising of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who said to Moses and Aaron: “Why do you rule over us? We are the congregation of God, all are holy”—the holy Moses said to them: “We do not act thus of ourselves, but God ‘has known those who are His’ and has drawn them near to Himself”—that is, God chose us, knowing that we would remain faithful to Him (Num. 16:5). The second is taken either from the words of holy Moses, spoken on the same occasion to the people, when the punishment of God was about to fall upon these instigators together with all their household: “Depart from the tents of these hard-hearted men” (Num. 16:26), or from the words of holy Isaiah, where—foretelling the coming of the Lord, the deliverance of the people from the bondage of sin, and the preaching of the Gospel—he addresses from afar those who are about to believe, calling them to depart boldly from those who persist in unbelief: “Depart, go out from their midst, and touch not their uncleanness” (Is. 52:11). How all this applies to the Apostle’s words is evident in itself.

2 Tim. 2:20. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; and some are for honor, and some for dishonor.

The second perplexity is resolved: why are there those who are weak in faith and in the life of faith? The answer given in the present verse is this: it is so by necessity, according to the course of affairs in the present period of the world’s and humanity’s existence. It is explained by comparing the state of affairs in the Church with the practices of household management. Just as in a large house there are vessels of gold and silver, and also of wood and clay—and some of them are used for honorable purposes, others for dishonorable ones—so also in the Church, this great and glorious house of God, there are persons whose worthiness answers to gold and silver, and there are persons who answer to wood and clay; and of these, some are held in honor while others have no value at all. The latter half of the comparison is left unspoken by the Apostle. We must supply it ourselves—and we supply it as shown. Nor is the reason why it is so indicated; only understanding is given that, just as in a house there is both the good and the bad, so too in the Church or among the faithful. There is a kind of hint: be content with this explanation, and do not seek what is more remote and more profound. It is not your concern—as was also said from above to holy Anthony the Great in answer to his searching inquiry why there are good and evil persons. And the Saviour Himself, when speaking of His Kingdom—in the parables of the field sown with good seed, on which, however, weeds afterward appeared, and of the net that caught both good and bad fish—showed only that in His Church things will be so until the harvest of judgment and the final sorting out of all things; but why it will be so, He did not say. Surely He also did this to teach us not to take up what is not our business, but to trust that the Lord arranges all things for the best.

It seems that the words “golden and silver,” “wooden and clay,” as well as “in honor and not in honor”—the Apostle used only for the clearest showing of the difference among things found in a house, and did not intend to signify allegorically such-and-such specific different persons found among believers in the Church. For this reason one may leave them without an allegorical interpretation. Nevertheless, blessed Theodoret did not consider it superfluous to give them an interpretation, and writes: “The Apostle likened to vessels of gold those shining with piety and virtue (those who have renounced all things and have dedicated their whole life to God); to silver vessels those who, together with faith and righteousness, have chosen the civic life (pious laymen); and to wooden and clay vessels those who live in impiety and wickedness.”

By “house,” our Eastern commentators—holy Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, and Theophylact—understand the world, while the Western commentators—Ambrosiaster and, they say, Cyprian and blessed Augustine—understand the Church. Although the latter interpretation fits the flow of the text more closely, the former should not be excluded either. For the question of the mingling of the good and the evil is also raised by the condition of the entire world; therefore, in answering it, one cannot but take this into account as well. Moreover, the world is also a house of God.

2 Tim. 2:21. If anyone therefore cleanses himself from these, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, and serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work.

Here too the reason is given by which the goodness of God graciously tolerates the wicked together with the good—both in the Church and in the whole world—like a householder who tolerates both the good and the bad in his house. The householder tolerates the bad because it is for the time being useful for something, having no hope that it will become good; but the Lord tolerates it not for this reason alone, but especially because the free creature, unbelieving and living badly, can come to itself, recover, and change for the better. “Vessels,” writes Theodoret, “are condemned by their very nature (if they are not for honor), but people are made honorable or dishonorable by the will.” But this will, currently corrupt, can at any moment change to what is corrected. “The choice of what is better depends on our resolve” (blessed Theodoret). Let one who is bad resolve with God’s help—and he will begin to be good. Awaiting this very moment, the goodness of God spares the unbelieving and the wicked and holds back the righteous judgment of God that is ready to punish them. This is what the Apostle means, saying: “if anyone cleanses himself from these—From these”—from what makes him like a vessel not for honor, from passions and sins. To cleanse oneself means: to recognize the baseness of what is base within oneself, to turn away from it, to resolve firmly not to do it again, and, having confessed this to a spiritual father, to receive absolution and thereafter not allow oneself to fall into the same fault. One who has become established in this manner of life—clean from all that is bad, both outwardly and inwardly—will no longer resemble a vessel in the house that is not for honor, but will become a vessel for honor, well-suited and fit for every good work and, beyond that, sanctified—he will become in some sense a sacred thing—as indeed he is: for he will then not be ordinary, but filled with grace and bearing God within himself. It is for the sake of this change and transition, from dishonor into such a radiant state, that the wicked are tolerated. Holy Chrysostom says: “Do you see that to be of gold or of clay depends not on nature or material necessity, but on our will? In nature a clay vessel cannot become golden, and a golden vessel cannot become as base as a clay one; but here (in human souls) there is great change and transformation. Paul was a clay vessel but became golden; Judas was a golden vessel but became clay. Thus, impurity makes people clay: the adulterer, the covetous man are clay vessels.”

What the words “a vessel sanctified, well-suited, prepared for every good work” signify in application need not be determined in particular detail. In general they mean that one who has been cleansed through faith and grace from all that is bad, impure, and passionate, and who has surrendered himself to the all-working of God, is made in the hands of God an instrument well-suited for the fulfillment of His providential actions toward the world and humanity. Such a one knows how to attend and to hear with sound understanding in his heart the commandments of God, and then, sparing not his life, to fulfill them. Therefore in his actions he always falls upon the trail of God’s will—which is the most precious thing of all for every Christian, and all the more so for an archpastor.

Since a state of this kind makes one who has attained it supremely prudent, it may be said that the Apostle’s discourse from verse 19 onward indicates the path to attaining the prudence about which he began to give lessons to the archpastor from verse 14. After this, the following, the twenty-second, verse will have the significance of a concluding warning against what can cause one to lose this gift, and of an indication of what secures and roots it.

Flee Youthful Lusts; the Lord’s Servant Must Be Gentle (2 Timothy 2:22–26)

2 Tim. 2:22. Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Flee from that, hold fast to this—and you will be a vessel well-suited to the Master of the house, that is, you will be in the Lord’s hands a well-suited instrument for the establishing of salvation among people. Holy Timothy was certainly already such. This is given only as a reminder to him—and perhaps not so much to him as to all pastors and archpastors in his person. By “youthful lusts” are meant not carnal impulses—to guard against these, one must suppose, would have been superfluous for holy Timothy—but rather the youthful impulsiveness that does not allow one to deliberate calmly and pushes one toward imprudent steps, for example, into disputes and, in disputes, into an irritating sharpness and the like. Holy Chrysostom says: “Youthful lusts are not only those of fornication, but every inappropriate impulse betrays youthfulness. Let those who are advanced in years take note of this—that they ought not to do what those who are younger do. Whether one is sharp in words, or shows stubbornness and domineering in deeds, or allows himself something else of the kind—all these are youthful unreasonable impulses. All this tends to happen when the heart has not yet been moderated and settled, and when the thoughts of the mind are not deepened but float lightly on the surface. Therefore, so that no one be carried away by this—what does the Apostle enjoin? Flee from youthful fantasies.”

Having removed what can push one toward an imprudent manner of action, the Apostle points to the moral supports of prudence. “But pursue,” διωκε — pursue, strive zealously, endeavor in every way to display—“pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.” Righteousness and love are two dispositions that encompass all morally good deeds and deny all bad ones. “Righteousness” does not allow one to do anything undue and keeps one within the bounds of what is due, while love urges one to multiply all good within those bounds. “Faith” is the mother of these dispositions, their nourisher and keeper, while “peace” is their offspring, the common sum of their deeds, like a cloud that overshadows them. Whoever, animated by faith, directs all zeal toward deeds of righteousness and love and thereby walks under the cloud of peace—in his deeds comprehensive prudence cannot but reign.

The Apostle enjoins the having of “peace” “with all who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” He has set two qualifications: “with those who call on the Lord”—and: “who call from a pure heart.” He does not suggest that one should not carefully maintain peace with others; but he warns against befriending them, against going so far as to live with them soul to soul. General concord and peacefulness with all must be maintained, but to live soul to soul is both possible and obligatory only with believers, who are understood by those who call on the Lord. In this regard nothing prevents joining the words “out of a pure heart” with “peace”—so that it reads: keep sincere peace with those who call on the Lord. Peace with such persons arranges itself and fills the hearts of believers, especially pastors who know all the flock better than anyone. Unity of convictions and aspirations merges souls, and they live one in the other. Such harmony of souls is, however, impeded and broken where insincerity of faith is noticed in anyone. As soon as it becomes apparent that one or another calls on the Lord insincerely or believes in Him not from the heart—the harmony with them is at once disrupted, by the natural suspicion that arises, that they surely are pursuing other aims and not those which faith enjoins. They are not aiming there; there is nothing to harmonize with them about. In this regard the words “out of a pure heart” are to be joined with “those who call on the Lord.” Holy Chrysostom interprets this as follows: “What does it mean: ‘with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart’? He says, as it were: do not trust all who call on the Lord, but only those who call on Him without pretense, without hypocrisy, without guile; associate with such; with others one should not be close, but only maintain peace as much as possible.”

Approaching the second task of prudence in the present circumstances—namely that if necessity compels entering into discourse with those who teach otherwise, one should conduct it meekly (2:23–26)—the Apostle first sets down again the rule already stated of avoiding disputes.

2 Tim. 2:23. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.

“Do you see how the Apostle everywhere turns Timothy away from controversies? Not because Timothy was incapable of refuting them; he was capable; and if he were not, the Apostle would have said to him: strive to become capable of refuting them, just as he said: ‘attend to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine; for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you’ (1 Tim. 4:16). But the Apostle knew that it is utterly useless to enter into such controversies (as those that occurred then), and that they end in nothing other than quarrel, enmity, insult, and slander. Avoid such disputes, he says” (holy Chrysostom). “These controversies carry even the most gentle into quarrel. Unbelievers and heretics, by their extremely absurd contradiction of the truth, provoke them beyond endurance, and they, becoming angry, then say what they would not wish to say. Meanwhile, these give the appearance of calm reasoners, as if standing on solid ground (though their heart within is seething against the orthodox). And from this something unfavorable to the truth of God results. That is why the Apostle writes: it is better not to enter into these disputes. ‘Avoid’—saying as it were: disputing is not our business.”

“Disputes,” ζητησεις — inquiries. Not every inquiry is forbidden. That is why the Apostle has defined which ones must be avoided: “avoid foolish and ignorant inquiries. Foolish,” μωρας — childish, senseless, empty; “ignorant,” απαιδευτους — uninstructed, unedifying. “There are other inquiries, namely those about the truths of Scripture, which must not be avoided, because they do not generate quarrels (but spread general edification)” (holy Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact).

2 Tim. 2:24–25. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, apt to teach, patient,—correcting in meekness those who oppose themselves.

Here is the subject of the present section. Do not dispute, but do teach—even opponents—yet gently and meekly. “For he to whom the proclamation of divine instructions has been entrusted must present them without disputes” (blessed Theodoret). “One must not quarrel even in discussion; the servant of God must be far from quarrels. If God is the God of peace, how can the servant of the God of peace quarrel?” (holy Chrysostom).

“But be gentle toward all.” Gentle, but not listless. A listless word will produce no effect. One must speak both powerfully and without contentiousness. Otherwise, why would he write in another place: “reprove with all authority” (Tit. 2:15)—and again: “rebuke them sharply” (Tit. 1:13)? And this too he commands to do in a spirit of meekness. A powerful reproof, when given with meekness, is especially able to move. A powerful word without meekness can perhaps only shame; but united with meekness, it will take hold of the heart and prevail (holy Chrysostom).

“Apt to teach”—“that is, for all who wish to learn” (holy Chrysostom). One who enters into conversation with a contentious spirit—from him turn away; but one who seeks instruction and guidance—do not refuse to teach him. The pastor must also himself seek out those who hold to a deviant teaching, in order to bring them to reason with a speech gentle but powerful; and only when someone among them stubbornly remains in his heterodox view, contrary to the truth of God, then turn away from him, as holy Paul commands elsewhere: “reject a factious person after a first and second warning” (Tit. 3:10).

“Patient”—not to become angry or irritated at the unsuccessfulness of the word that seeks to bring to reason. “The Apostle added this well; a teacher especially needs gentleness; otherwise all will be in vain. If a fisherman, casting his nets the whole day and catching nothing, does not fall into despair, how much more should we not despair. For it often happens that the plough of the word, acting by unceasing suggestion, enters into the depths of the soul and destroys the passion that has seized it. Whoever has listened a thousand times must feel something; for it is impossible that a person, hearing unceasingly, should feel nothing at all. Thus it may happen that a person already ready to be persuaded loses everything on account of our impatience; and the same will result as if someone, unskilled in farming, having planted a vineyard and tended it the first year, and the second, and the third, in hope of receiving fruit, but not receiving it and losing hope, were to abandon it in the fourth year after three years (without care, cast it aside), precisely at the moment when he was due to receive the reward for his labors” (holy Chrysostom).

2 Tim. 2:25. Correcting in meekness those who oppose themselves: if God perhaps will grant them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.

“Having said ‘patient,’ the Apostle does not rest content with this, but adds: ‘correcting in meekness those who oppose themselves.’ Here especially the teacher must proceed with meekness; a soul that has need of instruction cannot receive anything profitable when it is delivered harshly and with reproach—and though it may be ready to listen, being thrown into perplexity, it will absorb nothing. Whoever wishes to learn something profitable must first be well disposed toward the teacher. If this is not arranged beforehand, nothing fitting and beneficial can result. But no one can be well disposed toward a person who is angry and abusive. ‘With meekness’—he says. Do you see how one must approach those who wish to learn? And one must not leave off conversing with them before they are persuaded” (holy Chrysostom). “The Apostle also teaches holy Timothy to persist in instruction and not to despair concerning those who do not easily receive the word of preaching. Whoever delivers instruction to unbelievers with fatherly meekness and patiently listens to their objections can often persuade even the most stubborn of heretics” (blessed Theodoret).

“If God perhaps will grant them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.”

“If perhaps he will grant”—perhaps he will grant somehow—there is no certainty, but neither is there despair: perhaps they will come to their senses. It points to the difficulty of correcting one who has fallen into falsehood: only God is able to correct him; it enjoins patiently continuing to bring him to reason in the hope, though a weak one, of correction, and consequently it ordains not to turn away and not to cut off those who have gone astray, until one has ascertained that they are incorrigible and harmful to Christians who are faithful but simple in faith. Holy Chrysostom says: “The meaning of these words is as follows: perhaps some correction will take place. The word ‘if perhaps’ is used of things not precisely known; consequently, one should withdraw only from those people of whom we can say with certainty and are persuaded that they are incorrigible, whatever measures may be employed. And this word also implies that in bringing to reason one must have great long-suffering. Note also how he teaches humility. He did not say: perhaps you will be able to; but: ‘if perhaps God will grant them to arise’; if anything does occur, all belongs to the Lord; you plant, you water, but He gives growth and effects the bearing of fruit.”

He says: “will God not grant?” But God is ever ready to grant both knowledge of the truth and power for good. But He grants it not by the authority of sovereignty alone, but always according to the inclination of the human will. Let the will incline toward desiring the good from God and seek it—and God is ready to grant and does grant it. The doubt: “if perhaps?”—is aroused not by God’s readiness to give, but by the stubbornness of the human will. One cannot know for certain from it that, once brought to reason, it will desire and seek. How then is stubborn resistance to truth broken down? By repentance. It softens the heart and compels the proud mind to bow its proud head under the yoke of God’s truth. God presents to consciousness and freedom all illuminating moments. When consciousness, impelled by them, presses in its own part on freedom, and the latter, being shaken, desires to come out of the darkness in which stubbornness holds it, then God’s cooperation comes and brings this penitent beginning to its end—that is, to the resolve to abandon falsehood and to humbly receive truth as it is, without inquisitiveness, without admixture of one’s own reasonings, and without any wavering. In consequence of this, as light pours into opened eyes, so the light of truth begins to pour into the soul opened by repentance, and it is filled with knowledge of it. All this the Apostle expresses, saying: “if perhaps God will grant them repentance to the knowledge” (to the acknowledging) “of truth.”

2 Tim. 2:26. And that they may come to their senses and escape out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

What a dark state belongs to those who have fallen into falsehood and have entangled God’s truth with empty reasonings that conceal the truth! They are ensnared in the nets of the devil; yet they think that they alone possess freedom of mind. They think that they soar in mind by their own will, but meanwhile they dance to the will of the devil. The enemy presents to the mind a phantom of truth. The mind, supposing this to be the highest knowledge of truth grasped by itself, is carried away by this phantom and is captivated by it. Then the enemy creeps up and through the imagination weaves all the realm of truth with phantasmal representations. The mind, captivated in the main point, is captivated by all the rest as well and appears enmeshed from every side by the enemy’s net of falsehood, through which it sees everything not as it is, according to God’s truth. This state is very well expressed among us by the proverb: “the enemy has ensnared him,” which is used when one wishes to say: it seemed that things were thus and so, but now I see that they are not so. This is also recognized by one enmeshed in falsehood when, having come to repentance, he calls upon God, and God sends him a ray of His truth, which, having penetrated the soul, rends the nets of dark falsehood and scatters it as wind scatters thickened smoke. And he arises (is freed) from the devil’s net. He will then come to himself—and sees clearly how he was confused and deluded, unable to explain how all this was woven together, and still less how all of it was believed. This is effected by the knowledge of truth; which is why the words “and they shall arise…” explain what the knowledge of truth is—as Oecumenius writes. “What is the knowledge of truth? It is to arise from the net of the devil and lying dogmas to the uprightness of faith. And see how he said: ‘they shall arise from the devil’s net’—as though from drunkenness or madness.”

“Taken captive by him at his will—Taken captive,” εζωγρημενοι — captured alive, or taken as prey. When the enemy kills the one he is pursuing, that is the end of it; but when he takes him alive, he makes him a prisoner and forces him to fulfill his will. Thus the enemy deals also with those who fall into the nets of his falsehood. He takes them alive, for he has no power over life and death. But, having seized them, he makes them ready instruments for the fulfillment of his evil schemes; he forces them to spread falsehood and to ensnare others in their nets; he forces them to do evil as well, disguising it with the appearance of good.

A wandering mind that has fallen into the devil’s nets is characterized by self-confidence; and self-confidence cannot bear correction, still less reproachful and offensive correction. But if you quietly set before him the correcting truth, one may still hope that somehow, perhaps, he will come to his senses.

Among Christians there are always both those who think otherwise and those who draw others in that direction, as well as those who live improperly. In the early period there were not many of the latter; yet they existed and served as the germ of the moral corruption that was later to develop. Since suppressing a germ averts what is destined to come forth from it, holy Paul directs holy Timothy toward this (3:1–9). For this purpose he first depicts: α) what moral corruption will develop in later times (3:1–5); then, having said, as it were, thereby: do you see what evil there will be? And the germ of it already exists now—he enjoins: so you, as soon as you notice such persons among you: β) do not indulge them. They do this and that, and you can easily recognize them (3:5–8); γ) do not be troubled, however; they will not prevail, and the common voice of the faithful will condemn them (verse 9).

Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

2 Tim. 3:1. But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.

“Know this”—a confirmatory expression, that this will undoubtedly be so—as in the First Epistle: “the Spirit expressly speaks” (1 Tim. 4:1). There he spoke of falling away from faith, while here he speaks of moral corruption. Perhaps this is also the reason why there he draws his assurance from the Spirit, while here he is content with his own word. “The last days”—the thought is usually referred to the end of the age; but here it points generally to times to come. “Perilous times”—hard times, in which it is difficult to live. The Apostle depicts extreme moral corruption; but since with this is inseparably connected the diminishing of righteousness, peace, and security, it is always difficult in such times to live—even for those who are themselves corrupt, but especially for those who do not live after their examples and customs. There is a prejudice in calling certain days and times bad or good, with the notion that they are bad or good in themselves. Holy Chrysostom exposes such thinking. “The Apostle does not condemn the days or times, but the people who will then exist. So we too have a custom of calling times bad or not bad, according to the character of the deeds performed during them by people. He immediately also points to the cause. The root and source of all evils, from which they all proceed, is excessive self-love.”

2 Tim. 3:2. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving.

Self-love is the root of all evil passions. It suppresses love of neighbor and love of God and establishes in life orders completely opposed to them, from which no one has peace. But it is remarkable that self-love is itself its own punishment. The self-lover tends only to his own good; but since he cannot live happily on his own without others, the self-lover, precisely because he neglects others, harms himself or acts wickedly against himself. Holy Chrysostom unfolds this aspect of self-love thus: “One captivated by this passion cannot even watch over his own interests. For when someone does not observe what pertains to the good of his neighbor, how will he observe his own while neglecting the interests of his neighbor? Just as he who has regard for the interests of his neighbor thereby also places his own in a good condition, so he who disregards them will overlook his own as well. For if we ‘are members one of another’ (Eph. 4:25), then the salvation (good) of a neighbor is not his alone but belongs to the whole body, and the harm of a neighbor does not touch him alone but strikes all with painful sorrow. So likewise—if we are a building, then whatever part of it suffers, danger threatens the whole building; and when it is firm and solid, it helps all the rest to hold firmly as well. So it is in the Church. You despised your brother? You injured yourself. How? In that your own part also suffers no small loss on this account. For if he who did not give his talent to the bankers falls into hell, then he who sees one suffering from lack of the most necessary needs and does not extend a hand to him will suffer all the more compared to that one, in proportion to the greater extent of the harm. So the self-lover is most of all one who does not love himself; while the lover of neighbor is most of all one who loves himself.”

From self-love all passions proceed. The chief or parent passions among them are reckoned—and are—pride, covetousness, and sensuality. In the present passage the Apostle enumerates chiefly the offspring of pride, while of the other two he mentions only their progenitors themselves—love of money and love of pleasure—concluding with a showing of the relation to God of the life ordered according to their impulses and the impulses of passions in general.

“Lovers of money.” “Having indicated the root, he enumerates in particular the shoots from it, of which the first and greatest is love of money. For as from love—all good, so from self-love, the opposite of love—all evil. Love is broad and spreads everywhere; while self-love constricts its breadth and concentrates on oneself alone” (blessed Theophylact, holy Chrysostom). By love of money is meant generally a hoarding acquisitiveness. To have is a practical necessity of life. That it might not overcome the person and make a miser of him, God has implanted in his heart compassion for those in need, which opens the treasury for others. But when self-love gains mastery over it, compassion for others dies out and the treasury doors are locked. Everything is needed for oneself and is directed toward oneself; there is no concern for others. And so—a miser.

“Boastful, proud.” The second offspring of self-love is pride. Its manifestations are various. In the present passage the Apostle indicates two forms of it: αλαζονειαν — and: υπερηφανιαν. “Boastful,” αλαζονες — vainglorious, “they exalt and elevate themselves above others” (blessed Theophylact). “Proud,” υπερηφανοι — together with vainglory, contemptuous; they count others as nothing and are ready to dominate them willfully.

Here holy Paul begins to enumerate the offspring of pride. “Blasphemers,” βλασφημοι — speakers of impiety, blasphemers. “From vainglory—contemptuous and willful arrogance; from arrogance—blasphemy (impious speech, wrong sentiments toward God, rebellion against God)” (holy Chrysostom). Or “from both, blasphemy” (Oecumenius). For it is natural that “when evil from self-love grows progressively, it reaches even rebellion against God” (blessed Theophylact). Holy Chrysostom explains this aspect of the matter at length. “One who is arrogant toward men will easily be arrogant before God as well. This is how sins are born; they often rise from below upward. Whoever is respectful toward men is all the more reverent before God; whoever is obedient to his fellow servants will be all the more submissive to the Master; but whoever despises his fellow servants will gradually come to despise God Himself. Let us not therefore despise one another. This is a bad lesson, which teaches us to despise God, and even by the very fact that we despise one another we already show contempt for God, who has commanded us to have great care for one another. If you will, I will make this clear by another illustration—an example. Cain despised his brother and immediately also showed contempt for God. How? Look how disrespectfully (υβριστικως — insolently, rudely) he answers God: ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ (Gen. 4:9). So too Esau, who despised his brother, showed contempt for God (counting as nothing the privileges of the birthright given by God). The brothers of Joseph despised him and showed contempt for God. The Israelites despised Moses and showed contempt for God. So too the sons of Eli despised the people—and showed contempt for God. Would you like to see examples of the opposite? Abraham was forbearing toward his nephew, and was obedient to God as well, as is evident from his obedience concerning his son Isaac and from all his other virtues. So too Abel, being meek toward his brother, was pious toward God as well. Let us not therefore despise one another, lest we learn to despise God also; let us honor one another, that we may learn to honor God as well. One who is bold toward men becomes bold toward God also. And when self-love, love of money, and contempt are joined together, what more is lacking for utter ruin? All has been corrupted, and a multitude of sinful impurities pours in.”

“Disobedient to parents,” απειθεις — disobedient. “Arrogance and haughtiness teach one to rebel even against nature (against those who gave life)” (Oecumenius). “Blasphemers are also disobedient to parents—which is logical; for whoever blasphemes God, how will he honor his parents?” (blessed Theophylact).

“Unthankful.” In blasphemy and disrespect toward parents, ingratitude is already evident. For “one who does not know gratitude to God his benefactor—how will he show gratitude to people?” (Oecumenius). Likewise, one who is ungrateful to parents—how will he be grateful to other people? (blessed Theophylact). Ingratitude is the daughter of pride, which holds that what is done for it is simply as it ought to be. But no less is it the fruit of love of money, as holy Chrysostom explains: “And can a lover of money be grateful? To whom can he feel gratitude? To no one. He counts all as his enemies, wishing to take everything from everyone. Even if you gave him all your property, he would show you no gratitude, but would be vexed that you had no greater wealth and did not make him master of more. Even if you made him lord of the universe, he would show you no gratitude, but would think that he had received nothing. His desire is insatiable: for it resembles a desire inherent in illness; and such desires are insatiable. As one suffering from fever can never be satisfied but is constantly thirsty and never quenches the unquenchable desire to drink; so too one seized by passion for riches can never satisfy his desire. And never being satisfied, he will not be grateful to you, however much you give him. He would be grateful to one who gave him as much as he desires. But no one can do this, because his desire is boundless. Therefore he cannot be grateful to anyone. There is no man so ungrateful as the lover of money, and so insensible as the covetous man.”

“Unholy,” ανοσιοι — without holiness or unfitting—not such as they ought to be by their calling, estate, position, place—“they set aside the fitness, or what is fitting and obligatory for them” (blessed Theophylact).

“Unloving,” αστοργοι — devoid even of natural affection for their own kin, “even enemies to their own” (Oecumenius).

2 Tim. 3:3. Irreconcilable (presumptuous, high-minded, traitors), slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good.

“Irreconcilable,” ασπονδοι — they accept no terms for ending a quarrel; once parted they are parted forever and shun every reconciliation—they will not look at you, so do not even show yourself.

The following words—“presumptuous, high-minded, traitors”—are not read by any of our commentators.

“Slanderers,” διαβολοι — that is, “those who think unjustly and speak ill of others. These are such as, seeing nothing good in themselves, find a certain consolation in speaking evil of others, so as to undermine the good opinion of them; but since they speak of others at random, they err and transgress—and so are truly slanderers” (holy Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact).

“Without self-control”—“in speech, in appetite, and in everything else” (holy Chrysostom).

“Brutal,” ανημεροι — harsh and turbulent, in look, word, and movement. “Hence savagery, hence ferocity—when one is a lover of money, when one is self-loving, ungrateful, and intemperate” (holy Chrysostom). “Do you see what self-love and love of money make of a person? Beasts instead of men” (blessed Theophylact).

“Despisers of good,” αφιλαγαθοι — “enemies of all good” (blessed Theophylact) or enemies of every good and benevolent person.

2 Tim. 3:4. Traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

“Traitors,” προδοται — “betrayers of friendship” (holy Chrysostom)—“or of fellowship” (Oecumenius)—not for the sake of the common good, but for the sake of their personal interests, to the harm of others.

“Headstrong,” προπετεις — “having nothing solid in themselves” (holy Chrysostom)—“unstable, inconstant” (blessed Theophylact)—“reckless” (Oecumenius): they rush this way and that, or charge ahead like bears—self-confidently swift and resolute in affairs.

“Puffed up,” τετυφωμενοι — “full of conceit, arrogance, and haughtiness” (blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius)—inflated, thinking much of themselves, though they have nothing worthy of greater attention.

“Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—Lovers of pleasure,” φιληδονοι — living for their own pleasure; whatever one loves to find pleasure in, that one does. This is the most flattering offspring of self-love and the most wide-ranging in application: because it is prone not only to carnal pleasures—though this is the predominant case—but also to pleasures of the soul, and even spiritual ones.

“‘Rather than lovers of God.’ A lover of pleasure, accustomed to the pursuit of pleasure, values nothing else—neither law, nor righteousness, nor the fear of God—and is ready to sell everything for pleasure. Hence even in divine things (attending church), he loves not God but the pleasure that divine ordinances and laws give or promise. ‘Rather than lovers of God.’ It cannot be otherwise; for where there is love of worldly pleasures, there is no place for the desire of the Divine” (blessed Theophylact). “The desire for the Divine they have replaced with the love of shameful things” (Oecumenius).

2 Tim. 3:5. Having a form of godliness, but denying its power.

Being, however, such in the dispositions and feelings of their heart, they outwardly refrain from showing themselves as such, and on the contrary endeavor to maintain all the external forms of a devout Christian life, where it is impossible to depart from them without clearly revealing one’s own impiety. Hence, play-acting is an inevitable consequence in people possessed by passions, yet moving among those who love godliness. But in their own circle they usually do not dissemble, but openly blaspheme all things divine and scoff at everything. Our commentators, understanding by godliness the faith, write about this as follows. Oecumenius: “if you judge them by what they say, they are devout; but if you judge by what they do, they are found and shown to be contrary to their own words.” Theophylact: “they assume only an outward form of godliness and pretend, but by their deeds they deny it. Note that the power of godliness, or as it were its sinew, lies in works. Wherefore it is rightly said that it without works is dead.” Holy Chrysostom: “by the word ‘form’ the Apostle here expresses something lifeless and dead—outward appearance, seeming, hypocrisy. Faith without works is only outward appearance without power. As a body that is beautiful and blooming but without strength is like a painted image, so is right faith without works. Let us suppose that some lover of money, traitor, or headstrong person holds the right faith; what profit is there in this, if he is distinguished by nothing befitting a Christian, if he does nothing proper to godliness, but surpasses the pagans in his impiety, is a contagion to those near him and an occasion of blasphemy against God—if he dishonors the teaching by his deeds?”

Blessed Theodoret concludes this whole section on the moral corruption that is to develop as follows: “I think the Apostle foretold the present time, for our life is full of these evils, and while clothing ourselves in the outward appearance of godliness, we prepare ourselves by our deeds as idols of wickedness: instead of lovers of God we have become lovers of money and love slavery to the passions; in a word, in us may be found all the rest that the divine Apostle foretold.” One cannot deny that a similar application is even more apt for our own time.

2 Tim. 3:5. And from such people turn away.

“And these also”—that is, turn away from such as teach otherwise and are contentious, and also from these, the morally corrupt. Or thus: and from these, the hypocrites, turn away—of those, the morally corrupt, there is nothing left to say. “But if such people will exist ‘in the last days,’ why does he say: ‘and from these turn away’? Probably even then there were some such—not in large numbers, but there were” (holy Chrysostom). Or he speaks in this sense: as soon as they appear. One must suppose that, according to the Apostle, holy Timothy will live to see the mentioned last days—that they will begin after the death of holy Paul, and holy Timothy will himself see them; and behold, for this occasion a commandment to him: turn away from such persons (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). But whichever of these meanings one holds in mind, the application from this to later times and persons is very natural. Holy Chrysostom also says: “What is certain is that through Timothy the Apostle exhorts all—to keep away from such people.” All—not only Timothy’s contemporaries, but all the more “those who will live after him” (Oecumenius).

2 Tim. 3:6. For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women, loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts.

“For of these are they”—from this circle are they. But those spoken of before will yet come, while these already are. Consequently they are reckoned the predecessors and germs of those. “Those who creep into households”—those who steal in secretly. “By this word the Apostle expresses their shamelessness, dishonesty, deception, and seduction” (holy Chrysostom). And furthermore ανελευθερον — “want of freedom” (blessed Theophylact). Conscience would rebuke doing this openly, or there was fear that they would encounter obstacles—acting openly. “And capture weak women.” “Do you see how these people imitate the ancient seducer, using the same instrument that the devil used against Adam?” (holy Chrysostom). “Of course, they also had in mind, through the women, to attract the husbands to their side” (Oecumenius). “Capture,” αιχμαλωτιζοντες — taking captive. It is characteristic of women to be charmed by novelty and appearance and, being charmed, to give themselves over into slavery to the charm and to the charmers. Standing at this vantage point they become very convenient instruments in the hands of those who seek to achieve their aims by indirect means. “Weak women,” γυναικαρια — a diminutive word of contempt. The Apostle expressed himself thus to expose their susceptibility to seduction or proneness to deception—hinting at the same time that a man too, if he proves easily deceivable, is no better than a woman. It is not nature that is blamed, but character (holy Chrysostom, Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact).

“Laden with sins,” σεσωρευμενα — piled up with sins, on whom sins lie like a heap of every kind of refuse. “This signifies both the multitude, and the disorderliness, and the mixture of sins” (blessed Theophylact). “He does not condemn nature; for he did not simply say: women, but specifically such women. And this is why they give themselves over to seductions—because of sins, because they do not know the good (and cannot distinguish what is not good)” (holy Chrysostom). “And such a one is usually more quickly inclined toward false dogmas” (blessed Theophylact). “Led away by various lusts.” Not all women, of course, who are carried away by false teachings are burdened with sins; but few of them are not slaves to vanity, and from vanity—a swarm of desires and lusts. Let only a cunning man gain entry here, and he will certainly capture the feminine mind and heart and sow in them whatever he wishes. Moreover, “various lusts” may also signify a multitude of passions—no light ones. Holy Chrysostom says: “What does ‘various’ mean? Here he means much: luxury, shamelessness, debauchery. ‘Various,’ he says, ‘lusts’—that is, love of gain, love of glory, vainglory, ambition; and perhaps he points to other shameful desires as well.”

Having said this, the Apostle showed whom to turn away from. And certainly such persons existed. But one may suppose that in them he also points to teachers of the like kind who are yet to appear, indicating as well how those to whom the care of souls and their salvation has been entrusted ought to relate to them. Ambrosiaster had this aspect of the matter in mind: “Although it is characteristic of all heretics, stealing into households, to capture women with their cunningly woven seductive words, so as through them afterward to attract also the husbands to their side—imitating their father, the devil, who went around Adam through Eve—this applies most of all to the Manicheans. For no one is so persistent, so insinuating, and so false as they—holding one thing within and displaying another outwardly. They preach holy chastity but, under the cover of their law, live impurely; they praise mercy, but among themselves injure one another; they insist that the world must be despised, but are always revolving in it; they boastfully assert that they keep strict fasting, but in appearance are always sufficiently well-fed—only, by some artifice, appear pale, in order to deceive. Thus the Apostle foretold them by the present words, because in the time of the Apostles they did not yet exist. Diocletian in one of his decrees calls their heresy filthy and impure, having recently come out of Persia. They find women who, out of vanity, desire to hear something new and, presenting to them things that please, succeed in luring them to their impure teaching. And these eagerly listen to them, wishing to learn, but not having sufficient discernment to distinguish truth from falsehood. So it comes about that they are always learning yet never come to the knowledge of the truth.”

2 Tim. 3:7. Always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

And this also concerns women—that they, amid their vanity and passion, also learn continually. This in itself would be good; but it is not good that, despite this constant learning, they are never able to come to know the truth in the proper manner. Why? Because, evidently, they learn only out of feminine curiosity and a thirst for novelty, as for fashion—which does not allow them to examine whether what is presented is true, and they follow after it for the sole reason that it is new and has an attractive appearance. But truth is old, strict, and always the same everywhere. It does not satisfy them; and they permit themselves to seek something satisfying outside of it—and alight upon such, at the indication of those who teach otherwise and steal into their households. Truth therefore remains to one side with them, and something that lies outside of truth but appears to be true is held in its place. Holy Chrysostom asks: why is it so that they learn yet cannot come to know the truth? Because, he says, their reason has grown dull. And why has their reason grown dull? Because they have sunk into the aforementioned lusts and sins. And he draws the conclusion that the Apostle said this (that they learn) not to excuse them but to convict them more strongly (paraphrase). Theophylact continues this observation: “so that their incapacity to know the truth is not a natural deficiency but is the consequence of the wrong direction of their will.” Women are prone to falsehood as they are to sin. Therefore it is a great misfortune when they come forward as teachers, contrary to the general spirit of the teaching of the Church of God.

2 Tim. 3:8. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith.

The names of the sorcerers who resisted holy Moses are not given in Scripture. “In all probability the names stated by the Apostle were preserved in an unwritten tradition” (all our commentators). But this is not important; what is important is the application that naturally follows from this. Holy Moses was manifestly sent by God and spoke and acted in God’s name, as God commanded him; and those sorcerers came out against him. Manifestly they were not of the truth of God, not guided by the spirit that is from God, but by that which is always and in everything against God. The same is true now, he says. God sent us personally through the Lord Jesus Christ, and we preach what He commanded, being taught by the Spirit; but these, who steal into households and seduce weak women with a phantom of truth, are manifestly not from God and do not speak from the Spirit of God. Do not be amazed at this, as if holy Paul were saying: it is nothing wonderful that such persons have appeared. “As weeds usually grow among the wheat, so preachers of the truth have always had opponents. Who is more renowned than Moses for godliness? Yet even he had sorcerers, people who openly rose up against the truth” (blessed Theodoret). So do not wonder, you too, that opponents of the truth have appeared among you. They rise up against our teaching not because they have come to know the truth better, but because, being “corrupted in mind and unfit regarding the faith,” they hold falsehood instead of truth, which seems to them to be the truth.

Whose mind is corrupted? It is so also in those who, contrary to the natural laws of the mind, step off the straight path by which they arrive at truth and, having set foot on an improper path, alight upon false principles, and having assimilated them, begin to judge all things and decide everything on the basis of these principles. Since principles taken on the wrong path cannot be true, all their judgments and decisions are false, though they stand by them as true. So things appear to them through the principles they have assimilated. As one who has put on defective spectacles sees things either not in their proper place, or not in their true color and size, or upside down—depending on how the spectacles are damaged—so do these, since the eye of their mind has been distorted by the principles they have received, judge accordingly—and judge not according to truth but according to appearance. Throw off the defective spectacles and you will see things as they are: so too here—discard the false principles, step out of them, and you will see the truth. Another kind of corruption of the mind is domination by passions. Wherever the passions draw, the mind follows along, and what they consider worthwhile, the mind sees as such. The passions all stand outside of truth; therefore they also drive away from truth the mind that they have seized. In this sense blessed Theophylact writes: “When anyone corrupts his mind with passions, he is then unfit in the faith (or in the knowledge of the true faith). ‘The fool has said in his heart: There is no God. They are corrupted and have done abominable iniquities’ (Ps. 52:2). For the reception of (true) faith an uncorrupted (by passions) mind is needed. Let us therefore attend to ourselves, that we not be corrupted by passions and that corruption (distortion, falsification of the faith) find no place in us.”

The one who is most often unfit in the faith is he who undertakes to teach the faith, and he becomes such when, not knowing precisely the definitions of the faith, he counts as true those representations adjacent to the faith that only appear to be true but are not truly so, and by teaching others to hold them, he distorts the truth of the faith and departs from it onto the crossroads of heterodox thinking and falsehood. Those unfit in the faith arise from the same causes as those corrupted in mind. They are successors one to the other. One corrupted in mind will inevitably prove unfit in the faith when he undertakes to judge in matters of faith.

2 Tim. 3:9. But they will progress no further: for their folly will be manifest to all, as that of those men also was.

“They shall not prevail further—that is, no further than those sorcerers who resisted holy Moses. As those at first had some small success but afterward were exposed as powerless, so it will be with these. Soon their foolishness will be revealed before all—and they will be abandoned. So the fog they conjured will be dispersed and the phantoms will vanish. Holy Chrysostom says: ‘but they shall not prevail.’ But how is it that in another place he says: ‘they shall advance to greater ungodliness’ (2 Tim. 2:16), and here: ‘they shall not prevail’? There he affirms that heretics, having begun to introduce novelties and errors, do not stop, but constantly invent new seductions and perverted teachings; for error never stops (at one point). But here he affirms that they will not seduce, will not carry away (the faithful); though at first they apparently lead some astray, they will soon be exposed themselves. This he expresses in the words that follow: ‘for their foolishness shall be manifest to all.’ In what way? ‘As that of those men also was.’ Errors, though they succeed at first, do not continue to the end. Such is everything that is not truly good in itself, but only appears to be good; it succeeds for a time, but afterward is exposed and perishes. But our teaching is not such.”

The Instructional Part—Section B: Encouragement (2 Timothy 3:10–4:8)

Take Courage: You Have Followed My Teaching (2 Timothy 3:10–13)

Having explained where pastoral activity ought to be directed, holy Paul now encourages holy Timothy to carry it out with zeal—having in view, of course, chiefly the pastors who would come after. As he had shown three directions for pastoral activity, corresponding to the three gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed through ordination, so he also adapts his exhortations toward the same directions. This can be seen even in the external flow of the speech, which divides into three subsections by the uniformly repeated turns of phrase: “but you” (verse 10),—“but you” (verse 14),—“but you” (2 Tim. 4:5). In a) the first (verses 10–13)—he enjoins: take courage; in b) the second (3:14–4:4): be zealously unwearying for the salvation of others; in c) the third (4:5–8): conduct soberly and wisely the work of the evangelist, as my representative.

g) Take courage (2 Tim. 3:10–13)

Take courage: aa) for you and I have not entered upon labors and suffering for the first time (verses 10–11); bb) and indeed there is no rest to be expected by us—it is not appointed for us (verses 12–13).

2 Tim. 3:10. But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, patience.

“But you”—grammatically connects the speech now beginning with what precedes; but its content is evidently directed toward something else. This something else is summed up chiefly in the word: “you have followed.” What was followed is enumerated only by way of example. From the very beginning until now you have shown such constancy, courage, and patience. Abide therefore as such to the end. The encouragement is given in this very reminder of what has been shown, as if saying: see to it that none of this is lost in vain—for the end crowns the work. Holy Chrysostom says: “you did not simply receive the teaching, but also: ‘you have followed.’ Here he expresses that many years have passed since the conversion (of holy Timothy). Therefore he says: be firm.” Blessed Theophylact explains: “you did not simply attach yourself to me, but also: ‘you have followed’—me, that is, remaining at length and sharing everything with me, you attended to all that is mine and became habituated to it. Be therefore steadfast.” Oecumenius adds: “as one who has acquired the habit, it befits you to remain likewise unchanged.”

“Doctrine”—he followed “the word of the gospel” (holy Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact)—“the truth communicated to you in the preaching” (blessed Theodoret)—“the dogmas” (Oecumenius). Here is laid the foundation of all that follows. Convictions received with all the ardor of a youthful heart gave movement to the whole of life.

“Manner of life,” αγωγη — conduct—“that manner of life which was shown in deeds” (blessed Theodoret)—“the way in which I acted in various relations with others and in different circumstances” (Oecumenius).

“Purpose,” προθεσει — the disposition of my will. “This is said of zeal and the inclination of the soul” (holy Chrysostom) or “of the aims that holy Paul had in view” (blessed Theodoret). You saw this and followed “my zeal, presence of spirit, and courageous animation with which I did all things” (Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). “I myself also, he says, did not only teach, did not only pursue wisdom in words, but also fulfilled it in deed” (holy Chrysostom). And outward deeds and inward dispositions answered one another—and all was according to God and before God.

“Faith”—not dogmatic faith only, but rather living faith, or confidence in God that He will never forsake those who labor for His glory. Blessed Theodoret writes: “you took from me the disposition which I have toward the Master.” And blessed Theophylact defines it directly: “he says, you followed faith, that is, the firmness and unchangeable constancy in the true dogmas (in the true teaching), or the faith that does not allow one to fall into despair in extreme dangers, but to trust in God that He will deliver from them” (the same in Oecumenius).

“Longsuffering”—at the encounter of obstacles that hindered the favorable course of the labors of our zeal (Oecumenius), as well as in cases of the falling of the brethren, whether into sins (blessed Theodoret) or into some heterodox view (holy Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact). “Nothing of the kind troubled me” (holy Chrysostom); “no temptation and no obstacle cooled my zeal or made me lazy; nor did those who thought differently trouble me, but I received them too with equanimity and with meekness brought them to reason” (blessed Theophylact). “And toward heretics I showed great longsuffering” (holy Chrysostom).

“Love”—“the compassion with which I have always been disposed toward all” (blessed Theodoret). “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” (2 Cor. 11:29). “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again” (Gal. 4:19).

“Patience”—“in persecutions” (holy Chrysostom)—“the way in which I courageously endure the attacks of adversaries” (blessed Theodoret).

2 Tim. 3:11. Persecutions, afflictions, which came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me.

It is said that holy Timothy followed the virtues of holy Paul—because he manifested them in himself, imitating his teacher; and that he followed him in persecutions and sufferings is said because he endured them together with the Apostle. Persecutions are external deprivations; sufferings presuppose beatings and wounds—painful things. Holy Paul endured both everywhere—and moreover in such a way that holy Timothy was almost always with him. But why does he mention only these cities? Perhaps because it was the homeland of holy Timothy, and because what they endured there made the most striking impression on him—and the deliverance was therefore all the more consoling. If we understand here the persecutions and sufferings of holy Paul during his first preaching in these places, then for holy Timothy at that time only the first fruits of faith were being laid, and the sufferings—if he shared in them to some degree in deed and not only in heart—steeled him for all subsequent sufferings. Having mentioned this beginning or this foundation, the Apostle also recalled what came after. “He had no need to enumerate everything separately—because he was not vain or ambitious, and spoke not to glorify himself, but to console and encourage the disciple” (holy Chrysostom). But perhaps holy Paul speaks here not of the initial persecutions and sufferings in those regions, but of recent ones, when, on returning from Rome through Crete and Phrygia, he again visited these regions as well, making his way toward Antioch. Thus, among others, holy Chrysostom supposes: “and perhaps (he mentioned only these) because he speaks of recent events, not ancient ones.” The same is repeated by holy John of Damascus, and by Oecumenius together with Theophylact.

The purpose for which the persecutions and sufferings are recalled was to encourage toward unflagging courage when encountering the unpleasantnesses inseparable from the work of evangelism; and for this it sufficed briefly to mention in general terms what had happened and been endured. This is what holy Paul does in the words: “what persecutions I endured.” What persecutions indeed I have endured! You need not enumerate them: you know them yourself. By this single brief word holy Paul directed the thought of holy Timothy to all that had been suffered. But wherein lies the source of encouragement? In the fact that: “the Lord delivered me from all of them.” “Then the Apostle mentions what and how much he has suffered, in order to reveal also how great and near is God’s help, by which He defends and makes secure His servants against the shamelessness of Satan—and thereby to arouse courage and readiness to meet always fearlessly the attacks of the faithless and treacherous” (Ambrosiaster). The direct conclusion from this is: take courage therefore! The Lord will deliver you also. Conduct therefore the work of an evangelist, paying no heed to the unpleasantnesses connected with it—and more than just not being troubled by them. “A twofold (here for you) consolation and encouragement: both in the fact that I showed courageous readiness for all things, and in the fact that I was not forsaken” (holy Chrysostom). “Be you also ready for all things—and in like manner you will never be forsaken” (blessed Theophylact).

2 Tim. 3:12. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Neither should we expect better. Such is already the lot on earth of all people of the same kind as us. Those who have resolved to live godly in Christ Jesus do not have their paradise on earth but in heaven. Earth gives them nothing but deprivations, sorrows, and persecutions. For the principles that guide the followers of Christ are altogether different from those that govern those who live for the earth and hope to find their paradise on earth. These two classes of people cannot dwell together; and the earthly ones, as masters, press upon those who seek heaven, as strangers and sojourners. So, says the Apostle, do not expect better, and do not occupy your thoughts with that. That is good for us—that the goodness of God turns all these tribulations into eternal good for us, so that we can call out with confidence and equanimity: Glory to God!

Holy Chrysostom says: “every one who desires to live godly will be persecuted. By persecutions he here understands sorrows and griefs. It is truly impossible for a man walking the path of virtue to be without grief, lamentation, sorrow, and temptations. For how is this possible for one who goes the narrow and afflicted way, for one who has heard: ‘in the world you will have tribulation’ (Jn. 16:33)? If Job in his time said: ‘is not the life of man upon earth a warfare?’ (Job 7:1)—how much more so now? Such is already the order of things. From my own example you can see that it is impossible for a man who struggles with evil not to experience sorrows. It is impossible for a wrestler to give himself over to ease, impossible for a soldier in battle to feast. Therefore let no one who is in the struggle seek repose or give himself to pleasures. The present time is a time of struggle, fighting, sorrows, and sighs—it is the arena of contests. The time of repose will come after; but now is the time of efforts and labors. No one who has stripped and anointed himself for wrestling thinks about repose. But if you desire repose, why then did you strip?”

2 Tim. 3:13. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

This is a contrast to what precedes. But to what precisely? Immediately before this stands the general proposition about the earthly lot of the devout—set forth to intensify the motivation to courage in the work of evangelism and the ordering of the Church of believers—toward which this entire small section (10–13) is directed. It is toward this, one may suppose, that the present contrast is also directed. Take courage, he says, in the work of evangelism, or the establishing of truth, despite your own lot of deprivation; for such is already the earthly portion of the devout. But do not look at the prosperity of the opponents of truth and do not be troubled by it. Their advance is not to their good, and does not occur because truth is on their side, but because, as on earth all earthly goods are illusory, among those who have become earthly the phantoms of truth are more valued than truth itself. To these, therefore, they hold fast—or therefore they still exist, that is, deceiving those who love deception.

“Wicked men”—not exclusively evil-natured people, but especially those who know how to deceitfully present falsehood as truth—as is evident from the word attached to them here: “sorcerers”—by which one must understand not wizards and magicians, but persons who enchant by presenting falsehood as beautiful and draw others after it. The occasion for inserting this word here was provided by what was said in verse 8 about the sorcerers who withstood Moses. But as those are presented there as opponents of the truth, so the word taken from them here must be understood as pointing to persons who preach falsehood contrary to the truth. “Wicked men and sorcerers”—will therefore mean: deceitful and seductive preachers of falsehood.

“Will advance”—by contrast with what precedes—they will prosper. You, as befits a godly man, will be persecuted, while the spreaders of falsehood will prosper. Of course, their preaching of falsehood will not be without success either; but that is not what the Apostle had exclusively in mind here—rather, it is chiefly their outward well-being. The Apostle did not foretell the success of their preaching, as is evident from what was said above (verse 9).

“To the worse”, επι το χειρον,—they will advance not toward good but toward evil for themselves; they will not advance in any good sense—so that this advancing will only appear to be advancement, while in reality it is the most extreme deterioration.

“Deceiving and being deceived”—the cause of their success, or the source of their prosperity. They themselves are in a state of delusion, and therefore they also deceive others—who, having become earthly-minded toward earthly and alluring things, readily yield to every deception, as something akin to their own disposition. Being in such a condition, they encounter not opposition but every kind of favor; hence they prosper and advance.

“Be not at all troubled,” he says, “if they prosper while temptations befall you” (St. Chrysostom). “For the destroyer of men aids his own, and like some instructor trains them in vice” (blessed Theodoret). But know that “they only appear to be advancing; in reality, however, the fact that they are favored in their deception is not advancement. For the Apostle, defining what ‘the worse’ is, said: to deceive and to be deceived” (blessed Theophylact). “Advancement is a middle term—since it occurs both in a better and in a worse sense. Therefore he says: these advance toward the worse” (Oecumenius).

Continue in What You Learned; All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

Specifically: aa) yourself remaining in the saving teaching you have received (3:14–17), bb) tirelessly imparting it to others as well (2 Tim. 4:1–4). In the exposition of these points, the aim is not so much to clarify the duty of acting in precisely this way, but rather to set forth the incentives that inspire such action.

For remaining in the received teaching, there are two incentives: α) knowing from whom you learned (2 Tim. 3:14)—and: β) that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:15–17).

2 Tim. 3:14. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you learned it.

But as for you, continue—be unshakeable and firm—in what? In what you have learned, εμαθες,—“and been assured of,” επιστωθης,—and what you received not by memory alone, but by heartfelt conviction, in which you were persuaded and assured to the point of tangibility. “Be,” he says, “unchanging, and ‘do not fret because of evildoers, nor envy the man who prospers in his way, doing lawlessness’ (Ps. 36:1, 7). You did not merely learn, but were assured—you received the teaching with conviction” (blessed Theophylact [see the same in St. Chrysostom and Oecumenius]). This reminder alone was sufficient to rekindle the first zeal in all its force: for such is the property of remembrance, that it powerfully revives both the inspiration that accompanied what is being recalled (2 Pet. 1:13), and “stirs up the pure understanding” (2 Pet. 3:1). But this effect is strengthened most of all by St. Paul with the following words: “knowing from whom you learned it.”

St. Timothy was taught by the very one who is writing—St. Paul. But the force of inspiration did not flow from this alone, but chiefly from the One by whom St. Paul himself was taught, and Who always so manifestly protected his teaching. All this was known to St. Timothy. By bringing all this to mind, St. Paul, like a mirror gathering the rays of warmth into a single point, directed them upon the soul of St. Timothy—and it could not but be kindled with all the warmth of inspiration and zeal for spreading and establishing upon earth those truths that came from heaven and give salvation to the world. Blessed Theodoret writes: “hold firmly to the teaching, the truth of which you have learned by experience; for this the Apostle expressed by the word επιστωθης — you were assured. Timothy was an eyewitness of the Apostolic miracles and himself performed many such. Herewith the Apostle also points to the authority of the teacher, making the teaching all the more firm: ‘knowing from whom you learned it.’” Ambrosiaster speaks similarly: “knowing that the authority of the one from whom St. Timothy learned stands firm and unshakeable. For he himself had seen the miracles performed by the Apostle, and before miracles every word of doubt or objection falls silent.”

2 Tim. 3:15. And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

“St. Paul presents Timothy with two incentives to remain unmoved in the received teaching: the first—that you learned, he says, not from some ordinary person, but from him—Paul, which is as much as to say, from Christ; the second—that you did not learn just yesterday or the day before, but from childhood, and you have Divine knowledge deeply rooted within you. And it will not permit you to do anything unreasonable” (blessed Theophylact). St. Timothy from childhood knew and held to one truth—the truth revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures. St. Paul, through these same Scriptures, with the help of God’s grace and the Apostolic full armor of the gifts of God’s Spirit, drew him to faith in the Lord Saviour. This was for him not something new, but the same thing he had been reading in the Scripture—only without clearly understanding of whom and of what the Prophets were speaking. The Apostle gave him this understanding, removing for him the veil that ordinarily lay over the Old Testament. From that time on, for St. Timothy the same Scripture was no longer the same in understanding—it shone for him with a different, better, and more perfect light. But this addition of knowledge did not make him estranged from the Scriptures. He still approached them reverently and submissively received instruction in them, seeing in them the prefigurement of all the New Testament economy of salvation. St. Paul, having reminded him of his own enlightenment by faith, now also points to the source from which conviction toward faith was drawn. St. Timothy must have felt himself enclosed within a certain inviolable circle, so that no impulse toward any view differing from those he had held hitherto could reach his mind from any direction. “You,” he says, “from an early age have studied Holy Scripture; on it you were nourished; and therefore your faith must be firm, and nothing ought to harm it; its root lies deep and has been strengthened over a long time; therefore nothing can uproot it” (St. Chrysostom).

But all this was already present in St. Timothy. Is it conceivable that there could be any wavering in him—the beloved disciple of St. Paul and his successor? Why then such reminders? In the Apostle’s words there is the ring of a farewell address (St. Chrysostom): until now I have been teaching you; now it falls to you to seek instruction in the Scripture; guided by a clear faith in the Lord, you are able to discern in it all that is needful for salvation. This Scripture—alone, without faith—is covered by a veil, but through faith in Christ the Lord this veil has been removed for you, and Scripture in every respect can make you wise for salvation. Ambrosiaster writes: “Knowledge of the Old Testament brings great benefit. In it the Person of Christ the Saviour is depicted and His Incarnation proclaimed for the redemption of the human race. This is why the Apostle exhorts St. Timothy to advance in this knowledge: for this ancient thing is the strength and support of the new.” Likewise St. Damascene: “By Holy Scripture he means the Law and the Prophets, which could raise him to wisdom, that is, to Christ. For in Him is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.” Blessed Theophylact draws from this the lesson: “Worldly knowledge makes a man wise in deceiving others with contentious sophisms; thence the ruin of the soul. But Divine knowledge is not so: it makes wise for salvation.” St. Chrysostom expounds this at greater length, especially in relation to the ordering of life according to God. “The Scriptures set forth what ought to be done and what ought not. They are a light for those in darkness. Whoever knows the Scriptures as he ought is not troubled by anything that happens, endures all things manfully, accepts some things by faith and ascribes them to the inscrutable economy of God, while for others he finds foundations and examples in the Scriptures. In God almost all things are hidden, and it is impossible to search out His works. Know only this: that God orders all things, that He provides for all things, that we are free, that God accomplishes some things and permits others, that He desires nothing evil, that not all things come to pass by His will but some also by ours—indeed, all that is evil is from us alone, while all that is good comes both from us and from His help, and nothing is hidden from Him; thus He works in all things. Knowing this, observe what is good, what is evil, and what is indifferent: namely—virtue is good, vice is evil, and wealth, poverty, illness, life, death, plots against us, slanders, and the like are indifferent. Having come to know this, you will at the same time understand that the righteous suffer here, while if some of them prosper, it is so that virtue may not appear terrible; the wicked rejoice here, so that they may receive punishment there; if some of them are also punished here, it is so that evil may not seem good and their deeds go unpunished; if they are not all punished, it is so that faith in the day of resurrection may not be lost; among the good there are people who do evil deeds, for which they give account here (that is, are punished), just as among the wicked there are people who do good deeds, for which they receive their reward here, so that they may suffer full punishment for the evil there; the works of God are for the most part inscrutable; the difference between us and God is great, and what exactly it is cannot be said. If we reason in this way, nothing will trouble us; but we shall reason so if we constantly listen to the Scripture; for there we will find many examples and instructive teachings for all that has been said.”

With these two arguments, all has been said that was sufficient for inspiring firm holding and guarding of the confession both in oneself and in others. But St. Paul deemed it necessary to append to the latter argument about Divine Scripture a definition—universal for all times and for all persons—of the beneficence of occupying oneself with the reading of Scripture in the pursuit of spiritual advancement. One must not, however, overlook the fact that if Scripture is such for all, it is all the more so for a pastor, when he properly fulfills the duty laid upon him.

2 Tim. 3:16–17. All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

“All Scripture” — πασα γραφη. Some translate this as in our Slavonic version: every Scripture, while others: all Scripture. There is nothing to dispute, for “every Scripture” contains the same thought as “all Scripture.” “Every Scripture” must be understood as: every Book of Scripture—every historical Book, every instructive Book, and every prophetic one. Bring them all together, and you will have all Scripture. And that “every Scripture” must be so understood is evident from the fact that here “every Scripture” signifies the same as what was said before: “the Holy Scriptures,” ιερα γραμματα — and this is the designation for the Books of Divine Scripture. Blessed Theophylact writes: “Some raise the question: how did the Apostle say here ‘every Scripture is God-breathed’? Are Greek writings also God-breathed? And, finding it difficult to resolve, they translate not ‘is God-breathed,’ but: being God-breathed—so that the sense would be: every Scripture that is God-breathed is also profitable. But they ought to have taken into account that the Apostle says here πασα γραφη — every Scripture, having said before ιερα γραμματα — ‘the Holy Scriptures you have known.’ And it is self-evidently clear that by πασα γραφη — ‘every Scripture’—he means here the same thing he previously designated by the words ιερα γραμματα — ‘Holy Scriptures’—by which is ordinarily meant the Books of Holy Scripture, or the Bible” (the same in St. Chrysostom).

“So, every Holy Scripture is God-breathed; therefore,” he says, “do not doubt it” (St. Chrysostom). God-breathed; for, as St. Peter testifies, “no prophecy of Scripture comes about by the prophet’s own interpretation” (is not spoken of one’s own accord). “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:20–21). “The Apostle distinguished Holy Scripture from human writings by calling it God-breathed; for through the Prophets and Apostles, God’s grace, or the Holy Spirit, uttered God’s truth” (blessed Theodoret).

“Scripture is God-breathed and profitable”—as the breath of the mouth of the all-good God, which is life-giving for every creature, and especially for the rational creature (Ps. 103:30; 118:50). The holy prophet David describes the soul-saving character of the word of God thus: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps. 18:8–9). The beneficence of Divine Scripture indicated by the Apostle corresponds to this.

Scripture is, he says, “profitable for teaching,” προς διδασκαλιαν: for it enlightens the mind by communicating to it knowledge of every truth needful for our condition. “It teaches us the necessary dogmas and points out good rules of life” (Oecumenius). “It teaches us what we need to know. And there is nothing that is not resolved through Divine Scripture” (blessed Theophylact). “For what we do not know, we learn from Scripture” (blessed Theodoret). “If there is anything we need to know, if a perplexity arises, we can learn of it from here” (St. Chrysostom).

Having taught the truth, Scripture also leads “to reproof”: it reproves both falsehood and an unrighteous life. “If it is necessary to reprove falsehood—this too we can draw from here” (St. Chrysostom). “Scripture reproves our lawless life as well” (blessed Theodoret).

Having reproved, it inclines and guides “to correction”—both of false views and of bad habits of life. “It calls back to the right path those who have gone astray (both morally and intellectually)” (blessed Theodoret). That is, to replace wrong thinking with right thinking, and, forsaking bad habits, to turn to virtue. “If it is necessary to correct oneself or to receive instruction—if something is lacking and needs to be supplied—this too is drawn from Scripture” (St. Chrysostom).

For one who has set his ways aright, there remains the need to know how to walk the straight path—not going astray, but advancing and becoming ever more established in righteousness. And in this too Scripture instructs him—being profitable “for instruction in righteousness.” “It trains us in every form of virtue” (blessed Theodoret). “It makes us wise in the acquisition of righteousness and the doing of righteous deeds” (blessed Theophylact)—“it leads into righteousness or raises one to perfection in it” (Oecumenius).

“All this leads to perfection, and makes us belonging to the God of all” (blessed Theodoret). This is why the Apostle adds: “that the man of God may be complete.” The man of God is one who has dedicated himself to God and cares about pleasing God. Such a man is himself protected by God and abides under His tangible favor. Such a man is complete when he is able in every case both clearly to discern the will of God and with firmness to fulfill it entirely, in all the breadth in which it is known, to the laying down of his life. Whoever attains such completeness always acts fittingly—suitably to the person, to the time, and to the circumstances. This is why the Apostle expressed “complete” by the word αρτιος — which, word for word, is best rendered as: well-fitted. We ordinarily call ill-fitted the one who is always out of place, and well-fitted the one who is always apt. And it is precisely this kind of perfection that St. Paul promises to one who takes Divine Scripture as his guide in forming his mental, moral, and religious life and follows it unswervingly. “For this reason,” he says, “the instruction of the Scriptures was given—that the man of God may be ‘complete’; consequently, without them it is impossible to be complete” (St. Chrysostom). “The correction and ordering of character comes through Scripture, so that the man who lives according to God may lack nothing good. So if you also desire to become well-fitted, αρτιος — that is, perfect, sound, and always even in all things—take the Divine Scriptures as your counselors to that end” (blessed Theophylact).

The sense of completeness explained above is indicated precisely in the final words: “equipped for every good work.—Equipped,” εξηρτισμενος — fitted, adjusted—that is, one who both knows and is able to do every good thing, and to do it in the best possible manner. This is what Scripture makes of the man of God! Not merely one who takes part in good works, as though merely not shunning them, but one who is set up only for them, so that good works are all he does. “Not equipped for this or that particular work,” he says, “but for every work” (blessed Theophylact).

All that has been said about Scripture has application both in pastoral practice and in the life of every person. Scripture teaches, reproves, corrects, and trains every person in all good, thereby leading him to full perfection; and to the pastor, upon whom it falls to lead the flock along all the aforementioned paths, it provides complete and detailed guidance. Therefore, both pastors and every person ought to engage in the study of the Divine Scriptures—not casually, superficially, but substantially. St. Chrysostom presents St. Paul as exhorting St. Timothy: “Instead of me,” he says, “you have the Scriptures; when you wish to learn anything, you can learn it from here.” And immediately after he adds: “If this was said to Timothy, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, how much more does it apply to us?”

The work of pastoral zeal is the salvation of the souls entrusted to one. The chief means for this: β) persuasion through the preaching of the word of truth. This is what St. Paul now impresses upon Timothy (4:2): preach, be persistent. As an inspiration to this: α) he places the pastor before the face of God, at the moment of judgment, when he will have to give an account of his stewardship of the household (4:1). And lest the pastor succumb to the temptation of putting off the work of preaching until tomorrow, he adds: γ) make haste; soon there will come a time when many will no longer listen to the word of truth (4:3–4).

I Charge You: Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1–4)

2 Tim. 4:1. I solemnly charge you before God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is ready to judge the living and the dead, at His appearing and His kingdom.

“I solemnly charge you”—this is as it were an adjuration by the living God, to arouse the most vivid awareness of the duty to act as enjoined, and to inspire zeal for it. Even in ordinary speech we often say: God will be your judge if you do not do such and such. In view here is both a note of fear—to awaken the conscience more forcibly so that it may take up the proposed matter more responsively—and at the same time a representation of how necessary and saving this work is. “Three thoughts are conveyed by this solemn charge or adjuration: that the commandment to preach the word is accompanied by fearful consequences for those who do not fulfill it; that its fulfillment is binding on those upon whom it is laid; and that the word which is commanded to be preached is the uniquely saving word. For if it were not so, it would not be commanded to be preached with such urgency. Moreover, this conveys the point that one who preaches it is doing nothing extraordinary but is fulfilling his duty, if he preaches with all diligence, not yielding to the ordinary slackness in this regard” (a paraphrase of Oecumenius).

“Before God and our Lord.” That is, before God the Father and the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation. Reading this, admit not even the slightest thought about inequality to any degree, nor the thought that these two Persons are ever, in any matter, without the third—the Holy Spirit. They are ever inseparable.

“Who is ready to judge.—Ready”—who is about to. “In the First Epistle also he impressed fear upon Timothy with the words: ‘I charge you before God, who gives life to all things’ (1 Tim. 6:13); but here he says something more fearful: who is ready to judge—that is, who is about to require an account” (St. Chrysostom). “Fearing for the reckoning to come, the Divine Apostle often presses his disciple with such a solemn charge or adjuration. But he does so also out of love, wishing to make him glorious and circumspect, and to dispose him to zealous and bold preaching” (blessed Theodoret).

“The living and the dead.—The living”—that is, those whom the judgment will find alive, “since many will remain alive (until the last judgment)” (St. Chrysostom); and: “the dead”—those who will have died before that time. “The Apostle called the Lord the Judge of the living and the dead, because He will both raise the dead and bring them to judgment, and will require an account of those whom the end of the world finds still alive, having clothed them beforehand in incorruption. For it is written: ‘we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed’ (1 Cor. 15:51)” (blessed Theodoret).

“At His appearing and His kingdom.” At the time when He will come a second time to reveal His glorious Kingdom. Or thus: “to judge”—when? “At the time of His coming in glory, with royal majesty—that is, not as now” (St. Chrysostom). “For the second time He will come not as the first—that is, not in humiliation” (blessed Theophylact).

2 Tim. 4:2. Preach the word; be persistent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching.

Here is the chief work of the pastor, which, if fulfilled, will justify him, and if not fulfilled, will condemn him at the terrible judgment. And no other virtues will save him if he proves delinquent in this regard. This is why the holy Apostle urges it so forcefully. The content of what is proposed here corresponds to what was said about Scripture. Scripture is profitable “for teaching”—and here: “preach, be persistent”; Scripture is profitable “for reproof”—and here: “reprove”; Scripture is profitable “for correction”—and here: “rebuke”; Scripture is profitable “for instruction in righteousness”—and here: “exhort with all longsuffering and teaching.” As if to say: all that you gather from Scripture, like a wise bee, bring it into the souls of those entrusted to your care.

“What then does the Apostle adjure? What is this? ‘Preach the word’—do not hide it, or bury in the ground the gift that is in you. Oh, may we who are slothful in preaching be afraid of this!” (blessed Theophylact).

“Be persistent in season and out of season. Be persistent”—stand always ready to preach—“preach without ceasing, speak tirelessly. Not just once to say something and be done, but always speak and teach” (blessed Theophylact). “What does ‘in season and out of season’ mean? Do not set a fixed time—let every moment be a time for this, and not only in time of peace, quiet, or when you are in church; even if you are in danger, even in prison, even in chains, even preparing to go to your death—even then reprove, and do not cease from exhorting. That is the right time for reproof when it can have effect or when a fitting opportunity presents itself” (St. Chrysostom). “The holy Apostle commands Timothy not simply and casually to preach, but to regard every moment as fit for this. This he himself did, teaching in prison, on a ship, at the table set before him; of this the events at Philippi, in Troas, and at sea bear witness” (blessed Theodoret). “‘In season and out of season’—the Apostle said this in the same sense in which it is said in ordinary speech. So some think, counting the time of peace and quiet as the fitting season for preaching, and the time of calamity (when there is no room for preaching) as an unfitting season. Others again count preaching in church as the fitting time, and preaching outside of church as the unfitting time. Or again differently: do not wait for the moment of someone’s fall, but teach before anyone has fallen” (blessed Theophylact). Do not wait for the moment, but as soon as you see that preaching is needed and can bring benefit, preach—whatever circumstances you may be in.

“Reprove.” “When you see that this ought to be done—that is, when you find someone sinning or intending to sin—do not let the moment pass without purpose.” Reproof applies both to one who deviates into heterodoxy and to one who violates the commandments. Reproof aims at revealing to the one his erroneous thinking and to the other the wrongness of his conduct—and to bring each to an awareness of his fault and to arouse in them a desire to amend. It requires a firm heart, so as not to be ashamed before anyone’s face.

“Rebuke.” “After you have reproved and demonstrated to the offender his offense, rebuke him” (blessed Theophylact). Επιτιμησον — means: also with the sternness of pastoral authority compel him to amend—impose a penance upon him, employ the corrective penalties of the Church, laying them upon him like plasters on wounds. By this it is required to bring him to a resolution to amend and to set him on the path of correction.

“Exhort,” παρακαλεσον — which means: both persuade and entreat, and comfort. Both are needful for the one being corrected, so that he may willingly and gladly pursue self-amendment. Here there is also a place for encouragement with the hope of success and the ease of achieving it, and especially with the brightness of the state of one who lives in good order. “The rebuke and penalty are like cutting, while the consolation is like a soothing plaster. Therefore apply the plaster of consolation, lest the cutting alone, producing extreme pain, cast one into despair” (blessed Theophylact). “Like physicians who, having identified the abscess and made an incision, now apply the plaster as well” (St. Chrysostom). “When the disease is hidden, physicians first make an incision and use harsh medicines, and afterward apply softening remedies” (blessed Theodoret).

To what was said—“reprove, rebuke, exhort”—St. Chrysostom appends this corollary: “If any of all these is omitted, the rest become useless. If you rebuke without first reproving, you will appear presumptuous and no one will listen; but if you first reprove, the listener will accept the rebuke, without which he will remain shameless. On the other hand, if you reprove and rebuke, even forcefully, but offer no consolation, you will again ruin everything. For reproof by itself is unbearable if it is not tempered with consolation. Just as when a wound is cut—though the procedure is beneficial—the patient cannot endure the pain of the cutting and the incision unless many pain-relieving means are applied; so it is here.”

“With all longsuffering and teaching.” Since the matter concerns the correction of infirmities, which do not yield quickly to remedies, the healing pastor above all needs patience—and not a little, but prolonged. Since all healing is accomplished by the free change of thoughts, feelings, and dispositions, and this can be achieved most of all only through a change in convictions, the pastor above all ought to direct his care and effort toward this. For this purpose let him combine longsuffering with teaching, or let him teach with longsuffering—not becoming vexed at failure, but with meekness and love. St. Chrysostom says: “The one who admonishes must have longsuffering (in teaching), so that the listener may not believe without foundation. And what does the word added to longsuffering—‘and teaching’—mean? Reprove not with anger, not with hatred, not with malice, not with hostility as toward an enemy—all this must be set aside—but how? With love, with compassion, grieving more than the one being reproved, sorrowing in heart over his condition.”

2 Tim. 4:3–4. For there will come a time when they will not endure sound teaching, but according to their own desires they will heap up teachers for themselves, having itching ears; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to fables.

By these words the Apostle exhorts to hasten in teaching the truth, so that they may come to love it and be attached to it, and by the force of this love and attachment remain faithful to it forever, turning their ears away from all heterodox teaching. “Before they cast the yoke of obedience to the truth from their necks, take hold of all of them. While there are still among your flock those who need to be taught, persuaded, and won over to the truth, make every effort to achieve this. With this aim the foregoing words were also said: ‘be persistent in season and out of season’” (St. Chrysostom, blessed Theodoret). “Accustom them to submission to the truth before they depart from it” (Oecumenius).

“For there will come a time when they will not endure sound teaching.” For now they will still listen and willingly receive both teaching and exhortation; but afterward they will no longer be found capable of it. “The holy Apostle prophesies and, foreseeing this in the future, commands that with every effort the flock be tirelessly taught truth and virtue, so that, having been established in the faith and trained in good works, they may in the subsequent time—when others begin to turn from truth into error—remain unchanged” (Ambrosiaster).

The Apostle does not indicate the causes of why this will come to pass; but, by inference from what was said before, one may suppose that the cause will be the non-fulfillment of the proposed commandment—to teach persistently—the silence of pastors and the neglect of preaching the truth and teaching the flock. When pastors do not teach, the flock remains in ignorance of sound doctrine; when they do not exhort those who sin, the sinners become hardened in vice. Remaining in ignorance of the truth, they fill themselves with empty thoughts and every kind of foolishness, by which they grow dull to the reception of truth. Growing hardened in vice, they become incapable of receiving admonition and reproof. Therefore one must make haste—to enlighten them with sound teaching and accustom them to virtues, before they become too dull to receive the former and too hardened to submit to the latter. For when they have reached that point, it will be too late to try—they will not listen.

But as they cannot remain without knowledge and rules, what will they do? “According to their own desires they will heap up teachers for themselves.” That is, teachers who will both leave them to think as they please and to live as they want. It is remarkable that “they will heap up”—in Greek επισωρευσουσιν — they will gather a whole mass or crowd of teachers, and moreover will gather them themselves—in which case, of course, those who please them will be accepted while those who do not will be rejected. And it turns out that these teachers will be dependent on the taught and will teach not according to their own program but according to that of their students. “Nothing could be more expressive than this word επισωρευσουσιν; it denotes a disorderly crowd of teachers who moreover will be ordained (chosen and confirmed in their rank) by the disciples” (St. Chrysostom). “And these, in making their selection, will act not according to sound reason, but will choose those who will indulge their desires and speak and do only what is pleasing to them” (blessed Theophylact).

“Having itching ears.” They will act so because they have become accustomed always to hear only what pleasantly tickles the ear. This points also to eloquence, but more to flattery—or the accommodation to the tastes of the listeners. They will choose only those fitted for this—“seeking for themselves people who would speak for their pleasure and flatter their hearing” (St. Chrysostom).

“And they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to fables.” Being such, they can no longer have any desire to hear the truth, which even without reproof reproves them; therefore they will turn away from it and turn aside to fables—to fanciful teachings that, occupying the imagination with attractive fantasies, leave the conscience in peace, neither awakening nor troubling it with the demand for the correction of what is amiss in their views and life. “Do you see? They will err not from ignorance but willfully and knowingly. They themselves will turn their ears from the truth; they themselves will turn aside to fables” (blessed Theophylact). “Will turn aside,” εκτραπησονται — they will stray from the right path themselves, deliberately.

Ambrosiaster writes on this: “Such will be those who desire to be taught according to their own desires. From teachers who are faithful to the truth and strict, they will turn to those who would teach them what it is pleasant for them to hear. The truth will become bitter to them, and, forsaking its sound teaching, they will occupy themselves with fables. They will not wish their evil deeds to be reproved; therefore they will desire such teachers as would pander to their customs and habits. Their ears itch, seeking to hear—under the name of proper teaching—empty but pleasant fables.”

St. Chrysostom observes here: “The holy Apostle predicts this not so that his disciple might be given over to despondency, but so that he might endure manfully when this comes to pass. In a similar way Christ also said: ‘they will deliver you up, and will scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be brought before governors and kings for My sake’ (Mt. 10:17). So also in another place the blessed Apostle says: ‘for I know this: that after my departure grievous wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock’ (Acts 20:29). He said this so that they might be watchful, so that they might make fitting use of the present time.”

Fight the Good Fight; the Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:5–8)

Having set forth this rule: aa) in verse 5, St. Paul then speaks: bb) of the end of his own ministry (verses 6–8). By this he gives it to be understood that he is leaving St. Timothy as his successor and the continuer of his work—presenting in this the most powerful incentive to proper pastoral ministry.

2 Tim. 4:5. But you—be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

But you—be sober in all things. “Have a watchful mind” (blessed Theodoret). “Labor, take precautions, bring the sheep into a safe condition before the infection sets in” (St. Chrysostom). At the present time, this is the first business of your prudence. To be sober means: to attend to all things, to watch sharply over everything and in every direction, so as to direct one’s pastoral activity accordingly. As a watchman of the house of God, the pastor must always be sober and vigilant. This is his first duty and the first characteristic of good pastoral ministry.

“Endure hardship,” κακοπαθησον — take upon yourself every painful labor, not sparing or pitying yourself, as soon as the work of the good ordering of the flock and the good of those entrusted to your care demands it. By this is meant not suffering and persecution for the faith as such, but the denial of all rest and the readiness for every kind of work for the good of the flock—doing it without delay, regardless of its burden and painfulness to our infirmity. This includes many-vigiled prayer for the flock with fasting, the preaching of the word, visiting those entrusted to your care for the purpose of instruction and correction, the firm introduction of saving order and the maintenance of it, regardless of all obstacles and opposition.

“Do the work of an evangelist.—Do the work”—complete, bring to its end the work of the evangelist of salvation laid upon you. You have received it, begun it, have been conducting it—carry it through to the end. The exhortation is: do not let zeal be extinguished; ever kindle and rekindle it, urging yourself to reach the intended end successfully. “Bring to completion what you have begun, and sow among them the gospel while they are still sound” (Oecumenius).

“Fulfill your ministry,” πληροφησον — satisfy, fulfill it satisfactorily—so that both your conscience and all who know you may say that you have done everything on your part: all the strength you possess, both of soul and of body, has been spent on the work of ministry; not a single duty has been omitted, not a single effort deferred, not a single precaution left unattended; wherever you were needed to be, you were there; when speaking was required, you did not keep silent; when acting was required, you did not withdraw from the task. Concerning preaching—one part of the ministry—blessed Theodoret writes: “Whether they listen or not, you impart the teaching; for in this way you will accomplish what is fitting to the ministry.” But what is said of this applies equally to every other part as well. Ambrosiaster defines the whole matter generally: “The Apostle exhorts and urges—to keep watch over church discipline, to act manfully, to expound Scripture, so that the flock, having become thereby instructed and wise, may easily escape the seduction of empty fables.”

Speaking of his death, the Apostle does not content himself with mentioning: α) the event itself, which is imminent (verse 6); but adds: β) a reference to the labors he has borne (verse 7)—and: γ) that by which the toilsome path of his life will at last be crowned (verse 8). All these references must have acted upon St. Timothy in an extraordinarily inspiring way—and they were most suited for the aim which St. Paul had in this section of the Epistle.

2 Tim. 4:6. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

The Apostle speaks as it were thus: carry on zealously the work of the evangelist, for my end has already drawn near. After me, there is no one who can more zealously watch over this work than you, my most beloved disciple. I leave you as my successor in the work of God. Labor. And then he gives an example of how to labor, enumerating his own labors. Or thus: all that I have prescribed for you is my last instruction. My end has already come. Receive what has been said as a final testament. What is still lacking, seek guidance in my own example.

“I am being poured out,” σπενδομαι. I am already being slaughtered as a sacrifice; “or: I am already offering myself as a sacrifice to Christ” (Oecumenius). “I stand at the very end of my struggles. The Apostle called his death a sacrificial slaughter (that is, expressed it by the word σπενδομαι); because it was for piety that blood was poured out (σπονδη — a libation)” (blessed Theodoret). “He did not call the death that awaits him a sacrifice: θυσιαν — but a libation: σπονδην — expressing himself with greater force and sacredness. For in a sacrifice, ordinarily only a certain part was brought to God as a burnt offering; while a libation was entirely offered to Him. This is what he also commands his disciples to do when he says: ‘present your bodies a living sacrifice’ (Rom. 12:1). For one who is slaughtered for Christ offers himself up in priestly sacrifice. Or by σπενδομαι he understands καταλυω πολεμον — I am bringing my warfare with all to an end. I will no longer be going out to battle, nor will there be any more battle against me; I am already coming to my end” (Oecumenius).

“And the time of my departure has come. Departure,” αναλυσεως — dissolution, just as he also wrote to the Philippians that he desired to “depart and be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23).

2 Tim. 4:7. I have striven the good striving, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.

“The Apostle, knowing that a martyr’s death now awaits him, wishes to leave St. Timothy an example of a godly life and sound doctrine—so that through such succession the true teachers in the Church might never cease. He recalls that he strictly observed all that was obligatory for him and soul-saving for others; that not merely in words but by his very deeds he gave an example to those who heard him; that before his Creator he appeared as a faithful steward and overseer, preaching the truth everywhere without ceasing, and, having fought against the principalities and authorities of the world with all zeal and wisdom, left an example of how they are to be overcome—so as to arouse in his disciples zeal both to guard the teaching inviolably and to strive the good striving, that by this they too might become worthy of crowns from God” (Ambrosiaster).

St. Chrysostom says on this passage: “Often, taking up the Apostle’s Epistle and examining this passage, I was at a loss why Paul so extols himself: ‘I have striven the good striving.’ But now, it seems, by God’s grace I have understood this. Why does he say this? He wishes to comfort his grieving disciple, commanding him to be of good cheer, because he is departing to a crown, having completed all things, having reached a good end; there is cause to rejoice, he says, not to grieve. Why? ‘I have striven the good striving’; he speaks like a father who, comforting his son sitting beside him and lamenting his orphanhood, would say to him: do not weep, my son; I have lived well, I leave you having reached old age; my life has been blameless, I depart with glory, and you will be glorified by my deeds; the king shows me his favor. And he speaks as it were thus: I have erected trophies, I have conquered enemies—he says this not out of vainglory, no, but to encourage his son, so that with such praises he may instill in him the ability to bear lightly all that comes, to have good hope, and not to consider the impending separation as burdensome. Thus Paul wrote this for the consolation of Timothy, and the whole Epistle is filled with consolation—and is as it were a certain testament.”

“I have striven the good striving.” “Having arrayed myself against all the diabolical host, I have raised a victory monument” (blessed Theodoret). This is the striving of the Apostolate: it was necessary to undertake the labors of missionary journeys; settling in a place—to free the word for action; having begun to preach—to overcome all obstacles to its success both in souls, in prior beliefs and prejudices, and without, in the active opposition of the zealots of the old ways; having gained disciples—to guard, instruct, and confirm them; and when persecutions arose on account of this—to stand firm for the work of God, not wavering in the least and not yielding from the truth by a single iota. All this is the Apostolic striving—and St. Paul did not have a moment free from it. There were great consolations, but they flowed forth from beneath the strivings. All this the Apostle recalled to St. Timothy—as if saying: “Take it upon yourself as well. Chains, prisons, death—is this the good striving? Yes, he says; because it is accomplished for Christ’s sake and brings great crowns. Nothing is better than this striving; this crown has no end; it is not of laurel leaves; here no man disposes the strivings, no men are spectators—Angels fill this arena. There (at ordinary spectacles) men labor and are wearied for many days, yet in a single moment receive a crown, and immediately the pleasure passes; but here it is not so—they remain forever in splendor, glory, and honor. Therefore one ought to rejoice; for I am going to rest, I am leaving the arena of strivings; you have heard from me that it is better ‘to depart and be with Christ’ (Phil. 1:23)” (St. Chrysostom).

“I have finished the course,” δρομον — I have completed the path appointed for me to travel in Apostolic activity—and moreover as it was appointed: I did not deviate from the program traced from above—for in fulfilling it the Spirit of God guided me, showing where and when to go and where not to go; I did not disappoint the expectation of the One who granted me both the commission and the strength to fulfill it. “Having traversed the greater part of land and sea, he enlightened those enveloped in the darkness of ignorance” (blessed Theodoret). St. Chrysostom says: “‘I have finished the course.’ One must both strive and go forward: strive, enduring sorrows, and go forward—not just anyhow, but toward something useful. Truly the good striving is that which not merely delights the spectator but brings benefit; and the true ‘course’ is not that which strives toward nothing or merely displays strength and ambition, but that which draws all to heaven. Such a course is brighter than the sun; such is the course that Paul completed on earth, or by which he strove toward heaven. In what way did he complete this course? He went around the whole world, beginning from Galilee and Arabia and reaching the ends of the earth: ‘as from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ’ (Rom. 15:19). He traversed the whole world like a bird—or better, swifter than a bird; a bird would merely fly through, but he—not merely through, but bearing the wings of the Spirit and scattering thousands of obstacles, deaths, plots, and calamities. In this way he was swifter than a bird. If he had been merely a bird, he would have tired and been caught; but, being winged by the Spirit, he flew over all the nets, as though having wings of fire.”

“I have kept the faith.” Since this is said, one might suppose that the faith of St. Paul was subject to doubt or danger; but it is truer to say that this is spoken in the sense that throughout life, from the time of his conversion, the Apostle experienced much both inwardly and outwardly that might have shaken faith—or that ordinarily shakes faith in people—but nothing shook it in me. It remained throughout all time unchanged, as it began. From the nature of St. Paul’s conversion, no other outcome could be expected. What could be a more tangible assurance of the truth of the Gospel than the appearing of the Lord—and His speaking to St. Paul—and then the manifold visible manifestations and assistance rendered to him?

“Much was there that attempted to take this faith from him—not only friendly relations with people, but threats, mortal dangers, and a countless multitude of other things; but he withstood all. How? By being soberly attentive and vigilant” (St. Chrysostom), “and watching for the stealthy thief of faith” (blessed Theophylact). Therefore “no one could steal it from me—neither the people, nor the magistrate, nor the king, nor the tyrant, nor the devil himself” (blessed Theodoret).

2 Tim. 4:8. From now on there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Having set forth the example, he emboldens the following of it with the hope of a most blessed end. I await, he says, for my strivings and labors a crown of righteousness, and I hope without doubt to receive it; without doubt all who have loved the Lord will receive it; without doubt you too will receive it. Be zealous then for the work of God, not sparing your life.

“By ‘righteousness’ the Apostle here means virtue in general” (St. Chrysostom). “And by ‘crown of righteousness’ he means the crown prepared for the righteous and given by the righteous verdict of the righteous Judge” (blessed Theodoret).

“Is laid up”—it is ready, but has not yet been received, though there is no doubt that it will be. He said before also: “I press on, that I may apprehend… the prize of the high calling” (Phil. 3:12, 14). The end is already in sight, but the course or the pressing on continues still.

This is the same as at the racecourse. The prizes are ready and visible to all, but they are received when the race is finished and the winners are determined. How cautiously the Apostle speaks of receiving the crowns—lest he appropriate for himself more than is due!

Upon what is such confidence founded? Upon the keeping of all that it pleased the Lord to command and lay upon him. The testimony of conscience declares that on his part everything has been done, every effort has been spent.

Nothing has been left unattended. Therefore just as here, mentally looking up to the Lord, he does not lower his inner gaze before His face, but with love and without fear raises that gaze toward Him—so too he hopes not to be put to shame by the Lord in the world to come. The hope of reward rests upon the testimony of conscience, that the one who hopes owes no outstanding debt.

“Which the Lord will award me.” When? “On that day.” How is this evident? From the fact that He is a righteous Judge. “I know,” he says, “that He is righteous—and I know that He is a Judge; I trust in the judgment and await a verdict favorable to me” (blessed Theodoret). “He did not say: He will give, but: ‘He will award’—as something owed, as a debt. Being righteous, He will assuredly ordain a reward for labors, so that the crown is due to me, by the righteousness of the Judge” (blessed Theophylact). “The Apostle said this not out of boastfulness, but to urge the disciple to hold fast to the strivings, because unfading crowns await them” (blessed Theodoret).

Is this not presumptuous? Not at all. This is nothing other than the heart’s appropriation of the good promises of the Lord, upon the exact fulfillment of the conditions under which the promises were given by the One who promised. A believer who has entered by faith into the realm of God and in all things remains faithful to faith and to the ways of God cannot speak or feel otherwise. But one cannot fail to note that such confidence does not take root all at once. It is the fruit of the labors of an entire life. One who has received the faith is assured only that crowns are prepared for believers, if they labor and live in the spirit of faith. But that the crown is prepared for him specifically—that assurance comes afterward, when he has labored conscientiously and without sparing himself. Having this in view, and not wishing to give occasion to expect a crown without labors on the basis of faith alone, the Apostle added: “and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” Those who have loved His appearing—these are believers who resemble servants awaiting their master and laboring watchfully at each one’s appointed tasks—that is, those who strictly, without sparing themselves, fulfill in all things the will of the Lord, unwaveringly walking according to His commandments. “The appearing of the Lord” here is His second coming to judgment. Who can love this appearing without keeping the commandments of the Lord? He comes precisely to test how each person has fulfilled His will, and to reward those who have fulfilled it as they ought, and to punish those who have not. Just as examinations are loved and one hastens to them with readiness by the one who is confident of giving satisfactory answers—so too the appearing of the Lord for judgment can be awaited with love only by one who is confident that at the judgment he will not be put to shame but approved and praised; and only the faithful keeper of the Lord’s commandments can imagine himself to be such. “He who loves the appearing of the Master is the one who follows His laws and lives according to them. For he awaits the judgment with good hope” (blessed Theodoret).

St. Chrysostom says: “Here (that is, that He will award all) he also encourages his disciple. If the Lord will award all, then all the more will He award Timothy. But he did not say: and to you, but: ‘all’—expressing that if ‘all,’ then all the more him.”

“But in what way, you will say, can one love the appearing of Christ? If you rejoice at His coming. Whoever rejoices at His coming does what is worthy of this joy; he will give, if necessary, both his possessions and his life, in order to receive the blessings to come, in order to be deemed worthy to behold His second coming in a fitting manner—with boldness, in glory and light. This is what it means to love His appearing.”

In conclusion, St. Chrysostom appends instruction on how to be deemed worthy of the appearing of the Lord even here, so as to have in this a pledge of a joyful meeting with His appearing at the second coming. “Whoever loves His appearing will do everything so that before the universal appearing there may come to him a personal coming of Christ. How, you will say, is this possible? Listen to Christ Himself, who says: ‘if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and We will come to him’ (I and the Father) ‘and make Our abode with him’ (Jn. 14:23). Consider how great this is—that He who is to appear to all in general promises to appear to each of us in particular. ‘We will come,’ He says, ‘and make Our abode with him.’ Whoever loves His appearing will do everything to call Him to himself and to keep Him with himself, so that the light may shine within him. Let there be nothing in us unworthy of His coming, and He will quickly dwell in us. The appearing (επιφανεια) is so called because it shines from above (επανω φαινεσθαι) and radiates from on high. Therefore let us strive toward what is above, and we will quickly draw to ourselves the rays from above. No one among those who crawl along the ground and bury themselves in the earth can see the light of the sun; no one among those who defile themselves with vain deeds can see the Sun of righteousness; it appears to no one who gives himself over to such a life. Sober yourself at least a little, arise from this abyss, from this chasm of vanity, if you wish to see the Sun, if you wish to be deemed worthy of His coming. If you are deemed worthy of His coming now, you will gaze upon Him then with great boldness. Be wise now; let there be no spirit of pride in you, lest He strike you down and overthrow you—and so forth.”

The Circumstantial Part, or Conclusion (2 Timothy 4:9–22)

Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

It consists of: a) the summons of holy Timothy to come to him, with the reason for it (4:9–12); b) an instruction (v. 13); c) a warning (4:14–15); d) news (4:16–18); e) greetings (4:19–21); f) a blessing (v. 22).

j) The summons of holy Timothy (2 Tim. 4:9–12)

2 Tim. 4:9. Make haste to come to me soon.

He expresses the invitation briefly, in full confidence that a mere hint will suffice for holy Timothy, who always longed to remain inseparably with his father and teacher. He uses, however, words of urgency: “Make haste, soon.” Perhaps by this he wished to say: do not allow any obstacle to stop you. “Soon”—in verse 21 is replaced by the phrase: “before winter.” By this he indicated either the final limit on any delay, or his fear that winter, overtaking him on the road, might against his will detain him for a long time on the way and even expose him to extreme dangers. Holy Chrysostom says: “One may ask: why does Paul call Timothy to himself, when he had been entrusted with a Church and an entire people? The Apostle does not do this out of pride. But why, then? Because he was in extreme need, could no longer move about at his own will, lived in prison, having been confined there by Nero, and was preparing to die before long. Therefore, lest this should occur before he met with his disciple, the Apostle calls him to himself, wishing to see him before his own end and, perhaps, to hand on to him many things.”

2 Tim. 4:10. For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present age, and has gone to Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia; Luke alone is with me.

“He does not say: for I wish to see you before my departure from this present life, which would have grieved Timothy greatly; but rather: for I am left alone, I have no one to help me” (holy Chrysostom)—“in the work of proclaiming the Gospel” (blessed Theophylact).

“For Demas has forsaken me.”—“Demas too was one of Paul’s fellow-workers, and greatly praised; for he says: ‘Demas and Luke, my fellow-workers, greet you’ (Phlm. 1:23–24). But in the time of danger Demas, abandoning the Apostle, departed from Rome, counting separation as safety for himself” (blessed Theodoret). He did not fall away from the faith, but feared sufferings and death, and fled. “Hardships there had been before, and dangers too, but not so terrible and inescapable. And he did not stand firm.”

“Having loved this present age”—that is, having loved ease, a safe and peaceful life, he preferred to enjoy himself at home rather than suffer with me and share my present dangers. He reproaches Demas alone, yet not wishing to reproach him but to strengthen us, that we might not faint in spirit amid dangers and trials; at the same time he also wished to draw his disciple (that is, holy Timothy) more closely to himself (holy Chrysostom).

“Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.”

“He does not reproach these; for Titus was one of the truly admirable men, so that Paul entrusted to him the church affairs on an island not small but very great, namely Crete” (holy Chrysostom). “These departed with his knowledge and by his arrangement; which is why he does not say of them: they have forsaken me” (Oecumenius). “They went not because they loved this present age, but on business, perhaps of preaching, or for some other need” (blessed Theophylact). “Both of them are free from that accusation, because they were sent by the Apostle himself for the work of preaching” (blessed Theodoret).

Concerning Crescens, a tradition preserved by Sophronius records that he preached in Galatia and Gaul. Having appointed his disciple Zacharias as bishop in Vienne (in Gaul), he returned to Galatia and there died as a martyr, in the reign of Trajan. He is one of the Apostles of the Seventy. His feast day is July 30.—Blessed Theodoret writes: “Crescens to Galatia.” “Thus the Apostle named Gaul; such was its name in antiquity; and even now those versed in secular learning call it by this name.”

Concerning holy Titus, see the introduction to the Epistle to him. Dalmatia was then the same region as it is today and formed part of Illyricum. The Apostle’s preaching had reached as far as Illyricum even before his first imprisonment (Rom. 15:19). Probably, during the time of his second imprisonment a need arose in the Church there for some authoritative arrangement of affairs—and holy Paul sent there holy Titus, who had already carried out a similar commission in Crete, to set things in order.

“Luke alone is with me.” “He was inseparably with holy Paul, wrote the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, was industrious, inquisitive, and steadfast. Of him the Apostle says in another Epistle: ‘whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the churches’ (2 Cor. 8:18)” (holy Chrysostom). He was with holy Paul also during the first imprisonment (Col. 4:14; Phlm. 1:24). Certainly he was with him throughout the entire time between those imprisonments as well.

2 Tim. 4:11. Take Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for the ministry.

Holy Mark was with the Apostle in Rome during the first imprisonment, and after it, during the visitation of the churches, was probably left by him somewhere—perhaps in one of the Macedonian or Achaean churches that lay on the road from Ephesus to Rome. Or perhaps he was still in Colossae, to which holy Paul had enjoined, in his Epistle to them, to receive him when he came. He could have remained there until this time.

“For he is useful to me for the ministry.” What ministry? “He does not require him for his own comfort, but for service to the Gospel. For even in chains he did not cease to preach. And Timothy also he calls to himself not for his personal needs, but for the proclamation of the Gospel, so that no disturbance should arise among the faithful at the occasion of his death, and that his many disciples, being present, might calm the agitation and console those who mourned his passing; for among those who had believed in Rome there were doubtless men of great standing” (holy Chrysostom).

2 Tim. 4:12. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.

The difficulty in understanding this passage is resolved if we allow that “I have sent” stands in place of “I am sending”; “I have sent” is said in the sense of: I have firmly decided to send—as though: count him as already sent. This is mentioned as a further explanation that he is alone in Rome with holy Luke. Tychicus was sent with the present Epistle and was to remain in Ephesus in place of holy Timothy, to oversee things and report at once if anything decisive should happen. This arrangement was communicated verbally; it is not mentioned in the Epistle, so as not to offend the Ephesians by suggesting that they could not be left alone, as though they were unstable and unreliable. That the Apostle did not write “to you” should not be regarded as an objection to our supposition. By saying “to Ephesus” he obviously also said “to you.” Nor should one suppose that holy Timothy was not in Ephesus at that time.

k) The commission (2 Tim. 4:13)

2 Tim. 4:13. The cloak which I left in Troas with Carpus, when you come, bring it, and the books, especially the parchments.

The cloak (phelonion) was an outer garment that varied in material according to the season but was uniform in shape, providing protection from dust, rain, damp, and cold. Setting out for Macedonia (1 Tim. 1:3) and Achaia, the Apostle on this occasion also passed through Troas and left there with Carpus the excess burden, intending to return soon, as he had planned (1 Tim. 3:14). But circumstances turned out such that, instead of Ephesus, he had to depart for Rome as a prisoner. The cloak proved to be needed, and he instructs that it be brought. Carpus is not mentioned further in Scripture. If this is the same person commemorated on May 26, then tradition (Hippolytus) relates of him that he was a disciple and companion of holy Paul, preached the word of God in Crete, where he also met holy Dionysius the Areopagite, and in Thrace; he died and was buried in Beroea of Thrace. He is of the Seventy.

“When you come, bring it.” The road for holy Timothy lay or was intended to be the same, through Troas. Books in those days were of papyrus or parchment. The latter, as more costly, were doubtless equally so in content. These might be the Bible, some theological treatises of Gamaliel, the Gospels already in use—those of Matthew, Mark, Luke—and perhaps also the Epistles of holy Paul himself and of other Apostles. With whom were these books? Perhaps with the same Carpus, having been left together with the cloak for the sake of lightening the load, with the expectation of returning soon to collect them. “The divine Scriptures in antiquity were kept in scrolls of dressed hides; and thus the Jews keep them even to this day” (blessed Theodoret). “Why were books necessary for one who was preparing to depart to God? They were very much needed, so that he might hand them on to the faithful, that they might have them in place of his teaching. All the faithful at that time doubtless felt a great loss, especially those who were present at his end and enjoyed the sight of his face.—And the cloak he requests so as not to need to take one from another. See how much he cared about this (about not taking from others); elsewhere too he expressed this, when he said to the Ephesian presbyters: ‘these hands of mine have ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me’ (Acts 20:34–35)” (holy Chrysostom).

l) The warning (2 Tim. 4:14–15)

2 Tim. 4:14. Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

This Alexander is not the same one who calmed the crowd during the riot against holy Paul in Ephesus (Acts 19). That one was a man of letters and indifferent to the interests of the coppersmith trade. More likely this one was a companion of Demetrius the silversmith, who had his own workshop making copper goods, χαλκευς. He may also not be the same as the one mentioned in 1 Tim. 1:20; though it would be more plausible that he is, despite the trade of coppersmith. But determining this is of little importance. Nor does it matter much where he showed his opposition and wickedness toward the Apostle—in Rome or in Ephesus—or whether the Apostle’s words are a recollection of a past event or refer to something present, to what happened in Rome. In the latter case one must suppose that Alexander came from Ephesus to Rome, either on his own or at the instigation of the Ephesian community, to accuse holy Paul, and was prepared to return to Ephesus again. Such a supposition seems unnecessary. Holy Paul was taken to Rome not at all on account of Ephesian complaints, but for his preaching everywhere. There is therefore no reason to have this Alexander following after him and then going back. It is simpler to picture him as remaining fixed in Ephesus, while being very active only in opposing the Gospel and the holy Apostles. Holy Paul had suffered evil from him during his last stay in Ephesus, and now reminds holy Timothy of him so that he might be on his guard. This is a warning, not a piece of news. Blessed Theodoret writes: “It is in no way surprising that a coppersmith stirred up riots against the Apostle and brought him into danger; for it is characteristic of those who live by the labour of their hands to rouse the people against what deprives them of work. So too the silversmith Demetrius armed the whole of Ephesus against Paul.” And holy Chrysostom says that “here the Apostle recalls the trial not merely to reproach or condemn the person he mentions, but to inspire his disciple to strive and dispose him to bear trials with courage. Even if those who bring trials upon us are of no account, even if they are base and ignoble, one must, he says, endure everything with courage.”

“He did me much harm”—“he caused me intense sufferings more than once” (holy Chrysostom). “He made me suffer greatly and in various ways. It is indeed usual that people of no standing and of low condition, when they begin to do evil, spare no one at all, caring nothing for the opinion of society” (blessed Theophylact).

“The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.” The Apostle speaks calmly, without passionate emotion. Therefore it resembles more a prophecy than a wish for revenge. Blessed Theophylact writes that αποδωη stands in place of αποδωσει; and holy Chrysostom actually reads αποδωσει. Blessed Theodoret writes: “This is a prophecy, not a curse (and he reads αποδωη), and the Apostle said this to console blessed Timothy and to teach him not to be discouraged by the successive assaults of adversaries.” But the optative form should raise no difficulty. For a wish that obstacles to the success of the Gospel be removed is approved by moral sense. The Apostle speaks in this spirit: “he says this not because saints rejoice in the punishment of evil men, but because the matter concerned the preaching and the weaker among the faithful had need of such consolation: this will not pass unpunished for him” (holy Chrysostom). It is proper to the saints to enter into the designs of God and, in the feeling of God’s righteousness, to voice the wish that those who oppose God may receive what they have merited—as we find in the Psalms and the Prophets.

2 Tim. 4:15. Guard yourself also against him, for he has greatly opposed our words.

“Guard yourself.” “He did not say: cause him grief, punish him, drive him away, though by the grace of God he could have done so; he does none of these things and does not arm his disciple against him, but enjoins only to keep away from him, leaving punishment to God” (holy Chrysostom).

“For he has greatly opposed our words.” “That is, the words of the preaching” (Oecumenius)—“the proclamation of the Gospel” (blessed Theophylact). “He wages war against the Gospel and works against it” (holy Chrysostom). He opposes it both in word and in deed.

At My First Defence the Lord Stood By Me (2 Timothy 4:16–18)

2 Tim. 4:16. At my first defense no one was with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them.

The final judgment had not yet been pronounced. Holy Paul was only appearing before the court for the first time and was making his defense. Although one cannot conclude that the case was turning against him—on the contrary, the words that follow (v. 17) suggest that holy Paul was not without hope of being spared from condemnation and death, as in the first imprisonment—yet it was still deeply painful for him that during the hearing he had no one from among those close to him present to help. What is meant by “no one was with me”—whom holy Paul has in mind by these words and what exactly their presence might have done—is not clear. But it goes without saying that their presence would have brought holy Paul more than mere consolation, which he knew how to find in other sources apart from people. In one way or another it might also have helped to dispel the accusation against him. Holy Chrysostom says that on this occasion holy Paul was tried and condemned for the conversion of Nero’s cupbearer. There were probably persons who could have testified that holy Paul could not be accused of this, but out of fear they did not come forward in his defense. “All forsook me”—this has the ring of heartfelt sorrow, so natural in such circumstances. In holy David one frequently encounters such passages: “my neighbors stood far off from me.” Those who knew me, my friends and intimates, withdrew from me (Ps. 37:13; 87:9 — and others).

“May it not be charged against them.” They did this not out of hostility, but out of fear of the unbridled Nero, before whom nothing lawful had any weight when it did not accord with his wishes. They had no hope of helping holy Paul, and they would have delivered themselves into the hands of death; this is why they withdrew. The Lord and Saviour too was forsaken by His disciples. He had foreseen this beforehand and did not condemn them. Holy Paul does the same: “May it not be charged against them”—that is, by God and the Lord. “The Apostle showed fatherly compassion toward them; for their withdrawal arose not from malice of character but from fear” (blessed Theodoret). “See how gently he speaks of those close to him, though they committed a grave transgression; for it is not the same thing to be forsaken by strangers as by one’s own. Do you see how great his grief was? You cannot say, he implies, that I, suffering persecution from outsiders, found consolation, relief, and support from those near to me; for they too abandoned me: ‘all forsook me.’ This is indeed no small sin. If in war the man who abandons a comrade in danger, saving only himself from the hands of the enemy, is rightly called by his own people a man who ruined everything and a traitor; how much more so in the work of preaching” (holy Chrysostom).

2 Tim. 4:17. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully made and all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered from the mouth of the lions.

Throughout all his life the Lord never left the Apostle without His personal guidance and consolation. He did the same at the end of it. He whom men had forsaken the Lord did not forsake; but stood by and strengthened him—breathed courage into him in the face of death—“granted him boldness, did not permit his spirit to fail” (holy Chrysostom).

“So that through me the proclamation might be fully made,” πληροφορηθη — confirmed, persuasively attested for all in its truth. This refers not to some future preaching but to the preaching that had already taken place, or to the proclamation of the Gospel at large, spread everywhere by all the Apostles. How then was it confirmed in its truth at this time by holy Paul? Through his self-defense before the court. Trials in those days were conducted publicly. Besides the judges, a large gathering of the people was present. In Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, persons of all nations might be present. The Lord, appearing, emboldened the Apostle and gave such power to his words that all, to varying degrees, came to feel conviction in the truth of the Gospel—both the judges and those assembled—and the Apostle was not condemned. The court had probably intended to settle the case and dispose of the Apostle himself at the same time; but after his speech left both the case unresolved and the Apostle alive. Those present at the trial, persons of various nations, had cause to carry news of this to all the ends of the world. And beyond that, news of what happened in Rome quickly spread throughout the whole world. This circumstance too was bound to spread abroad—that they had sought to condemn him for the Gospel, but had to yield to the power of truth and did not condemn him—and thus to confirm the Gospel. This is the meaning of the words: “and all the Gentiles might hear.” Doubtless they did hear, and felt the same as those who had been present.

Holy Chrysostom says on this passage: “so that through me the proclamation might be fully made”—that is, that it might be confirmed. See how great is his humility. Not because I was worthy of such a gift, he says, did God strengthen me, but so that the Gospel entrusted to me might be confirmed. This is like someone who carries the purple robe and diadem and is saved on account of them. “And all the Gentiles might hear.” What does this mean? So that both the words of the preaching and the care of Providence for me might become known to all.

“And I was delivered from the mouth of the lions,” λεοντος — of the lion. “See how near to death he was; he was in the very jaws of the lion; and by lion he means Nero, on account of his savagery, the power of his kingdom, and his inflexibility” (holy Chrysostom). “By lion the Apostle meant Nero both as a king and as a most cruel man” (blessed Theodoret). So too the rest of our commentators. Some think it better to understand by “lion” here the extreme danger of death. But from whom did that danger come at this time? From Nero. Why then accept a different interpretation? Ambrosiaster sees here the invisible lion, always roaring and seeking whom he may devour. This is closer to the mark than the preceding allegorical interpretation, because without this lion no misfortune occurs. “He speaks of the lion in a manner similar to how his fellow-Apostle Peter speaks: ‘your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour’ (1 Pet. 5:8). But since in the Apostle he found no occasion to deceive him, he stirred up against him his own sons and through them pressed him hard and subjected him to torments; so that if not as a sinner, then at least as a righteous man, he might somehow be removed from the midst of the living, lest he should convert yet more to the faith. This he had now fully managed to accomplish; but, delivered by God’s providence, the Apostle turns to attack against him, convicting him of powerlessness by the fact that he was taken from his jaws and did not allow him to accomplish what he intended. Thus the Apostle now expresses his thanksgiving to God that by His help he has been delivered from death. And he shows himself so confident of God’s care for him that he also hopes to be delivered from future trials. Such deliverance he hopes for not only in this present life, but also on the day of judgment he hopes to be saved and to be counted worthy to reign with Christ the Lord for ever and ever.”

2 Tim. 4:18. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and save me into His heavenly Kingdom; to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

“And He will deliver me.” “The Apostle did not say: He will deliver me from the lion another time, but says: ‘from every evil work’; for he knew that he would certainly meet the end of his life” (blessed Theodoret). “He delivered me, says he, and He will deliver me. But if He will deliver him again, how does he say: ‘I am already being offered up’? But consider his words carefully. ‘I was delivered,’ he says, ‘from the mouth of the lion’; and further: ‘He will deliver me’—not from the mouth of lions, but from what? ‘From every evil work.’ Then He delivered me from danger, but from now on He will deliver me from every sin, that is, He will not permit me to depart from this life deserving condemnation” (holy Chrysostom). “Before this He snatched me from the jaws of bodily death; and since I have already preached sufficiently, from now on He will, I trust, deliver me not from bodily death, but from every sin, that is, He will not permit me to grow weak before death, but will grant me to resist sin to the shedding of blood—which is to be delivered from the spiritual wolf” (blessed Theophylact). “Truly, to wrestle with sin to the shedding of blood and not fall is to be delivered from another lion—the devil. This latter deliverance is greater than the first, when he was on the point of being handed over to death” (holy Chrysostom).

“And save me into His heavenly Kingdom.” Into the Kingdom—for the sake of the Kingdom, that is, for the granting to me of the Heavenly Kingdom, for entrance and dwelling in it. Only those who are pure from all sin enter the Heavenly Kingdom. Since this is true salvation, so long as one is not settled in the Kingdom, one is not yet saved. “This is true salvation, when we shall shine there. What does ‘He will save me into His Kingdom’ mean? He will deliver me, he says, from every charge and preserve me for that blessed life to come (even if for this one must here be deprived of life). For to be saved for the Heavenly Kingdom (often) means to die for it here. ‘He who hates his soul in this world,’ says the Lord, ‘shall preserve it for eternal life’ (Jn. 12:25)” (holy Chrysostom).

“To Whom be glory”—“this doxology is to the Son” (holy Chrysostom). “For the Lord is the Son. To Him is rendered glory, as also to the Father and to the Holy Spirit” (Oecumenius).

Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

2 Tim. 4:19. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.

Aquila and Priscilla, who had returned to Rome (Rom. 16:3), are now found again in Ephesus. Probably they had gone to Rome for a time to conclude their affairs there, having resolved to live from now on in Asia Minor; the excesses of Nero may have hastened their departure from Rome. See concerning them in the Epistle to the Romans. Holy Chrysostom says of them: “These are the persons whom the Apostle often mentions, with whom he lived, who received Apollos. The present greeting was no small consolation to them, serving as a proof of his respect and love for them, and brought them great grace; for even a single greeting from such a holy and blessed man could fill with great grace the one who was counted worthy of that greeting.”

Concerning Onesiphorus see above (1:16–17). Holy Chrysostom says: “Onesiphorus was with him (the Apostle) in Rome, as he says (1:16).—By the present greeting he makes the members of his household more zealous for deeds like those of Onesiphorus.” Further information about him is written by St. Dimitry, that he was a bishop in Colophon and Cyrene and suffered even to the shedding of blood for the faith. The Martyrology bears witness of him that, after many stripes, he was torn apart by wild horses and commended his spirit into the hands of God. He is of the Seventy. His feast day is September 7.

2 Tim. 4:20. Erastus remained in Corinth; Trophimus, however, I left at Miletus sick.

On his last departure from Ephesus, holy Paul headed for Macedonia (1 Tim. 1:3)—that is, northward from Ephesus; whereas Miletus lies to the south of Ephesus. But the needs of the Church could have made it necessary for holy Paul to visit Miletus, where ships also docked and departed. Having completed his business there, he boarded a ship and proceeded onward to Troas, Philippi, and Thessalonica. From Macedonia he went down to Achaia, visited Corinth—and from there was either arrested or went of his own accord to Rome. Such an itinerary is indicated by the evidence of Scripture. This makes it understandable how Erastus remained in Corinth and Trophimus, being ill, was left in Miletus.

The Erastus mentioned here is the one who was sent together with holy Timothy to Macedonia at the close of holy Paul’s three-year stay in Ephesus (Acts 19:22). There is also mention of Erastus as one of the city administrators in Corinth (Rom. 16:23). And he is mentioned here. Are these the same person, or different ones? They may be the same. The apparent difficulty is that one of them is a city official who could not leave his city and therefore could not have been with the Apostle for extended periods, as the other two instances would suggest. But this official is called οικονομος — steward, manager of the city’s finances; he may have been appointed to this position for one year by election, and after completing his term been free. But it will be objected: in the Epistle to the Romans he is named as an official still in office, whereas just before that it is mentioned that a certain Erastus was sent with holy Timothy from Ephesus to Macedonia. Clearly, the one is not the other.—It is supposed that from Corinth a delegation was sent to holy Paul in Ephesus to inform him of the disorders there. Among the members of the delegation may have been the official, having temporarily left the city and entrusted his duties to a colleague. On the completion of the delegation’s business, instead of returning with the other delegates, he accompanied Timothy, who was to proceed from Macedonia down to Achaia and Corinth. It remains to suppose that upon returning by this route to Corinth his term of office had ended—and he, being free, either joined the companions of holy Paul permanently, or was with him from time to time. He was with him also in the final period in Ephesus and accompanied him to Macedonia by the said route; he went down with him to Corinth and should have proceeded with him to Rome, but did not go, remaining instead in Corinth. He remained, perhaps, out of some necessity, with holy Paul’s consent, or perhaps without that consent and against the Apostle’s wish, as “remained” may suggest. In any case, in holy Timothy’s thinking, Erastus ought to have been in Rome with holy Paul. Since he was not there, and holy Timothy might have thought: but how does the Apostle say that no one is with him except Luke? Where is Erastus? Where is Trophimus? Having forgotten to mention them in the first enumeration of those who had left him, he mentions them now, to spare holy Timothy needless perplexity. Erastus is of the Seventy. His feast day is November 10. See also concerning him in the Epistle to the Romans.

Trophimus, an Ephesian, accompanied holy Paul from Ephesus through Troas to Macedonia and Achaia and back (Acts 20:4), and traveled with him as far as Jerusalem, where he was the occasion of the Jews’ revolt against holy Paul (Acts 21:29). He was a constant companion of holy Paul. On this occasion too, when holy Paul set out from Ephesus to Macedonia, he accompanied him, but fell ill in Miletus and was left there.

On this occasion holy Chrysostom draws a very instructive lesson about the ways of God’s beneficent providence in granting miraculous help. “Trophimus I left sick.” Why then did you not heal him, but left him so? But the Apostles could not do everything, or did not arrange everything by grace, lest anyone should think of them more than what he saw. The same, as we see, happened to the blessed and righteous men who came before them, for example Moses. He was slow of speech—why did God not heal his speech impediment? He often fell into grief and despondency and did not enter the promised land. God permitted many things in order to show the weakness of human nature. For if even with this the insensible Jews said: “Where is Moses, who brought us up out of the land of Egypt?” (Exod. 32:1)—what would they not have said had he led them into the promised land? If God had not permitted him to feel fear before Pharaoh, would they not have taken him for a god? This is precisely what the inhabitants of Lystra did to Paul and Barnabas, taking them for gods. But they “rent their garments and rushed into the crowd, crying out and saying: Men, why do you do these things? We also are men of like passions with you” (Acts 14:14–15). So too Peter, when he healed the man lame from birth and all marveled at what had happened, answered: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why do you look upon us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” (Acts 3:12). Hear also what blessed Paul says: “there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, that I might not be exalted” (2 Cor. 12:7). But you will say that he said this out of humility. No, not so; the thorn was not given to him only so that he might be humble, nor did he say this only out of humility, but for other reasons as well. For see—God does not say to him in reply: “My grace is sufficient for you”—so that you may not be exalted—but what? “My power,” He says, “is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Thus two ends were achieved: it was made manifest as it occurred how these things came about, and everything was ascribed to God. Therefore in another place the Apostle says: “we have this treasure in earthen vessels”—that is, in bodies that are weak and subject to suffering. For what purpose? “That the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from us” (2 Cor. 4:7). If their bodies had not been subject to suffering, everything would have been ascribed to them. And in another place we see how he grieves over illness, when he speaks of Epaphroditus: “for he was sick near to death; but God had mercy on him” (Phil. 2:27). And many things he did not know—to the benefit both of himself and of his disciples.

According to tradition, Trophimus was beheaded in Rome under Nero, together with Aristarchus and Pudens. He is of the Seventy. His feast day is April 15.

2 Tim. 4:21. Make haste to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.

Having mentioned those whom he had earlier forgotten to note were not with him, holy Paul also adds one detail to his invitation of holy Timothy—namely, to take care to come before winter. Winter could slow the journey and could even detain him somewhere until spring. And yet there was extreme urgency that he come to Rome as soon as possible. Hence the urging.—“How he urges him! But nowhere does he say anything sorrowful; he does not say: come before my death—so as not to grieve him—but: before winter, so that you may not encounter any obstacles” (holy Chrysostom).

Having added this, the Apostle continues with the greetings or salutations to Timothy from various persons. “Eubulus greets you”—and the rest. All the persons whose greetings are sent bear Roman names and were therefore believers from among the Romans. They may have become acquainted with holy Timothy during holy Paul’s first imprisonment, when holy Timothy was also with him. The absence of greetings from Jewish believers suggests that none of them were present: some had been martyred, others had fled.

Of “Eubulus” no tradition has been preserved. It is sufficient for his glory that holy Paul makes mention of him.

“Pudens”—one of the senators, who received the holy Apostles Peter and Paul in his home. His house was converted into a church, called the Pastoral. According to the Roman Martyrology, he was the father of the holy martyrs Praxedes and Pudentiana; and Claudia, according to the Bollandists, was his wife. He was beheaded together with Trophimus and Aristarchus. He is of the Seventy Apostles. His feast day is April 15.

“Linus”—the first bishop of Rome after the holy Apostles, as holy Irenaeus and Eusebius attest. He is of the Seventy. His feast day is November 5.

“Claudia.” “See how earnest and fervent in faith the women also were! Such is Priscilla, such also is this Claudia, who had already crucified themselves (in will) and were ready for (martyric) struggles. The female sex is no hindrance to showing courage. Truly, it is the work of God’s grace that persons of this sex can die a thousand deaths (for Christ), if they so choose—many of them have indeed become martyresses—can advance in chastity, and even more than men, can possess modesty, integrity, and holiness (purity), without which ‘no man shall see the Lord’ (Heb. 12:14), and contempt for riches, and all the rest in general” (holy Chrysostom).

“And all the brethren.” “The last he does not name by name. See how much more fervent they were” (holy Chrysostom). “The most diligent he listed by name, the others he designated by the common name” (blessed Theodoret).

o) The blessing (2 Tim. 4:22)

2 Tim. 4:22. The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.

The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. “There is nothing better than such a benediction. Do not grieve, he says, that I am far from you; the Lord is with you. And he did not say: with you, but: ‘with your spirit’” (holy Chrysostom). All our commentators see in these words a reference to the grace of the Holy Spirit—clearly because our spirit cannot become worthy of communion with the Lord unless it is restored to its proper dignity by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Holy Chrysostom says: “Otherwise God cannot be with us if there is no spiritual grace in us; for if it departs from us, how shall He be with us?”—To this Oecumenius adds: “The Apostle says this as if to say: ‘Together with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which you now have, may the Lord Jesus Christ also be with you.’” Thus a twofold help is wished for: “from the grace of the Holy Spirit, and from the Lord God who cooperates with it” (holy Chrysostom).

“Grace be with you.” All our commentators read: “with us.” And this seems the better reading. “With us”—that is, both with me and with you, or “with us”—with me, with the Romans, with the Ephesians, and with all Christians. “He included himself in the sharing of grace” (blessed Theodoret). “Finally, he also asks (grace) for himself, that is, that we may always be well-pleasing to God, that we may have grace with its gifts; for if it be present with us, there will be nothing grievous. Just as one who sees the king and enjoys his favor feels no grief, so we also, even if we are deprived of friends, even if we are struck by some other calamity, will feel no grief, if grace is near us and protects us. How then can one draw grace to oneself? By doing what is pleasing to God, by obeying Him in all things. In great houses, do we not see that those servants enjoy the goodwill of their masters who with all their soul and with all their zeal attend not to their own needs but to those of their masters, who not only at their masters’ bidding but of their own initiative and zeal perform everything well? And is this not especially so when they are constantly before the eyes of their masters, when they occupy themselves in the house, do not trouble themselves about their own affairs and do not seek their own advantage, but regard their master’s as their own? And if in worldly affairs one who despises his own and cares for his master’s does not lose his own but rather receives more; how much more so in spiritual things. Despise what is yours, and you will receive what is God’s; He Himself desires this. Despise the earth, and you will receive the Heavenly Kingdom; dwell there, not here” (holy Chrysostom).

“May God grant us also to attain such grace, through the prayers of both him who wrote and him who received this Epistle—and may we behold them in their eternal dwellings not from afar, as the rich man beheld Lazarus, but dwelling with them and living under their guidance, by the grace and loving-kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom together with the Father and the Holy Spirit belong glory and majesty now and always and for ever and ever. Amen” (blessed Theodoret).

Commentary on the Epistle to Titus

Introduction

1. The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilyevich Govorov in 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Oryol province of central Russia, the son of a village priest. He was schooled at the Oryol seminary and then at the Kiev Theological Academy, where in 1840 he was tonsured a monk and took the name Theophan, in honor of the confessor Theophanes. The decades that followed carried him through the ordinary stations of a gifted churchman: teacher and rector in the seminaries, service on the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem, a term at the embassy church in Constantinople, and the rectorship of the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. In 1859 he was consecrated bishop, first of Tambov and Shatsk and then, from 1863, of Vladimir.

He might have finished his life a respected diocesan bishop. Instead, in 1866, at the height of his powers, he asked to be released from the government of a diocese altogether, and withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov province. For six years he still shared the common worship of the monastery. Then, after Pascha of 1872, he entered strict seclusion, closing himself into two small rooms with a chapel of his own, seeing almost no one but his confessor and the abbot, and giving the remaining twenty-two years of his life to prayer and to the pen. From that silence came the writing for which the Russian Church remembers him best: his rendering of the Philokalia into Russian, his letters of spiritual counsel, works such as The Path to Salvation, and—the labor of his last two decades—a continuous commentary on nearly the whole of the Pauline corpus. He reposed on the sixth of January 1894, the feast of the Theophany, in the chapel-quarters where he had served daily. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints in 1988; he is commemorated on the tenth of January (the twenty-third by the civil calendar), his birthday, among other days.

The commentary on Titus belongs to this final, hidden period, and bears its stamp throughout. It is not the work of a professor arguing before colleagues but of a bishop who had laid down his office to seek God, writing so that others might do the same. His life is given more fully in the back matter; what matters for the pages that follow is that they were composed in seclusion, out of a lifetime of reading the Fathers, and for the practical salvation of the reader.

2. The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The Epistle to Titus is one of the three letters—with the two to Timothy—that tradition has long grouped as the Pastoral Epistles, because they are addressed not to a congregation but to a single overseer charged with the care of a church. Titus is the shortest and, in a sense, the most concentrated of them. In it the Apostle Paul writes to a trusted fellow-worker whom he has left behind on the island of Crete to bring order to a young and scattered Christian community.

Theophan opens his commentary, as the older commentators did, by setting the letter in its history. Titus, he relates on the authority of tradition, was a Cretan of noble family, drawn to the God of Israel through the prophet Isaiah before he ever heard of Christ, and sent from Crete to Judea to learn the truth of the reports arriving from there. He came to faith, attached himself to Paul, and became one of the Apostle’s most capable and trusted companions—the man Paul could send into a difficult situation at Corinth and rely on to set it right. When Paul, released from his first Roman imprisonment, passed through Crete, he found much among the believers there still wanting, and left Titus behind to finish what he himself had had no time to complete. Following Saint John Chrysostom, Theophan places the letter in the interval between Paul’s two Roman imprisonments, about the years 64 to 65, a little before the Second Epistle to Timothy.

The state of the Cretan church, as Theophan reconstructs it, is the key to the letter’s purpose. Christianity had spread widely across the island—brought first by Cretans who had heard the Apostles at Pentecost, watered by the labors of Titus, Zenas, and Apollos—but it had put down its roots faster than it had grown a structure. There was as yet no settled hierarchy, no authoritative voice. And in that vacuum, Theophan observes, “idle talkers” had multiplied: men who had not yet submitted their old opinions to the pattern of sound teaching, and who argued over doctrine and morals each as he saw fit, so that wrangling and quarreling had become habitual. He is careful here not to overstate the case. There is no sign, he notes, of formal heresies among the Cretans—only the unsteadiness of a faith without order.

Part of what was lacking was a check on the disorder itself. The letter does not shrink from naming the fault: Paul rebukes the “unruly and vain talkers and deceivers,” and reinforces the charge with a hard word from one of the Cretans’ own—the ancient poet whose line “the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies” the Apostle turns against the island’s besetting vices. Theophan reads this severity as medicine rather than contempt: the overseer must “rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,” precisely so that a wandering flock may be brought back to soundness. The remedy Paul prescribes is not censure alone but the settled authority that censure serves.

The letter, then, is written to supply exactly what was lacking. Its purpose, in Theophan’s phrase, is to set down “rules for the guidance of Saint Titus and, in his person, for all who order the life of Churches.” And Paul writes rather than merely instructing Titus in person, Theophan suggests, partly because he had left in haste, and partly to lend his own apostolic authority to a native son—for “a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country.” With the letter in hand, Titus could act not on his own word but on the word of the Apostle of the Gentiles.

3. Argument and Structure

For all that it addresses questions of church government, the letter is short, and its plan is simple. Theophan divides it into three parts framed by the customary opening and close.

After the salutation and greeting (Titus 1:1–4)—itself unusually weighty, opening upon the eternal purpose of God and the hope of life everlasting—come the rules that form the body of the letter (Titus 1:5 through 3:11). These fall naturally into stages. First stands the charge that gives the letter its occasion: to “set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city,” followed by the list of qualities required in the elder and overseer, who must be blameless in life and must “hold fast the faithful word” so as to be “able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.” Against such a settled teacher Paul sets the “unruly and vain talkers” who must be silenced—the occasion for his sharp citation of the Cretans’ own poet and the vices of the island. From the ministry the letter turns to the flock: the conduct proper to the older men and women, the younger, and to servants, each state of life shaped into soberness and good works. This ethical instruction then opens, twice, onto its deepest ground—the grace of God that has appeared to train and to save—before the letter closes with a few personal directions and greetings (Titus 3:12–15).

Theophan’s own method of exposition governs the reading throughout. He takes the text in short steps—a verse, or a few verses together—states the Apostle’s meaning plainly, clears away the difficulties, and then turns the sense toward the conscience of the reader. He does not construct his own argument in place of Paul’s; he follows the letter as it lies. And he never lets a point of order or doctrine rest as mere information: a rule for the appointment of clergy becomes a meditation on what the Church needs in order to stand, and a doctrinal verse becomes at once a call to repentance. The result reads as both a close exposition of a short letter and a manual of the Christian life.

4. Theological and Spiritual Significance

Beneath the letter’s practical surface lie two passages that carry its whole weight, and Theophan gives them the fullest attention.

The first is the great sentence on grace as teacher: “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:11–12). Here Theophan, with Chrysostom, presses hard against any notion that grace is a bare pardon leaving the sinner where it found him. Grace, he insists, “does not slacken but rather strains the moral powers of believers”; its very work is to make them upright. “All is from goodness,” he writes, “but God’s goodness does not indulge.” In that balance lies the theme that runs through the whole of his teaching—that salvation is neither earned by human effort nor bestowed on a passive soul, but worked out in the meeting of divine grace and the free striving of the person it renews. The Christian awaits “that blessed hope,” the appearing of the glory of the great God and Savior; and the grace that has appeared already is the training that fits him for the appearing still to come.

The second passage is the mystery of the new birth: God “saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Titus 3:5–6). Not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, God has not merely mended the fallen man but, as Theophan says with Chrysostom, re-created him entirely in the font of baptism through the Holy Spirit. And in this brief verse, he observes with Jerome and Theodoret, the Most Holy Trinity is most clearly named: the salvation of the believer is a single work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together. Baptism, for Theophan, is therefore no symbol but a true regeneration—the point at which the grace that trains us first takes hold.

Around these two centers the letter’s other concerns arrange themselves. The insistence on an ordered ministry and on overseers of proven character is not, for Theophan, a matter of administration only; the settled overseer is the one who guards both “the form of the doctrine of faith and the form of life according to faith,” and so keeps the idle talk from unsettling the flock. And the repeated demand that believers “be careful to maintain good works” flows directly from the doctrine of grace: sound teaching is meant to bear fruit in sound living, or it has not been received at all. The letter’s charter of church order and its theology of salvation are, in the end, a single thing—the securing of a life that grace both begins and sustains.

5. Reception and Place in Theophan’s Work

The commentary on Titus does not stand alone. It is the third panel of Theophan’s exposition of the Pastoral Epistles, and he comments on all three letters as a set, so that the reader meets Titus already having seen the charge to Timothy. It belongs, in turn, to the larger enterprise of his last two decades: a running commentary on the letters of Paul that was among the chief fruits of his seclusion and remains one of the most widely used works of Russian Orthodox biblical exposition.

Its authority rests on the tradition it gathers. Theophan does not offer private opinions; he reads Titus in the company of the Fathers who read it before him—above all Chrysostom, and with him Theodoret of Cyrus, Theophylact of Ohrid, Oecumenius, and the Latin commentators Ambrosiaster and Jerome, whom he follows with particular care on the Trinity in this letter. He weighs one witness against another and against Paul’s own reasoning, and renders their agreement in the plain, searching idiom of Russian spiritual writing. What the reader receives, in a few brief chapters, is the long memory of the Church on how these words of the Apostle have been understood.

6. The Text and This Edition

This edition presents a fresh, modern English translation of Saint Theophan’s commentary, made from his Russian text. The commentary was composed in his seclusion at Vysha and published in the collected exposition of the Pauline epistles issued by the Russian Monastery of Saint Panteleimon on Mount Athos; the translation follows the public-domain Russian edition of that text. It is an English-only edition, prepared for study and for continuous reading, not a parallel or bilingual one.

In preparing it, the house conventions have been observed throughout. Saint Titus and Saint Theophan are named as the Church has always received them, without critical qualifications intruding on the text. The scriptural citations that fill the commentary are given in a readable form, with book, chapter, and verse in the ordinary modern style rather than in Roman numerals, so that the reader can turn quickly to the passage under discussion; and the Apostle’s words are rendered in a Scripture register faithful to the tradition Theophan himself read. The translator’s work is credited as translation; the author remains Saint Theophan alone. The aim throughout has been to let this small classic of Orthodox biblical commentary speak clearly to an English reader, in prose as direct as the Russian from which it comes.

7. Suggestions for Reading

The commentary is best read with the Apostle’s own text open beside it. Theophan wrote to be read slowly, a few verses at a time, and it repays that pace: read Paul’s words first, then Theophan’s comment, and let the one illuminate the other. The many quotations from Chrysostom, Theodoret, Jerome, and the rest are not digressions to be skimmed but the substance of the exposition—the voices of the Fathers brought to bear on a single verse. Though the letter is a charter for pastors, its heart is a teaching for every believer: that grace both saves and trains, that baptism is a true new birth, and that sound doctrine is meant to be lived. It asks, in the end, to be read as Theophan wrote it in his silence—not only to learn how a Church is ordered, but to be renewed by the grace it proclaims.

Introduction

On Saint Titus

Saint Titus is first mentioned in the Epistle to the Galatians (Gal. 2:3), where we learn that he was with the Apostle Paul in Jerusalem when the Apostolic Council was held to determine how Gentiles were to be received into the Church. What had become of him before that time, Bishop Demetrius of Rostov records from tradition: that he was a Cretan belonging to the royal family of that island; that he was a lover of wisdom, a zealot for piety in a manner unlike that of the pagans, and a virgin—likewise unlike pagan custom (cf. the Epistle of St Ignatius the God-bearer to the Philadelphians). By a particular guidance from above, he took to reading the prophet Isaiah and thereby opened for himself the door to knowledge of the one true God, toward Whom his heart was set aflame. At that time, reports began to reach Crete about the Lord and Saviour—the God Who had appeared in the flesh in Judea, Who was teaching true salvation and performing wondrous works. In order to gather accurate information about what was happening in Judea, the Cretan proconsul (anthypatos), who was an uncle of Saint Titus, sent him there along with the elders, as a man of philosophical temper and devout disposition. On arriving in Jerusalem, Titus saw the Lord, conversed with Him and with the holy Apostles, and witnessed marvellous signs. (Was he perhaps among the Greeks who wished to see the Lord on the day of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Jn. 12:20–22)?) He then witnessed the sufferings of the Lord and His death on the cross, yet was also assured of His Resurrection; he waited for the descent of the Holy Spirit and was among the Cretans who heard the Apostles speak—without having learned it—in the Cretan tongue as well (Acts 2:11). Returning to Crete, he proclaimed all these things to his compatriots who had sent him.

Saint Titus was already a sincere believer, but had not yet received holy baptism. To remedy this, he set out again for where the Apostles were active—this time to Antioch, where he attached himself to Saint Paul and was received by him before Paul’s departure for Jerusalem and the Council. He was not baptized immediately—either for lack of time or because of the confusion then stirred up by the zealots of the Law; but, more to the point, because Divine Providence had seen fit to use him as an instrument for the most evident demonstration that circumcision was unnecessary, and consequently the entire Law as well, in accordance with the Apostolic manner of proceeding. Saint Paul writes that when they were in Jerusalem, no one compelled Saint Titus to be circumcised. “It would have been strange to require circumcision of one already baptized; therefore it must be assumed that he had not yet been baptized, although he fully believed. And the Apostle called him simply a Greek: ‘being a Greek’ (Gal. 2:3). Baptism was administered to him there, after the Apostles had drawn up their decree on receiving the Gentiles into the bosom of the Church without circumcision—as a practical confirmation that their resolution was an inviolable rule which all were from now on to observe.”

After this, Saint Titus followed the Apostle Paul—perhaps also by the choice of the other Apostles—and laboured alongside him. He most likely accompanied Saint Paul on his second apostolic journey, when the Galatians were converted, and became known to the Galatians from that time. The mention of him in the Epistle to them would therefore have been very instructive to them.

It is very probable that he accompanied Saint Paul throughout that entire journey and was with him in Corinth as well, following Philippi and Thessalonica. The latter can be concluded with some certainty from the fact that, during his third journey, Saint Paul—at the very moment of his departure from Ephesus—sent Titus to Corinth with an important commission: namely, to find out how his first Epistle had been received there, which he would not have done had Saint Titus not been known to the Corinthians. Having dispatched Titus directly to Corinth, Saint Paul himself made his way there by way of Troas and Macedonia. Saint Titus had been instructed to hasten back with news and to meet the Apostle at Troas; but he was unable to fulfil this in time. Paul waited for him at Troas, and when he did not come, crossed over to Macedonia, where they finally met. The news that Titus brought consoled Saint Paul, yet was of such a nature that a new Epistle was required. It was written and sent ahead with Saint Titus, before Paul himself, who still had to visit the other Macedonian Churches. The meeting with Saint Titus and the writing of the Epistle most probably took place at Philippi.

Shortly after this, Saint Paul’s imprisonment began—first in Caesarea of Palestine and then in Rome. Although neither the Acts nor the Epistles mention Saint Titus as being with him at that time, since on Paul’s return journey from his first Roman imprisonment we find Titus with him in Crete, it is natural to suppose that he was at Paul’s side, or at his disposal, throughout the entire period of captivity.

In Crete, Saint Paul had apparently stopped only briefly in passing; yet, seeing that much among the believers there required correction, he left Saint Titus with them to complete what had been left unfinished. He himself continued onward to Asia Minor, to visit the Churches there—first those of Phrygia, then those of Pisidia and Lycaonia—intending to spend the winter at Nicopolis, which we take to be either the Cilician or the Syrian one. Saint Paul foresaw that he would need Saint Titus there; and so, in writing this Epistle, he charged him to come to him at Nicopolis—which Titus, of course, did.

After wintering near Nicopolis, Saint Paul made his way through Ephesus westward—to Macedonia, Achaia, and Spain—and then found himself in his second imprisonment in Rome. Throughout all this journey, Saint Titus was in all probability his inseparable companion; for we see him with Saint Paul in Rome, and Paul, writing his Second Epistle to Timothy from Rome, mentions that Saint Titus had been sent by him to Dalmatia to meet the needs of the Churches there.

With this, the information about Saint Titus drawn from Scripture comes to an end. Tradition carries his life to its close: according to it, he served as bishop in Crete (Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, III, 4) and, having enlightened the whole island by faith, fell asleep in the Lord at a great old age, in his ninety-fourth year. His feast day is the twenty-fifth of August.

Saint Chrysostom says of him: “Among Paul’s companions, Titus was the most experienced. For had he not been experienced, the Apostle would not have entrusted an entire island to him, nor commanded him to set in order what remained, or, as he says, ‘that you should set in order the things that are wanting’ (Tit. 1:5). And the very brevity of the Apostle’s Epistle to him is likewise a proof of Titus’s virtue—that he had no need of lengthy discourses, but only of a certain reminder.” Blessed Theodoret adds: “Saint Paul in the Epistle to the Corinthians crowned Titus with many praises.” And there Paul calls him “my partner and fellow-worker among you”, a “zealous” man of action, to whom it was enough simply to point out a task—and he would at once fulfil it without special urging (2 Cor. 8:23, 17).

On the Cretan Christians

The Epistle is addressed throughout to Saint Titus. Yet since it is written in response to the needs of the Cretan Christians, they too were certainly in view throughout. It is therefore not superfluous to say something about them as well—whatever can be said and whatever may contribute in some measure to a more precise understanding of the Epistle.

How did Christianity come to Crete?

According to the account of Saint Titus already given, Christianity was sought out by the Cretans themselves and brought to them by Saint Titus, who had been sent to obtain it. Saint Titus, having come to sincere faith, had certainly sown the same faith in the hearts of the Cretans as well. This faith could have been confirmed and increased by Jews who had been in Jerusalem—those who had come to believe there in the Lord under the influence of the Apostolic word. In order to bring baptism to them as well, let us suppose that Saint Titus—whether from Corinth during Saint Paul’s second apostolic journey, or from Ephesus during the third, or at both times—was sent to Crete, both out of his own zeal and at the Apostle’s wish, and there established baptism while spreading the holy faith throughout the whole island. One may also suppose him active there during Saint Paul’s imprisonment in Caesarea and, in part, in Rome as well. The spread of faith there was further strengthened by the labours of Zenas and Apollos, if we understand Saint Paul’s words concerning them—“Send Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way speedily” (Tit. 3:13)—to mean that Saint Paul, on arriving in Crete, found them already there and left them there together with Titus, and then from the road directed that they be sent to him as quickly as possible. This would imply that they had been engaged in missionary activity before Paul’s arrival in Crete—and certainly not without fruit.

These suppositions sufficiently account for so wide a spread of Christianity across the island that Saint Paul, on arriving and learning of it, found it necessary to appoint “elders in every city” (Tit. 1:5). Christianity had evidently put down deep roots there; yet there was as yet no hierarchy or any other church order. To supply what was lacking was precisely why Saint Titus was left in Crete.

This last circumstance—that there was no hierarchy and consequently no authoritative voice—was also the reason why many idle talkers arose among the Christians, who allowed themselves to judge and discourse about the things of Christianity, both in doctrine and in morals, as each saw fit, in accordance with the principles each had held before accepting Christianity, without conforming to or submitting themselves to that pattern of sound words which everywhere formed the one uniform standard of Christian teaching. There is no indication that any formal heresies had taken shape among them; rather, idle talk, wrangling, and quarrelling had simply become habitual. There was no voice to sober and restrain them. The Apostle saw that what they most needed was the establishment of authoritative overseers to guard both the form of the doctrine of faith and the form of life according to faith—and it was for this purpose that he left Saint Titus among them.

The Time and Place of Composition of the Epistle

A conjecture regarding the time and place of composition of the Epistle has already been set forth in the general introduction. Here we shall cite only the words of Saint Chrysostom, who says: “It seems to me that the Apostle wrote this Epistle during the interval between his first and second imprisonment.” And further: “This Epistle seems to me to precede the (Second) Epistle to Timothy. For that he wrote at the end of his life, while in his (final) bonds, whereas this he wrote at a time when he had been released and was free from imprisonment.”

The Occasion and Purpose of the Epistle

Saint Paul had only just left Saint Titus in Crete: why, then, write? What compelled him to do so? Perhaps in leaving him he had not had time to say everything that needed to be said—and, recalling this on the road, he hastened to supply what had been left unspoken. Moreover, Saint Titus was himself a Cretan. But since “a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country” (Mt. 13:57), it was necessary to lend authority to his words and decisions. On receiving the Epistle, Saint Titus could boldly say to all: see here! So commands the Apostle of the Gentiles, to whom the Lord Himself has shown how to act among you for your salvation. Furthermore, Saint Paul, as the founder of the Church, could not but take thought for the Church’s future, which cannot stand without the properly directed activity of its pastors. And for them to act rightly, guidance is needed. The Spirit of God therefore prompted him to make use of the present occasion and to set down rules for the proper conduct of pastors.

Outline

After the customary preface, consisting of the salutation with its greeting and the opening of the Epistle (Tit. 1:1–5), there follow rules for the guidance of Saint Titus and, in his person, for all who order the life of Churches (Tit. 1:6–3:11); and at the end there is appended a short postscript (Tit. 3:12–15).

A more detailed outline follows in the Commentary itself.

Preface (Titus 1:1–4)

Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)

The salutation and greeting in this Epistle are somewhat more expansive than they are ordinarily in Paul’s other Epistles, just as is the case in the Epistles to the Galatians and to the Romans. They are akin to those Epistles both in thought and in expression. The reason it is done here as in those Epistles is that, given the importance of the Epistle’s subject, Saint Paul deemed it necessary to direct the minds of the readers toward it from the very first lines.

Tit. 1:1. Paul, a servant of God and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that accords with godliness.

In his other Epistles Saint Paul calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ, whereas here he calls himself a servant of God—thereby indicating that to say “servant of God” or “servant of Jesus Christ” is one and the same thing. For the Son of God, even having become incarnate, did not depart from the bosom of the Father, but remains unchangeably one with the Father and is God everlasting. Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see how indifferently he employs these expressions, calling himself sometimes servant of God and Apostle of Christ, and at other times servant of Christ: ‘Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 1:1)? Thus he made no distinction between the Father and the Son.” All our other commentators draw the same inference. Blessed Theodoret adds: “Paul indifferently calls himself a servant—sometimes of Christ, sometimes of God; for he knows that the lordship is common.” Let us continue this explanation with the words of blessed Jerome of Stridon: “The Father and the Son are one; and so whoever has believed in the Son believes also in the Father. And the servitude of the Apostle Paul is one, whether it be referred to the Father or to the Son.” As for the word “and” in the phrase “and an Apostle”—it does not denote any kind of contrast but stands in the sense of “also.”

“Servant of God” is an Old Testament designation for persons who are God-fearing and God-pleasing, who walk in the will of God and are unconcerned about themselves, who love truth and turn away from falsehood, and upon whom one can therefore fully rely in all things. By saying this, the Apostle invested both himself and Titus with great authority, and disposed his readers to submissive attentiveness to his word. It must be kept in mind that although the Epistle is addressed to Titus, it was intended to be read aloud to the entire Christian community in Crete.

“Apostle of Christ”—this is for Christians what the Prophet was for those of the Old Testament. The Prophets were sent to announce to men the salvation that was to come; the Apostles announced salvation already accomplished and granted in the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed Jerome writes: “To say ‘Apostle of Jesus Christ’ seemed to me, for believers of that time, like saying in worldly terms: prefect of the praetorium of Augustus Caesar, or general of the emperor Tiberius. By saying this, Saint Paul bound the believers to obey him, receiving his word as the very word of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.”

“According to the faith of God’s elect.” The thought is not: inasmuch as I have believed as the elect believe, I was appointed an Apostle; but rather: I am an Apostle of Jesus Christ in the service of faith—sent by Jesus Christ to bring the elect to faith, to teach them the faith, and to keep them in the order which faith demands. “By this the Apostle indicated that he was appointed in order that those worthy of election should come to believe” (blessed Theodoret). “He declares that God’s elect have been entrusted to him… For their sake I became an Apostle, as he also says elsewhere: ‘all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos’ (1 Cor. 3:21–22)” (Saint Chrysostom).

But who is meant here by “the elect”? Ancient Israel was chosen as a people of God from among all the nations—that is, one nation from among all peoples, an entire nation in its corporate entirety. The new Israel is constituted differently: not by separating one nation from the rest, but by choosing, from all nations without excluding the Jews, worthy individuals one by one who, being united into one body, form this new Israel—“a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own possession” (1 Pet. 2:9). Such persons are chosen through the call to faith. One who has received faith becomes one of the elect, is sanctified through the sacraments of grace, and receives the obligation to be holy and blameless, so as to “proclaim the excellencies” of Him Who “has called” him “out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). In this sense, the elect are the same as the called—that is, all Christians who confess the true faith of Christ. All Christians are indeed meant to be such as Saint Peter describes them, so as to be a chosen people not in name only but in deed.

Yet just as within ancient Israel not all proved worthy of election—because neither in their deeds nor in their character did they measure up to what the nation had been chosen for—so too within the new Israel not all prove equal to what they have been called to: not all manifest in themselves the kind of persons that those called to faith in the Lord and Saviour and made partakers of grace in the sacraments ought to be. From this arose the distinction between the called and the elect. The elect are now only those who conduct themselves as those called to the Lord ought to conduct themselves; while those who do not so conduct themselves remain merely called. And the Saviour often said: “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Mt. 20:16, 22:14).

In what sense, then, does the Apostle use the word “elect” in the present passage? In both senses at once, without distinction. The Apostle called all to faith, but having called them, did not leave them to their own devices; on the contrary, he redoubled his care for them all the more, so that they might appear in all things worthy of their calling—truly children of faith and grace in every respect. I am, he says, an Apostle in order to call all to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but not merely to give them a name—rather, to show them forth as perfected also in the life according to the spirit of faith, not merely called but truly elect (blessed Jerome). In saying this, he had in mind to remind those who, as is evident from the Epistle, did nothing but invent various questions about matters of faith and thereby proliferated endless disputes and controversies—which contributed nothing to the building up of good morals but on the contrary disturbed the Christian community by sowing quarrels and divisions. Yet still more to this end is directed the following expression:

“And the knowledge of the truth that accords with godliness.—Knowledge,” επιγνωσιν,—the act of coming to know, of recognizing, of clearly perceiving, of experimentally being convinced. Just as in the phrase “according to the faith” what is meant is not the Apostle’s own faith but the faith of those to whom he proclaimed the Gospel—that is, the act of bringing to faith—so too in this phrase what is meant is not the Apostle’s own understanding of the truth, but that of those who followed the word of his preaching. I am, he says, an Apostle appointed by the proclamation of the Gospel to bring people to faith and, through faith, to the knowledge of the truth. Faith at first gives only a general outline of the truth; its more precise form, with its tangible features and application to particulars, is received and grasped afterwards in the course of a life lived in the spirit of faith. By faith, everything is taken on faith at the outset; and then through experience one comes to know that all is indeed as it was believed from the beginning. Jerome writes: “God’s elect does not immediately possess faith to the measure of his election, or knowledge of the truth to the measure of his faith. This is why the Saviour said to the Jews who had believed in him: ‘If you abide in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ (Jn. 8:31–32). The Evangelist attests that the Lord said this to those who had believed but had not yet come to know the truth, which they could attain if they abided in his word.”—The same thought is found in Saint Chrysostom: “First we were known, and then we knew; first we were apprehended, and then we apprehended (1 Cor. 13:12; Phil. 3:12).”—It was toward this that the Apostolic preaching was directed, and it was to this that all the labours of the Apostles were bent. This is why Saint Paul did not say simply: I am appointed to bring about the knowledge of the truth, but added: “that accords with godliness.” Godliness encompasses all the labours and strivings of active service to God. With regard to faith, one can raise many questions and present solutions to them which, although not false, do not touch the substance of the matter of faith but merely occupy an idle curiosity, bringing no benefit to life in faith. The Apostle says: none of that do I concern myself with, nor am I appointed to concern myself with it; my task is to present the truths of faith and to instil them into your hearts through those aspects by which they are powerful to arouse, strengthen, and guide you toward godliness—that is, toward abiding in living union with God, in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit: for this is the substance of Christian godliness. Everything that is beside the point and foreign to such a direction is foreign also to me, by the very nature of my apostolic appointment and duty.

“There is truth that is not according to godliness—for example, knowledge of agriculture, knowledge of the arts, which is genuine knowledge; but the truth (which I proclaim) is truth according to godliness (that is, in the service of establishing godliness in hearts)” (Saint Chrysostom). “It may be asked: why, having said ‘according to the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth,’ did the Apostle add ‘that accords with godliness’? Is there some truth that is not according to godliness, so that he now speaks in distinction from it of the knowledge of ‘the truth that accords with godliness’? There is indeed a truth that has no direct relation to godliness: one who knows grammar or dialectic, so as to speak correctly and discern truth from falsehood with precision—that person possesses truth. Geometry with arithmetic and music likewise have truth in their field of knowledge. But all such kinds of knowledge are not knowledge according to godliness. The knowledge of ‘the truth that accords with godliness’ consists in knowing the Law, understanding the Prophets, believing the Gospel, and not being ignorant of the Apostles. And there are many who are very learned in the matter of godliness yet are wholly unacquainted with those other kinds of knowledge I have mentioned” (blessed Jerome).

Tit. 1:2. In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the ages of time.

This completes the content of the proclamation with which the Apostle has been entrusted and to which he has been appointed. Anyone who reads the Epistles of St. Paul will readily notice that in every Epistle he mentions eternal life repeatedly and in various ways—as the final end of the economy of salvation and the ultimate goal of those who have sought salvation in the Lord. And the hope of it, in his view, is so indispensable to the spiritual constitution of believers that he did not hesitate to declare: “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). “And if in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable” (1 Cor. 15:19). So ordained the Saviour Himself, saying: “Where I am, there also shall my servant be” (Jn. 12:26). Christianity in spirit begins with a detachment from all that is temporal and an aspiration toward the eternal. It is through the hopeful contemplation of that eternity that the Christian is animated and sustained throughout the entire laborious course of his journey following Christ the Lord. The fortitude of martyrs and ascetics was founded primarily upon this. A foretaste of our true and essential good in following Christ the Saviour comes later; yet it does not displace the hope of an eternally blessed life, but elevates it, transferring the one who hopes wholly into that age to come. This is why the Apostle said επ’ ελπιδι — “in hope”—pointing in it to the foundation of both faith and life in the spirit of faith, that is, of godliness. I am, he says, an Apostle appointed precisely for this: to plant faith, to shape souls toward true godliness, drawing and animating them toward both by the hope of eternal—all-blessed—life. Blessed Theodoret sums up all of this briefly in the following words: “The Apostle says that he was set apart for this very purpose: that the worthy chosen ones might believe, come to know the truth of godliness, and receive the hope of eternal life.”

The hope of eternal life is so essential to the economy of salvation that St. Paul, though speaking of it as if in passing, did not consider it superfluous to confirm it with incontrovertible arguments—namely the truthfulness of God and the fact that this belongs to God’s eternal counsels—saying: “which God, who cannot lie, promised before the ages of time.” St. Chrysostom says: “If God is incapable of lying, then what He has promised will without doubt be fulfilled; if He cannot lie, one ought not to doubt it, even if it is fulfilled after death.—And with the words: ‘before the ages of time’—the Apostle also proves the certainty of the promise. Thus, he says, it was ordained from of old. Not now as a result of our repentance, but from of old was this ordained. The Apostle says the same in other passages, for example: ‘Whom He foreknew, them He also predestined’ (Rom. 8:29), indicating our nobility—the fact that not now, but from of old God has loved us; and to have been loved from of old and from the beginning is no small thing.” All of our commentators, under the words “before the ages of time,” understand the pre-eternal decree of God. Others prefer to understand by this the ages that preceded the coming of Christ, during which such a promise was proclaimed through the Prophets, beginning from the time of the fall of the first ancestors. But even those promises were not proclaimed anew; they were spoken because it had been so ordained before all time in the Eternal Counsels of God concerning the existence of creation. The material world has no end in itself. It is the arena and the place in which rational creatures are ordained to be formed for eternal life. For that life man was created; for it he is re-created in the Lord Jesus Christ. Such was the pre-eternal counsel of God. But the visible world is transient. It will pass away as a means, when that which it serves as means to has been achieved. When spiritual creatures shall have received their proper beauty, it too will be transfigured in correspondence with them, and will cast off its present, coarse, and corruptible state. Thus eternal life stands in the Counsels of God as the originating beginning and the final goal of the existence of all that is created. As it is impossible for the Eternal Counsel of God to lie, so it is impossible for the promise of eternal life to remain unfulfilled. Such is the strength of the foundation of our hope in it!

Tit. 1:3. But manifested His word in due time in preaching, which was entrusted to me according to the commandment of God our Saviour.

The promise of eternal life was sure and unchangeable, but for a time it lay hidden in God. The Prophets, though they proclaimed it, did so in a veiled manner, enabling those capable of perceiving it to glimpse it as through a shadow. But it could not remain forever in such concealment and obscurity, for it was meant to be received by clear faith and appropriated through the faithful fulfillment of the conditions for participation in it. Yet it had necessarily to remain in that form for a certain time, so that through God’s providential acts humanity might be sufficiently prepared to receive it. “Why such a delay?” St. Chrysostom asks, and answers: “Out of care for us and in order to make this (the revelation of what was hidden) timely. Which the Apostle expressed in the words: ‘He manifested in due time. In due time’—that is, at the fitting, proper, and appropriate moment—just as the Prophet also says: it is time for the Lord to act (Ps. 118:126).” With God everything has its appointed time. When the time came to reveal His hidden Counsels, He revealed them. But these times He holds in His own power (Acts 1:7), as also the course of events itself. And they have been ordained from eternity and are therefore God’s own.

“He manifested”—He proclaimed in clear, unveiled word, and by His very act arranged all that is required for participation in this promise. Therefore this word points to the entire economy of salvation accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is eternal life itself.

Preface—Part 2 (Titus 1:1–4)

“His word”—that word by which He declared and sealed the promise in the Eternal Counsel. The word, τον λογον — this word, that is, the word of promise—as one commonly says: “he gave his word,” meaning some pledge. Blessed Theophylact writes: “What did He ‘manifest’? ‘His word,’ he says—that is, the Gospel: for the Gospel encompasses all things, both what is given to us in the present time—namely godliness, faith, truth—and what is promised in the age to come, that is, eternal life.” The Triune God was pleased to ordain that for our salvation the Son of God should become incarnate, and having suffered in the flesh and endured death on the cross, should rise and ascend into the heavens—so that, seated at the right hand of the Father, He might intercede for us eternally—and should send the Holy Spirit for the ordering of each person’s salvation, by whose grace we are saved and become partakers of eternal life. This, ordained from eternity, God has now revealed both in word and in deed. The Apostle St. Paul writes of this in greater detail further on in this same Epistle. We were, he says, worthless and ruinous: “but when the grace and love of God our Saviour appeared… He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit… so that, being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Tit. 3:4–5, 7; Tit. 2:11–13). Eternal life is received in its fullness in the age to come; but it begins and grows here according to the laws of the incarnate economy. Therefore, the manifestation of the word of promise is the proclamation of the incarnate economy, whose reception with full faith and with corresponding labors is the pledge of eternal life. This the Apostle expressed by pointing to the manner of the manifestation of the word of promise.

“In preaching.” The Lord Jesus Christ, having accomplished and arranged all that is needed for obtaining eternal life, sent the Apostles into the world with the exalted proclamation—to call all people to receive that life. A special portion of this labor was allotted also to St. Paul: to go to the Gentiles and call them to share in the inheritance of the promise. This commission was given to him by the Lord Himself, who appeared to him personally on the road to Damascus and afterward in the temple in Jerusalem. All of this the Apostle here expressed in the words: “in preaching, which was entrusted to me according to the commandment of God our Saviour.” He considered it necessary to state this in order to dispose the Cretans to receive his word with humility and to carry out his directions, for they did not know him fully. St. Chrysostom draws the following lessons from these words: “He manifested His word in preaching”—that is, openly, with boldness; such is the meaning of the word “preaching.” As a herald at a public spectacle proclaims in the presence of all, so also do we proclaim (in assurance of the truth)—and we add nothing, but say what we ourselves have heard. The dignity of a herald consists in declaring to all what has actually occurred, adding nothing and taking nothing away.—By the expressions “which was entrusted to me” and “according to the commandment of the Saviour”—the Apostle demonstrates his trustworthiness, so that no one might resist, refuse, or take offence. I, he says, have received a commandment; therefore I have no authority (to revoke or change anything).—I am fulfilling a commandment; and commandments are not in our power, but one must either carry them out or face punishment for failing to do so. The Apostle expresses the same thing in another place when he says: “For necessity is laid upon me; woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16).

The words “God our Saviour” in the present passage refer to the Lord Jesus Christ; for St. Paul received his commission to preach directly from Him in person. A similar expression in other passages also refers directly to the Lord Jesus—as in: “awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:13). In other places, however, St. Paul uses the words “God the Saviour” with reference to God the Father.

Tit. 1:4. To Titus, true son in the common faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

This is the customary word of greeting that belongs to St. Paul. He calls Titus his “true” (γνησιος — genuine, authentic, real) “son” both because Titus was confirmed in the faith through him and regenerated by him through the grace of the Holy Spirit in holy baptism, and because, having once been instructed in the faith and in life according to its spirit, he kept himself unchangeably in perfect conformity with St. Paul in this regard—whether in what concerned Paul personally or in the believers under Titus’s guidance. Just as writings are recognized as the genuine offspring of certain authors when they correspond precisely to the spirit of the writers to whom they are attributed, so Titus pointed to St. Paul as his spiritual father by being altogether identical with him both in teaching and in manner of action. Blessed Jerome writes: “The word, wisdom, and teaching by which Titus built up the Churches of Christ showed him to be the Apostle Paul’s own son.” “But it is possible,” Oecumenius counters, “for someone to have been his son, having been enlightened and baptized by him, yet to have ceased to be a true son, having begun to sin.” “For,” Theophylact explains, “in such a case he would become unworthy of being called the son of such a father.” “Therefore,” Theodoret concludes, “the words ‘true son’ make evident the virtue of blessed Titus.” We shall crown all these words with the saying of St. Chrysostom: “True”—genuine—“son,” he says; for there can also be sons who are not genuine, as for instance one of whom he says: “if any man who is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, do not even eat with such a one” (1 Cor. 5:11). Here is also a son, but not a genuine one; he is a son because he once received grace and was regenerated, but not a genuine son, because he is unworthy of his father and has voluntarily surrendered himself to another master. In the case of children of the flesh, genuineness and un-genuineness depend upon the one who begets and the one who bears; but here it is not so—it depends on the will. Here it is possible for one who was a genuine son not to remain genuine, and for one who was not genuine to become genuine; for this lies not in natural necessity, but in free will—from which frequent changes arise.

In the same sense—that is, to show the unity of Titus’s spirit with his own—the Apostle also added the words: “in the common faith.” These words show also that Titus is a son not according to the flesh but according to the spirit—“in faith”; but above all they convey that in faith, or in the spirit of faith, Titus has nothing of his own that differs from St. Paul: all things are common between them; whatever St. Paul has, Titus has also; nothing has been concealed from him, and nothing of what was entrusted to him has been rejected or altered by him. This is indeed the chief proof that he is a genuine son. “That you are my son,” the Apostle seems to say, “the cause and proof of this is the common faith. He praises Titus, declaring that he himself has nothing more than Titus in the matter of faith” (Oecumenius). Unity of blood points to sonship of the flesh; unity of faith—to sonship of the spirit.

St. Paul mentioned this close kinship with himself with regard to St. Titus in order to impress upon Titus that he should continue to live and act in that same spirit—and upon the Cretans, that they should obey him as they would St. Paul himself.

“Finally this preface of the Epistle and the Apostle’s greeting to Titus is concluded with the following good wish: ‘grace’ and so forth” (Blessed Jerome). The Apostle desires these same gifts of God in his greetings to all believers, as is evident from his other Epistles. But if these divine gifts are necessary for believers in general, how much more necessary are they for one appointed to establish right order among believers and to guide them on the path of salvation—such was the position of St. Titus at that time! “For him, as for every bishop, the gracious power of God is more than for others necessary, since he bears most heavy burdens—mercy is necessary, since it is difficult for such a one to avoid incurring guilt before God in many things (for the souls of all will be required at his hands)—peace is necessary, since he is placed under the necessity of encountering conflicts and waging unceasing struggle” (Blessed Theophylact)—with his own and with strangers, with the inner and with the outer, with the visible and with the invisible. St. Chrysostom says: “See how he desires for the teacher the very same things he desires for the disciples and the people; for the teacher himself, like them, has need of such blessings, and even more so, the more enemies he has and the more occasions he has to offend God. The higher the dignity of the one who holds the priesthood, the greater also are his dangers; for both the faithful fulfillment of the episcopate can raise one to heaven, and a single failure in this work can cast one into the very depths of gehenna… Thus the teacher especially has need of ‘the grace of God (mercy) and peace.’ If he governs the people without them, he will lose and destroy everything, having no rudder. Even if he is skilled in governance, yet if he does not possess these rudders—‘grace (mercy) and peace’—from God, he will sink the ship and those sailing in it.”

“‘From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.’ St. Paul desires these blessings and gifts for Titus either because they are sent down both from God the Father and from Christ Jesus the Lord, and therefore in grateful acknowledgment one may refer them all to both the One and the Other; or because grace belongs to the Father and peace to the Son” (Blessed Jerome, who read only: “grace and peace.”) Following this example (accepting the reading: “grace, mercy, and peace”) one may also ascribe these gifts to all three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity: grace—to the Father, mercy—to the Son, peace—to the Holy Spirit; confessing, however, that they are sent down by the undivided action of the Triune God.

2) The Beginning of the Epistle

In other Epistles this section usually occupies several verses. Here it is compressed into a single verse. This is because that one verse says much—concisely—for it brings to mind the entire account of St. Paul’s stay in Crete: what he did and what he left undone. Were one to write it all out, it would take more than a few dozen verses. But there was no need for that, since Titus, to whom the Epistle is addressed, knew all of this as a co-worker. It was enough to allude to it, and that only in order not to begin the Epistle too abruptly (ex abrupto). This is what St. Paul does. I left you in Crete, he says, to finish what was unfinished and to set right what was not in order. So, labor at it. Here are the rules to guide you. The rules to guide him—this is the subject of the Epistle.

Tit. 1:5. For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set right what was still lacking, and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you.

St. Paul, it is supposed, after being released from his bonds, was making his way from Rome toward Asia Minor. The route passed by Crete, where ships put in to port. The ship on which St. Paul was sailing stopped there as well. St. Paul did not let this stop go to waste; but perceiving that there was considerable scope for Apostolic activity there, he remained with them for some time. The introduction already noted that there were many believers on the island, but they lacked completeness and proper ecclesiastical organization. This was the chief work St. Paul was now doing there, along with the further spread of the faith. But he did not have time to complete everything; and so, having done what he could, he left St. Titus in Crete for the final ordering of all things, while he himself hastened on to Asia Minor. St. Chrysostom marvels at such tirelessness and says: “Among men of old, all of life was active and full of labors; but among us it is not so—rather, it is full of idleness. They knew that they were born into the world in order to labor in accordance with the will of the One who gave them being; but we, as though born to eat, drink, and make merry, give no thought to anything spiritual. I say this not of the Apostles only, but of those who came after them as well. They, as you see, went everywhere as though considering this their one occupation, and spent their entire lives in foreign lands, as though they had no (native) city on earth. Listen to what blessed Paul says: ‘For this reason I left you in Crete.’ Having divided the inhabited world among themselves as though it were a single household, they governed all and cared for all, one taking one portion, and another another.”

“I left you”—these words imply that St. Paul had the intention and desire to take Titus along with him; but they tell us nothing about what had been the case with Titus before that. It may be supposed that St. Paul found him there and at first intended to take him with him, but, having been informed of and seen the needs of the believers, left him there for a while longer. But it may also be supposed that he had arrived in Crete together with St. Paul and was left there on account of the needs of the local Christians. The fact that St. Titus is not mentioned in Rome with St. Paul, and that in the Epistles written by St. Paul during his first imprisonment there is no mention of him, could have been because St. Titus, having been in Crete, arrived in Rome shortly before St. Paul’s departure from there. But whether one thinks of it one way or another is not of great significance for understanding the Epistle.

“That you should set right what was still lacking. What was lacking,” λειποντα — what was deficient, the deficiencies. Since Christianity had begun and grown on the island spontaneously, without any authoritative establishment of order among the believers according to a fixed norm, it is no wonder that some things were lacking among them, and others were not conducted as they ought to be—and perhaps in their Christian understanding there was not only incompleteness but also a degree of error. All of this St. Paul himself had at once begun to correct and supply. But since he needed to hasten to other Churches, and there still remained something requiring correction, he left St. Titus on the island to “set right” what remained uncorrected. This is why he said: “that you should… set right” — επιδιορθωση — that you should correct further, should add the needful corrections over what has already been corrected and bring them to completion. Blessed Jerome writes: “St. Paul, hastening to other lands, left St. Titus in Crete to correct what was faulty and what was lacking. By saying: ‘that you should set right what was still lacking,’ he shows that the Cretans had not yet arrived at full knowledge of the truth, and that although some things had been corrected among them by the Apostle, others still remained in need of correction, as being faulty and imperfect. This is indicated by the prefix attached to the verb: επιδιορθωση — which does not mean the same as: διορθωση — ‘that you should set right’—but, so to speak: ‘that you should correct yet further’—that is: that what I have begun to correct, but have not brought to the degree of perfection required by truth, you should complete, so that all things among them may take on their proper appearance.”

“And appoint elders in every city.” This is not the only thing that needed to be corrected; it was one among other deficiencies to be set right. The Apostle made special mention of it because of the special importance of the sacred order in the Church. Without it, neither teaching, nor the Sacraments, nor any other ordering in the Church can be properly carried out. He says, as it were: take care above all, or principally, to appoint worthy presbyters. Where there is a worthy presbyter, there everything will be in order. The word “appoint” means the same as “ordain.” This is how St. Paul himself acted everywhere. Having founded a Church, he did not leave it to itself, but ordained worthy men and entrusted to them the edification and governance of the believers, as we see from his conduct during his first Apostolic journey, when together with Barnabas, having founded Churches in Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch (in Pisidia), they did not depart until they had ordained elders in every Church (Acts 14:23). It may be supposed that St. Paul himself had ordained some presbyters in Crete, but not everywhere. Where they were still needed, he entrusted their ordination to St. Titus. By “presbyters” all our commentators understand bishops, as those senior over the priests.—“In every city.” To this day in the East the custom prevails that every city should, as far as possible, have its own bishop. “The Apostle did not want the whole island to be subject to a single person, but that each should have his own portion under his care and oversight; for in this way both his own labor will be lightened, and greater oversight will be maintained over those subject to him, if the teacher is not distracted by presiding over a multitude of Churches but occupies himself with only one and sets it in order” (St. Chrysostom).

“As I directed you.” This direction certainly encompassed everything: what to correct and how—the Apostle had defined precisely himself. By the example of what was commanded, one could see how to correct also what was not specified in words. But perhaps: “as I directed”—refers principally or exclusively to the choosing and ordaining of presbyters, so that the words following—“if anyone” and the rest—indicate what was precisely or especially commanded. In that case one may read: “as I directed you”—that is: “if anyone” and the rest.

Reflecting on how St. Paul yields his authority and prerogatives to St. Titus, St. Chrysostom says: “Do you see how his soul is free from all envy, how he always sought the benefit of those being taught, regardless of whether it would be achieved by himself or by someone else? Where there was danger and great difficulty, he handled everything himself by his personal presence; but what brought greater honor or glory, he entrusts to his disciple—namely, the ordination of bishops and all else that had need of some correction or, so to speak, of greater ordering. But tell me—what are you saying? Your work will it be that he sets in order? And you do not consider this humiliating and shameful for yourself? Not at all, he says; for I have in view only the common good—whether it is done by me or by another, it is all the same to me. Such should be the presiding minister (of the Church)—to seek not his own honor, but the common good.”

Rules for the Guidance of St. Titus, and through Him of All Builders of Churches

Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

Here the holy Apostle determines what kind of man should be chosen for the episcopate: a) what he must be like in family and civic virtues (verse 6); b) what good moral qualities he must possess (verses 7–8); and c) how capable he must be as a teacher (verse 9).

a) What kind of family man and citizen may be considered worthy of the episcopate?

Tit. 1:6. If anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissoluteness or insubordination.

Before this, as has been said, it is fitting to supply the word “namely”—establishing the following connection between this verse and what precedes: appoint elders of the Church in every city, acting in this as I directed you—namely: when you come to choose someone for this work, choose from among those of whom it can be said: “if anyone is blameless” and the rest.

“Blameless”—that is, “if his life is free from reproach, if no one can accuse him (of a bad life) (‘if he gives no ground for a well-founded accusation’ [Blessed Theodoret]). For hear what Christ says: ‘If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!’ (Mt. 6:23)” (St. Chrysostom). “So first of all he must be blameless, ανεγκλητος — which, by another word, is expressed in the Epistle to Timothy, I think, as: ανεπιλημπτος — above reproach (1 Tim. 3:2). Not only at the very time of his being chosen and appointed should he be without fault or sin, having cleansed his former defilements only by a recent conversion and repentance; but he must be such that his conscience does not reproach him for any sin from the time of his regeneration in Christ (from the time of baptism). For otherwise, how can the presiding minister of the Church remove an evildoer from her midst, when he himself has fallen into the same vice? Or how can he freely reproach a sinner, when he secretly knows in his heart that he himself permitted what he is rebuking in another?” (Blessed Jerome).

“The husband of one wife”—not a twice-married man. The Apostle honored marriage by not making it a barrier to attaining the degree of holy orders; but at the same time he gave no indulgence to marital pleasures, refusing ordination to those who had married twice. What is envisioned, on one hand, is self-restraint, and on the other, fidelity to one wife. Both of these presuppose qualities that can serve as a guarantee that the one being chosen is able to govern well the Church entrusted to him. St. Chrysostom says: “Why does the Apostle present such a man? He is stopping the mouths of heretics who condemned marriage, showing that this matter is in no way blameworthy, but so honorable that one may ascend even to the sacred throne while in that state; at the same time he rebukes the incontinent, not permitting those who have married a second time to receive this authority. Indeed, one who has not preserved his affection for his deceased wife—can he be a good presiding minister? To what reproach will he not be subject? You know—all of you know—that, although the laws do not forbid entering into a second marriage, this matter is subject to many reproaches. But the Apostle desires that the one who holds authority should give those under him no ground for reproach.”

Blessed Jerome looks in this not so much at the outward act as at the inward disposition which the Apostle wished to instill by these words: “The words ‘the husband of one wife’ must be understood in such a way that it does not follow that every man who has had only one wife is on that account better than one who has had two; but it was said to show that it is easier for one to draw others to single marriage and to self-restraint who, in giving such a lesson, teaches more by his own example. For suppose some young man has lost his wife and, being overcome by the needs of the flesh, has taken another; but having soon lost her as well, has resolved to live in self-restraint (from marital pleasures) thereafter. Let us take another who throughout his old age has had one wife and never ceased from bodily union with her. Which of these two is the better, the more self-restrained and pure? Certainly the one who, having suffered misfortune a second time, has afterward lived purely and holily—and not the one who even in old age did not avoid the embraces of his wife. So let the one who is chosen (for holy orders) not congratulate himself merely because he is a man of one wife, as though he were thereby better than every twice-married man, when in his being chosen fortune played a greater part (in not losing his wife) than virtuous resolve (in maintaining self-restraint). Some understand this passage to mean that one who simultaneously has two wives must not be chosen as a bishop. Others interpret it in a thoroughly perverse manner. Montanus and the followers of the Novatian schism, who have assumed the name of the ‘continent’ and ‘pure,’ think (on the basis of this passage) that second marriages are forbidden to Christians; whereas the Apostle prescribed single marriage only for bishops and presbyters, and granted an allowance in this matter to the rest. Likewise, Tertullian wrote a book on single marriage—a heretical one; and anyone who reads the Apostle without prejudice cannot fail to see that he goes against the Apostle.”

“Having faithful children not accused of dissoluteness or insubordination.” It is required that the children of the one being chosen be believers, not subject to reproach for fornication or for insubordination and unruliness. Having one wife and being blameless depends on a person’s own free will; but the fact that children are disorderly is not always the fault of parents. For this reason it is not mistaken to add that the Apostle has in mind here those cases in which children are disorderly through the fault of parents—through their inability to guide them as they ought, or through negligence in doing so. But the Apostle did not single out these cases, because they were very rare; and perhaps also because, even if the children are bad through no fault of the father, a certain shadow still falls upon him—and he wants the one being chosen to be visibly without blemish in all things, to be beyond reproach in the eyes of all. St. Chrysostom sees here a parent who is himself at fault for his children’s disorder, and, affirming that it is just not to choose such a person as bishop, explains this principle as follows: “For,” he says, “one who could not teach his own children, how will he be a teacher of others? If he was unable to set in order those whom he had with him from the very beginning, whom he raised and over whom he had authority both by law and by nature, how will he be able to be of benefit to those who are strangers? If the father’s negligence had not been great, he would not have allowed those over whom he had authority from the beginning of their lives to become wicked. It is impossible, truly impossible, that one who from the very beginning was raised with great diligence and surrounded with care should become wicked; for sins are not by nature so strong as to be able to overcome such care. But if he counted the upbringing of his children a secondary matter, caring only for property and giving them no proper attention—then for this reason also he is unworthy of sacred office. If, where nature itself urged him on, he had so little love, or was so unreasonable as to care more for property than for them—how can he be elevated to the throne of the episcopate and to such a degree of authority? If he could not (bring them up well), he is worthy of great condemnation for his laziness; if he did not try, he is worthy of great condemnation for lack of love. Therefore, one who is negligent concerning his own children, how will he care for those of others?”

Blessed Jerome singles out fathers who are not at fault for their children’s disorder; yet for all that he maintains the full force of the Apostle’s rule—not because the faults of children make their innocent parents guilty, but because otherwise the freedom of speech of the bishop will be constrained and cut off. He writes: “To be a bishop or presbyter without blemish and to have one wife—these are requirements that lie within our power. But what follows: to have faithful children not subject to reproach for fornication or insubordination—these are requirements that do not lie within our power. Therefore, if parents have raised their children well and from their early years have taught them to keep the commandments of the Lord, and yet these children have afterward gone astray, given themselves over to vices and licentiousness, does the fault for this fall upon the parents, and will the sins of a son stain the holiness of an innocent father? Isaac, for example, certainly taught his son Esau every good thing, but Esau proved to be both a fornicator and an ungodly man, to the extent that he sold his sacred birthright for a single meal (Gen. 25). The same with Samuel—who was himself such a man that in the day of need he cried to the Lord on behalf of Israel, and ‘the Lord thundered with a great thunder upon the enemies of Israel, the Philistines, and they were defeated’ (1 Sam. 7:10)—he had children who turned aside after greed and accepted bribes and proved to be such unjust judges that the people of Israel on this account asked for a king for themselves after the manner of other nations (1 Sam. 8). Thus, if among those being chosen for holy orders there were an Isaac and a Samuel, then Isaac on account of Esau, and Samuel on account of his children, would have to be counted unworthy of the priesthood. But in that case, since the sins of parents are not imputed to children, should we not also refuse to hold the sins of children against innocent parents? How then shall we judge? First, we must say that the name of the priesthood is so holy that, even if by our own deeds we should not be unworthy of the episcopate, we nevertheless ought not to be admitted to this degree on account of the disorderliness of our children. For with what freedom can we rebuke the sons of others and teach them the right ways, when the one being rebuked can object to us: first teach your own? Or with what face shall I reproach one who is fornicating, when my own conscience will answer me: then disinherit your own fornicating son—cast off your own children given over to vices? But when a worthless son lives under the same roof with you, and you act in this way—that is, rebuking the sons of others—are you not removing the speck from your neighbor’s eye while not seeing the beam in your own? Thus the words of the Apostle do not defile the righteous man on account of the vices of his children, but safeguard the freedom of speech of the presiding minister of the Church—so that he may be the kind of man who is not afraid to rebuke the children of others on account of the failings of his own.”

b) What must a bishop be like in his character and conduct?

Tit. 1:7. For a bishop must be blameless, as God’s steward: not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain.

“It behooves a bishop.” He began his discourse about presbyters, yet here he calls the one to be chosen a bishop. This suggests that in the beginning both words were used interchangeably and were applied in general to the heads of Christian communities, or to the elders appointed to oversee the Christian order within them. But one must suppose that the Apostles appointed bishops—archpriests—and that bishops, when the need arose, appointed presbyters—priests.

“To be blameless,” ανεγκλητον — the same as what came before: “if any man be blameless.” “This is a general requirement encompassing everything that is to be said: to be blameless is to be above reproach” (Oecumenius).

“As the steward of God,” οικονομον — a steward, an overseer. By this the Apostle either gives a special incentive toward blamelessness (“to be God’s steward is a great title and dignity, and therefore demands special attention and vigilant care” (Oecumenius)), or he points to a new dimension in which the bishop must be especially blameless. He said before that the bishop must be blameless as a family man and a citizen; here he indicates that he must be so in the ordering of Church life, as God’s steward, overseer, and administrator. The Church—the community of the faithful—is God’s house. The bishop is appointed to watch over this house and to maintain proper order within it. “God sets him over His own house and he occupies God’s place; therefore in all respects he must be a faithful executor of His will” (blessed Theophylact). Elsewhere holy Paul calls the Apostles themselves stewards of God and dispensers of His mysteries, adding: “moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful” (1 Cor. 4:1–2). This is already a general law for all God’s stewards, and among them for bishops, the Apostles’ successors. Blessed Jerome suggests the thought that holy Paul drew this lesson from the parabolic words of Christ the Saviour about the wise and faithful steward, appointed “to give them their portion of food in due season” (Lk. 12:42 and following); for he writes: “what is required of stewards is this: ‘that a man be found faithful’—he is urged not to be the kind of person who eats and drinks with drunkards and beats the menservants and maidservants, but rather, awaiting the unknown coming of God, to dispense ‘a portion of food’ to his fellow servants in its season. The only difference between the steward and the rest is that he—a fellow servant—is set over his fellow servants. Let the bishop and presbyter know, therefore, that a people is entrusted to them, not slaves.” Judging by this, the blamelessness required of the bishop by the Apostle in the administration of God’s house obliges him not to err in nourishing the souls entrusted to him with divine truths, in sanctifying and strengthening them by grace through the administration of the holy sacraments, and above all in guiding all along the path of salvation—without going astray.

After this general requirement, the Apostle also points to particular marks of blamelessness—which likewise call to mind that parabolic speech of the Saviour.—“Not self-willed,” μη αυθαδη — not presumptuous, one who, carried away by self-will, places his own arbitrary pleasure above everything, paying no attention to the just desires and needs of those under his care. The Slavonic translation renders this word with two further words: “not bold, not contentious.” Holy Chrysostom says: “One who holds external civil power, governing by force of law and of necessity, may justly not always accommodate the wishes of his subordinates; but one who must exercise authority over people who submit to him voluntarily and who feel gratitude for his governance—if he acts in everything only according to his own arbitrary will, as though he need give account to no one, will make his governance violent and despotic.” Holy Peter prescribes the same, saying: “Elders… feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof” “(watching over it)” “not by constraint, but willingly and according to God… neither as lording it over those entrusted to you” (God’s heritage) (1 Pet. 5:1–3).

“Not quick-tempered.” “How can one teach others to bridle this passion,” says holy Chrysostom, “who has not first taught himself? Authority places a man in many circumstances that make even the very meek harsh and severe, furnishing a multitude of occasions for anger. Therefore, if he has not first taken care to subdue this passion, he will be exceedingly burdensome to those under him, and will harm and destroy much in the affairs of his governance.” Let us add also the words of blessed Jerome: “A quick-tempered man is always irritated and, at a small careless word or some fault, is stirred up like a leaf by the wind. And truly nothing is more unseemly than a raging teacher who, when he ought to be meek and—according to the following word of Scripture: ‘the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to all, apt to teach, patient, correcting those who oppose him with meekness’ (2 Tim. 2:24–25),—instead presents himself with a threatening look, trembling lips, a furrowed brow, and a face now growing pale, now flushing red, striking with furious shouting, and dragging those who have erred not toward good but casting them down by his ferocity into greater evil. This is why Solomon says: ‘wrath destroys even the wise’ (Prov. 15:1). And holy James teaches that ‘the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God’ (Jas. 1:20)”.

“Not given to wine,” μη παροινον — strictly speaking, not boisterous as from wine, not quarrelsome and abusive, not one who picks fights and accosts others with offensive words. Holy Chrysostom says precisely this: “Here he has in view one who insults others. A bishop should do everything by exhortation, not by censure and insult; for what necessity is there to insult? One must threaten with Gehenna and in this way bring people to fear and trembling. The one who is insulted grows bolder and despises the one who insults him. For nothing provokes contempt so much as insult, which brings more dishonor upon the one who insults, depriving him of the respect due to him. The word of a bishop must be full of great godliness, reminding sinners of the coming judgment and free from every kind of insult. If someone hinders him in fulfilling his duty, then one must act with full authority.” Oecumenius and Theophylact say the same, paraphrasing this word thus: μη παροινον — μη υβριστην.

But blessed Theodoret understands “given to wine” here as “one who gets drunk.” So too does blessed Jerome, who writes: “He also forbids the bishop to be a lover of wine, which in the Epistle to Timothy is expressed as: ‘not given to much wine’ (1 Tim. 3:8). What a sight to see a bishop tipsy, when either under the influence of pleasant feelings he raises his voice in laughter and guffaws beyond all measure, demeaning his dignity, or, recalling something sorrowful, starts playing the fool and weeping. Besides, it would take too long to enumerate all the unseemly things to which intoxication leads. Even in the Old Testament it was commanded that priests, when they draw near to perform the service of God, should not drink wine (Lev. 10:9). Likewise the Nazirites were required throughout all the days of their vow to abstain from wine and strong drink and from everything made from the vine, because this deprives the mind of its proper soundness of judgment (Num. 6:3). Let others say what they will; I bear witness in good conscience that the violation of temperance in this matter never passes without harm, while its observance is always beneficial.”

“Not a striker”—neither bodily nor spiritually, “neither inflicting blows and wounds with the hands, nor striking at souls with bitter and hardening words” (blessed Theophylact). “Not one who strikes the conscience of weak brethren” (Oecumenius). “For the teacher is a physician of souls; and a physician does not inflict blows, but heals and restores the one who has been struck” (holy Chrysostom).

Blessed Jerome, likewise combining both bodily and spiritual striking, says: “After the prohibition of love of wine, he further commands that one must not be a striker. This can be understood simply as the counsel not to let one’s hands fly loose and not to rush upon another like a madman to deal blows. But it is better for us to call him ‘not a striker’ who is meek and patient, who knows when to speak and when to keep silence, so as not to wound the conscience of the weak with untimely speech. The Apostle, sketching the image of a good head of the Church, does not, I think, forbid him merely from being a brawler—which even among ordinary people, even pagans, is not approved; but rather, as I said, from destroying by untimely quarrelsomeness one who could be corrected and saved by gentleness and quietness.”

Blessed Theodoret points out a special aspect of this matter, understanding “a striker” as “one who imposes punishments without discernment.”

“Not greedy for dishonest gain.” By this not only is the bishop forbidden to acquire wealth by unjust means, but any seeking and desire for profit at all is counted shameful in the person of a bishop. The Apostle declares that he must be utterly “free from acquisitiveness” (Oecumenius)—“showing complete contempt for wealth” (holy Chrysostom). In a bishop, all acquisitiveness, even legitimate, is shameful (blessed Theophylact). And not only shameful, but exceedingly harmful to the affairs of the episcopate: for nothing distorts the straight course of affairs so much as the expectation, desire, and seeking of gain. Blessed Jerome writes: “Also, the desire for dishonest gain must be foreign to one who is to be a bishop. According to Solomon, ‘better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice’ (Prov. 15:29); and: ‘a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches’ (Prov. 22:1). A bishop who desires to imitate the Apostle, having food and clothing, should be content with these (1 Tim. 6:8). Those who serve the altar shall live by the altar (1 Cor. 9:13)—they shall live, he says, not grow rich. This is why no money is allowed for us at the belt, and we must be content with one garment and not be anxious about the morrow (Mt. 10; Mk. 6). The desire for dishonest gain is precisely the anxiety that exceeds what the present requires.”

Titus 1:8–9—The Bishop’s Virtues and Teaching

Tit. 1:8. But hospitable, a lover of good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled.

“Do you see what a high degree of virtue he requires?” (holy Chrysostom).—“Up to this point the Apostle’s words commanded what a bishop or presbyter must not have; now, on the contrary, what he must have is set forth” (blessed Jerome).

“Hospitable.” “Not merely refraining from profiting at the expense of others, but even spending his own resources on strangers” (blessed Theophylact). “Before all else, hospitality is sought in one who is to be a bishop. For if all desire to hear that word foretold in the Gospel—‘I was a stranger and you took me in’ (Mt. 25:35)—how much more the bishop, whose house must be a common hostel for all strangers? A layman, having received one, or two, or a few—not many—into his home and given them rest, will have fulfilled the duty of hospitality. But a bishop, if he does not receive everyone, is without compassion. And I fear lest—just as the queen of the south, who came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, will condemn the people of the time of the first coming of Christ, and the men of Nineveh, who repented at the preaching of Jonah, will condemn those who out of arrogance and indifference refused to hear the One greater than Jonah, the Saviour—so too many people who have withdrawn from the clerical order but zealously perform deeds which the bishop does not consider his own concern, may not condemn those bishops. Of such people I think John also writes to Gaius: ‘Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers, who have borne witness of your love before the Church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well’ (3 Jn. 1:5–6). And truly, speaking by the Holy Spirit then dwelling in him, he even at that time reproved what was to come to pass in the Church afterward, saying: ‘I wrote to the Church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the Church’ (3 Jn. 1:9–10). Truly, one can see this prophecy fulfilled today—in many cities where it happens that bishops or presbyters, seeing laypeople who are hospitable and lovers of good, look upon this with disfavor, as though a layman may not do what the bishop himself does not do. And such laypeople will stand as a condemnation of those in holy orders” (blessed Jerome). Holy Paul everywhere commands hospitality to entire Churches; for this purpose common hostels were established, whose care lay with the bishop. But that he might fulfill this more faithfully and willingly, it was necessary before his election to ascertain whether he had the disposition for it.

“A lover of good.” “So the Apostle names one who is meek (quiet, disturbing no one), measured in all things, and free from envy” (blessed Theophylact). Or “one who distributes all his possessions to those in need” (holy Chrysostom). This requires that he be a zealot for every kind of good work, and above all a benefactor. He bears the care of the poor and the sick, of widows and orphans. The flock supplies what is needed for this; but the bishop or presbyter must have his heart set on works of this kind.

“Sober-minded”—pure from bodily sins, which are possible even within married life, or making sober and seasonable use of the marriage bed, or even abstaining from it altogether, as was later enjoined upon bishops by the Councils. Blessed Jerome writes: “The bishop must also be sober-minded, σωφρονα — as the Greeks say. If even laymen are commanded to abstain from their wives for the sake of prayer, what is to be said of a bishop, who must every day offer to God unblemished sacrifices for his own sins and those of his people? Let us open the book of Kings and find that the priest Ahimelech did not give David and his young men of the showbread until he had asked whether the young men were clean from women—not from another man’s wife, but from their own (1 Sam. 21). And had he not heard that they had had no dealings with a wife the day before yesterday and yesterday, he certainly would not have given them those loaves. But between the showbread and the Body of Christ there is as much distance and difference as between a shadow and a body, between an image and the truth, or between a type of what is to come and what the type prefigures. Therefore, as meekness, patience, sobriety, moderation, freedom from acquisitiveness, hospitality, and love of good must be present in the bishop in a surpassing degree, so too the purity or chastity of the priest must be such that not only is he to abstain from bodily intercourse, but that one who is to celebrate the sacrament of the Body of Christ must have his mind clean of thoughts about a woman and his eye clean of gazing upon her.”

“Just”—that is, “impartial in relation to people” (blessed Theophylact). It is required that he himself wrong no one in his own conduct and that, when it falls to him to adjudicate matters among those in his care, he observe the law of justice without reproach. Blessed Jerome writes: “The bishop must also be just, so that, standing before the people, he maintains righteousness, rendering to each what he has merited, and showing no partiality in judgment. The difference between the righteousness of a layman and that of a bishop is this: a layman may manifest righteousness in a smaller circle, while a bishop must maintain justice in relation to as many persons as he has under his pastoral care.”

“Holy”—that is, “one who stands in reverence before all that is divine, who omits nothing that is obligatory in relation to God” (blessed Theophylact). It befits a bishop to be holy, that is, adorned with every spiritual and bodily virtue. But holiness in the highest sense is when “it is joined with piety and hallowed by reverence toward God and by the dedication of all things to Him” (blessed Jerome).

“Self-controlled.” “Here the Apostle has in mind not merely one who fasts, but one who restrains himself from every passion manifested by the tongue, the hand, or an immodest gaze; for in this self-control consists—in not giving oneself over to any passion” (holy Chrysostom). “The bishop must be self-controlled not only from bodily lust and from embracing a wife, but from all the passions of the soul: not flaring up in anger, not falling into despondency, not being struck by fear, and not being carried away by immoderate joy. Self-control is placed by the Apostle among the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If thus self-control is required of all, how much more of the bishop, who must bear patiently and gently the weaknesses of the weak and the sins of sinners, comfort the faint-hearted, support the frail, render evil for evil to no one, but overcome evil with good” (blessed Jerome).

“What has been said up to this point about the virtues of the bishop pertains to his way of life; what follows pertains to his knowledge” (blessed Jerome).

c) What must a bishop be in respect of his teaching?

Tit. 1:9. Holding fast the faithful word according to the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.

“Holding fast,” αντεχομενον — which denotes one who is devoted to the word, one who “is solicitous and careful about it, making it his chief concern” (holy Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact). It is not enough to know and to hold the word of truth; one must prize it as life itself, with a desire that it be honored by all, and with a readiness to defend its honor even to the laying down of one’s life.

“The faithful word.”—By the word is denoted the whole of Christian teaching, which is the word heard by Christ the Saviour from the Father and brought to earth (Jn. 8:26, 14:24), and spread over its face by the Apostles in the power of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19; Jn. 14:26, 16:13). This word is faithful, as having gone forth from God, who is true and faithful in all His words. It is faithful both in what it ordains and in what it promises. God Himself confirmed this faithfulness when He granted by actual deed what the word of the Gospel had promised—first received by faith alone. So “faithful” means true (holy Chrysostom), the very word that went forth from God, exactly as it is, without addition, subtraction, or alteration. But how is one to know that it is such in the man who is being chosen as bishop?

When he holds fast to the word—not to one he invented himself, but to the one he received through instruction, κατα διδαχην. The Saviour says that He was taught by the Father. The Apostles were taught by the Lord the Saviour; all the faithful were taught by the Apostles. This instruction constituted, at the beginning, the norm of Christian knowledge and the witness to its faithfulness. Whoever held fast to this instruction held fast to the “faithful word.” And this is precisely what the Apostle lays down as a law for the bishop: do not give yourself over to speculations; keep what you received; and as you received it, so teach it. “The faithful word,” says holy Chrysostom, “is that which is handed on through faith, having no need of reasonings or investigations.” “Not intellectual proofs are needed, but faithful transmission of teaching” (Oecumenius). And that it may be such, one must hold it in the heart as such, not mixing it with one’s own speculations. “And only such a word will be rightly called good, as the very word of Paul” (blessed Theophylact). “As the word of God is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, so let the bishop show himself to be such, that all he says may be counted worthy of belief and his words may be a rule of truth” (blessed Jerome). And it will be so; let him only not philosophize beyond measure, but transmit as he received and was taught. “What does it matter if he be unskilled in external wisdom? It is not pomposity of speech that is needed, but sound judgments and force of thought” (holy Chrysostom).

“That he may be able.” That is, if he holds fast to the “faithful word according to the teaching,” then he will be able; the first is the condition of the last. Whoever introduces into this word—faithful according to the teaching—something from elsewhere, weakens it, renders it powerless, and himself appears powerless. The power of the bishop’s word lies in its faithfulness to the word according to the teaching. Insist: thus God has taught and commanded it to be held; and your word will be victorious. If you begin to philosophize, you will provoke counter-philosophizing; and from that come only disputes and irritation, and every kind of loss for the knowledge of truth.

“And to exhort with sound doctrine.” Sound doctrine “is that which teaches both true dogmas and right life” (Oecumenius)—the same as the faithful word, which came, was received, and is held by all according to instruction—without any foreign admixture that weakens it and renders it feeble and ineffectual; just as wine diluted with water and corrupted by admixtures is weak, ineffectual, and even harmful.—“Exhort,” παρακαλειν — to implore, to prevail upon, to persuade. The Apostle urges that the bishop must be able to deliver the faithful word to the faithful and to hold these latter in faith to it, calming their thoughts each time they are stirred up by the influx of foreign notions and speculations, through persuasion and argument that the faithful word is only what he hands on—faithful, because it was so handed on and received.

“And to refute those who contradict.” “He must be able not only to protect his own, but also to repel enemies. For if this is lacking, everything may fall into disorder. Whoever does not know how to fight enemies, ‘to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ and to cast down speculations (2 Cor. 10:5), let him be far from the teacher’s throne” (holy Chrysostom). “If these adversaries are not refuted and overcome, they can easily corrupt the hearts of the simpler ones” (blessed Jerome).

The Apostle placed teaching at the end in his enumeration of what a bishop must be adorned with—because in a bishop, teaching crowns all other qualities, constituting his distinguishing mark. “The other qualities can be found in subordinates as well—such as blamelessness, raising children in obedience, hospitality, justice, godliness; but what especially distinguishes the bishop and presbyter is that he instructs the people in teaching, about which nothing at all is done nowadays” (holy Chrysostom). “If a bishop’s life alone is holy, then by so living he benefits only himself; but if he is also capable of teaching, then he builds up both himself and others. This passage is directed against those who give themselves over to idleness, laziness, and sleep in the matter of teaching, paying no attention to the fact that the Apostle, after enumerating the qualities of life worthy of a bishop, made a special—imperative—mention, that he must also be capable of teaching” (blessed Jerome). “He who is able neither to fight enemies and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, nor to teach his own, persuade them, and strengthen them, is a false bishop. What most characterizes a bishop is to teach” (blessed Theophylact).

Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers

There are two rules here: to “stop the mouths” (Tit. 1:11) of those who spread such ideas, and to “rebuke sharply” (Tit. 1:13) those who are carried away by them. These rules are given almost in passing. Having said that one chosen for bishop must be able to refute those who contradict, the Apostle shows how very necessary such bishops are, since there are many vain talkers in Crete who are dangerous to leave unrefuted and with their mouths unstopped. But to do this successfully, one must be capable and skilled at it. Hence his instruction to Titus: seek out such men especially for the episcopate. Now, while the time comes for capable bishops to be selected and for them to begin their opposition, this matter cannot be left to go on as it is going. And it is entrusted to Titus himself. Having been commanded to appoint presbyters “in every city,” holy Titus had to make the rounds of these cities. In doing so he was bound to encounter persons of that sort. The Apostle addresses him on this occasion: stop their mouths. By stopping their mouths and making a beginning of opposition to evil teachings, holy Titus was at the same time giving an example of how to deal with them to the newly appointed bishops, upon whom the task of refuting those who contradict was also to devolve. Furthermore, since such adversaries were already at work, there naturally were some who had been drawn in by them. Titus might encounter such persons as well. For this case holy Paul writes to him: rebuke them sharply. And in this too there is an example of how the newly appointed bishops should act. So this section (verses 10–16) provides instruction both for holy Titus and for those chosen as bishops.

Tit. 1:10. For there are many who are insubordinate, vain talkers, and deceivers of minds, especially those of the circumcision.

He says: it is especially necessary to choose persons capable of teaching, because in Crete there are many vain talkers whom it is dangerous to leave unrefuted and with their mouths unstopped. And to do this successfully, one must be capable and skilled. Hence my instruction to you: seek out such men especially for the episcopate.

What sort of persons these are, precisely, against whom holy Titus and, in his person, the future bishops are being armed—holy Paul defines by the following marks.

“Insubordinate,” ανυποτακτοι — those who walk without order, who want to know nothing of any rules, self-willed and self-directed. In planting the faith, the planters of the faith at the same time established every kind of order in the spirit of that faith. It was laid down how to judge and think about all things, how to live and act, and above all how to draw near to God through prayers and sacramental acts. The insubordinate regarded none of this as binding upon themselves, but judged, acted, and urged others to think and act as seemed right and fitting to themselves. These are people who do not wish to hold to the common teaching, but set themselves apart and draw others away. “Do you see how the Apostle shows the source of such people? It comes from the desire not to submit, but to dominate; this is what he points out” (holy Chrysostom). “He indicated the root of all evils—insubordination. The insubordinate person, insofar as he does not wish to stand under authority but rushes to exercise authority over others, has evidently learned nothing sound and right; because he was not willing to endure being under instruction. This is why he is also a vain talker” (blessed Theophylact).

“Vain talkers,” ματαιολογοι — idle talkers, those who speak to the wind, merely to show that they too are clever people who understand the essence of the matter no worse than others, and even better than the teachers themselves—people who know how to form their own views and by them to illuminate, expand, and deepen the common faith, without concern for where such views may lead, whether they shake and undermine the faith received by all. There are multitudes of such people in every age. They know the matter of faith only superficially; for deep study of it is hindered by their weakness—the forging of their own views, which, being born before the knowledge of truth, stand in the way of truth before their eyes. Hence it happens that in their speeches these self-generated and for the most part immature views always go to the fore: there are many words, but the substance of the matter is empty. And the result is idle talk—vain talking. “A teacher who, because of his insubordination to those who teach, has not himself learned as he ought, naturally becomes a vain talker—and not only a vain talker, but one who is deceived in his mind” (Oecumenius).

“Deceived in mind” (φρεναπαται — mentally deluded, “deceiving both themselves and others” (blessed Theophylact))—and, we may add, by their own clever reasoning. Having been swept up in their own views, they are captivated by them as if they were true, and are zealous to share them with others as though they were lofty and profound truths, the very foundations of all knowledge, without which all understanding would crumble. Such self-generated views, even when they happen to agree with truth, add nothing to it in clarity or firmness; but, by occupying attention in place of the truth itself, they thereby divert from right contemplation, which, by the very nature of faith, ought to reign in the mind: time is wasted to no purpose and the taste for firm truth is corrupted. But when such views are far from the truth, there is already outright delusion leading to ruin. One who is carried away by them is like one who accepts another gospel; and upon him, without any formal judgment, falls nonetheless the terrible judgment of the Apostle: “let him be anathema” (Gal. 1:8).

In setting out all these characteristics, the Apostle does not say what the insubordinate ones are babbling about, or what deludes them and what they use to delude others. To St. Titus and all the believers in Crete this was clearly known. We are left only to conjecture. But instead of any conjecture, is it not better to confine ourselves to the lesson that the Apostle—while designating specific persons of that time who are, for us, not easily identifiable—has nonetheless sent us a definite lesson: to avoid ourselves, and to turn others away from, the alluring impulse to construct one’s own views on matters of faith not in a spirit of submission to the rules of faith, but in a spirit of domination over them, as though those rules were beneath us and our own minds. Against this disease of the mind the Apostle warns us.

The words “especially those of the circumcision” hint somewhat at what the insubordinate ones were babbling about; yet very inconclusively. For “especially” shows that these were not exclusively Jews, but that there were such persons also from among the Gentiles. Consequently, one cannot assert with certainty that those babbling were the usual Judaizing opinions about the indispensable necessity for believers to observe both the Law of Moses and the ordinances of their elders. If, moreover, we have no basis for supposing that those of the circumcision were babbling one thing and those of the uncircumcision another—for in that case the Apostle would not have placed them on the same level—then we must acknowledge that both groups held to a certain teaching which cannot be called either exclusively Jewish or exclusively pagan, but which was a mixture of both. In what precisely it consisted is not visible; but it was of such a character that its tenets could be discussed among Christians without immediately repelling them—which gave the teachers entry into the homes of believers. Consequently, besides its Jewish and pagan elements, it contained something Christian as well. Sheltering behind the side that appeared Christian, they penetrated into homes, and then filled the ears and minds of their hearers with what was Jewish and pagan among them. The poison of falsehood worked destructively—and the Apostle cuts short an evil that had, in all likelihood, already been experienced by many.

Tit. 1:11. Whose mouths must be stopped: who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of sordid gain.

Upon whom does this “must” fall? Upon those who were to be appointed as bishops. The Apostle said above (verse 9) that these bishops must hold firmly to sound teaching and be capable of confirming their own people in the truth and of refuting those who oppose it. Why is this especially necessary? Because there are many vain talkers who do not submit to the truth, and whose mouths must be stopped. To be capable of doing this, one must oneself be firm in the truth and know how to expose falsehood and refute it in those who babble. St. Chrysostom says: “If such a man, having taken upon himself the duties of teaching, proves incapable of struggling with shameless people and stopping their mouths, he will be guilty for the destruction of each one who perishes. Therefore, if the Wise Man commands: ‘do not seek to be made a judge, if you are not able to remove iniquity’ (Sir. 7:6); then all the more may one say here: do not aspire to become a teacher if you lack the capacity for this work, but step aside even if you are urged to come forward.”

It is, however, evident in itself that St. Titus as well, when encountering such persons, could not and ought not to have remained silent. So the word “must” may be understood as applying generally to anyone upon whom rests the duty of spreading the truth and confirming others in it.

“To stop their mouths”—one may do so either by the force of pastoral authority or by the force of refuting falsehood and affirming truth. The first is applicable in the present case if we acknowledge that the opposing babblers belonged to the community of believers, but were acting within it of their own accord. This is for a first instance; but if they remain in their stubbornness, they must be cut off entirely, as the Apostle ordained below (Tit. 3:10). Yet the second method is more broadly applicable, because it fits all cases. On encountering babblers, whoever they may be, one must expose the falseness of their teaching so forcefully that they have nothing to say in its defense. “Well did the Apostle say: ‘stop their mouths’—that is, by the force of refuting falsehood, to bring them to the point where they dare not utter a single word—and to do so that the hearers may benefit from it” (Oecumenius). “What profit is there (from stopping their mouths), when they are among those who do not submit to the truth? None for them; but it is profitable for those who might be corrupted if the bishop passes over their false speech and teaching in silence” (blessed Theophylact).

But one can stop mouths only when meeting babblers face to face. If that does not happen, but it is known only that certain people are going about houses babbling this or that, which could corrupt others, even in that case this matter must not be left unattended. One must, before the faithful, expose the falseness of the discovered lie and refute it; and the truth of God, which is contrary to the falsehood being spread, must be set forth more fully and affirmed more firmly. This too will be a stopping—if not of the mouths of the babblers, then of the entrance of their falsehood into the souls of the hearers: for there will already have been planted within them a “counter-answer” to their lies—the thought of one who knows the “sure word” and is strong enough to repel the false word that assaults their ears.

“Who subvert whole houses.” The suggestion is given that they do not preach openly, but go about houses by stealth. Such a manner of acting befits a falsehood that is conscious of itself as falsehood, and by that very fact betrays that it is indeed a lie.—“Teaching what is not fitting.” What exactly? It would be curious to know; but since the Apostle had no intention of satisfying idle curiosity or vain inquisitiveness, he did not say. He also gives us a lesson—not to inquire idly. The norm of truth is known; it is simple and not complex. The Cretan Christians knew it. And that was what ought to be taught. Everything discordant with it is what ought not to be taught—and what, therefore, those who are taught and who know the truth ought not to hear. In these few words the Apostle said everything.

“For the sake of sordid gain.” “You see that insubordination is bound up with love of money and greedy acquisition. All these are levers in the hands of the devil, by which he destroys the houses of God (that is, Christian families)” (blessed Theophylact). “Is there any lawless act to which this passion has not persuaded and inclined people?” (Oecumenius).—What kind of gain is meant? The ordinary, material kind—the receiving of money, goods, and food. They are zealous to acquire disciples so as to live at their expense and be well provided for. But St. Hilary and blessed Jerome, beyond this, consider it possible to understand by “gain” the disciples themselves, who are drawn in by the teaching of the babblers, following the words of the Savior: “you cross sea and land to make a single proselyte” (Mt. 23:15). “One may,” writes blessed Jerome, “interpret these words ‘for the sake of sordid gain’ differently—namely, that the Apostle used this common turn of everyday speech to show how heretics, corrupting minds, customarily call themselves gainers of souls, though to kill the souls of the deluded is not gain but loss. On the contrary, whoever, according to the Gospel, reproves an erring brother so that he turns back, truly gains him (Mt. 18:15). For what gain can be greater, or what more precious, than gaining a human soul? Therefore, every teacher of the Church who draws people to faith in Christ by the right path is an honorable gainer; on the contrary, every heretic who, by seductive speech, turns people from the truth and induces them to follow his unbecoming teaching, is a sordid gainer.”—Such a thought is not in the Apostle; but it may be admitted as a secondary inference or an allegorical interpretation of his words—which, taken outside the context, is permissible.

Tit. 1:12. One of them, a prophet of their own, said: Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons.

He reinforces the stated reason for choosing bishops who are firm in truth and capable of refuting falsehood, by pointing out that Cretans by their natural character are prone to falsehood and therefore themselves offer a hand to the babblers to delude them and lead them into error. By this the Apostle shifts the attention of St. Titus and the future bishops from the babblers to the Cretans themselves, saying in effect: it is not enough to stop the mouths of the babblers; one must persuade the Cretans themselves to hold firmly to the truth and not open their ear to every fabulist who turns them from the truth. And this will be, as has been noted, a stopping of the advance of the spreaders of falsehood. Such is the meaning of verses 12–14.

To confirm that Cretans are prone to falsehood, fables, and babbling, the Apostle could have cited actual experience. But he thought it better to bring the testimony of a poet—and a Cretan at that—so that no one might say: you spent a few days on the island and already think you know our character. The Apostle answers such objectors in advance: it is not only I who think this; here is one of your very own, your own poet, who noted this of you long, long ago. Moreover, by taking such ancient testimony, the Apostle gives us to understand that the unfavorable trait he points out in the Cretans is not fleeting or accidental, but an ingrained vice which, the harder it is to uproot, the more obligatory it is for those appointed to correct everything bad among them to direct their attention, care, and labor to this side.

The Apostle called the poet a “prophet” not because he truly regarded him as a prophet, but because pagans so thought of poets and trusted their word as if it were a revelation from above. All pagan beliefs rested on poets.—The words cited by the Apostle were spoken by Epimenides (St. Chrysostom, blessed Jerome), and the same were later repeated by Callimachus (blessed Theodoret). In Callimachus only the first word stands: “liars.” The whole verse, as the Apostle cites it, is found in Epimenides (blessed Jerome). The Cretans were so called because when someone persuaded them that Zeus (or Dias) had died among them and pointed out the place, they readily believed it, built a tomb, and kept telling everyone: here among us is the tomb of Zeus. By this they revealed their credulity and their susceptibility to falsehood and fables, which they never ceased thereafter to hold, remaining thus always liars—that is, never ceasing to repeat falsehood. It is precisely this trait of theirs that the Apostle sets forth, in order then to say: rebuke them, so that they may not heed fables.

For the Apostle’s purpose, only the first word was needed: “liars.” The remaining words were cited only because they form part of a verse that the Apostle knew (blessed Jerome). There is therefore no need to construct conjectures about what the Apostle had in mind when he cited of the Cretans the words “evil beasts, idle gluttons.” The first phrase denotes wildness, unbridledness, and evil character; the second—that they are fond of eating and drinking but reluctant to work, lovers of idleness and sloth. It may be, however, that such traits did indeed belong to the character of the Cretans, and that the Apostle intentionally retained these words of the verse—not limiting himself to the first word—so as to give lessons concerning them as well later on, as may be inferred from what the Apostle commands to teach in chapter two. But in the present passage, what the Apostle needed was only the first word: “liars”—as the flow of the argument requires.

Tit. 1:13. This testimony is true; for this reason rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.

In saying that this testimony is true, the Apostle had in mind the first word of the testimony: “liars”—meaning by this that they are ready to open their ears to all manner of idle chatter and every kind of fable, as is clear from the words that follow: rebuke them, so that they may not heed fables. “If they are prone to falsehood, then a strong and reproving word is needed for them; such a person cannot be moved by gentleness. Therefore, ‘rebuke them unsparingly.’ For it is not right to treat all people in the same manner, but differently and variously according to their persons. For just as one may destroy and ruin an obedient and noble man by rebuking him, so one may corrupt a man who needs a strong rebuke and fail to bring him to correction by treating him with flattery” (St. Chrysostom). “This: ‘rebuke them unsparingly’—does not contradict what was said: ‘with gentleness correcting those who oppose’ (2 Tim. 2:25); because to those who have not yet believed, the divine teaching ought to be proclaimed modestly and gently; but those who have pledged to believe and who attempt to act contrary to the faith must be healed with severe remedies” (blessed Theodoret).

“That they may be sound in the faith.” “Here the Apostle speaks not of outsiders, but of his own people” (St. Chrysostom). To outsiders—the harmful babblers—he commanded their mouths to be stopped; but his own he commands to rebuke unsparingly—“to strike deep” (St. Chrysostom). And this is not to satisfy one’s displeasure with them, but so that they may be sound in the faith—that is, so that they may not receive false views incompatible with the faith (St. Chrysostom). Soundness in faith consists in holding precisely to what has been transmitted. The body becomes unsound when it receives elements foreign to it; and faith becomes unsound when it receives thoughts that destroy its order—whether wholly or in part. One who accepts such thoughts with the conviction that they are true, when they are not, damages the true faith and becomes unsound in it. For he does not keep the “pattern of sound words”—handed down by the Apostles (2 Tim. 1:13); and he is found unfaithful to the “sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the teaching that accords with godliness,” from which he “falls sick” (1 Tim. 6:3–4). So that the Cretans might not fall into such sickness, the Apostle commands that they be rebuked unsparingly whenever it is noticed that they are carelessly opening their ear to the babblers.

Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure

Tit. 1:14. Not giving heed to Jewish fables, nor to the commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

Here is indicated the way in which one may remain sound in the faith. Unsparingly reproving will take away the desire to heed anything foreign to the faith—and the faith will remain sound in them, and they will remain sound in the faith. The faith has already been proclaimed to them and they hold it. But babblers come, inserting into the mind something foreign to the faith that nonetheless appears true; and the inexperienced, unable to discern the falsehood lurking in the babbling, begin to think that perhaps it is so. By this the faith is already shaken and its soundness is impaired. Let such a state continue; let the crooked interpretations be repeated several times; and it would be no wonder if the latter came to be regarded as more appealing than the tenets of the faith. That is the sickness. It will be prevented if one stops heeding anything foreign to the faith. Do not heed—and you will be sound in the faith. St. Chrysostom says: “Soundness consists in not introducing anything false, anything foreign.”

This foreign thing the Apostle defines as Jewish fables and the commandments of “men who turn away from the truth.” What exactly St. Paul meant by this, St. Titus and the Cretans knew clearly. For us it is difficult to guess. For there were many Jewish fables and many human errors. Yet we lose nothing by this. Both those Jewish fables and those human errors have already passed away, and we have no cause to fear them. For us there remains one apostolic commandment: to heed nothing foreign to the faith. And was it not for this very purpose that St. Paul left undefined for us—though not for those to whom he wrote—what was not to be heeded? So as to instill in us that we should in general heed nothing that we see to be incompatible with the faith, however fair it may seem?

By “Jewish fables” one should not understand the legal ordinances or the order of life under the Law, but either the false interpretation of those ordinances and their meaning, or everything subsequently invented in addition to them by the Jews themselves. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle called Jewish fables not the Law itself, but the interpretation of the Law proposed by the Jews.” Blessed Theophylact adds to this: “The holy books of the Old Testament, rightly understood, are not fables. How could they be, seeing that from them we learn the evangelical truth? But wrong interpretations and additions—those are the fables!”

But what precisely are they? Every Jewish sect had its own false interpretations and additions—the Essenes, the Sadducees, the Pharisees; and among the Jews there were also philosophical speculators and visionary mystics who invented the Kabbalah. Are not all these fables? There were also fables common to all Jews—for example, the one about the Messiah as an earthly king, and about his kingdom as sensual and worldly. And even among Christians from among the Jews there long persisted the fable about the binding necessity for all who believe in the Lord Savior of observing the legal ordinances (especially circumcision, the Sabbath, and the kinds of permitted and forbidden foods).—Which of all this St. Paul had in mind is not evident. But it is beyond doubt that something from all this entered into the teaching of the babblers who seduced the Cretans. For, as can be seen, that teaching was a mixture of heterogeneous doctrines, in which Jewish fables had their share—though we cannot say precisely which ones.

What are the commandments of “men who turn away from the truth?” They are either the same as the Jewish fables, or something distinct from them—devised by human reasoning, and specifically by pagan reasoning.

In the first case, the words “commandments of men” will be determined by what one understands under Jewish fables. Blessed Theophylact, Oecumenius, and to some extent St. Chrysostom understand by this the Jewish legal customs which, not being fables in themselves by origin and purpose, became fables when they are regarded as binding after they have lost their force. In that case they cease to be commandments of God and begin to be commandments of men. But Ambrosiaster understands by human commandments those Jewish ordinances that were subsequently added to the Law by the Jews themselves.

In the second case, the commandments of “men” will mean pagan reasonings and customs. So, in part, St. Chrysostom. The thought arises that such an understanding may be closer to the truth. For as may be seen from the course of the argument that the speculations of the babblers who seduced the Cretans were a mixture of Judaism and paganism, the Apostle—commanding them not to heed what is foreign to the faith and what may make the faith unsound—surely had in view both the Jewish and the pagan side of the seductive speculations of those people. Having denoted what was Jewish in them as Jewish fables, he most probably denoted what was pagan in them by the words “commandments of men.” This may also be confirmed by the quality ascribed to these “men”—that they turn away from the truth. For although the Jews who opposed the Gospel could rightly be regarded as turning away from the truth, the characterization fits more fully to pagans, who were entirely sunk in falsehood.

St. Chrysostom sees in the Apostle’s words a counsel not to heed certain imagined Jewish and pagan false doctrines, but Judaism and paganism as they then stood before one’s eyes. He says: “If those who observe rules concerning foods are not sound but sick—for of such the Apostle says: ‘receive him who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful matters’ (Rom. 14:1)—what shall we say of those who fast and keep the Sabbath together with the Jews, or who frequent places held sacred by pagans, for example the place at Daphne, the so-called cave of Matrona, or the place in Cilicia called Cronus? Can they be sound? Thus one must not listen to pagans or to Jews; for that is what it means not to be sound. If you hold the faith, why do you introduce something else besides it, as though the faith were insufficient for justification? Why do you subject and enslave yourself to the Law? Or do you not trust the faith? This is characteristic of a sick and unbelieving person; such a person doubts, but for a believing soul it is not fitting to doubt.”

It may be that among the Cretans there were in fact no new, mixed doctrines drawn from Judaism and paganism at all, but that the old Jewish and pagan superstitions and customs remained, to which some attached great importance and tried to keep others in them as well.

In our own time, one may see here the counsel to be on guard against falling under the influence of the Jewish and pagan spirit—understanding the first as contentment with the merely factual and outward side of life, and the second as the casting off of every yoke: for the mind, for the feelings and desires, and for external conduct.

Tit. 1:15. To the pure all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their mind and conscience are defiled.

Verses 15 and 16 point to certain aspects or sides of the false teaching that was circulating among the Cretans, as it were by way of example. One may connect them with the preceding as follows: how absurd this teaching is, there is no need to go on about. Take what it says about the distinction of foods—as if there were some food that by its very nature can render the one who consumes it unclean. Common sense is sufficient to know that food cannot make one either clean or unclean. Purity or impurity depends on the heart. Whoever is pure in heart—whatever food, however seemingly unclean, he may partake of—is altogether pure, and everything is pure for him; food does not make him unclean. On the contrary, whoever is impure in heart—no food, however regarded as clean, makes him clean; he remains unclean. No food makes the first unclean, and no food makes the second clean; or: for the first, all food is always clean, and for the second, all food is always unclean. The Apostle here instills the same thing that the Savior taught: that it is not what enters the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes forth from the heart (Mt. 15:11–19).

For a full understanding of these statements, one must bear in mind not the kinds of food but the act of eating or tasting itself. For one person the eating is clean because it is received with a clean heart; for another it is unclean because it is received with an unclean heart. A clean heart is one that, having detached itself from all self-indulgence, directs everything to the glory of God, even in eating and drinking; and therefore everything is clean for it. But a heart full of self-indulgence is unclean, and by that self-indulgence renders every action and movement unclean, because everything is done for the sake of self-indulgence—even what outwardly appears self-denying and directed toward God. Of such the Apostle says: “their very mind and conscience are defiled.” The mind is defiled by false notions which it accepts without reflection—through the mere pull of the heart, whether swept along by custom, or by vanity and vain reasoning. The conscience is defiled when a person acts, contrary to it, according to those false notions, or when he generally acts without heeding conscience, or acts with a doubtful conscience. Such a state is inevitable in those whose heart is full of self-indulgence and is wholly dominated by certain objects that nourish and satisfy it. In that state, one not only fails to heed the mind and conscience, but compels them to judge and determine in accordance with one’s own pleasure—leniently or crookedly—straining in every way to establish within oneself the thought that one is acting rightly, or at least tolerably, though within one hears a certain reminder that does not approve one’s conduct.

St. Chrysostom says that in the Old Testament certain foods were forbidden, but “not because they were unclean, but to better restrain the indulgence of the flesh.—God created nothing unclean; and there is nothing unclean except sin, because it touches the soul and defiles it; but everything else is considered unclean by human prejudice.—Therefore the Apostle attributed everything to the people themselves. There is nothing, he says, that is unclean, but they themselves are unclean—their mind and their conscience; there is nothing fouler than these. Here is where uncleanness lies: they themselves are not clean.—One must be discerning about what defiles the soul; that is the true uncleanness, that is the defilement; but everything else is not so. Those whose taste is corrupted think that what they receive is unclean; but this comes from their sickness. Therefore one must know thoroughly what is by nature clean and what is unclean. What then is unclean? Sin, malice, deceit, greed, wickedness. ‘Wash yourselves,’ says the Prophet, ‘make yourselves clean; put away evil from your souls’ (Is. 1:16).—Those (Old Testament) purifications were images of (true) cleansing.—Now, however, it is not this (outward thing) that is required of us, but everything is referred to the soul. What is bodily is closer to us; therefore God first turned us away from it; but now it is not so; for it was not fitting always to remain with images and hold to shadows—one must receive the truth and hold to it. Uncleanness is sin: let us flee from it, let us abstain from it. ‘If,’ says the Wise Man, ‘you draw near to it, it will bite you’ (Sir. 21:2).”

The Apostle mentioned this side of the teaching because it stood out particularly, and its absurdity is so obvious that it required no lengthy refutation. You see, he says in effect, what this point of theirs is like! But as this point is, so are all the rest.—Now look at what their teachers are like.

Tit. 1:16. They profess to know God, but deny him by their works, being abominable and disobedient and unfit for any good work.

The Apostle here instills the same thing that the Savior commanded: “Beware of false prophets… By their fruits you will know them” (Mt. 7:15–16). He is saying, in effect: if you wish to be assured that the teaching of those who deceive you is false, look at who they are and how they live. A life that does not correspond to the teaching undermines the force of that teaching, betraying in the teachers a lack of genuine conviction—and above all the fact that their teaching is not the goal and substance of their lives, but merely a means. The holy Apostles were distinguished by a thoroughly irreproachable life—pure and self-denying—and this at first did not repel people from them, and afterwards actively drew them in. Such always and everywhere must be those who hold sacred office. It is true that even teachers of the truth may stumble in the deeds of life; but it is equally certain that nothing repels people from a teaching as much as the bad life of its teachers. St. Paul’s aim in this passage was to turn people away from false teaching; and since the false teachers offered him their weak point—in the disorder of their life and conduct—he made use of it. Had this not been the case, he would not have touched on it, but would have pointed to something else in the false teachers that could expose the falseness of their teaching. He had already pointed to their sordid gain-seeking above (Tit. 1:11); and now he points to something greater—play-acting: “they profess to know God, but deny him by their works.”

This manner of expression shows that the Apostle strikes at those “who are especially of the circumcision.” Ambrosiaster writes: “although these words can apply to all heretics, the Apostle here speaks of Jews, who insisted that they alone knew the God of Abraham.—They know Him, but with their lips only, while in their deeds they deny Him, just as the Lord rebuked them: ‘if you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham’ (Jn. 8, 39).” Blessed Theodoret brings this to bear on the subject of the Apostle’s discourse thus: “they strive to show that they worship the God of all, but they act directly contrary to what is pleasing to Him. For God limited the Law to a set time; yet they did not observe the Law during that time, and when that time came to an end they cling tenaciously to the Law.”

Do not listen to them. They do not worship God. God is only on their lips, while in their heart something altogether different dwells. Blessed Jerome writes: “those whose mind and conscience are both defiled ‘profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him,’ according to the word of the prophet Isaiah: ‘these people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me’ (Is. 29, 13). Thus, as one may honor God with his lips while remaining far from Him in heart, so another may confess God in word while denying Him in deeds. But whoever denies God in deeds while confessing Him with the mouth is abominable before God; and, since he is persuaded by no arguments of truth, he is rightly called disobedient and faithless. From this also follows that he is unfit for every good work. Even the good he does when moved by natural goodness is not truly good, being defiled by the corruption of his mind. Some suppose that only that person denies God who, when seized by pagans during a time of persecution, declares that he is not a Christian. But here the Apostle affirms that God is denied by everything a person does that is perverse. Christ is wisdom, righteousness, truth, holiness, and courage. He is denied as wisdom—by folly; as righteousness—by unrighteousness; as truth—by falsehood; as holiness—by vice; as courage—by faint-heartedness. And in general, as often as we are overcome by passions and sins, so often do we deny God. Conversely, every time we do something good, we confess God. We must not think that on the Day of Judgment the Son of God will disown only those who denied Him in the time of martyrdom; but by every deed, word, and thought, Christ is either, being denied, denied, or, being confessed, confessed. Thus by every good word and deed it is testified that the soul is devoted to Christ.”

Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Those who teach wrongly, the Apostle said above (Tit.1, 11), teach “what is not proper”; but you, he says, addressing Titus, teach “what is proper” (Tit.2, 1). He then at once indicates what exactly is fitting to say to each person. He does not cover everything, but takes into consideration only: a) elderly men and elderly women (Tit.2, 2–3), b) young women and young men (Tit.2, 4–6), d) servants (Tit.2, 9–10), and: f) civic virtues (Tit.3, 1–2). Between these instructions he inserts: c) a reminder that the teacher should himself set an example in all things (Tit.2, 7–8), and should impress upon those being taught that: e) the entire economy of salvation in Christ Jesus was precisely so that believers, having renounced ungodliness and worldly lusts, might live soberly, righteously, and godly, being zealous for good works in the blessed hope (Tit.2, 11–15); g) likewise that the grace of the Holy Spirit was given precisely to transform us from what is evil to what is good (Tit.3, 3–7); and: h) he concludes: teach this, and avoid foolish contentions, and drive heretics away (Tit.3, 8–11).—The Apostle repeats three times: teach people to do good (Tit.2, 1, 15; Tit. 3, 8); three times he urges that no one should have grounds to say anything reproachful either about our teaching or about us (Tit.2, 5, 10, 15). By this he defines the subject and aim of the Epistle. One may therefore suppose that the Cretans, having received the faith, did not care to live according to it, but lived according to their former customs—the Jews by Jewish customs, the Gentiles by pagan ones—spending their time meanwhile in the indulgence of superstitious fables and in empty and unprofitable disputes. It is toward the correction of these faults that the Apostle chiefly directs the labors of holy Titus, and after him the bishops, whose appointment city by city he regards as the surest means of achieving this aim. Such is the substance of the entire Epistle.

Tit.2:1. But you speak the things that are fitting for sound doctrine.

“Do not let those who teach the contrary unsettle you; continue, as is your custom, to impart divine instruction” (blessed Theodoret). “Do not fall silent on account of this; even if they do not receive instruction, you do your duty; even if they are not persuaded, continue to exhort and advise” (St. Chrysostom).

Yet it seems the Apostle by this wishes to show where the work of teaching should be directed. Babbling talkers spread fables; but you, having silenced them and sternly rebuked your own flock, should thereafter not get drawn into disputes, but turn all your attention to imparting sound doctrine: “speak the things that are fitting for sound doctrine”—what is in keeping with sound doctrine, what sound doctrine requires, or—what the substance of sound doctrine is. Sound doctrine is not only that which imparts true knowledge of God (Ambrosiaster) and of our relationship to Him—and above all of the reconciliation with Him of those who have fallen—but also that which is not content to remain mere naked teaching, but at the same time demands a life congruent with the teaching, and lays greater weight on the correction of morals, keeping clear of all unprofitable disputes and controversies. You, he says, expound more upon how to live well: “that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works” (Tit.3, 8). So what does this good life and good character of believers consist in?

a) What constitutes good character in elderly men and elderly women?

Tit.2:2. That elderly men be sober-minded, reverent, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, in patience.

The “elderly man” here is not a presbyter but one advanced in years. Such a man advanced in years ought first to be “sober-minded.” Sobriety, or watchfulness, is an attentiveness of the mind—acquired through labor and experience—to what is taking place inwardly, and to how affairs are proceeding outwardly, both held before the face of God; an attentiveness accompanied by vigilance and unrelaxing tension of one’s powers, in readiness for every duty. Just as a pilot on a ship keeps sharp watch both ahead and to the sides in order to steer the vessel rightly, so too the sober-minded person is keen-sighted toward everything within and without, in order to direct his spiritual life rightly. Sobriety is not established all at once, but through long labor, and only after the passions have subsided. Since in elderly men many passions subside naturally, the natural order of things requires that they be sober-minded. However, this is not always the case; it does not come about when the preceding life has not been ordered rightly. Therefore in this commandment to elderly men there lies hidden a commandment also to men in their prime—to practice sobriety, so that in old age this virtue may be an inalienable quality. The opposite of sobriety is inattentiveness to oneself and one’s affairs, scattered thoughts, sloth, and negligence. Blessed Theodoret writes: sobriety requires—“always to be watchful and sober-minded, and to possess the prudence fitting one’s age.” St. Chrysostom says: “old age has its deficiencies as well; laziness, forgetfulness, dullness, and sluggishness are natural to it. Therefore the Apostle enjoins that ‘elderly men be sober-minded.’ For at this age much disposes a person not to be sober, and above all what I have mentioned—the blunting of all the senses, sluggishness, and lack of agility.” But whoever attends to himself can always be sober-minded, that is, “alert and ready for every duty” (blessed Theophylact).

Secondly—“to be reverent”—“and outwardly seemly as well” (blessed Theodoret). Sobriety determines the inward disposition of the elderly man, while reverence determines his outward conduct. He is to carry himself in such a way as to move all to treat him with respect. This enjoins composure, restraint, and a certain gravity in bearing, speech, and all one’s actions.

Thirdly—“to be self-controlled.” St. Chrysostom says: “by the self-controlled he means here the prudent. For self-control here signifies a sound state of the mind.” So too Oecumenius and Theophylact. And the wise Sirach writes: “how beautiful is sound judgment in the gray-haired, and for the aged to possess counsel! How beautiful is wisdom in the elderly, and understanding and counsel in those who are honored!” (Sir. 25, 6–7). But others understand self-control here as purity from carnal sins and lustfulness. Jerome writes: “the Apostle enjoins self-control upon elderly men, so that they may not give themselves over to carnal lust in an age which is naturally foreign to it, and so that, with blood cooled for such things, they may not set a scandalous example for the young.” The same thought may be found in blessed Theodoret, who interprets the word “self-controlled” as “attentive to a good life.” It is not foreign, one may suppose, to St. Chrysostom either; for having said what was cited above, he adds: “there are, indeed there are, even among the elderly, men of unbridled passion.” Although Oecumenius says: “one cannot suppose that St. Paul requires of elderly men continence from carnal lust, when this is already naturally presupposed in them”; by this he only expresses how unfitting lust is for old age, not that it does not overpower even the old. And the Wise One says that his soul finds abominable the life of “a lustful old man who diminishes in understanding” (Sir. 25, 3–4). It turns out, then, that there are indeed lustful old men. Lust deprives them of their reason and carries them away in its wake. It is therefore no wonder that St. Paul had this in mind as well when enjoining that elderly men be exhorted to be self-controlled.

These three—self-control, reverence, and sobriety—encompass life in all its possible dimensions, that is, in relation to oneself, to other people, and to God; for sobriety cannot be established otherwise than when the mind is fused with the thought of God. From this it is clear that the Apostle wishes elderly men to present an exemplary life in every respect. These three embrace all degrees of a life pleasing to God—the spiritual, the psychic, and the bodily. By sobriety the spirit is brought into close communion with God; but the spirit, having thus been set in its proper order, does not deny the psychic and bodily life, but rather enlivens them. The enlivening of the soul is manifested in reverence, in which righteousness and love are united; and the enlivening of the body—in self-control, which encompasses both full detachment from all that is sensory and complete purity from the passions.

“Sound in faith, in love, in patience”—“so that they may both believe sincerely and be distinguished by love toward their neighbor, and bear with courage what they suffer from the hostile enemies of the truth” (blessed Theodoret). Sound faith does not merely hold to right confession, but above all holds God as faithful in the depths of the soul and purposes always and in all things to present itself as faithful to Him. Love, feeling within itself God’s fatherly love toward it, burns with its own love toward Him, embracing therewith all who bear the image of God. Patience—the fruit of faith and love, watered by hope and ripening under hope’s action, or in its atmosphere, and still more truly in its hothouse—sustains and bears both the labor of faith and the toil of love; and above all it cheerfully endures everything encountered on their account—all that is burdensome, straitened, sorrowful, bringing calamity, suffering, and death. These three are the summit of perfection in the life according to God, in Christ Jesus, by the grace of the Holy Spirit—a perfection with which who more naturally is adorned than elderly men?

Blessed Jerome, when commenting on this passage, deemed it not superfluous to speak at length about these virtues. “Those who attain soundness of faith will hear from the Saviour: ‘your faith has saved you’ (Mk. 10, 52)—or as in another place: ‘I have not found such great faith even in Israel’ (Mt. 8, 10). For such soundness of faith they will become sons of Abraham, of whom it is written: ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’ (Gen. 15, 6). And Habakkuk, speaking of this sound faith, says: ‘the righteous shall live by faith’ (Hab. 2, 4). Read through the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews and enumerate the whole catalogue of sons of faith placed there. It is written there: ‘by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain’ (Heb. 11, 4); ‘by faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death’ (Heb.11,5); and Noah, ‘warned of things not yet seen,’ believing God, ‘prepared an ark,’ and Abraham ‘went out, not knowing where he was going’ (Heb. 11, 7–8). And lest it be supposed that Holy Scripture gives no examples of faith among women, it is written in that Epistle that Sarah ‘received strength to conceive seed, and bore a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised’ (Heb. 11, 11). The faith of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, and others is praised there, and you will know them better by reading the Epistle itself. But as there is a soundness of faith, so there is a soundness in love as well. Who possesses the soundness of love if not one who loves God with all his soul, all his heart, and all his strength? Then, hearing the commandment of Christ, he will also turn love toward his neighbor; for on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Whoever has sound love does not envy, does not boast, does not behave indecently or dishonorably, is not provoked to anger, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things (1 Cor. 13,4–7). Since love never fails, one who abides in sound love never fails himself. Neither tribulation, nor distress, nor famine, nor persecution, nor nakedness, nor peril can separate him from the sound love he has in Christ Jesus. But why do I speak of the sword and other lesser things that cannot separate one who possesses sound love, when neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can separate one who has sound love in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8, 35–39)? Having thus understood what sound love is, let us take from Scripture an example of those in whom love is not sound. The Saviour says of the last times: ‘because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold’ (Mt. 24, 12). Love is warm in those who are fervent in spirit; but in those who have fallen under the influence of the harsh winds blowing from the north, it is cold as ice. ‘Out of the north calamity shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land’ (Jer. 1, 14). By this coldness of love Amnon was once benumbed toward his sister Tamar (2 Sam. 13). We must be on guard lest a similar sickness of love sometime overpower us as well. For it happens that our love for a young woman or some other woman is holy at first; but then, when the soul grows soft and enervated by passion, our sound love little by little begins to wither and passes into a sickness, and in the end brings one to the very brink of ruin. That is why the Apostle strictly charges Timothy to impress upon the young that they guard themselves in purity in every way (1 Tim. 5). Complete purity is in spirit, soul, and flesh: that the eye not be ensnared by fastening on the beauty of a woman’s face, that the ear not take pleasure in hearing flattering words, and that the mind, once strong, not be enfeebled by such allurements. Let young men and old men therefore be on guard, and young women and old women alike, and with all diligence let them keep their heart, lest, instead of soundness of love, a sickness of love enter in, and instead of holy love there creep in an unholy love that casts into gehenna.—Whoever is sound in faith and sound in love is sound also in patience—in the patience that is tried above all in temptations, of which it is said that one who ‘endures to the end will be saved’ (Mt. 24, 13)”.

Tit.2:3–4. Older women likewise in demeanor holy, not slanderers, not enslaved to much wine, teachers of good, that they may train the young women.

By “older women” also the Apostle means women advanced in years, as blessed Theodoret writes: “by older women the Apostle named those advanced in age, not those invested with some ministry in the Church—not deaconesses.” All our commentators understand it the same way; only Oecumenius sees deaconesses here. Theophylact evidently had him in mind when, after saying that the Apostle here speaks of women advanced in years, he added: “Some, however, think that the reference here is to deaconesses.”—Blessed Jerome writes: “although the Apostle Peter enjoins that husbands give honor to their wives ‘as to the weaker vessel’ (1 Pet. 3, 7), one must not, however, suppose that a woman, having a weak bodily vessel, is thereby weak in soul as well. That is why in the present passage it is prescribed to them that in them also should be fulfilled what the Apostle said: ‘power… is perfected in weakness’ (2 Cor. 12, 9): for it is said that they too should have everything commanded to the elderly men; in the following words: ‘older women likewise’—that is, that they too, just as the elderly men, should be in all things reverent, sober-minded, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in patience, and moreover, in keeping with their sex, should conduct themselves in holy bearing, or, as is better said in Greek: εν καταστηματι (in bearing, in deportment) ιεροπρεπεις — so that their very gait and movement, their gaze and speech, should convey a certain sacred dignity.”

And indeed, “in demeanor” does not encompass everything that is contained in the Greek word εν καταστηματι. This word, as blessed Jerome indicates, encompasses everything external: bearing, gait, gaze, speech, and movement—in general, one’s outward manner of holding oneself, which includes clothing as well. Teach, he says, that in all of this they be holy in bearing. St. Chrysostom says that older women “should show modesty by their very outward appearance and dress.” And blessed Theodoret writes that they are here enjoined “the seemliness of composed conduct.” Sacred seemliness does not indicate an ecclesiastical order for older women, but a quality of their outward bearing—that is, that they should carry themselves as though they were in church, or like those who serve in the church: modestly and reverently, so as to spread reverence and composure to those around them as well.

“Not slanderers”—teach older women also to be thus, μη διαβολους — so that they are free from gossip, slander, tale-bearing, and all manner of evil speech, all of which are part of the devil’s work, an instrument of mutual discord, strife, and quarreling, and not infrequently a cause of calamity for those denounced. Blessed Jerome writes: “since this class of women is ordinarily talkative, according to the word of the same Apostle: ‘they learn to be idle, going about from house to house; and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not’ (1 Tim. 5, 13), he also desires here that they be non-slanderous, that is, non-censorious, not such as would, to please some, slander others, or who, having passed the age of youth themselves, might speak and judge of young women in this manner: that one dresses in such a way, another walks in such a way, yet another associates with such and such people—loves this person, is loved by that one; whereas—even if there were something blameworthy in all of this—they ought not so much to condemn before others, as to correct in private, in the spirit of Christ’s love—to teach rather that they not do it, than to publicly condemn what has been done.”

“Not enslaved to much wine.” He does not forbid the use of wine, but guards against its abuse—against drinking much and becoming addicted to wine. Using wine in old age is, as it were, required by nature, to maintain energy and aid the processes of nourishment. But excessive use neither helps the one nor the other, but harms them; and one who has become addicted to this quickly ruins himself entirely, both in body and in soul. For wine inflames lust and causes even old men to behave more disgracefully in this regard than the young. St. Chrysostom says: “this failing (wine-drinking) is natural to old age: for with advancing years the body cools, and from this arises a strong inclination toward wine. The Apostle therefore warns them against this especially, seeking by every means to eradicate drunkenness and wishing that they be free from this disease and avoid the disgrace that comes from it. With the passage of time, vapors rise more easily from below to above and the membranes of the brain are weakened by age; this is especially why the tendency toward wine-drinking arises. It is true that this age (old age) stands especially in need of wine—for it is weak—but not in large quantities; just as young women also need it, not for the same reason, but because the fire of their desires is strongly kindled.” Let us continue this instruction with the words of blessed Jerome: “excessive use of wine is forbidden to older women, because intemperance produces in the old the same effect that lust produces in the young. How then will an older woman teach young women chastity, if a young woman who begins to imitate an older woman in wine-drinking can scarcely preserve herself in purity?”

“Teachers of good”—so that both by example and by word they teach every good thing. Experienced old age, by the natural order of things, is a guide for youth. But just as in practical affairs only those who have been engaged in them and have acted in them with understanding can guide the younger generation, so much more in the religious-moral order only those who have themselves passed through it zealously and with understanding can instruct in this kind of life. For this reason the Apostle assigned this task to old age after adorning it with many good qualities. And indeed, if older women possess all that has been indicated up to this point, they will naturally prove to be teachers of good—by their example alone, even if words should be lacking, though words cannot really be lacking, because guidance in this manner of life requires no great eloquence. Experienced old age, even in simple conversation and without special effort, teaches much. And youth desiring to learn attaches itself naturally to it and listens attentively. Blessed Jerome writes: “after having taught what older women ought to be like, he now permits them to take up the reins of teaching as well, so that, having become exactly such, they may have the boldness and confidence to teach other women, younger ones, every good thing.” St. Chrysostom raises an objection: “how is it that you here permit women to teach, while elsewhere you say: ‘I do not permit a woman to teach’ (1 Tim. 2, 12)?” And he answers: “but listen to what he added there: ‘nor to have authority over a man.’ Men are given by God to teach both men and women; but women he permits to offer admonitions at home, but by no means to preside (in the church) or to hold forth at length.” “There he speaks of public teaching in the church, which is not permitted to women; here he speaks of domestic teaching, and that only of younger women, as the following words show” (blessed Theophylact).

“That they may train the young women.—Train”—not merely teach them to be chaste—there is a separate word about that below—but to impart wisdom to them, σωφρονιζωσιν,—to impart to them the wisdom of Christian life. “Do you see how he reconciles and unites people, how he subordinates the younger to the older? For he does not speak of daughters, but of the young in general. Let each older woman, he says, instruct a younger one” (St. Chrysostom). Here is the Apostolic indication that pastors can and should establish among the flock a mutual instruction, and especially with regard to women: for it is not always convenient to hold conversations with women, and especially with young ones.

Titus 2:4–5—The Younger Women

Tit.2:4–5. That they train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, pure, good managers of the household, good, submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

The Apostle sets out rules for the pastor about what and how to teach the flock, and part of this labor he lays upon the older women, specifically in the matter of instructing the younger women. But the older women are obligated to teach under the direction and guidance of the pastor. Consequently, the source of instruction remains one—the lawfully appointed pastor; the older women are only instruments. Oversight of the younger women is not lifted from the pastor but only lightened. What then are the younger women to be taught?

“To love their husbands.” “This is the greatest of household blessings: ‘a husband and wife who are in harmony with one another,’ as the Wise One says (Sir. 25, 2). When this is present, nothing unpleasant will arise. For when the head is united with the body and there is no division between them, how can the rest fail to be in harmony as well? When the chief members are at peace, who can disturb and trouble that peace? On the other hand, if they stand in bad relations with one another, nothing in the household will be in order. There is nothing better than their mutual harmony; it is more profitable than wealth, noble birth, authority, and everything else. The Apostle did not simply say they should be at peace, but: ‘love their husbands.’ For when there is love between them, no discord can penetrate; from love all other good things are born” (St. Chrysostom).

“To love their children.” This means that by “young women” the Apostle has in view not girls but young wives, and ones, moreover, who already have children. Love for children is natural to mothers, as it is to fathers. If it is mentioned, it is not so much to implant love for children as to bring to mind the quality of such love: for not every love for children is true love. Blessed Jerome writes: “let them love their children in such a way as to establish them in divine instruction. To be unwilling to grieve children by teaching them what is good, and to leave them free to sin—this is not to love children, but rather to hate them.”

“To be self-controlled”—with the self-control proper to marriage, by which they regard even the pleasures of the marriage bed not as the chief end of marriage but as an adjunct called forth by the necessity of nature, and do not allow themselves such pleasures outside that bed. Blessed Jerome writes: “the Apostle wishes them to love their husbands in purity; he wishes there to be between husband and wife a certain modest and restrained affection, and that wives with a sense of shame, as though by the necessity of their sex, should render to their husbands what is due rather than themselves demand it of them, and should believe that even the act of procreation they perform in the presence of God and of the angels.”

“Pure.” This is either synonymous with self-control, or self-control means faithfulness in marriage and temperate use of the pleasures of the marriage bed; while purity means keeping the heart as detached as possible from those pleasures, and above all not allowing oneself to be drawn into love for persons outside the marriage. Blessed Theophylact writes: “a wife who loves her husband will be self-controlled and blameless, that is, pure in body and heart from union with outsiders and from passionate love for them.”

“Good managers of the household.” Alongside love for husband and children, it falls to the wife to manage the household and all the affairs of the home. This requires no small labor, and still more wisdom and diligence. But where the love mentioned above is present, it will teach the wife everything. St. Chrysostom says: “all that is good arises from love; wives become good and attentive to the home from love and attachment to their husbands. Conversely, a wife who despises her husband is negligent of the home as well. From love comes constant self-control; from love every discord is destroyed; if the husband is a pagan, he will soon be converted; if he is a Christian, he will become better. Do you see the condescension of Paul? He who strove by every means to turn us away from worldly cares now shows great solicitude for the affairs of the home. For when these affairs are well managed, then spiritual things also will find their place; otherwise they too will fall into disorder. A wife who is attentive to the home will also be self-controlled; a wife who is attentive to the home will also be thrifty; she will not allow either luxury, or untimely expenditure, or anything else of the kind.”

“Good.” When wives love their husbands and children, they are already well-disposed toward them. But it is possible that, having given themselves over too much to care for the household, they become attached to material things and fall into miserliness, which deprives family members of what is due them. In a family, moreover, there are servants, and a mistress who is overly solicitous about the home may not be kind toward them. Beyond that—besides meeting the needs of family members, one cannot neglect those outside who are in need. So that attentive mistresses of the home may not, by that very fact, become miserly, harsh toward servants, and unmerciful to those in need, the Apostle commands them, alongside care for the home, to be good as well. Some even read it thus: οικουργους αγαθας — to be good housekeepers—without separating these words with a comma. Blessed Jerome writes: “the young women are to be taught to have care for the household. But since it might happen that some would exercise this care with harshness, and that, on account of the Apostle’s injunction, a mistress might prove unmerciful toward servants, the Apostle added: ‘good’—so that wives who are mistresses of the home should consider themselves good managers of the household when they relate to their servants with kindness rather than with the harshness that breeds fear.”

“Submissive to their own husbands.” The submission of wives to their husbands is the primordial ordinance of God, which is naturally fulfilled, so that departing from it is an exception to the general natural order of things. The Apostle sets this forth “so that Christian wives may not, for any reason, forget this divine appointment that subjects them to their husbands. God said to the woman: ‘your desire shall be toward your husband, and he shall rule over you’ (Gen. 3, 16). The Lord did not say to the husband: you shall rule over your wife, but to the wife herself; so that the reward for submission should remain with her, if, voluntarily submitting to the commandment of God, she voluntarily serves her husband and voluntarily submits to her spouse; so that this submission is free and full of love, by which they submit to their husband in all things, fearing to offend him. The husband was not created for the woman’s sake, but the woman for the man’s sake. And just as the head of the woman is the husband, and the head of the husband is Christ; so a wife who does not submit to her husband, that is, to her head, is guilty of the same guilt as a husband who does not submit to Christ, his Head” (blessed Jerome).

But for Christian wives the Apostle sets forth a special motive for submission to their husbands—namely: “that the word of God may not be blasphemed.” If a wife who was formerly submissive, upon becoming a Christian, becomes disobedient, she thereby gives her husband just cause to blaspheme the word of God—or the Gospel: what kind of word of God or what kind of faith is this, that teaches wives not to submit to their husbands?! And the Gospel and the faith will suffer loss. To prevent this from happening, the Apostle, in addition to that general divine appointment that wives be subject to their husbands, urges them to this also by the danger of harming the word of God. St. Chrysostom says in this connection: “do you see that he is chiefly concerned with the proclamation of the Gospel, and not with worldly affairs? So also regarding submission to the authorities in the Epistle to Timothy he says: ‘that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and purity’ (1 Tim. 2, 2); and here: ‘that the word of God may not be blasphemed.’ If a believing wife living with an unbelieving husband is not virtuous, blasphemy against God is usually uttered; but if she lives honorably, the proclamation gains glory from her and from her good works. Let wives who live with wicked or unbelieving husbands hear this, let them hear and learn by their manner of life to draw them to godliness. Even if you gain no other benefit, even if you do not bring your husband to share in right doctrine, at least you will stop his mouth and prevent him from blaspheming Christianity. And this is no small thing but a great one—that our teaching be honored on account of our conduct.” Ambrosiaster writes the same: let wives be obedient to their husbands, “so that husbands, if they are unbelievers, may rather rejoice that their wives have become Christians, than blaspheme the name of God upon seeing that they obey them the more willingly out of fear of offending God, by the prompting of their faith.” Were there not also cases “when some women under the pretext of piety abandoned their husbands, and this brought reproach upon the proclamation,” as blessed Theodoret surmises?

Tit.2:6. Exhort young men likewise to be self-controlled.

To young men he enjoins only self-control to be urged. This is because other passions scarcely trouble them: the one passion opposed to self-control holds sway over them. Therefore, if they can stand firm against it, there is nothing more to be said about the others. Moreover, self-control—understood as of both soul and body—is a virtue with which all the others are essentially connected. A self-controlled person also has the fear of God, is temperate, attentive to himself, free from every kind of dissipation, composed, and upright in everything. Therefore, by urging young men to be self-controlled, the pastor will, without saying it, be saying that they should adorn themselves with all the virtues as well. Blessed Jerome applies “likewise” here to all of the foregoing. In relation to the older women, he understood “likewise” (verse 3) as: like the elderly men; but in relation to the young men he understands it as: like both. What pertains specifically to young men he sums up in one word: “to be self-controlled”—“in soul and body, in deed and in thought, so that no suspicion of carnal impurity may fall upon any young man.” Ambrosiaster adds: “since youth is characterized by impetuosity and is quick to fall, it is therefore commanded to hold it back with salutary restraints, so that, being bridled by the divine laws, it may walk on the right path.” Let us add the words of St. Chrysostom: “do you see how he everywhere urges the observance of what is fitting? The instruction of women he entrusted chiefly to women, committing the younger to the older; but the entire task of instructing men he entrusts and leaves to Titus himself. Nothing—truly nothing—is so difficult and burdensome for the young in age as to overcome shameful pleasures. Not love of money, nor desire for glory, nor anything else so troubles this age as lasciviousness. Therefore the Apostle, leaving all else, directs his exhortation against this dangerous disease.”

Titus 2:6–10—Younger Men; Servants

“Exhort,” he says—persuade, appeal; for here neither the severity of a commandment nor the fear of authority is powerful enough to exercise influence. A fatherly admonition is more likely to take effect, implanting in the heart, through words of love, convictions capable of arousing and bracing the energy of the will to resist the carnal impulses that rise up against it.

c) A reminder that the one who teaches should himself be exemplary in all things

Teach, he says; but of course not merely so that people may know, but above all so that they may also live in accordance with the teaching. Since in this regard the very best incentive and guide is the example of the teacher himself, the Apostle adds:

Tit. 2:7–8. In all things showing yourself a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing ungrudgingness, gravity, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned: so that he who is of the contrary part may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us persistently.

The Apostle commands holy Titus to present in himself two kinds of exemplariness: exemplariness in life and exemplariness in teaching; so that everything said may be expressed briefly thus: but above all, be yourself an example in everything—both in life and in teaching.

Exemplariness in life is manifested by an abundance of good works: present yourself as a pattern of good works. “Let the older women teach the younger ones,” he says, “while you yourself instruct the young men in self-restraint; but for all alike let your radiant life, open to everyone like some original image embracing all the virtues and readily furnishing examples for all who wish to learn anything good, be their common school and pattern of virtue” (holy Chrysostom). “Let your life be a pattern of the teachings you propose, for a word borne witness to by deeds becomes worthy of belief” (blessed Theodoret). “How one ought to do what the word teaches, let the example of a life show” (Ambrosiaster). “It profits a teacher nothing to acquire a habit of instruction and to polish his tongue in speaking, if he does not teach more by example than by word. If an unchaste man urges his hearers toward chastity, his word will be weak and ineffectual, however eloquent he may be. On the other hand, if he himself is pure and chaste, then, though he be unlearned in speech and slow of tongue, by his own example he will move them toward progress in that virtue through imitation of him” (blessed Jerome).

The Apostle teaches what exemplariness in teaching consists of—both through the dispositions with which doctrine ought to be imparted, and through its content.

The exemplary dispositions in the work of teaching are defined by the words: “ungrudgingness, gravity, incorruptibility.—Ungrudgingness,” αδιαφθοριαν — in some manuscripts: αφθοριαν, in others: αφθονιαν. This last gave occasion for the Slavonic translation: “ungrudging.” An ungrudging source, for example, means one sufficient for all, closed to none—let anyone take from it as much as he wishes. Ungrudgingness in teaching means: to impart everything to everyone, not in such a way as to teach one thing while holding back another, or to teach some people everything while giving others only a part—but to give everyone everything, following holy Paul, who told the Ephesians that he had not held back from declaring to them the whole counsel of God. In this sense, ungrudgingness means the same as “wholeness”—as the Slavonic margin also notes—that is, impart to the whole community the whole body of doctrine. For διαφθειρειν a garment, for example, means to tear it into pieces. In any case the word αδιαφθοριαν must be given a distinct meaning, different from αφθαρσιαν, which follows in the next word. It is best to hold that the Apostle is urging: in teaching, impart everything to all; present yourself as a full fountain of doctrine, overflowing, thirsting to share with all what fills the heart, from the abundance of which the mouth also speaks, as the Saviour likewise said of teachers: “every scribe instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old” (Mt. 13:52). And should we not see here above all a reference to that thirst for teaching—that irresistible desire to pour forth in word from the fullness of the knowledge of God, held and loved with a whole heart?

“Gravity,” σεμνοτητα — in teaching, a teacher manifests this when he imparts doctrine reverently, as if speaking before God in Christ, and with respect toward those who listen, addressing them not as a superior to subordinates, but as a well-wishing father to his children (Oecumenius), with meekness and love. This requires that in the very manner of expression the teaching discourse maintain a strict gravity befitting its subject, with all the simplicity demanded by the necessity of adapting to the comprehension of the hearers—so that there be no pomposity, no lowness or vulgarity, no jesting turns of phrase, no refinement typical of vain sophistries, or—as blessed Theophylact writes—“so that there be nothing youthful that might distract the foolish and move them to laughter, but that all things be reverent, grave, and worthy of God.”

“Incorruptibility”—in teaching, this straightforwardly conveys the thought that not only falsehood but also vain speculations that corrupt the word of truth must not be admitted into it. But since this thought is contained in the following words, “sound speech that cannot be condemned,” it is better to understand incorruptibility here as referring to an uncorrupted, unimpaired-by-passions disposition of spirit with which doctrine ought to be imparted—so that there be in it neither vainglory, nor love of filthy gain, nor any other earthly motive.

The exemplary content of teaching is defined by the words: “sound speech that cannot be condemned.—Sound speech” is that which edifies, so that the hearers may “be sound” in faith and remain steadfast “in sound doctrine” (Tit. 1:13, 1:9). As a body is healthy when, being unimpaired in every part, it lives the full life proper to it, so the teaching word is sound when it sets forth doctrine unimpaired in every part and containing everything it is appointed to contain according to the intention of the One Who sent this word of truth upon the earth. Such a word both plants and waters and causes to grow a sound faith and sound, dogmatic doctrine (Oecumenius). The word “that cannot be condemned,” ακαταγνωστον — that which cannot be reproached in anything, which is correct in every respect and possesses all that it ought to possess according to the requirements set forth above. “A sound word that cannot be condemned is an orthodox word containing nothing reproachable” (blessed Theophylact).

This blamelessness of the word may be regarded as the feature that comprehends within itself all the perfections required of it—perfections whose adornment in the word should be zealously pursued to the point that even the enemy, “he who is of the contrary part”—who watches it keenly and maliciously lurks to find something bad in it—is left put to shame in that attempt, “having nothing evil to say about us reproachfully.” Holy Chrysostom says: “By ‘the contrary part’ the Apostle means the devil and everyone who serves him. When the life of the teacher is radiant, and the teaching corresponds to it, when it is modest, meek, forbearing, and gives adversaries no occasion for censure, then there is great and inexpressible benefit. Therefore the ministry of the word is greatly needed—not just any word, but a skillful and blameless one, that would give no occasion for reproach to those who desire it.” Blessed Jerome adds this explanation: “In requiring speech that cannot be condemned, the Apostle does not mean that the teacher should present himself as so skilled in speech and so wise in life that he would suffer reproach from no one—for even Apostles and Evangelists were reproached by heretics and Gentiles—but that he should say and do nothing worthy of blame and reproach, even if enemies diligently seek to find something such in him; he wishes that enemies, struck by the holiness of life and teaching, should lack the boldness to condemn or to weave any plausible accusation to cast reproach. The Apostle himself showed this example, for he says of his own manner of conduct: ‘that I may cut off occasion from those who desire an occasion’ (2 Cor. 11:12).”.

d) In what does the good conduct of slaves consist?

Tit. 2:9–10. Slaves, to be obedient to their own masters, to be well-pleasing in all things, not contradicting, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity: that they may adorn the teaching of our Saviour God in all things.

Teach “slaves,” he says. He passes over masters, perhaps because he is not writing a complete program of who should be taught what and how, or perhaps also because masters themselves could easily understand what manner of conduct toward slaves they ought to maintain and could readily carry it out; whereas slaves, having received and felt their great spiritual privileges in Christ Jesus, might easily be carried away and think that they were from now on free from their obligations toward masters. The Apostle therefore reminds Titus to forestall this deviation of slaves from the right path, perhaps presuming that Titus might think slaves could be left without any particular instruction. Blessed Jerome writes: “Since our Lord and Saviour, Who says in the Gospel: ‘Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Mt. 11:28), excludes no estate, age, or sex from blessedness, the Apostle prescribes commandments also for slaves—that is, as members of the body of Christ, parts of His Church; and as above he showed what Titus ought to teach elders and elder women, younger women, and young men, so now he shows what commandments are fitting for slaves.”

Teach, he says, slaves first of all “to be obedient to their own masters”—this is the principal thing; for if this is present, it is hard for anything else contrary to the right conduct of slaves to break through—unless perhaps some wrongness may creep into the spirit of the obedience. This is why holy Chrysostom says at this word: “Rightly does the Apostle teach in another place: ‘serving as to the Lord, and not to men’ (Eph. 6:7). For although you serve your master, yet perhaps the foundation of this service is fear—a merely human fear—which takes away the value of your service. But one who serves with the fear of God will receive a great reward.”

“In all things”—blessed Jerome relates this to “to be obedient.” “First teach, says the Apostle, that slaves should be obedient to their masters in all things. Yet that ‘in all things’ refers to what is not contrary to God: that is, if a master commands something not contrary to Holy Scripture, the slave should obey his master; but if he commands something contrary to it, then the slave should obey the Lord of his spirit rather than the master of his body. Mark how fitting are the commandments the Apostle gives for each person!” Blessed Theodoret, without specifying to what this word refers, defines only its relative sense: “It says ‘in all things’—that is, in what relates to rendering bodily service to masters, for if the master bids one to act impiously, this does not oblige the slave to obey.”—But ordinarily “in all things” is related to the following word:

“To be well-pleasing,” ευαρεστους ειναι — not obsequiously pleasing, but such that it is good and pleasant for masters to have them, so that the possession of such servants affords them satisfaction on account of their obedience, sensible diligence, and constant fidelity, by virtue of which they can be relied upon in everything and one can be perfectly at ease regarding them. But blessed Jerome finds it possible in the phrase “to be well-pleasing” to see also the thought that servants should find it pleasing to be servants and should be content with their condition. He writes: “This word, though not fully, we can at least in part interpret thus: that they should be content—that is, that it should not seem to them that God is unjust in assigning them such an estate. But as the poor man may be saved according to his measure, and a woman is not excluded from the Kingdom of God despite the weakness of her sex, and every estate according to its rank may attain blessedness, so let slaves also be content with the fact that they are slaves, and not think that they cannot serve God for the reason that they are subject to men, but let them believe that by remaining in all things obedient to their masters and being content with their condition, they are pleasing the will of God and are thereby saved.”

“Not contradicting”—so that they should not contradict, not out of a better understanding of the matter, but from sheer quarrelsomeness and grumbling, when they do what is asked and yet mutter throughout. “The greatest vice in slaves,” writes blessed Jerome, “is to oppose their masters and to grumble to themselves when they give a command. The Apostle bids Titus to turn Christian slaves away from such a fault by sound teaching. For if a slave cannot but carry out what the master commands, why not do it with good will? By his contradiction he offends the master, and yet he cannot avoid doing what has been commanded.”

“Not pilfering,” μη νοσφιζομενους — not setting apart something from the master’s goods or secretly diverting it for their own benefit or their own share. This means such appropriation of the master’s property as does not catch the eye, is done in secret and without leaving traces; what is forbidden is the cunning are of enriching oneself from the master’s goods while at the same time remaining in the master’s good graces.

“But showing all good fidelity.—All” fidelity—every kind of faithfulness; fidelity “good”—with good will, with good purposes, in good deeds and for good ends; not merely seeming faithful, but being so in the disposition of the heart. “Do you see what he requires of slaves? That which above all sets masters at ease: namely, that they should not contradict, not steal, but be faithful in everything” (blessed Theophylact).

“That they may adorn the teaching of our Saviour God in all things.” “By such good works, he says, let servants adorn the teaching of our Lord. Then masters will not only not forbid them to believe, but will even be glad of it, seeing that the faith proves beneficial to themselves as well” (Ambrosiaster). On the other hand, “if a slave does not restrain his hand and does not bridle his tongue, what occasion will the Gentiles have to admire our teaching? But if they see a slave philosophizing in Christ, displaying greater self-restraint than their own philosophers, and serving with great readiness and zeal, they will undoubtedly marvel at the power of the proclamation. For the Gentiles judge doctrines not by teaching but by works and life. Let wives and slaves, therefore, be teachers for them—by their conduct. Among them, as everywhere, it is acknowledged that slaves are generally coarse, uneducated, stubborn, and little capable of virtue—not by nature, no, but by upbringing and the neglect of their masters. So when the Gentiles see that the power of the proclamation, having tamed this coarse sort of people, has made them the most honorable and modest of all, then, even if the masters are the most foolish of men, they will form a high opinion of our doctrines. And the worse such people—slaves—were before, the more the masters will marvel at the power of the proclamation. So too do we admire a physician when he heals and restores a man who was given up as hopeless and would take no food” (holy Chrysostom).

Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

Tit. 2:11. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

Having read everything the Apostle has said up to this point, one person might have asked: why take so much care about slaves, when few people give them any thought? And another might have wondered: why do you command us to teach all people only about how to live—as if there were no other subjects? The Apostle answers: I care about slaves because the saving grace of God has appeared to all men, not excluding even slaves; and I command us to teach above all about how to live because this saving grace, which embraces all, has appeared for this very purpose—to make us zealous for good works, by teaching us to live soberly, righteously, and godly. The first answer is contained in the present verse, and the second in the verses that follow.

Holy Chrysostom places the present verse in direct connection with the preceding instruction to slaves: “Having commanded slaves to possess great virtue—for it is truly a great virtue to adorn in all things the teaching of God and our Saviour, giving masters no occasion for displeasure even in small matters—the Apostle also gives a fitting reason why slaves ought to be such. What reason? ‘For there has appeared,’ he says, ‘the grace of God that brings salvation to all men.’—‘The grace of God’ is the economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ—that the Son of God was incarnate, suffered, died, rose again, ascended into heaven, and sent down the Holy Spirit, Who through the Apostles established the Church of God on earth, into which entry is open to all: come, receive the teaching by faith, be sanctified by the sacraments, and thereafter live holily under the guidance of pastors—whether you are a slave or free.” “For this very purpose was the Only-begotten Son of God incarnate,” writes blessed Theodoret, “so that He might grant salvation to all people—both masters and servants—having prepared them to abandon together with impiety also a lawless life.” “With us there is no distinction of slave and free, Greek and barbarian, circumcised and uncircumcised, female and male; but we are all one in Christ, all called to one Kingdom, reconciled to God the Father not by our own merits but by the grace of our Saviour Christ the Lord, Who is the ever-living grace, ever interceding for us before the face of the Father” (blessed Jerome).

But it is possible, withdrawing attention from slaves, to see in these words of the Apostle a general incentive for all Christians to adorn the teaching of our Saviour God zealously by an excellent manner of life. This is what holy Chrysostom does, who, having cited the preceding words, added: “Indeed, those who have God as their Teacher and have received the remission of countless sins—how can they fail to be as I have now described them (referring to the preceding commandments of the Apostle to the various persons)? You know that among other things not a little that shames and admonishes the soul is this very fact: that it, being guilty of countless sins, was not subjected to punishment, but received forgiveness and countless blessings. If someone, having a slave who had offended many times over, had not punished him with stripes, but granted him forgiveness and honored him with great gifts, requiring of him only good conduct in the future and bidding him to beware of the same offenses; then tell me, would not one who received such mercy try to be of good conduct? However, do not suppose that grace consists only in the forgiveness of past sins and makes us safe from punishment even in the future—though this too depends on grace. If it were to spare those who do evil from punishment forever, it would not be grace, but a certain occasion for corruption and destruction.”—The knowledge of the great grace in Christ Jesus does not slacken but rather strains the moral powers of believers; for the essence of grace is to make us morally upright in everything—as the words that follow also declare.

Tit. 2:12. Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age.

Here begins the answer to the second question: why teach all things about the life one ought to lead? Precisely because the entire economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, called here the saving grace, exists for the sake of such a life. This grace does not impart bore knowledge—it remakes life. How so? “Teaching us,” παιδευουσα. Children are not given lectures in theory; instead, they are told directly: you are not standing right, you went the wrong way, you are doing the wrong thing—and they are immediately taken by the hand and corrected as everything should be; so that word and deed proceed together at once. The saving grace acts in the same way. It calls; but the very first step taken at the call is already a step of life. Namely: deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and begin a new life, contrary to the former one. “Deny”—not merely recognize the insufficiency of the former ways, but turn away from them with feeling, hold them as vile, hate them, and cast them off. The Saviour said earlier: “let him who wishes to follow Me deny himself” (Mt. 16:24, 10:38). And still earlier the Prophet had foretold: “depart from their midst and touch not their uncleanness” (Is. 52:11). This is the foundation of active Christianity! Why are Christians weak? Because they do not have this denial and have not come out of the wrong environment. Holy Chrysostom says at this point: “Here is the foundation of all virtue! He did not say: that we should avoid, but: ‘that we should deny’; denial signifies complete separation, full hatred, resolute aversion.”

What exactly does the Apostle require us to deny? “Ungodliness and worldly lusts.” By ungodliness is encompassed every false conception of God and every manner of worship incompatible with a true conception of God—all false religions. “By ungodliness the Apostle means impious teaching” (holy Chrysostom), “impious dogmas” (Oecumenius), “idolatry” (blessed Theophylact). By worldly lusts is meant the self-indulgent life in the desires of the heart and passions, toward the satisfaction of which all the customs of the world are directed and to which all the laws of righteousness and love are sacrificed. “By worldly lusts the Apostle has named a vicious life; or (more broadly) worldly lusts are all that profit us only for the present life without reference to the life to come; all that perishes together with the present life is a worldly lust” (holy Chrysostom); “love of money, sensual pleasure, pride, and the like” (blessed Theophylact). All of this holy Peter signified when he wrote: “For the time past suffices to have done the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in licentiousness, lusts, drunkenness, reveling, debauchery, and abominable idolatries” (1 Pet. 4:3). Enough; we have been satiated and more than satiated. All this must be cast off and left behind. Such is the teaching, the attraction, the disposition wrought by grace, so that from now on we should live “no longer in the lusts of men, but in the will of God” (1 Pet. 4:2) in the flesh for the remaining time—namely: “soberly, and righteously, and godly.”

“Soberly”—by keeping away from sins of the flesh and striving for purity. But here one may also understand purity from all passions, both bodily and spiritual, which defile the soul and render it impure before God and unfaithful to Him. Thus holy Chrysostom: “Sobriety, as I always say, consists not only in abstaining from adultery, but also in abstaining from the other passions. Therefore the covetous man too is intemperate; as the adulterer is attached to bodily pleasure, so the covetous man is attached to wealth; and the latter is more intemperate than the former, the more so as a less powerful motive acts upon him. In the one case the desire is so natural that even if a man does not approach a woman, nature acts and produces its effect; but in the other case this does not happen.” What is said here of covetousness applies equally to the other passions: pride, vainglory, hatred, envy, anger, self-will, insubordination, and the rest. All who act according to these passions act intemperately—unsoundly, not as one gifted with a higher power, mind, or spirit ought to live.

“Righteously”—as befits a human being who is a Christian. A Christian, however, is required not merely to refrain from transgressing the boundaries of righteousness toward others, but also to do every good to them. The law of Christian righteousness is love, which demands that one lay down one’s life for one’s “friends” if need be. As sobriety in its broadest sense demands a life of self-denial, with the all-round trampling of every form of self-indulgence that draws all things to itself, so righteousness demands beneficent action that directs all things from oneself toward one’s neighbors.

“Godly”—with fear and reverence before God, who is omnipresent, all-seeing, and all-sustaining; dedicating all things to Him as one’s Master—both great and small, both of soul and body, both visible and invisible—and striving in every way that His most holy name may be glorified not only in us but also through us. Godliness encompasses the whole-sided relation of our mind and heart to God, and above all the standing always before Him in prayer and the doing of all things to His glory.

Sobriety, righteousness, and godliness encompass all holy life and comprise all the commandments and all the will of God, to walk in which is the obligation assumed by those who draw near to God in true faith. Christians who are conscious of this strive to live thus throughout all the time they dwell in this present age, in this present life, so as worthily to prepare themselves for the blessed life in the age to come. What is a Christian? He believes sincerely and, being sanctified by the sacraments, strives with all his soul to please God by a holy life, in undoubting expectation of a blessed eternity. On earth he is only in his hands and feet, while in consciousness, mind, and heart—he is wholly in heaven.

Tit. 2:13. Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

“The blessed hope” is the hope of blessedness in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is implanted in the heart of a truly believing person by God’s grace at the very moment of his calling and new birth in the font of baptism. One born here of the Spirit is a child of God and recognizes and feels himself as such in the depths of his heart. And feeling himself to be such, he feels that he belongs to God, that all that is God’s is his own, and that he is a direct heir of God. “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:16–17). Thus the blessed hope—the hope of eternal blessedness—is an inseparable feature of the inner disposition of true Christians, and they remain on earth “looking” for it—not as for something indefinite and not with any wavering: perhaps it will come, perhaps it will not—but as one who awaits the arrival of a beloved person who is already on the way, drawing near, whose very footsteps are already audible. Therefore a Christian who does not carry such expectation in his heart ought to consider without delay why this is so, and hasten to restore this essential feature of his inner constitution. Man cannot live without hope; but there are two hopes: one in this present age, the other in the age to come. Of the first the Apostle said: “if in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:19). And of the second: “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). Consequently, the first ought to have no place in us; the second alone must reign in us, so that our “life may be hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). For there are no words to describe what awaits in heaven those who truly believe and are faithful to the faith. “All understanding surpasses the blessings to come” (holy Chrysostom).

The appearing of the glory of our great God Jesus Christ is His second coming, when He will appear in glory and, after the judgment, will open His eternal Kingdom in all its ineffable majesty and radiance. Immediately upon death the faithful enter the forecourt of that Kingdom, which itself fills them with ineffable blessedness. But their full beatification will follow at the resurrection. Yet if this is so blessed, how blessed must that last—the ultimate—blessedness be? The blessed know it, and they wait longingly for the appearing in glory of Christ the Lord, tempering this longing only with a benevolent wish toward those still living on earth, that all who are foreordained may have time to complete the preparatory course appointed for them.

The Apostle called our Saviour Jesus Christ God, and a great God. “Where are those,” cries holy Chrysostom, “who say that the Son is less than the Father? ‘Great’, he says, ‘God and our Saviour Jesus Christ’. When he calls Him the great God, he calls Him great not in relation to anything, but absolutely great—such that after Him no one is great, because every other is great only relatively; and if relatively, then great by comparison, not by nature; whereas He is great without comparison.” Blessed Jerome also writes: “Where is the serpent Arius? Where is the viper Eunomius? Jesus Christ the Saviour is called the great God, the Firstborn ‘of all creation’—not the Word of God and Wisdom in abstraction, but Jesus Christ; which words together comprehend also the human nature He assumed. For we do not say, as the new heresy blasphemes, that Jesus Christ is one being and the Word another; but one and the same, who is both before all ages and after the ages, both before the world and after Mary—or rather, from Mary—we call the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Tit. 2:14. Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all lawlessness and cleanse for Himself a chosen people, zealous for good works.

“For this reason Christ accepted death on behalf of us all—to put an end to the tyranny of death, to deliver us from that bitter bondage, and to make us His own people, lovers and zealots of praiseworthy deeds” (blessed Theodoret). He has already shown what saving grace requires of us and what it produces in us. Now he reveals the foundation of all this, affirming that the whole economy of the Incarnation exists precisely to make us strangers to sin and rich in every virtue. For “who gave Himself” means: He was pleased to take upon Himself and to accomplish the incarnate economy of salvation, the centre of which is the death upon the cross of the God-man. “That He might redeem”, λυτρωσηται — that He might ransom, that He might pay a price for us. How? By satisfying the justice of God through His death for all our sins, so that not one of them should remain upon us for which we ourselves would be required to render account. But this is not all: from a ransomed slave the bonds of slavery are removed, and he receives freedom to act by his own will. We are in the bonds of slavery to sin. Having redeemed us, the Saviour breaks those bonds, “that we should no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom. 6:6), and we receive freedom to act by ourselves in accordance with our nature, created in the image of God, and not under the compulsion of sin—that uninvited tyrant. And this is full redemption, or deliverance. “Not so as to deliver from one lawlessness but not another; rather from all lawlessness. Let us therefore honour our redemption (being ashamed to darken it by any sin)” (blessed Theophylact).

“And cleanse for Himself a chosen people.—Cleanse”, καθαριση — as one clears debts by paying them. Or, applying it to the condition of ransomed slaves, who are received unkempt, dirty, covered in wounds and rags—“cleanse” means: He will wash away every uncleanness of sin, heal every wound of the passions, and clothe them in the fair garments of the virtues.

“A chosen people”, λαον περιουσιον. — Περιουσιος — exceptional, distinguished, set apart from others and having nothing in common with them (holy Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact). Or—His own, made His own possession by virtue of redemption and appointed to works conformed to His Spirit. “The metaphor is drawn from servants who move about the estate, περι την ουσιαν,—around the possessions of their master” (blessed Theophylact). Thus the Saviour gave Himself in order to redeem us, to cleanse us from every defilement and wound, and, having made us exceptional, to set us to works according to His Spirit. How? “Through the font of divine baptism and the practice of His divine and purifying commandments” (blessed Theophylact). “Christ Jesus, our great God and Saviour, having redeemed us with His own blood, has made of us for Himself a distinctive Christian people—which can only be distinctive when it is zealous for good works” (blessed Jerome).

“Zealous for good works”—that is, “pressing toward virtue with ardour and showing zeal for all good works and fervent imitation (of the Saviour Himself)” (blessed Theophylact). “He does not simply demand deeds, but that they be zealots—that is, that they perform good works with great zeal and with fitting earnestness. To deliver those burdened by a multitude of evils and to heal the incurably sick—that was the work of His love for mankind; but what follows is the work both of ours and of His” (holy Chrysostom).

Tit. 2:15. Declare these things, exhort, and reprove with all authority: let no one disregard you (despise you).

The Apostle conducted the entire foregoing introductory discourse for the purpose of showing that just as the chief task for believers is to flee every evil and to do every good, so for pastors the chief task must be to teach them this—to teach insistently, so that they are without fail such persons—using every method of persuasion to that end. “Declare”—speak plainly, that life must be conducted in such and such a way. There are dispositions for which nothing more is needed: simply point the way and it is done. For those to whom a simple indication is not enough, he says, “exhort”—that is, persuade and convince with words of love and goodwill. Persuasion is accomplished by indicating those aspects of the commanded deed that draw the heart to it, move it toward it, and kindle the energy to perform it. Every good deed has such aspects; but they are not clear to everyone. And one must bring them to light… and thereby entreat the person to do it. For those for whom even this is not enough, there remains only to act upon them by force of reproof, shaming, rebuke, and authority: such a one, he says, “reprove with all authority.” “First ‘declare and exhort’—that is, teach with gentler speech, and then ‘reprove’—and not simply, ‘but with all authority’—that is, insistently and with power” (blessed Theophylact).—“He used three verbs: ‘declare, exhort, reprove. Declare’—it seems should be referred to plain teaching. As for ‘exhort’—it means the same as in the words ‘we implore in Christ’s stead’ (2 Cor. 5:20), when the teacher humbles and abases himself, like a petitioner, if only to win over the one he is trying to persuade. And the third: ‘reprove’—is appropriate only after persuasion. Those who scorn entreaty deserve reproof and deserve to hear: ‘you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons’ (Heb. 12:5). Writing to Timothy, the Apostle placed reproof before exhortation: ‘reprove… exhort’ (2 Tim. 4:2). But here he desires that the pupils first be exhorted, and only then reproved when exhortation proves fruitless—and reproved ‘with all authority.’ This ‘with all authority’ applies only to reproof and not to the first two (that is: ‘teach, exhort’). For one cannot say: ‘exhort’ with all authority, or ‘declare’ with all authority, but only ‘reprove’ with all authority” (blessed Jerome). Holy Chrysostom explains the difference in character between the forms of pastoral speech by reference to the variety of subjects. “There are sins from which one needs to turn people away by injunctions; specifically, in urging them to despise wealth, to be obedient, and such things, one must exhort, while in correcting an adulterer, a fornicator, and a covetous man one must act ‘with authority’; whereas with a sorcerer, a magician, and such people one must act not simply with authority but ‘with all authority.’ Do you see with what force and with what great power he commands Titus to act?”

Here one may see a charge to the pastor: do not sleep, but act—using every possible means to lead those entrusted to you to live as they ought.

“Let no one disregard you” (despise you). If you do not teach, exhort, and reprove with authority, then the unruly will in the end act before your very eyes in every improper way, thinking and saying: why pay attention to this one? He will say nothing.—Even if you yourself are upright in your way of life, yet if you are negligent toward your flock, everyone will despise you and count you as nothing. The point is not that by your own life you should give no occasion for contempt of yourself, but that by negligence in your pastoral duty you should not give your flock the liberty to regard you as nothing. This is precisely why the verb used is μηδεις σου περιφρονειτω: that no one should despise you—not on account of what is in you, in your character, but on account of what is around you and upon you, that is, on account of your negligence in teaching, exhorting, and reproving those in your care.

Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

Tit. 3:1. Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, and to be ready for every good work.

The preceding section showed what domestic virtues believers should be taught; now it shows what civic virtues they should be taught—or, what is the same thing, what works in this regard Christians ought to adorn themselves with.

The first matter here is the relation to authority. How, then, should one conduct oneself toward it? “To be subject and obedient.” As always, so here the Apostle of course means a submission that is not hypocritical—not an outward compliance used to mask one’s beliefs and live by faith in undisturbed peace—but a submission according to conscience, from conviction that authority is from God and that those in authority are servants of God; and therefore submission to them is submission to the will of God. This follows directly from faith in the all-governing providence of God. Holy Paul does not bring this point to the fore here because he is writing not to believers but to Titus, who well knew what principles St. Paul maintained in this regard.

He writes: “remind them”—that is, Christians; for such submission was universal, according to the ordinary civil order. Some would forget themselves, but immediately received a reminder from the authority itself. The Apostle wishes this to be forestalled by domestic instruction, so that no Christian would give occasion to the authorities to remind him of his duty of submission. What could have led Christians to forget themselves was the fact that through faith they had become citizens of another world and had another King—Christ the Lord. Remind them, he says, lest they fall into such error.

“Rulers and authorities”, αρχαις και εξουσιαις — principalities and powers. More precisely, this designates without distinction every form of civil government, both great and small. But the Slavonic translation suggests the thought that the Apostle wishes to instruct Christians to submit not only to kings—“those who rule”—but also to more immediate authorities—“those who govern”—though one cannot insist that this is necessarily so; the Greek words, on the contrary, have: αρχαι referring to higher authorities and εξουσιαι to lower offices.

“To be subject and obedient”, υποτασσεσθαι, πειθαρχειν. The first denotes subordination in general, whether willing or unwilling; the second denotes heartfelt submission, wholehearted obedience, from the conviction that this is how it ought to be.

Blessed Jerome offers the following reflection on this: “The same is written to the Romans: ‘let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God’ (Rom. 13:1). Such a commandment, both here and there, I think was given because the teaching of Judas the Galilean was still in force and had many followers, as is mentioned in the book of Acts (Acts 5:37). He, as one may reasonably suppose, taught on the basis of the Law that no one should be called a ruler except God alone, and that those who bring tithes to the temple should not pay tribute to Caesar. This heresy had grown so large that it not only drew away much of the people but also disturbed the Pharisees; so that they even approached the Lord Himself with the question: ‘is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?’ And received the wise reply: ‘render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God’ (Mt. 22:17, 21). In accordance with this answer, the Apostle Paul also teaches that believers must obey principalities and powers.”

“And to be ready for every good work.” Either this indicates in general an exemplary good conduct among one’s fellow citizens, so that everyone might see and know that Christians are a kind, gentle, helpful, and charitable people. Oecumenius interprets “ready”, ετοιμοι, as ευτρεπισμενοι — well-disposed and virtuous, not only outwardly good but such in the innermost disposition of the heart as well.—Or—ready for every good work to which the authorities and powers call, so that they too may know that Christians are foremost in doing good. This is, for instance, like when in our day people are called upon now to help the victims of fire, now to contribute to the care of the wounded, now to relieve the lot of the hungry in times of crop failure, and the like. Blessed Theodoret sees in these words an indication of how far submission to the authorities should extend: “for one must not submit to the authorities in everything, but pay customs and taxes, render due honour, and if they command impiety, then openly contradict.” The same in Jerome: “if a ruler commands something good, then obey the will of the one commanding. But if something evil and contrary to God, then answer him with the Apostolic reply: ‘we must obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29).”

Tit. 3:2. To slander no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all meekness to all people.

These words are a more detailed explanation of the preceding words—“to be ready for every good work”—and together with them define the second half of the civic virtues: namely, alongside submission to the authorities, to maintain good relations with fellow citizens as well. Readiness for every good work already encompasses all of this. The Apostle here further indicates that what especially disrupts good civic relations should be removed; namely, he says: teach Christians to provoke no one, not only in deed but even in word; let them live so quietly that it is as though they are not there, and let others know of their existence only by their good deeds.

“‘To slander no one’—that is, “to speak ill of no one” (blessed Theodoret). “Even if someone acts wickedly, do not revile or reproach him” (blessed Theophylact). ‘But even Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil and disputing about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said: The Lord rebuke you’ Jude 1:9) If Michael did not dare to bring ‘a slanderous word’ against the devil, who deserves every slander, how much more should we keep ourselves pure from evil speech? The devil deserved slander; yet a slanderous word ought not to have proceeded from the lips of the Archangel” (blessed Jerome). “Let us heed this counsel. Our mouths must be clean of reproaches; for even if our reproaches were just, it is not our business to voice them; to investigate—that is the work of a judge; ‘but why do you judge your brother?’ (Rom. 14:10). Moreover, if you reproach others, you will soon suffer the same yourself. Therefore blessed Paul also offers this admonition: ‘let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall’ (1 Cor. 10:12)” (holy Chrysostom). Nothing so disrupts the good relations of community life as speaking ill of one another. Conversely, nothing so cements friendship as kind words, especially when the unkind words would have been deserved. The foundational law of communal life is not to put evil speech into circulation, and to cut off what comes from elsewhere. A torrent of evil speech is a poison that corrodes the bond of good community.

“To be peaceable”, αμαχους — not to be fighters—not to stir up quarrels, disputes, and lawsuits, and not to devise or unleash evil in return for evil. This is the same as what the Lord said: “but I say to you, do not resist evil” (Mt. 5:39). When rainwater is dammed, it swells higher and higher; but when it is allowed to flow freely, it runs as a small stream and soon ceases. So it is when hostility arises from another quarter. Bow down; it will roll over you like a wave—and that is the end of it. Stand against it—and it swells to irresistible force. Blessed Jerome writes: “if we are sons of peace and desire that peace rest upon us, if we have drawn near to the heavenly Jerusalem, which takes its name from peace, then let us have peace even with those who have hated peace, and on our own part let us remain at peace with all people—not only with the gentle but also with the contentious and quarrelsome: for what virtue is there in being at peace with the tranquil? Let us give place to anger, showing quiet meekness toward all people. We must not be guided by a desire for empty glory in displaying meekness to all; but when we endure all and do not repay wrongs with vengeance, let our very deeds be glorious before all. A man may out of vanity and love of popular reputation pretend to meekness and put on a mask of goodness; but if a man has no true, heartfelt, deep-rooted meekness, I do not know whether he will succeed in convincing everyone of his meekness.”

The last words of blessed Jerome interpret also the following words of the Apostle: “showing all meekness to all people.” Oecumenius likewise writes: “To Jews and Greeks, to friends and enemies, to those who wrong us and do us harm” (and holy Chrysostom with blessed Theophylact). Yielding appears to some as a loss and a diminishment, but in practice it always gains—if not in the present, then in the future; not only the eternal, but the temporal as well. What is lost is returned with interest.

g) The reminder that the grace of the Holy Spirit exists precisely to transform us from bad to good

Tit. 3:3. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various passions and pleasures, spending our lives in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

“For we ourselves were.” Through this word “for”—this passage is connected directly to the preceding one, to the injunction not to slander anyone. Why? Because we ourselves no longer have any right to be such. We too were the same; but now we have become different, by the grace of our Saviour, who has renewed us and made us good out of what was bad. So holy Chrysostom: “reproach no one, for you yourself were once the same. One who was formerly just such a person and has changed should not reproach such people, but should pray and give thanks to Him who grants him and is ready to grant them deliverance from their former sins. No one should boast: for all have sinned. So when you, being yourself upright, wish to reproach someone, remember your former life and the uncertainty of the future, and restrain your indignation. Even if you had lived virtuously from childhood, you would still have many sins; and if you have none, as you suppose, know that this depends not on your own strength but on the grace of God; for if He had not called your forebears to the faith, you too would have been an unbeliever.”—So also blessed Theodoret: “let us call to mind our former conduct, let us picture to ourselves how many bad qualities were in us; and, being such, the God of all deemed us worthy of salvation. Let us therefore also bear with the ill behaviour of those still remaining in error.”

But setting aside the connection with the preceding passage, one may see in this section (vv. 3–7), as in the one we already encountered above (Tit. 2:11–14), an indication of the incentive for which Christians especially ought to be strangers to every vice and adorned with all virtues. Because they were not good, and now they are protected by the grace of the Spirit in the font to a new holy life, so that, having become righteous, they may be counted worthy of the inheritance of eternal, blessed life. The distinction between this section and the one encountered above is that there the call to a holy life is the subject, while here it is the new birth to that life and the provision of sufficient powers for it. Upon those who have been born again and equipped with the powers needed for a holy life lies an inescapable duty to be holy. And if they do not prove to be such, nothing can be compared to such folly. So in part Ambrosiaster: “The Apostle recalls that these blessings, which unbelief does not possess, have been given to Christians; so that, shining in all righteousness, they may make known to all that they are worshippers of the true God. For when they, who were once foolish, now appear wise in all things, God is thereby glorified in them.”

“For we ourselves were once.—Once”—before faith and sanctification by the grace of God.—“We ourselves.” The Apostle obviously has the Cretans in mind, but he included himself among them in order to soften the words. The equivalent in our everyday speech would be: we and you alike. Blessed Theodoret explains this “we ourselves” as follows: “The divine Apostle included himself in the same number, not as one subject to all these charges, but as one who had been a persecutor; for not all were subject to all the vices, but some to these and others to those; yet all attained salvation.”

“Foolish, disobedient, and deceived.” By these words is described how, when men live in sins and passions, all the powers of the soul are stricken and perverted. The rational power is struck by “foolishness”—it loses sound understanding of God, of the world, of man, of the purpose of the present life, of the purpose of the things around us, and of the significance of all that happens to us. Having lost such understanding, it loses the power to govern a person’s life, and he walks as if in darkness, falling from one folly into another. So it was with the pagans. “Was it not senseless to serve such gods as the pagans had and to sacrifice human beings?” (blessed Theophylact). And descriptions of their life by their own writers cannot be read without revulsion.—The active power is infected with “disobedience,” by which it will acknowledge neither divine nor human laws, takes no account of anything, except its own will. I want it thus, and no one shall tell me otherwise; and it wants only what self-love and self-indulgence dictate in satisfaction of the passions. Whatever is said, it will not listen. Απειθεις — precisely such persons are presented, who accept no reasoning whatsoever.—The feeling power is dominated by “deception,” by which it considers good, pleasant, and beautiful what is in its nature bad, repulsive, and ugly. It loses its natural taste.

Or one may hold that what is indicated here is the wounding of the higher spiritual side of human nature: by “foolishness”—the disappearance of the thought of God and the fear of God; by “disobedience”—inattention to the voice of conscience and its suppression; by “deception”—attachment to sensory things. This is always and everywhere the case when anyone gives himself over to self-indulgence and the passions, whoever he may be—pagan or Christian, learned or unlearned, simple or noble. For sin, like poison, shows no partiality.

“Enslaved to various passions and pleasures.” When the higher powers and the higher side of human nature are stricken, then in place of the laws that reside in them, which should have governed a person’s actions, passions and pleasures take over, and life begins to flow according to their demands. The higher powers then become their servants: the mind devises means of satisfying them and of concealing such satisfaction as it would be unseemly to have seen; the will, as if led by a halter, is led along after them like a donkey on a lead; and the feelings, having more than once experienced the tastelessness of carnal pleasures, are still drawn toward them, beguiled by the deceitful hope of finally encountering and tasting on that same path some lasting good. This is true slavery within a person—the tyranny of sin.—By “passions” are meant the desires of the soul and body. They arouse longings for the objects by which they are customarily satisfied. And “pleasures” are those momentary gratifications that the satisfaction of the passions provides. Every passion has its own pleasure, by which it lures one toward its objects; yet all pleasures merge into the one fundamental pleasure—self-indulgence. In pleasures lies the power of passion. The passions always conquer by the promise of pleasures. The sinner is devoted to pleasure; and therefore, without straightening up, he serves the passions.

Foolishness, disobedience, being deceived, slavery to passions and pleasures—these constitute the inner constitution of the sinner. How is this manifested outwardly, in his actions? By “life in malice and envy.” Egotism and self-indulgence pull everything toward themselves. Since they encounter the same tendencies in others as well, collisions naturally arise. Whoever places an obstacle in their path stirs up hostility toward himself in various degrees, at the top of which stands malice—the desire to destroy an opponent by undermining the powers that belong to him: when he is wealthy, by exhausting his wealth; when in power, by undermining his authority; and so forth. This is malice, or malevolence. It is especially present when the egotist is proud, strong both in character and in resources.—But it also happens that someone stirs up hostility not by obstructing, but simply by standing higher and living more richly and cheerfully. This gives rise to envy, which in the strong likewise leads to malevolence, while in the weak it devours and exhausts the envious person himself. Where the passions hold sway, malice and envy are in constant motion, more or less intense. And is anyone free of them?

“Hateful.” Whoever is hostile toward others in undisguised malice and envy in turn arouses hostility toward himself: people begin to turn away from him, either loathing him or entertaining a kind of dread of him. This is expressed by: στυγητοι. Malicious and envious people are naturally repulsive.

And so it comes about that people enslaved by the passions live “hating one another.” For each one desires to possess exclusively, without division, the good toward which another stretches out a hand with the same desire. It is in the nature of egotism to love only itself. It is from the outset cold toward everyone; and no sooner does it encounter in others anything contrary to itself than it at once converts its coldness into hostility. Egotism is sometimes tempered by sympathetic feelings; but this does not extinguish its hatred, it only widens it: for then by hatred it guards not only itself but all that it has taken into the sphere of its sympathy—and so one faction arises against another.

Titus 3:4–7—The Washing of Regeneration

Tit. 3:4–5. But when the kindness and love for mankind of God our Saviour appeared, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His own mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

Such, then, were we before faith and grace, when we lived in bondage to desires and pleasures. But now we are different—both in what we are and in what we ought to be. For grace delivered us from that bondage, renewing our nature in the font of baptism and binding us to a life according to the spirit and power of that renewal.

“Grace”, χρηστοτης,—goodness—“and the love of God our Saviour”—appeared in the economy of the Incarnation, “through the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten, when the Only-Begotten Son of God, taking flesh and becoming in all things like us” (Oecumenius and blessed Theophylact), accomplishing and ordering all that was needful for our salvation. “Appeared”—points to the ordering of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ; its application to each of us who believe, or the manifestation of its power in us, is indicated below in the words: “He saved us through the washing of regeneration”. The words “God our Saviour” refer us to God the Father: for it is said below that this God our Saviour saved us through “the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us through Jesus Christ”. “Having examined more carefully,” writes blessed Jerome, “we find in this brief passage the Most Holy Trinity most clearly expressed. The goodness and love of God our Saviour—none other than God the Father—through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us through Jesus Christ, made us righteous for the inheritance of eternal life. The salvation of believers is a mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.” The same view is expressed by Theodoret.

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done”. The economy of salvation was prompted not by our great virtues but, on the contrary, by our utter wretchedness and helplessness. The goodness of God could not endure to leave us in the grip of our fall and ruin—and was pleased to order for us a wondrous mode of salvation. The one distinction that was ours was simply that we are the creation of the all-good, all-wise, and almighty God, who does not repent of His gifts. And this it was that drew God’s goodness toward us, ordering our salvation. But not only the general ordering of salvation, but also the calling of each individual to receive this salvation, is likewise not the fruit of our meritorious deeds, but the work of God’s goodness. Of all instances of calling, only Cornelius the centurion was called because his prayers and alms had come up before God; but that was a special, providential case, to open the way for receiving into the bosom of the Church sheep who were not of the fold of Israel. The general order of calling, however, is the work of goodness—in the beginning, now, and to the end of the age. Yet one must carefully distinguish between the calling to the ordered salvation and the working out of salvation by the means through which it has been ordered. From the moment of heeding the call and taking the first step in response to it, there begins one’s participation in the working out of salvation, involving one’s own labor and effort, which proceeds hand in hand with grace until the final completion of salvation. All is from goodness; but God’s goodness does not indulge.

“But according to His own mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration”. These words are spoken not by one who looks on the salvation of others, but by one who has himself received salvation. In the feeling of salvation he proclaims with grateful lips: “He saved.” From what did “He save?” From all the evils spoken of above, and from bondage to desires and pleasures, beneath whose yoke we were groaning. “He saved us”—whom does “us” mean? All who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. “Naming himself and the Apostles, holy Paul had in mind all who have believed in Christ, showing what they were before regeneration in the life-giving font and what they became thereafter” (blessed Jerome). How did “He save?” “Through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit”. “Alas!” cries holy Chrysostom. “So deeply were we sunk in evil that we could no longer be cleansed, but stood in need of regeneration. This was truly a new birth, the receiving of a new existence. As no one props up a rotting house or nails anything onto the old building, but tears it down to the foundations and raises and renews it entirely, so did He—our Saviour—not merely repair us but re-create us entirely. This is what the words mean: ‘and the renewing of the Holy Spirit’. He made us completely new. In what manner? By the Holy Spirit. So great is our need for grace!”

Tit. 3:6–7. Whom He poured out upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

God the Father poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly upon all believers through Christ the Saviour. Proclaiming this promise to the Apostles, the Lord said: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter” (Jn. 14:16). Further: “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name” (Jn. 14:26); and then: “the Comforter, whom I will send to you from the Father” (Jn. 15:26). Thus the Lord Jesus Christ mediates in the sending of the Most Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and, through them, upon all believers. It was ordained in the divine Council that the Son of God, having taken flesh and passed through the sufferings and death of the cross, should be glorified in the resurrection and ascension and thereby open the way for the descent of the Holy Spirit.

This law of the divine actions in the economy of our salvation was revealed by holy Evangelist John, who said: “for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”—the Holy Spirit whom believers were to receive in such abundance that “rivers of living water would flow from their belly” (Jn. 7:38–39). The Holy Spirit was poured out first upon the Apostles, and through them He was poured out upon all believers as well. And we see in the Acts and Epistles many instances that bear tangible witness to this. The Apostles would customarily proclaim the Gospel of salvation, baptize those who believed, lay their hands upon the baptized, and the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon them, testifying to it by manifest gifts of grace. All believers knew and experienced this, and the Apostle spoke to them plainly, face to face, that God poured out upon us—upon you and us—the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Saviour. The implicit meaning is: as you yourselves know and have experienced.

“So that, having been justified by His grace.—Having been justified”—not declared righteous, but made righteous, holy, and pure: such persons in whom there remains not a trace of the moral evils previously described. Grace accomplishes this. Descending upon us, it turns us away from all that is evil and inspires us toward all that is good, giving us the strength to act according to that inspiration. Acting thus, we drive out from ourselves all that is evil and plant and root in ourselves all that is good—and we thereby become in every respect pure and blameless. This is the goal of the economy of our salvation. This is the mark toward which all the labors of our action on earth must be directed. And the end that crowns these labors is “the inheritance of eternal life”.

“So that … we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life”. The hope of inheritance is an essential feature of the inner disposition of believers. This is everywhere prominently set forth by the Apostle. And by the very nature of the economy of salvation, it must be so. “Where I am, there will My servant be also”—the Lord promised. The inheritance of eternal life is secured for us. Not in the sense that perhaps we shall receive it, but in the sense that it is already ours—only the time to receive it has not yet come. “What does ‘according to hope’ mean? That is: as we have hoped, so shall we receive; or: we are already heirs of this” (holy Chrysostom). We need only not cease striving to be righteous and holy, and to advance in that. We are called to the inheritance freely, freely endowed with the strength to reach it; but it is not given freely—it is given “to each according to his works”.

“This is a faithful saying!”

These words have been connected to the following verse; but in the substance of the matter they relate to what precedes. By them the Apostle seals the truth of all that was said in verses 3–7, and especially the promise of the inheritance of eternal life. Blessed Jerome writes: “what he said—‘this is a faithful saying’—should be joined to the preceding words: ‘that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life’. For a word concerning the inheritance of God and the hope of eternal life is worthy of all trust.” So too holy Chrysostom: “since he spoke of the future, he added this as well, for confirmation. This is true, he says, and is clear from what has gone before. He who delivered us from such lawlessness and such evils will without doubt grant us the future blessings, if we abide in grace; for all things are accomplished by one and the same providence.”

Titus 3:8–11—Good Works; Reject the Heretic

Tit. 3:8. (My child Titus,) this is a faithful saying—and concerning these things I wish to charge you, that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works: these things are good and profitable for people.

“My child Titus”—none of our commentators reads this. “This is a faithful saying”—as has been shown, is connected with what precedes as a word of confirmation.

“Concerning these things”—may be referred both to what precedes and to what follows. So Oecumenius: “concerning these things”—that is, about what was said above and about what follows: “that they may be careful to devote themselves to good works”. In the first case the meaning would be: and this is what I want you to teach, to urge, to persuade them of—meaning the promise of eternal life: “but turn away from foolish disputes”. Speak and expound on doctrines that enlighten the mind and heart, that establish a good disposition and blessed hopes, and not on empty fantasies profitable to no one. In the second case the meaning would be: in addition to what has been said above, also teach them the following. What was said above includes all the virtues the command to teach has already enjoined above, especially those spoken of in verses 1 and 2 of the present chapter—that they should harm no one, but be gentle and meek. What follows is good works: mercy and acts of charity. Teach and urge them, he says, not only to refrain from harming others but also to do good to them.

“I wish to charge you”, διαβεβαιουσθαι,—to affirm, to establish. The Apostle does not wish to convince holy Titus of this himself, but wishes holy Titus to convince the believers of the necessity of acting in this way. Or: that holy Titus himself might be convinced that this above all is what believers need to be taught.

“That they may be careful to devote themselves to good works.—That they may be careful”—not to perform good works in passing or carelessly, but to care for them with all their soul, thinking day and night of nothing else but how and where they might do some good deed. “To devote themselves”, προιστασθαι,—to stand at the forefront, to be foremost among all. When you are wronged, give way, as if hiding; but when a good deed presents itself, be first of all, let no one forestall you, be the first to seize it—so that regarding believers a general conviction may be established that in good works they are always first. Hence he added: let those “who have believed in God” be devoted to this. Why they ought so to act follows directly from what was said above—what we were before faith, what we became through faith, and what promises console us in its strength. Having received so many mercies, be yourself merciful and beneficent.

Let us record what our commentators have said on this. Holy Chrysostom says: “Having spoken of God’s love for humanity, of His ineffable care for us and of what we were and what He made us, the Apostle continues: ‘and concerning these things I wish you to affirm that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works’; that is, to speak on this and thereby to dispose them toward mercy. For what has been said above can incline us not only to humility and not looking down on or reproaching others, but to every other virtue as well. Having recalled God’s care and His extraordinary love for humanity, he urges his hearers to be merciful—and not simply or occasionally, but how? ‘Let them be careful,’ he says, ‘to devote themselves to good works’—that is, also to help those who are wronged, not with money only, but with their own intercession, and to defend widows and orphans, and to provide peace to all who are in affliction; for this is what it means: to devote themselves to good works.” Some of these thoughts are expressed more fully by blessed Theophylact.

“Having recalled God’s ineffable goodness, he says: I want you to teach this in such a way that believers learn not only to be humble-minded and not to wrong others, but also to show them every kind of mercy. For whoever keeps in memory the mercy of God of which he has been deemed worthy will himself also be merciful. Let them be careful, he says—that is, let this be their constant occupation and continual care: to help those who are wronged, to look after widows and orphans and all who are in need generally. For this is what the words mean: ‘to devote themselves to good works’, προιστασθαι,—not to wait for those in need to come to them, but to look after them themselves.”

“These things are good and profitable for people”. This is what it is right and profitable to teach! Or—this is what it is right and profitable for anyone to occupy his mind with and to devote himself to! The Apostle wishes to direct both the teaching of teachers and the care of believers toward the acquisition of eternal life through a grace-filled and holy life. “Nothing is more evident than that mercy and love for humanity are good for the present and profitable for the future: here they earn praise, and on the day of judgment—a crown. And it is to care for these things that he urges the ruler of God’s people” (Ambrosiaster).

Tit. 3:9. But avoid foolish disputes and genealogies and strife and contentions about the Law: for they are unprofitable and futile.

Teach this, but avoid the following. What is to be avoided? Foolish disputes, ζητησεις,—inquiries, questionings, questions about what this or that is—why one thing is so and another otherwise—what is elsewhere called contentious debating. Not every inquiry and questioning is blameworthy. The Saviour Himself urged searching the Scriptures, for in them the way to eternal life is pointed out. To search the Scriptures in order to discover and clarify that way is praiseworthy. But one may search the same Scriptures in a blameworthy fashion—when examining not the direct content of what is written, but something peripheral: why, for example, one letter stands here and another there, or what mystery will be uncovered by combining letters in this or that way. Such inquiry feeds an empty curiosity, supplying no nourishment to either faith or morality (blessed Jerome). Among the Jews there were many such inquiries, and among them many persons who prided themselves on this and tried to occupy others with it. To avoid such and similar inquiries the Apostle commands—inquiries that present more subtleties than they provide edification; hence they are called “foolish,” senseless, absurd. Ambrosiaster writes: “foolish disputes” are those, says the Apostle, “which contribute nothing to salvation and provide no experiential knowledge for the ordering of a virtuous life.” Blessed Theodoret paraphrases these words thus: “Strive to avoid useless conversations, for they bring no benefit either to those conversing or to those listening.”

“And genealogies”. This points to one of the subjects of “foolish disputes”. If this refers to pagans, they had absurd genealogies of their gods; but if to Jews, it was customary among them to flaunt their descent from great ancestors and to trace their genealogical lines. Oecumenius writes: “In speaking of genealogies, the Apostle has in mind either the Greeks, who enumerate the genealogies of their gods, saying: such a one fathered such a one; or the Jews, who, lacking in virtues, shelter themselves under the names of their ancestors and because of them entertain ‘lofty’ thoughts about themselves. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are our forebears, they say. The Apostle calls these genealogies foolish as well, since they are unprofitable. For what benefit is it to a sinner to have Abraham as a forefather? It is rather a condemnation, that being descended from such persons they proved worthless.” Holy Chrysostom says that the Apostle has in view only the Jews: “The Apostle alludes here to the Jews, who, boasting of their forefather Abraham, neglected their own souls. Therefore he calls such genealogies unprofitable and futile. It is indeed foolish to place hope in things that are useless.”

“Strife and contentions about the Law”. There, pointless inquiries that were merely empty were indicated; here, we have not merely empty but also contentious ones—quarrelsome disputes resembling warfare, driven by ardent zeal to maintain one’s position. The subject of the disputes is the Law. The moral Law was readily accepted by the Gentiles as well; to Christians there passed also all the Old Testament writings together with the history of God’s people. And here too there was nothing to dispute about. The disputes were about the ceremonial side of the Law and even more about the many additions to it imposed on the Jews by their later teachers, with a view to the more precise fulfillment of one or another legal prescription. Christians did not disparage what was prescribed in the Law, but regarded it as no longer necessary under the new grace, and therefore declined to observe it. The Jews, however, defending their own customs, entered into heated disputes. Hence came strife and contentions—and no benefit whatever. The Apostle therefore commands one to avoid all this. Περιιστασο — stand clear, pay no attention to it. You have important matters to attend to; do not occupy yourself with these trifles, and teach all those in your care to let all such things pass by unheeded.

“They are unprofitable and vain.” “For one must never abandon necessary tasks and spend time on empty talk and fruitless disputes. What profit is there in wrangling where there is no hope that anyone will be won to Christ?” (blessed Theophylact). The Apostle proceeds from the conviction that, since the mysteries of the faith and the rules of Christian life are unquestionably true and immutable, everything else is falsehood and trifle, with which believers ought not to occupy themselves. What does not build up faith and good morals is useless, and from it one must keep away. Blessed Theophylact asks: “but how is it that above he commanded the silencing of those who oppose?”—and answers: “that is when it is evident that they are causing harm to others; but as for speaking to such people in hope of benefiting them—do not attempt it: you will accomplish nothing, for they are incorrigible.”

Perhaps the Apostle’s words are fittingly divided as follows: “contentions and genealogies” refer to pagan speculations about their gods, while “rivalries and quarrels” refer to Jewish disputes about the merit of their law. The believing Cretans came from both pagans and Jews. Both groups, one may suppose, had not yet entirely abandoned their former views and habits. This is why they raised one question or another—inquired, started conversations, disputed—and for the most part not seeking any benefit, but merely to indulge in empty talk. Not infrequently, one may suppose, unbelievers joined in as well, both Jews and pagans. Loud conversations and wranglings ensued, with no practical result whatsoever. This is what the Apostle commanded to be cut short. Teach, he says, what builds up in faith and establishes a godly life; and keep away from idle talk yourself, and bind the believers to do the same.

Tit. 3:10. A heretical man after the first and second admonition reject.

This is an altogether different matter. The preceding passage spoke of those who engage in empty inquiries and useless disputes; here we encounter a dangerous person—a heretic—who holds forth not about something empty and unprofitable, but reasons in a manner contrary to the commonly held teaching and may cause a split in the community of believers by drawing others after himself. Such a person cannot be left without attention; but, first of all, in the hope that “perhaps God will grant him repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:25), one must hasten to approach him with instruction, and if the first attempt proves fruitless, to repeat it; and only then, secondly, to reject him. Only two attempts at instruction are prescribed, so that persistent pressure does not deepen the stubbornness of the one who holds contrary opinions, and also so as not to give him opportunity to practice evasions in defending his falsehood. Ambrosiaster writes: “Heretics customarily, relying on the words of Scripture, teach contrary to Scripture. Assigning their own meaning to the words of Scripture, they shore up their perverse opinions with the authority of Scripture as something commendable. For impiety, knowing how great a weight the authority of Scripture carries, forges its lies under Scripture’s name—so that, since a wicked thing cannot be accepted in its own name, it might appear acceptable under another’s good name.—Such people the Apostle commands to be admonished once and twice, so that they may be left without excuse; but no more. For if they are rebuked more often, they will become still more inflamed toward evil. One who frequently reproves someone makes that person more zealous for the destruction of greater numbers. Therefore it is better to send them away, so that, their zeal for leading others astray having weakened, they at least perish alone.”

“Reject”—say decisively: you are not ours, go away from us; as a good shepherd, drive these wolves from your flock. This is equivalent to excommunication from the Church. But then one must understand the heretic to be someone belonging to the local community of believers. He may however be a stranger, come from elsewhere; in that case “reject”—will mean: do not engage with him, admonish him once and twice and drop the matter, turn away from him, let him go his own way. Blessed Theodoret writes: “When you have twice or three times given proper instruction to those who set out to teach contrary things, and then see that they remain in their wicked dogmas, no longer enter into conversation with them, for that is unprofitable labor.” The holy Chrysostom says the same: “When someone has become so corrupt that he in no way resolves to change his opinion, why should you labor in vain, sowing seed on stone, when you can employ this diligent effort among your own people, conversing with them about mercy and other virtues? For people who give hope of correction yet only show resistance, one may take greater care; but when someone holds his heresy openly and plainly before all, why wrangle with him in vain, why beat the air?”

Tit. 3:11. Knowing that such a man is perverted, sins, and is self-condemned.

The reason why, after a twofold admonition of a heretic, one must no longer occupy oneself with him is that: “he is perverted and sins.—Is perverted,” εξεστραπται,—he has been utterly perverted; he has taken on a distorted mind, with which nothing can be done, for he has lost the ability to see the truth, having been filled with prejudices opposed to it. The false premises he has adopted darken his eyes, and in the middle of the day he does not see the light surrounding him and enlightening all others.

“Sins,” αμαρτανει,—is customarily used of moral sins, or of violations of the commandments. But here the reference is to false teaching, in relation to which sin can be considered disobedience to the plain indications of the word of God, or opposition to God’s clearly expressed will—stubborn persistence in falsehood to satisfy one’s personal prejudices, in spite of its contradiction of God’s plain truth. “Sins”—will mean: stubbornly remains in his error, in spite of all admonitions.

“And is self-condemned.” How is he self-condemned when he does not acknowledge his error? Perhaps this means the same as: he is himself to blame; he was spoken to, admonished—he would not listen—and now let him reap the fruits of his stubbornness—who is to blame? The fruit of stubbornness in heresy is the loss of the Kingdom of God. Elsewhere the Apostle, having enumerated the works of the flesh, among which heresies are placed, concluded: “those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:21). A heretic who stubbornly stands in heresy has, from this moment, already condemned himself to this forfeiture of the Kingdom—condemns without condemning, by the very act of stubborn persistence in heresy despite the exposure of the falsehood he has embraced. Here and now he does not see or hear such a verdict upon himself. But one may, at the Apostle’s word, transfer one’s thought to the Last Judgment, where the heretic will see his own error and will condemn himself, seeing what he would not see, having nothing to say in his own defense. In that case “self-condemned”—will mean the same as “without excuse,” having nothing to say in his own defense (Oecumenius).

In Greek it reads: “sins, being self-condemned,” ων αυτοκατακριτος. This suggests the thought that his conscience condemns him (Oecumenius) for his disagreement with manifest truth, yet he does not listen to his conscience, being ashamed to lose face by yielding. He sacrifices to his self-love a truth he clearly perceives, and sins, acting against his conscience. Not all heretics are like this; but among those who resist the truth there is no small number of such, to whom such a verdict applies.

Conclusion

Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Here St. Paul: a) gives certain instructions (Tit. 3:12–14); b) sends greetings (Tit. 3:15); and c) gives a final blessing (Tit. 3:15).

A) Certain instructions of the Apostle (Tit. 3:12–14).

Tit. 3:12. When I shall send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me to Nicopolis: for I have determined there to winter.

He had left holy Titus in Crete “to set in order the things that are lacking” (Tit. 1:5), and now he calls him to himself again. How so? But there is no need to suppose that this occurred soon after St. Paul’s departure from Crete. Some half-year or so may have passed in the interim, during which holy Titus could have brought the affairs of the Church of Crete into sufficient order. It was natural for St. Paul to desire to learn what had been accomplished there and how, so that, having reviewed and deliberated upon everything, he could give him the necessary instructions for further action. So say holy Chrysostom, Oecumenius, and Theophylact. Here are their words: “What are you saying? Having appointed Titus in Crete, you are calling him to yourself again? Not in order to withdraw him from his duty, but to establish him more firmly” (holy Chrysostom). “In order to better fit him for his work and to give advice as to what and how is to be done going forward” (Oecumenius). “This is for his own benefit, so as to better prepare him for his task, having considered how he has fulfilled what was entrusted to him” (blessed Theophylact). Ambrosiaster adds that in calling Titus to himself after the epistle, St. Paul acts not only to confirm him in his ecclesiastical labors, but also out of a desire to see his beloved.

Which Nicopolis is meant here? Holy Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Oecumenius understand it to be Nicopolis in Thrace, near the border between Thrace and Macedonia, midway between Philippi on the seacoast and Philippopolis on the Maritsa. Theophylact understands it to be Nicopolis on the Danube, which appears on ancient maps in the same location where it stands today. Blessed Jerome understands it to be Nicopolis in Epirus, which received its name from the victory won by Augustus over Antony and Cleopatra. Today this is Preveza. There was also a Nicopolis in Cilicia, not far from Tarsus, near the border with Syria and Armenia. On which shall one settle? Any of them is possible, depending on how one imagines the route of the Apostle Paul’s journey. One may imagine it thus: St. Paul had written to Philemon from Rome, asking him to prepare a room, and the needs of the Church of Colossae and the neighboring churches required his special care. It is therefore not surprising that from Crete he directed his course along the same route he had previously followed to Rome, namely through Myra. From there he went up to Colossae and, having arranged affairs there, hastened eastward to visit the churches of Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Cilicia—his own firstborn children—intending also to visit Antioch. But as he approached the borders of Syria, he learned that devastating attacks upon the Jews had begun there, and decided not to go there but to winter in Nicopolis of Cilicia, since winter was drawing near. This is where he was inviting Titus. Tychicus he had taken at Colossae, whither he had been sent to deliver the Epistle. Having wintered at Nicopolis, the Apostle again directed his course westward, visited the churches of Cilicia, Phrygia, and Galatia, stopped at Ephesus, Macedonia, and Achaia, and by way of Nicopolis of Epirus, or some other route, proceeded further to Spain. We propose this itinerary because it seems the most fitting. This has already been discussed in the introduction.

Tychicus was mentioned in other Epistles. Artemas is mentioned here for the first time and nothing more is known of him. Tradition relates that he later became bishop of Lystra. He is numbered among the Seventy Apostles. His feast day is October 30.

Blessed Jerome gives the reason why Artemas or Tychicus is being sent to Crete: in order to remain there in place of Titus, so that the Church of Crete would not be left as an orphan without an apostolic man. “From this the fatherly love of the Apostle for the Cretans is evident. He needed to meet with Titus on matters of the Gospel proclamation; but he does not bid him to set out until either Tychicus or Artemas has arrived, to take his place.”

Tit. 3:13. Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting to them.

“Zenas the lawyer”—mentioned only here; because he had thoroughly studied and knew the law, he received this designation, which remained with him after his conversion. “Apollos”—the well-known master of Scripture, a man mighty in word. They had not yet received particular dioceses to govern, but were co-laboring with the Apostle Paul (holy Chrysostom and others). Concerning them St. Paul writes: “bring on their journey diligently.—Bring on their journey,” προπεμψον,—either send them further on their way as quickly as possible, or send them to me ahead of yourself without waiting for my summons. St. Paul had already used this word in both senses—in the first, when he hoped to be “brought on his way” by the Romans to Spain (Rom. 15:24), and in the second, when he wrote to the Corinthians to send holy Timothy to him in peace (1 Cor. 16:11).

In the first case we obtain the following sense: Zenas and Apollos were with St. Paul. Having need, in the matter of preaching, to send them somewhere—perhaps to Achaia—he, by circumstances, directed them there by way of Crete, and writes to Titus not to detain them but to send them on their way as quickly as possible, furnishing them with all they need. One may suppose in connection with this that the Epistle to Titus was dispatched with them, or that they were sent with the bearer of the Epistle—or perhaps this Epistle was written on the occasion of their being directed along this route.

In the second case the sense will be as follows: Zenas and Apollos were in Crete and were laboring there in the preaching of the Gospel even before St. Paul passed through on his journey. On departing from Crete, St. Paul left them there to continue the work of preaching together with Titus. But now, having need of them for the same work of preaching in the region where he himself was, he writes to Titus to send them to him as quickly as possible, before he himself is summoned—immediately upon receiving this Epistle.

“That nothing be wanting to them.” Supply them with all they need—food, clothing, and a certain sum of money for travel expenses (blessed Jerome, Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact)—so that they lack nothing.

“Zenas” shepherded Christ’s Church in Diospolis. His feast day is September 27. He is numbered among the Seventy. Apollos, according to Jerome, was bishop of Corinth; but the menologia record that he was bishop of Smyrna before St. Polycarp; he is numbered among the Seventy; his feast days are September 10 and December 8.

Tit. 3:14. And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful.

He had written: supply them with all they need; but where is it to come from? Titus, like all preachers of the faith, had nothing of his own, of course. So the reader might think. The Apostle points to the source: let “ours” do this—that is, the believing Cretans. Let them learn good works by helping in the needs of all who are in need. But if all, then all the more those who toil in preaching. By acting thus they will show the fruit of faith and grace, and this fruit will redound to their own benefit. Blessed Jerome, having said that with these words St. Paul answers a possible question—where is Titus to obtain what is needed?—adds: “By ‘ours,’ his own, the Apostle called those who had believed in Christ, who, inasmuch as they are Christ’s, could rightly be called Paul’s and Titus’s. You have, he says, as it were, authority over the disciples; teach them not to be unfruitful, but let them serve the Evangelists and apostolic men engaged in the saving labors of preaching—and serve not in everything, but in necessary needs, which are defined thus: ‘having food and’ ‘clothing,’ ‘with these let us be content’ (1 Tim. 6:8). For those who serve the altar ought to live from the altar, and those who have become partakers of our spiritual goods ought to make us partakers of their material goods. Lest the Cretans should disregard these words of the Epistle or the exhortations of Titus, the Apostle calls unfruitful those who are unwilling to serve the Evangelists from their possessions. But of the unfruitful it is written: ‘every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire’ (Mt. 7:19). And again: ‘he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly’ (2 Cor. 9:6). To refuse to supply the needs of apostolic men and the Evangelists of Christ is to convict oneself of unfruitfulness.” The Apostle is urging Titus, writes blessed Theodoret: “teach those who have believed to take care of the bodily needs of those to whom the teaching of divine things has been entrusted. For they ought to bring forth such fruits as well.”

“Do you see,” continues holy Chrysostom in the same vein, “how the Apostle is more concerned about the believing givers than about the preachers who receive? He could have supplied them through many others, but I, he says, am concerned about ours. For what profit would there be, tell me, if others who were gathering treasures fed the teachers? Our people would have had no benefit then; they would have remained unfruitful.—Tell me, could not Christ, who fed five thousand with five loaves and four thousand with seven, have sustained Himself and those with Him? Why then did He accept food from the women? ‘Certain women,’ says Scripture, ‘followed Him and served Him’ (Mk. 15:41). He did this to teach us that He cares for those who do good. Likewise Paul, who helped others with his own hands—could he not have accepted sustenance from no one? But see how he both accepted and asked—and here is why: ‘not because I desire a gift,’ he says, ‘but I desire fruit that may abound to your account’ (Phil. 4:17).”

B) Greetings (Tit. 3:15).

Tit. 3:15. All that are with me salute you. Greet them that love us in the faith.

“Those who are with me”—co-laborers in the work of preaching, known to Titus and who know Titus in friendship. The Apostle says this both in fulfillment of custom and at the same time as a testimony to the dignity of Titus, in that “he is such a man as to have merited the love of all who are with Paul. It is great praise for Titus to be greeted by all through Paul” (blessed Jerome).

“Those who love us in the faith”—greet “either those who love us faithfully and sincerely, or the faithful who love us, that is, Christians” (blessed Theophylact). Blessed Jerome understands it thus: those who love us in the spirit of faith, or by virtue of faith. “If every person who loves,” he writes, “loved in faith, and there were no people who love without faith, then the Apostle would never have added faith to love, saying: ‘greet those who love us in the faith’. Mothers love their children to the point of being ready to die for them, yet they love not in faith; wives love their husbands, but that love is not from faith. The one love that loves in faith is the love of the saints—to such a degree that, even if the beloved were among the unbelievers, the saint loves him in faith, according to the word of Scripture: ‘love your enemies’ (Lk. 6:35). The saint loves his enemies, and therefore loves in faith: for he believes in Him who promised to repay with a merciful recompense those who fulfill His commandment.” Ambrosiaster adds: “The Apostle designates as worthy of his greeting those who love him out of love for Christ our Lord.”

C) The final blessing (Tit. 3:15).

Tit. 3:15. Grace be with you all. Amen.

Imparting the final blessing at last, the Apostle says: “grace be with you all.” “He prayerfully wishes them well, that God’s gift, or God’s loving-kindness, may abide with them continually, preserving them by grace and in grace. Or—may grace ever abide with them, who are especially in need of it, guarding both their souls and their bodies in the Holy Spirit” (blessed Theophylact). “As the other Apostles, by the Lord’s word, when entering a house would say: ‘peace to this house’ (Mt. 10:12); and if the house was worthy, their peace rested upon it, while if it proved unworthy, it returned to those who had wished to bless it with their peace: so now holy Paul prayerfully wished grace upon the believers—and this, of course, along with the prayerful wish, had its effect, if those being blessed showed themselves to be what the one blessing them wished them to be.”

Let us add the words of blessed Theodoret, with which he concluded his Commentary on this Epistle. “This the divine Apostle wrote to blessed Titus; but he also provided for all of us the benefit contained herein; for we too, as from a common treasury, draw riches from it. May God grant us also to preserve what has been gathered in Christ Jesus our Lord! To Him, with the Father and the All-Holy Spirit, be glory, honor, and dominion, now and ever and to the ages of ages! Amen.”

Commentary on the Epistle to Philemon

Introduction

1. The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilyevich Govorov in 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Orel province of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. He was schooled first at home, then in the diocesan seminary at Orel, and finally at the Kiev Theological Academy, from which he graduated with distinction. It was there, in 1841, that he received monastic tonsure and the name Theophan—“manifested by God”—and was ordained to the priesthood the same year. There followed two decades of service to the Church that touched nearly every kind of ecclesiastical labor: he taught and governed in the theological schools, served with the Russian mission in Jerusalem, and spent a season attached to the embassy church in Constantinople, where his lifelong love of the Greek Fathers and of the ascetic tradition of the Christian East took firm root.

In 1859 he was consecrated bishop of Tambov, and in 1863 he was transferred to the see of Vladimir. He proved a diligent and much-loved shepherd, founding schools and preaching tirelessly. Yet the pull toward stillness never left him, and in 1866 he asked to be relieved of the burden of a diocese. His request granted, he withdrew to the Vyshensky Hermitage in the Tambov region—the only bishop-recluse in the Russian Church of his age. For a few years he lived there in ordinary monastic community; then, in 1872, he sealed himself into strict reclusion, and did not leave it for the remaining twenty-two years of his life. He built a small chapel with his own hands within his cell, celebrated the Liturgy there alone, and saw almost no one but his confessor and the abbot.

This solitude was anything but idle. From behind the closed door flowed a steady stream of letters—he answered every correspondent who wrote to him, sometimes dozens in a day—and an extraordinary body of books: works of moral and ascetic theology such as The Path to Salvation and What the Spiritual Life Is, translations that gave the Russian-speaking Church its Philokalia and Unseen Warfare, and a great series of commentaries on the Pauline Epistles. He reposed in his cell on the feast of the Theophany, in January 1894, having lived twenty-eight years at Vysha, twenty-two of them in complete seclusion. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints in 1988, and he is commemorated on the tenth of January. He is remembered above all as one of the great teachers of the interior life—a hierarch who left the world’s business not to escape it but to pray for it, and who gave the Church a way of reading Scripture that is at once deeply patristic and warmly practical.

2. The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The Epistle to Philemon is the shortest of Saint Paul’s letters—a single chapter of twenty-five verses—and among the most personal documents in the New Testament. It is not addressed to a congregation wrestling with doctrine or discord, but to one man, about one man, on one delicate matter of the heart.

Philemon was a Christian of some standing in Colossae, converted by Paul himself and so bound to the Apostle, as Paul reminds him, that he owes him “even his own self.” His house served as the gathering place of the local believers—in the phrase from Saint John Chrysostom that Theophan loves to repeat, it was “a haven for all the saints.” Philemon owned a slave named Onesimus, who had wronged him in some way—the letter hints at theft or loss—and had run away, fleeing all the way to Rome, where Paul was then a prisoner. There, whether drawn by others to hear the Apostle or led to him by Epaphras, Onesimus came under the preaching of the Gospel, believed, and was baptized. He became so dear to Paul in his imprisonment that the Apostle calls him “my own heart.”

By the law of that world a runaway slave was wholly at his master’s mercy, and the penalties were severe. Paul will not simply keep the man, useful as he has become; nor will he command Philemon, though as an apostle he could. Instead he sends Onesimus back—now a brother in the faith—carrying this letter and travelling in the company of Tychicus, who bore the Epistle to the Colossians at the same time. Theophan therefore places the writing of Philemon exactly where he places Colossians: during Paul’s Roman imprisonment, about the years 60 to 62. The letter’s single purpose is to move Philemon to receive his returning slave not with the punishment law allowed, but with forgiveness—to receive him “not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.”

In his own opening remarks Theophan notes that although the letter travelled with Colossians, its subject matter sets it naturally beside the Pastoral Epistles, for it offers pastors “a most edifying example of care for the salvation of souls” and of how one ought to act in such circumstances. That pastoral reading governs his whole treatment of the book.

3. Argument and Structure

Short as it is, Theophan observes, the letter has the full architecture of a Pauline epistle, and he divides it into three parts. There is a preface (verses 1–7), containing the salutation and a warm thanksgiving for Philemon’s faith and love; the body (verses 8–21), which is the appeal itself for the merciful reception of Onesimus; and a postscript (verses 22–25), with Paul’s request for lodging, final greetings, and blessing. Because the whole is a single chapter, references throughout are to verse numbers alone.

Theophan then moves through the text a verse or two at a time, and the reader watches him trace the Apostle’s extraordinary tact. Paul opens not by asserting his office but by naming himself “a prisoner of Jesus Christ,” lending his chains their full weight of persuasion—who, Chrysostom asks, hearing of the bonds Paul bears for Christ, could refuse him even a single slave? He gathers co-petitioners: Timothy, and Apphia (probably Philemon’s wife), and Archippus, and even the whole church that meets in the house, so that the request comes from many and is addressed to many. He praises Philemon’s love and faith before he asks anything, and reminds him that the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through him—a man so ready to comfort others will surely wish to comfort the Apostle now.

Only then does Paul make his plea, and Theophan lingers over its artfulness. Paul plays gently on the very name Onesimus, which means “useful”: once useless, he is now useful indeed, both to Paul and to Philemon. He offers to repay from his own hand whatever the runaway owes—“put that on mine account”—while quietly reminding Philemon that he owes Paul a far greater debt, his own soul. He asks confident of more than he asks, sure that Philemon will do even beyond his word. Every touch is calculated not to compel but to win, so that Philemon’s goodness may be, as Paul says, “not as it were of necessity, but willingly.”

The postscript keeps the same warm and confident tone. Paul asks that a lodging be made ready for him, in the hope of being restored to the Colossian believers through their prayers—a hope, Theophan notes, that binds Philemon still closer, since the Apostle he loves may soon be his guest. Greetings follow from his fellow-workers, and a closing blessing of grace. Tradition, Theophan reports, holds that Philemon did just as the Apostle hoped, receiving Onesimus in love and sending him back to Paul a free man; both master and slave are honored by the Church as saints, and the received accounts number each of them, in his own place, among the later bishops and martyrs of the apostolic generation.

4. Theological and Spiritual Significance

For all its brevity and its private occasion, the letter carries a great weight of meaning, and Theophan draws it out along two lines.

The first is intercession. This little epistle is, in his reading, a masterpiece of how a Christian pleads for the fallen—how one who has power to command chooses instead to entreat, covers the debt of the guilty with his own credit, and stakes his own love on the reconciliation of another. Paul stands here, as more than one Father noticed, in the very posture of Christ, who intercedes for sinners before the Father and pays a debt not His own. Read this way the letter becomes a school of mercy, teaching the reader to welcome the penitent, to answer another’s fault with generosity rather than reckoning, and to see the recovery of one soul as worth the full attention of an apostle.

The second is the transformation the Gospel works within the bonds of ordinary life—and here the letter’s treatment of slavery must be read on its own terms rather than through the debates of a later age. Onesimus returns still, in law, a slave, and still answerable to his master; Paul does not annul that legal fact. What the Gospel changes is the deeper relation beneath it. Master and slave are now brothers, members of one body, sons of one spiritual father. Paul asks Philemon to receive Onesimus “above a servant, a brother beloved,” and behind the request stands the word Theophan quotes again and again: “in Christ Jesus there is neither slave nor free.” Christianity, he explains, does not overturn the outward order of society by force or by decree; it transforms that order from within, planting a new spirit in master and slave alike, so that a believing household already lives as a company of kin before God whatever the world’s rankings may say. The Church, Chrysostom adds in a line Theophan preserves, knows no distinction between master and slave except the distinction of virtue and vice.

Theophan is careful, and his sources are careful, to draw this without anachronism. Paul counsels the slave who can gain his freedom to do so, yet tells the one who cannot not to be troubled by his condition, for his true standing is secure in Christ; and he warns against seizing slaves from their masters “under the pretext of piety,” lest the Gospel be blasphemed as a solvent of all social bonds. The point is not indifference to the man’s outward lot—Paul’s whole letter labors for Onesimus’s good—but the conviction that the decisive freedom is interior, and that from that inner renewal the outward relations of life are quietly and surely remade.

5. Reception and Influence

The Fathers found far more in this brief note than its small compass might suggest, and Theophan reads it in their company throughout—chiefly with Saint John Chrysostom, whose homilies on Philemon he quotes at length, but also with Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, Theophylact of Ohrid, Oecumenius, and Ambrosiaster. From Chrysostom he takes up and answers an old objection: whether a letter of such private content deserved a place in the canon of Scripture at all. Chrysostom’s reply, which Theophan endorses with evident pleasure, is that nothing an apostle did was too small to profit the Church—we would gladly know even where they walked and what they ate—and that this letter in particular teaches lessons of the first importance: to care for those the world counts of no account, never to despair of any soul’s conversion, not to wrest slaves from their masters under cover of religion, and not to despise the faithful of low estate. That the Church did in fact receive the letter, and has treasured it ever since, is itself the vindication of Chrysostom’s argument, and it supplies the frame within which Theophan hands the book to his own readers.

6. The Text and This Edition

Theophan composed his commentary on Philemon in Russian, as part of the great series of expositions of the Pauline Epistles that he wrote in his reclusion at Vysha; it circulated within his collected commentaries on the letters to the Thessalonians, to Philemon, and to the Hebrews, and has long stood in the public domain. The present volume offers a fresh, readable English translation made directly from that public-domain Russian text, prepared for study and for unhurried devotional reading.

A few conventions of this edition are worth noting. The translation follows the house practice of traditional attribution: Theophan is named as the Church receives him, and those who rendered his words into English are credited as translators, never as authors. Scripture is given faithfully in the forms Theophan himself used, and the Fathers he weaves into his exposition—Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Oecumenius, Ambrosiaster—are preserved in their place, since for Theophan their voices are not ornament but the substance of the reading. Chapter and verse citations are set in the modern Arabic style familiar to today’s reader. Because the epistle is a single chapter, all references within the commentary are to verse numbers alone. The aim throughout has been to let Theophan speak plainly to a modern English audience while keeping intact the patristic texture and the warm pastoral voice that are the whole character of his work.

7. Suggestions for Reading

Philemon can be read at a single sitting, and this commentary is best read the same way, with the short letter open alongside it and Theophan’s comment taken verse by verse. Let the words he draws from Chrysostom and the others stand as the heart of the reading rather than as digression; they are why the exposition is so rich for so slight a text. Above all, take the letter as Theophan intends it—not as a curiosity of the apostolic past but as a living pattern for the present: of interceding for those who have fallen, of welcoming the one who returns in repentance, and of learning to see in every person, whatever his station, a brother for whom Christ died.

Introduction to the Epistle

The Epistle to Philemon was written and dispatched at the same time as the Epistle to the Colossians. We offer a commentary on the former together with the latter, even though by its content the Epistle to Philemon is very fittingly placed alongside the pastoral epistles, for it gives pastors a most edifying example of the care for the salvation of souls and of how one ought to act in circumstances similar to those with which the epistle deals.

“Philemon was among those who believed; he lived in Colossae, where his house has been preserved to this day,” writes Theodoret. “He was one of the honoured and noble men” (St. John Chrysostom). He was converted to the faith by St. Paul himself, who therefore writes to him: “you owe to me even your own self besides” (v. 19). Where he was converted, there is no indication. One may suppose it was in Ephesus, during the Apostle’s lengthy sojourn there, for Colossae and Ephesus maintained constant relations—commercial and, it seems, administrative. Having believed, St. Philemon did not remain without fruit, but presented in his own person and in his entire household a model of faith and of life according to the faith. St. Paul calls him his “fellow-worker”; hence one must suppose that he contributed considerably to the conversion of his fellow-citizens, now by himself, now together with Epaphras; and he furthered the perseverance of those who had believed by making his house a place of assembly for them, where they were nourished both by teaching and by the sacraments. In general, “his house was a haven for all the saints, and St. Paul testifies that through him ‘the hearts of the saints have been refreshed’ (v. 7)” (St. John Chrysostom). At the time when the epistle was written, there is no indication that he belonged to the ordained ministry. But afterwards, as tradition relates, he became a bishop—according to some, in Colossae itself (Apostolic Constitutions, 7.49); according to others, in Gaza—and received a martyr’s crown under Nero in Colossae, together with Archippus and Apphia, at the hands of the governor of Ephesus. His feast, together with Archippus and Apphia, is on 22 February.

Onesimus was a servant of Philemon (v. 16). Having offended in some way against his master’s interests (vv. 11, 18) and fearing punishment, which in those days was very severe, he fled and made his way to Rome, where St. Paul was then imprisoned. St. Paul may have been known to him from the time of Philemon’s conversion, whom he may have accompanied to Ephesus; for slaves in those days, though under heavy oppression, not infrequently earned positions of trust with their masters and were held in esteem by outsiders. Onesimus is to be counted among such, it seems; hence the Apostle in the Epistle to the Colossians spoke of him as “one of yourselves” (Col 4:9), as a person well known to all and not in ill repute. As Philemon’s trusted servant, he accompanied him everywhere, was with him in Ephesus when Philemon turned to the faith, but he himself remained in unbelief at that time and afterwards—perhaps because there was no occasion for him to think on such things. Now, however, at liberty, he was drawn either with others to hear St. Paul, or perhaps was led to the preaching by Epaphras—or, more truly, the grace of God found a place in him and brought him to the one who could provide healing for his ailing soul. Having listened to St. Paul, he turned to the faith and received in holy baptism the grace of regeneration. St. Paul came to love him greatly, even calling him “my own heart” (v. 12). One must suppose that Onesimus was adorned with most lovable qualities that had been further elevated under the action of grace, and that his transgression against his master was in some way accidental. On account of these qualities, St. Paul wished to retain him at his side, that he might serve him in his bonds; but he resolved not to do this without his master’s consent, though he was confident that Philemon would raise no objection. He therefore resolved to send him back to Philemon, so that the latter, if he found it convenient, might of his own free will return Onesimus to serve the Apostle temporarily in prison (v. 14). At this time it was necessary to send Tychicus to Colossae with the epistle; and St. Paul joined Onesimus to him as a travelling companion.

Though justified by faith and received into the grace of God, Onesimus nonetheless remained answerable before his master. Therefore, in sending him back to Philemon, St. Paul thought it necessary to write to the latter and to ask him to show mercy to his slave—guilty and a runaway—to forgive him and receive him no longer as a slave but as a beloved brother, one spiritually begotten by the same father who had begotten Philemon himself. It is to this persuasion of Philemon that the content and purpose of St. Paul’s epistle to him are devoted.

It is considered very credible that Philemon, himself so generous by nature, fulfilled St. Paul’s desire and, having received Onesimus into his love, sent him back to St. Paul—apparently as a free man. Tradition then considers him bishop of Beroea in Macedonia and a martyr in Rome under Trajan. Onesimus, bishop of Ephesus after St. Timothy, would therefore be a different person. His feast is on 15 February.

These remarks provide an answer to all the customary questions about the epistle: when, where, on what occasion, with what purpose it was written, and what it contains. But some raise the question whether it was worthwhile to include in the canon of sacred books an epistle of such private content. We offer the resolution of this question as proposed by St. John Chrysostom. “Some say that this epistle ought not to have been joined to the canon of sacred books, since it concerns a trivial matter, merely one individual; but let those who express such disapproval know that they themselves deserve much reproach. For not only such brief epistles, written about such ordinary subjects, should have been received (into the canon); it would be desirable that someone were able to recount for us the full history of the Apostles, so that not only what they wrote and said, but all else of their manner of life—what they ate and when they ate, when they sat and where they went, what they did each day, in what lands they were, what houses they entered, and where they sailed—might be set forth in detail. Such great benefit is contained in everything they did! But many do not know the benefit that derives from this, and therefore voice their disapproval. If, gazing only at lifeless places where they sat or were bound, we often turn there in our thoughts, contemplate their virtues, and are roused from our own heedlessness and become more zealous—how much more would it be so if we were to hear their words and other deeds? If about a friend, everyone asks where he lives, what he does, where he is going—should we not, tell me, know all this about the universal teachers of the world? He who lives spiritually—his clothing, his gait, his words, his deeds, everything in general, brings benefit to those who hear; and there is no obstacle or difficulty in this. Moreover, it is useful for you to know that this epistle touches on matters of necessity. See, then, how much good is contained within it.” The indication of lessons drawn from this epistle is stated more briefly by Blessed Theophylact, guided throughout by St. John Chrysostom. “In the first place,” he writes, “it teaches us to have concern even for those who are, seemingly, of little account—as the Lord also says: ‘Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones’ (Mt 18:10); in the second place—that if a slave so unreasonable and ill-disposed has been converted, no one ought to despair, and especially those who have grown up in freedom; in the third place—that one ought not, under the pretext of piety, to wrest slaves from their masters against the masters’ will; in the fourth place—that one ought not to treat virtuous slaves with contempt, nor be ashamed of them, since St. Paul calls Onesimus his own child.” Let us add to this: St. Paul said more than once in his epistles that in Christ Jesus “there is neither slave nor free.” From his manner of acting toward Onesimus we see that his word was not a bare word, but was the expression of the substance of the matter. The grace of God so united all believers that in the depths of their hearts they considered themselves kin brothers and sisters, of whatever rank or station they might be. And the Saviour pointed to certain other laws of spiritual kinship, saying: Who is my mother and who are my brothers?—Hence it follows that in Christianity a change of outward position is of no account and is not required. Christianity is entirely directed toward the ordering of the spirit, not of the outward position, bringing its Christian spirit everywhere and by that spirit alone opening the entrance into the Kingdom of God to all. “Therefore,”—to conclude with the words of St. John Chrysostom—“the blessed Paul also gives slaves this excellent counsel: ‘Are you called being a slave? care not for it’ (1Cor 7:21), that is, remain in slavery. And most necessary of all is that the word of God be not blasphemed, as St. Paul says in another epistle: ‘Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed’ (1Tim 6:1). Even pagans will say that a slave also can please God; otherwise many would be forced to blaspheme and say that Christianity overturns the entire order of life by taking slaves away from masters and doing violence.—After such merits, though we have not said everything, will anyone still think that this epistle has been included (in the canon of sacred books) in vain? Would that not be the height of folly? So then, I entreat you, let us hear the epistle written by the Apostle with attention; having already received so much benefit from it, we shall receive still more at the reading itself.”

Despite being so short, this epistle in its outward form has everything that the larger epistles have: it has its own 1) preface, vv. 1–7, and 3) postscript, vv. 22–25, and 2) the body of the epistle—the petition to receive graciously the erring but penitent slave—vv. 8–21.

The epistle consists of one chapter in its entirety; all references are to verse numbers only.—Ed.

1. The Preface

Phlm 1:1–2. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our dearly beloved and fellowlabourer, and to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in your house.

“A prisoner.” When writing to the Colossians, St. Paul called himself an Apostle, but here, in place of any title, he calls himself a prisoner. This is because there it was necessary to act with apostolic authority, while here he comes to make a request—and to a request nothing gives greater force than suffering and deprivation endured for a cause that is dear also to the one being addressed. Yet even compassion alone for the prisoner could intercede on behalf of the request. “He says this not to exalt himself, but to accomplish what is beneficial and to persuade—not for his own sake, but that he might the more readily obtain mercy for another. He says as it were: for your sake I am bound by these chains”—just as he says elsewhere: “the prisoner… for you Gentiles” (Eph 3:1); “for the gospel I suffer even to bonds” (2Tim 2:9). For him there is no higher praise than to be called a sufferer for Christ: “For I,” he said, “bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus” (Gal 6:17). “A prisoner of Jesus Christ”—because he was bound for His sake. Hearing of the bonds of Christ, who would not feel ashamed, who would not be moved, who would not give his very soul, and not merely one slave? (St. John Chrysostom). “The Apostle called himself ‘a prisoner,’ lending his bonds the greatest force to his petition. For your sake, he says, I am bound in chains. Had I loved ease and not gone throughout the world offering the Gospel to all people, I would not have experienced this” (Theodoret). “By this he greatly inclines the hearer toward his petition, showing that it is right to do a favour to one who is held in bonds for Christ” (Theophylact).

“And Timothy our brother.” “The Apostle (as though considering himself insufficient to obtain the favour—Theophylact) adds another as a co-petitioner, so that Philemon, hearing the request from many, might be the more inclined to show mercy” (St. John Chrysostom).

“To Philemon our dearly beloved and fellowlabourer.” These words go straight to Philemon’s heart and, even before the petition is set forth, already incline him toward it. Love compels one to do what is pleasing to the one who loves, for friendship’s sake; and partnership in work compels one for the sake of advancing the common cause. “If he is ‘dearly beloved,’ then the hope placed in him is not presumption or folly, but a sign of great friendship; if he is a ‘fellowlabourer,’ then he ought not only to receive such petitions but to be thankful for them, since through this he does good to himself as well, advancing the same work as others. Thus, even without a petition, the Apostle says, you have yet another motive for showing mercy: if Onesimus is useful for the Gospel, and you show zeal for the Gospel, then you ought not to wait for a petition but to ask it yourself” (St. John Chrysostom). Philemon is a co-worker in the cause of the Gospel, though there is no indication that he was adorned with any degree of the clergy. “Although he did not belong to the clergy, yet since out of love for Christ he assisted the Church of believers in every way, the Apostle calls him a sharer in his labours. And there are many such who, being worthy, decline the priesthood, considering themselves unequal to fulfilling that ministry as they ought. But for that very reason they prove themselves the most worthy of it” (Ambrosiaster).

“And to our beloved Apphia.” “She seems to me to have been Philemon’s wife” (St. John Chrysostom). “He praises Philemon by calling him a fellowlabourer; he joins his wife to him as a companion in the faith; it was probably the case that she, if not mentioned, would have worked against what is written in the epistle. The blessed Paul called her ‘beloved,’ as one adorned with faith, and let no one be surprised at this, even though some today take offence at such a greeting; for having misused the very thing, they have made the name reproachful; but in antiquity this word was honourable and praiseworthy” (Theodoret).

“And Archippus our fellowsoldier.” A fellowsoldier—one who serves in the same army as the Apostle. The Apostles waged war against ignorance and impiety, and with the heavenly weapons of their warfare brought all into subjection to the yoke of faith in Christ. In this same spirit and direction Archippus too made warfare, within a limited sphere among the Colossians. That is why St. Paul called him a fellowsoldier. He was entrusted with the teaching and governance of the church at Colossae—one must suppose, after Philemon declined this. But what was he to Philemon?—Son, brother, uncle, friend? It is evident that he belonged to the same household. But whoever he may have been, it is enough to know that he was a person worthy of having the care of an entire church entrusted to him. St. John Chrysostom says of him: “This is the same Archippus of whom Paul says in the Epistle to the Colossians: ‘And say to Archippus: Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you fulfil it’ (Col 4:17). It seems to me that he was among the clergy (‘the teaching was entrusted to him’—Theodoret); therefore the Apostle also directs his petition to him and calls him ‘fellowsoldier,’ so as to achieve his aim with his assistance. For if he is a ‘fellowsoldier,’ he ought to take part here also (as if to say: you fight together in the work of the Gospel—fight here also). Observe the humility of Paul: he joins Timothy to himself in his petition, and entreats not the husband alone but also the wife, and yet another, apparently a friend. He does not seek to achieve what he desires by command, nor does he show displeasure if Philemon should not immediately obey his directive, but acts as though he were a person of no standing, arranging for them also to do the same and to support his petition; for not only a request from many, but also a request addressed to many, contributes to obtaining what is sought.”

“And to the church in your house.” “The Apostle calls ‘the church’ all the believers who are in the house, including in this number the slaves as well” (Theophylact). He does not overlook the slaves, for he knew that even the words of slaves can sometimes persuade their master—especially when the petition concerns a slave; moreover, perhaps they were particularly fanning the master’s indignation against Onesimus. The Apostle, by honouring them with a greeting together with the masters, forestalls any envy they might have felt toward the one being shown mercy (“but disposes them also to become co-advocates in persuasion, having been honoured with apostolic esteem”—Theodoret). At the same time he gave the master no ground for offence. Had he named the slaves by name, the master might perhaps have taken offence; but had he made no mention of them at all, perhaps the master would have been dissatisfied. Therefore, see how wisely Paul, in mentioning the slaves, both honoured them by his remembrance and did not irritate the master. For the designation “church” (of the whole household) does not allow masters to take offence when they are placed together with slaves. Truly the Church knows no distinction between master and slave; she distinguishes one from the other by virtue and vice. Therefore, if (your house) is a church, do not take offence that a slave is placed together with you; for “in Christ Jesus… there is neither slave nor free” (Gal 3:28)—(St. John Chrysostom).

Phlm 1:3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Grace and peace”—St. Paul’s customary salutatory well-wishes. Grace—to salvation, and every good thing is from it. Peace—the sum of all the blessings of the gracious economy of salvation: namely, the calming of the course of the inner life, ordinarily tossed about like dust by the passions that hold sway therein; reconciliation with the course of outward life in all its relations, pleasant and unpleasant; and, above all, peace with God in Christ Jesus, gladdening the soul with an unshakeable hope of eternal blessedness. In every epistle, depending on its purposes, these well-wishes may bear their own particular shades, more or less emphatic. For the present epistle, here is what St. John Chrysostom discerns in “grace and peace,” beyond their general significance: “By reminding of ‘grace,’ the Apostle recalls to Philemon’s memory his own sins. Consider, he says as it were, how many sins the Lord has forgiven you, how you are saved by grace, and imitate the Lord. He prays for ‘peace’ to be granted him—and rightly so; for peace comes when we imitate the Lord, when grace abides with us. So that unmerciful servant who was not yet demanding of his fellow servant the hundred denarii still enjoyed his master’s mercy; but when he began to demand them, he was deprived of it and handed over to the tormentors (Mt 18:34).”

b) The Opening of the Epistle (Phlm 1:4–7)

“Not immediately, and not at the very beginning of the epistle, does the Apostle ask for mercy, but first he expressed admiration for this man and praised him for his virtues; he also presented a considerable proof of his own love for him in that he always remembers him in his prayers; and he said that many find rest with him and that toward all he shows meekness and faith; and then at last he begins his word concerning mercy, and thus persuades him with particular force. For if others obtain from him what they request, then so much the more will Paul; if, having come before others, he would have been worthy to receive what is asked, then so much the more after others—and, besides, asking not for himself but for another” (St. John Chrysostom).

Phlm 1:4. I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers.

Every time I pray, he says, I remember you in my prayer, and in remembering you I give thanks to my God for you. By saying that he gives thanks to God for Philemon, he gives him to understand that he is pleased with him, that he acknowledges him as fully mature in the Christian life—and thereby cheers him and inspires him to greater goodness, which is not foreign to the purpose of the epistle. But by thus lifting Philemon’s spirit with him before the face of God in this act of thanksgiving, he teaches him to see in God the source of his own perfections, and to be humbled all the more in awareness of them rather than to think highly of himself—striving in every way, as the Apostle does, to show himself thankful before God: which is likewise not far from the purpose of the epistle; for one ought to give thanks not in word alone but above all in deeds pleasing to God, one of which the Apostle will presently set forth.

Phlm 1:5. Hearing of your love and faith, which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints.

What, then, were the qualities of Philemon—with which God had adorned him—that stirred in the Apostle feelings of gratitude to God?—Faith and love. I hear, he says, that you are an exemplary Christian, that you hold the faith rightly and firmly, and that you abound in works of love—and I give thanks to God “for your goodness” (Theophylact); for I acknowledge, as you yourself surely recognise, that the grace of God has made you such. He said “love and faith,” and then “toward the Lord and toward the saints.” Toward the saints one can and ought to manifest both love and faith, just as toward the Lord; but according to the commonly established way of thinking, faith calls to mind the Lord, as being naturally directed toward Him, while love calls to mind the holy brethren, as being most exercised in relation to them. Love toward God as well becomes visible in love toward the holy brethren. Therefore, when one reading this passage distributes in his mind what is contained in it thus—faith toward the Lord and love toward the saints—this cannot be considered inconsistent with the Apostle’s words. Our commentators paraphrase this passage in precisely this sense. Blessed Theodoret writes: “I glorify the God of all, for I hear what faith you have conceived in the saving Master, and how great a love you bear, and what services you bestow upon those who honour things divine.” The same in Ambrosiaster: “The Apostle says that he rejoices and offers thanks to God in his prayers because Philemon was firm in the faith and diligent in good works.”

“Hearing”—hearing constantly, as though someone were ever repeating it in his ears. At these words Philemon might have thought of Epaphras as the one who had praised him; but Onesimus too might have come to his mind—perhaps the Apostle had precisely him in view when saying this, and had him in view because such was indeed the case. Onesimus had praised his master before St. Paul, setting forth his good qualities so as to dispose the Apostle to write to him. Epaphras confirmed this; and the epistle is written in full confidence of its success—to which the word “hearing” was not a little to contribute. But even apart from this, the mention of Philemon’s goodness toward all the faithful seemed already to bind him beforehand to show the same goodness also toward Onesimus, who had now become one of the faithful. Blessed Theophylact sets forth the thought the Apostle presumably had in mind at this point in the following terms: “Since you love all the saints—that is, the faithful—you ought to love Onesimus as well, for he too is now one of the faithful, so that through this you may show yourself a lover of the Lord also. Do you see what compelling thoughts he gathers in Philemon’s mind toward the satisfaction of the petition?”

Phlm 1:6. That the communication of your faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

These words may be related to St. Paul’s prayer thus: I pray, “that,” and so forth—or to Philemon’s doing of good, thus: you have faith and love, moved to this in order “that,” and so forth. All our commentators see here the continuation of St. Paul’s prayer. I give thanks to God, hearing of your love and faith, and I pray that your works of love may abound more and more, and that your faith may be shown effectual. St. John Chrysostom says: “I pray—he says—‘that the communication of your faith may become effectual.’ (In what and how?) ‘By the acknowledging of every good thing’—that is, that you may attain to every virtue, that you may lack nothing. Faith becomes effectual when it is accompanied by works. For ‘faith without works is dead’ (Jac 2:26). He did not say: your faith, but ‘the communication of your faith’ (your faith which you hold in common with us), uniting him with himself and suggesting that they are one body—and by this persuading him with particular force. If you, he says, are my companion in faith, you ought to be a companion in everything else as well.” Blessed Theodoret expresses this same thought briefly in general terms: “I ask and pray the common Benefactor to grant you perfect possession of good things.” And Oecumenius introduces into his commentary word by word: “that the communication of the faith”—uniting him with himself, (the Apostle) says as it were: the faith that is common (to you and me) and unifying. But (someone may ask) why do you thus give thanks to God (or for what do you so pray)?—“That,” he says, “the communication of your faith may become effectual.” How will it become effectual?—Through your knowing and doing of every good. “In Christ Jesus” (in Christ, or for Christ Jesus). For he who does good to any person does it to Christ—especially when he does it to His saints. The blessed Theophylact gathered all these thoughts together and presents them as follows: “I give thanks—the Apostle says—to God for your love, praying also that your faith, which you hold in common with us, may be ‘effectual’—active and alive—in your knowing of every good work, that is, in that you may love it and bring it to action. For faith is then alive when we apply ourselves to every good work, as it is dead when it is without good works. The Apostle added also ‘which is in you,’ to show that Philemon even now already has every good work in him—as if to say: in the knowing of every good work, already now present in you, that is, in you. Having said ‘the communication of faith,’ St. Paul unites Philemon with himself and makes them one. A shared faith is also one that unifies, so that you ought to be of one mind with me (to look upon things and persons as I do). Or by ‘the communication of faith’ he means almsgiving, which comes from great faith. And so the Apostle says: I remember you in prayer, praying that your disposition to share and to give generously may never cease, but that you may pour out upon those in need every good thing ‘which is in you’—that is, which you have.—‘In Christ Jesus.’ Whatever good you do to those in need, and especially to the saints, ascends to Christ Jesus, he says. So also now, if you receive Onesimus and give me this satisfaction, you will be doing it to Christ Himself.”

If these words are referred to Philemon, the flow of thought will be as follows: I give thanks to God in my prayers concerning you, hearing of your love and faith—toward the Lord and toward the saints—which you possess, moved to this by the desire not to allow your faith to remain idle and inoperative, but always to keep it effectual. “The communication of faith” will then mean: that you have left paganism and entered into communion with the Lord and with those who believe in Him—that you have partaken of the Christian faith. Having partaken of the one true faith, you have been zealous and continue to be zealous that it not remain idle and ineffective in you, but be operative; you are not content merely to bear the name of Christian, but strive in very deed to be one, to be truly what this faith requires. What then motivates and animates him to live and act thus?—The consciousness of the great blessings received from the faith. The word “by the acknowledging”—in the recognition, in the awareness. Having come to know and being aware of how many blessings he received in believing in the Lord, he himself is zealous for every good, zealous to act so that his faith may be operative, so as to show that he has not been counted worthy of the communion of faith in vain, but bears fruit. He says: in the awareness of “every good thing.” Not one blessing alone has been received, but every kind: the forgiveness of sins, the knowledge of the full truth, the grace of the Holy Spirit building up good dispositions in the heart, peace and joy in the Spirit, and above all the unfailing promise of the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, with its faithful first-fruits even here. Being conscious of all this, you strive to show yourself grateful to the Benefactor by doing every good. “Which is in you”—you do not see such blessings in others, as though from afar. They are before your eyes, in each of you and in yourself. Instead of “in you” many now read “in us,” meaning Christians in general. The spiritual blessings of the Christian faith were universal, and everyone experienced them. In response to why you have passed over to the Christians, one could boldly answer: do you see how many blessings it gives?—How can one not prefer it to all other faiths?—Here in connection with the words “by the acknowledging of every good thing” there is also the possible thought: so that others not yet believing might come to understand how many blessings are in our faith, and thereby be moved to acknowledge it as the one true faith and to come over and cleave to it.—“In Christ Jesus”—may be understood in two ways. The words will then stand in direct connection with the immediately preceding: in the awareness of every good thing received in Christ Jesus, through the economy of salvation accomplished and established by Him. Or “in” may be left in its proper sense—as indicating the goal and direction of actions. Then it must be referred to—“may become effectual”—that the communication of your faith may become effectual for Christ Jesus, in pleasing Him, to the glory of His name, and in furthering the work of the salvation of all, accomplished and being accomplished by Christ Jesus.

Phlm 1:7. For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints are refreshed by you, brother.

The Apostle shows what moves him to give thanks to God for Philemon and to pray that he may grow ever better and better, saying as it were: your active love rejoices and consoles me—not merely because it is a mirror of your Christian perfection, but above all because you give rest to all the brethren. St. Paul was in such a living union with all believers that everything that happened to them he received as though it were happening to himself: he rejoiced when all went well with them, grieved when anyone was oppressed by sorrow and need, and was comforted when someone relieved the lot of the sorrowful and needy. So too here: he rejoiced in Philemon’s goodness and in his own sorrowful bonds found consolation in the fact that Philemon had refreshed the hearts of the saints—as though by that his own heart were being refreshed. “We not only rejoice (for you), but are also comforted (on account of those who have been refreshed), because they are our members” (St. John Chrysostom).

But why did St. Paul write of this?—Because it bore very directly upon the purpose of the epistle. Such words suggested to Philemon that if the Apostle, so beloved and honoured, is comforted when he does something for others, how much more comfort will there be for him if he does something for the Apostle himself. If St. Paul addressed himself to Philemon as to a son, and Philemon loved and honoured the Apostle as a father, then precisely such a compelling thought would naturally have arisen in Philemon and would already have disposed him to satisfy the petition even before it was made. St. John Chrysostom says: “If there ought to be such accord among us that those in sorrow, even when they themselves receive nothing, ought to rejoice upon seeing others comforted—since one body has been benefited—how much more (shall we rejoice) if you comfort us as well.”

“I have”—we have. One may allow that St. Paul had in mind St. Timothy, whom he had taken as a co-author of the letter, or others who were with him. But it is more probable that he speaks here of himself alone; therefore the Slavonic translation correctly renders the force of the Apostle’s thought, even though it does not preserve the literal reading.

“The hearts of the saints are refreshed” refers not only to the giving of rest to travellers and the poor by providing them with what they need—though this appears to be primarily what is meant—but in general to every act of beneficence, both spiritual and material, and toward all: both one’s own and strangers, both those oppressed by need and those with only some small need. Blessed Theodoret writes, speaking as if in the Apostle’s voice: “I am filled with every kind of joy, that you render services of every kind to the saints.” But is it not better to see in this expression not the breadth of the beneficence, but the force and warmth of disposition with which every good was done? So St. John Chrysostom: “He did not say: you are kind, you are yielding; but he speaks more forcefully and expressively: ‘the hearts of the saints are refreshed by you.’” Blessed Theophylact completes this thought: “He did not say simply: you give to the saints; but ‘you refresh the hearts of the saints’—that is, that they receive your charity with their whole soul, as something offered to them abundantly and with gladsome welcome.”

2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

In this appeal, the Apostle sets forth the most compelling motives for its fulfillment, removing every possible objection that might be raised against it.

Phlm 1:8–9. Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what ought to be done, yet for love’s sake I rather beseech you, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

Here every word introduces a fresh motive, and all of them rest upon the person of the Apostle himself. The first is apostolic authority. Although St. Paul declines to act by virtue of that authority in this particular case, the very mention of it reawakened in Philemon’s soul an awareness of his obligation to obey him as an Apostle, even apart from all the other motives adduced. This authority is placed by the Apostle at the very end of his other arguments, yet it is not hidden by them—it remains visible and governs all the rest, lending each of them its own special force. Bl. Theodoret expresses the Apostle’s thought thus: “I could,” says the Apostle, “have dealt boldly with you, as with one who holds the faith ardently, and commanded you by right of a teacher; but I do not do so, and instead address you with a request.”

“Therefore.” For what reason?—For the reason stated just before. Since you are such a man as refreshes the hearts of the saints in every way, I have no need to strain myself to act upon you by apostolic authority. It is enough merely to remind you of a need, and you will certainly not refuse to meet it. For if you do so for others, you will do so all the more willingly for me.

“Having boldness.” “The natural law of justice teaches that it is fitting for a teacher to give commands to a disciple” (Ambrosiaster). And the Apostle evidently had in mind to invoke this principle in Philemon’s awareness; but since this might have appeared harsh, he softens it in every possible way. “Having boldness,” he says. Boldness—that is, access, the freedom to speak to someone. He presents Philemon as a great man to whom not everyone has free access, while placing himself in the rank of ordinary persons, suggesting thereby that whatever special standing he has before Philemon compared to others depends on Philemon himself: it is Philemon who has given him such free access to himself. Then he adds: “in Christ.” These words could also suggest: having authority in Christ as an Apostle of Christ, I could command you—and you above all others, since I gave you birth to new life in Christ. But since he used the word “boldness” rather than “authority,” the words “in Christ” also point toward this thought: by reason of your strong faith in Christ the Lord, I have the boldness to set before you all that is well-pleasing to the Lord—not by apostolic authority, but in confidence of your ardent faith in Christ the Lord, having boldness, or access, to speak to you. And the word “to command” is used by way of softening, for it also means to give an instruction, as it were to propose: “would you be so good as.” And “what is fitting”—that which is proper and suitable—serves the same end. St. John Chrysostom says: “See how he is careful lest even what is said from great love should strike the listener and offend him. Therefore, before saying ‘to command you’—for such an expression was harsh, though being spoken from love it could very easily have achieved its aim—he, out of an excess of caution, adds the qualification: ‘having boldness,’ and by this shows that Philemon was a great man, as if saying: you yourself have given us this boldness; then he adds ‘in Christ,’ and by this shows that he speaks thus to Philemon on account of his faith in Christ; and only then does he say ‘to command you’—and not only that, but also ‘what is fitting,’ that is, a just matter. See how many arguments he uses to persuade Philemon: you show beneficence to others, show it also to me, and moreover for Christ’s sake—and because the matter is just, and because (as follows) love requires it.”

The second motive is love. “Yet for love’s sake I rather beseech.” “For the sake of the love with which I love you and with which I am loved by you” (Oecumenius). I set my authority aside. I turn to you with the face of love—brotherly, friendly, fatherly. Since the matter concerns a work of love, who can intercede for it more victoriously than love itself? It is love, therefore, that I set before you as the advocate for my petition. For love’s sake I ask. All other advocates (motives) achieve success slowly; but love acts swiftly and powerfully. I employ it because I am earnestly desirous of success in my petition. If you love, and if you value my love, do as I ask. St. John Chrysostom writes: “The Apostle speaks as if to say: from past examples I know that, even if I command with great authority, I shall be heard; but because I am especially solicitous about this matter, ‘for love’s sake I beseech.’ Here he simultaneously expresses both things: both that he trusts in him, which is why he commands—and that he is especially solicitous about this matter, which is why he beseeches ‘for love’s sake.’”

The third, fourth, and fifth motives. “Being such a one.” “‘I beseech,’ being,” he says, “such as one ought to be who has the power to incline another to his petition” (Oecumenius). What is it in his person that is so compelling?—“Paul—an aged man—a prisoner.” “See how many compelling motives! ‘Paul’—from the qualities of his person; from age, that he is ‘aged’; and from what is most just of all (what most establishes a right to be heard)—that he is also ‘a prisoner of Jesus Christ’” (St. John Chrysostom).

“Paul.” “This single word is sufficient to persuade and incline” (Oecumenius). “See who the petitioner is; the mere mention of the name is enough to inspire reverence even in the most obstinate. Whoever hears ‘Paul’ hears the name of the preacher of the world, who has cultivated land and sea, the chosen vessel—and so forth, for the enumeration of which a thousand tongues would be required” (Theodoret).

“The aged.” “The Apostle added also that he is ‘aged,’ pointing to the grey hairs won through labors, and thereby lending greater persuasive force to his word” (Theodoret).

“And now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.” “Honor Paul; honor his old age; honor the chains by which I am bound as a preacher of the truth” (Theodoret). “Who would not receive with open arms a champion crowned for his contests? Who, seeing one bound for Christ’s sake, would not render him a thousand services?” (St. John Chrysostom).

Phlm 1:10. I beseech you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds.

He indicates the object of his petition and at the same time surrounds it with such qualifications as must, despite all resistance, dispose the hearer in favor of the request. Philemon had already been sufficiently prepared for compliance by what had gone before; but if after all that the Apostle had suddenly mentioned Onesimus—whose memory was likely still bitter and painful for Philemon—it would have undone everything that the earlier words had accomplished. This is why the Apostle first tells him what Onesimus now is, thereby veiling the earlier unsavory image of him by evoking the most appealing and tender associations: “my son—a son born in bonds.” After these words, even if the name Onesimus might still stir some unpleasant feeling and an impulse toward severity, yet since he could not be touched without touching St. Paul himself, any harshness on the master’s part toward the slave was disarmed by love and reverence for the Apostle, who had so intimately taken to himself this once-unprofitable slave—now, however, made profitable—as to reckon him his own son. St. John Chrysostom says: “Having thus softened (by what was said above) the soul of Philemon, the Apostle does not at once announce the name of the slave, but even after such a request continues to delay. You know how great is the anger of masters toward runaway slaves, especially if flight was accompanied by theft, how fiercely they are provoked, even when they are good masters. Therefore Paul strives to soften him by every argument; and when he has aroused in him a readiness to do whatever might be asked and has prepared his soul for complete compliance, only then does he fully reveal his petition.”

“I beseech you.” “It is no great thing if some ordinary person bows his head, but it is worthy of praise when a man of eminence humbles himself. The Apostle beseeches one to whom he had authority to give commands, in order to give in all things an example to those who aspire to perfection” (Ambrosiaster). I beseech—“for my son.” “Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord?” (Ps 105:2). Who can worthily praise God’s love for mankind? He who deserved punishment as a pilferer of his master’s goods suddenly became Paul’s son (Theodoret). Both the humble word “beseech” and this heartfelt phrase “for my son” were bound to act upon Philemon’s heart with irresistible force—for Philemon himself knew that he was St. Paul’s own spiritual son. Loving St. Paul, he could not fail to be disposed kindly toward his son, even though he himself did not stand in the same relation to him. Now Paul’s son was bound to appear to him in a new light—no longer as a slave but as a brother. The Apostle calls him so a little later, but here he confines himself to pointing out Onesimus as his own son. “Thus the Apostle not only quells his anger but also kindles in him a feeling of goodwill; for I would not call him a son, he says, if he were not very trustworthy. As I called Timothy, so also I call him” (St. John Chrysostom).

“Whom I have begotten in my bonds.” “Even bonds did not prevent spiritual begetting” (Theodoret). “I have begotten”—by regenerating him through water and the Spirit. “I announced the Gospel to him, and when he believed, I commanded him to be baptized in the laver of regeneration” (Bl. Theophylact). “He who took refuge in the divine help, St. Paul, being held in custody in the city of Rome, baptized him, foreseeing in him a vessel well fitted for use” (Ambrosiaster). “I have begotten him in my bonds.” He mentions this as a mother mentions the pains of childbirth. Every child begotten is precious; how much more precious is one born under difficult circumstances. “Again, for the purpose of persuasion, the Apostle refers to the bonds, saying as it were: Onesimus is worthy of great honor also because he was born in the midst of the very contests; he must be loved especially because he was born amid trials endured for Christ. For it is well known that we cherish a particular love for children born during dangers which we ourselves have escaped. Thus Rachel called the beloved Benjamin ‘the son of her pain’ (Gen 35:18)” (St. John Chrysostom).

“Onesimus.” Behold—only now at last does he name him! (St. John Chrysostom). By its etymology, Onesimus means “profitable” or “useful.” Was it not this meaning that gave St. Paul occasion to add further that if he had been unprofitable, this was a thing of the past; now he is no longer so, and no longer bears such a name in vain.

Phlm 1:11. Who in time past was to you unprofitable, but now profitable to you and to me, whom I have sent again.

Had the Apostle said all that precedes without mentioning Onesimus, there is no doubt that he would have received immediate and unchallenged compliance with his petition. But when he mentioned Onesimus, although Philemon, out of love and reverence for the Apostle, may well have resolved at once in his mind to do what the Apostle desired, yet, humanly speaking, he could not have been free from certain thoughts powerful enough to trouble his heart and prevent him from executing such a resolution with tranquility of spirit. He might have been troubled by such thoughts as: such a worthless person—how can one receive him? Moreover, he ran away and stole (if he did steal) such-and-such. What hope can one have in him? The Apostle knew that such troubled thoughts would arise, and, not wishing whatever good Philemon might do to be accomplished with a sense of burden, as under a yoke, but rather to be done willingly and with a peaceful disposition, he hastens to dispel such thoughts. Since the most vexing among them is that Onesimus had shown himself unprofitable, St. Paul dwells on this point first, and at greatest length.

He speaks as if to say: the thought may occur to you—receive such a worthless person?! I do not deny that he was worthless; but he was, not is. Now, having received the grace of regeneration, he has determined, having renounced all that is evil, to live temperately and righteously and godly; and he thinks no longer about anything unprofitable, but only about “whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue and if there is any praise” (Phil 4:8). Such a one can no longer be reckoned unprofitable, nor should one fear anything ill from him again; on the contrary, one ought not to let him go, in order to make use of his good services, for which he is ready and fitted now more than he ever was before. Such thoughts St. Paul wished to kindle in Philemon’s mind by calling Onesimus profitable both to him and to himself. St. John Chrysostom says: “See with what wisdom he confesses the slave’s fault and by so doing quells the master’s anger. I know, he says, that he was unprofitable; ‘but now profitable to you and to me.’ He did not say: he will from now on be profitable, but—he already is such, and not to you only, but to me as well.” (“He has become devout and holy, and therefore profitable to us both”—Bl. Theophylact.) The Apostle added his own person so that the hopes regarding the servant might be more credible. For if he is profitable to Paul, who requires great integrity in all things, he will be all the more so to his master.

“Whom I have sent again.” Had the Apostle retained Onesimus with himself, the foregoing commendation would not have set Philemon’s mind at rest. He might have thought: that is how he appears to you there; but perhaps he has no wish to know me. The Apostle forestalls such a thought by sending Onesimus back, saying to him in effect: here, see for yourself what he is now. St. John Chrysostom says: “And by this too he quells the master’s anger—by returning the slave to him; for masters are especially angered when others intercede on behalf of absent slaves: by this very act he has further set Philemon at rest.” He speaks as it were: I have caught your runaway, but I send him to you not in chains hand and foot; he will come to you of his own accord, on his own feet. For his part, Onesimus himself, by coming voluntarily to the master before whom he stood guilty, showed his complete trust in that master’s goodness and disposed him favorably toward himself. In the manner of this return he very much resembled the prodigal son coming back to his father. If this thought occurred to Philemon—and it could hardly fail to occur to him—it might well have disposed him to present himself, in receiving the runaway slave, as an imitator of the father who received the prodigal son.

Phlm 1:12. Whom I have sent again: you therefore receive him, that is, mine own heart.

“Again he does not simply use his name, but adds the most convincing of expressions, one that is more tender than the word ‘son.’ ‘Mine own heart.’ By this he expresses his great love for him. He did not say: take him; he did not say: do not be angry; but—‘receive him,’ that is, he is worthy not merely of pardon, but of honor—why?—Because he has become Paul’s son” (St. John Chrysostom). For the Apostle by the words “mine own heart” wished to express: “he is my son, begotten of my very heart” (Theodoret). “And by saying ‘receive him,’ he implied: receive him with love” (Oecumenius). “Receive him”—as though saying: open your arms to him and press him to your heart. “In receiving him, you will receive not him but my very heart: so dearly do I love him that I always carry him in my heart” (Bl. Theophylact).

Phlm 1:13. Whom I would have retained with me, that in your stead he might have ministered to me in the bonds of the gospel.

He confirms how profitable Onesimus has become—so profitable, in fact, that I wished to keep him with me, he says, so that he might minister to me in bonds; meaning that he considered him both faithful, so that he can be relied upon in all things, and so prudent that he can do everything as it ought to be done—and one can therefore be entirely at peace in his care. To similar assurance the following words could also contribute: that he might minister to me in your stead. For they also suggest this thought: you yourself could not have served me better. So imperceptibly does St. Paul raise Onesimus to the level of his master Philemon. “See what is the power of the Gospel: it has made the servant equal to the master,” cries Theodoret. “See what wisdom is in the Apostle! How little by little he placed the servant in the master’s position!” add Oecumenius and Bl. Theophylact.

But the Apostle had not only one purpose in mind when addressing these words to Philemon—namely, to assure him of Onesimus’s trustworthiness. Beyond this, he intended to dispose Philemon to receive Onesimus with a degree of honor, as one who had rendered a service to Philemon himself. Philemon was bound to serve the Apostle, as a disciple to a teacher, and there is no doubt he was conscious of this obligation. If we suppose that, in his great love for St. Paul, he had yearned to serve him and, lacking the opportunity to fulfill such a desire, was grieved about it—then we cannot but agree that it was very gratifying for him to hear that his servant, though once unprofitable, though acting without his will or direction, had served in his stead before the Apostle. The circumstance is not of great importance in itself, but it is precious to him because St. Paul himself looks upon that service in precisely this light—brief as it was, from the time of conversion until Onesimus’s departure. After this it was natural for him to meet Onesimus as one who had rendered him a personal service. St. John Chrysostom says: “Do you see how many arguments he employs beforehand in order afterward to inspire in the master respect for him? See with what wisdom he does this too; see how he puts one under obligation and bestows honor upon the other. You see, he says, that through him you yourself render me a service.” Bl. Theophylact presses the same exhortation further: “If you are bound to serve me, and he does this in your stead, then evidently there is profit to you from this.”

Phlm 1:14. But without your mind would I do nothing; that your benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.

As though the Apostle hears an objection: you say he is so trustworthy that you wished to keep him with yourself, and yet you hasten to send him away from you; evidently his trustworthiness is not altogether reliable.—Not so, says St. Paul. This sending him back to you has an entirely different meaning and a different motive. I do not doubt that had I, retaining him with me, merely informed you of this and asked your consent to it, you would have agreed gladly. And you would have done a good deed. But that good deed of yours would have had a certain tinge of compulsion; and I do not wish any good to proceed from you—not toward me only, but in general—that does not proceed from your own free will; for in such a case it would lose all its value in the eyes of God: “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7). This is why I have sent Onesimus back to you—so that if you arrange for him to minister to me, you may do so according to your own good will. The Apostle does not insist that Onesimus be sent back to him, because there was no urgent necessity for this—there were always many persons about him ready to do whatever was needed—but he leaves this to Philemon’s discretion. St. John Chrysostom says: “By these words the Apostle conveys that he had in view Philemon’s good more than the slave’s, because he shows him great respect: ‘without your mind,’ he says, ‘I would do nothing.’” (“And by this he softens Philemon”—Bl. Theophylact.) A person is most readily inclined to do what is requested when both the matter itself is beneficial and it is arranged in accordance with his own will—for then there are two goods: the giver also gains, and the one who receives is in greater security. He did not say: “that it should not be of necessity,” but: “that it should not be as it were of necessity.” I knew, he says, that even had you not been informed of this affair but heard of it unexpectedly, you would not have been angered; but I acted in this way out of particular caution, “that your benefit should not be as it were of necessity.” “I wish,”—let us conclude with the words of Theodoret—“that you too should gain from this, and draw profit from your own willing consent.”

Phlm 1:15. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that you should receive him forever.

Yet for all that, Philemon may not have been able to put out of his mind the thought: but he did run away—he reached the extreme limit of a slave’s offenses: how can one trust him?—St. Paul drives away such a thought by tracing this event to the designs of God’s Providence, resting his argument on the good consequences of the flight. Grant that he ran away; but do not look at this flight—look at what came of it. He ran away, and fell into the net of the Gospel, by which he was drawn to the Lord. How long did he live with you—a Christian with your whole household?—and yet, despite constantly moving among Christians, he remained all the while in his paganism—an enemy of God—and it never occurred to him to abandon his impiety and join the worshipers of the one true God. Perhaps the duties laid upon him left him no time to think of this. Flight shook him, but at the same time freed him to reflect upon his condition and to seek a refuge for the peace of his soul. He found it where all the weary and burdened find it—in the Lord the Savior, in Whom you yourself have found everything that satisfies and gives rest to your soul. To be the Lord’s you certainly account the greatest good, and you desire that all may attain it. Your slave, while living with you, did not attain this good—for whatever reason, he did not. But the moment he fled from you, he attained it at once. Do not therefore look upon this flight as a crime; say not “Onesimus ran away,” but only—he was separated from you for a time, in order to lay hold of that good which you desire all to lay hold of, and which for some reason he could not lay hold of while with you. And that this is how it is, judge from the fact that, as soon as he laid hold of that good, he hastened back to you; and neither I nor he find anything hindering this—neither in him, nor in you, nor in the surrounding circumstances. Is it not evident that he was separated from you for no other purpose than to become a Christian? He became a Christian and hastens to return to you. He seems to be executing an assignment he has received. Whose assignment?—You did not give him one. But do not rack your mind; acknowledge in this the providential ordering of God, and all will become clear to you. Thus God willed to save your slave. Believe this, and receive your slave as a person overshadowed by God’s providential favor. Add also this reflection: he was a slave, and he returns to you as a brother in the Lord. Slavery is a temporal and accidental relationship between you; but brotherhood in the Lord is an eternal bond—a bond living and indissoluble. While both of you remain in the Lord, nothing, in time or in eternity, can separate you from one another. And it turns out that he was separated from you for a little while so that you might have him with you as an inseparable companion forever. That he is such in his own disposition you can judge from the fact that he returns to you on his own, unbound. It remains for you to receive him in that same spirit. Receive him, therefore, as one who is to remain with you forever as an inseparable companion.

St. John Chrysostom and all our commentators see God’s providential ordering in this circumstance. St. John Chrysostom says: “He rightly said: ‘perhaps’—so that the master should yield (that is, let go of the thought that Onesimus fled with evil intent, suggesting: wait, was it really so? Perhaps it happened differently. He arouses in him doubt about the correctness of his view of the slave’s flight—Oecumenius, Bl. Theophylact). He did not say: ‘for this reason he ran away,’ but: ‘for this reason he was separated,’ so that by a more pleasing expression he might the more readily incline the master to mercy. Likewise he did not say: he separated himself, but: ‘he was separated’—that is, this separation was not of his own devising. So also Joseph, justifying his brothers, said: ‘God sent me… here’ (Gen 45:5)—that is, their evil purpose was turned to good. ‘For this reason,’ he says, ‘he was separated for a season’: and he shortens the time, and confesses the fault, and turns everything into a providential ordering (that is, God’s arrangement). ‘That you should receive him forever’—not only for the present time, but also for the future, so that you may always have him; he will no longer run away.”

Phlm 1:16. Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh, and in the Lord.

He said: “that you should receive him forever.” Now he explains: but “forever”—you cannot have him as a slave; only brotherhood in the Lord is eternal. Receive him therefore as a brother. For this very purpose he was separated—that you might receive him “forever”; and in receiving him “forever,” you receive him as a brother: for otherwise it is impossible to receive him “forever.” The thought might arise: but I need a servant, and you are sending me a brother!—The Apostle counsels: receive him as a brother, and he hastens to you as a slave, even while being conscious of being your brother in the Lord. And as a brother he would zealously care for your good; but since at the same time he counts himself your slave, he will be devoted to you doubly. “Remaining a slave, he will be more devoted to you than a brother” (St. John Chrysostom). That he was separated for a time—that is a loss. But the greater gain is in the quality of him who returns (from St. John Chrysostom).

For Onesimus, to conduct and bear himself as a slave—while conscious of brotherhood—toward his master in the Lord was not a great burden: he had not yet shed the habits of the slave’s condition, and in his own soul he regarded himself as nothing other than a slave. Brotherhood in the Lord only softened this servitude, binding him more closely to his master through spiritual love. But for Philemon to receive as a brother a slave—and a delinquent one at that—was not easy. This is why the Apostle takes special pains to make this easier, saying: “not now as a servant, but above a servant.” He does not say at once: as a brother—as though afraid of dazzling him by illuminating servitude with the Christian vision. He first lifts things a little: “above a servant”—and only then does he clothe the slave in the bright garment of brotherhood. And, in order that this exhortation may be more graciously received, he presents himself as an example. I, he says, see in Onesimus, above all else, a brother—and a beloved brother. The fact that he is now a brother eclipses in my eyes everything that went before. I see nothing in him save a beloved brother. But if I am able to see him thus, you can the more readily do the same: he is no stranger to you; he belongs to your household; and now another relationship has been added—in the Lord. Thus he is doubly yours: both in the bonds of outward relationship and in the Lord. St. John Chrysostom says: “Here also is great virtue. If he is my brother, do not be ashamed of him yourself. By calling him ‘son’ (above) the Apostle expressed his love for him, and by calling him ‘brother’—his good opinion of him and the equalizing of him with himself.”

“How much more to you”—Bl. Theodoret understands this thus: “From an unprofitable slave he has become a brother; and if a brother to me, then far more so to you, since he belongs to you also by bodily service.” But Bl. Theophylact with Oecumenius interpret it thus: “Instead of a slave (receive) a brother; instead of one who was unprofitable—one who is ‘beloved’—to me, and ‘how much more to you.’ ‘Both in the flesh’—that is, he is worthy of love also because of his service to you in worldly matters, being skilled in managing them and bringing you comfort; ‘and in the Lord’—and because of his spiritual relationship to you.” Ambrosiaster, however, sees here the following exhortation: “Lest Philemon should yield to the proud contempt that masters habitually show toward slaves, the Apostle humbles him by calling Onesimus his brother ‘both in the flesh and in the Lord’—by which he also teaches us, turning our thought away from the differences of estate among men, to recognize one another as brothers—as those who descended from one Adam, and especially when faith intervenes, which cuts off all pride.”

2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Phlm 1:17. If you count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.

The persuasion grows more urgent. Before he said: “receive him as a brother,” but here—“as myself”; and moreover with such stringency that it is made the condition of fellowship with himself. As if to say: choose either to remain in fellowship with me, together with the slave who is now a brother—or, by rejecting the slave, to disrupt fellowship with me as well. Such an intensification was required by what had gone before: he ran away, he cut himself off from my household; how can I receive him?—Having illuminated this flight with the light of God’s providential ordering, the Apostle sobers the masterful spirit, lest it might tempt Philemon to refuse merciful reception of the runaway slave by arousing in him the fear of thereby losing fellowship with the Apostle himself. A more stubborn malady, so natural in a master, required a more powerful remedy. It is here offered: for the Apostle’s words placed Philemon under the necessity of receiving Onesimus; there was no way to avoid it. St. John Chrysostom says: “Nothing so persuades to the granting of a request as not asking for everything all at once. Therefore, the Apostle—observe—after what praises, after what preparation, sets forth this great request. He called Onesimus his son, a fellow-partaker of the Gospel, his own heart; saying: you gain in him a brother, receive him as a brother—and only then does he add also: ‘as myself.’ Paul was not ashamed to say this. If he was not ashamed to call himself the servant of the faithful, but even acknowledged himself as such, then much less could he be averse to this. And the sense of his words is as follows: if you think as I think, if you strive toward the same thing as I, if you count me a friend, then ‘receive him as myself.’” Bl. Theodoret continues this thought: “What could be more persuasive, what more forceful than these words? If, the Apostle says, you deem worthy of any respect your fellowship with me, then receive, as you would me, one who has undergone this extraordinary transformation (that is, from slave to brother).”—Ambrosiaster concludes it thus: “The Apostle shows that he has such a strong disposition toward Onesimus that he agrees to count even Philemon himself—whom he praised so highly above—as his partner only on the condition that Philemon receive him as the Apostle himself. Such a word was bound to strike fear into Philemon, so that if love could not incline him, at least for this reason he might receive him.”

Phlm 1:18. If he has wronged you, or owes you anything, put that on my account.

The final obstacle is removed: he caused you harm. One cannot assert that the Apostle considered Philemon avaricious, knowing how generously he gave. But he could not fail to consider it possible that even in Philemon’s heart there might arise the thought of regret over the injury caused—not from motives of greed, but as in a man who is a careful steward of his household, jealously concerned that everything be in good order, and moreover with a view to increasing the means for charitable giving. Anticipating this, the Apostle heals the infirmity—and without entering into lengthy discussion (for he could have adduced powerful motives for counting the loss as nothing, drawn from the principles of faith)—cuts it off at once: “put it on my account, I will repay.” Had the Apostle begun to reason, worldly prudence would have found objections to everything; but here there was nothing to object to. The one possible objection was: where will you find the means? But Philemon could not fail to know, judging even by himself, that the Apostle—so beloved that people were ready to pluck out their very eyes for his sake—had only to speak a word, and he would be given enough to buy Philemon himself, together with his whole household and all his estate. Thus this “put it on my account, I will repay” cut off, without leaving room for reply, any regret over the loss. But not only this—it also cut off any desire for compensation and placed Philemon in a state, a disposition, and a desire—counting the loss as nothing—to banish from his heart, and even from his very thought, all reckonings whatsoever. Let any person put himself in Philemon’s place, and he will at once see and feel that to take anything from the Apostle was for him a thing unthinkable. After this Philemon’s soul was completely set at peace, and the Apostle’s desire, meeting no further obstacle, was accepted without question for fulfillment. St. John Chrysostom surrounds these words with such observations: “See how and when he mentioned the offense—at the very end, after he had said much about him. Since loss of property usually provokes people more than anything else, lest Philemon should begin to complain of this—for it was probably stolen from him—the Apostle now mentions it and says: ‘if he has wronged you in anything.’ He did not say: if he stole anything; but how? ‘If he wronged you in anything.’ Here he both confessed the fault and at the same time represented it not as the offense of a slave, but as though of a friend toward a friend, expressing it by a word denoting injustice rather than theft. ‘Put that on my account’—that is, count this debt as mine; I will repay it to you.” The words of Ambrosiaster may serve as their continuation: “The Apostle here removes every excuse for anger against the slave; in case Philemon should complain that he suffered such a loss that it already seems that he ought not, and indeed cannot, forgive it. Were this actually so, in that case the Apostle says: ‘put it… on my account.’”

Phlm 1:19. I Paul have written it with my own hand, I will repay it: although I do not say to you how you owe me even your own self besides.

The Apostle assures him that he said this not merely in passing, but with firm determination to make repayment. To this end he gives a promissory note, saying: “Let this epistle serve you in place of a bond; all of it I have written with my own hand, I acknowledge myself a debtor and promise to repay the debt” (Theodoret). The whole letter was written in the hand of St. Paul, but the promissory note proper consists precisely of the words of this verse: “I will repay.” As the intention to repay was firm in St. Paul, so also the assurance left no room for doubt. Both the one and the other secured the victory over Philemon’s heart. St. John Chrysostom says: “These words St. Paul speaks both sincerely—that is, with genuine goodwill—and reprovingly, should Philemon refuse to receive the slave, while St. Paul had not refused to give a bond for him in his own hand. By this he touched Philemon very powerfully and relieved Onesimus of every burden. ‘With my hand,’ he says, ‘I myself have written it.’ Nothing is more ardent, more zealous, and more vehement than this heart!” “Although I do not say to you how you owe me even your own self”—that is, “through me you were counted worthy of salvation” (Theodoret). You owe me your salvation, your eternal blessedness. With what earthly debt can this compare? Wherefore I could say to you: receive Onesimus, and do not take into account the loss he caused you. Set it against the payment of the debt which you yourself owe me. You owe me your very self, whereas what Onesimus owes you is a small amount from your estate. Even if he had ruined all your estate, that would still bear no comparison with what you owe me; for you owe me your very self, and what is your estate compared to yourself? So if Onesimus had ruined all your estate and I asked you to forgive him everything in payment for yourself—and you did so—even then you would not yet have repaid me in full for yourself; much would still remain outstanding. But if you forgive for my sake the small amount which Onesimus owes you, that is scarcely worth reckoning. This is what I could have written to you, says the Apostle, without promising you repayment of the loss. But I do not do this; on the contrary, I promise repayment and will truly repay—so that everything I desire from you consists solely in the gracious reception of Onesimus, my son, our mutual brother in the Lord. Surely you, who owe me your very self, will do this much for me?—Such is the thought discernible in Ambrosiaster: “The Apostle burdens Philemon himself with a greater debt, so that he may the more willingly show mercy to the slave and thereby repay something small on his own behalf” (paraphrase).

St. John Chrysostom sets forth the following motive for writing these words. The words “I will repay; here is a bond for you!” could have given rise in Philemon’s soul to an unpleasant thought—that the Apostle does not trust him, does not believe him capable of such virtue as to forgive Onesimus without compensation. To forestall such a thought, the Apostle speaks to him as it were: do not suppose that I have no confidence in you. Do I not know how you feel that you owe me your very self? I have only to say a word to you and you will do everything. If I arrange this matter otherwise, there are other reasons for that—not my want of confidence in you.—This is an expanded paraphrase of the words of St. John Chrysostom, which are brief and compressed. “Lest it should appear offensive to Philemon that the Apostle, asking him about a slave who is a thief, seems to have no hope of obtaining what he asks—he corrects this too: ‘although I do not say to you,’ he says, ‘how you owe me even your own self,’ that is, you owe not your possessions but yourself. And this he said from love, by virtue of their mutual friendship and because he relies upon him greatly. See how everywhere he takes care about both things—both to ask with full confidence, and not to appear too bold.” Oecumenius and Bl. Theophylact expound this thought more clearly. The latter writes: “Lest it should appear reproachful to Philemon that the Apostle, as though not trusting him, does not ask him about the thieving slave simply (without anything in return), but (offers repayment) and gives a bond in his own hand—for this gave a sign that Philemon was as it were hard-hearted and inattentive to his teacher—lest this should appear so, the Apostle by the cited words conveys that he trusts him and relies upon him greatly.”

But in these words one may discern not only the reason why the Apostle wrote them, but also the reason why he arranged matters as he did. Had the Apostle asked Philemon’s forgiveness without offering repayment, those ill-disposed toward the Gospel could have said: see how he turns the Gospel and the faith into a means for achieving worldly ends. He converted Philemon to the faith and now demands that he receive back the slave who robbed him without requiring restitution of what was stolen.—So that no one might speak thus and cast reproach upon our faith and Gospel, I do not say to you, writes the Apostle, that since you owe me your very self, you should therefore freely forgive the slave who offended you; on the contrary, I promise to pay you all the loss caused by the runaway, and I ask as a favor that you receive him into your good graces. I do not convert the higher into a means for attaining the lower. Our faith does not disrupt the established order of common life, but only infuses into it a different spirit—which is from above, from the Lord.

Phlm 1:20. Yea, brother, let me have joy of you in the Lord: refresh my heart in the Lord.

Having removed the thoughts that might have arisen in Philemon’s soul in opposition to his petition and desire, the Apostle, in verses 20 and 21, again begins to incline Philemon to do him the favor of showing mercy to Onesimus—though all that went before was directed toward the same end. Thus St. John Chrysostom understands it: “Leaving the sincere explanations, he returns again to what he had first said, to the matter itself, though the preceding also related to the matter; for with holy men, what they express by way of their inner dispositions also relates to the matter at hand.”

“Yea”—yes, “brother”—do this. “That is, receive him. This must be understood as a supplement here” (St. John Chrysostom). “Let me have joy of you” is not a literal translation of the Greek text, but a paraphrastic rendering of the thought contained in it. The Greek has (an expression meaning) to profit from something; and further, to rejoice in something, or to be made glad by something. The Apostle’s speech is either desiderative or conditional. The sense would be: yes, brother, do this, receive Onesimus. I would desire to receive benefit from you in precisely this manner—you who owe me your very self; or: if you do this, I would myself receive benefit from you, would be helped, consoled, and gladdened by you. Oecumenius writes: “May I rejoice—or, in that case, I would rejoice—in your good deeds or conduct in the Lord.” Bl. Theophylact adds: “May I enjoy your beneficence—not in worldly matters, but in those that are in the Lord.” “In the Lord”—in the spirit of faith in the Lord, in the ways of pleasing Him and finding salvation in Him. In the Apostle’s words a pleasant resonance appeared: receive Onesimus, and you yourself will also be profitable to me—or, I too shall be Onesimus-fied (made profitable), helped and gladdened by you.

“Refresh my heart in the Lord.” All our commentators read: in Christ. Above, in verse 12, the Apostle called Onesimus his heart; but here he speaks of his own heart. He expresses such earnest concern for Onesimus that he has no rest and will have no rest until he sees him again in favorable circumstances. By this he suggests to Philemon: if you love me, if you spare and care for the repose of my heart, receive him and thereby give rest to my heart: for without this it cannot be at rest. If you will not do this for my sake, do it for Christ’s sake; “show mercy to the Lord, not to me” (St. John Chrysostom). “Heart” (lit. “bowels”) St. John Chrysostom interprets as: “my love for you.” Oecumenius repeats the same. Bl. Theophylact adds to this: “Refresh my love for you, or my heart, for Christ’s sake.”

Phlm 1:21. Having confidence in your obedience I wrote to you, knowing that you will also do more than I say.

“I know the submissiveness of your soul; therefore I write, relying confidently that you will do for me even more than what I have asked” (Theodoret). “What stone would not be softened by these words? What wild beast would not be tamed by them and moved to willing compliance with the petition? After attributing to him such great virtues, the Apostle still does not cease to justify himself (as though apologizing), and does so not simply, not commanding or requiring with authority, but saying: ‘having confidence,’ he says, ‘in your obedience I wrote to you.’ As at the beginning of the epistle he said: ‘having boldness’ (verse 8); so here too he says the same, sealing the epistle” (St. John Chrysostom).

Had the Apostle said only this, even by this alone he would have compelled Philemon to fulfill his request—even had Philemon for some reason not entirely wished to do so—because the good expectations that others have of us obligatorily constrain us to justify those expectations. But when he added: “knowing that you will also do more than I say,” he overcame all resistance in him and impelled his energies to fulfill the request the more speedily. “By saying this, the Apostle produces a powerful impulse in Philemon. After this, having such a reputation with the Apostle—that he will do even more than what is asked of him—Philemon was ashamed not to do, if not something greater, at least as much as the Apostle requests” (St. John Chrysostom). “For it is usual that whoever sees that a good opinion is held of him strives to show himself as truly the best possible” (Ambrosiaster).

3. Postscript (Phlm 1:22–25)

a) A practical request with notice of a visit (Phlm 1:22)

Phlm 1:22. But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given to you.

“But withal”—together with that I also ask, or I ask also. “Prepare a lodging” means—a guest chamber, a room for visitors. In the homes of the wealthy both then and now there were and are rooms set aside for the visit of any who might come. Philemon had, it appears, also a special guest house in addition. If there was both a room in the house and also a special guest house, then there was no need to “prepare a lodging”—it was always in readiness. Why then does St. Paul write of this?—In order to testify to his own friendly disposition toward Philemon and his confidence in Philemon’s friendship toward himself—to show by act that he relies upon him completely and, with regard to Onesimus, is assured that what he has written will be done. St. John Chrysostom says: “This too was a testimony that he fully relied upon him; or rather, this too was on behalf of Onesimus—so that they might not be remiss, but knowing that Paul would come and learn all about him, should put aside all resentment and more readily show him mercy. For the reverence for Paul was great—Paul the aged, Paul the prisoner.” So also the rest of our commentators understand it. Theodoret writes: “This the Apostle said not idly, but so that, expecting his arrival, Philemon should honor his epistle as well.” “For,” Ambrosiaster supplements, “it happens that when someone is absent, little attention and care is given to pleasing him.” Oecumenius and Bl. Theophylact add to this: “It might have occurred to Philemon: if it were not for Onesimus, you would not have deigned to say a word to me. The Apostle preemptively heals this possible infirmity, saying: I write not only for his sake, but also to ask you to prepare a lodging for me.” By this he showed him great honor, preferring him above all others. For St. Paul was one whom all would have eagerly vied with one another to receive and refresh.

“For I trust.” It is evident that, in writing this epistle, St. Paul harbored the hope of soon being freed from his bonds. Something in the course of affairs was giving him this hope. “Through your prayers.” He shows the power of the brotherly prayer of the faithful and its necessity for all without exception; and he also testifies to his own humility: the Apostle—the chosen one of the Lord, the wonderworker, who was caught up in prayer to the third heaven—does not allow in himself self-reliance and self-confidence, but humbly awaits help from above through the prayers of others. Bl. Theophylact writes: “From this we learn two things: first—how great is the power of prayers, if even such an Apostle has need of their help! Second—that we need all the more to humble ourselves, if St. Paul humbles himself before his own disciples, awaiting help from their prayers.” “I shall be given to you.” That is, I shall be freed from my bonds and shall come to you; we shall see one another and enjoy our mutual faith and love. I trust that you will pray and obtain this mercy from the Lord. These words show the Apostle’s certainty that they love him greatly and earnestly desire to see him (St. John Chrysostom). He does not ask them to pray, but is confident that they do pray and seek as a great blessing to see the Apostle. “To you”—to all of Philemon’s household, and perhaps to the Colossians in general. For one cannot suppose that, intending to come to Colossae, he had in view Philemon with his family alone. He did not mention it when writing to the Colossians, perhaps also because he wished to honor Philemon in particular, leaving to him the privilege of informing all the faithful—who also gathered for prayer in his very house—of this.

But how is it—the Apostle intended from Rome to go to Spain, and here he writes that he hopes, once released from his bonds, to visit Colossae; while shortly after he would tell the Philippians too that he hopes to come to them soon (Phil 2:24)? Evidently he changed his intention, because after the writing of the epistle to the Romans (some three years had elapsed since then) needs had arisen in the churches of Asia Minor requiring the personal presence of St. Paul—as the epistle to the Colossians itself shows; false teachers had appeared and were troubling the peace of the faithful. Whereas at the time he wrote that there was no longer any work for him in those regions (Rom 15:23–24).

b) Greetings (Phlm 1:23–24)

Phlm 1:23–24. There salute you Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus; Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow-laborers.

Greetings are sent from the same persons who sent greetings to all the Colossians. They have been discussed there as fully as was possible. Here only a little may be added. Epaphras there is called a fellow-laborer (Col 1:7), but here a fellow-prisoner. This does not mean that he too was in bonds: for there St. Paul lived on his own account and had the freedom to receive whomever he wished. Epaphras could be with him without hindrance and without being subject to any violence or restrictive governmental measures. He was therefore a prisoner of love for the Apostle. He endured sorrows and deprivations and dangers, certainly; but he bore all with good cheer, unwilling to leave him. Wherefore he was truly as though in captivity—a fellow-prisoner without chains. St. John Chrysostom writes of him: “Paul calls him a ‘fellow-prisoner,’ expressing thereby that he too was in great distress. Thus if not for the Apostle himself, then for the sake of this man the request ought to be granted, for one who is in distress and, having set aside his own affairs, cares for others, ought to be heard. On the other hand, the Apostle here beforehand rebukes Philemon, should he not show mercy to his own slave, when his fellow-citizen has become Paul’s fellow-prisoner and suffers afflictions together with him. And he further adds: ‘my fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus’—that is, for Christ’s sake.” “Not a ‘fellow-prisoner’ for any human cause, but suffering together with me on account of the Gospel,” adds Bl. Theophylact.

Of all the others the Apostle said that they are his fellow-workers, that they labor together with him in the proclamation of the Gospel and do for him all that he himself, by reason of his bonds, could not do. The mention of them could not remain without effect upon the purpose of the epistle. Before Philemon’s eyes, they too now came forward as intercessors on behalf of Onesimus. St. John Chrysostom says: “The Apostle greets Philemon also in their name, in order the more readily to incline him to compliance, and calls them his ‘fellow-workers’ so as thereby to urge him more forcefully to fulfillment of the request.” He speaks to him as it were: “These also together with me ask you, and it is fitting to show gracious regard to such persons and to satisfy their desire” (Bl. Theophylact).

Of the persons mentioned in the epistle to the Colossians, only “Jesus called Justus” is omitted here. One cannot doubt that he too, being acquainted with the Colossians, was also acquainted with Philemon, and that a greeting from him could not therefore have been unwelcome. The omission must be attributed to chance, incapable of casting any shadow upon brotherly and friendly relations—and that is enough; there is no need to attempt to determine precisely why it happened so.

c) The closing benediction—v. 25

Phlm 1:25. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Such, in general throughout all his epistles, is the closing benediction of St. Paul. He both confesses himself and teaches others to confess that in the matter of Christianity everything comes from grace. This is the first and last object of Christian desires and prayers—both for others and for oneself.

Grace is the grace of the Holy Spirit, but it is given through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is, however, the way by which grace descended in the beginning and continues to descend to this day. The Comforter does not come if not through Him.

The grace of the Spirit descends upon the spirit of man and thereafter abides with that same spirit. The spirit is something akin to the Divine, and is therefore a vessel and receptacle for grace. It becomes such when, having rejected all that is material, creaturely, and temporal, it surrenders itself entirely to God through faith in the Lord the Savior—Whose fellowship alone can satisfy and give it rest. “Amen.” Truly it is so, and it cannot be otherwise; and whoever has come to know this truth, upon reading such words of the Apostle, will from the whole heart utter: amen, amen, amen!

Let us append at the close how Bl. Theodoret and Bl. Theophylact conclude their exposition of this epistle. The former writes: “These are the laws that those who have been counted worthy of divine teaching must follow; thus one must instruct slaves, that they should not abandon service to their masters, and that everything should serve to the glorification of the Lord Christ.” The latter adds: “See what benefit we have received from this epistle, which appears brief and not requiring explanation? Be assured from this that nothing in Scripture should be left without investigation, but in everything, as uttered by the Spirit, some spiritual sense should be sought, and from everything profit should be drawn for oneself. And certainly the Comforter, Who has spoken all of it, will grant to those who seek rightly, with good intent and zeal, to find also what they seek. May we always be enlightened and guided by Him—both to true knowledge of God and to a life truly well-pleasing to God—neither being led astray by false teachings nor seduced by the false sweetness of the world. Those of us who are slaves, let us ennoble ourselves through faith and virtue; and those who are masters, let us take zeal, seeing slaves who are holy and beloved by Apostles, not to be found lower than they in the kingdom of the Lord, Who for our sakes took the form of a servant—Christ our true God, to Whom be glory and dominion and honor, now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.”

Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews

Introduction

The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilievich Govorov in 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Oryol region of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. His schooling followed the ordinary path of a gifted clerical son—the local theological college, the Oryol seminary, and then the Kiev Theological Academy, where in 1841 he received monastic tonsure and the name Theophan, in honor of Saint Theophanes the Confessor. The years that followed carried him across the breadth of the Church’s life. He taught in the theological schools, served with the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem, where he deepened his knowledge of Greek and of the ancient monastic literature of the Christian East, and represented the Russian Church for a time in Constantinople. In 1859 he was consecrated Bishop of Tambov, and in 1863 translated to the see of Vladimir.

Yet the office of a ruling bishop was never where his heart lay. In 1866, at the age of fifty-one, he asked to be released from the administration of his diocese and withdrew to the Vyshensky Hermitage in the Tambov region. There, after some years in the common life of the monastery, he entered the strict reclusion from which his name is drawn: from about 1872 he lived apart, seeing almost no one, keeping the cycle of services in a small private chapel, and giving the whole of his day to prayer, study, and the pen. From that seclusion flowed one of the great bodies of spiritual writing in the Russian language—works on the Christian life such as The Path to Salvation, an immense correspondence with those who wrote to him for counsel, his Russian rendering of the Philokalia, and a long series of commentaries on the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. He reposed at Vysha in 1894. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints in 1988, and he is commemorated in January, near the days of his repose and of his monastic name. It is enough here to say that he wrote as a bishop and a hermit who had spent his life reading the Fathers and directing souls; the reader will meet that pastor at every turn of the present book. A fuller account of his life is given elsewhere in this volume.

The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The commentary printed here belongs to the last and largest of Theophan’s scholarly labors: his exposition of the fourteen Epistles traditionally received under the name of the Apostle Paul. Working through his years of seclusion, he treated them one after another—Romans, the Corinthian letters, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, the Thessalonian letters, the Pastoral Epistles, Philemon—reading each verse slowly and gathering around it the comments of the ancient interpreters. The Epistle to the Hebrews stood at the end of that sequence, and it was the one he did not live to complete.

This must be said plainly at the outset, because it shapes everything the reader will find. The commentary on Hebrews is authentically Theophan’s own—it is transmitted, published, and received under his name in his collected works, and nothing in its manner or matter suggests another hand—but it is a fragment. He finished a full and self-standing introduction to the Epistle, and then began the verse-by-verse exposition; the exposition breaks off early in the first chapter, in the midst of his comment on the opening verses. What survives, then, is a magnificent torso: a complete essay on the letter as a whole, followed by the first movements of the close reading he intended to carry through all thirteen chapters. The reader should come to the book knowing this, and value it for what it is rather than lament what it is not.

Theophan opens where the Epistle’s first readers, and its every reader since, are bound to begin. Alone among the letters gathered under Paul’s name, Hebrews carries no opening salutation naming its writer or its recipients, and from Christian antiquity a question was therefore raised about its origin. Theophan devotes the whole first part of his introduction to that question, and answers it as the Eastern Church has always answered it: the letter is the Apostle Paul’s, numbered among his Epistles by the councils the Church received and read as his in her worship. He argues the point at length—from the letter’s own contents and its personal postscript, and then from a patient muster of ancient witnesses, beginning with the Apostle Peter’s reference to Paul’s writing “to you,” and moving through Clement of Rome, the teachers of Alexandria, the Syrian Church and the Peshitta, the Eastern Fathers, and at last the Latin West. It is worth noting simply, and without controversy, that the human authorship of Hebrews has been discussed since the early centuries and remains an open question in modern scholarship; the Church’s liturgical and canonical reception has long numbered it among the Epistles of Paul, and it is from within that reception that Theophan writes.

Having settled to his own satisfaction the question of authorship, he sets out the letter’s circumstances. It is addressed, he explains, to Hebrew believers—Jewish Christians who had already suffered for the faith and now stood in danger of drifting back to the Judaism they had left, worn down by pressure from their own people and from the pagan authorities alike. Following the ancient commentators, Theophan thinks first of the Christians of Jerusalem and Palestine, while allowing that the letter was meant to circulate more widely among Hebrew believers everywhere. Its occasion is that peril of apostasy, and its purpose is to meet it: to hold the wavering fast by displaying, from every side, the surpassing greatness of what has come in Christ, and to nerve them to endure. Theophan places the writing in Rome, near the close of Paul’s first imprisonment, about the year 63 or 64.

Argument and Structure

The book has two faces, and the reader profits most by keeping both in view. The first is Theophan’s introduction, which is whole and finished. The second is his exposition, which is rich but brief.

The introduction proceeds by orderly questions: who wrote the Epistle, to whom it was written, on what occasion and for what purpose, where and when, and finally how it is built. That last question yields the map Theophan would have followed through the entire commentary, and it is the map the reader should carry through the letter itself. He divides Hebrews into two unequal parts. The first and longer part—chapters one through ten—he calls the doctrinal part, and its single theme is the superiority of the new covenant over the old, a superiority he traces along two lines at once: the greater dignity of the Mediator, and the greater power of His work. The shorter second part—chapters eleven through the end of thirteen—turns from doctrine to life, exhorting the faithful to the endurance and the holy conduct that such a salvation requires, and closing with a brief personal postscript.

Within the doctrinal part the letter mounts a single sustained argument, and Theophan lays out its stages before his exposition begins. Christ is shown greater than the prophets through whom God spoke of old, for now God has spoken “in these last days” through a Son who is the Heir of all things and the Maker of the ages. He is greater than the angels, who are ministering spirits, while the Son is seated at the right hand of God. He is greater than Moses, faithful as a servant in God’s house, whereas Christ is faithful as a Son over it. And He is greater than the whole order of the Law and its Levitical priesthood, for He is a High Priest of another kind—“after the order of Melchizedek,” a title, Theophan observes from Saint Justin Martyr, that the Fathers applied to the Lord long before. This High Priest does not repeat the daily sacrifices of the old sanctuary; by one sacrifice, once offered, He entered the true and heavenly sanctuary with His own blood and obtained an eternal redemption. Hence the covenant He mediates is a new and better covenant, founded on better promises, which makes the first “old” and “ready to vanish away.”

The exposition that survives carries the reader only into the first of these stages. Theophan comments closely on the opening verses—God’s speaking through the Son, the Son appointed Heir of all things, the ages made through Him—before the text breaks off. Even in these few pages his method is fully on display. He reads Hebrews as the Fathers read it, keeping constant company with Saint John Chrysostom, Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, Blessed Theophylact of Ohrid, Oecumenius, and Photius, quoting and comparing their comments on each phrase. This is the method of the catena, the patristic “chain” of testimonies woven into a continuous reading; but the aim is never antiquarian. At every point Theophan turns the doctrine toward the reader’s own salvation, drawing from the exalted Person of the Son the same practical summons the Apostle presses upon his Hebrews: Take heed, therefore. The final word has been spoken in the Son, and there is no further messenger to await.

Theological and Spiritual Significance

The value of this fragment lies partly in its subject and partly in its treatment. Its subject is one of the summits of the New Testament. Hebrews sets before the Church the fullest scriptural meditation on the priesthood of Christ and on the relation of the two Testaments—how the shadows and figures of the old worship, the tabernacle and its ordinances, the sacrifices and the Levitical priesthood, were true and God-given in their season, and yet were a preparation for and a pointing toward the one great High Priest who fulfills and supersedes them. To read the Epistle with Theophan is to be taught how the Church has always read her own Old Testament: not as a discarded thing, but as a word of God whose hidden meaning is opened by the light of Christ. He states the principle exactly in his comment on the first verses—that the ancient word and the new confirm one another, and that the one who enters the old carrying the lamp of the new comprehends the mysteries hidden there.

At the heart of the doctrinal argument stands the figure that gives Hebrews its distinctive place in the New Testament: Christ the great High Priest “after the order of Melchizedek.” The Epistle draws out, as no other book of Scripture does, what it means that the priest and the sacrifice are one—that the Lord offered not the blood of bulls and goats, repeated year by year, but Himself, once for all, and so passed through the true tabernacle into the presence of God on behalf of His people. The Epistle’s recurring word is better: a better hope, a better covenant, better promises, a better sacrifice, a better and abiding possession. Theophan seizes on that comparative note as the organizing thread of the whole, and he is careful, as the Fathers are, to hold the two Testaments together even while insisting on the surpassing greatness of the second—the priesthood of Aaron and the ordinances of the tabernacle were the appointed shadow, and the shadow is honored precisely in being fulfilled by the body that cast it. Nowhere is the Church’s reading of the Old Testament as a preparation for Christ set out with more scriptural authority, and Theophan expounds it as settled doctrine rather than as a thesis to be defended.

The Epistle’s second great theme, which Theophan expounds in his introduction though he did not reach it in his commentary, is faith and endurance. The eleventh chapter, with its long roll of the faithful—Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, who lived and suffered “as seeing him who is invisible”—stands as the Scripture’s own portrait gallery of persevering faith, and it flows directly into the summons of the twelfth chapter to “run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” Theophan understood this as the Apostle’s second and inseparable purpose: having shown the greatness of the salvation given in Christ, to move the persecuted to bear their sufferings with courage, and so not to let it slip. That union of doctrine and life is the very signature of his own spiritual writing, and it is why his handling of Hebrews, even in fragment, reads less as commentary than as pastoral direction addressed to the soul.

There is a further and quieter significance in the long introduction itself. Few treatments in any language weigh the ancient testimony to the origin of Hebrews so patiently or so charitably. Theophan is not defensive; he lays out the evidence of the earliest centuries—the echoes of the Epistle in Clement of Rome, the constant witness of Alexandria, the reception of the Syrian and Latin Churches—and lets it accumulate toward the conviction the Church has always held. The passage is, in effect, a small model of how tradition receives, tests, and hands on a sacred book, and it repays the reader who cares how the Scriptures came to be the Scriptures.

The Text and This Edition

Theophan wrote in Russian, for Russian readers, and quoted the Scriptures in the Church Slavonic of the Russian Bible he had prayed all his life. The present edition offers a fresh, complete English translation made directly from that Russian text, as it is preserved in his collected works—the volume of the Pauline commentaries gathering his expositions of the Thessalonian letters, Philemon, and Hebrews, reproduced from the standard modern Russian printings of his writings and drawn from the public-domain digital text at azbyka.ru. The translation is English-only; it is not a parallel or bilingual edition, and it does not set the English against the Russian on the page.

In rendering the work, the translation follows the conventions of this series. Theophan is named as the author, as the Church receives him and as his own works have always borne his name; those who carried his Russian into English are credited as translators, never as authors. His Scripture citations, quoted in his Slavonic register, are rendered faithfully into a dignified English that preserves their liturgical weight rather than silently conforming them to any familiar modern version; where he follows the Greek Old Testament and its numbering, that reading is kept. The English is a modern, readable prose that clears away archaism without flattening the fullness of his style, and references to chapter, verse, and division are given in the ordinary Arabic form (Heb. 1:1–2) for ease of use. The unfinished character of the work is preserved and marked, not disguised: the reader is told where Theophan’s own labor ends.

Suggestions for Reading

Come to this book knowing what it is—a complete essay on the Epistle to the Hebrews, followed by the opening pages of an exposition that death left unfinished. Read the introduction first and read it whole; it is self-contained, and it is the part of the work Theophan brought to completion. It will give you the letter’s argument entire before you begin, and it will teach you how the Fathers weighed the letter’s origin. Then keep the Epistle itself open beside the commentary, and turn to Theophan’s comment only after the Apostle’s own words, letting the many citations of the Fathers stand not as digressions but as the very substance of the reading. Above all, read the letter and its commentary as Theophan read them: not as an argument against a vanished past, but as the Church’s abiding call not to let slip so great a salvation. Take heed, therefore, he repeats after the Apostle—for the final word has been spoken in the Son, and to hold fast to Him is the reader’s own way of salvation.

Introduction to the Epistle

This work of St. Theophan the Recluse remained unfinished.

The Epistle to the Hebrews bears no customary inscription indicating who wrote it and to whom it was written. Therefore, anyone approaching the reading of this epistle cannot but immediately raise the question: who wrote this epistle, and to whom?

1. Who Wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews?

Let it be granted that the author of this epistle is not identified; yet for anyone who approaches its reading without having first formed some prejudice regarding its origin, this question cannot long remain unanswered. He will not have finished reading the first two or three chapters before he is compelled to acknowledge: this was written by the holy Paul. The further he advances in his reading, the more firmly this conviction will take root and grow within him, and will at last become an unshakeable certainty when he reaches the postscript. There, every word points to the holy Paul. Thus, even if we had no other reliable indications that this epistle originated with the holy Paul, it would itself declare as much. Moreover, this epistle was not discovered yesterday; from the very moment of its composition it was placed in the hands of Christians and has been revered and used by them to the present day—always as the epistle of the holy Paul. Wherefore, if the internal testimony of the epistle itself does not suffice for anyone, he may corroborate it with the witness of Christian antiquity regarding its origin, and thereby dispel every uncertainty.

These testimonies begin in the apostolic age, and indeed from among the Apostles themselves. Here is how they proceeded, until they were at last confirmed by conciliar decrees.

The first testimony in this regard belongs to the holy Peter. In his second epistle he writes: “Seeing that you look for these things (that is, a new heaven and a new earth) give diligence that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given to him has written to you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things” (2 Pet 3:14–16). By these words the holy Peter testifies that the holy Paul wrote to those to whom he himself also writes. But he writes to believing Hebrews. Consequently, the holy Paul likewise wrote to them. And of Paul’s epistles to the Hebrews only one is known, which is contained in the codex of the New Testament Sacred Books. What other epistle but this one could the holy Peter have had in mind in the words quoted above? It must also be acknowledged,

1) that the holy Peter wrote his second epistle after the first imprisonment of the holy Paul in Rome, during which the Epistle to the Hebrews is held to have been written—that is, in the interval between this imprisonment and the second;

2) that the holy Paul, when sending his epistle to a particular community of Christians, intended it to be disseminated by them throughout all communities of Hebrews; and

3) that the holy Peter saw this intention of the holy Paul fulfilled in practice. The truth of which the holy Peter speaks in the words quoted is this: expecting the end of the age and the Second Coming of Christ, strive to live in such a manner that you may then be found without spot and blameless. This thought is encountered in almost all the epistles of the holy Paul; indeed it forms an indispensable article of the Christian faith and has always been part of the initial proclamation of the Gospel. Let the reader consult, as he pleases: Tit 2:11–14; Col 3:1–11; Phil 3:17–21; Eph 5:1–11; Gal 5:19–26.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews this thought is set forth in Heb 10:19–31. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, encouraging… one another in works of love, and so much the more as you see the day drawing near. For faithful is he that promised” (Heb 10:23–25). If we fall away from the faith, or sin and remain in sin, then at the judgment there is nothing further for us to expect but severe condemnation and dreadful punishment.

The fact that this truth is expressed in different words by the holy Paul and the holy Peter does not diminish the force of this testimony. Nor, indeed, is such word-for-word correspondence required by the words of the holy Peter themselves.

A second testimony is furnished by St. Clement, bishop of Rome, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, written between 70 and 96 AD. Reading this epistle, one cannot fail to see how fully the Epistle to the Hebrews had been assimilated by St. Clement. Again and again one encounters propositions, phrases, and words taken verbatim from that epistle. Thus, concerning the Savior he says that He is the radiance of God’s glory and that He is “so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” Of the Angels it is said: “Who makes his angels spirits;” but of Him: “You are my Son… Sit you at my right hand” (Clement, ch. 36; Heb 1:5, 7 in the Epistle to the Hebrews by the holy Paul). Of the holy prophet Moses he writes that he was faithful in all God’s house as a trusty servant (chs. 43 and 17). These are the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 3:2–5. And the words of this epistle are likewise employed when he praises the righteous men of the Old Testament: Enoch was translated and was not found (Clement, ch. 9; Heb 11:5 in the Epistle to the Hebrews); Abraham, obeying the call, departed from his land, hoping to leave behind the lesser and inherit the greater—the heavenly (Clement, ch. 10; Heb 11:8, 16); and of all the saints in general it is said: they received exile and prison bonds; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins (Clement, chs. 45, 17; Heb 11:36–37). There are other similar passages as well. Although St. Clement does not state explicitly that he is drawing these expressions from the Epistle to the Hebrews by the holy Paul, this is evident even without such an indication.

What follows from all this? To say merely that, since the matter stands thus, one must conclude that the Epistle to the Hebrews is older than the writings of St. Clement, or belongs to the apostolic age—would be to say too little. One must add that it is also of apostolic origin: first, because in that era no one but an Apostle could have written in such a manner; and second, because, had it not been of apostolic origin, St. Clement would not have studied it so diligently and made it so thoroughly his own, as is evident from his Epistle to the Corinthians. He was himself a most immediate disciple of the Apostles and their trusted associate. Only to their word could he have paid such attention and conceived such love for it.

But from which Apostle could it have originated?—From none other than the holy Paul. The entire content of the epistle points to him, and most especially the postscript; and St. Clement was particularly close to him, being called by Paul in the Epistle to the Philippians his fellow-laborer and co-worker (Phil 4:3).[1] On the basis of what has been said, Eusebius draws the same conclusion regarding the origin of the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying that, judging by these considerations, it is rightly numbered among the other epistles of the holy Apostle Paul. Furthermore, in the writings of St. Ignatius the God-bearer, St. Polycarp, and St. Justin Martyr there are passages that with greater or lesser clarity point to the Epistle to the Hebrews. This must be said especially of St. Justin Martyr, who, in his Dialogue with Trypho, calls the Lord Savior the eternal Priest of the Most High according to the order of Melchizedek (§118); and in his First Apology calls Him the Apostle—a title given to Him nowhere except in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 3:1). Although the name of Paul is not mentioned in this connection, it is evident that the Epistle to the Hebrews was in use and was recognized as authoritative—that is, apostolic—and therefore Pauline, for everywhere in it the hand of the holy Paul is visible.

In the Church of Alexandria there follow already definite and continuous attestations of the origin of the Epistle to the Hebrews from the Apostle Paul. This is witnessed by Pantaenus, the founder of the Alexandrian catechetical school, Clement of Alexandria, his disciple, and Origen, the disciple of the latter. All of them regard the holy Paul as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews—and raise for themselves only the question of why the holy Paul did not place his name at the beginning of the epistle, as was his custom, and offer their solutions; which in no way gives occasion to suppose that they wavered in the slightest in their conviction.

It is worth noting that Origen in his writings cites the Epistle to the Hebrews nearly two hundred times, and almost everywhere with the indication that these are the words of the holy Paul. The foundation of his conviction lay not only in the fact that the thoughts of the epistle point to the holy Paul, but also in the fact that they possessed on this matter a constant tradition received from men of old.[2]

After these writers in Alexandria, all subsequent scholars likewise regarded the Epistle to the Hebrews as Paul’s. These include: St. Dionysius, St. Alexander, St. Athanasius the Great, Anthony the Great, Didymus, and Theophilus.

The Syrian Church expressed its confidence in the Pauline origin of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Peshitta translation, made in the second century, in which this epistle is included among the epistles of the holy Paul—and at the Synod of Antioch convened against Paul of Samosata, in the acts of which the following passages from this epistle were cited: 2:14, 4:15, 11:16, and one passage—12:1—with the addition: “according to the words of Paul the teacher.” After this, St. Jacob of Nisibis and St. Ephraim the Syrian cited passages from this epistle always with the words: “the holy Apostle says,” or “the blessed Paul says.” The testimonies of the Syrian Church on this matter are completed and sealed by the Council of Laodicea, which in its sixtieth canon, enumerating the books of Holy Scripture, places the Epistle to the Hebrews among the New Testament books, within the number of the epistles of the holy Paul.

The testimonies of the other Eastern Churches on this matter are conveyed by their chief teachers, all of whom attributed the Epistle to the Hebrews to the holy Paul. These are: Eusebius of Caesarea, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius of Cyprus, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, St.[3] John Chrysostom, and Theodoret. Having reviewed all of this, we cannot but acknowledge as irrefutably true the words of blessed Jerome—that this epistle is recognized as Paul’s not only by all the Eastern Churches, but by all ecclesiastical writers who wrote in Greek.

In the West, after St.[4] Clement, traces of reference to the Epistle to the Hebrews are found in the writings of St. Irenaeus, though these are few. Thus he says that God created all things and sustains all things “by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3), that the law in its purificatory rites is a “shadow of things to come” (bk. 4, ch. 11, §4—Heb 10:1; Heb 8:5; Heb 9:23), and that Enoch “pleased God and was translated” (bk. 5, ch. 5, §1). Eusebius mentions another book by St. Irenaeus, entitled Resolution of Disputed Questions, and asserts that it too contains certain expressions borrowed from the Epistle to the Hebrews. A contemporary witness to this epistle from the time of St. Irenaeus is also furnished by the Latin translation of Holy Scripture—the Itala—in which the Epistle to the Hebrews appears alongside the other epistles of the holy Paul. This epistle was also known to Tertullian, who attributed to it apostolic authority (De pudicitia, ch. 20). After this, Latin writers refrained from mentioning this epistle for a little over a hundred years, although it continued to be read in the commonly used Latin translation of Holy Scripture—the Itala: Quotidie ecclesiarum lectione celebratur. But then, beginning with Hilary, who flourished in the mid-fourth century, Latin writers once again began to cite it—and specifically as a Pauline epistle. After Hilary, this was done by Lucifer, St. Ambrose, Philastrius, Gaudentius, blessed Jerome, and Augustine. In the time of the latter, this epistle was recognized as apostolic at the Council of Hippo and the Council of Carthage.[5]

The fact that Western writers ceased to cite the Epistle to the Hebrews for a period cannot serve as proof that doubts were entertained in the West at that time regarding its authenticity and apostolic dignity, for, as has been said, its use in the Church never ceased. This interruption may have been demanded by the circumstances of the time. It is so explained, on the supposition that it was done on account of the Marcionite and Novatianist errors. After the conciliar decrees, there is no further occasion to raise the question of who wrote this epistle, or to manufacture uncertainty as to whether or not the holy Paul was its author.

[1] Eusebius Pamphilius. Ecclesiastical History. Book 3, Chapter 38.

[2] “Οὐ γὰρ εἰκῆ οἱ ἀρχαῖοι ἄνδρες ὡς Παύλου αὐτὴν παραδεδώκασι” (Eusebius Pamphilius. Ecclesiastical History. Book 6, Chapter 25).

[3] Jerome of Stridon. Epistolae ad Dardanum. 129.

[4] St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons. Against Heresies. Book 2, Chapter 30, § 91.

[5] Jerome. Op. cit.

2. To Whom Was It Written?

The holy Paul likewise did not indicate to whom this epistle was written. Yet this too is immediately apparent. The content of the epistle indicates that it was written to Hebrews. But to which Hebrews—those who had already believed, or those still outside the faith, or to both together? Reading the first chapters, one might suppose that an address is being composed for all Hebrews in general, for the entire Hebrew people, without distinction between believers and unbelievers. But then, from the fifth chapter onward, there begin to appear quite definite indications that the address is directed to those who have believed, who have long believed (Heb 5:12), who have greatly ministered and continue to minister to the saints—that is, to needy Christians (Heb 6:10)—and who have suffered greatly for the faith (Heb 10:32–34). This is especially evident from the postscript (Heb 13:18 and following).

Here arises a new question: did the holy Paul write to all believing Hebrews in general, or to believing Hebrews living in a particular place and region?

The holy Paul evidently writes to his own sincere children in the faith, to his own flock, whom he desires to visit, assured that this will bring them joyful consolation (Heb 13:19–23). But such people were to be found everywhere that he went. In every community where he founded Churches, his first disciples were Hebrews, many of whom devoted themselves to the service of the holy Paul and became his inseparable companions and co-workers. Beginning from Antioch in Syria, through Asia Minor in nearly all its breadth and length, through Macedonia, Achaia, and Illyricum as far as Rome and Spain—throughout the entire extent of the Apostle Paul’s labors there were companies of Hebrews who had believed at his word, who loved him and were loved by him. If we ask ourselves to which of these communities the holy Paul would most likely have addressed an epistle, we find, try as we might, that we cannot give a definite answer; he could have written to these, or to those, or to yet others—but to whom he actually wrote cannot be determined. This conclusion is forced upon us by the particular circumstances mentioned in the epistle. These circumstances show that the epistle was written to a specific Christian community; but when we compare them with what is known from the Acts and epistles of the holy Paul, we find that one detail points more to one place, another to another, and a third to yet another.

Thus, when the holy Paul speaks of those to whom he writes—that they have long been illumined by faith, that at the beginning of their illumination they suffered the plundering of their goods and many afflictions, that thereafter, in spite of all this, they zealously served and continue to serve the saints, and that they even shared in the suffering of his own bonds (Heb 5:12, 6:10, 10 and following)—such reminders involuntarily lead one to think that he is writing to specific persons, to a specific community and region. This is especially evident when he says: pray that I may return to you soon, or: behold, shortly I shall see you together with Timothy (Heb 13:19, 23).

If we now seek to determine to which community of believers these characteristics could be applied, we find that long-standing illumination by faith fits most of all the Christians of Jerusalem and Palestine generally, though the Antiochenes, Damascenes, Cilicians, Cypriots, Phoenicians, and Cyrenians are also not far behind (Acts 11:18 and following). The plundering of goods took place in Jerusalem, for which the holy Paul himself had been responsible (Acts 8); but the Thessalonians are similarly described in the epistle addressed to them (1 Thess 2:14). Many afflictions were endured by believers everywhere. This occurred in Jerusalem, in Rome, in Thessalonica, and in all those places where believing Jews lived—those to whom the holy Peter addressed his epistle, since he repeatedly speaks in it of sufferings being endured and exhorts to patient endurance of them. These same places, it may be noted in passing, were partly those in which the holy Paul also labored, namely: Bithynia, Galatia, and Asia. Ministry to the saints was especially characteristic of the Macedonian and Achaian Churches, as is evident from the Epistle to the Corinthians. Sharing in the bonds of the holy Paul—or showing solicitude for him during them—was displayed by the Philippians and the Colossians, during his imprisonment in Rome; and during his detention in Caesarea, Palestinian Christians could likewise have shown him the same concern. The promise to visit and be seen—made shortly before the writing of this epistle—he had given to the Philippians and Colossians, asking also that Philemon prepare him lodging. The circumstance that he pairs Timothy with himself as a fellow-traveler and co-visitor suggests that those whom he intended to visit would be glad to see Timothy as well; and this could apply especially to the Lycaonians, Ephesians, and Philippians. Taking all these applications into account, one may conjecture that this epistle was dispatched by the holy Paul to the Hebrews of Jerusalem and Palestine, or of Antioch and Syria, or of Lycaonia and Phrygia, or of Asia, Macedonia, and Achaia. Commentators on Scripture—not ours only—have tried to assign this epistle to all of these places, with the addition also of Alexandria with Cyrene and Spain. The extreme difficulty of saying anything definite on this subject is evident. The greater part of them, however, settle upon Jerusalem, or Palestine in general. This latter view is that of our ancient commentators. We too may join ourselves to it.

We say may, and not must; because, given all the data enumerated above, it will be better to leave this question without a definitive resolution, and to say only: the epistle was written to a specific Christian community, or to the Christians of a specific region—but to which precisely is difficult to determine. Only this is beyond doubt: that this community lay within the sphere of the apostolic activity of the holy Paul. One may add that the holy Paul, having directed the epistle to one place, had in view that it should pass through all other places where there were persons for whom this epistle could be beneficial. Given the characteristics noted above, the believing Hebrews of almost every place where the holy Paul had founded Churches, upon reading this epistle, could think that it was directed to them specifically, and would thereby all the more readily receive what was written. In this sense, the epistle may be called catholic, or encyclical—addressed to all believing Hebrews.

We are compelled to add the following as well: one cannot deny that in writing this epistle the holy Paul had in mind Hebrews who had not yet believed. This thought is suggested not only by the general arguments concerning the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, but also by certain specific indications (Heb 4:7, 7:18, 8:13, 10:1). A few more words will need to be said on this subject below.

Thus, it may be established that the epistle, while directed to a specific place, was intended for all—not only believers, but also unbelieving Hebrews. The believing Hebrews who received the epistle distributed it among all other believing Hebrews, and through them also among Hebrews who had not yet believed. To the latter they could say by word of mouth that this epistle was written expressly for the Hebrews, without naming the author. Under this title the epistle was known throughout all antiquity and everywhere: πρὸς Ἐβραίους — To the Hebrews. It is possible that it was so inscribed by the holy Paul himself.

This is also the reason why the holy Paul did not place his name at the beginning of the epistle: because he desired that the Hebrews should read it undisturbed. The name of the holy Paul resonated unpleasantly in the ears of many Hebrews, even those who had believed; as for the unbelievers, they could not bear to hear it. Had the Apostle placed his name at the beginning of the epistle, how many readers would have been put off from reading it? But seeing nothing untoward at the start, and taking the epistle to contain sound guidance on the way of the Lord, all took it up calmly, read it, and read it through to the end, being captivated by its sound reasoning and admonitions. As a result, believers were naturally confirmed in the faith, while unbelievers were disposed toward it—which was precisely the chief aim of the epistle. Had the Apostle acted otherwise, he would himself have proved the destroyer of his own work.

This is how St. Clement of Rome explains the omission of the author’s name, according to the report of Eusebius: “As for there being no inscription ‘Paul the Apostle’ on the epistle—this had to be so; for he was writing, says Clement, to the Hebrews, who harbored prejudice against him and held him in suspicion. In this he acted very wisely, not alienating them from himself at the very outset by the announcement of his name.”[1]

[1] Ecclesiastical History. Book 6, Chapter 14.

3. The Occasion, Purpose, and Motive for Writing the Epistle

The occasion for this epistle was furnished by the apostasy of believing Hebrews back into Judaism and their withdrawal from communion with Christians in their prayer gatherings (Heb 10:25). Fearing a repetition of such instances and a widening of the circle of those falling away, the holy Paul writes to the Hebrews, urging them to remain faithful to the one saving faith. The fear of apostasies was not unfounded. The Jews had their own apostles from the ranks of the zealots, whom they sent out everywhere expressly for the purpose of drawing Gentile proselytes into Judaism and ensuring observance of the law by Jews. When Christian preaching began, they could not view it with indifference or fail to oppose it, especially seeing how readily their proselytes went over to Christianity. The agitation against the holy Paul in Thessalonica and Beroea was their doing. Likewise their doing were the disturbances in Rome, on account of which all Jews were expelled from Rome under Claudius.

But what occurred in these places was of course repeated in others as well, and never ceased to be repeated. Such agitations were undoubtedly accompanied not only by the persecution of firm believers, but also by the apostasy of the weak from the faith. And it was impossible not to take care to hold them within the fold of the faith.

Moreover, the Judaizing Christians did not remain at rest either. They had begun to separate themselves from true Christians in the wake of the Apostolic Council—at first, perhaps, without opposing them, but afterward coming to oppose them as well. The Galatians were corrupted in the faith, one must suppose, by them. The same could of course be repeated in other places. Judaizing of a reasonable sort—without regarding Judaism as an indispensable condition of salvation—was tolerated as a transitional state. But Judaizing as a condition of salvation was a pernicious heresy, and inclination toward it is genuine apostasy from the Christian faith. The apostasy of believing Hebrews who were weak in faith into such Judaizing-with-faith may be supposed to have occurred in greater numbers than outright apostasy into full Judaism. Could the holy Paul have failed to concern himself with such people?

The apprehension may have been heightened by the multiplication of apostasies and the intensification of persecution and oppression. At the outset, Christians from among the Jews were subjected to persecution only by their former co-religionists. And at that time, not only outside Jerusalem but in Jerusalem itself, they enjoyed the protection and defense of the Roman authorities, who, not regarding Christianity as hostile to their paganism but merely as a particular religious sect among the Jews, did not permit one group on such grounds to oppress another. But by the time of the composition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, these authorities had begun to distinguish Christianity from Judaism and to regard it as unfavorable to paganism, and therefore began to oppose it on their own part as well. Weak Christians from among the Hebrews, thus pressed both by their own kinsmen and by the pagans, and seeing no way out of their difficult position, lost heart and fell away to their old faith—more readily and more swiftly than before. It was necessary to support such people as well, and at the same time to inspire them to patience.

For all these reasons the holy Paul writes the Epistle to the Hebrews, depicting the superiority of Christianity over Judaism from every angle in which Judaism had hitherto, and not unjustly, been regarded as the one God-pleasing faith.

In his other epistles as well—in almost all of them—the holy Apostle Paul addresses the Hebrews with a word of instruction. But there, for the most part, his discourse was directed toward persuading them not to consider themselves alone as children of God and heirs of the promises given to their fathers, and by such exhortations to establish peace among believers who, in all the places of his preaching, were composed of Jews and Gentiles. Therefore his discourse there to the Jews was conducted in connection with his discourse to the Gentiles.[1] Here, however, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle addresses himself exclusively to the Jews alone, unfolding to them the truth that the former dispensation has passed away and must yield place to the new and more perfect, as had been foretold throughout the whole extent of Scripture. From this, the purposes which the holy Paul had in view in writing his Epistle to the Hebrews become self-evidently clear.

The first was to prevent the increase of apostasies from the faith. This is evident from the repeated exhortations of the holy Apostle not to fall away and not to depart. Thus, having declared that the New Testament dispensation of salvation was accomplished by the Son of God, “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3), he adds: “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Heb 2:1). This exhortation is repeated more than once, amid various arguments. In one place he says: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Heb 3:12); in another: “See that you refuse not him that speaks” (Heb 12:25); and to all in general he calls out: “Let us hold fast the confession” (Heb 4:14). This is also evident from the repeated reminders of the ruinous consequences of apostasy. Thus, at the beginning of the epistle he says: “the word spoken by angels,” whenever it was transgressed, subjected the transgressors to righteous punishment. How then shall we escape heavenly retribution, if we neglect the word which, “having at the first been spoken by the Lord, was confirmed to us by them that heard him,” being attended by testimony from on high “in signs, and wonders, and various gifts of the Holy Ghost” (Heb 2:2–4)? Further on, in another place, he depicts with great vividness how those who, having been united with Christ the Lord by faith and having tasted His ineffable blessings, fall away—crucify the Lord afresh, and for that reason, like land which has drunk in the rain that falls repeatedly upon it but brings forth thorns and thistles, are subject to curse and to burning (Heb 6:4–8). He returns to a similar warning afterward as well, saying that he who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy: of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who rejects the Son of God?—Such a one tramples underfoot the blood of the covenant, and insults the Holy Spirit—and God himself stirs up to take vengeance upon him, saying: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay” (Rom 12:19). “But it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” For such a one this awaits: “a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb 10:27–31). This is evident also from the entire content of the epistle, in which the superiority of the New Testament dispensation over the Old is vividly portrayed. One who has received all this wholeheartedly could not but feel that in abandoning Christianity and falling back into Judaism, he is not turning to something better, but to something worse—to that which no longer has any value—and consequently could not but arrest his backward movement toward Judaism. To produce such an impression and to obtain from it such a result was, of course, what the holy Paul had in view in writing this epistle.[2]

The second purpose was to inspire endurance in sorrows and privations suffered for the faith. It was tribulations and persecutions that were weakening faith and smoothing the path to apostasy. Had the holy Paul left those who were being persecuted without encouragement to bear their lot with courage, he would have undermined the force of all his preceding exhortations and himself cut off the beneficial effect of his epistle. Wherefore, setting before them examples of faith and of the courage that accompanied it in bearing afflictions for faith’s sake throughout the whole course of Old Testament history, he concluded: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses… let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith”—and so forth (Heb 12:1–2 and following). Chapters 11 and 12 are devoted to this inspiration.

That the holy Paul had in view the correction of any particular moral deficiencies among the believing Hebrews is not apparent. Moral instructions are very few; contained in brief sayings, they are placed in chapters 12 and 13 among other subjects, and are all of a general character. But one cannot deny that he had in view not only the retention in the faith of those who already believed, but also the drawing to the faith of Hebrews who had not yet believed, as was already mentioned above. This thought arises of itself upon reading the epistle. Let but an unbelieving Jew take it up to read, and he cannot but feel a certain not inconsiderable drawing away from Judaism. Even the general portrayal alone of the superiority of the dispensation of salvation in the Lord Jesus over Judaism—with such weighty proofs from Scripture and such triumphant testimonies from above, as signs and wonders and the distribution of the Holy Spirit, performed before the eyes of all—could not but draw one to faith with great power. But in the course of the epistle there are not a few passages that speak directly to one who has not yet believed and say to him: see, do not pass over without attention what is being said to you. For example: “To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” as your fathers did in the wilderness—for which the Lord decreed concerning them: “They shall not enter into my rest” (Heb 3:7–11). And they did not enter, because of their unbelief (Heb 3:19). And behold, to us also the word of glad tidings has been addressed, as it was to them. But it did not profit them, because it was not received with faith; and the same will happen to us now, if we do not believe. Let us therefore fear to be deprived of the good which is offered to us. “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Heb 4:1–2, 11). Of the same character are the words about the setting aside of the former commandment on account of its weakness (Heb 7:18), about the establishment of a new covenant—not like the covenant of the fathers—whereby the former is shown to be obsolete and unprofitable (Heb 8:8–9, 13), and about the fact that while the first tabernacle stood, “the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest” (Heb 9:8); for it could not be opened except through the Lord Jesus, who entered with his own blood into the sanctuary not made with hands (Heb 9:11–12). These passages and others like them involuntarily suggest the inference that the holy Paul had in mind as well the unbelieving Jews, in his desire for their conversion. And what thoughtful Jew, reading such admonitions, could fail to reflect and desire to leave behind the worse and take hold of the better?

What moved the holy Paul to write the Epistle to the Hebrews, given that he was appointed to be the Apostle of the Gentiles, not of the Hebrews?—In general terms: his boundless love for the Lord, in accordance with which he says of himself that it is no longer he who lives, but Christ who lives in him (Gal 2:20). The extension of His glory through faith was the perpetual object of the striving and efforts of the holy Paul. But no less than this, he was moved thereto by his ardent love for his own people. Loving his kindred, he sincerely desired that all among them might be saved. And in desiring this, he could not restrain himself from pointing out to some—hold firmly to this path you have received—and to others—make haste to enter upon it. He knew that, by the divine decree, “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). How pitiful, then, if certain of the Jews themselves should fail to attain salvation? Thoughts of this kind always deeply moved the holy Paul, and he entreated the Lord to blot even himself out of the book of life, if only all Israel might be saved. Could he, after this, have refrained from writing to the Hebrews a general exhortation to receive and keep the one saving faith? St. John Chrysostom asks: “The blessed Paul says of himself that he is ‘the apostle of the Gentiles’ (Rom 11:13). What then has he to do with the Hebrews? And how does he write to them?” And he answers: “And how would he not write to those for whose sake he desired to be accursed from Christ (Rom 9:3)?”

[1] That is, “passed away.”—Ed.

[2] That is, “again.”—Ed.

4. The Place and Time of Writing

The place of writing is determined by the words: “Those who are from Italy greet you” (Heb 13:24)—that is, Italians. It follows, therefore, that the holy Paul was in Italy when he wrote his Epistle to the Hebrews. In Italy, however, only one place of his residence is known—Rome. We must therefore conclude that he wrote this epistle from Rome.

The holy Paul was in Rome twice, and on both occasions in chains. This epistle, then, was written from chains—but from which imprisonment? From the first. In Heb 13:19 the holy Paul expresses the hope that he will be released from Rome and will have the consolation of seeing those to whom he writes. Yet this was precisely the condition of his captivity toward the end of the first imprisonment, as may be seen from his epistles to the Philippians, the Colossians, and Philemon. It must be supposed that the Epistle to the Hebrews was written at this same period, in 63 or 64 AD.

5. The Structure of the Epistle

The divisions of the epistle are determined by its purposes. Those purposes were: to hold in the faith those who had already believed, and to draw into it those Jews who had not yet believed, with the addition of an exhortation to patient endurance of all that had to be suffered for the faith. The first purpose is the primary one. To achieve it, the holy Paul strives to depict the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, with powerful inducements that dispose the reader toward faith and to steadfast perseverance therein. This constitutes the first and largest part of the epistle—chapters 1–10. We shall call it the Dogmatic Part, concerning the superiority of the New Covenant economy of salvation over the Old. The second part—the smaller—contains an exhortation to endure afflictions suffered for the faith, along with certain moral instructions on Christian conduct and life. It comprises two and a half chapters: 11–13:25.

The final verses of the last, the thirteenth, chapter constitute a postscript.

Dogmatic Part: The Superiority of the New-Covenant Economy of Salvation Over the Old

Both economies are from God. Yet the persons who served as mediators in their establishment were of unequal dignity, and likewise the work—that is, the significance and efficacy of each economy—was of unequal weight. In both respects Christianity immeasurably surpasses Judaism: it is superior both in its Mediator and in its work, or in its own power. This is precisely what the holy Paul unfolds in the first part of his epistle. With this exposition in view, he sets forth from the very first words certain dogmatic propositions concerning Christ the Savior, which then serve him as the foundation for demonstrating the superiority of Christianity over Judaism in the two respects just mentioned. These opening verses we shall call
a) foundational theses, from which is then derived
b) the superiority of Christianity over Judaism as regards its Mediator, and further —
c) as regards its work, or its own power.

A. The Foundational Theses (Heb 1:1–3)

Since the Apostle has two subjects in view —
a) the exalted Person of the Mediator of the New Covenant, and
b) the sublimity of His work—the verses containing the foundations for demonstrating these truths have, accordingly, been furnished by the Apostle with features that foreshadow both.

A) The Exalted Person of the Mediator of the New Covenant

Heb 1:1–2. “God, having of old spoken in many portions and in many ways to the fathers through the prophets, in these last days has spoken to us through His Son.”

“Having spoken”—“has spoken.” Since the matter concerns faith, and true faith can be taught only by God through His divine revelation, it is with this that the Apostle begins his discourse. Of old, God taught faith, and now He teaches it still. But then He taught through prophets, whereas now He teaches through His own Son. By this the Jews were admonished from the very first word: Take heed, therefore! And what do these words suggest to us?—Do not await a further revelation; it has been completed. This is why the Apostle, having said “having spoken—has spoken,” did not add: “and will speak.” There is no one left to send. The Son, as in the parable of the vineyard workers, is the last messenger (Matt 21:37). After this, to us too one may apply: Take heed, therefore!

“Having spoken—has spoken.” Once again the same God speaks Who spoke before. Consequently, the new Word of God is in accord with the ancient, and the ancient with the new. Although the outward institutions of old have passed away, the word of truth hidden within them is unchangeable. That word serves as the most powerful confirmation of the truth of the new word as well; and the new word guides toward a fuller understanding of the ancient word. He who enters the ancient word carrying the lamp of the new word comprehends clearly all the mysteries hidden therein. And he who rightly understands the significance of all that belongs to the Old Testament finds that the New Testament possesses an urgent and unconditional necessity—and precisely in the form in which it exists.

“In many portions and in many ways”—these words point to the manner in which God communicated His will to mankind: not once, not a single time, but many times He spoke, as often as need arose, and accordingly men appeared from before the face of God. There was revelation in Paradise; there was revelation after the expulsion from Paradise, from Adam to Noah; after the Flood, from Noah to Abraham; to Moses; at the time of Moses; in the time of the judges; and through the remaining prophets down to the last. God, who revealed His will concerning how He wished to be served and pleased, accommodated Himself to the religious, moral, and intellectual condition of the people living in each era. But in conformity with each such revelation, the outward ordering of life before God was also established—and, as we see, this ordering was renewed, and renewed more than once. By the guidance of each of these revelations, those who were faithful to it pleased God and were saved—by the measure of salvation proper to each of them. For the saving power—faith in the Promised One—extended across all ages. The revelation concerning the Promised One could not be given all at once; it was given as it could be understood and received. The image of the Promised One was disclosed by parts (in many portions). About five hundred years before His coming, the revelations ceased. Israel was given time to ponder what had been revealed about Him, to understand and to assimilate it—so that when He appeared, they might recognize Him without error.

Such are the thoughts suggested by the word “in many portions.” Perhaps the same meaning attaches to the word “in many ways” as well, so that both words signify one and the same thing: diversely. This is the interpretation of the holy Chrysostom. Under this interpretation, the manifoldness of manner is to be understood not in relation to the mode in which the revelation itself was accomplished—for example, in a dream, while awake, and so forth—but in relation to the form in which the revelation was communicated in terms of its content: antediluvian, through Abraham, through Moses… A many-portioned revelation naturally became a many-sided one. Yet one may also distinguish these two words: connecting with “in many portions” the notion of revelation repeated many times over many distinct acts, and with “in many ways” the notion of the modes of revelation—now in a dream, now while awake, through angels, through interior illumination, through a word heard without any visible form; and to the people of Israel God commanded that His communications be conveyed sometimes in direct speech, sometimes in parable, and sometimes the parable was to be expressed not in words but in action. Bl. Theodoret distinguishes the meaning of these words: “The word ‘in many portions’ denotes the diverse economies (probably the patriarchal and the Law-given), while the word ‘in many ways’ denotes the diversity of divine visions (revelations). For God appeared to Abraham in one manner, to Moses in another, to Elijah in yet another, and to Micaiah in another still. Isaiah and Daniel and Ezekiel beheld different images. Teaching this, the God of all things declared: ‘I have multiplied visions, and through the prophets I have used similitudes’ (Hos 12:10). For the divine nature is not manifold; on the contrary, it has neither form nor figure, but is simple and uncomposite. Therefore what they beheld was not the incomprehensible nature itself, but such images as the invisible God displayed as need required. Yet the word ‘in many portions’ also suggests another thought, namely that each of the prophets was entrusted with some particular economy. But the God of the prophets—that is, the Lord Christ—had in view not any particular need, but, having become man, He accomplished all things and accomplished the salvation of men.” Oecumenius expressed the sense of these words thus: διάφορος καί ποικίλος, and Bl. Theophylact thus: διάφορος καί πολυειδής, without appending a separate explanation to each. There is, however, no great need for a more precise definition of these words. The Apostle’s chief thought is: then God spoke through prophets, whereas now He speaks through the Son. The force of the statement lies in the words: through the Son. It is about this that he continues his discourse. As for how often and in how many ways God spoke through the prophets—there was no intention of distracting the attention of readers with that, although the elucidation thereof could furnish very suggestive thoughts: for instance, there was promise; here—fulfillment; there—shadow; here—the body; there everything was preparatory in significance; here everything is in actual reality; here is the crown of revelations: “Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor 5:17). Consequently, the people of God were guided so providentially by God that there was no longer any need to remain under the Law, but it was necessary to submit to the new economy of God established by the Son of God. The interpretation of these words may be directed toward the Apostle’s chief thought as follows: however many times and in however many ways God revealed His will, He revealed it always through prophets—but now He has revealed it to us through the Son. How greatly He has distinguished us! What a wondrous work He has wrought in us! “What great thing is it,” says the holy Chrysostom, “that God sent prophets to your fathers? To us He sent His own Only-Begotten Son.”

Judging by what has been said, the word “of old” encompasses the entire period of Old Testament revelations, from Adam to the last prophet, and not only that time during which the prophets themselves properly acted. Throughout this whole time God spoke “to the fathers through the prophets.” The fathers are all the founding ancestors, and the prophets are the chosen men through whom God revealed His will. The former were the custodians and guardians of revelation; the latter were its proclaimers. As a flash of lightning traverses the sky from end to end in a single instant, so the holy Apostle Paul illuminates all previous time with a single thought. The opening of the discourse is rousing. It resembles the opening of the Epistle to the Ephesians, where the holy Paul does not stop at Adam but ascends to the eternal decrees of God. Adam, Enoch, and Noah were prophets, through whom God instructed the antediluvian race in how He wished to be served and pleased. In the person of Noah this instruction passed into the post-Flood age and was renewed and supplemented at its very beginning, in conformity with the then-current maturity of humanity. When the necessity arose to separate from the general mass of mankind a distinct lineage for the preservation of the true faith, its founding patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—were prophets to it. They stand at the transition to the dispensation of the Law, which, when its time came, was established through the prophet Moses and was thereafter continually sustained by the prophets whom God raised up in every age, and through whom He revealed His will, His judgments, His commandments, and especially His promises concerning the coming of the Savior. Thus the work of instructing in the faith continued until the coming of Christ the Savior. God did not speak to the people directly, but spoke to chosen men so that they might convey it to the people. Only once, on Sinai, did He speak to the people directly; but the people could barely endure even the brief word of God—the utterance of the Ten Commandments—and begged that God speak to them no more, but transmit His will to Moses, who would then convey it to them. And that was precisely the purpose of this divine action: to instill in the people a firm conviction that everything Moses would establish was from God—a conviction that remained in them until Christ the Lord, before whom they said, “We know that God spoke to Moses” (John 9:29). They were also convinced that through all the other prophets God likewise spoke, although they did not always heed their words, owing to their own evil disposition.

The Apostle affirms this conviction as true, and takes it as the foundation of his guidance of the Jews toward faith in Christ. God, he says, Who spoke of old through the prophets, in these last days has declared His will to us through His Son. The same God speaks—but through the Son. Although upon hearing “through the Son” not everyone could form a precise and clear conception of what the Son is within God, yet in all who feared the will of God with reverence, this word immediately gave rise to the thought that the word of God through the Son is higher than His word through the prophets. This thought instantly raised the apostolic word to considerable height in their eyes; in the believer it revived and elevated faith, while in the unbeliever it stirred attention and prompted inquiry into what it really is and how it stands.

“In these last days”—in these latter days, recently, not long ago, within our own memory; one may even add: “what we have heard with our ears” (1 John 1:1), as the holy John the Theologian begins his first epistle. These last days are last in relation to what preceded them. From Adam God began to speak to mankind, and He did not pass over a single generation without speaking. And finally He spoke also in our time—the last time. The word “last” conveys two thoughts: that the time of promises has come to its end, and that the revelation given to us is the final one. In the prophets such expressions are frequently heard: the last days, the latter days — and they almost always point to the time appointed for the coming of the promised Deliverer. By using such an expression, the Apostle emphatically intimated that the last days of which the prophets spoke had already taken their place in the course of time and of its events. Take heed, therefore!

“Having spoken through the prophets… He has spoken through the Son.” The Son is set alongside the prophets as God’s instrument in the utterance of the divine will. Even from the very words and mode of expression it is evident that the prophets cannot be compared with Him—yet it was not yet the moment for the Apostle to explain what the Son is. He will explain this afterward. Here he only gives a hint that He is Someone Higher—and this was sufficient for a beginning. Bl. Theodoret writes: “The Apostle clearly showed the difference between the Lord Christ and the prophets, for Him alone did He call Son.” Those who had already received the Gospel could not, at these words, fail to recall the words of the holy John the Theologian: “No one has ever seen God; the Only-Begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18), and from this to conclude that the word of the Son possesses a superiority which not only the prophets, but no one among the most perfect spirits, can possess. The holy Chrysostom draws this conclusion: “The superiority (of the new revelation) lies not only in the fact that prophets were sent to them whereas to us the Son was sent, but also in the fact that none of them had seen God, whereas the Only-Begotten Son had seen Him.”

“Whom He appointed Heir of all things.” The holy Paul begins to show what the Son is. The first thing is that He is Heir. The name of Son called forth the designation of Heir, for a son is naturally an heir (Gal 4:7). God appointed Him Heir. “Appointed”—either from eternity He decreed that He should be Heir, in the eternal Trinitarian counsel, or now He made Him Heir, introduced Him into the inheritance, placed the inheritance into His hands. Both meanings may be combined thus: appointed from eternity as Heir, He has now been brought into the inheritance and has received it. Yet it was the latter meaning that the Apostle primarily had in view. This is evident from the fact that he speaks of the Lord Savior as the One Who declared the will of the Father to mankind—and this He accomplished in the economy of the Incarnation. While He lived among men, He spoke to men what He heard from the Father; but when after His suffering He rose again, ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father—then He became the Heir of all things. Πάντων — of all things. What does “all things” mean? The son ordinarily inherits his father’s estate. Of what, then, is Christ the Lord Heir? Of all the Father’s estate. Not of the divine nature, surely? No. The divine nature is not inherited by Him but is His by birth itself. The Lord Savior, as God the Son, possesses all that is divine by nature, and not by the economy of inheritance. The holy Chrysostom says: “What does ‘appointed Heir’ mean? It means that He was made Lord of all. The Apostle uses the name ‘Heir’ in order to express two ideas: the authenticity of the Sonship and the inalienability of the lordship.” It is evident that this is said in relation to the economy of the Incarnation. By divine nature the Son of God is Lord of all, and does not need to be introduced into that lordship. If He is introduced, it is as man. Of this He Himself spoke after the Resurrection: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matt 28:18)—which is equivalent to: I have now been introduced into lordship over all things. Bl. Theodoret writes: “The Lord Christ is ‘Heir’ of all, not as God, but as man. As God, He is Creator of all. And the Creator of all is by nature Lord of all. But an heir becomes lord over that over which he was not previously sovereign.”

All things have been placed in the hands of the Lord Savior for the realization of the purpose of the economy of the Incarnation: to direct all the heavenly and earthly powers and all creation toward this one end, and to gather around Himself all those who are being saved. On the other hand, also in order that through the human nature—which, through the body, comprehends all the forces of the world and all its elements—He might introduce regenerative powers into the world, building therein, above the crude visible order, an invisibly better world, which will appear in all its greatness on the last day. In the Epistle to the Ephesians the holy Paul had already written that God “in Christ Jesus has summed up all things, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1:10), and that through the Resurrection and the sitting at the right hand of the Father He became “far above all rule and authority… and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” God has put all things in subjection under His feet. “He gave Him as head over all things” (Eph 1:20–22). Or as in the Epistle to the Philippians: “He highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil 2:9–10).

The inheritance may more specifically be understood as all peoples. This stands in contrast to the Old Covenant economy. At that time, the portion of God and His possession was Israel alone; but now it is all the nations, as was foretold through the prophet David: “I will give You the nations as Your inheritance…” (Ps 2:8).

Bl. Theophylact writes: “‘Whom He appointed Heir of all things’—that is, He made Him Lord of the whole world. No longer is only Jacob the portion of the Lord, but all.” Yet of what precisely lordship does the Apostle here speak?—Of lordship over those who would voluntarily and willingly submit to Him: a moral lordship. For the natural lordship He always possessed, even over those who would not have Him, as it is said: “All things serve You” (Ps 118:91 LXX). This makes clear what superiority it is that God spoke to us through the Son, “Whom He appointed Heir of all things”—He spoke through a Person above Whom there is no one higher. Consequently, if ever a need should arise for men to be addressed yet again, there would be no one through whom to speak. The final word has been spoken. Either hear and be saved, or perish if you will not hear.

“Through Whom also He made the ages.” That the Savior was appointed Heir might appear to be a fruit of the accomplishment of the economy of salvation. But that “He also made the ages through Him”—this cannot be a gift, but must belong to nature. Therefore the Apostle here raises minds to the perception of divinity in the Person of the Savior. The Apostle seems to say: God made Him Heir, but He is also Himself—God. He leads minds upward by degrees: pointing first to the fact that in Christ Jesus God spoke, then that upon the completion of that speaking He was set over all and received all into His hands. Now he points to God in Him—though not directly, but through the attribution of creative power to Him: “Through Him God made the ages.” Although creative power already pointed directly to divinity, since to create belongs only to God. Yet the Apostle refrains from making such a proclamation, and leaves it so that in the souls of readers the proclamation may arise of itself: therefore, He is God! The Apostle sets forth only the ground for such a confession. “With these words the Apostle pointed to the divinity” (Theodoret). Had the Apostle confined himself only to indicating that He is Heir of all, someone might have thought that this was a gift of grace or of God’s mercy. But by pointing to the creative power, he directly paves the way to the confession of Him as God as well (Photius and Oecumenius).

“An age is not any kind of substance, but something not self-subsistent, but accompanying that which has a created nature. It is a product of time, conjoined with created natures” (Theodoret). By reason of this inseparability of the age—or time—from created things, the creation of the age is inseparable from the creation of things, and to say “the ages were made” is the same as to say all creatures were made. Yet the mind may also dwell on the age, or time, by itself in the abstract, and draw a distinct conclusion therefrom. The ages were made by the Lord Jesus. Therefore—He is before all ages, that is, eternal. A new indication of divinity: for eternity belongs only to God. Bl. Theodoret writes: “The Apostle called the Son Creator of the ages, teaching and making clear that He is eternal, because He always was above every temporal extension of whatever kind. Thus the Old Testament Scripture says of God: ‘He Who exists before the ages’ (Ps 54:20 LXX), that is, He Who always is.” “Where are you who say: there was a time when He was not?” (Chrysostom). “He Himself created the ages. How then were there ages when He did not exist?” (Theophylact). Having thus spoken of the creative power of the Son, the Apostle has deflected from the appointment of Him as Heir every inadequate conception, and at the same time has given to understand that this latter is not an addition to the nature, but is the natural attribute of the Son as God—which remains unchangeable even after the Incarnation, which has not diminished it in the least…

Commentary on Psalm 118

Introduction

The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilievich Govorov on 10 January 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Oryol governorate of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. His was the ordinary path of a clergyman’s gifted son: the district church school at Livny, then the seminary at Oryol, and from 1837 the Kiev Theological Academy, whose lecture halls stood within reach of the ancient Monastery of the Caves. It was there, before he had finished his studies, that the young man asked for the monastic tonsure, receiving in 1840 the name Theophan, “manifestation of God.” He completed the Academy in 1841 with a master’s degree, and for the next two decades moved through the teaching and administrative posts that a promising monk was given: rector of the church schools of Kiev, of the seminary at Novgorod, professor at the Petersburg Academy. He served with the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem and, later, at the embassy church in Constantinople, journeys that brought him into direct contact with the Christian East and its libraries of the Fathers.

In 1859 he was consecrated bishop, first of Tambov and Shatsk and then, from 1863, of Vladimir. He proved a diligent pastor—founding schools, preaching, visiting his parishes—but the pull of solitude never left him. In 1866 he petitioned to be released from the government of a diocese and withdrew to the quiet Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov region, a place he had come to love. There, from 1872, he entered a stricter seclusion still, ceasing to leave his cell, arranging a small chapel where he celebrated the Liturgy alone, and giving the remaining years wholly to prayer, study, and the pen. His reclusion was not a retreat from the Church but a new form of service to it. From that single room came a stream of writing that shaped Russian spiritual life for generations: his manuals of the interior life, The Path to Salvation and The Spiritual Life and How to Be Attuned to It, thousands of letters of counsel, his volumes of daily reflections on the Scripture readings, sustained commentaries on the epistles of the Apostle Paul, and—perhaps his greatest labor of love—the rendering of the Philokalia from Church Slavonic into accessible Russian. He reposed at Vysha on 6 January 1894. When his cell was opened his face was found serene, and his memory as a teacher of prayer only grew. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints at its Local Council of 1988, and he is commemorated chiefly on 10 January.

The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The Commentary on Psalm 118 belongs to the years of the reclusion, and bears their stamp on every page. It was composed at Vysha and first appeared in print at Moscow near the end of Theophan’s life; the edition that reached the widest audience carried on its title page the description “an interpretation in the manner of a spoken discourse”—a homiletic, conversational commentary rather than a technical one. That description is exact. Theophan does not write for the lecture hall. He writes as a shepherd who has walked the road himself and turns back to describe it to those still climbing, pausing over each verse to ask what it requires of the reader’s own conscience.

He chose this psalm deliberately, and the choice is revealing. Of all the one hundred and fifty psalms, the hundred-and-eighteenth is the longest, and its subject is the narrowest: from first verse to last it speaks of one thing only, the law of God and the soul’s love for it. For a bishop who had given his life to the formation of souls, no text could have been more congenial. Here was the whole of the moral and religious life gathered into a single unbroken meditation, and Theophan set out to unfold it not as a scholar dissecting an ancient poem but as a physician of souls opening a treasury he believed inexhaustible. He tells his readers plainly that little in the work will be his own invention; everything, he says, is borrowed from the Fathers and teachers of the Church who had labored on this psalm before him. His task, as he understood it, was to gather their exposition into one continuous guide and press it home.

The work stands among the largest of Theophan’s exegetical writings and is the most substantial he devoted to the Psalter. In it the two sides of his mature vocation meet: the interpreter of Scripture and the director of the inner life. Where his letters answer particular souls in particular difficulties, this commentary offers the same counsel systematically, verse by verse, as a map of the whole ascent from the first turning toward God to the heights of unbroken communion with Him.

A word on the psalm’s number will spare the reader confusion. Throughout, the numbering follows the Greek Septuagint and the Slavonic Psalter used in the Christian East, where this is Psalm 118. In Hebrew-numbered Bibles, and so in most modern English translations, the same psalm is numbered 119. The two are one and the same text; only the count differs. In the worship of the Eastern Church the psalm holds a place of unusual honor. It forms the whole of the seventeenth kathisma of the Psalter and is appointed for the daily Midnight Office—a point Theophan notes with satisfaction, remarking that the Church evidently wishes her children to know this psalm firmly, setting it at the hour when a mind refreshed by sleep receives most keenly. Taking its name from its opening word, it is sung as “the Blameless” at funerals and memorial services, and, divided into portions with verses of praise woven between them, it stands at the heart of the Matins of Holy Saturday before the empty tomb. The psalm the reader is about to study is thus one the Church prays over her living and her dead alike.

Argument and Structure

Theophan lets the psalm dictate the shape of his commentary, and the psalm has a remarkable shape of its own. In the Hebrew it is an alphabetic acrostic, but of an unusual kind: not one verse to each letter, but eight. The first eight verses all begin with the first letter, the next eight with the second, and so on through the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet—twenty-two stanzas of eight verses, one hundred and seventy-six in all. This structure is invisible in the Greek and Slavonic, where the acrostic cannot be reproduced, and Theophan opens his work with a preface explaining it, along with the psalm’s other distinctive features and the tradition, reported by the Fathers, that David composed it to teach his son Solomon the law of God, and that Jewish children learned it together with their letters.

From the preface onward he follows the division into stanzas of eight, which he calls octets, taking each verse in order within them. This was a deliberate decision. The division into eights appears in neither the Slavonic nor the Greek text, yet Theophan retains it—following, he tells us, the example of Saint Ambrose and of Patriarch Anthimus of Jerusalem—because closer study convinced him that it is more than a convenience for the reader’s attention. Each octet, he found, is governed by a single ruling thought, upon which its eight verses are strung “like beads on a single thread.” Much of the freshness of the commentary lies here. Before expounding the verses of a stanza he pauses to name its controlling idea, and often draws meaning from the very Hebrew letter that heads it: the octet under beth, “house,” on the ordering of one’s inner dwelling; the octet under heth, which he glosses as “sin,” on how the sinner breaks free of its bonds; the octet under ayin, “eye,” on spiritual sight; and so through the alphabet. The reader who follows the whole receives, stanza by stanza, a series of connected meditations rather than a heap of disconnected verses.

The larger movement of the work traces an ascent. From the opening beatitude—“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord”—Theophan reads the psalm as a ladder of the interior life, distinguishing the stages the Fathers had mapped: the active life of keeping the commandments, which purifies the heart, and the contemplative life that a purified heart opens onto, in which the mind beholds the mysteries of God. He is careful to present these as degrees through which a real soul passes, not as abstractions, and he returns to the ascent again and again as the psalm circles back to its one theme from ever new angles. The many names the psalm gives to the will of God—law, testimonies, statutes, judgments, words, ways, paths, commandments—he treats not as poetic variety but as facets of a single jewel, each catching the light differently; where a particular name colors the meaning of a verse, he says so. The one hundred and seventy-six verses thus become a single sustained prayer, offered from every condition of the soul, that God would enlighten, strengthen, raise up, and keep the one who longs to please Him.

Theological and Spiritual Significance

The abiding worth of this commentary lies in what it does with a theme that can seem, to a modern reader, forbidding. “The law” easily suggests mere rule-keeping, an external burden. Theophan will not allow the reduction. For him, as for the psalmist he expounds, the law of God is the revealed shape of a life lived toward God, and love for it is the whole health of the soul. The commandments are not a cage but a road home; blessedness is not deferred to some future reward but begins now, in the peace of a conscience at rest and a gaze that need not fall before the face of God. This is why the psalm says the blameless are blessed, not that they shall be — a distinction Theophan lingers over, insisting that the delight of walking with God is already given, here, amid every outward hardship.

He is equally clear-eyed about the difficulty of the road. The path of the commandments is clean in itself, he grants, but those who walk it walk under a constant fall of temptation, and to remain undefiled a soul must be willing to count itself already dead, ready, as the ancient image has it, to be offered like a lamb for sacrifice. He weaves through his exposition a sober psychology of the inner life: the difference between a knowledge of God’s word that stops at the intellect and a knowledge won by doing it; the way small, half-noticed sins gather weight even in those who guard against great ones; the subtle counterfeits of true joy and true sorrow, of godly fear and empty dread, that only spiritual experience learns to tell apart. On the vexed question of whether the saints truly become sinless, he lets the Fathers speak on both sides—Macarius on the freedom that grace does not overrule, Augustine on the sin that dwells in a man even as he walks in God’s ways—and leaves the tension standing rather than flattening it, so that the reader is instructed by the fullness of the tradition rather than by a single tidy answer.

What gives the work its particular authority is that Theophan writes as a catenist, gathering the exegesis of the Church into one voice. Around every verse he assembles Ambrose, who devoted an entire book to this psalm; Augustine, who preached on it publicly and confessed that its very simplicity had long deterred him, so deep did it prove; Athanasius, who read it as a portrait of the saints in their unseen warfare; Theodoret, Hilary, the Byzantine commentators Euthymius Zigabenus and Patriarch Anthimus of Jerusalem, with Origen, Eusebius, Isaac the Syrian, and Macarius drawn in as occasion warrants. The reader receives, in effect, a distilled patristic commentary on the greatest of the psalms of the law, filtered through the discernment of a nineteenth-century master of prayer and pressed always toward practice. It is this union of ancient exegesis and living spiritual counsel that has kept the work in print and in use, and that makes it as much a book to pray as a book to study.

Reception and Influence

Long before Theophan took it up, Psalm 118 held a singular place in Christian devotion, East and West alike, precisely as the psalm of the law of God and of longing for it. In the Latin tradition Ambrose and Augustine each gave it extended treatment, and in the East it entered the daily and funeral prayer of the Church. Theophan writes consciously within that stream, and his commentary has itself become, for Russian-speaking readers, the standard spiritual reading of the psalm—reprinted many times since its first appearance and drawn on by later teachers of the interior life. Because it is built so largely from the Fathers, it has also served as a doorway through which readers with no access to Ambrose or Zigabenus have met the patristic mind on this text. Its influence is thus twofold: it carries forward the ancient exposition it gathers, and it carries the stamp of one of the most widely loved spiritual guides of the modern Orthodox world.

The Text and This Edition

This edition presents a fresh, modern English translation of Saint Theophan’s commentary, made from the Russian. The Russian text is the public-domain original as preserved in the modern reading edition Psalm 118, an Interpretation in the Manner of a Discourse (Moscow: Pravilo Very, 2008), a re-typesetting of the nineteenth-century work whose typography carries no new copyright; the digital source consulted is the public-domain corpus at azbyka.ru. The translation renders Theophan’s Russian into clear contemporary English, aiming to keep the warmth and directness of his “conversational” manner while making it readable for those coming to him for the first time.

The edition follows the conventions of this series. Authorship is given as the Church has always received it: the commentary is Saint Theophan’s, and the many Fathers he quotes—Ambrose, Augustine, Athanasius, Theodoret, Hilary, Euthymius Zigabenus, Anthimus of Jerusalem, and the rest—appear as the authorities he cites within the text, credited where he credits them. The psalm’s numbering is kept as Theophan gives it, in the Greek and Slavonic reckoning (Psalm 118, equivalent to Psalm 119 of Hebrew-numbered Bibles), so that the commentary and the verses it treats always agree. Scripture citations are set in the familiar modern form, with chapter and verse in Arabic numerals. Inline emphasis in the original—the psalm’s lemmata, scriptural quotations, and the words Theophan stresses—is preserved. The structure of the work is retained in full: the preface, the twenty-two octets in their order through the alphabet, gathered into the three larger spans (verses 1–56, 57–120, and 121–176) in which the exposition unfolds.

Suggestions for Reading

The newcomer need not read this long commentary straight through to profit from it. Theophan himself points the way: take a single verse, he counsels, and meditate on it through the day, as one digs in a field where treasure is buried—keep digging, and you will find. The preface repays reading first, for it explains the psalm’s structure and sets out the spirit in which the whole is offered. After that, the octets may be taken up one at a time, each with its ruling thought named at the outset. Read slowly, and with the psalm’s own words open alongside, the work becomes what its author intended: less a book about prayer than an entrance into it.

Preface

Psalm 118 differs from other psalms by certain prominent features that cannot fail to strike the reader at first glance. The number of verses speaks for itself; with us this single psalm constitutes an entire kathisma. A reader who has gone through it attentively cannot but notice another peculiarity as well—namely, that each of the 176 verses says something about the law of God, designating it only by different names. Both of these features may be of lesser significance, but one cannot help but marvel at something else: as those who have labored greatly in the study of Scripture have found, in such a multitude of verses everything is about one and the same subject, yet there are no weak sayings and no completely identical repetitions. There are verses that resemble one another, but in each pair one always points to some particular trait of the law, or to some nuance of that same trait, in comparison with the other. Similarly, sayings that appear very simple, when one begins to examine them more carefully, reveal to the mind’s eye an entrance into the depths of the Divine legislation.

There is yet another characteristic feature of this psalm; in the Greek and Slavonic translations, as in any other, it is invisible, but in the Hebrew original it stands out at once. It is this: the psalm is arranged as an alphabetical acrostic, and not in such a way that each verse begins with a new letter following the initial letter of the preceding verse—for example, that the first verse begins with “a,” the second with “b,” the third with “g”—but rather eight consecutive verses begin with each letter, and then the next eight verses begin with the following letter. Thus the first eight verses begin with “a,” the next eight with “b,” and so on. There are 22 letters in all in the Hebrew alphabet. Allotting eight verses to each letter yields 176 verses—and that is precisely how many the psalm contains.

This last feature more than anything else leads toward settling the question of the origin and purpose of this psalm. One commentator cites the opinion of Hebrew scholars that the holy Prophet David composed this psalm to teach his son Solomon—whom he was preparing as his successor—the law of God and prayer. Zigabenus quotes from Origen, in which the latter attests that the Jews had a custom of making their children learn this psalm along with the alphabet. Combining the two, we conclude that the holy Prophet David, near the end of his days, after so many experiences in life—not one of which had passed without his placing himself in direct relation to God and His law—having wisely traversed all moral and religious states and come to understand them all in the light of God’s countenance, conceived the good thought of conveying to Solomon all of his spiritual experience, while at the same time having in view the children of all fathers, not of his own time only but of all subsequent generations. Blessed Theodoret writes the following about this psalm: “The divine David had many different changes in his life: he escaped enemies by flight, and put enemies to flight; he fell into grief and then led a joyful life; he walked the divine path and stumbled along the way, and then again followed the Divine laws. All of this he gathered into one in the present psalm, and bringing into one harmonious whole all the prayers that were offered by him to God at each circumstance, he set before men a single profitable teaching, and in what he has said shows how one may make progress in the life of active virtue.”

We hasten here to remove a thought that might arise: this psalm is for children’s reading and study, so why should we adults—and especially the highly learned—occupy ourselves with it? But this psalm was learned in childhood, yet it provided guidance for a whole life; and it constituted not only a guide once and for all exhausted by study, but also a subject for continual meditation and a means for ever-deepening penetration into the mysteries of God’s legislation. The sayings of the psalm are simple in form, but not simple in content. Begin to examine them more carefully, and you will always find something new, edifying, drawing the will along the paths of God. Blessed Augustine testifies that for a long time he could not bring himself to comment on this psalm, being struck by its depth. “How many times,” he says, “I was asked to give an exposition of it; and I took it up, but always drew back, seeing that it exceeded my powers; for the simpler this psalm appears, the deeper it proves in fact to be; so that I cannot say how deep it is. In other psalms there are obscurities; this one is so clear that one need only read or listen—there is nothing to explain. And yet I cannot say whether I shall be able to accomplish anything even now, as I approach the homilies on it.”

After this there can be no doubt that even learned men, if they take a verse of this psalm for themselves and meditate on it throughout the day, it will be very much like digging the earth in a place where treasure is hidden. Just keep digging—and you will find. Whatever stage of spiritual development one may be in, everyone will discern what is proper and profitable for himself. Blessed Theodoret concludes his opinion about this psalm as follows: “This psalm is sufficient to perfect in perfect virtue those who desire it, to rouse to diligence those who live in distraction, to encourage the faint-hearted, to correct the negligent—in a word, to provide every kind of remedy against the various infirmities of men.” Saint Athanasius the Great, passing over all the external features of this psalm, looks upon it with the eye of a profound desert-dweller and says: “In this psalm the holy prophet describes the life of the saints, their struggles, sorrows, labors, also the assaults of demons, the thousands of suggested thoughts, the snares and other means of capture—and together with these, the things by which the saints gain victory: the law, the words of God, patience, help from above, and finally what follows upon their labors—rewards, crowns, and recompenses.” Saint Ambrose writes that “other psalms too contain moral lessons, but those are like stars scattered across the sky, while this one is like the sun pouring forth abundant light at noon.”

Such richness of this psalm is what moved us to devote to meditation on it due time and, whatever God may grant, to offer that to the attention of God-fearing Christians who are zealous for their salvation, in the assurance that it will bring them at least some benefit. The Holy Church evidently desires us to know this psalm more firmly and understand it more deeply, having appointed its reading at every daily Midnight Office, when the mind refreshed by sleep is more capable and lively in its reception and more penetrating in its comprehension.

In offering our reflections, however, we consider it our duty to state that there will be little here that is our own. Everything will be borrowed from the holy fathers and teachers of the Church who have labored in the exposition of this psalm. Saint Ambrose devoted an entire book to it; Blessed Augustine offered homilies on it publicly in church; Saint Athanasius the Great, Blessed Theodoret, and Saint Hilary carried on its exposition alongside their exposition of all the psalms. Besides these, our counselors will be: Zigabenus Euthymius and Anthimus, the most blessed Patriarch of Jerusalem.

In our presentation we shall retain the division into octets, following the example of Saint Ambrose and the most blessed Anthimus, even though this division appears in neither the Slavonic nor the Greek text—the more so since this is not merely an external demarcation that eases reading and sustains attention and interest without influence on the internal content. It might have seemed that the verses of each octet present no unity; but more careful examination has shown that each octet is governed by a single thought, upon which the verses are strung like beads on a single thread. The exposition and meditation itself will show how true this is.

What then is the general form of the sayings in this psalm? They are not proverbs, but prayerful addresses to God. Each verse is a prayer, but all concern one thing—the fulfillment of the Lord’s law. A soul that has recognized that salvation is only in God through the fulfillment of His holy will speaks with God, entreating Him to enlighten, instruct, strengthen, deliver from inner temptations and outward troubles, raise up from falls, deliver from enemies—in a word, to grant it, by His mercy, to be pleasing to Him. Throughout, the speech is warm, addressed to God directly from the heart. One more observation. The will of God, which is binding on us, throughout the psalm is expressed not by a single word. Besides the usual expressions—law, commandments—there are the designations: testimonies, ordinances, words, judgments, judgments of righteousness, the way, the way of truth, the way of commandments, the way of ordinances, the paths of commandments, counsels, and others. Each of these names denotes the same will of God regarding how we are to live, or the same law, but viewed from different angles. If any of these designations gives a particular shade of meaning to the thought contained in a given saying, this will be noted in its proper place.

Verses 1–56

Verses 1–8

Ps. 118:1. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.

“By ‘the way,’” writes Theodoret, “the prophet here means life, which we all travel from birth to the grave.”

Undefiled in the way are those who live blamelessly, turning aside from every sin. “Whoever has never sinned in anything,” says Saint Athanasius the Great, “is undefiled.” Those who walk in the law of the Lord are those who, in Theodoret’s expression, “conduct their lives in accordance with the laws of God”—fulfilling every commandment that is encountered in the course of life, omitting nothing they recognize as obligatory and refusing nothing; in other words, those who do every good.

Thus these two points prescribe the same thing that the prophet elsewhere expresses with the words: “depart from evil and do good”—in answer to the question: “What man is he that desires life, and loves to see good days?” (Ps. 33:13, 15)—or as in the first psalm: first he “walked not in the counsel of the ungodly,” and then: “his delight is in the law of the Lord.”

So that is who is blessed! But by what blessedness? Inner or outer, present or future? If it pleases the Lord and is not harmful to the person, external happiness is also granted; but inner blessedness is inseparable from a pure and God-pleasing life, which, amid all external deprivations and needs, brings everyone peace and joy flowing from a tranquil conscience and an unashamed gaze into the face of the Lord, fills the soul with firm hope and kindles in it feelings proper for children toward a father. Such a person always rests in the bosom of God’s providential and loving care. This is here and now; and that is why the holy prophet says not “shall be” blessed, but “are.”

What will come—“it has not yet appeared” (1 John 3:2). It will be what cannot even enter a man’s mind—so full, so lofty, so infinitely precious is it! But the path is the same: a blameless life according to the Lord’s commandments. There is our fatherland; here is a foreign land; life is a journey homeward. Yet all are living; consequently all are moving toward the end, but not all are journeying home—not all are heading there, not all are being brought there by their path. Oh, that we would “so run as to obtain” (1 Cor. 9:24)! What prevents it? An ineffable blessedness is promised; and who does not desire blessedness, who does not seek it, who will not sacrifice everything for it? We sinners, lovers of sin—why do we love sin? Because we hope to find blessedness in it; and even though it deceives us and, instead of blessedness, wearies and torments us, we still wallow in it: perhaps we shall yet wait for blessedness! Yes, we shall wait for it as we wait for figs from a thistle.

All desire and seek blessedness; it is the mover of all human deeds and undertakings, great and small. But not all understand wherein it lies and how to reach it; and even having understood, not all so dispose themselves to act as is necessary to attain blessedness. Something incomprehensible lies hidden here. A person is palpably deceived and even subjected to a kind of violence, and yet goes wherever his gaze falls.

Blessed Augustine speaks at length on this matter. “This psalm from the very beginning calls us to blessedness—the object of every man’s desire. Is there anyone who has not desired, who never has desired, or ever will desire, to be blessed? What need is there to call to that toward which the human soul naturally strives of itself? For when someone calls to something, he inclines the will of the one he addresses to strive toward what he proposes. What then is being done to us by urging us to desire what we cannot not desire? Is this not superfluous speech?—No, it is not superfluous; all desire blessedness, but how to attain it—not all know. The words ‘blessed are the undefiled’ say, as it were: I know what you desire—you seek blessedness; well then, if you wish to be blessed, be undefiled. But here precisely lies the point: all desire blessedness, while very few desire what without which no one can attain what all desire. So he sets forth first the blessedness desired by all, and straightway proposes blamelessness through walking in the law of God, so that through what all themselves desire, they may be disposed toward what not all desire. To be blessed is so great a good that both the good and the not-good desire it; and it is no wonder that the good are good on account of it; but what is worthy of all admiration is that even the not-good are not-good out of a desire to be blessed. The one devoted to sensual pleasures, the one seeking wealth and honors, the one entangled in all manner of vices—all seek blessedness. It is these wanderers, who await blessedness from their destruction, that this divine voice calls to the right path—if only they will hear it: ‘blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.’ It proclaims as it were: Where are you going? You are perishing without knowing it. The destination you wish to reach is not approached by the road you are traveling. Of course you desire blessedness; but the road you are on leads to destruction. Cease, then, to seek so great a good on so evil a path. Here is where to go, here is the road to travel! Leave the destruction of perverted ways, you who cannot leave the desire for blessedness. In vain do you torment yourselves, striving toward what only defiles you. Blessed are not those who defile themselves with sin and walk in the corruption of the age, but those who ‘are undefiled in the way and walk in the law of the Lord.’”

And it is true that this path is arduous and fraught with many dangers. The path of the commandments is clean in itself; but those who walk it walk ceaselessly under a shower of foul drops which, if they hit, do not remain on the surface but penetrate inward. They must not merely be wiped off or washed away, but cut out and burned out. Saint Macarius depicts this path as running through thorns and bogs, where poisonous reptiles and wild beasts are hidden, with spears and swords planted here and there. How much attention, exertion, labor, and struggle is required here! That is why the word “undefiled” in the original is the same as that used to designate the lambs appointed for the Passover sacrifice. This, among other things, indicates that those who have entered the path of the commandments, in order to remain undefiled, must devote themselves as to a slaughter. Only one who from the very beginning has resolved to count himself already as dead will be able to stand firm against all temptations and difficulties—for what remains unbearable to one who counts himself dead? Everything of the sort is less than death. This is precisely what the Lord meant when He said: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself” (Matt. 16:24).

If it were possible to do one’s duty sometimes and not at other times, things would be more convenient. But it is not possible; nothing will come of such action. It is the same as building and tearing down; if you are going to go, then go. The Greek word for “walking” conveys the thought that those who go do not stop, do not pay attention to distractions, are not frightened by obstacles—they go as some majestic river flows until it enters the sea. “The prophet,” says Blessed Theodoret, “calls blessed those who walk steadily on the royal path and, following the counsels of the law, turn aside neither to the right nor to the left”—and Saint Ambrose continues: “He who walks blamelessly in the law of the Lord never ceases to walk this path, lest he cease to be blameless; he turns aside neither to the right nor to the left, does not look this way and that, does not stand motionless as though waiting for something, but presses on, ‘forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before,’ keeping his course toward a fixed goal, ‘toward the prize of the high calling’ (Phil. 3:13–14). This is what must be striven for! For many begin to run, but do not reach the end. ‘One must not merely enter the path,’ says Saint Hilary, ‘but continue to walk it to the very end. As long as someone is on the road, he has not yet attained what he is striving toward. That is why Blessed Paul says: “Not as though I had already attained… but I follow after” (Phil. 3:12). He too was pressing on—and pressing on in such a way that he forgot what lay behind. Only he who thus presses on in hope toward the future attains blessedness.’”

Ps. 118:2. Blessed are they that search out His testimonies; they shall seek Him with their whole heart.

“Testimonies”—witnesses. The holy prophet calls the law by this name because the law testifies to the will of God—about, as Blessed Theodoret says, “what God desires from us, how He desires to be pleased by us, and what He renders to those who follow His commandments and to those who do not.” By testimonies, however, the Word of God in general is meant here. A witness ordinarily speaks a word about what others do not know, with the assurance that he is speaking the truth. The spiritual world and all the mysteries pertaining to the divine nature, creation, governance of the world, redemption, and the restoration of all things are unknown to us. God Himself has given testimony about them. In this sense testimonies encompass all the words of God, all Divine revelation. Both—whether one understands it to mean only the law or all the Word of God—can be called testimony also because the truth of it has been attested convincingly for all, so that to doubt it is not only unreasonable but also contrary to God. God Himself solemnly proclaimed the law; prophets moved by the Spirit of God expounded it, prefiguring also the redemption to come; the Son of God—God incarnate—openly proclaimed the Father and explained His will and His own, entering into a New Covenant with humanity; the apostles filled with the Spirit of God proclaimed these mysteries to the whole world and throughout the whole world raised up the one Holy Church, the guardian of truth.

Thus the Word of God is from God; consequently it is immutably true, for God is truth. God bears witness by Himself that His word is true. But even having given His word as a guide for men, He has not ceased, throughout its entire existence on earth, to testify that it is immutably true—protecting and sheltering those who confess its truth, and striking with punishments those who rise against it in defiance of their conscience. He testifies to this especially by giving those faithful to His word the experience and heartfelt sense of everything promised to the faithful in the Word of God.

To search out the testimonies of God—the law or the Word of God in general—is possible either with the mind alone, or not with the mind alone but also in deed: the first precedes one’s entrance upon the path of God’s will as set forth in the Word, while the second follows after it.

The examination of the Word of God that precedes action—the intellectual study of it—is done in one case for the sake of knowledge alone, and in the other for the sake of following it.

One may study the Word of God without following it, not from obstinate opposition to God’s calling, but from procrastination, saying to oneself: now let us study the Word, and in time we shall begin to live by it. Such a bore knowledge of the Word of God cannot be full or satisfactory, because the greater part of its truths are understood only after one has entered upon the path of following it. By its nature such knowledge is largely limited to the theoretical-intellectual side of what is revealed, even in those matters that concern activity. And it always gets confused, because to construct intellectual theories about what is revealed in the Word of God, without a corresponding life, is the same as in the external sciences building speculative systems without experience. Saint Isaac the Syrian writes at length about this bore knowledge and its confusions in his epistle to the venerable Simeon the Wonderworker. Those who remain at this level of knowledge alone, of course, cannot be called blessed. On the contrary, such knowledge is more likely to serve for their condemnation. “The servant who knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes” (Luke 12:47). All the same, even such knowledge can be salutary, if the Word of God is examined not with evil intent or obstinacy, but with some—even if small—sympathy. Divine truths are gathered into that same consciousness where the darkness of the love of sin and vanity also dwell. The light of God cannot fail to expose this darkness, and the conscience, heeding this, cannot fail to raise its voice—instructive and compelling. A moment will come when the one who has been studying the Word of God with his mind and desire will turn to its directions and resolve to follow it steadfastly. In that case, all the knowledge of the Word of God previously gathered will serve him as ready material for the formation of the inner man, just as the elements surrounding a germinated seed within the seed itself serve as first nourishment for the sprout that has awakened.

The examination of the Word of God with a view to following it is of two kinds: one is in order to begin following it, and the other is in order, having begun, to follow it better. Someone hears that everything he thinks and does is false and bad, and that truth is contained only in the Word of God—he takes the Word of God, reads it, pays heed, comes to his senses, and resolves to follow its directions and demands. After the holy martyr Justin, how many there have been in the Church of God who, beginning well, were afterward completely cleansed, became vessels of grace, and are now glorified by the Church! And even now such people exist. Even among Christians there are many who have never read the Word of God and do not know what is required of them by the holy faith and baptism; but when, in some manner, they are led to read it, they are enlightened in mind and heart and become unashamed workers in the house of God. But even those who have already begun to walk the path of God’s commandments cannot remain without searching the Word of God, because one must not only enter upon the path of God, but follow it to the end, and moreover in a straight line, turning aside neither this way nor that. Counsel regarding this is to be found nowhere except in the Word of God. Therefore, having begun to follow the Word of God, they never let it out of their hands, studying it and feeding on it, and making it a rule for their every deed—undertaken and performed—to have a testimony from the Word of God. Those who cannot read sharpen their hearing in the church of God and, like a bird picking up grain by grain, gather the words of God, and, growing rich in knowledge of it, day by day become wise in the Word—capable of teaching the spiritual life even to the highly educated.

Who among all of these is blessed? The blessedness of those who search out the testimonies of God begins from the moment of resolve to follow them in deed. Although they have not yet succeeded in becoming undefiled in the way and pure in heart, as is required by the first verse for blessedness, yet they have already begun to move toward blessedness, having begun to seek the Lord—they are blessed as yet in hope, which will without fail soon lead them also to an actual taste of blessedness. “Such persons,” says Blessed Augustine, “are blessed in hope, just as ‘blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake’—not in what already is, for they endure evil, but in what will come to them: ‘for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 5:10). If they are blessed in hope, then in hope one may also be undefiled. For in this life, however earnestly we may endeavor to walk in the law of the Lord, ‘if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’ (1 John 1:8).”

Truly blessed among those who search out the testimonies of God are those who by actual deed experience everything indicated in the Word of God. And even those who have begun to follow the Word of God are not immediately led into spiritual experience. At first they are incapable of it: there is still too much noise and turmoil in their soul and heart. In time, when the tumult subsides, spiritual experience begins—from small occasions to greater ones. The further one goes, the more there is; finally they acquire “senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). Here are examples: we repent and receive absolution; but at the same time there is given a confirmatory sense of being forgiven, though in its full strength it comes after the labors of repentance. Whoever experiences this has experienced in deed what the remission of sins is. Everyone knows how good the Lord is; but one person tastes this, and through tasting already knows that the Lord is good. All of us pray; but there is a prayer that prays of itself and draws the whole inner man along after it. Only one who experiences this truly knows what prayer is. How many inner changes occur in a person: now he is in joy, now in sorrow, now in fear, now in a sense of security and hope—but all such feelings come from both the right side and the left. There is joy in the Lord and sorrow according to God; and there is counterfeit joy and counterfeit sorrow. There is the fear of God and saving hope, and there is empty dread and deceptive hope. All such manifestations of life in the spirit are experienced in deed, studied by experience, and, once studied, become guiding principles of life. By what are such persons blessed? By the very thing they are experiencing; to them the word then applies: “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).

But there is yet a higher searching of the testimonies of God: searching in deed belongs to the active life; there is a contemplative life, in which there is also contemplative searching. Unwavering fulfillment of the commandments leads to purity of heart; and a pure heart opens a window in the mind into the spiritual world, and the mind contemplates objects there as the eye looks at what is visible outside. In all the writings of the Fathers it is mentioned that the active life according to the commandments leads to contemplation, and that the mind, having attained this degree, contemplates the mysteries of God. What this consists in and how it comes about is known to those who are counted worthy of it. Let us accept this on faith, since it is generally attested by all; and that this may also be understood in the present verse, let us defer to men of great knowledge. Zigabenus cites the following words of Eusebius on this passage: “The holy prophet proceeds in order. The first blessed ones are those undefiled in the way, who never in any way step off the path of the law; these are men of active life. The second, having ascended to a higher degree, are blessed in that they not only correct their character but also contemplate the depths of God’s testimonies; these are the contemplatives.”

In direct connection with the searching of testimonies, the prophet places the whole-hearted seeking of the Lord: they shall seek Him with their whole heart. The seeking of the Lord begins from the time when one begins to read the Word of God with a view to following it. When one resolves to follow its requirements and directions, he thereupon enters upon the path of active seeking of Him; and then—whatever degrees the searching of testimonies passes through, the seeking of the Lord passes through its own degrees alongside it. They mutually arouse, support, and animate one another. But the goal—the seeking of the Lord—is not merely to seek and seek; but, having sought, to find, and, having found, to remain with Him and in Him, possessing Him and being possessed by Him. As soon as a person resolves to follow the commandments, seeking the Lord, the Lord receives him. But again, the seeking of the Lord is still mingled with many other seekings that interrupt it. When one enters into a state of spiritual experience, however, the seeking of the Lord comes to the fore and occupies the prevailing place: all other seekings are subordinated to it and directed by it; thereafter it occupies the whole heart and becomes exclusive. This is already in the final degrees of the active life and in the contemplative life, whose distinguishing mark is: the soul and God, and nothing and no one else.

Let us cite three testimonies of our commentators regarding this seeking. Each reader will see for himself to which state each of them pertains.

Blessed Anthimus of Jerusalem says: “In this verse holy David shows the manner by which people come to walk in the law of the Lord. When, he says, they begin to search out His testimonies—that is, when with a sober and pure thought they begin to examine His words, the truth of which has been witnessed and confessed—then they will seek the Lord too, not only through knowledge and understanding of His words, but also with the heart, loving Him and always doing what is pleasing to Him.”

Euthymius Zigabenus writes: “Whoever reads the law and the words of God with deep attentiveness and grasps the spiritual treasure hidden within, by virtue of such deep attention begins with his whole heart to seek God, having mentally beheld His beauty and tasted His most sweet light. Then he is freed from everything material and takes delight in Him alone.”

Blessed Theodoret asserts: “Whole-hearted seeking is not possible for everyone, but only for one who has reached the very summit of virtue; such a person no longer divides his mind between thoughts of God and thoughts of anything worldly, but devotes his whole self to God.”

Ps. 118:3. For they that work no iniquity have walked in His ways.

According to the Hebrew text, this verse reads: “Such people no longer commit iniquity; they walk in His ways.” The same meaning is present in our text. If instead of “those who work” we put “working”—as the Greek word permits us to do—we get: “working no iniquity, they began to walk in His ways”—began to walk so decisively that they settled into this manner of walking forever. Who are these people? Those who have attained the degrees shown above, have entered into a state of contemplation, and abide with the Lord, having sought Him with their whole heart and found Him. What is attributed to them? The fact that, kept by the all-encompassing grace of the Lord who dwells within them, they in no way allow themselves to do anything displeasing to the Lord, to offend Him by any iniquity, but always walk steadfastly—in thought, in feeling, and in deed—only in the ways of God: not merely the general ones indicated by general prescriptions, but also the particular ones that govern every contingency of life.

Here is indicated the highest spiritual-moral state in which the holy apostles lived, and after them many men equal to the apostles. To them apply the words of the Apostle John: “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9). Regeneration begins in baptism, but appears in its fullness at the final degrees of spiritual progress, when everything within a person has been consumed by the Lord (offered as sacrifice to the Lord), and he appears entirely renewed, after the image of his Creator—appearing, that is, in spirit as a son of God by the manifest God-likeness within him. The holy Apostle Paul defines the character of such people by an indissoluble love: “Who,” he says, “shall separate us from the love of God?”—Nothing, neither on earth nor in heaven, neither in the present nor in the future; for love never fails. Such people in all their ways are already “led by the Spirit of God” (Rom. 8:14, 35), as was clearly demonstrated in the holy Apostle Paul, who says of all his undertakings and deeds: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Cor. 3:5); for He it is “that works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Such persons are instruments of the Divine providence over us.

Thus here the word “ways” denotes not merely the commandments, but the ways of God’s providence in general—whereby everything most beneficial and saving is ordained for each person. Our whole misfortune is that we do not find the track of providential decrees, and we fail to find it because we are spiritually immature. But those who have risen to this measure not only see everything concerning themselves, but also what concerns others. They know how to determine in the most precise manner what each person, according to the intentions of God, ought to do. I recall that many came to Father Seraphim of Sarov with questions about the paths of life, and to very many he clearly indicated which path to take so as not to destroy one’s soul. To one female pilgrim he said: “Go, sit at home and work, and feed yourself by that and give alms besides.” To another pilgrim, a man who wished to enter a monastery, he gave the instruction to wander on pilgrimage, because living in a community would not be saving for him. For others he prescribed yet other things. And there were and are many such beholders of the ways of God. To this perfection we are all destined, and if we are deprived of such a gift it is solely through negligence and indifference—and more through the love of sin; that is why we so often wander through life aimlessly, doing and redoing, going and returning, and crisscrossing the paths of life in every direction. Let us at least desire and pray to God that He not deprive us of men who can see all His ways—who, walking in them themselves, may also point them out to others. And the path to this is solely that which Elder Seraphim and those like him have traveled.

Saint Macarius asks: “Were the apostles able to sin?”—and answers: “They could not; yet they were free to do as they pleased.” Grace did not bind them, but they themselves did not consent to sin. Here are his words: “They could not sin because, remaining in the light and possessing such grace, they were not lifted up with pride. We affirm, however, that grace permits even perfect spiritual men to have their own wills and the ability to do as they wish and to incline toward whatever they please. And human nature itself, being weak, has the ability to turn aside from the good that dwells with it” (Spiritual Homilies, 27, 11).

Blessed Augustine resolves the question: “In what manner do the saints, working no iniquity, walk in the ways of God—while it is true that ‘if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’ (1 John 1:8)?” This perplexity, he says, is resolved by the Apostle Paul, who speaks of the sins of the saints in his own person: “it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Rom. 7:20). If sin dwells in him, how can it be said that he is without sin? And yet he walks in the ways of God and works no iniquity, for though sin exists in him, it is not he who commits it, but the sin dwelling in him. This resolution, however, is such that it produces another, more difficult, perplexity: how does a man do what he himself does not do? For he said both things: both “what I would not, that I do” and “it is no more I that do it” (Rom. 7:20). When the sin dwelling in us acts in us, then it is not we who are doing it, as long as our will does not agree with it and restrains the members of the body from obeying it; for what does sin do in us without us, except to assail us and lure us toward what is forbidden? If the will does not consent to it, then though a certain passion (affectus) is set in motion, no act (effectus) is yielded to it. This is what the same apostle prescribed when he said: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts; neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin” (Rom. 6:12–13). Thus sin acts in us through sinful lusts; if we obey them, we will act sinfully. But if, following the apostle, we do not obey them, then it is no longer we who are doing it, but the sin dwelling in us. If we had no such unlawful motions, then neither we nor the sin dwelling in us would do anything evil. This motion of unlawful lust—not obeying which, we do not perform it—is counted as our doing because it is an infirmity not of someone else’s but of our own nature; from such infirmity we shall be fully delivered only when we are immortal not in soul alone but also in body. Thus we both walk in the ways of God—by not obeying sinful lusts—and are not without sin—because we carry sinful lusts within us. Another question: in the words of the Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our debts”—what do we ask to have forgiven—the deeds we commit by obeying sinful lusts, or those very lusts which we do not commit, but the sin dwelling in us does? I hold that the guilt of that infirmity or disease from which sinful lusts arise—which the apostle calls sin (Rom. 7:7–15)—was entirely forgiven us in the sacrament of baptism, together with everything we had done before that time in obeying it in word, deed, and thought; and that after this, this infirmity would not harm us at all, though it were in us, if we never in anything obeyed its lusts—in word, deed, or secret consent—until finally it itself were healed, and there were fulfilled in us: “Your kingdom come.” But since “the life of man upon earth is a temptation” (Job 7:1), though we may be far from open transgressions, it happens that we are carried away in the wake of sinful motions by word, deed, or thought. We are on guard against great sins, but small sins break through by some inattention or carelessness of ours—which, however, if all gathered together, cannot but weigh upon us. It is on account of these that even those who always walk in the ways of God sincerely pray: “forgive us our debts.”

Ps. 118:4. You have commanded us to keep Your commandments diligently.

In the three preceding verses the holy prophet outlined the general contour of moral and religious life—where it begins, what it passes through, and what it attains. Beginning with the fourth verse, his God-contemplating and prayerful addresses to God begin concerning all the aspects and all the particulars of this life.

In first place is set what is first and most important: namely, the obligation to intense zeal for keeping the commandments—commandments that have been “greatly” commanded. This zeal is the inexhaustible source of good deeds and of all God-pleasing life; it is the burning bush that blazes in the heart and is not consumed. Shut off the source and the flow of refreshing, life-giving water will cease; suppress zeal and all doing of good and all thought of pleasing God will stop. Quench the fire and there will be neither light nor warmth; quench zeal and the soul will have no inclination toward anything good, and will grow entirely cold to life according to God. Given the essential importance of zeal for keeping the commandments, holy David mentions it first of all. But in order to sustain it, he at the same time reminds us that such intense zeal is obligatory because the commandments themselves have been “greatly” commanded—and the “great” commanding of the commandments naturally calls forth a “great” keeping of them. The word “greatly” Blessed Augustine refers both to “commanded” and to the word “to keep,” though it evidently more directly and plainly belongs to the latter.

Thus God has “greatly commanded the commandments”—that is, commanded them to us not merely as something more useful or more fitting, but as a thing essentially necessary, without which ruin is inescapable for us. Here is the narrow path of the commandments: walk it and you will come to life. But there is also the broad path of lawlessness; if you walk it, it will cast you into eternal destruction. The commandments have been “greatly commanded” also in the sense that the Lord has never shown indifference to their fulfillment; He did not, so to speak, pronounce them in passing, holding Himself thereafter in such a way that it seemed He did not care whether they were fulfilled or not; but, having given the commandments, He is zealous that they be kept. For that purpose were the thunder and lightning at the lawgiving; for that purpose are the threats and the actual terrible punishments on those who do not keep them, and blessings on those who do. That is why the saints of God confessed that He is “a jealous God.” Concerning His commandments He puts Himself in the following relation: “If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword” (Isa. 1:19–20). Recall the expulsion from paradise, the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction of the Egyptians, the extermination of the Canaanites, the Babylonian captivity, the devastation of Jerusalem and the temple with the scattering of the Jewish people, and many similar judgments of God upon sinners—and you cannot but say that God commanded His commandments “greatly.”

If you do not remain coldly indifferent to such events, you cannot fail yourself to become a man of “great” zeal for keeping the commandments. The Lord Who has “greatly” commanded His commandments requires that we also “greatly” keep them.

“Such ‘great’ keeping,” says Patriarch Anthimus, “requires that we guard the commandments with all diligence and constant earnestness, without murmuring and without distraction; not carelessly,” adds Theodoret, “but with complete exactitude—it requires that we not act within the sphere of the commandments with a scattered mind and heedless heart, but with full devotion, with all attention, diligence, and care, fulfill the commands of God with reverence toward Him who gave them; only then will our deeds serve for our progress in faith. If, however, we perform them with a negligent heart and a mind occupied with other thoughts, then only outwardly, with the members of the body, shall we fulfill the duty—which, by reason of the heart’s negligence, has no worth as a God-pleasing action,” as Saint Hilary remarks.

Thus the indication of “great” keeping of the commandments warns us not against their open violation, but against an improper, incomplete, God-displeasing fulfillment of them—which consequently borders on their violation.

Most of all we sin in this respect through heartlessness. Our deeds are correct, but the heart is not in them—nor is the soul always. That is why we constantly encounter in our holy teachers the reminder: see to it that where the body is, there the heart and mind are as well. You make a prostration—let your heart also bow before the All-seeing and All-present One; you give alms—do so with your heart turned toward Him Who is ready invisibly to receive it if you act thus; you forgive an offense—forgive it, understanding it as a penance sent by God to obtain forgiveness for yourself as well. So it is in everything: in all deeds there must be present the true good inner disposition, from which all external activity receives its entire worth.

It is a great misfortune for us that we reduce everything to form—not only when we begin with form, carried away by mere imitation, but also when we begin to act with a truly proper disposition of heart. After a few performances of one and the same thing with the heart’s participation, the heart begins to be indifferent, the mind to wander, and the deed is done only formally. This ailment can afflict all devout habits, even those associated with a certain kind of labor and burden in their performance. What is to be done? There is no remedy against this other than imposing on oneself the rule of always beginning anew, not thinking that what is being done has ever been done before. Each time you approach it, approach it as if for the first time. When holy Paul said that he pressed forward, forgetting all that lay behind, although he did not say that he pressed forward precisely because he forgot what lay behind—in substance that is exactly so. One who has laid down such a rule for himself acquires the habit of always doing everything earnestly, with heart and attention, and avoids the verdict pronounced in the Apocalypse: “you are neither cold nor hot; I will spue you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16).

Without doubt, constant, fervent zeal for keeping the commandments is a work of God’s grace—it is grace that arouses it and grace that preserves it; but this does not mean that we ourselves may lower our hands. On the contrary, our duty is constantly to kindle ourselves by gathering varied incentives for keeping the commandments and surrounding our heart with them. This is like adding wood to a burning furnace. When there is such an effort on our part, grace will act too, turning our small endeavors into great ones; but when there is none, grace will also withdraw. People often ask: why does coldness come? Almost always because negligence was consciously permitted—by distraction—in that very thing toward which coldness has appeared. This is an inner punishment from the grace that admonishes us.

Ps. 118:5. O that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes!

“Were directed”—became straight, took a right direction. “My ways”—all my steps, all my undertakings and enterprises, everything I intend to do, my inner disposition, and my outward deeds. “To keep”—that is, in such a way that I, having received these statutes into my conscience, might thereafter realize them through all my activity, so that they might constitute the soul of all my deeds. “Your statutes”—that is, what God counts as right: “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest… whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise” (Phil. 4:8), or again: “what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:2).

Thus the prophet expresses the desire to be in all things upright before the face of God and always well-pleasing to Him by walking in His holy will.

But the force of this verse lies not in this uprightness and God-pleasingness, but in the exclamation: “O that”—which, according to Saint Athanasius, is used in the sense of: “O if only; O if only my ways were directed!” He does not say: O if only I might direct my ways, but—were directed, by whatever means the Lord may know. This expresses the fact that though the desire is there, the strength is not. “O if only!”—this is the same as saying “Help me, Lord, give me strength, send down Your grace.” Blessed Augustine says on this occasion: “Some think that all the help from on high in our striving toward holiness is limited to giving us knowledge of the commandments, so that, having known them, we may fulfill them without any special grace, by our own powers alone. For the correction of such persons the holy prophet here expresses the desire for higher gracious help in keeping God’s commandments—already after having received God’s commandments, of which the preceding verse speaks. He says as it were: ‘I have already received the commandments which You have commanded to keep diligently; I know them; but Your commandment is holy and righteous and good; yet I am sold under sin, which works death in me by that which is good (Rom. 7:12–13)—unless Your grace help me. Help then!’”

Having said above that God obliges us to the “great” keeping of the commandments—“greatly” commanded by Him—the holy prophet did not add any conclusion, such as, for example: “therefore let us be zealous”; he pronounced this for himself silently, in his heart, giving an example for everyone to do the same privately. The matter is plain: God commands—the creature must obey without deliberation. But, being urged to this, he encounters the instability of human intentions, the weaknesses and powerlessness of the human will—which he has learned by experience—and cries out for help from on high, for help of grace.

And this is the second producer of active God-pleasing life, alongside one’s own intensified zeal for it. The work of a God-pleasing life is accomplished by both of them inseparably. Neither grace without our free efforts will help, nor can our efforts produce anything lasting without grace. The work is accomplished by the combination of freedom and grace. Do not ask which is greater, which is lesser, which begins, which follows—for we cannot comprehend this; but simply hold that both are equally necessary, since without each other neither can accomplish anything in us.

Make haste to fulfill what depends on you, just as the holy Prophet David did—he first spoke of zeal and then cried out to grace as well. What is God’s is always ready; it is only needful that we be ready. That is why he does not intensify his supplication, but only cries out: “O that my ways were directed!”

One recalls here the comparisons that Saint Macarius so aptly assembles to clarify the truth that we should be zealous—but remember that without help from on high you will succeed in nothing, neither in the general course of life nor in particular deeds. The one who seeks but is powerless—in his presentation is like a wealthy man who is ill, surrounded by his relatives, to whom neither they with all their goodwill nor he himself with all his resources can bring help, and they are compelled to send for and find a physician who knows his business; or like a child who, wanting to eat or wishing for something else, being unable to move from the spot, only cries so that his mother may hear; or like one who needs to cross a river and is looking for a suitable boat. By all of this he urges us not to trust in ourselves but to seek God’s help and grace. It would seem there is nothing to urge—and yet in practice it happens that as long as a person lives in negligence, he feels himself to be strong and holds to the thought that he need only begin and he will set everything right by himself. Even having begun the work of self-correction, he still places his reliance on his own labors, still attributes much to his own efforts and expects much from them. It is only much later, when, having worked conscientiously, he sees that everything somehow is not going well, that he begins to shift to hope and the surrendering of himself to God’s will and care—and even then not all at once, but gradually, for he still keeps thinking: what then are my powers for? Finally, having been utterly exhausted and finding neither what he desired nor what he expected, he throws down his weapons and remains with a single cry: “By whatever means You know, save me!”—arriving, that is, at that point where the holy Prophet David stood when he cried: “O that my ways were directed!”

Ps. 118:6. Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all Your commandments.

“Shall not be ashamed”—shall not be put to shame, shall not be shamed by having begun and fallen away without completing the work. What was begun? A zealous walking in all the commandments. One is put to shame if either he altogether ceases to walk this path, or does not do all that he ought. Before whom is the shame? Before his conscience, before God, before the angels, before the saints in heaven, and before the assembly of earthly reverencers of God on earth—because a living union with all of them is inseparable from the consciousness of one who is zealous for a good life; he feels himself walking under their gaze. Therefore, just as a righteous walk gladdens and encourages, so deviation from the true path puts one to shame at the thought of it. Inner shame comes from yielding to passionate urgings and attractions; outward shame comes from stumbling into unbecoming deeds; the highest shame comes from both. And there is no escaping this shame, for it involves the conscience—from which no known commandment can be hidden, nor any done deed concealed. It is not that one should do everything merely to avoid disgracing oneself; but the position of one who has disgraced himself is sufficiently shameful and cannot fail to give warning. Man is a creature of high dignity; this he cannot hide from himself—but this should lead him not to pride, but to conducting himself according to his dignity, which is possible without pride. The holy prophet only says that I shall remain on the unshameful path if I have regard for all Your commandments, O Lord.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “The fruit of transgression is shame. So said the divine apostle also: ‘What fruit had you then in those things of which you are now ashamed?’ (Rom. 6:21). But those who fulfill all God’s commandments have boldness in their conscience.” Saint Ambrose brings forward the progenitors and says: “Pray that you may fulfill all the commandments and not be put to shame. You were already covered with shame in Adam and Eve; you already felt yourself naked and hastened to cover yourself with leaves; already the shame of nakedness pressed upon you, and you tried to hide from the face of God. You know, then, how heavy is the shame of transgressing the commandment—take care, therefore, to walk in all God’s commandments.”

But the force of this verse lies in the word “have respect.” The holy prophet first pointed out to one who desires to live a God-pleasing life the entire path of life, depicting its beginning, continuation, and end; then he equipped him for the journey, arousing his zeal and clothing him with gracious strength; now he gives him parting counsel—that is, what one must have in order to traverse successfully the path that has been undertaken. In first place he sets strict attention; for “to have respect” means to direct one’s gaze at something, to fasten it upon it. Collected attention is the condition of success in every endeavor. One who works with his hands but wanders in his thoughts both works slowly and often makes mistakes; all the more inevitable are the stops, omissions, and errors in moral activity when attention is scattered. Attention has much to do. One must attend to what is happening within, to how affairs are proceeding without, to what has passed, and to what is expected. In the present verse the holy prophet points to attention to the commandments, suggesting that one must fix one’s gaze upon the commandments—and one will not be put to shame. Thus, first of all, one must become so disposed that one’s attention is exclusively occupied with the commandments. There are many matters, and a person is inevitably occupied with many things; but not all matters are of the same rank—there are main tasks and secondary ones. Secondary things are done in passing; main tasks are done with all diligence. The prophet requires that the commandments be the main task, and everything else the secondary. Whatever a person has as his main concern, he is constantly occupied with it—whether eating or drinking, walking or sitting, he sees it even in his sleep. So too should the commandments fetter all one’s attention, while everything else is held as a passing concern.

At the same time it goes without saying that, having fixed one’s gaze upon the commandments, one must not merely look at them, but look into them as into a mirror. “Into God’s commandments,” says Blessed Augustine, “whether you read them or reproduce them in memory, you must look as into a mirror—according to the Apostle James, who in this connection commands that we be not hearers only of the law, but rather doers” (Jas. 1:22–23). One must look into the commandments as into a mirror in order that, seeing what one ought to be, one may accordingly dispose oneself. By means of the commandments one must form an image of the norm of God-pleasing life and realize it; one must draw an ideal of perfection and copy it in oneself. The Apostle Paul says: “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly” (1 Cor. 9:26). He clearly saw what would come of his labors, what he would attain, and was encouraged thereby. This every person must have; and in truth every person who is running the right course does have it. Saint Mark the Ascetic says that our first enemy is ignorance, and our second is forgetfulness. We forget who we are and what we ought to be, and give ourselves over to carelessness. The forgetful hearer who, having discerned his face in a mirror, straightway forgets what he is like, will make no progress in walking by the perfect law of liberty (Jas. 1:23–25).

Whoever thus has regard for all the commandments will never form an exalted opinion of himself and will never say “enough”—but whoever, instead of looking at them, begins to look at what is around him, will find it hard to keep from conceit. Fallen into this plague, one becomes self-satisfied, stops, judges others. For this, grace withdraws from him; like dogs slipped from their chains, passionate urges are unleashed; helpless—if he does not at that very moment return to repentance and sighing—he is given over into the hands of a fall, and falls. Here is the shameful state. Whoever has regard for the commandments in the manner described will not come to this—will not be put to shame.

Ps. 118:7. I will praise You with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned the judgments of Your righteousness.

Here is expressed the second requirement for successful progress along the path of God: instruction, or the practice of discerning the judgments of God’s righteousness and acting accordingly. God’s righteousness—these are the commandments; the judgments of God’s righteousness—these are God’s determinations and decrees as to what, when, and how ought to be done in order to serve the cause of pleasing God and salvation, and not to destroy it. This is what is known among the holy fathers as “discernment.” And that is the second requirement for success in the work of God.

This discernment—or the ability to determine how best to act in each given case—is acquired not all at once, but gradually. At first, one who is new to the work of God usually does not reason things out himself, but asks everything of those who know how to reason—just as is the case in all worldly affairs and undertakings. But then, with the strict attention spoken of in the preceding verse, and through the experience of guidance, deeds accomplished fruitfully one after another give the soul the habit of determining some things itself. This habit grows together with the progress of life and at last becomes established; an interior uprightness is acquired that determines directly and truly what and how to do; “a right spirit is renewed” within—that is, in the purified heart.

This discernment has two functions: by one, thoughts are distinguished; by the other, the indications of God’s providence are perceived—that is, what God desires of us through this or that circumstance and event, for all things come from Him, and all things are ordered for our good, for our salvation.

Whoever wishes to learn more precisely what the discernment of thoughts is should read the book of responses by Barsanuphius and John—the clairvoyant recluses. With regard to any matter, thoughts may be twofold or threefold—by which, then, should one act? If a passionate thought were to present itself openly, as it is in comparison with a dispassionate one, the decision would be easy; but ordinarily, in one who has begun to attend to himself, passionate thoughts do not appear in their true form—they always come under a seemly disguise. Therefore there is always a danger of acting as though for good, while in fact acting according to passion. In the aforementioned book, every possible case has been examined by the God-enlightened mind of clairvoyant elders; there a detailed instruction is given on how to discern the judgments of God’s righteousness in this regard.

The second object of discernment—seeing the providential indications in all that concerns us, great and small, from the events of life that influence our lot to the most trivial encounters—is founded on the undoubtedly certain conviction that everything that happens to us happens by God’s will. By placing us in one or another set of circumstances, the Lord expects us to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of His care for us. He is everywhere, and therefore with us; and being with us, He watches to see whether we will act as He desires. Being thus under God’s testing and watchful eye, we cannot act haphazardly, but must consider what exactly God desires of us in each particular case and act accordingly. Strict attention to one’s own circumstances and always acting in the spirit of self-denying surrender to God’s will gives, in the end, a habit of correctly discerning God’s intentions toward us. Worldly wisdom calls such action prudence, but spiritual discernment often runs contrary to all calculations of human prudence; that is why it sometimes appears as foolishness (simplicity, ignorance), while in the substance of the matter it is wiser than all wisdom.

In this way, as has been said, a right spirit is at last acquired—or rightness of heart. Then the confession to God is made in this very rightness, since it has become an inalienable possession. Confession to God has many sources. That is not our subject here; what concerns us is the quality of confession. When I acquire, says the psalmist, the habit of discerning the judgments of Your righteousness—or when I acquire rightness of heart—then my confession also will be in rightness of heart: sincere, with childlike simplicity and purity. Or, as Blessed Theodoret writes: “Then I shall be able to offer You a pure song, when I know all Your judgments and live in accordance with them.” Why so?—Because, both by inner movements and by outward circumstances, through the aforementioned discernment, he is palpably assured that he is always surrounded by the most attentive and compassionate care of God, and consequently he entrusts himself wholly into God’s hands, resting in them as a child rests in a mother’s arms. Since all that is from God goes to our good and since this is felt in the heart, hence flow unceasing thanksgiving and doxology. Here “I will confess to You” means, as Theodoret says, “I will give thanks”; or, as Augustine explains, “I will glorify You both for such care and for the very habit of discerning the judgments of Your righteousness.”

This confession may also indicate that practice of those who attend to themselves whereby, conscious of being under the all-gracious care of God, they present their soul to God as it is, with all its weaknesses and unworthiness, and pray that He would correct them, if that be pleasing to His all-holy will, and in whatever way He wills. Blessed Anthimus of Jerusalem understands by “confession” here the confession of all one’s stumbles—from which no one is ever free—so as to appear pure and blameless on the day of God’s dread judgment, not only in great things but in small as well. Bordering upon this is the unceasing cry of those who seek salvation, expressed in the words: “By whatever means You know, save us unworthy ones!”

Ps. 118:8. I will keep Your statutes: forsake me not utterly.

Here is expressed the third requirement for success in the work of a God-pleasing life: the courage with which one must approach such a life. By these words the holy prophet expresses the same thing as Saint Paul: I can do all things through Him who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13).

Without courage one cannot even begin such a life, for it is full of difficulties and surrounded by enemies of salvation. The beginner, though he has only just started, is not unaware of what he will encounter: he will not meet with caresses, but with the roaring of lions rushing to devour him. Whoever lacks the inspiring courage to enter into battle against all these adversities will turn back at the very first steps. A wrestler whose hands tremble and whose knees give way at the mere sight of his opponents has already fallen before the battle begins. So it is in the spiritual life.

Where, then, is such courage to be found?—In hope in the Lord. The path upon which those who seek to please God and be saved have entered is God’s path. God is well-pleased with it, He patronizes all who walk upon it and keeps them. He has prepared everything on this path as an aid to them, and He waits only for them to step upon it in order to supply them with all they need. It is in the feeling of this ever-ready help from above that one who has resolved to serve the Lord says: “I will keep Your statutes”—only do You not forsake me “utterly.” This same thing the prophet exhorts in all: “Be of good courage,” he says, “and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord” (Ps. 30:25).

“Forsake not utterly”—that is, “completely.” There are God’s forsakings that are testing and instructive, when the Lord withdraws grace somewhat, or diminishes and conceals its operations, for the purpose of testing and training the will. When grace overshadows, everything prospers—in thoughts, in feelings, in deeds. Human weakness, often appropriating this state to itself, falls into self-conceit and self-satisfaction, and thereby departs from truth and distorts the work of life. To prevent this, or to stop it when it has already begun, grace—watchful over the salvation of those who seek the Lord and desiring that they all stand in the knowledge of truth and in rightness of disposition—withdraws for a time and leaves a person alone with his natural powers. Immediately thereafter, disorder begins within and irregularity without. One who attends to himself cannot fail to notice this diminishment, just as one stripped bore in the cold cannot help feeling the cold, nor fail to understand what has caused it. Therefore, if self-conceit has been permitted to arise, he immediately repents inwardly before the Lord; and if it has not, he confesses his powerlessness. In either case he turns to prayer and does not cease until grace returns and restores his good disposition; or, if this does not succeed, he finds rest in surrendering himself to the Lord, having condemned himself as unworthy of such a state, and encouraging himself with patience to bear it—though with pain of heart, yet submissively—until the Lord sees fit to look upon him with His merciful eye and once again illumine his darkness.

Forsaking as punishment is of an entirely different kind. In the former case, grace ceases its operation but remains at hand, ready to help; in the latter, it departs from the person entirely and gives him over to his fall. This happens whenever a mortal sin is committed and the person remains in it unrepentant despite warnings; but if he repents, he too is received again into mercy, in proportion to his repentance. Peter fell and, having repented, was again received into grace; Judas fell, but since he did not repent, he was utterly forsaken and perished. So too grace forsook the Jewish people for their opposition to God and their deicide.

It is for this reason—to be delivered from such a terrible forsaking—that the holy prophet vows, amid all other occasions of forsaking, to remain a patient and steadfast keeper of God’s commandments. “I will keep them”—only do not depart from me, do not forsake me utterly. But since grace departs on account of sins, there is here concealed also another prayer: do not let me fall with such a fall for which You do righteously forsake sinners. And this is the same as saying—“I will keep Your statutes”—if You will help me always to keep them. Nor can the inspired courage of one who enters the path of pleasing God have any other meaning. It is not self-confidence that animates him, but firm hope in God, together with the assurance that he is resolved to go, or is already going, upon the true path, knowing that these are the statutes of the Lord, which are right; that this is the law of the Lord, which is blameless; that this is the testimony of the Lord, which is faithful (Ps. 18:8–9). With such assurance he cannot but feel that he walks on firm ground, that his path is illumined from above and guarded on every side with safety. Therein lies his courage! Therein lies the strength of heart!

Having thus reviewed the entire first octave, we find that it has one subject—an indication of the fundamental principles of a God-pleasing life. The first three verses define the degrees by which this life ascends to its final highest perfections; the following two (Ps. 118:4–5) designate the productive forces of this life—namely, “intense” zeal and Divine grace; the last three (Ps. 118:6–8) clarify the requirements or conditions for advancement in this life: attention, discernment, and courage in the Lord. Here is the entire science of a truly moral and spiritual life. Saint Ambrose, approaching the interpretation of this octave, rightly says: “The first letter, ‘aleph,’ means instruction” (According to others, aleph means leader. And this is not contrary to the content of these verses, for the principles expressed in them are indeed leaders in the work of a God-pleasing life.—Auth.). Thus the attentive reader should keep in mind beforehand that these verses contain in themselves the complete science of moral principles.

Verses 9–16

The exposition of the verses of the first octave proceeded without any straining, as everyone can see. This leads one to think that the unity of content they present is not accidental but intentional—that is, these verses were written and selected so as to express one thing: the principal foundations of the holy life. Although a conclusion from this one octave to the remaining twenty-one is not overly compelling, we cannot refrain from supposing that perhaps in them too, for all the apparent diversity of the verses’ content, one thought is always carried through, and that it is hinted at by the significance of the letter with which they begin. We make an attempt with the second octave.

The second letter “bet” means “house.” We suppose that in its verses it is indicated what kind of house we must prepare for the commandments—where and how to give them rest within ourselves. Guided by this thought, we may acknowledge that the first verse indicates as the house for receiving the commandments the whole of human nature, and especially in youth, when it has not yet had time to become corrupted; while the subsequent verses indicate, in particular, the various faculties of the soul: the will—verse 10; the heart—verse 11; the mind—verse 12; speech—verse 13; feeling and taste—verse 14; reason—verse 15; memory—verse 16. In the very course of explanation it will become more evident how this is so. And that the faculties of the soul may have precisely such a function in the spiritual life is indicated in Proverbs, where it says to the student of wisdom: “And do you write them” (the commandments) “for yourself three times, for counsel, understanding, and knowledge” (that is, upon these three powers and actions of the soul, and in general) “upon the breadth of your heart” (Prov. 22:21). This writing signifies an imprinting, a reception within, as into a house.

Ps. 118:9. How shall a young man cleanse his way? By keeping Your words.

He has not yet had time to live, and already he needs correction. This, however, does not mean that the prophet assumes youthful depravity here; rather, it means that youth is such an age that is ready for anything—swift-moving and unrestrained in its impulses. He advises that these impulses be quickly seized and given a good direction. By what means?—By God’s commandments. Let the commandments be to a young person what a bridle is to spirited horses.

By the word of God, “from youth the imagination of man’s heart is evil” (Gen. 6:5) without guidance; but if he is guided, then against evil thoughts good ones will always arise, and if a young person is given even a small habit in goodness, the good will overcome the evil. The Wise Man says: “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a young man” (Prov. 22:15). Like a weight, it pulls him toward what is bad—the agitation of desires combined with a superficial understanding of life and the consequences of various deeds. It is possible to cut off this weight and attach another, which will pull him in the opposite direction with no less force.

People sometimes wrongly say: “Oh, youth—it will pass!” But experience to the contrary exists both within us and before us. It is time we came to our senses! They say that clay vessels permanently retain the smell of the first substance that saturated them. Such too is man in the moral regard. The direction and habits of the first years either remain or make themselves felt throughout all of life. This is not to say that one who received a good direction cannot go astray, or that one badly directed cannot be corrected—grace is powerful enough to transform even the latter, while sin, through negligence, can corrupt even the former; but a well-formed young man, when he strays accidentally, has within himself many calls and cries—in his conscience and in his early habits—that admonish and restrain him. And how many conditions must be met for him to remain in evil permanently! Such persons quickly come to their senses, and when they do, they quickly succeed in correcting and rebuilding what was destroyed. Those badly formed—especially when, along with passionate inclinations, their very understanding is also corrupted—cannot return to the path of good except through the special workings of God’s grace, and even then always through painful upheavals and breaks. But since there is no law governing such workings, for they depend on the freedom of God, and since their full influence on a person is subject to many-sided conditions, we see that very rarely does anyone among those badly formed from the start return to good. And if anyone by God’s grace does turn back, both the beginning of this conversion is painful and all subsequent life is filled with struggles. True, grace can do all things. We have the radiant examples of Moses the Ethiopian, David the Robber, Mary of Egypt, and others. But it is better not to tempt God’s grace, because its ways are unsearchable.

The wise Sirach teaches thus: “My son, from your youth choose instruction, and even until old age you shall find wisdom” (Sir. 6:18). Good principles, once received, if they are strictly adhered to, will with the passage of life grow ever stronger, expand in their applications, and in the end will occupy all the wellsprings of life and embrace all its movements and manifestations. In old age such a man is perfect, powerful in word and deed. What a rich inheritance!… “But what you have not gathered in youth, how will you find it in old age?” (Sir. 25:5) Thus it is good if a person “from youth takes upon himself the yoke of the commandments” (Lam. 3:27). Let us therefore pray to the Giver of every good thing, “that He may give to the simple prudence, and to the young child perception and understanding” (Prov. 1:4).

Here are the opinions of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church on this matter. Blessed Theodoret says: “Youth is unstable and easily inclined to vice, since it is tossed about by various waves of the passions; therefore it has need of a guide who would direct it to harbor. And this is the property of the words of God, for they, turning us away from contrary paths, are sufficient to set us on the divine path. What a bridle and a rider are to a young horse, the word of God is to a young man.”

Saint Ambrose writes: “We must not only take up the yoke of the word, but take it up in youth. If we take it up late, we shall have to bear more the cleansing labors of repentance for the past than to enjoy grace in the present. Let us forestall this by spending the years of youth in seemly uprightness, so that each of us in old age may, when the occasion arises, say with a good conscience: ‘God, who has nourished me from my youth up to this day’ (Gen. 48:15), rather than lamenting with pain of heart the falls of the past and crying out: ‘Remember not the sins of my youth and my ignorance’ (Ps. 24:7). The latter heals his infirmities, while the former confesses the power of health. To him who takes up the yoke of the good life after the years of youth have passed, the good to be accomplished is not given at once, because passions inflame him, sinful habits unsettle him, and wayward paths prevent him from being steadfast. Such a person must struggle long before he can suppress and root out the evil sown in youth and grown old.” Saint Hilary teaches: “It is difficult to break away from habits, to tear oneself from that with which one has grown intimate, and to sever the bonds of companionship. It is better to appear before God pure not through the forgiveness of sins, but through sheer ignorance of evil (inexperience of the passions). Knowing this, the prophet Jeremiah, in taking up the yoke of the commandments, does not wait for the years of cooled old age, when passions are already dying out of themselves through satiety. He desires a long-serving soldier; he desires this so that the servant of Christ may not even recall ever having been overcome by sin. In one who takes up the good life only in old age there is, to be sure, the gift of gracious forgiveness of falls, but there is not the consolation which a good conscience affords through the memory of labors undertaken.”

So necessary is it for a young man to correct his path early! He can succeed in this, as the prophet indicates, by keeping the commandments, or the statutes of God. To keep them does not mean, says Blessed Augustine, to memorize and retain them in memory, but to fulfill them in deed. Let every member of body and soul take its commandment and be so thoroughly imbued with it that from now on it cannot move otherwise than in accordance with that very commandment. Each member will then become the repository and home of its commandment, and the whole of human nature will become the home of all the commandments. In this way a young man will naturally set his path aright and at the same time give it a good direction for all the subsequent time of his life, which has only just begun.

Ps. 118:10. With my whole heart I have sought You: O cast me not away from Your commandments.

The heart that seeks the Lord is, in particular, the first house within our nature for the commandments. The heart is spoken of in the following verse as well, but not in the same sense. It should be known that in antiquity the heart denoted the entire inner life; therefore, in order to distinguish which particular aspect of this life is meant by it in any given place, one must attend to what is attributed to it. In the present place, seeking, striving, and activity are attributed to it. The active power in the soul is the will—the faculty of deeds, undertakings, and initiatives. Observe yourself from the moment of waking until falling asleep, and you will see that just as the mind is constantly occupied with thoughts, so too the will is occupied with deeds and undertakings; not a moment passes without some action: now one thing, now another. But one may act haphazardly, without discernment, and one may act rationally, in accordance with definite goals; one may act by self-pleasing and people-pleasing, and one may act in accordance with the demands of duty, the commandments, the will of God. The prophet directs all his actions by the commandments, as is evident from the petition he adds: “cast me not away from Your commandments.” And the goal of following the commandments in all things he makes the seeking of the Lord; he says: “With all my undertakings and actions of the will, which I always strive to conduct according to Your commandments, I seek You alone, O Lord.” Deeds and undertakings are the outward activity; the inner side of each deed and undertaking is the commandment of which they are the expression; and the soul of all deeds and undertakings is the seeking of the Lord.

Thus the first house of the commandments is the undertakings of the will. I recall the answer of Saint Anthony to the question “how to be saved?”: “Whatever you do,” he said among other things, “have a testimony from Scripture for it.” This is tantamount to saying: whatever you do, do it with the awareness that God’s commandment requires it; and moreover, whatever you do—whether you eat or drink—do all to the glory of God, as the Apostle commanded (1 Cor. 10:31). And how to ensure that everything we do accords with the commandments, attention and discernment will teach us—those very things spoken of in the previous octave. Sit down and reflect, and in the light of God’s commandments determine how you should act in all the circumstances and contingencies of your own life, and then do not deviate from these determinations; and you will always walk according to the commandments and in God’s will, you will please God in all things, great and small, draw near to Him, seek Him—and at last you will find Him.

Having thus made it a law for himself to conduct every step, every deed and undertaking according to the commandments, the prophet prays: “Cast me not away from Your commandments.” What thought is contained here? Can it really be that God drives someone away from His commandments?—Yes, it is possible even with regard to God’s commandments to conduct oneself as some people conduct themselves with regard to the temple. People are called into the temple of God, not driven out of it. Yet some had placed themselves in such a relation to it that the Savior—embodied meekness—was compelled to take a whip and drive them out of the temple. Let us imagine that the cultivation of the commandments is like the cultivation of a vineyard; laborers are invited and they work; but the master comes and, noticing that one of them does less work than he causes damage, says to him: “You, brother, go away from here; I do not want you to work, for you only cause harm.” And he will say this with even greater emphasis if the laborer has more than once already proven himself a poor workman. So it is with regard to the commandments: there are workers who are not ashamed, and there are workers who are good for nothing—sometimes lazy, sometimes omitting much of what is required, sometimes working not for the Lord but out of self-pleasing, or more often out of people-pleasing; sometimes working carelessly, any old way, sometimes with murmuring and discontent, sometimes with pride and self-satisfaction. All such workers only damage the work rather than do it, and are truly worthy of rejection. How then are they rejected?—Not with a whip, of course, but by the withdrawal of God’s good will. True workers of the commandments receive interior consolations, feel God’s covering over themselves, and experience God’s assistance; the negligent workers, however, are deprived of all this, and being deprived of it are no longer able to fulfil the commandments, and consequently fall away entirely and abandon themselves to vices. Thus “cast me not away from Your commandments” is the same as—do not deprive me of Your good will and Your gracious help, for if You do, it will be for me the same as being driven away from working the commandments.

Why then did the prophet express his thought in this way?—This expression is taken from the feelings of a penitent. A penitent—especially one who has fallen and broken his vows to God more than once—when approaching God cannot help but be aware of his own negligence, and although he believes in God’s mercy toward the penitent, he cannot help sometimes coming to the thought: “But what if God no longer wishes to receive me, has lost faith in me, and pays me no attention no matter how hard I try?” Such thoughts are especially natural when for a long time no fruit of repentance is visible. “He has forsaken me,” a person thinks, “He does not wish to look upon me with His merciful eye!” But God does this in order to more strongly kindle the feelings of repentance and from them forge an even stronger resolution to be always a faithful fulfiller of His commandments.

The entire verse may be paraphrased thus: “You, O Lord, require that we conduct all our deeds and undertakings according to Your commandments, and that in this manner of action we have in mind nothing other than the gaining of You alone. Whoever does not act thus You do not receive, and no help do You render him. Behold, I with my whole heart, with all the deeds and undertakings of my will—which I all conduct according to Your commandments—seek You alone: do not then deprive me of Your good will and Your gracious help, for otherwise I shall be worn out and give up. I have that which is required of me; deprive me not of that which You have promised from Yourself.” This resembles what the Lord said: “To everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away” (Matt. 25:29). Saints Ambrose and Hilary at length expound precisely this thought. The resolution to be always faithful to the commandments and in their fulfillment to seek the Lord alone makes the soul a strong vessel, worthy of receiving God’s grace—which to those who have such a disposition is always given, and by its power causes them to be always, in actual deed, faithful to the commandments, just as at the outset they desired to be faithful to Him only in intention. This disposition is like a magnet attracting greater things, or like a capital with which all that is needed can be purchased in abundance.

Ps. 118:11. Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.

The heart, resting within itself as the power of love, is in particular the second house in our nature for the commandments. One may fulfil the commandments officially; one may fulfil them by calculation or by the rigorist dictates of reason, without the heart’s participation in all such cases. The prophet says here: “I do not act that way; the commandments are not for me an external governing authority—they are within me; I have received them into my heart and have come to love them. Acting according to them, I act according to my heart; and acting according to my heart, I act according to them.”

If we also consider the Savior’s parable of the seed of the word, then the present passage expresses not the seed that fell by the wayside or on stony ground, but that which fell on good earth and brought forth fruit a hundred, sixty, and thirty times over. “Hidden in the depths of the heart,” says Saint Athanasius the Great, “it fears neither being stolen by the enemy, nor—having sprouted—being scorched by the heat of trials and adversities.” It has sunk its roots deep, and the sprout of God-pleasing activity that comes from it is full of life and strength. What member is more tender than the heart? And yet nothing is more reliable than what proceeds from the heart. When the commandments are in the heart, their fulfilment goes on without omission and moreover in the most seemly and attractive manner.

What great perfection it is to have the commandments hidden in the heart! One must know, however, that this is not accomplished as quickly as it is said, or even as quickly as the desire for it is formed. The heart is more closely attuned to the passionate side. For it to be transformed—detaching itself from that side and turning entirely to the commandments—it must be reformed: something must be uprooted from it and something else implanted. The commandment says: be humble-minded, meek, truth-loving, pure, peaceable, patient, and so on; but the heart now prides itself and is vainglorious, now grows angry and hates, now becomes attached and lusts, now quarrels and murmurs, and so on. While it remains such, one cannot say that the commandments are hidden in it, for if they were, not only deeds but also feelings and thoughts contrary to the commandments would not exist within.

How then is the heart to be transformed?—With ardent desire, through labor and patience. But it must be noted that the labor is ours, while the actual work of transformation is from grace. From the very beginning, as soon as someone resolves to work out his salvation through a God-pleasing life, conscience immediately undertakes the fulfilment of every commandment, one and all, great and small, and demands this from the whole person and from all his powers or members to which a given commandment pertains. The usual course of our actions is this: thought, sympathy, desire, deed. Sympathy stands at the transition to desire, and desire precedes deed. Suppose that someone in need comes; conscience immediately demands that he be helped, but the heart—not yet knowing the sweetness of doing good and not yet detached from love of gain—does not show the requisite sympathy and goes contrary. Because there is no sympathy, no desire is born; and without desire, the hands have dropped. So it is in this case, and so in all others. The heart is by nature pleasure-seeking. Until it has tasted sweetness in something, it cannot have sympathy toward it. A person has had no proper practice in fulfilling the commandments—and so the heart does not know the sweetness in it; and therefore, even when a person has already resolved to do everything according to the commandments, the heart shows no sympathy toward this, and so cuts off even the acts done according to the commandments, and consequently deprives itself of the possibility of tasting the sweetness of fulfilling the commandments. What is to be done?—At first, one must act contrary to the heart, by the sole demand of conscience, by the force of rational will supported by the grace of God, bending oneself, so to speak, to the doing of the commandments, as one bends a heated reed when it is necessary to do so. Saint Macarius the Great repeatedly gives the lesson that whoever wishes to succeed in doing good must compel himself to every good deed, contrary to the heart, assuring us that a deed which we do at first with self-compulsion will become dear to the heart, and we will begin to do it out of heartfelt sympathy with it, because it has come to find pleasure in it.

Acting thus in relation to one, then another, then a third commandment—the fulfilment of which will be encountered in the course of our life—a person accustoms the heart to find sweetness in them, and plants in it sympathy for them; or, what is the same thing, he instills the commandments themselves into the heart and hides them in it. The more labors and experiences in the fulfilment of the commandments, the greater the number of them that pass into the heart; and in the end they all find a dwelling there. Such a person may then confess: “In my heart I have hidden all the commandments.”

“So then, these are all one’s own labors—but where is grace?”—The labors are truly one’s own, but it is grace that produces the fruit. Grace is present in a person from the moment of conversion and the reception of the sacraments of baptism or repentance, but it enters into his very being and penetrates his powers only in proportion to the straining of the person’s own efforts. When a person has done everything that is his to do, then grace comes and accomplishes what he is not capable of doing. To graft a commandment onto the heart so that it remains there permanently and governs the heart itself—this is already the work of grace. The person himself, however much he may labor, cannot do this. Thus, with all the person’s labors, the transformation of the heart is accomplished by grace, and by grace alone. This is where the essential difference between a Christian and a pagan lies.

But without labors and struggles in fulfilling the commandments, grace will not graft anything onto the heart either, leaving it as it was—with all its passionate tastes and inclinations—even though such a person is baptized and receives the other sacraments. This is where the difference lies between Christians who pursue laborious struggles and Christians who do not consider it necessary to constrain themselves, though they conduct themselves honorably! The law of the spiritual life is this: whatever has no struggle behind it, grace does not give; yet with struggle alone one will not succeed in anything either.

When, in this manner, all the commandments have been grafted onto the heart, so that they form its essential content, then the heart—together with conscience—will itself begin to demand their fulfilment. As at first it opposed conscience in everything, so now it will second its demands and draw one toward the deeds prescribed by a given commandment. This is why the prophet said that he had hidden the words of God in his heart, so as not to sin before Him. The heart itself, says Zigabenus, no longer allows it. The prophet indicates that he has adopted the most reliable means of not offending God by transgressing His commandments; and through this he also exhorts all: “If you wish not to provoke the Lord to anger with sins—hide His commandments in your heart.” But here, of course, is also implied the lesson that if you desire to attain this, you must employ those methods that spiritual experience has confirmed to those who have labored in this work.

Ps. 118:12. Blessed are You, O Lord: teach me Your statutes.

The third house within our nature for the commandments is the God-taught mind. Teach — give understanding, impart also the skill to act, give my mind knowledge of the commandments and everything pertaining to them, and the ability to see how in each case I ought to act, so that my mind may be a light illumining the paths of life and a faithful guide along them; and especially be pleased that my mind have no wavering vacillations or conjectural opinions, but that everything be established on unshakeable convictions.

“Teach me the statutes”—or the commandments. When one acts, one may have certain commandments in view; but when one wishes to know the commandments, one cannot limit one’s vision to the commandments alone—one must necessarily survey the entire domain of truth, so that the commandments in the mind are not suspended from nothing, or not poured into it like sand, without connection, but enter as a necessary element into the composition of truth and are joined to it by a living bond—so that one cannot touch one without at the same time shaking everything else.

In Christianity the paths of life are illumined by the truths concerning the tri-hypostatic Deity, Creator and Providence; concerning the fall; concerning God’s good will to restore the fallen; concerning the condescension of the Only-begotten Son of God to earth through the Incarnation; concerning His accomplishment of our salvation through His sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension; concerning the sending of the Divine Spirit upon the holy apostles who established the Church of Christ on earth and instituted in it the sacraments for the sanctification by grace of all believers; and finally, concerning the resurrection, the judgment, and the future all-blessedness of the faithful and the indescribable torments of the unfaithful. All these truths are to the spirit what air is to the body. As air, received by the lungs, passes through the whole body in the blood and vivifies all, so too these truths, being received by the believing mind, pass through the entire composition of the spiritual life and vivify everything in it. From them this life is born, by them it is guided, and in them it beholds its end.

The spiritual life begins with the consciousness of the fall and the impossibility of rising by oneself. This leads to repentance and cleaves one to the Lord as the one Savior. From this come the vow and the resolution to be faithful to Him and to wage unrelenting war against everything that rises up within and meets one from without, contrary to what the Savior requires of us. From this comes hope that, despite the weakness of our nature, the Lord will lead the believer through all temptations and bring him at last into His eternal Kingdom. From this come patience and a merciless labor upon oneself in the cleansing and correction of what is not right, so as to present oneself in all things as a workman who need not be ashamed. From this comes faith that, by thus suffering together with the Lord, one shares in His luminous life even here, though still in a beginning and prefiguration. All this flows from the foundational truths of Christianity and constitutes the basis of the God-pleasing life. Here is the essence of our Christian statutes, and from here the entire system of Christian commandments is ultimately developed.

One will say: “But who does not know this, and why the prayer ‘teach me’?”—But there is bore, purely intellectual knowledge that never rises beyond conjectural views, and there is living, life-giving knowledge in which every truth is as firm as the certainty of one’s own existence. This property is communicated to it by living conviction, which not even death shakes. Praying teach me, the prophet asks that the Lord make all truths—both theoretical and practical—so native to his very being that just as he cannot doubt his own existence by so much as a hair, so he may never be capable of admitting within himself the shadow of a doubt regarding these truths. Herein lies the stability of the God-pleasing life. Just as one cannot walk on a thin, swaying plank, because one’s head will spin and one will fall, so one who has perpetually arising conjectures in his head—“But what if this is how it ought to be? Would it not be better like this? But this is also possible!”—cannot lead a proper life. And one who, having been completely shaken in certain truths, thinks to arrange a God-pleasing life according to his own notions, resembles a man who, building a house, lays rotten logs among the sound ones. From the outside such a house looks both new and solid, but in reality it is already doomed to fall; just so is such a life—outwardly good only in appearance, yet already carrying within itself its own condemnation. Thus this is the essence of the petition! The prophet asks that there be no vacillations in him, but that he may walk amid these truths like a man who, stepping out into the street, feels that the ground beneath him is there and that he stands on it firmly, that everything surrounding him is there, that the sky above him is there—and the thought cannot come to him that any of this might not exist. But how does the prophet ask this after having already hidden the words of the Lord in his heart and conducting all his undertakings according to the commandments, seeking the Lord alone? One cannot act thus without the knowledge for which he is asking only now. But in those good habits of his—in conducting all deeds and undertakings by the commandments and in his love for them—did he become established all at once? Approaching the service of the Lord, he had neither the one nor the other; but conscious of the necessity for it, he no doubt prayed: “Lord, grant me to conduct all my deeds according to Your commandments! Lord, incline my heart to love Your commandments!” The Lord heard his prayer and granted what he asked. There he expresses what he has already acquired at the end of his labors, while here he points to what occurs at the beginning of seeking this good—knowledge with conviction. He is as it were suggesting: “I said — I sought, I hid… — but let no one think that all this happened suddenly—no; labor and prayer preceded it. The matter proceeded in the way I am about to express with regard to the acquisition of knowledge: ‘Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.’”

By this last good the mind is transformed, and by the first two—the will and the heart. The sequence is remarkable! It is taken from life. The mind alone never fully knows the truth; truth is always before it in the form of conjectural views. Except in extraordinary workings of God upon the soul, the God-pleasing life usually also begins in such a state of the mind. But then, together with life, these views begin to pass into living convictions—they mature, multiply, and expand in proportion to the habit of the will in conducting all its deeds and undertakings according to the commandments, and in proportion to the regeneration of the heart’s sympathies toward the commandments. When the latter are fulfilled—fullness is established in the former as well. Strictly speaking, however, one cannot say which comes first and which follows: they all mature together, not falling behind one another. And it is the Lord who builds this interior edifice by His grace, with every possible effort on the part of the person—sparing himself nothing—building a dwelling into which He at last comes and settles, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as He Himself promised: “We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23).

Ps. 118:13. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of Your mouth.

This is the fourth house within our nature for God’s commandments—speech, for speech is the house of thought and feeling. Since within the prophet everything is already occupied with God’s commandments, and since the lips utter only what is within, then however a conversation of his may begin, it naturally goes entirely about God’s commandments. “I declared”—I have declared, I declare, and I will declare. I am such a person that I am continually declaring and cannot speak of anything other than Your judgments; even about outside matters I reason in the same spirit.

The prophet speaks here as of something already established in him, giving us a lesson as to what manner of speech to maintain when we meet one another and converse with each other. If in the Old Testament the things of God so powerfully occupied the God-fearing soul, how much more ought they to occupy the Christian, when God has shown us an incomparably greater and more palpable drawing near in the Incarnation of God the Word and in the sending of the Holy Spirit, whose powers operate in us by the faith of believers! But is this the case in reality? Let some slightly notable event occur in everyday or civic life—we cannot be silenced, speaking of nothing else, even if it has nothing to do with us; but the wonderful work of salvation, arranged by God for our sake and destined to operate in each of us, occupies us not at all. Go around an entire city on purpose—and you will nowhere hear a word about it, and if you yourself introduce the subject, people will try to suppress it and turn the conversation to some other topic. Thus, if we are judged by that sure principle that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, one might think that in our hearts there is complete emptiness and that the work of God has not taken hold in them and has left no trace. What then is our baptism? What are the so many times repeated fastings, confessions, and receptions of the Holy Mysteries? What are our attendances at the temples of God and all our prayers?—It seems it is not accepted, one is ashamed!—And yet a king, occupied with governing a people and always surrounded by the highest society, was not ashamed to speak of the things of God, was not ashamed to declare the judgments of His mouth. If God was not ashamed to utter His judgments to us for our benefit, how can we be ashamed to utter them? Some minor notable person says something not altogether important, and we count it an honor to insert his word into our conversation; but what God uttered with His mouth would seemingly lower us if we repeat it!.. Have we not come to the point where even the God-fearing are ashamed to speak before us of the judgments of God, lest they cast pearls before…?

And yet there cannot be a richer, more consoling and edifying subject for conversation than the judgments of God’s mouth—that is, everything that the Lord has been pleased to say to us, to do for us, and to establish among us for our salvation. The deeds of Christ the Savior and the holy apostles, the fortunes of the Church, the lives of men renowned in Christianity for teaching and works, the ways of God’s Providence, the manifold occasions in the life of each of us where the finger of God is visible—these are the subjects for conversation between a Christian and a Christian! And how much strength would flow from this for the right ordering of each person individually and then of the whole of society!

Nothing is more easily disregarded than speech; and yet our words always leave a mark behind them, both in the speaker and in the hearer. They are seeds for a whole series of thoughts, from which intentions grow, and finally deeds; they are a lever by which all the relations between persons are set in motion. Good words build up, set in order, and strengthen in what is good; evil words upset and weaken all that is good and prepare the way for evil. And idle talk, though empty, does not go without fruit: it empties the soul; and an empty soul—what is it capable of? After this, the apostle’s warning is understandable: do not grieve the Holy Spirit with any rotten word—the Spirit by Whom we were sealed on the day of our redemption.

Ps. 118:14. I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches.

And yet another house—or, more directly, the places and fields upon which God’s commandments are realized, where you always meet those who are zealous for pleasing God and where they find their dwelling pleasant. There is no one on earth without consolations: everyone seeks and finds them according to his own taste. One goes to walk in a pleasure garden, another to the theater, a third to an evening party, a fourth to a learned assembly, and so on. But where is it sweetest for a God-fearing person zealous for walking in God’s will?—On the path of God’s testimonies: now in the temple of God, now in hospitals, hospices, almshouses, now at his duty, now at home in devout occupations, now on pilgrimage to holy places. As one who has entered a house full of every good thing and abundance is consoled by finding everything he has grown accustomed to finding pleasant, so a zealous person pleasing God finds pleasure in being in the places mentioned, finding in them satisfaction for the taste that has formed in his heart: there is his delight, there is his paradise. “Nothing captivates me in the present life,” he says with the prophet, “neither gold, nor rank, nor honors, nor power! In place of everything, Your testimonies, O Lord, are both my joy and my riches.”

Thus, “the path of virtue is very laborious,” says Blessed Theodoret, “but exceedingly desirable for those who walk upon it with zeal. This is why our Lord Christ also said: Take My yoke upon you… For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:29–30). One may understand the words “as much as in all riches” as comparing only the pleasure of acquiring riches with the pleasure of dwelling upon the mentioned paths of God’s testimonies; and one may at the same time perceive that to dwell upon those fields is as profitable as it is for one to whom all manner of riches flows. Ordinarily, some people think that going to church is a waste of time, yet there can be no better use of time than being in the temple of God; and whoever is there with attention and zeal acquires in a few hours as much as long and many labors outside it cannot give. When some people see someone spending his wealth on the sick, the needy, and those requiring help, they think it a waste; yet nothing can be more profitable than such a use of wealth, for, by the word of God, one who acts thus places his goods in the hands of God Himself, sending them ahead into the everlasting habitations and gathering there treasures that do not grow old. The same should be said about those who strictly keep the fasts, fast and confess with regularity, and go on pilgrimage: “They deplete themselves, exhaust themselves,” people ordinarily say of them—and yet no one grows as rich in spirit as they.

“I have rejoiced”—I tasted sweetness and am satisfied. The experience of all ages shows that only those are truly satisfied who find pleasure in being on the paths of God’s testimonies; they are always cheerful, always in an even disposition of spirit, without outbursts, without ecstasies. Other joys enrapture to the point where a person loses himself and thinks he has been transported to paradise—but this is only for a moment. Such joys quickly pass into an indefinite anguish of heart that destroys even their memory. This is the common lot of all joys that are not spiritual and not subordinated to spiritual interests. In them there is nothing to satisfy the spirit; and the spirit is the chief thing in man—when it is not satisfied, man cannot be content; it is the same as if one who considers himself hungry were not given the favorite dish, though there were many other dishes in abundance. Every effort is made to multiply amusements, but by this one only succeeds in stifling and deadening the spiritual instinct for a time. The time of comfort passes, and the spirit again reasserts itself, scatters all the amusements, and begins to torment man for not heeding it, for not wishing to provide it with the proper, satisfying nourishment fitting to it. Behold a new Samson for you! In a moment of forgetfulness he allowed himself to be entangled, but then when he came to himself—one movement, and everything fell apart (Judg. 15).

Ps. 118:15. I will meditate on Your commandments, and I will understand Your ways.

In the previous verse began the indication of a house of rest—not for the commandments themselves, but for those who are zealous in fulfilling them—showing in what places and occupations they find rest and satisfaction. Before this it was said that all their delight lies in being on the paths of God’s testimonies; and when they return home, what occupies them?—They sit down to examine the questions that arise about life in its relation to the commandments and the works of faith. The prophet gives them instruction on this in the words: “I will meditate on Your commandments.”

“I will meditate”—in Church Slavonic, this word in certain instances means: to sit beside something, to sit over a task with attention and patience, to work diligently and persistently at resolving something. The corresponding Hebrew word means: to question, to weigh what comes before and what comes after—causes and effects, means and ends—and to do so in such a way that, withdrawn from everything else, one is occupied with this alone. Thus the present passage points to contemplative meditation, to which God-loving people ordinarily devote several hours of solitude—for the purpose of clarifying everything connected with the fulfilment of the commandments or with the work of pleasing God in which they are engaged, taking the word of God, patristic writings, and the counsels of experienced men as their guide.

Who can avoid troubling questions and perplexities? And who can say that he has weighed all possible contingencies and knows in advance how to act in each case? Thus, partly to resolve arising questions, partly to forestall them, and most of all to nourish the spirit with contemplative meditation, as soon as you find the time, sit down and immerse yourself in the truths of God—reading the word of God or the patristic writings. The best time for this is morning and evening, and the manner of performing this practice is prayerful. Begin with prayer, continue in a prayerful disposition, and end with prayer. Your guardian angel will then find an opportunity to place in your mind what is needed specifically by you and in your specific circumstances.

Some appoint themselves to read so much from here and so much from there, and read a great deal. The mind may be refreshed by this, but the full benefit is not received; indeed, the reading often turns into a nearly fruitless process. The better order is the following: take a verse, enter into it with all your attention, and unfold it into as many good thoughts as possible. This is the first work. In the thoughts that arise, seek those aspects by which they may breathe upon the heart and draw it toward themselves. This is the second work. Then extract lessons for yourself from them and apply them to your life, marking out for yourself that here this is how you should act, and there—that way. In this manner, a verse will pass through its content through the whole soul, and having left it, will enter into life in due time.

This is the only fruitful contemplative meditation—not a hasty one, to be sure, but one that gives more than any amount of extensive reading and thinking. “But this way,” they will say, “how much will you manage to read and reflect upon?”—Not much, yet much. Some verses will take two or three sessions, some will occupy a whole week. But what is acquired in this way becomes an inalienable, ever-nourishing possession of the spirit. Some verse gives so much light and warmth that it will kindle the spirit for many days. The matter here is not about scholarly reading, but about immersion in Scripture, for the purpose of building up the spirit and clarifying the complex paths of life. Scholars are obliged by duty to read a great deal; but those who seek the building up of the spirit should by no means allow themselves to read a great deal.

More justifiably someone might object: “I cannot reflect—I am not accustomed to it.” But who in the world does not reflect! Take the simplest person, and he too reflects—in the sphere of his own affairs, of course. The practice that has been described is proposed to those who have already entered upon the path of the commandments and have observed themselves on it for some time. Therefore in this domain they are not complete strangers, and can therefore reflect, for all their simplicity. The difficulty is not in inability, but either in mental laziness or in the mind’s acquisitiveness, whereby it wants to grasp more and faster. The first leaves the mind inactive, while the second overwhelms it. He who avoids both takes up the labor of reflection with humility and little by little advances, growing rich in the knowledge of practical life—firm and many-sided. In him the holy prophet’s expectation from this type of practice is precisely fulfilled: “And I will understand Your ways.” One who lives with understanding gathers the lessons of spiritual wisdom grain by grain through immersion in God’s commandments, and arrives at last at a clear knowledge of the ordinances of life according to God, acquiring eventually the ability to teach others as well—plain man though he is and having studied no sciences. Examples of this are scattered throughout the entire history of God’s people in the Church of Christ.

Ps. 118:16. I will delight myself in Your statutes: I will not forget Your word.

This is the third practice in which the God-loving soul finds rest and sweetness. It resembles the previous one, yet differs from it essentially. There it says: “I will meditate” (I will examine diligently), while here it says “I will delight myself”; there the fruit of the practice is given as “I will understand,” while here it is “I will not forget.” “I will not forget” is the work of memory—from this a deduction arises: “I will delight myself” means I will commit to memory.

I will delight myself. I recall that a rule was established even for the first disciples of Saint Anthony to memorize certain psalms by heart immediately upon their arrival in the desert; then they were instructed: when you are in your cell unoccupied or going somewhere, recite from memory the psalms you have learned. This was called “meditation” (poučenie). In our Slavic patristic books the commandment is frequently read: “Have a hidden meditation.” This means: gather your attention and unceasingly repeat: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Applying this meaning of the word “to meditate” to our text, we may understand that it suggests the memorizing of passages of Scripture by heart and their repetition at a fitting time, so as not to forget the words of God.

Saint Basil the Great testifies that in his time children were made to learn certain psalms and proverbs by heart. Is anything similar done among us? Do even those who have taken upon themselves the yoke of asceticism do anything of the kind?… Yes, in many things we have fallen behind the ancient saving customs! But this does not diminish the worth of the practice indicated in the present verse. It means this: passages from Scripture that have been examined, according to the previous text, learn by heart, and what has been learned, repeat whenever the mind and tongue are free. The Hebrew word corresponding to the word “I will delight myself” means—to roll about in the mind and on the tongue with sweetness, as one rolls a candy in the mouth, for example. Such a practice may be commended to all who sincerely seek to please God in all things.

Among us, many of those who strive read the Psalter in their homes or cells. This partly corresponds to the lesson of our verse. Perhaps private and cell prayer at home may also be referred here. But more directly it means: deliberately to select passages of Scripture for memorizing and then for their repetition in the mind.

By this last practice, the commandments—having already occupied all the powers of the soul—will occupy memory as well and sanctify it. The benefit from this is beyond description! One of the elders said that it is difficult for one living in the world to attain the calming of thoughts, because he sees much evil, which, remaining in the memory, continually presses in upon his attention—even when he sits alone after returning home. What a jostling of thoughts people in the world have—there is nothing even to say about it. Saint Macarius likens the state of their minds to the shaking and tossing of grains of wheat in a sieve. Those who become more sober-minded and begin to walk the path of the commandments are separated from purely worldly affairs, yet they suffer greatly from thoughts—especially at first. Thoughts allow them neither to pray, nor to read, nor to reflect—they drive them away from the work at hand. How then is one to be delivered from this?—There is no better means than to drive out evil memories with good ones… How greatly the learning of passages of Scripture by heart helps in this case—words cannot tell. What happens to the soul here is the same as what happens to soft fruits when they are preserved in sugar. The sugar, having penetrated all their pores, both imparts sweetness to them and preserves them from spoiling. So too the soul, saturated with learned words of God, repels the corruption of shameful and empty thoughts and is filled with sweetness by the remembrance of divine things.

Perhaps this also resolves in general the question of the calming of thoughts; perhaps, that is, the whole matter consists in replacing bad and empty thoughts with good and saving ones—since thoughts about what is good never produce either disturbance or darkness in the mind and heart, but only edification and a good disposition. If this is accepted, then here is a rule for beginners as to how to deal with thoughts: memorize as quickly and as much as possible passages of Scripture—especially the words and deeds of Christ the Savior—and repeat them often. But there is a state granted to those who have been vouchsafed the palpable working of grace, in which there is a special interior peace where even the good multiplicity of thoughts is no longer present, where all is absorbed by the One and where unity and simplicity reign over everything, admitting no plurality whatsoever—not only in desires and feelings but even in thoughts. Over them there already begins to be fulfilled here what the Apostle said of the life of the age to come: “God will be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).

Verses 17–24

The third letter, “gimel,” means camel.

The camel is the most enduring beast of burden. In this respect, those who labor on the path of the commandments resemble it, so long as they have not yet come to savor that life. St. Anthony the Great, speaking of such persons, applies to them the words of another psalm: “I became as a beast before You” (Ps. 72:22), in the sense that they bear the labors of life lived for God, yet do not yet taste its fruits—they pull this yoke like a draught animal. Such a condition in beginners seems all but universal; exceptions are very rare. But it also comes upon those who have already begun to experience the goodness of a God-pleasing life—specifically at those times when there are no good thoughts, no good feelings, no good desires: the soul seems to have gone numb, and looking around it finds itself estranged from all and foreign to all. To this is sometimes added the onslaught of external troubles, which weigh down the already poor interior state. All of this is overcome by faithfulness to one’s given word and vow, together with patient, hopeful endurance.

All of this the prophet portrays in the present octave, which may be titled: “On the hardships encountered on the good path”—both interior and exterior—or on the heavy states experienced along the way.

Ps. 118:17. Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word.

“Deal bountifully”—not in the sense of repaying something, as if for labors undertaken, but of giving by grace what is needful, and giving it abundantly, with overflow, as is said elsewhere in Scripture: “forget not all His benefits” (Ps. 102:2)—all His abundant good gifts—or “grace upon grace” (Jn. 1:16). The one who speaks thus is conscious of being a servant of God, and sees no instance when he has acted contrary to conscience or stepped outside God’s will; yet he sees a depletion of spiritual life within himself: the soul has grown numb, thoughts have darkened, and so he cries out: “deal bountifully”—give again the good that has departed, restore what was lost, fill me who have become empty. Thus these words may be applied to the whole octave. The prophet speaks as if to say: the good was present and has gone away; restore it again—“quicken me,” enlighten my eyes, “take away reproach” and contempt.

“Quicken me…” A sinner, so long as he remains in sin, is dead to God and to life according to God—even though in other modes of life he may be very active and learned. When God’s grace awakens him, the first stirrings of spiritual life begin within him; and when, having repented, he resolves to live from now on by God’s commandments, life itself begins. Yet in the early stages it is barely perceptible. The deadness of sin is still so palpable all around that it does not allow one to feel the vitality in the spirit. In time, this sense of life in the Lord comes, accompanied by the joy of life. But it does not continue uninterruptedly; it proceeds in alternating fashion and is often cut off. When it is cut off, the soul falls into deadness, becomes entirely as though dead, and a deathly cold emanates from it—no manifestation of spiritual life whatsoever. This is both unpleasant and frightening, for when what is spiritual falls dormant, the carnal and sinful comes alive; the enemy is at hand—how long before a fall? It is of this state that the prophet speaks.

“Deal bountifully with Your servant… and quicken me”—Your servant—this is, of course, the same petition. A person has not one life but three: bodily, soulish, and spiritual. Over all of them stands rational-free consciousness. When the spirit is awakened by the action of God’s Spirit, the person, through consciousness and freedom, passes into the spirit—onto the side of the spirit—and fixes his dwelling in this rank of life by a vow, either in baptism or in repentance: in the first saying, “I renounce Satan and all his works, and I unite myself to Christ the Lord,” and in the second, “I have sinned; I will not do so again.” In the state the prophet describes, the soul has gone numb; the movements of spiritual life are not visible; yet consciousness together with freedom, through the hidden action of conscience, holds to the side of the spirit. They confess themselves to be servants of the Lord and have no thought of stepping out of this rank or crossing its boundary toward the adversaries—they simply do not perceive beneath themselves the usual manifestations of life according to God. This interior fidelity to the Lord gives them the boldness to cry out to the Lord: “quicken me,” and to nourish the hope that He will quicken them.

The state of the soul’s deadness is otherwise called the state of insensibility. Nothing stirs it: neither the good draws it, nor the fearful frightens it. What then is to be done?—Endure and pray, confessing one’s weakness.

This state is an exact experiential image of what a person is in himself, apart from the action of grace. Grace withdraws a little, and the person becomes utterly worthless. And this happens precisely so that the person may learn firmly, and never forget, that even when he is in a good state, he is of himself still utterly worthless—and if he appears to possess something, it is not his own but has been given to him from without, though in such a way that it may remain in him forever, if he does not fall into the sin of claiming another’s gift as his own.

“And I will keep Your word…”—even then he does not cease to keep them, but heartlessly, like a machine. Like a machine he stands at prayer; like a machine he fulfills the other deeds of the commandments that present themselves. For states of this kind, the rule is: in nothing and in no way depart from the established order; endure and pray. If you endure, renewal of life will come again from the Lord, and you will begin once more to keep the words of God—not as a machine, but as a living person, from the heart, by willing initiative, with willing and pleasant effort in their fulfillment.

Ps. 118:18. Open You mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law.

The human spirit, which is appointed to live in God and to draw the whole person there, is blind after the Fall. Although within it there indelibly exists the conviction of God’s existence, together with a sense of total dependence upon Him and the obligation to please Him in all things by unfailing obedience to the promptings of conscience, and with the hope of a life after death commensurate with one’s labors—although all these elements of spiritual life exist within it, as we see from all the pagan religions—yet they are all covered with such darkness and indefiniteness that, on the basis of them, one can more accurately say this: the human spirit carries an unshakeable conviction and instinct that there is something higher and more perfect, that there exists an order of things and deeds that is most pure and most blessed—but what exactly it is, the spirit does not know; it only seeks it with the certainty that this seeking is not in vain. A kind of veil lies upon it and hinders it from seeing the truth of those things. It is therefore altogether natural for it to pray: “Open You mine eyes.”

When a person draws near to the Lord, the veil is lifted from his spirit, and he sees clearly all that he had sought by conjecture. The blessedness granted by this illumination cannot be described, as those who have experienced it attest. But just as one who has come out into the light from a dark place at first considers even a small light very bright, yet after looking about begins to find it moderate—so too with the spirit: having dwelt for a time in the spiritual light initially opened to it, it comes to feel that, though it now sees, it sees “through a glass darkly,” as St. Paul testified (1 Cor. 13:12). Therefore even for one enlightened in Christ Jesus, the prayer “Open You mine eyes” is by no means superfluous.

But in keeping with the character of this octave, one may understand here a certain other covering of the spiritual eyes—namely, a temporary darkening and blinding of the mind’s eye that comes upon people living according to God, either as a chastisement or as a teaching. A person may be blinded either with regard to himself, or with regard to others, or with regard to the current course of events—and he believes that things are as they seem to him, stands by that, and conducts himself according to such a conviction; whereas in reality it is not so: the truth is hidden from him, a veil lies upon his eyes, and therefore he does not see. Afterward the truth is revealed, and the one who had walked right beside it without seeing it marvels at himself in bewilderment for having seen and not seen, and learns from such an experience not to trust his own vision. And so, even while walking in light, he sincerely and with heartfelt pain prays to the Giver of Light: “Open You mine eyes”—grant me to see the truth about myself, about others, and about all that surrounds me, so that in my feelings and deeds I may conduct myself in the truly proper order, not a merely apparent one.

A particular form of temporary spiritual blindness is “forgetfulness.” St. Mark the Ascetic repeatedly complains bitterly of this enemy and warns others of its wiles. The enemy comes and carries away from one’s attention saving, arousing, and cautionary thoughts; a person forgets who he is, where he is going, what awaits him, whom he serves, under whose gaze he lives and acts—and on account of such forgetfulness he begins to act like a thoughtless, frivolous child. This is not always accompanied by great mistakes, but it invariably causes the interior energy to fall and the whole spiritual order to be disrupted. Here then is reason for prayer by those who sincerely seek perfection: “Open You mine eyes”—grant me always to hold before the eyes of my mind, in my attention, that I am an accountable sinner, that Your eye is always turned upon me and sees me entirely, that death is at hand and I must enter the dark places of judgment and then stand before You and hear Your sentence upon me—grant me to remember this, so that I may work tirelessly for my salvation while there is still time, and hold more firmly to the saving cross, in whose power is all my hope.

One whose eyes are open sees what surrounds him as it truly is. One whose spiritual eyes are open sees God and the divine order of things, and understands what it consists in and what it requires of us. This is what the holy prophet means when he says: “and I will behold wondrous things out of Your law.”

Ps. 118:19. I am a stranger on the earth: hide not Your commandments from me.

“I am a stranger on the earth”—this thought everyone must carry in his heart: I have here no abiding city, but I seek one to come; my homeland is not here; I am here by accident, for a time, a sojourner. The direct consequence of this is: if I am a stranger, then I ought not to be establishing everything here for long years or forever; I must relate to all earthly things as foreign to me and not concerning me, keeping myself here as in an inn—merely resting, and then again on my way. I must do all things in passing and receive all things as passing, having but one thought and desire: to journey without interruption along the sure path to my homeland.

This thought, if it does not always give birth to the desire for conversion and zeal for salvation, at least always sustains and fans such a desire once kindled. But once the resolve to work out one’s salvation through a God-pleasing life has been formed, this thought becomes a necessary element of moral-spiritual life. One who has set out on this path is enrolled in actual fact among the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem and begins, so to speak, to breathe its air. If this is so, then the sense of earthly pilgrimage ought not to depart from him; for the moment it departs, the person steps out of his proper rank—from the heavenly, in heart, he becomes earthly, and ceasing to breathe the heavenly air, he grows numb, with only the appearance of being alive, while in reality he is dead.

Nothing is so destructive to life according to God as forgetting this foundational truth—yet nothing is forgotten more readily than this same truth. All of us, without exception, do not even think that we live here for a time, and we lay up all things for the long term, or care for all earthly things as though this life would never end. One ought to pray: “Hide not from us, O Lord, that truth—that all is earth and shall return to earth; do not allow it to be covered over in the mind and memory by vain, manifold anxieties.” But even this prayer does not come to mind; praying about everything, we never pray about this. Such is the greatness of our blindness in this regard! Some have even come to imagine that eternal life will be on earth and that the same relationships that now prevail will continue then. A crude ignorance of the matter!

Another thought closely connected with our pilgrimage is the ignorance of how to act, and the hostilities one encounters in a foreign land. When someone comes into a foreign country, unknown to anyone and himself knowing no one, not knowing the foreign customs—he is looked upon as an outsider, without warmth, and with suspicion.

We are strangers on the earth, and it would seem that we ought not to know how to live here—yet in practice, who understands this better than we do? But in that case we are no longer strangers, but at home on earth; we become strangers only when a drawing toward our heavenly homeland is reborn in us and we begin to become detached from everything here below. Along with that, there arises the concern to know how to be, how to conduct oneself, so as not to become entangled again in earthly things, but by word and deed to show that we are strangers and sojourners. It is precisely this perplexity that the holy prophet sees in the soul of the sojourner, and into which he places the fervent prayer: “Hide not from me Your commandments”—that is, show me how in general I ought to act, and how to conduct myself in every case, so as not to step outside Your will!

One who has become a sojourner in spirit will always encounter hostility. Those who attack openly—who press in, who persecute—are not so dangerous as the invisible enemies who act upon the mind and heart and cover their ruinous suggestions with a semblance of goodness. Falsehood, passion, and blatant sin are easy to discern; but plausible-seeming suggestions are not always easy to unravel—one does not always see what lies hidden beneath them. How to act for one’s salvation is known to God alone, and only He can uncover the ruinous entanglement—either directly, or through other experienced persons. It is this that is felt most strongly in the prophet’s prayer. I am a stranger, he says, enemies are everywhere; one says go this way, another says go that way; You alone, O Lord, know all: do not hide from me how I ought best to act; tell me what Your will is for me in the present circumstances, lest I fall into an ambush!

St. Mark the Ascetic, after insensibility and forgetfulness accompanied by blindness, often complains also of ignorance, holding it to be the source of many of our errors, falls, and deviations from the straight path in our journey to our heavenly homeland.

Ps. 118:20. My soul has longed to desire Your judgments at all times.

“Has longed to desire”—that is, my soul has greatly desired always to be a willing fulfiller of Your holy will, of all that You ordain for me to do. In this case the verse presents the reason why the ill states mentioned just before—insensibility, blindness or forgetfulness, and ignorance—so distress the one who prays. “I,” he says, “greatly desire to be faithful before You at all times, but these states hinder me, halt me, interrupt me, draw me to one side. That is what disturbs me, and why I pray and cry out for deliverance from them.” But to notice such states and to feel all the hindrance they cause in the spiritual life is possible only for one who has greatly desired perfection in it—and not only desired it, but advanced in it to some degree and experienced the opposite states. Only such a person, when the aforementioned states appear, can notice that an inner change has occurred, and a change for the worse. This is most palpably seen in the deadening of feeling, or the state of insensibility; there it is as though life itself is cut off. But for those who have no such desire and no even slight experience, it would not even occur to them that this state is a bad one. It is constant in them; and if it changes in some way, it is within a like range of changes, since spiritual insensibility does not hinder sensitivity to outward things—especially to striking phenomena in the realm of beauty. Spiritual blindness and forgetfulness do not hinder the spreading wide of curiosity and the enjoyment of its all-sided satisfaction. Spiritual ignorance does not hinder one from being an expert in the external affairs of the day and a reliable judge of them in his own way. Such conspicuous manifestations of a seemingly spiritual life conceal the truly spiritual side of our existence and do not allow one to notice its absence. Therefore there is no concern about restoring it to adequate strength. On the contrary, one who had it but lost it cannot fail to notice its absence—and since he has desired it with all his desire, he cannot but be troubled, fear for himself, and strive for the return of what was and should be, but is not, as his truthful conscience assures him.

Such is the relation of this verse to the preceding three, if “I have longed to desire” is taken in the sense of “I have greatly desired.” But Blessed Augustine gives these words the following sense: “My rational will presses urgently upon me to desire; but the desire is absent—just as a sick person rationally desires to take food, yet has no appetite and the stomach refuses food. The prophet speaks as if to say: I know that I ought to desire to walk in Your judgments, and rationally I demand this of myself, and I have resolved to do so—but my soul does not respond and has no desire.” Here he presents, as it were, his spiritual sickness before God, hoping for healing. In this sense the present verse continues the portrayal of the difficulties and obstacles encountered on the path of spiritual life. On this path certain blows, as it were, strike the soul’s powers from time to time, and they refuse to act according to the spirit’s demands. When the feeling is struck, the state of insensibility appears; when the mind is struck, it either goes blind or forgets; when the will is struck, the person falls into a state of listlessness and immobility with regard to the deeds the spirit requires. The first two were mentioned in the preceding verse; but was the last left out? It is perhaps for the completeness of the portrayal of these blows that it is better, with Blessed Augustine, to see in the present verse a reference to the wounding of the will by unwillingness.

St. Mark the Ascetic, each time he touches on these blows, sets forth three—ignorance or forgetfulness, insensibility, and listlessness. The starting point varies, but most often it begins with forgetfulness. From forgetfulness—insensibility; from both together—listlessness or negligence. This is a complete apoplectic stroke of the soul. But it must be kept in mind that all this happens to people who stand on the good path—it is of them that the holy prophet speaks. In those who live according to the passions, these three constantly exist but are not noticed by them. But those of whom the prophet properly speaks notice their changes for the worse, grieve over them, and pray—which means they are not among those who serve the passions. They have come out of that bondage and have fallen into these ill states accidentally. The fault is surely in them, yet rarely can anyone say precisely why these states come upon them. The Lord however is merciful, and whoever, having noticed such wretchedness in himself, comes to Him with contrition—to him He soon shows His goodwill and restores his inner state to its proper order.

Ps. 118:21. You have rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from Your commandments.

“You have rebuked”—that is, You have said: do not be proud—and said it with severity, with threat, with the pronouncement of strict punishment. Why is this mentioned here? Perhaps the prophet continues his discourse on the obstacles to progress in spiritual life; having spoken above of the wounding of the soul’s powers by inaction, he now speaks of how even the most vigorous activity may be struck as if with leprosy by pride, and he warns against it. He speaks as if to say: I know, O Lord, how ruinous pride is and how abhorrent it is to You; therefore I pray: deliver me from it; otherwise, on account of it, You will withdraw Your grace, and without grace fall upon fall will come upon me, and I shall be numbered among those who always err from Your commandments and shall fall under the curse You have pronounced upon them—for “cursed is every one that abides not in all the things written in the law, to do them” (Deut. 27:26).

It is indeed true that for those who have begun to make progress, the most dangerous enemy is self-conceit and pride, linked with the judging and contemning of others. Good is so attractive and precious in the eyes of the soul that, having noticed even the first beginnings of it in herself, she already knows no measure. Yet by this she reveals only her inexperience and poverty, and is quickly exposed through God’s righteous judgment. The Lord is near and instructs. The one who has formed a high opinion of himself stumbles almost at once over something—sometimes not very significant. If he comes to his senses, no further correction follows; but if he does not, the shameful passions are permitted to rise up, so that he may feel more palpably that the hand of God which had covered him has been withdrawn and the enemies have free access to him. This is not a condemnation to fall, but an inner shaming before oneself for a high opinion of oneself. One who takes heed turns in repentance to the Deliverer and, entering the rank of the humble, recovers the gracious covering as well; but one who does not take heed not infrequently falls—a bitter lesson in humiliation!

Thus this verse may also be understood in this way; but it seems more straightforward to understand it not as speaking of interior temptations through pride, but of exterior temptations from the proud. In that case the order within this octave would be as follows: the first four verses speak of interior hindrances to progress, while the last four speak of the external unfavorabilities to such progress, whose source is the pride of the sons of this world, who look with disdain upon the humble laborers in God’s work. In that case “You have rebuked” should be read as “rebuke”—in keeping with the following “take away.”

The proud, according to the holy prophet, are regarded as exemplary transgressors of the law, for they transgress “exceedingly” (Ps. 118:51). For those who are zealous for the fulfillment of every righteousness of God, one might think the proud would be of no concern—for they draw their impulse toward life according to God, and its sustenance, from an entirely different source, not from any attention of the worldly; and the latter would do better to keep the same attitude toward the former. But they cannot hold back: they always intrude into the ways of God’s people—sometimes with questions, asking why this or that is done and maintained; and not infrequently with demands that they abandon those ways of life that are an offense to them. This is what leads many of the zealous for piety to leave common life and withdraw to mountains and deserts, there to live more freely—alone or in brotherhood—in labors of salvation and pleasing God. But for others such withdrawal is inconvenient, and of necessity they remain in common life with people of a contrary spirit, suffering all its inconveniences, above all in the spiritual but often also in the worldly realm. It is on behalf of these that the holy prophet cries: “Rebuke the proud”—make it so that they, if there is no hope of their changing for the better, at least do not touch us; and since they cannot be instructed by words, give them some external correction. Then, seeing Your protection over us and ready punishment upon themselves, they will—if not out of reverence for You, nor out of respect for Your law and its zealots, then at least out of fear of suffering some unforeseen evil—leave us in peace.

The words “cursed are those who err from Your commandments” are translated in another way: rebuke the proud—those who fall under the curse for erring from Your commandments—or: those who err from Your commandments and thereby bring upon themselves the curse appointed for that. This translation seems to fit the flow of the discourse somewhat better, yet the usual translation presents no difficulty either. The sense would be: rebuke the proud—for already Your righteousness has decreed that those who err from Your commandments should be under a curse.

Ps. 118:22. Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept Your testimonies.

The people of the world at first pay no attention to God’s people, showing toward them only a coldness mixed with contempt and an ill-concealed displeasure at meeting such persons; but then they begin to reproach and demean them—especially those among them who are closer to them and more visibly display steadfastness in following the manner of life once adopted. God’s people are ready to endure all of this, and endure it in silence, so long as it does no harm to the very path of God along which they walk. But when matters come to that, they raise their voice—not before men, but before the One who oversees all the paths of men—and ask Him to remove reproach and contempt from them, for the sake of His testimonies which they seek, upon which that reproach reflects as well.

The words “for I have kept Your testimonies” may be connected also with “remove.” Remove the reproach, because I seek Your testimonies; I am Your, I follow Your will, I fulfill Your commandments—defend me then, for You have promised not to let Your own be wronged. They may also be connected with “reproach and contempt”: because I follow Your testimonies exactly, I am reproached and contemned in every way—deliver me from this, for thereby Your path is blasphemed.

A prayer that is pure is only in the latter sense; yet it is not out of place in the first sense either—not only on account of the weaknesses of our nature, but also on account of moral necessities. Who does not know what a crushing burden reproach lays upon the soul! It undermines the energy of the most energetic, and weakens the hands and feet of even the most industrious. And so, as one who is pressed naturally seeks room to breathe, this soul cries out: Remove, O Lord, this burden! It binds my hands and feet, and I cannot move forward. And this is said not because there is no patience—for the reproach is already being endured—but only because an escape from an unpleasant situation is sought, and is sought precisely where alone it can be sought, that is, from the One in whose hand are the fates of all people. Such a prayer is not the fruit of impatience, but a testimony of faith and hope. On the other hand, it is also possible that the burden will undermine one’s energy for life according to God, and that from this undermining the dormant passions and habits will be roused and rise up. One who fears falling thus cries: Deliver me; I seek Your testimonies, but I also fear lest I weaken and fall.

There is yet another possible meaning in this cry: remove the crushing effect of reproach and contempt; grant strength to be indifferent to it and to carry oneself as though it were not there. If such an interpretation of the prayer is not out of place, then, to sustain the courageous bearing of dishonor, one may gather in the mind images capable of strengthening such a resolve and giving courage. Earthly reproach delivers from shame at the Last Judgment. To the extent that you endure this undeserved wrong here, to that extent you prepare blessing for yourself there. The path of reproach is no abandoned trail that only a few traverse; it is thronged with those who walk it. All the saints have passed along it, and at the fore of all is the Lord Himself, the Captain; therefore to walk it need not be cheerless. Moreover, no poultice draws out the bad humors of the festering ulcer of vainglory, self-exaltation, and pride so quickly as reproach. Holding all this in mind, one may pray: Remove the disquieting power from reproach—but let them reproach as they will. I will sit covered in this dishonor as if wrapped in a poultice. This will in the end make me more capable of fulfilling Your testimonies, O Lord, which I have sought with all my soul.

Ps. 118:23. Princes also did sit and speak against me: but Your servant did meditate in Your statutes.

This is the third degree of hostile relations between the sons of this age and the sons of God. After reproach and contempt there follow deliberate schemes, the gathering of slanders—doubtless for no good purpose. The Wise Man interprets these councils of the princes of this age thus: “Let us hide in the earth a righteous man unjustly, and let us swallow him alive like Hades, and take away the remembrance of him from the earth” (Prov. 1:11–12).

Although they know that they rise up against a righteous man unjustly, yet, wishing to give their wickedness the appearance of justice, they gather slanders. Thus false witnesses were also gathered against Christ the Savior. Whomever human malice has marked, it will not cease to pursue to the end: it is inflamed by the enemy of all good, and it has no rest until it achieves what it desires—to be filled with its evil deed.

But let our lips speak not of the deeds of men! May the Lord deliver everyone from such crying wrongs! What then should those do who are threatened with something of the sort? This: “But Your servant,” says the prophet, “did meditate in Your statutes.” He is no longer praying “remove” or “turn away,” but has in his heart surrendered himself as a sacrifice to willful malice, and paying it no heed, goes about his own work—zealously studying God’s ordinances in order to fulfill them more exactly. This is how everyone ought to act: let malice rage, but you do your own work: “Fear God and keep His commandments” (Eccl. 12:13).

From the holy prophet’s attitude toward undeserved wrongs there flows the conviction that the most powerful support for enduring them is the testimony of conscience that no occasion has been given for such attacks. Whoever can say within himself before the face of God: I study Your ordinances, I compare my life with them, and I find no guilt in myself—such a person should be positively gladdened by undeserved wrongs, as the holy Apostle Peter explains: “If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you; for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf” (1 Pet. 4:14–16). For what should he glorify God?—Because, by His decree, “blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” and “blessed” are those “whom men shall revile, and persecute, and shall say all manner of evil” (Matt. 5:10–11) against them for the Lord’s sake. For them a great reward is already laid up in heaven, in assurance of which they may even here rejoice and be glad—not in self-deception.

Yet on the other hand, these same ordinances of God testify that there is no man without sin, and that while in certain circumstances conscience may rightly testify to one’s innocence of a specific charge, it cannot declare anyone wholly innocent in general. If not now, something was done before that calls for due requital; and that requital has arrived in the guise of an undeserved wrong. God’s mercy has so arranged it in order to subject a person to a purifying suffering here, in time, and to deliver him from punishment in eternity. Outsiders cannot see such a correspondence between the external and the internal—all this is discerned and confessed in the inner sanctuary of conscience, before the face of the All-seeing God. But one who has discerned this and confessed God’s righteousness in the present, while also discerning its connection with the eternal, cannot but rejoice in meeting undeserved wrongs, however bitter they may be. The invisible and the future he embraces as present, and through the abundance of the hoped-for blessedness he does not feel all the bitterness of his present afflictions. And this good grows in those who endure sorrows and trials in proportion as they go deeper into God’s ordinances. There they clearly behold these laws of God’s righteousness and find in them their consolation.

But a Christian, going deeper into God’s ordinances, finds there something greater compared to what was given in the Old Testament—namely, the commandment of love for enemies. Love for enemies is commanded not only toward those whose attacks have passed and are partly forgotten, but toward those whose malice is being presently experienced—love is commanded at the very moment of being struck, cut down, and plundered; and not in the way that some say: “I wish him no evil and do him none, I simply cannot bear the sight of him”—but to love with all the qualities of the feeling of love. Whoever, going deeper into God’s ordinances, encounters this feeling will draw from it such magnanimity that it will drive away every trace of bitterness and hostility, so that not a shadow of it remains. We see examples of this in many martyrs. They existed in every age, and if one looks around, they will be found even now.

Ps. 118:24. Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.

The holy prophet gives the reason why, when he sees that enemies are weaving slanders against him for his harm, he goes deeper into God’s ordinances: such is my rule, he says—to meditate there and to seek counsel there.

The word “delight” translates a word that properly signifies: to turn over sweetly in the mind, or to repeat on the tongue, the sayings of the Divine Word, and consequently to find consolation in them.

“Counselors”—advisors, or an assembly deliberating on some matter. The holy prophet, in contrast to the council of the princes of this age, establishes his own—presided over by the fear of God and conscience—in which the mind finds in the word of God the answer to what manner of action is to be set against the evil schemes of enemies. Thus the testimonies and ordinances of God, the word of God in general, serve him both as consolation and as guiding instruction amid the hardships encountered on the path of a God-pleasing life.

Need one say that no better way of acting could be devised? In both interior and exterior straits, go to the word of God: it will lead you out onto a bright and open road, teaching you how to navigate the difficulties that have arisen without harm. To this one need add only a little from oneself—complete submission to God’s commands, and a readiness, whatever they demand, to sacrifice everything in their fulfillment. Such a disposition is the channel through which from the word of God there flows into the soul what it needs at any given time—for present too is the One who uttered that word, who sees the needs of those who seek guidance in it and knows how to imprint upon the mind and conscience the lessons of His wondrous wisdom. St. Isaac the Syrian says: “Those who in their life are led by divine grace toward enlightenment always feel as though an intelligent ray passes through the lines of what is written, distinguishing for the mind bore words from what is said to the soul’s knowledge with great thought” (Isaac the Syrian, Discourse 1). “If the mind,” he continues, “swims on the surface of the sea of the Divine Scriptures and cannot penetrate in thought to the very depths of Scripture, to comprehend all the treasures hidden in its depths—even that the mind is occupied with zeal to understand Scripture is sufficient for it to bind its thoughts firmly with a single thought about the wondrous guidance of God and hinder them; whereas the heart is weak and cannot endure the injuries (evil thoughts brought by external objects that stir the passions) encountered in exterior and interior warfare.”

Although this verse is visibly connected only with the preceding one, its force may be extended to the whole octave—for in the word of God there is hidden a remedy also against the interior blows mentioned above: blindness, forgetfulness, insensibility, negligence or listlessness. It is the word of God that enables one to notice them and to bring to mind the thought that they are present in the soul; and then the same word helps one to come out of these ill states, both by the power of its influence and by needful directions. Equally in all external hindrances to the path of God, it gives the wisdom to know how to be. How well, therefore, do those do who devote a portion of every day to reading the Divine Scripture, illumined by attentive prayer! Without even noticing it themselves, they are built up and attuned to God-pleasing action, or lay up in store thoughts which, in the hour of need, will themselves come forth from the heart and indicate the appropriate word and deed for that occasion.

And so the third octave falls naturally into order around a single idea. Thus the inference that all the octaves are composed in the same manner gains considerably in credibility. All in all, this lays upon us the obligation to seek a unity in each octave, and when we do not find it, to attribute that to our own insufficient attentiveness, rather than to the supposition that it does not in fact exist.

Verses 25–32

The fourth octave is characterized by the letter “dalet”—“door.”

With this word come to mind the tender hymns of the Church: “Open to me the doors of repentance, O Giver of Life,” or: “Open to us the doors of mercy, O blessed Theotokos.” Repentance is indeed the content of the present octave. Didymus says: “The prophet here takes up the person of a repentant sinner” and leads him through the entire path of conversion—from the first awakening of conscience to the decisive entry upon the path of the commandments—so that, should anyone decide to repent, he might see the way to be followed in this most important matter.

In the work of the spiritual life there are many doors. Each stage of it has its own door, through which one cannot enter without passing. The initial ones are: the door out of sin, and the door of entry into the right path. These appear so inseparable that the departure from one life and the entry into another seem to occur through one and the same door; yet in fact they are some distance apart—sometimes a very considerable one. Between them lies a passage that must be traversed carefully, like a dark corridor. These three moments are expounded in the present octave. The door of repentance—verses 25–27; the passage—verses 28–29; the door into the righteous life—verses 30–32.

Ps. 118:25. My soul cleaves to the dust: quicken You me according to Your word.

This is the first cry of the sinner upon awakening from the sleep of sin. Sin and the passions have their seat and support in the flesh, and find their nourishment—which satisfies them—in sensory, earthly things and in the vain, seductive customs of this present age. The sinner is drawn into all of this, and so long as he serves sin, he can neither feel nor even see how unnatural his condition is. But when he is awakened from his stupor by God’s grace, the first thing that presses itself into his consciousness is the degradation to which his God-like soul has been subjected within him: “To what have I brought myself! I ought to be moving in heaven, in God and in divine things—yet I am creeping along the ground, wallowing in the earthly, and have no desire to tear myself away from it.”

The norm of human life is life in God through the spirit, which draws the life of the soul and body there as well. The spirit bears the image of God. It is attested by the action of the fear of God and of conscience, and by dissatisfaction with anything earthly. These are the demands of spiritual life. They are fulfilled by the actions of soul and body, and when they are fulfilled, the whole human being ascends in his nature toward the divine likeness; but when they are not fulfilled, the soulish-bodily nature gains the upper hand, and the demands of the spirit grow weaker and weaker—until they seem altogether dormant—and the person becomes as if no longer human, as if only bodily life remains in him. How the spirit then awakens is a mystery of God. But once awakened, it raises its voice triumphantly; the formerly dominant soulish-bodily nature is humbled and falls silent, leaving full scope for the awareness that, while under its domination, the person was not what he ought to have been. Thence the cry: “Alas! My soul cleaves to the dust!” This is very like the complaint of the prodigal son who came to himself: “I perish with hunger” (Lk. 15:17).

St. Ambrose describes this state beautifully, in the person of our fallen first father. “By earth is understood the material. The man, having turned away from the commandment of God, turned toward the material and the carnal, and the love of this present age filled him. Cast out for this from paradise, that enchanting place of delight, into this wretched earth, Adam laments over himself, saying: ‘My soul cleaves to the dust.’ Elsewhere the prophet expresses the same thing thus: ‘My soul is humbled into the dust, my belly cleaves to the earth’ (Ps. 43:26). This is the voice of one doing penance. Before, dwelling in blessedness and fed on heavenly things, he knew nothing of worldly cares and needs; but now he is bent under the weight of the sorrows of this age, drawn by the lusts of the flesh and by covetousness. The fallen one would remain always chained to the earth in this way, unable to rise above all that is sensory, had not Christ lifted him by His cross. And to this day such is everyone who withdraws from Christ. But one who has heeded the voice of Christ—‘Come, follow Me’—will no longer cleave to the earth. The earth—the flesh and the spirit of the world—captivates us with certain harlot-like allurements, rouging the face of the passions with the pleasures of the flesh, in order to conceal an unattractive reality and to deceive those who draw near by a fair outward appearance. But when the inward eye of the mind, for a time deceived, shakes off the dust that had darkened it, the mask falls from the passions, and it is seen how illusory are the charms of this age. Therefore do not draw your soul down into the dust of death—the soul which God has honored with a certain natural elevation and has given power to rouse itself and soar upward. In the union of soul with body there is hidden the natural mystery of our life, and the soul clings as if involuntarily to the earth and the earthly—partly because it is our temporal dwelling, and partly because our body is from the earth. But stand firm and pray with the apostle to be delivered ‘from the body of this death’ (Rom. 7:24). Let us walk in the will of God, so that it may be said of us that we are united to God. Whoever lives by the impulse of the flesh is flesh, and whoever lives by God’s commandments is spirit. Let our soul, then, not be flesh; let us not permit it to be said of us as well: they are flesh — as was said of those who drew upon themselves the punishment of the flood (Gen. 6:3). Rather let our flesh become soulish, earning this name by its submission to the soul’s commands. Those who shun the lusts of the flesh are rightly likened to angels. They are flesh, but they are not in the flesh—they are in the spirit, such as were those to whom the apostle said: you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit (Rom. 8:9). So then, having felt the degradation of the soul brought low by the lusts even to the dust, pray that it may be quickened by the word of the Lord, who draws souls to Himself, drawing them away from the earth. That soul is quickened which has gone the way of Christ. It has become dead to sin and alive to God, having been buried together with Christ and become righteous in Him.”

Blessed Augustine sees here not the cry of a person converting from sin for the first time, but of one already walking the path of virtue and feeling the assaults of carnal and earthly impulses. “Before,” he says, “the prophet said: ‘Your servant did meditate in Your statutes—Your testimonies are my delight’; and here he says: ‘My soul cleaves to the dust.’ Should we not understand from this that, however far anyone may have advanced in the ordinances of the Lord, there always remains in him the clinging of mortal flesh to the earthly—on account of which ‘the life of man upon earth is a warfare’ (Job 7:1)—and that from this deadening earthliness, if one does not cease to advance, he revives more and more each day, being quickened by the One by whose grace the inner man is renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16)? When the apostle said that while living in the body we are absent from the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6), and when he himself desired to depart and be with Christ (Phil. 1:23), was he not pointing to precisely this clinging to the earth? Therefore it is not out of place here to understand by earth the body—as being from the earth—in the prophet’s word as well. And of it, insofar as it is still corruptible and burdens the soul (Wis. 9:15), one may complain to God: ‘My soul cleaves to the dust; quicken You me!’ True, we shall not be without our bodies even in eternity with Christ (1 Thess. 4:13–17); but then, being no longer corruptible, they will not burden the souls. There it will not be the souls that cling to the bodies, but the bodies to the souls, while the souls will cling to God. There the bodies will live from the souls, clinging to them, while the souls will live from God, to whom to cling is good for them—as the prophet assures us elsewhere: ‘It is good for me to draw near to God’ (Ps. 72:28). The prophet, moreover, is not lamenting the union of soul with body, but the fleshly lust that wars through the body against the spirit (Gal. 5:17)—and in thus crying out, he does not desire release from the body, but only that this lust should diminish more and more, while the power of the spirit over it should increase more and more, until at last the former is altogether exhausted and the latter has attained to the measure of the perfection given us by the Holy Spirit.”

Having recognized his unnatural clinging to the earth, the spirit cries out to God: “quicken You me.” One who is bound by the chains of death and feels his own deadness seeks vivification. The prophet says the same thing by this: “I am dead—quicken You me.” The cleaving to the earth and to earthly things is the death of the spirit; but the spirit is already crying out, already in motion, already alive—alive, however, only to the extent of recognizing the deadness of sin and passion that shackles it. It has not yet the strength to break these bonds; it desires to break free from them but feels that they are strong enough that it cannot overcome them on its own—and therefore prays to God for a life-giving power. This is the second step toward the opening door of repentance. Grace comes and awakens; the awakened one recognizes the wretchedness of his condition; the action of grace for the first time is confined to this. Beyond this, the spirit itself must desire to come out of its wretched state; having desired it—must resolve; having resolved—must take the necessary measures, and then set about the actual work. The desiring, the resolving, the readiness for all measures—all this proceeds well in the spirit, in the rational acts of the soul; but the moment one must actually set to work, there proves to be insufficient energy in the moral powers of the person to carry out what he has conceived and decided. “Quicken You me”—this is the prayer for an influx of gracious powers to animate the spirit and fill it with effective energy to resist earthly impulses and habits. God’s grace is always at hand—and all the more so the grace that has already awakened the spirit—but it does not enter the soul by force so long as the soul has not opened the door to it through recognition of its own helplessness and a God-surrendering prayer. “Quicken You me; I am ready; I thirst for You as a dry land thirsts for rain.”

“According to Your word” means the same as “according to Your promise,” says Blessed Augustine. “When,” explains Anthimus, “having transgressed the commandment, I sinned—‘my soul cleaves to the dust,’ and death came over me by reason of separation from You and division from You, O Lord, Giver of Life. But behold, I repent; quicken You me therefore according to Your word that You will be merciful to those who repent, not desiring the death of a sinner.”

Ps. 118:26. I have declared my ways, and You heard me: teach me Your statutes.

The one who has sought vivification is ready to be filled by God’s grace with its life-giving power. But in the Kingdom of God, in the life that God builds, all things take place in their proper order and in their due time. The life of grace is renewed in the soul of the sinner only after he has confessed his sins and received absolution in the mystery of repentance. The sinner, awakened by grace, yearns for a pure, God-pleasing life; to that end, having reviewed all his transgressions, he mourns them in his heart and with contrition confesses them to the resolver of moral bonds appointed by God, resolving firmly to walk from now on unswervingly in God’s commandments. Under the action of the absolution, God’s grace visits the heart that had been empty by reason of sin, and spiritual life revives. Having received this gracious renewal, in the sense of strength in the Lord, he is now ready for every God-pleasing deed and every such labor—if only he may know that such and such is truly pleasing to God and saving. All these changes, or turns, in the spirit of the repentant, the prophet portrays in the present verse. “I have declared my ways”—that is, I have confessed my sins; “You heard me”—You, O Lord, did receive my confession and have forgiven me all my sins; “teach me” now “Your statutes”—show me exactly what to do, that I may not err, and I am ready, having already received Your gracious help.

“I have declared my ways”—evil ways, then, as Blessed Augustine observes. A person’s own ways are those by which he walks in the service of himself and his desires—ways contrary to the ways of God, along which he who travels must necessarily go against himself and his inclinations and habits. St. Ambrose writes: “One must know what it means to walk in one’s own ways, and what it means to walk in God’s ways. One who does the will of the flesh and lives in the pleasures of this world walks in his own ways, takes delight in them, and is glad of them; but one who seeks not what is desirable to himself but what is pleasing to God—he walks in the way of the Lord. Thus it is clear that our ways are one thing, and God’s ways are another. Whoever wishes to walk in God’s ways should know that he must first leave his own ways—the ways of the flesh and all the wisdom of this age—and in leaving them, confess them before God, holding nothing back.” Thus, says St. Hilary, “this declaration in the words ‘I have declared my ways’ is not a boast but a penitential confession of one’s sins. He confessed his sins so that, after this confession, he might become capable of receiving and learning God’s statutes.”

The one who confesses his sins receives forgiveness: “and You heard me.” Elsewhere the prophet describes this ineffable mercy of God more fully: “I acknowledged my iniquity, and my sin I did not cover; I said: I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and You forgave the iniquity of my heart” (Ps. 31:5). This gracious promise of God was later inscribed as a law of the Spirit’s utterances, as St. Isaiah declares from the Lord’s own lips: “Tell of your transgressions first, that you may be justified” (Is. 43:26). The condition of forgiveness is the sincerity of the confession—one that is merciless to itself, that conceals nothing, that exposes the self in complete nakedness, presenting the repentant person as the conscience—stirred and enlightened by grace—sees him. Only in such a confession is there hope for subsequent correction.

“Leaving his sins,” says St. Ambrose, “David declares them before God, holding nothing back, confessing without concealing his falls. One who does not cover his sins in this way evidently grieves within himself over what he has done, and casts back at the devil what the devil suggested. One who condemns himself is a sinner, yet has already begun to be righteous—for he speaks the truth about himself without sparing himself, and in this he confesses the righteousness of God, before which he does not consider it possible to conceal anything. Oh, would that Adam had willed to accuse himself rather than to conceal!”

The assurance of pardon stands at the threshold of the righteous life. One must pass through this door of mercy in order to enter upon the path of life according to God. One who has not experienced it is crushed by hopelessness, which kills every shoot of life. In the one who has experienced it, the heart is enlarged and all the powers come into tension. This is the consequence not only of moral changes, but also, as already stated, of an influx of gracious powers—to which the absolution opens the door into the heart that was emptied beforehand by sincere confession. The one confessing says: “I have sinned; I will not do so again—only do You help me and not forsake me.” Having felt the overshadowing of God’s power following the absolution of his sins, he cries in joy: “and You heard me.”

“Teach me Your statutes.” The door has swung open; the arena of a new life lies revealed, yet it is threaded with manifold paths. Not every path is appointed for every person, but for each there are those proper to him, those suited to his condition. Which paths are those?—Those known only to the One Who is the Architect of this entire saving way. But who can point them out, save He alone? Hence the cry: “Teach me Your statutes”—teach me not only where to go and what to do, but how to go and how to do it.

“It is not enough to confess our sins,” says Saint Ambrose; “we desire also to amend ourselves, and therefore we ask God to teach us His statutes, lest we err again in some way. The Prophet asks to be taught by the Lord, because He alone is our Teacher, in His own words” (Matt. 23:8). Augustine adds to this: “I have confessed to You, O Lord, my evil ways. You have forgiven me; now teach me Your ways—teach me in such a manner that I may not merely know but also do what must be done. As it is said of the Lord that He knew no sin (2 Cor. 5:21) in the sense that He did not commit it, so, by contrast, he who does and fulfills righteousness must be esteemed as one who truly knows it.”

“Teach”—in this sense means: train. As children are taught to walk by being taken by the hands and guided to step with their little feet, so grace trains a man in the steps of the spiritual life—steps that are sure and unerringly directed to the goal. One condition is required: attentiveness to oneself and surrender to invisible guidance. What is promised is unfailingly true: they shall all be taught of God (John 6:45). All of God’s elect, whose radiant lives fill us with wonder, were directly taught and guided by the Spirit of God; and therefore they walked straight, turning neither to the right nor to the left. And this is most remarkable: looking at them from without, we cannot but marvel at the hardships of their journey; yet they themselves scarcely noticed any roughness in the path—they walked calmly, even with delight. The power of life in Christ Jesus absorbed everything that might have seemed unpleasant.

But why is not such teaching given to everyone? Why is not such training, such lightening guidance, granted to all? Grace seems to carry some on its arms, while we feel as though abandoned. No—it is not that we have been abandoned, but that we have abandoned. Adopt the same self-denial and distrust of yourself and of everything save God; surrender yourself wholly to the will of God, placing yourself in the hands of God’s grace—and it will carry you just as it carried those wondrous saints whom you revere. The hand was extended to you: you took it, walked for a little while guided and upheld by it, suffering no unpleasantness from the marshes or the thorns; then, concluding that you could now walk on your own and choose your own road, you let go of the mighty hand that sustained you, and were left alone with your own reasonings and conjectures. And so you wander amid thorns and swamps, sinking and wounding yourself—and who is to blame? You toil and sweat, yet to no avail. All this comes from self-will, self-reliance, and the false sense of strength in oneself rather than in the Lord. Is that the way of the saints? Why marvel, then, that the fruit is not the same? God wills all to be saved; but not all are willing to be saved in the way God wills to save them.

The Blessed Patriarch of Jerusalem, Anthimus, depicts the whole content of this verse thus: “He who is given over to carnal passions and walks in the way of his own desires makes his own paths; but he who bridles them and lives with sobriety walks the path that leads to God. Yet when a man who has fallen and recognized his sins lays open before God his evil ways, then God, hearing his prayer, forgives him all his former iniquities and leads him to righteousness, teaching him His statutes.”

Ps. 118:27. Make me to understand the way of Your statutes, and I will meditate on Your wondrous works.

What does the Prophet ask when he asks to be made to understand the way of the statutes?

One may suppose that he asks for a deeper and more detailed knowledge of the saving path—knowledge of all that pertains to it, knowledge of the various aspects and parts of a life pleasing to God.

First, so as to be able to discern good from evil and to unmask the apparent good beneath which evil lurks—to notice the ill-disposed feelings that arise during good deeds and at once to put them aside and correct one’s doing of good; to know the order in which the affairs of the spiritual life should be conducted, for it is not always fitting to do everything at once—a beginner ought not to attempt what is only within reach of those already perfected. So teach Saint John Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Saint Ambrose. The thought of Saint Chrysostom is quoted by Zigabenus in his Commentary: “The Prophet rightly prays to partake of Divine understanding, so that he may discern the upright path aright, lest he err and lay hold of evil instead of good; for evil is often like good.” Theodoret writes: “We have need of Divine understanding, in order to advance in virtue according to the law of God—so that he who is guided by love of his neighbor may have no thought of vainglory, that the ascetic may not seek human praise, that the chaste man may preserve chastity not out of shame for an intemperate life but out of love of virtue. Therefore the Prophet rightly implores to be made a partaker of Divine understanding and to know the path of righteousness.” Saint Ambrose says: “He does not count it enough that the Lord our God teach him His statutes, but adds: ‘the way of Your statutes,’ and so on. Observe the order! First one must learn the Lord’s statutes, then discern the gradation and order of the statutes’ demands—what must come first and what afterward; for to know what to do and not to know the order of doing it is not to have perfect knowledge. Men stumble most often because they act not as they should, not in proper order.” Different things are fitting in worldly society and in a life of renunciation; different things at the beginning and in progress; different things in community life and in solitude; different things in the outward order and in the inner life of a Christian. To everything there is its own time and place. Even what is good is fully good only in its proper time and place.

Second, by “the way of the statutes” one may understand here, as Blessed Augustine supposes, “the highest statutes themselves, which the holy Prophet desires to attain as he advances further and further, and which he calls the wondrous works of God; for among the statutes—the Divine commandments—and the works of a life lived according to God, there are some so marvelous that those who, through human weakness, have not passed through them in practice cannot believe that they can ever be attained.” Such are: love of enemies, not as an outward act but as an inward, living, and sincere feeling; the courage of the martyrs—not merely a state of calm in the spirit during torments, but a state of praise-filled joy and blessed gladness; unceasing prayer, with all its essential qualities, so incomprehensible that recourse is had to allegory to describe it, yet which in reality exists and constitutes an inalienable quality of those who have become one spirit with the Lord; perfect freedom from care—not in feeling only, but in deed, in surrender to the will of God, in accordance with the word of His promise, all these things shall be added to you (Matt. 6:33), by which the Lord graciously accepted those who trusted in it and abundantly nourished His servants from His abundance; detachment from bodily needs to the point of forgetting them, yet without exhausting the body, which remained both healthy and sufficiently vigorous to perform its ordinary duties and labors. All this and the like are the wonders of the moral-Christian life, built up by the grace of the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus our Lord. One cannot but marvel at these wonders.

Third, one may understand here, with Saint Hilary, a desire to see through the Old Testament ordinances of justification so as to behold the true justification in the Redeemer of all who is prefigured by them. Hilary writes: “These words (that is, ‘make me to understand the way of Your statutes’) draw a distinction between the statutes and their way. Moreover, it is self-evident that what one strives to reach by a certain path is not the same as the path itself by which one strives. Dwelling in the Law, he asked not to be taught what was then performed in the material worship of God, for that was already visible—but to be taught those future mysteries which lay hidden beneath the image of the present visible material ordinances. He remembered that the statutes of the Law present a shadow of the true Divine statutes. The prescriptions of the Law are therefore, as it were, a way leading to what they prefigure. It is in order to understand this way of the statutes—that is, to pass from the shadow to the true body—that the Prophet prays, so that, having understood it, he may plunge into the contemplation of these wonders of God (the wondrous plans of the economy of our salvation in the Lord). The Law was established precisely to be a mirror of the good things to come (which those under the Law awaited).”

A similar thought can be significant for us Christians as well. We have our own outward order of justification, which every person seeking reconciliation with the Lord—whom the multitude of recognized sins has offended—must pass through. We have the fast before Communion, the fast proper, the standing in prayer at church, solitude and withdrawal from worldly affairs, confession of sins, the acceptance of a penance and the labors of performing it. Everyone passes through this path. Its fittingness for its purpose is proven by the experience of all ages. But the power lies not in the outward course of affairs, but in the inward dispositions that must be enkindled in the heart throughout, and it is the succession of these very dispositions that is the way of justification—not the succession of the outward actions described. One can pass through all of them and receive nothing. For this reason there is a pressing need, when approaching them and passing through them, to entreat the Lord to grant us to walk this path truly, wholeheartedly, and fruitfully—so that in the end we may obtain in deed what we seek, and then wonder and never cease to wonder at the marvels of God’s boundless mercy toward repentant sinners.

What does it mean: “and I will meditate on Your wondrous works”?—Evidently the Prophet here indicates what he promises to do upon receiving the understanding he seeks. But what exactly is that? The word “to meditate” (in its Church Slavonic form) has taken on a different meaning among us than the corresponding Greek word carries. In the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, this word is translated as: “to sit by, to be assiduously occupied with something—for example, to sit by reading, by contemplation of God, by mental prayer, by handiwork,” and the like.

Saint Ambrose writes: “‘I will meditate’ denotes a sustained kind of reflection and unrelenting absorption of the mind in something, as well as diligent exercise in something—whether of soul or body—with the aim of acquiring a habit of it.” Thus there is intellectual abiding, and there is active abiding. Which of the two is meant here by the Prophet?—Both. He who has received understanding of the way of God’s statutes cannot but plunge into them through reflection and contemplation. Moreover, since understanding is given concerning active life, and then, in turn, so as to give proper direction to life and activity, he who has received understanding cannot remain idle, but at once takes up the work and, abiding in it, continually acquires a habit of it.

“Thus, says Saint Ambrose, he who has come to know the mysteries of God plunges in contemplation into the wonders of God that are revealed in them.” According to Zigabenus, the Prophet speaks to the Lord in this way: “I will often reflect on the wondrous works You have wrought, so as to find delight in their comprehension, which You do grant me.” But he must not content himself with this alone; rather, “as one preparing for a contest in the arena trains his limbs at length so that they may learn the movements and grow strong, so too, Saint Ambrose teaches, one must actively abide in what Scripture points out, in order to grasp the hidden mysteries and counsels of God contained in it.”

Others understand the word “I will meditate” to mean: I will carry on extended discourse about the wonders of Your mercy and righteousness: My tongue shall speak of Your righteousness (Ps. 50:16); I will everywhere extol both the wondrous ways of Your statutes and You who ordain them. Didymus says: “I will tell everyone of Your wonders.” Saint Athanasius writes: “Having acquired understanding of the mysteries contained in Your statutes, and the capacity to walk in their path, I shall be able to speak and discourse about the wonders of these statutes.”

Ps. 118:28. My soul has slumbered from weariness; strengthen me in Your words.

The labor is long, the road is far, the seeking is prolonged. The interval between turning onto the path of the commandments and walking freely along it passes in a state half-bitter and half-comforting, half-alive and half-dead. For one person it is longer, for another shorter, but it comes to everyone. Such is the law of God’s justice in the ordering of our salvation. The baptized man or the one who has sincerely repented is already a son and heir; but one must pass through the full course of upbringing, and another through only a lawful penance. The end of this state comes when the soul is cleansed and its activity on the good path becomes swift and light, as though seeing no obstacles or hindrances. Until that time there is striving and labor: the toiler must experience much.

Two chief blows befall him: the first is the weakening of moral energy; the second is a strong assault of wrong inward movements and evil external provocations. Of the first, which is despondency, the present verse speaks; of the second, the following verse.

Despondency is tedium in one’s work. When it attacks, everything drags. Before it comes, everything is done willingly, the work prospers, and time passes unnoticed at one’s labor. But when despondency strikes, the one working begins to look about, doing a little and then stopping—seized by the desire to put it all down as quickly as possible. This happens in everyday life and in the spiritual life alike. The desire to stand in church, to pray to God at home, to read, to fulfill ordinary acts of goodness—all of this falls away. The toiler begins to grow bored with all of it; and therefore, even when doing these things, it is as if he does nothing, and no profit comes from such doing. He is exactly like a half-asleep person from whose hands the work keeps slipping. This state is what the Prophet describes in the words: “My soul has slumbered from weariness.”

Slumbering is only a stopping of activity, not a doing of evil; yet it is itself a bad thing. In bodily life it is natural; in the spiritual life it ought not to be, for there the inescapable obligation is to be sober and vigilant. It is bad as a stopping, since we are obliged to press ceaselessly forward; it is bad also because it borders on evil action. One who dozes off may fall and be hurt; he may be seized by an enemy and suffer wounds and afflictions, even mortal ones. Therefore he who has dozed off spiritually in despondency, recognizing his drowsiness, cannot but reproach himself and be afraid for himself. Hence the cry for awakening and revival: no one can manage himself alone at such a time.

Blessed Augustine writes: “Undergoing labors in the acquiring of virtues and in a certain measure wearied by them, he said: ‘My soul has slumbered from weariness.’ What does it mean that ‘the soul slumbered,’ if not that it grew cold in the hope of soon attaining virtue? So he prays, fearing lest, having slumbered, he fall away from those virtues in which he thought he had already made progress.” “He,” adds Saint Hilary, “calls himself slumbering, not sleeping. He who is asleep is in the state of sleep, overcome by sleep; but he who slumbers has not yet fallen asleep, but stands in the vestibule of sleep. The Prophet slumbers but does not sleep, and prays lest, having dozed off, he fall fast asleep.”

Zigabenus quotes the view of Hesychius: when the soul slumbers, sin does not sleep, but creeps up and endeavors to draw the soul away and attract it to itself. “The beginning of sleep,” he says, “is slumbering, and the beginning of a fall is the loosening and enervation of the soul through despondency. As one who slumbers is drawn toward sleep, so one who is morally weakened is drawn toward sin.”

One of the Western commentators on the Psalter (Bellarmine) also describes this state well: “In the pilgrimage of this life, scarcely a person is to be found who does not grow weak and, wearied of the constant struggle the spirit wages against the flesh, does not grow cold toward it and doze off when it becomes tedious to walk the laborious path on which the flesh wars against the spirit.”

Here are the words of Blessed Theodoret: “The frequent assault of sin often weakens the power of one’s thoughts, causes the ascetic to begin to tire, and produces in him what is called despondency; the weakening soul then inclines toward sleep, and sleep brings death. Therefore the Prophet asks to be confirmed and strengthened. He says the same in another place: Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep in death (Ps. 12:4)—calling sin death.”

How, then, is one to act in this unhealthy state?—First, to pray; second, to remain firmly in established routines and the tasks already begun, even when the taste for them has vanished; third, to meditate on the wondrous ways of God revealed in His word. All these means are contained in the Prophet’s prayer: “Strengthen me in Your words.”

And so, above all, pray. The despondent Prophet turns to God. Together with him, lift yourself there too, you who are weak, and ask that the same fervor be kindled in you again—that fervor in which every labor was no labor to you before; ask that the fire of grace return to you, and that, stirred by it, you may not cease to walk with zeal on the path of the Lord’s commandments.

While praying, do not leave off anything you did before. Let there be no taste for it—compel yourself; by force of will, bow your neck and your whole frame under the yoke you have taken up. Blessed Augustine paraphrases the Prophet’s prayer thus: “Strengthen me in those Your words which I already hold, which I already fulfill, so that from them, advancing little by little, I may move toward others.” According to Saint Ambrose: “The Prophet here asks to be strengthened in the words of God, ‘that his feet not be moved’ (Ps. 16:5) and ‘his steps not slip’ (Ps. 72:2). This will not befall him who stands firm and bravely in the uprightness of heart. Like a tree that has sent its roots deep down, he holds himself immovable against every alien assault and pressure.”

While doing both these things, intensify your God-directed meditation on the wondrous ways of God. In another psalm the Prophet says plainly that when his spirit was downcast within him, he, in order to drive it away, recalled the days of old and began to ponder God’s wondrous works. What came of this?—The soul became like parched earth—that is, thirsting; spiritual tastes and longings were awakened, and the soul, slain by despondency, came to life. The same applies here. According to Saint Athanasius, the Prophet teaches that it is impossible to drive out the spirit of despondency otherwise than by meditation on the Divine words. Therefore one must be sober and vigilant according to the word of the Lord: Watch and pray (Mark 14:38).

Saint Hilary writes: “‘Strengthen me in Your words,’ so that, being strengthened by understanding of all Your ways, I may not only not sleep but not even give way to slumber, but may unceasingly remain in every vigilance.”

The same thought is in Zigabenus: “‘Strengthen me in Your words’—that is, in meditating on Your commandments, so that I may always exercise myself in this; for through this I hope to drive away the slumber of despondency.”

Saint Ambrose writes more fully about this: “The perfect man, directing his mind toward the Divine mysteries, does not slumber but is ever vigilant: and though sometimes he sleeps in body, yet in heart he keeps watch. In another place the Prophet says: I will not give sleep to mine eyes or slumber to mine eyelids (until I build a temple for God) (Ps. 131:4). Thus he does not slumber who has resolved to build a temple for the Lord—not of stones, but of good thoughts, feelings, and dispositions, kindled and formed by heavenly words. The word of God disperses despondency—the sleep of the soul and the drowsiness of the mind. Sleep comes from the cares and sorrows of the age. But he who cleaves to God flees such cares; his delight he finds in the knowledge of the eternal order of things, undisturbed by any change in earthly things.”

Blessed Anthimus notes that “in the fifth and sixth edition (of the Bible translation) and in Symmachus, instead of ‘slumbered’ the reading is—‘to drip, to become saturated’; by this it is indicated that the soul of a righteous man is compactly and firmly composed, while the soul of a sinner becomes disordered and riddled with holes, leaking; and therefore it stands in need of being joined together and bound by God.”

Saint Ambrose, mentioning this reading, finds two thoughts in the Prophet’s word: the first—the soul has begun to drip, has begun to receive within itself something alien that gives it no rest and drives it outward; the second—the soul has begun to seep through, to let out of itself the saving word previously received, filling itself, in its place, with thoughts harmful to the soul. Here are his words: “Others read not ‘slumbered’ but ‘to drip,’ meaning—it has begun to drip, to let moisture through. The thought would be this: the soul of a perfect man, being well arranged and bound together, does not drip, like vaults and ceilings that are firmly and solidly built. It is said: ‘A continual dripping drives a man out of his house in a stormy day’ (Prov. 27:15). Therefore we must bind our soul so that it does not drip; we must firmly compact it by the indivisible union of the virtues, so that it may keep the secret of the eternal King—like the holy Mary, who kept all these words in her heart, lest any of them should pour out of it through the lips: he who is quick with words, like an overflowing vessel pouring this way and that, empties his inner life and is flooded with outward attachments, unable either to roof himself over or to preserve safely the word he has received. That soul has no corruption (no holes or cracks) which by magnanimous patience sustains within itself the ceiling of righteousness and the walls of the other virtues. Therefore it does not drip, does not pour, does not overflow: there is no looseness in it, no capricious instability, no careless negligence; nothing is wrested out of it through the hole of the tongue.”

Ps. 118:29. Remove from me the way of falsehood, and grant me Your law graciously.

The second blow encountered by the toiler who is passing through the state of penance is the arousal of sinfulness that occurs from time to time—whether from within of itself, or from external provocations, or from the action of the envious enemy. It can be so dark and troubling that the one experiencing it seems as though he had already committed fornication, denied God, and fallen into misanthropy; he feels that his soul is filled with evils and his life has drawn near to hades (Ps. 87:4). As long as a person lives in negligence and love of sin, sinful impulses continually arise in his soul and he immediately inclines toward satisfying them, yet this does not trouble him in the least. But when he repents and sincerely pledges to indulge himself no longer—and especially when he has already somewhat settled down and grown unaccustomed to his passionate deeds—then assaults of this kind cannot but trouble him, cannot but arouse pain and apprehension. Hence the cry to the Lord: “Remove from me the way of falsehood.”

What is this way of falsehood? It is the passionate movements that arise in the soul and lead to every kind of falsehood and sin. They have fastened themselves and clung to the soul; he asks that they be torn away from it and flung far off—that they may be outside, not inside, so that one might pass through them without experiencing any harm, just as a person without a predisposition to a contagious disease feels no harm from it. Saint Hilary writes: “The way of falsehood is the way of sin. The Prophet entreats God to remove from him the way of sin—the way that leads straight to sin—to take away all the stirrings of carnal passions, to make it so that no temptation from lust presses upon him, along which, as along a road, one walks to sin.”

Saint Ambrose continues the same thought: “He did not say—remove me from the way of falsehood, but—remove from me the way of falsehood, acknowledging that it is in him and active within him. And indeed, as long as we lead an evil life, the way of falsehood remains within us and does not depart from us. But he who has repented takes care to put it far from himself. Since the hereditary infection of falsehood has entered us from without, there is need of an outside deliverer from it. Hence the prayer: ‘Remove the way of falsehood.’ Pray, you too, saying: O wretched man that I am! Who shall remove from me the way of falsehood?—and you shall hear: the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Didymus understands here any assault of sin whatsoever, not any particular one; but this is not alien to the meaning of this verse. He says: “He who has willfully departed from the way of falsehood and has desired to draw near to the law of God prays that this may be brought to completion by God, Who brings all good beginnings to their end. Likewise, he who has come to hate his former ignorance and has desired the knowledge opposed to it, being unable by his own strength to drive out ignorance and to be enlightened by knowledge, cries out to the one Teacher of all: Remove ignorance from me, and by Your knowledge have mercy on me!”

“Grant me Your law graciously.” But by what law?—“By the law of Your love for mankind,” says Zigabenus; “for the law of God’s love for mankind consists precisely in this: that God has mercy on him who repents and turns to Him with his whole soul and flees to Him.” Justice demands punishment for the violator of righteousness; but God’s love for mankind intercedes for mercy. This is the chief law in the present period of our existence. He who suffers attacks from sin cannot but acknowledge that he himself formerly gave sin such power over him, that he himself nursed this serpent within himself—and therefore rightly suffers; and if he rightly suffers, where is his salvation if not in the love for mankind? So he prays with this meaning: “I am myself to blame, I rightly suffer these attacks—but show me mercy, O Lord; remove this way of falsehood, according to the law of Your love for mankind.”

The words — by Your law — can also mean: as Your law commands or requires. As a sick person, seeking help from a physician, hopes from him for recovery according to the laws of medical science, so here too. God heals spiritual infirmities; but there is a proper law for this healing, without which the healing cannot take place. “By what law, then, does he seek mercy?” asks Blessed Augustine. “By no other than the law of faith. The law of faith consists in this: that we pray to have granted to us by grace what we ourselves are not capable of doing.”

“Grant me Your law graciously”—means, again, the same as “bless me with such-and-such a thing”—that is, give me such-and-such a thing as a blessing. Thus the meaning becomes: show me mercy by the gift of Your law; uproot the wrong movements from my heart, and in their place write there, impress, implant Your law—so that it may penetrate my whole being, govern all the movements of my faculties, take possession of all the outpourings of my life and actions, and I, knowing this, may with sincerity confess the law of my God within my heart. This meaning is the most fitting of all and encompasses all the others. And the Hebrew text says: grant me the grace of Your law, count me worthy of the law.

Saint Hilary gives this thought: “Give me by the confession of Your law to be counted worthy of Your mercy and to be blessed in the fullness of it. The Prophet prays that God would have mercy on him by His law. Mercy is drawn by the law of God, according to Scripture, in this way: And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and His statutes, which I command you this day, that it may be well with you (Deut. 10:12–13). So if the law teaches us to walk in God’s ways so that it may be well with those who walk in them, then when the Prophet prays that God would have mercy on him by the law, he prays for what is contained in the law—that is, walking in God’s ways, to attain blessedness.”

Ps. 118:30. I have chosen the way of truth, and have not forgotten Your judgments.

The dark passage is over. The penitent enters the state of free, willing, and spontaneous walking in the commandments. When this comes to pass, the soul experiences what a man experiences when he passes from a dim corridor into bright and adorned chambers. This luminous state the Prophet depicts in the last three verses of the present octet (Ps. 118:30, 31, 32).

One cannot help but notice the particular fullness of this depiction and the harmony in the interrelation of the various aspects of the structure of spiritual life at this season. On one side there is a series of expressions of freedom toward the commandments; on the other, a series of grace-filled effects experienced by the soul. In the first, we have—“I have chosen”—I have elected, “I have cleaved”—I have loved with all my heart, “I have run”—I actively work toward fulfillment; in the second—“I have not forgotten Your judgments”—I have taken into my conviction the entire essence of Your economy in the ordering of salvation; further—“do not put me to shame”—I rest all my hope upon You, “You have enlarged my heart”—I have felt an inflow of Your life-giving grace-filled workings. It is self-evident that the goal of everything lies in “I have run” and in “when You did enlarge my heart”: Your grace overflowed in me, my heart was enlarged, and I walked the path of Your commandments, noticing no hindrances and suffering no stumbling. All the other indications are only the path and the support of this last thing, says Saint Hilary.

“The way of truth…” Everyone who lives and acts already has his own path, but not everyone has the true path. The Savior too distinguished two paths—the broad and the narrow—and assessed them according to the end to which each leads. Every traveler walks a certain path, and many think their path is straight and true, when in reality it is crooked and illusory—it only seems to be a path, and a straight one at that, but in reality is not. The Prophet says that all this manifold illusion of paths has been laid bare before him; I, he says, have seen that there is only one true path, and I have chosen it. Saint Ambrose writes: “The Prophet speaks thus in order to show that he has sincerely turned. The miser cannot speak in this way, nor can the man attached to the worldly and material—for how can this path be the way of truth when the rich man of this age cannot take his wealth with him from here, and after death becomes poorer than the poor Lazarus? Equally, worldly glory and the sorrow of this age cannot be regarded as the way of truth. Truth lies in the eternal; the temporal is illusory. If we desire to walk in the way of truth, let us become strangers to the world and begin to live by faith. He who lives by faith lives in God, Who alone truly is; while he who is given over to the world ‘walks in a vain show’ (Ps. 38:7), and truth (reality) will soon expose him.”

What then is the way of truth for us?—Life according to the Gospel, in the spirit of Christian faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ is both the Truth and the Way. Follow after the Lord Christ, and you shall walk in the way of truth. But make it so that this is so in actual deed, and not merely in name. Not every one who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom, but he who does the will of my heavenly Father (Matt. 7:21). Enter truly upon the way of truth, and do not merely appear to be walking upon it.

“I have chosen the way of truth”—chosen with my whole will; my whole will is in it, and it no longer wavers this way and that. Before one has grown habituated to good, before the light of truth has gained the mastery within, the will continues to be divided. In every matter that presents itself, the conscience—already enlightened and enlivened by the light of the Gospel and of grace—points out the God-pleasing manner of acting; yet one feels that from somewhere unknown come proposals utterly opposed to it, and someone enters into dispute with the conscience. Mindful of the condition of forgiveness in repentance—the vow to be faithful to God’s will—the will, though far from consenting to these alien proposals, still glances back, with a certain drawing toward the fleshpots of Egypt (Exod. 16:3)—it is divided, in other words. This division is a sign that within, in the depths of our being, the work of conversion is not yet complete; there still remain deposits of an alien life, like sprouts that have been pressed down but are ready to burst forth the moment they are given room. Until now the state of penance is not yet ended, and consequently the work of repentance is not yet accomplished, and the comforting inner voice is not yet heard: your sins are forgiven you (Matt. 9:2). But when this passes, when all that is unclean evaporates, self-indulgence is extinguished, and the passions fall silent—then there is no more division; then for every good deed presented to one, one chooses with the fullness of the will. It is of this very thing that the Prophet makes mention, apparently in spiritual gladness and rejoicing.

“And have not forgotten Your judgments.” “Having chosen,” says Blessed Augustine, “the way of truth along which to run, he has not forgotten Your judgments by which to run.” In remembrance of God’s judgments lies both the incentive and the support of the choice of the true path. Contemplation of God’s judgments impresses upon the consciousness the inescapability of precisely this path and binds the will. Therefore the will chooses it decisively, without wavering; it lays upon itself the law of walking undeviatingly in this path.

But what are these judgments?—The entire course of God’s judgments, or the decrees of God’s providential will concerning us, from the moment when it pleased God to reveal them to the moment when each person enters by means of his consciousness into full contemplation of them—not excluding from this compass what he sees as having been accomplished in himself; or, in other words, the entire economy of salvation of our race and of that particular person who speaks these words. These judgments of God are visible at the beginning of repentance as well, but in outlines that are too general. But when the penitent conscientiously passes through the state of penance, they become ever clearer and, as they clarify, they become united with the consciousness—both in what concerns all those being saved, and in what concerns the very person who is being purified. At last, all is clearly seen and is blended with the consciousness to such a degree as to constitute an inalienable part of it. Just as one who clearly recognizes himself as a human being is aware of both himself and everything around him, so clearly does the purified person see the whole order of God’s judgments and his own place within them. All of this together presses so tightly upon his consciousness that he cannot even forget it. Just as he remembers God and himself in God, so he remembers God’s judgments. “They,” says Anthimus, “never leave his mind; they are ever before the eyes of his understanding.”

The preceding “I have chosen” stands in a direct relationship to this “I have not forgotten”—as a necessary consequence, in the spirit of moral necessity. He who enters into the knowledge of God’s judgments is convinced to the point of irresistible clarity that everything is ordered according to God’s will, and that this will, having determined something, brings it to pass: no one and nothing is strong enough to change or revoke it. It has decreed the structure of salvation in such and such a way, and nothing can shake this decree. Act therefore either as decreed, or remain outside those being saved and consequently go to perdition. When this conviction occupies the consciousness with the same force as the daytime awareness that it is day, or the nighttime awareness that it is night, then the person who has a living sense of self-preservation—as a penitent must—cannot waver. He passes entirely over to the side of God’s decrees, aligns himself with them, chooses them—and wavering is at an end. Floggings, scraping with iron claws, burning furnaces—all are as nothing! His whole being is encompassed by the truth that one must either hold firm and be saved, or totter and perish. Such is the power of moral necessity! The visible world stands firm, bound by physical necessity; the moral world flows in an order bound by moral necessity, imprinted in the consciousness and will of the elect by the all-governing right hand of the All-good God, Who wills all to be saved—precisely in this way, and no other.

Ps. 118:31. I have cleaved to Your testimonies, O Lord; put me not to shame.

The division of the will ends at the time when all sympathies with sin and passion disappear. War on sin and the passions is declared at the moment of repentance; but this occurs in the higher will, while the heart does not quickly detach itself from its habitual pleasures. Whether the eye sees, or the ear hears, or to mind comes something of what was before—a sympathetic response to it stirs in the heart, though the spirit—the higher side of our nature—noticing this, immediately reproaches the heart for it. But it is not possible to tear oneself away decisively all at once. The constancy of resistance to evil gradually suppresses this sympathy ever more and more, generating in its place a dislike, irritation, and anger toward the sinful impulses that arise again. At last, anger and indignation cover the entire realm of passion. This is a sign that all the threads binding the heart to sin have been cut. This severing of the heart from sin never takes place alone, but is always accompanied by adherence to the opposing good. They go together, and in proportion as the one is strong, the other grows stronger. The heart cannot be without attachment: this is its nature. Detaching from one thing, it attaches to another, and it is impossible to tell whether the adherence produces the detachment, or the detachment sets the adherence free. And so when all sinful sympathies are torn from the heart—as is evidenced by anger against everything sinful—at the same time complete adherence to everything good is also accomplished.

An elder was once asked: by what is it evidenced that someone’s sins have been forgiven? The elder replied: “By this—if he has come to hate them.” Basil the Great offers the same resolution. If this hatred is simultaneous with adherence to good, and if a person can say of himself that he has cleaved to all that is good, then he may fully rest assured that his sins are forgiven. The burden of penances is over… In ancient accounts we read that when someone who had sinned greatly repented and, having confessed his sins to the elders and asked for healing, was led by them into a secluded cell and, after receiving the rule, was shut in it. A certain time would pass; the penance would accomplish its work; and the one under penance would hear aloud: “The Lord has accepted your repentance; your sins are forgiven.” The same thing is accomplished inwardly in him who, having come to hate sin, has cleaved to the testimonies of God. Not from without, but from within him should be heard the assurance—given from above in the conscience—that his sins are remitted; and such a person shall not be put to shame. Here is what Saint Ambrose writes on this subject: “He who, though he has done much that is shameful, has yet obtained forgiveness of it from Christ the Lord, shall not be put to shame; for to such a one it is said: ‘Your sins are forgiven you… go in peace.’ He shall not be put to shame when the remission of sins is accomplished in him as a reality—when not only sin but the sinful passion itself is taken away from him—when righteousness repels all unrighteousness, courage repels fear, sobriety repels impurity—so that the remission (the uprooting) of sins may be not for a time only, but forever. Christ shall enter into your soul, Jesus shall abide in your mind, and in the tabernacle of your heart there shall no longer be any room for sin.”

The words of Saint Ambrose transfer our attention to the age to come, before the throne of God’s judgment. Blessed Anthimus of Jerusalem expresses this more plainly: “He who has so cleaved to the testimonies of God shall not be put to shame by the Lord on the day of judgment.” In this sense the words “put me not to shame” express the unshakeable hope of the believer who has labored diligently over himself: “And You will not put me to shame, O Lord.” This hope is an inalienable property of the spirit of one who is being saved. Without it, the work of salvation cannot even begin, still less continue. But there it was in seed, while now it has matured. If it is true that the marks of sins and passionate inclinations are imprinted upon the soul—that it is, as it were, written all over with them—so that if it were to appear, stripped of the body that covers it, before those capable of seeing it, they would read it whole without any special indication—then what shame awaits souls that have not been cleansed when they appear before the assembly of angels and saints, seeing their own shame themselves and knowing that all around them see it too. This we cannot even imagine now; and the Savior did not describe it, but only said that it will be so heavy for them that they will wish to be crushed by mountains rather than stand in such shame before the eyes of all. This is why the Prophet, having received assurance of the uprooting from his nature of all impurities and knowing that everywhere within him the love of all-round good holds sway, witnesses in spiritual joy his unashamed hope: “Put me not to shame!”—and I am certain I shall not be put to shame. The pure eyes of the saints will thereafter see nothing shameful in me, and I shall not be ashamed to stand in their assembly. Saint Hilary writes: “He receives forgiveness of former sins who has cleaved to the testimonies of God. In the word of the Lord it is thus said: I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins (Isa. 44:22). God is able to put far from us everything that serves for our shame and disgrace, if we too can conscientiously say: ‘I have cleaved to Your testimonies.’”

But he who says this still lives here, is still on the way, still voyaging, not yet in harbor. Shipwreck can occur even close to shore; robbers can seize and strip one at the very corner of one’s house. As long as a man lives, he cannot but fear the attacks of the enemy and feel the need of help against them. The boldness of the enemy is accustomed to creep back into former souls that harbored him—souls that have already been swept and set in order. In this respect, “put me not to shame” will mean the following: now—thanks be to You, O Lord—all has been set right and ordered according to Your will; but I fear lest the enemy again somehow steal in and overturn all my structure. He well knows how to handle me; do not then put me to shame, O Lord, and do not deliver to the enemies the soul that confesses You.—“Put me not to shame,” continues Blessed Augustine, “that I may run to where I am running, that I may attain what I am striving toward—since this is the matter neither of him that wills nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. I have wholly cleaved to Your commandments and am ready with love to perform every good deed that arises; but the desire and seeking are mine, while the strength is Your. With my whole hope I rest on Your help—always ready for those who seek You—put me not to shame; grant me also to act with the full measure of my adherence to Your commandments; fill me with Your strength, lest in some way there befall me what befalls him who, having begun to build a house, is unable to finish it, or him who, hastening to begin a war, proves unequal to it.”

The hope that He who began the work of salvation in us will bring it to completion—and will successfully lead it through all the unevenness of life to the gates of death and through them to an unshameful dwelling among the glorified—is born from the very beginning of one’s turning to God. Together with the labors of drawing near to God, it grows and rests chiefly on the consciousness that on our part everything within our power has already been put to work. And God does not manifest special assistance as long as a man still has powers of his own that have not been put to use—for those too are from God. The Prophet speaks now as if to say: I have already done everything possible, I have expended the powers You did give me in my nature; I cannot take a single step further, and yet much still remains. Come now to me with special help, and help me to complete the work I have begun—broad, according to Your own design. It would be terrible even to myself if, having begun to act according to so broad a plan, I should stop halfway. This, then, is properly when real action begins—when You, and not I, shall be acting.

Ps. 118:32. I have run the way of Your commandments, when You did enlarge my heart.

“I have run”—that is, I have run along the way of Your commandments; I have broken free, I have come out onto the broad and open road. Before, both hands and feet were tangled, and the road was rough and thorny; now the road is spacious and smooth, and hands and feet are unbound. When the division of the will ceases and the sympathy with sin and the passions dies away, no more hindrances to doing good in the service of God are encountered within. Everyone knows how the passions bind—even if one has not yet received the freedom praised here. Self-interest (I need it for myself) binds generosity; self-pity binds all manner of abstinence; manifold care and preoccupation (there is no time) bind the setting aside of everything for communion with God in prayer. And so every good impulse that arises in the heart is immediately bound by the opposing evil feeling that springs up alongside it, and the matter is either abandoned altogether or brought to a halt for a time. These resistances to good arise from the heart’s sympathy with sin and from the division of the will. But when they die away, the inner resistances cease; and if at times something enters from outside, it has no determining force, and every good deed is carried through as it is intended—willingly, swiftly, vigorously, with pleasure and joy.

The cause of the swift running along the way of the commandments is the gracious enlargement of the heart. The grace of God is present in the heart from the first moment of the sinner’s awakening. In baptism or repentance it enters within and abides in the person, but does not manifest its full action nor reveal itself to the consciousness of the person being saved, until his heart is cleansed—chiefly by grace’s own working, yet as a result of the person’s own efforts. This time is precisely the period of toiling, or the state of penance. Whether a canonical penance is imposed on someone or not, no one escapes the inner one, and no one can determine its term. There everything proceeds of itself, rightly regulated by the mutual relationship of freedom and grace. And when this term comes to an end, grace shines in the heart, and the heart becomes wide—very wide… This occurs simultaneously with the cessation of the division of the will and of the heart’s sympathy with sin, for only then does the heart become pure, a worthy receptacle for the Spirit. A clean heart is created, and a right spirit is renewed within the one being saved.

The holy fathers depict at length these two simultaneous phenomena in the spiritual life. Saint Hilary writes: “Everything with the Prophet proceeds in order. First he said: ‘Remove from me the way of falsehood’; then: ‘I have chosen the way of truth’; then: ‘I have cleaved to Your testimonies’; and now he concludes: ‘I have run the way of Your commandments, when You did enlarge my heart.’ All this has been reached gradually. All that preceded served the purpose of walking freely in the way of God’s commandments. But the path that leads to life is both narrow and sorrowful—narrow, because it must be walked with full attention and caution; sorrowful, because there are many tribulations and deprivations on it. How then does the Prophet boast that he ran on this path?—Not by himself, he says, ‘but I have run, when You did enlarge my heart.’ He walked freely in the way of the Lord after he began to be large of heart; he was not able to run so before having first become himself spacious and a worthy dwelling place of God.”

Blessed Augustine represents the Prophet as though hearing a question from above: “How did you run the way of the Lord’s commandments—did you do so of yourself?—No, O Lord, he replied; ‘I ran, when You did enlarge my heart’—not by my own will alone, as though I had no need of Your help, but because You did enlarge my heart. The enlargement of the heart is the love of the commandments. It is a gift of God when we abide in His commandments not straitened by fear of punishment but enlarged by love and delight in them. God Himself promises us this breadth: I will dwell in them, He says, and walk in them (2 Cor. 6:16). And how spacious is that place where God dwells and walks!… In this spaciousness ‘the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us!’ (Rom. 5:5)”

Saint Ambrose points to certain other shades of meaning: “He could not run this path if his heart were cramped and constricted. To those who run the path of the Lord, the Apostle, having first said of himself ‘our heart is enlarged,’ says: ‘be you also enlarged’ (2 Cor. 6:11, 13). And see what a distinction: the way that lies ahead is most narrow, while the heart must be most spacious—in order to serve as a dwelling place for the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—in order that the Word of God, coming and knocking at the door of the heart, might not find it cramped and refuse to abide in it. One must run by the breadth of the inner man, not by the narrowness of outward activity, in order to attain the prize (1 Cor. 9:24). Only he who runs in this manner attains it, and only he can say: ‘I have finished my course’ (2 Tim. 4:7)—he has run to a successful end, for he ran like a good horse.”

A pure heart is filled with the grace of the Spirit; together with it, love too is shed abroad in the heart, manifested by the full, willing, joyful, and living fulfillment of all the commandments. In him who has attained this, the comforting promise is fulfilled: We will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:23).

Is this then the end of the running?—No; this is only the beginning of the true running, as it must be according to God’s purpose in Christ Jesus. Until now repentance with its state of penance has continued, consisting in gaining mastery over all the means given us in the Lord and in receiving the freedom to act through them without hindrance. Now the actual acting itself must begin—acting that is pure and does not deviate by a hair’s breadth from the designs of Divine Providence, which determines both the fate of all and the manner of each particular person’s participation and action in it. He who has reached this confesses that God is already working in him both to will and to do, and when he acts he says: not I, but the grace of God which is with me (1 Cor. 15:10).

Verses 33–40

The fifth octet is characterized by the letter “He”—“behold.”

“Behold”—we say this when we wish to express the definiteness, precision, and clarity of something, as though pointing: behold, look. In the present octet the holy Prophet expresses definitively wherein lies the whole matter of a saving, God-pleasing life. Calling to mind everything said up to this point, he speaks as though to say: behold, this is the matter! Everything is from God; seek from Him both the pattern of the good path (Ps. 118:33) and knowledge (Ps. 118:34) and strength (Ps. 118:35). But know that however much you ask, you will not receive if you too do not employ all your efforts; therefore seek (Ps. 118:33), keep (Ps. 118:34), desire (Ps. 118:35). Only the mutual union of freedom and grace gives life that is true and full of good fruit. What is from God is always ready: only do not slumber or give way to laziness. And while compelling yourself to every good, take care above all that your intentions be pure. Impure intentions destroy the goodness of good deeds. Therefore do not allow yourself to have self-serving motives in your doing of good (Ps. 118:36). Do not mix into it the attraction and delight of vanities (Ps. 118:37). Let the sole animating force in everything be the fear of God (Ps. 118:38). In all this, however, remember that however closely you watch yourself, self-abasing thoughts will creep in; repent of them, and since many of them go unnoticed and some even now—when your eye is directed into the heart—may be lurking there under the guise of some good thing, repent unceasingly. Let repentance be the background of your life (Ps. 118:39). Then, having committed yourself into God’s hands, say: with all my desire I wish to please You, O Lord (Ps. 118:40).

Ps. 118:33. Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep it to the end.

“Appoint the law, teach me”—imprint it upon the conscience, clearly show me what I must do, so that I do not lose my way in guesses and conjectures but see everything plainly. In other psalms the prophet says: “Appoint a law for me, O Lord, in Your way” (Ps. 26:11), “Guide me, O Lord, in Your way, and I will walk in Your truth” (Ps. 85:11). Darkness and uncertainty are unbearable. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The prophet says that he always needs Your illumination and appointment of the law, so that he may know the way of Your righteousness and walk along it without hindrance.”

But perhaps, Bellarmine observes, the prophet is expressing here not so much the wish that the law be proclaimed to him as that it be received inwardly by all the powers of his being—that it might become the law for all the faculties of the soul, ruling over its manner of acting, both in general and in particulars.

When such clear vision of the law is given, and still more when such authority over the inner man is granted, then one who seeks to please God will naturally desire nothing other than to fulfill it at every moment and in every circumstance where the opportunity to apply it presents itself. The prophet adds: “and I will seek it continually”—my only care and effort will be to satisfy the law. “He asks one thing of God,” says Origen, “and promises to bring the other from himself. Do You, O Lord, appoint the way of Your righteousness for me, and I will devote all the time of my life to seeking it.”

Saint Ambrose presents this divine appointment of the law in a most vivid manner. “Soldiers on campaign do not arrange their march themselves, but receive from their king and commander a schedule of where and how to march, and they strictly observe it. Only in this way do they find everything prepared along the route. If one of them takes a different road, he will receive neither provisions nor quarters. The king commands all of this to be prepared on the road he has designated, and only for those who follow his instructions without turning to the right or to the left. He also fixes the stopping places: three days’ march, for example, followed by a day of rest. Moreover, cities are chosen that abound in water and all provisions, where the army is to halt for three, four, or more days. In this way the journey is accomplished without extreme exhaustion, until they reach the city where the weary soldiers are given full rest. Know, then, that in like manner Christ, the Leader of the saints, appoints the way of their march to the City of God. The prefigurement of this we see in the passage of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land. The encampments of this journey were described by Moses at God’s command. But consider who directed these encampments and the entire journey. God went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, cooling those who marched, and by night in a pillar of fire, dispersing the darkness and lighting the way. The pillar, now of fire and now of cloud, was the lawgiver of the route; from the pillar God spoke to them. When the people needed to rest from the labor of the journey, the pillar stopped and moved no further. When it was time to march, the pillar rose and moved in the direction the people were to go. This pillar was a prefigurement of the Lord Jesus, who was to come (and did come) on a swift cloud, as Isaiah said (Is. 19:1)—that is, through the Incarnation from the Virgin Mary, who was light by reason of the purity of her virginity and the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Let us also commit our way to the guidance of the Lord Jesus; let His commandments be the appointed law of our journey. Whoever follows the path of His commandments rests in the shadow of Christ. Of this the Bride sang in the Song: “I desired His shadow and sat down under it” (Song 2:3). Every soul may say this, as may also the whole assembly of Christians—the Church. He is our King, He is our Leader, and He has ordered everything beautifully in our way and our journey. If anything sorrowful or distressing happens along the way, something beyond our strength—He, as our Leader, sweetens the sorrow, widens the narrowness, gives strength and power to weakness. If an earthly king knows how to provide all that his soldiers need, how much more does the All-Good God know what His servants need and how to provide it? Thus every soul is refreshed in the shadow of Christ the Lord, singing with the bride of the Song: “I desired His shadow and sat down under it, and His fruit is sweet.” He pastures it in a place of green pastures, nourishes it by the water of rest—that is, by the grace of the Holy Sacraments. Going further along the true path, it enters the blessed encampment of love and confesses: “I am wounded with love” (Song 2:5). There are other encampments too, into which the soul journeying faithfully to its goal enters with love—the encampment of the cross and of burial. And the soul avoids the wicked encampments. “We will go by the king’s highway; we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed through your borders” (Num. 20:17)—thus spoke the envoys of Moses to the king of Edom, that is, the earthly, because everything earthly, both to the right and to the left, is bad: the encampment of foolishness is bad, the encampment of intemperance is bad. Israel had to pass through them without stopping, in order to reach wisdom and make camp there, for in wisdom’s right hand is life, and in her left hand riches and honor (Prov. 3:16). The prophet spoke well: “appoint the law”—that is, place the law within me, that it may remain fixed and firm in my heart; that no storm of this age may tear it away from love of it; that in this way it may itself be its own law, having the lawful ordinance written in my heart. “I will seek,” he says, “and continually.” And rightly so, because what is sought is no small thing—paradise, the Kingdom of God, fellowship with the angels, the eternally blessed dwelling places. Therefore one must seek not for a day or two or several months, but always and through all things, in order to gather more of what is worthy of reward.”

The last thought—about the imprinting of the law in the heart—is developed with particular fullness by Blessed Augustine. “The apostle says that the law is not laid down for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient (1 Tim. 1:9–11). Was the one who says here, ‘appoint a law for me, O Lord,’ really of the same kind as those for whom, according to the apostle’s word, the law is laid down? No—for if he were, he would not have said above: ‘I ran the way of Your commandments.’ What then is the meaning of his prayer—that the law be appointed for him—when it is not appointed for a righteous man? It is not appointed for him in the same manner as it is laid down for a disobedient people, on tablets of stone, but on tablets of fleshly hearts (2 Cor. 3:3)—not according to the Old Covenant from Mount Sinai, ‘which gives birth to bondage’ (Gal. 4:24), but according to the New, of which the prophet Jeremiah writes: ’Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of mine they broke, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their mind, and write them upon their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people’ (Jer. 31:31–33). This is how he desires that the law be appointed for him by the Lord—not as it is appointed for the unrighteous and disobedient who belong to the Old Covenant, on tablets of stone; but as it is for holy children, free children, children of the Jerusalem that is above, written in the heart by the Holy Spirit as with a finger—not as something they merely retain in memory while despising it in their lives, but as something they know with understanding and fulfill with love, in the breadth of love and not in the narrowness of fear. Whoever does the work of the law for fear of punishment, and not out of love of righteousness, does it against his will; and whoever does the lawful deed unwillingly certainly harbors the desire that no such law existed. Thus he is not a friend of the law but rather an enemy of it, since he wishes it did not exist. The act does not make pure the one who is impure in his will. Such a person cannot say what was said before: ‘I ran the way of Your commandments when You did enlarge my heart’; for such an enlargement of the heart signifies love, which, according to the apostle, ‘is the fulfillment of the law’ (Rom. 13:10). Why then does he pray that the law be appointed for him, when, had it not been appointed, he would not have run the way of the commandments in the breadth of heart? He speaks thus because, striving for advancement, he believes that it is a gift of God. By placing this petition after the preceding one, what else is he asking for but to advance more and more toward a life according to the law? This law he here calls the way of righteousness; but the way of the commandments along which he has already set out, when love of the law widened his heart, is no different way. Thus he was already walking, and now he still desires to walk, always to walk, in order to attain the prize of the high calling of God. That is why he also added: ‘and I will seek it continually.’ How will he seek what he already has, if not in the sense that what he already has, he has because he does it, and what he will seek hereafter, he will seek by striving for perfection in the same kind of activity? But what does ‘continually’ mean? Surely seeking has no end? ‘Continually’—all the time we live here, for only until then is there advancement, and there the one who has advanced well here is fulfilled and sealed. Here the law is sought through advancement in its fulfillment, and there the fullness of enjoyment in it and because of it awaits, and nothing remains to be sought.”

Ps. 118:34. Give me understanding, and I will search out Your law and will keep it with my whole heart.

“In the preceding verse,” writes Zigabenus, “the prophet sought a general knowledge of the law and a general inclination toward it—toward all that is lawful, toward everything bearing the imprint of God’s will—he sought the quickening of conscience and the strengthening of its voice; now he seeks knowledge of the lawful manner of acting in particular cases, as if to say: give my mind such sharpness of spiritual sight that I may accurately determine each time how I must act, so that my deeds may be fully in accord with the Spirit of Your law, with Your will, with Your gracious purposes for me and for all people. And so the seeking of all that is lawful was promised generally before, while here the keeping or fulfilling of it in every case is promised. The sincerity of heart is the same in both. Only the heart can seek ‘continually’; that is why ‘with all my heart I will seek’ was not added there. Fulfilling the law, however, can be done without the heart; that is why ‘with all my heart I will keep’ is added here. Wholehearted sincerity is the entire value of keeping the law. But since the heart is blind, understanding is sought, so that the rays of rational light may illuminate the domain of the law and direct the heart in the course of purposeful striving. The prophet prays as if to say: ‘Give me, O Lord, understanding and enlightenment by Your Spirit, that with His help I may attentively and diligently search out Your law; and having grasped it precisely, I promise to fulfill it faithfully.’ ‘The Lord commanded us to search the Scriptures; but those who search need illumination from above both to find what they seek and to keep what they have found,’ observes Blessed Theodoret. ‘First,’ says Bellarmine, ‘he sought a disposition toward the law, and now he asks for its faithful and detailed knowledge—not out of curiosity, but for the keeping of what is known.’”

Saint Hilary surveys the entire structure of this verse thus: “Knowing that the first duty of wisdom is, when one does not know something, to turn for enlightenment to those who do, the prophet first asks for understanding, that he may comprehend what he does not yet understand; then, knowing that upon receiving the spirit of understanding one must exercise it in inquiry, he says: ‘and I will search out Your law’; knowing moreover that the rightful fruit of inquiry is the fulfillment in deed of what has been discovered and learned through that inquiry, he adds: ‘and I will keep it’; and understanding that active fulfillment of what is known gains its force and worth from the heart, he rounds out his whole discourse thus: ‘and I will keep it with my whole heart.’ But what precisely does the prophet ask to understand and to search out?—The spiritual meaning of all that is appointed by the law. For example, as the six working days recall the six days of creation, and the seventh recalls the day of rest—God’s rest after creation; as the new-moon feast prefigures, as in a mirror, the eternal celebration of the new life in heaven—so he prays to understand all the rest as well: what the seven-year jubilee and the fifty-year jubilee signify, what circumcision means, what the unleavened bread, what the Passover, what the very Land of Promise itself. He asks to understand all this, promising that, having understood it, he will plunge deeper into what he has understood through inquiry; and having plunged deeper, he will prize it; and prizing it, will keep it with his whole heart.”

Saint Ambrose carries this thought further, counseling a deeper entry into the understanding of godly action, following the interpretation of the works of the law given by the Lord. “We must walk in the spiritual law, or in the commandments of the Lord, which He spoke when He said: ‘It was said to them of old… but I say to you’ (Matt. 5). As there is a Holy Place and above it a Holy of Holies, so there is a commandment and a commandment of commandments. When you understand the law in this way—spiritually—then you will keep it with your heart. The Jew does not keep the law with his heart; he reads it with his lips but does not understand it with his mind and does not love it with his heart. Therefore he is reproved: ’This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me’ (Is. 29:13). How can one who is far from the Lawgiver contain the law?”

By delving thus into the law, appropriating its spiritual understanding and acting according to that understanding, “the true lover of the law reaches at last, in the words of Blessed Augustine, the heights of a holy and godly life, wherein he loves God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind, and his neighbor as himself; and in this consists all the law and the prophets.”

Is it not for this reason that the labors of many zealots of piety, even among Christians, often show no proper fruit—because they do not seek understanding and do not plunge more deeply into inquiry about what is the weightier matter of the law? Therefore they knock about in the vestibule without entering within. Christianity too has an outward order; no man can exist without it. But in Christianity it has an entirely different meaning than in the Old Testament ordering of faith. There everything was minutely inscribed by the finger of God, and one who deviated from those prescriptions sinned, even if they concerned only the outward form. The Church of Christ was not given such a written code, but was given the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which itself developed and clothed itself in all the wondrous splendor of the Church’s order. And as this spirit of life does not run dry, so the outward clothing of this spirit never ceases. It does not stiffen into one fixed form so as to become a yoke of legal bondage; it is always free to renew itself, as trees renew their garments each year from the abundance of inner life. The law is one: “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40).

In this order, as it has come down to us, we are both nurtured and kindle in ourselves the spirit of life. All the power is in that spirit. As soon as it is not in motion—that is, when we move only within the well-ordered forms of the Church—we are in no way different from Jews circumcised without circumcision of the heart, who cleansed the outside of the cup without caring for inner purity, who said with their lips, “Lord, Lord!” while in their hearts they pursued primarily their own selfish ends. A Jew brought the appointed sacrifice and went home at peace. How does that differ from the one who, having outwardly stood through the church service with vain and passionate thoughts, returns home calmly, confident that he has done what was required, and in such an exemplary manner that nothing more is demanded of him? In nothing—he is a true Jew in spirit. On the same level stands also the one who at home reads through the appointed prayers and counts out his prostrations without caring about the prayerful disposition of mind and heart; yet, having performed this work of piety, holds it in mind and heart that he has no further obligation remaining, and need only await the crown of righteousness. The same is the worth of all acts of charity that proceed not from the spirit of life but are performed ex officio, prompted by an outward, so to speak, conscience, and accompanied by that same self-assurance that by reason of them we are righteous and nothing more can be demanded of us.

We have become so attached to outward form that we have forgotten its true value and meaning. Therefore, if anyone touches it in any point, there is at once a cry from all sides: “He does not keep the Sabbath!” (John 9:16). Should one begin to enter within and to clarify that this is essential while that, being outward, is not important, one will hear reproaches: “Illuminist! Mystic! Pneumatomachian!” How many are there who, while reverently observing and maintaining all the Church’s forms, at the same time hold the conviction that all such acts are in themselves nothing, and derive their entire worth from the spirit with which they are to be performed and received? Certainly, established forms must be honored with reverence, but not because they possess any power in themselves (apart from the Holy Sacraments), but because through them we serve God—in relation to Whom, if anyone does anything negligently, he is liable to condemnation not for this or that act, but for its irreverent performance. In this respect, in all the outward forms of the Church—great and small as they may appear—everything must be performed with full and wholehearted reverence, but not toward the outward act itself, but toward God, to Whom we relate through it. Every outward action can be replaced by dozens of others; but the spirit with which they are to be performed must always be one and the same, unchanging. If we lose sight of this, we will chain ourselves to one form and convince ourselves that it cannot be otherwise; then the outward will become a fetter, inspiring fear: “Touch not, taste not, handle not.” And this is the fearful bondage from which may the Lord deliver believers!

Ps. 118:35. Lead me into the path of Your commandments, for I have desired it.

He has asked for consent to the law, so that he might seek it; he has asked for understanding, so that he might truly comprehend what is lawful—what then remains? You desire it, you know it—well then, go. No, he says—lead me, guide me, accompany me, take me by the hand and lead me, as a guide leads the blind. There is here a measure of consciousness of weakness: in the spiritual order, with all one’s zeal for a life in it, there is a measure of consciousness of timidity or diffidence about stepping upon the unfamiliar path of the spiritual life, accustomed as one is to perceptible actions and tangible pursuits; there is a measure of consciousness of spiritual blindness, of uncertainty whether one is acting rightly in doing this or that—for final assurance on this point is acquired only through experience, and experience is not yet had until one has set foot on the path and traveled it far enough to become acquainted with spiritual experiences. With this petition the circle of extreme spiritual needs conditioning the saving manner of action is complete: appoint the law, give understanding, lead me. The last prayer places the seeker in the hands of the loving God, Who only awaits the moment when a man will finally surrender himself entirely to Him, so that He may act in him without hindrance, both inwardly and outwardly. And the ground of being heard is laid in a disposition of the same kind: lead me, he says, “along the path that I have desired.” We might answer thus: you may desire all sorts of things! But in the order of divine providence over rational and free creatures, it is only through such desire that room is opened for God’s free action within us toward our salvation. The goodness of God is already ready to stretch out to us with its gifts. If it is not poured out on all, it is only because not all desire and not all seek these gifts. Desire opens an entrance for them, as for example the expansion of the lungs opens an entrance to air, and the opening of a window opens an entrance to light in dark rooms. The prophet speaks as if to say: the matter depended on my willing; and now, by Your grace, I have willed it—lead me therefore. Blessed Theodoret writes: “He does not simply ask that the God of all become his guide on the way, but at the same time shows his own striving to walk that path.” But by this very fact he shows that his striving alone is insufficient to attain what he has sought. Blessed Augustine says: “Being unable of himself to fulfill what is commanded without the help of the One who commands, he prays: lead me. My willing is not enough if You Yourself do not lead me along that path upon which I desired to walk by Your prompting.” Saint Hilary writes: “He acknowledges the weakness of his nature and that he cannot without a special guide walk the path of the commandments. The guide of all who walk this path is God, as it is commanded: ’You shall walk after the Lord your God… and cleave to Him’ (Deut. 13:4). Our Guide is Christ the Lord, who said: ’If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me’ (Matt. 16:24). He was the first to open the path of sufferings, for the sake of the Gospel.”

Is it not actually the case that we Christians need to pray not so much for guidance to be given as for knowledge and the ability to make use of the guidance already at hand, present in the person of the Lord Jesus? Saint Athanasius, as quoted by Zigabenus, says: “He who has no faithful guide cannot walk the path of the commandments. But we ought to be imitators of Christ the Lord—to take up His cross and follow Him.” Saint Ambrose explains this more fully: “Christ,” he says, “goes before—we follow. He was the first to open the way of New Testament life. If we fast—He fasted before us; if for the name of God we suffer insults—He endured them before us for our redemption: ’He gave His back to the smiters and His cheeks to blows’ (Is. 50:6), and went up to the cross to teach us that, when standing for the truth, we must not fear even death.”

Why did holy David say “lead me into the path of the commandments”?—Because a path is called a narrow, not wide track; and such indeed is the way of the commandments. Narrow and afflicting is the path that leads to life, and this path is none other than the path of the commandments. Blessed Augustine says: “David here called the way of the commandments a path because the way that leads to life is narrow, though it must nevertheless be walked, and moreover with a willing heart.” Perhaps, says Zigabenus, “the way of the commandments is called a path because it is not new or unusual, but has long been frequented and worn down by the righteous who walked along it.” Saint Hilary writes: “A path is a worn, much-traveled track. Chosen men began to walk in God’s commandments from the beginning of the age. Abel walked this path; Seth followed it; walking it, Enoch pleased God; Noah was found worthy to be preserved from the flood; Melchizedek was privileged to bless the father of believers and to become a type of Christ; Abraham became the friend of God; Isaac the heir of great promises; Jacob—Israel, the bearer of the hope of the nations; Job triumphed over the adversary.”

And perhaps the way of the commandments is also a path—a narrow track—because the one who walks it usually walks alone. Many walk the path of the commandments, but each has his own track, and by following it alone can he reach where he is going. There are many counselors, many examples, many companions; but everyone takes his own steps and sets his own foot in his own place on his own path. The attentive wayfarer feels this solitude and remembers at every step that, besides himself who is walking, there is only God, “present everywhere and filling all things.” In this respect, those who truly walk the way of the commandments in a manner pleasing to God are, every last one of them, monks—for a monk is one who lives in such a way that in his consciousness only God is present, and he himself stands before Him in reverent attention, regardless of labors and much activity when that is encountered. And it must be acknowledged that only such an interior disposition produces true walkers along the path of the commandments, regardless of sex or outward distinctions of life.

The way of the commandments may also be called a path—a track—for yet another reason: it winds past precipices, sharp stones, and thorns. The path of the commandments is straight in itself and leads straight to its goal, but on account of adversities from without and disorders from within, it winds in various ways. And this is so necessary that the One who invisibly yet faithfully guides His fellow-travelers Himself intentionally turns the journey this way and that, as He sees most fitting and necessary for the one being guided. God’s permissions have the same necessity, but they consist only in the withdrawal of the leading and supporting hand. Direct interventions to change the course of life in the same person are changes in ascetic efforts and practices, both outward and inward, by which to a casual observer it may seem as though the same person has become entirely different. For example, a man who had labored as usual became a holy fool; a recluse became sociable and accessible to all; a strict faster became one of ordinary temperance; a lover of liturgical prayer became one who prays without books. The needs for which all this is accomplished cannot be described by anyone, nor can even the one who underwent them foretell them. These are the mysteries of those who live through them, and even the participants themselves recognize their moral aptness only for themselves; why and how all this is arranged they cannot explain to themselves; they only give thanks to the Lord, who orders all things for our good.

How far from the truth, then, are those who set as the norm of life a life according to a sense of duty, and define duty by the directives of outward relationships and the orders of life! This is as far from the truth as the hardened bark of a tree is from the sources of the life by which it is nourished.

Ps. 118:36. Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness.

The three following verses (Ps. 118:36, 37, 38) correspond to the three preceding ones in this octet. There (Ps. 118:33)—“appoint the law… I will seek”; here (Ps. 118:36)—grant that I may seek nothing else alongside this, except You and Your law. There (Ps. 118:34)—“give understanding… I will keep”; here (Ps. 118:37)—make it so that my heart finds delight only in Your law and does not turn to whatever human vanity is accustomed to find delight in. There (Ps. 118:35)—“lead me… I have desired”; here (Ps. 118:38)—set the fear of You within me as the guardian and keeper of my good desire. This is how Bellarmine understands this correspondence. We shall quote his words in the appropriate place under each verse.

It is evident that here the correct feelings and intentions that ought to guide one in fulfilling God’s will are indicated, by the rejection of incorrect feelings and intentions. Right action is adorned by right intention, just as ill intention deforms it—not always before the eyes of men, but always before the eyes of the all-seeing God and the conscience enlightened by Him.

The direct thought in this verse concerns the exclusive love of God’s will, with the rejection of covetousness—the greediness of acquisition. Look around and you will see that men’s chief concern is to have more, and the more one has, the more one desires to have. This is the disease which the prophet here names—the greed to have ever more and more. Since it, taking hold of a man, occupies all the powers of his soul so that there is no time even to think of God and His holy will, let alone to “seek” Him “continually” (Ps. 104:4), the prophet prays for his heart to be turned away from such a ruinous seeking and inclined toward God’s testimonies—to be made such that it is concerned only with presenting the man as blameless in all God’s testimonies, and finds itself content only when the man is such, and not when he receives some gain in worldly affairs.

One cannot avoid having things, because food is needed, clothing is needed, shelter is needed; one must provide for all of this so as not to be a burden to anyone. Even desert hermits applied themselves diligently to the labors of handicraft, in order both to sustain themselves and to share with others when needed. The holy prophet is not speaking here about having nothing, but about not being sick with covetousness—the thirst to have ever more and more, with an attachment to what one already has. He speaks as if to say: make it so that, even while possessing things, I am as one who possesses nothing—that my heart be empty of the things I have and be wholly and entirely attached to Your testimonies alone.

Bellarmine says: “This verse corresponds to the first in this octet (Ps. 118:33). There the prophet prayed for the imprinting of the law in his heart, and here he prays for the turning of his heart away from covetousness, which more than anything else hinders the fulfillment of the law. Pour into my heart, he says, an overflowing grace, by which it may be inclined toward keeping Your commandments and not be overcome by covetousness.” “Turn, O Lord,” explains Zigabenus, “my heart to love for Your commandments; help by Your grace my free will and do not permit it to incline toward a love of having much and to be overcome by the goods of this world.”

But here it is less a rule of life than a pointer to the lawful purpose to have in mind when fulfilling the law. The prophet prays: grant me, while remaining faithful to Your law, to have no selfish aim in view; grant me to love Your law not only when I am in abundance, but even if You should take everything from me—grant my heart to be inclined toward Your law alone, for the reason that in it is Your good will. Saint Ambrose writes: “The saint seeks no personal advantage but, counting all things as refuse that he may gain Christ, asks that his heart also be so disposed, for he knows that what interests the flesh is harmful to the soul, since it harms virtue.” Blessed Augustine says: “God requires that we honor Him and remain faithful to His testimonies freely, without any self-interested motives, for in self-interest lies the root of all evils. In Greek the word here is covetousness—the passion to have more than we have. It is the root of all evil. The first people would not have been deceived by the enemy and would not have fallen, if they had not desired to have more than they received, and to become greater than they were created. The enemy promised them: ’You shall be as gods’ (Gen. 3:5)—and the desire to have more cast them down. Desiring to have more than they had received, they lost even what they had. The enemy said of Job: ’Does Job fear God for nothing?’ (Job 1:10). The enemy supposed that this righteous man, in his God-fearing piety, had his heart inclined toward covetousness and was serving God as a hireling, for the sake of the temporal blessings with which God enriched him. But how disinterested his service to God was—this the very temptation showed. Thus, when the heart is not inclined to covetousness, we honor God for God’s sake, that God may be the very reward for honoring Him. Let us therefore love God (and His law) for His own sake; and in ourselves let us love Him, and also in our neighbors.”

For the wealthy who hold to piety it is difficult to distinguish for whose sake they are pious—for the Lord’s sake and His law, or for the sake of their own comfort. In times of abundance they themselves cannot determine this with precision, because of the deceitfulness of the heart, which, even while striving to do everything for the Lord’s sake, may secretly harbor a reliance on that comfort. This is revealed only by deprivations, and the wider those deprivations, the more decisive the assurance that if love for God does not cease even then, it means that it was not previously contingent on what was possessed and has now been lost. In the ordinary course of affairs, the wealthy, to avoid covetousness, must kindle in their hearts such a disposition, mentally placing themselves in various situations of deprivation and restoring a peaceful interior even in those imagined circumstances. By this they can imprint upon the soul such a resolution that, even if everything should be taken away and they should be left with nothing, they are ready for this at any moment. Being disposed in this way, they, even while possessing, will be as though possessing nothing—which, according to the apostle, is the ultimate limit of perfection in this respect for those who live in the world and cannot be without possessions.

There is also a spiritual self-interest, when one labors in the fulfillment of the law in the hope of receiving spiritual benefits either here or in the future life. This is a subtle kind of self-interest, not easy to define or discern. Generally speaking, one must say: as soon as there is any aim in view in the labors of a pious life other than God, pleasing Him, and submission to His will—there is already self-interest. What exactly one may have in view other than God, even in the spiritual order of things—let each person determine in himself, looking more strictly into his own heart; and when he notices it, let him pray no less than the wealthy of this age: “Incline, O Lord, my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness.” This discovery should be a cause of grief for them; but for their consolation one may say that no one can ascend at once to the heights of spiritual purity: time, effort, and gradualness are needed. And this impurity is not discoverable at once; but once noticed, it seems to cost little to tear away what is wrong. God is the Orderer of salvation. He will bring one to this too—that is, both to seeing and to correcting.

The prophet asks for his heart to be “inclined.” But what can he himself do? What is to be done with the heart when it does not always cleave to what the necessity of cleaving to has been recognized? The necessity of walking in God’s testimonies is recognized, yet the heart does not adhere to them. Hence the prayer: “Incline, O Lord.” However, this does not mean that one may remain inactive oneself—no: one must both pray to God for the inclination of the heart toward the commandments, and oneself compel it toward such inclination insofar as this lies within our power and strength. When one’s own strength is exhausted, God’s help will come and supply what is lacking in one’s efforts and labors. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Water naturally runs downhill and, as soon as it finds an outlet somewhere, flows there entirely. So, after the devil opened the way to sin, human nature rushed toward the worse. Therefore the prophet very aptly entreats that his heart be inclined toward God’s testimonies and escape the occasion of experiencing a downward rush toward something else.” Saint Hilary explains this thus: “The prophet refers everything to God’s gift—the appointment of the way of righteousness, the giving of understanding, the guidance, and finally the inclination of the heart toward the testimonies. Perhaps on account of such reverent humility some impious person will dare to say: if everything is from God, if a man can have nothing except what he receives from God as a gift, then human ignorance and sinfulness bear no guilt. To think so is impious, and the prophet immediately forestalls any occasion for such a thought. He prays, performing the work proper to the infirm; but immediately he adds what labor of godliness he must bring from himself. When he says: ‘Appoint a law for me, O Lord, the way of righteousness,’ he shows that the appointment of the law, sought by humble prayer, is from God. When he adds: ‘and I will seek it continually,’ he indicates what his own duty of piety requires of him. In the other verses also he joins both together. He says, for example: ‘Lead me into the path of Your commandments,’ and immediately adds: ‘for I have desired it.’ First he instructs us piously to seek what comes from God, and then he designates what a man must also bring from himself with a sense of duty and humility. He prays that God may grant; the initiative, therefore, is from us, if we pray that the gift may come from Him; and if the gift is from Him at our initiative, then our part is to seek, to ask, to knock, and then to keep and put to use what has been received.”

Blessed Augustine gives this interpretation of the prayer: “What does it mean to have one’s heart inclined toward something, if not to will it? Thus he prays to will the testimonies; yet he has already willed them, as he expressed in the preceding verse: ‘for I have desired it’—he has already desired, and he prays to desire, showing thereby that he wishes to advance in the very act of willing.”

Saint Ambrose gives this lesson at this point: “Oh, would that we too, following the prayer of the saint, might both pray about the same things he prayed about and also fulfill in deed what we pray for! What good is it to pray to God to turn the heart from self-interest, while oneself caring day and night about gain? Let us therefore make it so that the soul is in sympathy with what we pray for with the tongue. The Lord looks at where the heart inclines. If the heart is not in accord with the tongue, He does not listen to the one who is praying. That is why one who desired to pray well says: ’I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also’ (1 Cor. 14:15).”

Ps. 118:37. Turn away mine eyes, that they behold not vanity; and quicken me in Your way.

This verse answers the second in this octet, Ps. 118:34. There the prophet asks for the gift of understanding in order to search out the law; here he asks that the eyes of the mind not turn away to vanities: “that they behold not vanity”—that is, that the mind not be occupied with thoughts about temporal things; make it so that I am wholly immersed in Your law. “In Your way”—that is, as I walk Your way and keep Your law—“quicken” me, renew, preserve, strengthen me. So Bellarmine interprets it.

Vanity is everything that is contrived and done not out of need and benefit but for the gratification of one’s senses and one’s passions. The world is crammed with such things and customs. One who lives amid this spins round and round without the possibility of coming to his senses—always chasing after something, yet this something always flees from him and slips from his hands just when it seems he has all but laid hold of it. In this respect vanity means bustle without purpose or profit. The prophet prays for his eyes to be turned away from such vanity, because it, for all its emptiness, is attractive: just look—and it will draw you and pull you; be not on guard—and it will sweep you away and drag you off. But how is one to “turn away”? Don’t look yourself; after all, no one forces you. That is true enough; but living amid vanity, one cannot help glancing at it—this is only possible in an uninhabited desert. And yet that glancing excites the hidden cravings of the heart, and excited cravings evoke sympathy and consent, closely bordering on being swept away and spinning about in vanity. When cravings are excited, the eyes involuntarily turn to the things that excite them and excite them all the more. By then they are riveted to these things, and through them the soul drinks a sweetness that stupefies and kills its rational nature. “Turn away mine eyes” will have this meaning: do not let me, by gazing at vain things, be swept away by vanity and snared by them with my attention and sympathy, for that is death to me. Keep me rather on the path of Your commandments, for in this is life. Grant that I may dwell in them with all my heart and attention, and find in that dwelling both life and the sweetness of life—an enlivening and stimulating energy to run ever faster along that same path of Your.

Blessed Anthimus writes: “He who turns his eyes to vanity walks the path of death and moves away from the life of God. The same happens to him as to Lot’s wife, who turned to look back. But he who turns his eyes away ‘from beholding vanity’ is delivered from death, as Lot was delivered. Such a person performs his task well and brings it to completion, like one who, having put his hand to the plow, does not look back.”

Saint Athanasius understands vanity more broadly, subsuming under it everything that does not pertain to pleasing God and salvation. “Vanity,” he says, “is the frenzied passion for spectacles, the plunging of the mind into improper and unseemly imaginings. This very thing the apostle explains: ’in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God’ (Eph. 4:17–18). The vanity of the mind consists in this: when one who has a mind does not use it to discern the true, but delivers it up to the binding adversary. Therefore the Psalmist, praying that no such misfortune befall him, says: ‘Turn away mine eyes, that they behold not vanity,’ for this too is a grace of God. The prophet also calls vanity what is beautiful in the body and what appears fine to fleshly eyes.” The last thought is elaborated more fully by Blessed Theodoret: “What is profitless and serves nothing is vain; and such are the seeming pleasures of life. So the Wise Man also names them: ’Vanity of vanities, all is vanity’ (Eccl. 1:2). And after recounting how he had built houses, planted gardens, made reservoirs, he adds: ’and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit’ (Eccl. 2:11). Therefore the prophet entreats that the eyes of his mind be turned to another contemplation and not be deceived by the vanity of the present.”

“What are these eyes, and from what vanity does the prophet pray to turn them away?” asks Saint Hilary, and answers: “The eyes of soul and body… from all that men value highly but that is in itself worthless and perishable. Such are theatrical spectacles, contests in circuses, costly garments, gold, jewels, and the like. What is the fruit of turning one’s eyes away from such vanity?—Spiritual life.”

“Since we are weak,” writes Saint Ambrose, “even with the best desire not to be carried away by covetousness, we are often wounded by it through seeing another’s outwardly bright estate—their condition, house, dress, and the like—and begin to desire the same vanities. Therefore the prophet adds: ‘Turn away mine eyes…’ for it is also God’s gift that our eye should be turned from the vain goods of this age. All blessedness is in the Lord. That is why it is said: ’Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord, who has not looked upon vanities and foolish delusions’ (Ps. 39:5).”

From this point of view, this verse already contains a rule of life. Blessed Augustine points out in it a lesson about the purpose of good action, and sets forth his thought on the matter at length. “What does it mean,” he says, “‘turn away mine eyes, that they behold not vanity’? Can we, while we live in this world, truly behold no vanity? Is it not in the sense in which the apostle commands: ’Seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God?’ (Col. 3:1–3). One may understand these words in this way too; but there is another thought here that seems to me more fitting to this place. The Lord says in the Gospel: ’If your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light; but if your eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness’ (Matt. 6:22–23). Therefore, when we do something good, what we have in view is very important. Our fidelity to duty is assessed not only by the performance of it but also by the purpose with which it is performed. And in doing anything, we must attend not only to whether the intended action is good, but above all to whether what we wish to do it for is good. And these are precisely the eyes—the eyes with which we look at why we do what we do—that the prophet asks to be turned away, lest they behold vanity, that is, so that in doing something we do not have vanity in view and do not do it for vanity’s sake. In this vanity, love of human glory occupies the foremost place—for its sake much and great things were done by men called great in this age and much praised by the people, men who sought glory not from God but from men, and having received it, received their reward, the vain their vain reward. Wishing to turn the eyes of His disciples away from this vanity, the Lord exhorts them that they do no good deeds ‘to be seen of men’; otherwise they will have no reward from the Heavenly Father. Then, when He began to give them commandments about good works in detail—about alms, prayer, fasting—He urged everywhere that none of this be done for human glory, saying that those who do it with such a purpose have already received their reward (Matt. 6:1–23)—that is, not the eternal reward laid up for the saints with the Heavenly Father, but the temporal reward sought by those who, in their deeds, have vain human glory in view. To do anything good for the sake of this praise is to have eyes turned toward vanity. Not human praise itself is blameworthy—for people cannot help praising the good—but it is blameworthy to be drawn away by it and to do anything for its sake. Even when people render praise to some righteous person (apart from his seeking it), even then he must not linger upon it or gaze at it, but refer even that to the glory of God, for whose sake alone the truly good do every good thing; for from Him, and not from themselves, they are good. The Lord says in the same discourse: ’Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven’ (Matt. 5:16). Toward the ultimate end He has set there we must look in doing anything good—that is, toward the glory of God—while at the same time turning our eyes away from human vanity. Furthermore—if it is vain to do good for human glory, how much more vain is it to do it for the acquisition or increase of money, or any other temporal advantages coming from without? All is vanity! We must not do good deeds for temporal salvation, but for the salvation hoped for in eternity, where we shall enjoy unchanging blessedness, which will be granted to us by God—or rather, which is God Himself for us. If the saints, in doing good, had temporal salvation in view, the holy martyrs, for whom the loss of such salvation was inevitable, would never have performed the good deed of confession. They received help in their torments without having temporal salvation in view, because ’vain is the salvation of man’ (Ps. 59:13). They did not desire ’the day of man’ (Jer. 17:16), because ’man is like to vanity; his days pass away like a shadow’ (Ps. 143:4). One must not lose sight here of the fact that if even what appears to be within our own power (turning away the eyes) is urged to be asked from God, this confirms the necessity of grace for absolutely everything. Some have not turned their eyes away from vanity because they supposed they could become righteous and holy by themselves, and loved human glory more than the glory of God, thinking highly of themselves and relying too much on the strength of their own will—and therefore they fell.”

Ps. 118:38. Establish Your word to Your servant, who is devoted to Your fear.

Word here means the same as the law and the commandments. To establish them in the fear of God means to fortify the binding force of their obligation upon the conscience by the fear of God—that is, to make it so that a man, as soon as he recognizes that God’s direct will, expressed in His word, pertains to this or that, immediately hastens with fear to fulfill it, regardless of any sacrifices. The prophet asks God to send forth the power that moves and inspires the fulfillment of the commandments by filling the heart with fear of Him. As in civil life the royal decrees are backed by the force of the law, so that those who receive them leave all other matters and hasten to carry them out as quickly as possible; so also in moral and religious life the fear of God moves and compels one to fulfill the will of God with all energy, as soon as it is recognized in anything. Saint Athanasius in this regard calls the fear of God the guardian of God’s commandments; and Blessed Theodoret paraphrases the content of this verse thus: “Make me firm in Your words, unchangingly guarding me by Your fear; that is, let Your fear be upon me, holding me in awe and not allowing me to deviate from Your words.”

This verse, according to Bellarmine, answers the third in this octet—Ps. 118:35. “There the prophet asked for the grace of fulfilling the law, and here he asks for inconstancy to be removed and the grace of unwavering and unshakeable perseverance in the law to be given. He speaks as if to say: make it so that by the power of Your fear Your law is rooted in me, and I may abide in it without wavering.”

Thus, the fear of God is the stimulus and guardian of zeal in fulfilling God’s commandments and living faithfully by them. No one is excepted from this. If even in a great prophet it had such a meaning, how much more must it have such in each of us. The distinguishing mark and reliable sign of whether a man stands on the right path is godly fear. If you have it, you are in a good state; if you do not have it, you are in a bad state—even if no evil deeds are visible in your conduct.

One must, however, distinguish fear from fear. “Fear is of two kinds,” writes Blessed Anthimus: “one is slavish, the kind a servant has who does not love his master and does not value his will, yet does not transgress it for fear of punishment—this is the fear of the imperfect; the other is the fear of a friend, who is afraid of losing the love of the one who loves him—this is the fear of the perfect. It is precisely this second kind of fear that the prophet asks for himself, that it may establish the word of God in his heart and keep him steadfast before the temptations and disturbances of this world.”

Blessed Augustine writes to the same effect: “The word of God does not stand in one who displaces it within himself (from its foundations, or from the place due it), by doing what is contrary to it; but it stands in one who remains in it unmoved. God establishes His word in those to whom He gives the spirit of His fear — ’not the spirit of bondage again to fear’ (Rom. 8:15), which is cast out by perfect love, but the spirit of that fear of which he speaks—a pure fear that endures for ever—a fear by which one fears to grieve the Beloved.”

Everyone knows this distinction between the kinds of fear in theory, but in practice one often confuses them and takes one for the other. One would not want to admit that—if not always, then at times—we are guided by slavish fear. But it is better to admit this than to conceal it, so that one may then think about changing such fear. No one becomes perfect all at once. Fear is at first slavish, then mercenary, and finally it becomes filial. Even the first kind is good in its proper time; but it is not good to remain at it—one must move ever higher until one reaches filial feelings, whose degrees have no end.

True godly fear is always accompanied by zeal for God; but just as this zeal can be “not according to knowledge,” so too the fear of God can be without knowledge. A God-fearing heart is zealous to give force to God’s commandments both within itself and outwardly, in the circle of people among whom it moves. In both cases, lack of wisdom can produce much that is unhelpful. One may exhaust oneself, rushing from one thing to another without considering whether it is fitting or within one’s powers; or one may harm oneself by directing zeal not to the essential but to the secondary and incidental. And one may harm others too, by inserting one’s own zeal everywhere without considering whether one’s busyness is appropriate to the place and the persons. Saint Ambrose speaks at length about such manifestations of the fear of God. “Consider,” he says, “how God can turn the eyes of one He favors from vanity: He establishes His word in him in fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But the very fear of God, if it lacks wisdom, will bring no benefit but will rather cause harm. The Jews, having such fear, have also zeal; but since they have it not according to knowledge, by that very zeal and fear they bring upon themselves yet greater wrath from God… By circumcising their children and keeping the Sabbaths they show that they have the fear of God; but since they do not understand that the law is spiritual, they circumcise only the body, not the heart. They fear to kindle a fire on the Sabbath, while the law properly forbids kindling on that holy day the fire of passion. But why do I speak of the Jews? There are also among us such strict rules that a man is not able to bear them. Fear of God appears in them in the fact that they impose discipline, striving to exalt virtue; while their lack of wisdom lies in the fact that they do not co-suffer with weakness and do not weigh possibility. Let our fear then not be unwise! As true wisdom begins from the fear of God and there is no spiritual wisdom that is alien to this fear, so also fear must not be without wisdom. Holy fear is, as it were, a pedestal for the word of wisdom. As a statue is placed upon a pedestal and gains greater grace when placed so as to stand firmly, so the word of God—or God’s rational principle—is beautifully placed upon holy fear and is more firmly rooted in the heart that fears God, lest the word fall out of a man’s heart, lest birds come and snatch it from the careless and insincere heart. But fear of God itself must be established by the word of God and be more fruitfully applied to life, lest it be without wisdom—just as the pedestal, having received the statue upon it, is not without the grace of the statue. Read Isaiah and see how many virtues he has subordinated to fear, in order to make it good and blameless: ’the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord’ (Is. 11:2–4). What a range of virtues must one pass through to attain the proper fear of God! It is taught by wisdom, disposed by understanding, directed by counsel, established by might, regulated by knowledge, adorned by piety. Take all this away from the fear of God, and it will remain irrational, senseless—one of those fears in which there is ’without were fightings, within were fears’ (2 Cor. 7:5) by which Paul too would have been overcome if he had not had within himself the consoling and instructing Lord. Do not pass over without attention what is said in Proverbs: ‘then shall you understand the fear of the Lord.’ But when is this ‘then’?—When ’you call to wisdom, and lift up your voice for understanding, and seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasure; then shall you understand the fear of the Lord’ (Prov. 2:3–5).”

It need not even be mentioned that, just as in the two preceding verses one may see a pointer to the purposes that should be had in mind in doing good, so the same may be seen in this verse. There it was indicated what purposes one should not have in view; here—what purpose one should have. The prophet prays that God would teach him and dispose his heart to do everything solely for the pleasing of Him alone—to do good not merely from a sense of duty, not merely from the demands of the moral dignity of a rational creature, but especially because it is the will of God, holy and well-pleasing, because God so wills. Pagan wisdom did not rise above the earth, and sought within man himself and around him the purposes and motives for doing good; Christianity, however, has opened heaven, has made man at home with it, and disposes him to do everything to please the All-seeing and All-ruling King of the visible and invisible world, impressing upon him that whatever anyone does in this spirit will not escape the attention of the One to Whom it is done to please, even if it visibly yields nothing and promises nothing.

Ps. 118:39. Turn away my reproach which I fear, for Your judgments are good.

“Reproach, says Blessed Anthimus, is of two kinds: one is false accusation, when one is unjustly reproached—as, for example, unbelievers reproached believers; from this reproach we not only do not flee but seek it, as a source of glory and honor; the other follows upon our sins and will especially cover the unrepentant on the day of judgment. It is this latter that the prophet begs God to take away, for by His good judgments He decrees forgiveness and grants the cleansing of sins to repentant sinners.”

Sin promises pleasure without the addition of honor in the circle proper to it; yet in reality it is accompanied by bitterness and shame—not always visibly, but always essentially. About a man who has done something improper in civic and domestic life one commonly says: “He has fallen flat on his face in the mud”—and just as surely does a sinner fall flat on his face in the mud in the spiritual realm, before the All-seeing God, before the angels and the saints, before his own conscience—before the entire world of goodness and light. A sinner who is coming to awareness perceives this shame in himself first of all, grieves and reproaches himself, and yearns to be delivered as quickly as possible from such reproach. But while he still perceives himself as being here, in the ordinary course of life, this reproach does not press upon him so heavily; but when his thought is transported to the awesome Judgment of God, then horror seizes all his members at the thought of how he will stand with such shame before the assembly of all God’s most pure creatures and before God Himself. Therefore he cries out: “Take away my reproach”—that there may be no trace in me of this convicting shame of sin. “The prophet,” says Saint Athanasius, “having sinned as a man, sees that reproach will follow him to the divine judgment-seat at the resurrection, and therefore he prays and utters the verse before us.”

“Take away the reproach”—not merely forgive, but cleanse essentially—tear away and cast off, so that I may remain in my pure nature as You did originally create me in Your image, without the clinging of these foul sins with which I have covered myself. The remission of sins is granted immediately upon repentance; but the cleansing of the soul from sins is not accomplished all at once—it requires labor, as for example the washing of linen. Of course, God, by His special mercies, can at once whiten the soul and refine it as gold in a furnace in a single moment; but this is an extraordinary grace—and who would dare to ask for it from God?

The sinful shame whose removal the prophet prays for here is more precisely defined by the words: “which I fear.” “To fear” here means to think, to suppose. The thought comes out as follows: even though I see no manifest sins upon myself, I cannot think that I am without shame. Sinful shame may be in me at a depth beyond my consciousness. Supposing this to be so, I pray: cleanse me also from this shame invisible to me. “In praying for the removal of reproach,” says Saint Hilary, “the prophet prays for the removal of sins, because reproach follows upon sins. But it is evident that he is not confessing here some particular sin committed in deed, but one which he only suspects in himself, on account of the weakness of the flesh; for he does not say: take away the reproach that is in me, but that which I fear, suppose, suspect—showing thereby that, acknowledging his weakness, he cannot but acknowledge his reproach as well.”

Setting forth a similar thought, Saint Ambrose hints at the possibility of this meaning in the prophet’s words as well: take away the shame which I have brought upon myself by planning to commit a sin, even though I did not commit it in deed. Under this may be understood all sins of thought—impure thoughts, sympathy with them, consent to them, and involuntary sinful impulses. The prophet’s prayer here is the same as elsewhere: ’Cleanse me from my secret sins’ (Ps. 18:13). “This place,” says Saint Ambrose, “is somewhat obscure, but it is clarified by the apostle: ’I know nothing against myself,’ he says, ’yet am I not thereby justified’ (1 Cor. 4:4). He knew that he was a man; as much as he could, he was on guard against sinning after receiving the sacrament of baptism, and although he was not aware of any manifest sin in himself, yet, as a man, he confessed himself a sinner, knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ alone ’did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth’ (1 Pet. 2:22). Similarly, the prophet, though he himself strove in every way to turn away from sin, yet desired God to be the repeller of every sin from him. Although reproach had already been taken from him by repentance, he thought—might it not still remain, hidden from himself? Therefore he besought the Lord Himself, Who alone knows what even the one who acted may not know, to take it away. Perhaps ‘I fear’ means ‘I had been planning,’ and the prophet prays: take away the sin which I had contemplated, or in which I had taken pleasure in my heart and thoughts, but which I did not commit in deed.”

On what ground does the prophet base his hope that it will be as he prays?—On the sole boundless goodness of God. Manifest sins are forgiven by goodness, and hidden ones are also removed by the same goodness. What can one give in ransom for the shame of sin? Nothing. Even if you have done countless good deeds, they are all merely duties, bearing the single inscription: ’We have done what we were obligated to do’ (Luke 17:10); your sins all remain sins and stand in the same place in your life where you set them, like graven images. Who will remove them from the line of your life? Only the goodness of God, through the death of the Son of God, who took our sins upon Himself on the cross and tore there the bond of guilt—the goodness that entreats the righteousness of God to clear this shame from the road of our life. Kindle this faith as warmly as you can and by it draw down that goodness; together with it call upon righteousness, bring it to the place of your sins, and pray for it to consume them all in the fire drawn from the cross of the Lord by your faith. “Neither is there salvation in any other name under heaven… whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

“We,” writes Blessed Augustine, “have fallen not into one sin but into many; we have been covered with reproach and shame. But we came to baptism—and every sin was taken away by it, and with sin every reproach. The Lord Jesus took away my reproach by His own reproach, when He was crucified on the cross: ’for as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death’ (Rom. 6:3), so there remained nothing in me about which I would need to pray for it to be taken away. But after baptism I have again fallen into reproach and must bring repentance and pray for this reproach to be taken away from me. One refuge has remained for me—repentance; and if I do not offer it, I will thereby increase the reproach of sin in myself. Why be afraid to confess, or to speak of one’s sins? Why fear to reveal one’s reproach before the One whose judgments are good?—What is bitter in others is sweet and pleasant in Christ, for He Himself is most sweet. ’Taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Ps. 33:9). God’s judgments are sweet to the one who confesses, for God Himself says: ’I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember your sins. Put Me in remembrance: let us plead together; declare you, that you may be justified’ (Is. 43:25–26). God’s judgments are sweet not only to the penitent, but to all of heaven, for the Lord said: ’There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents’ (Luke 15:7). If God’s judgments are thus sweet, let us make the effort and labor to taste of this sweet fruit.”

These thoughts, in relation to the subjects of the present octet, clearly indicate how one is ultimately to cleanse one’s life. Let us suppose one strives with all one’s might for godly living, trusting in the all-efficacious, ever-ready, and manifold grace of God; let us suppose that in the labors of doing good and ascetic endeavor one does not pursue wicked ends but directs everything to the glory of God under the action of the fear of God. To put it briefly and precisely: be thus, and you will be saved. But against such a resolution the resolution of the conscience of those being saved militates—who, with all their striving, see themselves falling not once a day but seven times every hour. For everything indicated up to this point one thing is lacking, therefore—one means by which all such falls might be cleansed. It is proposed in the present verse: this is unceasing repentance. As soon as you perceive some failing or impurity within yourself, hasten to repentance and pray with contrition: take away, O Lord, this shame, according to Your goodness! This is the broom that sweeps every bit of rubbish from the road of life. With this rule the entire union of rules is brought to completion. Of one who has put on this armor it may be said that he has now put on the whole armor of God… Equally, of one in whom it is lacking, one must say: his armament is unreliable; he is missing a very important weapon, without which all the others will not bring him to victory.

Ps. 118:40. Behold, I have longed for Your commandments; quicken me in Your righteousness.

Throughout this entire octet, that law of spiritual life is clarified from various sides: that seeking and labor—to the limit of one’s strength—belong to man, while the actual work of life is accomplished and brought to fruition by the grace of God. Having clarified everything pertaining to this, the prophet makes a general conclusion with respect to himself: “behold, I have longed,” he says, and presents what is required of me—with all my soul I desire and seek it; grant You in turn what depends on Your grace—quicken me, as Your righteousness has ordained to quicken us; give understanding, kindle sympathy and energy, give strength and patience to proceed along the way of a life pleasing to You without stopping and with success. I do not specify what to give me and when: You, the only All-righteous One, know fully the way of righteousness: “by whatever means You know, save me.” Blessed Augustine writes: “With all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind I have desired to love You and my neighbor as myself, for in this is the whole sum of the commandments. Not by my own righteousness, but by Your, quicken me—that is, fill me with that love which I have desired; help me to fulfill what You command; grant Yourself what You do command. In myself I have only that by which to die; but that by which to live, I can find nowhere except in You alone—quicken me therefore by Your righteousness.”

Why then did he speak of such a disposition not at the beginning but at the end?—Because it comes itself not at the beginning, but after all one’s own means and efforts are exhausted. From the outset of one’s conversion, even though the convert says “Lord, help!” he secretly expects much from his own efforts and strenuous seeking. And the progress granted to him is only that by this means he acquires familiarity with all the forms of a godly life; but he cannot advance further on his own. Meanwhile, along with that familiarity, in the one who pays attention to himself, an awareness of the essential demands of such a life also opens up. Once the familiarity is established, the attention and effort that until then were directed at it are set free. In those in whom an awareness of the essential in spiritual life has not opened up, these fall asleep, and the work of life stagnates; but in those in whom it has opened up, they are directed toward this side, and the higher the goal now, the more strained they become. But what cannot be attained by one’s own efforts cannot be attained by them, no matter how hard one strives. Experiential confirmation of this begins together with the directing of one’s own efforts toward the acquisition of the recognized features of spiritual life. When all approaches have been tried and there is still no progress, there remains only one thing—to lay down one’s tools and cry out: “By whatever means You know, save me”; I desire, I seek, but only You are able to quicken me by Your righteousness.

In the ordinary experience of a pious life, this is confirmed to the point of obviousness in the practice of the Jesus Prayer. Its words are few, but they contain everything. From ancient times it has been recognized that, having acquired the habit of praying with this prayer, one may replace all other prayers with it. Is there anyone among those zealous for salvation who is not familiar with this practice? Great is the power of this prayer, as the holy Fathers describe it; yet in practice we see that not all who have the habit of it partake of this power, not all taste its fruits. Why is this?—Because they themselves wish to take possession of what belongs to God’s gift and is the work of the Lord’s grace. To begin repeating this prayer morning and evening, walking and lying down, at work and at leisure—this is our business: it requires no special help from God. Laboring in the same order, one may reach on one’s own a point where the tongue, even without one’s awareness, will keep repeating this prayer. A certain quieting of thoughts may follow from this, and even a kind of warmth of heart; but all this, as the monk Nicephorus notes in the Philokalia, will be the work and fruit of our own efforts. To stop at this is the same as being satisfied with a parrot’s ability to pronounce certain words, even such words as “Lord, have mercy.” The fruit from this is: you will think you have something, when you have absolutely nothing. This is what happens to those who, in the course of acquiring the habit of this prayer—insofar as it depends on us—do not develop an awareness of what constitutes its essence. Not being aware of it, they content themselves with the aforesaid natural beginnings of its effects and cease seeking. But in those in whom that awareness opens up, seeking will not cease; and seeing that however much one strives to act according to the directions of the elders, the expected fruit still does not appear, one cuts off all expectation of fruit from one’s own effort and places all hope in God. When this takes shape, the possibility of grace’s working is opened: grace comes in a moment known to it alone, and grafts that prayer onto the heart. Then, as the elders say, everything will be the same outwardly, but not the same in inner power.

What has been said about this prayer is applicable to every manifestation of spiritual life. Take a quick-tempered man and suppose that he has become zealous to extinguish irritability and to acquire meekness. In the books on asceticism there are instructions on how to govern oneself in order to achieve this. He takes all of this in and begins to act according to the directions he has read. How far, however, will he get by his own efforts?—No further than to a silencing of the lips when angry, with some curbing of the irritation itself; but for anger to be entirely quenched and meekness to take up its dwelling in the heart—to this he will never come on his own. This happens only when grace comes and grafts meekness onto the heart.

So it is with everything. Whatever fruit of spiritual life you may seek—seek it with all your might, but do not expect the fruit from your seeking and your efforts; rather, “cast your burden upon the Lord” (Ps. 54:23), without reserving any portion as your own share, “and He shall sustain you” (Ps. 36:5). Pray: I desire, I seek; but quicken me You, by Your righteousness. The Lord has decreed: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). And this law is fulfilled in spiritual life with a precision that does not deviate by a hair’s breadth from what is ordained. When people ask: what must I do to acquire this or that virtue?—one may answer all alike: turn to the Lord, and He will give it to you; there is no other way to obtain what is sought. Saint Athanasius writes on this verse: “See—he both kept the commandments and was well-disposed toward them and fulfilled them for their own sake, and yet asks God for a righteous and virtuous life so that it might flow from the heart. Only one who desires to live in the Son can say this, believing that life is in Him alone.” Blessed Augustine expresses the prophet’s thought thus: “Quicken me by Your righteousness—that is, by Christ, for He ‘is made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that, according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord’” (1 Cor. 1:30–31).

Verses 41–48

The sixth octet proceeds under the letter “vav”—“hook.”

A hook is driven into a riverbank and boats are tied to it. Having securely tied his boat, the owner sits peacefully at home, confident that the water will not carry it away. An anchor is also a hook. When the anchor is reliable—and it is purposely made so—the ship lying at anchor has no fear of the waves, however strong they may be. For the apostle, an anchor is an image of hope—“an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Heb. 6:19). So understood this word the prophet also, and gave it such a spiritual meaning. That is why he gathered under this letter verses that all speak of hope. In the first four verses (Ps. 118:41–44) the foundations of hope are set forth primarily: the unfailing word of God’s promises (Ps. 118:41–42), and God’s judgments manifested in deed upon the righteous and the wicked (Ps. 118:43–44); in the last four are depicted the actions in which the hope that has taken up dwelling in the heart is revealed, namely: the breadth of walking—that is, freedom of action (Ps. 118:45); fearless proclamation of the truth even before the mighty of the earth (Ps. 118:46); the pursuit of the one thing needful with freedom from care for all else (Ps. 118:47); and patient, unwavering perseverance in the good, regardless of any obstacles (Ps. 118:48). Here is almost a complete treatise on hope. After the preceding verse it was very natural to pursue this conversation. There the prophet paused at surrender to the will of God, which constitutes the soul of hope; but having begun to speak of it, he did not wish to leave off and carried it through the whole of the present octet.

Ps. 118:41. Let Your mercy also come upon me, O Lord, even Your salvation according to Your word.

“This verse,” notes Blessed Augustine, “is visibly connected to the preceding one, for it does not say simply ‘let it come’ but ‘and let it come,’ showing thereby that what is expressed here is a consequence of the preceding.” What does he ask?—Mercy; but mercy not merely as goodwill, but as the actual supplying of what is lacking. Therefore he adds: “let Your salvation come”—let Your saving mercy come, that is, or Your merciful salvation. Mercy, proceeding from God and resting upon a man, brings about his salvation. “If you ask what this mercy is,” Blessed Augustine further says, “hear what immediately follows: ‘Your salvation.’ ‘He first,’ writes Saint Hilary, ‘prays for mercy, and then for salvation, for our salvation comes from God’s mercy: it is the work of God’s goodness toward us.’ ‘When,’ explains Zigabenus, ‘Your mercy comes, then Your salvation also comes, for the end of mercy is salvation.’”

But the prophet’s purpose with these words is to explain not so much what he was asking for as the ground on which he confidently hopes for the fulfillment of his prayer, for he says: “and let it come” or “let it then come.” If God Himself were to ask him: why do you importune Me so?—he would answer: “according to Your word.” As a man boldly goes to another who has given his word and says to him: you gave your word, so now act according to your word—so the prophet now approaches God and says as if to say: You Yourself have said in Your word that You will not forsake those who flee to You; behold, I flee to You according to this word—deal with me in mercy and save me!

“Lest anyone should think,” says St. Hilary, “that he prays in uncertain and unstable hope, the Prophet, having mentioned mercy and salvation, immediately adds: ‘according to Your word,’ to show that his hope in prayer springs from faith in the immutability of God’s promises.”—“According to Your word, that is, according to Your promise; and promises come from Him Who ‘calls those things which are not as though they were’ (Rom. 4:17),” observes Blessed Augustine.

But why promises at all? Is not a simple assurance of God’s goodness, ever ready to show every mercy, sufficient? The Lord, knowing our weakness, found that insufficient; and so throughout the whole breadth of His Word He has scattered promises. The thought that God is good may arise even in the philosophizing mind; but that thought yields only the possibility and probability of mercy, keeping the soul in an unstable, wavering, fluctuating state of conjecture. A firm conviction, an unshakeable assurance of mercy ever-ready, is produced only by the word that goes forth from the mouth of God. When that word is heard and received, all wavering ceases—as the holy Apostle assures us: for all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen (2 Cor. 1:20).

Our weakness in this regard is so great that God, in order to restore our hope, did not limit Himself to a single word of promise but added an oath to it as well, to confirm the immutability of His counsel, that by two immutable things… we might have strong consolation (Heb. 6:17–18). As though even after the Lord had expressed a promise, some wavering might still remain: what if He has changed His mind? And so the Lord assures us by an oath that what He has spoken is immutable: the Lord has sworn and will not relent (Ps. 109:4). It is for this purpose that God’s promises are set forth in the Word of God in detail, with their objects, conditions, and every attendant circumstance described, so that every person might clearly understand: as long as he is doing all that God’s Word directs, wavering in his hope should have no place in him; he must be firmly assured that he will receive what he seeks and asks for.

From this it follows that if anyone needs to rekindle a faltering hope, the surest means of doing so is to restore to memory, mind, and feeling all the words of God by which He assures of His mercy those who flee to Him—with the condition, of course, that one immediately resolve to fulfill all that God thereby also lays upon one’s own head. Re-read the words of God, and with your whole heart submit yourself to all that they oblige you to do; and your hope will revive, and you will begin again to walk, trusting as a lion. We have many weaknesses within us, many hostilities without; we walk as on a bog, ever ready to sink into it. But the word of God will show you the right hand of God, always stretched out toward you and upholding you. Leaning upon it, you will walk boldly even upon the water before the face of the Lord—only do not release from your soul the firmness of hope, lest the just reproach said once to Peter be said also to you: O you of little faith, why did you doubt? (Matt. 14:31).

Ps. 118:42. And I shall have an answer for those who reproach me, for I have hoped in Your word.

In these words there are two thoughts. The first: when men reproach me—asking why I hold so strictly to Your law despite all deprivations—I will answer them: because I have “hoped,” I have placed my hope “in Your words.” In that case, this verse says the same thing as the preceding one: it points to the foundation of hope in the words or promises of God, adding only a specific occasion for displaying that hope, namely, the reproaches of those who scorn virtue and piety. Zigabenus writes: “To those who will reproach me, asking why I suffer for virtue and the keeping of the commandments, I will give this answer: that I hope in the words of my God. God has promised to grant great blessings to those who keep His commandments. Though I suffer and am afflicted, I do not cease to keep the commandments, for I cherish such good hopes.” Blessed Theodoret expresses the heart of the matter concisely: “Your promise, O Lord, sustains me; with this hope I walk my path.”

By what were the holy martyrs inspired as they entered upon their martyrdom, if not by assurance in the immutability of God’s words? The mercy of God covered them and sent swift aid in easing their sufferings; but this was not so for all, and even in those with whom it was, it did not always appear at the very outset of the torments. By what did they sustain themselves in that contest?—By the word of the Lord, which they not infrequently repeated aloud while their bodies were being torn and their hearing assailed by words contemptuous of their confession.

The holy ascetics, both ancient and contemporary, in what have they found and do they find their support and firmness in the manner of life they have embraced—a life whose essence consists in all-encompassing voluntary deprivations, supplemented today especially by words of contempt directed against them?—In nothing other than the promises of God. This is well expressed in the saying of one of the elders: “My Master said to me: serve Me, and be anxious about nothing else—that is My concern.”

Truly virtuous and truly pious people never lack occasions to rekindle their hope or to bear witness to it before those who revile them. As it is written in the Word of God that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12), so it is always. It is written that one who comes to serve the Lord should prepare his soul for temptations: these always await them—and not only from the ungodly and sinful, but often even from those who are not strangers to a God-pleasing way of life, through various misunderstandings whose source cannot be found. Things come from all directions, yet one must endure—endure everything. By what then to be strengthened?—By the word of the Lord: Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven (Matt. 5:11–12). Be of good courage, and let your heart be strengthened! (Ps. 30:25). The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart (Ps. 33:19). In His right hand is a covering for you; in His left, arrows for your enemies. His eyes watch over you, and His ears are open to your prayer (Ps. 33:16). He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the God of heaven (Ps. 90:1).

The second thought in the present text is this: when You, O Lord, show mercy to me and save me in the sight of all, then I will have what to say to those who reproach me, in vindication of my hope in You. Manifest help will stop the mouths of those who revile the one who hopes in God’s promises. In that case, a hint is being made here at a new foundation of hope—the receiving or sensing of actual help from God, which likewise comes through His word. The word from the mouth of God deeply roots hope; but it is still something anticipated, contemplated, theoretical. When deliverance is actually received, however, the power of God is felt by one’s whole being, and hope enters into life. The awareness that such a person is a man of God merges with his very sense of existence and becomes an inseparable quality of all the manifestations of his spiritual life. This gives him the boldness to look his revilers in the eye and return to them their own reproach. I hope, because I have been delivered—are you blind? “He trusted in Me,” said the Lord, “and I will deliver him; I will protect him, for he has known My name. He will call upon Me, and I will hear him; I am with him in trouble, I will rescue him and honor him; with long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation” (Ps. 90:14–16).

A certain martyr, utterly torn and barely able to stand, when a judge blasphemously reviled his faith in the Crucified One, prayed inwardly to the Lord, and, in the sight of all, his wounds vanished, the blood was cleansed away, his strength was restored, and he stood as though he had not suffered. “This is what the Crucified Lord means—He in Whom you so despise my hope!” said the holy martyr.

St. Athanasius paraphrases the thought of this verse as follows: if I receive Your mercy, and that mercy comes to me in Your salvation, then I shall have boldness against those who reproach me and rise up against me. I shall say that he who holds such doctrines as are mocked by ignorant unbelievers does not deserve reproach; I shall prove that these doctrines are full of reason and wisdom. Blessed Theodoret says the same: “Grant, O Lord, the salvation that You have promised in Your holy words, that I may speak boldly to those who mock me; for he who is in affliction listens in silence to the reproaches made against him, but he who is gladdened by deliverance himself rebukes those who maliciously accuse him.” St. Hilary and Blessed Augustine explain it in the same way. The former writes: “This verse corresponds to the flow of thought. If Your mercy and salvation come upon me, according to Your word, then I will have what to say to those who reproach me for foolishness and vain hope in Your words. What can the unbeliever say against such an experience confirming the truth of God’s promises?” The latter says: To those who reproach me with the word about Christ, I answer with the word about Christ, for they reproach us with Him for Whom Christ Crucified is ‘a stumbling block and foolishness’ (1 Cor. 1:23). They do not know that ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14)—the Word that ‘was in the beginning, was with God, was God’ (John 1:1). If they had known, ‘they would not have crucified the Lord of glory’ (1 Cor. 2:8). But whoever receives mercy and the salvation that covers him will answer those who reproach the word of truth. It is not enough to have Christ in the heart and refuse to confess Him out of fear of reproach—one must answer those who revile the word. The martyrs answered the word, according to the promise: ‘it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you’ (Matt. 10:20).’

Experiences of God’s mercy in response to hope elevate that hope, imparting to it a fearless boldness in confessing hope itself. No one is deprived of such experiences. Anyone who attentively follows the course of life cannot fail to see the finger of God, which has drawn him out of actual extremity or warded off a calamity that was approaching and ready to overtake him; therefore no one can complain of a lack of occasions that kindle hope. There may be only those who are inattentive to the ways of God’s Providence, or those who are presumptuous—who, even when they see something remarkable, attribute it either to a chance convergence of circumstances (which the truly faithful person does not acknowledge), or, which is no better, to their own prudence and ability to take advantage of circumstances that present themselves for maintaining and advancing their own well-being.

Ps. 118:43. And take not the word of truth utterly from my mouth, for I have hoped in Your judgments.

The first words are somewhat obscure, because one does not immediately understand when and how God takes away the word of truth, and moreover—“utterly”; which implies that its removal “not utterly” might still be bearable. For this reason the commentators understand these words differently.

In light of the content of this eighth stanza, they should be understood in a way that does not depart from the principal subject here—hope. The preceding verse said: if You show Your mercy to me, O Lord, then I will have what to say to those who reproach me. Here the same thought continues: but if You do not show it, then I will have nothing to say to them; the word will die upon my lips. The Prophet prays that God would not place him in such a position, but would always show His covering over him, so that he might triumphantly defend his hope in God’s judgments through such experiences of mercy. Why, however, is this thought repeated?—It seems, in order to express a certain limitation of the breadth of his petition, as the word “utterly” suggests. He had prayed: show mercy, and I will have what to say to my revilers; now he adds: but if it already please Your righteousness to remove such a defensive word by curtailing the manifestation of Your mercy to me, then—let it not be “utterly”; do not leave me forever in shame before my enemies, but, having left me for a time by an instructive withdrawal, show again before all Your covering over me, so that I may again find in my mouth the word of truth, that not in vain do I hope in Your judgments. “I pray,” interprets Bellarmine, “that the word of truth not be taken from me, whereby I could answer those who reproach me. Do not deprive me of Your mercy; do not bring it about that I dare not say a word in vindication of my hope; do not in this way close the mouths of those who confess You and proclaim hope in Your promises. But if it must be taken away, then take it away only enough to test me, and not ‘utterly,’ not wholly, not to the very end.”

Blessed Augustine directs his attention to the situation of the martyrs, and to how bravely they held fast to their confession with their lips, regardless of the unendurable nature of the torments. But there were also those whom fear overcame, and they renounced the truth: the word of truth was as though snatched from their mouths and taken away. Of these, some remained in their apostasy forever, while others again returned to the confession of truth; in the former, the word of truth was taken away to the end, “utterly,” while in the latter—not to the end, not “utterly.” “Many,” he says, “pressed down by the weight of persecution, could not endure the reproach and renounced Christ, but afterward returned again. As though having them in mind, the Prophet prays: ‘take not the word of truth from my mouth utterly,’ that is, not to the end, as happened even with them; for, having for a time renounced the faith, they afterward returned in repentance, and by confession of the truth again seized the palm of martyrdom. So it was with Peter, who in the hour of fear denied his Lord, but then restored himself through weeping, and in the end was crowned with the martyr’s crown as well. In him and those like him, the word of truth was not taken away ‘utterly,’ to the very end. ‘Take not away’—means, do not permit the word of truth to fall from my mouth. And the Lord Himself says to Peter: I have prayed for you that your faith fail not (Luke 22:32)—which is the same as saying: let not the word of truth be taken from you ‘utterly.’”

Blessed Anthimus places the cause of the removal of the word of truth, or its disappearance from the lips, in sin. As long as there is no manifest sin, truth is proclaimed with boldness; but when one falls into sin, one becomes ashamed to proclaim the truth with the lips, while not vindicating it by deeds and life. God does not take away the word by direct action, but permits falls on account of pride, by which the tongue is bound. “Whoever falls into any sin,” he says, “has the word of truth taken from him not only from his mouth, but from his heart. For God said to the sinner: Why do you recite My statutes, or take My covenant in your mouth? (Ps. 49:16).”

If this verse is taken in isolation, apart from its context, one may well pause over these latter opinions; but the direct meaning is the first one. The second half of the verse compels us to it: “for I have hoped in Your judgments,” by which the Prophet expresses the second foundation of his hope in God. And this is the chief aim of his discourse. Earlier he said that he hopes in God, believing in His word, by which He has promised not to forsake those who flee to Him and do His will; and now he says that he hopes, being disposed and moved to do so by God’s judgments. God’s judgments here signify those divine decrees which He not only pronounced, but also carried out in deed, punishing sinners and exalting and defending the righteous. The Prophet asks for protection because he hopes, and he hopes because God’s judgments were such—both over whole peoples and over individuals—and because if God deals with him in accordance with those same judgments, then he must certainly receive mercy and salvation from God.

The judgments which the Prophet had in view were all those that had occurred before his time: how Noah with his family was saved from the flood, how Abraham and the patriarchs were blessed, how Egypt was punished while the people of God were saved, how that people was led to the promised land amid mercies and chastisements, how they were settled in the promised land, and how afterward they were sometimes given over into slavery to powerful neighbors for forgetting God, and then again delivered when, having repented, they turned back to God. Whoever contemplates these judgments cannot fail to harbor a deep conviction that God always has mercy ready even for a great sinner, provided only he does not persist and go stubbornly against God. Contemplating these judgments was the Prophet’s constant occupation, and he could say: for all His judgments were before me (Ps. 17:23). From them he drew his assurance that God is the Lord who executes judgment (Ps. 9:17) and that His judgments are true and altogether righteous (Ps. 18:10). Therefore, wholly surrendering himself to God, he confesses: from before Your face let my judgment come forth (Ps. 16:2).

If we were to render the Prophet’s speech in our own terms, it would emerge that hoping in God’s judgments is the same as hoping in God’s providential care over us, kindled by the recollection of the experiences which the Lord has manifested around us and in us, sheltering the good and instructing the wayward. Regarding outsiders, one cannot know them well enough to rightly assess how and why such-and-such judgments of God fall upon them; but can one fail to know oneself? If a person had the patience to trace all the changes in his lot over the course of his whole life, with regard chiefly to his own inner state and to God, he would without doubt discover that as in scales two pans are always in perfect correspondence, so our outward fates, determined by God’s judgments, are in perfect correspondence with everything that goes on within us—and especially with what we are in relation to God. There are people who become so accustomed to contemplating this order of God that they evaluate every so-called accident from this point of view; they therefore carry the conviction that there is properly no such thing as accident. Philosophers write that there is no chance, yet in life all they see is accidents. But piety, without any philosophy, carries in the heart the truth that all things are from God. In God, as in the ordering of the great world, so in the ordering of the fate of every small person, all is wisely determined by measure, weight, and number. How this is so—our mind cannot comprehend. God’s judgments are a great deep (Ps. 35:7). What consolation and what strength hope receives in one who has arrived at such a conviction! Blessed Augustine, by the judgments that kindle hope, understands here specifically the judgments upon each individual person. “I have hoped in Your judgments, that is, Your judgments, by which You chasten and correct me, not only do not take hope from me, but exalt it; for whom the Lord loves He chastens; and He scourges every son whom He receives (Heb. 12:6).”

Ps. 118:44. And I will keep Your law continually, for ever and ever.

This is a conclusion from the preceding and a supplement to it. Here is expressed the human condition for the formation of hope. On God’s side, it is formed by faith in the immutability of God’s word or promises and by reflection on God’s judgments manifested over whole peoples or over individuals—and most of all over the very person who seeks to kindle hope in himself; on the human side, it is formed by the resolve to walk in God’s will, and especially by the actual keeping of God’s law. This last condition is so important that without it the first two are powerless to accomplish anything in the formation of hope. The Prophet knew this necessity and therefore expressed his resolution in the present verse. Just before, he had been contemplating God’s judgments, and he could not but see that all of them bear one inscription: every mercy is for the God-fearing who zealously fulfill the law, and every chastisement for the ungodly who do not fear God and neglect His law. And so he establishes for himself within himself, and declares before God, the following rule: “Since it is so, I will keep Your law always and in all things—both in this life and in eternity.”

This law of hope is not spoken by the Prophet here alone, but throughout the entire breadth of the Psalms, in diverse forms of expression. Open the book of Psalms, and on every page you will find more than one testimony to this. Indeed, it is such a truth that it needs no proof: it holds itself in the awareness of one who looks to God with piety. How can anything be expected from God when one himself has no desire to know God, and in self-will is continually provoking His anger by the fearless transgression of His will? And yet, if we examine ourselves as we ought, we will find that we are not entirely blameless in this regard. We all pray, but what meaning can prayer have without hope? We pray because, having need of something, we hope to receive it from a merciful God, and we know that a merciful God is always ready to grant us what we need. Why then does our prayer, even when it is not without hope, not draw God’s mercy?—Because our relationship with God is not right. We want God to give us everything, yet we ourselves want to do nothing for Him; and if we do something that seems to be in accordance with God’s will, it is only what happens to come to hand without any particular intention or choice; and moreover, while doing a few things, we leave in ourselves much that is displeasing to God, deliberately concealing it with forgetfulness, as though we were guilty of nothing. How, with such insincerity and negligence in observing the proper relationship with God, can one hope that God will assuredly do for us what we ask of Him? Correct this fault, and then you will see how all mercies will flow to you from God: He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and save them (Ps. 144:19).

You will say: but who is without sin? And if sin extinguishes hope, and without hope prayer is not prayer, then why pray at all?—But when the Prophet says “I will keep Your law,” he expresses not the actual keeping of it, but the resolve always to be faithful to the law. This resolve always lives in the pious spirit, though it is also true that even the righteous man falls seven times a day. He falls seven times, but does not remain even once in his fall—he falls and rises, falls and rises. This is like running along a slippery or stony road: one who has resolved to reach the end of the path, however many times he falls, will never lie wallowing in the road, but having fallen, will leap up and run again. Such is the path of pleasing God. Always strive to be clean in conscience before God, before men, and before yourself; and whenever you fall into any impurity, cleanse yourself at once; but never deliberately and knowingly allow anything impure or offensive to God to remain in you. Striving thus, you will be in the same position in which the Prophet stood when he said: “I will keep Your law”—and you will have boldness in prayer, which will be confirmed by the unshakeable hope of receiving what you seek and ask.

See how broad and all-encompassing the Prophet’s resolve to keep God’s law is: “continually,” he says, “for ever and ever.” “Continually”—in all things, in all the circumstances of life, great and small—“for ever”—as long as I live in this age—“for ever and ever”—in eternity. St. Ambrose says that the Prophet leaves not a single moment of life in negligence, but is zealous to fill and imbue all of it with the law. “In the tutelage of childhood and youth, under the discipline of adolescence, in the maturity of a man and an elder, he promises not to transgress the bounds appointed for each age. For even the soul has its own ages, through which it ascends to maturity, and having passed through which it can say: ‘I have finished my course’ (2 Tim. 4:7). The full ‘age of the soul,’ the ‘age of old age’ of the soul, is ‘a spotless life’ (Wisd. 4:9). Thus he keeps the law continually who, both in the bodily ages and in the degrees of progress of the soul, does not permit himself to deviate from the law.”

St. Hilary, having expressed a similar thought, then surveys all the realms of being and finds everywhere their own laws. Therefore, if there is a future life—and there certainly is—then there too will be its own law. “The Prophet sees no end to his life. His faith is not limited to this age, and his faithfulness he extends into infinity. Having said ‘continually,’ he left not a single moment of life in which he would permit himself to forget; and when he added ‘for ever and ever,’ he was ascending to the keeping of an eternal law, of which the law here is only a shadow and which will come into full force when eternity in succession takes the place of this age. In the life beyond the grave there is a law for souls who have departed hence, by which they are separated from one another by a great gulf, as the Lord makes clear in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. And after the resurrection there will be a law for the resurrected, by which they, as star differs from star, will differ in glory (1 Cor. 15:41). There are laws for the angels too, by which some ceaselessly glorify God with their voices; others stand before the invisible God in deep silence; and the angels of children always behold the face of the Heavenly Father (Matt. 18:10). Thus, knowing that eternal laws exist, the Prophet promises and predisposes himself to keep them, intending to keep in this age those that are only their shadow.”

Blessed Theodoret and Augustine explain how this will be accomplished in the age to come. The former writes: “By the words ‘for ever and ever,’ the Prophet indicated the future life, in which all will be given pure and perfect keeping of God’s laws.” The latter says: “By ‘law’ here we should understand that of which the Apostle speaks: the fullness of the law is love (Rom. 13:10). This law is kept by the saints not only in this age, but will be kept in the age to come for ever. Not particular commandments, but the very fullness of the law will there be in operation, without any danger of sin, for we will love God more fully, because we shall see Him—and our neighbor as well, because ‘God will be all in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28).”

Ps. 118:45. And I walked in a broad place, for I sought Your commandments.

From this verse to the end of the eighth stanza (verses Ps. 118:45–48), the fruits of hope are depicted—what the Prophet became after he had kindled firm hope in his heart by the means mentioned. Blessed Augustine says: “Before he was seeking, and now (in verses Ps. 118:45–48) he narrates and confesses what God’s mercy has made him—the mercy he had been asking for—showing that he was heard, and consequently: I walked in a broad place…”

Breadth of walk is always the direct consequence of faithfulness to God’s commandments, and this because the commandments put to death the passions that dwell in us and constrict us. That every restriction and binding of our moral freedom depends on the passions—this every person knows from experience. What constricts the hand already ready to give?—Self-interest: it is needed for oneself. What afflicts the soul at the sight of a neighbor’s happiness?—Envy. What chains one to the bed or binds the feet when one should go to church to pray?—Self-indulgence and sloth. So it is in all things. But whoever has sought the commandments, that is, has come to love them and resolved always to be faithful to them—even if he too feels the onsets of such passions, they do not determine him, they do not bind him: he repels them at once; and when he has grown strong in the practice of the commandments, he scarcely feels them at all.

“He is not confined,” says St. Ambrose, “who does not shut his mind within the earthly and fleshly, but directs it toward the heavenly and has his citizenship in heaven; but the sinner is squeezed by the chains of his own passions. Take the rich man: he already possesses many fields, yet all is too narrow for him, he always desires more—the whole earth is not enough for him.” St. Hilary writes: “The Prophet is not confined. The hearts of sinners are narrow, and a defiled soul is not found worthy of a divine visitation. A spacious dwelling is needed to receive the boundless God, and it is prepared by faithfulness to the commandments. The Prophet walks in a broad place because God dwells in him, and God dwells there because he sought His commandments. Let us recall the breadth of understanding into which our mind enters when, engaged in reading the Divine Scriptures, we search the commandments of God, and how broad are the feelings of our humility when they are taken captive in divine longings. But sins contract the breadth of every soul; hemmed in on all sides is he who has not been found worthy to be a dwelling place of the glory of God.”—“What does it mean to walk in a broad place?” asks Blessed Augustine, and answers: “It means to walk in love, which has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. He teaches us to fulfill the commandments in the love of God and neighbor.”

Zigabenus gives this breadth a different nuance. He paraphrases the passage as follows: “In all my deeds I found room and met with success, because I came to love Your commandments and was always faithful to them. Even when I was in affliction from temptations, I was not burdened by it; for the good testimony of my conscience inwardly assured me of a firm love and unbroken faithfulness to Your commandments, expanding my heart even in affliction. A good conscience always consoles the one who has it.”

But, judging by the context, it is more directly accurate here to understand that breadth in which the one who hopes in God feels himself to be walking, and actually walks. This breadth of hope, as well as its condition—faithfulness to God in the fulfillment of His commandments—is described at length and in various places by St. Isaac the Syrian. Let us cite several of his words.

“There is,” he says, “a certain hidden Providence. You too shall be found worthy of it, if you first compel yourself with faith to cast your care upon God and to replace your own anxious solicitude with His providence. And when God sees in you that with all purity of thought you have trusted in God more than in yourself, and have compelled yourself to hope in God more than in your own soul, then shall that invincible power dwell in you, and you shall perceptibly feel that it is with you beyond all doubt—that power which many have felt in themselves and gone into fire unafraid, and walked even upon the waters without wavering in their thought from fear of sinking; because faith strengthens the soul’s feelings of a man, and he feels within himself that something invisible persuades him not to attend to the sight of terrible things, nor to gaze upon what is unendurable to the senses” (Isaac the Syrian, Discourse 49).

“If once you have entrusted yourself to the Lord, Who is all-sufficient to guard and watch over you, and if you follow after Him, then be anxious no more about anything concerning yourself, but say to your soul: For every need, He is sufficient for me—He to Whom I once surrendered my soul. I am not here; He knows it. Then you shall actually see God’s wonders—you shall see how at every moment God is near to deliver those who fear Him, how His Providence surrounds them, though invisible. But because the Guardian who remains with you is invisible to bodily eyes, you must not doubt concerning Him as if He were not there; for He often manifests Himself even to bodily eyes, that you may take courage… When you are established in such hope, then the frightening and terrifying thoughts shall flee from you, and everything that meets you as difficult and inconvenient shall seem to you easy and light” (ibid.).

“Knowledge (one’s own prudence) is accompanied by fear, faith—by hope. To the degree that a man is guided by the ways of knowledge (that is, arranges his own well-being by the guidance of prudence), to that same degree is he bound by fear and cannot free himself from it. But he who follows faith (that hopes) quickly becomes free and self-determining, and, as a son of God, uses all things with freedom and self-mastery. He who loves faith (that hopes) governs every created nature as God does. But knowledge (one’s own prudence) meets obstacles everywhere. How could it be otherwise? The flowing nature of water does not receive bodily feet upon its back, and he who draws near fire burns himself. But faith (that hopes) powerfully steps beyond these limits, emboldened by the promise: ‘when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the rivers shall not overflow you’ (Is. 43:2). Many have by faith entered into flames, restrained the consuming power of fire, and passed through it unharmed; and have walked across the back of the sea as on dry land” (Isaac the Syrian, Discourse 49).

This is how he explains why such hope is possible only with faithful service to God in the fulfillment of His commandments. “A man who has no care at all for what is fleeting, but wholly, day and night, entrusts himself to the Lord, cares about nothing worldly because of his great diligence for virtue, and spends all his time in divine occupations—and therefore takes no thought for the preparation of food and clothing for himself, for the arrangement of bodily shelter and all the rest—such a man hopes in the Lord beautifully and wisely. And this is indeed true and most wise hope. Rightly does such a one hope in God, for he has become His servant and is diligent in His service. Such a man is worthy that God should manifest His care over him in a special way. But a man whose heart is completely buried in earthly things, who always eats dust with the serpent, who never cares about what is pleasing to God, who has no concern for even a single virtue—such a man cannot have a radiant hope. Being pressed down by poverty or overwhelmed by the fruits of his lawless deeds, he may perhaps say: I will place my hope in God, and He will make me free of sorrow and will give me relief. Foolish one! Until this hour you have not remembered God, but have offended Him with the viciousness of your deeds, and the name of God was blasphemed because of you, as it is written, among the pagans—and now you dare to open your mouth and say: I will place my hope in Him; He will help me and care for me! To the shame of such people, God said well through the prophet: ‘They seek Me day by day and desire to know My ways, as a people that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinances of their God’ (Is. 58:2). Among such people belongs that foolish one who did not even draw near to God in his thought, and yet, as soon as sorrows surrounded him, lifted up his hands to Him in hope, saying: I will place my hope in God; He will deliver me. Do not deceive yourself; labor for God in the doing of His commandments precedes hope in God. Do you believe that God cares for His creatures? Then let fitting conduct accompany your faith, and then God will hear you” (Isaac the Syrian, Discourse 67).

Ps. 118:46. And I spoke of Your testimonies before kings, and was not ashamed.

This is the second sphere of deeds in which strong, mature hope in the heart is manifested—the fearless witness to God’s truth. When word and deed run counter to the wishes and preferences of those who hear and see, it is everywhere accompanied by unpleasantness; and all the more so with the word of truth when it is spoken before the powerful of the earth. One may see in the Prophet’s words here a general statement about bearing witness to truth and righteousness before anyone—a witness that is unashamed, unafraid, regardless of consequences; and his saying “before kings” may be understood as meaning “even”—that is, even before kings, to say nothing of all others.

Bearing witness to truth and righteousness is the direct consequence of faithfulness to the law and of walking in the commandments, which forms in the heart a sincere conscientiousness that cannot permit the tongue to conceal the truth or say something contrary to truth. But this virtue manifests itself quietly and when an occasion arises in the ordinary or civic order of life. There, when it is not touched upon or questioned, it is silent. But the Prophet means a special virtue of courageous witness to the truth—one that does not sit in its place and wait to be called out, but itself goes forth into the public arena and acts among the people without fear. What calls it forth is the flame of love for God and His glory, and a special divine nod, or even a direct commission from God, as was the case with the prophets, apostles, martyrs, and confessors.

What moves and inspires a person who is faithful to God and His commandments to the work of bearing witness to the truth?—The conviction that through it he is performing a work of God, Whose Helper and Protector is God Himself; and therefore he is confident that God will sustain him and not allow him to fall before the onslaught of the opposing and threatening forces. Unpleasantness, losses, torments, and even death itself are not counted among his defeats; a martyr, for instance, who has been put to death is counted a victor, because, despite the many instruments brought to bear to turn him from the truth, he stood in it immovably. What is in the soul of such witnesses in the hour of their witness? They are not on earth at that time, but in heaven, in the contemplation of the promised blessings. This was most evident in the martyrs, who were inspired by the thought that they were about to leave the poor earth and dwell in the bright mansions of God, and who often besought their tormentors not to delay the torments but to speed them through those torments to Christ, that they might be with Him and partakers of His glory.

Our commentators all fix their attention at this verse on the image of the martyrs. St. Athanasius writes: “Such was Paul, such was Peter, such is the company of the apostles and martyrs.” St. Ambrose says: “Such words fitly proceed from the lips of every martyr who, having been called before a tribunal, was not ashamed when princes and judges reviled him for his faith in the Crucified, but on the contrary counted the cross of Christ his glory and by heavenly testimonies proved that in the cross is the salvation of the world.” Blessed Theodoret enumerates the Old Testament witnesses to the truth as well: “With great ease,” says the Prophet, “I walked my path and, living by Your commandments, I feared no royal power, but spoke with great boldness even to kings, because a life in accordance with the law makes a man bold. A witness to this is the great David himself, for before his sin he spoke with great boldness before Saul; but after his sin he fled from his son the parricide, walking with head bowed down and covered. And the great Elijah, firmly relying on righteousness, rebuked the impiety of Ahab (3 Kings 16); and Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar: ‘Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor’ (Dan. 4:24). So also Paul spoke to Agrippa, Festus, and Felix; and so the glorious victorious martyrs counted as nothing the threats of ungodly kings” (Acts 24; 26).

But some commentators suggest that here one may also understand preachers of the word of God in every age. Preaching is unceasing in the Church, and though it is addressed to Christians, it does not always meet with a Christian reception among them. In this verse the Prophet’s example admonishes one not to bend the preaching of the truth, not to conceal it beneath any evasions in order to please the powerful of the earth, but to set it forth without deflection and boldly. Conviction in the truth, combined with a good life, gives boldness. St. Athanasius writes further: “As these words fitly belong to the martyr who is brought ‘before governors and kings’ (Matt. 10:18) for Christ, so too do they belong to those who open their mouths before royal, holy souls. Worthy of shame is he who, having received the word from God, does not preach it with great power!” St. Hilary ascends to the source of such speech: The duty of a widened heart is to pour forth abundantly the words of divine teaching. Preachers of the truth must be guided in this not only by the example of the Prophet, but also by the word of the Lord, Who has commanded those who know the truth to preach it everywhere, inspiring them: ‘Do not fear.’ Didymus, in Zigabenus, urges those who speak thus to take on the mind of the martyrs: ‘One who pronounces the words of God with his lips must have the mind of the martyrs and always be ready to suffer for the word of truth. For this reason the testimony of God is called by a word that means martyrdom as well.’ And every person everywhere, in his own life circumstances, can continually meet occasions for witness to the truth, and may even suffer for it. By what then shall such a one be inspired for this witness, if not by hope in God, Who does not forsake righteousness and the righteous?

Ps. 118:47. And I meditated on Your commandments, which I loved greatly.

The third fruit of hope is the seeking of the one thing needful. Reading this verse, one’s mind is involuntarily carried to Mary, sitting at the feet of the Savior and attending to the words issuing from His divine lips. At the same time one recalls the Lord’s lesson, spoken in the person of Martha, to all: Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her (Luke 10:41); and further, the general law laid upon all: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matt. 6:33). What does this amount to?—The Prophet, having kindled hope in himself, detached his heart from all that is worldly, earthly, and vain, and was occupied solely with the commandments of God—that is, with how to understand them better and how better to fulfill them; for “I meditated” means he was learning not only to understand, but to know how to do. All of this because the commandments are loved; and they are loved because in them alone are hidden the eternal elements of life, to the contemplation of which hope had carried him—that hope which was kindled, as shown above, in the preceding verses.

As soon as we hear the words “one thing needful,” we immediately think of the necessities required for the maintenance of the body, and a question arises: but how can this be? However, when it is said that the “one thing needful” must be chosen, this does not mean that one is advised to do nothing, but only to apportion one’s labors according to the value of what is done: to the principal work to devote principal care and predominant effort, and to secondary, appended tasks—secondary care and even tenth-level care and corresponding effort. Place the pleasing of God and salvation through the fulfillment of the commandments in first place, and in second, third, and fourth place—everything else pertaining to the maintenance of life; and to the first cleave with your whole heart, while touching the rest outwardly, as it were only with the tips of your fingers, and you will be a faithful executor of what the Lord said about the “one thing needful” and the choosing of the good portion. That will be your principal work, and all the rest—side-work or auxiliary tasks, as the great ancient ascetics expressed it. One cannot help but labor and work in domestic and civic life, but these activities must be conducted in subordination to the principal work, in its spirit, and not contrary to it.

I recall in this connection a conversation between an elder and a disciple, in which, after the elder had explained the distinction between the principal work and auxiliary tasks and was lamenting that in his time (that is, the time when this was being said) the order had been inverted and the auxiliary tasks had become the principal work while the principal work had been relegated to auxiliary status, the disciple asked him to explain this by way of an example. “Do you see,” said the elder, “you are sitting at your handiwork, and suddenly the bell rings for church prayer; you must immediately put down your work and hasten to church, having first made a few prostrations in your cell. You will do so, if in your heart the work of God holds the principal place. But if you say: I will just finish—there is not much left—and sit for a while longer at your work, taking that time away from the divine service, you will show that for you the work and the gain from it are dearer than the work of God, and your soul’s order has been turned upside down, head below and feet above. Understand all other things in the same way.”

Applying this account to ourselves and generalizing it, we get the following: whenever someone’s only concern is with temporal needs, while the work of salvation and the pleasing of God is always pushed into the background because of them and what belongs to it is fulfilled only to the extent that these concerns allow—and even then carelessly, hastily, and by halves—then in such a person the principal thing does not stand where it ought, and the auxiliary has taken the wrong place. Where the number of such people multiplies to the point that those unlike them can no longer be found, the whole society is not in its proper order; from a spiritual point of view, it is a society walking upside down. And since this is contrary to the order of things, it naturally follows that all manner of other disorder develops within it: hence confusion, dissolution, and ruin. How much fuss, noise, and jostling! Yet from it all comes nothing but filth. We often hear that those who have left the world and retired to a monastery are treading water—no, it is these others who are treading, and not even water but filth; while those have chosen the good portion which shall not be taken from them.

They nourish a good hope that will not put them to shame; while those who are without hope have nothing left but to grasp at splinters that sink with them into the abyss.

Ps. 118:48. And I lifted up my hands to Your commandments, which I loved, and I meditated on Your statutes.

The fourth and final fruit of hope matured in the soul is unwavering perseverance on the good path, or patience in well-doing. One who lifts up his hands to the commandments is the same as one who has put his hand to the plow, in the words of the Savior. Just as the latter successfully tills the earth only when he does not look back and does not glance from side to side, but draws furrow after furrow regardless of hardship and the sweat that pours from him—so the laborer who has lifted up his hands to the commandments can make progress in fulfilling them only when he arms himself with patience, sparing no toil and fearing no obstacle, but doing one thing after another in accordance with the commandments. That this is precisely what the Prophet is speaking of is indicated, beyond the uniformity of expression with the parabolic speech of the Lord, by the word “I meditated”—meaning he sat persistently at the statutes and commandments of God, and dwelt with patience in well-doing.

What produces such constancy and firmness?—Love, which “never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8). But before love arrives, by what do the laborers inspire themselves and by what are they actually inspired?—By nothing other than hope.

In hope one undertakes the work of salvation and the pleasing of God, and in hope one continues it. Whatever entrepreneur you take, the soul of his enterprise is the hope of success; and so it is here. There is hope of success—and so one labors. This hope at first is bore, alone, without any support from other spiritual movements, save the unshakeable faith that quickens all things; but afterward, when through patient adherence to the commandments and statutes some faint fruits of progress begin to appear, and the heart starts to acquire a taste for this way of life, then hope has this foretaste of the sweetness of well-doing as a garment against cold and a covering against heat, and is yet more winged—like a man walking home when he sees his roof in the distance: he cannot hold back his feet; they run of themselves. Such a spontaneous walking in the commandments is the fruit of patient perseverance in their fulfillment.

St. Athanasius writes: “The Prophet here calls the active powers ‘hands,’ because action is the end of meditation on the commandments. After receiving the word about the commandments, it is best to lift up the hands to the practical fulfillment of what the commandments require—not with sorrow or compulsion, but with a good disposition.” Blessed Theodoret adds: “The kingdom of God is ‘not in word but in power’ (1 Cor. 4:20). Therefore the Prophet joined activity to instruction. What he learned, he also fulfilled in deed. ‘For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified’ (Rom. 2:13); and this is why he said: ‘I meditated on Your statutes,’ since he was constantly occupied with them.”

“What a beautiful order!” exclaims St. Ambrose. “First to reflect upon and meditate on God’s commandments, so as thereby to incline oneself to zealous action according to them, and then to act accordingly. Just as the end of the study of, say, history is the remembrance of its events, so the end of meditation on the Divine words is action in accordance with them—labors directed toward their fulfillment. One must lift up the hands to work by the commandments and do this with love and joy, so that our good is not forced, not done with sorrow and burden, but willingly. One who does it without willingness is a servant. He who is a friend does his work willingly. Let us strive, therefore,” St. Ambrose concludes, “that by the willing fulfillment of the commandments we too may deserve to hear the words: ‘You I have called friends’ (John 15:15).”

St. Hilary goes further: “Reflection with love is not enough; one must add the activity of the will—to lift up the hands to the commandments, not to destroy them, but in humble fulfillment, so that deeds may correspond to faith and hope. ‘Meditation’ shows the continuity of the doing. He represents himself as a constant guardian of the statutes established from above, gazing not so much on their present form as foreseeing and taking delight in their future.”

This foreseeing of the future, granted by hope, is the chief support of patience in the doing of needful things and the producer of those things. The Apostle commands, for example: continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it (Col. 4:2). For what purpose?—Because he who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened (Matt. 7:8). St. Peter teaches: add to… self-control, patience. For what purpose? — For if these things are yours and abound, they will make you neither idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:5–8). Further: whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men. For what? — Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance (Col. 3:23–24). Thus without patience in well-doing one succeeds in nothing, and there is nowhere to draw this patience from except in hope. This hope must therefore be kindled with all zeal, armed with faith.

Verses 49–56

The seventh stanza of eight verses is under the letter “zayin”—“olive.”

The olive is the tree from whose fruit oil is pressed—a symbol of God’s mercy and of all that is consoling and healing. Perhaps no single object from the material world is applied in God’s word so frequently and so variously to spiritual realities as oil: now it is the oil of gladness (Ps. 44:8), now of anointing (Ex. 25:6), now of healing (Is. 1:6), now of lighting (Ex. 27:20), now sacrificial oil (Lev. 6:15), now the oil of bread (in bread) (Lev. 8:26), now of piety (Eccl. 7:2), now of peace (in the liturgy: “the mercy of peace”).

In the present stanza, holy David gathers together sayings that express what grieved his soul and from where he drew consolation for it. Now it is the slowness of the fulfillment of God’s promises that troubles him (verse Ps. 118:49), now the humbling circumstances of life (verse Ps. 118:50), now proud enemies and mockers (verses Ps. 118:51–52), now, in general, the multiplication of sin and impiety (verse Ps. 118:53), now life on earth—the place of our sojourning (verse Ps. 118:54). In all these afflictions he seeks and finds consolation only in God and His holy law, striving in every way to maintain the proper relationship with them. This last is expressed in various phrasal forms, but in nearly identical thought, as we shall see (verses Ps. 118:55–56).

Ps. 118:49. Remember Your word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope.

The “words of hope” in which the Prophet had been nourishing consoling expectations were the promises given to him. He asks that they be remembered, evidently because in the present circumstances there was something that did not correspond to the expectations aroused by the Lord’s words, or because he saw ahead of him something that might shatter his hopes, or because he felt at the time a need for consolation and God’s mercy—and since the promises had promised every mercy, he says: “Remember what You have said, and grant at least a small portion of what was promised, because especially now I feel the need of it.” The foundation of such a petition is an unshakeable assurance in the immutability of God’s word.

“Remember…” But can there be forgetfulness in God, as there is in man? There cannot. Why then is “remember” said? This word is often used in Scripture in both the direct and the opposite sense, as for example: why have You forgotten me? (Ps. 41:10), or: why do You forget our poverty? (Ps. 43:25). God Himself says through a prophet that He will forget all the sins of a sinner if the sinner, repenting, turns from them (Ezek. 18:21–22). Forgetfulness in God is not to be understood as it is understood in us humans. When God, beyond human expectation, changes the order of things without changing His counsel, “which endures for ever” (Ps. 32:11), it is said that He “relents.” So too it is said of Him “He forgot” when, apparently, He delays His help, or the fulfillment of His promise, or the due recompense to sinners, or something else—as though it had slipped from His mind—what is hoped for or feared yet does not happen; but God does this through a special providence, not through a failure of memory or a change of will. Thus when one says to Him “remember,” this expresses only the desire of the one praying to receive what was promised, and not as if something were being presented to God as having slipped from His thought. “Remember,” says the Prophet, “Your word to Your servant”; this means: fulfill what You have promised to Your servant; “upon which You have caused me to hope” means: “relying on Your words that expressed a promise, I,” interprets Blessed Augustine, “began to nourish hope.”

St. Hilary sees in this word yet another thought: since God’s promises are conditional—given, that is, on the condition of faithfulness on the part of the one to whom they are given—the Prophet, not trusting in his own ability to fulfill these conditions, asks God to help him in this, so that afterwards He might also fulfill the promise that is subject to such conditions. “The Prophet prays,” he says, “that he may be found worthy for God to deign to remember the word by which He gave him hope.”

What were these words of God to David is specifically indicated in the Word of God. Thus God said to him through the prophet Nathan: “I took you from the sheepfold to be ruler over My people Israel, and I was with you wherever you went, and I cut off all your enemies from before you.” And further: “I will give you rest from all your enemies,” and so on. Hearing such an answer from God, holy David cried out: “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that You have loved me thus far? And this was yet a small thing in Your sight, O Lord God; but You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come.” And further: “And now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are true, and You have spoken this good thing concerning Your servant. And now let it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue before You for ever; for You, O Lord God, have spoken it, and with Your blessing let the house of Your servant be blessed for ever” (2 Sam. 7:8–29). Assured by these words, holy David never ceased to await their fulfillment and, leaning upon the immutability of the word spoken through the prophet, draws near to God with prayer that He would remember the promises, which it is not His custom to forget. “Not out of any proud presumption,” explains St. Ambrose, “does he speak thus, but in the assurance that the true God cannot be false in His words. He speaks as if to say: not by my own seizure did I hope; on the contrary, You Yourself made it so that I began to nourish hope. I am a servant—I await nourishment from my master; I am a soldier—I await my stipend from my king.”

Such is the meaning of these words in the mouth of holy David. But in what sense may we also address them to God? To all of us as well, in the Lord Jesus, promises have been given—not only concerning the future, but also concerning the present. Bringing these promises to mind, therefore, and not seeing their fulfillment in yourself, pray that God would remember them and fulfill them in you; and if the obstacle to their fulfillment lies within you, then ask at the same time that He destroy this obstacle and make you worthy of receiving what has been promised. Thus: forgiveness of all sins has been promised to those who repent; but all-forgiveness brings joy, while you still feel the same anguish and as though hopelessness—pray then that the Lord would speak the promised all-forgiveness into your heart, and that you would feel the joy of it, for Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered (Ps. 31:1). It has been promised that one baptized in water and the Spirit, or washed by the tears of repentance, is spiritually renewed and begins to live a new life—this should happen in you as well; yet you perceive that the deeds of the old man continue to break through with apparently the same force as before—and pray that the Lord would deliver you by His grace from “the body of this death” (Rom. 7:24), and that it would no longer be sin, but God Himself who lives in you. It has been promised that all will be taught of God—not outwardly, through writings, but inwardly, through the writing of God’s words by an invisible finger upon the tablets of the heart—and this should happen in you too; yet you see all things unclearly, and the all-illuminating and life-giving word is never spoken in your heart—and pray that the Lord would at last become for you the light that enlightens every man coming into the world. It has been promised that true worshippers will worship God in spirit—and so you too should worship; yet you see that even your bodily worship is faulty, and there are no beginnings even of spiritual worship—and pray that He Who gives prayer to one who prays (1 Sam. 2:9) would teach you also to draw near to Him in prayer as is fitting. Act likewise with regard to everything else. But in doing this, so that your prayer may not be an empty word, do not forget to fulfill, or to promise to fulfill, what is required of you yourself, so that the meaning of your words may always be this: “Here I am doing, or will do, what lies within my power—remember You also, O Lord, what has been promised by You to those who serve You, and fill my poor soul with Your good things.” When you have thus labored in life, you may say at the end of it with the Apostle: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day (2 Tim. 4:7–8). This is the crown of promises and hopes resting upon the word of the Lord: where I am, there will My servant be also (John 12:26).

Ps. 118:50. This is my comfort in my humiliation, for Your word has given me life.

Earlier the Prophet expressed the thought that there was something in his life not corresponding to God’s promises, and therefore asked that they be remembered; now he states specifically what was troubling him. It was certain humbling, abasing, spirit-crushing circumstances; and amid them he revives his grief-stricken soul with the word of the Lord.

What, then, is this “humbling thing”? It could be the awareness of one’s own moral shortcomings, which one cannot overcome on one’s own; while the “quickening” in this case would be the word of the Lord that whoever thinks humbly of himself shall be exalted, and above all the promise that whoever is grieved by this and cries out to God will always receive gracious renewal: the Lord will send His Spirit, and the shattered moral order within him shall be rebuilt. Thus teaches Blessed Augustine: “One may understand here,” he says, “that humility by which one is humbled through confessing one’s sins and not arrogantly attributing righteousness to oneself. To those who humble themselves in this way is given this consoling word: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’ (James 4:6). And the Lord Himself said: ‘whosoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted’ (Luke 14:11). But,” Blessed Augustine adds, “it is also well to understand here that humbling which comes when someone is brought low by grief sent to break down pride and test patience. The life-giving word for such people is: ‘In your patience possess you your souls,’ and ‘there shall not a hair of your head perish’ (Luke 21:18–19); and again: ‘God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it’ (1 Cor. 10:13). Such assurance was also given by the Lord in the prayer He taught us, commanding us to say in it: ‘Lead us not into temptation.’ If He wished those who pray to say this in prayer, then He surely thereby gave the promise that He will fulfill what is asked.”

Saint Athanasius understands the same thing in the prophet’s words: “this has comforted me in my humiliation.” “This very hope (of which the previous verse spoke), awakened in me by Your word, consoled and calmed me so greatly that whenever some calamity or danger befell me—the threat of death, grave illness, loss of property, persecution, or anything else that people consider grievous—hope was my consolation.”

Saint Ambrose likewise says: “The hope that overshadowed me, through the action of Your word, consoled me and emboldened me to endure the unpleasantness encountered in life. And he hoped thus because he was faithful to the Lord: without this he would have had no hope. This is evident from the holy Apostle Paul. When Paul was acting against the name of the Lord, he had no consolation of hope; but when he began to suffer for His name, he drew consolation from the fount of hope. See how, having become faithful, he encouraged everyone to endurance and good cheer: ‘Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: for Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Then he adds how all this can be endured: ‘Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us’ (Rom. 8:35–37). Therefore, whoever wishes to conquer adversity—whether it be persecution, or calamity, or death, or grave illness, or a raid of brigands, or the seizure of property, or any other misfortune—will easily conquer all of it if he is filled with consoling hope. Should any such thing arise, it cannot weigh down one who carries in his heart the conviction that ‘the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us’ (Rom. 8:18). He who hopes for something better cannot be crushed by anything of lesser worth.”

Saint Ambrose also understands something else by “the humbling thing,” namely, the inner temptations from sin and the devil, with which one must engage in battle in the hope of victory through the power of the Lord’s grace. “In the time of our humiliation,” he says, “our comforter is hope. By the time of humiliation of our soul I mean the time of temptation. Our soul is humbled when it is given over to the tempter for trial by painful hardships, which are unavoidable if one is to stand firm in the struggle and conquer when one feels the assault of the opposing power. In these temptations the soul is quickened by the word of God. It is the life-essence of our soul, by which it is nourished, grows, and is governed. And there is nothing that can so quicken the rational soul as the word of God. To the extent that it is rooted in our soul—when it is, of course, received and tasted—to that same extent the life of the soul opens and unfolds. Conversely, as the word of God diminishes in the soul, so does the life of the soul suffer loss and diminishment. As the bond between soul and body is sustained and quickened by the vital spirit, so by the word of God and the grace of the Spirit is our soul made alive (the bond between it and God, the source of life, is sustained). Therefore we must strive with all our might, leaving all else behind, to gather the words of God and bring them into our ruling faculty (the mind), into our feelings (the heart), into our intentions (the will), and into all our deeds, so that all our activity may accord with the sayings of Scripture, and our actions may not differ at all from the pattern of the heavenly commandments. Then you too will be able to say: ‘Your word has quickened me.’”

Saint Athanasius expresses this final thought as follows: “Nothing gives the rational soul the strength to live its proper life as the word of God does. To the degree that God’s word grows in the human soul, being grasped and received by it, to that same degree grows also that which constitutes life (namely, to live virtuously here) and which will afterward grant eternal life.”

Saint Hilary briefly combines all the foregoing thoughts in these words: “Hope comforted him ‘in humiliation,’ that is, when he was suffering contempt, mockery, and injury, when he was being dishonored with reproaches. Knowing that the struggle with temptations of this kind is inevitable in the present age, he consoled himself in it with hope kindled in him by God Himself, and was quickened by the word of God. From it he drew assurance that the glory in heaven is incomparably greater than the degree of his present abasement for his faithfulness to the will of God. He also knew that the soul filled with the words of God holds within itself a kind of pasture of eternal life. He who is quickened by the word of God is not shaken by the empty glory of the fortunate. He knows that his poverty is richer than their wealth, his abstinence is satisfied by heavenly abundance, and his humility will be rewarded with glorious honor.”

Ps. 118:51. The proud have transgressed the law exceedingly; but I have not declined from Your law.

“He says: the proud transgressed Your law for a long time, but I did not follow their wicked example and lawlessness. Or thus: the proud acted lawlessly in that they mocked me for meditating continually in Your law, but because of their mockery I did not abandon my meditation in Your law. He calls proud those who despise and transgress the Divine law, for such transgressors are generally proud.” So Zigabenus explains this verse.

In the previous verse he pointed, in a vaguely sorrowful way, to the humbling circumstances of life; and now, from within this circle of sorrowful contingencies, he singles out those which proceed from proud despisers of the law—those who revile the law, mock those who observe it, and lead everyone astray from the proper path. These are the ringleaders of every evil, whose company is most painful for those devoted to the law and sincerely, with all their heart, loving it. These are the ones who are transgressors of the law “exceedingly,” that is, not merely breaking the law, but rising up against it, despising it, hating it, and taking arms against it with their wicked words. Against them the prophet armed himself with steadfastness and firmness in faithfulness to the law, not permitting himself not only to transgress it, but even to entertain a thought of anything contrary to it. “According to the law,” he says, “I led my life, guarding the ruling power of my soul (the mind), so as not to harbour in my heart a word of lawlessness”; “for,” Saint Athanasius interprets this passage, “when they transgress the law ‘exceedingly,’ I have not transgressed Your law even in the least.” In this verse the prophet expresses only the firmness of his character, but this firmness did not exclude grief of heart. Where did he find the healing balm for such a wound of the heart? In the remembrance of God’s judgments. Here also is a lesson on how one must act when around us there spread not only transgressors of the law, but also despisers and revilers of it. Let them be! You remain steadfast: you cannot out-argue or out-convince everyone. There is in heaven a Judge of all, Who sees how they rise up against His commandments, and who will know how to render to each their due.

“Pride in man is a great sin,” says Saint Ambrose. “From it our corruption took its beginning. With this arrow the devil wounded and struck us at the start. If man, deceived by the cunning speech of the serpent, had not desired to be God, and if, content with the limits given him, he had not touched the forbidden, the ruinous inheritance of the fall would never have passed to us. But why do I speak of man? The devil himself, through pride, lost the grace of his nature when he said: ‘I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven… I will be like the Most High’ (Isa. 14:13–14), and fell from the company of the angels. Justly punished for such transgression, he resolved to make man a partaker in it as well and poured his poison into him. What can be worse than such a sin, which had its beginning from rebellion against God! Therefore Scripture says: ‘God resists the proud.’ As an avenger of the disrespect shown to Him, God has undertaken what might be called a special warfare against pride. He speaks as it were thus: ‘The proud man is My enemy; he provokes Me, I must engage him.’ Therefore the prophet says: ‘the proud have transgressed the law exceedingly,’ that is, it is the nature of the proud not only to do wrong, but to do wrong exceedingly. Having shown what force of evil pride contains, it was necessary to teach us how to overcome it. This he does: ‘from Your law,’ he says, ‘I have not declined.’ Thus, only the law of God can squeeze out the juice of pride, teaching the God-fearing and reverent person the circumspection with which he must govern himself. Many—not only those estranged from the faith, but of those who have already tasted sufficiently of the good word of the commandments—are seduced by the successes of the proud, seeing how the breakers of the law, promoters of impiety, haughty despisers of the sincerely believing, who exalt themselves over those who, out of the fear of God and obedience to the heavenly commandments, humble their hearts—seeing how such people abound in this age with riches, fame, honors, and power, and how the heavier the injustices they commit, the more abundantly the worldly advantages flow to them, and how righteous people for the most part suffer want and other misfortunes—seeing all this, they are troubled to the point of mental confusion and incline toward thinking that in this God’s judgment somehow errs, forgetting that central truth, the most evident truth, that the reward for the labors of pleasing God is appointed not in this age but is deferred to the age to come. Yet few take this into account. Even David himself was initially seduced by this, as he writes: ‘Behold, these are sinners, and they prosper in the world’ (enriching themselves in this age), ‘they have retained riches. And I said: then have I justified my heart in vain and washed my hands among the innocent, and been scourged all the day long?’ (Ps. 72:12–13). Not infrequently even among us imperfect ones, some, seeing such things, say: where is God’s providence, where is justice? That proud man abounds, the haughty one grows rich, the ungodly is prosperous and powerful; while that righteous man lies, abandoned by all, in such poverty that he has not even his daily bread, and yet is also subjected to contempt from the ungodly, trampled by the proud. Certainly this is no light temptation, and you will not escape it if you cannot see into the future, if you are not fed more abundantly with heavenly sustenance. David thought before that he knew this truth; but when the temptation came, it turned out he did not know it, and therefore he was agitated and grieved in spirit; and therefore he says: ‘I thought to know this; it is a trouble in my sight, until I go into the sanctuary of God and understand their latter end’ (Ps. 72:16–17). Having seen in the prophetic spirit how the proud, for their great self-exaltation, will be rejected and abased, he says: ‘How are they brought into desolation as in a moment? They are utterly consumed with terrors, they perish at their transgressions, as a dream when one awakes’ (Ps. 72:19–20). Thus he recognized that the successes of the ungodly in this age are a dream, not reality; their advantages appear to them only as long as they sleep. The moment they awake from this sleep, those who saw themselves as satiated will immediately find themselves thirsty, those who saw themselves abundantly fed will find themselves hungry—in a word, from that dream they will carry away nothing solid that could give them rest in reality. Yes, the people of this age sleep a deep sleep… Let them be awake to the world, but to God they sleep; and holy Job, who had previously marveled at their outward show, speaks well of them: ‘they shall be as chaff before the wind, or as dust which the whirlwind carries away,’ they die in bitterness of soul, having tasted nothing and having no good thing (Job 21:18, 25). But the righteous man, bearing the testimony of a good conscience, consoles himself especially with what awaits him at last, knowing that with his departure from this life he will be freed from all hardships and will assuredly receive a reward for his deeds. But this is accessible only to one who can say of himself: ‘from Your law I have not declined’—in whom not only shines the grace of right-doing, but also the purity of a sincere conscience. We do warfare to the Lord according to the law not only by outwardly visible deeds, but also by hidden feelings. The law says: ‘there shall not be a secret word in your heart of iniquity’ (Deut. 15:9), that is, lest you not only fail in deed or let slip a word, seeing the proud in glory, but also that in the secret of your heart you not admit the assault of iniquity when you ponder the judgments of God.”

Let us now briefly set forth what disposition a holy man should have. First, he must keep in mind the heavenly promises; second, he must understand what lot is appointed for those who live, so that, when troubles and sorrows arise, he does not lose heart, but consoles himself with hope drawn from the chain of testimonies of Divine Scripture; third, he must not, like some unbeliever, decline from the law when he sees that proud ungodly people and wrongdoers abound with riches in this present age, but firmly press forward on his path, avoiding fellowship with the proud, lest he also be infected by them, for “every proud-hearted person is an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 16:5).

Ps. 118:52. I remembered Your judgments from the beginning, O Lord, and was comforted.

This verse serves as a supplement to the previous one. “I remembered, O Lord,” he says, as it were, “Your righteous judgments, manifested by You from the beginning of the world—how You do honor and glorify those who suffer for virtue, and how You do dishonor and put to shame those who are full of happiness together with sin—and by this remembrance I was comforted in my sorrows and afflictions in the face of the proud revilers of Your law.” So Zigabenus interprets this passage. “Bearing in mind,” says Saint Athanasius the Great, “what is rendered to each from age to age and to eternity, by which the righteous man is comforted and remains untroubled; recalling the judgments You did render of old upon the oppressors of the Israelites, I was comforted, knowing that I myself also would not be abandoned in persecution, and that all things happen to people by God’s judgment.” “I brought to mind,” explains Blessed Theodoret, “what happened with Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses—how they were permitted to fall into various temptations, and how You did afterward make them glorious and renowned—and I drew from this sufficient consolation for myself.” “The proud,” writes Saint Ambrose, “by their attacks on the law shook my devotion to the law; but I remembered Your judgments and, comforted by them, returned to my former convictions and resolutions; for if someone, being instructed by the law and persuaded by examples, does not maintain that deep assurance that God’s words are incontrovertibly true, he is in danger of soon declining from the law. But gather the past into your memory, review the chain of ancient events, and you will see that as the sinner does not escape punishment for his wrongdoings, so the righteous man is not deprived of reward for his righteousness. See, there at the very beginning Adam, for transgressing the heavenly commandment, is expelled from the dwelling place of paradise; there Cain is condemned by God’s sentence to pay for his fratricide with groaning and trembling; there Enoch, taken up to heaven for his piety, escapes the sting of death; there Noah, righteous in God’s sight, becomes as the victor over the flood the new progenitor of the human race; there Abraham, for his faith, receives the promise of descendants over all the face of the earth; there Jacob, for his patience, seals the people of believers with the seal of the new name given to him (the name of Israel); there David, for his meekness, is preferred above his older brothers and clothed with royal dignity; there Elijah, for his zeal for God, is taken up by a chariot into the air and dwelling in a new kind of habitation, a heavenly abode. Running through all this in your memory, you will find where to draw consolation and how to strengthen yourself in faithfulness to God’s commandments. For one who keeps the commandments, God’s judgments are sweet, but for one who neglects them they are bitter, for in the shame of sinners he foresees the divine sentence being prepared for himself. He whose conscience is pure is not troubled by anything, applying to himself the consoling declaration: ‘heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together’ (Rom. 8:17).”

How natural it is for one in grief, especially one suffering injustice, to turn for consolation to the righteous judgment of God—this is proved by everyday experience. What word does a person who has been wronged usually say when it cuts him to the heart?—“God will judge you!” or: “There is a righteous God who sees all!”—and by this he fully eases his grief and calms his heart. On the other hand, nothing so sobers sinners and wrongdoers as the remembrance of God’s judgments and His righteous final court, in which nothing will be hidden and nothing left without recompense. Whoever at least slightly comes to an awareness and feeling of this court immediately lowers the hands raised for iniquity and stops the feet running toward sin. The judgment of God is the constant preacher of repentance, and he who heeds this preaching will not be put to shame. Blessed Augustine notes that the word “was comforted” some understand as “received instruction,” took a lesson.

Saint Ambrose addresses to all the following word: “Who among us is such that he could be comforted by the remembrance of God’s judgments? Even human courts are terrifying to sinners—how much more terrifying, then, must God’s judgments be to them! Look at how it goes in the ordinary course of affairs. The innocent go to court with gladness, and, chafing at the delay, demand a speedier resolution; while the guilty fear and flee from the court, and when they are caught in something, they try with all their might to put off the day of judgment as long as possible—and what a fright seizes them when the hour of it finally comes! Something similar, but on an immeasurable scale, will repeat itself at the judgment of God. Blessed is he who can await this heavenly judgment with joy!”

Ps. 118:53. Grief took hold of me because of the sinners that forsake Your law.

The multiplication of impiety and widespread corruption—here is a new source of sorrow for the prophet! Above, he pointed to the outstanding figures from this circle—the mockers and the assailants; now he describes the whole dense mass of those who sin without the fear of God or fear of His judgment, who, though not attacking, yet by their sight and shamelessness disturb the pious heart. In this verse he speaks only of the grief arising from this, while in the following verse he points to where consolation came to him in such grief.

The grief that seized him at the sight of the multiplication of sin was so powerful that he was close to fainting, as the Greek word and the corresponding Hebrew word indicate. A heart that loves God and neighbor cannot relate to this otherwise, for by sin those who bear the name of God dishonor God Himself, and destroy themselves beyond recovery, if they do not repent. Taking both to heart, the sincerely pious man is tormented. Of righteous Lot the holy Apostle Peter writes: “that righteous man, dwelling among them” (among the lawless Sodomites), “seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds” (2 Pet. 2:8). The righteous David experienced the same: “I have seen,” he says, “iniquity and strife in the city. Day and night shall it go round about it upon its walls: iniquity also and sorrow are in the midst of it. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets” (Ps. 54:10–12). Suffering over such a state of mankind, he says: “grief took hold of me.”

“Few share such a feeling,” says Saint Ambrose. “Most people grieve when they suffer injury from someone, or loss, or dishonor; but those who are more perfect and stronger in spirit grieve not over their own humiliation, but over the sin of those who humiliate them. An injury has been done to them, yet they sigh over the fall of the other, weeping over themselves as the cause of the offenders’ sin. Such was also the holy Paul: ‘out of much affliction and anguish of heart,’ he wrote to the Corinthians, ‘I wrote to you with many tears.’ But, grieving himself, he does not wish to grieve those who were worthy of reproof: ‘not that you should be grieved,’ he adds, ‘but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly to you’ (2 Cor. 2:4). Clearly he desires that the fallen come to contrition of repentance, assuring them that such contrition will be for him a source of joy: ‘For if I make you sorry,’ he continues, ‘who is he then that makes me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?’ (2 Cor. 2:2). Thus, although he rebukes, it is in order to bring to salvation by causing a certain grief—he condemns in order to absolve—he separates in order to receive more sincerely. Paul is such, among other reasons, because, being learned in the law, he knew the instructive example of the one who said: grief took hold of me because of the sinners. David suffered not because he was despised, not from what he had to endure, but because the law of God was abandoned and despised; he suffered for those who did this, because they were perishing because of it before God. As a good father, when a deranged son scolds him, slanders him, even strikes him, weeps not for himself but for the wretched state of his son; so also a good man, when he sees some sinner doing what is unworthy, even in the presence of an elder, showing no respect for grey hairs and not recognizing in his sinful stupor how improper and dishonorable his behavior is—he grieves over him, sighs over him as over a mortally ill person. As a good physician first offers counsel, then, having undertaken the cure, does not abandon the patient even when the patient, out of impatience, says something unpleasant to him; so the righteous man does not turn away from the sinner, despite the contempt he suffers from him. Even meeting with injuries, he attributes them not to the sinner but to the frenzy of the enemy troubling him, and cares not for his own vindication but for the healing of the soul of one desperately sick in spirit.”

“The source of such care for sinners,” says Saint Hilary, “is love according to God, by virtue of which, when one member suffers, all the others suffer with it.” “Grief took hold,” writes Saint Athanasius, that is, grief over sinners, of whom some sin without ever having known the beginning of the laws, while others, though knowing the law, transgress it. “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12:26).

Indifference to the flood of impiety and wholesale depravity reveals a weakening of moral and religious feeling. When this occurs, society is in an epidemic condition. When cholera strikes an area, all the inhabitants feel symptoms of cholera to varying degrees; so it is here too: the spreading impiety and depravity touches everyone little by little. One person may not participate in deed, but watches; another may not even watch, but is silent; and very rarely does anyone raise a voice—and even then only in a half-whisper. Such is our unhappy time as well! Yet this does not justify indifference, for to be zealous for the glory of God and for the reign of goodness and light is the duty of all who recognize that in this lies the true good of man, of human societies, and of humanity.

Ps. 118:54. Your statutes were my songs in the place of my pilgrimage.

“Were my songs”—songworthy, that is, they inspired a desire to sing. Whoever is absorbed in something with enthusiasm and with a feeling of pleasure is ready to sing, and does sing if he knows how. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So the prophet too, immersing himself in God’s statutes, receiving them in his heart and being drawn by love for them, sang of them, praised them, and expressed their worth, their divine importance and their binding obligation for all.

Setting these words in relation to the previous verse, we see that there grief was expressed, while here the source of consolation is indicated. He speaks as if saying: “The sin and impiety that multiplied around me cast my soul into grief, while I, immersing myself in Your statutes, warmed my heart with love for them and thus drove away the gloomy disposition within me, and that ruinous influence which the sinfulness surrounding us ordinarily leaves in the soul.” Or thus: “It was sorrowful to see the flood of evil and impiety around me, but I was consoled by Your statutes, meditating on them and intensifying the certainty of their immutability and saving power, in contrast to the ruin brought about by impiety.”

The place of pilgrimage is this present life. The feeling of being “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb. 11:13) is common to all sincerely God-fearing people. In the prophet it was heightened by the fact that in those around him he saw no agreement with the disposition of his heart. They planned and did one thing, while he did quite another, and was therefore a stranger among them. In him another spirit of life was active, not of this world. Therefore, separating himself from all, he cleaved to what proceeded from that same heavenly realm from which came the life-force that inspired and delighted him with the statutes that had gone forth from God. They breathed upon him the native air of the spiritual Fatherland. And as in springtime, when the awakened new life envelops one who has stepped out into the open field from a stuffy dwelling, a song is involuntarily drawn forth to express the joy of life, so the prophet too sang, when in the statutes the heavenly elements, native to the spirit, enveloped him. By this he also consoled himself and drove away the evil spirit that wafted over him from the sinful world. And in the Church of God, spiritual songs were therefore established by the holy apostles for singing, so that the souls of the assembled pious people might be consoled in various sorrows, and at the same time so that the spirit of the world might be wafted away—which cannot but have a corrupting influence on those living in its midst. One who enters God’s house cannot immediately stand before God: he needs to be sung over, as it were, and when this singing is complete, he needs to be led into sympathy with the spiritual realm. Both are achieved by spiritual singing in churches. Without singing, worship will not be in its proper order.

Even outside the church, nothing can so easily dispel the spirit of the world as the singing of spiritual songs. When its attacks intensify—begin to sing, and it will depart. For this one must have psalms and hymns memorized. Saint Hilary writes: “The prophet, having once received the psalm-songs by hearing, teaches us by his example always to keep them in the heart, so as afterward to repeat them also with the lips, as if performing a service.” “The proud,” says Saint Ambrose, “did not turn him from the law; he found consolation in God’s judgments. And grief over sinners did not consume him; against it he armed himself with singing about God’s statutes. What is kept in the heart is what one usually sings; and what is sung is the more deeply sealed in the feelings. We should not superficially skim through what we read, lest we hold it in mind only during the time of reading and not when there is no book in our hands. Let the statutes of God be for us a hymn, a song, a psalm; let us sing with the spirit, let us sing with the understanding (1 Cor. 14:15), so that, if we forget them in time of need, it not be said to each of us: ‘you have cast My words behind you’ (Ps. 49:17). To drive forgetfulness from the holy house, wise Solomon commanded the singers to sing, and they proclaimed the wondrous works of God (2 Chr. 5:12). In an assembly of those praying to God there must always be those who sing, so that by their singing the unclean spirit may be driven away, just as by the singing of holy David the spirit that tormented Saul was driven away (1 Sam. 16:23). It happened that even the prophets, before prophesying, commanded skilled singers to sing, so as to be disposed to the visitation of the grace of the Spirit by the pleasant sweetness of melody (2 Kings 3:15). Sweet is not that singing which caresses the ear, but that which elevates the spirit and heart; and the New Testament is called a song, for the Lord Himself deigned to say: ‘We have piped to you, and you have not danced’ (Luke 7:32). He sang to us in the Gospel the forgiveness of sins. The Jews should have heeded this—they did not, and earned reproach.”

“But God’s statutes cannot be sung by one who has not detached himself from all earthly cares. Therefore the prophet also added: ‘in the place of my pilgrimage.’ Here—we are pilgrims, but with God—we are His own. Therefore the apostle says that in God’s house, having been called to faith, we are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household (Eph. 2:19); and he who is of God’s household already goes forth from the world; he who moves amid heavenly things is a pilgrim on earth; he who sings has set aside all burdensome cares and calculations that oppress the heart. Not as one grieved by care over things beyond reach, but as one free from all bodily needs and passions did the same prophet sing: ‘I will sing to You with the psaltery, O God. My lips shall rejoice when I sing to You; and my soul, which You have redeemed’ (Ps. 70:22–23). Thus he sang in joy, because he was satisfied with better goods. His spirit was nourished with the food of reverence for the Divine—and he sang.”

Ps. 118:55. I have remembered Your name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept Your law.

The last two verses present a general conclusion from what preceded: namely, on what, above all, one should dwell amid all the unpleasantness that brings grief, or what is the all-encompassing law of our life on earth, which is full of sorrows and troubles. This law, in the words of the son of David, can be expressed thus: “Remember God and keep His commandments,” having sought them out, of course, with all the soul, “for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13). This is the content of the present verses.

“I have remembered Your name in the night.” Night here signifies either the ordinary part of the day, or in a figurative sense—the present life in general, or the sorrowful circumstances of life, or the attacks of forgetfulness, insensibility, and the rising up of all manner of bad thoughts, feelings, and passions.

In the first sense the thought would be: at night, when everything around me sank into deep silence, when my soul too was freed from the pressure of external impressions, I remembered Your name, more vividly recognizing that You are the Creator, the Provider, and the merciful and righteous Rewarder, in Whose hand is all—and consequently I too, with my poor soul. Remembering this, I was inspired with a firmer resolve to keep Your law. Or thus: not only at night, but at every other time as well I always remembered Your name; it never left my thoughts amid all the affairs and circumstances of life, and this gave me the convenience of keeping Your law. If I have kept it until now, it is because I remembered You—that You are omnipresent—and recognized, at the same time, how incongruous it is in this awareness to permit anything displeasing to You, not only in words and deeds, but also in thoughts—and I remained always faithful to Your law.

In the second sense one may understand this thus: although unpleasantness, calamities, troubles, and all manner of failures cast gloom over my soul and shook faithfulness to Your law; yet, remembering Your name in this night and recognizing that all is from You and all is ordered for my good, I was calmed and remained faithful to Your law.

Whichever meaning one takes, the prophet’s intent in these words is the same—to impress that the remembrance of God is the source of every consolation and of the full strength of a moral character always faithful to God.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “I have remembered in the night…”

“The company of the saints, always rising at night, both prays and glorifies the God of all. But I think that ‘night’ here refers to the time of temptations, because it brings darkness and overtakes men like the night. It is precisely in this time that it is especially necessary to remember the God of all: this consoles, encourages, and repels hostile thoughts.”

Blessed Augustine subsumes under this all the sorrows that were mentioned in this stanza of eight verses: “Night,” he says, “is the abasement in which our mortality places us—a night from the proud who transgress the law ‘exceedingly’—a night from grief over sinners who forsake the law of God—and finally, a night from the place of this pilgrimage, until the Lord come and ‘bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God’ (1 Cor. 4:5). In this night man must remember God; ‘he that glories, let him glory in the Lord’ (1 Cor. 1:31); hence it is written: ‘not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory’ (Ps. 113:9), since through this one can be disposed to keep the law not for one’s own sake but for the glory of God, as David did, according to the indication of the present verse. He would not have kept the law, had he, trusting in himself alone to keep it, not remembered the name of God; ‘for our help is in the name of the Lord’ (Ps. 123:8).”

Saint Ambrose says: “It is characteristic of the righteous to direct himself to the praise of God at every time, not only by day but also at night. ‘I have remembered,’ he says—meaning he always remembered, not allowing a single moment of time to pass without prayerful turning to God. If those occupied with secular learning do not indulge in sleep, how much more must those who desire to know God not be hindered in this by bodily sleep, yielding to it only as much as nature requires! David every night wetted his bed with tears, rose at midnight and gave thanks to the Lord; while you think to give the whole night over to deep sleep! It is then most of all that you must pray to the Lord; then most of all ask for His help, most of all fear sin, when it seems to you that you are hidden from all. When darkness surrounds you and walls conceal you, then most forcefully reassert the thought that God sees all, even what is hidden. Do not say: I am covered by darkness—who sees me, and whom should I fear, enclosed and hidden within walls? ‘The face of the Lord is against them that do evil’ (Ps. 33:17). But suppose you see no witness—do you not see yourself? And do you not fear the testimony of your own conscience? Do you not know that the darkness of night is not a safeguard but a kindler of sin? When the body is heated by sleep and food, the wakefulness of the mind is weakened, and its strength is undermined by sleep, and then lust assaults and troubles the heart. And this is the more dangerous because at that time the shame of impurity is not seen, the brightness of blamelessness is not valued, the glory of chastity is not recognized. It was night when Judas betrayed the Lord and Peter denied Him. It is especially at this time that one must remember God, review His statutes, reread His admonitory teachings. Let the commandments of purity not depart from your thought; a mind occupied with them will repel the inflammation of lust and cool the burning of the flesh.”

Ps. 118:56. This was mine, because I kept Your statutes.

In this verse two thoughts may be admitted: the remembrance of God’s name was the reason why I sought out Your statutes; and also: this remembrance “was mine,” was formed and strengthened in my soul because I sought out Your statutes.

In the course of life of those zealous for pleasing God and for salvation, both things actually do occur. A person remembers God—that he depends on Him in all things and that he will one day have to give account to Him for all—and comes to himself; then seeing the disorders in his life, he resolves to correct them and thereafter to devote himself to walking in God’s will. Clearly it is nothing other than the remembrance of God that has caused him to seek out God’s statutes. Thus Blessed Theodoret understands this: “This,” says the prophet, “brought me to the state of gaining the upper hand over myself (of breaking with my former self) and of choosing for myself the acquisition of Your statutes.” Further, one who has sought out such a life cannot get along without remembering God, for every commandment he is to fulfill is God’s commandment, and he is to fulfill them without ceasing, since all our deeds and relationships are encompassed by commandments. Every step reminds him of God, and a life constantly faithful to the commandments indelibly imprints the remembrance of Him in mind and heart. For such a work of forming the remembrance of God he himself voluntarily takes up the task and compels himself to it, in the assurance and from the experienced benefit of this—that with it the fulfilling of the commandments goes more successfully and the passions are overcome more easily and more thoroughly.

Saint Hilary writes: “‘This was mine’ refers to the remembrance by which he remembered the name of God through the nights; and the words ‘was mine’ indicate that it came upon him not by chance, was not received for a time, but was always in him and remained in him, and was forever rooted within him by the power of faith. And it ‘was’ such for him because he sought out the statutes. Through ceaseless seeking of them he reached the point of maintaining unceasing remembrance of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This verse, as noted, together with the previous one, forms the conclusion of this stanza of eight verses, in which the holy prophet, having indicated various sorrows and the sources of consolation within them, finally expresses upon what to settle and to remain more faithfully. He speaks as if saying: having sought to please God by walking in His holy will, abide in the unceasing remembrance of God, having given your entire self to God and expecting from Him assistance in every good deed. From this will come to you unconquerable courage in the struggle with sorrows and unshakeable faithfulness to God’s commandments.

We quote on this subject a few words of Saint Isaac the Syrian:

“A man who doubts that God is a helper in good deeds fears his own shadow and is tormented by hunger in times of plenty and abundance, and amid surrounding calm is filled with storm; but he who hopes in God is firm in his heart, and the sufficiency of his life is evident to all men, and before his enemies is his praise.

The commandments of God are above all the treasures of the world. He who has acquired them finds God within himself. He who always rests in God’s care has obtained God as his steward; he who desires the fulfillment of God’s will shall have the heavenly angels as his guides; he who fears sins completes the awesome journey without stumbling, and in times of gloom finds light before him and within himself. The Lord guards the steps of him who fears sins, and in times of stumbling (temptation) the mercy of God goes before him.”

Verses 57–120

Verses 57–64

The eighth stanza of eight verses runs under the letter “het”—“sin.”

The prophet speaks here not of sin itself, but of how the sinner breaks free from its bonds and what methods are used to stand firm on the good path. He takes the sinner at the moment when, having awakened from sinful slumber, he faces the decision—either to stop sinning, or, deferring repentance, to walk once again the same path of sin. Before him stands the world with its pleasures, and the Lord with His commandments. Having considered both sides as he should, he decides: “You are my portion, O Lord; I have said that I would keep Your law” (v. 57). He has resolved to keep the law from now on—but what to do with his former life? Nothing other than, falling before the gracious God, to cry out: “Have mercy upon me according to Your word” (v. 58)! Repentance has been offered, forgiveness of sins received: what then is to be done? One must think through the new life—in its general outlines and in its particulars, conform it to God’s commandments—and turn one’s feet back to God’s testimonies (v. 59). At the outset of the new path, how many obstacles! But when the order of the new life was being thought through, all of them were foreseen, and readiness was declared to take them up and overcome them, whatever the cost. Therefore the encounter with them does not shake him who has resolved to keep the commandments (v. 60). What might most acutely shake this resolve would be the companions of the sinful life and sinful habits, but even they will not cause the firmly resolute to forget God’s law (v. 61). Thus all ties with sin are severed. But temptations are not yet at an end: one must strengthen oneself in good and lay up strength to withstand evil. The prophet points to three of the most powerful means for this: night vigils (v. 62), fellowship in word and prayer with God-fearing people (v. 63), and above all—the entrusting of oneself to God’s mercy (v. 64).

Ps. 118:57. You are my portion, O Lord; I have said that I would keep Your law.

“You are my portion, O Lord.” Who is it fitting to say this? It is fitting both for one who has forsaken all and desired to serve the Lord alone, and for one who is forsaking sin and returning to the good path of God’s law. Both of them say in their hearts: “To You, O Lord, I dedicate my whole self”—the first in order to remain always with the Lord alone, choosing the part of Mary, who at the Lord’s feet listened to His word alone; and the second in order to please the Lord by fulfilling His commandments in service to his brethren as best he can. The Lord regards both of them with favor, since both have placed in their hearts the intention to please Him.

The thought in this verse is that the soul places its supreme good, its treasure, and the source of all it desires in the Lord alone. People choose for themselves various objects in which they hope to find satisfaction for their desires, and to which they then devote all their occupations and all their time; whether they find what they seek—they themselves know best. But those who, passing by everything else, place their ultimate good in God alone, do indeed find it in Him, since nothing can give contentment to our spirit except God: such is its very nature. He is the unceasing summoner of our souls. He calls not aloud but silently, expressing dissatisfaction with everything in the realm of created things with which man tries to nourish it. God’s word gives clarity and definiteness to His call, while grace gives it strength. And so when, by God’s mercy, they encounter a man living either far from God or in forgetfulness of God, encompass and penetrate him; then, yielding to them and resolving to live according to their guidance, he turns away from everything and says in the depths of his heart: “You are my portion, O Lord. From now on all else aside; You alone will I seek, toward You alone will I strive.”

Judging by the heading of the stanza, the prophet had in mind precisely this moment, as is also evident from the second half-verse: “I have said that I would keep Your law.” I have wandered hitherto on the crossroads of sin; now I lay a firm resolve to keep Your law, O Lord, so that, by pleasing You, I may obtain You and in You find the full rest of my heart. From now on You are my portion, and Your law the rule of my life! This resolution is the conclusion, or consequence, of the preceding changes occurring in the soul of the sinner, for he cannot say so all at once. What sinner does not recognize that he is a sinner and that he must finally throw off his bad way of life! This is characteristic only of the hardened and the desperate. Most of them think: I will sin a little more, and then I will stop. Although by this they entangle themselves more and more in the nets of sin, one cannot deny that they have such a thought—unless they have already reached hardening and have completely surrendered themselves to sin and through sin to Satan, toward which, however, they are indeed heading, by deferring their conversion. Thus almost all sinners think only to sin today and repent tomorrow. But to some it comes to mind not tomorrow but today, right now, to attend to their conversion, and with the seriousness that the matter itself demands.

How this comes to mind, how attention is fixed upon it, and how a person becomes so interested in it that, leaving everything else, he takes up this one matter alone to consider and to decide finally, without deferring even a minute—this is the secret of our spiritual life, which no one is able to explain. We say only that the grace of God, by ways known to it alone, passes within to the depths of consciousness and conscience, and stirs the spirit of man there so that he finds it an urgent matter to attend immediately to his moral state and to its correction.

But this is only the beginning of the matter. One might say that few sinners do not experience such a turn within; but, having been in it for a few minutes, or an hour or two, or even a day or two, they withdraw from it without reaching the proper decision, and give themselves over again to the former “tomorrow.” That, of course, is a matter of freedom, since conversion is effected not by grace alone, but jointly with freedom. Grace stirred the spirit, the word of God passed to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, consciousness and conscience clearly heard the indictment of the former life and agreed with it—now the work before the person himself is to consider, and to throw off one thing and accept another. And this is the main thing: here begins the struggle within, for life or for death. On one side—habitual sin with Satan and the world; on the other—spirit and conscience with grace, while consciousness and freedom stand in the middle, with the wish, however, to be rid of the slavery of sin by overcoming those who have enslaved it. How and what occurs then in the laboratory of the spirit—who can say? Even he himself in whom it occurs does not always remember all that transpires at that time. But finally sin, the world, and Satan are convicted of wrongness; their deceitfulness is exposed; the person clearly recognizes that he has been seduced and drawn by phantoms to his own destruction, and he turns away from them as from enemies, passing by desire and choice to the opposite path of the commandments and pleasing of God. God’s grace seals this desire in the person, and in the spirit the resolution is pronounced: “I have said that I would keep Your law, O Lord.” From now on—You, O Lord, are my portion!

This is the moment the prophet depicts in this verse. It is the first, chief, and unerring impulse out of the realm of sin. After it everything else proceeds, though not without labor, yet not without success. The person has now set his foot firmly on the promised land.

Ps. 118:58. I entreated Your face with my whole heart; have mercy upon me according to Your word.

A sinful person has laid the resolve to no longer offend God with his sins and always to keep His law; but what to do about his former life? Where to put this multitude of shameful deeds which stand recorded against the sinner in the book of eternal righteousness and must be blotted out, so that this same righteousness may give free access to God’s mercies to the sinner? For such blotting out of sins the sinner himself has no means whatever. Looking around and hoping for help in this regard from nowhere, he has recourse only to God’s mercy, and cries out: “Have mercy on me!” And he does not merely say this, but from his whole heart, and not in some vague and undefined way, but clearly recognizing God as present before him and as judging his wrongdoings, without presenting any claim to the mercy he has offended by sinning in reliance upon it, but recalling only the promise of God that He is ready to receive every repentant soul: “Have mercy on me according to Your word!”

At this point the enemy is accustomed to ensnare the one turning from sin with despair of being pardoned, on account of the multitude of sins, and thereby to cut off his path to conversion. “Where do you think you are going?” he says. “There is no pardon for you! Do you see how many shameful things you have done! With what face will you appear before God, the All-Holy and All-Righteous?” This voice resounds strikingly in the conscience; and there is no sinner who has not been struck by it on the path of his conversion. Until now the enemy set before him only the delights of his kingdom—how everything there is sweet, glorious, and abundant; but when the sinner, sensing the bitterness of its pleasures, the shame of its glory, the costliness of its abundance, has decisively rejected all—then he takes up another approach: “You will leave this behind,” he represents to him, “but you will not gain that. Do you see what you are? Who will receive you? You might as well stay as you are. The God of justice has already decided your fate and has determined, on account of your great depravities, to no longer receive you before His face.”

The sincerely repentant person acknowledges all this and agrees that it would be just to treat him so; yet faith assures him that there is no sin that overcomes the mercy of God. He sees in God not mercy overshadowed by justice, but justice overshadowed by mercy—and not bore mercy, but mercy that deals with justice completely justly, satisfying all its claims. He believes that the Lord Jesus Christ bore all our sins upon the Cross and by the Cross tore up all their handwriting. It remains only to appropriate this act of the economy of our salvation to oneself—which he does by joining to the vow of keeping the law the vow of suffering together with the Lord. Animated by this, the sinner says before God in his conscience: “I am ready to endure all things, outwardly and inwardly; I will torment and afflict myself for the sinful pleasures and delights—only have mercy!” This conscientious self-imposed penance, warmed by faith and from it receiving weight before God, opens the entrance of good hope into the heart; and contrary to the tempter’s frightening suggestion that God will not receive him before His face, the penitent begins to pray to that very face of God with his whole heart: “Have mercy on me,” vividly conscious that he is standing before God Himself, immeasurably great and all-righteous, and moreover in such a state that in his own justification he can present nothing—yet still he stands before Him, winged by the hope that He Who gave him being and preserved him during the days of his lawlessness will not cast him off and will not deprive him of participation in salvation, graciously arranged for all and ungrudgingly given to all. The consciousness of God is vivid in the penitent, and especially from the side that He is a consuming fire. Therefore he is also hopeful, standing before Him and committing his lot into His hands; and therefore from his whole heart he prays to Him: “Have mercy on me!”

With his whole heart—not with cold reasoning, but with the fullness of penitential feelings. Now shame, that he has so debased himself; now self-reproach, that he could have, yet would not; now contrition, that he has offended a God so merciful; now regret, that he has so ruined himself; now fear—what if God truly does reject him; then again hope, that He Who spared not His own Son for our salvation—how will He not grant forgiveness sought in His name? All such feelings pass one after another and hold the one praying in a state of tension, in which he agonizingly cries from the depths of his soul: “Have mercy on me according to Your word!”

How long, then, should he cry thus?—He has begun, and let him continue to cry. Can one forget how greatly God has been offended?—If one cannot, then no time can be appointed when conscience would cease to wring forth the cries of contrite repentance. And this is still for the past; but here minute by minute new offenses are added as well, though not willfully; therefore there is no limit to contrite repentance. It constitutes the foundation of a God-pleasing life: “a heart contrite and humbled, God will not despise” (Ps. 50:19). The path of the contrite is safer from falls, for his “steps are humble and shall not stumble” (Ps. 36:31).

Ps. 118:59. I thought on my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies.

Weep for your sins, but life must still go on—as you have promised, according to God’s law. Keep grief in your heart, but with your other members do the deeds of righteousness, as you formerly used them to do the deeds of unrighteousness. Walk no longer where your feet formerly wandered, but direct them to the ways of God, to His testimonies and commandments. Having been freed from sin, become enslaved to righteousness, and as you formerly “yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity,” now yield your members “servants to righteousness to holiness” (Rom. 6:19).

Thanks be to the Lord, we have no need to rack our brains over how to live so as no longer to offend God by our deeds. We have the Gospel, the apostolic Writings, and the prophetic Writings. Everywhere the “ways of God” are set forth at length—paths determined by Him for us. Bring these paths to mind, apply them to yourself and to the course of your life, arrange everything so that it is convenient for you to walk on them, and then turn your feet from paths that are not good.

The commandments are fulfilled not by the feet alone, but for every member there is its proper commandment. Do not let your eyes wander, lest you encounter a sin condemned by the Lord; do not open your ears to every kind of speech, lest you stir up lustful thoughts or gather material for gossip that would condemn you; restrain your taste from pleasures and your palate from overeating, lest from the lesser pleasure you pass to the more ruinous, and by multiplying fat not bring upon yourself laziness, drowsiness, and illness; bind your tongue with silence and prudence in speech, so that talkativeness does not lead to idle chatter and, by stirring up the evil that has settled within you to your own harm, you do not sow similar evil in others; replace unnecessary distractions with staying at home, so that, having deepened your attention through solitude, you will always appear strong in the struggle with yourself and with the enemy; accustom your hands to generosity and labor, so that, for lack of idle time, there is no opportunity to employ them in sinful deeds, and so that the prayers of those you have benefited may always cover you from unseen arrows. Occupy yourself only with God and divine things; direct your undertakings and initiatives only toward producing more good for the glory of God; seek no other pleasures and delights than those that are in the Lord. Gather all this and the like, and direct your life so that it all goes according to God’s testimonies.

Gathering God’s testimonies and applying them to yourself, in them you will also find moral support for walking according to them. Here is what Saint Athanasius the Great says: “Since I directed all my thought to Your commandments, I also entered upon the path of testimonies.” God’s testimonies are attractive; the commandment of the Lord is bright and light-bearing. When you illuminate all your life with it, in what an attractive light does it appear—especially when you compare it with the gloomy life in sin and passions! You have entered upon this path—so hold this brightness and light-bearing quality of the commandments as your guiding star and strive to attain it. Our nature is beautiful, harmonious, and God-like. The commandments impose nothing superfluous, but only set our nature as it ought to be. He who always fulfills the commandments himself becomes bright and light-bearing, and this is because the commandments open the way for God into the soul, or rather, God Himself through them arranges this path for Himself to us, and dwelling and making His abode in us, fills all our nature with light. Take courage and be strong! As much gloom, anxiety, and disorder as you experienced while living in sin, so much light, peace, and wise harmony in all things awaits you, if you remain faithful to the commandments, which you have come to know, considered, and found applicable to yourself.

Reflection on God’s ways, once and for all, establishes the steps of the one converted from sin and accompanies him at every step. What can be thought out and considered at the beginning is only the general framework; whereas every deed and every step has its own particulars, which must also all be determined in the light of God’s testimonies. But once the principles are clearly known, the particulars will be determined from them almost of themselves. Nevertheless, one must still pay attention and unceasingly reflect on one’s words and deeds, so as not to err and not stain one’s conscience with anything. The experience of life will afterward accustom one to this so that determining what is right in any situation will present no difficulty, however entangled it may seem. In this sense Saint Hilary draws from this such a lesson for us: “The prophet recalls how he acted, and gives us a lesson on how we too should act. He thinks through every step and lays it in such a way that it accords with God’s testimonies. He permitted neither tongue to speak, nor foot to step, nor hand to reach out to do anything before thoroughly considering the whole matter in all its details, so that the action would then be only the execution of what had been resolved in the mind in the light of God’s testimonies.” Therefore a person is firm in his deeds, and if he meets anything, he is not stopped, because all this has for the most part already entered his plan. Such a man cannot be struck by the unexpected.

Ps. 118:60. I made haste, and delayed not, to keep Your commandments.

Preparation, like reflection on God’s ways, is twofold: one—at the beginning of entering this path, in surveying it as a whole; another—daily, in foreseeing the possible contingencies of the day. Even wise Sirach advised one approaching to serve the Lord to “prepare his soul for temptation” (Sir. 2:1). Not to rest and pleasure does the Lord also call those who follow Him, but He says: “in the world you shall have tribulation” (John 16:33). One converting from sin to virtue, says Saint Athanasius, in order to please the Lord, sees this beforehand and, choosing this path, prepares himself for all unpleasantness—or, in the Lord’s words, takes up his cross and follows Him. Therefore, whatever may happen to him, nothing disturbs him, nothing shakes his courage, because, as Blessed Theodoret explains, “having brought himself into readiness to meet the onset of calamities, he is not overwhelmed even when a sudden onset comes. Thus the courageous Daniel, thus the blessed youths, thus the wonderful Maccabees, thus all the martyrs of the Savior overcame ungodliness.”

The ineffectiveness of obstacles—or of those who seek to shake one who approaches the Lord with prudence—arises from the fact that at the very outset, when he is still resolving upon this path, he renounces himself, that is, renounces his own life, and by a decision of the will offers it as a sacrifice to the Lord. Therefore, even if death should meet him, it would come as no surprise. Just as there is no approach to a wrestler who fights to the death—for that very disposition gives him a formidable courage—so the enemy has no means of overcoming one who, in entering upon the path of virtue, has resolved beforehand to die rather than turn back from it.

Saint Paul sees the source of the indestructible strength of such persons in their love for the Lord. They are united with the Lord at the beginning, for through faith in Him they rise to the hope of mercy—and not through faith alone, but with the addition of resolve and desire to enter into co-suffering with Him. From this they burn with love for Him, and this love is their indestructible strength. “Who shall separate us from the love of the Lord—tribulation, or distress, or persecution?.. Nothing, neither death… nor things present, nor things to come… In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:35–38).

Such is the general preparation; but there is also, or ought to be for each of us, a particular preparation. Each day, beginning with the morning prayer, survey all possible contingencies and, according to what thoughts and feelings each may by its nature arouse in you, prepare counter-thoughts and counter-feelings, and fortify them with good reflections so that they may have strength within themselves. Do the same every hour as well, the moment you see something approaching; quickly cast your eye over what is possible and arm yourself with the instruments of resistance. The unexpected strikes and panics the soul, and a soul in panic can have neither strength nor composure.

This preparation consists in resolving beforehand not to yield to an impression and not to allow the movement aroused to reach the heart. There the eye, the ear, the word, the motion, or something else falls upon the heart as a stone upon still water—and off go the ripples of thoughts and stirrings. Fight them! But if you do not allow them to reach the heart, if you have first reinforced the surface of the heart with counter-thoughts and counter-feelings so that it becomes like water covered with ice, then all those little stones falling inward from without will bounce off, testifying by their sound only that they struck—but did not penetrate to the depths.

The prophet prepared himself and was not troubled, but always kept the commandments of God—those very commandments that the situations he encountered required him to fulfill. One thing would arouse anger, yet he did not become angry; another would arouse lust, yet he did not lust; another would lead to condemnation, yet he did not condemn; another to envy, yet he did not envy; another would cause him to boast and puff himself up, yet he did not boast but humbled himself. So in every circumstance, whatever commandment applied to him, that he would fulfill. And this went always surely and rightly with him, because he had prepared himself for all of it. He did not reach for the commandment at the moment when action was required, but had prepared in advance—and therefore the result was good.

Ps. 118:61. The snares of sinners have entangled me, but I have not forgotten Your law.

“Snares,” as blessed Theodoret explains, means cords; “have entangled me”—drawn tight around me. The cords with which one who turns from sin to virtue feels himself bound are either ties to sinners—sinful companionship—or one’s own sinful habits, which are indeed cords that bind every sinner fast and tight. To break both is the hardest thing of all; even when they have been broken, the difficulty does not diminish, for upon encountering former circumstances or persons a storm of memories rises in the mind, and the heart responds to them with sympathy. Then these cords obscure the bright face of the law like a fog or a cloud of dust, and transform their own ugliness into alluring charm. Despite all this, the prophet says, I did not forget Your law; I did not allow them to eclipse it in my consciousness or to give my sympathy toward them any advantage over my sympathy toward the law.

These cords must be broken in the very first act of resolve—as indeed they are, for then everything is sacrificed to the Lord regardless of any consequences of such a step. Thereafter, when the order of the new life is thought through (verse Ps. 118:59), consideration is given both to how to resist evil companionship and to how to uproot bad habits within oneself. In such an order the actual life of the one who has turned then proceeds. But he is still only reforming himself; sympathy toward the former life is awakened in him whenever certain situations stir it, and being stirred, it binds and tightens as if anew. At this very point, to counteract it, the memory of the law—which one resolved to follow wholeheartedly in the hour of decision—rises up in consciousness and conscience. This memory again tears those cords asunder, just as the initial resolve to keep the law had torn them at the beginning. Although the prophet says “I did not forget,” by this he gives us to understand that he held the law in memory and that this memory was the knife that cut those cords whenever they would weave themselves back together of their own accord and attempt to bind him.

They tell of one who had reformed himself: when the companions of his former wicked life met him and called him back to the old ways, he told them flatly, “I am no longer the same man,” and, turning away from them, went on his own road. So powerful and significant is the first, complete, and unwavering resolve! It gives a firmness and strength of will that even bonds more tender than mere companionship cannot shake.

Saint John the Dwarf, in the Apophthegmata Patrum, offers on this subject the following parable. “In a certain city there lived a beautiful harlot who had many admirers; she also attracted the attention of the governor of the province. One day he said to her: promise to live chastely, and I will marry you. She agreed and came to live in his house. But her former admirers did not cease to seek her out, and learning that she had been taken by the governor, they devised how to lure her away from there. If we go directly to the house, they reasoned, the governor will throw us in prison; so we will do this: we will go behind the house and whistle. She will recognize our whistle and come out to us. And so they did. But the reformed harlot, upon hearing the whistle, stopped her ears and, running into the inner chambers, shut the doors.” This parable Saint John the Dwarf interpreted thus: the harlot is the sinful soul; her friends are the passions and sinful people; the governor is Christ; the inner chamber is the heart given over to Christ; the whistling is the enticements of thoughts and encounters. So the soul that has turned to the Lord always flees into the heart, to stand before the Lord there in prayer and thereby to scatter the temptations that arise.

So it is that the sinful cords, once broken by the first resolve to serve the Lord, are readily broken again each time the enemy plots anew to ensnare the reforming sinner in them.

Ps. 118:62. At midnight I rise to give thanks to You for the judgments of Your righteousness.

This verse and the two that follow indicate what means are employed so as to break free more easily from the bonds of sin. Much of what has been said thus far has the same sense, for the work of thinking through all the arrangements of the new life and defining them by the commandments is also a means of resisting sin; preparing in advance for possible encounters that might lead to temptation is likewise a means; and so is breaking all sinful ties and changing the habits that feed sin. But here the most decisive means are indicated.

“At midnight I rose.” We understand this as a night vigil spent in praise and prayer. Saint Athanasius writes: “Not only the day, but also the night—even the very middle of the night, when sleep is most pleasantly overpowering—I spent praising You and singing of Your righteous judgments. The divine Apostle did the same together with Silas, when, having received wounds and stripes, with feet fast in the stocks, he mingled prayer with song, and reaped the fair fruit of this vigil, for he experienced for himself the Divine generosity.”

To this the words of Saint Ambrose also apply: “It is not enough to pray by day—one must also rise at night, and at midnight. The Lord Himself spent nights in prayer, so that by His own example He might move you also to prayer. Before, the prophet said: ’I remembered Your name in the night’ (verse Ps. 118:55); and now he says: ’at midnight I rose’ — to teach you not only to be awake at night, but to rise for prayer at the very midnight hour. One may remember God at night without rising; one may rise without standing in prayer—but he says: I rose at midnight and stood in prayer to give praise to God. It is especially at this hour that one must pray to God and weep over one’s sins; not only to seek forgiveness for past sins, but by prayer to turn away present sins and to fortify oneself against future ones, for at that hour many temptations press in upon us. It is especially then that the lust of the flesh blazes up and the enemy sets his snares, seizing upon it. Then the blood is more agitated, and the mind, overcome by sleep, loses its sobriety. The enemy approaches freely and spreads his nets to ensnare the soul that has set aside its vigilance. Unclean spirits surround it, envelop it in darkness, and begin to suggest every impurity, arguing that no one sees—there is neither informer nor witness. If the mind resists, they enter into argument with it, holding up as examples many saints who sinned but afterward obtained forgiveness and covered over their former sins. The enemy hates such repentance, but to deceive, he promises it. But when he succeeds in drawing out consent to sin, and sees that the soul now refrains from the sin itself not out of love of virtue but out of fear of judgment and punishment, he instils various deceptive thoughts, so that the soul begins to say to itself: ’Who sees me? Darkness is around me and walls cover me… whom shall I fear?’ (Sir. 23:24–25). The Most High does not see; our sins do not reach Him; He does not look upon our abominations. Thus this hour is well suited to temptation. Ponder all this, and then soar aloft in spirit to God, so that the enemy, seeing that the light of your dwelling with God has closed the approach to your soul, will flee from you, and you will pass through the midnight hour without stumbling. Rise then at this hour for prayer—the very hour at which the tempter is accustomed to plunge us into impurity. The greater the danger, the greater the heavenly help one must draw upon. It is ready, but only for the one who is watchful and praying. Rise and rouse your mind. He who keeps you will not slumber, if He finds you without slumber; He Himself will arise, stirred by the wakefulness of your soul; He will command the winds, and they will be still, and tranquility will be established in your breast, troubled by the storm of the enemy’s assaults. We must rise at this hour also because the Bridegroom comes at midnight. Take care, then, that He does not find you sleeping. We must rise to glorify the Lord and to sing songs of thanksgiving to Him; we must give praise for His eternal judgments, ascribing to Him all the good that befalls us. That you are on the right path—this is His decree: He guards those who commit themselves to Him. And at all times one must act thus, and neither by day nor by night nor at any other hour must one cease to glorify God.” And all who desired to cut off evil in themselves and establish good within them loved to devote midnight to prayer and, in general, to spend the greater part of the night in converse with God. Saint Isaac the Syrian attributes very great significance to this ascetic practice for spiritual advancement.

Why then does the prophet, of all ascetic labors, mention only this one? Because it is a condensed representation of all the others. One who does not allow the body to rest at midnight—will he allow it to rest at any other time? Will he give it food in satiety and drink in abundance? Will he indulge it in laziness with regard to work? Will he permit it washings, incense, and fragrant ointments? Will he allow it revels and diversions? Rising at midnight is the flower on the tree of all bodily ascetic labors. Likewise, the midnight prayer is a summation of all the inner ascetic labors—sobriety, vigilance, attentiveness, meditation upon God, immersion in the words of God, contemplation of the mysteries of God and all His works of providence, and everything else that the soul customarily does in view of opposing sin and the passions and planting the virtues within itself. Of this alone did the prophet speak, knowing that whoever acts thus sees that behind the midnight vigil stand all the other practices proper to those who strive; so there was no need to mention them. In the course of his instructive and prayerful addresses, however, it was necessary to touch upon this subject as a link entirely essential in the chain of his teachings.

Ps. 118:63. I am a companion of all who fear You and keep Your commandments.

“Symmachus, instead of ‘companion,’ says ‘ally,’ and the Syriac translator says ‘friend.’ That is to say, turning away from those who choose what is contrary to Your laws, I had as associates and intimates those who place the fear of God above all else and who have resolved to live in accordance with the law. The prophet said the same thing elsewhere: ’But to me, Your friends have become exceedingly honorable, O God’ (Ps. 138:17)” (Theodoret).

Previously, sinful ties with sinners were presented as the strongest cord drawing one toward sin; now, as a counterweight to that, pious communion with God-fearing and virtuous people is set forth. In the midnight prayer the prophet has encompassed all the labors a person undertakes for the sake of good within himself, in his own person; in communion with those who fear God and keep His commandments he encompasses everything through which we can benefit from others who walk the same path—meaning here mutual conversation, brotherly counsel or an elder’s precept, and mutual love. Becoming a companion through all these means with other zealots of the good, the one who strives becomes as strong as all of them together—and God is in their midst. If the Lord is there where two or three are gathered in His name, how much more so where there are tens and hundreds, especially when not one of them is pulling to the side or backward, but all are moving forward and forward, toward the prize of the heavenly calling. One who has entered into such a fellowship has neither occasion to grow weak nor anywhere to stray. Example and rivalry continually kindle zeal and provide the means to satisfy it.

A certain young ascetic once asked an elder: “How can I obtain the fear of God?” “Go,” the elder answered him, “cleave to a man filled with the fear of God, and you will learn how to have the fear of God.” To another elder people said: “Why do you not teach your disciple and explain to him what and how things need to be done?” “What is there to teach?” he replied. “Let him watch how I do it, and let him do the same.” For the fear of God and for every other virtue, example is the best teacher. It speaks not a single word, yet it clarifies everything and teaches so fully that there is nothing left for words to add. And what power does common prayer have! Of the ascetics of Scete it was said that there was nothing they could not obtain for whomever they wished in their prayer, when all would begin to pray together. And so, as long as the close brotherly bond held there and all were equally zealous for advancement, spiritual life flourished. Each one would declare to them with faith: “Brothers and fathers! Such and such a temptation is tormenting me—pray!” Prayer would begin, and the temptation would pass. In every age and every place the fellowship of God-fearing people, their mutual love and trust, gives such strength to their moral order that each of them is able to withstand any temptation, however powerful it may be. This is why the holy prophet, speaking of the means he employed against sin, placed among the strongest of them his brotherly communion with those who fear God and keep His commandments.

“Whoever,” says Saint Gregory the Great, “cleaves to a man zealous for the good, receives benefit from his very presence alone, and not only from his conversations and example. He kindles within himself love for truth and virtue, learns how to be freed from the darkness of sin, receives the desire to behold the eternal light; in him one will no longer find indifference or coldness toward divine things.”

Ps. 118:64. The earth is full of Your mercy, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.

Both the labors which the zealot for good bears within himself and the help he receives from communion with God-fearing people are in themselves only human instruments and are effective only to the measure of human strength. If they prove powerful enough to overcome evil, it is because it pleases the Lord to add His own strength to them. Attracting the grace of God, they scatter evil and strengthen one in the good. Therefore, amid all of them, an attentive faith does not rest upon them but, passing beyond them, ascends on high and, amid all its own labors and all the assistance from others, awaits help “from there.” This very thing the prophet expresses in the words: “teach me Your statutes.” I too, he says, am training myself in inner and bodily labors, and others are teaching me both by word and by example—yet both the one and the other afford little confidence and little success. Do You Yourself, O Lord, teach me all things: show me what must be done, grant the skill to do it, and give strength for it. As a master craftsman who takes on an apprentice and, having taught him, sends him forth as a complete expert in his craft—a true master—so do You, O Lord, take me and teach me the craft of doing good and of pleasing You alone. That is what the prophet asks! And the ground of his hope in entreating the Lord and receiving what he asks he bases solely on the goodness of God. The whole earth, he says, is full of Your mercy, O Lord—shall I alone be left without it? I trust, O Lord, that You will not deprive me of Your mercy either. I ask not for riches, not for honor and glory, but seek only this—teach me how to please You by faithfully fulfilling all Your commandments. If You feed the unreasoning animal, shall I doubt that You will feed my soul as well, created by You in Your image and likeness? “The earth is full of Your mercy, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.”

In the work of spiritual advancement, this distrust of oneself and of others, and this expectation of true help from the Lord alone, is a disposition of the first importance. One who begins to serve the Lord commonly resolves to do a great deal by his own efforts—and does so; but this doing does not extend beyond training oneself in the outward order of a devout life, and at most to restraining sinful movements in the soul to the degree that they do not break out into word and deed, as anger, for example. But one must also plant the virtues in the heart, and for this, root out the passions from it; one must set the mind before the Lord and abide with Him always; one must become holy and blameless in soul and body in every respect, as befits one preparing to receive the Kingdom of Heaven, into which nothing impure shall enter. Who, then, will bring all this into the soul? None other than the Lord by His grace! One who has earnestly begun to serve the Lord soon learns by experience that of himself he is adequate for nothing. Further experience confirms him more and more in this conviction, and the matter ends in a complete self-surrender—of himself and all his lot—to the will of God, with the heartfelt cry: “By whatever ways You know, save me!” The words of the prophet have the same meaning.

Those experienced in such practice say: when a passion is aroused and thoughts trouble the soul, do not fight on your own, but call on the Lord for help, and He will defend you. And so it is. But as in one instance, so in another, and in every instance; as on one day, so on all days—always and in everything seek protection from the Lord, and He will not give you over to your enemies. Thus the struggle with the passions goes on. And how are the virtues rooted? “I,” says the Apostle, “planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6). So it was with the Corinthians; so it is with everyone. “Without Me,” says the Lord, “you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Therefore, there is nothing to rely on of oneself. Stand fast and cry out: “Teach me Your statutes, O Lord.”

Saint Ambrose writes: “The prophet desires to be taught the statutes of God by the Lord Himself for this reason, that on earth it is difficult to find a teacher skilled enough to teach what he himself does not know. Therefore, he reaches by inward longing toward that Teacher who alone is the true Teacher; and how can a man teach anything true when he himself is falsehood? Rightly did the Lord forbid calling anyone on earth one’s teacher, because the true teacher is one for all. And how could David seek any other teacher, when he himself said of God: ’He who teaches man knowledge’ (Ps. 93:10)? God teaches and enlightens souls by pouring into them the light of knowledge, when they seek Him and open the mouth of their heart to receive the brightness of heavenly grace. ’Seek, and you shall find’ (Matt. 7:7); knock at the door of Scripture and it shall be opened to you—but again by none other than God the Word, of Whom you read in the Apocalypse that He, as the Lamb, opened the book sealed with seals.”

Verses 65–72

The ninth stanza of eight verses falls under the letter “tet”—meaning “clay” or “mud.”

Clay or mud is, among other things, a term of reproach; we sometimes say “dragged through the mud.” But there are also healing muds; and the Lord, having made clay from spittle, anointed the eyes of the blind man and healed him. Clay in the hands of the potter yields various wares suited to every need. What guiding thought, then, should we take for our meditation on this stanza? We may take the thought of clay as a healing substance, and see in this passage an indication of what healing remedies the Lord employs for the cure of souls sick with sin; or we may take the thought of clay as the material from which the potter fashions various vessels, and see in this passage how the Lord, taking souls as clay, makes of them vessels of honor. Both thoughts apply readily; but to avoid confusion in the analogies, we take the latter. The word “clay” is used in a similar sense by the Apostle Paul: “Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use?” (Rom. 9:21). As the potter makes vessels by subjecting clay to various processes, so the Lord forms the soul by subjecting it to various actions, both inward and outward. These formative means in the hands of the Lord are spiritual—grace and the word of God (verses Ps. 118:65, 66)—and external, by God’s ordering: a sorrowful or prosperous course of life (verses Ps. 118:67, 68), and by God’s permission: the attacks of people who do not fear God (verses Ps. 118:69, 70). Having indicated these, the prophet, as it were, sums up God’s formative actions and notes how effective this action has been (verses Ps. 118:71, 72). He speaks of himself throughout; yet one must suppose that in each individual case he has particular persons in mind as well. He refers everything to himself so that the reader, having understood what pertains to him, may apply the prophet’s words to himself in the same manner of speech. This stanza is clearly in direct connection with the preceding one. There the prophet showed how a sinner, breaking free ever more and more from the bonds of sin, at last surrenders himself entirely into the hands of the Lord; and here he shows how the Lord deals with such a soul, having taken it as clay. The prophet touched briefly on the spiritual working upon the soul, and expounds more fully how “the Lord, through the outward lot of those who come to Him, furthers their inner advancement.” Such, in brief, may be the expressed meaning of this stanza.

Ps. 118:65. You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word.

To whom is such a word fitting? To one turned by God’s grace from sin to virtue. In his person the prophet speaks: “I have known Your goodness by experience.” “One instructed in the divine commandments,” says Saint Athanasius, “is taught the lesson of not being insensible to the benefactions of God, since he would not have been freed from sin or numbered among the servants of the Lord had not some divine grace been the cause of it. Such was Saint Paul, who never forgot the great mercy of God shown to him in his conversion to faith in Christ, and who never missed an occasion to glorify the grace of God that enlightened and keeps him. Such also are all who make proper use of such grace, for to be unmindful of it would mean that they had fallen away from it.”

One who walks the road of perdition enters upon it of his own accord; no one is to blame here but himself. By our way of thinking, let him go; but the goodness of God cannot endure that one adorned with the image of God should disfigure it through sin and through fellowship with the enemies of God. Therefore God opens for Himself by various means an entrance into that person’s soul, to suggest to it the danger of such a path and to make it feel that danger: He acts inwardly through the mind and conscience, and outwardly through His word, through the wondrous works of His providence, through the example of God-fearing people, and through the manifold weaving of life’s corrective circumstances. By all of this the sinner is halted on his path and plunged into reflection. But even then, as he begins to reflect, the grace of God watches over the good intentions arising in him and gives them the upper hand. Then, when a person declares his resolve—“You are my portion, O Lord; I have resolved to keep Your law” (verse Ps. 118:57)—grace encourages him and fills him with the strength to carry out that resolve. When one who has begun to live in this new order looks back and recalls how everything came about, he can say nothing other than: “You have dealt well, O Lord, with Your servant”; I was going to perdition, but behold—Your grace awakened me from carelessness, enlightened my blindness, and brought me forth “from the pit of passions, from the miry clay” of sin (Ps. 39:3). Glory to Your long-suffering, O Lord, which did not destroy me during my sinful disorder! Glory to Your loving-kindness, which called me to the path of virtue and teaches me to please You according to my strength! Glory to Your condescension, which, despite the smallness of my zeal, does not forsake me and does not allow my enemies to prevail over me again! “You have dealt well with Your servant!” I was not Your servant, or rather I was then Your servant by obligation, yet I fled from Your face by my own willfulness and walked in my own desires, having cast off Your good yoke and utterly forgotten my duty to You. But whither can one flee from Your face? Only the enemy so blinds us that we think God does not see; yet Your eye sees all things. It saw me too in my wandering and in all my impurity; yet it did not disdain to return me to the right path and, from an unworthy servant, to make me worthy—one who has at least begun to please You and is doing at least a little in Your house according to Your will. “You have dealt well with me, O Lord,” making me Your servant once again!

“You have dealt well with me, O Lord, according to Your word.” What word is this? “As I live,” says the Lord, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). And it is already a kindness that such a promise exists, for a sinner, so long as he sins, knows no limit to his insolence and self-confidence, yet when he is caught by his lawful Master, he dares not even lift his eyes to Him. Were it not for so firm a promise, the enemy would always succeed in plunging souls into despair. Only by leaning upon it, contrary to his own faint-heartedness, does the sinner approach the Lord. And only afterward, once he has been granted the merciful reception and welcome of his Heavenly Father, does he rise to the reassuring hope. Remembering this, the prophet confesses that the Lord has indeed dealt well with His servant according to His word—exactly as He promised, fully in accordance with it.

Ps. 118:66. Teach me goodness, discipline, and knowledge, for I have believed Your commandments.

You have called me from sin onto the path of Your commandments; I have believed that there is truly no other path than the path of Your commandments, and I have entered upon it. Complete then the work of Your goodness: teach me how to walk this path so that my walk may be well-pleasing to You. “Teach me goodness, discipline, and knowledge”—“goodness, as Zigabenus explains, that is, love for my brethren; discipline, that is, skill in active virtue (practical wisdom); knowledge, that is, the understanding of divine things or the perfection of contemplation. Teach me in such a way that I may possess these qualities.”

The first verse spoke of the reception of the penitent into God’s school; here the curriculum of instruction is set forth. All the subjects indicated are pointed to in the word of God: study that word and you will come to know them. But the prophet seeks instruction from the Lord Himself, because self-instruction through the word of Revelation is only an outward learning; whereas the building up and formation of the inner man is accomplished under the action of the word by the invisible grace of God. Therefore he prays: Come Yourself, O Lord, and graft these qualities into my soul, so that in acting according to them I act not as if following a written rule, but from within myself, as though it were simply my own nature to act thus.

“Teach me”: I am ready to hear and to do everything as You will suggest—only teach me; for I know that one learns nothing if one does not begin to learn; yet I know also that one cannot learn without being taught. “Perhaps,” interprets blessed Augustine of this passage, “I will prove slow of understanding in some matter, but do You, as You once opened the minds of Your disciples to understand the Scriptures, open mine as well. Perhaps I will even understand something, but not know how to do it—then teach me ’to do Your will’ (Ps. 142:10). Perhaps I will even know how to do it, but lack the zeal for doing; then breathe into me that good love, the source of zeal for every good, so that the earth of my heart may always bring forth good fruit to Your glory. ’Behold, my soul is as a thirsty land’ (Ps. 142:6), thirsting for Your instruction.”

Teach me “goodness.” “He prays,” continues blessed Augustine, “that God will breathe into him a love of the good—sweet, willing—or, to say it more plainly, that love of God may be granted by God, and for God’s sake, love of neighbor.” By this is desired the building up within of the entire moral and religious order pleasing to God. This is the summit of God’s instruction. Whoever has love established within him needs no further teaching. Love itself will do everything further.

Teach me “discipline.” People who are undisciplined (uninstructed) are, in other words, unreasonable people. Therefore discipline is the reasonableness of action, or the skill to act fittingly—practical wisdom. It determines the place, the time, the means, the appropriateness to persons and to all the other circumstances of deeds, so that every act may be beautiful, like the beautiful work of a skilled craftsman. Love is the spirit of life; discipline is its outward comeliness.

Teach me “knowledge”—that is, the understanding of the mysteries of faith. As the sun, once risen, illumines everything on earth and makes the entire atmosphere bright, so the knowledge of things divine illumines the whole realm of the mind and makes all that exists and all that comes to pass clearly luminous. Brightness gives one a taste of the joy of life, drives away sleep, and rouses one to labor and work. Things illumined draw one to themselves of their own accord and show of themselves how to approach them. Therefore one who sees everything brightly cannot be inactive. Mental darkness, on the contrary, saps energy; and if it moves by natural impulse, it acts as something foreign. The light of knowledge matters so much in life that without it life cannot succeed. Therefore, though this instruction stands last among the others, in practice it always comes first.

The instruction indicated here takes place in a spiritual manner. It is drawn from the word of God and grafted by God’s grace to the heart of one who translates everything he learns into action. The foundation of instruction, however, is faith. If a pupil does not trust his teacher, he will not even learn the alphabet. Still less can one learn the spiritual life by approaching it without full faith that these are the commandments of God, that they lead to God, make one well-pleasing to Him, and by a straight path bring one to the inheritance of eternal blessedness. Only an unwavering faith in all of this sustains zeal for learning and gives the strength and power to carry it through to the end.

Ps. 118:67. Before I was humbled, I transgressed; therefore I have kept Your word.

From this verse onward the outward side of God’s instruction is depicted. Here the subject is instruction through sorrows, calamities, and deprivations; the following verse treats instruction through the prosperous course of life. “Here,” as Zigabenus explains, “the prophet says: before I was subjected to afflictions, I sinned; but having sinned, I brought chastisement upon myself and was humbled by it. Having been corrected thereby, I came to my senses and began to keep Your law, and I keep it, so as not to sin again and be subjected once more to humbling chastisement.”

Saint Athanasius writes: “Having been given over to calamities for sins I had previously committed, I was brought to humiliation, having suffered this by the righteous judgment of God. Therefore, having undergone this healing, I ask to be taught and brought to the understanding that the humiliation to which I was brought serves for my benefit and correction.”

Here also is the word of blessed Theodoret: “I myself,” says the prophet, “brought chastisement upon myself; there is not the least injustice in the decree concerning my punishment; sin was followed by chastisement, chastisement by the keeping of the laws. I was sick, I endured the physician’s incision, and I became well.”

“Behold the goodness of God in His not sparing,” cries Saint Ambrose. “Chastisement is a sign of love, not of rejection. The Lord is good in all things—both when He forgives the penitent and when He punishes the sinner: ’for the Lord disciplines the one He loves’ (Heb. 12:6). The prophet speaks as though saying: the chastisement seemed bitter to me for a time, but it has borne good fruit—it recalled me from sin: ’The Lord has chastened me sorely, but has not given me over to death’ (Ps. 117:18).” Hence, to everyone whom circumstances have humbled, here is the lesson: “Do not be ashamed to acknowledge your fault and to correct yourself, and then take care not to sin again.”

The prophet only points to how sorrows and deprivations turn one onto the path of virtue. Examples of this happening in reality are everywhere. But in the hands of God’s Providence, which saves us, they sometimes serve as a sure and often exclusive means also of keeping one on that path and of raising the one who is reforming toward such perfection as is possible. The prophet does not say that the circumstances which humbled him changed when he began to keep the word of God; he only points to what change they produced in him. For some, the narrow and sorrowful path is the surest guardian of virtue—and perhaps for the greater part of us. Not without reason do zealots of moral perfection, after mature deliberation, find it far better to leave everything behind and lead a life amid sorrowful privations. If human prudence finds it so, how much more does divine wisdom? Or is it not perhaps because human wisdom thus acts that it follows the promptings of God, or the examples of God’s arrangements in ordering the lot of those who serve Him with zeal?

Let us hear on this subject the instruction of Saint Paul: “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed” (Heb. 12:5–13).

Ps. 118:68. You are good, O Lord, and in Your goodness teach me Your statutes.

For one person sorrows are instructive; but they may harden another. Such a one will more readily be brought to his senses by unexpected good fortune than by any losses. It is precisely such a person that the prophet takes up here and, fearing, as it were, lest a blow from on high quickly follow, prays: do not chastise, but as One who is Good, teach me by Your goodness!

In medicine too, not all remedies are bitter and not all plasters tear or burn: there are sweet medicines, there are plasters that act pleasantly. A good physician, when he sees that treatment can be given without pain and without detriment to the cure, always chooses the latter both of his own accord and still more when asked to do so. How much more will our compassionate Heavenly Father act thus—He who sees better than anyone what is beneficial for each? “Look at the physician,” says Saint Ambrose: “at times he employs bitter medicines, cutting and burning; at other times, pleasant ones that cause nothing painful. But when the patient by reason of his constitution cannot endure painful treatment, it is the physician’s duty to avoid bitter medicines or to prepare them in such a way that the bitterness is hidden in the pleasant. This is also how the Lord acts upon us, healing our moral infirmities.”

We are often troubled by the question: why is the lot of people unequal? No one has yet succeeded in explaining this with palpable clarity in every particular case. But the general law of God’s Providence in this regard is clearly revealed in the word of God, and in the most comforting terms. Wealth and poverty, fame and obscurity, dominant lordship and humble obedience, and everything else that variegates the life of mankind on earth—these are in the hands of God instruments for the moral formation of persons. Whatever best serves this purpose for each individual is what is given to each. If a prosperous life is best—a prosperous life is given; if a lowly one is best—a lowly one is given; if a middle condition is best—a middle one is given. And there is no way to enter into dispute: see how well that one has it, and yet he is by no means so exemplary. But how do you know—perhaps if his prosperity were reduced he would become even worse? Equally, one cannot say: now if that person were to have good fortune, how much good would come from him! But do you know that if his condition were improved, he himself would become better? To each has been given the lot in which alone he can do the greatest sum of good. In any other lot he cannot do as much, and to change it for a better or a worse would be to cast him into genuine evil. The purpose of our existence on earth is moral perfection, for the proper preparation of ourselves for eternity. Everything is directed toward this by the Lord.

The full explanation of the diversity of our lots will be revealed there. There everyone will see how everything was arranged well, whereas here we live for now in darkness. The wisest of all is he who, having committed his own lot and the lot of all people entirely to the hands of the Lord, keeps himself at peace with regard to its inequalities.

There is a story of one who lived by the labor of his hands and gave away everything he earned to the poor, keeping for himself only as much as was needed for subsistence—so that nothing remained by morning. Someone among the godly, seeing how he gave alms, thought: what if he had sufficient means, how much good he could do!—and began to pray that God would send him prosperity. God sent it; but the man, having become wealthy, not only ceased to help the poor but drove them from him with harshness. Seeing this, the same person prayed again that the Lord would better restore him to his former laborious life. The Lord did restore it, and he again began to live as before, sharing what he earned with the poor. Of the same kind would be all the other rearrangements of people’s lots that we sometimes devise with our own prudence and justice.

The same applies to changes in lots: for some a steadily even condition is best; for others now an improvement, now a worsening of it; and for others a single change from better to worse or from worse to better. Job is at one time supremely happy, then extremely wretched, then happy again; Abraham lives his whole life in full prosperity; Joseph rises from slave to ruler of an entire kingdom; Saul ends his life disastrously and brings to an end the royal greatness for his entire line.

The Lord acts thus not because He has power and authority to change people’s lots, but because to act thus is best of all for them, for their ultimate ends. And since the Lord also leads to the good by means of prosperity, the prayer is entirely fitting: “In Your goodness, O Lord, teach me Your statutes.”

Ps. 118:69. The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep Your commandments with my whole heart.

This verse and the next show how the injustices of men contribute to moral perfection. In the hands of God even these are turned into instruments for the formation of a person and for instructing him in the good.

The Savior said to the holy Apostles, and through them to all the faithful, that He would take them out of the world and that the world would hate them for this. If you were of the world, He says, the world would love you as its own offspring; but now, since I have taken you out of the world, the world will not cease to hate you. So it always is: whether one zealous for pleasing God comes into contact with the people of this age or not, the mere knowledge that such a person exists alienates those who live for self-indulgence. And this is understandable: he rebukes them by his very being. They cannot deny that they themselves ought to be as he is; but they cannot bear to be reminded of it. And although he says nothing to them, yet the very thought of him—and all the more his presence—disturbs their conscience, which begins to gnaw at them; so he must be to blame. Without encounters, ill will toward him circulates dully through their hearts; but at the first encounter it manifests itself in ill will and in the desire to hinder and harm him in all things; desires turn into deeds, and the further it goes, the more. The God-fearing man, guilty of nothing, is showered from all sides with reproaches, slanders, insults, and offenses. He cannot but see this, and though he bears it with equanimity, he justly testifies before God that human injustice has multiplied against him and grows ever more.

“Has multiplied.” The prophet is not complaining, but merely testifying to the fact, in order to say: they do their part, and I do mine. “The more earnestly one serves the Lord,” says Saint Ambrose, “the more enemies one stirs up against oneself—like that courageous wrestler who calls forth the greatest number of opponents against himself, so that by overcoming them he may win a more brilliant crown of righteousness.”

“Injustice.” What is inspiring is precisely that it is injustice. When you suffer afflictions, says Saint Peter, do not grieve overmuch over this. Be anxious about one thing only—that this is not for any fault of your own. If, however, you suffer solely because you zealously serve the true God, then rejoice. “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Since you share in Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, so that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed” (1 Pet. 4:13–14).

“The proud.” The prophet refers as “the proud” to those who live in general without the remembrance of God and are unwilling to know His commandments, yet who are at the same time the powerful of the earth, holding some authority in their hands, or are the noble and the rich. Even in ordinary sinners, for all their poor outward circumstances, pride is the chief cause of sin; and all the more so in those who stand above others for some reason. A man grows conceited, forgets God, and begins to despise His law. After that he also finds all God-fearing people and strict keepers of God’s commandments disagreeable. But however much they may rage, “I will seek Your commandments with my whole heart.” “However much injustice may multiply,” expounds blessed Augustine, “my love for Your commandments will not be exhausted. So speaks one who delights in meditating on God’s statutes. God’s commandments are sweet to him, and he searches them with love, in order to do what he has learned and to learn more by doing; for what is known is more perfectly known when it is carried out in deed.”

“I will search”—I will examine and penetrate into the meaning of Your commandments, to understand them in all the breadth of Your will expressed in them, not clipping or curtailing them merely because I encounter obstacles and because this is contrary to the sons of this age. As I come to know them, so I will fulfill them—that is, I will show forth the performance of Your commandments in their fullness, before the face of the enemies of You and of all righteousness who hate me as well. I resolve to be always faithful to Your commandments, taking no account of the opposition of the proud to it. I will even learn from them, for what they most resist is what is and must be Your true will. And I will learn further from devising how, despite their resistance, I may always bring to fulfillment the deeds that are pleasing to You.

Ps. 118:70. Their heart has curdled like milk, but I have meditated on Your law.

What came of the proud’s multiplication of injustice and of the God-fearing man’s faithfulness to the commandments? Their hearts hardened and grew thick, while he was fully instructed in the law of God.

“The heart has curdled”—hardened like cheese. Milk, when it thickens and hardens, becomes cheese; likewise the hearts of the proud, soft by nature, harden through injustice. “They have carried their pride so far,” says Saint Athanasius, “that the heart within them has become like cheese.” “This corresponds,” writes Theodoret, “to the prophetic utterance: ’For the heart of this people has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed’ (Isa. 6:10); it also corresponds to what is said in the book of Exodus regarding Pharaoh: ’Pharaoh’s heart was hardened’ (Exod. 8:19). Therefore the prophet says: they have a stubborn heart and have themselves transformed its softness into coarseness, just as milk is thickened and curdled; while I have melted, meditating on Your law.” The meaning of all this is the same—stubborn resistance to God and to God’s ordinances: “he grew fat, thick, and gross, and forsook God who made him” (Deut. 32:15). “The hearts of the saints,” says Saint Athanasius, “are made thin, while the hearts of the proud are made thick.” This happens to the poor human heart because injustice leads it into the wrong sphere—one contrary to its proper nature—and so it contracts. “Milk,” writes Saint Ambrose, “is by nature pure, pleasant to look upon, and fluid; but when it spoils, it turns sour. So also the human heart is by nature pure, soft, and warm; but when evil enters it, it grows cold, hard, and darkened. Milk, once soured, curdles and loses its native pleasantness; so also a person, as long as he is unharmed by injustice, is pleasant in speech and in manner, but when he turns to injustice—he changes, for his heart becomes different. Injustice contracts it, and in place of pleasant goodwill it is filled with the bitterness of ill will. Thus is the heart curdled by pride and enmity, when the natural meekness of the heart, which flows with goodness, is corrupted by the leaven of malice and cunning.”

The heart hardens from one’s first experiments in injustice and then grows ever harder; the end of this is a state of complete hardening. In contrast, in the God-fearing man, under the action of injustices, there ripens an instructedness in the law, a readiness for every good, and a firmness in bringing the good deeds he undertakes to completion. And since he stood in the good not merely from a sense of duty but with his whole heart, out of love for it and above all for Him who gave the law, the more he holds his ground in it despite hardened opposition, the more warmly his heart glows with love, the softer it becomes, and the more tenderhearted the man. He is himself always warm, and diffuses warmth all around him.

The prophet says: “I have meditated”—I have learned, come to understand, thoroughly considered everything, or learned it by deed, and I know it firmly, holding it in my heart. Whatever I may encounter, there is no need to rack my brains to see how best to act: my heart itself will tell me. Just as evil thoughts proceed from an evil heart, in the words of the Lord, when various situations arise, so from a good heart proceed good thoughts, pointing out what good should be done and how in these or those circumstances. “I have meditated”—this recalls the apostle’s word about the senses trained to distinguish between good and evil. Thus it is confirmed in actual fact that the injustice of the proud—directed, by God’s permission, against those who fear God and keep His law—is, by His providential ordering, a school for instructing the latter in the good. And the prophet, by saying that he has learned, testifies that the goal of the instruction has been achieved, that this school truly brings those who enter it to what needs to be learned and for the sake of which they are led into it.

So it is in life—everything depends on the spirit with which one meets what comes. Not one of the events of life, by its own nature, leads to evil: evil comes from free will. What harm did the wife of Potiphar do to Joseph? None. She only displayed his chastity in a brighter light, while others seek out sin of their own accord. Stand firm; and external occasions that might lead to sin will not only not harm you but, on the contrary, will serve to confirm you all the more in the good. One act of steadfastness will open the way to another, and so on. In the end there will be won a steadfastness in the good—not reluctant, but loving, heartfelt, and attractive.

Ps. 118:71. It is good for me that You have humbled me, that I might learn Your statutes.

Just as someone who has successfully completed a course of study in some institution expresses heartfelt gratitude to those who taught him, so the prophet, having passed through God’s school of moral instruction through the sorrows of life and the unjust accusations of men, gives thanks to God, who led him onto this grievous path of instruction and brought him through it with success. When he says ‘that I might learn,’ he is not pointing to God’s purpose in humbling him, but testifying that this purpose has been achieved. His thought is this: the Lord brought me into this school in order to teach me; I have completed this course, and now, glory be to God, I have been taught—otherwise I never would have learned.

St. Athanasius writes: ‘The prophet speaks as if saying: I take courage in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in straits—if only I might be found worthy of Your judgments, seeking that which cannot be learned any other way.’

‘The prophet,’ says Theodoret, ‘returns thanks to the Physician for the harsh remedies, having learned that by them his health has been restored.’ The Lord could have taught without introducing hardships and sorrows, but righteousness and goodness require it. A sinner who repents and reforms—that is, who is being trained in the commandments—is moving out of the realm of sin in the opposite direction from how he entered it. Having loved sin, he accumulated sinful habits and became attached to a multitude of things that gratify those habits. Such things are precious in his eyes. The Lord strips away this illusory value by taking them away, showing in practice how worthless they are and how sinful it is to act in order to please men. For this the sinner repays, once he has repented, by bearing with cheerful composure the unjust accusations of men—sometimes even of those whom he previously sought to please. Deprivations and unjust accusations are the purifying path.

Let us also recall the tactics of the enemy, who insinuates himself everywhere with his malicious scheming. As long as the repenting and reforming person still has not shed his sympathies for the objects of the passions, the enemy hopes to bring back to himself the one who has fled from his domain, by stirring up evil thoughts and desires. But when this sympathy is exhausted, and sobriety and purity are established in the heart, this method of temptation no longer gives him any hope of success. He turns to another: unable to draw the person into lust, he will arrange matters so as to draw him into hatred instead. To this end he raises up against his unwilling subject those people who are under his sway; and they begin to shower him with insults, mockery, offenses, oppressions, persecutions, every kind of injustice—sometimes not even understanding why they do so. But the laborer, who understands where all this comes from and to what end, bears everything with good cheer, and however keenly he feels the unjust accusations, he strives by every means not to fall into enmity toward anyone, and thus not to give the enemy victory over himself, and not to forfeit the fruit of all his previous labors undertaken in the struggle against lust. The Lord Himself, who permits such temptations, helps him to stand firm. Then the enemy ceases to attack him from this side as well, seeing that his assaults only earn the laborer crowns, and avail nothing to his schemes. When the enemy withdraws, the unjust accusations of men also cease: some make peace with him, others leave him in peace, stepping away from him.

This course of events is repeated everywhere. That is why we see in the patristic writings indications that when someone is subjected to unjust accusations from men, it means he is being raised to a higher degree of perfection. One who has passed through these trials emerges purified as gold in a furnace, and shines with the brightness of a God-pleasing character—humility, contrition, meekness, uprightness, mercy, purity, love of peace, and peacemaking. He is among those of whom the holy Apostle testifies: they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts… against such there is no law (Gal. 5:23–24); because the law is not prescribed to them from without, but appears within themselves, established in their hearts.

Ps. 118:72. The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver.

This is the very perfection with which the laborer emerges from the furnace of temptations, as described above. The law is good to him, because he is wholly permeated by it; neither thought nor impulse, nor desire nor aspiration, nor heart nor delight exist outside the law—all revolves within it. The mind finds in it a satisfying answer to all its questions, the heart finds satisfaction for all its tastes, the will finds the fulfillment of all its desires. It is good precisely because it gives the highest good that a person can desire—namely, rest for the spirit. The Apostle, in his Epistle to the Philippians, explains why this is so: ‘Finally,’ he says, ‘brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things… do these things; and the God of peace shall be with you’ (Phil. 4:8–9).

The law is an expression of the will of God. If the law fills everything within, it means the will of God fills everything; the divine element has been received inwardly and blended with the whole being of man. It serves as the channel through which God dwells within, and prepares for Him a worthy habitation. And God, who loves to commune, comes to dwell; and where God is, there is everything desired and longed for.

Even the strict schooling mentioned earlier has as its purpose, on God’s part, to cleanse the soul and prepare within it a dwelling for Himself. Already in the creation of man in His image and likeness He destined the soul for this end, but the Fall disrupted the work. It introduced into us the uncleanness of the passions, which drove the Lord away. It became impossible for Him to enter into communion with the soul while the passions remained in it; they must first be driven out, and they are driven out by the reception and ingrowth of the commandments contrary to them. Then, just as an object made of iron is soft and unreliable for use until it is tempered, so likewise God tempers the soul that has received all the commandments in the furnace of all-encompassing temptations, from which it emerges not only well-fashioned in all its parts, but also firm and durable—that is, it becomes a trustworthy vessel for the indwelling of the Lord. And He comes to dwell within. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8)—they shall see Him not outside, before them, but within themselves, in their own home. This is the good the law gives; that is why it is good.

‘Better than thousands of gold and silver.’ By the words ‘gold and silver’ all the goods of this world are represented, and ‘thousands’ signifies their number beyond reckoning. Gather, he says, an incalculable multitude of worldly goods; they are all as nothing to me in comparison with the law of the mouth of God. And do not think that there is any exaggeration in this expression. For those who have tasted, through faithfulness to the law, how good the Lord is, all other goods arouse not sympathy but revulsion. There are things that fill a person with disgust; and what a person experiences when encountering such things is what one who has tasted the Lord experiences when encountering the goods of the world—not as works of God’s hands, but as objects offered in opposition to God’s law. Someone might think: well, that is too much. No, it is not too much; indeed, even this comparison is inadequate to explain how the heart that has tasted the goodness of the law relates to thousands of gold and silver. Why does one person give away everything with the same eagerness with which no one else gathers it? Because he has settled accounts with everything; everything is foreign to him, everything is refuse to be swept away. And in the end, life itself—his most precious possession—he gives for the law of the mouth of the Lord; and all because in heart and mind and consciousness he is no longer on earth, but in another world, toward which he strives, having cast off this fragile garment that hinders him from standing face to face with the Lord. This, however, is the natural course of the development of the spiritual life; those who possess it even in its beginnings easily understand this, since the spirit’s demand from the very start presses toward such a disposition. But in its fullness it appears at the highest stages of the spirit’s development, under the action of the Spirit of God.

Verses 73–80

The tenth stanza is headed by the letter ‘yod’—‘hand.’

The hand is a symbol of God’s omnipotence. He created all things, and He holds all things and provides for all things in His right hand. The content of this stanza corresponds to this. After mentioning that God created him and granted him understanding to fulfill his appointed purpose (verses Ps. 118:73, 74), the prophet then prays that the Lord would improve also his outward circumstances, to the glory of a God-pleasing life. Rightly, he says, have You humbled me, O Lord (verse Ps. 118:75); but let Your mercy be upon me and let Your compassions come to me—first, according to Your word (verse Ps. 118:76); second, that I may live (verse Ps. 118:77); third, that the proud may be put to shame (verse Ps. 118:78); fourth, that those who fear You may turn to me (verse Ps. 118:79). But above all, arrange that my heart may be blameless in Your statutes (verse Ps. 118:80).

This stanza, in its content, is very similar to the preceding one, for it considers the moral life from the same perspective.

Ps. 118:73. Your hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.

The prophet mentions creation not in order to expound on this subject, but to draw from this act of God support for his prayer for God’s help toward his own moral progress. I am Your creation, O Lord; and You did create me not to perish, but to be found worthy of eternal blessedness. And since for this it is necessary to fulfill Your will as expressed in the commandments, give me understanding and teach me how to do this.

By the mention of creation, the prophet brings to mind the ultimate purpose of man, and in pointing to it gives a motive for a God-pleasing life. Man was created in the image and likeness of God in order to live in a God-like manner and through that God-likeness to enter into living communion with God. God is good—be you good also; God is long-suffering—be patient yourself; God is righteous—keep righteousness yourself; God is true—love truth yourself; God is meek and lowly in heart—be you likewise; God has mercy—forgive you also; in a word, be you such as God has been pleased to show Himself. Therefore it is said: ‘Be you perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’ (Matt. 5:48). But if we gather all these attributes of God and, accordingly, express our obligation to imitate them, the entire circle of God’s commandments will result. Thus it follows that to live in God-likeness means to live according to God’s commandments. The prophet says directly: ‘Give me understanding, and I shall learn Your commandments.’

‘Give me understanding, and I shall learn.’ You have given me reason, O Lord; but reason is not the source of truth—it is a faculty that receives truth. It cannot see all things as they ought to be on its own; but it is capable of understanding all that Your wisdom reveals to it. Such You have made it; such is mine also: give me therefore understanding; implant in my mind the comprehension of all that is needed for fulfilling Your commandments—that is, implant both the very knowledge of the commandments with the acknowledgment of their urgency, and the firm intention to live by them. Then I shall learn in actual practice how to fulfill them, and shall know by experience how blessed a life according to them is, and how directly it leads me to my ultimate purpose.

‘The prophet,’ reasons St. Ambrose, ‘begins his speech by presenting himself as a work of God’s hands, so as more easily to incline the good will of the Creator toward His creation; for although the material for our body was taken from clay, although we are clothed in flesh, bound together with bones and sinews, no one will doubt that man is the finest of God’s creatures. Look at the very structure of the body alone, and you will find that nothing can be more beautiful and well-ordered. The forms of bodily members are also excellent in other animals, but beyond that there is nothing in them worthy of praise; whereas man is excellent not in what is visible, but in what is invisible—in that which, though contained in a mortal body, is destined for eternity, and which, while dwelling in an earthly inn, lives as a citizen of heaven and is in living union with God. Therefore Solomon rightly cried out: “A great thing is man” (Prov. 20:6), for he is the interpreter of the divine creation and an imitator of God. For this reason man was created after heaven and earth had already been ordered, and not with the word “let it be,” but after a kind of divine counsel: “Let us make man in our image and after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). God was beginning, as it were, a particular labor—not because creating great things was any different from creating small things for Him, but to show the special dignity of man. “And He breathed into his face the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7). Therefore know yourself, O man, and strive toward Him by whose breath you are inspired. Know in what your greatness consists, and be zealous to be great in that. The earthly in you is not so great, but great is that which bears within it the image of God. Unspeakably great is this privilege! See then—guard it and do not squander this great gift. How to do this, the prophet teaches you, both praying himself and teaching you to pray: “Give me understanding, and I shall learn Your commandments.” Acknowledging himself to be spiritual, he asks for the gift first among the gifts of the Spirit—the spirit of wisdom and understanding—not in order to search out heaven and earth, but to discern exactly the will of God and faithfully to fulfill it.’

Ps. 118:74. They that fear You will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in Your word.

‘I shall be a cause of joy to the devout,’ says the prophet, ‘because I hoped in You and attained an end befitting that hope.’ So Theodoret explains this passage. ‘The prophet teaches,’ says St. Athanasius the Great, ‘that this gift will not be granted to him alone (that is, that having received understanding he will learn the commandments of God), but that it will be extended to all who fear the Lord; for one who has learned the commandments is pleasing only to the devout, who perceive him tangibly both in word and in the outlines of the wisdom he possesses; whereas to others it is burdensome even to see him, for his life is unlike the life of others and differs from their paths. Therefore he says: “they shall be glad, because I have hoped in Your word.”’

Having received understanding from the Lord, the prophet hopes that, with the help of divine wisdom, he will learn well to live according to God’s commandments—that is, will appear perfect in the moral sense. Now he says that all the God-fearing, seeing him as such, will rejoice. At what?—‘Because I have hoped in Your word’—either at the fact that I did well to place my hope in Your words, having surrendered myself to them wholeheartedly and fulfilled them perfectly,—or at the fact that I did not hope in vain, but attained what I hoped for. Either way, it is the same. The thrust of the thought is not there, but in the fact that the God-fearing, seeing his moral progress, will rejoice. The prophet of God does not stand apart, but recognizes himself as being in union with all the God-fearing, who are ordinarily concerned not only with their own personal success, but above all with the success of others who are zealous to please God. They see the glory of God and the glory of a God-pleasing life in the fact that a God-pleasing life flourishes, that the number of those living according to God increases, and that every one who has begun his work brings it to completion without stopping halfway.

But in setting this before the Lord as an appeal for help, he makes clear that it is also pleasing to the Lord Himself to see such a common rejoicing in the progress of a good life. The Lord created us for joy; ‘there is no joy for the wicked’ (Isa. 48:22)—joy belongs only to God-fearing piety. And so the Lord, seeing how this joy spreads, takes comfort in it, for it means that His purpose in creation is being achieved. In heaven, the choirs of angels rejoice continually together as one; on earth, following their example, the community of God-fearing people likewise rejoices with a common joy. The joy of life spreads everywhere. The prophet appeals to the Lord through the consolation He has in beholding the joy of the God-fearing.

From this it is clear that not only the consciousness of living union with God, but also the consciousness of living union with all who please God is part of the spirit rightly disposed toward God—an inseparable characteristic. A certain intellectual said: I do not see this union. No wonder; for it is invisible and is formed without special efforts or seeking. In every locality, those who are similarly disposed toward God naturally come to know one another, for, seeing one another’s common strivings, they converge and rejoice together. ‘The pure,’ says St. Ambrose, ‘is naturally drawn to the pure and rejoices with him; the merciful is drawn to the generous and rejoices with him; the faster to the faster, the one who prays to the one who prays.’ Though they are not together in body, they are always inseparable in spirit. Should one of them happen to be in another place, there too he soon becomes acquainted with those of like mind and enters into one spirit with them. Another locality—another fellowship. Thus spiritual communion spreads in widening circles. One sitting in a narrow corner is in living heartfelt union with all the God-pleasing people he knows, and holds them in his thoughts more than some hold a person they are with face to face. In this fellowship lies the strength of life. Whoever considers himself alone before the face of God, let him not boast that he stands before God as he ought. God neither wills nor takes pleasure in such solitary ones. But what of the desert-dwellers?—The desert-dwellers carry the whole world in their hearts: they are not solitary in spirit.

Ps. 118:75. I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have humbled me.

It is assumed that the prophet has received wisdom, learned the commandments, entered into union with the God-fearing, and gladdened them all by his perfection. Thus this spiritual side is bright. Now he begins to pray that the Lord would bring his outward circumstances to the same level. First he acknowledges that if those circumstances have not been bright until now, there is nothing unjust in their being so: I myself am to blame; rightly, O Lord, have You humbled me. ‘The prophet,’ interprets Theodoret, ‘says this, expressing above all his own gratitude. I know full well, he says, that rightly and justly have You pronounced sentence upon me, and subjected me to all manner of tribulations.’

‘I know…’—when was this? After he repented, after he began to live uprightly and, having asked for understanding, learned God’s commandments. And what was the case before? Before, it never even occurred to him to look at his own life from this point of view—that is, how and why the hand of the Lord was directing its course as it did. Or if the thought did come, his own sinfulness and guilt were never placed at the root and cause of why life was as it was. A sinner, while still in sin, is blind and does not see the finger of God upon him; and although he is surrounded on all sides by his sins, he does not bear in mind that in the changes of his circumstances he is bearing the punishment for those sins—rather he inclines toward the conviction that he is suffering unjustly, and is ready to murmur against the arrangements of divine Providence. So twisted is his mind! And no wonder, for through sin the enemy—the father of lies—gained access to it and fills it with his own distorted interpretations.

But when grace touches the heart of a sinner and he awakens from his sinful sleep, the fog that covered his mind begins to disperse. When repentance is completed by the resolve to live uprightly, there is already enough light around him. An upright life according to the commandments strengthens this light. When a virtuous character is fully established, the atmosphere of the mind clears, and the mind sees plainly why each thing happened in his life. Then he says with the prophet: ‘I know’—now I see clearly—‘that Your judgments are right, and in faithfulness You have humbled me.’

‘Whoever,’ writes St. Ambrose, ‘understands the ways of divine Providence can use the same words that holy David here utters. Nothing happens without God’s knowledge; all that happens, happens by His judgment. But understanding of this is brought about by what he prayed for above—that God would give understanding how to learn the commandments. Having received such understanding, he also understood the righteousness of God’s judgments. This understanding is the possession of a perfect man. It is one thing to believe and another to understand. Faith belongs to one who has received the fear of God; understanding belongs to one who is already made wise to salvation… I was humbled in order to understand this, for those who are proud of heart have no eyes to see such truth. When we are humbled, we recognize our sins, and by the very act of humbling we cleanse our falls. “I was humbled,” he says, “and He saved me” (Ps. 114:5). Truly humbled is the one who is humbled to salvation; not in vain did one undergo sorrows who was led by them to repentance. But between the understanding of this truth and the fear that brought about repentance there is a distance. The Lord says to Jews who had believed in Him: “If you abide in My word… you shall know the truth” (John 8:31–32). You see—understanding is not given from the very beginning, as soon as someone hears God’s word out of the fear of God.’

Ps. 118:76. Let, I pray You, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to Your word to Your servant.

‘To Your servant’ can be related either to ‘Your word’ or to ‘let Your mercy be upon Your servant.’ The latter is better, since the former is self-evident. So St. Athanasius interprets it: ‘I beseech You that, according to Your word, Your mercy may be a comfort and encouragement to Your servant; for many, having received comfort, give themselves over to the delusion that they have obtained it by their own prudence. That I too may not fall into the same error, let Your mercy be to me, Your servant, according to Your word.’

But in what connection does this stand with what precedes?—In this one: ‘But it is time,’ says Theodoret, ‘for loving-kindness and consolation, for You have promised Your good will to those who repent. God said the very same thing through the mouth of Isaiah: “When you return and mourn, you shall be saved” (Isa. 30:15), and through the mouth of Malachi: “Return to Me, and I will return to you” (Mal. 3:7). What then is there to ask?—The mercy of consolation, according to the word of the Lord.’

One may, however, understand this also in this way: change the sorrowful and humbling circumstances that oppress me into consoling ones. The poultice has done its work—remove it now. Though the Physician of souls and bodies knows far better than we do the right time for this, it is nonetheless not inappropriate to pray for it—only not unconditionally, but with the implied understanding: if it is pleasing to You, O Lord; if it will be for my salvation—that is, to pray without stepping outside the bounds of submission to God’s will, which is the soul of a God-pleasing life. We see from experience that the Lord sometimes changes sorrow into consolation, as for example in Job; and at other times keeps a person in a humbling state to the very end of life, as we see in Lazarus, who was taken from his sore-covered body to the bosom of Abraham.

St. Ambrose holds that the prophet prays only for the mercy of consolation, not touching on the humbling circumstances and leaving it to God’s will whether to change them for the better or leave them as they are. ‘Another person,’ he says, ‘humbled by calamities, prays that temptations may cease, that the Lord may calm the raging storm of misfortunes against him; but the prophet, like a strong and courageous wrestler who has understood how adversities and sorrows raise the soul to perfection, does not wish to have the suffering removed or the adversity deflected—he does not ask to have cut off all that causes fatigue and toil, but prays that during his toilsome struggle against the storm of temptations he may be given consolation, so as to bear with courageous spirit what is brought upon him, and so as not to be weakened by the onsets of grief and despondency. Thus he implores the goodness of God not to allow that, being deprived of the help given by consolation, he might abandon without completing the good warfare he has begun. In heaven, consolation is without doubt prepared for all who endure for the sake of virtue, and the greater the sorrows endured, the greater the consolation; but here also, for fear of falling under the weight of calamities, beseech the Lord to grant you consolation, as He granted it to St. Paul, who testifies: “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (2 Cor. 1:3–4).’

But one cannot fail to see that, beyond spiritual consolation, the prophet also expects outward consolation, as the course of the speech itself suggests. Below he says that he wishes his enemies to see this and be put to shame, and that the God-fearing likewise turn toward him (verses Ps. 118:78–79). Both of these are possible only when the consolation is not merely poured into the heart, but also outwardly manifested.

Ps. 118:77. Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for Your law is my delight.

‘The prophet,’ says Theodoret, ‘deprived of God’s good will, considers himself as dead; therefore he entreats that he may, as it were, live again through God’s love for mankind.’ ‘Let come,’ interprets Zigabenus, ‘O Lord, Your mercies upon me, who am consumed by sorrow, and I shall live by them; let them come upon me because the subject of my constant thought and care is Your law, and not any good thing of this world.’

‘Mercies’—tender compassion that bestows good, not only as good will but as one that shows generosity by actual deeds. ‘Let come’—mercy, as said above, ‘let be, and tender mercies let come’—mercy as a constant covering, and tender mercies as the intermittent bestowal of needed goods that come and go. ‘And I shall live’—and I shall revive. Just as one says ‘he came to life’ of one who was struck down by grief and then gladdened, or of one who was impoverished and grows rich again, or who was dishonored and is restored to honor—so also the prophet asks for mercies in order to revive in the feelings of the heart. This revival here, like the preceding mercy of consolation, stands in the prophet’s thought in opposition to the humbling or belittling circumstances righteously sent by God, as he confessed above. Therefore, in the course of the speech, they refer to the restoration of the outward circumstances of the one who has repented and reformed. That it is fitting to ask for this also is clear from the Lord’s Prayer, in which, alongside the highest spiritual goods, stands—‘Give us this day our daily bread’ (Matt. 6:11). But in doing so one must bear in mind: if the Lord so wills. If You see, O Lord, that such and such is beneficial for my salvation, then grant it to me. It is absolutely fitting to ask only for spiritual goods—repentance, the preservation of the resolve to live well, understanding of God’s will, prayer, patience, and the like. For outward goods, one should always pray conditionally, or better still—committing one’s circumstances to the will of God.

And ‘I shall live’—one may understand, as St. Ambrose understood ‘let it comfort me’ in the previous verse, also as the enlivening of the patient spirit of courage. Straitened circumstances produce two kinds of effects: they bring on grief and undermine energy. In the previous verse the prophet prayed for the mercy of consolation, which drives away grief; and here he prays for the revival of energy. Let everything remain as it is, he seems to say—let me continue under the humbling burden, but my hands are drooping, my courage is weakening: breathe into me then unshakeable steadfastness and fearless cheerfulness of heart, so that both I myself may feel, and others may see, that however straitened my circumstances, I am in no way weakening in moral strength, but am still the same, still stepping out just as boldly into the struggle against privations and sorrows.

‘For Your law is my delight.’ Here the prophet bases his hope that his prayer will be heard. My thoughts are taken up with nothing else, he says, but Your law; my only concern is how to fulfill it better; and by Your judgment, blessed are those whose delight is in Your law, who meditate on it day and night. Have You not said: ‘I love them that love Me, and those who seek Me shall find grace’ (Prov. 8:17)? ‘Therefore,’ adds St. Athanasius, ‘as You have promised consolation, so do, showing compassion upon Your servants.’

For the mercy of consolation the prophet prayed as a servant; for the mercies of enlivening he prays as a zealot of the law. Both together teach that those who may come before God with petitions in prayer with well-grounded hope are only those who diligently serve and strive in every way to please Him. We often complain that our prayer is not heard: we did not serve God—and so our prayer is not heard.

Ps. 118:78. Let the proud be put to shame; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in Your precepts.

By ‘the proud’ the prophet means the despisers of the law, who, not loving the law, do not love its zealous observers either—they despise them, mock them, and do not hesitate to cause them all manner of harm. Seeing those who are zealous to please God by keeping His commandments in a humbling position, they attack them and their way of life all the more fiercely. This is what it means to deal perversely and unlawfully with them. The prophet prays: take away from them, O Lord, this occasion to speak contemptuously of the law and to treat its observers in the same way. Restore to me a bright condition and thereby put an end to their triumph. Let it be plainly evident before all that Your servants do not keep Your law in vain, and let these proud men, who openly revile Your law before all, be put to shame. All who see the change for the better in me will, instead of having previously looked with an unfriendly eye at me and at Your law, thereafter look contemptuously at those same proud men and mock them.

External shaming may or may not be accompanied by shame before oneself and one’s own conscience; it may leave unchanged the former attitude toward the law and its zealots. But in the prophet’s words one can also see the further desire that the proud should be ashamed of having been as they were, should change and correct both their view of the law and their life in relation to it.

‘The prophet,’ says blessed Theodoret, ‘does not curse his enemies, but prays for them, for shame opens the way to salvation. Having himself benefited from such a remedy, he wishes them to have it as well.’ St. Ambrose continues the same thought: ‘Having been healed, he has become a physician and wishes to heal even those who wounded him, so that, recognizing their own wrongdoing, they may be ashamed of their evil deeds. Shame for the most part serves our correction. When a person begins to be ashamed of some action of his, by that very fact he is moved to abandon what causes shame. This is precisely what the prophet wishes for them—namely, that they should recognize how badly they have acted, and recognizing it, be ashamed, and being ashamed, abandon their former wrongdoings.’ St. Athanasius develops the same thought: ‘If,’ he says, ‘You change my lot for the better, the proud will be put to shame, and I will not be puffed up that they are shamed, but “I will meditate in Your precepts.” This will not weaken my zeal to please You by fulfilling Your commandments, but will, on the contrary, strengthen it. “I will meditate”—I will sit beside them, I will redouble my diligence and labor, I will be so persistently occupied with it as one who is assiduously engaged in a beloved occupation. When the straitness passes away, my hands will seem to be freed. The strength that was spent on bearing the burden lying upon me I will turn toward the fulfillment of the law: I will study it more, devise greater means for its fulfillment and its application to life in my improved circumstances.’ The prophet is preparing a resolution for action, so that when what he asked for comes, he will be ready to act thus, and will not say to his soul: ‘Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry’ (Luke 12:19).

Ps. 118:79. Let those who fear You turn to me, and those who know Your testimonies.

Blessed Theodoret reads this passage as ‘let them turn to me,’ and expresses the meaning of the text thus: ‘The prophet entreats that he may once again be in unity and have fellowship with the righteous. More clearly,’ he notes, ‘Symmachus expressed this: let those who fear You bring me back—bring me back, that is, to themselves; let them receive me, that is, into brotherly fellowship.’

‘Let them turn to me.’ Since he presents himself as already turned from sin to virtue, and not only turned but also having advanced on this path, the meaning of such a turning is no longer fitting here. It is therefore better to understand this word as: ‘let them turn to me’—turn back to me. They cast me out for my sins, as unworthy of their company; my humbling condition turned me onto the path of virtue, but it also concealed my reformation—or if it could not conceal it, since reformation is transparent, it could not fail to cast doubt on whether I had been received back into Your favor. The righteous would have been ready to enter into fellowship with me, but, judging from my unsettled circumstances that I stood under Your wrath and disfavor, they did not dare. When You change my lot for the better, the righteous will see that You have returned Your good will to me and turned me back to Yourself, and they will call to me, receive me, turn to me with open arms, and once again enter into brotherly heartfelt union with me.

The righteous do not break off visible fellowship even with those who have fallen into sin; on the contrary, they enter into the person’s situation and strive in every way to bring them back onto the path of righteousness. But intimacy between them naturally ceases, since those who have fallen now have different conversations, different thoughts, different occupations. The righteous find it difficult to carry on conversation with them: the righteous converse only about what is in their hearts—about God and pleasing God—while sinners talk about everything worldly. They find each other’s company wearisome, and so sincere fellowship between them naturally ceases of its own accord. But when the sinner turns, the righteous cannot fail to see this, to rejoice in it, and to help strengthen him in the good path. Yet, taught by the experience of his fall, they keep themselves somewhat at a distance—that is, they do not immediately begin to live as one soul with him, sharing with him the secrets of their hearts, the secrets of the spiritual life. When he has already shown clear proof that he is firmly established on the good path, then they too turn to him with an open heart. All this proceeds according to the straightforward laws of relations between souls. The prophet sets the return of God’s mercies to him as the sign that he has fully reformed. When they return, the righteous will also turn to him—not for the sake of the return of mercies, but for the sake of the moral perfection of which that return is the sign.

‘Those who fear You and know Your testimonies’—that is, not only the God-fearing, but those who are also experienced in the fulfillment of the law and who truly know all the mysteries of life according to God. Here it is deliberately added: ‘who know Your testimonies,’ to indicate the point on which heartfelt fellowship is once again established—fellowship based on mutual sharing of the secrets of a God-pleasing life for mutual edification in spirit and assistance to one another in advancing in the spiritual life.

Ps. 118:80. Let my heart be blameless in Your statutes, that I may not be put to shame.

In the moral life there are two sides: good conduct and blamelessness of heart. Good conduct is not difficult to direct and maintain, but to acquire and preserve a blameless heart is a great labor. Everything the Lord has arranged for our salvation amounts to this: that the heart should become blameless. Its blamability consists of the passions that have taken root in it. Though they are unnatural, they have entered deeply into us and have taken their place alongside the natural needs, so that making the heart blameless is the same as remaking it. Obviously, no one can do this except the Creator. He has done everything to this end: He established the means of justification, granted new life, filled us with powers, instituted the sanctifying and corrective rites, established fatherly guidance. Grace comes and lays the foundation of blamelessness; then the labors of self-opposition and self-correction, under the guidance of the sanctifying rites, drive out the passions one by one and plant good dispositions in their place. At the end of these labors the heart appears wholly blameless, filled with all the fruits of the Spirit that St. Paul mentions: ‘love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance’ (Gal. 5:22–23), or such as the Lord portrays in the Beatitudes: contrite and humble, meek, loving righteousness, merciful, pure, peacemaking, patient, hopeful. A blameless heart is not only free from everything blameworthy, but full of every goodness—it is good.

‘That I may not be put to shame.’ The prophet does not mention where or how he should ‘not be put to shame.’ The nearest form of not being put to shame comes during the rising of inner conflicts. The enemy raises a storm of thoughts and evil movements, but when the heart is blameless and good, these onslaughts, approaching from without, meet in the good dispositions rooted in the heart—which are contrary to those onslaughts—a powerful repulse: anger is repulsed by meekness, pride and vainglory by contrition and humility, impurity by purity, covetousness by uprightness and mercy, offenses by patience—and whatever evil impulse approaches, it will find in the heart’s contrary good disposition a resistance to itself. However cunning the enemy may be, he cannot overcome one whose heart is blameless: the latter will never be put to shame before the former.

The second moment of not being put to shame is the time of death and the passing through the toll-houses. However wild the thought of toll-houses may seem to the intellectuals, passing through them is unavoidable. What do these toll-collectors seek in those who pass by? They look for whether the traveler has any of their wares. And what are their wares? The passions. Therefore, whoever has a blameless heart free from the passions—in such a person they can find nothing to which they might attach themselves; on the contrary, the goodness opposite to their wares will strike them as lightning bolts. On this a not inconsiderable learned man expressed the following thought: the toll-houses present themselves as something frightful; but it is quite possible that the demons, instead of something frightful, present something alluring and deceptive. They present the enticing and alluring, in all the forms of the passions, to the passing soul, one thing after another. When the passions have been driven from the heart during earthly life and the contrary virtues have been planted in their place, then, whatever alluring thing is presented, the soul, having no sympathy whatsoever for it, passes by, turning from it with loathing. But when the heart is not cleansed, then to whatever passion it still harbors the greatest sympathy, the soul rushes toward it there. The demons take hold of it, as if they were friends, and then they know where to take it. It is therefore very doubtful whether a soul, as long as sympathies for the objects of any passions remain in it, will not be put to shame at the toll-houses. To be put to shame there means that the soul itself rushes into hell.

But the final not-being-put-to-shame is at the Last Judgment, before the face of the all-seeing Judge, before the assembly of angels and all the saints. This picture all of God’s righteous ones had constantly in mind and strove in every way to keep the mind fixed on that moment when from the lips of the Judge there shall come forth: ‘Depart,’ or ‘Come,’—so that in it they might have a motive for guarding themselves not only from manifest sins, but from sinful thoughts and feelings. This alone burned away all that was evil in them and planted all that was good. Therefore there is no doubt that in the prophet’s words at this point what is chiefly intended is this last not-being-put-to-shame, for the thought of it is the best means for planting blamelessness in the heart.

Verses 81–88

The eleventh stanza is headed by the letter ‘kaph’—‘palm of the hand.’

With the palm one strikes a slap—offensive to the one who receives it; with the palm one touches the cheek of a beloved person in order to kiss more sweetly. Thus it is both an instrument of insult and offense and an instrument of the warmest love. Such a title is very fitting for this stanza, in which the prophet presents a person being insulted, unjustly oppressed, who turns to God in trusting prayer for help and intercession. He speaks, as it were, thus: ‘They are striking me—do You caress me, O Lord!’ Everything spoken here is very applicable to Job on his dung-heap, to the holy martyrs, and in many respects to those who struggle with the passions and lusts.

Ps. 118:81. My soul faints for Your salvation: but I hope in Your word.

‘Faints for salvation’—that is, strongly desires to receive salvation from You, and so strongly as to reach a state of ecstasy. ‘Those who desire something greatly,’ says blessed Theodoret, ‘but are deprived of what they desire, say of themselves that they as it were faint. So it is with those who are tormented by a fierce thirst and have no water; so it is with those who await the return of some acquaintance from hour to hour and, not seeing his arrival, faint from desire; so also those who struggle with various misfortunes and await God’s shelter—when they see it delayed, they faint as it were.’ ‘In Your word I hoped—that is, in the promise,’ clarifies St. Athanasius.

This is now the third stanza the prophet devotes to depicting those who suffer and are oppressed for faithfulness to God’s will and His commandments. Here ‘salvation’ is understood as deliverance from the humbling and belittling attacks, sorrows, and privations for the sake of God’s word. What is said here is very fitting for Job on his dung-heap, or for some martyr who was long tormented in chains and frequently subjected to torture, as well as for any innocent sufferer. But these words can also be taken separately from the rest and seen in them as the cry of a soul thirsting for salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ from sin and eternal ruin. So St. Athanasius, St. Ambrose, and blessed Augustine think.

St. Athanasius writes: ‘The prophet teaches us to long for the word and to be filled with love for God’s salvation; and what other salvation is there besides the Lord’s coming?’ St. Ambrose says: ‘Faints — one who passes with his whole soul into what he loves thinks of it, speaks of it, is attached to it, clings to it with his whole soul. Such a feeling is experienced by a mother awaiting the return of her beloved son, as the mother of Tobias experienced it. What does it mean that the soul “faints for salvation”?—This: a soul that has cleaved to the Lord, as it were ceases to be a soul, and becomes “one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17). The holy and God-fearing person desires nothing except the salvation of God, which is Christ the Lord; only Him does he yearn for, only Him does he desire, toward Him does he press with all his powers, Him does he warm in the bosom of his mind, to Him does he open himself and before Him pours out his soul, and he fears one thing only—lest he be deprived of communion with Him. In another place the prophet says of himself: “My soul thirsts for You,” and a little further adds: “my soul cleaves after You: Your right hand upholds me” (Ps. 62:2, 9). One who thirsts desires to be at the spring and seeks nothing so much as to reach the water as quickly as possible. So the soul too presses toward the Lord. And the Lord, receiving her in His right hand and pouring into her His strength, makes it so that she seems to cease to be: I live, she says, “yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). How the soul faints for the salvation of God, holy prophet Jeremiah depicts well: “and it was,” he says, “in my heart as a burning fire, burning in my bones, and I was weakened on all sides, and could not bear it” (Jer. 20:9). It is well said: “in Your word I hoped”—first hope kindles, and fainting follows upon it. Meditating on what he had read in God’s word, and seeing that, being in the body, as if bound by certain chains of this life, he was far from the salvation of God, he yearned for it, pressed toward it, fainted in it, poured out into it all his heart. Such also fades the spirit of one who, denying himself, cleaves wholly to Christ the Lord. Whoever, fainting in himself, cleaves to Him, loses what is his own and receives what is divine, eternal, fully quieting.’

Ps. 118:82. Mine eyes fail for Your word, saying: When will You comfort me?

‘Here,’ interprets blessed Theodoret, ‘by “word” is meant God’s promise. One who awaits the fulfillment of God’s promise and the cessation of the surrounding evils faints toward it.’

In ordinary speech one sometimes says of one who has long awaited someone with a strong desire to see him: ‘his eyes have grown dim from watching.’ So too one who is burdened by sorrow, turning his eyes in prayer to God, asks and waits for help—waits for days, months, and years, and still the help does not come. How can he not cry out: ‘When will You comfort me?’ This expresses not a failure of hope, but the intensity of desire. It was fitting to cry out thus for the martyr who was tortured for twenty-eight years—tormented and then back to prison; barely recovered and tormented again—and back to prison; fitting also for the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, before whose eyes each year someone received healing at the pool—someone who had fallen ill after him and had not lain there as long; fitting also for the blind man of Jericho, who sat by the road and could barely wait for salvation to pass his way. In the prophet’s word and in these examples one hears a powerful lesson for us—not to let hope fail when the fulfillment of our petitions for deliverance from oppressive needs is slow in coming, and, crying out: ‘When, O Lord, will You comfort me?’—not to lose hope.

The holy Fathers named above also understand this passage to speak of the soul seeking salvation in the Lord. But when the soul cleaves to the Lord and has Him within itself—what more is there to desire? One thing: the fuller fulfillment of what it awaits from the Lord. To the penitent, forgiveness is proclaimed in the sacrament of repentance; but the sense of forgiveness, the inward assurance that the sins are forgiven, does not come quickly. For the spirit in contrition over this, it is fitting to cry out: ‘When will You comfort me?’ A certain elder shut a great repentant sinner in his cell, and after the passing of three years said to her: ‘God has revealed to me that all your sins are forgiven.’ During that interval of time, was it not fitting for her to cry out: ‘When will You comfort me?’ What applies to repentance applies also to every spiritual gift in Christ Jesus. Not one is given, or appropriated, to the soul immediately—everything has its appointed time; and the establishment in every virtue comes only in its own time. Nothing can be seized forcibly from the hand of the Lord: seek, pray, wait—and from this comes the cry: ‘When will You comfort me?’ Blessed Augustine writes: ‘With the words “when will You comfort me” the prophet shows how burdensome is the delay in receiving what is desired. But the giver delays the giving so that the receiving may be the more pleasant and what is received may be the more vigilantly preserved. The Lord knows when to give what to whom, for He always orders all things by measure, weight, and number.’

St. Ambrose refers the cry ‘When will You comfort me?’ to the soul that has come to desire the grace of contemplation. Active perfection is the first stage of the Christian life, and contemplation is the second, higher one. One ascends to it through the cleansing of the soul—but not by oneself, but being led up by the Lord and the grace of the Spirit. Meanwhile, one who has desired it also directs there the eye of his mind; but for all his striving, he himself sees nothing. With the Lord and His grace, all things have their appointed time. Hence the cry: ‘When will You comfort me?’ All the mysteries of God are revealed in God’s word, but are grasped only when grace grants their grasp. Suddenly the mind perceives in the word what it had not seen in it before, though it had read and pondered it several times.

Ps. 118:83. For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget Your statutes.

In the first two verses the prophet expressed only his strong desire for help and his sorrow that what he hoped for did not come quickly; now he sets forth the reasons why it would be right to hasten the fulfillment of the promise and to put an end to his sufferings.

The first reason is this: I have become, he says, like a bottle in the frost, in the cold, on the ice or in the snow; and yet, for all that, I have not forgotten and do not forget Your statutes. ‘A bottle in the frost,’ reasons Zigabenus, ‘freezes, contracts, spoils, becomes good for nothing.’ I have become good for nothing, he says—to look at me, one might as well throw me away—and all this from sorrows, privations, attacks and oppressions. No property, and my bodily strength is exhausted: no home, hungry, naked, and barefoot; and besides that, blind, lame, and enfeebled, barely moving. To whom could one more fittingly hasten for help? For all this is for the sake of Your statutes—for the sake of my being faithful to You and not departing from Your law. How fitting such speech would have been on the lips of Lazarus on his dung-heap! And yet Lazarus was left as he was until the end of his days. Therefore one must always discern in the prophet’s words that he is taking upon himself the face of various kinds of sufferers and, entering into their condition, stretches out from their faces a prayerful word to God—without, however, removing the submission to God’s will, which is the soul of prayer and an inseparable quality of those who please God as they ought.

The holy fathers, interpreting this passage in a moral sense, see in the comparison—“like a wineskin in the frost”—an allusion to self-mortification, the first condition for advancement in the spiritual life, which Saint Paul also strictly observed: “I chastise my body,” he says, “and bring it into subjection, lest after preaching to others I myself should be rejected” (1 Cor. 9:27). Saint Athanasius writes as follows: “The righteous, while still in this life, become as dead men through their sufferings; and so they are likened more to wineskins than to men, having grown cold like hardened frost. He becomes a wineskin in the frost who mortifies (crushes to dust) his flesh, leaves nothing in it that can be inflamed or lustful, but freezes it, as it were, into ice.”

Saint Ambrose speaks to the same effect: “A wineskin is made from the skin of an animal that has ceased to live; so we too must die to sin and the flesh, if we wish to live for God. Then we shall become new wineskins into which new wine can safely be poured. Whoever wishes both to nourish the body and to preserve grace is seeking the impossible. The wineskin in the frost is one who always carries in his body the dying of the Lord, who does not fatten his body like those of whom it is said: ‘they ate and drank and rose up to play’ (Exod. 32:6). Let him who is drunk not with wine but with the Spirit boast, like David, that he has become as a wineskin in the frost.” “When spiritual desires are inflamed,” writes Blessed Augustine, “fleshly desires grow cold. This is what the prophet speaks of here. By the word ‘wineskin’ he points to lustful flesh, and by ‘frost’—the heavenly gift, by which, as by a frost, fleshly lusts are killed. The consequence of this is that the judgments of God do not fall from memory, for then one thinks of nothing else, when ‘no provision is made for the flesh to fulfill its lusts’ (Rom. 13:14).”

Ps. 118:84. How many are the days of Your servant? When will You execute judgment on them that persecute me?

The prophet speaks as if to say: days follow upon days, years upon years; I wait for Your protection, but it does not come. My life is already in its twilight, and I am still under oppression, while my enemies triumph. When, O Lord, will You execute judgment upon those who persecute me, when will You put them to shame and raise me up from humiliation?

How natural is such a cry from one around whom both his own enemies and God’s enemies are rejoicing! Death may strike at any moment—shall these enemies then go unpunished? Of course he grieves for himself, yet he does not separate himself from the interests of God. Animated by a sense of divine righteousness to utter so bold a word, he speaks as if to say: would You permit Your righteousness to be outraged with impunity? Here lies a second reason why help should be hastened to the one who suffers.

Blessed Augustine likens this cry to the cry of the slain in the Apocalypse: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:10). In both cases there is testimony that unrighteous wrongdoers receive retribution even on earth, that not all are permitted to live out their days in iniquity without earthly requital. If this were so, men would forget that there is a Judge. Full retribution for all things is deferred until the Last Judgment; but even here the Lord sometimes renders recompense as testimony that the path of iniquity is an unreliable path. Some do live until the grave in prosperity—so as to receive, as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus shows, their good things for certain virtues in their lifetime.

This cry has its meaning in the moral sense as well. Those who are advancing in the struggle against passions and lusts, sustained by the secret workings of the enemy of our salvation, seeing that life is drawing to its close while the passions are still in force, and fearing lest they should pass into the other life unpurified, rightly cry out for judgment upon Satan who ceaselessly pursues and oppresses them by stirring up their passions. The meaning of such a prayer is: repel and drive him away from me; then it will be easier for me to deal with the remnants of sin that remain in me during my remaining days; and I may perhaps, at least in the evening of life, taste the sweetness of purity of heart. Saint Athanasius writes: “The days of man on earth are few; therefore the prophet prays that during them Satan may be crushed speedily under his feet, and that he himself may bring his soul into subjection to the Divine Word who descended into it.”

Saint Ambrose speaks of this at greater length: “Having established himself on the firm foundation of virtue, the prophet prays that strength be given to him to trample not a man, but the one who is accustomed to seize the ruling place in man. The apostle also teaches that through judgment upon sin in man (during repentance and the rejection of sin) judgment is executed upon Satan, and that his head is crushed through the overcoming of sin: ‘God,’ he says, ‘shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly’ (Rom. 16:20). Thus the prophet asks that God grant him to grind and trample the enemy underfoot with the footsteps of his faith—that even in this body, despite the brevity of his days of life, he may triumph over him. This triumph over the enemy is obtained when he is made to feel the authority and power of the man whom he formerly held in the bonds of sin and passions. This happens when the grace of God regenerates and transforms a person. The Lord gives such a soul authority to tread upon his enemies and crush their heads by his faith, his works, and his exploits. Thus everyone can overcome the enemy. When we do shameful deeds, the enemy boasts over us; but when we are zealous for deeds of purity, righteousness, and self-restraint, then we tread upon this serpent and scorpion.”

Ps. 118:85. Transgressors told me fables, but they are not as Your law, O Lord.

Here a third reason is presented why the cry of the prophet—or the cry of the one on whose behalf he speaks—cannot but be heard. Transgressors, he says, have been leading me astray, inviting me to follow the rules of their way of life. Of course, had I listened to them, I should have been freed from their attacks and offenses; but I did not agree to this, because what they proposed was plainly fables and mockery of every form of righteousness. Not so is Your law. Is it not then just that I should be spared and delivered from the oppression of the enemies of righteousness? How did the torturers not try to seduce the holy martyrs? They put forward the validity of their false beliefs, they disparaged faith in Christ the Lord Crucified, they offered happiness and comfort—and the holy martyrs, not all in word but all in deed, answered them: “All of this is fables, all of this is your own inventions and lies, by which you deceive yourselves and seek to lead others astray. Not such is the law of God; not such is God’s will for our salvation!” And in every age there are no few persons who suffer deprivations and persecutions at the hands of those who do not love righteousness, for the sole reason that they refuse to take part with them in their unrighteousness. Therefore in every age these words find people to whom it is fitting to address them to God in prayer.

In the moral sense the application of these words is broad and universal. Under the name of transgressors are understood here both those who are plainly sinners, who sometimes try by their speech to divert the zealous from the good path, and also the passions with sinful habits, which instead of words put forward their demands under the appearance of law, and above all the unclean spirits, who insinuate themselves everywhere with their suggestions and promptings, urging one to abandon the law of God’s will and to live according to one’s own will—that is, according to their will. All these enemies of truth never propose sin as sin and lawlessness, but always cloak it in what seems like a cloud, under which it appears bearable, permissible, and sometimes even unavoidable. The lover of God’s law, accustomed to walking in its ways, has his senses trained in discerning good and evil, and easily unmasks the flattering pretenses and exposes the lie: all of this, he says, though it may look like a law, is in fact “not as Your law, O Lord”—and he turns away from it. No one who is faithfully walking God’s path is free from such temptations; therefore each such person may weave these words of the prophet into his own prayer.

But not everyone has such discernment, and not everyone can on their own detect hidden deception. Therefore those who are inexperienced should turn to those with more experience for clarification and guidance as to what is right. The enemy sometimes begins a hundred miles away in order to bring someone to a wicked deed. The inexperienced person sees nothing so far but ordinary matters; but further and further on, without noticing it himself, he stumbles and falls into sin. Evil spirits participate in our affairs more than we think or guess. There is not a step where they do not intrude into something, and all with the aim of seeing whether they can catch someone and mock him. Therefore the Lord so insistently says: “what I say to you I say to all—Watch” (Mark 13:37). One must watch, guarding against what is wicked; but no less must one watch in examining even what is not wicked that comes to mind as something seemly and useful.

Ps. 118:86. All Your commandments are truth; they have persecuted me unjustly, help me.

The prophet confirms by this why he did not listen to the mockeries of the transgressors and remained faithful to the law: because, he says, “Your law is truth,” and from this he draws a conclusion: therefore they pursued me unjustly; to persecute someone for truth—what righteousness is there in that? Therefore he prays: “help” me, O Lord, Protector of all righteousness, who am persecuted unjustly! Here lies the fourth reason why help should be given to him. “I prefer,” writes Theodoret, “Your law, because I see all Your commandments adorned with truth; and in their persecuting me there is great unrighteousness.”

Upon the conviction that the path we walk is true rests the firmness of resolution to walk it unswervingly, regardless of any obstacles. This conviction gives courage and inspires, yet for all that it does not take away the sense of the grievousness of persecution, nor does it conceal its unrighteousness. Therefore even with such conviction the prayer “help me” is appropriate; it even gives the greatest boldness in praying for help. One who suffers persecution justly is not suffering persecution at all, but bearing chastisement—how then is he to pray: “help me”? This is possible for him only on the condition of repentance. But even then the more fitting prayer is: “I suffer justly; forgive and have mercy!” Saint Ambrose writes: “The prophet did not say: because they persecute me, help me; but ‘they have persecuted me unjustly, help me.’ For one may suffer persecution, but justly; there is such a thing as the just pursuit of vice. But when someone suffers persecution for truth, for purity, for faith, it is fitting for such a one to say the words of the prophet: ‘they have persecuted me unjustly, help me.’”

In the words “help me” one may see both a prayer for deliverance from persecutions and a prayer for help in enduring the afflictions of persecution. In those zealous for virtue, the conviction stands foremost that God knows better than we what is beneficial for us in our outward lot. “Like a good soldier,” says Saint Ambrose, “the prophet does not flee from battle and is not afraid of encounters with the enemy, being accustomed to war; but, like a faithful and proven warrior, he prays for the sending of help from above and with reverent prayer quickens his own courage. He does not ask for the persecution to cease, but prays for help in bearing it. He knew that those who desire to live godly cannot do without persecutions, and therefore willingly meets them, if only he may stand firm in godliness. We have many persecutors, both visible and invisible; unclean spirits pursue us, heretics pursue us, pagans, Jews. All those who desire to live godly are inevitably under the pressure of persecutions, so that even a single moment free from persecution is hard to find for a zealot of piety. And one might even conclude that when we are not suffering persecution, it is surely because we are not living altogether godly; for if the saying is true that ‘all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution’ (2 Tim. 3:12), then it is also true that whoever does not suffer persecution has not yet begun to live truly godly in Christ Jesus. When there is no struggle, I fear it may be because there is no one wishing to enter into struggle with me. The Lord said: ‘If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you’ (John 15:20). Holy David heard this word in the spirit even before the Incarnation of the Lord, and, like a disciple of Christ, did not shrink from warfare, but boldly entered into battle; for he knew that this would confirm him in godliness, secure his salvation, and bring him the crown of glory.”

Ps. 118:87. They had almost made an end of me upon the earth, but I forsook not Your commandments.

“I was barely,” interprets Saint Athanasius, “not deprived of life by the persecutions.” “They had already,” adds Zigabenus, “brought me to the ground; a little more and they would have taken my life; but even in such extremity I did not forsake Your commandments; in them I meditate and them I keep.” At first the enemies approached with flattering speech, wishing to draw me to their side; but since I did not yield to them, they took a different course and leveled me to the ground, stripping me of everything and reducing me to the point of death. But I endured even these mortal sufferings, and still did not depart from Your commandments. This was fulfilled to the letter in the holy martyrs.

In this lies the fifth reason why it is just to give help and deliver from oppression. I have been brought to the uttermost extremity, and still I stand. If You are testing me, O Lord, it seems the trial is already complete and full, and it is time to set a limit to it; and since despite the extremity of death You still preserve my life, I conclude from this that You are at last ready to bestow upon me the gift of rest, and therefore I pray: deliver me.

In the moral sense one may see here an indication of the most powerful incitements to sinfulness and the power to withstand them. Here is the final limit to which the work of human free will extends in the struggle with the passions—the refusal to consent to what is evil. Consent or refusal is always a matter of freedom; no one can coerce it, not even Almighty God Himself. But beyond this, progress goes no further, insofar as it depends on the will. To tame the passions, to cut them off from our nature, to render them insensible—or what amounts to the same thing, to attain to purity—is the work of God’s grace. The prophet speaks, in the person of one who is assailed: O how powerful were the incitements! Like a violent wind bending a frail plant down to the very ground, so it was with me; but I did not yield. Now I have done everything that depended on me; complete the work, O Lord, with Your grace, and tame the passions that war against me. And perhaps he also expresses a fear: I have held firm thus far, but who knows whether I shall hold firm hereafter? Better take these passions from me, O Lord!

Saint Ambrose expresses this last thought: “It was not in vain that he had recourse to Divine help, knowing that his warfare is with powerful enemies and that many struggles with them lie before him: now unclean spirits attack, now the flesh rises up with its allurements. Though you resist them, you still fear lest you should fall. Let us therefore learn from this to fear above all else our domestic enemy, whom we always carry within us. He is not so much strong as he is cunning and varied in his assaults. He is inflamed by wine, burns with lust, is kindled by the glance at a woman who passes by chance, is fed by hope, but is not weakened even by hopelessness, is roused by allurements, but is not ended even by satisfaction. And here are his vanquishers: fear breaks him down, toil exhausts him, and sufferings crush his head.”

Ps. 118:88. Quicken me according to Your mercy, and I shall keep the testimonies of Your mouth.

The purpose of the present life is the fulfillment of God’s commandments. Whoever holds to this carries within himself the very foundation upon which, by God’s providence, his life can rest. “But,” notes Blessed Theodoret, “the prophet adorned his word with humility, for he asked for life not as a reward for righteousness, but as a gift of mercy, promising in return to keep God’s testimonies.”

Just as in the preceding octave he prayed and prayed and finally said: let it be as Your will pleases, only let my heart be blameless—so here too: he asked and asked, and in the end says: well, let the enemies triumph; only preserve my life, that I may advance more in the keeping of Your testimonies—that is, he concludes with submission to God’s will, which is the very essence of prayer.

In the moral sense this prayer should be a prayer for gracious quickening. Saint Ambrose interprets this verse as follows: “The passions rise up and hinder me from faithfully keeping Your commandments—send therefore grace, or increase the grace that quickens my spirit. Then holy spiritual movements will drown out the movements of sin that has been weakened, and I shall keep Your testimonies without hindrance. I abstain from sinful deeds; but cut off the very passions themselves, so that, looking upon a woman, for example, I may not even in my heart lust after her.”

Or one may understand it thus: “quicken me”—preserve me for eternal life. Let this life run its course in straitness, but do not deprive me of eternal blessedness; and I promise to keep Your testimonies, fidelity to which is an indispensable condition for receiving blessedness in eternity. “By the words ‘quicken me,’ says Saint Ambrose, the prophet was asking not for what he already had—namely, life, for he was living—but for what he desired: to live in eternity, meaning the blessed life. Knowing, however, that in this much-troubled body it is hard to preserve an unaltered good disposition of the soul, he asks for mercy, that he may be continually quickened by the Spirit and through this always live for God and be dead to sin. For when sin is dead in us—life for God is alive, and the keeping of the commandments will continue unbroken and steadily, and will open the path to eternal life in God.”

Verses 89–96

The twelfth octave follows under the letter or word “lamed”—“to teach.”

“To teach” signifies both teaching others and learning oneself, committing to memory. For the present octave only the latter meaning applies. It speaks of meditation on God’s law, that is, of coming to understand God’s will and acting in accordance with it. This subject is vast, and the prophet has already turned his attention to it more than once. In the present case he shows to what conviction his meditation on God’s law has led him and what blessings it has brought him. Having studied the law, he says, I became convinced that if anyone wishes to live truly, he cannot achieve this in any other way than by conforming himself to God’s law, which expresses God’s will for us. Look: in the invisible heaven and in the visible heaven, and on the earth, and in all its manifestations—everything submits to God’s will. If you wish to live among creatures so ordered, then direct yourself also according to God’s will; otherwise you will be ground down by such a universal movement if you go against it (vv. Ps. 118:89–91). I resolved to act thus, and here is what I received: in all humiliating circumstances, I did not perish (v. Ps. 118:92); acting according to God’s ordinances, I was quickened (v. Ps. 118:93); having sought them, I became close to God and feel myself saved (v. Ps. 118:94); enemies laid snares for me, but did not bring about my destruction, because understanding of God’s testimonies taught me to discern their snares and avoid them (v. Ps. 118:95); finally, having entered the path of God’s will, I feel that I have entered into breadth and freedom, into a realm that has no end (v. Ps. 118:96). Beginning his exposition of this octave, Saint Ambrose prays as follows: “Come, Lord Jesus, open for us the door of this prophetic teaching, for it is closed to many, though at first glance it seems to stand open.”

Ps. 118:89. For ever, O Lord, Your word endures in heaven.

In verses Ps. 118:89–91 the prophet depicts how everything in creation submits to God’s will. In the present verse he says that the word of the living God is immutably fulfilled in the intelligible and material heavens; in the next he will say that on earth also everything abides because God so ordained it in His wise will; and then he will add that all phenomena on earth, from the greatest to the smallest—such as the succession of days and nights—all come to pass according to God’s will, so as to draw from all of this the conclusion: “for all things are Your servants.”

“For ever, O Lord, Your word endures”: What word?—The word uttered by God when He created the world. God said, let there be light—and there was; God said, let there be a firmament—and there was; God said, let there be sun, moon, and stars—and they appeared. And everything to which the word “it was” was then spoken, remains as it is. God’s will for the existence of the world was realized in its existence; and it continues to exist because by its very continuance it fulfills God’s will for its continuation. God wills that all things abide—and they abide, and moreover they abide as He is pleased. The word of God, the counsel of God and His decrees, are immutable.

“For ever” likewise means “from the beginning of time,” that is, from the very beginning of the existence of the universe. But it can also mean the whole of this age, from the beginning of existence until the end of the world, after which a “new heaven” shall appear. That is why it does not say “to the age of the age” or “to ages of ages,” but simply “for ever.” So explain the word Saint Hilary, Anthimus, and others. Throughout the entire period of the present form of the world’s existence, as everything began to be in heaven, so it continues and shall continue until the end of the age.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “You, O Master, the prophet says, can do all things easily, for Your commandment is kept by the immovable vaults of heaven.” He said the same thing in Psalm 148: “He established them for ever; He has made a decree which shall not pass away” (Ps. 148:6).

Saint Ambrose draws from this the following conclusion: “You see, that which abides in heaven must also abide in you. Therefore keep God’s word in your heart, and keep it so that it is not forgotten. Keep God’s law and meditate on it. If you wish to know the power of the prophetic saying, rise from the visible to the intelligible and draw from it moral lessons. If God’s word abides in heaven, let us imitate heaven, where it abides. Take your example for life from heaven. Is there any violation of law in the sun? Does it not always observe its accustomed course? And does not the moon always in the same order wane or wax its disc? And is not the relationship and movement (visible) of the stars across the sky always the same? Thus everything in heaven keeps its law and remains in its order. So too let God’s word, which determines the manner of your acting, remain in you unchangingly.”

When the prophet says that God’s word abides in heaven, he directly means the visible heaven; but in reflection nothing prevents one from rising from the visible heaven to the invisible—the hosts of angels and saints. “By this saying,” says Blessed Theodoret, “the prophet also gives us to understand that the hosts of angels, who dwell in heaven, keep God’s law and are free from every stumbling.” To a similar thought come also Saint Ambrose, Saint Hilary, Anthimus, and Zigabenus. However, even in that heaven there once appeared a transgressor of God’s will, but he was quickly cast out from there together with all whom he had managed to draw away; and now the intelligible heaven abides pure, shining in the angels with God’s word, which abides and constitutes the immutable norm of all their movements, both inward and outward. God’s will is fulfilled there with such perfection that the Lord has ordained for us always to pray that it may be fulfilled in us as it is in the angelic heaven.

Dwelling on this thought, Saint Ambrose urges us to zeal in establishing a similar heaven also on earth. How is this to be done?—Thus: hear, he says, what the apostle writes: “as we have borne the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:49). There is your heaven! Such people have full boldness to say: “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20), for there faith, self-restraint, and detachment from all things are present—a heavenly life. As one who fell away from heavenly grace through breaking the commandment and became bound by earthly passions is called earth, so it is right to call heaven one who through detachment from all earthly things emulates the angelic life. Heaven is where heavenly virtues are present, even if it be on earth. “Heaven is My throne,” says the Lord through the prophet. This is not the material heaven, I think, but rather that heaven into which Christ enters and in which He sups, having first with His knock aroused the loving desire to receive Him. And He does not enter alone, but with the Father, as He Himself said: “I and My Father will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23).

Continuing the same line of thought, Saint Hilary says: “When the prophet said that God’s word abides in heaven, that is, in the world of angels, one should not suppose that it is absent from the earth, that is, from the hearts of rational creatures. Among us (the baptized) there is no one who is deprived of the gift of heavenly grace and who does not have God’s word abiding within him—when he is sober-minded, lives peaceably with all, practices self-restraint, shows mercy, and in general submits to God’s commandments, fulfilling the works they lay upon us. In those in whom it is not violated by anger, by lust, by deceitfulness, or by people-pleasing, God’s word abides as in heaven.”

Ps. 118:90. Your truth endures to all generations; You have established the earth, and it abides.

After indicating heaven’s unswerving adherence to God’s decrees, it would have been natural to indicate the same unswerving adherence of the earth to those same decrees; but the prophet inserts in the middle one highly significant saying: “Your truth endures to all generations.” With what thought?

These words can be set in relation to the preceding verse: in place of “for ever” stands “to all generations,” and “Your truth” corresponds to “Your word.” In that case they serve as an explanation of that verse. And “Your truth” will denote the same immutable laws of heaven’s existence as are expressed by the words “Your word.” I look at heaven, and it suggests to me that Your word endures for ever; the same was seen by the generation before us, and the one before them. From generation to generation passes the truth of the immutability of the orders You have established in heaven.

But one may suppose that these words contain a moral application of all that has been said in the first three verses of this octave (Ps. 118:89–91) about the immutability of the orders of the physical world. Having pointed to this immutability in heaven, he will point to it also on earth: “You have established the earth, and it abides.” “By Your ordinance the day endures.” It would have followed to add: so it is in the material world, but no differently is it in the moral world; and here too “Your truth” abides “to all generations.” The prophet chose, however, to place this not at the end but higher up, so that this truth, high as the height of heaven, would not be distanced from the indication of the immutability of God’s orders in heaven. Thus the prophet teaches that just as in the visible world the laws of existence established by God are immutable, so too in the moral world God’s truth abides to all generations. What truth is this?—Both the truth that all the heavens proclaim to all, that God exists, Creator, Almighty, Providence, and Judge of the universe—to whom rational creatures are obliged to give pleasure by faithful following of the laws written in the conscience. This truth is confessed by all; in every generation it governs above all the life of peoples, and no force can silence its voice. It abides from generation to generation and will abide for all generations and ages of ages. And especially the truth communicated to men through Revelation. God revealed His will to Adam, to Noah, to the patriarchs—the forefathers of the chosen people, and above all to Moses on Sinai. But even after him He did not cease to enlighten His people through holy men, to whom He Himself appeared or to whom He sent His angels. The prophet David himself experienced such revelations.

But these revelations often pertained to particular occasions. What truth among those revealed abides from generation to generation?—The truth that the Redeemer was to come and save our race. This truth was the soul of all the revelations and all God’s institutions among His people. Holy David received it from the preceding generations and transmitted it to the following, depicting in his God-inspired psalms the coming Redeemer as though he saw Him with his own eyes. This truth was confessed generation after generation before holy David; and he foresaw that it would be confessed in subsequent ages also, generation after generation. Each generation receives this truth from the one before, transmits it to the one after, and, having confessed that it abided before it from generation to generation, vouches that it will abide unchangingly for all generations after it as well. And there is no power that could cut short the passage of this truth from generation to generation.

For the prophet this truth was yet to be hoped for; for us it is an accomplished fact. But at the same time, as soon as it was accomplished, it ceased to be the possession of one people of God alone and became the possession of all peoples. And having once taken root in one known people, it abides from generation to generation and will abide for all generations to ages of ages.

Our commentators, with regard to this saying of the prophet, dwell chiefly on the passing of God-revealed truth from one people into the possession of all other peoples. Thus Blessed Theodoret writes: “‘Your truth endures to all generations.’ You did preserve it for the Jewish generation and for another that came after it. We mean the people gathered from the Gentiles, who received salvation from our Savior Jesus Christ.” Saint Athanasius says: “There are two generations that have received God’s truth: the Jewish people, who have the law and the prophets, and the Church. Therefore God’s truth is not to generations, but to the first generation and to the second. The other peoples remain in error. But when the first generation rejected the truth and said: ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth’ (Acts 22:22), then the truth passed from the first generation to the second.” “Thus,” concludes Saint Ambrose, “falsehood reigns among all peoples; truth is only in the Church, for all the faithful constitute one generation. The Church unites all, and she alone possesses the truth.”

Ps. 118:91. By Your ordinance the day endures; for all things are Your servants.

The end of the preceding verse—“You have established the earth” and “it abides”—is connected in commentary with the present verse, since together they express one thought, namely that both on earth and in heaven all things come to pass and move according to God’s will.

“God established the earth”—that is, He assigned it its place in the chain of planets of the solar system and established its relationship to the sun, the moon, and other bodies; and as He established it, so all of this abides to this day and will abide as long as it pleases God for it to abide thus. And on the earth itself God established all things. He disposed in orderly relation the air, water, and earth, the strata of the earth, salts, metals—all is the work of His hands, and where He appointed each thing to lie, there it lies. The various kinds of plants did not appear of themselves but came forth from the earth at the command of God’s creative word; likewise, air, water, and earth were filled with animals because the Lord of all so commanded. Thus God established the earth with all that is in it and upon it, and as He established it, so all things abide.

“By Your ordinance the day endures.” “To the earth,” says Blessed Theodoret, “You gave long duration, and it abides as You commanded. The day You did separate from the night, and they proceed according to Your laws.”

The rotation of the earth upon its own axis, in its definite relationship to the sun, gives the alternation of day and night. But since God ordained both that the earth should rotate upon itself and that it should stand in such a relationship to the sun, the alternation of days and nights was part of the plan of the earth’s establishment. We are accustomed to this alternation and therefore it does not seem to us a great thing; but in reality this alternation, upon which the change of seasons also depends, conditions the cycle of life of all creatures that are upon the earth. When the prophet says that “by God’s ordinance the day endures,” he wishes to bring to our minds that the patterns of changes on earth are all appointed by God in such a way that creatures might live upon it, and that if they do live, it is because, by God’s ordinance, those patterns remain unchanged.

“For all things are Your servants.” This is the conclusion drawn from all that has been said and its confirmation. All things slavishly submit to God, nor can it be otherwise. The Creator is also the Sustainer, and He sustains what He sustains as He sees fit. When the prophet says “all things are God’s servants,” he excludes nothing. The cloud moves and carries rain where God commands, to water some fields and leave others to the scorching heat of the sun. The storm rushes where God directs it, fulfilling the judgments of His righteousness or mercy. Fire is kindled and sometimes devours cities and villages, because God so commanded it. And nothing happens by chance; all things move according to the laws of God’s mercy and righteousness, wisely and purposefully.

Thus both in heaven and on earth all things submit to God; but they submit because they cannot do otherwise, having no freedom. Only rational creatures have received freedom and amid the universal servitude of creatures walk as kings, unhampered by the bonds of unchanging laws. God honored them with self-mastery, but not so that they might act willfully, but so that they might freely and willingly submit to the same will of God. He also gave them laws and inscribed them in their hearts; but He did not bind their freedom, leaving it to their own choice to fulfill them or not, having only forewarned them that if they do fulfill them they will be blessed, and if not, they will suffer.

The servitude of all creatures He placed before their eyes so that they might find in it a motive and a reminder. If all things are servants of God, it is not fitting for you either to deviate from the common order. Submit therefore your freedom under the yoke of God’s will willingly.

When in some complex machine—a mill, say, where many wheels are in motion—one particular wheel were to refuse to submit to the common movement, all the other wheels, without ceasing to act under the influence of the force that drives them, would grind it down and crush it. So it is with a free creature too: though freely, yet it is nonetheless necessary to submit, together with all creatures, to God’s will, in order to live a blessed life. If a creature dares to depart from God’s will—then all creatures grind it down and crush it, instructively reminding it of its departure from the common order and solicitously calling it to return to the common rank, so as together with all things to serve God with all the soul, all the heart, all the strength, and all the mind.

Ps. 118:92. Unless Your law had been my meditation, I should then have perished in mine affliction.

Having explained how all things in the world are servants of the Lord God, the prophet passes over in silence the fact that in consequence of this state of affairs he himself resolved firmly to walk always in God’s will—he passes it over because that is an inevitable matter for anyone who has understanding—and speaks only of what good consequences followed for him from this. The first is that in humiliating circumstances only meditation on God’s law saved him from ruin.

We see that the prophet David from childhood cleaved to God with all his heart and strove in every way to please Him. For this he was chosen as king of the chosen people, and after overcoming Goliath went by a happy path toward exaltation. Now he was already Saul’s son-in-law; but the enemy stirred up envy in his father-in-law against him, and David was forced to flee from the royal court and wander in daily fear for his life. God alone preserved him in these circumstances. The prophet felt this tangibly and never ceased to confess it when happy days returned to him.

Why did God show him such mercy?—Because he remained faithful to Him and in nothing allowed himself to depart from the recognized will of God. Whatever befell him, he looked not at what he himself might have wished or at how to act more advantageously, but at what God willed of him in each situation; he looked into the law and meditated in it, seeking what path to choose so that it would be pleasing to God. What could have been better and more convenient than to kill Saul when he lay before him without defense? But the thought did not even occur to him, because he counted the person of God’s anointed as inviolable. The fear of God, always present in his heart, restrained him from evil not only in deeds but also in thoughts. And because he was always so disposed and had constant assurance in his conscience that he had not violated God’s will for his own gratification, his heart was full of hope in God; and such strong hope always draws God’s mercy and His protection. Recalling this, he now confesses that then, in humiliating circumstances, he would certainly have perished had not God’s law been the teacher whom he followed in all things. Without this—there would have been no protection of God over him; and upon whom there is no protection of God, him the malice of men and the devices of the ancient enemy of our salvation overwhelm.

Thus were all the righteous saved from ruin. What helped Joseph not to be lost in Egypt and not to disappear without trace?—The fact that he learned from God’s law how to conduct himself in the unexpected and unforeseen circumstances of his life. The fear of God was the reason he preserved his chastity, and from this flowed all God’s mercies. What saved the youths in Babylon?—The fact that, meditating on God’s law, they had it as their sole guide on how to act among the unbelievers, in whose hands their lives lay. From this came their wisdom and their salvation even in the fiery furnace. What above all saved Job in the most extreme upheaval of his life?—The fact that he always meditated on the law of his God and remained faithful to it, despite all manner of temptations.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “This can be said of any one of the godly who falls into calamities: of Joseph, who escaped slavery, adultery, and slander; of Daniel, who was forbidden to pray; of the three youths, who were compelled to bow before the idol; and of the victorious martyrs, who endured all kinds of torments. David had the right to say this too, driven out by Saul and forced to live among foreigners and ungodly people. Perhaps he too would have partaken of their ungodliness, had he not ceaselessly meditated on God’s law.”

Every ascetic can confess the same when the storm of passions and powerful disturbances from demons has passed. The fear of God and unshakeable fidelity to God’s law preserve him from falls. Therefore, after the temptation passes, they too always say from the heart, with the words of Saint Athanasius the Great: “From the assault of evil thoughts and the attacks of hostile powers I should have perished, had not Your law become my support.”

Ps. 118:93. I will never forget Your precepts, for in them You have quickened me.

Previously the prophet spoke of what saving things he experienced from meditation on God’s law and fidelity to it; now he speaks of his resolution in consequence: since You have preserved my life, “quickened me,” left me alive because I meditated on Your law and followed it in all things, from now on I will never forget Your precepts, by following which a person appears righteous before You. “Having learned by experience,” explains Blessed Theodoret, “that Your precepts give life, I shall preserve an indelible memory of them.” “I will not forget”—not only in memory and thought, but in deed and in life—I will not forget, that is, to walk in them, to fulfill them. Experience of the good consequences of fulfilling God’s commandments and precepts inspires one with the resolution to remain faithful to them forever. Nothing can be compared with this sweet quickening that the life according to God’s will provides. Wishing to remain in this quickening always, I no longer wish to know anything but Your precepts. “As one who has recovered,” says Didymus in Zigabenus, “from some grievous illness through the help of certain medicines and never forgets them, so the prophet, having been quickened by God in the precepts he had from Him, says that he will never forget them, citing as the motive for this the quickening he received in them.”

The word of the prophet points not only to the preservation of bodily life on account of fidelity to God’s precepts, but still more to the quickening of the soul, which is always in force even if preservation of life does not follow. That is why he says: “for in them You have quickened me.” This is the same as saying: I feel within myself a life that dwells in me through Your precepts. And indeed, where there is no reproach of conscience, where there is no preference of self-gratification over pleasing God, despite the voluntary and involuntary privations that accompany such a way of life—there alone is there true life; and being true, it cannot but anoint the soul with the oil of gladness, penetrating all its faculties and everywhere leaving traces of contentment and peace. Therefore Saint Athanasius writes regarding this passage: “I shall look upon Your laws, for in them I find life, as You also said to me that ‘the man that does them shall live in them’ (Lev. 18:5). Consequently, only the righteous man is truly alive, though he seems to die; while the unrighteous are dead, though they appear to live, because the former have in themselves the foundation of life—righteousness—while the latter, not having this foundation, are like inanimate things, which are moved not of themselves but from without.”

Thus one may say that if some are unfaithful to God’s commandments, it is because they have not yet had occasion to experience how life-giving is the effect upon the soul of their fulfillment. They are prevented from experiencing this by unbelief: they do not believe that it is so and make no experiments in self-denying fulfillment of the commandments; while the contrary life appears to them to offer proven pleasures, though these pleasures always have a bitter aftertaste. One must believe and enter upon the path of the commandments. The sweetness of life according to the commandments is not given to taste immediately, for the specific purpose of testing faith and giving it time to grow strong. But it exists and is awaited by those who have entered upon this path. When the trial has passed, one is given to sense the sweetness of such a life—as testimony that the quickening of the soul has begun under the salutary effect of fidelity to the commandments—and the further one goes, the more perceptible this quickening. Finally, the fullness of life takes up residence in the heart. This is when the Lord comes with the Father and the Holy Spirit and makes His dwelling in the soul, on account of its long, constant, and patient fidelity to the commandments.

Ps. 118:94. I am Your; save me, for I have sought Your precepts.

God Himself claims as His own those who faithfully fulfill His will, calling them His servants, His faithful ministers, friends, sons, and daughters; and those who enter upon the path of the commandments feel that they are entering as it were into a certain kinship with God, becoming close to Him. So it is also among men: when someone serves another faithfully, he does not consider himself a stranger to him and believes that the one he serves does not consider him a stranger either.

So it is in the things of God. This mutual belonging constitutes the spiritual union of God with faithful souls and of faithful souls with God. It is precisely this kinship with God that the holy prophet confesses here: I am Your, he says, because “I have sought Your precepts”; I sought Your precepts and became Your. I believe that You do now also count me as Your own; save me therefore, as Your own. “I am Your, save me!” “I am Your servant,” says Saint Athanasius the Great, “Your son by grace, Your minister.” “Not everyone,” adds Blessed Theodoret, “can say this: whoever is a slave to sin lies if he calls himself a servant of God: ‘by whom a man is overcome, to the same is he also in bondage’ (2 Pet. 2:19). Therefore, if we, having been freed from sin, resolve to follow God’s laws, we too can say of ourselves the words of the prophet.”

O, what a great gift, what an inexpressible privilege sin deprives us of! “God’s”—such a title is given to those who fulfill God’s commandments, and not merely a title, but the most essential belonging and kinship with God! Whoever dedicates himself to the service of God, having sought His precepts, God transforms by the grace of the Holy Spirit into a new man, and he becomes God’s, as one born of God. What are all earthly titles and all earthly privileges compared with this! Yet few think about it, carelessly abandoning themselves to sin in self-gratification of the flesh, whereas sin not only gives nothing but even squanders what man already has from God the Bountiful. That is why we have no right to say: “I am Your.” For what kind of “His” are we in truth, when our conscience loudly tells us that all we do is gratify the flesh in its lusts?

Carried away by the excellence of such a title, someone might impulsively wish to say: “I am Your, O Lord”—but his immediate masters, whom he serves, rise up and stop his mouth. “Lust comes,” Saint Ambrose explains this thought, “and says: you are mine, for you gratify the flesh; you sold yourself to me for love of such a woman; I paid for you by your fall with such a harlot. Avarice comes and says: you are mine; the silver and gold you possess is the price of your slavery; what you own is payment for your self-rule (on my side) and the sale of your freedom (on your side). Luxury comes and says: you are mine; a single day’s feasting is the price of your whole life; these sumptuous foods are payment for your head; I bought you for cups of wine, acquired you for costly dishes. Ambition comes and says: you are mine; do you not know that in return I gave you power over others, so that you should submit to me? You are my slave because I made others subject to you. And all the other vices and passions come, and each of them says: you are mine—and the one to whom they say this truly has no power to turn his tongue against them. How then can such a one dare to say to Christ the Lord: ‘I am Your’?—No, He will answer you: ‘Not every one that says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 7:21). Not everyone who says to Me ‘I am Your’ is Mine. You are Mine if only your conscience does not convict you of falsehood in your word, if your deeds and the thoughts of your heart do not contradict your speech. I do not deny that the one who does not deny this himself is Mine, or rather, who denies himself. I do not wish to have as a servant one who is a slave to many masters; for how can he be Mine who says with his tongue ‘I am Your’ but refutes it with his deeds and shows by his life that he is given over to the devil? Not Mine is the one whom lust inflames, for Mine is purity; not Mine is the one whom swift-moving anger disturbs, for I am meekness; not Mine is the one who takes delight in feasting, for Mine is strict temperance in all things. I am peace, and quarrelsomeness I know not. What is it to Me who can be said of by the devil: ‘He is mine; he has bowed his neck before me, and I find much of my own in him. He bears Your name but serves me.’ The holy prophet David rightly said: ‘I am Your,’ because he was always devoted to the Lord, ‘for I have sought Your precepts’—that is, I sought nothing foreign to You, but always desired only what is Your: ‘I have sought Your precepts.’ They are my sole possession; and through them You Yourself are my portion, O Lord.”

Ps. 118:95. The wicked have waited for me to destroy me, but I have understood Your testimonies.

The wicked—those who hated me, my enemies—laid an ambush so that I might fall into their hands and be destroyed. But since I neither knew nor wished to know anything except Your testimonies, Your goodness was pleased to take me under Your protection, and I was delivered from their hands; the wicked waited for a favorable opportunity and waited in vain. If a skilled pilot can steer a ship through submerged rocks, how much more does the Lord know how to guide His own through all the dangers that surround and confront them? Here it seems as though something has been left out: “You have taken me under Your protection”; yet this thought flows directly from what preceded: “I am Your; save me”—here only the answering of that prayer is to be understood. Saint Athanasius writes: “One might have said: I attended with my understanding to Your testimonies, and by my thought of You—my prayerful thought—which drew Your help, I brought their evil designs to nothing.” Or perhaps the thought here is this: the wicked lay snares and plots against me, hoping to destroy me; but I, remaining always faithful to Your commandments and directing my steps by them alone, pass through their snares and am saved. I do not even know what they are contriving here or there; but since I strive always to act only as Your testimonies direct, I walk a safe road and make their attempts against me futile.

These words can fittingly be applied to the martyrs. What means did the tormentors not employ to turn them from the faith and so destroy their souls! Yet their blandishments and their schemes remained futile before believers firm in spirit, because the martyrs wished to know nothing except the manifest will of the Lord, who had commanded them to confess Him before men. The tormentors used now one kind of torment, now another, waiting for the moment when those being tortured would at last renounce Christ the Lord—but their expectations were not fulfilled. Saint Ambrose says: “A saint, having left the tribunal where his death sentence had been pronounced, could say: ‘The wicked waited to destroy me’—they used, that is, every form of punishment and torture, but they could not draw me away from my confession. Faith conquered the allurements of life and the torments of the body. The wicked waited to triumph over me; but thanks be to Christ the Lord, who granted me to triumph over my torturers! Remain defeated, you who hoped to win! ‘O death, where is your sting?’ (1 Cor. 15:55). Not yours, but ours is now the victory, for we now conquer in you, in whom we were formerly conquered. And so it is fitting for a martyr to say: ‘The wicked waited to destroy me.’ A moment later—after the beheading—he sees the choirs of angels and says with joy: those who rejoice in the salvation of every soul waited for me to take me from the earth; he sees there the glory of the saints and says: the righteous waited to receive me into their company; he sees the Lord Jesus and says: Christ the Lord waited to crown me.”

These words are fitting for all who strive to please God. Against them the world arms itself both with its attractions and with its hatred; the ancient enemies of our salvation lay hidden snares against them; and both the world and the enemies wait for success—but when the person with whom they engage in battle has his whole mind occupied only with the testimonies of God, all their attempts to destroy him come to nothing. He tears through all the nets of his enemies like a cobweb, and all their arrows glance off him as from an indestructible cliff. His soul is full of another reality, his mind dwells in another world, his heart has sympathy for other objects; and so temptations do not carry him away but instead produce in him an aversion to themselves, an aversion sown by the spirit of prayer. Saint Ambrose puts the following words in the mouth of the one who strives: “Sinners set their snares for me to draw me into sin and destroy me by its infection; but the allurements of sin did not turn me away from the contemplation of the objects of divine knowledge, nor did they divert my attention from dwelling on Your commandments, O Lord. In Your testimonies I was with all my mind, and I understood only them. Had I not been so devoted to them, perhaps sin would have swept me away and I would have perished; but ‘by Your grace I am what I am’ (1 Cor. 15:10).”

Ps. 118:96. I have seen an end of all perfection, but Your commandment is exceedingly broad.

“Perfection”—the completion of a matter—can also mean the matter itself, the enterprise, the undertaking. “End” means limit or boundary. The prophet says: I have seen the limit of every deed and enterprise and undertaking; it begins, continues, and reaches its end. But Your commandment is exceedingly broad—that is, it has no end; begin to fulfill it and you will never reach the point where you can say: I have finished; nothing more is required. Furthermore: every undertaking and deed occupies a certain circle within which it operates, and beyond which its influence does not extend. But God’s commandment is boundless and so broad that no limit can be set to it.

In what sense can one speak thus of the commandments? — First, in the sense that no limit can be set to progress in any commandment. The degrees of ascent or perfection in each of them are without end. Each commandment obliges one to the virtue proper to it; but however high a degree you attain in any virtue, you can never say “enough,” for there is still a degree higher than the one on which you stand. Take mercy: can anyone think that he has reached the final limit of perfection in it, when that limit is set to be the mercy of the Heavenly Father, in whom everything is boundless? And whatever virtue you take, its ultimate limit will be perfect likeness to God. And since this limit is never attainable for a creature, the creature will eternally be ascending toward it and will never arrive. When the Lord said, “Be you perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48), He thereby pointed to the obligation of those created in the image of God—to strive toward infinite perfection in every virtue. And since this is an obligation—while no one can say of himself that he has already attained it—it follows of itself that humility is the most natural feeling in all who are making progress in virtue, and the higher one is in virtue, the more humble one becomes, for before him an endless road still lies to be traveled. And if it is endless, then all that has been traveled is nothing; the road, one might say, has scarcely begun. This is why such people, with all their efforts and strivings, usually say: “Not as though I had already attained… but I press on, if that I may apprehend” (Phil. 3:12). Saint Athanasius writes: “These are the words of one who, with all his progress, has ascended to the very summit of virtue, has attained the perfect good, and has set both a beginning and an end to many things. For the ending of the first stage of perfection serves as the beginning of the next, according to the saying: ‘When a man has done, then he begins’ (Sir. 18:6).”

Second, the commandment is broad because one who has entered upon its path enters into the realm of the will of God, which encompasses all that exists and comes to pass. This thought stands in agreement with the thought of the first three verses of this octet—namely, that everything in heaven and on earth is subject to the will of God. Since the commandment is the expression of the will of God, one who has begun to walk by the commandments enters into the boundless expanse where the will of God reigns. Whereas one who does not live by the commandments, thereby stepping outside the bounds of God’s will, is subjected to constraint and pressure from everything that is subject to God’s will—one who lives by God’s commandments is in harmony with everything, and this favorable relationship with all things gives him unhindered freedom of existence and action.

From this it follows, thirdly, that the commandment is broad also because it gives breadth—that is, full freedom—to the one who fulfills it. Only the one who walks by the commandments both possesses himself and orders all his deeds and all his relationships according to God; he is not subject to the external, but on the contrary subjects the external to himself. Every passion and passionate habit is a fetter on freedom, by which a person becomes its slave. This everyone knows and experiences in himself. The commandments are given as an antidote to the passions: one who has acquired the habit of fulfilling a particular commandment kills the passion opposed to it. And one who has set out along all the commandments kills all the passions; and if he kills them, he destroys within them their binding property; and if this property is destroyed, then the person attains full freedom. This is precisely what the holy apostle calls “the liberty of the children of God”; and this is what the mystery of redemption consists in.

Verses 97–104

The thirteenth octet is headed by the letter or word “mem”—“blemish.”

A blemish is the same as a defect or flaw in an object, or equally a moral deficiency of some kind, and in the end, sin.

Reasoning from this standpoint, we encounter questions: in what do the defects or blemishes that stain a person consist, where do they come from, what consequences do they bring, and how can they be remedied?

In this octet the prophet shows how the principal spiritual vices are corrected: blindness of mind, crookedness of will, and hardening of heart—insensibility. All of them are corrected by meditation on the law of God and faithful adherence to it. Life by the commandments opens the eyes of the mind, so that it understands everything clearly (vv. 97–100); it restores rectitude to the will, ordering all its undertakings (vv. 101–102); and it revives in the heart the forgotten sense for everything holy and divine (vv. 103–104).

Ps. 118:97. O how I love Your law, O Lord! It is my meditation all the day.

“O how I love Your law, O Lord”—that is, how dear to me is Your law! Thus cries the soul that has experienced the beneficial effects of a life lived by God’s commandments. One who begins to fulfill the commandments may approach this task out of fear of punishment, out of shame before people for his vices, out of intellectual conviction that this is how it must be—not yet feeling drawn to the commandments, not knowing what taste is hidden in them; at this stage he is led like one being led along, and labors like a beast of burden. But then, little by little, he begins to feel the good of such a manner of life and to enter into its taste, and the further he goes the more he feels this; at last he becomes convinced that nothing is more blessed than to depart from evil and do good, meditating on the law of the Lord day and night. Now he applies himself to the law not from a sense of duty or from any other motive but from heartfelt love of it, for one cannot fail to love what is good. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Not everyone who fulfills God’s law fulfills it out of love; some fulfill it from fear and dread of punishment, and others in pursuit of glory from men; but the sincere lovers of virtue strive to fulfill God’s commandments out of an inclination toward the good.”

Saint Hilary says: “One might say: how faithfully I fulfill Your law! But since it is more valuable when a person does something out of love rather than out of fear, the prophet says: ‘O how I love Your law!’ Adherence to God’s will out of love stands far apart from fulfilling one’s duty out of fear. The prophet testifies that his obedience to the law comes from devotion and love, and from nothing else. Many keep the fast only because they fear rebuke from the pastors for not doing so; some give to the poor only to avoid being reproached for stinginess; others go to church merely to escape the shame of being rebuked for such negligence. All such people do not act out of love. In love there is a voluntary eagerness to do the thing, done with joy and pleasure. Whatever a person loves, that he also willingly desires.”

Whatever a person loves, he constantly thinks about. And the prophet, who had come to love the law, meditated on it all the day: he meditated amid every task, so that his work might be pleasing to God and not offend Him; he meditated when free from tasks, preparing patterns for his deeds so that when he encountered them he would not be at a loss as to how to act; and he meditated simply because such meditation nourishes the soul with the heavenly, divine elements of good thoughts and wholesome feelings. This last mode of meditation is more commonly practiced, and it is also more easily accomplished. There is a rule of the fathers—to read the word of God in the morning with deep attention until you come upon a passage that falls upon the heart. Such a passage will then occupy you the whole day, like a key that winds up a music box. Some, in order to keep the mind occupied all day with the divine, advise learning psalms by heart and then reciting them. Others of stronger mind, having fixed the mind in the morning in contemplation of God, do not let their thought depart from God all day. All this, though varying in form, is an equal fulfillment of what the prophet says: “It is my meditation all the day.”

For one who lives this way, night is as day—or rather, for him there is no night, but all is day. This is perhaps why the prophet said “all the day” without mentioning the night, as he did in the first psalm: “in the law of the Lord does he meditate day and night.” Saint Athanasius writes: “For the one who is progressing, it is day when he lives by the law, and night when he does not meditate on it with all his heart and does not do what the law requires. But for those who have made progress and have become saints, there is no longer night, but all is day.” Saint Hilary says the same: “What the prophet has loved, that he is ceaselessly occupied with: he has loved the law, and he meditates in it without interruption all the day. Other occupations do not distract him, and the cares and vanities of this age do not bring forgetfulness. He is always the same, and always in the same thing. He is wholly absorbed in meditating on the law he loves, which makes of his whole life one unbroken day.”

Ps. 118:98. You have made me wiser than mine enemies through Your commandment, for it is ever with me.

The prophet begins to explain how his devotion to the commandments drove the blindness from the eyes of his mind. The enemies of our salvation, through the enchantment of worldly allurements or through the confusion of thoughts which they sow, often darken the mind so that it, like a blind man, sees nothing and acts at random. And the enemies at such times direct it toward evil; and it falls. The prophet assures us that he was delivered from such misfortunes by the commandment of God. It made him wise, revealing the enemies’ schemes and making all their attempts to destroy him or do him some harm ineffective.

One who knows the commandments automatically has before his mind a single, comprehensive norm of life. It illumines all the paths of life and all the entanglements of circumstance. Perplexities do not trouble him, and the question “what is to be done?” waits for no resolution—everything is resolved at once. It is understood, of course, that such a benefit belongs not to knowledge alone, but to knowledge rooted in life. “You have made me wise,” he says, “O Lord, through Your commandment”—that is, by teaching me how to walk in the commandments, prescribing them to me and giving me strength to fulfill them. The experiences of life by the commandment made me wise, and the enemies shall no longer succeed in deceiving me: I have become wiser than they are; they are not as clever in devising evil as I am wise in doing good according to Your will.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “Having confessed that he loves the law of God ardently, the prophet ascribes everything to God’s grace and says: having received wisdom and knowledge from You, I have come to love Your law, because You have given me understanding greater than my enemies.”

One of the enemy’s wiles is to suggest: sin just this once, and then, having repented, you will return to good deeds. Against this the prophet sets forth an unrepentant resolve, declared once and for all: to depart from God’s commandment under no circumstances whatsoever; to die rather than break God’s commandment. This is what he expresses in the words: “for it is ever with me.” Such a resolve keeps the mind ever undivided, allowing no second-guessing—no question of whether one might allow oneself a little latitude. Such ruinous suggestions are what the enemy tries in every way to sow; but in one who keeps in his heart the resolution “it is ever with me,” they leave no trace—they come and they go.

Such a resolve—“it is ever with me”—is possible only when one is prepared even for death, if without it one cannot remain faithful to the commandment. Hence comes its unshakeable strength. What can shake one who has devoted himself to death? But one who enters the struggle with self-pity carries within himself a traitor, who in the hour of battle will deliver him to the enemy. Such a person will not outwit his enemies, but will be in their hands like a ball which they toss wherever and however they please, for their amusement and his mockery. Saint Isaac speaks of such people: “Because from the very beginning they did not resolve to give themselves over to death, they prove to be the last and most cowardly in every battle. Such men are fearful and above all spare their own bodies. And the enemy drives them like a storm, for he sees no strength of soul in them—the kind of strength he is accustomed to see in the saints.”

Ps. 118:99. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.

It is no great wonder to be made wiser than one’s enemies by God’s commandment; but what is wondrous is that the prophet, by meditating on God’s law, became more knowing and understanding than all his teachers. Who were these teachers, and how did the prophet surpass them in understanding?

The first of these questions the prophet does not answer. But whoever they were, they were still human beings, and the prophet understood better than they did, because after them the Lord took him under His own teaching, as he said just before. Since the Lord had made him wise by the commandment, he became not only wiser than his enemies but more understanding than his very teachers—mere men. Therefore in these words there is expressed no self-exaltation or proud opinion of himself on the prophet’s part, but a confession of God’s mercy in that He, by His grace, gave him to understand His will more fully and perfectly than his teachers had conveyed it. Saint Ambrose says: “These words might seem an unwarranted presumption, had not the prophet prefaced them with what he said before—that the Lord had made him wise. One who was taught by Wisdom herself could not fail to understand more than all others. This is why he says in another place: ‘Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord, and teach him out of Your law’ (Ps. 93:12).”

When the Lord teaches someone, He opens the mind and places treasures of knowledge within it, or He takes the spirit of a person and introduces him into direct contemplation of the things being revealed to him. The mind under the action of God sees what the Lord is pleased to show it as clearly and distinctly as with his physical eyes a man sees things standing before him at a certain distance in broad daylight. And all this can take place in an instant, and the measure of what is revealed and contemplated can be so great that no human words can contain it. So Saint Paul saw when he was caught up to the third heaven; so the apostles saw when the Lord appeared to them after His resurrection and, breathing upon them and imparting the Spirit, “opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures.” In one moment their minds beheld everything hidden in the Old Testament writings concerning the New Testament events that had come to pass. And the Lord, immediately after, only drew the general conclusion from what the apostles had seen: “thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to enter into His glory” (Luke 24:45–46). So swiftly and fully does the Lord reveal the heavenly to all whom He considers worthy of it.

But such enlightenments of the mind are extraordinary. The usual order of enriching the mind with divine knowledge, even with the Lord’s direct assistance, is the enlightenment of the mind in the study of the revelation already given. The prophet himself says that he understood more than his teachers “for Your testimonies are my meditation.” He labored at the study of God’s testimonies with faith and prayer, and the Lord, seeing his zeal and love, placed in his mind such a grasp of the written word as is inaccessible to the independent efforts of the mind. Someone once said that at times, in the hour of prayer, his mind enters into the contemplation of divine truths—a contemplation so clear and definite as was given him by neither his own research nor the reading of others’ research. From this one may conclude that the true knowledge of what is revealed is only that which is implanted in the mind by precisely this path. The labor of study and deep attention to the testimonies prepares the way; and grace, in the hour of prayer, completes the knowledge, enlightening the mind by contemplation and sealing what it has seen in the heart. All other learning is external: this alone is interior, spiritual, divine, and abundant in fruit.

Ps. 118:100. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts.

Among every people, the elders are regarded as men made wise not only by learning but by the experiences of life—persons who form the foundation of society, who guide the new generation entering upon its work with their counsel and who unite the past with the future. Such men were present in the time of the holy prophet in Jerusalem, and of course he often availed himself of their counsel in establishing good orders in his kingdom across all branches of governance. But these same experiences taught him that he understood every matter far better and more truly than the elders.

And the reason for this is the same as for his superiority over his teachers—namely, that the Lord Himself had made him wise. Saint Ambrose says: “This too is not difficult—for one whom the Lord teaches to understand more than the elders. Grace supplies the years, and the wisdom of old age becomes the possession of one who is not old in years. Since ‘the true age is an unspotted life’ (Wis. 4:9), being taught an unspotted life provides an elder’s understanding. When Saint Jeremiah, because of his youth, declined the office of prophet, he was told: ‘Say not, I am a child’ (Jer. 1:7). God’s judgment did not regard him as a child, certainly because he possessed the wisdom of grey hair, which shone in him through the all-sanctifying grace of God.”

Thus God’s grace enlightened the prophet David as well, and therefore he too understood God’s ways more than the elders. But why such grace?—Because he had sought God’s commandments. Since from childhood he had made it the law of his whole life to please God by the unfailing fulfillment of His commandments, he presented in himself a strong vessel for receiving the streams of divine wisdom. And she was poured into him. “Into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter” (Wis. 1:4). If men do not place precious perfumes in unclean or leaky vessels, would the Lord place heavenly wisdom in a soul that serves the passions and is therefore unclean and broken? And even if, by an excess of grace, He were to condescend to do so, the malicious soul would have no capacity to receive this wisdom. Its mind is stuffed with worthless, base, and false notions—how then can it contain the lofty divine truths? The dispositions of its heart are all turned toward earthly and sensual objects—how then can it grasp the beauty of pure, unearthly goods, so as to approve them and set them above all else? It has grown accustomed to earth and cannot imagine any other life—how then can it understand lessons whose ultimate goal lies in another life? Meanwhile its pride knows no measure, and it will not hesitate to say to the Lord Himself: “Depart from me; for I desire not the knowledge of Your ways!”

The prophet calls himself one who has “sought” the commandments not in the sense that he strove in every way to find out what God’s commandments were, but in the sense that he strove in every way to make progress in fulfilling each of them and to acquire such a habit of doing so that they would all seem not merely external precepts but the natural inclinations of the heart. The heart is by nature disposed toward every good, but the passions that have crept in disfigure and pervert it. When the active seeking of the commandments suppresses the passions and raises up the good inclinations, these inclinations themselves become pointers to what the commandment requires in any given case. Just as a skilled craftsman, whatever task presents itself in his domain, at once understands how to begin it, what materials to use, and with what instruments to work, so one who has sought the commandments and acquired the habit of fulfilling them immediately understands how to act in any given case: practical wisdom sits by his heart and interprets this. What for another requires laborious deliberation presents no difficulty for him at all. As it is natural for a man to breathe, so from his heart there flow forth, always timely, the lessons of wisdom.

Ps. 118:101. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep Your word.

The blindness of mind has been driven away; in its place, knowledge and wisdom have come to dwell—such as have no equal among the people who ought to be distinguished by them—and all this was attained by meditation on the commandments and faithfulness to them in life. Now the prophet shows how the crookedness of will was also corrected; and this too, he says, was accomplished by the same path. I began to restrain my feet from every evil way and not to turn aside from God’s judgments, and my will was corrected, acquired the habit of keeping God’s words, and was established in it.

Our conscience always urges us to flee evil, but the will to follow it is lacking. The attractions of self-indulgence overpower it, and a person goes toward evil. And having done evil once, he will not hold back a second time, and soon a habit of some form of self-indulgence in defiance of conscience takes shape. So one habit forms, then another, then a third, then dozens, hundreds. When a person comes to his senses and resolves to walk uprightly and to please God, he finds himself bound and entangled on all sides. What is to be done?

Guard the firm resolve to keep God’s words; fan and sustain it in every way by keeping in your heart the fear of God, the remembrance of death and God’s judgment—and then restrain your feet from every evil way. You cannot suddenly come to love the good so that love alone holds you to it. Begin by not doing what is evil, and even though your habituated will may lunge toward evil, hold it within its proper bounds by the force of your resolve. Evil began in the heart and grew strong in habitual deeds. To destroy it, go by the reverse path: cease the deeds, and through them you will arrive at the cutting off of evil in the heart.

Do not go where you have been accustomed to satisfy a bad habit; break off relations with companions in sin and change all the ways of life that have been feeding the sin. This is what it means to restrain the feet. When the occasion for sin is before one’s eyes, how can someone who is habituated to it restrain himself? But when the occasions are removed, even if thoughts of sin come—they will make some noise in the head and then depart. And it is easier to drive them away then than when not only thoughts but also eyes, ears, touch, and smell are being bathed in sinful vapor. The holy fathers compare one who stands before a temptation to one standing on the edge of an abyss: the moment the enemy wishes, he can topple him in even with the slightest push. But one who keeps away from temptations they compare to one standing far from the abyss: when the enemy tries to drag him toward the abyss, he still has time to shake him off, or to cry out for help and be delivered from the danger.

Turning aside from evil ways removes evil and restores good in the soul. But this is outward labor; to it one must add inward labor—restraining the mental feet from mental evil paths as well. A mental evil path is this: an evil thought begins, attracts sympathy, arouses desire, and inclines one to action. When this mental path toward sin is completed, the outward path to the commission of sin in deed follows. You have stopped these outward excursions toward sin—that is good. But do not think to stop there; strive to cut off the inward paths toward it as well; for despite outward avoidance of evil ways, mental wanderings do not cease immediately but often make their way there and roam about. Therefore restrain also the mental feet from evil paths, lest they lead the bodily feet there as well. Drive away evil thoughts; destroy the sympathies they arouse; and above all, beware of inclining toward evil. So long as this has not happened—you are still safe; but when it does happen—you are already in danger. Though even then you can still avoid it, it is better not to be subjected to it, for a battle lies ahead. The abyss is still far away, but the enemy has already taken hold and is dragging you toward it. The chief thing in this matter is the shunning of evil thoughts; they buzz like mosquitoes—drive them away and do not weaken. If you hasten to replace evil thoughts with good ones, your struggle will be helped and eased a hundredfold.

Ps. 118:102. I have not departed from Your judgments, for You have taught me.

I restrained my feet from evil ways and did not depart from God’s judgments—that is, I fulfilled what I myself had advised others: “Depart from evil, and do good” (Ps. 33:15). This followed of itself. One cannot be without deeds; but if one turned away from evil deeds, one certainly did not turn away from good ones. “It is impossible,” says Blessed Theodoret, “to walk on two roads at once—the road of vice and the road of chastity, of righteousness and of unrighteousness. One must avoid the contrary paths and walk the straight path. Only in this way can one become a keeper of God’s laws.”

God’s judgments are His decisions as to how we ought to live—the determinations of God’s will, the same as the commandments. Therefore, not to depart from God’s judgments is the same as not to depart from the fulfillment of God’s commandments. For this there is no need to go across the sea to find an occasion to fulfill the commandments: occasions for that are always before our eyes. The moment you restrain your feet from stepping onto an evil path, at that same moment you have an occasion to step onto the right path. Someone asks for alms—the evil path is to refuse, while God’s judgment is to give: give, and you will restrain yourself from the evil path and not depart from God’s judgment. Someone has wronged you—the evil path leads you to revenge, while God’s determination is forgiveness: when you forgive, you restrain your feet from the evil path and do not depart from God’s judgments. So it is in everything. Therefore, not departing from God’s judgments may be said to consist in this: watch alertly around you and under your feet, and do not let pass any opportunity to do good that presents itself to you.

An opportunity for good that is before your eyes is the same as a direct command from God to you to do that good. If you turn away from it, you go contrary to God. The prophet sets forth this as the motive for not departing from such judgments of God: “for You have taught me.” The awareness that in any given case God is, as it were, personally commanding one to do this or that good is the most powerful incentive for the God-fearing to not turn away from that good. When this awareness visits someone, from it there flows an irresistible moral force toward submission to God’s command. One who lives in the fear of God will not depart from it even if it should cost him not only all his possessions but his very life. The source of such a disposition is a firm faith in God’s Providence, which determines all the contingencies of our life and directs them all toward the end that our salvation may be accomplished in the most reliable way.

Nowadays we have many charitable institutions. Do not think that, having made the customary contribution, you are already free from personal acts of charity. That goes in its own course, and this in its own. Though even that is ordered not without God’s will, the nearest and most direct will of God is the opportunity for good that stands right before your eyes. If you pass it by, you go contrary to God. God has many giving hands, and without you there will be those who help; but God has done you the honor of helping through you and of presenting in your person His own beneficent right hand. Take care, then, not to turn away from this honor, as did the guests invited to the wedding feast in the parable. Call to mind often the Samaritan, who, finding on the road a man beaten by robbers, did not stop to deliberate but at once did everything he could—and for this is praised by the Lord of all and set before everyone as an example.

Ps. 118:103. How sweet are Your words to my taste—yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

It remains to warm the heart that is cold toward everything holy and divine. Man was created in the image of God; consequently, everything divine ought to find a warm response in him. But when man fell from his proper rank and tasted of sensory pleasures, the taste for the spiritual was closed off, and that realm became for him an unknown land; he entirely forgot what these spiritual and divine goods were. As a blind man does not understand what flowers are, however much their beauty is described to him; as a deaf man looks even at instruments whose harmonious sounds enchant everyone and can understand nothing of what is happening around him—so one in whom the sense of the spiritual has been closed, seeing, does not see it, and hearing, does not hear it, for “the heart of this people is waxed gross” (Acts 28:27).

Who does not know this coarseness, this hardening and insensibility of the heart? It is known to all who fear God and walk in the path of His commandments. But in the God-fearing it is only a temporary deadening of the heart that comes and goes; whereas where passions and various attachments hold sway, insensibility and coldness toward the divine is an already permanent condition. There the soul is dead; its resurrection begins with the revival of spiritual feeling.

The first blows struck against this feeling are very painful. It is struck by the fear of death, judgment, and eternal torments. From this, along the usual path, there is born the fear of God, which revives the conscience and together with it leads to repentance and to the resolve to leave the evil path and cleave to the Lord by pleasing Him through the fulfillment of His commandments. But even here only the beginning of the revival of spiritual feeling is laid. A sick man has risen, but he has not yet any appetite for anything: he eats and drinks by conviction that he must eat and drink in order not to die. Such also is one who has entered upon the path of God through repentance: he compels himself to do good and resists evil, but as yet finds no taste in his deeds; he acts from conviction that it cannot be otherwise, from the vow and resolve to do everything according to the commandments.

Constancy in this self-compelled activity then begins little by little to revive the feeling as well. The soul begins to experience pleasantness and sweetness in what it formerly found tasteless. Prayer begins to bring delight; the courts of God (temples) become beloved; almsgiving brings consolation; every act of self-restraint brings joy. This is like what happens in the torpor of cholera: they rub the patient without pity and gradually restore warmth to his chilled limbs. The same happens in a soul struck by the cholera of sin: the person begins to rub himself by self-compelled virtue—by almsgiving, fasting, prayer—and little by little thaws out his frozen spiritual feeling. From this there comes at last the point where he finds pleasure only in deeds pleasing to God; he is drawn only toward that which bears the imprint of God’s will; he is at peace only where he can be with God and in God’s works. One who has reached this state has revived spiritual feeling within him. This is precisely the state the prophet expresses in the words: “How sweet are Your words to my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” “Words” means God’s commandments. Not such sweetness, he says, does honey leave in the throat as the fulfillment of the commandments leaves in the soul.

Ps. 118:104. Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

Feeling has two sides. If it finds sweetness in one thing, it finds bitterness in the opposite thing, and as much as it is disposed toward the first, so much does it recoil from the second. So long as a person lives in self-indulgence and sensuality—the spiritual is tasteless to him; when he has repented, left self-indulgence behind, and begun to walk by the will of God, the sensual and self-indulgent at last becomes tasteless to him. These are the most decisive indicators of a person’s moral state. Look at what you find taste in, toward what the heart shows sympathy, and by that determine whether you are on the good path or the wrong one.

It should be noted that sympathies toward the carnal, passionate, and self-indulgent break through from the heart for a long time even after conversion, and even after the experiences of the labor of cleansing the heart. One may say that in the early stages all sympathy lies on the side of the former passionate life; it is only restrained within proper bounds by the force of resolution. Then sympathy toward the good begins to appear; further on it becomes equal to the opposing sympathy for the passionate; afterwards it prevails over the latter; then sympathy toward the passionate dies away; and at last all that is passionate, carnal, and self-indulgent becomes repugnant—the soul begins to abhor it. This, as the holy fathers observe, is already evidence of the heart’s cleansing from the passions. This is what the prophet speaks of here: “I hate every false way.” And how did he arrive at this?—“I get understanding,” he says, “through Your precepts”; I came to understand that walking by Your commandments is “the one thing needful” (Luke 10:42), and I entered upon their path; and walking in them, I came to love them, for they produced sweetness in my soul; and this love and sweetness gave me the ability to feel the bitterness of unrighteousness and to develop a hatred for it. Behold the end of the healing of the soul and the limit of the uprooting of its defects!

Saint Basil the Great, when asked, “What is the sign of the cleansing of the heart?”—answered more than once: “This: when a person hates sin.” The same answer he gave to the question of what is the sign that a person’s sins have been forgiven. Saint Barsanuphius gives the same answers. The latter says that so long as there is even the least sympathy toward anything passionate, this means that the soul is not yet clean. If we call what is passionate “pus,” this thought is confirmed by comparison with the healing of wounds. A wound does not heal so long as all the pus has not been drawn out; so too the wound of the soul has not yet healed so long as sympathies for what is sinful break through in it.

From this the following lesson follows: it is dangerous to rest in the assurance that I am not doing evil deeds. For it may be that circumstances have so arranged themselves that it is better for you not to do evil, and you do not—but within the heart evil lives on. If God looks upon a person according to the disposition of his heart, then consider what you are worth in this case and what you ought to expect. Do not boast of the outward correctness of your behavior, but look into where the heart inclines. Saint Macarius says: if you have gone down into the depths of the heart and slain the serpent lurking there—then boast; as for visible deeds alone, there is nothing to boast of. How many will appear at God’s judgment to whom God will say “I know you not” (Luke 13:25), although they themselves and others considered them zealous knowers of God!

Verses 105–112

The fourteenth octet is headed by the letter “nun,” which means “tribe” or “offspring.” Offspring: father, grandfather, great-grandfather, son, grandson, great-grandson, with all the other branches of the lineage.

There is a kindred lineage in the manifestations of the spiritual life as well. Saint John of the Ladder questions every virtue and every passion: who is their father and mother, who are their children and daughters, and who are their other relatives? He thus envisions each kind of virtue—and indeed the whole virtuous life—as a good lineage with its progenitors and their offspring. The holy apostles do no different when they survey at once the whole ensemble of the virtues. Saint Peter the Apostle writes: you have received the gifts of grace; now, “giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” (2 Pet. 1:5–7).

Is this not a register of the lineage of the virtues? Saint Paul describes the same lineage when he lists the fruits of the Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22–23). And in the Savior’s words on the Beatitudes, is not the same thing visible? What virtues lead into paradise?—Humility, contrition and mourning for sins, meekness, love of righteousness, mercifulness, purity, peacemaking, patience, estrangement from all things. Behold the heavenly lineage! Similarly in the present octet, the prophet depicts the lineage of the virtues in his own manner, pointing in each verse to one or two of the most essential virtues of the spiritual life. We shall not enumerate them in advance: the consideration of each verse will show what virtue he praises in it, and also in what relation he sets it to the other virtues bordering upon it—or, in general, to the spiritual life.

Ps. 118:105. Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.

Who can speak thus, except faith—true, undoubting faith that allows no division of thought? Accepting God’s law—God’s will as expressed in Revelation—without wavering, faith stands and walks with a firm step along the path indicated there, just as a traveler walks firmly and with confidence along a road of which he knows that it leads straight to his home. So does faith lead us to our Heavenly Homeland. For faith everything is clear, and it never happens that any cloud darkens the path and it is forced to deliberate about how to step and where to place its foot. Here, then, is the indispensable condition for a trustworthy journey!

Imagine a man walking across a bending and shaking plank over a deep ravine—what fear, what a sinking of heart, what a constant danger of falling! A step or two, and the man either falls or turns back, finding it impossible to walk across such a bridge. Imagine further that by some mishap all the objects surrounding a man begin to spin, the earth seems to be moving—he will inevitably fall. But one who walks across a solid bridge and sees that all the objects surrounding him stand in their places in their usual order experiences nothing of the sort. So too the believer. Just as the eye sees all material objects, so faith sees spiritual objects, each in its place, in its order, and in its relation to the others; and therefore the journey by the light of such faith—which fills the soul with assurance and gives the traveler the boldness to step without fear along the path that lies before him—is never accompanied by waverings, fears, or dizziness of mind, and therefore is accomplished successfully. On the contrary, one who journeys without faith cannot be free of fear; sometimes he walks as well, but as if walking on knives. And therefore he cannot continue the journey; having made an attempt, he abandons it.

Faith is a gift of grace, but its seed is placed in our nature. Our mind ought to see the spiritual world clearly and convey it as a guide for the soul. The mind is the natural window into the spiritual world. But since sin has closed it, while it is impossible for a person to live without knowledge of the spiritual, it was pleasing to the merciful Lord to give an outward word as the revelation of hidden spiritual and divine things. When this word is received by living faith, the result is the same as if the mind itself saw those objects. Faith polishes this dimmed window that faces the spiritual world. The journey along the path of faith purifies the mind and restores to it, by the action of grace, its lost capacity to behold the spiritual and divine. Then it too, merged with faith and by the power of God’s Spirit, again becomes a window into the divine world. There is no other path there. However much vain philosophy tried to fathom that realm, it always produced only phantom representations—sometimes very beautiful, but always false (Isaac the Syrian, Discourse 55).

Ps. 118:106. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep Your righteous judgments.

The resolve to please God and a constant zeal for it is the first daughter of faith. What do we say at baptism?—I renounce Satan and all his works and all his service, and I unite myself to Christ the Lord, with a vow to fulfill His will in all things always. Do we not repeat the same in repentance, when we have the misfortune to fall with a bitter fall after baptism? All of this is the same as “I have sworn and I will perform it, that I will keep the righteous judgments of God.”

“I have sworn and I will perform it”—that is, with an oath I have set a law as the rule of my whole life. “The prophet,” writes Theodoret, “called by the word ‘oath’ the firm resolution of the soul, since most matters are confirmed by an oath.” “That I will keep Your righteous judgments: the judgments of righteousness”—the decisions and determinations of God’s righteousness—the same as the will of God expressed in His revealed word. One who has bound himself with such a resolve and zealously strives to be faithful to his given word will sooner die than break his oath. Hence—the martyrs, hence—the ascetics and all who have made progress in the holiness of life. This zeal is the soul of a holy and God-pleasing life.

It is like a steam engine on a railway or a steam boiler on a steamship. So long as it is alive, the movements of the spiritual life do not cease, and progress in it grows and grows.

Saint Isaac the Syrian, in many places when speaking of faith, says that in its first beginnings it produces fear—by impressing upon the mind and driving down to the heart the thought that a sinner must without fail give an account before the righteous Judge, with whom there is no partiality in judgment. This fear awakens the conscience and together with it leads the sinner to repentance. And the meaning of repentance is this: I have sinned—forgive me; I will not do so again, even if I must die. This is the resolve to please God—strong as death, with an unquenchable zeal for it. Thus is born the first-born daughter of faith!

Having given birth to zeal, faith then illumines the whole path of the zealous one. It tells him what must be done in general; how to act in any particular case when the road branches and offers many paths; it also suggests how to conduct oneself when everything is favorable to our work; it teaches how to act amid universal opposition to it. Thus one who walks by the light of faith, having received without deliberation the whole of God’s revealed will, walks as in the light of a brightly shining sun and will stumble at nothing. The journey of such a person is powerful; faith, by banishing all vacillation, concentrates the forces on the one thing and makes the one who acts greatly effective. True faith does not even notice obstacles; it walks above all things, and nothing strikes it with fear. Did the fiery furnace block the path on which the young men were walking? Did the lion’s den block Daniel? Did the terrible torments that lay before the holy martyrs disturb their steps? Did the terrors of the desert, raised by the ancient enemies of salvation, turn the ascetics from following the Lord? “In all these things we are more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37), says the holy apostle. Such is the zeal produced and animated by faith! Do you wish to make progress?—Pray: Lord, increase my faith—strong and unshaken!

Ps. 118:107. I am brought very low, O Lord; quicken me according to Your word.

The zeal born of faith is a strong zeal, yet without self-reliance, without arrogating anything to itself. It may say that it “can do all things,” but only “through the Lord who strengthens it” (Phil. 4:13); and so it also confesses: “by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10).

“I am brought very low”: I am blind, and poor, and naked, and leprous, and paralyzed, and I do not know what to do; and if somehow I did come to know something, I would not know how to set about it; my desires scatter to various things against my will, and the sympathies of my heart turn toward what is not pleasing to You. I am dead in spirit to all that is spiritual—“quicken me therefore, O Lord, according to Your word.” For You Yourself have said: “As I live… I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). And I desire to turn—turn me then! And I, wounded and half-dead, seek to be made alive—quicken me also according to Your word! If You do not help, “within a little—my soul would have dwelt in hell” (Ps. 93:17).

“The prophet,” writes Blessed Theodoret, “did not simply say ‘I am brought low,’ but ‘I am brought very low’—and he says this as a king and a prophet, possessing the boldness toward God and men that virtue bestows, abounding in wealth and having subdued all his enemies. Yet even so he did not wish to place his hope in his own wisdom, or courage, or righteousness. In asking for life from the One who has power to give life, he asks not for life unconditionally, but for a rational life, a life in conformity with the law, one that finds its glory in God’s law.”

This is how all zealots of salvation and of pleasing God think and feel. They know that salvation must be accomplished through the interplay of free will and the help of grace; but having experienced many times that “to will is present with them, but to perform that which is good they find not” (Rom. 7:18), they count their own will as nothing and await everything from the help of grace alone. For this reason they petition exclusively for grace in prayer; to grace they attribute every good deed, claiming nothing for themselves, and always counting themselves as nothing and placing no worth upon themselves, however perfect others may think them. Humility is the distinguishing mark of those who are making progress. The more a person advances, the more he is humbled. When you have begun to regard yourself as somewhat righteous, know for certain that you have begun to go backward.

Relevant here are the precepts of the elders—not to measure oneself—and understandably so: one who counts himself as nothing has nothing to measure; but one who has begun to measure himself thereby shows that he feels he amounts to something. Therefore, the first prayer of the elders, which they counsel others also to repeat, is this: “Grant me, O Lord, to see my sins and to weep for them always with a contrite heart, counting myself as nothing, feeling myself to be worse than every man, worthy of every contempt ‘here’ and every torment ‘there.’ Only in Your grace teach me to seek help, and let me place my hope of salvation in Your goodness alone, which does not will that any should perish.”

Ps. 118:108. Accept, I beseech You, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me Your judgments.

“The freewill offerings of my mouth”—that is, what my lips utter of their own accord—“accept,” O Lord. “And Your judgments”—that is, what has been decreed and ordained by Your will, what constitutes Your direct commandment—“teach me”: teach me to discern them in every circumstance and to carry them out with understanding, to Your good pleasure.

In the Old Testament there were sacrifices prescribed by the law, and there were voluntary sacrifices that anyone might vow to bring to God according to the desire of his heart. The same holds in the sphere of moral life: some deeds are directly prescribed by the law, while others are left to free will, as testimony of one’s most fervent zeal for pleasing God. “The greater part of the advances in virtue,” says Blessed Theodoret, “are prescribed by the divine laws, but a good will adds something of its own. So too with sacrifices: there were those prescribed by law and those that were voluntary. The law commanded offerings for sin and transgression, offerings for ignorance—these were rendered to God as a kind of debt; but sacrifices offered by good will were called gifts. So too today: the Evangelical word prescribes chastity and righteousness, while virginity and abstinence from married life, poverty, the solitary life, dwelling in the desert—these are works of good will, not falling within the bounds of the law. The Prophet called deeds of this kind ‘freewill offerings’ because they are not subject to legal obligation but are the fruit of a God-loving will, and therefore rightly called ‘freewill offerings.’”

The fruit of a God-loving will can have a place in every good deed. When an occasion arises to help another, one person does so within the measure the Apostle defines—that is, not so that the other has abundance while we are in distress—while another may exceed this measure and give everything to the other, depriving himself of all, left with nothing but a firm hope in the protection of God. Whoever does so offers a voluntary fruit of God-loving will. Prayer to God is likewise obligatory, and whoever does not pray transgresses God’s commandment; but the measure of prayer depends on a God-loving will: everyone takes up a rule of prayer with the counsel of his spiritual father and may then shorten it or lengthen it each time. So one who has determined to stand in prayer for a quarter of an hour or an hour, when instead he is moved by fervor and prays for half an hour, an hour, or two—offers a “freewill” fruit of God-loving will. So it is in all other deeds. The impulses of a God-loving will ought to be kindled at every action. We have an unfortunate tendency to turn everything into form. Deeds undertaken with living zeal, without any external motive, with the sole desire to do what is pleasing to God—such deeds are performed the first time with all the vitality of feeling and attention; the second time these inner movements are weaker; the third time, weaker still; and finally such deeds begin to be performed without any participation of the soul, and only the outward form remains. Something good is still being done, but it is as though it were not being done at all, because God looks at what is happening in the heart, and if the deed is not there, God does not see it. And how much labor and toil is thus lost without fruit! This is like a sower who carelessly casts his seed beyond the boundary and onto the road, where it is wasted. To avoid this, the experienced fathers counsel always to act as if doing the deed for the first time: begin anew every day. The same applies to the good life in general, for it too can entirely become mere form, and to every individual act as well. However long you may have walked on the good path, hold yourself as though you had just set foot upon it; however many times you have done a good deed, always do it as though you were doing it for the first time. In this way you will always offer God the sacrifice of your God-loving will, a living sacrifice brought from a full and fervent heart—and only this is of great value in the eyes of God.

Ps. 118:109. My soul is continually in Your hand, and I have not forgotten Your law.

The believing zealot for pleasing God commits himself entirely to the will of God. His only concern is that he not transgress God’s commandments in any circumstance; as for himself and his own fate in consequence of that, he gives it no thought at all, for his soul is wholly in the hand of God. If someone has wronged him, he does not rush to defend himself and exact recompense for the offense, but rather strives not to grow angry, not to allow any movement of vengeance, not to feel ill will toward the one who wronged him, and to dispose himself to forgive that person with full readiness.

But some will say: if one forgives everyone, then life becomes impossible—they will finish you off. The believer commits this to the will of God. My business, he says, is to forgive wholeheartedly; what comes next is not my concern—God Himself cares for me: my soul is in His hand. This self-surrender to God’s will gives him courage for good deeds and fills him with moral strength. Every undertaking, whatever it may be, is surrounded by dangers or possible unpleasant consequences. Take fasting: how many fears are sown at its approach! The stomach will be upset, illness will strike, business will stop—and what else will they not say! But one who has said once and for all, “my soul is in God’s hand,” will not be troubled by such fears. So it is in every deed and throughout all of life. For one who lacks surrender to God’s will, every step brings a lion in the road and robbers on either side (Prov. 26:13). And so he turns aside from the right path, thinking that he has thus escaped misfortune, while in fact by this very act he plunges himself into it. “But the righteous is bold as a lion” (Prov. 28:1), for he knows that his All-powerful Protector is always with him.

Fears arising from virtue usually trouble those who themselves try to manage their own destiny. Since everything that a man might devise for his own protection is no more than a cobweb—as he knows from repeated experience—he cannot place certain trust in his own methods of keeping himself safe. He devises them and puts them into practice, yet trembles all the while like an aspen leaf. Such is the lot of all who rely on themselves. And God, for the very reason that they do not commit their souls to Him, does not extend His help to them. He as it were says to them: “You wish to arrange everything in your life by your own methods—very well, arrange it! I am no helper to you.” The Lord does this to chasten the self-reliant, so that the repeated failure of their own methods may lead them to seek more reliable supports. But where will those be found, if not in the providential right hand of God? Commit your lot to the Lord, therefore, and turn all your concern solely to faithfully fulfilling the commandment before you in every circumstance. Acting thus, you will find peace and will have success, if the Lord in His good pleasure chooses to grant it to you.

Ps. 118:110. The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I have not gone astray from Your commandments.

They spread a net before me, the prophet says, yet even so I did not go astray. This is the direct consequence of surrender to God’s will. One who has placed his soul in God’s hand does not walk upon the earth but soars on high. The nets are spread upon the ground, while he flies above them, uncaught. This is why, however cunningly the nets may be woven, he continues steadfastly walking the path of the commandments.

Yet this freedom from the enemy’s snares and soaring above them is only relatively easy; in reality it is a laborious thing, and the force that keeps one from being caught is patience. The snares of sinners are the enticements and threats that come from the world and worldly people, and from the demons.

Whether it is the impulses of the passionate and sinful side of our nature, aroused by enticements, or afflictions, persecutions, deprivations, and dangers to life that assail one walking the path of pleasing God in order to turn him aside from God’s commandments—in either case, patience is indispensable for standing firm on the path. Patience overcomes adversities; patience also stands against temptations. It is the foundation of a life uncompromisingly and constantly faithful to God’s commandments. Without it, not a single step can be taken on this path. Blessed Theodoret conveys the prophet’s thought in the same way: “Many are the stratagems woven against me by both men and demons, but I have resolved to walk with patience the undefiled path, free of temptation and pure, of Your commandments.”

The mother of patience is likewise faith. Faith believes that everything that is encountered in life comes from God and is directed toward our eternal salvation. God sends nothing that could plunge us into sin and serve as our destruction; and if, by God’s permission, some temptation does come, it is so that, by overcoming what draws us to sin, we may receive the crown of righteousness for our steadfast faithfulness to the Lord’s commandments. Therefore, simply endure this time of temptation, and what appears so heavy will bring consolation “here” and lay up oil for eternal consolation “there.” Those who believe thus endure, and there is no force that can overcome their patience. Patience from faith is the power of God working in the hearts of those who endure. Patience gives constancy in good, and this constancy renders all the efforts of enemies fruitless and breaks all their nets. Constancy itself is the fruit of the power of God that has taken up dwelling in the heart for its faithfulness to God. As our thoughts are turbulent until the light of God illumines the mind, so too the will experiences changeability of desires until the power of God is mingled with it and establishes it. A light thread sways back and forth in a light breeze; but hang some weight upon it and a fairly strong wind will not make it sway. There you have an image of constancy in good! From the grace-given power comes a certain gravitating toward good alone and renders our desires immovable from this direction. Its one aim is to direct everything toward pleasing God, to the glory of the Most Holy Name of God. When this has matured in the soul, then lay whatever snares you wish—the one being tempted will not depart from God’s commandments. He will sooner agree to die than deviate even slightly from what is pleasing to God.

Ps. 118:111. I have inherited Your testimonies forever, for they are the joy of my heart.

Patience implies something austere and joyless. Outwardly it does indeed appear that way; but within it moves a consolation so sweet that no worldly or earthly comfort can compare with it. Spiritual joy is the unfailing possession of those who are constant in good with patience. The prophet expresses precisely this here: “I have inherited,” he says, “Your testimonies”—I have received them as one receives a rich inheritance, have made them my own, and will never be parted from them, for they gladden my heart, not merely promising joy in the future but now filling the heart with joy—and therefore they are “the joy of my heart.”

Consider, truly, what is it that each and every one of us desires?—Happiness. And what is happiness?—A state that gladdens the heart. Happy is the one for whom everything within him, about him, and around him is a cause of gladness. Here, then, is the means to it: receive God’s testimonies, the decrees of God’s will, attested by God Himself, with all love and willingness, and abide in them with a firm intention of being faithful to them forever—and this will pour into your heart a joy that will never depart from it, so that the passage from this life to the next will be for it nothing other than an exchange of present joy for joy that is unending and ineffable. That this is so the prophet assures us from his own experience. Nothing other than this does the Lord Himself suggest to us in His preaching on the Beatitudes. The whole content of that discourse, in brief, is this: if you wish to be blessed, that is, happy in every way, then be humble, contrite in heart, meek, a lover of righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker, patient and of good cheer. And what is this but “receive My testimonies as an inheritance and never be parted from them forever”?

“But there is no joy for the wicked” (Is. 48:22)—not only for one who openly rebels against God and His holy testimonies, but also for one who, though outwardly well-behaved, places his chief good in his heart not in God and not in communion with Him.

For all such people there is no true gladness of heart—only momentary surges toward joy, followed by an even greater heaviness of heart, just as after lightning in the night a moment’s brightness is replaced by denser darkness. They are not given what the heart truly needs, and so it does not rejoice; it rushes toward something else, supposing that this will truly gladden it, but having tasted it, immediately turns away, the very heaviness of the heart indicating that this is not what it needs. This heaviness is common to all lovers of the world and lovers of sin. They stifle it somewhat by chasing after pleasures without interruption, but they cannot stifle it completely. Before long it rises again with full force. God’s mercy has so arranged things that those who depart from His commandments always hear within themselves a voice calling them onto the path of the testimonies, the path that alone can truly make them happy.

Someone will say: but what of the martyrs, and the ascetics? How much the former suffered, and how much the latter were deprived of! But this is precisely the marvel: neither suffering nor deprivation took away the gladness from hearts faithful to God’s testimonies; on the contrary, they intensified it—and not merely in hope of the future, but in actual present experience of joy. It is impossible not to believe this, for those who suffered and endured deprivations expressed the gladness of their hearts not merely in words but demonstrated it by their deeds.

Ps. 118:112. I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes forever, even to the end.

I have inclined my heart forever to perform Your statutes, the prophet says—and what has moved him to incline it?—The hope of recompense. The gladness of heart experienced here from faithfulness to God’s testimonies does not exhaust all the good that comes from performing God’s statutes. This present gladness is only a foretaste and pledge of the ineffable gladness of eternity. It is true that by itself it is powerful enough to sustain faithfulness to God’s commandments; but lest through unfamiliarity it should weaken, or, appearing in small measure, give occasion to be satisfied with it and to slacken one’s zeal for performing the commandments—in the thought that the goal has already been fully attained—the Lord has seen fit to declare that those zealous for performing His statutes are awaited in the future by a gladness before which the present one cannot even be compared. That gladness is ineffable; yet it too has its degrees, and those degrees depend on one’s labors in keeping the statutes here. The more one labors “here,” the greater the gladness he will be granted “there.” With this thought in mind, the prophet resolved within himself: if so, then I will keep God’s decrees forever; and then he announces this resolution to all—that he has inclined his heart to perform the statutes forever in hope of recompense.

It is clear that hope here is directed toward the future; but earthly existence also lasts a considerable time and therefore has its own future within the span of its duration. A youth awaits manhood; the man of mature years awaits old age. So too in the moral life: the beginner seeks to join the ranks of those making progress; those making progress seek to join the ranks of the perfect. Here hope is precisely the force driving one forward—promising something better, beckoning ever further, and summoning a stretching of one’s powers. Attaining that is its own measure of recompense. One who enters upon the path of virtue enters it first through the fear of God and the demands of conscience. From the very beginning he does hope for the true well-being of life that follows; but this very hope is sustained only by faith in God, who is faithful to His promises, while from life itself he has not yet received any confirmation. That confirmation comes later, when after some experience of living in this way the soul begins to feel the fruits of it. The feeling of those fruits is a receiving of recompense; but this does not bring hope to an end—on the grounds that if one has already received, what further is there to hope for? Because however strong the feeling of well-being from walking the path of the commandments may be, it can never reach the measure of what hope promises; and hope itself, in proportion to that feeling, raises its own promises. So it is at every degree of spiritual perfection; and for one who has ascended to the very summit of perfection, hope opens before him the gates of eternity and quickens him with the expectation of the unending and ineffable goods of that place. What a life-giving and comforting gift the Lord God has given us in hope!

Hope is born of faith; but when that experience of joy becomes frequent, it in turn strengthens faith itself. In this way hope pays a tribute to faith as its progenitor. Under their mutual influence the holy life ripens, having as its ultimate aim the building up of love in the heart. Faith, winged by hope, teaches one to walk faithfully in God’s commandments and statutes. This labor of walking is their direct work; but out of it there is born at last love—full, pure, all-consuming. Itself a flame, it turns faith and hope into flame as well; then the whole spirit of a person becomes flame. This serves as testimony that he has been made pure, and God, worshiped in Trinity, has begun to rest in him—by the good pleasure of the Father, the sanctification of the Spirit, and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Verses 113–120

The heading of this octet, “Samekh,” means “a support” or “a prop.”

There are moral dispositions and resolutions of the will, and divine arrangements relating to them, which serve as supports for the entire God-pleasing life conducted in faithful observance of the commandments. It is of these dispositions and divine arrangements that the holy prophet speaks in this octet. The first support set forth here is the resolution of the will to love the law—on the part of man (verse Ps. 118:113)—and the ever-ready help for this—on the part of grace (verse Ps. 118:114). Grace will not act without such a resolution of the will, nor can such a resolution of the will accomplish anything without grace. When they are united, even the action of a weak person becomes powerful. In the awareness of this power he boldly sets out on the path of pleasing God (verse Ps. 118:115), trusting not, however, in his own strength, but in God’s help, hoping to succeed in everything with its cooperation (verse Ps. 118:116). Such is the inner constitution of one who acts according to God. The prophet then points to the means by which these very supports of a God-pleasing life are to be maintained: namely, through prayer (verse Ps. 118:117), by recalling God’s lack of mercy toward sinners (verse Ps. 118:118), by observing how joyless their life is (verse Ps. 118:119), and especially through the fear of God, which is stirred by contemplating the awesome judgments of God (verse Ps. 118:120). The cluster of virtues in the God-pleasing life depicted in the preceding octet is of the same character. Therefore, the present octet may be called a continuation of the preceding one.

Ps. 118:113. I hate the double-minded, but I love Your law.

By “the lawless” are meant here people, or the collective mass of people—the world—and the evil thoughts stirred up by the world and all its customs; he hated, he says, not only the transgression of the law but everything connected with it and leading to it; “but Your law I have loved.” From the one he has turned away in his heart, while to the other he has cleaved. The amendment of character consists not only in ceasing from sinful deeds, but in heartfelt revulsion from them; and the return to the path of good consists not only in performing lawful deeds, but in heartfelt love for them. Such a disposition is the complete beginning of a God-pleasing life, and at the same time its most solid support. As long as any sympathy remains for something sinful and passionate, one cannot regard one’s state as safe. The slightest thing and weak sympathy will grow into feeling, will arouse attraction, will summon desire—and one is already at the edge of the pit of falling. What happens here is the same as with a spark smoldering under ash. Let the slightest breeze blow away the ash covering it and carry something combustible near—and it will immediately begin to smoke; leave it unquenched and it will flare; leave the small flame unextinguished—and a conflagration. An hour or two, and the house is gone, however richly furnished it may have been.

So it is with moral conflagrations and the destruction of the houses of the heart. Examine yourself carefully, then, to see whether some sympathy with sin and passion is concealed in your heart; and if you find it, do not be lazy in rooting it out. The test for this is as follows: when an object of passion is before your eyes or in your thoughts, you should not merely regard it coldly, but should have a desire to push it away with your foot, as you would a filthy animal.

Such hatred of everything sinful does not appear immediately the moment a person turns from sin to virtue. It is there even then, to be sure, but still weak. The period of struggle with sin nurtures and feeds it, for only this struggle gives one the full experience of sin’s hostility toward us and the malice of its ringleader, the devil.

Feeling that malicious enmity on the part of what is opposed to good will at last give one the strength to repay it in kind. But the thought that sin is somehow harmless, not an enemy but a friend—such a thought will not allow hatred of sin to arise in full force.

Hatred of sin grows together with love for virtue. The support of the good life is properly this love, while hatred of sin manifests itself only at the moment when sin appears in order to lure one to itself. Then love for good reveals itself as hatred of evil and burns evil at its very first appearance. Against this movement of love even the malice of Satan itself cannot stand.

Ps. 118:114. You are my helper and my protector; in Your word have I hoped.

The prophet does not pray “be You my helper,” but confesses that God is already his helper on the good path. When setting out on a life of virtue, the beginner prays: “I will strive to do good; only do You, O Lord, not forsake me with Your help”—and, believing that God will not forsake him, he sets out on the path of good. But the experiences of life, in which God’s help and God’s protection are palpably visible, establish in the heart the conviction that this is indeed so—that the Lord is near to all who call upon Him and keeps their going out and their coming in. From this a person becomes confident in the ever-present readiness of God’s help and God’s protection, as certain as his own existence. Both within himself and before others he confesses: “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what the malice of the enemy can do to me!” All around me are his hosts, yet I lie down and fall peacefully asleep, sleep and wake, experiencing no anxiety, for I know that He who keeps me will not slumber or sleep, in His goodness.

“In Your word have I hoped”—that is, in the promises given by God to men, with confidence in their immutability: “you need only begin, and I will not forsake you.” Trusting in these promises, a person enters upon the path of good. But then, when the experiences of life have assured him of God’s unfailing goodness and ever-ready help, he confesses before God: now I have wholly placed my hope in Your words. In the beginning there may still have been some wavering; but now there is no longer any place for it.

Without God’s help one cannot make progress in good. “Without Me you can do nothing,” the Lord says (John 15:5). On this help one must place one’s hope, and having placed it, desire and seek it. The first stirrings of good God arouses independently of a person’s will; but afterward, when a person has entered upon the path of good, He appears to help him only when sought, even though He is near. The Lord God has seen fit to arrange it this way so that a person should not become conceited and begin to regard the works of grace as something owed to him—for from this comes murmuring, the ruin of souls. Hope is already a seeking of God’s help. It is a wordless word, calling out to God powerfully, since God looks at what is in the heart.

Hope in God’s help is the most life-giving force on the good path. For this reason the enemy strives by every means to prevent it from taking up residence in the heart, and when it has taken up residence, he labors to weaken it. At first he suggests: do you think God will help you, who have offended Him so many times!—and then, on the path of virtue, at the slightest temptation he does not miss the chance to cast in the thoughts: you see, God has abandoned you! Thus a person walks with hope that now rises, now weakens. And yet it continues to grow and grow. The experiences of God’s help nourish and increase it. When it has grown strong, a person then confesses with all his heart: “You are my helper, O Lord; in Your words have I hoped.” This is like a person swimming to shore and struggling amid the waves who at last is spent and stands on firm ground. By another comparison—one who hopes truly and perfectly is like a child in its mother’s arms: warm, at peace, afraid of no one. But one must come to such a state through experience.

Ps. 118:115. Depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God.

One who feels strength within himself speaks boldly to those who block his path: away with you! So also one who has come to love God’s law and has risen to a firm hope in God, feeling a strength that is not his own but God’s, says to demons, to evil people, to evil customs and thoughts—in a word, to everything that might hinder him from walking the path he has chosen: “Depart from me!” This expresses the courage and boldness with which one who has come to love the commandments walks in them. So it must be; otherwise there is no hope that this path will be completed successfully. One who, upon setting out for a distant place, begins to groan and tremble with fear from the very first steps will not reach the end of the road. When a warrior, the moment he catches sight of his adversary, is already shaking with fear—such a one is defeated even before the battle is joined. So too one who sets out on the path of virtue to do battle with all the enemies of salvation, if he is not animated with courage from the very beginning, or if courage does not come to him after entering upon the path, is incapable of completing it.

Such courage is not reckless boldness or bravado, the characteristics of inexperienced youth, which is quarrelsome without having properly weighed its adversary’s strengths. No—it sees all the difficulties of the path in the smallest detail, reckons up all the enemies’ forces, but does not retreat before them, being ready in hope of God’s help to take them all on and overcome them. It already takes them upon itself in advance, gauging how to pass through this or that difficulty and overcome this or that enemy. It is ready for every labor, every fatigue and exhaustion, every wound and defeat, even for death itself. It lives through all of this inwardly, in feeling, before it is tested in deed; and if in the heart of such a person no fear steals in amid this, he courageously sets out on the path, thirsting for adversity, struggle, and labor. Therefore, when he meets them, he meets them not as something unexpected, but as something long desired—which is why they do not have upon him the effect that those who arrange them would wish. The courageous person walks like a ship cutting through the waves.

Moral courage is natural to man, for he possesses a God-like spirit that is more powerful than those aspects of our being in which sin dwells with its passions and through which the enemy acts. One who, under the action of the fear of God and conscience, enters upon the path of virtue passes over to the side of the spirit, and so shares in the spirit’s power and the courage proper to it. But just as the spirit, though present, is sometimes hidden, so too courage, though present in a person, does not always manifest itself, not being evoked. People sometimes say in common life: where did it come from? In the life according to God one most frequently encounters the application of this saying, as well as another: thunder from a clear sky. A seemingly weak person sometimes displays such moral strength as astonishes even the mightiest. It may perhaps not be wrong to say to everyone who has entered upon the path of virtue: “Be courageous, and let your heart be strengthened” (Ps. 26:14); go forward, do not be afraid, you are stronger than all your enemies and mightier than all your obstacles. Take courage; the enemy weakens you with intimidation, but only step forward boldly and he will be gone.

Ps. 118:116. Uphold me according to Your word, and I shall live; and let me not be ashamed of my hope.

The one who courageously sets out on the path of virtue says to evil thoughts and demons: “Depart from me.” I have resolved to walk and will walk only in God’s commandments; no enticement or cunning of yours will turn me from the path; I will examine the commandments of my God and carry them out in deed. “Not simply,” Blessed Theodoret explains, “will I follow them, but I will examine them with all precision, so that nothing in them is hidden from me and all that the Lord of all has commanded may be fulfilled by me.”

If these words are taken apart from the whole context, they have a ring of self-confidence, which has never brought anyone to any good thing. But in context they express only the spirit breathing with courage, drawing that courage from a firm hope in God, to Whom he also turns in prayer: “uphold me”; “Grant me,” says Blessed Theodoret, “Your upholding, me who have taken the intention of walking the path of Your commandments, lest, disappointed in my hope, I be filled with shame.” This is what hope that does not put to shame says—hope that draws to itself the power of God and rests upon it. “I can do all things,” it says, but only “through the Lord who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13), and it believes that the Lord is near. But since He Himself has ordained that even those who are courageous and bold in Him should cry out to Him, the prophet also cries out: “uphold me,” though he is already assured that God’s upholding guards him by God’s faithful promise. “And I shall live”—that is, I will put the enemies to flight and remain whole in all my moral constitution. And since the Lord, in helping one who hopes in Him, acts through the soul for the overcoming of its enemies, the soul cannot but feel this inflow of God’s power, and consequently the enlivening that comes through it. If the Lord does not take back what He has given, then what was given on the occasion of that enlivening remains in the soul; and after the overcoming of enemies the soul cannot but find itself more alive than it was before they attacked. One who has experienced this once cannot, when asking for help a second time, fail to have in mind what accompanies it. “And I shall live”—that is, I shall receive from You a greater life.

“And let me not be ashamed of my hope.” The prophet does not stand up for himself, but for the glory of God in Whom he hopes. Everyone knows that he hopes in God, and hopes according to God’s own word. If God permits the enemies to overcome him, it will appear that he hoped in God in vain, and more than that—that God is unfaithful to His promises. For this reason the prophet often repeats in his psalms, when he turns to God in prayer for help: “Let me not be put to shame, for I have hoped in You” (Ps. 24:20)—not as in One who is powerless and unable to help.

The courageous person is courageous because he hopes in God’s power. In him a union of human strength with God’s power takes place. What is required of the person, from his side, is animation; but since his own strength is exhausted in this, when it is entirely spent, the power of God begins to act. From this it follows that even the courageous person experiences the full feeling of powerlessness and cries out: “It is time for the Lord to act”—time for You to act, O Lord; “Arise, rise up!” (Ps. 3:8, 34:2)

Therefore, however much you may be stricken, and even if temptations shake you powerfully and bow you down, as a strong wind bends flexible stalks to the ground, do not allow the thought that you have been abandoned by God: the Lord is near and waits only for the moment of action. That moment will come, and the enemies will scatter as mist or smoke scatters in the wind. “Wait on the Lord, and He shall do it” (Ps. 26:14, 36:5). The law of His will is that no one is permitted to be tempted beyond his strength—always within his strength. Know this, therefore, and do not be afraid, but look your enemies boldly in the eye.

Ps. 118:117. Help me, and I shall be saved, and I will meditate in Your statutes continually.

“Although,” thus St. Athanasius explains this verse, “the prophet said ‘You are my protector,’ he still feels the need for continual help, for as long as a person is still here below, he cannot say with certainty: ‘I shall be saved.’” Hope does not abolish prayer, any more than courage abolishes hope. Pray—help will come and will crown your courageous zeal with success. Since you cannot know when the enemies will advance and raise a storm of thoughts and passionate movements, pray without ceasing: “O God, make speed to save me; O Lord, make haste to help me!” (Ps. 69:2)

One who hopes and prays in hope will never be caught off guard by the enemy’s attacks—they will not even dare to approach him. Hopeful prayer covers the soul with a kind of overshadowing; the enemies therefore cannot see where to aim their arrows. There are accounts of certain saints who were attacked by evil men, but God protected them by making them invisible. Such enemies would search and search, and then depart with nothing. So too from invisible enemies God covers the soul, so that they cannot see it. Perhaps the light of prayer strikes their sight, as physical light strikes the sight of certain birds that therefore cannot see in broad daylight.

It sometimes happens that certain criminals come to rob a house, but at that time the owner is in a long conversation with someone; the criminals do not begin their work until they hear the conversation fall silent. Were it to continue all night—they would stand there all night, fearing to take up their wicked business. So too, if you wish the enemies to depart from you empty-handed, do not cease your conversation with God: O God, make speed to save me, O Lord, make haste to help me! This speech, even if carried on silently and mentally within the soul, is heard aloud by the enemies, and as long as it continues, they will not dare to approach you in any way, for they know with Whom and of what you are speaking, and that they will pay dearly for the impudence of an attack.

Someone will say: I do pray, yet the passions still overcome me. Prayer is not all alike. True prayer will never let you be harmed; on the contrary, if through inattentiveness the passions are sometimes roused in the soul, only resort to prayer and perform this work as it ought to be performed—and the stirred-up evil movements will subside at once. Even if this does not happen immediately, especially when the passions are aroused by our own fault, they will in any case not endure. Prayer will never allow one engaged in it to be overcome by them. If something of this sort happens to someone, it is surely because at that moment his tongue was praying while his soul was slyly looking at something passionate. There was then no prayer, only its outward form. True prayer, in the words of St. John the Dwarf, is like this: I sit, he says, under a tree and see wild beasts approaching in the distance. Not having the strength to fight them, I climb the tree. The beasts come, stand there awhile, and go away. This climbing of the tree is the act of giving oneself to prayer in the hours when passionate temptations are drawing near.

One who prays is like a bird soaring high in the air. You cannot catch it with a net, nor bring it down with an arrow. But when it, noticing some tasty seeds, swoops down from above and begins to peck at them, then it can both get tangled in the net and be shot. So too one who prays is uncatchable by the enemies, for the spirit of prayer lifts him up high. But if he, leaving the heights, descends to lower things and begins to take pleasure in this or that, it is no wonder that they will catch him and drag him into unseemly deeds. But whose fault is it? If he had not abandoned prayer, it would not have allowed him to fall.

Ps. 118:118. You have set at nothing all who depart from Your statutes, for their inward thought is unrighteous.

What here serves as a support for good moral resolve?—Reflection on God’s judgments upon sinners who depart from God’s statutes. When the enemy tempts, he suggests that sin is nothing: God is merciful and will not call it to account. This he suggests even to zealots of virtue, thereby weakening their resolution to be ever faithful to the holy commandments of the Lord. To dispel this suggestion, the prophet both brings to mind himself and counsels others to bring to mind how God has punished and put to shame those who became too bold and refused to know His commandments. God is indeed greatly merciful—so greatly merciful that if one looks only at His mercy toward sinners, it might appear that He as it were condones sin. Lest anyone be led astray by such an unrighteous thought, God Himself through that same prophet teaches that one must not conclude from His mercies that He condones sin. “I held My peace and did not punish you, waiting for your conversion; but you thought that I was like you, that I condone sin; no, I will reprove you, and set before your very eyes how greatly sin is hateful to Me” (Ps. 49:21–22).

And lest anyone think that God only threatens in words, He sometimes brings His threats into actual effect as well. His striking judgments upon sinners have passed and continue to pass from generation to generation, sobering those who are growing lax and awakening those given to negligence. It is precisely of this action of God’s judgments that the prophet here speaks: “I shall,” as Blessed Theodoret’s interpretation has it, “I shall have zeal for performing Your commandments, knowing that their violators were set at nothing and put to shame by You.”

Let each of us, therefore, pass through God’s judgments in his mind more often, and strive on the one hand to kindle zeal for good through them, and on the other to drive away the enticements of sin. How much care and solicitude the Lord God showed in creating and arranging the way of life of our forebears! Yet when they sinned, He took nothing into account; He expelled them from paradise, and with them subjected our whole race to the humiliated condition in which we now find ourselves. In the time of Noah the whole human race gave itself over to ungodliness, and when they did not heed God’s corrections, God paid no attention to the fact that they were numerous, but destroyed them all with the flood. He did not spare Sodom and Gomorrah along with the other cities, and burned everything with fire and drowned them in water, whose peculiar properties to this day remind everyone how awesome God’s judgments are. Lot’s wife merely turned to look at the consuming conflagration, but since this was a violation of God’s will declared to them face to face, in that very moment she became “a pillar of salt.” And the judgments of God upon Pharaoh, upon the peoples occupying the promised land, upon the Israelites themselves in their repeated departures from God’s will, their Assyrian and especially their Babylonian captivity, and then their dispersion for deicide—what do all these signify if not that God always has punitive measures ready for sinners, and that if He does not always put them into effect immediately after a sin, it is only because He awaits repentance, or He allows people to fill up the measure of their sins so as to smite them more fully afterward. Bring all of this to mind in reflection with yourself, and sober your heart from thoughts that make it lax. If you look carefully, you will find in your own life and in the lives of those you know that, in addition to the mercies with which God has covered you and others, there have been not a few cases that evidently bear the character of God’s righteous judgment for correction. If it was so then, why should one think that the same will not follow now? Guard yourself, therefore, with the fear of God’s judgments.

Notice also the following words of the prophet: “for their inward thought is unrighteous”—perhaps this refers to the thought he sets forth in other places: God will not call to account, God does not see. But it is better to see here a reference to every unrighteous thought, every evil thought contrary to God’s will that inclines one toward sin and passion, and to keep in mind that God punishes not only deeds but also thoughts of the heart cherished in secret. Why were Ananias and Sapphira struck dead?—For the unrighteous thought that they could lie to the Holy Spirit. Why was Simon rejected?—For the unrighteous thought that the gift of the Holy Spirit could be purchased. Yes, God sees into your heart and is ready to punish you for what is unrighteous there. Look into it, then, and before God’s judgment, drive out yourself everything unrighteous that is there.

Ps. 118:119. I have counted all the wicked of the earth as transgressors; therefore have I loved Your testimonies.

I have surveyed in my thoughts, the prophet says, all the sinners of the earth who transgress Your will—and “therefore have I loved Your testimonies.” This means the following: a single glance at the condition of sinners is enough to kindle zeal for performing God’s commandments. The prophet does not say what he saw in sinners, but only that he surveyed them and thereby came to love Your law—“he turned,” Blessed Theodoret adds, “all his zeal toward the fulfillment of God’s words, as one who had come to know the harm of transgressing the law.”

Therefore the harm of transgressing the law is imprinted on the face of those who transgress it. Their outward situation is not always wretched; it can be flourishing, even better than that of those who are faithful to God’s law; but their inner state is always wretched. The poison of sin, not being discharged by outward evil, turns entirely inward and produces there its full destructive effect. As a moth eats through a garment and rust consumes iron, so sin wastes and exhausts the soul in all its powers.

All of this, however, takes place inwardly and is invisible not only to bystanders, but even to the sinner himself; and this because, although this evil is within the person, the person himself is never within himself but is always entirely outside himself, and therefore does not know himself. If he were to look within himself and see what he is—he would recoil from sin in horror, as from a monster consuming him, and would cleave to God’s testimonies with love more strongly than even the prophet, to be delivered from such a destroyer. Read in St. Paul the depiction of the sinner, and you will see what sin is, how evil this deceiver is that deceives the whole world, drawing people to itself by fraud and then mercilessly tormenting its victim. See how, according to the Apostle’s testimony, sinners walk: “in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Eph. 4:17–19). What a beautiful face that is of the sinful soul! And every sinful soul is truly such.

What the prophet says—“there is no joy for the wicked”—every sinner experiences in himself. Although he is almost constantly laughing and guffawing, this is by no means evidence of inner joy, but only surges to stifle the inner anguish. If you want to know how much joy he has in his soul, look at him in the dark of night when he is alone with himself. Like a mountain, the burden of his soul’s condition presses upon him and wrings heavy sighs from his heart.

And what of his undertakings?—They are feverish. I do not recall where it is said: the sinner is always in a state of mental wandering. To outward appearance this seems like a mental state, but its fruit is entirely turned to the practical side. This wandering swarms with projects; one after another they arise in the soul, generate plans, pull toward acquiring means and beginning the work. One task is not finished before another and a third are being devised, and so on. Unceasing bustle, until he drops. He has no time; he is always—too busy. This exhausts his strength while at the same time not permitting him to come to his senses. Such is how sin batters the sinner!

Who does not know that God exists, that He provides for all things, that He must be pleased by fulfilling His will, that death is ever near, that after death comes judgment, and after judgment a verdict?—Yes, even the sinner knows this, and could perhaps recite it all to you in perfect order; yet he never keeps it in mind and draws no practical application from it for his own life. Such is the blindness that sin casts over him—or, more precisely, that the enemy, the prince of sin, casts over him. The sinner lives as though there were no almighty God, no death ever ready to claim him, no tribunal at which he would have no defense. The distant future—well, he simply does not look that far: today, tomorrow, and no further. More often than not, even that is too far, and his gaze is confined to the present moment alone.

Blindness, ceaseless agitation, and anguish—this is what fills the soul of a sinner, to a greater or lesser degree. That is why his soul is shrouded in darkness. Someone has written that if the eyes of our souls were opened and allowed us to see the souls of others, the souls of sinners would appear to us as gloomy shadows inspiring dread. The heavenly powers and God’s saints always see them as such. By reason of this darkness, the demons too recognize them as their own, enter into them, and carry out within them the evil deeds that are their nature. The prophet saw all of this, and “therefore he loved the testimonies of God.”

Remind yourself often, then, how ruinous are the consequences of sin in the soul, and through this kindle your zeal—to endure death sooner than yield to sin.

Ps. 118:120. Pierce my flesh with the fear of You, for I am afraid of Your judgments.

From the reflections mentioned above, the fear of God is born; and if that fear is already present, it is sustained and nourished by them, and thereafter itself sustains and nourishes the zeal to please God always by fulfilling His holy commandments. The fear of God is the beginning of a life of salvation lived to God, as the Holy Church herself sings: “Through fear of You we have conceived and brought forth the spirit of salvation.” But even afterward, throughout the entire journey along the path of the commandments, it does not leave the soul; like a faithful watchman it guards it, and like a wise guide it leads it along the unfailing path to final perfection, teaching it the deeds and labors that lead directly to growth. This fear, together with growth in the life to God, undergoes change—yet it remains always a fear that sobers, steadies, and teaches attentiveness and vigilance, so as not to allow anything unworthy.

Guard the fear of God, then, kindling it by reflecting on God’s judgments, as the prophet did. Consider carefully what exactly he prays for: “Pierce,” he says, “my flesh with Your fear.” There is in us a higher part—the spiritual—and a lower part—the soulish, animal, fleshly. The former is destined for God, the latter for life on earth; the former inclines toward God, the latter is cold toward Him. When fear dwells in the higher part, the lower is not moved by it; and not being moved, it can run riot, rise up against the spirit, and not merely trouble it but even overcome it. Knowing this, the prophet prays that the fear of God would penetrate even this lower part of his being: “Pierce,” he says, “my flesh with Your fear”—so that just as the spirit bows in reverence before You, so also my lower powers, being permeated with Your fear, might not dare to rise against Your commandments, but silently submit to them. Blessed Theodoret puts these words in the mouth of the prophet: “My soul is clothed in fear of You, but since the body and the members of the body resist the soul, I entreat You to pierce them also with this fear, so that, becoming dead to sin, they may follow the guidance of the soul.” This is the same as the apostle’s saying: “Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5); and also: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:19–20).

Thus, the piercing of the flesh with the nails of the fear of God—or, what amounts to the same thing, the mortification of the flesh and all the members “which are upon the earth”—is the final and, one must say, the most reliable foundation of upright morals. The flesh is the seat of the passions; any indulgence of it, even slight and seemingly necessary, sets the passions in motion, as rain stirs worms already withered and dying. Do not be slack, then, in mortifying the flesh, and for that purpose never cease to carry the banner of the fear of God in your heart. The flesh is a wicked slave; it cannot heed rational counsel; it must be disciplined by the whip of the fear of God.

And how to receive the fear of God—learn from the prophet. Reflect on God’s judgments; reflect on the unerring and incorruptible justice of God, on ever-present death, and on the judgment that will decide your eternal lot. While reflecting in this way, pray to the Lord that He would overshadow you with fear and give it power to crush all the lusts of your flesh. A drop wears through a stone by falling in the same spot; so it is with prayer. If you practice it frequently, it will wear through the hardness of your heart and introduce fear into it; and once that fear has entered the heart, it will begin to do its proper work according to its nature. There has never yet been a man who did not yield to the salutary action of the fear of God. When this fear is truly established in him, it remains only to sustain it, not allowing it to be extinguished. And this is accomplished by the same means by which fear is born. Abide in this ordering of your spiritual life, and you will abide in the fear of God—and this fear will teach you all that is good. This is the whole science of holy living. If we did not allow the fear within us to grow weak, sin would not dare to appear in us, and the soul would not dare to embrace it, forsaking God, her Creator, Benefactor, and Savior.

Verses 121–176

Verses 121–128

The heading for this octet is ayin — eye.

The eye is the window through which the soul sees all that exists and occurs outside it. But there is also within us a spiritual eye, through which the spiritual, divine world is contemplated.

This is the mind or spirit, which knows God, confesses His Providence, teaches submission to Him in all things, strives toward Him, and sees in Him its ultimate good. These are the primary natural indications of our spiritual eye. But in the natural state this eye is darkened and does not see clearly. It is opened to clear vision by the grace of the Holy Spirit in the believing Christian, and only after this does true spiritual sight begin to operate. Whoever follows its guidance finds his spiritual horizon ever widening, and the invisible world unfolding before him with increasing clarity. This state is the state of contemplation. All Christians are destined for it, and true Christians do indeed attain it (Isaac the Syrian, Discourse 55). The mysteries that the spiritual contemplative beholds are the same as those revealed to us in the Word of God—but with this difference: he sees them in their very substance, not merely in thought.

However, there is not great profit in dwelling at length on this; it is more profitable to know the inner disposition of the contemplative spirit.

Faith constitutes all its content, love embraces all its movements, hope forms the foundation or support of its standing. All three together define life in God, the concentrated expression of which is self-surrender to God. One surrendered to God lives in God—that is, he abides in Him inseparably with his consciousness and attention. Just as when someone, having opened a window, encounters captivating objects and fixes all his attention upon them, he absorbs them with his gaze and forgets everything around him, as if nothing else exists—so it is with the one surrendered to God. With the eye of his mind he cleaves to God and forgets everything else, as though it does not and never did exist. In this alone lies his sweetness and paradise; toward this all his desires are directed; from this springs all his energy; in this consist all his aims. Of this upward straining of the mind’s eyes toward God, the holy prophet speaks very often: “My eyes are ever toward the Lord” (Ps. 24:15); “For to You, O Lord, are my eyes” (Ps. 140:8); “I have lifted up mine eyes to the hills” (upward, to the heavens) (Ps. 120:1); “To You have I lifted up mine eyes” (Ps. 122:1). In these words he expresses the “loving” straining of the mind’s eyes toward God. But even more often does the prophet speak of the “hoping” straining of the eyes toward God, in surrender to His will: “Mine eyes have failed with looking for my God” (Ps. 68:4); “The eyes of all wait upon You, O Lord” (Ps. 144:15); “Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that He have mercy upon us” (Ps. 122:2). It is precisely this last manner of gazing of which the holy prophet speaks in this present octet. A condensed expression of the contents of this octet might be called verse 123 of Psalm 118: “Mine eyes have failed for Your salvation.”

The prophet points to certain circumstances that call forth hope with special force and can be overcome only by it alone, while making clear the chief condition for hope to be effective—namely, fidelity to the will of God through the fulfillment of His holy commandments. In the very nature of things it is so: when the conscience is impure, there is no room for hope. True, hope does break through even in a state of sinfulness—but only after the sinner has resolved in his heart to sin no more and to make a beginning of pleasing God. Thus the one who hopes directs one eye toward the hand of God, in expectation of receiving the Lord’s mercy, and the other toward the commandments, lest by betraying them he compel God’s justice to close the hand that was ready to be gracious. Of this David speaks in many places, and likewise in this octet: “Therefore I have loved Your commandments” (verse 127).

Ps. 118:121. I have done judgment and justice; deliver me not to them that oppress me.

Even one surrendered to God is surrounded by troubles—sometimes visible, but always invisible. God is the Protector of those who are His own, and those who serve God know this, confessing before all and before themselves that if they are still alive, it is only because the right hand of the Lord covers them. Were the Lord to withdraw His right hand, the enemies of the living would devour them. In the sense of this ever-threatening danger, they cry out: “Deliver me not.” Yet in such a cry, the conscience may stop one man’s mouth: “You cry out—‘deliver me not,’” it says to him, “yet you yourself deliver yourself to what God hates—you deliver yourself to sin and every manner of unrighteousness.” The prophet asserts that he is guilty of none of this, that he is not conscious of anything unrighteous in himself, and therefore speaks with boldness: “I have done judgment and justice”—or thus: “You, O Lord, have no cause to deliver me to my enemies, no cause to withdraw from me Your right hand that defends me.”

And yet—who is pure before the Lord? “No one, though his life on earth be but one day” (Job 14:5). How then can one say: “I have done judgment and justice”?—One can, but in this sense: everything that depends on me I do in order to be faithful to righteousness; I do not consciously go against Your commandments and Your will—my conscience does not convict me of this. I always wish and strive to be faithful to righteousness. There are sins, yes—sins of weakness, ignorance, inadvertence; but to devise a sin and carry it out with deliberate intent—that is not something that happens with me. Very few can say this. Blessed Theodoret asks: “Who has such purity of soul as to repeat the prophet’s words with boldness?—One who, like the apostle, can say: ‘This is our boasting—the testimony of our conscience’ (2 Cor. 1:12).” It is on the basis of just such a testimony that the prophet speaks thus. True, he too had committed a grave sin, but he cleansed it by sincere repentance. Repentance washes away the defilement of sin and after sin gives the conscience the boldness to testify: “I have done judgment and justice”—especially when forgiveness has been pronounced directly by God Himself.

If you wish, therefore, that hope would overshadow your soul and that you might boldly say to God: “Deliver me not”—be faithful to righteousness, that is, to God’s commandments. Hope is the most delicate flower in the spiritual garden, yet also the most hardy. The moment a breath of sin’s corruption touches it, it wilts; but when that does not happen, no force can crush it—on the contrary, it itself strengthens everything around it with its fragrance. Guard this flower, then, by keeping yourself from sin. But if you do sin, hasten to be cleansed by sincere repentance, so that through your conscience you may also hear from God the word of forgiveness. To David, the prophet Nathan pronounced it; to you it will be pronounced by your spiritual father, clothed with the authority to bind and to loose. And the flower of hope will live in you again, and permeating with its fragrance all parts of your nature, it will impart to it an indestructible strength—just as salt acts upon substances that are in themselves sluggish and prone to decay.

Ps. 118:122. Be surety for Your servant for good; let not the proud oppress me.

Enemies do not always openly assault a person and cause him injury; often they do so in secret. The most common means for this is slander and calumny. An evil rumor is spread, and the innocent person finds himself abandoned by all and suffering every kind of trouble. He falls in public esteem, falls in his well-being, and then come poverty and one misfortune after another—yet the source of all this is nowhere to be seen. The chief agent in such matters is Satan—the slanderer. He sows among people calumnies, suspicions, and gossip; he even slanders before God, as for instance he did against Job.

Slander is the most keenly felt of evils. Against those who oppress him, the prophet says: “Deliver me not”; but against slanderers: “Be surety for me”—that is, take me into Your arms, lift me to such a height that the arrows of slander cannot reach me, as though on the earth, among slanderers, even God’s protection were unable to defend against the strikes of these arrows poisoned with venom.

“Be surety for good”—that is, take me into Your good favor, into Your benevolent regard, for being lifted above the level that the arrows of slander can reach signifies not a lifting of the body, but a lifting of the thing that is the opposite of slander—the upholding of a good reputation, and indeed its elevation. The Lord God has many means for this, and He not infrequently shows it in deed; yet He is not always pleased to repel slander directly, though He does still receive the slandered one “for good.” This comes about in such a way that, leaving the slander to do its evil work among men, He causes the one being slandered to feel His good will toward him, and along with it the good that comes from the slander itself. In such a case the slander does not pierce the heart; its arrows fly past, or though they do strike, they glance off without causing a wound. Such a good is a direct gift of God to the one being slandered; no effort of will, no consoling argument, can bring it into the heart.

This is what the prophet prays for. But the basis for his hope that he will be heard is here the same as above—namely, zealous service of God in the fulfillment of His holy commandments. Therefore he says: “Be surety for Your servant.” Zealous service of God, a blameless testimony of conscience—these are what give boldness to flee to God’s intercession in the face of slander, and what pour sweet consolation into the heart! For the innocent and God-surrendered person, slander brings not pain but increases the straining of his mind’s eyes toward God and kindles ever more his zeal to remain faithful to Him. But the one who knows sins upon himself is, as it were, caught by the slander in the very act of his crime. Consolation may come to him too—but only after immediate and sincere repentance, which gives him boldness before God.

Ps. 118:123. Mine eyes have failed for Your salvation, and for the word of Your righteousness.

“Have failed” expresses intense longing—the fruit of love and most heartfelt faith in God the Defender. “I am not in the least shaken,” says the prophet, “in my hope in You, trusting with full hope to draw Your intercession. ‘Mine eyes have failed for Your salvation,’ which I hope to receive from none other but You alone, O Lord.”

“The word of righteousness,” according to Theodoret, means “either the promise, in the thought that I wait unceasingly for salvation from You and for the fulfillment of Your promise”—or, according to Saint Athanasius the Great, this indicates that the eyes of the one who hopes are fixed not only on God’s all-protective and all-generous right hand, but also on the word of righteousness, that is, on His commandments, “to keep them.” He speaks as it were thus: “Though others, living lawlessly and having no fear of You before their eyes, have cast aside Your law, I have fulfilled it at all times, meditating on it unceasingly.” From this it is evident that this verse is a complete portrayal of one who truly hopes in God. It is an unalterable truth that one who is unfaithful to God’s commandments cannot raise the hoping eyes of his mind to God. The Savior Himself says that the Father will hear everyone who asks in His name—but only when he also loves Him and keeps His commandments (Jn. 14:14–15).

One cannot pass without attention over the application drawn from this verse by Saint Athanasius the Great, who says: “‘Mine eyes have failed for Your salvation’—that is, for the divine coming, from which I await salvation both for myself and for all the human race.” Fidelity to the commandments is the foundation of hope; but the wings that lift hope to ascend before the face of the Heavenly Father are given by faith in the Lord and Savior. Therefore the Lord said that one who prays to the Father will be heard not merely because he fulfills His commandments, but only if in fulfilling the commandments he also asks in His name. Faith in God is the door into the presence of God, and the journey toward that door and the passing through it is the fulfillment of God’s will and the walking according to His commandments. Both are necessary: to believe, and to keep the commandments.

Ps. 118:124. Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy, and teach me Your statutes.

The prophet has expressed before God his full self-surrender and full readiness to abide in His will; now, both by reason of this surrender and readiness, he prays: “Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy.” Confessing his servitude to God, he does not conceal that he walks in His will; but at the same time he acknowledges that in this there is no solid ground for receiving the good things expected from Him—for his very conscience assures him that even if he had done everything commanded, he would still be no more than an unprofitable servant: he would have done only what was required of him and would merely be exempt from punishment, not having thereby acquired any right to recompense. Moreover, let us suppose that you have done everything commanded—but is it pleasing to God in the way you suppose? You think that everything in your doing is good, but the all-seeing Lord may see all that you have done as not good. Where, then, is there room for boasting? That is why the apostle says: “I know nothing against myself, yet I am not thereby justified” (1 Cor. 4:4)—for God may look upon us differently. Perhaps in all our good He sees nothing good. It is better, therefore, always to flee to God’s mercy rather than to enter into contention with Him according to the laws of justice. Blessed Theodoret sees this very thought in the prophet’s words: “The doer of such virtue (that is, the holy prophet) desires to be accounted worthy of mercy and asks to obtain salvation according to mercy; he does not demand a reward but seeks lovingkindness.” The same is said by Saint Ambrose: “Elsewhere the prophet expresses the same feeling, saying: ‘Enter not into judgment with Your servant’ (Ps. 142:2). And indeed, aware of our sinfulness, we ought to appeal more to mercy rather than to demand as a right—mercy is always gracious, while justice is exacting. What hope have men to contend with God according to the laws of justice, from Whom nothing hidden escapes, from Whom not one of our sins is concealed? Knowing this, the prophet confesses: ‘Against You alone have I sinned’ (Ps. 50:6). Not denying that even a righteous man may sin, for there is no man without sin, he prays: ‘Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy.’ Though he may have done something good, he was as a slave obligated to do still more. Thus, even if we have done everything commanded, it is not fitting for us immediately to be lifted up—humility is more appropriate; for once we have done something, that does not mean we have done everything that lies upon us as servants.”

“Deal according to mercy”—may be understood as a prayer for gracious help. Despite all my desire to be faithful to You, I have no confidence that I shall prove to be so; therefore I ask Your mercy for help. “The prophet,” writes Saint Hilary, “said: ‘Deal with Your servant,’ but since our servitude, in order to remain in its proper station, has need of the merciful assistance of God, he added: ‘according to Your mercy.’ Our nature is too weak to achieve good ends. It can desire and seek to dwell in God’s household, but to accomplish this is the work of God’s mercy. Mercy assists those who will it, strengthens those who begin, and receives those who draw near. But we must make a beginning, so that mercy may bring our work to completion.”

With this thought agrees the following petition: “And teach me Your statutes.” Here it is as though an answer to the question: what mercy shall I do for you?—“None other,” he says, “do I desire, than that You teach me Your statutes. I burn with the desire to be pleasing to You in all things, but I do not know well what is pleasing to You; and even if I did know, I would not know how to do it in such a way that my deed would be pleasing to You. Teach me, therefore, both—both to know and to do.” But surely you have the written law in your hands? Read it and you will learn. “That is true,” says Saint Hilary, “but not all that is read is immediately understood. In the law there is a depth of wisdom, and its plain words contain great mysteries. How can I attain to this? Enlighten my mind, lead it into contemplation of what is hidden, and I will understand the wonders from Your law.”

“Teach me by Your statutes.” For one who cannot help but transgress at almost every step, the greatest need is to know how to escape guilt and be justified. In the law there is prescribed for every sin its own means of justification; but the power of all of them lies not in themselves but in the One who is the Author of the law. He gives true justification—not merely the removal of guilt, but righteousness itself, a holy moral disposition. The prophet prays to behold this through the shadow of the law, so that, having been justified in Him, he might always abide in Him as righteous. Christians, abiding always with the Lord, draw from Him justifying powers and influences. Their substance is tearful repentance, which forms the underpinning of the whole of life. There is not a moment when the Christian is not repenting, and therefore not a moment when justification does not overshadow him. But even this must be learned. It is therefore fitting for us too to pray: Teach us, O Lord, Your statutes!

Ps. 118:125. I am Your servant; give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies.

If you are a servant, then you are working; and if you work as a servant, you surely know what to do and how to do it. What more is there to ask—“give me understanding”? It would seem: just work, and that is all. Yet no—“I am Your servant,” he says, expressing thereby his constant readiness to serve the Lord faithfully—but knowledge and skill are not yet there. I am with my whole soul devoted to You; I desire nothing more than to walk in Your will, as servants walk in the will of their masters; only show me what is to be done, and I will do it at once, sparing neither strength nor life. In this he presents himself as a soldier standing in full armor, ready for battle and only awaiting the command. As a soldier after receiving a command no longer deliberates but immediately rushes where he is directed, so is the servant of God in relation to the declared will of God: he need only come to know it—and then he sets to its fulfillment at once, without hesitation. It is precisely this disposition that the prophet expresses: “I am Your servant,” he says; only tell me what to do, and I will do it. The delay is not on my part but on the part of the command; as soon as I receive it to my consciousness, I will set to work.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “By nature all men are servants of God, but by disposition those are servants who willingly surrender themselves to God’s lordship. The prophet calls himself a servant as belonging to the latter number, and entreats to be granted understanding, so as to know the testimonies of God.” The continuation of this thought may be found in the words of Saint Hilary: “None among us will be found who in prayer or in ordinary conversation does not call himself God’s servant—so what singular thing does the prophet express by saying of himself what everyone boldly claims for himself? But it is one thing to say of oneself that one is a servant, and quite another to actually be one. Our word expresses only a conscientious awareness of the necessity of being servants—not that this is actually the case with us. The prophet was able to confess himself a servant of God—and he truly was such in all the activities of his life: whether he walked or sat, slept or kept vigil, ate or fasted, was hungry or satisfied—never did he depart from the known will of God. Therefore without confusion, freely and openly, he confesses: ‘I am Your servant.’”

“Give me understanding.” He has already asked: “Teach me”; now he indicates in what manner he would like to be taught. It is possible to set down teaching in writing and hand over a book of laws. When needed, consult this book and you will find the required guidance. But such teaching is external, and with it one will never find himself truly taught. The prophet does not desire such teaching, but rather that the image of God’s will be written all at once in his mind, or be found written in it whenever needed. “Give me understanding,” he says—that is, inscribe it in the mind, so that I may always carry it with me and at every moment perceive the imprint of Your will as proceeding from my own mind. When this comes to pass, the divine legislation will be inscribed not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart. The prophet foresaw what the grace of Christ was to bestow, and with the longing of his heart he embraced this wondrous good. Saint Athanasius writes: “He asks for understanding given by God and as it were stored in His treasury—for the spirit ‘of wisdom and understanding’ and all other good things are God’s gifts.”

“Give me understanding, and I will know.” Inscribe it in my mind, and I shall know—and not merely know, but know with the assurance of conscience that such is precisely Your holy will. Therefore he says: “I will know Your testimonies”—I will discern, that is, that in this consists a testimony of Your will coming directly from You. The most precious good, communicated only to the true servants of God, consists in truly knowing the holy will of God—good and well-pleasing—in all circumstances and in all the entangled interrelations of life. The ability to truly discern God’s will for oneself and to determine it for others—the holy fathers call the gift of “discernment of thoughts.” How many are the thoughts that seem good yet, if followed, may lead to a very bad end! One who receives understanding from above will at once see where the ambush and the snare lie hidden—and will avoid the evil. But for us who are weak, what guidance is there?—“Ask the elders, and they will tell you” (Deut. 32:7). It is a great mercy of God when He raises up such men in our midst; and when there are none of them, it is a punishment from God. Then it is fitting to cry out: Alas! “The faithful man is perished,” for with this perishing goes “the diminishing of truth among the children of men” (Ps. 11:2). Then everyone follows the will of his own heart, turning aside from God’s true intentions.

Ps. 118:126. It is time for the Lord to act; they have broken Your law.

One who is zealous for a life pleasing to God is zealous not only that he himself be always upright in all things, but also that all those with whom he lives should be marked by fidelity to God’s commandments. He sees God’s glory in the flourishing of good morals. As best he can he strives to promote this flourishing, moved by love for God and devotion to Him. Success in this gladdens him, and failure causes him grief and anguish—as Job, the apostle assures us, was tormented among the Sodomites—yet he does not remain inactive: now by his own example, now by persuasive words at the fitting moment, he strives to influence the diminishing of evil and the restoration of the power of good. With such a care, he prays fervently that the Lord Himself, by His own action, whether inward or outward, would enter into the midst of spreading evil and, destroying its nest, would scatter, weaken, and annihilate it. It is precisely in such a position that the holy prophet presents himself in this verse. With a heart broken by godly sorrow, he saw how fearlessly all men everywhere were destroying God’s law; and, seeing the fruitlessness of his own efforts to withstand evil, he cries out hopefully to God: “They have destroyed Your law, O Lord! It is time for You Yourself to act; human efforts are of no avail here.”

The word “time” he uses because he discerns the plans of God’s Providence. God is patient with sins; but when evil grows to excess, He chastises men in punishment to cut off evil. There have been many such examples. By this law came the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the smiting of the Egyptians, the extermination of the Canaanites. Calling these to mind, the prophet cries: “It is time.” Blessed Theodoret understands it thus: “God,” he says, “who disposes all things by weight and measure, is very long-suffering with human sins; but when He sees that with His long-suffering wickedness is growing, He then imposes punishment.” Therefore the prophet says here as it were: “It is time, O Lord, to arise for the help of the oppressed, for the enemies have utterly trampled down Your law.” To cry out thus is prompted by zeal for God’s glory, by love for people as brothers, and to some degree by shame that things are as they are. When a few Russians do something unseemly, all Russians feel shame, in the awareness that those few are disgracing the entire Russian people; so too the prophet, uniting all people in his consciousness and seeing how they act impiously before God, feels ashamed for them all and prays to God Himself to take away this shame—as though he is afraid to stand before God so long as upon the people among whom he lives there lies the stain that they have broken God’s law. The prophet Isaiah showed this same feeling when, expressing his dread at the vision of God’s glory, he said, among other things: “I live among a people of unclean lips.”

Our commentators hold that the holy David spoke these words while standing in prophetic spirit before the appearing of the Son of God through the Incarnation for our salvation, when ungodliness and corruption prevailed everywhere. His prayer is a prayer for the coming of the Deliverer. The illness has ripened; it is time for You, the all-powerful Physician, to come and heal ailing humanity of it. Saint Ambrose writes: “Well did he say: ‘It is time to act’; for ‘there is a time to keep silence and a time to speak’ (Eccl. 3:7). The time came for him to speak—and he spoke, proclaiming that the time of the Lord’s coming had arrived. Since the law has been broken, let there come at last the fulfillment and completion of the law—the Lord Jesus—and grant us the remission of sins, and having blotted out the handwriting that was against us, save all sinners. ‘It is time,’ he cries, ‘to act.’ So it happens that when an illness grows severe and puts the sick man’s life in danger, men run to the physician and beg him to come quickly, lest he be late and things reach the point where he can no longer help. A physician is most desired when the patient is overwhelmed by the heaviest bouts of his disease. So too the prophet: seeing how all people have fallen morally ill, how sins have multiplied everywhere, he runs to Christ, the only Physician of such diseases, and urges Him by prayer to make haste, for delay is no longer possible: ‘It is time to act.’”

The words “it is time for the Lord to act,” taken apart from their context, may be used before the beginning of any deed dedicated to God—and especially prayer. Approaching it, everyone may say to himself: you have been doing worldly affairs; now it is time to begin God’s work, to do something for God. It is in this sense that these words are used in our liturgical service book before the beginning of the Divine Liturgy.

Ps. 118:127. Therefore I love Your commandments above gold and topaz.

“This,” says Saint Athanasius, “is in agreement with what was said in verse 72: ‘The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver,’ and further: ‘Receive instruction, and not silver,’ and ‘knowledge rather than choice gold… For wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to her’ (Prov. 8:10–11).” “They,” explains Blessed Theodoret, “have despised Your law, but I count Your commandments more worthy of love than gold and precious stones.”

The sinfulness spreading all around inflamed a zeal for God that was already wakeful, and kindled an even greater love for God’s commandments. God has been forgotten; God’s glory has grown dim among men who have surrendered themselves to every sin. But the true lover of God is not swept away by the common current—rather, he is animated with zeal to restore that glory by his own fidelity to the commandments, reminding those around him that there is a God who is jealous for righteousness and an avenger of iniquities. One who is weak in spirit is carried along by an evil environment; one who is strong is armed by it to resist.

“Therefore”—that is, for all that has been said, for the reason that fidelity to the commandments draws one near to God, introduces one into kinship with Him, and fills one with confident assurance—the one faithful to the commandments looks with open face toward God, surrenders himself to Him with good hope, and boldly declares to Him his needs, both spiritual and material, with confidence that he will be heard. Since all things are in God and from God, this fidelity clearly leads to the source of all good things, ever open and inexhaustible, and gives one a taste of them. One who has tasted of this cannot but be filled with a sense of well-being—and this is the ultimate end of all human seeking. How can one not love the commandments, when they introduce one into such a state!

This is the one thing needful! Our nature is manifold. Each part of its composition and each power within that composition has its own need, the satisfaction of which they demand by their very presence in nature. But the highest of all needs are those that direct man from creatures to God, from earth to heaven, from time to eternity. These are properly human needs; it is they that indicate the norm of human life. By their power and comprehensiveness they are such that, when fully and truly satisfied, they dull the sharpness of all other needs, prevent the burning sting of them from being felt, and silence their importunity. That is why their satisfaction is the one thing needful! One who has attained this state is content, even if all other needs are unsatisfied or only partly satisfied.

On the contrary, one who lacks this satisfaction is given over to the unpleasant and importunate pressure of all other needs, and is torn in different directions by them. Having lost the one thing, he loses the norm of where and how to direct the demands pressing upon him from all sides, and he inevitably falls into the many. Then there opens before him a multitude of aims, a multitude of means toward those aims, and in his actions a varied confluence of favorable and unfavorable circumstances, helps and hindrances. Caught in this whirlpool, he is tossed about without understanding himself—what he is doing or why. This is the vanity of vanities—which, however, is granted to be recognized only by one who has come out of it.

“Above gold and topaz” will mean generally—more than all the other objects by which other needs are satisfied. The heart has turned away from them, having learned by experience that they do not satisfy but only inflame hunger and thirst. Having learned by experience, on the other hand, that walking in the commandments acts soothingly upon all of nature, the heart surrenders to them and cleaves to them with love, above all other attachments. One cannot do without such things as food, clothing, shelter, for some—family, books, paintings, connections; but none of these occupies the heart so much as to cause one to seek them with too much insistence or to grieve greatly at their loss. Both these things themselves and the care for them are secondary, not the main affair. Time and energy are allotted to them too, but in proportion to their worth compared with that one thing which fills the whole heart.

Why is there sometimes a time when persons appear who are discontented with their state?—Because they have lost the one thing; and having tried all the rest, they have become convinced that it gives no satisfaction—and they are left in the middle: they have departed from that one thing, while all the rest has become like grass—the taste for it has grown dull. Hence come anguish and suicide.

Ps. 118:128. Therefore I directed myself toward all Your commandments; every way of unrighteousness I have hated.

The prophet continues the thought he has expressed and sets forth in more detail what love for God’s commandments demanded of him and in what it was expressed.

“I have loved,” he says, “the commandments”—but by what did he attest this love? By thoughts, by words?—No, I attest it not by word but by deed, for I direct all my actions according to Your commandments and hate every path of unrighteousness. Just as when teaching the fear of God he urged everyone who desires life and wishes to see good days: “Depart from evil and do good” (Ps. 33:15), so now of himself he testifies that he did not sit with folded hands, but directed himself toward all God’s commandments, and did not regard the paths of unrighteousness with indifference, but hated them with his whole soul. Love for the former gave birth to, aroused, and sustained hatred for the latter.

Whence comes such strength?—From the concentration of all the forces of nature in the “one thing.” In us sinners, the mind with its way of thinking goes in one direction, the heart with its feelings and sympathies in another, and the will with its desires and undertakings in a third. That is why we have no harmony in anything—neither in our inner life nor in its outward manifestations. One and the same person appears in different arenas, and it is difficult to identify his character. But in God’s saints, those who have devoted themselves to God and to His commandments, there is no such division: within, everything is directed to one end, and therefore everything outward is permeated by a single spirit—like uniform beads strung on a single thread.

Why is it so there, but otherwise here?—Because there the man is not in his proper order, while here he is; and one not in his proper order is naturally disordered, out of order, whereas one who abides in proper order is always orderly. The cause of the former is sin; the cause of the latter is the pleasing of God.

Let us consider our natural constitution. Man consists of spirit, soul, and body. The spirit, dwelling in God, has authority over the soul and body and all their actions; it unifies everything in itself, itself being united with God. Sin separates the spirit from God and deprives it of its authority over soul and body. Then these parts of our nature—complex in composition, endowed with many powers, and manifesting many needs—rush off in different directions, like a flock without a shepherd, and tyrannize over the man, forcibly directing him now this way, now that—and he lives in confusion and disorder. But God’s grace comes and quickens the spirit. Then the window into God’s world is opened once more for the spirit. Rays coming from there awaken in it the fear of God, stir the conscience, and bring it to the resolve to labor unceasingly for the Lord once again. This resolve is sealed by gracious means; the spirit is led into mystical communion with God, begins to walk zealously in God’s will, and by the labors of good deeds and ascetic effort again ascends to sensible communion with God. And now it is strong again; again it unifies everything in itself, being united with God. The visible expression of such a state is one thing: the striving to fulfill all the commandments and the hating of the paths of unrighteousness.

Verses 129–136

The heading for this octet is pe — mouth.

The mouth of God utters commands and commandments; the mouths of God-fearing people, having confessed their complete submission to God, pray to Him to teach them and give them strength to fulfill exactly all that has been spoken by His mouth, expressing contrition and repentance if they should at any time depart from it. All of this is the subject of the present octet, in various nuances and expressions.

Ps. 118:129. Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore does my soul keep them.

The “testimonies,” or witnesses of God, encompass all of Divine Revelation: concerning the all-perfect God Himself, concerning His attributes and works, His creation and Providence—and most of all concerning the ordering of our salvation in Jesus Christ, which was seen by faith even before His coming in the flesh. But since the present psalm speaks throughout of God’s commandments—that is, not of God Himself, but of how to please Him—in the present verse by “testimonies” we are to understand God’s commandments, the rules of life. And indeed, all of Divine Scripture teaches primarily how to live, while mentioning other things only in passing, as it were—for its task is to prepare not sages but holy people.

Why, then, are these testimonies, these commandments, “wonderful”? That God is wonderful, that all His perfections are wonderful, that His creation and Providence are wonderful, and especially salvation in the Son of God—this is self-evident; but in what sense are the commandments wonderful?—They are wonderful because they are full and perfect, because together they encompass everything, and each one is without the slightest defect. Thus do we speak of things beautifully made: “Wonderfully fine—one could not take one’s eyes from them!” The testimonies of God are wonderful in their fruits, for they place the man who faithfully fulfills them in his proper station and elevate him above all creation, clothing him in the likeness of God. They are wonderful also in where they lead: having clothed one in the likeness of God here, they after death usher one into the realm of eternal rest and blessedness. They are wonderful finally because in many respects they are incomprehensible. Besides moral prescriptions, God’s testimonies defined the entire order of worship. This order was both simple and mysterious, for it served as a shadow of the good things to come. The prophetic spirit discerned this coming reality through the shadow, and could not but marvel at its height—though not fully comprehending it. Blessed Augustine says: “It is wonderful that a law was given that could not give life, yet was nonetheless the unavoidable path to true life.”

If we turn from the old to the new, the wondrous character of God’s testimonies is stamped on their every feature. What a thing it is that the Son of God, who is God, had to come, become incarnate, and suffer? What a thing it is that without faith in the coming, the incarnation, and the redemption through the death of the Son of God, one cannot even think of appearing pleasing to God or drawing near to Him, however virtuously one lives? What a thing it is that despite such a sacrifice, it was necessary for the Lord after the Resurrection to ascend to heaven and in His place to send another Comforter? What a thing it is that without this ascension—as though a path were being opened—the Spirit of God could not descend and dwell in us? What a thing it is that one who wishes to please God and save his soul must receive the Spirit of God into himself—and moreover in such a way that, besides faith, the desire for God, and complete self-surrender to His all-acting will, it is necessary to partake of the sacred mysteries, in which alone the invisible Spirit is communicated through the medium of visible matter? What a thing it is that without the all-acting grace of the Spirit, true moral life is impossible—and moreover in such a way that this Spirit does not act without the all-acting freedom and personal powers of man? What a thing it is that in order to be clothed in a new spiritual life, one must die—though not bodily? What a thing it is that without real participation in the cross of Christ through painful self-mortification, deprivations, and agonizing struggle to the grave, life in the Spirit is not given?..

All these are wonders in the general structure of Christian life—but how many wonderful commandments there are in detail! If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other; if someone wishes to take your outer garment, give him your inner one also; if someone forces you to go one mile with him, go two with him; love your enemy, do good to your wrongdoer, forgive every injury done to you; give to whoever asks, demanding and expecting no return; and so on. And all of this is urged as the most perfect manner of action, leading most quickly and directly to the goal, as the most evident seal of true Christianity. Reflecting on all of this, how can one not exclaim: “Your testimonies are wonderful, O Lord!”

The awareness of the wondrous character of God’s testimonies disposes one to wonder at them—that is, to look upon them, to penetrate and search them, with love and the desire afterward to realize them in one’s life. This occupation stands at the transition to fulfilling them in deed. Therefore the prophet says that, marveling at God’s testimonies, his soul set itself to searching them—and not in any half-hearted way, but with all diligence: “Therefore does my soul keep them.” “Keep”—it set itself to searching intensely, according to the interpretation of Zigabenos and Anthimos. Such searching keeps the memory and attention fixed upon how to live; and having grasped the beauty of the rules of life, it inclines one toward them and kindles zeal to live by them. That is why one who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night will be “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season” (Ps. 1:3). Scripture does not know scholarly research aimed at bore knowledge: its speech is always of life and of its ordering. Academic inquiry is born of indifference to life—to cover with an appearance of industry one’s idle doing-nothing.

Ps. 118:130. The unfolding of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.

What is “the unfolding of words”? When a king is in his chambers, no one can see him; but when he comes out onto the balcony, anyone may see him. So it is with God’s testimonies: while they remain in the mind of God they are invisible, but when they go forth from His mouth they become manifest. It is of this unfolding of words that the prophet speaks here. It is as if he were saying: the words that go forth from Your mouth give light and wisdom to the simple.

One may further understand here the following: only the unfolding of Your words gives light. Were it not for this unfolding, there would be no enlightenment. The conscience does testify to what is right, but not always clearly, not always fully, not always convincingly and effectively; and therefore it does not always move one to action and remains fruitless. But the word that goes forth from the mouth of God is clear, full, and effective. It falls upon the conscience and, awakening it, penetrates to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow.

“It enlightens and makes wise…” When the sun rises, it illumines everything, and all objects, all paths among them with all their branchings, become visible. The traveler then walks joyfully and without fear. So too the word of God, proceeding from the mouth of God, illumines all the paths of a life pleasing to God, and one who has taken up the zeal to walk those paths sees clearly where to go and walks boldly, without fear of stumbling. How great this blessing is may be seen by comparing the condition of those who do not have the enlightening word of God with those who do have it and live by it. The brightness of the eyes and the radiance of the face bear witness that behind them is a soul illumined by the word of the mouth of God.

Enlightenment shows the order and rules of life, while the making wise teaches how to live and act according to them. This is the most essential aspect for the one who works at it. The skill to live and to perform the works of virtue always at the right time, in the right place, and in the right measure—a skill that lends to those works a gracious beauty and fruitfulness—such skill is a great gift of God. It is imparted through the words of the mouth of God. These words not infrequently point out directly how each thing ought to be done; but more than that, by the power of their influence they attune the mind and conscience to determine, in the moment of need, the manner of acting from every angle, as the all-governing Lord would have it appear. The one who remains faithful to the word of God always attains to this.

But the word of God enlightens and makes wise “babes.” One way to understand this: the word of the mouth of God is so adapted to our understanding that even a little child of little discernment can comprehend it and be instructed by it. By “child” one may also understand simple, unlearned people. But more directly, those who are simple in heart are meant here, even if they be highly educated. The word of God enlightens and makes wise those who receive it guilelessly, who do not question why and wherefore, who do not waver in deliberation—“Is it really so?”—but straightaway, as they hear, so they follow it, whatever it commands. Worldly wisdom, once it intrudes, will not leave the simplicity of the word of God unharmed and will only disturb the steps of those who wish to follow its guidance. That wisdom must be bent beneath the word of God; and then the childlike reception of the word in the heart will make it fruitful, just as the earth is fruitful when it opens its depths without objection to receive seeds.

Ps. 118:131. I opened my mouth and drew in breath, for I longed for Your commandments.

These words literally express the same thing as a common turn of speech among us, when someone who has long and earnestly sought and striven for something finally achieves what he desired. “Glory to God,” they say then, “at last I can breathe freely; I have attained what I longed for!” In keeping with this, holy David describes his inward state as he experienced it when he found the commandments and entered upon their path. He had strongly desired to know them and, having them in his heart, to live by them so as to please God thereby and to abide in God’s love. But who can say that he may reach this on his own? The holy prophet did not presume to, but he sought. And so when he heard the commandments that proceeded from the mouth of God—wondrous, enlightening, and making wise—when he loved them with his whole heart and rushed upon their path, he could not restrain himself from crying out: “Glory to God! I breathe freely, for I have attained what I longed for: I have come to know the commandments and have entered upon them; now I am on the way to the goal. There is nothing more to desire, if only I do not stray from this saving path.” What freshness of spiritual life! What a living and heartfelt relationship to the commandments! He does not relate coldly to the given manner of life, merely adopting its outward form, but rushes toward it with his whole soul, seeing no other good on earth save to be faithful to the commandments and the will of God Most High. This is the root, the wellspring of truly moral life—strong, abundant, inexhaustibly flowing.

Yet all our commentators—Athanasius the Great, Theodoret, Saint Ambrose, Augustine, Hilary, Anthimus, Zigabenos, and those cited by the last of these: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Venerable Nilus—do not stop at the literal meaning but see in these words a deeper sense. They understand by the opening of the mouth the opening of the mind and heart—an expression of the soul’s thirst—and by the drawing in of breath, the desire and reception of the Spirit of grace, who strengthens and assists in the keeping of the commandments, loved with the whole heart. “By ‘mouth,’” says Saint Athanasius the Great, “the prophet here means the heart’s ardor,” because, as the blessed Theodoret explains, it draws the grace of the Spirit, just as he says in another place: “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Ps. 80:11). “Understand, then,” teaches Saint Ambrose, “what the mouth is. It is the heart, or the striving of the inner man. The soul too has its own mouth. Open it to Christ, that you may draw in His Spirit.” “The heart opened by faith thirsts to be fed with heavenly truth,” Saint Hilary reflects; “but it is the Spirit who writes it upon the tablets of the heart (2 Cor. 3:3). The prophet seeks to draw the Spirit in, since the Spirit comes only when He is sought. Therefore one must desire, seek, draw Him in, to be nourished by Him with spiritual food, as an innocent child is nourished with milk from its mother’s breast.” “What did the prophet so earnestly desire?” writes the blessed Augustine. “The fulfillment of God’s commandments. He desired it, but did not hope to attain what he desired. Therefore he opened his mouth to draw in that by which he might attain it—opened it by asking, seeking, knocking; and in his thirst he was refreshed by the good Spirit, that by His power he might accomplish what he could not accomplish on his own, that is, to fulfill the commandment that is ‘holy, righteous, and good’ (Rom. 7:12). For if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more shall the Father, who is from heaven, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (Luke 11:13). Not those who act by their own spirit, but those who ‘are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons’ (Rom. 8:14). And they become good sons of God all the more, the more abundantly the good Spirit is given to them by the Father.”

Ps. 118:132. Look upon me and have mercy on me, according to the judgment of those who love Your name.

He has already loved the commandments, has entered upon their path, has acknowledged the safe certainty of this path, and has drawn in the Spirit of grace—what more does he desire? The unbroken covering of God’s protection and God’s favor. In spiritual life one cannot yield to carelessness for a single moment: there are obstacles everywhere, enemies on all sides, and before one knows it they may creep up and crush. Only the eye of God sees all; only the covering of God will make safe from everything. Hence the cry: “Look upon me and have mercy on me. Have mercy”—that is, show favor and goodwill—“according to the judgment,” or manner, “of those who love Your name.” “The prophet,” says the blessed Theodoret, “entreats to be counted worthy of God’s favor, yet not simply, but in the way that is customary for You—O God—to show Your mercy to those who love You. I entreat that the same decree be given concerning me as concerning them.” “As You have decreed,” explains Saint Athanasius, “to look upon those who love Your name and to count them worthy of Your great visitation, so count me worthy of the same mercy!” Thus the one who diligently strives to please God by keeping the commandments perceives himself as continually upheld in the hands of God; and yet, seeing the abyss beneath him, he prays that the Lord not withdraw His right hand from him. True life in the spirit is sustained by a continuous mutual movement, so to speak, of God toward the spirit and the spirit toward God. When there is a living striving of our spirit toward God and an effective in-flowing of the Spirit of God toward our spirit, then spiritual life is in motion. This is what constitutes that spiritual breathing by which spiritual life is sustained, just as bodily life is sustained by bodily breathing. There is no life in a bodily organism without breathing; there is no life in the spirit without this communion with God. And there is nothing incredible in this. God is everywhere and fills all things. When the heart opens itself by faith, by seeking, by self-surrender to God, God enters and fills it. There is the life of the spirit! One can only marvel that not all of us live this life. Many do not even know what this life is, for it is invisible and, so to speak, intangible, though all-effectual. Others understand by it something altogether different from what it truly is. And this is even more pitiable: they deceive themselves, thinking they possess it, when in fact they have nothing at all. The wisdom lies in finding the true path. But the one whom the Heavenly Father draws will always find it.

The words “according to the judgment of those who love” also point to God’s love. Thus God Himself has promised: “I love those who love Me” (Prov. 8:17). The heart of the beloved receives the love of God and feels its warmth. And one’s own love for God is a warm feeling. Warmth meeting warmth, fusing together, kindles a burning within a person’s spirit—a burning that does not consume but gives life. So it is with all those who walk the true path. Since God is light, those beloved of God are overshadowed by a cloud of light, which makes them visible to all who love God and are loved by God, and hides them from enemies and those who fight against God, blinding them. The love of God is the natural covering of those whom He loves and who love Him. Such is the manner of those who love the name of God. It is for this that the prophet prays: “Have mercy on me, according to the judgment of those who love Your name.” May my soul always be clothed in the covering of light shed by Your love, so that, warmed by its heat, it may live joyfully within itself, and, illumined by its radiance, may repel its enemies, abiding as though in some impregnable stronghold.

Ps. 118:133. Order my steps according to Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.

The prophet continues to express what he still needs after having found, loved, and resolved to fulfill the commandments uttered by the mouth of the living God, whom he sees and loves: “Order my steps according to Your word.” He is already walking, yet still fears making a false step, for there is much that seems proper without truly being so. On this very thing is built the most dangerous snare of the enemy, by which he catches those who are zealous but not yet experienced. He sets before them for practice a good that is either out of place, or out of season, or ill-suited to the person acting or to those around him. The inexperienced person acts; and since deeds of this kind are accompanied by a turmoil of thoughts and feelings, he is thereafter subjected to a fiercer attack by the enemy, who is a great master at catching men in that turmoil, which dims the clarity of consciousness. Then come suggestions that are already less good, but of a kind whose impurity is not so plain amidst the turmoil. Take one step along them—and it is already a half-fall; and from there, the full fall is not far off. This is why in all God-fearing people there always glows a most sincere prayer: “Order my steps according to Your word.” “God Himself,” says Saint Athanasius the Great, “directs the course of those who, having left vice and ignorance, have entered upon the path of virtue and knowledge.” “And only those,” the blessed Theodoret adds, “who are counted worthy of such guidance and submit to it, walk safely and surely. One who has surrendered himself to God is not abandoned by God; and when we add our own zeal to that, God grants help and directs our course.” Just as the holy apostles said of themselves that they could not even think of anything fitting on their own in the affairs of their apostolic service, so every zealot for his own salvation confesses the same—and that salvation is at the same time God’s work, the first and most desired by Him. How guidance is given, how it is received, recognized, and accepted, no one can know or explain except one who has been counted worthy of it. But even here everything takes place as it does in ordinary affairs—that is, after a certain inquiry, and then a decision; otherwise one cannot escape ambushes. It happens that feeling determines directly, but only those who have already acquired trained sensibilities in the discernment of good and evil follow it directly.

“And let no iniquity have dominion over me.” Where does this prayerful cry come from, given such zeal, such closeness to God, such wondrous guidance? How could iniquity find any place to dominate here?—Truly, it has no place, but it may gain one. Fearing this, the prophet prays that he not fall under such tyranny. Sin does not leave alone the one who has entered upon God’s path of virtue, and what is sinful swarms around the head of the one walking it like a cloud of gnats, buzzing and attempting to sting. These are thoughts, temptations, impulses. Who is free from them? But for the one who is faithful to his resolution, they come and go—with nothing; they beckon, but do not drag away, for they hover only around him and swarm above his head. But there are those that pass inward as well, and among these are old friends; they can so seize hold and draw with such force that the one who experiences this is led, as if on a leash, toward what is not good. If help from above does not come—how long before a fall? That is why the prophet prays: Do not permit, O Lord, that sinful impulses, contrary to You, should ever gain mastery over me, overpower me, and drag me toward what is evil, to Your dishonor.

Ps. 118:134. Deliver me from the slander of men, and I will keep Your commandments.

The holy prophet had just spoken of inward temptations drawing him toward sin, and had prayed that they might not prevail over him; now he prays for deliverance from outward temptations, singling out the most painful of them—slander: “Deliver me from slander.” Visible affliction and false accusation are bitter, but more bitter still is the invisible kind, when, without open attack, harm is done in secret by spreading slander. Slander, when it reaches the ears of the slandered, even before it causes any visible harm, already constricts the heart, weakens the energy for doing good, and cools one’s ardor for it. A traveler who receives an unexpected blow to the chest, though he does not fall, nevertheless stops in bewilderment. So too does slander strike the one who is walking the path of virtue. Of course, the witness of conscience is a strong repulse to slander, but even it is somewhat shaken and for a time gives way before the malicious effect of slander. The sympathy of those around us is not the productive force of virtue and ought not to be so, but it is a very favorable atmosphere for its blossoming and bearing fruit. Its absence—and all the more the presence of the opposite, that is, false interpretation of one’s deeds—acts on their performance the way frost acts on plants in springtime. It is clear, then, why the prophet couples deliverance from slander with the vow: “And I will keep Your commandments”—as if to say: and I will keep Your commandments without hindrance; or: and it will be easier and more fitting for me then to keep Your commandments.

To ward off this evil influence of slander upon the workers of virtue, Christ the Lord, encouraging those who are zealous for it, added at the end: “Blessed are you when men reproach you… and say every evil word against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matt. 5:11–12). Slander sets one apart from others and kills with the feeling of loneliness in the midst of many. The prophet experienced this himself, expressing it elsewhere thus: I look around and see no one familiar—as though all are strangers to me. And what happened? My legs gave way, he says: “Escape has failed me.” Where can a man turn when forsaken by all? Nowhere, save to heaven. “I cried to You, O Lord, I said: You are my hope” (Ps. 141:5–6). Having forsaken the world and all that is in it, such a person must transfer his hopes upward, and find rest there, trusting in the unfailing word of the Lord: “Blessed are you when men reproach you.”

Comparing this verse with the preceding one, where the prophet prays that inward temptations toward sin not overpower him, one may think that here too, praying for deliverance from slander, he is praying for deliverance from its destructive effect upon the soul—that is, that slander might not prevail over him, might not constrict the heart, might not wound or cool him toward what is good. God is able to stop slander’s mouth, but He does not always do so. Instead of this, leaving slander to live and roam, He sends consolation into the heart of the slandered and thereby delivers him from the danger to which the soul is exposed when it yields to the grief that slander causes.

Ps. 118:135. Make Your face to shine upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes.

From a person’s face one can guess the disposition of the one encountered toward the one who encounters him—whether it is good or ill, benevolent or unfavorable. A dark face signifies ill will; a bright face signifies goodwill, a loving relationship, and in its highest form—a protecting and defending gaze, with the desire to do every good. Therefore, saying “Make Your face to shine,” the prophet is praying for God’s loving goodwill toward himself.

The face of God is invisible, but it is contemplated by the mind. In this, the conscience makes known what relation the one who contemplates God stands in to the all-seeing God whom he contemplates, and in the feeling is reflected God’s goodwill or ill will toward him, corresponding to the witness of his conscience. This is not something imaginary, but what truly takes place in the spirit from the actual action of God upon it. God is everywhere and contains all things; He holds the spirit of man as well. This holding is reflected in the spiritual feeling, corresponding to the spirit’s condition. Therefore “make Your face to shine” can also mean: grant me, O Lord, to always gaze upon You with the eyes of the mind without fear or perturbation on account of my failings before You. Grant me to “always set” (Ps. 15:8) You before me and never dare to offend You in anything, or compel Your goodness to overshadow Your bright face. In the peaceful, undisturbed, bold gazing toward God lies the comfort and strength of those who are zealous to please Him. It fills the spirit with a sweet warmth and keeps all the powers in a state of eager readiness to turn at once to whatever deed is required for the Lord’s sake, as the current circumstances indicate. This is the most saving state—to gaze with a bright face upon the bright face of God. It alone can take the place of all ascetic methods, though without them it is difficult, and perhaps even impossible, for it to be established and sustained.

But who is pure? Even apart from our awareness, how many failings and impurities there may be! The Lord condescends to our weaknesses and covers them with His mercy. But the zealot for pleasing God, breathing love for Him, cannot be indifferent to this, and with his whole desire he longs to be perfectly clean in everything before God. Therefore he prays: “Teach me Your statutes”—teach me to be always right before You in deeds, words, thoughts, feelings, and undertakings—not only in those that are outwardly visible, but in the most hidden ones as well, known and seen by You alone. The Lord gradually leads those who pray thus sincerely into the knowledge of their hidden failings, and teaches them to correct and amend them, so that they may finally stand completely pure and blameless before the very face of God and be so attested on the Day of the Lord.

Ps. 118:136. Mine eyes pour out streams of water, because I have not kept Your law.

The prophet had just suggested the thought of unrecognized failings; here he speaks of failings that are recognized, testifying that such recognition draws from his eyes two fountains of tears. By this he expresses sincere repentance for everything that he has consciously permitted in his outward life and in his inward movements that is displeasing to the Lord and contrary to His plain will expressed in the commandments.

A traveler or a man occupied with labor will inevitably get dusty and soil his clothing; therefore he has need to wash himself and change his garment. So too the one walking the path of spiritual life, amid all his labors of doing good, frequently falls short—now from short-sightedness, now from inattentiveness and accidental distraction of thoughts, and sometimes from a sympathy or impulse that bursts forth. All of this, in varying degrees, is defilement that weighs upon the conscience—weighs upon it, I say, but does not crush it. Recognizing these things, the zealous person is stirred and hurries to cleanse what is unclean—with what? With the water of tears. He is not content merely to acknowledge his failing and form the intention of not committing it again; but he grieves over it and is so deeply and sincerely contrite that from the anguish of his heart his eyes become “fountains of water.” Tears of contrition are a spiritual washing. And this is not something imaginary—it is truly accomplished. One who has wept is renewed. But this renewal is sealed only upon one who has received absolution through confession. And so the person is pure again. If you become defiled again, use the same washing again, and so throughout your life. There are those who love bodily cleanliness so much that they change their linen and use ablutions every day. If this is done for the body, how much more earnestly should the same be done for the soul!

What draws such water from the eyes of the penitent? Not fear and anxiety for oneself, but love. Fear and anxiety for oneself can produce only the resolution to amend and be more careful about future failings; but the tears that wash away moral defilement are drawn forth by love. Love cannot endure stepping outside the will of the beloved. Among people, such instances are often covered over by the fact that the beloved does not learn of the departure from his will—this comforts and pacifies the one who loves; but with respect to God, such a refuge is out of place. Every violation of His will is known to Him. The one who has become conscious of this in himself perceives at the same time that it is known to the Lord and cannot but grieve Him. Love, which always sees the face of the Lord, cannot fail to see how it is clouded by this or that offense; and seeing this, cannot but be contrite; and being contrite, cannot but shed tears. Thus holy Peter, after his denial of the Lord—in some inexplicable moment of stupor—when his eyes met the reproachful gaze of the Lord, “went out from the courtyard of the high priest”—the place of his offense against the Lord—and “wept bitterly” (Luke 22:62).

Verses 137–144

The eighteenth octave is arranged under the letter “tsade”—meaning “side” or “flank.”

Since the prophet is throughout speaking of the commandments, one must seek in this octave an indication of the various sides—either of the commandments themselves or of our relationship to them. Here the sides of the latter are indicated. We may imagine the body of the commandments in the center, to which one may approach from east, west, north, and south. From each side the relationship to them is expressed in a particular disposition. From the east stands “faith”—the assurance that the commandments of God are righteousness and unalterable truth (Ps. 118:137–138); from the west—the “zeal” issuing from this assurance to fulfill all these commandments, and one’s own love for them (Ps. 118:139–140); from the north—“humility with hope” (Ps. 118:141–142); from the south—“patience” in all that befalls one for the sake of fidelity to the commandments (Ps. 118:143–144). Such is the content of this octave.

Ps. 118:137. Righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgments.

The prophet confesses the righteousness of the Lord, affirming his conviction that nothing unrighteous can proceed from the mouth of God: “Righteous are You, O Lord”; but he confesses this not as an abstract contemplation, but as the foundation of the uprightness of God’s judgments. God’s judgments include all His decrees in general—that is, everything that God has decreed shall be: this brings one into the realm of God’s providence and fills one with peace in surrender to the will of God. But since the subject here is the commandments, as is evident from the following verse, which in its content resembles the present one, it is more apt to understand by “judgments” the decrees by which God determines how we ought to live—that is, He determines not our fate but how we must act, independently of our fate. This thought is also suggested by the Greek word corresponding to the word “upright”—“straight,” meaning that the paths indicated to us by Your commandments, O Lord, are straight—they lead directly to the goal.

In these two verses (Ps. 118:137, 138) the prophet expresses his assurance in the uprightness and truth of the commandments. In the first he draws this assurance from his contemplation of God’s righteousness, and in the second from understanding the properties of the commandments themselves. The commandments’ prescriptions, he says, are straight, O Lord, because You Yourself are righteous and nothing unrighteous or crooked could receive Your approval. When You have said: live thus and thus, and when I do not doubt that this was truly spoken by You, then the thought that there could be any crookedness in the paths of Your commandments cannot enter my mind. As certain as I am that You are righteous, so certain am I that the paths You indicate in Your commandments are straight. They are straight, and are always the surest and most direct path, just as a straight line is between two known points. I draw my assurance of this from my certainty in Your righteousness. The rays of Your righteousness that I contemplate rest upon the commandments and brightly color them with Your justice.

If the prophetic view of the commandments is such that assurance of their uprightness must flow from faith in the righteousness of God, then how do some people think they can build firm legislation for true human morality apart from faith in God and His Holy Revelation? Strain as they may, they will not even manage to construct their own system, let alone draw anyone to it with assurance in the truth of its prescriptions. How many different paths are indicated by the customs and morals that take root among people! How many crossroads appear from the bifurcation of vision under the influence of one’s own passions and wrongful impulses! How can one there know the most direct path, and how can one be certain that the path we choose is the surest? As on a sea in places hiding many submerged rocks, only a skilled and experienced pilot can safely navigate a ship, so in the sea of life, only the all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-righteous God can point out, amid the varied pathways and collisions, a path that is straight and safe. Only from faith in Him can assurance flow—assurance in the uprightness of the paths we choose, when, that is, one sees that they were indicated by God Himself.

Ps. 118:138. You have commanded Your testimonies in righteousness and in exceeding faithfulness.

Descending from the heights of his contemplation of God’s righteousness to the commandments attested by the word of His mouth, the prophet confesses that they, being in themselves righteous and true in the highest degree, give us the most direct, surest, and most unalterable rule of life. The thought is the same as in the preceding verse, but there the prophet’s attention was fixed on the righteousness of God, while here it rests on the righteousness and truth of the commandments—and in such a way that, just as there he saw in God’s righteousness the uprightness of the commandments, so here in the commandments he sees God’s righteousness, confessing that they are as unalterably righteous and true as God Himself is unalterably righteous—He who by His testimony has established their surpassingly high worth. Saint Athanasius the Great writes: “You have commanded Your testimonies as genuine and most evident truth. The supremely straight prescriptions of Your judgments reveal Your righteousness. Your testimonies are the Divine Scriptures: they are righteousness in their moral commandments, and truth in the meaning contained in the very words.”

The commandments are upright and exceeding true because they correspond perfectly to our nature, to our present condition, and to the varied circumstances and situations of our life; and consequently, upon the one who fulfills them, they bring a deep inner peace, give him firmness in the face of adversity, quietly lead him out of difficulties, guide him straight to the goal, and bring him into blessed eternity. Such convictions about the worth of God’s commandments the prophet carried in his heart, and such he wishes to plant in our hearts as well, for in this conviction lies the foundation of a firm moral life and the courage to walk its paths without deviation. Just as any undertaker, once convinced of the soundness of his plan, moves toward the goal and applies the means he has devised, undisturbed by any obstacles, confident that he will reach what he seeks—so walks boldly the path of the commandments the one who holds deep in his heart the conviction that their path is the one sure path, and that by walking it he will undoubtedly come to the most desired goal—eternal blessedness.

Ps. 118:139. My zeal has consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten Your words.

What should the one who is assured of the high worth of the commandments do? He must love them and live by them zealously. This is what the prophet testifies immediately after the preceding verse. But zeal for the commandments cannot limit itself to the mere personal fulfillment of the commandments; it seeks that all others likewise fulfill them zealously, so that the name of the Lord who commanded them may be glorified and life according to His will may be the prevailing one—not only in the milieu where the zealot lives, but everywhere. This side of zeal is what the prophet expresses in the present verse. “My zeal,” he says, “has consumed me.” True zeal is fiery; the one who nurtures it burns in spirit—burns, but is not consumed. This feeling is not destructive, though it is greatly arousing; and being greatly arousing, it does not call for unrestrained action. All this the prophet expresses in the gentle word: “my zeal has consumed me”—that is, the zeal that the Lord Himself has, since He is “a zealous God.” “The prophet” in this case expresses his own imitation of the Lord. As the Lord is zealous for His commandments, desiring that all fulfill them, so do I, so let all strive to do the same. Or thus: “Your zeal” is zeal for You. The prophet says: loving You, O Lord, I am zealous for You—that Your will might be fulfilled by all everywhere, and Your most holy name be glorified thereby. Both the one and the other are an inseparable property of a truly pious spirit.

The one who burns with zeal for God, where the will of God is unknown, strives to spread knowledge of it; and where it ought to be known and is visibly forgotten, he grieves and is distressed. It is painful to me, he says, to see how “mine enemies” dare to forget Your will. Perhaps the prophet points here to his personal enemies; or perhaps he wishes to express that those who forget the words of God and thereby manifest a hostile disposition toward God, appearing as enemies of God, are also his enemies. Zeal for You, O Lord, stirs up my zeal against them, as though they were waging war against me personally.

Such is love. It cannot regard as foreign to itself anything that concerns the beloved. Therefore it is zealous for everything pleasing to him. Saint Athanasius the Great describes the state of the prophet depicted in this verse: “Into what zeal did I fall, as soon as I saw anyone forgetting Your words! And not simply did I fall into zeal, but I was consumed by zeal for You, when I saw those who forget Your words. Of this zeal, expressed in the psalm from the Lord’s own voice, ‘the disciples remembered that it was written: the zeal of Your house has consumed me’ (Ps. 68:10; John 2:17).” The blessed Theodoret also cites other examples of such zeal: “The prophet mourns those who live in lawlessness and, seeing how the Lawgiver is despised, is rightfully moved to indignation. Such zeal glorified Phinehas; it made the great Elijah ever worthy of honor; enkindled by it, Stephen reproved the unbelief of the Jews; keeping it within himself, the divine Paul cried out: ‘Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?’ (2 Cor. 11:29). And the blessed Luke says of him that ‘his spirit was stirred within him at Athens, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry’ (Acts 17:16).”

Ps. 118:140. Your word is exceeding pure, and Your servant loves it.

Having placed first the zeal that causes him to be consumed by the forgetting of the words of God by others, the prophet might have expected the objection: “What is it to you what others do? What are you yourself like?” And so he says: I love, I love the words of my Lord and as a servant I submit to Him. But he speaks of this not to those who act lawlessly, but in conversation with the Lord: “Your word is exceeding pure.” “Pure”—unadulterated, unmixed, as he says of it in another place as well: “The words of the Lord are pure words, silver refined in the earth, purified seven times” (Ps. 11:7). The word of the Lord is pure and perfect, and therefore attractive; and being attractive, it stirs up love for itself. I, he says, have loved it; but I loved it not only because it is pure, but more because it is from the Lord. Recognizing myself as a servant of the Lord, I submit to His word, all the more willingly as His word is always full and unmixed truth—dear and attractive to my heart. For the God-fearing, delight in the word is not abstract or merely contemplative, but always accompanied by a feeling of obligation toward it and a love that moves one to deeds in accordance with its guidance.

The word “pure” also suggests the thought that it is fiery—permeated with fire. Being fiery, it warms, and not only warms but also kindles, and by kindling—cleanses; it is not only itself pure, as though refined by fire, but also cleanses those who receive it by its fiery action. Saint Paul points to this action of the word: “The word of God is living and active,” he says, “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Man is a mixture of good and evil. The word of God, received in faith, enters within him like fire, and, acting upon what is good, quickens it, while it scorches what is evil; and then all the good contemplations, movements, and feelings rise up in the spirit. And since through this he enters into his proper state, he cannot but feel well in such a condition. And he does feel it, and takes delight in it, and loving that state, comes to love also the word of God that brings it to him. As refreshing it is for one who comes out of a stuffy room into fresh air, so refreshing it is for the spirit, freed by the word of God from the stuffiness of evil thoughts, feelings, and desires, into the refreshing freshness of meditation on God and love of what is good.

Ps. 118:141. I am young and despised, yet Your statutes I have not forgotten.

But how can this be? How is he the youngest, when he was already in his old age? What kind of despised is he, when he was a king honored by all? Perhaps he recalled that time when Samuel came to the house of his father and commanded him to show all his children, and when his father, having shown all the older ones, said: “That is all,” and forgot about him, as though he were not worth presenting to the prophet. So think the blessed Theodoret, Saint Ambrose, and Hilary. And perhaps he recalled that circumstance when, having offered to fight Goliath in single combat, he heard from his countrymen: “What do you think you can do, young fledgling! He will crush you at once.” Recalling one and the other, Saint Ambrose reflects, he now says: “No one even wanted to look at me, on account of my youth. I saw this, but did not forget Your commandments; or thus: those accounted me as nothing, but You did exalt me, because I did not forget Your commandments.” Or yet again: You did exalt me; therefore I will never forget Your commandments, seeing how fidelity draws Your goodwill and is clothed in Your power. This is the thought of the blessed Theodoret.

But is it not better to suppose that he speaks thus of himself in a feeling of humility, as Saint Athanasius thinks? There is absolutely no sense in me, as in a child, and there is nothing in me for which I could be praised even a little—I am worth nothing; yet worthless as I am, I still do not forget Your commandments, knowing their beauty and greatness, still take shelter under their shadow, to cover my nothingness with their dignity. I have clothed myself in them as in a garment, so that men might forget about my nothingness on account of their radiance. Or perhaps thus: I have forgotten about myself as the most insignificant, but Your statutes I have never forgotten. And this too: I am nothing, notwithstanding that I have never forgotten Your statutes and commandments, for with all my effort always to remember them and walk in them, I cannot say that I have entirely fulfilled them, since “Your commandment is exceeding broad” (earlier, verse Ps. 118:96). In this sense he expresses here the same thing that the Lord commanded all who keep His commandments to feel: “When you have done all that was commanded you, say: ‘We are unworthy servants; we have done only what it was our duty to do’” (Luke 17:10).

Ps. 118:142. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth.

The thought here is the same as in the first two verses of this octave. What is added here is only the word “everlasting.” The holy prophet’s thought, having begun with youth and traversed the whole of life, has been carried into eternity and has seen upon that entire expanse only the righteousness of God remaining unchanged. “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness.” Why? Because it alone gives a law that is not only true but is itself truth. Nourished by this conviction, the prophet says as it were: “I take courage with the hope that, walking the path of Your law and remaining faithful to Your righteousness, I hold to that which is alone truly real, undeceiving, and unfailing. There, beyond the bounds of life, I see the crown that shall crown fidelity to Your law and Your righteousness.” Saint Athanasius writes: “Among men, righteousness for a little while is attributed to those who judge rightly; but the righteousness of God grants eternal justification.” The blessed Theodoret adds to this: “The one who follows the commandments of God has as a reward for his labors eternal life.”

Humility (the preceding verse) sees nothing in itself that could justify it, yet the truly humble person does not lose heart—why? Because he is encouraged by the hope that the most merciful Lord will not condemn him. Upon what does such hope rest? Upon the consciousness that he sincerely believes and always strives with all his might to be faithful to what he believes. His conscience does not accuse him of sloth, carelessness, or deliberate departure from the law of God. Therefore, although he finds himself insignificant compared to what he ought to be, he does not lose hope of being saved, for he has done and continues to do all that depends on him. Such was the holy Apostle Paul. “The time of my departure,” he says, “has come… I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; from now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness” (2 Tim. 4:6–8). You will say, is this not self-confidence? No. “I know nothing against myself,” he confesses, “yet I am not thereby justified” (1 Cor. 4:4). The One who justifies us is the Lord; and if the Lord justifies someone, who shall condemn him? What draws the Lord’s justification? “Faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6). Be faithful to the Lord then, and with feelings of humility, take courage in the hope that for the sake of this fidelity you will not be disregarded by the Lord.

Ps. 118:143. Trouble and anguish have found me, yet Your commandments are my meditation.

With inward brightness, outward dimness—this is the fourth side of fidelity to the commandments! Troubles and hardships almost always, like darkness, overshadow the one faithful to the commandments. Your commandments, says the prophet, are my meditation. I hold them in my mind, cherish them in my heart, I am lost in them with all my attention and by them, as by a carpenter’s line, I direct my life. And yet what do I encounter on the way? Troubles and hardships, unceasing collisions that wound my heart and burden me. Why is it so? Because it so pleases God. And why it pleases Him so—only He knows. Bow your head beneath the strong hand of God and be silent. Who are you, to answer back to God? Be content with faith alone—that if God is your God and you are God’s, then all is yours. The testament to this is already written and legally sealed. A little more—and you will be brought into your inheritance, but for now you are still under trial. When the appointed time has passed, you will enter into the rank and glory of a son, to which the right is indeed yours even now, but which is not yet given to you because you are still a minor.

Saint Anthony the Great was once asked why the radiance of a life in Christ Jesus is covered over by outward sorrows and inward uprisings of various impurities, and he replied: so that you do not gaze too long upon that radiance and destroy yourself. If you gaze too long, you will begin to think too highly of yourself; thinking too highly of yourself, you will grow proud; growing proud, you will drive away the grace of God from yourself. Then the enemy will swoop down and shatter your bones. You yourself should be hiding from yourself, but since you cannot be trusted, and the Lord desires your salvation, He has appointed to hide you from yourself through a special ordering of your life, under which you see nothing good in yourself—for the sin that dwells in you often rises up and covers everything—while from without only troubles and hardships find you. Bless the Lord, then, who so wonderfully saves you, and walk your path humbly, not giving way to curiosity and not attempting to dispel with the feeble breath of your mind the darkness that surrounds you. Even in the dimness of faith you see a bright point ahead; direct your path toward it, paying no heed to what is around you.

Ps. 118:144. The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting; give me understanding, and I shall live.

Whatever comes upon you must be borne with good cheer, caring only to walk the path of the commandments without deviation, believing that this is the one sure path. Troubles and hardships endeavor to dim the brightness of this faith, but do you dispel such dimming and restore the brightness of your faith, repeating to yourself: No, the commandments are an everlasting righteousness. God Himself has attested their unalterability. And at the same time, turning to the Lord Himself, pray: “Give me understanding, and I shall live”—grant me, O Lord, always to keep in my mind the conviction of the unalterability of Your commandments—“and I shall live”; that is, I shall live by them; or: no temptations shall disturb the evenness of that life which, by Your mercy, has been established in my spirit; or: having lived this age unfailingly according to Your commandments, I shall pass faithful to You into the other life. There You will grant me eternally blessed life—and I shall eternally live with You and in You. By such thoughts and cries the one who endures strengthens himself, and his life flows evenly and undisturbed, though from outside it may appear like a frail vessel that the waves of life toss to and fro and seem ready to shatter and scatter across the expanse of the waters.

Let us now bring together all the sides of life according to the commandments. Believe with faith, and you will have light; be zealous with zeal, and you will live, quickened by love; humble yourself with humility, without losing hope, and never say to your zeal: “Enough”; endure with patience and good cheer, seeing through the gloom and darkness of the present the bright future. The program is brief, but laborious. Take courage; for it is not written that those who enjoy rest shall seize the Kingdom of God, but “the violent take it by force” (Matt. 11:12). The violent—that is, those who compel themselves and act with intensity, not sparing themselves, like one who, groaning under a burden, climbs laboriously up a mountain. And the bread of spiritual life, no less than bodily bread, is eaten in the sweat of one’s face. So the merciful God has ordained. Of course, this would be easy if sin had not troubled our paths. But never mind that! The Lord has overshadowed us with the brightness of hope. Labor a little, and you will enter into the brightness of your Lord. “Where I am,” the Lord says, “there shall My servant be also.” And to that servant it was said: “Take My yoke upon you and labor.” In the evening, at the hour of going to rest, you will receive what you do not expect. You yourself will be amazed, and all the witnesses of your recompense will be amazed. Only do not be lazy, do not despair, do not waver, and blessed shall be your journey.

Verses 145–152

The nineteenth octave is arranged under the letter or word “kaph,” which means “ape” or “monkey.”

The ape gave occasion to call “apishness” everything among people that resembles its character. It is clear that what is meant here is imitation—but imitation that is not rational and not in a good spirit. Setting aside, however, what is bad in this, and keeping in view only what is good in it, we receive from the ape a lesson about diligent imitation, which one cannot regard with indifference. Imitation is needed in all affairs, but in the moral and religious sphere it is elevated to the most perfect norm of life. “Be imitators of me,” says the holy Apostle Paul, “just as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). And the Savior raises us to the Heavenly Father Himself and gives Him as the model for imitation: “Be merciful,” He says, “just as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:36). “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). To imitate God means to form one’s character according to those divine attributes which He has been pleased to reveal before us. If this were left to our free determination, we might diverge in our understanding of it. The Lord freed us from this by sketching for us a model of the proper life in His commandments. They have become for us the norm of life, and moreover of such a kind that by forming our character according to them, we cannot but be assured that we are thereby imitating the Lord Himself, and through the commandments we cannot but look up to God. This is what the prophet chiefly instills in the present extended psalm, unceasingly urging one to look up to God both as the model and, even more, as the Giver of strength for imitating Him. In brief, these instillations may be seen in the present octave. The prophet sets before our eyes the Lord who is near, and from whose face the commandments issue as an inescapable eternal law of our life (Ps. 118:151–152). To say this is to say everything, for what is required is plain. The prophet adds nothing, but only offers models of cries to God from the spirit that has desired to be faithful to this law and finds in itself no strength for it. “I cried with my whole heart… I anticipated the dawn… Hear, save.” And what does he himself offer? “I will seek Your statutes… I will keep Your testimonies.” The zeal is there—help, O Lord—and the work will be done (Ps. 118:145–148). And to incline the Lord to hear him, he hopes through mercy and judgment (Ps. 118:149), wholly committing this matter into the hands of God. Only quickly, O Lord, show Your help, he says, for here—enemies (Ps. 118:150).

Ps. 118:145. I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord; I will seek Your statutes.

“I cried”—not said into someone’s ear, not muttered through clenched teeth, but as one says, with one’s full chest. However, he wishes to express here not that he spoke loudly, but the strength of his spiritual striving toward God. So the blessed Theodoret interprets it. Not with the voice, he says, did I cry, but with the heart—and not with some part of the heart, but with the whole heart, from the full depth of the heart, with the entire breadth and height of my feeling and thought—I cried with my whole being, so that nothing remained in me that did not cry out to You, O Lord. Such is what our prayer must be! Not loud, but deeply heartfelt and earnestly concentrated in the mind. Thus Moses prayed, and God said to him: “Why do you cry to Me?” (Exod. 14:15), although he was silent with his lips—silent, yet the cry of his heart was so strong that it passed through the heavens and rose before God Himself.

Such a cry is moved in us by the extremity of an outward situation or by extreme spiritual need. The prophet expresses neither the one nor the other. Perhaps this arose from the powerful and irresistible thirst that the spirit surrendered to God habitually nourishes. He does not importune: give me this, take away that, but simply prays: “Hear me, O Lord.” The Lord sees what ails our heart, and not only sees it but, speaking in human terms, even feels this pain. And what to do in regard to this pain—only He knows. Therefore the prophet teaches us to pray thus: only hear me, and what comes next—he does not presume to indicate. Your will be done!

“Hear me…” and I will “seek Your statutes.” The statutes of God are the commandments, to seek which means to fulfill them faithfully and zealously—to search out and look for where each commandment is applicable, and to fulfill it without delay with all zeal. Is this not the very object of his earnest crying? I cry to You earnestly, help me—and my desire will become deed. He has of course been seeking and is seeking these statutes already; but when help from above joins in, the seeking will go more successfully, will proceed by the most direct path, and will be accomplished in a manner most pleasing to God. Hidden in this is also the indication that apart from this I seek nothing and wish to seek nothing. Having set as his law to form himself according to the commandments, he does not take his eyes off them. This is the usual practice of a painter who wishes to paint an accurate portrait. As the painter is riveted by his gaze to the face he is copying, so the prophet is riveted to the commandments he wishes to reproduce in his own character.

Ps. 118:146. I cried to You; save me, and I will keep Your testimonies.

And yet another cry, in the same strength, of course; only instead of “hear me,” there is now the more definite: “save me”; and the aim again is the same: “and I will keep Your testimonies.” With the eyes of his mind and the desires of his heart he has embraced these testimonies, and he strives toward one thing alone—to transfer them into his life and to form his own inner and outer character by them, so that between them as the prototype and his own interior and exterior order there would be no difference, and the latter would present a faithful copy of the former. This matter is as desirable as it is difficult. If desire alone sufficed for success in it, one need only heighten that desire, strain one’s powers accordingly—and the goal would be reached. But just as one cannot cross the sea without a ship, no matter how much one desires and strains one’s powers, so one cannot become a full fulfiller of the commandments of God without help from above, no matter how strong one’s desire or how intense one’s efforts. Therefore the prophet first says “save me” and then “I will keep.”

From the combined expression of desires—“save me and I will keep”—it is evident that in the word “save” he encompasses receiving everything that is necessary for keeping the testimonies of the Lord. He says as it were: grant me saving powers, and I will keep Your testimonies, since without this I shall not be able to keep them, shall not be able to accomplish the work that You require of me and to accomplish which I also desire with all my desire. The blessed Augustine writes: “Salvation” (that is, receiving what is expressed here by the word “save”) “gives the soul the ability to accomplish in deed what it recognizes as obligatory and proper for itself; and where this salvation is absent, the soul falls in weakness.” What exactly this saving thing being sought in prayer is, the prophet does not specify, but it is well known and firmly understood by one who takes up the work. Although one may conjecture about it mentally, it is essentially known in practice. Often what is needed is one thing for one person and another for another; therefore he perhaps did not define it precisely. By the word “I will keep,” the prophet expresses not self-confidence, but rather: as soon as that saving thing is received, a necessary consequence of it will be the keeping of the testimonies. Not he will be the one keeping—that saving power itself, once received, will keep.

Ps. 118:147. I anticipated the dawn and cried out; I hoped in Your words.

“The dawn”—or “untimely hour”—means: “I anticipated” not the usual hour. While all still sleep, I, forestalling everyone, rise and stand in prayer, crying out to You. He does this because he has put his hope in the words of God, in the promise to hear the prayer of those who pray: “He shall call upon Me, and I will hear him” (Ps. 90:15). In this sense, what is expressed here is the intensity of seeking, with an indication of what animates it. To seek without sparing one’s strength and without pity for oneself—to seek, with wings of hope—this is the genuine disposition of the spirit that desires to please God and prays for this. The blessed Theodoret writes: “The prophet was a king, burdened with a thousand cares; beyond that, he bore the labors of war; yet he still offered prayers to God, and not only at the break of day, but even in the middle of the night, not waiting for the crowing of the cock. So much did he love God the Creator; so earnestly did he seek His help.” The object of his seeking and hopeful crying is the same as above—receiving saving power to form himself according to the commandments, so as to become well-pleasing to God. Each of us should seek this with the whole soul, and seek it above all else, following the prophet’s example, who for the sake of this did not give sleep to his eyes. The burning of his thirsting spirit drove away sleep. But if in the night it was so—what was it by day? Elsewhere it is expressed: I sleep, but my heart is awake. Such is true seeking! It is unceasing.

But “the untimely hour,” as with us “a bad time,” can also mean the fruitlessness of labors, the insufficiency of what is urgently needed, the straits of one’s situation. So Saint Athanasius understands this word. “By ‘untimely hour,’” he says, “the prophet means the darkness or confusion of circumstances.” In that case, the meaning is as follows: being in extremity, “I anticipated”—that is, first of all I hastened to turn to You, O Lord, as he also says in another place: “Let us come before His face” (Ps. 94:2)—that is, let us hasten to turn to Him. What is this extremity? What is this darkness and confusion of circumstances? Perhaps he means the straits of his outward situation; but since the subject is the most faithful conformity to the commandments, it is better to think, as Saint Ambrose suggests, that what is meant here are those extremities that arise inwardly in the one who is zealous for moral and religious growth. Darkness of thoughts descends and dims the brightness of consciousness; a storm of impure desires rises up and drives away the sobriety of the heart; from nowhere comes a weakness that undermines all energy; the goads of troubled feelings of grief, despondency, and fear prick and cause one to rush to and fro like one who is stung. All of this together shakes even the very root intention and zeal—to be unfailingly faithful to the Lord and His commandments. Where can one turn in such extreme and oppressive distress? Hasten to anticipate the face of the Lord. “The Lord is near to those who are broken of heart, and He will save the humble in spirit” (Ps. 33:19). Be patient and do not cease to pray; hope—and the Lord will level, pacify, and adapt everything, as He knows best.

Ps. 118:148. Mine eyes anticipated the morning watches, that I might meditate on Your words.

Early, says the prophet, I hasten to open my eyes, I make myself wake at dawn, at first light, for the purpose of meditating on the words of the Lord. “To meditate”—to read from memory or from a book the word of God and to reflect upon it. The blessed Theodoret writes: “Not only throughout the day but also at the morning watches did he meditate on the laws of God. Yet we, living in poverty, freed from all cares, spend our nights resting on our beds, and at the dawning of day bring no song of praise to the Giver of good things.” Saint Ambrose urges: “How sweet it is to begin the day with contemplation—of the Beatitudes, for example, as they are written in the Gospel! How conducive it is to begin from the mouth of Christ the Lord, who pronounces these Beatitudes, to receive impulses toward the virtues indicated there, and to form the intention of embodying them throughout the day!”

One who has resolved to form himself according to the norm sketched by God in His word must study that word, in order to see what to imitate and to learn how to succeed in this. The general prototype of what one ought to become, though it is held in the mind’s contemplation, is such is the condition of our thoughts that, if not repeated and renewed in consciousness, they grow dim, become obscure, and are forgotten; and through this, the thread that could guide one through the labyrinth of life is lost. This means that, not trusting oneself, one must renew this prototype in order to revive both zeal and the ability to be zealous. Moreover, a life that is one in spirit must be varied in its manifestations, so that its vitality does not wither. For this variation of deeds, nowhere can one so conveniently find the necessary promptings as in the word of God. The Spirit of God, present in His word, deposits, through meditation upon it, in the heart that is open to it, the seeds of saving undertakings, which, being received with sympathy, are then brought to deed with corresponding zeal and, amid other works, prove both apt and very fruitful.

Ps. 118:149. Hear my voice, O Lord, according to Your mercy; quicken me according to Your judgment.

Having expressed the longings of his heart to form himself according to the will of God as expressed in God’s commandments, and having lamented his weakness in attaining this, the prophet raises a prayer for help from above and revives the ideal of life inscribed in his mind by meditating on God’s word. Recognizing then that everything is from God—both beginnings and deeds—he prays: “Hear me, O Lord”: You see what I desire, what I strive toward, what I cry out for—hear me, then, and come to my aid!

“Hear”—“according to Your mercy,” and “give me life”—that is, send down life-giving power, or grant my life to unfold—“according to Your judgment,” according to Your decree, as You find most fitting and salutary for me. “He asks for mercy,” explains blessed Theodoret, “and does not simply ask for mercy, but asks in accordance with the decree that has his benefit in view.” In asking for mercy, he expresses the hope that moves God to be merciful; but in leaving the granting of it to God’s decree, he expresses humility—which is a deep and wide vessel for receiving the gifts of mercy, and which, so to speak, provokes the generosity of God.

The words “give me life according to Your judgment” signify not only the measure of life-giving gifts, but also the whole lot of the one who receives them. But since the ways of each recipient are unsearchable, it is fitting to pray thus: “By whatever paths You know, save me.” Not everything is fitting for everyone, and not every path is suitable for every person. One man with great intelligence perishes; another with middling ability is saved. For one person, prosperity is a hindrance; for another, a narrow life is more beneficial. One is enlivened by ease, while another is spurred by hardships. We cannot know for certain what is better for us. Therefore, it is wiser, in prayer, not to cry out: “Give me this, take away that,” but rather, committing everything to God’s providence, to humbly cry: “Give me life according to Your judgment”—that is, as You judge best, so arrange my life. To reflect within oneself the norm of the moral and religious life as God Himself has set it forth is possible in any condition and with any measure of gifts, for that aspect of our nature in which this norm is reflected is independent of the aspect in which condition is built and gifts are developed. It is behind or above that aspect, and by reason of this height can safely “flourish and be preserved,” despite all the unsightliness of one’s outward circumstances and the scarcity of those manifestations of life that people prize.

Ps. 118:150. They that persecute me have drawn near in iniquity, but they are far from Your law.

Those who persecute me, says the prophet, have drawn near in iniquity—or iniquitously. Near to whom, or to what? To him, ready to seize him. Calamity—as if he were saying—hangs over my head; my enemies are about to strike me; help me, save me—so one may complete his thought. And why this is so is explained by the following words: because they have drawn far from Your law. In pursuing me, they pursue Your law; therefore they are enemies not of me alone, but of You as well. Defend me, then—not for my sake, but for the sake of Your law.

Zigabenus notes that some read not “they drew near in iniquity” but “they drew near to iniquity.” This reading fits the structure of the verse better, since the second part then directly corresponds to the first: they are near to iniquity, and far from Your law—and it corresponds better to the flow of the speech as well. Throughout the entire octave, the prophet speaks of drawing near to the norm of life indicated by the commandments. In this verse, the prophet intended to highlight that bright side of life by way of contrast. I, he says, seek to form my character according to Your law, to draw near to it in my life; but those who persecute me, men of the opposite disposition, strive only to advance further and further in iniquity, to draw closer to it, to become iniquity itself. Yet the more they succeed in this, the further they depart from Your law, from the norm by which You have ordained that men should form their character; they withdraw from the chief end of man, and thereby become, as it were, no longer human.

Why does the prophet mention this here?—To kindle his own zeal. I, he says, cleave to Your law, O Lord, while those men have gone so far astray. I see where their path leads and how their schemes will end. They will stamp iniquity upon themselves and become walking sin, and in doing so will take on the image of the father of all sin and iniquity—the most hideous adversary of every good thing, the image of Satan. I see this, and not only do I turn away from that path, but I am filled with horror at it. I count turning aside from Your law as the most ruinous step in life. It is tantamount to an attempt on one’s life, for the center of life is not in the body but in the soul; and the soul that withdraws from Your law—and thereby from You—is dead. Every such act of withdrawal is a mortal blow to the soul. Knowing this, I am zealous for Your law and importunate before You for help, paying no heed to what my outward condition may be.

Ps. 118:151. You are near, O Lord, and all Your ways are truth.

The Lord is near to all and everywhere, as the omnipresent One. But not all are aware of this, and of those who are aware, not all keep it in constant attention. The fault lies not in the Lord, but in us. When the body is healthy, it pleasantly feels the warmth surrounding it; but when it is disordered—in a fever, for example—it sometimes not only fails to feel the warmth, but is actually chilled. So it is here: the Lord is near and embraces all. There are those who feel His embrace, and there are those who do not feel it, or who wish to escape from it. Those who live by God’s commandments feel it. God’s commandments, becoming character through their constant fulfillment—through the virtues—form within the soul aspects of God-likeness, and thereby points of contact for God to touch the soul that has become like Him through virtue. This is not merely external contact, such as the sustaining of all things by God’s providential rule, but inward—such as the indwelling of God, resembling the penetration of iron by fire. Whoever has become such a person bears God within him, and cannot but confess that the Lord is near; and knowing that this was given to him for his fidelity to the law, he cannot but testify that this law is truth.

Thus the Lord becomes near—in deed, in living nearness. But this is preceded by our nearness to Him—in thought, in contemplation, in seeking. One who compels himself to draw near to God draws God’s living nearness to himself. This compulsion extends to all the faculties of human nature. He who compels himself in mind to be near the Lord keeps remembrance of Him and walks in His presence, imitating the prophet who says: I set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand (Ps. 15:8). He who compels himself in heart to draw near to the Lord tears himself away from every attachment, so that his heart may be occupied with nothing but the Lord. And always contemplating the Lord with the mind and gazing upon His countenance in his heart, he strives to imitate Him in all things, so as to be like Him and pleasing to Him. The features of the Lord are reflected in His law; and therefore from contemplating them he naturally passes to contemplating the commandments, and, seeing that they are entirely the same, confesses: here too, in Your law, is the same as what I behold in Your countenance in my mental contemplation. Your law is the true reflection of You Yourself and is true insofar as You Yourself are Truth. Whether I imitate You, or fulfill Your law—in both ways I will be near You and will be granted that You too will be near me. This is the one and only true path.

Ps. 118:152. Of old I have known from Your testimonies that You have founded them forever.

The law of forming oneself according to God’s commandments consists in first beholding in them the Lord the Lawgiver who is present near us, and then having Him near and within us. This law is eternal; it is established for all time and can be neither abrogated nor changed. This is what the prophet speaks of here, adding from where and when he came to know it.

“Of old”—that is, from the very first time. As soon as he became conscious of himself, as soon as he began to live according to the commandments, he immediately knew that they are founded forever. But how did he come to know this?—“From the testimonies.” If we take “testimonies” simply as evidence, the meaning is: I knew it from Your testimonies and assurances, O Lord. You Yourself, in giving the commandments, declared that they are eternal and unchangeable. But if by “testimonies,” as throughout the psalm, we understand directly the commandments given by God and confirmed by His authority, then the meaning is: I knew it from the commandments themselves—from their character, their content, their effect—that they are eternal. The seal of immutability lies upon their face; I had only to look and I saw that it is so.

By this conviction he seals all the expressions of his resolutions and impulses toward life according to the commandments used before: “I will seek, I will keep.” He says, as it were: there is no other way. Such is the structure of my spiritual nature, such is the will of the Almighty God, such are the ordinances of all that exists, that I must live as is depicted in God’s commandments and in no other way. Why, then, does he seal this in his consciousness, or summon it forth from it? In order to bring his moral and religious powers to full tension and energy. The decisive “there is no other way” gives rise to a sense of inescapability, and this sense does not allow one to sit with idle hands. Whoever sees that he must either act in such and such a way or perish cannot hold himself back—however much he might intend to—from beginning to act immediately; for who would allow himself to perish when there is a way out, however difficult it may be? From where do violators of the commandments draw their boldness to violate them?—From the false self-assurance that “perhaps nothing will come of it; one can live this way too.” But he in whom conscience is alive—what does he say to his own and others’ suggestions to transgress some commandment?—No, I cannot. He is told that one can live otherwise, but he keeps repeating: no, I cannot; whatever you may say—I cannot. And this “I cannot” saves him from transgression. An unimpaired conscience is precious precisely because within it this wall of protection stands firm and unmovable: “I cannot.”

Verses 153–160

The twentieth octave is marked by the letter “resh”—“head.” The word “head” is ordinarily taken to mean something chief or essential, as for instance in the phrase: the chief point of all that is said (Heb. 8:1). This is equivalent to the substance of a matter or thing—its essential features and attributes, without which it cannot be what it ought to be. In the moral life, this word may denote the chief dispositions of the heart on which this life rests and by which it, with all its manifestations, is set in motion—the constitution of the heart that is saved and pleasing to God.

Such dispositions were pointed out by the Savior in the Beatitudes, namely: humility, contrition, meekness, love of righteousness, mercifulness, purity of heart, peaceableness, endurance, and hope. Similar dispositions were also enumerated by the holy Paul in listing the fruits of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, kindness, faith, gentleness, self-control (Gal. 5:22–23). There are such indications in other places of Scripture as well. The present octave should be counted among them. Here are indicated: humility, purity of conscience, seeking after God’s ordinances, hope of salvation, endurance, zeal for the good morality of others, love surrendered to God, and finally, the conviction of the immutability of God’s commandments.

Ps. 118:153. Behold my humiliation and deliver me, for I have not forgotten Your law.

Humility is that disposition of the spirit whereby, though adorned with many perfections, one considers oneself as though there were nothing good in him, and therefore places himself below all others. And recognizing himself as unable to do anything that is truly fitting, he asks God for strength for every good deed—to begin it, continue it, and complete it; and having done it, he renders thanksgiving to God as its Accomplisher, attributing nothing to himself. Such a disposition of the spirit is the root of the spiritual life. Without it, expect no help from God, and without God’s help you will succeed in nothing. The prophet therefore places such a disposition at the “head.”

The word “humility” also refers to the state of one who is humbled by outward circumstances—deprivations, oppressions, illnesses, hardships, the loss of loved ones, and the like. It might appear that it is precisely about this kind of humility that the prophet speaks here, for having said “behold my humiliation,” he adds “and deliver me”—that is, rescue me from these outward humbling circumstances. Doubtless such circumstances existed as well; but the prophet, passing over them, directs God’s gaze upon the humility of heart—the one thing truly worthy of His regard. Only on the ground that it dwells in the heart could he boldly cry to God: “deliver me.” This is equivalent to a sick man’s request to his physician: remove the poultice; the wound has healed.

I submit, I humble myself, I acknowledge that I am nothing. Look then, O Lord, upon this self-abasement of mine and free me from painful adversities, “for I have not forgotten Your law.” Even a great sinner may sometimes come to a self-abased feeling of his own worthlessness; but it is not fitting for him to cry to God: “behold…” Nor can he cry: “deliver me,” for why should he be delivered when all his life he has wallowed in lusts? Only that self-abasement is valuable before God which is accompanied by complete fidelity to His law, and only that cry “deliver me” is powerful when the conscience does not reproach one for ever having forgotten God’s law in anything or at any time.

The humble man is faithful to the law, yet claims nothing for himself, considers himself to be worth nothing, does not think that prosperity is his rightful portion—and therefore prays: “deliver me,” asking this as a mercy. And in saying “for I have not forgotten Your law,” he merely wishes to say that he is God’s servant. I am Your servant, transgressing Your will in nothing; “deliver me” for the glory of Your name, so that all may see that You do not disregard those who do not forget Your law.

Ps. 118:154. Plead my cause and redeem me; give me life according to Your word.

One who has suffered injustice or injury goes to the judge and says: examine my case. The boldness to speak thus is given to him by the knowledge that he is in the right. But one may approach human judges for a just verdict even without the consciousness of being in the right, hoping somehow to conceal his unrighteousness. To approach God for a just verdict is impossible, however, when the conscience accuses you of unrighteousness and the mind is convinced that God sees your unrighteousness. Such a person is already self-condemned before God prior to any judgment. If the prophet turns to God for judgment, it is because his conscience is clean and that conscience accuses him in nothing before God. Keeping the conscience in such purity is one of the foundational dispositions of the heart that pleases God.

What does the sinner say when he turns to God in repentance?—I have sinned—I will not do so again. I will sin no more; I will not permit myself knowingly to depart from Your commandments in word, in deed, or in thought. What is his care, then, after having received forgiveness and been received back into the number of those who truly strive to serve God?—That in no action, whether great or small, he should act against his conscience, enlightened by knowledge of God’s commandments. Therefore, whatever he resolves upon, he resolves with the clear and definite awareness that his deed is right before God. Thus all his deeds proceed; his conscience is a clear sky—not a single cloud darkens it. As soon as anything arises—in thoughts, feelings, or stirrings of desire—it is immediately cleansed by repentance, and the brightness of consciousness is restored.

This brightness and purity constitute the joy of life according to the commandments, despite all hardships—outward and inward. In it lies the support of such a life; in it too lies boldness before God. Like an innocent child, one who is pure in conscience walks boldly before God and turns to Him in prayer without confusion. Indeed, prayer cannot arise and mature other than beneath the awareness of purity of conscience. All the true ascetics regard this purity as the guide or door of prayer.

Such is the state we observe in the prophet when he boldly cries to God: “plead my cause.” Do you wish to reach the point where you yourself can cry thus with equal boldness?—Keep your conscience pure in all things. But place your hope of being heard not in this, but in God’s mercy alone; and therefore the prophet adds: “give me life according to Your word.” “Give me life” is the same as “deliver me.” Outward sorrows make a person seem, as it were, no longer alive—hence the phrase “a crushed man.” Deliverance from sorrow is the reviving of one crushed by grief. The prophet prays to be revived through deliverance from what has crushed him. By reason of what?—“By reason of Your word.” And what is this word?—God’s word of promise: to be a shelter for those who are faithful to Him not outwardly only, but by the testimony of their own conscience. And the word of promise is this: He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I am with him in trouble, I will deliver him… and show him My salvation (Ps. 90:15–16). Mindful of this promise, the prophet cried: “give me life according to Your word.” His conscience assured him that he was guilty in nothing; but since mercy is not contained in this assurance of conscience, but resides in God’s merciful right hand, he appeals to it: deliver me, as You have promised, O Lord; for though my conscience accuses me in nothing, yet perhaps its eye is not so keenly sharp as to see all things down to the smallest detail, among which something worthy of reproach might lie hidden. Only the eyes of God, “brighter than the sun” (Sir. 23:19), see into the most hidden things. Therefore, though the prophet did not fear God’s judgment according to the verdict of his own conscience, yet, mindful that conscience may sometimes without any distortion of itself unintentionally fail to see some imperfection, he places all his hope in God’s gracious promise. I know nothing against myself, yet I am not thereby acquitted (1 Cor. 4:4). Such should be the state and disposition of those who have begun to strive truly to please God.

Ps. 118:155. Salvation is far from sinners, for they have not sought Your ordinances.

Purity of conscience depends on the unfailing fulfillment of everything that conscience regards as binding upon itself, and on the ordering of all one’s activity—both outward and inward—in such a way that nothing inconsistent with God’s commandments slips through it. But such a character cannot be given to a person’s activity if he lives as things come, without keen watchful attention to himself and to everything around him, and without viewing all this through the lens of the commandments. This is only possible when he carefully observes all that is happening, compares it with the commandments, determines by them the manner of action that is incumbent upon him, and then acts accordingly. Conducting his affairs in this way, he will order his life righteously. And this is what it means to seek after God’s ordinances. Whoever lacks this seeking, from him salvation is far; but whoever has it, to him it is near. This latter truth is what the prophet wishes to instill, “through contrast,” as blessed Augustine observes.

Seeking after God’s ordinances is not merely inquiry and examination—that is only the beginning and the preparation. To seek means to know and to do. One who follows tracks in the wilderness, as soon as he is certain that this or that track is the right one, immediately steps onto it and follows it without hesitation, until he encounters another track that crosses it. Having determined there which track to follow, he again proceeds without stopping along the one he has recognized as genuine. So too in the moral life: the examination of what is right is only an initiating and guiding act, while the life itself consists in acting according to what has been discerned. And only from the one who acts thus is salvation near—not from the one who merely examines without moving from his place. The latter resembles a man who, sitting in a comfortable armchair, draws up travel itineraries.

It is good also to reason about what is proper and right, but in this there is less need than in actually striving to do what is proper. The general rules of right conduct are known to all and are on everyone’s lips. If anything remains to be worked out, it is their particular application to the case at hand. But even this, it seems, should not be a stumbling block—and perhaps it is not, since our natural moral logic is within us, and conscience is there too. They immediately point out what is due, so that after them there rarely remains work for any special deliberation, except perhaps in certain tangled combinations of circumstances. The difficulty does not lie there, but in what happens within, deep inside. Some person with principles entirely contrary to God’s ordinances will torment sound logic—and will torment it not by the soundness of his objections, but because he always finds a hidden sympathy for himself somewhere in the depths or at the back of the heart, which gives force to his objections however empty and worthless they may be. As soon as such an objection appears, all sound reasoning crumbles to dust and the matter goes awry. To prevent this, one must plant in the heart a warm zeal for what is right and proper, and a fervent desire for it. This zeal and desire will act like a wall, repelling everything contrary, and affairs will always proceed rightly. If you only hint to an honorable man of something dishonorable, he at once rises against it with indignation and will not listen to whatever you say. So it is with one who has begun to be zealous for what is morally proper. No contrary arguments will unsettle him. This very zeal is, properly speaking, the seeking after God’s ordinances, while knowledge and inquiry are only subsidiary matters. Why does life according to God’s ordinances not succeed?—Because there is no zeal for them, though knowledge may be abundant. This is why the prophet rightly placed the seeking of God’s ordinances among the chief conditions of a saving life: without it, the very course of such a life is interrupted.

Ps. 118:156. Your mercies are many, O Lord; give me life according to Your judgment.

There may be seeking after God’s ordinances—and indeed such zealous seeking that even conscience does not reproach one for any negligence—yet salvation does not rest in this either. Who is clean from defilement… if even his life upon the earth is but one day? (Job 14:4–5). And in whom does the eye of God not find much worthy of condemnation? Where, then, is one to turn?—To the mercies of God. Therefore cry out without ceasing: Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your great mercy; and according to the multitude of Your compassions blot out my transgression (Ps. 50:3). Furthermore, you stand firm now, but can you say that you will stand tomorrow?—If not, then seek a sure foundation. And where will you find it except in Him who is always one and the same, and who, sustaining all things, holds you too in His right hand? Therefore place yourself in that right hand—with your will and with the whole disposition of your heart—crying with your whole being: “give me life according to Your judgment, O Lord,” or in other words: “by whatever paths You know, save me”—for life is only saved life, and the salvation of each of us is ordered by the Lord according to His judgment, that is, as He knows and wills. And no one is saved except those who entirely commit themselves into the hands of God.

The mercies of God are a great deep (Ps. 35:7), an all-embracing and all-absorbing deep—but salvation does not lie in them alone. One must strive oneself, and not merely strive, but labor—labor to the last degree of one’s strength. Yet again salvation does not lie in this either, but in God Himself beginning to work out His salvation in us. And God will not work it out if we do not surrender ourselves entirely to Him, while at the same time not ceasing our own most strenuous effort. Herein lies the mystery of true life! To strive with all one’s might toward salvation, yet to acknowledge God alone as the one who accomplishes it; to dare to rest on nothing, and yet to nourish an unfailing hope of salvation, recognizing it as being accomplished within us—apart from our efforts, though not without them, and in the midst of them—as well as amidst all the incidental inner and outer disorders, by some hidden power acting in a manner unknown, though sometimes palpable. This is immersion in God’s abundant mercies, with self-surrender into the hands of God—beneath which and within which hope of salvation is sustained and ripens—the power that animates, strengthens, and consoles on the paths of a godly life.

Hope of salvation has more than one degree. At first it sees salvation from afar, then draws it near to itself, and finally feels itself to be its possessor. Yet even so, it remains—only hope of salvation, as the reception of what lies ahead. So one who sails on a ship over the depths of the waters, though feeling himself safe, still only hopes to be carried across the waters and to set foot on solid ground. This feeling is the most hidden and at the same time the most characteristic among the dispositions that undergird the certainty of salvation.

Ps. 118:157. Many are they who persecute me and oppress me, yet I have not turned aside from Your testimonies.

Hope of salvation gives strength to endure and overcome all the adversities encountered on the path of salvation. These adversities are many—within, from the passions; without, from passionate men and unclean powers. This is what is meant by “many persecutors and oppressors.” They surround and press down upon everyone who does not turn aside from God’s testimonies—precisely because he does not turn aside from them. But one who does not turn aside from God’s testimonies because of this suffers no harm thereby, for blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:10). And not “it will be” theirs, but it is; not “they will be” blessed, but they are. Sorrows, troubles, and tribulations endured for fidelity to God’s testimonies of themselves give rise to a sweet consolation that disposes one not to shun and repel them, but rather to desire and seek them, and to rejoice that they are present. As one may desire bitter condiments with food, so one who has tasted their sweetness desires sorrows on the path of salvation. Whoever has experienced how under a burning and tearing poultice there also comes a pleasant sensation through the sense of healing it produces, will somewhat understand how the same occurs with the burning and tearing sorrows on the path of salvation.

The condition for this is not turning aside from God’s testimonies, and the consequence of this is a greater zeal for such non-turning-aside. The two nourish each other mutually and bear the fruit of patient endurance with good courage. Endurance appears outwardly to be something that exhausts life, but in reality it is the moisture of life—as a tree is moistened and fattened by sources of water; only it is necessary that its foundation be fidelity to God’s testimonies. After the Fall, God filled our life with that which gives occasion for endurance. Since we were not fitted for a proper life in paradise, all endure, and there is no one free from this decree of God. But in decreeing this, God did not abolish the fundamental law of life proper to man—that it should always and in all things be conformed to the will of God expressed in His commandments. On the contrary, He confirmed this most strictly, and confirms it still—not as a burdensome yoke, but as a means of relief and a source of consolation in bearing it. And so it proves to be: to one who is faithful to God’s commandments and testimonies, endurance is consoling, whatever he may have to endure. The prophet says: “Many oppress me; but let them! I know my own work, and I am zealous only not to turn aside from God’s testimonies.” We see that everyone strains to break free from the bonds of what they must endure, and yet cannot break free, even with great resources. Why?—Because they have taken the wrong road. One must enter the path of God’s testimonies and with good courage endure what there is to endure. Then the very thing endured will begin to yield consolation. Behold paradise—despite all outward appearances to the contrary! Those who seek to establish paradise on earth by another path merely labor in vain. The Wise Man said as much: Vanity of vanities (Eccl. 1:2).

Ps. 118:158. I beheld the transgressors and was grieved, for they did not keep Your words.

“If I saw someone acting without understanding,” says the prophet, “I melted away in grief for him, out of zeal for godliness” (St. Athanasius). “Thus blessed Paul mourned for the Jews; thus the Lord Himself expressed grief over Jerusalem; thus the divine Jeremiah lamented the iniquity of the people” (blessed Theodoret). “Transgressors” here means not those who are feeble-minded or ignorant dunces, but those who act foolishly through their own evil will—who, though they know how they ought to live, live in complete contradiction to it, behave shamefully, destroying themselves in the process and dishonoring their Creator and Savior. Whoever loves God loves his brethren as well. Whoever loves good morality cannot look with indifference—cannot fail to grieve and be broken-hearted—when surrounded by people who, having forgotten God, fearlessly trample His holy law. The prophet testifies of himself that, looking upon this, he melted away, as a candle melts when consumed by the force of fire. Such is true love for God! It does not merely keep itself on the paths pleasing to Him, but is zealous that all the brethren should hold to those same paths—that God, thus glorified, may find joy in all people and may rest His goodwill upon all.

The prophet says nothing about what he did, or what ought to be done by one who loves God’s words when he sees that they are not wanted—and, turning to God, he only testified before Him how tormenting it is for him that God’s words, which are clear and precisely express what God requires of each person, are everywhere left unobserved. Is this not in fact the best way of expressing zeal for good morality in people? Live as you ought yourself, giving yourself no indulgence in anything; and when you see others who do not keep God’s words, be consumed with grief over it and cry out to God how painful this is for you—thereby entreating Him by this very grief to intervene for the sake of His word and to bring the erring to their senses. Teach and instruct by your life; leave the instruction by word to those to whom speech has been given, and instruction by deed to those to whom authority for it has been given—while praying with warm prayer that God Himself may come forth in defense of His cause.

This is not indifference—though one could hide indifference behind such a manner of acting—but an act of prudence. One might begin to act, and instead of setting things right, only make them worse. Better to pray that the Lord would send out laborers. But while such a manner of acting is appropriate for people in general, those to whom speech has been given, and those to whom authority has been given, can in no way be excused if the former do not lift up their voices and speak from the housetops, and if the latter carry without sense the sword given them for the restraint and deterrence of the wicked. This authority belongs not only to governments, but also to the father over his children, to the husband over his wife, to the head of a household over all in his house, to elders over the younger, to teachers over their pupils; just as speech belongs not only to pastors, but to everyone who understands the matter and is moved to humbly speak the instructive truth orally or in writing. How many writers there are among us! If none of those who write were to write wickedness, but all wrote the truth alone—would anyone dare to act impiously in word or deed? Like the blasts of trumpets, their proclamations would fill the air and, calling all to noble warfare, would strike with fear those who are unwilling, not allowing them even to appear in public. Then iniquity and impiety would not dare to walk the streets shamelessly and openly, and if not entirely destroyed, would hide somewhere in desolate places and crevices, like bats.

Ps. 118:159. Behold, for I have loved Your commandments. O Lord, give me life according to Your mercy.

One might think: the prophet lives so uprightly that his conscience reproaches him in nothing; when others press him for fidelity to the law, he does not turn aside from it; when he sees others not keeping it, he is consumed with grief—what further proof of love for the law is needed? And yet he says: “behold, for I have loved Your commandments”—and says this to One of whom he knows that all things are open before Him. What does he wish to express by this?—That he is not merely an outward keeper of the law, but one who keeps it from the heart. “He does not simply say,” explains blessed Theodoret, “I kept the commandments, but I loved them, though nothing compelled me to fulfill them.” The commandments lie in the depths of my heart, at the very wellsprings of life, and govern all its manifestations. I love not only deeds done according to the commandments, but moral purity itself as required by them—perfection of life as depicted in them. I love not only deeds of humility, but humility itself; not only restraint from outbursts of anger and impurity, but meekness and chastity themselves; not only deeds of mercy, but mercifulness itself; and so on. As for the prophet saying to God “behold”—by this he wishes to express only that he does not speak thus lightly, nor by self-conceit claiming for himself what he does not possess, but by self-examination in the light of God’s all-seeing eye; descending with it into his heart, he sees—not in self-delusion but in fact—that he loves God’s commandments with his whole soul. Such a disposition is the beginning from which good morality must flow: love for the commandments for the sake of love for the virtues which they inspire.

This love is not compelled but implants itself—or more precisely, kindles itself—as soon as one tastes virtue. This is because virtues are not foreign to us, but constitute our original spiritual constitution. Created in the image of God, we carry within us the seeds of all God’s perfections. They alone would have shone in our hearts, had not the passions—which obscure, conceal, and distort them—been grafted onto us through the Fall. The passions are the cause of the coldness toward virtue, the resistance and finally the aversion from virtue that appears in us. Were it not for God’s commandments, the passions might have brought us to the point of entirely driving every virtue from the face of the earth. But the commandments, once heard, enter inwardly through the hearing and there awaken the memory of virtues and of the bright condition into which they place a person—in contrast to the gloom of the passions. This memory disposes one to submit to the commandments, for the sake of the power hidden in them to restore the bright spiritual state that was lost but is longed for—and we submit. At first this submission is both elicited and sustained only by the expectation of spiritual good from the commandments, and is produced by an effort of the will. But constancy in fulfilling them, by killing off the passions, revives the virtues that were stifled by them in the heart; it restores the revived virtues to growth and grants one to taste the sweetness of the ones that have grown. The tasted sweetness of virtue binds the heart to it and makes it inalienable, for it does not come from outside but shines forth from within and embraces the heart. Hence—love. In this way the virtues, one after another, embrace the heart and become the objects of its love. Not all at once, but gradually; each thing has its time. When the full complement of virtues shines in the heart, then in spiritual joy one may cry with the prophet: “behold, for I have loved Your commandments”—not them only, but the virtues hidden within them. Here is the spiritual paradise! This love is the enjoyment of all blessings from the tasting of the sweetness of the virtues. Here is how the Kingdom of God is within us! Then God too is there—not as a passing guest, but as a permanent inhabitant.

Therefore, when immediately after this the prophet prays: “O Lord, give me life according to Your mercy,” he expresses thereby no other desire than that the Lord would continue to dwell in him and, dwelling in him, enliven him. The Lord is the source of life, and wherever He goes, abundant streams of sweet and all-blessed life break forth. One who has experienced this, when he prays “give me life,” expresses thereby: do not depart from me—believing that as long as the Lord does not depart, the life-giving power will flow from Him of itself. The Lord willingly abides in a heart full of love of goodness and of the very virtues; yet He is not bound thereby, but visits freely. He visits and departs when and as it pleases Him. But when He departs—darkness and cold fill the heart. Therefore one cannot but pray: do not deprive me, O Lord, of the mercy of Your abiding in me, but unceasingly give me life, according to Your mercy.

Ps. 118:160. The beginning of Your words is truth, and all the judgments of Your righteousness are everlasting.

If all of God’s words were to be conceived as a body, truth would be their head. If they were conceived as a code, their title or inscription would be: truth. The conviction that all of God’s words, which define the proper manner of our life, are unalterably true serves as the foundation of life according to those words. One who is convinced that this and no other way—as depicted in them—is how one must live cannot expect any possibility of turning aside from them, nor can he invent any pretext or reinterpretation of them in order to fulfill them—even while fulfilling them—not in the full force with which the words themselves speak. Therefore he cannot but hold in his mind and heart that one of two things is inescapable: either to live according to God’s word, or to doom oneself to eternal ruin—eternal, because “all the judgments of God’s righteousness are everlasting”—that is, the force of God’s righteous decisions, which by means of the commandments justly determine how we ought to live, extends to all eternity. Into eternity, God’s commandments will follow after us and will be there either as our advocates or as our accusers. Knowing such inescapability, can one still hesitate and waver as to which road to take?

The enemy knows the power of these convictions, and therefore exerts every effort to dispel them. And he succeeds—by means of forgetfulness and by distracting one’s attention with other subjects, or by means of a strange kind of resolution: “perhaps it will be all right; perhaps nothing will come of it.” As soon as the soul falls into this, life flows along as it comes, swept along by the surrounding currents of common life—in which there is confusion and every kind of disorder. And the enemy is right there; he catches his prey and enriches his eternal dwelling, which has been appointed for him and his accomplices.

But one who remembers the commandments and carries the conviction that they are immutable stands firm without wavering. Waves surge on all sides, yet he is as on a rock; winds howl around him, yet he is as in a cozy room. And the enemy can do nothing with him. Assaults do occur, of course, even against him, but they do not shift him from his place or alter the direction of his life. Therefore he always has the same constitution—in mind and in heart—the same order in his outward life. The length of time spent in one and the same state confirms him in it all the more—and he finally passes unchanged even through the valley of the shadow of death and enters the eternal realm, to dwell eternally again in the same—in the same judgments of God’s righteousness.

The whole world, whose limits we do not even know, stands upon the judgments of God’s righteousness—but it does not stand by itself: it is held in this by the all-powerful right hand of God. And since it does not stand by itself, it cannot of itself deviate from these judgments. We, however, are free: we must freely submit ourselves to these judgments and maintain ourselves within them, so as to enter into agreement and harmony with the whole sum of created things. All things are Your servants (above, verse 91), O Lord, Creator and Ruler of all. To flee from this yoke, which is imposed by nature, though it has the appearance of bravery, has absolutely no sense; for it is our own good—both temporal and eternal—that lies in remaining under it. Those who remain under it feel within themselves that so it must be; and those who flee from under it feel that so it must not be—for all that they are bemused and bewildered.

Verses 161–168

This octave is designated by the letter or word “shin”—“tooth.”

In the animal kingdom, teeth are instruments of defense and nourishment, and in human beings they also assist in speech. Imagining one who walks in God’s law as a living being surrounded by hostility against his very walking in the law, one may ask: by what means is he given to defend himself against it?—By the fear of violating the law, answers the prophet (verse 161); by hope in the goods that come from fulfilling it (verse 162); and by love for it (verse 163). If you gather in a single survey all who live by God’s words, you will see that precisely these spiritual instruments repel every movement contrary to God’s words. To these, at the end, the prophet adds walking before God (verse 168), which is even stronger than those three and even gives strength to them. These are his “teeth.” What does the speech of such a person occupy itself with?—With the praise of God—specifically for the goods that flow from the judgments of God’s righteousness (verse 164). What does he feed upon?—Those goods with which his soul is filled from fulfilling the commandments (verses 165–167). Such is the content of this octave.

Ps. 118:161. Princes have persecuted me without cause, and my heart has stood in awe of Your words.

In the words “princes drove me out or persecuted me without cause” one must supply: “at one time.” The prophet alludes to Saul and the king of Gath at the beginning of his persecution, or to Saul with his men when they hunted him through the wilderness—when Saul fell completely into his hands and was not killed only because the fear of God restrained not merely David’s hands, but also the thoughts of his heart. They drove me out, he says, and hunted me, but I was not frightened by this. My heart feared only Your words, O Lord, and was thereby restrained from all unrighteousness and from every evil deed.

With regard to us Christians, the Holy Church may always call out thus in remembrance of the persecutions she has suffered—both in the first period of her existence and during many other difficult periods of her history. And she does so call out in her hymns when she glorifies the holy martyrs.

So too can every Christian call out who is pressed and persecuted on his blameless path by the princes of this age—the spirits of malice and their willing servants among men—always inwardly, but often outwardly as well. All the spirits of malice have risen against me to turn me from the path of Your commandments, O Lord; but in vain. My heart is full of fear of You—fear of violating Your words—and by this fear I repel all the temptations they raise within me. Your fear is my defense, a weapon before which no seductive thoughts can stand; they scatter before it like dust before the wind.

The fear of God is natural to our spirit and always lives in the heart. The passions suppress and stifle it, but do not destroy it. As soon as the grace of God breathes upon the heart, fear is the first thing to revive—and it rouses conscience along with itself. Then together they produce, under the action of grace, repentance and the conversion of the sinner from sin to virtue; and thereafter they hold him on this new path, not leaving him until the final degrees of perfection in the new life. The fear of God leads the way everywhere. Even love itself, though it casts out one kind of fear, receives within itself another.

Let them persecute from without; let waves of evil thoughts rise within—yet when the fear of God’s words is intact, there is nothing to be afraid of. The heart then is a fortress inaccessible to temptations. Within it stands a faithful watchman, an unconquerable weapon against the enemy. One may say: guard the fear of God and fear no falls. Kindle this fear, and you will have no need of any other means to arouse energy in your spirit. This fear is stronger than the fear of death. But if the fear of bodily death brings one who is defending himself to such a pitch of strength that he himself becomes terrible to the attackers, then what is the fear of spiritual death—threatening eternal death when the life of the spirit is in danger—not capable of producing? Therefore, O Lord, implant Your fear in our hearts!

Ps. 118:162. I will rejoice over Your words as one who finds great spoil.

The second instrument for repelling sin and protecting virtue is the sure expectation of gain from the virtues. This gain is the fruitfulness of a virtuous life, which shines here preeminently in the perfection of inner life, and in the future will shine also in the body and in one’s outward condition. The pledge of the future is laid in the present; hope is grounded in foretaste. The virtuous even now find “great spoil,” taste it and delight in it. This delight is for them an instrument of defense and self-preservation no less powerful than the fear of God’s words.

Fear is always the beginning of virtue and at first holds a person on its path alone; but then it shares its work with the tasting of the gain from virtue. Fear turns one toward the path of virtue and holds him on it, as it were, from without—compelling him as if against his will, and bending a stubborn will under the yoke of the commandments out of a mere sense of self-preservation. Just as a whip drives a slave to work and makes him work, so at the beginning fear drives one to virtue and makes him perform its deeds.

Spiritual feelings do not revive all at once; they do not all at once acquire the ability to find taste in non-sensory things. But just as friction restores feeling to a numbed limb, so does the labor of doing good restore the spiritual senses in the heart. Then it begins to feel the sweetness of every virtuous deed and every labor undertaken for its sake. A person continues to act no longer because he expects to receive gain or good fruit, but because he already has it and carries it within himself.

The highest good in this case is peace of conscience. What can be compared with this good! The heart itself sets nothing above it after it returns, having for a time been lost through foolish inattention to oneself. With a clear gaze it looks toward God, and without confusion meets the eyes of all people.

The second good is harmony in one’s affairs—both inward and outward. In such a case, one’s thoughts, intentions, and undertakings are given a unity of purpose, which already of itself selects the appropriate means and methods of execution.

From this flows naturally the third good—prosperity. Everything that lies within a person’s power is accomplished here, within; the outward is not an indispensable condition—and even its unfavorableness is turned toward inward flourishing.

Even these three are enough for every virtuous person to cry sincerely: I rejoice in Your words, O Lord, as one who finds in them great spoil!

Ps. 118:163. I have hated and abhorred unrighteousness, but I have loved Your law.

The third spiritual instrument is love for God’s law accompanied by complete aversion from iniquities and unrighteous deeds. This love is born from the experience of spiritual fruitfulness received through the fulfillment of the law, but with this love the fruitfulness itself falls away from attention, and only the beauty of the good and lawful life is seen. Just as we begin to love a benefactor because he shows us kindness, and having once loved him, we continue to love him simply because he himself is good—so too love for the law begins from the tasting of its good fruits, and once satisfied with them, love for it is enthroned in the heart for the sake of its perfection and beauty. “The law,” says the apostle, “is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Rom. 7:12).

But when love for one object takes up residence in the heart, love for objects opposed to it can no longer dwell there; instead, the opposite feeling takes its place—not love, but loathing and hatred. In ordinary matters such an opposition of feelings may perhaps not be inevitable, but with regard to the law and lawlessness it cannot be otherwise. For lawlessness presses in as well—it presses in to occupy a heart already occupied by the law. Just as you rid yourself of some brazen intruder forcing his way into your room by pushing him back in the chest, so too you will rid yourself of lawlessness intrusively forcing its way into your heart only by striking it in the chest, that is, by smiting it with hatred and loathing.

In the order of the heart’s moral changes, this hatred of sin and lawlessness does not form all at once, for even after sin has been abandoned in deed, a sympathy for sin long remains in the heart. But in proportion to one’s labor in lawful righteous living it evaporates, and when a good character has been established according to the pattern of the law, it vanishes entirely and is replaced by hatred and loathing—on account of sin’s vexing persistence and because the heart inherently senses all the harm that comes from it. Thus in the heart’s hands there appears a two-edged sword, one blade of which is love for the law and the other hatred and loathing of iniquity and sin. Both blades cut powerfully, and there is no way to withstand their strike.

Whoever possesses this is safe from falling. He is fearsome to all the hosts of the spirits of malice. In the holy fathers, guides in the spiritual life, we find that the first among all the rules of spiritual warfare, for everyone, is hatred of sin: “Put it forward first,” they say (Hesychius). It is, we would add, an indestructible and all-conquering spiritual battery, and when it operates it fires a countless multitude of shots without ceasing. It stands at the outer edge of the heart; the city of the heart does not remain empty—it is occupied by love for the law. What can sin do in this situation, when it can only act through thoughts, which, though they too are arrows, are arrows of straw?

Ps. 118:164. Seven times a day do I praise You because of Your righteous judgments.

The teeth, as helpers of the word, suggested the thought of glorifying God, wondrous in the judgments of His righteousness, since among the subjects of speech there is nothing higher than speech about God, and among such words there is nothing higher than praise. This is exactly what the prophet sets forth, giving us to understand that whoever has attained to it has attained the utmost limit of the use of speech and—we would add—the use of the mind. When the praise of God begins to burst forth from the heart, it means that the mind has truly begun to enter the realm of the knowledge of God, which, drawing its attention away from everything else as incomparably lower, rivets its gaze upon God alone and opens before its eyes the brilliance of His glory—wondrous in His being, in His attributes, and in His works: in creation, providence, redemption, and the ordering of each person’s salvation. Contemplating this, the mind passes from wonder to wonder and, at each object of contemplation, can utter nothing but praise: “Glory to You, our God, glory to You!”

Yet even among the objects of the contemplation of God there are degrees. According to the testimony of Isaac the Syrian, the contemplation of “how” God has revealed and reveals Himself in creatures is the first degree; and the contemplation of God “as” He is in Himself is the second, higher degree. The prophet rests at the first, for the judgments of righteousness for which he praises God signify the righteous decrees, verdicts, and determinations of God—as to what should be, and how things have already been and continue to be in reality. Recalling this, the prophet cannot restrain his tongue from praising God, wondrous in His judgments, and seven times—or many times—a day he praises Him. Saint Athanasius the Great writes: “As one who has studied the laws of God’s creation and providence, he gives thanks for the righteous judgments of God, for those judgments by which God created diverse creatures and provides for each of them. By the word ‘sevenfold’ he gives us to understand that he does not cease to praise, saying in effect: ‘I ever remember Your judgments.’” His soul is irresistibly drawn toward the praise of God. Wishing to satisfy this thirst, he stands up for praise and, having quenched it somewhat, stops. But as soon as he stops, that same thirst again begins to stir him and raise him to his feet—and so the whole day. “The prophet,” says Blessed Theodoret, “expresses by this his ardent love, since he never came to satiety in divine hymnody.”

Why do some grow bored? Because they have not found a subject that would engage them completely and satisfy them fully. Such a subject is one alone—God and the judgments of His righteousness. Give Him your labor, your time, and your attention, and you will have no time to be bored; on the contrary, you will be as in paradise, for nothing can compare with the sweetness of meditation on God and praise of Him. Having experienced this, the holy fathers devoted all their time to it; and on the same foundation the Holy Church has ordained gathering for prayer many times each day. The ancient “sevenfold” has in our time been condensed into a “threefold” that nonetheless encompasses all seven orders of liturgical praise—the Liturgy not counted. As Pascha among the feasts is the Feast of feasts, so the Liturgy among the services is the Service of services.

Ps. 118:165. Great peace have they which love Your law, and nothing shall offend them.

The prophet begins to show by what means and how the faithful fulfillment of God’s law nourishes the soul. In first place he sets peace — and not a little peace, but an abundant one: “great peace.” As the condition for this he posits not merely the fulfillment of the law, but a loving fulfillment: “great peace have they which love the law.” Without this love the law is a burdensome yoke, but with love it is nourishing manna. Hence peace—a state of all-round satisfaction.

When we have come to love the law, it means it dwells in our heart. And if it dwells in the heart, then there are no longer any passions there, for each commandment of the law, when it is loved, drives out the passion opposed to it, and all of them together drive out all the passions. Thus in the heart that has come to love the law there is no longer any room for passions. And if there are no passions in the heart, there is nothing more to disturb its peace. It rests in peace—or in great peace.

But this peace and rest is not a sluggish state of inactivity, but the blessed state of a life that lives in peace. Peace is the fruit of dispassion; and dispassion restores a person to his natural order and to his original relationship with all that exists. But originally it was appointed that, in uniting with all that exists, man should receive from everything inflows of life-giving forces, elements, and influences. All of this is restored to him by the law he has come to love. From God, from the angelic world, from the human world, and from nature, beneficent influences and actions flow to him without ceasing and nourish his entire being—body, soul, and spirit; and in nourishing him they satisfy him on all sides, and in satisfying him they establish peace, which, by reason of such satisfaction by beneficent influences, is a sweet and deeply nourishing peace. The deeper the peace, the more nourishment has been received.

For such persons there is also “nothing” to “offend” them. We too speak of causing a scandal, that is, making a commotion. Thus when the prophet says that for those who love the law there is no offense, he gives us to understand thereby that the law they have come to love fills them with such deep peace that nothing can disturb their inner calm. Even if the whole world were to collapse upon them, they would not be troubled, for they possess something greater than the whole world and of which no force—even greater than the world—can deprive them. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Those who are inflamed by divine love and who through the keeping of the commandments acquire peace with God live in gladness even if all men were to arm themselves against them. Witness to this is the divine Paul, who cries out: ‘We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed’ (2 Cor. 4:8–9). And the Lord, sending the apostles throughout the whole world ‘as sheep in the midst of wolves’ (Mt. 10:16), said to them: ‘My peace I give to you, My peace I leave with you’” (Jn. 14:27).

Ps. 118:166. I have hoped for Your salvation, O Lord, and have loved Your commandments.

The second source of the spiritual nourishment given by the fulfillment of the commandments is the hope of salvation. I, he says, have hoped for Your salvation—have so settled it in my heart that salvation can come to me from nowhere but from You; I have committed my salvation into Your hands with the unfailing hope that it will certainly be ordered as Your wisdom knows, as Your goodness wills, and as Your providence brings to pass—and I have rested in You wholly. But since I could not possibly have such self-surrender to You, such hope in You, such rest in You, if I were in any way unfaithful before You, I resolved to keep the commandments of Your law faithfully—not simply as a yoke and a duty, but as the need of my heart, which has come to love them: “I have loved Your commandments.” “The hope of salvation,” says Saint Ambrose, “gave birth to love for the commandments; active love for the commandments became the support of hope; hope granted rest in God.”

What a wondrous chain of spiritual changes—or births—and what a wondrous fruit they bear: rest in God! A child on its mother’s breast is warmed and nourished by the very warmth of the mother’s love for it and its love for its mother; so too our spirit is nourished by the very act of entrusting itself to God and resting in Him, for God is near to it—so near that nothing can be nearer; and God is the fullness of all things, a fullness that overflows. Open yourself to Him, and everything you need and can receive will pour out from Him into you and will pour ceaselessly, so long as you remain open to Him by your unshakable faith, your unfailing hope, and your ardent love of goodness.

The Lord says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him” (Rev. 3:20). And He enters to all who open not to bind them with chains, as a master, but to feast them, to delight them, to satisfy them, as a bountiful giver. His supper is always with Him; that is why He says: “Come to Me, all you… and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28). And He gives rest to all who rest in Him—a rest that is without regret.

The same will happen for you; you will be as in paradise. Only hasten to ascend to rest in God—hasten, for although the Lord is near, the way to Him for us is not short. Begin with patient walking in the commandments in the hope of salvation. Do not spare yourself; press yourself without mercy, with a certain severity toward yourself. If you do this, the toilsome walk in the commandments will be transformed into a love for them that gives wings, and the hope of salvation into sight and taste of salvation; and both will be completed in rest in God, from whose hand no one will ever snatch you, as the Savior Himself has assured us: “My Father… is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck” My sheep “out of My Father’s hand” (Jn. 10:29).

Ps. 118:167. My soul has kept Your testimonies, and loved them exceedingly.

The third source of spiritual nourishment received from the fulfillment of the commandments is love for them itself. As those who love each other mutually nourish each other—so that when they are together, each of them feels as though some nourishing and delightful element is flowing out from the other and entering into him—so it is with one who loves the commandments: from them there flows into him, so to speak, a spiritual stream that nourishes and delights him. He perceives this on every occasion when the fulfillment of a commandment lies before him. The inflow of nourishing warmth does not dry up at his first encounter with such an occasion; it continues throughout the entire doing of the good deed it requires, and long afterward, until it is cut off by another occasion of the same nature.

When we are nourished by a particular food, our organic power extracts from it the nourishing element hidden within it. So too a nourishing spiritual element is hidden within every good deed that lies before us. This is the measure of the commandment applicable to that deed. Love for the commandment extracts this element from the deed, making its presence felt in that deed, drawing forth its nourishment and attracting it to oneself in the very act of performing the deed. Only love for the commandments can and knows how to do this. That is why doing good without love does not nourish. It is for the spirit what indigestible food is for the body: there is neither taste nor nourishment in it. Someone might perhaps say: “Well, if I have no taste for doing good, and if doing good itself is for me like being fed on grass, then why should I do good at all?”—For this very reason: so that by this path you may arrive at love for the commandments. See what the prophet says? First: “My soul has kept Your testimonies,” and then: “and loved them”—and not simply “loved,” but “loved them exceedingly.” Begin, then, to keep the commandments, and you will come to love them exceedingly. There is, let us say, an intellectual love, consisting in the conviction that the commandments must unconditionally be kept and loved. From it is subsequently born a love of feeling, or love of the heart, and it is born by means of the active fulfillment of the commandments. There are kinds of food which are not pleasing at first, but are nonetheless accepted out of necessity, and then the body grows accustomed to finding taste in them and finally becomes so attached to them that without them a meal is no meal. Exactly the same happens with us in relation to the commandments. At first they seem to breathe cold, but then they become so akin to the heart that the heart has no rest unless some occasion arises to fulfill them. As one who loves grows sad when long separated from the beloved object, so the soul that has come to love the commandments grows sad if it has long had no occasion to fulfill them. Do not look, then, at the fact that you have no taste yet for doing good, but continue to keep the commandments—only with zeal and self-denial. You will find the taste—and you will love them; you will love them exceedingly.

Ps. 118:168. I have kept Your commandments and Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You, O Lord.

The prophet returns once more to the means of defending and safeguarding a God-pleasing life in accordance with the commandments, and points to awareness of God’s omnipresence and all-seeing gaze as the foremost of these means. This is, as it were, a consequence of his preceding reflections. The fear of transgressing the commandments and the hope of fruitfulness from fulfilling them lead to love. One who has come to love the commandments cannot but love the One who gave them, and having loved Him, cannot forget Him; he carries the memory of Him unceasingly in his heart, for such is the nature of love. One who remembers God with love always has Him before his eyes, himself walks before God’s eyes, and is aware that all his ways and undertakings are open before Him. And what fear does such awareness arouse in the heart in turn, what hope, and what love! And how powerfully, therefore, does it in itself encompass a means of preserving and maintaining life in accordance with the commandments! The prophet has confessed this more than once; and here he attests that, being conscious that all his ways are open before the Lord, he strictly fulfilled all His commandments. He had spoken before of intentionally maintaining this awareness in himself so as not to be turned aside from the right path: “I foresaw the Lord ever before me, for He is at my right hand, that I should not be moved” (Ps. 15:8), and he explained the wandering of other people onto crooked paths by nothing other than the fact that they “set not God before them” (Ps. 53:5). Similarly, Sirach traces proneness to sin to the false confidence of sinners that no one sees them, since darkness is all around and walls conceal them. But they do not understand that “the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, beholding all the ways of men, and considering the most secret parts” (Sir. 23:25–28). If they understood and remembered this, they would not sin.

That is why all the holy ascetics both had and taught others to have as their first endeavor the establishment within themselves of the remembrance of God, so that it would merge with their consciousness—which they called walking before God; for after this, whatever a person may do, he cannot do it other than with the thought that God is before him and watching what and how he does it. And this applies to both inward and outward deeds. Hence follows the careful choice of only that which is pleasing to God, and the performance of what is chosen in the most diligent manner, in the thought that the God-pleasing thing chosen is dedicated to God and is therefore the work of God—one of those works for which, if anyone performs it carelessly, he brings a curse upon himself.

If, then, you wish to keep yourself blameless in all your ways, fix firmly in your memory that all your ways are open before God and that the eyes of the Lord are fixed upon you, upon your deeds, and upon the thoughts of your heart. How is one to become firm in this?—Begin to labor in acquiring such a habit, and the very labor will teach you how to advance in it. Only desire it earnestly and strive toward it zealously.

Verses 169–176

The final stanza of eight verses is headed by the letter “tav,” which means “sign.”

Saint Isaac the Syrian writes, as guidance for one who is walking the path of the inner life toward the intellectual and heartfelt union with the Lord, that he should hold in memory the signs by which he may determine whether he is moving or standing still, and whether he is going rightly or not. “Mark it,” he says, “and entering within yourself, see: which passions have grown weak in you and drawn back from you; is it apparent that amidst the festering of your wound living flesh has begun to form—that is, peace of soul; do you truly find that your thought has begun to be purified; does wandering of thoughts come upon you in the hour of prayer; do you sense within yourself that the soul is being overshadowed with meekness and stillness; is your mind caught up, without the participation of the will, to conceptions of the incorporeal; is there a sudden kindling within you of a joy incomparable with anything and irresistibly drawing your mind inward?” (Isaac the Syrian, Discourse 45). In other places he points out other signs of progress—some for the contemplative life, others for the active life. Each degree of both has its own signs.

Something similar to this is also pointed out by the prophet in the present stanza—that is, signs by which one may determine whether a person stands on the good path and walks upon it as he ought; this is the most fitting conclusion to all his moral instruction. We will not, however, enumerate in advance what is specifically indicated as a sign in this sense: the content of each verse will tell us this of itself.

Ps. 118:169. Let my supplication draw near before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to Your word.

Among all the father-guides one finds the lesson not to trust one’s own mind. Thus if in every matter you seek understanding from the Giver of all wisdom, not trusting yourself, then you are running aright. By doing so you imitate the prophet, who prayed to God: “O Lord, according to Your word give me understanding.” Give me understanding — that is, teach me how to understand something encountered in life or in Scripture, or how to act in the situation at hand. Our mind, by its own capacity given by God, can by itself understand and interpret much; each person also has his own measure of prudence for the ordering of external affairs and his own measure of the sensitivity of conscience for indicating what is morally required—but both that capacity and those measures are not very broad. Therefore even with them there remains a vast sphere of perplexity, the resolution of which is desirable not merely out of curiosity but out of essential necessity. One may turn—as we sometimes do—to those wiser and more experienced than ourselves, but their measure too is not unlimited, and trust in them is not unconditional. Thus one who is conscious that his own measure is meager cannot in many cases fail to turn to the Source of understanding with a prayer for enlightenment. If we further take into account that even in those cases that are resolved by domestic means there always remains, after the resolution, a wavering as to whether it was rightly decided—a wavering that is only removed by intimations from above—then it is better in all cases generally, without distinction, to seek understanding from God, regardless of the exertions of one’s own mind and even of its apparent comprehension of the substance of the matter.

Someone will say: “Wait, and see how long the enlightenment takes to come!” For one who has sincerely and without turning back committed himself into the hands of God and no longer returns to his own methods, enlightenment is a matter of a moment. As soon as he seeks it, he receives it at once, for the Lord is near. From this direction or that, thoughts begin to arise and disclose the truth. It seems as though one’s own mind is working, but at that moment it is being carried by an outside power. What happens to it is the same as with a man who knows a certain place unknown to another—he takes him by the hand and leads him to that place, and the other has only to cry out: “There it is!” There are people who conduct their whole life, even in ordinary matters, by means of such enlightenments.

It is more difficult to discern that the resolution arising in the soul is precisely a guiding enlightenment from above: this cannot be achieved by any definitive enumeration of signs. Both the seeking of such enlightenments in earnest, and the receiving of them and the discerning of them, is a state possible only at a certain level of spiritual progress. For one who has reached that level, everything pertaining to this is clear; but one who has not reached it cannot be made to understand it. It is the same as speaking in an incomprehensible language. That level comes of itself with the purification of the heart from the passions. Then the Spirit of God takes up dwelling—the Spirit of truth, who searches all the depths of God: then, as the Apostle says, the anointing itself teaches (1 Jn. 2:27).

Ps. 118:170. Let my petition come before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to Your word.

A person who is pressed in some way or bound ordinarily seeks deliverance. There is no one who is not in such a situation at every moment, but not all conduct themselves in it in the same way. Some hope to remove all the pressures and untangle all the knots by their own means, and so confine themselves to those means alone; others give their own means no real weight, and though they do not dispense with them entirely, they look for reliable deliverance from God alone, and so hopefully turn to Him in all circumstances—both great and small. These latter alone act rightly.

What perplexities are for the mind, pressures and bonds are for life. The perplexities of the mind are resolved by enlightenment; the bonds of life—by help from above. Incomprehensibly the pressures give way and the obstacles are removed; “crooked things” become “straight, and rough ways smooth” (Lk. 3:5). All things are subject to the nod of God. Submit yourself wholly to the Lord—and every deliverance will be ready for you. “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him, I will set him on high… I am with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him” (Ps. 90:14–15), says the Lord. By virtue of this the prophet also teaches us to turn with a prayer for deliverance: “according to Your word deliver me”—presenting thereby not a claim to deliverance, but simply enlivening his hope before the All-Seeing.

One who has attained such a level walks “trusting like a lion” (Prov. 28:1) in the felt strength that comes from God. This does not mean that he employs no means of his own whatsoever and sits with folded hands—no, he uses everything that depends on him, but relies on none of it, knowing that all such things are unreliable as a spider’s web. He places all his hope in the Lord and is conscious of himself as being strong through the power of God working in him. Hope, however, is not the cessation of active powers, but a disposition of the heart that, amidst intense activity but independent of it, rests on the right hand of God. In this state even crying out for deliverance is not always needed, because hope itself without words is already an unceasing cry.

The seeking of understanding and deliverance is mediated in the prophet’s words by the drawing near and entering of prayer before the face of the Lord: “Let my supplication draw near before You… let my petition come before You.” This too belongs among the signs of progress. Prayer in such a state resembles the smoke of incense, which at one time spreads along the ground, at another disperses in the air, and at yet another rises like “a pillar” upward (Song 3:6). The last image depicts undistracted prayer, in which the mind, engaged with nothing extraneous, stands soberly before God who is everywhere present and all-seeing. Such prayer by its very nature draws near to the Lord and enters before Him. It is formed simultaneously with the establishment of hope and love in the heart and is given wings by them, and it alone draws both understanding and deliverance. All of this together is the sign of the highest degree of the spiritual state, in which the God-surrendered spirit abides in God and God abides in him, having found in him a dwelling fit for Himself by reason of the purity established within.

Ps. 118:171. My lips shall pour forth praise, when You have taught me Your statutes.

“Shall pour forth”—of themselves, without any effort or prior deliberation. A song to God will arise in the heart, burst forth from the lips, and soar toward heaven. This is a song of praise, thanksgiving, and every manner of prayer. If this has begun to happen to you, know that you are already in your proper rank—the rank of the angels, who ceaselessly praise and hymn God whom they behold with their minds.

At first the mind prays with effort, forcing itself to prayer by the power of the will. And this is, of course, mental prayer. Mental prayer gradually warms the heart and leads it into another prayer—mental-and-heartfelt prayer. The heart, having grown accustomed to praying under the action of the mind and having grown warm, itself begins to move toward prayer and to draw the mind into it. This heartfelt prayer is true prayer as it ought to be—a prayer that encompasses the whole being of a person, for where the heart is, there is the whole person. This state is manifested by a drawing inward that occurs during prayer, reading, and reflection, and even apart from all of these—while at some task. The latter is higher than the former.

This is precisely the state that Saint Isaac had in mind when he asked: “Is your mind caught up, without the participation of the will, to conceptions of the incorporeal? Is there a sudden kindling within you of a joy incomparable with anything? Does a certain pleasure flow out of the heart and draw the mind wholly?” If yes, then this is a sign that the person who experiences it has advanced far along the path to perfection. Further, Saint Isaac describes this state as follows: “At times a certain delight and rejoicing enters the whole body; the tongue of flesh cannot express it. Sometimes this delight flows from the heart in the hour of prayer, or during reading, or by reason of an intensity of thought. And at other times it comes without any of these, while at work, and at night, when one is between sleep and waking, as if awake and yet not awake. But when this delight—beating through his whole body—comes upon a man, he thinks in that hour that the Kingdom of Heaven is nothing other than this very thing.” How, after this, can the lips of one who is in such a state not “pour forth” song?

But one must know that this state is not the fruit of prayerful labor alone, but the consequence of the whole God-pleasing life, of all the labors of doing good and of ascetic striving, and that it manifests itself when the heart begins to approach purity. The prophet points to this in the words: “when You have taught me Your statutes.” The statutes are the commandments. Being taught them does not mean learning written commandments by heart, but the active acquisition of a habitual skill in them, much as one acquires a trade. When this takes place, the commandments take up dwelling in the heart and constitute a constant inner order governing all its movements, so that in every situation, before any conscious thought, the heart spontaneously gives direction as to how one ought to act. Such a heart is a holy and pure heart, from which only what is right and pleasing to God proceeds. This is what the prophet establishes as the source of the pouring forth through the lips of hymns of gratitude, praise, or prayer to God. Pray, therefore: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 50:12).

Ps. 118:172. My tongue shall speak of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteousness.

Physicians determine the state of bodily health by the tongue, and speech discloses the state of spiritual health. Wise speech shows a wise person, devout speech shows a God-fearing person, and corrupt speech shows a corrupt one. Whatever a person’s soul aches for, that is what he speaks of. If your tongue sweetly speaks only of the words of God, this is a sign that your soul aches for them—that is, it loves them, desires to fulfill them itself, and desires to see them fulfilled by others. If you are so disposed, it means that the words of God—the commandments—are held by you not in the mind but are embraced by the heart, fill it, and constitute its inner order; and this shows that you are no longer a servant but a son, acting not under compulsion but of your own free will, by your own good inclinations, having entered into the plans and intentions of your Father.

This is natural: when you have come to love the words of God, you speak only of them, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and one cannot restrain them from speaking of these things. But other motivations must also enter in—namely, gratitude to God and love for one’s brethren. In his penitential sentiments the prophet said: “I will teach transgressors Your ways, and the ungodly shall turn to You” (Ps. 50:15). While repenting, he makes a vow that he will not only himself always walk in God’s ways, but will also teach others the same, for it is in the multiplication of those who walk these ways that the glory of God consists—the God who has established and pointed out those ways. If even in the time of repentance he was thus inspired, will he be silent once he has received absolution and purification?

One saint said in humility: “I have lost my way and sunk deep in the mire; and though I myself am still mired in it, I cry out to others: do not go there, lest you sink in as I have.” Another, with the same humility, was accustomed to say: “I am a post set on the roads; and though I myself do not move from the spot, I faithfully point others toward the road.” In one disposition or the other, the words of God are spoken by the tongue out of goodwill toward one’s brethren. Having experienced in practice that sin binds and that the commandments give freedom—and this in manifold respects—who can hold back from declaring to others where the road lies and where the crossroads are? The prophet speaks the words of God with his tongue, because all of them are righteousness. If you wish to live a true life, live as the commandments prescribe, for every other life is no life.

If the speaking of the words of God is a good sign, then silence about them is a bad sign, and speech contrary to them is the worst sign of all. Where people speak as though with learning, but not according to God; where people speak entirely of empty things, and still more of shameful and sinful things—there both those speaking and those listening have clearly become estranged from the words of God; and those estranged from the words of God are estranged from God who declared them; and one who is estranged from God and from God—what is he? In the Apocalypse there is mention of the depths of Satan (Rev. 2:24). And indeed there are gatherings to which no other name can be given.

Ps. 118:173. Let Your hand be ready to save me, for I have chosen Your commandments.

This is the same as the prophet saying: “I am Your; save me.” “Your commandments,” he says, “I have chosen”—that is, I have no other will, no other desire, than to walk in Your commandments; they occupy all the thoughts of my mind, all the feelings of my heart, and all the inclinations of my will. And since this is in me, I am wholly Your; and if I am Your, then be pleased that Your hand be always with me, “to save me.”

What is the good sign here?—Both in the very boldness of crying out thus to God, and in such a choosing. The latter is the condition of the former. It is impossible to acquire boldness before God unless a person has first surrendered himself entirely to the commandments of God and exhausted all his powers in fulfilling them. Only then can there be born in him the feeling of belonging to God and of God’s belonging to him—a feeling that is secretly germinating, growing strong, and thereafter constituting the foundation of all reverent relations to God. Resting on it, the prophet says: I am not a stranger to You, O Lord, but wholly Your. “Let Your hand, therefore, be ready to save me.”

Boldness before God is a sweet feeling, but it is impossible with an impure conscience. Boldness enters before the very face of God, while a burdened conscience weighs one down. It happens that even a powerful bird cannot rise from the ground when its wings are caked in mud and its whole body is covered with mire. It must shake off the mud and wash itself; then, being lightened, it will soar with its natural flight. So too the soul must shake off lawlessness and make itself clean by establishing in itself lawfulness, so that, having entered thereby into its proper divine element and moving freely in it, it may be able to reach the throne of God. But even having stood before God, how can one look upon His face if somewhere within there lurks something that does not choose His commandments?—for before God all is open, and the soul that has stood before His face is clearly conscious of this. Thus true, unfeigned, sincere boldness before God is a sign of great moral purity.

Boldness is not contrived; it arises of itself in the heart as a result of the labors of fulfilling the commandments and the purity of heart thereby acquired. Drawing near to God in prayer and the very act of praying is already a manifestation of boldness; but not everyone who prays or performs prayer is already bold, just as “not every one that says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which is in heaven” (Mt. 7:21). We pray, and we hope; but boldness is the highest fruit of hope, although it is conceived and matures together with it.

And hope itself is genuine and not genuine. It often happens that a person thinks he hopes, when in fact he has no true hope. But boldness cannot even be contrived: it is a state, not a separate act. It arises from the mingling of the power of God with the powers of a person. One who is conscious of this acts authoritatively, as a son, not doubting that he will do something amiss, for he sees himself not as the one acting, but as one in whom God’s power is acting throughout. The hand of God is under him, over him, around him, and within him. Feeling this and resting in the all-working of God, he commits himself to God: let it be so; let Your hand be with me and within me as it is; then my salvation is certain and is my unfailing portion.

Ps. 118:174. I have longed for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my meditation.

As the choosing of the commandments before this, so here the longing for the Lord’s salvation and the ceaseless meditation on the law express one thing—ardent zeal for salvation through the faithful fulfillment of the commandments. This zeal is the driving force toward a God-pleasing life in accordance with the commandments. Where there is this zeal, there is life; where there is none, there is no life.

Saint Isaac the Syrian describes the significance of this zeal in the economy of the active life according to God as follows: “Behind every thought of good desire, at the beginning of its stirring, there follows a certain zeal, resembling in its heat burning coals. It commonly guards this thought and does not allow any opposition, hindrance, or obstacle to approach it, for it acquires great strength and an inexpressible power to guard the soul from slackening or from timidity when every sort of constraining circumstance rushes upon it. And just as the first thought itself is the power of holy desire, planted by nature in the soul, so this zeal is a thought moved by the irascible power in the soul, given to us by God for our benefit, for the guarding of the natural boundary, for the expression of the concept of one’s freedom by the fulfillment of the natural desire residing in the soul. This is a virtue without which nothing good is accomplished; it is called zeal because from time to time it moves, stirs up, inflames, and strengthens a person to disregard the flesh in afflictions and in the passions and temptations that meet him, to ceaselessly give his soul over to death and to go forth to meet the apostate power for the sake of accomplishing that which the soul has mightily desired. Someone clothed in Christ has called this zeal a dog and a guardian both of the law of God and of virtue, which is the fulfillment of the law of God. This power of zeal is strengthened in two ways: it is awakened and set alight for the guarding of the house, and likewise by two ways is it brought to exhaustion, drowsiness, and sloth.”

“The first two ways are the following: first, fear that causes a person to fear for the good he has acquired or has in view of acquiring, lest it be stolen or destroyed by some chance. When this fear is awakened in the nature, then zeal—which we have called a dog—burns day and night like a blazing furnace and arouses the nature. And like a cherub, the person is awakened and attends at every hour to what is around him, and, as the aforementioned one says, if a bird passes by, he stirs and barks with swiftness and indescribable impetuosity. There is another way of stirring up our dog, and that is when the desire for virtue grows greatly in the soul; for in the measure in which this desire grows in the soul, in the same measure does this dog—that is, the natural zeal for virtue—become inflamed.”

Correspondingly, there are also two ways of cooling zeal. “The first—when the desire itself diminishes and ceases in the soul; and the second—when a certain thought of confidence and boldness enters the soul and is established in it, and the person begins to hope, to think, and to hold to the idea that there is no cause for him to fear suffering harm from any power, and so he lays aside the weapon of zeal and is like a house without a guard: the dog falls asleep and for a long time abandons its watch” (Isaac the Syrian, Discourse 32).

Here is the whole operation of zeal—how it is conceived, grows, and diminishes. Enter within yourself with these indications and determine whether zeal is present in you, and whether the means by which it is maintained are active in you. If yes, then you are alive; if not, then you are dead or asleep.

Ps. 118:175. My soul shall live, and shall praise You, and Your judgments shall help me.

Here is yet another means of maintaining zeal and at the same time a sign of one who runs well—a certainty extending to the point of sight that the path chosen leads directly to the goal, as one appointed by God, indicated by Him, and under His protection. “My soul shall live”—what certainty breathes in these words! Not a shadow of wavering. The Lord said: follow after Me, according to My commandments, and you shall be saved, receive rest, and live for ever. The person believed and walks on, saying within himself to the Lord: I believe, O Lord, that so it will be: “my soul shall live”—already being made alive here by grace as a pledge of eternal life in You and with You. “My soul shall live and shall praise You.” He is already there in his soul—at the place of reaching the goal—and, as one who has already found what he sought, he praises the Lord. It will be as You have promised, O Lord! I shall enter into Your rest and shall glorify Your name forever. But while nourishing such certainty, he rests not on himself but on the all-encompassing help of God—on the all-working of God in souls wholly surrendered to Him. “And Your judgments shall help me.”

Thus God Himself has promised: “I am with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him… and will show him My salvation” (Ps. 90:15–16).

All of this lies in the depths of the soul of one who runs on the right path, and testifies to the rightness of his running from the most inward side of his disposition. He runs, striving with all his might in unfailing hope, not claiming anything for himself, however, and resting his hope on nothing of his own, but resting wholly on the all-bountiful generosity of God.

The certainty of salvation is nourished and sustained by the fact that the path of salvation has been established by God and has been walked by Him Himself, our Savior, in human nature. Having walked this path and dwelling in glory, the Savior cries out: “Walk this path, and you will all be here as well.” Who, believing this and seeing this, would be shaken by doubt? And they are not shaken; every person nourishes the certainty that his soul shall live, if without wandering he walks the path upon which he has set out at God’s direction.

But will he walk it—that is the question. He will, if he does not rely on himself but surrenders all to the Lord to act in him. Do only this, says the Lord: keep moving your feet and do not dig in your heels, and I will assuredly bring you to the end of the path, to the harbor and the house of rest. Self-reliance in the hope of salvation is ruinous; but one who is confident that God, who desires all to be saved, will save the one who seeks salvation—the one who does not lie idle but acts with all his strength according to God’s direction—and will save him by whatever judgments He knows best, both pointing out the path and granting strength: in such a one this certainty is holy, and it serves as a sign not only of right walking but of great advancement in the running according to the spirit, since it appears as a result of successive labors, no small degree of purification of heart, and the felt experience of God’s protection and intercession.

Ps. 118:176. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.

After such advancement, the signs of which have just been set forth by the prophet, why would one still cry out: “Seek me—I am a lost sheep”? But here is what is wondrous in the matter of salvation: the more a person advances in it, the more he sees himself as lowly and poor, so that while moving toward the better, he seems to sink ever deeper into the worse and to see himself as utterly worthless—though he does not despair of his salvation. In the accounts of the ascetic lives of the saints, it is noted of one of the greatest ascetics that throughout his life he used to say of himself: “I am sunk in the mire up to my very neck, and only my lips remain free to cry out: ‘God, have mercy on me!’” It is noted of Saint Anthony that God Himself conceals advancement from the eyes of those advancing—both through outward humiliation of them, and by permitting inward disorders, at the sight of which one cannot but confess: “I am good for nothing,” and cannot but cry out with the voice of the publican: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” (Lk. 18:13). Such a humble and self-abasing confession is the surest sign of right running and advancement. One of the saints observed: watch—as soon as you begin to lean toward righteousness, know that you have begun to stray from the path, for the sure sign of salvific walking is humility and self-abasement. Saint Athanasius the Great finds precisely this meaning in the present verse: “In what, then,” he says, “has the prophet advanced, if he again says of himself that he is a lost sheep?—In this: that he has preserved humility of mind, according to what was said: ‘When you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants’” (Lk. 17:10).

What, then, does the hope of salvation rest on, when even the greatest of the spiritually advanced have such a deep sense of their own unworthiness?—On the consciousness that they do not forget the commandments of God. Every such person, while confessing that he is good for nothing, at the same time truthfully witnesses that he knows the commandments, recognizes their full binding force upon himself, and that from the time of his conversion he has never permitted himself to consciously violate even the least of them. This consciousness gives him the boldness to hope that, though he be good for nothing, the All-Merciful, out of His mercy, will not cast him off, but will seek him as a lost sheep, and taking him upon His shoulder, will bring him to the place of salvation.

This feeling of unworthiness in the hope of salvation in the Lord is how right life begins in repentance, sealed with a vow of unswerving fidelity to the commandments of God. This feeling fills the soul throughout the entire time of the life of repentance, indicating thereby that one who is running runs well. It leads to weeping, as Saint Isaac the Syrian describes: “intermittent at first, and then continuous, lasting for years, until it dries up by God’s will, leaving behind it once again that same sense of unworthiness, rooted and lying in the very depths of the heart of the one being saved and purified.”

What, therefore, a fitting conclusion to the whole psalm does this verse make!—It raises one to the very summit of moral perfection, yet points to it not in self-praise or in claiming anything for oneself, but in self-abasement and in seeing nothing worthy within oneself. “An unprofitable servant, a lost sheep”—these are the cries of the true servants of God, pleasing to God and drawing down His good will!

***

Blessed Theodoret concludes his interpretation of this psalm with these words: “Having given a brief exposition of this psalm, we ask readers not to rest content with what has been written, nor to suppose that this alone belongs to the prophet—that is, that this alone was what the prophet wished to say. On the contrary, let each one draw out what is of particular benefit to himself, and prepare for himself a preventive remedy against his own particular ailments.” Blessed Augustine writes something similar. “To the best of my ability, and with whatever help the Lord has granted me, I have interpreted this great psalm. Those wiser and more learned than I have doubtless already done this better, or will do so; yet this ought not to have released me from serving this work as best I could, especially when my brethren urged me earnestly to do so.”

If it was fitting for them to close their interpretations with such words, it is all the more fitting for me. I also ask that the reader pardon the many repeated occurrences of the same thoughts. Despite every desire to avoid it, this proved impossible, because over the long stretch of time what had been written earlier was naturally forgotten, and when returning to the work again, the old seemed new. It also happened that a certain thought would be left aside because it seemed to have already been set forth more than once, and was therefore replaced with another that appeared to be new—when in fact the former may have been the truly new one, and the latter the old. I take comfort in the thought that for those who love truth, such repetition will not grow tedious, for it gives what is beloved and pleasant—just as it is pleasant to meet a friend, however many times one happens to do so.

I will add this: all one hundred and seventy-six verses speak of God’s commandments and our relationship to them, and speak of them plainly. There is scarcely a single verse whose meaning would be difficult to grasp or would require special explanation. Therefore all attention was directed not to that, but to how the moral reality pointed to by each verse stands within the chain of moral deeds and phenomena. As a guide for indicating precisely that aspect of the matter, the significance of the letters was taken as the framework. Each letter suggested a thought upon which, as upon a thread, all the thoughts contained in all the verses beginning with that same letter were then strung together. Once a thought appeared that ran through all the verses, the further interpretation no longer presented any great difficulty.

To the question—but really now, is this truly how everything ought to be understood?—I will answer that one cannot say that every verse “must” be understood precisely as I have set it forth; but that every one of them “can” be understood in this way, I venture to hope, no one will deny.

Anyone who reads this entire commentary straight through cannot fail to notice an unevenness in the tone of the writing, and in the degree of liveliness of thought and feeling. I ask for indulgence—I am a man of many changes. Moreover, the work was not done all at once. As many sittings as there were, so many different moods, which of themselves broke through into the words.

Selected Psalms

Introduction

The Author

Georgy Vasilievich Govorov was born on January 10, 1815, in the village of Chernavsk, in the Oryol province of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. He grew up inside the rhythm of church life, and that formation carried him along the ordinary path of a clergyman’s gifted son: the theological college at Livny, then the seminary at Oryol, and finally, from 1837, the Theological Academy of Kiev, where he completed a master’s degree in 1841. At Kiev he was tonsured a monk in 1840 and took the name Theophan, after Theophanes the Confessor. In the years that followed he taught in the Church’s schools, served with the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem, and lived for a time near Constantinople and on Mount Athos. Those years abroad were not incidental: on Athos and in the libraries of the Christian East he copied and collected the writings of the Fathers, and the labor of translating them would occupy the rest of his life.

He was consecrated a bishop in 1859, first over the see of Tambov and Shatsk, and in 1863 was transferred to Vladimir. As a bishop he traveled his dioceses, preached, founded a school for girls, and shared in the joys and troubles of his people. Yet the pastoral office did not answer the deepest desire of his soul, which was for stillness and undistracted prayer. In 1866, after only seven years as a bishop, he asked to be released from the government of his diocese and retired to the Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov country. For six years he lived there quietly, attending the services of the church. Then, in 1872, he withdrew into strict reclusion: he ceased to leave his cell, saw no one but his confessor, arranged a small chapel where he served the Liturgy alone, and gave himself wholly to prayer, to reading, and to writing. He remained in that seclusion for more than twenty years, until his repose on January 6, 1894. He was buried in the Kazan church of the Vysha monastery.

Reclusion did not silence him; it made him one of the most widely read spiritual teachers Russia has produced. From his cell he answered the twenty to forty letters that arrived each day, and he wrote steadily for the whole Church. His major undertaking was a Russian rendering of the Philokalia — the Dobrotolyubie — issued in five volumes between 1877 and 1889, which carried the ascetical and contemplative Fathers to a vast lay readership; he also gave Russia its version of Unseen Warfare, extended commentaries on the epistles of the Apostle Paul, and such enduring guides to the interior life as The Path to Salvation and The Spiritual Life and How to Be Attuned to It. His particular gift, often remarked, was to set the wisdom of the ancient Fathers in language a modern reader could take up without a scholar’s training. Because he lived so near our own time, and wrote for people much like ourselves, many find him more approachable than the older patristic literature he loved. In 1988, at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church held at the Trinity–Sergius Lavra during the celebration of the millennium of the Baptism of Rus’, he was glorified as a saint; he is commemorated on January 10.

The Work: Occasion & Purpose

Selected Psalms is a small book with a modest history, and the modesty is part of its meaning. It gathers Theophan’s expositions of four psalms—Psalms 1, 2, 33, and 51 in the numbering of the Greek and Slavonic Psalter. The greater part of it is posthumous. After the saint’s repose, those who sorted his papers found among them selections he had copied from the Fathers and teachers of the Church, together with his own beginnings of a commentary on the Psalter—the traces, evidently, of an intention he never lived to complete. The editors judged that not a single line of his labor should be lost, and so they published these fragments. The readings of Psalms 1, 2, and 51 were assembled in this way from his manuscripts and his patristic excerpts. The exposition of Psalm 33 stands apart: this one Theophan wrote out fully and finished, and it forms the heart of the collection. In the Russian editions the four psalms are printed together with his long and complete commentary on Psalm 118, of which they are, as it were, the smaller companions.

The purpose of the book is stated plainly in Theophan’s own preface to Psalm 33, and it governs the whole. He did not set out to write a learned commentary. He wanted to show how the psalms that a Christian hears again and again in church may be turned to the ordering of the inner life—how to draw from them lessons for the disposition of the heart and the conduct of a day, and so of a lifetime. Psalm 33 he chose in part because it is among the most frequently heard: in the Orthodox rite it is chanted toward the close of the Divine Liturgy, as the faithful prepare to return to their scattered occupations, and Theophan reads it as a parting instruction handed to them at the door of the church—a rule of life to carry out into the world. What holds the four together is not a scholarly program but this single pastoral aim, the aim of all his writing: to kindle in the reader the spirit of prayer and a settled zeal to walk according to the will of God.

Argument & Structure

The book moves through its four psalms in the order of the Psalter, and each is read closely, most often a verse or a single phrase at a time. Theophan does not hurry. He will pause over one Slavonic word, open its sense by weighing the Hebrew and the Greek of the Seventy behind it, and only then press that sense home upon the reader’s own heart. Throughout he reads in company—Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, Theodoret of Cyrus, John Chrysostom, and, in the fourth psalm, Augustine are all summoned as witnesses—letting the Fathers accumulate before he turns their testimony to the work of self-examination.

Psalm 1 opens the collection as it opens the Psalter. Theophan treats it as a foreword to the whole book: it names the goal toward which every soul reaches—blessedness—and marks out the two ways that lead toward it or away from it. He divides the short psalm into three movements. First come the marks of a God-fearing life, described by what such a person refuses (he will not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the destroyers) and by what he loves (his delight is in the law of the Lord); the opposite traits of the wicked are implied by contrast. Then the condition of each is set out: the righteous man full of life and fruit, like a tree planted by streams of water, and the wicked unsettled and driven, like dust before the wind. Finally comes their standing, among people and before God—the ungodly carrying no weight in the assembly, and the Lord Himself knowing and guarding the way of the righteous while the way of the ungodly perishes. A closing section, “Subjects for Reflection,” turns the whole into material for meditation.

Psalm 2 lifts the gaze from the single soul to the nations. Why do the peoples rage against the Lord and against His Anointed? Theophan reads it, as the Church has always read it, of Christ the King enthroned on Zion, the Son to whom the Father says, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you; and he hears in its close the summons that the psalm addresses to the rulers of the earth—to serve the Lord with fear and to take counsel while there is time. This psalm he treats in a single sustained reading rather than by strophes.

Psalm 33 is the longest and most finished of the four, and the center of the book. Its superscription recalls how David, a fugitive from Saul, feigned madness before the Philistine king and was released—the psalm names the king Abimelech, while the narrative of 1 Kingdoms (1 Samuel) 21 calls him Achish of Gath, and Theophan handles the two names without strain. Out of that deliverance David composed a psalm of thanksgiving and instruction, arranged in Hebrew as an alphabetic acrostic. Theophan follows its structure carefully, dividing the psalm into two “decades” of verses, and each decade again into parts, so that the reader is led through it in orderly stages: the thanksgiving and the summons to magnify the Lord together; then the great turn to the teaching of the fear of God—what it is, how it is practiced, and what its fruits are, down to the special favor God shows, the swift hearing of prayer, His nearness in sorrow, and the recompense of the righteous and the wicked at the last. It is here that Theophan’s scholar’s care is most visible: he weighs the Hebrew against the Septuagint, and both against the readings of Symmachus and the Chaldean paraphrase, so that the plain devotional lesson rests on firm ground in the text. The governing theme—the fear of God as the beginning and the school of the whole spiritual life—is the one he most wanted his readers to carry away.

Psalm 51 closes the collection and answers Psalm 33 across the space between them, a pairing that Chrysostom already noticed. It was occasioned, its heading says, by the treachery of Doeg the Edomite, who betrayed to Saul the priests of Nob who had sheltered David, and so brought about their slaughter. Against this “mighty one” who boasts in mischief, whose tongue is a whetted razor and who loves evil more than good, Theophan sets the divine judgment that uproots such a man from the land of the living, and against him the righteous who trust not in wealth or power but in the mercy of God, and who flourish, in the psalm’s own image, like a green olive tree in the house of the Lord. The reading becomes an extended meditation on the destructiveness of the slanderous and flattering tongue and on the security of the soul that has once and for all placed its hope in God.

Theological & Spiritual Significance

These are not lectures on ancient poems but readings meant for the soul, and their significance lies in what they show about a whole way of reading Scripture. Theophan stands in the old catholic tradition of the Fathers, for whom the psalms are not merely records of David’s history but a living text addressed to every believer. He treats the historical occasions seriously—David before the Philistine king, the treason of Doeg—but he never rests in them; the deliverance of David becomes the pattern of every soul’s deliverance, the fear of God taught in Psalm 33 becomes the reader’s own schooling, and the two ways of Psalm 1 become the two ways that lie open before anyone who takes up the book. This is the ancient conviction that Scripture is for the building up of the inner life, held without strain and applied with unusual directness.

The unifying theme is the fear of God, understood not as dread but as the reverent, watchful love that is the beginning of wisdom and the foundation of prayer. In Theophan’s hands it is intensely practical. He is interested in the disposition of the heart, the ordering of thoughts, the temper a Christian should carry through an ordinary day; he wants the psalm to become “a program of conduct.” In this he is recognizably the same teacher who gave Russia the Philokalia, translating the contemplative tradition of the Christian East into terms a layman could live by. The four psalms make that tradition audible in miniature: the same attention to watchfulness and the guarding of the heart that fills his larger works is here trained on the words a worshiper sings in church.

Their significance is also liturgical, and here they touch the common life of the whole Church. Psalm 33, in the Orthodox usage Theophan knew, is chanted near the end of the Divine Liturgy, and his exposition is in effect a meditation on a text the faithful hear every week—an attempt to keep familiar words from going stale, to make what is often repeated sink in and be engrafted upon the heart. That instinct, to press home the meaning of what the Church prays continually, is one every Christian tradition can recognize. The book asks nothing of the reader but attention and a willingness to be examined; its whole force is to turn the psalms from beautiful language into a mirror for self-knowledge and a school of prayer.

The Text & This Edition

Theophan wrote in Russian, drawing on the Church-Slavonic Psalter that he had prayed all his life. This edition presents his four expositions in a fresh, readable modern English, translated from the public-domain Russian text as it circulates in the standard collected editions of the saint’s works. It is an English edition, not a parallel or bilingual one: the reader meets Theophan’s commentary in continuous English prose, without the Russian set against it.

Two conventions of this edition deserve a word. First, the numbering of the psalms. Theophan uses the numbering of the Greek Septuagint and the Slavonic Psalter, which differs from the Hebrew reckoning familiar to many English readers: the four psalms treated here as 1, 2, 33, and 51 correspond to Psalms 1, 2, 34, and 52 in a Hebrew-numbered Bible. We have kept his numbering throughout, because it is the numbering he expounds and the one heard in the services he had in view. Second, the verses of the psalms themselves. Theophan quotes and interprets the Slavonic text, often turning on a particular Slavonic word; wherever he cites a verse, it has been rendered into plain English directly from his own wording, and not borrowed from any established English Psalter, so that what the reader encounters is the text exactly as he read and explained it. Scripture references are given in the modern style familiar to English readers—book, chapter, and verse in Arabic numerals.

The book is presented under the name by which the Church receives its author, Saint Theophan the Recluse; the traditional attribution stands without qualification. Those who prepared this English text are credited as translators, never as authors. The aim throughout has been fidelity—to carry over not only Theophan’s meaning but the warmth and plainness of his voice, so that this small posthumous gathering may do for the English reader what he intended it to do: turn a few well-known psalms into a school of the fear of God and a way toward salvation.

In Place of a Foreword

Among the papers left after the repose of Saint Theophan, we found selections from the writings of the Fathers and teachers of the Church, as well as his own beginnings of an exposition of the Psalter—evidently inspired by his conviction of its great significance in the spiritual life of the Christian. Unfortunately, the saint, occupied with his other great labors, never had the opportunity to bring this intention to completion. The most perfect fruit of his exposition of the Psalms is Psalm 118, which he interpreted long ago. What the reader now has before him is nothing more than preparatory work. But, wishing that not a single line of the saint’s labors be lost for the edification of the faithful, we venture to publish this brief exposition of Psalms 1, 2, and 51, drawn from the manuscripts of Saint Theophan.

Psalm 1

True Blessedness. The Righteous Man Flourishes Like a Tree

The first psalm is, as it were, a foreword to the entire Psalter. It points to the ultimate goal toward which all people strive—blessedness—and outlines the means of attaining it in faithfulness to the law of the Lord. The whole Psalter, too, is directed toward this same end: to kindle the spirit of prayer and the spirit of zeal for unwavering walk according to the will of God. It portrays people who fear God and keep His commandments with all their soul, and by contrast—people who are sinful and lack the fear of God. The former it calls blessed, as indeed they are; the end of the latter is ruin.

God alone is wholly blessed. Rational creatures share in this blessedness insofar as they share in the likeness of God; drawing near to the divine likeness—turning away from evil and zeal for the will of God—causes human nature, enlivened by communion with God, to become like a fruitful tree beside streams of water. But all this comes from the good pleasure of God, from the fact that the Lord knows the way of the righteous, attends to them, and cares for them. The condition of the ungodly is the opposite of this. All of this is expounded in the first psalm, whose content is a portrayal of the character of people who fear God. Three parts may be discerned in the psalm:

1) the traits of activity of people who fear God, and by contrast—of the ungodly (verses 1 and 2);

2) their condition—full of life and good fruit. The condition of the ungodly—unstable and turbulent (verses 3–4);

3) their standing: a) among people; b) before God (verses 5–6).

This is a complete picture portraying good and evil people, the righteous and the wicked.

1) The activity of God-fearing people is described first: a) negatively—by indicating what they do not do. There are three traits: they do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, they do not stand in the way of sinners, they do not sit in the seat of the destroyers. In a word—they turn away from evildoers. Then: b) positively—by indicating what they do and with what they are occupied. There are two traits: their will is in the law, and their mind is engaged with it also… Notions and desires—all in the law… In a word—these people do exclusively good. Beneath these traits, by contrast, the opposite traits of unrighteous people are also implied—those in whom the negative traits of the former are positive and the positive are negative; that is, they are given over to ungodliness, sin, and destructive schemes; they turn their heart away from God’s law and do not dwell on it at all. 2) The condition of the righteous: full of life and strength, like a tree beside water—from which, in due season, they bring forth fruits of righteousness and prosper in all things. The condition of sinners is not so: they, like lifeless dust, are tossed about and have nothing firm within them (Job 21:18). 3) Their standing: a) among people—the Prophet depicts this only with respect to sinners, thereby implying by contrast the standing of the righteous (just as in verse 1, by depicting the traits of the righteous, he implies the sinners negatively)—he says that the ungodly carry no weight among people. The judgment and the counsel—the assembly of all respected persons who have a voice. The ungodly will not even show themselves there. b) Before God: the Lord knows — He governs, cares for, and guards the ways of the righteous—of the blessed. The way of the ungodly will perish — that is, their end is eternal ruin. Here too lies the reason why the righteous man and the sinner are as they are portrayed above.

The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Verse 1. Blessed is the man who did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, and did not stand in the way of sinners, and did not sit in the seat of the destroyers.

Blessed is the man. All the blessings—all the advantages—are on the side of the righteous. He begins with the supreme good, so passionately sought by all yet found nowhere. He points to a sure but arduous path; therefore he places blessedness at the forefront, as both goal and reward, to inspire courage. The Chaldean and Syriac render it: beatitudines viri. The Syriac renders blessed with the same words in the Gospel of Matthew (Mt. 5:3). The LXX (Septuagint, the translation of the Seventy interpreters): blessed is the man. Some see here an interjection, an adverb, or a particle—a rhetorical exclamation that burst from the Prophet’s breast after a silent meditation on the righteous and the wicked: “How good is his lot!” Be that as it may, it in any case denotes such a condition in which, both in body and soul and in outward relations, everything proceeds according to the heart’s desire, as a foretaste of eternal blessedness (Ps. 19:5, 32:1–2, 33:13, 34:9–10, 83:5; Deut. 28:3 and following).—The man, in Hebrew: ha-ish, that very man—a person in general possessing a manly soul—it denotes not so much the sex as the disposition of the soul. Did not walk in the counsel — he turns away from their schemes and deliberations, does not bind himself to them, does not imitate their stratagems.

Counsel, atsat — the deliberation and resolution to attain a proposed goal by one or another means.

Of the ungodly. The Hebrew word: rasha — restless, turbulent, and disturbing others—the ungodly, having no peace of conscience, are tossed by the waves of their own lusts into various lawless deeds (there is no peace) (Is. 48:22, 57:21; Prov. 4:16) (they cannot sleep unless they have done evil). The counsels of the ungodly are described in Job (depart from us, we desire no knowledge of Your ways): (Job 21:14–16, 22:17–18; Ezek. 11:2–3).

Walking—a common metaphor used to signify schemes, endeavors, undertakings, and courses of action—by which, as with feet, one reaches either a particular goal or the goal of one’s whole life (Gen. 17:1; Ps. 118:1, 3, 9 and elsewhere; Rom. 8:1 and others).

Did not walk — a perfect past, used in place of the present… decisively, categorically he did not go—not once, but always—this is the rule of his life. The Hebrews, when expressing the present, used either the past or the future. An example of the former is here; an example of the latter is in the following verse: he meditates.

In the Greek translation of the LXX and in our Church Slavonic (did not walk, he meditates) we see a literal translation of the original; the Russian translation (does not walk, he reflects) is a translation by sense, the so-called paraphrase. In Russian one says: “what is he to you—a brother or an uncle?” when in fact he is exactly that.

It should be noted that, according to a grammatical idiom of the Hebrew language, the negative expressions here emphatically (emotionally) express the contrary—the positive. As if to say: he flees far off, he turns away from every bond with the ungodly, he loathes them, counting as nothing their outward glitter that sometimes attends sinners.

Did not stand in the way of sinners. If sometimes, through the weakness of the flesh, he strays onto the broad road of vice, he does not stop there on that wide way that leads to ruin (Mt. 7:13); but he immediately hastens to return to the narrow way of God’s commandments, so as to walk it unswervingly once more. The way denotes established customs to which one constantly adheres, and the corresponding plans, habits, concerns, undertakings, and methods. Do not walk in the way of the ungodly, and turn your foot from their paths (Prov. 1:15; Ps. 118:9, 15, 35). Of sinners — those who long ago abandoned the works of the law, who sinned not just once but by frequent falls have made sin a habit—they sin ceaselessly—it is all they do and consider; not out of ignorance but knowingly, and no longer in secret but openly—unashamed before people and not fearing God. We are commanded not to stand in the way of such people—not to linger, not to become hardened in sins and vices, not to establish or make permanent our habitation or sojourn among the destroyers.

Did not sit in the seat of the destroyers. — Seat, moshav — in Hebrew. Cassiodorus: thronas est regum, tribunal judicum, cathedra propria doctorum—such meanings are not found in Scripture. The word signifies: 1) in general—a place of habitation, a settled dwelling (Ps. 106:4, 7; Lev. 25:29; 2 Kgdms. 2:19 and others); 2) a session, for example of elders (Ps. 106:32); and 3) a seat—for example, the royal seat, a chair set against the wall at the table (1 Sam. 20:25) (the seat of Job as judge at the city gate (Job 29:7)). The Chaldean translation: in the assembly or in the company; the Syriac—in a session (Mt. 23:6; Mk. 12:39). Thus the devout man is counseled not to establish himself finally and permanently in a session or habitation where destroyers sit and dwell. Λοιμων, λοιμος — plague, pestilence. These are despisers of the law, those who count it as nothing and bring it into contempt. In Hebrew: letsim — mockers, scorners, jeerers; they corrupt the truth (2 Cor. 2:17), ridicule piety, faith, and uprightness, and dismiss as fables all that is said of the wrath of God and of punishment. They are also called the proud and wrathful (Prov. 21:24, 3:34); quarrelsome troublemakers (Prov. 22:10); drunkards, or such as drunkenness makes a person (Prov. 20:1). This is why it is not amiss that the LXX translation calls them a plague, while Aquila renders it more precisely: χλευαστων. Symmachus: παρανομων. The Chaldean and Syriac: mockers. The Syriac tongue uses this word for the Pharisees who sneered at Christ: εκμυκτηριζονταη(Lk. 16:14). It is noteworthy that David the father—at the beginning of the Psalms—and Solomon his son—at the beginning of the Proverbs—both expose this plague, the despisers of the law (Prov. 1:22). Among such despisers of the law the devout man does not establish his habitation.

There is a gradation—from the ungodly, tossed about in unlawful notions and desires with their lack of fear of God, to the sinners who by frequent falls have rooted themselves in the habit of sinning—and from these to the despisers of the law, who not only sin stubbornly but glory in their sinfulness, displaying every contempt for virtue.

There is also a gradation in the verbs: he walked—turning aside from the straight path—he stopped and became established in a corrupt disposition—and then he sat… surrendering himself wholly to sinful schemes, goals, and habits, with a disposition hostile to righteousness. Thus all possible fellowship with the ungodly and the sinful is here forbidden, if one would have blessedness.

Verse 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.

To those many injuries done to the law by the unrighteous, the Prophet contrasts a single devotion to the law as the one object in which all good resides. The righteous man unites with it by his will—in love and delight—and with his mind, in unceasing meditation and reflection upon it. The law, in Hebrew: Torah — striking like an arrow with the fear of God, while on the other hand watering dried-up souls like rain with the hope of God’s goodwill and of a better life; it instructs them in righteous deeds, tracing out the patterns of a life pleasing to God. In David’s time by the law were meant the five books of Moses (as in Joshua (Josh. 8:31–32), and as they are still called by the Jews to this day), and perhaps the books of Joshua and Judges as well. Later this word came to denote the whole of Revelation expressing God’s will and His commandments binding on all who desire to please Him (Is. 5:24, 1:10). Furthermore, under this name of the law one must understand all divinely inspired writings, in which we have fully revealed to us the whole will of God—both legal and evangelical—the knowledge of which is now necessary for everyone who seeks true blessedness. On the pages of these books the devout man rests his sympathy and delight, as on a treasury of incomparable goods (Prov. 3:15, 8:11, 19). Hafets, propensio—an inclination as toward a bride (Gen. 34:9; Est. 2:17; Is. 62:5). Thus the righteous man seeks his joy not in the empty vanities of the world, but in the word of God alone, which is itself good and faithfully leads to unending goods in eternity. It is for him an incomparable treasure, like a passionately loved bride whom he loves alone, for whom alone he cares, whom he guards, adorns, and cherishes.

And in His law he meditates.

He meditates (future in place of present, as a sign of the continuity of the action)—both in heart (Ps. 48:4), and with the lips (Ps. 34:28). The Hebrew expression denotes a careful deepening and attentive examination with heartfelt interest, when a man speaks with himself and deliberates, as it were, on what would be best to do (Prov. 15:28), or ponders the wondrous works of God (Ps. 76:13, 142:5; Job 27:4; Prov. 8:7; Ps. 34:28; Is. 59:3). So earnestly does the devout man occupy himself with the word of God—as much inwardly, by reflection, investigation, and impressing it on the memory, which powerfully disposes one toward fulfilling it in deed—as outwardly with his tongue, proclaiming it and sharing it with others. And this not merely once or on occasion, but constantly, day and night. Not that besides this occupation he neither eats, nor drinks, nor sleeps, nor does anything else—but rather that, by reason of the heart’s delight in God’s word, the remembrance of it never departs, as happens with those who love something or someone—who, whatever they do, always hold the beloved in mind, hold them in mind even in sleep and cannot refrain from remembering. Hypocrites, by contrast, occupy themselves with God’s word only in passing, by chance, or for show, and then at once forget it again (concerning day-and-night meditation on the book of the law see Josh. 1:8. Even weeping is day and night (Ps. 41:4; Jer. 9:1 and elsewhere). The expression: day and night—signifies unceasing concern and the heart’s engagement—when even after the action (effectus) ceases, the love of the object (affectus) does not cease—so that even amid other occupations attention does not depart from God’s commandments, but on the contrary holds them up as guiding principles.

The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Having depicted the traits of activity of the righteous man, and through them of sinners as well, he passes on to depict their condition. By reason of his all-round removal from evil and unceasing meditation on God’s word, the righteous man will be like a tree beside streams of water—filled with the life-giving power of God’s word, enriched, and from the fullness of life will bring forth fruit—corresponding deeds—and prosper in all his undertakings.

Verse 3. And he will be like a tree planted beside the outflowings of waters, that gives its fruit in its season, and its leaf will not fall off: and all that he does will prosper.

Will be — which can also mean is—future in place of present—or both… both is and will be… fullness of life is his constant condition.

Tree, ets — any tree—living or dry—here, by the traits ascribed to it, either an olive or a palm, which do not shed their leaves—with which the righteous are also compared in other places (Ps. 91:13; Jer. 17:8). The Chaldean translation: like the tree of life, that is, ever living and flowering. The Syriac simply states—a tree. Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah says that a man whose learning is broader than his good deeds is like a fir tree, whose branches spread wide while its roots are small and which the wind can therefore easily overcome. But one whose good deeds surpass his learning is like an oak.

It is very favorable for a tree to stand beside streams of water, especially in the East in hot regions, where the soil quickly loses moisture under the intolerable heat and trees wither (Jer. 17:8; Ezek. 19:10). Beside — on one side or bank of a river. The Greek (διεξοδος) suggests the idea of a place where the water divides into two arms, so that a tree standing in the middle receives an inflow of water-sap from both sides. Such inflows applied to the righteous man are the outpourings of God’s grace—the Holy Spirit in the sacraments—and the illumination of the mind by the truths of God’s word, from which an uninterrupted spiritual sap and vitality is imparted to him for repelling evil passions and afflictions. Planted — in Hebrew: shatal, transplanted—like a branch cut from the top of a cedar and set in another place (Ezek. 17:22), and like a vine branch transplanted from a moist place to a dry one—so the righteous man is transplanted from the dry wilderness of sin into the beautiful paradise of the Church.

Fruit in its season. A tree is meant that is not fruitless—one that merely looks fine with its leaves—but one that always in due season bears abundant fruit. The righteous too resemble good trees that bear fruit not for themselves but for others, adorning themselves with good deeds (Mt. 7:16–18), not content with the seed of a good intention, or the flower of good resolves, or the leaves of fair speech. These good fruits are enumerated in the Epistle to the Galatians (Gal. 5:22).

In its season. The ungodly either bring forth no fruit at all, or bring forth fruit that is unripe, withered, and quickly spoiled by decay; but the devout always in due season bring forth ripe, well-flavored, and enduring fruit—such as love, patience, and the like—and in the other life they will offer God unceasing praise, love, eternal vision, and more.

His leaf will not fall off. The righteous are always consistent with themselves, adorned by a wondrous order of life, and by all they say and do—by their affability and attractiveness in mutual relations—they give pleasure to all, like the shade of a tree. The falling or shedding of leaves signifies calamity and the loss of all piety (Is. 1:30, 64:6). It also signifies a lack or loss of uprightness and virtue, like the stripping of a cluster from the vine or of leaves from a tree (Jer. 8:13). Thus, when it is said that the righteous do not lose the leaves of the beauty of right conduct and prosperity, this signifies the constant overshadowing of them by God’s grace, which preserves in them an inward right disposition and outward orderliness and happiness, comforts them with hope, and leads them to eternal blessedness. In other places the word naval, to fall off, is used properly of grasses and leaves when, owing to the exhaustion of their inner sap and under the action of excessive external heat, they wither and, having dried up, fall off (Is. 34:4, 40:7–8; Jer. 8:13; Ps. 36:2 and elsewhere).

Will prosper. This continuation can be taken either as a continuation of the comparison of the righteous to a tree (the Chaldean translation: on all its branches that it puts forth it will bear fruit abundantly and successfully. Some understand it of twigs taken from a tree and planted elsewhere—that they too grow well and bear fruit. Others understand it of the leaves—that they are all beneficial for health (Ezek. 47:12)), or as a separate statement expressing a distinct idea about the righteous (grammatically relating to: and he will be like a tree… and he will prosper)… The latter is better and more direct. Examples are provided by Joseph, for whom all things prospered in the house of Potiphar (Gen. 39:2–3); Hezekiah, who successfully restored religious order (see 2 Chron. 30:21, 32:30); Solomon (see 1 Chron. 29:23 and elsewhere). That the works of piety go well for the devout man, despite outward afflictions, is shown in Rom. 8:28, 36–37; Jas. 1:25; 1 Tim. 4:8. By the last reference, piety holds the promise not only of the present age but of the age to come. The first idea about the righteous from the comparison with the tree shows that he brings forth good as if naturally; while the second — will prosper — points to specific deliberate undertakings. The Syriac translation: all that he undertakes he accomplishes.

Verse 4. This is followed by the contrasting condition of the ungodly. It is expressed concisely and forcefully. Not so the ungodly, not so. What was said of the life-giving fruitfulness and prosperity of the devout is here denied of the ungodly. They may sometimes seem to flourish; but this flourishing is unstable and immediately scatters and vanishes. In Hebrew: not so — is not repeated. Jerome testifies that not only in the Hebrew codices but in the LXX as well there stands only one — not so. So too in the Hexapla of Origen, which he read at Caesarea. In current editions of the LXX this particle appears in repetition. The Syriac translation repeats it, as do the Arabic and Ethiopic. The Sinaitic likewise repeats it.

Like dust. Just as above the devout man was likened to a firmly rooted, flowering, and fruitful tree (and in other places to wheat), so now the ungodly is likened to dust—dry, lifeless, useless—easily scattered, so that not a trace of it can afterwards be found. The Hebrew word: mots — denotes properly not dust but chaff, husk, or bran—the remainder left after pure wheat (Hos. 13:3; Is. 41:15). Sinners are likened to chaff destined for burning (Mt. 3:12; Ps. 34:5; Is. 17:13; Job 21:18; Dan. 2:35). The Hebrew word: nadaf — to hurl forcefully, scatter, and disperse so that not a trace remains, like vanishing smoke (Ps. 67:3; Is. 41:2).

Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Verse 5. In the preceding verse the condition of sinners was depicted by a comparison, and moreover as it is in the present age; but in this verse it is depicted directly and chiefly as it will be in the age to come, before the face of God and the saints. The two depictions, however, stand in good accord with one another. Just as dust or chaff, however great a heap it may be gathered and piled into, cannot hold its place when wind or storm strikes—so the ungodly cannot stand for even a moment when the wind of God’s strict sentence of judgment blows upon them, but are at once cast down into the fire of either temporal or eternal punishment. The Hebrew: kum — means to rise up and to stand, that is, either a movement contrary to sitting and lying, a rising up (Ps. 138:2), or the position of one standing upright in his place—a standing; sometimes in a transferred sense it means rising from a fall or from a ruinous calamity (Ps. 40:9; Prov. 24:16; Am. 5:2 and elsewhere). Thus one may translate: they will not rise up and will not stand, they will not hold their ground. Hence come various interpretations of this passage. There were even among the Jews those who maintained, on the basis of this text, that the ungodly perish not only in body but also in soul at the hour of death and will never rise again. The LXX and the Vulgate: they shall not rise up. Others understood it thus: they will have no place in the court of judgment and will not appear to judge and cast their vote—in the assembly of honorable and respected persons. It is therefore better—with Ibn Ezra—to interpret: they will not stand… they will not be able to endure the strictness of God’s judgment (as the word signifies in Josh. 7:12 (the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies) and Mal. 3:2 (who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand at the sight of Him))… They will not be able to present their face as boldly as they are accustomed to do now—but in fear and trembling before God’s judgment, exposed by a pitiless conscience, they will fall… The Chaldean translation: they will not be innocent on the great day. A similar idea about the ungodly is found in Ps. 108:7 (when he is judged, let him go forth condemned — that is, exposed beyond answer and sentenced to punishment). The judgment can be referred both to God’s verdicts on the ungodly in this life, or to temporal punishments (Is. 3:13–14), and to the great final Day of Judgment, when the deeds of all will be brought before the court and eternal punishment will immediately follow upon the verdict (Eccl. 11:9, 12:14). In nothing will the ungodly hold their ground; they will not even be admitted to the assembly of the righteous.

Nor shall sinners stand in the council of the righteous — that is, sinners and the ungodly will not stand in their assembly (the destroyers are also implied, for they too will be cast out to the places of punishment). According to the Hebrew, the word for council here differs from the one used in verse 1 (did not walk in the counsel), being specifically the word: adat—a gathering in general of a multitude, for example a swarm of bees on the carcass of a lion (Judg. 14:8). The assembly of the wicked has surrounded me (Ps. 21:17); the assembly of bulls (Ps. 67:31). The assembly of the sons of Israel, or of the whole people, often signifies the Old Testament Church in the Scriptures (Lev. 8:4; Ex. 12:3, 6, 47 and elsewhere). This assembly is called the assembly of the Lord (Num. 27:17; Josh. 22:16). Thus, when it is said that sinners will not stand in the assembly of the righteous (here on earth by relative righteousness compared with the ungodly, and in the future age by righteousness perfected)—it is implied that they do not in this age enter into the number of members of the Church and do not partake of the gifts of grace given to the Church Militant, and in the future, being cast out from the assembly of the saved—by the dreadful sentence of God: depart from Me—they are separated from God’s sheep, like goats (Mt. 25), and consigned to the condemned demons.

Verse 6. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, and the way of the ungodly will perish.

In the final verse the cause and source of such a condition and lot of the righteous and the wicked is pointed to—in the fact that God knows the way of the righteous, that is, He governs, guards, and oversees it, while the way of the ungodly—their schemes and labors—will perish, leads to ruin. It is evident that the opposition of the two parts of this verse is not strict; and so it is rightly seen here as an ellipsis, with supplementary ideas implied in both parts. God knows the way of the righteous—therefore they will not perish; but the way of the ungodly will perish, because God does not know it—such turns of phrase are common in the Proverbs as well. It is evident that in the words: the Lord knows — the all-knowing of God is not what is meant, for that encompasses all things equally—even the ungodly; rather it is the governance, care, goodwill, and love that bestow prosperity on the righteous—and the absence of these, or the presence of the opposite—God’s displeasure, wrath, abandonment—produces all impoverishment in sinners. (So in Jn. 8:43 (why do you not understand My word — do not accept, do not receive it with goodwill). So in Ex. 1:8 (the new king did not know Joseph — did not wish to know, disregarded his service). In Prov. 12:10 (the righteous man knows, has regard for the lives of his animals). So in 2 Tim. 2:19 (the Lord knows those who are His — He cares for them). Mt. 7:23 (I never knew you… depart) …God governs, provides for, and loves the way of the righteous; therefore they succeed in all things, and their lot is blessed.

And the way of the ungodly will perish.

Their schemes, plans, undertakings, and works God does not know — He does not acknowledge them as His own, does not bestow His goodwill, for God desires not iniquity (Ps. 5:5). Therefore their way will perish—it will come to an unhappy end, vanish like smoke (Ps. 36:20), melt like wax (Ps. 67:3; Ps. 128:6–7; Ps. 9:19; Job 8:13, 20:7; Prov. 10:28, 11:4).

Subjects for Reflection

1) All seek blessedness, yet only those who walk toward it by the straight path indicated in God’s word attain it. Among those who do, who will go astray?

2) One must arrange one’s associations with people with discernment, lest one otherwise become infected by the contagion of vices and perish;

3) taking counsel is necessary (Prov. 2:11, 11:14, 12:15). But one must find a counselor who is honest and wise;

4) habit—whether in good or in evil—draws near to the natural movements of life. And it ends in either good or evil;

5) if you have fallen into sin—do not wallow in it and do not stand in it, lest it take hold of you and become insurmountable;

6) be on guard against joking, punning, and still more against mocking anything, lest you turn serious matters into a jest, disparage what is sacred, and place what is forbidden on the level of something indifferent.

On Verse 2:

1) After God, nothing should be more important to us than His word. All the faithful must study it—not the clergy alone;

2) labor over it, and in that labor: first, strive to grasp the true meaning of what you read and ponder—having grasped the meaning, receive it into your heart; having received it into your heart, introduce its rules into the order of your life—whether they concern faith or conduct—and having done this, then carry out what you have appointed at the proper time;

3) a person has many desires: no one will be able to direct them as he should, apart from the guidance of God’s word;

4) it is not enough merely to read something from God’s word in one’s appointed hour—one must meditate on it day and night, so as to advance ceaselessly under its guidance (1 Tim. 6:11);

5) part of the night also must be devoted to pleasing God (Is. 26:9);

6) one must take care not to bind oneself by a self-willed service (Col. 2:23)—concerning which one cannot have assurance that it is pleasing to God.

On Verse 3:

1) Our nature is deficient and, left to itself, bears little fruit. But when it is filled from the divine sources, it becomes greatly active and abundantly fruitful;

2) if you do not bring forth the fruits of repentance, you will be cut down as a fruitless tree (Mt. 3:6, 10, 7:19; Jer. 15:6; Gal. 5:22; Jn. 15:6);

3) every deed must be done in its proper time (Eccl. 3:1 and following);

4) prosperity is the fruit of sincere piety (Rev. 14:13; Prov. 4:8). It is vain to expect it from human wisdom alone, or from one’s own experience, or from having the means to maneuver when wealthy or the connections to turn to when one has patrons… Success may come by chance in such a case as well, but it will not be lasting.

On Verse 4:

1) The happiness of the ungodly is illusory and fleeting (Ps. 36:2, 35–36);

2) both in their habits and in their lot, the devout are commonly very different from the ungodly;

3) no matter how the ungodly may guard themselves against every misfortune, the hour comes—and calamity strikes—unforeseen, inexorable, all-destroying—and blows them away like dust from the land of the living.

On Verse 5:

1) Thus there is a judgment—and all must appear before it (Eccl. 12:14; Acts 17:31; 2 Cor. 5:10);

2) however strong the powers of the ungodly may be in the world, they will not be able to deflect God’s judgment;

3) the distance and difference between the dwellings of the saints and the places of condemnation of sinners is immeasurably great (Mt. 25:32 and following).

On Verse 6:

1) God is all-knowing, fatherly in His providence, and looks with especial care upon the good (Ps. 127; 2 Tim. 2:19). The ungodly He will not receive into His blessedness (Mt. 7:23);

2) one must always attentively examine one’s ways and direct one’s steps, lest one stumble and turn aside onto wrong paths (Mt. 7:13; Eph. 5:12–13);

3) one must pray to God that He not permit our steps to wander (Ps. 16:5);

4) wide is the way of the ungodly—but it leads to ruin (Mt. 7:13).

Psalm 2

The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

This psalm is composed in the form of a dialogue; the speakers are not designated by name, but the content and structure of the speech easily point them out—as in the Song of Songs and in other cases.

1) The Prophet marvels at the audacity and folly of rulers and peoples who rise up against God and His Messiah (verses 1–3); 2) he foretells their shame and the wrath of God upon them (verses 4–6). And just as in the first part he first pointed out the raging of God’s enemies, then quoted, as it were, their words—so here he first points to the scornful and wrathful regard of the Heavenly Father upon them (verses 4–5), and then introduces His speech as it were (verse 6); 3) the Son, the Messiah, takes up the Father’s words (verses 7–9); 4) finally, the Prophet—or the Spirit of God through the Prophet’s lips—gives saving instruction to earthly rulers (verses 10–12).

The psalm is prophetic concerning the Messiah. From it words are cited in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 13:33): You are My Son, today I have begotten You; and others (Acts 4:25).

Verse 1. Why did the nations rage, and the peoples devise vain things?

Why? The question does not mean that the Psalmist, as one who does not know, wished only to elicit from God’s enemies the cause or pretext for their opposition; rather he is in the extreme of amazement and indignation at them, mourns the perverseness of these people, and condemns their profound folly. But at the same time he presignifies that their insolence is groundless and fruitlessly powerless. He asks, as it were: to what end these assemblies? These deliberations? These schemes? The Prophet, moved by the Spirit of God, had long been absorbed in reflection upon the Messiah’s coming Kingdom and the goods God would bestow on the human race within it. To this consoling vision was joined the foreseeing of the hostility of Jews and pagans toward Him. Having foreseen all the nations rising in hostility against Christ the Lord (a survey of all the persecutions may indeed leave just such an impression), holy David fell into amazement and cried out: why did the nations rage… To what end?—a reproachful expression (Gen. 3:13, 4:6; Ex. 1:18, 5:4 and elsewhere).

Did rage. From the Hebrew: they came into turmoil, they are agitated—past tenses, following the custom of the Prophets, used in place of the present, as a sign of certain assurance. Perhaps the Prophets also did so because they spoke on the occasion of their visions, already concluded or past, even as those visions related to things that would come afterwards. The impressions from these visions were so powerful that the Prophets regarded the events they indicated as already accomplished. The Hebrew word: ragash, to seethe with anger, to be stirred up with rage—occurs only here. Words derived from it appear in Ps. 54:15, 63:3. It denotes turmoil when crowds of restless, violent people, blinded by passion and heeding no one, stream together from all sides with noise—and being driven by passion are ready for anything, whoever takes charge of them. The LXX translated εφρυαξανfrom φρυαττω— to beat, to toss about, to neigh like a spirited horse that does not listen to its rider. Aquila: εθορυβηθησαν. Symmachus: κυκα— to mix, to throw into confusion, as with various liquids…

Nations, goim — Israelites who had become like the nations, who had adopted pagan ways. Such is the interpretation of Saints Cyril, Eusebius, Oecumenius, Jerome, and Athanasius. And in Scripture this word sometimes denotes Israelites (Gen. 12:2, 17:6, 16, 18:18; Ex. 19:6). But more naturally the uncircumcised peoples are intended here. Saint Luke cites this passage in relation to the Romans (Acts 14:27), to whom the Lord Himself foretells His delivery (Lk. 18:32). And indeed the pagan peoples rose against Christianity when they felt that the new Gospel teaching had begun to overcome their ancient idol-worship—as in Ephesus the worship of Diana (Acts 19:23 and following), or was causing them some loss (Acts 16:19), or was sternly reproving their evil ways, no longer allowing its confessors to follow them—as a holy people and those renewed. Hence began the bloody persecutions of Christians that the history of the first centuries of Christianity records.

Peoples (lamim). According to the indication of Saint Luke, these are the people of Israel (Acts 4:27). Lorin says that this word in the plural is used of the Jews when the speech is reproachful or condemnatory.

Did devise. Before this the external tumult was pointed to—and here the no-less-turbulent inward state of their souls is shown, when in their minds and hearts they devised stratagems and schemes and spoke of them among themselves with eagerness, loudly and noisily (the verb is the same as in Ps. 1:2). With respect to the devout this word signifies a reverent immersion in holy matters and modest conversing of what has been pondered. With respect to the ungodly here it signifies their restless schemes and likewise hostile speech and evil conversations directed at harming the Gospel—or what an unrestrained tongue may produce. (The Chaldean translation: they assault with fury, stamping their feet, or they seethe in displeasure and indignation (Deut. 1:27). Aquila: φθεγξεται κενως).

Vain things — they deliberate about something utterly unlike what they understand and declare it to be, and with an outcome utterly unlike what they expect. The Hebrew: raka — signifies empty… for example a vessel (Jer. 51:34), which resonates loudly but contains nothing inside that it could and should contain. Hence it is used of a lie, fine in outward appearance but having no firmness within itself (Ps. 4:3). More commonly it means: in vain (Lev. 26:16, 20; Ps. 72:13; Jer. 51:58; Is. 30:7, 49:4, 65:23; Job 39:16). Here are all the parallels of this word confirming its meaning. The Prophet indicates to them both the emptiness of the object they deliberate upon, the insignificance of the causes that provide occasion for it, and the futility of expecting success—so that the Jewish chieftains and people toiled over the death of Christ and the Apostles and against the spread of evangelical truth, sweating and straining, yet gained not the success they so desired and expected. In the history of the Lord’s Passion more than one consultation is mentioned—decisions, searches for false testimony, inciting the people, stirring up Pilate and the city (Mt. 26:4; Mk. 14:1; Lk. 22:2, 23:2). But all of this was in vain. The Resurrection of Christ scattered it all: the lie was exposed and the truth triumphed. Such too was the fate of those frequent plots against the Apostles who preached the Gospel—plots devised by Jews in Antioch (Acts 13:45, 14:19), in Thessalonica (Acts 17:5, 13), in Corinth (Acts 18:12), in Jerusalem (Acts 21:27, 23:9). By means of such instigations of persecution, the Gospel spread all the more, and the holy truth of it shone all the more brilliantly…

Verse 2. The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against His Messiah.

Took their stand. They confronted the new Kingdom of the Messiah in a solemn display and declared their hostile spirit toward it. The Hebrew word: yatsav — to stand, in the form hitpael, to present oneself—either to attach oneself to someone, as the priests to Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11:13) (likewise—the seventy elders present themselves before the tabernacle (Num. 11:16); Moses presents himself to Pharaoh (Ex. 8:20, 9:13)); or with the aim of opposition, as the Angel to Balaam (Num. 22:22) (likewise—as Goliath before the army of Israel (1 Sam. 17:16; 2 Sam. 23:1, 10; Deut. 9:2; 2 Chron. 20:6; Job 33:5; Deut. 7:24, 11:25 and Josh. 1:5; Job 41:1)). And in our passage—it denotes open, stubborn hostility, not concealed but stepping forth openly with boastfulness and self-assurance…

Kings. It is not only the unreasoning mob that rises with violence against the truth, but the kings themselves and the heads of peoples—who not only did not suppress popular uprisings but encouraged them. By the kings of the earth are understood Herod and Pilate (Acts 4:27), but not exclusively, of course. How can one exclude Herod the Great, who prepared the murder of the Messiah even as a Child? How can one exclude the later persecutors who sought to annihilate the little flock of Christ? (Therefore one should not apply here the grammarians’ observation by which the plural sometimes stands for one of many—for example, the robbers for one of them (Mk. 15:32 and Lk. 23:39), the disciples in place of one of them (Mt. 26:8; Jn. 12:4). As if here kings stands for one king—Herod.) Clearly this prophecy presents an unbroken, unending chronology of the Kingdom of the Messiah as it were, and portrays His countenance in this world from beginning to end—ceaselessly and mercilessly struck by His enemies. Likewise there is no basis for understanding the word: of the earth — as referring only to the holy land, or Palestine. Rather, the kings of the earth are contrasted with the Supreme Heavenly King, of Whom speech immediately begins (verse 3), and are named with a touch of contempt and irony… for what can these locusts do against the One who holds in His embrace the whole circle of the universe? So in Isaiah (Is. 40:22): what is the Earth, this speck of dust, before the immeasurable breadth of the heavens and the number of bodies that suggest it? And what is this tiny point—Judea, or Italy, or Spain—before the whole body of the Earth? To this the witty speech of Socrates to Alcibiades is very applicable, when the latter was rather puffed up over his conquest: mark for me where that is on a geographical map—knowing that what had been conquered was so small that it was impossible to indicate it by any mark on the map.

And rulers — those who are below the king: the executors of his orders and the counselors or grandees in the state chosen to the governing council—in Judea these were the members of the great Sanhedrin, among them Annas and Caiaphas and others. The LXX and the evangelist Luke in Acts 4:5 call them αρχοντες, as Nicodemus is also named (Jn. 3:1, 10). Their distinctive mark is pointed out by Saint Paul: the rulers of this age (1 Cor. 2:6).

Gathered together. In Hebrew: they made compact in a consultative assembly… The LXX translation: συνηχθησαν επι το αυτο. The Chaldean translation: associate sunt una—they entered into fellowship and union. Symmachus: και υπαρχοι συσκεπτονται ομοθυμαδον. The commanders deliberate unanimously, so that by acting separately they might not delay or prove weak and suffer failure—thus they agreed to act as one, they founded a society. (The Hebrew word: yasad — in this sense occurs twice: in Is. 44:28 — concerning the founding by Cyrus of the temple in Jerusalem—and in Ex. 9:18 — concerning the founding or beginning of the land of Egypt (Ps. 101:26, 81:5). To this one can add another meaning the word may have if derived from sur, arcanum—a secret—namely: to deliberate in secret about some matter, to establish one’s views, intentions, and means concerning it, and thereby animate and fortify oneself for the undertaking. (In this sense, besides this passage, it occurs also in (Ps. 30:14) [1]). Just as a foundation is the beginning and chief part of a building, so a consultation is, as it were, the ideal construction of a matter, according to which it is then conducted in its actual execution. The fulfillment of this prophecy is manifest in the repeated consultations against Christ (Jn. 9:22): about seizing Him by cunning (Jn. 11:47–53); about posing questions to Him (Mk. 12:13; Mt. 22:34–35); about cutting off the spread of the Gospel (Acts 4:15–17, 5:33); about procuring false testimony (Mk. 14:55); and then—in the decrees of the Roman Senate and the edicts of the emperors.

Against the Lord. There is He against whom they directed all their arrows! He against whom all armed themselves with every force and means! Against the One who is the Lord of all (Jehovah, the Self-Existent)—from whom all received their being, and apart from whom nothing exists and can exist! Such is God in the undivided Trinity of His nature; but here perhaps God the Father is chiefly meant, since concerning God the Son, the Messiah, the word is immediately appended. Reason to include the Holy Spirit here as well is provided by the manifest opposition to Him by the Jews—exposed by the Lord Himself and noted by the Apostles (Acts 7:51).

And against His Messiah — in Hebrew: Meshiach. The Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ (Jn. 1:41). Meshiach comes from mashach — to anoint, as Christ comes from χριω. Anointing is ascribed, first, to the patriarchs—for no act or rite of their anointing is mentioned anywhere in Scripture: Ps. 104:15 (do not touch My anointed ones)—by the course of ideas this is about Abraham, Isaac, and others (compare: verse 9 and Gen. 26:3). Second, the prophets were anointed, as Elisha by Elijah (3 Kgdms. 19:16). Third, the high priests—on whose brow between the eyebrows was traced a cross of the following form: X (according to Kimhi in his commentary on Ps. 132, and Rabbi Solomon on Ex. 29:7). Fourth, the kings—on whom, according to the testimony of the same, was traced O—a circle, the sign of fullness and perfection. Saul is named the Lord’s anointed (1 Sam. 12:3), as is Cyrus (Is. 45:1), who for this reason is regarded by some as a type of the Messiah, on account of which he is also called a shepherd (from the Hebrew of Is. 44:28). But fifth—and chiefly, or in the proper sense—the name of Messiah belongs to the promised Redeemer of the human race as Prophet, High Priest, and King, prefigured by all the Old Testament prophets, high priests, and kings, who was anointed not with any visible and sensible anointing, but with an invisible spiritual anointing—with the Holy Spirit (Ps. 44:8; Is. 61:1; Acts 10:38 and elsewhere). In the present passage the Messiah clearly stands in this last meaning, as the combination of words requires: Jehovah and His Messiah. The Prophet wishes to convey that not only is their Kingdom one, but their worship ought to be one as well. Therefore insubordination and opposition to Them is also undivided—so that what is shown toward one is by that very fact shown toward the other. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him (Jn. 5:23 and following). This is that Messiah who is the true Son of God, the Only-begotten Lord and Sovereign of all, to whom all glory, honor, and worship is due (Acts 4:25; Heb. 1:5; Prov. 8:22; Rev. 22:7, 11:15–16, 19:15).

Verse 3. Let us burst their bonds asunder and cast their yoke from us.

Let us burst asunder. Understood: [they say], which is often omitted in speech of this kind (for example: Is. 3:6). The Hebrew word and expression conveys the idea of an abrupt, swift, violent rejection—combined with the harm and damage to the thing rejected—out of impatience with it or contempt for it… Thus Samson burst the cords as if they were threads (Judg. 16:9–12; compare: Jer. 2:20, 5:5, 30:8; Nah. 1:13; Ps. 106:14). From these passages it is evident that here the extreme audacity of the peoples and their rulers against the heavenly teaching is meant—an audacity by which they resolved, as if by mutual agreement, not to listen to it—like captives or condemned prisoners in revolt, or like wild horses that have thrown off their rider and rush headlong, trampling everything in their path.

Their bonds — that is, those of the Lord and His Messiah—the rules, dogmas, and institutions by which godlessness and superstition are banished, along with corrupt morals, passions, and all evil orders of life, and the contrary is enjoined; by which the free will is bound as by fetters—just as wild beasts are shackled so they may not roam at will and harm those who live peaceably in the keeping of their duties. Bonds of this kind are: self-renunciation, the bringing of reason into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), putting off the old man and putting on the new, love from a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith (1 Tim. 1:5). The fear of God also belongs here, by which transgressors are held within the bounds of duty (Job 30:11; Mt. 11:29). The Hebrew word used here comes from the verb: yasar — to discipline, which points to God’s discipline, by which violators of His will are held to their proper order (Ps. 106:14; Job 39:5; Jer. 5:5, 2:20, 27:2, 30:8; Nah. 1:13). Apart from these passages this word does not appear elsewhere.

Let us cast it off with contempt, with aversion and impatience, with force and exertion (Ps. 50:13; Eccl. 3:5–6)!

Their yoke (funes densos)—a tightly drawn yoke of cords, that is, the strict rules of faith and life by which our conscience is bound (religio from ligare—to bind). The enemies of Christ find it incompatible with their high opinion of themselves to allow such a teaching to bind them—a teaching that presents itself to the reason as folly and to the flesh as a heavy and intolerable yoke; they want freedom of will and unrestrained conduct. We do not want him to reign over us! (Lk. 19:14). Depart—we desire no knowledge of Your ways (Job 21:14). (Compare according to the Hebrew text: Lev. 23:40; Neh. 8:15; Ezek. 20:28, 19:11, 31:3, 6, 14; Ex. 28:14, 22, 39:15; Mic. 7:3. Also: Is. 5:18; Ps. 128:4; Job 39:10; Ezek. 3:25, 4:8; Judg. 15:13–14, 16:12; Ex. 28:24, 14, 39:17–18). From these passages it is evident that the word employed (avot-ey) denotes a strong, all-round, obedience-demanding authority—powerful and heavy and unbearable for the ungodly; which is why they refuse to submit to it.

Verse 4. He who dwells in the heavens will laugh at them, and the Lord will mock them.

Until now we have heard the croaking frogs and the buzzing locusts (Is. 40:22). It is time now to turn our gaze and hearken to the One against whom all these agitations and schemes are directed. He is the living One or the one who sits in the heavens. Here there is an implied but evident contrast between Him and those who dwell in houses of clay founded on dust and sand (Job 4:19), for all that they are the kings of the earth (verse 2)—a contrast with the One whose throne is in the highest, most spacious, most resplendent, and untouchable heavens, who embraces all that is earthly and by His influence preserves and sustains all things. Yet even as there is a contrast between the turbulent rebelliousness of unruly rulers and peoples and the peaceful sitting of God in the heavens—wherein the sitting also signifies the authority of a judge and recompenser (compare: Ps. 9:8–9)—the meaning of the speech is better elucidated from the Hebrew: yashav — one who abides, one who dwells (Ps. 122:1, 112:5–6; Is. 66:1). Yet this abiding does not signify limitation by place, but rather the absolute sovereignty and immeasurable exaltedness of God over all earthly things—God who is omnipresent, looks upon all things, guards all, and cares for all (Eccl. 5:1; Ps. 112:5).

Will laugh. He scorns their senseless attacks and will laugh—as the iron scepter over earthen pots. This is an anthropomorphic expression, signifying the exposure and condemnation of the extreme folly of such hostility—where on one side the power is unlimited and able to carry out its purposes unhindered, and on the other there is utter insignificance, for all the bragging and malicious scheming. (Solomon mentions such laughter (Prov. 1:26); and David himself in other places (Ps. 58:9, 36:12–13). In other places God is depicted as rejoicing over the destruction of those who oppose Him (Deut. 28:63; Is. 1:24 and elsewhere). Sometimes laughter denotes safety, assurance of it, or the sense of it (Job 5:22, 41:20–21). According to others, to laugh at means to expose to derision, as is seen in Is. 14:4. Also Ps. 36:13; Prov. 1:26; Ps. 51:8; Rev. 18:19–20; Am. 5:9.)

And the Lord — whom these unreasoning people refuse to submit to, even as He is the foundation and fortress of all that exists, holding all things together, the Absolute Sovereign.

Will mock them — that is, He will deliver them to the utmost shame and disgrace, and not only will He render their schemes vain; He will subject them personally to the very misfortunes and afflictions they were preparing for the worshipers of God, so that they will find no compassion anywhere but will be encompassed on all sides by derision and contempt.

Verse 5. Then He will speak to them in His wrath, and in His fury He will terrify them.

Then. When—then? When the kings and princes imagine that their plans to destroy the Kingdom of the Messiah are reliable and their means for doing so are powerful; when God’s long-suffering is exhausted and the hardening of hearts has reached its uttermost limit. When in self-delusion they abandon themselves to the feeling of freedom and of being unbound—as if the yoke has been cast off, the bonds have been burst…

He shall speak. Some commentators say: well translated as “he shall speak,” but there is another opinion on this word from the most learned grammarian Kimchi, according to which it should be rendered: then he shall slay or smite their mighty ones. However fitting such an interpretation may seem, it is opposed nonetheless both by the ordinary meaning of the word, from which one should not depart without need, and by the agreement of ancient translations into languages close to Hebrew—the Chaldean, Syriac, Ethiopian, Arabic, and the LXX—all of which have: he shall speak to them. Moreover, if someone is attracted by smiting, it is already contained in the wrathful speech of God: for the wrathful word of God is itself what smites, since the word of God is not the same as the fruitless word of man. Therefore the following thought fits better here: God, though He sometimes remains silent, observing the senseless resistance of men to His will, at last pronounces His authoritative judgment, condemnation, punishment… and, if the Israelites could not endure the legislative word of God (Ex 20:19), still less can these opponents of His will endure the terrible thunders of judgment issuing from this stern Avenger of iniquity—sometimes without an outwardly audible word, but by deed itself or by smiting.

To them (elimo — a poetic form instead of elegem)—to these intractable evildoers.

In His wrath — Hebrew: in wrath; He will cease to call them into His Kingdom after they have stubbornly persisted in their resistance to grace; instead of the blessings they rejected, the curse shall smite them. In their consciences they will perpetually hear stern words inaudible to the outer ear; inwardly they will behold the wrathful face of God, invisible to the outer eye.

And in His fury — Hebrew: in fury. The force of the utterance intensifies (Hebrew: gorah—to be kindled). It depicts the mounting severity of God’s chastisements, just as verses 1–3 portray the degrees of the enemies’ resistance.

He shall confound them. He shall so suddenly overturn their plans that they will run to and fro, not knowing where to turn or where to find a refuge in which to hide.

Verse 6. Yet I am appointed King by Him over Zion, His holy mountain.

Yet I. This stands in contrast to those many kings and princes who said: let us burst asunder, and so forth. It is as though the Lord were saying: you—who are dust and ashes—devise much in your pride; I, however, whose every Counsel stands and who will accomplish all that I have purposed (Is 46:10), will shortly make all your schemes vain and will gloriously defend My King against whom you rise up in such fury (the letter vav — as a particle of opposition—is used in other passages too (Mal 1:4; Is 29:13).

Am set. The Chaldean translation not without reason uses two verbs in place of one: I have exalted My King and set Him over Zion the mountain. The meaning: though the Messiah is hateful to you, know that He did not take this honor upon Himself or arrogate such a dignity (Heb. 5:4–5)—nor does He hold such authority by human choice or desire (Jn 6:15, 18:36); but I Myself, the Lord of all creatures, by My own divine Counsel and decree, have appointed Him King—to resist this is foolish and profitless (Lk 1:32; Ps 44:5; Jn 3:34; Is 61:1).

Set as My King—that same Messiah who was mentioned in verse 2; God the Father calls Him His own not only because His Kingdom and the laws of His Kingdom are divine and utterly unlike worldly kingdoms and their laws (Jn 18:36), but more properly because He is His own Son, of one nature with Him, God—and His royal authority is not of earthly origin and is not an accidental addition, but is His essential characteristic, the radiance of the glory He shares with the Father. For this reason all kings are commanded to come to Him (at the close of this verse) as to the Most High above them all (Ps 88:28); all tribes and nations shall serve Him (Dan 7:14); He shall shatter all kingdoms (Dan 2:44); and of His Kingdom there shall be no end (Lk 1:33).

Upon Zion, His holy mountain. Zion is a type of the Messiah’s Kingdom—on it stood David’s royal throne (2Sam 5:9; 1King 8:1) and the tabernacle was erected; in its place, on the adjacent hill of Moriah, Solomon later built the temple to the true God (Is 31:4; 2Chron 3:1). On Zion were united the power of kingship and of priesthood, just as in the Messiah those same dignities were afterwards joined, after the order of Melchizedek. Therefore, just as the Messiah is often called David, so His Kingdom—or the seat of His Kingdom and royal throne—is called mount Zion, not in the sense that it would be a particular kingdom bounded by narrow borders, but because Zion foreshadowed the new-covenant Kingdom of the Messiah in many features: its beauty and impregnability, but especially because from Zion the law was to go forth—the gospel proclamation to all lands (Is 2:3–4; Lk 24:47; Acts 1:4; Mic 4:2; Ps 109:2, 131:13, 86:3; Zah 9:9). Zion is called holy not here only, but in other passages as well (Ps 42:3, 47:2, 98:9; Joel 2:1; Ezek 20:40). Not by its own nature, but because the tabernacle was there, wherein the all-holy God dwelt (2Sam 6:17, 12; 1Chron 15:1, 3, 12, 16:1; 2Chron 8:11). For this reason the very temple is also understood by the name Zion (Ps 136:3; Jer 51:10; Is 18:7; Lam 5:18). For this Zion is called the mountain beloved of God, the dwelling and throne of God (Ps 77:68, 86:2, 67:17, 9:12, 73:2, 75:3), and is set in contrast to mount Sinai (Heb. 12:22). Thus, since in all the world there was no mountain equal in glory to mount Zion, the Father declares that on this mountain He will set His most chosen and unique King, to whose care all the holy ones are entrusted, who also surround His throne (Rev 14:1).

Verse 7. I will declare the decree of the Lord. The Lord said to Me: You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.

I will declare. In Hebrew: I will declare. Here a new speaking person is suddenly introduced—that very King of whom the Heavenly Father had just spoken. Such changes of speaker are not rare in poetic songs. (The meaning of the word used (safar) may be derived from comparing the following passages: (Ps 47:13; Judg 7:13; Gen 40:8, 41:12; 2King 8:4–5; Ex 18:8; Ps 9:2, 15, 21:23, 43:2, 72:28, 25:7, 65:16, 74:2, 77:3–4, 95:3, 101:22, 117:17, 144:6; Ex 9:16; 1Chron 16:24) From this it follows that the Messiah takes upon Himself the declaration, proclamation, and open, faithful, tireless, and glorious preaching—glorifying for His Father and salvific for the human race—which He then fulfilled both through His own lips and through the lips of the Apostles and other servants of the new-testament word (Rom 15:8; Is 61:1; Lk 4:18). This is one aspect of His redemptive work—the prophetic ministry, which can be exercised only through speech or word.

The decree. This expression encompasses the entire gospel teaching about God’s good will toward us in Christ, which Christ declared with such precision that He did not permit Himself to say anything other than what the Father had commanded Him (Jn 14:31, 12:49, 5:30, 6:40, 8:28, 18:37; Lk 4:18, 43). As before in verse 6 Jehovah was speaking, so now the Messiah (set alongside Jehovah in verse 2) continues to speak of the decision and decree of Jehovah—that is, His Father—according to which it pleased Him that His eternal Word, or the Only-begotten Son, being born in time from the seed of David, that is, having become incarnate, should become the Redeemer of the human race, Saviour and King.

The Lord said to Me. The meaning: just as the Father declared His will concerning the appointment of a King over Zion and the subsequent establishment of the Kingdom (verse 6), so I too, the Messiah, will likewise declare the foundations of that Kingdom—namely, that despite being a son of David in the flesh, I am essentially the eternal Son of God, whom the Father confesses as eternally begotten, who, being personally united in time with the humanity descended from David’s seed, became the King of the new Kingdom destined to receive all nations as its inheritance. There is no need to inquire when or where the Father utters this: for whether we regard it from the standpoint of the decree made before all time, or from the standpoint of its fulfillment in time, one always hears the Father declaring of the Messiah that He is His only-begotten and essential Son. This was announced at the Annunciation (Lk 1:32), at the Baptism (Mt 3:17), and at the Transfiguration (Mt 17:5). Thus the Father Himself points all to the Son, and the Son has no need to glorify Himself (Jn 5:23; Ps 109:1).

You are My Son. The speech here is not about an adopted son or about some person especially beloved of God, such as the angels (Job 1:6) or the rulers of the people (Ps 81:6), but about the Only-begotten Son (Jn 1:14, 3:16, 18)—the proper or essential Son (Rom 8:32), the true Son (Jn 5:20), and the beloved Son (Mt 3:17, 17:5; 2Pet 1:17), such as He can only be through eternal and essential generation (Heb 1:5), by virtue of which the same nature abides in the Begetter and the Begotten; hence this Son is called the one who is in the bosom of the Father (Jn 1:18). He is with God and is God (Jn 1:1–2).

I, that is Jehovah, the Father, to whom allusion is also made in Proverbs (Prov 30:4).

This day, that is, in the immovably present eternity that has neither past nor future—or before the foundation of the world (Jn 17:5; Prov 8:21–24; Mic 5:2). With God a thousand years are as yesterday that has passed, and as a watch in the night (Ps 89:5; 2Pet 3:8). This day does not denote any particular moment in time, for the goings forth of the Son are from of old, from everlasting (Mic 5:2; Mt 2:5–6). In a word, this day expresses eternity. But lest the generation be counted imperfect, He used the word: I have begotten. Let us recall the words of the Lord: before Abraham came into being, I am (Jn 8:58).

I have begotten You, that is, I make You a participant of one and the same Divine nature and sustain You in an ineffable manner, without division. Therefore the Lord says: the Father is in Me and I am in the Father (Jn 14:10). For the same reason the Son is called the radiance of glory and the very impress of the being of God (Heb 1:3), the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (Col 1:15). The generation is not something ideal or merely contemplated, but actual and essential.

Verses 8–9. In the following 8th and 9th verses the same heavenly picture is set forth. The speech continues from the Person of the Son. In it is declared the divine decree, by virtue of which all nations and all the earth are given to the Messiah as an inheritance (κληρονομιαν), and He may sternly punish and destroy the disobedient. The eternal divine decree was fulfilled in time. As the eternal Son of God, the Word of God possesses, as does the Father, eternal glory and equal power; but as the God-man, as the Messiah, all authority was given to Him upon His resurrection (Mt 28:18; Phil 2:9–10 and others).

Verses 10–12. In the final verses the prophetic vision of David returns to earth. The prophet turns to the rebellious with an exhortation to come to their senses, to restrain themselves, to submit with reverence to the Lord, and to greet (rejoice!) Him as Lord in the person of His Anointed. The prophet calls them to hasten to reform their lives. The Russian rendering of the Hebrew word nasheku-var as honor the Son can scarcely be considered accurate. In virtually all the ancient translations, in agreement with the LXX: receive instruction. In conclusion—a threat of God’s righteous anger against all who oppose God, and a promise of blessedness to all who trust in the King-Messiah.

[1] when they gathered against me, they took counsel to take my life

Psalm 33

Preface

The notes here offered are prompted by the desire not so much to provide a learned commentary on the psalm as to present an attempt at how the Davidic songs so frequently heard in the Church may be turned to spiritual edification—drawing from them lessons for ordering one’s thoughts and for the right disposition of the heart and of all one’s life. Psalm 33 has been chosen for this purpose, in part because it is among the most frequently heard in church. One circumstance gives it an advantage over others—namely, that it is always read just before the close of the Liturgy. Christians leave the temple, each for their own affairs and circle of life, and here this psalm provides them with a parting instruction for the right disposition of the soul—a help toward the right ordering of life, as it were a program of conduct for an entire day and, since all life is made up of days, for an entire lifetime. The content of the psalm is precisely of this character. By its frequent repetition in church services, the Holy Church wishes to impress it upon the minds of Christians—to make them learn it even against their will and remember it, so as to engraft its lessons upon their hearts.

Indeed, a great many know this psalm by heart; but that very firm knowledge may sometimes hinder one from drawing from it all possible spiritual benefit. This is, one may say, inevitable when the memory alone works in the learning, without a prior or concurrent deepening into the content of the verses. Since no room is given for reflection, the intellect and the heart remain idle: the memory alone works, committing the sequence of words to itself. But as the psalm is learned, so afterwards it is used. The thought, suppressed from the very beginning during the learning process, no longer comes into motion even when the memorized text is repeated, and the repetition proceeds, almost always, leaving scarcely any trace upon the soul. Meanwhile every psalm is a spiritual treasure, if its content be developed. And so it often happens that many possess—or suppose they possess—something in their minds, yet do not possess it; they hold a treasure that is however concealed, though concealed within themselves, in the field of their soul, in the memory. It is therefore necessary to dig out this treasure, to spread it before the eye of the mind, and to let the soul enjoy the contemplation of it.

This is something that every person both can and must do through his own reflection. The present notes are offered as an aid. Lest, however, anyone’s zeal for giving them due attention be cooled by the thought that nothing can be learned from what is written here, it is proper to forewarn that in everything contained here the writer’s own thought rarely appears—and then only for the sake of connection; all that is principal and needful has been taken from the holy Fathers: Basil the Great, Athanasius the Great, Blessed Theodoret, Blessed Augustine, and other ecclesiastical writers and commentators on the Psalter: Euthymius Zigabenus, Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov (publication of the Holy Synod). After such a forewarning it is by no means too much to hope that for the diligent labor of composing these notes, repayment will be made by diligent and attentive reading of them and the best possible application to one’s own life of what is set forth in them.

Psalm 33

Ps. 33:1. A psalm of David, when he changed his appearance before Abimelech; and he dismissed him, and he departed.

Ps. 33:2. I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall be ever upon my lips.

Ps. 33:3. In the Lord shall my soul make its boast; let the meek hear and be glad.

Ps. 33:4. Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.

Ps. 33:5. I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my afflictions.

Ps. 33:6. Draw near to Him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be put to shame.

Ps. 33:7. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his afflictions.

Ps. 33:8. The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them.

Ps. 33:9. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him.

Ps. 33:10. Fear the Lord, all you His holy ones, for those who fear Him suffer no lack.

Ps. 33:11. The rich have grown poor and gone hungry; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

Ps. 33:12. Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Ps. 33:13. Who is the man who desires life and loves to see good days?

Ps. 33:14. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Ps. 33:15. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

Ps. 33:16. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer.

Ps. 33:17. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

Ps. 33:18. The righteous cried out, and the Lord heard them and delivered them from all their afflictions.

Ps. 33:19. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and will save the humble in spirit.

Ps. 33:20. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and from all of them the Lord will deliver them.

Ps. 33:21. The Lord keeps all their bones; not one of them shall be broken.

Ps. 33:22. The death of sinners is dreadful, and those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.

Ps. 33:23. The Lord will redeem the souls of His servants, and none who trust in Him shall be condemned.

The key to understanding this psalm is given by the occasion on which it was composed. Here one sees what inspired the holy Psalmist to his song, and a view opens upon the whole content of the poem. It is with an account of that occasion that we must begin, so as to proceed from it to a presentation of the entire content of the psalm.

The Occasion for the Writing of the Psalm

The occasion on which Psalm 33 was composed is indicated in its title: a psalm of David, when he changed his appearance before Abimelech; and he dismissed him, and he departed. The event is described in 1Sam 21:11–13. Pursued by Saul, David, after a brief stay in Nob where the ark of the covenant was kept and where he took the bread of the Presence and Goliath’s sword, withdrew into the land of the Philistines. There he was recognized by the Philistines, whom he had previously so humiliated by slaying Goliath, and was brought before the king in Gath. In this extremity, David conceived the idea of feigning madness in the hope that it would save him. God blessed this means, in itself very dubious: the king dismissed David as a free man. Remembering this deliverance from peril, holy David sings a grateful hymn of praise to God. (Psalm 55 also relates to this same occasion. But there the prophet sets forth the prayer he offered to God in that extremity; here he gives thanks for the salvation received and glorifies the grace of God.) Saint Basil the Great says: “he changed his appearance when he was surrounded by enemies, because he heard them talking among themselves and preparing for vengeance. And the servants of Anchous said to one another, it is written: is this not David, the king of the land? Is it not to him that the women sang as they danced, saying: David has struck down his tens of thousands, and Saul his thousands? And David was afraid of Anchous and changed his appearance before them (1Sam 21:11–13). Having changed his appearance, David was carried by the household servants to Anchous, beat on the city gates, and let his saliva run down his beard, so that Anchous said to his servants: why have you brought him to me? I have no need of madmen, since you have brought him to rave before me (1Sam 21:15). And so David, dismissed from there, escaped, as it is said, to the cave of Adullam (1Sam 22:1). It is for this deliverance that he now gives thanks to God”.

Blessed Augustine also relates this psalm to the same occasion. Here are his words: “the title of the psalm is: a psalm of David, when he changed his appearance before Abimelech. We look in the history of the kings for the event corresponding to this, and find the following: when David fled from Saul, his persecutor, he crossed over to Anchous, king of the neighboring people, and hid there to escape from Saul’s snares. The memory was still fresh of how he, by slaying Goliath, had won glory and safety for the kingdom, king, and people of Judah. When Goliath was still to be slain, David was dear to Saul; but when Goliath was struck down, Saul envied David’s glory and became the enemy of the very one who had delivered him from his enemy. How, Saul thought, did this youth by a single victory acquire such fame that his name went across the whole kingdom and songs were being composed about him? And so he began to pursue him. When David crossed over into the neighboring land, the king (Abimelech) was told: such a one is in our land. Unfriendly words of theirs reached David’s ears; and he thought: if Saul, to whom I did good, pursues me—then this king, whom I have put to shame, will be glad to destroy a man from whom he may fear still greater harm if left alive. He was afraid, and changed his appearance—he beat upon the gate, walked on his hands, and let saliva flow upon his beard. Seeing him in this state, the king turned from him with contempt and dismissed him. And so the saved prophet sings a hymn of thanksgiving to God”.

Jerome, Euthymius Zigabenus, Patriarch Anthimus of Jerusalem, and Irenaeus of Pskov are of the same opinion. But Blessed Theodoret, following Athanasius the Great, refers the change of appearance and the psalm to the occasion when David, fleeing from Saul, came to Nob, where the ark of the covenant was kept, and from the priest Abimelech took the bread of the Presence and Goliath’s sword. He told the priest that he had been sent urgently by Saul on a certain matter and had taken nothing with him, concealing the fact that he was being pursued by the king. This concealment of the true reason for his arrival at Nob Blessed Theodoret considers a change of appearance, and holds that the psalm relates to this occasion. But on that occasion there was no actual change of appearance. David remained in his usual guise; and the words he spoke cannot be taken for a change of appearance. This is all the more so since the historical books of the kings clearly identify the occasion when David actually changed his appearance. There, in the description of David’s stay in Nob, there is no mention of David’s changing his appearance; it is mentioned in connection with another occasion, when David, after this, crossed into the land of the Philistines and was seized by the people there and brought before the king. David was afraid, it says there, and changed his appearance (1Sam 21:12–13); and this is why the opinion of Blessed Theodoret cannot be accepted.

But someone may say: the title reads he changed his appearance before Abimelech, and by this name was called the priest who received David in Nob. How then is the psalm not to be referred to that occasion? The name does indeed recall that priest and the event with David in Nob; but the words he changed his appearance direct the mind to a different person and a different occasion; for it was not before the priest in Nob that David changed his appearance, but before the king in Gath. But it may be said again: the king of Gath is named Anchous in the book of Kings, not Abimelech. How then are the change of appearance and the psalm to be referred to that occasion? Be that as it may: King Anchous could also bear the name Abimelech. Once it is explained how the Anchous of the book of Kings could be called Abimelech in the title of the psalm, every difficulty will be resolved.

This difficulty, arising from the discrepancy between the name of the Gathite king in the book of Kings and the name given in the psalm’s title, occupied all those who have commented on this psalm, and all resolve it by observing that among the Philistines kings bore two designations: one common to all kings, and another personal or proper name for each individual. The common designation of all their kings was Abimelech, just as among the Egyptians it was Pharaoh, among the ancient Jerusalemites Adonizedek or Melchizedek, among the Amalekites Agag, among the people of Gaza Jabin, and among the Yemenites Toba. That this was indeed so is demonstrated by the fact that in the book of Genesis the kings of the Philistines, both in the time of Abraham and in the time of Isaac, are identically named Abimelech (Gen 20 and 26). Given the distance of time, one cannot suppose these to be one and the same king, and therefore that Abimelech was his proper name. The proper name of the Gathite king, a contemporary of David, was Anchous. In the book of Kings, where history is written requiring definite precision, the proper name of the king at that time—Anchous—is used; but in the title of the psalm the common name of the kings of that land—Abimelech—is employed.

Saint Basil the Great says of this: “why does the title name Abimelech while the history records the name Anchous, king of Gath? For this we have the following explanation, which has reached us by tradition: Abimelech was the common name of the Philistine kings, but each of them also had a personal name. Something similar may be seen in the Roman state, where kings are generally called Caesars and Augusti yet retain their own personal names. So too is the name Pharaoh among the Egyptians. For the Egyptian king in Joseph’s time is called Pharaoh; the king of Egypt four generations later, in Moses’ time, is also called Pharaoh; there was a Pharaoh in Solomon’s time as well, for it is written: he took the daughter of Pharaoh (1King 3:1); and one who reigned in Egypt during the period of Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry was also called Pharaoh (2King 23:29). So too there was an Abimelech in the days of Abraham, in the days of Isaac, and one is now named in the time of David. Of Abraham it is written: and Abimelech said to Abraham and so forth (Gen 21:22). And likewise of Isaac: Abimelech looked out through a window and saw Isaac (Gen 26:8). So here too, in the title, the Abimelech of David’s time is named by the common royal designation; while history transmits his name as Anchous, which was the personal name given him at birth”.

But having resolved this first difficulty arising from the discrepancy between the title and the history, we encounter another, which is raised by the supposed incompatibility of the title with the content of the psalm. In the psalm, it is said, there is no specific reference to the event indicated in the title. One might therefore suppose that the title was added by someone afterward, by conjecture, and does not belong to the prophet David himself; one might even carry this conclusion further to a denial of the psalm’s authenticity. But: 1) even if it were true that the content of the psalm contains no reference to the event mentioned in the title, no difficulty concerning the authenticity of the title or the psalm can be drawn from this, when it is known from the psalm itself that in composing it the holy Prophet did not intend to depict the particular event, but to express his own grateful and praising feelings toward God, with the addition of instructive counsels for others as well. Toward this end, holy David, having indicated the event in the title and thereby enabling the reader to understand the state of his spirit when remembering that event, turns the entire song to depicting that state and, even more, to setting forth the general laws of divine Providence and to drawing from them lessons for the life of devout people. A psalm, though written on a particular occasion, could take the form of a general hymn of thanksgiving and instruction, without reference to particular events. But: 2) it is also untrue that the psalm contains no references at all to the event mentioned in the title. One cannot fail to see such a reference in the words: this poor man cried out. All commentators refer these words to David himself. But when was holy David poor, if not in the occasion described? Driven from home, separated from his wife, stripped of property and shelter, having nowhere to lay his head or anything with which to feed himself—and, to crown all, threatened with the extreme danger of losing his life. All of this comes to mind when one reads: this poor man cried out. The holy Prophet sketched his situation with these few words—as much as served the purposes of the psalm. For those who wish more tangible references, it may be noted that here it is not a history that is being written but a song, where the very nature of the discourse obliges one to be content with even less clear allusions; 3) moreover, from the supposed lack of references in the psalm’s content to the title’s event—even were this truly so—the conclusion drawn is not what follows, but the contrary. It is said: there are no references—therefore the title was added by someone other than the prophet David; and perhaps the psalm itself was not written by him. What should be said is the precise opposite: for the very reason that there are no palpable references, one must conclude that the title, and consequently the psalm itself, belong to holy David. How could an outside party have conceived the idea of making such a title? Only the Psalmist himself knew what the song referred to and expressed that in the title of the song. Relating to the time of David’s persecution by Saul are, besides the present one, seven more psalms (in chronological order — Ps 7, 58, 55, 51, 56, 141, 53). But not all of them contain definite references to the specific events, though their authenticity is not called into question.

The observation that an outside party could have taken a phrase from the book of Kings as a title and applied it to this psalm on the basis of certain reasoning need not be taken seriously; for the tone of that phrase, he changed his appearance, is more suited to poetic speech than to plain historical language. One should therefore more readily conclude that the historical books of Kings took this phrase from the title of the psalm, and not the reverse.

Such is the occasion that gave rise to the writing of the psalm. One should not, however, suppose that this psalm was composed immediately upon David’s escape from the danger described. Against this speaks the calmer tone of the psalm’s speech, whereas psalms written under the impression of fresh events are full of powerful and swift turns of phrase; against this speaks also the dominant wish of the Prophet—to draw from his own experience consolation and instruction for all who fear God and have been humbled by the circumstances of life; against this too speaks the alphabetical order of the verses, which is out of place in a song expressing the living feelings produced by the action of current events. The psalm is not without movement, but as a whole it bears the character of a work in which, having calmly reviewed what has occurred—though not without feeling at its remembrance—the author has nonetheless had chiefly in mind to draw lessons from the event for himself and others, rather than merely to sing. It is therefore more accurate to conclude that this psalm was composed after the occasion indicated in the title, perhaps after many other afflictions as well had passed, in a happier outward circumstance. Recalling that decisive moment in his life and the wondrous deliverance from the extremity in which he then found himself, the holy Prophet makes it the foundation of a special song of praise and instruction, beginning it with words that may indeed have burst from a grateful heart at the very moment when, dismissed by Anchous and having moved away from Gath, he felt himself free of all danger. This explains also why the psalm renders thanks for deliverance from all misfortunes and afflictions, when the title points only to a single event. That event was the beginning of David’s troubles. Giving grateful song for deliverance from this initial trouble, the Singer could not but behold in his mind the whole subsequent chain of trials and afflictions from which the right hand of the Most High—which had always covered him—had long since delivered him.

The Content of the Psalm

Turning now to the content of the psalm, we encounter first of all its external structure, which has its own distinctive features. This psalm, as has already been noted in passing, is alphabetical. The opening words of its verses begin with the letters in alphabetical order. After the title, which forms the first verse, the second begins with aleph (a), the third with bet (b), the fourth with gimel (g), and so on. For the letter <>vav there is no corresponding verse, so the entire alphabet ends at verse 22. Verse 23 should begin a new round of the alphabet—a second time—and it might more naturally begin with aleph; yet it begins with pe. One must suppose that all these features are not without special significance, though we cannot point to what that significance is. Evidently there was such a rule for composing psalms of this kind. For Psalm 22, which is also alphabetical, is composed in exactly the same manner. There too the final verse begins with pe, and there too there is no verse for vav.

This structure of the psalm suggests that it was composed for general use and memorization, for the purpose of recalling the most needful and perpetually applicable truths of life. Who among those who can read does not know the alphabet? But knowing the letters in order, one can easily learn in sequence the verses beginning with them, and, having learned them, remember them always. The holy Prophet’s intention is plainly to compose the psalm in such a way that both children and adults will always remember it. For this reason he placed in its content the primary and fundamental practical truths, without the knowledge and fulfillment of which no one can live devoutly and peacefully—just as without knowing the letters one cannot learn to read.

Judging by the fact that the verses follow the order of the letters, one might not expect a sequential flow of thought, but rather anticipate encountering a mere enumeration of moral truths. Yet the entire content of the psalm presents a well-ordered whole, in which one part strictly corresponds to another and one thought calls forth the next. This points to deep insight and a divinely illumined mind in the author.

The psalm divides very clearly into two parts, which is reflected in its liturgical use among us. At the all-night vigil, before the six psalms, the first half is read, beginning with the words I will bless the Lord and ending with those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing — from verse 2 to verse 11. Both parts of the psalm have an equal number of verses, ten each. Of the first 11 verses, the 1st is not to be counted, as it is the title; of the last 12, from verse 12 to verse 23, verse 12 likewise stands as a heading for the second part, while verse 23 is the conclusion of the entire psalm.

The first decade, as often also in other psalms of the holy Prophet, is divided into three and seven verses. In the first three verses, verses 2–4, the Prophet expresses his determination to bless the Lord at all times and invites all the afflicted to do the same, encouraging them with hope of receiving the same mercies he himself has received: for this reason, in the following seven verses he points them to grounds for that hope—in his own experience, verses 5–7, and in the general law of God’s mercies toward us, verse 8, which are always ready for all, as soon as the requisite indispensable conditions are fulfilled on their part, verses 9–11. The fundamental of these conditions of disposition is the fear of God. Therefore in the second decade, which likewise divides into three and seven verses, it is first shown wherein the active fear of God consists, verses 13–15, and then the fruits of this fear are depicted: prompt hearing of prayer, verses 16–19, and deliverance from all trials and afflictions—in life, in death, and after death, verses 20–22.

Such is the external structure of the psalm! It was not considered superfluous to point it out, drawing on the many learned and experienced commentators, in the thought that this will provide no small assistance toward understanding its inner content as well. On that content, however, one must dwell at greater length of attention, in order to arrive at a presentation of the entire flow of thoughts contained in it, in one comprehensive survey.

The First Decade (Verses 2–11)

Verses 2–4. Remembering the deliverance from an extremity of the greatest severity, the holy Prophet pours forth his grateful and praising feelings toward God, saying: I will bless the Lord at all times; praise to Him shall ceaselessly issue from my lips; and in the Lord alone shall my soul glory—in the fact that I am God’s, that I am strong in God, that I abide under His shelter (one and a half verses).

The feeling of security under God’s shelter fills the devout heart with joy. Full of it, the holy Prophet seeks to make all the meek participants in it—those who, like himself, have been humbled by the circumstances of life and pressed by needs and extremities. Let the meek hear this, he says, and be glad—because, of course, the same path of salvation from trouble is open to them all. And so, inviting them all, as if they had already received the same mercies—for these are ready for them and as it were extended over them—he calls out: come, let us magnify the Lord together and exalt His name (another one and a half verses).

Verses 5–11. Having thus invited those who are humbled and lowly in life to praise God, the holy Prophet leads them further to trustful hope, saying to them as it were: your magnifying of the Lord will not be in vain—you too will receive what I have been granted. I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my afflictions. Draw near to Him yourselves with confidence, and the eyes dimmed by sorrow will clear, and your faces will not be left ashamed in hope. I too became poor—there remained nothing—neither wife, nor friends, nor shelter; and my very life was in danger. But I cried out with hope, and the Lord heard me and delivered me from all my afflictions (verses 5–7).

Such mercy belongs not to me alone, however, as though by some exception. No. Such is the law of the merciful God, that around each one who fears Him an angel always encamps to surround him with such strong protection as though a whole regiment of defenders stood about him (verse 8).

Such is the law of God’s mercy; yet it is not unconditional. God is toward us as we are toward Him. For this reason the Prophet goes on to say, as it were: you will receive mercy—only show in your heart the feelings and dispositions on which the reception of that mercy is conditioned: rekindle in your heart hope in God (verse 9); be permeated by the fear of God (verse 10); and seek God, drawing near to Him in painful, earnest, penitent prayer (verse 11).

Taste and see that the Lord is good. By means of reflection enkindled by faith, restore in feeling and consciousness the conviction of God’s goodness and so deepen it in the heart that the heart tastes it, and so clearly set it before the mind that the mind sees how good the Lord is. Then, through the action of this tasting and seeing, hope in God will be kindled in the heart; and hope will bring blessedness: for blessed is the man who trusts in Him (verse 9).

But hope cannot sustain itself in the heart if the fear of God—expressed in the strict fulfillment of the commandments—is not laid as its foundation. The fear of God, supporting hope and itself sheltered by it, will remove all want, and drive from the heart and extinguish within it every feeling of deprivation, whatever straitened circumstances one may be in. Fear the Lord, all you His holy ones, for those who fear Him suffer no lack (verse 10).

And so, those who in such feelings seek the Lord and flee to Him alone, setting aside all human supports, shall not lack any good thing. The guarantee of this is manifold experience. See: the rich — in Hebrew: young lions—those who, feeling themselves strong, think they have no need to flee to God — have grown poor and gone hungry; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing (verse 11).

The Second Decade (Verses 12–23)

The holy Prophet has shown that those who seek the Lord receive mercy and help from above. This seeking is roused by hope; and hope is rooted in the fear of God. Consequently, the fear of God is the support of trustful hope for those in extremity. For this reason the holy Prophet turns his song further to the inculcation of the fear of God, explaining wherein it consists, verses 13–15, and presenting incentives to its cultivation and preservation in the heart by pointing to the fruits of that fear—that is, showing how God is toward those who fear Him, verses 16–19, and what is the temporal and eternal lot of the latter, verses 20–22. This is the same as what was expressed above in the words: prompt hearing of prayer, and deliverance from trials and afflictions—in life, in death, and after death.

Because of the special importance of this subject, the holy Prophet considered it necessary to call for particular attention: come, he says, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord (verse 12).

Verses 13–15. The fear of God is not a bore sentiment but a moral and religious force, lying deep in the heart and governing all of life. Therefore, as the Prophet says in effect: if you wish to find the mercy of God, which alone can grant a peaceful life and good days—cultivate the fear of God, as I have indicated; but not an idle fear, rather one witnessed by deeds, namely: restrain your tongue from evil speech and your lips from deceit; turn away from evil and do good; and seek peace with all as the foremost good.

Verses 16–22. If you order your life in this way, you will be granted God’s special attentiveness toward you, verse 16, prompt hearing in prayer, verse 18, and the nearness of the Lord, verse 19, with His readiness to save you from every trial and affliction, in life, verse 20, in death, verse 21, and after death, verses 22–23.

Whoever, inspired by the fear of God, lives as described—doing good and turning from evil—is righteous. But upon the righteous the eyes of the Lord are fixed, to watch over them, and His ears are turned to them, to hear their prayer quickly. Upon the one who does not live thus, but does evil, the wrathful face of God is turned, to destroy even the memory of him from the earth. Therefore, as soon as the righteous cry to the Lord, He hears them. For He is near to those who have a contrite heart and humble spirit—and being near, He quickly saves them (verses 16–19).

Let the righteous too have many afflictions: such is already their lot on earth; but the Lord delivers them from all of them. Amid all the destructive effects of trials and troubles, the Lord keeps them whole—preserving whole their moral and religious ordering in this life; and after death He not infrequently glorifies their holy bones with incorruption. The death of sinners, on the contrary, is dreadful—and those who, persecuting the righteous, triumph here will see there how wrongly they understood the arrangements of this life.

Verse 23. Thus does the Lord deliver the souls of His servants—those who hope in Him will not be disappointed in their expectation.

Such is the entire flow of thought in the psalm. Having pondered well everything said above, everyone can now easily form a picture of its whole content, coming as close as possible to the thoughts that swarmed in the soul of the holy Prophet when the song poured forth from his heart. Though everything in the psalm has now become more or less clear, this is still far from fulfilling the intention with which the composition of these notes was undertaken. Here only the foundations have been laid for the real work—that is, the drawing of practical guidance for the use of this psalm and its application to one’s own life.

It is not enough to know the content of the psalm—one must also know how to draw from each verse edifying thoughts for oneself. When reading the psalms, one must give the mind free scope to survey all the expanse of truths to which the words of the psalms allude, and to nourish itself on all of them and nourish the heart. Whoever stops at mere knowledge does the work only halfway. The Psalter is used in the Church not for the mere enlargement of knowledge, but preeminently for the cultivation of a spirit of faith and piety. Whoever wishes to enter into the intentions of the Holy Church—take a verse, sit down and think: what does it teach you? What truths does it bring to mind? And how can all of that be applied to your life? To this task, with God’s help, we shall now proceed.

First Part of the First Decade (Verses 2–4)

In these first three verses the holy Prophet expresses his feelings toward God—feelings full of power and movement—and, not content with his own solitary turning to God, in the fullness of his feeling rouses all to do the same, striving in his ardor to impart to all his own spiritual disposition and make them partakers of his grateful and praising ascent to God.

Even with little attention, the following truths are not hard to notice, imprinted upon the mind in reading these verses: 1) that one must bless the Lord at all times, in all circumstances of life—both glad and sorrowful. This is the duty of submission to divine Providence (the first half of verse 2); 2) that one must cultivate in oneself ever-present praise of God—bring oneself to the point where the heart continually rises to God in prayer, as though that were its natural function. This is the duty of striving for perfection in spirit, and the holy occupation of all saints and those who seek sanctification (the second half of verse 2); 3) that everything must be referred to God, and everyone should boast only in the fact that he is God’s, is assisted by Him, and abides under His shelter (the first half of verse 3). This is the duty of self-surrender to God and the fruit of a humble awareness of God’s all-working; 4) that the true spirit of piety cannot be content with a solitary turning to God and tasting of the spiritual goods that proceed from Him: it strives to make all who share its mind partakers of that same movement, so that all with one soul and one voice may glorify the one God of all. This is the duty of brotherly love (the second half of verse 3 and verse 4).

This is how the holy Fathers draw these thoughts from the verses in question!

On Giving Thanks to God for All Things at All Times (Verse 2)

Ps. 33:2. I will bless the Lord at all times.

To bless the Lord means to speak a good word concerning Him. In this sense it is the same as praising the Lord. But ordinarily to bless is to give thanks. Thanksgiving to God is a form of prayer distinct from praise of God. The latter is prompted by the contemplation of the divine perfections and the great works of God, while the former is prompted by the awareness and feeling of God’s benefactions to us and to all. Holy David gives thanks and praises—he does not petition, which is the third form of prayer. He does not petition because he has attained to self-surrender to God, that perfection of spirit in which one does not importune God with requests but, ascending to Him in heart alone, says: Lord! All things are known to You. Dispose of me as Your holy will sees fit.

On the words I will bless the Lord at all times, Saint Basil the Great says: “having escaped death, the holy Prophet as it were lays down rules for his life, training his soul so that not a single moment may pass without the blessing of God. Whether in prosperity, he says, or in need and sorrow—at all times I will not cease to bless the Lord, believing that all things come from Him and that nothing happens by a chance confluence of circumstances.” “I will not cease to hymn my Lord—both in good fortune and in misfortune, both when pursuing enemies and when saving myself by flight from them” (Theodoret). The holy Prophet here showed by deed what the Apostle afterward enjoined in words: rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks (1Thes 5:16–18).

“See (Saint Basil the Great) what the soul of the holy Prophet is like! Unceasing misfortunes did not weaken his equanimity and his warm turning toward God. Banished from his homeland, separated from his wife, kinsmen, and household, stripped of property and compelled to wander—he even involuntarily fell into the hands of enemies and was nearly torn apart by them. Enduring all this, he did not say: where is God? And how long will these sorrows continue? But on the contrary, he was thereby all the more kindled with love for God and hope in Him. Truly, in him was fulfilled what the Apostle afterward wrote: affliction works endurance, and endurance works proof, and proof works hope (Rom 5:3–4)”.

Indeed, afflictions for those who are rightly disposed are, as it were, strengthening nourishment. The more they endure, the stronger and more unconquerable they become in the struggle with the unpleasant contingencies of life. It is also a school of learning for them. By this path they go from strength to strength and are made worthy of the glory with which the Ordainer of contests and Distributor of crowns will at last crown them. Therefore when reviled, they bless; when persecuted, they endure; when slandered, they take comfort (1Cor 4:12–13). It would be shameful for them to bless in happiness yet keep silence in sorrowful and straitened circumstances, when it is precisely then that one should give thanks all the more, knowing that whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives (Heb 12:6). And what is to be said of those who forget God in prosperity and pour out words of complaint in misfortune! (abridged from the same source).

“You sing with David, says Blessed Augustine: I will bless the Lord at all times. But when, according to that word, will you bless the Lord? When all goes well with you? When you abound in temporal goods? When you have much of every good thing—bread, oil, wine, cattle, gold, silver? When all are in good health and no one has died before his time, when good fortune flows abundantly into your house—is it then only that you will bless the Lord? No—not then only, but at all times bless the Lord. Bless Him both when such goods are sent, and when they are, by God’s designs, taken away. For that happens too. Then poverty, want, sorrow, and toil arrive. But you, who have been singing: I will bless the Lord at all times — both when He gives those goods, bless Him, and when He takes them away, bless Him. He gives, He also takes away. But Himself He will not take away from you, if you bless Him. Even so Job blessed the Lord not only when he abounded in all that made him rich—cattle, servants, children, and all possessions; but also when it was all suddenly taken from him, he fulfilled what is written in this psalm, saying: the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. As it pleased the Lord, so it has come to pass. Blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). Here is the one from whom to learn to bless the Lord at all times!”

It is easy to bless the Lord in happiness. A gladdened heart moves the tongue as well to thanksgiving. But how does one rouse this blessing within oneself in times of grief and sorrow? The holy Apostle, in giving the commandment to give thanks for everything, placed before it another: rejoice always (1Thes 5:16). Here, then, is guidance for us in how to dispose the heart toward the blessing of God in sorrowful times. One must discern and feel within troubles and sorrows something capable of bringing joy—for example, that the bitterness of life is a sign of God’s special care, like that which a father shows a son in chastising him; that afflictions and calamities are God’s means of healing us, like the cutting and cauterizing used by physicians; that through them we are purified and, being purified, become capable and worthy of blessedness alongside the pure, in a glory whose anticipation should dispose us to count all the sufferings of the present time as nothing. When you perceive as great a good in sorrows—or even greater—as in prosperity itself, as was the case with the martyrs, then you will have planted joy in the heart, and from it you will at once pass to thanksgiving. Feelings cannot be controlled at will, as we control the movements of the body. They must be moved gradually, and the stirring of one must prepare the generation of another. And feelings in relation to God do not all arise at once, nor do they all at once reach their perfection, but are cultivated gradually through labors and ascetic efforts in a devout life. The chief thing here is a strong and deep assurance of the heart concerning God’s Providence over us—that God cares for us as a father cares for his children, and that therefore everything He permits and arranges for us is essentially necessary for the salvation of each one of us. In all of this, however, life itself teaches us, when lived with attentiveness to oneself and a prayerful turning to God. Hence in the Apostle, after rejoice always, there stands pray without ceasing, as a transition to in everything give thanks. This tells us that prayer is the mediator of everything here. Prayer, growing stronger, gives the power to perceive the joyful within the sorrowful, and to draw from a heart pressed by sorrow grateful songs to God. A prayer-filled life in God introduces one into God’s designs and teaches one to receive everything gladly from the Lord’s hand.

On Praising God “at All Times” (Verse 2)

Ps. 33:2. His praise shall be ever upon my lips.

Is this praise ever upon his lips, or shall it be? Since he praises—it is. But having once begun, it will no longer cease. The song of praise has been born in the heart—and it shall issue from it without ceasing, moving the tongue to the same. Such is the sweetness and such the power of the praise of God!

“The Prophet (Saint Basil the Great) seems here to promise something impossible. How can God’s praise be continually on the lips of a man? When he converses in ordinary everyday talk, God’s praise is not on his lips. When he sleeps, he keeps perfect silence. When he eats and drinks, how shall his lips utter praise? But besides the outward man, there is in us an inner man, and besides the outer lips there are inner lips—the lips of the heart—which can carry on their own speech independently of the outer lips.” Nothing can hinder those lips from remembering God and praising Him at all times—for those who lead a sober life and attend to their own heart. Did Moses say anything with his outer lips as he stood before the sea? He did not. And yet God answers him: why do you cry to Me? The lips were silent, but the heart was uttering a cry that ascended to heaven and entered into the ears of God. The same every person can do, without being hindered or distracted by his outward position—just as Moses was not distracted there by the noise and murmuring of the surrounding people. With our bodily lips we must praise God at the appointed times: evening, morning, and noon. But with the lips of the heart—with the word of the mind uttered inwardly—we must remember God more often than we breathe, as Saint Gregory the Theologian says (Euthymius Zigabenus).

“The thought of God (Saint Basil the Great), once impressed and as it were sealed with a seal in the ruling power of the soul—in the mind—can be called a praise of God that dwells ever in the soul.” A true thought of God cannot but be a praise of Him, for God is always supremely glorious and all-glorified. Establish this thought firmly in yourself, and you will be a ceaseless praiser of God. And in this the Prophet gives you an example when he says: I have set the Lord before me at all times; since He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken (Ps 15:8). This setting of God before oneself is a constant thought about Him—or, in other terms, walking in the presence of God, the norm of the inner disposition of all zealots of piety and at the same time the most effective means of progressing therein. Whoever becomes established in this—in him the heart is awake even during sleep, as it is written: I sleep, but my heart is awake (Song 5:2); for “the images of sleep (Saint Basil the Great) very often echo the thoughts that occupied one during the day.”

“A zealot (Saint Basil the Great) of piety, according to the Apostle’s assurance, can do all things to the glory of God, so that every action, every word, every mental exercise receives in him the force of praise; for whether such a one eats or drinks, he does all things to the glory of God (1Cor 10:31).” And deeds give forth a voice, as the blood of Abel. That voice is the thought and intention with which they are performed. As every object gives off its own fragrance and is recognized by its fragrance—so do our deeds give off what the performing soul puts into them. Therefore, if someone does all things to the glory of God, his deeds give off glory to God, heard by God, and he truly praises God at all times, for his deeds do not cease to exist.

Thanksgiving to God for all things and ever-present praise of God—if these are not isolated acts but constant dispositions and states of the heart—are the highest degrees of perfection in the spiritual life in its relation to God. They are placed by holy David at the beginning, at the head of reverent feelings toward God, both as the goal of striving for souls that thirst for perfection and as a gladdening assurance that the efforts undertaken have already borne the hoped-for fruit. For the latter, the holy Prophet presents himself as an example and pattern: he would not have said ever will I bless and praise the Lord, if the pledge of strength needed for this were not already carried in his soul. The dispositions toward it were stirring in his heart like ripe fruit, and gave the impulse to utter so great a word—as John, leaping in Elizabeth’s womb, moved her tongue to utter a corresponding word (Lk 1:41–45). So you see the fruit; but how its seed was planted, how the seed germinated, developed, produced flower and then fruit—the Prophet does not explain. Ever-present praise is the angelic life. Its seed is in the spirit bearing the image of God. Grace, having descended, awakens that seed and directs the spirit toward God. Labors and efforts then begin, aimed at removing the obstacles to unceasing abiding in God. The time comes; the labors are crowned with success, and the spirit—purified—begins to behold God. Those who behold God—the pure in heart—are blessed. And the heart thus made blessed, from the abundance of its blessedness, begins a hymn of praise to God that it never ceases. In this is the beginning of that life which shall be manifested in all its fullness in the Kingdom of Heaven.

All Must Be Referred to God, and Upon Him Alone Must One Lean (Verse 3)

Ps. 33:3. In the Lord shall my soul make its boast.

Saint Basil the Great puts into the Prophet’s mouth the following words on this: “I do not boast, he says, in my own resourcefulness, by which I was saved from danger, but in the Lord, who saved me: for salvation is not in human strength or human wisdom, but in God’s grace.” Saint Athanasius the Great adds: “if, he says, I appear worthy of praise, because something good is found in my deeds—that ought to be ascribed not to me but to God: He has made me known; He has also made me worthy of praise.” Thus, to boast in the Lord means to refer all to the Lord and to lean on nothing of one’s own, but on God’s strength alone, and on God’s shelter and Providence.

A person always sees something of value in himself or in something of his own—and that he sets forward, on that he leans and his hope reposes and that he boasts of. In this lies the foundation of the feeling of security and the assurance of the possibility of well-being. Remove this support, and the person collapses in spirit, is crushed, falls into despair. But all that a person might boast of and lean upon—apart from God—gives him no true boast and no solid support. Boast of the fact that you are God’s and that God holds you as His own, helps you, and extends His protection over you. For it is written: let not the rich man boast in his riches, the wise man in his wisdom, the mighty man in his might; but let the one who boasts boast in this—in knowing and understanding the Lord his God — and in being known by Him (Jer 9:23–24). “In place (Saint Basil the Great) of any other honor, it is enough for us to be called servants of the Heavenly Lord of all—God. Does not the king’s servant boast of having been appointed to this or that rank of service? Can the one who has been granted to serve the true God devise praises for himself from some other source, as though to be called the Lord’s were insufficient for the fullness of his glory and renown? If someone boasts of his beauty, or the nobility of his birth, or his connections, and reposes on that—his boast is vain and his support is unstable: for his soul does not boast in the Lord. Likewise, if someone boasts of his intellect, his skill and resourcefulness—such as scholars, orators, rulers, physicians, builders of houses and cities and the like—and reposes his hope on that, their boast is vain and their support is not firm: for they do not place their soul in the Lord.”

To boast in the Lord, to refer all to Him and to repose with restful assurance on Him alone—this is a state of the spirit, not an isolated act. Until a firm conviction has been born and implanted in the heart that it is the Lord who holds and keeps a person and arranges all that is salvific for him—until then one cannot sincerely boast in the Lord, though one may do so with the tongue. Without this conviction a person ordinarily regards himself and his own mind as his keeper and guardian, and attributes everything good he manages to accomplish to himself and boasts of it.

On the Spiritual Communion of Those Surrendered to God (Verses 3–4)

Ps. 33:3. Let the meek hear and be glad.

The meek lack the energy to stand against the assault of unfavorable circumstances and to push them aside by their own resistance. They grieve indeed—but how to escape from trouble they do not know and do not even undertake it. It is to such persons—as a consolation and encouragement to them—that the Prophet now turns his speech. “Since (Saint Basil the Great), he says, my salvation was accomplished through a mere change of appearance, with God’s assistance, let the meek hear this and be glad, seeing how even without a fight one can raise trophies of victory and, without having fought, prove to be victors.” Cast your care upon the Lord and He will arrange for you everything for which you have neither strength nor means. The Prophet places himself among all the oppressed and the pursued and wishes to share with all the means of deliverance of which he himself was found worthy. As someone who has found the road, having been lost, calls out to others who are wandering that they should follow him—so does the Prophet. He says, as it were: by the Lord I was saved; in the Lord my soul makes its boast. This is the surest path of deliverance from troubles. Rejoice in this discovery and hasten to set out on that same path, on which it has gone so well for me. In this sense Euthymius Zigabenus says: “by the meek, holy David means the guileless—those who do not return evil for evil; and let such be glad, he says, for God never abandons the meek, but always saves them in extremity, as He saved me; in me let them see an example of salvation from the Lord and rise to bold hope in Him.” “Let every righteous man (Athanasius the Great) be glad, hearing of the salvation the Lord has wrought for me and seeing how He saves all who hope in Him.”

Or the meek are “those who have tamed (Basil the Great) their dispositions, freed themselves from every passion, in whose souls there is no longer any tumult: such as Moses, who was meeker than all men on the face of the earth (Num 12:3), and such as the true followers of Christ, who have learned from Him to be meek and humble, just as He is meek and humble in heart (Mt 11:29). This is the community of the blessed, who are promised to inherit the earth (Mt 5:5).” In that case the holy Prophet’s address to the meek would carry the following meaning: I too have been numbered into your midst. By the circumstances of life I have been humbled and taught to place my salvation in God alone. Hear this and rejoice, as those who have gained a new member of one mind.

Or thus: the circle of meek people is a community of persons closely bound to one another. What concerns one concerns all; all sympathize with it and all feel it—one person’s trouble is a common trouble. And now holy David had vanished from the scene! Where, where to, what has become of him? He had sunk as though into the waves of the sea. But—by the power of God—he is delivered from trouble and, in grateful feelings toward God, calls out to all: I am alive! I have been delivered by God! The extremity was great; yet I did not lose heart and remain in that same God, and in Him I make my boast. Hear this and be glad. Such feelings Christians have often had to show and to experience during times of persecution. Expressing the same thought, Saint Athanasius says: “the Psalmist is not content to hymn God alone, but makes the partakers of his meekness also partakers of the song.”

Ps. 33:4. Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.

Having invited the meek to share his joy, he now invites them also to share in the labor of magnifying the beneficent Lord. “As though he does not have sufficient strength to worthily proclaim the greatness of God, he asks that others also set to that same work and assist him” (Athanasius the Great). A single mind is not strong enough to encompass the majesty of God; this is why the Prophet calls all the meek to share in this action (Saint Cyril in Euthymius Zigabenus). As once the three youths in the Babylonian furnace, conscious of the greatness of the task of glorifying God and accounting themselves insufficient for it, called upon all creation to magnify the Lord—so too holy David, in the same mind, calls upon those of one mind with him in meekness and piety, that they might help him to worthily magnify the Lord (Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem).

But however many minds may gather, they will not encompass as they ought the greatness of God, and however many tongues may be employed, they will not express it in a manner fully worthy of God. And yet, whatever measure this magnification by mind and word may attain, it is always an action and a state of the spirit that is solemnly joyful. Therefore, it is not so much the hope of jointly encompassing and fully expressing the greatness of God that moves holy David to invite all the meek to this, as it is the desire to make them partakers of his own reverent spiritual joy. If simple joy naturally tends toward sharing, all the more so does spiritual joy, which is freed from every passionate limitation and is stirred by objects capable of gladdening all. “I do not wish to magnify alone (Blessed Augustine)—says the true lover of the Lord—it is not as here, where if I embrace something, there is no room for another who also wishes to embrace it. In the Lord there is such breadth that there is room for all to embrace Him—in the desire to delight in Him. Exhort one another, saying: let us exalt His name together. If you love the Lord, draw all into this love, with whomever you enter into any relationship, and especially those who are in your household. Draw them into love of the Lord, whomever you can and however you are able—by exhortation, by petition, by instruction, by argument with gentleness and meekness. Draw all to love, so that when they begin to magnify the Lord, they magnify Him together, as it were in one voice. Those who have fallen away from the unity of the Church (in Augustine’s time—the Donatists; in ours—schismatics, Molokans, Khlysts) magnify the Lord in separation. Let us also say: let us exalt, brethren, His name together. Why do you separate yourselves and wish to magnify the Lord apart from us? He is one; why do you wish two peoples to stand before His face? Why do you wish to cut the Body of Christ asunder? When the Lord hung upon the Cross, enemies came and did not break His legs. But Donatus came (in our time, Avvakum, Uvarov) and cut apart the Body of Christ’s Church. On the Cross, in the hands of enemies, the Body of Christ remained whole, while in the hands of Christians the Body of the Church was not preserved whole. Let us therefore cry out to them with a strong cry: come, let us exalt His name together. This is the Church crying out to those who have fallen away; this is her voice, calling them back to her bosom!”

To magnify the Lord means to depict His greatness in word or song. The Lord is infinitely great in Himself and has revealed Himself as such in His works. Our magnification is not needed for His sake; rather, it is our duty, the duty of the creature to its Creator. On the other hand, greatness irresistibly draws forth a feeling of wonder, as a tribute to what is great. So it is with regard to God! When His greatness is recognized, felt, and as it were touched—then thoughts that magnify Him will of themselves swarm and form into a song, first in the heart and thence in word. The whole matter lies in beholding and touching the greatness of God.

This is attained by “one who (Basil the Great) with a reverent mind, in deep contemplation, examines the greatness of creation, so as to behold its Creator (Wis. 13:5) in the greatness and beauty of created things. For the more one penetrates into the laws by which the universe is ordered and governed, the more clearly one contemplates the majesty of the Lord and is disposed, according to one’s capacity, to magnify the Lord”.

This is also attained by one who, through deep reflection, perceives the manifestation of God’s greatness in His judgments and mercies toward the human race: in the Flood, in the confusion of tongues, in the leading of the Israelites out of Egypt, and above all in the redemption and salvation of mankind. Having understood and sensed this last, the Mother of God cried out: my soul magnifies the Lord! (Lk. 1:46). The same wonder and cry is involuntarily wrested from everyone who, with an undistracted mind, ascends into the contemplation of God’s greatness as manifested by Him in His providential acts toward the human race.

But not everyone is capable of this. One must first make the eye of the mind pure and acquire a tranquil heart. “One must (Basil the Great) entirely free oneself from outward tumults, produce perfect stillness in the hidden chamber of the heart’s counsels, and then draw near to the contemplation of God’s works. Just as it is impossible for a troubled eye to receive a true impression of a visible object, so it is impossible with a disturbed heart to comprehend the greatness of God in creation and providence. Therefore one must withdraw from all worldly affairs and not introduce into the soul any extraneous thoughts, whether through sight, hearing, or any other sense. For the battles raised by carnal thinking fill the interior of the heart with unceasing tumults and irreconcilable strife”.

But the Lord is magnified not only in word but in deed as well. “How can we, the humble, magnify the Lord, Who is great beyond all measure and comprehension?—asks Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and answers: we can magnify the Lord by no other means than by doing, speaking, and thinking what is worthy of the greatness of God and pleasing to Him”. In this sense it is often said in the Psalms: let us magnify the Lord, let us exalt God and glorify Him. In this same sense we read in the Lord’s Prayer: may Your name be sanctified. These words mean: let us do, speak, and think what is worthy of the greatness, glory, majesty, and holiness of God. This is why holy Basil the Great approaches the interpretation of this verse as follows: “The Prophet gathers around himself a choir suited to the glorification of the Lord—his address is to the meek. Do not join me, he says, if you are turbulent, troubled, or if you inflame your soul with carnal passions; but come, you who are meek—you who have acquired steadiness and constancy of soul, who have shaken off sloth and drowsiness and stand vigilantly in the works of God”.

Such are the thoughts to which the first three verses of the Psalm lead us, as indicated by the holy Fathers and teachers of the Church. It is not difficult to notice what a progression of holy spiritual feelings there is in the holy Prophet! It begins with thanksgiving for one occasion; from this thanksgiving, aroused by the mercy of God, the mind passes to the contemplation of all God’s perfections and gives birth to the continual praise of God; from the contemplation of perfections the mind passes to the contemplation of God’s universal activity in all that takes place in creation generally and in the fate of man in particular, and disposes the spirit—referring everything to God—to find its rest in Him alone; finally, encompassing all in one thought, the holy Prophet rises to the comprehension of God’s greatness—both in His attributes and in His acts—and, like one who has found a precious and inexhaustible treasure, calls all to render Him the tribute of magnification that is His due. See to what height he has ascended and to what height he leads us!—Comprehension or the sense of God’s greatness strikes the spirit with wonder. Wonder in the contemplation of God’s incomprehensible greatness is the secret worship of the mind before the infinitely great God. This wonder strikes the mind as it penetrates into every attribute and every act of God. Wondrous are: God’s omnipotence, His goodness, His justice, His omniscience, His omnipresence, His creative power, His providence, and His redemption. Each of God’s attributes and acts, when the humble mind begins to penetrate into them, opens as it were a window onto God’s boundlessness, immensity, and incomprehensibility, in which the mind loses itself and as it were dissolves—and in deep self-abasement is compelled to cry out: who is like God!

Second Part of the First Decade (Verses 5–11)

Holy David invited the meek to share his joy and to magnify the Lord together—and he did so not merely because he himself had been vouchsafed a great mercy, namely the salvation of a life that had been in such extreme danger; but because for them too every needful mercy and help is always ready, should they draw near to God in the proper manner. Therefore, following that invitation, he hastens to encourage them—passing everything else by—to seek their salvation in God alone, assuring them that such seeking will not be in vain: first, by his own example, and second, by indicating the law of God’s mercies. He speaks to them as it were thus: behold, I sought God and received mercy; and you will receive it also if you draw near to Him—verses 5–7; for such is the law of the all-good God, that He always saves those who draw near to Him in the fear of God—verse 8—as long as they draw near with the requisite dispositions—verses 9–11.

Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

Ps. 33:5. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and from all my tribulations He delivered me.

Holy David speaks to them as it were thus: I found myself in the most difficult circumstances; but I turned to God with firm hope, and He delivered me from trouble. Turn to God yourselves, and the same will be granted to you. “This is what (Basil the Great) he says—hear it, you who are meek—that I sought the Lord and was heard. In that heavy time, when the wrath of the spiteful was directed against me and the hands of all were raised against me, while I, unprotected by anything, was prepared to receive every blow from the enemies—even in that time I was not confused in my thoughts from fear, I did not abandon the thought of God, I did not despair of my salvation, but I sought the Lord—and because I sought, I was delivered from the trouble. Learn from this where the safe refuge in afflictions is, and take courage”.

Why do some who seek the Lord find no help from Him? Because they do not seek with the whole soul—they cry out, as it were, only with the tip of their tongue. The Prophet, however, says of himself that he did not merely seek, but sought earnestly. “The expression: I sought earnestly — signifies more than I sought, just as close examination signifies more than examination” (Basil the Great). As a child who senses danger seeks its father or mother with weeping and crying, passing by all others: so I, he says, in the utmost need, passing by all human means of salvation, sought the one Lord earnestly—from the depth of my soul, with an aching heart (Euthymius Zigabenus), undistracted by anything, having in mind only the one Lord. Therefore—He heard me. For God is the God of the heart—the One Who is near to every heart and comprehends all its thoughts and longings. Wholehearted seeking, without any mediation or interval, is received by the Lord directly and draws down His mercy.

Where did the Lord hear the Prophet? In the very place where he sought Him. And where did he seek Him? In the heart. “Outwardly (Augustine) no one heard David’s voice and his appeals to God. There was no time, and there was no place to cry out with the tongue. The seeking and the crying took place in the heart: the outward appearance showed something entirely different. But where the seeking was, there too was the hearing and the giving. The Lord hears inwardly, inwardly in the heart, and gives. Therefore, pray there, and there you will be heard and blessed. Inwardly, in the heart, you will both pray and be heard and be blessed, while a bystander standing right next to you will know nothing of it. Everything will be accomplished in secret, as the Lord says in the Gospel: entering into your chamber, shut your door and pray in secret, and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you openly (Mt. 6:6). For to enter into the chamber means to enter into the heart. Blessed is he who, having entered into his own heart, rejoices there, finding nothing evil. Let your holiness attend! It happens that one does not wish to enter his own house because there is a bad wife there. When such a man goes out of the house he rejoices, but when the hour comes to return home he grieves, because not joy awaits him there, but offense, sorrow, quarreling, and strife. Wretched are such people; but far more wretched are those who do not wish to enter within their heart, on account of the stings of conscience awaiting them there for the sins they have committed. Therefore, so that you may enter willingly into your heart, cleanse it: blessed are the pure in heart (Mt. 5:8). Cast out from it the filth of lusts, of covetousness and miserliness, the thorns of pride, the weed of envy, of hatred, and of every evil thought. Cast all this out—and then, entering into your heart, you will rejoice there. When you begin to rejoice there, the very purity of the heart will delight you and dispose you to pray. When you come, for instance, to some clean, quiet, peaceful place, you say to yourself: I will pray here. The pleasantness of the place draws you in, and you expect that there you will pray more earnestly and be heard by the Lord more quickly. If outward cleanliness draws you so; how much more attractive will be inward cleanliness? Enter therefore within, and cleanse everything. Then, lifting only the eyes of your heart toward God—He will come to you at once and help you”.

Not all who seek the Lord find Him. For it is written: the wicked will seek Me and will not find Me (Prov. 1:28). Only those who have a sound disposition of heart and sincere feelings toward God find the Lord as their Helper, Protector, and Deliverer from troubles (Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem). One may seek God as a means, while the heart is turned toward something else—and therefore receives nothing. “The holy Prophet sought nothing other than the Lord Himself, and was heard (Augustine). Therefore, whoever is not heard certainly was not seeking the Lord. Look carefully! The Prophet did not say: I sought gold from the Lord, and He heard me. I sought long life, and He heard me; I sought this or that—and He heard me. It is one thing to seek something from the Lord, and another to seek the Lord Himself. Therefore, do not seek from the Lord something that is outside Him, but seek the Lord Himself—and He will hear you, and while you are still speaking, He will say: Behold, I am here (Is. 65:24). What does it mean: Behold, I am here? Here I am Myself: what more is there to want, what more to ask of Me? Whatever I might give you is all less than Myself. Here I am Myself: receive Me and take possession of Me. You cannot yet receive Me wholly, or be wholly in Me. But touch Me by faith, and you will partake of Me. And then I will cast off all your burdens from you, so that you may both receive Me wholly and be wholly in Me. Then you will become equal to the angels (Mt. 22:30). You will continually see My face and reveal your desires and needs to Me face to face. And I will hear you quickly and deliver you from all your tribulations”.

What tribulations did the Prophet have in mind when he said: from all my tribulations He delivered me? Those which he experienced in the occasion mentioned in the title. There was not a single tribulation there, just as the danger was a complex one. The Prophet speaks as it were thus: how many times did King Saul attempt to take my life with his own hand, and I was covered by the right hand of the Most High! Finally he sent armored men to kill me, and there too the Lord helped me to escape from their hands. In Nob the high priest could have detained me; but he was not given to discern my flight, and he not only did not detain me but provided me with bread and a sword. Having fled to a neighboring people, I fell by carelessness into the hands of a king who could not be lenient toward me; but by the nod of that same Helper and Protector God of mine, I wondrously escaped the death that awaited me by the most trifling of means. What might have happened had I been detained there? To what indignities would they have subjected me—and after abusing me, either tortured me or handed me over to Saul! From all these tribulations and troubles our most merciful and loving God and Father delivered me for the sole reason that I earnestly sought Him with an aching heart (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov).

Holy David was a man after God’s own heart; and yet he was given to experience extreme tribulations. “The life of every righteous man (Basil the Great) is filled with tribulations; the path of each of them is a narrow and afflicted path. Many are the tribulations of the righteous, for through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). God delivers the holy ones from tribulations not by leaving them untried, but by granting them endurance. The complete removal of tribulations would not be beneficial. For if tribulation produces endurance, and endurance—proven character (Rom. 5:3), then the one untouched by tribulation is deprived of experience. And just as no one receives a crown without having an adversary and without wrestling with him: so too it is impossible to show oneself proven without tribulations and without bearing them with courage. Therefore the words: from all my tribulations He delivered me — do not mean: He did not permit me to suffer, but granted together with the trial a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1Cor. 10:13)”.

Ps. 33:6. Draw near to Him and be enlightened, and your faces will not be put to shame.

“Having strengthened himself in hope by what he himself received, the holy Prophet leads others to the same” (Athanasius the Great). I, he says, sought the Lord and here is what I received. Do the same and you will receive the same. Since he urges them to correspond their actions to his own: it is evident that “draw near” corresponds to “I sought earnestly”, “you will be enlightened” to “He heard me”, “your faces will not be put to shame” to “from all my tribulations He delivered me”. As I sought earnestly, so do you draw near; as I was heard, so will you be enlightened; as I was delivered from all my tribulations, so will you not be put to shame.

The Lord is everywhere: how is one to draw near to Him? By turning the heart to Him with an aching desire in trustful prayer. As the earnest seeking of the Lord is an aching cry to Him, so too the drawing near to Him is persistent pleading with Him in earnest prayer, like the widow in the parable who persistently pleaded with the unjust judge. Whoever draws near so sincerely and with such constancy will be heard. Into his heart will descend the assurance that his prayer is accepted by God, and his sorrow-darkened face will be brightened by hope. Sorrow and grief ordinarily darken the face and the mind. The holy Prophet speaks here as it were thus: you whose faces are darkened by sorrows and griefs—draw near to God by earnestly seeking Him, as I sought Him; and undoubtedly you will be enlightened by Him with joy and consolation, which will drive away the dark cloud of grief from your heart, and thus your faces will not be put to shame in your hope in Him (Euthymius Zigabenus, Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem). “When someone endures, says Blessed Augustine, some misfortune, contempt, dishonor, or persecution, his face is covered with shame. But you, says the Prophet to one who hopes, do not be afraid. Draw near to the Lord, and you will not be put to shame. The enemy, prevailing over you, seems to get the upper hand over you and put you to shame; but you are higher than him in the eyes of God, Who will also exalt you above your enemy in His own time and remove the shame from your face. How the Jews exalted themselves when they tormented the Lord! His face seemed to be put to shame and brought to nothing. But in very fact the Jews were put to shame. A few years passed, and their city was destroyed and they were scattered over the face of the earth. Thus, as the Lord Himself was not covered with shame, so He does not allow those whom He enlightens to be put to shame”.

Such is the direct meaning of this verse. But, outside the context, it can have a manifold application, to which the holy Fathers who commented on the Psalms gave greater attention—not with a view to knowledge, but with a view to spiritual edification. The words: draw near to Him — that is, to the Lord—point to those who have drawn away from Him and through this withdrawal have grown darkened and brought shame upon their faces. Some stand in remoteness from God in that they do not know Him and do not believe in Him; others — in that, though they believe in Him, they do not live according to that faith; still others — in that, wishing to draw near to God, they do not travel to Him by the path by which one ought to travel. To all such persons the summons may be and has been applied: draw near to the Lord and be enlightened, so that, being enlightened, you may remove the shame of darkness from your face.

Draw near to the Lord, you who do not know God and His Christ, who wander in the darkness of falsehood and delusion, outside the saving path. A Christian who has been enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit does not wish to be the sole partaker of this blessing, but invites all to draw near to our Lord Jesus Christ (Augustine). Those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death are here urged by the Prophet to draw near to the Lord—to draw near to the rays of the Godhead—so that, through this drawing near, illumined by truth, by grace, they might receive within themselves His enlightenment. For just as this visible light does not shine for all, but only for those whose eyes are open and turned toward the sun for unobstructed reception of its rays; so the Sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2), the Light of truth Who enlightens every person who comes into the world (Jn. 1:9), is not visible in His radiance to all, but only to those who open the eyes of their soul by faith and turn toward the Lord, turning away from every false belief and ruinous error (Basil the Great).

Such persons receive the power of enlightenment in the holy sacraments. Those who turn for the first time from paganism receive it in holy baptism, which is therefore called illumination; just as the feast of the Lord’s Baptism, during which the baptism of those turning to Christ was celebrated most abundantly in the early Church, is called the feast of lights. For this reason Theodoret, Euthymius Zigabenus, and Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, see in the words: draw near and be enlightened — an invitation to the unbaptized to receive holy baptism, as though saying: draw near to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith in the Holy Gospel and receive holy baptism. Holy baptism will cleanse your souls and enlighten the eyes of your mind, and thus remove the shame from your face, washing away from you the cause of shame—your sins.

The one who has believed enters upon the path of intimate drawing near to the Lord. He must go forward without turning back, without delay, without sloth. How is he to go? By faith through love. “Your feet, says Blessed Augustine, are your love. Have two feet: do not be one-legged and lame. What are these two feet? The two commandments of love—toward God and toward neighbor. With these feet run to God and draw near to Him. He Himself invites you to run to Him, and He gives His light so that you may draw near to Him in a manner befitting God”.

But not everyone does this: others yield to the pull of the passions and, turning aside into crooked paths, again withdraw from God. For them the light of Christ, Who enlightens all, will grow dim. “Just as the sun (Basil the Great), though it rises, does not rise for bats and other creatures that seek their food by night: so the light of the Godhead, though it is in itself radiant and all-illumining, is not partaken of by all in its splendor. The cause of this is not in the light itself, but in the evil will of the sin-loving heart”. For such as these the goodness of God has established another path of drawing near to God—the path of repentance. What darkness is darker than the darkness of sin? And what shame is more shameful than sins committed? And so sinners are invited to draw near to God in repentance, so as to be enlightened and cleansed of the sins that darken and shame them. The sin-loving heart sometimes persists even here, ashamed of confession—which washes away every shame. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed (Jn. 3:20).

“A sinner often says: how can I draw near? I am burdened by such sins; such transgressions lie upon my conscience: how dare I draw near to God?! How? By humbling yourself in repentance. I am ashamed, you say, to perform repentance. But just draw near, and you will be enlightened, and your shame will vanish. The fear of shame turns you away from repentance; but repentance draws you toward God, Who removes shame. The seal of condemning guilt is on your brow; but draw near, and the Lord will remove it. Do you not see that your face is covered with shame precisely because you have not yet drawn near to the Lord? Humble yourself therefore in repentance: and your shame will vanish, and your face will be enlightened” (Blessed Augustine).

One who has repented journeys toward the Lord. The path to Him is properly an interior path, accomplished in the mind and heart. The thoughts of the mind and the dispositions of the heart must be so ordered that the spirit of the person is always with the Lord—showing itself to have drawn near to Him. Whoever is such is continually illumined by interior enlightenment, receiving upon himself the rays of intelligible light (Theodoret), like Moses, whose face was glorified on the mountain through his abiding with God. Of this holy David says elsewhere: the light of Your face has been marked upon us, O Lord (Ps. 4:7). The means adapted to this end is the interior prayer accomplished in the heart. When it is formed, only then does the gaze of the mind become clear, and the spirit, clearly seeing God, receives from Him the power both to see and to repel everything capable of putting it to shame before God. Meanwhile there are not a few who hope to draw near to God by outward deeds and labors alone. They hope, but do not draw near; for they do not travel the right path. And so to them comes the summons: draw near to God with mind and heart and be enlightened, and cease to be put to shame by the enemy who, with all your outward correctness, continually prevails over you and puts you to shame in thoughts and feelings of the heart. Interior and heartfelt drawing near to God will give you the power to gain mastery over all other movements of the soul, and thereby to put the enemy to shame when he ventures to put you to shame.

Holy Basil the Great draws yet another deeply edifying thought from this verse. Draw near to the Lord, seeking His help, be enlightened by hope of deliverance, and your faces will not be put to shame in your expectation. This concerns the present life, so full of labor and affliction. But there will also be another life, in which even unwillingly we will have to appear before the light that will illumine all that is ours. Oh, if only then we need not be put to shame! He will not be put to shame then who here draws near to the Lord by faith and repentance and is enlightened by the labors of good works and the endeavors of cleansing the heart from passions. Such a one is blessed. On the day of God’s righteous judgment, when the Lord comes to bring to light the hidden things of darkness and to disclose the purposes of the heart (1Cor. 4:5), such a one will step boldly into that radiant light and will not be put to shame, because his conscience is not defiled by shameful deeds, having been cleansed by the tears of repentance and the labors of self-correction. But those who did evil (and did not repent) will rise to mockery and shame, to see in themselves the ugliness and imprint of the sins committed. And perhaps more terrible than the darkness and the eternal fire is the shame in which sinners will be fixed forever, having before their eyes continually the traces of sins committed in the flesh—remaining, like some indelible dye, forever in the memory of their soul. There is only one destructive power for these traces—the tears of repentance. One must wash the face of one’s soul with them here, and it will be enlightened and will not be put to shame on that day.

Ps. 33:7. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and from all his tribulations He saved him.

This verse corresponds almost word for word to verse 5: only in place of I sought earnestly we have here this poor man cried, and in place of He delivered—He saved. This is why all commentators agree that holy David is again speaking here of himself. He returns again to his own experience of deliverance from trouble in order to awaken hope in those who are in distress. After saying of himself: I sought the Lord earnestly, and He heard me—now draw near with hope yourselves—someone might have thought: you are a king, you are a Prophet, and that is why you were heard—and with that thought might have quenched again the hope that was beginning to revive. To prevent this, holy David now points to his own thoroughgoing deprivation, in order to make clear that he himself was in an extremely abased state when he cried to the Lord, and was nevertheless heard.

Behold: being a poor man, deprived of all help, even of food and shelter, I cried out with faith and hope to God, and as soon as I knocked at the door of His mercy with a fervent prayer, He immediately heard me and from all my tribulations He saved me (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov).

But one may here, understanding by the poor man everyone who is in extremity and without help, pass in thought to the manifold instances of deliverance from troubles shown by God’s goodness over many persons from the beginning of the world to the present—saying to oneself as it were thus: behold, such-and-such a person cried and was heard; and likewise that one, and that one, and many, finding themselves in trouble, cried to the Lord and were heard. Do not despair yourself; cry out, and you too will be heard. And here we have a guiding indication of how to revive in the heart a fading hope for God’s mercy and help. Turn over in your mind the examples of those saved from troubles—and you will be filled with hope. Danger threatened Jacob from Esau: he cried to God, and God changed the heart of Esau. In what great extremity were Moses and all the people of Israel when Pharaoh with his army was overtaking them before the sea? But Moses cried to God—and He wondrously saved them. How many times did the people of Israel, groaning under the oppression of neighboring peoples, turn to God and seek His help—and every time were quickly heard and saved, not by human means, rejoicing in triumph over their enemies. These and similar instances of salvation wrought by God existed before holy David and nourished in him the spirit of hope. But how many such instances did David himself see—both in his own life and in the life of all his people? How many were shown afterward among the people of God? How many more in the Christian kingdoms of the East, the West, and of God-protected Russia? Even now, one who is attentive cannot fail to see them—both in his own life and in the lives of those known and unknown to him, God-fearing persons who take refuge under God’s covering and intercession. How comforting it is to gather such instances in memory! And how pleasant to listen to a person who, for every sorrowful occasion, can recall in memory not one but many examples of God’s swift help! Here is the true school of hope!

In pointing, however, to his own experience of deliverance from trouble—as a poor man — in order to awaken hope, the holy Prophet at the same time hints at what kind of poverty has value before God, drawing His mercy. “Poverty is not always praiseworthy, says Basil the Great, but only when it has been accepted by the will. Many are poor in means, yet extremely covetous in will. Such persons are not saved by their poverty, but condemned by their will. Therefore blessed is not the one who is poor, but the one who has detached his heart from every possession, preferring the commandment of Christ to the treasures of the world. Such are those whom the Lord calls blessed, saying: blessed are the poor in spirit (Mt. 5:3)—not those who are poor in property, but those who have chosen poverty by the will of their heart. For what does not come from the will does not make one blessed. And it is such a poor man who will cry and will be quickly heard and delivered from tribulations and troubles”.

The holy Prophet also hints at the spirit of humility and self-abasement with which one must cry to God in prayer in order to receive what is asked. “If someone (Basil the Great), guided by a holy and loving spirit, not thinking highly of himself but humbling himself to exalt others, cries out in spirit, asking for something great, and utters nothing unworthy or base—nothing that expresses the seeking of earthly and worldly things—then the cry of this petitioner will be heard by the Lord”. “Holy David teaches here, says Blessed Augustine, how one may be heard. If you cried out and were not heard, it is because you appeared before God as a rich man. Cry as a poor man, and the Lord will hear. And how is one to cry as a poor man? In such a way that, even if you have something, you attribute no merits to yourself, but acknowledge yourself to be in want—and this until you have acquired Him Who enriches everyone who calls upon Him”. One who is thus disposed in spirit will be heard before all others, according to the promise of God, Who looks with the greatest favor upon the gentle and the humble.

The Law of God’s Care for Us (Verse 8)

Ps. 33:8. The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them.

Having pointed to the experience of deliverance from troubles in his own case, and thereby hinted at the examples of deliverance of many other persons who had turned to God in their needs, holy David now sets forth the constant law of God’s care for us. Such is the law with God: those who, feeling their thorough dependence on God and rendering Him reverent worship in the heart, perform all the deeds of their life with fear and trembling lest they offend in anything the God whom they reverently regard, love, and worship in their heart—such persons are surrounded by Angels and are guarded and delivered by them from every trouble. So it is ordained with God; such is the order established from the beginning, that the lower be guarded, kept, and guided through the middle, and the middle through the higher. And this law has always been and is in operation.

“This, namely that the Angel encamps around those who fear God — is in agreement, says Blessed Augustine, with the words of the Apostle; for of Angels he says: are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to serve those who are to inherit salvation? (Heb. 1:14). This is also in agreement with the common faith of those who became renowned for piety and the fear of God. Thus Blessed Jacob, blessing the children of Joseph, prays: the Angel who has delivered me from all evil—may he bless these children (Gen. 48:16). Thus the patriarch Abraham, sending his servant to Mesopotamia to find a bride for Isaac, says: the Lord God will send His Angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son Isaac (Gen. 24:7)”.

Whoever desires more striking instances in confirmation of this truth, let him recall the Angels who met Jacob and encamped for his defense when danger threatened him from Esau (Gen. 32:1), and how the destroying Angel struck down 180,000 enemies who had besieged Jerusalem under Hezekiah, the pious and God-fearing king, and under the prophet Isaiah.

The Angel encamps. From the time of baptism believers receive a Guardian Angel—and this Angel “does not depart from those who believe in the Lord, says holy Basil the Great, as long as they themselves do not drive him away by their evil deeds. For just as smoke drives away bees and stench drives away doves, so the Angel who guards our life is driven away from us by sin, which is most lamentable and foul. But if you have in your soul deeds worthy of angelic protection, and in you dwells a mind enriched with the contemplations of truth, then, by reason of the precious wealth of virtuous deeds, God will inevitably appoint guardians and protectors over you and surround you with the protection of Angels”.

Encamps around — will surround you with his protection on all sides. “One Angel (Basil the Great) equals an entire army and a great multitude of troops. Just as city walls, surrounding the city on all sides, repel enemy attacks from every direction; so the Angel serves as a wall in front, guards from behind and from both sides, and leaves nothing uncovered. This is why a thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but to you it shall not draw near — the blow of any enemy — for the Lord has commanded His Angels concerning you—to guard you (Ps. 90:7, 11)”.

If, therefore, God’s Angels encamp around us and guard us, ready to render every timely help, how reasonable and obligatory it is to turn to them in our prayers! (Berthier, French theologian). They are around us and attend to our prayers, just as God-fearing people who live with us face to face attend to our words when we turn to them with a request to pray for us. Being spiritual, they see the soul and what is in the soul, and act upon it according to the direction in which it turns and inclines by its will. When evil thoughts arise in the soul, the Angel of God helps it to stand firm against them and not consent to them—yet without constraining its freedom. So long as the soul does not incline toward the thought, the Angel does not allow the dark spirit to approach it, and does not withdraw from the soul, even though it be entirely surrounded by thoughts as if by flame. Only when the soul inclines toward an evil thought does the Angel withdraw, and the impure power takes hold of it and teaches it to carry out the thought with which it has united in its heart.

The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

Verses 9–11 stand, as it were, as separate propositions, by which those pressed by needs from various sides are encouraged to have trustful recourse to God. But if one penetrates into the main thoughts they contain and sets them side by side, it is not difficult to notice an inner connection between them, by which the dispositions indicated in them call forth one another, and all together form one God-pleasing disposition capable of drawing help from above. In verse 9 the main thought is the tasting of goodness and hope; in verse 10—the fear of God; in verse 11—the seeking of God. These dispositions bind themselves into a whole as follows. The opening words: taste and see — point to the tasting and seeing of God’s goodness, through which hope enters the soul, bringing a consolation that imparts blessedness. Hope ought at once to generate the seeking of God or recourse to Him; but one who does not live in the fear of God has no support for his hope, and an unclean conscience undermines his boldness in prayer. Therefore, between hope and the seeking of God, as an indispensable intermediary, there is placed the active fear of God, proper to the holy. Thus, the tasting of goodness regenerates hope; and hope, through the intermediary of the active fear of God, gives the boldness to seek God with a sense of unworthiness and helplessness. This seeking is as it were the opening of the mouth in prayer, the fear of God is the foundation on which the one who prays stands, hope is the spirit that moves the prayer, and the tasting of goodness is the intake of enlivening air.

Ps. 33:9. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him.

He said earlier: draw near to Him and be enlightened; now he says: taste and see. This is interior and deeper. There—only a drawing near to God as it were from without; but here—a more intimate drawing near to Him, as it were a blending together. Just as one who tastes food receives it within himself: so one who tastes the Divine is inwardly penetrated by it and discerns it as clearly as though seeing it with his eyes. All that is divine is truly known through perception in the heart, for the mind cannot comprehend it. When the Apostle speaks of senses trained to distinguish spiritual things, he points to the one source for the acquisition of spiritual knowledge—in the tasting of the heart’s sense. Here the Prophet speaks only of goodness; but every other property of God is likewise comprehended in no other way. So too are justice, long-suffering, omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence comprehended. The heart will taste them, or sense them; then the spirit of man will know them. As taste distinguishes foods, so the sense—the heart—distinguishes spiritual things. Holy Basil the Great says here: “Just as the quality of honey can be explained to one who has not tasted it less by words than by the very sense of taste, so the goodness of heavenly things cannot be clearly conveyed in teaching, unless after long experience one is able to apprehend them by personal knowledge. So it is with the apprehension of the Lord’s goodness. He said: Taste — not: be filled; because now we know in part and see truth through a glass, darkly (1Cor. 13:12). A time will come when the present pledge—this tasting—will be turned for us into the fullness of enjoyment. Just as those who suffer from stomach ailments and feel revulsion toward food are treated by physicians who, by means of specially prepared food, stimulate appetite for it—and when the sense is stimulated by these artfully prepared dishes, the appetite for food increases hour by hour—so too with regard to spiritual goods: the very experience of them, says the Prophet, will continually call you to an insatiable longing, which, however, is not painful but blessed, as the Lord says: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt. 5:6)”. Even a little—just to taste. This little will whet the appetite for more and lead to perfection. Whatever perfection it may reach, however, it is still but a pledge in relation to what is to come.

The Prophet invites us to taste—that is, to know by experience the Lord’s goodness. But how is this to be achieved? How is the heart to be brought to the tasting of this goodness? By faith, by devout reflection, and by the experiments of casting oneself into the embrace of goodness. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. It is in the spiritual realm what sensory experience is with regard to visible things. If faith wavers and grows weak, strengthen it by reflection on the divine properties and acts, and on the experiences of God’s goodness manifested and being manifested in the human race—whether toward whole peoples and communities or toward individual persons. There the laws governing the Lord’s providential care for those who have recourse to Him will become clear, as though in operation. When the mind perceives their applicability to yourself as well, the heart cannot but sense a certain readiness of goodness to overshadow you also. But goodness is tasted more inwardly and effectively by actual deeds—by the experiments of casting oneself into God’s embrace. It is this last that David seems above all to have in mind. He speaks as it were thus: make the experiment, begin in actual deed to cast your sorrow upon God, leaving all other supports and sources of consolation, and you will know how good the Lord is to all who turn to Him in trustful prayer (Euthymius Zigabenus, Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov).

A special and most universally accessible means of tasting the goodness of God is indicated by holy Athanasius the Great, Blessed Theodoret, Euthymius Zigabenus, and Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the partaking of the most holy, most pure, and life-giving Mysteries. This verse is sung in the church when the Holy Communion is prepared for those who will commune, while they await in prayerful reverence the blessed moment of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. The sinner who has repented and cleansed his conscience by confession senses the embrace of the Heavenly Father receiving him again under His shelter, into sonship and the inheritance that is ready. The blood of the Lord cleanses us from all sins. The Lord in His Body, as our Forerunner, entered into the inner place behind the veil. Therefore one who has partaken of the Body and Blood of the Lord is both cleansed from all sins and senses this calling to joint inheritance with Christ. When Communion is not merely an outward act, the experience of these blessings given by God’s goodness cannot but come about, along with the tasting of goodness itself.

“The tasting of the Life-giving Food, says Blessed Theodoret, clearly shows the goodness of the Saviour. For what proves His love for mankind so clearly? Is it not the Cross? Is it not the suffering? Is it not the death He underwent for our sake? Is it not that for His sheep He became at once both nourishing Food and a refreshing Spring?”

Blessed is the man who trusts in Him. The tasting of goodness gives birth to a resting in its embrace, as in a mother’s embrace; and this repose is the characteristic mark of hope. Therefore the tasting of God’s goodness is the source of hope; and hope is the possessor of all the treasures of goodness. One who has tasted of goodness has found the treasury. Hope opens the door into it and leads into the possession of all its goods. This is why blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. Blessed—not with the blessedness that is outside, but with that which is within. The latter does not diminish under any outward deprivation; whereas the former diminishes or ceases the moment the desired good is received. Outward goods entice and provoke the seeking of them. For as long as the seeking continues, the good seems to be a good. But as soon as it is attained, it immediately ceases to be a good. The tasting of it reveals a bitterness in it, disillusions, and turns one toward new seekings. And so, without end: always only seeking and anticipating satisfaction, and never receiving it or finding contentment in it. But the one who hopes rests in God’s imperishable and unchanging goods and is blessed without interruption—for he ceaselessly tastes God’s goodness.

Hope in God takes away the value of all human supports and all sources of consolation other than the Lord. Whoever tastes how good the Lord is will lay no more hope on anything else and will find rest in nothing else but the Lord. Whoever leans on anything created certainly has no hope and has not yet tasted the goodness of God. Without supports it is impossible for a person to live. But if his support is not in God, then it is in himself, in others, or in something around him. Such a person does not say: God will help; but—I will manage, or I have the means to work it out. He does not say: God will not permit you to harm me; but—while such-and-such a person is alive I have nothing to fear, you can do nothing to me, I have a powerful protector (Blessed Augustine). Such a person is an unfortunate man. Inwardly he is ceaselessly in fear and agitation; and outward things are themselves ceaselessly changing and falling into disorder. Holy Apostle James rebukes such self-reliant people, saying: hear now, you who say: today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a city and spend a year there and trade and make a profit—you who do not know what tomorrow will bring: for what is your life? It is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say: if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil (Jac. 4:13–16). And the holy prophet Jeremiah even threatens God’s anger upon such: cursed, he says, is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm and whose heart turns away from the Lord: he shall be like a wild tamarisk in the desert and shall not see any good come; he shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in a salt land where no one dwells. On the other hand, of the man who trusts in God he speaks all blessings, saying: blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord: he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, that sends out its roots by the stream; he shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaf remains green; in the year of drought he is not anxious and does not cease to bear fruit (Jer. 17:5–8).

Ps. 33:10. Fear the Lord, all His holy ones, for those who fear Him lack nothing.

Hope in God is not a single disposition standing alone. It is the leader of the whole company of good dispositions of the heart, the crown and flower of them. It belongs not to those who live in negligence and carelessness, but to those who labor tirelessly day and night in the endeavors of good works. Therefore, having blessed those who hope in the Lord, the holy Prophet adds: fear the Lord, all His holy ones — as if to say: blessedness lies in hope; but take care not to grow slack in hope and give yourself over to carelessness. On the contrary, live all the more in the fear of God; for only on that condition will our hope not be put to shame and you will not be deprived of every good. The fear of God is not an idle feeling, but is the keeping of the commandments—the constant abiding in righteousness and love. When it is such, it serves as the foundation of the confidence with which we draw near to God and taste the sweetness of His gifts (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov).

Serve the Lord diligently—and you will have just reason to look to Him for every help. So it is among us as well: to one with whom we stand in good relations and have rendered services, we go with some need openly and boldly, not doubting and not expecting a refusal. But if we have caused someone an unpleasantness, we dare not even show ourselves before him, even if we know he readily helps everyone. The same holds here. One whose conscience is clean, who knows he has served the Lord in the fulfilling of His commandments—that person hopes boldly for His help. But one who has offended God by transgressions—in the hour of grief and trouble will find no hope arising in his heart; unless there should arise in his heart at the same time sincere repentance with the resolve to serve from now on the one Lord alone.

Holy Isaac the Syrian, in his 67th Discourse, thus describes the necessary connection between hope and a virtuous and God-fearing life: “One who, having no care for the transient, is zealous day and night for virtues alone and for divine occupations—such a person rightly hopes in God, because he has become His servant and diligent in His work, and does not give himself to negligence for any reason whatsoever. Such a one is worthy that God show upon him His care in a special way, because he has kept God’s commandment, which says: seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you (Mt. 6:33). But a person whose heart is buried in earthly things, who is negligent about what is pleasing to God, who has no concern for any virtue on account of constant intercourse with people and dissipation in amusements—how will such a one dare to turn to God in hope of His help, when he is pressed by want or death and overwhelmed by the fruits of his own transgressions? Perhaps even such a one will say: I will place my hope in God, and He will make me free from care and give me relief. Until this very hour, O senseless one, you did not remember God, but offended Him by the baseness of your deeds, and the name of God was, on your account, blasphemed—as it is written (Rom. 2:24); and now you dare to say with open mouth: I will place my hope in Him, He will help me and take care of me. Do not deceive yourself; hope in God is preceded by labor for God and by the sweat shed in doing good. Only the righteous man trusts as a lion (Prov. 28:1). And as his constant care is devoted to God, so God says of him: I am with him in his tribulation; I will deliver him and glorify him—I will fill him with length of days and show him My salvation (Ps. 90:15–16). The slack and lazy in his own work cannot have such hope. But one who abides in all things with God and draws near to Him by the goodness of his deeds can say of himself what holy David said: my eyes fail from waiting upon my God (Ps. 68:4)” (Isaac the Syrian, Ascetic Discourses, 67).

Why should the fear of God be instilled in the holy ones, when the holy ones are holy precisely because they are filled with the fear of God? In order that they should not allow this fear to grow weak in themselves. For the fear of God is the guardian of virtue until the grave; and the holy ones must all the more guard themselves by it, the more they serve as a target for the enemy’s arrows, as objects of his envy and hatred. And sin, which still lives in them, can raise its head as soon as it notices that the sword guarding the entrance to the paradise of the sanctified heart has been lowered. Holy Basil the Great says: “If the fear of God does not govern our life, it is impossible for sanctification to arise and be preserved in the body. For it is written: pierce my flesh with Your fear (Ps. 118:120). Just as the members of those who are nailed with nails remain motionless and inactive, so those who are seized by the fear of God in their soul escape every passionate assault of sin”.

In what sense does the holy Prophet say that those who fear the Lord lack nothing?

First, in that the fear of God makes them morally perfect. Such is the thought of holy Basil the Great! “One who is restrained by fear from every improper action, he says, is lacking in force for no virtue; but is perfect and lacks nothing of the perfections proper to human nature. Whoever has acquired perfect fear and is afraid of everything out of the fear of God will not sin in anything, because he despises nothing—and he will suffer no lack, because the fear is always with him in every circumstance”. For this reason the Wise Man says: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Eccl. 12:13)—as though saying: the entire good and perfection of man consists in fearing God and keeping His commandments (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov).

Second, in that though they too are subject not infrequently to deprivations, the feeling of deprivation does not afflict them—being swallowed up by the heart’s certainty that all that befalls them works together for their good, by God’s providential ordering. From this a spirit of endurance fills them, overpowering all deprivations to such a degree that it is as though those deprivations do not exist. This spirit is richer than any wealth. The spirit must be rich—not the storehouse. A truly God-fearing person does not desire wealth either. And when someone does not have what he has no desire to have, it cannot be said of him that he is deprived of it (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov).

Third, in that the Lord does not abandon those who fear Him in time of need, but grants them even temporal blessings when this is needed for the perfecting of their moral character, for the good of others who live with them, and for the glorification of God’s name. In Holy Scripture, and above all in the lives of the saints, we find countless examples proving that God has special care for His servants, wondrously providing them with all that is necessary for the maintenance of their lives. Those who are perfect in spirit do not require this, being content with whatever lot is theirs; but the spiritually young are nourished, as with milk, by the arrangement of external prosperity for them. By this path were led those under the law, who were instructed to fear God at least for the reason that He gives temporal blessings. But Christians God’s Providence leads by a more perfect path, in which even martyrdom does not refute the proposition that those who fear the Lord lack nothing (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov).

Blessed Augustine adds the following lesson at this point: “Many, he says, are reluctant to take upon themselves the fear of God because they fear hunger. When told: stop deceiving people, they answer: and how are we to feed ourselves? You cannot succeed without deception, and our dealings are nothing without it. But God will punish you for deception—fear God. If I start fearing God, they say, there will be nothing to live on. It is precisely such people that the Prophet encourages: fear the Lord—for those who fear Him lack nothing. He promises sufficiency to one who doubts and fears lest he grow poor if he takes on the fear of God. God has fed you when you gave no thought to Him at all—will He abandon you now, when you begin to fear Him? See that you do not say: that man over there is rich, not fearing God, while I am poor, though I fear God. Think about how much that man has gained without fearing God. And I fear Him, yet am naked and hungry. Do not say that; but give heed to what the Prophet says next: the rich have grown poor and gone hungry”.

Ps. 33:11. The rich have grown poor and gone hungry, but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing.

The holy Prophet crowns the ladder of dispositions that draw God’s protection with the seeking of the Lord. The seeking of the Lord is the expression of hope in God. In time of need, one immediately seeks the one in whom one has support. Whoever rests his hope upon God seeks Him as well. This seeking is wrested involuntarily from a hoping heart, when the sting of conscience does not undermine it. The seeking that arises in a heart that has reached hope through the tasting of God’s goodness is animated by boldness from a life pleasing to God and filled with the fear of God. This is why the Prophet makes mention of it at once, immediately after he has urged the having of perfect fear of God—a fear testified by the labors of good works.

Those who seek the Lord are contrasted with the rich. Therefore the rich here are those who do not seek the Lord—who do not turn to Him in their needs, who are self-satisfied and hope to arrange their lot for the good by their own means without God; that is, those who rely entirely upon their own strength, money, connections, and position. These are those of whom it is said in one place: he grew fat, became gross and swollen, and forgot God (Deut. 32:15).

When holy David says of them that they grew poor and went hungry, he means to indicate: they are poor and hungry (the Hebrew past tense signifies the present in its completed form). Because they are never satisfied, but always desire more—like the hungry and the poor. The seekers of the Lord, on the other hand, are filled with a sense of contentment from the tasting of the Lord’s goodness, of which He vouchsafes them when they seek Him by the proper path and ascend to Him. They rest in the Lord and feel themselves possessors of every good. This is the direct meaning of the verse: the repose in the Lord of those who seek Him, in the sense of possessing every good—as opposed to those who seek not the Lord but rely on wealth, strength, connections, and social position, and who are tormented by a sense of scarcity and deprivation, always accompanied by painful anxieties for themselves and for all that is theirs. What is considered here is not the outward condition of either group, but their inward disposition and the corresponding state of spirit.

Holy Basil the Great reasons thus at this point: “the rich have grown poor and gone hungry — these words teach us to despise material wealth, showing the instability of abundance in possessions. For wealth is inconstant and, like a wave driven by the force of winds, is accustomed to flow here and there. The all-perfect good is God Himself, of Whom all who seek Him will not be deprived. Whoever elevates material wealth and carnal advantages to the rank of goods assigns to lowly and unworthy things the adorable name that belongs to God alone. The saints did not consider visible goods to be goods at all, and did not seek them. Therefore, when it is said that they were deprived of no good, we must understand under this other goods. Whoever, reading this verse, understands visible goods, will become entangled in insoluble contradictions. For how, for example, will they reason about the Apostles? Either they must say that the Apostles did not receive bodily goods because they did not seek the Lord, or—if, having sought Him, they did not have such goods—they must accuse Scripture itself, which asserts that those who seek the Lord will not be deprived of any good. No; it is not about bodily goods—visible ones—that we should understand this, but about invisible—spiritual—goods. Only these goods are, in the proper sense, goods. Bodily goods, moreover, contain more of what is painful than of what is pleasant; and each of them is overshadowed by a corresponding evil: marriage—by childlessness (or bad children), widowhood—by loneliness, agriculture—by barrenness, commerce—by shipwrecks, wealth—by machinations, luxury—by satiety, frequent pleasures—by illnesses”.

Blessed Augustine adds to this: “If these words are understood literally, the facts do not correspond to them. Many unrighteous rich men die rich, without having grown poor while alive. From this it happens that one sees a rich man growing old in wealth, living to the very last hour of his life in every abundance, breathing out his soul on a bed of ivory, surrounded by a large household, being carried to an honorable funeral, and lowered into the grave in all magnificence—and seeing all this, if he knew some sins of this man, says to himself: I know how much evil this man did; and yet here he is, having grown old in wealth, died on his own bed, his own people carry him out, and what a magnificent funeral he has. I know what he did, and yet this is his lot. So Scripture has deceived me, in which I hear the psalm: the rich have grown poor and gone hungry. When did he grow poor? When was he hungry? I also hear: but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing. And yet here am I—I go to church every day, I kneel every day, I seek the Lord every day—and I have nothing at all. While that man did not seek the Lord, and yet died in such plenty. The snare of temptation strangles the one who reasons thus. The devil throws the noose over him and drags him toward sin, in imitation of the rich man whom he saw die in such abundance”.

“Do not reason thus, and do not interpret this passage literally. How then are we to understand it? Understand it with reference to spiritual goods. What are these goods and where are they? They are invisible to the bodily eye, but are seen by the heart. Whoever loves them sees them: the heart sees them. I will now point them out to you—attend. Suppose you have two servants: one handsome, fine-looking, well-built, but worthless, a scoundrel, a deceiver, a thief; and the other ugly, swarthy, ungainly, but faithful in everything, sober, and careful. Tell me, which of them will you love? If you ask your carnal eye, the worthless handsome one will prevail; but if you ask the eyes of a pure heart, the faithful ugly one will carry the day. There is a good for you, invisible to the eyes but visible to the heart, which you yourself value above the visible. Now if someone were filled with such spiritual goods, would he be poor? Of course not. For how would you call him poor, when his heart is a treasury of precious pearls of every virtue: righteousness, love, faith, endurance, humility? Compare him now with the man who is rich but whose heart is full of every evil, and say: which of them is poor and hungry, and which lacks no good thing? Thus the rich are poor and hungry because they have no spiritual goods. And I will tell you yet more—they are poor even in bodily goods. Why? Because they are never satisfied by anything. However much they have, it is still too little. That very rich man you speak of was destitute, if he desired something more to his last breath than what he had. The hungry and thirsty for righteousness, on the other hand, are satisfied—as the Lord has said. And that is why those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing!”

Inequalities in the lot of people are the inheritance of earthly life. The Distributor is the Lord, inscrutable in His counsels. When thoughts come that trouble the heart at the sight of those who suffer and yet seek the Lord—lead your reasoning through the following questions: is the one who suffers truly suffering? Are you not projecting your own feelings onto him? It is only apparent that he lacks this and that; but whether he grieves over it is unknown to you. If he has no need of it, he certainly does not feel its lack, and therefore does not grieve. There are people who are content with a piece of bread and a cup of water. If for you this is a great deprivation, count yourself as deprived of good when necessity brings you to that point, but do not judge another. Consider also: you see those who seek the Lord deprived of good. But do they truly belong to this class of people? Do they seek—thoroughly? Sincerely? By the right path? Why be troubled if, when there are deficiencies in the seeking of God, there is also a lack of the goods promised for seeking? God’s providence, which itself nurtures this very seeking, found it needful to subject it to trial, so as to raise it to perfection, and afterward to grant it the full promise spoken of those who seek the Lord.

Such is the reasoning for bystanders. Those who themselves have felt sorrows and deprivations, however, should develop more broadly within themselves that thought hidden in their heart as a seed—that everything which Providence arranges for them is inevitably necessary for themselves, for their moral perfection. If there were no such need, the Lord would not have permitted the deprivations. If He has permitted them, they must therefore be necessary. Your whole task now must consist in making good use of the present deprivations for your own benefit—bearing them with a good spirit and in gratitude, and under their shelter taking care to correct what is faulty in character and to raise to the highest degree possible the interior turning of mind and heart toward God—which in days of plenty found no small obstacles in the plenty itself. Let there also be developed in them another thought—that however great their deprivations may be, not all is lost. There is another life, to which the present is only a preparation and an upbringing. Endure an hour or two—for the whole of life is but an hour. And you will enter into that place where truly you will lack no good thing—to the reception of which labor has here been expended, the foundation laid, the capacity formed.

The Second Decade

In the first decade, holy David, having himself tasted the joyful repose in God the all-good Provider, directed his words toward leading others into the same state—drawing for them the ladder of dispositions by which, as by steps, they too may ascend to the hope of always having God as their Helper, Deliverer from tribulations, and Giver of every good. Among these dispositions the root one is the fear of God. Without it, hope has nothing to take hold of, and without it the very words of seeking the Lord and of crying to Him will die away on the lips. Having grasped the significance of the fear of God, one who has been attentive to the psalm’s song is ready to ask: what then is the fear of God, and in what acts is it expressed? The holy Prophet anticipates this desire and—in the second decade—teaches the fear of God, verses 12–15, with an indication of its fruits as well, verses 16–22.

The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

One who fears God, keeping God reverently in mind and walking before His face, conducts himself with all care and circumspection, so as not to allow anything offensive to God in word, deed, or thought—but to walk in all God’s commandments and ordinances blamelessly. Therefore the teaching of the fear of God is the teaching of the fulfillment of all God’s commandments, or of all-round good works. Holy David, however, does not depict here the entire system of deeds in which the fear of God is expressed, but takes from among them only those which are applicable at nearly every step in people’s relations with one another—in the thought that whoever keeps himself upright in these will undoubtedly be upright in all the rest as well. Such deeds are: to keep the tongue from malice and deceit, to harm no one but to do good to all, to live in peace with everyone and to spread it around oneself—verses 14–15. Since precepts and laws in their fulfillment generally require labor and self-denial, the holy Prophet, in order to dispose toward a willing walk in the deeds of the fear of God, prefixes to their indication the promise of a happy life—always desired, yet never attained without good works and a clean conscience—verse 13. He speaks as it were thus: do you wish to be happy? Then act as I will show you. In this he followed the same method that the Lord later used in His Sermon to the people on the mountain, when, setting forth the moral Christian dispositions—the formation of which requires no little labor—He attaches to each of them the promise of blessedness. Verse 12 calls to attention, given the importance of the matter of the teaching—which, however, he does not spell out: mention of the fear of God is enough to arouse attention, and the importance of this lesson is assumed to be already recognized.

Ps. 33:12. Come, children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

One made wise by long experience offers the treasures of his active wisdom, passing them on to the new generation entering life and wishing to learn how to live. This is a word addressed to all of us, from the distant past. Our own elders are as infants before the forefather David. Let all give heed!

Come, children. “This (Basil the Great) is the voice of a teacher who is sincerely well-disposed, calling to instruction with fatherly goodwill—because the pupil is the spiritual child of the teacher. One who receives from another formation in piety is as it were built up and brought into composition by him, like the forming of infants in the womb. This is why Paul—taking up again the entire Church of Galatia, which had fallen away from the teachings first delivered to it and resembled a premature birth, and forming Christ in the Galatians anew by divine power—called them children. My little children, for whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you (Gal. 4:19)”.

Come—hear. “What then (Basil the Great) does our spiritual father wish to teach us? The fear of the Lord, he says, I will teach you. Since he commanded above to fear the Lord and showed the advantages of fear—saying that those who fear Him lack nothing — he now imparts a certain lesson on the fear of God. And since the fear of God is the foremost matter, he does not offer it simply, but requires special attention to it as well, saying: come, hear. That the fear of God truly is the foremost matter—even little children now know this, having learned it from the Wise Man, who says: the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Prov. 1:7)—both practical and contemplative wisdom. When he says beginning, he indicates that one must begin with it and that everything else will follow from it, flowing out of it. Therefore without the fear of God it is impossible to become either learned, or prudent, or good. The key to all this is found in it. Here is the one chair in the world that, teaching a single subject, teaches everything!”

When the holy Prophet says: come, I will teach — he indicates that he himself knows this knowledge. For what teacher would dare to open the chair of a knowledge he does not possess? “What (Basil the Great) is needed, for example, to be healthy—any person, even an ignorant one, can say; but how health ought to be acquired—to speak of this is the task of one who knows the are of medicine. Likewise, only one who himself has genuine fear of God can teach the fear of God”.

What a lesson for parents, educators, teachers, and all who may say to those under their guidance: children! Teach them above all else the fear of God—teach them both in word and, still more, by example. And what an accounting must those face who not only do not teach this—but unteach it—one by a fearless life, another in addition by word?!

The holy Prophet here proposes a teaching on the fear of the Lord that alone is salvific. For one must know that not every fear is good and salvific. “There is the fear of the enemy (Basil the Great), from which the Prophet prays to be delivered, saying: deliver my soul from the terror of the enemy (Ps. 63:2). That fear is the enemy’s which breathes into us a dread of death and inspires in us fear of the authority of persons. Could one who fears this be capable, in time of martyrdom, of standing against sin even to death and rendering the debt to the Lord Who died for us and rose again? There is also a certain indefinite fear breathed in by demons. And this seems to me a weakness born of unbelief; for one who believes that he has a powerful Helper fears no one who strives to trouble him”.

“What then (Basil the Great) is the saving fear—the sanctifying fear—the fear deliberately and not out of weakness implanted in the soul? Would you like me to explain the properties of this fear? When you are being drawn toward some sin, picture in your mind the dread and unbearable tribunal of Christ, where on a high and exalted throne sits the Judge, while all creation trembles before His glorious appearing, and each of us is brought for examination of what he has done in life; then—the fearsome and grim angels appointed over one who has done much evil in his life, whose very gaze is fiery and whose breath is fiery by reason of the cruelty of their will, and whose faces are like the night in their sullenness and hatred of men; then—an impassable abyss, deep darkness, a fire that is not bright, which holds consuming power in darkness but is devoid of radiance; then—a certain venomous and flesh-devouring worm, consuming greedily, never satisfied, producing by its consumption unbearable torments; then—the most cruel of all torments—eternal mockery and eternal shame. Fear this—and, chastened by this fear as by a certain bridle, restrain the soul from evil desires”.

He promises to teach the fear of God—but “to teach (Basil the Great) not everyone, but only those who wish to hear him. Hear—you whose ears of the heart are open, who are simple-hearted, full of childlike faith, children who through the adoption of baptism have become close to God and have been vouchsafed to become children of light through new birth. For the Prophet’s school is not his own school but the school of the Holy Spirit. The ruling Spirit, Who regenerates to sonship with God, speaks through the mouth of the Prophet—as he himself confessed: the Spirit of the Lord speaks through me, and His word is upon my tongue (2Sam. 23:2)”.

“Come then (Blessed Augustine), let us hear Him! Let us open our hearing, let us open our heart. Let not our hearing be open while our heart is closed. God speaks through the Prophet. Who would not wish to hear Him?”

Ps. 33:13. Who is the man who desires life, who loves to see good days?

Life here is happy life—the same as good days. For to an unhappy person life is not life, and is sometimes worse than death. The Prophet wishes to point to the means of living on earth happily and peaceably. Having in mind to utter lessons of strict morality, he entices the hearer to listen to them and then to decide to carry them out in actual deed—pointing to this as the condition for a happy life. “He rouses (Theodoret) to endeavors, having proposed, as a most worthy reward, a life free from grief and most greatly to be desired”.

He strikes the most tender and sensitive string. Who does not want a happy life and good days? For what then are all our cares, and toward what do all our labors tend? But not everyone truly understands wherein happiness lies and how it is to be attained. And this is what holy David promises! To teach us how to live on earth—as happily as possible. The rules he proposes are indeed conditions of a quiet and untroubled life in human society. Do not speak evil, do not flatter and do not be deceitful, harm no one, do good to everyone as much and as best you can, live peaceably with all—and you will be at peace, you will be respected and loved, and no one will offend or wrong you. Therefore you will continually see good days and live, rejoicing in life.

Such is the first thought suggested by the words of this verse! But, limiting ourselves to this one alone, we would scarcely exhaust the full breadth of the prophetic promise. It is true that those who live according to his teaching enjoy for the most part a quiet life; yet it not infrequently happens that the very fulfillment of these lessons disturbs their peace and turns their good days into evil ones. Therefore it is more accurate to hold that the holy Prophet does not confine the fulfillment of the promised prosperity and well-being to the present life—especially since afterward he extends the fruits of such a God-fearing life beyond the limits of this life. In this, our guide will be holy Apostle Peter. In the third chapter of his First Epistle he urges Christians not to return evil for evil, but on the contrary to bless—grounding this in the fact that Christians are called to inherit a blessing (1Pet. 3:9). This inheritance is of course the one given in eternity. But in the following verse he applies to this very end the words of the prophet David: for, he says, one who desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and so forth (1Pet. 3:10). What he previously called a blessing, here he calls life and good days. Therefore there is no doubt that in this life holy Apostle Peter saw eternal life, and in good days—a blessed eternity.

Having learned from the Apostle, holy Basil the Great and Blessed Augustine connect this same thought with the words of the Prophet.

“The Prophet asks (Basil the Great): does anyone desire life—not this common life in which the irrational creatures also live, but true life, that is not cut short by death? Christ is the true life, and our true life is abiding in Christ. Likewise, good days are not the days of this world. The days of this age are evil, for the whole world lies in the evil one (1Jn. 5:19). For this reason the Apostle also commands to redeem the time, for the days are evil (Eph. 5:16). Now we are not in life, but as it were in death. Which is why the Apostle prayed, saying: who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom. 7:24). There is another life to which the Word calls us. Our present days are evil, but there are other days—good ones—that are not interrupted by night. God Himself will be the eternal light for them, illumining them with the radiance of His glory. Therefore, when you hear of good days, do not think that what is promised to you is said of the present life; for those days that the visible sun produces are perishable, and the perishable cannot be a fitting gift for the imperishable. If the soul is imperishable, so too the gifts of the soul must be imperishable. For the form of this world is passing away (1Cor. 7:31)”.

“The holy Prophet asks (Blessed Augustine): who desires good days? Who? Is not everyone ready to answer: I? Who does not love life and does not wish to see good days? Is not the daily complaint heard: how long must we endure? Day by day things grow worse and worse. It was better in the days of our fathers. But if you were to ask your fathers, they too would have complained about their days: our fathers were blessed, while we—our days are bitter and evil. Show us, O Lord, good days! But you seek good days in the wrong place. You seek a good thing, but not in the right place. It is as if someone sought a righteous man in a place where there is none—he would be told: you seek a good man—seek, but not here; here you will seek in vain, you will never find him here. So too here. You seek good days—a good thing. Let us seek together, but not here. But how, you say, did our fathers have them here? You are mistaken. On earth everyone lived in labor and affliction. Read the Scriptures, which are written for our comfort and instruction, and you will be persuaded of this. In the days of Elijah—a terrible famine, such that mothers were roasting their own children (2 Kgdms. 6:26–30). Abraham had good days—but within, in the heart, while outwardly, just like everyone else, he endured famine and attacks (Gen. 12–25). And did holy Paul have good days—when it is known that he passed them frequently in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness (2Cor. 11:27)? But let not the servants grieve. The Master Himself had no good days in this age. He too endured reproach, blows, the Cross, and every evil. Therefore do not look for good days on earth when you hear the Prophet’s promise. A different, endless age is coming—there will be good days there”.

The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

These two verses include much in little—or rather all. In brief words the entire knowledge of a happy and peaceful life is depicted here: for if each of these words is analyzed and all that it requires is set forth in detail, a complete system of moral precepts will be formed—the fulfillment of which can secure for a person good days on earth.

Keep your tongue from evil, your lips from deceit; depart from evil; do good; establish and preserve peace—five precepts, the fulfillment of which, testifying to the presence of the fear of God in the heart, also guarantees, as far as possible, an undisturbed life for a person in the company of people. Here the same thing is indicated, though in other words, as is depicted in the fourteenth Psalm: Lord, who shall dwell in Your tabernacle? There too it is said: who speaks truth in his heart, who has not deceived with his tongue: who has done no evil to his neighbor: who has not taken reproach against those near him and so forth (Ps. 14:1–3).

Ps. 33:14. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

The commandment governing the use of the tongue stands in first place because the tongue is the chief organ of our mutual relations. Good bonds are established by it, and by it they are also broken—and by it again restored. Bring the tongue into order, and everything will go well. Give it unrestrained freedom, and it will corrupt everything—in you and around you. Here is what the Wise Sirach writes about it in the twenty-eighth chapter: the tongue, he says, has shaken many and driven them from nation to nation. It has overthrown fortified cities and overturned the houses of the great. He who heeds it will find no rest, nor will he dwell in quietness. A blow from a whip raises welts; but a blow from the tongue breaks bones. Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so many as those who have fallen by the tongue. Blessed is he who is sheltered from it, who has not dragged its yoke, and has not been bound with its bonds: for its yoke is an iron yoke, and its bonds are bonds of bronze; its death is an evil death, and the grave is better than it (Sir. 28:16–17, 19–24). This evil of the tongue caused him to cry out in another place: who will give me a guard for my mouth and a seal of prudence upon my lips, that I may not fall because of them and that my tongue may not destroy me? (Sir. 22:31): for only one who bridles the tongue will live peaceably, and blessed is he who does not slip with his lips (Sir. 19:6, 14:1). For this reason he gives everyone this counsel about the tongue: behold, fence your property with thorns, and make scales and a balance for your words, and make a door and bolt for your mouth (Sir. 28:27, 29).

Holy Basil the Great writes on this verse: “Sin committed by the tongue is in practice very easy and manifold. And directly by the tongue many sins are committed, and there are not a few sins for which the tongue serves as conductor and intermediary. For it is the instrument of every passion. Have you grown angry? The tongue is first. Has lust taken possession of you? The tongue serves you before all else as a kind of interpreter and messenger—it helps in this sin and leads into temptation. The tongue is for you also an instrument of unrighteousness, if it speaks not from the heart but to deceive others. Our life is full of the sins of the tongue: foul speech, jesting, foolish and indecent words, gossip and idle talk, false oaths and false witness—all this, and a far greater number of evils, are the produce of the tongue. And those who open their mouth to revile the glory of God, who speak iniquity from on high (Ps. 72:8)—by what other instrument do they accomplish this but the instrument of the tongue! Therefore, since by your words you will be condemned (Mt. 12:37), keep your tongue from evil”.

Holy Basil the Great began the enumeration of the sins of the tongue. Let us bring it to completion and present a full picture of the abuses of speech—so as to make more vivid what a bottomless pit of evil proceeds from the tongue. Here are its offspring: condemnation, evil speaking, slander, gossip, mockery, cutting remarks, biting witticisms, ridicule, irony, jesting, buffoonery, idle talk, loquacity, pedantry, boasting, the passion for rumor-spreading, base flattery, servility, insinuation, false friendship, betrayal of secrets, treachery, breach of one’s word, duplicity, lying, deceit, scheming, deception, cunning, tale-bearing, whispering, denunciation, pettifoggery, reproaches, offensive words, quarreling, contentiousness, false witness, thoughtless swearing, false oaths, perjury, cursing, sorcery, incantations, murmuring, blasphemy. And is that all? See how manifold is the evil in the tongue and beneath the tongue! It is, in truth, according to the word of the Apostle James, an unruly evil, full of deadly poison (Jac. 3:8). Is it not just, therefore, that the bridling of it is placed first?! One need only set against these abuses of the tongue the good use of the word in order to be convinced what a blessing must fill the society in which the latter prevails, and how miserable, on the contrary, is that society in which the former are widely in use! In such a society one cannot live—let alone see good days.

When the holy Prophet says: keep your tongue from evil, he has in mind both every evil of the tongue in general and above all the open, manifest evil done by the tongue. But when he adds: keep—your lips from deceit, he singles out from all the evil actions of the tongue the most hateful: flattery—smooth speech that conceals ill will, treachery, cunning, and guileful craft (in Greek: δολος). Such craft insinuates itself into trust, discovers secrets, and turns this to the detriment of the one who trusted. It is a household thief who has stolen the keys and is robbing his master’s goods. This is a refined cleverness that feigns its own disposition while being inwardly full of guile—which, if it presently lacks the strength to harm you, will do you evil as soon as it finds the opportunity, yet in such a way that you will not notice—thus does Sirach depict this evil (Sir. 19:23–25). And holy David describes it in the darkest colors in other passages. For him it is a sharpened razor (Ps. 51:4). According to Basil the Great, it is a hidden wrongdoing against one’s neighbor, committed under the guise of good. According to holy John of the Ladder, it is a hidden and imperceptible leech that sucks and absorbs the blood of love (The Ladder, 10:2). For this reason it is spoken of in such dark terms: deceitful craft both reveals a great moral corruption in its perpetrator and produces great harm outwardly. The first perpetrator of this flattering evil was the devil. He it was who first by this poison destroyed our first parents; and then this poison spread throughout the human race—and how much evil has it wrought and continues to wreak?!

After all that has been said, everyone will readily agree that whoever is able to master his tongue will find it no great matter to appear upright in everything else. This is why the Prophet says in another place: I will guard, he says, my ways, only let me not sin with my tongue (Ps. 38:2). And holy Apostle James writes that whoever does not err in word is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well—that is, all the unrighteous movements arising in the corrupted constitution of human nature (Jac. 3:2). Let whoever wishes read this whole passage in holy James on the evil that comes from the tongue—so as to arm himself with caution in the use of this instrument that is so small and so ungovernable in evil.

Who, however, does not know this evil of the tongue? Each person himself not infrequently harms others by it, and sometimes suffers no little evil from the tongues of others; and yet no one makes it a law for himself to use the tongue lawfully. Rarely does anyone even think about it. Almost everyone uses the tongue heedlessly, as the occasion arises. And here comes the reproving word of Blessed Augustine: “Do you wish, he says, for life and good days? Hear and fulfill what I say to you: keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Fulfill this. I am not willing, says the wretched man. I am not willing to keep my tongue from evil, and yet I desire life and good days. But reason it out for yourself: if your servant were to say to you—I will lay waste your vineyard and then demand my wages from you; you brought me here to guard and tend the vineyard, while I will cut down all the trees so that there is nothing left to harvest here—and when I have done this, I will demand that you pay me for my labor—would you not count such a man a madman and drive him from your house without any further dealings with him?! Such are the people who wish to do evil with the tongue—to swear falsely, to blaspheme, to murmur, to deceive, to quarrel, to speak lewd words, to make incantations, to consult sorcerers—and yet to see good days. Tell them: you who do evil cannot expect good fruit. Even if you are wrong—God is always righteous and gives no reward to those who do evil. What then is to be done? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Deceive no one, lie before no one, and practice no trickery”.

Ps. 33:15. Turn aside from evil and do good: seek peace and pursue it.

In the order of his precepts, the holy Prophet observes strict sequence, preparing the earlier ones for what follows. In word we sin more easily and quickly, and therefore he first commands restraining it within measure. From the word he now moves to deeds, to which the word for the most part paves the way. Whoever has tamed the tongue will already find it easy to turn aside from evil deeds. And whoever turns aside from evil needs but little further effort to at once do good as well (Euthymius Zigabenus).

Turn aside from evil, not only manifest evil but hidden evil as well; not only do not yourself devise or do any evil to your neighbor, but beware of somehow taking part in the evil designs of other people as well. Let not ungodly men entice you, saying: come with us, partake of bloodshed. Do not walk in the way with them: turn your foot away from their paths (Prov. 1:15). Know that he who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who spreads a net will be caught in it; and that he who does evil will fall into it and will not know from where it comes upon him (Sir. 27:29–30). Do no evil, therefore, and evil will not overtake you: depart from unrighteousness, and it will turn away from you. Do not sow upon the furrows of unrighteousness, and you will not reap them sevenfold (Sir. 7:1–3).

Turn aside from evil: not only refrain from doing evil or sin in deed—such as theft, murder, fornication; but flee from all occasions that lead to sin, withdraw from places, persons, things, and everything that may arouse passion and draw you into sin. Do not walk in the way of falling, and do not stumble over stones. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and let your eyelids regard what is right. Turn your eyes away from a beautiful woman, and do not gaze upon another’s beauty. Do not gaze upon a maiden, lest you ever be enticed by her beauty. Do not mingle with one who sings, lest you somehow be ensnared in her undertakings. Make the paths of your feet straight, and set your ways in order. Turn neither to the right nor to the left: turn your foot away from the path of evil, for the Lord knows the ways of the right hand, but those on the left are crooked (Prov. 4:25–28; Sir. 9:4–5, 8, 32:22).

Turn aside from evil: conduct your affairs with caution, and arrange your dealings with others in such a way as not to take a step that may entangle you in troubles, losses, and even ruin. Be cautious and attentive, for you walk hand in hand with falling. Do not open your heart to every person, lest he repay you with false kindness. Do not do anything secret before a stranger, for you cannot know what he will carry away from you. Do not take counsel with an unreasonable person, for he cannot keep your matter secret. Do not set out on a journey with someone recklessly bold, lest you perish through his insolence. Do not bring every person into your house, for the cunning have many snares. Beware of the evildoer, for he devises evil. Do not trust an enemy, for seven serpents are hidden in his heart. Know that as one who touches pitch is defiled, so one who associates with the proud becomes like him. But who will pity the snake-charmer who is bitten? Equally, who will pity one who draws near to a sinful man and partakes of his sins? Watch your time, therefore, and guard yourself from evil (Sir. 4:23, 8:18, 20–22, 11:29, 33, 12:10, 13, 13:1, 16).

Do good. Be diligent in every good deed, and especially be beneficent to those in need. Put on, as the Apostle says, heartfelt compassion and goodness; acquire love (Col. 3, 12, 14) and be kind and merciful to all (Eph. 4:32). Be, following the example of Job, an eye to the blind, a foot to the lame, a father to the infirm (Job 29:15–16). Do not, as Sirach says, turn your eyes away from one who asks; do not grieve the hungry soul and do not dismiss the troubled servant. Incline your ear to the poor and answer him with words of peace and gentleness. Defend a neighbor, deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, and be as a father to orphans. Do not withdraw from those who weep, grieve with those who grieve, and do not be too lazy to visit the sick. Let the grace of giving be given to the living, and over the dead do not withhold the grace of kindness (Sir. 4, 2, 4, 8–10, 7:36–38). All this and the like is gathered together and, in the Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church, is presented to Christian piety and love in the form of works of mercy toward one’s neighbor—seven for the body and seven for the soul—namely: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison, receive the stranger into your home, bury the dead; show the wanderer the path of truth, persuade the sinner to enter upon the path of virtue, instruct the untaught and the ignorant, give counsel to one seeking counsel, comfort the sorrowful, forgive one who has offended you, and pray for all. Do not miss an occasion to do a deed of this kind every time the Lord sends it to you.

Do good. Not only do everything that is customarily done by all God-fearing people: honor your parents, pray to God, give alms, attend church, hear the word of God, keep the fasts and all the like; but especially multiply your good deeds and in this regard purposefully devise ways to expand the circle of good that goes out from you, not limiting yourself only to those prompted by the ordinary course of life (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov). In general, make it a rule not only to do no harm to anyone, but not even to cause any unpleasantness. Make it so that everyone who comes into contact with you departs from you not only without sorrow, but with a comforted and gladdened soul, departing with some good—whether you show it in deed, or in word, or even in the expression of your face and bearing.

Turning aside from evil and doing good—these are the two feet by which God-fearing people make their way along the path of a life pleasing to God. Those experienced, however, in the discernment of spiritual order find distinctions between them that it is not unprofitable for those zealous for moral perfection to know. Athanasius the Great says: “turning aside from evil is taught by fear, while doing good is taught by love. One who loves is higher than one who fears.” Saint Basil the Great continues his thought, saying: “Abstinence from evil is proper not to one who is perfect, but only to one who is beginning. One must first, as if leaving a bad road, withdraw from the habit of a vicious life, and only then proceed to the performance of good deeds. For it is impossible to take up what is good without first departing and completely turning aside from evil, just as it is impossible to restore health without first being freed from illness, or to warm up before the shivering has completely passed. All these things are incompatible with each other: so likewise, one who wishes to lead a good life must be freed from contact with evil.”

Blessed Augustine adds to this: “it is not enough not to harm, not to kill, not to steal, not to commit fornication, not to deceive, not to bear false witness. Having turned aside from evil, you cannot yet say with assurance: now I am safe, I have done everything, I shall have a peaceful life, I shall see good days. For one must not only turn aside from evil but also do good. It is not enough not to have robbed: one must clothe the naked. You did not rob: you turned aside from evil. But you will not have done good unless you also receive the stranger into your home, give him rest, and supply his needs. And always one must so turn aside from evil as to at once do good as well—or turn aside from evil not through inaction, but through doing the good that is its opposite.”

Seek peace and pursue it. Behold, the end and crown of good deeds that attract well-being. The seeking of peace and running after it signifies the earnest seeking of peace that arises from love of it. The meaning of this commandment, therefore, is: be a lover of peace. Love of peace is an attractive and, above all, a God-beloved virtue. The lover of peace is clothed in the garment of Christ the Lord, Who is our peace (Eph. 2:14) and Who Himself with His own lips ascribes sonship to God to such a one (Mt 5:9). It is little wonder that throughout the whole extent of the word of God, both peace and love of peace receive lofty praise. Behold, how good, how beautiful it is for brethren to dwell together in unity (Ps. 132:1), holy David exclaims in another place. In three things I was adorned and stood beautiful before the Lord and before men, says wisdom in Sirach: the harmony of brethren, and the love of neighbors, and husband and wife in accord with one another (Sir. 25:1). Therefore the Saviour, in His last discourse to His disciples, leaves them peace as the most precious inheritance, saying: my peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you (Jn 14:27). And the holy Apostle Paul places peace as the final goal of both human free endeavor and divine assistance to it, when he says: and the peace of God, surpassing all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7).

It is fittingly said: seek peace. Peace is a precious treasure worthy of earnest seeking. But it is not always easy to have peace, despite all efforts. Therefore Saint Paul also says: if it is possible, as much as depends on you, be at peace with all men (Rom. 12:18). If it is possible — points to the difficulty of the matter. But those who succeed in attaining this are granted blessedness: blessed are the peacemakers (Mt 5:9). It is the duty of everyone to seek peace, doing on his part everything that depends on him to hold peace firmly and each time to hasten to make peace with those who are not at peace. This is why holy David says: and pursue it. Chase after it when it departs; pursue it until you catch it, until you have entirely erased the quarrel that has arisen with anyone.

Whoever fulfills everything commanded above by the holy Prophet will come by a direct path to peace. Whoever restrains the tongue from evil and on every occasion withdraws from evil and does good—how can such a one fail to be at peace with all? “The peaceable person,” says Blessed Theodoret, “loving peace with all, does not secretly steal what belongs to a neighbor, does not venture into murder, does not scheme to violate marital fidelity, says and does nothing base, benefits others, shares with them and defends them, suffers hardship together with them and endures together with them.” But whoever acts in this way—what occasion can arise on his part for a breach of peace? And if it arises on the part of others, does he not have in his manner of acting powerful means to draw them back to peace? In this case, peace is the same as all-embracing love. Peace is the first fruit of love, or it is love appearing and working outwardly. Love in the heart, peace without. Therefore everything that the holy Apostle Paul says about the sphere of love’s activity can be applied to peace or love of peace. The lover of peace is patient and kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not behave dishonestly, does not seek his own, is not provoked, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness (1Cor. 13:4–6). And in all actions of this kind, to speak in reverse, is found the strongest assurance of peace.

This last thought leads us directly to the resolution of the following question: of what peace does the Prophet speak—of inner peace or outer peace, of peace of heart or peace with one’s neighbor? Of both. Peace with a neighbor is impossible if it does not exist in the heart. What causes a person to be at odds with others? Anger, hatred, envy, self-interest, pride, and all passions in general. These take peace away from the heart, and with an unpeaceful heart it is impossible to maintain peace outwardly with one’s neighbors. So first cleanse the heart of passions and become at peace within yourself. When you become at peace within yourself, the peace established in the heart will flow out around you and outwardly. Saint Basil the Great says: “seek peace, that is, free yourself from the tumults of this age, acquire a tranquil mind, a calm and undisturbed state of soul, not agitated by passions, not carried away by false teachings that attract to their side by their plausibility, so that through this you may acquire for yourself the peace of God, surpassing all understanding (Phil 4:7), which guards your heart—and become one with Christ, Who is our peace (Eph. 2:14).”

Blessed Augustine further develops the same thought: “seek, he says, peace and pursue it. But where should you run after it? There, where it has gone. The Lord is our peace. But He, after His resurrection, ascended into heaven. When you too shall rise again and this mortal nature is clothed in immortality, then you will attain peace as well. There, no one and nothing will trouble or disturb you; there is perfect peace. But here even the righteous groan, so that all may know that here we only seek peace—we attain it there. See how David himself was troubled. Why, he says, are you cast down, O my soul, and why do you disquiet me? Hope in God, for I will confess Him (Ps. 42:5). When he says to his soul: why do you disquiet me, surely it was disquieting him. If it disquieted him, then he did not have peace within himself. He was attached to God only in mind, so that his soul, resting upon Him, might cease to disquiet him. So, our peace is in the Lord, as He Himself said: these things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace (Jn 16:33). But on earth He did not promise peace, but tribulation, saying: in the world you will have tribulation (Jn 16:33). So, in this life there is no peace, no complete tranquility. The joy of immortality, the fellowship of Angels, are only promised. But whoever will not seek it while still here will not receive it there when the time comes. Here one must have it at least in part, in order to merit its full reception there. How in part? Let us be of one mind here, let us love our neighbor as ourselves. Loving our neighbor as ourselves, we shall have peace with him. You will say: it is impossible to get through life here without some collisions and disagreements; they occur between brothers, even between saints. So be it; but your task is not to allow them to grow to the point of breaking harmony and tearing apart love.”

A quarrel has arisen—let us add to this—do not allow it to come to a rupture and enmity. Hasten to extinguish the spark that has fallen between you and within you. If you blow upon a spark, says Sirach, it will blaze up; and if you spit upon it, it will be extinguished. Yet the furious man fans the flames of strife. But you, withdraw from strife. Remember the commandments, and do not be angry with your neighbor. Remember the last things, and cease to harbor enmity. Forgive the wrong done to your neighbor, and then when you pray your sins will be forgiven (Sir. 28:2, 6–7, 9–10, 14).

The Second Part of the Second Decade (Verses 16–22). – The Fruits of the Fear of God

The workings of the fear of God have been indicated; the conduct of God-fearing people has been defined. The holy Prophet now proceeds to portray the fruits of such a life. He has not forgotten that he promised reward for following the promptings of the fear of God, and he shows how this promise is fulfilled in those who walk the path he has laid out. He promised life and good days. But both are in the hands of God. The closeness of God-fearing people to God is what holy David now portrays. He does not show how life and good days flow directly from the life he has prescribed; rather, he places those who lead it in the most intimate nearness to God, saying as it were: living thus, you will be at the very source of every good; and after that, do not doubt that you will receive far more than I have promised you. You serve God—you are received by God as His own—and you will receive from Him every mercy: namely, 1) God’s special favor, verses 16–17; 2) swift hearing of prayer, verse 18; 3) nearness and consolation in sorrows, verse 19; and 4) deliverance from them, verse 20. These blessings they receive even in this life; but 5) full recompense awaits them in death and after death, verses 21–22.

God’s Special Favor (Verses 16–17)

Ps. 33:16. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer.

An expression of God’s special favor toward those who fear Him, toward the righteous!

The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. Among people as well, the eyes serve to express particular love and care. Whoever loves someone cannot stop looking at him; and whoever cares for someone keeps him constantly in sight. Therefore, when the holy Prophet says: the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, he expresses by this that the Lord especially loves them and especially cares for them. Saint Athanasius the Great says that the righteous, for their devotion to virtue, receive a great reward—they have God as their observer. And Blessed Theodoret adds that the righteous who fulfill what the Prophet indicated in the fourteenth and fifteenth verses are under the watchful oversight and care of the Master God.

His ears attend to their prayer. As a mother tenderly loving her child always turns a keenly attentive ear toward him, so as not to miss even the slightest movement, rustle, or sound: so the Lord has keenly attuned ears for hearing the prayerful cries that come forth from the hearts of the righteous who love Him. This is a new sign of God’s special favor and love toward those who fear Him. The power that watches over them and the power that receives their prayers, David calls eyes and ears, says Basil the Great.

Both together—what powerful assurance they ought to generate of the well-being ever ready to descend upon the righteous from the Lord, who observes and hears! If they themselves see some evil drawing near and cry out to God, their cry always finds the ears of God open and attentive there. And when they themselves do not see an evil, God sees it, watching over them and vigilant on their behalf—and delivers them from it. Wondrous, in truth, is the goodness of God! Who would not count it a great boon to love such a Master with all one’s heart, and to lead one’s life before His face with filial reverence! Who would not cry out with the Prophet: nail the flesh to the fear of You (Ps. 118:120), that my heart may rejoice in fearing Your name! (Ps. 85:11) (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov).

So, “do not fear,” says Blessed Augustine, “work and labor. The eyes of the Lord are turned toward you, and His ears are open to receive your prayers. What more could you desire? A grumbling servant, serving in a great household where the master pays no attention to his labors and needs, might still say: I endure so much—and no one takes pity? You will perhaps say: if He had heard me, He would have delivered me from sorrow; but I cry out—and I remain in sorrow. You, just hold to His paths, and He without doubt hears you. If He does not deliver quickly, then remember at the same time that He is also a Physician. If He does not act according to your petition, it is surely because there is yet some festering member within you. You cry out, and He still continues to cut and does not withdraw the cutting hand. Wait until He cuts away as much as is needed. Hardhearted is not the physician who, despite the cries of the patient, makes the necessary incisions; but rather the one who, heeding the pampered patient, leaves the wounds and putrefaction uncleaned and unexcised. When mothers bathe their children, do not the children cry out in their hands? Well then—are they hardhearted because they do not heed the children’s tears? The children cry out, but the mother continues her work and does not listen to them out of love for them. So also our God is full of love. But sometimes He seems not to hear those who cry out to Him, in order that in the meantime the work of their healing may be brought to completion.”

Ps. 33:17. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.

An expression of God’s special wrath upon sinners!

In this combination, face signifies displeasure. But in other places the prophet David seeks the face of God and invites all to do the same. My face has sought You, he says to God, I will seek Your face, O Lord (Ps. 26:8). Seek, all of you, His face continually (Ps. 104:4). Moses and Elijah sought to see the face of God. And Angels continually behold the face of the Heavenly Father (Mt 18:10). And all are promised the blessedness of seeing the Lord face to face. Here the holy Prophet only wished to depict more tangibly the contrast between the Lord’s attitude toward those who do evil and toward the righteous. Whereas for the righteous He is entirely an observing eye and entirely an attentive ear, upon sinners, when the measure of their iniquities is full, He will only turn His wrathful face—and they vanish from the face of the earth. Powerful are the words: to cut off their memory from the earth — so that their spirit may not be felt and their name may not be mentioned among the living on earth. The Lord cuts off the memory of those who do evil by destroying not only them but their children, grandchildren, and all their descendants. Though this is not always visible, because either the ungodly themselves repent before the time of righteous divine wrath overtakes them, or their children and grandchildren do not imitate them in their evil deeds, or for other reasons known to the righteous Judge: yet holy David points here to what often happens, by the decree of the righteous God Himself, which He clearly declared and revealed in His word, saying: I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me (Ex. 20:5).

The word of God has preserved many examples of such righteous divine punishment upon sinners. The flood submerged all those who were ungodly in the time of the righteous Noah. Fire destroyed all the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities. Who remained from the family of the rebels Dathan and Abiron, whom the earth swallowed together with their tents? By the written law of God’s justice, the entire line of Saul, the line of Ahab and Jezebel, and that of Herod the Tetrarch were wiped out. And sacred and secular history presents many similar examples. Those attentive to the judgments of God encounter in their own lifetimes a repetition of those same divine judgments, pronounced without announcement yet visible in deed. When houses that once prospered fade away, as the saying goes, this never happens without cause. Somewhere in the founding ancestor a destructive spark was lodged—some evil deed and unrighteousness, hidden yet which drew a manifest divine punishment. Evil is self-destructive. As a poison taken into the body gradually permeates it entirely and eats away the roots of life within it: so the sin committed by the founding ancestor, hateful to God, gradually eats away the lives of his descendants, until it has utterly destroyed them all.

Here, however, on earth, God’s judgments are for the most part cleansing and corrective. The final cutting off of the memory of evildoers will follow on the new earth, under the new heaven, as Saint Cyril says (in Euthymius Zigabenus). In this regard, the face of the Lord will signify His manifest and open coming to judgment, as Saint Basil the Great understands it, when both sin and sinners will be destroyed by the righteous judgment of God. It is on that judgment above all that we sinners should fear to meet the wrathful face of God!

Swift Hearing of Prayer (Verse 18)

Ps. 33:18. The righteous cried out, and the Lord heard them and delivered them from all their tribulations.

God’s special favor toward the righteous, His special attention to them and the swift hearing of their prayers—this is proved here by the holy Prophet through examples of the ancient Fathers who lived before him, the holy and righteous ones: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and others, from whose extreme distress the right hand of God repeatedly saved them at their cry. To confirm that truly the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer, look, he says, at what happened. In what anxiety was Jacob when he faced the prospect of meeting Esau? But he cried out to the Lord—and the Lord delivered him from that extremity. In what extremity was Moses before the Red Sea? But he cried out—and the Lord delivered him and the people from that great danger. And after David, does not history present the same examples? It suffices to recall the righteous King Hezekiah, who twice saw himself in bitter straits and was twice saved by God, to Whom he called out in prayer. Once, enemies had surrounded the city and were ready to destroy it; another time, death threatened to cut short the days he still counted as needed for himself. But in each case he cried out to God—and was immediately heard. All the enemies were destroyed in a single night by an Angel, at the Lord’s command; and death was postponed for another fifteen years. And there were many such wondrous deliverances with which the Lord favored those who fear Him, when they cried out to Him in pain and distress for help.

Of course, in the ordering of the temporal lot of every person, even of the righteous themselves, there is much that is incomprehensible. But this is because just as the Lord Himself in His essence and His attributes is incomprehensible, so He is incomprehensible to our feeble minds also in the workings of His providence. Yet the truth of God’s attention to the righteous and His special care for them does not cease to be a truth because we cannot grasp how and in what form the Lord accomplishes this.

Blessed Augustine dwells on this thought. “The three youths were righteous,” he says, “and when they cried out to the Lord from the fiery furnace, the fire was cooled by their songs of praise. The flame did not touch or burn the innocent and righteous youths who were praising the Lord. But someone will say: these were righteous and were heard; but I cry out and the Lord does not deliver me. Either I am not righteous and do not do what He commands—or perhaps He does not see me. Do not fear; only do what He commands. If He does not grant you deliverance in bodily things, He certainly grants salvation of the soul. His judgments are wondrous and unsearchable. Is not the same God who saved the three youths in the flames the God of the Maccabees? The former sang songs of praise in the flames, while the latter gave up their spirits. Is the God of the three youths not also the God of the Maccabees? But He delivered some and not others. Or rather, He delivered both; only the three youths He delivered in such a way that even carnal people were instructed, while the Maccabees He delivered not in this but in another way, so that their persecutors might go to greater torments. He delivered Peter, when an Angel came to him in prison and said: rise and go out. His chains immediately fell away; he followed the Angel and was delivered from imminent death (Acts 12:7). Surely Saint Peter did not lose his righteousness that afterward God did not deliver him from death on the cross? And I will say that in the latter case God heard him more fully than in the former. Then, in truth, he was delivered from all tribulations, for he was translated to where there is no grief or sighing; but after the first deliverance, how much he still had to endure in his life!”

Nearness and Consolation in Sorrows (Verse 19)

Ps. 33:19. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and will save the humble in spirit.

Holy David intensifies the expression of God’s favor toward the righteous. To one thinking that God sees and hears, it may still seem that He is far away and the righteous man remains alone, surrounded by what is hostile to him, and therefore cannot be free from fear and agitation. The holy Prophet says here: do not fear, the Lord is near! You are under His shelter; His right hand covers you, and no enemy can come near you. This is what the Lord Himself says through the prophet Jeremiah: I am a God who draws near, and not a God from afar (Jer. 23:23). He promises the same in the ninetieth psalm, saying of the righteous man: I am with him in his tribulation (Ps. 90:15). So a mother comforts a fearful child, saying: I am with you, do not be afraid!

The Lord is near everywhere, as the omnipresent One! But here a special nearness of His to the righteous is indicated. And this special quality depends on the special way in which the hearts of the righteous turn to the Lord. It is their broken and humble heart that draws the Lord near and draws from Him an abundance of mercies. The self-assured, self-reliant person makes even the near Lord far from himself; and therefore all his supports break like a broken reed. “God is high,” says Blessed Augustine, “let the Christian humble himself therefore! If you wish the high God to be near you, abase yourself and be humble. A great mystery is here! God is above all. However high you raise yourself, you will not reach Him. Be humble, and He Himself will descend to you.” Saint Basil the Great puts these words in the mouth of David at this point: “the Lord is near! To you I say this, you who are humble and have broken your self-conceit—to gladden you and to lead you into patience. Whoever is free from all pride and takes no glory in any human thing is both brokenhearted and humble in spirit.” Blessed Theodoret likewise sees in the brokenhearted those who are governed by modest thoughts about themselves; for which the Lord especially shows Himself near to them and with favor receives their prayers.

Brokenhearted is also the one whose heart is shattered by grief—and humble in spirit the one whose spirit is lowered by the weight of afflictions. Taken together, both terms signify the person who sees everything around and within himself in ruin, who finds no support for himself either within or outside himself. Therefore in brokenness and humility, having cast all his hope upon the Lord alone, he cries out to Him day and night for help. It is precisely this complete casting of all hope upon the Lord alone that draws the Lord near to him and makes Him especially close to him, swift to help; for a broken and humble heart God will not despise (Ps. 50:19). The Lord is near, and saves. I will shelter him, He Himself says, I will deliver him and glorify him (Ps. 90:14–15); showing that in the hour of oppression and persecution, when righteous people cry out to Him in brokenness of heart, God does not abandon them, but remains with them unceasingly by His grace, granting endurance and tempering it with heavenly consolation, so that they may bear courageously the sufferings that have come upon them; and at times He delivers them altogether from all oppression and affliction and, after the darkness of sorrow, illumines them with the light of joy (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov).

Since our sins become the partition wall that separates us from God, and since this wall is broken down by penitent contrition and humble confession of sins, when it is said that the Lord is near to the brokenhearted, nothing prevents us from thinking here also of the nearness to which the penitent are made worthy. We depart from God when we give ourselves over to sin and passions. We return to Him when we repent, humble ourselves, and mourn our sins in contrition. Then the merciful Lord comes out to meet us, receives us into His fatherly embrace, kisses us, and restores all that was lost. To those who are contrite over their sins one must especially remind that the Lord is near them, because in moments of strong contrition the enemy often sows thoughts of despair: you are lost; the Lord has rejected you. And so it is said to such a one: as soon as you have been contrite, the Lord is already near you. Do not despair. Beginning in repentance, contrition of heart does not afterward leave one who has come to fear the Lord, on all the paths of a corrected or well-ordered life. Therefore Saint Basil the Great says: “contrition of heart is the destruction of human thoughts. Whoever has despised the present, surrendered himself to the will of God, and consecrated the ruling part within himself—the mind—to thoughts that are above human and divine, will have a broken heart and make it a sacrifice not despised by the Lord.”

It is not out of place here to adduce the observation of Saint Basil the Great regarding the strange order—or disorder—noticed in human thoughts: “properly speaking, the one who walks in sin is humble (abased), because nothing humbles so much as sin. Those who have lost the loftiness of soul and have been cast down by sin to the earth and as it were nailed to the earth, who bend like a crawling serpent and are no longer able to come to an upright position—these are properly humble (abased, trampled upon). Yet they themselves are all the while high-minded and will by no means consent to acknowledge their abasement. On the contrary, those who have been delivered by grace from the captivity of sin and have advanced in goodness—those who have consequently recovered their true dignity—these humble themselves voluntarily, calling themselves with the Apostle servants of every person in Christ (2Cor. 4:5), the offscouring of the world, all men’s refuse (1Cor. 4:13). Yet these, being last in their own feelings about themselves, are first in the eyes of God. And the Lord calls them blessed, saying: blessed are the poor in spirit (Mt 5:3).”

Deliverance From Sorrows (Verse 20)

Ps. 33:20. Many are the sorrows of the righteous, and from all of them the Lord will deliver them.

The final limit of God’s favor, to which the fear of God leads! He has already said that God sees them, hears them, is near them; now he concludes: from all their sorrows He will deliver them. Let there be many sorrows for the righteous on earth: such is the order of this life; but from all of them the Lord will deliver them. He did not say that the righteous will not be touched by sorrows, for that cannot be; on the contrary, for that very reason the righteous cannot escape sorrows—because they are righteous, as the Wise One says, that whoever approaches to serve the Lord must prepare his soul for trials (Sir. 21). He did not say so, but openly declared that many are the sorrows of the righteous; yet he added to it the comforting promise that from all of them the Lord will deliver them.

How will He deliver? In such a way that in all of them, however great they may be, He will preserve them whole, will not allow them to fall under their weight, will give them strength to endure and overcome them; the righteous will pass through these sorrows undefeated and come out of them as victors. The righteous man, animated by God’s favor, encouraged by His cover, and strengthened by His power, is led out by the Lord into battle with the adversities raised up against him by the enemies of righteousness—hostile forces, visible and invisible. The righteous man stands unshaken in his righteousness amidst all temptations, like a rock amid the sea, assailed by waves. It is not the rock that is broken but the waves that hurl themselves against it that are broken and fall back. So also in the struggle of the righteous: it is not the righteous who are broken, but all hostile forces that are shattered against the unshakeable firmness of their righteousness. It is precisely this deliverance that is promised to the righteous. Thus the Lord also foretold to the Apostles that they would have tribulation in the world; but in consolation immediately added: but be of good courage, for I have overcome the world (Jn 16:33). Do not be afraid! The tribulations of this world will do nothing to you. I have overcome the world; by this my conquering power you also will overcome and prevail over the world despite all its assaults upon you. Therefore the holy Apostles all suffered tribulation; but suffering, they confessed that though they suffer tribulation, they are not crushed thereby (2Cor. 4:8), and encouraged all, saying: God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1Cor. 10:13). To this Blessed Theodoret says: “although God allows the righteous to enter into struggle, He Himself assists them and shows them prevailing over the afflictions they encounter, strengthening and making firm their thoughts.”

Therefore, “if you ever see the righteous suffering in illness with injured limbs, abandoned by their own, in wounds, in dishonor, in utter want and deprivation of necessities; remember that this is how it should be, according to God’s wise ordering. Whoever says that sorrow is unbecoming to the righteous says the same as one who claims that a wrestler ought not to have an opponent. But will a wrestler who does not enter the contest have any reason to receive crowns?” (Basil the Great).

The deliverance of the righteous from sorrows—as in the preceding verse the saving of the humble in spirit—consists properly in their standing firm, under all the pressure of sorrows, in the order of righteous life and in faithfulness to the Lord’s commandments and the rules of faith. Whether their sorrows will cease in this life or will press upon them until death—this, in the eyes of the Lord as in the minds of the righteous themselves, carries no decisive weight. It happens that sorrows cease, either by their natural course or by a special action of God’s providence. But even if this does not occur, God’s deliverance and salvation nonetheless accompanies the righteous unceasingly; and out of the darkness of sorrows, through the shadow of death, it leads them to freedom and brings them into a life full of comfort, where alone such comfort is fitting in its true meaning and form. “Unrighteous people,” says Blessed Augustine, “have fewer sorrows, while the righteous suffer more. But the former, after few or no sorrows, will go to eternal torment from which they will never be delivered; while the righteous, after many sorrows, will enter into eternal rest, where no evil will ever touch them again.”

Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Ps. 33:21. The Lord keeps all their bones; not one of them will be broken.

With the preceding verse the holy Prophet has transported the righteous man—and our attention along with him—into the other life, where he is properly delivered from all sorrows. But the righteous pass into blessed eternity in soul; the question arises, what is to be said of their bodies? The holy Prophet answers: the Lord keeps all their bones; not one of them will be broken. Not a single part of their bodily constitution is lost; all will appear in due time whole and unbroken, specifically at the future restoration of all things. These words suggest the thought of the glory of the future resurrection, as do the words of the Lord: not a hair of your head will perish (Lk. 21:18). The bones of the righteous are called unbroken and kept in the sense that, whatever their fate in time, the hour will come when they will all appear whole and glorious. Though the bones and all the members of the righteous may be reduced to dust, or devoured by beasts, or cast into the sea, or destroyed by fire; yet the Lord keeps them all in the depths of His providence, and not one of them will perish forever. All will rise on the day of resurrection whole and glorified (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov).

With certain qualifications, however, this verse may also be understood literally—namely: there were holy righteous ones whose entire bodily constitution God preserved unharmed, allowing not a single part of it to be broken. The holy Prophet here generalizes what is particular or outstanding, and what is true of some he attributes to all; for even for all, without violating the laws of His justice, the Lord could have done the same that He did for some. And that this has truly occurred—how many examples there are of it both in the word of God and in the lives of the saints, especially the martyrs. The youths He did not burn in the furnace; many martyrs were left untouched by the savage beasts sent against them, while the bodies of others, lifeless, were cast before the beasts yet guarded as by sentinels; of others still the sea did not swallow, iron did not take hold, but itself broke to pieces, and so on. All such examples may be brought to mind when one reads: the Lord keeps all their bones.

Yet another still more important thought is fitting here—namely, concerning the incorruptibility of the holy relics. We have everywhere the example of how the bodies of the saints, and especially their bones, remain untouched by the destructive power of decay that reigns in the present order of things. In Russia whole bodies appear incorrupt; in the East their bones for the most part appear in such a state that their aspect is capable of assuring every person that decay has not touched them. Examples of the preservation of the bones of righteous people incorrupt, “with miracle-working power, also existed in the Old Testament.” Were it not such examples that the holy Prophet had in mind in this verse?

One cannot, however, consider out of place the thinking of those who, taking these words in a figurative sense, pass from them to the inner man’s moral dispositions and the arrangement of the righteous person’s heart. In this sense this verse will continue the thought of the preceding one. There it was said that the Lord delivers the righteous from all sorrows by giving them strength to stand firm in their righteousness despite all the pressure of sorrows. Here the same thing is expressed under the image of keeping the bones unbroken. That is: however great the sorrows may be, the inner structure of the righteous remains unbroken thereby. They yield neither to faintheartedness nor to complaint nor to wavering in faith and hope (Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem).

Here are thoughts in this vein from Saint Basil the Great!

“Should one stop here—that is, at the words: the Lord keeps all their bones — at the bore expression and think that bodily bones, those supports of the flesh, will not be broken among the righteous? But how to reconcile this with the sufferings of the martyrs? Persecutors shattered the shins of some, and repeatedly pierced the hands and heads of others with nails. Yet who would deny that those who died in martyrdom were more righteous than all others?

Is it not better to understand this of the inner man? Sometimes the word ‘man’ is spoken, yet the soul and mind of man is meant; and the powers of the soul are named similarly to the parts of the body. For example, the eyes of the wise man are in his head (Eccl. 2:14), which signifies foresight and circumspection. On this basis, within the inner man one can conceive of certain bones, which sustain the connection and orderliness among the powers of the soul. The Lord keeps the bones of the righteous, that is, He keeps the inner good disposition of their powers amid all the destructive action of outward circumstances of sorrow. For this reason they become capable of lifting praise to God from the depths of the soul, as the Prophet says in another place: all my bones, that is, all the powers of my soul, will say: O Lord, who is like You? (Ps. 34:10).”

These words of Blessed Augustine agree with this: “this—that is, the Lord keeps all their bones — must not be understood carnally. Bones signify the firmness of the faithful. As bones constitute the stronghold of the body, so the stronghold of the Christian’s heart is unshakeable faith. Patience in faith—this is the inner bones, this is what cannot be broken. In our Lord Jesus Christ the non-breaking of bones was fulfilled literally. God preserved the bones of His Son, and not one of them was broken, just as it was commanded concerning the lamb that prefigured Him (Ex. 12:46). Regarding the righteous, however, this promise is fulfilled spiritually. Therefore when we see that some persecutor so tortures a saint that his bones are broken, let us not say: surely he is not righteous, since the Lord promised the righteous to keep their bones so that not one of them would be broken. Do you wish to be assured that different bones are meant here—precisely those which I called the firmness of faith, that is, patience and steadfastness in suffering, those indestructible spiritual bones—then listen, and in the circumstances of the Lord’s suffering you will see the truth of what I say. The crucified Lord hangs in the midst: on either side two robbers. One of these robbers blasphemed the Lord, and the other believed in Him; one, therefore, was to be condemned, the other justified, to whom the Lord said: today you will be with Me in paradise (Lk. 23:43). But the soldiers came and did not break the bones of the Lord, while they broke the shins of the robbers (Jn 19:32). Thus the bones were broken both of the robber who blasphemed and of the one who believed. Where then is what was said: the Lord keeps all their bones, not one of them will be broken? Could the Lord not have preserved all the bones of the one to whom He said: today you will be with Me in paradise? The answer is given to you: the Lord preserved his bones, for the firmness of his faith was not broken by those blows by which his shins were broken.”

Ps. 33:22. The death of sinners is dreadful, and those who hate the righteous will err.

Since the Prophet’s intention is to portray the fruits of righteousness and the fear of God, he mentions here the lot of sinners—as he mentioned earlier those who are rich in self-confidence—only in order that through this, by way of contrast, he may set the lot of the righteous in a stronger light. Where then is the contrast to what is said in this verse? It is either in the preceding two verses, or in the following final verse. In the first case, the thought given is: the Lord delivers the righteous from sorrows by leading them unharmed through the fire and water of sorrows, bringing their souls through the shadow of death into paradise, while keeping their bodies incorrupt; the sinners, by contrast, though they do not suffer in life, yet when death comes their souls go to hell, their bodies are given over to corruption, and all their proud hopes are scattered and put to shame—dreadful is their death and their lot after death. In the second case, the thought given is: the death of sinners is dreadful because dark powers seize their souls and cast them into hell, whereby their hopes are shown to have been erroneous; whereas the souls of God’s servants, God-fearing righteous ones, the Lord keeps at their departure from the body in such a way that the fearful hordes of impure forces dare not touch them, and thereby He vindicates that those who hope in Him hope aright. In both cases the thought is one and the same.

To place this verse in contrast with the last verse is perhaps more accurate, because the second half-lines of both are in evident correspondence. In this verse it says: those who hate the righteous will err, and in the following one: none who hope in Him will err. They illuminate each other and shed light for clarifying the full verses.

The death of sinners is dreadful, because in the hour of death they will see with horror that all is lost and they have perished: there is no hope at all of mending their lot. That on which they leaned is crumbling, and there is no other support: God is angered; conscience gnaws, and the examiners press close. The state after death is still more dreadful: there is fulfilled in deed what the expectation of it terrified them with in the hour of death. The souls of the sinful are immediately seized by dark forces and led to places of darkness and preliminary torments, in expectation of the final determination of their bitter lot at the Last Judgment.

“There is a death of the righteous,” says Saint Basil the Great, “but it is not dreadful, it is good. Those who have died with Christ have partaken of a good portion and, having died to sin, have died a good and saving death. Meanwhile the death of sinners is dreadful. For after death, torment overtakes them, as it overtook the rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted brilliantly every day (Lk. 16:19). Those who make bad use of their body and turn it into a servant of every sin prepare for themselves a dreadful death.”

Blessed Augustine develops the same thought from another side: “by the words: the death of sinners is dreadful — the Lord instructed those who say: such-and-such a person died badly, was eaten by beasts; he was not righteous and perished miserably. He would not have perished so, if he had been righteous. So then, in your view, the person who dies peacefully in his own bed, in his own home, is righteous? But are you not saying yourself: I know his sins and iniquities, although he died peacefully among his family and acquaintances? So he is a sinner, though he died, to outward appearance, peacefully; and so again his death, peaceful in appearance, must be dreadful as the death of a sinner. What death appears good to you is dreadful, if you look at what is hidden. You see the outward—how peacefully he lies on his bed; but do you see the hidden—how he is cast into hell? Learn from the Gospel what is the dreadful death of sinners. Behold two people: a rich man clothed in purple and fine linen who feasts brilliantly every day, and a certain poor man lying at his gates covered with sores — dogs lick his wounds, and he desires to be fed from the crumbs falling from the rich man’s table. But death comes—and the lot of both is changed. The poor man dies—and he was righteous—and Angels carry his soul to Abraham’s bosom; yet his dead body lay at the rich man’s gates, and there was no one to bury him. The rich man also dies; and there is no need to say what the burial of one was like who was clothed in purple and fine linen! But look, where is his soul? Being in Hades in torments, he desired that a drop of water from the finger of the despised poor man might fall upon his tongue burning in fire—and he did not receive what he desired (Lk. 16:19–25). Understand now what is the dreadful death of sinners. Do not stop at what is visible alone. Look into what is invisible, and the eye of your faith will behold a soul burning in torments, to whom the magnificent funeral with which the vanity of the living imagined it was honoring the dead body rendered not the slightest assistance. By the state of the soul after death must one judge whether a death is dreadful or good—not by the honors or dishonor shown to dead bodies as seen among people.” Under the dreadful death of sinners, according to Saint Athanasius, one must understand death of the soul, after which eternal fire, outer darkness, the undying worm, weeping and gnashing of teeth will follow: for sinners await gehenna and darkness.

Those who hate the righteous will err. What is the connection of this half-line with the preceding one—or of the erroneousness of those who hate the righteous with the dreadfulness of their death, of sinners? It is in the word: will err — which means: they will be mistaken in their calculations and expectations; they will see that they were mistaken. This error is revealed precisely in the hour of death, which is preeminently what makes it dreadful for sinners. Those who hate the righteous — every righteous person, that is, and consequently the righteous in general—look down upon them as on superstitious people, backward people who do not know how to live; they turn away from them, persecute them, pushing them off the road when they happen to meet them, and in doing so are confident that they are gaining the upper hand, winning. But death comes and opens their eyes. They then see that their calculations have not been justified, that they have not gained but have lost everything—and they die a dreadful death (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov). Therefore: those who hate the righteous will err — means that those who afflict, hate, and persecute a righteous man, who, while oppressing, tormenting, and killing the innocent, consider themselves victors as though gaining some great profit thereby, will perish and will not inherit eternal life—and one day in futile repentance will say: we have strayed from the path of truth, we have walked in the ways of iniquity, and we have not known the path of the Lord (Wis. 5:6–7).

In the hatred toward the righteous there is hidden a hatred toward their righteousness, toward the principles and convictions that animate them. Such is the thought of Saint Basil the Great: “they hate the righteous because they themselves live in sins, while the righteous man’s way of life, like the straightness of a rule, exposes them. Unable to bear exposure, they turn with enmity toward the righteous; and harboring this unrighteous hatred, they load themselves with new sins. Many pretexts will be found for sinners to hate the righteous; but is not the chief one that the righteous man by his very appearance and presence exposes sinners? They hate the one who reproves in the gate and abhor the one who speaks uprightly (Am. 5:10).” In our time, the principles or rules of righteousness are Christian ones. To display open hatred toward those who hold to these principles is now considered not altogether fitting; yet one’s ill-will toward the spirit and demands of Christianity is no longer concealed, and there are open attacks upon them. One person, looking down upon them from above, delivers his condescending opinion of them, which is however no less offensive than direct disapproval. And death will open the eyes of all such. Then they too will say: we have strayed from the path of truth; but it will already be too late and without benefit.

Blessed Augustine under “the righteous” here understands the One who justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5) and Who is the propitiation for our sins (1Jn 2:2), that is, our Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour. Those who hate this Righteous One, he says, must inevitably have a dreadful death, for they die in their sins, unreconciled to God by faith in the Lord who cleanses from sins. In the time of Blessed Augustine there were still not a few pagans who did not love the Lord and the holy faith in Him. Therefore, expounding the psalm, he found it very appropriate to remind believers that they had chosen the better part, having believed and come to love the Lord; whereas those who turn away from Him will die a dreadful death, being laden with sins which by all their effort they could not, of course, avoid, and the cleansing from which is found in faith in the Lord’s death on the cross and nothing else. Is it not also appropriate now to remind many self-righteous people who, limiting themselves to the rules of outward propriety and resting on such righteousness, do not think about the other conditions of justification and promise themselves entry into the Lord’s paradise without any relation to the Lord—is it not appropriate to remind such people: see whether the foundation of your righteousness is solid, which you wish to claim for yourselves while rejecting justification in the Lord Jesus Christ? Death will come—the test of life; one would not wish to be compelled to confess: alas, we have not known the path of the Lord!—and to confess it without benefit, only to increase one’s own terror.

The General Conclusion of the Psalm (Verse 23)

Ps. 33:23. The Lord will deliver the souls of His servants, and none who hope in Him will err.

A lot is foretold for the servants of God that is opposite to that predicted for sinners.

The Lord will deliver the souls of His servants. That is: having led them out of the prison of the body, He will not allow any hostile action toward them on the part of enemies, and having freed them from all the sorrows that oppressed them in time, He will, through the shadow of death, transfer them directly to bright and refreshing places, where there is no grief or sighing. Therefore, whereas for sinners death is dreadful, the death of the saints is precious before the Lord (Ps. 115:6). And fittingly did someone pray: let my soul die with the souls of the righteous (Num. 23:10). This is the conclusion of the deliverances that the Prophet promised throughout the whole psalm (verses Ps. 33:5, 8, 18, 20). Like a bird freed from snares, delivered from all the bonds of flesh and the world, the soul of the righteous will soar to the abodes of its Heavenly Father and there begin a song of thanksgiving and praise for deliverance. Looking back on the course it has run amid straits, sorrows, and afflictions, with the unceasing and clearly visible help of God, it will breathe with relief and, with conviction penetrating its whole being, will declare: the Lord has delivered—as one pursued by an enemy says this with conviction when he steps onto the safe ground of his homeland, within the circle of his own forces. All temporal deliverances, whether inner or outer, are only forerunners and foretastes of that final deliverance that will be known and tasted upon departure from the body and entry into the blessedness of paradise—though still in a preliminary way.

It will then become palpably clear that those who hope in the Lord do not err. On earth, where we walk as in twilight and see all things as through a dim mirror, a doubtful thought may sometimes still be stirred up—lest one err in one’s hope. At any rate, the enemy of those being saved loudly insists to some: God has forgotten you; or, as is so often heard today from those who have lost faith: our hope is vain; the spirit, like vapor, will dissolve into the air, and—all is finished. There, the inerrancy of hope will pass into vision and touch, or there the saving action of hope will cease, swallowed up by the tasting of what was hoped for. But now, when there are many circumstances capable of shaking it, there is an urgent need to repeat often that those who hope in the Lord do not err—especially when some person must believe in hope against hope.

Those who hope will not err! The Lord will deliver! This is the truth that the Prophet develops in various ways throughout the whole psalm—now setting forth his own hopeful turnings to God that drew deliverance, now pointing to the unshamed hopes of other righteous ones who cried out to the Lord, now portraying the laws of the Lord’s merciful care for us as our Provider. And at the end, having carried our thought beyond the bounds of life and introduced us into the contemplation of the promised inheritance into which God’s servants are brought, he crowns everything with the call: thus the Lord will deliver the souls of His servants. And thus their hope will be shown to be without error!

Here is a program of life! Live in submission to the will of God and, animated by the fear of God, be zealous in fulfilling the commandments of the Lord. The shelter of the Most High will always be over you, and God’s consolations will not cease to pour abundantly into your heart. Amid sorrows, needs, and straits, the thread of God’s power will safely draw you along the chosen path, until, having led you through all trials through the door of death, it introduces you into eternal rest, where is the dwelling of all who are glad. The contemplation of this God-established and God-guarded path, and especially the contemplation of its blessed end, has animated and continues to animate all those who labor in Christian piety. And the aim for which this psalm is heard so frequently in the Church is none other than this same animation to the labors of doing good and the exploits of piety, under the influence of the certain hopes of Christians. Each person who goes out from church after the Liturgy, having listened with the heart to this psalm, ought to go out with an exhortation repeating itself in the heart: labor, endure, and you will not err in your hope. The same was also the aim of composing these notes: to kindle in some, to revive in others, the same animation to patient walking in the commandments of God, in the expectation of eternal rest. May the Lord grant this to all who read and hear.

Psalm 51

Psalm 51

Superscription: 1. For the end, an instruction of David, 2. when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said to him: David came to the house of Abimelech.

This incident is described in 1 Kgdms 21–22. David, having fled from Saul, was received by Abimelech, who gave him the showbread—for lack of ordinary bread—and the sword of Goliath, thinking that he was going somewhere on an errand for the king, as David told him. At Nob at that time was Doeg, who was tending Saul’s asses; and when he returned and Saul was reproaching his servants with bitter words, that not one of them cared for his interests or told him where David was, he told Saul about it. Saul sent for Abimelech and all the clergy, sentenced them to death, and when none of his servants would carry out his verdict, Doeg again served him and killed eighty-five men who bore the ephod—the linen vestment. After that Saul sent men to destroy the city itself and to destroy all living things there, from man to beast. Only one son of Abimelech, Abiathar, escaped and told David about it. This moved David to compose the present psalm, in which he depicts the moral depravity of the slanderous and flattering tongue that destroys the innocent, the divine judgment upon such people, and his own assured safety under the shelter of God, and thereby animates to patience those subjected to malicious slander and all manner of injustice—with the hope that the Lord does not abandon those who hope in Him and always gives a good end or outcome to their difficult circumstances. This is why he inscribed this psalm: for the end, an instruction—that is, he knew what end would befall those who do evil and those who endure it. Take courage! As the supreme example of this, David himself showed the way. Saint Chrysostom notes that this psalm rightly follows after the thirty-third, which is inscribed: a psalm of David, when he changed his countenance before Abimelech: and he dismissed him, and he went away (Ps. 33:1).

Doeg, from the Hebrew, means: restless, vain, fearful. Abimelech means: innocent, righteous. Slander and evil speech are full of fear and have no rest.

Verse 3. Why do you boast in wickedness, O mighty one? Iniquity all day long.

Why do you boast? Why do you think so highly of yourself and in your thoughts place yourself high and display yourself before others, as though the craftiness of the tongue were some merit? Or why do you rely greatly on flattery and cunning and rest on them as on a firm support, as on a reliable instrument for gaining influence and strength among others, for ordering your affairs and carving out your further path? Why do you boast in wickedness? The Prophet marvels at how people reach such a degree of evil that in their blindness they boast of that over which they ought to weep. Even if you have fallen into evil, why also boast of it? Evil that has reached impudence is the height of corruption, a sign of a seared conscience and of attaining the depths of evil. Why do you boast in wickedness, O mighty one? (The mighty one is either Saul, or Doeg by virtue of Saul’s favor.) A reproach to the powerful one who is powerful in evil: what is there to boast of? That he killed a man? But even a scorpion, a spider, and other venomous creatures can do the same. Was power given to you in order to equal these insignificant insects? (Augustine). And how ruinous it is to be strong in evil! One who is weak in evil is timid and does evil secretly; and therefore when conscience awakens, good will overpower evil and he repents; whereas one who is strong in evil does evil boldly and prides himself on it as on some perfection—and so there is nothing to trouble his heart, nothing to bring him to repentance and amendment. Iniquity all day long. All day—every day, every time, always. That is, only iniquity upon iniquity. A pitiful reproach! Craft and cunning have taken hold of the heart, give the person no rest, and on his bed he weaves schemes, and in his dreams he sees only images of intrigues.

Verse 4. Your tongue has devised unrighteousness: like a sharpened razor you have wrought deceit.

The tongue does not think; but in the mind and heart thoughts are woven—the tongue serves only as the instrument for their manifestation and execution. The tongue is mentioned, and not the heart, because (in the saying of the Wise One) the heart of fools is in their mouth (Sir. 21:29), that is, it is not deep but on the surface, and they are so subject to its impulses that they immediately follow them and carry out its demands without resistance, whether through the tongue or by other means. Unrighteousness (αδικια) is either the opposite of truth—and that is a lie—or the opposite of righteousness and goodness—and that is offense, insult, harm. Doeg devised unrighteousness—a lie—by presenting to Saul Abimelech as being of one mind with David against Saul, whereas he had received him as an envoy loyal to the king; and his intent was to wound David and Abimelech in order to prove his own loyalty—a quality of weak and ill-disposed souls! Like a sharpened razor you have wrought deceit. Those who are low and fainthearted are feeble both in spirit and body; and therefore for the execution of their evil designs they employ flattery before the powerful—crafty and evil flattery (δολος), which does not reveal its ill-will toward others but only goodwill toward the powerful and a readiness to act in his interests; yet, like a razor, swiftly and imperceptibly wounds the heart of the powerful person, and through him others as well. By his ill-disposed and flattering word, Doeg inflamed Saul to frenzy—and he destroyed the priestly city with all its inhabitants.

Verse 5. You have loved evil more than good, unrighteousness more than speaking truth.

This verse explains the first half of the preceding verse—that is, your tongue has devised unrighteousness — and points to the ill-disposed disposition in the heart of Doeg that caused him to weave the lie. You have loved — that is, completely, or such is your character that every time an occasion presents itself, you devise evil for your neighbor and not good. Evil more than good. Ill-will more than goodwill—evil, and not benevolence. In the heart of every person there is always a mixture of good and evil; and sometimes one prevails, sometimes the other, yet a person always by his own will chooses one or the other. Therefore he is subject to condemnation if he does evil rather than good. Unrighteousness more than speaking truth. To the mind belongs truth, to the heart belongs goodness. Where the heart is, there the mind is also. An evil heart does not allow the mind to see and hold truth and give it weight. Where evil is, truth cannot dwell. Therefore an evil heart compels the mind to weave lies.

Verse 6. You have loved all destructive words, a deceitful tongue.

This is the explanation of the second half—that is, like a sharpened razor you have wrought deceit. The instrument of the faint-spirited ill-disposed person is flattering and cunning speeches before the powerful, turned to the ruin of one’s neighbor, which, like a flood, swallow up honor, property, and life. Destructive words are words ruinous for another, and Doeg loved all of them—that is, he missed nothing. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Therefore as the heart is, so is the tongue; and the reverse is also true. And even words not evil in appearance, poisoned by the evil of the heart, can cause great harm…

Verse 7. Therefore God will destroy you utterly, will pluck you up and uproot you from your dwelling, and your root from the land of the living.

Therefore — for ill-will, unrighteousness, lies, and crafty flattery turned to the ruin of one’s neighbor, and with no repentance or prospect of it, there follows visible divine punishment. He will destroy you utterly, because you have loved wickedness utterly, completely; he will pluck you up like a noxious and poisonous plant, and uproot you from your dwelling… Not to another place, but to another life, and not you alone, but your whole lineage — and your root from the land of the living — for the destruction of all the lineage of Abimelech and of the entire priestly city. Sensory Israel was given sensory promises and sensory punishments. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, death for death, the destruction of a lineage for the destruction of a lineage… But of themselves the ungodly will not prolong their days. Therefore let the man who desires life and loves good days restrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit (Ps. 33:13–14). It follows, conversely, that those who speak evil and practice flattery with cunning are not deserving of long life and prosperity. The tongue is a small member and yet boasts greatly. See how a small fire sets ablaze very great things. For it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison (Jas. 3:5, 8). This is why the holy Prophet resolved to guard his tongue. I said: I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue (Ps. 38:2).

Verses 8–9. The righteous will see and fear, and will laugh at him and say: Here is the man who did not set God as his helper, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth, and prevailed through his vanity.

The righteous will see and fear. The Lord sends visible punishments not as a decisive retribution but as a means for diminishing evil among people and increasing good, for strengthening the righteous and bringing sinners to repentance. The righteous will see the instructive punishment upon the sinner and will come to a greater fear of God, receiving experiential confirmation of God’s favor toward the path on which they walk, and of His disfavor toward the contrary path; they will also come to a greater fear and wariness concerning themselves, reflecting on human frailty and the ease of inclining toward evil; and fearing lest they themselves should slip and undergo the same lot, they will increase their vigilance over themselves and with deeper compunction will fall before God, their Helper, Guardian, and Guide in goodness.

And will laugh at him and say — in spiritual joy over their own safety and well-being under the shelter of God, they will say for mutual edification to themselves and to others: behold the lot of a man who trusts not in God.

Here is the man who did not set God as his helper. As the fear of God and hope in Him is the distinguishing quality of the righteous, so forgetfulness of God and estrangement from Him in mind and heart is the distinguishing quality of the negligent and those who serve the passions. They do not keep in mind that the Lord rules all things, that only the one whom He makes secure is truly secure, that in all circumstances of life solid and reliable help is only that which descends from His arm. And since a person cannot be without support, he settles upon whatever is at hand: he trusts in wealth and the wealthy, in power or the powerful, or in something else. These supports are rotten: and they fall like leaves. But he trusted in the abundance of his wealth. Doeg may have been wealthy, or, not separating himself from Saul, counted himself rich with Saul’s wealth. And prevailed through his vanity — he imagined himself powerful through vanity, relying on his closeness to Saul and the weight of his flattering and cunning tongue before him. Wealth and power, as well as the patronage of the wealthy and powerful, are illusory and not fearless hopes. But one who has given himself to God and rests in Him rejoices in his trustful assurance.

Verse 10. But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God: I have hoped in the mercy of God forever and ever.

A fruitful olive tree the owner watches over and tends in every way, and if it were given feeling and understanding, it would never occur to it that the owner might deprive it of his favor, cut it down and burn it. The holy Prophet does not put his virtues on display; he takes for comparison only this unquestionable certainty of the owner’s favor toward a good olive tree; and he does not hope in deeds but in the mercy of God. Like a fruitful olive tree, he says, always in the owner’s favor—so I in the house of God unhesitatingly hope in the mercy of God forever and ever. I have hoped — that is, I have once and for all set in my heart a firm hope in the one mercy of God, and I live in peace, being free from the torments of fear and dread for my lot that afflict those who hope not in God—and I am assured that whatever may happen to me, all of it is from the merciful hand of God and for my true good. Therefore he turns to God with the confession of this faith and hope, with which he concludes the psalm.

Verse 11. I will give thanks to You forever, for You have done this: and I will wait upon Your name, for it is good before Your holy ones.

The holy Prophet here expresses either his general confession, as though to say: I will confess and glorify Your mercy, O Lord, in everything, whatever You may do with me; or he has in mind only the present occasion and says: I sense Your mercy by faith and will always confess it—in what You have now done; or again: I will give thanks to You, O Lord, that You have so ordered human nature that one who cleaves to You through hope may live in peace, whatever outward adversities may befall. To wait upon Your name. Even while persecuted, I will patiently wait upon Your name, will not forget it, will not slip into doubt, will not depart, but will always be Yours, will always walk under Your name. For it is good before Your holy ones — to wait upon the name of God is good—or the name of God alone is good before Your holy ones… for, having settled the mind and heart before the face of God, they will not depart in memory from the name of God and are always gladdened by it—sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.

Commentary on Psalms 37 and 3

Introduction

The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilyevich Govorov on the tenth of January, 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Oryol governorate of central Russia, the son of a village priest. His schooling followed the well-worn path of a clergy family of that era—the district ecclesiastical college, then the seminary at Oryol—and ended at the Kiev Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1841 with a master’s degree. In the same year, still at the academy, he was tonsured a monk and given the name Theophan, after Saint Theophanes the Confessor, and was soon ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood. There followed two decades of teaching and administration in the Church’s schools, a period of service in the Russian ecclesiastical mission at Jerusalem, and a spell in Constantinople, before he was consecrated Bishop of Tambov and Shatsk in 1859 and translated to the see of Vladimir in 1863.

He was, by every account, a capable and conscientious bishop. But the labor of administration weighed on a soul that had longed from its youth for stillness, and in 1866, after twenty-five years in the Church’s active service, he asked to be released from his diocese. His petition granted, he withdrew to the Vyshensky Hermitage—the Holy Dormition monastery at Vysha, in the Tambov region—first as its rector, and then, from about 1872, as a recluse in the strict sense. For the last twenty-two years of his life he lived in two small rooms, celebrated the Liturgy in his own chapel, took his food sparingly, and saw almost no one but his confessor and the abbot. This seclusion was not a retreat from the Church but a more concentrated service to it. From behind his closed door came a flood of letters to correspondents across Russia and, more lastingly, the writings that made him one of the great spiritual teachers of the Orthodox world: works on the interior life such as The Path to Salvation, the reworked Unseen Warfare, commentaries on the Pauline epistles, and above all his five-volume Russian Philokalia (the Dobrotolyubie), published between 1877 and the end of the 1880s, which carried the ascetic and prayerful tradition of the Christian East out of the monasteries and into the hands of ordinary readers. He reposed at Vysha on the sixth of January, 1894. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints at its Local Council of June 1988, held to mark the millennium of the baptism of Rus, and his memory is kept in January, near the day of his repose, and in June.

The present work belongs to this same reclusion. Theophan turns here from the Apostle, whose letters occupied so much of his exegetical labor, to the Psalter, expounding two of the psalms that the Church appoints for daily prayer.

The Work: Occasion & Purpose

At the opening of Matins, the longest of the daily services, the Orthodox Church reads six psalms in succession—the Shestopsalmie, or Six Psalms: in the Church’s Greek and Slavonic numbering, Psalms 3, 37, 62, 87, 102, and 142. They are read in stillness, with the church darkened and most of the lamps put out, as an image of the soul standing alone before God in the night of this life. Their common note is compunction: each in its own way voices the state of the sinner who has come to see his sinfulness and longs to be cleansed and rejoined to God, while enemies press on every side. Theophan wrote a commentary on the whole set as an aid to those who pray them; this volume contains his exposition of two, Psalm 37 and Psalm 3.

Because the two psalms carry different numbers in the Hebrew Bible familiar to Western readers, a word on the count is in order. Theophan follows the Greek Septuagint and its Slavonic daughter, in which the psalm he treats first is Psalm 37—the same poem that appears as Psalm 38 in Hebrew and in most English Bibles. It is one of the seven penitential psalms, the cry of a man who feels himself crushed under the weight of God’s displeasure. Psalm 3 keeps the same number in both traditions; it is David’s morning prayer during his flight from his son Absalom. Throughout, the verse numbers and the wording of the text are those of the Slavonic psalter Theophan used, which is why a reader following along in an English Bible will find the lines set one step forward from the Hebrew count.

His purpose is plainly stated and worth taking at face value. This is not a work of scholarship written for scholars, but a guide written for those who stand in church while these psalms are chanted and want to enter into their meaning. A commentary, Theophan insists, can never take the place of a reader’s own prayerful reflection; at most it clears the ground, widens the horizon, and points the mind in a fruitful direction. Scripture, he writes, is an inexhaustible mine, and no exposition can claim to have quarried it out. What he offers, then, is a set of openings—enough to get the soul moving from the words on the page to the movement of repentance and trust those words are meant to teach.

Argument & Structure

Theophan reads each psalm as the record of an inner journey, and his commentary follows that journey step by step, taking the text in small portions and drawing out both its plain sense and its bearing on the reader’s own heart.

Psalm 37 he divides into seven stages, which together trace the whole arc of a sinner’s return to God. It opens in terror: the penitent, like David after the prophet Nathan’s rebuke, feels the wrath of God upon him and begs to be chastened, but not in anger. From there he passes to a clear-eyed reckoning with his ruin—the multitude of his sins gone over his head, their crushing weight, the festering wounds that habitual sin has left in the soul, the failure of all his strength. This gives way to grief and mourning, and then to the bleak recognition of his own helplessness, abandoned by friends and beset by those who wish him ill. At the psalm’s turning point the sinner rises to a confident hope, no longer trusting himself but casting himself on God’s mercy; grounded in that hope, he resolves to confess his sin openly and to labor without ceasing to be rid of it. The exposition closes with the penitent’s final prayer—that God will not abandon him to enemies still stronger and more cunning than he, for in God alone lies his salvation. Along the way Theophan develops a recurring double reading: the psalm speaks first of David and his historical sins, but it speaks no less of every soul that turns to God, and of the invisible warfare against the passions and the spirits of wickedness that such a turning provokes.

Before the exposition of Psalm 3, Theophan sets a short preface on the Six Psalms as a whole—their place in the Matins office, the darkened church and its meaning, the counsel of the Typicon that they be heard as an intimate converse with God—together with a candid account of his own aim and method. He then supplies, for readers who may not have the history in mind, a full narrative of Absalom’s rebellion drawn from the Second Book of Kingdoms (2 Samuel): the conspiracy at Hebron, David’s flight from Jerusalem, the sending back of the Ark, Shimei’s cursing, and the counsels that turned the crisis. This grounds the psalm firmly in its occasion, and Theophan shows point by point how its verses answer to the event. He dates the psalm’s composition to the morning after David’s flight—“I lay down and slept; I awoke”—and lays out its structure in three movements: the extremity of David’s plight, hemmed in by a multitude of ferocious enemies; his one hope in God, in whom he finds such perfect peace that he can sleep untroubled and wake unafraid; and his brief, powerful prayer for deliverance, resting at last on the truth that salvation belongs to the Lord. As with the penitential psalm, Theophan draws the personal application: whoever strives to live godly is persecuted, and this psalm, by breaking down the whisper of despair—“there is no salvation for him in his God”—fittingly stands first among the Six.

Read in the order the Church appoints, and in the order this volume follows the Matins arc, the two psalms carry the praying soul from the terror of judgment, through penitence and self-knowledge, to a hope that can rest in God while the enemy still rages—from the night of sin toward the peace of the morning.

Theological & Spiritual Significance

The enduring value of these expositions lies in the way Theophan reads the Psalter as a map of the interior life. He is not content to establish what a verse meant for David; he presses on to what it means for the soul that prays it now, and in doing so he sets out a remarkably exact spiritual psychology of repentance. The awakening of conscience, the arrows of self-accusing thought, the difference between the many separate sins and the ingrained passions that are the soul’s festering wounds, the paralysis of the will, the temptation to despair, the moment when hope is rekindled and with it the power to resolve on amendment—each is described from the inside, with the precision of a man who had made the interior life his single study. Repentance, in his reading, is not a passing moment of remorse but the work of a whole lifetime, and the psalms are its school.

This is a thoroughly traditional reading, and Theophan is open about his debts. He writes, he says, mostly out of the earlier commentators—naming Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Theodoret of Cyrus, Augustine, the Byzantine exegete Euthymius Zigabenus, Gregory of Nyssa, and later Greek hierarchs such as Anthimos of Jerusalem—and his pages are studded with their words. His originality is not in novel interpretation but in gathering the patristic tradition into a single sustained meditation and turning it to the reader’s practical use. In this the commentary belongs to the same project as his Russian Philokalia: making the accumulated wisdom of the Christian East available, in plain and searching language, to anyone who wants to pray.

For all that it is anchored in a specific liturgical practice and a specific numbering of the psalms, the book speaks to a wide Christian readership. Its subject—the soul’s passage from the fear of judgment to trust in God’s mercy—is the common inheritance of the whole tradition, and Theophan expounds it without polemic, as a physician of souls rather than a controversialist. A reader of any confession who has ever felt the weight of his own faults, or been tempted to think himself past God’s help, will find here an unusually wise companion.

The Text & This Edition

This edition presents a fresh modern English translation of Saint Theophan’s exposition, rendered from his Russian. The underlying text is the public-domain Russian of his commentary on the two psalms drawn from the Six Psalms of Matins, as preserved in the digital library of azbyka.ru; no complete, widely available English version of this particular commentary was in circulation, and the aim here has been to make it read naturally for the English reader while keeping faith with Theophan’s own voice—pastoral, direct, and unhurried.

A few editorial conventions follow the house practice of this series. Authorship is given as the Church has always received it: the work is Saint Theophan’s, and the translators appear as translators, never as authors. The numbering of psalms and verses is kept as Theophan used it, following the Greek and Slavonic Bible; the one place where this matters most—that his Psalm 37 is the Hebrew and English Psalm 38—is flagged so that no reader is left puzzled. The psalm verses he expounds are given from his own wording, as he renders and comments on them, rather than conformed to any standard English psalter, so that comment and text always answer to each other. Chapter and verse citations are set in Arabic numerals in the modern style. The many voices Theophan quotes from the Fathers are carried through into English within his own flowing exposition, as he arranged them, with no scholarly apparatus interposed. The result is meant to be read straight through, as he wrote it—a book for prayer more than for the study.

Suggestions for Reading

The newcomer will do best to take this book slowly and in small portions, as it was written. Each stage of a psalm is a stage of the soul, and the commentary rewards the reader who pauses to test what is said against his own experience rather than pressing on for information. It helps to keep in mind the two occasions Theophan returns to—David’s remorse after his great sin, and his flight from Absalom—but also to remember his own counsel: the history is only the doorway, and the psalms are given so that anyone who prays them may make their movement his own. Those unfamiliar with the Septuagint count need only recall that Psalm 37 here is the penitential psalm known elsewhere as Psalm 38, and that Psalm 3 keeps its number everywhere. Read this way, unhurried and prayerful, the two expositions do exactly what their author intended: they carry the heart from the fear of God’s wrath, through honest repentance, to a hope that can lie down and sleep in peace.

Psalm 37

The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4)

Ps. 37:2. O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, nor chasten me in Your anger.

Having heard from the mouth of the prophet Nathan the determination of God concerning himself, St. David felt the terror of divine judgment. The displeasure of God struck him; the burden of wrath weighed upon him. And so he cries out: rebuke and chasten, but not in wrath and anger. «He beseeches to admonish, as is fitting for a physician rather than a judge, and to heal not powerfully, but with gentle remedies.» (Theodoret). That I have lost Your goodwill and stand under Your wrath is more unbearable to me than any chastisement. Restore to me that sense of Your unfailing presence and my not being rejected. What is spoken of here concerning the averting of inner punishments, falling directly upon conscience and heart, is evident from the fact that the prophet desired external punishments as penance for sins and showed complete readiness for them (v. 18). Here is expressed the customary course of the sinner’s awakening from sinful slumber. And every sinner who has come to awareness of his sinfulness first feels the wrath of God—it seems to him that the righteousness of God is ready to strike him at any moment. And so he cries out: O Lord, strike me not! The same with eternal torment—he feels himself as though already condemned. Therefore, turning in repentance to God, he prays too that God not consign him to that dreadful judgment and punishment beyond, but here chasten and have mercy on him. «It will be said to those standing on the left: «Depart from Me into eternal fire»« (Mt. 25:41). Fearing this terrible punishment, he begs and beseeches: O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath… May I not be among those to whom You shall say: «Depart from Me into eternal fire.» In this life chasten and correct me.» (Augustine).

«Wrath and anger» are synonymous words. «Wrath» means vehement irritation, when the heart boils as water boils and froths. This expression is used when

God, depicted in human form, is shown as extremely enraged (see 2 Chron. 29). And «anger» means the same. The difference is that in the former the irritation remains within itself, while in the latter it manifests and appears in action.

«To rebuke» and «to chasten» are different in meaning. To rebuke is to expose the unrighteousness and sinfulness of a deed; to chasten is to admonish, showing how one ought to have acted and how one must amend. If the matter concerns culpability and punishment, the first denotes the revelation of guilt and judgment, while the second denotes the execution of the judgment in deed, or actual chastisement.

Rebuke comes by word (Ps. 140:5) or by deed (Ps. 104:14), when circumstances are so arranged that sin becomes visible to all and the sinner is put to shame. The constant reprover of the sinner is conscience, especially when enlightened by revealed law; on the
other hand, sin is not always hidden but reveals itself in the state of soul and body and in outward circumstances. The latter comes about of itself, and sometimes God purposely arranges outward rebuke to awaken the sinner to understanding and move him to repentance.

This verse is not the theme of the whole psalm, but the beginning of the sinner’s movement along the path of turning to God. From here thoughts follow one after another until they rest on the decision: I repent; I will not again; only help me.

Ps. 37:3. For Your arrows have sunk into me, and Your hand has pressed down upon me.

«Your arrows have sunk,» they have pierced. As arrows pierced into the body and remaining in it cause constant, unbearable pain, increasing with any movement, so the blows of Your wrath pierce my heart moment by moment and torment it. They, like lightning, strike and burn, moment after moment. I am like a man subjected to the terrors of a dreadful, thunder-bringing and lightning-flashing storm. (Lightning is called arrows in Ps. 76:18, 143:6).

«Your hand is pressed down…» You have laid heavily and holdest upon me. This is the same as elsewhere: «Your hand has become heavy upon me» (Ps. 31:4). «Hand» here is the punitive power of God’s righteousness, received by conscience. Conscience weighs upon us as punishment.

The holy Prophet depicts not what is without, but what occurs within him. The fear of God through conscience pierces the heart with rebukes like arrows. These heart pains, from the sense of God’s wrath, have nothing consoling about them; they torment as arrows embedded in living flesh. These arrows are various terrifying thoughts. Whatever the sinner remembers about God, all of it becomes an arrow to him. Whether goodness, or righteousness, or omnipresence, or promises, or threats come to his mind—all of it, received by conscience, strikes and burns. Since there is no excuse, the expectation is established: any moment lightning will fall and strike. And then judgment and eternal torment. (Zigabenus, Antiphanes of Jerusalem). As soon as the sinner comes to awareness, all these thoughts press upon him and produce tormenting pain in the soul, increased by despair—from the fact that the heavens have become dark and not a single ray of hope shines from them. This state is agonizing and oppresses like a heavy hand. All from the sense of God’s wrath, which so far has not been weakened by hope of mercy.

Thus the sinner stands before the Lord—terrified but not fleeing from Him, offering no justification, but only revealing how deeply distressed and heavy he is. This kind of state is necessary in producing repentance. It is the door to what follows. Burned here, he will be softer afterward, as unburned wire is soft and flexible. Here infernal torments are tested in the heart. God permits this so that afterward the resolve not to yield to sin will be stronger, so that having suffered thus for sins, man will not afterward be inclined toward them.

Ps. 37:4. There is no healing in my flesh because of Your wrath.

«There is no healing,» there is no health, and moreover such that no remedy can be devised. Similar is the word of the prophet Isaiah: from head to foot there is no wholeness (Is. 1:6). He means to say that the powers, organs, and humors have all been damaged, are not in their proper state—in correspondence with what preceded:

the arrows have passed through and disordered everything; Your hand has pressed down and crushed. «In my flesh,» or in the body alone, which suffers together with the soul, or more truly, in my whole being: both soul and body ache. The cause is God’s wrath, God’s displeasure at the offense against Him, and His turning away and rejection. «Because of Your wrath,» he feels that wrath is present as a force acting destructively. Zigabenus interprets—«because of Your wrath,»—because of the threats and the calamities pronounced by the prophet Nathan. «The imagination of Your wrath, adds Mgr. Irenaeus, which always revolves before my mental eyes, strikes me and sensibly consumes me.» The same thoughts hold for Antiphanes, Patriarch of Jerusalem: «Bringing to mind Your wrath upon sinners, I tremble, and
from this very remembrance all my being grows weak.»

Sickness, exhaustion, and languishing must be the direct consequence of God’s displeasure and turning away. As in God’s goodwill and blessing there is life, so in His displeasure and turning away there is death. «Life is in His good will,» says St. David elsewhere (Ps. 29:6); so that as soon as He turns away His face, everything falls into confusion and vanishes (Ps. 103:29).

The Sinner’s Awareness of His Ruinous Condition (Vv. 4–8)

Ps. 37:4. There is no peace in my bones because of my sins.

In the second hemistich of the 4th verse, the holy Prophet turns to depicting his own disastrous sinful state. «There is,» he says, «no peace in my bones,»—peace means rest, as if to say: in the very marrow of my bones I feel unbearable pains, and this deprives me of rest, or peace meaning harmony. Bones are often understood in the psalms (Ps. 6:3, 30:11, 50:10) to mean the foundations of bodily composition, but more often to mean the powers of all human existence. The words: «there is no peace in my bones» thus give the thought
that the inner powers from sin have come into discord, have scattered, and begun to act one against another. «There is no firmness and well-being of soul and body» (Zigabenus). And this because of sin. Sins have entered into the composition and act destructively, disarranging everything. «The strength of my soul is exhausted, and this is because of sins» (Athanasius the Great). «The image of sin, never departing from memory, does not leave me in peace and rest, but troubles my bones, i.e., my thoughts» (Antiphanes). «The pricks of conscience goad and spread turmoil and enmity throughout my whole being» (Zigabenus).

Flesh and bones are the whole composition, all of man’s being. The sinner suffers: on the one hand from above from the wrath of God, and on the other from sin itself. God’s wrath cuts off blessing, and therefore the inflow of life-giving powers; and here sin itself acts as a devouring hell. From this, good does not increase but evil grows. And «there is no wholeness»—in the first respect; for God’s goodwill is necessary for the fullness of our life; «there is no peace» in the second—dissolution and disorder of powers begin: there begins war of body against spirit, heart against mind, passions against
conscience, and so forth. Sin is evil not only in that it attracts God’s wrath from without; but in itself it is a poison-bearing evil. There is no peace—the direct fruit of sin within us.

Ps. 37:5. For my iniquities have gone over my head; as a heavy burden they have become heavy upon me.

The second cause of the bitterness of the sinful state is the multitude of sins and their weight. Multitude of sins is expressed in the words: «my iniquities have gone over my head.» The quantity is determined here either by a heap of sand so high that it rose above the head, «or» by a gathering of water in which the sinner has sunk with his head, «or» by the number of hairs on the head, in the thought that sins are more numerous than hairs, as in another psalm: «my sins are more than the hairs of my head» (Ps. 59:13). Sin does not come alone. Just as each idea has a circle of kindred ideas, which it draws to itself whenever it comes to mind: so too, in the active sphere, every sin
has its own circle of related sinful feelings and deeds, which it always gathers around itself. The sin with Bathsheba—what a circle of sins it gathered around itself!—Adultery, murder, deception, scandal, and so forth. Until the appearance of the prophet Nathan, there is no indication that St. David was conscious of his sin. Having become conscious of it, he was horrified; for it was great and bound up with a multitude of other sins. And this happens with every sinner. He sins and sins, as if there were nothing particularly wrong with him. But when he later perceives his sinfulness, his whole life is revealed to him in a different light. At every step he sees sin; his entire life appears full of corruption and willfulness. And then he begins to grieve: my sins are more than the hairs of my head; I have sunk deep in the mire of sin (Ps. 68:3).

With awareness of the numerousness of sins comes also to the repenting heart an awareness and sense of their weight. «Like a heavy burden, they become heavy,» he says—they press and weigh by their number and by their own greatness, to which he then adds: «I have been bent low.» So heavy that I have bowed. This is but a metaphor, yet it very accurately expresses the matter. To weigh, to press, to crush—this is in the nature of sins. Everything rises up and presses upon the sinning man; for he enters into discord with all that exists, remaining in the will of God. When all creatures act according to God’s will, he alone steps out of that will. All of them act hostilely upon him and crush him like wheels over a foreign thing caught among them. The sinner walks as though crushed by something; only it does not occur to him to attribute this state to sin as its cause, all the while he is gratified by sin. It is repentance that makes him feel that sin so weighs upon him, giving it life to conscience and pointing out to him where the oppression comes from; but this perception does not lighten the burden but multiplies it tenfold (Athanasius the Great). And so the Lord calls such as labor in repentance and feel themselves burdened, to come to Him that He may give them rest (Zigabenus). Indeed, until the sinner rises to hope of mercy and receives release and certainty of forgiveness, it weighs like a mountain on the soul; but afterward it becomes light, as for one who casts off a heavy burden. What mercy—the Sacrament of Repentance!—

Ps. 37:6. My wounds have become foul and infected because of my foolishness.

«The wounds of my soul, arising from the arrows of the wicked one burning within, have become foul and infected. By this comparison he shows the corruption and putrefaction of the soul» (Zigabenus). But why did this happen? Because he did not come to his senses quickly and hastened not to heal the evil. «From the time of his adultery until the appearance of Nathan’s rebuke, David delayed in repenting and healing the wounds of his soul through repentance. The wounds of sin grew and festered from such a long time of remaining unhealed» (Irenaeus).

First he said that sins are many, then that they are heavy; now he says that they are wounds,
cut deep, entered within and act destructively (Zigabenus). A multitude of sins indicates only the quantity of separate deeds; but the repetition of the same deeds forms sinful habits, inclinations, passions. These are the festering wounds of the soul. A sin hastily abandoned is like a scratch or a splinter at once removed, while a sin loved and frequently repeated is like a splinter left behind, which festers and becomes a malignant abscess. A wound of the soul is formed—a vice, a passion, an evil inclination, which manifests itself also outwardly in conduct and is visible to all, as a foul odor from a wound is sensed by all around. And this is the third cause of the bitterness of the sinful state! Just as wounds and pain prevent and hinder action, so inclinations and passions, with their constant demands, torment, and by hindering good undertakings, do not allow free action.

A sin, cast off at once, resembles a scratch, or a splinter drawn out immediately; but a sin that is cherished and often repeated resembles a splinter left in, which festers and turns into a malignant abscess. A wound of the soul is formed—a vice, a passion, an evil inclination, which shows itself outwardly too, in one’s conduct, and becomes visible to all, as the foul smell of a wound is perceived by everyone around.—And in this lies the third cause of the bitterness of the sinful state! As wounds and pain cause suffering and hinder action, so inclinations and passions, by their ceaseless demands, torment a man, and, thwarting good undertakings, do not let him act freely.

As from wounds one cannot even move; so from sinful inclinations nothing good succeeds. The sinner is as if bound, as if in chains, and moreover in painful chains that have worked into his flesh.

«Because of my foolishness.» Because of my lack of wisdom and my negligence concerning the salvation of my soul I have been subjected to such miseries. I did not weigh the gravity of sin and did not make effort to avoid it—and so I suffer; like a fool who, playing with a serpent or a scorpion, receives a wound from which he then suffers and agonizes. «If the soul had not fallen into foolishness, it would not have suffered the wounds of sin» (Athanasius the Great). And what meaning is there in placing oneself in such a state?! Yet one does! At the time when sin attracts, the mind steps back with its soundness. Forward goes the heart allied with sin and commands. The mind obeys, devising means to satisfy evil desires. It is a servant under the yoke, not a king in the head. And this results in foolish action. While acting in this darkness, the sinner does not perceive it. But when he comes to himself, he clearly sees how foolish and senseless everything done was. It is only to the darkened mind that such action is possible. It seems even that the sinner is not the one acting, but is being acted upon: it seems to him that he is devising by his own mind, while in reality some other approaches and teaches him evil, or devises evil through his mind.

Ps. 37:7. I have been troubled and bowed down utterly; I go about all day long in sorrow.

The fourth cause of the bitterness of sinful state is the failing of strength and spirit. The sinner walks with head bowed, like a slain man.

«I have been troubled»—from the Greek: I became wretched, unhappy, bitter, exhausted and worn out, working for the passions (Zigabenus). The description is of a sinner, as in the prophet Isaiah: «my loins are filled with debility» (Is. 21:34). No energy remains; he does not wish to do anything; all undertakings, especially on the path of good, are abandoned. When sins begin to dominate, one after another the good habits of pleasing God, brotherly love, and temperance are forsaken. Later such thoughts no longer come to him. This realm is entirely forgotten, and the ability to act in this order is lost, and the understanding of those ordinances entirely falls from the head or becomes perverted.

«And I have been bent low,» I have become bowed, like a sick man who, weakened by illness, walks with head bowed and bent over. «Utterly,»—to the last extreme. Thus the sinful habits have bent me and bound me to fleshly pleasures, as if one bowed down to the ground with his head. «What does it mean to be bent low? asks Blessed Augustine, and answers: to have no strength to straighten up.»—This is the direct consequence of attachment to the earthly and enslavement of the flesh. «Such a one does not direct his mind upward toward the heavenly, but spends his life in vanities. Yet he is satisfied by nothing (Jas. 4:2); and consequently only torments and wearies himself» (Antiphanes).

«I go about all day long in sorrow.» «All day»—not one day alone, but every day, which is to say continually. «In sorrow,» from the Greek: darkly, with a gloomy face, in a gloomy state of mind. «I go about,» here and there I walked, finding no rest. «He who is defiled by the sin of lust suffers and becomes bent from the gnawing of conscience, from fear of God, from shame and disgrace, so that he cannot even lift his eyes to heaven. Unable to bear his gnawing and wounding conscience, he goes about daily troubled and sorrowful; for what joy has a man bent low by sin, when he begins to feel his sin?» (Irenaeus of Pskov). While sin still gratifies, a man sins with joy. But afterward all sensations become dulled, and only weariness remains from the exhaustion of strength spent in pursuit of sinful pleasures. And he walks with head bowed, seeing nothing consoling. Meanwhile, he grieves, but cannot help himself: habits have become firmly attached, and he has no strength to depart from them, but neither does he have joy in gratifying them (Athanasius the Great).

Blessed Theodoret paraphrases this passage thus: «The heavy burden of sins has made me bent; I am saddened by foolish enslavement to the passions. Therefore, bereft of all joy, I am continually grieved, troubled, and find no change in my sorrowful state.»

Ps. 37:8. My loins are filled with humiliation, and there is no healing in my flesh.

Here is the cause of all that precedes—both the number of sins, the wounds, and the debility. Why is all this? Because I have filled one part with humiliation, disgraced it by surrendering it to base lust. And so there is not a whole place in me anywhere.

«My loins»—from the Greek: my loins; from the Hebrew: the lower part of the belly. Blessed Theodoret writes: «By the word ‘loins,’ properly meaning the loins, he means to understand lust, because in the loins are found the kidneys, in which the desire naturally arises. Therefore he says: the reason for these miseries was that I turned my desire not to what was proper, but to lust.» Zigabenus: «Instead of ‘loins’ in Symmachus: ‘the lower part of the belly.’ Both denote that part in which carnal lust acts. He says: this part through lust has been filled with humiliation from the devil. He has humiliated it, stirring up inappropriate and unlawful movements of carnal uncleanness.»

By «humiliation» is understood here moral humiliation. Every man ought to be a servant of righteousness, and in this is his honor. When they make him a servant of unrighteousness, they dishonor him. The Prophet says: I have made this part a slave of sin and disgraced it. He does not mean that all saw this disgrace, but conscience pointed it out to him.

By flesh here is understood the whole composition of man—both soul and body, which suffer from sin, and namely the sins of lust are as it were only bodily, but they exhaust and disorder not the body alone, but equally the soul. (Basil the Great in Zigabenus).

The king who had sinned already was tormented by sin, but it seemed he did not see where the tormenting came from. When the prophet came and rebuked him, then only did he see what it all meant. I have filled one part with humiliation, he says, and behold, I am entirely, in all my parts, diseased, have become as a sick man; not a single part is whole. And every sinner is the same. Everything seems not to occur to him—that the main cause of his miserable state is the sin he serves. He sees that it is bad, yet continues to sin, thereby making it worse, like one drinking salt water who only kindles his thirst. Finally, somehow he realizes that the whole trouble is from sin: perhaps a priest tells him, a sermon explains it, the Gospel and Apostle direct his attention to it, a conversation with someone opens his eyes, or his Guardian Angel finds a moment in the darkness of night to implant good thoughts in his heart. Only then does he perceive… ah, that is why! My loins have been filled with humiliation, and I am wholly sick. That is, I serve such and such a sin, and it causes me harm, which I suffer both in soul and body.

The Sinner’s Penitential Feelings: His Grieving Over His Bitter State (Vv. 9–11)

But the perception of one’s bitter state in sin is not yet repentance, and not so valuable as to draw down mercy. It gains value when to it is joined sorrowful feeling about sins and the groaning of the repenting heart. Therefore, having depicted to what sin leads,
the holy Prophet now shows how one ought to grieve about it.

Ps. 37:9. I have been troubled and greatly humiliated; I have cried out with the groaning of my heart.

He saw that something was wrong in him, but did not suspect why. Now the prophet Nathan opened his eyes. St. David now says: and so, when this was revealed before my eyes, I could not refrain from surrendering myself to feelings of grief and sorrow about my sins.

«I have been troubled»—from the Greek: became enraged, became vexed. At what—at his own evil will, at his own foolishness. How could he allow himself such degradation?! «I have been humiliated»—I have abased myself, counted myself worthless, foolish, an empty man, whereas before there was no measure to my self-assurance. «I have cried out with groaning.» The heart overflowed with feelings of repentance, shame, fear, regret—both that he offended God and that he abased himself and that he has come into such a state where everything is bad and hopeless—and it burst forth with groanings, which from inward tearing changed into roarings like a lion.

«It is shameful to me, a man endowed with reason, to be subject to such beastly movements. For this reason I groan because of the cruel torments of conscience and cannot restrain my groanings from the tormenting sicknesses of my heart.» (Irenaeus, Theodoret, Athanasius).

How sincere this was is evident from the fact that after the rebuker departed, he, having poured ashes upon his head, gave himself over to lamentation, longing, thirsting, lying upon the earth, and imposing upon himself like penances of this kind (Zigabenus).

Ps. 37:10. O Lord, before You is all my longing, and my groaning is not hidden from You.

Sorrowful feelings about sins alone are deadly when beneath them the energy of active powers does not develop to emerge from the bitter state. The beginning of this awakening of powers is good desire, in the hope that achieving it is not impossible. St. David mentions here that after such crushing feelings of repentance, good desires were being born in him. He does not say what they were; but certainly they were all such as were appropriate to his state, to him who had come to awareness of his utter sinfulness and was grieving about it—namely the desire to cease from sin and speedily change his life and amend, and the desire for a pure, conscientious, and God-fearing life, for which he now sighs as for a lost paradise. But all of this is of little value so long as man remains alone with himself, grieves shut up within himself, and sighs by himself about what is better. In this case his hope of achieving better cannot be strong, and from this the very desires for better cannot but be weakened. Both gain strength and firmness as soon as they are raised to God, as sacrifice and prayer. Then blessing flows from above and awakens the inward deadness. And this is what the holy Singer now does.

«O Lord, before You is all my longing.» You know all: there is no need to tell and enumerate. To You, better than I know myself, all is known—my sins, passions, disorder, as well as my desire to be freed from sins, to be healed of the wounds of conscience, to lighten my sick heart. I call upon God Himself as witness to how unbearable my sinful state is to me, and how I desire to be delivered from it. But I have no strength, like a captive in a dungeon who sighs for freedom but sees no means of escape. «And my groaning is not hidden from You.» As something lies before someone’s eyes, so before You all my desires and groanings lie. All is open before You. You know how I grieve. I am not indifferent to my bitter state in sin, I do not shrug; but I have no strength. «He shows to whom he sighs. To Him Who searches hearts and knows what the Spirit desires. You, O Lord, alone see my desire, which consists in nothing else than that You delivered me from pernicious lust, and that I might live in perfect peace. This desire of mine, this inward groaning of mine is not hidden from You.» (Irenaeus of Pskov). Thus to sorrow he attaches faith, and according to faith he brings it to the Lord. Thus all should do. For then only will healing descend from above. With faith the sorrowful sinner turns to the Lord, and the Lord receives him for healing.

«Before You all.» Now he does not hide himself and does not shrink from God’s omniscience, but openly confesses what is in him. Sincerity before the Lord is the seed of good disposition and the beginning of the fruits of the fear of God being reborn. Double-dealing before God Himself is the beginning of falling: it is contemporaneous with the weakening of the fear of God. When, on the contrary, conscientiousness begins with respect to oneself and toward God—this is the pledge of speedy self-correction. And while it is in force, correction does not fail.

«Before You all my longing,» i.e., every present longing, or all longings. Consequently these desires were such that it was not shameful to appear with them before the Lord—all directed toward amendment of life and toward pleasing Him. This is the state of Mary at the feet of the Saviour, or of the sinful woman who washed His feet with tears and anointed them with ointment, and for that received forgiveness of sins. «It is a great thing before God to have every longing. This means that they are worthy of God’s gaze. Lust, drawing toward unworthy deeds, is contemptible before God; but longings striving toward virtue are under His goodwill» (St. Cyril in Zigabenus).

St. Basil the Great puts such words in the mouth of the Prophet: «When I was a lover of evil, my desires were not before You. But now, as I humble myself and repent, and desire Your healing, my desires are before You» (in Zigabenus). Therefore all went badly because the desires were not placed before the face of the Lord, while the sinner hid himself with them in godforgetfulness. On the contrary, all good begins when the sinner begins to place himself before God. When he begins to hold himself before the face of the Lord in his consciousness, then, like the rising sun, it awakens in him the sleeping seeds of good, which develop into good desires, and then into the fruits of good deeds.

Ps. 37:11. My heart has been troubled; my strength has left me, and the light of my eyes—it is not with me.

The meaning of the words is clear, but what does it express?—It expresses:

«Either» the force of sorrow about one’s miserable state, which was so great that «my heart has been troubled,» my strength has failed and the light of my eyes has dimmed, as if to say: You know my groanings. Behold to what I have come! See what sorrow torments me!

«Either» the force of inward disorder through sin—as if to say: is there not whereof to grieve! The heart is in turmoil—there is no sense of peace; strength has departed—moral strength; the light of the mind has dimmed—understanding has been clouded. There is whereof to grieve, for I am utterly destroyed: my soul, in all its powers, is stricken by sin and disordered.

The first thought is in Blessed Theodoret. The Prophet speaks as if: «You see, O Master, my sobs and tears; You see how I am troubled, have lost strength, lack my accustomed light, and in broad daylight remain as in darkness. By this is meant both excessive sorrow, on account of which even light seems not to be light, and abandonment without God’s care, which is rightly called the light of the eyes.» And in Zigabenus: ««my heart has been troubled»—from the rebukes of conscience and the spirit of repentance; «my strength has left me»—from the suffering to which he was subjected; from tears shed the light of my eyes has grown weak, and they do not see clearly.»

The second thought is in Irenaeus: ««my heart has been troubled»—means inward war, arising from the rebellion of the lower part against the higher, i.e., flesh against spirit; «my strength has left me»: in this war such weakness is born that man even unwillingly feels evil desires and cries out with the Apostle: «For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I find not» (Rom. 7:18); «the light of my eyes is not»: from that same war not only weakness of will is born, but also darkening of the mind, by which we judge things not as they are in themselves, but as they seem to us in hours of evil mood, like those suffering from fever, who think what is sweet bitter, and what is bitter sweet.» In St. Cyril: «While the mind is not captive to terrible pleasures, in it there is peace and quiet; in it shines the pure light of sobriety before God, because of the peace of God guarding thoughts and heart. But when the heart turns toward unworthy lusts, then

Satan fills it with confusion and multiplies evil thoughts in it.» (As quoted in Zigabenus). In Basil the Great: «In those who live correctly the spirit is vigorous, but the flesh is weak; in those overcome by sin the flesh lifts up its head, while the soul becomes weak. When, he says, I sinned, my rational power came into confusion.» (Ibid).

Both thoughts are fitting. Sorrow presupposes awareness of the evil in oneself; awareness of evil develops sorrow and manifests its sincerity. Before this he was turning to the Lord, declaring his good desires; now he points out in what miserable state he is, to draw help. All three verses—9, 10, 11—contain one thing: the overflow of repentance in its various turns. It is evident that under the action of God’s grace, everything within has decomposed, the strength of sin is broken. But at the same time, amid the turmoil are sown seeds of a new good life—desires and groanings, like how in seemingly corrupted seed, amid the fermentation of its elements, sprouts the beginning of a new plant.

The Sinner Beholding His Own Helplessness (Vv. 12–15)

Verses 12–15 present a new, as it were unexpected, turn of thought. In relation to St. David the Prophet, they may have historical significance; but for us their application to the penitent is far more important—what they express in the course of the sinner’s conversion and the formation in him of the resolve to leave sin. When good desires begin to spring up under the penitent feelings, then, if unobstructed, they ought immediately to be followed by rejection of sin and choice of a virtuous life, which is expressed in verse 19: I repent; I have sinned—I will not again. But because the enemy does not sleep, seeing that the moment is near when he will be spat out by the sinner, he raises on his part mountains of obstacles both without and within (v. 13) such that this decision will not come until all the obstacles raised are overcome. These are overcome by hope (v. 16). And this, having grown strong in the soul (vv. 17, 18), gives it boldness to say at last: I will not (v. 19). It is chiefly in this direction that we shall examine the said verses.

comes forward to be spat upon by the sinner, and on his own part raises up mountains of obstacles to the uttering of that final resolve, both without and within (v. 13); so that this resolve will not come before all the obstacles that have been raised are removed. These last are overcome by hope (v. 16). And hope, once it has grown strong in the soul (vv. 17, 18), gives the soul courage to say at last: I will not sin (v. 19). It is chiefly in this direction that we shall examine the said verses.

Ps. 37:12. My friends and my nearest stood directly against me, and my neighbors stood afar off.

«Directly against me they stood,» they took their stand over against me, but neither word of comfort nor any movement to help was seen. Either they fear to touch his spiritual wounds, or are at a loss what to say or do, or consider his fate decided: there is no point in worrying; better to leave him to himself.

«My neighbors stood afar off.» Here an even more sorrowful thought appears: they fear to approach him as a leper, so repulsive to them seemed his spiritual wounds. His own have recoiled because of his extreme sinfulness, have lost respect, affection, attention. All seemed to have decided: remain with your sins as you wish.

The Prophet describes what befell him in his outward state because of sin. He points to the alienation from him of all, even those close to him. Perhaps such a thing actually happened after his sin with Bathsheba. From common experience it is evident that acts of lust do indeed attract disrespect and contempt among one’s own—wife, children, kindred. What is surprising if the same happened to David? Now in his penitent feelings he recalls all this, while before he either did not notice it or paid no attention. From history, regarding the standing apart of those close to him, we can only point to how after the death of the child born from Bathsheba, everyone whispered among themselves, but were afraid to speak to him about it (2 Sam. 12:13). The repenting heart could see something reproachful in this.

To every repenting sinner this applies «either» in the sense that he too, having reviewed with sorrow the desolation wrought by sins in his soul, turns then to the disorder of good relations without, wrought by sin: for with no flagrant sinner can they be good. Only those who love sin are in harmony with those who love sin; all the honorable and virtue-loving shun them. The penitent may regret all this and draw from it a new incentive to speedier amendment of life. But more fully, what the Prophet said of himself applies to every repenting sinner in this respect: when he begins to repent, none of his own can give him any help in this matter. Here and no one of men is a helper. They may stand round and marvel—that is all. And they cannot understand what is happening in him. They see him bowed and lamenting, but to enter within and set things in order there no one of men can do. Therefore, repenting, he can with St. David say: from the sorrow of my heart my heart is troubled, my strength has left me, the light of my eyes is dimmed, and help is nowhere; my own all stand round and can do nothing: «my father and my mother have forsaken me» (Ps. 26:10)

The holy Fathers when hearing these words carry our thoughts to another world. Thus Basil the Great says: «The friends and intimate ones are good Angels, servants of God, who rejoice in the salvation of men. These friends, who before rejoiced in David’s deeds, during his sin withdrew from him and turned away; though they did not wholly abandon him, but stood afar off. When they stood afar, other certain ones, he says, came to work sin in me, and with violence broke in and mocked my soul» (In Zigabenus). A similar thought is in Athanasius the Great: «The Angels helping him abandoned him because of sin. For the holy powers withdraw during temptation, either for the testing, or for the punishment of the one being tempted.»

The relation to us of good and evil angels can be pictured thus: when a man sins and loves sin in his heart, the Angel departs, and from afar only watches to see if he can somehow awaken the sinner to understanding. While man does not incline toward sin, the Angel does not allow demons near him; but as soon as he inclines, the demon rightly gains power over the soul, and the Angel departs. For everything depends on freedom. Until the inclination, the Angel says to the demon: depart; see, he does not want you; but after the inclination the demon says to the angel: depart; see, he willingly gives himself to me; do not interfere; give him
freedom. Freedom decides everything. The demons, having gained entrance into the soul, freely opened, begin to tyrannize in it and teach it to every evil; they turn it away from good intentions and support sinful ones, and push it into various undertakings, all for the sake of sin, so as to tangle it more and more in sin, in hope of holding it in sin forever (Zigabenus). They cover
all within with fog, and man acts in that time without clear consciousness of the meaning, but as a driven creature is driven.

But this, invisibly happening in every sinner’s soul while he is in sin, is only hinted at here by the holy Prophet. His main thought is not this. He wants to show what the Angels do and what the demons do at the time when man comes to awareness of his sinfulness and when good desires begin to be sown in his soul before the face of the Lord. At that time the Angels stand round: they do not enter; for within there has not yet occurred the decision to cast off sin, only thoughts of it are conceived and occupy the soul. They stand, sympathizing with the warrior, and from afar helping him with sympathy and beckoning. And the demons? They gather then in anxiety, and wishing to hold the sinner in evil, whisper to him various thoughts to shatter the good beginning intentions to cast off sin.

Ps. 37:13. And they who sought my soul labored; and they who sought evil for me spoke idle talk and crafted deceit all day long,

«And they pressed hard,» with effort they pushed their way up to me; «those who seek my soul,» forming hostile designs against my life, contriving to cut it short; «those who seek evils for me,» carefully searching out every path and means to do me harm. «They spoke vain things,» they sought as it were to render my happiness empty, to ruin me, «or» they laid plans and nursed hopes vain, empty, impossible to fulfil; «and all day long they meditated deceit,» upon their intrigues,
plans for my ruin, slanders and the like, they discussed and made speech unceasingly—their only business was contriving how to devise some destructive thing for me.

Here perhaps also history. When the grieving David was surrounded by friends standing afar off, not knowing how to help him and comfort him, and with compassion awaiting the outcome of the struggle being waged in him, at that time also, probably, his foes were plotting their own. The awesome word from God through the prophet Nathan could have awakened hopes of those secretly harboring followers of Saul. They now stirred and began to devise, perhaps this was not God’s work toward restoring them? Other enemies might devise other plans. This did not escape David: either he guessed or others told him, or he somehow heard it himself. But in spite of this he undertook nothing, as if he had not heard, leaving the matter to the Lord’s judgment himself—as later at the curses of Shimei.

Who are these enemies in relation to the penitent? The enemy can be the world. Before it was a friend; now it becomes an enemy. All know that as long as moral change does not occur instantly, how many obstacles to the sinner’s conversion are made by worldly speech, custom, and order into which he was woven while living in sins! But the most evil enemies to the one converting are demons. Usually, with the departure of the Angels, demons overwhelm the sinner and begin to fulfill their desires in him, making him like a beast of burden. They drive, and he is driven according to their direction, not seeing whom he obeys. When he awakens from slumber, this dark side also becomes clear to him. It becomes evident that the impulses toward sins, though felt in him, are not his own but demonic, and that in satisfying them he is not satisfying himself but the demons, thereby tormenting himself. This discovery strengthens dislike of sin and kindles the desire to be freed from it, pointing out thereby the freedom from the yoke of hateful demons. Reaching such thoughts, he says to himself: behold whom I serve! No longer do I wish to be their slave. Perhaps this very rejection of the dark forces is the beginning of the resolve for good, as in baptism after the renunciation of Satan follows union with Christ. But when the penitent’s repentance takes this turn, then the enemies, who until now might not have paid attention to him (not having set himself on another path before, intending many times and accomplishing nothing), take their measures. They gather in crowds around (Athanasius, Antiphanes), and wishing to hold the sinner in evil, whisper to him various fears and anxieties, speak idle tales, laying snares: where are you going—into the unknown? All there is invisible, intangible, while you have already tested ours; you know the taste. Besides, if you turn about and change your life, you will have to change relations: friends will become enemies and erase you; you will lose
your position, and you will not be able to live. You began already—how many times?—Again you will return and with shame. But then, perhaps, you will not find such a situation as you have now.

Is it not better not to begin?—These whispers in multitude crowd into the mind of the one turning from sin and reach the heart. Some hear such speech; others have them buzz in their ears. The struggle here is for life and death. But God’s grace, assisting the repenting sinner, teaches him to reject such whispers—and he, having overcome them, takes from the struggle thoughts and feelings opposite to those being whispered, which then enter into the array of his resolve or into the points of the covenant with God being established in the heart. It is true that as long as these opposing thoughts and feelings do not overcome in the heart, the inner struggle remains without end; on the contrary, as soon as they are formed—namely readiness for all manner of deprivation, for insult from the world, for persecution, torments, and even death—immediately the struggle ends. Take courage, brother, and let your heart be strong! When such dispositions and readinesses arise and grow strong, then at once the resolve to leave sin comes about; the enemies, defeated, scatter, and the Angels—comforters, come forward with joy. All occurring here the holy Prophet afterwards remembers before the Lord in vv. 17, 18, and 19.

Ps. 37:14-15. But I, as a deaf man, did not hear; and as a mute man not opening his mouth. And I became as a man who does not hear and who has no rebuke in his mouth.

«As a deaf man»—either in truth he did not notice the schemes, due to his kindness and trustfulness, or he armed himself with such patience that hearing, he seemed not to hear. The latter is closer (Zigabenus). «As a mute man not opening his mouth»—he did not talk back, said nothing to defend himself or enlighten those. Perhaps by talking back he feared to provoke malice, and allowing them freedom hoped that it would sooner exhaust itself and disperse without meeting resistance and opposition. «And I became as a man who does not hear»—repeats the same with slight variations to show how great was his patience. «Who has no rebuke in his mouth»—as if he had no means to rebuke them. Although he could have, if he had let his tongue loose, exposed the schemes and rebuked the unrighteousness of his foes; but he did not use this right.

The holy Prophet wants to say: my own have withdrawn; enemies perpetrate evils. I am deaf and mute; I moved not; I left the fate of my enemies to God’s hands, having placed my own fate in His hands.

In the course of repentance this expresses a decisive disdain for demonic whispers. The spirits buzz various intimidations into the sinner’s ears; but the truly repenting does not heed them. What is pleasing to the Lord, let that be, he says to himself. His are the commandments; His is the protection of those fulfilling them!—And he not only does not listen now, but takes a resolve to henceforth not listen, having learned that the doing of sins is pleasing to demons while tormenting to himself. Before, whatever the demons whispered, he listened and obeyed everything. Now he seemingly does not hear, no matter how eagerly they labor to shatter his good thoughts and resolves. He does not enter into argument with them; for this is not profitable: you cannot argue them over, while sooner you will get tangled in confusion. Therefore the common advice of all the holy Fathers: do not listen to what they whisper. With one turn you will end all disputes; turn away, do not heed. This same law holds also in relation to the world and its attempts to hold the penitent in its power. Better not to argue. You do thus, and I thus. Argument will irritate memories and sooner shake the resolve than strengthen it. Better to break at once all bonds.

they busy themselves to shatter his good thoughts and resolves. He does not enter into dispute with them; for that is not safe: you will not out-argue them, but will sooner be entangled in disagreement. Hence the common counsel of all the holy Fathers: do not listen to what they suggest. With a single turning-away you will put an end to all disputes; turn aside, give no heed. The same law holds also with respect to the world and its attempts to keep the penitent in its power. Better not to argue. You say one thing, I another. Dispute will stir up memories and will sooner shake the resolve than strengthen it. Better to break all the bonds at once.

The Sinner’s Ascent to Confident Hope, and His Establishment in It (Vv. 16–18)

Ps. 37:16. For I hoped in You, O Lord; You will hear me, O Lord my God.

So far he has depicted the extremity of his state; now he shows upon what he stood firm when everything within and without was thrown into disorder. «For I hoped in You, O Lord.» There is the strength! Forsaken by all, having no strength to resist enemies, into Your hands I committed my fate, and became calm. «You will hear me.» You—hear my desires and groanings, as well as the malicious speech of enemies, and I am assured, You will not abandon me: one who turns sincerely to You and cries to You, You will hear and recompense them according to their due (Athanasius, Zigabenus). «You will hear their revilings and will recompense them with what they deserve, or You will hear the groanings of the reviled and suffering one, and will protect me; for though I am silent with my mouth, yet I cry strongly to You in my heart for help and protection. Here is what happened in deed which the Lord later promised through the prophet Jeremiah, saying: «Vengeance is mine; I will repay» (Jer. 50:15; Heb. 10:30), and which the Apostle taught to those in affliction: Do not avenge yourselves, but give place to wrath (Rom. 12:19).

How this applies to the external circumstances of the Prophet David and to every sufferer is evident. In the course of repentance—here is the turn to the inner resolve to change one’s life. In deciding to abandon sins, the sinner must break all bonds and overturn all the orders of life established until now. Meanwhile he cannot but see that the enemies are strong, he himself is weak, and help is from none. In such circumstances his resolve is unthinkable unless he finds for himself somewhere a firm point of support. He finds it in God the Saviour, to whom he cries: In You I trust; You will hear!—You are my Creator! Will You not abandon Your poor creature in the hands of enemies for ultimate ruin! You are my Redeemer! Will You not leave to perish the wandering sheep, but will take her upon Your shoulders and bring her to Your Father. He does not enter into battle with enemies
himself, but commits to the Lord the overcoming of them. St. John Kolob describes this state thus: «I, he says, am like a man sitting beneath a tree who, seeing beasts approaching and despairing of overcoming them, jumps into the tree and is saved from danger; that is, knowing I have no strength to overcome enemies, I flee to God through prayer and am saved» (Memorable Narratives, p. 123, vol. II). This is precisely what happens in a sinner’s soul at the moment of overcoming sin when enemies whisper what is idle and specious. He does not answer them with his own counterefforts but commits all to the Lord. Commits to the Lord, consequently receives hope that wrath will be changed to mercy, that he will be received by the Lord and delivered from enemies. This hope began as soon as the evil of sin became known and torrents of repentant feelings poured forth—for they all happened before the face of the Lord. Then good desires and groanings were born; and after this there occurred rejection of evil whispers and consequently turning away from all that opposes God. By this ladder hope ascended to the height of strength. In the heart was then said: You will hear!

Help will come!—And—the resolve—with God’s help, certain—to abandon sin and dedicate oneself to good for pleasing the Lord—was made. This is a moment of great importance! Behold—
the point of departure for a new life and activity.

In vv. 17 and 18 is shown upon what the hope in God is established in the repenting sinner. It is established, first, upon the assurance that it cannot be that God would permit enemies yet to rejoice over him—v. 17; and second, upon the expression of his readiness for all sufferings and deprivations, so long as he remain on the path pleasing to God, v. 18. These are the counter-resolves which, with silent mouth in prayer to God, were formed in the struggle against the idle and specious whispers of enemies, in opposition to them. They whispered: you will not endure; you will be ours again; and he ascended to the assurance that God will not permit them yet to rejoice over him, both as Creator and still more as Redeemer. They poured in fears about awaiting miseries; and he against this established: let me even die, but I will not sin again.

Ps. 37:17. For I said, lest at any time my enemies might rejoice over me; and when my feet were made to slip, they spoke boastfully against me.

«For I said»—I spoke in my heart, I arrived at deep conviction: let it not be that my enemies yet rejoice over me. In strong hope in God I bear this feeling in my heart—that my enemies will not be given to yet mock me. It expresses unshakeable confidence in God’s help and God’s protection. So, he says, let not it be—even if before they, whenever my feet stumbled, i.e., when I slipped on the path and stumbled, turned away from the commandments of God and departed from His statutes—«they spoke boastfully against me»—they taunted me and reviled me for weakness, while they exalted themselves, over my failure they laughed, but in their cunning they boasted; though they were accustomed to rejoice at my falls, now I trust the Lord will not permit this.

This is not presumption, but firm assurance in God, the defender of the righteous cause, which is always His cause. The enemies will not rejoice; for it is impossible for them to overcome God Himself. He speaks as if to say: I believe, O Lord, that You will not permit my enemies yet to have the upper hand over me; for they are not only mine, but also Your enemies—You will not permit, for the sake of the glory of Your name. I am Your creature, and came to them accidentally through my own foolishness. Endeavoring to destroy me, they sought to affront You. They even blaspheme You, O Lord, saying: see how much You have done for him, yet he abandoned You and serves us. From now on You will not permit them, O Lord, thus to mock Your boundless goodness to Your weak creature.

Ps. 37:18. For I am ready for scourges, and my pain is before me continually.

«For I am ready for scourges»—for blows, for all manner of blows, deprivations, sufferings. «My pain continually»—the sense of contrition for sin has struck deep roots, is always with me, does not leave. He speaks as if to say: I am ready for all; let everything fall upon me, only to be forgiven, to cease from sin, and to stand firm in good. God, the protector of all good, desires to accept this resolve of mine and will not abandon me (Theodoret, Athanasius). The consciousness and feeling of my sinfulness, striking with such groanings at my soul, will always be before me, to humble me and keep me watchful. I bring this pain of heart to the merciful Lord as a sacrifice, in the assurance that a contrite and humble heart God will not despise.

Such disposition is the strongest assurance of the sincerity of repentance and of the confident hope of the resolve to change one’s life.

The Firm Resolve: Having Confessed His Sin, to Blot It Out (V. 19)

Ps. 37:19. For I will declare my iniquity, and I will be anxious about my sin.

This resolve is a consequence of all experienced by the repenting sinner from that moment when, in fear and trembling, he stood before the face of the Lord; it follows immediately upon the rekindling of strong hope in mercy, intercession, and help from God. The feeling of one’s moral helplessness cuts off such a resolve in the very beginning; but when there is rooted in the soul the assurance of ready help from on high, and it feels the stirring: «If God is for us, who is against us?» (Rom. 8:31)—then, and only then, having confessed sin, does it dare to make a vow not to indulge in it further.

«I will declare my iniquity»—I will not hide it, will confess my sins sincerely, and acknowledge that I deserve all punishment for them. «I myself will become my own accuser» (Athanasius). «I myself will proclaim my sin so that all may witness that I do not approve of it, turn from it, abhor it» (Zigabenus). And I will not only do this but after confession will not surrender myself to carelessness, but will apply all my care to be upright. «I will be anxious about my sin»—I will endeavor to wash it away, to break free from it, to amend; I will not be negligent but will zealously care for it. This is what every penitent promises to God on confession, God who does not desire the death of the sinner: I sinned—I will not again.

«Do not give in to carelessness after confessing sin,» says Blessed Augustine. «Thus proclaim your iniquity, so as to be anxious about your sin—What does it mean: to be anxious about sin? The same as to be anxious about a wound. If you said: I will be anxious about my wound, what else would be understood as: I will be anxious so that it heals?—So to be anxious about sin means to have constant zealous care that it be erased and blotted out. I will be anxious about my sin—I will do everything that must be done for purification of my soul from it.»

Negligence about sin adds sin to sin, but care for it cuts it off and uproots the habit of it—it strengthens one in God’s commandments and fortifies a morally good character. This is what the Apostle also commands—with fear and trembling work out your own salvation (Phil. 2:12), be a zealot of good deeds (Titus 2:14).

Such a disposition should govern the entire life of the one who has repented. Repentance is not a moment, but the work of a whole lifetime.

The Concluding Prayer of the Penitent (Vv. 20–23)

The work of repentance and the sinner’s turning to God is accomplished; the vow is uttered.

There remains to begin to live henceforth by God’s will. But how many times has this already been done, and falls have been repeated. Why? Because he himself is weak, and enemies are strong and cunning. So he hastens to guard himself for the future by help from above. I will no longer offend You; only drive away my enemies. They are strong and treacherous, and know how to deal with me. As soon as I am left alone, they will at once hurl me again into the abyss of sin. Do not abandon me. Thus St Athanasius: «although I am not insensible to sin, but rather constantly care about it; yet I cannot help but see that my enemies are stronger than me. Therefore I entreat You, O Lord, do not depart from me, but rather hasten to my aid».

Such is the final prayer of the penitent. Fear of enemies struggles within him with trust in God. He relies completely on God, but cannot rely on himself. Enemies may shatter his good thoughts and intentions, and weaken and shake the very hope by which alone he is strong. So he cries out: so many and such cunning enemies! Do not abandon me, hear and help me. For in You alone is all my salvation.

Ps. 37:20. My enemies, they live, and are strengthened beyond me, and they multiply—those who hate me without cause;

Ps. 37:21. Those who render me evil for good assail me, because I pursued goodness.

Concerning the outward circumstances of St David, there are here traits justified by history. His «enemies»—the faction of Saul’s house and others discontented—«live», are alive, have not left the scene. There is no sign that they were «stronger» than him, but they could become stronger than him if left to act as they planned. Yet St David could speak thus now too—accommodating himself to the thoughts and feelings of his enemies; in those times, perhaps they truly considered themselves mightier than him. «They multiply»… No wonder: the faction of ill-wishers grew, «hating him without cause»—unjustly, without reason on his part, from envy alone and desire for him all evil. «Those who render evil for good»—they have not yet rendered it, but in intention, surely, all was ready to cover David with every calamity. «Assail me»… St David was exalted by God Himself by His special election, when he was still young. Saul’s house fell because for Saul’s sins he was rejected by God. Those—the enemies—saw in all this mere machinations of ambition and successes of human cunning. «Because I pursued goodness,» I strove earnestly to show goodwill and render all mercy to my enemies, but they twisted this, and, taking my forbearance for weakness, did not fear to speak evil of me and plot against me.

Concerning repentance, enemies contriving and doing such things are the spirits of wickedness in the heavenlies. The sinner foresees how they, always malicious, now still more fierce, and in even greater numbers will rise against him. My enemies, he says, live, have been strengthened, have multiplied. And indeed, now they become yet more evil than before, gather all their hosts around the penitent, lie in wait on all his paths to snare him, lay for him every net both without and within, in thoughts, feelings, encounters, in the affairs of life and outward relations. While the penitent has not yet been strengthened in good, temptations work more powerfully. The enemies know this and intensify their attacks. Their hatred knows no measure. They all, like lions, roar against him who has rejected them. They do not act merely directly, but chiefly through people obedient to them. Against all who surround the penitent, they whisper evil thoughts about him—as if he is a hypocrite, has other designs, not the salvation of his soul, and so on. And it happens that through this they succeed in inflicting troubles, which, through negligence, can cause no small harm, if not completely ruin. Here too they arrange
the rendering of evil for good. The penitent begins, as he is able, to do all good to his neighbor. Enemies contrive to turn this good into evil for the doer. To those to whom it is done they suggest twisted ideas about him; and at every opportunity they themselves incite to cause troubles to their benefactors. This can act very destructively upon one beginning this. What, then, awaits the penitent in these early stages! How is he to stand?!

Therefore, having foreseen all such enemy machinations, the holy Prophet both himself prays and exhorts all to pray:

Ps. 37:22. Do not abandon me, O Lord my God, do not depart from me:

Ps. 37:23. Hear me for my help, O Lord of my salvation.

«Do not abandon me». My own have abandoned me, I myself am weak, and here are enemies. To whom shall I flee? Only Your, O Lord, protection will save. Do not cast me to the will of enemies and their wicked schemes. «Do not depart»—remain with me in favor, in help, in protection from enemies. «Hear me for my help,»—look attentively when any help is needed for me! Do not miss a moment; for I am so weak that I can fall in an instant. «Lord of my salvation»! You are my only Saviour, giver, source and cause of my salvation. Whenever the malicious enemies draw near and surround me, and are ready again to hurl me weak one into sin, stretch out Your hand and hold fast the falling one, and turn the enemies back and scatter them.

Thus at last the helpless penitent finds peace in the bosom of all-providential divine goodness, as a child takes refuge from strange eyes on the breast of his mother. Thus at last he goes forth to his work in the full armor of God’s help and heavenly protection, drawn forth by faith and appropriated by repentance. The strong one, strengthened by the Lord in battle, now says in his heart: I can do all things through the Lord who strengthens me—and already neither the difficulty of deeds and labors, nor the severity of outward circumstances frighten him or disturb his firm steps, on the chosen and promise-sealed path.

Psalm 3

The Six Psalms

The Six Psalms consist of the following six psalms: the 3rd, 37th, 62nd, 87th, 102nd and 142nd. They are read at the beginning of Matins, following the proclamation of the glory of the All-holy Trinity. In content they are filled with compunction and dispose one toward repentance, depicting the state of the sinner who sees his sinfulness and desires to be cleansed from sins and to be joined to the Lord, in spite of the many enemies surrounding him and placing obstacles to the birth in us of every good disposition and beginning. When they are read in church the candles are extinguished, except for a few. The dimness on one hand aids meditation on what is read, on the other reminds us of the gloom of the sinful state depicted by the psalms, and that it is unbecoming for the sinner to have external light. In this way the holy Church arranges this reading to dispose us to self-examination, so that, having entered within ourselves, we may enter into converse with the merciful Lord, who desires not the death of the sinner, but the thing most needful for us—the salvation of the soul, through bringing it into the proper relationships to Him, our Saviour, which have been broken by sin.

Therefore in the Typicon (chapter 9) it is written:

«When the Six Psalms are chanted, then one must apply oneself attentively to listening: for the psalms are full of repentance and compunction. We chant these psalms with reverence and fear of God, as though conversing invisibly with the Lord Himself, and praying for our sins».

Those who are attentive in church at prayer fulfill this rule more or less, and, delving into the meaning of the verses, enter with their help into the realm of spiritual matters, by contemplation of which they nourish in themselves the spirit of repentance, compunction and reverence before God. The present brief commentary on the psalms that make up the Six Psalms is offered as an aid to them.

We say—as an aid; because it can in no way substitute for one’s own reflection, but only assist it, partly by widening one’s horizon, partly by guidance in directing thoughts, partly by awakening questions that stir the energy of the mind. Commentary should not fetter one’s own reflection. It only determines the meaning of verses; but what each one can think up for himself on the basis of it for his own edification—this it does not include and cannot include. And one verse can suggest to another such a reason to generate so many thoughts that there would be enough for a whole volume.

We make this observation in order to say that we far from consider the Six Psalms fully examined in our commentary, but only lay the foundation for it. Of Holy Scripture it can never be said that it is fully examined. It in all its parts is an inexhaustible fount of holy edification, which nonetheless must be drawn from it, like precious metal from the bowels of the earth, by diligent delving into the power of divine words.

In all this, however, this commentary will not be left without applications; only they will not be so abundant as to be able to cover everything and satisfy everyone. Let those who love to examine Scripture supply what is lacking, believing that in them is indicated the way to eternal life, and that they alone can make us wise to salvation (2 Tim. 3:15).

Presuming that readers will not always have a Psalter at hand, we place the text of each psalm in Slavonic and in Russian, in the translation from the Greek of the Seventy.

In places are appended testimonies of famous commentators, such as: Athanasius the Great, Theodoret the blessed, Basil the Great, St John Chrysostom, Augustine the blessed, Euthymius Zigabenus, Anthimos, Patriarch of Jerusalem, Irenaeus the Archbishop. But the whole commentary is mostly derived from these same sources, or composed according to their indication, although this is not noted everywhere.

The Psalm was composed by the Prophet and King David during the rebellion of Absalom. In order to understand better the course of thought in the psalm, those who know the circumstance which the inscription speaks of, let them recall it, and for those who do not know it is here appended a brief account of it (2 Sam 15 ff.).

When King David, having fallen into great sins on account of taking Bathsheba for himself as a wife, brought great repentance to the Lord; then the Lord, pronouncing forgiveness to him through the prophet Nathan for those sins, at the same time announced to him that he would nevertheless be subjected to temporal punishments as a cleansing penance, and that these punishments would come to him from his own family, inasmuch as his sins were also against family. Troubles of this sort soon began. Absalom, for the injury to his sister Tamar, killed his older brother Amnon and fled to his grandfather, the king of Geshur. After three years David allowed him to return to his homeland, only not to show himself in his eyes, and after two more years permitted even this.

After this Absalom at once began his machinations against him, with the intention of overthrowing him from his throne and taking his place as soon as possible. With this aim he first began to court the favor of all who came to Jerusalem about their business from various tribes of the kingdom; sitting at the very gates of the city, he received them kindly and showed justice in affairs—and thus spread good news of him everywhere. By this means he succeeded in sowing in nearly everyone the desire that he should be king instead of David. Believing that minds had thus been sufficiently prepared, he asked leave of his father to go to Hebron, supposedly to fulfill a vow; while meanwhile he sent his agents everywhere to proclaim, when they heard the sound of the trumpet, that Absalom had been made king in Hebron. They did so at the appointed time—and the people flocked to Hebron from all sides. Seeing with Absalom two hundred men from Jerusalem, who had come with him at his invitation, not knowing of his wicked intentions, and Ahithophel, David’s first counselor, they supposed he was already king—and the gathering grew rapidly.

They told David that the hearts of the men of Israel went with Absalom; and he, abandoned by all and seeing no possibility now to suppress the uprising or defend himself in Jerusalem, decided: let us flee; there is no salvation for us here. They fled—and all Jerusalem wept with a loud weeping, as they crossed and had crossed the Kidron brook.

The high priests and Levites wanted to go after him with the Ark of the Covenant. But the king said to Zadok the high priest: «Return the Ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, then He will bring me back, and will let me see it and its beauty again. But if He says: I have no pleasure in you; behold, here I am, let Him do to me as seems good in His eyes. Better return, and you and Abiathar the priest discover how things go in Jerusalem, and let me know through your sons; I will wait for word in the wilderness of the plain».

They returned; and David began to go up the Mount of Olives, weeping, with his head covered, barefoot. And all who were with him, went with covered heads and wept. They told the king that Ahithophel was also with Absalom—and he cried out to the Lord: scatter the counsel of Ahithophel, O Lord, my God!

Thus they came to the summit—the peak of the Mount of Olives, from which Jerusalem and Zion could not be seen anymore. Here the holy King worshipped the Lord God who dwelt in the tabernacle, from which so many times He had hearkened to his prayers. Was not this the moment when God hearkened to the humble prayer of the king, and resolved to scatter the counsel of Ahithophel and save him? At any rate, at this time the king on his part did all that he could do in those circumstances. Hushai, his friend, a man of great weight, wanted to go with him; but the king persuaded him to go to Jerusalem, and there by his counsel to destroy the counsel of Ahithophel, and to inform him of it through the sons of the high priests, as already arranged. Hushai went to Jerusalem; and David with his men directed their way further, into the wilderness which had been indicated.

They passed through the land of the tribe of Judah and went by Bahurim, a village of the tribe of Benjamin. There came out one from the house of Saul, by the name of Shimei, and began to curse David, saying: «Get out, get out, you man of blood! The Lord has returned upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, and has given the kingdom into the hands of Absalom your son. And behold you are in deep trouble». Those with David asked leave to take off his head. But David, humbling himself before the Lord, said: Leave him; let him curse. If the Lord commanded David to be cursed; who dared to say: why are you doing this? Leave him. Perhaps the Lord will look upon my humility, and will return to me good things in exchange for his curse this day». Thus they left him and went on their way; while he went along the hillside, and threw stones and sand at David and those with him, continuing to curse and revile.

At length they came to the appointed place in the wilderness, tired out, and rested there. Meanwhile Absalom entered Jerusalem and took counsel what to do. Ahithophel proposed to pursue the king at once, saying that the tired could easily be overcome. But Hushai spoiled this counsel, which indeed might have succeeded, assuring him that now David and those with him are extremely enraged, like lions, and that they cannot now be managed. Better let all Israel be gathered from Dan to Beersheba, like the sand by the seashore in multitude; then we shall overtake them wherever they are, and not leave one alive. All said: the counsel of Hushai is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.

After this things took a favorable turn for David. He gathered strength. A battle ensued, ending in the defeat of the rebellious army and the death of Absalom.

Behold the circumstance that gave rise to the composition of the third psalm. That this was indeed so is evident from the fact that in this psalm various features of this event are clearly reflected. History tells that the hearts of the sons of Israel went with Absalom, throng after throng joined him; and in the psalm it is sung: why are they increased who trouble me? There Shimei reviled David in the thought that he would not recover: and in the psalm the enemies say: there is no salvation for him in his God. There the king, returning the high priests with the Ark, expressed his complete submission to God’s will; in the psalm also submission is evident in the words: But You, O Lord, are my protector. There it is written that David on the peak of Mount Olivet worshipped the Lord; and in the psalm it is sung: I cried to the Lord. But what is especially important, the spirit with which St David was filled during his flight from Absalom is completely identical with that which breathes in the psalm. It is the spirit of humble submission to God, surrender of himself into His hands, and firm hope in His help and protection.

When exactly did this psalmody pour forth from the soul of the Prophet David? In the morning on the next day after his departure from Jerusalem: for he says: I lay down and slept; I awoke, in the assurance that the Lord sustained me. Having already worshipped God on the peak of Olivet, David, it may be supposed, received a heart’s assurance of God’s help. Then throughout the journey, as we see, he was in a prayerful disposition. In the evening, of course, he prayed even more urgently and, strengthening thereby his assurance in God’s protection and aid, in a sense of perfect safety, lay down and slept peacefully. Waking in the morning in those same feelings, he sang a song to God, in which, expressing the extremity of his situation and his complete hope in the Lord, he asks Him to accomplish in deed what He had placed assurance of in his heart: Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God!

The entire structure of the psalm can therefore be expressed briefly in the following propositions:

1. I am in extreme distress. – 2, 3.

2. My one hope is in You, O Lord. – 4–7.

3. Save me then. – 8, 9.

Behold a more detailed outline of it!

1. The extremity of his situation the Prophet determines:

a) By the multitude of enemies – v. 2.

b) By their ferocity – vv. 3, trouble him, rise up, say…

2) That God is the one hope for the Prophet—this:

a) He makes manifest,
aa) By expressing it in word, v. 4.

bb) By showing it in deed, v. 5.

b) And then completely finds peace in the Lord, proving this:

aa) By the complete calm of his spirit, in spite of turmoil around, – v. 6 … I lay down…

bb) And by fearlessness before enemies, v. 7. I will not fear…

3. Turning to God with prayer for salvation—
a) He sets forth this prayer in brief but powerful words – v. 8. Arise O Lord…

b) He strengthens it:

aa) By former experiences of God’s help, in the same v. 8. For You have smitten…

bb) By that universal truth that salvation and blessing are from the Lord.

This last also serves as the conclusion of the psalm.

One who meditates on this psalm must nevertheless hold in mind that historically it refers to the holy Prophet David, but in application can apply to anyone struggling against passions and demons, and oppressed by external sorrows and calamities (Gregory of Nyssa in Euthymius Zigabenus). It teaches that one should not despair and lose heart, however great our sins or calamities, imitating St David, who did not lose hope, although nearly everyone around him said there was no salvation for him in his God. In this regard the psalm opens to the penitent sinner the way to the Lord; for the enemy, having noticed in someone the first stirrings of repentance, usually strikes him with thoughts of despair, suggesting that God will not have mercy on him—and there is no salvation for him. By breaking down this first barrier on the path of the sinner’s return to the Lord, this psalm fittingly stands first among the Six Psalms.

The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3)

Ps. 3:2. O Lord, why are those who trouble me increased? Many rise up against me.

Seeing that nearly all Israel went after Absalom, St David marvels how suddenly so many faces hostile to him appeared, even from among those near and trusted to him; while he had feared no evil and rested peacefully in a sense of all-around security.

Multiplied in number and strength, in cunning and artifice. There is Ahithophel, the heads of the 12 tribes, the commanders of thousands and other members.

Trouble from the Greek—those who cause sorrow, who wound painfully in the very heart: from the Hebrew, those who press, as an enemy oppresses the city besieged by him, or as a press crushes grapes. One can see what weight this uprising laid upon David’s soul.

Many rise up, revolt, rebel. It would have been more bearable if strangers had risen up, but his own blood, his own people—those who a day before were in subjection and obedience now fell away and took up arms against him. City after city, tribe after tribe joined Absalom, like one wave driving another.

The holy Prophet states all this to present a consciousness of his helplessness, and thereby move God’s mercy to speed aid, suggesting as it were that on one hand God’s glory will be more evident when he who was abandoned and humiliated by all is restored, on the other—shame and confusion to the evildoers trusting in their multitude and strength, as a lesson and warning to others.

This extremity of St David’s position is a figure of the extremity in which all those who are zealous for God’s good pleasure often find themselves. For all who wish to live godly in Christ Jesus are persecuted, according to the Apostle’s word (2 Tim. 3:12), and wage a great and fearful battle with enemies visible and invisible. There Satan—now as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8), now transforms himself into an angel of light, to deceive, if possible, even the elect (2 Cor. 11:14). There the spirit of the flesh works wickedness, rising up against the spirit and attempting to overcome it (2 Cor. 12:7). Elsewhere men, having lost the fear of God, both wound with words and harm with deeds. Sometimes all at once, as if let loose, they fall upon the poor laborer at once and press in like clouds. Demons, gaining access to the soul, approach one after another and each wounds with its arrow; passions, both of soul and body, having been stirred up, rise with their demands and each pulls to its side; and men raise their commotion for no other reason than that they do not love such as these. All are permitted to rise up, and they multiply, trouble and press. Seeing this, the vigilant guardian of his own ways and God’s ways cannot but cry out to his ever-present and sole helper: O Lord, why are they increased? This is permitted so that the soldier does not fall asleep, thinking the enemies have been completely trampled underfoot, and so that by striving against adversities, both external and internal, he multiplies crowns for himself: for our light affliction works for us an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17); (Anthimos, Patriarch of Jerusalem).

Thus one must not give way to negligence even for a moment. Although all is calm now, in one moment—a storm will rise and waves will come forth with threatening force.

Ps. 3:3. Many say to my soul: there is no salvation for him in his God.

It is grievous that my own have risen up, but most painful to my heart is what they say, that there is no salvation for me in You, O Lord my God. This is not spoken by the internal thoughts wickedly suggesting despair; for St David did not lose hope for a moment, but those who rose against him, who, seeing his misfortune, thought and said that he was abandoned by God. Say to my soul, the same as to me, from the Hebrew, fittingly also about me. To me directly do they speak, as Shimei did and probably others too. About me they say among themselves, encouraging one another with hope of success of the uprising. «Now God has departed from him, they said, as once from Saul; as then He departed from Saul and was with David, so now He has departed from David and turned to Absalom; let us rise up and fall upon him; there is no salvation for him in God» (Chrysostom). But he said to my soul, not to me, to show that their words pierced his soul, touched not just the ear but passed into his very heart. As in another place, praying to God: say to my soul: I am your salvation (Ps. 34:3), he desired that those words would gladden his entire inner being: so here he wishes to express that the words of his enemies struck his soul with deep sorrow (Theodoret). The painful feelings of his heart on account of such speeches he expressed also in other psalms, for example 41:4: My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long, Where is your God? (Ps. 41:4)

Why did those who rose against him speak thus? Perhaps simply from foolish malice, just as, deriding the Lord hanging on the cross, the Jews cried out: he trusted in the Lord. He always assured them that God was his helper and protector—and would not let him be wronged. Let us see how he will recover now when there is no one with him. They relied on their own strength and multitude, but did not expect God to show special help to the persecuted king, basing themselves on his sins, which had so angered God. And they were deceived. For they saw the sins but did not see the repentance (Athanasius the Great). David’s heart was changed, and God’s determination concerning him was changed. This is why we should not pronounce judgment on our brothers even in the case of manifest sins; for we do not know what goes on in their hearts. While by our judgment they are worthy of we know not what heavenly punishment, by their repentance and contrite heart, perhaps they have already turned God’s wrath to mercy. Therefore it is more fitting for us never to use such speech to anyone, no matter how bad, harmful and unjust their deeds. Who can know God’s judgments?!

The example of St David is more instructive for us. From all sides they cried to him: there is no salvation for you in God; but did he waver in the least? Did he doubt for even a moment in God’s providence for him?! Thus must everyone in distress hold himself—and especially the penitent. For it is customary for demons, having led into sin, to suggest: God is merciful, to cover over the danger and smooth the path to it, and after sin to inject thoughts of despair, saying: God is inexorably righteous, there is no forgiveness for you, you are rejected, so that, hardening, he gives himself over entirely to sin (Nikitas Stithatos in Zigabenus). For one who has begun to see the necessity of return to God, these speeches driving one from God are fatal. Therefore the Prophet Jeremiah prays: be not to me a terror, You are my hope in the day of evil (Jer. 17:17).

The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Ps. 3:4. But You, O Lord, are my protector, my glory, and the One who lifts up my head.

The holy Prophet opposes to the bitter words of his ill-wishers his strong hope in God, hoping by it to incline Him—and by deeds to put to shame the insolent reviling of enemies. You, O Lord, are my protector—a shield guarding and defending from all sides, and impenetrable to arrows. Such is God’s protection from enemies visible and invisible, of soul and body. Only faith and hope know how to use this shield. Let enemies cry: there is no salvation; David, having repented, has now taken back his shield. By sin he offended God, and by repentance he regained His mercy. His heart feels this; therefore he confesses: You, O Lord, are my protector—not merely a general provider and protector, but my protector, my shield, my defense, my enclosure around me. Let the enemy throngs press from all sides, let them aim their arrows at him; David by faith sees around himself a protection arranged by God—impassable and invincible. You are my glory—the object of my glory and praise. In You I glory. Enemies glory in their number, cunning, weapons. But for me, my glory is You alone, O my Lord. Thus he confesses in other psalms too: my soul shall glory in the Lord (Ps. 33:3). In God is my salvation and my glory (Ps. 61:8). Thus the Apostle teaches: let him who glories glory in the Lord (2 Cor. 10:17). Or—You are my glory—from You comes my glory, not from men. From You I seek it, not from men. You give it, and You keep it, You have raised me to a glorious state and clothed me in great honor. What comes from You, that You will not allow men to take away, contrary to Your will. And the One who lifts up my head—You lift up my head by deliverance from troubles and sorrows that cause one’s head to hang down—or by the inner peace of the heart, by filling it with hope and inspiring it with courage. The lifting up of the head is a sign of joy and gladness after sorrow and grief. It is hopelessness more than trouble that causes one’s head to hang down. Having entrusted himself to God’s will and felt His protection, the king holds his head high in a sense of strength coming from God.

Thus, having been cleansed by repentance, he entered into a wholly different relationship with God than people thought. Though he is now undefended outwardly, God is his defense; though the kingdom is taken, God is his glory; though he had bowed down in his head (he passed through Olivet with covered head), God lifted up his head with the hope of deliverance from trouble. All outwardly is disrupted; but within him is an unshakeable strength. Of course, in the first moment there were not without disturbances. But the holy King soon mastered himself; and we see how he calmly manages everything at the very moment of leaving the city, how reasonably he relates both to his well-wishers and to his ill-wishers. Let us recall his words said to the high priests, and those he spoke on account of Shimei’s attacks. Here is where the greatness of his soul is revealed, standing above all the accidents of life. He believed in hope against hope, long accustomed to expect everything from God alone and to place his lot in His hands.

This is a lesson for us always to stand as on a rock, on the confession of God’s providence and care. Many confess this, confirmed by the experiences of their own lives, others let them confess by faith. Behold—the most consoling truth for suffering humanity! Those who by their writings disturb faith in it deprive people of a sure refuge in sorrows, and are therefore enemies of humanity, murderers of men. All suicides should be attributed to them as causes. Their souls will be called to account for all who take their own lives on account of loss of hope through their evil words and writings.

Especially necessary is this hope and confidence in God’s ready mercy for the penitent sinner. How the enemy burns the soul with this comfortless: there is no salvation?! But take courage, penitent! The feeling of repentance which you bear in your heart, God has given you; consequently He wishes to accept you, and has already stretched out His hand to you. Drive away the enemy with his despair, and hasten to God with confidence of pardon. Remember that for us sinners the Son of God was crucified on the cross, and on it the handwriting of our sins was torn up, and do not doubt for a moment that forgiveness is ready for you. The very fact that you repent, take as proof that behold the Lord is already lifting up your head, bowed under the weight of sins.

Ps. 3:5. With my voice I cried to the Lord, and He heard me from His holy mountain.

And before, many times it had been so, that he cried out and the Lord heard him. It was, he says in another place, crying aloud I shall call upon the Lord and shall be saved from my enemies (Ps. 17:4). But here he speaks of what happened now. «Having opened to the Lord the confession of his hope, now he turns to us and recounts how he prayed and was heard» (Athanasius the Great). When was this? Either when he bowed to God on the peak of Olivet, or in the evening when they arrived in the wilderness. But throughout the time he, as is evident, was in a prayerful disposition. Pouring out fervent prayers to God, he received assurance that he would be delivered, and spent the night peacefully, confident that God was his protector. This is what he calls hearing.

With my voice… I cried—denotes the vehemence of groanings, the strong prayerful movement of the heart. The feeling of the heart usually bursts forth in words. And one must remember that it is not the audible voice that reaches heaven, but the cry of the heart. Therefore the blessed Augustine says: he cried not with a vocal voice, but with the voice of the heart, which is silent for men but for God issues a cry that passes through the heavens. By this voice the Lord Himself commanded us to cry out when He commanded prayer in a locked chamber: which means—in the secret places of the heart. And it cannot be said that when praying with this voice one is not praying so loudly simply because prayer is not accompanied by external sound. For even those who prayed silently—in the heart—it was witnessed that they cry to God. Strong striving of the heart to God is indeed the voice, the cry, the call to God». Athanasius the Great expresses this same thought in another way: «by voice one should understand the mental petition of the mind to God. He does not speak of vocal crying, but of prayer spoken by the mind». «For, adds the blessed Theodoret, to Moses, though he was silent with his lips, God the Almighty said thus: why do you cry to Me? calling silence a cry, on account of the fervent mental prayer.

By the holy mountain from which the king was heard is understood Zion, where stood the tabernacle with the Ark of the Covenant, from which God gave answers. The mountain Zion is often mentioned in the psalms as the mountain of God, precisely on account of this privilege, that on it stood the tabernacle with the Ark of the Covenant, where God was pleased to show His special presence.

For sensible Israel—and one can say generally for man clothed in flesh—it is necessary to have such a sensible assurance of God’s nearness, that He is in their midst. God so arranged it. But here this expression has a figurative meaning. For the Ark of the Covenant the holy David sent back to Jerusalem, and was thus separated from the place where God gave His answers. Here is understood heaven itself, which the Apostle Paul calls Mount Zion (Heb. 12:22); as the holy Prophet himself in other places speaks of himself, that when he prays, his eyes are directed to Him who dwells in heaven, and that when God hears his prayer, He hears from heaven his holiness (Ps. 4:4). »From the mountain means from heaven, whence God hears those who pray» (Athanasius the Great). Therefore under He heard one should understand not a verbal answer, but an inner assurance coming from above, that help and protection will be. As his prayer was raised to the immaterial throne of God—unlimited in place—there was no barrier to this assurance coming at once. For the Lord is near to all who call upon Him (Ps. 144:18).

And now, as then and always, God hears everyone who prays with a contrite heart and with hopeful striving of soul. Only pray without ceasing. Do not stop praying until you receive assurance of being heard. If God does not hear us, it is either because we do not pray with complete eagerness, or because we do not have patience in prayer and soon cease. The fervor of prayer can shorten the time of being heard: sometimes, however, its length can make up for lack of prayerful fervor. When there is both, what cannot be asked of God, according to the word of the Lord, who said: all things whatsoever you ask in My name, they shall be given to you?

Ps. 3:6. I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.

Behold the fruit of hopeful prayer directed to God! As a consequence of finding rest in God—complete peace of spirit. I, he says, surrounded by so many enemies, helpless, abandoned by all, lay down to sleep from the Greek, and slept—fell asleep and slept peacefully. No fears troubled him; the peace of soul did not drive away sleep. He whose soul is troubled, sleep flees from him. Now he sits, now he rises, now he walks, now looks this way and that. So complete was his assurance in God’s help! I awoke—woke up. He slept sufficiently and awoke satisfied with sleep. Thus sure is God’s promise to the righteous: if you sleep, you will sleep sweetly (Prov. 3:24).

So it is always. The consequence of complete trust in the Lord—perfect peace of soul in the midst of great extremities. An example of this is the Lord sleeping peacefully in the ship when the ship is beaten by waves and all are in fear. Such are all who are with the Lord and with whom the Lord is. The source of such peace—courageous love for the Lord, unshaken by the waves of external troubles, inaccessible to inner disturbances and enemy arrows. It rests on the arms of the all-powerful God, warmed by His love, strengthened and revived. With such love there is connection—being bound to nothing earthly, detachment from all. Therefore changes and upheavals from this side do not reach the heart and do not trouble it.

Ps. 3:7. I will not fear the tens of thousands of people surrounding me, attacking me.

Strengthened by hope and feeling God’s protection, he expresses his courage. He speaks, as it were, thus: «If You are with me, that is enough to scatter for me many thousands». Having received assurance, he boldly says: I will not fear. This is a conclusion from experience and denotes a constantly established disposition of spirit. When sudden calamities come, even strong men of hope are not free from the initial fear; but it quickly gives way to the returning presence of spirit, and with the reign of hope completely disappears. With those who do not have hope, on the contrary, the initial fear keeps growing, until it brings them to complete despair and despondency. I will not fear tens—a specific number instead of an indefinite one—means—from the excessive multitude of those rising up—surrounding, attacking, drawing up ranks, preparing ambushes—who from all sides act with enmity against me and seek every means to my destruction.

This courage is not feigned. For he dared thus not relying on his own strength, but trusting in the certain help of God the almighty. Such courage always breathed in the righteous David, and he expressed it not once in his God-inspired songs: I will not fear what man will do to me: the Lord is my helper, and I will look upon my enemies (Ps. 117:6–7). The Lord is my Saviour and light, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? If an army encamps against me, my heart will not fear: if war rises up against me, in Him will I hope (Ps. 26:1, 3).

Learn from this the fearlessness with which you must stand against the invisible enemies. They are truly countless thousands. And some, according to St Maximus in Zigabenus, attack from the front, drawing by the allurements of happiness and earthly goods, others wound from behind, defiling the soul by remembrance and passion for former pleasures; some fight from the right, suggesting to take on excessive labors, so that lifting us up in vainglory, they then cast us into the abyss of falling; others wound from the left, inciting toward manifest and known sins. He who has gained Divine help does not fear these hosts. And they, seeing this Divine protection upon him, send their arrows at a distance. Keep this protection by unquenchable zeal for pleasing God and constant humble and sorrowful prayer to the Lord in your heart, and the courage of spirit will not depart from you, and with courage all the demon hosts will flee from you: for against the courageous they themselves are fearful. (Those wishing may read about this in the word of St Anthony the Great, which is placed in his Life written by St Athanasius the Great).

The One Praying Utters the Desires of His Heart, Pouring Out His Prayer (Vv. 8–9)

Ps. 3:8. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God; for You have smitten all those who wrongly oppose me, You have broken the teeth of sinners.

Having pointed to the multitude and ferocity of enemies, confessing his firm hope in God, and as a result achieving complete peace and fearlessness before enemies, he now cries out the prayer: Arise… save me! As though saying: what You assured me of in hope, now accomplish in deed. Save me from enemies, just as You always before have smitten and put to shame all those who fought against me unjustly.

Though he had strong hope and was completely at peace in God; yet he does not cease from prayer. Hope is the foundation of prayer, not its substitute. Otherwise it would seem that the creature, hoping, directly appropriates to himself, as something due, what to expect from Divine providence—as though in some way commanding it. He hopes; but since God’s judgments are hidden, he also prays: hasten to my aid!

Arise—rise up. God having arranged everything and set it in motion like a clock, rested from His works. To show someone special help, He comes forth from this Divine rest, and behold of this is the Prophet’s prayer! Stir yourself to help and salvation. In this sense when the tabernacle ark was raised, during the forty-year wandering, they customarily cried out: arise O Lord and let Your enemies be scattered (Num. 10:34). Or by God’s rest he means God’s long-suffering (Zigabenus). When the wickedness of men multiplies, but God does not correct them; it seems as though He sleeps, remains at rest. Therefore the sufferer prays: arise; why do You sleep, O Lord? (Ps. 43:24). «Moved by hope, I rise up to prayer; You, being aroused by my hopeful prayer, stir yourself against my enemies» (Anthimos of Jerusalem). God will arise, and all enemies will be scattered and all troubles will pass away.

For You have smitten all those who wrongly oppose me. Since You have heretofore smitten all my enemies, however many there were, from the time of my anointing to the kingdom; from this I take assurance also for the present case. Those wrongly opposing—are those opposing unjustly and without cause. The blessed Theodoret writes: «As You have repeatedly punished for injustice those bearing unjust hostility to me—both kinsmen and foreigners, both Israelites and Amalekites, even Saul himself; so be pleased to be now also, deign to grant me salvation». In the Hebrew, instead of wrongly is now read in the jaw, so it will be: You have smitten in the jaw all my enemies. A blow to the jaw is both painful and shameful. The thought: smitten with shame. The nuance of meaning, preserved by the Seventy, accords better with the course of speech.

You have broken the teeth of sinners. Sinners here are those same wrongly opposing or unjustly. The enemies of St David were men fearing not God. Their uprising against him was because he held principles they did not love; he was of a spirit contrary to theirs. He is the representative of good principles; they of evil ones. The evil principle that worked in Saul rose up now in Absalom and his adherents. «By the words: You have broken the teeth, is meant: You have deprived them of strength, taken from them all means of harming me. The image of expression is borrowed from beasts, which, if deprived of teeth, are not at all dangerous and are easily overcome» (Theodoret).

By this reminder of former deliverances he encourages himself before God, yet testifies to humility, showing that he asks not for something extraordinary, but what God has usually always shown him. Let us learn from this both bold hope and humble waiting for when it pleases the Lord to manifest His help to us. The Lord has His own hour. When the hour of His arising strikes, we cannot know it, therefore we must wait with equanimity, not losing patience in the labors of prayer. The hour of God’s help, one might say, always strikes when the perseverance and patience of the faithful is fully revealed on one hand, and the malice and impenitence of their enemies on the other. Wait then with patience, and persevere in hope and prayer.

Ps. 3:9. Salvation is the Lord’s, and Your blessing is upon Your people.

He continues the prayer, putting forward in support of it his faith in that universal truth, that salvation, if it comes, comes only from the Lord: Salvation is the Lord’s. This is a kind of doxology at the same time, concluding prayers usually, like that which in the Apocalypse the elders offered to God sitting on the throne (Rev. 7:10). By it all glory of salvation is ascribed to God, not to human wisdom and strength. For vain is human salvation (Ps. 59:13). The Lord’s salvation does not exclude human means; but means that without it all these means are nothing. The Lord arranges everything and gives activity and success to human efforts. Without Him all our abilities lead to nothing; while if He is pleased, salvation is arranged in ways unknown, and when all is ruined around. What great comfort for those abandoned by all!

And Your blessing is upon Your people. Trusting and asking salvation for himself from the Lord, at the same time he desires that God’s blessing also rest upon his people. It is clear that the one praying is a king—and that he has not divided his heart from the people, caught up in confusion and misery by Absalom and his clique. Such is the heart of the gentle David! Instead of punishing the people, he asks for their blessing. The patriarch from afar imitates the Christ the Lord who came from his seed, who from the cross prayed for forgiveness of sins to those who crucified Him and mocked Him. This concluding word about the blessing of the people casts a joyful light into the depths of the soul of the holy King, loving the people in God and not separating his own fate from theirs.

He did not say: on my people: but on Your people; he does not present himself as their master, but as a steward, keeper, shepherd of God’s inheritance (Ps. 17:50). Was there not in this the thought to say humbly: not for my sake, but for the sake of Your people save me; for great trouble threatens them if the government of them passes into the hands of those who have risen against me?

The psalm ends with a prayerful confession that in God is the source of salvation and blessing. The beginning is in faith. Faith begets hope. Hope with faith begets prayer, bringing down comfort into the heart and blessing into life.

Let us pray that the spirit of hope, moving in this psalm, becomes our constant spirit.

A Resolution of Perplexities: On the Unjust Steward and the Hundredfold Promise

Introduction

The Author

Georgy Vasilievich Govorov was born on 10 January 1815 in the village of Chernavsk, in the Oryol province of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. A clergyman’s household in that time and place was a school of prayer before it was anything else, and the boy grew up inside the daily round of services that would later shape everything he wrote. He was educated in the local ecclesiastical college at Livny, then at the seminary in Oryol, and finally at the Kiev Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1841 having already, the year before, received monastic tonsure with the name Theophan—taken in honour of an earlier confessor of the same name. The young monk who set out from Kiev would spend the next quarter-century in almost every kind of churchly work the age offered.

He taught and administered in the theological schools; he served abroad with the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem, where he learned Greek and other languages and steeped himself in the manuscripts and iconography of the Christian East, and afterward at the embassy church in Constantinople. In 1857 he was made rector of the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, the most prominent teaching post in the Russian Church. Two years later he was consecrated bishop of Tambov, and in 1863 he was translated to the see of Vladimir. By every outward measure he was a successful and rising churchman. Yet from his youth he had been drawn toward stillness, and in 1866, at his own request, he laid down his diocese and withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov region.

The withdrawal deepened by stages. For the first years at Vysha he still attended the services and often celebrated the Liturgy himself; but in 1872 he closed his door, ceasing ordinary contact with all but his confessor and one or two attendants. The remaining decades of his life were spent in this strict seclusion—praying, celebrating the Liturgy alone in a small cell chapel, and, above all, writing. It was from behind that closed door that the bulk of his enormous literary output flowed: works of ascetical and spiritual guidance, biblical exposition, and a vast pastoral correspondence with people he never met. He rendered the Greek Philokalia into Russian as the Dobrotolyubie, produced the widely loved handbooks of the interior life for which he is best remembered, and turned again and again to Scripture as a teacher of souls. He reposed on 6 January 1894 (Old Style), the feast of the Theophany, having lived at Vysha for twenty-eight years, twenty-two of them in reclusion. He is commemorated as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church, which numbered him among the glorified at its council of 1988, held in the year that marked a thousand years since the baptism of the Rus. His writings have long since passed beyond the boundaries of his own communion and are read wherever Christians seek a practical theology of prayer.

The Work: Occasion & Purpose

This is a short, self-contained essay rather than a treatise or a running commentary—the kind of focused piece Theophan wrote when a single stretch of Scripture had become a genuine stumbling-block for thoughtful readers. Its Russian title announces its subject plainly: a resolution of perplexities met with in reading the parable of the unjust steward and the promise made to those who forsake all for the Kingdom of Heaven. He tells us the occasion himself in the opening lines. Certain lovers of Scripture, he writes, had come to him troubled in heart by two passages that seemed very difficult, and after offering them a few remarks to clear the difficulty, he judged it useful to set the whole explanation down at greater length, supposing that the same perplexities trouble others too, in other places.

The two difficulties are precise. The first is the parable of the steward in the sixteenth chapter of Luke (Luke 16:1–13): a manager, accused of squandering his master’s goods and about to be dismissed, quietly reduces what his master’s debtors owe so that they will take him in when he is put out—and his master commends him for acting shrewdly. To the ordinary reader this is scandalous. How can a plainly dishonest man be held up as a pattern for those seeking salvation, and what can the Lord mean by telling His hearers to “make friends by means of unrighteous mammon”? The second difficulty is the Lord’s sweeping promise, given after the rich young man went away sorrowful and Peter asked what those who had left everything would receive: that whoever forsakes house and kindred for His sake shall receive “a hundredfold now in this time,” and in the age to come eternal life (Mark 10:29–30, with the parallels in Matthew 19 and Luke 18). How can that be true? No one who abandons a family receives a hundred families back. In what sense is the promise kept, and kept now?

The essay belongs to the exegetical side of Theophan’s work—the same pastoral reading of Scripture that runs through his commentaries and his letters—and its purpose is thoroughly practical. He is not writing to display learning or to settle a scholarly dispute but to remove an obstacle from between the believer and the text, so that a passage which had unsettled the conscience can instead instruct it.

Argument & Structure

The piece falls into two unequal movements, answering the two perplexities in turn, and its method is as instructive as its conclusions. Theophan’s governing rule, stated early and returned to often, is that a parable should be interpreted only as far as its author interprets it. The Lord Himself draws out the lesson of the steward, and beyond the features the Lord singles out, the details of the story are simply narrative furniture—the two debtors, the measures of oil and wheat, the exact sums—meant to carry the tale forward, not to be decoded one by one. Much of the confusion around this parable, he argues, comes from readers who allegorize every particular and so bury the plain lesson under their own inventions.

He opens the first movement by recovering the setting. The parable was spoken to a mixed crowd—tax-collectors and sinners drawn to Jesus, Pharisees murmuring at the company He kept, disciples and apostles among them—and it follows directly on the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal. Read in that light, the steward becomes a word to the entangled: to people caught in a way of life they cannot see their way out of, the Lord holds up a man who, in an extremity, found a shrewd way to secure his future, and says in effect, do likewise for the life to come. Theophan then retells the story verse by verse, clearing away the small puzzles—why the steward fears only dismissal and not punishment, what “accused” implies, why the master’s commendation is a businessman’s admiration of cleverness and not an approval of fraud. On the decisive point he is emphatic: it is the master in the story, the rich man, who praises the steward, not the Lord who tells it, so the whole scandal of “the Lord commended a cheat” rests on a misreading of who is speaking.

The interpretive heart of the essay is his handling of the Lord’s own application in verse 9. Here he unfolds three questions: who the “sons of this age” and “sons of light” are and how the former can be called wiser; what the “unrighteous mammon” is; and who the “friends” are that we are to make by it. On the first he surveys a whole spectrum of readings—that the worldly are simply more diligent about their aims than believers are about theirs, that they are craftier in the traffic of daily life, that they scheme against one another as the sons of light in their simplicity do not—and weighs them without forcing a single verdict, preferring the most direct sense while allowing that the Lord’s words hold more than one lesson for more than one kind of hearer. On the “unrighteous mammon” he explains why wealth bears that name even when it is honestly gained: it is called untrue because it is unreliable, deceptive, and passing. His most striking move is on the “friends.” Against the common view that these are simply the poor who will one day pray us into heaven, he argues that the friends who actually receive us into the eternal dwellings are God Himself and His angels and saints—with the poor as the indispensable intermediaries, since it is by mercy to them that their heavenly friendship is won.

The first movement closes with the Lord’s further application—faithfulness in what is least as the measure of faithfulness in much, and the impossibility of serving two masters—which Theophan reads as a summons to hold the goods of this life as a steward holds another’s property, with a heart detached and free.

The second, shorter movement takes up the hundredfold promise. Comparing the accounts in Mark, Matthew, and Luke, Theophan first shows that the promise cannot be quietly pushed off into the next world alone: all three evangelists set the recompense “in this time,” and the Lord’s own manner of speaking rules out a wooden, literal reading. He then distinguishes voluntary renunciation, such as the apostles’, from the involuntary loss suffered by those whom persecution or hostile kin drove from their homes—the far larger number in the early Church, and probably foremost in the Lord’s mind. The hundredfold, he proposes, is fulfilled in two ways: outwardly, in that the whole body of believers, bound by a love the essay describes with real warmth, became a single family in which the one who lost a father found a hundred fathers and every house stood open to him; and inwardly, in the surpassing consolation of grace that made the martyrs count all things loss for Christ. He gathers the Fathers behind both readings and ends by bringing the promise home to his own century—to the missionaries leaving family to preach in the Altai, in Kamchatka, in Abkhazia; to those who enter monastic communities; and to believers pushed out of nominally Christian households for taking the faith in earnest—showing that the same word is still being kept.

Theological & Spiritual Significance

The lasting value of this essay lies less in any single conclusion than in the disciplined way it reads. Theophan models a restraint that much popular interpretation lacks: he lets the Lord fix the boundaries of His own parable and refuses to press the allegory past them, and he is candid that this text has produced more divergence of opinion than almost any other, cataloguing the ancient and modern readings and declining to pretend that a hard passage is simple. That combination of reverence and sobriety—taking the difficulty seriously rather than explaining it away—is itself a lesson in how to handle Scripture.

Behind the exegesis stands the spiritual theology for which Theophan is loved. The parable becomes an occasion to teach detachment: to own without being owned, to handle earthly goods as a trust to be spent on others and returned to God through the hands of the poor, to keep the heart whole for God because a divided heart makes an unsteady soul. The reading of the “friends” as God, the angels, and the saints draws the ordinary duty of almsgiving up into the communion of heaven, so that a coin given to a beggar is a debt discharged on behalf of the angels who bear the prayers of the needy. And the meditation on the hundredfold offers one of the essay’s most attractive passages—its picture of the Church as a family in which every believer’s love and every believer’s house belong to each, and its insistence that the deepest recompense for what is given up for Christ is a sense of well-being in Him that no earthly comfort can rival.

The essay also quietly displays the breadth of the tradition Theophan draws upon. He weighs Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euthymius Zigabenus from the Greek East alongside Basil the Great, and reaches westward to Ambrose, Jerome, Gregory the Great, Augustine, and John Cassian—reading the Latin and Greek Fathers together as a single company of interpreters. For a modern reader the piece is a compact introduction both to two genuinely hard Gospel texts and to the way a seasoned pastor of prayer brought the whole received tradition to bear on the everyday questions of a troubled conscience.

The Text & This Edition

This edition presents a fresh modern English translation of Theophan’s essay, made from the public-domain Russian text as preserved in the digital collection of his works at azbyka.ru, under its full Russian title, Разрешение недоумений при чтении притчи о неправедном приставнике и обетования тем, кои все оставляют ради Царствия Небесного. It is an English-only reading edition; the Russian is not printed alongside.

A few conventions of the edition are worth noting. The saint is named by the attribution the Church has always given him—Theophan the Recluse—with his sanctity recorded plainly and without controversy; where others contributed to bringing this text into English, they are credited as translators and never as its author. The English aims at a dignified but readable modern register, faithful to Theophan’s own movement of thought. Because Theophan quotes Scripture in his own Slavonic and Synodal Russian wording, and often bends the phrasing to the point he is making, the biblical passages here are rendered from his text rather than lifted from any existing English Bible, so that the reader hears the verses as he read them. Scriptural citations are given in the ordinary modern style—book, chapter, and verse in Arabic numerals (Luke 16:9, Mark 10:30)—in place of the older Roman and Slavonic forms. The result is meant to let a reader with no Russian and no specialist training follow, clearly and in full, an argument that St Theophan first set down to steady the faith of a few perplexed readers of the Gospel.

Suggestions for Reading

Readers new to this kind of writing may find it helpful to read the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1–13) straight through first, and to notice their own reaction to it—the discomfort the essay sets out to address. Theophan’s single most clarifying point comes early and is easy to miss: it is the rich man within the story, not Christ, who praises the steward, and once that is seen the chief scandal dissolves. From there the essay can be read as it is built—the setting, the retelling, the interpretation, the application, and finally the hundredfold promise—without hunting for hidden meanings in every detail, which is precisely the habit Theophan is at pains to discourage. The closing pages, where he brings the ancient promise into his own day, need no scholarly apparatus to reward a first reading.

Author’s Introduction

Certain lovers of Scripture, upon reading the parable of the unrighteous steward (manager) (Lk. 16:1–13) and of forsaking all for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, and receiving a hundredfold all that was forsaken even in this age (Mk. 10:29–30), have encountered perplexities in their hearts, perplexities that have seemed very difficult. Namely: 1) how (in the first) the unrighteous steward is commended and presented as an example to those seeking eternal salvation, as though by unrighteous gain one could open for oneself the path to the Kingdom? and 2) how (in the second) is the hundredfold reception of all that was forsaken justified in fact here below?

After setting forth several remarks to clarify the meaning of these passages and to dispel the perplexities, it seemed useful to compose a more detailed explanation of them and to present it to the attention of those reading in the supposition that such perplexities are not impossible for others also, and in other places.

In What Sense Is the Unrighteous Steward Praised?

The path to understanding the meaning of the parable of the unrighteous steward is opened by the circumstance under which it was spoken. The Saviour was surrounded, besides the holy Apostles, by tax collectors and sinners, who had gathered to Him precisely in order to listen to Him (Lk. 15:1). Knowing their infirmities and desires, the Lord would surely have directed His word immediately toward them. But as the Pharisees and scribes standing there rebuked Him for His association with notorious sinners, saying, “Why does He receive sinners?” (Lk. 15:2), the Saviour first directed His discourse toward these Pharisees.

In several parables He explained to them that for Him, as God and Saviour, sinners who are able to repent and are repenting are as precious to Him as the lost sheep, one of a hundred, is precious to the householder (Lk. 15:4–7), as the lost coin, one of ten, is precious to the woman (Lk. 15:8–10), as the prodigal son, who returned to him after long wandering in a far country, is precious to the father, though he had squandered all his inheritance (Lk. 15:11–32).

Having instructed the Pharisees, the Lord turned toward the tax collectors and sinners, who thirsted for His word properly for themselves, though the parables spoken were not only consoling for them but also instructive. It was easy for them to understand that it was them the Lord was seeking, and thereafter to come to the question: how then should we be and what should we do to become His? The Pharisees suffered more from pride, but were not without the love of gain, though they could always easily sacrifice it to vanity. Concealing their passions beneath the appearance of piety, they hardened in them and shut the door of their hearts to repentance. The tax collectors suffered from the love of money and acted according to its impulses openly, so that common judgment pursued them unfavorably. This could not fail to weigh upon them, and surely for many of them, conscience spoke strongly of the injustice of their actions and conduct. Those gathered around the Saviour, one may suppose, were numbered among those touched by conscience and hoped to hear from His lips direction on how to emerge from their moral labyrinth into the light of God.

Afterward the example of Zacchaeus showed how great is the power of a penitent spirit and how mightily does it break through all that constrains it (Lk. 19:1–10). You see how the repentant heart casts off one by one the alien coverings that have pressed upon it. But not all possess such moral strength. The lighthearted and weak-willed seek another outcome, a quieter one. And so the Saviour’s word is directed to them! By the parable of the unrighteous steward He says to them, as it were: you are tangled and seek a way out. Here it is! Do as this steward did. He too was entangled, but managed to extricate himself and secure his future; he managed to provide himself with temporal rest, while you will manage to earn eternal dwellings for yourselves in His Kingdom.

One must not, however, suppose that the lesson of the parable was limited to the tax collectors alone. It concerned all who were listening: the holy Apostles, among whom was Judas; the Pharisees, who also knew how to draw others’ wealth to themselves; and all, not only the lovers of gain, but all in general who possessed anything, who owned any earthly goods. The Lord was teaching the soul-saving use of wealth, of all possessions and all the gifts of life. This is especially evident from the application which the Lord made from His parable-lesson (Lk. 16:10–13). From this point of view one must regard this parable and the whole discourse of the Saviour (Lk. 16:1–13).

It has three parts: first a) the parable-narrative is presented (verses 1–8); then b) the meaning of the parable is indicated, or the moral lesson is drawn from it (verses 8–9); finally c) the application of this lesson is made to all who were listening (verses 10–13).

The Story of the Parable

The parable-narrative is clear in itself. There is no need for explanation, but rather indication of certain unspoken particulars, so that it may become evident of itself that, as in the parable-narrative the precise boundaries of all circumstances are not defined, so one should not extend an allegorical interpretation throughout this entire narrative.

Verse 1. “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this steward was squandering his property” (Lk. 16:1).

When the holy evangelist says that the Saviour, having spoken to the Pharisees and scribes, turned with discourse to the disciples, he means by these not only the twelve Apostles, but all who had gathered to listen to Him with readiness to follow His teachings. Such were always many. In the Gospel according to John it is said that many of the disciples of the Lord left Him and no longer walked with Him (Jn. 6:66). It follows that all who walked after Him and listened to Him were counted as His disciples. St. Luke saw in those listening to the Saviour an entire “multitude of disciples” (Lk. 6:17). They were present at this time as well. It is specifically said of the tax collectors that they drew near to the Saviour to listen to Him (Lk. 15:1).

The rich man is not distinguished by any special characteristics, as is done in the following parable (verse 19 and onward), because he is not the principal character of the parable, but the steward. He was so rich that he needed to have a steward. Whether there were other stewards is not mentioned. The matter is not about the measure of the master’s riches, but about the practical shrewdness of the “sons of this age” (Lk. 16:8), which can be fully expressed even in one example, in the disposition of even a slight property.

Stewards were for the most part trusted servants from among their own bondmen, which custom is maintained to this day in the East. But free persons were sometimes invited for this position and served under contract. The steward in the parable, as is evident, belonged to the number of free persons, because from the master he serves, he fears not beatings, prison, or some other punishment for poor management of the property, but only dismissal from his position and, as a result, poverty and destitution.

The steward is “accused” of squandering the property. The word “accused” seems to indicate a false report – slander – but the word signifies also a true report. In the present case the report, evidently, was true, though called “accused” perhaps because it was not made openly but whispered in the ear. The whole course of the narrative shows that the steward was guilty and himself says nothing against the master’s charge, surely because there was nothing to say. Squandering the property in relation to the manager most nearly signifies: manages poorly, has let the property fall into disarray, overlooks everything, all goes to waste. There is no sign that he was enriching himself from the master’s goods before; otherwise, upon removal from stewardship, he should not have expected extreme poverty, unless one supposes that while enriching himself he was squandering everything. The straightforward meaning is – the steward proved to be such that from his management there was no benefit either to the master or to himself.

Verse 2. “And he called him and said to him: What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward of my household” (Lk. 16:2).

The master only heard – and believed, and on the basis of hearing made the determination to dismiss the steward who had not justified his trust. Surely, the fault was so evident that there was no need to verify its truth and make inquiries. The master straightforwardly decides: you cannot rule the household any longer – “give me” “an account”. Not “give” me an explanation or defense against what I hear, but prepare everything for transfer, settle the accounts and hand over the property and then leave my house and go where you wish.

Verse 3. “And the steward said within himself: What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg” (Lk. 16:3).

The master’s word was so decisive that it left the steward no hope of remaining in his former position. Meanwhile he does not see himself hemmed in or watched over – he has full freedom to prepare his accounts. This freedom he used to provide for his own future. The extremity of his situation became clear – he was left with one of two choices: either to die of hunger or to lead a sorrowful and degrading life, to go work as a day laborer or to beg for alms. “To dig”, that is, to work with a spade in gardens, orchards and fields – the most common way for the working class on the East to earn a living. “To dig”, he says, “I am not able”, either because he is already old or because he is unaccustomed to it; “to beg I am ashamed” – surely, he was known in his place.

Verse 4. “I have thought of what to do…” (Lk. 16:4).

He figured out how to extricate himself, a happy thought came to him, the execution of which, being not difficult and lying wholly in his hands, promised him both shelter and sustenance and protection. What exactly was devised is not stated beforehand, but the plan was a good one, and the steward could confidently promise himself: “So that when I am dismissed from my stewardship, they may receive me into their houses” (Lk. 16:4).

Verses 5–7. What was devised becomes evident from the deed itself, but as it was conceived so immediately it was done. The plan was executed with haste: perhaps there was no time, or perhaps it was intended that the unexpected generosity of the proposal would strike the debtors and dispose them all the more in his favor. Questions directed to the same end: How much do you owe? and you, how much? (Lk. 16:5, 7). He knew how much each owed, but wanted to make the favor more striking, speaking as if thus: here is what a concession I am making to you, and to you this one. The consent of the debtors to this was assumed, there is no mention of it because the action proceeded in the spirit of their desires. It must have been clear to them also why this was being done, just as for the steward it was beyond doubt that he would not be forgotten. Hence there is no mention of any secret agreement about this. The essence of the plan consisted in that the steward, in settling accounts, thought to do the master’s debtors a considerable favor by a reduction in their accounts, one fifty and another twenty parts out of a hundred, so that out of gratitude they would afterward receive him “into their homes”. What the one and the other measure signified, why one was given fifty and another twenty, whether there were only two debtors or more – the determination of these particulars meant nothing for the parable. The intention was only to indicate that the steward achieved his supposed end – he managed to provide for his own future.

Verse 8. “And his master commended the unrighteous steward, because he had acted wisely” (Lk. 16:8).

The steward did not multiply words, not only with outsiders but even with the debtors themselves: all was done silently, mentally, like mathematical calculations. Already the sum, the result, the deed itself showed how well everything had been thought out. One must suppose that the steward had already left his master’s house and been received into the houses of his master’s debtors. The master either guessed or inquired why and how this had been done, and praised the steward not for dishonesty but for how skillfully he had managed to provide for himself for the future while in such extremity, and how he had conducted his affairs so that no fault could be found.

Here is the chief point of the parable! All the rest was told only so as to form a continuous narrative. In telling it, the Saviour, evidently, touches only the surface, hastening quickly to reach this chief point: “And his master commended…, because he had acted wisely”. At this point the entire interpretation must focus its attention.

“The master commended” refers not to the Lord Saviour but to the master, the rich man. If one admits that the Saviour commended the unrighteous steward, then one must simultaneously recognize that these words are inserted by the holy evangelist. But this would disturb the entire narrative; the parable-history would remain without an end; the words “the sons of this age are wiser… than” (Lk. 16:8) and the rest would refer to the holy evangelist, and to refer them to the Saviour one would need to add before them: “saying”, for which there is no foundation. It is evident, moreover, that the discourse, from verse 1 to verse 13, proceeds uninterruptedly in natural connection and must be recognized as proceeding from the lips of the Saviour in its entirety. Consequently, He himself said: “the master commended” and thus did not speak of Himself but of the one whom He called master in verse 3 (Lk. 16:3) and master in verse 5 (Lk. 16:5). This remark is necessary for those who, referring the words “the master commended” to the Saviour, bring upon themselves the confusing perplexity: how did the Saviour commend the unrighteous? It is not the Lord who commends but the master.

The Interpretation

Here the parable-narrative ends – the interpretation follows. The interpretation itself is expressed in verse 9: “And I” also “say to you” (Lk. 16:9), which means the same as “this parable teaches thus”. But the Saviour does not proceed to this interpretation immediately; rather, as a transition to it, he places the thought of the comparative value of the wisdom of the “sons of this age” and “sons of light” on account of the approval expressed to the steward: “because he had acted wisely” (Lk. 16:8).

Verse 8. “The sons of this age are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light” (Lk. 16:8).

Who are these “sons of this age”, and who are the “sons of light”, and in what respect are the former wiser than the latter?

“Sons of this age” are those for whom the age to come, as it were, does not exist, who are occupied only with what is here, earthly, temporal, as though they are to live here forever. They do not think of heavenly paradise but hope to build it on earth and from earthly things. The Lord said of them: “the sons of this age marry” (Lk. 20:34). It is implied: and are concerned about nothing except what is connected with marriage. Among them, according to another parable, one takes a wife, another buys a field, another tests his newly bought oxen (Lk. 14:18–20), another is occupied with business (Mt. 22:5). All their treasure is on earth – and there is their heart (Mt. 6:21). They do not seek “the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Mt. 6:33). They are lovers of this world, conforming themselves in all things to this age (Rom. 12:2) and “walking according to the course of this world” (Eph. 2:2). They are not always evil and straightforwardly hostile to the divine order. Their distinguishing character is that “the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches” have stifled in them all higher aspirations (Mt. 13:22), and they live as if without God and spirit (Eph. 2:12). Having become such, they have become darkened in mind, in heart and in conscience (Rom. 1:21; 2 Cor. 4:4; Tit. 1:15). Therefore they are opposed to the “sons of light”.

“Sons of light” are those who “believe in ‘the light’ (Jn. 12:36). This light is our Lord Jesus Christ, who enlightens ‘every man coming into the world’ (Jn. 1:9). Whoever believes in the Lord passes from the darkness of this age into light (Eph. 6:12; Acts 26:18), and at the same time is wholly transformed himself and, having been darkness before, becomes ‘light in the Lord’ (Eph. 5:8). For this reason all who have believed, standing in the faith and acting according to its requirements, are ‘sons of light and sons’ ‘of day’ (1 Thes. 5:5). Many distinguishing characteristics of the ‘sons of light’ are indicated in the word of God. In the present passage, by way of opposition to the ‘sons of this age’, what is particularly drawn to attention is how they, having freed themselves from earthly and temporal interests, must seek above all the ‘Kingdom of God and His righteousness’ (Mt. 6:33) and strive only to ‘attain that age’ (Lk. 20:35). There should their treasure be, and with the treasure their heart (Mt. 6:21). This characteristic is among others so significant that St. Peter calls all Christians, born anew in the image of Him who created them, born ‘with a living hope…, to an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for’ their ‘sake’ (1 Pet. 1:3–4), so that the very Holy Spirit is nothing other than the pledge of this inheritance (2 Cor. 1:22, 5:5, Eph. 1:14).

In what respect then are the “sons of this age” wiser than the “sons of light”? More than one answer is given to this. Most directly in this respect: those know how to wisely arrange their affairs and direct everything toward the achievement of their supposed goals, while these do not know how to act so in regard to their principal affair: they do not display as much zeal, consistency and effort toward the attainment of their eternal goals as the former display shrewdness and resourcefulness in the attainment of their temporal and earthly goals. That this is indeed the case, everyone knows. But it is so not on account of the significance of the “sons of light”, but on account of their infirmities and deviations from their calling. In the essence of the matter, “in their own generation”, in the sphere of their goals and strivings, the “sons of light” are incomparably wiser than all the wisdom of the world. One needs only remember how they leave the dark realm of the world, how they extricate themselves from the snares of sin, how they manage to overcome the passions and outwit the stratagems of the enemy, how they discover for themselves the most secret path to God invisible and incomprehensible and enter into living communion with Him, to be assured that the “sons of light”, “in their own generation”, display such lofty wisdom that in comparison with it no amount of worldlings’ refined resourcefulness is worth anything. But the “sons of light” are such only when, standing in their place, they act with all diligence, conscientiousness and self-denial according to the requirements of that place. When, however, having given their word to be “sons of light”, conscious of the conditions under which this is possible, and believing in the promises connected with it, they do not strive to show themselves true “sons of light” and thus, in the face of most brilliant promises, do not stretch out their hands and do not take a step to obtain them; then indeed they appear more foolish even than the not entirely skillful worldlings. To such it is always fitting to address an instructive discourse: see how worldlings manage to direct all things toward the attainment of their worldly goals, how they form plans, devise means and with patience and persistence bring them to execution and do not cease their efforts until they obtain what they desire, which, however, is always trivial, transitory, fleeting; while you, having ineffable promises and undoubted assurances of them, and means of obtaining them at hand, abandon yourselves to negligence and carelessness, with no visible effort to act according to your “generation”, as your name, your calling and your promise demand.

This exhortation is precisely what is contained in the words of the Lord, as Blessed Theophylact and Euthymius Zigabenus indicate.

For those listening to the Lord it was understandable and instructive. The expressions “sons of this age” and “sons of the Kingdom” were well known at that time. By the latter were understood those who were to belong to the Kingdom of the Messiah, and by the former those who were to be foreign to it. Though the Saviour called them “sons of light”, yet by way of opposition to the “sons of this age” it was clear that by this He meant sons of the Kingdom, members of the promised Kingdom of the Messiah. As those listening for the most part understood that the Lord was the promised Messiah, and they themselves understood themselves as destined to participate in the Kingdom of the Messiah, so it must have occurred to all that this instructive word – the sons of light are less wise than the sons of this age (Lk. 16:8) – concerns them directly, and in all who were sincere it must have stirred the conviction of conscience, that if they are indeed caught up in earthly interests and, ensnared by them, cannot unfold themselves so that, believing the Lord’s word and clinging to Him, they begin to act as they ought to act as destined sons of the Kingdom, then they are more foolish than those whom they consider beneath and worse than themselves. This reproachful reminder, very keenly felt, could not remain without effect. It was powerful in awakening the impulse to take one’s place and maintain one’s significance by following the Lord. This was the very goal of the Saviour in setting forth this saying, to sow in the hearts of those who heard Him such a convicting thought, just as in another place He said directly: “the sons of the kingdom will be cast out” beyond” (Mt. 8:12). The Pharisees understood this and, as it did not please them, spoke murmuring words (Lk. 16:14). But of course not all were of the same disposition as the Pharisees.

Among the others present, the Apostles had already forsaken all things. In relation to them, the Lord’s saying could only mean: as you have begun, so hold yourselves to the end, and see to it that none of you prove less wise than the “sons of this age” “in their generation”. What a powerful exhortation this was for Judas, destined to fall from his calling and lose his promise! As for the tax collectors who sought understanding, the Lord was indicating to them a way out of their evil moral condition. They already understood that their manner of conduct could not be in harmony with Israel’s promises; yet at the Lord’s word they could not help guessing that they were to do something in the manner of what the steward had done. The Lord was saying to them, as it were: see how the steward showed resourcefulness? You must act according to his example, and I shall now tell you how: “Make friends for yourselves from the unrighteous mammon” and so forth (Lk. 16:9).

Not far from the truth, perhaps, is the opinion of those who regard the “sons of this age” as wiser than the “sons of light” in this respect: that those know how to conduct earthly affairs, the business of life, worldly matters, while these do not. St. Basil the Great, in his interpretation of the Psalter (Ps. 48:11–12), having quoted these words of the Lord (Lk. 16:8), says: “They are not simply ‘wiser’, but only in this respect – to conduct this fleshly life… In the same sense even snakes are wise” (Basil the Great. Homilies on the Psalms. 48,11–12). When the “sons of light” happen to meet the “sons of this age” on the same field, they always come out losers. By their simplicity they cannot discern all the stratagems employed by the former and are always circumvented to the detriment of their cause. Directed toward the higher, transcendent life and as if touching the earth only with their feet, they forget altogether the methods necessary for establishing an earthly life, they lose all the wisdom of the earth; while the “sons of this age”, perpetually occupied with arranging all that is needed, in their estimation, for the comfort of life, develop an extraordinary deftness, resourcefulness and foresight against which how could the simplicity and trustfulness of the “sons of light” withstand!

There are also other opinions, not so relevant. Some think to reach the thought hidden in the Lord’s saying by starting from that characteristic trait of the “sons of this age”, according to which each of them, pursuing his own interests in everything, ever colliding with the interests of others, is necessarily in constant struggle with all people of his kind and must employ all sorts of stratagems to outwit others and not suffer loss but extract advantage from everything. This is unavoidable because, as the “sons of this age” proceed from selfishness, they cannot be at peace until they have protected themselves on all sides by their methods of self-preservation, in whose reliability they absolutely wish to be assured. But as everything in their sphere is flowing and changing, they are perpetually occupied in devising new ways to ensure themselves and defend against their peers, living by the same spirit. They have constant mutual warfare: now laying mines and now setting counter-mines. Wisdom of this sort is shrewdness and outwitting. It is indeed in constant use and in diverse application among the “sons of this age”. The “sons of light”, on the contrary, as those who rely on God for all their hopes, are free from such stratagems and live with one another in their circle, among themselves, in simplicity, openness and mutual trust, never suspecting anyone of any designs against them. Applying these notions to the Saviour’s saying, some find in it the following thought: the “sons of this age” are wise “in their generation” (Lk. 16:8), that is, they scheme and act shrewdly among themselves, while the “sons of light” are not wise “in their generation”, that is, they do not scheme or act shrewdly among themselves. The comparative degree is taken in place of the positive. The connection with what precedes would be thus: the master praised the steward because he “had acted wisely”, and that “wisely”, that is shrewdly, he acted, is because the “sons of this age” always act in this spirit of shrewdness and outwitting, which is entirely foreign to the “sons of light”. This is not a reproach for the latter; on the contrary, if they too should begin to scheme shrewdly among themselves, they would fall from their calling, would cease to be “sons of light”. Holy Apostle James calls the simplicity of the “sons of light” true wisdom, and while he calls the shrewdness of the “sons of this age” wisdom, he assigns it a very low and dark origin. According to him, the wisdom of the “sons of this age”, agitated by zeal and envy, is “earthly, soulish, demonic” (Jas. 3:15); but the wisdom which is “peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity”, is “wisdom from above”, divine (Jas. 3:17).

Others think thus: the “sons of this age”, acting in their sphere, always reckon on a sure return, so that from their transactions there is direct profit; they cannot allow unproductive expenditures: according to their calculation, coins withdrawn from the storehouse must return there again, necessarily themselves or more or less. The “sons of light”, on the contrary, in the use of their possessions do not know such calculations and spend, according to worldly judgment, quite unproductively: they give alms, help the destitute, establish hospitals, poor houses; they only spend and deplete their treasuries, and receive nothing in return. By the principles of the “sons of this age” this is not shrewd, not wise. They cannot possibly allow such an unthinking manner of action: too wise to fall into such an error. The “sons of light”, according to them, “are fools” (1 Cor. 3:18), although in reality they are intentionally such “fools” so as to become wise in the eyes of God.

Others think thus: starting from the praise given by the master to the steward for his shrewdness, they suppose that the Lord by His saying only pointed to the custom among the “sons of this age” of mutually praising each other’s successful stratagems. The thought is that people devoted to the spirit of the world, from those who belong to one and the same class with them in sentiments, customs and deeds, are considered wiser than those who, illumined by faith, act unflinchingly in its spirit and are devoted to the cares of pleasing God rather than to earthly well-being. These are considered foolish, outmoded, backward, although in fact by God’s judgment, those only seem wise but are not. Rather they are “an evil and adulterous generation” (Mt. 12:39), which, “professing themselves wise, became fools” (Rom. 1:22).

The first thought is preferred: it is more direct, more closely bound to the subsequent lesson from the parable and itself gives an instruction very instructive and impressive. But the other thoughts need not be rejected, if placed in the background as secondary. The sayings of Christ the Saviour cannot be rounded off according to the fashion of our judgments. Inasmuch as His word was attended to by different souls, each of which had its own needs and infirmities, Divine wisdom was able to invent utterances which gave each soul precisely what was needed for it. Therefore it is unlawful to examine the Lord’s words according to the laws of judgment concerning human speech.

Verse 9. “And I say to you: Make friends for yourselves from the unrighteous mammon, so that when you have been dismissed, they may receive you into eternal dwellings” (Lk. 16:9).

The Saviour speaks, as it were: this is why I introduced this parable! This is the lesson I wished to impart to you: “make friends for yourselves from the mammon” and so forth. In this saying the meaning of the parable is determined, the features are indicated which should be taken from the parable-narrative for its allegorical application. And there is no ground whatsoever to depart in interpretation from this outline made by the Saviour Himself. Those act contrary to the Lord’s intention who wish to give a spiritual meaning to every feature of this parable. By so doing they burden the parable with unnecessary additions, multiply perplexities and, by obstructing the lesson drawn by the Saviour with many considerations, rob it of the power of the natural impression, instruction and exhortation that is proper to it in its simplicity.

The features subject to allegorical interpretation are: mammon (wealth), the unrighteous mammon, and the acquisition through it of friends who are able to receive “into eternal dwellings” at the decline of life or at death. As the steward wisely acted when, having in his hands the property not his own, through obliging certain persons acquired them as friends, who received him into their house upon his removal from the house in which he had been living: so do I command you also to act wisely, says the Saviour – I command you that by the wise use of what you have and what, nevertheless, is not yours, even here on earth you make friends of those who are to receive you into eternal dwellings, after your departure from this life. One needs only to interpret what the unrighteous mammon is, who the friends are and how to acquire them, and the whole parable will be interpreted. Nothing more will be required for understanding it.

Mammon – the Syrian god of wealth – here signifies directly wealth, property, possessions; for which reason below, in verse 11, this word stands in place of “property”: “if you have not been faithful with the unrighteous mammon” and so forth (Lk. 16:11).

Why is mammon called unrighteous? In the time of Christ the Saviour this was a commonly used expression which meant the possessions of wealthy people, those who had more than necessary, who had grown rich. The title of “unrighteousness” does not necessarily point to unrighteousness in the means of growing rich, but expresses only the general judgment which is held even to this day and will probably always be held, that with wealth unrighteousness stands in close alliance, that for the one who has grown rich, especially if he has engaged in business ventures, it is difficult not to become entangled in some unrighteousness. It is difficult to acquire wealth with pure righteousness, difficult also to use it in all righteousness, because around it, besides much else, there always cling two major unrighteousnesses: excess of pleasures – luxurious living, and unwillingness to help the needy – miserliness in various degrees. Holy Apostle Paul speaks of those “desiring to become rich”, saying that they “fall into temptations and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction” (1 Tim. 6:9). Wealth could have been called unrighteous also because it bears unrighteous, not belonging to it, titles: it is called a good and a treasure, but it is not such; people think that it gives man a special dignity, but this is unrighteous, for the man himself does not become better, but only his outward appearance becomes more conspicuous through wealth; it is considered a firm support, but it is a rotten support, falling to ruin, transitory. Such a thought about wealth is expressed also by Christ the Saviour Himself. Below, in verse 11 (Lk. 16:11), He opposes to the “unrighteous mammon” the true, and consequently calls wealth unrighteous because He recognizes it as untrue, falsely so named, by reason of its impermanence, deceptiveness and falsehood. “The form of this world passes away” (1 Cor. 7:31). Thus, unrighteous mammon in the Lord’s saying means wealth, possessions, property, often in acquisition, and almost always in use ensnaring in unrighteousness and, in itself, unreliable, undependable, deceiving those who trust in it.

Who are the persons of whom the Saviour commands to make friends? Most commonly they are understood to be the poor, and the Lord’s command is given this meaning: spend your property and wealth on the poor, so that they, remembering your benefit on earth, might after death obtain your reception in eternal dwellings from our Heavenly Father. But prayer for reception into dwellings is one thing, and actual reception into them another. In the Lord’s saying it is indicated to make friends of such persons who themselves will receive you into eternal dwellings, not merely pray about it to God. Besides, with this meaning it is supposed that the poor will pass into the other life before their benefactors, and all in the capacity of having pleased God to such a degree that they will be powerful to obtain such a great and final good as residence in eternal dwellings. But neither one nor the other can generally be affirmed. And in the parable the steward made friends of those not such as would be in poverty, though they accounted the reduction of their debt a favor to themselves, deserving gratitude and recompense.

Thus, although without the mediation of the poor, as we shall see, one cannot acquire friends pointed out by the Lord, yet the friends in the Lord’s word are not the poor themselves. The Lord says: make such use of your property that those who have eternal dwellings count it a benefit to themselves, and on that account receive you into those dwellings when you pass into eternity. Who then are such persons? God Himself, who is the determiner of the eternal lot of each, and His servants – the holy Angels, who receive the souls departing hence and, by God’s determination, place them in bright places, as the Lord subsequently says in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk. 16:19–31).

And here one cannot pass by the poor and needy: they are the mediators in acquiring friends in heaven.

To please God, to gain His mercy and nearness, those who possess property can do only through easing the lot of those suffering from poverty and all kinds of deprivation. Almsgiving given to the poor God deigns to appropriate to Himself and receives it as a benefit to Himself, as a loan, according to the word of the Wise one, who says: “He who is generous to the poor lends to the Lord” (Prov. 19:17). These loans God will repay when the eternal lot of men is being determined, when there will come forth the determination, to whom to enter into eternal dwellings and whom to be cast into everlasting darkness. Then the Lord will invite into the Kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world those who in their life fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, sheltered strangers, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, visited those imprisoned. Why? “For” He says, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt. 25:40). Thus the Lord Himself determines that He is the supreme Friend, having to receive into eternal dwellings, and shows the way to acquire His friendship. He is one for all, or contains all in Himself. That in the saying it is said “make friends” rather than “a friend”, this was required by the course of the discourse. Or it was said thus because the Lord with Himself understood also the Angels as executors of His determination concerning residence in eternal dwellings.

The holy Angels dwell in heaven. Those departing hence are received by them because they pass into their communion. Though God is the Determiner, yet the mediation of the Angels is fitting here. The Lord says: that they may receive you “into eternal dwellings” – not their own, but those determined by God for each – into those dwellings of which the Heavenly Father has “many” (Jn. 14:2). That this reception may be friendly, one must oblige the holy Angels of God. How? By reducing their debts. But what debts do they have? They have debts to those who have recourse to them. The needy turn to them in prayer and ask for help. By receiving prayer, they incur the debt to help those who pray; and by incurring a debt, they cannot but be concerned about repaying it. How is this done? Through wealthy and powerful people among whom the needy live and pray. The heavenly beings, entreated, descend to earth, go about those who are able to do good, and inspire one to do one thing, another to do another good deed. When the desire to help someone specifically comes unexpectedly to your heart, know that at that moment an Angel stands at your heart and puts these good thoughts into it, and do not refuse to fulfill them. Whoever listens to this inspiration and fulfills it, pays the debt for the Angels (or the saints) and thereby brings them peace, so that they have no further need to seek other people able to render the required help. They accept this as a benefit to themselves and remember it; so when the benefactor dies and passes into the other life, the holy Angels (and saints) joyfully receive him as their friend, their like-minded and co-worker, and place him in eternal habitation, where the Lord has determined. St. Ambrose, in his interpretation of this passage, says: “By the words ‘Make friends for yourselves from the unrighteous mammon’ the Lord commands that by generosity to the poor we gain for ourselves the friendship of the Angels and other saints”.

Here is the whole interpretation of the parable, and one should not seek anything beyond this. We consider it necessary to append to this only one or another remark: 1) those who under “unrighteous mammon” understand only wealth unjustly acquired, too much narrow the meaning of the parable. Although such a thought is very fitting for one part of those listening to the Lord, namely the tax collectors (and Pharisees), yet for them a hint at the moral aspect of their growing rich, which is here and quite strong, would suffice. It is evident that the Lord did not wish to limit the meaning of the parable to them alone but embraced all who possessed means and could do good, as is evident from the application that follows (Lk. 16:10–13). The Lord was listened to not only by tax collectors; certainly others of sufficient means were also there, whose wealth was not unjustly acquired. When the tax collectors heard the Lord’s words, their conscience reminded them of theirs, and these others of theirs. For him who had wealth unjustly acquired, at the words “unrighteous mammon” the thought lingered more on the word “unrighteousness”; while for him whose wealth was not obviously unrighteous, the attention lingered more on the word “mammon” and presented to the mind a thought about wealth in general (by the usual understanding of the phrase “unrighteous mammon”). Both kinds heard a general lesson – to use earthly wealth so as to thereby merit eternal dwellings; 2) equally those confuse the meaning of the parable who in its lesson introduce a reminder about returning what was unjustly acquired to those from whom it was wrongfully taken, and even an exhortation about righteous acquisition. An unnecessary addition! The Saviour takes the acquired property as it is. Approval of returning unrighteously acquired goods He expressed in the example of Zacchaeus (Lk. 19:2–10). Here this was not in view. If there is a hint at unrighteous acquisition, it is such that returning it is difficult and impossible. Meanwhile there were souls who listened to the Lord’s word with the question: how should we deal with such acquisition? And they are given the answer: return it to God through the hands of the poor – He will set all right. Or as the Lord said above: “Rather, give as alms what you can afford, and behold, all things will be clean for you” (Lk. 11:41). If you cannot return it, sanctify what you have grabbed by giving alms. By this instruction that part of those listening to the Lord was reassured, whose conscience was troubled by the unrighteousness of acquisition which they could not return; 3) but on the other hand, there is reason to think that the meaning of the parable is not limited to indicating the beneficent use of wealth alone, but points to similar use of all that man possesses – his mental and bodily powers, knowledge, arts, external position, connections, service – all in general gifts of life received from God. Use everything for doing good, and by this you will acquire for yourselves friends in heaven and prepare there in advance eternal dwellings for yourselves. This thought can be seen in the fact of the parable that the steward provided himself friends and shelter by skillfully managing what was not his own. But for us everything is not our own, everything is from God in Christ Jesus, and we ourselves are not our own. This broadening of the meaning of the parable is justified by the fact that, immediately following this, in continuation of the parable-lesson, the Lord Himself dwells on the words “another’s” and “your own” (Lk. 16:12); 4) the words “when you have been dismissed” (Lk. 16:9) do not mean: when you have exhausted your property, but – when you yourselves are exhausted, when your strength and life are exhausted, in other words – when you die and pass into another life. For who is received into eternal dwellings? Not only he who has given away his property, but also he who is called from this life into another to receive righteous recompense for the God-pleasing use of the gifts of this life. Eternal dwellings are the mansions of the Heavenly Father (Jn. 14:2), blessed abodes in heaven. These words are spoken by way of comparison to the fact that the steward was taken by the debtors into “their houses” or dwellings (Lk. 16:4).

In confirmation of the fact that nothing further should be sought in the Saviour’s parable beyond what has been said, we present a brief extract from Blessed Theophylact’s interpretation of this parable.

“One should not“, he says, “inquire too minutely into what each feature of the parable means; but, taking from it what is necessary for its purpose, leave the rest as said only for the completeness of the parable-narrative. If in the present parable we were to investigate in detail who the steward is, who is the master who entrusted him with the management, who reported on him, what it means that one debtor owed oil and another wheat, what it means also that they owed by a hundred measures – in a word, if we were to inquire about everything and interpret it all; we would only darken the parable, and it is no wonder if we should arrive at something incongruous. Therefore we must take from the parable only what is essential and edifying. The Lord wishes to teach us by it the proper use of the property entrusted to us. We are not owners but stewards of another’s property given to us by God, so that we may manage it according to His holy will. His will is that we use what has been given us for the needs of our brothers, not for pleasures for ourselves alone. ‘Unrighteous mammon’ (Lk. 16:9) the Lord called property because it is given us for the needs of others, but we retain it with ourselves or spend it on ourselves alone. What then should we do? Let us make our poor brothers partners in our property, for which, when we ‘are dismissed’, that is, depart from this life, we shall be received into ‘eternal’ ‘dwellings’ (Lk. 16:9). For the poor the Lord repays, for ‘he who is generous to the poor lends to the Lord’ (Prov. 19:17). Understanding the parable thus, we do not allow anything superfluous and fanciful, satisfying only curiosity.”

To this same matter pertain also the words: “The sons of this age are wiser” than “the sons of light” (Lk. 16:8). “Sons of this age” the Lord calls those who are concerned about earthly interests and carefully devise all that is necessary for them; “sons of light” – those who should manage their property in a spiritual and God-pleasing manner. And here is what the Lord wishes to indicate! That people appointed to manage property, according to mere human reckoning, know how to arrange everything so that, in case of removal from office, they will not be in need, while “sons of light”, who are commanded to manage their property spiritually and for their soul’s salvation, do not know how to conduct this affair so that it would be well for them after this life.” (The same thought is held by Euthymius Zigabenus)

As for other interpretations, it is inconvenient to present them: there are extraordinarily many. No parable has produced such divergence of opinion as this one. Here is the briefest enumeration of them!

The ancient commentators all unanimously understand the rich man to be God. But in understanding the steward they diverge, understanding him as the Apostles, or bishops, or Christians in general, or rich men, or sinners, or the Jewish people, or the devil.

The modern commentators all unanimously understand the steward to be followers of Christ the Saviour. But in understanding the rich man they diverge, understanding him as God, like the ancients, or as the prince of this age, or as mammon, or as the world personified, or as Roman rule, or as the Roman emperor, or as an indefinite person.

Any imagined interpretation finds some application in the parable, yet none can be carried through all its features without strain, even contradiction. Even the thought that by the rich man we should understand God—though it is the most natural and has behind it the consent of the ancient fathers and the majority of modern commentators—cannot be accepted without limits. In applying it, one must keep within precise boundaries and must not extend it through all the features of the parable, nor is it possible to do so: at once we encounter contradiction. The steward managed the property badly and was dismissed for this. Yet he acted even worse and for this he is praised. If the same master—who is understood to be God—both condemns and praises, it would appear that God condemns for the lesser mismanagement but praises for the greater. To shift our point of view in allegorical interpretation is altogether illegitimate. Without the thought of God, the interpretation will not be complete; but one should not extend this thought throughout the parable, but rather hold to the bounds indicated by Blessed Theophylact. The interpretation in which the master is understood as the spirit of this age, the world, or its prince, is even less tenable. According to it, the steward is one who serves the world, living by the spirit of the world, who, having considered that all must end, comes to repentance and changes the manner of his life. Death will come and take all—and then judgment and reckoning. Driven by this thought, he begins to use his possessions and all the gifts of life for his salvation, contrary to the spirit of the world. The prince of this world observes this and stirs up persecution against him. The application stops there: we cannot go further. Yet even so far it did not accord entirely with the parable. The thought of death corresponds to the master’s judgment, but according to this interpretation it should precede it, as the cause of the use of his possessions that displeases the prince of the world. Moreover, this thought is not given by the prince of the world but is wholly suppressed by him. Further, the world or the prince of the world, noticing that his former ally (friend) began to act not according to his rules, condemns him to dismissal from his position. In the application this would mean: he stirs up persecution and oppression of the godly from the side of the worldly. And this is another thought applied to the same circumstance, which should not be the case.

From this method of interpreting the parable, however, we can borrow the thought of death as an instructor of him who disposes of God’s gifts not according to God’s will. The steward began to think and devised how to secure his future, by the fact that he saw himself in extremity. With the feeling of the extreme peril of his eternal condition, the thought of death strikes him who is at fault before God in the use of His gifts, and it swiftly develops in him corrective thoughts and feelings. Clearly picturing how he must depart from this life and pass into another, for which he has prepared nothing and in which, consequently, awaits him only humiliation and torment, it forces him to come to his senses and to be concerned for securing his future. From this moment begins the use of all things not for his own pleasure but for the good of others and the glory of God. The thought of death and the deprivations of the life beyond is sent into the soul from God. But, having implanted it, He leaves the unfaithful one free, so that he himself may consider how to extricate himself from his wretched condition. Thus this thought accords completely with the interpretation we have proposed.

Other methods of interpretation are even less suited to application. Almost all of them err in that they attempt to interpret the parable themselves, when it has already been interpreted by the Saviour, and, desiring to say something new, they fall into great absurdities. One should take only those features of the parable which the Lord Himself has indicated; everything else should be left without application, since in the parable narrative itself it was only mentioned in passing by the Lord, without the definiteness and limitations that could guide in interpretation.”

The Application

Having indicated the meaning of the parable, the Lord then makes an application of it, which, though it does not pertain to the substance of the parable itself, contains thoughts that greatly serve to clarify the lesson of the parable.

The Lord said that “the sons of this age” are wiser than “the sons of light”, so as to stir the zeal of the latter to surpass them in wisdom, turning all their efforts and heart’s desires from earthly things to the promises of the age to come. He then indicated the very way to secure, even now, possession of those blessings, teaching them to divide all without grudging among their brothers in need. Since the condition for successful fulfillment of this is to regard oneself in relation to the goods of life as a steward—and this demands complete detachment from them, so that the heart is attached to nothing and bound by nothing—the Lord now directs His discourse to awakening this detachment.

What hinders most of all detachment from what we possess? The allure of what it is possible to acquire. This very allure from the face of what is possessed the Lord wishes to sweep away, saying: do not be attached to earthly things, for all these goods are trivial compared with those prepared for you in the other life—these are small, but those are great (Lk. 16:10); these are false, deceptive, unreliable, while those are true, unchangeable, and trustworthy (Lk. 16:11); these are alien to you, but those are yours (Lk. 16:12).

But since such indication could not be impressive for all, in one and the same discourse the indication is combined with the declaration of God’s eternal justice. If some are not enlightened by the first, they may be terrified by the second. For when the Lord says: “who will give you?” “who will trust you?” (Lk. 16:11,12)—He manifestly means to say: you will surely not receive. Unfaithfulness here is the same as attachment. The Lord speaks as it were: because you are attached to what is small, false, and alien, you shall not receive what is your own, what is true, what is great. Such is God’s judgment (Lk. 16:10–12).

The Lord completes these two indications—concerning the undesirable properties of earthly things and concerning judgment for attachment to them—with an indication of the impossibility of being with God while cherishing such attachment, and consequently of the impossibility thereby of achieving the ultimate goal of one’s being, which is communion with God (Lk. 16:13).

In this lies the principal purpose of the whole discourse. The Lord wished to dispose those who heard Him to renounce all things, so as to open the way to living union with God.

Verse 10. “He who is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in what is least is unrighteous also in much” (Lk. 16:10).

It is as if the Lord answers a perplexity: why are temporal goods held in such high regard that upon their use depends the eternal lot of each person? He speaks as it were thus: True, these goods are small and trivial compared with what is to come; but, you see, this is a universal law: he who is faithful in what is small is faithful also in much, that is, is in general ultimately faithful, and is worthy of the full recompense belonging to the faithful, and vice versa. Here the character of conscientiousness is taken into account. If someone, in regard to what is small, in which it is easy to err because it is guarded by lesser motives and obligations, displays such a sensitive conscience that he does not permit himself to be in the slightest degree unfaithful to it; then all the more will conscience not permit him to deviate in something great, which is usually attended by greater and stronger motives and obligations. Conversely, if someone’s conscience is so weak that in small matters it yields to contrary impulses, how can he stand firm in great matters, when these require both greater self-denial and greater sacrifices? “What is least” the Lord here calls temporal goods—all the gifts of life; and “what is much”, or what is great, He calls life in the spirit, according to God’s commandments, not in the interest of earthly affairs but in view of pleasing God. The Lord says: whoever in regard to the gifts of life conducts himself as God has commanded, that is, without attachment to them but using them for those in need, certainly fulfills all the other higher commandments and God’s will in general. Whoever, on the contrary, conducts himself unfaithfully in regard to these goods has already bent his conscience and in regard to the higher demands of God’s will. And from this it naturally follows:

Verse 11. “If therefore you have not been faithful with the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches?” (Lk. 16:11).

To the unrighteous mammon is opposed what is true. Consequently, by the unrighteous is understood what is not true, that is, what is false, deceptive, impermanent, unreliable, in contrast to the true, which consists in the goods of the Kingdom of Christ, which are lasting, unchangeable, eternal—that is, in the gifts of grace and future blessedness in the eternal dwellings (Blessed Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus). The Lord says: if you have been unfaithful in regard to the first, who will trust you with the second; if you could not manage the first well, how can it be expected that you will manage the second well? This conveys the thought that the Lord speaks here, first of all, of the impossibility of entrusting the gifts of grace to those who are attached to the goods of life, for their use in their own salvation or for their administration with a view to the establishing of the Kingdom of Christ. In this case the instruction concerned, on the one hand, the tax collectors and those like them, and on the other, the Apostles, and it rebuked Judas most strongly, upon whom this sentence was fulfilled. But, secondly, the saying of the Lord can be taken as a sentence of God’s justice concerning only the eternal goods of recompense. In this case the Lord’s words would have this meaning: if, therefore, it proves that you were unfaithful in the use of goods that are false, deceptive, unreliable, then do not expect to receive, that is, to be granted, goods that are true, unchangeable, eternal in the heavens, in the Kingdom of Christ. The recompense the Lord presents under the image of entrusting goods—for administration and management, in keeping with the course of His discourse. In this way the exhortation embraces all the faithful in general—of all times, places, and conditions. The Lord deliberately used the word: “unrighteous mammon” (and not “false wealth”) so that thereby He might strike a mightier blow to the consciences of the tax collectors (and those like them) and further stir the feelings of repentance that had begun to trouble them, and urge them to swifter self-correction—from fear of being deprived of a share in the true, imperishable, and most trustworthy goods of the Kingdom of Christ on account of unfaithfulness (so manifest) in regard to the transitory goods of life. Opposed to this word is set: “the true riches”—also deliberately, to show that in the first case He means, in general, all temporal good as untrue, and thereby to take away every pretext for those who possess wealth obtained not unrighteously to excuse themselves from the judgment pronounced, and to dispose even them to receive the earnest care to manage it according to the intention and instruction of the Lord.

Verse 12. “And if you have not been faithful with what is another’s, who will give you what is your own?” (Lk. 16:12).

“Another’s” are likewise called the temporal goods, both because they are not ours but are entrusted to us for a time by God, and because they do not belong to our nature and do not enter into it, but are added from without and pass by us. That they are indeed such is evident from the fact that we bring nothing of them into this world, nor do we carry anything out (1Tim 6:7). “What is our own” is called the eternal blessedness predestined for us in communion with God, as those created in the image of God, and, as the means to obtain it, all “the divine powers…, which pertain to life and godliness” (2Pet 1:3), given according to faith in the Lord (Blessed Theophylact, Zigabenus, Augustine). This which is ours is not given us in unfaithfulness concerning what is another’s not only because the unfaithful one is subject to punishment and deprivation, but also because, in such a case, the capacity to receive “what is one’s own” is lost, sympathy for it is stifled, and the vessels for receiving it are damaged. This reminder embraced all; but it is not hard to see that it (besides the tax collectors) was especially directed to the conscience of Judas and should have awakened in him the fear of losing that which should have belonged to him by his election to the apostleship, pointing at the same time to the path of correction. And this saying about unfaithfulness concerning another’s property has the meaning of an eternal decree of God’s justice, as the previous one about unfaithfulness concerning the unrighteous, deceptive, and false, as it were: he who is unfaithful in another’s shall be deprived of his own. Yet it is expressed in keeping with the course of the discourse concerning the steward, to whom was entrusted or given for management—not what was his own.

One cannot but pause to consider the peculiarities in the Lord’s use of words. He gives a general instruction suited to all, but in each saying He deliberately inserts a word that strikes directly to the conscience of one or another of those who heard Him. “He who is faithful in what is least”—comforted and encouraged the Apostles; “he who is unfaithful” “in what is least” (Lk. 16:10), as well as unfaithful in what is another’s,—struck at Judas; “he who is unfaithful in unrighteous mammon” (Lk. 16:11)—convicted the tax collectors; the discourse that follows enlightened the Pharisees, who hoped both to possess much unrighteously and with attachment, and to please God or to appear to be working for Him. This cannot be, the Lord says.

Verse 13. “No servant is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cleave to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk. 16:13).

The unfaithfulness which the Lord has repeatedly mentioned before is manifest, as is evident from the meaning of the Lord’s lessons, in those who use the gifts of life, received from God in order to use them well for the benefit of their brothers, for their own pleasure, for empty comforts and luxury, and, besides, become so attached to them that they become for them idols, which they serve slavishly, wasting both time and strength to no purpose. It is clear that what was required of those who had become attached—as a reminder of the danger of their condition—was detachment from that attachment. Since it is very difficult to transform oneself, to give the heart an altogether different disposition, those who understood the lesson, to avoid the painful sacrifice of the heart, might think and wish to know whether it were possible to combine both: to live in pleasure with attachments, and yet to please God. Such were the Pharisees. To them and to those like them the Lord speaks, saying that this is impossible, illustrating it by an example well known in everyday life, the meaning of which in relation to spiritual life is clear. The Lord demands decisive—wholehearted, undivided—dedication to eternal goals, to that which He has called our own, true, trustworthy, and great, and decisive detachment from all else, the false, fleeting, trivial, alien to us. Whoever wishes to combine earthly selfish strivings with the hope of the eternal dwellings attempts the impossible. These are two opposites. Whoever stands on one side cannot stand on the other. It is impossible with one and the same heart to pursue successfully both temporal and eternal interests, as one cannot serve two masters as one should. The possession of temporal goods, their acquisition and preservation are inevitable in this life. It is not against this that the Lord speaks, but against attachment to these goods, against the unceasing care only for acquiring more and living more comfortably here. This care for the earthly, which from morning to night torments and drives those attached to the love of gain, is the yoke of bondage, under which, like serfs, labor these slaves of mammon, having neither time nor desire to sigh for that which is above the earth and which awaits them after this temporal life. The Lord says: have what is given, but do not be a slave of it, but rather a master, freely possessing, freely disposing, and freely giving it without grudging. How to possess without the love of gain, how to acquire, preserve, and use without the servile care—this is the Christian wisdom taught by the Spirit of grace to those who seek it with all their heart. But that this is not impossible is shown by and continues to be shown by experience; and that it is obligatory, lo, we hear the word of the Lord. And the word “steward” best expresses how everyone ought to conduct himself in relation to the gifts of life. Own all and manage it, but as what is another’s, entrusted to you for a time for good use, according to the intention of the giver, with the accountability that lies therein. Through this you will prove yourself no less wise than “the sons of this age” (Lk. 16:8); through this you will acquire for yourself eternal friends and the eternal dwellings; through this you will prove your faithfulness in what is small, unreliable, transitory, and another’s, and will be worthy to receive what is great and truly your own; through this alone will you testify that you serve God, not mammon.

“You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk. 16:13).

To this conclusion the whole discourse has been tending. The discourse appeared to treat an outward prudent action in regard to temporal goods; but the inner, guiding thought was—wholehearted service to God alone, through detachment from all attachments in walking according to God’s will, and in this sphere of deeds small in comparison with others. Their value in the eyes of God is conditioned by the complete belonging of the heart to God. Over all that is entrusted to man for this life, the Lord writes a superscription: this is for you, but to Me “give… your heart” (Prov. 23:26). Only he who is so disposed is a true servant of God. A divided heart makes a double-minded man, unsteady in all his ways (Jas. 1:8). The condition under which it pleases the Lord to recognize the wise use of wealth and all that is possessed as service to Himself is this: that, with the heart cleaving to God, with the hands one only touches what you have and possess, and all in accordance with God’s intention. In this too lies the means to possess without the love of gain. Let the heart be wholly possessed by the love of God and there will be no place for the love of money.

How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

“And Jesus said: Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospel’s sake, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life” (Mk. 10:29-30).

In the parable of the unrighteous steward (Lk. 16:1-13) the Lord spoke of the wise use of one’s possessions with detachment of the heart from them; here He speaks of the actual abandonment of all things—all absolutely, even parents and brothers, wife and children, not merely external possessions. The Lord gave this lesson on the occasion of His conversation with the rich young man (Mk. 10:17-22), to whom He proposed, for final moral perfection and for unhindered following after Him, to distribute all to the poor.

When the young man, unable to do this, departed grieving, the Lord said to His disciples how difficult it is for those who have riches to enter the Kingdom of God (Mk. 10:23)—that is, into the Kingdom of grace, so that, having lived in it by grace, they might be worthy of the Kingdom of glory. This is difficult for them because they are bound hand and foot by the love of gain and do not have the freedom to act even according to those rules in the lawfulness and godliness of which they receive assurance from God Himself.

This saying filled the disciples with amazement, accompanied by fear and dread (Mk. 10:24). Then the Lord explained to them that it is not wealth that closes the door to the Kingdom of God, but trust in it, when one leans upon it and rests in it; for the sons of the Kingdom must have but one support and foundation—the Lord Himself. Since such people do not have within themselves the essential and necessary disposition, they are recognized as unfit for the Kingdom of God. Considering how difficult this change of the inmost disposition is, this transition from one foundation to another, the holy Apostles showed even greater perplexity, saying: “who” then “can be saved?” (Mk. 10:26). The Lord said to them: For man, by himself indeed, such a change is “impossible, but… with God…” “all things are possible” (Mk. 10:27). He will send grace into the heart, transforming the old into the new—and all there shall be changed and transformed according to God’s will and purpose.

This perplexity was thus removed. But a different question arose in the minds of those who heard the Lord: what will come of this? Let the rich one become small like a camel passing through low and narrow gates, or become thin like a cord, if unraveled into fine threads that can pass through the eyes of a needle, but what will come of this, and what will it serve? The holy Peter asks on behalf of all: Look, for instance, we have left all things and followed You (Mk. 10:25,26,28). The thought that gave rise to this question is not shown here. It is not evident what exactly the holy Peter wanted to say and what he wished to hear. But the Lord’s answer shows that in his mind was the question: “what therefore shall be for us” and for those who act like us? (Mt 19:27). The Lord says: whoever leaves anything for my sake and the Kingdom’s, will receive in this age, “with persecutions…”, likewise “a hundredfold”, and in the age to come—“eternal life” (Mk. 10:30).

Some explain the origin of the question thus: The Apostles thought that they had, as it seemed, done everything necessary to follow the Lord. The holy Peter says to the Lord with the thought: “We have done all things” or with the question: “Have we done all things?”. According to others, this question arose from the fact that the Lord said to the young man: “sell” (Mk. 10:21), but the Apostles did not sell but only left; and so they wished to know how this would be received, whether it had value? But one must not forget that the Lord’s answer is not limited to the Apostles alone but embraces all. Indeed, the Lord saw that this question occupied all, not just the Apostles; and therefore gave an answer that extends to all.

The Lord’s saying is difficult to understand only in one respect. That those who leave all for the Lord’s sake will receive eternal life in the age to come requires no explanation. It is difficult to understand only how he who has left all will receive what he left a hundredfold in this age, with persecutions.

The first thought that arises is: cannot this promise be removed from this age? How is this spoken of by the other evangelists? Do they not have such turns of phrase on the basis of which the entire promise could be referred to the age to come?

Indeed, the circumstance on which the Lord uttered the difficult promise is described, besides the holy Mark, by the evangelists Matthew (Mt 19:16-22) and Luke (Lk 18:18-23). In the evangelist Matthew, the holy Peter asks: “what therefore shall be for us” for leaving all? (Mt 19:27). And the Lord answers that at His second coming you shall sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. But every one who has left all for my sake, “shall receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:27-29). Where he will receive a hundredfold is not said. But since it is added “and will inherit eternal life”, which is certainly in the age to come, the hundredfold recompense, it may be supposed, is here understood as well, in this age. The holy Chrysostom, quoting the text, after the words “shall receive a hundredfold” inserts from himself: “in the present age” (St. John Chrysostom. Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. Homily 64,1). Perhaps it is only that nothing is promised to the Apostles (we mean in the evangelist Matthew) in this age, so one might suppose that in the promise to all others besides them, everything should also be referred to the age to come. But the latter promise does not exclude the Apostles either. The discourse could be understood thus: you shall sit upon twelve thrones and so forth, and besides that, along with all the others, you shall here too receive a hundredfold of what you left. The holy Chrysostom says: “If everyone else, then the Apostles all the more should receive recompense—both there and in this age” (Homily 64,2). Moreover, it is inconsistent with the Saviour’s teaching to expect in the age to come a family life, even if it were in some better and purer form: for there “they neither marry nor are given in marriage” (Mt 22:30), for which the character of the spiritual life in grace serves as preparation, in which “there is neither male nor female” (Gal 3:28).

In the holy evangelist Luke (Lk 18:28-30) the question of the holy Peter is set down, as in the evangelist Mark (Mk 10:28), and the Lord’s answer agrees with the answer noted in the evangelist Mark (Mk 10:29-31), only it is expressed more briefly. As recompense to those who have left all, there is promised here—the receiving of what was left “many times over, in this time, and in the age to come eternal life” (Lk 18:30).

Thus, according to the testimony of all three evangelists, to those who leave all, for the Lord’s sake (Mk 10:29, Mt 19:29) and “for the sake of His Kingdom” (Lk 18:29), not only eternal life is promised, but also in this age, “in this time” (Mk 10:30, Lk 18:30), “with persecutions” (Mk 10:30), the receiving of what was left “a hundredfold” (Mk 10:30, Mt 19:29) or “many times over” (Lk 18:30). The question is, how is this to be understood?

We need not expect the literal fulfillment of this promise, not only now when all know that this has not actually happened, but even those who heard the Lord at that time could not expect that, having left all, they would receive back one hundred brothers, sisters, children, lands, and houses. On the contrary, the very manner of expression made it clear to all that the Saviour’s words were not to be understood literally. But then how are they to be understood?

It should be noted that the forsaking of all, of which the Lord speaks, if we judge by the example of the Apostles, refers to a voluntary forsaking, which one chooses for oneself for the sake of spreading the Kingdom of Christ, as, for example, the holy Timothy and Titus did, and as many others have done. But if we pay attention to the Lord’s subsequent words about the hundredfold recompense, now “with persecutions” (Mk. 10:30), then by it we must understand an involuntary forsaking, when persecutors compelled believers to abandon their families, or when their own kin, in the zeal of their impiety, deprived them both of their love and of their home. Since the number of persons of this latter kind was incomparably greater, it is probable that they were primarily what the Lord had in mind when He spoke of recompense.

The hundredfold recompense to such people was and could be of two kinds: 1) visible, in the persons of all believers; and 2) invisible, spiritual, in the heart’s feeling of well-being. 1) All believers formed one body, and this unity was not merely external but inmost, most sincere and heartfelt. The spirit of love, strong as death (Song 8:6), bound all together, so that each considered all as his own and all considered each as theirs. The degree of growth, spiritual maturity, spiritual gifts, and services only determined the shades of this love. But its power penetrated all equally. In this respect, an elder entering the fellowship of believers was received by all as a father and received from all the warmth of the love that befits children; a young man entering received from all the elders tokens and felt in his heart the warmth of paternal and maternal love, and from all his peers—tokens and the warmth of brotherly and sisterly love and the like. Thus, if someone, as a result of faith in the Lord, had to leave his kindred, then, entering into the midst of believers, he encountered as many familial loves as there were believers—hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands; for “a hundredfold” (Mk. 10:30, Mt 19:29) definitely expresses an indefinite number—in the sense of “many times over”, as the evangelist Luke states (Lk 18:30). Further, since believers, by virtue of their deep mutual love, shared nothing but considered all to be the common property of all, then for one entering into their midst, every believer’s house was open, and all the possession of each was as it were his own, ready to meet his needs. Thus he suddenly became the possessor of an innumerable number of houses, lands, and all manner of possessions. This is how the holy Chrysostom understands it, and after him Blessed Theophylact and Euthymius Zigabenus.

The holy Chrysostom says that in regard to the Apostles this promise was fulfilled thus: “Having left their nets, they had in their power the possessions of all people, their houses, fields, and even the very bodies of believers; many were ready even to die for them, as Paul testifies, saying: ‘if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me’ (Gal. 4:15)” (Ibid. Homily 64,2).

Blessed Theophylact supplements the holy Chrysostom: “Since from the preaching of the Gospel conflict was destined to arise (among men), so that children would renounce their fathers for the sake of godliness, so the Lord says: whoever leaves for the Gospel’s sake carnal kinship and all things carnal in general will receive all this a hundredfold even in this age, and in the age to come—eternal life” (Commentary on the Gospel of Mark 10). “Instead of a father he will have the spiritual fathers of the church, instead of a mother—the spiritual mothers of the church, instead of a wife—all believing women, not in a marital relationship, no, but in spiritual relationships, in spiritual love and care for them” (Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 19).

The same thoughts appear in Euthymius Zigabenus. He asks himself how one can receive a hundredfold or manyfold recompense for what was left still in this age, and he answers: “How? In the same way as the Apostles, the martyrs, and all the righteous received it. For behold, all the houses of believers were open to them; all saints (men) and all saints (women) became brothers and sisters to them, all who loved them as fathers, who cared and suffered for them became fathers; for this is the essential character of a father; all (women) similarly disposed toward them became mothers; all (women) who helped them and served them became wives; for this is the work of a wife; all disciples became children. Moreover, all that believers possessed, they had in their power. And what is especially marvelous, they possessed all this amid persecutions, being persecuted by the enemies of the faith” (Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 19:29). 2) When the Lord says: “will receive a hundredfold” (Mt 19:29), it is not necessary to understand that He promises as recompense one hundred houses and lands, one hundred brothers and sisters, and so forth. It can also be understood that the Lord promises here a hundredfold not of the same things, but in place of them or as compensation for them; moreover, it is permissible to understand them as goods of another kind—that is, instead of visible goods, invisible ones, instead of bodily—spiritual. Here the comparison will apply not to external possession of goods, but to the feeling of good, or well-being, produced by it. The union with parents and kin, the possession of a house and lands, in general a well-ordered family life, leaves in the heart a feeling of good, or well-being and prosperity. One who freely forsakes his family or is involuntarily driven from it for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s, is supposed to be deprived of this feeling, to be losing the sense of well-being, and thus to be wasting away, constantly suffering, and, as it were, dying. The Saviour says that it will not be so, but whoever leaves all “for my sake and the Gospel’s” (Mk. 10:29) will constantly feel within himself such a sense of well-being as he would feel if his former well-being were increased a hundredfold and more—“many times over” (Lk 18:30). The histories of the martyrs present many examples of the expression of such a feeling. And it is quite natural, given their living communion with Christ and in Christ with God. Inasmuch as they were united with Christ and clothed in Him, they took into themselves all the riches of Christ. This was not an imputation, not a hope, but an actual possession. What well-being, then, could have produced that sense of well-being which filled the hearts of believers?! It was this that made them capable of enduring all deprivations and all manner of indescribable sufferings. The Apostle Paul says: Both “the present” and “the future—all are yours” when “you… are Christ’s” (1 Cor. 3:22-23). And again he says: “I count all things loss… for the surpassing excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord” (Phil. 3:8). We are “more than conquerors through Him who loved us”—and nothing can separate us from Him (Rom. 8:37-39). That familial affections returned to them in Christ Jesus—in this He Himself assures us. When they told Him that His Mother and brothers were “standing outside”, He said that whoever does the will of His Father in heaven is to Him brother, sister, and mother (Mt 12:47-50). Consequently, conversely, He too for the heart of believers walking in God’s will was and is brother, sister, and mother. He alone replaced and replaces all kinship, to such a degree superior as He Himself is above all. The heart, naturally seeking familial affections, was satisfied, possessing Him alone, and it cannot be compared how incomparably more so than before. The holy Gregory the Great (Gregory the Dialogist) in the 18th Homily on Ezekiel says: “‘A hundredfold’, he says, ‘he will receive’ (Mt 19:29)—because God will make it so that such a person will be far more gladdened by poverty or the forsaking of all things for love of Christ than the rich are gladdened by all their wealth and all their pleasures. And this they feel in actual fact, those who for Christ’s sake leave all that is theirs”. The blessed Jerome also understands here the hundredfold recompense not as visible goods but as spiritual goods—that is, peace of heart, joy of spirit, unspeakable consolation, and other gifts of grace, with which God filled the souls of believers and which surpass all earthly goods and joys far more than one hundred surpasses one.

Blessed Theophylact similarly interprets the receiving with abundance of what was left in this present age: “This must be understood”, he says, “concerning spiritual gifts, which incomparably surpass earthly things and serve as a pledge of future goods” (Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 19:21).

The holy Ambrose, commenting on Psalm 118 in the eighth section, says: “He whose portion is God is the possessor of all. Instead of fields (abandoned), He Himself is the field bringing forth fruit that perishes never. Instead of houses (abandoned), He Himself is the most precious dwelling and temple of God. What is higher and more precious than God? This is such a portion with which no earthly properties can be compared. What is more majestic than this Heavenly Guest? What is more blissful than this possession of the Divine?”

Both these modes of understanding the promise of the Lord came to have application from the very beginning of the spread of Christianity. But in those times Christians appeared in the midst of unbelievers; and so it was natural that they were separated from their circle, persecuted by them, and suffered deprivations. In our time now, for example, among believers, what kind of application can the Lord’s instruction about forsaking all and the promise connected with it have? Practically the same as it had then: 1) Among us too there are preachers of God’s word who leave house and kinship and set out to preach the Gospel to the heathen, to wild places, to the Altai, for example, to Kamchatka or Abkhazia, accomplishing the work of evangelists amid deprivations of every kind. They are accompanied by the sympathy of all Russia, of all believers, who hear reports of their labors, expressed in word and manifested in deed. Receiving assurance in the attitude of believers toward them, evangelists feel that all are kindred to them, and all Russia—one native home to them. But at the same time it is undoubted that these visible consolations would not have covered their great deprivations, if at the same time their souls were not filled with superabundant consolations of grace, known only to them. With these higher consolations, no comfort abandoned and now at times provided by people could bear any comparison. Because of them, all the deprivations inevitably accompanying the work of preaching lose their painfully grievous character; 2) The second kind of forsaking of all in our time is when someone leaves the family life for the sake of more perfect following of Christ and the most sincere union with Him, through the purification of the heart from the passions by means of ascetical practices directed to that end, in a community of like-minded persons. Whoever truly does this as he should, entering into a new spiritual community, decisively breaks communion with his kinship and all worldly concerns and begins to labor in separation from them. This separation ought to be felt in his heart. But since he endures it not for the sake of some vain pursuits but out of love for the Lord, he is worthy of recompense, according to His word, not only in the age to come but in this age as well. And he does meet the like in the persons and possessions of the monastic dwellings on the one hand, and in spiritual consolations on the other. The brethren, receiving the newcomers as brothers, replace for them family love by their own love, appearing to them as father, brother, and in women’s monasteries—as mother, sister. Likewise, all the possessions of the monastery become, as it were, his own: he finds here both house, fields, clothing, and food. But one must also say in regard to them that even these visible consolations alone are insufficient for them. If there were not here spiritual consolations as well, no one would have enough patience to traverse this most difficult path to the end. And they do come, according, of course, to the measure of labor, self-denial, and zeal in spiritual ascetical practices. Such a thought is expressed by the holy Cassian the Roman (Conferences 24, 26): “One hundred brothers, fathers, and kinsmen does he receive who for the name of Christ forsakes the love of father, mother, or son, for he passes into the most sincere love of all who labor for Christ (in the monastery), where instead of one, so many fathers and brothers attach themselves to him with warm love. He also becomes rich with the possession of houses and fields, manyfold increased, because instead of one house abandoned for love of Christ, he becomes the possessor of countless monastic dwellings, entering into them everywhere as into his own”; 3) Finally, it can now happen that in some family all faith is lost, and the spirit of the world and the passions begin to reign in it despotically. When it should happen to someone from the members, especially not the chief ones, not to be carried away by that same spirit, or when the merciful Lord awakens in someone already carried away the zeal for salvation; then such persons, considering it obligatory before God to firmly hold to their principles, inevitably come into discord with all the established order, which does not accord with their disposition. Through this they become separated from the other members of the family, and those separate from them, and frequently even expel them from their circle. And behold—persons who have left kinship and home for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s, are persecuted for Christianity amid a Christian society by those who are called Christians! What then will happen to such persons? That which the Lord promised to all: both family sympathy they will meet, and shelter they will find everywhere among Christians who walk by the true spirit of Christ, and consolations of grace will sweeten the sorrows of their grievous path, upon which they have been placed by the hand of Providence, arranging all for the best. Examples of this are everywhere, although because of the scarcity of the spirit of Christ, persons of both kinds have become very rare—both those forsaking all for this latter reason and those disposed to receive them as their own.

An Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer in the Words of the Holy Fathers

Introduction

The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilievich Govorov on January 10, 1815, in the village of Chernavsk, in the Oryol region of central Russia, the son of a village priest. He was formed from childhood in the round of church services and parish life, and his gifts carried him through the seminary at Oryol to the Kiev Theological Academy, where he was tonsured a monk in 1841 and took the name Theophan in honor of Theophanes the Confessor. A teacher and academic administrator by his first vocation, he served on the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem in the years around the middle of the century—an immersion in the world of the Christian East that left a lasting mark on his reading and his labors as a translator.

His public career rose steadily. He was consecrated bishop in 1859 and given charge of the diocese of Tambov, and in 1863 he was transferred to the older and larger see of Vladimir. By every outward measure he was a successful hierarch: an energetic pastor, a founder of schools, a preacher whose sermons drew crowds. Yet the administrative life was never where his heart lay. In 1866, at the height of his powers and to the surprise of many, he asked to be relieved of his diocese and withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage, a quiet monastery in the Tambov region. There, within a few years, he sealed himself into a small suite of cells and entered upon the strict reclusion that would give him his name. For the last decades of his life he saw almost no one, kept his own chapel, and gave himself wholly to prayer, study, and an immense correspondence.

The seclusion was a change of instrument rather than a retreat from the Church. From his cell Theophan became one of the most widely read spiritual writers Russia has produced. He rendered the Philokalia—the great anthology of the Fathers on prayer of the heart—from Church Slavonic into accessible Russian, guided countless correspondents through their spiritual struggles by letter, and wrote works on the Christian life, on prayer, and on Scripture that are still in constant use. He died at Vysha on January 6, 1894. In 1988, at the council held in Moscow to mark the millennium of the Baptism of Rus, the Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints, and he is commemorated each year on January 10. His writings are prized far beyond the tradition that canonized him, for they carry the deposit of the ancient Fathers in a plain and pastoral voice.

The Work: Occasion & Purpose

An Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer in the Words of the Holy Fathers is, as its title frankly announces, less a book Theophan wrote than a book he assembled. It is a patristic anthology—a catena, in the old term for a “chain” of quoted authorities—built around the one prayer the Lord Himself gave His disciples. Theophan’s task was that of the compiler and guide: he takes the Our Father clause by clause and, at each phrase, gathers what the great teachers of the Church have said about it, letting their expositions stand in their own words. Where he speaks in his own voice, the text marks him plainly as “the Compiler,” and those passages are few and unobtrusive—a warm reflection here, a connecting thread there—set among the longer quotations they introduce.

This modest self-effacement is itself the purpose of the book. Theophan believed that the Church already possessed the deepest reading of the Lord’s Prayer, scattered across the homilies and treatises of the Fathers, and that a reader would be better served by drinking from those springs directly than by receiving one more commentary at second hand. His aim is pastoral and formative: to make the Our Father, which every believer says daily and often thoughtlessly, open again into the vast thing it is. He wants the person at prayer to feel the weight of each word—to know what “Father” cost and grants, what “our” obliges, what “daily bread” holds—as the Church’s finest minds felt it. The compilation is therefore devotional in intent even as it is learned in method.

Alongside the Fathers, Theophan folds in the classic Russian catechetical summaries of his own church—the Longer Catechism associated with Philaret of Moscow and the older Orthodox Confession—so that the settled teaching of the tradition sits beside the individual voices of its early masters. The book belongs to the last, reclusive phase of Theophan’s life, when prayer had become his single occupation, and it stands beside his several shorter writings on prayer as part of a sustained effort to teach ordinary Christians how to pray from the heart. Where those companion pieces treat the disposition and discipline of prayer in general, this one fixes on the single prayer that is the pattern of all the rest, and lets the Fathers unfold it.

Argument & Structure

The book follows the text of the Our Father in order, and its organization is simply the shape of the prayer itself. An opening section stands back to consider the Lord’s Prayer as a whole. Here Tertullian calls it “a compendium of the entire Gospel,” brief in words yet boundless in meaning; Cyprian marvels that the Son Himself has taught us what to ask; Gregory of Nyssa presents prayer as an ascent of the whole person toward God; and Maximus the Confessor compresses the prayer’s gifts into a single dense sentence—adoption, kinship with the angels, the restoration of our nature, the overthrow of the evil one.

From there the compilation walks the prayer petition by petition. The invocation—“Our Father, who is in heaven”—is opened slowly, across several sections, because Theophan and his Fathers find so much folded into it. One section dwells on “Father” as the astonishing grant of adoption, that creatures of dust should address the eternal God by the most intimate of names; another on “our,” the little word that forbids anyone to pray alone and binds every Christian to every other as a brother; another on “who is in heaven,” which lifts the mind above the earth. A further section draws out the moral “lessons” of the invocation: that to call God Father is to undertake to resemble Him, so that a life at odds with His holiness makes the very word a kind of falsehood. Here Gregory of Nyssa’s searching meditation and Theophan’s own reflection on how the sense of God’s fatherhood is awakened—by nature, by providence, and above all by spiritual rebirth—sit side by side.

The seven petitions then follow in turn, each its own section: “Hallowed be Your name”; “Your kingdom come”; “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”; “Give us this day our daily bread”; “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”; “And lead us not into temptation”; and “But deliver us from the evil one.” The Fathers are frank about the difficulties. If God’s name is holy already and His reign unassailable, what can it mean to pray that His name be hallowed and His kingdom come? Cyprian and Tertullian answer that we ask for our own sake rather than for God’s—that His name be hallowed in us, His reign established in our hearts. The petition for “daily bread” draws out its double sense, the day’s food and the Bread of the altar. The petition on forgiveness binds our pardon to our pardoning; the petition on temptation distinguishes the trials that prove us from the yielding that destroys us. A closing section takes up the doxology—“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen”—as the ground of confidence that so great a King will grant what His children ask.

A final section of “concluding thoughts” gathers reflections that look back over the whole prayer: Tertullian’s summary of the duties it enfolds, Cyprian on prayer joined to good deeds, Cassian on the “fiery” wordless prayer to which the Lord’s Prayer is a doorway, and Augustine’s elegant correlation of the seven petitions with the seven gifts of the Spirit and the Beatitudes. The roster of witnesses is deliberately broad and spans the whole early Church, East and West together: Tertullian, Cyprian of Carthage, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, John Cassian, Augustine, Maximus the Confessor, and later voices such as Theophylact, Symeon of Thessalonica, and Tikhon of Zadonsk, along with the classic Russian catechetical summaries. Theophan’s arrangement lets these many centuries speak as one continuous conversation over a single text.

Theological & Spiritual Significance

The significance of this little book lies first in its method. A catena is one of the oldest and most trusted forms of Christian teaching: rather than advancing a fresh thesis, it lays the accumulated wisdom of the tradition open before the reader and lets its convergences do the persuading. On the Lord’s Prayer this method is especially fitting, for no text of Scripture has been more continuously expounded. By setting Tertullian beside Gregory of Nyssa, and Chrysostom beside Cassian, Theophan shows that the deepest readings of the prayer form a shared inheritance, belonging to no single age or region—and, since the Our Father is the common possession of all Christians, the book quietly demonstrates how much the churches hold in common when they kneel to say it.

Its second contribution is pastoral. Theophan’s abiding concern, across all his writing, was that prayer should pass from the lips into the heart—that the words a believer repeats every day should become inward and living rather than routine. This anthology serves that end directly. It slows the reader down at each clause, refuses to let a familiar phrase slide by unexamined, and supplies the depth of meaning that turns recitation into contemplation. The recurring insistence of the Fathers—that to say “Father” is to accept the obligation of sonship, that to say “our” is to renounce all enmity, that to ask forgiveness is to bind oneself to forgive—makes the prayer a rule of life as much as a form of words. The book has, too, a quietly leveling force: Chrysostom, taken up by Tikhon of Zadonsk, presses the point that the Lord taught “our” and not “my” precisely to remove inequality and set the king and the beggar side by side before the same Father, so that no one who prays this prayer may look only to his own benefit.

Finally, the book engages, through its chosen witnesses, the great questions the Lord’s Prayer raises and has always raised: how the transcendent God can be addressed as Father; how petitions can be offered to One who lacks nothing and already governs all; how divine sovereignty and human striving meet in “Your will be done”; how the daily provision of bread and the forgiveness of sins belong to the same short prayer as the coming of the eternal kingdom. Theophan does not resolve these by argument. He lets the Fathers hold them together in the manner they always did—reverently, and in the confidence that the One who taught the prayer knew what He was giving.

The Text & This Edition

Theophan compiled this work in Russian, drawing the expositions of the Fathers into his own tongue for the Russian faithful of his day; the present edition is a fresh, modern English translation made from that Russian text, prepared from the public-domain version preserved in the digital library at azbyka.ru. It is an English-only edition: the Russian is not printed alongside, and the translation is meant to be read on its own as clear, contemporary prose. The aim throughout has been to carry Theophan’s arrangement and the Fathers’ voices into readable modern English without flattening their distinct registers—Gregory’s soaring rhetoric, Chrysostom’s warmth, Cyprian’s gravity, Theophan’s own plain counsel.

Because this is a compilation, the reader should understand what the translation renders and does not. Theophan quoted the Fathers as they stood in the Russian sources available to him; this edition faithfully translates the text he assembled, rather than going behind it to the original Greek and Latin of each Father independently. The expositions are thus the Fathers as Theophan gathered them, given now in English. Scriptural references are presented in the modern style, with Arabic numerals for chapters and verses, and the books of the prayer’s own petitions are set out in the familiar English wording.

In keeping with the conventions of this series, the work is attributed as the Church has always received its author—as Saint Theophan the Recluse—with his title of veneration recorded as a mark of honor rather than folded into his name. Those who prepared the translation are credited as translators, never as authors; the words remain Theophan’s arrangement and the Fathers’ exposition. Where the compiler speaks in his own person, the text preserves that distinction, so the reader can always tell the guide’s voice from the voices he has gathered.

Suggestions for Reading

This is a book to be read slowly, and ideally with the Our Father itself held in mind. Because it moves clause by clause, it rewards the reader who pauses at each phrase, prays it, and then listens to what the Fathers make of it, rather than one who reads straight through for information. A newcomer to the Fathers need not know them in advance; each is introduced by name at the head of his passage, and the passages are self-contained. It helps to remember that the same clause is often expounded by several witnesses in succession, each from a slightly different angle—so that an idea only glimpsed in one may open fully in the next. Read this way, the book does what its compiler intended: it returns the most familiar of all prayers to the reader made strange and vast again, and teaches, one word at a time, how the Church has learned to pray it.

On the Lord’s Prayer in General

Tertullian. Our Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself as both the Spirit of God, and the Word of God, and the Wisdom of God: as Spirit, by which He acted so all-powerfully; as Word, by which He taught; as Wisdom, which He disclosed by His coming. And the prayer is made up of these three: of Word, in which it is spoken; of Spirit, by which it is so powerful; of Wisdom, which flows from it and is received. John also taught his disciples to pray; but all that was John’s was being prepared for Christ, so that, as He increased, all the work of this forerunner, along with his very spirit, would pass to the Lord, as John himself had foretold, saying: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). And so the words with which John taught prayer have not been preserved, because the earthly must yield to the heavenly: “He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all, and what He has seen and heard, of that He testifies” (John 3:31–32). And what is there that is not heavenly among those things that came forth from Christ the Lord—such as this prayer, or the instruction on how to pray? Let us then, beloved, attend carefully to His heavenly wisdom: first, to the commandment to pray in secret, by which He required faith from a person—that he believe that the eye and ear of almighty God are present even in the most hidden and concealed places—and He desired of him a reverent modesty of faith, that before that One alone he would express his devout and prayerful feelings, in whose all-seeing and all-hearing he had come to believe; and then also to the commandment following upon it—a commandment requiring the same faith and modesty—not to multiply words in prayer, so that we would not come before the Lord with a multitude of words in prayer, being assured of His utmost solicitude for those who are His. Such is the prayer He has established. It is brief; but this brevity will provide rich and sweet nourishment for interpretation. As compressed as it is in words, so expansive is it in meaning. For it contains not only what ought to be expressed in prayer—reverence before God, and the outpouring of petitions to Him—but encompasses all the Lord’s teaching, and brings to memory all His lessons and instructions, so that it is truly a compendium of the entire Gospel.

St. Cyprian of Carthage. The Gospel commandments are nothing other, most beloved brothers, than divine instructions, foundations for building up hope, supports for strengthening faith, nourishment for fortifying the heart, a rudder for directing the way, an aid for attaining salvation: instructing the obedient minds of believers on earth, they lead to the Heavenly Kingdom. God was pleased to proclaim and set forth many things through His servants the prophets: how much more important, then, is what the Son says, what He Himself testifies with His own voice—the Word of God who was present in the prophets—no longer commanding that the way be prepared for the One who was to come, but Himself coming to reveal and show us the way, so that we, who had wandered in darkness, previously heedless and blind, being illumined by the light of grace, might keep to the path of life under the guidance and governance of the Lord! He it was who, among His other saving instructions and divine commandments that lead people toward salvation, Himself gave us a model of prayer, Himself directed and taught us what we ought to ask. He who gave us life, by that same goodness by which He was pleased to bestow on us other gifts, also taught us to pray, so that, turning to the Father with the supplicatory prayer the Son taught us, we might be the more readily heard. He foretold the coming of a time when true worshipers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth, and He fulfilled His prediction in such a way that we, having received the Spirit and truth from His sanctification, worship truly and spiritually, holding to His tradition. For what prayer can be more spiritual than the one entrusted to us by Christ, who also sent down to us the Holy Spirit? What supplication can be more true before the Father than the supplication that issued from the lips of the Son, who is the Truth? Therefore, to pray otherwise than He has taught is not only ignorance but also transgression, all the more so since He Himself once remarked: “You have set aside the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matt. 15:6). Let us then, most beloved brothers, pray as God our Teacher has taught us. To pray to God according to His direction, to reach His hearing through the prayer of Christ—this is a pleasing and accessible approach to Him! When we pray, let the Father recognize the words of His Son. May He who dwells within us, in the heart, be present also in our speech. Since He is the advocate with the Father for our sins, let us who are sinners, when praying about our sins, use also the words of our Advocate. He says that whatever we ask the Father in His name, He will give to us (John 16:23); will we not then be all the more certain to receive what we ask in the name of Christ, if we pray with Christ’s own prayer?

St. Gregory of Nyssa. The Word of God imparts to us teaching on prayer, in which it sets forth for worthy disciples who earnestly seek knowledge of prayer what prayerful words ought to be used to incline God’s ear toward oneself. When the great Moses was preparing the people of Israel for the sacred mysteries on the mountain, he did not grant them the divine vision until he had first prescribed for the people a law of purification through the observance of bodily purity and washing. And even after this the Israelites did not dare to look upon the manifestation of God’s might; everything visible—the fire, the darkness, the smoke, the trumpets—filled them with terror; and turning back to themselves, they asked the lawgiver to stand as their mediator before the divine will, since they did not have sufficient strength to draw near to God and endure God’s presence. But our lawgiver, the Lord Jesus Christ, intending to bring us to divine grace, does not point us by His word to Mount Sinai, shrouded in darkness and smoking with fire, nor to the voices of trumpets sounding something unintelligible and terrible, nor to the observance of three days of bodily purity, nor, having purified the soul with water that washes away defilement, does He leave all the assembly at the foot of the mountain and allow only one person to ascend to the summit covered in the darkness that conceals the divine glory within; but on the contrary, first, instead of a mountain, He leads us up to heaven itself, having made it accessible to human beings through virtue; then He makes us not merely spectators but also participants in the divine power; and those who draw near to Him He introduces in a certain manner into kinship with the transcendent nature; and He does not veil the all-surpassing glory in darkness so that it would be hard for seekers to behold, but, having illumined the darkness with the clear light of teaching, He has made it so that the pure in heart behold the ineffable glory in full clarity. He also provides water for sprinkling, not drawn from alien streams but flowing within us ourselves—whether one understands this as the fountains of the eyes, or the pure conscience of the heart—having ordained that no filth of vice be admitted; and bodily purity He places in abstinence, not only from the lawful union of spouses, but from every material and passionate inclination; and thus through prayer He leads us to God. For such is the power of the words from which we learn from the Word of God not merely certain sounds uttered in syllables, but an outline of ascent to God, brought successfully to fulfillment through an exalted life.

St. John Chrysostom. Having given the disciples a model of prayer, the Lord suggests what ought to be said in prayer, while also teaching every virtue in a few words; for these words contain not only instruction in prayer but also teaching in the perfect life. Let us then examine their meaning with all diligence, and hold them firmly, as the laws of God.

St. Maximus the Confessor sees in this prayer “theology, adoptive sonship by grace, equality of honor (of people) with the Angels, participation in eternal life, the restoration of (human) nature to its original passionless state, the overthrow of the law of sin, and the casting down of the evil one, who had subjected us, through deceit, to his tyrannical dominion.”

The Invocation: “Our Father, Who is in Heaven”

The Extended Catechism. For greater ease of examining the Lord’s Prayer, it may be divided into: an invocation, seven petitions, and a doxology.

“Father”

St. Gregory of Nyssa. “Who will give me wings like a dove?” (Ps. 54:7) says the great David in one place in the Psalter. I too dare to say the same words: who will give me those wings, so that I might soar in mind to the height of the majesty of these utterances—and, leaving earth behind, pass through all the spread-out air in between, touch the ethereal beauty, reach the stars, behold all their adornment, yet not halt even there, but pass beyond this too, and stand outside all that moves and changes, to embrace the unchanging nature, the unmoved power, established in itself and directing and sustaining all that has being, all that depends on the ineffable will of God’s wisdom—so that, having placed my mind far from all that changes and is transient, in an unalterable and steadfast state of soul, I might first become akin in thought to the Unalterable and Unchanging, and then call upon Him by the most intimate of names and say: “Father!”

St. Cyprian of Carthage. O, what condescension toward us, what an abundance of the Lord’s goodwill and goodness, that He has permitted us in the performance of prayer before the face of God to call God Father, and to name ourselves sons of God even as Christ is the Son of God! None of us would have dared to use this name in prayer, had He Himself not permitted us to pray thus.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. In the prayer the Savior handed down to His disciples, we, naming God Father with a pure conscience, say: “Our Father!” What exceeding love of God for mankind! To those who have fallen away from Him and reached the very extreme of evil, there is granted such forgetting of all that was bad, and such participation in grace, that they call Him Father: “Our Father!”

St. John Chrysostom. “Our Father!” O, what extraordinary love for mankind! O, what surpassing honor! What words would be capable of rendering thanks to the One who grants us such gifts? Look, beloved, at the lowliness of your nature and mine, consider what it is made of—this earth, dust, mud, clay, ashes; for we are made from earth, and in the end we dissolve back into earth. Having considered this, marvel at the unsearchable wealth of God’s great goodness toward us; by which you are commanded to call Him “Father”—the earthly addressing the heavenly, the mortal addressing the immortal, the corruptible addressing the incorruptible, the temporal addressing the eternal, one who yesterday and before was mud addressing the God who exists before the ages.

Blessed Augustine. In every petition, one first seeks to obtain the goodwill of the person being petitioned, and only then sets forth the petition itself. Goodwill is customarily secured by praising the one whom one intends to petition, and such praise is always placed at the beginning of the petition. It is surely in this sense that the Lord commanded us to begin the prayer with the words: “Our Father!”

In Scripture there are many expressions by which praise is rendered to God; but one does not find that Israel was commanded to cry out: “Our Father!” The prophets, it is true, called God the Father of the Israelites, even speaking in God’s own person: “I have nurtured and raised sons, but they have rebelled against Me” (Isa. 1:2), and: “If I am a Father, where is the honor due to Me?” (Mal. 1:6); but they called Him this evidently in order to reprove the Israelites for not wishing to be sons of God while enslaved to sins. As for the Israelites themselves, they did not dare to address God as Father; for they were still in the condition of servants, though they were destined for sonship, as the Apostle says: “the heir, while he is a child, is no different from a servant” (Gal. 4:1). This privilege was granted to the new Israel—to Christians; to them “power was given to become children of God” (John 1:12), and they “received the Spirit of adoption, by whom they cry out: ‘Abba, Father!’” (Rom. 8:15).

Tertullian. When we say “Our Father,” we both pray to God and at the same time express the faith whose fruit this name is. For it is written: “to those who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12). The Lord often called God our Father; He even commanded that no one on earth be called father except the One we have in heaven (Matt. 23:9). Thus, by calling out in this way in prayer, we fulfill the commandment. Blessed are those who come to know God as Father.—The name of God the Father had not been proclaimed to anyone before; even Moses, when he asked about it, heard a certain other name; but to us it has been revealed in the Son. For the Son brings forward a new name for God—the name of Father. And He also says plainly: “I have come in the name of the Father” (John 5:43), and again: “Father, glorify Your name” (John 12:28), and more explicitly: “I have revealed Your name to mankind” (John 17:6).

St. Cyprian of Carthage. The new man, reborn and restored by his God, through His grace, says above all: “Father,” because he has already become His son. “He came to His own,” it is said, “and His own did not receive Him. But to those who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God” (John 1:11–12). Therefore, whoever has believed in His name and become a son of God ought to begin by giving thanks and confessing himself to be a son of God, calling God his Father.

Blessed Augustine. By calling out at the beginning of the prayer “Our Father!” we bear witness to love by this very name: for what is sweeter for children than the name of Father? And we express confidence in receiving what we ask, when before any petition we represent ourselves as having already received that great mercy of being able to call God our Father. For in what petition could God then refuse His sons, having first granted them the power to be His children?

Say “Our Father” if you have begun to have God as your Father. One begins to have God as Father when one is born from Him again. You too have been born from Him in the womb of the Church. Remember, then, that you have a Father in heaven. Remember that in Adam you were born into death, but by God the Father you have been reborn into life. And what you say, feel it in your hearts. Whatever is in the heart of the one who prays—according to the power of that does the One who hears his prayer receive him.

St. John Chrysostom. “Pray then like this,” the Savior continued: “Our Father, who is in heaven.” See how He immediately encouraged the listener, and at the very beginning called to mind all of God’s benefactions. Indeed, the one who calls God Father, by this single name already confesses the forgiveness of sins, deliverance from punishment, justification, sanctification, redemption, adoption as a son, inheritance, brotherhood with the Only-begotten, and the gift of the Spirit, since one who has not received all these gifts cannot call God Father. Christ thus encourages His listeners in a twofold way—both by the dignity of the One being addressed, and by the greatness of the benefactions they have received.

St. Cassian. The Lord’s Prayer presupposes in the one who prays the most exalted and most perfect state, which consists in the contemplation of the one God and in ardent love for Him, and in which our mind, seized and penetrated by this love, converses with God in the most intimate manner and with particular sincerity, as with a father. That we must strive diligently to attain this state is suggested to us by the very words of this prayer. We say: “Our Father!” If in this way we confess God, the Lord of the universe, with our own lips to be our Father, we at the same time confess that we have been brought entirely out of the state of slavery and into the state of adopted children of God.

St. Maximus the Confessor. (The first word of the prayer leads to the confession of the Most Holy Trinity.) The Father possesses this Name not as something newly acquired… If, however, He is Ever-Existing and is always also Father, this means that both the Son and the Holy Spirit always co-exist with the Father in an essential manner. They naturally exist from Him and in Him in a way that transcends (every) cause and (every) reason. Thus, having begun this prayer, we are taught to honor the Consubstantial and Super-Essential Trinity as the creative Cause of our being. At the same time we are taught to proclaim the grace of adoption within us, being counted worthy to call by grace the One who is our Creator by nature our Father. And this is so that, experiencing reverent awe before the name of our Parent by grace, we might strive to impress upon our lives the features of the One who gave us birth, hallowing His name on earth, becoming like Him, showing ourselves by our deeds to be His children, and glorifying by our thoughts and deeds the One who is the Author of our adoption—the Son of the Father by nature.

Blessed Theophylact. The disciples of Christ rival the disciples of John and wish to learn how to pray. The Savior does not dismiss His disciples’ desire but teaches them prayer. “Our Father,” He says, “who is in heaven.” Note the power of the prayer. It immediately lifts you to what is above, and, since you call God Father, it persuades you to strive by every means not to lose the likeness to the Father, but to seek to become like Him.

The word “Father” shows you what gifts you have been counted worthy of, having become a son of God.

Symeon of Thessalonica. “Our Father!”—both because He is our Creator, who brought us into being from nothing, and because by grace He is Father to us, through the Son by nature, who became like us.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. From the words “Our Father!” we learn that God is the true Father of Christians, and they are “all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26). Consequently, as a Father, they ought to call upon Him with hope, just as fleshly children call upon their parents and stretch out their hands to them in every need.

“Our”

St. Cyprian of Carthage. The Teacher of peace and the Instructor of unity desired above all that prayer should not be performed separately and in private, so that the one praying prays only for himself. Indeed, we do not say: “My Father, who is in heaven, give me my bread this day”; each one of us does not ask only for the forgiveness of his own debt, does not pray for himself alone, that only he himself should not be led into temptation and delivered from the evil one. Ours is a public and common prayer, and when we pray we pray not for one individual but for all the people, because we—all the people—form one body. God—the Instructor of peace and concord, who taught unity—desired that even one person should pray for all, just as He alone bore all of us. This law of prayer was observed also by the three youths cast into the fiery furnace: they were in accord in their supplication and of one spirit in their harmony. This is attested by the Divine Scripture, which, showing how they prayed, gives us an example to follow, so that we too might become like them. It is said: “Then these three, as if with one mouth, sang in the furnace, and blessed and glorified God” (Dan. 3:51). They spoke as if with one mouth, even though it was not Christ who had taught them to pray in this way. And it was for this very reason that their speech as they prayed was persuasive and efficacious: a peaceful, simple, and spiritual prayer was pleasing to the Lord. After the Lord’s Ascension we find the apostles with the disciples praying in the same manner. “All of them,” it is said, “were constantly devoting themselves with one accord to prayer and supplication, with certain women and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His brothers” (Acts 1:14). They continued in prayer with one accord, showing both the earnestness of their prayer and their mutual concord, because God, who “makes those of like mind to dwell in a house” (Ps. 67:7), receives into His divine and eternal house only those whose prayer is of one accord. O, how great, most beloved brothers, are the mysteries of the Lord’s Prayer! How much and how great a meaning is contained in a petition that is brief in words but abundant in spiritual power!

…We say together: “Our Father,” that is, of believers—of those who, having been sanctified and restored by the gracious spiritual rebirth, have become sons of God.

St. John Chrysostom. He teaches us to pray for all our brothers as well. He does not say: My Father, who is in heaven, but “Our Father,” thereby commanding us to offer prayers for all of humankind, and never to have our own advantage in view, but always to seek the advantage of our neighbor. And in this way He destroys enmity, overthrows pride, eradicates envy, and introduces love—the mother of all that is good; He abolishes the inequality in human affairs and shows the complete equality of honor between king and pauper, since in the highest and most necessary things we all have an equal share. Indeed, what harm is there in lowly earthly kinship, when by heavenly kinship we are all united, and no one has more than another: the rich no more than the poor, the master no more than the servant, the ruler no more than the one ruled, the king no more than the soldier, the philosopher no more than the barbarian, the wise no more than the ignorant? God, who has counted all equally worthy to call Him Father, has by this very act bestowed upon all a single nobility.

Blessed Augustine. By the word “our” it is suggested that the rich and noble in this world, having become Christians, should not pride themselves over the poor and the lowborn, since even they call out to God with the same word as those others: “Our Father!”—words which they cannot utter sincerely from the heart if they do not acknowledge themselves to be their brothers.

Blessed Theophylact. You do not say: My Father, but “Our Father,” because you ought to look upon everyone as brothers, children of one Father.

(The Lord in the prayer) did not say “my Father,” but “Our Father,” rousing you to brotherly love and urging all to love one another as brothers in general.

“Who is in Heaven”

St. John Chrysostom. When the Lord says in the prayer “who is in heaven,” He does not by this word confine God to heaven, but draws the one praying away from the earth and places him in the highest regions and heavenly dwellings.

Wishing to teach us to leave behind the earth and earthly things and not to bow downward, but to take up the wings of faith and, soaring above the air and rising above the ether, to press toward the Father who is so named, He commanded us to say: “Our Father, who is in heaven”—not because God is to be found only in heaven, but in order to incline us, who creep along the ground, to strive toward heaven, and, having illumined us with the beauty of heavenly gifts, to turn all our desires in that direction.

Blessed Theophylact. In saying “in heaven,” the Lord does not confine God to heaven, but lifts the listener toward heaven and draws him away from earthly things.

With the word “in heaven” the Lord has pointed you to your homeland and to your Father’s house: therefore, if you wish to have God as Father, look to heaven and not to the earth, as irrational creatures do.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. It says “in heaven”—not as though God were confined to heaven, but to draw the one praying away from earth and lead him toward the heavenly dwellings, as St. Chrysostom says; and also (this word is said) because there is the homeland of the elect, and God shows Himself there in His glory, and gladdens the souls of His saints. Otherwise, God is essentially present in every place, both in heaven and on earth, as the Psalmist sings: “Our God is in heaven and on earth” (Ps. 113:11).

St. Cassian. We add to the prayer “who is in heaven,” so that, avoiding by every means the anxious thoughts about this present earthly life—as a life of wanderers, and one that leads us very far from our Father—we might with ardent longing press toward that realm in which, as we confess, our Father dwells, and admit nothing that, making us unworthy of our rank and of the nobility of such adoption, would deprive us, as those who have forfeited their birthright, of the paternal inheritance, and subject us to the full rigor of God’s righteous judgment.

St. Gregory of Nyssa. The words “who is in the heavens” remind us from what homeland we have fallen and of what nobility we have been deprived. In the account of the young man who left his father’s house and gave himself over to a swinish life, Scripture—by historically describing his departure and dissolute living—shows the wretched condition of mankind, and does not restore this young man to his original state until he has felt the weight of his present misery, when he came to himself and called to mind the words of repentance. And those words are somewhat in accord with the words of the prayer. For the young man said there: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you” (Luke 15:21); he would not have mentioned in his confession a sin “against heaven” if he had not been certain that heaven was his homeland, by abandoning which he fell into transgression. Therefore the recollection of such a confession makes his father accessible to him, who hastens to his son and greets him with a kiss. Just as there the occasion for the father’s loving-kindness shown to the young man was his return to his father’s house (and that house is “heaven,” against which he acknowledges his sin before the father); so, it seems to me, here also the Lord, by teaching us to call upon the Father “who is in the heavens,” makes a reminder to you of that good homeland, in order that, having stirred in you a stronger longing for the beautiful, He might set you on the path leading back to the homeland. The path that lifts human nature to heaven is nothing other than a departure and flight from earthly evils; and the means for fleeing from these evils is nothing other, I think, than likeness to God. To become like God means to become righteous, holy, good, and all that resembles these things. If someone impresses upon himself as clearly as possible the features of these perfections, then, as if by natural order and without effort, he will pass from earthly life into the heavenly realm; because there is no spatial distance between the Divinity and humanity such that we would need some instrument or contrivance to bring this heavy, burdensome, and earthly flesh into a mode of life that is not bodily but spiritual. Rather, by the rational separation of virtue from vice, it depends on human free will alone to be where one is inclined by desire. Therefore, since there is no difficulty in choosing the good, and acquisition follows upon the choice of what is chosen, it is possible to be in heaven immediately—even for you, if you encompass God with your mind. If, as Ecclesiastes says, “God is in heaven” (Eccl. 5:1), and you, in the words of the Prophet, “have drawn near to God” (Ps. 72:28): then of absolute necessity, one who is in union with God must be where God is.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Those who bear within themselves the “image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:49) may also be called heavens—to whom God has promised: “I will dwell in them and walk among them” (2 Cor. 6:16).

Symeon of Thessalonica. “Who is in the heavens.” For God, as it is written, being holy, dwells among the holy. The angels who dwell in the heavens are holier than we, just as heaven is purer than earth. This is why it seems that God is more especially in the heavens.

Blessed Augustine. Thus the new people of the New Testament, called to an eternal inheritance, cry out: “Our Father, who is in the heavens”—that is, among the holy and the righteous. God is not confined to any particular locality. However bright the sky may appear, it is still a material, bounded place. If God dwelt only in the higher parts of the world, birds would be more blessed than we, because they fly closer to God. But it is not written that the Lord is near to those who have ascended high—very high—or to those who dwell on mountains; rather: “the Lord is near to the brokenhearted” (Ps. 33:19), which is the condition of the humble and lowly. Just as a sinner is called earth when it is said to him: “you are dust and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19), so by contrast the righteous person may be called heaven. To the righteous it is said: “the temple of God is holy, and that temple you are” (1 Cor. 3:17). Therefore, if God dwells in His own temple and the saints are His temple, it will rightly follow that the words “who is in the heavens” are to be understood as “who is” among the saints. Such an interpretation is all the more appropriate because in spiritual terms the righteous stand as far from sinners as heaven stands from earth. And we turn toward the east, where the sun rises, when we stand to pray—not because God dwells there, having abandoned the other parts of the world, for He is everywhere always and in the full majesty of His being—but so that we may incline our spirit to turn toward the highest Being, that is, God, while our body, earthly as it is, turns toward a body higher than itself, the celestial. This phrase “in the heavens” also corresponds more fittingly to the degrees of spiritual growth, so that in prayer the hearts of all may be filled, according to their capacity, with feelings worthy of God. For those who are still captivated by visible beauties and cannot think abstractly of the incorporeal—since they necessarily prefer heaven to earth—it is more within their grasp to think that God is more in the heavens than on earth, because they still know God in a bodily way. But when they come to understand that the soul in its dignity surpasses every heavenly body, they will begin to place Him more in the soul than in any body, even a heavenly one. And having understood how far the souls of sinners stand from the souls of the righteous, they will—just as formerly, when they thought according to the flesh, they did not dare to place God on earth but placed Him in the heavens—now, enlightened by better knowledge and a higher faith, place Him and seek Him in the souls of the righteous and not in those of sinners. Therefore it is right to understand the words “who is in the heavens” as though it were said: “who is in the hearts of the righteous as in His own temple.” One who pronounces these words in such a sense should desire that He whom he thus invokes may also dwell in him; and desiring this, he should lead a righteous life—for it is only in this way that God is drawn to dwell in the soul.

Lessons From This Invocation

St. Cyprian of Carthage. And in calling God Father, we must remember and know, most beloved brothers, that we ought also to conduct ourselves as sons of God, so that as we ourselves rejoice in God the Father, so also He may rejoice in us. Let us abide as the temple of God, so that it may be evident that God dwells in us. Let not our deeds be unworthy of the Spirit: having begun to be heavenly and spiritual, let us think and do only what is spiritual and heavenly, keeping in mind what God has said: “for I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disgraced” (1 Sam. 2:30)—and what the blessed Apostle has written in his Epistle: “and you are not your own? For you were bought with a great price. Therefore glorify God in your bodies” (1 Cor. 6:19–20).

St. Gregory of Nyssa. What kind of soul is needed by one who pronounces the word “Father”? How great a boldness is required? What kind of conscience must one have, so that—having come to know God as much as possible and having understood that the divine nature is goodness, holiness, joy, power, glory, purity, and all else of this kind that the mind conceives concerning the divine nature—one might then dare to utter this word and name that Being one’s own Father? Clearly, if someone has any measure of reason and does not perceive in himself the same qualities that are in God, he will not dare to address Him with this word and say: “Father!” For it is unnatural for the Good by nature to be the father of one who is evil in deeds, for the Holy to be the father of one who is defiled in life, for the Father of life to be the father of one who has been slain by sin, for the Pure to be the father of those who have dishonored themselves through shameful passions. If someone, seeing that he still has need of cleansing and recognizing his sinful conscience as full of filth, includes himself among God’s kin before being cleansed of such vices—and, unrighteous to the Righteous, impure to the Pure, says “Father”—then this utterance will be nothing but an insult and a blasphemy. Therefore, when the Lord teaches us in prayer to call God Father, He seems to me to be doing nothing other than establishing a sublime mode of life that stands above all else; for truth teaches us not to lie, not to say of ourselves what is not in us, not to name ourselves what we have not been, but rather, in calling the Righteous and Good One our Father, to justify this kinship by our life. Do you see, then, what kind of life we need in order to have the boldness to say to God: Father? For if you love money, are preoccupied with the allure of worldly life, pursue human glory, serve above all your passionate desires, and yet take such a prayer into your mouth—what, do you think, will He say who sees your life and hears your prayer? These are the words I seem to hear God Himself speaking to such a person: “And you, corrupt in life, call the Father of incorruption your own father? Why do you defile a pure name with impure lips? Why do you use this word falsely? If you are My child, your life must bear the marks of My own nature. I do not recognize in you the image of My nature; your features are the opposite. Another father is the source of your evil qualities. My offspring are adorned with good paternal qualities: the son of the merciful is merciful, of the pure—pure, of the incorruptible—free from corruption, of the good—good, of the righteous—just. But you I do not know, where you come from.” Therefore, in prescribing in prayer to say that God is our Father, He commands nothing other than to resemble the heavenly Father through a virtuous life; as in another place He commands the same thing more plainly, saying: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). Just as the marks of likeness to God are evident, so also a wicked disposition has its own particular marks—and one who has them cannot be a son of God. These are: envy, hatred, slander, arrogance, covetousness, passionate desire, the sickness of vainglory—by such and similar features is the image of the adversary distinguished. Therefore, if one who has blackened his soul with such filth calls upon the Father, what father will hear him? Let such impurity be removed from your character. The Divinity has no share in envy or any other defilement—and let no such passions stain you either: neither envy, nor arrogance, nor anything else that mars the God-like beauty. If you become such, then boldly call upon God and name the Lord of all things your Father. He will look upon you with fatherly eyes, and, clothing you in a divine garment, adorning you with a ring, and furnishing your feet with the Gospel sandals for the journey upward, will restore you to your heavenly homeland.

St. John Chrysostom. You have not been taught to pronounce this word (“Our Father!”) in vain, but so that, revering the name of the Father as pronounced by your own tongue, you might imitate His goodness—as in another place He says: be like “your heavenly Father, for He commands His sun to rise over the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). Therefore, a person who has a disposition that is savage and inhuman cannot call the loving God his Father; for he does not have the qualities of goodness that belong to the heavenly Father, but has changed into the likeness of a beast and has forfeited the divine dignity. But one who is gentle and loving toward his neighbors and does not take revenge on those who sin against him, but repays offenses with good deeds, can call God Father without reproach. And notice the precision of the expression: how He enjoins mutual love upon us and binds all together with a disposition of friendship. He did not command us to say: “My Father, who is in the heavens,” but “Our Father, who is in the heavens,” so that, having been taught to name the common Father, we would show a brotherly disposition toward one another.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. By this invocation “Our Father!” we are taught:

1) that for all Christians there is “one Father”—God; consequently, they are brothers among themselves, as those who have one Father.

2) Christians, as spiritual brothers, ought to have love among themselves, to pray to God for one another, and as it were to send up a single voice from the heart to their heavenly Father: “Our Father!” “By this He teaches,” says St. John Chrysostom in his homily on this word, “to make prayer in common for the brotherhood. For He does not say: ‘My Father,’ but says: ‘Our Father’—to send up prayers on behalf of the common body, and everywhere to look not only to one’s own benefit, but also to that of one’s neighbor.”

3) When Christians are brothers in God, they all share one honor and glory. All, I say: masters and servants, the celebrated and the unknown, the rich and the poor, the distinguished and the simple—as brothers. And therefore they should not despise one another, since “they are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). “Thus,” says St. John Chrysostom, “He removes inequality from us and shows the great equality of the king with the beggar.”

4) How diligently they must guard themselves from sins, and more especially how they must resemble God in good conduct as sons resemble their father, if they wish to call upon Him and name Him Father without shame.

5) It is evident from this that an unrepentant Christian, until he has corrected and cleansed himself through true repentance, cannot call upon God with profit, still less name Him Father and recite this prayer. One must without fail abandon sins and fleshly lusts, repent, and depart from iniquity, according to the teaching of the Apostle: “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:19). For how can one say to Him: “Our Father,” while in one’s own conduct one resembles the beasts or the devil? For those who call God Father and pray: “Our Father”—must be children of God, and in children there must be qualities resembling their father. Therefore one must without fail, like the prodigal son, come to oneself, turn, and return to the Father, and before Him with humility acknowledge one’s sin: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before You and am no longer worthy to be called Your son” (Luke 15:17–21)—and henceforth not be separated from the Heavenly Father, but serve Him with a pure heart, and share in the company of His household, that is, of true Christians, and so together with them send up to Him the common cry: “Our Father!”

The Compiler (St. Theophan the Recluse). “Our Father!” What a sweet invocation! The name of Father is both warm and sobering. One who has a father feels himself sheltered under a mighty wing, completely safe and protected; he also feels that there is nothing he needs to worry about or trouble himself over—everything will be there: food, clothing, shelter—and all he need do is turn to his father when he wants something, and he will receive everything.

The same feelings belong to one who is able to recognize and feel God as his Father. As soon as the assurance arises in someone that God is his Father, those feelings that children ordinarily have toward their father will at once settle in his heart—he will feel himself dwelling in a safe home, in carefree contentment, and in firm hope that everything will be given to him that he asks for in a worthy manner.

Here, then, is where all the power lies—in rising to the feeling that God is our Father. But how is this done? By clarifying the relationships into which it has pleased God to place Himself toward us. Reflect on what God is for us—and you will arrive at it.

First. God is our Father even by the natural order. For in creating man, He breathed into his face the breath of His own life. This breath—not fleshly but spiritual—does not cease to animate all people, and the traces of what is divine in it are indelible. Thus we are related to God by nature. This thought, though abstract, is not far from common feeling. And St. Paul did not hesitate to use it to instruct the Athenians, not merely calling to their memory the words of one of their own scholars: “we are His offspring”—but drawing from it a very telling conclusion: “being then the offspring of God” (Acts 17:28–29). Every person can arrive at such a conviction, or rather, revive it in himself, and then say in his heart: being of God’s offspring, you can and should feel yourself akin to God and have Him as your progenitor and the common Father of all.

Second. God is our Father in His providential care for us. For having created us, He preserves us, holds us in His right hand, leads us to our end, and surrounds us with every kind of care—more than a natural father. Therefore, come to the seeing and the feeling of God’s providential care—not just for all in general, but for you yourself—and then you will involuntarily cry out: “Our Father!”

But how is this to be attained?—By reflection. Be willing to reflect and to trace through all that God has done for the human race: how He placed us in paradise for blessedness; how He did not leave us in our fall, but devised a means for restoring what we had lost; how He then led us toward receiving our Restorer—first all alike, then separately, the Jews in one way and the other peoples in another; how at last that Restorer came and accomplished the work of restoration; how the work of appropriating that restoration then proceeded through our race; how in this God turned whole peoples and drew countless multitudes of individuals; how He turned our own people and preserves among them the restorative forces. If you wish to see the more particular workings of God’s care, trace the history of Abraham, Joseph, Job, David, Hezekiah, and other great men; look at our native history and its great men. In all of this you cannot fail to see that God thinks much and takes much care of us. Is He not then the Father of our race?

Then pass in reflection to yourself and trace all that has happened to you. You will see many deliverances by God from calamities and falls, and throughout your whole life a special and beneficent direction of it by the hand of God. God’s hidden blessings are far more numerous than the manifest ones. They are hidden because they are invisible at the time they are given and are perceived only afterward—and this with tangible clarity. Such an understanding and vision of God’s care—unseen at its proper time and discerned afterward—gives the conviction that even now God is providentially ordering our existence and well-being, though we cannot point to it with certainty. From this one cannot help but carry away the conviction that the eye of God is benevolently turned upon us, and His right hand holds, covers, and guides us, directing the course of our life along a good path. When this is felt, the heart itself will cry out irresistibly: “Our Father!”

Third. God is our Father by virtue of spiritual rebirth. In this respect one must marvel at how little—or no—feeling we Christians have that God is our Father. For Christians this feeling ought to be present in the heart of itself, without any special effort to produce it. For they have been born of God. The holy Evangelist John writes: “to those who received Him”—the Word of God, who came in the flesh into what was His own—“who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13). When were they born? When, after believing, they were baptized. For in baptism one is born of water and Spirit. And whoever is not born in this way cannot enter the realm of sonship to God, opened by the incarnate Son of God. Being thus the offspring of God in the Spirit, we should also feel this with our spirit and have God as our Father in the spirit—not arriving at this through reflection, but feeling it directly.

Why then is this feeling weak, or altogether absent? It must be because the state into which birth from God places us has either entirely evaporated and passed away, or has grown faint. This state is absent? Then so also is the feeling of being a child of God and of God’s fatherhood.

Consequently, what is to be done? The state of regeneration must be restored in its full force; then the feeling of God’s fatherhood will also be restored. But how?

Reflection alone is not enough here. Reflection on what we ought to be as a result of birth from God, and on how all of this came about, can serve only as an introduction. Begin by examining what you ought to be according to your spiritual birth, and compare it with what you actually are. You will see a great discrepancy between the two, which lies upon you as a heavy reproach before your Christian conscience, before God and His angels. Reproach draws condemnation; condemnation is followed by punishment. Deepen these thoughts—which show a true and immutable reality—and you will be stirred. Being stirred, you will take care to avoid the expected reckoning. From this will come repentance and a resolve to live henceforth in a manner worthy of birth from God. In the sacrament of repentance the grace of regeneration is restored, or its working on the heart is purified anew. Here the feeling of God’s fatherhood ought immediately to be born as well. And indeed it is, for all who truly repent. Having received or sensed forgiveness, they cannot help but feel the father’s embrace, as in the parable of the prodigal. But afterward this feeling passes. There lies ahead the labor in the father’s house—at first like that of a servant, then like that of a hired hand. One who by constancy in labor passes through these stages will at last enter into the rank of a son. Then the feeling of God’s fatherhood takes up its dwelling in the depths of his heart and abides there without departing.

The Seven Petitions

St. John Chrysostom. Having mentioned this nobility through adoption, this highest gift, this unity of honor and the love among brothers, having drawn listeners away from the earth and set them in the heavens—let us now see what, in the end, Jesus commands us to pray for. Surely the very naming of God as Father already contains within itself sufficient instruction concerning every virtue: one who has called God Father, and the common Father at that, must of necessity so live as not to prove unworthy of this nobility and to show a zeal equal to the gift. Yet the Savior was not satisfied with this name alone, but added further sayings.

St. Gregory of Nyssa. The Law, “having a shadow of the good things to come” (Heb. 10:1), and proclaiming truth through certain typological intimations, when it introduces a priest into the sanctuary to offer prayer to God—first cleanses the one entering by certain purifying sacrifices and sprinklings, then, having adorned him with the priestly vestment richly embroidered with gold, purple, and dyes of other colors, having placed upon him the breastplate and the mitre, attached little bells and pomegranates to the hem of the garment, fastened the upper garment at the shoulders, and adorned the head with a diadem, abundantly poured oil upon his hair—finally leads him into the sanctuary to perform the mystical rites.

The spiritual Lawgiver—our Lord Jesus Christ—stripping the Law of its bodily coverings and making clear the figurative meaning of the types, does not in the first place choose only one person from the whole people to enter into conversation with God, but grants to all equally the dignity of priesthood, offering the common grace of priesthood to all who desire it; and then he does not adorn the priest with borrowed ornament found in some dye or weaver’s art to give a skillfully fashioned beauty, but lays upon him the proper and kindred adornment: in place of the variously embroidered garment, he makes him bloom with the graces of the virtues; he adorns the breast not with earthly gold, but gives beauty to the heart through a blameless and pure conscience. He also fits to this breastpiece the brilliance of precious stones—which, in the Apostle’s view, corresponds to the brightness of the holy commandments. And the lower garment protects that part whose adornment consists in such a covering—surely you know that the adornment of such a part is the garment of chastity. He has attached to the “fringes” of the spiritual life spiritual “bells,” “pomegranates,” and “flowers” (Exod. 28:34), beneath which another may rightly understand what is visible in a virtuous life, so that the passing of this life may be glorious; and therefore to these fringes, in place of a bell, he has given the harmonious word of faith, and in place of a pomegranate—the hidden readiness of hope in what is to come, concealed beneath a stern life, and in place of flowers—the beautifully blooming beauty of paradise. Thus he leads him into the sanctuary and into the inner part of the temple. This sanctuary is not an inanimate one made by hands, but the hidden chamber of our heart—if indeed it is truly impenetrable to vice and inaccessible to evil thoughts. He adorns the head with heavenly contemplation, not inscribing letters on a golden tablet, but engraving God Himself upon the ruling intellect. And upon the hair he pours oil composed within the soul itself from virtues, and prepares him to offer to God in mystical worship a fragrant sacrifice and offering—not of something else, but of himself. Thus led by the Lord into the priesthood, having slain the thinking of the flesh with the spiritual sword “which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:17), and then abiding in the sanctuary, he propitiates God, having consecrated himself by such a sacrifice and offered his body “as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God” (Rom. 12:1).

How one must prepare oneself, as one being consecrated, has been sufficiently shown by the word in what has been examined above; it remains to consider the very petition which the Lord has commanded one who abides within the sanctuary to raise up to God.

The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.”

St. Gregory of Nyssa. It seems to me that a simple exposition of the words of the prayer does not at first glance offer us a readily intelligible meaning. It is said: “Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come.” How does this relate to my need?—some person might say, who either chastises himself with repentance for sins, or, seeking to flee from the prevailing sin, calls upon God for help, because he always has before his eyes the one assailing him with temptations. There, anger throws reason out of its ordered state; here, desire for what is unseemly weakens the strength of the soul; at another time covetousness, arrogance, pride, hatred, and the rest of the opposing host—like some troop of enemies surrounding one on all sides and at the very extreme pressing the soul into danger. After all this, for one who strives with God’s help to be delivered from these evils, what words would be most suitable? Would they not be those used by the great David, who said: “Let me be delivered from those who hate me” (Ps. 68:15), and again: “Let those who devise evil against me turn back” (Ps. 34:4), and again: “Grant us help from distress” (Ps. 59:13)—and others like these, by which one may call forth God’s assistance against enemies? Now, however, what does the law of prayer say? “Hallowed be Your name.” Even if I do not say this, can it be that the name of God would fail to be holy?! “Your kingdom come.” But what has been removed from under the authority of God, who, as Isaiah says, holds all the heavens in the palm of His hand, all the earth in His fist, controls the watery element with His hand, and carries in His embrace all creation both in this world and above the world (Isa. 40:12)? Therefore, if the name of God is always holy, if nothing has escaped the dominion of God’s sovereignty, if He rules all things, lacking nothing in holiness, full and perfect in all things—what does the prayer mean by the words: “Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come”?

St. Cyprian answers in this way: “we say, ‘hallowed be Your name’—not as though we were wishing God that He be sanctified by our prayers; but we ask of Him that His name be hallowed in us. For by whom would God be sanctified, who Himself sanctifies all things?”

Tertullian adds: “so we pray not that it is proper for people to wish God well, as though there were still something that could be wished for Him and in which He would be lacking if we did not wish it for Him. But since it is fitting for us to bless God (Ps. 102:22) in every place and at every time, ever mindful of His great benefits toward us, this word (‘hallowed be Your name’) stands here in place of blessing—that is, in place of ‘may He be blessed.’—Moreover, when is the name of God not holy and not being hallowed in itself, since He sanctifies all things from Himself? But since the surrounding host of angels unceasingly cries out: ‘holy, holy, holy’ (Isa. 6:3. Rev. 4:8)—we also, as candidates for the angelic order, are even now being taught to send up to God the same heavenly voice, being trained here already for the future jubilation. Thus the first thought here is a thought of the glory of God.”

St. John Chrysostom. “Hallowed be Your name,” He says. To ask for nothing before the glory of the heavenly Father, but to count everything as lower than His praise—this is a prayer worthy of one who calls God Father! …God has His own glory, filled with all majesty and never changed. …By beholding it, the Seraphim also, in praising God, cry out thus: “holy, holy, holy” (Isa. 6:3).

He also says: Let no one harbor the foolish thought that an increase of holiness is granted to God by the words: “hallowed be Your name.” He is holy and all-holy and holier than all the holy ones. And the Seraphim offer Him such a hymn, crying unceasingly: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isa. 6:3). Just as those who offer praises to kings and call them kings and sovereigns do not give them something they do not have, but glorify what they do have—so we too do not impart holiness to God as though it were not already in Him when we say: “hallowed be Your name”—but we glorify the holiness that is in Him; for “be hallowed” is here used in place of “be glorified.”

St. Cassian. Having attained so high a degree as to be children of God, we cannot help but burn with a love proper to good deeds, which will cause us to seek in all things not our own benefit but the glory of our Father. Therefore we also say: “hallowed be Your name”—by which we testify that our hope, our joy, is the glory of our Father—following Him who said: “He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him” (John 7:18).

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. “Hallowed be the name”—that is, may Your name be glorified, says St. John Chrysostom. This means that we seek nothing other than the glory of God. A prayer worthy of one who calls God Father, says Chrysostom, is to ask for nothing before the glory of God, but to prefer His praise to all things. The name of God is holy and glorious without our glorifying it—but we must strive that it also be glorified in us.

The Compiler (St. Theophan the Recluse). A second thought in the word “be hallowed” is this: may it be reverently honored. For what is holy we surround with every kind of respect, before it we always stand with reverence, toward it we relate with fitting awe. “Hallowed be Your name” is the same as: implant Your fear in the hearts of us who sing to You!—And it is fitting for this petition to stand in first place: for reverent fear of God is the source of spiritual wisdom and a God-pleasing life. One who has it has both a guide, and an awakener, and a sustainer. As long as it is present, the soul is filled with unbreakable strength against every sin and for every good. Since, then, it is the first thing in the spiritual life, the prayer for it is also the first prayer.

Blessed Augustine. It has been said who He is to whom we direct our prayer, and where He dwells. (This is in the words: “Our Father, who is in the heavens.”) Now let us see what it is fitting to ask of Him. The first of all that is petitioned is: “hallowed be Your name.” We ask this not as though the name of God were not holy, but so that it may be held holy among people—that is, may God be known to them in such a way that they would not count anything else as more holy and would fear to offend anything more than His name. Similarly, when it is said: “God is known in Judah; in Israel His name is great” (Ps. 75:2), this is not to be understood as though God were less great in one place and more great in another; but His name is great there where it is named according to the greatness of His greatness. Thus the name of God is named there as a holy thing, where it is named with reverence and fear of offending it.

Why do you ask that God’s name be hallowed? It is holy. What then is there to ask—that what is already holy should be made holy? Besides, when you ask that His name be hallowed, are you not asking this on His behalf rather than your own? But understand rightly the sense of these words and you will see that you are asking it for yourself. For you are asking that what is in itself always holy may be hallowed in you. What does “may it be hallowed” mean? May it be held as holy, may it not be despised. Do you see now that you desire good for yourself when you desire this? For it is to your ruin to despise the name of God—not to God’s.

When we say “May Your name be hallowed,” we are urging ourselves to desire and seek that His name, which is always holy in itself, may be held as holy among people—that is, may not be despised; which is needful not for God, but is saving for people.

The Compiler (St. Theophan the Recluse). To these two thoughts, as a supplement and application, the following two may be added.

First. The name of God is glorified and reverently honored when the ineffable all-perfection of God is known, together with His majesty with its incorruptible righteousness and judgment, surpassing the measure of our comprehension. One can arrive at such knowledge even through one’s own reflection, guided by divine revelation. The humble contemplator of God cannot but conclude his God-contemplation either with doxology to God, wondrous in His perfections, or by falling before Him in fear and trembling at the contemplation of His boundless majesty and His awesome righteousness and incorruptible judgments. But such manifestations of doxology and reverence, proceeding from the measure of comprehension of God’s attributes and majesty, do not themselves rise above that measure and remain far from the measure of God. Besides, they arise as a result of the mind pressing upon the heart and are therefore superficial. True doxology and reverence, however, spring like a fountain from the heart, causing the mind only to marvel. This is produced by the action of God’s grace. It grants the feeling a taste of how good and great the Lord is, and after the heart draws the mind into the contemplation of this. And then true doxology and reverence arise in the depths of the soul. It also happens that, once established in them, they never depart from them. And it is this gracious operation that the words of the prayer proclaim: “May Your name be hallowed.” Grant, O Lord, that by Your grace our heart may taste how good, wondrous, and great You are, and that our mind may enter into the contemplation of this, so that our doxology and reverence may, even a little, approach Your measure and, having taken up dwelling within us, never depart from us! Is it not for this reason that the Lord commanded us to say “may it be hallowed” rather than “may we hallow”—because gracious doxology and the fear of God, when they come, act of themselves, leaving our spirit to be only a witness of what is happening and a taster of it.

Second. May Your name be glorified and reverently honored by all people. Those who pray for this certainly themselves glorify God and stand in reverence before Him, having recognized their duty to do so. Children naturally both honor and praise their father. But the very love for a father will not allow them to be satisfied with their father’s glory and honor only within their own circle; they desire and seek that their father be glorified and honored by all. So also with regard to God: those who call Him their Father cannot be satisfied with glorifying and honoring Him alone, but desire that all people glorify Him and stand in reverence before Him. Since this can only be fulfilled through the spread of true knowledge of God—through the spread of divine revelation—in the desire that all may glorify and honor God our Father, the desire is also naturally expressed that the good news of God be spread and His name be known by all. For our God is such that if you but know Him, you cannot but glorify Him and stand in reverence before Him. Blessed Augustine, having expressed the thought that the words “may it be hallowed” contain a petition that the name of God be reverently honored, added: “and this very thing the Gospel accomplishes now, as it is proclaimed to all peoples!” St. Cassian, after the words cited above about the desire for glory for the Heavenly Father on the part of children moved by love for Him, adds: “the chosen vessel, being filled with these feelings, desires to be accursed from Christ (Rom. 9:3), if only to gain for Him a numerous family, and to add to the glory of his Father the salvation of all Israel.” Tertullian expresses the same thought: “we pray that God’s name may be hallowed not only in us, who have already devoted ourselves to Him, but also in the rest of people, whom God’s grace still awaits. We obey the commandment that bids us pray for all, and even for our enemies (Matt. 5:44). Not saying ‘may the name of God be hallowed only in us,’ we thereby say: may it be hallowed in all as well.” Thus when we pray “may it be hallowed,” we pray that true knowledge of God may spread throughout all of humanity, so that from all people there may be formed one family of God—naming Him their Father, glorifying Him, and reverently honoring Him.

There is yet a third thought in the words “may it be hallowed”—which may be regarded as supplementary, like the two proposed before it, or taken as the direct thought of the prayer: namely, that God may be glorified by our life. This is the thought that all the holy fathers instill above all.

St. John Cassian. The words “may Your name be hallowed” may rightly also convey the thought that the hallowing of God is perfection. Therefore when we say to Him “may Your name be hallowed,” we speak as follows: “Father, make us such that we may understand the greatness of Your holiness, or be counted worthy to receive it, or rather, may Your holiness be revealed in our spiritual life.” And this is truly fulfilled only when people “see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

St. Cyprian of Carthage. Since God has said “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16), we ask and pray that we who have been sanctified in baptism may remain as we have begun to be. And we pray for this daily, because we need daily sanctification, so that we may cleanse our daily sins through unceasing sanctification. What the sanctification granted us by God in His goodness consists in—this the apostle explains, saying: “neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9–11). He calls us sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God; and we pray that such sanctification may remain in us. And since the Lord and our Judge commanded one whom He had healed and restored to life—with a stern warning—to sin no more, lest something worse befall him (John 5:14), we ceaselessly implore, we pray day and night, that the sanctification and restoration to life that we have received from God’s grace may be preserved in us by divine protection.

St. Gregory of Nyssa. Does Scripture, perhaps under the guise of prayer, not teach something of this kind: that human nature is too weak to attain anything good, and therefore whatever good we might strive for, we would not attain it unless God’s assistance were to bring it about in us? And the chief of all goods for me is that through my life the name of God may be glorified.

This meaning will become clearer through the consideration of its opposite. I hear that Holy Scripture somewhere condemns those who become the cause of blasphemy against God. For it is written: woe to those through whom “My name is blasphemed among the nations” (Isa. 52:5). And this means: those who have not yet come to believe the word of truth look upon the life of those who have received faith in the mystery, and therefore, when some bear the name of faith while their life contradicts that name—either serving idols through covetousness, or behaving disorderly in drunkenness and at feasts, or wallowing like swine in the mud of debauchery—among unbelievers there is immediately a ready judgment that condemns not the willfulness of those who use their life badly, but the mystery itself, as if it taught one to behave in such a manner, and as if such a person, initiated into the divine mysteries, would not have become abusive or covetous or rapacious or subject to some other vice, had sinning not been lawful for them. Therefore Scripture addresses such people with a stern threat, saying: woe to those through whom “My name is blasphemed among the nations.”

If this is clear to us, it will be timely to turn our attention to what is said on the opposite side. For above all, I think, one must pray and set as the chief subject of prayer that the name of God be not blasphemed through my life, but glorified, and that faith in the mystery be hallowed. Therefore in me, says the one praying, may the name of Your lordship, which I invoke, be hallowed; may people “see good works and glorify the Father in Heaven” (Matt. 5:16). But who is so bestial and senseless that, seeing in those who believe in God a life that is pure, advancing in virtue, free from all the defilements of sin, removed from all suspicion of evil, shining with chastity, worthy of respect for its prudence, manfully repelling the assaults of the passions, not at all weakened by bodily sensuality, keeping most aloof from entertainments, luxury, and vainglorious vanity, making use of earthly things only so far as necessary, touching the earth only with the tips of its toes, not drowning during its stay on earth in the pleasures of this earthly life, but standing above all sensory allure and in fleshly life rivaling the life of the incorporeal, counting the acquisition of virtue as the only wealth, kinship with God as the only nobility, mastery of oneself and non-servitude to human passions as the only dignity and only dominion, burdened by the prolonged duration of life in the material age and, like those in distress at sea, hastening to the harbor to find rest there—who, seeing all this and the like, would not glorify the name invoked by such a life?!

Therefore, whoever says in prayer “May Your name be hallowed”—in my view, by force of these words he prays the following: “With the help of Your assistance, may I become blameless, righteous, godly; may I abstain from every evil deed, speak truth, do what is right, walk in uprightness, be distinguished by chastity, adorned with incorruption, think on heavenly things, despise earthly things, shine with angelic life.” This and the like is contained in this brief petition, which in prayer calls out to God: “May Your name be hallowed.” For it is not otherwise possible for God to be glorified in a person except when his virtue testifies that the cause of all good things lies in God’s power.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. “May Your name be hallowed.” The name of God is holy by nature, whether we say so or not. But since it is sometimes dishonored among those who sin, according to the saying: “because of you My name is always blasphemed among the nations” (Isa. 52:5); we pray that the name of God may be hallowed in us—not because He goes from being not holy to being holy, but because it is holy in us when we are sanctified and do what is worthy of holiness.

St. John Chrysostom. Therefore, “may it be hallowed” means—may it be glorified. Grant us—as if the Savior thus teaches us to pray—to live so purely that through us all may glorify You. To show before all a blameless life, so that everyone who sees it may give praise to the Master—this is the mark of perfect wisdom.

St. Maximus the Confessor. We will hallow the name of our heavenly Father by grace when we mortify the lust that clings to matter and cleanse ourselves from the corrupting passions. For hallowing is the fullest stillness and mortification of sensual lust. Being in such a state, we silence the unseemly howling of rage, having no longer the lust that provokes it nor the lust that goads it to fight for its pleasures. And therefore lust, through holiness in accordance with reason, is mortified in us. For rage, bearing by its nature the retribution for lust, usually ceases to rage when it sees lust mortified.

Blessed Theophylact. “May Your name be hallowed”—that is, make us holy, so that through us Your name may be glorified. For as by my evil deeds God is blasphemed, so by my good deeds He is hallowed—that is, glorified as holy.

“May it be hallowed”—in place of “may it be glorified”—meaning: order our life so that it may be to Your glory. For as by the wicked the name of God is blasphemed, so by those who lead a good life it is glorified.

Symeon of Thessalonica. “May Your name be hallowed.” Since You are holy, hallow Your name also in us, so that, having become Your own, we may hallow Your name—and that being proclaimed by us as holy, it may be glorified through us and not blasphemed because of us.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. The name of God is glorified when His word is preached purely and we order our life according to His word, as Christ says: “Let your light so shine before people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven” (Matt. 5:16). This we ourselves cannot do without God’s grace. Therefore we ask the Heavenly Father to grant this to us graciously. Hence is seen our weakness—that without God we can do no good, as Christ says: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). If we pray that the name of God may be hallowed and glorified, then we must not seek glory from our good deeds for our own name. Whoever teaches or lives otherwise than God’s word teaches does not glorify the name of God. Therefore, that God Himself may not allow us to fall into this, we pray to Him: “May Your name be hallowed.”

The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come”

The Compiler (St. Theophan the Recluse). This kingdom is precisely the future Kingdom of Heaven, which will be revealed at the end of the world and at the dread judgment of God. But in order to sincerely desire the coming of this kingdom, one must be assured that we will be counted worthy of it together with those to whom it will be said: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). The one worthy of this is he in whom, even in this life, the reign of sin, the passions, and the devil has been cut off. This cutting off is accomplished by the action of grace through faith in the Lord the Savior. One who believes surrenders himself to the Lord, promising to live in holiness and blamelessness. For this, in the sacrament of baptism, the grace of the Holy Spirit is given, regenerating him to new life; from this moment it is no longer sin that reigns in him but grace, teaching every good and strengthening for its performance. This is the kingdom of grace, of which the Lord said: “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). The future kingdom is the kingdom of glory, while this spiritual one is the kingdom of grace. Prayer encompasses both kingdoms together. Otherwise, one who desires the speediest coming of the future kingdom, without having become a son of the kingdom of grace, would be desiring that the end of the world might come sooner and the dread judgment with it—at which he would inevitably be found on the side of those who will hear: “Depart from Me, you accursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). The holy fathers and teachers also take into account both kingdoms together; but sometimes only one—more often the latter.

Tertullian. The kingdom we ask of our heavenly Father is the future kingdom at the end of the world. We pray to Him for the speediest coming of this kingdom, so that we may enter it sooner and not be long detained in servitude, straining to “enter into that rest” (Heb. 4:11). In the Apocalypse the souls beneath the altar cry out to the Lord: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:10) So we pray: sooner, O Lord, “may Your kingdom come”—this is the desire of Christians, the confusion of pagans, the triumph of the Angels, for which we suffer and which we desire irresistibly.

St. Cyprian of Carthage. We pray for the coming to us of the Kingdom of God in the same sense as we ask God that His name may be hallowed in us. For when does God not reign, or when did the beginning of His Kingdom occur, which has always been with Him and does not cease to be? We ask that our Kingdom may come, promised to us by God, acquired by the blood and suffering of Christ; we pray that, having served in this age, we may afterwards reign with the Lord Christ, as He Himself promises this, saying: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). And we rightly ask for the Kingdom of God—that is, the Kingdom of Heaven; for there is also an earthly kingdom. But one who has already renounced the world is above worldly honors and kingdoms. Thus, one who devotes himself to God and Christ desires not an earthly but a Heavenly Kingdom. And for this, unceasing prayer and supplication are necessary, lest we fall away from the Heavenly Kingdom as the Jews fell away—to whom it had been promised first. The Lord says plainly: “many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:11–12). He shows that the Jews were formerly sons of the Kingdom as long as they did not cease to be sons of God; but then, with the abolition of the Fatherly name among them, the Kingdom was also abolished. Therefore we Christians, who have begun to call God Father in prayer, pray that the Kingdom of God may come to us.

St. Gregory of Nyssa. In the words that follow is contained a prayer that the Kingdom of God may come. Is it only now desirable that the King of the Universe should become King—He who is always the same as He is, unchanging with respect to any change, for whom it is impossible to find something better into which He could change? Therefore what does the prayer mean that calls upon the Kingdom of God? The true understanding of this is known to those to whom the Spirit of truth reveals hidden mysteries, and our understanding of this saying is this: above all there is one true power and might that rules and reigns in the universe—not by any violence, not by arbitrary dominion, not by fear, not by compulsions bringing into subjection that which is submissive to it, because virtue ought to be free from all fear and choose what is good not by cruel domination over oneself but by voluntary judgment; and the chief of all good things is to stand under life-giving authority. Therefore, since human nature has been led into error in its judgment of good by deception, an inclination toward the contrary has arisen in our will; human life possesses everything evil because death has in a thousand ways penetrated into nature; every kind of sin becomes as it were a path for death to enter us. Therefore, since under such arbitrary rule we are as it were certain executioners or enemies, enslaved to death by the onslaughts of the passions, we pray rightly that the Kingdom of God may come to us. For it is not otherwise possible to cast off the evil dominion of corruption unless the life-giving power takes dominion over us again.

Therefore if we pray that the Kingdom of God may come to us, in reality we entreat God as follows: “May I be delivered from corruption, may I be freed from death, may I be loosed from the bonds of sin, may death no longer reign over me, may the arbitrary rule of vice no longer hold power over us, may the enemy not possess me, may he not lead me captive enslaving me through sin; but may Your Kingdom come upon me, that the passions that now prevail and reign over me may depart from me, or rather be reduced to nothing. As smoke is driven away, so let them be driven away; as wax melts before fire, so let them perish (Ps. 67:3).” Smoke, having dispersed in the air, leaves no trace of its own substance, and wax that has been in fire cannot be found. Wax, having fed the flame, was transformed into vapor and air; and smoke came to complete annihilation. So when the Kingdom of God comes upon us, then all that possesses us now will come to nothing, because darkness cannot endure the presence of light, disease does not remain when health is restored, the passions are also without effect when dispassion appears, death is powerless, corruption vanishes, when life reigns in us and incorruption begins to prevail.

“May Your kingdom come.” What a sweet utterance! By it we clearly bring to God the following petition: “May the opposing power be scattered, may the company of aliens be destroyed, may the battle of flesh against spirit cease, may the body not be a refuge for the enemy of the soul, may there appear upon me regal dominion, the angelic hand, thousands of those who set things right, myriads of helpers at the right hand, that from the opposing side may fall myriads of adversaries.” The adversary is strong and terrible and unconquerable for those deprived of Your help, so long as he fights them alone. But as soon as Your Kingdom is revealed, “sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isa. 35:10), and in their place enter life, and peace, and joy.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. It belongs to a pure soul to say with boldness: “May Your kingdom come.” For whoever has obeyed Paul, who said “do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (Rom. 6:12), and has cleansed himself in deed, thought, and word, that person will say to God: “May Your kingdom come.”

St. John Cassian. With the second petition, the mind that has reached the highest degree of purity entreats that the Kingdom of his Father may come as quickly as possible, understanding by this that ever-present reign of Christ in the saints, which comes about when, after the foul vices are destroyed from our hearts, the power of the devil ceases and God, by reason of the fragrance of the virtues, begins to rule in us—when, instead of the vanquished carnal lust, purity reigns in our mind; instead of suppressed anger, tranquility; instead of trampled pride, humility—or that Kingdom which in the appointed time is promised to all who have attained perfection and have become sons of God, when Christ will say to them: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). Toward this Kingdom are directed and as it were nailed the gaze, desires, and expectations of a pure soul when it cries out to God: “May Your kingdom come!” For it is firmly assured by the testimony of its own conscience that it will immediately inherit this Kingdom as soon as it is revealed. On the contrary, none of the lawless will dare to desire this; for he surely will not want to see the Throne of the Judge who knows that on the day of His coming he will receive for his deeds not a crown and reward, but punishment.

St. John Chrysostom. “May Your kingdom come.” These words also befit a good son, who is not attached to the visible and does not count present blessings as something great, but hastens to the Father and desires future blessings. Such a prayer proceeds from a good conscience and a soul free from all earthly things. This Paul desired each day, which is why he said: “and we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). Whoever has such love can neither become proud amid the blessings of this life nor despair amid its sorrows; but, as one living in heaven, he is free from both extremes.

We are taught to say in prayer “May Your kingdom come,” because, suffering violence from fleshly passions and being subject to countless temptations, we need the Kingdom of God: “that sin may not reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its lusts; and do not yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness” for the God of the ages (Rom. 6:12–13). Moreover, we are taught not to cling too much to the present life but to despise what is present and desire what is future as steadfast; to seek the heavenly and eternal kingdom; and not to be carried away by earthly pleasures—not by bodily beauty, nor by abundance of wealth, nor by the multitude of possessions, nor by the preciousness of gems, nor by the splendor of houses, nor by the titles of governors and military commanders, nor by purple and crown, nor by food, delicacies, and every kind of luxury, nor by anything else among the objects that delight our senses—but, having renounced all this, to seek the Kingdom of God unceasingly.

Blessed Augustine. “May Your kingdom come.” To whom do we say this? God is always King. He is always clothed with royal power, when all creation serves Him. For what kingdom do we pray? For that which will be revealed at the end of the world, and of which it is written in the Gospel: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). This is the kingdom we have in mind when we say: “May Your kingdom come.” But if we do not ask, will this kingdom not come? Of course it will. But what use is it if we are then found standing on the left? Therefore when praying thus, we express the desire that the kingdom may come for us, that we too may be found in it and not outside it. That is what you desire, that is what you seek when you pray—to live in such a way that you too may belong to the Kingdom that will be given to all the saints. Therefore when you say “May Your kingdom come,” you are praying that you may live well.—May we belong to Your kingdom, O Lord; may it come also for us, destined to come for Your holy and righteous ones.

We desire that the Kingdom of God may come. It will come, even if we do not desire it. But to desire and pray that the kingdom may come is nothing other than desiring that our Heavenly Father may make us worthy of His kingdom, so that it may not happen—which God forbid—that it comes and does not come for us. For for many this coming kingdom will not come. It will come for those to whom it will be said: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). But it will not come for those who will hear: “Depart from Me, you accursed, into everlasting fire” (Matt. 25:41). Therefore when we say “May Your kingdom come,” we pray that it may come for us. What does it mean that it may come for us? That it may find us good. We pray, therefore, that the Lord may make us good; for then His kingdom will certainly come for us in full.

Saying “May Your kingdom come”—which will undoubtedly come whether we desire it or not—we kindle in ourselves the desire for that kingdom, so that it may come for us and we may be found worthy to participate in it.

Blessed Theophylact. “May Your kingdom come”—that is, the Second Coming; for a person with a clear conscience boldly prays for the coming of the resurrection and judgment. A sinner does not pray for the Kingdom of God, for he does not desire its coming because of the punishments that await him there. On the contrary, the righteous man prays that it may come sooner, so that he may be freed from the temptations of this world and find rest.

Symeon of Thessalonica. “May Your kingdom come.” Be King over us through good deeds, not Your enemy through evil deeds. And may Your kingdom come—the last day, when You will reign over all, even over Your enemies themselves, and Your kingdom will be eternal, as indeed it is. But to say this in prayer befits those who are worthy and have prepared themselves for that time.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. According to the teaching of St. John Chrysostom, the kingdom here is understood as the Heavenly Kingdom—the kingdom that true Christians await and for which they pray: “May Your kingdom come.” And this, he says, is the word of a wise son, who is not attached to the visible and does not count what is present as great, but hastens to the Father and strives toward what is future. Whoever desires the Heavenly Kingdom and prays “May Your kingdom come” must despise the earthly kingdom, glory, honor, pleasures, and riches. Otherwise, he says, his prayer “May Your kingdom come” is in vain. One must first despise the earthly, and then desire the heavenly. One must have a clear conscience, or cleanse it through repentance, and then pray: “May Your kingdom come.” Otherwise he cannot desire and ask for it, when the conscience defiled by sins threatens with the judgment of God and eternal torment. For how can he pray and say “May Your kingdom come” while his conscience is troubled by the expectation of eternal torment? Therefore it is absolutely required that whoever wishes and asks for the Kingdom of God to come should forsake his sins and cleanse them through repentance, contrition, and faith. For the Kingdom of God is prepared for the righteous and holy and will certainly come; but the one defiled by sins awaits it in vain. From a clear conscience—says Chrysostom—this desire proceeds, and from a soul removed from earthly things.

The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven”

The Compiler (St. Theophan the Recluse). The will of God is our “holiness” (1 Thess. 4:3). God wills that, fulfilling His holy will expressed in the commandments, we may all be made holy and thus be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). When we pray “Your will be done,” we ask that our Heavenly Father grant us to understand His holy will—good, pleasing, and perfect (Rom. 12:2)—and supply us with strength for the performance of everything “that is true, that is honorable, that is just, that is pure, that is lovely, that is of good report; if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy” (Phil. 4:8), so that we may prove as perfect on earth as God’s Angels are in heaven—“mighty in strength, always doing the will of God” (Ps. 102:20–21). Of the two preceding petitions, the first, through the fear of God, awakens from slumber; the second, through the desire for the kingdom, arouses energy; while this, the third, points to the very work toward which the awakened and strained powers should be directed. Since all of this is from the Lord, we pray that He may accomplish all this in us according to His good will, surrendering ourselves entirely to His all-working and governance.

Tertullian. We cry “Your will be done” not because anyone could hinder the will of God from being, but we pray that His will may be fulfilled in all of us. But what else does God will, if not that we walk according to His commandments? Therefore we pray that He both show us His will and give us strength to fulfill it, that we may appear saved both in heaven and on earth. For the substance of His will is the salvation of those whom He has adopted. And that is the will of God which the Lord accomplished through preaching, deeds, and suffering. Thus He Himself said that He does not His own will, but the will of His Father (John 6:39). And there is no doubt that everything He did, He did by the will of the Father. And now He invites us to follow His example and to remain in the will of God even to death. But in order that we may be able to do this, we need the will of God—His good will and help. Therefore, saying “Your will be done,” we express the desire that it may be accomplished in us, with the assurance that in the will of God there is nothing harmful for us, even if it should be necessary to suffer for it. And the Lord, before the onset of His sufferings, wishing to show the weakness of human flesh even in His own flesh, said: “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me!” (Luke 22:42). But He immediately added: “nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” He Himself is the will and power of the Father, and yet He was pleased to deliver Himself to the Father’s will, showing the necessity of the impending suffering.

St. Cyprian of Carthage. Saying “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”—not that God should do what He wills as a result of our prayer, but that we might be able to do what is pleasing to Him. For who would prevent God from doing what is pleasing to Him? But since the devil puts obstacles in the way of our rendering full obedience to God in spirit and body, we ask and pray that the will of God may be in us. And for it to be in us, the pleasure of God is necessary—that is, God’s help and protection—because no one is strong by his own powers, but everyone finds safety only in God’s condescension and mercy. Even the Lord, showing human weakness which He bore in Himself, said: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me”—and then, giving the disciples an example to fulfill not their own will but God’s, added: “nevertheless not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). And in another place He says: “I came down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 6:38). If the Son was so obedient as to fulfill the Father’s will, how much more must a servant be obedient and fulfill the will of his Lord? John in his Epistle admonishes and instructs us toward the fulfillment of the will of God: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15–17), as God also abides forever. Therefore, desiring to abide forever, we must do the will of God who is eternal. The will of God is shown to us in the deeds and teaching of Christ: humility in conduct, steadfastness in faith, modesty in words, righteousness in actions; in deeds—mercy; in morals—decorum; inability to inflict injury, ability to bear injury inflicted on us; to keep peace with brothers; to love God with all our heart, to love Him as a Father, to fear Him as God; to prefer nothing above Christ, just as He preferred nothing above us; to stand courageously and faithfully by His cross when there is contest over His name and honor; to express in speech the steadfastness of confession, in interrogation the boldness with which we enter the fight, in death the patience with which we are crowned—this means desiring to be a co-heir with Christ! This means fulfilling the commandment of God, doing the will of the Father!

St. Gregory of Nyssa. The health of the soul is the fulfillment of the divine will, just as, conversely, departure from the good will is a sickness of the soul ending in death. Therefore, since we became weak when, in paradise, we abandoned the right way of life and tasted without measure the poison of disobedience—so that a harsh and deadly disease took hold of our nature—the true Physician came, one who, in accordance with the law of the healing art, cures evil by its opposite, and frees from their affliction those seized by illness because they turned away from God’s will, restoring them again to health through union with God’s will. For the words of the prayer serve as a remedy for the illness that has befallen the soul. Whoever has a soul seized, as it were, by certain diseases prays and says: “Your will be done.” And the will of God is the salvation of mankind.

Therefore, when we come to be able to say to God: “Your will be done”—and on me—then it is absolutely necessary first to condemn that former life which was not in accord with God’s will, and to express this in confession: “Because during the time of my past life the will opposed to Yours worked evil in me, I became a servant of a malicious tyrant and, as it were, an executioner carrying out upon myself the verdict of the enemy; therefore, moved by compassion for my ruin, grant that from this time forward Your will may be accomplished in me as well. For as in dark caves, when light is brought in, the darkness vanishes, so when Your will is accomplished in me, every evil and unfitting movement of free will shall come to nothing. Chastity will extinguish the intemperate and passionate impulse of the mind; humility will destroy arrogance; modesty will heal the disease of pride; and the goodness of love will drive from the soul the numerous host of opposing evils. Let hatred, envy, indignation, the impulse of anger, the irritable disposition, malice, deceit, the remembrance of grievances, the thirst for vengeance, the boiling of blood in the chest, the evil eye—let all this flock of such evils be annihilated by a disposition full of love.” Thus the efficacy of God’s will uproots a twofold idolatry; I call it twofold: frenzied attachment to idols, and the craving for silver and gold—these idols of the “nations,” as the prophetic word named them (Ps. 113:12). Therefore, “Your will be done,” that the will of the devil may be rendered without effect.

But why do we ask God that our free choice may become good? Because human nature, once weakened by vice, is powerless for good. For a person does not return from evil to good with the same ease with which he falls into evil—a similar law we can observe in bodies as well, since a healthy body does not fall ill with the same ease and convenience with which a sick one recovers its health. One who has been healthy until now has often fallen into extreme danger from a single wound, and a single spell or attack of fever has destroyed all the strength in the body; a small dose of poison has either completely destroyed the body or done so gradually; and from the bite of a reptile, or the sting of one of the venomous creatures, or a slip of the foot, or a fall, or the greedy eating of something beyond one’s strength, or something else of the kind, illness or death has followed instantly; whereas recovery from sickness, when it does occur, requires how many contrivances, difficulties, and artificial medical remedies? Therefore, when the inclination toward evil is active in us, no assistance is needed, because vice by itself accomplishes itself in our will. But when an inclination toward what is better arises, God must bring the desire to fulfillment. Therefore we say: since chastity is Your will, yet “the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin” (Rom. 7:14), by Your power let this good will prevail in me. The same we say of justice, of piety, of freedom from the passions. The word “will” embraces all virtues in general, and by the phrase “the will of God” each good thing that is understood under the name of good is individually signified.

But what does this addition mean: “as in heaven, so on earth”? This word, as it seems to me, points perhaps to one of the deeper dogmas and constitutes a teaching of God-befitting understanding when looking at creation. The meaning of what I am saying is this: all rational creation is divided into incorporeal nature and nature clothed with a body. The incorporeal nature is the angelic, and the other kind of nature is we human beings. The first, therefore, being spiritual, as released from the burden of body (I mean this coarse body that gravitates toward the earth), travels the higher lot, dwelling by reason of its light and easily moved nature in realms light and ethereal. The other, by kinship of our body with what is earthly, has by necessity received as its portion a kind of sediment of mud, as it were—earthly life. I do not know what God’s will arranged by this—perhaps that it was to bring all creation closer together, so that the lower lot might not be without a share in the heavenly heights and heaven might not be entirely without a share in what is on earth, but through the formation of human nature from both elements there would arise a certain communion of what is seen in each element, since the spiritual part of the soul, which appears to be something akin and kindred to the heavenly powers, dwells in earthly bodies, and this earthly flesh, at the transformation of the corruptible and the catching up of the righteous, will together with the soul migrate to the heavenly realm. For “we shall be caught up,” as the Apostle says, “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). Therefore, whether this or something else was arranged by divine wisdom—all rational nature, by this twofold life, is divided into parts: the incorporeal nature has received the heavenly blessedness as its lot, while the other, on account of the flesh, dwells on earth by reason of kinship with it. Although the longing for what is beautiful and good is equally realized in both natures, and the Ruler of the Universe has made free will, sovereignty, and freedom from all necessity equal in both—so that all endowed with word and understanding might govern themselves by a kind of self-legislating free choice—yet the heavenly life preserves itself in all things pure from vice, and nothing that appears to be its opposite is compatible with it; but every passionate movement and disposition to which the human race is subject keeps earthly life spinning in confusion. Therefore, the God-inspired word holds that the life of the holy powers in heaven has no admixture of vice and is pure from every defilement of sin. But all that, through the contrivance of evil and departure from good, is converted into wickedness flows down like some kind of sediment or mud into this ordinary life, and the human race is defiled, finding in this darkness an obstacle to perceiving the divine light of truth. Therefore, if the higher life is passionless and pure, while this present wretched life is plunged into every passion and suffering, it is clear that the heavenly life, as being pure from all evil, advances in the good will of God—for where there is no evil, there is of all necessity good. But our life, having lost communion in good, has also fallen away from God’s will. Therefore, we are taught in prayer to purify our life from evil to such a degree that, just as in the heavenly dwelling, God’s will may govern without hindrance in us too—so that one might say: “As in thrones, principalities, powers, dominions, and in every supramundane force Your will is accomplished and no vice hinders the action of good, so also in us may the good be accomplished, that through the destruction of every vice in our souls Your will may be successfully fulfilled in all things.”

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. The divine and blessed Angels of God do the will of God, as the Psalmist David said: “Bless the Lord, all you His Angels, mighty in strength, who fulfill His word” (Ps. 102:20). Therefore, when praying “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” say inwardly: as Your will is accomplished in the Angels, O Lord, so let it be also in me on earth.

St. John Chrysostom. “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Do you see the beautiful connection? He first commanded us to desire the future and to strive toward our homeland; but until that comes about, those living here must strive to lead a life befitting the inhabitants of heaven. We must desire heaven and heavenly things, He says. Nevertheless, even before we attain heaven, He commands us to make earth into heaven and, while living on it, to conduct ourselves in everything as if we were in heaven, and to pray to the Lord for this. Indeed, our living on earth is no obstacle whatsoever to attaining the perfection of the heavenly powers. But it is possible, even dwelling here, to do everything as if we lived in heaven. Thus the meaning of the Savior’s words is this: just as everything in heaven is accomplished without hindrance, and it does not happen that the angels in some things obey while in others they do not obey, but they obey and submit in all things (for it is said: “mighty in strength, who fulfill His word” (Ps. 102:20))—so also us, human beings, count worthy to do Your will not only halfway, but to fulfill everything as it pleases You. Do you see? Christ also taught humility, when He showed that virtue depends not on our zeal alone but also on heavenly grace; and at the same time He commanded each one of us during prayer to take upon himself concern for the whole world—He did not say “Your will be done” in me, or in us, but on all “the earth”—that is, that every error may be destroyed and the truth planted, that every evil may be driven out and virtue return, and that in this way heaven may be no different from earth. If this comes about, He says, the earthly will differ in nothing from the heavenly, though in their properties they are distinct; then the earth will show us other angels.

Having aroused in us before this a love for the future and a desire for the kingdom and pierced us with this desire, He commands us to say: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Grant us, O Lord, He says, to imitate the heavenly life, that we too may desire what You Yourself desire; help our will that is weak, though willing to do Your works yet restrained by the weakness of the flesh; stretch out Your hand to those striving to go forward but compelled to limp; the soul is light (the spirit is willing), but the flesh weighs it down; the former rushes swiftly toward the heavenly, while the latter gravitates toward the earthly; but with Your help even what is impossible will be possible: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

St. Cassian. No prayer can be higher than that in which we desire that the earthly should be counted worthy of being equated with the heavenly. For what does “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” mean, if not this: “May people become like the Angels, and as the Angels fulfill God’s will in heaven, so may all who live on earth do not their own will but His.” (Another thought) And no one can pronounce this petition with full feeling except one who believes that God arranges everything that seems to us misfortune or good fortune for our benefit, and that He cares and watches over our salvation and well-being more than we ourselves do.

Blessed Augustine. “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The Angels serve You in heaven—may we also serve You on earth. The Angels do not offend You in heaven—may we also not offend You on earth. As they do Your will, so may we do it as well.—And what are we praying for here, if not to be good? For the will of God is in us when we do it; and that is what it means to be good.

When we say “Your will be done,” we ask of our heavenly Father the very obedience to His will, that it may be fulfilled by us as well, just as it is fulfilled in heaven by His Angels.

“Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”—that is, just as with the Angels who are in heaven it is Your will that they cling to You in every way and enjoy You, so that no cloud of error darkens their wisdom and no sorrow disturbs their blessedness: so may it be also with Your saints who are on earth, created from earth according to the body and, though destined for a heavenly dwelling, yet to be taken from the earth.—“Your will be done” can also be understood as: may obedience to Your commandments be rendered; and “on earth as it is in heaven”—as: by Angels and by people alike. For that God’s will is done when His commandments are fulfilled, the Lord Himself shows when He says: “My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me” (John 4:34). And again: “I came down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 6:38). Therefore, in those who do God’s will, that will is present; for they do what God wills, that is, they act according to His will.

St. Maximus the Confessor. Whoever mystically offers to God the service of his rational faculty alone, freed from lust and anger, fulfills God’s will on earth just as the ranks of angels do in heaven. He has already become a fellow servant and fellow dweller with the Angels, as the great Apostle says: “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). Such people have neither lust, which weakens the tension of the mind with pleasures, nor anger, raging and shamelessly barking at what is akin to itself. In them there remains one sole reason, naturally leading rational beings to the first Reason. …But the holy Angels in heaven bring nothing to God except rational service. Desiring the same from us as well, He teaches those who pray to say: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” So let our reason press toward the seeking of God, and let the power of desire become a longing for Him, while the passionate element enters into striving to preserve Him. Or, to put it more precisely, let the whole mind stretch toward God, urged on as by a certain voice by the tension of passion and inflamed by the ultimate surge of the power of desire. Imitating the heavenly Angels in this way, we shall always be servants of God and shall manifest on earth a life equal to the angels, and thereby shall possess, on a par with the Angels, a mind entirely indifferent to all that is below God.

Blessed Theophylact. “Your will be done”—as in heaven among the Angels, so also among us people on earth. As the Angels fulfill Your will, so grant us also to fulfill it. For the Angels always and in all things act according to God’s will.

Simeon of Thessalonica. Attune us like the Angels, so that as in them, so also in us Your will may be present and be accomplished by us. Let not our will be passionate and human, but let Your will be passionless and holy. As You were pleased to unite the earthly with the heavenly, so be pleased that also in us, who are on earth, there may be a heavenly life, service, and activity.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. God’s will comes about even without our petition. Therefore we do not ask that God do what He wills, but that we may be able to do what His will desires. From this we see that we cannot do God’s will without God. God’s will is fulfilled when we preserve piety intact and persevere in it to the end, as it is said: “Be faithful until death” (Rev. 2:10); also when sinners turn away from their sins and repent. “God desires that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). That this may be so, we ask God: “Your will be done.” And may it be “on earth as it is in heaven.” That is, as the Angels in heaven fulfill God’s will and live among themselves lovingly, peacefully, and in harmony, so may we also, imitating them on earth, be able to do His will and live holy, pure, peaceful, lovingly, and in harmony. When we pray “Your will be done,” we must renounce our own will and abandon it.

The Compiler (St. Theophan the Recluse). In the words “Your will be done” one can also see the expression of surrender to God’s will. Some words of St. Cassian and St. Cyprian hint at this. The fulfillment of God’s will as expressed in the commandments cannot appear in perfection without such surrender, because it is bound up with deprivations—sometimes very great—and with sufferings—sometimes very painful. Enduring both is inevitably mediated by the handing over of oneself to one’s lot and of all one’s affairs to God’s will. The fulfillment of the commandments, being mediated by surrender to God’s will, itself strengthens and elevates that surrender. And complete surrender is the summit of Christian moral perfection.

The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.”

The Compiler (St. Theophan the Recluse). With the fourth petition, a turn in the prayer begins: all the preceding petitions were for the inner ordering of spiritual life, which, arising under the action of the Fear of God and inspired by hope of the heavenly kingdom, travels the path of God’s commandments; now come petitions for the unavoidable connections of this life. As creatures of limited nature, we need food not for the body alone but also for the soul; as those who often fall through weakness, we need confession and forgiveness; as those surrounded by temptations and always beset by the evil enemy, we need protection and defense. We pray for all this in the following four petitions, all of which are directed toward this end: that our heavenly Father may arrange the course of the events of our life—both external and internal—in a manner favorable to spiritual life.

The bread for which we pray in the fourth petition is material bread, necessary for sustaining bodily life; alongside it, one may also understand the asking for other needs without which life is impossible, such as clothing and shelter. But since the soul too has need of spiritual nourishment to sustain spiritual life, by bread one may also understand here the spiritual food for the soul. Its food is the “Word of God,” which nourishes the soul with knowledge of divine truths and leads it into contemplation of God’s invisible treasures—the mere intellectual vision of which is nourishing and delightful—and the grace of God descending into the soul through the sacraments, filling and satisfying it. In the course of our life these sacraments are: repentance, and especially the communion of the holy Body and Blood of Christ, which the Lord Himself named the only nourishing bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. It is fitting to hold all this in mind when pronouncing the words of the prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Tertullian. What a beautiful order divine wisdom gave to the petitions of the prayer—when, after the heavenly things, that is, the name of God, the kingdom of God, the will of God, it gave place to a petition for earthly needs as well, although the Lord did say: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). Nevertheless, the words “Give us this day our daily bread” let us understand more in the spiritual sense. For Christ is our bread: He is life and the bread of life, as He Himself says: “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48); and a little earlier: “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world”; and then: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (Jn 6:32-33,51)—so that in the bread His body is present and received. “This is My body” (Luke 22:19), He says. And of those who eat His body and drink His blood He said that they abide in Him and He in them (John 6:56). Thus, by asking for daily bread, we pray for a continuous dwelling in Christ through communion of His body.—But even if these words are not taken in the spiritual sense, even then they will not be without spiritual edification. For the command is to ask only for bread, which alone is reckoned as necessary for the faithful; as for all the rest, it is said: “all these things the people of this world seek after” (Matt. 6:32). The same thing the Lord confirms by examples and instills by parables, when He says: “It is not right to take the bread of the children and throw it to the dogs” (Matt. 15:26). Likewise: would anyone give a stone to a son asking for bread? (Matt. 7:9)—For here it is shown what children expect from the Father. And that petitioner of the night also asked for bread alone (Luke 11:5).—The Lord wisely added: “Give us this day,” for He had already taught before: “Do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matt. 6:34). To this He also adapted the parable about that man whose ground yielded a plentiful harvest, who, while planning to live long in safety and abundance, died that very night (Luke 12:16–20).

St. Cyprian of Carthage. Continuing the prayer, we say the following petition: “Give us this day our daily bread.” This can be understood both in the spiritual and in the simple sense, for both, by God’s gift, are equally conducive to salvation. Christ is the bread of life, and this bread belongs not to all but only to us. Just as we say “Our Father,” because God is the Father of those who know Him and believe, so also we call Christ our bread, because He is the bread of those who touch His body. We ask daily that this bread be given to us, so that we, who abide in Christ and receive the Eucharist daily as the food of salvation, should not, if for some grave sin we are excluded from communion and deprived of the heavenly bread, be separated from the body of Christ—as the Lord says for our instruction: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). When He says that whoever eats of His bread will live forever, He thereby shows that those who touch His body and receive the Eucharist by right of communion are alive. Therefore one must fear and pray lest anyone be separated from the body of Christ by being placed under penance, and be cut off from salvation, as the Lord threatens, saying: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). That is why we pray daily that our bread be given to us, so that, abiding and living in Christ, we may not be cut off from His sanctification and from His body.

This can also be understood as follows: having renounced this present age and by the grace of spiritual faith having turned away from its riches and honors, mindful of the Lord’s instruction, who says: “Whoever does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:33), we ask for food and sustenance alone. One who has become a disciple of Christ, having renounced everything according to the Teacher’s word, should ask only for daily sustenance and in prayer should not extend his desires further, keeping in mind the commandment of the Lord who said: “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious about itself; sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt. 6:34). Thus the disciple of Christ, who is forbidden to be anxious about tomorrow, rightly asks for daily food: it would be a contradiction and an inconsistency to seek provision for a long time in this age, when we pray for the swift coming of God’s kingdom. The blessed Apostle, teaching and strengthening the steadfastness of our hope and faith, makes us the following reminder: “We brought nothing into the world; it is clear that we can take nothing out of it either. If we have food and clothing, let us be content with that. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many senseless and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction; for the love of money is a root of all evils, and in their eagerness for it some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows” (1 Tim. 6:7–10). By this he teaches that riches are not only to be despised but that they are also dangerous: in them is the root of cunning evils that deceive the blindness of the human mind with hidden treachery. That is why God rebukes the foolish rich man who was thinking about worldly prosperity and boasting of an extraordinary abundance of fruits. “Fool,” He says to him, “this night they will demand your soul from you; and the things you have prepared—whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20). The fool rejoiced over his profit on the very night on which he was to die; he who had so little time left to live was thinking about the abundance of his crops.

On the contrary, the Lord teaches that one is truly perfect who, having sold all his possessions and distributed them to the poor, lays up for himself treasure in heaven; one who, by the Lord’s word, being able to follow Him and imitate the glory of the Lord’s suffering, is not held back in his readiness and willingness by any snares of household management but, having sent his possessions ahead to God, free and unencumbered, goes there himself (Matt. 19:21). Thus let everyone learn to pray in order to prepare themselves for the same; from the law of prayer let everyone understand what prayer ought to be! Yet for the righteous there can never be a lack of daily food, as Scripture says: “The Lord will not let the soul of the righteous go hungry” (Prov. 10:3). And again: “I was young and now I am old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread” (Ps. 36:25). The Lord promises the same thing, saying: “Do not be anxious, saying: ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the people of this world seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:31–33). He promises that all things will be added to those who seek the kingdom and righteousness of God: for all things are God’s; therefore, one who has God will be in want of nothing, provided only that he himself does not turn away from God. So, when Daniel was cast into the den of lions by the king’s command, a meal was prepared for him by divine Providence, and the man of God was fed amid beasts that were hungry yet spared him (Dan. 14:30–39). So Elijah was fed during his flight: pursued, he received sustenance in the desert from ravens that served him, from birds that brought him food.

St. Gregory of Nyssa. But someone might object: is it possible to attain the same purity as that of the incorporeal powers for those whose lot it is to live in the flesh, when the soul, owing to bodily needs, is plunged into the darkness of cares? Therefore, it seems to me, as if removing this seeming impossibility, the Lord in the subsequent words resolves what appears difficult in the task at hand. For in these words, in the command to ask for daily bread, there is offered to us, I think, the teaching that contentment with little and moderation according to the law of dispassion is equal to having need of nothing by nature. An angel does not ask God in prayer for the gift of bread, because he is endowed with a nature that has no need of anything of the kind; but a human being is commanded to ask, because what is being emptied must necessarily be filled. The constitution of human life is swift and transient; it requires renewal in place of what has departed. Therefore, one who in serving nature is not drawn beyond necessity by vain cares is not much inferior to the angelic rank in his way of life, imitating in his contentment with a little the angels who are in need of nothing. Therefore, the command is to seek only what is sufficient to maintain bodily existence, saying to God: give us bread—that is, give not amusements, not wealth, not fine-colored purple robes, not golden ornaments, not the gleam of gems, not silver vessels, not vast estates, not military command, not rule over cities and peoples, not herds of horses and oxen and great numbers of other cattle, not an abundance of slaves, not fame in the marketplace, not monuments, not images, not silken fabrics, not the pleasures of music, nor anything else of this kind, by which the soul is drawn away from divine and more worthy concern—but give bread.

Do you see this breadth of wisdom? How many teachings are contained in this brief saying? By the word “bread” the Lord, as it were, calls out to those who listen: “Stop exhausting yourselves, O people, with desires for vanity! Stop multiplying, to your own harm, the causes of toil! Your natural debt is not great: you are obligated to provide your flesh with food—a small and not difficult matter, if you keep need in view. Why do you multiply your obligations? Why do you lay a yoke upon yourself, bearing so many debts, acquiring silver, digging up gold, seeking transparent stones? Is it to delight with all this the perpetual tax-gatherer—your belly—which needs only bread to satisfy what the body requires?” But you set out for India, suffer hardship on foreign seas, embark on voyages lasting years, in order to delight your food with goods brought from there, without noticing that the sense of sweetness has its limit at the palate in the mouth, and that what is pleasing to the eye and fragrant and agreeable to the taste gives the sense a fleeting and momentary pleasure. Beyond the palate, the gullet cannot distinguish anything among what is placed in the throat, since all is changed by nature equally into corruption. Do you see the end of the culinary art? Do you see the consequences of culinary contrivances? Ask for bread for life’s need—in this regard nature has made you a debtor to the body. But what has been invented beyond this by the softness of the luxurious belongs among the tares that have been sown alongside. The sowing of the master of the house is wheat, and from wheat bread is made; luxury is tares—they were sown alongside the wheat by the enemy. But people, having ceased to serve nature with what is necessary, are, as Scripture somewhere says (Mark 4:7), pressed down by care for the vain and remain undeveloped, because the soul continually occupies itself with these vanities. Limit yourself to what is necessary. Let the satisfaction of need with what you have be the boundary of your concern for life.

If Eve’s counselor should also enter into conversation with you about what is fair to the eye and pleasant to the taste, and alongside bread you begin to seek such-and-such food prepared with such-and-such seasonings, and then as a result of this you extend your desire beyond necessary bounds, you will see how the serpent thereafter imperceptibly creeps toward covetousness. For, having moved from necessary food to delicacies, you will move also to what is pleasing to the eye; you will seek bright vessels, handsome servants, silver couches, soft beds, transparent coverings sprinkled with gold, thrones, tripods, baths, cups, horns, coolers, ladles, basins, lamps, censers. And through this the lust of covetousness enters in and seeks after such things; but so that there may be no shortage in procuring them, revenues for acquiring what is required are needed. Therefore, others must be in grief, those who live alongside must shed tears, many must be made to suffer, losing their property, so that through their tears this person’s table may be splendid. And when the serpent has coiled himself around these things and filled his belly with what was desired, then in consequence of this, after satiation, the person is drawn more and more into the madness of licentiousness—and this is the most extreme of human evils.

Therefore, that nothing of the kind may happen, limit your prayer to the asking of this provision—bread—seeking food seasoned for you by nature itself. And this seasoning is a good conscience, which, in the right use of bread, makes it sweeter than anything else. But if you wish to delight even the sensation of the throat, let scarcity be your seasoning; let satiety not be added to satiety; let the impulse to take food not be blunted by drunkenness; but let the pouring of sweat, according to the commandment, precede the eating of it. “By toil and sweat you shall eat bread” (Gen. 3:19). Do you see what the first seasoning of food is, according to Scripture? It is enough for you to occupy your mind only with this need—or better to say, to bind the soul with cares for bread only up to this point. But say to the One who brings “bread from the earth” (Ps. 103:14), to the One who feeds the ravens (Ps. 146:9), who “gives food to all flesh” (Ps. 135:25), who opens His hand and satisfies “every living thing according to His good pleasure” (Ps. 144:16): “From You is my life; from You too let the means of life come. You ‘give’ bread, that is, grant me to have food from righteous labors.”

Beautiful also is the addition of the word “day.” For it is said: “Give us this day our daily bread.” This word contains another wisdom; in pronouncing it you must recognize that human life is but a single day. What each person possesses is only the present; hope for the future remains in uncertainty: “we do not know what a day will bring forth” (Prov. 27:1). Why do we torment ourselves with the uncertain, exhaust ourselves with anxieties about the future? It is said: “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt. 6:34), where “trouble” means suffering. Why do we take thought for “the morrow”? Therefore the Lord, by commanding us to say “day,” forbids concern for “the morrow,” as if suggesting to us by this word: “He who gave you the day will also give what is needed for the day. He who commands the sun to rise (Matt. 5:45); He who dissolves the darkness of night; He who shows you the ray of light; He who turns the heavens so that the luminary stands over the earth; He who gives you this and much more—does He have need of your assistance in order to supply your flesh with what is necessary? What care for their own life does the nature of irrational creatures bring from themselves? What fields do the ravens have, what storehouses do the eagles have? Is not the one supplier of life for all—God’s will, by which all things are sustained? The ox, or the ass, or some other irrational creature, without being taught, has by nature a kind of wisdom and manages the present well; but about what will come afterward, they have no care at all.”

Do we really need advisors to understand this brevity and single-day character of fleshly life? Are we not taught by what happens to others? How do we not come to our senses through our own life? What good was the great provision to that rich man who deceived himself with unrealizable hopes, tore down and built, gathered and lived in luxury, who locked up in granaries what would have been enough for many years, in the vanity of his hopes? Did not one night expose all this dreamlike hope as some vain dream about something worthless? Bodily life is limited to the present alone, but the life offered by hope is the possession of the soul. Yet human folly errs in the use of both: thinking to prolong bodily life by hopes, and spending the life of the soul in the pleasures of the present. And so the soul, occupied with the visible, by necessity becomes a stranger to true and genuine hope—resting its hope on what is unstable, it does not grasp this, and what it hoped for, it does not have.

Therefore, let us learn from the present counsel what we should ask for today and what hereafter. Bread is today’s need, while the kingdom is the hoped-for blessedness. In speaking of bread, Scripture understands by this a bodily need. If we ask for this, it will be clear to the mind of one praying that his concern is for a single day. But if we ask for any of the goods of the soul, it is clear that the petition has in view what is always abiding and without end, toward which the Lord commands those who pray to look above all else, as the more important thing, which also satisfies the first need: “Ask,” He says, “for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Ordinary bread is not “substantial,” but this holy bread—the body and blood of the Lord—is substantial, that is, it acts upon the very substance of the soul. This bread is imparted to your whole being, for the benefit of soul and body. And the word “day” is used in the sense of “daily,” as Paul also said: “while it can still be called ‘today’” (Heb. 3:13).

St. John Chrysostom. What is “daily bread”? The bread for each day. Since Christ said “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” and He was speaking with people clothed in flesh who are subject to the necessary laws of nature and cannot have the dispassion of angels, He therefore, though commanding us to fulfill the commandments just as the angels fulfill them, still condescends to the weakness of nature, saying, as it were: I require from you a life of equal strictness with the angels, yet not requiring dispassion, since your nature does not permit that, having a necessary need for food. See, however, how even in bodily things there is much that is spiritual! The Savior commanded us to pray not for riches, not for pleasures, not for costly garments, not for anything else of the kind, but only for bread, and that bread for each day, so that we should not be anxious about tomorrow—which is why He added “daily bread,” that is, for each day. Even with this word He was not satisfied, but then added another: “Give us this day,” so that we should not torment ourselves with anxiety about the coming day. Indeed, if you do not know whether you will see tomorrow, why trouble yourself with anxiety about it? This the Savior commanded also further on in His preaching: “Do not be anxious,” He says, “about tomorrow” (Matt. 6:34). He wants us always to be girded and winged by faith, and not to yield to nature any more than is required of us by necessary need.

Since He mentioned the earth, and beings that have come from it and live on it and are clothed with an earthly body require corresponding food, He therefore necessarily added: “Give us this day our daily bread.” He commanded us to ask for daily bread—not for gluttony, but for nourishment that restores what is spent in the body and wards off death from hunger; not for luxurious tables, not for varied dishes, products of cooks and inventions of bakers, not for fine wines and all the rest of the kind that pleases the tongue but burdens the stomach, darkens the mind, helps the body to rebel against the soul, and makes this horse ungovernable for its rider. The commandment does not teach us to ask for this, but for “daily bread”—that is, what is converted into the substance of the body and is able to sustain it. Moreover, even this we are commanded to ask for not for a great number of years, but for as much as we need for the present day. “Do not be anxious,” said the Lord, “about tomorrow” (Matt. 6:34). And why should one be anxious about tomorrow who may not even see that day—who undertakes labor yet does not reap its fruit? Trust in God, “who gives food to all flesh” (Ps. 135:25). He who gave you a body, breathed in a soul, made you a rational being, and prepared all good things for you before He created you—how will He disregard you who have been created, “for He commands His sun to rise over evil and good and sends rain on righteous and unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45)? Therefore, trusting in Him, ask for food only for the present day, and leave anxiety for tomorrow to Him, as the blessed David also says: “Cast your care upon the Lord, and He will sustain you” (Ps. 54:23).

St. Cassian, understanding by “bread” the Lord Jesus Christ, and His most pure body with His life-giving blood, says: “Our bread—that is, the substantial bread, or, as another Evangelist has it, the daily bread—give us this day.” The first word indicates its essential dignity, by which it surpasses all substances and exceeds all creatures in its exalted holiness, while the second expresses its natural use and benefit. For when it is said “daily,” this shows that without it we cannot continue the spiritual life for a single day; and when it is said “this day,” this shows that it must be received every day and that yesterday’s partaking of it is insufficient, if in like manner it is not given to us again today. Since there is no day on which the heart of our inner person does not need to be strengthened by the reception and partaking of this “bread,” such a daily need of what is due compels us at all times to pour out prayer for it. However, the word “day” can also be taken in relation to the present life—that is: “Grant us this bread for as long as we are in this present age, for we know that even in the Future Life it will be given by You to those who have merited it; but we ask that it be granted to us still ‘today,’ for whoever is not counted worthy to receive it in the present life will not be able to partake of it in the Future Life either.”

Blessed Augustine, in his treatise on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, says that “bread” can have three meanings—it can signify material bread along with everything else necessary for life, and the sacrament of the body of Christ, which we receive each day (as was the practice then), and the spiritual food of which the Lord said: “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life” (John 6:27). And in another place: “My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me and to complete His work” (John 4:34). Of these three meanings he sometimes discusses one in particular, sometimes another, but always has all three in view.

“The daily bread is to be understood here in the sense of spiritual bread, that is, divine commandments, in which one should meditate and which one should fulfill in deed every day. For it was these that the Lord meant when He said: ‘Do not labor for the food that perishes.’ It is called daily bread because our temporal life is lived amid a succession of days, of which one passes and another comes. And the work of each day should be the fulfillment of the commandments. Since the disposition of our spirit sometimes rises upward and sometimes falls down—that is, sometimes it turns toward the spiritual and sometimes toward the fleshly, just as the body sometimes is satisfied with food and sometimes feels hunger—it needs this spiritual food every day, by which it is strengthened and lifts itself up again each time it falls. Just as our body in this life, before the future life that is not subject to change, is sustained by food when it feels exhaustion: so also the spirit, since on account of temporal passions it suffers depletion in its striving toward God, must be strengthened daily by the food of divine commandments.—And the phrase ‘Give us this day’ means ‘while it can still be called today’” (Heb. 3:13), the same as in the present temporal life. For after this life, in the future life, we shall be filled forever with spiritual food, and it will no longer be called daily bread. Then there will be no longer this flow of time in which days succeed days and produce daily-ness. Therefore, in the same sense in which it is said: “If today you hear His voice” (Ps. 94:7)—which “today” the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews interprets as “while it can still be called today”—in that sense must we take also “Give us this day.”—But if anyone wishes to take “bread” here in the sense of necessary bodily food, or in the sense of the sacrament of the Lord’s body, let him already take it together in all three meanings—that is, both as the daily bread necessary for the body, and as the visible sacramental bread, and as the invisible intellectual bread of the Word of God.

We may also understand simply that we pour out this prayer about our daily sustenance, that we may have it in abundance, or if not in abundance, at least that we may not lack it. “Substantial”—“daily”—He said in the sense of “in this life,” that is, “while it can still be called today” (Heb. 3:13). We rise daily, we are hungry daily, we are satisfied daily. And we pray that our heavenly Father may grant us bread for every day.—Why did He not say: “and covering”? We need only this: sustenance—food and drink, and covering—clothing and shelter. The Apostle forbids desiring more than this, when he says: “We brought nothing into the world; it is clear that we can take nothing out of it either. If we have food and clothing, let us be content with that” (1 Tim. 6:7–8). Since these too belong to our necessary need, it is not inappropriate to understand these things also when we say: “Give us this day our daily bread.” And there is no reason to be surprised if, naming bread alone, we understand also all other necessary provisions—as Joseph, when he invited his brothers, said: “These men will eat bread with me at noon” (Gen. 43:16). Surely they ate only bread at that table? But by bread all the rest was also meant. So too, when we pray for our daily bread, we ask also for everything necessary for our flesh on earth.—By bread one may also understand divine communion, saying as it were: grant us divine communion every day, as our daily bread. Believers know what they receive, and it is well for them to receive this daily bread, so necessary in this life. But since not all prove themselves always worthy of it, they pray that it may be granted to them always to remain good—that is, faithful to the faith and blameless in life. This is what they desire, this is what they ask! For if they do not remain such, they will be excluded from that daily bread. What, then, under this understanding of the word “bread,” will be the meaning of “Give us this day our daily bread”? Grant us to live in such a way that we are never excluded from Your altar.—And the Word of God, which is announced to you daily and in a certain sense is broken for you, is daily bread. Minds hunger for it as the belly hungers for material bread. Thus we ask for it too in the Lord’s Prayer. In this way, by daily bread is understood everything necessary for soul and body in this present life.

St. Maximus the Confessor, having mentioned in passing at the end of his interpretation of the previous petition that by “bread” is meant the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world (John 6:33), continues: “By the word ‘day,’ as I think, the present age is signified. Or, to interpret this place in the prayer more clearly, one might say: our bread, which You prepared in the beginning for the immortality of human nature, give us ‘today’—in the present mortal life—so that the tasting of the bread of life and knowledge may overcome the death of sin, that bread of whose communion the transgression of the divine commandment by the first human deprived us. For had he been filled with this divine food, he would not have been taken captive by the death of sin.”

However, one who prays to receive this substantial bread does not receive it all whole as it is, but only as much as the receiver himself is able to receive. For the Bread of life, as the Lover of mankind, though He gives Himself to all who ask, does not give equally to all: to those who have performed great deeds He gives more, and to those who have performed lesser deeds He gives less—that is, He gives to each according as his spiritual worth is able to receive.

To such an understanding of the present phrase of the prayer I was led by the Savior Himself, who commands His disciples to have no concern at all about sensory food, saying to them: “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on” (Matt. 6:25), “because all these things the people of this world seek after” (Luke 12:30), but “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). How then can He teach in the prayer not to seek what He Himself previously commanded? It is clear that in the prayer He did not command asking for what He also did not command seeking in His commandment, for in prayer we must ask for what we are also commanded to seek by commandment. But what He does not permit us to seek—it is unlawful to pray for that either. If the Savior commanded us to seek one thing only—the kingdom of God and righteousness—then He urged those pursuing divine gifts to ask for the same in prayer as well, so that, through this prayer, by confirming the grace of what is sought by nature, He might unite and identify through a relative union the will of those asking with the desire of the Giver of grace.

If the prayer commands us to ask also for that daily bread by which our present life is naturally sustained, this is so that we do not overstep the bounds of prayer by embracing whole stretches of years in our thoughts, nor forget that we are mortal and have a (present) life like a passing shadow—but rather, unburdened by excessive care, we ask in prayer also for bread for the day. And let us show that we, wisely in the manner of Christ, are turning our (earthly) life into a meditation on death, by our own will anticipating nature and, before death arrives, cutting away from the soul all concern for the body, so that it does not cling to what is corruptible and does not pervert—through its attraction to matter—the natural use of its aspiration toward God, by accustoming itself to the greed that strips away the riches of the divine good things.

Let us therefore avoid, as far as possible, love of material things, and wash from the eyes of our mind, as one washes away dust, even the very attachment to them; let us be content with what sustains our life, not with what brings it pleasure. Let us pray to God, as we have been taught, that our soul may not fall into slavery and not come under the yoke of visible things for the sake of the body. Then it will be clear that we eat in order to live, and do not live in order to eat—since the former is proper to a rational nature and the latter to an irrational one. Let us be strict guardians of this prayer, showing by our very deeds that we firmly hold to the one and only life—life in the Spirit—and employ our present life to acquire it. Let us prove in practice that for the sake of spiritual life we merely endure this [frail life], sustaining it with bread alone and preserving it, as far as possible, in a healthy state—not so that we might simply live, but that we might live for God.

Blessed Theophylact. The Lord teaches us to ask only for “daily” bread—that is, what is useful for our existence and for sustaining life—nothing superfluous, but only what is necessary.

“Daily” denotes the bread that is sufficient to keep our nature in strength. The word “day” removes anxiety about tomorrow.—The Body of Christ is also daily bread, and it is for this that we should pray, that we may receive it without condemnation.

Symeon of Thessalonica. Before this we asked for heavenly things; but being mortal and needing bread to sustain life, we ask for it as well, as human beings, knowing that it too is in Your right hand, Our Father, and that You alone are lacking in nothing, while we are lacking in everything. However, in asking for bread, we do not ask for too much—only as much as is needed “for the day”: for we have been taught not to be anxious about tomorrow, since You, Father, are our Provider today, and so You will be tomorrow and always.—And further—in praying for daily bread, we pray also for the living heavenly bread, the most holy body of the living Word, whoever does not eat of which will not live. He is our daily bread, as one who strengthens and illumines soul and body. Whoever does not eat of it has no life in him, and whoever eats of it “will live forever” (Jn 6:43,58).

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Daily bread, according to St. John Chrysostom’s interpretation, means what belongs to the day. This refers not only to bread but to everything necessary for this temporal life—drink, clothing, rest, shelter, and the like, as some commentators explain. We do not ask for wealth, but for what is needed to sustain this life. We are not commanded to pray for money, or for luxury, or for costly clothing, or for anything of that kind—but only for bread, and for daily bread, so that we should not be anxious about tomorrow—says St. Chrysostom. It follows that a Christian ought not to be anxious about wealth, costly clothing, grand houses, fine food, and the like. For a Christian must always be ready for the Lord to call him, and when that happens, he will be compelled to leave all of this behind. The Lord calls each person to himself through death. He wants us, says St. John Chrysostom, to be always ready and to be content with what our nature requires. When we pray “give us bread,” we confess that we are poor, needy, and destitute, and therefore must ask everything of God, and whatever we have, must ascribe to His goodness—as the Psalmist sings: “The eyes of all look to You in hope, and You give them their food in due season; You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing according to Your good pleasure” (Ps. 144:15–16). When we say “give us our bread,” we show that we are asking not only for our own nourishment but for others as well, out of Christian love. For Christian love requires that we care not only for ourselves but also for our neighbors. It is well known that God, being generous, gives temporal blessings not only to Christians but also to those who do not know Him. Yet Christians must ask of Him with full faith, as children ask of a father, and in this way show that all they have that is necessary for life is God’s gift, and so, receiving His beneficence, give thanks to the Benefactor.

The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.”

Tertullian. After calling upon God’s generosity, we must also seek His mercy. Food does not encompass all that we need and that is good for us. The Lord knew that He alone is ever without sin. Therefore He teaches us to pray for the forgiveness of our debts. This is a confession, a seeking of forgiveness. Whoever seeks forgiveness confesses sin. Thus it is proved that God accepts repentance as well; He desires it more than “the death of a sinner” (Ezek. 33:11). A debt in Scripture is a figure of sin, and it is subject to judgment and exaction, from which the one exacted will not be freed until he has paid everything—as the Lord depicted in the parable (Matt. 18:23–34). That parable as a whole relates to the interpretation of the present petition. For what is there depicted—that the servant, pardoned by his master, did not on that account spare his own debtor, and was therefore, when it was reported to the master, handed over to the torturer to exact his debt down to the last quadrant, that is, to the smallest remaining portion—this is meant to move us to forgive our own debtors, so that we may receive forgiveness from the Lord. With the same aim the Lord commanded in another place: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). And when Peter asked Him whether to forgive up to seven times, He said: “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy-seven times” (Matt. 18:22).

St. Cyprian of Carthage. After asking for food, we ask for forgiveness of sins, so that the person nourished by God may also live in God, and may care not only for temporal life but also for eternal life—and that life is attained when the sins are forgiven, which the Lord in His Gospel calls debts, saying: “All that debt I forgave you, because you besought me” (Matt. 18:32). And how necessary, how far-sighted and salutary is this reminder by which we sinners are prompted to pray about sins, so that the spirit comes to self-awareness in seeking God’s mercy! To eliminate self-satisfaction, as though we were innocent, and to avoid the danger of perishing through pride, we are commanded to pray daily for sins, and in this we are given the reminder and instruction that we sin daily as well. The same is indicated by John in his Epistle, saying: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:8–9). In his Epistle he embraced both what we must ask about sins and that we will receive forgiveness if we ask. For he called the Lord faithful—that is, faithfully fulfilling His promise—and He who taught us to pray for our sins and debts has promised us the mercy of the Father and the forgiveness that follows. To this the Lord clearly added and appended a law that constrains us by a certain condition and pledge, by which we must ask that our debts be forgiven just as we forgive our debtors, knowing that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sins if we do not do the same toward our debtors. Therefore in another place He says: “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matt. 7:2). And the servant who refused to forgive his fellow servant, when his master had forgiven him his entire debt, was cast into prison; he lost the indulgence that had been shown him by the Lord, because he himself refused to show indulgence to his fellow servant (Matt. 18:27–34). The Lord sets this forth still more forcefully and with greater severity of judgment in His commandments: “And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your heavenly Father also may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses” (Mark 11:25–26). You are therefore left with no excuse on the day of judgment: you will be judged by your own verdict, and you will be treated as you yourself have treated others.

God commands that only those who are peaceful, harmonious, and of one mind dwell in His house. He wants those who have been reborn to remain as He has made them by the second birth; that those who have become children of God should abide in God’s peace; that those of us who share one spirit should have one heart and one mind. He does not accept the sacrifice of one who is at enmity, and He commands such a one to return from the altar and first be reconciled with his brother, so that afterward he may be able to propitiate God with peaceful prayers. The greatest sacrifice for God is our peace and fraternal harmony—a people united in the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. At the first sacrifices offered by Abel and Cain, God did not look at their gifts but at their hearts, so that the one whose heart was pleasing was pleasing in his gifts. The peaceful and righteous Abel, having offered his sacrifice to God in innocence, gave a lesson also to others who bring a gift to the altar—to come there with the fear of God, with a simple heart, with the law of righteousness, with the peace of harmony. Having offered his sacrifice to God with such a disposition, he himself then became a sacrifice to God: as a guardian of the Lord’s righteousness and peace, he was the first, by enduring martyrdom, to foreshadow the Lord’s passion through the glory of his blood. Such are those who are finally crowned by the Lord! Such are those who will judge with the Lord on the day of judgment! By contrast, one who is at enmity and discord, who does not have peace with his brothers—according to the testimony of the blessed apostle and Sacred Scripture—even if he suffers death for the name of Christ, will still remain guilty of fraternal enmity (1 Cor. 13:3); and in Scripture it is written: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15), and a murderer cannot attain the Kingdom of Heaven or live with God. One who has preferred to imitate Judas rather than Christ cannot be with Christ. What a sin this is—one not washed away even by the baptism of blood! What a transgression—one that even martyrdom cannot expiate!

St. Gregory of Nyssa. The discourse, pressing ever forward, has arrived at the very summit of virtue. For in the words of this prayer it depicts what the one who approaches God must be like, as required by those words; it shows that such a person is already beyond the boundaries of human nature and has been made like God Himself in virtue—so that, doing what is fitting for God alone to do, he himself appears to become a second god. For the forgiveness of debts is a property of God, and a preeminent one—for it is said that no one “can forgive sins except God alone” (Luke 5:21). Therefore, if someone in his life has made himself like the distinguishing marks of the Divine nature, he himself in some measure becomes the same as the One with whom he has shown exact likeness in himself.

So what does this word teach? First, with the boldness one has earned the right to through the preceding life, to recognize in oneself a likeness to God, and then to dare to call God one’s Father and to ask forgiveness for past transgressions—because not everyone who asks can receive what they desire, but only the one who by deeds has earned the right to ask with boldness. For this is precisely what the Lord is prompting us toward in this saying: namely, when approaching the Benefactor, be yourself a benefactor; when approaching the Good, be good; when approaching the Just, be just; when approaching the Forbearing, be forbearing; when approaching the Compassionate, be compassionate; and likewise be all else in kind—when approaching the Kind-hearted, the Gracious, the Generous with goods, the Merciful to all—and if there is anything else that is divine, resembling all of this in disposition, acquire thereby boldness in prayer. Therefore, just as it is impossible for the wicked to be at home with the good, or for one covered with impure filth to have communion with the pure and undefiled, so hardheartedness cuts off the one who approaches God’s compassion from that compassion. Therefore, whoever holds a man captive for debts and deals with him harshly has by his own character removed himself from God’s compassion. For what fellowship is there between compassion and cruelty, between a loving disposition and ferocity, and between all that stands opposed to evil and what belongs to the opposing side—which stands in such irreconcilable resistance to it that one given over to it is necessarily removed from its opposite? Just as one who has become the prey of death is no longer alive, and one who enjoys life is removed from death, so one who approaches God’s compassion must be entirely free from all harshness. And whoever has become free from everything understood under the name of vice, by such a character in some way becomes divine, advancing within himself what reason recognizes also concerning the Divine nature.

You see to what greatness the Lord raises those who hear Him through the words of this prayer, transforming in some measure human nature into the divine and decreeing that those who approach God should themselves become gods. “Why,” He says, “do you come to God stricken with fear, scourged by your own conscience, in a servile manner? Why do you yourself close off the boldness that is contained in the freedom of the soul and from the beginning essentially belongs to its nature? Why do you flatter with words the One who cannot be flattered? Why do you approach with obliging and ingratiating speech the One who looks upon deeds? You, endowed with freedom and wisdom, can with authority possess every good that God gives. Be your own judge. Pronounce upon yourself a saving verdict. You wish God to forgive your debts? Forgive them yourself; God has spoken the verdict; your judgment upon your kinsman, over whom you have power, whatever it may be, is also your own verdict. What you yourself know about yourself has been confirmed concerning you also by the judgment of God.”

But who could fittingly unfold all the greatness of the word of God? The thought contained in it surpasses verbal expression. “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” The thought that comes to my mind at this point—it is bold even to hold it in mind, let alone to express it in words. For what is being said? Just as the one who advances in good has God set before him as a model for imitation, in the words of the apostle: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1), so, conversely, it is required that your own disposition toward good become a pattern for God—the order is in some way reversed, and we dare to hope that, just as the good is accomplished in us by imitating God, so God will imitate our deeds when we advance in something good. And you will be able to say to God: “What I have done, do You also; imitate Your servant, You who are Lord; the poor and lowly—You who reign over all; I have forgiven debts—do not exact them, You also! I honored the petitioner—do not reject the one who asks You! I sent my debtor away rejoicing—let Your debtor be likewise! Do not let Yours be sadder than mine! Let both give equal thanks to those who showed them mercy! Let it be confirmed through both of us together that equal forgiveness is granted both to my debtor and to Yours! My debtor is such a one, and Yours is I; whatever verdict I gave concerning my debtor, let the same take effect with You as well; I released—release You also! I forgave—forgive You also! I showed great mercy to my kinsman—imitate You also, O Lord, the compassion of Your servant.”

“But my transgressions before You are heavier than what my debtor has done before me. I acknowledge this; yet consider also how greatly You surpass in every good. It is right for You to bestow upon us who have sinned a mercy proportionate to the superabundance of Your power. I showed a small compassion, because my nature cannot contain a greater one; but You—however much You desire, Your power will not hinder Your generosity.”

But let us understand more carefully the present clause of the prayer; examining its meaning may perhaps serve us as a certain guide to a lofty life. Let us therefore inquire what the debts are to which human nature is subject, and also what the debts are whose forgiveness lies within our power—knowing this will give us a sufficient understanding of the superabundance of God’s gifts. Let us therefore make here an enumeration of human transgressions before God. Man became liable to punishment from God: first, for having turned away from his Creator and surrendered himself to the adversary, becoming a fugitive and apostate from the One who is his Master by nature; second, for having exchanged free self-governance for wicked slavery to sin and preferring to be under the self-rule of a destructive power rather than dwelling with God. And is this—not to gaze upon the beauty of the Creator but to turn one’s face toward the ugliness of sin—to be reckoned as any lesser evil? And what kinds of punishment ought one to consider worthy of the disdain for divine goods and the preference for the baits of the evil one? The defacement of the image, the corruption of the divine features imprinted in us at the beginning of creation, the loss of the coin, the departure from the father’s table, the familiarity with the fetid life of swine, the squandering of precious wealth—and all such transgressions as can be seen by means of Scripture and reason—what words could enumerate them?

Therefore, since the human race for such offenses is liable to punishment from God, it seems to me that the word of God, through the teaching set forth in the prayer, instructs us toward prayerful communion with God in such a way that even if one among us is furthest removed from common human transgressions, he should never approach with such boldness as if he had a clear conscience. For perhaps someone, like that rich young man, having ordered his life according to the commandments, may rightly, like him, boast of his life and say to God: “All these things I have kept from my youth” (Matt. 19:20)—and may even suppose that for him, as one who has not transgressed any of the commandments, the petition for the forgiveness of debts—which befits only those who have sinned—would be utterly improper. Such words, he might say, befit one defiled by fornication, or one charged with greed—which amounts to idolatry—who must ask for forgiveness; and in general it is beautiful and fitting for anyone whose conscience has been wounded by any transgression to appeal to God’s mercy. But if someone is the great Elijah, or acts “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17), or is great “among those born of women” (Matt. 11:11), or is Peter, or Paul, or John, or another whose excellence is attested by the Divine Scriptures—why should such a person use these expressions, through which forgiveness of debts is sought by one who bears no debt of sin? This is precisely so that no one, having something like this in view, might fall into arrogance like that Pharisee who did not know what he was by nature. For had he known that he was a man, he would surely have learned from Holy Scripture not to present his nature as free from defilement, since Scripture says: “You will not find among people one whose life could pass even a single day without defilement” (Job 14:4–5). Therefore, lest something like this befall the soul of one who comes to God in prayer, the word of God commands him not to look at his achievements, but to call to mind the common debts of human nature—in which every person without doubt participates, as one who shares in that nature—and to entreat the Judge to grant forgiveness of transgression.

For since Adam lives in us and each of us is a man, as long as we see upon our nature these garments of skin and the swiftly fading leaves of this material life—which, having been stripped of the eternal and radiant garments, we sewed for ourselves to our own harm, clothing ourselves in diversions, glory, short-lived honors, and life-destroying pleasures of the flesh instead of the divine raiment—and as long as we look upon this fleshly dwelling-place where we are condemned to dwell: as soon as we turn toward the east—not only because that is where God appears to us (for He, as omnipresent, is confined to no particular place, but equally holds all things), but because in the east is our original homeland, I mean the dwelling in paradise from which we were expelled—“The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east” (Gen. 2:8)—therefore, as soon as we turn our gaze toward the east and call to mind our exile from the bright and eastern regions of blessedness, we rightly then join in these words—we who have been dismissed by the worthless fig tree of life, rejected from the eyes of God, who voluntarily surrendered to the serpent that eats earth and crawls upon the earth, that goes on his chest and belly and counsels us to do the same: to give ourselves over to earthly pleasures, to occupy our hearts with thoughts that creep and drag along the ground, and to walk on the belly—that is, to care for a pleasure-loving life. Being in this state, therefore, like the prodigal son after his long misery of tending swine—as soon as we, like him, come to ourselves and bring to mind our Heavenly Father, we do well then to use these words: “Forgive us our debts.”

Therefore, even if someone were Moses or Samuel or another distinguished for virtue, he nonetheless, being human, considers these words fitting for himself, as one who shares in the nature of Adam and is thereby a participant also in his fall. For just as the apostle says, “as in Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22), the words appropriate for Adam at repentance ought to be common to all who have died with him—so that we, when forgiveness of transgressions is granted, may again, as the apostle says, be saved by the grace of the Lord (Eph. 2:5). This is said so that someone looking at the broader picture may grasp what is offered in the word. But if one seeks the true meaning of the saying, I think it will not be necessary for us to raise the concept to a general view of nature, because conscience alone is sufficient—with regard to each act of life—to make the petition for mercy necessary.

For in this world our life is, I believe, subject to manifold influences—both with respect to the soul and understanding, and with respect to the bodily senses—so that it is difficult or altogether impossible not to be drawn toward sin by at least some one passion. This pleasure-loving life is divided, with respect to the body, according to our senses, and with respect to the soul, manifests itself in the impulse of reason and the movement of free will—who then is so elevated and endowed with such wisdom as to escape every defilement of vice in both these dimensions? Who is sinless in eye? Who is innocent in ear? Who is free from this bestial pleasure of the throat? Who is clean from contact with sin through touch? Who is unaware of that riddle put forward by Scripture: “death enters through our windows” (Jer. 9:21)? For the senses, by means of which the soul communicates with external things and occupies itself with them by choice, Scripture has called windows—which, by the word of Scripture, also pave the way for the entry of death. Indeed, the eye often becomes the entry-point for many deaths: it sees someone enraged and is itself stirred up to the same passion; or it sees someone prospering beyond his desert and is inflamed with envy; or it sees the proud and falls into hatred; or it sees some beautifully colored object or a pleasing arrangement of features, and plunges wholly into desire for what attracts it. The ear also opens the windows of death—for together with what it hears, it admits into the soul many passions: fear, grief, irritation, pleasure, desire, unrestrained laughter, and the like. And the gratification of taste, as someone might say, is the mother of all subsequent evils. For who does not know that care for the throat is the root of nearly all transgressions in life? From it come luxury, drunkenness, gluttony, disorderly conduct, overeating, surfeit, a dissolute life, and a bestial and irrational fall into the passions of dishonor. Likewise the sense of touch constitutes the extreme limit of all transgressions; everything that sensualists do for the body belongs to the category of ailments of the sense of touch—a detailed description of which would be lengthy; and it is improper to mix into weighty subjects everything that serves to reproach the sense of touch. And as for the whole swarm of transgressions of the soul and free will—could any words even enumerate them? It is said: from within “come evil thoughts” (Matt. 15:19)—and a list is appended of what defiles us through thought. Therefore, if snares of sin are spread everywhere for us through all the senses and the heart’s movements of the soul, “who can boast,” as Wisdom says, “that he has a clean… heart” (Prov. 20:9)? “Who… is clean… from defilement?”—as Job bears similar witness (Job 14:4). And defilement for the purity of the soul is pleasure in its many forms, mixed into human life by many means—by soul and body, by thoughts and feelings, by intentional movements and bodily actions. So whose soul is clean from this defilement? Who has not been struck by conceit? Who has not been trampled by the foot of pride? Who has not been shaken by a sinful hand? Whose foot has not hastened toward vice? Who has not been defiled by a shameless eye, cast into uncleanness by an ignorant ear, or occupied by the sense of taste? Whose heart has remained unmoved by vain impulses?

Since all of this exists within us—and in those who live like beasts it is very bad and intolerable, while in those more attentive to themselves it is more bearable—yet all who share our nature always and inevitably participate in the failings of that nature. Therefore, falling before God in prayer, we ask that our debts be forgiven. But such a voice is not received and does not reach the divine hearing unless our conscience also cries out together with it that sharing the gift of mercy with others is a beautiful thing. For whoever considers that loving-kindness befits God (and if he did not consider it fitting, he would not ask of God for something unfitting and inappropriate), from that person justice demands that he confirm by his own deeds his judgment about the beautiful—lest he himself hear from the righteous Judge: “Physician, heal yourself.” You implore me for loving-kindness that you yourself do not share with your neighbors. You ask for the remission of debts—why then do you yourself torment your debtor? You beseech that the bond against you be blotted out, while you yourself carefully keep the documents of those who have borrowed from you? You ask for a reduction of your debt account, while you increase what was lent at interest? Your debtor is in prison, while you are in the house of prayer. He suffers for debts, while you seek the remission of debt? Your prayer is not heard, because the voice of the suffering one drowns it out. If you release the bodily debt, your soul’s bonds will be released. If you forgive, you will be forgiven; you will be your own judge, you will prescribe for yourself your own law—and by your disposition toward the one lying at your feet, you pronounce judgment upon yourself from above.

Therefore, if we intend to bring to God a petition for mercy and forgiveness, let us prepare the boldness of a clear conscience and present our own life as an intercessor for the prayer we utter—so that we may truly be able to say: “As we also” have forgiven “our debtors.”

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. “And forgive us our debts…” For we have many sins; we fall by word and thought, and we do much that is worthy of condemnation. Therefore “if we say we have no sin,” we speak as John says (1 John 1:8). “As we also forgive…” We enter into an agreement with God, imploring Him to forgive us our sins as we forgive the debts of our neighbors. Therefore, keeping in mind what we receive and in exchange for what, let us not wait and delay in mutually forgiving one another. The offenses committed against us are small, trivial, and easily remedied; but the sins we have committed against God are great and require the loving-kindness that belongs to God alone. Therefore be careful, and do not, on account of minor and trivial offenses against yourself, close off for yourself the possibility of receiving God’s forgiveness for the most grievous sins.

St. John Chrysostom. Furthermore—since it happens that we sin even after the baptismal font of regeneration—the Savior, wishing to show His great loving-kindness even in this case, commands us to come before the loving God with a petition for the remission of our sins, and to say thus: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” Do you see the depth of God’s mercy? After the removal of so many evils, and after the ineffably great gift of justification, He again grants forgiveness to those who sin. That this prayer belongs to the faithful is shown both by the canons of the Church and by the very beginning of the Lord’s Prayer itself. One who is not yet illumined by faith cannot call God Father. But if the Lord’s Prayer belongs to the faithful, and if it commands them to pray for the remission of sins, then it is plain that even after baptism the beneficial use of repentance is not abolished. If Christ had not wished to show this, He would not have commanded us to pray in this manner. But since He mentions sins, commands us to ask for their forgiveness, and teaches us how we may obtain this forgiveness—and by this very fact makes the path easy for us—He undoubtedly gave this rule of prayer because He Himself fully knew, and wished to instill in us, that even after baptism sins can be washed away. By the reminder of sins He instills humility in us; by the command to forgive others He destroys vindictiveness in us; and by the promise of forgiveness to us in return He establishes good hope within us and teaches us to reflect on the ineffable loving-kindness of God. Especially worthy of note is the fact that in each of the aforementioned petitions He mentioned all the virtues, and by this final petition He also encompasses vindictiveness. The fact that God’s name is hallowed through us is an indisputable proof of a perfect life; the fact that His will is done shows the same; the fact that we call God Father is a mark of a blameless life. All of this already contains within it that we should lay aside anger toward those who offend us; yet the Savior was not satisfied with this, but wishing to show what care He takes in rooting out vindictiveness among us, He speaks of it separately, and after the prayer He recalls not some other commandment, but the commandment about forgiveness, saying: “For if you forgive people their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matt. 6:14). Thus this remission primarily depends on us, and the judgment pronounced upon us lies within our own power. So that no one lacking understanding, being condemned for a great or small transgression, might have grounds to complain about the judgment, the Savior makes you yourself—the very guilty party—the judge over your own case, and speaks to you as if saying: whatever judgment you pronounce upon yourself, that same judgment I will pronounce upon you; if you forgive your fellow, you will receive from Me the same benefit—though this latter is in reality far greater than the former. You forgive another because you yourself are in need of forgiveness, while God forgives without Himself being in need of anything; you forgive a fellow servant, while God forgives a servant; you are guilty of countless sins, while God is sinless. On the other hand, the Lord shows His loving-kindness in that, although He could forgive all your sins even without your act, He wishes to benefit you in this as well—in all things providing you occasions and incentives for meekness and loving-kindness; He drives out brutishness from you, quenches anger in you, and in every way desires to unite you with your fellow members. What will you say to this? Perhaps that you have unjustly suffered some evil from your neighbor? If so, then your neighbor has sinned against you; but if you suffered it justly, then there is no sin in him. And yet you too come before God intending to obtain forgiveness for similar, and indeed far greater, sins. Moreover, even before receiving forgiveness, did you not already receive much, when you were taught to preserve a human soul within yourself and were instructed in meekness? Beyond this, a great reward awaits you in the age to come, for then no account of any of your sins will be required from you. So what punishment shall we deserve, if even after receiving such rights we neglect our own salvation? Will the Lord heed our petitions when we ourselves show no pity for ourselves in that which is entirely within our power?

With the words “Give us… our bread… for this day,” having taught us high wisdom—to cast our care upon God, confident that He cares for us—and knowing that it is impossible for us, as people clothed in mortal bodies, not to fall, the Lord further teaches us to say in prayer: “and forgive us our debts…” These words bring three goods at once: to those who have attained the heights of virtue He teaches humility and exhorts them not to rely on their own labors, but to fear, to tremble, and to remember their former sins—as the divine Paul himself did, who after countless labors said: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief” (1 Tim. 1:15). He did not say “I was,” but “I am,” indicating that he unceasingly remembered his sins. Thus to those who have attained the heights of virtue the Lord provides security through humility by these words; and to those who have fallen after the grace of holy Baptism He does not allow them to despair of their salvation, but teaches them to ask of the physician of souls the medicine of forgiveness. Moreover, these words instruct in loving-kindness. He desires that we be gentle toward the guilty, free from rancor toward those who sin against us, that we gain forgiveness for ourselves by forgiving them, and that we ourselves prepare in advance the measure of loving-kindness. For we ask that as much be granted to us as we ourselves give to our neighbors, and we seek for ourselves the same forgiveness that we give to our own debtors.

St. John Cassian. God’s ineffable mercy! It not only transmitted to us the form of prayer, not only set forth for us the rules of morality through which we can please God, and not only tears out the very roots of anger and despondency by the power of the prescribed form of unceasing prayer—but even provides those who pray with a means of obtaining mercy and love for themselves on the Day of the Revelation of God’s Judgment, and in a certain sense grants us the power to soften the decision of our Judge, and as it were to oblige Him to forgive our transgressions by the example of our own forgiveness: “Forgive us,” we say to Him, “as we also forgive.” Therefore, relying on this prayer, every person who has forgiven his own debtors—but not the debtors of his Lord—may boldly ask for the remission of sins. For some among us (which is worst of all) are usually merciful and very indulgent toward those acts that offend God, however great the transgressions may be, while on the contrary they are harsh and merciless in avenging the slightest offenses against themselves. Therefore, whoever does not forgive from his whole heart a brother who has sinned against him will by this prayer be seeking for himself not pardon but condemnation—and by his own acknowledgment calls down upon himself a strict judgment, saying: “Forgive me as I have forgiven.” For if this prayer of his is heard, then in correspondence with his example, what else must follow but implacable wrath and an unconditional sentence of punishment? So if we wish to be judged mercifully, we ourselves must be merciful toward those who have sinned against us; for as much as we forgive those who have caused us some harm by their malice, so much will be forgiven to us. Some, fearing lest by uttering these words of the prayer they appear to accuse themselves more than excuse themselves, pass over them in silence while the whole congregation sings them in church. But it is in vain that they try to use such cunning before the Judge of all, who desired to show His subjects in advance how He would judge them—that is, He showed us such a manner of judgment by which He does not wish to appear stern and merciless, but as we wish to be judged by Him, so we must judge our brothers if they sin against us in anything: “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy” (James 2:13).

Blessed Augustine. By “debts” sins are clearly meant here, as also on another occasion—when they reported concerning the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, and concerning the eighteen killed by the falling tower of Siloam—the Lord said: “Do you suppose that those Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?” And then He added: “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:2–3). So here we are not compelled to forgive money to debtors, but that by which others have sinned against us. We are commanded to forgive money by the precept given earlier: “And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well” (Matt. 5:40). But here too it is not made obligatory for every monetary debtor to be forgiven—only the one who refuses to repay with such unwillingness that he is even ready to go to court: “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome,” as the Apostle says (2 Tim. 2:24). So when someone, neither willingly nor by persuasion, refuses to repay the money owed, one must forgive it. For if he does not want to repay, he does so for one of two reasons: either because he does not have it, or because he is miserly and greedy for another’s property. But both reveal poverty: the first is material poverty, and the second is poverty of soul. Therefore, whoever forgives such a person the debt forgives one who is poor and performs a Christian act. However, if someone, holding in his heart a readiness to forgive what is owed to him, through gentleness and friendliness so works upon his debtor that the debtor repays him—caring not so much about the return of the money as about correcting the person, for whom it is surely ruinous to have the means to repay and not to repay—he not only commits no fault, but does a beneficial deed: so that by appropriating another’s money the debtor may not suffer harm to his soul, with which no other harm can compare. From this one can nevertheless conclude that in this fifth petition, although it speaks not directly of money but of everything by which anyone offends against us, monetary debt may also be understood here. For whoever does not repay you the money owed, when he has the means to repay it, sins against you. And if you do not forgive this sin, you cannot say: “Forgive us, as we also forgive.”

We ask that our debts be forgiven; for all of us are debtors before God—not in money, but in sins. You may say: and you too?—I reply: and we too. And you, holy bishops, are debtors? Yes—we too are debtors. Really? Surely not, my lord; do not say something untrue about yourself. I am not saying something untrue about myself, but speaking the truth: we are debtors. And “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). And we have been baptized, and yet we are debtors. Not because anything remains that was not forgiven in baptism; but because, as we live, we accumulate that which stands in need of daily forgiveness. Those who depart this life immediately after baptism ascend without any debt at all and pass into the heavenly dwellings. But those who, having been baptized, remain living in this life—due to moral weakness they accumulate within themselves much that, though it does not cause the ship of life to sink, must nevertheless be bailed out. For if it is not bailed out, little by little so much will seep in that the whole ship will be submerged. To pray in the manner shown is precisely to bail oneself out. And if it had not been given to us to cleanse ourselves daily through holy prayer in this way, we would find ourselves in far greater extremity—despite the fact that in the bath of regeneration all our sins were washed away. But thanks be to the Lord! Almsgiving and prayers cleanse our sins—only let such sins not be committed as would deprive us of our daily bread (holy communion); only let us avoid those sins that incur strict condemnation.

Let none of you consider yourself righteous, as if you had no need to say: “Forgive us our debts.” You may be far from idol-worship, astrology, and sorcery; you may be untouched by heresy and schism; you may recoil from murder, fornication, robbery, false witness, and all such abominations—but beyond these there is much by which a person sins. By gazing with desire at what is forbidden, one sins. But who can restrain the swift movement of the eye?—The eye, however, you can immediately close if you wish; but the ear you cannot always close, and it takes in against your will indecent, impure, seductive, slanderous, and blasphemous words. On hearing something shameful, do you not sin with your ear, even if you do not do it in deed? And how many sins does the tongue commit—often even such as call for exclusion from the cup? Idle talk, gossip, slander, blasphemy—these are its work. But suppose the hand does nothing evil, the foot runs toward no harm, the eye turns toward no desire, the ear receives nothing indecent, the tongue speaks nothing improper: who will control one’s thoughts, tell me? Does it not often happen, my brothers, that when we pray, our thoughts wander who knows where, having forgotten before Whom we stand and before Whom we lie prostrate on the ground? If all such things are gathered together, surely they ought to weigh on the conscience, even though each one separately is a small thing. What difference does it make—whether lead presses you down or sand? Lead presses by its mass, and grains of sand by their number. Each grain is trivial, but when many are gathered together they can weigh just as heavily as lead. Small sins! Do you not see how rivers are formed from drops of water? Small they are, yet numerous.

Let us therefore always cry out—and cry out sincerely: “Forgive us our debts,” fulfilling in deed what follows: “as we also forgive our debtors.” God is pleased to enter into an agreement with us. So does the Lord your God say to you: “Forgive, and I will forgive. You have not forgiven: you yourself act against yourself, not I.” So forgive everything that anyone holds in his heart against another. Forgive from the heart—and be assured that at that very moment all your sins are forgiven, those committed by word, deed, and thought. Who can live on this earth and have no enemy? But strive to love them. Your fiercest enemy cannot cause you as much harm as you cause yourself, if you do not love your enemy. He can harm your fields, or your livestock, or your house, or your servant, or your maidservant, or your son, or your wife, or—at most, if power is given to him—your flesh. Is all of this as destructive as when you, by not forgiving him, cause harm to your own soul? Stretch yourselves, beloved, toward such perfection—I implore you. And do not think that this is impossible: I know, I have known, I have seen with my own eyes Christians who love their enemies. That we too may succeed in this, believe that it is possible, and pray that in this regard too the will of God may be done in you. What arouses your anger toward your enemy? Surely not human nature. Do you have him as an enemy because he has a soul and a body?—For you have the same: you have a soul, and he has a soul; you have a body, and he has a body. He is of the same nature as you: both were created from earth and given life by the Lord. He is the same as you: see in him your brother. The first two—Adam and Eve—were our parents: he the father, she the mother. Therefore we are brothers. But let us set aside this original ancestry; God is our Father, the Church is our mother—therefore we are brothers. But my enemy is a pagan, a Jew, a heretic, you say. Then pray, and he will become what you are, and together with everything else, your enmity will also disappear.

And yet you all say: who can do this? Who does this?—May God accomplish this in your hearts.—And I know that few do it: but those who do are great, they are truly spiritual. Are all the faithful who approach the altar in the church and receive the Body and Blood of Christ like this? Are they all?—And yet they all say: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” God will justly say to them: you ask me to do what I promised, when you yourselves do not do what I have commanded? What did I promise?—To forgive your debts. What did I command?—That you also forgive your debtors. But how can you say you are doing this, when you do not love your enemies?—What then are we to do, brothers? How small the flock of Christ has become! If only those who love their enemies should say: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors,” then I do not know what to do, I do not know what to say. I would say to you: if you do not love your enemies, then do not pray. But I dare not; rather I say: pray, that you may come to love. Should I tell you: if you do not love your enemies, do not say this petition in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors”?—But if you do not say it, your sins will remain on you. And so: if you do not say it, they will not be forgiven; if you say it and do not act accordingly, they will not be forgiven either. There is only one thing left: both to say it and to do it, so that you may be forgiven.

“Forgive, and you will be forgiven,” said Christ the Lord (Luke 6:37). And what do you say in prayer?—“Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” So: forgive, Lord, as we forgive. You say this: so forgive us, Father in heaven, our debts, as we also forgive our debtors?—This you must also do; and if you do not do it, you will perish. When an enemy asks for forgiveness, forgive him at once. Is even that too much for you?—It would be much to love an enemy when he is raging and doing evil. But is it really too much for you to love a man who comes to you with humble entreaty? Yet I would wish that even then (when he was raging) you would look on him with goodwill; I would wish that, while enduring his malice, you would remember the Lord who said: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). This above all I would desire—that even when your enemy plots against you, you would look to the Lord your God who spoke those words. Perhaps you will say: He did this as the Lord, as Christ, as the Son of God, the Only-begotten, as the Word made flesh; but I am a weak and wretched man—how can I measure up to that?—If it is too much for you to imitate your Lord, bring to mind your fellow servant. St. Stephen was being stoned, and under the blows of the stones, kneeling down, he prayed saying: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). They were hurling stones at him, not asking forgiveness; yet he prayed for them. Such is the person I would have you be. Lift yourself up a little. Why do you always drag your heart along the ground? Do you hear: “Let us lift our hearts to heaven”? Rise up, then, love your enemy. If you cannot love him when he is raging, love him at least when he asks forgiveness. Love the man who says: brother, I have sinned, forgive me. If you will not forgive him at that moment, I will not say that you are driving prayer from your heart;—but that you are excluding yourself from the book of life.

So when your enemy asks forgiveness, forgive him—release the hostility toward him from your heart: hostility, I say, release from your heart, not merely the demand for repayment of a debt.—You may say: he is pretending, he is deceiving.—O, you who presume to judge another’s heart! Tell me your father’s thoughts, tell me your own thoughts from yesterday. He is pleading, asking forgiveness; forgive him, forgive him completely. If you do not forgive, you harm not him but yourself. You will not forgive, fellow servant to your fellow servant; so he will go to the Lord—his and yours—and say to Him: My Master! I asked my fellow servant to forgive me; he refused. You forgive!—And He will most certainly forgive. In this way, that man will leave his Lord’s presence released, while you will remain bound. How bound? The time of prayer will come, the moment will arrive when you say: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors”: and the Lord will answer you: “Wicked servant! I forgave you the entire debt because you begged me; should you not also have shown mercy to your companion, as I showed mercy to you?” (Matt. 18:32–33). These words are from the Gospel, not from my own heart. But if you, having been entreated, forgive the one who asks forgiveness; then you may say that prayer boldly. Even if you are not yet strong enough to love your enemy; you can still say that prayer: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”

“Forgive us our debts,” we say, and we will keep saying it: for we speak the truth. Who among those living in this flesh has no debts? Who among people lives in such a way that this prayer is not needed? A person may grow so proud as to think so; but in truth it cannot be so.—It is better for us to imitate the tax collector than to be proud like the Pharisee, who, entering the temple, boasted of his merits while covering over his wounds. But the one who knew better why he had entered the temple was the one who said: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:10–14).—Consider, my brothers. The Lord Jesus taught his disciples to pray this way—those great first Apostles of His, our leaders. And if our leaders pray for the forgiveness of their sins, how much more should we do this?—And in the Creed, among other blessings of the economy of salvation, you name also the remission of sins (through holy baptism). The remission of sins is of two kinds: one that is given once, and another that is given each day. The one given once is conferred in holy Baptism, while the daily one is asked for in the Lord’s Prayer, for as long as we live here. This is why we say: “Forgive us our debts.”

God entered into a covenant and agreement with us, sealing it with a firm written bond, when He taught us to say in prayer: “as we also forgive our debtors.” Whoever wants the words “Forgive us our debts” to be effective must ensure that the words “as we also forgive our debtors” are true. But if he either does not say these latter words, or says them falsely, then the former words are also in vain. That is why I urge you constantly: forgive everything you hold in your hearts against anyone; forgive in the place where God sees. It happens that one person forgives with his lips but holds on in his heart: he forgives with his lips for the sake of people, but holds on in his heart, not fearing the eyes of God. Forgive completely. Whatever you have held on to until now, forgive it all now. The sun was never supposed to set on your anger; yet how many times has it set that way? Do not think that anger is nothing. “My eye is troubled,” says the prophet, “from wrath” (Ps. 6:8). But one whose eye is troubled cannot see the sun: nor can one whose eye of the mind is troubled by anger see the spiritual Sun. What is anger? A thirst for revenge. A sinful person thirsts for revenge—while Christ the Lord was not avenged, and the holy martyrs were not avenged! God’s longsuffering still waits, that the enemies of Christ may repent, that the enemies of the martyrs may repent. But who are we, that we should seek revenge?—If God chose to demand it from us, where would we turn? Yet He, wholly innocent, does not seek revenge; while we, guilty in all things and offending God every day, seek it. Therefore, forgive, forgive from the heart. You became angry—do not sin, as the Prophet teaches: “Be angry, and do not sin” (Ps. 4:5). You grow angry as human beings who have been overcome by irritation; but do not sin by keeping that anger within you. If you keep it, it will reach hatred, which is anger grown old. Anger, when it grows old, is called hatred, and is hatred. What was anger when it was fresh becomes hatred when it has aged. Anger is a splinter; hatred is a beam. If we, while condemning someone who is angry, hold hatred in our own hearts, the Lord’s words apply to us: “Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, while you do not feel the beam in your own eye?” (Matt. 7:3). How did the splinter grow until it became a beam? Because it was not pulled out at once. Having allowed the sun to rise and set so many times in your anger, you made it grow old. By heaping up evil suspicions onto the anger, you watered the splinter, and by watering you nourished it; by nourishing you enlarged it and made it a beam. Fear at least the following verdict: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). Perhaps you drew no sword, dealt no blows, inflicted no wounds on your brother’s body; but as long as there is a thought of hatred in your heart, for that alone you are counted a murderer. That is how guilty you are before God. Your brother is alive; and yet you are still a murderer. You have already killed within yourself the one you have come to hate. Correct yourself, cleanse yourself. If scorpions have gotten into your house, how much effort do you expend to rid your home of them and to live in safety?—As many people as you are angry with, and leave those angers to grow old in your hearts, so many hatreds you carry, and so many scorpions and serpents. Why then do you not strive to cleanse the house of God—your heart—of this? Act then as you say: “as we also forgive our debtors”—so that you may say with confidence: “Forgive us our debts.” We cannot live on earth without debts. But some of them are those great sins that are washed away in baptism, and from which you must always keep apart; while others are the everyday sins without which a person cannot live, and on account of which this daily petition with its attached condition is necessary.

St. Maximus the Confessor. One who lives in God and is nourished by Him as by daily bread is filled with divine longsuffering. …He stands before God as an example of virtue and, if one may say so, calls upon the Inimitable to imitate him, saying: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors”—he entreats God to be toward him as he himself has been toward his neighbors. For if he desires that God also forgive him in the same way that he himself has forgiven the debts of those who have sinned against him, this means that just as God passionlessly forgives those whom He forgives, so too he forgives those who have sinned, remaining dispassionate toward what befalls him, and therefore does not permit his mind to be marked by memories of former sorrows, showing himself to be a person who does not separate himself from other people and does not divide the one nature of humanity. For when the will is joined in like manner to the logos of nature, reconciliation of God with human nature customarily takes place, since it is impossible for a nature that voluntarily rebels against itself to receive the ineffable condescension of the Divinity in any other way. And certainly the Lord desires our reconciliation with one another not in order to learn from us how to be reconciled with sinners and to consent to making amends for many and terrible offenses, but He desires this in order to cleanse us from the passions and to show that the disposition of the soul is intimately connected to grace. And it is clear that when the will has been joined to the logos of nature, the free will of those who fulfill this will no longer rebel against God.

Blessed Theophylact. Since we sin even after baptism, the Lord commands us to pray that He would forgive us our sins—forgive us just as we forgive others. For if we hold grudges, He does not forgive us. God sets us, in a manner of speaking, as an example for Himself, so that as we act toward others, so He acts toward us.

Simeon of Thessalonica. This is the whole meaning and entire power of the divine Gospel. For in order that our lawless deeds and sins might be forgiven us, God the Word came down to earth and, having taken flesh, shed His blood. For the forgiveness of sins He established the divine sacraments. He Himself did everything for this purpose; and He requires from us only one thing—that we also forgive others. This is why He laid down the law: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). And to Peter, who asked how many times a day one should forgive a sinning person—whether to forgive up to seven times—He said that one must forgive seventy-seven times, meaning without ceasing. Thus He made the person praying himself the measure of the success of prayer: so that if he has forgiven, he also will be forgiven; if he himself has released, it will be released to him as well, and as he himself has forgiven, so will it be forgiven to him. What is done to a brother reaches back to the One who created us: for in him is the image of God. And among ourselves we are all equal in nature, all equally servants of God. Before Him we all sin greatly, and against one another we sin but little. Yet by releasing this small debt, we receive incomparably more in return, when, by forgiving people, we are granted forgiveness from God.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. “And forgive us our debts.” Here debts mean sins—words, deeds, and thoughts contrary to the law of God. That is why St. Luke wrote in his Gospel: “Forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:4). Sins are called debts because, just as in civil life debts obligate a debtor to repay his creditor, and if the debtor does not repay his debts he is imprisoned for them and held until he repays them, so also sins obligate us to satisfy God’s justice (for every sin is against God’s justice), and when we have nothing with which to satisfy it, they lock us in an eternal prison. We cannot pay these debts ourselves, and so we turn to Christ’s merits and God’s mercy, that He would freely release them to us, and we ask Him: “Forgive us our debts.” When we ask: “Forgive us our debts,” this shows that we must pray not only for ourselves but also for one another, and must ask forgiveness of sins for one another. These words—“Forgive us our debts”—clearly show that even the saints themselves sin and must therefore ask for the forgiveness of their sins, as it is written: “For this—that is, for the leaving of sins—every righteous person will pray to You in a time of need” (Ps. 31:6). Since this is the prayer of saints, for whoever truly and from the heart calls God his Father must be a holy child of God and have the Spirit of God dwelling within him, in whom the faithful cry out: “Abba, Father!” (Gal. 4:6). The sins meant here are not those that are done willfully and deliberately, such as: fornication, theft, plunder, malice, cunning, deceit, and the like—from these sins the saints keep away—but the infirmities from which they cannot protect themselves because of their weakness, even though they strive to do so. It is for these sins that the saints pray: “Father, forgive us our debts.”

It is said: “as we also forgive our debtors.” By these words we are taught that we ourselves must also release the sins of our neighbors when we ask and receive the release of sins from God. He forgives us our sins out of mercy—and we must, imitating Him, out of mercy forgive our brothers their sins. When we release the sins of our brothers, God also releases our sins. When we do not release them, God does not release ours either, as Christ says: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their transgressions, your Father will not forgive your transgressions either” (Matt. 6:14–15).

Any sinner who remains in sin and refuses to forsake it, and who wishes to pray and ask God for the forgiveness of sins, must first forsake those sins himself, and having forsaken them, ask God that by His grace He would forgive them and deliver him from the punishment to which sinners are condemned for their sins. For God does not forgive us our sins when we ourselves do not forsake them. And when sins are not forgiven us, nothing follows but punishment for those sins. This is what happens to a debtor whose creditor does not forgive the debt—he is cast into prison and held there until he has paid what he owes. So too the sinner whose sins are not forgiven will be confined by the judgment of God in an eternal prison, and will pay God’s justice for his sinful debts with torment, yet never fully pay. For having angered and offended the eternal and infinite God, eternal and infinite punishment is justly rendered. God’s justice demands that the unrepentant sinner receive fitting punishment. But for the violation of God’s eternal law and the offense thereby given to God’s infinite majesty, nothing can satisfy except eternal torment and suffering. That sins are forgiven by God to those who repent, cease sinning, grieve over their sins, and ask for pardon—this God does solely from His own mercy and for the sake of Christ’s merits, for whose sake He has promised in His word to grant forgiveness of sins to all who repent and believe in Christ, as this mercy of God is depicted in Psalm 102: “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”

But whoever desires to repent and receive forgiveness of sins through the suffering and death of Christ must without fail forsake his sins. For where there is no forsaking of sins, there is no true repentance. Where there is no true repentance, the merits of Christ find no place. Where the merits of Christ find no place, there is no forgiveness of sins. Where there is no forgiveness of sins, condemnation follows and eternal suffering in hell for those sins. And so the sinner, when his sins are not forgiven—and they will not be forgiven, since he himself has no desire to forsake them—will, like a debtor for his debts, be tormented for all the sins by which he has sinned before God, and since he has no means of redemption, will pay with eternal death. Therefore, whoever desires to repent and be saved must turn away from sins and flee to the mercy of God, confessing himself with humility and contrition as guilty before God, asking for forgiveness for the sake of the shed Blood of Christ, which was shed for every sinner and cleanses every sin. One must, like the prodigal son, leave the foreign lawless country and return to the Father with contrition and self-abasement, casting oneself, as unworthy, before His merciful eyes and confessing: “Father! I have sinned against heaven and before You, and am no longer worthy to be called Your son; receive me as one of Your hired servants” (Luke 15:18–19). Have mercy on me by the grace and love of Your Only-Begotten Son, Who shed His Blood and died for all, and for me, a sinner, as well. For the sake of His innocent suffering and death, forgive me, the guilty one, and pardon my debts. Thus, to the one who has turned back and with humility and contrition confesses his sins and asks for mercy, the Heavenly Father will without doubt forgive all his debts—not for any merits of his own, but by grace alone. For the very Blood of the Son of God, shed for the sinner, cries out that all his debts be forgiven and remembered no more. Such a sinner will experience in himself the mercy of the Heavenly Father, just as the returned prodigal son experienced the mercy of his most compassionate father. The Heavenly Father will see such a sinner coming to Him, and will look upon him with merciful eyes, and will have compassion on him. He will not hear from the Father a rebuke for his willfulness, his going away, and his dissolute life, but will hear only the voice of the most compassionate Father: “Bring the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry! For this my son was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found” (Luke 15:22–24). And so—in the words of Christ—“there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:7).

But the sinner who has received such great mercy from God must himself show mercy to his neighbor and forgive him his offenses, lest he experience what was experienced by the debtor in the Gospel who owed his king ten thousand talents, who, having received mercy from his king, refused to show mercy to his fellow servant, and having been released from a great debt solely through his king’s mercy, was unwilling to forgive a small debt to his brother—and therefore fell under the king’s wrath and received his heavy debt back again, together with the rebuke: “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me; should you not also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his lord delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was owed. “So,” Christ concludes the parable, “My Heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother his sins from your heart” (Matt. 18:32–35).

The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation”

Tertullian. To complete this most saving prayer (“forgive us”), the Lord added: “lead us not into temptation”—teaching us to pray not only that our sins be forgiven, but also that they be prevented altogether. “Lead us not into temptation” means: do not allow us to be led into temptation by the one who tempts. Let no one suppose that God tempts—neither in the sense of wishing to learn our faith, as though He did not know it, nor still less in the sense of delighting in our fall: ignorance and malice belong to the devil. God commanded Abraham to offer his son in sacrifice not in order to learn his faith, but to reveal it—so that in him He might give us an example of obedience to God’s command the moment it is received, placing nothing, not even one’s own flesh and blood, above God. The Lord, having permitted Himself to be tempted by the devil, showed thereby who is the chief agent and craftsman of every temptation. This He confirmed when He afterward said: “pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Luke 22:40). They were already being tempted, since they had left the Lord to pray alone, desiring sleep more than prayer. Corresponding to this is also the conclusion of the prayer: “but deliver us from the evil one”—making clear who it is that leads into temptation.

St. Cyprian of Carthage. Further, the Lord gives us this necessary instruction, to say in prayer: “and lead us not into temptation.” This shows that the enemy has no power over us unless divine permission is first granted. Therefore all our fear, all our reverence and attention must be directed toward God, for the evil one cannot tempt us unless power is given to him from above. The proof is found in the words of Holy Scripture: “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand” (Dan. 1:1–2). Power is given to the evil one over us on account of our sins, as Scripture says: “Who gave Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways and did not obey His law. So He poured out on them the heat of His anger” (Isa. 42:24–25). Likewise concerning Solomon, when he had given himself over and turned aside from the commandments and ways of the Lord, it is said: “And God raised up an adversary against Solomon” (1 Sam. 11:23). Yet power over us is granted for two purposes: either for punishment when we sin, or for glory when we are tested—as was done with Job, in accordance with God’s clear words: “Behold, all that he has is in your hand; only do not stretch out your hand against him himself” (Job 1:12). The Lord also says during His passion in His own Gospel: “You would have no authority over Me at all unless it had been given to you from above” (John 19:11). Yet when we pray that we may not be subjected to temptation, this very petition brings us to an awareness of our weakness and infirmity, so that no one should be proudly self-confident, so that no one with pride and arrogance should claim anything for himself or attribute to himself the glory of confession or suffering, since the Lord Himself, teaching humility, said: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38). Thus humble and submissive awareness and the entrusting of all things to God must come first, so that what is humbly asked of Him with the fear and reverence of God may be granted by His goodness.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. “And lead us not into temptation,” O Lord. Does the Lord really teach us to pray that we be not tempted at all? But what is said elsewhere: “One who has not been tested knows little” (Sir. 34:10)—and again: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials” (James 1:2)?—Perhaps, then, to enter into temptation means to be overwhelmed by it. For temptation is like a kind of torrent that is hard to cross. Thus some, without being overwhelmed by temptations, pass through them as though they were skilled swimmers, not being swept away by them at all. Others are not so—they enter and are overwhelmed. For example, Judas, having entered into the temptation of avarice, did not swim across the abyss but was overwhelmed and perished in body and soul. But Peter entered into the temptation of denial; yet though he entered, he was not overwhelmed—he bravely swam across the abyss and was delivered from the temptation. Hear also how elsewhere a band of the saints who have reached perfection gives thanks for deliverance from temptation: “You tested us, O God, You refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs; You set men over our heads. We went through fire and through water, yet You brought us out to a place of abundance” (Ps. 65:10–12). See with what confidence they declare that they passed through temptations and did not grow faint. It says: “yet You brought us out to a place of abundance.” And to come to a place of abundance means to be delivered from temptation.

St. Gregory of Nyssa. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matt. 16:13). What force, brothers, do these words carry? The Lord, it seems to me, names the evil one in many and various ways according to the diversity of his wicked powers, calling him by many names: devil (Matt. 13:39), Beelzebul (Matt. 10:25), mammon (Matt. 6:24), prince of this world (John 14:30), murderer (John 8:44), the evil one, the father of lies (John 8:44), and other such names. Therefore, perhaps one of the names understood of him is this one as well: temptation. And this conjecture of ours is confirmed by the very construction of the words spoken, for the Lord, after saying “lead us not into temptation,” adds the petition for deliverance from the evil one, as though both designate one and the same thing. If someone does not enter “into temptation,” he is necessarily outside the power of the evil one; and whoever is “in temptation” is necessarily in the power of the evil one—therefore “temptation” and the evil one are the same in meaning. What, then, does this teaching of the prayer instruct us? To stand outside what is observed in this world—as He says to the disciples elsewhere, that “the whole world lies in the evil one” (1 John 5:19). Therefore, whoever desires to stand outside the power of the evil one must of necessity depart from the world. For “temptation” has no possibility of touching the soul unless it spreads before the greedy the worldly concern, like bait on a cunning hook. But this thought will become still clearer to us from other examples. The sea is often fearsome in its storms—but not for those who live far from it. Fire is destructive—but only to what is placed in the fire. War is terrible—but only for those who have entered the ranks of battle. Whoever avoids the calamities that befall in war prays not to be put in the necessity of going to war. Whoever fears fire prays not to find himself in fire. Whoever trembles before the sea prays not to have need of setting sail. So also whoever fears the assaults of the evil one, let him pray not to be in the power of the evil one. And since, as we said before, in the words of Scripture “the world lies in the evil one” and worldly affairs contain occasions for “temptations,” the one who prays for deliverance from the evil one acts well and rightly when he asks not to come “into temptation.” For without greedily snatching the bait, no one can swallow the hook.

St. John Chrysostom. “And lead us not into temptation.” Here the Savior plainly reveals our insignificance and casts down pride, teaching us not to refuse struggles and not to rush toward them of our own accord; in this way both our victory will be more glorious and the devil’s defeat more painful. As soon as we are drawn into battle, we must stand bravely; but if there is no call to it, we must calmly await the time of trial, so as to show ourselves both free from vainglory and courageous.

“Lead us not into temptation.” Truly, many sorrows are brought upon us by the devil, and many also by people, whether openly insulting us or secretly plotting against us. The body too, at times rising up against the soul, does grievous harm; and at times, suffering various diseases, it causes us sorrow and suffering. Since, therefore, many and diverse afflictions assail us from many sides, we are taught to ask God for deliverance from them all. For at His rebuke every commotion ceases, the storm turns to calm, and the evil one, put to shame, withdraws—just as once, leaving the people, he departed into the swine, not even daring to do that without a command (Matt. 8:31). And he who has no power even over swine—how can he seize hold of those who are under God’s protection?

St. John Cassian. At this point a question of no small importance arises. If we pray that we may not be subjected to temptation, how can we prove the firmness of our virtue, which Sacred Scripture requires? “One who has not been tested,” it says, “knows little” (Sir. 34:10). And again: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation” (Jas. 1:12). Therefore the words of the prayer, “lead us not into temptation,” do not mean “do not allow us ever to be tempted,” but “do not allow us to be overcome in temptation.” Job was tempted, but was not led into temptation, for “he said nothing foolish about God” (Job 1:22)—and did not defile his lips with blasphemy, to which the tempter sought to draw him. Abraham was tempted, Joseph was tempted, but neither of them was led into temptation, for neither fulfilled the tempter’s will.

Bl. Augustine. It is not God Himself who leads into temptation, but He permits one to be led into it when He withdraws His help from a person—according to His most hidden purposes—because that person has deserved it. In certain cases, however, God considers a person worthy of His abandonment and of being permitted to be led into temptation for evident reasons as well. Yet being led into temptation is one thing, and being tempted is another. Without temptation, no one can prove himself, either to himself, as it is written: “One who has not been tested knows little” (Sir. 34:10), or to another, as the Apostle says: “you did not despise my trial in my flesh” (Gal. 4:14): for from this the Apostle understood how firm they were, when by those trials that befell him in the flesh they were not torn away from love for him. God, however, knows us before any temptations, for He knows all things before they come to pass.—As for what is written: “The Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut. 13:3)—here the words “to know” are placed in the sense of “to make you see,” just as we call a day joyful because it makes us joyful, cold lazy because it makes one lazy—and there are many such expressions found in common speech, in learned discourse, and in the Holy Scriptures. Not understanding this, heretics recoil from the Old Testament, supposing that the words “the Lord your God is testing you” attribute ignorance to God—as if they do not know that in the Gospel it is written of the Lord: “He said this to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do” (John 6:6). If He knew the heart of the one He was testing, what then did He wish to see by testing him? Clearly it was done so that the one being tested might know himself, and condemn his lack of faith, seeing how from the Lord’s hands a great multitude was fed by a few loaves, at the very moment when he had thought there would be nothing for them to eat.

We pray not that we not be tempted, but that we not be led into temptation—just as, for example, one who is compelled to be tested by fire prays not that the fire not touch him, but that he not be burned. “Earthen vessels are tested in the furnace”; and righteous people are tested by trials (cf. Sir. 27:5). Joseph was tempted by the allurement of adultery, but was not led into temptation. Susanna was tempted, but she too was not led into temptation. And many others, of both sexes, were likewise tempted but were not led into temptation—above all, Job. Many are troubled by the fact that Satan requests permission to tempt Job. But is not something similar written in the Gospel: “Behold, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat” (Luke 22:31)?—By this it is shown that Satan has no power to tempt anyone; and if he tempts, he tempts by God’s permission. God’s permission comes either for the punishment of people for their sins, or for their training and the gaining of experience. And there is a great difference in what kind of temptation one falls into. Judas, who betrayed the Lord, did not fall into the same temptation as Peter, when out of fear he denied Christ the Lord. But whatever the temptation, there is one law for all, as the Apostle writes: “God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13).—By this saying the Apostle clearly shows that we must pray not that we not be tempted, but that we not be led into temptation. We are led into temptations when those befall us that we cannot bear. But since the dangerous temptations into which it is ruinous to fall come about on account of good or bad fortune in temporal matters—their weight overcomes no one who is not attached to the temporal.

In the book of Job we read: “Is not the life of man on earth a temptation?” (Job 7:1). What then are we praying for when we say: “lead us not into temptation”? What?—Listen. The Apostle James says: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’” (1:13). There is temptation toward evil, when someone, being deceived, falls into sin and comes under the power of the devil. It is in this sense that the Apostle says that God tempts no one. But there is another temptation, which is called testing. Of it is written: “The Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God.” These words “to know” are the same as: to make you know—for He Himself knew already. With the kind of temptation in which someone is deceived and falls, God tempts no one. But it happens that, by His higher and hidden judgments, He abandons someone. And when He abandons someone, the tempter finds the opportunity to do him some harm—for in that case he encounters not an opponent but a compliant listener in the one whom God has abandoned. Therefore, so that God may not abandon us, we pray “lead us not into temptation.”—“Each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desire and enticed,” says the same Apostle James. “Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death” (Jac 1:14,15). What does he teach us by this? To struggle against our own desire. In holy baptism all sins are forgiven; but desires remain, so that, having been reborn, you may wage war against them. The conflict remains within you. There is no need to fear the external enemy: conquer yourself, and the world is conquered. What can the external tempter—the devil or a servant of the devil—do to you? Suppose, for example, someone offers you some advantage to entice you and incline you to a wicked deed—what will he do to you if within yourself you have given no place to covetousness? But if within yourself you have given place to covetousness, then seeing the gain you will be inflamed with desire for it and will be taken captive by the snares of sinful bait, snares that would lie stretched out before you in vain if you were not susceptible to covetousness. Suppose also that the tempter brings forward a beautiful woman to tempt you. If love for chastity has been established within you, you will easily overcome this outward assault, so that the allurement of a strange woman’s beauty does not captivate you—conquer the desire within yourself; you are sensing not your enemy but your own desire. Conquer inwardly what you feel within yourself. Struggle and you will conquer. He who regenerated you is your Judge: He has offered you the contest, and He is preparing the crown. But since you will certainly be overcome if you do not have Him as your helper when He abandons you—therefore you are taught to cry out in prayer: “lead us not into temptation.”—The wrath of the Judge handed over certain people to their own desires, as the Apostle says: “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity” (Rom. 1:24). How did He give them up? Not by compelling them, but by abandoning them.

“Lead us not into temptation.” Forgive us the sins already committed, and do not allow us to fall into other ones like them—for whoever is overcome by temptation falls into sin. The Apostle James says: “Each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desire and enticed; then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin” (Jac 1:14,15). So that you may not be drawn away by desire, do not consent to it. It has nowhere from which to conceive except from you. You consented—it is as though you slept with it in your heart. Desire has risen up: refuse it within yourself, do not follow it. It is shameful, corrupt, disgraceful, and estranges you from God. Do not give it the embrace of consent, lest you have to mourn what is born of that—for if you consent, that is, take it into your embrace, it will conceive. But “desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin.” Are you not afraid of this? “Sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.” At least fear death. If you do not fear sin, fear where sin leads. Sin is sweet, but death is bitter. Death is the ultimate calamity of people: what they sin for, they leave behind at death, but they take their very sins with them. You sin for money: you will leave it here. You sin for other possessions: you will leave them here. You sin for a wife: you will leave her here. And whatever it may be that you sin for—all of it, as you close your eyes in death, you will leave here, and you will take with you only the sins themselves, committed for the sake of those things.

St. Maximus the Confessor. By these words, Scripture shows that whoever has not been fully reconciled to those who sin against him, and has not presented to God a heart cleansed of grief and illumined by the light of reconciliation with his neighbors, will not only not receive the grace of the good things for which he prayed, but will be delivered by a just judgment to temptation and the evil one, so that he may learn to be cleansed of his offenses by removing his complaints against others. By “temptation” is meant the law of sin—which the first man, brought into existence by God, did not possess—and by “the evil one” is meant the devil, who mixed this law into human nature and by deception persuaded man to direct all the strivings of his soul toward what is forbidden rather than what is permitted, thereby inclining him to the transgression of the divine commandment, as a result of which man lost the incorruption granted him by grace. Or otherwise: “temptation” signifies the soul’s voluntary inclination toward bodily passions, and “the evil one” signifies the mode of actually carrying out the soul’s passionate disposition. From these, no righteous Judge will deliver one who did not forgive the debts of his debtors but only asked for this in prayer. Such a person—hard and harsh of heart—is permitted to be defiled by the law of sin, and is left in the power of the evil one, since he has preferred the passions of dishonor, whose seeds are sown by the devil, to the nature whose Creator is God Himself. Indeed, God does not prevent him when he willingly inclines toward bodily passions, nor does He deliver him from the many modes of carrying out the soul’s passionate dispositions—since, placing nature below passions that have no independent being, he has, through his preoccupation with these passions, not come to know the principle of nature. But a person must come to know what the law of nature is and what the tyranny of passions is—a tyranny that has invaded him not naturally but accidentally, on account of his free consent. This law of nature he must preserve by activity consonant with nature, and the tyranny of passions he must drive out from his will and by reason keep his nature—pure in itself, undefiled and free from hatred and strife—unimpaired. Then he must make his will, which ought to introduce nothing that the principle of nature does not grant, a companion to nature. And therefore he is obliged to put away from himself all hatred and all strife toward those who share his nature, so that God may hear him when he utters this Prayer, and may grant him in place of one a double grace: both the forgiveness of past sins and the covering and deliverance from future ones—and that He may not allow him to fall into temptation and become a slave of the evil one—all this solely because he readily forgives debts to his neighbors.

Therefore let us return and briefly recapitulate the substance of what has been said. If we desire to be delivered from the evil one and not fall into temptation, let us believe in God and forgive the debts of our debtors. “But if you do not forgive people their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins either” (Matt. 6:15). Then we will not only receive forgiveness of the sins we have committed, but will also conquer the law of sin itself—as the Lord will not allow us to experience it—and will trample down the progenitor of sin, the evil serpent, from whom we pray for deliverance. And Christ will be our Commander-in-Chief in this, He who conquered the world; He arms us with the laws of the commandments, and in accordance with these laws, through the renunciation of the passions and through love, binds together human nature into one. As the Bread of life, wisdom, knowledge, and righteousness, He draws to Himself our insatiable longing; in fulfillment of the Father’s will, He makes us fellow servants of the Angels, so that even in this life we, imitating them, manifest heavenly pleasing of God in our manner of life. Then He leads us up to the higher degrees of the Divine, which lead to the Father of lights (James 1:17) Himself, and makes us, through gracious communion with the Holy Spirit, partakers of the Divine nature—by virtue of which we will all without exception be called children of God and will purely bear within ourselves the whole Son of God by nature—the very Accomplisher of this grace, from Whom, through Whom, and in Whom we have and will have both being, and movement, and life.

Therefore let the goal of this Prayer for us be the vision of the mystery of deification, so that we may come to know what kind of beings and in place of what we were made by the self-emptying through the flesh of the Only-Begotten, and also from where and to where the Lord raised us—who had occupied the lowest place in the universe, into which the weight of sin had cast us—by the power of His loving hand. And let us love still more Him who so wisely prepared this salvation for us. In our deeds let us show this Prayer being fulfilled, and let us be proclaimers of God—our true Father by grace. And let there be in us no passions of dishonor, which show that the author of our life is the evil one, who is ever seeking to tyrannically rule over human nature. And let us not exchange life for death without noticing it ourselves. For each of them customarily rewards those who join themselves to him. One gives eternal life to those who love Him, while the other, through the suggestion of voluntary temptations, produces death in those who draw near to him.

For temptations, as we see from Sacred Scripture, are of two kinds: one kind is pleasant and the other is painful; one is voluntary and the other is involuntary. The first is the progenitor of sin, and therefore we must pray not to undergo it, according to the Lord’s instruction when He says: “And lead us not into temptation” and “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Matt. 26:41). But the second kind, punishing our love of sin by the infliction of involuntary sufferings, is the chastiser of sin. If anyone endures such a temptation and is not nailed down by the nails of vice, he will hear the great James clearly calling: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness; and let steadfastness have its full effect” (James 1:2–4). The evil one watches with malicious pleasure over both kinds of temptation—voluntary and involuntary. In the case of the first, by sowing in the soul the seeds of bodily pleasures and stimulating it with them, he plots to draw it away from striving toward divine love. Temptations of the second kind he sometimes cunningly requests himself, desiring through torments and afflictions to destroy human nature and to compel the soul, exhausted by suffering, to raise its thoughts in enmity against the Creator.

But we, knowing the designs of the evil one, will abhor voluntary temptation, so as not to draw our striving away from divine love; and involuntary temptation, which comes by God’s permission, we will bear courageously, so as to show that we prefer the Creator of nature to nature itself. And may all of us who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be delivered from the present pleasures that come from the evil one, and escape the future torments—becoming partakers of the visible essence of the future good things, revealed to us in Christ our Lord Himself, who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, glorified by all creation. Amen.

Bl. Theophylact. Not to enter into temptation means not to rush headlong into temptations. For we must pray to God not that He send temptation upon us, but that He turn it away—and if it does befall us, we must bear it with courage. It should be noted that temptations are of two kinds. Some are voluntary—for example: drunkenness, murder, adultery, and other passions. For we fall into these temptations voluntarily. Other temptations are involuntary—those brought upon us by rulers and the powerful. It is from voluntary temptations, that is, from the passions, that we must flee, praying for deliverance from them and saying: “lead us not”—do not allow us to fall “into temptation,” that is, into voluntary passion.

We are weak people, and therefore we must not expose ourselves to temptations; but if we have fallen into temptation, we must pray that it not swallow us up and that God grant us help and endurance. For only one who is overcome is drawn into the abyss of trial: but whoever has fallen into temptation and conquered it is worthy of crowns and glory.

Symeon of Thessalonica. “And lead us not into temptation.” For there are many adversaries full of envy and always hostile, and many temptations from demons, from people, from the body, from inattentiveness of soul, which encounter all—both the zealously striving and the negligent—only the temptations of the righteous are turned to their benefit, serving for their testing and progress. And even for the righteous “endurance is needed” (Heb. 10:36); for “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). And from such temptations—for example, one despises a brother, or offends him, or causes him grief, or despises something divine, or is negligent concerning it—who is ever free?—Therefore, praying for forgiveness of that in which we fall short before God and our brother, because we ourselves forgive and show mercy, we rightly pray also that we may not enter into temptation. Even if someone is righteous, he ought not to think highly of himself; for to be humble, to show mercy, and to forgive—this is righteousness.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Temptation comes to us either for good or for evil. Temptation for good is from God; of this David and other saints asked to be tested. “Test me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts” (Ps. 138:23). Thus was Abraham tested (see Gen 22). This is not the temptation spoken of here. Temptation toward evil, or enticement, comes either from the devil, who in every way seeks to ensnare us, deceive us, lead us to sin, and destroy us—or from the flesh, which fights against us with passions and desires—or from the world, which by its deceitfulness, vanity, and stumbling blocks incites us to evil. This is the temptation spoken of here. God, being Good, tempts no one toward evil. “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one, but each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desire and enticed” (James 1:13–14).

By this word: “lead us not into temptation,” we pray God that He would by His grace preserve us from the temptation of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And even if we do fall into temptations, we ask that He not allow us to be overcome by them, but would help us to withstand and conquer them. From this it is clear that without God’s help we are powerless and weak. If we ourselves could resist temptation, we would not have been commanded to ask for His help in this. By this we are taught that as soon as we feel temptation coming upon us, we should immediately pray to God and ask His help. We learn from this not to trust in ourselves and our own strength, but in God. When we pray “lead us not into temptation,” we ourselves must not surrender to temptation. “When,” says St. John Chrysostom, “we are called to struggle, we must stand bravely; but when not called, we must be silent and await the time of struggle, so as to show both our lack of vainglory and our courage.”

The Seventh Petition: “But Deliver Us From the Evil One”

St. Cyprian of Carthage. After all the rest, we come to the end of the prayer with a conclusion that briefly expresses all our supplications and petitions. At the end we say: “but deliver us from the evil one”—meaning thereby every evil that the enemy devises against us in this world, against which we will have a sure and strong defense if God delivers us from it and, in answer to our asking and praying, grants us His help. And after the words “deliver us from the evil one,” there is nothing more to ask for: we ask for God’s protection against the evil one, and having received such protection, we are already safe and defended against all the schemes of the devil and the world. Indeed, what has the world to fear for one whose defender in this world is God?

St. Gregory of Nyssa. Rising up, let us say to God: lead us not “into trial,” that is, into the calamity of the present life, “but deliver us from the evil one,” who has gained power in this world—from whom may we also be delivered by the grace of Christ the Lord.

St. John Chrysostom. By “the evil one” here Christ means the devil, commanding us to wage unceasing war against him, and showing that he is evil not by nature. Evil depends not on nature but on free will. And that the devil in particular is called the evil one is due to the extraordinary abundance of evil found in him, and because, without having been wronged by us in any way, he wages unceasing war against us. Therefore the Savior did not say: “deliver us” from the evil ones, but from “the evil one”—and by this very wording teaches us never to be angry with our neighbors for the offenses that we sometimes suffer from them, but to direct all our enmity against the devil, as the cause of all evils.

St. John Cassian. Finally there follows: “but deliver us from the evil one”—that is, do not allow us to be tempted by the devil beyond our strength, but “with the temptation also provide the way of escape, so that we may be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

Bl. Augustine. “But deliver us from the evil one” may belong to the same preceding petition, as though in both the same thing were being asked. This is why the word “but” is placed there—to show that the whole phrase: “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”—expresses one and the same thought. How so? In this way: by delivering us from the evil one, the Lord does not lead us into temptation; and by not leading us into temptation, He delivers us from the evil one.

But, beloved, in this life there is one terrible temptation—a temptation in which that very thing is endangered and put to trial through which we can obtain forgiveness if we fall in other temptations. This temptation is terrible because it takes away from us that through which we can be healed of the wounds caused by other temptations. I see that you do not understand me. But listen and you will understand.—Suppose that someone has been overcome by some temptation: for even a good wrestler receives wounds. For example, covetousness has overcome someone (though he is a good wrestler), and he has done something to satisfy self-interest. But the passion has passed, the sin has been recognized—and he prays: “forgive.” If he himself forgives others, he is immediately forgiven. Or, someone looked at a woman, admitted desire into himself, and took pleasure in it. But he came to his senses in time and restrained the desire. The sin was not completed; but by the very fact that fleshly pleasure was admitted, something sinful was done, which places him under the necessity of praying: “forgive.” And here too, if he himself forgives others, he is immediately forgiven. And so it is with all other temptations. As long as someone forgives others, whatever temptation he may stumble in—if in repentance he turns to God and cries out: “forgive”—he will immediately be forgiven. But if he does not forgive others, even the smallest transgression will not be forgiven him. And this is the terrible and ruinous temptation I am speaking of—when the evil one, the source of evil, succeeds in sowing in our heart a malice that knows no forgiveness and demands vengeance. And it is from this above all that we must pray to be delivered, when we say: “deliver us from the evil one.” For through this you are deprived of the means by which you might have received forgiveness for all other sins. By whatever feelings, desires, and deeds you may have sinned—in all of them you would have received forgiveness if you yourself had forgiven. But here the evil one inflames you to vengeance, and takes from you not only the possibility of receiving forgiveness, but even the boldness to say in prayer: “as we also forgive those who are in debt to us.” And when you have lost that, everything remains against you, nothing is forgiven.

Watch then, my brothers; watch, my children; watch, children of God; watch, I implore you. Struggle with your heart and within your heart against the evil one, with all your strength. When you see that anger has risen up in you and that malice is consuming your heart, pray against it to God, that He may make you conquerors of this temptation and deliver you from the evil one working within you. Leave aside external enemies; engage in battle with the internal ones and pray. The Lord is near, and His help is ready. Cry out and He will deliver you.

After we have said: “and lead us not into temptation,” there follows: “but deliver us from the evil one.” Whoever desires to be delivered from the evil one thereby testifies that he is encompassed by evil. This is why the Apostle says: “making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16). But “does anyone desire life and love long days, that he may see good?”—When for every person bearing flesh the days of this life are evil, who is there who does not desire this? And if you desire it, then do what follows: “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Ps. 33:13–15). Do this; and you will put an end to evil days, and it will be fulfilled in you: “deliver us from the evil one.”

We must pray not only that we not be led into temptation toward evil—which we ask in the sixth petition—but also that we be delivered from that into which we have already been led. And when this is obtained, then nothing dangerous remains for us and there is nothing more to fear from any temptation. This, however, cannot be expected in this life, in which we remain burdened with passions, from the moment that the serpent’s deceit cast us into it. Yet we must hope that this will come to pass one day. And this is the object of hoping for what we do not see, as the Apostle says: “hope that is seen is not hope” (Rom. 8:24). But in regard to wisdom—as accessible even in this life to the servants of God—one must not despair. It consists in fleeing with the utmost care from what, as we have learned from Divine Revelation, must be fled, and with ardent love desiring what, as we have likewise learned from Divine Revelation, must be desired. In this way, when at the moment of death itself we lay down the whole burden of mortality, we will be accounted worthy to enter into all-encompassing, inviolable blessedness—the first-fruits of which are laid down even in this life, kindling an all-earnest desire to attain it, in its fullness, one day and there.

Bl. Theophylact. “But deliver us from the evil one.” For he brings upon us both involuntary and voluntary temptations. Therefore, when you involuntarily suffer temptation from a person, do not consider that person to be the author of your temptation, but the evil one. For it is he who incites that person to rage against you and to act violently.

He did not say: deliver us from evil people—for it is not they who do us harm, but the evil one who stirs them up to this and does harm to us and to them. Therefore it is not people but evil spirits that we must hate and denounce.

Symeon of Thessalonica. “But deliver us from the evil one.” For he is Your enemy and ours—untameable, sleepless, burning with malice. We are powerless to withstand him, for he is of a more subtle nature than we, wicked and knowing no sleep, devising and weaving countless schemes against us. And if You, the Creator and Lord of all—and of this devil and his companions, as well as of the Angels and of us—if You do not snatch us away, then who is able to deliver himself from him? We have no strength to contend with the one who is incorporeal and, moreover, malicious, envious, and devising all manner of evil.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. According to the teaching of St. Chrysostom, by “the evil one” here is understood the devil. “The evil one,” he says, “here refers to the devil, commanding us to wage unceasing war against him.” He is so called by pre-eminence, on account of his great malice, since he wages unceasing war against us and strives to bring upon us every calamity, both bodily and spiritual, as the Apostle says: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). By this we pray the Heavenly Father that He Himself protect us from him, for we ourselves cannot preserve ourselves from him. And finally, that at the hour of our death—when he especially exerts himself against the faithful—He would preserve us from him, and after our blessed end would receive our souls into the heavenly Fatherland, and having delivered us from him and from all the evils he stirs up, would grant us eternal blessedness, which He has promised to those who believe in His name. By this word: “deliver us from the evil one,” our Savior arouses us to prayer and teaches us to seek deliverance from him through prayer. “By mentioning the enemy,” says St. John Chrysostom, “He prepares us for the struggle and cuts off our laziness.” By praying “lead us not”—and not me—“into temptation, but deliver us”—and not me—“from the evil one,” we are taught and exhorted to pray for one another and to ask God for help, protection, deliverance, and salvation for one another.

In Scripture it is not 77 but 7×70.—Editors of Azbuka Veri

The Doxology: “For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever. Amen”

St. John Chrysostom. Having made us more watchful by recalling the enemy to mind, and having cut off all our carelessness, He encourages us further by setting before us that King under whose authority we serve, and showing that He is more powerful than all. “For Yours is,” says the Savior, “the kingdom and the power and the glory.” Therefore, if it is His kingdom, we should fear no one, since no one opposes Him and no one shares authority with Him. When the Savior said, “Yours is the kingdom,” He shows that even our enemy is subject to God, although he appears still to resist, by God’s permission. He is among the servants, though condemned and rejected, and therefore he will not dare to attack any of the servants without first receiving authority from above. And what do I say—none of the servants? He did not even dare to attack the swine until the Savior Himself commanded it, nor the herds of sheep and oxen, until he received authority from above. Therefore, even if you are very weak, you ought to take courage, for you have such a King who can easily accomplish all glorious deeds even through you. This King not only frees you from the evils that threaten you, but can also make you glorious and renowned; as great as His power is, so too His glory is unspeakable—in a word, all that is His is boundless and without end. Do you see how the Savior strengthens and encourages the one who strives, from every side?

At the end of the prayer He expressed the kingdom and power and glory of God, saying: “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” This, He says, is what I ask of You, because I know that You are King of all, You hold eternal dominion, You can do all that You will, and You possess glory that cannot be taken away.

Blessed Theophylact. Here He encourages us: for if our Father is a glorious and mighty King, then with firm faith we shall without doubt conquer the evil one and afterward be glorified, that is, when He renders to each according to their deeds.

Symeon of Thessalonica. We are weak. Yourself, O Father, deliver us from the evil one. “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” And who would dare to attack and insult those over whom You reign, You who are Master and Lord, ruling even over the Angels? And who will stand against Your power? No one. For You who created all things also preserve all things. Who could stand against Your glory or dare to diminish it, the glory that encompasses all the ends of the earth? For the heavens and the earth are full of it; and it was Yours before the existence of the heavens and the Angels. You alone are ever-existing and eternal, and Your glory—of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—as well as Your kingdom and Your power, are forever. Amen. That is—truly, confessedly, and beyond all doubt, You are King, mighty and most glorious forever.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. After completing the prayer you say, “Amen”; with the word “Amen,” which means “so be it,” sealing what has been spoken in the God-given prayer.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. “For Yours is the kingdom…” These words are the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, expressing hope and boldness before the Merciful Heavenly Father. You reign over all, and all are subject to Your authority. You are mightier than all, and no one can stand against You. Therefore glory will be to Your name, that we poor sinners shall receive what we ask of You, and with all our hearts shall give You thanks, and here and especially in the life to come shall glorify Your name with Your chosen ones. “He gives us boldness,” says St. John Chrysostom, “and lifts us up, by calling to mind the King to whom we are subject, and shows Him to be mightier than all, saying: ‘for Yours is the kingdom,’ and the rest.” Therefore, if it is His kingdom, we should fear no one, for no one can stand against Him or resist His authority. When He says, “Yours is the kingdom,” He shows that even our adversary is subject to Him, though he resists by God’s permission. For he too is among the servants, though rejected and provoking wrath, and he will not dare to attack anyone unless he first receives permission from above. And not only on any person, but even on swine, sheep, and oxen he cannot attack without God’s permission. Therefore, even if you are weak, you ought to take courage, for you have such a King who can accomplish all things easily, even through you.

The Orthodox Confession. This doxology has two parts. First, just as the invocation (that is, “Our Father…”) gives us assurance beforehand that we shall certainly receive what we ask, because we ask of our Father—so this doxology assures us that we shall receive what we prayed for, because the whole world belongs to our Father, and He reigns over it, and every creature is subject to Him. His is the power and the glory, which nothing can resist, neither in heaven nor on earth. Therefore He is able to do all that we have asked of Him with faith and hope; and not for any other reason, but for the sake of His eternal glory, as the words “glory forever” indicate. The second part of the doxology consists of one word: “Amen.” By this we beseech that all we have prayed for with faith and hope may be so, and we testify our assurance that we shall certainly receive all we prayed for according to the will of the Lord, as the Apostle says: “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked from Him” (1 John 5:14–15).

The Longer Catechism. This doxology is joined to the Lord’s Prayer: first, so that when we ask mercies of the heavenly Father we at the same time render Him fitting honor; and second, so that by contemplating His eternal kingdom, power, and glory we may be ever more firmly grounded in the hope that He will grant us what we ask, because this is within His power and pertains to His glory. The word “Amen,” meaning “truly” or “so be it,” is appended to the doxology to show that the prayer is offered with faith and without any doubt, as the Apostle James teaches, “let him ask in faith, with no doubting” (James 1:6).

Concluding Thoughts

Tertullian. How many prophetic, evangelical, and apostolic sayings, how many words of the Lord Himself, His parables and commandments, does the Lord’s Prayer touch upon in so few words? And how many duties does it show us to be fulfilling at the same time? That we honor God—in the words “Our Father”; that we bear witness to faith by our deeds—in “hallowed be Your name”; that we offer Him submission—in “Your will be done”; that we seek life in Him—in “give us our bread”; that we confess our sins—in asking forgiveness of debts; that we guard ourselves from temptations—in seeking protection and shelter from above—God alone could teach us how He desires us to pray. Therefore this devout prayer, established by Him, being moved by His Spirit in our hearts and proceeding as it were from His own mouth—just as it did when it was first given—by virtue of this privilege, ascends to heaven and presents to the Father’s goodwill what the Son has taught. However, since the Lord, who foreknows human needs, after giving this rule of prayer, separately commanded: “seek and you shall find” (Luke 11:9), and since there is much about which each person, according to their own circumstances, having offered this prayer appointed by rule as a foundation, needs to pray further—it is permitted to add other petitions to those of this prayer in accordance with the current needs of life, on condition, however, of remembering and fulfilling the commandments, so that to the degree we are far from the commandments, our petitions may not be equally far from God’s ears. The keeping of the commandments prepares the way to heaven for our prayer, and the chief among them is this—not to approach the altar of the Lord without first making peace with brothers with whom one has fallen into discord and disagreement (Matt. 5:23). For how indeed can one approach the God of peace without being at peace with one’s brother—seeking forgiveness of one’s own debts while withholding it from a brother’s? And how will one who is angry with a brother be pleasing to the Father?

St. Cyprian of Carthage. It is no wonder, most beloved brothers, that such is the prayer given to us by God, who in His teaching expressed all our prayer in brief but saving words. Long before this was foretold by the prophet Isaiah; speaking of the greatness and love of God, he, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: “A word… accomplishing and cutting short in righteousness, for a shortened word will the Lord make over the whole earth” (Isa. 10:23). Therefore, when our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, came for all people, and gathering the learned and the unlearned expounded saving commandments for every sex and age, He also enclosed His commandments in concise speech, so as not to burden the memory of those learning heavenly things, and so that what is necessary for simple faith could be learned quickly.

But the Lord taught us to pray not only by words but also by deeds: He Himself frequently offered prayers and supplications to God, showing by His own example what we ought to do. Scripture says: “But He would withdraw to desolate places and pray” (Luke 5:16). And again: “He went up on the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). If He prayed—He who was sinless—how much more must sinners pray? If He, keeping vigil through the whole night, offered unceasing prayers, how much more ought we to keep watch through the night in frequent prayer? The Lord prayed and interceded not for Himself, for what should the innocent ask for on His own behalf? He prayed for our sins, as He Himself explains, saying to Peter: “Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you all like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:31–32). Then He prayed to the Father also for all, saying: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so that they also may be in Us” (John 17:20–21). How great is the goodness and love of the Lord in the ordering of our salvation! Not content with having redeemed us by His Blood, He also interceded for us! And in His intercession, see what His desire was: that we too might abide in that very unity in which the Father and the Son are one. From this we can understand how greatly they sin who destroy unity and peace, who destroy that for which the Lord prayed, He who desired His people to be saved while living in peace, knowing that enmity has no place in the Kingdom of God.

When we stand in prayer, we must be watchful and attend to prayer with all our heart. Let every fleshly and worldly thought depart from us, and let the spirit think only of what it asks. And the priest, having prefaced the prayer with an introduction, prepares the minds of the faithful by calling out: “Lift up your hearts”; and the people, in their response, “They are lifted up to the Lord”—receive a reminder that they must think of nothing but the Lord. Let the heart be closed to the adversary; let it be open to God alone and not permit the enemy of God to enter during prayer! But he often forces his way in, and with subtle deception diverts our prayers from God, making us hold one thing in the heart while expressing another with the voice, whereas the Lord must be prayed to with sincere attention, and implored not by the sound of the voice but with heart and feeling. What negligence is this—during the offering of prayer to the Lord, to absent oneself and be carried away by foolish and unworthy thoughts, as if you had something more important to think about than the fact that you are conversing with God? And how do you expect God to hear you when you do not hear yourself? How do you want God to remember you during your prayer when you yourself do not remember yourself? This means not guarding against the enemy at all. This means, while praying to God, insulting the divine majesty by negligence in prayer. This means watching with the eyes while sleeping in the heart, whereas a Christian must be awake in heart even when asleep with the eyes. In Scripture, in the Song of Songs, these words are spoken in the voice of the Church: “I sleep, but my heart is awake” (Song 5:2). That is why the apostle with such care and diligence exhorts us, saying: “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it” (Col. 4:2). By this he teaches and shows that only those receive from God what they ask whom God sees as watchful in prayer.

Moreover, those who pray must not come before God with barren and empty prayers. Ineffectual is that petition which is expressed in prayer unaccompanied by deed. If every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, then surely a word that bears no fruit cannot be pleasing to God, being devoid of all good work. That is why Holy Scripture says for our instruction: “Prayer is good with fasting and almsgiving” (Tob. 12:8). The Lord, who on the day of judgment will render reward for deeds and mercies, also now graciously hears the one who comes with good works. So Cornelius the centurion prayed—and was found worthy to be heard. He gave much alms to the people and always prayed to God. To him, at about the ninth hour, during prayer, an angel appeared and, bearing witness to his works, said: “Cornelius!.. Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God” (Acts 10:3–4). Prayers swiftly ascend to God when they are made precious before Him by our deeds. The Lord enjoins and commands the same through Isaiah: “Loose,” He says, “the bonds of wickedness, undo the straps of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke; share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, cover him, and do not hide yourself from your own kin. Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry, and He will say: ‘Here I am!’” (Isa. 58:6–9). God promises to appear, saying that He will hear and protect those who, loosing in their heart the bonds of wickedness and by His commandment giving alms to the members of God’s household, merit to be heard by God, since they themselves also obey God’s commandments. The blessed apostle Paul, having received aid from the brothers in his need, called the good work they did a sacrifice to God. “I am filled,” he says, “having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God” (Phil. 4:18).

St. John Cassian. So then, see what a form of prayer has been offered to us by the very Judge whom we must beseech with it. Here there is no petition and not even any mention of wealth, honors, power and strength, or bodily health or temporal life. The Creator of eternity does not want us to ask of Him anything vain, trivial, or temporal. Therefore, the one who, scorning these eternally good petitions, would seek to beseech Him for something fleeting and perishable inflicts the greatest insult on His majesty and goodness; such a person will sooner draw upon himself the indignation of his Judge by the pettiness of his petitions than attract His good favor.

Although the prayer set forth, having been spoken or established by the Lord Himself, appears to contain within itself all the fullness of perfection, yet for those nearest to God it serves as a guide to that most exalted state we spoke of earlier—to that fiery prayer, known and experienced by very few or, more precisely, to that unspeakable prayer which, surpassing all human understanding, cannot be expressed by sounds of the voice, nor by movements of the lips, nor by any combination of words, but which the mind, illumined by the radiance of the Heavenly light, utters not in the feeble speech of man, but from the fullness of feeling pours forth spontaneously from itself as from an abundantly flowing spring, and sends up to the Lord in a manner beyond words. In that brief moment our mind is so filled with such impressions that even turning in upon itself it can neither utter nor survey them.

Blessed Augustine. We must also take note of what distinction exists among these seven petitions. Since our temporal life is passing now and eternal life is awaited, and since the eternal takes precedence in dignity, though one arrives at it after first completing temporal things—what is asked in the first three petitions, though it has its beginning in this life lived in this age, comes to its fulfillment in the life to come, where all three will abide in full power and perfection. There the name of God will be hallowed without ceasing, and His kingdom will have no end, and His will shall be seen as wholly working and fulfilled in all things. Therefore, these three will come to full perfection and will appear in inseparable union in that life which is promised to us. The remaining four petitions belong, it seems to me, to this temporal life. The first of them is: “Give us this day our daily bread.” But the very fact that this bread is here called daily shows that it belongs to the present time, indicated by the word “day,” whether we understand by it spiritual bread—intellectual (the word of God) or sacramental (the body and blood of the Lord) or material: not because (I say this) spiritual nourishment is not eternal, but because the spiritual nourishment that is called daily is imparted to the soul through the Scriptures, or through articulate speech, or under various temporal signs—all of which will be no more when all are taught by God (Isa. 54:13; John 6:45), and draw the unspeakable light of truth directly with a pure mind. And sins are forgiven us only here, just as we here also forgive our debtors; there there will be no place for the forgiveness of sins. Likewise, this temporal life alone is filled with temptations; but then, when what is written is fulfilled: “You hide them in the shelter of Your presence” (Ps. 30:21), there will be no more of them. And finally, the evil from which you desire to be delivered, and the very deliverance from it, likewise belong to this same life.

It seems to me that the sevenfold number of petitions has a correspondence with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and with the Beatitudes that correspond to them.

The Fear of God is that by means of which one becomes among the “poor in spirit—blessed…, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 5:3); and this is why we ask that “Your name be hallowed” among men, through the power of the pure “fear of the Lord, enduring forever” (Ps. 18:10).

Piety is that by means of which one becomes among the “meek—blessed…, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:3); and this is why we pray that “Your kingdom come”—either here, within us ourselves, that we may be tamed and cease to resist Him, or at the Lord’s second glorious coming, at which we shall rejoice and glory, when He says: “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). For “in the Lord,” says the prophet, “my soul will make its boast; the humble will hear it and be glad” (Ps. 33:3).

Knowledge is that by means of which one becomes among the “those who mourn—blessed…, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4); and this is why we pray “that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven”: for when the body, as earth, is in all things in harmony with the spirit, as heaven, we shall no longer mourn; because nothing that occurs in this age is more worthy of mourning than this: that these two parts of us—body and spirit—war against each other, compelling us to say, “I see in my members another law warring against the law of my mind,” and to voice our grief over it with such lament: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:23–24).

Fortitude (the Power of Courage) is that by which “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed, for they shall be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6); and this is why we pray that “our daily bread be given to us this day,” so that, being sustained and supported by it, we may be able to attain that fullest satisfaction.

Counsel is that by which “the merciful are blessed, for they shall receive mercy” (Matt. 5:7); and this is why, forgiving our debtors, we pray that our own debts may be forgiven.

Understanding is that by means of which one becomes among the “pure in heart—blessed…, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8); and this is why we pray that we may not be led into temptation, so as not to have a divided heart, but seeking the one good to which we would refer all that we do, not chasing after earthly and temporal things as well.

Wisdom is that by which “the peacemakers are blessed, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9); and this is why we pray that “we may be delivered from the evil one”: for that deliverance will make us free, that is, sons of God, so that in the spirit of adoption we may cry out: “Abba, Father!” (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6).

We must not overlook this either: that of all the petitions with which the Lord commanded us to address God in prayer, He saw fit to give special emphasis to the one in which forgiveness of sins is asked. He desires to make us merciful, pointing to this as the only means of receiving mercy ourselves and being freed from our greatest burden—the weight of sins. That is why we present no other petition to God in such terms, as if entering into a condition and covenant with Him, as in this one: for we say, “forgive us… as we also forgive.” If we prove false in this covenant, then no fruit comes from the whole prayer. For the Lord says: “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:14–15).

Whatever other words we may speak—which the person praying either selects in advance to express his prayerful movement of heart, or adds afterward to heighten that feeling—we can say nothing that is not already contained in the Lord’s Prayer, if we pray rightly and as we ought. For instance, whoever says: “As before them (the nations) You revealed Your holiness in us, so before us reveal Your greatness in them” (Sir. 36:4), what else is he saying but “hallowed be Your name”? Whoever says: “O God of hosts, restore us; let Your face shine, and we shall be saved!” (Ps. 79:8), what else is he saying but “Your kingdom come”? Whoever says: “Establish my steps in Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me” (Ps. 118:133), what else is he saying but “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”? Whoever says: “Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with the bread that is needful for me” (Prov. 30:8), what else is he saying but “give us this day our daily bread”? Whoever says: “Remember, O Lord, David and all his gentleness” (Ps. 131:1), or: “O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil…” (Ps. 7:4–5), what else is he saying but “forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors”? Whoever says: “Let not the desires of the belly and sensuality get hold of me, and do not hand me over to a shameless soul” (Sir. 23:5), what else is he saying but “lead us not into temptation”? Whoever says: “Deliver me from my enemies, O my God! protect me from those who rise up against me” (Ps. 58:2), what else is he saying but “deliver us from the evil one”? And if you survey all the words of holy prayers, I think you will find nothing in them that is not contained in the Lord’s Prayer. Therefore you are free to express the same thing in prayer in these or other words; but you must not have the freedom to express something else. Whoever, for instance, says in prayer: Lord, increase my wealth, or give me as much as You gave to so-and-so; or increase my honors and make me powerful and renowned in this age—or anything else of such a kind—and says this coveting such things as goods for himself alone, not aiming to use them to bring good to others according to God; such a person, I think, will find nothing in the Lord’s Prayer by which to justify such yearnings. Therefore let them be ashamed at least to ask for what they are not ashamed to desire. But if this too is recognized as shameful, yet one lacks the strength to conquer such desire, then what is more fitting in that case than to pray for deliverance from this evil craving to the One to whom we say: “deliver us from the evil one”?

You thus have reliable guidance on what to pray for—not from me, but from the One who has been pleased to teach us all. The blessed life must be sought by asking for it from the Lord God. What it is to be blessed has been pondered by many and resolved in many ways; but what need have we to go to these many for this? In the word of God it is stated briefly but with perfect clarity: “Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord” (Ps. 143:15). That we too may be among these people and be granted to live with them forever, “the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). On these three rests a sound hope. Thus faith, hope, and love bring the one who prays to God, who, by believing, hoping, and desiring, learns from the Lord’s Prayer what he is to ask of the Lord. Fasting and abstinence from other fleshly pleasures, and especially almsgiving, greatly assist prayer.

There is also something else about which a question may arise in you, namely: why did the apostle say, “for we do not know what to pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26)? For it is quite inconceivable that he and those to whom he wrote this did not know the Lord’s Prayer. Why then did he speak this way—and he spoke it, we must suppose, not unwisely and not untruthfully? For no other reason than this: that temporal afflictions and tribulations are very greatly beneficial to our souls—sometimes by curing proud arrogance, sometimes by testing patience and giving it exercise, and for patience thus tested and trained by experience the most glorious and abundant reward is prepared, sometimes by punishing and purifying sins. But we, not knowing exactly what benefit they bring, pray to be freed from all affliction. Of this ignorance the apostle does not exempt himself, as is evident from the fact that, when a thorn was given him in the flesh—an angel of Satan—to harass him, lest he be exalted by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, he three times implored the Lord to remove it from him, not knowing, of course, what he was praying for as he ought. In answer to why the prayer was not heard, when such a man was praying, and why hearing it was not beneficial, we hear: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:7–9).

So in these afflictions, which can bring both benefit and harm, we do not know what to pray for as we ought; and yet, since they are painful and heavy, we pray, out of common human weakness, that they be taken from us. But in this we must at least show that submission to the Lord our God so that, if He does not take them from us, we do not think our prayer is scorned, but rather clothe ourselves in good-tempered patience in evil, awaiting greater blessings in return; for in this way God’s power is made perfect in weakness. However, to some who were impatient the Lord God did yield to what they asked—in anger—whereas by contrast He refused the apostle in good favor. So we read in the book of Numbers (Num 11) what the Israelites asked and how they received it, but when their craving was satisfied, a heavy punishment followed their impatience. He also gave a king to those who asked, according to their own heart and not His, as is written (1 Sam. 8:5–7). He even gave what the devil asked, for the glorification of His proven servant (Job 1:12-2:6). He also heard the unclean spirits when, at their request, He sent their whole legion into the swine (Luke 8:32). This is written so that no one should think themselves something great when they are heard, for perhaps in their impatience they have asked for what it would have been far more beneficial not to receive; and if one is not heard, so that one does not lose heart and despair of God’s mercy toward oneself, for perhaps one was asking for something that, upon receiving, would have led to bitter suffering, or to utter ruin and misery. These are the cases in which “we do not know what to pray for as we ought.” Therefore if something happens contrary to our petitions, we must bear it patiently and give thanks for all things, in the firm conviction that it is without doubt more saving for us that God’s will be done in all things rather than our own. For our Mediator has given us an example of this kind as well, when He said: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me,” and then, subordinating His human will to the Father’s will, added: “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). Hence: “by the obedience of one many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).

Whoever asks this one thing from the Lord and seeks this one thing (Ps. 26:4)—that all may be according to His will—asks for a sure and safe good, and need not fear that what is asked might prove harmful when received. Without this will there is no profit in whatever one might obtain through one’s earnest prayer. In surrendering oneself to God’s will lies the one true and blessed life. Whoever has this will receive whatever they seek, for they will no longer seek anything that is not pleasing to God’s will.

Whoever is such, the Lord will multiply His mercy upon them, and they “find rest in the shadow of His wings, are satisfied with the abundance of His house, and are given drink from the river of His delights; for with Him is the fountain of life, and in His light we shall see light” (Ps. 35:8–10).

Scripture Index (Genesis–Job)

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Genesis

Genesis 1:142. The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5)

Genesis 1:318. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6)

Genesis 1:842. The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5)

Genesis 1:227. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Genesis 1:3184. Receiving the Weak in Faith Without Disputes (Romans 14:1–5); 16. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7)

Genesis 2:812. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.11)

Genesis 2:1722. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Genesis 2:2332. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Genesis 2:2413. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28); 76. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9)

Genesis 3:611. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

Genesis 3:1211. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

Genesis 3:12–1311. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

Genesis 3:1311. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

Genesis 3:1511. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

Genesis 3:1631. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26); 11. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15); 13. Titus 2:4–5—The Younger Women

Genesis 3:1920. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15); 5. “Who is in Heaven” (5.10); 11. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.10)

Genesis 4:911. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

Genesis 6:312. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24); 20. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 19. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

Genesis 6:1236. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

Genesis 8:2128. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Genesis 9:26–2771. The Wild Olive Grafted In: Do Not Be Highminded, but Fear (Romans 11:17–22)

Genesis 15:1–529. The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19)

Genesis 15:5–620. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Genesis 15:612. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Genesis 15:1714. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Genesis 17:14. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Genesis 17:222. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

Genesis 18:378. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16)

Genesis 18:1822. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

Genesis 18:1920. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

Genesis 19:245. Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18)

Genesis 21:10–12Children of the Free Woman: Stand Fast in Freedom (Continued) (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Genesis 21:1258. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9)

Genesis 21:2213. The Occasion for the Writing of the Psalm

Genesis 22:29. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

Genesis 22:17–1822. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

Genesis 22:1834. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3); 58. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9); 22. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

Genesis 24:724. The Law of God’s Care for Us (Verse 8)

Genesis 25:2359. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Genesis 26:39. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Genesis 26:5The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Genesis 26:813. The Occasion for the Writing of the Psalm

Genesis 26:2425. The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10)

Genesis 27:2960. It Is Not of Him That Wills, but of God That Shows Mercy (Romans 9:16–19)

Genesis 32:124. The Law of God’s Care for Us (Verse 8)

Genesis 32:2857. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4); 10. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16)

Genesis 34:94. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Genesis 35:182. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

Genesis 39:2–35. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Genesis 43:1423. The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17)

Genesis 43:1611. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.20)

Genesis 43:237. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Genesis 45:52. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

Genesis 48:1624. The Law of God’s Care for Us (Verse 8)

Exodus

Exodus 1:86. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Exodus 3:143. Was This Epistle Written to the Ephesians?; 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Exodus 4:2249. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15); 57. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Exodus 5:260. It Is Not of Him That Wills, but of God That Shows Mercy (Romans 9:16–19)

Exodus 9:1660. It Is Not of Him That Wills, but of God That Shows Mercy (Romans 9:16–19); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Exodus 9:189. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Exodus 12:4634. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Exodus 13:2157. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Exodus 14:3131. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

Exodus 15:163. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

Exodus 16:1830. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

Exodus 18:89. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Exodus 19:69. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Exodus 20:530. God’s Special Favor (Verses 16–17)

Exodus 20:1232. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Exodus 20:13–1428. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

Exodus 20:13–1620. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Exodus 20:1741. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

Exodus 20:1923. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29); 22. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Exodus 24:837. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

Exodus 24:1657. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Exodus 25:222. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Exodus 25:2257. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Exodus 25:4023. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Exodus 28:347. The Seven Petitions (7.3)

Exodus 29:79. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Exodus 32:118. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Exodus 32:631. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

Exodus 32:1259. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Exodus 32:31–3257. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Exodus 32:32–3559. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Exodus 32:3559. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Exodus 33:1759. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15); 44. Love Abides Forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13)

Exodus 33:1959. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Exodus 34:6–759. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Exodus 34:29–3015. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8)

Exodus 34:29–3416. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

Exodus 34:3315. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8)

Exodus 40:3457. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Leviticus

Leviticus 8:46. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Leviticus 10:98. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

Leviticus 18:565. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Leviticus 18:2565. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Leviticus 19:1524. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Leviticus 20:77. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Leviticus 23:409. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Leviticus 25:922. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

Leviticus 25:294. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Leviticus 26:1226. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1); 12. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Numbers

Numbers 6:38. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

Numbers 10:3411. The One Praying Utters the Desires of His Heart, Pouring Out His Prayer (Vv. 8–9)

Numbers 11:131. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

Numbers 11:431. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

Numbers 11:169. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Numbers 12:3The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25); 21. On the Spiritual Communion of Those Surrendered to God (Verses 3–4)

Numbers 13:147. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Numbers 15:32–3615. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8)

Numbers 16:59. Vessels of Honour in a Great House (2 Timothy 2:20–21)

Numbers 16:269. Vessels of Honour in a Great House (2 Timothy 2:20–21)

Numbers 16:4131. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

Numbers 21:5–631. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

Numbers 22:229. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Numbers 23:1035. The General Conclusion of the Psalm (Verse 23)

Numbers 25:369. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Numbers 27:176. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Numbers 31:8–1631. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 1:279. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Deuteronomy 4:2426. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

Deuteronomy 4:2622. Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25)

Deuteronomy 5:523. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Deuteronomy 6:5The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25)

Deuteronomy 6:674. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2)

Deuteronomy 7:137. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Deuteronomy 9:29. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Deuteronomy 9:2857. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Deuteronomy 10:1247. Conclusion: Final Exhortations and the Grace (2 Cor. 13:11–13)

Deuteronomy 10:1620. The True Jew, and the Advantage of the Jew (Romans 2:28–3:2)

Deuteronomy 13:313. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.8)

Deuteronomy 14:1–257. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Deuteronomy 17:716. Purging the Christian Community of Open Sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)

Deuteronomy 17:15–1816. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

Deuteronomy 19:1514. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2); 21. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

Deuteronomy 21:2323. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Deuteronomy 22:534. The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6)

Deuteronomy 25:340. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

Deuteronomy 25:428. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11); 21. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

Deuteronomy 28:34. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Deuteronomy 28:639. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Deuteronomy 29:469. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Deuteronomy 30:165. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Deuteronomy 30:665. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Deuteronomy 30:1065. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Deuteronomy 30:11–1465. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Deuteronomy 30:1465. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Deuteronomy 30:2065. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Deuteronomy 32:918. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Deuteronomy 32:9–1157. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Deuteronomy 32:1525. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21); 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20); 25. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

Deuteronomy 32:1849. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15)

Deuteronomy 32:2167. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19); 32. The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

Deuteronomy 32:3579. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19)

Deuteronomy 32:4389. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Deuteronomy 33:223. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Joshua

Joshua 1:59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Joshua 1:84. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Joshua 2:1060. It Is Not of Him That Wills, but of God That Shows Mercy (Romans 9:16–19)

Joshua 7:126. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Joshua 8:31–324. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Joshua 22:166. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Judges

Judges 7:139. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Judges 14:86. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Judges 16:9–129. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Judges 19:207. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

1 Samuel

1 Samuel 1:1135. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

1 Samuel 2:3030. Being Justified by Faith, We Have Peace With God (Romans 4:20–5:1); 10. The Earnest of Our Inheritance (Ephesians 1:14); 6. Lessons From This Invocation (6.1)

1 Samuel 3:113. The Occasion for the Writing of the Psalm

1 Samuel 4:2157. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

1 Samuel 5:443. The Thorn in the Flesh; Strength Made Perfect in Weakness (2 Cor. 12:6–10)

1 Samuel 7:108. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

1 Samuel 8:19. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

1 Samuel 8:5–716. Concluding Thoughts (16.21)

1 Samuel 8:1157. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

1 Samuel 11:1325. The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10)

1 Samuel 11:2313. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.2)

1 Samuel 12:39. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

1 Samuel 17:1022. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

1 Samuel 17:169. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

1 Samuel 18:2154. If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:30–32)

1 Samuel 19:169. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

1 Samuel 20:254. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

1 Samuel 20:35–3710. The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17)

1 Samuel 21:11–1313. The Occasion for the Writing of the Psalm

1 Samuel 21:12–1313. The Occasion for the Writing of the Psalm

1 Samuel 21:1513. The Occasion for the Writing of the Psalm

1 Samuel 22:113. The Occasion for the Writing of the Psalm

2 Samuel

2 Samuel 2:194. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

2 Samuel 5:99. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

2 Samuel 5:2614. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

2 Samuel 6:65. God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28)

2 Samuel 6:1721. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

2 Samuel 6:26–3027. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

2 Samuel 8:4–59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

2 Samuel 8:1459. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

2 Samuel 8:20–2259. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

2 Samuel 12:134. The Sinner Beholding His Own Helplessness (Vv. 12–15)

2 Samuel 12:256. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

2 Samuel 22:3035. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

2 Samuel 23:227. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

2 Samuel 23:2913. The Occasion for the Writing of the Psalm

2 Kings

2 Kings 25:276. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

1 Chronicles

1 Chronicles 1:32–3358. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9)

1 Chronicles 16:249. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

1 Chronicles 29:235. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 3:19. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

2 Chronicles 8:119. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

2 Chronicles 11:139. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

2 Chronicles 20:69. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Nehemiah

Nehemiah 8:159. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Esther

Esther 2:174. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Job

Job 1:69. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Job 1:1213. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.2)

Job 1:2126. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 24. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8); 18. On Giving Thanks to God for All Things at All Times (Verse 2)

Job 1:2215. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20); 13. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.7)

Job 4:199. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Job 5:720. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15)

Job 5:1311. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

Job 7:112. Take Courage: You Have Followed My Teaching (2 Timothy 3:10–13); 13. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.10)

Job 14:412. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.13)

Job 14:4–512. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.10)

Job 21:149. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Job 21:183. True Blessedness. The Righteous Man Flourishes Like a Tree; 5. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Job 27:44. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Job 29:74. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Job 29:15–1628. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Job 30:119. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Job 33:59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Job 38:711. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

Job 39:59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Job 39:109. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Job 39:169. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Job 41:19. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Scripture Index (Psalms–Song of Songs)

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Psalms

Psalms 1:14. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Psalms 1:24. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 1:325. Christ Set Forth as a Propitiation Through Faith in His Blood (Romans 3:25); 7. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11); 5. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Psalms 1:45. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Psalms 1:56. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Psalms 1:653. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29); 25. Turning Back to the Weak Elements: Observing Days and Seasons (Galatians 4:8–10); 6. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Psalms 2:19. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 2:29. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 2:39. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 2:49. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 2:59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 2:69. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 2:79. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 2:1183. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14); 28. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 14. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18)

Psalms 3:29. The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3)

Psalms 3:39. The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3)

Psalms 3:410. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Psalms 3:510. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Psalms 3:610. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Psalms 3:710. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Psalms 3:811. The One Praying Utters the Desires of His Heart, Pouring Out His Prayer (Vv. 8–9)

Psalms 3:911. The One Praying Utters the Desires of His Heart, Pouring Out His Prayer (Vv. 8–9)

Psalms 4:26. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

Psalms 4:39. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 4:410. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Psalms 4:526. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.28)

Psalms 4:79. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13); 14. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18); 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

Psalms 5:56. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Psalms 6:812. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.28)

Psalms 7:4–516. Concluding Thoughts (16.18)

Psalms 7:1012. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6)

Psalms 8:37. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

Psalms 8:512. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Psalms 8:712. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Psalms 9:8–99. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 9:196. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Psalms 11:427. Give No Place to the Devil; Grieve Not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:27–31)

Psalms 13:113. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28); 25. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21); 23. The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17)

Psalms 13:525. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Psalms 14:1–328. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Psalms 15:38. The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10)

Psalms 15:822. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15); 19. On Praising God “at All Times” (Verse 2)

Psalms 15:1048. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

Psalms 16:518. Confidence in the Lord; the Apostle’s Wish (2 Thessalonians 3:4–5); 7. Subjects for Reflection

Psalms 17:26. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

Psalms 17:311. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

Psalms 17:410. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Psalms 17:1227. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

Psalms 17:257. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Psalms 17:5089. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9); 11. The One Praying Utters the Desires of His Heart, Pouring Out His Prayer (Vv. 8–9)

Psalms 18:111. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

Psalms 18:567. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

Psalms 18:5–667. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Psalms 18:722. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Psalms 18:8–913. Continue in What You Learned; All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

Psalms 18:930. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

Psalms 18:10The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.10)

Psalms 18:1167. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Psalms 18:1312. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6)

Psalms 21:176. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Psalms 22:435. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

Psalms 23:711. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

Psalms 24:1577. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

Psalms 25:857. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Psalms 26:16. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

Psalms 26:416. Concluding Thoughts (16.22)

Psalms 26:877. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 30. God’s Special Favor (Verses 16–17)

Psalms 26:104. The Sinner Beholding His Own Helplessness (Vv. 12–15)

Psalms 29:61. The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4)

Psalms 29:1369. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Psalms 30:149. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 30:2116. Concluding Thoughts (16.8)

Psalms 30:2534. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14)

Psalms 31:41. The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4)

Psalms 31:612. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.32)

Psalms 32:315. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Psalms 32:610. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16)

Psalms 32:912. In Him All Fullness Dwells; Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:19–23)

Psalms 32:1512. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6)

Psalms 33:112. Psalm 33; 37. Psalm 51

Psalms 33:212. Psalm 33; 18. On Giving Thanks to God for All Things at All Times (Verse 2); 19. On Praising God “at All Times” (Verse 2)

Psalms 33:312. Psalm 33; 20. All Must Be Referred to God, and Upon Him Alone Must One Lean (Verse 3); 21. On the Spiritual Communion of Those Surrendered to God (Verses 3–4); 10. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.11)

Psalms 33:412. Psalm 33; 21. On the Spiritual Communion of Those Surrendered to God (Verses 3–4)

Psalms 33:512. Psalm 33; 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

Psalms 33:612. Psalm 33; 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

Psalms 33:712. Psalm 33; 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

Psalms 33:821. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4); 12. Psalm 33; 24. The Law of God’s Care for Us (Verse 8)

Psalms 33:912. Psalm 33; 25. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

Psalms 33:1012. Psalm 33; 25. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

Psalms 33:1112. Psalm 33; 25. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

Psalms 33:1212. Psalm 33; 27. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

Psalms 33:1312. Psalm 33; 27. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

Psalms 33:13–1437. Psalm 51

Psalms 33:13–1514. The Seventh Petition: “But Deliver Us From the Evil One” (14.8)

Psalms 33:1412. Psalm 33; 28. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Psalms 33:1520. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 12. Psalm 33; 28. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Psalms 33:1612. Psalm 33; 30. God’s Special Favor (Verses 16–17)

Psalms 33:1712. Psalm 33; 30. God’s Special Favor (Verses 16–17)

Psalms 33:1812. Psalm 33; 31. Swift Hearing of Prayer (Verse 18)

Psalms 33:1912. Psalm 33; 32. Nearness and Consolation in Sorrows (Verse 19); 5. “Who is in Heaven” (5.10)

Psalms 33:2012. Psalm 33; 33. Deliverance From Sorrows (Verse 20)

Psalms 33:2112. Psalm 33; 34. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Psalms 33:2212. Psalm 33; 34. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Psalms 33:2312. Psalm 33; 16. The Second Decade (Verses 12–23); 35. The General Conclusion of the Psalm (Verse 23)

Psalms 34:39. The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3)

Psalms 34:48. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.1)

Psalms 34:55. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Psalms 34:1034. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Psalms 34:284. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Psalms 35:225. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Psalms 35:8–1016. Concluding Thoughts (16.23)

Psalms 36:25. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Psalms 36:139. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 36:206. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Psalms 36:2511. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.6)

Psalms 36:25–2633. An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11)

Psalms 37:21. The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4)

Psalms 37:31. The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4)

Psalms 37:41. The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4); 2. The Sinner’s Awareness of His Ruinous Condition (Vv. 4–8)

Psalms 37:533. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6); 2. The Sinner’s Awareness of His Ruinous Condition (Vv. 4–8)

Psalms 37:623. The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17); 2. The Sinner’s Awareness of His Ruinous Condition (Vv. 4–8)

Psalms 37:72. The Sinner’s Awareness of His Ruinous Condition (Vv. 4–8)

Psalms 37:82. The Sinner’s Awareness of His Ruinous Condition (Vv. 4–8)

Psalms 37:93. The Sinner’s Penitential Feelings: His Grieving Over His Bitter State (Vv. 9–11)

Psalms 37:103. The Sinner’s Penitential Feelings: His Grieving Over His Bitter State (Vv. 9–11)

Psalms 37:113. The Sinner’s Penitential Feelings: His Grieving Over His Bitter State (Vv. 9–11)

Psalms 37:124. The Sinner Beholding His Own Helplessness (Vv. 12–15)

Psalms 37:134. The Sinner Beholding His Own Helplessness (Vv. 12–15)

Psalms 37:14–154. The Sinner Beholding His Own Helplessness (Vv. 12–15)

Psalms 37:165. The Sinner’s Ascent to Confident Hope, and His Establishment in It (Vv. 16–18)

Psalms 37:175. The Sinner’s Ascent to Confident Hope, and His Establishment in It (Vv. 16–18)

Psalms 37:185. The Sinner’s Ascent to Confident Hope, and His Establishment in It (Vv. 16–18)

Psalms 37:196. The Firm Resolve: Having Confessed His Sin, to Blot It Out (V. 19)

Psalms 37:207. The Concluding Prayer of the Penitent (Vv. 20–23)

Psalms 37:217. The Concluding Prayer of the Penitent (Vv. 20–23)

Psalms 37:227. The Concluding Prayer of the Penitent (Vv. 20–23)

Psalms 37:237. The Concluding Prayer of the Penitent (Vv. 20–23)

Psalms 38:228. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15); 37. Psalm 51

Psalms 38:725. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Psalms 39:590. The God of Hope Fill You With All Joy and Peace in Believing (Romans 15:13)

Psalms 39:9The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

Psalms 40:96. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Psalms 40:1040. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

Psalms 41:44. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2); 9. The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3)

Psalms 42:528. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Psalms 43:18–1955. Who Shall Separate Us From the Love of Christ? (Romans 8:33–35)

Psalms 43:2355. Who Shall Separate Us From the Love of Christ? (Romans 8:33–35)

Psalms 43:2411. The One Praying Utters the Desires of His Heart, Pouring Out His Prayer (Vv. 8–9)

Psalms 44:321. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11)

Psalms 44:59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 44:854. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 44:11–1232. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Psalms 44:128. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9)

Psalms 47:213. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Psalms 47:139. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 48:44. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Psalms 48:818. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19)

Psalms 48:11–124. The Interpretation

Psalms 49:324. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Psalms 50:313. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

Psalms 50:621. Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7); 8. The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10)

Psalms 50:1214. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3); 18. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Psalms 50:139. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 50:1974. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); 32. Nearness and Consolation in Sorrows (Verse 19)

Psalms 51:337. Psalm 51

Psalms 51:428. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15); 37. Psalm 51

Psalms 51:537. Psalm 51
Psalms 51:637. Psalm 51
Psalms 51:737. Psalm 51

Psalms 51:89. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 51:1037. Psalm 51

Psalms 51:1137. Psalm 51

Psalms 52:211. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

Psalms 52:624. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Psalms 53:8–977. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

Psalms 54:73. “Father” (3.1)

Psalms 54:10–1283. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14)

Psalms 54:13–1440. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

Psalms 54:207. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10)

Psalms 54:2311. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.16)

Psalms 58:216. Concluding Thoughts (16.18)

Psalms 59:132. The Sinner’s Awareness of His Ruinous Condition (Vv. 4–8); 11. The One Praying Utters the Desires of His Heart, Pouring Out His Prayer (Vv. 8–9); 8. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.1)

Psalms 61:810. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Psalms 62:277. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

Psalms 62:357. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Psalms 62:8–977. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

Psalms 63:227. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

Psalms 64:63. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

Psalms 65:10–1213. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.3)

Psalms 67:35. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4); 6. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6); 9. The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come” (9.5)

Psalms 67:74. “Our” (4.1)

Psalms 67:126. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Psalms 67:1922. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Psalms 67:2190. The God of Hope Fill You With All Joy and Peace in Believing (Romans 15:13)

Psalms 67:2522. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Psalms 67:316. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Psalms 67:368. The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10)

Psalms 68:32. The Sinner’s Awareness of His Ruinous Condition (Vv. 4–8)

Psalms 68:425. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

Psalms 68:1088. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3)

Psalms 68:158. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.1)

Psalms 68:1713. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

Psalms 68:2369. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Psalms 68:23–2469. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Psalms 68:3319. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Psalms 72:319. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

Psalms 72:828. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Psalms 72:139. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 72:285. “Who is in Heaven” (5.7)

Psalms 75:262. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27); The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25); 8. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.9)

Psalms 79:816. Concluding Thoughts (16.18)

Psalms 79:1315. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Psalms 81:649. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 83:819. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

Psalms 85:1130. God’s Special Favor (Verses 16–17)

Psalms 87:646. No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3)

Psalms 88:289. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 89:59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 90:1221. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Psalms 90:14–1532. Nearness and Consolation in Sorrows (Verse 19)

Psalms 90:1532. Nearness and Consolation in Sorrows (Verse 19)

Psalms 90:15–1625. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

Psalms 91:135. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Psalms 93:1111. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

Psalms 93:1211. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

Psalms 93:196. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

Psalms 94:711. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.19)

Psalms 96:37. The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

Psalms 97:115. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Psalms 100:277. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

Psalms 101:264. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21)

Psalms 101:26–2751. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23)

Psalms 102:6–715. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Psalms 102:1324. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Psalms 102:2010. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.8, 10.9)

Psalms 102:20–2110. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.1)

Psalms 102:228. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.3)

Psalms 103:1411. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.10)

Psalms 103:1530. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

Psalms 103:291. The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4)

Psalms 104:430. God’s Special Favor (Verses 16–17)

Psalms 104:141. The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4)

Psalms 104:159. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 105:222. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18); 2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

Psalms 105:14–1531. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

Psalms 105:2012. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24)

Psalms 106:149. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 106:324. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Psalms 108:48. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

Psalms 108:76. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Psalms 108:2110. The Earnest of Our Inheritance (Ephesians 1:14)

Psalms 109:15. Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 109:416. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

Psalms 111:933. An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11)

Psalms 112:59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 113:115. “Who is in Heaven” (5.5)

Psalms 113:1220. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 10. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.5)

Psalms 115:119. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

Psalms 115:635. The General Conclusion of the Psalm (Verse 23)

Psalms 116:189. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Psalms 116:289. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Psalms 117:6–710. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Psalms 117:78. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Psalms 117:1825. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

Psalms 117:22–2316. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

Psalms 118:13. Verses 1–8 (3.1)
Psalms 118:23. Verses 1–8 (3.11)
Psalms 118:33. Verses 1–8 (3.26)
Psalms 118:43. Verses 1–8 (3.32)
Psalms 118:53. Verses 1–8 (3.42)
Psalms 118:63. Verses 1–8 (3.50)
Psalms 118:73. Verses 1–8 (3.56)
Psalms 118:83. Verses 1–8 (3.64)
Psalms 118:94. Verses 9–16 (4.3)
Psalms 118:104. Verses 9–16 (4.11)
Psalms 118:114. Verses 9–16 (4.17)
Psalms 118:124. Verses 9–16 (4.26)
Psalms 118:134. Verses 9–16 (4.33)
Psalms 118:144. Verses 9–16 (4.38)
Psalms 118:154. Verses 9–16 (4.42)
Psalms 118:164. Verses 9–16 (4.49)
Psalms 118:175. Verses 17–24 (5.4)
Psalms 118:185. Verses 17–24 (5.11)
Psalms 118:195. Verses 17–24 (5.17)
Psalms 118:205. Verses 17–24 (5.25)
Psalms 118:215. Verses 17–24 (5.29)
Psalms 118:225. Verses 17–24 (5.35)
Psalms 118:235. Verses 17–24 (5.40)
Psalms 118:245. Verses 17–24 (5.47)
Psalms 118:256. Verses 25–32 (6.4)
Psalms 118:266. Verses 25–32 (6.11)
Psalms 118:276. Verses 25–32 (6.22)
Psalms 118:286. Verses 25–32 (6.33)
Psalms 118:296. Verses 25–32 (6.51)
Psalms 118:306. Verses 25–32 (6.60)
Psalms 118:316. Verses 25–32 (6.69)
Psalms 118:326. Verses 25–32 (6.75)
Psalms 118:337. Verses 33–40 (7.3)
Psalms 118:347. Verses 33–40 (7.9)
Psalms 118:357. Verses 33–40 (7.17)
Psalms 118:367. Verses 33–40 (7.24)
Psalms 118:377. Verses 33–40 (7.36)
Psalms 118:387. Verses 33–40 (7.44)
Psalms 118:397. Verses 33–40 (7.53)
Psalms 118:407. Verses 33–40 (7.62)
Psalms 118:418. Verses 41–48 (8.3)
Psalms 118:428. Verses 41–48 (8.10)
Psalms 118:438. Verses 41–48 (8.19)
Psalms 118:448. Verses 41–48 (8.27)
Psalms 118:458. Verses 41–48 (8.34)
Psalms 118:468. Verses 41–48 (8.44)
Psalms 118:478. Verses 41–48 (8.50)
Psalms 118:488. Verses 41–48 (8.56)
Psalms 118:499. Verses 49–56 (9.4)
Psalms 118:509. Verses 49–56 (9.10)
Psalms 118:519. Verses 49–56 (9.18)
Psalms 118:529. Verses 49–56 (9.23)
Psalms 118:539. Verses 49–56 (9.27)
Psalms 118:549. Verses 49–56 (9.33)
Psalms 118:559. Verses 49–56 (9.39)
Psalms 118:569. Verses 49–56 (9.49)
Psalms 118:5711. Verses 57–64 (11.3)
Psalms 118:5811. Verses 57–64 (11.10)
Psalms 118:5911. Verses 57–64 (11.16)
Psalms 118:6011. Verses 57–64 (11.22)
Psalms 118:6111. Verses 57–64 (11.29)
Psalms 118:6211. Verses 57–64 (11.35)
Psalms 118:6311. Verses 57–64 (11.40)
Psalms 118:6411. Verses 57–64 (11.45)
Psalms 118:6512. Verses 65–72 (12.3)
Psalms 118:6612. Verses 65–72 (12.7)
Psalms 118:6712. Verses 65–72 (12.15)
Psalms 118:6812. Verses 65–72 (12.22)
Psalms 118:6912. Verses 65–72 (12.30)
Psalms 118:7012. Verses 65–72 (12.37)
Psalms 118:7112. Verses 65–72 (12.43)
Psalms 118:7212. Verses 65–72 (12.49)
Psalms 118:7313. Verses 73–80 (13.4)
Psalms 118:7413. Verses 73–80 (13.9)
Psalms 118:7513. Verses 73–80 (13.14)
Psalms 118:7613. Verses 73–80 (13.19)
Psalms 118:7713. Verses 73–80 (13.25)
Psalms 118:7813. Verses 73–80 (13.31)
Psalms 118:7913. Verses 73–80 (13.35)
Psalms 118:8013. Verses 73–80 (13.40)
Psalms 118:8114. Verses 81–88 (14.3)
Psalms 118:8214. Verses 81–88 (14.7)
Psalms 118:8314. Verses 81–88 (14.12)
Psalms 118:8414. Verses 81–88 (14.17)
Psalms 118:8514. Verses 81–88 (14.23)
Psalms 118:8614. Verses 81–88 (14.27)
Psalms 118:8714. Verses 81–88 (14.31)
Psalms 118:8814. Verses 81–88 (14.36)
Psalms 118:8915. Verses 89–96 (15.3)
Psalms 118:9015. Verses 89–96 (15.12)
Psalms 118:9115. Verses 89–96 (15.19)
Psalms 118:9215. Verses 89–96 (15.28)
Psalms 118:9315. Verses 89–96 (15.35)
Psalms 118:9415. Verses 89–96 (15.39)
Psalms 118:9515. Verses 89–96 (15.44)
Psalms 118:9615. Verses 89–96 (15.48)
Psalms 118:9716. Verses 97–104 (16.5)
Psalms 118:9816. Verses 97–104 (16.10)
Psalms 118:9916. Verses 97–104 (16.16)
Psalms 118:10016. Verses 97–104 (16.21)
Psalms 118:10116. Verses 97–104 (16.26)
Psalms 118:10216. Verses 97–104 (16.32)
Psalms 118:10316. Verses 97–104 (16.37)
Psalms 118:10416. Verses 97–104 (16.42)

Psalms 118:10530. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19); 17. Verses 105–112 (17.4)

Psalms 118:10617. Verses 105–112 (17.8)
Psalms 118:10717. Verses 105–112 (17.14)
Psalms 118:10817. Verses 105–112 (17.20)
Psalms 118:10917. Verses 105–112 (17.24)
Psalms 118:11017. Verses 105–112 (17.28)
Psalms 118:11117. Verses 105–112 (17.33)
Psalms 118:11217. Verses 105–112 (17.39)
Psalms 118:11318. Verses 113–120 (18.3)
Psalms 118:11418. Verses 113–120 (18.9)
Psalms 118:11518. Verses 113–120 (18.14)
Psalms 118:11618. Verses 113–120 (18.18)
Psalms 118:11718. Verses 113–120 (18.24)
Psalms 118:11818. Verses 113–120 (18.30)
Psalms 118:11918. Verses 113–120 (18.35)

Psalms 118:120The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25); 18. Verses 113–120 (18.44); 25. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11); 30. God’s Special Favor (Verses 16–17)

Psalms 118:12120. Verses 121–128 (20.7)
Psalms 118:12220. Verses 121–128 (20.11)
Psalms 118:12320. Verses 121–128 (20.16)
Psalms 118:12420. Verses 121–128 (20.20)
Psalms 118:12520. Verses 121–128 (20.25)

Psalms 118:1266. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4); 20. Verses 121–128 (20.30)

Psalms 118:12720. Verses 121–128 (20.35)
Psalms 118:12820. Verses 121–128 (20.43)
Psalms 118:12921. Verses 129–136 (21.3)
Psalms 118:13021. Verses 129–136 (21.9)
Psalms 118:13121. Verses 129–136 (21.15)
Psalms 118:13221. Verses 129–136 (21.18)

Psalms 118:13321. Verses 129–136 (21.21); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.18)

Psalms 118:13421. Verses 129–136 (21.24)
Psalms 118:13521. Verses 129–136 (21.28)
Psalms 118:13621. Verses 129–136 (21.32)
Psalms 118:13722. Verses 137–144 (22.3)
Psalms 118:13822. Verses 137–144 (22.7)
Psalms 118:13922. Verses 137–144 (22.10)
Psalms 118:14022. Verses 137–144 (22.14)
Psalms 118:14122. Verses 137–144 (22.17)
Psalms 118:14222. Verses 137–144 (22.20)
Psalms 118:14322. Verses 137–144 (22.23)
Psalms 118:14422. Verses 137–144 (22.26)
Psalms 118:14523. Verses 145–152 (23.3)
Psalms 118:14623. Verses 145–152 (23.7)
Psalms 118:14723. Verses 145–152 (23.10)
Psalms 118:14823. Verses 145–152 (23.13)
Psalms 118:14923. Verses 145–152 (23.16)
Psalms 118:15023. Verses 145–152 (23.20)
Psalms 118:15123. Verses 145–152 (23.24)
Psalms 118:15223. Verses 145–152 (23.27)
Psalms 118:15324. Verses 153–160 (24.3)
Psalms 118:15424. Verses 153–160 (24.8)
Psalms 118:15524. Verses 153–160 (24.13)
Psalms 118:15624. Verses 153–160 (24.17)
Psalms 118:15724. Verses 153–160 (24.21)
Psalms 118:15824. Verses 153–160 (24.24)
Psalms 118:15924. Verses 153–160 (24.28)
Psalms 118:16024. Verses 153–160 (24.32)
Psalms 118:16125. Verses 161–168 (25.3)
Psalms 118:16225. Verses 161–168 (25.9)
Psalms 118:16325. Verses 161–168 (25.17)
Psalms 118:16425. Verses 161–168 (25.22)
Psalms 118:16525. Verses 161–168 (25.26)
Psalms 118:16625. Verses 161–168 (25.31)
Psalms 118:16725. Verses 161–168 (25.36)
Psalms 118:16825. Verses 161–168 (25.39)
Psalms 118:16926. Verses 169–176 (26.4)
Psalms 118:17026. Verses 169–176 (26.8)
Psalms 118:17126. Verses 169–176 (26.13)
Psalms 118:17226. Verses 169–176 (26.18)
Psalms 118:17326. Verses 169–176 (26.23)
Psalms 118:17426. Verses 169–176 (26.29)
Psalms 118:17526. Verses 169–176 (26.35)
Psalms 118:17626. Verses 169–176 (26.41)

Psalms 119:679. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19); The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25); 8. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

Psalms 122:1–277. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

Psalms 126:15. Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18)

Psalms 128:49. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 128:6–76. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Psalms 130:121. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Psalms 131:1The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.18)

Psalms 132:179. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19); 28. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Psalms 135:2511. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.10, 11.16)

Psalms 136:39. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Psalms 138:26. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Psalms 138:1212. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6)

Psalms 138:1411. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

Psalms 138:2313. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.20)

Psalms 140:51. The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4)

Psalms 143:1516. Concluding Thoughts (16.19)

Psalms 144:15–1611. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.29)

Psalms 144:1611. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.10)

Psalms 144:1810. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Psalms 146:911. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.10)

Proverbs

Proverbs 1:727. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

Proverbs 1:154. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2); 28. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Proverbs 1:224. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Proverbs 1:269. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Proverbs 1:2823. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

Proverbs 3:479. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19)

Proverbs 3:2410. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Proverbs 3:3478. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

Proverbs 4:87. Subjects for Reflection

Proverbs 4:164. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Proverbs 4:25–2828. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Proverbs 4:2724. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Proverbs 8:74. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Proverbs 8:21–249. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Proverbs 8:229. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Proverbs 9:1–354. If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:30–32)

Proverbs 9:1–523. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21)

Proverbs 10:311. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.6)

Proverbs 10:67. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Proverbs 12:106. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Proverbs 14:29The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25)

Proverbs 15:18. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

Proverbs 15:284. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Proverbs 15:298. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

Proverbs 18:314. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18)

Proverbs 19:1480. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1)

Proverbs 19:174. The Interpretation

Proverbs 20:14. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Proverbs 20:629. Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

Proverbs 20:912. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.13)

Proverbs 22:18. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

Proverbs 22:933. An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11)

Proverbs 22:104. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Proverbs 23:265. The Application

Proverbs 24:166. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Proverbs 24:17–1871. The Wild Olive Grafted In: Do Not Be Highminded, but Fear (Romans 11:17–22)

Proverbs 25:21–2280. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1)

Proverbs 26:1213. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Proverbs 27:111. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.11)

Proverbs 28:11. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus; 35. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 25. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

Proverbs 30:49. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Proverbs 30:816. Concluding Thoughts (16.18)

Proverbs 31:478. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16)

Proverbs 31:630. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 1:251. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23); 25. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Ecclesiastes 2:1434. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Ecclesiastes 3:123. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4); 7. Subjects for Reflection

Ecclesiastes 3:5–69. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Ecclesiastes 5:19. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!; 5. “Who is in Heaven” (5.7)

Ecclesiastes 7:2–320. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

Ecclesiastes 7:20The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Ecclesiastes 12:1325. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

Ecclesiastes 12:147. Subjects for Reflection

Song of Songs

Song of Songs 1:227. Give No Place to the Devil; Grieve Not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:27–31); 23. The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17)

Song of Songs 1:2–314. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

Song of Songs 5:219. On Praising God “at All Times” (Verse 2); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.4)

Song of Songs 8:656. More Than Conquerors; Paul’s Great Love for His People (Romans 8:36–9:1); 6. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Scripture Index (Isaiah–Mark)

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Isaiah

Isaiah 1:249. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15); 57. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4); 26. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1); 24. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12); 3. “Father” (3.6)

Isaiah 1:2–463. Why Many Jews Were Rejected and the Gentiles Called: Faith and Unbelief (Romans 9:29–31)

Isaiah 1:61. The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4)

Isaiah 1:763. Why Many Jews Were Rejected and the Gentiles Called: Faith and Unbelief (Romans 9:29–31)

Isaiah 1:963. Why Many Jews Were Rejected and the Gentiles Called: Faith and Unbelief (Romans 9:29–31)

Isaiah 1:1611. Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure

Isaiah 1:19–2011. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20); 14. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21)

Isaiah 1:2214. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

Isaiah 1:249. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 1:2680. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1)

Isaiah 2:2–314. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Isaiah 2:3–49. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 2:1223. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Isaiah 3:480. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1)

Isaiah 3:69. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 3:1169. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Isaiah 3:13–146. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Isaiah 5:215. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Isaiah 5:189. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 5:2178. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16); 13. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Isaiah 6:121. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Isaiah 6:38. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.3, 8.4, 8.5)

Isaiah 6:1069. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Isaiah 7:1454. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50)

Isaiah 8:1121. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Isaiah 8:1464. Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4)

Isaiah 8:2015. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Isaiah 9:615. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Isaiah 10:2162. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Isaiah 10:2262. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Isaiah 10:22–2362. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Isaiah 10:2362. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.2)

Isaiah 11:2–354. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50)

Isaiah 11:1089. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Isaiah 13:121. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Isaiah 14:49. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 17:135. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Isaiah 18:79. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 21:342. The Sinner’s Awareness of His Ruinous Condition (Vv. 4–8)

Isaiah 26:97. Subjects for Reflection

Isaiah 26:13–1451. Baptism for the Dead; Dying Daily; a Brief Exhortation (1 Corinthians 15:29–34)

Isaiah 28:11–1246. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

Isaiah 28:1664. Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4); 66. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14)

Isaiah 29:1069. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Isaiah 29:1311. Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure; 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 29:144. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21)

Isaiah 31:49. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 35:109. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13); 9. The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come” (9.6)

Isaiah 40:128. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.1)

Isaiah 40:13–1473. The Depth of the Riches and Wisdom of God: For of Him and Through Him Are All Things (Romans 11:29–36)

Isaiah 40:229. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 40:234. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21)

Isaiah 41:25. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Isaiah 41:155. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Isaiah 42:24–2513. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.2)

Isaiah 44:3The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Isaiah 44:289. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 45:19. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 45:2385. Each Shall Give Account of Himself to God; Judge Not One Another (Romans 14:6–12)

Isaiah 46:109. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 48:1110. The Earnest of Our Inheritance (Ephesians 1:14)

Isaiah 49:624. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

Isaiah 49:824. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

Isaiah 50:143. What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15)

Isaiah 50:47. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10)

Isaiah 52:167. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Isaiah 52:519. You Who Boast in the Law Dishonour God by Breaking It (Romans 2:21–27); 67. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19); 8. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.19, 8.22)

Isaiah 52:667. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Isaiah 52:76. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2); 67. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Isaiah 52:1067. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Isaiah 52:1126. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1); 9. Vessels of Honour in a Great House (2 Timothy 2:20–21); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

Isaiah 52:1592. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30); 7. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10)

Isaiah 53:548. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

Isaiah 53:848. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

Isaiah 53:9The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

Isaiah 53:1213. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Isaiah 54:1Children of the Free Woman: Stand Fast in Freedom (Continued) (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Isaiah 54:1320. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.8)

Isaiah 55:517. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Isaiah 57:21The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25)

Isaiah 58:6–916. Concluding Thoughts (16.5)

Isaiah 59:34. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Isaiah 61:154. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Isaiah 61:1026. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26)

Isaiah 62:54. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Isaiah 64:47. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10)

Isaiah 65:168. The Consolation of the People of God: God Has Not Cast Away His People (Romans 10:20–11:2)

Isaiah 65:268. The Consolation of the People of God: God Has Not Cast Away His People (Romans 10:20–11:2)

Isaiah 65:1715. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Isaiah 65:2423. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

Isaiah 66:19. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1:121. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Jeremiah 1:56. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2); 12. Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24)

Jeremiah 1:1412. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Jeremiah 2:521. Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7)

Jeremiah 2:1312. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24)

Jeremiah 3:1580. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1)

Jeremiah 3:1926. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1)

Jeremiah 8:135. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Jeremiah 9:14. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Jeremiah 9:2112. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.13)

Jeremiah 9:23–246. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5); 20. All Must Be Referred to God, and Upon Him Alone Must One Lean (Verse 3)

Jeremiah 9:2437. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

Jeremiah 15:67. Subjects for Reflection

Jeremiah 17:5–825. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

Jeremiah 17:85. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Jeremiah 17:179. The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3)

Jeremiah 20:925. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

Jeremiah 23:2332. Nearness and Consolation in Sorrows (Verse 19)

Jeremiah 31:31–3257. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Jeremiah 31:31–3315. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8)

Jeremiah 31:3365. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Jeremiah 32:1813. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Jeremiah 48:1077. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

Jeremiah 50:155. The Sinner’s Ascent to Confident Hope, and His Establishment in It (Vv. 16–18)

Jeremiah 51:109. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Jeremiah 51:349. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Jeremiah 51:589. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Lamentations

Lamentations 5:189. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:1213. On the Height of Christian Revelation, or Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:12–13)

Ezekiel 11:2–34. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Ezekiel 11:19–2015. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8)

Ezekiel 13:523. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Ezekiel 17:225. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Ezekiel 19:105. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Ezekiel 20:11The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Ezekiel 20:21The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Ezekiel 20:409. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Ezekiel 33:1112. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.1)

Ezekiel 36:2665. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Ezekiel 47:125. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Daniel

Daniel 1:1–213. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.2)

Daniel 2:2123. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Daniel 2:355. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Daniel 2:449. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Daniel 3:38–3974. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2)

Daniel 3:514. “Our” (4.1)

Daniel 7:107. The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

Daniel 7:149. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Daniel 8:2514. The Wiles of Antichrist and Whom He Deceives (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Daniel 10:1318. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Daniel 11:36–3711. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

Daniel 14:30–3911. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.6)

Hosea

Hosea 1:1062. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Hosea 1:1126. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1)

Hosea 2:2362. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Hosea 4:1234. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14)

Hosea 13:35. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Joel

Joel 2:19. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Joel 2:2834. The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 9. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

Joel 2:2966. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14); 89. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Joel 2:3123. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Joel 2:3266. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14)

Amos

Amos 5:26. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Amos 5:99. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Amos 5:1034. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Micah

Micah 4:29. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Micah 4:623. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Micah 5:29. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Micah 6:222. Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25)

Micah 6:321. Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7); 11. The Real Reason for the Change of Travel Plans (2 Cor. 1:23–2:4)

Micah 7:39. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Nahum

Nahum 1:210. The Earnest of Our Inheritance (Ephesians 1:14)

Nahum 1:139. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Habakkuk

Habakkuk 2:410. The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 12. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Haggai

Haggai 2:7–862. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Zechariah

Zechariah 8:354. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50)

Zechariah 9:99. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Zechariah 9:1617. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Zechariah 12:362. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Zechariah 12:10The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Malachi

Malachi 1:259. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Malachi 1:49. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Malachi 1:63. “Father” (3.6)

Malachi 1:1110. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

Malachi 2:1049. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15)

Malachi 3:26. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

Malachi 4:214. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16); 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

Tobit
Tobit 12:816. Concluding Thoughts (16.5)
Wisdom

Wisdom 5:6–734. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Wisdom 9:1521. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

Wisdom 13:17. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Wisdom 13:521. On the Spiritual Communion of Those Surrendered to God (Verses 3–4)

Sirach

Sirach 2:16. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

Sirach 2:108. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Sirach 7:1–328. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Sirach 7:610. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers

Sirach 11:289. The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

Sirach 12:1324. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Sirach 13:1914. The Catalogue of Iniquity; They Who Do Such Things Are Worthy of Death (Romans 1:29–32)

Sirach 14:924. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8)

Sirach 15:1614. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21)

Sirach 19:23–2528. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Sirach 21:211. Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure

Sirach 21:2937. Psalm 51

Sirach 22:3128. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Sirach 23:516. Concluding Thoughts (16.18)

Sirach 25:128. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Sirach 25:213. Titus 2:4–5—The Younger Women

Sirach 25:3–412. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Sirach 25:6–712. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Sirach 27:513. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.9)

Sirach 27:29–3028. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Sirach 34:1013. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.3)

Sirach 36:416. Concluding Thoughts (16.18)

Matthew

Matthew 1:27. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5)

Matthew 1:2024. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

Matthew 1:217. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12); 7. Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8)

Matthew 2:5–69. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Matthew 2:1017. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

Matthew 3:724. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Matthew 3:9The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Matthew 3:125. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Matthew 3:178. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Matthew 4:416. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

Matthew 4:1114. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

Matthew 5:375. How It Is Expressed in Life: The Gifts of Grace and the Members of One Body (Romans 12:3–6); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4); 4. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2); 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7); 32. Nearness and Consolation in Sorrows (Verse 19); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.10, 16.11)

Matthew 5:4The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25); 21. Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.12)

Matthew 5:521. Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7); 21. On the Spiritual Communion of Those Surrendered to God (Verses 3–4)

Matthew 5:635. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13); 25. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.13)

Matthew 5:716. Concluding Thoughts (16.14)

Matthew 5:817. The Veil Removed in Christ; Beholding the Glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15–4:2); 8. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11); 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13); 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.15)

Matthew 5:928. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.16)

Matthew 5:1031. The Treasures of Faith: God Commends His Love in the Death of Christ for Us (Romans 5:2–6); 6. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

Matthew 5:11–1225. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

Matthew 5:1213. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Matthew 5:1326. Christian Life Toward Those Outside (Colossians 4:5–6)

Matthew 5:14–1629. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Matthew 5:1610. The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17); 79. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19); 20. Glorify God in Your Bodies and in Your Souls (1 Corinthians 6:20); 33. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1); The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20); 8. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11); 20. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11); 9. The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13); 8. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.16, 8.20, 8.28)

Matthew 5:1726. Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law; Paul Draws to Faith by the Example of Abraham (Romans 3:27–31)

Matthew 5:1914. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 18. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

Matthew 5:2079. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19); 18. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Matthew 5:22The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25)

Matthew 5:2316. Concluding Thoughts (16.1)

Matthew 5:23–2410. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

Matthew 5:2829. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Matthew 5:3223. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

Matthew 5:3928. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 16. Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

Matthew 5:4079. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.20)

Matthew 5:4379. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19)

Matthew 5:43–4479. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19)

Matthew 5:4480. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1); 8. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.14)

Matthew 5:44–4525. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

Matthew 5:44–4728. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

Matthew 5:458. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2); 6. Lessons From This Invocation (6.3); 11. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.11, 11.16)

Matthew 5:45–4879. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19)

Matthew 5:4828. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 18. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15); 6. Lessons From This Invocation (6.2)

Matthew 6:623. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

Matthew 6:916. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 28. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

Matthew 6:1051. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23)

Matthew 6:1123. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Matthew 6:1317. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

Matthew 6:1412. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.17)

Matthew 6:14–1579. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.33); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.17)

Matthew 6:1513. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.13)

Matthew 6:2177. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 4. The Interpretation

Matthew 6:238. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

Matthew 6:2429. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12); 30. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19); 20. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 13. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.4)

Matthew 6:2511. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.23)

Matthew 6:25–3426. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

Matthew 6:31–3311. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.6)

Matthew 6:3211. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.3)

Matthew 6:3325. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11); 4. The Interpretation; 11. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.3, 11.13, 11.23)

Matthew 6:3411. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.3, 11.5, 11.11, 11.15, 11.16)

Matthew 7:112. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6)

Matthew 7:228. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 33. Servants and Masters (Ephesians 6:5–9); 24. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.2)

Matthew 7:312. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.28)

Matthew 7:722. Counsel on the Marriage Bed; to the Unmarried and Widows (1 Corinthians 7:3–9); 15. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8); 11. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18); 4. The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject

Matthew 7:911. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.3)

Matthew 7:9–1024. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Matthew 7:1110. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

Matthew 7:134. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2); 7. Subjects for Reflection

Matthew 7:1416. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5); 6. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

Matthew 7:15–1611. Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure

Matthew 7:16–185. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

Matthew 7:1718. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

Matthew 7:1919. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Matthew 7:2039. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20)

Matthew 7:2165. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9); 66. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Matthew 7:22–2342. Love, the More Excellent Way, Surpassing All Gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1–3)

Matthew 7:2316. God Will Render to Each According to His Works (Romans 2:7–10); 9. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 8. The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10); 6. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6); 7. Subjects for Reflection

Matthew 8:1012. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Matthew 8:11–1267. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19); 9. The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come” (9.3)

Matthew 8:124. The Interpretation

Matthew 8:14–1591. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

Matthew 8:1789. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Matthew 8:2064. Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4)

Matthew 8:277. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5)

Matthew 8:3113. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.6)

Matthew 9:96. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Matthew 9:136. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

Matthew 10:36. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Matthew 10:667. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19); 70. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16)

Matthew 10:1029. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 19. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9); 21. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

Matthew 10:1219. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Matthew 10:1646. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25); 26. Christian Life Toward Those Outside (Colossians 4:5–6); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

Matthew 10:1714. I Charge You: Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1–4)

Matthew 10:18–2011. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

Matthew 10:1936. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24); 3. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

Matthew 10:19–208. The Spiritual Man Discerns All Things; We Have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11–16)

Matthew 10:2019. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

Matthew 10:228. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11)

Matthew 10:2513. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.4)

Matthew 10:2774. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2)

Matthew 10:2810. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

Matthew 10:327. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Matthew 10:3387. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

Matthew 10:3423. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

Matthew 10:35–3714. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Matthew 10:3757. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Matthew 10:3819. Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1); 12. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

Matthew 10:4015. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10); 20. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

Matthew 10:4178. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16); 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Matthew 11:1112. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.10)

Matthew 11:1254. If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:30–32)

Matthew 11:1341. The Ordering of the Members in the Church; Seek the Greater Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:27–31)

Matthew 11:2589. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Matthew 11:268. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9)

Matthew 11:2831. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13); 14. Titus 2:6–10—Younger Men; Servants

Matthew 11:29The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25); 33. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!; 21. On the Spiritual Communion of Those Surrendered to God (Verses 3–4)

Matthew 11:3033. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Matthew 12:2189. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Matthew 12:2540. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26); 10. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30)

Matthew 12:2817. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

Matthew 12:3524. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8)

Matthew 12:3627. Give No Place to the Devil; Grieve Not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:27–31)

Matthew 12:3728. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Matthew 12:397. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5); 4. The Interpretation

Matthew 12:4048. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

Matthew 12:4119. You Who Boast in the Law Dishonour God by Breaking It (Romans 2:21–27)

Matthew 12:4613. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Matthew 12:47–506. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Matthew 13:176. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Matthew 13:2115. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

Matthew 13:224. The Interpretation

Matthew 13:37–3928. Keep That Which Is Committed to Your Trust (1 Timothy 6:20–21)

Matthew 13:3913. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.4)

Matthew 13:5214. Titus 2:6–10—Younger Men; Servants

Matthew 13:5513. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Matthew 13:574. The Occasion and Purpose of the Epistle

Matthew 15:312. Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24)

Matthew 15:61. On the Lord’s Prayer in General (1.2)

Matthew 15:11–1911. Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure

Matthew 15:17–1826. How the Stumbling Arises: Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1–6)

Matthew 15:1918. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.13)

Matthew 15:2611. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.3)

Matthew 15:2717. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9)

Matthew 16:367. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Matthew 16:1230. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

Matthew 16:1313. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.4)

Matthew 16:1610. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16)

Matthew 16:1816. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 9. Vessels of Honour in a Great House (2 Timothy 2:20–21)

Matthew 16:2488. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 26. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1); The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Matthew 16:2718. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

Matthew 17:59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Matthew 17:974. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2)

Matthew 17:1172. All Israel Shall Be Saved (Romans 11:23–28)

Matthew 17:2039. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11); 35. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

Matthew 18:787. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24); 36. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

Matthew 18:1012. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24); 27. Take Heed Lest Your Liberty Become a Stumbling Block (1 Corinthians 8:7–13); 35. The Order of Creation and Common Sense on the Covering of the Head (1 Corinthians 11:7–16); 12. In Him All Fullness Dwells; Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:19–23); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16); Introduction to the Epistle; 30. God’s Special Favor (Verses 16–17)

Matthew 18:1510. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers

Matthew 18:19–2025. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4)

Matthew 18:2212. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.1)

Matthew 18:23–3412. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.1)

Matthew 18:27–3412. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.2)

Matthew 18:3233. Servants and Masters (Ephesians 6:5–9); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.2)

Matthew 18:32–3312. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.26)

Matthew 18:32–3512. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.36)

Matthew 18:3437. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32); 1. The Preface

Matthew 19:4–580. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1)

Matthew 19:10–1224. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

Matthew 19:16–226. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Matthew 19:1765. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Matthew 19:2012. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.10)

Matthew 19:2142. Love, the More Excellent Way, Surpassing All Gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1–3); 23. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29); 6. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven; 11. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.6)

Matthew 19:2327. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

Matthew 19:276. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Matthew 19:27–296. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Matthew 19:2814. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

Matthew 19:296. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Matthew 19:3048. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

Matthew 20:855. The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58)

Matthew 20:1520. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Matthew 20:1694. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Matthew 20:2314. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

Matthew 20:2612. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

Matthew 20:2812. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

Matthew 21:2235. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 25. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4); 10. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8); 17. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

Matthew 21:3870. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16)

Matthew 21:4362. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27); 67. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Matthew 22:454. If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:30–32)

Matthew 22:54. The Interpretation

Matthew 22:970. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16)

Matthew 22:1382. Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Matthew 22:3019. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19); 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7); 6. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Matthew 22:34–359. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Matthew 22:4057. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Matthew 23:64. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Matthew 23:86. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

Matthew 23:93. “Father” (3.7)

Matthew 23:1527. The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12); 10. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers

Matthew 23:3214. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Matthew 23:3732. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Matthew 24:323. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Matthew 24:11–1211. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

Matthew 24:1214. The Catalogue of Iniquity; They Who Do Such Things Are Worthy of Death (Romans 1:29–32); 12. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Matthew 24:1312. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Matthew 24:1470. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16); 12. What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7)

Matthew 24:2411. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

Matthew 24:2723. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Matthew 24:3011. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20); 22. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

Matthew 24:3121. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15); 22. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

Matthew 24:37–3923. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Matthew 24:4223. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4); 27. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

Matthew 24:42–4424. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

Matthew 24:4423. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Matthew 24:4674. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2)

Matthew 24:4814. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21)

Matthew 25:1–1276. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9)

Matthew 25:1–622. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

Matthew 25:622. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

Matthew 25:2115. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

Matthew 25:2518. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

Matthew 25:3118. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

Matthew 25:327. Subjects for Reflection

Matthew 25:349. The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come” (9.1, 9.3, 9.8, 9.11, 9.12); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.11)

Matthew 25:359. Titus 1:8–9—The Bishop’s Virtues and Teaching

Matthew 25:4030. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15); 4. The Interpretation

Matthew 25:41The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 1. The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4); 9. The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come” (9.1, 9.12)

Matthew 26:49. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Matthew 26:89. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Matthew 26:3988. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 10. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.3); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.21)

Matthew 26:4193. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 13. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.19)

Matthew 27:5222. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Matthew 27:5416. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Matthew 27:6411. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

Matthew 28:67. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Matthew 28:1858. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9); 6. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2); 19. Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Matthew 28:196. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2); 7. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5); 88. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 4. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21); 47. Conclusion: Final Exhortations and the Grace (2 Cor. 13:11–13); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 16. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21); 17. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14); 13. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29); 16. Stand Fast and Hold the Traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:15–17); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13); 9. Titus 1:8–9—The Bishop’s Virtues and Teaching

Matthew 28:19–2014. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

Matthew 28:2093. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 16. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4); 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3); 21. Final Blessings, Salutation, and Prayer (2 Thessalonians 3:16–18); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16); 27. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

Mark

Mark 1:1518. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6); 23. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); 18. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

Mark 1:176. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Mark 1:2439. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

Mark 2:179. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

Mark 3:146. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2)

Mark 3:186. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Mark 3:3113. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Mark 4:711. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.8)

Mark 4:2433. Servants and Masters (Ephesians 6:5–9)

Mark 4:2892. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30)

Mark 6:313. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Mark 8:3422. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15); 35. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 10. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30); 18. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15)

Mark 8:3818. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13); 22. Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25)

Mark 9:97. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Mark 9:2335. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

Mark 9:5026. Christian Life Toward Those Outside (Colossians 4:5–6)

Mark 10:17–226. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Mark 10:216. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Mark 10:236. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Mark 10:246. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Mark 10:266. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Mark 10:276. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Mark 10:286. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Mark 10:296. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Mark 10:29–301. Author’s Introduction; 6. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Mark 10:29–316. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Mark 10:306. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Mark 10:5212. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Mark 11:2425. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4); 17. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

Mark 11:2510. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

Mark 11:25–2612. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.2)

Mark 12:139. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Mark 12:394. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Mark 12:41–4476. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9)

Mark 12:4430. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

Mark 13:2721. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Mark 13:33–3624. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

Mark 13:3724. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Mark 14:19. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Mark 14:2515. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Mark 14:3813. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.2)

Mark 14:559. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Mark 15:329. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Mark 15:3914. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

Mark 15:4119. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Mark 16:1554. If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:30–32)

Mark 16:1665. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9); 18. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Mark 16:2088. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 6. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5); 14. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21); 35. In Person I Can Be Stern, as in My Letters (2 Cor. 10:1–5); 16. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21); 1. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus; 9. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

Scripture Index (Luke–Acts)

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Luke

Luke 1:1712. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.10)

Luke 1:1917. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

Luke 1:329. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Luke 1:339. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Luke 1:3554. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50)

Luke 1:41–4519. On Praising God “at All Times” (Verse 2)

Luke 1:4621. On the Spiritual Communion of Those Surrendered to God (Verses 3–4)

Luke 1:54–5515. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Luke 1:5723. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Luke 2:524. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

Luke 2:1415. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Luke 2:2951. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23)

Luke 2:3464. Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4); 14. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

Luke 2:3619. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

Luke 2:407. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Luke 4:189. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Luke 5:1616. Concluding Thoughts (16.3)

Luke 5:2112. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.4)

Luke 5:276. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Luke 6:57. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Luke 6:1216. Concluding Thoughts (16.3)

Luke 6:136. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2)

Luke 6:173. The Story of the Parable

Luke 6:2521. Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7)

Luke 6:3519. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Luke 6:3674. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); 28. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11); 8. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11); 21. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11); 20. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15)

Luke 6:3728. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.1, 12.25, 12.31)

Luke 6:3833. Servants and Masters (Ephesians 6:5–9)

Luke 6:4278. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16); 29. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Luke 7:1–230. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

Luke 7:167. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5)

Luke 8:328. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

Luke 8:1315. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

Luke 8:2129. The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19)

Luke 8:2839. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

Luke 8:3216. Concluding Thoughts (16.21)

Luke 9:2317. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

Luke 9:2618. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

Luke 9:491. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Luke 9:5883. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14)

Luke 10:37. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

Luke 10:5–67. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Luke 10:729. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 19. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9)

Luke 10:1629. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

Luke 10:2020. A Brief Admonition to Certain Persons (Philippians 4:2–3)

Luke 10:2417. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Luke 10:2530. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

Luke 10:2774. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2)

Luke 10:4246. No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3)

Luke 11:413. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.32)

Luke 11:511. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.3)

Luke 11:916. Concluding Thoughts (16.1)

Luke 11:1969. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Luke 11:209. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7)

Luke 11:2324. Growing Up Into Christ the Head (Ephesians 4:14–16)

Luke 11:414. The Interpretation

Luke 12:16–2011. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.3)

Luke 12:2011. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.5)

Luke 12:3011. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.23)

Luke 12:4021. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Luke 12:429. Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14); 21. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20); 8. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

Luke 12:4514. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21)

Luke 12:5682. Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12)

Luke 13:2–312. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.20)

Luke 13:167. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

Luke 13:2416. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

Luke 13:3412. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23); 32. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Luke 14:1113. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

Luke 14:146. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

Luke 14:18–204. The Interpretation

Luke 14:3311. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.5)

Luke 15:12. In What Sense Is the Unrighteous Steward Praised?; 3. The Story of the Parable

Luke 15:22. In What Sense Is the Unrighteous Steward Praised?

Luke 15:4–72. In What Sense Is the Unrighteous Steward Praised?

Luke 15:79. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.35)

Luke 15:8–102. In What Sense Is the Unrighteous Steward Praised?

Luke 15:11–322. In What Sense Is the Unrighteous Steward Praised?

Luke 15:17–216. Lessons From This Invocation (6.9)

Luke 15:18–1912. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.35)

Luke 15:215. “Who is in Heaven” (5.7)

Luke 15:22–2412. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.35)

Luke 16:13. The Story of the Parable

Luke 16:1–131. Author’s Introduction; 2. In What Sense Is the Unrighteous Steward Praised?; 6. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Luke 16:23. The Story of the Parable

Luke 16:33. The Story of the Parable

Luke 16:43. The Story of the Parable; 4. The Interpretation

Luke 16:53. The Story of the Parable

Luke 16:824. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11); 3. The Story of the Parable; 4. The Interpretation; 5. The Application

Luke 16:97. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11); 4. The Interpretation

Luke 16:105. The Application

Luke 16:10–125. The Application

Luke 16:10–132. In What Sense Is the Unrighteous Steward Praised?; 4. The Interpretation

Luke 16:114. The Interpretation; 5. The Application

Luke 16:124. The Interpretation; 5. The Application

Luke 16:135. The Application

Luke 16:144. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2); 4. The Interpretation

Luke 16:16The Beginning of the Epistle (Continued) (Galatians 1:6–10)

Luke 16:1920. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 11. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15); 34. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Luke 16:19–2534. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Luke 16:19–314. The Interpretation

Luke 17:510. The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17); 39. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

Luke 17:1029. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 39. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20); 40. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

Luke 17:2119. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 9. The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come” (9.1)

Luke 18:126. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Luke 18:713. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Luke 18:811. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5); 12. What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7)

Luke 18:10–1412. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.27)

Luke 18:1163. Why Many Jews Were Rejected and the Gentiles Called: Faith and Unbelief (Romans 9:29–31)

Luke 18:18–236. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Luke 18:28–306. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Luke 18:296. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Luke 18:306. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Luke 18:329. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Luke 19:1–102. In What Sense Is the Unrighteous Steward Praised?

Luke 19:2–104. The Interpretation

Luke 19:149. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Luke 19:2018. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

Luke 19:42–4467. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Luke 20:1863. Why Many Jews Were Rejected and the Gentiles Called: Faith and Unbelief (Romans 9:29–31); 16. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

Luke 20:344. The Interpretation

Luke 20:354. The Interpretation

Luke 21:1834. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Luke 21:198. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11)

Luke 21:3426. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

Luke 21:34–3624. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Luke 21:3623. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Luke 22:1911. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.3)

Luke 22:29–306. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

Luke 22:3113. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.9)

Luke 22:31–3216. Concluding Thoughts (16.3)

Luke 22:4013. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.1)

Luke 22:4210. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.2)

Luke 22:7026. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

Luke 23:2169. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Luke 23:3412. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.25)

Luke 23:399. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Luke 23:4334. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Luke 24:3448. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

Luke 24:46–4720. The True Jew, and the Advantage of the Jew (Romans 2:28–3:2)

Luke 24:479. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John

John 1:17. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

John 1:1–29. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 1:358. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9); 23. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12); 15. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10); 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

John 1:917. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3); 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7); 4. The Interpretation

John 1:11–123. “Father” (3.8)

John 1:128. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9); 3. “Father” (3.6, 3.7)

John 1:12–136. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5); 26. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1); 23. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29); 24. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12); 6. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2); 12. What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7); 6. Lessons From This Invocation (6.17)

John 1:138. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9)

John 1:1414. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

John 1:1615. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15); 23. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3)

John 1:1723. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

John 1:1810. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16); 27. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 1:2949. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

John 1:419. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 1:4757. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

John 2:197. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5); 19. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19); 52. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38); 46. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 16. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

John 3:523. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

John 3:839. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11); 15. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

John 3:1322. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

John 3:15–1810. The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17)

John 3:1632. Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12); The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

John 3:209. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9); 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

John 3:2124. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

John 3:301. On the Lord’s Prayer in General (1.1)

John 3:31–321. On the Lord’s Prayer in General (1.1)

John 3:349. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 4:2110. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

John 4:2271. The Wild Olive Grafted In: Do Not Be Highminded, but Fear (Romans 11:17–22); 92. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30)

John 4:2316. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

John 4:248. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9); 29. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

John 4:3410. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.14); 11. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.18)

John 4:489. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7)

John 5:147. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20); 8. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.17)

John 5:1830. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

John 5:1919. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12); 28. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

John 5:19–217. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

John 5:209. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 5:2139. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

John 5:2218. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19)

John 5:239. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 5:3920. The True Jew, and the Advantage of the Jew (Romans 2:28–3:2); 4. The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject

John 5:4112. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

John 5:4314. The Wiles of Antichrist and Whom He Deceives (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12); 3. “Father” (3.7)

John 5:4425. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

John 6:613. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.8)

John 6:2711. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.18)

John 6:29The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

John 6:3311. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.21)

John 6:3810. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.3, 10.14)

John 6:3910. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.2)

John 6:4032. Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12)

John 6:448. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9); 64. Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

John 6:44–4519. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

John 6:4516. Concluding Thoughts (16.8)

John 6:4811. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.3)

John 6:5111. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.4)

John 6:5311. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.4)

John 6:5683. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14); 32. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4); 35. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 11. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.3)

John 6:663. The Story of the Parable

John 6:7154. If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:30–32)

John 7:177. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

John 7:1812. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8); 8. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.6)

John 7:3717. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

John 7:38–3917. Titus 3:4–7—The Washing of Regeneration

John 8:287. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5)

John 8:31–326. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)

John 8:39The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 11. Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure

John 8:436. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

John 8:4429. The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19); 20. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 13. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.4)

John 8:5012. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

John 8:566. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2); 22. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

John 8:589. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 9:1–791. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

John 9:155. God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28)

John 9:1630. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

John 9:229. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 9:2923. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

John 9:3936. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

John 10:1112. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5); 21. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

John 10:1512. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24)

John 10:1610. The Earnest of Our Inheritance (Ephesians 1:14); 16. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 23. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13); 12. What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7)

John 10:1819. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

John 10:2817. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

John 10:2912. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

John 10:3018. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

John 11:25The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

John 11:4312. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23); 22. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

John 11:47–539. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 12:49. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 12:20–221. On Saint Titus

John 12:2452. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38); 12. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

John 12:2517. At My First Defence the Lord Stood By Me (2 Timothy 4:16–18)

John 12:267. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 14. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 24. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13); 6. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)

John 12:283. “Father” (3.7)

John 12:3116. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15); 10. The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10)

John 12:3624. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11); 4. The Interpretation

John 12:4225. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

John 13:1420. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

John 13:277. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

John 13:3474. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); 33. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

John 13:3557. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4); 76. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9); 10. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30); 8. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11); 22. Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15)

John 14:29. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 4. The Interpretation

John 14:322. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

John 14:68. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9); 31. The Treasures of Faith: God Commends His Love in the Death of Christ for Us (Romans 5:2–6); 16. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 21. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11); 9. One God, One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:3–6)

John 14:918. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6)

John 14:9–1010. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16)

John 14:107. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 14:1217. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

John 14:13–148. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9)

John 14:1416. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

John 14:15–1620. To Know the Love of Christ; the Doxology (Ephesians 3:18–21)

John 14:168. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3); 17. Titus 3:4–7—The Washing of Regeneration

John 14:2011. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23); 22. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10); 15. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10); 17. Let No One Judge You; the Shadow and the Body (Colossians 2:16–19); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 9. One God, One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:3–6); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

John 14:2122. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

John 14:2348. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 26. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1); 7. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17); 23. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13); 27. The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24); 15. Fight the Good Fight; the Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:5–8)

John 14:263. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9); 17. Titus 3:4–7—The Washing of Regeneration

John 14:2793. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 16. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 21. Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7); 28. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

John 14:2916. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

John 14:3013. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.4)

John 14:317. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

John 15:1–615. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10)

John 15:1–819. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

John 15:224. Growing Up Into Christ the Head (Ephesians 4:14–16)

John 15:4–57. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

John 15:535. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 8. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.28)

John 15:67. Subjects for Reflection

John 15:725. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4)

John 15:1393. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 42. Love, the More Excellent Way, Surpassing All Gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1–3)

John 15:14–158. The Spiritual Man Discerns All Things; We Have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11–16)

John 15:1523. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3)

John 15:169. Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14)

John 15:18–1916. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

John 15:1977. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

John 15:2013. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11); 6. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

John 15:2241. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

John 15:2617. Titus 3:4–7—The Washing of Regeneration

John 16:214. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

John 16:7The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

John 16:12–137. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5)

John 16:1323. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3)

John 16:1546. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 6. Inscription and Greeting (Colossians 1:1–3)

John 16:231. On the Lord’s Prayer in General (1.2)

John 16:2716. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

John 16:286. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

John 16:3377. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 43. The Thorn in the Flesh; Strength Made Perfect in Weakness (2 Cor. 12:6–10); 7. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 34. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14); 10. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30); 8. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5); 6. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7); 12. Take Courage: You Have Followed My Teaching (2 Timothy 3:10–13); 28. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15); 33. Deliverance From Sorrows (Verse 20)

John 17:514. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 17:63. “Father” (3.7)

John 17:108. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9); 46. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10); 9. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

John 17:1110. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30)

John 17:1211. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

John 17:20–2116. Concluding Thoughts (16.3)

John 17:2189. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9); 11. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23); 26. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1); 23. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29); 22. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10); 32. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

John 17:21–2332. Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12)

John 17:2411. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23); 14. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 22. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14)

John 18:646. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10)

John 18:369. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

John 18:3720. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 23. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

John 19:7–1126. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

John 19:1113. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.2)

John 19:3234. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

John 20:176. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7); 7. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 11. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

John 20:287. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5); 69. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9); 10. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16)

Acts

Acts 1:316. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Acts 1:49. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Acts 1:623. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Acts 1:723. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4); 6. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)

Acts 1:89. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

Acts 1:922. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18); 3. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

Acts 1:1122. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

Acts 1:13–1413. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Acts 1:144. “Our” (4.1)

Acts 1:21–227. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Acts 1:2328. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Acts 2:101. The Illumination of the Romans by Faith

Acts 2:111. On Saint Titus

Acts 2:16–2166. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14)

Acts 2:2166. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14)

Acts 2:23The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

Acts 2:23–247. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Acts 2:37–3834. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Acts 2:3866. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14); 16. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14); 23. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); 23. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Acts 3:67. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5)

Acts 3:1212. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6); 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Acts 3:1514. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Acts 3:208. The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10)

Acts 3:217. The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

Acts 3:22–2316. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

Acts 4:59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Acts 4:1124. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Acts 4:1292. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30)

Acts 4:1656. More Than Conquerors; Paul’s Great Love for His People (Romans 8:36–9:1)

Acts 4:19–2017. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

Acts 4:259. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Acts 4:279. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Acts 4:28The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

Acts 4:3210. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30)

Acts 4:3423. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Acts 5:419. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

Acts 5:914. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21)

Acts 5:1539. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

Acts 5:1714. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Acts 5:2815. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

Acts 5:2926. Christian Life Toward Those Outside (Colossians 4:5–6); 16. Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

Acts 5:3716. Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

Acts 5:3910. Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)

Acts 5:4121. Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7); 30. The Apostle’s Autograph Conclusion (Colossians 4:18); 9. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7)

Acts 6:495. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

Acts 6:1214. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Acts 6:1330. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

Acts 7:211. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

Acts 7:5121. Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Acts 7:5323. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Acts 7:6012. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.25)

Acts 9:314. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

Acts 9:417. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Acts 9:5–611. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

Acts 9:67. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Acts 9:154. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 12. Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24); 16. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21); 17. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

Acts 9:2013. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Acts 9:2313. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Acts 9:23–2513. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Acts 9:23–2641. The Apostle’s Labors, Perils, and Care for the Churches (2 Cor. 11:27–32)

Acts 9:2413. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Acts 9:27–2913. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Acts 9:29–3013. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Acts 9:4012. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Acts 10:3–416. Concluding Thoughts (16.5)

Acts 10:2218. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

Acts 10:389. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Acts 10:4724. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12); 17. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Acts 11:1889. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Acts 11:28–3014. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

Acts 12:3–111. The Illumination of the Romans by Faith

Acts 12:57. The Prayers of Believers Share in Deliverance From Troubles (2 Cor. 1:8–11)

Acts 12:731. Swift Hearing of Prayer (Verse 18)

Acts 12:1228. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Acts 12:1535. The Order of Creation and Common Sense on the Covering of the Head (1 Corinthians 11:7–16)

Acts 12:21–2211. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

Acts 12:2528. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Acts 13:195. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24); 23. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

Acts 13:26. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 16. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2); 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20); 18. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

Acts 13:528. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Acts 13:96. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Acts 13:1026. Christian Life Toward Those Outside (Colossians 4:5–6)

Acts 13:1146. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10); 16. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Acts 13:1328. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Acts 13:339. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Acts 13:4667. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19); 70. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16)

Acts 13:4817. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

Acts 14:316. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Acts 14:524. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

Acts 14:14–1518. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Acts 14:1510. The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

Acts 14:1717. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5); 27. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

Acts 14:1924. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6); 25. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13); 40. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

Acts 14:19–2019. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13); 25. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

Acts 14:2231. The Treasures of Faith: God Commends His Love in the Death of Christ for Us (Romans 5:2–6); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5); 6. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7); 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

Acts 14:22–2323. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

Acts 14:2310. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8); 12. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5); 7. Preface—Part 2 (Titus 1:1–4)

Acts 14:2716. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Acts 14:2814. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

Acts 15:13. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 29. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

Acts 15:1–214. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

Acts 15:214. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

Acts 15:3–414. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

Acts 15:53. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

Acts 15:10The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 15. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Acts 15:1214. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2); 16. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Acts 15:1317. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

Acts 15:1853. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29)

Acts 15:227. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Acts 15:237. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Acts 15:2418. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Acts 15:2914. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

Acts 15:3111. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

Acts 15:3213. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

Acts 15:3317. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

Acts 15:3517. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

Acts 15:407. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Acts 15:4113. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Acts 16:27. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 1. On Saint Timothy; 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

Acts 16:42. The Founding of Churches in Galatia; 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Acts 16:69. Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14); 2. The Founding of Churches in Galatia; 15. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20); 1. On Saint Timothy

Acts 16:6–715. In the Latter Times Some Shall Depart From the Faith (1 Timothy 4:1–2)

Acts 16:6–99. That the Change of Plan Should Not Be Interpreted Unfavorably (2 Cor. 1:15–17); 14. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

Acts 16:953. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29); 2. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church

Acts 16:121. The City of Philippi

Acts 16:12–4011. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

Acts 16:131. Information About the City of Thessalonica and Its People

Acts 16:147. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5)

Acts 16:199. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Acts 16:2180. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1)

Acts 16:2240. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

Acts 16:22–2324. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

Acts 16:23–2411. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

Acts 16:2510. This Change Casts No Shadow on the Unchangeableness of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 1:18–22); 24. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

Acts 16:3711. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

Acts 17:11. Information About the City of Thessalonica and Its People

Acts 17:1–416. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Acts 17:211. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

Acts 17:32. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church; 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Acts 17:42. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church

Acts 17:524. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

Acts 17:5–914. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Acts 17:680. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1); 95. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24)

Acts 17:711. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

Acts 17:92. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church; 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

Acts 17:10–133. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

Acts 17:1324. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

Acts 17:1410. This Change Casts No Shadow on the Unchangeableness of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 1:18–22)

Acts 17:185. God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28)

Acts 17:2527. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

Acts 17:2850. The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19); 73. The Depth of the Riches and Wisdom of God: For of Him and Through Him Are All Things (Romans 11:29–36)

Acts 17:28–296. Lessons From This Invocation (6.13)

Acts 17:317. Subjects for Reflection

Acts 17:3248. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

Acts 17:343. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

Acts 18:1–53. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

Acts 18:393. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Acts 18:4–916. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Acts 18:517. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10); 1. On Saint Timothy

Acts 18:728. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Acts 18:83. The Absurdity of Such Talk Exposed (1 Corinthians 1:13–16)

Acts 18:93. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

Acts 18:9–1053. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29); 14. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Acts 18:1224. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Acts 18:12–172. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written

Acts 18:1817. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14); 2. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written

Acts 18:19–211. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Acts 18:217. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Acts 18:232. The Founding of Churches in Galatia; 17. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

Acts 18:24–271. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Acts 18:2526. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Acts 18:2693. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3)

Acts 18:289. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

Acts 19:2–71. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Acts 19:8–916. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Acts 19:91. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Acts 19:101. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Acts 19:11–121. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Acts 19:1239. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11); 16. The Sending of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25–30)

Acts 19:13–161. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Acts 19:201. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Acts 19:213. When and Where the Epistle Was Written; 57. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12)

Acts 19:2295. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24); 6. Inscription and Greeting (Philippians 1:1–2); 2. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written; 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Acts 19:239. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Acts 19:297. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 28. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Acts 20:1–33. When and Where the Epistle Was Written; 5. Time and Place of Writing

Acts 20:22. The Church of Philippi (Acts 16)

Acts 20:2–31. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Acts 20:495. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 36. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24); 28. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15); 1. On Saint Timothy; 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Acts 20:657. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12); 2. The Church of Philippi (Acts 16)

Acts 20:713. On the Height of Christian Revelation, or Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:12–13); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Acts 20:1340. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

Acts 20:14–171. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Acts 20:1657. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12)

Acts 20:17–381. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Acts 20:1823. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Acts 20:2393. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 10. Correcting Wrong Thoughts on the Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2)

Acts 20:2823. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

Acts 20:2914. I Charge You: Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1–4)

Acts 20:29–3015. In the Latter Times Some Shall Depart From the Faith (1 Timothy 4:1–2)

Acts 20:315. Time and Place of Writing

Acts 20:329. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 4. Christ Has Abolished Death; I Know Whom I Have Believed (2 Timothy 1:10–12)

Acts 20:34–3516. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

Acts 20:3523. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20); 20. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Acts 21:823. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

Acts 21:1393. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3)

Acts 21:18–2629. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 17. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

Acts 21:2014. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

Acts 21:2617. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

Acts 21:2817. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Acts 21:2918. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Acts 22:1742. The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5)

Acts 22:17–1814. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

Acts 22:17–216. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Acts 22:1853. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29)

Acts 22:216. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2); 7. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5); 17. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5); 11. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

Acts 23:1114. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2); 2. The Circumstances of the Writing of the Epistle

Acts 23:266. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Acts 24:232. The Circumstances of the Writing of the Epistle

Acts 24:263. Was This Epistle Written to the Ephesians?

Acts 24:272. The Circumstances of the Writing of the Epistle

Acts 26:2–326. Christian Life Toward Those Outside (Colossians 4:5–6)

Acts 26:16–186. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Acts 26:184. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21); 15. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 4. The Interpretation

Acts 26:226. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Acts 27:228. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Acts 27:528. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Acts 28:1628. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Acts 28:202. The Composition of the Roman Church

Acts 28:222. The Composition of the Roman Church

Acts 28:242. The Composition of the Roman Church

Acts 28:30–318. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20); 28. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Scripture Index (Romans)

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Romans

Romans 1:16. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2); 25. The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10); 6. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)

Romans 1:1–175. The Content and Structure

Romans 1:1–75. The Content and Structure

Romans 1:26. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

Romans 1:3–47. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5); 58. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9)

Romans 1:465. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9); 10. The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

Romans 1:5–67. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5)

Romans 1:78. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9)

Romans 1:81. The Illumination of the Romans by Faith; 8. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9); 91. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 95. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24)

Romans 1:8–175. The Content and Structure

Romans 1:8–98. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

Romans 1:991. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 13. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

Romans 1:9–108. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9)

Romans 1:9–138. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9)

Romans 1:1093. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3)

Romans 1:119. Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14); 92. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30); 17. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

Romans 1:124. The Occasion, Motive, and Purpose of Writing; 9. Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14); 93. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 9. To Live Is Christ, and to Die Is Gain (Philippians 1:21–26)

Romans 1:134. The Occasion, Motive, and Purpose of Writing; 9. Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14); 91. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 92. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30); 46. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

Romans 1:144. The Occasion, Motive, and Purpose of Writing; 9. Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14); 91. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 3. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

Romans 1:14–158. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9)

Romans 1:1610. The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17); 70. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16); 3. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

Romans 1:16–178. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9)

Romans 1:1710. The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17)

Romans 1:1811. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20); 24. God’s Wondrous Way of Salvation in His Only-Begotten Son: the Righteousness of God by Faith (Romans 3:21–24); 46. No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3); 20. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 23. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

Romans 1:1911. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

Romans 1:19–2311. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

Romans 1:2011. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20); 15. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14); 7. The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

Romans 1:2112. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24); 4. The Interpretation

Romans 1:21–2312. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24)

Romans 1:2212. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24); 4. The Interpretation

Romans 1:2312. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24)

Romans 1:2412. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24); 13. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28); 13. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.10)

Romans 1:24–2711. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

Romans 1:24–2712. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24)

Romans 1:24–3111. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

Romans 1:25The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 10. The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10)

Romans 1:2613. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

Romans 1:26–2712. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24)

Romans 1:2713. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28)

Romans 1:2813. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28); 25. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21); 7. The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

Romans 1:28–3211. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

Romans 1:28–3112. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24)

Romans 1:30–3114. The Catalogue of Iniquity; They Who Do Such Things Are Worthy of Death (Romans 1:29–32)

Romans 1:3214. The Catalogue of Iniquity; They Who Do Such Things Are Worthy of Death (Romans 1:29–32)

Romans 2:115. The Righteous Judgment of God on Every Soul (Romans 2:1–6)

Romans 2:1–1611. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

Romans 2:215. The Righteous Judgment of God on Every Soul (Romans 2:1–6)

Romans 2:315. The Righteous Judgment of God on Every Soul (Romans 2:1–6)

Romans 2:415. The Righteous Judgment of God on Every Soul (Romans 2:1–6)

Romans 2:515. The Righteous Judgment of God on Every Soul (Romans 2:1–6)

Romans 2:5–1112. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24)

Romans 2:615. The Righteous Judgment of God on Every Soul (Romans 2:1–6)

Romans 2:716. God Will Render to Each According to His Works (Romans 2:7–10)

Romans 2:816. God Will Render to Each According to His Works (Romans 2:7–10)

Romans 2:916. God Will Render to Each According to His Works (Romans 2:7–10)

Romans 2:9–1023. All the World Guilty Before God; By the Law Is the Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:13–20)

Romans 2:1016. God Will Render to Each According to His Works (Romans 2:7–10)

Romans 2:1117. There Is No Respect of Persons With God; Doers of the Law Are Justified (Romans 2:11–15)

Romans 2:1217. There Is No Respect of Persons With God; Doers of the Law Are Justified (Romans 2:11–15); 16. Purging the Christian Community of Open Sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9–13); 16. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Romans 2:1317. There Is No Respect of Persons With God; Doers of the Law Are Justified (Romans 2:11–15)

Romans 2:1417. There Is No Respect of Persons With God; Doers of the Law Are Justified (Romans 2:11–15)

Romans 2:1517. There Is No Respect of Persons With God; Doers of the Law Are Justified (Romans 2:11–15); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

Romans 2:1618. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19)

Romans 2:1718. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19)

Romans 2:17–1818. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19)

Romans 2:1818. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19)

Romans 2:19–2018. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19)

Romans 2:2119. You Who Boast in the Law Dishonour God by Breaking It (Romans 2:21–27); 23. The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17)

Romans 2:21–2418. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19)

Romans 2:2219. You Who Boast in the Law Dishonour God by Breaking It (Romans 2:21–27)

Romans 2:2319. You Who Boast in the Law Dishonour God by Breaking It (Romans 2:21–27)

Romans 2:2419. You Who Boast in the Law Dishonour God by Breaking It (Romans 2:21–27); 20. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12); 25. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

Romans 2:2519. You Who Boast in the Law Dishonour God by Breaking It (Romans 2:21–27)

Romans 2:25–2918. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19)

Romans 2:2619. You Who Boast in the Law Dishonour God by Breaking It (Romans 2:21–27)

Romans 2:2719. You Who Boast in the Law Dishonour God by Breaking It (Romans 2:21–27)

Romans 2:2820. The True Jew, and the Advantage of the Jew (Romans 2:28–3:2)

Romans 2:2920. The True Jew, and the Advantage of the Jew (Romans 2:28–3:2); 17. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9); 16. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Romans 3:120. The True Jew, and the Advantage of the Jew (Romans 2:28–3:2)

Romans 3:1–213. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28)

Romans 3:1–818. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19); 20. The True Jew, and the Advantage of the Jew (Romans 2:28–3:2)

Romans 3:220. The True Jew, and the Advantage of the Jew (Romans 2:28–3:2)

Romans 3:321. Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7)

Romans 3:3–413. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28)

Romans 3:421. Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7)

Romans 3:521. Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7)

Romans 3:5–813. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28)

Romans 3:621. Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7)

Romans 3:721. Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7)

Romans 3:822. None Is Righteous, No, Not One (Romans 3:8–12); 34. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Romans 3:922. None Is Righteous, No, Not One (Romans 3:8–12)

Romans 3:9–1813. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28)

Romans 3:9–2018. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19); 22. None Is Righteous, No, Not One (Romans 3:8–12)

Romans 3:1022. None Is Righteous, No, Not One (Romans 3:8–12)

Romans 3:10–1813. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

Romans 3:1122. None Is Righteous, No, Not One (Romans 3:8–12)

Romans 3:1222. None Is Righteous, No, Not One (Romans 3:8–12)

Romans 3:1323. All the World Guilty Before God; By the Law Is the Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:13–20)

Romans 3:1423. All the World Guilty Before God; By the Law Is the Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:13–20)

Romans 3:1523. All the World Guilty Before God; By the Law Is the Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:13–20)

Romans 3:1623. All the World Guilty Before God; By the Law Is the Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:13–20)

Romans 3:1723. All the World Guilty Before God; By the Law Is the Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:13–20)

Romans 3:1823. All the World Guilty Before God; By the Law Is the Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:13–20)

Romans 3:1923. All the World Guilty Before God; By the Law Is the Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:13–20); 16. Purging the Christian Community of Open Sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)

Romans 3:19–2013. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28)

Romans 3:2023. All the World Guilty Before God; By the Law Is the Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:13–20); 41. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

Romans 3:20–3026. Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law; Paul Draws to Faith by the Example of Abraham (Romans 3:27–31)

Romans 3:2124. God’s Wondrous Way of Salvation in His Only-Begotten Son: the Righteousness of God by Faith (Romans 3:21–24)

Romans 3:21–2214. The Catalogue of Iniquity; They Who Do Such Things Are Worthy of Death (Romans 1:29–32)

Romans 3:21–2425. Christ Set Forth as a Propitiation Through Faith in His Blood (Romans 3:25)

Romans 3:21–3011. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

Romans 3:2224. God’s Wondrous Way of Salvation in His Only-Begotten Son: the Righteousness of God by Faith (Romans 3:21–24)

Romans 3:2324. God’s Wondrous Way of Salvation in His Only-Begotten Son: the Righteousness of God by Faith (Romans 3:21–24); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

Romans 3:23–2514. The Catalogue of Iniquity; They Who Do Such Things Are Worthy of Death (Romans 1:29–32)

Romans 3:23–247. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Romans 3:23–2524. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Romans 3:2424. God’s Wondrous Way of Salvation in His Only-Begotten Son: the Righteousness of God by Faith (Romans 3:21–24)

Romans 3:25The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

Romans 3:25–2625. Christ Set Forth as a Propitiation Through Faith in His Blood (Romans 3:25)

Romans 3:26–3114. The Catalogue of Iniquity; They Who Do Such Things Are Worthy of Death (Romans 1:29–32)

Romans 3:2725. Christ Set Forth as a Propitiation Through Faith in His Blood (Romans 3:25); 26. Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law; Paul Draws to Faith by the Example of Abraham (Romans 3:27–31)

Romans 3:2826. Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law; Paul Draws to Faith by the Example of Abraham (Romans 3:27–31)

Romans 3:2926. Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law; Paul Draws to Faith by the Example of Abraham (Romans 3:27–31); 66. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14)

Romans 3:3026. Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law; Paul Draws to Faith by the Example of Abraham (Romans 3:27–31)

Romans 3:3126. Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law; Paul Draws to Faith by the Example of Abraham (Romans 3:27–31)

Romans 4:127. Abraham Believed God, and It Was Counted to Him for Righteousness (Romans 4:1–4)

Romans 4:1–1229. The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19)

Romans 4:227. Abraham Believed God, and It Was Counted to Him for Righteousness (Romans 4:1–4)

Romans 4:327. Abraham Believed God, and It Was Counted to Him for Righteousness (Romans 4:1–4); 58. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9)

Romans 4:4–527. Abraham Believed God, and It Was Counted to Him for Righteousness (Romans 4:1–4)

Romans 4:58. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 34. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

Romans 4:628. The Blessedness of the Man to Whom God Imputes Righteousness Without Works (Romans 4:6–13)

Romans 4:6–927. Abraham Believed God, and It Was Counted to Him for Righteousness (Romans 4:1–4)

Romans 4:7–828. The Blessedness of the Man to Whom God Imputes Righteousness Without Works (Romans 4:6–13)

Romans 4:928. The Blessedness of the Man to Whom God Imputes Righteousness Without Works (Romans 4:6–13)

Romans 4:1028. The Blessedness of the Man to Whom God Imputes Righteousness Without Works (Romans 4:6–13)

Romans 4:1128. The Blessedness of the Man to Whom God Imputes Righteousness Without Works (Romans 4:6–13)

Romans 4:11–1227. Abraham Believed God, and It Was Counted to Him for Righteousness (Romans 4:1–4)

Romans 4:1228. The Blessedness of the Man to Whom God Imputes Righteousness Without Works (Romans 4:6–13)

Romans 4:1328. The Blessedness of the Man to Whom God Imputes Righteousness Without Works (Romans 4:6–13)

Romans 4:1429. The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19)

Romans 4:1529. The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19); 41. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

Romans 4:1629. The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19)

Romans 4:1729. The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19)

Romans 4:1829. The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19); 20. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Romans 4:1929. The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19)

Romans 4:2030. Being Justified by Faith, We Have Peace With God (Romans 4:20–5:1)

Romans 4:2130. Being Justified by Faith, We Have Peace With God (Romans 4:20–5:1)

Romans 4:2230. Being Justified by Faith, We Have Peace With God (Romans 4:20–5:1)

Romans 4:23–2430. Being Justified by Faith, We Have Peace With God (Romans 4:20–5:1)

Romans 4:2430. Being Justified by Faith, We Have Peace With God (Romans 4:20–5:1); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Romans 4:2530. Being Justified by Faith, We Have Peace With God (Romans 4:20–5:1); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Romans 5:130. Being Justified by Faith, We Have Peace With God (Romans 4:20–5:1)

Romans 5:1–1126. Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law; Paul Draws to Faith by the Example of Abraham (Romans 3:27–31); 30. Being Justified by Faith, We Have Peace With God (Romans 4:20–5:1); 32. Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12)

Romans 5:231. The Treasures of Faith: God Commends His Love in the Death of Christ for Us (Romans 5:2–6)

Romans 5:323. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

Romans 5:3–431. The Treasures of Faith: God Commends His Love in the Death of Christ for Us (Romans 5:2–6); 18. On Giving Thanks to God for All Things at All Times (Verse 2)

Romans 5:419. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

Romans 5:531. The Treasures of Faith: God Commends His Love in the Death of Christ for Us (Romans 5:2–6); 76. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9); 28. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 8. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 20. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28); 3. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

Romans 5:631. The Treasures of Faith: God Commends His Love in the Death of Christ for Us (Romans 5:2–6)

Romans 5:732. Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12)

Romans 5:832. Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12)

Romans 5:932. Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12)

Romans 5:1032. Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12); The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 15. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Romans 5:1132. Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12); 8. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9)

Romans 5:1232. Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12)

Romans 5:12–2126. Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law; Paul Draws to Faith by the Example of Abraham (Romans 3:27–31)

Romans 5:13–1433. The Meaning of Christ’s Economy in Human History: Grace Abounding Over Sin (Romans 5:13–17)

Romans 5:1533. The Meaning of Christ’s Economy in Human History: Grace Abounding Over Sin (Romans 5:13–17)

Romans 5:1633. The Meaning of Christ’s Economy in Human History: Grace Abounding Over Sin (Romans 5:13–17)

Romans 5:1733. The Meaning of Christ’s Economy in Human History: Grace Abounding Over Sin (Romans 5:13–17)

Romans 5:18–1934. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Romans 5:1916. Concluding Thoughts (16.21)

Romans 5:2034. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3); 41. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8); 36. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

Romans 5:2134. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Romans 6:134. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Romans 6:1–1034. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Romans 6:234. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Romans 6:334. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Romans 6:3–1318. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Romans 6:3–422. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Romans 6:435. Buried With Christ in Baptism, That We Should Walk in Newness of Life (Romans 6:4–6); 40. Dead to the Law Through the Body of Christ; Not to Mingle Judaism (Romans 7:4–6); 51. Baptism for the Dead; Dying Daily; a Brief Exhortation (1 Corinthians 15:29–34); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 16. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

Romans 6:4–583. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14)

Romans 6:535. Buried With Christ in Baptism, That We Should Walk in Newness of Life (Romans 6:4–6); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

Romans 6:635. Buried With Christ in Baptism, That We Should Walk in Newness of Life (Romans 6:4–6); The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 31. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

Romans 6:736. Dead to Sin but Alive to God; How to Stand and Show Forth Holiness (Romans 6:7–12)

Romans 6:836. Dead to Sin but Alive to God; How to Stand and Show Forth Holiness (Romans 6:7–12); 19. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

Romans 6:936. Dead to Sin but Alive to God; How to Stand and Show Forth Holiness (Romans 6:7–12); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Romans 6:1036. Dead to Sin but Alive to God; How to Stand and Show Forth Holiness (Romans 6:7–12)

Romans 6:1136. Dead to Sin but Alive to God; How to Stand and Show Forth Holiness (Romans 6:7–12); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Romans 6:11–1434. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Romans 6:1236. Dead to Sin but Alive to God; How to Stand and Show Forth Holiness (Romans 6:7–12); 29. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12); 9. The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come” (9.7)

Romans 6:12–1374. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); 9. The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come” (9.10)

Romans 6:1337. Present Yourselves to God as Instruments of Righteousness (Romans 6:13–16); 33. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Romans 6:1437. Present Yourselves to God as Instruments of Righteousness (Romans 6:13–16); 43. What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15)

Romans 6:1537. Present Yourselves to God as Instruments of Righteousness (Romans 6:13–16)

Romans 6:15–2334. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Romans 6:1637. Present Yourselves to God as Instruments of Righteousness (Romans 6:13–16)

Romans 6:1738. Freed From Sin, Servants of Righteousness (Romans 6:17–20)

Romans 6:1838. Freed From Sin, Servants of Righteousness (Romans 6:17–20)

Romans 6:1938. Freed From Sin, Servants of Righteousness (Romans 6:17–20); 74. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); 27. The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24); 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

Romans 6:20–2138. Freed From Sin, Servants of Righteousness (Romans 6:17–20)

Romans 6:2119. Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1)

Romans 6:2239. The Wages of Sin Is Death, but the Gift of God Is Eternal Life (Romans 6:22–7:2)

Romans 6:2339. The Wages of Sin Is Death, but the Gift of God Is Eternal Life (Romans 6:22–7:2); 13. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

Romans 7:139. The Wages of Sin Is Death, but the Gift of God Is Eternal Life (Romans 6:22–7:2)

Romans 7:1–634. Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3); 39. The Wages of Sin Is Death, but the Gift of God Is Eternal Life (Romans 6:22–7:2)

Romans 7:2–339. The Wages of Sin Is Death, but the Gift of God Is Eternal Life (Romans 6:22–7:2)

Romans 7:440. Dead to the Law Through the Body of Christ; Not to Mingle Judaism (Romans 7:4–6)

Romans 7:540. Dead to the Law Through the Body of Christ; Not to Mingle Judaism (Romans 7:4–6)

Romans 7:640. Dead to the Law Through the Body of Christ; Not to Mingle Judaism (Romans 7:4–6)

Romans 7:741. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

Romans 7:7–1341. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

Romans 7:7–2541. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

Romans 7:841. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

Romans 7:9–1042. Sin, Taking Occasion by the Commandment, Wrought Death (Romans 7:9–13)

Romans 7:1042. Sin, Taking Occasion by the Commandment, Wrought Death (Romans 7:9–13)

Romans 7:1142. Sin, Taking Occasion by the Commandment, Wrought Death (Romans 7:9–13); 45. Wretched Man That I Am! Who Shall Deliver Me? (Romans 7:21–25)

Romans 7:1242. Sin, Taking Occasion by the Commandment, Wrought Death (Romans 7:9–13)

Romans 7:1342. Sin, Taking Occasion by the Commandment, Wrought Death (Romans 7:9–13)

Romans 7:1443. What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15); 10. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.6)

Romans 7:14–2541. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

Romans 7:1543. What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15)

Romans 7:1644. The Inward Struggle: the Law of the Mind Against the Law of Sin (Romans 7:16–20)

Romans 7:1744. The Inward Struggle: the Law of the Mind Against the Law of Sin (Romans 7:16–20)

Romans 7:1844. The Inward Struggle: the Law of the Mind Against the Law of Sin (Romans 7:16–20); 3. The Sinner’s Penitential Feelings: His Grieving Over His Bitter State (Vv. 9–11)

Romans 7:1944. The Inward Struggle: the Law of the Mind Against the Law of Sin (Romans 7:16–20)

Romans 7:19–2043. What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15)

Romans 7:2044. The Inward Struggle: the Law of the Mind Against the Law of Sin (Romans 7:16–20)

Romans 7:2145. Wretched Man That I Am! Who Shall Deliver Me? (Romans 7:21–25)

Romans 7:21–2326. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Romans 7:2245. Wretched Man That I Am! Who Shall Deliver Me? (Romans 7:21–25)

Romans 7:22–2343. What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15)

Romans 7:2345. Wretched Man That I Am! Who Shall Deliver Me? (Romans 7:21–25); 18. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15)

Romans 7:23–2416. Concluding Thoughts (16.12)

Romans 7:2445. Wretched Man That I Am! Who Shall Deliver Me? (Romans 7:21–25); 27. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

Romans 7:2545. Wretched Man That I Am! Who Shall Deliver Me? (Romans 7:21–25)

Romans 8:145. Wretched Man That I Am! Who Shall Deliver Me? (Romans 7:21–25); 46. No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 4. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

Romans 8:1–1046. No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3)

Romans 8:1–3941. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

Romans 8:246. No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3)

Romans 8:346. No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Romans 8:447. The Mind of the Flesh Is Death, but the Mind of the Spirit Is Life and Peace (Romans 8:4–7)

Romans 8:547. The Mind of the Flesh Is Death, but the Mind of the Spirit Is Life and Peace (Romans 8:4–7)

Romans 8:647. The Mind of the Flesh Is Death, but the Mind of the Spirit Is Life and Peace (Romans 8:4–7)

Romans 8:747. The Mind of the Flesh Is Death, but the Mind of the Spirit Is Life and Peace (Romans 8:4–7); 31. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25); 12. In Him All Fullness Dwells; Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:19–23)

Romans 8:848. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11)

Romans 8:912. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24); 48. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 73. The Depth of the Riches and Wisdom of God: For of Him and Through Him Are All Things (Romans 11:29–36); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Romans 8:1048. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 83. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14)

Romans 8:1148. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 54. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Romans 8:11–1746. No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3); 48. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11)

Romans 8:1249. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15)

Romans 8:1349. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15)

Romans 8:1449. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15)

Romans 8:14–158. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9)

Romans 8:1549. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15); 16. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 3. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9); 3. “Father” (3.6); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.16)

Romans 8:1650. The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19); 9. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

Romans 8:16–1715. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

Romans 8:1750. The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19); 19. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13); 24. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12); 15. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12); 6. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

Romans 8:17–1822. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

Romans 8:17–2246. No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3)

Romans 8:1850. The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 6. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

Romans 8:1950. The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19); 9. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

Romans 8:20–2151. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23)

Romans 8:2251. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23); 9. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

Romans 8:2351. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23); 9. The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come” (9.9)

Romans 8:23–2751. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23)

Romans 8:23–3946. No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3)

Romans 8:2452. The Firmness of Our Hope; the Spirit Helps Our Infirmity (Romans 8:24–26); 44. Love Abides Forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13); 1. Inscription, Greeting, and Thanksgiving (2 Timothy 1:1–4); 14. The Seventh Petition: “But Deliver Us From the Evil One” (14.9)

Romans 8:2552. The Firmness of Our Hope; the Spirit Helps Our Infirmity (Romans 8:24–26); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

Romans 8:2652. The Firmness of Our Hope; the Spirit Helps Our Infirmity (Romans 8:24–26); 77. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.20)

Romans 8:2753. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29); 7. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10)

Romans 8:2853. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

Romans 8:28–3051. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23)

Romans 8:2953. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29); 8. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9); 15. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10); 21. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11); 6. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)

Romans 8:3054. If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:30–32); 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 9. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7)

Romans 8:3154. If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:30–32); 35. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2); 6. The Firm Resolve: Having Confessed His Sin, to Blot It Out (V. 19)

Romans 8:31–3451. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23)

Romans 8:3254. If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:30–32); 7. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 8. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17); 15. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10); 16. Stand Fast and Hold the Traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:15–17); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Romans 8:3355. Who Shall Separate Us From the Love of Christ? (Romans 8:33–35)

Romans 8:3455. Who Shall Separate Us From the Love of Christ? (Romans 8:33–35); 83. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 13. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29)

Romans 8:3555. Who Shall Separate Us From the Love of Christ? (Romans 8:33–35)

Romans 8:35–3951. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23); 9. Vessels of Honour in a Great House (2 Timothy 2:20–21); 12. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Romans 8:3656. More Than Conquerors; Paul’s Great Love for His People (Romans 8:36–9:1)

Romans 8:3756. More Than Conquerors; Paul’s Great Love for His People (Romans 8:36–9:1)

Romans 8:37–396. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Romans 8:38–3956. More Than Conquerors; Paul’s Great Love for His People (Romans 8:36–9:1)

Romans 8:393. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

Romans 9:156. More Than Conquerors; Paul’s Great Love for His People (Romans 8:36–9:1); 32. Why the Apostle Sent Titus and the Brethren Ahead (2 Cor. 9:1–5); 39. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20)

Romans 9:257. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Romans 9:357. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4); 33. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1); 43. Love, the Fullness of the Virtues (1 Corinthians 13:4–7); 8. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.14)

Romans 9:449. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15); 57. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Romans 9:558. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9)

Romans 9:658. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9); 68. The Consolation of the People of God: God Has Not Cast Away His People (Romans 10:20–11:2)

Romans 9:758. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9)

Romans 9:858. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9)

Romans 9:958. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9)

Romans 9:1059. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Romans 9:11–1259. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Romans 9:1359. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Romans 9:1459. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Romans 9:1559. God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

Romans 9:1660. It Is Not of Him That Wills, but of God That Shows Mercy (Romans 9:16–19)

Romans 9:1760. It Is Not of Him That Wills, but of God That Shows Mercy (Romans 9:16–19)

Romans 9:1860. It Is Not of Him That Wills, but of God That Shows Mercy (Romans 9:16–19)

Romans 9:1960. It Is Not of Him That Wills, but of God That Shows Mercy (Romans 9:16–19)

Romans 9:209. Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14); 61. Shall the Thing Formed Say to Him That Formed It? The Vessels of Mercy and of Wrath (Romans 9:20–22); 39. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

Romans 9:2161. Shall the Thing Formed Say to Him That Formed It? The Vessels of Mercy and of Wrath (Romans 9:20–22)

Romans 9:22–2361. Shall the Thing Formed Say to Him That Formed It? The Vessels of Mercy and of Wrath (Romans 9:20–22); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

Romans 9:2462. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27); 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

Romans 9:25–2662. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Romans 9:27–2862. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Romans 9:2963. Why Many Jews Were Rejected and the Gentiles Called: Faith and Unbelief (Romans 9:29–31)

Romans 9:3063. Why Many Jews Were Rejected and the Gentiles Called: Faith and Unbelief (Romans 9:29–31)

Romans 9:31–3263. Why Many Jews Were Rejected and the Gentiles Called: Faith and Unbelief (Romans 9:29–31)

Romans 9:3364. Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4)

Romans 10:164. Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4)

Romans 10:264. Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4); 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Romans 10:364. Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4)

Romans 10:464. Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4)

Romans 10:542. Sin, Taking Occasion by the Commandment, Wrought Death (Romans 7:9–13); 65. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Romans 10:6–865. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9); 15. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Romans 10:962. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27); 65. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Romans 10:1066. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14); 87. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24)

Romans 10:1166. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14)

Romans 10:1266. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14)

Romans 10:1366. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14)

Romans 10:1414. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Romans 10:14–1566. Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14)

Romans 10:14–2167. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Romans 10:1567. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Romans 10:1667. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Romans 10:1767. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19); 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

Romans 10:1867. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Romans 10:1967. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

Romans 10:2068. The Consolation of the People of God: God Has Not Cast Away His People (Romans 10:20–11:2)

Romans 10:2168. The Consolation of the People of God: God Has Not Cast Away His People (Romans 10:20–11:2)

Romans 11:168. The Consolation of the People of God: God Has Not Cast Away His People (Romans 10:20–11:2)

Romans 11:268. The Consolation of the People of God: God Has Not Cast Away His People (Romans 10:20–11:2)

Romans 11:2–568. The Consolation of the People of God: God Has Not Cast Away His People (Romans 10:20–11:2)

Romans 11:669. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Romans 11:769. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Romans 11:869. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Romans 11:9–1069. A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

Romans 11:1170. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16)

Romans 11:1270. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16)

Romans 11:1370. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16); 91. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 23. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

Romans 11:1470. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16)

Romans 11:1570. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16)

Romans 11:1670. If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16)

Romans 11:17–1871. The Wild Olive Grafted In: Do Not Be Highminded, but Fear (Romans 11:17–22)

Romans 11:1871. The Wild Olive Grafted In: Do Not Be Highminded, but Fear (Romans 11:17–22)

Romans 11:19–2071. The Wild Olive Grafted In: Do Not Be Highminded, but Fear (Romans 11:17–22)

Romans 11:2171. The Wild Olive Grafted In: Do Not Be Highminded, but Fear (Romans 11:17–22); 91. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

Romans 11:2271. The Wild Olive Grafted In: Do Not Be Highminded, but Fear (Romans 11:17–22)

Romans 11:2372. All Israel Shall Be Saved (Romans 11:23–28)

Romans 11:2472. All Israel Shall Be Saved (Romans 11:23–28)

Romans 11:2572. All Israel Shall Be Saved (Romans 11:23–28)

Romans 11:26–2772. All Israel Shall Be Saved (Romans 11:23–28)

Romans 11:2872. All Israel Shall Be Saved (Romans 11:23–28); 9. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7)

Romans 11:2973. The Depth of the Riches and Wisdom of God: For of Him and Through Him Are All Things (Romans 11:29–36)

Romans 11:30–3173. The Depth of the Riches and Wisdom of God: For of Him and Through Him Are All Things (Romans 11:29–36)

Romans 11:3273. The Depth of the Riches and Wisdom of God: For of Him and Through Him Are All Things (Romans 11:29–36)

Romans 11:3373. The Depth of the Riches and Wisdom of God: For of Him and Through Him Are All Things (Romans 11:29–36); 14. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

Romans 11:34–3573. The Depth of the Riches and Wisdom of God: For of Him and Through Him Are All Things (Romans 11:29–36)

Romans 11:3673. The Depth of the Riches and Wisdom of God: For of Him and Through Him Are All Things (Romans 11:29–36); The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

Romans 12:174. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); 15. Fight the Good Fight; the Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:5–8); 7. The Seven Petitions (7.3)

Romans 12:274. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 13. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 4. The Interpretation; 10. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.1)

Romans 12:375. How It Is Expressed in Life: The Gifts of Grace and the Members of One Body (Romans 12:3–6); 23. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

Romans 12:4–575. How It Is Expressed in Life: The Gifts of Grace and the Members of One Body (Romans 12:3–6)

Romans 12:675. How It Is Expressed in Life: The Gifts of Grace and the Members of One Body (Romans 12:3–6); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Romans 12:6–81. The Illumination of the Romans by Faith; 22. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Romans 12:776. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9)

Romans 12:876. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9); 33. An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11); 12. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

Romans 12:976. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9); 24. Growing Up Into Christ the Head (Ephesians 4:14–16)

Romans 12:9–2176. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9)

Romans 12:1077. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 20. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

Romans 12:1177. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Romans 12:1277. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Romans 12:1378. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16)

Romans 12:1478. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16)

Romans 12:1578. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16); 43. Love, the Fullness of the Virtues (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)

Romans 12:1678. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16); 91. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 13. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Romans 12:1779. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19)

Romans 12:1879. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19); 28. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Romans 12:1979. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19); 25. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15); 6. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7); 5. The Sinner’s Ascent to Confident Hope, and His Establishment in It (Vv. 16–18)

Romans 12:2080. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1)

Romans 12:20–2125. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

Romans 12:2180. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Romans 13:180. Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1); 16. Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

Romans 13:281. Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8); 31. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

Romans 13:381. Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8)

Romans 13:481. Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8)

Romans 13:581. Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8); 8. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

Romans 13:681. Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8)

Romans 13:781. Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8); 26. Christian Life Toward Those Outside (Colossians 4:5–6)

Romans 13:881. Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8)

Romans 13:8–1081. Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8)

Romans 13:982. Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12); 29. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

Romans 13:1057. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4); 82. Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12); 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

Romans 13:1182. Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12)

Romans 13:11–1481. Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8)

Romans 13:1282. Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Romans 13:1383. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14)

Romans 13:1447. The Mind of the Flesh Is Death, but the Mind of the Spirit Is Life and Peace (Romans 8:4–7); 49. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15); 83. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14); 26. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26)

Romans 14:184. Receiving the Weak in Faith Without Disputes (Romans 14:1–5); 25. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15); 11. Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure

Romans 14:1–225. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

Romans 14:284. Receiving the Weak in Faith Without Disputes (Romans 14:1–5)

Romans 14:384. Receiving the Weak in Faith Without Disputes (Romans 14:1–5)

Romans 14:484. Receiving the Weak in Faith Without Disputes (Romans 14:1–5); 91. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

Romans 14:584. Receiving the Weak in Faith Without Disputes (Romans 14:1–5)

Romans 14:685. Each Shall Give Account of Himself to God; Judge Not One Another (Romans 14:6–12)

Romans 14:785. Each Shall Give Account of Himself to God; Judge Not One Another (Romans 14:6–12)

Romans 14:885. Each Shall Give Account of Himself to God; Judge Not One Another (Romans 14:6–12)

Romans 14:965. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9); 85. Each Shall Give Account of Himself to God; Judge Not One Another (Romans 14:6–12); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Romans 14:1085. Each Shall Give Account of Himself to God; Judge Not One Another (Romans 14:6–12); 91. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 16. Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

Romans 14:1185. Each Shall Give Account of Himself to God; Judge Not One Another (Romans 14:6–12)

Romans 14:1285. Each Shall Give Account of Himself to God; Judge Not One Another (Romans 14:6–12)

Romans 14:1386. Put No Stumbling Block Before a Brother; the Kingdom of God Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy (Romans 14:13–18)

Romans 14:1486. Put No Stumbling Block Before a Brother; the Kingdom of God Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy (Romans 14:13–18)

Romans 14:1586. Put No Stumbling Block Before a Brother; the Kingdom of God Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy (Romans 14:13–18)

Romans 14:1686. Put No Stumbling Block Before a Brother; the Kingdom of God Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy (Romans 14:13–18)

Romans 14:1786. Put No Stumbling Block Before a Brother; the Kingdom of God Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy (Romans 14:13–18); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Romans 14:1886. Put No Stumbling Block Before a Brother; the Kingdom of God Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy (Romans 14:13–18)

Romans 14:1987. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24)

Romans 14:2087. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24)

Romans 14:2187. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24)

Romans 14:2287. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24)

Romans 14:2387. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24)

Romans 14:24–2687. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24)

Romans 14:2588. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3)

Romans 14:2688. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3)

Romans 15:187. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24); 88. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 30. Running to Obtain the Prize; Buffeting the Body (1 Corinthians 9:21–27); 31. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Romans 15:288. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); The Beginning of the Epistle (Continued) (Galatians 1:6–10)

Romans 15:388. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3)

Romans 15:489. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9); 18. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

Romans 15:5–678. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16); 89. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Romans 15:688. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 89. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9); 7. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Romans 15:788. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 89. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Romans 15:89. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Romans 15:8–989. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Romans 15:915. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Romans 15:9–1289. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

Romans 15:1388. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 90. The God of Hope Fill You With All Joy and Peace in Believing (Romans 15:13)

Romans 15:1491. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 25. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

Romans 15:14–1691. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

Romans 15:1591. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

Romans 15:1691. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 16. The Sending of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25–30)

Romans 15:1791. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

Romans 15:17–2291. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

Romans 15:18–1991. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

Romans 15:1991. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 15. Fight the Good Fight; the Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:5–8); 16. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

Romans 15:2092. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30); 20. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

Romans 15:2192. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30)

Romans 15:229. Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14); 92. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30)

Romans 15:2315. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

Romans 15:23–2492. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30); 2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Romans 15:23–2991. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

Romans 15:2419. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Romans 15:2516. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Romans 15:25–263. When and Where the Epistle Was Written; 56. The Collection for the Saints in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1–4)

Romans 15:25–2792. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30)

Romans 15:2612. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

Romans 15:277. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Romans 15:2892. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30)

Romans 15:2992. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30)

Romans 15:3092. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

Romans 15:30–3391. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

Romans 15:3193. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3)

Romans 15:3293. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3)

Romans 15:3393. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3)

Romans 16:193. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 5. The Inscription and Greeting (2 Cor. 1:1–2)

Romans 16:24. The Occasion, Motive, and Purpose of Writing; 93. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12); 20. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

Romans 16:318. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Romans 16:3–493. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3)

Romans 16:594. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Romans 16:694. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Romans 16:71. The Illumination of the Romans by Faith; 94. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Romans 16:894. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Romans 16:994. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Romans 16:1094. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Romans 16:1194. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Romans 16:1294. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Romans 16:1394. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Romans 16:1494. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Romans 16:1594. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

Romans 16:1694. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

Romans 16:1795. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24); 19. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9)

Romans 16:17–204. The Occasion, Motive, and Purpose of Writing

Romans 16:1895. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24)

Romans 16:1995. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24)

Romans 16:2095. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24)

Romans 16:2195. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 1. On Saint Timothy

Romans 16:2295. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24)

Romans 16:2395. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24); 3. The Absurdity of Such Talk Exposed (1 Corinthians 1:13–16); 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Romans 16:2495. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24)

Scripture Index (1 Corinthians)

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1:17. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

1 Corinthians 1:23. Was This Epistle Written to the Ephesians?

1 Corinthians 1:319. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19)

1 Corinthians 1:99. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

1 Corinthians 1:9–107. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10)

1 Corinthians 1:101. Exhortation to Concord and Unity of Mind (1 Corinthians 1:10); 45. Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Corinthians 1:10–161. Exhortation to Concord and Unity of Mind (1 Corinthians 1:10)

1 Corinthians 1:112. What the Dispute Consisted In (1 Corinthians 1:11–12); 45. Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3); 11. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

1 Corinthians 1:11–121. Exhortation to Concord and Unity of Mind (1 Corinthians 1:10)

1 Corinthians 1:122. What the Dispute Consisted In (1 Corinthians 1:11–12); 58. Exhortations: Stand Fast in the Faith, in Mutual Love (1 Corinthians 16:13–18)

1 Corinthians 1:133. The Absurdity of Such Talk Exposed (1 Corinthians 1:13–16)

1 Corinthians 1:13–161. Exhortation to Concord and Unity of Mind (1 Corinthians 1:10)

1 Corinthians 1:1495. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24); 3. The Absurdity of Such Talk Exposed (1 Corinthians 1:13–16)

1 Corinthians 1:153. The Absurdity of Such Talk Exposed (1 Corinthians 1:13–16)

1 Corinthians 1:163. The Absurdity of Such Talk Exposed (1 Corinthians 1:13–16); 47. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40); 58. Exhortations: Stand Fast in the Faith, in Mutual Love (1 Corinthians 16:13–18)

1 Corinthians 1:174. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21); 7. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10)

1 Corinthians 1:17–254. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21)

1 Corinthians 1:184. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21); 46. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10); 14. The Wiles of Antichrist and Whom He Deceives (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12); 3. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

1 Corinthians 1:194. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21)

1 Corinthians 1:204. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21)

1 Corinthians 1:214. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

1 Corinthians 1:22–235. God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28)

1 Corinthians 1:2310. The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17); 67. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

1 Corinthians 1:245. God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28)

1 Corinthians 1:255. God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28); 46. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10)

1 Corinthians 1:265. God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28)

1 Corinthians 1:26–314. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21)

1 Corinthians 1:27–285. God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28)

1 Corinthians 1:283. Was This Epistle Written to the Ephesians?

1 Corinthians 1:296. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5)

1 Corinthians 1:306. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Corinthians 1:316. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5)

1 Corinthians 1:3216. Purging the Christian Community of Open Sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)

1 Corinthians 2:16. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5)

1 Corinthians 2:1–54. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21)

1 Corinthians 2:26. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5); 48. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 2:36. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5); 31. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 2:46. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5)

1 Corinthians 2:56. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5)

1 Corinthians 2:65. God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28); 7. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10); 9. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

1 Corinthians 2:6–164. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21)

1 Corinthians 2:710. The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17); 7. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14)

1 Corinthians 2:87. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10); 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

1 Corinthians 2:986. Put No Stumbling Block Before a Brother; the Kingdom of God Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy (Romans 14:13–18); 7. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10); 8. The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10); 16. Stand Fast and Hold the Traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:15–17)

1 Corinthians 2:107. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10); 47. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40); 11. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

1 Corinthians 2:118. The Spiritual Man Discerns All Things; We Have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11–16); 39. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

1 Corinthians 2:128. The Spiritual Man Discerns All Things; We Have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11–16)

1 Corinthians 2:138. The Spiritual Man Discerns All Things; We Have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11–16); 9. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

1 Corinthians 2:1443. What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15); 8. The Spiritual Man Discerns All Things; We Have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11–16); 11. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

1 Corinthians 2:158. The Spiritual Man Discerns All Things; We Have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11–16); 20. To Know the Love of Christ; the Doxology (Ephesians 3:18–21); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

1 Corinthians 2:167. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10); 8. The Spiritual Man Discerns All Things; We Have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11–16); 20. To Know the Love of Christ; the Doxology (Ephesians 3:18–21)

1 Corinthians 3:19. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9); 13. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16)

1 Corinthians 3:1–32. What the Dispute Consisted In (1 Corinthians 1:11–12)

1 Corinthians 3:1–49. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

1 Corinthians 3:29. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9); 14. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2); 22. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

1 Corinthians 3:39. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

1 Corinthians 3:49. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

1 Corinthians 3:59. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

1 Corinthians 3:5–99. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

1 Corinthians 3:66. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5); 9. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9); 13. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16); 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

1 Corinthians 3:79. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

1 Corinthians 3:89. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

1 Corinthians 3:99. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9); 10. Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17); 24. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

1 Corinthians 3:1010. Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)

1 Corinthians 3:10–159. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9); 10. Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)

1 Corinthians 3:1110. Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

1 Corinthians 3:12–1310. Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)

1 Corinthians 3:14–1510. Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)

1 Corinthians 3:1648. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 10. Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

1 Corinthians 3:16–179. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9); 10. Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17); 28. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

1 Corinthians 3:1710. Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 5. “Who is in Heaven” (5.10)

1 Corinthians 3:1811. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23); 4. The Interpretation

1 Corinthians 3:18–209. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

1 Corinthians 3:1911. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

1 Corinthians 3:2011. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

1 Corinthians 3:2111. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23); 53. In What Form the Bodies Rise: the Natural and the Spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:39–44)

1 Corinthians 3:21–2220. To Know the Love of Christ; the Doxology (Ephesians 3:18–21); 6. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)

1 Corinthians 3:21–239. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

1 Corinthians 3:22–232. What the Dispute Consisted In (1 Corinthians 1:11–12); 11. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23); 6. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

1 Corinthians 4:112. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6); 18. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6)

1 Corinthians 4:1–169. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

1 Corinthians 4:1–28. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

1 Corinthians 4:1–511. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

1 Corinthians 4:212. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6)

1 Corinthians 4:312. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6); 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

1 Corinthians 4:412. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6)

1 Corinthians 4:512. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6); 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

1 Corinthians 4:612. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6); 40. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

1 Corinthians 4:6–811. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

1 Corinthians 4:712. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6); 13. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

1 Corinthians 4:813. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16)

1 Corinthians 4:993. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 13. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5); 6. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

1 Corinthians 4:9–1311. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

1 Corinthians 4:1013. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16)

1 Corinthians 4:1129. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20)

1 Corinthians 4:11–1213. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16)

1 Corinthians 4:1213. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

1 Corinthians 4:12–1313. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16); 18. On Giving Thanks to God for All Things at All Times (Verse 2)

1 Corinthians 4:1313. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16); 32. Nearness and Consolation in Sorrows (Verse 19)

1 Corinthians 4:1413. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16)

1 Corinthians 4:14–1611. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

1 Corinthians 4:1513. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

1 Corinthians 4:1613. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16)

1 Corinthians 4:1714. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21); 57. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 1. On Saint Timothy

1 Corinthians 4:17–211. Exhortation to Concord and Unity of Mind (1 Corinthians 1:10)

1 Corinthians 4:1814. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21)

1 Corinthians 4:18–2135. In Person I Can Be Stern, as in My Letters (2 Cor. 10:1–5)

1 Corinthians 4:1957. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12)

1 Corinthians 4:19–2014. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21)

1 Corinthians 4:2114. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21); 33. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

1 Corinthians 4:3356. The Collection for the Saints in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1–4)

1 Corinthians 5:115. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8)

1 Corinthians 5:1–215. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8)

1 Corinthians 5:1–815. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8)

1 Corinthians 5:214. The Catalogue of Iniquity; They Who Do Such Things Are Worthy of Death (Romans 1:29–32); 15. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8); 28. Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

1 Corinthians 5:315. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8); 45. Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3)

1 Corinthians 5:3–515. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8); 12. The Pardon of the Penitent Offender (2 Cor. 2:5–11)

1 Corinthians 5:415. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8)

1 Corinthians 5:4–57. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

1 Corinthians 5:515. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8); 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

1 Corinthians 5:615. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8); 12. The Pardon of the Penitent Offender (2 Cor. 2:5–11); 28. Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

1 Corinthians 5:715. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8)

1 Corinthians 5:815. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8); 28. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 5:916. Purging the Christian Community of Open Sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)

1 Corinthians 5:9–1315. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8)

1 Corinthians 5:1012. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6); 16. Purging the Christian Community of Open Sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9–13); 23. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24); 19. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9)

1 Corinthians 5:1116. Purging the Christian Community of Open Sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9–13); 19. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9); 20. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15); 7. Preface—Part 2 (Titus 1:1–4)

1 Corinthians 5:1216. Purging the Christian Community of Open Sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)

1 Corinthians 5:1316. Purging the Christian Community of Open Sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)

1 Corinthians 6:117. The Rebuke for Lawsuits Before Unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:1–6)

1 Corinthians 6:217. The Rebuke for Lawsuits Before Unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:1–6)

1 Corinthians 6:317. The Rebuke for Lawsuits Before Unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:1–6)

1 Corinthians 6:417. The Rebuke for Lawsuits Before Unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:1–6)

1 Corinthians 6:517. The Rebuke for Lawsuits Before Unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:1–6)

1 Corinthians 6:617. The Rebuke for Lawsuits Before Unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:1–6)

1 Corinthians 6:779. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19)

1 Corinthians 6:7–818. There Should Be No Lawsuits at All; the Unrighteous Shall Not Inherit (1 Corinthians 6:7–11)

1 Corinthians 6:929. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

1 Corinthians 6:9–1018. There Should Be No Lawsuits at All; the Unrighteous Shall Not Inherit (1 Corinthians 6:7–11)

1 Corinthians 6:9–118. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.17)

1 Corinthians 6:1118. There Should Be No Lawsuits at All; the Unrighteous Shall Not Inherit (1 Corinthians 6:7–11); 20. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8)

1 Corinthians 6:1219. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19)

1 Corinthians 6:1319. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19)

1 Corinthians 6:1419. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19)

1 Corinthians 6:1519. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19); 12. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

1 Corinthians 6:15–2010. Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)

1 Corinthians 6:1619. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19)

1 Corinthians 6:1765. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9); 19. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19); 32. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

1 Corinthians 6:17–1926. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 Corinthians 6:1819. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19)

1 Corinthians 6:18–1928. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

1 Corinthians 6:1948. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 49. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15); 19. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19); 23. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Corinthians 6:19–206. Lessons From This Invocation (6.1)

1 Corinthians 6:2077. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 19. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19); 20. Glorify God in Your Bodies and in Your Souls (1 Corinthians 6:20); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14)

1 Corinthians 7:121. The General Law of Marriage (1 Corinthians 7:1–2)

1 Corinthians 7:221. The General Law of Marriage (1 Corinthians 7:1–2)

1 Corinthians 7:322. Counsel on the Marriage Bed; to the Unmarried and Widows (1 Corinthians 7:3–9)

1 Corinthians 7:422. Counsel on the Marriage Bed; to the Unmarried and Widows (1 Corinthians 7:3–9)

1 Corinthians 7:522. Counsel on the Marriage Bed; to the Unmarried and Widows (1 Corinthians 7:3–9); 24. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

1 Corinthians 7:622. Counsel on the Marriage Bed; to the Unmarried and Widows (1 Corinthians 7:3–9)

1 Corinthians 7:722. Counsel on the Marriage Bed; to the Unmarried and Widows (1 Corinthians 7:3–9); 12. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

1 Corinthians 7:822. Counsel on the Marriage Bed; to the Unmarried and Widows (1 Corinthians 7:3–9); 20. A Brief Admonition to Certain Persons (Philippians 4:2–3)

1 Corinthians 7:922. Counsel on the Marriage Bed; to the Unmarried and Widows (1 Corinthians 7:3–9)

1 Corinthians 7:10–1123. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:12–1323. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:12–1623. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:12–2423. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:1423. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:1523. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24); 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

1 Corinthians 7:1694. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16); 23. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:1723. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24); 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

1 Corinthians 7:17–2423. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:1823. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:1923. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:2023. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:2123. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24); Introduction to the Epistle

1 Corinthians 7:2223. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:2349. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15); 23. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:2423. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

1 Corinthians 7:2524. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:25–2824. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:25–3524. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:2624. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:2724. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:2824. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:2982. Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12); 24. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:29–3124. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:30–3124. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:3151. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23); 74. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); 27. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13); 4. The Interpretation

1 Corinthians 7:32–3324. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:32–3524. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:3424. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:3524. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35); 20. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

1 Corinthians 7:3625. The Application of These Instructions (1 Corinthians 7:36–40)

1 Corinthians 7:36–3825. The Application of These Instructions (1 Corinthians 7:36–40)

1 Corinthians 7:36–4024. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

1 Corinthians 7:3725. The Application of These Instructions (1 Corinthians 7:36–40)

1 Corinthians 7:3825. The Application of These Instructions (1 Corinthians 7:36–40)

1 Corinthians 7:3925. The Application of These Instructions (1 Corinthians 7:36–40)

1 Corinthians 7:39–4025. The Application of These Instructions (1 Corinthians 7:36–40)

1 Corinthians 7:4023. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24); 25. The Application of These Instructions (1 Corinthians 7:36–40); 14. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

1 Corinthians 8:126. How the Stumbling Arises: Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1–6)

1 Corinthians 8:1–626. How the Stumbling Arises: Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1–6)

1 Corinthians 8:226. How the Stumbling Arises: Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1–6)

1 Corinthians 8:326. How the Stumbling Arises: Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1–6)

1 Corinthians 8:426. How the Stumbling Arises: Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1–6)

1 Corinthians 8:4–611. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

1 Corinthians 8:526. How the Stumbling Arises: Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1–6)

1 Corinthians 8:626. How the Stumbling Arises: Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1–6); 9. One God, One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:3–6); 5. Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18)

1 Corinthians 8:727. Take Heed Lest Your Liberty Become a Stumbling Block (1 Corinthians 8:7–13)

1 Corinthians 8:7–1326. How the Stumbling Arises: Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1–6)

1 Corinthians 8:884. Receiving the Weak in Faith Without Disputes (Romans 14:1–5); 86. Put No Stumbling Block Before a Brother; the Kingdom of God Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy (Romans 14:13–18); 27. Take Heed Lest Your Liberty Become a Stumbling Block (1 Corinthians 8:7–13)

1 Corinthians 8:927. Take Heed Lest Your Liberty Become a Stumbling Block (1 Corinthians 8:7–13); 29. Charges and Directions (Colossians 4:16–17)

1 Corinthians 8:9–1286. Put No Stumbling Block Before a Brother; the Kingdom of God Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy (Romans 14:13–18)

1 Corinthians 8:1027. Take Heed Lest Your Liberty Become a Stumbling Block (1 Corinthians 8:7–13)

1 Corinthians 8:1127. Take Heed Lest Your Liberty Become a Stumbling Block (1 Corinthians 8:7–13)

1 Corinthians 8:1227. Take Heed Lest Your Liberty Become a Stumbling Block (1 Corinthians 8:7–13)

1 Corinthians 8:1327. Take Heed Lest Your Liberty Become a Stumbling Block (1 Corinthians 8:7–13)

1 Corinthians 98. The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

1 Corinthians 9:1–228. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:1–328. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:213. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16); 14. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

1 Corinthians 9:2–911. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

1 Corinthians 9:328. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:4–1428. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:4–628. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:513. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

1 Corinthians 9:739. The Wages of Sin Is Death, but the Gift of God Is Eternal Life (Romans 6:22–7:2); 28. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:828. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:928. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:1028. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:1128. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:1229. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 39. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20); 44. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

1 Corinthians 9:1329. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 8. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

1 Corinthians 9:1429. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8); 19. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9)

1 Corinthians 9:1529. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 38. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9); 44. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

1 Corinthians 9:15–1828. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:1629. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 22. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10); 7. Preface—Part 2 (Titus 1:1–4)

1 Corinthians 9:16–176. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

1 Corinthians 9:1729. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20)

1 Corinthians 9:1829. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 44. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

1 Corinthians 9:1929. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20)

1 Corinthians 9:19–221. On Saint Timothy

1 Corinthians 9:19–2328. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:2029. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20)

1 Corinthians 9:2130. Running to Obtain the Prize; Buffeting the Body (1 Corinthians 9:21–27); 26. The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20)

1 Corinthians 9:2230. Running to Obtain the Prize; Buffeting the Body (1 Corinthians 9:21–27); The Beginning of the Epistle (Continued) (Galatians 1:6–10); 17. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14); 26. The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20); 3. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

1 Corinthians 9:2330. Running to Obtain the Prize; Buffeting the Body (1 Corinthians 9:21–27)

1 Corinthians 9:2430. Running to Obtain the Prize; Buffeting the Body (1 Corinthians 9:21–27)

1 Corinthians 9:24–2728. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

1 Corinthians 9:2587. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24); 30. Running to Obtain the Prize; Buffeting the Body (1 Corinthians 9:21–27); 14. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 Corinthians 9:25–2715. In the Latter Times Some Shall Depart From the Faith (1 Timothy 4:1–2)

1 Corinthians 9:2630. Running to Obtain the Prize; Buffeting the Body (1 Corinthians 9:21–27); 14. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2); 14. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18); 17. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

1 Corinthians 9:26–2730. Running to Obtain the Prize; Buffeting the Body (1 Corinthians 9:21–27)

1 Corinthians 9:2730. Running to Obtain the Prize; Buffeting the Body (1 Corinthians 9:21–27); 31. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13); 14. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18); 18. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15); 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20); 22. Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25)

1 Corinthians 10:114. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

1 Corinthians 10:1–231. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:1–431. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:3–431. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:531. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:5–1331. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:631. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:6–1031. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:731. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:831. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:931. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:9–1031. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:1031. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:1131. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:1231. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13); 34. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14); 18. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15); 16. Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

1 Corinthians 10:1338. Freed From Sin, Servants of Righteousness (Romans 6:17–20); 31. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13); 23. Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7); 33. Deliverance From Sorrows (Verse 20); 13. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.9); 14. The Seventh Petition: “But Deliver Us From the Evil One” (14.4)

1 Corinthians 10:1431. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:1532. The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

1 Corinthians 10:1632. The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

1 Corinthians 10:1732. The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

1 Corinthians 10:1832. The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

1 Corinthians 10:18–1931. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:1932. The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

1 Corinthians 10:2032. The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

1 Corinthians 10:2132. The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

1 Corinthians 10:2232. The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

1 Corinthians 10:2333. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1)

1 Corinthians 10:23–3331. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

1 Corinthians 10:2488. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 33. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1); The Beginning of the Epistle (Continued) (Galatians 1:6–10)

1 Corinthians 10:25–2633. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1)

1 Corinthians 10:2733. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1)

1 Corinthians 10:2833. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1)

1 Corinthians 10:2933. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1)

1 Corinthians 10:3033. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1)

1 Corinthians 10:3174. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); 77. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 79. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19); 83. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14); 33. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1); 23. The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17); 19. On Praising God “at All Times” (Verse 2)

1 Corinthians 10:3233. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1); 56. The Collection for the Saints in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1–4)

1 Corinthians 10:32–3379. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19); 17. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

1 Corinthians 10:3388. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 33. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1); The Beginning of the Epistle (Continued) (Galatians 1:6–10)

1 Corinthians 11:133. How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1); 26. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26); 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13); 19. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.7)

1 Corinthians 11:291. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 34. The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6); 36. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

1 Corinthians 11:2–1634. The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6)

1 Corinthians 11:2–634. The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6)

1 Corinthians 11:334. The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6)

1 Corinthians 11:4–534. The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6)

1 Corinthians 11:634. The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6)

1 Corinthians 11:7–1234. The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6)

1 Corinthians 11:7–835. The Order of Creation and Common Sense on the Covering of the Head (1 Corinthians 11:7–16)

1 Corinthians 11:935. The Order of Creation and Common Sense on the Covering of the Head (1 Corinthians 11:7–16); 11. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Corinthians 11:1035. The Order of Creation and Common Sense on the Covering of the Head (1 Corinthians 11:7–16)

1 Corinthians 11:11–1235. The Order of Creation and Common Sense on the Covering of the Head (1 Corinthians 11:7–16)

1 Corinthians 11:1335. The Order of Creation and Common Sense on the Covering of the Head (1 Corinthians 11:7–16)

1 Corinthians 11:13–1634. The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6)

1 Corinthians 11:14–1535. The Order of Creation and Common Sense on the Covering of the Head (1 Corinthians 11:7–16)

1 Corinthians 11:1635. The Order of Creation and Common Sense on the Covering of the Head (1 Corinthians 11:7–16); 24. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8); 28. Keep That Which Is Committed to Your Trust (1 Timothy 6:20–21)

1 Corinthians 11:1736. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

1 Corinthians 11:17–2236. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

1 Corinthians 11:17–3434. The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6)

1 Corinthians 11:1836. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

1 Corinthians 11:1936. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

1 Corinthians 11:2036. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

1 Corinthians 11:2136. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

1 Corinthians 11:2236. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

1 Corinthians 11:2337. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32); 11. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

1 Corinthians 11:23–2636. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22); 37. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

1 Corinthians 11:2437. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

1 Corinthians 11:2537. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

1 Corinthians 11:2637. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

1 Corinthians 11:2737. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

1 Corinthians 11:27–3236. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22); 37. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

1 Corinthians 11:2837. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

1 Corinthians 11:2937. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

1 Corinthians 11:3037. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

1 Corinthians 11:3137. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

1 Corinthians 11:3211. No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20); 37. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32); 6. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

1 Corinthians 11:3338. Ordinances Concerning the Love-Feasts (1 Corinthians 11:33–34)

1 Corinthians 11:33–3436. The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

1 Corinthians 11:3438. Ordinances Concerning the Love-Feasts (1 Corinthians 11:33–34)

1 Corinthians 12:139. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

1 Corinthians 12:1–1139. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

1 Corinthians 12:1–339. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

1 Corinthians 12:239. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

1 Corinthians 12:339. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11); 23. The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17)

1 Corinthians 12:47. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

1 Corinthians 12:4–639. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

1 Corinthians 12:647. Conclusion: Final Exhortations and the Grace (2 Cor. 13:11–13); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

1 Corinthians 12:739. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

1 Corinthians 12:7–1175. How It Is Expressed in Life: The Gifts of Grace and the Members of One Body (Romans 12:3–6)

1 Corinthians 12:8–1039. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

1 Corinthians 12:8–1139. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

1 Corinthians 12:1026. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

1 Corinthians 12:1175. How It Is Expressed in Life: The Gifts of Grace and the Members of One Body (Romans 12:3–6); 39. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11); 47. Conclusion: Final Exhortations and the Grace (2 Cor. 13:11–13)

1 Corinthians 12:1240. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26)

1 Corinthians 12:12–2639. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

1 Corinthians 12:1340. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26)

1 Corinthians 12:1440. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26)

1 Corinthians 12:15–1640. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26)

1 Corinthians 12:1740. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26)

1 Corinthians 12:1840. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26); 22. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

1 Corinthians 12:19–2040. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26); 22. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

1 Corinthians 12:2140. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26)

1 Corinthians 12:22–2440. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26)

1 Corinthians 12:24–2540. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26)

1 Corinthians 12:2640. The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26)

1 Corinthians 12:2741. The Ordering of the Members in the Church; Seek the Greater Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:27–31)

1 Corinthians 12:27–3139. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

1 Corinthians 12:2841. The Ordering of the Members in the Church; Seek the Greater Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:27–31); 16. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 23. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

1 Corinthians 12:29–3041. The Ordering of the Members in the Church; Seek the Greater Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:27–31)

1 Corinthians 12:3175. How It Is Expressed in Life: The Gifts of Grace and the Members of One Body (Romans 12:3–6); 41. The Ordering of the Members in the Church; Seek the Greater Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:27–31)

1 Corinthians 13:142. Love, the More Excellent Way, Surpassing All Gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1–3)

1 Corinthians 13:239. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11); 42. Love, the More Excellent Way, Surpassing All Gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1–3); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

1 Corinthians 13:342. Love, the More Excellent Way, Surpassing All Gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1–3); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.3)

1 Corinthians 13:425. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

1 Corinthians 13:4–628. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

1 Corinthians 13:4–743. Love, the Fullness of the Virtues (1 Corinthians 13:4–7); 12. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

1 Corinthians 13:4–8The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25)

1 Corinthians 13:526. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 Corinthians 13:643. Love, the Fullness of the Virtues (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)

1 Corinthians 13:743. Love, the Fullness of the Virtues (1 Corinthians 13:4–7); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 Corinthians 13:843. Love, the Fullness of the Virtues (1 Corinthians 13:4–7); 44. Love Abides Forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13)

1 Corinthians 13:9–1044. Love Abides Forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13)

1 Corinthians 13:1114. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21); 44. Love Abides Forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13)

1 Corinthians 13:1244. Love Abides Forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13); 25. Turning Back to the Weak Elements: Observing Days and Seasons (Galatians 4:8–10); 14. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 15. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14); 9. To Live Is Christ, and to Die Is Gain (Philippians 1:21–26); 6. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4); 25. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

1 Corinthians 13:1344. Love Abides Forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

1 Corinthians 13:1455. The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58)

1 Corinthians 14:145. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:1–2545. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:1–545. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:245. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:345. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

1 Corinthians 14:445. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:545. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:645. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:6–1145. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:745. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:845. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:945. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:1045. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:1145. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:1246. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:12–1945. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:1346. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:1446. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:1546. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:1646. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:1746. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:1846. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:1946. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:2045. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11); 46. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:2146. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:21–2245. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:2246. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:2346. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

1 Corinthians 14:23–2545. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:24–2546. Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25); 30. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

1 Corinthians 14:2647. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40); 30. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19); 23. The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17)

1 Corinthians 14:26–3845. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

1 Corinthians 14:27–2847. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:2941. The Ordering of the Members in the Church; Seek the Greater Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:27–31); 47. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:29–3347. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:3047. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:3147. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:3247. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:3347. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:3447. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:34–3647. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:3547. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40); 11. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Corinthians 14:3647. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:3747. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:37–3847. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:3847. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:39–4045. The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11); 47. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

1 Corinthians 14:4074. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); 10. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

1 Corinthians 15:111. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

1 Corinthians 15:1–1148. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:1–248. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:1–3448. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:348. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11); 11. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

1 Corinthians 15:448. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:548. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:648. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:748. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:848. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11); 57. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

1 Corinthians 15:948. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12); 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

1 Corinthians 15:1061. Shall the Thing Formed Say to Him That Formed It? The Vessels of Mercy and of Wrath (Romans 9:20–22); 91. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 48. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11); 22. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 16. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28); 5. The Thessalonians’ Praiseworthy Qualities (2 Thessalonians 1:3–4); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

1 Corinthians 15:10–1148. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:1148. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:1248. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11); 49. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

1 Corinthians 15:12–1949. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

1 Corinthians 15:12–3248. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:1349. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

1 Corinthians 15:13–148. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14–19)

1 Corinthians 15:1465. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9); 49. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22); 11. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

1 Corinthians 15:157. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

1 Corinthians 15:15–1649. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

1 Corinthians 15:16–178. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14–19)

1 Corinthians 15:1749. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

1 Corinthians 15:1849. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

1 Corinthians 15:1949. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22); 6. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

1 Corinthians 15:2049. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

1 Corinthians 15:20–2349. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

1 Corinthians 15:2152. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)

1 Corinthians 15:21–2249. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

1 Corinthians 15:2212. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.12)

1 Corinthians 15:2348. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 50. Christ the Firstfruits; the End, When He Delivers Up the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:23–28); 59. Greetings and the Apostle’s Final Word and Blessing (1 Corinthians 16:19–24); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

1 Corinthians 15:2450. Christ the Firstfruits; the End, When He Delivers Up the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:23–28); 6. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2); 7. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

1 Corinthians 15:24–2849. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

1 Corinthians 15:2550. Christ the Firstfruits; the End, When He Delivers Up the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:23–28); 19. Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1)

1 Corinthians 15:2637. Present Yourselves to God as Instruments of Righteousness (Romans 6:13–16); 50. Christ the Firstfruits; the End, When He Delivers Up the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:23–28)

1 Corinthians 15:26–2712. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

1 Corinthians 15:2750. Christ the Firstfruits; the End, When He Delivers Up the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:23–28)

1 Corinthians 15:2858. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9); 50. Christ the Firstfruits; the End, When He Delivers Up the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:23–28); 6. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2); 12. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

1 Corinthians 15:2950. Christ the Firstfruits; the End, When He Delivers Up the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:23–28); 51. Baptism for the Dead; Dying Daily; a Brief Exhortation (1 Corinthians 15:29–34)

1 Corinthians 15:3051. Baptism for the Dead; Dying Daily; a Brief Exhortation (1 Corinthians 15:29–34)

1 Corinthians 15:30–3250. Christ the Firstfruits; the End, When He Delivers Up the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:23–28)

1 Corinthians 15:3151. Baptism for the Dead; Dying Daily; a Brief Exhortation (1 Corinthians 15:29–34); 19. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13); 40. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26); 17. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

1 Corinthians 15:3251. Baptism for the Dead; Dying Daily; a Brief Exhortation (1 Corinthians 15:29–34); 7. The Prayers of Believers Share in Deliverance From Troubles (2 Cor. 1:8–11); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17); 25. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21); 19. Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1)

1 Corinthians 15:3352. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)

1 Corinthians 15:33–3448. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:3452. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)

1 Corinthians 15:3548. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11); 52. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)

1 Corinthians 15:35–5348. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:3652. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)

1 Corinthians 15:36–3852. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)

1 Corinthians 15:37–3852. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)

1 Corinthians 15:3953. In What Form the Bodies Rise: the Natural and the Spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:39–44)

1 Corinthians 15:39–4153. In What Form the Bodies Rise: the Natural and the Spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:39–44)

1 Corinthians 15:39–4453. In What Form the Bodies Rise: the Natural and the Spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:39–44)

1 Corinthians 15:39–5052. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)

1 Corinthians 15:4053. In What Form the Bodies Rise: the Natural and the Spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:39–44)

1 Corinthians 15:4153. In What Form the Bodies Rise: the Natural and the Spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:39–44)

1 Corinthians 15:42–4453. In What Form the Bodies Rise: the Natural and the Spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:39–44)

1 Corinthians 15:4554. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50)

1 Corinthians 15:45–5053. In What Form the Bodies Rise: the Natural and the Spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:39–44)

1 Corinthians 15:4654. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50)

1 Corinthians 15:4754. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50)

1 Corinthians 15:4853. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29); 54. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50)

1 Corinthians 15:4954. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50); 5. “Who is in Heaven” (5.8)

1 Corinthians 15:5054. The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50)

1 Corinthians 15:5172. All Israel Shall Be Saved (Romans 11:23–28); 55. The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15); 14. I Charge You: Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1–4)

1 Corinthians 15:51–5221. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15); 22. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

1 Corinthians 15:51–5352. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)

1 Corinthians 15:5255. The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58); 22. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

1 Corinthians 15:5355. The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58)

1 Corinthians 15:5451. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23); 55. The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58)

1 Corinthians 15:54–5848. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

1 Corinthians 15:5555. The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58)

1 Corinthians 15:5655. The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58)

1 Corinthians 15:5755. The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58)

1 Corinthians 15:5855. The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58); 28. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

1 Corinthians 16:156. The Collection for the Saints in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1–4); 16. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

1 Corinthians 16:256. The Collection for the Saints in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1–4)

1 Corinthians 16:356. The Collection for the Saints in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1–4); 31. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

1 Corinthians 16:456. The Collection for the Saints in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1–4)

1 Corinthians 16:53. When and Where the Epistle Was Written; 57. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12); 9. That the Change of Plan Should Not Be Interpreted Unfavorably (2 Cor. 1:15–17)

1 Corinthians 16:692. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30); 57. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12)

1 Corinthians 16:757. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12)

1 Corinthians 16:857. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12)

1 Corinthians 16:957. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12); 7. The Prayers of Believers Share in Deliverance From Troubles (2 Cor. 1:8–11)

1 Corinthians 16:1057. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 1. On Saint Timothy

1 Corinthians 16:1157. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12); 19. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

1 Corinthians 16:1257. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12)

1 Corinthians 16:1334. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14); 28. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

1 Corinthians 16:13–1458. Exhortations: Stand Fast in the Faith, in Mutual Love (1 Corinthians 16:13–18)

1 Corinthians 16:1558. Exhortations: Stand Fast in the Faith, in Mutual Love (1 Corinthians 16:13–18); 25. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

1 Corinthians 16:15–173. The Absurdity of Such Talk Exposed (1 Corinthians 1:13–16)

1 Corinthians 16:163. The Absurdity of Such Talk Exposed (1 Corinthians 1:13–16); 58. Exhortations: Stand Fast in the Faith, in Mutual Love (1 Corinthians 16:13–18)

1 Corinthians 16:1714. Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21); 58. Exhortations: Stand Fast in the Faith, in Mutual Love (1 Corinthians 16:13–18)

1 Corinthians 16:1858. Exhortations: Stand Fast in the Faith, in Mutual Love (1 Corinthians 16:13–18)

1 Corinthians 16:1959. Greetings and the Apostle’s Final Word and Blessing (1 Corinthians 16:19–24)

1 Corinthians 16:2059. Greetings and the Apostle’s Final Word and Blessing (1 Corinthians 16:19–24); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

1 Corinthians 16:2159. Greetings and the Apostle’s Final Word and Blessing (1 Corinthians 16:19–24)

1 Corinthians 16:2257. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4); 94. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16); 59. Greetings and the Apostle’s Final Word and Blessing (1 Corinthians 16:19–24)

1 Corinthians 16:23–2459. Greetings and the Apostle’s Final Word and Blessing (1 Corinthians 16:19–24)

1 Corinthians 19:2257. Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12)

1 Corinthians 20:2448. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

Scripture Index (2 Corinthians–Galatians)

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 1:17. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 3. Was This Epistle Written to the Ephesians?; 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15); 5. The Thessalonians’ Praiseworthy Qualities (2 Thessalonians 1:3–4)

2 Corinthians 1:1–112. Content of the Epistle

2 Corinthians 1:1–25. The Inscription and Greeting (2 Cor. 1:1–2)

2 Corinthians 1:311. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

2 Corinthians 1:3–116. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

2 Corinthians 1:3–46. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

2 Corinthians 1:3–76. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

2 Corinthians 1:56. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7); 43. The Thorn in the Flesh; Strength Made Perfect in Weakness (2 Cor. 12:6–10); 13. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29)

2 Corinthians 1:6–76. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

2 Corinthians 1:87. The Prayers of Believers Share in Deliverance From Troubles (2 Cor. 1:8–11); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

2 Corinthians 1:8–1025. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

2 Corinthians 1:8–116. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

2 Corinthians 1:97. The Prayers of Believers Share in Deliverance From Troubles (2 Cor. 1:8–11); 19. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13); 8. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

2 Corinthians 1:107. The Prayers of Believers Share in Deliverance From Troubles (2 Cor. 1:8–11); 8. The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

2 Corinthians 1:117. The Prayers of Believers Share in Deliverance From Troubles (2 Cor. 1:8–11)

2 Corinthians 1:128. The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

2 Corinthians 1:12–148. The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

2 Corinthians 1:1338. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9)

2 Corinthians 1:13–148. The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

2 Corinthians 1:1415. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20); 23. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

2 Corinthians 1:159. That the Change of Plan Should Not Be Interpreted Unfavorably (2 Cor. 1:15–17)

2 Corinthians 1:15–178. The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

2 Corinthians 1:161. Reason for Writing; 9. That the Change of Plan Should Not Be Interpreted Unfavorably (2 Cor. 1:15–17)

2 Corinthians 1:171. Reason for Writing; 9. That the Change of Plan Should Not Be Interpreted Unfavorably (2 Cor. 1:15–17)

2 Corinthians 1:17–221. Reason for Writing

2 Corinthians 1:1810. This Change Casts No Shadow on the Unchangeableness of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 1:18–22)

2 Corinthians 1:18–228. The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

2 Corinthians 1:1910. This Change Casts No Shadow on the Unchangeableness of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 1:18–22); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

2 Corinthians 1:2010. This Change Casts No Shadow on the Unchangeableness of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 1:18–22); 22. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

2 Corinthians 1:21–2210. This Change Casts No Shadow on the Unchangeableness of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 1:18–22)

2 Corinthians 1:2216. Stand Fast and Hold the Traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:15–17)

2 Corinthians 1:2311. The Real Reason for the Change of Travel Plans (2 Cor. 1:23–2:4); 13. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

2 Corinthians 1:23–248. The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

2 Corinthians 1:2411. The Real Reason for the Change of Travel Plans (2 Cor. 1:23–2:4)

2 Corinthians 2:111. The Real Reason for the Change of Travel Plans (2 Cor. 1:23–2:4)

2 Corinthians 2:1–118. The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

2 Corinthians 2:211. The Real Reason for the Change of Travel Plans (2 Cor. 1:23–2:4)

2 Corinthians 2:311. The Real Reason for the Change of Travel Plans (2 Cor. 1:23–2:4)

2 Corinthians 2:411. The Real Reason for the Change of Travel Plans (2 Cor. 1:23–2:4); 27. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

2 Corinthians 2:512. The Pardon of the Penitent Offender (2 Cor. 2:5–11)

2 Corinthians 2:5–81. Reason for Writing

2 Corinthians 2:612. The Pardon of the Penitent Offender (2 Cor. 2:5–11)

2 Corinthians 2:712. The Pardon of the Penitent Offender (2 Cor. 2:5–11)

2 Corinthians 2:812. The Pardon of the Penitent Offender (2 Cor. 2:5–11)

2 Corinthians 2:912. The Pardon of the Penitent Offender (2 Cor. 2:5–11)

2 Corinthians 2:1012. The Pardon of the Penitent Offender (2 Cor. 2:5–11)

2 Corinthians 2:1148. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11); 12. The Pardon of the Penitent Offender (2 Cor. 2:5–11)

2 Corinthians 2:121. Reason for Writing; 25. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4)

2 Corinthians 2:12–1313. On the Height of Christian Revelation, or Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:12–13); 27. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

2 Corinthians 2:131. Reason for Writing; 6. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

2 Corinthians 2:141. Reason for Writing; 2. Content of the Epistle; 14. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

2 Corinthians 2:14–1614. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

2 Corinthians 2:1514. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3); 14. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18)

2 Corinthians 2:15–1614. The Wiles of Antichrist and Whom He Deceives (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

2 Corinthians 2:1614. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3); 18. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6)

2 Corinthians 2:1714. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3); 17. The Veil Removed in Christ; Beholding the Glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15–4:2); 22. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15); 4. The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

2 Corinthians 3:114. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3); 17. The Veil Removed in Christ; Beholding the Glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15–4:2)

2 Corinthians 3:214. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3); 14. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18)

2 Corinthians 3:314. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

2 Corinthians 3:4–1114. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

2 Corinthians 3:4–515. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8)

2 Corinthians 3:641. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8); 15. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8)

2 Corinthians 3:7–815. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8)

2 Corinthians 3:916. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

2 Corinthians 3:9–1015. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8)

2 Corinthians 3:1016. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

2 Corinthians 3:1115. The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8); 16. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

2 Corinthians 3:1216. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

2 Corinthians 3:12–1814. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

2 Corinthians 3:1316. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

2 Corinthians 3:1416. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

2 Corinthians 3:15–1617. The Veil Removed in Christ; Beholding the Glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15–4:2)

2 Corinthians 3:1717. The Veil Removed in Christ; Beholding the Glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15–4:2)

2 Corinthians 3:1817. The Veil Removed in Christ; Beholding the Glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15–4:2); 15. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10)

2 Corinthians 4:117. The Veil Removed in Christ; Beholding the Glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15–4:2)

2 Corinthians 4:1–314. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

2 Corinthians 4:1–614. The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

2 Corinthians 4:217. The Veil Removed in Christ; Beholding the Glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15–4:2); 18. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6)

2 Corinthians 4:318. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6)

2 Corinthians 4:418. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6); 4. The Interpretation

2 Corinthians 4:518. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6); 32. Nearness and Consolation in Sorrows (Verse 19)

2 Corinthians 4:618. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6); 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

2 Corinthians 4:719. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

2 Corinthians 4:7–1219. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

2 Corinthians 4:833. Deliverance From Sorrows (Verse 20)

2 Corinthians 4:8–919. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

2 Corinthians 4:1019. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13); 18. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

2 Corinthians 4:1119. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

2 Corinthians 4:1219. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

2 Corinthians 4:1319. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

2 Corinthians 4:13–1519. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

2 Corinthians 4:1420. The Renewal of the Inward Man; the Eternal Weight of Glory (2 Cor. 4:14–5:1); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

2 Corinthians 4:1520. The Renewal of the Inward Man; the Eternal Weight of Glory (2 Cor. 4:14–5:1)

2 Corinthians 4:1620. The Renewal of the Inward Man; the Eternal Weight of Glory (2 Cor. 4:14–5:1)

2 Corinthians 4:16–1819. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

2 Corinthians 4:1750. The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19); 20. The Renewal of the Inward Man; the Eternal Weight of Glory (2 Cor. 4:14–5:1); 9. The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3)

2 Corinthians 4:1820. The Renewal of the Inward Man; the Eternal Weight of Glory (2 Cor. 4:14–5:1)

2 Corinthians 5:120. The Renewal of the Inward Man; the Eternal Weight of Glory (2 Cor. 4:14–5:1)

2 Corinthians 5:1–519. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

2 Corinthians 5:2–321. The Earthly Tent and the Heavenly Dwelling (2 Cor. 5:2–10)

2 Corinthians 5:421. The Earthly Tent and the Heavenly Dwelling (2 Cor. 5:2–10)

2 Corinthians 5:521. The Earthly Tent and the Heavenly Dwelling (2 Cor. 5:2–10)

2 Corinthians 5:5–1019. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

2 Corinthians 5:6–821. The Earthly Tent and the Heavenly Dwelling (2 Cor. 5:2–10)

2 Corinthians 5:714. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

2 Corinthians 5:812. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

2 Corinthians 5:921. The Earthly Tent and the Heavenly Dwelling (2 Cor. 5:2–10); 20. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

2 Corinthians 5:1021. The Earthly Tent and the Heavenly Dwelling (2 Cor. 5:2–10); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15); 7. Subjects for Reflection

2 Corinthians 5:1122. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15); 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

2 Corinthians 5:11–1322. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15)

2 Corinthians 5:11–1822. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15)

2 Corinthians 5:1222. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15)

2 Corinthians 5:1322. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15)

2 Corinthians 5:1422. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

2 Corinthians 5:14–1822. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15)

2 Corinthians 5:1549. The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15); 22. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

2 Corinthians 5:1623. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21)

2 Corinthians 5:1723. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); 15. Titus Not Compelled to Be Circumcised; the False Brethren (Galatians 2:3–5); 14. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17); 25. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

2 Corinthians 5:1823. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21)

2 Corinthians 5:1923. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21)

2 Corinthians 5:2055. Who Shall Separate Us From the Love of Christ? (Romans 8:33–35); 67. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19); 83. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14); 23. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); 6. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2); 13. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29); 22. Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15); 11. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

2 Corinthians 5:2123. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

2 Corinthians 6:124. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

2 Corinthians 6:1–282. Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12)

2 Corinthians 6:224. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

2 Corinthians 6:3–1022. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15)

2 Corinthians 6:3–424. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

2 Corinthians 6:424. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

2 Corinthians 6:524. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

2 Corinthians 6:624. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6); 24. Growing Up Into Christ the Head (Ephesians 4:14–16)

2 Corinthians 6:725. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

2 Corinthians 6:825. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

2 Corinthians 6:925. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

2 Corinthians 6:1025. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13); 35. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

2 Corinthians 6:1125. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

2 Corinthians 6:11–1227. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

2 Corinthians 6:11–1425. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

2 Corinthians 6:1225. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

2 Corinthians 6:12–1327. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

2 Corinthians 6:1325. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

2 Corinthians 6:1426. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1); 28. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

2 Corinthians 6:14–171. Reason for Writing

2 Corinthians 6:1526. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1)

2 Corinthians 6:1648. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 26. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1); 16. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16); 5. “Who is in Heaven” (5.8)

2 Corinthians 6:16–1719. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

2 Corinthians 6:1726. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1)

2 Corinthians 6:1826. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1)

2 Corinthians 7:126. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1); 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13); 27. The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24)

2 Corinthians 7:227. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

2 Corinthians 7:2–162. Content of the Epistle; 8. The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14); 13. On the Height of Christian Revelation, or Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:12–13)

2 Corinthians 7:327. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8); 39. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20)

2 Corinthians 7:427. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

2 Corinthians 7:527. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

2 Corinthians 7:5–66. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

2 Corinthians 7:627. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

2 Corinthians 7:6–71. Reason for Writing; 25. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

2 Corinthians 7:727. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

2 Corinthians 7:827. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

2 Corinthians 7:928. Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

2 Corinthians 7:1028. Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

2 Corinthians 7:111. Reason for Writing; 28. Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

2 Corinthians 7:11–161. Reason for Writing

2 Corinthians 7:1228. Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

2 Corinthians 7:1328. Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

2 Corinthians 7:1428. Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

2 Corinthians 7:1528. Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

2 Corinthians 7:1628. Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

2 Corinthians 8:192. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30); 29. Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6); 32. Why the Apostle Sent Titus and the Brethren Ahead (2 Cor. 9:1–5)

2 Corinthians 8:1–1529. Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

2 Corinthians 8:229. Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

2 Corinthians 8:329. Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

2 Corinthians 8:3–520. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

2 Corinthians 8:429. Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

2 Corinthians 8:529. Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

2 Corinthians 8:629. Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

2 Corinthians 8:730. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

2 Corinthians 8:830. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

2 Corinthians 8:988. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 30. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15); 32. Why the Apostle Sent Titus and the Brethren Ahead (2 Cor. 9:1–5); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

2 Corinthians 8:1030. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15); 32. Why the Apostle Sent Titus and the Brethren Ahead (2 Cor. 9:1–5)

2 Corinthians 8:1130. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

2 Corinthians 8:1230. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

2 Corinthians 8:12–1530. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

2 Corinthians 8:1330. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

2 Corinthians 8:1478. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16); 30. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

2 Corinthians 8:1530. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

2 Corinthians 8:1631. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24)

2 Corinthians 8:16–244. Time and Place of Writing; 29. Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

2 Corinthians 8:1731. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24)

2 Corinthians 8:1831. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24); 16. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

2 Corinthians 8:1931. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24)

2 Corinthians 8:2031. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24)

2 Corinthians 8:20–2179. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19)

2 Corinthians 8:2131. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24)

2 Corinthians 8:2231. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24)

2 Corinthians 8:2331. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24)

2 Corinthians 8:2431. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24); 32. Why the Apostle Sent Titus and the Brethren Ahead (2 Cor. 9:1–5)

2 Corinthians 9:1–529. Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

2 Corinthians 9:292. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30); 32. Why the Apostle Sent Titus and the Brethren Ahead (2 Cor. 9:1–5)

2 Corinthians 9:332. Why the Apostle Sent Titus and the Brethren Ahead (2 Cor. 9:1–5)

2 Corinthians 9:41. Reason for Writing; 32. Why the Apostle Sent Titus and the Brethren Ahead (2 Cor. 9:1–5)

2 Corinthians 9:532. Why the Apostle Sent Titus and the Brethren Ahead (2 Cor. 9:1–5)

2 Corinthians 9:676. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9); 33. An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11); 4. The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject; 19. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

2 Corinthians 9:776. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9); 33. An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11); 25. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4); 2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

2 Corinthians 9:833. An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11)

2 Corinthians 9:933. An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11)

2 Corinthians 9:1033. An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11); 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

2 Corinthians 9:1133. An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11)

2 Corinthians 9:1234. Generous Giving Sets the Whole Christian Life in Motion, to God’s Glory (2 Cor. 9:12–15)

2 Corinthians 9:1334. Generous Giving Sets the Whole Christian Life in Motion, to God’s Glory (2 Cor. 9:12–15)

2 Corinthians 9:1434. Generous Giving Sets the Whole Christian Life in Motion, to God’s Glory (2 Cor. 9:12–15)

2 Corinthians 9:1534. Generous Giving Sets the Whole Christian Life in Motion, to God’s Glory (2 Cor. 9:12–15)

2 Corinthians 10:135. In Person I Can Be Stern, as in My Letters (2 Cor. 10:1–5)

2 Corinthians 10:235. In Person I Can Be Stern, as in My Letters (2 Cor. 10:1–5)

2 Corinthians 10:335. In Person I Can Be Stern, as in My Letters (2 Cor. 10:1–5)

2 Corinthians 10:435. In Person I Can Be Stern, as in My Letters (2 Cor. 10:1–5); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

2 Corinthians 10:535. In Person I Can Be Stern, as in My Letters (2 Cor. 10:1–5); 9. Titus 1:8–9—The Bishop’s Virtues and Teaching; 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

2 Corinthians 10:636. The Weapons of Our Warfare; Ready to Punish Disobedience (2 Cor. 10:6–11)

2 Corinthians 10:736. The Weapons of Our Warfare; Ready to Punish Disobedience (2 Cor. 10:6–11)

2 Corinthians 10:836. The Weapons of Our Warfare; Ready to Punish Disobedience (2 Cor. 10:6–11)

2 Corinthians 10:936. The Weapons of Our Warfare; Ready to Punish Disobedience (2 Cor. 10:6–11)

2 Corinthians 10:1036. The Weapons of Our Warfare; Ready to Punish Disobedience (2 Cor. 10:6–11); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

2 Corinthians 10:1136. The Weapons of Our Warfare; Ready to Punish Disobedience (2 Cor. 10:6–11)

2 Corinthians 10:1237. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

2 Corinthians 10:12–1837. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

2 Corinthians 10:1337. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

2 Corinthians 10:1437. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

2 Corinthians 10:15–1637. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

2 Corinthians 10:1637. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

2 Corinthians 10:1718. The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19); 37. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18); 10. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

2 Corinthians 10:1837. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

2 Corinthians 11:137. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18); 38. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9)

2 Corinthians 11:1–2137. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

2 Corinthians 11:283. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14); 11. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23); 24. On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35); 38. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9); 6. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2); 28. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15); 20. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15); 20. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

2 Corinthians 11:338. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9); 17. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

2 Corinthians 11:438. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9)

2 Corinthians 11:538. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9)

2 Corinthians 11:638. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9)

2 Corinthians 11:738. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9)

2 Corinthians 11:829. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 38. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

2 Corinthians 11:8–92. The Church of Philippi (Acts 16)

2 Corinthians 11:938. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9)

2 Corinthians 11:1039. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20); 44. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

2 Corinthians 11:1139. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20)

2 Corinthians 11:11–1244. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

2 Corinthians 11:1239. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20); 14. Titus 2:6–10—Younger Men; Servants

2 Corinthians 11:1347. Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40); 38. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9); 39. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20); 40. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

2 Corinthians 11:149. The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3)

2 Corinthians 11:14–1539. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20)

2 Corinthians 11:1639. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20)

2 Corinthians 11:1739. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20)

2 Corinthians 11:1839. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20); 40. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

2 Corinthians 11:1939. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20)

2 Corinthians 11:2029. All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20); 27. Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8); 39. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20); 18. Dead With Christ to the Elements of the World (Colossians 2:20–23)

2 Corinthians 11:2137. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18); 40. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

2 Corinthians 11:2240. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

2 Corinthians 11:22–3237. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

2 Corinthians 11:2394. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16); 24. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6); 40. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

2 Corinthians 11:2440. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

2 Corinthians 11:24–2524. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

2 Corinthians 11:2540. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

2 Corinthians 11:2640. What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

2 Corinthians 11:2728. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11); 41. The Apostle’s Labors, Perils, and Care for the Churches (2 Cor. 11:27–32); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12); 27. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

2 Corinthians 11:2841. The Apostle’s Labors, Perils, and Care for the Churches (2 Cor. 11:27–32)

2 Corinthians 11:2957. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4); 92. Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30); 41. The Apostle’s Labors, Perils, and Care for the Churches (2 Cor. 11:27–32); 16. The Sending of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25–30)

2 Corinthians 11:306. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5); 41. The Apostle’s Labors, Perils, and Care for the Churches (2 Cor. 11:27–32)

2 Corinthians 11:3141. The Apostle’s Labors, Perils, and Care for the Churches (2 Cor. 11:27–32); The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 13. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

2 Corinthians 11:326. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5); 41. The Apostle’s Labors, Perils, and Care for the Churches (2 Cor. 11:27–32); 13. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

2 Corinthians 12:142. The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5); 14. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

2 Corinthians 12:1–1037. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

2 Corinthians 12:1–642. The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5)

2 Corinthians 12:242. The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5); 11. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

2 Corinthians 12:342. The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5)

2 Corinthians 12:442. The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5); 20. To Know the Love of Christ; the Doxology (Ephesians 3:18–21)

2 Corinthians 12:542. The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5)

2 Corinthians 12:643. The Thorn in the Flesh; Strength Made Perfect in Weakness (2 Cor. 12:6–10)

2 Corinthians 12:719. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13); 42. The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5); 43. The Thorn in the Flesh; Strength Made Perfect in Weakness (2 Cor. 12:6–10); 26. The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20); 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22); 9. The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3)

2 Corinthians 12:7–1042. The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5)

2 Corinthians 12:7–916. Concluding Thoughts (16.20)

2 Corinthians 12:843. The Thorn in the Flesh; Strength Made Perfect in Weakness (2 Cor. 12:6–10)

2 Corinthians 12:95. God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28); 19. The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13); 43. The Thorn in the Flesh; Strength Made Perfect in Weakness (2 Cor. 12:6–10); 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22); 12. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

2 Corinthians 12:106. Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5); 43. The Thorn in the Flesh; Strength Made Perfect in Weakness (2 Cor. 12:6–10); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

2 Corinthians 12:1137. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18); 44. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

2 Corinthians 12:11–1837. The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

2 Corinthians 12:1244. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

2 Corinthians 12:12–1328. Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

2 Corinthians 12:1344. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

2 Corinthians 12:1444. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18); 45. Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

2 Corinthians 12:1525. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13); 44. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

2 Corinthians 12:1644. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

2 Corinthians 12:16–1844. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

2 Corinthians 12:1744. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

2 Corinthians 12:1844. The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

2 Corinthians 12:1945. Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3)

2 Corinthians 12:202. Content of the Epistle; 45. Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3)

2 Corinthians 12:20–211. Reason for Writing

2 Corinthians 12:2145. Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3)

2 Corinthians 13:150. The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19); 45. Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

2 Corinthians 13:245. Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3)

2 Corinthians 13:323. Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24); 45. Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3); 11. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16); 29. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6); 17. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

2 Corinthians 13:446. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10)

2 Corinthians 13:537. On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32); 46. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10)

2 Corinthians 13:646. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10)

2 Corinthians 13:746. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10)

2 Corinthians 13:846. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10)

2 Corinthians 13:946. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10)

2 Corinthians 13:101. Reason for Writing; 46. Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10)

2 Corinthians 13:1147. Conclusion: Final Exhortations and the Grace (2 Cor. 13:11–13)

2 Corinthians 13:1247. Conclusion: Final Exhortations and the Grace (2 Cor. 13:11–13); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

2 Corinthians 13:1347. Conclusion: Final Exhortations and the Grace (2 Cor. 13:11–13); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

Galatians

Galatians 1:16. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2); 5. The Inscription and Greeting (2 Cor. 1:1–2); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Galatians 1:1–106. Division

Galatians 1:1–27. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Galatians 1:23. Was This Epistle Written to the Ephesians?

Galatians 1:3–47. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

Galatians 1:5The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

Galatians 1:65. Time and Place of Writing; 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 27. The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 1:6–79. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 30. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

Galatians 1:79. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

Galatians 1:842. Love, the More Excellent Way, Surpassing All Gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1–3); 29. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6); 10. Correcting Wrong Thoughts on the Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2); 10. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers

Galatians 1:8–109. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

Galatians 1:8–99. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 11. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

Galatians 1:984. Receiving the Weak in Faith Without Disputes (Romans 14:1–5); 94. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16); 3. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

Galatians 1:109. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

Galatians 1:11–1211. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

Galatians 1:11–1611. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

Galatians 1:1217. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Galatians 1:13–1412. Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24)

Galatians 1:13–1611. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

Galatians 1:156. The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

Galatians 1:15–1612. Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24)

Galatians 1:1713. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Galatians 1:17–1841. The Apostle’s Labors, Perils, and Care for the Churches (2 Cor. 11:27–32)

Galatians 1:17–2012. Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24)

Galatians 1:17–2411. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

Galatians 1:185. Time and Place of Writing; 13. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Galatians 1:1913. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Galatians 1:2013. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Galatians 1:2113. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Galatians 1:21–2212. In Him All Fullness Dwells; Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:19–23)

Galatians 1:21–2412. Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24)

Galatians 1:2313. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Galatians 1:23–2412. Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24)

Galatians 1:2413. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Galatians 2:15. Time and Place of Writing

Galatians 2:1–1011. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

Galatians 2:1–213. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10); 14. The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

Galatians 2:315. Titus Not Compelled to Be Circumcised; the False Brethren (Galatians 2:3–5); 1. On Saint Titus

Galatians 2:3–513. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Galatians 2:415. Titus Not Compelled to Be Circumcised; the False Brethren (Galatians 2:3–5)

Galatians 2:4–515. Titus Not Compelled to Be Circumcised; the False Brethren (Galatians 2:3–5)

Galatians 2:515. Titus Not Compelled to Be Circumcised; the False Brethren (Galatians 2:3–5)

Galatians 2:616. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Galatians 2:6–1013. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10); 16. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Galatians 2:7–916. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Galatians 2:9–1031. The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24)

Galatians 2:1016. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Galatians 2:1113. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10); 17. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

Galatians 2:11–1416. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Galatians 2:11–2111. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

Galatians 2:12–1317. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

Galatians 2:13–1416. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Galatians 2:1417. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

Galatians 2:15–1618. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Galatians 2:15–1818. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Galatians 2:15–2116. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Galatians 2:1718. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Galatians 2:1818. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Galatians 2:1918. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21); 5. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

Galatians 2:19–2118. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Galatians 2:2083. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14); 3. The Absurdity of Such Talk Exposed (1 Corinthians 1:13–16); 11. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16); Crucified With Christ; Christ Lives in Me (Continued) (Galatians 2:15–21); 26. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26)

Galatians 2:21Crucified With Christ; Christ Lives in Me (Continued) (Galatians 2:15–21)

Galatians 3:120. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14); 30. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12); 12. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

Galatians 3:1–1420. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:1–520. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:220. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14); 24. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

Galatians 3:320. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14); 12. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

Galatians 3:3–426. The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20)

Galatians 3:49. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 20. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:520. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:620. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:6–1420. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:720. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:8The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:9The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:10The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 29. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

Galatians 3:11The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:12The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:13The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:14The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:1522. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

Galatians 3:15–1820. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14); 22. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

Galatians 3:15–2920. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

Galatians 3:1622. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

Galatians 3:1722. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

Galatians 3:1822. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

Galatians 3:1923. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29); 5. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

Galatians 3:19–2920. O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14); 22. The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29); 23. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Galatians 3:2023. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Galatians 3:2123. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Galatians 3:2223. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Galatians 3:234. The Content of the Epistle; 23. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Galatians 3:23–2924. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

Galatians 3:2523. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Galatians 3:25–2624. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

Galatians 3:2623. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29); 3. “Father” (3.17)

Galatians 3:2765. The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9); 23. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17); 22. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10); 32. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Galatians 3:2839. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20); 23. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 1. The Preface; 6. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven; 6. Lessons From This Invocation (6.7)

Galatians 3:2923. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Galatians 4:13. “Father” (3.6)

Galatians 4:1–224. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

Galatians 4:34. The Content of the Epistle; 24. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

Galatians 4:412. Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24); 9. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

Galatians 4:4–524. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12); 9. One God, One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:3–6)

Galatians 4:648. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 50. The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19); 24. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12); 6. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.32); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.16)

Galatians 4:6–724. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

Galatians 4:724. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

Galatians 4:84. The Content of the Epistle; 25. Turning Back to the Weak Elements: Observing Days and Seasons (Galatians 4:8–10); 7. The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

Galatians 4:8–1024. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12); 25. Turning Back to the Weak Elements: Observing Days and Seasons (Galatians 4:8–10)

Galatians 4:94. The Content of the Epistle; 25. Turning Back to the Weak Elements: Observing Days and Seasons (Galatians 4:8–10)

Galatians 4:9–1015. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10)

Galatians 4:103. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 25. Turning Back to the Weak Elements: Observing Days and Seasons (Galatians 4:8–10)

Galatians 4:1117. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14); 26. The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20)

Galatians 4:11–2026. The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20)

Galatians 4:1226. The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20)

Galatians 4:135. Time and Place of Writing

Galatians 4:13–1426. The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20)

Galatians 4:1413. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.8)

Galatians 4:14–1513. Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

Galatians 4:1525. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13); 26. The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20); 6. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Galatians 4:1626. The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20)

Galatians 4:1726. The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20)

Galatians 4:183. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 5. Time and Place of Writing; 27. The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 4:193. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 27. The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12); 1. Inscription, Greeting, and Thanksgiving (2 Timothy 1:1–4); 12. Take Courage: You Have Followed My Teaching (2 Timothy 3:10–13); 27. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

Galatians 4:203. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 27. The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 4:2127. The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 4:22–2327. The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 4:24–2527. The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 4:2627. The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 4:27Children of the Free Woman: Stand Fast in Freedom (Continued) (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 4:28Children of the Free Woman: Stand Fast in Freedom (Continued) (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 4:2931. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13); Children of the Free Woman: Stand Fast in Freedom (Continued) (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 4:30Children of the Free Woman: Stand Fast in Freedom (Continued) (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 4:31Children of the Free Woman: Stand Fast in Freedom (Continued) (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 5:1Children of the Free Woman: Stand Fast in Freedom (Continued) (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 5:215. Titus Not Compelled to Be Circumcised; the False Brethren (Galatians 2:3–5); 29. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

Galatians 5:2–627. The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 5:33. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 29. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

Galatians 5:429. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

Galatians 5:529. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

Galatians 5:618. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21); 29. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6); 7. Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8)

Galatians 5:79. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 30. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

Galatians 5:7–1227. The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

Galatians 5:830. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

Galatians 5:93. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 30. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

Galatians 5:1091. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19); 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 30. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

Galatians 5:1130. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

Galatians 5:1230. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

Galatians 5:1319. Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19); 31. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

Galatians 5:13–2531. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

Galatians 5:1431. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

Galatians 5:1531. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

Galatians 5:1631. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

Galatians 5:1712. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24); 31. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

Galatians 5:1831. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

Galatians 5:19–2113. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28); 31. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

Galatians 5:209. Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

Galatians 5:2118. Titus 3:8–11—Good Works; Reject the Heretic

Galatians 5:2225. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13); 16. Stand Fast and Hold the Traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:15–17); 5. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4); 7. Subjects for Reflection

Galatians 5:22–23The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25)

Galatians 5:2474. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); 83. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14); 26. Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1); The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25); 14. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 10. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30); 18. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15); 18. Dead With Christ to the Elements of the World (Colossians 2:20–23); 12. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

Galatians 5:2583. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14); The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25)

Galatians 5:2633. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Galatians 6:188. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 33. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Galatians 6:1–106. Division

Galatians 6:1–233. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Galatians 6:233. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Galatians 6:333. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

Galatians 6:3–533. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Galatians 6:433. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Galatians 6:533. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Galatians 6:633. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Galatians 6:7–1031. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

Galatians 6:11–186. Division

Galatians 6:1329. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

Galatians 6:1419. Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1); 3. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

Galatians 6:171. The Preface

Scripture Index (Ephesians–Colossians)

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Ephesians

Ephesians 1:13. Was This Epistle Written to the Ephesians?; 6. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2)

Ephesians 1:1–25. Contents and Division of the Epistle

Ephesians 1:26. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2)

Ephesians 1:37. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Ephesians 1:3–147. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Ephesians 1:47. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 28. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 27. The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

Ephesians 1:4–5The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

Ephesians 1:5The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 7. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 9. The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

Ephesians 1:5–68. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9)

Ephesians 1:66. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2); 14. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

Ephesians 1:78. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9)

Ephesians 1:88. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9)

Ephesians 1:98. Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9)

Ephesians 1:109. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13); 12. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Ephesians 1:11–129. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

Ephesians 1:1348. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 9. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

Ephesians 1:13–1424. No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

Ephesians 1:1448. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 10. The Earnest of Our Inheritance (Ephesians 1:14); 4. The Interpretation

Ephesians 1:153. Was This Epistle Written to the Ephesians?

Ephesians 1:15–1611. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

Ephesians 1:15–1911. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

Ephesians 1:1617. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

Ephesians 1:16–182. The Circumstances of the Writing of the Epistle

Ephesians 1:177. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 11. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Ephesians 1:17–1811. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

Ephesians 1:1811. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

Ephesians 1:18–1911. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

Ephesians 1:1911. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18); 12. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23); 13. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

Ephesians 1:2014. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

Ephesians 1:20–2112. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Ephesians 1:20–2311. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18); 12. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Ephesians 1:2114. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 22. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Ephesians 1:2212. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Ephesians 1:2383. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14)

Ephesians 1:2412. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Ephesians 2:113. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

Ephesians 2:1–1011. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18); 13. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

Ephesians 2:218. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6); 13. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5); 4. The Interpretation

Ephesians 2:2–324. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Ephesians 2:313. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

Ephesians 2:3–57. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Ephesians 2:4–513. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

Ephesians 2:513. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.12)

Ephesians 2:648. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 7. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 14. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 15. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10)

Ephesians 2:714. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

Ephesians 2:814. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

Ephesians 2:914. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

Ephesians 2:1014. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

Ephesians 2:1117. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Ephesians 2:11–1215. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

Ephesians 2:11–192. The Circumstances of the Writing of the Epistle

Ephesians 2:11–2211. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

Ephesians 2:129. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13); 16. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15); 7. The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8); 4. The Interpretation

Ephesians 2:1315. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Ephesians 2:1412. In Him All Fullness Dwells; Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:19–23); 28. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Ephesians 2:14–1615. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

Ephesians 2:1716. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

Ephesians 2:1816. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Ephesians 2:1916. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

Ephesians 2:2016. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

Ephesians 2:2116. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

Ephesians 2:2217. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Ephesians 3:117. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5); 1. The Preface

Ephesians 3:1–1219. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

Ephesians 3:1–1311. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

Ephesians 3:217. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Ephesians 3:317. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Ephesians 3:417. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Ephesians 3:517. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Ephesians 3:687. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12); 25. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4)

Ephesians 3:718. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Ephesians 3:848. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Ephesians 3:910. The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Ephesians 3:107. The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10); 18. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Ephesians 3:1118. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Ephesians 3:1218. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

Ephesians 3:132. The Circumstances of the Writing of the Epistle; 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

Ephesians 3:1417. The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

Ephesians 3:14–1519. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

Ephesians 3:14–192. The Circumstances of the Writing of the Epistle

Ephesians 3:14–2111. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

Ephesians 3:1619. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

Ephesians 3:16–1783. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14)

Ephesians 3:1719. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

Ephesians 3:1819. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Ephesians 3:18–1920. To Know the Love of Christ; the Doxology (Ephesians 3:18–21)

Ephesians 3:20–2120. To Know the Love of Christ; the Doxology (Ephesians 3:18–21)

Ephesians 3:21The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Ephesians 4:113. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12); 9. The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

Ephesians 4:1–1621. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Ephesians 4:1–321. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Ephesians 4:225. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

Ephesians 4:31. Exhortation to Concord and Unity of Mind (1 Corinthians 1:10)

Ephesians 4:3–422. Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15)

Ephesians 4:421. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4); 9. The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

Ephesians 4:522. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Ephesians 4:622. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Ephesians 4:722. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Ephesians 4:822. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Ephesians 4:9–1022. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Ephesians 4:117. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 16. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 23. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

Ephesians 4:1223. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

Ephesians 4:1323. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13); 25. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

Ephesians 4:13–1621. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Ephesians 4:1424. Growing Up Into Christ the Head (Ephesians 4:14–16); 28. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15); 11. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

Ephesians 4:14–1624. Growing Up Into Christ the Head (Ephesians 4:14–16)

Ephesians 4:1524. Growing Up Into Christ the Head (Ephesians 4:14–16)

Ephesians 4:15–1622. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Ephesians 4:1624. Growing Up Into Christ the Head (Ephesians 4:14–16)

Ephesians 4:1715. The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8); 25. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Ephesians 4:17–2425. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Ephesians 4:1825. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Ephesians 4:1925. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Ephesians 4:2025. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Ephesians 4:2125. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Ephesians 4:21–2419. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Ephesians 4:2226. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26)

Ephesians 4:22–2423. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Ephesians 4:2326. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26)

Ephesians 4:2426. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26); 21. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11)

Ephesians 4:2526. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26); 21. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11); 22. Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15)

Ephesians 4:2626. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26)

Ephesians 4:2727. Give No Place to the Devil; Grieve Not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:27–31)

Ephesians 4:2827. Give No Place to the Devil; Grieve Not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:27–31); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Ephesians 4:2927. Give No Place to the Devil; Grieve Not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:27–31); 17. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

Ephesians 4:3048. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 27. Give No Place to the Devil; Grieve Not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:27–31); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Ephesians 4:3126. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26); 27. Give No Place to the Devil; Grieve Not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:27–31)

Ephesians 4:3228. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 28. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Ephesians 5:113. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16); 28. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

Ephesians 5:274. The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2); The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 21. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4); 28. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 8. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11)

Ephesians 5:328. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

Ephesians 5:428. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

Ephesians 5:529. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Ephesians 5:629. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Ephesians 5:729. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Ephesians 5:829. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12); 31. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 4. The Interpretation

Ephesians 5:929. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Ephesians 5:1029. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Ephesians 5:1129. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Ephesians 5:1229. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Ephesians 5:12–137. Subjects for Reflection

Ephesians 5:1330. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

Ephesians 5:1431. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25); 30. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

Ephesians 5:1530. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

Ephesians 5:1630. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19); 27. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13); 14. The Seventh Petition: “But Deliver Us From the Evil One” (14.8)

Ephesians 5:1730. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

Ephesians 5:1830. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

Ephesians 5:18–1923. The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17)

Ephesians 5:1930. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

Ephesians 5:2031. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Ephesians 5:2131. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26); 33. Servants and Masters (Ephesians 6:5–9)

Ephesians 5:2231. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

Ephesians 5:22–3331. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

Ephesians 5:2331. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

Ephesians 5:2431. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

Ephesians 5:2588. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 31. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

Ephesians 5:26–2731. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

Ephesians 5:276. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11); 27. The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24)

Ephesians 5:2832. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Ephesians 5:2932. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Ephesians 5:3032. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Ephesians 5:3132. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Ephesians 5:3232. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Ephesians 5:3332. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Ephesians 6:131. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26); 32. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Ephesians 6:1–431. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

Ephesians 6:232. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Ephesians 6:332. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Ephesians 6:431. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26); 32. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Ephesians 6:531. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26); 33. Servants and Masters (Ephesians 6:5–9)

Ephesians 6:5–931. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

Ephesians 6:6–733. Servants and Masters (Ephesians 6:5–9)

Ephesians 6:714. Titus 2:6–10—Younger Men; Servants

Ephesians 6:833. Servants and Masters (Ephesians 6:5–9)

Ephesians 6:931. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26); 33. Servants and Masters (Ephesians 6:5–9)

Ephesians 6:1034. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14)

Ephesians 6:10–1821. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Ephesians 6:1148. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11); 34. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Ephesians 6:1213. The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16); 18. The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6); 13. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4); 34. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14); 4. The Interpretation

Ephesians 6:12–245. Contents and Division of the Epistle

Ephesians 6:1334. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14)

Ephesians 6:1434. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14)

Ephesians 6:1535. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

Ephesians 6:1635. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

Ephesians 6:1735. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 7. The Seven Petitions (7.3)

Ephesians 6:1835. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Ephesians 6:192. The Circumstances of the Writing of the Epistle; 36. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

Ephesians 6:19–2036. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

Ephesians 6:206. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2); 36. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

Ephesians 6:2136. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

Ephesians 6:21–2236. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

Ephesians 6:2236. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

Ephesians 6:2336. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

Ephesians 6:23–2436. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

Ephesians 6:2436. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

Philippians

Philippians 1:16. Inscription and Greeting (Philippians 1:1–2); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Philippians 1:1–114. Division of the Epistle

Philippians 1:1–24. Division of the Epistle

Philippians 1:26. Inscription and Greeting (Philippians 1:1–2)

Philippians 1:37. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Philippians 1:3–114. Division of the Epistle

Philippians 1:3–67. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Philippians 1:47. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Philippians 1:57. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Philippians 1:67. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11); 23. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4); 27. The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

Philippians 1:75. Place and Time of Writing; 7. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Philippians 1:7–87. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Philippians 1:87. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

Philippians 1:97. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Philippians 1:9–117. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Philippians 1:107. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Philippians 1:117. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

Philippians 1:128. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:12–208. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:12–264. Division of the Epistle; 8. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:138. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:148. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:158. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:168. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:178. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:188. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:198. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:2085. Each Shall Give Account of Himself to God; Judge Not One Another (Romans 14:6–12); 8. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:2156. More Than Conquerors; Paul’s Great Love for His People (Romans 8:36–9:1); 9. To Live Is Christ, and to Die Is Gain (Philippians 1:21–26)

Philippians 1:21–268. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

Philippians 1:22The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 9. To Live Is Christ, and to Die Is Gain (Philippians 1:21–26)

Philippians 1:2352. The Firmness of Our Hope; the Spirit Helps Our Infirmity (Romans 8:24–26); 3. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 9. To Live Is Christ, and to Die Is Gain (Philippians 1:21–26); 15. Fight the Good Fight; the Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:5–8)

Philippians 1:249. To Live Is Christ, and to Die Is Gain (Philippians 1:21–26)

Philippians 1:259. To Live Is Christ, and to Die Is Gain (Philippians 1:21–26)

Philippians 1:269. To Live Is Christ, and to Die Is Gain (Philippians 1:21–26)

Philippians 1:2710. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Philippians 1:2877. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 3. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 10. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30)

Philippians 1:28–3010. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30)

Philippians 1:2910. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30)

Philippians 1:3010. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30)

Philippians 2:1–1110. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30)

Philippians 2:1–23. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 10. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30); 11. An Appeal to Unity of Mind (Philippians 2:1–2)

Philippians 2:1–53. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle

Philippians 2:278. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16)

Philippians 2:36. Inscription and Greeting (Philippians 1:1–2); 12. Removing the Obstacles to Humble Mutual Love (Philippians 2:3–4)

Philippians 2:3–410. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30); 12. Removing the Obstacles to Humble Mutual Love (Philippians 2:3–4)

Philippians 2:488. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 12. Removing the Obstacles to Humble Mutual Love (Philippians 2:3–4)

Philippians 2:535. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 3. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Philippians 2:5–1110. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Philippians 2:5–621. Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

Philippians 2:67. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11); 10. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16)

Philippians 2:6–749. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

Philippians 2:77. Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Philippians 2:823. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Philippians 2:922. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Philippians 2:9–103. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Philippians 2:1042. Love, the More Excellent Way, Surpassing All Gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1–3); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Philippians 2:1113. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Philippians 2:1214. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18); 6. The Firm Resolve: Having Confessed His Sin, to Blot It Out (V. 19)

Philippians 2:12–1810. Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30); 13. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Philippians 2:137. The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11); 14. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

Philippians 2:13–145. Place and Time of Writing

Philippians 2:1414. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18)

Philippians 2:14–1630. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

Philippians 2:1514. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18)

Philippians 2:1614. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18)

Philippians 2:1714. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18)

Philippians 2:1814. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18); 17. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9)

Philippians 2:1915. Sending Timothy to the Philippians (Philippians 2:19–24)

Philippians 2:19–2415. Sending Timothy to the Philippians (Philippians 2:19–24)

Philippians 2:19–304. Division of the Epistle

Philippians 2:2015. Sending Timothy to the Philippians (Philippians 2:19–24)

Philippians 2:2115. Sending Timothy to the Philippians (Philippians 2:19–24)

Philippians 2:2215. Sending Timothy to the Philippians (Philippians 2:19–24); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Philippians 2:235. Place and Time of Writing; 15. Sending Timothy to the Philippians (Philippians 2:19–24)

Philippians 2:245. Place and Time of Writing; 15. Sending Timothy to the Philippians (Philippians 2:19–24); 2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Philippians 2:2516. The Sending of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25–30); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

Philippians 2:25–3015. Sending Timothy to the Philippians (Philippians 2:19–24); 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Philippians 2:2616. The Sending of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25–30)

Philippians 2:273. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 16. The Sending of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25–30); 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Philippians 2:2816. The Sending of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25–30)

Philippians 2:2916. The Sending of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25–30)

Philippians 2:3016. The Sending of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25–30)

Philippians 3:117. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9)

Philippians 3:1–94. Division of the Epistle; 17. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9)

Philippians 3:23. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 17. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9); 29. Charges and Directions (Colossians 4:16–17)

Philippians 3:38. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9); 17. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9)

Philippians 3:439. False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20); 17. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9)

Philippians 3:557. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

Philippians 3:5–617. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9)

Philippians 3:6The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

Philippians 3:717. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9)

Philippians 3:817. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9); 6. How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

Philippians 3:917. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9)

Philippians 3:103. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle

Philippians 3:10–1118. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15)

Philippians 3:1218. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15); 6. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)

Philippians 3:1333. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Philippians 3:13–1418. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15)

Philippians 3:143. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle

Philippians 3:1587. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24); 18. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15)

Philippians 3:1619. Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1)

Philippians 3:173. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 6. Inscription and Greeting (Philippians 1:1–2); 19. Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1); 22. Whatever Is True and Honorable; Put It Into Practice (Philippians 4:8–9); 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

Philippians 3:18–1919. Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1)

Philippians 3:1929. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

Philippians 3:207. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 6. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared; 10. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.15)

Philippians 3:20–2153. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29); 19. Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1)

Philippians 3:2151. The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23); 52. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38); 3. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle

Philippians 4:134. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14); 19. Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1); 15. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

Philippians 4:23. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 20. A Brief Admonition to Certain Persons (Philippians 4:2–3)

Philippians 4:2–33. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 4. Division of the Epistle; 20. A Brief Admonition to Certain Persons (Philippians 4:2–3)

Philippians 4:2–94. Division of the Epistle

Philippians 4:320. A Brief Admonition to Certain Persons (Philippians 4:2–3)

Philippians 4:417. Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9); 21. Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7)

Philippians 4:4–94. Division of the Epistle; 20. A Brief Admonition to Certain Persons (Philippians 4:2–3); 21. Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7)

Philippians 4:521. Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7)

Philippians 4:5–635. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

Philippians 4:621. Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Philippians 4:721. Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7); 28. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

Philippians 4:838. Freed From Sin, Servants of Righteousness (Romans 6:17–20); 35. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 3. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 22. Whatever Is True and Honorable; Put It Into Practice (Philippians 4:8–9); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16); 10. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.1)

Philippians 4:922. Whatever Is True and Honorable; Put It Into Practice (Philippians 4:8–9)

Philippians 4:103. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Philippians 4:10–204. Division of the Epistle; 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Philippians 4:1123. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Philippians 4:1223. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Philippians 4:1323. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15); 3. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

Philippians 4:1423. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Philippians 4:1523. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Philippians 4:15–1638. On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9)

Philippians 4:162. The Church of Philippi (Acts 16); 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Philippians 4:1734. Generous Giving Sets the Whole Christian Life in Motion, to God’s Glory (2 Cor. 9:12–15); 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20); 19. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Philippians 4:183. Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle; 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.5)

Philippians 4:1923. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Philippians 4:20The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 23. The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

Philippians 4:2124. Salutations and Final Blessing (Philippians 4:21–23)

Philippians 4:21–2224. Salutations and Final Blessing (Philippians 4:21–23)

Philippians 4:21–234. Division of the Epistle

Philippians 4:2295. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 8. The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20); 24. Salutations and Final Blessing (Philippians 4:21–23)

Philippians 4:2324. Salutations and Final Blessing (Philippians 4:21–23)

Colossians

Colossians 1:17. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Colossians 1:1–115. Division

Colossians 1:1–26. Inscription and Greeting (Colossians 1:1–3)

Colossians 1:37. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 6. Inscription and Greeting (Colossians 1:1–3); 7. Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8)

Colossians 1:3–87. Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8)

Colossians 1:41. Information About the Christian Community in Colossae; 7. Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

Colossians 1:57. Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8)

Colossians 1:67. Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8)

Colossians 1:71. Information About the Christian Community in Colossae; 6. Inscription and Greeting (Colossians 1:1–3); 7. Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8); 2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Colossians 1:87. Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8); 28. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Colossians 1:98. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

Colossians 1:9–117. Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8)

Colossians 1:108. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Colossians 1:118. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11)

Colossians 1:129. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

Colossians 1:12–149. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

Colossians 1:12–233. The Content and Purpose of the Epistle; 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

Colossians 1:139. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

Colossians 1:149. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

Colossians 1:1516. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 10. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Colossians 1:15–179. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

Colossians 1:15–209. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

Colossians 1:1658. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9); 12. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 10. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16)

Colossians 1:179. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 11. He Is Before All Things; Head of the Body, the Church (Colossians 1:17–18)

Colossians 1:1849. If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 11. He Is Before All Things; Head of the Body, the Church (Colossians 1:17–18); 17. Let No One Judge You; the Shadow and the Body (Colossians 2:16–19); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Colossians 1:18–1911. He Is Before All Things; Head of the Body, the Church (Colossians 1:17–18)

Colossians 1:18–209. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 11. He Is Before All Things; Head of the Body, the Church (Colossians 1:17–18)

Colossians 1:1911. He Is Before All Things; Head of the Body, the Church (Colossians 1:17–18); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

Colossians 1:209. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13); 11. He Is Before All Things; Head of the Body, the Church (Colossians 1:17–18); 12. In Him All Fullness Dwells; Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:19–23)

Colossians 1:21–2212. In Him All Fullness Dwells; Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:19–23)

Colossians 1:21–239. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

Colossians 1:2227. The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24)

Colossians 1:2312. In Him All Fullness Dwells; Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:19–23)

Colossians 1:2418. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15); 13. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29)

Colossians 1:24–299. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

Colossians 1:251. Information About the Christian Community in Colossae; 13. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29)

Colossians 1:2613. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29); 25. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14)

Colossians 1:2713. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

Colossians 1:2813. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29)

Colossians 1:2913. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29)

Colossians 2:11. Information About the Christian Community in Colossae; 13. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29); 14. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

Colossians 2:1–314. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

Colossians 2:1–714. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

Colossians 2:214. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5); 9. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7)

Colossians 2:350. The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19); 14. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

Colossians 2:42. The Reason for Writing the Epistle; 14. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

Colossians 2:4–514. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

Colossians 2:51. Information About the Christian Community in Colossae; 6. Inscription and Greeting (Colossians 1:1–3); 14. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

Colossians 2:615. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10)

Colossians 2:6–714. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

Colossians 2:715. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10)

Colossians 2:82. The Reason for Writing the Epistle; 15. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10); 29. Charges and Directions (Colossians 4:16–17)

Colossians 2:8–1514. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5); 15. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10)

Colossians 2:912. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23); 11. He Is Before All Things; Head of the Body, the Church (Colossians 1:17–18); 15. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

Colossians 2:1015. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10)

Colossians 2:11–1216. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Colossians 2:11–152. The Reason for Writing the Epistle

Colossians 2:127. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 16. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Colossians 2:1316. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Colossians 2:13–1416. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Colossians 2:1423. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); 18. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21); The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 16. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Colossians 2:1516. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Colossians 2:162. The Reason for Writing the Epistle; 17. Let No One Judge You; the Shadow and the Body (Colossians 2:16–19)

Colossians 2:16–1716. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Colossians 2:16–2314. The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5); 16. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Colossians 2:1715. The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14); 17. Let No One Judge You; the Shadow and the Body (Colossians 2:16–19)

Colossians 2:1817. Let No One Judge You; the Shadow and the Body (Colossians 2:16–19); 18. Dead With Christ to the Elements of the World (Colossians 2:20–23)

Colossians 2:18–192. The Reason for Writing the Epistle; 16. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Colossians 2:1917. Let No One Judge You; the Shadow and the Body (Colossians 2:16–19)

Colossians 2:2011. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23); 3. The Content and Purpose of the Epistle; 18. Dead With Christ to the Elements of the World (Colossians 2:20–23); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Colossians 2:20–2316. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

Colossians 2:2118. Dead With Christ to the Elements of the World (Colossians 2:20–23)

Colossians 2:2218. Dead With Christ to the Elements of the World (Colossians 2:20–23)

Colossians 2:2318. Dead With Christ to the Elements of the World (Colossians 2:20–23); 15. In the Latter Times Some Shall Depart From the Faith (1 Timothy 4:1–2); 7. Subjects for Reflection

Colossians 3:17. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Colossians 3:1–1719. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Colossians 3:1–212. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Colossians 3:1–377. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

Colossians 3:1–419. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Colossians 3:27. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Colossians 3:311. Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 16. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7); 17. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

Colossians 3:3–481. Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8); 22. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

Colossians 3:419. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Colossians 3:529. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12); 20. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 12. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

Colossians 3:5–1120. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8)

Colossians 3:5–1519. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Colossians 3:5–720. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8)

Colossians 3:620. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8)

Colossians 3:6–720. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 21. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11)

Colossians 3:720. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8)

Colossians 3:820. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8)

Colossians 3:8–1120. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8)

Colossians 3:916. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15); 21. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11)

Colossians 3:9–1020. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8)

Colossians 3:9–1123. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Colossians 3:1026. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26); 21. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11)

Colossians 3:1112. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23); 21. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11)

Colossians 3:1222. Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15); 9. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7); 25. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

Colossians 3:12–1320. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 21. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11)

Colossians 3:12–1535. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

Colossians 3:1322. Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15)

Colossians 3:1412. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23); 22. Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15); 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

Colossians 3:14–1520. Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8); 22. Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15)

Colossians 3:1522. Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15)

Colossians 3:1613. The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29); 23. The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17); 25. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4); 10. The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10)

Colossians 3:16–1719. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Colossians 3:1723. The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17)

Colossians 3:1831. Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

Colossians 3:18–1924. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Colossians 3:20–2124. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Colossians 3:2132. The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

Colossians 3:2224. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Colossians 3:2324. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Colossians 3:2424. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Colossians 3:2524. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Colossians 4:124. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Colossians 4:225. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.4)

Colossians 4:2–424. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Colossians 4:325. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

Colossians 4:425. Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4)

Colossians 4:526. Christian Life Toward Those Outside (Colossians 4:5–6)

Colossians 4:5–624. Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

Colossians 4:626. Christian Life Toward Those Outside (Colossians 4:5–6)

Colossians 4:727. Tidings: Tychicus and Onesimus (Colossians 4:7–9); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

Colossians 4:7–185. Division

Colossians 4:827. Tidings: Tychicus and Onesimus (Colossians 4:7–9)

Colossians 4:927. Tidings: Tychicus and Onesimus (Colossians 4:7–9); Introduction to the Epistle

Colossians 4:1028. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Colossians 4:116. Inscription and Greeting (Colossians 1:1–3); 28. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Colossians 4:1228. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Colossians 4:12–131. Information About the Christian Community in Colossae

Colossians 4:131. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus; 28. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Colossians 4:1428. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15); 16. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

Colossians 4:1528. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Colossians 4:162. The Reason for Writing the Epistle; 29. Charges and Directions (Colossians 4:16–17)

Colossians 4:171. Information About the Christian Community in Colossae; 6. Inscription and Greeting (Colossians 1:1–3); 29. Charges and Directions (Colossians 4:16–17); 1. The Preface

Colossians 4:1830. The Apostle’s Autograph Conclusion (Colossians 4:18)

Scripture Index (1 Thessalonians–Philemon)

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 1:17. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

1 Thessalonians 1:28. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

1 Thessalonians 1:2–108. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

1 Thessalonians 1:38. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 5. The Thessalonians’ Praiseworthy Qualities (2 Thessalonians 1:3–4)

1 Thessalonians 1:42. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church; 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 9. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7)

1 Thessalonians 1:4–103. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

1 Thessalonians 1:4–78. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

1 Thessalonians 1:57. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 9. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7)

1 Thessalonians 1:5–6,1Thess2. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church

1 Thessalonians 1:614. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

1 Thessalonians 1:6–79. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7)

1 Thessalonians 1:76. The Time and Place of Writing; 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

1 Thessalonians 1:7–83. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

1 Thessalonians 1:810. The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10)

1 Thessalonians 1:8–108. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

1 Thessalonians 1:9–1010. The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10)

1 Thessalonians 1:107. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

1 Thessalonians 1:3011. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

1 Thessalonians 2:111. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

1 Thessalonians 2:1–1211. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3); 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

1 Thessalonians 2:1–1611. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3); 15. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

1 Thessalonians 2:211. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

1 Thessalonians 2:311. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3); 23. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

1 Thessalonians 2:49. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 16. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21); 11. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3); 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 2:511. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

1 Thessalonians 2:5–612. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

1 Thessalonians 2:712. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

1 Thessalonians 2:7–815. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

1 Thessalonians 2:812. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

1 Thessalonians 2:92. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church; 12. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

1 Thessalonians 2:9–1111. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

1 Thessalonians 2:9–122. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church

1 Thessalonians 2:1013. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

1 Thessalonians 2:1112. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8); 15. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

1 Thessalonians 2:11–1213. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

1 Thessalonians 2:11–168. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

1 Thessalonians 2:129. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 9. The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

1 Thessalonians 2:1311. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3); 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

1 Thessalonians 2:13–1611. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

1 Thessalonians 2:1416. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21); 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

1 Thessalonians 2:14–1568. The Consolation of the People of God: God Has Not Cast Away His People (Romans 10:20–11:2)

1 Thessalonians 2:14–163. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

1 Thessalonians 2:152. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church; 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

1 Thessalonians 2:15–1623. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29); 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16); 7. The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

1 Thessalonians 2:1614. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

1 Thessalonians 2:176. The Time and Place of Writing; 15. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

1 Thessalonians 2:17–183. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

1 Thessalonians 2:17–2015. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

1 Thessalonians 2:189. Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14); 15. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

1 Thessalonians 2:1915. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20); 5. The Thessalonians’ Praiseworthy Qualities (2 Thessalonians 1:3–4)

1 Thessalonians 2:19–2015. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

1 Thessalonians 2:2015. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

1 Thessalonians 3:116. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

1 Thessalonians 3:1–227. Tidings: Tychicus and Onesimus (Colossians 4:7–9)

1 Thessalonians 3:1–53. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 15. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

1 Thessalonians 3:26. The Time and Place of Writing; 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5); 17. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10); 1. On Saint Timothy

1 Thessalonians 3:319. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17); 14. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

1 Thessalonians 3:42. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church; 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

1 Thessalonians 3:516. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

1 Thessalonians 3:63. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 6. The Time and Place of Writing; 17. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

1 Thessalonians 3:6–1015. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

1 Thessalonians 3:717. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

1 Thessalonians 3:828. Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16); 17. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

1 Thessalonians 3:98. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 17. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

1 Thessalonians 3:1017. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

1 Thessalonians 3:1118. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

1 Thessalonians 3:11–1220. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

1 Thessalonians 3:11–1315. The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

1 Thessalonians 3:1218. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

1 Thessalonians 3:138. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

1 Thessalonians 4:12. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church; 3. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 4:1–1219. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 4:1–819. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 4:22. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church; 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

1 Thessalonians 4:328. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 10. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.1)

1 Thessalonians 4:3–819. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 4:4–519. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 4:525. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21); 7. The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

1 Thessalonians 4:5–62. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church

1 Thessalonians 4:619. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 4:728. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 4:819. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 4:920. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

1 Thessalonians 4:9–103. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 4:106. The Time and Place of Writing; 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 20. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12); 2. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written

1 Thessalonians 4:1120. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12); 19. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9)

1 Thessalonians 4:11–1219. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 4:1220. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12); 20. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15)

1 Thessalonians 4:1321. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

1 Thessalonians 4:13–1819. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 4:147. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

1 Thessalonians 4:1511. The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15); 10. Correcting Wrong Thoughts on the Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2)

1 Thessalonians 4:1621. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15); 22. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18); 2. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written

1 Thessalonians 4:1720. The Renewal of the Inward Man; the Eternal Weight of Glory (2 Cor. 4:14–5:1); 22. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18); 10. Correcting Wrong Thoughts on the Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2); 10. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.7)

1 Thessalonians 4:1822. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

1 Thessalonians 4:1912. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

1 Thessalonians 5:112. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8); 23. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

1 Thessalonians 5:1–1119. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 5:1–323. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

1 Thessalonians 5:223. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

1 Thessalonians 5:323. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4); 8. The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10)

1 Thessalonians 5:423. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

1 Thessalonians 5:4–1123. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

1 Thessalonians 5:513. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11); 4. The Interpretation

1 Thessalonians 5:5–783. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14)

1 Thessalonians 5:623. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

1 Thessalonians 5:724. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

1 Thessalonians 5:835. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

1 Thessalonians 5:910. The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14)

1 Thessalonians 5:9–1024. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

1 Thessalonians 5:1119. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 24. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11); 25. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

1 Thessalonians 5:122. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church; 3. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

1 Thessalonians 5:12–1325. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

1 Thessalonians 5:12–1525. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

1 Thessalonians 5:12–223. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

1 Thessalonians 5:12–2419. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Thessalonians 5:14–1525. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

1 Thessalonians 5:153. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 18. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

1 Thessalonians 5:16The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25); 2. The Founding of the Thessalonian Church; 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 18. On Giving Thanks to God for All Things at All Times (Verse 2)

1 Thessalonians 5:16–1826. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 18. On Giving Thanks to God for All Things at All Times (Verse 2)

1 Thessalonians 5:16–2225. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

1 Thessalonians 5:1735. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

1 Thessalonians 5:1826. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 1. Inscription, Greeting, and Thanksgiving (2 Timothy 1:1–4)

1 Thessalonians 5:1977. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 30. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 2. The Unfeigned Faith; Stir Up the Gift of God (2 Timothy 1:5–6)

1 Thessalonians 5:19–209. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

1 Thessalonians 5:203. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle; 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

1 Thessalonians 5:213. The Occasion for Writing the Epistle

1 Thessalonians 5:21–2226. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

1 Thessalonians 5:238. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9); 27. The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24)

1 Thessalonians 5:23–2425. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

1 Thessalonians 5:249. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 27. The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24)

1 Thessalonians 5:2528. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

1 Thessalonians 5:2628. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

1 Thessalonians 5:277. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

1 Thessalonians 5:2828. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

1 Thessalonians 13:1023. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

1 Thessalonians 15:327. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

1 Thessalonians 16:2116. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

2 Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians 1:1–23. Division; 4. Inscription and Greeting (2 Thessalonians 1:1–2)

2 Thessalonians 1:38. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 2. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written; 5. The Thessalonians’ Praiseworthy Qualities (2 Thessalonians 1:3–4)

2 Thessalonians 1:3–123. Division

2 Thessalonians 1:45. The Thessalonians’ Praiseworthy Qualities (2 Thessalonians 1:3–4)

2 Thessalonians 1:56. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

2 Thessalonians 1:648. You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11); 25. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

2 Thessalonians 1:6–76. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

2 Thessalonians 1:718. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13); 7. The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

2 Thessalonians 1:7–923. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

2 Thessalonians 1:87. The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8); 13. The Lawless One Destroyed by the Lord (2 Thessalonians 2:8)

2 Thessalonians 1:98. The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10)

2 Thessalonians 1:108. The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14)

2 Thessalonians 1:119. The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

2 Thessalonians 1:129. The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

2 Thessalonians 2:1–22. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written; 10. Correcting Wrong Thoughts on the Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2)

2 Thessalonians 2:223. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4); 1. Occasion for Writing and Contents of the Epistle; 2. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written

2 Thessalonians 2:313. Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

2 Thessalonians 2:3–511. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

2 Thessalonians 2:59. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

2 Thessalonians 2:612. What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7)

2 Thessalonians 2:712. What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7)

2 Thessalonians 2:813. The Lawless One Destroyed by the Lord (2 Thessalonians 2:8)

2 Thessalonians 2:9–1014. The Wiles of Antichrist and Whom He Deceives (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

2 Thessalonians 2:1010. Correcting Wrong Thoughts on the Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2)

2 Thessalonians 2:1114. The Wiles of Antichrist and Whom He Deceives (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

2 Thessalonians 2:1214. The Wiles of Antichrist and Whom He Deceives (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

2 Thessalonians 2:137. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14)

2 Thessalonians 2:149. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14)

2 Thessalonians 2:1528. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15); 2. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written; 16. Stand Fast and Hold the Traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:15–17); 5. Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18)

2 Thessalonians 2:16–1716. Stand Fast and Hold the Traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:15–17)

2 Thessalonians 2:1716. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

2 Thessalonians 3:110. The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10); 28. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

2 Thessalonians 3:1–217. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

2 Thessalonians 3:22. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written

2 Thessalonians 3:327. The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

2 Thessalonians 3:418. Confidence in the Lord; the Apostle’s Wish (2 Thessalonians 3:4–5)

2 Thessalonians 3:518. Confidence in the Lord; the Apostle’s Wish (2 Thessalonians 3:4–5)

2 Thessalonians 3:619. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 19. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9); 20. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15)

2 Thessalonians 3:6–162. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written

2 Thessalonians 3:7–919. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9)

2 Thessalonians 3:812. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

2 Thessalonians 3:918. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

2 Thessalonians 3:1019. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9); 20. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15)

2 Thessalonians 3:111. Occasion for Writing and Contents of the Epistle; 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3); 20. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15)

2 Thessalonians 3:1220. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15)

2 Thessalonians 3:1320. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15)

2 Thessalonians 3:13–1419. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9)

2 Thessalonians 3:1419. Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9)

2 Thessalonians 3:14–1520. He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15)

2 Thessalonians 3:1621. Final Blessings, Salutation, and Prayer (2 Thessalonians 3:16–18)

2 Thessalonians 3:172. Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written; 21. Final Blessings, Salutation, and Prayer (2 Thessalonians 3:16–18)

2 Thessalonians 3:1821. Final Blessings, Salutation, and Prayer (2 Thessalonians 3:16–18)

1 Timothy

1 Timothy 1:18. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

1 Timothy 1:24. Inscription and Greeting (2 Thessalonians 1:1–2); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

1 Timothy 1:316. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15); 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

1 Timothy 1:3–44. The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject

1 Timothy 1:416. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7)

1 Timothy 1:54. The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject; 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!; 16. Concluding Thoughts (16.19)

1 Timothy 1:5–617. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

1 Timothy 1:64. The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject

1 Timothy 1:74. The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject

1 Timothy 1:85. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

1 Timothy 1:8–105. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

1 Timothy 1:8–205. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

1 Timothy 1:911. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

1 Timothy 1:9–105. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

1 Timothy 1:1188. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 5. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

1 Timothy 1:11–145. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

1 Timothy 1:126. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

1 Timothy 1:12–145. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

1 Timothy 1:136. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

1 Timothy 1:146. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

1 Timothy 1:156. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15); 17. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.18)

1 Timothy 1:15–175. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

1 Timothy 1:1612. Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15); 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

1 Timothy 1:17The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 6. I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15); 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

1 Timothy 1:181. On Saint Timothy; 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20); 18. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

1 Timothy 1:18–205. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11); 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

1 Timothy 1:197. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

1 Timothy 1:2039. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11); 4. The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject; 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20); 8. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14–19); 16. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

1 Timothy 2:118. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

1 Timothy 2:1–28. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

1 Timothy 2:1–78. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

1 Timothy 2:281. Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8); 8. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2); 13. Titus 2:4–5—The Younger Women

1 Timothy 2:2–78. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

1 Timothy 2:38. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

1 Timothy 2:3–49. One God, One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:3–6)

1 Timothy 2:3–78. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

1 Timothy 2:487. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24); 14. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18); 17. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12); 10. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.1, 10.18)

1 Timothy 2:5–66. The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2); 9. One God, One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:3–6)

1 Timothy 2:79. One God, One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:3–6); 10. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

1 Timothy 2:810. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8); 12. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

1 Timothy 2:8–158. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2); 10. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8); 11. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Timothy 2:911. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Timothy 2:9–1011. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Timothy 2:9–1210. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

1 Timothy 2:9–1510. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

1 Timothy 2:11–1211. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Timothy 2:1294. Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16); 12. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

1 Timothy 2:1311. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Timothy 2:13–1411. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Timothy 2:13–1511. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Timothy 2:1411. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Timothy 2:1511. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15); 20. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

1 Timothy 3:125. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15); 12. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

1 Timothy 3:1–138. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

1 Timothy 3:1–712. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

1 Timothy 3:212. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13); 8. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

1 Timothy 3:2–312. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

1 Timothy 3:312. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5); 17. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

1 Timothy 3:412. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

1 Timothy 3:4–512. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

1 Timothy 3:512. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

1 Timothy 3:612. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

1 Timothy 3:713. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

1 Timothy 3:812. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13); 8. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

1 Timothy 3:8–1312. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

1 Timothy 3:913. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

1 Timothy 3:1012. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

1 Timothy 3:1113. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

1 Timothy 3:1213. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

1 Timothy 3:1313. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

1 Timothy 3:1414. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16); 16. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

1 Timothy 3:14–154. The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject

1 Timothy 3:14–1614. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

1 Timothy 3:152. On the Epistles to Saint Timothy; 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

1 Timothy 3:1618. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12); 12. What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

1 Timothy 4:111. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5); 15. In the Latter Times Some Shall Depart From the Faith (1 Timothy 4:1–2); 11. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

1 Timothy 4:1–214. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

1 Timothy 4:1–614. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

1 Timothy 4:215. In the Latter Times Some Shall Depart From the Faith (1 Timothy 4:1–2)

1 Timothy 4:315. In the Latter Times Some Shall Depart From the Faith (1 Timothy 4:1–2); 16. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7)

1 Timothy 4:3–515. In the Latter Times Some Shall Depart From the Faith (1 Timothy 4:1–2)

1 Timothy 4:484. Receiving the Weak in Faith Without Disputes (Romans 14:1–5); 87. Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24); 16. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7)

1 Timothy 4:516. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7)

1 Timothy 4:616. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7)

1 Timothy 4:6–1016. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7)

1 Timothy 4:6–716. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7)

1 Timothy 4:716. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7); 25. The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10)

1 Timothy 4:7–1016. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7)

1 Timothy 4:817. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12); 5. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

1 Timothy 4:917. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

1 Timothy 4:1017. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

1 Timothy 4:1117. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

1 Timothy 4:11–1617. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

1 Timothy 4:1213. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13); 17. Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

1 Timothy 4:1318. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

1 Timothy 4:1476. Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9); 23. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13); 6. Inscription and Greeting (Philippians 1:1–2); 1. On Saint Timothy; 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20); 18. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

1 Timothy 4:1518. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

1 Timothy 4:1614. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18); 18. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16); 10. Flee Youthful Lusts; the Lord’s Servant Must Be Gentle (2 Timothy 2:22–26)

1 Timothy 5:119. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

1 Timothy 5:219. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

1 Timothy 5:319. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

1 Timothy 5:3–819. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

1 Timothy 5:419. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

1 Timothy 5:519. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

1 Timothy 5:619. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

1 Timothy 5:719. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

1 Timothy 5:820. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

1 Timothy 5:9–1019. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7); 20. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

1 Timothy 5:9–1519. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7); 20. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

1 Timothy 5:11–1220. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

1 Timothy 5:11–1519. On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7); 20. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

1 Timothy 5:1320. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13); 12. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

1 Timothy 5:1421. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

1 Timothy 5:1521. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

1 Timothy 5:1621. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

1 Timothy 5:174. The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21); 39. The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11); 41. The Ordering of the Members in the Church; Seek the Greater Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:27–31); 25. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15); 21. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

1 Timothy 5:17–1821. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

1 Timothy 5:1821. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

1 Timothy 5:1921. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

1 Timothy 5:19–2121. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

1 Timothy 5:2012. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5); 21. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

1 Timothy 5:2122. Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 Timothy 5:226. Inscription and Greeting (Philippians 1:1–2); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13); 22. Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25)

1 Timothy 5:22–2521. Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20); 22. Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25)

1 Timothy 5:2383. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14); 30. Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19); 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13); 22. Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25)

1 Timothy 5:2422. Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25)

1 Timothy 5:2522. Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25)

1 Timothy 6:123. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3); Introduction to the Epistle

1 Timothy 6:1–223. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3)

1 Timothy 6:223. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3)

1 Timothy 6:3–1923. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3)

1 Timothy 6:3–423. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3); 10. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers

1 Timothy 6:3–523. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3)

1 Timothy 6:424. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8)

1 Timothy 6:523. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3); 24. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8); 25. The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10)

1 Timothy 6:624. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8)

1 Timothy 6:6–1023. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3); 24. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8)

1 Timothy 6:6–1623. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3); 24. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8)

1 Timothy 6:724. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8); 5. The Application

1 Timothy 6:7–1011. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.5)

1 Timothy 6:7–811. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.20)

1 Timothy 6:824. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8); 8. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless; 19. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

1 Timothy 6:925. The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10); 4. The Interpretation

1 Timothy 6:1052. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38); 25. The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10)

1 Timothy 6:1118. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13); 23. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3); 25. The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13); 7. Subjects for Reflection

1 Timothy 6:11–1225. The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10)

1 Timothy 6:11–1623. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3); 24. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8); 25. The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10)

1 Timothy 6:128. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 Timothy 6:1314. I Charge You: Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1–4)

1 Timothy 6:13–1426. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 Timothy 6:13–1625. The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13); 27. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

1 Timothy 6:1427. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

1 Timothy 6:1588. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 27. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

1 Timothy 6:1688. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 27. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

1 Timothy 6:1727. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

1 Timothy 6:17–1923. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3); 27. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

1 Timothy 6:1826. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 Timothy 6:18–1927. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

1 Timothy 6:1923. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3)

1 Timothy 6:2027. Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19); 28. Keep That Which Is Committed to Your Trust (1 Timothy 6:20–21)

1 Timothy 6:2128. Keep That Which Is Committed to Your Trust (1 Timothy 6:20–21)

2 Timothy

2 Timothy 1:11. Inscription, Greeting, and Thanksgiving (2 Timothy 1:1–4)

2 Timothy 1:27. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 1. Inscription, Greeting, and Thanksgiving (2 Timothy 1:1–4)

2 Timothy 1:38. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 1. Inscription, Greeting, and Thanksgiving (2 Timothy 1:1–4)

2 Timothy 1:41. Inscription, Greeting, and Thanksgiving (2 Timothy 1:1–4)

2 Timothy 1:51. On Saint Timothy; 2. The Unfeigned Faith; Stir Up the Gift of God (2 Timothy 1:5–6)

2 Timothy 1:623. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13); 26. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 1. On Saint Timothy; 18. Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16); 2. The Unfeigned Faith; Stir Up the Gift of God (2 Timothy 1:5–6)

2 Timothy 1:73. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

2 Timothy 1:86. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

2 Timothy 1:8–186. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

2 Timothy 1:8–93. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

2 Timothy 1:99. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 15. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14); 3. The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

2 Timothy 1:9–1022. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15)

2 Timothy 1:1022. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15); 4. Christ Has Abolished Death; I Know Whom I Have Believed (2 Timothy 1:10–12)

2 Timothy 1:1116. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21); 4. Christ Has Abolished Death; I Know Whom I Have Believed (2 Timothy 1:10–12)

2 Timothy 1:124. Christ Has Abolished Death; I Know Whom I Have Believed (2 Timothy 1:10–12)

2 Timothy 1:134. The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject; 5. Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18); 10. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers

2 Timothy 1:145. Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18)

2 Timothy 1:155. Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18)

2 Timothy 1:16–175. Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18)

2 Timothy 1:185. Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18)

2 Timothy 2:16. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

2 Timothy 2:26. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

2 Timothy 2:36. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

2 Timothy 2:426. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13); 6. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

2 Timothy 2:56. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

2 Timothy 2:66. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

2 Timothy 2:76. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

2 Timothy 2:87. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

2 Timothy 2:917. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13); 1. The Preface

2 Timothy 2:1015. The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

2 Timothy 2:117. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

2 Timothy 2:11–1214. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

2 Timothy 2:1214. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 15. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10); 22. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

2 Timothy 2:136. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7); 7. If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

2 Timothy 2:146. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7); 8. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14–19)

2 Timothy 2:1516. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7); 8. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14–19)

2 Timothy 2:168. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14–19); 11. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

2 Timothy 2:178. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14–19)

2 Timothy 2:17–1848. The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

2 Timothy 2:188. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14–19)

2 Timothy 2:1944. Love Abides Forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13); 25. Turning Back to the Weak Elements: Observing Days and Seasons (Galatians 4:8–10); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 9. Vessels of Honour in a Great House (2 Timothy 2:20–21); 6. Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6); 7. Subjects for Reflection; 6. Lessons From This Invocation (6.9)

2 Timothy 2:209. Vessels of Honour in a Great House (2 Timothy 2:20–21)

2 Timothy 2:219. Vessels of Honour in a Great House (2 Timothy 2:20–21)

2 Timothy 2:2210. Flee Youthful Lusts; the Lord’s Servant Must Be Gentle (2 Timothy 2:22–26)

2 Timothy 2:2310. Flee Youthful Lusts; the Lord’s Servant Must Be Gentle (2 Timothy 2:22–26)

2 Timothy 2:2412. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.20)

2 Timothy 2:24–2533. Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6); 10. Flee Youthful Lusts; the Lord’s Servant Must Be Gentle (2 Timothy 2:22–26)

2 Timothy 2:2510. Flee Youthful Lusts; the Lord’s Servant Must Be Gentle (2 Timothy 2:22–26); 10. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers; 18. Titus 3:8–11—Good Works; Reject the Heretic

2 Timothy 2:2610. Flee Youthful Lusts; the Lord’s Servant Must Be Gentle (2 Timothy 2:22–26)

2 Timothy 3:111. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5); 11. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

2 Timothy 3:211. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

2 Timothy 3:2–513. Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28)

2 Timothy 3:311. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

2 Timothy 3:411. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

2 Timothy 3:58. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14–19); 11. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

2 Timothy 3:611. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

2 Timothy 3:711. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

2 Timothy 3:836. The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24); 11. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

2 Timothy 3:911. Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

2 Timothy 3:106. Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7); 12. Take Courage: You Have Followed My Teaching (2 Timothy 3:10–13)

2 Timothy 3:1112. Take Courage: You Have Followed My Teaching (2 Timothy 3:10–13)

2 Timothy 3:1216. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5); 12. Take Courage: You Have Followed My Teaching (2 Timothy 3:10–13); 9. The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3)

2 Timothy 3:1312. Take Courage: You Have Followed My Teaching (2 Timothy 3:10–13)

2 Timothy 3:1413. Continue in What You Learned; All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

2 Timothy 3:151. On Saint Timothy; 13. Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13); 13. Continue in What You Learned; All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:14–17); 8. The Six Psalms

2 Timothy 3:15–1713. Continue in What You Learned; All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

2 Timothy 3:16–1713. Continue in What You Learned; All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

2 Timothy 3:1723. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

2 Timothy 4:114. I Charge You: Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1–4)

2 Timothy 4:1–413. Continue in What You Learned; All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

2 Timothy 4:223. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13); 25. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15); 12. On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5); 14. I Charge You: Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1–4); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

2 Timothy 4:35. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

2 Timothy 4:3–414. I Charge You: Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1–4)

2 Timothy 4:512. Take Courage: You Have Followed My Teaching (2 Timothy 3:10–13); 15. Fight the Good Fight; the Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:5–8)

2 Timothy 4:623. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4); 2. On the Epistles to Saint Timothy; 15. Fight the Good Fight; the Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:5–8)

2 Timothy 4:718. Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15); 11. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3); 15. Fight the Good Fight; the Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:5–8)

2 Timothy 4:855. The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58); 21. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15); 15. Fight the Good Fight; the Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:5–8)

2 Timothy 4:916. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

2 Timothy 4:1028. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15); 16. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

2 Timothy 4:1116. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

2 Timothy 4:1216. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

2 Timothy 4:1316. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

2 Timothy 4:1416. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

2 Timothy 4:1517. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3); 16. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

2 Timothy 4:1617. At My First Defence the Lord Stood By Me (2 Timothy 4:16–18)

2 Timothy 4:1717. At My First Defence the Lord Stood By Me (2 Timothy 4:16–18)

2 Timothy 4:1817. At My First Defence the Lord Stood By Me (2 Timothy 4:16–18)

2 Timothy 4:1993. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

2 Timothy 4:2095. A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24); 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

2 Timothy 4:2118. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

2 Timothy 4:2218. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Titus
Titus 1:16. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)
Titus 1:1–55. Outline
Titus 1:26. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)
Titus 1:36. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)
Titus 1:47. Preface—Part 2 (Titus 1:1–4)

Titus 1:51. On Saint Titus; 2. On the Cretan Christians; 7. Preface—Part 2 (Titus 1:1–4); 19. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Titus 1:5–76. Inscription and Greeting (Philippians 1:1–2)

Titus 1:68. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

Titus 1:78. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

Titus 1:89. Titus 1:8–9—The Bishop’s Virtues and Teaching

Titus 1:99. Titus 1:8–9—The Bishop’s Virtues and Teaching

Titus 1:1010. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers

Titus 1:1123. On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3); 10. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers; 11. Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure; 12. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Titus 1:1210. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers

Titus 1:1310. Flee Youthful Lusts; the Lord’s Servant Must Be Gentle (2 Timothy 2:22–26); 10. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers

Titus 1:1411. Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure

Titus 1:1516. Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7); 11. Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure; 4. The Interpretation

Titus 1:1652. The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38); 25. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21); 8. On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2); 20. Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13); 11. Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure

Titus 2:15. The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11); 12. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Titus 2:28. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 12. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Titus 2:2–312. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Titus 2:3–412. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Titus 2:4–513. Titus 2:4–5—The Younger Women

Titus 2:4–612. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Titus 2:613. Titus 2:4–5—The Younger Women

Titus 2:7–812. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women; 14. Titus 2:6–10—Younger Men; Servants

Titus 2:9–1012. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women; 14. Titus 2:6–10—Younger Men; Servants

Titus 2:117. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

Titus 2:11–13The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 7. Preface—Part 2 (Titus 1:1–4)

Titus 2:11–1416. Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

Titus 2:11–1512. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Titus 2:1213. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12); 11. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

Titus 2:12–1338. Freed From Sin, Servants of Righteousness (Romans 6:17–20)

Titus 2:1313. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11); 8. The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3); 7. Preface—Part 2 (Titus 1:1–4); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

Titus 2:14The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared; 6. The Firm Resolve: Having Confessed His Sin, to Blot It Out (V. 19)

Titus 2:154. The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject; 10. Flee Youthful Lusts; the Lord’s Servant Must Be Gentle (2 Timothy 2:22–26); 15. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

Titus 3:116. Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

Titus 3:1–212. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Titus 3:218. The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13); 16. Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

Titus 3:316. Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

Titus 3:3–712. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Titus 3:4–517. Titus 3:4–7—The Washing of Regeneration

Titus 3:6–717. Titus 3:4–7—The Washing of Regeneration

Titus 3:812. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women; 18. Titus 3:8–11—Good Works; Reject the Heretic

Titus 3:8–1112. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Titus 3:918. Titus 3:8–11—Good Works; Reject the Heretic

Titus 3:1030. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12); 24. Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8); 10. Flee Youthful Lusts; the Lord’s Servant Must Be Gentle (2 Timothy 2:22–26); 10. Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers; 18. Titus 3:8–11—Good Works; Reject the Heretic

Titus 3:1118. Titus 3:8–11—Good Works; Reject the Heretic

Titus 3:1219. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Titus 3:12–1419. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Titus 3:12–155. Outline

Titus 3:132. On the Cretan Christians; 19. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Titus 3:1419. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Titus 3:1519. Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Philemon

Philemon 1:17. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

Philemon 1:1–293. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3); 1. The Preface

Philemon 1:21. Information About the Christian Community in Colossae

Philemon 1:31. The Preface

Philemon 1:41. The Preface

Philemon 1:51. Information About the Christian Community in Colossae; 1. The Preface

Philemon 1:61. The Preface

Philemon 1:71. The Preface

Philemon 1:8–92. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

Philemon 1:102. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

Philemon 1:10–1893. Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3)

Philemon 1:112. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

Philemon 1:122. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

Philemon 1:132. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

Philemon 1:142. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

Philemon 1:152. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

Philemon 1:162. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

Philemon 1:172. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Philemon 1:182. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Philemon 1:191. Information About the Christian Community in Colossae; 2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Philemon 1:202. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Philemon 1:212. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Philemon 1:222. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Philemon 1:2328. Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

Philemon 1:23–2416. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15); 2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Philemon 1:2416. Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

Philemon 1:252. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Scripture Index (Hebrews–John)

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Hebrews

Hebrews 1:358. The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9); 7. The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5); 11. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18); 10. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16); 9. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Hebrews 1:59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Hebrews 1:5–613. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Hebrews 1:613. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11); 10. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

Hebrews 1:1412. The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24); 24. The Law of God’s Care for Us (Verse 8)

Hebrews 2:223. Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

Hebrews 2:2–3The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Hebrews 2:922. How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15); 9. The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

Hebrews 2:1416. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

Hebrews 2:14–159. One God, One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:3–6)

Hebrews 2:1612. The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Hebrews 3:189. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9); 9. The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

Hebrews 3:5–67. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Hebrews 3:1312. What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7); 11. The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” (11.14, 11.19, 11.20)

Hebrews 4:119. The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come” (9.2)

Hebrews 4:1212. Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6); 14. Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18)

Hebrews 5:4–59. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Hebrews 5:724. Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

Hebrews 5:1426. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

Hebrews 6:223. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

Hebrews 6:7–8The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Hebrews 6:991. Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

Hebrews 7:1216. The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

Hebrews 7:2622. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

Hebrews 8:39. One God, One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:3–6)

Hebrews 8:543. What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15)

Hebrews 9:1043. What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15)

Hebrews 9:1343. What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15); 18. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Hebrews 9:1410. The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10); 7. Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

Hebrews 10:17. The Seven Petitions (7.2)

Hebrews 10:19–311. Who Wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews?

Hebrews 10:2710. The Earnest of Our Inheritance (Ephesians 1:14)

Hebrews 10:28–29The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

Hebrews 10:2941. The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

Hebrews 10:305. The Sinner’s Ascent to Confident Hope, and His Establishment in It (Vv. 16–18)

Hebrews 10:3416. The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

Hebrews 10:3613. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.19)

Hebrews 10:3782. Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12)

Hebrews 10:3924. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

Hebrews 11:144. Love Abides Forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13); 10. The Earnest of Our Inheritance (Ephesians 1:14)

Hebrews 11:412. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Hebrews 11:512. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Hebrews 11:663. Why Many Jews Were Rejected and the Gentiles Called: Faith and Unbelief (Romans 9:29–31); 6. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

Hebrews 11:7–812. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Hebrews 11:1016. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

Hebrews 11:1112. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

Hebrews 11:1316. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

Hebrews 11:1416. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

Hebrews 11:2618. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

Hebrews 11:3110. The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17)

Hebrews 11:37–387. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

Hebrews 12:288. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3); 26. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

Hebrews 12:326. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

Hebrews 12:431. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13); 9. The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

Hebrews 12:515. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

Hebrews 12:618. On Giving Thanks to God for All Things at All Times (Verse 2)

Hebrews 12:1419. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 18. Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Hebrews 12:229. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!; 10. The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

Hebrews 12:2662. Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Hebrews 13:120. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

Hebrews 13:378. Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16)

Hebrews 13:1725. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

Hebrews 13:2117. Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

James

James 1:226. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22); 13. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.3)

James 1:2–413. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.15)

James 1:420. To Know the Love of Christ; the Doxology (Ephesians 3:18–21); 23. The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

James 1:615. The Doxology: “For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever. Amen” (15.8)

James 1:6–710. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

James 1:85. The Application

James 1:13–1413. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.20)

James 1:1542. Sin, Taking Occasion by the Commandment, Wrought Death (Romans 7:9–13); 31. Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

James 1:1719. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17); 13. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.13)

James 1:2079. Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19); 27. Give No Place to the Devil; Grieve Not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:27–31); 8. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

James 1:255. The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

James 2:1312. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.19)

James 2:2629. Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6); 1. The Preface

James 3:228. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

James 3:828. The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

James 3:154. The Interpretation

James 3:174. The Interpretation

James 4:145. Wretched Man That I Am! Who Shall Deliver Me? (Romans 7:21–25)

James 4:22. The Sinner’s Awareness of His Ruinous Condition (Vv. 4–8)

James 4:1121. Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11)

James 4:13–1625. The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

James 5:821. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

James 5:2030. You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

1 Peter

1 Peter 1:28. The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9); 23. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); 19. Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17); 12. In Him All Fullness Dwells; Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:19–23); 16. Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15); 19. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 16. Stand Fast and Hold the Traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:15–17); 17. Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

1 Peter 1:37. A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

1 Peter 1:3–44. The Interpretation

1 Peter 1:1218. Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

1 Peter 1:1334. The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14)

1 Peter 1:159. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

1 Peter 1:1619. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 8. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.17)

1 Peter 1:2220. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

1 Peter 1:2316. Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22); 13. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12); 3. The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

1 Peter 2:36. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

1 Peter 2:99. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 9. God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7); 6. Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)

1 Peter 2:2423. A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21); 18. Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

1 Peter 3:311. The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

1 Peter 3:420. The Renewal of the Inward Man; the Eternal Weight of Glory (2 Cor. 4:14–5:1)

1 Peter 3:719. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8); 12. Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

1 Peter 3:925. Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15); 27. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

1 Peter 3:1027. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

1 Peter 3:1126. Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

1 Peter 3:18The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

1 Peter 3:2025. Christ Set Forth as a Propitiation Through Faith in His Blood (Romans 3:25)

1 Peter 3:2128. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

1 Peter 3:2210. The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16); 14. The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

1 Peter 4:126. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 Peter 4:215. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

1 Peter 4:315. Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared

1 Peter 4:3–483. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14)

1 Peter 4:419. Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

1 Peter 4:721. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

1 Peter 4:1022. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10); 10. The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

1 Peter 4:1277. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12); 16. The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

1 Peter 4:17–186. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

1 Peter 5:1–38. Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

1 Peter 5:312. The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

1 Peter 5:824. Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11); 17. At My First Defence the Lord Stood By Me (2 Timothy 4:16–18); 9. The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3); 14. The Seventh Petition: “But Deliver Us From the Evil One” (14.13)

1 Peter 5:109. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

1 Peter 5:127. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

1 Peter 5:1428. Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

2 Peter

2 Peter 1:382. Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12); 9. The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10); 12. Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24); 22. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10); 7. Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1); 5. The Application

2 Peter 1:3–415. Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10)

2 Peter 1:5–735. The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

2 Peter 1:814. The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

2 Peter 1:109. The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

2 Peter 1:1313. Continue in What You Learned; All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

2 Peter 1:179. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

2 Peter 1:20–2113. Continue in What You Learned; All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

2 Peter 3:113. Continue in What You Learned; All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

2 Peter 3:311. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

2 Peter 3:89. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

2 Peter 3:1023. Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

2 Peter 3:1517. Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

1 John

1 John 1:226. O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 John 1:529. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

1 John 1:8The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 12. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.16, 12.21)

1 John 1:8–912. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.2)

1 John 2:1The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

1 John 2:2The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 34. Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

1 John 2:626. Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26)

1 John 2:15The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

1 John 2:15–1710. The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven” (10.3)

1 John 2:16The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

1 John 2:1821. The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15); 12. What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7)

1 John 2:2725. Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21); 20. On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

1 John 3:250. The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19); 52. The Firmness of Our Hope; the Spirit Helps Our Infirmity (Romans 8:24–26); 53. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29); 11. Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18); 14. By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10); 19. The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4); 8. The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10)

1 John 3:943. What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15); 29. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

1 John 3:1512. The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.” (12.3, 12.28)

1 John 3:2053. All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29)

1 John 4:625. Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13); 11. The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

1 John 4:722. Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15)

1 John 4:166. The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7); 28. Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4); 9. Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14); 22. Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15)

1 John 4:20–2157. The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4); 30. Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15); 31. Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

1 John 5:14–1515. The Doxology: “For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever. Amen” (15.7)

1 John 5:19The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5); 27. The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13); 13. The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (13.4)

2 John

2 John 1:711. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

3 John

3 John 1:5–69. Titus 1:8–9—The Bishop’s Virtues and Teaching

3 John 1:9–109. Titus 1:8–9—The Bishop’s Virtues and Teaching

Jude

Jude 1:916. Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State

Jude 1:17–1911. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

Revelation

Revelation 1:111. The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

Revelation 2:2412. What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7)

Revelation 3:1677. Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

Revelation 3:1817. The Veil Removed in Christ; Beholding the Glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15–4:2)

Revelation 4:88. The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (8.3)

Revelation 5:12–1313. The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

Revelation 6:109. The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come” (9.2)

Revelation 7:1011. The One Praying Utters the Desires of His Heart, Pouring Out His Prayer (Vv. 8–9)

Revelation 13:214. The Wiles of Antichrist and Whom He Deceives (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Revelation 13:411. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

Revelation 13:13–1514. The Wiles of Antichrist and Whom He Deceives (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Revelation 14:19. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Revelation 14:10–136. Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

Revelation 14:137. Subjects for Reflection

Revelation 17:512. What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7)

Revelation 17:8–1111. The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

Revelation 18:19–209. The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

Revelation 19:128. The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10)

Revelation 20:1013. The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Revelation 22:1529. Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

John

John 12:2089. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

John 12:2389. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

John 12:2889. Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

John 13:3188. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3)

John 14:1388. We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3)

The Author: Saint Theophan the Recluse

Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815–1894) is among the most beloved teachers of the spiritual life in the Russian Orthodox Church. He was born on 10 January 1815 in the village of Chernavsk, in the Oryol province of central Russia, and given the name Georgy Vasilyevich Govorov. His father was a parish priest, and the boy was raised in the ordered piety of a country rectory. He studied first at the theological school in Livny, then at the Oryol Seminary, and finally at the Kiev Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1841. The ancient monasteries of Kiev, and above all the Monastery of the Caves, left a deep mark on him during those years.

In his last year as a student, in 1841, Georgy Govorov was tonsured a monk and given the name Theophan, after Saint Theophan the Confessor, a defender of the holy icons. He was soon ordained hieromonk and set on the path of teaching and administration in the Church’s schools: he served in the theological schools of Kiev, as inspector at Novgorod, and as an instructor in moral and pastoral theology at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. For several years he lived in the Christian East, attached to the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, where in Jerusalem, Constantinople, and on Mount Athos he studied, copied, and gathered the writings of the Fathers that he would later render into Russian. In 1857 he was appointed rector of the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy.

In 1859 he was consecrated Bishop of Tambov and Shatsk, and in 1863 he was transferred to the ancient see of Vladimir. As a bishop he was known for gentleness, tireless preaching, and care for the education of his people, founding diocesan schools for girls in both dioceses. Yet the labours of administration drew him away from the inner life he most desired. In 1866, at his own request, he was released from the government of his diocese and withdrew to the Vyshensky Hermitage, a quiet monastery he had come to love while at Tambov.

At Vysha, Saint Theophan gradually gave himself wholly to prayer and writing. Beginning in 1872 he entered strict reclusion: he no longer left his cell for the monastery church, received almost no visitors, and lived for the remaining years in two small rooms, celebrating the Divine Liturgy alone in a chapel he had arranged. This seclusion, far from being idleness, became the most fruitful period of his life. From it flowed the works for which he is remembered: The Path to Salvation and What the Spiritual Life Is; his translation and great expansion of the Philokalia (the Russian Dobrotolyubie) and of other monastic writings; Unseen Warfare; his commentaries on almost all the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, together with expositions of several Psalms; and an immense correspondence, in which he answered, often at the rate of dozens of letters a day, the spiritual questions of people throughout Russia. In 1890 the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy conferred on him a doctorate in theology.

Saint Theophan reposed on 6 January 1894, the Feast of the Theophany whose name he bore, at the age of seventy-nine, and was buried at the Vysha monastery. In 1988, during the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church that celebrated the millennium of the Baptism of Rus’, he was numbered among the saints. His feast is kept on 10 January.

His significance for the Church lies in the way he gathered the whole ascetical and patristic inheritance of Orthodoxy and made it speak to ordinary Christians. He wrote not for specialists but for anyone seeking God, tracing with unusual clarity the movements of the heart, the discipline of unceasing prayer, and the long work by which grace and human freedom together bring a soul to salvation. In his Scripture commentaries this same pastoral aim is at work: he reads the sacred text through the eyes of the ancient Fathers and turns every doctrine toward the reader’s own inner life. For this the Russian Church honours him as a Father in her own age and a sure guide on the path of salvation.

Colophon

The Complete Commentaries
by Saint Theophan the Recluse.

This edition was produced by
Royal Archives.

The cover features
Portrait of Saint Theophan the Recluse (warm-toned)
by Unknown (19th-century lithograph), Wikimedia Commons, which is in the public domain.

The text is set in Palatino and Georgia. Polytonic Greek is set in SIL Gentium.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
August 16, 2026.

Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright
Editor’s Introduction

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

Introduction

Introduction

- The Illumination of the Romans by Faith
- The Composition of the Roman Church
- When and Where the Epistle Was Written

- The Occasion, Motive, and Purpose of Writing

- The Content and Structure

Preface (Romans 1:1–17)

- The Inscription and Greeting (Romans 1:1–2)

- Called to Be an Apostle for the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:3–5)

- The Beginning of the Epistle: Paul Praises the Faith of the Romans (Romans 1:7–9)

- Paul’s Desire to See Them and His Debt to Enlighten All (Romans 1:11–14)

- The Chief Subject of the Epistle: the Righteousness of God Revealed From Faith to Faith (Romans 1:15–17)

The Doctrinal Part: On Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 1:18–11:36)

No Salvation Apart From Faith in Christ: the Wrath of God Revealed Against Ungodliness (Romans 1:18–20)

The Gentiles Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 1:21–24)

Given Over to a Debased Mind (Romans 1:25–28)

The Catalogue of Iniquity; They Who Do Such Things Are Worthy of Death (Romans 1:29–32)

The Righteous Judgment of God on Every Soul (Romans 2:1–6)

God Will Render to Each According to His Works (Romans 2:7–10)

There Is No Respect of Persons With God; Doers of the Law Are Justified (Romans 2:11–15)

The Jews Also Held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness (Romans 2:16–19)

You Who Boast in the Law Dishonour God by Breaking It (Romans 2:21–27)

The True Jew, and the Advantage of the Jew (Romans 2:28–3:2)

Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7)

None Is Righteous, No, Not One (Romans 3:8–12)

All the World Guilty Before God; By the Law Is the Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:13–20)

God’s Wondrous Way of Salvation in His Only-Begotten Son: the Righteousness of God by Faith (Romans 3:21–24)

Christ Set Forth as a Propitiation Through Faith in His Blood (Romans 3:25)

Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law; Paul Draws to Faith by the Example of Abraham (Romans 3:27–31)

Abraham Believed God, and It Was Counted to Him for Righteousness (Romans 4:1–4)

The Blessedness of the Man to Whom God Imputes Righteousness Without Works (Romans 4:6–13)

The Promise Sure to All the Seed Through the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:14–19)

Being Justified by Faith, We Have Peace With God (Romans 4:20–5:1)

The Treasures of Faith: God Commends His Love in the Death of Christ for Us (Romans 5:2–6)

Reconciled to God by the Death of His Son; Adam and Christ (Romans 5:7–12)

The Meaning of Christ’s Economy in Human History: Grace Abounding Over Sin (Romans 5:13–17)

Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Buried With Christ in Baptism, That We Should Walk in Newness of Life (Romans 6:4–6)

Dead to Sin but Alive to God; How to Stand and Show Forth Holiness (Romans 6:7–12)

Present Yourselves to God as Instruments of Righteousness (Romans 6:13–16)

Freed From Sin, Servants of Righteousness (Romans 6:17–20)

The Wages of Sin Is Death, but the Gift of God Is Eternal Life (Romans 6:22–7:2)

Dead to the Law Through the Body of Christ; Not to Mingle Judaism (Romans 7:4–6)

The Law Did Not Multiply Sins, but the Sin Dwelling in Us (Romans 7:7–8)

Sin, Taking Occasion by the Commandment, Wrought Death (Romans 7:9–13)

What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15)

The Inward Struggle: the Law of the Mind Against the Law of Sin (Romans 7:16–20)

Wretched Man That I Am! Who Shall Deliver Me? (Romans 7:21–25)

No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: the Bright State of Christians Under the Faith (Romans 8:1–3)

The Mind of the Flesh Is Death, but the Mind of the Spirit Is Life and Peace (Romans 8:4–7)

You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11)

The Full Manifestation to Come: Led by the Spirit, Sons and Heirs of God (Romans 8:12–15)

The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are Children of God; the Whole Creation Groans (Romans 8:16–19)

The Creation Waits for the Revealing of the Sons of God; the Firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:20–23)

The Firmness of Our Hope; the Spirit Helps Our Infirmity (Romans 8:24–26)

All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29)

If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:30–32)

Who Shall Separate Us From the Love of Christ? (Romans 8:33–35)

More Than Conquerors; Paul’s Great Love for His People (Romans 8:36–9:1)

The Unbelief of the Jews: Paul’s Grief for His Kinsmen (Romans 9:2–4)

The Rejection of Part of Israel Does Not Nullify God’s Promises (Romans 9:5–9)

God’s Purpose According to Election: Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:10–15)

It Is Not of Him That Wills, but of God That Shows Mercy (Romans 9:16–19)

Shall the Thing Formed Say to Him That Formed It? The Vessels of Mercy and of Wrath (Romans 9:20–22)

Called Not From the Jews Only but Also From the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–27)

Why Many Jews Were Rejected and the Gentiles Called: Faith and Unbelief (Romans 9:29–31)

Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to Everyone Who Believes (Romans 9:33–10:4)

The Righteousness of Faith: Confess With the Mouth, Believe in the Heart (Romans 10:5–9)

Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Shall Be Saved; Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:10–14)

How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Preach the Gospel (Romans 10:15–19)

The Consolation of the People of God: God Has Not Cast Away His People (Romans 10:20–11:2)

A Remnant According to the Election of Grace (Romans 11:6–9)

If Their Fall Is the Riches of the World, How Much More Their Fullness (Romans 11:11–16)

The Wild Olive Grafted In: Do Not Be Highminded, but Fear (Romans 11:17–22)

All Israel Shall Be Saved (Romans 11:23–28)

The Depth of the Riches and Wisdom of God: For of Him and Through Him Are All Things (Romans 11:29–36)

The Moral Part (Romans 12:1–15:13)

- The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2)

- How It Is Expressed in Life: The Gifts of Grace and the Members of One Body (Romans 12:3–6)

- Rules for All Christians: Let Love Be Without Hypocrisy (Romans 12:7–9)

- Be Fervent in Spirit, Serving the Lord; Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 12:10–12)

- Distributing to the Needs of the Saints; Given to Hospitality (Romans 12:13–16)

- Recompense No Man Evil for Evil (Romans 12:17–19)

- Overcome Evil With Good; Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (Romans 12:20–13:1)

- Render to All Their Dues; Owe No Man Anything but to Love One Another (Romans 13:2–8)

- Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law; the Night Is Far Spent (Romans 13:9–12)

- Put On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Make No Provision for the Flesh (Romans 13:13–14)

- Receiving the Weak in Faith Without Disputes (Romans 14:1–5)

- Each Shall Give Account of Himself to God; Judge Not One Another (Romans 14:6–12)

- Put No Stumbling Block Before a Brother; the Kingdom of God Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy (Romans 14:13–18)

- Follow After the Things That Make for Peace and Edification (Romans 14:19–24)

- We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of the Weak (Romans 14:25–15:3)

- Receive One Another as Christ Received Us, to the Glory of God (Romans 15:4–9)

- The God of Hope Fill You With All Joy and Peace in Believing (Romans 15:13)

Conclusion of the Epistle (Romans 15:14–16:24)

- Paul’s Explanation of His Ministry and Apology (Romans 15:14–19)

- Paul’s Plans and His Request for Their Prayers (Romans 15:20–30)

- Commendation and Greetings (Romans 15:31–16:3)

- Greet One Another With a Holy Kiss (Romans 16:5–16)

- A Warning; the Doxology and Postscript (Romans 16:17–24)

Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians

Introduction

Part One. The Checking of the Disputes That Had Arisen (1 Corinthians 1:10–4:31)

- Exhortation to Concord and Unity of Mind (1 Corinthians 1:10)

- What the Dispute Consisted In (1 Corinthians 1:11–12)

- The Absurdity of Such Talk Exposed (1 Corinthians 1:13–16)

- The Word of the Cross: God’s Wisdom and Human Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17–21)

- God Chose the Foolish and Weak Things of the World (1 Corinthians 1:22–28)

- Christ Our Wisdom; the Preaching Not in Persuasive Words (1 Corinthians 1:29–2:5)

- The Hidden Wisdom of God, Revealed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6–10)

- The Spiritual Man Discerns All Things; We Have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11–16)

- Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

- Building on the Foundation, Which Is Christ; the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)

- Let No One Boast in Men: All Things Are Yours (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

- Ministers and Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–6)

- The Apostles Made a Spectacle to the World (1 Corinthians 4:7–16)

- Conclusion: The Sending of Timothy and Paul’s Coming (1 Corinthians 4:17–21)

Part Two. The Rebuke and Correction of Moral Faults (1 Corinthians 5–6)

- The Rebuke for Indifference to the Sin of Incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–8)

- Purging the Christian Community of Open Sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)

- The Rebuke for Lawsuits Before Unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:1–6)

- There Should Be No Lawsuits at All; the Unrighteous Shall Not Inherit (1 Corinthians 6:7–11)

- Against a Life of Bodily Indulgence: the Body Is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:12–19)

- Glorify God in Your Bodies and in Your Souls (1 Corinthians 6:20)

Part Three. Instructions on Marriage and Celibacy (1 Corinthians 7:1–40)

- The General Law of Marriage (1 Corinthians 7:1–2)

- Counsel on the Marriage Bed; to the Unmarried and Widows (1 Corinthians 7:3–9)

- Instruction to the Married; Remaining in One’s Calling (1 Corinthians 7:10–24)

- On Celibacy: General Principles (1 Corinthians 7:25–35)

- The Application of These Instructions (1 Corinthians 7:36–40)

Part Four. How to Regard Food Offered to Idols (1 Corinthians 8:1–11:1)

- How the Stumbling Arises: Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1–6)

- Take Heed Lest Your Liberty Become a Stumbling Block (1 Corinthians 8:7–13)

- Paul’s Apostolic Rights, Which He Did Not Use (1 Corinthians 9:1–11)

- All Things to All Men, for the Gospel’s Sake (1 Corinthians 9:12–20)

- Running to Obtain the Prize; Buffeting the Body (1 Corinthians 9:21–27)

- Examples of God’s Judgments Upon Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–13)

- The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

- How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1)

Part Five. The Rebuke and Correction of Certain Disorders at the Church Assemblies (1 Corinthians 11:2–34)

- The Woman’s Head Should Be Covered by the Order of the Economy (1 Corinthians 11:2–6)

- The Order of Creation and Common Sense on the Covering of the Head (1 Corinthians 11:7–16)

- The Disorders at the Love-Feasts Exposed (1 Corinthians 11:17–22)

- On the Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23–32)

- Ordinances Concerning the Love-Feasts (1 Corinthians 11:33–34)

Part Six. On the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Church (1 Corinthians 12–14)

- The Source, Purpose, and Diversity of the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)

- The Church as One Body With Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12–26)

- The Ordering of the Members in the Church; Seek the Greater Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:27–31)

- Love, the More Excellent Way, Surpassing All Gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1–3)

- Love, the Fullness of the Virtues (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)

- Love Abides Forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13)

- The Superiority of Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–11)

- Tongues as a Sign; Seek to Edify the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12–25)

- Rules for the Use of Prophecy and Tongues in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

Part Seven. On the Resurrection of the Dead (1 Corinthians 15)

- The Truth of Christ’s Resurrection Is Certain (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

- If Christ Is Not Raised: The Consequences of Denial (1 Corinthians 15:12–22)

- Christ the Firstfruits; the End, When He Delivers Up the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:23–28)

- Baptism for the Dead; Dying Daily; a Brief Exhortation (1 Corinthians 15:29–34)

- The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)

- In What Form the Bodies Rise: the Natural and the Spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:39–44)

- The First Adam and the Last Adam; Bearing the Image of the Heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45–50)

- The Prophecy of the Resurrection; the Song of Victory Over Death (1 Corinthians 15:51–58)

Part Eight. Conclusion of the Epistle (1 Corinthians 16)

- The Collection for the Saints in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1–4)

- Paul’s Travel Plans; the Charge Concerning Timothy and Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:5–12)

- Exhortations: Stand Fast in the Faith, in Mutual Love (1 Corinthians 16:13–18)

- Greetings and the Apostle’s Final Word and Blessing (1 Corinthians 16:19–24)

Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians

Introduction

Introduction

- Reason for Writing
- Content of the Epistle
- Division
- Time and Place of Writing

Preface

- The Inscription and Greeting (2 Cor. 1:1–2)

- The Beginning of the Epistle: God Sends Afflictions for the Good of Believers (2 Cor. 1:3–7)

- The Prayers of Believers Share in Deliverance From Troubles (2 Cor. 1:8–11)

Part One: The Theoretical (2 Cor. 1:12–7:16)

- The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

- That the Change of Plan Should Not Be Interpreted Unfavorably (2 Cor. 1:15–17)

- This Change Casts No Shadow on the Unchangeableness of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 1:18–22)

- The Real Reason for the Change of Travel Plans (2 Cor. 1:23–2:4)

- The Pardon of the Penitent Offender (2 Cor. 2:5–11)

- On the Height of Christian Revelation, or Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:12–13)

- The Properties and Effects of Gospel Truth (2 Cor. 2:14–3:3)

- The Sufficiency of the Apostles Is From God; the New Covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:4–8)

- The Surpassing Glory of the Ministry of Righteousness (2 Cor. 3:9–14)

- The Veil Removed in Christ; Beholding the Glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15–4:2)

- The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:3–6)

- The Treasure of Grace in Earthen Vessels (2 Cor. 4:7–13)

- The Renewal of the Inward Man; the Eternal Weight of Glory (2 Cor. 4:14–5:1)

- The Earthly Tent and the Heavenly Dwelling (2 Cor. 5:2–10)

- How the Preaching of the Gospel Proceeds; the Love of Christ Constrains Us (2 Cor. 5:11–15)

- A New Creation; the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16–21)

- Now Is the Accepted Time; the Marks of the Ministers of God (2 Cor. 6:1–6)

- Commending Ourselves in All Things; Be Enlarged Toward Us (2 Cor. 6:7–13)

- Be Not Unequally Yoked; Come Out and Be Separate (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1)

- Joy and Comfort at the Return of Titus; Godly Sorrow (2 Cor. 7:2–8)

- Godly Sorrow Works Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7:9–16)

Part Two: The Practical — On the Collection for the Saints (2 Cor. 8–9)

- Stirring Up Zeal for Almsgiving: the Example of the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:1–6)

- Further Motives to Generous Giving; Equality (2 Cor. 8:7–15)

- The Apostle Sends Titus and Two Brethren to Corinth (2 Cor. 8:16–24)

- Why the Apostle Sent Titus and the Brethren Ahead (2 Cor. 9:1–5)

- An Exhortation to Generous and Cheerful Giving (2 Cor. 9:6–11)

- Generous Giving Sets the Whole Christian Life in Motion, to God’s Glory (2 Cor. 9:12–15)

Part Three: The Apologetic (2 Cor. 10:1–13:10)

- In Person I Can Be Stern, as in My Letters (2 Cor. 10:1–5)

- The Weapons of Our Warfare; Ready to Punish Disobedience (2 Cor. 10:6–11)

- The Apostle’s Authority Empowers His Sternness; His Appointed Measure (2 Cor. 10:12–18)

- On Preaching the Gospel Without Charge (2 Cor. 11:1–9)

- False Apostles as Angels of Light; the Apostle’s Boasting (2 Cor. 11:10–20)

- What the Apostle Suffered in Preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 11:21–26)

- The Apostle’s Labors, Perils, and Care for the Churches (2 Cor. 11:27–32)

- The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5)

- The Thorn in the Flesh; Strength Made Perfect in Weakness (2 Cor. 12:6–10)

- The Signs of Paul’s Apostleship at Corinth (2 Cor. 12:11–18)

- Armed With Such Authority, I Will Come and Not Spare (2 Cor. 12:19–13:3)

- Examine Yourselves; the Apostle’s Prayer for Their Perfecting (2 Cor. 13:4–10)

Conclusion (2 Cor. 13:11–13)

- Conclusion: Final Exhortations and the Grace (2 Cor. 13:11–13)

Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians

- Introduction

- Introduction

- Information About the Region of Galatia and its Inhabitants

- The Founding of Churches in Galatia
- The Occasion for Writing the Epistle
- The Content of the Epistle
- Time and Place of Writing
- Division

- Preface (Gal. 1:1–10)

- The Inscription and Greeting (Galatians 1:1–5)

- The Inscription and Greeting (Continued) (Galatians 1:1–5)

- The Beginning of the Epistle (Galatians 1:6–10)

- The Beginning of the Epistle (Continued) (Galatians 1:6–10)

- Apologetic Part (Gal. 1:11–2:21)

- The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

- Confirmed by His Sudden Change; Not Learned From Others (Galatians 1:13–24)

- Not Taught by the Apostles, Yet in Agreement With Them (Galatians 1:17–2:10)

- The Purpose of His Going Up to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2)

- Titus Not Compelled to Be Circumcised; the False Brethren (Galatians 2:3–5)

- The Chief Apostles Give the Right Hand of Fellowship (Galatians 2:6–21)

- Paul Withstands Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:11–14)

- Justified by Faith in Christ, Not by Works of the Law (Galatians 2:15–21)

- Crucified With Christ; Christ Lives in Me (Continued) (Galatians 2:15–21)

- Doctrinal Part (Gal. 3–5:12)

- O Senseless Galatians! The Spirit Received by Faith, Not by Law (Galatians 3:1–14)

- The Blessing of Abraham and Redemption From the Curse (Continued) (Galatians 3:1–14)

- The Law Does Not Annul the Promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:15–29)

- Why Then Was the Law Given? The Guardian Unto Christ (Galatians 3:19–29)

- No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

- Turning Back to the Weak Elements: Observing Days and Seasons (Galatians 4:8–10)

- The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20)

- The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

- Children of the Free Woman: Stand Fast in Freedom (Continued) (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

- Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

- You Were Running Well: Who Hindered You? (Galatians 5:7–12)

- Moral Part (Gal. 5:13–6:10)

- Called to Freedom: Walk by the Spirit, Not the Flesh (Galatians 5:13–25)

- The Fruit of the Spirit; Crucifying the Flesh (Continued) (Galatians 5:13–25)

- Bear One Another’s Burdens; Restore in Gentleness (Galatians 5:26–6:6)

Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians

- Introduction

- Introduction

- The Founding of the Church of Ephesus

- The Circumstances of the Writing of the Epistle

- Was This Epistle Written to the Ephesians?
- Place and Time of Writing
- Contents and Division of the Epistle

- Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2)

- The Inscription and Greeting (Ephesians 1:1–2)

- The Dogmatic Part (Ephesians 1:3–3:21)

- A Survey of the Economy of Salvation: Blessed Be God (Ephesians 1:3–4)

- Predestined to Adoption; Redemption Through His Blood (Ephesians 1:5–9)

- The Recapitulation of All Things in Christ; the Seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:10–13)

- The Earnest of Our Inheritance (Ephesians 1:14)

- Paul’s Prayer for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15–18)

- The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

- Made Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1–4)

- By Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, Not of Works (Ephesians 2:6–10)

- The Two Made One; Christ Our Peace (Ephesians 2:11–14)

- Fellow Citizens With the Saints; the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:17–22)

- The Mystery Hidden From the Ages, Now Revealed (Ephesians 2:22–3:5)

- Paul, Minister of the Mystery; Access With Boldness (Ephesians 3:6–12)

- Bowing the Knees: Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:13–17)

- To Know the Love of Christ; the Doxology (Ephesians 3:18–21)

- The Moral Part (Ephesians 4:1–6:18)

- Walk Worthily: the Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–4)

- One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; the Ascent of Christ (Ephesians 4:5–10)

- The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

- Growing Up Into Christ the Head (Ephesians 4:14–16)

- Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

- Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26)

- Give No Place to the Devil; Grieve Not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:27–31)

- Be Imitators of God; Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:32–5:4)

- Children of Light (Ephesians 5:5–12)

- Walk Circumspectly; Be Filled With the Spirit (Ephesians 5:13–19)

- Particular Rules by State of Life: Wives and Husbands (Ephesians 5:20–26)

- The Great Mystery: Christ and the Church; Children and Parents (Ephesians 5:28–6:4)

- Servants and Masters (Ephesians 6:5–9)

- The Whole Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10–14)

- The Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and Prayer (Ephesians 6:15–18)

- Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

- The Conclusion of the Epistle (Ephesians 6:19–24)

Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians

- Introduction

- Introduction

- The City of Philippi

- The Church of Philippi (Acts 16)

- Occasion, Purpose, Content, and Distinctive Features of the Epistle

- Division of the Epistle

- Place and Time of Writing

- Preface — Inscription, Greeting, and Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:1–11)

- Inscription and Greeting (Philippians 1:1–2)

- The Opening of the Epistle (Philippians 1:3–11)

- Part One — The Apostle’s Account of Himself (Philippians 1:12–2:18)

- The Progress of the Gospel; the Apostle’s Bonds and Hopes (Philippians 1:12–20)

- To Live Is Christ, and to Die Is Gain (Philippians 1:21–26)

- Live Worthily of the Gospel; Stand Fast in One Spirit (Philippians 1:27–30)

- An Appeal to Unity of Mind (Philippians 2:1–2)

- Removing the Obstacles to Humble Mutual Love (Philippians 2:3–4)

- The Mind of Christ: His Self-Emptying and Exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11)

- Work Out Your Salvation; Shine as Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12–18)

- Part Two — The Apostle’s Account of His Intentions (Philippians 2:19–30)

- Sending Timothy to the Philippians (Philippians 2:19–24)

- The Sending of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25–30)

- Part Three — A Warning, with Applied Lessons (Philippians 3:1–4:1)

- Warning Against the Judaizers (Philippians 3:1–9)

- Pressing Toward the Goal; the Mind of the Perfect (Philippians 3:10–15)

- Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1)

- Part Four — Brief Admonition to Certain Persons, with General Instruction (Philippians 4:2–9)

- A Brief Admonition to Certain Persons (Philippians 4:2–3)

- Rejoice in the Lord; Be Anxious for Nothing (Philippians 4:4–7)

- Whatever Is True and Honorable; Put It Into Practice (Philippians 4:8–9)

- Part Five — The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

- The Apostle’s Grateful Acknowledgment of Their Gift (Philippians 4:10–20)

- Afterword (Philippians 4:21–23)

- Salutations and Final Blessing (Philippians 4:21–23)

Commentary on the Epistle to the Colossians

- Introduction

- Introduction

- Information About the Christian Community in Colossae

- The Reason for Writing the Epistle
- The Content and Purpose of the Epistle
- The Time and Place of Writing
- Division

- Preface (Colossians 1:1–11)

- Inscription and Greeting (Colossians 1:1–3)

- Thanksgiving for the Colossians’ Faith (Colossians 1:3–8)

- The Apostle’s Prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–11)

- Doctrinal Part (Colossians 1:12–20; 2:1–23)

- Redemption and Translation Into the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:12–14)

- The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16)

- He Is Before All Things; Head of the Body, the Church (Colossians 1:17–18)

- In Him All Fullness Dwells; Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:19–23)

- The Apostle’s Share in the Dispensation Toward the Gentiles (Colossians 1:24–29)

- The Apostle’s Striving; Warning Against Persuasive Words (Colossians 2:1–5)

- Rooted in Christ; In Him Dwells the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily (Colossians 2:6–10)

- Circumcision of Christ; Buried and Raised With Him; the Bond Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:11–15)

- Let No One Judge You; the Shadow and the Body (Colossians 2:16–19)

- Dead With Christ to the Elements of the World (Colossians 2:20–23)

- Moral Part (Colossians 3:1–25; 4:1–6)

- The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

- Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8)

- Put On the New Self, Renewed After the Image of the Creator (Colossians 3:9–11)

- Put On Compassion, Forbearance, and Love, the Bond of Perfection (Colossians 3:12–15)

- The Means of Progress: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Colossians 3:16–17)

- Christian Life in the Household (Colossians 3:18–4:1)

- Christian Life in the Church: Continue in Prayer (Colossians 4:2–4)

- Christian Life Toward Those Outside (Colossians 4:5–6)

- Conclusion (Colossians 4:7–18)

- Tidings: Tychicus and Onesimus (Colossians 4:7–9)

- Greetings From the Apostle’s Companions (Colossians 4:10–15)

- Charges and Directions (Colossians 4:16–17)

- The Apostle’s Autograph Conclusion (Colossians 4:18)

Commentary on the First Epistle to the Thessalonians

- Introduction

- Introduction

- Information About the City of Thessalonica and Its People

- The Founding of the Thessalonian Church
- The Occasion for Writing the Epistle
- The Purpose of the Epistle
- Division
- The Time and Place of Writing

- Preface — Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

- Inscription and Greeting (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

- Part One — Historical (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3:13)

- The Bright State of the Church: Thanksgiving and Their Virtues (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)

- God’s Favor Shown in Their Election (1 Thessalonians 1:4–7)

- The Beneficial Effect of Their Conversion and Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10)

- The Apostles’ Preaching and Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

- The Apostles’ Sincerity and Gentleness (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8)

- The Apostles’ Labor and Blameless Conduct (1 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

- The Thessalonians’ Faith and Courageous Steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 2:13–16)

- The Apostle’s Sorrow at Separation and Longing to See Them (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

- The Sending of Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3:1–5)

- Paul’s Joy at the Good News of Them (1 Thessalonians 3:6–10)

- The Apostle’s Prayerful Good Wishes (1 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

- Part Two — Moral-Dogmatic (1 Thessalonians 4–5)

- Lessons for Their Special Moral Needs; Exhortation to Chastity (1 Thessalonians 4:1–8)

- On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

- The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

- The Resurrection of the Dead and the Lord’s Descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

- Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

- Children of the Day: Vigilance and Sobriety (1 Thessalonians 5:5–11)

- Virtues That Sustain Christian Society (1 Thessalonians 5:12–15)

- Characteristic Features of True Christian Life (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

- The Final Goal: Sanctification of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24)

- Concluding Wishes (1 Thessalonians 5:25–28)

Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians

- Introduction

- Introduction

- Occasion for Writing and Contents of the Epistle

- Time and Place When and Where the Epistle Was Written

- Division

- Preface (2 Thessalonians 1:1–2)

- Inscription and Greeting (2 Thessalonians 1:1–2)

- Part One — An Encouraging Sketch of the Thessalonians’ Bright Side (2 Thessalonians 1:3–12)

- The Thessalonians’ Praiseworthy Qualities (2 Thessalonians 1:3–4)

- Comfort in Tribulation; Assurance of Recompense (2 Thessalonians 1:5–7)

- The Circumstances of the Recompense, I (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

- The Circumstances of the Recompense, II (2 Thessalonians 1:9–10)

- The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

- Part Two — Corrective of Doctrine (2 Thessalonians 2)

- Correcting Wrong Thoughts on the Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2)

- The Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)

- What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7)

- The Lawless One Destroyed by the Lord (2 Thessalonians 2:8)

- The Wiles of Antichrist and Whom He Deceives (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

- The Bright Lot of Believers (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14)

- Stand Fast and Hold the Traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:15–17)

- Part Three — Corrective of Morals (2 Thessalonians 3)

- Concluding Requests and Good Wishes (2 Thessalonians 3:1–3)

- Confidence in the Lord; the Apostle’s Wish (2 Thessalonians 3:4–5)

- Withdraw From the Disorderly; the Apostle’s Example (2 Thessalonians 3:6–9)

- He Who Will Not Work; Admonishing the Disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:10–15)

- Final Blessings, Salutation, and Prayer (2 Thessalonians 3:16–18)

Commentary on the First Epistle to Timothy

- Introduction

- Introduction

- On Saint Timothy

- On the Epistles to Saint Timothy

- Preface (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

- The Inscription and Greeting (1 Timothy 1:1–2)

- The Beginning of the Epistle and Its Subject

- Part One: On Faith in the Lord Jesus (1 Timothy 1:8–20)

- The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

- I Thank Christ Who Strengthened Me (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

- Christ Came to Save Sinners; the Charge to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:16–20)

- Part Two: What Order to Establish and Keep Among Christians (1 Timothy 2:1–3:13)

- On Church Assemblies: Prayer for All (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

- One God, One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:3–6)

- The Apostle Ordained a Preacher; Men to Pray Everywhere (1 Timothy 2:7–8)

- The Adorning of Women; Saved Through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:9–15)

- On Those Chosen for the Clergy: the Bishop (1 Timothy 3:1–5)

- Deacons: Their Qualifications and Reward (1 Timothy 3:6–13)

- Part Three: How to Act Toward Those Shepherded (1 Timothy 3:14–6:19)

- The Church, the Pillar of Truth; the Great Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:14–16)

- In the Latter Times Some Shall Depart From the Faith (1 Timothy 4:1–2)

- Every Creature of God Is Good; a Good Minister of Christ (1 Timothy 4:3–7)

- Godliness Is Profitable to All Things; Be an Example (1 Timothy 4:8–12)

- Give Heed to Reading; Take Heed to Yourself and the Doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13–16)

- On Teaching by States of Life: Elders, and Widows Begun (1 Timothy 5:1–7)

- Provide for Your Own; the Widows Indeed (1 Timothy 5:8–13)

- Younger Widows; Honour the Presbyters (1 Timothy 5:14–20)

- Lay Hands Suddenly on No Man; Keep Yourself Pure (1 Timothy 5:21–25)

- On Servants and Masters; the Doctrine of Godliness (1 Timothy 6:1–3)

- Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain (1 Timothy 6:4–8)

- The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil (1 Timothy 6:9–10)

- O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

- Keep the Commandment; Charge to the Rich (1 Timothy 6:14–19)

- Conclusion (1 Timothy 6:20–21)

- Keep That Which Is Committed to Your Trust (1 Timothy 6:20–21)

Commentary on the Second Epistle to Timothy

- Introduction

- Preface (2 Timothy 1:1–6)

- Inscription, Greeting, and Thanksgiving (2 Timothy 1:1–4)

- The Unfeigned Faith; Stir Up the Gift of God (2 Timothy 1:5–6)

- The Instructional Part — Section A: Instruction in Preaching (2 Timothy 1:7–3:9)

- The Spirit of Power and Love; Saved and Called (2 Timothy 1:7–9)

- Christ Has Abolished Death; I Know Whom I Have Believed (2 Timothy 1:10–12)

- Hold Fast Sound Words; Guard the Good Deposit (2 Timothy 1:13–18)

- Be Strong in Grace; A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–7)

- If We Have Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him (2 Timothy 2:8–13)

- Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14–19)

- Vessels of Honour in a Great House (2 Timothy 2:20–21)

- Flee Youthful Lusts; the Lord’s Servant Must Be Gentle (2 Timothy 2:22–26)

- Perilous Times in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

- The Instructional Part — Section B: Encouragement (2 Timothy 3:10–4:8)

- Take Courage: You Have Followed My Teaching (2 Timothy 3:10–13)

- Continue in What You Learned; All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

- I Charge You: Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1–4)

- Fight the Good Fight; the Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:5–8)

- The Circumstantial Part, or Conclusion (2 Timothy 4:9–22)

- Personal Requests and Warnings (2 Timothy 4:9–15)

- At My First Defence the Lord Stood By Me (2 Timothy 4:16–18)

- Greetings and Final Blessing (2 Timothy 4:19–22)

Commentary on the Epistle to Titus

- Introduction

- Introduction

- On Saint Titus

- On the Cretan Christians

- The Time and Place of Composition of the Epistle

- The Occasion and Purpose of the Epistle

- Outline

- Preface (Titus 1:1–4)

- Preface—Part 1 (Titus 1:1–4)

- Preface—Part 2 (Titus 1:1–4)

- Rules for the Guidance of St. Titus, and through Him of All Builders of Churches

- Titus 1:5–7—Appointing Presbyters; the Bishop Blameless

- Titus 1:8–9—The Bishop’s Virtues and Teaching

- Titus 1:10–13—Silencing the False Teachers

- Titus 1:14–16—Jewish Fables; To the Pure

- Titus 2:1–3—Sound Doctrine; Older Men and Women

- Titus 2:4–5—The Younger Women
- Titus 2:6–10—Younger Men; Servants
- Titus 2:11–15—The Grace of God Has Appeared
- Titus 3:1–3—Submission; Our Former State
- Titus 3:4–7—The Washing of Regeneration
- Titus 3:8–11—Good Works; Reject the Heretic

- Conclusion

- Final Instructions, Greetings, and Blessing (Titus 3:12–15)

Commentary on the Epistle to Philemon

- Introduction
- Introduction to the Epistle
- 1. The Preface

- 2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Phlm 1:8–16)

- 2. The Apostle’s Appeal for the Merciful Reception of Onesimus (Continued) (Phlm 1:17–21)

Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews

- Introduction

- Introduction to the Epistle

- 1. Who Wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews?

- 2. To Whom Was It Written?

- 3. The Occasion, Purpose, and Motive for Writing the Epistle

- 4. The Place and Time of Writing

- 5. The Structure of the Epistle

- Dogmatic Part: The Superiority of the New-Covenant Economy of Salvation Over the Old

- A) The Exalted Person of the Mediator of the New Covenant

Commentary on Psalm 118

- Introduction

- Preface

- Verses 1–56

- Verses 1–8
- Verses 9–16
- Verses 17–24
- Verses 25–32
- Verses 33–40
- Verses 41–48
- Verses 49–56

- Verses 57–120

- Verses 57–64
- Verses 65–72
- Verses 73–80
- Verses 81–88
- Verses 89–96
- Verses 97–104
- Verses 105–112
- Verses 113–120

- Verses 121–176

- Verses 121–128
- Verses 129–136
- Verses 137–144
- Verses 145–152
- Verses 153–160
- Verses 161–168
- Verses 169–176

Selected Psalms

- Introduction

- In Place of a Foreword

- Psalm 1

- True Blessedness. The Righteous Man Flourishes Like a Tree

- The Traits of Activity of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 1–2)

- The Condition of the Righteous and the Wicked (Verses 3–4)

- Their Standing: a) Among People; B) Before God (Verses 5–6)

- Subjects for Reflection

- Psalm 2

- The King of Zion, the Messiah—Eternal King. Tyrants, Come to Your Senses!

- Psalm 33

- Preface
- Psalm 33
- The Occasion for the Writing of the Psalm
- The Content of the Psalm
- The First Decade (Verses 2–11)
- The Second Decade (Verses 12–23)
- First Part of the First Decade (Verses 2–4)

- On Giving Thanks to God for All Things at All Times (Verse 2)

- On Praising God “at All Times” (Verse 2)

- All Must Be Referred to God, and Upon Him Alone Must One Lean (Verse 3)

- On the Spiritual Communion of Those Surrendered to God (Verses 3–4)

- Second Part of the First Decade (Verses 5–11)

- Saint David Encourages the Meek to Hope by the Example of His Own Deliverance (Verses 5–7)

- The Law of God’s Care for Us (Verse 8)

- The Requisite Dispositions for Trustful Recourse to God (Verses 9–11)

- The Second Decade

- The Teaching on the Fear of God (Verses 12–13)

- The Practice of the Fear of God (Verses 14–15)

- The Second Part of the Second Decade (Verses 16–22). – The Fruits of the Fear of God

- God’s Special Favor (Verses 16–17)

- Swift Hearing of Prayer (Verse 18)

- Nearness and Consolation in Sorrows (Verse 19)

- Deliverance From Sorrows (Verse 20)

- Their Recompense in Death and After Death (Verses 21–22)

- The General Conclusion of the Psalm (Verse 23)

- Psalm 51

- Psalm 51

Commentary on Psalms 37 and 3

- Introduction

- Psalm 37

- The Sinner’s Terror Before God, Feeling Himself Under Wrath (Vv. 2–4)

- The Sinner’s Awareness of His Ruinous Condition (Vv. 4–8)

- The Sinner’s Penitential Feelings: His Grieving Over His Bitter State (Vv. 9–11)

- The Sinner Beholding His Own Helplessness (Vv. 12–15)

- The Sinner’s Ascent to Confident Hope, and His Establishment in It (Vv. 16–18)

- The Firm Resolve: Having Confessed His Sin, to Blot It Out (V. 19)

- The Concluding Prayer of the Penitent (Vv. 20–23)

- Psalm 3

- The Six Psalms

- The One Praying Feels the Extremity of His Plight (Vv. 2–3)

- The One Praying Voices His Firm Trust in God, and Finds Rest in Him (Vv. 4–7)

- The One Praying Utters the Desires of His Heart, Pouring Out His Prayer (Vv. 8–9)

A Resolution of Perplexities: On the Unjust Steward and the Hundredfold Promise

- Introduction

- Author’s Introduction

- In What Sense Is the Unrighteous Steward Praised?

- The Story of the Parable
- The Interpretation
- The Application

- How the Lord’s Promise Is Fulfilled to Those Who Forsake All for the Kingdom of Heaven

An Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer in the Words of the Holy Fathers

- Introduction

- On the Lord’s Prayer in General

- The Invocation: “Our Father, Who is in Heaven”

- “Father”
- “Our”
- “Who is in Heaven”
- Lessons From This Invocation
- The Seven Petitions

- The First Petition: “Hallowed Be Your Name.”

- The Second Petition: “Your Kingdom Come”

- The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven”

- The Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.”

- The Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors.”

- The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation”

- The Seventh Petition: “But Deliver Us From the Evil One”

- The Doxology: “For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever. Amen”

- Concluding Thoughts

Scripture Index (Genesis–Job)
Scripture Index (Psalms–Song of Songs)
Scripture Index (Isaiah–Mark)
Scripture Index (Luke–Acts)
Scripture Index (Romans)
Scripture Index (1 Corinthians)
Scripture Index (2 Corinthians–Galatians)
Scripture Index (Ephesians–Colossians)
Scripture Index (1 Thessalonians–Philemon)
Scripture Index (Hebrews–John)
The Author: Saint Theophan the Recluse
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